tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164009882024-03-17T10:04:27.034+02:00PerceptionsI'm not 67 years old, but rather 22 years old with 45 years' experienceNo'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.comBlogger1732125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-44390245937261095162024-03-17T10:03:00.002+02:002024-03-17T10:03:28.418+02:00The end of the end?<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Slowly but surely, over the past 15 years many of the traditional things
that the kibbutz held dear have slowly wittled away. With regard to
celebrating festivals, the New Year ceremony and communal meal has long
disappeared, and now to my great dismay, the Passover ceremony and communal
meal will not be held this year, due to the low numbers of members who have
indicated their participation.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">About two weeks ago, we were informed that only about 50 people were
intending to attend the communal <i>seder</i>, a number that is considered
to be too small to make the evening viable, even with a subsidy from the
kibbutz to cover part of the cost of the meal. I wrote the following on the
kibbutz electronic notice-board in response to a thread that was started by
someone complaining about why there should be a subsidy at all.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Unlike some of the participants in this discussion, I don't come from a large
family that is used to holding its seder privately. For me, the kibbutz seder
(or, at least how it used to be twenty or thirty or forty years ago) expresses
the traditional and best way to celebrate the seder, and I must say that the
tendency of members to celebrate in their homes in the past few years only
harms the enjoyment that I derive from the evening. There's no fun in
participating in a seder when more than 50% of the participants are guests,
who don't know the customs and traditions of a kibbutz seder. In my humble
opinion, the price of the seder is not the central issue here, but the desire
- or lack of desire - to celebrate as a kibbutz. The central issue is not the
food (that creates the cost) but the experience.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">To which someone replied (I think in a sarcastic tone, but it's impossible
to know)</span>: I apologise if I have harmed your enjoyment because I have decided to
celebrate in the bosom of my family.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">My final words on the topic were</span>:
Generally, there are no private actions of member x that affect member y (I'm
not talking about unsocial acts like there were in the past week [a member
complained that someone had slashed his car's tyres, maybe because he hadn't
parked correctly]). But when the seder is in danger of being cancelled because
of the small number of participants, there is a negative influence. It's the
same thing when there was the duty driver [someone who used to drive to and
from Bet Shemesh in the evenings picking up people, eg
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/01/election-day-duty-driver.html" target="_blank">here</a>] and private cars: the moment that a certain number of members had cars, the
need to use a general service declined below a certain level. As a result, the
duty driver system was abolished, and I would not be surprised if there were
members who felt the need (or where even forced) to purchase for themselves a
private car, as the kibbutz had ceased supplying this service. This discussion
started from money but it's a societal issue: apparently we have passed the
tipping point at which it's not worth the kibbutz's while to supply a service,
and as a result, members are harmed.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">No one bothered to reply. </span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Today we are informed that indeed due to the paucity of participants, the
seder will be cancelled. Where am I going to celebrate the Passover this
year? There have been a few times when I did not go to the kibbutz seder -
and I was miserable. I'll see what my wife has to say on the subject.</span>
</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The fact that I heard at our last band rehearsal that maybe we will be playing at a reduced Spring festival does not cheer me up.</span></p>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div>
This day in history: <div><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><nobr>Blog #</nobr></th><th><nobr>Date</nobr></th>
<th>Title</th><th>Tags</th></tr>
<tr><td>559</td><td><nobr>17/03/2013</nobr></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/03/sumptuous-sunday-6.html" target="_blank">Sumptuous Sunday 6</a></td><td>Cooking</td></tr>
<tr><td>1382</td><td><nobr>17/03/2021</nobr></td><td>DSupt Banks: Not dark yet</td><td>DCI Banks, Peter Robinson</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-42918022079291133352024-03-15T11:01:00.004+02:002024-03-15T11:01:52.093+02:00Jasmine Myra (2)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
For the past two weeks, I've been listening to Jasmine Myra almost exclusively
(at least, when I'm at my desk), and I'm now ready to offer comments about her
music. I will be referring to this
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaugU5DKS1k&t=420s" target="_blank">performance</a>
below as it's a fine document of a live performance; the only problems are
that the first seven minutes contain nothing and there's also a fifteen minute
break in the middle. I downloaded the performance then edited out the long
waits. For some reason, the microphone into which JM speaks is at a very low
volume so it is almost impossible to hear what she is saying; I increased the
volume of these parts while I was editing the file.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
The line up is JM - alto sax; Arran Kent – flute/bass clarinet; Matt Cliffe –
flute/alto sax; Liam DeTar – guitar; Jasper Green – piano; Sam Quintana –
double bass; Alice Roberts – harp; George Hall – drums. The last four appear
to play with JM frequently over the years whereas the others are not so
constant. Liam DeTar - an unfortunate name for a guitarist - is superfluous in
this performance; his parts are minimal and can barely be heard. This is
somewhat strange as on other videos of JM there is a different guitarist who
often plays in tandem with JM.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Unfortunately, I have no idea of what most of the pieces are called. Probably
my favourite is the one that starts after about 47 minutes in the unedited
video and is the last piece before the break. This starts out as another tone
poem with harp arpeggios in 3/4 time; after a few minutes there is a break for
the clarinet and then the piece continues in 4/4. A theme is played then
there's time for a wild JM sax solo before the ensemble comes back in for a
stomping finale - although in fact, the piece peters out after the finale, a
mistake in my opinion. The bass clarinet adds depth to the sound whilst not
being another saxophone. This piece is supposed to be on the upcoming album to
be released in May.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
My other favourite and unnamed piece is the encore, another piece from the
upcoming album. This is introduced as being a slightly silly song, although it
is not clear to me why JM calls it this.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I would not like to be the harpist in this group as several songs depend on
harp arpeggios played without break for a few minutes each time. I don't know
whether this is normal for harp pieces but I imagine that it can get
confusing.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I don't understand the economics of this group and how they manage to tour (at
one point, JM says that this is the first night of her first tour); can you
imagine taking a harp from venue to venue? It won't fit in the van and is also
more delicate than a guitar. Matt Cliffe has a
<a href="https://encoremusicians.com/Matt-Cliffe" target="_blank">booking page</a>
that states than he can be booked from £180 a gig (and he's cheap compaired to
some of the other names that appear on this page). Let's say that his fee is
£200 a night, and if everyone charges the same amount, that's £1400 a night,
not including travel and living expenses. Can an almost unknown musician
charge £2000 for one gig?</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">463</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>15/03/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/03/sequencing-lost-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sequencing "Lost" / 2</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Home recording</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">688</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>15/03/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Boy, was I wrong - programming naivety</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Delphi, ClientDataSet</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1381</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>15/03/2021</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-year-of-covid-19.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A year of Covid-19</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Covid-19</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1592</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>15/03/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/03/goodbye-dilbert-at-least-for-time-being.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Goodbye, Dilbert (at least for the time being)</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Personal, Covid-19</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-54715025580665683012024-03-14T12:13:00.004+02:002024-03-14T12:13:43.926+02:00Italian language lessons<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
My wife and I both love Italy and have visited there several times; at the
moment we are preparing for another trip to take place in a few months' time. This
fascination with Italy has prompted my wife to take an Open University course
to learn spoken Italian: she travels once a week to Tel Aviv and learns a bit. At
the beginning she mentioned that she doesn't always manage to write down
everything the teacher puts up on the white board; remembering my MBA days, I recalled that there were students who never wrote anything but photographed the white board,
and so I suggested that she do this. No one else in the class (about ten
people where the youngest is maybe 55 years old) had even thought of this.
Below is a cleaned-up example.
</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcj4L97BUrMgvljH7-Z3GELXxn5dnj3_1overGoaySDDlTmvUDONSUMuWPdQyByHngy4hXuKEO3pSy6O2MYgyXnOzqaVRicsjFzUiCBUH6L5TaigR0cE3oHGT2ncuL2xCyV5MgDsOHH3Stk_a9Mrc3Yc7HkLX2WCtOUZnZzlbV7SScWYG3fbOnbQ/s1533/Essere.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1533" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcj4L97BUrMgvljH7-Z3GELXxn5dnj3_1overGoaySDDlTmvUDONSUMuWPdQyByHngy4hXuKEO3pSy6O2MYgyXnOzqaVRicsjFzUiCBUH6L5TaigR0cE3oHGT2ncuL2xCyV5MgDsOHH3Stk_a9Mrc3Yc7HkLX2WCtOUZnZzlbV7SScWYG3fbOnbQ/s320/Essere.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</span></div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This picture, and all the others like it, remind me of when I was a schoolboy
learning Latin: our homework one night was to write out the conjugations of a
few verbs, and that exercise stuck with me for years. The same thing happened
when I learned Hebrew; whilst the present tense in Hebrew only has four forms
(masculine/single, masculine/plural, feminine/singular, feminine/plural), the
past tense has eight forms, two of which aren't used in spoken Hebrew. It's
the same in Italian: the picture shows the various forms of the verb 'Essere'
- to be. This was an unfortunate choice to start off with; although Hebrew has
an infinitive for 'to be' as well as past and future forms, it doesn't have a
present tense, so it was very difficult for me to explain what 'Io sono' (I
am) would be in Hebrew. Fortunately we've got past that stage.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I sort of understand written Italian, but can't really understand spoken
Italian as it's always spoken too fast. So I was pleased that during my YouTube
searches for material on Italy, I came across a series called '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJd6i4RM1w" target="_blank">Easy Italian'</a>, in which two or more people (one of whom turns out to be British) speak in
slow Italian, or as one might say, <i>Italiano lento</i>. These videos are
both fun to watch and very educational. Whilst it is good that there are
Italian subtitles, having English subtitles as well is slightly problematic.
On the one hand, I don't want to see the English so that I can understand the
Italian as Italian, whereas on the other hand, having the English helps me
with understanding the words that I don't know. My wife can't read the English
fast enough.... But will these videos help me to speak Italian? I can say a
few phrases, but recently whenever I try to say something in Italian, it comes
out in French.
</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Obligatory guitar effects pedal paragraph: last night we had band practice and I took along my new pedalboard. Some of the effects were ok, but I will have to dial down the number of echoes in the presets of the multi-effects pedal. The octave pedal was also interesting: I might use it more in the 'down one octave' setting in order to add depth. Today arrived the tremolo pedal that I ordered a few weeks ago; it's a shame that it didn't arrive yesterday. Apart from the slightly annoying fact that the power socket is on one of the sides and not on the top, the pedal came with two pieces of sticky tape/velcro that will enable me to attach the pedal to the pedalboard easily. Yesterday the two mini-pedals fell off the pedalboard, as the velcro that was attached to the pedal came loose. The sticky side took with it something from the bottom of the pedal casing, leaving the pedals unattached. I put new sticky tape/velcro patches on the pedals that seem to have improved the situation.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><hr width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">238</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/03/2010</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2010/03/toyota.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Toyota</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Organisation behaviour</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">558</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/03/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/03/minimising-overhead.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Minimising the overhead</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, ERP</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">687</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/03/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Research questionnaire / 2</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
</div>No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-80407173013437417972024-03-10T08:38:00.001+02:002024-03-10T08:38:00.143+02:00Looking for his tribe - now on YouTube<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>I'm not waiting for a 'reset password' email from SoundClick, I'm uploading
the song to YouTube.</span
>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>I made a text-only video of the song, showing the lyrics as they are sung.
