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Post by aquaduct on May 12, 2024 19:05:49 GMT -5
From what I've read (I've managed a poor representation of slide when Christal has forced me to) another key is to change your guitar set up. Higher action and heavier strings. Makes whatever guitar you do it to kind of a specialty thing.
That's why I've never seriously tried.
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Post by aquaduct on May 11, 2024 16:50:05 GMT -5
Ran across this yesterday and thought it was quite well done. The 2024 Supreme Court session ends and many of the major decisions will be released in the next 6-8 weeks. Never been a fan (or even reader) of the New York Times, but all this takes to access is a free account which amounts to providing an email and a password. Other than that, just a heads up offered without comment. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/09/us/supreme-court-major-cases-2024.html
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Post by aquaduct on May 9, 2024 21:08:34 GMT -5
Reminds me of when my surviving brother and I along with my kids and their significant others returned to Mom's house in Dearborn, MI to visit Mom for a couple days 2 weekends ago. Nice visit all the way around but travel schedules left me, my daughter, and her husband alone with nothing much to do on Saturday. So I asked them if they'd like to drive around with me in my truck (I drove up, they flew) and see landmarks from their Mom and my lives.
They thought it was a great idea so for 4 or 5 hours we just drove around while I played tour guide. Emily was 8 when we left and Ryan had been up in that area a couple times when he was driving a semi for work, but most of this was pre-26 years ago.
Drove past my high school, junior high school (now an office building), and elementary schools. Drove over to the house Christal grew up in and the hospital we met in and her high school along with the little joint across the street where Christal would go for pizza rolls at lunch. Talked about walking all the way to that hospital for my co-op job as a Respiratory Therapist as a senior in high school. Drove past the house that we rented the first 2 years in Michigan as well as Eric Rickel's house down the street where I first got to watch Spiderman cartoons in color on Saturday mornings. Went past the Chatham Street house where Emily was born- neighborhood is pretty much a ghetto now that Detroit's population has fallen under a million- and the house that we left to come to Virginia. Drove past Levagood park where we went to swim and Devine Child High School where Aiden Hutchison graduated (did I mention it was NFL draft weekend in downtown Detroit?). Drove past the Ford Engineering building where I was working when Christal called me to come out to Ypsilanti because the 26-week baby was preeclamptic and had to stay in the hospital.
And finally we drove out to the Ford Rouge plant where my F150 was built and told them of all the history of a very historic plant.
We then ended the evening with dinner at an exquisite Lebanese restaurant almost in the exact spot of the famous La Shish restaurant that Christal and I loved.
Felt very important to pass that on. I have a sneaking suspicion that, just like my Dad moved us from Salt Lake City to Dearborn, the family is now centered with us in Virginia and the Dearborn history is now at least somewhat documented.
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Post by aquaduct on May 9, 2024 9:18:32 GMT -5
I see ads, but then again, the entire modern universe is completely oriented around getting my attention. Fortunately I've got 63 years of not paying attention to much of anything, so it's largely wasted electrons.
And really the best feature of FB is Messenger. Easy way to have conversations with geographically diverse groups like my kids without having to inconvenience anyone by making them answer the phone.
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Post by aquaduct on May 8, 2024 19:32:41 GMT -5
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Two armed states, with strong incentives to minimize violence, would be better than what we have now. And I think that aiming for a perfectly "fair" solution would likely mean no solution. Life isn't fair. What exactly would be Hamas' strong incentive?
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Post by aquaduct on May 6, 2024 17:52:27 GMT -5
My 1440 Feed this morning had a article that said Hamas broke off discussions and left Egypt. Then they fired rockets at one of the crossings from Israel into Gaza. From my takeaway from a quicky reading is that Hamas has no intention of ending this conflict. Nor does it give a shit about the immediate suffering of their own people. Again, this is why you fight a war to win it and annihilate an enemy like Hamas. Even if civilians get in the way. Otherwise they'll be doing this next year, and the year after, and the next decade......
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Post by aquaduct on May 5, 2024 8:51:15 GMT -5
"I'm not really this tall. I'm sitting on my wallet." Why didn't I think of that?
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Post by aquaduct on May 5, 2024 8:48:28 GMT -5
Then Israel doesn't have the right he so graciously allows it does to defend itself. He frames it as an eye for an eye. It's not that. It's a war declared on Israel. And as we are demonstrating nightly on our news and in statements by our administration, Israel is not the bully here. We, and the international community that always rises up against Israel, is. The Palestinian people were/are overwhelmingly in favor of what even he frames as "Hamas's massacre" (not invasion. Convenient to his argument, he frames it in non-war terms). And as has been illustrated time and time again, the "ceasefires" we demand are merely times used to stop Israel from defending itself long enough for its enemies to regroup and rearm. I don't pretend to understand why the international community overwhelmingly hates Israel. But that hatred is so palpable and dependable and predictable that Hamas was able to stage their entire invasion on the absolute certainty that the world would turn on Israel the minute Israel defended itself. It's too easy to put that hatred of Israel on a religious plane (and I think that is a large part of it. In an increasingly secularizing Western world, it is the religions with which we believe we are most familiar that we seem to reserve the greatest contempt for. And secularization does not appear to believe in live and let live where religion is concerned.) But I suspect it has more to do with the economic philosophical schism that has divided the Western world for the past two centuries. And it appears that Israel is a too good example of the supremacy of freedom of Western thought. That must be pounded down. I can't like this enough. And that's pretty much my take. War sucks. But when you decide to throw that gauntlet down, finish it or it only continues to kill and maim. As far as I've seen, Israel's been pretty generous with warnings and open escape routes (that Hamas closes on their side). War kills indiscriminately. It's nice if non-combatants can get out of the way, but with Hamas being buried like the cowards they are, under hospitals and such, civilian casualties are inevitable. And Hamas counts on it. Go Israel! The other side openly wants to drive you into the sea, bury them all the way to Hell if necessary. The long term peace that can be achieved by showing strength and the courage to wield it is worth it.
