Day 211 progress

I've passed the 20% point.  I've been working steadily on whatever I can fit into my free time.

 

6. Earn a promotion: I updated my resume a couple of weeks ago just to make it current with my position at work and to reflect some of my more recent accomplishments.

I have my eyes open for a job that hasn't posted yet, but I may bail ship to go to something completely different.  I'm spending more time complying with ridiculous "management" requests rather than running my team, which inevitably results in the team falling behind, and my having to work twice as hard just to catch up.

I am certain that I have no interest in moving up in the management food-chain.

 

7. Grow my hair out again: I've trimmed my hair a couple of times since March.  I've been keeping the underside short while letting the top grow out, similar to a circa 1992 Trent Reznor look.  I'm pretty happy with it because it stays more manageable while it grows out.

 

25. Listen to every one of my tracks on iTunes: My total is now 2201 of 5902.  I listen whenever I'm at my computer and have made some decent progress over the past few weeks.

 

38. Eat at least 1 serving of fruit everyday for a month: I've been eating a lot of oranges, kiwi, and honeycrisp apples lately.  I did try one of the watermelons that we grew in our garden, and it was pretty good.  I have one week left before this item is complete.

 

39. No fast food for 90 days in a row (COMPLETED): I completed this item on 9/7/07.  I haven't eaten any fast food since the 9th, and really don't plan to do so anytime soon.

 

40. Refrain from ingesting alcohol for 90 days: I've reached day 50.  This one will be easy to complete, but I will be looking forward to having a beer while watching football when this item is complete.

 

42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: I finished Farenheit 451.  I liked the novel, and liked the fact that the scope of the story was contained and didn't wander off into too much musing about the nature of oppression, censorship, or the effect of mass media.  I think that the way the novel was written did an effective job of conveying the appropriate ideas.

I started reading Never Enough: The Story of the Cure.

 

51. Save $1 cash each day for 1001 days: I set aside another $8 for a total of $264.

 

90. Attend a high school football game (COMPLETED): Claudia and I attended the Richardson Berkner vs. Duncanville game on 9/7/07.  It was a pretty good game, and ran into two overtimes.  At the end, Berkner lost 40-41 in overtime.

 

91. Attend a Mavericks game: Claudia bought preseason tickets to see the Mavs vs. the Spurs.  The game is on October 9th.

 

95. Completed 100 expert level Sudoku games without hints: Over the past few weeks, I completed 20 more games bringing my total to 80 of 100.

 

98. Go to 5 concerts: Claudia and I saw the Queens of the Stone Age on 9/16/07 at the House of Blues in Dallas.  The venue was really nice, even if they only took cash for food.  The balcony is constructed so that anyone sitting in it can see the stage clearly.

The band played a variety of songs from all of their albums, and were extremely tight throughout the set.  Josh Homme, the guitarist and front man, seemed a bit bewildered and shocked at the reception that they received.  He made comments about how the Austin crowd at ACL and their club show the night before seemed bored and uninterested in their set.  The crow in Dallas was completely into the show, and I think it shocked the band a bit.

The opening act, Dax Riggs and the Wolf-headed Whores, were terrible.  I can only describe them as "Stoner Folk-Emo".  The lyrics were horrible, and usually a trite phrase repeated over and over, such as "living is suicide".  Real deep stuff.  The singer, Dax Riggs, apparently styled himself as a combination of Jeff Buckley and Jack White, with very little success at pulling it off.  Avoid at all costs.

Claudia also purchased tickets to see Coheed and Cambria at the House of Blues in October.  Once we see that show, this item will be complete.

Day 189 progress

I'm making an attempt to post more often than every few weeks. If I post every few days it will encourage me to work more diligently on my list.

32. Upgrade my Squier '51 (COMPLETED): I've had all the necessary parts to finish this item, but I've been avoiding the last few steps, simply for the fact that the schematic of the audio circuit intimidates me a quite a bit. Well, I finally bit the bullet and tried to complete the wiring today. I went with my original plan of a volume knob, a tone knob, and a 5-way selector switch.

I thought I was doing ok, until I plugged in to my amp and had absolutely no sound come out. A bit frustrated by a few factors (pickup wire length and some confusion about the circuit), I decided to revert to the original wiring plan. Sure, it's not really what I want, but at the very least I managed to get it working on the first try. I still have most of the options of the planned circuit, with the exception of the tone control. I do plan on going back with some help and putting in the planned switch based circuit.

Here's a picture of the stock model:

Here's everything in the upgrade assembled:

I upgraded the following: nut, bridge, neck pickup (Lace Sensor Silver single coil), bridge pickup (Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom Custom Humbucker). I removed the old humbucker ring and replaced it with a chrome ring. I added a chrome ring for the neck pickup to keep the style consistent, and to make up for the fact that removing the pick guard left a large routing hole in the body under the pickup ring. I also took off the shiny finish and polished the body to a matte finish.

The guitar is strung with Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom nickel wound strings. Since this is a rhythm guitar, I like the extra bottom end that the strings provide, and yes, I only use four of the strings.

I removed the extra bridge saddles and the tuners so they wouldn't rattle. The spots where I filled in the pick guard screw holes don't look great, but they won't even be noticed by someone 15 feet away in a dim club.

The new pickups are amazing when compared to the stock pickups. This guitar went from being a nice cheap instrument to an absolute blowtorch. With my tube amp volume up to 20%, I have to back off the volume on the guitar to almost nothing to avoid pissing off the neighbors. I've only run it through a couple of overdrives and it sounds great in each case. My ultimate test will be to control the output with my Dynacomp while preserving the nice glassy sound that the compressor offers.

For my first ever refurbish/upgrade project, I'm pretty pleased with the results. When I tackle item 30 (Refurbish an old guitar), the lessons learned here will be very helpful. I think item 30 deserves a Les Paul, although I'm also open to either a Gibson 335 style body or a Telecaster. We'll see how I feel at the time, and what I can get a hold of without spending a mint on the project.

38. Eat at least one serving of fruit everyday for one month: I've started over on this item. I had a peach on the way home from work today. I plan on keeping up with this item to avoid another restart.

40. Refrain from ingesting alcohol for 90 days: So far I've made it 28 days of 90. I really would like an occasional glass of wine or beer, but it's more a desire for a flavor diversion than an actual desire for alcohol.

42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: I finished reading The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd. It was a pretty good read, although the sections covering movies, books, and websites were less interesting than the history section. I was somewhat annoyed and amused at times by the author's predilection to certain phases of the Floyd's styles or performances. I have the suspicion that the author was a pro-Waters fan, although he did lean to the Gilmour side of the internal conflict a bit at times. All in all, a great read if long in parts. It's an essential for any Pink Floyd fan who wants a solid look at the history of a rather mysterious band.

I started reading Farenheit 451. I'm somehow managed to have missed out on anything written by Bradbury (and Azimov for that matter) up to this point in my existence. I figure that this is a "classic", and so deserves a read. I'm in a rediscovery phase regarding science fiction, and will probably pick up some of the "essentials" that I've missed over the years.

61. Organize the garage with shelving and storage: I didn't install any shelving and storage, but I did start the process by cleaning out some random garbage items and by breaking down some empty boxes that were just taking up space.

I do know that I want to install a workbench of some sort. I've been assembling guitar effects in my office, and while it's a comfortable place to work, it just isn't appropriate for the sanding and painting portion of the builds. A workbench would also allow me to keep all my tools in one centralized location rather than scattered across my drawers, the closet, and other locations in the office.

95. Complete 100 expert level Sudoku games without hints: I completed 1 more game for a total of 61 games out of 100 completed.