T-Bone

Thanks, Ala. In the case of my picture of the seagull - it was really more of an opportune moment than having the right equipment. We were on a ferry going to British Columbia - I'm standing by the rail [port side or starboard - I dunno - not a sailor - Jonny help me out - if I'm on the boat looking toward the front of the boat I was on the left side - :) ] - and this gull comes flying up alongside - very close!!!!!!! Ok, Ala - speaking of Canada - and bringing it back to something about music - do you like Loreena McKennitt? I've got six of her CDs. My favorite CD of hers is "Live in Paris and Toronto" and of all the tunes on that my all time favorite of any of her stuff is "The Highwayman." Wowie - wow!!!!!!! Like Tom Strange was talking about awhile back how a tune can just transport yah! Most of her stuff does that to me - especially that tune!!!!!!! Another thing - this is a live CD - I'm amazed at how good she sounds live!

I love Shellon's sense of humor - - and she's very thoughtful too. I'll never forget the time she brought me a Yoo Hoo in chat.

Thanks, Waysider, Chatty and Jonny...The gecko is on our front glass door. I think you're right on the other lizard - I hear some people just call them fence lizards....The dove in the flower pot - Tonto called me out back when she discovered a momma bird made a nest in a pot on a shelf. Another thing - "I wish you could see it in the original" - I was so close to the bird - and took the shot set at 8 mega pixels - when you look at it on my Laptop and zoom in to the bird's eye - you can see ME holding my camera reflected in her eye! That's awesome!

Here's a picture of my Kramer Bass - just put Fender Nylon Taped Strings on it last night - sounds nice and mellow - thanks for the recommendation, Socks. In the picture the bass and the dog look tired because I just got through walking them both...Hmmmmm - coincidentally my dog's name is T-Bone too.

Thanks, Tom - I'll have to share these at work !

You've got it, Socks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Once again thanks also to Ala and Waysider - it's not like I've never heard about any of this stuff before - just didn't understand what it's about or how to use it. I get tired of trying to re-invent the wheel - well...it's really because my wheels usually turn out square.......I dunno.......Maybe some of my ignorance was not knowing what to ask of my musician buddies - maybe some embarrassment - yah know - having to keep up appearances of that bass player mystique. Socks, that Harmony Central is loaded with goodies - I've added that to my favorites - think I'll be going there frequently - thanks for the link.

I think CoolWaters' statement in the first post of this thread is key point for anyone in relation to mental illness. The person's viewpoint is critical - whether they are the doctor, patient, researcher, caregiver, a friend, relative, etc. in the situation. How a person sees the problem determines how they address the problem. My own viewpoint on mental illness has changed since leaving TWI. Like Belle, Bagpipes and a few others who have shared on this thread have indicated – it's important to stay informed on this stuff with the wealth of info out there – and especially because there's so much info out there and research is an on-going process - still exercising our critical thinking process to sort through items of interest and see what works. I like what Medic's Wife said about finding what works for you and stop trying to please others. When I finally went to a psychiatrist and began taking an antidepressant – I really wasn't giving it my all in terms of effort. I still had such a stigma about this stuff – just from the old TWI ghosts in the machinery of my belief system. In my TWI days my general way of dealing with something like this was to: deny it was really there, attribute it to devil spirits, believe God for instantaneous healing. I think you can find a similar stigma among some mainstream Christian churches. I thought a lot about Paul's thorn in the flesh – how he prayed to God 3 times to take it away – but God's answer was basically He would supply Paul with the strength to handle it [II Corinthians 12: 7-10]. I also thought about James 5:14 "Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." Oil is one of the best-known ancient medicines [see also Isaiah 1:6 and Luke 10:34]. I started adjusting my Christian viewpoint about my own experience. I would ask God for the strength and wisdom to manage my depression as well as asking Him to bless what medicine I was taking. I no longer saw God at odds with the medical community. One day as I was having one of those really bad days at work yet was holding up really well – able to stay on task and concentrate - I thought "man, normally this kind of day would drive me way down in that big black hole" [this is after being on antidepressants for awhile and trying the cognitive therapy techniques from Burns' book]. I had a realization – or maybe it was more like I was trying to describe my experience. I pictured my depression as a deep rut in a dirt road – and I was on a bike pedaling along in that rut – stuck going along wherever it went – I couldn't seem to muster up enough strength to pedal up and out of the trench. That rut in the road will never go away. But this particular day I saw the cumulative effect of everything I was doing as finally giving me enough power to pedal up to my escape. I'm no longer taking an antidepressant - I stopped taking it as I got better at monitoring my thinking patterns and could easily identify cognitive distortions. Believe me – I've got no qualms with going back on medication again if need be….The rut is still there. Some days it's harder than others working that cognitive therapy stuff – to keep from slipping back down into that rut……

I think it's got something to do with pictures I could have in there for others to view. The problem is I tried putting some in there and either I was screwing it up or it was a GSC problem. So - nothings in there right now - I'll work on it another time.

