Canopyflyer

55m here.

Was an avid volleyball player, even though I’m 5’8" (1.72m) tall. I have very strong legs and could meet a lot of 6’2" plus guys at the top of the net.

Skydiver with 4500 jumps, spent a few years doing it professionally.

Now, my knees and back are shot. I can still play volleyball, but my jumps are about half what they used to be and I need to wear knee braces. Skydiving is almost completely out, unless I jump a very soft opening canopy as I have a disk bulge that is pressing on a sciatic nerve. If I get slammed on opening that could present a LOT of issues for me.

Now I focus on those things that I can do. I’ve always been an avid hiker and there is a nice state park nearby. I try to hike the trails there every day. Also I keep up with working out. Weights and other exercises. I’m not trying to build muscle, just keep what I have.

Right now, I’m sitting here with a very sore back and aching muscles, due to helping out my wife’s Figure Skating Club to setup for a competition this weekend. That involved moving a lot of tables, chairs, podiums and other things for 4 hours last night.

I think I’m going to take it easy today.

OMG… That’s brilliant. Wish I had thought of it.

Ford… Carter

Three Mile Island

Iran Hostage crisis

Launch of Columbia

Challenger

Chernobyl

ageing vs aging

The former is the way I learned it in school way back in the 70’s… Apparently that is the way the British spell it and it sends US citizens into an aneurysm.

One that bothers me the most when people do it is brake vs break. Your car will break if you do not apply the brake in a timely fashion.

When it comes to electronics, reliability is determined by the quality of the electrolytic capacitors used as they are typically the first to fail in an electronic circuit. There are other considerations of course, but in general the better the capacitor used in construction the longer the item will last.

Electronics that have cheap capacitors will have about a 10 year life. Those that use higher end capacitors will last 30 years or more. I have two McIntosh amplifiers that were built in 1992 and are still working great on the original caps. They have McIntosh branded capacitors and are top tier, although I don’t now who specifically makes them for McIntosh. I also have 2 Carver amps from about the same era and I’ve had to recap them already. Carver has great sound, but lousy build quality. Also have a Marantz receiver that was built in 2000 with Marantz branded caps that came to me with a dead amplifier, which just turned out to be a dry solder joint on a PC board. Two hours of resoldering several PCBs in it and it’s working very well.

HERE is a good list of top tier capacitor manufacturers, just scroll down a bit to find it of top tier capacitor manufacturers. You’ll have to do some research to find out what TV manufacturer is using what capacitor in their designs.

With that said, there is one listed there that also makes televisions and they, fortunately, have come back to the US market. That is Panasonic. I have a Panasonic Plasma that I bought in 2010 and it is still going strong. It is still my family’s main television. It got hit by lightning in 2012 and I had to replace the power supply and main board in it, which was not the TV’s fault. It has all Panasonic capacitors in it.

I also have a Panasonic Microwave, and cordless phone. Both of which have far far outlived their predecessors. The cordless phone will be 20 years old next April and the microwave is coming up on 13 years.

I will not say that Panasonic has the best picture, best sound, or uses unicorn farts to make the best what ever… Honestly, I don’t give a damn about any of that. What I will say that in my experience if you want an electronic device that lasts a long time, buy a Panasonic.

55m here.

I’m farsighted and started to need glasses for close up around the age of 36. Never really had to get use to them per se as I always had non-prescription sunglasses anyway.

I became a full time glasses wearer around the age of 40. At the age of 45 I became a progressive lens wearer and those took me about 2 full weeks to get use to. So it’s been about 10 years that I’ve worn progressives and my script has changed 4 times. It takes me a couple of days to get used to a new script.

I’m also legally blind in my right eye. It sees just well enough that it tracks with my left eye. One optometrist insisted on giving me 1/2 strength script for my right eye and I went along with it. It took me weeks to get used to it as I’m not used to having binocular vision of any kind, not to mention the near Coke bottle look to the lens. 3D movies are almost and absolute no go for me, because they make me ill. My current glasses have a script on the right lens, but it’s not nearly as strong.

“Never pass up the opportunity to keep your mouth shut.”

There is a lot of great advice in this thread.

Humble_boatsman (plywood panel) and EmpireofLove2 (screw bottle jack) in particular.

I would add two more things that I don’t see on here and that is a set of chocks and a piece of iron pipe.

The chocks are optional and can take up a lot of room in a small trunk, but they do add an additional level of safety.
The iron pipe, that can go over the handle of the tire iron, provides leverage to LOOSEN the lug nuts. Just don’t use it to tighten them as you could easily twist off the studs.

Granted you do not really need additional leverage to get lug nuts off, but I’ve had to change a tire with an injured arm and it made my life a lot easier.

“Nor Crystal Tears”: by Alan Dean Foster

One of the first novel length books I ever sat down to read when I was young.

The first series that I fell in love with was: “The Belgariad” by David Eddings

Say what you want about Eddings, the guy was not a nice guy, but “The Belgariad” was a great series and I leaped from it to LOTR.

Scorpius in Farscape.

He was introduced long after the main antagonist, Captain Bilar Crais, was firmly established. Suddenly the Captain was shoved aside for this new monstrous weirdo who’s motivation seems a bit contrived.

Scorpius is absolutely fantastic. Wayne Pygram absolutely knocked it out of the park and then some with portraying both Scorpius and Harvey throughout the rest of the series. Probably one of the best written and acted villains in television history.

