Mood:  a-ok

The walk is going well. A night or two ago I completed the Level 2 section, passing the 50,000 steps mark. That means I'm one tenth of the way there; a long way to go. The weather is perfect for walking right now, though. Autumn weather is the best weather of the year (although we're not quite into real fall weather yet).
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/halfamillionsteps.txt

I did some scary math today that put things into perspective. After 50,000 steps, I had walked a little over 30 km, give or take (depending on how accurate my pedometre is). The distance from where I live to Toronto is about 60 km, depending on who you ask or what reference you check. So at the 100,000 step mark, I'll have walked the distance between here and Toronto. Completing the half a million steps will mean walking the distance between Hamilton and Toronto five times!  But that's okay. It was intentionally designed to take some time and commitment to do.

The other night, my sister was visiting and we were out for a walk. I mentioned that I'm walking half a million steps. She said, "Tonight?"

The webmaster of Girlschool's official site posted a couple of videos on YouTube a day or two ago, filmed at the recent Kelly Johnson Tribute Night at the Rock'n'Roll Kabaret in London.

Former Girlschool members Cris Bonacci (lead guitar) and Tracey Lamb (bass) joined the band on "Screaming Blue Murder"...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb9baZXjzGs

...while Vice Squad's Beki Bondage was featured on vocals for "Emergency".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdx-lcBquFc

Rockin'! Kudos to Craig for posting those.

Mood:  bright

I'm launching a new section in the blog today. I've always had a policy of posting only fully completed tabs, whether it's in regard to sending tabs to large sites or posting on my own site. Everything has to be there, Intro-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Solo-Outro. I won't post parts of songs. That's because people come looking for the whole song.

However, the blog is different. It seemed like maybe a good place to add a section of just cool, fun to play riffs, tab that can be produced quickly because it's not the whole song. In this section you'll find main riffs from songs, or Intros (the Intro often is the main riff, but not always), or just parts that I like out of songs. Where possible, each post will be linked to a sound sample of the riff, so anyone can have a go at it if they like, even if they don't know the song.

There's no way of putting the tab right on the blog page. Or at least if there is, the HTML knowledge required to do it is beyond me. So the "jiffy riffs" will be done on a plain text page and the posts will have a link to the page. There will be three pages, divided the same as the website tabs, since I'm sure I'll do riffs in all three areas: Girlschool riffs, Canadian artist riffs, Various artist riffs. Each time I do an entry in the riff section I'll just add the riff to the applicable page.

I'll probably do this about once a week, maybe more often. It'll come in handy when I'm drawing a blank on anything else to write about. I can just pull out one of the stored riffs, and voila!...instant blog post. :-)

The inaugural Riff-In-A-Jiff is:

APRIL WINE - "Don't Push Me Around"     (M. Goodwyn)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

The riff can be heard here:
http://www.samgoody.com/Stand-Back-Front-Page_stcVVproductId354053VVcatId463278VVviewprod.htm

I've always loved this riff. Have fun!

Mood:  incredulous

I have a Fender Custom Shop calendar hanging on one of my walls. I love the guitar for July. It's a Strat with a carved top, depicting a Phoenix rising from the flames/ashes. The gold hardware sets it off beautifully. It was built by Master Builder Yuriy Shishkov and the hand carving was done by George Amicay.

http://www.shishkovguitars.ru/info.php?fender_eagle

Look at the detail! Just a stunningly gorgeous piece of work, don't you think? Amazing!

(Click on any picture for a closer view.)

Listening to: The Guess Who - Greatest Hits

I been hangin' around webbbbb siiiites, I been learnin' 'bout ads. Oh no, wait. That's the tab I posted tonight.

About those ads on the website. (I assume they're there anyhow.) I hope they're not too annoying. The thing is, I can't see them. From Day 1 when I started this site, I haven't been able to see the ads on my own site. I guess it's because of my security. People have assured me that they're there, though, (oh, joy) and I can see the ad coding on the "View Source" pages of my site, but I have absolutely no idea what kind of ads people are looking at on my site.

Angelfire says it tries to match ads the best it can to the content of the site. I was reading the Angelfire blog one day (where members can post to get help from other members if they're having website problems, or need site building info, etc.) and one person posted to say that the ads on her site for the last few days were "inappropriate". I had no idea what she meant by that, she didn't elaborate. But it got me a bit worried about what kind of ads show on my site, since I can't see them.

A friend of mine took some screens shots of my site and sent them to me just so I could see what the site really looks like to anyone who visits. I'm told I have the usual complement of banner ads and pop ups, etc., but right to this day I don't see the advertising on my site, and I don't know from day to day what kind of ads are put there.

Listening to: April Wine - Stand Back 

Mood:  quizzical

Chilliwack the band, that is, not the city. Although I'm sure the city is a very nice place. (I've never been there.)

