#work | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#work’

Lessons From The Worst Of Us

Posted: June 21, 2019 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #family, #lessons, #Martial Arts, #Tae Kwon Do, #work, advice, employers, health, meditation, pilates, relationships, unexpected, Yoga

I post about my past and what I see in the present. I post what I have done and I try to post what I feel. That is what we all want to read: feelings. Experiences. Humor and all the rest.

I have learned a lot. I have forgotten way too much. I regret little but would like to change the past if I could. But I learn.

I mentioned I have been in Management of Sales – Service – Marketing for decades. A post or two will jab at bosses and managers that knew nothing and the ones that were great. One of the worst managers I ever had taught me the most. He mentioned that he had to change the way he thought about many things. His mother was struggling to live and suffering for a long long time. He would visit her regularly and help where he could; no matter how inconvenient.

Eventually, he began to talk in terms of ‘having to see his mother’, of responsibility and burden. He told a number of us that it wasn’t until he realized this might be the last time he could talk and laugh and remember with his mother, that everything changed. He did not HAVE to visit his mother, he was given another chance to. Every one became precious.

As a member of a fitness gyms over the years, I took Yoga, Pilates, and martial arts training. I tried for years to meditate as suggested by all. I simply cannot stop my mind and concentrate on nothing. My brain does not shut off at night when I want to go to sleep. I could not focus long enough. Then a fill-in Yoga instructor that was not very good at all suggested that the idea is not to block all thoughts and make your mind blank……

But as thoughts and ideas come acknowledge them – and then let them go. “I know you are there and I will think about you later” kind of a thing.

Great advice from the places I would expect it the least.

For This

Posted: October 1, 2018 in Poetry
Tags: #conversation, #creativity, #friends, #inspiration, #life, #notes, #opinion, #people, #personal, #photography, #poetry, #politics, #question, #truth, #work, #writing

She looks so happy

From the outside, many of us do.

Sure and in control

Man, I wish that were true.

For every question

So sure we have all the answers.

Act as if we’re immune

To weakness, disease and cancers.

He stands there so calm.

No sign that he’s ready to explode.

Sleeves rolled up: digs in

This close to just running down the road.

There is no training for this.

Won’t find it on utube or Internet search.

There is no training for this.

No help from lawyers, police or church.

For every question

So sure we have all the answers.

Talk as if we’re not human

Just crazy, drugged up dancers.

You Gotta Dress Right

Posted: September 24, 2018 in Poetry
Tags: #inspiration, #life, #opinion, #personal, #poetry, #questions, #truth, #work, #writing

MSK © 9-12-2018

Faded jeans and worn-out shoes

You gotta dress right when you sing the Blues.

Down trodden with a broken heart

Don’t even try unless you look the part.

You Gotta Dress Right

Gotta-haves that go on forever.

You Gotta Dress Right

Come in every size, shape and flavor.

You Gotta Dress Right

No place for losers kid; be all you can be.

You Gotta Dress Right

If you want to sing the Blues like me.

Million dollar suit and ties

On thousands of rehearsed handshakes and smiles.

Each one willing to beat the rest

No excuses, no failure: this is no test.

You Gotta Dress Right

Gotta-haves that go on forever

You Gotta Dress Right

Come in every size, shape and flavor.

You Gotta Dress Right

No place for losers kid; be all you can be

You Gotta Dress Right

If you want to sing the Blues like me.

Letter To City Planner Series #3

Posted: August 21, 2018 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #conversation, #driving, #family, #life, #notes, #opinion, #people, #personal, #photography, #politics, #question, #travel, #truth, #work, #writing

Letter 307

On-street-parking. I know I will get a lot of kick-back for this one but I think we should end on-street-parking. Even in residential and business districts. Safety issues, snow clearance, traffic flow, and maintenance costs come to mind immediately. I know many areas do not have much parking space for residents and there are more multiple car families than in the past. Businesses also benefit if customers can park right in front of their stores. But I am not sure this is worth blocking local traffic including emergency vehicles, utility companies, snow plows and the like in areas easily affected by weather, accidents, building fires and a host of other challenges.

Still, if we are planning a city or community, let’s plan on eliminating this practice entirely. Just think how much this would ease congestion, improve safety, reduce city road maintenance costs, allow for emergency vehicles and unexpected weather or unusual events and improve the look and health of our streets and neighborhoods.

Let me know what you think. What would you suggest to your city planners?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Letter To City Planner Series #2

Posted: August 15, 2018 in Opinions and Observations, Uncategorized
Tags: #conversation, #driving, #life, #opinion, #personal, #politics, #question, #questions, #science, #travel, #work

Letter 306

Here are two little things that bug me about traffic patterns and planning. Maybe it is just me, but if I am driving in residential or even business areas where there are a lot of intersections, I think it is weird and dangerous when you come to an intersection but the traffic coming from a dead-end street does not have to stop. This seems to happen a lot where a main road ends in cul de sacs where the “dead-end” is only one block long. Not much traffic comes from there and it is easy to miss the fact that on-coming traffic has no stop sign.

The second minor thing is when you have multiple lanes of road or entry ramps to a highway where the lanes merge and signs say the left lane ends! Again this does not make logical sense. Merging traffic in the US comes in from the right lane the vast majority of the time. The right lane is the slow or merge/exit lane. Faster traffic is encouraged to use the left lanes, implying they have priority. Why tell a priority lane that the lane ends…… merge into the right lane……. and sometimes when you reach the end of the entry ramp you have to merge left again? These little things just bug me from time to time.

