Search options (Page 99 of 279)

If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands

Maybe I'm on the wrong tack here....

- Zurf

I didn't say anything about fitness for ownership, though I'm in favor of it.  I'm concerned about mental fitness...period.  Some people have mental deficiencies or illnesses.  I'm not wanting to point and laugh at those folks.  Far from it.  I'm also not suggesting that we just lock up everyone who is "different."  But I do think we need to think - as a society - about how to deal with people who aren't fitting into that society for no fault of their own.  Prison isn't the answer, not always.  Not if the person sincerely is incapable of controlling impulses, or doesn't see the difference between right and wrong in a very dangerous way.  I don't know if that was this guy's problem, but I'm guessing that there's got to be something screwy about someone who sees a class of five and six year olds as targets.  My wild, unsupported guess is that this guy had some serious mental health issues, was already in therapy or had already been seen more than once over anger control and dangerous behavior, and that there just wasn't anything that our current system could do to help him or to at least neutralize him as a societal threat in a way that is least harmful to him. 

I don't have any solid answers, but there's got to be something we can do better.  Let's not forget that the worst school tragedy wasn't with a gun, but a truck in Oklahoma City.

Thanks.  The stress of decorating and getting pictures is underway.  I wish there was some good way to get this crap done without stressing so much about perfection.  Were it up to me I'd toss a garland over the back of the couch and be done with it.  So "Ho, Ho, Ho" to all of you.  May your holidays be stress free.

Excellent.  I've been wanting to do an open mic, but have been a bit chicken because it's hard for me to get friends together here.  The Washington DC Metro area is quite large and my friends are dispersed all around it.  It takes an hour and a half to get to some of their houses and yet we're all in the same "town".  Having some friends right there at the table would be GREAT!  Just don't make me follow Amy.  I got two nights of following Amy at Zurfapalooza along the Shenandoah.  I played my heart out and it would have been a rousing success at any other campfire, but following Amy was more like "Well bless your heart, don't you just try so hard? Now I think Paul is next.  Paul, can you get that noise out of our ears please?" 

- Zurf

Ha.  I just got this funny image in my mind of us floating down the river in your raft playing music with me playing a doghouse bass in the back seat.

Tap on the top of the guitar?  I know the face of the guitar as the "top". 

Given that, I get the sound of whatever chords I've got pressed regardless of which chord it is.  The tapping makes the strings vibrate. They vibrate at the length permitted by your fingering (or lack thereof), producing the notes they're supposed to.

Yeah.  We see in the news the hyper sensitivity to guns and weapons over and over.  Those folks would not have done well in my high school, where they owned a bunch of .22 rifles and had a rifle range in the gym basement right next to the wrestling room (not through the wall, mind you).  Everyone knew gun safety rules and how to point and shoot a shoulder weapon by the time they were 12 back where I grew up.  That's not to say that accidents in the field didn't happen when people didn't follow the safety rules, but at least they knew what they were. 

I never got to do archery in high school, though some kids did.  It seems like a lot of fun.  I like target activities.  My eldest has a condition that makes it difficult for her to track an object coming at her quickly or going across her field of vision quickly, which has hampered our playing of ball sports like tennis.  So, when there's a sport where the thing she needs to hit just sits there in the same spot, that's really cool by her way of thinking.

No.  A movie about children being forced to fight to the death by their government is too intense for my children's psyche.  If they want to see it when they're older and more prepared, I'll watch it first and then decide.  But right now, no chance.  The eldest tried archery at Girl Scout Camp and loved it, so she wants to do more.  The youngest wants to do whatever the eldest says is fun.

It's legal to bowfish certain waters in Virginia, but I haven't any interest in it.

I've got two sheds and no garage.  The only reasonable solution is to win the lottery and buy a large house alongside a fishing creek or river and to make sure it has a music room.  I don't see how it could possibly work otherwise.  I guess I better buy a ticket.  Winning the lottery also wouldn't hurt when it comes to paying for one of those basses.