Travel Tips: laptop power January 5, 2010
Posted by onemouthband in : Recommendations, Tech , comments closed
I’m often traveling and trying to get my MacBook Pro to last as long as possible between power outlets. Here’s a few tips I find helpful.
Before you go:
- Get a second battery – A simple solution, but not a cheap one. Avoid after-market batteries and go for the one made by the same manufacturer of your current battery.
- Do a monthly power cycle – You’re not supposed to need to do this these days, but it in my experience, it does still help extend your battery life. Just let the battery run down to nothing, and charge it all the way up without interruption. Do this every month or two to keep your battery happy.
- Get a power splitter – If you’re going to be in airports or train stations or anyplace there’s competition for power outlets, carrying a small splitter makes everyone happy. You can even get something like this with surge protection from Home Depot for under $10
Once you’re away from the outlet and wanting the computer time to last, try the following:
- turn off bluetooth, wifi, every kind of connection you’re not actively using
- turn down display brightness as far as is comfortable
- adjust anything you can in your power settings to “better power” vs. “better performance”
- don’t use optical drive (CD/DVD)
- unplug everything possible (USB, Firewire, other peripherals)
Hope that helps!
Facebook for businesses October 30, 2009
Posted by onemouthband in : Recommendations, Tech, Web Schtuff , comments closedThe other day my uncle sent me a message to say:
I could use some input on creating a facebook Page (“Public Profile”) to inform a certain demographic about my/our business services. I want to connect and be a resource to more people. Any thoughts?
Facebook changes their setup all the time, so I don’t really know what current technical advice I could give, or if it would even be any good by the time one went to use it. But the best general advice is to find profiles of businesses that are already doing what you want to be doing and figure out what might work for you. To give a better specific answer the question, I would say to create a separate page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php that will serve your needs better than creating a public profile. It is a non-trivial issue to show certain people certain parts of your profile but not other parts, without over-emphasising your public info to the full access group. If you make a page for your business, then people can just become fans without being confused with your personal friends.
For examples of pages like I’m talking about, look at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-On-One/103626306975 (my new band One On One)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abiouness-Wines/152895968361 (my winemaking friend Nicole Abiouness)
Also, I don’t know if you’re up on LinkedIn as well, but many people (like me) use that for their business connections and Facebook for their personal connections. Of course Twitter is great for businesses too, a perfect place to informally share inspiration, laments, and successes with clients, potential clients, or anyone who is interested. I have Twitter hooked up to my Facebook so that updating it (“tweeting”) goes to both, and I think you can do that with LinkedIn as well.
One thing to be aware of as you create business portals with any of these websites is how to get clients to find you. If you have a unique name, hopefully you can use it for all three. But you should probably check/register your name at Facebook, LinkedIn, AND Twitter before deciding on the name to use. Otherwise you can end up with slightly different names at each of these places which will only make it more difficult for people to find you.
Once you have your page on Facebook, and it’s populated with relevant content, then you can begin to actually advertise it using their Ad feature (similar to Google’s AdWords). I have worked with this as well, but I’ll save that for another post.
Open Mic Advice October 8, 2009
Posted by onemouthband in : Music, Notes to Self, Recommendations, Travels , comments closed
In the last year or two, I’ve done a lot of open mics all over the world. In that time I’ve learned quite a bit about them, and would like to share some of what I know. Whatever country you’re in, whatever instrument you play, and whatever level you’re at, my advice is pretty much the same. Here’s my top ten:
- Call ahead and the get info. Don’t email, dropping in is good if convenient, but the person with the info you need isn’t always there. When does it start? When does it end? How do you get on the list? The name of the host/person to talk to when you get there? What is the format (number of songs/minutes, etc.)?
- Show up. You have to show up at the venue or you are not doing that open mic. Get it?
- Check in with the host/person to talk to 30-60 minutes before the call time. If you can’t find that person, talk to whoever is behind the soundboard (hint: they’re probably the same person!). If you have any special sound setup (anything beyond a guitar that you can plug in and a mic on a stand), mention it now.
- Set up within 5-minutes of arriving. Be ready to play in case something happens and you get called up sooner. If someone cancels or asks you if you want to play now, just go! If you tune right away and it’s cold outside, you may have to retune if it’s a long wait for the stage, but so what? Oh, and don’t lend you ax to someone unless you’re willing to spend time retuning before your slot.
