Amsterdam

Took a break for a coupla weeks to wind down. I was majorly stressed out & needed some legal recreation for a change so I took off for Amsterdam. First time there... if I didn't have so many ties here, I'd move.
Got back last night and I'm getting caught up on all my missed emails. There's a ton of contracts that have to be read, filled out and signed for the various publishers. Have to go through all of my tunes today and update the rights info as well as list all the various bpm's, tempos and keys. Been at it since 9 a.m. and it's mid afternoon and I've barely scratched the surface.
Unfortunately, most publishers like using PDF's to send me their contracts which are completely impossible to fill out on the computer. So it's either print out 100's of blank forms and do them by hand or re-create the forms in MSWord. So i opt for redoing em. (I gave up writing by hand so many years ago that I just do a few paragraphs I get major cramps).

I have Cubase 5 finally and have gone through all the reading and DVD info to figure out all the audio warp features. Pretty damn cool. Haven't had a chance to try them out though. I'm just imagining all the possibilities though.

Since Guitar Tricks is no more, I took down that horrible backdrop that's been blocking my fire exit. It's nice to have the studio back to normal and not be spending all my hours doing annoying beginner lessons on video. I may get back into it again but it'll be on my own terms this time. Guitar Tricks membership is apparently going down the tubes and I can only say 'I told ya so'.
They're blaming the economy but it's got more to do with the changes made to the site in the last couple of years.
Too bad. It was one of the best sites on the net and now it's been reduced to a beginners public school where nobody's allowed to say boo anymore. It's definitely opened my eyes to some of the other guitar sites available that are far more advanced and well thought out. The end result is basically, I'm not a beginner teacher who follows lesson plans and goes by the rules. I'm a rock guitar player who teaches advanced techniques who's philosophy is like all other rockers... it's ok to break the rules. Censorship sucks and I'm ashamed that I actually put up with the rigid site rules for so long just for the sake of pleasing the owner of the site, who obviously didn't give a shit about me.
Let's just say he did exactly what Liptons Electronics did 16 years ago. Tried to get me to quit by making things so unpleasant that I'd have no choice. I saw it coming after I came back from vacation to Calgary and my sixth sense didn't let me down.

Anyways.... this is the crap that go me so worked up, hence the reason for taking off for awhile to put things into perspective.
Just remember... never trust anybody... especially where money and business are concerned. You'll get burned every time.