Good News
There's no high drama nor amazing story nor riveting entertainment
in this shaogo daylog so for
those of you seeking that, look elsewhere:
Drama: visit a non-Leather bar
frequented by male homosexuals. Wait around until someone breaks a finger nail.
Amazing Story: visit a Leather gay bar and listen
to a man wearing Biker boots, chaps, studded belt and perhaps matching
wristlets, leather vest and leather visor-equipped cap tell you (or someone
else for that matter) about the time he had sex with a celebrity.
Riveting Entertainment: don't visit a gay bar. Read the catbox.
THIS WRITEUP CONTAINS NOTHING, NOT A WHIT, NOT A CHIRP, ABOUT POLITICS. (BUT IT DOES BRIEFLY DISCUSS DRUGS).
I've stopped counting the days since I started on my new medicine. It's
really a "wonder drug," just as my doctor had told me. I will inform him Monday
that I regret that I doubted him. I thought, in the back of my mind, that he'd
told me it would work "magic" for mere placebo effect value. Who knows? Maybe
that's what either the good doctor or God knew I needed to hear. Who knows, the
both may be colluding to make me a better, healthier person. (If you doubt this,
I beseech you to meet with my doctor for ten minutes and then you'll take back
the "pshaw!" you just uttered. My psychiatrist ought to be a candidate
for sainthood, particularly for attempting to address the mess that is better known as what's left of my
brain function). But the good news is that I feel very good, in a holistic
sense. Much more so than I have in a long, long time.
If what I feel is what it's like to be normal, hell, I'm glad. If it's a wee bit of drug-induced manic
behavior (energy the likes of which I don't recall having for years) then that's
great. If it's exhilaration at being free from the long, "natural
bad trip" I've been on, hell, it'll wear off but I'm sure I'll be fine anyhow.
Buying Professional Audio Equipment is a Bigger Hassle Than Buying a New Car
A while ago, our partner and I taught my wife what a purchase order is and
how it is part of an effective system of financial control. Whatever possessed
me to add to our financial system one more thing I dreaded about working for a
corporation, I can't tell you. It must have been the work of Satan. I'd become
possessed by demons for a moment.
The good news is that I received, yesterday, a purchase order nearing five
figures for an upgrade of sound and lighting equipment for my division of our
company; I'm the one who books talent and then produces concerts. Our
musical shows had recently become quite a lot like early television programming with
nothing missing but the visual of a test
pattern. Pops, the nails-on-blackboard sound of audio feedback, muddy,
uninteresting sound; we had it all. What once was quite nice to listen to and
easy to adjust had become as intolerable to the trained ear as the equipment
owned by even the worst of my competitors. Without getting into the technology
of what was wrong with our system, suffice it to say that it was as dependable
as a car that's got over two hundred thousand miles on it. And not a very good
car, either.
It took quite a while to shop around and come up with estimated costs for
equipment. Sony's professional audio equipment is to performance audio
what a Rolls-Royce is to cars. I'd have needed five times what I'm going to
spend to get a Sony system that does the same thing. The Ferraris and Maseratis of audio
equipment are for home audiophiles; not the rigors of production. So suffice it to say
that in my business there's nothing better than a Rolls-Royce, technically
speaking.
I made up my mind to specify Yamaha equipment wherever possible. They're
the sound equipment equivalent of, let's say, a Lexus. There are other, lesser
brands which have a lot of cred but are closer in quality and performance to an
Acura.
Pre-purchase order research of internet-based vendors revealed all kinds of
deals, much lower than MSRP. Then, armed with model numbers and pricing I ran
off this morning to visit the brand-new store of my old friend. He's been
prospering. I found out why. He beat the price on some of the stuff I'd
specified, and even better, pointed me toward ways to accomplish what I needed
to do in ways that were more economical than what I'd planned.
I drove off with a half a mini-van full of boxes. The contents of the boxes
cost a third of my budget. Only thirty per cent. Words cannot
describe the glee this gave my wife and our partner. And to myself, of course,
because this means I can buy far more...
Toys
I've re-worked the plan for the system, including the diagrams, charts and other graphic renderings of specifications that I
am so extremely fond of creating. After I'd driven back with the boxes full of
stuff, I returned to my friend's audio store and hung out, drinking coffee,
smoking a cigarette or two, and trying out more fun stuff. It's kinda like the
audio nerd's equivalent of a car buff's being able to test drive anything in the
lot, whether he or she is there to make a purchase or not.
Now, I'm not stupid. Mentally ill, yes. But not stupid. Because the purchase
order was approved so quickly and without the usual whimpering, I decided I'd
encumber it all, and then some, and really turn our showplace into, well, a
showplace.
It's now nearly two o'clock in the morning and I'm filled with that "day
after Christmas" syndrome that children get. You know, "I've put up with all the
festivities and the socializing (in my case, within this model, a busy Saturday
night at the restaurant) and now I want to play!" Suffice it to say I'm gonna be
having some fun prior to tomorrow's six o'clock show.
I only wish that those of you with as much enthusiasm about such things could
share what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow. There will be photos, definitely; and
also video if I can get a helper to run the camera. Heck, I need to have this
for my portfolio of installations, because until now I was like the cobbler
whose children had holes in their shoes.
Tomorrow my children will be
wearing Gucci loafers.