Last Edited Lifestyle Blogs (3,361)

Now that I'm getting back to music as a profession, my tone and volume is more important as a trio performing in small venues than as a five piece rock band playing at outdoor concerts. My cousin did a gig at a patio bar of a local restaurant the other night and the first thing the manager said was "Keep the volume down."

I get that. I walked around the venue to listen to the loudness and levels of the piano, drum machine, guitar and vocals then came back to make suggestions. For now, all the music came through 2 speakers on stands near the band. Louder near the front and not loud enough in the back.

The manager said the volume near the band was okay. I suggested moving the speakers further apart so the coverage near the back would better without having to make things louder. My cousin mentioned he has 2 satellite speakers not being used. That's perfect and all we need to do is make some extension cords for power and sound and we can place them on opposite sides of the venue for better coverage.

To keep levels under control, I'm thinking about some audio compression. It's something that gets used in nearly all processed media we listen to. I've been researching audio compression recently for where and how it gets used, also what benefits it will give in a live performance. Basically... it makes the sound more uniform where the peaks don't exceed a preset level and the lower sounds are raised making the music program sound fuller. The music is literally compressed into a volume range.

For me, it will even out my volume so finger picking style is the same volume as slap style. I bought an inexpensive compressor and will experiment with that.

Some videos on compression are 20 to 50 minutes long... too much for an example. I found a good example that takes less than 3 minutes to make the point.



A good explanation is a singer getting very close to the microphone and then backing away a foot or two. The compressor will compensate for both conditions so he/she will have the same level.

Maybe you're familiar with the site gofundme where people can donate money for a specific cause. For example, someone involved in a hit-and-run accident and needs money to pay for medical expenses. They, or someone opens a 'go fund me' account to collect money to offset the medical expenses. They list a specific goal amount of money needed.

Mentioned in another blog, Elena Cardone, wife of real estate millionaire Grant Cardone, opened a gofundme account with the goal of $355,000,000. needed to offset the recent court judgement for crooked Donald's corporation.
Elena is reaching out for donations.

I first heard about it and the fund had raised $265,066. where one guy donated $5,000.
Checking today, the total raised is $932,711. The highest donation listed is Anonymous at the amount of $10,000. There are a few $5,000 and lots of $1,000. and that seems to majority of large donations.
I scanned the list to see people donating in $5 increments. How they got to $11 could mean someone only gave him a buck!



If you feel strongly about this go to the fund yourself and pledge some money...

Sneaker Con can be taken 2 different ways. The Sneaker Conference, held in Philadelphia or a Conman appearing at Sneaker Con unveiling golden sneakers for $399.
I read the first 1,000 pairs already sold out.

Most Trump voters were firmly opposed to the decision.

For the uninformed, the Colorado’s highest court ruled and barred former President Donald Trump from the GOP primary ballot.

I have an added feature with my phone carrier to notify me of potential spam calls and an enhanced blocking feature. For some reason my good friend John gets added to the blocked list. Several calls to tech support gets him removed and minutes later... he's back to being blocked!

My call was transferred from the carrier to Samsung's tech support where I installed an app allowing them to do diagnostics remotely on my phone. They couldn't find John on the blocked caller list so it must be a glitch. According to Samsung, the cure was to go back to the carrier and get a new SIM card.

A second after I entered the store, the salesman asked if he could help. I explained my friend keeps getting blocked on my phone and that Samsung said I need a new SIM card.

Immediately I detected an attitude... he said that wasn't the problem and that I needed to buy a new phone. After we went through the identification verification, he got the tool to remove the SIM and I said "The phone is still on!"
That didn't stop him from removing the SIM and inserting a new one while the phone was powered up.

Flipping screens on my phone and his tablet to enter the new number scanned from the card holder, he was back and forth a few times removing and reinstalling the SIM. All attempts were unsuccessful as the phone reported no SIM installed, when one was in the phone. He removed it again and installed the old SIM and got the same message.

At that point... he told me my phone was broken. I asked his name, SNATCHED MY PHONE FROM HIS HAND, said "Have a nice day" and walked out of the store.

Ya think I was pissed?

There's another store 5 miles away, so I went there.

Explaining the salesman (at the first store) 'hot swapped' the SIM on my phone. The new guy knew exactly what I was talking about. He scanned the card, installed a new SIM, powered up the phone and all was well.



I cannot recall how many times my phones have had SIM card changes in the last 25 years and EVERY time it was done with the phone turned off.

Basically, removing the SIM while the phone was on, damaged it, installing a new SIM while the phone was on, damaged it too.

John isn't on my blocked list anymore.

I'm happy that the issue was only with the SIM cards and thankful that it didn't damage my phone or the SD memory that shares the same tray.

Not rocket science...

