socks

2 cents - I subscribe to a somewhat qualified version of freedom of will/"choice": freedom= n 1: the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints 2: immunity from an obligation or duty will = n 1: the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention and choice = 2: the act of choosing or selecting I think we seldom act out of true "freedom" as adults. Children, maybe to an extent, but as children it seems we learn how to choose and ultimately narrow down (rightly so) the range of our "freedom". That is, we develop obligations, duties, "restraints" of various kinds we accept and within that range we make choices. A somewhat old saying talks about "choosing the lesser of two evils", for instance. Another newer saying goes "Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil". The reverse could be true - ? - choosing the lesser of two goods is still choosing good but maybe not one quite as ideally suited to the matters at hand as another choice might be. "Appropriate" to a situation might craft what becomes "good" in any given choice where others are involved for instance, whereas a decision made without consideration of others might be "right" but not "good". ("loving"....?) Making truly free choices by our own independent will is difficult I think because of how we are made to live, in community and cooperation with others. Still, true freedom of will/choice is possible, if not always practical. I'd probably phrase it as always possible, but not always probable or maybe "likely".

Hey waysider - that chill in the air is hell defrosting - saw Tommy T and Preston T a week ago, and their band. They're doing so well and it was great to see them. It had been way too long, believe me, missed those guys over the years. Jammed together on a tune. It was a real pleasure. e - me if you get a sec. :)

That's about the size of it to me too, Loner. Way doctrine teaches you'll be "rewarded" according to how "much" of the "Word" you're "faithful" to. Italics provided, as those word would require some definition I think. "Rewards" = how good of a life you will have in the future, after the return of Christ and the gathering together. Somewhere down the line anyway, you'll be living a life based on what you believed of the bible in this one. "much" - based on what you knew, the amount of it that you knew. "Word" - accurate bible information. "faithful" - an interesting term - Way doctrine implies a continuous faithing, so to speak. If you knew and were faithful at one time, but developed a different understanding of what they taught you at one time - you're S.O.L. A little doesn't go a long way, in the Way. You need to stack up some seniority to have tenure. If you leave their nest, you're a bad bird. Faithful to the Word means faithful to accepting the knowledge. --- That's using normal English, and is probably very debatable by a Wayfer. But - IMO one of the downfalls of putting such an emphasis on knowledge is that it takes the shine off behavior. Knowing something that's right becomes more important than doing something that's right. Again - Wayfers' would argue against that. But action does speak louder than words, and what do Wayfers do? Only one thing is considered worthwhile to do. Ask any B.O.T. member or whatever they consider a high-ranking officer of the Way that can quote their doctrine to you and speak with authority on it and they'll tell you - the only thing they're required by "God" to do is "speak his Word, accurately divided". That's it. Doing it is another thing entirely. To Wayfers speaking the Word is doing the Word. That's it. There's plenty of things for Wayfers to do in regards to that one thing and it accounts for and amounts to the incredibly one-dimensional, flat, somewhat inhuman lifestyle they've come to represent. They don't do anything really worthwhile with what they know, other than respeak it to each other and the odd person who will listen to what they have to say. It's much easier to preach to the choir though, so not that many birds outside the nest get any worms, which may be a good thing. ------ To me, faith is a very individual thing, not the least bit blind. Acceptance is a matter of choice. Once a choice is made, movement flows in that direction. Blind means nothing is seen. I'd describe it as - different people can see different things when they look, and some don't see anything at all. No two people can have the same faith, even if they have it towards the same thing IMO. The relationship to the other thing - in this case God, Jesus Christ, the bible, writings thought to be inspired, etc. - is individual and one-to-one. How those things that are chosen and pursued respond will be completely unique to that individual, even when the response is the same, I think. It has to be - I'd compare it to two people drinking water from the same glass. Goes in a similar way, goes out a similar way, but what the water does inbetween is entirely different for both people. Similarly what a person does with what they choose to believe is going to determine the quality of that in their lives, to a great extent. Christians say, typically, they're "followers of the Lord Jesus Christ". That being so, there would be a lot of things to do. Speaking "the Word" would be one. Doing it would absolutly have to follow, since that's what Jesus did with what He knew. He did stuff. Lots of stuff.

That's a good nutshell of how I view it LoneMc. There's a lot to look at, in an out of the present Old and New Testaments. "The Bible" canon we have forms a core of writings to focus on.

