A year and 36 minutes ago, more or less, my grandpa passed out of this world. Things have changed since then. I’m glad he doesn’t have to see the direction things are taking in the country, the world, the church, etc. But I would rather he were still here in spite of that.
Well today I went walking, running, walking… sort of both. I had intended on starting today with just walking, but my body really needs more activity to get a sweat going (as ironic as that sounds, I’m in really bad cardio shape right now). I took Shelly’s pink iPod shuffle (2nd gen, the one with ACTUAL CONTROLS) and loaded it up with 5 albums of a compilation I snagged off the tubes: 101 80s hits.
It was actually a very interesting study in 80s music, for the 18 songs I heard. The synthesizers were fairly awesome in each one. I also came up with a new fitness goal. -> 185 lbs.
Some may remember the last time I had a goal was when I was trying to get a Warrant Officer commission in the Army. Well, that was ended before its time by getting a job - and thankfully so because if I had gone I wouldn’t have known Abigail and never would have had Charlie. Nevertheless, it was by far the best shape I’ve been in during my entire life. At my peak (the day I took the PT test) I was at 199 lbs on the official government scale. I was wearing (M)edium boxer briefs, medium t-shirts, medium everything (sweat shirts, etc). I was wearing 34 inch jeans. 34! I had not worn 34 since, literally, 8th grade or earlier. Anyway that all went downhill when I stopped running.
That was February of 2007. So this is over 2 years later, and I’ve run less than 5 times since then. This is starting all over. I thought surely I had gone up to about 225-230 since then, and have literally not been on the scale for over a year. However tonight after I got back I found that I was only at 215. So 185 is really not a ridiculous goal at all.
Some thoughts:
1) I really want to snag a blue 2gig 2nd gen ipod shuffle from Fry’s (in stock) before they’re sold out. They’re really hard to come by these days. Nothing against pink, but it just isn’t me.
2) Shoes: I’m running now in Grandpa’s old shoes and to say the least they are NOT proper running shoes. Once I am able to get a mile from a (somewhat) cold start I’m going to get some more of the Mizuno trainers I had last time. My former shoes became every day wearers and are quite worn out.
3) shorts: I really need some more shorts to run in. What I had on tonight was pretty bad, but it worked. I need 3 sets so I can wash them every few days. I sweat so much I absolutely cannot imagine putting back on a pair of shorts (or t-shirt) for a second day. It would be like putting on a nasty wet towel.
4) Recordkeeping: I’ll be keeping a spreadsheet in OpenOffice. For right now I’m going to just keep the date and my POST-exercise weight. Some may say : but that’s not a valid weight. Well I don’t care, it’s valid enough for me, and if I consistently weigh then it becomes even more valid. A pound one way or the other isn’t going to kill me, this is not government specific. Furthermore I’m not keeping time right now. I was very focused on time in 2007, because I needed to be. I will eventually re-introduce time but the purpose now is just to get moving and stay moving. The problem I had before was that once I had completed a goal, sometimes happening rather quickly, I immediately went inside to take a shower. I’d rather not know exactly how long I’ve been out and just come in when it feels like time to come in.
Grandpa died 6 months and, well, about 22 minutes ago. A lot has changed since then, even in that short time. I wish he’d seen little Charlie standing on his own now. I wish a lot of things.
This is where we’ve all four lived for a week. Going home in the morning since power is back on at the house.
This was found in the bathroom stall at Sam’s restaurant in the middle of nowhere - Fairfield, TX.
Hopefully this will arrive as a tweet.
I picked up an expansion cab for the combo amp. Now, the manual officially says it isn’t supposed to be stacked (due to the angled cabinet giving only a small footprint) however I’ve now got the 2×10 + head stacked on top of a massive 1×15. For all the haters out there who are not fans of Gallien-Krueger, and especially not their lower-end Backline series, I say please give it a shot. Additional 15 was on sale for $180 (!) vs the $225 listed at musiciansfriend.
Unpacking it was very easy. I grabbed it and hauled it upstairs where I put on the rolling casters. Carefully put the combo on top of the 15, connected the power cable and turned it on. Sub city, seriously. And having the 2×10 up at near chest-height really revealed a new sense of clarity in the tone of the guitar/amp circuit. It sounds absolutely stunning. I had considered picking up a compression pedal while there, but really I’m quite happy enough with the non-compressed signal. The only thing I’d like is a bit of a limiter, but I wouldn’t “compress” it much.