The video can be found
<a href="https://youtu.be/cCPkzDVHzN0" target="_blank">here</a>.</span
>
</p>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div>
This day in history: <div><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><nobr>Blog #</nobr></th><th><nobr>Date</nobr></th>
<th>Title</th><th>Tags</th></tr>
<tr><td>162</td><td><nobr>10/03/2009</nobr></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2009/03/share-with-you-continued.html" target="_blank">Share with you (continued)</a></td><td>MIDI, Soundclick</td></tr>
<tr><td>237</td><td><nobr>10/03/2010</nobr></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2010/03/end-to-ob.html" target="_blank">An end to OB?</a></td><td>Organisation behaviour, MBA</td></tr>
<tr><td>686</td><td><nobr>10/03/2014</nobr></td><td>Cognitive styles and sense of ownership</td><td>DBA, Psychology</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-63197071352486065542024-03-09T14:22:00.003+02:002024-03-13T09:10:58.291+02:00Looking for his tribe (recording)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
On Thursday, I received an email saying that a parcel from Temu would be
delivered to me. As all their parcels so far have been delivered to the
kibbutz 'post office', I walked there after lunch (another 2000 steps there
and back to my credit). Whilst there were a few parcels from Temu, there was
nothing for me, so I started composing in my mind a
letter to the delivery service as I walked home. My wife came home a bit later and in her hand
was the missing parcel: it seems that this time the delivery was to my home!
This parcel contained the tuner pedal, so in the evening I got out the
pedalboard and fixed the tuner to the right hand side of the board, connecting
both power and signal leads. I tuned my guitars - both the Washburn and the
Stagg were slightly flat. It's much easier tuning with this pedal than with
the little tuner that I attach to the end of the guitar, and I can also now
tune when there's a lot of noise going on (e.g. during a rehearsal) as the
pedal is not affected by environmental factors.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I devoted most of Friday to the recording process: on Thursday I had been
running through my repertoire of traditional tunes, playing them through the
octave pedal and the chorus preset of the multi-effects pedal. As a result, I
decided to record myself playing '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djgmNiVfGNY" target="_blank">My Lagan love</a>' live. This took a few attempts but eventually I was able to play the whole
thing through without mistakes. The sound is somewhat strange. I might
persuade my wife to film me playing this song then upload it to YouTube.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I then recorded a guitar part for 'Looking for his tribe'; as I
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/03/looking-for-his-tribe-new-song.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>
last week, my original recording was a mess so yesterday I played a simple
part. I added this fairly low to the mix and as a result it's not obvious what the
guitar is. It's an unfortunate coincidence that the guitar through the octave
pedal sounds something like the the flute organ that plays the solo, so some
may think that the solo was played on guitar; no.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Once the guitar part was finished, it was time to record vocals. Every time I made a mistake or fluffed a line, I
would restart from the beginning of which ever section I was singing at the
time. In other words, the first take had the first verse complete, but then I
fluffed a line in the middle of the second verse, so the second take started
from the beginning of the second verse. Eventually I had a complete vocal, so
I cleaned up each take then mixed them all down to one file that then
underwent tuning. A few more manipulations and I was ready to start mixing the
complete song; this took much longer than usual because I made a silly
mistake.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Normally the process is that I create a mix in the multitrack software program
and save it to a file; I normalise and compress that file then listen to the
result, noting any changes that have to be made (normally this means reducing
the volume of the vocals). This process goes on and on until I achieve the
sound that I want, where each mix deletes the previous mix. For some reason, I
forgot to keep using the same name for the output file, and as a result I had
created several mix files but I was always listening to the same mix!
Eventually I figured out what I had done wrong and shortly thereafter created
a good mix.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
But whilst listening to this mix all the way through, I noticed that it was
hard to understand the words, especially in the last verse. I then remembered
a trick that I frequently forget, so I'll document it here: I make a copy of the
main vocal track, saving the copy to mono. I then run a high-pass filter on
the copy, starting from about 700 Hz: this produces a very thin trebly vocal
that normally has to have its volume increased by about 300 percent. This mono
track then gets added to the mix without any effects (or maybe a little
reverb); when done correctly, it adds upper end to the vocal without adding
volume and makes hearing the words easier. Theoretically this could be done by
adding subtle equalisation to the main vocal, but I find using this technique
more effective for achieving the last elusive part of the mixing process. With
the extra vocal track in place, I still had to make another four or five mixes
before the final result was achieved.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I would like to upload the sound to SoundCloud then add a link to it, but
that's not possible at the moment as I seem to have forgotten my password and the site won't send me a new one.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Although it's very early, I am thinking of contributing this song to the <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-jewish-new-yeara-death-in-familymy.html" target="_blank">Yom Kippur</a> song evening. The lyrics turned out to be far more autobiographical than I might have originally intended.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">68</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2007</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2007/03/weekend-migraines.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Weekend migraines</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Maccabi Tel Aviv, Migraine</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">555</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/03/ill-never-get-those-wasted-hours-back.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I'll never get those wasted hours back</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Email, Problem solving, Nick Hornby</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">930</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sir George Martin, RIP</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Obituary, Beatles</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1204</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2019</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Tel Aviv saxophone quartet</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Ambient music</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1379</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2021</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sometimes it takes a long time for the light to go on in my head</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MIDI</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1588</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>09/03/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/03/thats-all-say-amen-close-door.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">That's all, say amen, close the door</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-65607150059521788822024-03-03T13:41:00.003+02:002024-03-13T09:09:35.162+02:00Looking for his tribe (new song)<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">
On Friday, the stars aligned or at least I was in a suitable frame of mind
that enabled me to write the words to the song whose music I wrote at the
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/once-again-new-song.html" target="_blank">beginning of February</a>. As I
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-dublin-murder-squad-continued.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>
here the other day, the quote about living in a bubble (from book 5 of the
Dublin Murder Squad) gave me the initial inspiration; this joined forces
along with a similar idea that I had several months ago about someone
<i>looking for his tribe</i>. I wouldn't say that the words flew out of me:
they required some work, both in capturing the rhythm of the tune and in
finding rhymes (there aren't many suitable rhymes for 'world' and
'companionship').
</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">
The lyrics start with a sort of <i>non sequitur</i> that sets up the
song:<br />
</span>
</p>
<pre><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>She turned her head to hear his words</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>He spoke so softly next to her</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>He told her of his early life</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>He spent them looking for his tribe</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Once found, they became all his world</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Friends, brothers, they were his to hold</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Like a bubble from some fragrant soap</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>They gave him strength, they gave him hope</span></div></blockquote></pre>
<p></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Here we have the key words, 'bubble' and 'tribe'. In the second verse the
bubble bursts (of course), introducing conflict into the story and the third
verse has resolution. I'm not going to quote the entire song but the idea is
clear.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">
On Saturday, I thought that I would record guitar parts for the song: two
takes of fingerpicked guitar, one with chorus and one with octave pedal. But
upon listening to the playback, I am strongly considering ditching them as
they are messy and hinder more than they help. This is especially
clear when considering how much time and deliberation I spent on the MIDI
tracks, compared with how much time I spent on the guitar tracks. I am
leaning to the opinion that a simple one chord strum per bar is what is
required for the first verse - and that's all.
</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span>
</div>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span>
</div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span>
</th>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span>
</th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">26</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/03/2006</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2006/03/watching-sports.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Watching sports</span></a>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Maccabi Tel Aviv, Milton family</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">160</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/03/2009</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2009/03/share-with-you-story-of-complex.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Share with you (story of a complex arrangement)</span></a>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MIDI, Reason</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">339</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/03/2011</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/03/coincidences.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Coincidences</span></a>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">MBA, Peter Hammill, Marketing</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">458</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/03/2012</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/03/incremental-search-in-combo-box.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Incremental search in a combo box</span></a>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Delphi, Combo box</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1294</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/03/2020</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sending a report via email in English (Priority)</span>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Priority tips</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-47410495893792346092024-02-28T09:28:00.006+02:002024-02-28T09:28:49.803+02:00The Dublin Murder Squad, continued<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Buried in the middle of book five of the Dublin Murder Squad series, "The secret place", was this gem: </span><i>If you make friends inside some bubble that’s going to burst on you in a
couple of years – like training, or like here – you’re an idiot. You start
thinking that’s the whole world, nowhere else exists, then you end up with all
this hysterical shite</i><i style="color: #2b00fe;"> </i><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(Chapter 17). The direct reference is to friendships made between girls at an
all-girls boarding school, but it also refers to police training college (one of
the detectives is talking to the other about their mutual training when she makes that statement about
bubbles).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
And yes, it can also been seen as referring to my adolescent years. Whilst I
didn't have any real friends at grammar school (apart from Robert, and we'd
been friends from primary school), it certainly refers to the bubble of
Habonim. Yes, I lived in a bubble and the only meaningful relationships that I
had were in that bubble ... and then the bubble burst.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This is the added value that these books bring. And this may be the cue for writing words for the song that I started at the beginning of the year.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If I'm writing about songs, then I should mention that I started playing something on the piano the other day, a tune in the key of F# minor. It started with an F#m7 chord in third inversion (i.e. E F# A C#), then the E dropped down to the D, resulting in a DMaj7 chord. A bit later on, I found myself playing a most peculiar chord, voiced D F# G# B - technically this can be seen as a D6b5 chord, but I doubt that anyone would call it this. A better name would be Bm6, first inversion, and another possible name would be Gm7b5, second inversion. Whatever. This chord resolves very nicely to C#7sus4, simply by dropping the D down a semitone to C#, and then the F# (the suspended fourth) can drop down a semitone to F (or rather E#) to create a C#7, that is of course the dominant seventh of F# minor. Maybe it was the slightly unfamiliar key that didn't allow me to recognise the chords straight away. I started sequencing the fragment that I played but only had sufficient time to transcribe the chords and the initial melody idea. This may turn into the verse of a song.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">235</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/02/2010</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2010/02/still-working-even-when-feeling-lousy.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Still working even when feeling lousy</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Organisation behaviour, Blood pressure</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">457</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/02/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/02/sequencing-lost.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sequencing "Lost"</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Reason, MDI</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">552</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/02/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/02/sansa-clip-mp3-player.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sansa clip+ mp3 player</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MP3</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-31991771996958774762024-02-27T13:54:00.000+02:002024-02-27T13:56:11.575+02:00The Dublin murder squad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDWl8wy6F6s4BhmHCLjaevA9REJzJoMcDhHv_Xl2NdqmJ-gK1wThRxtfCEpaAgPPSbEgj2FXuNAhxRDGiOu_F9pnsUCpweBTJCB11AHpY8_8QChdNYw2lG-5ePgGHOZX-mKB_owU_FOp6cyEP_j87wK-PznEi3oPLMUpYFhNv9PWzMX3O9xznfQ/s218/71OZIK2kDRL._AC_UY218_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="218" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDWl8wy6F6s4BhmHCLjaevA9REJzJoMcDhHv_Xl2NdqmJ-gK1wThRxtfCEpaAgPPSbEgj2FXuNAhxRDGiOu_F9pnsUCpweBTJCB11AHpY8_8QChdNYw2lG-5ePgGHOZX-mKB_owU_FOp6cyEP_j87wK-PznEi3oPLMUpYFhNv9PWzMX3O9xznfQ/s1600/71OZIK2kDRL._AC_UY218_.jpg" width="218" /></a>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">I don't want to give the impression that my life outside of work is solely concerned with guitar effects pedals, so I thought that I would write a
little about the books that I am currently reading. Over on the
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/cormoran_strike/" target="_blank">Reddit Cormoran Strike channel</a>, some people have recommended the
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/In-Woods-Tana-French-audiobook/dp/B000QUUCWA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18W2DQM33SDZN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UBr66LInqj3w3367e-jlHb4iAfCZ_CT2wkjqZAoF0BIsOgyUP0B6UEC-3Qr4104griDukQWdym5NHF-mee_jvw8RJhvRbWxnzDKUNWJl-IZGaczQDFMGRjxeRNG71ImwoiNo7odEkNY1diGtudMklRb8ZyMfliCH7NfQUHLHjBu_FGmbQ3u-eCpKxTbZfU1uaBL32_gUTDR6DVc4RxaycT6FAnxkcO5VWF_j2GfzXw0.3OmmNQBxpzHAY3ROKL-5fGNj6ZFgFT3e31voNoBEanM&dib_tag=se&keywords=dublin+murder+squad+series+book+1&qid=1709031060&sprefix=dublin+mur%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Dublin Murder Squad</a>
series of books, by Tana French, so I thought that I would try them.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">I am currently about half way through the fifth book (out of six) so at
least I know what I am writing about. As one might imagine, the books are
concerned with murders committed in the Dublin area and the attempts of the
police to solve them. As opposed to most detective series, there is <i>no</i>
titular policeman. Instead, protagonist #2 from the first book becomes
protagonist #1 of the second book; protagonist #2 of the second book becomes
protagonist #1 of the third book; a character from the third book becomes
the protagonist of the fourth book, and another, more minor, character from
the third book becomes one of the protagonists of the fifth book. All of the
books are written with a first person narrative, that is slightly
off-putting at first until one discovers who the narrator is.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">Titular detective series devote as much time to the detectives' private
lives as they do to the murder mystery. In this series, it seems like even
more time is devoted to the detectives' private lives, but as each book has
a different detective, all this information is not carried over from
previous books but instead has to be read (and written) and absorbed each
time anew. Whilst this gives author Tana French bonus points, in my opinion
it is somewhat overdone.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">The first book was very good (if slightly long); the second book was very
long and not very interesting - in fact, I'm not sure that I even finished
it. The third book was so-so (the background material was more interesting
than the murder story); the fourth was more about detecting, but again
over-long. The fifth, so far, seems to have struck a good balance; in fact,
there's much less background material.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">Somewhat off-putting is the language; apart from a small amount of Dublin
slang, there is also a tremendous amount of swearing. Judging by '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Commitments_(film)" target="_blank">The Commitments</a>', the swearing content was about right, but it's annoying to a polite
person like myself.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">Reading these books is fairly hard work and it's not particularly rewarding
(at least I can read them, as opposed to some detective novels that I found
unpalatable and not worth reading). I hope that rereading these will be more rewarding.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">I mentioned fictional detective Cormoran Strike in the opening paragraph; I
discovered yesterday that two of the televised books ('Lethal white' and
'Troubled blood') are to be broadcast again on tv here in the next few days.
