Zixar

I remember hearing a comedian remark once: "Why do they call it 'menopause'? It's not like it's going to start back up again. They should call it 'menoSTOP'!" ;)--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Tom Strange made me change this. Probably at John Ashcroft's request... :D-->

Simon: LOL! Secret Signature of the Day==v Let me 'splain--no, there is no time. Let me sum up...

Those aren't the lyrics for "Wichita Lineman"... --> I'll give you a hint, it's the last 4 words of each stanza... Secret Signature of the Day==v Let me 'splain--no, there is no time. Let me sum up...

Socks: I was ragging on John's cable TV box, not cable internet. ;)--> Satellite rules! Zix Secret Signature of the Day==v Let me 'splain--no, there is no time. Let me sum up...

John: You need to go rent the DVD for U-571 and watch it...Just make sure your subwoofer is tuned properly or you'll break your windows... :D--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Let me 'splain--no, there is no time. Let me sum up...

You gonna do somethin'? Or just stand there and bleed? Tombstone I feel the need....the need for speed! Top Gun Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er... Die Hard Try not to suck any d*** on the way out of the parking lot! Clerks You wanna say something? Yeah! About a million things, but I can't express myself monosyllabically enough for you to understand it all. Mallrats I feel a hate crime coming on. Chasing Amy I have issues with anyone who treats faith as a burden instead of a blessing. You people don't celebrate your faith; you mourn it. Dogma Matt Damon: Just take it from "It's a good course." Ben Affleck: Oh, now you're the director. Matt Damon: Hey shove it, Bounce-boy. Let's remember who talked who into doing this **** in the first place. Talking me into Dogma was one thing, but this... Ben Affleck: I'm sorry this is taking you away from whatever-gay-killers-on-horses-who-like-to-play-golf-touchy-feely-flick you're supposed to be doing this week. Matt Damon: Oh, I'm touchy-feely? I take it you never saw Forces of Nature? Ben Affleck: You're like a child. What've I been telling you? First, you've gotta do the safe picture. Then you do it for art. And then sometimes you gotta do the payback picture because your friend says you owe him. [They both take a beat and look at the camera] Ben Affleck: And sometimes, you go back to the well. Matt Damon: And sometimes, you do Reindeer Games. Ben Affleck: Now that's just mean. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration? Pulp Fiction Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

That's not what I've heard about ROTK. I heard they filmed several nasty death scenes for Saruman, and the rumor is that he gets impaled. Oh well. If they did cut it out, you can be sure it will be on the Extended Edition DVD next November. Is anyone going to the 3-film marathon on the 15th? They've made 35mm prints of the Extended DVD versions of the first 2 and showing all three back-to-back-to-back, with ROTK starting at 12:01am. Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

Oak: Yep. Rodney: "Hey, Judge! Hundred bucks says you slice it into the woods!" Ted Knight: "Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir, and I NEVER slice! (whop) DAMN!" Rodney: "Okay, you can owe me!" Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

Sudo: The second one is from Life of Brian... ;)--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

Suz: Never too late to start... ;)--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

I guess the obligatory banjo-picker reponse to that would be: "Well, if'n y'all'd just play everythang in the key of G, we'd get along jest fine!" :D--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Terribly sorry, I have a cold...

Just some no-name metal picks... Man, these rolls aren't that difficult, they just need a lot of practice so you can perform them continuously without screwing up. Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

"Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir, and I NEVER slice! (whop) DAMN!" Judge Smails, Caddyshack Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

er, make that gDGBD, instead...oops! Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

Mstar: The most common number of strings is 5, although there are plenty of 4-, 6-, and even 3-string banjos around. I'm trying to learn bluegrass (Scruggs) style, but I'm hearing more and more good stuff about clawhammer style now. Might have to look into that down the road. Mine's tuned gDBGD, the open-G bluegrass tuning. Quite a change from the simple GDAE of my mandolin... If you like the Celtic stuff, you might want to look into the Irish (tenor/short) banjo (4-strings, tuned like a mandolin) or the Irish bouzouki (8-strings, bottom two courses in octave, top two in unison, tuned 1 octave lower than a mandolin or else tuned G'D'A'D'.) Both give a unique sound to Celtic and Christmas carols. Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

"If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from." Luke to C-3PO, Star Wars "Never get involved with a Sicilian, when DEATH is on the line!!! AHAHAHAHA...(thud!)" Vizzini to the Man In Black, The Princess Bride "We'd better get back. They mostly come at night. Mostly." Newt to Ripley, Aliens "Welcome to the Desert of the Real..." Morpheus to Neo, The Matrix "These go to eleven..." Nigel Tufnel to Marty DeBergi, This Is Spinal Tap "Are we awake?" "We are not sure. Are we black?" "Yes, we are." "Then we're awake. But we're very confused..." Morning in the jail for the Sheriff and the Waco Kid, Blazing Saddles Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

