Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"I took several years of lessons, and I've played everything from pop music to Liszt, (no Rachmaninoff - I've got fingers, not tentacles) [...]" -- cirith_ungol, 2005-08-25

Yesterday: Not enough sleep, felt pretty shaky, managed to drag myself out of the house in time anyhow; didn't play my best, but didn't fall over either. Apparently this dance usually gets about twenty dancers, but last night the snow scared 'em off and they had about five. Roads were probably a honking mess during rush hour, but by the time I got moving they were slow-but-sane; not a big problem getting from Union Square to Reisterstown. Heard it was worse a bit to the south. I was the first musician to arrive; maugorn joked that the snow was actually hell freezing over because I'd gotten to a gig earlier than he did.

Today: More sleep (for a change -- *whew*); still feeling a bit draggy though. Hope to make it to rehearsal tonight.

As much as I like ABC, and as comfortable as I am with it, sometimes I just want to plug the bass guitar into the computer, play something, and have the machine transcribe it for me. I'm sure such tools exist; I've not yet gotten around to finding out whether there are free/cheap ones that are any good. This'd be a lot easier if I had a MIDI input device I could play, but I don't. (There's a keyboard here that doesn't belong to me but hasn't been picked up yet, which may have a MIDI port, but I don't play keyboard well enough to use it for this purpose; and I don't have a guitar MIDI controller.) I should try to wake up a little more, stop being lazy, and just start transcribing ...

Actually, I'm torn between staying here, putting off most of my to-do list (especially errands) until tomorrow, moving slowly and resting often, and saving my energy for rehearsal, or getting off my butt and getting stuff done to Get It Out Of My Way and give me more flexibility for the second half of the week, at the risk of crashing when I should be getting ready to head to College Park.

Urk. There was a lot more to write about in my head as I was falling asleep last night. Seemed like more interesting stuff, too. Hope I remember it later.

So I've got these blank CDs. And the packaging has instructions, and the instructions that came with one brand say not to write on them with anything but a Special Magic CD-Marking Pen Of Specialness, or else Bad Things May Occur. They specify an oil-based marker.

I've been using a Sharpie. I always have one handy.

I've had my suspicions about the nature of the SMCD-MPoS, but had not gotten my hands on one until last night. Last night there was one lying around at the dance for some reason, so I pulled the cap off and sniffed it. It smells just like a Sharpie. Of course, that's not conclusive -- it doesn't mean that the ink is exactly the same as what Sanford (maker of Sharpies) uses, but it does mean that the carrier for that ink -- the component that evaporates as the ink dries -- is the same. So far this seems much like the time I noticed that the Special Magic Etchant-Resist Pen Of Unique Acid-Proof Qualities for making printed circuit boards (actually I was making jewelry, etching designs into brass instead of circuit traces out of copper, but ferric chloride works just as well for that) smelled just like a Sharpie ... and then went on to discover that a Sharpie works better as an acid-resist than the Special For This Purpose pen did. (And came in a wider variety of sizes, to boot.) Actually, even some store-brand extra-wide-tip markers work better than the special circuit board pen did.

So the obvious question this has all been leading up to:

Is there in fact anything special about the pens marketed as CD-marking pens, or are they just knock-offs of Sharpies with the price jacked up and a bit of FUD to convince us to buy them? Or to ask this ever-so-slightly differently, is there any reason not to continue labelling CD-R discs with a Sharpie?

I haven't had any problems so far, but a few weeks may not be a valid test. Obviously, I've got my own guess already ...

Frustratingly Clumsy Observation Of The Evening: Bananas, when dropped onto linoleum from a height of about five feet, do not bounce particularly well.

Annoying Packaging Failure Observation Of The Evening: Glass bottles, when dropped onto linoleum from a height of about four feet, do bounce a little, but the phenomenon is not at all reassuring when it is happening.

Made it to rehearsal. Late, but less late than last time. Was feeling marginal (at 17:00, I didn't think I'd be going at all). Now very tired, wobbly, and my hands are not working all that reliably. Feh.

Wonder whether it's worth making a special "grumpy" icon.