Monthly Archives: October 2008

What’s up, WLM?

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I’d been using the latest version of Windows Live Messenger 9 (WLM) for the past few months. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t give me any trouble at all although it was essentially still in Beta (the final release is due sometime early next year). However, at the start of this week, I found that I couldn’t sign in. The error code returned was 80070057; it mentioned that the email address I used to sign in was invalid, which was rubbish since I’ve been signing in with that address for as long as I’ve been doing instant messaging.

So being a Big Blue Ball staffer myself meant that I should be able to troubleshoot these pesky gremlins, correct? Signed in with my teenage kid’s hotmail account, and that was successful. Signed into Web Messenger with my own account, that turned out alright too. This meant that it probably didn’t have anything to do with my computer, it was in all likelihood a cock-up at the Microsoft server end. Just to give the big M a break, remember that their servers have to “serve” literally millions of WLM accounts, 24/7.

My good friend Doris to the rescue. She informed me that there were reports of this WLM outage being posted on the Net. Try as I might, I could find very little information concerning Error 80070057; of course I could have written to Messenger Support and told them about it. Nah, I’d probably just receive a generic reply. According to Doris, it could be due to the fact that they pushed out an update for WLM9, and that could have caused the hiccup.

What irks me is that the big M has remained generally quiet about this problem. That seems to be the way they’ve done it in the past, and usually it’s been left to other websites and forums to bring out these annoying issues. What can I say or do, after all the darn thing is free, right? Anyway, I got pretty fed up after not being able to sign in for four days. Bit the bullet, uninstalled WLM9 (sniff, I actually liked it), downloaded and installed version 8.5. Signing in was immediate.I’ll stick with 8.5 for another week or two, thank you very much.

The moral of the story is: don’t always jump the gun and believe that the fault is at your end (at least give it a 50-50 chance). I’ve heard horror stories of people reformatting and reinstalling Windows, just because of problems with WLM. It gets even more nerve-wrecking and frustrating to discover that the problem is still there after doing all these drastic measures. So what can you do? Join Big Blue Ball! It’s where you can find answers, suggestions, etc. for 99.9% of your IM problems. The staff (including myself, ahem) are helpful and friendly, there’s lots to see and do besides the IM stuff. And did I mention, registering is free, of course. Kudos to Jeff Hester, Mr. Big Blue Ball himself, for starting the BBB forums many years ago.

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“I’d like to learn the piano, but…”

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“I don’t have time.” This is another popular reason a lot of people give for not being able to learn the piano. Let’s figure this one out together.

I’m going to list some assumptions first, in no particular order:

· You have an instrument to play on. You don’t? See my previous post.

· You are basically quite determined to learn the piano on your own.

· You’ve bought my ebook, Learn to play the Piano in 12 Lessons Smile

· You intend to learn the piano for pleasure, i.e. you’re not thinking of becoming a concert pianist. Maybe that will come much later.

· You can spare ___ minutes a day to learn the piano. Fill in the blank yourself; it doesn’t matter whether it’s 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. What matters is that you devote some time each day to accomplish this.

Here’s an analogy—learning the piano is like brushing your teeth (you do brush your teeth daily, right?) I brush my teeth twice daily, without fail. Because I do so, I’m usually not uptight or worried when my dental checkup comes up, because I know I’ve been doing my part. And that’s precisely the same with learning to play the piano—as long as you devote some time daily for practice (and practice is not a dirty word) you will improve, no question about that.

Some of my students like to forgo practicing for a few days, and then do a copious amount on the day just before their piano lesson. Let me ask you—would you forgo brushing your teeth until right before your dental checkup, and then brush your teeth for an hour? Of course not! That wouldn’t help you one bit. The same applies when learning to play the piano—do a little bit every day, and stick to that regiment. It doesn’t have to be the same time every day, or the same amount of time—just do a little bit every day.

