krrf
Wholenote
Posts: 375
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Post by krrf on Jan 4, 2021 14:47:16 GMT -5
Some places are still struggling with this, but here in GA we are pretty free to do what we want. During the summer when we were staying in, I decided to go back to school to get another degree. I transferred a bunch of credits and was off to the races. It's amazing how much school work you can knock out when you can't leave your house! What skills did you pickup during the downtime?
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jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
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Post by jellybones on Jan 4, 2021 18:05:20 GMT -5
A friend of mine and I ran a fundraiser on Facebook called Music: Food for Life. We asked dozens of musicians (amateur and pro alike) to contribute "staying at home" videos of themselves or their bands playing. Many of the performances were excellent and we had nearly three hours of contributions. We edited some of it down and layered in footage of the charity we were supporting, the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which helps thousands of families in need. Proud to say we raised over $17,000 for them. (If you're interested in checking it out, page is still up.) Our hope is to do it again soon.
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Post by Vibroluxer on Jan 4, 2021 18:29:09 GMT -5
That is wicked cool! Good on you.😊
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jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
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Post by jellybones on Jan 4, 2021 18:54:21 GMT -5
It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. We got to meet some ridiculously talented folks.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jan 4, 2021 20:58:09 GMT -5
Amateur wire wrapping (rosaries, made about a dozen during first quarantine).
Restored some bench planes and learned how to set them. Learned good back saw technique, though that it always needing a bit extra work. Haven't been able to make much for a while because of constantly running into needing another weird little thing, but I'm at a point now where I could do some project just on my kitchen counter.
Most recently, learning exercises with fitness bands and some weights. The number of creaks, aches and pains that are melting away with just a little bit o' strength training, oh boy...
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Post by HenryJ on Jan 4, 2021 21:30:01 GMT -5
For a while there I was giving piano lessons to two of my grandkids. I had never given piano lessons before. That more or less ended when school started back up.
When social distancing ends, whenever that is, I am going to try this again.
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Post by rickyguitar on Jan 5, 2021 4:03:08 GMT -5
No downtime do...i did not do sh*t except go to work every day.
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Post by gato on Jan 5, 2021 10:32:18 GMT -5
I had seen some tragic disasters on Youtube, so I applied myself to inventing a crash-proof stripper pole for home use. The problem I found is that most often, the poles are for temporary use and too frequently used by folks whose body shape is more buffalo than gazelle.
Therefore I altered my focus (and my federal grant application) to stripper pole crash helmets.
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Post by hushnel on Jan 6, 2021 18:09:18 GMT -5
No Uber cool or epic projects. I started sewing up masks early on. Made over 400, didn’t think to count them. Gave them all away. Started giving bulk masks to the church to get more of them passed out to those that need them. I’m still knocking out ten or so a week. These recent ones I’ll be taking to the 50th Alafia River Rendezvous next week, this will be my 33rd Alafia River Rendezvous.
I started knitting in the evenings, making up free hand variations of the ancient Monmouth hats/caps, these eventually evolved into the Navy Watch cap. I gave most of these away at Christmas. I still have maybe 5 or 6.
I started quilting more seriously, I’ve done a few quilt projects a couple of years back, I took a Quilting classes in October. After the Rendezvous I’ll take more classes.
My niece had premie identical twins, just before the virus hit. This was a bad situation for the babies and mom, the twins shared a single placenta. Ellie was less than half the weight of her sister Leanna. They both survived and are happy and healthy, Ellie was in an incubator for two months. This inspired me to make them quilts, I started these oversized baby guilts in October. This kind of handmade gift takes on a heirloom quality in our close-knit family. Over the Christmas get together my sister gave me a sweater that mom knit for me when I was about a year old.
Not much else, I did make a tortilla press out of a nice 2” X10” board of a heavily resinated pine with a beautiful grain. It works great, though I’m thinking of making the lever longer. It was inspired by an antique I saw in a store in Mew Mexico earlier this year. Now I wish I would of bought it, but at $80 and so simple, I figured I could easily knock one off. I also spent a couple of weeks working on making tortillas. As simple as they are, getting them as good as the authentic Mexican made is not intuitive, it’s not all the recipe, the cooking technique is huge.
