Topic: Random stupid things on your mind. Post them.

[guildnavigator]

lol, awesome.  how much did it cost?

It was only 20 bucks. (That's the most I've ever paid for a single pick, but I have seen them regularly start at 50 and go for as much as 80 bucks or so.) The damn thing started auction at 3.99. I thought I had found a steal, but I guess a few others had the same idea, and they drove the bid up.




The hard part is finding them, ever since the ban in the early 70's it's been quite difficult to nab one of these. There's a distinct "pop" and "bloom" to each note that is hard to get without using fingernails, or a turtle. They also feel differently. Most companies still make imitation tortoise-patterned celluloid picks, but these are not the same at all.


I think it was dunlop, who came up with "derlin" as a substitute material. Not as good. Some other companies, more recently, have begun to use amber, bone and other materials to try and match the tortoise, but the only reason that those are viable options is because it's illegal to buy, sell or produce the tortoise ones.




I drink two beers to celebrate!


edit: why do I use so many unnecessary commas? this bothers me about myself.

[MV]

fyi... if i'm ever president, i will sign an executive order allowing the killing of tortoises so long as it's for guitar pick production.


you're welcome.


wouldn't it be ironic if some of those tortoises were killed so they could manufacture little tortoise figurines?

[HAL 9000]

edit: why do I use so many unnecessary commas? this bothers me about myself.

Commas are highly underrated, and many people should use them more often (correctly, of course). I found your comma usage very judicious.

While this is not the Things That Annoy You thread, I feel compelled to add a mighty "fuck you" to all people who purposefully do not add a space after a comma when writing in forums. It's as though they've ceded whatever intelligence they have left to join the numb-nut fuckheads who live life on Facebook and Twitter. It's just such a purposeful dumbshit thing to do - if they really wanted to maintain their intellectual dumb-fuckedness, they'd leave out spaces after periods too. Bastards! Bastards I say, to all of you who abuse commas! I'm guessing it was the Palestinians, Jews, or Arabs who started this no-spaces-after-commas bullshit. Damn you all to hell!

I feel better now. Time for my atenolol.

 

[b_dubb]

boys and girls ... today's words  of wisdom ... never trust an android that you didn't program yourself

Prometheus - Rise of the Facehugger. did NOT disappoint

[ziznak]

Commas are highly underrated, and many people should use them more often (correctly, of course). I found your comma usage very judicious.

While this is not the Things That Annoy You thread, I feel compelled to add a mighty "fuck you" to all people who purposefully do not add a space after a comma when writing in forums. It's as though they've ceded whatever intelligence they have left to join the numb-nut fuckheads who live life on Facebook and Twitter. It's just such a purposeful dumbshit thing to do - if they really wanted to maintain their intellectual dumb-fuckedness, they'd leave out spaces after periods too. Bastards! Bastards I say, to all of you who abuse commas! I'm guessing it was the Palestinians, Jews, or Arabs who started this no-spaces-after-commas bullshit. Damn you all to hell!
I feel better now. Time for my atenolol.
 

Ok well I for one am not the person to be posting about the correct way to type BUT I was taught it was two spaces after a period.  I should use commas more instead of my usual (...) between thoughts... ah well to each their own.  As long as I can tell what somebody is trying to say it really doesn't matter...

[guildnavigator]

boys and girls ... today's words  of wisdom ... never trust an android that you didn't program yourself

Prometheus - Rise of the Facehugger. did NOT disappoint

bdubb exemplifies proper use of ellipsis while I only illicit sympathy from fellow posters...




Thanks HAL and Ziznak!




BTW DOES ANYONE HAVE A LINE ON DEAD, PROCESSED TURTLE?

[guildnavigator]

I'd like to add that NOT feeling a red-hot needle melt through a pick like butter, was one of the greatest sensations I've had in weeks! Suspense, and then disbelief, try it again, TURTLE!




THANKS TRTL!




ON THE HUNT FOR MORE!

[HAL 9000]

Ok well I for one am not the person to be posting about the correct way to type BUT I was taught it was two spaces after a period.

I was taught the same about two spaces after a period, however, this was during the days when typewriters ruled. As they had fixed-pitched fonts, two spaces became the norm to provide a pleasing and readable space between sentences. As proportional (variable width) fonts became commonplace, convention changed, and a single space once again became the norm. It is now considered by most to be archaic to use two spaces, but is not necessarily wrong. My only beef is with otherwise intelligent peeps who,purposefully,compose sentences such as this,whose only purpose could be a feeling of belonging to some fucked-up no-space-after-commas interwebz club.

The atenolol worked - systolic is back down to under 120. 

