Buying a piano
27 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in music Tags: Keyboard, Music, Piano
My new piano teacher wants me to get something to play at home that’s more piano-like than the electronic keyboard I have, which has an organ-like action and practically no dynamic contrast. I usually practice in the morning or at night, while Glenn’s asleep, so I’m thinking of two options:
- An acoustic upright piano at the opposite end of the house with a practice pedal to dampen the sound.
- An electronic piano which plays as much like the genuine article as possible.
Both have their up- and downsides. A real piano with the damper pedal on may still make too much racket, and it defeats the purpose somewhat to be trying to develop touch and dynamics while intentionally muting the instrument. An electric piano will never completely match the real playing experience, but can be played through headphones when Glenn’s in bed (or watching TV).
I’m checking Craigslist (wow, are there a lot of pianos there) and getting some ideas of what I want to do. My teacher mentioned a Korg electric which is quite good, I’ve asked her for the model number so I can check it out.
Advice and suggestions welcome!
Necessity, mother of education
20 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in technology Tags: Frameworks, Programming, Rails, Ruby, Ruby on Rails
I had hoped to subcontract work on a big project this Spring, but after shopping a proposal around to several development firms, never found anyone capable who wanted to take on the work, and decided to do it myself. Since Rails seems to be what all the cool kids are using these days, it seems a good time to learn it and update my skills and knowledge along the way.
I bought the Ruby and RoR books recommended at http://programmingzen.com/rails-books/ (don’t tell my ex-boss I didn’t buy one of his! 
, and am well into the Ruby book now. Will try rewriting a few of my Perl scripts in Ruby, then when I have a feel for it, move into Rails. Hopefully, will end the year with Big Project done and a marketable skill on the resume.
Started lessons again
16 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in music
I took a piano lesson this morning. According to the dates on the journal I kept, my last lesson was on 5/3/2007, almost exactly four years ago. It’s been a busy time since then, but I’m home and on a more regular routine now, and plan to stick with it.
Some of Glenn’s friends were concerned recently that I wasn’t finding any time and activities for myself, and encouraged me to pursue what help the county could provide. A social worker’s coming in a couple of weeks for an evaluation, and one of the results should be enrolling Glenn in a program he can attend Tuesday and/or Thursday mornings, which should allow me to get away for lessons regularly.
I looked up a pianist I remembered from chamber music concerts in the area, and with the school year winding down, she was ready to take on new students. I’ve enjoyed both her playing and her energetic, upbeat personality, and hope we’ll be a good fit.
I worked up a bit of the material I’d learned back in ‘07 to play for her, and she thought I could go ahead and start the first Invention by Bach, the music I brought along in the “hope to play sometime” category. I think it should be a great tool to get the left hand working, to get more comfortable with reading the bass clef (a skill lacking from my guitar background), and, most interestingly, to start to know what the brain feels like when it’s running a melody in each hand simultaneously.
So, as I approach 40 at Summer’s end, I’m excited and looking forward to learning some of what Bach wrote for his kids to play when they were 4.
It feels good to be playing something again. Once I get the fingers moving and hit a first plateau of proficiency, I need to find someone on my own level to play some four-hand music with me. A combination of lessons to prepare for and friends to enjoy making music with should keep me on the wagon. Wish me luck!
Amazon’s "Subscribe & Save"
08 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in finance
When Glenn was coming home from rehab, I asked his nurse where I should buy the various supplies he was going to need on a regular basis. She told me to try the warehouse stores — BJ’s, Costco, Sam’s Club, and the like. I bought a membership with BJ’s, and we started getting all sorts of food and household goods in bulk there, saving some cash and quite a few shopping trips.
A few months ago, I stumbled on Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” program, and have been trying it as a BJ’s replacement. It allows you to select certain items to buy on an ongoing basis (every 1, 2, 3, or 6 months), and in exchange for subscribing, they give you free shipping and 15% off their regular price. I pay with an Amazon Visa card which gives 3% cash back on Amazon purchases, so my discount’s actually closer to 18%. They send timely reminders when something’s about to ship, and a subscription management page lets you cancel subscriptions, change the quantities and frequencies of shipments, order an extra shipment if you start to run low on something, and skip a shipment if you don’t need it this time.
As my memberships with BJ’s and Sam’s Club (purchased while living in West Virginia’s BJ’s-free zone) neared their ends, I bought one last epic carload from each, then let the accounts lapse. As we started to run out of things, I estimated how much of them we use and created Amazon subscriptions.
It’s been a good-enough replacement that I don’t plan to get a warehouse membership again. About 90% of what we bought at BJ’s is on Amazon at comparable prices, including all the essentials. Subscription management works fine, and packages active without a hitch. Carrying a box or two across the threshold is much easier on my back than loading and unloading a month of supplies from the car, and our shopping trips have been reduced to a drive to ALDI for perishables every 1.5-2 weeks (cartons of rice/soy milk travel just fine from Amazon) and the occasional bike ride to Dollar General. We haven’t been to a traditional grocery store this year, and haven’t had to buy a warehouse membership.
I’d say it’s worth a look for anyone. Just double-check prices against the warehouse stores’ websites. Most things we bought at BJ’s are the same price or even a little cheaper at Amazon with the subscription discount, while others are inexplicably twice as much for the same brand and package. Others are only available in boutique brands at boutique prices. Hopefully, this will correct over time as more variety becomes available and prices normalize. It’s occurred to me that this might be a tool in the kit of the carfree lifestyle I used to live before Glenn got sick. It could be a sort of return to the days of calling in an order to the store and having it delivered as the grocer’s truck makes its rounds. It certainly brings bulk buying and stocking-the-cellar to people who would have a near-impossible time doing it by bicycle. Walkable communities and delivery by local merchants might be preferable, but this is something the car-dependent could use now to aide a carfree or carlight life.
I do wonder about the environmental consequences. I’d love to see a study of which causes the least harm: goods going to storage at many, many supermarkets until people walk there to get them (or, let’s face it, make a dozen car trips to get a dozen small items), goods going to storage at warehouse stores until people drive there to get large quantities at one time, or goods going to Amazon storage facilities, then out to homes as part of a UPS driver’s regular rounds. One area in which this scheme clearly fails is excessive packaging. We’re drowning in Amazon boxes. I reuse them for shipping as much as I can, but am going to have to start offering them on Freecycle soon.
Take a look, I hope it works out as well for you. If you have kids, also check out Amazon Mom for an extra 15% off some items and a trial of free Prime (two-day) shipping on many Amazon items (subscription or not).
Uncle Ken's home movies
24 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in family
As my family did with our father’s last year, my cousin Patty has had my Uncle Ken’s 8mm home movies digitized. He got an even earlier start and took twice as much footage, almost two hours going back to 1958:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=363258CDC87905EA
There’s even a few seconds of a three-year-old ring bearer, who (I’m told) broke into tears when he had to walk up the aisle with everyone looking at him, and had to be escorted by the bride and her father.
As before, please share any comments and ideas you have about what we’re looking at, who’s who, when they might have been taken, etc. I’ve put what we know about them so far in the description under each.
Many thanks to Patty for making these available. In addition to a lot of charming footage of Uncle Ken, Aunt Lena, and the kids, there are plenty more scenes of my generation at family gatherings, and it’s wonderful to have these memories available to us all.