That’s all there is to it. No magical secrets. If you’re still harping about having no time, Albert Einstein said,

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.

Enjoy learning the piano, and you’ll be surprised that you’re spending more time on it than you would have thought.

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“I’d like to learn the piano, but…”

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“I don’t have a piano.” This is one of the most common reasons I’ve heard. My immediate response? Get one if you really want to learn the piano.

 

Broke? Strapped for cash? Have more pressing priorities? Don’t worry. Let’s pause and ponder over the possible options, starting with the one that’s cheapest and work our way up. I’ll get you to Pianoland yet.

1. Beg, borrow or steal (no, trash that last one). Know of a family member or friend who has a piano or keyboard sitting around, gathering dust? Persuade them to let you have it—you might have to do some chores, babysit, give them a six-pack, etc. Whatever. Furthermore, announce to them with much pomp and splendor that you’re going to learn the piano on your own, using my ebook as a guide. They might relent and let you have it for free, and also you now have a commitment—you’re going to show them that you’re truly into this and you’re going to learn to play the piano on your own.

2. If you can’t get anybody to loan you a piano, buy a digital keyboard. They’re cheap nowadays and most of the music manufacturers have a vast number of models tailored to your budget and needs—Yamaha, Roland, Kawai, Casio, Korg and the rest have a huge variety of keyboards for the aspiring beginner. To take an example, Yamaha has the YPT-210 (click on the pictures to go to the links): a basic keyboard with 61 keys (counting both black and white) selling for just over $100 USD on Amazon (go to my webstore to see this) Or pick something like the Yamaha P85, an 88-key digital piano with an authentic piano sound, going for $599 USD on Amazon, and still reasonably affordable. Why pick a digital instead of a normal acoustic piano? Simple—digitals don’t need tuning and maintenance; overall they’re cheaper than their acoustic counterparts. By the way, 88 keys is the standard range of the piano. So if you buy a keyboard like the P85, you’re essentially set to play anything in the piano repertoire, from beginner to advanced.

Yamaha YPT-210

Yamaha P85

3. Moving on to higher ground, consider the Yamaha Clavinovas. Beautiful in styling and almost looking like a small acoustic piano, there’s one to suit every budget. There are two varieties:

· The CLP series is geared for those who simply want a no-nonsense, great sounding piano. Of course, other nice features are included, like a built-in metronome, recorder, other instrument sounds, and USB connectivity.

Yamaha Clavinova CLP-330

Yamaha Clavinova CVP-405

· The CVP series, on the other hand, is the crème de la crème of digital pianos. Featuring great sounds, auto accompaniment, USB (and even LAN connectivity), the CVP series have practically everything including the kitchen sink. You can get all the fine details at Yamaha’s Clavinova website.

4. To sum it up, here are the reasons why you should go digital:

· Digital keyboards are relatively cheaper than their acoustic counterparts.

· Digital keyboards require very little maintenance and always remain in tune.

· Digital keyboards are relatively portable (don’t try lifting a Clavinova on your own though—you need to rope in a friend if you don’t want to end up with a broken back).

· Digital keyboards have a host of other additional features and benefits absent on acoustic pianos.

Since the holiday and festive season is fast approaching, it works to your advantage as music stores are usually extra-generous at this time of the year and offer substantial discounts. So don’t tarry any longer; go get a keyboard, and don’t forget to get my ebook too. Your family and friends will be impressed!

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A special offer on my ebook

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Learn to Play the Piano in 12 Lessons by Philip Yeoh

Here’s a special offer for readers of my blog and my website. My ebook Learn to Play the Piano in 12 Lessons is now only $24.99 $19.99 USD! I’m offering this special discount to make it a terrific Christmas gift for yourself, a family member, or a friend. Remember that you can print out the entire ebook after purchasing, all future revisions will be offered free of charge, and you’re always welcome to contact me should you have questions or comments. This special offer expires at the end of December, so hope to hear from you soon!