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Post by aquaduct on May 3, 2024 11:30:44 GMT -5
I was working as a Respiratory Therapist in a hospital and I got on an elevator and the most beautiful young lady I've ever seen rolled a patient's wheelchair onto the same elevator. I was speechless for the whole ride.
Then I went down to the office and asked the only other male RT on the entire staff if he knew who she was and he didn't.
So I stalked her. Took a few weeks of walking around the hospital until I saw her and then checking that against the rack of time cards in the basement to figure out her name.
Then one evening I happened to see her rolling a gurney with a dead body down to the morgue and she seemed a bit upset. So I stopped to chat with her a bit and then offered to take her out to eat after the shift.
That was 41 years ago and we just celebrated our 37th anniversary back in March.
Yes, she did marry her stalker.
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protests
May 3, 2024 8:56:37 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by aquaduct on May 3, 2024 8:56:37 GMT -5
Back to the protests, here at Portland State University, where my daughter works, the school has been closed all week as protesters took over the library. Yesterday the police moved in arresting 39 people, only 7 of which were students. And while in the libtprary, what did the protesters do? They fuckin destroyed the place. Spray painted graffiti all over the walls, books, floors. Assholes. Mike Yes indeed.
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Post by aquaduct on May 1, 2024 20:34:26 GMT -5
Well I swear I commented on this last night but I guess I didn't. So I'll repeat. Cool! So how did it go? Did you warn him against the Progressive's diaper changing method? (you end up with crap in one hand and wishes in the other; baby still needs to be changed) Seriously, cue us in! Tough to tell from this end. To get invited you write an email to the producer with a question. Then, if selected, the producer writes you back and schedules it. And then you get a time and a phone number to call in (mine ended up being right at the beginning of the show and I called the number at 3:58). Then your line gets turned on and you ask your question. Since mine wasn't a very serious question, everybody then proceeds to laugh and joke and then you're hung up on. I think I did alright but it's tough to say. The phone system can make things awkward and totally saps the naturalness of real conversation. Since it's the feast day of Joseph the Worker, I declared myself to be working as a prophet and I'm supposed to call back in in 13 years to see if any of my prophecies come true.
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 30, 2024 20:17:40 GMT -5
For anyone with Sirius XM radio I've been chosen to call in to Christal's and my favorite program on the Catholic channel (channel 129) tomorrow. The show is The Catholic Guy in drive time from 4-6 pm EST. The bit is called "What's on a Listener's Mind?" and I have been chosen to give host, Lino, some advice on raising his 7 month old baby girl. The link should give you a pretty good idea of just how normal and goofy the show is. No real preaching, etc. (the producer/cohost is an atheist and the host used to be a circus performer. How do you get goofier than that?). Don't know exactly when in the show I'll be on but when I hear something, I'll try to pass it on.
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 24, 2024 19:38:51 GMT -5
A '71 Javelin? Shit, I'd love to see that.
Dad made his career with AMC.
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 24, 2024 11:24:44 GMT -5
(This one's for Peter) Oh, heck yes!
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 22, 2024 11:25:06 GMT -5
"White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent"? Is that somehow different than, "White alone percent"? The larger number includes whites who identify as Hispanic/Latino. The smaller number does not. I've never asked my born in Mexico brother-in-law how he identifies but if you met him on the street he would not strike you as Mexican. So is it kind of like gender these days?
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 22, 2024 7:56:46 GMT -5
"Globularist"? Is that a word? Tis now. Does it mean someone that's proficient in hocking loogies?
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 21, 2024 20:16:19 GMT -5
"White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent"?
Is that somehow different than, "White alone percent"?
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Mars
Apr 21, 2024 20:10:11 GMT -5
Post by aquaduct on Apr 21, 2024 20:10:11 GMT -5
"Globularist"?
Is that a word?
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 19, 2024 19:05:53 GMT -5
We opened for them about a decade ago. Nice guys, every one.
RIP.
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Post by aquaduct on Apr 19, 2024 19:02:20 GMT -5
...and it's not me! I thought this was hilarious. I would reproduce in full, but copyright, etc. Some asshole is signing your name to stupid lettersA legal letter of noteSHAUN USHER In November of 1974, an attorney named Dale Cox wrote to his favourite American football club, the Cleveland Browns, and informed them that a number of the team’s fans were regularly throwing paper aeroplanes in the stadium—a potentially “dangerous” activity that could, he warned, cause “serious eye injury” to innocent fans such as himself. His letter can be read below, along with the now legendary reply he soon received from the club’s legal department. news.lettersofnote.com/p/very-truly-yoursThat's flat out awesome.
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