Plan B.... explained

After my last post, you're wondering WTF is Plan B?

Sorry I didn't dive into it too much, if any at all. I try to keep my posts short and interesting. And while I appreciate everyone who reads it and appreciate the comments even more. My posts aren't really short and interesting, they're very long and sometimes I waffle on.

So, without waffling on too much further, Plan B is simple. Plan better.

I recently downloaded this great application called Freemind. This basically allows you to come up with a big idea. It goes in the middle. Then you have your thoughts of the idea, like basic needs to get the idea off the ground, then those basic ideas have your more elaborate points.

You might be opening a store, so you'll have an idea about decor. From that will stem things like colours, seating, front desk, shelving, and so on.

I wrote one out for this Plan B after thinking about it a lot.

Plan B is basically to open a guitar teaching school. That's it in a nutshell. There are a couple of small problems. On one hand there's competition. The first one being a company which one of my friends whom I've discussed in the past goes to for singing and guitar lessons. The other being the shop I looked into for a franchise. I have no doubt I can compete with them. But I also know them both well and don't want them to think "That bastard Steve, we let him have an opportunity to do this with us and now he's gone and done it on his own."

Another part of me says "Who cares what they think, just do it." I just don't want to burn any bridges.

Apart from all that, I have looked into a premises already using realestate.com.au and found one within 10 minutes walking distance. The rent is priced brilliantly and with a small spreadsheet I did, I worked out that I can realistically have a maximum of 4 students a day based on the idea that most will be school students and that they'll only be available after 3 pm. So, from 3:30 pm to 8:00 pm I will have a total of four 1 hour lessons.

Now, I don't know how much other places charge for their lessons. But I did my calculations on $45 per hour. I think most places charge $50-$60. But at $45 per hour (or per lesson), if I have 4 students per day at 5 days a week. I can have a total of 20 students and that works out to be about $900 a week. Minus my rent $300 per week, and I'm guessing I'll have wireless internet, electricity, phone (Mobile) and stationary, adding another $100 per week, I still walk away with $500 per week as a startup. If I work 7 days a week, then I make significantly more.

So, on paper it'll work. Getting students will be the hard part, and I will no doubt run at a loss for the short term. But I think I can get 20 students. When I look at the other two places I mentioned above, they all have over 200 students on their books. The branch of the shop I looked into had 35 students on the books already.

One thing I did notice as well was that they made the students pay up front for a block of lessons. Like for a whole term at school. Then offer holiday activities where you can charge extra, which some parents love because the kids spend the whole day there and they it's cheaper than daycare or a babysitter. This also keeps them coming back. So you don't have any stragglers after the school holidays who got lazy and said "Meh, I can't be bothered going to lessons any more."

I also did some calculations on who I can increase business if my limit has been reached. Bring in some teachers. My $900 per week on my own sounds great to start with, but after expenses, it only works out to be $26,000 per year. And I haven't taken out tax yet.

By brining in some teachers, I'll make less money as I have to pay the people. However, this doubles the capacity I of students I can bring in to 40 per week. I've calculated that the teachers on a wage will earn $25 per hour for each lesson. So I keep $20 from that and with 4 teachers the business earns $74,000 (these figures are approximates). So, I go from $24,000 on my own to $74,000 with 4 teachers running the lessons and I just run the business.

This is working out to be ideal because if the business can bring in revenue of that sort of money without me being there, then I've reached my goal. I can take a holiday with the wife and not worry about coming back to disaster, all my clients leaving, finding another IT guy because I was unavailable.

People have said to me, why not just find IT guys like how you'd find music teachers. The story is very different. For starters, you can't pay an IT guy in Australia $25 per hour. $125 is more realistic, but that leaves me with a few dollars to run the business. So hiring someone for my current business just won't work. I've don the maths. It ain't gonna happen. And since it isn't going to happen, I will never be successful in my current business.

While it has taken me 7 years to figure it out, I won't say it's been a total waste. I have learnt so much from running my business, and in a sense I have gained more from the fact that it really was a dead end business to begin with. I didn't know that at the time, in fact I didn't realise that until only a few months ago when a business broker friend I met told me so, then illustrated it all to me. Hence the start of my decision to shut it all down and start something else.

I hope it all goes to plan.

Plan B

There was a time when I knew what I wanted to do. There was a time when I had a plan, albeit in my head, but none the less a plan of what I wanted to achieve by the time I was 20 or 25 or 30 years old.

Planning can suck sometimes because shit happens and plans have to change. And I think that success can come from your plans only if you and your plans are flexible.

If you've been reading, you'll notice that I've had a change of heart from my business. As much as I love it, I hate it equally and I'm ready to change. My business was never meant to be permanent, it was a rudimentary option thanks to my accident, my need to make money quick.

Now that I'm ready for a change in the right direction, and educated direction. I've been on the lookout for ideas, concepts that will change the way I work. I've surrounded myself with people like new starters in business, right to entrepreneurs that have been in business for over 20 years.

What have I learnt?

Well, I've learnt to listen to my customers better. I've learnt to dream, and make those dreams a reality. It all sounds silly but in reality something as simple as writing down what you want can be very effective.

I could have read it in a book, however it's much more beneficial to me to experience it rather than read a boring book about making money.

Truth is, money isn't the most important thing. My happiness is. I want to be happy with what I'm doing. And with computers, I am not. So what do I do?

Well, you may have read about the idea of me looking into that music store a while back. That fell through fairly quickly. Reason being that I was basically not comfortable with the idea after a small glimpse into the place. I didn't even bother with the financial information. I just turned my back on it. However, the bank wouldn't lend me the money to do it anyway, they said it was too high a risk.

So, while all this happened, my friend Val who owns the studio mentioned if I see something worth doing at the studio to consider it. 2 weeks later I did, and I approached him to talk about it. Recent discussions have changed from me buying into the studio and working my share of it to something I'm not too sure about. Val needs someone there, that's for certain. However, after a couple of months, there is still no accurate sign of accounts for my accountant to look at, so my accountant is still saying don't do it. Which is fair and I'm taking his advice because he's generally quite good at judging a business on first impressions.

However, before Val went to Melbourne for Christmas, he mentioned another option to get into the studio. It sounded great, however it doesn't really leave me in a good position to start with. Val's idea was that I don't put in any money, however I have to work on the same part of the studio ideas we agreed to work on before. As it generates money, then I get paid. A bit like working on full commission.

Now, I'd love to help Val make a successful business, and I wouldn't mind being a part of it. But to me, in this scenario, I'm not really part of it at all. I thought while the idea was good, the idea of me working without an income in pretty much a no no. Who pays my mortgage? Let alone all my other expenses? Part of my plan with the studio involved a fair amount of travelling to a lot of gigs, basically becoming a sales rep once the track work has been laid. This means while the business costs nothing to go into, I lose money, potentially my house, and my time is invested into something that has high risk, since there is no agreement.

So, I have been dwelling over it for the past fortnight and have come up with an idea.

I love teaching people things. I love playing music. I get great satisfaction out of doing both. So I thought, what if I did take the advice of Adam at GuitarZone and Val himself and rather than buy the music shop franchise, open my own. However, rather than tie all my capitol into stock, just provide music lessons and nothing more.

Then, while thinking about all this over the last two weeks, something happened a guitar tuition place opened up near my house. Two things crossed my mind.

One was, "Bloody hell, that's typical"

The other was "Hmm, I should go take a look and get some ideas for my place"

I've done neither and being the holiday season, I don't think they're even open. So I'll wait till next year and take a good look at what's going on. Maybe even ask for a job there to get into the swing of things. Or perhaps just be up front and say I'm doing the same up the road, maybe we can help each other out rather than be enemies. Then I think, to hell with it, I'll just do it and won't say a word to anyone about it.

Who knows?

I certainly don't. It's both fun and scary riding by the seat of your pants. The ultimate goal is still there, provide enough income so my wife doesn't have to work and I can support the family on my own.

With my calculations, it's all possible. The what is there, the why is there. Now I just need the how and when. I'll report back when I know more.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I hope your new year is good to you.

Christmas BBQ gig jam session thingy

Friday afternoon was one of those days you live through and look back having no idea how, no idea what happened but all you know is that you never want to live it again.

Between rejecting customers that decided to call me on their last day of work before closing for Christmas and trying to cope with a bit of a stomach bug as well as enduring the abnormally cold weather compared to the day before. I just wanted Friday to end as quickly as possible.

At the same time, while the cooler weather was a welcome change there was also rain and really dark clouds covering the otherwise clear, blue sky. This was bad. It was bad because for the last three weeks I have had a musical BBQ planned where I invited all the people I know who play music to come along, bring their instrument of choice.... acoustic only as there's no power to the backyard and I didn't want loud amps all over the yard sitting in the evening dew.

