Uke Gotta Be Kidding

Well It's Official

2011-12-28T21:58:00.000-05:00

I have started to learn to play the Guitar... Right now I am learning on my wife's Yamaha Folk Guitar. What I want though is a Baby Taylor like the one above, Mahogany top...

This Should Surprise No One.

2010-03-29T15:42:00.001-04:00

BTW, New Jersey, you voted for him, He told you up front he was a Republican, so don't be shocked if the poor suffer and the rich get tax cuts.

To read the whole story go here: Article from Philadelphia Inquirer

Financial Reform Now!

2010-03-02T15:11:00.001-05:00

Here is a telling quote from Paul Krugman:

There’s no question that consumers need much better protection. The late Edward Gramlich — a Federal Reserve official who tried in vain to get Alan Greenspan to act against predatory lending — summarized the case perfectly back in 2007: “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers? The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.”

For the full article go here.

Wow Two Post's In One Day

2010-03-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

For all you band geeks out there, Ok Go's new video

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Also for more about embedding the Video, and how record labels allow or not allow this, OK Go has a very good article about it.

To read it to here

Quote of The Day

2010-03-02T10:57:00.004-05:00

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. -- Thomas Jefferson

I could just let the irony of that statement speak for itself, but I think I have to add just a little. Having spent time watching our government in action recently on the Healthcare Debate, and I use the word debate loosely, I have found that the problem really is that the people aren't well informed.

If the people were well informed, then I think more would understand the problems our health care system faces. Rising costs must be contained. The uninsured cause a rise in these costs for everyone involved.

When I was younger, I didn't have healthcare, I worked in a job that didn't provide it, but I didn't need it, I was healthy, I rarely went to the doctor, because the worst thing that happened to me was a cold.

However, when I got older and got a job that had health insurance, I got health insurance, I still very rarely went to the doctor, these are the people we need in our insurance pull.

In the insurance world, the more healthy people in the pool, in other words folks that don't cost as much as sick people, means everyone should have to pay less to cover the medical payments of the sick folks. That is why having mandatory participation is necessary. This is what happens here in Pennsylvania with Car Insurance, everyone is supposed to have Car Insurance, which should lead to lower premiums for everyone.

For those that don't know, the basic idea behind insurance is this, everybody pitches into the pool, then when someone needs money from the pool they are given it to cover their costs. This is interesting because at the lowest level because this is not Capitalism, but Communalism, a shared pool of resources is very similar to the communes of the 60's where everyone in the community shares what they have with everyone else for the benefit of the community.

This what Jesus talks about, when he says in Matthew 25:

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. ³⁶ I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

It is ironic, that the party of God, Family Values and Moral Majority is the one that is against universal health care. I think it shows: "²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” -- Luke 10:25

Katzenjammer

2010-03-01T14:20:00.001-05:00

Was listening to this Album "Le Pop", this is my favorite cut, however "Bar In Amsterdam" is good, in fact most of this album just rocks....

Two Thumbs Up!!!

Katzenjammer - Hey Ho (On The Devil's Back)

Go to YouTube and listen to their live stuff as well. Love these girls... A Girl Band that has real talent...

Quote Of The Day

2010-02-18T12:09:00.001-05:00

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Quote Of The Day

2010-02-16T13:53:00.001-05:00

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new
eyes.
— Marcel Proust

Ukulele Aquisition Syndrome (UAS)

2010-01-27T14:41:00.001-05:00

I admit it, I am a sufferer of UAS, but I have been pretty good, this summer I picked up a Kala Acoustic-Electric Concert, not expensive but filled a need. Here is a picture: Now I am on the lookout for a Baritone. I like both the Kala Koa and the Ohana. Here are the Kala's I am looking at: The first is Koa, the second Mahogany and the third is Spruce. The Ohana BK-35G is here: So I am trying to decide, not sure which one I want. I have Kala's and know their quality, but I like what I have seen of the Ohana Line, just have never played one so now just have to try and pull the trigger on one of these...

PHREDD

2010-01-26T13:08:00.001-05:00

Found this via Uke Hunt

Glad I did, I found someone else who does Worship Songs on the Ukulele

Glad to know there is at least one other one out there.

