Unfortunately they're on the west coast so I couldn't, but I did surreptitiously make sure that users of a number of high profile digital music vendors will be recommended Krispy Kreme any time they browse for Mac Miller, Jay Z, Tupac or Beyonce mp3s.

You sound like a Navy man.

Better a navy guy than a welfare coastie.

No its not.

You may not know much about the military, but you should know damn well that its better to be in the USCG than the Navy. The Coast Guard is full of Ex-Navy, but there's hardly any Ex-CG in the Navy.

There's always the Army.

I've watched friends go through that, there's no way I'm doing it. Nobody I know who has spent more than a year or two in the military is the same person when they come out.

I'd move into my parents' basement before I did that, but that's not going to be a risk any time soon.

No offense.

You're right. I've changed since joining the service. Before enlisting I was an obnoxious libertarian blowhard.

To be fair, the person I know the best joined in '99 or maybe early 2000, so things were a lot different for him. For whatever reason I've noticed that he's gotten better the past few years (for one thing he's not nearly as racist now as he was in 2002 but he's still more racist than he was before he enlisted). I think spending a few years in Germany and Korea were a lot better for him than Iraq and Afghanistan were.

I can see how the Macho atmosphere can do that. Maybe I'm not like that yet because I haven't been stationed to a cutter yet.

I don't see him that often anymore and we don't really talk too much about his experiences so I can't really say with any certainty but I wonder if it might have a lot to do with the difference between people who enlisted in peacetime vs the people who enlisted now. I'd imagine before we went into Afghanistan and Iraq the percentage of people who were enlisting for some macho bullshit reason vs. those enlisting out of necessity or honest desire to to something they felt was important was a lot higher than it was once we were deep into two decade long wars.

The upside is I was already about 95% done putting together a modest luthiery workshop and already have half the wood to make another good quality guitar after I finish the one I'm working on, so as long as I can get another 0-0 above my cost of living over the next few weeks it won't really slow down my progress in that regard (and making guitars is about the most therapeutic thing there is), but it's going to be a big adjustment going back to a regular schedule instead of making my own hours which is what I've done for the majority of the last 7 years.

I might have to delegate the PUA video posting to someone else.

Most of POETV is unemployed and submitting videos is how we get through the day.

too right, sosage.

Hopefully I will be posting LESS now, since work was part of the reason I'm online so much.

The other part is watching cat videos, obviously.

I love the exchange on Elmendorf. They got the hookup.

I had a 5mm stone about 12 years ago but after the first two days it somehow completely stopped hurting and I passed it painlessly a couple days after that. It was very strange.

Thanks, I'll get by. My father is getting an inheritance this winter that is modest by rich-person standards but really helpful for us, and means that I'll be able to get some help from them while I'm looking for work. Which is nice since the most I can expect to collect from unemployment would just barely be enough for rent and utilities, with maybe /month left over for food and entertainment. And that's not counting the extra 0-0/month it costs to heat our apartment in the winter.



Did I mention that a tree fell on my house in the middle of me getting laid off?

Thanks for the interest! I don't have a site yet, I'm still really just getting started. I pretty much finished up my workshop a few weeks ago and I've built an acoustic (not at my place, I don't have the climate control) and am finishing up the neck for my first electric tonight. I'd be happy to talk to you about it on Facebook, though, even if you don't end up commissioning anything it'd be cool to talk to more POE people off of the site.

facebook.com/alustyghost

There are some photos of the acoustic being built and my progress on the electric as of a week ago.

I also just (as of this week) got a really nice dovetail rig for next to nothing at a pawn shop in upstate NY, so I can easily make speaker cabinets out of whatever wood you want (we have a really good lumber yard across town - the kind where the lifers know the history of the building going back to the 19th century and can still remember specific pieces of good wood from 20 years ago). I've made a couple of tube amps (a half watt recording amp 5 years ago that works flawlessly still and sounds excellent, and I just finished the turretboard for a Tweed Deluxe clone the other day) so I'd be down to discuss that with anyone who's interested, too. I'm no electrical engineer or anything, so I'm not doing original designs, but I should be able to do a copy of any vintage Fender and I could put together pretty much any kit you wanted for the cost of the kit plus labor and materials for a cabinet.

By spring I'll be winding pickups, too, including some stereo humbuckers (lower three strings through one amp, upper three through another, switchable to mono), but that's still months away, I haven't even got all the parts to build a winding machine yet.

Also, sinc I'm not officially in business yet (and since you're from here) I'd be down to negotiate a pretty good deal. It won't be a made-in-China price but it will be cheaper than a high end USA Gibson, and given the way they're making them these days I'm comfortable saying I'd make you something at least as good.

Here's the one I'm working on right now.

Neck dry fit into body:
http://tinyurl.com/94fxnm4

From now on I'm mounting the truss rod with the adjustment nut at the headstock, the kind I have in there now just doesn't look good to me, although it's very convenient.


Back of the neck, 99% shaped and ready to sand:
http://tinyurl.com/9y5g365


Ok, enough livejournal for me.

(p.s. after I took the second photo I got rid of that weird little bump on the left side of the blend from the neck to the headstock, it was completely unacceptable)