The best left handed kids electric guitar

I’ve played guitar for as long as I can remember but recently found myself scouring the internet to find the best left handed kids guitar for a family member. This proved to be harder than I thought. First off there is a premium for any left handed guitar let alone one selling in small numbers like a 3/4 sized kids one so having a budget is important _ would say don’t spend more than £100 on one.

I wanted something that was great value for money, a good setup out of the box and something that could take a bit of a beating (headstocks are the most likely bit to get a hammering on walls and doors).

After a lot of searching I settled on the LA by Gear4music.

The day after this order it came in the post and I was surprised that aside from a tune up it played well out of the box, action a little high and strings a little higher gauge than I thought a kid would like but on the whole great. Certainly above what I was expecting at this price, I’m not sure if Gear4music set them up beforehand or it’s straight from the factory but either way I’m happy with the one that we got.

I was also surprised at the quality of the fit and finish (I’ve included some pics below) but there were no dents or scratches on the body, the controls all worked fine (albeit a little stiff), the frets where very well dressed and not sharp at all (a big plus on a guitar at this price) and the only things to point out was a little bit of damage on the front face of the headstock (see the images below) and the input jack is a little noisy when the cable is moved.

I have to say that I’m blown away buy these guitars for the money and will do my best to review some of the full sized models. If you’re looking for a kids electric guitar and don’t want to break the bank or struggle getting one that’s in stock then you really can’t go wrong with one of these.

Note: I have included the Amazon Affiliate link in this post, if you purchase one it will help support the site and further review items (thanks!).

Is there too much friction to creating a newsletter?

I’ve been dabbling with newsletters for years but I always find there’s too much friction for me to stick to it. I work across iOS and macOS and all the solutions seem to inherit the same issues

  • No native iOS app
  • They are web based creation and sending that don’t always work particularly well on iOS

It’s why I enjoy blogging, there’s an app on my Home Screen where I can write up a post (like this one) whenever an idea comes to mind.

I think until there’s a friction free way to share via a newsletter I’ll always be a blogger first and wonder why I’m doing a newsletter in the first place.

Unfortunately it seems newsletters have become a way to add something to a membership these days and whilst that may work for some it’s not something I want to do, I just don’t see the value in locking this kind of content behind a paywall.

So, I’m rambling a bit to say

  • There’s too much friction (for me) in creating newsletters across platforms
  • I’m still undecided on if I’ll keep a newsletter going
  • I prefer blogging

One recent development I spotted on The Dent was the Hey email service looking at creating this friction free process and it might be the time that I jump in but for now I’ll put my newsletter on hold until I figure out why it’ll be of use, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.

My iPhone 11 Home Screen

I’ve paired things down a little lately and wanted to share my latest Home Screen, always enjoy these sorts of posts.

The main thing I’ve done is settle into Todoist and removed the calendar widget. I found that in these current times the calendar widget just wasn’t useful and a reminder of where things are. I decided just to have the Todoist one to show me what I had on my plate in a day.

I’m starting to play with Streaks and DayCount for habit (good and bad!) tracking again having fallen off the wagon.

Everything else is pretty standard for me. Reeder for RSS, no social media apps on my Home Screen, podcasts and music and I’m still using Apple Notes.

The wallpaper is great and can be found here.

STAR comes to Disney Plus

Today Disney Plus now includes STAR content and I’m pleased to see a load of stuff Ill enjoy catching up on.

My favourites include

  • Futurama
  • The Strain
  • The X-Files
  • Starship Troopers
  • Titan A.E.
  • Modern Family
  • Office Space

Parental controls all seem sensible to me but real world testing will show me if it’s effective or not. (Kids always find a way 😀).

How to move an item between lists in Microsoft To Do

I’m having a test of Microsoft To Do right now, it’s always good to see what other apps are offering if you’re into productivity apps.

The first thing that I thought was worth sharing was how to move an item between different lists.

If you want to move an item, swipe right on it and tap the red icon. You can then pick the list from the selection screen you see above.

Organising my email

I’m not sure if it’s because my day job now is locked in job seeking so I’m at the Mac a lot more but I decided to clear down my email. I just normally let them come in and delete very rarely. I decided with so many job search emails coming in and appointments or follow ups I needed to organise a bit. Flagging and searching isn’t stellar on iOS or macOS so I decided to create folders like job seeking and reference and moving my emails into the correct place.

They went back to 2010 but I’ve done it. Most were deleted via iOS, which offers a much quicker way via multiselect and bin. I must have removed 3000 emails and now I know where things are in their appropriate place.

I’ll just need to keep on top of what’s coming in and delete as I go.

Hush: Browse the web in a bit more peace

I noticed Daring Fireball linked to this open source Safari extension and after using it a little I have to say that it’s made my browsing of job related sites a lot happier experience without closing about 50 pop ups. This works with Safari on iOS and macOS and blocks pop ups, like newsletter and cookie prompts. Not the ads remember but speeds things up a lot and I’d recommend checking it out if you use Safari as your browser of choice.

You can check out the Hush site here.

Being part of smaller communities

Being part of a smaller community vs something like Twitter has really hit home over the last few months. Whilst I do get a lot of positive interaction on Twitter I also see news and negativity that the algorithms are created to amplify (I don’t want to see this).

I created my own slack (contact me if you want to join in) and am a member of several others and also some Discord and Reddit communities. These are smaller groups where I see the discussion no social media, pretty much exactly what I need right now.

I’m not sure where Twitter is headed but the more I use it the less I like the bits that they are trying to monetise. I’m also thinking would I pay for a subscription based or federated Twitter in the long term. As long as they are motivated by adverts then click bait and the extreme will win over. If you could pay for a non algorithmic Twitter, would you?

Do you need to find your blogs niche?

Finding a niche is what you’re told when reading the “how to build a blog” type posts but for me I just write things I’m passionate about.

I feel that people read my stuff to follow me rather than a particular topic. One day it could be something like this or another day a review of the latest iPhone.

I think of my blog as my own little social media platform controlled by me. I like to share thoughts on whatever comes to mind and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If your only goal is to make money (this isn’t sensible with a blog in 2021 BTW) then being recommended to choose a niche might make sense, constantly re-blogging others articles and chucking ads everywhere but it’s not what being a blogger is about.

It’s up to you what you feel is right but if you’re in it for fun – write about what you want.