Great topic, CoolWaters ! I think something from David Burns’ Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy might be appropriate here. [You know, the first time I read this book – it occurred to me the faulty thinking patterns Burns identifies was the modus operandi of most TWI folk when I was in it…..Oh – and how weird - what a subtle way to foster depressing tendencies if you didn’t already have them.] His book promotes the use of cognitive therapy – which is basically the modification of illogical thinking patterns. From page 32: “…When you are depressed, you possess the remarkable ability to believe, and to get the people around you to believe, things which have no basis in reality. As a therapist, it is my job to penetrate your illusion, to teach you how to look behind the mirrors so you can see how you have been fooling yourself…Read over the following list of ten cognitive distortions that form the basis of all your depressions…” From page 42, 43 Definitions of Cognitive Distortions: 1. All-or-Nothing Thinking: You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure. 2. Overgeneralization: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. 3. Mental Filter: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water. 4. Disqualifying the Positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences. 5. Jumping to Conclusions: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion. 6. Magnification [Catastrophizing] or Minimization: You exaggerate the importance of things [such as your goof-up or someone else’s achievement], or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny [your own desirable qualities or the other fellow’s imperfections]. This is also called the “binocular trick.” 7. Emotional Reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it, therefore it must be true.” 8. Should Statements: You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. “Musts” and “oughts” are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct “should statements” toward others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment. 9. Labeling and Mislabeling: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself: “I’m a loser.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded. 10. Personalization: You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not primarily responsible for. End of Excerpts

Chas - I DID take notice of that NS Bass Cello - went to their website from your link - thanks! Wow - that is an incredible instrument!

Thanks again, Waysider - for explaining this stuff...I guess I learn visually. Like when I said I like to play along side albums. Sometimes I want to just sit there and listen - not play - and try to visualize where the bass players fingers are - what both hands are doing...I derive hours of enjoyment from that - it's like the thrill of the hunt - figuring something out. Guess that's the technician in me....But like you were saying Ala - I love music too!...And this is weird - but I get so relaxed when I do this - it kinda helps me sort through other things on my mind - maybe a Mozart effect or something.

Thank you for your kind and encouraging words, Ala. You have no idea how privileged I feel to be hanging out with you all on this thread...I never considered myself a real musician - more of a technician - in that I have a knack for figuring out stuff. Whenever I played in bands - it seemed like most people I played with - it just came natural for them - easy - me, I had to work at it.

That probably would help my bass playing......okay - maybe if everyone else was drinking - they would think I was playing good - :) .

Thanks Waysider and Chas - that's a nifty thing to know. See - I thought that should have been covered in my 3 minute self-administered lesson encompassing all things bassdom...Now don't get me wrong - I appreciate your info - I've copied it to my hard drive - but I'm a slow learner. Right now, I see the circle of fifths as something to help transpose/compose/harmonize....And I beg your forgiveness - for having to educate an amateur - I'll have to think on this one awhile.... ...When I said I negotiate around the neck in patterns - I meant that quite literally. When I first began playing - if I came up with a neat riff - I would draw the neck of the bass with strings and frets - and then draw circles with numbers inside the circles [to show sequence of playing] on the string/fret - sort of playing by numbers [i'm so embarrassed to be saying this stuff on the guitar thread - but I guess if I can admit to being dumb enough to give away my beloved Fender Jazz Bass after going ga-ga over a cult - then this ain't nothing :) ]. ...That is the mental obstacle I was trying to convey in my post about trying to play lead guitar. Doing some kind of octave work - like the opening bass line of Purple Haze - I can go any where on the bass neck on the E or A string and the octave of the low note is always two frets over to the right and two strings up. Now on a guitar if I was on the D string my "pattern" wouldn't work because of the B string....I'm so sorry - to be talking baby-talk here on the guitar thread - but I really do appreciate you all leading me in the ways of musicianship.

Sure Ala - it's post # 583, posted June 22 2006 9:10 PM: http://www.greasespotcafe.com/ipb/index.ph...9320&st=575# I tell yah - when I first picked up the electric bass - I soon became fascinated with the upright bass. Tried playing one a few times. Oh man - I was lost - no fret marks - disoriented with the vertical position of the neck - I sounded like a sick whale...

Supergirl uses the Mommy Stare to stop the evil Dr. Bottle-Rockets dead in his tracks.

Uh oh - I'm committing a serious sin here - "thou shalt not covet another man's bass" - - ooops - did I say that out loud? :( Ala, I used to have a Fender Jazz Bass years ago - perhaps you've read my sob story on this thread - oh well - it's all music under the bridge...But anyway sounds like your hubby gets into my favorite thing to do - play bass along side albums.... ...Which is something I'll be getting back into shortly. Hopefully I'll remember how to play the dang thing!.. Socks, the Guitar Center called me and said those Fender Taped Bass Strings are in that I ordered. I've been sprucing up my Kramer - when I put it all back together and re-string it I'll post a picture of it here - I'm kinda proud of the unusual "paint job" I did to it. Well....it's not actually a paint job. It had an ugly factory burnt orange paint job on it. I had such a hard time stripping that off - I wound up resorting to burning it off with a propane torch. It left some charred areas - I sanded - lightly stained it and put a clear finish on it. ...And speaking of playing - that gets me wondering about something. I'm a self-taught bass player [taught myself everything I know - the lesson was cheap and only took 3 minutes - :) ]. I've got a wooden ear - and so would think in terms of patterns on the bass neck. That's pretty easy with only four strings tuned in fifths. Tried playing lead guitar a few times but that B string always screwed me up - couldn't work around the speed-bump. What do you guitar pickers do? Seriously. What goes on in your head? I had to make a conscious effort to shift from the G to the B - screwed with my whole pattern process.

Did you think "momma told me not to come" ?.....Man, wish I could have been there for that - sounds like a blast !!!