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My gig is coming up in six days and I am having some severe technical issues with my guitar. It's the same guitar I've gigged with ever since '93. It needs some long overdue TLC. Unfortunately I am probably going to have to use a guitar STBX got me. I was really hoping to avoid that, but it is a really good guitar and maybe this will be my chance to claim it as my own.

What brand is your guitar and what brand is the guitar your STBX gave you?

What brand is your guitar and what brand is the guitar your STBX gave you?

My guitar is a high end Jackson dinky reverse professional, with a reverse headstock, a humbucker pickup, a dual rail pickup, and a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. The one she got me is a Paul Reed Smith single cut. Both respectable guitars. They also are very different from each other.

Gents,

In case you don't wander down into Fun and Games (which you absolutely should) just wanted to pass along that the Christmas Card Exchange signup is underway and expires soon. If you haven't done it, you should. It's a ton of fun and glitter. Not in a it's raining men way.

Sign up. You'll be amazed how fun it is.

The one she got me is a Paul Reed Smith single cut.

That is one expensive guitar. Carlos Santana plays one of these. Almost bought a PRS but opted instead for the EVH Wolfgang I ended up buying.

Thanks Tred, will check it out.

Thanks, Tred! I'm actually joining the card exchange this year. I moved out of the marital home on December 22nd, 2017 (rough Christmas), and only got a couple of cards the following year, as a lot of people in my life had no idea that I had moved out the year before. Looking forward to filling the living room with cards and glitter this year.

The EVH Wolfgang is a respectable axe as well, Mr. K! I spent some time messing with the PRS tonight, and I have to admit, the tone is much warmer than the Jackson. The Jackson is more of a "metal" guitar, and the PRS fits more closely into my current project. Now that I'm reclaiming that instrument, I will have to come up with a name for it.

Will begin interviewing polygraph examiners in my area next week. Any words of wisdom on this?

I didn't interview the polygraph examiner I used. I got him because of a referral from a lady I attended BAN sessions with. She had researched it a lot and recommended him. She got a pre-poly confession and a parking lot confession and had her WH do the poly anyway.

I think you should ask about what his/her process is, where the poly will be conducted and what that facility looks like. A big thing will be getting a read on the examiner about how professional and knowledgeable they are. I may be off base but I think a low key, non confrontational style is required for good results.

It may be better to tell you, Mr.Kite, what I experienced.

I had 10 or 12 questions that I prepared ahead of time. I knew there would only be 3 or 4 asked. My WW and I met with the examiner and his assistant together in a small meeting room in their office. The examiner was a large man - tall and well built. He was physically imposing but spoke softly and slowly. We went over the questions to narrow them down together. He left the room to reword the questions.

The room had a large mirror at the end he had been sitting at. His assistant sat on his left and WW and I sat on his right. While the examiner was gone the assistant did some talking. I think her intent was to rile WW some. I think the mirror might have been 2 way and he was observing WW. I don't know that and didn't think about it until after.

The examiner came back into the room and we worked on the questions together. There would be no misunderstanding of the meaning. He left to re-work. Same thing. Returned. Did it again.

I left the facility all together and was asked to come back in about an hour and a half. The examination room was completely different. It was without stimulus of sound or colour. It was only the examiner and WW. Again, slow, calm, neutral voice and demeanour of the examiner.

I got a verbal report the next day and a written report in the mail.

The examiner had been in business for quite some time. Had a lot of customers - corporate and private. BBB. He had been used in criminal investigations. He gave the air of professionalism and confidence.

That was my experience, MrKite. I would want to know what the process was, where the examination would be carried out and what the facility was like. Hopefully others can chime in and give more helpful ideas about interviewing the examiner.

If you say, "I don't want to talk to a fucking machine", you'll get to a rep.

I like your style... It's not that I mind interacting with an IVR, just that it seems to me that quite a few are badly designed and make it harder than it needs to be to get where you're going.

the networking stuff makes almost no sense to me.