[HAL 9000]

BTW DOES ANYONE HAVE A LINE ON DEAD, PROCESSED TURTLE?

I'm serious when I ask this - since turtles seem to be a somewhat popular pet for kids, you'd think that when they die, one could just dry the shells, and make a whole shit-load of guitar picks. What am I missing here? Why not go to a Chinese restaurant (turtle soup) and maybe they have shells? I wouldn't think there'd be a shortage of turtles. Could someone REALLY hear the difference between a turtle and tortoise shell guitar pick?

[guildnavigator]

Turtle and tortoise? Nah... but the difference between turtle and plastic is... ridiculous, frankly. I'm sitting here on my couch going back and forth, and there's no contest.




In fact, the common variety used for picks back when was actually a breed of turtle found off of the coast of Hawaii, not tortoise, but a very large turtle with shell plates that were each much larger in diameter than any triangle bass-pick, and quite thick. These were used for cosmetic items, eyeglass frames, jewelery boxes, brushes, hand mirrors, etc for many years, until 1972. A law was passed to stop all sales and transfer of dead turtle!


A lot of people have taken to machining picks out of old jewelry boxes and other turtle or tortoise items. At some point, the mimicry of the color pattern found in tortoise picks became preferentially referred to as Tortoise Shell Pattern, as opposed to Turtle, which would be more accurate.


These original real-turtle shits sound good!

[HAL 9000]

These original real-turtle shits sound good!

I know you'll find this blasphemous, but I play guitar only recreationally, and usually only for myself. When I can't find my guitar pick, I've found that the plastic shafts from cheapo Q-tips with the cotton removed work OK.

 

[guildnavigator]

I know you'll find this blasphemous, but I play guitar only recreationally, and usually only for myself. When I can't find my guitar pick, I've found that the plastic shafts from cheapo Q-tips with the cotton removed work OK.

 

I lost the ability to find blasphemy in music years ago. Billy Gibbons played with a machined Peso, a fucking coin! And his tones on the early ZZ Top records, as stripperish as the music is, to a recording engineer and guitarist, you cant fuckin complain.




Q-Tip Is AOK WITH ME!

[guildnavigator]

Damn! It's 2:37AM? I have shit to do tomorrow!


Wait... no I don't...


MORE ALE! AND REEFER FOR MY HORSES!

[Frys Girl]

I lost the ability to find blasphemy in music years ago. Billy Gibbons played with a machined Peso, a fucking coin! And his tones on the early ZZ Top records, as stripperish as the music is, to a recording engineer and guitarist, you cant fuckin complain.




Q-Tip Is AOK WITH ME!

Haha! Strip club playlist! Please give us a list.

[BobGrau]

I'm serious when I ask this - since turtles seem to be a somewhat popular pet for kids, you'd think that when they die, one could just dry the shells, and make a whole shit-load of guitar picks. What am I missing here? Why not go to a Chinese restaurant (turtle soup) and maybe they have shells? I wouldn't think there'd be a shortage of turtles. Could someone REALLY hear the difference between a turtle and tortoise shell guitar pick?

Interesting tangent here... wouldn't it be possible to grow turtle-shell material without the turtle attached?
I realise it might be more trouble than it's worth for the guitar-pick industry, but I've long wondered the same thing about blood. Why does blood have to be donated from another human being? Presumably it's a straightforward chemical process.
Any thoughts, HAL? Onan? Or any other medical types or chemists? This subject has always intrigued me.

[Frys Girl]

Interesting tangent here... wouldn't it be possible to grow turtle-shell material without the turtle attached?
I realise it might be more trouble than it's worth for the guitar-pick industry, but I've long wondered the same thing about blood. Why does blood have to be donated from another human being? Presumably it's a straightforward chemical process.
Any thoughts, HAL? Onan? Or any other medical types or chemists? This subject has always intrigued me.

Good question. I think it would be dangerous because of the pathogens non-humans carry. Pig tissue is close to human, so I know it is used in higher phases of animal studies. However, when it comes to mixing blood....


From Yahoo:
" Humans can't have transfusions of animal blood, because our immune system will recognize
it as foreign and mount an immune response. This type of systemic immune
response will cause the body to go into shock and probably die. During
development, the cells of the immune system are tested in the thymus to make sure
they do not attack "self" proteins (called self antigens). Even an animal that
is very similar to a human, such as a monkey, has enough differences in their
proteins that our immune system can recognize it as different and foreign. This
is caused by very slight differences in the protein sequences. Different sugars
on the cell surfaces can also be recognized by the immune system. Our immune
system is very good. That is why even two humans must be carefully matched to
donate and receive blood. If you got blood from someone of a different
incompatible blood type, your immune system would attack it. For example, if you
have type O blood, you can only receive type O blood. You can not take type A or
B blood, because that blood has different sugars on proteins on the blood cells

which your immune system will recognize and attack."

