Juancarlin

"Think about it" I can. Certainly not "Play it". Geez!!!!

I Remember! "If you can point and click, you can use a Macintosh!!". I flirted with Macs since these early days, then spent some years on the "dark side" of PCs, and in the early-mid 2000's went back to macs, all the way, without turning back (except for Linux, only, on a few machines). But what finally got me sleepless for several years, and which handled (in an easy, friendly, beautiful way) my musical chores for almost 8 years was this pretty machine: The Atari 1040 ST. 1 Meg RAM, system on CMOS, no hard disk drive. You turn it on, it loads the system, then you load the program from a floppy, then replae with a floppy with your on material (In my case, it was Passport's Master Tracks Pro, and my floppies with MIDI sequences). http://bachware.com/books/computer%20utilization/Graphics/Atari%201040ST.jpg It even sported a couple MIDI ports on the side, was total ready-to-go plug & play!. Oh, those days...

Geeez... the little guy earns enough to buy a PRS Custom by playing on the street? now THAT amazes me. Why wouldn't he want to play with some older guys? Maybe we could earn as much... hahaha!

Totally OT... My boss at one of my day jobs (2), a more-than-wealthy man who likes to play "kinda nice guy", and who had me as a music teacher of his three pampered and ill-bred children for a while (I couldn´t stand it, being really uncomfortable to spend a couple hours of my time going to their Über luxurious 3-storey pent-house to give them classes when the kids were not really interested (they treat their instruments like crap, not that these really are... I just started giving excuses and finally the kids openly told him they were more interested in other things...) fact is.. I have 10 years working at this company. Not the best wages, and quite a crazy schedule for most people (2 pm to 10 pm, as an arrangement I did at the start because I had another part-time job in the mornings...), but it has worked out fine for me. My department (IT Tech) is only 6 of us, and our boss, who happens to be a woman that started working for the company since it's very beginning, hence developing some attachment to it up to the point of being "irreplaceable" as the über boss has publicly said more often than not. Hence... no chance of climbing up (not that I am much interested on climbing up neither). Then all of a sudden... Big Boss befriends another company, some sort of a merger is likely happening, probably some departments moving into another location (not IT Tech, by the way...) .. and we are surrounded, on only two days, by a new camera surveillance system which records video and audio for 8 days non-stop, stores it in a server and so on... So everything that is done and spoken here, is being recorded now... It feels QUITE uncomfortable (My other job is on the internet, translating, and I can do it from anyplace in the world as long as I deliver the translated text within the ETA), to be watched (or not) at any time, for anything you may do or say... Do any of you have felt this? Long story short, I am waiting for a couple things to happen, to finally quit this job, but while it happens.. I know I have to withstand... but it sucks big, big time....

Greets all!!! I Wanted to share this with you fellows, and didn´t wanted to start a new thread just for it. I have been the bass player for this band for about a couple months. All of a sudden, (more exactly, two days before the show date) the lady wants me to switch to electric guitar, so I had to find a fellow bass player to fill me in, and sit in the guitar chair. The fantastic thing was that we actually made it to the gig, and played it. Here is one of the songs (After my solo the lady screams "Juan Carlín", which is a strange diminutive form of "Juan Carlos" which is my name... a friend called me like that years ago (almost 15 or more) and since then, every one of his friends calls me like that... and they are some. Thing is.. seems like I am not called by my own name on stage any longer ). Check also the AWESOME drummer we´re playing with, his name is Omar Márquez. I made him promise we´d arrange something as an ensamble -me on bass- since the guy is really good and is very much into fusion... hopefully it will be a blast. Here the video of the song AMANECI DE BALA. , as it was broadcasted by AVILA TV, a local TV station. Hope you enjoy it.

Nice vids, pal!!! Made me want to catch my pupils on cam and post some too. (envy mode on, hahahaha!). Keep the good work. Makes me wonder a lot about the future of music education, when comparing it to what it was when I was (ahem!!!) younger. . Don´t you all?

I have to admit, the whole concept of log houses make me very very curious. I would love to see some pics, if you don´t care. Since I do live on an almost 50 years old apartment in the very downtown of our city, is kinda of a new concept for me (even tho, when I met Mr. Vic Wooten back in 1997, he mentioned something about also living in a log house). About a month ago, I came home about 11:00 pm, and was washing some dishes, when the tube that goes from the wall to the sink´s faucet broke off. The valve that shuts off the water service for my apartment is in the common corridor, just outside my door, in the same closet as the trash duct is. Some genius thought it might be "safer" to keep that closet´s door closed, and it happens that, for more than 35 years, nobody has ever had the key to that knob. There, almost midnight, we had to hammer-break the door knob (My beloved one did it while I was holding the bare tube end trying (unsuccesfully) to cork it with my thumb. The whole kitchen flooded, water came close to the living room, when we finally could open the darn thing and shut the valve off. Then, after the cleansing, and about midnight, we were so sweaty and dirty... with a broken tubing in the kitchen and the water valve shut off. The solution? Find the other half of the broken tubing, put some hot glue (silicone) on it and wait for it to dry. Since the tubing entry is conical, once the glue dries up, with the water pressure it would hold against the cone-form and seal it, so we could open the water valve again and take a shower. Amazing how you can come with a solution on such a state. beautiful way to spend the midnight The morning after I bought the new tubing, and went crazy about buying some small shut add-on valves for almost every water tubing in the house. I have not installed them all yet, but I am on my way... And also had to buy and install a new door knob (WITH enough spare keys!) for the trash/water valves closet... On the other hand, my father, who moved about three years ago away from the city into a plains zone (Now instead of designing buildings he prefers to make plants grow, I almost understand him...) but the town where he lives in is in some kind of a lowland, a depression. Some of the farms which are in the suburbs (including his), have dams, and last August it was a heavy rain season. Well, two of the biggest dams from the farms nearby went off, and the water came across the little town. Fortunately, my dad´s house suffered no damage, besides a lot of mud (we´re talking about 3 foot of water running in the street) and some water that actually could get into the garage and the house´s porch, but no major losses there. Another family, unfortunately, had their house right on the water´s way, so the water just took it off the ground.. literally. The image (as described by my dad, I had not seen it) was fairly curious... there could be seen the square where the house was, the foundations... and a different square within, with a w.c. on it. Was the only part of the house that, surprisingly, remained still. Would have loved to have a pic, tho...

...that´s why I Love eBay. is like being on the truckload section of the marketplace... you can always get some fish handed to you for real cheap.