My main request was that people bring their singing face.

Most did, some didn't. I was hoping that everyone joined in but it appeared that no one really knew what to do. So I played a couple of songs, others joined in and played a couple more. It turned out to be a great evening.

My wife went overboard with all the food. It was suppose to be a basic sausage sizzle. An Aussie tradition, light a fire, cook some good sausages the butcher made fresh that morning. Sit back, drink beer, talk shit and have a right old laugh. The wife made spinach dip, salads, and all that other stuff that men don't think about. Beer and sausages, that's all really... apart from tits and arse, but that's a whole different train of thought that doesn't mix with beer and sausages... will it might come up in conversation.... being male and all, one thing at a time... hahahah.

Despite being under the weather, I really enjoyed myself. I surrounded myself in brilliant company and I loved sitting around talking to people in various conversations. My music night was a great success and I will be doing another one in a few months. If I could afford it, I'd do it every weekend.

New Guitar

Well, what an epic journey.

A long, long time ago I started to look for a nice classical guitar but never found it. The main reason is that steel string guitars are very popular in Australia. In fact, so popular, that they outnumber most classical guitars anywhere between 1:100 to 1:500

Sure, you have your miserable student guitars that are about $100, and some of them are really good for that price. However, after playing guitar for 16 years. I think I deserve a little better. :)

So, I have been window shopping for about 7 years. I did stop for a while. There was a point where I found the perfect guitar for me. It was about 4 years ago and the guitar, despite all odds, was and still is a steel string guitar.

You can hear it on my track I've recorded which is on MySpace. I never wanted a steel string though, and as much as I love it, I still wanted to play a classical guitar.

Fast forward to The Now, and I have been playing nothing but my old classical guitar for the last 2 months. The problem with that is that this guitar is old, it's a student guitar. Which means it's cheap and nasty and while it sounds great and plays well thanks to my tweaks. It's still constructed poorly. It's falling apart, literally at the seams.

So, after spending the last few weeks looking for a guitar. I thought I had found one, and I was almost ready to buy it yesterday. Then I got one of those typical gut feelings I get that says "Back away" so I did.

Today I went to this new guitar shop I'd never heard of called Wild Horse guitars. The door was locked, you had to ring a bell to get the staff to open the door for you.

My impression from that was that it wan going to be a shop with guitars out of my price range. And boy was I right.

Their cheapest classical guitar was about $800.

So after playing a few, I narrowed it down to about 4 favourites. Then I eliminated the two that were out of my budget by a large margin. I then played the two left over guitars back to back. And I came out with a winner, got a decent discount and a free hard case.

While I'm pretty happy about all that. I am kinda feeling a bit down. I have been all this week. I'm not sure why.

Though there's nothing like retail therapy to help you get over the blues. I'll be right as rain come Friday.

Next!

Last night we auditioned a new drummer. It was the cute young girl that played drums with my friend a while back at his open mic night.

Looks like our old drummer is fired... well, if my friend gets the balls to do it. He wants to but can't get his act together and just say "Sorry dude, we can't have you turning up when you want, we want to play regularly"

The new drummer is pretty cool though. She's only been playing for a little over a year and last night she nailed every song my mate threw at her.

I suggested to him before hand that we only play covers because everyone has at least heard the songs on the radio or something. However at the end of the night, he pulled out an original.

He played it once to show her how it goes. We played it the second time while she sat there thinking about stuff and just lightly tapping her drums. Then the third time we played it all together and she nailed it!

I told my mate afterwards, she nailed it after 15 minutes. Our old drummer still hasn't got it after 12 months. He's a good drummer, but he's not a musician.

She knew where to stop playing, where to start playing. She knew where to hit the cymbals, where to do a roll. She was listening, she was getting it all happening.

I'm really really surprised. Not because I doubted her ability, but because she just got it all immediately and she's only been playing for a year. I was happy to have her around.

Now I just hope that she wants to jam with us because she is a younger girl, who also studies. I'd imagine nothing should get in the way of her university studies and realistically, I'm sure she's got friends who go out Friday and Saturday night, and I'd say she'd much rather do that then hang out with a couple of old farts trying to rock out on a Friday night in a rehearsal studio.

It'll be good if she can do it. She seemed like she wants to. However, much like most of the youth of today, she shows little expression so it was hard to tell from her body language if she enjoyed it too or not. I told my mate, give her a week to stew on it and then ask her.

Now, the only bad points to all this was that she's distractingly cute. I told my wife last night, "It's really difficult to play bass and watch boobs bouncing up and down". Hahaha.

Hmm, other than that, the other concern for me was that there was no immediate connection between her drumming and my bass playing. While it all worked really well, normally with a really good drummer, when I'm playing bass, it's almost like we lock into this mental link where we both know exactly what's happening and what's about to happen.

I didn't have that with her, but that could be because she's still green at this herself, she might have been nervous, despite doing a great job of not showing it. Or it's just her way.

Either way, while that wasn't there, her playing ability and her improvisation skills that worked so well with original music she's never heard before were there. She is a natural drummer, a good performer and a great musician. At least I think so with the way she performed last night. Good on her. I hope to jam with her again.

Now with more MySpazz

Being an IT geek, people are always surprised to find that I don't follow all the other trends like joining MySpace, FaceBook, etc etc. So it came as a bit of a shock when I joined twitter. I named it after my business in the hope that I'll use it for that purpose. If anything all I've done is cram it with useless nonsense much like every other twit(er) on the planet.

However, working more and more with music, and seeing the benefits of MySpace. I decided I'd get a page up and put some stuff in it. So, I'm now officially on MySpace, or as I like to call it "MySpazz" or alternatively "MyFaceTubeInternets".

Check out this rudimentary setup on MySpace while I work out how to skin it up and add more pics. http://www.myspace.com/soundsaroundme.

I hope you enjoy it. The track was made completely from an acoustic guitar and a bass guitar with some special effects thrown it for a laugh. The track is a soundtrack to an artist friends presentation DVD he put together to show off his sculptures, but he's too shy to do anything further with.

Bands suck

Last night I went to my business network group's Christmas party.

I failed to go to last years one because, well... I couldn't be bothered really. So I decided I'd make an appearance this year. The event co-ordinator we had this year did something special. Well, when I say special, something more casual and relaxed, unlike the usual corporate parties where you go to a fancy restaurant and eat proper food.

No, this was much better. We had the party at a lawn bowls club, which is really funny because it's such a relaxing and enjoyable sport that really only old farts who are retired do it. However, I can see myself picking it up as an activity. So, after 2 hours of heated competition, we settled inside for the club's organised sausage sizzle. Basically putting a few hundred sausages on a BBQ and providing good but basic condiments like sauce, onions, mustard, and that's about it. Oh, salad, which none of the blokes touched.

It was a very traditional Aussie party, with a very traditional Aussie running the show. And good on him! for doing so, because it was a much better atmosphere than any corporate party I've ever been to.

While I was there, one of the members husband who's been playing drums in a band for a while was talking to me, and we once thought about organising something together, discussed forming a band or at least getting together and having a jam.

In the end, we both drew a conclusion that bands suck. Something I've said many times here in other entries. Whether it's because a member loses interest, is an idiot or just because it's a band. Either way, they always seem to suck. However, by the end of the night I think we were both a little tipsy and fired up to start a band together. So next time I see him I may ask him if he is serious enough that we should just put an advert in the music paper in Sydney called Drum Media to ask for any one interested to come and play.

Either way, I'm sure it's going to suck. But while it doesn't I'll have as much fun as I can.

Meanwhile I haven't heard back from my other two bands in regards to playing. I think one of them said maybe the 11th of Dec they want to record. We shall see. The last three rehearsals were suppose to be recorded. The other band is suppose to rehearse the following afternoon. I'm sure words will be mentioned, out loud is another thing. I'll see if my mate has the guts to say something to the drummer, or will he bomb out looking at me for help.

I want to just say something so we're all out of this stupidly awkward situation, but then I think that's not really helping out my friend who really has to do this on his own, but I'm happy to help arc him up before the fireworks. I believe this is something he just needs to do on his own two feet.

Sounding like a broken record player.... bands suck.

A true friend

Since I don't really have any family besides my nephew and niece. I always look for those family, caring qualities in friends. Now, throughout my life I've had some great friends and also some tragic ones. I guess the tragic ones were there to show me what to avoid and also to appreciate what the good ones were like.

I would imagine there is no real definition of a true friend. Each of us are so different that we'd all be looking for something different in a friend. A quality I might dislike will be a perfect fit for you.

So, what constitutes a great friend?

For me, it would have to be all the cliché things like, being a top bloke and being able to talk about anything. But there are some qualities I like in my friends, which not all of them have, but combined together, I can enjoy each of their individualisms.