They have some great songs on their mid to late 1970's albums, and I think it's a shame that they've never been made available on CD. From what I've read, they're not on CD because they're somehow tied up in the bankruptcy of Mushroom Records. I could accept that as a reason except for one thing. Heart's first two records (when they were a Vancouver, BC based band) were also on Mushroom Records, and both Dreamboat Annie and Magazine have been available on CD for quite some time. So why can't the rights to Chilliwack's records be extricated from the bankruptcy tangle? It would be great to have both Dreams, Dreams, Dreams and particularly Breakdown In Paradise on CD. (1978's Lights From the Valley also falls into the Mushroom years.)

Another thing I don't understand. As I recall (and I recall it pretty well), the song "Something Better" was a fairly big hit. I can remember it getting plenty of radio airplay. That's how I knew it. It was a hit even before the much more widely known "Fly At Night" (from the same album). Both are great songs. I really like "Something Better" and would love to do a tab of it, but inexplicably it's not on any of Chilliwack's Greatest Hits packages! I don't get that at all. Why would that song, one of their significant early hits, not be on the Greatest Hits CDs? And since it comes from the Dreams, Dreams, Dreams album, that means it's not available on CD at all. That's just wrong!

To a somewhat lesser extent, the same could be said of "148 Heavy" from the Breakdown In Paradise album. I got to know (and really like) that song because it got lots of play on FM radio at the time. But it doesn't show up on Greatest Hits records, either. And since it's on one of those Mushroom Records albums, it's also not available on CD at all.

Here's hoping that someday soon that situation gets resolved so that some of Chilliwack's best records can be made available on CD.

Something Better  - (B. Henderson/R. Turney)

People run like tired lemmings headed for the sea
Borders of imagination keeping them from seeing things
Ancient guards in greying fortresses of old ideas
Standing guard on treasure that has long since disappeared from use

Oh, we have got to find something better
Oh, people, we've got to find something better

People run like tired lemmings, they don't see the sun
Shadow pictures drive them on and keep them on the run
Knights in blazing armour stand upon a nearby hill
Shafts of gleaming light held high and no one sees them still

Oh, we have got to find something better
Oh, people, we've got to find something better

"Long ago and far away", the words ring like a bell
Stories, poems, books, and songs have used these words and use them still
Long ago and far away is where most of us dwell
Time has chased us all away, and left today under its spell

Oh, we have got to find something better
Oh, people, we've got to find something better

Mood:  special

The mood is "special" because this post is about a personal challenge I've embarked on in tribute to someone special. Anyone who frequents the website will have seen the tribute to guitarist Kelly Johnson that was on the Home Page back in July. Kelly passed away on July 15 after a six year battle with cancer of the spine. Kelly's been my favourite guitarist (my favourite musician, really) for several years, a huge musical influence on me. But I don't think that will come as a surprise to anyone who's browsed the site; it's pretty obvious. 

Kelly was a superbly gifted musician (a great guitarist in a great band) who also had charisma to burn. And she was a natural, she made all that great playing seem deceptively easy to do (it's not). I didn't know her, of course, just a fan, but by all accounts she was every bit as wonderful a person as she was a musician. Not surprisingly, the tributes poured in for her on the various pages created for that very purpose (pages/sites created by her friends/former bandmates), and on the forum of the official Girlschool website. You can find links to all of those pages on the Girlschool page of the website. https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/page2.html

I guess "the walk" is kind of my own personal tribute. Originally, I wanted it to be a million steps. But I did the math and realized pretty quickly that that wasn't reasonable. So while half a million doesn't have quite the same ring, at least I have a chance of actually doing it. I divided the program into levels and, since the walk is in tribute to Kelly, named each level after a Girlschool song. Completing the walk is going to take awhile (some months, actually), so the levels give me short term goals to aim for. The Half A Million Steps isn't a fund raiser, or a sponsored type thing. It's just something I'm doing myself. The only money involved is my own. I plan to mark reaching particular levels by making donations to the Canadian Cancer Society.

I completed Level 1 tonight, and tonight's walk was set off by a gorgeous full moon, still fairly low in the sky, kind of a golden colour, and absolutely enormous! Quite a sight. On last night's walk I kept checking for even the tiniest sign of the lunar eclipse, but no luck. It wasn't really due to start until about four hours later. So far the overall walk has included three bunny sightings (they're so cute, I love 'em). :-)

So, c'mon let's go, get ready for some action...half a million steps for Kelly.

The Half A Million Steps progress report:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/halfamillionsteps.txt

It was suggested in the comments section a few days ago that adding a Tab Requests section to the site would be good, so I've now done that. This blog post is where requests can be made. There are two ways to come directly to this post:

1. From the blog page - Click on the Tab Requests link on the right hand side of this page.
2. From the website - Click on the Tab Requests link on the Home Page.

