Scrapes and cuts and breaks:

the world doesn't end.

Kevin had this post on reasons as to why so many kids are violent- and conscienceless- to the level they are. One of the things touched on was so many kids being taped into bubble wrap:

Kids often get hurt playing tag, said Sharon Roland, the nurse at Jack L. Kuban School in southwest Phoenix and vice president of the School Nurses Organization of Arizona.

They split their chins, scrape their noses and graze their knees, the expected injuries of childhood. But they also knock out teeth and fracture bones.

E'Lisa Harrison's son, Grant, was 8 when he was pushed and fell during a game of tag at Kyrene de la Estrella Elementary School in Phoenix. It was an accident, but Grant spent weeks with a cast on his arm, missing out on a season of baseball.

While growing up, my sister broke her wrist. My brother broke an ankle and a collar bone in separate incidents. I broke a toe. Hovever I cracked my head a number of times (requiring stitches - which may explain my current personality), and even did a serious face-plant on the sidewalk once. Most of the kids I grew up with got injured - from cuts requiring stitches to one that was hospitalized after being hit by a car. We were active - and we learned that stupid hurts, pain is temporary, and chicks dig scars. I don't think a lot of our yoots learn much of that today.

I don't like pain. Not even in small amounts. However, back in the Devonian Age when I was a kid it was accepted that you would get scraped and you would get cut and bruised and-

So what? The world doesn't end, you don't die, and it'll go away. It was expected that you'd learn to deal with stuff like this, and most parents wouldn't put up with the level of whining- from kids and adults- current on the subject.

After first divorce, one day my ex called and told me son had fallen and scraped the hell out of his arm, and did I have enough gauze or something to cover it? Stuck away in a corner I had an honest-to-God U.S. Army field dressing, the kind that covers a big area and has cotton cloth on the back(OD Green, of course) with arms on the sides to tie it on. I grabbed that and some antibiotic and ran it over. BIG scrape, sure enough, about 2/3 the length of this forearm and all across one side. He was not happy, but wasn't yelling or crying, just said "It hurts" when I asked how he was. "Well, I'd guess so" I replied. Ex had already cleaned it of course, and put some a/b on, so I tore open the package, displayed this gen-u-wine Army Field Dressing and wrapped his arm up.

And- of course- it still hurt, but he didn't really care anymore. It was taken care of, and he had this really neat bandage to show off, so the problem was solved. He never slowed down- neither did his sister after similar mishaps- and they both 'learned that stupid hurts, and pain is temporary', and that they'd heal.

When the kid gets hurt, you give them comfort and dry the tears, of course; but you don't let them think- or make them think, as happens too often now- that it's a big deal demanding bubble wrap and protective custody. I'm fairly tired of some kid falling, and instead of the needed tear-drying and comfort leading to "That's enough, get over it", the "Oh my God, this is terrible!" just keeps on, which keeps the kid going, which leads to the kid thinking any injury is something terrible that DEMANDS serious attention.

Personally, I think this is connected to the parents who get a call about their kid causing problems in school and instead of finding the facts and chewing the ass of the kid when called for, they show up and threaten the teacher and the principal and whoever else comes to mind for DARING to hold their kid responsible to the rules. In both cases the kids get the idea that they're never supposed to be inconvenienced, that any scratch on their precious body is a horror demanding special attention, and that the whole damn world revolves around them.

Comparisons between Britain and here

Saw this article the other day and started to write about it, but the more I wrote the more frustrated I got, and I gave up. Happily, Kevin took on the task and gives us this take on it.

Today, I found a comment from JR in my response to Elmer, and since I hadn't looked at his place for a while I clicked over and found- among other things- this post with a couple of good links. Went to the one at Classically Liberal and, along with other good information, this quote from Professor Joyce Malcolm on the contrast in homicide numbers:
“The murder rates of the U.S. and U.K. are also affected by differences in the way each counts homicides. The FBI asks police to list every homicide as murder, even if the case isn't subsequently prosecuted or proceeds on a lesser charge, making the U.S. numbers as high as possible. By contrast, the English police "massage down" the homicide statistics, tracking each case through the courts and removing it if it is reduced to a lesser charge or determined to be an accident or self-defense, making the English numbers as low as possible.”

