Archive for January, 2005


Ow, my foot!

1/7/2005

Actually, my leg.

Due to a severely stupid injury (slipping on the ice and hitting the concrete step on the back of my left leg on the way down,) I’m not going to werk today.. or anywhere else for that matter. Stupid me.

So.. I may be writing a lot here today. Or not. Depends on my mood.

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The leg

1/7/2005

My left leg (for some reason that doesn’t sound right) is healing up nicely. Had a lot of pain this morning and couldn’t move too much. So I vegged out, watched tv and went to bed. Woke up several hours later. The pain subsided around 3pm-ish or so. I still have a dull pain but I can walk okay now. Hopefully this injury will be all healed up before the weekend is over. As long as I don’t move around a lot I should be good.

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Screenplay Writing

1/7/2005

During my pain binge this morning (heh) I actually sat down and wrote a short screenplay. A long time ago when the Earth was new, man was young and dirt was still warm (that being August of last year,) I said I would finish up a screenplay. Well, that big ol’ hunk o’ turd never got finished so it got scrapped.

Today however, I was able to finish one up in about an hour. I just sat down, fired up Final Draft (and yes I actually paid for it,) and just started plucking away.

I think I’ve found a personal method to write screenplays better. What I used to do (which obviously didn’t work,) was format the screenplay as I was writing. This is a bad idea because you get too involved in the overall setup of the scene. What I do now is just blast out whatever idea is in my head and fix it up later.

This is what I mean (bad way):


INT. OFFICE BUILDING, MORNING

MANAGER is sitting in his office, going through his paperwork. The light above his head is flickering slightly and needs to be changed. His desk is filled with scattered papers and he looks a wreck. He knows a deadline is approaching and is running out of time.

PHONE rings. MANAGER jumps slightly from surprise, takes a deep breath and then picks up the phone.

MANAGER
Hello?

SECRETARY
(on phone)
Yes, Mr. Wilks. Tokyo is
on the line. Mr. Sushimo
would like to speak to you
about the upcoming meeting
later this week.

MANAGER
I.. I can’t talk right now.
I have a million other things
to do.

Apologies for the formatting.. I can’t get (at present) a blog post to show proper spacing for screenplay format. ;-)

The “bad” part above is the initial description of the scene before the dialogue starts. Yes, necessary - but it doesn’t need to be written first. In my opinion it should be set up last.

I did this today and wrote the scene descriptions last instead of first. Guess what, I got all the dialogue in I needed to. Yeeee-haw. (grin)

Maybe if I continue this formula I can write a full-length one. Hmm…

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Cellular/Wireless E911 GPS stuff

1/8/2005

My pop happens to work at a place that sells wireless phones. We got to talking about GPS (Global Positioning System) and so on. I was under the assumption that GPS was not on your wireless phone unless you specifically paid for the service.

“Not true” said pop.

Although my pop wasn’t entirely sure, he believes that all new wireless phones sold in the State of Connecticut have to have GPS enabled. But don’t get too excited about that. It doesn’t mean that you have GPS capability if you bought a phone in the State of CT recently. I can’t punch in an address and have the phone track where I’m going - that’s an extra charge. The Connecticut State Police however can track my phone at any time.

“Check your phone” pop said - because I was of the belief “Nah.. can’t be true”. So I checked.

My LG VX3200 wireless phone (with Verizon as carrier) has a small crosshair looking icon located at the top right of the display. I never paid much attention to it. I did an icon glossary lookup on the phone by pressing Menu then Settings then Phone Info then Icon Glossary. That crosshair icon stands for “E911 Only”.

What this means is that in case of an emergency, when you dial 911 the Connecticut State Police can pinpoint exactly where you are from your wireless phone signal. That’s the positive side.

Here’s the negative side: It also means you can be tracked. That I do not like at all. I mean sure, “E911 Only” is supposed to mean “Emergency 911 Only”, but is it really? What assurance do I have that I’m not being tracked for some other purpose?

There is no way to turn E911 off. And before anyone asks “Why would you want to turn it off?”, here’s why: I don’t like the fact that someone can track me without my knowledge. That GPS signal means it’s possible for that to happen. It screams “Big Bother is Watching You” in volumes. I should be allowed the option of whether I want it enabled or not. But alas, I do not have the option. It’s on whether I want it to be or not.

Tidbit of info: Older wireless/cellular phones do not have GPS enabled.

Another important tidbit of info: If you purchase any new phone (say from eBay) and it does not have GPS enabled - there’s a good chance you can’t register the phone for service in the State of Connecticut. Bummer.

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New bass guitar

1/9/2005

It was finally time to retire my old cheap Epiphone P-Bass guitar and buy a new cheap bass guitar. (grin) The only reason I own an electric bass is to lay down my own bass tracks in my home recording studio - so needless to say it does not have to be an expensive instrument.

A friend is visiting for a few days so we piled in the car and headed off to Warwick RI Guitar Center. The last time I went there (December 2004) I saw some cheap new basses there and hoped there would be some left after the Christmas season.

Fortune smiles: There were some. I grabbed a Yamaha RBX170-DBM off the rack, plugged it in and started thumbing it a bit. Sounded good. I bought it. Price: $180.00 after tax.

This is the first new bass guitar I’ve bought.. ever. My previous bass guitar was bought by my pop about twelve years ago - which just goes to show you how long ago it was I acquired one. (grin)

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Bands, please keep your web sites up to date!

