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Mike A

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Posts posted by Mike A

  1. Posted

    2 hours ago, W2DR said:

    Who in their right mind would ever set foot on an airplane made by a company named "Boom"?  🙂

     The same people who would fly with Amelia Earhart luggage. Don’t know if that brand exists anymore, but I remember that it was among the prizes people could win on TV game shows years ago. I remember always thinking which marketing “genius” came up with that brand name?

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    When I was a little kid playing war with the rest of the neighborhood kids, it was the early 1960s, which coincided with the 100 year anniversary of the US Civil War.  I remember lots of stuff like flags, caps, etc. (US & Confederate) being available at five & dime stores (another thing that doesn't exist anymore).  

    One of my friends had a Johnny Reb Civil War Canon.  As you can see in the commercial below, the cannon had a metal rod in the middle of its barrel.  The cannon ball itself was extremely hard solid plastic with a hole drilled in the middle.  To load it, you would place the ball on the rod. What you can't see is that there was a humongous spring surrounding the rod. You then used the rammer to push the ball down the rod to compress the spring & lock it in place.

    As it has always been, the kid with the ball controls the game, so this friend controlled the cannon, relegating the rest of us, literally, as cannon fodder.  Actually, it was a lot more thrilling for us to be on the receiving end.  We played in a narrow alley, forming a human wave, over & over again, charging his position. When we heard the cannon go off, we all zigzagged, crashing into each other, diving, etc, because we didn't want to be struck in the head.  Man, that ball would sting if it did.  It's amazing what kids of my age could play with back then that wouldn't be allowed to be sold nowadays.  Check the end of the commercial that shows the "casualty".  That's truth in advertising 🤣

    Mike A.

     

    • Like 3

  9. Posted · Edited by Mike A

    11 hours ago, birdguy said:

    Another thing I like about the flip phone is I can hear it ring.  I have a hard time hearing the iPhone ring when it is on my desk in the next room.  I can hear my wife's flip-phone ring in the next room clearly.

    Haha! I know exactly how that feels.  My hearing is extremely bad.  When I finally had to ditch my flip phone a few years ago for an Apple SE, I thought "How the hell am I going to answer the phone if it's in my pocket & I can't hear it?" 

    First I went to a website that had Foley sound effects for sale.  I checked out fog horns & ship horns, but they weren't quite right.  Then I came upon a submarine dive horn (AAAH-OOOO-GAAAH, AAAH-OOOO-GAAAH!!), which was PERFECT.  Loud as hell!!  I looked up online on how to convert it to ringtone format.  The fun part was being out in public & when my phone rang, people would stop & look around with a "offensive initials not allowed?" (edit: What the ****) expression on their faces.   

    But my hearing continued to deteriorate, so I didn't always hear it.  I found something called Ditto, which is a tiny device you can clip onto yourself (i.e., t-shirt) that connects to the phone via Bluetooth & vibrates when your phone rings. It worked, but it eventually quit working.  I tried to order another one, but they no longer were in business.

    I searched for similar items, but they all seemed to no longer be made.  I don't like to traffic in conspiracy theories, but I bet Apple had a hand in this in order to promote the Apple watch, which can be set to vibrate when your iPhone rings.  All these other devices needed apps on your phone, & they were no longer available in Apple's app store.

    So I finally broke down, gave in & bought an Apple watch (Series 3, the cheapest one).  It actually works very well.  The extra benefit is with the increased shopping I do online in the last year, I have lots of deliveries, & USPS, UPS & FedEx no longer ring the doorbell when the leave something anymore (most of the time I can't hear it anyway).  But since they issue tracking numbers, you can have these services send you SMS updates on the package status.  When it's delivered, my watch vibrates, so I can retrieve the package immediately; often I can still see the truck driving away.

    My hearing dilemma reminds me of a TV sketch with Rowan Atkinson I saw years ago:

    Mike A.

  11. Posted

    2 hours ago, birdguy said:

    Years ago there was a commercial for something or other that was just a head in a box.  Someone put the box on a table in a classroom for the head to deliver a lecture.  Then all the students left the room.  The head in the box was asking someone to move him someplace but nobody came.

    I loved that commercial “Z-12! I would like to go......I have things to do” 😂

    Mike A.

  13. Posted

    6 hours ago, martin-w said:

    Yep, Just had to do it. The "spot on" treatments are very effective. Its important to contact the vet though and ask which particular drug is working at that time because the pesky fleas do become immune. Essential to spay the environment too, or the little devils just hang out in the carpets till they can jump back on. 

    Yes, we use Cheristin spot treatment for our cats, but not year-round. We want to minimize using those treatments for our two oldest boys (18 yrs & 14 yrs).  What we do is manage their environment.  In addition to vacuuming, we have plenty of small & inexpensive blankets that we put in those places where they like to lounge, nap & sleep overnight.  Those blankets get changed & washed frequently.  As a result, we only have to use the spot treatments for a few months during the summer & early fall.  So the flea comb my wife wields is mainly used to check if there is any flea activity.  As a result, we usually can get by with using the spot treatment for only 3 doses a year.  Our vet is happy with the plan, cats are OK, we're happy that they get minimal exposure to the treatment. (I know, it's safe, but this way we have peace of mind.)

     

    Mike A.

  14. Posted

    12 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

    However in Antarctica they wouldn't be as much of a threat, if you left them out to wander they would freeze to death, therefore they would never get the chance to establish themselves as an evasive species. 