There's been an ongoing problem here in the U.S. in which someone yells about the number of homicides involving firearms here compared to other places, but ignores the total number of homicides(apparently being beaten to death or stabbed doesn't count) in order to say "We need more gun-ban laws!" This quote points out that along with total numbers, you've got to look at how the homicide numbers are figured; if someone is slanting the way of counting deaths to cut down the number counted as murders, you can't trust their figures for the truth. Which makes it harder to argue the point, because sometimes you can't find the actual(true) numbers.

This is much like someone only counting use of a firearm in self-defense as 'real' if the victim shoots: it ignores the huge percentage of cases where the bad guy either finding out the intended victim is armed or having the arm aimed at him sends him away. So by counting it this way they can say "There are very few cases of self-defense with a gun". Dishonest as hell, but they use it anyway.

No particular point in this, just blowing off steam. I'm tired of reading Brit commenters saying they just haven't passed strict enough laws and the police don't have enough power over people and that's why things are bad, and calling us cowboys and vigilantes because we hold that the right of self-defense includes the right to use a weapon if needed.

The Dresden Files

If you haven't seen it and plan to, Spoilers Ahead. Though not in detail.

Finally had time to watch it, and I was disappointed. Harry doesn't live in the basement, no problems with phones, etc., Bob always has a human image when talking, Murphy is different, HE DOESN'T DRIVE THE BLUE BUG, DAMMIT!

They've changed his past history, instead of the White Council there's the High Council, and so on. Unless the other episodes are different they've made a 'evil monster or evil wizard of the week' show. And screwed it up.

You know what they could have done? Take the first book, Storm Front, and make it the season. You could tell the story one episode at a time and have a damn good show(assuming you don't screw with the characters, etc.) Apparently that just wasn't doable, or maybe it's what someone told me once about editors("They don't like the soup until they've peed in it") that somehow forced them to screw with it.

It wasn't terrible, mind you, just much less than I'd hoped.

Bleah.

Ooh, Elmer has nasty words for me!

After I was so bold as to make my opinion known of Murtha and Pelosi & Co., Elmer left this in comments:

hey! i'm a coward and a traitor too!

Well, nice to have it out of the way

when i'm indicted and arrested for treason, do i get to wear my old army uniform from the vietnam war? with the medals?

You can wear whatever you want. I really don't give a rats ass. Funny thing, though, speaking your mind isn't treason. Acting to damage this country for personal/party gain, to me, is.

murtha will probably wear his full-dress officer's Marine uniform with the vietnam combat decorations.

Oooh, he's a vet, you'd better not criticize anything he says or does!
Sounds like the kind of shit he'd do.

uhhhh have you served in uniform, brave patriotic person? just curious.

Well, at least he didn't come out and call me a chickenhawk. This has been covered before, but I'll do it again: there's this strange thing in this country called the 1st Amendment, which notes my right to speak my piece. Doesn't require me to be in or have been in uniform. The "Have you been uniform?" stuff and calling people chickenhawk is an attempt to shut them up. So fuck you.

when you sling these words around, and apply them to elected officials, you cheapen them and you insult the voters who elected them, because clearly Pelosi and Murtha are doing what they believe their voters and constituents want them to do in Congress about the Iraq War -- and the Iran War Bush is cooking up.

I do indeed insult the idiots who elected these clowns to office. And I wonder about how much they really care about what the people back home think, as long as they can suck up enough to stay in office. In Pelosi's case, she probably is pleasing her voters, which is one reason I think they're idiots.

So Murtha and Pelosi are traitors who represent voter majorities, in California and Pennsylvania, who want them to commit treason for them in the House of Representatives.

Ref their majorities, see above.

I'm a Cut and Run guy myself. We got to bail from this loser scoundrel's liars war. 3200 of my neighbors' children dead already, and Victory -- not achievable, unavailable, not ever going to happen.

My, you live in a big neighborhood. '..this lose scoundrel's liars war', hmm? You mean the one that all those people in the House and Senate voted to authorize? They all liars and scoundrels? Or just the ones now throwing out that "If I had known then..." bullshit?

Bring our soldiers and marines home this week.

Even if they'd rather stay there and win. No matter the bloodshed that would follow. Great idea!

So like ... what's the punishment for treason?

Depends on the country. Hanging, drawing and quartering sounds good.

