Dear Google, Your Search is Sucking
Dear Google,
I've been using your Search for a very long time. I left Alta Vista for you, even though you didn't have advanced operators at the time. You were that good. And you just got better. You added all those little tools like OR and the "exclusion minus" and filter operators like "site:" that enhanced my GoogleFu and let me amaze my friends and co-workers with my ability to find stuff.
Then your search got a little fuzzy, and you got even better. You found "copier" when I searched for "copy", and that was pretty useful, especially when I could say "+copy" when I knew I didn't want "copier" in the results.
But recently, you've betrayed me. Google Search has become so fuzzy that it's almost useless. You try to make "intelligent" guesses about what I want and return pages that are so far off that they don't even include all of my search terms in the first few hits, even though there are pages that do further down the list.
And the plus-operator, that used to mean "search exactly for this word", doesn't do that any more. And putting quotes around a phrase no longer means "find exactly this phrase"... instead, it starts returning hits that not only have the words of that phrase scattered all over the page, it returns pages that don't even have all the words.
Yet your "Advanced Search" form hasn't changed. If I type into the "find this exact phrase" box, I don't get "this exact phrase", I get fuzzy results that aren't what I'm looking for.
Google, you have crippled my Search. You have stolen my GoogleFu by making what used to be predictable tools very unpredictable. You try to second-guess what I really want, and you don't let me clarify when you guess wrong... you just second-guess my clarifications, too.
I never thought I'd say this, but Google, I think it's time I started seeing other search engines. You and I just aren't as compatible as we once were, and I'm afraid that we may not have a future together. I need a Search that works and can do exactly what it's told. You're just trying too hard to guess what I need, and failing to see that I'm telling you exactly what I need in clear, certain terms.
Maybe, if you work at listening to what I have to say, instead of telling me what you think I want to hear, we can save this relationship. Maybe, if you go back to being the Search I fell in love with, this might work out.
But for now, I've got a date with Yahoo! Search. I'll give you a call sometime.
Got my hands back in the mud
I just got home just a little bit ago from my first pottery wheel-throwing class at www.wichitapottery.com, home of The Secret Gallery, at Meridian and 2nd. It was really nice.
They're conveniently less than five minutes from my house, which is a nice bonus. But the big deal for me is that they're very affordable. $40 for a four-week class, and current students get access to the studio on Friday from 1-9 at no additional charge.
I see that City Arts' fees have come down from the last time I looked a few years ago... $110 for a 10-week class, plus firing fees. So they're not much more expensive, but that ten weeks is a bigger commitment and, last I looked, studio time outside of class was extra. With a new class starting every month, it's easy to drop into the schedule.
I had emailed ahead of time to ask about availability and was told I could just show up a little early the first night; no reserving a spot or paying in advance. When I got there, Jill (the owner) had already labeled a shelf with my name and gave me a tour of the studio. It's kind of funny, but that little touch made me feel special.
I liked that the class was fairly small and informal, with only six students. Everyone in the class was at a different level, and only one of us had never thrown before. The instructor had to feel around for just how much instruction people needed, and he worked with that pretty well. (I hate to admit, but I can't remember my instructor's name.)
I haven't thrown for a few years, and only have a 10-week class under my belt. But it came back pretty quickly, and throwing pots is basically the only mechanical art form requiring dexterity that I took to naturally. I can't draw a straight line, but throwing pots just works for me. And it's a very functional art form that I enjoy owning and using.
The studio was clean, the owner, instructor and students were all friendly and fun.
I'm looking forward to Friday... I just happen to be off work, and I expect to spend some of it down at Wichita Pottery.
That’s the ticket.
I took a couple days off at the beginning of the week to hang out with my family, it being spring break and my son was out of school. We hit the bookstore on Monday, as we have a bad habit of doing, but this time I had a real motive. Generally, I've got way too many books already, and the bookstore is just a tease... lots of stuff to look at, knowing I shouldn't buy anything because I have a lot to read at home. But this time, I wanted to browse the songbooks.
I'm struggling with learning the guitar. I want to play, but I'm getting bored... I want to play all kinds of styles, but my chord changes come too danged slow, and rhythm guitar solo is kind of dull. I can't play well, let alone sing and play, and you pretty much have to sing to get melody, or you have to be really good at strumming and picking out a melody at the same time.
But part of the problem I've been having is that I'm not playing any music that interests me. I like folk music, but it gets old... sixty songs, three chords. Woo. So having browsed online for simple arrangements of popular acoustic tunes, I wanted to browse the actual music. And I ended up with "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs." I like the Dummies and Idiots books in general, but this one was coincidence... it's a beginner book from Alfred Publishing with the Idiots label on it, and Alfred is the exclusive publisher of sheet music for several big artists.
But this book was exactly what I was looking for. Some great songs, some of them with simplified arrangements (Classical Gas, anyone?), and intros to each song with a guide and tips for playing the song (plus background information on the song and artist). Tablature (fingering diagrams for individual notes), because although I know how to read music, it's painfully slow... I have to pencil in all the fingerings until I learn it anyway, so I might as well get a book that lays out the TAB for me. And it had a nice mix of rhythm and fingerstyle songs.
And this finally did it. I can hardly put the guitar down, and I find myself at work looking forward to heading home so I can race past my family and into the basement to play my guitar.
I poked at "Classical Gas" a bit, and I can see that one coming but it's a little complicated. I took a look at "Layla" and put that one on the back shelf... Clapton earned his reputation. Tried a little of "Cats in the Cradle" and I want to learn that one, but it's got a few too many multi-note finger-plucks right now. But it's Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair / Canticle" that's got me hooked. I love their music and it's acoustic guitar feel... and this turns out to be the song that convinced me I can play fingerstyle. The right-hand finger pattern rarely changes, so the right hand can get into a groove while the left manages the mostly simple chord changes.
It's coming along after just a couple days, and if I can get to changing chords smoothly without skipping a beat on the right hand, I'll be ready to sing along in no time. Problem is, it's a duet... one singer sings Scarborough Fair while the other sings Canticle on top of it. That'll be tricky to do solo. :)