1/9/2005

It’s just saddening to know that there are so many bands out there that just don’t pay attention to their web sites. For a while now I have seen some really bad habits occur on a lot of band sites.

“Band site” defined: A web site that is about a band. It doesn’t matter what kind of band it is. Could be rock, or blues, or punk or whatever.

Bad habits of some band web sites:

Old info / no updates

Old info = dead info on a band’s web site. It should be updated periodically. I’d say at least once a month.

Some bands will play shows and never announce it on their web sites. Bad, bad, bad.

Some bands never ever update their web sites, period. A page is put up. No music, no message board, no contact info. Nothing. Bah!

Site vanishes without a trace

I’ve seen this happen more times than I have fingers and toes. A band gets a web site. It’s gets popular. Lots of visits. Then one day (after no updating, see above,) –poof–, gone. The web site won’t load and doesn’t resolve any longer. It really sucks if you actually liked the band. I hate it when that happens.

—

I mean, yeah, I can understand it if the band doesn’t know computers or how to program web pages or whatever.. but they must know someone that could do an itty bitty update from time to time.. or at least make sure the site still works.

Is that too much to ask?

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Money talks, but you shouldn’t

1/10/2005

One universal truth that I’ve yet to learn is to shut my trap when it comes to talking about money with anybody.

In my experience, you should never talk about money, ever.

Example: Say you just paid off a huge bill that you’ve been working on for a long time. You feel great about it. When good things happen like that you obviously want to tell someone about how good you feel. Bad idea, because everyone around you still has large bills most likely - and they will hate you because you’re able to pay yours and they can’t.

As I get older I am learning more and more to bite my lip and keep my trap shut tight if I have any good fortune with money at all. This is because there’s always someone who will hate your guts for it.

Here’s my money tips, take heed. My little “rule book” here has saved me out of a lot of money jams over the years:

1) I don’t spend foolishly.
Most of the people I know in debt spend their cash on really dumb stuff. Seriously, stupid stuff, like a really expensive wireless phone. Who in their right mind is going to spend over $350.00 on a phone? I know some people who have. I also know I get along very well with my free phone I got with my service plan.

2) I check my bills often.
If you have the capability to check your bills online, do it. Do it often. Being reminded of what you owe will stop you from overspending. It does work.

3) I avoid vulnerable shopping places.
Catalogs, web sites or stores that have nifty novelty items I steer clear of like the plague. For example, I could have a shopping spree at ThinkGeek.com and buy out half the place, but don’t.

4) I don’t “keep up with the Joneses”.
I buy for one person: Me. Not for anyone else. I absolutely will not buy something just because someone else has it, nor will I buy something because someone told me to. I make my own decisions, thank you very much.

5) I don’t gamble.
This is a big problem with a lot of people. Years ago I lost money on gambling. It was a small amount but it was enough to teach me a lesson. Don’t do it. I stopped before it even started to become a problem.

6) I never take my job for granted.
In today’s world there is no job security whatsoever. You should always have a “Plan B” in case you get laid off or fired or whatever. I know several people that went into massive debt instantly because they thought their job was solid and nothing could ever happen to them. Now they’re paying the price, literally.

7) Never pay the minimum on your credit cards.
Always pay more than what your “minimum payment” is. The bill will get paid off faster. Besides myself I know several people who do this. While it’s true you have less in your pocket each week, the ends justify the means absolutely because you avoid a lot of interest and “financial fees”. You save more by paying things off early, no doubt about it.

8) I prepare.
Best advice in the world. While no one is ever truly prepared for the worst (fiscally speaking), it is a good idea to at least have some idea of what you would do if major money problems happened. Do you have a plan if you got sick or injured? Could you get a job quickly if you got laid off or fired? If you had to go on unemployment, could you survive? (And yes, I have been on unemployment before - not pretty.)

Now I’m not saying you should go out and start buying tons of insurance policies. All I’m saying is that you should have some idea of what you could/would do if a problem or problems happened that would impact you money-wise.

—

Arm yourself with knowledge. It could save your butt.

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Guitar Center

1/10/2005

I learned something. If you’re going to go to Guitar Center - know what you want to buy, then go to GC on a Sunday. There was hardly anyone in there, there was no pressure to buy anything and I got exactly what I needed. It was a great shopping trip. I think I got a good deal.

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…now in super easy-read format (bung)

1/11/2005

After recently visiting the best web design site in the world, I checked out Vincent’s Biggest Web Design Mistakes for 2004.

My site violated faux paus #9, which is Forgetting the Purpose of Text. For some strange stupid reason, the text here was small. It wasn’t illegible, but still small. So I bumped the font size. Looks good. Much easier to read. (grin)

On a different note… I was searching really old blog archives from 2001 on another blog site - and I’ve come to one inescapable conclusion: Anything cool on the ‘net always does one of two things. Either it will a) vanish or b) change into something corporate and stupid. Just about every “this is neat you should check this out” link I click from blog archives over 3 years old is gone or redirects somewhere stupid and unneat. Blah. :-(

Sad. But what ya gonna do.

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The ides of January cometh

1/11/2005

When the ides of January cometh, this means “Mother nature is about to dump a load of white shit on your doorstep.”

Today, yet again, it is snowing. And again, it will change to freezing rain. And again, it will turn to rain, thus making our lovely highways and byways a big ol’ shit stew of ice, slush and general hellspawn winter season crapola.

Blah, I say. Blah.

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