Life is a Peanut Butter and 'Nana Sandwich

Today, I had a treat for lunch that I haven't enjoyed in a long time. Joelle bought ham for Josh and me to take for lunches. However, I love cooking with ham. I just don't like ham sandwiches. So, I looked for some alternatives in my house and discovered that Joelle also bought a bunch of bananas. So, it hit me and I went to the pantry to find some honey and peanut butter and I made myself a couple of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I almost forgot just how delicious they could be.

It brought back some memories of when Margot used to make them for us and we would spend time together eating these Elvis delicacies. We would sit and laugh and have an overall good time while dining. The best part of them was that we would just have them when we felt like it. Sometimes, I think we would just have them so that we could spend time together.

It's amazing how such a sandwich could be loaded with protein, vitamins and memories and taste delicious at the same time. I'll probably wind up making myself a western omelet tonight... we have ham!

It's not just the notes... it's the spaces also!

I don't get today's so-called heavy metal. In their attempt to get heavier, they've lost the whole idea of what music is all about. When I listen to music, I don't just hear the notes. I hear the spaces as well. I feel the music breathe. Today's music does nothing more than blast at my face like a jet engine and just doesn't stop. It's all exhale with no inhale. It's like intense scribbling on a piece of paper and calling it art. Spaces are biblical. Look in the scriptures. God didn't appear in the thundering roar or the rushing winds. God appeared in the whisper. God is in the spaces of our music. With music continually blasting out, where is there room for God?

I love it when a great rock song pushes you back and then pulls you in. There's a feeling to it that draws you closer. For example, take the Eric Clapton and Cream CD's that I picked up this past weekend. Most of the songs I love off of Cream are over 40 years old, but they stand the test of time. Songs like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" breathe in and out. They don't tire you out. They're songs I love to recreate the sounds with my guitar. Clapton's got something that many of these heavy metal vomit brothers bands don't have... feel.

If anything, I find myself programming my POD with tones from guys like Clapton, Hendrix, and others like them. Why? Because their tones breathe and their music breathes. It doesn't just have music. It has spaces in between the loudness. I want God to appear in the spaces of my music.

I'm Internet Famous... I have my own stalker!

Whoever thought that some putz from Guelph, like me, would have their own Internet Stalker? Well, move over Richard Letterman and Anne Murray... here I come. Even better is that I have one-upped you both because my stalker can be half way around the world. For all I know, they could be in Japan, Fiji, Australia or even Kookamonga (don't know if that's a place, but if Bugs Bunny says it, it has to be real!).

Some goon keeps pestering me for a picture of one of my guitars. What I can't understand is why they want a picture from me? Why do they want my guitar? If this bozo likes guitars so much, he can get the picture from a manufacturer's web site. First, he started pestering me on Facebook, so I ignored him there. Even worse is that this dude then tries to become my friend on Facebook. I mean, who the heck are you to think that I am simply going to confirm that you are my friend when I don't even know who you are? Even more so is the fact that when I went to gather some information on this person, there is very little to display. Another reason not to make friends with Internet strangers.

It gets creepier...

This dood now has starts searching my name on Google and tracks my main email address. Now, he's sending me emails to me wanting pictures of my guitar. So now, I have to filter his emails out and start taking action. This is making me wonder how stable this person really is, going through all of these great lengths for a picture that he could get from the manufacturer.

If that doesn't make things worse, this idiot is now doing some further Googling and has now found my co-author. Now, my co-author is starting to receive emails to try and get a hold of me. Just for a stupid picture of my guitar!!

To my little Internet Stalking "friend": Get a freakin' life!!!!! I'm more than sure that there's a shrink that can cure you of your obsession, be it the picture of the guitar, or getting a hold of me for that picture of the guitar. Either way, this is the most that you are going to hear from me for now. However, I will give you this warning: If I so much as hear from you again in a roundabout way, I will not only mention you by name in a blog entry, but I will also post your email address and encourage everyone I know to tell you what a yutz you are. And that's after I turn the information over to INTERPOL!

And if you want a picture of one of my guitars you can get it here: http://www.ibanez.com

Occupation: Forum Troll Abuser!

Here's the pot calling the kettle black: a forum troll who had nothing better to do except call everyone incompetent and then lob insults at me trying to make himself look better, got called and couldn't deliver. He then has the balls to cry personal abuse. What a piece of work.

The dude couldn't even back up any initial argument that he stated. He got called on it... simple as that. If you're going to make an argument, back it up. Don't go lashing out insults and then cry when you get put in your place. That is the poster boy of a forum troll.

To the forum troll on the Line 6 forum: you were not abused. You were abusive. Learn the difference... you will get called on it. Next time you are asked to back-up your points, refrain from the personal attacks. If you swim in the shark tank, you will get bitten!

Feeling the Fiery Darts of the Enemy

Yesterday, with our worship team to Mount Albert to Hillside Evangelical Missionary Church, I can definitely say that I was in the enemy's line of sight. I could tell that he was focusing in on me, because I was trying to do a lot of preparation to make sure that everything would go smoothly. Sure enough, a crack in my armour was found.