U.S. Army 1969-1971
SP5 drafted
Massachusetts

Ok, assuming this is all true, for serving in the defense of this country, I thank you. No ifs, ands or buts there. Just like, for their time in uniform I thank Murtha and McCain. But guess what? That does not give them a pass for what they've done since. McCain carried himself as a hero in the truest sense in the Marines; doesn't change that some of his acts as a senator have earned him my contempt and anger, and if I'm not giving him a pass I'm sure as hell not giving Murtha one. Especially after such acts as declaring Marines guilty of murder before any indictment, trial or anything else just so he could blame it on BushMcChimplerBurton.

I think that Murtha and Pelosi & Co. are doing a lot of this shit because A: they hate George Bush so much they can't stand the idea of this succeeding during his watch, and B: they want to use it to try to lock their party into power. Both are disgusting reasons to act. Both speak of a lack of integrity and more concern for their political fortunes than for the country.

If they actually believed the war was wrong, and it should be ended now, AND if they actually had integrity and some balls, they wouldn't be voting on some non-binding resolution: they'd be voting on something with teeth and to hell with political consequences for themselves and their party.

If they don't actually believe it, but they're willing to use it- and the lives of our troops- as pawns to damage this president and to (again) try to lock their party into power, that speaks of a breathtaking lack of integrity and- again- more concern for their party than for the nation.

These things may not meet the legal definition of treason, but they damn sure qualify to me. With the 'slow bleed' strategy Murtha seems so proud of- and the stupidity of using that when we've got troops actually bleeding in combat is breathtaking- they've made it pretty plain that they're willing to see troops die from lack of reinforcements and equipment. Which makes them traitors.

As described by participants, the goal is crafted to circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the anti-war movement — the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field. That fear is why many Democrats have remained timid in challenging Bush, even as public support for the president and his Iraq policies have plunged.

I repeat: if they actually believed the crap they're saying, they would actually be trying to stop the war because that would be more important to them than staying in office. That everything they do is crafted around staying in office- no matter the price- they're traitorous shits.

And not to be too picky, but have you ever heard of using capital letters?

Well, the bleeps in the House did it.

Image from the Victory Caucus

I have GOT to make it to Australia,

where people drink and attack sharks:
"He's just thrashing around in the water but then he was starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'Well, it's amazing what vodka does'." Kerkhof emerged from the fray unscathed, although his jeans were ripped by the shark's razor-sharp teeth. "It's not something I'd recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, 'I'm a bit of an idiot doing it'," he said.

On treason and general cowardice

Specifically, that of Pelosi and Murtha and all their little flying buttmonkeys.

There flat are no words for the rage I feel over this. I'm not even going to try to put it down, I'll just point you to Cold Fury and his words on the subject.

Cowards and traitors. Traitors for what they plan to do to the military and to this country; cowards because they don't have the balls to do it openly. Oh no, they'll screw over the people on the sharp end and hope- HOPE, Goddammit!- that everything falls apart, while saying "I support the troops" and screaming "Don't question my patriotism!" at anyone who points out what they're doing and what they are.

More here and here.

It has come to my attention

that some people are not aware of the proper way to say the name of my state.

Pay attention, now: First you say "Okla-




















and then "-homa", with a properly reverent tone.

Simple, isn't it?

So the Democrat Party had given up on gun banning, huh?

Doesn't look like it. And the buttmonkey, RINO, 'moderate' Republicans will fall all over themselves signing on to it.

I don't give a rat's ass if they're 'just doing this to pay off the nutroots supporters', THEY'RE DOING IT. Which means they still want to do it, and still want anyone who disagrees painted as 'neo-nazi and white supremacist' types; because, after all, if we weren't we'd agree with them, wouldn't we?

I was waiting for my tax refunds to come back before I did any shopping, but I may have to look around now because the past has shown that every time the politicians start this, the prices go up and supplies of some things run short. Which is another reason to consider them troublemaking dirtbags.

On a side issue, the House is debating their non-binding resolution(also known as the "We don't have the balls to actually do anything, but we'll do this!" Resolution) today and KTOK reported that a freshman OK Rep named Boren is supporting it. The only good thing about this sorry excuse for a man is that he's not from my district so I don't have to take responsibility for voting him into office. He's another clown doing one of two things: actually willing to damage the troops and the war effort because he believes it, or doing it to suck up to Pelosi & Co. In either case, he sucks.

Happy Valentines Day

Nagin and Riley held in contempt

Legally held in contempt, by a U.S. District Judge.
Judge Carl J. Barbier issued a blistering rebuke to New Orleans’ defense counsel for conduct that is “wholly unprofessional” and warned that it “shall not be condoned.” Judge Barbier ordered defense counsel to reimburse SAF’s attorney $1,365. SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the National Rifle Association.