One friend might enjoy my company, can have a laugh and the piss taken out of him (poked fun at). While another mate might take some criticism to heart and be truly scarred by what I may say despite the fact we're all having some fun putting shit on each other.

Some mates, it would seem are just there for you to help them. And that's fine too though you have to wonder how many times you need to tell them something before they get it.

Some friends worry about things too much, so much so that they go blind, get tunnel vision and can't see the bigger picture.

One such friend I have is like that. I may have spoken about him before. He called me today to ask when I can play bass for him next. I told him it's not up to me, but the drummer. It's because of his busy schedule we haven't played in three months. Last week at an open mic night I told my friend to just recruit the guys and girls he just played with as the new band and ditch our mate, the drummer. No offence but we want to play, regularly.

Anyway, he hasn't got the balls to say something and the band is forever in hiatus. So I told him today, something I was hoping he'd have figured out by now, "Why don't we just play with the other band as a different band, and if Alex comes around, we'll also play with him, separately"

He was dumbfounded. The idea was so simple, he couldn't believe he didn't think of it. Though when he told me he's been thinking all week about how to break the news to Alex, he said it was too much to think about. I told him there was nothing to think about. You want to play, lack of attendance from our drummer is stopping that.

Solution: Find someone who plays drums (done!) and see if they want to play (also done!). So, you have a replacement drummer but you don't have the guts to sack your original drummer because he's also your mate.

I told him again "Bands suck". But it's gotta be done.

So my solution with just starting a different band on the side with these new people won't affect your relationship with Alex. Not that it would anyway, I mean Alex seems to have too much on his plate anyway. Otherwise he'd have the time to jam with us.

With my mate who can't seem to man up, my way of helping has been for him to help himself. I just push him along, suggest something, and tell him how easy it is to do.

Normally I'd just go and do it myself. But then I think, is that really helping? I'm just doing his dirty work. It's much like allowing a kid to make a cake, then doing everything for them because you're concerned they'll end up ruining it and making a mess at the same time.

The reality is, so what if they do? And I've take that same mentality towards this friend so he'll learn how bands work. One day he'll look back and say "Steve, bands suck".

Then there's the example of my other mate, who makes the wrong choices all the time. I saw him last night. The good news was he has a buyer for his place and the "partner" he did the deal with is happy with the selling price.

All was good, right up until 5 minutes before I was about to leave. When he said "Met this girl, I think we'll buy a place together and move in"

I just looked at him and went from my usual, reserved, relaxed quiet self into a harsh realistic person and said "Are you fucking crazy? Didn't you learn anything from this experience? Go find a place to live that you can afford, on your own. What happens if you're relationship doesn't work out then? You're back where you started. Not getting along with your house mate, broke, arguments over bills and how to split them, she leaves, you can't afford to stay there, and where to now? Find a place you can pay the rent for. Don't rely on someone else, otherwise you're back here. Where you started. Learnt nothing. If you do that, I will punch you in the face."

I got in my car and drove off. When I got home, I thought about what I said and how I said it. All these years of talking to him and listening, it got nowhere. So I took my own advice and changed my tact.

Okay, so what does this have to do with friends? Well, despite the fact that they're all special in their own little ways, and stupid in others. They're great people, with their quirks and all. I couldn't ask for better friends, even if some of them are hard work. I know that the work I put in to them is eventually returned by them helping me with mowing my lawns, and providing me with help when I need it, never having asked for it.

It's a different story to when I was younger and my so called mates would sponge off me and never offer a return favour, even when I was desperate enough to ask for it.

My definition of a true friend is someone who doesn't count how many favours you've done for them or they've done for you. We're just mate's and help each other out when it's needed. All other times are there to bag the crap out of each other over a beer and a camp fire.

Lower your expectations

A while ago now, I wrote about a concept I discovered. Lowering your expectations. In fact, you could go as far as not having any at all. The beauty of lowering your expectations is that everything will all of a sudden perform at a better than expected level. Thus giving you satisfaction instead of dismay and disappointment.

I have had and used this theory for a number of years. Sometimes I lapse out of it and my expectations are too high. Especially yesterday when I when to an office to install some new network devices that almost worked right out of the box. Then I went to another job in the afternoon that was exactly the same thing. Same product, same scenario. Nothing seemed to work at all. I was disappointed. Mostly in myself for not getting anything to work. Then I start to question my abilities. Then I tell myself, "If you can't fix it, how can you call yourself an IT guy?"

Yet, if my expectations were low, the result would have been anticipated, expected and there would be no cause for grief. If I had no expectations, I guess any result would have been a good one.

This all sounds ridiculous and silly. But think about it for a minute. Think about every time you've been disappointed. Usually it's not because of what happened, but because what happened wasn't what you wanted.

My late brother use to ask questions, and because I was a round peg in a square hole, I'd never answer "Yes" when he wanted to hear a "No". He was always disappointed.

A mate of mine I mentioned in my last post, things never go his way because he's always trying those self-help books that tell him to do things a certain way and in real life, it never turns out like the book. He's disappointed.

The Buddhists have it. Expect nothing and everything will be brilliant.

Again, this sounds stupid. But it seems to work. I expect nothing from friends, even my good friends. Most likely because I've been burnt in the past. Yet my good friends always go things for me. I am both surprised and happy that they help. Though when I was younger, I'd drop everything to help a friend out, and I still do, though with a bit more thought. I'd expect some help in return, only to get burnt off with a "No" when I was expecting a "Yes"

This flies right against all those help books that tell you to be the ball, be the change, be something other than yourself is what it's saying. And while I won't say some of these books help. Most are tragically, poorly written pieces of shit from some psychologist who needs one of their own, probably to discuss why the book isn't selling as well as they expected.

Since I've started to practice low expectations, everything that use to annoy me now seems to bring enjoyment. Everything is a bonus. Everything is great and it's all because it's always better than I expected...... when I want it to be..... I'm working on that part.

Re-use is the best form of recycling

Being green once meant you walked everywhere in your sandals and didn't have showers. Now being green is seen as something cool. It's a trend. And while I generally hate trends. I have to say, the fact that everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon regardless of motives is pretty cool.

Some zealots may accuse those "trend setters" as hypocrites, and they'd be correct. We're all a bit hypocritical in one way or another. As human beings we can only try and do our best. My best might not be as good as your best, but at least I'm trying. I struggle just as hard at what I'm doing as your struggles with what you're doing, despite our skills being at two different levels.

I guess the trick here is to not look up or worse, look down at someone and what they do because it doesn't meet your standards.

A friend who has a high level of expectations about cleanliness expected his house mate to be the same. Turns out they are not. His life is jeopardised (or so he thinks) because they don't live up to his standards. So when I speak to him I tell him, do I do things to your standards? Does anyone? Both answers were no.

So, the other day when a "Greenie" approached me in the city and started to preach. I told him "Rather than spread the word, spread the example. I told him, rather than hand out pamphlets on paper that will end up in the bin, why not carry around an egg carton and suggest to people that they can be used to make goggles for kids.

Perhaps buy them from a farmer or markets where you can return them for re-use. Use them in compost. Collect a lot of them and use them for soundproofing a room. There is so much you can do, and that's just with egg cartons.

How many people do you see in front of you that can realistically drop what they do, change their lifestyle to one like yours, go save a whale, hug a tree and still be expected to come back to their inner city apartment in time for their favourite TV show? Monkey see, monkey do. Monkey no do as monkey told."

He ignored me, walked over to someone else and continued driving his train wreck into someone else.

Why do people look at me funny when I re-use old junk or rubbish?

Google Wave invites

Last month I received an invite to join Google Wave, and I accepted. I wanted to try it out but was soon disappointed because I assumed it would be like Email 2.0. Sadly, you can only Wave to other Google Wave account holders.

So a month on, I have a few contacts in the list and I have started to Wave at people. I can see the potential. But what I discovered the other day was hilarious. People are selling their Wave invites on ebay.

Some are going for $12 or more.

While I'm not surprised, I am finding it very funny that people are selling invites, and I'm not sure how successful they are, but I find it even more humorous that there's enough demand for people to pay for something that's basically free.

Performance Number Duo update

My friend who got up for the first time in his life, on stage, and performed a few songs all by himself last month called me a couple of weeks ago to play music with him live on stage at a venue where his singing teacher told him to go. Then our drummer cancelled, so my friend cancelled our band's time slot.

He did however have another band to play in which was formed at the music school he goes to. They had a drummer (a young little bird), a guitarist who was pretty impressive for someone who wouldn't even be 15. Another guitarist who's decent at soloing, and my friend of course singing and playing guitar on a few songs.

