Time Cannon

Time to get this goin again. How's that for a threat....

Having always been a technology fan, especially into computers, you learn something early on. The Early Adopter Tax. If it’s new, hot, and you want it now, you will pay double for it compared to the price that it will surely sink to within six months. It’s always fun (and somewhat painful) to go back and see what you paid for early gadgets. I have blogged about this before, having obtained my first computer from my dad who “traded” a complete central air and heat system for our Atari Setup. At the time, we came out REAL good on that deal. The early Atari’s were EXPENSIVE. Looking back, it was insane. In the late 80’s early 90’s, before the proliferation of Teh Interwebs, BBS’ were all the rage. I ran a fairly successful single line BBS called Castle Rock for almost 3 years. The early days of online computing, speeds were not gauged on your CPU , but your modem was the bottle neck. For a long time, we were stuck at 300 baud, which was insanely slow. Then the jump to 1200 baud. ...

I find it funny, as I scroll back at some of the older entries in this blog, the things that I wrote. I actually thought that talking about my kidney stones and rectal exams would be interesting? Wow. Well, I’ve reached another crossroad in life. I had a physical recently and the accompanying blood test indicated that I had abnormally low testosterone. They would need another blood test in a week to verify those findings. A week passes and this blood test says that I DON’T have low testosterone. Huh? According to the Dr., it’s cyclical, and we tested when the hormones were at their lowest. So, let’s grab some more blood in two weeks. The two weeks were up yesterday and I had blood taken again. While talking with the Dr., as I had the last 5 or 6 previous visits, I told him about my feelings of malaise. I have no motivation to do anything. Bills are late and I don’t care. Not eating right, and can’t sleep a full night to save my life. He told me, that regardless of the results of this l...

"Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind." John Tillotson Everyone has their stories of people’s complete lack of consideration these days. The fact the our Mass begins with the request that you please “ take the time to silence all pagers and cell phones ”,  says all you need to know about the state of our society. The fact that there is one nimrod that doesn’t heed this request EVERY Sunday makes it worse. And yes, I do grasp the irony of cussing to myself in church when the  inevitable, lame ringtone breaks the silence. I’m not perfect. Sue me. Anyway, I was coming home yesterday from work minding my own business listening to the new Dean Koontz audio book The Good Guy, when out of the blue the guy in the lane next to me turns into my lane so quickly (and thoughtfully applying his turn signal during this maneuver) that I had to slam on the brakes, as the boat he was pulling narrowly avoid the bumper of my car. I of course, honked and w...

I have been very lax in blogging as of late and REALLY lax in the Audiobook reviews. One of the main reasons that I had started this blog was for a place to post reviews of Audio Books that I have completed. I’m going to try to remedy that as i finish them now. I listen to my Audiobooks exclusively in the car. Previously I would load a book on the IPod and use it. For my birthday last year, I got the CDA-9856 CD Receiver . This unit has a really nice interface with the IPod. Not just an auxiliary jack, but a cable that allows control and view of the Ipod interface through the acual head unit. The CD also will play MP3’s. So, now when I listen to a book, I will burn it (in mp3 format ) to a CD. Pop the CD in the car. This may seem to be the hard wa to do it, but it works really well. When the Audiobook resides on the IPod, there is no way to “bookmark” the track. Sure you power off the Ipod, it picks back where you left off. Before, I would lose my last little bit of charge at the worst...

"..for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself." Jessamyn West I have raised a retard. I swear to God, the things he says and thought processes that flow through his brain never cease to amaze me. Early on in this Blog, I promoted the idea of trying to give your kids more than you had. Don't force them to work during their early high school years and instead let them enjoy their summers unencumbered. As that dickhead Dr. Phil says, " how'd that work out for ya?" I have ended up with an unappreciative individual that is not even remotely ready for the real world. What a slap in the face that will be, standing on his own two feet. I know, I know, I reap what I sow, but that what blog is for isn't it, anonymous venting?? His outrageously expensive school, has a relatively relaxed cel phone policy. You can have you phone, and actually use it in between classes. Just don't use it during class. Kinna obvious don't you think? He come...

Random Pet Peeve. I'm not sure why I let little things bother me when there is so much out in the world that I really should be worrying about. But alas, here is a first in a series of Random Pet Peeves (TM): There is a girl here at work that has the whole trailer park image down. She litterally lives in a trailer and reinforces any and all associated stereotypes therein. She nice enough, but dumb as a rock. I overheard her talking about her evening with the following statement, "I sat in front of the computer all nite and played Solitary" Its SOLITAIRE, not solitary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Told you it was petty, but I hate when people say that. Sue me.

It would take a monumental event to interrupt my latest hiatus in this great tome. But some " fffooofd'mier!!!!" was all it took....

5 Months between posts. This is a great example of an almost abandoned blog. Maybe Ill make one of my new years resolutions to post to the blog more often. Then again... Merry Christmas everyone.....

Things are going to start happening for me now!! Navin R. Johnson The fine folks over at boing boing had and article about black light posters. The image for the article was a picture of the infamous "hippie Mickey Mouse". The same hippie Mickey Mouse proudly displayed by me in my second grade elementary group picture . I emailed Mark the picture thinking he would get a kick out it. He did and he blogged it here . Im featured in a boingboing article. Lookout Star Wars Kid, Im the "Hippie Mickey Mouse" Guy!

