The One Truth's Lounge Thread

How come you play no longer, Aragorn? That's a skill that I admire and I just don't seem to have the patience for learning it. I might be a bit late to the game too.

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Originally posted by Wind

How come you play no longer, Aragorn? That's a skill that I admire and I just don't seem to have the patience for learning it. I might be a bit late to the game too.

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Well, there are several reasons. The first reason is that I now live in a building where, with the exception of the couple currently living upstairs from me with their two very small children ─ a toddler and a baby ─ all of the other neighbors are older than me. My next door neighbor is a lovely 88-year-old widow, and most of the others are in their 70s. And downstairs is a physiotherapy practice.

The second reason is that my living room in this apartment is quite a bit smaller than in my previous apartment ─ 28 m² versus 36 m² ─ and that I've got too much furniture. This means that I don't have a lot of room for my music gear, and unless I want to trip over everything every time I walk into my living room, I have to put everything out of the way again after playing. And some of that stuff is heavy to move around, which my poor back cannot handle anymore.

The third reason is that I have become too involved with various things on the internet, among which this forum and my being a moderator at the Manjaro forum. But even before my becoming a moderator there and a member here ─ or even at Project Avalon back in 2014 ─ I was already involved with various internet-related things.

I've been an actively supporting member in the GNU/Linux community for over 20 years now, and between 2002 and roughly 2010, I was also running an IRC network with a bunch of other people, which was very involving. I was the senior network administrator and the services root administrator, as well as the chairman of the management team, which convened in the flesh every month. After the meetings, I then had to type up the reports and put them online so that our members could easily find them or download them.

I had also created plugin scripts in my IRC client software to fend off flood bots and the likes, because IRC networks ─ and especially smaller ones, like ours ─ are a favored target for 13-year-old script kiddies who download designated attack or hacking software from a questionable website and then go about trying to bring an IRC network to its knees. So I scripted my IRC client in such a way that, given that I was online 24/7 even when I was not at the keyboard, my colleagues could remotely activate those scripts on my computer from within a staff-only chatroom by issuing a certain bot command and the correct parameters whenever there was an attack. And if I was at the keyboard when an attack occurred, then I only had to press one of the function keys on my keyboard and my script would take care of the rest.

I do on occasion still pick up a guitar and play for anything from a couple of minutes to an hour, but all without plugging my guitar into my amplifier and/or my effects units. But I can definitely feel the rust that has crept into my skill over the years. I still know all the chords ─ that's not something you tend to forget ─ but I'm no longer the fretboard wizard I used to be.

:unsure:

He's a Fretboard Wizard,

has to be a twist...

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Originally posted by Dreamtimer

He's a Fretboard Wizard,

has to be a twist...

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Because you're asking so nicely... :ttr:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM

Didn't mean this to be off topic, but it is relevant:

In my above post, I mentioned 'melodic' flow. I just received ANOTHER unsolicitated email trying to sell me A Korg Melody somthin' or other.

The other day I used the word Flash in a post and today I got this:

Hey cntgfyblf
We rarely ever do flash sales, but we decided to surprise you with a special sale.
For only today and tomorrow, save $50 on our Aerial Rig. We'll also give you a free one year membership to Uplift Active's Online Studio (value of $220)!
After you purchase, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to redeem your free 1-year membership to the Online Studio (value of $220). With access to the Online Studio, you can watch unlimited aerial yoga classes, on your own time and schedule.

Seriously, what are the odds? I'm still constantly barraged by b.s. I have had my phone number and primary email address for years. I don't want to give them up but as my daughter has a phone and email address connected to mine I can't really change mine until she is no longer dependent. So I can trash mine.

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Originally posted by Aragorn

Well, I don't like bragging, so I'm going to put everything into perspective by first of all saying that I've barely been playing my guitars anymore in the last 15+ years, but I am proud to say ─ and sorely regretting that things are no longer that way today ─ that back in the 1990s there were several fellow musicians who called me a virtuoso.

I can't play off a score sheet ─ in musician vernacular, that is simply referred to as "He can't read" ─ but I do understand all aspects of musical theory, and I just feel the music as I'm playing. I can also play lots of stuff after hearing it only once or twice ─ not everything, of course ─ without even seeing any chord listings, and even though I have difficulty naming odd-meter rhythms, I can (again) feel them well enough to be able to pick up on on them and jam along, unless we're talking of the very complex compound odd-meter stuff like what Animals As Leaders does.