I told myself "Surprise me mate" as he got up on stage, nervous as usual. For the hour before hand that I was there, he went to check when he's on about 4 or 5 times. He went to the toilet about 15 times and never sat still for more than 3 seconds. As time drew closer, he admitted he was starting to get nervous.

However, when he started to sing to the band's music, he sang. He did well. Admittedly, there were a few flat notes, a few falsettos that were just too high to reach, a few missed lyrics. But so what? He had fun, the crowd mostly enjoyed it. Some people looked on it horror and I heard them comment "Great band, sack the singer" I felt like telling them this was his first time on stage with this band, only his second time singing and only after a few months or singing lessons. But I didn't have to, the MC of the show got up to congratulate them and told the crowd all that anyway.

He did exceptionally well. I'm proud of him. He's becoming a performer, not a bedroom Rock N' Roll star.

Speaking to him afterwards, I told him my honest opinion, the stuff ups, etc. He asked for it. So I was "brutally honest". His words, not mine. But I guess you can't tell him he was the best otherwise he'll never improve. So I gave it to him straight.

Later on, I asked him what's actually happening with "our" band and said our drummer couldn't even make it tonight to drum for us let along come in later on to support you in your performance. So, what are we doing?

Our drummer is also our friend and I feel my mate doesn't want to tell him "You're out of the band" because it may come across harsh. That's fair enough, but when you haven't played for three months then you get together for a couple sessions, then you disappear again. It's never going to happen.

I told my mate, if he was serious, he'd make an effort. No effort, no passion. It's time to find another drummer.... as I motioned to the pretty girl who dropped some beats on his performance.

He looked at me.... "Her?"

"Yep..... her"

He asked. She was happy about it. So I told my mate, "Set up a rehearsal. Email the drummer the songs we'll practice. No originals, just stuff that everyone knows so we can get a groove on. Worry about your originals later."

Meanwhile Val and I are still waiting to hear back from accountants. It turns out his accountant had to leave work for a short time because his son has been hospitalised. I hope he's okay, but we should hear back from Val's accountant next week.

Val called me the other day as I was about to snooze off in front of my computer while I did my accounting for my business. He said that he had a meeting with some people about the music we've been rehearsing as part of this theatre play Val has created.

They (the people Val spoke to) have accepted it and have put us into a festival to give the crowd just a taste (20 minutes) of the play in March next year. This will be followed by a full theatre play in Melbourne for a couple of nights. And then they are considering sending us to Greece to perform the play there.

The great part is, they're planning on covering all our expenses and because the organisation is non-profit, they plan on paying us with what's left over.

I was awake after that phone call. I finished off my accounts, decided to call it a day, went home, prepared dinner for my wife and I and told her the good news. I can't wait to start performing live.

I love the heat, but not this much

Summer is coming. The signs are here!

It's 42°C right now, and the last few days it's been reaching 33°C before 10am.

Fortunately it's not too humid. I can handle the heat, but mix in a bit of humidity and I fall apart. I can't function. I just melt where I'm standing and die.

Hopefully tomorrow isn't as hot. I have a busy morning booked with clients and then the afternoon making kebabs at the office with the guys downstairs from me who for every year at Christmas buy a skewer of kebab meat and attach it to their burner. It's a proper kebab burner.

Can't wait. I love making my own kebabs because you can put how much of whatever you want on it.

I've also invited some of my favourite clients to come and have some lunch.

Because of this heat, I have been sitting around, being lazy and fanning myself. Yesterday my nephew and niece said "why don't you just put the fan on"

Fanning myself with a hand fan was nicer and didn't use any electricity at all. I was more satisfied doing that than standing in front of an electric fan.

Just as I suspected

The account details my accountant received were my mate's personal accounts. The 'large' debt is the home loan, and all his other bits and pieces.

Looks like it's full steam ahead again.

That sucks

I have been hard at work trying to get on top of bills, and at the same time I've been trying to get on top of buying into this partnership with a mate of mine.

Sadly, my accountant called me yesterday to inform me that it is not a good business to buy into. I won't publish the financial information. However the debt this rehearsal/recording studio is in is about the same as the revenue it brings in.

Take out all the expenses, and you have a tiny portion of money left over that wouldn't even cover my mortgage, never mind the rest of my bills.

This really sucks.

Now, do I try and cypher the accounts further or take the initial advice of my accountant and walk away now?

I'm guessing I should walk away. First impressions are showing that the business isn't running to healthy. I was told by my accountant that if I buy into the business, since revenue is equal to debt, the business is worth nothing. However, I'll be buying into the large debt, and responsible for it regardless of how much or little I buy into the business.

That's not really a risk I want to take since I was already going to take out a loan (more debt) to buy into this in the first place.

I'll be jamming with my mate tonight and I guess we'll chat about it when I see him.

I do recall he said that he pays all his bills via the business. Perhaps the debt is his home loan? I'm not sure until I see it all. But at this point a nail has been hammered into the coffin, hopefully not the last one.

pip

When nothing works

I use to sit at things sometimes for days trying to make them work again. Often times I'd still end up with something that's still broken, with the added bonus of a beard and hunger.

When I worked in IT our boss would tell us if something isn't working, go for a walk. Come back in 30 minutes and try again. Most of the time this worked, and worked quite well. You'd come back with a clear mind and the answer would be staring at you in the face.

I found myself hanging over a problem today. A client's computer, which refuses to upgrade to Windows 7 due to the fact that his Vista installation isn't up to date. It isn't up to date because Windows Update won't work. And Windows Update won't work because.... well, my educated opinion is that it's because Vista is a shambles and as shiny as Windows 7 is, I would imagine these sorts of issues will be evident as time goes on.

I woke up this morning to a dead modem. Always a nice thing to wake up to. Then you realise "crap, how long has it been offline?" A question I ask myself because I run my own mail server at home. A spare modem is now in place, and the faulty one has been sent off for warranty.

I was able to act quickly, keep cool and get back on track as soon as possible.

However, there are times when things don't go according to plan, and they also don't go well while you're side tracked, fixing the unplanned breakages. At times, I have to admit, I try and keep my cool as much as possible, but I guess I'm only human (if that's an excuse) and sometimes problems get the best of me.

I'll feel angry, not at what's gone wrong but at myself because I can't fix it. Although there are other times when I can get angry at something because it sits there not working, but I just can't see why not.

In the end, calm and collected is a better way to be, because I've found that you'll usually solve the problem either in the same amount of time or quicker if you're calm about the situation. The same boss that told me to take a walk also told me something else when a computer isn't working "It's a computer, no one's life is at risk".

If it's not fun, don't do it

I've always tried to adhere to the principle of if it's not fun, don't do it anymore. I come across people every day that aren't having fun. They're at work, they work, they take things seriously. And while there are serious aspects to work, say, with high voltage, or construction where lives are at risk. I don't want to say throw it all out the window and just have fun.

What I want to say is that having fun, even at work can change the way you not only perceive work but life too.

I saw this video the other day that I would like to share.

Isn't that fantastic?

Me being overweight, I'm conscious of taking the stairs vs taking a escalator. I always find the further car parking spot because I know I can get a spot and walk to the shop quicker than the person who's circling around the same area waiting for someone to leave.

I guess the real question is, do we really need to make it fun in order to do something, anything?

Well, we don't need to, but why not make something pleasurable?

Why not make everything you do, fun?

I try and make games out of everything I do. Mowing the lawn. I try and beat my best time (3 hrs 47 mins). And when I can't go any faster, I try and mow it better.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that running my business isn't fun anymore either. So I'm changing that too. I'm radically altering what my business does, and at the same time heading into an industry I've always had a passion for.

Actually, it's not even a passion. It's just my way of life.

I've recently ordered this book: Element - Finding Passion Changes Everything. Which is a book by Sir Ken Robinson. If you don't know of him, he parades around the world taking about something I do have a passion for due to my terrible experiences in school. He talks about how education kills creativity. He talks about how schools aren't meant for us. It was an idea brought together to feed the industrial revolution.

Now, while no one is against education. What Ken is passionate about is changing education to help your children, not your great and great great grandfather's children.

I'm wavering off topic here, but Ken clearly has a passion to change education. Deep down we all have a passion for something. And I bet if it's not fun you wouldn't be doing it.

If you're stuck in a rut like me at the moment. Maybe look at what you enjoy doing best and seeing if you can fulfil yourself with what you love. Make your life fun again, like when you were a kid. Being a grown up doesn't mean you can't have fun anymore, at least that's what I tell myself.

Let me take you back

Since I seldom look at the past things in my life, every now and then even I lapse into a bit of nostalgia and wonder "what ever happened to....?"

One of the things that recently came up in my head that I decided to look further into thanks to technology and crazy science fiction come to life, otherwise known as Google and its associated products like Maps. I found a pattern here that I really wanted to share.