Personally, I think Heinlein said it best: “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”

Love is also a choice that you need to make every day.

Next week my wife and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. I love her more now than I did back then.

1970 Chevrolet Impala: Liberty (I bought it from a guy in Liberty, KY).

1997 Nissan 200SX SE-R: Dot (It was Pacific Blue)

2003 Acura TL: Sally (Generic name for a generic car)

2014 Camry LE: Pearl (It was Cosmic Mica Gray which gave the car a pearlescent sheen).

I currently have a 2019 Camry Hybrid XLE, but have yet to name it. I’m leaning toward “Betty”, because the car has so many warnings, alarms, and notifications that I feel like I’m being bitched at when I drive it.

I have owned several cars over the years that I never named. My absolute favorite car I’ve ever owned was a 1985 Corolla GT-S that I raced in Pro Solo for a few years and it never received a name. The next car I owned was a 1992 Sentra SE-R and it never got a name either. Also had a 1969 Chevelle that I drag raced in my teen years, but no name there.

House on the Rock

When I moved to Wisconsin back in 2006, House on the Rock was one of the first things I heard about from my neighbors to go see. My wife and I looked at the website and said “we’ll go see it someday.” Well, that day was about a month ago as back then we started having kids and getting used to living in a new place. However, over the past 19 years I’ve had people tell me that “you’ve got to go see it.”

Now… I understand.

Is that place a monument to a man’s ascent to brilliance?

Or his decent into madness.

There was stuff in that museum that I took DAYS to process and I still really am unable to understand what it was I was looking at. It took my family and I FOUR hours to walk through it. It could have been a LOT longer if we actually stopped to study more than what we did.

I’m 55 years old and I’ve seen and done a lot things in my life… None of it prepared me for the sheer onslaught that is House on the Rock. Walking out of it I told my wife that I rather chaffed at the entrance fee when I paid it… Now, I’m not sure if they charged enough.

If you’re ever anywhere close to South Central Wisconsin… Take a day and go see it.

It doesn’t just live up to the hype… It so far exceeds it that trying to explain the place will never do it justice.

Manfred Mann’s cover of Blinded by the Light has entered the chat. Probably the most misheard lyrics in the entire history of modern music.

It’s “Revved up like a deuce.”

Wait… Manfred Mann’s version is a cover? Yep, Blinded by the Light was originally performed Bruce Springsteen.

Yes and I will stand by that statement.

Yes, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are also brilliant movies. Both movies are also in Frost and Pegg’s exact wheelhouse, Britain.

Paul is another step above, because they so perfectly encapsulated the stupidity of a completely different country and culture. That’s why I like it a bit better. Name US writers/ actors that could do the same thing for Britain? I certainly cannot.

Paul (2011) IMHO Frost and Pegg’s best movie. Not sure why it’s not rated higher, it is simply brilliant.

The Last Starfighter (1984) Epic sci fi flick that was the first to use 3D rendered computer animation. The effects do NOT hold up, but the story sure does.

Chronicles of Riddick (2004) Sequel to Pitch Black and I personally like it much better. Admittedly, that’s due to I like that Riddick aims more to sci fi and Pitch Black toward horror. If you like horror more, then you’d probably like Pitch Black better.

Skydiving

Skydivers are not adrenaline (epinephrine) junkies. Adrenaline actually makes you feel terrible. You know that rush and shakes you get when you get hungry? Yeah, THAT’S an adrenaline rush.

No, we go for the same thing runners do. Endorphins. Nature’s own anti-depressant.

Donate money to your local food banks, homeless shelters, or any other non-profit that has a good reputation for assisting those in need.

If someone approaches you asking for money, absolutely under no circumstances should you give it to them. Be sure to say that you do not carry cash to give them. Then if you are feeling that you need to give to them, then offer a meal or buy groceries using a credit card. You’ll find that most of them will decline.

They are using YOUR GUILT to get their next drug fix most of the time. That guilt is artificial and the result of manipulation techniques they are employing against you. It is rather contemptible to be perfectly frank.

I wanted to be a pilot.

By age 16 I had several hours towards my private license.

My junior year in High School I started looking universities with aviation degrees, or engineering. I had settled on Rose Hulman and one other (been 40 years so don’t remember the place, but it was one of the top aviation colleges in the US at the time.) I actually was accepted at “the other place”.

It all came crashing down in the last conversation I had with my enrollment counselor and he asked a question that hadn’t been asked of me in the prior many conversations I had with him.

“How is your eyesight?”

You see, I’m legally blind in my right eye and in the US, pilots are required to have 20/20 corrected eyesight. In order for my right eye to be 20/20 I would basically have to have a telescope hanging off my face.

I never did get my private pilots license, which I can get even with my eyesight, but I would never pass medical for a commercial ticket.

Yes, I did look at training in other countries and yes there are a few that only require perfect color vision, which I do have. The problem was my parents absolutely forbade me to travel to another country.

So that was that.

Greetings programs!

I prefer to think of them fighting evil in another dimension.

This means something.

Your ass looks like 150 pounds of chewed bubble gum!

There’s no fighting in the war room!

Sire! The Great Leslie escaped with a friar!.. He escaped with a chicken!!!

Of course I denied installing CCTV in the nursery! What the hell would they watch?!!!

I think what we have here… Is a failure to communicate!