Stringjam

Really cool stuff, whittler. I still use this little guy any time I can't get a bite - because it ALWAYS gets something to bite. Plus it's just flat out fun to fish and catches pretty much everything that swims.

I'll second Nate's rec of Tiger Direct or NewEgg. You'll get a good price and good service / support from either. Pretty much any new laptop will be able to run PS. If it's in your budget, I would go with a Core i5 processor or better over the Pentium stuff. Minimum 4GB of RAM and you're good to go. You'll see a bit faster loading times if you get something with a 7200 rpm drive as well, but I wouldn't trip too hard on that.

Awesome work, Marty. The green on green pattern (crank 6) has always been one of my favorite colors of yours.

Those are some FANTASTIC little cranks, Ben! Love your finish work. I can attest to how well Whittler's little cranks work on bass of all kinds, and I'm sure yours are gonna kill as well! BTW....diggin' your photos!

I love the early "steel-bumper" C3's......those lines! My dream car would be an early C3 dropped onto a modern chassis.

I liked it...with the exception of the obvious sexual references with the little girl - they REALLY could/should have left that scene out.

I saw the preview for that a few nights ago - looks very interesting. I am definitely going to check it out. Pretty excited to see The Hobbit getting under way as well.

http://theweek.com/article/index/213374/atampt-buys-t-mobile-winners-and-losers I can only see suck from this. AT&T sucks, and they're buying up one of the carriers that didn't suck, and actually provided great customer service and pricing. The worst part, AT&T probably won't carry on T-Mobile's tradition of using hotties for the TV spots.... ...

I'm pretty sure Ark Music Factory is responsible for 99.7% of the content of both that song and video, so I guess they should be given the credit as the real "artist" here (if the term artist can be used in any conceivable sense). Rebecca Black was the lucky girl that showed up and sang karaoke to the tune - and now she's gone viral. It really doesn't bother me....except for the fact that this video will probably become the next "Rick Rolled" hotlink and I'll have put up with that nonsense for the next year.

..And figuring out which seat I should take. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with that call....

Love the color on that last crank, Marty! That would be fantastic in just about any water color.

Great looking baits!

The Mudbugs and original Bombers are great cranks. They do a great job coming through cover - but I take those infernal eye-mounted hooks off and reattach the hooks with split rings. The smaller ones are killer for smallmouth when they're shallow. The action is very erratic / panicky

Cool body shape, Marty - - very nice looking cranks!

Can they run Crysis at 30+ FPS? No? Sorry...not interested. Nothing against Mac, though. They build a quality product.

Not everyone can manage their time as well as some of the people you know though. I know this one stoner who is pulling above a 3.0 GPA while majoring in Electrical Engineering. Mind you, we're at UIUC, which has a very rigorous Engineering curriculum. Problem is, I seriously wonder sometimes about how much more he could have accomplished if he wasn't spending hours every day getting/being high. He's an incredibly intelligent guy, so he can get away with spending less time than many other students on homework/studying. But imagine how much more he could accomplish if he spent the time he now uses to get/be high on more studying, perhaps some research with professors, etc. I could never become a stoner. The stuff's not exactly cheap, and I spend way too much money on fishing tackle as is. Being happy is an accomplishment. He's probably intelligent enough to have figured that out. Just my opinion, but I have a feeling most of the stoners who give weed the rep for causing people to be lazy and unambitious would be exactly the same way without it.....lazy and unambitious. I know far more people who have had their personality radically altered through the use of anti-depressants, which don't seem to receive ANY negative press - - - despite the fact that all you basically have to do to get them "prescribed" is to ask for them. (there are some people who do have a real clinical need for them, so don't take me the wrong way)

I work with plenty of people who smoke weed and they're some of the most skilled, hardest working folks I know. Lots of hypocrisy surrounding this issue.

The best expensive lure I ever bought was a Charlie-O Find one in really nice shape and they go for over $40 a pop. I bought this one for $25 and have caught the SNOT out of bass on it. Very unique action. If you like your fat cranks to act more like a lipless crank, this is the one.

My boss owned a Pit Bull for almost 14 years. I played with it a lot and never felt any kind of fear - just a great, lovable dog - and always had been..... .......until the day it decided to try to bite his kid's face off. It could have ended far worse, but he was right there when it happened and was able to tackle the dog. It killed him to put him down. That's the only time I've ever seen him cry.

I certainly won't brag. I try to get on the Crysis Wars servers any chance I get (usually Team Instant Action), but I just don't have enough time to get as good as some of those guys. I usually end up somewhere in the upper-third....every now and then I'll win a round (miraculously). Very addictive, though.....I really lose track of time. Last Saturday I logged on around 10:00pm just to go a few rounds before bed. By the time I finally got to bed it was 4:00 am. ;D

I never expected Keith to be brought up here, I don't think his first album is even out yet - - are you a member at SevenString.org? I dig a lot of his stuff.....Pillars of Creation is one of the best riffs I've heard in a LONG time. It just kicks a**. I rarely post on SevenString anymore but its a great forum. I have the Schecter Loomis 7 String and really dig his playing. Heart of the Sea Nymph is a really cool tune. Loomis is just an outstanding guitarist. I've never played a Loomis but the clips I've seen are impressive. Looks like a killer 7. I put together a 7-string Strat with some custom and obscure parts. I couldn't really find what I wanted (a pure Strat with a 7th string) and I couldn't afford a custom, so I hunted down an old Squire 7 body (hard to find.....like trying to hunt a unicorn ). Completely custom neck and a few other things.

I never expected Keith to be brought up here, I don't think his first album is even out yet - - are you a member at SevenString.org? I dig a lot of his stuff.....Pillars of Creation is one of the best riffs I've heard in a LONG time. It just kicks a**. The last song I heard that impressed me? I was blasting this a few nights ago. Tonight I was grooving to one of my fav old Incubus songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ZRvxDrOxo

The idea of flat finishes underwater cracks me up. Umm..nothing is "flat" when you get it wet.

I like music from every decade - including the present. If I had to pick one - probably the 90's (and into the 00's). There was just a huge boom of creativity in rock and unique stuff coming out of that decade. Soundgarden, Incubus, Tool, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Live, Sublime, 311, King's X, Red Hot Chili Peppers, STP, Audioslave, Rage...etc....

Geek squad is terrible. There's a GS guy in my Windows Server class. The first day of class we all grabbed a hot-swap HD for our computers (for those that don't know....you just slide these drives in a tower bay and lock them in with a little key.) A few minutes later the GS guy was asking the teacher for drivers because his system didn't see the drive....or he thought maybe he had a bad drive. Teacher - "Did you lock in the hard drive?" pwned One of them in another class actually turned about to ask me how to activate his copy of Windows. ;D