Apparently work has started on filming the next book in the series, 'The Ink
Black Heart', a book that is generally considered to be inferior to
'Troubled blood'. This no doubt will present a huge technical challenge as a
fair amount of the book is composed of discussion group chats, often three
at a time. These chats make reading the book (especially on a Kindle) very
hard. </span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">And talking of Kindles, I managed to lose the cover bag for mine a few
weeks ago; this was made by a seamstress on the kibbutz who took some
material, folded it over, sewed it up and used some velcro to close the bag.
Not to worry: I ordered a kindle cover from Temu. This is like a mobile
phone cover, where the device sits snugly in the back cover and a front
cover protects it. Unfortunately, my kindle is relatively old and is
slightly smaller than the cover that I ordered (which was the smallest on
offer); a few pieces of double-sided adhesive tape solved that
problem.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">Writing about velcro and double-sided adhesive tape makes a fine
introduction to my guitar pedalboard that arrived yesterday. There are
plenty of videos on YouTube about putting together a pedalboard, but 99% of
these are concerned with the pedals and only a few discuss <i>how to attach</i> the
pedals to the pedalboard. Fortunately I found one of these and had an aha!
moment, after which I succeeded in attaching the various devices that I already have
to the board. Yesterday I ordered a tuner pedal, and finally a tremolo
pedal, so I'll attach these when they come. I also redefined the presets on
the multi-effects pedal to be more useful with approximately matched
volumes.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0000ee;">The board comes in its own gig bag with a voluminous extra pocket. I was
able to distribute all the bits and pieces that I carry around with me
(manuscript paper, strings, cables, capos, laundry clips [for the paper], pens, etc) between pockets
on the guitar gig bag and the pedalboard gig bag, so I don't need to carry
around yet another bag.</span></div>
<p></p>
</div>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div>
This day in history: <div><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><nobr>Blog #</nobr></th><th><nobr>Date</nobr></th>
<th>Title</th><th>Tags</th></tr>
<tr><td>337</td><td><nobr>27/02/2011</nobr></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/02/michael-palin.html" target="_blank">Michael Palin</a></td><td>TV series, Prague, Poland, Michael Palin</td></tr>
<tr><td>456</td><td><nobr>27/02/2012</nobr></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-spooks.html" target="_blank">More spooks</a></td><td>TV series, MI5</td></tr>
<tr><td>928</td><td><nobr>27/02/2016</nobr></td><td>Chicken breasts in tomato sauce</td><td>Cooking</td></tr>
<tr><td>1013</td><td><nobr>27/02/2017</nobr></td><td>What are the benefits of ERP enhancement?</td><td>ERP, DBA</td></tr>
<tr><td>1203</td><td><nobr>27/02/2019</nobr></td><td>Pneumonia again</td><td>Health</td></tr>
<tr><td>1476</td><td><nobr>27/02/2022</nobr></td><td>More musicians</td><td>Obituary, King Crimson</td></tr>
<tr><td>1587</td><td><nobr>27/02/2023</nobr></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/02/bone-conduction-headphonesmp3-player.html" target="_blank">Bone conduction headphones/mp3 player</a></td><td>MP3, Headphones</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-36634093172028105962024-02-24T11:55:00.004+02:002024-02-24T11:59:46.301+02:00Jasmine Myra<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhemSRDgG5S2fAPDjiqh7tkrQ8EOIGVNC2-edcZl43OiWb20-NI5NQCc3On5MQz577zAU38mrNeLBhn2Ubo1ymOCVCcgk6Hvqbex3O4MfN5DAiNm3Dgm4P5yVMPPOc8-hdpynEEdtIGg3OQAEAAwzC4c0xCKAmfYCFU2UnuG_C390YFLaNWmoYlQQ/s394/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20111418.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="373" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhemSRDgG5S2fAPDjiqh7tkrQ8EOIGVNC2-edcZl43OiWb20-NI5NQCc3On5MQz577zAU38mrNeLBhn2Ubo1ymOCVCcgk6Hvqbex3O4MfN5DAiNm3Dgm4P5yVMPPOc8-hdpynEEdtIGg3OQAEAAwzC4c0xCKAmfYCFU2UnuG_C390YFLaNWmoYlQQ/w302-h320/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20111418.png" width="302" /></a>
</div><span style="color: #0000ee;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Yesterday I was sent an email by
<a href="https://www.gondwanarecords.com/" target="_blank">Gondwana Records</a>,
the label formed by trumpeter Matthew Halsall
<i>to shine a light on the talent Matthew heard in the local clubs</i>. The
subject was saxophonist/flautist
<a href="https://jasminemyra.com/" target="_blank">Jasmine Myra</a>, announcing
the imminent release of her second album, 'Rising' that will be released at the
beginning of May 2024 (why the wait if the music is ready?). The email contained
a link to the title track, at
<a href="https://jasminemyra.bandcamp.com/album/rising" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>, but the track can also be heard at
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp6taD4Ob3M" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">
Along with the saxophone of band-leader Myra, the recordings feature flute,
harp, piano, guitar, bass and drums, producing a sound slightly reminiscent of
Halsall's earlier albums, with the sax replacing the trumpet, although here
there is prominence given also to the guitar (played by Ben Haskins), an
element that is not to be found in Halsall's recordings. A definite yes to
this sound!
</span></div>
<div><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">
Once I heard 'Rising', I had to see what else was available from Myra: her
debut album, 'Horizons', can be found in its entirety on YouTube, along with a
few live performances. On one of these (at the Art School live festival,
2022), she dedicates a tune to the Canadian musician, Kenny Wheeler, who
played on Bill Bruford's debut solo album, "Feels good to me", so this is for
me a point of reference. At the moment I have yet to ascertain any structure
to the pieces (presumably written by Myra), but that will no doubt come in
time.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">I'll order 'Rising' in due course.</span></div>
<br /><hr width="80%" />
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<div><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFowJwYx7vTbd1nUS9ccZK2f9f2Z01-_feZVVD-8lHGIwr9vEquLg2P0dJSsCm-2IsRu7_wAneflmyeyVH4OBlWrkqJ7Zhyl80DjZobgthit58Qv5ongAhw-QUoi4gQLMafoDHk1JrrYEr48ifPJXnya0-UJdzNUp6ryZmo1xJu2Zj0f_FaDsbg/s2048/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-02-24%20at%2011.31.47_9ba54cf0.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="2048" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFowJwYx7vTbd1nUS9ccZK2f9f2Z01-_feZVVD-8lHGIwr9vEquLg2P0dJSsCm-2IsRu7_wAneflmyeyVH4OBlWrkqJ7Zhyl80DjZobgthit58Qv5ongAhw-QUoi4gQLMafoDHk1JrrYEr48ifPJXnya0-UJdzNUp6ryZmo1xJu2Zj0f_FaDsbg/s320/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-02-24%20at%2011.31.47_9ba54cf0.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div><span style="color: #0000ee;"><div style="text-align: justify;">In the mean time, I made a 'proof of concept' setup of all the equipment that
has been arriving over the past few weeks. The equipment in the picture is not arranged in
any sensible order, so I'll explain it logically: the blue box on the right is
my <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-new-amplifier-for-new-guitar.html" target="_blank">practice amplifier</a>. Next to it are two pieces of equipment: at the bottom,
looking like a mobile phone in a closed case is a 'solar power bank' - this is
like a battery that can be charged either via the electricity mains or by an
inbuilt solar panel. The output of this goes into the little box with lights
on it - this is the <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-good-bad-and-self-delusion.html" target="_blank">power distributor</a> - and the output of this goes into the
red box with the light on - this is the octave pedal. In terms of guitar
signal, the guitar is connected via the lead that plugs into the right hand
side of the octave pedal (black cable); the output of this pedal (white patch
cord) goes into the <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-multifunctional-guitar-effects-pedal.html" target="_blank">multi-effects box</a> (on the left) and the output of this
(black cable) goes into the amplifier. Nothing is connected to the mains power
supply.</div></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">
It all works together. The <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-guitar-effects.html" target="_blank">octave pedal</a> sounded much better today than it did
in its initial trial although it was slightly noisy; this presumably is a
side-effect of the power distributor. Not all the outputs of this box are
equal - half have low output and half have high output, so next time I'll try
powering the octave pedal with a high output to see if this makes any
difference. Otherwise I may have to buy a noise gate pedal. I made a new preset for the multi-effects box that has a slight
amount of phasing and nothing else; this is intended to be the default preset
for the box.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">
There are two more items that have to arrive that will complete the set-up: a pedalboard, on which everything will be mounted (this should arrive in
the next few days) and a tuner pedal. The order of effects will be <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/11/guitar-thoughts.html" target="_blank">mixer</a> (in
case I use two guitars in a performance; this won't be wired up at first),
tuner (ordered yesterday), octave, <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-good-bad-and-self-delusion.html" target="_blank">chorus</a>, multi-effects. This is, to say the least, slightly unconventional, but I'm relying on the multi-effects box to produce overdrive, and anyway I'm a rhythm guitarist, not a lead guitarist.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></div>
<hr width="80%" /><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span><div><span style="color: #0000ee;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #0000ee;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #0000ee;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #0000ee;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #0000ee;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #0000ee;">65</span></td><td><span style="color: #0000ee;"><nobr>24/02/2007</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2007/02/post-mortem.html" target="_blank">Post Mortem</a></td><td><span style="color: #0000ee;">Programming, Cooking, Migraine</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #0000ee;">680</span></td><td><span style="color: #0000ee;"><nobr>24/02/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #0000ee;">Somebody's been lying</span></td><td><span style="color: #0000ee;">Psychology</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-68001877567875631262024-02-20T08:50:00.002+02:002024-02-20T08:50:41.424+02:00More guitar effects<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
As the late
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle" target="_blank">Jerry Pournelle</a>
would have written: <i>Donny, the Donner octave pedal that I ordered via Amazon, arrived
at Chaos Manor yesterday</i>. The delivery was relatively quick and hassle-free -
it's a shame that more deliveries aren't like this. On the other hand (sorry:
as Pournelle would write, on the <i>gripping</i> hand), I did pay $15 for
delivery ... or did I? The invoice included in the package states that there
was use of a promotional certificate for $15, so the delivery was actually
free. But first a report about the multi-effect pedal being used at band
rehearsal.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
During the exchange of messages enquiring as to whether we could have a
session on Saturday night (at the moment we're playing once every two weeks
and last Saturday was supposed to have been an 'off' night), I mentioned that
I had a new toy to display. So everyone asked about the little pedal and were
either impressed or amused by all the lights on it. Most of the time I was
using one of the presets with chorus, although for a short solo I used another
preset with a great deal of echo. This was fairly successful although
sometimes I managed to get the pedal out of preset mode, so I had to turn it
off and on again. The chorus sound is very trebly (as usual) so I turned down
the tone knob on the guitar. I shall try to do more with the tone settings on
the pedal and the amp.
