I put the cover on the air conditioner on Sunday. The leaves are all raked up, mostly. I’ve had to scrape the windshield of my car a few times already. The kids have been wearing hats to school for a week. We all wore hats and mitts at the pumpkin patch just before Halloween. I will be putting the bikes and summer toys in the shed or basement over the next week or so, so that I can get the car in the garage. And summer’s coup de grâce, It was snowing a little bit this morning as I got to work. Winter is coming.
Here are ten reasons why the guitar is a more difficult instrument to play than the piano:
Once you tune a piano, it’s tuned, and can stay in tune for years. A guitar that’s perfectly in tune at the beginning of a song can be out of tune halfway through that song. Plus, the piano is always tuned the same way. The key that plays a C note on one piano will always play a C note on any other piano. Guitars can be tuned in any number of different configurations — the open top string is usually E, but it might be D, or F, or something else; it depends on the tuning.
On the piano, the right hand and left hand are doing essentially the same thing. They play different notes and such, but basically the same thing. On the guitar, the left hand is fretting notes while the right hand is picking or strumming them. Fundamentally different actions.
A chord on a piano is usually three notes, sometimes four. On a guitar, you frequently have to play six-note chords with only four fingers (the thumb on the fret hand is almost never used).
On the piano, there is one set of keys in strictly ascending order. You always know whether one note is higher or lower than another based on whether it’s to the left or right of the other note. On the guitar, there are essentially six different sets of notes which overlap. Is the 3rd string, 6th fret higher or lower than the fourth string, 12th fret? Answer: lower, but unless you play the guitar or have one in front of you, it’s not obvious.
Unless you press the sustain pedal on the piano, as soon as you remove your finger from the key, the note stops. On the guitar, you can remove your hands entirely and the open strings will ring unless you deaden them.
If someone has never played a piano in their life, you can teach them a C major scale in about 10 seconds: Black keys are grouped in either 2 or 3. Look for the 2 black keys together, and the white key immediately to the left of that is C. Hit that key, then each white key next to it (to the right) until you get to the next C. That’s it. Teach someone that, and if they find themselves at a piano a month later, they could probably repeat it. On the guitar, it would be 2nd string from the top, 4th fret, then 2nd string 6th fret, then 3rd string 3rd fret, 3rd string 4th fret, 3rd string 6th fret, 4th string 3rd fret, 4th string 5th fret, and 4th string 6th fret. Or instead of 3rd string 3rd fret, you could do 2nd string 8th fret. Or numerous other ways. I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years and I had to do little air-guitar fretting motions in order to figure out how write it down here. Someone who had never played a guitar before would have no chance of remembering the notes a month later. (On the other hand, playing a C-sharp major scale on the guitar is easy once you know the C major – just move everything up one fret. On the piano, I’d have to think for a minute to figure it out.)
If you don’t play the guitar often, playing for more than a couple of minutes causes the tips of your fingers to hurt. Piano — no pain.
You’ve got grands, baby grands, uprights, and other types of pianos, and they all look different, but excluding quality differences, they play pretty much the same way. Playing an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar are very different. 6-strings and 12-strings are also very different.
With a piano, you play a note or you don’t, though you can play it louder or softer. Same with a guitar, but you can also play the note and then bend it, or hit the note below and bend up, or hit the note and slide up or down, or hit the note above and slide down, or hit the note below and slide up. You can bend strings behind the nut in some cases, and if you have a tremolo bar (aka whammy bar) or a slide, you have even more options. Plus there are natural and artificial harmonics, which are impossible on a piano.
The location of a note in relation to position of the black keys tells you immediately what note it is. I haven’t taken a piano lesson in over 25 years, and I can’t read music anymore, but if you asked me to fine a G on a piano keyboard, I could find it right away. On a guitar, you just have to know, or remember the notes that the open strings play and figure it out from there.
Note to piano players — don’t get all bent out of shape. This list was made tongue-in-cheek.
