Posts by James Brown

36

My Guitar, My Friend

by Tallon in

one of my interests is music and i play an acoustic guitar.. i wrote a poem about my guitar and thought i'd share it with you.

my poem doesn't match up to some of compound complex's work however, i'd really appreciate any feedback you can give.. my guitar my friend.

reaching for my old companion.

I love guitars. I know I have 50. I might have 60. I haven't counted them in a while. I got all kinds Rickenbackers, Les Paul's, SG, Firebird. Lots of fenders. Gretsch. Ibanez's, Takamine. Peavey, Burns. Epiphone, Lots of bass guitars. Hoffner.

If I had to get rid of them all and go down to one. It would be a fender Stratocaster. I have a lot and have built a few. Very Sturdy they can take a beating not like a Gibson or a Rickenbacker. You drop a Gibson or a Rickenbacker you can spend a thousand dollars getting the neck repaired. If you drop a fender probably nothing will happen and if you do ruin the neck you can buy a new one for one hundred dollars on eBay.

Hendrix played a strat Beck and Clapton play strats. Satriani played a strat before he got sponsored by Ibanez. Ibanezes are very good guitars also. My latest acquisition was a Fender Flea Jazz bass.

Before that a Gretsch electromatic hollow body .

I try to play for an hour a day. I have a lot of recording equipment. I will record all the side instruments and then record vocal and lead guitar to all kinds of songs. Any song that catches my fancy.

And then I have a library of 100's of rock classics that I can go over whenever I want.

I make the recording and leave the lead guitar and vocal off. Then I can jam out on any song that I am in the mood for.

Or if I get a gig. I have 100's of rock songs already recorded and I can just pull up the tracks and refresh myself on my parts.

I used to play a lot of gigs in my 20's thru 60's but Now that I am retired and don't need the money, I spend more time playing soccer. Soccer is less aggravating more peaceful and less stressful.

Playing music is peaceful and relaxing but playing music for money is more stressful than soccer.

At least that is how it has been for me for the last few years.

If you have a band you got to have 3 or 4 drummers and 3 or 4 bass players.

Then I sing and play guitar.

Or I just advertise my services on Craig's list. And be a hired gun and let somebody else have the stress.

154

I believe in Evolution and that God created life

by Crabby in

anyone else also hold this view or understand it at least, or do you feel the need to argue that both can in no way coexist?.

James Brown

I do not know how we got here.

I have a number of opinions.

My first choice is that God made us.

But it is hard to argue and prove that from the bible alone.

I know we adapt if you want to call that evolution. But I do not believe in unguided evolution.

My second opinion is that we are in a computer program or simulation.

Then I have a whole lot of other opinions based on various things.

The oldest text know to man the Sumerian text have pictures hieroglyphics of space men and space ships.

I think they are probably true. But that just pushes the God issue back farther.

Hopefully, this earth is a stopping point or training ground on life's journey

133

Why Are You Here?

by Believer in

i'm wondering why believers remain members of this forum which is clearly hostile to believers.

as one member said, nonbelievers pounce on any semblance of belief like piranhas on prey.

as former jws we should have had our fill of judgmental know-it-alls, but here we are.

James Brown

I come here because I was born in and raised a JW. In a way this is my original tribe which I had to escape from.

I appreciate the different directions we have moved in. They say one man sharpens another.

The common denominator we all have in common interest me.

3

Gord Downie - No Mention ??

by berrygerry in

with the loss of music greats in 2016, i'm somewhat surprised that gord downie hasn't been mentioned here.. the hip make such good music, and put on a good show.

saw them here about 4 years ago, and gord brought his young son out on stage.

with his health news, it makes that memory so much more touching.. whenever we lose a talented entertainer, we feel such loss, wishing that their talented gift to us did not stop.. for him to give, what can only be described as, a self-sacrificing good-bye tour, leaves me absolutely speechless.. http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/25/final-tragically-hip-tour-dates-announced.

James Brown

Never heard of him or them until I found this tread. He and them are pretty good. I look forward to exploring their music.

18

FYI My JW mom and Alzheimer's

by scary21 in

jw
friends

one year ago today my mom passed away.

she was 91 years old.

it has been really hard on me because i never expected what happened, to.have happened.

James Brown

My mother has Alzheimer's. It is a terrible disease.

