I love guitars

I understand that's not a very clever title but it is absolutely the best way to describe this post. I got my very first electric guitar when I was 6 years old. It was given to my by my cousin Greg who had just taught me how to play "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals. He was in a band and I thought that was about the coolest thing ever, which of course it was. With that my lifelong love afair with guitars, music and rock and roll began. That first guitar was a no name, japanese made Fender-ish knock off. I'm sure is sounded like setting cats on fire but it was mine and I could make my own special brand of noise with it. My parents were always very supportive of my interest in music and never did anything but encourage me to practice and take it as far as I could. Thanks!

Over the years, I have owned many guitars but I didn't settle on "my guitar" until my mid twenties. My guitar is a Les Paul, named for the man who inspired its design for Gibson in the 1950s. Les Paul was and is a brilliant musician and inventor.  As a guitarist, he created many classic recordings with his partner Mary Ford. He also invented multitrack recording, the tape echo and a multitude of other devices that revolutionized electric music in all genres. That stuff is all great but he will always be associated with and remembered for that guitar.

I really became aware of the Les Paul as a teenager. All the guitartist I admired played them. Mailnly Ace Frehley, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. As it turns out, all three of these guys would later be asked by Gibson to design a signature edition of the guitar they helped turn into a legend. But really, my biggest influence was Ace Frehley. I was a FANACTIC about KISS and Ace in particular. He played a Les Paul and I had to have one. His even smoked. As a teenager I could not really afford a real Les Paul but I had Kay copy and it sounded like shit but it LOOKED cool. I upgraded the pickups and learned how to work on guitars with that Kay. Sometimes I wish I had never sold it.

As I got older and started playing in working bands, I was able to buy better instruments and amplifiers. I have owned every size and shape of guitar but I always come back to the faithful Les Paul. An electric guitar can be as delicate as gossamer and as relentless as a freight train. It feels like a beautiful woman in your hands and can evoke the same range of emotions. No other guitar does that like a Les Paul for me.

The photo in this entry is my current "family". From left to right... 1998 Fender Tobacco Sunburst Telecaster Nashville, 1999 Epiphone custom shop Flame Kat, 2003 GIbson Honeyburst Les Paul Classic (3 Pickup), 2007 Epiphone Silverburst Les Paul Custom, 1989 Blue Metal flake Gibson Les Paul Studio and in front a 1997 Gold Top Epiphone Les Paul Standard.

Over the coming weeks, I will write about each one of them (in no particular order) because, I promise they each have a story....

The tale of the foot - epilogue

So it has been 6 weeks to the day since I injured my ankle. And just as the Doc said.. it's right as rain (more or less). The stability boot came off 2 weeks ago and I was in the harness for about another week. I still have a limp but it's mostly due to stiffness. The pain is gone. So I learned a few lessons in this process and I will commit them to memory. I'm just glad it's done. Thanks for watching. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Episode III - Revenge of the splint.

The verdict is in. Broken jackass, broken... For those of you keeping track, the wedding was Sunday and it was a blast. I limped and favored my foot all day but apart from having to sit down half way through the ceremony, things went just fine. Thanks to Kurt, Greg, Steve, Les and of course Chris for all the assistance during the day. We got home around 10:30 PM and collapsed into bed. Before I fell asleep, I did notice that I had a voicemail. I listened and it was from the hospital stating that they needed to discuss my xrays. First thing Monday, I called and they verified that my ankle was indeed broken and that I needed to see an orthopedist ASAP. I STILL don't see the break in the xrays but, I'm not a doctor. So, today I went to see the ortho and he was great. Very nice man with a good bedside manner. The first thing he asked was... "Does that hurt?", pointing at the air splint that the hospital had provided. I said well, yeah it does. A lot actually. He said well, that's because it's not really the best solution for an injury of this type and he promptly removed it. As he was removing it, he told me that the device was revolutionary in sports medicine but just not the right choice in this case. Anyway, he wanted to get new xrays just to confirm the diagnosis. 4 photos and about 30 minutes later I was being fitted for an ankle brace and a stability boot. He told me that what had happened was that when my foot rolled over, the tendon was stronger than the bone and a piece of bone actually pulled away from my ankle. OUCH. On the drive home, the pain in my ankle was as bad as anything I have ever experienced but I assume that was just due to the fact that the Dr was manipulating it and checking range of motion. Now that I am home and had a chance to put it up, it feels MUCH better. The Vicodin helps too. I need to wear this contraption for 3 - 5 weeks and I should be back to normal.

Ow... my tibia! (Dumbass part 2)

Okay, I got up this am and could not put any weight on my foot. I went to the emergency room and had it looked at. The diagnosis was an over extension of the anterior ankle ligament (sprained or wrenched ankle) with a possible hairline fracture at the bottom of my tibia. I have attached the x-rays if you care to make your own diagnosis. They gave me an air cast and crutches to use until it stops hurting. The treatment is to keep it elevated when I'm sitting and put weight on it as much as I can stand. I was prescribed Percoset but I doubt I'll fill it. The more intense pain is gone now. This is good news as I will not need to be in a cast for the wedding on Sunday. And before you say it.... Yes I should have gone to the Doctor 2 days ago.

