socks

I've got an old school tuner, Chas. Brings back memories. :) Hey, anyone seen Ted McFerrel around lately? Is he on email again/yet/still?

Yup, SV, they're nice peoplings by all appearances. Strange visitors from another galaxy but nice. It's the young thing. Don't think about the past, don't think about the negatives. Stop that stuff!!! Big Clue Number One - when you're young you don't have much of a past. Granted it can be filled with meaningful experience and learning and should be. But at 20, you've only had what - 15 or so coherent years and probably a couple of those were still trying to decide if the toilet was really a safe haven to do your business or not. I'm not making fun of the youngsters, it's true. It's life. When we're young we can knock off a couple years here and there, no problem. It's the adults who have that overwhelming desire to lop off anything they don't want to deal with and call it "negative" who need guidance. These kids don't want their Way to have the Old Way in it. Fine. But history has a way of repeating itself, even when we try to learn from it. Every generation says no, they'll be different. We did. That's why we have healthy MacDonald's fast meals and improved, stable cup holders in our SUV's. We wanted to make the world a better place to live in and dammit, we did!!

I may buy a t-shirt, dmiller. It's way cool. I'd like to time travel. I wonder if he's really gone "back" to the future? He said he lives in Tampa Florida. I would have asked him if Shell's is still serving really good local seafood, fresh. They used to have fried Grouper to DIE for. Hmmmmmmmmm......oh yeah, that's the stuff. It's only what - 30 years of so in the future. Is Dale Mabry still named that? Does traffic suck at rush hour? But mostly I'd want to know if Florida's gotten any relief from the hurricanes. Maybe he talks about that somewhere. I gotta read some more. But there's something about a war in 2015, isn't there? That's kind of a bummer. Does Bush know? He could slow down some of his plans, otherwise we're going to hit that early. I'd like this slipstream to slow down a little, to an ebbing eddy, or a muddling jerry or anything slower, so maybe the war would be delayed longer.

Ace! Gone!??! I like Ace. He had some good stuff going, not the strongest voice, but a good performer with a good sound. His smile reminds me of my son's, so I guess I had the impression from the get go. Pretty consistent. The little hair bun though, that had to go so I guess Ace had to go with it. DANG! This group is really fun to watch and they're getting better every week. Excititor likes Rod! I do too. He sounds like Donald Duck, but I like him. Hey, for his age, he's holding up pretty well onstage, so it gives us old guys hope! He's got a snappy new pair of boo...I mean, a new wife, a child. What can I say? :)

What's that old joke, where the guy says "pull my finger"? Isn't there a version of that where the guys says "pull my leg"? Okay, I'll go quietly.

Absolutely, Strangelo, and with an accuracy and dependability that rivals the finest of Swiss Watches! Seriously, yes. You can buy a KORG CA30 for about 20 bucks I think and it has a little mic on it, set the tuner on your knee or close by. Just turn it on and start with the low E. The little meter needle point straight up to "0" when you're in tune. It's amazing!! And it's cheap!!! And it's cool being in tune!!!

And COOL STUFF you can buy! I like it!

Man...this place is starting to get weird. did I say starting?

Technically, no. Tuners are made that will sense the range of your tone and assign it the correct tone to comparie itself against. So if you hit your low E, 6th string and it's at D, the tuner will show it below E. Typically it's an arrow at 12 o'clock for the correct tone when you hit it. Some have meters with cool red LED's. You plug in or use the little mic some of them have and play and tune up. They're actually a big asset for the 6-stringer. Others have switches to set for each of the 6 strings. Set it to the one you want to tune to and start plinking. Again, line up the arrow or the meters and you're done. But most guitarists will know how to tune, and the peculiarities of their instrument and guitar necks in general. Guitars have to be tuned "sympathetically", as the placement of the frets is done to achieve correct intonation for each note of the scale(s) AND convenience and consistency. As a result a compensation is made to achieve that consistency of placement and nearly all guitars will go slightly out of pitch around the 5 - 7 frets and it will very noticeable again around the 12 fret and above if it's not "tweaked". Intonation adjustments using the bridgle placement and/or "saddles" (yeeee ha!!!) is essential to get it right. Most guitars are setup to do this, and just some minor tweaking on the notes around those 5th and 7th frets is necessary. If the neck and/or frets are badly made though, forget it. There will be spots that will never be in tune. But these guys were good players and they definitely had that tuning thing going between songs. It was just funny because if you didn't know what they were doing it looks almost like they were staring at their shoes and nodding their heads to some invisible voice. I guess you had to be there.

