Addicted to the net, learning the ukulele and tidying up

Occasionally I wonder if I am addicted to the internet.   I wonder this after spending a full day in the

house and not setting a single footstep outside of the house. Most of my time is spent just wasting life as I watch yet another Youtube video. Sometimes you can find the most recent blockbusters other times the choice of video may follow pop hits and end up with watching a scorpion and centipede fight, or some other wild animal fight another. I once saw a rabbit seek revenge on a snake which had just consumed it's young. She was the maddest rabbit I ever seen, but it makes sense if some snake has come along and eaten your kid you are going to get revenge.  Making it a generalised animal trait not just human. Although revenge for a human being may just as much be a dish served cold as one flaming hot.

I am teaching myself the ukulele and have been using Youtube videos to learn how to play. Usually they consist of people who teach songs. I enjoy it but my self learning is not structured enough sometimes it feels like I am not actually progressing and wish I had something more along the lines of structured guidance. Yet, when watching these teach yourself videos it's noticeable how there are different ways of teaching and different versions of pop songs. Some versions use the same chords some don't, perhaps to make it easier. Yet as I watch them and learn maybe a millimetre more of how to play I get the feeling something is missing or not correct. So then look for another video of the same song being played as a cover version on the ukulele or by another person teaching the same song. This can get confusing as I then get mixed up between one teacher's version and another's. When a song is converted from an instrument to another instrument there is no one right way it can be sung. This even applies to the same instrument. For example the song Riptide by Vance Joy. He sings this on a baritone ukulele, which is somewhat larger and lower pitched than the common old soprano ukulele. The thing is most people will possess a soprano ukulele not a baritone. The baritone's strings are also in different notes than the soprano.  Therefore
teaching videos for the soprano are in part adapted. The lowest notes you can get on a soprano are when the frets are not touched and they are open. So as soon as you put your fingers on the frets the notes get higher, which is not reflective of the lower strung baritone ukulele. The taught version will be different, which is all there is to it. Another example is the song Hey Soul Sister by the Rock band Train.  This is played by the band and a ukulele is used, however, Jimmy Stafford normally a guitar player got his special fender electric ukulele and then slightly re tuned it. Of course the only way to make a ukulele meaty is to electrify it then make sure the walls are reinforced. This means Jimmy's version of Hey Soul sister will be a little different to learn, unless of course you retune your ukulele. I guess he was a little lazy and because he knows music learnt to adapt the instrument to his ability to play the chords. Any uke player will tell you the E chord is a difficult one to get to grips with. Literally. speaking.

The internet is useful but it is addictive and doesn't lend to self discipline. I mean, a pop up box isn't going to jump up after 40 minutes with a message saying "Hey dude you are wasting your fecking life sitting there watching this shit, do something, get up off that fat arse and be a human." Now that would of been interesting if it did. If the giant corp Microsoft had taken into account what they had helped created was a monster which is slowly vegetating a lot of humanoids into lardy lumps.  I know I can't live my life like this.  I can't just sit here and do nothing and as the clock ticks by I still do nothing, even tidying my room would be a fine and progressive thing. I did at one time try and say to myself I should throw away a thing out of my room to help tidy it up as often as possible, and there is a hell of a lot of things in it. Be they books galore, clothes, stationary, and so on.  I thought about getting a flat bed scanner then the idea would of been to scan every book so it could be thrown away. As long as there was a copy and one which didn't take up the same amount of space. Strange how we like to surround ourself with stuff which ultimately just collects dust is used a few times and then neglected. Unlike Harvey my ukulele, who gets picked up and used most days. Yes he's a slut and I'm
sure he likes it when I give him a chunk or two.

The thing is you have to move forward in life, it is necessary to be going somewhere, doing something. Mostly for me this has been trying to better my self education. Yet with all these books reading them and then putting into practice the lessons they teach are different things. Indeed sometimes they don't teach lessons at all the talk about stuff which has happened but may only be applicable in the very specific circumstances that same stuff did happen. I know doing one thing is boring, such as reading a book, so it is not normal for me to immerse myself in a single book at the behest of everything else.  A little bit of ukulele and a overly large bit of the internet is happening.  It is for me to get myself out of this diabolical situation because that bloody pop up sign just isn't working at the moment. I remember there was one time when your browser would be hijacked by advertising sites and before you knew it twenty or thirty browser windows would be open trying to sell you anything from artichokes to zebras, which is an exaggeration but you know what I mean. I didn't put sex because this is a given.

Well since January 2015 I have been doing something proactive. During a little part of my day. It has

been walking and remarkable have lost about 20 pounds in weight. Though it doesn't always feel it.  But the walking is only a small part of my day, given part of the day is spent sleeping I'm just not getting VFM (Value for money) for the rest of it. Like the TV the internet is probably one of the best and one of the worst things ever invented, and like the TV we have become puppets to the puppet masters. I got to get out of this rut. Switch the damn thing off, anything and find my new purpose. One of my own making. 

The ukulele walking playing guru has left the house.

Not quite talking - Princess J

Princess J is approaching a point of talking, not quite there but almost there. She will be stringing even more sentences along in the next few months. She is also the most loud little Princess ever, especially when she does not get her own way. Such as ice creams and chocolate eggs which she seems to be addicted to, she also has in unbelievable amount of energy never stopping.

