The Daniel Business*

* Still Under Construction
Since I am covering a larger (4 days) span of time; I am going to successively update, pad and embellish and add to this post; possibly taking 7 days to flesh out the 4 day period which I am referring to and; and maybe an additional day to flesh out the day that I spent writing about the 4 days...

• 11 Dollar Wednesday
• The-guy-who-wants-to-play-your-guitar a mixed blessing.
• 12 Dollar Thursday
• 14 Dollar Friday
• 41 Dollar Saturday
• Mp3 Player bought; charger soon to follow
•  8 Dollar Sunday
• Day 15 Without Alcohol (today)
• 22 Dollar Monday
• 10 Dollar tip from man, who said "Nice Chinadoll" (Grateful Dead song) as he placed it within the blue Mardi Gras beads which I was using as a substitute for the sharks, which I had forgotten at the dock. 
• Daniel satisfied with the fruits of a such a night, handicapped by sharks absence.
• Day 16 Without Alcohol (today)

My Latest Passion,
Reading by candlelight until dawn, has caused an encroachment upon the time available to me for blogging, by altering my sleep schedule, so that I would have, at most, a couple hours to blog after waking up on a typical day; and that only if I scrambled to pack up and secure the place -i.e. lock grains and nuts in the cooler- and then make a beeline dash for this library.

Passion Update
Right now, it is the Stephen King novel, "Rose Madder," and I read 65 pages of it last night, by the light of 3 candles; and didn't go to sleep until after it was bright enough by the reflection of the very low sun coming off the river. There is about a 20 minute window where the more fire orange than yellow reflection of the sun comes off the water; blindingly. A good time to shave, then.
Around this time, I blew out the candles and went to sleep until about 3 p.m. It is 5 p.m. right now.
The previous (Sunday) morning, I had been up reading about 110 pages of that same book.
An A For Fyodor
Crime And Punishment, by Dostoyevski was excellent -94 pts.* It was a pleasure to be up all night reading that one.
Carrot Substitute
Since I discovered that sitting up all morning with a good (Crime And Punishment, by Dostoyevski) book and instant coffee stirred into coconut milk has replaced sitting over meat (and all kinds of stuff) on a grill and swilling alcohol as the "carrot in front of my nose" at the end of the day, and I have been doing just that.
When sitting at my spot, I am able to set a time for when to knock off; and use the anticipation of sitting and reading by candlelight as a mood enhancer, keeping me chipper and my music lively...
Day 15 Without Alcohol

Charge!!

Is today, Monday.
I have spent 40 bucks on an mp3 player.
This money comes out of Daniels Research and Development fund, since it is intended to be used as a tool to help along my musical development by giving me access to to tons of songs which I can learn by playing along with.
I can also record myself at the busking spot in order to critique my playing. The sounds quality would limit itself from going any further up the audio food chain, though, in my opinion it is not too horrible...think scratchy 78 rpm record...on a Victrola...of the dog barking...

The sound quality of the mp3 players recordings,

using the built-in mic...

Mp3 Woes
The thing came with a dead battery out of the box; and a manual which said that it would take 6 hours to charge a totally drained one.
I went and spent 20 bucks on a USB charger, so that I won't have to babysit the thing at the library for 6 hours, but can plug it into one of the discreet outlets in the quarter and then go off on other business while it charges.
Now I am having trouble getting mp3 songs onto it. 
I Plan To Come Alive!
The library computers reject its software; asking for administrative approval...
I have placed "Frampton Comes Alive!" in this one and will now try to rip it...be right back.......
....OK, the CD is whirring in the tray; and the player indicates that it is "ripping."
I happened to ask a librarian if it were possible to rip CDs here on these library computers. He demonstrated that indeed one can, by popping in, as a prop, the one CD which he happened to have at his desk, which was the Frampton classic from around the summer of '78; which was a time when, if you were to scan your FM dial; a song from Peters album might you hear on 2 or 3 different stations simultaneously.
I asked to borrow it.
Now my virgin mp3 player is going to conceive Frampton Comes Alive!*, hopefully.
*the exclamation point is part of the title, I think that may have been novel in '78.
It Is Now Tuesday
22 Dollar Monday
Tuesday, after an 8 dollar Sunday night, which was nixed relatively early at 10:45 p.m., so that I could go and read by candlelight under the dock, and then a 22 dollar Monday (last) night, it now is.
I had picked up Steven Kings, Rose Madder for a dollar out of the box in front of a book store on Dauphine Street; noticing a lot of hardcovers on the shelves inside along with a very friendly man, who thanked me apparently sincerely for either my one dollar purchase or for the witticism which I made about reading Ann Tyler directly after Dostoyevsky.