Ed's Technobabble

Today I graduated in pouring Guinness. Okay.. So did everyone else. But it was a fun thing to do at the Guinness storehouse. We also learned how to drink Guinness. Surprisingly enough, I've been doing it wrong. Just changing my head and arm postion did change the flavor. No joke. Okay. As pointed out by a friend of mine Queenie.. It seems that I've been talking a bit much about Guinness. I just wanted to point that we've done other things. Tomorrow we're going to Jameson's distillery. And as Jeremy Clarkston would say.. On that bombshell, goodnight!

I love Guinness. I used to do work for it in college. Sure, I'll look at your computer.. That'll be a four pack of guiness please. And it does taste better here, but I am a man of variety. So tonight I broke away and tried another Irish beer. I figured I had already had three Guinness at lunch, so it's not like I'm abandoning my old friend, I'm just talking to the other people in the room. I tried a Kilkenny. Although I've seen It in the states, I've never had it. Might as well get it from the source. It was a malty, red, light, not very hoppy beer. Very drinkable. I may have to pick some up when I get home. I also had some Bulmers because thought it was a bit interesting that looked like Magners. Turns out Magners is in fact Bulmers outside of Ireland due to some trademark dispute. So I really had the original branded cider that I've been having all along. Of course there was more to the day than drinking, but these are my random musings. So you get wha

Well. For those have read my travel blogs before. You may know that I don't like to tell you about the regular touristy stuff. I try to share the experience. With that being said, I'm not a writer. And I've very sarcastic.... So we start out the trip with a bang. I got randomly picked at both opportunities to have my hands tested for explosives at the airport. The first time was fun. I was in half a daze, so the TSA guy noticed that I was just mimicking his moves, so he started making me play patty cake before I paid any attention and realized what happened. On the first leg of the plane ride, there was this French-Canadian lady with her daughter. She had a thick accent. I know this, because she liked to very loudly correct her daughter when she was just basically being a kid. For example.. "Mom, the plane is in the air. It must be magic!" "Noooooo Saraaaaahh.. The plane goes fast and it creates lift because of the wing shape."  "Mom, we've been

(I know this is posted way after the fact, but a friend of mind was commenting that it had been a while since I blogged, so time to get the keys moving again) As it turned out, Hostess and the unions could not agree on anything, and they went under. Who’s fault was it? Some blame the unions , some blame Hostess’s poor management . In the end, it probably was a number of reasons . Upon hearing the news, a few people at work decided to quickly go to the store and get some. They asked, “Hey Ed, want to go?” I honestly hadn’t had a hostess products in a while since they were pretty much whipped sugar, corn syrup and shortening. I’ve been trying to eat healthier, and that doesn’t sound like the makings of a healthy diet. I know I don’t normally eat them but this will be my last chance… “Sure….” People overheard us and threw money at us. “Can you get us Some Twinkies?”.. “Oh, you really are going? Get me a cherry pie, and some ding dongs” We all laughed, and thought there was no way

(Part one is here ) For those of you still with me.. Here are the details. Playing low notes are a bit hard. They do offer a low note enhancer that ships with the kit. Please note this is for the saxophone. Here is the support for the bell. It does not hold the neck of my sax very well. In order to get the support in without hitting my keys, I had to put it where only one row of the pegs are inserted. This doesn’t provide much stability, but does work. The bell support reaches in and pushes the low B key open. That makes for some interesting sounding notes. Now the whole sax seems to need be shifter higher than the case was designed for because of the shape of the neck. This creates another issue. The padding from the top will actually catch the octave key, and hold it open. There is one last issue with it. Looking at the picture above, the side keys are slightly higher than the hand hole allows access to. This means that some fingerings will not be accessible through t

To sum up the situation: I’ve been playing saxophone a lot lately my wife is currently finishing up her degree my sax is loud very loud at times very, very loud I decided to look at getting a saxophone mute. Brass mutes are easy. Cram a mute in the bell, its muted. With saxophones the sounds comes out everywhere. So there isn’t an easy way to mute it.. Until now. This came US Mail. The mailman brought it up to the door. The fact that it says “sax partner” on the side, got his attention. He didn’t want to ask, but human nature kicked in.. “This is for a saxophone right?” I explained what it is. You basically put your saxophone in it, and you plug your headphones into it so you can practice. He sighed a sigh of relief and was on his way. I should have said this was a Chinese knockoff of a real doll. This blog post may have a mixed audience. For the regulars, sorry if this goes in the weeds in music. For the music guys, sorry it isn’t as deep as you may want. It was packed a