Update

   We've been pretty busy. Moving really makes one aware of just how many hobbies and activities one has. Each one takes it's own gear and I seem to have acquired a lot of it.

   I think it's fair to say I have gotten back into homebrewing full-bore. I have not been able to establish and maintain a single day of the week as "Brew Day" with the hectic moving schedule, but I have managed to brew five batches so far and keep a couple of yeast packs going.

   In my resolutions I mentioned an expensive guitar that I was hoping to acquire this year. The other day I got a call from a local music store to inform me that they had one of these rare guitars in. I have not been able to save enough money to buy it, but I did go play it, made a deal, and had enough to put it on layaway. Unbelievable. This will likely be the nicest instrument I ever own.

   The garden is going to be a challenge. We will be starting from scratch at the new house and we're already behind. We do have a lot more space to organize things and having a garage really makes a huge difference for me! Since the backyard is fenced, we have given the chickens free reign of that space. We are talking about possibly getting new chicks this spring and increasing the flock.

   In my resolutions I also talked about reworking an older recording project. Before I am able to do that I need to transfer the original tracks from their old, outdated format to a format I can work with. As I write this, the tapes are at a studio where (hopefully) they can do just that. Once that is done I will be able to load the tracks into my computer and then I have no excuses for not completing that project.

   I have teamed up with a like-minded person and started a social network page with the goal of promoting public discussion of electing citizens over professional politicians. I have not been very involved with that as I have been busy with other things, but I am thrilled that something is happening!

   I knew this year was going to be busy. I'm not sure I knew how time-consuming it was going to be. (heh)

Mind Terrorist

Last night I played a private party booked by a sorority. I was one of two piano players.

It was two hours of high-energy dance music -- anything we could put to a drum machine beat or get them to sing with (thankfully the eighties are popular right now).

At the end of the night a handful of the girls wanted to get pictures with the piano players. One girl said, "Take a picture with me and the DJs!"

I turned to my fellow piano partner and said, "Wouldn't that be PJs? As in 'Piano Jockeys'?"

He nodded, but the girl insisted, "No, it's DJs. That what it was in my mind."

When I pointed out that there were no discs involved and asked how impressive it was that we pulled off almost two hours of contemporary music, she told me that, in her mind, we were spinning discs.

Then she looked at me and called me a "Mind Terrorist".

I must assume this was a compliment. That we were able to actually able to play instruments and sing without a game console or turntables was just too much for this young lady to wrap her head around.

Has playing a musical instrument become so outdated? I watched the halftime show at the Super Bowl this year and there was only one instrument in the entire show -- for almost two of the twelve minutes an eighties icon played a song from 1986 on the guitar.

I can only wonder how long it will be before it becomes socially odd to unplug and leave the house at all? These twisted people just might find each other and form communities.

We'll have to amend the Patriot Act to deal with these Mind Terrorists.