Learn to Play the Guitar Online [Back To School]

I'm not going to lie: the guitar is a great instrument. I've been playing for over a decade now (that's frightening) and it is one of the most enjoyable hobbies. I can't read music or anything so I generally either play-by-tab or (more frequently) play-by-ear. The ear part gets annoying when I'm composing my own stuff. Without music theory to back me up I often find myself "hearing" a the next note or that perfect note (or chord) but I'm unable to find it.

Enter this helpful post on Lifehacker with a link to a wonderful tool. The tool is particularly useful for those moments you can "hear" but not "find" certain chords. Also, when looking at chord websites, this should help visually eliminate some of the confusion. You can also create your own chords by dragging the dark circles. Happy playing.

Learn to Play the Guitar Online [Back To School]: "

We've shown you how to learn to play an instrument online in the past, but CNET's Don Reisinger has a great roundup of even more resources for the job, focusing primarily on the guitar.

The guide features several great web sites for polishing your guitar chops, including All Guitar Chords and Chordbook, two solid-looking resources for learning your chords. Reisinger does feature one drumming resource (which also looks really great) called VirtualDrumming if the guitar isn't your instrument of choice. If you've always been eager to teach yourself to play an instrument, both our guide and CNET's suggestions look like good places to start.

Already consider yourself somewhat of an expert on your musical instrument of choice? Let's hear your best tips for getting started in the comments.

Learn how to play an instrument online [CNET]

"

Painting (again)

Finished painting the kitchen and the hallway. All that's left is to do the hallway trim and do the bathroom. The house is going very nicely. Very pleased with the results and very happy that the nightmare of painting is coming to an end.

Started working on a poster today for a small theatre group called E.A.T. Very excited to be doing some graphic design work again. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started "playing" again. Very enjoyable.

Need to read significantly long passages from a book for my Art class which starts next week. I moved me presentation date earlier so as not to conflict with the birth of our child (at least, hopefully not conflict). I figure the further I am away from that date the better the odds... but who knows. My son could surprise me.

Cleaned out the external harddrives of duplicate items taking up far too much space. I'd rather, I realized, risk losing them than have so many versions of the same thing preventing me from backing up relevant and important things.

Also, I set up synergy2 on the desktop so that my mouse and keyboard work on the laptop as well over the network. Very handy for getting rid of extra bulky cords and salvaging the posture while working on two machines at once.

Sarah is bringing home some brisket tonight for dinner as our kitchen is a mess of appliances (fridge, washer, dryer, etc...) all pulled away from the walls to allow paint to dry. Looking forward to it.

Google Voice

Got a Google voice invite today. Very nice service. Once they enable "group SMS" I'll be able to more quickly force people to use the new phone number (which will be nice).

Specifically since I don't "do" text messaging via a phone (as the cost is ridiculous) I'll be more likely to communicate with "the thumb-typers" in the future through a service more akin to e-mail.

A feature that is lacking - and will slow adoption of the service - is the inability for GVoice to adequately replace your current cell carriers voicemail when people call your old number. Also, it makes it somewhat difficult for non-smart-phones to call others with the new number to rapidly increase adoption.

At any rate, the idea is a good and welcome one. It makes me wonder whether the "area code" will continue to matter as people will (conceivably) keep a single number for their entire lives and simply change the devices associated with that number. What will the future hold?

At any rate, it is exciting for me because I've been waiting near 2 years for an invite to the service. Has it been worth the wait? Time will tell... but I can already see the advantages. For a person like me, who finds e-mail the easiest way to collect, store, and retain information I don't want to remember, this service allows people to call me via phone and I can treat responding more similar to an e-mail.

Familiarity wins the day for me. We'll see what I think once people start using it... but, I've never checked my voicemails before - I just might start now.

Booms.

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Moving

Sarah & I are making banana bread today.

I healthy activity after my headache inducing battle royal with the business dept at TTU. I ended up paying a bill I didn't actually owe in order to not be dropped from classes because they couldn't get my bill correct by the deadline. I fail to see how that is my (or any other student's) problem. Despite hours (yes: hours) on the phone I finally caved (as I'm sure they hoped I would) and paid the bill 30 minutes prior to the deadline. Alas, alack. Their system must be changed as it is inappropriate to blame and subsequently charge students for your own departments inability to correctly apply scholarships and waivers. Annoying.

