I feel like a new member, after the downtime

John Watt

Member
Oh yeah! Looking at myself online is still as much of a new me as past behavior.
Beginning in 1979, I was sponsored in a Toronto residence by Professor John McCallum,
Electronics at York University. He took off for a year to go to the University of Hong Kong,
to build their online and write their curriculum.
At the time there were three universities in Toronto wired up to the American information highway,
and that cost them each $50,000 a year. I also got over my video game addiction in 1980.
When I quit playing guitar in Toronto and moved back home, people didn't understand online or computers.
If you haven't read "The Medium is the Message" or "Global Village" by Professor Marshall McCluhan, you should.
His understandings of human nature, our evolution as societies, and the effects of the computer age,
could be a couple of chapters in The New Testament of the Third Millennium.

The cherry Strat got a huge workout this afternoon, in a way it never could before.
A local bandleader, and when I say local he lives less than a ten minute walk away,
came on to me at the library, saying he heard I had a guitar I could plug in and play.
When we jammed and tried some tunes this afternoon, I was using an amp he had.
It had presets to sound like different amp systems, and he changed them from song to song,
or crank it up so I could wind out with distortion and feedback.
That 1972 DiMarzio P.A.F. Humbucker was as expressive as it ever was,
and considering I play the way I sound,
I was picking away in a variety of ways I never got to use through one amp before.

His backyard slopes down to the old canal, now a recreational canal.
Jeff Healey played one of his last concerts on guitar at the park across the canal,
so when I was asked if there was a tune I wanted to try,
I said "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", a song he did.
Jeff Healey is blind and plays with his guitar on his lap and reaches over the neck to pull down the high strings,
being famous for giving his audience deep bends...
I reach up to pull the strings down, being able to do the same thing.
And where Eric Clapton was playing one note, I was doing a minimum two.
When other musicians walk over to get a close look to see how I'm playing,
I know I'm doing okay. The bandleader said I was on a higher level.
I feel that way typing here.

I'm going the change the embroidered maple leaf to my own artwork,
and make some different sizes of stencils and use foam to make little maple leaves,
around the edge of the guitar like a flock of birds trailing in the sky.
That will help to break up all the green of the pick-guard.
The first thing the bandleader said was the guitar looks better than the photos. Nice!

cherry Strat 10.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
The advancement of my use of new power tools is getting to be fun.
When I first cut out the green plastic in the shape of a maple leaf,
with holes for the screws, it looked like a piece of the pick-guard in the shape of a leaf.

When I shaped it and added details and buffed it up it looked like jade,
and the thinner edges were translucent, a lighter, softer green.

This is what it looks like with the nail polish I used to touch up the cord input carving.
Now I wish the screws weren't there because it looks more realistic without them.
I could remove the nail polish and go back to being green,
or I could start over, it was so easy the first time.
Maple syrup is one of my favorite things to eat, so this is a natural for me.
Did you know that beavers will pack part of their den with sugar maple leaves?
When they are fermented by the end of winter they start to eat them.

Hey! I've still got the pattern. There's room for a green one.


cherry Strat 2.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
Ella Beck! This is my second reply for you.
This morning, typing a semi-lengthy reply that addressed all the reasons for this thread,
when I clicked "Go Advanced" to add some photo proof, I was taken out of the domain,
something about all my resources being used. I've been seeing that a lot lately.

Here's a quick version.
As a mayoral candidate who has inspired the federal government of Canada to remove a defamatory libel law,
usually associated with an act of treason against a king or queen,
and inspired the province of Ontario to create two new laws governing lawyers and crimes committed by gang members,
two of our famous crime family brothers were jailed for life and another brother was jailed for sixteen years.
I was told that if I was still living in Welland when I was sixty-five,
I would be made homeless and sick with nothing, and that happened on the months of my 65th and 66th birthday.
Yes, it's worse than you probably think.
The same thing almost happened on my 67th birthday,
but a friendly businessman one building down the street and another friendly business man across the street,
both opened their businesses on the holiday so I could move all my possessions into a safe storage.
I was also offered an apartment and workshop for $400 a month, not needing references or first and last,
with free hydro, telephone and high speed internet.
I also got the keys for a major three story business where I can do my own business for profit.

I posed a "new me" introductory thread a couple of years ago, so this isn't a new thing for me.
I'm surprised you saw this and got to the bottom to ask your question

My criminal and political domain is http://www.johnwatt.ca.

I'm not suggesting you start reading that because it's all about Welland, a city I'm saying you should avoid.
I'm just showing you that so you can take a look and see that I'm for real, from offline to online.
 
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John Watt

Member
This is a quick reply to show you life in Welland and how it is changing for the betterment of all.
This is the first well-known crack house off of King Street, becoming a crystal meth house.
It's been like that for over ten years.
This is an old manufacturing facility, going through the block to the next street over.
The worst hookers would stand on the sidewalk outside this house.
Men and woman with cell phones would stand around street corners, watching for non-users.

A week ago, someone with a ladder spray-painted the message across the front of the building.
I was walking to an apartment painting job, helping a newly disabled friend after surgery,
when I saw the end of the raid.
I stood across the street with dispossessed people, and took my camera out.
I knew a man who drove around picking up money from drug dealers,
because he showed me a big roll he was carrying when I was sign-painting on a corner business.
I said I'm pretty sure you don't want to be in these photos, so he stood back.
A man who was angry because he said a woman stole his dog during the raid,
said why are you taking pictures. I said because I have a camera, and he was down with that.
They said police and firemen pulled up and started breaking down doors, making arrests,
and evicting people for fire code and health violations.

The second photo shows the boarded up building with a two-man security team in the black SUV.
Today, the building owner hired someone to paint over the writing with dark brown paint.
I stopped to talk with the man with one leg who sits on a bench outside a closed restaurant.
He's there to tell people who's in and what they're selling and where to go.
He said some meth-heads were buying brown bottles of tea from the convenience store,
and putting beer in them, so they can keep drinking while they wander around.
He also said he had a lot of new traffic from people who were looking for somewhere new.

The day of the raid, painting in the apartment on King Street,
a white van sped around the corner and the side door opened,
and a man was pushed out with people yelling at him, and he hit hard.
It was obvious his arm was broken, but when the apartment owner and his carpenter,
who were working outside, went over to ask if he needed help,
he just got up holding his arm and looked afraid, shuffling off by himself.


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