No time for bloggin’, time for pickin’.
You know how it goes... you're too busy doing fun stuff to spend time talking about the fun stuff?
Anyway, I just finished shipping out a bunch of custom Lego kits for Gen Con (Vincent Baker's Mechaton). That ate up a bit more of my life than expected, and the only real problem was that I started at the last minute and couldn't spread the work out more. When I wasn't sorting bricks, I was doing artwork for the insert sheet, flag stickers, and package label. It was fun, but I'm glad they're out the door. Now, profit!
But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about Alice. You remember Alice?
No, it's not really about Alice... but I'm waiting for the guitar to come around, 'cause that's what I got for my birthday. Or am getting... it should arrive Friday. Nothing fancy, just a "beginner" model, because that's where my birthday budget is at.
See, I played guitar in school for about four years from the fifth to the eighth grade. In the three years of middle school, it was first period every school-day. I never wanted to play guitar... my dad bought it for me because he played guitar, and I guess every good Okie who's picked cotton and shot rabbit for dinner because he had to is obligated to pass his guitar skills down to his son. Except he never tried to teach me that I can recall... I just got packed off to private lessons long enough for them to realize I wasn't interested. But I got involved in guitar class in school, and since I was required to take an instrument for two years in middle school, the guitar was the logical choice. (I had no interest in playing anything at the time, but band had to go march and play at football games and stuff. Guitar only had to give one concert a year.)
I have since forgotten everything I knew about the guitar. I can still read music with a little brush-up (since I've dabbled with penny whistle and flute a few years ago), but I can't remember a single chord to save my life. Maybe it's because I hated chords and just played melody as best I could. Did I mention that guitar class in the sixth and seventh grade was thirty-some students and one instructor? Eighth grade was when band became optional and we narrowed down to eight students... I can't recall why I signed up for another year, because I never practiced and basically never picked up my guitar again when I got into high school.
I never had that desire to get an electric guitar and form a rock band. I don't know why... I listened to lots of music with rock guitar in it, but I guess I never saw that as something I could do. Probably because it involved playing chords.
But I've been doodling around with my son's half-size guitar. I really can't play a decent chord on it because the neck is about the width of a tongue depressor. And it sounds off... my mom bought it for him, and it's a cheap Chinese thing with no maker's mark of any kind. But it's not badly constructed, and a single note sounds pretty sweet for what she paid for it. But the strings don't play in tune with themselves... fretted notes are sharp. I'm going to put new strings on it, since I think half the problem is just super-cheap strings, and strings start to play sharp as they get worn out. I'm hoping it doesn't need a bridge adjustment, because I have no idea if the bridge is adjustable. But I think new strings will make it sound better.
Anyway, I tuned it to an open G tuning, which lets you play some cool stuff with just barre chords (one finger across all the strings), and started picking... and realized that although my brain's forgotten everything it knew, my fingers haven't. They're rusty, sure... my old guitar is 25 years old and I haven't played it for 21. And they never knew how to play chords worth a lick. But but my picking hand feels pretty much at home.
Now I just have to get back up to speed. I can't wait for my new guitar to get here.
I wonder if my son will notice that his guitar is tuned weirdly.
Surcharges for standard services?
What's up with fuel surcharges from companies that consume fuel as a direct part of providing their service? When I buy a bunch of bananas, the grocer doesn't add a fuel surcharge for the cost of the fuel to deliver the bananas to his store... that's just part of the cost of providing the goods and is reflected in the price of the bananas.
So why then does my garbage service charge me a base rate and then a fuel surcharge on top of that? So does UPS, so does FedEx. Why is this necessary operating cost not just rolled into the base rate?
Okay, I can kind of get how that's some kind of accounting thing, and it lets them keep their base rate tables "normal" and adjust them for fluctuating fuel prices. And it serves as a reminder to the customer that high fuel prices are why the rates have gone up so much.
But answer me this. Why does FedEx Home Delivery have a $1.85 residential surcharge?