While outside entertaining Princess J, which is the only thing adults are useful for in her eyes I learnt how to run after her with a skipping rope. She held one end and I held the other, she would then run up and down a strip of grass with me behind her. For some reason this was a very funny thing to do, she loved it. Whereas poor 50 plus man was absolutely shattered on account of not getting much sleep the previous night, getting up about 3 a.m. because the cat wanted out. But it don't matter because when I'm in Scotland it seems I'm everyone bitch. Sparkling eyes is constantly reminding me how exhausting and wonderful it is to be a human entertainment centre for Princess J.  Sparkling enjoys seeing Princess J develop with her own character, and there's one thing for sure Princess J has a loud personality.

For example, when Rock Chick (mum) had promised the Princess a ice lolly after tea it was as a means of bargaining to get Princess J to eat her tea. Unfortunately the freezer had no ice lollies left. At this point Princesses expectations were dashed on the rocks and a full meltdown ensued. It was bloody, loud and involved a lot of crying and screaming.  The poor thing really doesn't like to be disappointed. Sparkling (nan) saved the moment, and put on her firm and obedient voice, telling the little Princess to be calm she would go and get some lollies and be back shortly. In fact she told Princess to stay by the window and watch her as she went to the shop and came back.  Returning from the shop Sparkling stood outside the window and showed Princess the box of ice lollies. Princess J was then very happy and her meltdown had passed. Another time as the Princess had a melt down Sparkling again put on her authority voice put the Princess in her bedroom and left her there. The Princess being a little unhappy with this bashed her door and then threw herself on her bed as if exhausted. After all, such loud and energetic emotions must take it out of you. She had calmed down and went into stroppy mode.

I think the emotional and terrible two's people talk about are due to toddlers not being able to fully express themselves in speech.  They get frustrated and they also don't understand concepts or realities, they have what Freud would say all Id and a bit of Ego.  The Id being the basic raw desires to be satisfied. Well that's my interpretation. Princess J is so funny in many ways and she is such a joy to everyone around her, but she does have a little devil side to and doesn't do as she is told. Which is only right as well got for even as adults none of us like to be told what to do, more so as a child.

As for me I am pops and Princess J has me round her little finger. She's beautiful.

Ukulele playing as a habit

I have now been playing Harvey (ukulele) for between two and three years. It was one of those things
I've always wanted to do, play an instrument not in particular the uke.  Getting some advice from someone who knew about these things he suggested the uke. It had been playing on my conscience for about a year where I didn't actually get one.  The I told Sparkling I wanted a uke and she got me Bertha for Christmas.  Bertha was my first uke. I've only got the two, but Bertha has pride of place as the first, she is a sexy fat looking soprano, black and glossed.  After a mad few months of playing Bertha the finger tips on my left hand developed callouses and I lost some feeling because of it. It didn't matter because I enjoyed playing her.  In the first days I was picking her up and playing serious periods of time between five and eight hours.  There was just so much to learn and there still is so much to learn.  But I am settled into an understanding this is something which will take time and I will get there and get to the standard I want to be.  I still can not read music, but am not worried too much as my belief is to get real practice and real play time first. It will all eventually come together, I've tipped my toes into the waters of reading tabalature which is a little like real music but not quite there.

So now, if I can most evenings I will try and get about one  hours' play on Harvey. There are some days where I don't get to practice and there are other days where I get more than an hour worth of practice, but I'm still guessing to average an hour or perhaps a little more. Especially considering those early crazy days.  Even now at weekends I will try and fit in more than an hour on Harvey each day.  It is so much fun just playing and also singing along to a song I've listened to and digested from Youtube.  Youtube is great as I watch tutorials put on there from people who know a lot more than I do. Sometimes I will just trawl other peoples's cover versions of a song to see how they have interpreted them.  Learning to play an instrument and learning to sing with it at the same time is an incredibly difficult feat, especially if you have no experience of it before.  Talk about rubbing my tummy and patting my head.  It has been more like rubbing my tummy, patting my head, walking a tight rope and watching milk while it is on the boil.  There is so much to understand about timing and getting the lyrics right.  About understanding the strum pattern how it might change in a song or how not to strum.  Sometimes it is about not strumming or killing the music, just for a moment so you can move on.

As for the brain well, playing a musical instrument is the most demanding and exciting thing a brain can do. Apparently there is a firework of neurons going off when the whole thing is put together. Which sounds like something to beat off the old age senility factor or a 50 plus year old.  My hair may go grow thin and grey, it may even sprout out of my ear holes but at least the brain is still active and working like a finely tuned ukulele.

Playing Harvey has become a habit a wonderful habit I love very much, different from most anything else I have done in my life. Sometimes you just have to do something very different. It makes me feel good and happy as well.  In the very early days I would sit there strumming away and laughing my head off because my vocal tuning was so wrong and timing was ridiculous.  Fortunately slight improvement after slight improvement has meant I can now play a recognisable song.  I might not be laughing at myself as much but I sure do love and enjoy it.

So if you like doing something which gives satisfaction and enjoyment and does not harm other people, then go ahead and do it.  Pick up a uke and a new adventure will begin, oh and it helps if the neighbours don't mind.