The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I have my last pitching lesson tomorrow.  I'm amazed how much they have helped.  I was doing all kinds of things wrong.  I wish I'd had this sort of thing at 16, I might not have torn my labrum back when.

We're working on my curve tomorrow, mostly, and control.  I'm throwing a circle change pretty well now, but he tells me he wants it to die at and hit the plate, I tend to get them up.  And my fastball has about enough velo to make the change actually a change.

I tried golf, I really did.  And it wasn't that I didn't like it.  I quite enjoyed it with the right group of friends. 

But I suuuuuuuuucked.

My father-in-law is a golf whiz.  Was a lifelong passion of his and he put a lot of time and money in it and became really good.  He had a fancy house in one of those private communities with a golf course built through the middle of the neighborhood. 

Then he got so angsty about it that he couldn't take the stress of competing with himself, and of how seriously he took the game, and he's now sold that house to go live out in the Colorado wilderness, and much of his golf equipment too, I think.  

Become a musician. You won't have disposable income nor free time! =)

I own big dogs and play big instruments - the minivan isn't optional. Someone asked me recently what I'd buy if I had a $5,000 spending spree in a music store. I told them, "Well, that's about half the cost of a Roland TD-50KV2 kit, so I'd put that on lay-away and try to sneak back in with another $5k some time when the wife wasn't looking.".

Just say no to electric drums. 

But yeah....was a time when I was single, had uber-low living expenses and made pretty decent money, and I believe I single-handedly kept the south location Austin Guitar Center in business.  They loved to see me coming.  They all knew my name and I occasionally got free stuff because the store manager loved to see me walk in. 

Never really did have a good place for a lot of my crap when I got married and moved in here.  Wife half-secretly wishes I'd get rid of it all, and I probably should, but I just can't. 

I've been married for 28 years. My stuff got chucked out a long time ago!

I like vDrums because I don't like playing behind a shell. The drum kit tends to be the "base level" sound that the rest of the band has to get over. Since most of the time I'm playing incident to a live acting performance, volume is always an issue. Everyone wants the exciting sound of hi powered playing, but not the requisite volume.
With the vDrums, I can hand the FOH guy one XLR cable to do with as he pleases. The other one goes to a monitor pointed at my face so I can tell what I'm doing. Also, I can switch out styles by scrolling through kit setups. There's always the "revue" style shows where 20 different song types happen.

Of course, a decent kit costs about the same as a wedding caterer. Guess which one I'm paying for?

I did a baseball fantasy camp in 1992 back when I could still sort of look like a baseball player.  I mentioned it to my wife when I hit 60, and she correctly said I should do it again soon if ever, so I did, a one time thing, just for kicks.  I had a blast.  In fact, they do two camps now, it's gotten popular, and the second week is basically "veterans only", the same guys who come every year sign up for that, and it gets booked quickly (we get dibs).  Last year I did both camps, one of three guys who did that.  It was fun seeing the "rookies" go through the experience, and now most of them are returning (it isn't cheap).

My wife again noted I won't be able to do this forever, so I should do both camps again, so I signed up.We get two days off in between to recover.  And I need to recover, it's not an old man's sport, even with "adjusted" rules.  So my "hobby" now all year is getting into shape for camp, which is tougher and tougher every year.  But I'm throwing pretty well, I'm going to be fascinated to see how I do, my goal is to complete a game (7 innings), which is a stretch goal for me in more ways than three.

The odd thing is I've been on three championship teams, so I have three "rings", which are big gaudy things nobody would wear in public, but some guys have been ten years with no ring, so I might at times wear all three in the club house, or around the pros.  I'm going for four.  My pitching coach is one of the pros at both camps and he says he'll draft me pretty early to ensure I'm on his team.  This is actually me on their web site.

Fantasy Camp | Atlanta Braves (mlb.com)

Atlanta Braves Fantasy Camp 2023 - YouTube

I've been married for 28 years. My stuff got chucked out a long time ago!

I like vDrums because I don't like playing behind a shell. The drum kit tends to be the "base level" sound that the rest of the band has to get over. Since most of the time I'm playing incident to a live acting performance, volume is always an issue. Everyone wants the exciting sound of hi powered playing, but not the requisite volume.
With the vDrums, I can hand the FOH guy one XLR cable to do with as he pleases. The other one goes to a monitor pointed at my face so I can tell what I'm doing. Also, I can switch out styles by scrolling through kit setups. There's always the "revue" style shows where 20 different song types happen.

Of course, a decent kit costs about the same as a wedding caterer. Guess which one I'm paying for?

In most situations I avoided shells with a different kind of stick or just mastering softer strokes.  Definitely have to scale back some of balls-out playing, which as you point out just doesn't happen without volume, but most situations did not require ballsy playing.  

But yeah, if you don't want to drive household members or even neighbors crazy, it's gotta be electric.  I was fortunate growing up neither of my parents minded having a full kit in the house.  Neighbors didn't seem to care either.  I don't think I would do it to my family now, tho.  But I'm still not touching an electric kit.  They literally don't feel right.  When Alex Van Halen talks about having a physical connection to the instrument, I know exactly what he's talking about.  Drums more than any other instrument produce sound waves your body becomes accustomed to feeling, and the impact of sticks on a real drum cause vibrations in the sticks your hands feel that are missing with any sort of mesh head.  I play harder and harder, looking for the "feel" that never comes, and it just frustrates me to the point of cursing after a couple of minutes, and I'd rather not deal with it.  Plus they sound like crap.  Every few years somebody gets me to try the latest and greatest with all the improvements.  I do a few rudiments and play a quick groove with some finesse and dynamics and tell them "Lolz, still no."  They can sound quite good these days for relatively static beats that don't require nuance.  The second I start counting on the module to measure a full and wide range of volume/sounds is the second I remember modern engineering still can't compete with mother nature and PHYSICS, baby!

But many people love them.  I never learned to.  

Interesting theory.  I don't think I'm a classic case of anything like that, but being at home behind a kit was an understatement.  It was my happy place.