Tracie and Michelle--My Fender Acoustic is teaching me how to be in the moment and is a healing friend. I hope all who pick up a guitar (no matter what name, model) find a quiet healing place with it. So important in a loud, busy world today.

Railton--Thanks for your reply. Yes, clothes are just a cover for each person's persona. I am just impressed by ECCO of Denmark for their worldwide attentive customer service and great fitting, comfortable socks and shoes. Comfort and durability and that special intelligent/caring human touch are what are important to me.

Al--For your information from the New York Times. Regarding the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549, a McKenna came to the rescue. In an article by reporters Michael Wilson and Al Baker--"The operation was not without improvisation: Four New York police officers commandeered a Circle Line boat picking up tourists and commuters at 42nd Street and hurried to the jet. Two officers stayed on the ferry and tied themselves to two detectives, John McKenna and James Coll, who stepped onto the wing and helped people onto rescue boats, the police said."

I figured there was/is a lot of common sense and compassion among the McKenna family with its many branches and deep roots!!

Just wanted to share. Partly because I am by nature a news and information person and just because......

Yo Joe, So here am I just a great FAN of yours. I'm 17 and You're actually the first ever person who actually turned me seriously into guitar thingy. If I ever will end up becoming a pro guitarist i sure would like to have a jam with you sometime. A couple of months ago our music teacher at school asked me to paint some of the virtuosos for our music room and i painted yours, Vai's and Petrucci's posters which reminds me i've yet not given it to them.

I'm from India but i guess you won't be coming around here anymore. Anyway I missed your Kolkata(Calcutta) concert and i was damn depressed cose of that (Actually i was a little too young to go to kolkata alone and everybody else interested was already there so i my mama was not allowing me to go there).

Well I was just going through your DVDs and just many things were hitting me. How do you produce such clean sound? The guys playing at the Calcutta tour before you had a lot of noise as my friends say, but when you hit the stage...then no noise! More how does your distortion produce a different effect? Like when we use distortion it kind of gets fuzzy but yours has a great crunch. I own a Jem jr. and i hate the sound of its pickups. I think i still have to go on even with all the equipments as well as technique of guitars.

hybes, I work in retail. The total count for the warehouse is at 11, and 3 supervisors in the store got the axe also. They're not done with the store either. The rest go Monday. I talked to the manager today, and he said they're done with the warehouse (my peeps)...for now :-/

anibur, thanks hon. I'm on a 2 week lay-off, so I'm looking forward to catching up on my sleep :-) I usually get about 5 hours on a work night, and I'm a 9 hour sleeper! lol!

Pip, that was funny! There was actually a bat in the store at work the other day. They love me I tells ya!

SupaaDupaaDave, happy birthday to the Mrs! My sister's birthday is today. Here's to hoping you get some Jack. lol!

GGirl, Jagermeister takes me to my healing place. lmao!! just kidding. Glad ya found something you like.

SONG OF THE DAY!

Michelle, yes I am a 9 hour girl too, totally. My hubby does shifts so at 10pm he has just come in for din, & I am trying to go to bed for a 7am start, (well get up then anyway), and it's a long week. Just as well I only do 4 days a week!

anibur, Yes, we have the word trousers, but it's not used much. I think the well off and older folk use it more than the gen pop. We also have the word jumper, but it's usually followed by the word cable. lol!

Michelle....Happy birthday to your 'sis.... My wife's B-Day is actually on the 19th but we had to pck a day when everybody could be there...you know how it is ;)

SDDave, I was just gonna tell ya that it's Michelle Obama's birthday today. lol! Well, happy EARLY bday to the Mrs, and glad he bought his flask. lol!

T-Bones, I just had a chance to watch the Joe vid you posted the other day. I don't have a clue about theory and all that guitar stuff, but one thing I do know is Joe is a feckin guitar genius!

Metallica was in Philly tonight, and I missed it. *sniff*

Michelle--I pray you will stay on where you are or you happen upon a job with your name on it and yours only! You have a niche only you can fill regardless of what the heartless economy says to the contrary. I know this because of my experience. And we citizens of planet earth are resilient!

Need I say this again? We are all in this together!

"And the credo will rise---Rock on!!"

Time to pick up my guitar!

GOOD god mama M yer from clan Boyd!

Joe Satrini: Probably middle of the year, could be only a few months, I'm not putting pressure on anyone, good things come to those who wait. And the people involved are doing me a great favor.

Cheese101: got it thanks, now for the harder ones? What about Joe on Sitar or Lap Steel? Come on guys get behind it.

Anibur: Yes, looking at options to improve speed. It's mostly the crappy connection limit, don't know why cable here always has download heaps faster than upload... Weird.

OK, I disabled the slideshow to see if that improves load speed.

I have a feeling it will, it's a crappy bit of code that generates the slideshow before returning and giving the 100 or so items up front, then the javascript fades them in and out.

If that is the issue, I'll investigate an ajax version that only returns the first one, then asks for them one at a time or something, that would be way more efficient.

Let me know if performance is noticably better now.

Well now, let the feckin games begin. Today is the day I'm supposed to call unemployment. The phone number is constantly a busy signal, and the feckin website is "unavailable due to maintenance". Now my stomach is dropping and I feel like I'm about to get screwed.

Mills, thanks. At least as far as I know I'll still have a job after these two weeks home. I just hope I get to keep it :- /

Chadley, Metallica is always a good show. Couldn't find anybody to go with me. Nobody has any monies these days. WE got a bit of snow last night. Yesterday when I went to work it was 3f degrees. It's 24f now.

Slan, my hubs was told he's on the German side from his Grandpa, but ya just never know. I'm a Mc. My uncle (dad's bro) traced our roots, but I don't know what he found out. He has the papers packed away somewhere. I don't know enough names to go back to far, and ya have to pay to find out, so I'll just wait to get my uncle's info. lol! Me mum's side is German for sure. Thanks for the info. There's even a Dave at the end of that Good fam history, which gave me a chuckle.

Al, with weather like that, ya just might be stuck in Spain :-)

Now, let's get to the EAGLES - STEELERS SUPER BOWL!!

pretty good site here mama M

Slan, I always wonder if my surname was changed somewhere down the line, cause I can never find it anywhere. I do see that Mc Is commonly Catholic, and my grandparents were Catholic, so their parents prolly were too. Though truth be told, my dad got kicked out of Catholic school for BEING Irish back in the 40's! My mum is Lutheran, so it's what we are. I married a Catholic, but our kids are Lutheran. lol! Funny how that worked, huh? lol! Thanks for the links. Very interesting stuff. I bookmarked them.

Weeks ago I mentioned my favourite quote I'd seen about Satch (when the Coldplay thing kicked in) but don't think I actually posted it so here it is...

".... and if you're wondering who Joe Satriani is, he's a technical genius well known to professional guitarists even if not a star to everyone else — the sort of figure Fellini is to film directors"

The Wrong Trousers

Thanks for the info Michelle!

Phil...& I Like it too...ahhhhhhhhh

www.last.fm

not to wrory roy, sure ill hop on a train one of the times im here when ive more time here... nice weather, having some beers down the marina feeding some fish, its gale force winds at home, so im happy!