[BobGrau]

No no, I didn't mean blood from animals, I mean can't we synthesise blood that would work for humans?
 
I suppose I could go look it up, but it's just a Random Stupid Thing that's only On My Mind occasionally.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Interesting tangent here... wouldn't it be possible to grow turtle-shell material without the turtle attached?

Maybe..someone would have to research the genes that produce turtle shell and the sequence would have to be pretty small so it could be spliced into a bacteria (that would then excrete turtle shell).

but I've long wondered the same thing about blood. Why does blood have to be donated from another human being? Presumably it's a straightforward chemical process.
Any thoughts, HAL? Onan? Or any other medical types or chemists? This subject has always intrigued me.

Synthetic blood looks like it is on the way but may lose out to technologies that strip normal blood of its anti-bodies (because stripping is cheaper).
The main reason it hasn't worked in the past is because synthetic blood can cause blood vessels to shrink-and if these are in the heart or brain (filled with tiny blood vessels) this can be deadly.


BODY WORLDS

[BobGrau]

Thanks, both of you. I guess I won't be making my fortune that way then. 
 
On a related note, why the fuck can't the japanese just farm/breed more whales instead of hunting the remaining ones to extinction?
 
Rhetorical question - it's money of course. But the principle could be applied to so many things in life.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

hey BG you might try synthetic synovial fluid (which surrounds your joints).
Synovial fluid production grinds to a halt when you become an adult.

[BobGrau]

hey BG you might try synthetic synovial fluid (which surrounds your joints).
Synovial fluid production grinds to a halt when you become an adult.

That's the stuff with the bubbles that pop when I crack my knuckles, right? Yeah I'm going to be needing some of that pretty soon.

[ziznak]

Isn't that the stuff that they inject knee patients with?  I'm pretty sure my dad was getting injections of that stuff or something like it.  He said the stuff they were injecting him with was made (or derived) from goose feathers.  Eventually he went cyborg and got a titanium set of knees.  Both in one shot... what a trooper!!

[MV]

hey BG you might try synthetic synovial fluid (which surrounds your joints).
Synovial fluid production grinds to a halt when you become an adult.

you can get synovial fluid at menard's.

[guildnavigator]

marshallforum.com sucks almost as bad as george noory.


I have spent the last three days pissed as hell at the way the forum is set up. They require some dumbass admin to approve everything you do, but he obviously never looks at the site or his private messages. I have never had a problem with forum software in my life until now. FUCK THAT PLACE.


There are active threads there about recording projects that I am working on, but I can't fucking post! COCKSUCKERS!

[The General]

you can get synovial fluid at menard's.

Your nards make synovial fluid? 

[MV]

Your nards make synovial fluid?

only after 9PM.

[analog kid]

Haha! Strip club playlist! Please give us a list.

Isn't that invariably going to include bad 80s hair metal?

[b_dubb]

Isn't that invariably going to include bad 80s hair metal?

i think by "include" you actually meant "almost solely comprised of"

[stevesh]

Random, certainly. Stupid, maybe not. I wanted to post the first few paragraphs of Dan Neil's review of the latest Ford Mustang in today's Wall Street Journal, mostly as an example of great writing. Neil is the only auto writer I know of with a Pulitzer.


"AND SO, the deed is done. House, wife, kids, beautiful neighbors, joy. It's all mine.

Ho-hum. Day 2. Wife, joy, yada yada…

It is astonishing that happy people can get bored. Me, for example. My life is that of a well-fed academic, working from home on a never-ending dissertation. It's college with kids.

What is this shameful Mustang-shaped hole in my heart? Why can I actually, practically imagine myself owning one of these redneck hoo-hahs? What need would it satisfy? Admit it, the Ford Mustang has baggage. Six-cylinder Mustangs are chick cars. I'm sorry, it's in the Bible. And when people start piling horsepower on top of the V8-powered cars—a rogue's gallery of Saleens and Roushes and Super Snakes—they get completely ridiculous. Commuting in one is like wearing a bejeweled codpiece to work.

And yet, as I imagine what it would be like to own our test car—a 662-horsepower, 200-mph Ford Mustang Shelby GT500—I dig it. I savor the wantonness and random foolishness it would bring into my otherwise fairly measured life. Yes, this is exactly what Dad needs: a hateful American hot rod, a drag-racing demi-urge brooding in the driveway. I'm going out for a drive. If anybody needs me, I'll be in jail. "

[analog kid]

i think by "include" you actually meant "almost solely comprised of"

Forcing me to listen to Whitesnake would be my personal hell.