</span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggFKY-QBiiIIRnsChreJ2FymNARfZoHaI2uE5C4mV9wjAQA3FWzqYy3d2nsBvaAHQajhBg9XBAAb24H6kQNtmISxxJvBjlnKkECt73VmJedtkdZswOyOxTmrYTRQWIjVLaltPck8CIJjHTMXM36S8_RAPSXGxH9zf-R4qyC0YSoj5oYsdoIf95uw/s342/donner.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="146" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggFKY-QBiiIIRnsChreJ2FymNARfZoHaI2uE5C4mV9wjAQA3FWzqYy3d2nsBvaAHQajhBg9XBAAb24H6kQNtmISxxJvBjlnKkECt73VmJedtkdZswOyOxTmrYTRQWIjVLaltPck8CIJjHTMXM36S8_RAPSXGxH9zf-R4qyC0YSoj5oYsdoIf95uw/s320/donner.png" width="137" /></span></a>
</div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">And now to the<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Donner-Digital-Octave-Guitar-Harmonic/dp/B072LG2BZ9" target="_blank">
harmonic square aka octave pedal</a>. I should point out that the same pedal is available under the Mooer label;
had I bought it in Israel, it would have cost about 300 NIS (including delivery)
so I definitely saved money by buying from Amazon. Testing the pedal allowed me
also to test the pedal power distributor: I had one cable from AC mains to the
distributor, one cable from the distributor to the pedal, one cable from the
guitar to the pedal and another cable from the pedal to the amplifier. Spaghetti
time. I am pleased to say that the electricity side of the equation worked
perfectly fine.</div></span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
In advance I had already worked out four different modes of use for this
pedal:
</span></div>
<div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Setting the wet and dry to 50%, the switch at the top to 'sharp' and the
interval to one octave basically makes the guitar sound like a
12-string guitar, where every note played on the guitar is doubled an
octave higher.
</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
As above, but setting the interval to 7 semitones (a perfect fith) is supposed to cause an E note to be doubled as a B. If I play an E chord,
then the pedal will 'play' a B chord; the result should be an E Major 9th
chord, namely E G# B D# F#.
</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Moving the switch at the top to its middle setting, detune, creates a
chorus effect whose depth is dependent of the setting of the big knob.
</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Setting the wet knob to 100% and the dry knob to 0% causes the pedal to
act as a capo: if I move the middle knob to the '3 semitones' position,
the top switch to sharp and play shapes in Am, it's as if I'm playing in
Cm (this will be useful at Passover). Similarly, after moving the top
switch to flat and the middle knob to '2 semitones', playing shapes in G
will sound as if I am playing in F.
</span></li>
</ol><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">As with the multi-effects pedal, I'm not sure that my practice amp was the
best option to test the capabilities of the pedal. For setting 1, I actually
had both wet and dry signals to 100% and this seemed to overload the amp when
playing chords; single notes were ok. Setting 2 didn't seem to work as I
expected, although again this could be because of the level of the wet and dry
settings combined with the amp. Option 3 worked fine as expected and so did
option 4, although this was somewhat disconcerting as I could hear the acoustic sound
of the guitar playing (for example) an Am chord whereas the amplifier was
sounding a Cm chord. In a band setting this problem won't exist, but it might
appear when playing at Passover.</div></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the pedal although it apparently wasn't as
good as I expected (especially for settings 1 and 2 when playing chords). The
power supply problem is also slightly annoying, although this is expected to
improve when the
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Donner-Digital-Octave-Guitar-Harmonic/dp/B072LG2BZ9" target="_blank">pedalboard</a>
that I ordered will arrive. Then I can set everything up properly. At some
time in the future I will also order a tuner pedal that will sit neatly on the pedalboard.</span></div>
<div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<hr width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1376</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>20/02/2021</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cormoran Strike (3)</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cormoran Strike</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1377</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>20/02/2021</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Winter comfort food</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cooking</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-51616659090146442522024-02-19T08:06:00.001+02:002024-02-19T08:06:13.324+02:00Mike Procter, RIP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKyCrTjg5M6QuxiMSVLOdaw7hyphenhyphen5DS4SPmakXVUDuHtTf5Gx2WI_CvbKWq1WGXYBBwElheRfH4p7gMUvxeH-tOIZl8gUrOIvCWN-xo7oRQy0dIRaRawJasqndwXUUb8eIJx9_oaRVyNEPXgFYOwPr6TUWxWRafyAChFRKMec30L7NbR07u3_yM_XQ/s496/Mike%20Procter.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="337" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKyCrTjg5M6QuxiMSVLOdaw7hyphenhyphen5DS4SPmakXVUDuHtTf5Gx2WI_CvbKWq1WGXYBBwElheRfH4p7gMUvxeH-tOIZl8gUrOIvCWN-xo7oRQy0dIRaRawJasqndwXUUb8eIJx9_oaRVyNEPXgFYOwPr6TUWxWRafyAChFRKMec30L7NbR07u3_yM_XQ/s320/Mike%20Procter.png" width="217" /></a>
</div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Another sporting figure from my youth has passed away - Mike Procter, a South
African cricketer who came to play for Gloucestershire in 1968. As the
Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/18/mike-procter-obituary" target="_blank">obituary</a>
says, "In 1968 overseas players were allowed to adorn the English game and
Gloucestershire promptly signed up Procter". Those were the years when I saw a
great deal of county cricket, partially under the influence of my friend Robert,
whose father played for Gloucestershire and might even have captained them that
year.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Mike was an all-rounder: a good batsman but also a fiery opening bowler. He
had a peculiar style of delivery that always seemed to compose of no-balls, as
the ball left his hand whilst his stance was on 'the wrong leg'. I remember
watching his bowling from the members' enclosure via binoculars: it was truly
frightening.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mike came to prominence in the years when South Africa was banned from
international cricket, so he only managed to play a few test matches before
the ban came into operation. Otherwise I have no doubt that he would have
become one of the greatest all-rounders of his time, if not of <i>all</i> time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">158</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2009</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2009/02/again-few-weeks-of-silence-which.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Increased production</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, ERP</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">336</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2011</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-flew-over-cuckoos-nest.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">One flew over the cuckoo's nest</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Films, Literature, Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">676</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Carole Bayer Sager - one</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Carole Bayer Sager</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">677</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in music</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Carole Bayer Sager</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">812</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2015</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Changes in fortune, continued</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ERP, DBA</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1112</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2018</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Left joins in Priority</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Priority tips</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1472</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>19/02/2022</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Finishing "You hold me"</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Home recording</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-87237780657360322342024-02-16T11:14:00.001+02:002024-02-16T11:14:09.500+02:00The multifunctional guitar effects pedal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZsoIhNdvLzdJzW5Duz9V9mEZslg4F4VG-uv3ueNeFPqLX-C4UrXBgKISCXfLDPE-5dZuEziEvXq6aT3ybsk3_tm5d_1rxmCDEzxiKLsRIxL72b83FQEyHbtUxZL4nggHg1PoJ3laB9NxYQAEZBcmrzuV8Otg3LSr929BjKhoRBt_NX8rqcdCoA/s735/mvave.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="735" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZsoIhNdvLzdJzW5Duz9V9mEZslg4F4VG-uv3ueNeFPqLX-C4UrXBgKISCXfLDPE-5dZuEziEvXq6aT3ybsk3_tm5d_1rxmCDEzxiKLsRIxL72b83FQEyHbtUxZL4nggHg1PoJ3laB9NxYQAEZBcmrzuV8Otg3LSr929BjKhoRBt_NX8rqcdCoA/w400-h156/mvave.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</div><div><br /></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I've mentioned this
<a href="https://www.temu.com/goods.html?_bg_fs=1&goods_id=6017592186058543&_x_vst_scene=adg&_x_ads_sub_channel=shopping&_x_ns_prz_type=3&_x_ns_sku_id=17592234036044&_x_ads_channel=google&_x_gmc_account=5089574704&_x_login_type=Google&_x_ads_account=4833500095&_x_ads_set=20818009413&_x_ads_id=156223234797&_x_ads_creative_id=683111910388&_x_ns_source=g&_x_ns_gclid=Cj0KCQiAh8OtBhCQARIsAIkWb6_oOAhAsp5KauDRhODgMTAthCqId0rpWwzwKNoKfA2DYT_3LNe7rDYaAu8vEALw_wcB&_x_ns_placement=&_x_ns_match_type=&_x_ns_ad_position=&_x_ns_product_id=5089574704-he-17592234036044&_x_ns_target=&_x_ns_devicemodel=&_x_ns_wbraid=CjkKCQiA5L2tBhCZARIoAJpQptzJCsklg-YSQRjQLwLtnRwCGVwmxtk69v3dIREv7Z_fswmX_BoCP8E&_x_ns_gbraid=0AAAAAo4mICFiGjduPGN8Il7Tioq2nAV5Y&_x_ns_targetid=pla-2092819011972&_x_sessn_id=m7wqi6qt8v&refer_page_name=bgt_order_detail&refer_page_id=10045_1708072902358_o54ppkm41o&refer_page_sn=10045" target="_blank">device</a>
a few times over the past month or two, which can be purchased from several
suppliers under several brand names. I ordered from Temu and it arrived the
other day, after inexplicably being held up at the local warehouse for about a
week. Their delivery time varies between two and three weeks, seemingly
dependent on local problems (another package probably arrived yesterday but I
was in Tel Aviv and today the 'post office' is closed so I won't be able to pick
it up until Sunday). </div></span><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Incidentally, I ordered this device along with
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/temu-is-new-ali-express.html" target="_blank">curtains</a>
for our grand-daughters' rooms. The picture of the curtains misled me: I
thought that I was ordering three <i>pairs</i> of curtains when in fact I
ordered only three curtains - so I had to order another three. They're still
cheap and my wife couldn't find anything comparable here.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Back to the m-vave device. This is tiny: its dimensions are about 16 cm X 5.5
cm X 2 cm, although I suspect that it's slightly larger than the new breed of
mini-pedals. The device contains its own battery that supposedly holds enough
charge for six hours' use; charging it the first time took about an hour. It's
a shame that it doesn't have a power out socket via which I could supply
current to the pedal power distributor; one can dream.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
As can be seen in the picture, there are several rotary knobs that control the
various effects; these are grouped into three types: pre-amp, modulators and
output. The pre-amp grouping includes the 'type', 'gain' and 'tone' controls
(the first three controls on the right hand side) - one can choose between
nine types of pre-amplifier where two are clean, three overdriven and four
distortion. The modulator grouping consists of the 'mod' knob (either chorus
or phaser), the 'time' knob (the feedback speed of the echoes), the 'fb' knob
(the number of echoes), and the 'mix' knob that controls the ratio of dry and
wet signals. The final output grouping contains the reverb knob, and the IR
cabinet (i.e. an amplifier modeler). There is also a volume control.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
One can use the device in 'live mode' where the current settings of the knobs
directly affect the output. Similar to this mode is 'edit mode' where one can
establish settings for the third mode, 'preset mode'. This latter mode would
appear to be the standard mode of operation: the device has three predefined
settings of all the controls that are operated by pressing one of the three
pedals. These settings are defined in the 'edit mode'.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
The device also includes a guitar tuner, although this is somewhat awkward to
use and I can't imagine anyone using it in a live setting. One gets an
indication of whether a string is flat or sharp, but not by how much the
string is flat or sharp.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I've defined one preset for personal use, leaving two of the factory defined
presets. All of the presets sound somewhat metallic through my little
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-new-amplifier-for-new-guitar.html" target="_blank">practice amplifier</a>, although I hope that this is a failing of the amplifier and not of the
device. I'll see how well these presets perform in a band setting tomorrow
night.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Bottom line: for 183 NIS (maybe $50, including air shipping), this device
supplies 'much bang for the buck'.
