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xKnuckles

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About xKnuckles

  • Birthday January 10

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  • occupation
    Musician
  • hobbies
    Photography
  • Location
    United Kingdom

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  1. The firmware is here, Muse: https://support.casio.com/en/support/download.php?cid=008&pid=435 If you keep it on a USB stick inside your PX all of the time, the problem cannot happen again. I have one of those tiny fingernail sized ones in mine (along with all of my stage settings etc.) It never leaves my PX, no matter where I take it.
  2. Hi gang. I hope you are all well - I have been absent for far too long. But my timing seems excellent as I appear to have arrived amidst the Halloween celebrations... (So glad you still have my favourite smiley!! ) Anyways....I just wanted a little advice. A friend's church has a Roland EP 7e which is spookily unwell: Apparently after it has been played for a while it gives out an eeire organ monotone. They wonder if a circuit board has gone. I just wondered if this might be something easy to fix with a bit of soldering by someone like me who is not unfamilar with a soldering iron....if the problem is easy to spot and get to... Or if it is best to get an expert in to have a look? Thanks for any suggestions.
  3. I thought it was always in January. What is going on?? Why the change??
  4. Great thread - and very opportune as I am also looking for a cheapish and as narrow as possible 73 key keyboard. I woudl also love to buy a casio but it must have fully weighted keys, and they dont seem to have one like that as far as I can see. So it looks like it will have to be the Yamaha unless there is something else out there which has not been mentioned....
  5. I used to have trouble getting to sleep. Fear of side effects has kept me away from all sleeping drugs, so I have found alternative solutions to the proplem. As mentioned by someone else, a full stomach is conducive to sleep. Indeed, experimentation with fasting made has showed me in no uncertain terms that sleep is extremely hard to achieve in this state. (Apparently this stems from our stone-age hunter past, where people needed to be alert in order to catch dinner, but then could afford to rest afterwards...) However, my top tip is to try a sleep hypnosis app. They are crazily cheap and you can get them for your phone /ipad or whatever. If you can't sleep, just put on a pair of headphones, lie comfortably, turn on the app and just listen to it. No need to try to sleep. Indeed you are encouraged to try to keep listening - which, after the initial novelty and curiosity wears off (usually after a few goes with it) - is extremely difficult. The trick is not to demand or even expect sleep, but just to treat yourself to 30 or so lovely minutes without having to think or listen to your own brain. It is extremely effective. Better still, if you wish you can combine the sleep inducing session with something you would like to achieve - like curing stage fright or stopping smoking or whatever. There are loads of hypnosis topics available and they are just as effective if you fall asleep in the middle of the session.
  6. Sorry to hear about your tinnitus Bif. I am a fellow sufferer - although doubtless mine is much milder than yours. I got it about 20 years ago whilst gigging: one night the PA made a horrible loud bang noise in the middle of a gig (I did not own earplugs at the time...) and I have had it ever since. I have often wondered if there were a mental as well as a physical aspect to people's experience of tinnitus...or indeed traffic, trains, & chickens. Allow me to explain: Consider somebody who moves to live near a busy road. They may not like the traffic noise, and may find it a huge problen to begin with, but generally they will eventually get used to it and then be able to go about their life and sleep etc. without additional problems. Likewise, if somebody moves to live near a railway with trains running all night, they will probably find themselves awakened several times a night to begin with, but at some point they will learn to sleep through the train noise and may even grow to like it. But what about roosters which crow throughout a large part of the night - as they do near my house from about 2 till dawn... I have witnessed new people moving into the neighborhood and then nearly going crazy complaining about the crowing ..... I think the crucial difference between traffic, trains and roosters may not be the volume or type of noise heard, but in the individual's reaction to the noise. Particularly, his perception of whether its occurrence is inevitable (like traffic and trains) or optional (like chickens). Unlike my new neighbour, when I first encountered this late night serenade I rejoiced that I was living in the countryside and accepted it as an integral part of rural life. Yes they did disturb me to begin with, but I did not lie awake hating them and their owners and devising ways to try to get rid of them. I simply accepted them in the same way that I had previously accepted trains & traffic. When I got my tinnitus I was relatively young and very aware that it could potentially drive me crazy. So I made a conscious decision to totally accept it - in exactly the same way that we all accept traffic noise without question or complaint. It would be my new normal; the background audio to my life. I never attempt to drown it out etc. as it has become a part of me. I don't mind it or wish it away. (Although, like many others here...I took immediate steps to make sure it never happens again and have worn custom ear plugs ever since in all loud settings....Including concerts which I have attended.) Obviously I have no experience other than my own, but it does seem to me that there are many annoying noises which we all accept as part