Year: 2016

December 19, 2016
December 14, 2016
My guitar playing friends sometimes play a game. They work out just how many guitars they own, laugh and shake their heads sadly, and admit that yes, that is quite enough, isn’t it. Then they go out and buy another one.

I consider myself more of a singer than a guitarist, so for a long time considered myself immune to the game. Then one day I actually counted the 6-strings, 12-strings, strumsticks and ukuleles, not to mention the tenor guitar and guitar banjo, and nearly had a fit.

December 13, 2016
December 1, 2016
November 17, 2016
Random observations regarding my sleep. I’ve got a sleep clinic appointment coming up next week, so this is currently on my mind.

Sometimes I wake up early in the morning, and manage to roll over and go back to sleep. However, I find that the less time I have to catch those extra z’s, sometimes it leaves me feeling more tired than if I had just got up when I woke.

November 13, 2016
Todoist is a Task List (ToDo) organiser. It has a web page interface as well as Android and Apple apps. It is really easy to use, and allows you to categorise your tasks into separate projects. So, for example, these are my own projects:

• Personal – appointments, music practice targets, reminders to call people etc.

October 19, 2016
October 17, 2016
The Zoom H6 is a great handy 6-track recorder. It can be used stand-alone, or as an audio interface to a Windows PC, Mac, iPad and (undocumented) Android. Recordings made on it are easily digitally transferred to a PC or Mac, to be imported into the DAW or editor of your choice – it is just a matter of hooking it up with USB and copying the tracks.

However, it is not so simple to digitally copy audio tracks into the Zoom – there is no process for this.

October 17, 2016
Since getting my Ricoh Theta S, I have used various methods to display my images here. This is a post that brings together my currently recommended methods, to show folk using the same kit what can be done.

Note that this Wordpress blog is self-hosted, which gives me free rein over what methods and plugins I use. Others using hosted solutions such as Wordpress.com may be more limited.

October 12, 2016
My 8″ has recently gone to a very good home, so I can now concentrate on using the 4.5″. This has distinct advantages – my garden table is shaded from the surrounding light (but still has a good area of visible sky), and it can be carried with one hand, so if I want to throw it in the car and go somewhere else, it is easy.

September 24, 2016
September 22, 2016