While I am reconstructing my blog I came across this video.  It combines two things I love, Jane Austen and the movie Fight Club.  What more could you ask for?

When I was a kid I got a stylophone for Christmas.  I played with it for weeks.  Eventually it broke and was forgotten.  My wife was tooling around the dark corridors of the Interweb and found that they still sell them.  I want one!! 

She then saw some videos on Youtube of a beatbox and realized that was the instrument for her.  We are ordering both and plan to have some serious fun making music.  

Now that they are ordered we are getting seriously inspired.  Here is a nice demo of the Stylophone and Beatbox.

  I just found out that my musical hero, Roy Book Binder is coming to Nighttown May 27th!

  For those of you who don't know Roy.  Here is a little info.

An often stirring folk/blues guitarist and vocalist, Roy Book Binder's been playing country blues since the mid-'60s, when he began recording for Blue Goose. Greatly influenced by Rev. Gary Davis and Pink Anderson, Book Binder played in East Coast coffeehouses in the early '60s, then began accompanying Rev. Davis on tours in the mid-'60s. He also played with Larry Johnson, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Homesick James. Besides constant concerts and tours, Book Binder's made additional recordings for Blue Goose, as well as Adelphi and Rounder. 

From Allmusic.com

  I've been a big fan of Roy's and studied with him at Jorma Kaukonen's Furpeace Ranch.   If you have any interest in acoustic blues or if you just like a good storyteller then Roy is the man.  I'll be there and I hope you are too.

Went to the oral surgeon today and I am seriously impressed.  The procedure was done with local anesthesia and was totally painless.  The only odd part was when he was hitting the chisel with a hammer.  Good thing I had my eyes closed and I was in my happy place.

I feel good and I'll be going back to to work tomorrow.  It's good to get back to normal.

I cracked a wisdom tooth and need it removed.  The pain is surprising.  The dentist tells me it will be an easy removal compared to the one I had removed fifteen years ago.  I am so thankful for vicodin.  I don't expect any problems but I hate missing three days of work.

I'm getting it removed today so I should be back to normal soon.   

I've been listening to a lot of great music lately.  One band that caught me by surprise is Pomplamoose.  They do a fantastic cover of Lady Gaga's Telephone.

I love the video and like their version over Lady Gaga's. 

I've had a bunch of people asking me if I've given up on the blog and the answer is a resounding NO.

Let's catch up.

The reason I started this blog initially was to share my short stories.  That has worked out wonderfully with some great responses.  My story, Enchanted Luncheon Meat is a hit with everyone who reads it.  Over the past months while I've been away from the blog I've been writing every day.  Soon I'll start putting up some of the better stories.

One of the things I've been doing is really playing guitar.  I've been playing for years but decided to get serious and I can see a significant difference.  Not only has my fingerstyle acoustic blues come along, so has my slide playing.  I'm finally getting where I want to be.

This site is in transition.  Soon I'll be moving it to a new host and I plan on revamping the entire site.  I have a lot of ideas that I hope everyone likes.  As you see new things let me know what works.  This site is a dialogue between me and the readers.  I'm really looking forward to the future.  Things are looking up.

One of my younger brothers is in the hospital recovering from surgery from colon cancer.  He seems to be doing well and the family has been supportive.  My nieces went to the trouble of having Thanksgiving dinner a week early so that he could enjoy it.  My sister and my nieces have worked hard to keep the family intact.  I'm grateful.

My grandfather Clarence Bott had colon cancer and died of it in 1937, he was only forty-two.  He was adopted by Jaob Bott and it's possible that his father died of colon cancer and that is the reason for the adoption.  My father was only thirteen when his father died.  In 1970 my uncle Bob died from the disease, again at age forty-two.  In 1992 Bob's son, also named Bob, died at age thirty-five.  My older brother Brad got colon cancer and had surgery but died of a heart attack while recovering.  He was only forty-eight.

There have been other kinds of cancer in the family and other problems.  I read a report saying this defective gene also expresses itself in ovarian cancer.  One of my sisters and other relatives have contracted that.

My father died in a car accident when he was forty-two years old.  He had the defective gene and there is a good chance he would have come down with colon cancer had he lived.

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Not long ago a representative from Human Resources came to our center telling us that the company would be offering us health care if we retired.  The rule thus far had been that we couldn't get health care until we turned fifty-five.  We could collect our pension anytime after thirty years of service but no health care.  This change was incredible and meant I could retire in the coming year.

We didn't receive our promised information packets in the mail and eventually we were told that the health care was being offered but not to our center.  The announcement had been a mistake.

The letdown was substantial.

Now I have to wait until I'm fifty-five.  That will give me thirty-seven years with the company. I am not complaining.  I know innumerable people who would love to be able to retire at fifty-five.  Working another sixteen months will be more of an annoyance than a hardship.

As I've written, my genetic history give me a sense of urgency.

I read once. At fifty you still have time, but no time to waste.  Truer words were never spoken.

I love my Ipod Touch.

I have hundreds of photos, thousands of songs, full length movies, tv shows and applications on it. One thing that has frustrated me is that unlike the Iphone the Touch has no camera or microphone.  I carry a camera (plus there is one in my phone) so that didn't bother me but the missing microphone annoyed me.  Many applications demand one.

I did a search of the internet and found a great microphone called ThumbTacks Micro-Microphone .   I read the reviews, ordered it and it was shipped the next day.  Three days later it arrived.  It is tiny and looks like a thumbtack.

I plugged it in and was disappointed with the sound quality with the app that came with the Itouch so I downloaded an app from Griffin called Italk Lite.  The improvement in sound quality is amazing.  You can choose good, better or best quality.  Plus you can pause and restart the recording.  You can append recordings too.  You can name and save the recording.  I downloaded an application that allows you to wirelessly transmit the recordings to your computer.

I'm impressed by the quality of the recording plus I can now use some great apps.  I downloaded an app that turns the Itouch into an electronic guitar (or banjo) tuner.

If you own an Ipod Touch I can't imagine a better way to spend $12.99