In general, I think giving is a worthwhile way to live. I share what I can when I decide to do it. Behind that is a couple things - recognizing God for the good in my life and also recognizing that helping others is a good way to live. I consider it an aspiration to do so, not a compulsion. Living that way is me, at my best. Frankly I don't really think about it or worry about it in some superstitious way, like "there! I tithed 10.3 per cent this month so everything gonna be awright!" or "OHNO! I'm down by 2.7 per cent. Look out!!!" I don't think of it in terms of amounts or percentages. Life is great. Across the board, better than ever. If experience is any indicator, much better by comparison to Wayfers who float their boats by religiously telling everyone else to tithe 15 per cent. Oh, and doing so themselves, of course. Of course. No excuses, right? It's not hard to see that you can tithe and everything ain't gonna be awright if other things in your life get out of whack. I never saw a consistent change in the way things worked out in my life's affairs for better or worse as a result. I don't believe that's what it's all about. Once I got rid of the fear that comes from compulsory giving and stopped looking over my shoulder for blessings for curses based on what I'd given nothing really changed except my blood pressure. I gave it a lot of thought and what we do now is based on our faith and beliefs. It's a part of living well, regardless of the cash-flow. A giving heart won't be deterred by lack of funds. Funds aren't the only thing to be given. If the teaching's based on cash, they're talking trash IMO.

They look like nice people. Grazing the threads, I read one really funny post that had this line from someone - "...we're not to look to the past or too far into the future..." I...I dunno. I think they said they were 26. Not that age is a complete read into the soul of a person, but it sounds like something a younger person could embrace. If you don't look to the past, that kind of leaves out all of the bible, not a good thing for a biblical research and teaching ministry. Or maybe that means selective events, the ones we don't like. Dunno. If you don't look too far into the future - how long is too far? A week? A year? It seems like an odd way to live - to not plan ahead. Granted stay flexible, keep your options open. But vision is a good thing. Anyway, they look like nice people.

Sounds like a good time Jonny! Lay down that es-car-got! We went and saw a local band this weekend - "American Drag", they do original stuff, rock, sort of heavy-ish in spots. Couple of the members play in a church band where we go sometimes, so we wanted to check them out. Interesting stuff. The guitarists both play Gibsons - a Les Paul and an SG. The singer plays a Strat sometimes, looks like a stock white Fender Strat. It was nice hearing an SG, they really have a great sound, thick, consistent. One thing I noticed that cracked me up - I pointed it out to my wife and she immediately picked up on how odd it looks. As soon as every song comes to an end, the guitarists start checking their tuning. But it's not the old school "plink pling pling" thing between songs. Now with floor pedal boards and inboard tuners, and floor tuners, all you have to do is bypass the signal to the amp with a stomp, and tune up. These guys, soon as the song ended right to the start of the next, they're looking down, tuning, nodding. Yeah yeah. Next song. It looked funny and for some reason with this band was very noticable to me. But, better to be in tune than not I guess. . :)

Tonight was cool. I like all the performances, thought McFee (sp?) sounded great. Elliot is really a talent. He's gotten more comfortable on camera, seems. But his voice has such a good sound. I like Ace, although for my taste, the hair thing - ??? but I do think he's got a good thing going, hope he does more after the show's over. This is the first season I really like all the finalists and enjoy hearing them all every week. I wish they had more time to sing more songs and spread out a little. The theme shows are okay but they limit them. Not every singer is going to be able to perform well in every genre, and most of the performers in the Billboard Top 100 aren't out doing country one week and standards the next, they're doing theyre thing. It does add a little variety to the season, but a little bit goes a loooong way for me.