I've worked in software, systems and networks so I guess that makes me a bit unique. Course my software skills are 25 years out of date. Lots of software/systems guys don't know how packets get from one side of the room to the other, so "almost" gives you a leg up then. In the trivial case it's easy -- take the destination address, look it up in the routing table and find the longest match, drop the packet onto the output queue of the listed interface. Where it gets fun is when you start to add fun things like dynamic routing protocols (I consider myself very good with BGP, and I'm still learning new, esoteric things), access lists, QoS, virtual routers, etc.

There are some newer things on the horizon that are looking kind of exciting

Theres always The Next Big Thing out there. I really need to get familiar with Software Defined Networks before some young kid out there comes along, pushes me aside like a dinosaur and takes my job.

it is a really good guitar and maybe this will be my chance to claim it as my own.

I hope you find a way to exorcise the xWW and make it your own. I have several things that were gifts from the xWW, but none as intimate as something used to create art (I don't have any artistic abilities).

Speaking of art, I like the headboard Incarnate. But it would be too "heavy" for my bedroom.

[This message edited by tbkjcn at 8:03 AM, October 27th (Sunday)]

That was my experience, MrKite. I would want to know what the process was, where the examination would be carried out and what the facility was like. Hopefully others can chime in and give more helpful ideas about interviewing the examiner.

Thank you for sharing your experience with such detail. It's extremely valuable as I have never been through this before.

Still no power. Running off of battery packs charged with every outlet in the car when driving. Took the kids to the beach yesterday, and took a drive to a place WAY out of the way, just to get more charge time. 5 hours away from the ex was a major bonus, lol.

Explored some tide pools, expected power to be back at 4:00, so planned to be home around 5:00. No power and 5 bored kids.

Power might be out until late this week, thursday or friday.

Oof.

Power came back around noon yesterday, and was scheduled to go off at 4:00 AM this morning. We still have power, and a revised shutoff time is around 9:00 PM.

Gonna try to knock out most of my outline for my next novel in this time. I've got a therapy/counseling session (WTF do I even call it? Is it therapy? Is it counseling? Is it treatment? I don't even know) this afternoon at 3:00, and I need to leave here no later than 2:15 to get there on time, so I have about 4 hours to write.

The ex is home. I'm trying to be civil and ignore her, but it's hard when I have to go through her room to get to the bathroom, the kitchen, or any other room in the house but this one.

However, I don't want to trade rooms with her... this one is bigger and has my desk unit built into the wall, a mini kitchen, and its own exit, and when we have power, I have my own electric heater. Lots of perks, but a bit of isolation. I said she should take the room that my youngest has all to herself, and we'd each be one room away from the bathroom and we would have no reason to ever enter the other's room, but she seemed super dick-twisted offended about it. So whaaaaat the fuck ever.

Anyways. Gonna get back to work. Hope y'all are having good days.

I like your style... It's not that I mind interacting with an IVR, just that it seems to me that quite a few are badly designed and make it harder than it needs to be to get where you're going.

Much of that is dictated by management, and not the programmer. Just sayin'. LOL. Some of the more humorous parts were fun to program. Ahh... what people say to IVR systems.

I've worked in software, systems and networks so I guess that makes me a bit unique. Course my software skills are 25 years out of date. Lots of software/systems guys don't know how packets get from one side of the room to the other, so "almost" gives you a leg up then. In the trivial case it's easy -- take the destination address, look it up in the routing table and find the longest match, drop the packet onto the output queue of the listed interface. Where it gets fun is when you start to add fun things like dynamic routing protocols (I consider myself very good with BGP, and I'm still learning new, esoteric things), access lists, QoS, virtual routers, etc.

Thanks, man. I've solved some problems by doing a couple of nslookup and tracert commands. DOS/Windows guy here mostly. You kind of lost me on some of those other technologies that you mentioned. Programmer needs data, derrr... Wish I had the mental capacity to understand it all from the ground up. I've been lucky enough to work with some talented people who have been patient enough with me to share some of the tech though!

