This morning I went to get my drivers license renewed and with taking the written test, the entire process took less than an hour. The key apparently is to get there as close to when they open as possible. This will serve you in two ways: 1) the people are still relatively friendly and 2) most people who don't work are lazy so they don't get up early and those that have to work are AT work. All resulting in fewer jack-asses for me to deal with. :-)
Everything costs money and to renew your license costs $10. No big deal, but how surprised was I to see the sign that is the title of my blog today? It reminded me of this episode of Futurama that I saw not too long ago. The main character, Fry, is frozen accidentally and is unfrozen 1,000 years in the future. So he goes shopping and wants to use a credit card.
"Do you take Visa?"
"No sir. Visa went out of business 800 years ago."
"Mastercard?"
"No sir. Mastercard went out of business 500 years ago."
"American Express?"
"No sir. American Express went out of business 300 years ago."
"Discover?"
"No, I'm sorry, we don't take Discover."
Ha, that cracks me up just thinking about it. Discover exists but they still don't accept it.
Anyway, back to the DMV. Apparently all of my studying paid off as I was the first person with a perfect score (hopefully she was just talking about today!). Passed the vision test and got that restriction removed from my license too. Good stuff. Even took a decent picture!
Then I headed over to the auto repair place to have them check my car which is running "rough" since they changed my oil last week. Even Ricardo agreed that it was a problem. After talking to the guy there about the problem and having him listen to the car, he started going through the potential problems. I said which of those are likely to be related to the oil change? He said none of them. So why would the noises start only after the oil change? He says it's probably "Irodict". Hmmm, now I'm not the most versed person in auto care (though I just had a perfect score on my driver's exam), but I do know some things and I've never heard of "irodict" as a car problem. So I said, what's irodict and what's involved with fixing it? He said that he didn't know, it was just irodict that it happened after the oil change. Ooooooooh, on goes the light bulb above my head. "You mean it's a coincidence." I said. And with that, I took the car and left as they had no interest in taking responsibility for the noises. It's tough to find a good mechanic anywhere, much less in a big city like Chicago and it appears that these folks are no better than anyone else. Time to move on.
Fingertips hurt a bit from guitar last night. We had a substitute teacher, Nathaniel, who supposedly teaches intro classes but treated us as much more advanced. I think he gave us four new chords (on top of our two) and then had us try to use three to four of them in songs. Ugh. That's too much for an hour long class. Especially just the second one.
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9 comments:
I haven't had any classes with Nathaniel, but he's supposed to be quite sharp -- I know some instructors who want to learn from him.
Anyway, keep on practicing. Word of advice -- keep the guitar out, on the wall, on a stand, wherever. Your case is like a coffin; if you keep it there, you won't take it out as often as you should.
Isn't your class 90 minutes (8-9:30)???
--dJF
Yeah, it's actually 1:20, but he was a little late and then tuned everyone's guitar and then we stopped a bit early because he sensed the frustration I think.
He seems like a good guy, just pushes you a little bit much early on.
You're right about the guitar. The bigger issue is my middle finger on my left hand! It still hurts.
One of the few areas where New Mexico has actually had some better ideas is with the DMV. They have outsourced the renewal and licensing process to numerous private companies who do it for you substantially quicker at locations all over the city and state for a small fee.
If you have ever seen any paperwork done on an episode of the flinstones, that is exactly how they do things here in NM as well.
Your fingers are going to kill you for a while. I was getting lessons from an active musician in Cali and it was all business from the get. They will feel bettter at some point.
I know a great mechanic- he is so awesome he will even show you what he took out of your car and explain to why it needs to be replaced. He is way on the north side though. Foster and Western
Stef, these folks are at 5600 north broadway, so Foster and Western is not a stretch at all. If you don't mind, shoot me his info in an email. Thanks!
I was prepared for the aching fingers mentally Tim, but now that I'm actually experiencing the pain, I've realized I'm NOT prepared. I know it will get better, but it'll take a bit.
If you haven't already, go and get yourself a tuner. They run about $20.
--dJF
Once you get some callouses formed you'll be okay. When I was playing, I had to play everyday and in about 2-3weeks I had some nice Callouses going. If your fingers bleed...you are playing too much!
I bought a tuner before my lessons even started djf! My brother in law of all people asked why I didn't go buy a tuner when I used that as an excuse as to why I wasn't playing. I didn't know they existed! The one I bought is one that you attach to the guitar and it picks up the vibrations. Good stuff.
The callouses are starting to form bee. I played last night for about 20 minutes even though my one finger still hurt at the tip. It's ok, but feels weird. Definitely no bleeding. No way I'd keep playing if that happened.
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