What??>???? This is terrible! First Brittany Murphy and now Michael Jackson! I can't believe Michael Jackson died! Who's to come next? Billy Mays?

Quote from Dajmin :

Right now that's a pretty good thing to be able to say!

Yup. At least 50% of the plant I work at was laid off. I'm in the top 10 in seniority having been there since the place opened.

I reduced my heating bill from more than 1 paycheck per month to about $200 every 3 months.

A lot of folks saying they got laid. I'm married, don't have to worry bout that. What I got was I didn't get laid-off from my job.

You folks in the UK, please study Tinytacohead's photos. That is snow!

I am now giddy just coming in recently from running the snowblower through the driveway. It was only about 4 inches, but when we get 12+, the roadplows toss all the stuff from the road into the bottom of our driveways. No more 100 mph in reverse to get out onto the road. Previous years, I would spend 5-6 hours out there removing the 20 inch thick stuff from the driveway and from the mailbox. Now it will be 20 minutes to clear the entire driveway

And it was fun

Quote from Stefani24 :

You know that you just could stop at being rich, and then even give some money to the poor.

But that's not what we do in this country any more. Now the poor gives to the rich....

Dinner is awesome, especially when my wife makes it. Christmas is at my house this year. We have a house approximately the size of a small compact car and have 15 people coming not including ourselves. Don't know where they are all going to go, especially because we don't have a dining room and the kitchen is very small.

Rtfm!

My plan for 2010 is to become rich then lose it on poor decisions so I can collect money from the poor in the disguise of a "bailout".

Quote from Johnny Mountain :

I thought 'bumping' was better than making a new thread...

Depends on what you actually do. If you bump a thread, these numbskulls will jump all over you about bumping an old thread. If you start a new thread, the same numbskulls will jump all over you with links to old threads. The internet is fun when it's full of 12 year olds, isn't it?

I've tried to install both GT5 and Forza. They are both crap. Neither of them even install. I don't know why, could it be my graphics card? I'm running an AMD 3500+ and an ATI 1650 card. Could it be Windows XP? Do I need to change to Windows 7 for it to work?

The big "snowstorm of the decade", as I've seen it mentioned above, that hit the Eastern US netted me a mere 2 inches out in the driveway. Hardly anything to fret about, but the cancellations being scrolled across the news this morning is unbelievable. Every weekend event is canceled and it isn't even enough snow to make a nice snowball out of.

I just ran for gas for my car and to fill up the new snowblower. I'm anxious to try it out, but I'd look like an idiot out in this "dusting".

Quote from brandons48 :

Go for a nice Marshall 30w

Or 50w if you have the money

I'm not 12. I'm a 37 year old father of 2 girls that owns his own home and shares it with a wife and said 2 daughters. I don't need to annoy everyone in the house and in the "neighborhood" (if you want to call my property in the sticks part of a neighborhood...) There's no need to be blasting out metal riffs. It's for my own personal enjoyment, thus if it can't play quietly, I'm not interested. 30W or more is way overkill....

I'm on the very northern edge of that. We are expected 1-2 inches. Hardly anything to worry about.

I want to fire up my dang brand new snowblower already! I guess I'll just fill up the pool and do some swimming instead with this summer like weather. 1-2 inches? Come On!!!! :arge:

I've never played guitar hero or any of the other copies in my life....

Wifey couldn't hold out any longer and officially gave me my Christmas present, a Cort G200 Strat style electric. Still looking for an amp though. It's tough when all the shops are 40 minutes away all in different directions and the kids don't want to go with me to look. Have a 3 hour window on Monday when Wifey and I can get out while the kids are in school.

I need an amp real fast now because I'm off work now until January 4th .

Quote from Jakg :

TBH yeah - unless theres a big "dont do that you fool" thing I should know about.


Just been suggest the D40 / D40X which look ok second hand - I dont want to spend a lot of money because i'm not sure how much I will use it yet, and because i'm poor.

You have a pretty dang nice (though a bit old now if it's the same one from way back at the start of the thread) bridge camera. So the question has to be, how much do you use the current camera? If you use it often enough, then certainly a dSLR is justified, even more so if you are looking in the used market.

I'd say, go for it, but I'd chose something more and better than a D40 if going used.

