I’m a big fan of flight simulators and I love a good driving game. Nothing that I’ve ever tried, however, can equal the thrill of piloting a Toyota down the road. To experience it yourself just click on the picture below:
Jeff's Place
Photos And Other Stuff
Sacred Cow
The Sacred Cow was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal plane. The term Air Force One was not used at that time.
Stop The Spread Of Germs
The following picture is yet another public service of the JeffPicard.com blog. I beg you to print it out and hang it up in the restroom wherever you work.
This poster was created by Dick DeBartolo and used with permission. Dick, also known as the “GizWiz,” has been a writer for Mad Magazine since 1966. His accomplishments are too numerous to go into here, but you can read all about him at his own site, GizWizBiz. Dick also has a regular podcast on the Twit network called, appropriately enough, The Daily Giz Wiz. He’s a gadget freak and this is what his podcast is all about. His mustache might be second in popularity only to Tom Selleck’s.
Lazy Birds
Way back in a previous life when I used to be a flight instructor, we would say that the weather was so bad that even the birds were walking. Well, the weather must be absolutely horrible because, not only are the birds walking, they’re taking the subway too!
I love how he seems totally relaxed about the whole thing and calmly exits the subway car when it gets to the next stop. The funny thing is that I’ve come to find out that there are a bunch of videos of subway riding pigeons. Hit the Read More link to see a few.
Read more »
The Bloom Box
Normally, things are all laughs around the JeffPicard.com offices (okay, it’s just my house but allow me this one conceit), but that all changed this morning when I saw a segment from the 60 Minutes TV show. That segment was called The Bloom Box and is about a new type of fuel cell that could very well be the power of the future. It could also be a puff of smoke in the wind, but I think this one’s got staying power. The difference with this project is that it’s already providing power on the cheap at some big companies. Google, eBay, Fedex, and others have Bloom boxes working full time already. With plans to have units available for under $3000 that will power the typical US home, all I need to know is where to sign up!
More Amazon.com Goodness
Time for a few more unusual Amazon.com products.
The first one is the Relaxman Relaxation Capsule. For a mere $39,995 you can relax your troubles away. I’m sure it works, after all, it was designed by the world famous Biotonus Clinic in Switzerland specifically for relaxation and stress reduction. As is typically the case, the reviews are the best part. User Sailoil writes: “I have been locking the wife and kids into the chamber from 7pm to 7am every evening, and boy am I relaxed. This really works.“ At a bit over 40k (with shipping), the Relaxman will force you to make some important choices. For instance: “Do my kids really need to go to college? Or even eat?”
Next up on our hit parade is the Fred Holy Toast Stamper. This little gem will stamp an image of the Virgin Mary onto your toast. Now you too can be brought closer to God just by making breakfast (or lunch if you use it on your grilled cheese). At just $1.95, you should be able to add a few of these to your shopping cart along with the Relaxman.
That’s it for now.
I’m Ready, Are You?
We all know that, eventually, zombies will take over the world. With that in mind I’m preparing myself in any way possible. I’m stocking up on guns, ammunition, food, water, and now . . . tomahawks! You see, I’ve discovered that I’ve got quite a talent for throwing the darn things. I took the photo on the left just to prove my proficiency in hatchet tossing. After all, when you’re out of bullets, a hatchet to the forehead will bring down even the hardiest of zombies.
Okay, I’m just kidding. Late this past summer my son and I attended a Webelos “chop & burn” activity. The kids got to learn how to properly use an ax, identify various trees and shrubs, and…yep, you guessed it…throw hatchets. I was doing so good that I took over showing the scouts how to do it for a bit. Oh sure, you laugh now, but just wait till the zombies are walking up your street and you’re fresh out of ammo!
When I Was A Kid…
While I didn’t author the following, I do fully agree with it. These young brats today have it too good.
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were.. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot… BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda.
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!
But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!
- When I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!
- There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter – with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
- Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!
- There were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
- Or, you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby! Dig?
- We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!
- There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one.. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends”. OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.
- And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
- We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
- You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!
- There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!
- And we didn’t have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
- And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside… you were doing chores.
- And car seats – oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!
See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
Learn To Kiss With James T. Kirk
Ahhh… James T. Kirk, a man’s man.
Consider this my Valentines Day post.
The Worst Music Videos EVER!
Just a couple of the worst music videos ever made.
The Road To Geekdom
Every day I sit at this keyboard typing away, I’m reminded of all that led up to the system that sits before me now. In my many, many years (never mind exactly how many), I’ve had the privilege of owning countless computers but it’s the very early ones that were responsible for starting me off on the road to geekdom.
The very first computer I ever owned I bought in 1982. It was a Timex Sinclair 1000. This was the American version of the Sinclair ZX81. I bought it as a kit for under $100. I assembled the thing but it didn’t work properly so I sent it off to the manufacturer to fix and it came back a few weeks later in good working order. I started to teach myself BASIC computer programing but the little Timex was just too limited to do much of anything. It came standard with…wait for it now…a 
whooping 1K of memory! I purchased the add-on 16K memory module. There were no hard drives back then and the Timex, like most hobbyist computers, used cassette tapes for long term storage. I don’t recall what I ever did with this computer but it’s long gone. There is one school of thought that claims the little Timex was more suited to be a door stop than a computer.
My next computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. The TI cost less than $200 (by the time I bought it) and was a “real” computer. It was built like a ton of bricks and took ROM cartridges that could contain games or applications. I taught myself the BASIC language all over again and really had some fun with this computer. I had several decent games but really didn’t use the thing for any serious computing. The large silver box you see behind the computer in the picture is actually just for expansion cards and a floppy drive. From what I recall, the expansion box cost WAY more than the computer itself. I still remember the ads with Bill Cosby as pitchman I sold this computer to my cousin a few years later.
Next on the hit parade was an Atari 800XL. This is where the “luck of the Picard’s” really reared it’s ugly head. You see, I had been lusting after an Atari 800 for quite some time. The Atari 400 and 800 computers were THE computers if you were a serious user. Atari replaced the 400 and 800 with the 600XL, 800XL and the totally new 1200XL. I gave the new models some time to mature while saving up the cash for my own. I finally picked up a shiny new 800XL and proceeded to teach myself Atari BASIC and then, BAM, Atari discontinued their entire PC line. They literally yanked the rug right out from under me. Adding to my displeasure was the fact that I purchased a RANA Systems 1000 floppy drive that never worked quite right. I still have my old Atari sitting in a box in the basement.
About this time (early to mid 90’s) the PC industry was just starting to take off and I bought a tower PC by a company named Cybermax. I paid about $2500 for a PC with a Cyrix P166+ Processor, 12MB of RAM and a 250 MB hard drive. This was a far cry from any of my previous systems. This, however, is a story for another day.
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