Friday, March 28, 2008

Some week

This week is almost over, but not without some drama.

Monday - I begin driving my car out of my subdivision and the oil light comes on. ?!?@#$!!! I was already late for work and now had to drive to the nearest gas station (3 miles away) to see if I was actually low on oil. It was low - in fact, I wasn't sure if I could see anything on my dipstick. More ?!?@#$!!! I got my oil changed 3,000 miles ago, and was told I didn't have to come back for at least 5,000 miles because they put high-mileage oil in my car (which I asked them to do). Added 2 quarts and went on my way. Didn't have time to go back to the oil change place today, but will go tomorrow.

Tuesday - Went to the oil change place (not the same one as last time) and found out that the other place put synthetic oil in my car, not high mileage. This would normally be ok, but since my engine is over 100,000 miles, it tends to burn oil. As a result, the synthetic oil burned right up. Had I ignored the oil light, I could potentially not have a car right now. This place changed my oil, put the high mileage stuff in my car, and sent me on my way. I'm still a little paranoid, and will check the oil periodically.

Later, right before I went to bed, I accidentally knocked my phone off the couch. I've never dropped my phone before. I pick it up and notice that the keypad no longer responds. ?@#$%@$#~!!! The touchscreen still works (it's a smartphone). Reset the phone, still no functioning keypad. The only other thing I could try is do a "hard reset," which would erase everything on my phone. Too tired for that, will do that tomorrow.

Wednesday - Called Alltel, since I have ProductGuard (insurance for cell phones), to see if I can get a new phone. Can't, because I didn't buy the phone directly from Alltel. So I canceled the insurance. I hotsynced my phone and backed up all my phone info (contacts, calendar, etc) to my computer, which took about 30 minutes since I hadn't backed up anything in a year (I don't recommend that).

Did the "hard reset" and then my phone was asking me to select a Language. But I had to use the keypad to do it (which still doesn't work). ?@#$%@$#~!!! Now what do I do? I realized that one of the buttons on the keypad is permanently pressed down, which is likely the cause of the whole debacle. So I tried removing it with the sharpest object I could find - a steak knife. At one point, the knife slipped and went into my left pinky. ?@#$%@$#~!!!

One band-aid and a few drops of neosporin later, I got the stuck button out. The keypad now works, sort of. When the phone returns from sleep mode, you have to take the stylus pen and dig around in the spot where the button used to be. Then the keypad starts to work.

Thursday - began my search to look for a new phone. I've lost 10 auctions on ebay so far, trying to get another smartphone at a reasonable price. Will keep trying.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Studio Drumming?

Last weekend, after the last Riv service, someone came up to me and asked if I've ever done studio work. Apparently this guy owns a recording studio and was wondering if I'd be interested in recording whenever necessary. I told him I thought it was a great idea, but mentioned that because of my full-time job and being in two of the Riv bands, I had no idea when I'd ever have time to do something like that.

I've thought about being a studio drummer before. Having been in 6 bands (not including the current ones) over the 11+ years I've been playing drums, I've had my share of recording sessions and experiences in the studio.

A lot of doubts and fears have sprung up over time. Among them include:
- I haven't had any professional training, education, or instruction.
- I don't know how to read percussion sheet music.
- I can't compete with other studio drummers who have had experience in the previously mentioned items.
- I wouldn't even know where to begin. I'd have to quit my job and possibly move far away.

And I think the biggest fear is that, like being in a band, you don't always know when your services are needed, and steady income is pretty much not possible. Additionally, if something happened to me physically, such as breaking a limb, I'd be out of work for an extended period of time. Not to mention, I'd have to figure out how to pay for health insurance (unless Heather continues working after having kids) so that it doesn't cost a fortune to fix my supposed broken limb.

All of the above reasons keep me at this current place. And I'm ok with that. Are they legitimate enough reasons? Some are, and some feel like material, earthly reasons. Will I ever change my mind? Maybe. But right now, I'm content.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Grumpy

Today, a solicitor from a mutual fund company came up to my door and tried to convince me to buy mutual funds.  He wanted my cell phone number so that he could "keep in contact with me."  I didn't want to give it to him, but he was pretty persistent in asking for it.  So finally, just to get him to leave, I gave him a fake number.  I then called the fake number just to make sure it wasn't an actual person.  I got the nasal operator woman, so I was ok.

Since then, I've been very grumpy.  It could have been from the salesman.  Heather also told me that I was snoring and grinding my teeth all night.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I hope I snap out of it.  Soon.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Car repairs

I bought a car at the end of January, and I love it. It's a 2002 Toyota Corolla, and only had 100K miles when I bought it. Since then, I've already put almost 5,000 miles on it, but being 30 miles away from both work and Riverview will cause those miles to rack up pretty quickly. It runs and drives so much better than my previous car (96 Honda Civic) - however, that car did have 265,000 miles on it.

There is one issue - about a week after I bought the car, the Check Engine light went on. I just thought it was because I didn't screw on the gas cap tight enough, but after having Autozone look up the error code, they mentioned it was something wrong with the catalytic converter. Crap. I knew that part was pretty expensive, due to the fact that criminals like to steal them and sell them on the black market (see this article).

Today I called the dealership to see how much the part cost.  The person on the other end, to his own shock, told me it was $1387.  Ouch.

So I called a few places that my co-workers recommended.  One of the places quoted me $200 plus tax.  That was final cost, including parts and labor.  Wow!  They also told me that there's probably something else going on that caused my catalytic converter to go bad, and that I needed to get a "fuel pressure check"first.  They didn't have to tell me this.  

Moral of the story - unless you are rich and like supporting big corporations, DO NOT get your car repaired at the dealer, unless it is for warranty/recall repairs (in that case, it won't cost you anything).  It doesn't matter what car you have.  Support your honest, local repair shop.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Naming the states

I can do this pretty fast apparently. Does anyone remember the 50 states song that you learned in 4th grade? I remember about half of it.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Sad news from the football world

I saw it this morning at work, and my heart sank a little bit.
Brett Favre will not be playing football next year.
Here's the article from NFL.com

My hope is that one of the following exists:
- That voicemail left on the ESPN guy's phone was not actually from Brett, but rather someone impersonating Brett.
- Favre's agent is lying

If not, I still understanding his reasoning.  He's tired, and he wants to spend more time with his family.  He's had to, to some degree, neglect his relationship with his wife and kids for 17 years.  When I was still touring, I made a choice to devote more of my life to the band instead of Heather, so I understand, even though our struggles weren't near the magnitude of this football great.  At the time, we weren't even married yet, let alone have kids.

I guess we'll see what happens in the coming months and see if changes his mind.  Ryne Sandberg did.  So did MJ.  We'll find out when the season starts.