Practice Pad
Technology, Programming, Music, Percussion, Drums and Stuff

We weren’t playing up to our standards, but it was ok because we were very nearly the only people in the room. I made a recording, so I’ll post some clips if I have anything good on it.

/w

The Blue Wailers will be appearing tonight from 10pm-1am at Club Orange. 533 South 500 West, Salt Lake City. Should be fun. We’ll be playing our funk/fusion/blues sets instead of our jazz sets. You know, give the kids what the want.

Tomorrow is the first annual RIADevShed event. It’s being put on by Matt Reinbold, the Salt Lake ColdFusion User Group manager. Good guy, and super sharp. I think he’s got the right idea with this one. I’m not sure which track I’m most interested in, the Flex track or the AJAX/AIR track. Probably flex. I may do a little live blogging from the site, but I’ll definitely post about the event laster tomorrow or on the weekend.

After killing it every other day this week I decided to skip today. I’ve been shaky and feeling funky since Tuesday, so I figure it’s a good day to take a break. I won’t be able to hit it tomorrow morning, either, unfortunately, as I’ll be in a training in West Valley.

The Blue Wailers (web|myspace) were featured in last week’s Flipside magazine, a Park City local music scene publication. Clickety-pop for full size, and check here for upcoming shows.

30 minutes cardio, worked on my arms and chest and back some more.

When I was 15 and a half I became a certified SCUBA diver. 6 months later when I turned 16 my “Junior” certification expired and I never got the adult certification. I never dove again.

3 weeks ago I went to the class and got certified to perform CPR. There had been a choking incident at the daycare and, while the staff were all certified, it turned out that very few of the parents were, so they brought in a trainer to do a class. Seemed like the prudent thing to do, so I did it.

Today, the American Heart Association has changed the procedure. No more mouth-to-mouth, they’re saying chest compressions only is just as effective. Sounds good to me. The chest compression part of the procedure is straightforward and fairly obvious, whereas the mouth-to-mouth seemed to me to be the clunky part of the task. Open the air way, close off the nose, 2 big breaths, watch out for puke, and hope you don’t get a blood or saliva-borne infection.

Not that a 90 minute class makes me any kind of expert, but I’m all for this change personally. If any of you folk keel over, I’ll thump on your chest all day and night.

/w

I’m trying to exercise more. Today I got 40 minutes on the stationary bike (the last 15 of which were fairly excruciating, thank you), and some work on my arms and back. The gym at the VA opens at 6am, and I’m going to try my best to be there then.

I just updated rebecca.willyrayconsulting.com and www.willyray.net to WordPress 2.5. Pretty smooth and easy update, really.

A lot has been happening since last I posted. Not sure I’m going to be continuing with music school, for one. Lots of reasons. It’s just not designed for a person with a career to do it. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, here’s to more blogging, I guess.