Time After Time

Here is my guitar version of Time After Time.

New Original Song

It has certainly been awhile since I wrote something (2 years maybe).  Anyway, here is my latest creation.  I wrote the chords and melody on acoustic guitar then adapted it for electric guitar.  One major difference in my writing process this time was that I wrote the melody at the same time as the chord progression.  There are many advantages to this approach as you can hear the voices influence each other while you are writing.  I called it dimSong because the main theme involves a lot of diminished harmonies and I like Chinese food :)

Download dimSong

May 22 is "Being Wrong" Day

Apparently some think the end of the world is coming....... again.  Putting a date on judgment day is a risky business as everyone before has been wrong.  (Hence I am able to make this blog post)   Anyway, I am declaring May 22 as "Being Wrong" day.  On this day, a certain religious group will get to experience "wrongness".  And in my opinion, their response to the wrongness will give us an insight into everyone's troubled relationship with being wrong.  "We were almost right..."  "We were wrong but..."  "Not intended to be a factual statement" are likely responses.  


Let's remember that being wrong is a positive thing.  In fact, it is a great opportunity to make progress and change your mind about anything.  The alternative to being wrong is that you continue to believe the same things, which are wrong.  I will be surprised if they totally concede their point and just say, "We were wrong" with no qualifications.  But I will totally give them props if they do concede.  Also, I may be wrong as well.  Judgement day might actually be upon us.  I seriously hope not though as we are closing on May 25.  I don't recall anything in our contract of sale about what to do in the event of an apocalypse.  I imagine the seller would be pissed :)

Best response to avoid being wrong ever

"Not intended to be a factual statement" - I seriously laughed for about an hour when I first saw this.  I wish Kyl would have said this before this book was finished so that it could be used as an example.  It's pretty epic.  

Coffee as a litmus test

As you may or may not know, I love coffee.  Drinking a cup of well made coffee is a truly wonderful experience.  Therefore, I find myself evaluating dining establishments based on just their coffee sometimes.  This is probably not a good method (or a method at all).  However for some reason, it just seems compelling to me that if a place has good coffee then other things must be good as well.  I wanted to share a recent experience where Andrea and I met her sisters and niece in a NY restaurant for brunch.  The coffee came in a large stainless steel French press.  It was dark, frothy, and truly amazing to taste.  I had to pause for an Agent Cooper moment it was so good (see video below).  Needless to say, their food was quite excellent too.  I know it's easy to find examples of places with bad coffee but amazing food and visa versa, but grant me this bit of inductive reasoning for just one post.  Did you ever have something that was so good you became Agent Cooper as well?

Blind Mary

This is my performance of "Blind Mary" arranged by Pat Kirtley.  It is from his Irish Guitar CD/Book.  Hope you enjoy!

Africa

This has been a long time in the works, but it's finally done.  Hope you enjoy!


PS: Here is the direct link to the MP3, the quality is a bit better than the youtube version.

Outlook

Does anyone else find the adjectives Microsoft Outlook uses to sort your emails by size amusing?

Tiny - This can't even contain your long email signature, only an integer or two at most

Small - This is primarily used only for haiku or other short forms of poetry

Medium - Most boring emails fall into this category

Large - It is acceptable to have maybe 1 or 2 large emails a year

Very Large - A simple picture or animated frog gif will wind up here

Huge - You should be ashamed for having any emails in this category

Enormous - Terabytes of death will smite your inbox and crush all email servers within a 100 mile radius Godzilla-style

Best gift ever

Andrea and I have exchanged our gifts early this year so we could celebrate Christmas on our own before we travel to visit our families. Last night she gave me one of the best gifts ever:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroPress

This is one of the most efficient ways to make espresso/coffee I have ever seen. It is insane how good it is. I have had far worse espresso out of a machine. This basically renders them obsolete for only $30. I apologize for sounding like a salesman, but if you can't tell I have become fairly obsessed :) I am not the only one however as there is an annual world aeropress competition:

http://worldaeropresschampionship.wordpress.com/recipes/

Anyway, thanks again to Andrea for an amazing gift!

Villancico De Navidad

I thought it would be nice to record something for the Holiday season, so here you go. "Villancico de Navidad" by Barrios. It is a Christmas Carol. Hope you enjoy!

https://sites.google.com/site/peteguitarproject/recordings/villancicoDeNavidad.mp3

Amusing acronym of the day

There is a lot of technical troubleshooting involved in my job. So I have to ask "DYPII" types of questions:

DYPII = "Did you plug it in?"

for those fans of the IT Crowd DYTTIOAOA = "Did you try turning it on and off again?"

I think DYTTIOAOA is a bit long to take hold though :)

Finn MacCool's Reel

Here is a new recording of a Celtic song I have been playing for awhile now. Hope you enjoy!

