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Vanilla Strange Gato

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Everything posted by Vanilla Strange Gato

  1. She seems smart.
  2. Geddy Lee turned 72 yesterday. He is still sitting in with some people here and there and plays great.
  3. Dang it. You got a fever with that?
  4. My dad had a pretty varied library of LP’s when I was young. We heard a lot of things. Lots of classics. “In The Hall of the Mountain King” was a frequent listen. He always included a heavy dose of Herb Alpert. My brother and me stared at one particular album cover more than all of the other album covers combined.
  5. I’ve never heard of this Nigel fellow, but I’ve heard of Hillsong. Good to see they are using high quality instruments to praise the creator of our universe and savior of all mankind. 👊
  6. I’m not a big Gretsch guy, but geez…this guitar would be welcomed with open arms and hands at my house if it showed up as a gift. I really enjoy this guy’s demo videos. Keeps them succinct. Provides a lot of details about the guitar. Plays all pickup positions. Gives you a good look at it. Does a great playing video for each guitar he reviews. He is just a guy in a small room in Singapore. He should have way more followers and views than he does considering the quality of his work.
  7. There is that. However, I’m not Wolverine. “No man can take a beating like that without a mark to show for it!” I have reminders every day.
  8. My blood counts will always suck going forward. A couple years ago I had hip pain. Doc said it’s very likely bursitis, but because it’s me, he wants an MRI. Gotta be sure I don’t have some secondary tumor. It was bursitis. But the MRI showed that the bone marrow in my hips and pelvic region is all mottled from radiation. I met with an orthopedic surgeon. Asked if I needed a hip replacement. He said “Oh, no. There is only a 50% chance that would work. The ligaments and tendons and muscles that need to hold all that in place? They all got radiated too. Great. I’m 85 freaking years old inside.
  9. There is that. 😒
  10. Some plastic surgeons have before and after photos on their websites. The befores can be bad. The afters can be better but leave them looking like Chucky in some cases.
  11. I was there. Was a freshman in high school. I think it was my third concert ever (Asia and Van Halen were 1 and 2)? The drummer for Golden Earring was pretty ballsy. He did a really good solo during their set. Not something you see from an opener. And not many drummers are going to do a solo ahead of Neil Peart doing his later. Rush always had good openers, and they were never butthurt and thought “we don’t want to bring a band that might take away from what we do”. Looking at you, Van Halen, with the rockabilly band you brought out on the 1984 tour. Or the aging BTO you brought out on the 5150 tour. Or freaking After The Fire and “Der Kommisar” in 1982. Golden Earring was solid.
  12. They had seven females once.
  13. That was a satisfying watch. It would be great to get that ‘54 Strat into the hands of Eric Johnson to replace his original “Virginia” Strat, but the one in this video is Ash. Virginia was Sassafras. My guess is EJ and his magic canine hearing would be able to tell the tonal difference.
  14. We need people who DON’T have cancer to visit this board so we can put the fear of God into them about being proactive with their health, getting checked when they are supposed to, and not ignoring any changes in their body like a typical man (that’s a shot at myself).
  15. I didn’t want a port when it was suggested. I had already been thru that first big surgery and ended up with an ileostomy (reversed after a year) and knew I had a fight ahead. For some reason, getting a port made me feel like “I don’t want to be like those cancer patients that get chemo and are hooked up to tubes and IV’s and look sickly.” My colorectal surgeon said “No, you want that. You want to use that instead of having the harshness of those chemicals wear down the walls of the veins in your arms over time.” He was right, of course. It came in handy for other surgeries in the future and for administering contrast during scans. Had my Power Port for nine years. It served me well. You will be glad you have it for this part of the journey.
  16. Saw them open for Rush on the Signals tour in 1983. They were good. Their drummer in particular was good. Also, I think Mike Tramp had too much of the random hair band whiny voice back in the day, but damn if White Lion’s version of Radar Love and the video wasn’t greatness in those days. That was mostly because of Vito Bratta, but Golden Earring gave them something classic to work with.
  17. Oh, I beat it in 2007. It came back in my liver again in 2008. I beat it again and it came back in my liver once more and a lymph node by my aorta in 2009. I’ve been clear since October 5th, 2009. That day they removed the lower third of my liver and took my gallbladder as well. They removed the lymph node that was hot and a few others in the vicinity just in case. Then they shielded my organs as best they could, except for the aorta, which withstands radiation pretty well (????) and they performed intra-operative radiation therapy inside my body on the tumor bed where that lymph node had been, right there in the OR while I was open on the table. Instead of going five days a week for six weeks like I had to when I got radiation in my hips/pelvic area, they just zapped me once inside and I was done. I do not recommend doing any of this if you can avoid it. And if you have ever had a rib spreader used on you, then you understand the soreness that comes with that for a few weeks after. All of that was done at M.D. Anderson in Houston.
  18. I’m ready for Star Trek Enterprise sick bay open scanning technology. But hey, I want a teleporter so I don’t have to deal with TSA and long flights too. My primary site tumor was a foot long, weighed ten pounds, and had grown thru the back wall of my large intestine and was pushing on my spine. I had tweaked my back in the past so I thought my back pain was just associated with an old injury. Had about 60 lymph nodes involved and 6-8 tumors in my liver, with the two largest being in the lower lobe and they were Silver Dollar sized. My first CT didn’t know all the lymph involvement and only showed one little shadow on the liver. The PET/CT, however, made my liver look like the surface of the moon. I went thru shock and sadness and about three days and moved into being furious pretty quickly. It helped. Fuck cancer. All of it. Every form in every part of the body.
  19. I understand how CEA’s work and their relevance. Mine was 29 when I was diagnosed but I met patients who had CEA counts in the hundreds. hopefully they get a better blood test in the future.
  20. CEA was 3.0 or lower?
  21. Vanilla Strange Gato

    Rush

    Well this stinks for Alex. Commenters are saying broken string but I'm not seeing it Looks like he's trying to get a string to go back into the nut slot at one point?
  22. Dude. M.D. Anderson is like a model convention on some floors. You need to explore other floors. They don’t seem to have the Barbie convention that is the pharma reps I encountered at Methodist. Pharma rep interviews must be tough. “You’re really really hot. Can you memorize the fact sheet about the drug we are pushing. Ok. You’re hired.”
  23. I sent them money for (checks calendar in my memory) eight years and I never got a cup! Or maybe they offered it after my liver resection surgery and my wife told them no. It’s awesome to get requests from the M.D. Anderson foundation for donations while you still have a five-figure balance that gets $3000 added to it every quarter when you go in for an MRI. Now I want the cup they owe me.
  24. They used a replacement in the 90’s when Christine’s fear of flying (or maybe it was all travel) kept her off the road.
  25. It’s pretty crazy.
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