 Anyone who has a tab request can add it in the comments section of this post. I'll post in the comments section to let you know if I can do the tab.

A person will only make a tab request if they reasonably think I can do the tab. So I'd suggest having a look at some of the other tabs on the site to judge the quality of them for yourself. Then if you'd like to make a request, post away right here.

Anyone who wants to can make a tab request. The Comments section on this blog is set so that anyone can post a comment. Of course, I'm always available by e-mail for anyone who would prefer to make a request that way. There's an e-mail link on the Home Page of the site, and it's also listed at the top of every tab.

Whether or not I can do a tab by request depends on a few things. I hate having to say that I can't do a tab if someone asks me to, but there are reasons why it's sometimes not possible. The most common reason is that I don't have a copy of the song. I have to have a song on CD to be able to tab it. I can't work from tapes (anymore), because most of my tape recorders have bitten the dust on me. I can't tab a song directly from a soundfile or video on a website (eg. YouTube) because my computer set-up is in too small a space to be able to work right at the computer with my guitar. If I can find the song on either of the pay-per-track sites I'm registered at (Bonfire and PureTracks) I can get a copy that way. But much always depends on whether or not I can get the song.

Of course, it also depends on simply whether I'm able to do the tab or not. If I have the song, I can guarantee that I'll try to do it, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to.

I don't expect that I'll get that many tab requests, but for anyone who would like to make one, this provides an easy way to do it. Don't hesitate to ask if there's a song you'd like to see tabbed.

(Thanks, Rick, for the suggestion.)

Mood:  quizzical

I don't understand search engines. I thought once a search engine found your site, you were found for good. Not so with my site. Search engines seem to find me -- and lose me again -- on a regular basis. I'd enter my exact site name into Google and Yahoo, but the site wouldn't come up in the results. Even the exact URL wouldn't get a result.

I added all the keywords and meta tags and such to my site, and I started to get a few results. With the exact URL, Google could find my site. But doing a search with the site name still wouldn't find the site.

Then Yahoo found the site, and you could get the site to come up in search results by either the site name or the URL. Well, Yahoo! Things were looking up! And it got better! By mid-July I discovered a few people were actually finding the site with keywords, usually by using Yahoo powered search engines.

Then boom!...about a week into August, I was right back where I started. Not only did people stop finding the site using keywords, but entering the exact site name or URL into Yahoo didn't find the site. Yahoo had lost me again. I entered the site name into Google, and voila, it worked! That lasted about two days. Then Google lost me again, too.

It's pretty hard to bring people to the site when the search engines can't find my site. And when they do find it, they seem to lose it again just as fast. How to be found -- and stay found -- by the search engines is unfortunately a mystery I haven't unravelled yet.  So I'm very grateful for the few people who are visiting!

Listening to: Dishwalla - Opaline

Mood:  rushed

I didn't choose it. I just picked one of the ready made templates Angelfire offered. The music one had a Les Paul on it, so I figured that's cool. Okay, it's a lime green Les Paul, but don't you see those every day?  I'm pretty sure there is a line of Les Pauls that are all wild colours, actually. So lime green and blue it is. You can change your template if you want, but I like this one for now. I just don't like the fact that on the calendar you can barely read the month in white against the lime green background. But you know what month it is, don't you?

Poured rain here today, which is good. We need it. And I like rain.

I have company coming any time now, so I'm off.

Listening to: Deep Purple - The Very Best Of Deep Purple

Mood:  lyrical

This is kind of my first blog post. I say "kind of" because I've been dealing with first day glitches like the Comments section not working for me when I tested it (because of my pop-up blocker), the site eating my first post and replacing it with "null", etc. So this is actually the second draft of Into the Land Of Blogs.

Blogging will be a bit of an experiment for me. I don't know if I'll be motivated to stick with it, or how often I'll write blog posts, or if they'll be even remotely interesting, but we'll see. The blog exists in conjuntion with my website, Anne's Guitar Tab Archive (https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret), so many of the postings will be in relation to music, guitar, "adventures in tabbing", things about the website, etc. But it won't be just music entries, I'll talk about plenty of other things, too, whatever topic interests me at any given time.

I've left the Comments section wide open, so....talk to me!  Well, it would be nice, that is, to get some comments from time to time. Anyone can post a comment, all you have to do is fill in a number code to prove you're a real live person. If I end up talking to myself here, maybe I'll even open up the Comments section to the spam-bots and talk to them! Okay, probably not. At the moment, the settings are such that comments will show up immediately, without being moderated.

If you have anything to say about particular tabs on the site, or the tabs overall, or the site in general, or anything talked about here in the blog, all comments are welcome.

In regard to the mood listed at the top, I'm not sure what feeling "lyrical" is. I just liked the little blue music notes, and they fit in well with the fact that this is a blog associated with a music site.

And so...into the land of blogs! (again)