</span></p>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">64</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>16/02/2007</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2007/02/working-hard-but-seeing-light-at-end.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Working hard (but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel)</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, ERP, Cooking, Soundclick</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">454</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>16/02/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/02/solving-unflushed-inventory-problem.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Solving the unflushed inventory problem</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ERP</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1008</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>16/02/2017</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Reviewing someone else's academic work</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ERP</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1201</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>16/02/2019</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I can't sleep without CPAP</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">CPAP</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1585</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>16/02/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/02/transferring-another-interview.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Transferring another interview</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA, Mobile phone</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-28291891277141604062024-02-12T08:33:00.004+02:002024-02-12T08:33:42.540+02:00Red bell pepper<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieC_MVDNwQ7Gz7-ZZd0mwm8DHc4cNC2HbA0-cZOJb6I_YJZcw37rtmq3r3fjTkHNyf9_K0NKVCTFuCm8pB8Pd2-TPCTIIt2mfVll0Djzoh9MHWRdDCgdcu5FQOc0bM_tz-S95hS2bBPJcD9xDCdD5bPIOHTA3N1MJvIf4g7GAMg2_gx7PFfoxStQ/s544/red%20pepper.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieC_MVDNwQ7Gz7-ZZd0mwm8DHc4cNC2HbA0-cZOJb6I_YJZcw37rtmq3r3fjTkHNyf9_K0NKVCTFuCm8pB8Pd2-TPCTIIt2mfVll0Djzoh9MHWRdDCgdcu5FQOc0bM_tz-S95hS2bBPJcD9xDCdD5bPIOHTA3N1MJvIf4g7GAMg2_gx7PFfoxStQ/s320/red%20pepper.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to sing the praises of the modest bell pepper (it doesn't matter much if
it's the red or yellow version - the red will probably be cheaper):</div></span><p></p>
<p></p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
It contains more vitamin C than an orange, and in fact one reasonably sized
pepper contains 125% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
As opposed to an orange, there is little to no sugar in the pepper (only 20
calories per 100g).
</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It contains plenty of fibre and is a good cure for constipation.</span></li>
</ul><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Need I say more?</div></span><div><br /></div>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div>
This day in history: <div><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><nobr>Blog #</nobr></th><th><nobr>Date</nobr></th>
<th>Title</th><th>Tags</th></tr>
<tr><td>809</td><td><nobr>12/02/2015</nobr></td><td>Frankie</td><td>TV series, William and Mary</td></tr>
<tr><td>1470</td><td><nobr>12/02/2022</nobr></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2022/02/you-hold-me-yet-another-new-song.html" target="_blank">You hold me (yet another new song)</a></td><td>TV series, Song writing, Home recording</td></tr>
<tr><td>1582</td><td><nobr>12/02/2023</nobr></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/02/memories.html" target="_blank">Memories</a></td><td>Psychology, Non-fiction books</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-31050337257830863592024-02-11T08:29:00.004+02:002024-02-27T17:03:22.429+02:00The good, the bad and the self-delusion<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
After my
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/02/guitar-effects-pedals-and-me-short.html" target="_blank">previous blog</a>
about guitar effects pedals, I decided to look for the chorus and phaser
pedals; as I suspected, they were under the bed. I first looked at the phaser
pedal: initially I saw no way of opening the sturdy metal box, but eventually
I saw that in each corner of the box was a screw so I unscrewed them and
opened the box. The electronics had been wrapped in a foam-like materal that
had seriously deteriorated in the forty years of the pedal’s existence. Not
only the foam: the pedal had been stored with a 9v battery still attached;
although I was able to partially detach the battery, one pole of the pedal’s
plug seemed fused to the battery, and in trying to free it, I merely tore the
battery pole. Into the bin the pedal goes without further thought.
</span></p>
<p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63-dUFerstAWPfeS6z5zLPNEu82eKMVZbD1eYPiARLmVb7O0Mqo3fLDzftOUhxS0iS3iynpiWGUGd_91ZBhWPBaIjzxgaBGbgWVR9d6VvhDMhFqTgoDr55_odROJgPRrmnybVGTf4HQ8-BVNE57oU61wjAKQM77XeqW_wwGbBjAG1fafc8_MXQA/s1553/fx65.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1553" data-original-width="973" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63-dUFerstAWPfeS6z5zLPNEu82eKMVZbD1eYPiARLmVb7O0Mqo3fLDzftOUhxS0iS3iynpiWGUGd_91ZBhWPBaIjzxgaBGbgWVR9d6VvhDMhFqTgoDr55_odROJgPRrmnybVGTf4HQ8-BVNE57oU61wjAKQM77XeqW_wwGbBjAG1fafc8_MXQA/s320/fx65.jpg" width="200" /></span></a>
</div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Then I had a look at the <a href="https://catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/dod-fx65-featuring-andy-martin" target="_blank">DOD FX65B chorus pedal</a>: this is sturdily built and
fortunately there was no need to open it up as there is a battery compartment at
the top of the pedal. I connected a new battery to the pedal but there was
no sign of life. Then I read the manual that was stored in the pedal’s cardboard
box: a line that caught my attention said “if you’re not going to use the pedal,
unplug the input jack so as not to waste the battery”. Could it be, I asked
myself, that I’ve always been checking the pedal with no cable attached? I found
a guitar cable, plugged it in – and the little red light on the pedal came on
when I deperessed the pedal. In other words, this pedal works fine! </div></span><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I saw a mention of the possibility of using an external power source instead
of a battery so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try out the
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/temu-is-new-ali-express.html" target="_blank">pedal power box</a> that I bought from Temu. At first I plugged the USB cable that
comes with the box into the USB power out then wondered what I could do with
the C connector end; then the penny dropped and I plugged the C connector into
the unit and the big USB socket into a telephone charger. Blue lights came on.
At this stage I realised that I had been deluding myself: I thought that this
unit would store electricity that could then be sent to any connected pedals,
but it appears that this distribution unit itself has to be plugged into the
electricity when being used. At least it saves on a multitude of external adaptors, aka wall
warts.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I then discovered that the chorus pedal can use an AC adapter that of course I
don’t have – well, this pedal is from the 1990s. At least I can use the chorus
pedal with a battery. The multi-effects unit (which has been released from Israeli customs but
has yet to arrive here) is promised to contain its own USB charged battery. I
think I confused this with the power distributor.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I took the pedal with me to band rehearsal last night. It drew a few comments,
so I explained the history of the pedal (my brother in law reckons that he
gave it to me in 1988, but that's wrong as he would have been too young then). I
used it sparingly in the songs, primarily in the
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/band-practice.html" target="_blank">new one</a>
that was introduced a month ago. As I had the chorus effect on the pedal, I
set my amp to use a small amount of phaser. We recorded that new song, so it
will be interesting to hear what my guitar sounds like.</span></p>
<hr width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">24</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>11/02/2006</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2006/02/one-small-step.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">One small step</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Psychology, Kaizen, The brain</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">451</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>11/02/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/02/change-is-gonna-come.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A change is gonna come</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Films</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1580</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>11/02/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/02/this-weeks-rant.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This week's rant</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Israel</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1581</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>11/02/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/02/hot-filling-soup.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Hot filling soup</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cooking, Weather</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-87265656486936931302024-02-06T18:22:00.000+02:002024-02-06T18:22:37.226+02:00Guitar effects pedals and me - a short history<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
For those that don't know what I'm writing about, here's a
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_unit" target="_blank">link</a>
to an explanation of effects pedals.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
In my first incarnation as an electric guitarist, 1975-8, I had a commercially
produced tremolo pedal and a home made volume pedal. A tremolo pedal
cuts the signal at a frequency determined by a knob on the pedal; despite this
option of changing the tremolo speed, I found that it was useful either at a
high (i.e. fast) frequency when playing lead guitar (the example that comes to
mind is the lead guitar on the Tremeloes' "Silence is golden" [pun not
intended]) or at a low (i.e. slow) frequency when playing chords. I don't
remember what happened to that pedal. A friend made a volume pedal that I
remember using at a performance in March 1977 (see this recollection); as I
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-belstaff-bouncers.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>
then, "I remember feeling that I couldn't play as loud as I wanted (and we
were very loud)". Again, I don't remember what happened to this pedal.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Sometime in the early '80s, I saw an advert for a kit that would make a phaser
pedal when put together. I prevailed on my parents who presumably were on a
visit to Britain from Israel to bring this kit with them; they weren't very
happy about this as the security staff on the airplane thought that the
electronics might be the basis of a bomb. But I received the kit and I passed
it on to the person who had built the volume pedal and was now living on the
same kibbutz as I. I don't remember what happened, but my suspicion now is
that the pedal didn't work, otherwise presumably I would have remembered it.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
My brother in law, who was working in a music shop in the early '90s, gave me
a chorus pedal. I remember using this when recording vocals onto the double
tape deck that I bought second-hand in Britain in 1997. I still have this
pedal although it doesn't work; I'm fairly sure that I tried it with a new
battery at some stage.