I understand the idea about why music sharing is wrong. If I want to listen to a CD as much as I want whenever I want, I should have to buy it, and the artist and record company should get some financial benefit from that. If my buddy buys a CD and I rip it, then both of us are listening to it as much as we want whenever we want, then the record company has only received payment for one CD. When I rip it, the record company and artist each lose some potential income so in a sense, I’ve stolen it. I get that.
Recently, I went to the local library and borrowed a CD by Liquid Tension Experiment. I listened to it for a while, and then returned it. Since then, every time I’ve been to the library and I look on the CD shelves, the one I borrowed is there on the shelf. In theory, every one of those times I could have borrowed the CD for another two weeks. I live in a small town, so the odds are high that I can get this album pretty much any time. I called the library (holy crap, look at me doing research for a blog entry!) and asked them if I was allowed to borrow a CD as many times as I want, and they said that as long as I return the CD to the library now and again (I can renew it without returning it, but only twice), there is no limit. This means that I can listen to this CD pretty much as much as I want whenever I want, and it’s perfectly legal, even though I didn’t pay to borrow it, the library doesn’t pay anyone each time I borrow it, and I didn’t pay to get the library card in the first place.
Here’s the kicker — when I borrowed the CD, I ripped it to MP3s. It’s now on my iPod. This means that I can still listen to it as much as I want whenever I want, just I could before, but I don’t have the inconvenience of having to go to the library to get it out or return it. The record company is still not getting any money, nor is the artist, but they wouldn’t have anyway. Was ripping this CD wrong, and if so, why? Who loses when I do this?
So there will be pro indoor lacrosse this winter. As I mentioned before, the CBA expired during the off-season, and the league set a deadline date of October 15, by which time a new CBA would have to be reached in order to avoid complete cancellation of the season. The players called the owners’ bluff, and it turned out that it was no bluff, and the season was officially cancelled. That’s when the players union collectively said “oh shit, they weren’t kidding”, and the real negotiations started. A week later, the league announced that they had reached agreement with the PLPA on a new seven-year contract, and that the season was saved. Good thing too — I’m not sure the league could have survived a complete year-long shutdown.
After the original cancellation, the press asked NLL commissioner Jim Jennings if the season could be salvaged if an agreement was reached, and he said no. He said that the arena dates had been released, and he actually used the word “impossibility”. Apparently the Boston Blazers’ management took him seriously, because shortly before the agreement was reached, they told the league that they would not be playing in 2008 even if a deal was reached. There’s been no official announcement on this yet, but it’s been mentioned in a couple of interviews with people in the know. I’m not entirely sure what Boston could have done in the week between the cancellation and the agreement that couldn’t be undone — the season doesn’t start for another two months — but in so doing, the Blazers will lose all the players they drafted in the dispersal and expansion drafts, and will have to start again from scratch next year, if the team doesn’t fold completely.
When the season was reinstated, my first thoughts were words to the effect of “Woo hoo!”. Right after that, I started to wonder how we can ever trust Mr. Jennings again, after he said it was impossible to restart the season, and yet he did a week later. Jennings is known for missing his own deadlines for announcements; the league will say that there will be an announcement on league expansion (usually a team moving or an expansion franchise being awarded) on whatever date, and a few days or even weeks will go by before the announcement is made, with no explanation for the delay. Given that history, plus the season cancellation / reinstatement thing, my respect for Jennings started to drop. But then Jennings did something very few people in leadership positions generally do — he said he was wrong. He said the cancellation of the season wasn’t a negotiation ploy, he really believed the season was done, and that he’s happy to have been wrong. Perhaps it was a ploy and perhaps it wasn’t (though if it was a ploy, he probably should have notified the Blazers of that), but it took stones for him to admit he was wrong. Jennings has done great things for the NLL, and this admission increased my respect for him.