Elmer's Electric Tricycle PHREDD

Post-A-Day 2010

2010-01-26T12:23:00.001-05:00

I will try and post once a day for the remainder of this year, doubt if it will work, but I will try.

Let's see what will happen.

Important Information

2010-01-26T12:20:00.003-05:00

I know this is not Uke Related, but is very important information:

This is something that you are faced with often,

You Dropped Food on the Floor. Do You Eat It?

Enjoy...

Health Care Reform Arrgh!

2010-01-25T12:30:00.004-05:00

My wife forwarded me one of those emails, you know the ones that pass your desk from time to time, this one supposedly written by a Doctor, so it must be true...

I found a version of the Health Care Bill online, the great thing about the government is that everything they produce is in the public domain... And can be found online for free!

Anyway, I refuted two claims in about twenty minutes...

Then I went to snopes and found a link that does some more fact checking...

Here is a quote from one of the fact checking organizations:

Finally, we consulted with Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan foundation that studies health care reform. Tolbert has read and analyzed all the major health proposals, including those of the Republicans, and the foundation providespoint-by-point analyses of the plans on its Web site.

We're hardened, battle-scarred fact-checkers, so false claims in e-mails don't really surprise us anymore. But we sent Tolbert a copy of the latest from our in-box, and she was none too pleased.

"It's awful," she said. "It's flat-out, blatant lies. It's unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false."

The claim that the bill provides free health care for illegal immigrants is particularly egregious, Tolbert said. "No one's provided with free health care. That's ridiculous," she said.

This is what is frustrating for me, things being passed around as true which are blatantly false... It seems that the Republican party which prides itself on being about family values... seems to have forgotten that "Honesty is the best Policy"

But, I have come to expect that from the Party of Family Values...

One final note, this is from the article and it mentions the origins of the email:

Finally, a few words about the e-mail's origins. It appears that someone out there based it on the work of Peter Fleckenstein, who publishes commentary on the Twitter messaging service under the name Fleckman . (Some of the e-mails we receive credit him, but many do not.) Fleckenstein strongly opposes the Democratic health plan and labels most of his posts #tcot , which stands for "top conservatives on Twitter." Fleckenstein has also posted the analysis at his blog, Common Sense from a Common Man . Many of the e-mails we received have made changes to Fleckenstein's original tweets, and the e-mail we've checked here has made changes as well.

Like I said, this kind of public discourse just sickens me...

Here is a link to the article in question.

On the way to work

2009-09-02T13:12:00.003-04:00

On the way to work today, I saw an add to the PA Ren Faire that said in big letters:

Free Child with Adult

Now I know what they mean, but my strange sense of humor went straight to the obvious, at least for me:

Scene, At the Ticket Window of the PA Ren Faire: Think of the Capital One Commercials:

(In a loud boisterous voice) Barbarian: I am here for my Free Child

Box office Person: I think you mis-understood, you don't get a free child! The child gets in free when accompanied by an adult.

Barbarian: Well then that is what you should say on your signs. No Matter, I have brought my own

This is why you should never venture into my twisted mind

Been a while

2009-09-02T13:11:00.002-04:00

I just downloaded a app for my iPhone to post blog posts I hope this will mean more posts in the future.

In the mean time this is a test off the new app.

Christmas Was Good!

2008-12-26T12:00:00.002-05:00

So we had a good Christmas, spent time at the 'rents place in the morning with my brothers and nieces and nephew. My dad who is 73, is becoming a causality of the economy, has been working for the last 8 years since he retired as contractor is being laid off on December 31st. So he is going to have some free time on his hand, so I got him the boxed set of Band Of Brothers, the excellent HBO mini-series about the 101st airborne during WWII. My brother is also a victim of the economy being laid off from EDS as a result of working as a Computer Operator at a GM plant which is cutting back. I worry from time to time about my job as well, since a lot of Navteq's business comes from the Auto Industry, so I keep my fingers crossed.

