As previous postings have suggested, we here at CDT are quite fond of Pink Floyd, as many music connoisseurs are. We took the time this week to try and learn a few riffs of one of their most famous and most emotional songs, "Wish You Were Here," from the album of the same name.

Before that however, it is interesting to note the song is primarily speaking to Syd Barrett, former songwriter/guitarist for the band. Unfortunately for him, his love of LSD got in the way of his musical career with the Floyd. But as he was forced to leave, this gave Roger Waters his chance to shine, and shine he did, producing all the classic albums you here on the radio every day.


All right, to begin with you need a guitar. Check. Now, anyone who knows the song basically knows the intro since the rest of the song gets a little muddled with other instruments and singing. This is the only part you need to know to be awesome in a group.


To translate above, your middle finger starts on the third fret of your low E string while your index and ring fingers straddle the second fret on both the A and D string. The trick here is not necessarily getting the notes, that's easy enough, but to get down the strumming rhythm. Pink Floyd songs are notoriously easy to play, but hard to copy exactly due to rhythm.


What you want to do is play it thinking, "one and uh two, three, four (strum the chord here)" and repeat. The hammer ons are all played quicker than the rest of the notes, which are steady.

Strum a few Times   Strum a few Times	
	    	     ^V^                 ^V^
e---------------------3-------------------3---|
B---------------------3-------------------3---|
G---------------------0-------0-----------0---|
D-------------0--2----0----2-----2--------0---|   * 2            
A------0h2------------2-------------------2---|     
E---3-----------------x-------------------3---|      

                Strum a few Times               Strum a few Times
                     ^V^                              ^V^
e---------------------3--------------------------------3---|
B---------------------3--------------------------------3---|
G---------------------0--------------------------------2---|
D-------------0--2----0------2-----0-------------------2---| 
A------0h2------------2------------------2-------0-----0---|
E---3-----------------x--------------------------------0---|

Well after a hard day of tasting and tending to my mead, I figured I had earned a beer. But should it be a beer inside or outside, I thought to myself as I slowly stroked my beard. Well, there is a massive heat wave going on, humidity levels are through the roof, and inside is at least slightly cooler than the porch.

With some downtime on my hands, I set up my Bose Wave radio and connected my tuneskies. As Wish You Were Here was playing though, I noticed the radio wasn't exactly outdoor friendly, save for garage usage. It is also the same one I use for gaming when I set it up. But it really does not have much bass to it. Sure it tweets like a parakeet, but how can I hear a zombie coming behind me? They don't tweet, they snarl.

Well, what speakers do I need? I'm looking for something heavy and in a manageable-size. I was looking for outdoor speakers as well as something to possibly use in the garage. I don't have a real amp out at college either, so if the speakers had some definition I could just hook up my POD amp and use the speakers as a make-shift amp. Time to go searching, back in a bit.

As Thanksgiving approaches (it is only 4.5 months away), we are once again reminded of the majestic, almost-national-bird, the turkey. As usual in college, I had some downtime and decided to forever memorialize the flightless bird in charcoal. It took a few tries to get the head and feathers decent enough to allow recognition, but it could still use a bit of work.

Today I am posting this from outside. It is hardly humid, moderately warm, and there is a very-slightly cool breeze drifting by. I had a jazz music playlist on random, a cup of Turkish earl grey tea with bergamot, and my dog was not back from the vet yet, meaning it was quiet. Then I became slightly bored and lost my train of thought. Why am I not competely at ease? Why am I asking myself questions when I should be having my mind defragmenting itself over the tea? I will just have to relax even harder, and I remembered where to start...

RainyMood! A getting-popular-really-fast site that streams a 30 minute-long sound bite of a rainstorm, complete with the occasional distant thunder sound. While it is simply a wonderful stream to have going on a lazy afternoon, that is not where you should stop. The real beauty of this sound bite is to have your own music streaming along with it. On the site itself, it lists a few songs users have tried in conjunction with Rainymood. Today's post will list just a few of my favorites.

Fragrance of Dark Coffee - An interesting orchestral instrumental piece that takes your mind on a calm ride through an English countryside. It is from a Japanese show called Godot about a coffee-loving attorney. Listening to this with RainyMood is quite an experience.

Jazz-styled Piano with Electronic Mixing - an unnamed piece I found via Google. It mixes the slow complexity of smooth jazz piano with electronic beats and effects. While you might think electronic means heavy, I can assure you it is in no way overpowering the piano.

Moonlight Sonata and Overture by Trans Siberian Orchestra - One of Beethoven's best known songs. The first one is the classic piano version and the TSO version is a compilation of several of Beethoven's pieces put together into one song opening for a CD of theirs called Beethoven's Last Night. I am quite the TSO fan, so I prefer their cover over the classic. On a final note, just about every song on Beethoven's Last Night can be played with RainyMood as the CD itself has a dark, creepy, and powerful tone that blends well with a rainstorm (Try Fate).

The Aurora - An electronic/vocalist song complete with a well-done video of a winterscape and aurora. It makes you feel confident and inspired just to listen to the soft vocals mixed with a moderate trance beat. Though quite short, the song almost seems ethereal.

Le Onde - A classical-themed piano piece by Ludovico Einaudi. The title translates to "the waves," and the music is just so. The piano notes seem to just roll over one another to form a very calming aura of music. The song picks up and lets you down at just the right times.

Can You Stand the Rain - Finishing up strongly with Boyz II Men! Yes, this song fits quite well with RainyMood. A slow melody performed by the smoothest boy band ever. Complete with finger-snapping and perfect-pitch vocals, this is definitely a tune to try out.