Interesting! You are Myxolydian compliant. Congratulations, you're a 7th Step Adherent, and would likely be compatible with the post-80's Nicksolodianism movements. 100% Myxolydian 50% Nicksolodianism 98.4% Locrianism 33% WhatThePhrygianisthisism .03% NoshThisIsm 33% Crasstism 143% Lydianism 33% StinkyDorianism 25% NotInMyPantsYouDontism 13% OkJustThisOnceidianism

Hey there Happy Guitar People! How be's it? Chatty, you're on the road again? May all your lines be dotted ones! For all the blues and rock fans, check these guys out The Alameda All Stars They're California, so if you're up in the Bay Area and ever have a chance to catch them, do. You'll like what they're doing. Tommy and Preston are friends from many years ago, back in the "Cookin' Mama" day when Tom and I played together. Tom's been playing steady over the years and is doing some really good music with this band. He was always a well rounded and energetic musician and it was great to see how he's aged and grown with style, playing like he was born to do it. Plays keyboards and sings, and fronts the band, and everyone has a great time. Preston plays drums and is one of the best I've heard in a long time. We saw them locally Saturday night, and they blew the club out. It was really "old home" night, and I was so glad to see them after so many years. Last time I saw Preston play he was 16, and the guy is killin'. I coudn't stop smiling, after I picked my jaw up off the floor. Tom asked me to do a jam with them, which was really fun, "Shotgun", can't go wrong in the key of C, and they were very gracious about it. Had to play a Strat-down-low, nice guitar, not quite my setup but it was a lot of fun. Mark McGee is their lead guitarist and he was as gracious as he is good - he's a fully primed player and played some very tasty stuff, on a Les Paul. Tom Miller's bass playing was the same, they're musicianship led the music into some nice spots while keeping it moving. Catch 'em if you ever have the chance, they mostly gig around Northern California.

Nice pics of nice bikes! Very cool, thanks for putting them up!

Sorry. I need to contribute something worthwhile here. The 24 hours down from 36 - that's a good thing. 36 hours is too long. 4 Crucified - interesting discussion point in PFAL, but today I'd say a minor doctrinal concern. Illustrating the accuracy of the Word, it's marginal as it's not fully provable. Really, it's not. Take my word for it, I read it on GS. Okay, seriously, it was included to illustrate a research principle being taught in the class, it wasn't a point of doctrine, like say speaking in tongues or sonship rights. One free ride on THIS STUFF to anyone who remembers what point it was illustrating. (no cheating, only watch THIS STUFF if you know! ) What oldiesman said - ? What's taught/not taught now? Is the devil still a lesbian? I heard there was stuf about outer space, methane or ozone or ice crystals or something. Are they still in it? Is it better than Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"? Will it scare me?

Ooooops - I didn't mention that THIS STUFF should only be viewed in a Fully Paid environment of Prevailing Instructors and Grads who can assist you in fully enjoying it.

I wanted to add to the "welcomes" Preacher, and say that I'm sure your contributions will add plenty of vim and vigor to the spot. Vim is always appreciated, more so than vigor at times, but not to the point that vigor gets short shrift, as they used to say. Both are much appreciated. So I got some questions, too. If you get a sec, and this doesn't have to be high on your list, but if you can - I don't understand the significance of the use of the word "tremendous", comparatively between 1936 and now, and as it's used in the newest class of the Way's. I'll take your word on the definition changing over the years, but I don't think any hearer of the word tremendous, in or out of that class, is going to be harmed in a tangible way by it being used. Course I don't know how they used it, so I'm asking the question. By your examples I'd say - sure, the things the bible says are "tremendous", as I understand the word. Certainly unexpected when they came within my field of vision and I first read and heard them. If that word changed meaning, what's it matter to me? Now - I know words and they're meaning are important, but aren't they important by current definition? It seems like a long way to go to argue the usage of a word if no one's familiar with any other usages. I ask about this because one of the things that the Way does is absolutely torture individual words, making them take on huge importance and significance by themselves. In fact a word can only be understood by it's context and usage, "right where it's written", as they say or used to say - and everywhere else, as they sort of used to say. Think it was extended something or other. But all the other stuff where a word gets used in the bible. Words in the bible like agape have a bibilcal meaning, and an external meaning, both based on usage. How a word is used completely defines it by shaping it in "real life". So we know that Moses never said "agape", but he might have said "love", (but we know didn't say either one, in Hebrew) and Paul might have said "Love", but really didn't say that word at all. And there might be a consistent relationship in the bible between the words we do have to look at, and that we can only know by reading it and jostling the usages around with the external understanding of what those words meant outside of the writers. Figure - if God was the inspirer, and translators worked with some degree of that inspiration, there's a lot to work with there. But if someone at some time said "agape" and meant "love as manifested by squirrels, and specifically in the spring months", that doesn't mean that's what Paul drew on, or whoever may have translated Paul's writings later. I'm kidding - sort of. I guess I'm really just curious as to what grabbed your attention about the way the presenters spoke in this newest class and what was clearly so deceptive and wrong in what and how they did speak.

