Video Games

http://screwattack.com/videos/The-Only-Thing-I-Know
(Basically, my thoughts on the video)
You know, I can't completely agree with him, do to some newer games and advancements that actually do help you become smarter and such, such as Brain Age, Lumosity, and many Puzzle games.

But I do agree with the overall message. Video Games can be an immense drain on your life, especially if you obsess over them, and aren't planning on going into the game developing business.

For someone planning to be a game developer of any sort, it makes a lot more sense for them to be obsessing over Video Games (but not exactly in the normal sense). They've got to play them, but they've got to look at the process by which they're made. Or, rather, they've got to look at the process by which their factor (Programmers looking into how the code was written, Designers looking at how it was planned, etc.) was developed.

Beyond that, Video Games are just a bit of stress relief or something to criticize on the Internet, and not something to spend your life doing.

I've got to say, too many of my friends declined social interaction for sitting around playing World of Warcraft, and it was lame.

All while I didn't even have the chance to decline social interaction, but that's another story :p

Keep being productive, as the world benefits from your real life achievements.

A Show of Hands : Victor Wooten's Debut Album

A Show of Hands is an inspiration to all Bass Players who are looking for something more to do with their instrument, but aren't quite sure where they can go with it.

It was all recorded through a little box called an ADAT. Basically, you plug in your cable directly to the box, and record it directly on a computer, or some other device with music recording capabilities.

So, basically, he recorded it all raw, only using one Bass track(Meaning all the Bass Guitar is being done on one Bass Guitar all at once, rather then there being three different tracks, one playing the lower part, one playing the mid part, etc), and some Vocal tracks. This is something that shows you what a Bass Virtuoso can do, and if you listen to it enough, you may just be able to figure out the Music on your own ;) You can get it over at vixmerch.com

Happy listening.

I want you to use your imagination

I'd like you to imagine that there is no such thing as a country. It's not very difficult when you realize we're all humans. There would be nothing to kill or die for. There probably wouldn't be any religion either.

You could imagine, for just a moment, that all the people are living life in peace.

Now, I know I may seem like a dreamer, but I'm sure there's more people like me out there.

Maybe someday you'll be a part of us, and the world will be as one.
(John Lennon's "Imagine" rephrased)

Now, I know the internet may have ruined some of our imaginative processes (Why bother imagining what something looks like when you've got Google image search?), but it has also given a lot of facts. But there's something else it's done.

Every fact you read, every article you find, every study you discover, is surrounded by ads.

Every ad you see distracts your brain from fully absorbing the facts, so despite having every fact at the tip of your fingers, your brain won't remember it as well as when talking to someone about it, as people don't usually wear fifty ads, or stop in the middle of a discussion to point out that company A sells product B, and site C helps you discover D.

For some these ads are necessary for their lives. For instance, many YouTubers rely on ad revenue from YouTube to pay their bills, but there are other sites that simply have ads to make even more money than society has decided is enough to live on and still be able to buy some songs off of iTunes and a game on Steam every once in a while.

Like Facebook, which not only doesn't need all that ad revenue, but it abuses people's privacy just to give them ads it has deemed more relevant to you, or the people who use your computer.

Find those websites without ads, and you'll start really learning new things ;)

Keep up the imagination, and give peace a chance.

Today

I decided I was going to a blog post.

I wasn't sure what I was going to post, so I decided I'd tell you a little bit about Rocket Surgery.

Rocket Surgery can be defined as three things.

1. Performing surgery with rockets. (Attach surgical instruments to rockets, and go at it)
2. Performing surgery on someone while riding on a rocket.
3. Performing surgery on a rocket.

Now, about 3 or 4 months after I explained this to my friends, something strange happened. One of my friends received a "random" shirt as a gift from their relative, one that had never heard the story of Rocket Surgery.

This shirt contained a rather clever line. Do you know what it was? "I'm no rocket surgeon."

This discovery has kept me surprised for a long time, but I think I've realized something. All of the information we need is right there, we just don't pay attention to it. Sure, we can always use the computer to get to it, but what about using our minds? It's something you can't do by concentrating on getting certain information, but rather, you must just open your mind, and when the time comes, you may get a sudden revelation.

It's odd to say, but I believe this to be true, and that it happens quite often. Copyright was a silly thing to come about, to tell the truth, but in the type of life America has built for itself, it seems to be necessary.

Keep up on your rocket surgery books, or you may not pass the class ;)

The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music by Victor L. Wooten

This may be called a book, but it's pages contain a journey that will change the way you see the world forever. Many asked for an instructional book on how to play Bass. The result was instead a journey through Life which leads to an understanding of Music like none other.

This isn't something you should read at once, rather, it's something you should read a chapter of, and take some time thinking about it, soaking it in, and trying some of the things that goes on. It's all a lot to digest, but I don't suggest taking too long. You want to soak them all in a way to keep them all connected to each other.