Hopefully you have heard of this site before and this post is simply reminding you or getting you a few more good songs. If you have never used this site before, wow! You really haven't? You serious? Geez man...

(continued from here) It's that time again, time to be social in public. It is great that you finally get to hit the beach, but oh how the people you are going with are uninteresting. They're the ones who always bring too many chairs, blankets, parasols, and water bottles. The kind of folks you're surprised are able to leave the house knowing they will be unable to bring the entire pantry or the family Wii. Well, luckily for you, you do not have to bear it sober, again.

Most beaches you will find are not alcohol-friendly. Some beaches have ATV-riding lifeguards specifically patrolling for alcohol consumption. If you bring a cooler thinking you can at least have a few cold ones while the rest of your group small talks about their menial problems at the office, think again. You'll probably end up sober, ticketed, and escorted off the beach. With that in mind, here's what you have to do...

1) Pack lightly if you're planning on bringing beer specifically. You'll need all the room you can get, plus you don't want to look like a tool with thirty bottles of sunscreen, do you?

Hopefully you don't deal with stress the way we at College Down Time do, by chugging three cups of coffee each and playing ping pong until 2 AM. Stress gets to just about all of us when dealing with academia, luckily we can combat it with style, not the bottle!

You've probably heard about meditation before, either from TV, some old book you were forced to read, or from that one odd kid in the class who seems content with everything and has this odd sense of inner peace. In a few minutes you can learn the basics on meditating and what your mindset should be like throughout the process. Granted, it does take practice and patience to actually achieve anything, but at the very least you'll appreciate a way to clear your head during the day.

First, make sure you don't have any commitments to worry about for at least an hour, since we're just beginning. There's no way you'll be able to concentrate with a pressing matter hovering over you. Fridays are popular for us during the semester because we haven't had class on a Friday in years.

Second, sit comfortably on your bed, a quiet spot of grass (Bermuda bluegrass if you can, a favorite), or in an area infrequently disturbed. There's actually a remote xeric garden a minute's walk from my place on campus I use as a quiet getaway. You'll need a remote area to help remove your thoughts from your consciousness.

Now comes the interesting part: attempting to lose yourself. Cross your legs comfortably so they feel like one when you close your eyes. Focus for a bit on closing your eyes until you can't remember when you closed them. You may awake during this process several times, but once your eyes comfortably shut without being forced you can proceed.

Breathing comes next. Breathe normally for a few minutes until breathing is the only thing you're focusing on. Your inhalations should be steady and streamlined while your exhalations are slow, much slower than before you started. Slow breathing keeps your thoughts slow and steady as well. You might start focusing on your heartbeat, but try not to. Unless you're a Tibetan monk, focusing on your heartbeat is a lost cause. Now, it will be difficult to block out all thoughts, so for our purposes pick ONLY ONE. I've heard of picturing a flower on one's head, listening to the steady rustle of the foliage, or imagining a cup of tea. Just make sure you're using only one sense. Do not make it complicated.

With time you'll last longer (don't we all) in your meditative states and won't awake as often. When finishing, open your eyes first before returning to normal breathing. Stay seated for a minute until you're adjusted so you don't black out. I once lost vision for a few seconds due to jumping up after meditating for about 15 minutes!

These are the basics, try them a few times before our next article on a particular mantra.

A great sense of comedy is key to being awesome in college. With some spare time, why not capitalize on it? It's not difficult to draw a comic, though many folks who do try to draw comics typically just doodle. Plus, no one nowadays knows how to draw. We at CDT have noticed the public generally believes someone who can accurately draw... well anything, is more cultured and intelligent than a non-drawing counterpart. Capitalize on their misjudgments now!

Step 1: Find something interesting most people in your niche knows about. For instance, we at CDT understand our niche probably watches a fair amount of TV. We would therefore make a TV-related comic. If you're an 90 year old WWII vet drawing for your army buddies' amusement, make a parody of a Victory Garden! Protip: Research your joke before making the comic. This way you'll know if it's stale or if you generally have a good joke going for you.

Step 2: Figure out your medium. Pen/pencil and paper is the easiest and probably fastest method for making a comic, unless you use Adobe often enough to have a library of character files for quick placement. If you're new to the drawing hobby, best to just draw by hand and scan. I like to first draw elements by light pencil and then use OT 3,5, and 8 pens to ink them. I use charcoal to add texture, depth, and light.

Step 3: Look up famous comics, like Gary Larson (the only comic we know by name). Try to copy details piece by piece, like eyes, hair, environment style, chin clefts, etc. This way you don't have to come up with characters yourself until you feel comfortable enough.

Step 4 (optional): Draw each item for your comic individually first. Grab a scrap piece and draw elements several times. If you want a comic with two bears fighting over a bowl of corn flakes, draw a bowl of corn flakes until you like the perspective, and draw the bears separately until you like their pose. Then copy/paste. You'll get better results by going through this step, but it will take longer. Only follow to make a decent comic.

Don't add color unless necessary or unless you know how to draw. Too much rendering ruins a comic's appeal.

Now scan your comic and print tons of copies. Post around your place for nice conversation in the future. Oh you want to know who made that comic? Yeah, that was me. Please, please, more applause.

Your place looks boring now that you think about it. You don't want to buy more posters or furniture, and there are only so many black lights you can have in a household. Your place needs something to liven it up. Wait...how about something ALIVE to liven it up? Pets aren't allowed and fish die every time you get them. Plants don't die immediately after you touch them, so let's try that idea. Well since you have some spare time, why not take a look at a tea garden you can grow in your room/appartment? Let's have at it.