I am also entirely self-taught. I never went to any music academy and I've never had any guitar lessons. I was already 16 years old by the time my parents consented to my owning a guitar ─ I started off on the electric guitar straight away, rather than on an acoustic first as most of my contemporaries did ─ but I absolutely do have the music in my genes. We had professional musicians on both sides of the family, and my dad also used to be a musician ─ trumpet first, accordion and organ later. I myself have been playing various musical instruments since I was a toddler. Even my brother had the talent, but he didn't have the patience.

Another big difference with my contemporaries was that I have a very eclectic taste in music, and that I was mainly listening to pop music as a teenager, while most of my contemporaries who played an electric guitar were all into the usual blues-influenced players like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, et al, and their own music was usually a kind of garage rock. There was only one band at school who were different; they used to refer to their style as "cosmos rock", and it was just as heavily driven by synthesizers as by guitars.

I started my first band with my buddy from high school when I was in 11th grade, but at that point, it was just the two of us. I played the lead guitar on my electric ─ a cheap Japanese knock-off of a Fender Stratocaster ─ and the other guy played either a nylon-string acoustic guitar or a monophonic (and analog) synthesizer. Later on we were joined by a bass player, and then even later by a drummer. By that time, my high school buddy had already switched to an electric guitar, and he would do the keyboards and the rhythm guitar, while I was the lead guitarist. The style of music we made back then could best be described as experimental/progressive rock.

Later on still, the band split up because all of us were going to college ─ except for the drummer, who was a lot younger than the rest of us and who was still in high school. Several years later, I got a call out of the blue from my old high school buddy. He told me he was trying to put the band back together again ─ albeit with a different bass player ─ and he asked me if I was interested in rejoining. I accepted the offer, and we picked up where we had left off, rehearsing our old material again, improving on the arrangements, and adding new songs in the meantime. After our first gig, we also begot an additional band member, who would become our lead vocalist from then on.

The band carried on again for about two and a half years, but I did subconsciously notice that some things had begun changing. First of all, I was the one who had initially founded the band with my high school buddy, but now he was assuming the role of band leader. Also, his own style now seemed to be gravitating more toward punk rock, while mine was evolving more along the lines of progressive rock and the at the time fairly upcoming "L.A. hard rock" genre.

Another thing was that some hidden agendas were starting to play out. My high school buddy was by now officially engaged and had a daytime job at a bank, the bass player was married and had three children ─ he was also having some marital problems at the time ─ and the drummer had just moved in with his girlfriend, who was clearly putting the noose on him. I should have noticed that they were seeking to slowly let the band fade away until it was only going to be "just a hobby" anymore, but I was too naive to see it. All this time, I thought we were trying to become semi-professionals, looking to play more gigs and maybe record an album, or even two.

As time progressed, the friendly atmosphere during the rehearsals started waning. Quite often, either the drummer or the bass player wouldn't show up ─ well, we knew that the bass player worked in a three-shift system and as such, every three weeks he had to skip a rehearsal because he'd be at work. But it also happened that he didn't show up when he was available, supposedly because he had fallen asleep. And the drummer's excuses were even worse. He had supposedly dislocated his shoulder, but he was spotted moving furniture to or from the house of his girlfriend's grandmother.

Eventually I got a phone call ─ at my parents' place ─ from my high school buddy, telling me that instead of rehearsing the next Monday evening, we were simply going to convene at some café to "talk about the future of the band". So come Monday evening, I show up at the café, and the four of them were all already there, sitting at a table, and not really looking what you could call cheerful. I sat down at the table with them and ordered a round of drinks. And then it came out. It was my high school buddy doing the talking, while the others were basically simply staring at their shoelaces.

Apparently, the fact that the drummer was making excuses for not showing up at rehearsals and that the bass player "overslept" was all my fault. See, I was simply too loud. They were going deaf in that rehearsal room from my loud playing. And he ─ my high school buddy ─ was afraid that the band was soon going to cease to exist... unless I were to leave the band...

