Randi Rhodes Forums

I guess it makes me a Luddite, but I have NEVER understood the willingness to be available and accessible 24/7, even to friends. My kids have my cell number, and my wife has it. Immediate family only.

Whether cell or landline, I reserve the right 24/7 not to answer the damned phone, and as RandyS can confirm, I virtually never do - let 'em talk to voice-mail. Folks I work with don't get it, and reactions run the gamut, from trying to tease me over it, to taking offense. "Hey, I get why you won't give HER the number. But this is ME asking!" Tough shit.

I love having a cell, perhaps to make a call on the road that I forgot to handle before leaving, or to occupy my time on a boring drive, or to have "nrbapiwoop" deciphered from the grocery list. And anyone who asks for my cell # who I suspect will turn it into a chain around my neck - such as a boss - is simply told don't have a cell phone. They happen to "catch" me using one later, I tell them I borrowed my wife's, or my daughter's.

And for anyone who asks for both my land line and my cell number, I just tell them "It's all the same number."

I get that part about wanting a phone on the road. It happened to me once and I didn't have one. "They" didn't even have a cell phone way back then.


It was OK, I twisted up a bit of rag and soaked it with oil, and crammed it down around the shaft. Then I looked along the side of the road in the gravel. I found a soda can pull ring and tab, I knew the tab was seventeen thousandths thick.

I used it as a feeler gauge to reset the point gap, and I set it just a bit loose. It only took about a half hour, but it was Utah desert lonely and hot.

I know that a car or truck might try to strand me again, one tried to do it once so someday; so I worry about not having a phone with me on the road.

I ported my land line number over to cell about 4 years ago. I also got magicJack to replace the home phone. The beauty of that is that I can pretend that the magicJack number IS my cell phone number and give it freely. All calls go to VM and I have email notification activated. Instead of having to check and listen to all VM, I can scan the e-mail notifications for anyone important and listen to the message right from the email.

The big difference back then is if you walked far enough you'd find a pay phone

My smartphone has totally changed my life. I couldn't imagine going back to life without it. I am very ADD and CRS, so the reminders I set on my phone help me keep on top of things. The GPS has been a Godsend. I used to get lost *everywhere*. The rest is yummy gravy; cool apps, a decent camera/video camera and the internet always in my pocket, Randi on the road (as well as my other favorite shows)

Damn right you're honest. Bread? I had every other artist you mentioned except Bread. Of course, I had a roommate that had everything Bread. I had to leave the room when his girl came over. She loved Bread. They were a hippie couple without the hip.

And now, on with the show...

One of my co-workers is a musician (electric guitar and bass). He uses thermionic tube amplifiers and brought in some worn-out tubes from his amps. They're sort of marvelous. Miniature post-modern sculptures in a glass tube. Wonders of miniature human workmanship with delicate screens and corrugated wafers and thin wire supports linked to glass frits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elektronenroehren-auswahl.jpg

I vaguely remember (was about 4-5 years old) accompanying my dad to a store where he put some of these tubes into a sort of kiosk and turned some dials to see of the tubes needed to be replaced.

Studied thermionic devices as part of electrical engineering, but they were always for historical reference or special purposes. It's kind of cool to actually see one.

Dang, I'd forgotten about those, but they used to be all over the place, from hardware stores to pharmacies (those with "sundries" as well). They were often next to the battery tester. But the tops - sort of a desk-like affair, but much smaller - had a bunch of different receptacles to plug in a wide variety of tubes. Press a button and the various lights coming on (or not coming on) would tell you if the tube was faulty.

I also remember one tester where the top was pentagon or octagon shaped, and each segment was a different color with an assortment of receptacles. In theory, the red section took/tested TV tubes, the yellow radio tubes, the green stereos... etc. And in spaces below that segment were the replacement tubes for that category.





'Course, there were and still are lots of professional, military and personal versions, but these are what we all saw in stores.

Yes, the in store tube testers and replacement tube display units are long gone. I have two of the old portable tube testing units, and both of them still function.



Your coworkers tube amplifier however is not technology or manufactured things which are long gone. It's matter of being an essential functioning part of an ongoing art form. Nothing but a Fender Twin sounds like a Fender Twin.

The problem created by having no tube testers in stores to test the tubes in these amps is largely solved by marketing, this remaining remnant of the vacuum tube market is served by selling the tubes as full replacement. sets. Even in the olden days one would replace the 6L6's as matched sets anyway, they were the big expensive ones. The 12A***'s were relevantly inexpensive, they can be added to a set without increasing the cost too much.

You probably were looking at two or four 6L6's, four 12AX7's, and two 12AT7's, if you were looking at a full set of your co-workers guitar amp tubes.

LOL, that might have all been self-defense You always hear fan reports about how nice some musician or actor was when they met them, but you hear otherwise through rumored or documented incidents that they can be not so pleasant. With Joey, I always got the strong impression that the "sweet guy" described in so many fan meeting reports was the same guy around most people.

I meant to post this weeks ago, but I kept forgetting about them. From the looks of the packaging, it's no wonder kids of this era have so many issues.

I'll give you my Fizzies when you pry them from my cold, dead hands

Yes! And also Gold Bond stamps...although I don't think Mom ever collected enough of those to get anything for them.