Thoughts Aloud

Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category

St J9 and I are off to Russia for a while (river cruise from St. Pete to Moscow). Feel free to trash me while I am gone but expect no responses (not taking PC even though there is WIFI onboard).

Cheers,

Troy

Do you Periscope? If so, you may wish to experience the debate tomorrow night, as I intend to. I will watch it on TV, while simultaneously enjoying Scott Adams’ (Dilbert) running commentary on my iPad tuned to his Periscope channel, “@ScottAdamsSays.” It will be similar to someone “Live Blogging” a political event, except Periscope is an actual streaming audio/visual experience. Speaking of visual, his very hot neighbor will be co-hosting the “Scope” with him. 😉

If you are unfamiliar with Periscope, don’t feel too old. Since I eschew most social media, I didn’t even know what it was a week ago; but I easily became addicted to the technology, once I tried it. It all started when YouTube recommended a replay of one of his daily morning “Coffee with Scott Adams” Periscope episodes, which one of his many followers, using the handle, “CyberDurden,” now converts and uploads to his own YouTube channel. E.g. here is yesterday’s episode:

You may not wish to invest the time to watch the whole episode; but if you are unfamiliar with Periscope, watching a few minutes will give you a feel for how Scott uses the platform very effectively, to communicate with his “Persuasion” oriented fans, Read the rest of this entry »

Although I have proudly owned a couple of them,  I am no longer a Corvette man, since I am still pissed at GM for becoming “Government Motors” for a bailout. Now, even though I haven’t driven a Mustang since I bought a brand new one in 1969, I could go for the latest model:

…but I would want to drive it myself. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º

I find myself weary of trying to awaken sheeple, to the perils facing our nation. Most don't want to hear it. I am bored with reading about and commenting on the latest outrageous corruption and scandals emanating from Sodom by the Potomac. They are now coming so 'fast and furious' that it is impossible to keep up with them in any depth anyway.

Yet, I find it impossible to just give up and let the Pro Retrogressives win a total and final victory, which would bind our posterity in the ancient chains of serfdom, in the land our forefathers fought and died to keep free. I think we need a positive project to focus our energy on, which would at least attempt to save our country for our grandchildren.

It is they, the children, who are the future of America. Yet, presently they are ever increasingly and deliberately being dumbed down. They are indoctrinated in our public schools, to be ashamed of America's past, and view a Marxist utopia as its inevitable future. If we really want to save America, first and foremost this trend must be reversed. Read the rest of this entry »

Following a link on Drudge about a bride watching her new husband being killed by a shark, I was surprised to find it happened in the Seychelles Islands. While tragic, to say the least, I was amused to read the spin of the Seychelles authorities, saying sharks were rare and that the most common species there was the harmless plankton eating whale shark. I just happen to know better.

I lived in the Seychelles as a young man for two years back in ’67/’68, while working on an American satellite tracking station once located there on Mahe. We called it “Nature’s Last Paradise,” because there was no airport and thus no tourist trade. It was not at all uncommon to be the only human on a mile long pure white sand beach. Diving was my prime hobby and I was as close as it got to a dive shop on the island, as I owned the only air compressor for filling SCUBA tanks, except for the time Jacques Cousteau visited us with the M/V Calypso. Funny… I haven’t thought about that episode, which seemed rather significant at the time, in many years…

Read the rest of this entry »

My apologies for not being active here lately; but I have been rather busy with a new hobby.

I do want to give all my old friends a heads up regarding a new scam being perpetrated on unsuspecting old men. Women are often warned about protecting themselves at the mall and in parking lots, etc.; but now men need to be vigilant too while shopping at places with large parking lots like Costco, Home Depot, Lowe’s, or even Walmart.

This insidious new scam works like this:

Two good looking college aged girls will approach while you are loading your purchases in your truck. They start cleaning your windshield, while their breasts are almost falling out of skimpy T-shirts. If you thank them and offer a tip, they decline; but ask for a ride to McDonald’s. If you agree they will climb in your vehicle and on the way there, they start undressing. Then one of them starts climbing all over you while the other one steals your wallet.