57

Did you participate in a Drama?

by Hecce in

i am bringing this up because even it was a lot of work, for the majority of the friends this was a rewarding experience.

camaraderie, joking, costumes, props and when the time came the celebrity status of being in the drama.. back in the 50s and 60s, conventions could be as long as 8 days and from about 1966 the dramas became an integral part of the program.

we had one per day and the brothers looked forward to their presentation.

James Brown

I was in the Noah's Ark drama in Cleveland stadium about 1973, I played Ham. I met brother Knorr.

55

How many of you are health nuts?

by Harvard Illiterate 411 in

jw
friends

there was/is a sister in my old hall who was a pharmaceutical sales rep and she was a huge proponent of anything in the drug industry.

when someone had a headache, she was the first to say "take an asprin.

" now my husband and i are what you might call old hippies.

James Brown

Since Armageddon did not come in 75, I am now 63 years old.

I can no longer eat like I did when I was young. My body makes too much cholesterol.

So every day for breakfast I have oatmeal and blueberries.

For lunch I have a cup of beans and for dinner 5 out of 7 days I eat vegan and 2 out of 7 eat chicken and veggies, or fish and veggies.

I eat at home often, it is a rare thing for me to go out to dinner.

I used to love to go out to dinner but high cholesterol has put an end to that.

i take vitamins every day about 10,

Go to the gym 5 out of 7 days and play soccer 3 to 5 times a week.

9

I'm A Pacifist but My God Wasn't!

by new boy in

jw
friends

were is the sense...to this?.

i wouldn't go to war...i was a conscientious objector in viet nam.

i couldn't even get into a fight at school without getting into trouble.. yet my god...jehovah was is a jealous god an angry god....a god who when he got pissed off could destroy a whole planet...remember the flood....(the bible said he felt bad afterwards)...that was nice.. now he is getting ready to do it again....7 billion people worth....and why?.

James Brown

I remember having to go before the draft board to go to Viet Nam when I turned 18.

I cant say I was a pacifist. But I do know I did not want to get killed.

I told the draft board I had a problem going into the army because of my mothers religion.

I said maybe, I would go in the coast guard and drive around Lake Erie in a boat.

They said you have a pretty high draft number 181. Why don't you just wait and see if we get that high.

They never made it to 181.

I do remember feeling very conflicted. I would not have been happy in jail as a conscientious objector and I would have gotten sea sick riding around in a boat on Lake Erie or the Mekong Delta.

I did not know it at the time 18 years old but I am pretty sure today that God killed more people in the bible than the Devil ever did. I think Satan only killed 10 people in the bible.

64

Would a loving creator give humans the gift of free will?

by Heisenberg in

they say ignorance is bliss... well, i wish that god did not give adam free will.

i am ok to not have free will if it means i will live forever in perfect paradisiac conditions.it has been explained that free will is a gift from god.

they say 'who would want to live life like a robot?

James Brown

Posted by James Brown

In my opinion a loving creator would and did give man free will.

And that is the whole problem with opinions. They are based on how we see the world. This depends on where we were born, how we were treated, what we were taught and everything else that happened before we had that opinion.

Do you think someone born into a Hindu family in India would have the same choices in life as someone born in Italy? Would they both be taught about the Abrahamic God? When does the person born in India get to get to exercise their free will so they can put their faith in Jesus?

I post lots of opinions. I am an opinion generator.

I have lived to be 63 and do not feel that I have had free will very many times in my life.

I always had to go to work to pay my bills. I could only stay home when I had a day off.

I had to be a JW until I figured out I did not have to be one. I could not leave one minute before.

One opinion I have in my data banks from extensive reading on the subject from a wall of books in my library. Is that we are God and we are all parts of God spirits having material experiences. And we are trying to find our way home.

Another opinion is that we are In a matrix. We are in a computer program. Personally, I have seen some tears in the fabric to support that opinion.

I am pretty sure, I will never know for sure what is going on in this life and be able to post it on this discussion board.

I am stuck with opinions.

64

Would a loving creator give humans the gift of free will?

by Heisenberg in

they say ignorance is bliss... well, i wish that god did not give adam free will.

i am ok to not have free will if it means i will live forever in perfect paradisiac conditions.it has been explained that free will is a gift from god.

they say 'who would want to live life like a robot?

James Brown

There are a lot of choices, free will that people have.

2 popular choices that people have to make is to make sense out of the bible and there being a God.

or that there is no God, designer creator and we ended up here by chance.