I'm constantly amused by the ads that get stuck on my blog page.  I have no idea what I've written that would cause an ad of "Meet Christian Girls Free" to appear on my page, but man I'm glad it's there.  I am SO tired of paying to meet Christian girls.  It's cool that someone is finally offering them for free.

This blog probably isn't going to generate any discourse.  I just wanted to document the recent accomplishment of the drummer in the band I have the privelege of running.  His name is Chris, and he just got promoted to E5!   A little history on Chris.  Naples is his first band.  When he came to the band, he immediately became known as a "punk," which some of us loved, and of course, some did not.  But no one could say shit to him, because the guy can play.&nbs...

I came to JoeUser in September of 2003.  Those that have been here a similar amount of time have seen my "activity" on the site wax and wane with seeming randomness.  My participation has been "random" because I haven't had any goal in mind for my blogging.  I originally joined when blogging was in its infancy and just wanted a place to spew whatever was on my mind.  It has served me well.   Over time, I saw that this wasn't a universal goal.  Some folks actua...

Hiya JUs! I seem to be able to log on to the ole blogsite ok from my home aboard ship, so I sent Mari (my wife) a batch of pictures from our first gig to upload for me. Bandwidth out to sea is pretty narrow for uploading, but emailing seemed to work ok. So for those interested, I'll be posting some pics here from time to time. We departed on this trip, bound for countries along the coast of West Africa, from Rota, Spain. But prior to leaving, they (yes, the ubiquitous they), wanted us ...

I've dabbled in html a long time, and it's just been dabbling. Enough to be dangerous - just enough. But that has been a good thing for me here at JU, because it has enabled me to manhandle the interface when using the cute little buttons above the edit window result in things that aren't exactly what I want. My wife has been out of town for the last week, and so I've spent more time here than normal. And in the course of that time, I noticed a couple simple things I could offer that mi...

That's right folks. 5000 points for old Ock. You're so screwed. I just made N/A for my rank here in this community. Because when you're named Ockhamsrazor, that means one thing. Top Shelf. I'd like to thank all my peeps for making this possible. You know who you are, you 6 digit mofos, you. This is a great milestone. It means my opinions have more impact now. My opinions are more true than the guy with less than 5000 points. Hahahaha you pathetic losers! You can't compete wi...

Time for explanation of a sort. I've been ranting more often than not, lately, and I've probably given some people the wrong impression. I am not as ranty in real life as I may sound here. Some, yes, but I am also full of good will, tolerance, compassion, and a great deal of empathy...empathy to a painful degree, which is likely the source of my rants when I indulge them. I came here, not to participate in a competition, but to have a place to let go. It is my catharsis. My visions. ...

Joe User is not a world in a rational sense. It is a world in a metaphorical sense. A metaphor is an illustration. You can not function consciously in an illustration. Your conscious that comes to JU is of the REAL world. But some of you have said things recently that indicate to me that you have deluded yourselves into believing that JU is a world that has your individual consciousnesses *in* it. I'm not sure why - perhaps the real world brings you pain (well it does in some form for...

I'm not sure why I am doing this - well yes I am - because credit should go where credit is due. You only have to read blogs posted here on a daily basis for a few days to see that there's a lot of less than quality stuff to sort through. Some of it is mine. I've been trying to get to know the regular posters at JU a little better lately because I'm on leave, and I have the time. Having done so, I've seen some pretty good writers and some fairly funny people, and AS I did so, I just h...

In this post, I polled the community to see how many people were actually in the JoeUser community. I did this in reference to an article which was offering direction to said community at large in an effort to bring JU back to what that writer apparently felt was "the good ole days." It was a noble effort, but as you can see if you look at the responses I got, the community is only about 18 people, so hardly necessary. That isn't really so, of course. Of the people that answered, my...

While reading Little Whip's forum post on manipulating points , I thought of a question I'm really curious about the answer to. How long have you been here everyone, and have you ever looked to blog elsewhere? For me, I've been here since 9/30/2003 12:11:02 AM and have never looked for another place to be. Does loyalty count for anything anywhere? Even here? Your thoughts, please. I'll be bumping this if necessary because A) when I write, most JUs are sleeping, and I want to ...

I decided to forego the Top Ten list of things I have realized I have taken for granted about the states since I moved to Italy and skip right to the #1 thing. Power. I had the following things plugged in and running yesterday: Refrigerator, two computers with 500W power supplies, Mobile air conditioning unit (cools one room), electric fan, a few sorted electric clocks, Plasma TV, and an XBox. Everything else was off. No lights, there was plenty from outside. It was this way for sever...

"Dave Mac" is short for "David McLaurin." He's a high school buddy of mine that asked about the lack of activity on my blog lately in a response to my previous entry "Are we virtual." I began to write him an email explaining what I've been up to, and as I wrote it I realized it was perfectly blog-worthy. Here 'tis verbatim: Hey man I haven't been going to my blog lately, but I just did (for no particular reason, (which is usually the reason)) and saw your comment. I figured I'd j...

In 1984 I returned to college to try it again. Having badly botched Computer Science in 1982, I immediately turned to doing what was easy for me. Playing rock in a nightclub with a band called "Good Intentions." Those two years were two of the very best...memory-wise. Progress-wise I got nothing done in the personal growth department. I guess that goes along with being at a two-year long party. Anyhow, it was a great time where I really tuned up my ears. I could write down an arrang...