I got my daughter the Boxed Set of the Twilight Vampire Series of Books, She is finishing up the 2nd book in paperback and now has numbers 3 and 4 to read.

I also got my wife a Mountain Dulcimer, I had never really seen a Mountain Dulcimer before, I had seen hammer dulcimers but never the mountain dulcimer.

It is an interesting and somewhat primitive instrument.

Basically there is a pair of Melody Strings which fret with a wooden stick called a noter. Also you tune your Dulcimer in different modes. The basic one is DAA, so the First two strings are tuned to A, then the third string is tuned to A and finally the fourth string is tuned to D.

You can learn more about the Dulcimer here

You can here a Dulcimer here

So last night my wife was working on playing a song on the Dulcimer and I had finally set up the amp to check out the pickup on my Pono Tenor, and I was playing the traditional mandolin back beat and it sounded pretty good. So I think we will have to put together some songs in the future. It should be fun.

It definitely has been a musical Christmas, now by next decision is to use the money my folks gave me toward a new Ukulele or a new amp for the Pono. Not sure what I want to do, I would like a Fluke Concert, and would like to get one with a rosewood fingerboard, but not sure what is next on the Ukulele front.

I also had to by this:

I should get it next week or so. I don't expect it to sound good, just to be a conversation piece in my collection. Besides I needed a soprano to play as well.

So all in all a good Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well and have a Happy New Year too.

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

2008-12-24T21:15:00.001-05:00

This is nothing more than me singing and attempting to play O Little Town Of Bethlehem.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

He Is Born

2008-12-20T22:15:00.002-05:00

I seem to be on a creative streak. I wrote a song for my Praise Team on Thursday night and recorded it for YouTube and here tonight, it took me 21 takes to get it right, which is pretty bad, considering I should be able to sing and play it since I wrote it.

I originally wrote it in the key of F which is not the easiest key for the Guitar, or in my case the Ukulele, to play in certain chords. I have a Bb2 chord in the piece and to play that on a C tuned Ukulele you would do it would be 3123. Anyway, my hands just did not want to go there, so I transposed it up to G but it was a little hard for me to sing, so I moved it down to D. Which is what I recorded it in. Anyway, I am putting all three pdfs on line, F, G and D. Just click the links above.

Let me know what you think.

Also if you want the song in another key let me know. I will be writing a piano accompaniment so if you are interested in that let me know as well.

A Song for Christmas

2008-12-19T23:05:00.003-05:00

I wrote a song the other day called One Star, I have posted a video of me performing it, and I have a pdf of the file which you can download from here.

I am playing my new Pono Tenor, I had to replace the strings that came with it, the A string broke, so I put a set of Aquilla's with a High G String, I think this uke sounds better with the Low G, and I have a Low G Set, but I am going to keep it this way for now.

Anyway, let me know what you think about the song, it is a simple thing, not supposed to be difficult I have a pretty bad 4 part arrangement of it if anyone is interested. I have to work on it some more, I really don't like the arrangement yet, hopefully I can improve it in the near future.

ScribeFire and other things

2008-12-17T13:34:00.001-05:00

Getting started with ScribeFire - ScribeFire: Fire up your blogging

So I just added ScribeFire to my Firefox browser, and I am trying it out for the first time. This is pretty cool. Maybe it will encourage me to do more blogging during the day and the evening as I sit in front of the computer, practicing my Ukulele.

This has been a busy week and I have a concert tomorrow during the day at the West Chester Rotary Club, which will be at the West Chester Country Club. It will be short program that the 49ers are doing.

It has been a week and a half since we last performed these songs, so hopefully it will go smoothly.

Home Life Update

2008-12-16T09:51:00.002-05:00

My home life sorta interfered with my Ukulele Life this last week. My wife had to have surgery and they ended up removing an ovary. She is home now, and starting to recuperate, but it is scary to see a loved one sick and in pain. I only hope that this was the source of her pain and she doesn't have to go through this again.

Anyway, I will be back posting about Ukulele's soon.

I was practicing with my new Pono last week, and the A string broke, so I never got to record the Uke, I have put some High G Aquilla's on the Pono, and it is just about settled in, so soon there will be a sound sample, I promise.