Come to think of it, the comparison between Paul and LCM isn't a good one. Someone posted that. I still don't think and that looking at Paul and what he did gives anyone direct instruction for what to do or not do in regards to "apologizing'. It's an issue of doing what's right in a situation. I just don't think that's hard to figure out. Some people may not give a hoot. Others may care deeply. The response should be commensurate with the need. But one more point - I think the lack of response from the Way leadership in general isn't quite as "spiritual" as we may be making it out to be, good or bad. It's no doubt because of the past and present lawsuits, both settled and pending. If they take responsibility for something, personally or under their watch, they might be admitting liability. :blink: If they "apologized" it would mean something wrong was done. And we all know, nobody every did anything wrong there, or knew anything about anything and if they did, they surely didn't know it was wrong. Right?

I hear what you're saying Belle. That being the case, there's a serious loss of context in the understanding of Paul's life. Arguiing that Paul didn't "apologize" after his conversion is childish. It's like saying "love is never having to say you're sorry". Like in marriage, there are spouses who are so assured of their mate's undying love, understanding and forgiveness that they never say they're sorry for anything they do and assume that the other person will always be able to absorb any hurt caused by their own shortcomings and failings iand that all wil be covered by the other person's bountiful measure of love for them. They're called "ex's"

My take - somehow I don't see the "Paul" that's writen about in Acts, and the author of the N.T. epistles, as being a person who would ignore recognizing what he'd done. He clearly states he recognized himself as "least" amongst his brethren. Why would he say a thing like that? A false, smug rightousness? I don't think so.The impression I get of Paul is a person who really, really, had a weird hair day on the day he had the vision of Jesus on his way to Damascus. It had a huge, personal and deep impact on him. It seems to me the he did/he didn't argument is mostly an academic twirling of a few scriptures to prove a point, as if - because there's no verse that says "Paul said he was sorry to Bob and Sally and Mary" etc. etc. or "Paul was blessed in that he never had to say he was sorry to anybody for trying to kill their families" is proof positive that nobody ever has to say they're sorry for anything they ever do and it's not a requirement to be a Certified Christian in Good Standing. I don't mean to sound like a jerk here, but if you need a verse to tell you to breathe, or take a leak, or eat when you're hungry, or make a wrong right if you can - you may need to get outside more. Call me Old School, but everything in the bible tells me that Paul was penitent, sorry, and remorseful for what he did. He had many years that aren't fully accounted for after his Road Trip experience. The fact that Luke doesn't record much about it in Acts is no big deal. There's a lot he obviously doesn't cover. Paul's epsitles, such as they are, give every indication that Paul would have been MORE LIKELY to have dealt directly and lovingly with the people he'd hurt than not. If he never had opportunity to do anything about it, I'd be hard pressed to think he made up a doctrinal argument to ignore what he'd done. That makes no sense whatsover. He said "don't use grace for a license to sin". That's pretty clear.

Nice photo, there. Like the color. Those guitar really have some great sounds. No, Bluzeman, she's been playing quite awhile, just back home from a year at Musicians Institute, finished the Basic and Intermediate Level Guitar program and is taking a break to get some time to play and shake it all out. They have a very aggressive program, she learned a huge amount in her first year there, and got some great experience. She's got a Fender Tele Thinline and Epiphone 335, but no acoustic and it seemed like a good addiiton to her instruments, having something she could knock around with. Within budget she wanted something that she could use for some of the fingerpicking and acoustic styles she learned. I was really impressed with the Yamaha. The have a sunburst I may go back and look at myself. :) Need mo' dough! That Strat must sound good!