My respect for the PLPA, however, didn’t fare so well. It’s not because the players were asking for outrageous salaries — I don’t know the details of the CBA well enough to have an opinion on that. I know they don’t make a ton of money compared to the other pro sports — the highest salaries in the league are about $25k/year — and that they weren’t asking for huge increases. But after years of telling people “lacrosse players aren’t in it for the money, they truly play for the love of the game”, having the season cancelled because of a labour dispute (the third such dispute in the last four years) made me feel like a liar. If they were truly playing for the love of the game, there would be no need for the PLPA at all. I don’t like unions at the best of times, so maybe my judgement is a little clouded here. Note that I have no problems with the players themselves, it’s just the union I don’t like.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that there will be lacrosse this year, and so, dear reader, you can look forward to game highlights and lacrosse commentary from yours truly throughout the season, which will begin in late December or early January. If you’re not into lacrosse but are looking for something just as insightful as my commentary will likely be, here you go.
Aside: Yes, the title of this post is a small Halloween reference.
After watching the last out of the World Series, I thought “So Boston won the World Series… again“, and then realized that nobody has been able to say those words for almost ninety years. On the radio this morning, Damien Cox said that this should be great news for all Leafs fans, because the Red Sox were under the thumb of greedy and/or stupid ownership for a long time, and have now won two championships in four years, so Leafs fans can be reassured that their time may come as well. All we need to do is wait forty or fifty more years…
A-Rod has opted out of his contract with the Yankees, who have also lost Joe Torre. I have hated the Yankees all my life, especially during the last 10 years when they’ve been a juggernaut, but I have nothing but respect for Joe Torre. Without those two, the Yankees are instantly a worse team, and it’s possible they’ll also lose Pettitte and Posada, and Roger Clemens might finally retire for good. This brings the Yankees back down to Earth, and thereby gives the Jays a better chance. Now all they need to do is make sure Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus remember how to hit.
They mentioned during the game last night that Curt Schilling probably would not be back in the Boston lineup next year. Don’t know if he’s retiring or just moving on, but that leaves the Red Sox with a starting rotation of Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz (who threw a no-hitter this past season), and possibly Tim Wakefield. That’s one powerful rotation, and with Okajima, Timlin (who might retire), Gagne (who will probably not suck so much next year), and Papelbon in the bullpen, I think the Sox will be OK next year, even without Schilling.
I’m sitting in the family room watching game 4 of the World Series; lovin’ that wireless internet. We had a bit of a busy weekend; Gail and Nicholas were at a Beaver camp on Saturday, so Ryan and I had a day to ourselves. We checked out the brand new Canadian Tire store that just opened in Waterdown; that’ll take some getting used to. It’s not set up like other Canadian Tire stores, all the car stuff is to the right while everything else is off to the left, and there’s a big Mark’s Work Wearhouse right in the middle of the store. I was kind of expecting one of those huge “superstores”, like the one in Waterloo, but it’s not nearly that big. Anyway, we bought Ryan and me each a new pair of skates and I got some new windshield wipers for the car. We then started painting a bookshelf that I’ve been building for Nicholas for about three years. Just before we started that, I got a big ego boost when a friend of Ryan’s from down the street came to ask if Ryan wanted to come out and play. I told him it was entirely up to him and after thinking for a minute, he told the kid that he was going to stay in and paint with me.
After painting we had lunch, then went grocery shopping, played on the Wii for a while, played some game that Ryan learned at school called “fumble”, which involved throwing a tennis ball against a wall, and then went out for dinner. After dinner, we came back and I continued reading Harry Potter to him (we’re into Goblet of Fire now) until bedtime. We had an amazing day.
Today, the boys had swimming lessons in the morning, then we all went out to Dyment’s Farm, where we froze had lots of fun. The boys played in an inflatable train, a big ball pit, a straw fort, and on a trike track (though Ryan was a little too big for the trikes), we went on a wagon ride around the farm and right along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, and enjoyed a nice lunch of very expensive hamburgers, a hot dog for Nicky, and some really good fries. All in all, we had a good time, though it was pretty expensive. It cost about $25 for all of us to get in, and lunch was pretty pricey as well (three burgers and a large fries was $17.50, and a small cup of apple cider was $1.50). The pumpkins were only $2 each, and were pretty small, though we’ve been told that because of the dry summer we had, the pumpkins are small everywhere this year. We usually go to Parkside Farms in Waterdown each year for our pumpkins, but decided to give Dyment’s a try this year. Parkside is smaller, but just as much fun, no entrance fee, and cheaper food, so I think we’ll be heading back there next year.