In his ruling, Judge Barbier noted, “Defense counsel has caused time and money to be wasted by Plaintiffs’ counsel and further admits that he has ‘no good reason’ to explain his behavior.”

This definitely counts as a Good Thing. Now if he'd just add in some leg irons...

Found through Michelle Malkin

Darwin's concept in action

pouring chlorine in the gene pool.

Authorities believe Aerts, a regular visitor to the zoo, hid in the park late Sunday until it closed and managed to find the keys to the cheetah cage.

And for a further candidate: "Karen loved animals. Unfortunately the cheetahs betrayed her trust," Libot said.

Repeat after me, children: "Cheetahs are wild animals, even if they are in a zoo, and they will act as such. And people who think they are pets are too stupid to be out without a keeper."

And speaking of stupid: Animal rights group GAIA called for the immediate closure of the zoo, located 55 miles northeast of Brussels, saying it was unsafe for both visitors and the cats.

Let's see, someone deliberately hides in the zoo and does something incredibly stupid, and that makes the zoo 'unsafe for both visitors and the cats'. No, it makes you a friggin' idiot of the enviroweenie kind.

You know, if we still lived 'closer to Nature' as these clowns wish, a good many of them would be converted to fertilizer and we wouldn't have to listen to this crap.

More on the Compean and Ramos railroading

I do not use that term loosely. What I'd read before said this case stinks like dead fish in the July sun. Just how, went through this post at Pamibe which rounds up a whole lot of general information and a LOT of connections between the smuggler and various people at DHS and their connections to other people.

This sucks, people. Like a shop-vac with a clean filter. These guys deserve- at the least- a new trial that's actually fair and by the law.

And some people at DHS and in the Justice Department should be in jail.

note: found Pamibe thanks to Sondra

The scene of the crime,

as Kim puts it. The aftermath of a suicide. And the prologue, sometimes.

Used to know a lady. Had met her when married to first wife, had seen her on and off over the years; we messed around in the SCA at the time, and that was her big recreation. She was a nurse, and married at the time.

Then she went through a somewhat messy divorce. Didn't see her for a while, but- this was after my wife had moved out- she called occasionally to talk. Second or third time she started asking me what I thought about the best way to commit suicide. Which freaked me out no small amount, because it was obvious she wasn't just curious, she was seriously thinking about it. I truly did not know I could dance like that, working my way around the subject and being as discouraging as possible.

Didn't hear from her for a while, then she called one night sounding like she was about to collapse. I wound up going over to her house and spent about two hours there. She really freaked me out, being at once mostly very calm about things but having that quivering edge showing through. But I thought she'd calmed down quite a bit, and I felt like I'd done something good there.

That lasted until she called about two months later. She'd moved to Norman in that time, and I'd heard nothing from or about her. That night she called about 0130, just after I'd got home from work, and the first thing she said was "Hi, this is -. If you had a .32 automatic, how would you kill yourself with it?"

I never knew my brain could both freeze up and run in circles so fast, either.

I spent about ten minutes trying to tell her "I wouldn't" while dressing it up in 'that might not work well' crap to both give myself time to think of what to do. I'd been a dispatcher for four years and handled all kinds of stuff but I'd never had a suicide call, and the agency I worked for had no training for such; we never got calls like that, they always went to the PD or the SO. So I was flying on my own there. That ten minutes ended when she- pissed I wouldn't give her solid suggestions("I will NOT help you kill yourself")- hung up. She'd sounded so firm on it that I, figuring they were likely to find the body, called the PD, told them what'd happened. Then I sat around for half an hour hoping they'd been able to cross-check the phone number- I didn't have her address- until they called back. Officer had found her home with a friend, with "no idea what you're talking about, officer" on the subect of the visit. He told his dispatcher he thought she was covering up so he'd swing by a few times over his shift. Quiet the rest of the night.

Next day I got hold of my ex and told her about it, as she knew some people in Norman who were friends with the lady and I thought someone close to her ought to know about it. Then, that night when I got home I had a message: "I don't appreciate you calling the police on me, and I don't appreciate you telling people about me. I'll make a deal with you: I won't call you anymore, and you won't send the police to my house, ok?"