</span></p>
<p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnzsta_r9UBKRwwviwc6P-pebX_4xkpbmPAsoB7pYPDV_CLrwgy0YCmo6RJNvca8QWghTn6FN0kD5_LaJXCixN4rlqeh7f7Fif4Q8r6m2kDMTCSZ3sbsg-uoR6rpo_2mA4mtSbcXzmlCdim8GaFwjOWPQ1c4IHZhOoFOJjWcxyhyEXsmPPhyphenhyphenKdQ/s367/Screenshot%202024-02-06%20182001.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="367" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnzsta_r9UBKRwwviwc6P-pebX_4xkpbmPAsoB7pYPDV_CLrwgy0YCmo6RJNvca8QWghTn6FN0kD5_LaJXCixN4rlqeh7f7Fif4Q8r6m2kDMTCSZ3sbsg-uoR6rpo_2mA4mtSbcXzmlCdim8GaFwjOWPQ1c4IHZhOoFOJjWcxyhyEXsmPPhyphenhyphenKdQ/w200-h122/Screenshot%202024-02-06%20182001.png" width="200" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Several years ago, I bought a peculiar device that is a multi-effects
processor but can't be called a pedal as it is not foot operated. I have used
this a few times when playing 'the Passover song', for a chorus effect. I
brought this device with me when I started playing with the musical group but
it too had stopped working even after I replaced its batteries. I bought a
replacement (pictured left) but have yet to use it. This unit is cheap and cheerful, but awkward to use.</div></span><p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
The Roland cube amplifier that I
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-guitars.html" target="_blank">bought in 2011</a> sports a variety of effects, but these unfortunately are 'either/or':
either I use chorus or phaser but not both. I normally have the amplifier set
up with chorus and a short delay which is why I haven't bothered using the
multi-effects processor mentioned in the previous paragraph.
</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">231</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>06/02/2010</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2010/02/strict-joy.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Strict Joy</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Swell Season, Business novel, Nick Hornby, Eliyahu Goldratt, Clientele</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">449</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>06/02/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/02/day-in-life.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A day in the life</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Trains</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">547</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>06/02/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/02/research-proposal-exam-results.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Research Proposal exam results</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">805</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>06/02/2015</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sending emails automatically, continued</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ERP, Email</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-69846954408517673182024-02-05T07:51:00.003+02:002024-02-05T13:23:54.439+02:00For the fifth time in five weeks<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Need I say more? Shlemeleh. I don't even remember his given name*. I pity his son: a month ago, his father in law died and now his own father dies.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">* Shlomo, hence Shlemeleh in Yiddish.</span></p>No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-44676063345260211962024-02-05T07:39:00.006+02:002024-02-05T07:39:43.760+02:00Barry John, RIP<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWlpyCfvJtlR5vjv8T9gH1hrSGa2RfAX-RtBJ1AiOASP6ifyqZZxJOVvGuM5u5RYun5OCZrfnyGdhUc0b6LAdCvQyNhlWsNqNIw8NE1YjQ8cPP31k7WEHxQL3_9CfWhc_1JlFRAAXEii9iBDh4l9phlpckWwzbJmfvXhyVocQReb7dq9eKoF1bBA/s360/barry%20john.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="190" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWlpyCfvJtlR5vjv8T9gH1hrSGa2RfAX-RtBJ1AiOASP6ifyqZZxJOVvGuM5u5RYun5OCZrfnyGdhUc0b6LAdCvQyNhlWsNqNIw8NE1YjQ8cPP31k7WEHxQL3_9CfWhc_1JlFRAAXEii9iBDh4l9phlpckWwzbJmfvXhyVocQReb7dq9eKoF1bBA/s320/barry%20john.jpg" width="169" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">If I noted the passing of Welsh rugby star </span><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/jpr-williams-rip.html" target="_blank">J.P.R. Williams</a><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> a month ago, then of course I have to note the passing of </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/04/barry-john-welsh-rugby-legend-and-british-and-irish-lions-great-dies-at-79" target="_blank">Barry John</a><span style="color: #2b00fe;">, 'rugby legend and the King of Welsh half-backs'. He had a shorter career than Williams or his partner, Gareth Edwards, but he burned brighter than them all. He decided to stop playing at the age of 27 for personal reasons.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I never saw him play in the flesh but thrilled to his performances whilst watching on TV.</span></p>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div>
This day in history: <div><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><nobr>Blog #</nobr></th><th><nobr>Date</nobr></th>
<th>Title</th><th>Tags</th></tr>
<tr><td>546</td><td><nobr>05/02/2013</nobr></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/02/leverage.html" target="_blank">Leverage</a></td><td>Delphi, Project management, HTML</td></tr>
<tr><td>803</td><td><nobr>05/02/2015</nobr></td><td>Sending emails automatically via Priority</td><td>ERP, Email</td></tr>
<tr><td>1005</td><td><nobr>05/02/2017</nobr></td><td>Grand-daughter is nine months old</td><td>Grandfather</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-39969143692268516092024-02-03T17:59:00.007+02:002024-02-04T10:09:05.638+02:00Once again, a new song<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
For a change, I didn't have anything to do today (Saturday), so I thought that
I would utilise the time to write a song. I took my trusty Washburn guitar,
played around a little, and within 15 minutes I had the basis of a verse. Of
course, when I came to transcribe and sequence the verse, I realised that it
was a bit short and that I needed to add a little more. Once I had the verse, I
found myself adding an introduction, a link between the first and second
verses and a break that included a subtle modulation. Then came a simple
middle eight in a new key ... and then I was stuck - how was I going to
continue?
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I may have downed tools at this point and taken the dog for a walk. I had
determined that I wanted to use a standard structure of verse, verse, middle
eight, instrumental verse, middle eight, verse, but that modulation had made
things complicated. Where and what should I change so that the middle eight
and final verse come out in the original key? Eventually I found the answer:
have the instrumental verse in the modulated key, then subtly change the
sequence at the end in order to have the middle eight. Then I added an extra
bar after the second middle eight in order to ease the transition back into
the original key.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
As I wrote the song on the guitar, I realised that I should play fingerpicked
guitar on the recording (when I get that far); this is something that I can't
sequence and would sound much more natural if played in real time. This of
course assumes that I don't transpose the entire song to make it easier to
sing; I think that my range will be suitable. In fact, I could play guitar
throughout the entire song, although I'm not too sure whether this would be a
good idea, as I like to make changes in the instrumental texture. I don't have
to fingerpick the entire song - I can 'lay out' here and there, and play
single chords in the middle eights.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">No words, of course, and no ideas. These will come in the future.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">545</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/02/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-twins-came-to-visit-yesterday.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The twins came to visit yesterday</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Uncle</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">672</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/02/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Philip Seymour Hoffman</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Films, Obituary</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">802</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/02/2015</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">End of an era</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Personal</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">924</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>03/02/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Problems with blogging</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Meta-blogging</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-28694280889158842052024-01-31T11:19:00.001+02:002024-01-31T11:19:00.135+02:00NOT the end of an era<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
At the beginning of this month, I <a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/end-of-era.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> how my company had decided not to
renew the insurance for my motorcycle, thus bringing my life-long "career"
with motorcycles to an end. But an encounter with a vice-president of the
company who has a 1000+ cc bike persuaded the powers that be to investigate
further the possibility of obtaining motorcyle insurance for a more reasonable
sum. No cyclist has comprehensive insurance so the hefty premium originally
demanded was reduced by more than half.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Today I was sent the new compulsory insurance policy, at the cost of 5365 NIS
- about one thousand less than it was last year. It will be valid from
February 1 so maybe I'll take the bike out of its hibernation and give it a
test run. The weather has been inclement in the past week, so I wouldn't have
ridden the bike even had I needed to.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">544</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>31/01/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/01/dba-exam-results-not-yet.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA exam results (not yet)</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">671</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>31/01/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">IBR 2/3 exam results!</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">923</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>31/01/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A managerial reason for opposing the use of spreadsheets</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-11923777622247517612024-01-30T12:00:00.001+02:002024-01-30T12:00:00.129+02:00For the fourth time in four weeks<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
With great sadness, once more we went up to the kibbutz graveyard for the
fourth funeral in as many weeks. As opposed to all the other visits, when the
departed one was the parent of a friend, today was the funeral of a friend,
one year older than me. One of her sons is "the other guitarist" in our
musical group. Once again, in a sense it was a merciful death, as she had been
suffering from cancer for the past 13 years.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Lest I forget, here are the names of all the departed members since October:
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/10/communal-grief-2.html" target="_blank">Avi Hechter</a>,
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-military-funeral.html" target="_blank">Shachar Tal</a>, Aliza Tibon, Miriam Lapid, Meir Ozinsky,
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2024/01/bish-lu-la-2.html" target="_blank">Donnie Davis</a>, Sue Herr, Shirley Isaacs and Racheli Potok.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
In previous years when I attended funerals, I used to find myself mentally
writing a eulogy for my father while he was still alive. In the years that
have passed since his death, I felt myself freed of this obligation. Today I
found myself beginning to compose a eulogy for my wife, who I hasten to say,
is in no danger whatsoever of dying from any disease. That's what happens when
it's someone of my age who dies.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">329</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>30/01/2011</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/01/sumptuous-sunday-5.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sumptuous Sunday 5</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cooking, Slow cooker</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">330</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>30/01/2011</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2011/01/marketing.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Marketing</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MBA, Marketing</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">543</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>30/01/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/01/notes-on-fingertip-effect-and-erp.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Notes on 'The Fingertip effect" and ERP</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ERP, DBA</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1198</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>30/01/2019</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Yet another mp3 player</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MP3</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1578</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>30/01/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/01/thesis-status-at-end-of-january-two.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Thesis status at the end of January - two months before the final submission date</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">DBA, Mobile phone</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-81407327786333739342024-01-29T09:50:00.017+02:002024-01-29T10:43:05.316+02:00TEMU is the new Ali Express<p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlocS-4BDtoCNO5g_P_0lsg-GSRvMziOMvGzihyphenhyphenLqUUaBWKBZ0CNL77GKZnATkIgDO3XJCV35DrWkdgxhSPg30vlRpgPM7yc3D26GCXh7VsMIIPLzGe7fSo-rq0CGE_bUXF7s27HBS7j9GQl4GI84iWRWicdmcIBZjIRtTD8Supq6C6WPR3X3dg/s1067/f40316a9da7dc6ff1519f29855aa703c.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlocS-4BDtoCNO5g_P_0lsg-GSRvMziOMvGzihyphenhyphenLqUUaBWKBZ0CNL77GKZnATkIgDO3XJCV35DrWkdgxhSPg30vlRpgPM7yc3D26GCXh7VsMIIPLzGe7fSo-rq0CGE_bUXF7s27HBS7j9GQl4GI84iWRWicdmcIBZjIRtTD8Supq6C6WPR3X3dg/w150-h200/f40316a9da7dc6ff1519f29855aa703c.webp" width="150" /></span></a>
</div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
A few weeks ago, I
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-update.html" target="_blank">mentioned</a>
in passing the
<a href="https://www.temu.com/" target="_blank">TEMU site</a>. Little was I
to know that a few days later I would actually order something from TEMU. I
must have been temporarily insane because the items that I ordered weren't
exactly necessary. One of them, a guitar t-shirt, is made out of 100%
polyester and so it is dubious as to whether I will ever wear it. Oh well,
that's only 28 NIS down the drain, so not exactly a great loss.