At this point, the last thing I want in this era of basshood is a roland GT-10B floorboard. That’s pretty expensive. ($500) And as huge as it is, and as few effects as I’d actually use at church, not to mention not needing the amp sims, it is probably unnecessary. So I’m thinking of picking up some discrete pedals and a powered board. Compressor, chorus, tuner. Then delay, octaver, wah. Getting it all in one box would be cheaper and less annoying.
Here’s to the day coming soon when my gear wantlist is empty! Need to sell some more junk because frankly it’s nice being this close.
** Actually, mine doesn’t look like this one in the pic. Mine looks like the higher-end GK cabs, without the goofy font that says backline all over the top. Thank God my combo doesn’t have that on there either - it’s all clear, block script.. On the 15, it only has a big GK emblem at the top center.. will take a pic when it isn’t pitch black in here.
Last night I went scouring (via the phone) the entire city of Houston for a BOSS GT-10B bass-specific multi-effect floorboard which was announced at the January NAMM. Of course, nobody in town had one. If GC doesn’t have one, you know none of the mom and pop stores have them -> but that didn’t stop me from calling them and finding out how little the people keep up with gear trends. I envy them in a way.
Anyway, so I went playing some Soundgear 5 strings (with the same Bartolini pickups I have) through some small combo amps. After several hours, I left the store with an Ampeg BA-115. Well, once I got it out of the environment of the store, I realized two things: 1) It hisses like a perpetual snake and 2) it’s pretty huge, and pretty powerless.
So, I thought “crapola”… but this afternoon I called up GC Clear Lake and explained that I wanted to bring it in and exchange for the B option in my A/B comparisons: a Gallien-Krueger backline 210 combo. The “backline” series is the low-end Gallien-Krueger line but I’m telling you, it sounds awesome and for the money is a lot of bang for the buck.
I was concerned that I had already broken down the shipping boxes, but Chris @ GC Clear Lake said don’t sweat it and bring it on in. So within an hour and a half of that call, I was driving back home with the new combo. I *almost* bought the same amp and cab in a separate non-combo format, but given my “needs” as far as bass sound reinforcement go, the utility of being able to tilt the combo to use as a monitor outweighed the possibility of modularity.
So I don’t even want to mention the Ampeg again except to say this one is SO much more flexible, sounds much better, has a lot of open routing and *drumroll* has enough juice to run an extension cab! The cheap backline cabs are calling my name. The combo runs at 200watts as-is, but pushes 300 watts when connected to an expansion! sick! Single 15? Probably. 410? Probably not, but interesting possibility.
So the net result is, once I’ve sold a couple of keyboards, I’ll be a) ahead and b) not nearly as deep into bass $ commitment as I’d thought (looking at the boutique Eden combos.. heh… if anything now I’m looking at some effects and another bass 
and that’s nowhere near necessary. Nor even wanted. Except an American 5 string J would be kind of sweet.
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Side note: The 8 string washburn sounds ill through this thing - I love it, thanks Anthony!
Side note 2: My old 4 string sounds like a dead piece of crap, I kid you not, through this thing.
Well, it’s been almost a month since grandpa died and a lot of great things happened since then. First I was able to do both services of his funeral, which ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be. Second, Abigail turned 3 years old the Tuesday after the funeral. Third, little Weldon has started to crawl around a bit - he’s growing and is very strong. Finally, I have been playing bass in the second service at church for a few months now and last Friday I picked up a really awesome new bass (my old one was kind of hideous).
Here’s a link to the manufacturer’s info page.
Yes, 6 strings, transparent black, excellent pickups. The neck is thin but man is it wide. Played it for the first time on Sunday which was a blast - low B sounded pretty decent even in the house PA. But now I want to get a nice “small” Eden combo that I can a) carry and b) blast windows out with. That is months and months away, of course.
Around 6:32 PM tonight, May 8, 2008, my grandpa - Charles Weldon Chandler of Baytown (and recently Pasadena), TX - went home to be with the Lord. He departed from his body without pain, suffering or struggle. He was surrounded by his family. I was able to pray for him and speak some scripture to him and those gathered while holding his right hand as he took his dying breath. It was quite an honor, and also quite surreal - like being in a movie.
So I don’t usually get in peoples’ faces about this, but I am going to be perfectly clear here: the only reason that we’re able to survive this loss is because we know grandpa’s spiritual state. When I say “the Lord” I explicitly mean Jesus Christ, our only mediator to God the Father. Grandpa and my mother both put their faith in Jesus and were baptized in the early sixties - my grandpa already a grown man by then, obviously. I don’t always act like much of a minister, but I’m supposed to. Without Jesus there is no hope. You’ve either put your trust in him, or you haven’t.