of modern living - and many if them are very loud. They only become a problem if we fight to get rid if them (which of course we cant). As long as we accept them and their right to be there then they will not cause us any distress (although they may disturb us from time to time). I wonder if part of the pain of tinnitus might be caused by a lack of acceptance of it: a feeling that it should not be there and an ongoing resentment of it which is triggered every time it is noticed. (And I am only thinking out loud here..as I only know my own experiences). When I 'hear' my tinnitus....which is quite frequently as it is incessant, I feel no resentment, annoyance or anything else. It could be a brook gurgling away or a TV in the next room. It raises no emotion or thoughts whatsoever. I simply accept it. I would be interested to hear how others feel about their tinnitus and whether they also accept it, as I do and therefore find it to not be a problem.
  7. Hello fellow Halloonatics. I have cracked the name part of the challenge...Will summon up courage to face the spooky avatar in due course.... 👻
  8. Hi Todd. Theoretically they could dissent, but in practice they never do. That would be a breach of their non-political role. However, should there ever arise an extreme situation where we ended up with a crazy parliament who tried to push through illegal or monstrous laws, I would hope that there might be scope for the sovereign to act as some sort of emergency brake ..... but hopefully this scenario will never have cause to be tested....
  9. I do occasionally put my Hands on Hanon (in varying keys). I never do more than about 4 of the exercises in a single day. What I like best about them is that they are so mentally unchallenging that I can do them whilst listening to the radio....
  10. Unlike Midi, football & so much of what is discussed here, this is a subject upon which I suspect I may possibly be qualified to express an opinion; being both British...and opinionated... I see there are some excellent comments already by my fellow countrymen from both pro and anti royal camps. Whilst understanding the views of those who object to it; personally, I love having a royal family. I like the antique ceremonial things which are part and parcel of it and which happen from time to time... ...which, as well as being quite interesting and entertaining to witness, offer us a chance to reflect upon our long history... and our relative insignificance in relation to it. It can be humbling to think that the same ceremony just seen on TV has been performed for centuries in a very similar way. The Queen was hugely loved here. Perhaps not so much because of her royal title as because of the astonishing way in which she worked at her role: devoting her entire life to it and fulfilling engagements and duties right up to the very end. How many people in their mid 90s are there who never stopped working? Some people may think of the word 'entitled' when they contemplate Kings and Queens; but the Queen sacrificed much in her fulfillment of her duty: a normal family life, the ability to expressed an opinion in public, the freedom to behave 'improperly'. She never complained about the relentless rounds of events which she had to attend or indeed anything else. Such a work ethic could not fail to win universal respect. She, in her non-politocal role, had a unique vantage point from which to meet with hoards of world leaders etc. over the decades. Her wealth of knowledge must have been formidable. The sovereign meets with the prime minister every week and they talk in private. They never discuss what they talk about, but I think it can only be a good thing for our leaders to hear another, highly experienced voice as they make their decisions. Politically, the sovereign stays neutral but is not without power. They give royal assent to new laws so they are extremely well informed politically. Prime ministers come and go, but the sovereign remains in place as a genuine, long term embodiment of stability. If we come ever up against an insoluble constitutional problem, who knows: perhaps the sovereign may be the necessary key to unlock it. The royal family give us a unique sense of both time and continuity. The Elizabethan age has just ended for us and a new era is now beginning. This is how the future will record and catalogue us. We can look back upon our history in neat packets according to who was on the throne. As for how the royals affect us day to day.... they mostly don't but it is nice if they turn up at a local event. I suspect that most of us have met or at least come across one or other of them as they travel so much. I have been introduced to Princess Anne (she seemed lovely and extremely nice) and sang in a choir performing for the Queen. As to all of the stuff in the press about them which you mention; it is horrible that they are hounded as they are. I think the easiest way to explain the level of interest here is that there is a largish group of people who treat it all as a sort of reality soap opera: they have been following the lives of the royals for decades and like to read about them as a form of entertainment. Regrettably our press is only too happy to fuel this fire by publishing every crumb of info that it can get its greedy hands on. No story about them is deemed too small or insignificant. The press coverage of them here is hideously intrusive and they all have my sympathy for having to cope with that. It must be horrific
  11. I recently watched a film called 'The Alpinist' ...(on Amazon Prime video) which is actually a documentary about a Canadian freeclimber...but it was so outstandingly good that I feel compelled to mention it here. If you want a spellbinding, nail biting, uplifting and inspiring 90 minutes then try this film. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 🙂
  12. I think this is my all time favourite:
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