Guitarolin - I don't do waiting very well.

You got to like the information age. It is so, well, informational. Thanks to tracking software I can follow the mandolin from New York to Washington. It is currently in IL (experiencing bad weather, is the comment).

Thanks for the info Mike, it got me seeing thinks upside down or is it backwards?

Not being one know for patience... I wanted to get a jump on playing the mandolin. The goal was to learn a few chords and even read a few familiar songs to get a head start. So, to get started I decided to turn the old six string into a four string guitar/mandolin.

Here's how I went about it yesterday:

• Remove the low and high E strings (the outer two strings)
• Tune the A down to a G and leave the D alone
• Tune the B up to an E

This worked out pretty easy to reverse too since I'll need my acoustic for church tomorrow! This was a fun way to get some time in on mandolin tuning but the distance between the frets on the guitar is much more of a stretch than the mandolin. I don't think I'll put it back to a guitarolin after church tomorrow. It was a fun but I can wait a little bit longer and stick with strumming my six string.

There were other thoughts I had wanted to add to this post but once again I have forgotten them. One of these days I will learn to write things down. It's hard to since most of the thoughts come to me in the shower but I could keep a pad handy.

I just remembered that I was going to mention my current "web development" project at work. It involves being able to take credit card payments from our customers online. This is a first for the Health Care Authority. I don't agree with the design and the fee but the coding itself has been fun. Part of the project is building in a bunch of automation for the accounting staff/system. It feels good to be productive with this project when I've had to re-teach myself a lot of the syntax and environment.

I'd call myself a good web developer at this point, not great, or an expert, but I can figure out how to get things done. It's like learning the mandolin, my goal is to be a good mandolin player. Not great, not the best, good enough to make good sounding music.

It's funny how we will strive to be the best or great at something. The passion should be with the activity, not the status of your ability. This is something I was I had learned to focus on much earlier (yes, when I was younger). Life is better when you just do something because you are passionate about it rather then being recognized for being "great" at it.

Take a minute to visit The Goal Farm too!