Couple of days later ex called with the word: the friends in Norman knew about her suicide talk, this was just another incident, and they figured "Don't worry, as long as she's talking about it she won't do anything". Well, bullshit, I'd heard her voice and she wasn't just thinking, she was planning. But I couldn't think of anything else to do, and the fact was she was an adult and could do whatever she pleased.

It was about a month after that as I recall that the ex called and informed me that she'd done it. The note said that she'd decided that if she reached this birthday without being married and- preferably- being pregnant, she didn't want to go on living. So the night before she'd borrowed a gun from a friend to go target shooting(which she'd done before), and on the day she'd put on a nightgown, sat down on her bed and shot herself in the head.

Wasn't anywhere near the shock of Kim's friend Danny; we hadn't been that close, and she'd definitely made it clear what was coming. It was two things to me:
The first was saddening, because here was a lovely, intelligent, capable woman who'd taken her own life.
The second, I was pissed. I mentioned she was a nurse, so she had access to any kind of drug you can think of and could simply have taken a bottle. But no, couldn't do that. I can't remember if it was in the note or something she'd said before, she didn't like the idea of drugs because of the possibility of someone finding her before she was dead and a med team keeping her alive. I think that was bullshit. I think she wanted to leave a mess behind, so she did it in a way that would screw over the friend she borrowed the gun from and make a nice mess on the bed.

Kim wrote "But I think that when you throw your life away, you only get a free pass when you’re over the age of seventy, and living in circumstances of extreme physical pain. Before that time, and before you become old and have fulfilled all your obligations, you have a responsibility to others to keep on living. You are not entitled to become a coke addict at age thirty-five, or have sex with five thousand homosexual partners, or screw some poxy street tart on a business trip, or any of that bullshit." I'll throw something else in: if you decide to off yourself, you are not entitled to do it in a way guaranteed to cause grief to as many people as possible and to hurt a friend as much as possible.

And if you do that, screw you.

Just read something about Windows Vista

here; it makes this appropriate:

Take a look, do you know what this is?

It's here at Michael Yon's site. Instapundit and Michelle Malkin both had links to this, it's something found in a bunch of Iranian weapons supplied to the dirtbags in Iraq. I've got no idea, other than it looks like some kind of missile launcher. If you've got any information, post it in his comments.

Think about having to get special legislative permission

for Olympic shooter to keep their pistols at home. No ammo. And you could only fire it at a "Registered regional shooting club". This kind of bullshit is what Clinton and Obama & Co. want here. And let's not forget Giuliani wouldn't mind it, either.

Also, check this out on gun-ban groups methods of speech:
In his 1988 "report on assault weapons," gun prohibitionist Josh Sugarmann wrote: "The weapon’s menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons – anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun – can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns." In other words, Sugarmann expected public support for a ban on "semi-automatic assault weapons," because that public was completely uninformed about the guns so labeled. And he expected the public to stay uninformed about these guns, because, as he candidly acknowledged, the media the public looks to for information were equally uninformed about them

Both found through the good offices of Uncle.

There ARE priorities, after all...

Two deer hunters were standing on a ridge near a highway in rural Minnesota on the opening day of deer season. They both saw a trophy-class buck meandering towards them. As the one hunter raised his gun to shoot, a funeral procession came slowly by.

The hunter lowered his gun, took off his hat, and stood with his head bowed until the procession was past. Of course by then, the deer was long gone.

The other hunter exclaimed "Wow! That was the most sportsmanlike act I've ever seen! You allowed this trophy buck to escape while showing such compassion and kindness toward someone's dearly departed. You are a great humanitarian and a shining example to sportsmen throughout the world!"

The first hunter nodded and said; "Well, we were married for 42 years".


Thanks to Mr. Completely

And there was great rejoicing!

Yay!

The magic box is back in full service.

Local shop had a 430w power supply, just finished installing it and everything seems to work as it should. Quieter, too. I can't remember if the old supply got louder over time, or if this is just a better unit. I think it's the better unit.

Old supply was a '300 watt max'. This gives a whole lot more leeway, and if I wanted to I've now got enough cables & connectors to add pretty much anything that might come to mind.

And I don't have to worry about this thing melting down anymore, either.


Oh, and I did not at any time develop a resemblance to a fluorescent light bulb. So there.

Do you worry about stuff?

I don't mean "The damn refrigerator just died" or solid 'something is wrong' things like that, I mean about crap that hasn't happened? And may not, but you worry about it anyway?

