Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!

Well, looking at the calendar this will probably be the final post for the year, so some closing thoughts may be in order.

I had something of an epiphany this week. I was driving down the road and noticed all the graffiti. It occurred to me that in general the only person who normally sees it is the tagger who did it. Then it hit me! Cyber space is just one big vacant building. And 99.99% of us posters are just cyber-taggers. We put up the best sites we can, we are very pleased with our work, and we haven't a clue how to drive traffic to our sites. I did some research on the visitor activity on my blog, and found that the most heavily visited page was one of the earliest posts. It contained a semi-erotic picture of a European performer. It gets hits from all over the globe even now, six months later, while the other posts get random hits if any! Hmmm... I wonder if there is data base of erotic bagpipe art?

The really important thing to remember is that we love Piping. The cyber world is just a place to go when the lips give out! Have a great and prosperous New Year! See you again in 2009.
Pops

Piping... Who Cares? Just do it!

I was just reading a discussion board where the topic de joure was “How do you ask a bad piper to stop playing?” and I wondered, why would you? If you don’t like it move on, if those listening do like it (why else would they be listening) leave them alone, they’re having a good time.

I thought back a few years to an event where our club had retained an Elvis and a Neil Diamond impersonator. No one thought them the real thing, or held their music to that standard (besides it was kareoke), yet everyone had a great evening.

I think more people piping and enjoying pipers is far more important than all pipers sounding the same (no matter how good that may be.) For Christ sake people, just do it! You’ll be amazed how much fun you have.

Worthy of your patronage!

As we are all out shopping this time of year I want to share one of the best customer service experiences I have ever had. I have a set of "Kitchen Pipes" made by Scott’s Highland Services, LTD. I purchased these back in 2004. I always thought it strange that these pipes which produce a much lower volume than my GHBs would be noticeably harder to blow. You know, one of those things you always intend to inquire about but never get around to.

Well, I finally sent Jim at Scotts Highland Services an email asking about this phenomena. Not only was he full of useful suggestions, he insisted I return the pipes to him for a complete refurbishing. It is a rare thing for me to encounter a manufacturer who is so proud of his product as to offer this level of support. In fact, you would have to call him a craftsman, not a manufacturer.

Good on you Jim!"