What Does The Fox Say?

[Ashtyn]

I've been stumbling upon some beautiful photos of the interior of violins and other musical instruments, all perfectly lighted and photographed all artistically and stuff ( http://blog.gessato.com/2012/07/27/inside-the-music-print-campaign-by-mierswa-kluska/ ), so I decided to give it a shot.

Those photos are clearly from instruments that have been either cut into so the camera could have a perfect view, or perhaps they used some kick-ass endoscopes, but all I had was a dentist's mirror...

[Ashtyn]

I've been dealing with a rather mysterious thing on the back of my jaw, on the left side! It's a sensation, much like that of there being something swollen back there. It's been driving me crazy, so I've gone to the doctors (many doctors!). They don't know what it is. They are pretty sure it's probably some sort of temporalmandibular joint disorder (TMJ). The reason they aren't sure is because I don't have one of the key symptoms of TMJ: Pain.

I haven't felt any pain there! Once or twice there was some muscle pain in the masseter, but other than that, nothing I would call pain.

They took a soft tissue x-ray of my neck, which I felt like sharing here so I can creep everybody out with my bones! 

 

...I always thought my jaw looked a lot like the Terminator jaw...
And behold, my phenomenal amount of dental work! Fun fact: Although I still have all my teeth, only 5 of them have not had work done. ...wait that's not fun, that's not fun at all, that's so very very sad!      Take good care of your teeth, folks!

Anyway, they checked my neck inside and out and can't find anything obviously wrong with it. The doctor today ruled out any tumors or scary stuff like that so I guess I just have to deal with having a strange sensation on the back of my jaw. Hopefully it will go away with time! They recommended I try over-the-counter anti-inflammatory stuff, and look into getting a mouth guard in case I'm grinding my teeth in my sleep.

The next step to see what is it exactly that I'm feeling swollen would be to get an MRI, but I can't possibly afford one of those. So, just deal with mysterious feeling!

(many thanks and love to my secret patron who helped me with the doctor bill!)

[Ashtyn]

Our kitty here Punkin had really bad teeth. Like, really really bad teeth! She was the runt of the litter to begin with, and a few of her teeth never really came through in first place. And the rest of them, they were really weak. That combined with her love for cheesecake and icecream ensured she would eventually have teeth problems.

Punkin is technically Tye's cat, but anyone who's heard me rant about him before would know he'd sit there and watch the poor cat suffer like he doesn't have a clue what to do instead of getting off his ass and doing something (I suggested to him many many times that something needed to be done about her teeth)!

She was clearly in pain; she'd not let people touch her in the jaw/face, and she looked like she was suffering every time she ate. Having had plenty of teeth problems myself, I couldn't stand watching poor Punkin suffer anymore. So I put a bunch of stuff up for auction and got a fundraiser started on FA to help with the considerable veterinary dentist bill. Thanks to some incredibly generous folks, we got the money in less than a week, and I made an appointment for her with the kitty dentist!

She was so eager to get it done, that 5 days before her appointment she had already climbed into the cat carrier we got, and she slept there every night since!

She went through the dentist alright, though she was understandably freaked out since she had only been taken out of the house here once in her life and that was when she was old enough to get spayed. When we brought her back she cuddled with me all day, and she's doing so much better already even though her mouth is still healing.

...and it's still healing because they had to pull 7 of her teeth that were completely rotten! We asked them to take some before & after photos, but they forgot or something, so here's her medical chart...

So now she has her canines, and her incisors. And on the lower jaw she has a set of molars. She will be eating a lot of soft food now that she can't really crunch anything when she chews. ...not that she could before. She was swallowing her solid cat food bits whole! We gave her kitten food as it's smaller and easier for her to eat. She definitely feels a whole lot better, though!

[Ashtyn]

Today when I was mowing the grass I bumped one of my apple trees (meaning: I grabbed it and shook it vigorously), and the one apple it grew this year came loose! So yes this is our first (and only!) apple from the red delicious tree that we get to enjoy!

The gold delicious tree had a bunch of apples 3 years ago but something ate them overnight when they were approaching being ripe. We never got to taste them. I blame it on squirrels, or chupacabras.

[Ashtyn]

Once again it's Halloween!

This year we unfortunately couldn't do anything fancy here on the house, and Tye decided not to do anything at all, because he's a very lazy horse. 

But I've been productive in my own way! Still practicing the violin! So I figured, for anyone musically inclined here, I'd share my Halloween soundtrack for this year: Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre (Op. 40)! ...well, the part that everyone knows and that doesn't get too long and drawn out. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole thing, but sometimes you just want a quick little piece to play not the whole concert! 

Anyway, the Danse Macabre, the Dance of Death, where Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween and calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.

I got a wonderful composing program to play with so I put this together tonight!

 
(click the images for full resolution)

Happy Halloween everyone!

[Ashtyn]

Weee! Got another autograph! ...this one almost two years late!
Apparently Mark Hamill isn't signing photos sent to him (pity, the one I sent was a pretty cool one of him as Luke, and a Joker card), but according to the letter I got with the autograph he left a pile of photos signed to be sent to fans who request them. 