Some male/female names are spelled the same and it's tricky getting the gender correct. Robin, for example. No clue.
Rene is a guy and Renee is a girl. Billy being the male and Billie being the female. Tony the guy and Toni the girl.
Lots of Latins name their children Angel boys and girls. Too easy to miss that one.

An obvious is audible gender distinction would be Paul and Paula.

What about Loren? Probably Loren is the masculine of Lauren.
I was on a musician board and one of the members named Loren mostly commented on forum threads with a woman friend. I followed their posts but never did I see anything from Loren that would give a clue of gender.
That person made a statement of wanting to buy an expensive custom made wooden flute and solicited responses. I gave my approval by saying "You go girl!" and promptly got a slap that Loren is a guy. I apologized for the error and returned another "You go girl!"

A man has been mauled to death by a lion at a zoo after he climbed over a 7.6m fence to take a selfie with the beast.

Prahlad Gujjar from Rajasthan, India, entered the non-public enclosure that housed the lion at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park by climbing over the fence.

Desperate for a selfie, the 38-year-old ignored a zookeeper’s warning to step away from the lion and continued to get closer to the large cat.

Before the zookeeper could intervene, Dongalpur the lion mauled the man to death.

I grew up in the time period where long playing (LP) vinyl records were king. The platter was 12 inches and they ran at a speed of 33-1/3 rpm. A decade earlier were 7 inch records that ran at a speed of 45 rpm with only 2 songs, an A side and a B side.
The 45's were perfect for coin operated jukebox players often found in fast food restaurants. Drop in a dime, make your selection and it will play a song. For me, the music I listened to was too obscure for top 40 air play, so LP's were the only way to go.

Depending on the length of the songs an LP, you might find more than 10 songs on an album as the total playing time to be around 44 minutes.

I'll admit, I was a BEATLES fan when I was a kid. There were lots of influences in my musical beginnings and in 1966 we were told that Paul McCartney had died in a car crash and was replaced by a look-alike named Billy Shears. The news was everywhere and so were the fact finding documentaries.

Confirming this were the many clues on the BEATLES records... the one thing needed to hear them was to play the recordings backwards.

I owned a DUAL brand record player with a SHURE brand stereo cartridge. It had a speed adjustment of only + or - a few percent so not possible to run the motor backwards... but I was able to record to my Wollensak reel-to-reel tape machine, flip the tape over, move the play head to the monaural setting and poof! Backwards BEATLES.

Don't ask me if I heard John Lennon saying "Turn me on dead man, Turn me on dead man" as maybe I didn't... or maybe I did.

My vote didn’t count in 2020 and I care about our constitution surviving. So, why should theirs count now when they have no allegiance to this country.

POCONG is a term used in Indonesian folklore to refer to the ghost of a deceased person who is trapped in a burial shroud. It is believed that the soul of the deceased cannot fully move on to the afterlife and remains trapped in the shroud, resulting in a manifestation of a ghostly figure. The pocong is often depicted as wrapped in white cloth with its arms and legs bound. It is known to hop or float, rather than walking, and is believed to bring bad luck or cause harm to those who encounter it.(https://www.definitions.net/definition/POCONG)

It happened last week. In my previous blog, I wrote about the storeroom at my work place. So far I have never really seen one upclose. TOUCH WOOD. I don't intend to encounter one. I am a teacher in a primary school. As I was passing by this Year 1 class(7 year olds pupils), a few of them called me:

Pupils 1 : Teacher, teacher there's a pocong.(ghost)
Me : What? Where?
Pupil 2 : (Pointing to the storeroom. The storeroom was not far from the classroom)
Me : (I was tempted to turn and look at the storeroom but I was too scared to do that. Who knows, that
thing might appear and let me have 3rd eye) Oh ok.
Me : How does it look like? ( I asked one of the girls that saw 'pocong')
Pupil 1 : The face is black.
Me : What did the 'pocong' wear? Did it has hair?
Pupil 1 : Not wearing anything. Just white cloth.
Me : Oh. Ok, don't worry. Next time don't look at the storeroom (I further asked the same questions to
the second girl)
Pupil 2 : (She gave the same answer as the first girl but added ...) I saw it at the storeroom and behind the canteen. ( the class is near the canteen too)
Me : You mean, there are two of them?
Pupil 2 : No, only 1. It hops.
Pupil 3( a boy) : I saw too. It has red eyes.
Me : Duh....( I began to feel scared. I believed them but I couldn't tell them what they saw was real. )
Me : ( I asked the girls) Are you scare?
The 2 girls: No.
Me : Don't be scared. Next time don't look at the storeroom.

PS: Before this incident, I have heard about the sighting of 'pocong' in the storeroom by a teacher. She has third eye. The descriptions are the same. She even saw it in her classroom. That happened last year. Sigh....I hope and pray it does not show itself in front of me. I have 2 more years before my retirement. Let me retire peacefully. Amen.