Ukulele: My First Chords, Strumming, and a New Tuner

I've goofed around with the new ukulele off and on for a week retuning it constantly. Tuning with an iPod Touch app isn't easy, but it works. The strings are pretty well broken in now. I only need to tune it slightly every half hour or so.

Not really loving the strings that came with it. They are nylon, and the C string doesn't have a lot of tension on it making it twangy. Is that a standard musical term?

Aquila corde armoniche

After a bit of Googling , I decided I may as well get my finger tips in shape, so I started looking for Aquila Nylgut Soprano regular tuning strings. They are synthetic, but are formulated to feel as much like gut strings. I'll probably need to polish the frets so they are smooth and well rounded or these strings won't last long.

I emailed our local music shop to see if they had any, and that I'd like to restring before we go camping this weekend. They emailed back they had some GHS and Martin strings. Here's the great thing about Schafer's House of Music, he went ahead and ordered some Aquila strings and emailed me back again they would probably be in tomorrow. That's my kind of customer service.

Snark!

Got a nice surprise from my family tonight. They had to stop at Schafer's to get Lydia's marching band flute repaired before band camp. They bought me a Snark clip-on chromatic tuner. Makes a world of difference!

Tonight I started learning a couple of chords; C major and F major. C major is a piece of cake. Third finger, first string, third fret. F major is a bit more difficult with my fat fingers, but doable. I tried G major for a few minutes but decided to focus on C and F for now. Started switching between C and F major while just strumming down. Not too bad.

Decided I should at least try to add a more complex strum; down, down-up, up-down. The first down is the same length of time as the second down-up and third up-down. 

After an hour and a half I had to give it a rest. My fingertips are sore. I know they will get tougher with time. Yet another reason to do finger-tip pushups at the dojo.

Maybe in a week or so I'll post a video. I'd like to record something each week just so I can look back someday to see how truly awful I was.

Hai! I Haz Ukulele

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Yes! I know this is NOT the proper grip

Yes, I haz a ukulele. I've never, at any time in my life, and I suspect in any prior lives, ever attempted to play a musical instrument of any form.

So why on earth did I buy one? Well, I have several reasons.

It's on my bucket list

I don't really have a bucket list, but if I did, I imagine playing a musical instrument would be on it.

It's far less annoying than the accordion

I believe there is a special place in hell for squeezeboxes and those who play them. I'm also not of French decent. I'm mostly English, Scottish, and German. Yes, I think bagpipes are cool, and no they're nothing like accordions. Not even close.

It was inexpensive

I could have purchased on as cheap as $20 but it would have been little more than a toy. From what I've read they are really difficult to fret properly and sound like a toy. I'd love to drop a couple of hundred on a good one, but thought it would be prudent to go with a $40 Kala Makala MK-SD/GN Dolphin Bridge Soprano Ukulele. I can always blow money on a better one someday.

I can carry it around easily

The thing is only 21 inches long. Can't carry it around in my back pocket like a harmonica, but then I don't really want to play the harmonica.

My kids play instruments

Lydia plays the flute and Sean is into his first year of trombone. They get free instruction from school, have youthful reflexes, and plastic brains. Sean gets free private lessons from a dear friend of ours who has been playing for a gazillion years. I'm immensely jealous. I have no idea why I didn't want to do this when I was a kid. My sister played clarinette in school for a short time but the thought never crossed my mind. Been kicking myself since they started.

John Scalzi pays one

Not really a reason other than to say he has no shame and neither do I. :-)

Meet the Ukulele

John Scalzi and His Fabulous Ukulele Play The Radiohead Hit "Creep."

John Scalzi plays "Redshirt" on the ukelele

It's supposed to be easy to learn

Not sure if this is true or not. At least for me. There are plenty of beginner lessons on YouTube and a couple of web sites with tutorials. Meh, we'll see.

Online Ukulele Tuner
How to Tune a Ukulele
Play Hundreds of Songs With Just Three Chords!

