Hehee, @rutrho @djciano : I don't know if I have the same issues. At work, I had several co-workers who came by originally to ask me technical questions at my old cube also ask "Doesn't that noisy air conditioner bother you?" Nope, not in the least, I grew up in the flight path for D/FW airport. I could literally ignore a 747 coming in low. Jets are pleasant. I used to go into D/FW and wander around, partly because you could hear the jets doing different things than taking off and landing above my house. If I'm not outside, even a fighter jet will require afterburner to get me to look up from what I'm doing. I'll probably go outside and look for it at that point, but I'm that kind of binary. When I'm actually focused on something, I'll forget to put on pants before I pursue it.
Human voices asking me questions bug the hell out of me, though. If you're a co-worker who asks me a question a second time, I'm going to be a pain. I apologize. Your payoff is that when a customer does the same thing (or anything that makes me upset) on a call, I mute the mic and fire a long string of curses as creatively as I can muster at them for my relief and your obvious enjoyment. All praise the mute button, and e-mail, that the customer can at least re-read once before firing off a stupid reply (or I can re-read once before firing off a stupid reply).
Noise doesn't bother me, and I can switch back and forth quickly between focuses (nope, not the same as multitasking). Playing live is exciting because there's so much to concentrate on. Practice has the focuses of being on time, playing the song competently, and listening to each other, and having my backing vocals be somewhat on key. Four or five things? Boooooor-ing! But live when you have a crowd to react to, a show to put on, schedule to adhere to, etc? Well, now ya got something. I've been accused of lots of things accurately - an adrenaline junky is probably the most accurate, in moderate doses. I don't want every show to be a terrifying affair, but I feel like we're cheating everyone if we don't take some sort of chance with each show. It can be as mild as a weird set list, playing a song you have only practiced 1-3 times, or extreme as everyone plays nekkid while on mushrooms. Ya gotta take some chances, or it might as well be Broadway!
But then again, I have these band members who are almost focused on performing a reliable-ish show. We compromise. Sometimes, I'm the reasonable one, and somehow we keep getting asked to play shows we weren't seeking. It's a nice feeling.
So, long story short: I like to think I'm focused on THE BIG PICTURE, and sometimes I'm surprised to find out that others have a completely different idea of what that's a picture of, and sometimes they intersect nonetheless. To some exltent, I'm just a scatterbrained dingbat that just happens to have a knack for landing on the right spot. I'm not ashamed of describing myself that way, even if I'm certain to miss sticking a landing or two.
@cornfarmer : I will happily back off my octave fuzz lust for anything that allows me to run the fuzz-ish circuit in parallel with the overdrive-ish circuit. The DOD250/GGGMuff clone/mod/sorcery being described by rutrho seems like a sweet idea to me. The idea that themarshall has about different stacking options is intriguing, but it might drive up the cost beyond what might be practical if someone wanted to make a profit.
