Mileage tracking, aLaska Pik tutorial video, fingernail politicks

As of yesterday, I began tracking my mileage. I was inspired by... my taxes. My lesson income did me in. Boooo. There were so many things I could have declared to keep more of my money, and I track my spending pretty thoroughly, but I haven't been separating out the music expenses. Plus I haven't been keen on what to declare or not. My buddy Alex gave me a ton of great tips back in the day... he's been making his living as a musician for years, so he knows all this stuff already. I'm not even going to pretend I understand it all, but I'm feeling pretty good about 2012 being the year where I make a hefty stab at it.

But mileage. I made up my own little spreadsheet and everything. There's some innately nerdy part of my being that LOVES designing spreadsheets. Are they any good? Who knows... they're good enough for me, that's all that matters. It probably helps that I am listening to this awesome remix of the Mario theme. It helps me to feel nerdy and awesome all at once.

I know there's software that does this stuff, but out of a compelling need to be exceedingly thrifty, I am gonna use my brains to use what I already have. Use it up, wear it out, make do, do without. Plus there's the notion that adding more things to your life doesn't necessarily always simplify your life.

Also, I made a video yesterday. I think I had more fun making the thing than anything else. I was thinking maybe I should just make videos that explain things. Because if nothing else, it was lots o fun.



Mostly I made this because there's little to no video demos explaining these things. I have no interest in drumming up sales, I just find that these things are a stroke of genius for someone like me who can't grow good nails (or just plain doesn't want to worry about them, because after all, there are rocks to be scrambled upon and fun romps on playgrounds and who wants to worry about breaking a nail?), More people might benefit from knowing about these picks. I can't believe it took me 13 years to find out about them.

The funny thing about nails is that no one can agree on what's proper. Generally it's accepted that the nails should be used, in modern day, but then again, not by all. None of the great guitar masters ever agreed. Segovia used nails and a lot of people have sort of accepted this, but, still. You see people with ridiculous long nails, you see shorter-nailed people (like me), etc. So really, there's no "normal" here (or anywhere!) and I don't see any harm in breaking some barriers and going after a solution that seems like it might actually fit what I need.