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Forty Something Blues

Guitar Blog of a 40 Something Year Old

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40 Something Blues is the online home of Gareth Watson, a 40 something year old trying to learn to play guitar. Here you’ll find articles on various guitar related topics such as lessons learnt, album reviews, gear, thought pieces and more.

Recent Posts

Moving Forward in 2024
Reflections on Practice
What To Learn & What To Practice
Let’s Talk About Practice
Mid 2021 Goal Check-In

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Band Blues Blues on the Bay Festival Dominant 7th Chords Goals Justin Guitar Justin Sandercoe Major Scale Practice Routines Rory Gallagher StichMethod

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I don't normally wear a waistcoat but when I do I

I don't normally wear a waistcoat but when I do I play guitar! Loads of fun playing at this wedding late last year.

@the_fuzz_tones

#weddingband #localmusicni #northernirelandmusic #supportlocalmusic #musicnorthernireland #fenderguitars #fenderstratocaster #fenderusa

Every so often this wee rock machine comes back in

Every so often this wee rock machine comes back into vogue for me.

#prstremontise #tremonti #prs #prsse #prsguitars

Having just finished the first part of the Javascr

Having just finished the first part of the Javascript course which I am currently working through I wanted to write up my thoughts on how it's going so far and maybe collate anything of relevance into a handy place.

Now obviously I can just do this in Notion for my own benefit but I was thinking it'd also be beneficial to use this as an opportunity to begin a blog.

As a WordPress guy for well over a decade I can easily spin up a WordPress site in minutes and be up and running but I think this is a good opportunity to try something different.

After a bit of Google I stumbled upon the Hugo framework and it looks interesting and is something a bit different for me.

So wish me luck as I try and start a blog using a framework I've never used before. 🫡

#webdevelopment #hugoframework #blog #blogging #onlinelearning #webprogramming #markdown #markdownlanguage

Yes I still guitar! Jamming tomorrow with the boys

Yes I still guitar! Jamming tomorrow with the boys from @the_fuzz_tones

It's been too long.

Things have been quiet on the band front as of late but I'm looking forward to meeting up with lads and dusting off a few of our rockier tunes for shits and giggles.

And yes my strat rocks! 🤘

#bandpractice #dadrock #dadblues #rockandroll #fenderguitar #fenderamericanultra #fenderstratocaster #fenderstrat

It's 8.30am. I've been to the gym, completed a Jav

It's 8.30am. I've been to the gym, completed a Javascript code challenge and am now chilling with a cup of coffee watching @guitargate react to Blackbird by @officialalterbridge . And I've not even left for work yet 🤣

#alterbridge #javascript #codechallenge #morningroutine #productivity

Working on the MacBook tonight. Blasting through t

Working on the MacBook tonight. Blasting through this javascript course and picking up loads of useful tips already. After years of concatenating strings to output variables tonight I learnt about Template Literals. Where have these been my whole life??

#javascript #javascriptes6 #es6 #webdevelopment #webdesign #onlinelearning #udemy #udemycourse #js

Back to some online learning. In my modern web dev

Back to some online learning. In my modern web development course I got as far as the Javascript stuff and then I remembered I had an entire course in my Udemy account dedicated to just Javascript so I've jumped ship to that course for now.

I think this will be me for the next several months. I've been really wanting to deep dive Javascript for quite some time. I've been using jQuery as a crutch for way too long and once I get past the selectors I'm generally using regular Javascript anyway so I might as well drop it completely.

Sorry jQuery, you did me good!

#javascript #webdevelopment #udemycourse #udemy #onlinelearning #personaldevelopment #jquery #webdesign #frontenddev #frontenddevelopment #github #coding #webcoding

Got hit for 6 last week by catching some sort of b

Got hit for 6 last week by catching some sort of bug after I came down from my Hyrox escapades. Ended up not doing too much of anything but that gave me a chance to reflect on some things.

I wanted a way to track what I was doing with my online learning as well as a way of tracking other bits and pieces of my life.

After watching an extremely detailed video by @tomfrankly on Notion I've decided to go all in on that platform.

I'm currently working my way through his excellent "Second Brain from Scratch" to get Notion setup for my needs going forward.

Is this a form of procrastination?

Definitely!

#notion #notionapp #notiontemplates #thomasfrank #productivity #personaldevelopment #personalgrowth #personalproductivity #secondbrain #systemsandprocesses

So it's been nearly a week since I had a go at the

So it's been nearly a week since I had a go at the men's doubles at Hyrox down in Dublin. To say it was an experience would be an understatement. I wouldn't generally classify myself as someone overly focused on fitness but I'm always ticking away in the gym and I'm now starting to get notions above myself for what to do next. Hyrox men's single event in 2024 and a serious focus on hybrid training over the coming months? 🤔

#hyroxdublin2023 #hyrox #hyroxdublin #personalfitness #healthandfitness #hybridtraining #hybridathlete

Yesterday I travelled down to Dublin with my gym b

Yesterday I travelled down to Dublin with my gym buddies to take part in the Hyrox event. A kind of functional fitness race a bit similar to CrossFit but not as technical. It's comprised of a 1km run followed by an exercise (sled push, sled pull, burpees, farmers walks, etc) repeated 8 times. I took part in the men's doubles event with my buddy Adam and I think we represented ourselves well in the over 40s category. It took as an hour and 37 minutes to complete it. A tough but great experience and I'll definitely do it again. Well done to all that travelled down and took part (not just the ones in the photo). Here's to some rest and recovery.

#hyrox #hyroxdublin2023 #hyroxdublin

CSS Grid in the wild. Finally had an opportunity t

CSS Grid in the wild. Finally had an opportunity today to throw CSS Grid into a project. A week ago I'd have used Flexbox for this and while that would have worked and been fine, CSS Grid did it super efficiently. So cool.