I have an old laminate maple chopping board that is 18”X35”X1 3/4” it will make a great tortilla press.
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MJB
Wholenote
Who's we sucka? Smith, Wesson and me.
Posts: 634
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Post by MJB on Jan 6, 2021 18:17:59 GMT -5
I taught myself Ukulele. Not a big stretch coming from guitar.
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Post by Seldom Seen on Jan 6, 2021 18:57:28 GMT -5
I sold a bunch of stuff that was laying around and also some nice guitars and amps to fund my vintage dream amp purchase. I took advantage of the pre-Christmas market which was surprisingly robust. I feel less encumbered now.
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mikem
Wholenote
Musician soundman musician soundman
Posts: 230
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Post by mikem on Jan 7, 2021 8:05:28 GMT -5
On April 1st I started playing electric bass (teaching myself). (We had one in the house as my daughter played it in her middle school jazz band 10 yrs ago).
At this point I've developed enough chops to play in a band if I want to...it's kinda fun.
I have also been working on my clarinet chops 1-2 hours per day.
(cleaning up my articulation, etc.)
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 7, 2021 9:36:38 GMT -5
Working on shop skills...dovetails and mortises with chisels, and dados and rabbets with router planes. Stick and MIG welding. Cooking. Airbrushing. Wrenching on cars, trucks, and boats. Making more guitars. Setting myself on fire and putting myself out (that happened once and I was very very good at it). The list is much much longer but I don't want to bore you.
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Post by Leftee on Jan 7, 2021 9:41:33 GMT -5
I built several guitars last year. So working on my staining and finishing chops, fret level/crown/polish. Lots of mistakes made as I’m still a relative noob. I actually sold a couple guitars that paid me a small wage for my time invested.
I’m still learning. The big thing is I’m still enjoying.
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Post by walshb 🦒 on Jan 7, 2021 11:04:24 GMT -5
I'm embarrassed to say that while I played more gigs last year than I ever have, probably played more guitar than usual also, and improved my slide skills somewhat, I don't feel like I've done much in the way of learning new things. I've done a lot of projects around the house, done a lot of shopping online, and had some fun despite the lousy year most people had.
Life hasn't really changed all that much for us, being in a rural area of TN.
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Post by FlyonNylon on Jan 7, 2021 11:31:53 GMT -5
My year wasn't that different than usual as work didn't change and out here we only had significant restrictions for the month of April. So I was still busy all year, going out and living life, minus international travel.
The main skill I learned was using a modern digital audio workstation (DAW). Kind of fun in an obsessive compulsive sort of way.
Played a ton of guitar last year but nowadays I don't really progress as much as revisit old pieces and styles of guitar playing that I used to know but sort of forgot through the years. The difference between electric blues, classical, and flatpicking/bluegrass is big enough that unless you play like 3 hours a day using all styles you're always regressing.. Getting a big fat book of flatpicking licks today though so maybe will try to level-up on that in 2021.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 7, 2021 12:32:16 GMT -5
The main skill I learned was using a modern digital audio workstation (DAW). Kind of fun in an obsessive compulsive sort of way. That is so true. You pack in a whole bunch of stuff early on and start to get pretty good-sounding recordings. It's a high-reward situation.  |
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Post by tahitijack on Jan 7, 2021 15:29:52 GMT -5
Learning to play the piano/keys. Both humbling and happy experience. In some ways its easier than guitar.
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Post by NoSoapRadio on Jan 9, 2021 16:13:34 GMT -5
Depends on the season but I always found something to keep me busy. For the past couple months it's been cooking and baking. I love using sourdough to make bread but lately I've been finding all kinds of ways to use the "discard". Today it was sourdough bagels -- yuuuge success.
I can already hear our New Yorkers yapping about their "best in the universe" bagels. Get over yourselves -- there is nothing remotely difficult or mystical about bagels.
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