When I lived in the US, one of the things I disliked the most about it was waking up every morning and having to bare another day of school. My school like was tough. Stabbed for being white during the LA riots (at the age of 13). Bashed until I couldn't move, and then my bus fair taken from me along with my bag and school work.

I wasn't exactly picked on all the time, but I had my share. This mainly happened in what US-folk call Junior high. We have no such thing here in Australia.

Well, while reading a very interesting story about someone who had experienced a great deal of suffering in school I related and this is where the "I wonder" part came to be.

I wondered if the school I went to still existed. I wondered if the place I lived in still stood. I don't remember anything I see currently on Google maps look like what I saw just now. However, I could still navigate my way around my US based home town.

Upon further reading and viewing I discovered that each and every school I've been to that was a nightmare to attend has a highly prized school today.

This doesn't just go towards the schools I went to in the US, but also the schools I went to here in Australia.

In fact, the mutual feeling of crap education has completely dissipated and when I read a blog about some current member of the schools I went to, or I stumble upon a website that rates schools, or a review some teacher wrote about their experiences. It's all a good thing, in total contrast to what I myself and a whole lot of other friends I had at the time experienced.

Was my timing off? Should I have started school a couple of years earlier or later? Would I have still been stabbed or bashed until I can't remember? Would I have still felt the same stomach churning feeling of gagging every time school was mentioned?

I'm not sure.

However, I can say, if I went back to those schools now, according to the reports I'm reading, I would love it.

The junior high I went to is now a big player in sport and even better for me if I still went there, a major part of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories). I remember once having the opportunity to visit the place and spend all day with a guy who worked there.

I was so enthralled by what I saw, full blown satellites they sent into space, real scientists. I wanted to live there.

However, I moved away and forgot about all that, taking on other interests which has led me here.

What I wonder about after seeing this is, could it have been different?

I don't want to ponder on that thought for too long, because I hate "what ifs". But, what if?

Electric Dreams - Episode 2

Last week I did a live commentary and opinion on that show on TV called Electric Dreams that covers a whole decade where a family lives back in the day with the technology only found during that time.

This weeks episode is set in the 80's. This is where a lot of our reliance of electricity comes into play. Sony Walkman, Microwave ovens, Video game consoles and computers.

Interestingly, the walkman is a hit with dad who jogs every morning. The Microwave oven, once mother had got accustomed to using a stove and over, she actually thought the microwave was a silly idea and couldn't see how it ever became a popular.

The son was straight on the video game.

Now we're on to the Video Cassette Tape. Beta vs VHS. And even some laser discs too. Since VHS was the popular choice at the time, the show sends the family a video player and also a video camera.

At this point, they find that they have nothing to play on he player. The father heads out to find a player, which is a bit unfair considering they've provided him with old tech in a new world. With no such things as DVD's or Blu-Rays he finally finds a video store that has some video cassettes for sale. $1 each.

Bringing the newly purchased videos home, he finds that the player doesn't work. It turns out the daughter of the house has tried to put in a betamax tape and has possibly ruined the player.

In the morning, the father wakes up to a knock at the door. Coming out to the front yard, he gets great news, a new set of wheels. Although, it turns out that he gets access to a C5. No, not a Citroen. An electric car that never took off. If anything, it was the biggest technological flop every. Though I can't see why it did.... electric powered, and has pedals for some human assistance.

The father likes it, but considers it a death trap due to the more modern traffic surrounding him.

Meanwhile at home, the family receives a "Compact Disc Player". The father isn't impressed. He much prefers vinyl (me too). Dad isn't happy and consoles himself by saying "That's progress".

The computer still hasn't been utilised well. So the father sits with the son and work on it together, loading tapes and they finally get a game to load.... several hours later.

It's now 1987 and they have launched the microwave dinner. Something I cringe about every time I see one.

The show is nearly over, it's 1989 and mum is on teletext and getting a recipe off the channel to cook for dinner for their celebration.

The younger daughter accepts that the 80's pushed technology, but nothing worked. It wasn't really plug and play like things are today.

Since the family received a camcorder earlier, they got to use it as he kids got to make an 80's music video. The father ends with his opinion that he loved the 80's and the technology. He recalls how awesome it was to see all this technology come about. But in reality, it was all a bunch of rubbish.

The show ends, roll credits. Next Sunday will show the family living in the 90's. Can't wait to see the Play Stations and laptops appear in the home.

What do you really need?

After reading another blog and me asking the question, what do you really need? I thought I'd talk about exactly that.

Many people, myself included have too much crap. We consume, we buy more. In a society where we'll buy a product because it comes with more you have to wonder, is retail therapy really an issue or are we all just hooked on having the next best thing?

I guess I'll cut a long story short. What do you really need?

Now, we all know food and water are a necessity. But what do you need that isn't so important to your life. Stuff that you could give up, but at the same time it's one of those things you couldn't live without.

Is it your TV? Internet? Car?

I thought about this and realised that apart from a few pieces of clothing and some guitar strings, which is what my blogger friend above said in a comment. I don't really need much else.

So, what do you really need if you were to live on a deserted island, or any favourite remote part of the world? A deck of cards? A drum? A book?

Band on board

Tonight, I finally got to play my new bass amp that's been sitting in my music room for the last three months collecting dust.

One of the bands I belong to finally got their act together and played some music at a rehearsal studio. I had bought my new bass amp because my old one was getting one. It was slowly dying. It had to be replaced. So I tried repairing it instead. It's such an old amp, I didn't want to see it just die and end up in landfill. While the repairs made it work again, it's just not the same. It's a bass amp, so it needs a really good bottom end sound. This amp had lost that oomph you get. The dropped note you feel rather than hear.

I originally went to just buy a cabinet with some speakers in it, but my wife insisted I don't do things half way and so I bought the head with the cabinet.

Having it sit in my room all this time has been one of those feelings you get when you're young and you can't wait to open the presents, except this feeling has been there for three months.

Finally, finally. I got to play it at gig volume. It was so silky smooth, low and powerful. Such a nice luscious bass sound. I love that smooth deep throb you feel when you hit a note on the lower register.

I'm playing tomorrow night again, and then I'll be playing every week with another band from here on. Though there's yet another band who wants me to play bass for them though I haven't done so yet. They sacked their other bass player and put me in, without an audition.

So, with all the stuff happening with music, I figured an update of what's happening with some bands I'm playing with should be included.

I'm also looking to buy a banjo and a Ukulele soon. My wife wants me to play banjo and Uke for her. We shall see how that turns out.

Bikes on a side track.

As you're probably aware. I'm an ex-bikie. lol. I love motorcycles. And my mates all know it too. A few months ago a friend of mine asked me if I could check out some bikes with him. I agreed, still being knowledgeable with all things two wheeled. And we ended up picking him a decent commuter bike for much less that what was asked for.

Another friend, by the same name who's been riding for a few years now called me last week to ask the same question. So I got up nice and early today, went to my usual farmers market for my shopping, came home, dropped the wife off at the beautician and took off to see my mate.

When I got there, we jumped in his car and drove about an hour to see this bike. It's a 99 model Triumph Sprint ST. Black in colour.

Was in very decent condition, obviously a careful owner. I could see he wasn't the ZX7-R Ninja hoon type, so I'm sure the bike hasn't been thrashed. No oil leaks, maintenance was all good. Just normal wear and tear for a 10 year old bike.

I test rode it and came back about 20 minutes later with a big grin on my face. 900cc Triple cylinder howling away. I loved every second of it and was thinking maybe I could buy the bike. I've always liked Sprint ST's and this one was nice.

My friend took off on the bike for about 5 minutes while I talked to the guy about the bike. I'd probably offer a realistic $6,500. He was asking for $7,000

Being the bike was the first road bike my mate looked at, he said it would be best to look at others too. A wise choice. So we thanked the guy for his time and drove back into town. I stopped at his place to look at his and his wife's current bike. Both leaking. One with oil, the other with water.

So I've been asked to look at them both because they spent money on getting a mechanic to fix it but it came back much the same. I think there's a trust issue with the mechanic now and they don't want to just keep taking it in only to have it come back with the same problems as before.

So, it looks like I'm pulling my tools out more often these days.

Then on my drive home, me being a day dreamer, and probably suffer from some sort of attention disorder started to think that I'm doing a lot of these bike pre-purchase inspections. What a nice business idea.

Hahahaha, just when my partnership with the music stuff is about to go through, I get side tracked. But don't worry, I'm focussed. We can all get a little side tracked every now and then. :)

Living things

I'm not really a hippy. Some of my friends think I am with the way I bang on about the environment and how to preserve it.

I am a hypocrite though. While I can eat a nice steak or a rack of ribs and have zero guilt. At the same time I can't put a lobster into a pot of boiling water. I usually get them to the front of back door of the house and let them out.