It is remarkable how many girls are working this scam and naive old men are the targets of choice. Raised in more innocent times, their mothers only taught their sisters how to say, “No!” to unsolicited advances from the opposite sex. Also, it seems old men rarely report the crimes and apparently can be so “forgetful” they will even fall for it again. Indeed, I had my wallet stolen on Aug,11th, 15th, 19th, twice on the 21st, 25th, 28th, twice on the 29th, and again on the 31st. So far this month they have stolen my wallet on the 3rd, twice on the 5th, the 8th, 10th, 12th, and probably again tomorrow or Wednesday.

It is just awful these days the way heartless kids try to take advantage of us senile senior citizens. What’s more, you never get a chance to actually eat at McDonald’s and I have lost 12 pounds just running back and forth between Home Depot, Costco, Walmart, etc. Please advise all the old men you know to be on the lookout for these scam artists, and hide their driver’s license and debit card in their socks while shopping. Walmart has wallets on sale for $2.99 and sometimes the Dollar Store has them for only $.99. (The best times are just before lunch and around 4:30 P.M.) â—„Daveâ–º

It seems the Iowa Hawk and I share an affinity for T-Bucket Hot Rods. Perhaps I can entice him to come have a look at mine:

Click on the picture to learn about the Pismo Derelicts, one of my other websites. The Iowa Hawk is now in my must read folder. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º

OK, Scott, I had to take that ignoble pile of balsa out of the Jeep yesterday to go shopping. I got tired of looking at it this afternoon, so I stripped it. The aluminum prop adapter was tweaked; but I guess that saved the motor shaft, because the motor itself is fine and runs true. The motor controller, receiver, and all the servos are undamaged. I suppose that one of the additional advantages of the new 2.4 GHz radio control system is that I don’t have to worry about a faulty VHF crystal now either.

The cowl was history, but the canopy was unscratched. That, the magnetic hatch, carbon fiber spar, and misc. hardware was all I bothered to save. Even though everything aft and one of the wings was perfect, I just don’t have room for saving spare airframe parts anymore. It is just as well; back when I had a garage full of them, I rarely used them. Now all I need to do is glue up the new model, and reinstall all the electronics. I am on it, buddy; but don’t expect to be ready by Sunday. L

Btw: The problem we were having last night with the laptop was the mapping software desperately trying to get a GPS fix even though I had unplugged the receiver to bring it out to the picnic table. I am glad it happened, for I had been blaming Vista in my mind for my ever-busy and thus power hungry processor, and certainly don’t need to load it when I am sitting still. I also download a new Vista compliant driver for the touchpad which I hadn’t bothered to do yet because I use a wireless mouse on the desk. The sudden shutdown at the end was just a depleted battery, which Vista recovered nicely from. I guess we spent more time viewing Adams’ animations than I had thought. J Meanwhile, I have added some additional remarks on the subject to the forum debate on it HERE.â—„ Daveâ–º

I am back from a pleasant day of model airplane flying with some old friends I haven’t seen in over a year, even though their club field in Paso Robles is only 50 miles north of my home base here at Pismo Beach. I lived in an Amazon world for so long during my Montessori preschool days, and had forgotten how much pleasure I got from the male bonding opportunities the modeling club offered when I took up the hobby several years ago. I have been basically living a hermit’s existence for the past year and need to get out of that rut. I look forward to my travels this spring and summer.

Unfortunately, I did crash my newest airplane, which my friend Scott had generously given me for the only Christmas present I received this year. I liked the way it flew so much, (before my dumb and/or rusty thumbs pulled when they should have pushed while it was inverted too close to the ground to recover) that I stopped at the hobby shop and bought an identical replacement kit on the way home. That should keep my pen out of trouble for a few hours at least here and there as I put it together. Too bad Scott was there to see me auger it in, or he wouldn’t know the replacement wasn’t the original he gave me.

I also stopped at a Barnes & Noble and picked up a copy of Neil Boortz’s latest book “Sombody’s Gotta Say It” on Troy’s recommendation so we can discuss it in the forum. Speaking of libertarians, I invited a libertarian flying friend I reconnected with today to visit here and hopefully participate. I do hope you all are inviting any simpatico minds to join us here to create a nice group dynamic. They don’t have to be libertarian as long as they are thinkers, not emoters. It is only the tyranny bound bed wetters, hand wringers, and bible thumpers I hope to avoid. â—„Daveâ–º