This topic is still in Birthdays and Anniversaries??? Weird. Anyway, I've decided to branch out a bit more, emboldened by my modicum of success on the mandolin. I went out and bought a banjo yesterday. Now, I always liked the banjo, but it looked darn near impossible to play, so I was scared off. I shouldn't have been. Even though it looks complicated, there are a few tricks that make it actually rather simple to play--slowly. Where practice comes in is in building speed. When you hear fast stuff like Foggy Mountain Breakdown slowed down, you see there isn't really much going on. Rather, it's the speed that makes it all mesh together. There's always been a good-natured rivalry between mandolin players and banjo players that I didn't really understand until yesterday. You can play a mandolin softly if you want to, it's no big deal. In fact, it's volume that's the problem on a mando because it's so small, even with the doubled strings. Not so on a banjo. Even if you strum lightly, everyone in the house will instantly know it's practice time again. The combination of the large snare-drum-type head and the wooden resonator on the back make "quiet banjo" an oxymoron like "jumbo shrimp". So, in any bluegrass band, the mando player is basically having to bust his strings to be heard over Mister Banjo, even if banjer-man is trying to play softly. How's everyone else doing with their chosen noisemakers? :D--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

DirecTV does offer relatively few channels in HDTV, (HBO, ESPN) but since you have the Samsung model with the top-notch pulldown filter, the cleaner digital picture on all the satellite channels might be better overall than the picture on the cable channels that are still analog. But no, I won't be having anything like that in the near future--Zix is not the richest of folks. Then again, if I hit the lottery, I'll see what I can do... Until then, all donations cheerfully and graciously accepted! :D--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Drat! The Leonids were rained out in Zixville...

Stripped-down Economy Joke: "Welcome to Heaven! Harp or choir?" "Welcome to Hell! Banjo or bagpipe?" Secret Signature of the Day==v Is anyone still reading these ridiculous things?

When Mars is up, you can star-hop from it to Iota Aquarii and from there you can pan west-northwest to a little green disk. That's Uranus. :)--> For a real challenge, Neptune is just a few degrees away in Capricornus. It's a little tiny blue dot, invisible to the naked eye but quite distinguishable in nearly any telescope. Secret Signature of the Day==v Just step away from the keyboard, and no one gets hurt...

Mars is in Aquarius and easily visible from sunset to about 2am. Saturn is in Gemini and gets about 30 degrees above the horizon by 11:30pm local time. Jupiter is in Leo and doesn't really get to a good viewing spot until about 2:30 am. So, for what to look at when you go out... After sunset, Mars and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Around midnight, Saturn and M42, the Great Orion Nebula. Before daybreak, Jupiter and M44, the Beehive open cluster. Under dark skies, all of these are easily visible with the naked eye, so putting them in your scope's field of view will be fairly easy--IF you properly aligned your finderscope before it got dark!!! Even under suburban skies, all will still be visible in your finderscope. Secret Signature of the Day==v Just step away from the keyboard, and no one gets hurt...

Geez, this must be your first scope. Normally, you only get a week of clouds if your new scope costs over $3000... ;)--> Secret Signature of the Day==v Just step away from the keyboard, and no one gets hurt...

You might find this Windows program very helpful: http://www.southernstars.com/skychart/demo...o351Windows.exe This is a demo version of a great computer sky-charting program. It's fully functional, but only displays stars down to about the 6th magnitude. (plenty to start with) It'll help you see what's currently in the sky and where to look for it. You can print out maps to take into the field with you as well. (Make sure you use a red flashlight to preserve your night vision!) Secret Signature of the Day==v Just step away from the keyboard, and no one gets hurt...

All that hardware, and you're still stuck with cable...tsk, tsk, tsk. :D--> Very nice setup! Secret Signature of the Day==v Just step away from the keyboard, and no one gets hurt...

Zixette made us see this one before we could see "Master and Commander". I was pleasantly surprised. I think this is the best of Richard Curtis' British romantic comedies (he's the one who also did Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones' Diary). There are several different love stories all intertwined through the weeks leading up to Christmas, most of which are quite humorous. Two of the ones I enjoyed were the aging rock star trying to make a comeback with a horrible Christmas version of a pop song and the two photo stand-ins on the porn movie shoot. (don't ask) It's a nice change of pace from the shoot-em-ups. Secret Signature of the Day==v If nobody knows what you're doing, nobody knows what you're doing wrong.