Last month my brother in law when to Thailand or something, and brought back a tennis racquet for me. But this wasn't an ordinary racquet. It was smaller than a full sized one. It was made of plastic, and it had a button on it that when you pushed it would send sparks out to kill innocent inserts.

While the idea is fun and novel. I wasn't sure I'd like to use it. It's one of these.

So, time did come to finally try it out when one of those really long winged ants flies into your house. The wife got me to try it out on the ant.

There were three loud pops. Really loud. The wings got blown off the ant. It crawled around, clearly dazed from the massive shock treatment it just received.

I regretted doing it, I apologised to the ant. I said I was really sorry. I regretted doing it, watching it helplessly crawl around in circles. Probably thinking "WTF happened just then?"

I promise to never use that contraption again.

Music that makes you move

Having been playing and performing music since I was 6 years old, I have always been in tune with sounds around me. Sorry about the pun. While I've performed other people's songs and pieces as well as my own personal stuff, I much prefer playing along to other people's music rather than writing my own.

From an early age, I would say that my influences were Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Depeche Mode. Are you starting to see when I grew up?

When I moved to the United States, I met my oldest brother (half brother), which I had not known of before hand. He was an ex-Russian paratrooper, tough as nails, listened to heavy metal. I had not heard metal before. My house was usually full of the mainstream music of the time.

Heavy metal struck a different chord with me... sorry about the pun again. It was different. Obviously, but to me the structure was different, the patterns were different.

I have to explain something weird about me. Music has the same effect as drugs on me. I get taken to another world. I literally see things changing in front of me. I become so immersed in the music that it is truly a trip for me. I absolutely get sucked right into this other place.

Now that I got the weird stuff out of the way.... Metal was something fresh. I had to hear more, learn more about it. And I did, I listened to everything, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer and so on.

When I moved back to Australia, things were different again. Mainstream music here consisted of techno and dance music. It sounded so unimaginative and loopy that I couldn't stand it. So I went on the search for more metal.

I found a shop where they sold nothing but rock and heavy metal music. At this stage I had played a myriad of instruments. Starting off with Piano and Triangle in school where I played in a percussion band at the Sydney Opera House. Moving to the US, I didn't get to play much because there wasn't much music in Primary school in the US... well, not any of the ones I went to. We did have a hippy come in to school once a week back in the year 4 that got us to perform at school. I played the Xylophone.

After not much music at all, I started Junior High. They had music, but the only option was Orchestra and the Orchestra had to play at the football games, it was a marching band really. I guess it was fun. I played Alto Saxophone for 2 and a half years. Got good at it, learn to finally read music (I don't remember or care for it now).

I left America to return to Australia where I left you before I dove into my music history in the US.

I joined the music class in high school here in Australia with everyone playing piano, I wanted to play a guitar. Piano got old for me and I had not touched it since I was in Australia before moving to the US. So I picked up a guitar one day and tried to play it. My science teacher walked past the room and saw me with it and said "You play?" I said no, but I really want to learn. It turned out he was the ex-bass guitarist for Rat Cat, a local Aussie band.

He taught me some chords and away I went.

Meanwhile, what were my musical influences doing? Well, they were a bit all over the place. I still listened to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden but I grew tired of the same old stuff from other metal bands that always sounded the same from one album to the next.

I discovered a whole new set of sub genre's in heavy metal that gave me that trippy feeling again. Something I hadn't experienced for a number of years. Power metal, Gothic Metal, Progressive Rock, Operatic Rock.

Bands like Nightwish, Tristania, Within Temptation, Sonata Arctica, Dungeon, Voyager, Amaranthe are all types of bands I mainly listen to these days.

Why? Because they sound nothing like anything else. They get me moving. They make me feel alive. Some of the sounds, and the combination of notes almost make me blind with visuals in my head and I enter a whole new world.

These aren't your ordinary bands. Their influence on me is huge. They're effect on me is unexplainable.

But their effect is totally different to a band I might enjoy. I might think they rock. I rock on listening to them.

One I found just today on MyfriendFaceBookTubes is Makeshift Innocence from Canada. They sound magnificent. Their first track on their page makes me want to grab my Djembe and shaker and go mental... in fact, just before writing "in fact" I went to their site, had a listen to their song "Your body" and had a beat on my African Drum.............. okay. I'm back. :)

That makes me move. Makes me want to dance. Makes me happy. It's a very different feeling I get from the other songs I first talked about.

I do think I'm crazy though. I don't need drugs to trip out. I just need a damn good piece of music to make me slouch in my chair, start drooling and wake up three days later dehydrated, comatose and in bad need of a bath. Ah the life of a rocker!

Hahahahahahahha.

Animal talk

I've subscribed to a podcast recently (a vidcast in actual fact) that interests me. It's about cars.

But this post isn't about cars at all. It's about talking.

As humans, we love to socialise. We love to talk. Have a catch up, a pow wow. We love a good yarn. A good story.

I love chatting. I love catching up with friends to find out what they're up to these days. So when I was waiting for a friend at a cafe today for a quick catch up, I sat alone waiting and listened to another conversation. Then I went off into my own world, as if I took a pill and waiting for the magic carpet bus to arrive and take me away.

I started to think about animals, in other words living things besides humans. And I started to think about if they have any conversation at all.

Are humans the only living creatures on this planet that have general banter and chit chat?

I'm sure the answer is easy.... Yes, animals communicate. But that's not what I'm asking. Do they converse?

Do they talk about their day off? How hard it's getting to find pollen? Does a dog sniff another bogs butt and laugh (in their own language) and say "dude, you have worms".

Do they sit around on their mat at the end of the day and talk about their day to their sister or friend?

Okay, so maybe they don't. Maybe they don't talk or communicate at all.

Maybe they just live every day like that's all there is. It's another day, lick my balls, piss on the grass, ooh the master is up, time to eat, drink, walkies? ooh, check out that bitch, wonder who she's seeing.

Do you think a dog would think that, how about a parrot?

I'm sure they communicate, but do they like to have a chat?

Yesterday, not so long away

Or something like that....

So, what's it all mean?

I'm watching a show on TV right now called Electric Dreams. It's probably a one off show, not a series. Hosted by Amanda Keller, of Beyond 2000 fame. I had a crush on her then, and I think she's still a hottie. :)

The show, in its basic format is taking a family, removing all technology, stipping down the house and only providing the family with everything that was available in the 70's. Each day will take them to a new year.

It would seem at first they (the family) found it quite novel. I'd imagine half way through the show the kids will start getting restless with the lack of stimulation other than a TV and guitar.

The show displays a really good example of how life was, but also, really how life can probably do without all the rubbish we deal with daily.

Easier said then done. I love technology, I love gadgets and I can't get enough of the latest and greatest things. Whatever those things are.

However, I could easily replace all the technology I have with good old fashioned old skool things.

Lets look at some technology as an example that we might take advantage of;

De-mister in your car. Pretty self explanatory, I don't think going back to a 1970's car in Winter would be welcome since we're all now quite well accustomed to a foggy free window in their car.

Then there's EFI. I think most people have probably even forgotten cars with manual chokes.

Yet, the car would more than likely be easier to fix. With simple design, no complicated systems keeping things in check. People would more than likely slow down and drive at more legal speeds instead of cruising around leisurely.

The family has now been given still cameras, and heading into the commercial break, the young boy of the family appreciates a bit of vinyl due to the fact that he's never held a piece of music in his hands, in total contrast to the digital age he's always known to download songs.

That's quite profound when you think about it. And I gather this is why Steve Jobs has introduced album art into their iTunes Music Store.

And while the boy admires the beauty of an LP, there's a power cut due to the industrial disputes in 1972-3. Power will be restored in the morning, where the boy goes on his paper delivery route at the butt-crack of dawn before school.

After school they (all the kids) receive bikes to ride on. And they love it. The parents are a bit off about it all because they worry the kids will get nabbed or hurt and won't know about it.

As they settle in for dinner, they play some board games. Something the father admits to not doing for a very long time.

It's 1975 now and the family gets a deep freezer and thus supermarkets are on the rise.... mind you, this show is filmed in Britain, so supermarkets may have been around before then in your locale.

Welcome 1976 and the family gets a colour television set. The son isn't so amused by colour on his TV, and would rather do without it if it's not as good as his current day setup (computer, hi-def TV, etc). Then all of a sudden they get a game console delivered. The Atari console with Pong. Or, in the case of this show, a Binatone. Enthralling.

They now receive pocket calculators and the parents do all the rude word before giving it to the kids. 58008 then turn it up side down. The son doesn't bother with it all, and starts to feel withdrawn from life due to lack of modern stimulation, so much so that he helps mum clean up by grabbing the vacuum cleaner.