I have a presentation to give on security in SQL Anywhere tomorrow morning, so I should probably not stay up too late. However, the Red Sox are an inning away from winning their second World Series in four years (and as one of the commentators said, also its second World Series in eighty-nine years), so I think I’ll stay up just a little longer and watch the end of baseball for another year. Despite the fact that they’re in the same division as the Jays, the Red Sox have become my second favourite baseball team. I think that happened when they came back from three games down to beat the hated Yankees in the ALCS three years ago. I also spent a lot of time in Boston during my three-year stint at my previous company, so that’s probably part of it as well. Plus, you can’t help but like David Ortiz. Manny Ramirez, not so much, but hey.
I’d like to write some stuff about the NLL season being cancelled (bad) and then reinstated (good), but I’m too tired tonight.
I use mybloglog.com, which gives me stats on how people find my blog, i.e. of all the people who find my blog, where do they come from? Some of the searches that people have done to lead here are kind of interesting:
Google Search: eric lindros uncircumcised
Google Search: weird thing about linkin park http://search.sweetim.com/search.asp?ln=en&q=OLD FILM TALKS ABOUT TWO PERSONS HAVE CANCER ONE OF THEM PLAY SKI
Google Search: which arm did anakin lose to darth tyrannus
Google Search: there is a song i heard on q107 making fun out of bryan mccabe who sings that song 2007
Google Search: 2 player can 7up vs diet coke football game
I’m frightened to ask why someone cares whether Eric Lindros is circumcised.
Incidentally, the vast majority are from Google searches. I see the occasional Yahoo search and other searches (sweetim.com I’ve never heard of), but easily 95% are from Google.
This video is making the rounds on the internet. It’s called “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See”, but that’s a bit strong. It’s about global climate change (GCC) and what, if anything, we need to do about it. It’s strange in that the author doesn’t try to convince you that GCC is actually occurring, but that we need to do something about it anyway.
The logic is hardly groundbreaking — either GCC is occurring or it isn’t, and either we do something about it or we don’t. If it is occurring and we take action, we’re good, and if it is not occurring and we do nothing, we’re good. The two risks are the crux of the argument, and he describes the two extreme cases. If GCC is occurring and we don’t take action, ocean levels will rise, wiping out entire cities or possibly countries, millions of people will die and millions more will be homeless, there’s worldwide economic, political, and social chaos, and life generally will suck. If it is not occurring and we do take action, we could be spending billions of dollars solving a problem that doesn’t exist and we cause a worldwide economic depression. The latter is certainly the lesser of the two evils, so we need to take action against GCC, “just in case”. I have no real problem with that logic, and am happy to do my share to help.
Am I going to become a vegan or vegetarian because the more meat we eat, the more cows there are, and the more cows there are, the more gas they release, thereby contributing to global warming? No, because I don’t think that cow farts are really that big of a problem. I have actually seen this reasoning in defence of veganism, by the way.
Anyway, the logic he used reminded me of religion. I think a large number of people believe in God “just in case”. They figure that if God exists and I don’t believe, then I get to sleep in on Sundays, but I’m going to hell. If God does not exist, and I do believe, then I’ve wasted** my Sunday mornings and not much else. Going to hell is obviously worse, so I’ll go to church. I know that there are a much larger number of faithful church-goers who believe wholeheartedly in God, and this is not something they think about — God not existing is not an option in their mind. But I think the number of “just-in-case”ers is not insignificant.
Personally, I am as “devout” an atheist as the aforementioned “faithful” are devout Christians (or Jews or Muslims or…), so the option of “God exists but I don’t believe so I’m going to hell” doesn’t exist in my mind. In fact, I used to be a just-in-case’er myself, back before I “came out” as an atheist. It seems that some consider “atheist” one of the worst insults you could use, like “anti-American” (or its equivalent, “terrorist”) seems to be these days. Once I decided that the word “atheist” was not an insult and accurately described me, I dropped the whole “just-in-case” thing.