Letter To City Planner Series

Posted: August 7, 2018 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #cars, #conversation, #driving, #family, #friends, #life, #opinion, #people, #personal, #political, #politics, #question, #questions, #science, #travel, #truth, #work

Letter # 305

I like to drive around cities and country sides. It becomes obvious after a bit of traveling that some cities are better planned and have more logical systems in place than others. I would love to have the ear of some city planners because it is clear they do not PLAN for growth and other transportation needs early enough. I would like to share some of my thoughts with you, and hopefully you will share yours here as well. Who knows, maybe we can get the attention of a few city planners while we are it!

One thing I would really like to see changed is the location of many schools. I know there are good reasons, but all too often they are located on the main strip through towns of all sizes. I thought about posting pictures as examples, but we have all seen them. My guess is this makes the land rather expensive for all tax payers. Or to look at it another way, the land is of commercial value and interest to local businesses. A number of businesses could pay fair price for the prime locations and exposure the real estate could provide and that would translate to higher tax collected and business success in the area.

Now consider if the schools would be located a few blocks away from “the main drag” going through town. Your children will be safer crossing the streets and playing in the area due to reduced traffic around the school. People that are not supposed to be there would be more obvious if they are loitering around the area. This would reduce risk to students.

Now that the school is not on the main road, traffic flow will be improved by not restricting speeds in school zones, reducing congestion in parts of town most people will have to travel through daily or at least quite often. I understand this might mean a loss of revenue by reducing speeding violations through school zones, but I think we can live with that!

What do you think? Do you see more reasons to adopt this policy? Do you think there are reasons or situations where this would not be beneficial?

Let me know what bothers you about travel through your city and in other locations. Who knows, maybe we can suggest changes that will help a lot of people.

Cover Tunes from The Chase Part 3

Posted: July 16, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: #audio, #blog, #creativity, #friends, #inspiration, #life, #media, #music, #opinion, #people, #personal, #photography, #tech, #work, #writing

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The songs in this session are simple two-channel recordings. These are not multi-tracks of isolated instruments to be mixed down later. This is down and dirty history. I enjoyed recording and listening to each of the gigs. The rest of the band were ok with it, but they were really into the performance and live audience vibe. As a result, I did not get much assistance or cooperation with my projects. We never did a sound check for recording levels. We did not set up differently or use additional gear. I usually taped separate mixes from their sound board or by using a combination of mono mix and single hi-quality microphone up on stage. See my LSR series for recording configurations.

Unlike the other players I have jammed with, I had not been playing in bands since I was a teenager. I did not start playing in front of a ‘real’ audience until I was probably 31 or older. I started playing keyboards (technically different than playing a piano or organ) when I was 30. Before that I wrote songs and played my 12 string guitar for parties and such but that was about it.

Lacking confidence and years to sharpen my skills, I tried to make up for it in other ways. I practiced a lot compared to the other players.

I helped in tech – light – sound – marketing. The recordings were for me, LOL!

This is a live recording of a medley we came up with. None of us really liked disco, but no rocket science to keeping guys in the club is to keep the girls on the dance floor! We smashed together popular dance songs and other select songs toward the end of the 2nd set. Enjoy.

Cover Tunes from The Chase Part 2

Posted: July 13, 2018 in live Sound Reinforcement
Tags: #audio, #inspiration, #media, #music, #personal, #photography, #tech, #thanks, #work, #writing

Here is another live recording from my band, The Chase. Those were good times. This is a cover tune from The Beatles – “She’s So Heavy”. I remember when I first heard this song on the radio. It absolutely blew me away. What fun to play this one out live.

Studio Way

Posted: July 9, 2018 in MUSIC
Tags: #audio, #blog, #brother, #creativity, #family, #friends, #life, #media, #music, #people, #personal, #photography, #poetry, #tech, #work, #writing

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here is another song my brother David recorded at a studio years ago as part of his Studio Way project. My brother wrote the lyrics and is the vocalist on these tracks. Terry Boehm played keyboards. Tom Collier wrote the music and played guitar. This one is called, “Focus On Your Feet”. A fun toe-tapping song that sticks in your head!

The songs were being finalized in the studio as each came up to record. The rhythm tracks were recorded first, with lead instruments and vocals added later that day. A lot of people ‘freeze up’ their first time in a studio with the tape rolling (yes, this was back in the days when they used tape!) so recording can be very stressful – but with a bit of focus you can come out with great memories.

Cover Tunes from The Chase

Posted: July 2, 2018 in live Sound Reinforcement
Tags: #audio, #blog, #computer, #life, #media, #music, #personal, #photography, #tech, #work, #writing

I have live recordings of almost every band I have in. I record a lot of practice sessions but mostly live performances in front of audiences. Many recordings are less than ideal situations and often I experiment with unusual techniques searching for a method that will get great results in almost any stage setting. I threatened to share some of these with you and this is a good a time as any to start! Some will sound better than others, and some performances will be better, but all should give you a little blast from my past! Please check out my Live Sound Reinforcement series for the big picture, or if you are interested in learning about LSR.

This one is “Run Like Hell” From Pink Floyd.

MidiMike

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MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#work’

Lessons From The Worst Of Us

For This

You Gotta Dress Right

Letter To City Planner Series #3

Letter To City Planner Series #2

Letter To City Planner Series

Cover Tunes from The Chase Part 3

Cover Tunes from The Chase Part 2

Studio Way

Cover Tunes from The Chase

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Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#work’

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