Now, this is where I need to put a few things into perspective again... First of all, the allegation as that I was playing too loud was a complete and utter joke. My high school buddy was playing through a 60 Watt half-stack with a 4x12" speaker cabinet. So was the bass player, and at times he even had a 6x12" speaker cabinet. And me, I was standing there with a 50 Watt combo amplifier with a single 12" speaker. The two of them were blasting into my face with either 8 or 10 speakers, making it impossible for me to even hear myself when I was playing riffs on the wound strings. And I was too loud???

Furthermore, I've heard recordings, both from our live performances and from our rehearsals ─ one of them was a video of one of our live performances ─ and even though I was the lead guitarist of the band, you simply couldn't hear me until I started playing a solo, and then that solo would sound very weak, like it was coming from underneath a tarp 50 meters behind the stage. All you hear is my high school buddy's droning rhythm guitar and the bass. And in the video of the live performance, it was only his rhythm guitar, the vocals and the drums, which had been miked up. And I was too loud???

Anyway, I accepted their request to leave the band, even if only because there's no point in staying with a band made up of people who don't want you there. I'm not a masochist. So I picked up my gear from the rehearsal room later that week, along with the songs I had written or co-written ─ my high school buddy had told me that I could take those with me ─ and I never heard from them again.

However, it was all much later that the truth behind it all finally dawned on me. See, it wasn't just that I was supposedly playing too loud, but I had also already noticed that they would play fewer and fewer of my songs at live performances, while playing more and more of the other guy's punk rock stuff. And seriously, at every rehearsal and at every gig, there was this one song that would always be played. It's a simple droning thing built around three chords ─ G, D, G, C, in that order ─ and a repeating guitar riff. The other band members all seemed to really love that song, but I myself passionately hated it, even though I didn't want to say that out loud so as to not offend them.

And when it came to the reasons for why certain of my own songs were not being played anymore, then I was told that my songs were "too difficult" and "too complex" ─ which in truth, they really were not, especially not in those days. But they were more melodic and poppy, and I had one song that was somewhat Van-Halen-like in terms of the guitar riff. And that was apparently "too difficult" for them, even though I was the only one who had to concern himself with the riff and with the solo, which had a fret-tapped melody in it.

No, it wasn't that I was playing too loud. I was simply too "advanced" for them. My songs were "difficult" ─ or so they said ─ and I wanted to move ahead with the band, while they were seeking to phase out the band because of their girlfriends and their social-status-related ambitions.

Anyway, after leaving the band ─ this was in 1990 ─ I was now free to do what I wanted, and, goddammit, as loud as I wanted it. Because sound volume aside, the band had been holding me back in my development as a guitar player. And so from 1990 on, I quickly started evolving in many aspects of my musicianship. I brushed up on my knowledge of music theory, I improved upon my playing technique, I started venturing more into hard rock and even into jazz-fusion, and I bought new equipment ─ a couple of new guitars, various configurations of effects devices, and a 100 Watt Marshall amplifier. I've also written a couple more songs since, albeit that most of them are instrumentals.

I've played with lots of other people since I left the band ─ mostly jams and tryouts ─ and I was also briefly in a band that mainly played '60s and '70s covers. However, the highlight for me as a musician were the live jam sessions that I was part of throughout 2003. I've learned a lot from that, and musically it was also much more along my style. And nobody there ever told me I was playing too loud ─ on the contrary, I was sometimes encouraged to add even more volume, even though there was very little I could do in that regard, because with the exception of one gig where I was using my Marshall, I was normally plugged straight into the P.A., and so the volume of my guitar was controlled by whoever was standing at the mixer panel.

Sadly enough, the sessions came to an end in November 2003 due to a situation that's somewhat long-winded to explain, but let's just say that the woman who ran the place where we normally jammed had stabbed us in the back, and when we found out about that ─ with some public humiliation in the process ─ each of us on their own account said "This was the final straw. I'm not coming back anymore for the next gig." Even the people who would normally come to see us at every jam session were dismayed by the way we had been betrayed and ridiculed by that woman. And indeed, that was the last of it. None of us has ever gone back there anymore, and the place is gone now ─ the building was converted into apartments.