Sarah & I have been walking in the mornings which has been nice. Hopefully we'll be able to continue during the summer. I have yet to hear from anyone interested in taking an acting course in the summer at the high school or the middle school. The economy, it seems, has hit hard everywhere. I'm waiting until Monday - the official 1st day of the courses - before I lose all hope. Things look bleak.

On a good note I've been hired as a blogger and will be able to post blogs beginning in June. The blog will be about being a new father while being a current doctoral student 1000 miles away from family. How will I cope? What will I do? One thing's for certain - there will be ample tales of my daily adventures in fatherdom. Very excited to begin work. Hopeing that the blog will have the added bonus of providing reflection time for my new role as a parent.

1st day of classes today. While I won't need to physically attend any courses as I am taking an independent study in playwriting (one meeting every 2 weeks) it does require me to write and write and write. I am, however, very excited about the process and have already started work on the project. (I've written about 50 pages... but lost 20 to an inadvertent file deletion thanks to Windows Live Mesh). More info here: http://playproject1.blogspot.com/

More later I'm sure.
That - for the moment - is the Texas Perspective.
KYLE

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Computers and such

Sarah has finally had it with her XP install running sluggishly and agreed to let me install Linux. I've opted for Ubuntu and it seems to be running well. I'm going to secretly install XP via virtualbox (if she needs it) but I won't tell her until she fights a little with actually learning how to do some things.

At any rate... the computer is already connected wirelessly. I've changed the look of the computer (sistine chapel background, anybody) as well as the color scheme to make it more familiar. I put the computer, folder, and recycle bin on the desktop as icons for familiarities sake. I hope that it "feels" right to her.

Also, her CD/DVD drive is dying, yes: dying. So, I'll be ripping an .iso of a workout dvd she used so that she can watch it via the harddrive rather than from the disk drive itself (which frequently just gives out).

Almost done with the install and the messing about with the system to make sure its working. All that's left is to put her files on the computer. Easy enough.

Is it a bad thing that this is *fun* for me?

Grad

I graduated. I'm done (with one degree) and moving steadily onto the next. What fun, dear friends, what fun.

Waiting...

Currently waiting to hear back from graduate school on formatting revisions to my thesis. The clock is ticking... I think I've got less than 2.5 days to get revisions done. We'll see how that goes.

Other than that... working on Knowledgian again. Hopefully I'm a better writer this time around (which I am) and a better thinker (which I also am). It's amazing what five years can do for a persons intelligence.

I think I'll get to work now.

Yes?

No?

Now?

Yep.

The Second

Thesis successfully defended. Now working on finishing touches prior to submission deadlines for May graduation.

The Man Who Became Sand had its run in the 2009 RROAPS to mixed reviews. Angela Gant was our respondent and her advice was well taken. I still need to re-implement some of the changes we talked about ("re" because some of them existed prior to my changes for the production).

What have I learned?

1. Don't re-write or add without remembering why you wrote the thing in the first place. Some of the additions, rather than adding, only served to detract from the eventual impact of the original image.
2. Place extreme importance on the elements you consider key to the success of the show. Somewhere during the process I forgot, or overlooked, how important the sound cue of the "sandbag" was to my original writing and I neglected to ensure that those elements wouldn't become the afterthought that they did, sadly.
3. Don't fudge a stage direction just to get a play produced. My conscious over-explanation of the direction (The MAN becomes sand.) created all sorts of problems that I really didn't want in production and I simply should have accepted rejection instead of playwright self-manipul(mutil)ation.

So, hopefully that's clear. The cast and the director did good work and I've learned quite a bit from the process. Time will tell how much what I've learned actually stays with me.

Back to working - back to thinking - back to stuff.

Listening to Christopher O'Riley again. Soothing and calming in a wonderful way.

"Ah, the magic" -Will Eno

The First

It seems that the first is the most important. Perhaps that's only true with introductions. At any rate: I'll try.

Today was a rough day. I've been saying that often enough today... but it is true.

On the agenda:

1. Finish the M.A.
2. Defend the Thesis
3. Redraft Man... Sand
4. Organize info for Death
5. Sleep (it should be on every list!)
6. Visit Midland, TX
7. Hear a heart beating

Not on the agenda:

1. Lazyness

That's enough for now.