I can learn to play the intro to Stairway To Heaven on it

As anyone from my generation (and most likely everyone since) knows, it is the obligatory main riff you must learn when playing a stringed instrument. How can you resist it?

Google Search: Ukulele Stairway To Heaven Tutorial

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Field Formats

This is my first post in a series titled "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011". I'll post issues and how I resolve them as I work on a CRM project I'm managing. Oh, and rants as well.

The field data types and formats are rather limited in MS CRM. As a programmer, I'm accustomed to having my cake and eating it too. One of the unfortunately frustrating aspects of using a solution framework is needing to work outside the borders. Things the framework handles natively, are inherently easy to do and a great time saver. Once you move out of that box, it can get dodgy. 

What I need is a positive decimal integer, not a number. What's the difference? A decimal number, in it's simplest form, is expressed only with digits - no group or decimal separators or signs. The Whole Number format in MS CRM uses the global number format settings and cannot be overridden at the field level. 

The workaround is to use a single line text field (the normalized database guru in me cringes) with a client side function that strips out anything other than digits from the form field. I don't care for it, but it's the best solution I've found so far.

At least in 2011 there is a mechanism in place to support function libraries. Schnell Kontakt, from Dynamics Consulting München, blogged how to call a function from a library of common JavaScript functions on the change event of a form field to handle this:

Re-usable JScript Libraries in Dynamics CRM 2011 Introduction: Web Resources and JScript Libraries 

Things From My Desk: Little Caesar Pizza Pizza Guy

My first job after college was a programmer for Little Caesar. I worked on a point of sale back office program. We had several test installations, so I spent some time in the field working out bugs with franchisees.

There was a marketing promotion in 1990 that offered this finger puppet. I still have three in the original plastic stuck in my sock drawer.

Things From My Desk: Spock Bobble Head

Spock is not impressed.

Things From My Desk: tiny coffee cup

I have a coffee cup collection from places I've worked at or clients I've worked for.

One day, at Strategic Interactive, Tia stopped by my desk and gave me this cup. I've kept it on my work desk ever since. She said she saw it and just couldn't resist getting it for me.

Things From My Desk: spill art

Something my son made in elementary school. The marshmallows are rather old but it still looks pretty good for its age.

Pop Up Camper

Our second trip out with a "new to us" pop up camper is finally starting to work out. It's a 1993 Flagstaff 618 Limited. It's a small pop up - no bathroom. There's two queen size bed pull-outs and the seating/table area converts to another bed. For an eight foot box it's rather roomy. It was well taken care of by the two previous owners and the canvas is in really good shape.

I spent last Saturday through Tuesday removing the cabinetry, repairing two broken chain drives, replacing a sprocket pin for the roof lift mechanism, realigning the roof posts, and then replacing all the cabinetry. Quite a chore in the heat we've been experiencing. I also removed the sink since we really don't want to use it and it gives us more space. 

Sheared sprocket pin

Yet another in-the-field repair to make

There, I fixed it! (temporarily)

On the 4th of July we arrived at our favorite local campground, Myers Lake United Methodist Campground, in Byron Michigan. The roof cranked up nice and easy. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for rustic camping. We had a nasty but brief thunderstorm the first night that took the electricity out at the campground and about 100,000 other Michigan residents. The canopy suffered some damage that I was able to temporarily "repair" with cable ties and duct tape. I'm afraid it won't last. Power didn't come back until early Saturday morning.

Fortunately for us we only live twenty minutes away. My daughter needed to go back home for her last driver's education test Friday so we all went home for a hot shower and some air conditioning before going back out Friday evening. We avoided the high for the day, somewhere around 100 degrees with winds of around two miles an hour.

Preparing dinner

The heat broke Saturday evening. We have a cool breeze and temps in the upper 80's. Not bad.

We had campfire pizza Saturday night. My large pizza stone split last trip, so I had to use the backup personal size pizza stones. Touchy to work with. You have to get the pie centered just right or it slides off the peel onto the grill.

Tools of the trade

Getting the oven ready

Rounds ready to toss

Pizza in the "oven"