[Ashtyn]

And we finished putting the lights all over the house and the yard so it's all ready for xmas!

...and after many days of messing with it, the xmas tree is up and fully decorated!

And here Punkin can be seen doing her traditional terrorizing of the nativity scene.

[Ashtyn]

I've decided to document my ongoing fight with fleas, so that others may benefit of what I learn as I try to exterminate these damned useless pointless pests!

Our animals here are officially infested with fleas: Punkin and Ash the cats, and Lizy the dog. They have cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis, which must have got into the house from the stray cats that roam the neighborhood and our yard. Or who knows! These pests spread so easy there might have been a flea egg or two that came in through many different ways (on our clothes from visiting somewhere with fleas, or in a package through the mail, the possibilities are endless!).

We started trying to kill them with your everyday flea shampoo (the Adams brand). Well, it kills the fleas on the animals, but the shampoo also advertises it's supposed to repel and keep them 'flea free' for days! Nope. Doesn't work. A day after the bath they have fleas again, even though they're still smelling of the poison shampoo.

We tried the little drops you put on the back of the necks of the animals, that are supposed to keep them flea-free for a month. It worked the first time for a few days, but then they started coming back, and the subsequent doses of the poison didn't seem to do anything!

We tried flea collars. Those were absolutely pointless! In fact the fleas were gathering on their necks under the freaking collars that are supposed to repel and kill them!! I'm starting to think we have super fleas!

One thing we know kills them with absolute certainty is Dawn, the dishwasher detergent that's also used to wash animals victim of oil spills. It kills them instantly! ...but again a day after the bath the fleas start to come back. So that means the house is infested.

We cleaned the house before but considering the whole house (with exception of kitchen and bathrooms) is carpeted, it's gonna take some industrial-grade stuff to kill them all, which is not an option because we can't leave the house fumigating for a few days or anything like that.

In the ongoing fight, I've read lots of articles on the internet, and now we're getting ready to try some different anti-flea medication to give the animals. One is something that supposedly kills the fleas that are feeding on the animal within 30 minutes of administering, but it only kills adult fleas on the animals. It lasts only a day or so, though. The other is one that gets stored in the fat tissue of the animals and any flea that feeds from them will only lay eggs containing deformed fleas that die upon hatching; that one stays in their system for a long while and you're supposed to do a 6-month treatment.

Killing the fleas on the animals is no big deal, like I said Dawn works like magic and is not poisonous to them (or us!). Now as far as cleaning the house, that is proving to be a challenge! Again, carpet all over is a curse!

I've tested 'home remedies' that are said to work:

• Salt: Does nothing to an adult flea; haven't found a larva to test it on.
• Baking soda: Also does nothing to adult fleas.
• Borax: Nope, doesn't work!

I captured 3 adult fleas and put them each in a container with pulverized salt, baking soda, and borax respectively, and for the past three days the fleas which are in the absolute most ideal condition for the products to kill them have not yet died! So sprinkling any of those on the carpets would not kill adult fleas! Maybe it harms the larva, maybe it harms eggs, but not adult fleas. 

I'm looking forward to testing diatomaceous earth next, it's said to kill all stages of fleas. I'll keep you posted on the results!

12-29-2015

I found flea larvae! I put them in the containers with the baking soda, salt, and borax. After 2 hours, the larvae were still alive.   
EDIT: After 15 hours in the containers, all three larvae are still alive! My conclusion is baking soda, salt, or borax do not work to kill fleas!

1-14-2016

I tested the diatomaceous earth. It doesn't work. ...well, it kills them faster than the borax or the baking soda or the salt did, but that still took some 30 hours at ideal conditions, so I'm writing it off as no good either.

Steam is wonderful, though! Steam kills them all instantly! It's just not practical.

[Ashtyn]

I've been making bonsai trees since.... my childhood. I have some quite nicely aged 'trees' down there in Brazil that my mom doesn't take any care of other than watering so they're all overgrown, but still alive and I guess happy! 

When I moved to the U.S., I made a couple of bonsai when I lived in Tennessee, but my roomate at the time neglected to water them when I was out for a couple of weeks traveling, and they died. 

I hadn't made any new ones since then and I figured it was time change that! So I was trying to figure out what would make a good bonsai for me to make here, and I learned that people can make bonsai out of grapevines. Well I have three healthy grapevines there on the backyard, and they are easy to deal with, so, that's what I chose!

So, to start with, I cut a few pieces of the grapevines, and while people normally put some rooting hormone thing to stimulate root growth, I decided screw it, let's see if anything happens if I just stick these in water. Lo and behold, exactly one month after I took the cuttings and put them in water, they have grown roots (one of them is even growing leaves! IN WINTER!!). So the process has begun! I've put the now rooted cuttings on some akadama soil, and let's see how they develop from there!
(if nothing else, I'll just plant them in the backyard comes spring and will have more grapevines!)

