Linked Where?

Over the past few months, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about the whole social networking "scene" (if you will). Bottom line, I think there's real potential on sites like Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Linkedin, Reverb Nation, Pure Volume, Twitter, etc. to re-connect with people with whom you haven't spoken in years. But there's also an even greater potential to water down the closest of your current relationships. Here's why:

All of a sudden, people are able to share the most personal of news with a mass of people - all at once - many of whom barely know you, and who, quite frankly, are rather uninvolved in your everyday life. Your closest friends can feel cheated (and I have felt this way myself) that you have shared this news with everyone equally. There is no longer a sense of "who do I tell first?" when it comes to major (but personal) news in our lives. All are given equal access - and thus, equal status - in our circle of friends and acquaintances.

For this reason (and others), I've been selective about joining social networks. I'm not on Linked In. I'm not on Twitter. Perhaps it's to my own demise. But for now, this is the best reasoning I can come up with. If you have thoughts about all of this, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

Security Questions on Facebook

You know that Facebook is beginning to go the way of MySpace when every time you want to make a comment, you have to enter a captcha phrase.  Yes, it is true.  Today, I entered my first-ever captcha phrase on Facebook.  Bad news I say.  That's why my entrepreneurial mind is trying to figure out how to develop a better way.  Oh yeah, and I'd make millions of dollars by starting my own social networking website.  And of course, my ultimate goal would be to take over the world...

Baseball Season Already

Yes, it is true. I am a baseball fan. And to anyone who has a problem with it, or says that it's boring, I have one response for you: well before the first American football player was in diapers, pitchers were pushing off the ole rubber to guys with wooden bats. Don't you ever forget the sport of America's past-time.

And so begins another season of Cubs baseball. We've started out pretty well here, winning the first two of three, and losing that middle game in an extra innings outing against the Astros. That's okay. It's early, and the bullpen didn't perform. They'll only get better.

It's already 10 AM here, and I've wasted enough time online... It's time to get back to work on my recordings... And, of course, I can't forget to bug my brother about getting his account info for Gameday Audio...

Snow in Spring, Rain in Florida

So this past week, Megan and I went to Florida for a couple of days. And yes, you may have noticed that there wasn't a video because of it... We had a great time, traveling all over the state: from Daytona to Cape Canaveral, to Orlando and Disney, to Tampa, on the Gulf. We were able to catch up a little with some good friends of ours, spend some time at the beach, and eat. And eat some more. The only downer, you see, is that it rained for two and a half days of the six that we were there. But at least it was in the seventies...

We came home on Saturday to 40 degrees and a snowstorm in the forecast. Completely unpleasant, and absolutely unnecessary. And as our pilot said, "Apparently Chicago still hasn't gotten the memo that it's Spring."

Wearing a Retainer at Age 26

"Yes," is the answer. I went to the dentist a few weeks ago - just for a regular check-up and cleaning, and it conveniently coincided with the week I chipped a tooth. Yeah. I wasn't doing anything crazy to chip it - it just kind of happened. If you want to know how, it was pretty simple: I was chewing a piece of gum!

So anyway, I went to this dentist in Glen Ellyn. I had never seen her before. Actually, I've never seen a female dentist before either. I was hoping for someone a little bit more caring/gentle/whatever with my teeth. Let's just say I was pretty happy with her performance.

When she saw the small chip (and I mean very small), she said it was probably caused, in part, by some natural shifting that was going on in my mouth. She could tell I had braces when I was younger, and suggested that I might try to wear my retainers again. Maybe by re-correcting the bite, she thought, we could prevent any more damage to the tooth. Yikes! Yeah, you can say "painful."

So this past week, I finally bit the bullet, so to speak, along with the metal and plastic of my retainers, and put them in again for the first time since high school. As you can imagine, I'm in some pretty serious mouth-pain right now, but I'm expecting it all to pay off. Also, I have to be honest: I didn't really think I was going to get these things in again at all...

Looking ahead to the next few weeks, even with my teeth all out of wack right now, I'm looking to finish up lead vocals for the new album. No, I won't be singing with my retainers in! I couldn't imagine the horrible lisp I'd have!

So wish me luck as I "thsths-ing" my heart out!

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Do you have an interesting experience with your retainers? Post about it here, at: http://jaymathes.com/blogger/blog/

Grapefruit Stitched Up

In high school, when my grandmother lived with us, I used to eat a grapefruit for breakfast on my way to school. My grandma liked them, so I thought I'd give them a shot. I liked them. I thought it paired well with an extra-sweet, three-sugar coffee. No cream. I didn't eat grapefruit again for nine years.

Today I ate half of a grapefruit for breakfast. It was the best grapefruit I have ever had in my entire life.

And while I was eating the best grapefruit I've ever had in my life, I listened to a song for the first time ever - a tune by John Mayer called "Stitched Up." It was awesome. Probably one of the best songs I've heard in a long time. This man never stops amazing me. If you've never heard the song before, find it, and savor every note.

Pushing the Envelope

I just received an email from a buddy of mine who owns a studio in Villa Park. He has the next two weeks available, and he's willing to book me at a super-discounted price for mixing. The only problem is that I'm not finished tracking yet. ("Tracking" is the process of recording each instrument and "composing" the parts of a song.)

If my estimates are right, mixing should take no more than five days. And if my friend still has Monday, February 9-13th available, that means, if I want to mix with him on this, I have ten days to finish tracking everything.

It's doable, but it will be tough. It means that I'm going full-throttle every day for the next ten. It means putting a few other things on hold. It probably means only performing one show that week. My only concern is that I confuse working efficiently with working sloppily - that I rush this process, and that I'm ultimately unhappy with the final mixes on February 14th.

Wish me luck. Here we go...