Sooooooo, there you have it. :) :noidea:

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Impressive story, Aragorn, truth is some people just never get 'lucky'. I know from personal experience. At least you were able to indulge your passion while you did. It's funny when my daughter was experimenting with her musical interests, people that heard her perform as a duo or group (She never had the belief in her voice to sing solo, unlike her instrumental playing which was exceptional) always said she didn't have enough volume. She asked me one time what I thought and I said that her duos were the best because her voice always blended very nicely but she did lack volume. I tried to talk her into just rearranging positions, distance from the mikes etc. I explained she had a very nice voice and she should work with her partners to get the best effect. She quit! And, of course, I was very disappointed.

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Originally posted by Aragorn

Because you're asking so nicely... :ttr:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM

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I've never been a fretboard wizard but I sure as hell was a pinball wizard. When I was in high school hanging out at the local pool hall, college kids would come in to the joint to watch and play pinball. One of them always use to sing that song when I was playing. Over the next few years, I graduated to pool sharking, except I wasn't much of a shark, unless I was playing for drinks against the house at various taverns in the area. I didn't like taking money from people, I would warn them when they tried to get me into a money game that I would just take their money. Some bowed out immediately, some would lose their money and then beg for more but I would turn them down and others would just say, even some of the local money players, you're too good for me. Ahh, those were the glory days.

All was good until I played this guy that I just couldn't beat in Wichita Kansas (A few years after I actually had quit playing, my skills had already eroded quite a bit). Turned out that guy got a write up in the local newspaper cited as one of the original pool sharks in the state of Kansas. Damn, I wish I could have beaten him just once.

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Originally posted by BeastOfBologna

Didn't mean this to be off topic, but it is relevant:

In my above post, I mentioned 'melodic' flow. I just received ANOTHER unsolicitated email trying to sell me A Korg Melody somthin' or other.

The other day I used the word Flash in a post and today I got this:

Hey cntgfyblf
We rarely ever do flash sales, but we decided to surprise you with a special sale.
For only today and tomorrow, save $50 on our Aerial Rig. We'll also give you a free one year membership to Uplift Active's Online Studio (value of $220)!
After you purchase, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to redeem your free 1-year membership to the Online Studio (value of $220). With access to the Online Studio, you can watch unlimited aerial yoga classes, on your own time and schedule.

Seriously, what are the odds? I'm still constantly barraged by b.s. I have had my phone number and primary email address for years. I don't want to give them up but as my daughter has a phone and email address connected to mine I can't really change mine until she is no longer dependent. So I can trash mine.

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From what it sounds like, you've got spyware on your computer, and quite frankly, I really can't see how someone who works or used to work on software for the USAF knows so little about his own computer. :belief:

All I can advise you to do is throw that MicroShaft crap off of your computer and install a GNU/Linux distribution. It won't help you remedy the fact that some questionable individuals know your email address and your phone number, but at least you won't have any spyware on your computer anymore, and I doubt that you'd be using any specific software for which there is no native GNU/Linux alternative available.

:noidea:

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Originally posted by Aragorn

From what it sounds like, you've got spyware on your computer, and quite frankly, I really can't see how someone who works or used to work on software for the USAF knows so little about his own computer. :belief:

All I can advise you to do is throw that MicroShaft crap off of your computer and install a GNU/Linux distribution. It won't help you remedy the fact that some questionable individuals know your email address and your phone number, but at least you won't have any spyware on your computer anymore, and I doubt that you'd be using any specific software for which there is no native GNU/Linux alternative available.

:noidea:

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Actually, a few weeks ago I wiped it clean and started up again with a new copy of Windows 10. I'm certain it is more related to my addresses. Several large companies that have a major presence on the net have sent me notices that my email address is known to be on the dark web. But if my phone is also compromised then it will be a cycle of reinfection just like Covid. I'm convinced I have to dump the email and phone number. I'm too old to start working with Linux again. I've invested way too much blood, sweat, and tears into the tech AntiChrist.

I'm too used to Mac by now. :p


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-22EpQOm8c

That was funny, Wind. I used to really enjoy those Mac/PC commercials.