This shows you the basics of living an amazing life. Teach yourself how to do it, because no one else can teach you.

Overall, I'd give this book a MUST READ label, and I'd hand it around to everybody if I could.

Parades

I don't know what it is, but for some reason, I have an urge to do something on Saturdays.

It involves dressing up in a very hot piece of cloth, with a hat that basically creates a steam pocket above your head, and then picking up some metal round things, stretching my calves in odd ways, all whilst going down the street in the middle of the road. Ignoring everyone on the street is part of it as well.

Why I get the urge to do this, I have no idea, but it only happens during the Summer.

It does sound rather insane, doesn't it? The mass amounts of sweat also agree with that sentiment, but ya know, sometimes you gotta do something like that.

Ya know?

A little update

I've been roughing it out a bit, watching life lamely go by as absolutely nothing happens, and I've quite enjoyed A Show of Hands since I got it. Sadly the speaker system in a VW Beetle isn't quite a match for Victor Wooten's music, the speaker system for my computer is a different story.

I'm about halfway through The Music Lesson, and ought to be done soon.

I'll give you guys my spiel about the both of them soon as I'm done with the book. They're an interesting pair, and I suggest that if you ever pick up The Music Lesson, you ought to listen to one of Victor Wooten's CDs whilst in the process of reading. A Show of Hands is probably the best one, simply because it's his first solo album, and is compromised only of one bass, with the occasional vocal accompaniment, and really shows what he did with the information he learned earlier on in life.

For now, let those wings flap.. you silly rocks.

Clouds

Thunderstorms are interesting things.

They can come and go in little blips that many might only notice because their T.V. blurred.

They can last for ages, and ruin a Computer Fiend's night, and make sure the entire family has to huddle around a few flashlights, while the little kids scream and the dogs shiver and shake.

Course, they can also turn into rainstorms, the loveliest of things. The smell that emanates from those is simply amazing.

Yesh, today's was short, but I've got my The Music Lesson and A Show of Hands now, so you'll get a rather long post soon.

Jobs

Once upon a time I wondered what it would be like to have a job.

My imagination got a bit wild, but most of all, it made me think of how little I'd be able to practice compared to how much I practice now. It was a terrible thought, and I wondered how on earth I could make money and still have my practice time at my age (as the ability to play gigs is not associated with getting gigs at this age, 'lest you get lucky).

I haven't come up with a solution yet, but maybe a camera and becoming a Partner on YouTube could make a very slight contribution towards having practice time? Cause despite there being many a video tutorial on how to play Bass, most of them are wrong. Incredibly so. The first problem being that they speed and skip through a lot of important things, or they teach the basics without letting them understand much about music.

In fact, the very first mistake they make is saying "Here's the tabs for this" or "It's on this fret".

Or you've got the opposite problem of "Take your Bb+7(b5 #11) and start your line on the 3, and have fun with it".

I haven't seen anyone who's started a "How to Play Bass Guitar" from the true basics once, and I'd like to try. Now I just need that camera o,o

Marching Band: A Day In the Cymballine

Well, today I wandered about the parking lot, my feet and calves getting an interesting workout. What it led to was quite the interesting workout, mostly involving rolling your feet, then lifting the heels, and rolling your feet again, all while yelling "AND STEP!", "AND HIT!", and, of course, "AND CLOSE".

Now, you figured that would be enough of a work out, but then I ended up picking up some rather large pieces of metal. I was told I was to hit these pieces of metal together, all while teaching someone else how to hit the piece of metal together. It was quite the interesting mess of a deal, but that seemed not to be enough.

I was told to stand behind some rather loud pieces plastic-type stuff being hit by other plastic-type stuff, and then roll my feet, yell out words, and to top it all off I had to hit metal things together. A lot.

You'd think that something like that would be quite boring, but it's not true. It's actually rather fun, and I think I may sign a contract to do it again out on the grass, that may even involve getting up on my toes, and maybe even walking in between random metal instruments people are blowing spit into.

I know it sounds odd, and it is, but who ever said odd wasn't fun?

Wandering The Streets

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't usually see a lot of people actually walking down streets. If I walk down the street, I'm usual the only person outside, no matter what time of day it is.

Well, I was wandering the streets with my sister, right? We were shooting at cars, with our fingers (you know, when you point at things and say "bang"...). A lot of people were far too focused on the road to notice, despite the lower speed limit and the easy drive that specific road happened to be.

Some people shot back, and it was humorous. Others just waved, not really noticing what was going on.

The best one was a car full of teens. They drove past, but then they slammed on their breaks and turned around.

Pulling up to the curve, they shot at us with their fingers, all of them saying "bang bang bang!". It was the most hilarious thing I'd seen in ages!

So I can say, that the last time I wandered the streets I was involved in a drive by shooting. Beat that!