I'm Dumbass material, all the way!

So, it' 4 am and I'm trying to get out of the house to make the train for a meeting in Manhattan at 9. I had the foresight to lay out all my reservation paperwork and pack the night before. All I had to do was shower, dress, grab my bags and drive to the station. I even had my bags at top of the stairs, ready to go. Clearly, I am an experienced traveler. I made a point to bring extra comfy shoes as I was sure to be walking a lot in the city. Just as I was about to execute my perfect plan of grabbing my bags and heading out the door, our little dog Roxy showed up to see me off. I paused for a moment to pat her on the head and say good bye. After that, she padded off to crawl back into bed. She's not used to being up that early. With that I picked up my bags and and headed down the stairs. I looked down and OOOPS, holy crap, there was Roxy and I was about to step right on her. Startled, I tried to avoid her, lost my balance and missed the step. I tried to recover but ended up landing on the side of my foot and wrenching it sideways. A moment later, I find myself on the floor nauseated, dazed, in a cold sweat and my foot in searing pain. I pulled my self up and tried to stand by grabbing the banister. My my foot felt like it was on fire but I tried a few steps to see if it could support my weight and it did. I figured I'd just walk it off and that would be that. 

So I made my train and did my best to keep my foot elevated but the pain just intensified with each passing mile. I try to convince myself that it wasn't broken and I'd just ride it out. Upon arrival in NYC, I hobbled to the Duane Reade next to Penn Station and bought an Ace Bandage and a bottle of Motrin. Surely this would cure all that ailed me. Anyway, I made my way to my first meeting Downtown and promptly took off my shoe and applied the bandage. It did help to immobilize it but it still hurt like hell. The people I was there to meet could not have been more accommodating but I still felt like a rube for being the guy who disrupts everything with something like taking his shoes off in the board room. Yes, the comfy shoes for walking. This was not the first time I came off looking like a doofus during a trip to Manhattan. Who could forget the time left my brand new laptop in the cab. A classic. After my meetings were done. it actually felt better but once I walked out of the building and found a cab, it was screaming again. By the time I got to the hotel, I felt exhausted and went to bed.

So, it's the next day, the bruises are in full bloom and I'm still not sure if it's broken. It still hurts but not nearly as bad as yesterday. If the swelling has not improved by tomorrow, I'll go get it X-rayed. I really hope it's not broken. I am in a very dear friends wedding on Sunday and I'd hate to be in a cast. Oh well. I'm the dumbass who put the bags at the top of the stairs. Enjoy the photos. 

By the way... I don't blame the dog.

AppleTV upgrade

I was an early Apple user. I learned the basics of programming on and Apple ][ and bought a Machintosh 128 the day it came out in 1984.  Hell, I even had a Lisa. Over the years, Apple has had some ups and downs but always seemed to get back on track, better than ever. When Jobs left they certainly made some interesting decisions. The Clone Wars were a mess, OS 7 and 9 were stable but they didn't really do anything special. When Steve came back into the fold, he adopted an ever forward attitude, focused on innovation and even removed the "museum" of previous Macintosh models from the Cupertino campus. He took back control of the hardware manufacturing and the new operating system promised to bring more power to the user. Apple has since introduced many very successful new computers the ubiquitous iPod, tons of great software and many other wonderful innovations. Since the emergence of the new Apple, I have purchased several computers, phones, ipods, an AppleTV, gone to WWDC twice and even spoken at Apple events on podcasting and workflow. Life has been good.

Over the past few weeks though, Apple has hit a some rough spots. The Mobile Me debacle, the iPhone 3g activation issues, curious activity on the iTunes App store... and a few other bumps in the road have brought the naysayers and critics out in droves.  It's been very un-Apple like. My very first clue that something was amiss at Apple this time was when the first AppleTV was introduced. It seemed very cool and the idea of having iTunes as a source of video content was damn near thrilling. On the music front, iTunes had revolutionized an even revitalized the music world. Surely a revolution in home video was on the horizon. Not so much. I have had a 40GB Apple TV for a little over a year now and I was annoyed almost out of the gate over the interface and drive size. I felt like it had been rushed to market. The iTunes video library was barren, the interface was difficult to navigate and it just seemed silly to produce a device designed for video with such anemic storage capacity. Over time the iTunes store added more movies and TV shows, the new OS (Take 2) has YouTube, local streaming, Flickr and .mac gallery capability and the interface is much MUCH better. The drive size still bugged the crap out of me. Today, I finally did something about it. There have been some AppleTV drive upgrade hacks out there for a while and they all sorta work. My buddy, superbiff and I decided to try it with a shiny new 250 GB drive. We started with the most common approach found at endgadget but that was a wash. We also went down the path shown at appletvhacks, but that too failed. It seems these were older hacks that didn't fly with AppleTV 2.0 or later. We looked around and found this step by step guide for Take 2. It worked like a champ.

