Updates on Rocksmith, Odds and Ends

I was wrong on one point, and while I still enjoy it, I can see a little bit why a really experienced musician would be driven up the wall.

First - I was wrong about tabs being included. I'd seen two separate sources mention them but cannot find them after some serious digging around.

That said....

If you have Rocksmith on the PC or Mac, you can use this handy tool - RocksmithToTab - to skim through your Rocksmith music library and export all the songs into Guitar Pro format. I've checked a few songs already and while the recommended finger is sometimes off (one example, asking that both notes in a chord two frets apart be played on the same finger), the chords and frets match up with the "full" version of the songs. And loading them up or printing them out, and piecing through them in analog, is different, and educational, in a different way than the stright rocksmith format can provide.

Just for the tabs alone, and the opportunity to drill, and gradually, as a total tyro, to work up complexity in various songs, it is still a worthwhile purchase. It will be some time before I check back in with a tutor, simply applying what I've already learned.

In the meantime, the Didact discusses the need to have "enforcers" who are capable enough to teach lessons to assholes, deliberate or clueless, who are causing more harm than good at a martial arts school.

Brian discusses the fecklessness of crying "but my private businesses" in response to abuse by big tech.

Look, concentration of power, unopposed, will lead to abuse by psychopaths. It doesn't matter if it's the government, or a group of businessmen legally allowed to exist as an entity with special protections by government fiat. For that matter, it's fairly straightforward to argue that the abuses of "company towns" only existed because the government had abdicated its responsibility to maintain law, order, and most importantly, justice.

Modern global corporations are large enough to challenge more than a few world governments, even if they don't have the guns to challenge some of the major western powers directly.

Also, at teh Barbarian Book Club, a look at the need to be honest with oneself as much as, and perhaps even a precondition to, being honest with others.