Ohh, the TV is dead. The son is dismayed. The repair man is called, reminded that TV sets use to break down quite a fair bit and use to heat up so much that they would set the house on fire, nicknaming them Curtain Burners.

As the show draws to a near, the family looks more relieved rather than gaining from the experience and perhaps realising they don't really need any of that stuff.

We're now at 1979, and the family is putting on the very typical and boring slide show. Fondu is served along side the Soda Stream and Snow balls. The kids put on their mix tape they created from their records recorded to tape.

As the slide show rolls on, the husband reminisces, and loves it. The wife hates it, because the lack of tech made her life in the home harder.

One of the daughters thinks she had more freedom to play outside without her parents being so cautious. The son won't miss the lack of technology at all.

I was wrong about the show being a one off, the next episode will bring on the 80's and with it comes the Walkman, Simon, big music amplifiers and more cassettes.

I assume there will be a 3rd episode covering the 90's

Really when you think about it, most of us can remember when this was normal.

The question is, are we really better off with all the technology that surrounds our lives today?

Howdy Partner

Over the last few months I have been on the journey to find my next life... mainly my next career. I won't go into the whole reason why again, that's in an older post. However, my friend Val has returned from Greece and we caught up on Friday after work.

If I haven't mentioned it before, Val is the owner of The Sound Basement. A local rehearsal/recording studio that has a lot to offer. I met Val back in 2008 when a friend organised a band and invited me to play bass for him. We haven't played in 3 months, but that's a different story.

Upon meeting Val, we seemed to have got a long really well straight off the start. He invited me into the studio once to have a look at what he's doing, and I learnt straight up that this place he's created isn't just somewhere for people or bands to come in, jam for a few hours and go home or a gig later on.

Val has ideas, he's a crazy person with a million different ideas. The only thing is, he has too many ideas and needs a bit of focus.

Well, a few months back when I was looking at buying into a music shop franchise that pitches itself mainly as a music tuition place that happens to have guitars, drums, keyboards etc for sale as well. It's a great place and I love what the owner has done. It's a brilliant idea that appealed to me. However, for some reason I had an interesting feeling when I went to see the shop that I was interested in. When I told Val about it, he went to see the shop a few days later and called me to say "Steve, I went to the shop. Hmm, I didn't get a great feeling either".

We both agreed there was a vibe about it that didn't rub either of us in a positive way. So, after that Val and I met up face to face because at that stage both of us had shared personal projects with each other and have a basic understanding of where each of us stand in the art of music.

I went in that day to see Val in regards to an acoustic project he's doing and wants me to be the guitarist. I agreed and then we moved on to other topics, one of which was this music shop. The talk about that was short, we both had mutual feelings towards it and then the conversation quickly moved on to other things.

I identified that while Val had a bunch of brilliant ideas, some profoundly insane that will work only because they're crazy, while others more mainstream and easy to work with. Val appeared to need a hand. He's doing this all pretty much single handed, with only his wife, obviously a strong woman who has helped dramatically in Val creating this studio and making it nearly double in value in a little under 3 years.

Val comes out with "Do you see anything here that you could help with?"

A light bulb not only lit up in my head, it glowed so bright it exploded.

I saw this as my opportunity to finally let go of IT and become part of a more realistic idea of how I want to work and live.... in the music industry.

The only question was, "What the hell do I do here?"

What did I really have to offer Val apart from being an extra set of hands and maybe be his clone for times where he can't be two places at once.

Well, after much much thought, and with Val's return from his overseas trip we organised our Friday afternoon meeting and mainly caught up about his trip. Soon after, his wife turned up and the talk turned to business.

6 hours later and a numb bottom, we had something in place. A verbal agreement with some ideas on what is going to happen. I told Val I felt a great deal of relief that now a lot of the important questions have been answered and a lot of the doubt has lifted thanks to our chat.

It just went to prove that with both of us putting our heads together, we had this beautiful agreement (albeit verbal) where we both have a fair partnership with both of us coming out with everything we want.

Naturally, from here on we'll be talking to accountants, lawyers and other people we may need to bring in, and we'll both sit down with these people to have an actual legal partnership agreement set up so we cover all bases from the good parts to the bad parts.

While neither of us want the bad parts, we both know it's realistic to be aware that the proverbial poop can hit the spinning wind machine otherwise known as a fan.

We both ended our lengthy catch up at about 11 pm on Friday night knowing what each of us have to do to go to the next step.

So, it looks like the ball has begun rolling. We have set out what areas of business I will be responsible for. What profits and running costs I will be associated with. The split of business between us, how much I'm buying into the business.

In between all the chatter, we also had some more crazy ideas pass between words. One of which is going to be a first time thing using my skills in technology and his knowledge of music to develop a cool and interesting way to deliver music to fans.

Sadly, this has been done before, just not in Australia. But it's cool and crazy ideas like the one I can't really talk about just yet that are going to make this a bloody fun journey I can't wait to be a part of.

My goals appear to be covered well;

•Less time working in a business, more time working on it.

•Being more creative

•Setting myself up financially so I can support myself and my family without worry of losing it •all tomorrow.

Val has similar goals but his main one is much like my first one. Have a business that runs while we're not there.

I'm excited, terrified and looking forward to the challenges I have to carry over the ideas Val has and make them a profitable music experience for bands and regular people who just want to have some fun.

I wish I could share these ideas with you, but I can't until they're ready to be delivered. But when they are, you'll see, they're awesome ideas. Val's got them, I've got the motivation to get them happening. Together, we're hopefully going to have a brilliant creation of a music studio like no other. Fuck it's scary. I can't wait.

When friends become something... not sure what

As you travel through life, you meet people. People come and go. Some become friends, others are forgotten about as soon as they are out of sight.

Sometimes you find friends that are like long lost family members. While at first you're joined at the hip, and you could stay like that for years. After a while, again, maybe years later you end up hating each other.

While I don't really hate anyone I know. I do know when I no longer like someone. Unfortunately, I have a friend whom I've known for years. And something strange has happened.

I no longer enjoy being around him. When we're out having dinner, the bill will be paid and he'll order more drinks. Everyone's getting up and leaving and it's as if he's oblivious that people are standing up and putting on their coats.

This annoys me because it happens just about every time we all go out.

I know someone else who's been struggling through the last few years of their life, and as a friend I have learnt to listen to what he has to say. Listen to his struggles and after five or so years of listening I have only started to speak back in the last 12 months.

While what I've been telling him is making improvements, he let slip the other day. The worst part about it was one of the things he said, "I feel alone, like no one likes me. No one cares. I have no one to talk to."

I felt like I got hit by a ton of bricks. What the?

Here I am listening to his life's filth he's created for himself trying to help support a friend, and he says that? I felt so under appreciated that I shut my mouth before saying something nasty and making him really feel like no one will listen to him.

In the past, I've normally told people like this to just piss off. And I've promptly disconnected them from my life. This may sound harsh, however I don't want people around my life that sponge off me. I only want genuine people around that have their own prerogative. Their own concerns.

I once had a friend who I use to ride motorcycles with. For years he would call me around to his upholstery business he ran on his own so I could help him load a couch into the van and deliver it with him. I helped him move when his wife divorced him. I helped him find a new place to stay.

When I asked for one favour. To help me move a racing motorcycle when I bought my house. He told me he couldn't.

While I never expected any help from anyone. I expected him to at worst say "Not today, but I can help you tomorrow"

All I got was a "No, sorry", no reason why, no excuse even. Just no. If I think about it, I tend to think I'm silly. But then I think to myself, either way. Silly or not. Why have people like this around my life?

The answer is, in my opinion we shouldn't have to.

So, what has really happened here? Have I changed, has my friend changed? Maybe we've both changed. It's more than likely the latter. People change. If anything, I'm going to say I've changed. Reason being that while I'm more tolerant these days. I'm also more easily annoyed.

This sounds hypocritical. But it isn't. I was talking to my friend the other day who I go sketching with every Monday nights and we were talking about our various tempers. I came up with something he agreed with and so did the guy behind us eavesdropping on the conversation. "There are things that you can let go, "whatever", you say. Letting water run under the bridge. And sometimes that thing is huge. Everyone else around you is thinking "oh crap" and you're totally blasé about it all. Then there are other times when the smallest thing will crack you. You'll explode and steam will escape your ears." Why?

I don't know. Maybe it's tolerance. And maybe as I get older I'm more patient, but less tolerant. I can wait forever for a young child to finish their homework, but I can't stand a friend who doesn't understand why we're all standing up leaving the restaurant.

I think I've outgrown some people that are around me. I don't know what to think about it. I don't want to cut off my mates because they're my mates. But should I be nostalgic when it comes to the fact that I don't really enjoy being with them anymore? What a predicament.

