Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Reached 500 hour milestone! 5% mastery!


Today started out very good, I just found $2.25 in my purse in quarters so I can get my laundry done.

500 Hour Practice Trophy
Purchased from Boogie Man Music Store


Yesterday I spent a little of my money on something fun. I recently reached my first 500 hour practice milestone. I can't say I've absolutely had my first "click" yet, but I can certainly say it's become much easier to play in front of people and play without tabs. Like I can turn on a track and play it with decent accuracy without an immense amount of warmup anymore. I'm still doing about 20 minutes a day of warmup on average. This week I've made it a point to practice at least an hour.

My time balance for this week has been near perfect, I've been following the weekly schedule that I set up and I've gotten a solid five hours of midterm study done for my legal class. Today I plan to do a couple more if I can, the midterm itself is happening tomorrow. I'm also going to get my chapter 9/10 quiz done. My legal class has honestly become my favorite class; simply because it's the most interesting to me of the three.. But more than anything because of it's consistent. Even if I originally thought Metiner was slow we've actually been perfectly on schedule this entire quarter. He keeps the class very interesting, I like his lectures. And I've learned a ton about the legal system!

I got my strings reset on my guitar yesterday. My friend Adam came over, we hung out for a bit and we ran my Ibanez over to Boogie man where he we got the Floyd Rose fixed and restrung in no time. The shop owner actually told me that he wasn't charging me for it. I was so flattered that I literally said, "Well now I want to buy something!"  hahaha. I didn't actually have the intention of buying something besides the new string but then I'd realized I still had a bit of money from that $160 I'd gotten for my birthday. I spent about $50 of it on groceries the other day.

I had a hard time picking out a strap. I typically have a hard time making decisions in general but there were hundreds of straps there and I wanted to get the perfect one. There were some leather straps that I thought were cool, they're a bit more comfortable then the current material I purchased but I was really turned on by the design of this one and thought I'd look perfect on my Ibanez. Adam agreed so we purchased it.

Originally I thought I shouldn't have spent that money so quickly but then I realized this morning that I hadn't really awarded myself for reaching 500 hours. I think that is how I'll determine when I'll purchase music equipment so that it doesn't get out of hand...


Because seriously you guys, music equipment is the most expensive shit ever. This is an expensive hobby if you let it become more of a... "consumer" project than a creative one. I mean I see people that spend thousands of dollars on their guitar equipment before they even really learn to play. And you can see why, guitar equipment is cool. It can feel exhilarating just holding a fancy guitar but if you can't play anything, well...

So I let myself buy things periodically. For instance, I think I was at about 250 hours when I purchased the Ibanez RGT 42 itself. I've been using Sheridan M.'s old bass strap that she used when she played in band back in middle school. I always admired Sheridan for being the only female bass player, she inspired me and that was a really good strap. So for the last 500 hours I used that one, and today I'm going to try and figure out how to unlock the strap locks and retire it for this new one. I think I'll try to buy myself something cool at every 250 hour milestone.

Of course when I reach the 1000 hour milestone I'm going to get myself a new guitar! At every 1,000 hour milestone I'm going to get a new guitar... That way when I'm finally a master I'll have 10 guitars, that's practically a collection. But I would earn all of them, so instead of being a consumerist thing it's more of a trophy for the amount of work I'd done for each.

Today I've got quite a bit of work to do. Let's see...

-Laundry
-Read Accounting Chapter 13
-Accounting Chapter 13 homework.
-Legal midterm study one hour...
-Quiz Chapter 9/10 for legal
-Finish Hw 8 in math if at all possible... (I don't really understand the material yet)
-Install strap....

Wish me luck. Still feeling a little pain in my chest when I breath but I talked to Katelynn about it and she said she thinks it might be my reaction to an immense amount of stress lately. She said she sometimes has that too where it almost feels like your heart hurts and you feel like you can't breath.. It's all due to the amount of stress I've been putting myself though and probably my high amounts of caffeine consumption. I don't believe I'm significantly worse than most people but I'm thinking this chest pain is somewhat due to that. 

I sent Jed a couple pictures I'd taken around yesterday. We hadn't talked for 2 days so I figured it'd be fine. He hasn't texted back, it's been three days since we've talked. I'm having a feeling he probably partied last night, whatever that's his business. 

peace. 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Let's take TWO trips, shall we?




Yay! This calls for a 1980's "getting stuff done" montage!

2 days!

I'm moving out in two days and my Mom of course had no idea. I've been telling her every day, "Hey mom! Twelve more days!" "Four more days!" etc etc but she hasn't gotten the memo and we don't have a uhaul. She claims she's going to make "Two trips" with the van. What the hell, is there seriously nobody we could borrow a large vehicle from?

I've been a little lacking in guitar this week because I've been really busy and I've had so much on my mind that all I've wanted to do is talk to Jason. My playing has gotten so much more relaxed since Jacob corrected my hand positioning, though, so I can afford to slack a bit this week. I'm hoping I do get in three hours today, maybe even a little more because I only practiced an hour yesterday. It's only 8:30 am so I can give myself guitar breaks during packing. Or maybe packing breaks during guitar. He he he. NO, I NEED to get this stuff done...

I need to figure out what order I'm going to do this in. I think the  best place to start would be the clothes because I figure to move that dresser we're going to have to pull all the clothes out anyway so I might as well get that done. I'll plan out some outfits for the next couple days.

In my room I have music equipment that'll be a big pain in the ass to move and takes up a lot of space. I'm planning on bringing my bass, Samara and the acoustic as well as my big amp and POD (which I'll probably take in the car with me because it's so fragile). This really is just the beginning of my instrument collection though, my plan is that I will obtain one new guitar with everyone 1,000 hour milestone I reach. Right now I have 422 for the past five months. 

Miranda is on my bed right now. I feel like I'm going to miss her more than anything from a day to day basis because she gives me so much relaxation and happiness in my life. She really is the last thing I want to hold onto.

Because really, there's nothing more for me to gain here in the tri cities. I went to CBC and got my first degree close to home. I had my dead end job for a year; I put on my Noh face for anyone that gave me shit and didn't kiss anyone's ass. My best friends are both doing VERY well so I have nothing to worry about. Katelynn should be getting a job at Amazon here shortly and Samantha just got a job at Let's Party (which I'm having a feeling will turn into a career). They've both got good, stable relationships and Katelynn's no longer partying with Zach. 


Needless to say, I'm quiet excited, and I need to get to work. : ) 

peace.