Learn to play the piano on your own, and be proud of yourself!

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WordPress 2.7 on the way

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Not sure how many know this, but I was reading Amit Agarwal’s blog and it seems likely that WordPress 2.7 will be released on November 10, 2008. My current WP installation is 2.6, and just like Amit, I’m going to hold off 2.6.2 and install 2.7 once that is released. Here’s a list of proposed new features for WordPress 2.7. Here’s a picture of what the back end user interface looks like, courtesy of Jeff.

WordPress 2.7

The most striking feature is that now all Menus are located on the left, instead of at the top. Jeff’s blog gives you all the details you might want to know about this forthcoming overhaul of WordPress. I’m looking forward to it (only one more month to go).

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Piano Idol (Part 2)

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I’ve just been notified by Mr. Fong that the Piano Idol Finals will be held on October 26, 2008 at the Copthorne Hotel here in Penang. I’m looking forward to this event as the preliminaries were a lot of fun (see my previous post here), and there were quite a number of gems in the contestant line-up. I’m also keen to meet up with the other judges again, Angie and Helen. We had a good rapport going.

And to make the event even more wonderful Mr. Fong has even managed to secure a Yamaha C3 Conservatory Grand for the occasion. This is one beauty of a piano and I can’t wait to check it out! Bleh, I’m one of the judges but I’ll sneak in earlier just to play it (or might this be a judge’s prerogative?)

Thanks again to Mr. Fong and his wife Swee Lin for giving me this privilege to be a judge.

Yamaha C3

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The Sleep of Reason

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To be brutally honest, I haven’t been feeling well the past few weeks. I’ve been shattered mentally by clumps of bad things obstructing my way. Or to put it in other words, it never rains but it pours. All these negative issues have put a huge weight on my shoulders and in my mind, but fortunately I’ve still been able to keep my chin up, thanks to encouragement from friends.

Money, for one thing, seems to be like a sword of Damocles. The rich get richer, the poor become poorer. And what I receive with my right hand, I have to give with my left. It doesn’t help that the worldwide financial crisis is already casting long shadows on financial security around the globe, the dreaded word recession is now being used with alarming regularity in the media.

As an aside, I paused writing this post to go for an evening walk in the rain (with an umbrella, of course).

A good friend of mine told me to “fix the things that you can, and stop worrying about the things that you can’t.” Well, what I wish I could fix is ingratitude. I’ve already told myself that I can’t be expecting things from people whenever I do things for them (you set yourself up for heartbreaks and disappointments if you do). For my part I try to be encouraging to people, whether they be friends, students, employees at the hotel where I work, and so on.

And yet there are people who literally walk over me. who throw mud in my face, who don’t appreciate the things I do and am doing…screw it. I have to will myself to be happy, otherwise I’d drive myself nuts. As I remember, the late Leo Buscaglia said something like this: “You paint your world, and you walk into it.”

And here’s Dale Carnegie’s 7 ways to cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness:

    • Let’s fill our minds with thoughts of peace, courage, health, and hope, for “our life is what our thoughts make it.”
    • Let’s never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let’s do as General Eisenhower did: let’s never waste a minute thinking about people we don’t like.
    • Instead of worrying about ingratitude, let’s expect it. Let’s remember that Jesus healed ten lepers in one day–and only one thanked Him. Why should we expect more gratitude than Jesus got?
    • Let’s remember that the only way to find happiness is not to expect gratitude–but to give for the joy of giving.
    • Let’s remember that gratitude is a “cultivated” trait; so if we want our children to be grateful, we must train them to be grateful.
    • Count your blessings–not your troubles!
    • Let’s not imitate others. Let’s find ourselves and be ourselves, for “envy is ignorance” and “imitation is suicide.”
    • When fate hands us a lemon, let’s try to make a lemonade.
    • Let’s forget our own unhappiness–by trying to create a little happiness for others. “When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.”

May you be happy always.

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