I'll get a shot of some snow as soon as we have some real snow for you all. Currently, we only have about as much as you, which I was out in my shorts and t-shirt not too long ago letting the dog out. It's warm, almost above freezing, and there's barely any snow .

You guys having such difficulties driving in a dusting of snow, learn to use your parking brake to maneuver.

Getting going is the difficult part. Learning to maneuvering with the parking brake is easy.

After being snowed in several times the past two years from having a junk tractor and plow blade that couldn't push snow further than 2 feet, I have a brand new snowblower sitting in the garage waiting for action. Someone send some snow my way. I'm anxious to use the snowblower.

For you Canadians, wouldn't it be easier and less work and bandwidth for you to just post when you don't have snow?

-20C isn't all that cold. -20F! Now that's cold!

We had a spell of freezing rain over the weekend. Rained all night and seemed to nearly instantly freeze at 7:15 am catching everyone already on the roads completely off guard. Girl on the radio said she let her dog out at 7 am and all was fine. When she went back out at 7:15 to let the dog back in, everything was frozen under a thin coating of ice. Temperatures didn't rise up above freezing until around noon and no road crews were out because they couldn't get to work to do anything.

Quote from Danke :

So your wife bought you Lucy Lu for Christmas and she's currently stuffed under your bed? That lady is a keeper.

Yup, Wifey bought Lucy Lu for me last Friday for Christmas and wrapped it up. She waited a whole 6 hours or so before she dragged it out and unwrapped it to show me. She was worried about what she bought because they told her all sales are final and no returns. I don't know what she wanted me to do about it by looking at it, but.....

She hasn't wrapped it back up yet. So, she works evenings and doesn't get home until 11 pm. Kids go to bed around 8-9 PM. I can't have Lucy Lu sitting all stuffed in a box suffocating, so I let her out last night to breathe a little bit (coincidentally playing a little Breathe by Pink Floyd on her, though unplugged since I don't have an amp yet and the kids were sleeping.) About 10:45 I panicked and hurriedly packed it back up again before Wifey got home, LOL.

The kids named my "future" guitar Lucy Lu because they are under the impression that I don't know about it and am planning on buying one after Christmas.

Yes, my lady is definitely a keeper.

Quote from mcintyrej :

The difference is I actually have the experience I was talking about, I've learnt what makes it look like that and how to do it, its not like I'm basing this from nothing.

Read up some more on your photography, particularly about "soft focus". It's done in photoshop, not by lights.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

It won't really make any difference, I wouldn't worry about it. Stop making excuses to get your christmas present early!

LMAO! Wifey actually had it wrapped and "hidden" (not too good, it was under the bed) and unwrapped it to show me last week. She works weekends and works evenings. I send the kids downstairs to play on the computer and they are out of my hair for several hours. She hasn't wrapped it back up yet . Thus it has been played unplugged on several occasions over the weekend, hehehe.

And this is what it is....



The girls named my acoustic "Sally Sue" and I think they want to name this one "Lucy Lu". Though, they don't know that I know about it. They think that I am planning on buying one after Christmas. Everytime I ask if I'm getting a guitar for Christmas, my oldest one growls at me through clenched teeth, "You're not getting a GUITAR!" and punches me in the gut .

Quote from ADOLF1612 :

Well for Guitar gear ask me, i Know a lot about that;

Ok, then......

Quote :

For the Amp: Get a Peavey Vypyr 15w, as Loud as a Line6 Spider III, Sounds A LOT!! Better, its a modeling Amp, so it emulates many different amps (a bit difficult to use in the very first days, but you will be proud of your Amp in no time ), I have tryed it in my local music shop, and have to say that it kicks major a** in sound and effects, and I´m sure it´s one of the most loudest 15W amps I ever Heard.

So, my question since you say you've played on it at a shop... How does it sound clean? That's what I am wondering about all this stuff. All this modelling stuff, most from what I'm reading on the net and watching on youtube is very high gain stuff. What I want to play is mostly clean blues or just a little bit of distortion. This modelling stuff sounds like major overkill to me and my thoughts are more would go into a clean sound with an amp that doesn't have all that modelling stuff.

Yeah, the Vypyr is one of the ones on my list to try and find to listen too. Every shop around me carries a different brand and every guitar shop around me is a 40 minute drive in a different direction to visit.

I'm basically fretting all over it on the net right now only because it's the last week of work before the 2 week Christmas break, thus not much is scheduled workwise,