Jack Aubrey

Blackhawk fleece beanie in coyote tan.

I do, too! Medium-rare with barbecue sauce! :D

Jack Ryan and The Tick season 2.

I cried when I found out and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Indeed!

It was a cold March Saturday morning in Kodiak, Alaska back in 1984. I was going to spend the day with my friend Bob Fowler who was a pretty good guitarist. I had recently purchased a nice gently used Stratocaster of my own and was anxious to get some time learning from Bob who was in a local band. I had aspirations of joining them as they had no rhythm guitarist and once my budding skills had reached the level where both of us agreed I'd be at least adequate. So we get to the practice room and plug in and begin...well, not exactly "jamming", it was a bit more like noodling as my skill level wasn't exactly there for such a task yet. So Bob showed me a few new chords and we volleyed them back and forth like tennis players for a while. At about 11 or so we decided to take a break. Bob sat on the floor and I sat on the throne behind the drums. There was to be a new Rush album released in the Spring (GUP) so we chatted excitedly about it for a while. After all, we had originally bonded over our mutual love for Rush. I first fell in love with them when I traded a friend a copy of Ozzy Osbourne's Diary Of A Madman for a copy of Permanent Waves, which I listened to so much I literally wore out the tape and I also went out and bought their other albums as quickly as I could afford them. A few minutes later Bob stood up and started play the arpeggio from The Spirit of Radio. I impulsively picked up the drum sticks and just started tapping out the opening fills and rolls of the same song. It wasn't great, but it was close to adequate. Bob just stopped and said he had no idea I could play the drums and my reply was "neither did I but I have a lonbg history of drumming on things and even mentally air-drumming to songs I like". We laughed a bit and struck up TSOR once again and darned if it didn't sound fairly good! We played bits and pieces of other tunes and decided to break for lunch. It was at that time that Bob looked me right in the eyes and simply said: "sell your guitar, buy some drums". A part of me knew he was right because I never really had wholly connected with my guitar. Sure, I loved it, but not with the passionate burning intensity that marks a great guitar player. The drums, though, they were a different story! The more I sat behind them the freer I felt. My hands literally felt like two birds in flight as I pounded and tapped and flammed and paradiddled through songs. I studied Neil's method and watched him in videos as closely as I could. When he started publishing I read his books, when they went on tour, I was there, and when he released his instructional videos I was a happy man! I'm not at all a Neil Peart clone on the drums, and there are still some Rush songs that are beyond me, but I did what everyone does: steal from him what I wanted and incorporate it into my own style. One friend put it best when he saw me play. He told me I had a little Neil Peart in me but no so much that I was a copycat and that's the highest praise I've ever received music-wise. So Neil will always have a special place in my heart, my undying appreciation, and my fierce devotion. Thank you for inspiring me all those years ago, Neil. I owe you.

Just thought I'd check in and let y'all know I just found out about this and I'm grieving right along with all of you. But this ain't about me. Rest In Peace, Neil, and I will pray for your family and friends. May they all persevere with grace. Amen.

Two docos I very strongly recommend are Blackfish And The Cove Blackfish explores how long-held misconceptions and harmful living conditions may be causing orca whales tolash out violently toward their trainers. Several cases of death and mutilation are researched, leading to some uncomfortable questions about how we choose to keep and display these large and very intelligent animals. -FeatheredSun. The Cove is a documentary where using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health. -IMDB.

We all know someone who is just oblivious. I happen to know a guy who literally suffers from Michael Scott from The Office "what in the world is wrong with him?"-level obliviousness. His name is Jerry and I ran into him the other day. I frequent my local surplus store and even work there part-time and was hanging out there on Wednesday. Jerry frequents the store, too (in fact, it's where we met) and came strolling in. Jerry has had a beard for as long as I've known him and has always kept it trimmed at about a quarter inch long but for the past few months Jerry had been growing his beard out because he'd been wondering how he'd look and had grown it out to about an inch and a half long. When he came in the owner, Rich, and I saw that he'd trimmed it back to it's original length but we didn't say anything, we just kept chatting and Jerry was leaning on the counter listening to us. A lull in the conversation came up and Jerry rubbed his chin and said with a huge grin: "as you can see I trimmed my bush". Now, Jerry honestly meant that in the sense that his beard had gotten too long like an unkempt shrub, not in the slang sense that we're all familiar with. Rich and I exchanged incredulous looks and kind of just looked down at our feet for a moment and looked back at Jerry who just said: "what?" Rich and I just muttered: "yeah, cool" and: "okay, man". When we first met and had chatted a few times and before I realized what a weirdo he is, I made the mistake of giving Jerry my number and he texts me almost daily always wanting to hang out (as you might have guessed he's pretty lonely) and I make excuses every time because I have this fear that we'd be out in public together and he'd blurt out one of his dumbass comments. He's confided in me that he honestly wonders why no one ever wants to hang out with him.

I read the book, such a terrible tragedy. And what the Navy did to the Captain was unconscionable, I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all. It seems to me that it’s classic scapegoating. There always has to be a fall guy. Yes, he was scapegoated, but he didn't have to be the fall guy. As you know, we lost thousands of ships during WWII and no Captain was ever charged for it. However, Captain McVay was, and was found guilty even though he was following his orders to the letter. Captain McVay was court-martialed and found guilty in order to divert attention from the fact that the Navy did nothing to search for the Indianapolis survivors and that they were only found by accident by a PBY on routine patrol. According to friends and family, Captain McVay was never the same afterwards and wound up taking his own life in 1968. It took a 9 year-old student, Hunter Scott, writing a research paper for a class history project in 1996 to exonerate him which just further compounds the tragedy of the Indianapolis.

I'm not sure but their vocabulary is well rounded. :outtahere: That's true. And I misspoke. I guess it'd be bus tires that spoke, not a spoke that spoke. Is the spoke a standard spoke or a bespoke spoke?

I read the book, such a terrible tragedy. And what the Navy did to the Captain was unconscionable, I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all. The book is In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton (who's a simply outstanding historian). If you're at all interested in the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis then you should read it. https://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors/dp/0805073663/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=in+harm%27s+way+stanton&qid=1565316672&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I recently attended a conference where the main speaker informed us that he was going to give a speech on humility but decided to save it for a larger audience.

Really great! One of the best Batman stories ever told.

Excellent movie, very highly recommended.

I've never heard that about Octopus' Garden. You may be on to something with that!

Am I alone in thinking that this season is not as good as the first two?

Hope you're doing well, Brother Earl!

Technology is an excellent servant, but a very poor master.

I've been hearing great things about Black. If you've seen it, what do you think?

How've you been, sir? Above ground and breathing the good air. How are you? More Blessed than I deserve, that's for sure! :D Nice to see you!

Wow, your Father was truly privileged to have been a part of such an incredible operation.

How've you been, sir?

My Paternal Grandfather (who I lost in 1986 and still miss to this day) was a Marine and fought at both Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. At Iwo Jima, he was in a fighting hole with his best friend and an enemy soldier lobbed a grenade that landed in the hole. My Grandfather watched his best friend throw himself on the grenade to save his life. He only ever told my Grandmother that, and I got the information second-hand from her. As a result of this, my Grandfather grappled with alcoholism for most of his adult life and I certainly understand why. My Father and I both have also had our issues with alcoholism, so not only did my Grandfather have the survivor's guilt to deal with, there was also a genetic predisposition. I miss you a lot, Grandpa, and I can't wait until I see you again, I have so much I want to tell you.

I am Ron Swanson (I even own a Claymore). That is all.