"There is more stupidity that hydrogen in the Universe" Frank Zappa You know when you hear those stories, the ones that you can't believe that people are THAT stupid. You think, wow, that cant be topped? But it always does. Stupidity seems to know no bounds. I saw a snippet of the local news last night (something that I consciously try to avoid.). One of the suburbs is following suite with a few other cities and installing cameras at redlights to try and stem the tide of moron red light runners. Then the story shifted to the "does this invade your privacy" slant. They then interviewed a parade of slack jawed yokels (apologies to Matt Groening) who went on about "the violation of constitutional rights. Then came the topper. An overweight lady in her mid thirties actually made this statement: "Sometimes I run late for work and need to run a red lite or two so I'm not late" Really. That was said. I'm not exaggerating. Please by all mea...

Well the guesses came flooding in. Neither were right. I'm in the first row, first kid from the left. Yes, me, with the "hippie Mickey Mouse flashing the peace sign" shirt. To this day, my mother can not explain to me when, or how that shirt came into my possession, or more importantly WHY I was wearing it in second grade on picture day no less. I gotta admit, its pretty damn funny though. Another thing I noticed, why do they always put me next to the friggen Redskin fans???

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." Diane Arbus Since I have not one original idea in my head. Here is my version of Where's Waldo. Nom, over at NomLogic posted his third grade elementary group picture and challenged us to find him. So with apologies to the nomster, below is my second grade elementary school picture with the same challenge. No hints just blind guesses for you! And, not even a prize offered. Once again the original is so much better than the copy.

"You can discover more in an hour of play than you can in a lifetime of conversation" Unknown I graduated from public school. My son goes to an overpriced (it will be worth it in the end they tell me) Catholic parochial school. When I thumb through his homework now, I literally can only do the English and literature he brings home. Everything else is gibberish. He's in 10th grade taking chemistry and his second year of French. In 10th grade I was playing dodgeball in PE and enjoying my favorite class called Outdoor Education. Yes, Outdoor Education. This year long class consisted of the following. Every Monday, we would "learn" the rules of a particular game. Football, soccer etc. If it was raining, Chess, Backgammon and even monopoly. The following Tuesday through Friday was spent actually playing that particular game. We actually got credits toward graduation for this!!! To top that off, every other Friday, we would all bring items for a cookout, as we would h...

"I usually NEVER send these out, but..." Local Habitual Email Forwarder Everyone reading this has one. You know, that person that forwards you every email they receive. The unfunny joke, the Urban Legend that you have to debunk, and more often that not a nice little virus. The ones I really hate are the "forward this to 10 people and your luck will change". Yeah, the fate of my life will improve by pawning off an email on them that they don't want. That Karma sure is strange. Hey did you see that there is a new recipe for Neiman Marcus cookies that's being sent around? Although, on the rare occasion something will be funny, like this:

"back on the track and I'm beatin' the flack..." Young, Young & Johnson Blog Peer Pressure, thats what it comes down to. The TimeCannon was enjoying one of it's many hiatus. Then Nom HAD to re-open the NomLogic. It's not fair really. When NomLogic re-opens, you can't let your blog sink lower in the cyber quicksand. No, you have to re-open YOUR blog and churn out some more long boring nostalgia stories. Not only that, SPIDEY has a friggen blog now. Time to reach down and dredge up some more "first girlfriend" stories. Can't wait, can ya.

...Full of Grace I think I have started to realize why I'm such a sports fan, especially NFL Football. People with absolutely nothing in common can come together for three hours in front of the TV and high five with each other like they have been lifelong friends. My first memory of being a fan happened on December 28th, 1975. I was eight. That day my grandfather was over watching the big game with my dad and myself. My fathers side of the family was always distant. I really didn't know my dads dad. He wasn't around too much. He didn't take an interest in his own kids, much less his grand kids. But Dallas Cowboys football? There some common ground for you. It was playoff time, and the Cowboys were in Minnesota to face Fran Tarkenton and the Minnesota Vikings. Being an eight point underdog at the freezing Metropolitan Stadium (the friendly indoor confines of the Metrodome were not available for another 7 years) was not a promising situation. The game was a classic defens...

Thats how it started. Funny how that phrase shaped what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't know it at the time, but it's easy to see looking back. For those of you unfamiliar with it, thats the opening line of the classic text adventure Zork. Although, when I first adventured into the white house and down into the Great Underground Empire, it had not reached its commecial form and was called Dungeon, floating around the big DEC mainframes. I had a friend in 1979 whose dad worked for DEC. Personal computers were still a year or two away and his dad would bring home a dumb terminal (literally a keyboard and a green screen monitor with a 300 baud modem)to use in the evenings to login from home and work. If there was time when he was done, he would let us get on and show us some of the "games" we could play. Eliza, they Psychic, the Star Trek simulator, the old standby Lunar Lander simulation etc. We would spend HOURS playing the crude games. I was fascinated, I wanted...

A Death In The Family Amazing Live (not anymore) Sea Monkeys! Some sort of algea infection has claimed the life of my beloved Sea-Monkey's. This was the longest living batch ever in my long history of raising the little critters. This batch stayed alive almost THREE years. Amazing. No telling how many generations. So, how 'bout a moment of silence please, for those Amazing Live (now dead) Sea Monkeys...

Freedom! And thats all I have to say about that....