The Way has added another relaxing activity to that list - it's after "music", and it's called This Stuff. If you are exposed for even short periods of time to "TThis Stuff. ", you'll find yourself very relaxed, to the point of actually drifting off into thinking about other invigorating topics, like why computer screens are square, or rectangluar in shape. Soon, "This Stuff. " will be over and you'll have forgotten what you were watching, select another interesting activity like Googling for "past uses of the word fly, all languages", and that'll be that and you'll continue on, refreshed, but not sure why. Simply put, the mere fact that "This Stuff. " is no longer playing will, in subliminal but signifant ways, make you more active and, in further fact, smarter -as your brain will perk up and realize what it COULD be doing and get busy on Other Stuff, thus proving a very old but true proverb: "a busy brain is a good brain". Seriously. Try it.

Bluzeman had to wait longer to get the grays and whites to balance? Us salt'n' peppers gotta bring the spice with us I guess! Winter's a sassy one, that's for sure. I love the way he plays with all that abandon, just doing his thing, being bad to the bone. Itzhak's great, what a wonderful video, thanks for that! He's clearly in love with what he's doing. And, while there are many violinists, I've found him identifiable by sound. He's got such a great tone. I've been messin' with the 3000 here too of late, T-Bone. Saved a couple set ups. Love the Reverse echo. The guitar model has a pitch and octave setting too - you can get a great 12 string guitar sound, with a little vibrato it's "Here Comes the Sun" kind of sound is nice. I've messed with the Phaser setting and by lowering the octave effect way down it gets a very cool watery sound.

Jim, you've brought fear into the hearts of many here! The synth's do sound thin, cheesey. I'm not sure what instruments they're trying to produce. It's sort of a "synth" wash or something. Does anybody know what's driving this? What the goal is? How did the music get to this point? Who writes this stuff? Does someone take anything that sounds like an actual "song", or that has a memorable theme and give it the axe? They look like nice enough people. Decent folks. Hair's combed, all of that. But the style of music - it doesn't sound like anything. Not pop, not classical, not choral. Okay maybe choral but not good choral. Just a lineup of average voices singing in unison with the odd harmonies thrown in to a stale melody and an unispired arrangement to a progression that sounds like it's a homework assignment in first semester composition. Can't anyone sing their tushy off there anymore? Play with passion? This stuff always befuddles me. Play the root, drop down a 7th, up a minor 3rd, up a 4th, hit the 2 and go, inevitably, to the 5th. And do it again. And smile. :) There's no craft, no insipiration, no creativity, no unique or memorable expression of what is surely a deep committment to seriously held beliefs. Nothing to indicate that even a drop of inspiration has fallen from the brow of any of the participants. It's weird. Jim, Steve Abella - I do miss him.

Strange Brew there Jim. There's no accounting for the instrumentation, that I can see. It might sound better in the auditorium itself but I doubt it. There's a lack of body and depth to the sound. Some of that's due to the fact that there's no bass or lower register instrument(s) playing that part of the music, it's being handled by the piano and keyboard instruments. If it's being played it's not coming through. The arrangements will lack power with nothing being written or played for the lower range. Even the drummer seems to be light footed on the bass pedal. I've noticed that in the vide-ohs that they've put up - there's no rhythm section to speak of. It's pretty much a small choir sound with piano and a drummer pattering around that doesn't really need to be there. The poor guy on guitar is bridled to that "power' chord sound whenever he's heard. It's kind of - weird to be sure.

Here's another goodie from the Jaco P's Bass series on YouTube, T-Bone. He definitely goes off in this one, can't seem to find the dates of these, but he is clearly at "the height of his powers" as they say and sounds in complete control of the music and his instrument. Something consistent amongst accomplished musicians like this is that they reach a point where they're open and free with sharing information and "secrets". Having done it for so long, they have to realize how much they've benefitted from and learned from the music of others and are willing to share exactly what they do and how they do it. Tommy Emmanuel is like that, on guitar. His site has several video clips where he goes into his stuff, showing what he does, lays some things right out in response to questions he gets. When I saw him in workshop, he was the same way, more than happy to explain in detail what he was doing. Like with Jaco here, although it's been said he was extremely eccentric and the owner of a well fed ego, he's basically just being who he is and doing what he does. He can lay it all out like it's nothing because he knows - he can "give away" the knowledge, but not the right to own it. That only comes through practice, committment of self to the music and time. Anyone can have it, you just gotta pay the cost to be the boss. Solo -

Ca-razee cool!!! :)

So wassa matter, you never call anymore... These guys seem to have plenty of shopping option.