Aaah! sound, or reads, awesome Bluzeman! I was at a store yesterday and saw one on the floor but there was a lot of activity in the area and couldn't get to trying it out. What are you playing through it? I bet it sounds great with some humbuckings or the like! I like the soft/hard picking dirty description, makes sense. It can be hard to get a setting like that, but the amp sounds like it's made to do that. That kind of responsiveness is ideal! I went out couple times this week, looking for an acoustic guitar, started with nylon string and went to steel string. Didn't want to spend too much, get a case with it if the price was right. Ended up with a guitar we really liked, bought it for my daughter. It's a Yamaha, the FG720S I got the natural top, sitka spruce. Very nice sound, good resonance, plays great right off the wall. The store had several. Yamaha is doing some new things with production on these and the price is way low for the sound it gets. We talked wanting a good all around guitar, something that you could play with friends, leave out, not stress over too much and that would sound good enough to gig with. Anyone still looking for an inexpensive guitar with good features that plays well and is made soundly - this fits the bill. They're priced at 259.00 most places online. I got it with tax for 299 and change, pennies under my budget, with a nice wood/plush lined case. Great deal. If you live around Northern California, I have to plug Zone music. They're good people and very helpful. So we're having a happy Easter too Bluzeman! :)

Not being a newbie here, it's interesting reading, thanks for the sharing. "Mannies" are a beautiful thing, as I've seen them. Faking them wouldn't be the right thing to do, of course. They're either there or they aren't. I can see the pressure causing people to want to "do" them to go along with the whole thing and participate. I would say, I can remember in Way fellowships, doing the call on 'em approach, but I always preferred opening it up to anyone who felt inspired to, that way if you are, go for it. I hope no one popped something out to impress me or others. I doubt people did after knowing me awhile, why impress me? It won't get you anything, so why bother? But I'd also have to say I've heard people who did "fake" something and it was odd. I know to most people it would all sound the same, but there is a difference. A not-a-mannie sounds more like a prayer to me, where it's coming from. A is-a-mannie sounds immediate, personal. It "rings' for want of a better word. But overall, I never heard anything that would hurt people or make them do something wrong or feel bad about themselves.

Yikes!!!! I looked jardinero!!!!! Shaz, I'm........speechless. Great stuff. Peeps are, of course, a delicacy in our house this time of year! O the tastey goodness! A "pundle" of peeps (4) is the way they're born. They separate when they've matured, on their own! It's the Great Peep's Plan for Peepdom!!! Plus, they taste even better and more satisfying when eaten by the pundle!

It does get later as the time goes by, of this I've learned and seen, nearly daily Dan. No apologizing is expected or due. I feel a funny coming on. Man goes into a bar, says "Bob, gimme a beer, and make it fast!" Bartender Bob looks up and shrugs, takes his towel and tosses it over his shoulder. Puts up the "BE BACK" sign and heads out the back door. Everyone starts to wonder where he went after a few minutes , than an hour goes by, then finally the waitress starts serving drinks, calls for backup and by closing time nobody knows where the bartender went, but the waitresses have had a ball tending bar, puttin' 'em down and laying them out all night. Place closes, and next day Bob's a no-show. Goes on for a week, sign goes up "Bartender needed-Apply Within" and soon enough, Stanley's hired and on the job. Friday, who shows up at the back door but Bob, who walks in, throws his towel down on the bar and hauls up a big box filled with bottles of beer, freshly capped and packed. He wipes his forehead and pulls one out and looks out at the bar and says "Where's the guy who wanted the beer?" Waitress walks over and says "Bob! Where have you been? It's been 2 weeks since that guy was in here!" Bob looks confused and says "Well, that's pretty fast for makin' beer!"

Hey Jim, welcome! I played with a Line 6 at Gutiar Center a few months ago, they were good about demoing it with me. Nice sounds, the banjo sound in particular sounded very nice. And so many other sounds! One of my favorite local (Calfiornia) guitarists is Harvey Mandel, who plays a Parker Fly - HIS SITE HERE has some photos. There's a pretty good video of him HERE at the Cafe Du Nord doing his thing, takes a bit to load, but it's got some good stuff of his on it. How's that amp sound, Bluzeman!?

