Author: Edward Caissie

WordPress Support Technician, Developer, Designer; Chess Enthusiast; Photographer; Guitar player … I am Cais.
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My New Guitar

I used to look at semi-acoustics when I was window shopping for a new guitar. The idea of something that sounds good unplugged but also could be plugged in and have a bit more to it always appealed to me.

The only real problem I saw with the whole idea of a semi-acoustic was it was still basically an acoustic guitar (which I own and really appreciate) that someone for all intent and purpose stuffed a microphone inside of and wired it up to a standard phono jack that plugs into an amp. The more I thought about this the more the idea just didn’t seem to fit with what I was looking for.

So, I started looking at semi-hollow and hollow body electric guitars. Now we’re getting places …

… after some hands-on trials and a lot of online research I narrowed down the possibilities to a few different models that might work:

  • Gretsch Electromatic G5420T Hollow Body
  • Hagstrom Viking Series Semi-Hollow Electric
  • Ibanez Artcore Thin Flamed Sycamore
  • Höfner Verythin
  • Epiphone Casino
  • Godin 5th Avenue CW Kingpin II

Obviously there were some budget considerations as well as actually finding the guitar in a “local” shop so I could put it to the final, “How does it feel?” test. Fortunately I found a nice music store relatively close to home. If you’re in Oakville and want to browse a large selection of guitars (they had at least three of the models above) as well as other musical instruments and accessories, give Gear Music a look.

Gear Music are a friendly lot and were very welcoming and quick to let me pull down the model I was there to look at … it appeared to be near “out-of-the-box” condition. The Bigsby’s handle still had its rubber tip; and, the pick guard still had its plastic film in pristine condition.

It felt good. It sounded great … unplugged. I was nearly sold as is, but this is a hollow-body electric so I asked, “Where can I plugin this in at?” I was led to a fine collection of amps, and pointed to a nice tube amp to play with. It sounded great … maybe I already said that but it still needs repeating. Another store associate passed by and asked if I had any questions … “does it come with a case?”

“Not that particular model but we have a hard-case in the back made for it.”

“Great, why don’t you drag it up front for me.”

So I ended up putting this beauty into her case and taking her home.

Gretsch G5420T Electromatic
Gretsch G5420T Electromatic
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Telus Loyalty Reward – Thank You!

I had thought about just sending out a tweet to say thanks but then 140 characters or less probably will not convey Telus‘ kindness or the value of their thoughtful gifts … yes, gifts! Completely unexpected, too.

Let me backtrack a bit … we pre-ordered our iPhone 6 Plus 128MB phones shortly after it was possible to do so on the Telus Mobility web site. We hemmed and hawed a bit about which model to go with an ultimately decided to just go BIG. After ordering I thought it would be nice to share this with a tweet:

Earlier this week I received a call from FedEx asking to confirm my address for a delivery. All said and done, I asked who is the shipper? They replied with Telus … and I’m thinking cool, the iPhones are coming earlier than their original October 6th promised shipment date.

Yesterday, as arranged, the FedEx delivery arrived … Terri opened the box as I knew if I opened the box the rest of the day would be gone (I really do love to play with new tech). The iPhones were not there?! What?!! I spoke to Telus earlier in the week and they said they were just completing the order processing and the iPhones would be shipping this week. Very patient and helpful customer service associate as well. (The iPhones were shipped via Canada Post and arrived technically on Thursday … I had to go to the Post Office to pick them up on Friday).

Back to the mystery(?) FedEx shipment … inside was a quality note card with a hand-written message thanking us for pre-ordering our iPhones and sending out the tweet above, signed by “Your friends at Telus”. Thanks!

What else was in the box? Another box with a big purple ribbon tied up into a bow and inside that box was the following:

Now I can really have some more fun. Stay fit. More power. Great sound.

Thanks, again, Telus … we will enjoy these thoughtful gifts!

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One Year Later …

It’s Monday … and that’s not a bad thing.

Technically speaking, after work today will be one year as Lead Happiness Engineer, NextGEN Gallery. It feels like just yesterday … well maybe last week sometime, I was writing a post about quitting my job. There is no way it’s been a year with the fine people at Photocrati Media, but it has; and, to tell the truth, I cannot wait for the next year … and the years after that.

It has been a bit of a tumultuous ride with all of the hard work going into NextGEN Gallery but well worth the effort; the expected, but seldom required late nights and weekends; and, the multitude of releases of the NextGEN Gallery plugin for WordPress. That’s also not to mention NextGEN Plus and NextGEN Pro (can you say eCommerce!!) releases extending the NextGEN Gallery plugin.

Everyone at Photocrati is great! The Support team is phenomenal; our developers keep working diligently at squashing bugs and adding new features; the folks behind the scenes who deserve more recognition than they get; and, our team leader … faith, hope, and charity meet your poster boy!

This past year has been a blessing and I look forward to many more in a continued bright and prosperous future …

… and just as I was about to publish this post, I took a moment to go back to my first day as Lead Happiness Engineer – NextGEN Gallery and the most amazing thing occurred to me, what I wrote that first day still applies every day.

Thank you!

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Smiles

Take your smiles where you find them, the next ones may be miles away.

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Working Hard

What benefits are there to making someone look good if they are only going to keep making bad decisions?

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A New Lens and a Lot of Help

Terri and I were out and about on the weekend and we decided to stop in at a camera outlet store as we were passing by … literally passing by, I made one of those right turns from the far left (three lanes over); at the stop light no less.

We walked into the store and started looking around, neither of us were really looking for anything in particular just whiling away the afternoon together. Every time we go to this store I always stop to look at the “used” lenses and happened across a good condition Sigma Zoom 100-300 1:4.5-6.7 DL lens. The glass was clean and as far as I could tell also clear. I hung onto it and continued to look around. Terri found herself a great “macro” lens at the other end of the table, a Canon 28-80mm, that she is very happy about, too. I’m sure she will post some of her pictures soon enough at Terri’s Tales.

We eventually talked to one of the sales associates and put the lenses on a T series Canon to check the optics … for the prices we paid we’re happy, even though the Sigma is a little quirky at lower zoom values.

The following is a sampling of the pictures I took with my T3i and the Sigma lens. I wasn’t really having much luck with post-production so Terri offered to see what she could come up with. The gallery below is the result.

Just to note, the dandelion image was taken and processed by Terri with the Canon lens.