The Newest Addition

So here's a post (finally) that isn't about what a douchebags Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz are*. I didn't have a 12 string guitar in my arsenal so I went out and bought one. I got this very nice Epiphone DR 212 12 string for the remarkable price of only $169. I am so impressed with this instrument. It's got a spruce top and mahogany sides, the tone and playability is remarkable and the price can't be beat. It plays as well as 12 strings that are 2-3 times as much.
So now I have in my possession the following instruments:

• Epiphone DR 212 12 String
• Gurian Jumbo Acoustic (hand made)
• Ovation Custon Baladeer Acoustic
• El Cheapo Classical Guitar
• Fender Statocaster
• 1964 Guild JetStar
• FirstAct GarageMaster Volkswagon Guitar
• Washburn 5 String Banjo

I actually play them all with the exception of the banjo which I hardly take out.
I don't feel like I'm anywhere near being done. I'd still like to get an Epiphone Casino and I wouldn't mind having a Les Paul although my brother had one and I played it a bunch of times and decided on getting a Stratocaster instead.

*BTW: The are still douchebags who have fucked this country up for generations to come. But in the words of the good old old VP... SO????

At First I Thought it Said Assholes

Internet Full of 'Black Holes'
You're pounding the keyboard, double-clicking away, sighing and grumbling, but to no avail: That devilish little hourglass icon refuses to give way to the Web site you're trying to reach. Most Internet users have encountered trouble reaching online destinations, but they often attribute the problem to their wireless network cutting out or a server momentarily going down.
Sometimes, though, the problem is more mysterious. At any given moment, messages throughout the world are lost to cyber black holes, according to new computer science research.

the rest of the story

I've really run out of interesting stuff to say

Dick Cheney Calls Iraq War a 'Major Success'

Vice President Says Economy Has Hit a 'Rough Patch' but Doesn't Call It a Recession
March 19, 2008 —

Five years after the start of the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney offered a positive assessment of the war today and called last year's troop surge a "major success."

"On the security front, I think there's a general consensus that we've made major progress, that the surge has worked. That's been a major success," Cheney told ABC News' Martha Raddatz.

When asked about how that jibes with recent polls that show about two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, "So?"

"You don't care what the American people think?" Raddatz asked the vice president.

"You can't be blown off course by polls," said Cheney, who is currently on a tour of the Middle East. "This president is very courageous and determined to go the course. There has been a huge fundamental change and transformation for the better. That's a huge accomplishment."

Since the war began, nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 29,000 have been injured in the war, which has so far cost the United States roughly $600 billion, according to the Pentagon.

By some estimates, the war will end up costing Americans anywhere between $2 trillion and $4 trillion.

'Rough Patch' in Economy
Cheney also touched on the current state of the economy, admitting, "we're clearly going through a rough patch." But the Bush administration has not said the United States is experiencing a recession.

Cheney said that the downturn can, in part, be blamed on natural economic cycles.

"We've had, prior to that, 52 months of uninterrupted economic growth," he said. "Now, of course, we've got problems in the housing industry, mortgage-backed securities and so forth that have created problems that we're having to deal with."



What an ASSHOLE
my comment, not his