    Our six cats become very evasive when my wife shows up with a flea comb 🙀

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Maybe it’s Musk’s “Plan B” for Tesla. With Tesla’s Fremont plant here in Northern California, he’s always having to deal with “pesky” stuff like regulations, worker safety, unions, etc., those things that boy genius billionaires feel that they have immunity from. Maybe those monkeys will soon  be assembling his Teslas. 🤔

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/it-looks-like-elon-musk-isn-t-moving-tesla-out-of-california-after-all/ar-BB1dQ2iP

  21. Posted

    Dear Abby,

    I’ve been a regular user/visitor of AVSIM for almost 20 years, dating back to the previous forum software that used to show discussions threads in a branch-like structure. I’m writing for your help to solve a mystery for me.

    As shown at the bottom of each post, one can either “like” it or “upvote” it. Like is self-explanatory; what does an upvote do at AVSIM? I’ve seen that at Microsoft’s official MS2020 forum, upvoting a subject measures how many people think a post requesting a feature or bug fix is important, so Microsoft can gauge the amount of interest in it.

    Any light that you can shed on upvoting at AVISM would be much appreciated.

    Signed,

    Confused & Clueless Codger 🤓

     

     

     

    • Upvote 1

  22. Posted

    8 hours ago, scianoir said:

    Same here! We had to write it at the end of EVERY piece of homework even maths and science subjects so I expect that when my old brain finally succumbs, the last surviving neuron will be the one with AMDG written on it!

    The more I think about it, you're right!  We had to put AMDG on the assignments of our other classes as well (this was around 50 yrs. ago for me).  I guess it's the combination of Sgt Fr Harrington's Latin class being during my first year, in the morning, the obsessive attention to details, the outfit he wore, the REWRITE stamp, being called creatures, the "resistance" screaming it back at him, made his class a Jesuit "boot camp" 🤯.

    You know how when either on the news or at the beginning of a video clip, they give a warning if it contains violence or other objectionable material?  I've noticed here in the U.S. for the last several months or so, some of these messages say something like "Warning: May Contain Triggers".  That is what PMDG is for me.  It's just too close to AMDG, & it brings me back to Fr Harrington's classroom 😱 🤣

    Speaking of Latin, when my sister found out I was taking Latin, she recited a poem to me that she learned when she was taking Latin in high school*:

    Latin is a language,

    Dead as Dead Can Be,

    First it Killed the Romans,

    Now It's Killing Me.

    All are dead who spoke it.

    All are dead who wrote it.

    All are dead who learned it,

    Lucky dead, they've earned it.

     

    * Noel, if you're reading this, my sister in the mid 1950s went to Presentation High on Turk & Masonic, just a couple of blocks from the old SI.

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, birdguy said:

    Did you go to the me one or the old one on Stanyan Street just down the hill from USF?

    Noel

    SI moved to 37th Ave in the fall of 1969, & I started there the next year. I “technically” attended at the Stanyan St. SI for 2 summers @ 1967 or so, but they were sports oriented programs for kids.

  24. Posted

    2 hours ago, scianoir said:

     

    As a fellow alumnus of a Jesuit school I can see how the term 'Jesuits with guns' might not be totally inappropriate to describe the Marines!! The 'Jays', as we used to call them, were certainly a very determined bunch!! In fact the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, was himself a professional soldier in the Spanish army until he was injured and, although I am open to correction if I am wrong, Ignatius is the patron saint of soldiers.

    I have also heard the Jesuits referred to as "God's marines" and "the Pope's stormtroopers" although, from what I have read, it seems that frequently down through the years they were more of a thorn in the side of the Vatican presumably because of their tendency towards free and sometimes radical thinking which did not always fit in with the church dogma of the day. There is no doubt, they certainly taught you to think for yourself rather than slavishly following church teaching and the Religious Knowledge classes in our senior years at school were more akin to philosophy lessons than religious teaching!

    Overall they were great educators although I don't think we fully appreciated it at the time. 

    A.M.D.G. (you might remember that Noel!)

    Bill

    Every Single Time, I mean Every Single Time I see PMDG, I automatically think of A.M.D.G., as it was permanently etched into my brain because I had to write that on homework in Fr. Harrington’s Latin class, & just today found out that Noel & I went to the same high school. 

    Fr. Harrington was a really “old school” teacher, late 60’s, and the only one at the school who wore a cassock. He must have been teaching since the 1930s. He was so strict on the format he required on the work we turned in.  Line items had to be numbered in a certain way, i.e. 1)  2) etc., not 1 or 1. , exact location of our names & title of the class.  If any one item was not correct, he refused them. He actually had a custom ink stamp that said REWRITE in red ink, which meant we had to do it completely over.  As he would hand back your REWRITE paper, he would address you as “CREATURE!” I remember once a classmate got his paper back without the REWRITE stamp, but it was somewhat wrinkled and had a shoe print in the middle. Fr. Harrington was so upset with this paper that he refused to waste his ink on it, stepped on & twisted it with his shoe 🤣 .

    Ah, but the best part was the revenge of the older former students.  Fr. Harrington’s classroom was in the corner of the top floor of the building, adjacent to a stairwell.  The door of the classroom was situated in the front right corner in such a way that if someone would open it without stepping in, you couldn’t see who it was. Several times a month, someone would fling that door open & scream “CREATUUURRREEE!!!!”  Fr. Harrington, face full of rage, would run to the door, but by that time the perpetrator had already fled down the stairs & out of sight.  Those incidents were real morale boosters 😋!

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 2

  25. Posted

    19 hours ago, birdguy said:

    San Francisco 1950.

    Noel

    Class of ‘74 here. Just had to ask, because my brother, who was 20 years older than me, also went to SI on Stanyan St. @ 1952 and he was kicked out of there as well, finished up at Lowell, which back then was on Hayes just off Masonic.  Ha ha, small world 😆

     

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