Before superbiff got here, I had started the process of opening up the unit and pulling the drive out. That was pretty uneventful apart from the small tear I made in the rubber base.  
Next came the creation of a drive image. That was easy enough using the dd unix command. Finally, creation of the partitions on the new drive and copying the image over to it. We installed it and my drive capacity is now a wonderful 228 GB.

So, I'm sure Apple will get over this current hump and restore credibility thier once proud, unofficial slogan of "It just works". Even in this little exercise I could not help but notice how beautifully designed the interior components of the AppleTV were. It was so easy to open it up, work on and reassemble without doing any damage to the case or the internal components. The only tools I needed were a #8 and a #10 torx drive. As we worked on the upgrade, I was googling with with my MacBook to find tips to assist with the upgrade, texting my wife on my iPhone as she visited her grandmother in the hospital. When all was said and done, we hooked up the Apple TV and watched a bunch of LEGO Mindstorm videos on YouTube while it started syncing up to my iTunes Library. At the end of the day, these recent bumps in the road have been pretty insignificant in the big picture. As for my newly expanded AppleTV, it just works.

Urban Assault Cruiser

So... in a previous post I mentioned that I was on a quest for red tires for my bicycle. I found them and with the help of a couple of frineds, they have been installed on the bike along with a few other tweaks.

I have never been much of an outdoorsy guy but last year while searching for a birthday gift for my wife, I developed an interest in "beach cruiser" bicycles. It turns out there are many many style choices out there from companies such as Kustom Kruisers and Nirve. During that process, I stared thinking that it would be cool to get a bike too so my wife and I could ride together. I ended up picking up the Kosmopolitan from Kustom Kruisers for her because it fit her in so many ways. Since I was not sure what or even IF I wanted a bike, I decided to go cheap and turn to Craigs List. I did a search for "cruiser" and found a result that read "Custom matte black beach cruiser - $50". After reading the description, It was clear the seller was being a tad sarcastic so I emailed him to see if he still had it. The next day I went to see him and it was exactly what I needed. A simple, old cruiser style bike, spray painted black (he did a nice job) that, If I decided to do so, I could make it into something that was a reflection of me. He was a funny guy who pretended to wipe a tear from his eye as he said "I'm going to miss my Urban Assault Cruiser". I laughed, handed him 50 bucks, loaded up the bike and went on my way. I started the process of making it my own this weekend with the red tires. I also installed he stock seat from my wife's bike since it was still brand new and MUCH more comfortable that old worn out seat that came with my blank slate purchase. I'm not sure what I will do next. Maybe a set of apehangers or a silver chain. I am open to suggestions. For now, I will enjoy some leisurely rides around the neighborhood on my fancy new red tires.

Web 2 point Oh my god please shut up!

Web 2.0. Are you kidding me?!??! Why are we versioning the web anyway? (Thanks superbiff). Web 2.0 is just another useless, this makes me sound cool, now chicks will dig me buzzword. Who ever coined it, please go away now. You have out stayed your usefulness. 

Having been a corporate animal most of my professional life, I have heard a ton of them. TQM, Think outside the box, synergy, leverage, paradigm, paradigm shift, Next Generation (NextGen if you're REALLY cool), viral, new media, honest work (okay I made that one up)... anyway you get the idea. The point here is that none of these has ever had a shelf life of more than an internal review cycle (Why did I just say that?!?!). They don't last becasue they have no legitimate value. These terms are really nothing more than a euphemism for "hey the way we have been doing things has been a total train wreck so lets call it something different, create some brand new powerpoint slides to show the process and pretend the last 18 months never happened". I dunno, I think I'd rather just handle that situation with a good old fashioned "blamestorming" session.

To tech or not to tech?

As I get older and we are besieged by more and more technology, I find myself less motivated to be bleeding edge. I have made my living for 25 plus years and an integrator/developer/user of the latest and greatest technology. I was one of the people who giggled like a school girl when Steve Jobs announced the almighty iPhone at Mac World 2007. I went to the Apple WWDC 2007 JUST to get an advance copy of OS X Leopard. These are just 2 recent examples of a long history of geekery. This year has been a little different. While I am still an avid technology user (this blog is a testament to that), I find that I no longer get that tech high when a new widget comes out. Maybe I have reached the saturation point. Maybe I just don't feel compelled to integrate yet another device or piece of technology into my "digital life". It just seems that every day there is some new technology that never existed and we cannot possibly live without. These days I seem to take more pleasure being out on my motorcycle or finding red tires (yes red) for my bicycle. Well, I did just get a DVR. Maybe Im full of shit. I wonder if I'll actually keep this thing up to date?