</div></span>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Along with the t-shirt, I ordered something more useful: a portable pedal
power supply with 8 channels. I have noticed that many guitar pedals these
days are very small, and that the reduction in size precludes them from
having their own battery. So in order to supply these (as yet non-existing)
pedals with power, the portable power supply was born that gets charged in
advance before a gig. </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">At this stage, I was informed that the mininum order is 120 NIS, so I added
a guitar string winder that cost all of 8 NIS. This apparently is a useful
accessory when changing strings.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">This order was very much a test, to see how fast TEMU supplies their goods,
so it's just as well that there was nothing essential in this order. To my
surprise, the tracking information showed a few days ago that the package
was already in Israel and on Friday I saw that the package had been
delivered. I assumed that it was delivered to the kibbutz 'post office',
although by the time I saw the notification, the office was already closed.
But the package was there on Sunday morning.</span>
</p>
<p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlfxfrow-a6VuivlMeswV0YCXyD1-gtefHxL9HomKesuHWPUxHQgrPQBErsM2sTpQSKfxAfrjlSizDJbpTUkaWs24hNzNUsLFVpLZrRb3beaGEB3IU2fZ5KFsiCW4MlCd53z-4wqV9ZbRDUjDB6GbBhk08IExdtW-hXYZxyaIq8FDtyQOA6HTaQ/s475/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-24%20at%2014.35.22_1c95c333.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="472" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlfxfrow-a6VuivlMeswV0YCXyD1-gtefHxL9HomKesuHWPUxHQgrPQBErsM2sTpQSKfxAfrjlSizDJbpTUkaWs24hNzNUsLFVpLZrRb3beaGEB3IU2fZ5KFsiCW4MlCd53z-4wqV9ZbRDUjDB6GbBhk08IExdtW-hXYZxyaIq8FDtyQOA6HTaQ/w199-h200/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-24%20at%2014.35.22_1c95c333.jpg" width="199" /></span></a>
</div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
From ordering to arrival took only three weeks and this is because the
package was sent by air, instead of by sea. Thus when my wife said the other
day that she was having no luck in finding curtains for our granddaughters'
rooms, I could recommend the ridiculously low priced curtains of TEMU. Of
course, the end result probably won't look as good as in the picture, but
for the price that they are charging (33 NIS for a pair),
the result should be well worth it.
</div></span>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">At the same time, I took the opportunity to order what I should have
ordered before: the
<a href="https://www.temu.com/goods.html?_bg_fs=1&goods_id=6017592186058543&_x_msgid=97-20240125-16-B-692655169624047616-427-bTHYfXO5&_x_src=mail&_x_sessn_id=ss1as4skkb&refer_page_name=bgt_order_detail&refer_page_id=10045_1706427170315_jz5ml34zx5&refer_page_sn=10045" target="_blank">portable multifunctional guitar effects pedal</a>. This little unit has received several positive reviews on YouTube, and
again for its ridiculously low price (183 NIS), it seems worthwhile to buy
and try. This unit has its own internal battery so there's no need for the
external power supply.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">I've been watching a series of YouTube about playing ambient guitar; this
is of course device heavy, and one of the pedals used is an octave shifter.
Shifting the sound up one octave will make for a very interesting sound.
TEMU has a suitable pedal (the
<a href="https://www.temu.com/il-en/electric-guitar-effect-pedal-digital-removal-effect-pedal-g-601099526242957.html?top_gallery_url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.kwcdn.com%2Fproduct%2FFancyalgo%2FVirtualModelMatting%2Fb965b702bc64f429ee7e0b294e83b60f.jpg&spec_gallery_id=4031227132&refer_page_sn=10009&refer_source=0&freesia_scene=2&_oak_freesia_scene=2&_oak_rec_ext_1=MjE1NDg&_oak_gallery_order=578286292%2C815544863%2C922147650%2C988872328%2C892361840&search_key=guitar%20octave%20pedal&refer_page_el_sn=200049&_x_msgid=97-20240125-16-B-692655169624047616-427-bTHYfXO5&_x_src=mail&_x_sessn_id=ss1as4skkb&refer_page_name=search_result&refer_page_id=10009_1706427687036_8bv0lu3jrh" target="_blank">Rowin Harmoniser</a>
with no inbuilt power supply) for a very reasonable 215 NIS (and I've seen
how I can get a 30% discount), but the reviews of this pedal were very bad
(bad latency and inacurracy), so I am no longer tempted to buy and try this
pedal. A much better pedal is the Electronic Sub 'n' up mini octaver pedal,
but this is also more twice the price, at 528 NIS here in Israel (so add
some more for delivery). Now I have to consider whether this is such a good
idea. Another pedal that will be much cheaper is a compressor, but again, I
have to consider whether this is necessary.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">On the other hand, I have discovered the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Donner-Digital-Octave-Guitar-Harmonic/dp/B072LG2BZ9?th=1" target="_blank">Donner Octave Guitar Pedal</a> that in terms of functionality seems to be as good as the Electronic Sub but only costing $56 via Amazon, including shipping. I am still waiting for the wireless connection to arrive, so I don't know when to expect this guitar pedal (for financial reasons I'm not going to order it for another two weeks). There are many demonstrations on YouTube and all the reviews are positive.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are many pedal reviews on YouTube but these are almost all with
guitars playing lead lines, not chords, and certainly not in a band setting,
making it very hard for me to justify purchasing any. I'll see what I can
get out of the multifunctional pedal before I make any further
decision.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">We were discussing TEMU during the visit of my
son/daughter-in-law/granddaughter, when the DIL said that "TEMU is the new
Ali Express". Sending by air is definitely an improvement, although this
might explain why items cost more than they do at AE.</span>
</p>
<p></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" />
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span>
<div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> This day in history: </span>
<div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /> </span>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span>
</th>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span>
</th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">157</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>29/01/2009</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2009/01/goodbye-girl.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The Goodbye Girl</span></a>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Films</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">446</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>29/01/2012</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/01/disappointment-finance-exam-results.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Disappointment - Finance exam results</span></a>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MBA, Finance</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">447</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>29/01/2012</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/01/watching-weight-4.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Watching the weight / 4</span></a>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Food science, Diet</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1108</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>29/01/2018</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2018/01/noise-cancelling-headphones-2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Noise cancelling headphones (2)</span></a>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MP3, Headphones</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1288</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>29/01/2020</nobr></span>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">XML files in Priority</span></td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Priority tips</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-81420784161190781692024-01-28T08:10:00.017+02:002024-01-28T08:18:46.228+02:00Obligatory grandfather pictures<p style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Despite the heavy rain and cold weather, Romy visited us for the first time
yesterday, and finally there are some pictures of her and me alone. I'm not
sure quite why one picture appears to show us both sleeping!</span
>
</p>
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieLHApgKzBo4ZoH8_kPdYDb9Nj5AfiKbvMTKhVBvYoaKXPIApyGXSpru0RMICWMhjmavaeFl_xGeDqnYlIyuZW-ruP42iRpDLLnhLM6F7K7HGhedWvdubsNfNPLq6AJYMxhCMrREJ6Pxkt-WFY8albsUOvQ4gCh3eqYOpMQR-xlbJNNFlXt6a1tA/s1350/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-27%20at%2014.58.41_b6540615.jpg"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 15em 10;"
><img
alt=""
border="0"
data-original-height="1350"
data-original-width="1200"
height="200"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieLHApgKzBo4ZoH8_kPdYDb9Nj5AfiKbvMTKhVBvYoaKXPIApyGXSpru0RMICWMhjmavaeFl_xGeDqnYlIyuZW-ruP42iRpDLLnhLM6F7K7HGhedWvdubsNfNPLq6AJYMxhCMrREJ6Pxkt-WFY8albsUOvQ4gCh3eqYOpMQR-xlbJNNFlXt6a1tA/s200/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-27%20at%2014.58.41_b6540615.jpg"
/></a>
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-tvUikN2DU9Lazsc4XK2Xg2WALgIo9NNDmyRo6dNPw4_lg7fu1flW0LUQr76SfXm4ksWOzSmBGCRI0OUTLG88Ft6ocYI2JmCgQIbpGBcMpUUwH9fg_HNzkIuS_VNETJKTFq6EBFu0nMPi3jXfnRos6TdIOzAXBKJK1pb4XoGFGDIcdjCw6yx3g/s1332/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-27%20at%2014.58.43_f05c5e4c.jpg"
style="padding: 40em 60px;"
><img
alt=""
border="0"
data-original-height="1332"
data-original-width="1200"
height="200"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-tvUikN2DU9Lazsc4XK2Xg2WALgIo9NNDmyRo6dNPw4_lg7fu1flW0LUQr76SfXm4ksWOzSmBGCRI0OUTLG88Ft6ocYI2JmCgQIbpGBcMpUUwH9fg_HNzkIuS_VNETJKTFq6EBFu0nMPi3jXfnRos6TdIOzAXBKJK1pb4XoGFGDIcdjCw6yx3g/s200/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-01-27%20at%2014.58.43_f05c5e4c.jpg"
/></a>
<div>
<br />
<hr width="80%" />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>Finally the official result from my nutrition course has been published.
This, of course, comes as no surprise, but it's nice to see it
confirmed.</span
>
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Avn-P0FodbGfzlKdaz9yVW_xmPUZQNeecklDt_u_kxcYtgTcj3HeKj08OMV0o6K91LnnKzCTTFBCMDtBSQcNZvOtxq5_Ztd2ivXwXsM6Jjd1axwQzuiW-_UJZN-dKkuvoGfRL_EVRXdbAfimWypxztX0aRNk4HRbCpphIWDVinWx2kRA82a8nA/s1108/Screenshot%202024-01-28%20081603.png"
imageanchor="1"
style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="153"
data-original-width="1108"
height="88"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Avn-P0FodbGfzlKdaz9yVW_xmPUZQNeecklDt_u_kxcYtgTcj3HeKj08OMV0o6K91LnnKzCTTFBCMDtBSQcNZvOtxq5_Ztd2ivXwXsM6Jjd1axwQzuiW-_UJZN-dKkuvoGfRL_EVRXdbAfimWypxztX0aRNk4HRbCpphIWDVinWx2kRA82a8nA/w640-h88/Screenshot%202024-01-28%20081603.png"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<div>
<br />
<hr width="80%" />
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> This day in history: </span>
<div>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /> </span>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span>
</th>
<th>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span>
</th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">118</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/01/2008</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a
href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2008/01/brains-and-mirrors.html"
target="_blank"
><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Brains and mirrors</span></a
>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>Psychology, Social intelligence, Martin Seligman, The
brain</span
>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">542</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/01/2013</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a
href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-productive-saturday.html"
target="_blank"
><span style="color: #2b00fe;">A productive Saturday</span></a
>
</td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>Programming, Cooking, Van der Graaf Generator, CPAP</span
>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1374</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/01/2021</nobr></span>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Cormoran Strike</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>TV series, DCI Banks, Cormoran Strike</span
>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1577</span></td>
<td>
<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>28/01/2023</nobr></span>
</td>
<td>
<a
href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/01/improving-query-in-management-program.html"
target="_blank"
><span style="color: #2b00fe;"
>Improving a query in the Management program</span
></a
>
</td>
<td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, SQL</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-44120273657098658612024-01-24T14:25:00.003+02:002024-01-24T14:25:59.290+02:00The Ryan Universe<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Over the past few years, when I haven't had the concentration necessary to read
non-fiction or literary novels, I've often found myself reading books in the Tom
Clancy franchise. Clancy died in 2013, but that hasn't stopped his estate from
engaging writers to contine writing about the characters that Clancy
established. Almost all of the books after Clancy died are about the son of
President Jack Ryan, namely Jack Ryan Junior; actually one or two of these books
were written while Clancy was still alive. The great advantage of having other
authors writing these books is that one doesn't get the 30% extra editorial
comment, and the weaponry pornography is also generally toned down.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
By my count, there have been 22 books in the JRJ series: some of these have
been very good, some have been readable and some have been dire. A little
analysis reveals that all the good books were written by
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Greaney_(novelist)" target="_blank">Mark Greaney</a> who bowed out of the franchise in 2017. Since then, the books have
varied in quality; for example, one book has JRJ on a working holiday in
Israel and within a few days he's in the command centre of the Mossad and sent
to Lebanon. So unbelievable and so bad. I've also read a few of
Greaney's solo books but didn't like them very much.