I'm not even sure what that means. Can you decode? If stating a preference for something that's important to me makes me a zealot and perceived as the same as soneone who would make a death threat, I have to assume you're kidding Dan, as that's rediculous. If you're not kidding and this pretty civil discussion has been taken that way - I have no idea what to say. Except to say no one's responded with anything resembling the kind of zealotry that it's being compared to, no one's suggesting people wear religious garments for any reason, or riot in the streets. My comments aren't comparable to demanding that images be removed, never to be seen or made again, or that people don't have the right to free speech and free expression, within the boundaries of the laws that govern us all. To even see the words death threats, or a comparison to uptight zealots demonstating overseas is so outlandish to me, it's funny. So, if it's a joke, I get it. If it's anything else, it's crazy. Code for nuts. It does strike me as funny thout that there's comments going that way. From my view it reminds me of extreme prejudice, that a differing opinion gets dammed by association to things it's not associate to at all.

diazbro, I think you've hit on an excellent description of the "absent Christ" doctrine as it's effected so many people. Even using the word "absent" puts that in people's heads. It says "He's not here". Digging into Way teaching, the "present" Christ was in each one of us, the pneuma hagion, the "Christ in you". The body of Christ, a collective pressence. That presence would then be lived as each person takes their "place" in the body, as described in Ephesians. Something very much like this is taught in the church I go to sometimes, but it's different in some key areas. One, that the presence of Christ Himself, in each person's life, is a personal expression of a "living" and "present" Christ. For want of a better word to describe it He has an "identity" that's immediate and knowable. Christ is looked to directly as redeemer, mediator, savior, and head. We ourselves live and function with our own place. There's less of a mystical muddle about who Jesus Christ is when looked at that way I think. While it's difficult to picture exactly who, where and what He is now, it's a part of the Christian life for that to be opened up to each individual through their prayer life, study and guidance within the fellowship of others. It's a task of the spirit to open up God to us and Christ is our shepherd. We need an immediate and personal relationship developing or we lose that pastoring we need from Him. I think Way teaching led many people to understand the presence of Christ as their own presence....in a sense that "the mind of Christ" is primarily manifested in their own. Christ as a risen, living individual, while "spriit", is subjugated to my own actions and "believing" then. Christ only lives when I let Him live, in other words. To use terms we're familiar with, that makes sense to the 5 senses man, but it subverts the spriitual man and again, the use of the word absent speaks loudly. Paul taught that while many in his time had known Jesus as a man, they no longer knew Him that way, for obvious reasons. Knowing Him was still possible, but as Paul teaches, different than knowing the guy they had been with "in the flesh".

Well, if nothing else this seems to have scared CK off - where ya at? No wingnut, speaking for myself, again, that wasn't the point. Not to worry, If VPW is getting off the hook it won't be for long. My personal point was that if a person takes a picture of someone, say Daffy Duck, or George Bush, or let's say even me cause God knows I myself suffer deeply everyday in ways that only I know and if everyone else did I'd be given the Mother Teresa pin for good behavior for sure, and put it on the body of Jesus on the cross, it would be weird, to me. I would always respond the same way. That's all. If the point was to say "Daffy Duck set himself up to replace Jesus Christ", I'd think hmmm. OKay. But the use of Jesus's crucifixion to prove that point, while an important one, would be weird to me. But that's me. I guess I'm a stick-in-the-spud. So be it. This is America, the good old USA and it's the constitutional right of ever citizen to pi$$ and moan about anything they see fit to, when and where they want to and in whatever way they want to and to the extent that if there's any justice they'll get a government grant to fund it. While I can't honestly use tax dollars to fund my personal peeves, I'm serious, some countries I'd be picking fleas out of my cell mates hair for complaining so much sometimes. I proudly exercise my right to express my inestimable opinion. I'm a good citizen. I highly encourage everyone to do likewise.