RickyD,

Welcome to the Forum. You gave me a lot to think about. I will try to refrain from blasting people. I do not know it all, and I just try to put in my comments here and there.

I orginally came to this forum to learn, talk guitar stuff with people, and meet people. The Fender Lounge is a good place to talk about other stuff. I have been getting caught up in the flamming of others and defending myself game.

To all my fellow Forum users, I apologize for any nonsense I might have sputtered the last few months. I really try not to get caught up in the manutia, but I am only human.

RK

_________________
RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

A peaceful World rises from the ashes!!!!

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Hey RickyD,
Unfortunately that sort of thing tends to come and go with most internet forums...I've seen considerably worse on some photography forums I used to frequent but it's also one of the main reasons I stopped hanging around here myself. The sad truth of the matter is that there -are- a few people here who are simply unable to allow others to have their own opinions...their way is the -only- way and they'll cram it down people's throats every chance they get. I typically describe myself as "the odd man out" because I'm usually the guy that's thinkin' so far outside the box, he's forgotten where the box is...I like to experiment and try new things, but there are some folks around here that are completely inflexible when it comes to doing things other than their own ways. They're right, you're wrong and there's no room in between...and goodness help you if you dare suggest otherwise.

I wish I could offer a suggestion for you but the sad truth is that you either have to grin and bear it until it passes or simply walk away and hope that the folks who are looking to learn are able to find their information elsewhere. Hopefully you have more patience than I do...after a while I just had to walk away from it.

Either way good luck to you and welcome to the forum.

Peace,
Jim

bbrodie,
Thank you for the words of encouragment. I'm not actually a "pro" photographer...at least not in the sense that I'm making a living at it or anything (yet), but I fully agree with you. Some of the photog forums out there just get unreal, especially when it comes to equipment. Goodness knows I've certainly got my share of abuse from "lens snobs" every time I'ved tried to point out that folks don't need to blow two grand on a lens just to take decent pics.

BTW...sweet pics of LP...nicely done. I'm not typically a fan of b&w but I think this really suits the man. I've never shot anyone "famous" and my specialty is mostly wildlife and critters (although I've done some music and stage stuff) but please feel free to take a look at some of my own work at www.walczakphoto.izfree.com...I'm always open to comments.

I guess what most of this comes down to really is just that sometimes people suck. Most of the time I can usually deal with it to some degree but I have a lot of family issues going on right now...without going into too much detail, my mother is dying from cancer, so needless to say I haven't had my usual degree of patience dealing with, as RK puts it, the manutia of public forums. Right now it's just easier for me to stay away and come back when things have settled down for me (like this evening for example).

Anyways, good comments there...opinions -are- important even when others don't agree with them. It's up to the individual to draw their own conclusions and that's more difficult when the conversation get's rather one sided (which is why I usually post my own off-the-wall comments...give folks a different perspective).

Peace,
Jim

Hello Tomitus, my mother has brain cancer but I dont consider or see her as dieing, we deal with symptoms as they arise and see her as alive and stable and this spirit in my families mind filters through to her to keep her alive as long as God wants her to be. Prayers to you and mum and may God prolong her days and give you the strength and patience you and family need.

did i miss something again????I'm always the last to know..How did the lonely boy thread go bad???It launched a new forum character with a very interesting historical original fake guitar....

twaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa to you Invader.cc Lonely Boy thread never goes bad or the character it launched, it just gets more infamous as each day passes

Vinny,
Thank you for the kind thoughts and words...I'm truly grateful. In fact that is my mother's condition. She was diagnosed with cancer last fall with tumors on her liver and one of her lungs and this last month it has moved in to her brain with 6 new tumors. This is actually her 6th round with cancer...she's had breast cancer 3 times (lost a breast) and skin cancer twice after that. Basically she's been fighting with this dreaded disease for about 20 years now. As you say, there is always hope and the family has tried to maintain a "positive attitude" as you say but recently the doctors decided to discontinue the chemo and focus on "quality of life" thru hospice care and such so we honestly don't expect she has too much longer. They do have her on some pretty heavy meds so she's not in a lot of pain so that's really a good thing. There's actually considerably more involved than just that but I won't go into that stuff right now. Otherwise it's simply a matter of taking things day by day....hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Unfortunately cancer and I are old companions. In addition to what my mother has gone thru, my father lost a 1/3rd of one of his lungs to cancer a number of years back, my wife had uterine cancer which turned into a 3 year battle back around 2004 and her father died of lung cancer. This has been particularly difficult for my brother as his wife just had to have 2 surgeries for uterine cancer as well so he's been hopping back and forth between Michigan and Ohio while trying to take care of his own family and help with our mother. In the end you simply learn to deal with it...not much else you can do, but obviously some days are harder than others.

Anyways my thoughts go out to you, your mother and your family...I have a pretty fair idea of what you're going through. As with all things, take it one day at a time and embrace life for the gift that it is.




Hey Bob,
Thank you also for the kind thoughts and words. As far as my website goes, it looks like the link for it formatted wrong and added a few periods at the end there. Try this...

http://www.walczakphoto.izfree.com/

If that don't work, just try typing it into your browser manually...I just checked the site and it should be up and running. I took a look thru your site...some good stuff there. Although your focus (no pun intended) is more on people where mine is more critters, it actually looks like we share a few common interests really. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about my work!



Alrighty, that's about all for now. Again thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts about my family....I am truly grateful!

Peace,
Jim

Welcome RickyD, thank you for serving.

And yes, we should play nice with each other. Heaven knows there is enough animosity on this fair planet....

RickyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD play that baby hard ok what are you learning today ?

Figures...it was working fine for me earlier but now it won't come up. I'll check on it tomorrow morning and see if I can figure out what's going on. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Jim