I tend to. Damn tired of it, too.

Once upon a time, didn't do it. Then various things happened(marriage, kids, etc.) and I'd start thinking "What if ..." 'If' being the car breaking, house breaking, illness or injury. And if you get started, it's hard to break it. And what makes it worse, is it's generally little crap, or something that- if it did happen- wouldn't be a world-ending thing.

'Course, at the time I started, an awful lot seemed like a near-world-ending thing. When there's a serious illness, new kids, a combination of the above and etc., anything can seem a lot worse than it really is. Problem is, if you get started in the worry habit, it's hard to stop.

It's gotten better over the years, but I still tend to do it; when I'm stressed in particular. And it still sucks.

A nice thing about some sites,

like Random Nuclear Strikes, is the sayings they keep track of. Such as

Explaining the pleasure of collecting excellent condition examples of the astonishing engineering feats that are the firearms of the 19th and early 20th centuries, each with a story to tell, many having miraculously survived actual combat, to the gunhater would be like trying to explain the pleasure of accumulating a complete set of autographed first editions of your favorite author to an illiterate savage, incapable of viewing their pages as anything but toilet paper or kindling.

Vin Suprynowicz – Send in the Waco Killers - pp 366

Has nice things like this regularly. Not to mention posts from Professor Booty...

Ever been to an open mike night?

Lots of bars & clubs have them. One or two nights a week they open the stage to whoever wants to perform, you get(most of the time) a mike, an amp and an audience.

After divorce #2 I started practicing with my guitar a lot, and one night a friend told me I ought to hit a place she went to; she went there for karoke two or three times a week(shut up), but on Tuesday nights they had open mike. So I finally went.

Lady named Melanie was the host, she'd do two or three songs, then have someone come up and do one or two, sometimes three, then she'd do a couple more. Met some nice people, heard some good performers and generally was just the place I'd needed to find.

One night I was talking to someone(maybe Melanie, but I don't remember) and they said I ought to bring my guitar and give it a try. I said I didn't think so, I wasn't that good, and they snorted and said "Hell, nobody cares, we're all just here to have fun." Which sounded nice, so I started practicing a bit more. And one night I did it.

Badly.

Actually, that doesn't even begin to describe how it went. First, I'm not the best speaker in front of people(unless I'm pissed, then I can sometimes damn near channel Churchill). Second, my guitar had no pickup, so had the mike halfway between face and guitar(every tried to play, let alone play AND sing, while hunched over? Bleah). Couldn't get my fingers to go to the right places, couldn't get my voice to sound normal...

I cut it short, cased the guitar and got a beer. And while I was sitting wondering why the hell I'd talked myself into this, a guy named Randy came by. He was a damn good performer, almost always playing slide, mostly blues. I said something about 'that was bloody awful' and he said "First time always is. It'll be better next time"

"Next time my ass!"

"Give it another time, it'll be better."

So a couple of weeks later I gave it another try, and amazingly, it was better. Not a lot, but I actually got through three songs in half-decent manner, and felt much better afterward.

So I started hitting the place almost every Tuesday, sometimes performing, sometimes just listening(there really were some damn good musicians who showed up there). I found a pickup that fit in the sound hole, which helped. And I found I really enjoyed it.

Later on started going to another place called Galileo's in the Paseo district. The 'artsy' part of town, if you will. Their open mike was on Thursdays. Having a much bigger crowd, met some nice people, including a guitar maker who put a real pickup in for me and- the big hazard- some of the bleepin' worst musicians/performers you'd ever hope not to see. Not nervous like I was at first: bad. BAD. Like the guy who had a Strat and his own amp, with the volume and distortion turned ALL the way up, with a heavy hand and even less talent than I, who really and truly believed he was Heaven's gift to music. Which caused Brit- who ran the thing- to cut him off early, because people were actually leaving. But there were others who made up for it. Like the 17-year old who had a voice like young Patsy Cline, the aforementioned guitar maker who was a very accomplished classical player, and others.

Between time and other things, finally stopped going. The first place had gone downhill, the lady had started doing one song, then having other people perform for as much of the time as possible; just didn't seem to want to do it right anymore. Galileo was still pretty good, but I just didn't have time anymore, and it'd gotten so packed that I could never get a slot to play, so stopped going there. One of these days I'll have to make time to find another place, maybe give it another try.