</span></div>
<div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ23JFKnxUZuYAkes984OufQ-tVtackEkvZPD_VN-QCCM8FTMv2ZX3AGZaCLoaLnPYDyjhISZDFpjyXDMNOhJXb3Hink5x1zhv7UKOOt74SQVQ5MwV4jWJel3y7cNRqRKy_xYpfh2A6TNzwtrHj8jp-0AQfHrqO4ZLJ2VlxQ9Mx1lf15iMV-zmXg/s445/red%20winter.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ23JFKnxUZuYAkes984OufQ-tVtackEkvZPD_VN-QCCM8FTMv2ZX3AGZaCLoaLnPYDyjhISZDFpjyXDMNOhJXb3Hink5x1zhv7UKOOt74SQVQ5MwV4jWJel3y7cNRqRKy_xYpfh2A6TNzwtrHj8jp-0AQfHrqO4ZLJ2VlxQ9Mx1lf15iMV-zmXg/s320/red%20winter.jpg" width="212" /></span></a>
</div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I read a few days ago a much more recent offering in the series, '<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Clancy-Winter-Jack-Ryan-Novel/dp/0593422759" target="_blank">Red Winter</a>'. The events of this book take place in 1985, when Jack Ryan Snr was a young analyst for the CIA, working in London. The Berlin Wall had yet to fall and
generally the world was in another place. The book starts off promisingly
(although in a slightly long-winded fashion) about the trial of a prototype
stealth bomber in Nevada that fails (incidentally, we are never told about why the trial
failed) and how an illegal East German spy manages to lay his hands on part of
the fuselage with the intention of smuggling this piece to the East so that
they can learn the secret of radar absorbing materials. </div></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
A second thread in the book is concerned with a 'walk-in': unsolicited
material from the East given to a lowly CIA clerk in West Berlin. So now the
CIA have a mole in East Germany whereas East Germany has a mole in the Berlin station of the CIA. As
a long time le Carré reader, I have to complain that although the starting
scenario is promising, it is handled badly. For some reason (well, for
non-universe marketing reasons, obviously), the young Jack Ryan is sent to
Berlin to handle the case, accompanied by Mary Pat Foley, heroine of a few
other Clancy books. Sent to help them in a background role is John Clark, who
has appeared in more of these books than Jack Ryan himself. Some of this part
of the story is handled well but most is mangled and unlikely, making for a poor reading
experience. There was so much potential but it was wasted.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
So, unlike other series that have one author and generally have a reasonable
overall standard, these books are written by various authors who vary in their
quality. Thus one never knows when reading one of these books whether one will
enjoy the book or (figurately) throw it at the wall in frustration. Books
written by Grant Blackwood generally fall into this latter category (there is one book of his that I have never managed to finish, so bored was I), but fortunately
he is no longer employed by this franchise.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<hr width="80%" /><br /><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
This day in history: </span><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br />
</span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">670</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>24/01/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Song festival - videos</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kibbutz</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">921</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>24/01/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Bitten by the bug</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Programming, Priority tips</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1373</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>24/01/2021</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Winter sun (new song) - and musings on Carole King and obscure chords</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Song writing, Home recording</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-86377623546362543552024-01-14T10:13:00.004+02:002024-01-14T10:13:28.411+02:00CPAP problems<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The weather for the past few days has been wintry: cold and rainy. I've probably written this many times before, but a kibbutz is not built for such weather: there is no double glazing and no covered passages. Apart from anything else, this can make walking the dog a problem. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if one is a farmer) we don't get very many days like this, so one has to shut up and suffer until the weather improves.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO4n1kKSsnF2qMTHcnZ5YrM3CF9BKNoj3ooL-IeVS5EiLY8a3gHdbrU_aoiOJCTg8BvdeuCShpoSLhlO_7cSTZNReYYHYjc_keh8eAND9r0nF9owUb9Ynku14zf0or8ZUoocyKV8BbRCbHBPBaWdofh_hHc0L_jUKlLbMMcEli-Lp8lT7OH3h_1w/s118/CPAP%20mask.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><img border="0" data-original-height="118" data-original-width="88" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO4n1kKSsnF2qMTHcnZ5YrM3CF9BKNoj3ooL-IeVS5EiLY8a3gHdbrU_aoiOJCTg8BvdeuCShpoSLhlO_7cSTZNReYYHYjc_keh8eAND9r0nF9owUb9Ynku14zf0or8ZUoocyKV8BbRCbHBPBaWdofh_hHc0L_jUKlLbMMcEli-Lp8lT7OH3h_1w/s1600/CPAP%20mask.png" width="88" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;">During Friday night, I thought that I heard gurgling noises from my CPAP machine, and I also thought that there was a crack in the roof through which water was leaking, as I felt some drops on my hand. I have to admit that my critical capabilities are somewhat diminished at night and things that happen might get attributed to wrong causes. On Saturday night, I only had to turn the machine on and the noises started immediately. It quickly became clear that there was no way that I would be able to sleep with that amount of noise so unfortunately I had to sleep without CPAP - very difficult. My wife said that I "snored like a tractor" so she didn't sleep well; neither did I, but not because of the snoring.</div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">As this happened over the weekend, there wasn't anything that I could do about this problem, but on Sunday morning I telephoned the service facility for the machine. "Disconnect the pipe from the machine", I was told, "then hold the mask high up so that the pipe is perpendicular to the floor. Water should flow out of the pipe". And indeed, when I did this, a few drops of water came out of the pipe. I then reconnected the pipe and turned the machine on. No noise.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The technician explained that with the cold weather that we are currently experiencing, water vapour gets into the pipe (presumably from my exhalations) and instead of returning back into my nose, the water vapour coalesces into water droplets and this is what is causing the noise and misfunction. I hope that he is correct as I don't fancy repeating Saturday night's experience. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I am noting this for future reference.</span></p>No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16400988.post-51928150442949430672024-01-14T08:24:00.000+02:002024-01-14T08:24:01.209+02:00Band practice<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
In my eyes, we had a very successful band practice last night. At the moment,
we're meeting only once every two weeks, until we have a date for our next
perfomance. The last few days have been very cold (for us): I picked up the
Stagg a few days ago to practice a little, but the strings hurt my fingers so
I stopped. The practice room was at a reasonable temperature but even so I had
a little finger pain. I digress. I changed the position of my amplifier so
that its loudspeaker was pointed away from me: this small change made it much
easier for me to hear what I was playing, and for a change I didn't feel
drowned out by the other guitarist. I also achieved a good tone that I could
change via the pickups and tone control on the guitar.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
We started off by working on a
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=7ZP2Lrx9ic1HhPJe&v=b95_x8LTbsw&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">new song</a>; the documented chord charts has the song in G, so this is what we began with. I and the other guitarist noodled for a bit on the opening section (we
decided to call this the chorus), and it was decided that we would start with
an instrumental chorus before the singing started. For a change, it's me who's
playing most of the single notes: I had an idea for one fill between chords
and somehow this led to me playing the lead guitar part. That said, the second
half of the chorus needs to be worked out a bit better.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
We then played the whole song through, complete with vocals. It was then
decided to lower the key to F: this actually is the key played in the video. It's a
shame, though, as G is a good key for guitar with plenty of open strngs (and a
nice Cadd9 chord shape) whereas F calls for more barre chords and doesn't
allow the strings to ring so much. Despite this change, we managed to play the
song without problem (sometimes transposing leads to someone making a mistake
with the transposition). In the video, one guitarist is playing with a
capo on the third fret, meaning that he is effectively playing in D. This
might be worth checking out, although I shall have to transpose the chords
before I start.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
I should add that I also contributed the coda for the song: we first play the
opening line of the chorus (in G, G D Em Em7) then play C Cm G - a very
Beatle-ish ending. Everyone thought that this was an excellent idea. Am I
chanelling
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@DavidBennettPiano" target="_blank">David Bennett</a>? He made a video (that I can't find at the moment) discussing the IV iv I
progression/cadence. He also made a video about
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbmh3srDZlo" target="_blank">27 tips for a professional musician</a>; one was for keyboard players that said "don't use the transpose key"... see
later on.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
Once we got this song out of the way, we then ran through three songs from our
first performance so that we could both dust them off and also introduce them
to the keyboard player. He tries hard and often plays some nice parts (when I
can hear them), but he's a bit slow on picking up the songs and chord changes.
At one point, he was playing the opening chords to a song that sounded a bit
off; I looked at his fingers (he sits next to me) and they seemed to be
playing the correct chords - which is when I realised that he had left the
transpose key on and was playing a semitone lower than everyone else! See the
previous paragraph. Another amusing incident involving him last night had him
waving a chord chart at me; I nodded and said "yes", meaning that the chords
were for the current song. Afterwards it turned out that he had asked me
whether what we were playing in was the same key as written (it wasn't: the
chart was in C and we were playing in D) - this caused a few laughs.
</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">
We finished off with another fun tune whose opening is the same as the Spencer
Davis' group hit from the mid-60s, "I'm a man". Of course, no one else picked
up on the reference.</span></p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" width="80%" /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This day in history:</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="2" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Blog #</nobr></span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>Date</nobr></span></th>
<th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Title</span></th><th><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Tags</span></th></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">443</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2012</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-city-boy.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">More City Boy</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">City Boy</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">534</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2013</nobr></span></td><td><a href="http://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2013/01/election-day-duty-driver.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Election day duty driver</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Kibbutz, Probability</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">669</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2014</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Commuting</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Personal</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">915</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">MP3 Headphones</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Richard Thompson, MP3</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">916</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2016</nobr></span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Alan Rickman, RIP</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Films, Obituary</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">1574</span></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><nobr>14/01/2023</nobr></span></td><td><a href="https://nbnewman.blogspot.com/2023/01/inside-and-outside-lemon-tree.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Inside and outside the lemon tree</span></a></td><td><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Personal</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div>
No'am Newmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11096178030233335887noreply@blogger.com0