Re: THE WELL: For Real This Time...I'm an Open Book
What is your opinion on modeling (the guitar kind, not the bikini kind)?
Modeling is a very cool technology that I expect to do better than solid-state, but for fifty years guitarists have been going back to vacuum tubes. The best hope for modeling, in my opinion, is if it goes the hybrid route. There is no substitute for real tubes. Is there any good substitute for real butter?
It's still fun watching the technology evolve. Should be interesting to see how right or wrong I am ten or twenty years from now.
I got a question for you Kage.
When you were a teen, did you do anything such that your parents didn't get mad, just 'disappointed?'
My dad was more likely to get mad at me for things that would merely disappoint my mom. The biggest issue for them with me was my academic performance. I had always done very well in school until around fifth and sixth grade, when my grades started dropping. Suddenly, I wasn't in all the top-tier classes. My folks were disappointed/angry with me for not taking my studies seriously. The constant refrain was that I wasn't "buckling down" and "meeting my potential."
In the sixth grade, it was suggested that I might have a learning disorder; this would explain the dropping grades. I was taken out of reading class every few days for a couple weeks, and met with a learning specialist. She asked me lots of questions, had me solve various riddles and problems, and played little games with me. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was being given a standardized IQ test. Fortunately, I scored very high on the test. Unfortunately, that didn't offer a reason for my plummeting grades. This only served to increase my parents' concern and anger/disappointment. I think I just didn't do well in the traditional academic setting. I thrive on different learning styles. That never mattered to my parents -- they just thought I was lazy and irresponsible. Those words -- "lazy and irresponsible" -- still stick with me today, and they hurt. Now I just get angry and disappointed with myself. I need to cut myself some slack.
You're dying peacefully, you children stand over you (assume they're all old enough to understand/comprehend english), this is your last opportunity to leave them with a lasting statement or life lesson... what do you say?
* Assume your last words can't be 'Dial 911'.
"Never forget that I love you, I always have, and if there's a life after this one, I always will. Nobody in the world has ever mattered to me more than you. We're forever part of each other, and that can never be taken away."
I might also try to squeeze in one last "Pull my finger."
