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Mekidsmom, I think you've nailed it.  Everything is bigger than it seems it ought to be.  With the house that is.  My bank account is much smaller. 

Drylok is wonderful stuff.  This is the part of the basement that I haven't redone yet since moving in.  I have Drylokked the snot out of every other corner of the basement and will to this one as well.  It's useful if you can get to the outside and paint it too, but this is subsurface so that won't be possible without far more work than I'm going to do.  I think my new trench, once deepened and improved with pipe, will do the job. 

And with all due respect to those inspirational speeches, giving up is exactly what is needed sometimes, or at least a temporary respite. 

- Zurf

You know.  Some people just suck.  That DA seems to have a tough time admitting he may have made a mistake.  It's easy to understand why someone wouldn't want to admit to a mistake that cost someone 16 years of freedom, plus whatever unpleasant experiences "Tater" was sure to have experienced in jail.  Nevertheless, a mistake is a mistake and it ought to be fessed up to.  To cost the man another some months for one's own mental protection is evidence the DA hasn't learned anything from the experience.  He might be a heck of a guy in most any other circumstance, but in this one he pretty much sucks. 

- Zurf

I think some people have an "artistic bent."  Maybe it does have to do with right brain/left brain.  I don't know.  I do know that for those who are drawn to art (oops, didn't mean that pun), that they tend to appreciate it in various ways.  My mother sang well and played a little piano, and was a tremendously talented quilter.  My father has an appreciation for music, though he doesn't perform any, and he is gifted in both flat and sculpted art.  My sister is a professional freelance artist and also plays guitar and banjo and mountain dulcimer and harmonica.  So, I guess there seems to be some sort of connection.  Like bensonp, I seem to be equally talented at guitar and drawing...

Great that you have the chord shapes down.

Yes, it's normal for your fingers to hurt.

As far as getting between the chords, think about how you will move your fingers on specific changes.  Pick a song you want to play (even if just down strum in time with the beat) and then practice those chord changes.  For instance, if you pick Paradise by John Prine, which is G -C - G - D over and over (I think, going from memory here), then you would practice G to C over and over until you can do it in time with the beat.  Then you would practice C to G over and over until you can do it in time with the beat.  Then you would practice G to D, and D to G.  When I say "in time with the beat", what I really mean to say is such that you can play the song smoothly without having to pause for the chord change.  It will take time and many, many, many repititions of doing the chord changes.  And once you've got it down, you'll forget it in a week and have to practice it again.  Eventually, though, it will be second nature and you won't even have to think about it.  You'll be able to do it at will in any song.  Cool when that time comes.  How long?  Differs for everyone.  The thing is to keep moving in the right direction. 

- Zurf

That is a good one Selso. 

My momma had all sorts of crazy sayings I never understood.  If she was angry, she's say she was 'angry enough to spit cotton.'  I don't know about that.  If there were cotton in my mouth, I'd try and spit it out regardless of my mood.  If someone was surprised she would say, "he about..." Um, you know what.  I'll hit the pause control on that one.  And while my mother was absolutely faithful to my father, up until marriage she had rather different advice for us children.  "Dance with one while looking over his (or her, depending on the child) shoulder at the next."  Then again, when I did go to a dance her advice to me was "Leave with the one who brung you."  Which is weird because I was the one doing the bringing.  And she didn't even like that girl.  Sometimes her advice was hard to follow.  For instance, one time I went to help my uncle move.  She didn't want me sitting around slacking off and so she told me "Keep your elbows clean."  Well, I thought she meant to keep my elbows clean.  So on the way from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, after a lunch stop my uncle found me in the men's room washing my elbows because that's what momma told me to do.  He about... I'll hit the pause button again. 

Now my grandfather.  He had advice that contradicted itself.  His two most given pieces of advice, aside from "walk it off" were:
1. If it won't go, don't force it.
2. If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.

I never did figure out when to use which piece of advice. 

- Zurf

Tangled Up In Blue

Happy birthday Russell.  In that picture you don't really look like a mutant, but you still sound like one in all your recordings. 

I had one a week or so before you (44, as much fun to say as it is to be).  I'm figuring January is a boring month. 

- Zurf

Physician, don't heal thyself.  Get to a specialist.  You are too young not to be able to play guitar anymore.  And as long as you're in Belgium, eat some chocolate.  Belgian chocolate always makes me feel better.

- Zurf

Congratulations on making a decision that's right for you. 

Congratulations also on your new phase of guitar playing.  All development comes from stepping backwards and learning new things, so don't let that bother you in the least.  You will be a far better instrumentalist for it.

- Zurf

wlbaye - I expected to see the dogs playing banjo or some such after seeing your family shots in the Recording thread.

- Zurf

The state of the world today is not God's doing, but man.  That in no way points away from a divine sense of humor.  Rather than the state of the world, look at the duck-billed platypus. 

- Zurf

Or I could just keep playing for myself in the basement or for inebriated friends at campfires. 

- Zurf