Ting Ho Dung

Thanks Kirk. It was a long time overdue. Thanks my friend.

Hey, thanks. I only smoked weed after I drank a few beers to get really buzzed. Initially it helped me cut down on the number of beers consumed each night. But slowly it just became a way to get more buzzed and the number of beers went back to 10 - 12 anyway after a few years. I don't like weed by itself. I still have some but don't have any urge to smoke it without drinking. It did seem to help my depression and possibly aches and pains. So it was just another ingredient for my self medication. I would be afraid if I smoked it alone it would make me want to drink pretty badly so I am not going to do that. I haven't had an uncontrollable urge to drink since the physical dependencies have gone away. Every now and again I'll "remember" that it's time to drink or an activity will trigger a bit of an urge. But I just pour a glass of tea or pet the dog or something and that changes things enough I stop thinking about it. I had a pretty bad day wasted waiting on the gas company last week that made me frustrated enough that I wanted one pretty badly but I just fixed dinner and called it a night. The next day was brand new with no urges.

You would love Disk 3 of this set, @Willie G. Moseley. Well over 2 1/2 hours or jams. The last 40 or so minutes consists of, "Rattle of Sabres, Electric Reflections of War, Aftermath, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The World Anthem, A Prayer For Peace, Try For Freedom, and Amazing Grace," which had about a ten minute ending. Mrs. Ting and I watched it for the first time last night and just sat here in awe. Over the past week I listened to the other 2 DVDs while fixing dinner and in between snake feedings. I kept having to come in the office to rewind and watch the video because it just had to be watched! We haven't seen the BlueRay yet. I will have to get the player out of the closet and hook it up. Absolutely amazing set of disks.

There are a few teachers on board who may know a kid or two. @mathman @sixesandsevens Not sure who else may be in the profession here.

Well damn, I didn't think of that. I figured it was from the old Montgomery Ward catalog or something.

Screen shot from my new DVD set. Disk 3.

I forgot to mention I'm not micing up an amp. 2i2 is going straight into my PC. So the Fx would go into the 2i2 and then into the PD / DAW. I hadn't thought about trying the Fx into the POD. Might be cool. Somehow that makes more sense to me than straight into the 2i2. Not sure why.

When recording guitar plugged directly into a Focusrite (Scarlett 2i2) do you put the fx chain before the unit or do you add them somehow in post? For instance, if I were to play with a pedalboard in front of the Focusrite, wouldn't it make it clip especially if it were high gain? If so, how do you run them into the DAW? I'm using Reaper if that matters. So far I've just been working with Guitar Rig and a Pod HD Pro X but was wanting to try a few of my pedals that aren't available in those. I have a Friedman OD hairy butthole something and a Diezel VH4 OD and a Freakout that makes great feedback at low volumes.

Ha! I forgot about that.

Man, I knew these guys got their dance moves from The Osmonds. This proves it.

Man I loved Crazy Horses. That was on my stack turntable right along with Tres Hombres and Cheap Thrills. Welcome To My Nightmare was on there too. Merrill's voice was great before he lost his nuts and started singing pussy shit.

They had one at Wolfe Guitars a while back. I imagine it may still be there.

I read that book when I was a Christian. We met him when he came out with the album of the same name with Dio and other guests. He claimed his veiled lyrics on that album, such as, "Mask of the Great Deceiver," featuring Dio made his colleagues inquire about his new-found-faith / his witness. My wife and I, then girlfriend, were at a local Christian radio station for an interview with him late night after one of his last Kansas concerts (IIRC) in '81, maybe '82 at the Lakeland Civic Center. His lyrics were always enchanting (during Kansas) with a lot of mysticism involved. I loved that shit and still do. He (was) a very insightful guy. He discussed that in his book but the second half of the book was nothing but a long shopping list about other bands and what he thought of them and possibly their beliefs / occult novelties (slant). He named pretty much every band out there from Van Halen to Led Zeppelin and around the bend to Judas Priest of course. He even said PF was nothing but a bunch of weird noises and said they weren't really musicians even though this was a few years after The Wall and years after DSotM. So he lost some cred with me there and thus, pretty much his opinions of the other bands helped form this calloused heart of mine. This was back in the "backward masking" days where scare tactics were rampant to try to convert the masses, End Times movies, etc. Lots of misinformation about AIDs coming from the Jim Baker / Tammy Faye camp. I could go on and on but I know I'm treading on thin ice now and don't want to get this thread locked down. And, I mean no disrespect toward anyone. This is just my experience I'm relaying. He was a huge Nordic guy to meet in person though. Back on track: Kansas was one of the first concerts I crashed at the Lakeland Civic Center. Styx opened up for them for the Crystal Ball tour. Kansas was on the Dust in the Wind tour. Kerry played a cherry 335 which I thought at the time was just way uncool. But, the fiddle player, Robbie Steinhardt, was way cool. And since I was into classical guitar, the "guy" who had his own "little stage" on the stage, Rich Williams, was really cool too and I thought a better musician than Kerry. But, if you are a lyricist, there's no denying that that is mastered by Kerry. RIP Robbie, sorry I never paid for your show. But so glad I got to see it. One of my fondest memories of the impressionable years.

What ever the "fee" is, it's called theft.