- Don’t be cheap. Buy a drink, get some food, put money in the tipjar, etc. Do everything you can to be generous and pay it forward.
- Be nice. You want people to listen to you and then clap, right? Then always clap for the other folks who are performing, and don’t talk over top of them. If your promised slot is ignored by the host (this happens a lot!), just very politely check in again. It’s very possible they simply forgot about you when someone cuter started talking to them.
- Be confident. Some people are good, some are not. You will very likely be in between, and that’s cool! Love it as it is. Don’t apologize, play!
- Song choice is crucial. Never do two downers in a row or people will leave, and if they don’t do it physically they will do it mentally. I always try to do a couple things that don’t sound alike, and that are a bit different than what everyone else is doing (though being a One Mouth Band, this part comes naturally). Originals are generally worth more than covers to this crowd, and they avoid the uncomfortable accident of playing the same song someone else has just played.
- Talk to The People. Okay, so you’re nervous, but guess what? Everyone else probably is to. Don’t be scared to stumble or stutter as this just makes you look more human. Try not to ramble more than a minute, but do engage people with: a story behind your song, a funny thing that happened to you today, etc. You can even be confronting, controversial, or a downright jerk, if that suits your music. Pretty much anything that doesn’t fall in the category of TMI* is probably fine. If you ever can’t think of anything, remember that it is never a bad move to thank the host, soundperson, waitress, etc.
- Communicate with the soundtech about plugging and unplugging. No one wants the jolt of that loud POP! that makes you look stupid and makes the soundperson testy. You can usually just hold the cord to the light and nod to the soundperson. Only when you get the nod back do you plug/unplug.
Okay, one more extra credit tidbit that became clear after taking my brother to perform at open mics in Portland: Get a stage name. My brother’s name is John Klawitter, no one remembers “Klawitter” and even if they do, they have no idea how to spell it. Instead, he goes by “Johnny Walker”, because he also has a dog walking service. Believe me, in a bar they will remember you if you name yourself after a drink. Playful is good, but avoid going with anything too silly or hard to say or anything you don’t want people to call you if they see you when you’re holding hands with your sweetie in the park a week later. Of course I go by “One Mouth Band”, and while many people do screw it up (One Man Band, One Mouth Man, etc.), it still works better than the anonymous “Sam Rogers” in most cases, and it kind of describes what I do.
So go on then, get out there! If you’re not making your music, who will? If not now, when?
* TMI: Too Much Information. Anything that you’ve been diagnosed with (physically or mentally) or any topic that would require the listener to imagine you naked. Or both.
Performing at The Sleeping Lady this Thursday September 27, 2009
Posted by onemouthband in : Music, One Mouth Band, One On One, Recommendations , comments closedI’m very excited to be performing at one of my favorite venues in one of my favorite towns! This is a no cover, all-ages show, featuring my solo act as The One Mouth Band, me with One On One, and my good friend Jory Prum. There may be some other special guests as well, you never know with this place. That’s one reason why I love it so!
Another reason The Sleeping Lady is so great? The food! It’s healthy and organic without tasting like it’s just healthy and organic. Plus, there are sizable and tastefully varied beer and wine options. Oh, and then there’s dessert…
I’ll be debuting some new solo, live-looping originals. Fresh from our Saturday performance at the Body and Soul Festival, Nicolle and I will be doing some brand new stuff too. Jory is funny, facetious, and freakin’ fabulous at parodies. Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to this night?
Come for dinner and music or just the music, just don’t miss out on the fun!
Body & Soul Festival TOMORROW September 25, 2009
Posted by onemouthband in : Music, One On One, Recommendations, TaKeTiNa, Travels , comments closedI’ll be opening the Fairfax Body & Soul Festival at noon tomorrow with Nicolle Lane in our new duo act One On One. Then at 3PM, I’m leading a TaKeTiNa Rhythm Journey, too! Tickets are $5, but I’ve got a couple comps, so contact me if you want one.
This festival promises to be the kind of family fun that only Fairfax can really provide. Where else would you find awesome music like mine next to a Bollywood class, Star Wars Kung Fu Obstacle Course, yoga, tai chi, kung fu, interesting panels on parenting and on health reform, free mini massages & acupuncture, chocolate tasting, an organic wine bar…and more? For more info, click the image below.