Keep my wife in your thoughts and prayers, thanks.

My New Pono Came Today

2008-12-09T00:50:00.003-05:00

I am now the proud owner of a Pono PKTE. It came with a case built for the Ukulele by the Manufacturer. It has a low G tuning, this is my first ukulele with a Low G tuning, and it is taking some getting used to. First because of the wound strings it is harder to play than my Concert. Also it is larger, so the neck is wider, and the frets are farther apart. All this means I have to adjust to playing it.

It is more mellow than my concert OU-2, but it is loud and has a beautiful tone, it comes with Koolau Gold Strings, Pono is made by Koolau. I will record it tomorrow night and post the sound file.

It is already settling in nicely, and staying relatively in tune. I have noticed that the intrument is pretty much in tune all up and down the neck. With my OU-2, playing a G chord on 0232 is not always in tune, or is very sensitive to going out of tune, the Pono is much more forgiving, this may be also because of the Tenor scale.

Luckily I have some time before the next time I have to play in Church, so I can take some time to get used to playing this Ukulele. I think I am going to like playing this Ukulele, you can definitely tell that it is a more expensive instrument. It is beautifully made with a beautiful finish. I will post pictures tomorrow.

So I will be spending the next few nights creating new callouses and learning new chording techniques that seem to work better with this instrument.

I sort of know I will never be as good as some of the folks I listen to on YouTube, or on some of the Ukulele blogs I read, but I do know how much fun and enjoyment I am getting out of the journey.

I just spent the last two hours working from home doing load testing on one of our new apps and I am a bit tired.

But I wanted to post this, now I am going to bed now.

49ers

2008-12-07T23:32:00.003-05:00

Well we closed our show tonight, 5 shows in 5 days. Of course we had some snow on Saturday, which may have hurt the attendance, but we had a good crowd today, so hopefully revenues will be up from last year.

I think this year's show went very well. The chorus did a great job and we did some difficult numbers. They should be proud of what they accomplished. I am a bit tired, but it was worth it.

I was especially proud of the Chorus' Singing in Deck The Halls in 7/8, which is a tricky a cappella number that I think they did very well, if I do say so myself.

We have one more Christmas Performance, we are singing for the West Chester Rotary on the 18th, then we have a break until our first Spring Show Rehearsal, on January 25th. So my Sunday nights are free for a few weeks.

Next up, my Church Choir sings with the Lukens Band next Sunday Evening, looking forward to that, just hope we can get a good turnout for an evening performance.

More on that in a separate post.

Public Speaking

2008-12-02T23:00:00.003-05:00

I was working on my remarks for the 49er's Shows which are every night the rest of this week.

It is interesting, I can sing in front of a thousand people no problem, but I have problems speaking in front of more than 20 people, without turning into mush. I get nervous and everything that I have planned goes out the window. I have tried writing an outline, then I forget things on the outline. So hopefully I will be able to get through it without completely messing it up.

To combat all this nervousness, I wrote director's notes on the music we will be performing, then I wrote out all the points that I plan to speak about. Now the trick will be to cover the points and read what is on the paper without actually making sound like I am reading what is on the paper.

I also want to keep it moving, because the chorus has to stand there while I welcome everyone, and every year, they want me to keep it short. So hopefully I can.

Wish me luck.

Marathon Rehearsal Done

2008-11-30T19:48:00.003-05:00

Well, we got through the 2PM - 7PM Marathon rehearsal, worked through most of the problems and got the instrumentalist's squared away.

The Chorus www.49erschorus.org did a bang up job, the 49er's memorize their music so this rehearsal can be very trying, but they did a great job, I was really pleased.

This can be a very trying week, I have dress rehearsal tomorrow night then I have Tuesday Night off, then we have Performances on Wednesday through Saturday evening at 7:30PM then at 2PM on Sunday we have a matinee. Then they have to tear down the set, it is a very exhausting week for the entire Chorus. But it is what we have been looking forward to and working toward since rehearsals started the First Sunday after Labor Day.

So dress rehearsal tomorrow night, here we come.