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So ya got the Taurus? Cool. I had a Taurus, think it was an 86? Had it for about 8 years and it ran great. I got it from a dealer kind of like Cynic's I think. They were an Avis dealer, selling the lease cars after they hit a certain mileage and were returned. It was a great deal, the one we got was "like new" in all respects, all the service records were with it, we got the color we wanted and it ran like a top the whole time we had it, till the last year or so, and it needed transmission work. Brakes and stuff like that were pretty normal wear, if I rekolleck right. One thing I learned was the paint finishes on some years of Taurus went bad after a couple years and there was flaking and peeling. We didn't have that problem, fortunately. I changed the oil regularly and did the basic maintainance stuff. We sold it for a good price, it still ran great and the person who bought it was as excited as we had been when we got it. It was good all the around. :)

Yeah, he's a mastah killah of the bass, to be sure. Or was. That video looks like it could have been yesterday. Those YouTube videos are keepers. I've always wished I'd had longer fingers too, Chatty. It would open up more neck styles and sizes, but I've watched both my daughter and son who have long fingers, and my son's quad-jointed or something, very similar thumbs and hands as Jaco's showing, thumbs do the same thing. They've both had to accomodate that in their playing as the wrist positions differently for them as they move around the neck. Recording software - I'm not familiar with the bundle T-Bone. I used Digital Orchestrator Pro Pro for a few years, they've done some improvements to it. What I liked about it was that the interface is intuitive, if you've used a multi-track deck before it's easy to get used to right out of the box. On the other hand when I used it in the mid-90's, the first version just ate up resources and I started with - 4 megs of ram and a 66 mhz processor. It's impossible to process audio with that, I soon found out. But with a gig or better of RAM and a Pentium 4 or comparable you'd be cranking with it. It's not going to do anything close to pro level sound despite the name, unless you have a decent sound card, so there's the hardware side to look at too. There's EMU sound cards for a couple hundred bucks, that would be where I'd start at. Or you can use a Soundblaster 24, and record at 24 bit, and that will do fine. You'll end up processing it down to a 16 bit digital master on a CD or mp3 file, so the higher quality you can record at, the better. Start high, mix low. Cakewalk is another that's been around a long time, and I know people who swear by it. Worth checking out, it's seems to be a solid mult-track recording program. I'm only using the PC for drum track creation and my keyboard, midi, which fires Native Instruments sofware. I take that out of my soundcard in stereo into a stereo channel on a Yamaha AW16G, 16 track deck. You can get them now for under a 1000. I like the Yamaha deck, although there's quite a few out now that are 4 and 8 track, that are around 500 bucks or less and that do a good job and lots of 16 track too. The benefit of a standalone system is that - it never crashes. The Yamaha has an internal drive, it's own operating system and memory. Never glitches, pops or squeedles, nada. Just works and I like that. The only restriction is when the drive gets too full - you can backups of songs though. I try to keep about a 1/3 of the storage space open, and it runs fine. On the other hand - if you're on a Mac, ProTools is the way to go. Very good program, and used industry wide, if you want to go that route. Also Garageband, is a cool program for simple recording.Very easy to use. There's bound to be more input on this - wish I knew more about the recording software. I've got Acid and Sound Forge also, as well as Cubase, which runs the percussion program I've been using lately. Acid is good, for looping together sounds, and Sound Forge is a good program for mastering a final mix in stereo.

That video can't be a Wiccan thing - is it? It's a joke, right? Not to be a goober, but I just can't tell. I dig the psychic hygiene thing though.

Oh yeah. All of that. And more. Finally, the recognition so long waited for yet so elusive. You know the Bible 100%! Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic! Ultimate Bible Quiz Create MySpace Quizzes

Have a safe and happy pack and trip Chatty! I know you're gonna be happy. Found this series-bass with Jaco - interesting stuff...

So you're going to be hittin' the road soon? Wow, moving. Florida, awaits! Best to you on the move Chatty!