Electric Cars

This is a topic close to my heart. I love cars. I love motor vehicle of all types. I spent 16 years of my life knowing I was going to be a motorcycle mechanic. I love speed, acceleration. I love the smell of petrol. I love the smell of burning rubber.

I am a rev head, a petrol head. I'm a hoon. If I drive or ride anything fast, there's a chance I'll ride it fast. My wife sometimes reminds me that I'm driving like an Italian.

Mind you, I never put anyone's life at risk at all. I just drive like an Italian.

So, I was thinking about electric cars the other day and there were so many pros and cons. The obvious good bits are the acceleration and less moving parts. Not to mention the big appeals to me, the environmental impacts are far less.

However, this is where I run into issues, and I'll get to them in a minute or two. These are in fact the cons of why I disagree with electric cars.

The big appeal is that they are quite, smooth, with brilliant performance and excellent positive attributes that make it perfect for most people who drive daily to work and back.

Here are my biggest concerns about full electric cars:

1. Distance you can travel
I know this is something that is being addressed with better battery technology and more efficient electric motors. Not only that but also better ways of using power, or creating it from ideas like re-generative braking and solar panels on the roof. However, the best range they can muster from a full electric car doesn't get me to the most visited long distance locations I frequent every year. One of which doesn't even get me half way there.

I know they're working on range, and also the best alternatives to charge these cars, whether it be a quick charging station or battery swap centre. Either way, it's not finalised yet, however Telsa is currently selling their car. The Chevy Volt is a good step, just a pity it's not a fabulous step, and to be honest, if I were Chevy, I'd go and hide in a dark corner after some of the flack they copped for their dismal efforts on the Volt.

Someone told me once, to avoid the range issue, have a separate petrol car that can take you on long distance, or rent one. This might work, but it doesn't appeal. And generally people who own a car don't see the logic in having to rent one just to pile in the family and gear to head off into the woods or the bush for a couple of days. Sadly, the range of current electric cars won't even get me to my mates place an two hours away to see him like I do once every few months.

My current car is a pretty efficient, yet powerful Turbo Diesel Fiat Punto. I can get 900 kms (559 Miles) from 40 Litres (10.5 Gal) of diesel. I regularly get 650-700 kms just driving around town. so I fill up once every 10 or so days because I spend most days driving to see clients, averaging about 50-100 kms per day. While that's perfect for an electric car, what happens when I have to travel further? "Sorry I can't make it today, my car is re-chaging. It'll be done in about 4 hours."

2. Price of a re-charge
Cars like the Volt and Tesla's Roadster are touted as cheap to 'fill up'. While this may be true now due to electricity prices around the world being on the cheap side. A couple of issues spark up in my mind, more so than ever before, thanks to a recent electricity bill that arrived last week which showed my money owing at about 20% more than the last bill. A nice letter and pamphlet accompanying the bill told me the rates are going up.... again. YAY.

So, imagine when everyone comes home at night after work to top up their battery and finds that the electricity provider has decided to do one of two things, or better still, both raise the price of power and change the on-peak and off-peak times to best suit their bottom line and their share holders.

3. Load
Last summer, like most summers in Australia, it gets bloody hot. And as such, states like Victoria have blackouts in summer due to everyone's air-con being cranked to the limit. I don't blame them. However, if we're having electrical issues trying to supply people some kW to keep them cool when it's 40°C+ outside, you have to have some form of cooling system to support a lot of humans in one spot. In an office, you'll need to cool them off and keep in mind all those closed windows, all those people, all those computers running. Everything in the room is creating heat.

If you've ever walking into an office with the air-con not working you'll know what I mean. It's stuffy to say the least.

So, if a well developed country's electrical system can't cope with current conditions, are jacking up the price of their unreliable power and justify it by saying they're using the money to create better, cleaner and more efficient power stations. What use will having an electric car have when you come home on a hot summer afternoon, plug the car in, go inside, run the air-con to cool down your house then everything blacks out.

Guess what? You're walking to work tomorrow. Hmm, I guess that can't be that bad.

4. Convenience
So your friend invites you over for a birthday party. Or maybe family. You drive there in your shiny new Electric car. You get there, everyone thinks it's so cool. Then you ask if you can plug in so you can get home, you used all the charge to get there and now won't make it home.

Not cool.

Everyone leaves the party saying "I won't be buying one of those fancy Ee-Lectric cars". And chances are the image is tainted for a long time. Probably until there is no choice. Then you'll have to buy one. Hopefully by then they'll have solved the travel range issue and you can get out into your favourite camp site without worrying about setting up a solar panel and rigging it up to the batteries, voiding your warranty and possibly shorting out the car, almost killing yourself. Not a good look around the family.

I recently watched a video of Robert Llewellyn driving the Tesla Roadster and talking to Diarmuid O'Connell, Vice President of Business Development for Tesla Motors. None of these areas of concern were mentioned. And the biggest point made was that it would currently cost a few dollars a week to keep your car fully charged.

WOW! While that sounds amazing, and it may well be true for the next 12 months. Seeing as my electricity bill just went up 20% in a matter of 12 months from the last price hike, I'm left wondering how much it will cost to keep my electric car running once they are the norm, ie; every car on the road is electric. Will greed take first place in the environmental chase? Will it end up costing me the same in 'fuel' to top up my electric car as it currently does my petroleum car? I fear so.

So what can you do?

I guess we can harvest our own power and be less dependent or completely off the grid (ideal, but not realistic in suburbia). While installing Solar panels on our roofs are becoming normal and catching on these days. Almost trendy if you have them in your inner city dwelling. The wind power option is a bit of an issue. Ugly poles erected in your backyard, noisy home made wind turbines that piss everyone off with their whining motors salvaged from scrap and their recycled blades from a Cessna make for a brilliant image of going off the grid.

Don't take me the wrong way. I'd love to do this. But there are some things that aren't too accepted in life, and more specifically life in the suburbs where your neighbour can hear you fart.

What happens if you just use Solar? Well, this may work, however for almost all my life, I remember watching Beyond 2000 and seeing and hearing about cheaper solar cells that are more efficient than anything else. I'm 31 now, while Beyond 2000 is a distant memory, and the year itself has come and gone, there are no flying cars and there are certainly no affordable solar arrays that are small enough and efficient enough to power my entire home off the grid, including charging an electric car.

I wish there were, I wish I was saying otherwise. But as opposed to what my friends call me, "Negative", I've always said I'm "Alternative". I'm a realist. While a solar array and some windmills would be perfect for a little self sustained shack out in Whoopwhoop, where most people live in Australia, sadly it just wouldn't work. Unless you're from Whoopwhoop.

But apart from all this, back to the electric car. It may cost nothing to 'fill' up now, but what will it cost when it's the norm?

Sure, the purchase price will come down significantly, but I fear that while the cost of buying the electric car will become significantly cheaper in 5-10 years when 90% of what everyone drives is electric. I fear that the price of running it will become equal, if not more than what it currently cost you to run a petroleum powered car.

The 'industry' will see the lower cost of purchase as an offset for the higher price of servicing and fuelling the vehicle. I hope I'm wrong, but all I can think about is all the people that will be cashing in on this deal, and the end result is you paying still too much for transport. The prices will be artificially higher than normal, which will make it normal.

People who may not drive will be stung with a stupidly high rate on their power at home because it will be assumed that everyone drives an electric car, therefore your electricity rates must be higher. And they will.

I fear that greed will cause humanity to yet again, be left in the dark. You'll be told you're all moving forward, but in reality, you're staying put.

Computers get faster, cheaper, more accessible. Cars get faster, more expensive and less accessible. Solar panels haven't really got cheaper at all, at least not in Australia. So, they're not so accessible. Otherwise we'd all have them on our roof already. But the prices depict us breaking even with power costs at 10-20 years before solar panels we purchase pay themselves off.

What do you do to have your electric car and be able to afford to charge it too?

All I've talked about here is the cost of things. Being that most people will be able to afford a new electric car, but running and maintaining it may be a whole other story. What about the environmental impacts?

Well, you can't deny that even if the power you use to charge your electric car comes from coal, the impact is not that significant, according to studies. However, electric cars have moving parts in them too, you can't eliminate that. These parts will need grease or some form of lubricants. In the bearings, the differential, the steering, the drive shafts (unless the electric car has motors in the wheels themselves), but there will be a need for petroleum based products of some description to help keep the car moving.

There are synthetic oils and lubricants, so hopefully they're used liberally taking an ever lower reliance of fossil fuel and products based on crude oil.

These are all good things. But the running costs still concern me. I hope I'm wrong. I have little doubt that I will be though. Something tells me this is going to be the best and worst thing to revolutionise the automotive industry.