Theres always The Next Big Thing out there. I really need to get familiar with Software Defined Networks before some young kid out there comes along, pushes me aside like a dinosaur and takes my job.

That's kind of where I am at. I'm thinking I need to concentrate more in security, though. That's kinda where I'm lacking in my resume, and that is a big thing these days.

I hope you find a way to exorcise the xWW and make it your own. I have several things that were gifts from the xWW, but none as intimate as something used to create art (I don't have any artistic abilities).

Working on that.

Great beach pics, Incarnate! Crazy with the electricity sitch. Good on you for making the best of it! I think you made a good choice with your room.

Lots of snow falling here today, which makes me greatly happy. Koda had his final cancer treatment today and is healing like a champ. We will see how long he lasts. He is a good soul.

I wish i was at your beach Incarnate. It looks a lot warmer than it is here. It's currently about 36 degrees here and they're talking about 2-4 inches of snow/slush/sleet for tomorrow morning which will make my commute just peachy. Hopefully the power outages aren't being too bad for you.

Some of the more humorous parts were fun to program.

I used to have lots of fun embedding jokes into my code. The comments usually, although there was the one time while working on our semi-annual updates, in a giant switch...case that supposedly covered EVERY possible eventuality, just for fun I added a "default" at the end that threw a non-fatal error that said something long the lines of "Universe halted -- You have reached an impossible subroutine, please contact software support immediately." Guess what call I got three days after we mailed it out? Then there was the boolean variable I used in my module to keep track of if a student qualified for the free or reduced lunch program. My boss was big on "self documenting code." The name of the variable that got flipped to true what a student meet one of the qualifications? TANSTAAFL.

I need to concentrate more in security, though. That's kinda where I'm lacking in my resume, and that is a big thing these days.

It is. If you can deal with all aspects of security you can write your own ticket. It's been "hot" the last 5 years or so. I knew a lot of guys at my old job who were trying to move sideways into the security group. Thought it would help them survive the apocalypse that got me.

[This message edited by tbkjcn at 2:26 PM, October 30th (Wednesday)]

Howling winds tonight with tree branches crashing against the windows. But the power is still on so there's that.

Aaaand just passed a prelim in-home THC metabolite test.

Came out clean as a whistle. Operation "Get A Job You Lazy Bum" is a go.

Although, once I'm hired, I know they don't do any random drug testing. I'm gonna get -lit- once I pass the official test. On a day off, of course.

I had to google "TANSTAAFL", and got a big laugh when I did, tbk.

Hope your windows survived the windy Halloween, Mr. K.

Congrats, Incarnate! I'm glad you passed the test. I'm sure that was a big relief.

First show went pretty well! It was two nights ago, and my nerves are still kind of shot.

Congrats on the show, Losfer! I'm glad it went well!

I'm balls deep in NaNoWriMo right now, so I don't have a lot of time to peruse here, but I wanted to share this. I have a dorky tendency to have parody verses pop into my head, and this one was to "Flying Purple People Eater, since my ex dyed her hair bright Violet Purple again and stained our bathroom sink (white porcelain).

She was a

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Sure looks lame to me!

I mean, it'd need some work before it hit the top 100s, but I was proud of myself.

Hope your windows survived the windy Halloween, Mr. K.

One tree uprooted and thrown over the fence into my yard. No damage to speak of.

First show went pretty well! It was two nights ago, and my nerves are still kind of shot.

How are your callouses holding up?

She was a

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Green-eyed

Purple-haired

Lyin' bitchy penis eater!

Sure looks lame to me!

I'm hearing this sung to "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini"

I always wanted to do nanowrimo

NaNo is awesome. I'm getting ready to try to push out about 3130 words to keep my 3500/day average up.

We'll see what happens.