This band is filled with amazing talent as well as honed skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfWYLrWEfW4

There's no finer quarantiner song that I know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5qRLSQBAZ4

These folks are award winning songwriters. (in case you didn't recognize Heather playing with ilyAIMY)

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Originally posted by Dreamtimer

That was funny, Wind. I used to really enjoy those Mac/PC commercials.

This band is filled with amazing talent as well as honed skills.

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Very stylish, I really like it.

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Originally posted by Dreamtimer

There's no finer quarantiner song that I know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5qRLSQBAZ4

These folks are award winning songwriters. (in case you didn't recognize Heather playing with ilyAIMY)

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lol, I didn't know whether to giggle, scream with joy, or sing ... :)

ilyAIMY is the acronym for I love you and I miss you.

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Originally posted by Dreamtimer

ilyAIMY is the acronym for I love you and I miss you.

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I don't miss anyone since getting a better telescopic sight................

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Originally posted by Lord Sidious

I don't miss anyone since getting a better telescopic sight................

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I'm partial to those myself, Mr. The Sid

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm03wqLY3Nc

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Originally posted by BeastOfBologna

Actually, a few weeks ago I wiped it clean and started up again with a new copy of Windows 10. I'm certain it is more related to my addresses. Several large companies that have a major presence on the net have sent me notices that my email address is known to be on the dark web. But if my phone is also compromised then it will be a cycle of reinfection just like Covid. I'm convinced I have to dump the email and phone number. I'm too old to start working with Linux again. I've invested way too much blood, sweat, and tears into the tech AntiChrist.

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Get Linux Mint, the install VirtualBox, then Windows 10 inside it as a VM, make a snapshot of the Vm after you have installed all the stuff you need, then if a virus hit, just restore to the clean Snapshost, make sure you back data to an external drive or the cloud, you should be doing that anyway :)

I have macs mostly, and a Linux PC, tons of Windows VMs, Windows 7, 8, 10, Server 2008, Server 2012 and so on, all have snapshots of a configured but clean install, if something goes wrong i don't even bother, just restore to the good snapshot and forget about it, all the data is stored on a shared drive so i never lose anything

:chrs:

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Originally posted by Malisa

Get Linux Mint, the install VirtualBox, then Windows 10 inside it as a VM, make a snapshot of the Vm after you have installed all the stuff you need, then if a virus hit, just restore to the clean Snapshost, make sure you back data to an external drive or the cloud, you should be doing that anyway :)

I have macs mostly, and a Linux PC, tons of Windows VMs, Windows 7, 8, 10, Server 2008, Server 2012 and so on, all have snapshots of a configured but clean install, if something goes wrong i don't even bother, just restore to the good snapshot and forget about it, all the data is stored on a shared drive so i never lose anything

:chrs:

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hey, that's not a bad idea ... sounds like you know your stuff. If only I had that kind of motivation. I might actually do it, though.

It does require some horsepower though ... No?

Not really, VirtualBox is very flexible

For example, Linux Mint, or the Xubuntu distribution can be started at around 1 gb or ram or less

VirtualBox allows you to assign memory between the host and the guest (the Windows VM) so if you have 16 GB of ram, you can assign 2 gb to linux (the host) and 14 GB to the guest (Windows). Then you can also assign cpu time to the guest, like for example if you are going to run Windows full time, assign 80% of the CPU to the guest, leaving only 20 for Linux, in this way you get almost full performance but also can quite the Windows VM if something goes wrong. Worst case scenario you press the power button until the pc turns off, then restart and restore from the last good snapshot

You can also assign video memory so it runs some games in decent speed. But of course none of the cool games will run under a VM lol, it's meant for normal usage, browsing youtube at normal rates and such

If you don't do heavy games you should try it, spend some 15 days on it and you'll get it, there's a lot of info out there for Virtual Box

So in the end, you can basically use your entire cpu/memory/video ram on the Windows VM, but leave a bit for Linux so you can recover if something goes wrong.

Also you can run the VM at full screen at native resolution, so if you never stop your pc, it will just look like Windows is the host operating system, you won't even know unless you go out of full screen :)

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Originally posted by BeastOfBologna

hey, that's not a bad idea ... sounds like you know your stuff. If only I had that kind of motivation. I might actually do it, though.

It does require some horsepower though ... No?

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