But the just-in-case’ers seem to be missing one crucial point. If God does exist, then he knows you’re a just-in-case’er, that you don’t really believe with all your heart, so you’re going to hell anyway. In that case, you’ve wasted your Sunday mornings and you’re going to hell. Worst of both worlds.
** – I also realize that people do more at church than simply pray. They learn valuable life lessons during sermons, meet people and make friends, perhaps get advice or counselling, etc. I talked with someone once who said that her mother was “the biggest atheist around”, but still went to church on Sundays because she simply enjoyed it. I’m sure a lot of the just-in-case’ers really enjoy their church-going time, and from that point of view it’s certainly not “wasted time”. But you know what I mean.
We’re heading north this weekend for my sister’s birthday. We thought maybe we’d stop at Swiss Chalet on the way up for dinner, so I went to my dear friend the Internet to find a restaurant in Mississauga. I went to swisschalet.ca and found their restaurant locator. I selected Ontario from the pulldown, then selected “Mississauga” from the list of cities, and it gave me a list of locations. Each one had a “map” link, which linked to a separate page containing a little mapquest map of that location. Not too painful, and fairly quick. However, I then had to go through each restaurant listed and figure out where it is, and if it’s near to where I’m going to be driving. I’m fairly familiar with Mississauga, but it took me a minute to figure out how far out of my way “Burnhamthorpe and Creditview” is. And there are nine restaurants listed.
Then I went to to maps.google.com, clicked “Find businesses”, then entered “Swiss Chalet” in the first box and “Mississauga, Ontario” in the second. I was immediately given a map of Mississauga with every Swiss Chalet restaurant flagged. Faster and way more useful. I can plan out my route and instantly see where the restaurants are near the roads I’ll be on.
As my buddy Kurt frequently says, if there’s a better use for the internet, I don’t know what it is.
Here we go again. For the third time since 2004, the NLL is trying to negotiate a new CBA with its players. The first time, talks broke down but they decided to extend the existing contract by a year. The next year, just before the 2005 season, the league gave a deadline of October 1 and said that if an agreement wasn’t reached by then, the season would be cancelled. They reached an agreement on a new 3-year contract a few hours after the deadline passed, and the season went on.
That contract expired at the end of last season, and now we’re down to the wire yet again, with today being the deadline. According to the NLL website, talks broke off early this morning with no more scheduled.
I know that the owners have offered about a 3% pay increase, and the players want more, but I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that. I don’t know any more details, so I don’t have enough information to have an opinion on which side is right or wrong. But I think the players are in a tough bargaining position here. Many of the NLL franchise owners also own NHL teams, and they lost an entire season a couple of years ago. The NLL has even said that those owners would “not think twice about losing a lacrosse season”. If they’re that willing to lose a season, the players have no strength. What can they threaten the owners with?
At the same time, the owners have got to know that losing an NLL season likely means the end of the league, and whatever investment they’ve made would be gone. Lacrosse is still too much of a fringe sport at this point, and the NLL simply cannot afford to lose an entire season. If it vanished because of a labour dispute, many people would leave and not bother coming back. MLB is still recovering from the baseball strike, and that was thirteen years ago. Blue Jays attendance isn’t anywhere near what it was before the strike, though the team won the two World Series immediately before the strike, and has been mediocre at best since then, so I’m sure that’s part of it. Sure there are the die-hard lacrosse fans, but a lot of the fans enjoy watching the games, but if the league vanished, they’d just think “Oh well, that was fun while it lasted” and move on, more than likely not looking back.
Knowing the NLL’s tendency to completely ignore deadlines (especially the ones they set themselves), it wouldn’t surprise me for the deadline to come and go, and the season not get cancelled, or even get cancelled and then get “un-cancelled” a couple of days later, once an agreement is reached. If it really does get cancelled though, bye bye NLL.
Update: According to both Sportsnet and TSN, the season has officially been cancelled. No word from nll.com.
Cut The Chatter, Red Two 