My new Yamaha guitar amp arrived at 07:30 and I spent an hour or two setting it up and recharging it. When I got some sounds from it a few hours later, I wasn't sure what to think. The volume difference between the different presets can be huge and there are a huge number of presets too, a bit overwhelming. I can understand the effects instantly, but the combination of two gain controls, one for pre-amp and one for the main-amp, as well as a main volume control (and the volume on the guitar) makes for a lot of possibilities alone. My old Blaster amp was so simple by comparison. I could use the guitar volume to shift smoothly from a plain tone to a distorted one, whereas this seems to jump from hardly audible to plain, but needing to switch to a new preset for distortion, many of the volumes seem to switch from near silent to a fairly moderate volume quickly... well, it will take experimentation.
Then I felt the need to tidy and organise things. I'm starting to accrete too much clutter and decided to try to reduce this. I'm quite efficient here; I often have a one-in one-out policiy or a time limit (throw away if unused for a year). I've got a lot of art supplies now that I don't need and will probably never use... my dry pastel days are over. Oils will remain my love and focus, but I use watercolours and inks for illustration, and acrylics for sculptures and frames.
Then an afternoon of seeing friends and deliviering Christmas things, which was enjoyable, but very cold as the Covid restrictions mean standing outside to talk.
I ate when I came in an it caused severe stomach pain, which, 6 hours later, I'm still very much in the midst off. This makes me so miserable. All I can do is wait, pace, drink water. I can't sit or lie down as this makes everything worse and will only delay any digestion. I will spend all night pacing up and down, the pain will outweigh any tiredness. Perhaps this is an appropriate night to celebrate Beethoven, his 250th 'birthday' (well, the anniversary of his baptism, technically) is tomororow.
I'm forming some creative plans. I'd like to write something for the Cheshire Prize for Literature, and paint something for the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition.