I spend Saturday evening preparing all of the tones in my POD X3 Live unit to ensure that I would be spending more time in worship and less time trying to concentrate on the sounds in my POD, and where everything is. I even made sure that I had the intricacies of Gearbox worked out so I could easily arrange everything into two banks. So far, so good. I have my tones in order. Now, I went to check out all of the relative volumes of my tones on the amp that was taking with me to Mount Albert, and all seemed well, so far. Not to mention that I figured that it was such a great idea in my head to plug everything into the effects return of the amp. Why not? It actually sounded amazing. I thought I did good...

... just waiting for the first fiery dart to fly.

The enemy is smart. He let me believe I did well and it was going to be a great day in worship. He was sitting there waiting for the right moment to lodge his assault on me. He was getting his timing right to then when I would throw the power switches he would start letting loose one by one. I knew he hated the fact that I believe in Jesus, but I never saw this coming. I let own overconfidence in myself become my weakness, and my guard was down. Enter the fiery darts:

Fiery Dart #1: All of the relative volumes of my tones were out of whack. A bug in Gearbox doesn't clear the temporary memory of the POD properly. Thus, I believed that the volumes were good. I had to re-adjust everything as we went along in rehearsal.

Fiery Dart #2: All of my tones were set way too hot! They were blowing the inputs of the PA system. I was checking things with a low master volume setting on my amp. I should have measured everything up in my audio interface with the Master Volume on full, or better yet, it no Master Volume control at all on the direct side. I wouldn't have this problem if I checked and calibrated the levels properly. This made it easier for the next couple of darts. As a result, the sound guy was forced to mic my amp for a better sound. This set me up for the next set of fiery darts.

Fiery Dart #3: As a result of the second fiery dart, my amp was driven way too hard. This become evident once I started turning things up to monitor my sound. All of my sounds were sounding way too brittle. They were hard on the ears and I wound up having to change my patches on the fly during rehearsal. Nothing sounded the way I wanted it to. Again, I should have checked all of this against my audio interface without any Master Volume.

Fiery Dart #4: Right in the middle of Rock of Ages, the sound starts dying out on my amp. That was a sorry sight. I had to just keep playing. I was wondering what happened. The sound guy wondered what happened. If anything, it was a result of driving the amp way too hard. I saw this happen on the tiny Fender Amp in the church.

As a result of those darts yesterday, I hooked my POD back up the audio interface and I started lowering volumes. What I am going to do is take off the Master Control and keep the gain at unity. This way, I can bring the volumes right down to the proper levels on full. This should keep the live side sounding proper and hopefully will not burn out the circuits of my amp. We on worship team this next weekend, so this should give me the week to prepare.

And, even though I felt these darts, God still used our worship for His purpose and everything worked out for the greater good!

Easing my worried mind...

Last night, I decided to take matters into my hands to ease my mind about going to the support forums on Line6's web site. I left my POD hooked up and powered on all night. I wanted to see if there was going to be a problem leaving it on, whether it would crap out like one of the older units. As much as I wanted to go down to the studio and turn it off, I forced myself to stay upstairs and check in the morning.

After an anxious night, I went down to check on the POD. All lights were on and the tap light was blinking normally. Thus, it didn't crap out on me, which was a good sign. Next test was to hook up my guitar and play it for a few minutes. I put it on a couple of my newly made amp tones (one AC/DC like tone and another Aerosmith like tone) and it played beautifully. Aside from the killer tones that this thing produces, the unit proved to a solid unit and I'm grateful.

If anything, I will feel more relaxed going on the support forums now, having proved to myself that their problems are not my problems.

I really ought to know better!!

It really serves me right for hanging around support forums. If anything, it makes me unsettled reading about people who have the same things I do and
are having problems. The thing is, it's a support forum. People don't go there to talk about how much they love their stuff. They go there to whine, bitch and complain about the problems with the product and with the company that makes them.

It's a known fact that companies will put out a product that may not work once in a while. Of course, when they wind up in customer's hands, where do they go? To the manufacturer's site to tell everyone all about their bad experiences and not to buy this product. In the 10 or 12 people that do this, I'm sure that companies sell a ton more of this product to totally happy users and the amount of defects are really small in comparison. Problem is, these defects get amplified because of this concentrated area of people venting their spleen all over the place. And then, you get other people like me going to these places wondering if now if they should buy this thing.

My case in point: I recently purchased a Line 6 POD X3 Live so that I can control my guitar sound in church. I hate the insect-like sound I get from the way the sound crew hook up the amps to the PA. Thus, I get to control my sound from the POD. Which, despite of everything else that happened with worship team, I was rather happy at how the guitar sounded. I could say that I owned the sound coming out the PA, good or bad.

Of course, what do I do once I purchase my X3? I register it and then go right to the support forums. What do I find? Whining, bitching and complaining about defects, design, sound and other problems. Of course, I haven't been hit with these problems and my X3 is one of the newer designed ones, probably explaining why couldn't find any for the past 4 months. Sure enough, I get uneasy because of this because it is always going to stick at the back of my mind whether something will go wrong with it. If anything, I am just going to have to learn that just because all of those people on the support forum are having problems, all of the units aren't having problems.

Heck, I am not going to buy my Toyota by going into their service department. Every car in there has a problem. If something goes wrong, I'll have to figure out my options from there. However, if I am going to sit here worrying about my X3, thinking that if I never turn it on, then I will never have a problem, then there is a problem... with me! And if I am ever going to keep thinking like this, then I had better stay away from hospitals as well because there are too many sick people there!