1-16-2016

Inspired by the success of my previous cuttings, I've taken some more cuttings this time from my most powerful grapevine. I picked some with interesting shapes that would make good bonsai material. Let's see how these do!

2-7-2016

All original clippings/canes/whatever-they-are-called have sprouted leaves and have tremendous roots growing! The more interesting ones are still in water waiting for roots to grow. If it's anything like the previous ones, they should have some roots beginning to show after a month.

2-18-2016

So I greatly underestimated the power of grapevines! All my samples have either leaves or buds, and roots. The new ones (the more interesting ones) have already put out roots and some are growing leaves, and it's been only 11 days!
I've selected one I think will make the best bonsai, but have to wait to see how it plan to grow its first buds which will later turn into limbs. The others, I have to wait 'till spring and then I'll plant them outside.

3-11-2016

I finally planted the two I picked for bonsai in their respective pots, and put them by a window where they will get morning sunlight.

[Ashtyn]

I tracked down some good violin makers in Shanghai, and made a deal with them trading in my Bucharest violin and a couple of bows I didn't care about for one of their brand new 'professional' models!

This one is a copy of a violin by Guarneri Del Gesù, Antonio Stradivari's direct competitor at the time. All my other violins have so far been Stradivarius copies. The Del Gesù is noticeably different in sound and feel!

...it needs a name! I should start naming my violins! 



10-30-2016

I'm calling this one the Diva, because it's a diva! It's sensitive to weather changes and temperamental to play but its voice is so nice and it knows it! 

[Lasvannon]

That is a stunning violin...

I am a player myself, and I have always wanted to upgrade to a more professional Violin. However, mixing that with buying guitars and other musical instruments its taken a back step. My plan for the near future (This year) is getting an electric violin. Have you bought one before?

[Ashtyn]

That is a stunning violin...

I am a player myself, and I have always wanted to upgrade to a more professional Violin. However, mixing that with buying guitars and other musical instruments its taken a back step. My plan for the near future (This year) is getting an electric violin. Have you bought one before?

Oh it can get crazy expensive to keep getting instruments! 
I never had nor played an electric violin, no.

[Ashtyn]

...and I've been doing some experimenting with my brand new violin!

It's generally agreed (though there's always some spoilsport out there who doesn't agree) that brand new violins need to be played for a while to acclimate them from being a pile of wood into a musical instrument. This playing-in period can be anything from a few weeks to a few months. But SCIENCE! has come with ways to speed that up, or so I heard!

Apparently there's some play-in devices such as ToneRite that claim to do this playing-in for you giving the instrument months of playtime in just a couple of days or so. Also they tend to be unjustifiably expensive! Also the musical community is divided on the effectiveness of these devices, and most see it as snake-oil. I was skeptical too!

I looked into the physics of it (and a very thorough paper some Germans published about the effects of induced vibration on string instruments), and figured out the exact same effect can be accomplished with spare parts I have at home!

Spare parts: An old boombox, a wire, hotglue, and a practice mute.

So! Take one of the speakers out of the boombox, disconnect the other, solder a longer wire, hotglue a practice mute to the dust cap of the speaker, voila! Play-in device!

I set the mute-bearing speaker on the violin's bridge, put some rubber bands to gently hold everything in place - not that I think it would fall off, but when things start vibrating, you never know, it could wiggle itself loose or something! - then set the whole thing on the floor on the back room here that's used for nothing but clutter currently.

Originally I thought I'd play some solo violin music on it, since that's its natural thing, but that got so little vibration going, I didn't feel it was going to be much effective. So I switched to something much stronger: Iron Maiden! That got it vibrating nice and good!

So I covered the whole thing with one of those big storage containers... and put a blanket over it to further muffle the sound coming out of it. Turns out putting a speaker on a violin makes it into a louder speaker! 

I left it to play-in for 2 1/2 days, under the box and the blanket and behind a closed door - I love Iron Maiden but having constant music going would get annoying; I require silence for a while too! - and I checked back on it after a couple of days...

So the results!
I'm astonished. I really didn't expect a noticeable change, or a change at all (I was a bit on the "this is snake-oil" group), but there was a very noticeable change!

At first the violin had that characteristic "new violin" sound: A bit stiff, muffled, like there was something hidden there but wasn't coming out yet. And was a bit like a stuffy nose. I wasn't too sure I liked it. Now after playing-in it sounds open, resonant, and incredibly loud!

So I think play-in devices may work. I don't think they will miraculously make a bad instrument good, but it seems that the logic of opening up the instrument to its full potential is sound! 

[Jaecar Ulrik]

Soooooooooo...........I know I can't be the only one to think this but I'll say it. You should totally pop a video in here of you playing it! Or like a sound file so we can hear you play atleast! 

[Ashtyn]

Soooooooooo...........I know I can't be the only one to think this but I'll say it. You should totally pop a video in here of you playing it! Or like a sound file so we can hear you play atleast! 

I'm still a beginner on the violin. Give me a while to get better at it.