Finn MacCool's Reel

Debt ceiling...

Andrea and I watched MSNBC last night for the election coverage mostly and I wanted to share a few funny observations we had:

First, Lawrence O'Donnell pummeled every single guest on the show about the debt ceiling and would they vote to raise it. If not, he assured them that society would cease to function and Armageddon would ensue. At first it was annoying. Then eventuallyI would have personally voted to raise the ceiling just to shut him up. I started to wish that the debt ceiling was a glass debt ceiling and could easily be cracked if necessary to pacify Lawrence. Admittedly, I know nothing about this issue. But it seemed kind of lame he was basically going pro life/choice with everyone on it. I will have to do more research to understand this issue.

Secondly, a moment of irony was pointed out by Olbermann when they interviewed Michele Bachmann and Eric Cantor. Each republican was very happy about the results of the election and was delivering their standard message of "The American people are tired of not being listening to.... etc" In fact so much so, that wouldn't answer any of the anchor's questions. THEY were not listening. It was pretty funny actually.

Fun times

Biweekly means every two weeks OR twice a week.

Bimonthly means every two months OR twice a month.

Therefore biweekly and bimonthly COULD mean the exact same thing. OR not. Why in the world would you define an adjective for frequency so loosely in terms of frequency??? Its not very helpful, because now that I know this I will always second guess how its being used. I guess you may second guess this now too. Sorry! Just say twice a week or twice a month instead. Then everybody is clear.

Weekend guitar recordings

I felt inclined to record a few short classical pieces this morning. Hope you enjoy! More to come...

Tarrega Prelude No. 5

Giuliani Op. 51 #2

Closure

It's official now. I do not have a soul. That doesn't mean I can't pick up a used soul with low miles at some point though :)

Congratulations to Andrea!

Today, Andrea's promotion was announced to her team. She has been promoted to Sr. eLearning Designer. I just wanted to take a moment and say how proud I am of her. I am extraordinarily lucky to be married to someone who is not only intelligent, beautiful and talented, but very successful in her career as well.

"The Science of Fear"

I have been listening to "The Science of Fear" by Daniel Gardner (on Craig's recommendation, thanks again!). It has been really good so far and has enlightened me on the various industries who have a vested interest in fear. We basically live in the safest, healthiest society so far, yet people are more fearful than ever. Why is this?

Fear is profit and with the most advanced marketing research available, you can bank on being scared (and so can they). For example, if crime rates are going down, then we don't need as big of a police budget for next year. If people diet and exercise regularly, then they wouldn't need to buy as many drugs from the pharmaceutical companies to protect them from evil diseases. I hope this also brings various political campaigns to mind as well. There are a lot of people who stand to profit from the public being afraid of whatever suits their interests. It is our responsibility to investigate and see if these risks are really as scary as the news and advertisers would have us believe.

Ironically, boring things like driving in a car, heart disease, or swimming in a pool are much more of a threat than most things portrayed on the news from a statistical standpoint (e.g., restless leg syndrome, shark attacks, or road rage). Imagine the following headline, "Crime is decreasing and people are living longer than ever. Sleep tight America....." Boring! If I had cable I would change the channel.

This got me thinking on a broader scale. It would seem to me that being happy and content with who you are and what you have in life would make you less likely to be manipulated by various types of salesmen. Life is pretty good, at least for me. If I am "OK" and not upset about anything in particular, I have no need to search for an appropriate resolution. However if I am afraid of some new illness, political issue, or just plain death, I will be more likely to talk to my doctor about the pills on TV, support some politician's cause, or go to church. Concern should ideally be proportional to the actual statistical risk associated with a claim, not the perceived risk.

You are the only person who can benefit from the following motto, "Don't worry, be happy." Well, you and Bobby Mcferrin :)

New job

Big news for me....I have recently accepted a job with Wyndham Worldwide in Parsippany NJ. It has been a bit crazy the last two weeks, but also very exciting. My last day at KPMG is 10/1, which is my birthday btw. I am excited about my new role as an instructional designer and working with the new team. Also, this job is only 5 miles away (substantially closer than KPMG which is 42). So there is a decent amount of time I will get back in the day. However, I have to mention that I will sincerely miss my friends at KPMG. They are some of the best people I have ever known and I hope that we still keep in touch. Brief shout out: I love you everyone!

Being Wrong

I just finished this book and wanted to say that it was quite good. It is not a lame self help book, but rather a systematic look at everyone's troubled relationship to wrongness. I would highly recommend it.

For an exercise in wrongness, please try the following the next time you are mistaken about something. Don't worry it should be soon :) Admit to yourself and others that you were wrong, period. Do not say you were wrong but or explain how you were almost right. Just, I was wrong. It is surprisingly empowering.