Last weekend also finished the HTML and CSS portions of the course I am working through. Nothing massively new to learn outside of the CSS Grid stuff but it felt good to finally scratch that itch.

Next up is a deep dive into Javascript. I am looking forward to this as I write a lot of Javascript but always fall back on jQuery as a crutch especially for selectors. It's my goal to do away with jQuery completely then to drive my learning beyond what I already know ultimately moving onto the likes of React.js finally.

Loads to do.

#html #css #js #javascript #jquery #frontenddeveloper #frontenddev #frontenddevelopment #webdesign #webdevelopment

When you're working through a tutorial and a rando

When you're working through a tutorial and a random thing in the tutorial helps you fix something you were working on earlier that day. Freaky coincidences do happen!

#cssgrid #flexbox #cssflexbox #csslayout #csswebdesign #cssnavbar #html5 #html #webdevelopment #webdesign

CSS Grid now making a lot more sense. That's enou

CSS Grid now making a lot more sense. That's enough for a Saturday. Time for some guitar based shenanigans! 🤘

#cssgrid #csslayout #css3 #csswebdesign

The world of CSS Grid continues. This is less simp

The world of CSS Grid continues. This is less simple than I thought it was going to be. But damn interesting all the same.

#cssgrid #webdesign #weblayout #css #css3 #appleimac #applecomputer #webdevelopment #onlinelearning #selfimprovement

After 2 nights without broadband (don't ask) I'm f

After 2 nights without broadband (don't ask) I'm finally able to get back to some online learning fun. After quickly pushing through the Bootstrap stuff (I still feel there's no place for it in my current workflow) I'm finally getting to something I probably should have tackled long before now. CSS Grid!

I've been building responsive layouts since responsive layouts first became a thing. Starting with the old school desktop first approach with floats before moving the mobile first and in recent years incorporating flexbox (love flexbox).

CSS Grid is just one of those things I never carved out time to explore but that's exactly why I'm doing a course like this. Looking forward to finally break ground on this stuff. What else would you be doing on a Friday night?

#cssgrid #csslayout #csswebdesign #css #udemy #onlinelearning #webdesign #webdevelopment #html #html5 #css3

We are now at the Bootstrap portion of the course.

We are now at the Bootstrap portion of the course. Not sure how I feel about using Bootstrap on production sites. I used it extensively in the past but mostly just for its grid system which I now feel is overkill when you can do so much with very little CSS. I'll push through the module but I'm not sure I'll invest too much time in it. At the end of the day I'm not really here for bootstrap.

#bootstrapframework #bootstrap5 #bootstrapcss #bootstrapgrid #css #websitedevelopment #webdesign #html #udemycourse #udemy #selflearning #onlinelearning

Back to the basics. Currently working my way throu

Back to the basics. Currently working my way through a Zero To Mastery course. I bought it to move my web dev skills further along but it's also good to review the basics and make sure there's nothing new that I've missed and to also make sure what I'm doing in my day to day work is right. Thankfully I seem to have a handle on the basics! 🤣

#webdevelopment #udemy #zerotomastery #personqldevelopment #coding #webcoding #html #css #andreineagoie #websitedevelopment #onlinelearning #udemycourse #sublimetext

After struggling for most of this year to get out

After struggling for most of this year to get out of a bit of a mental slump I recently started going to bed a bit earlier and getting up at 6am.

I actually did this during the great lockdown and had success with it.

I already was going to the gym 2 or 3 mornings a week so I wanted to extend that early start to other days but to also get up earlier in gym days to have some productive me time.

6am has worked out to be a good time for getting up. I'm sat here now with a 3.5k run done, drinking a coffee and catching up on some reading.

The running is a new thing and is something I'm doing as a kind of necessary evil (more on that later this month) but I have to say, as tough as it is for me, I am enjoying it.

And now back to the reading.

#productivity #morning #morningroutine #selfhelp #personalgrowth #personqldevelopment #personaldevelopmentgrowth #atomichabits #atomichabitsbook #mentalhealth #mensmentalhealth

I've decided to pivot my Instagram account away fr

I've decided to pivot my Instagram account away from just guitar related content and use it to highlight parts of my journey through life.

Once upon a time I had notions about really pushing the guitar thing and I saw myself as being part of a wider online guitar community. The reality is that here I am 5 (or 6) years later and none of my ideas and plans really came into being.

I'm glad now to be able to play guitar to the level I can and to be playing in a band. I'll continue to learn new things on guitar and hopefully my playing will continue to improve. I intend on playing in my band for as long as everyone is having fun being part of it. And I do love it! Big gig coming up this weekend!

But I now plan on deep diving back into what was my main obsession, that of web development. What started as a hobby too long ago to remember is a job I've been doing now for close to 20 years.

In recent years I've settled into a bit of a comfort zone with things while my guitar obsession consumed me. Now it's time to tip the balance back towards coding.

That's all, folks. See ya on the 'gram.

#webdeveloper #webdevelopment #imac #appleimac #html #css #javascript #webdesign #code #coding

After 2 years I now finally properly own this guit

After 2 years I now finally properly own this guitar.

Fell in love with how this guitar looked on several YouTube videos a couple of years ago and, like a sensible and mature adult with responsibilities, I got it on finance.

It's a guitar that is beyond my ability to play it yet I play it nevertheless. It's the centrepiece of my small collection and the guitar I pick up the most.

It's a strat but it's not a strat.

It's modern and curvy and thin with noiseless pickups and a humbucker and it does everything I need it to.

Here's to many more years with this absolute rock machine.

#fenderguitar #fenderstratocasteramericanultra #fenderstratocaster #stratocaster #fenderstrat #strat #americanultra #fenderusa

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