Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Passinwind]

There are abacus apps, and I know this because I just looked

And I don't personally count arithmetic among my skill sets. Perplexed my physics teacher to see my ability to construct a perfect proof and arrive at the wrong answer every time. They sent me to the English department.

Favorite boarding school moment: dumb but lovable jock goes to blackboard and eeks out a semi-reasonable beginning of a trig proof. He eventually flames out and skips to the end, but instead of QED he writes: *ISTR. On questioning we all learn that it means It Stands To Reason. I'm sure Mom and Dad were proud, but participation trophies weren't really a thing yet in 1968.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Favorite boarding school moment: dumb but lovable jock goes to blackboard and eeks out a semi-reasonable beginning of a trig proof. He eventually flames out and skips to the end, but instead of QED he writes: *ISTR. On questioning we all learn that it means It Stands To Reason. I'm sure Mom and Dad were proud, but participation trophies weren't really a thing yet in 1968.

Took a moment to think of funny boarding school stories and never made it past the cafeteria, where I ... aw nevermind that, the tale that bubbled up out of the neurosphere starts with

That course at university everyone has to pass. Of course it's a lit course (haha, at least they didn't make me take chem) and a friend's final is returned with no grade. Instead there is a coin taped to the paper, and written in red ink: Please use this to call your parents and tell them you don't belong here.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Friday On My Mind

A sharp dressed band and Suzie does a good job.

 

[beans-on-toast]

There are abacus apps, and I know this because I just looked

And I don't personally count arithmetic among my skill sets. Perplexed my physics teacher to see my ability to construct a perfect proof and arrive at the wrong answer every time. They sent me to the English department.

Even a journalist needs to know when the facts don’t add up.

I was shuffled around and was told that I’d never finish elementary school. Things didn’t turn around till I learned how to educate myself.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Funny story in a country paper. In the 50’s and 60’s, the final grades for all the schools were published on the front page of the newspaper. Living in the country and being practical, it was deemed a good way to convey the grades. Each student’s name and all their grades were published. Everyone got to see how you did. Talk about humiliating!

It seems that it was common that on that day, there would be a lot of complaints of newspapers going missing. The poorer students must have been well organized.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Humanities students can get away with a great deal of BS, but poor grammar and punctuation will sink every submission. Schools can't teach some very important things:

Joe is (was) the editor of a reasonably large newspaper. He assigns a green reporter to a basic story about a local business closing its doors. Joe likes his writers to present a short oral summary of "what happened". (Joe is ike a great writing coach, too.) "Oh, he's retiring now ...." Joe suggests she run his name and business by a few places like, oh, city records ... She's put out but does it anyway because Joe is the boss. She returns some few minutes later:

That man lied to me!

 

[beans-on-toast]

Humanities students can get away with a great deal of BS, but poor grammar and punctuation will sink every submission.

Fear not, poor grammar and punctuation is a thing of the past in the digital domain.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[GwenOnBass]

How dare they put Miss Thistlebottom in an AI !

 

[Al Kraft]

I tended to feel a little better when I saw the following presented somewhere...might have even been on TB. Not sure grammar enjoys the same luxury though.
Engineers rejoice!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

 

[G-Dog]

Friday On My Mind

A sharp dressed band and Suzie does a good job.

Ack! The middle-age sized collarless Beatles suits just don't quite do it for me. Though, I admit, every one of these guys wear it better'n I would. It's something like 40 years ago since I coulda rocked one. But I can play the songs better now than then!
.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Ack! The middle-age sized collarless Beatles suits just don't quite do it for me. Though, I admit, every one of these guys wear it better'n I would. It's something like 40 years ago since I coulda rocked one. But I can play the songs better now than then!
.

The Fashion Culturist: Who Dressed The Beatles?: Pierre Cardin, Douglas Millings and the Collarless Suit of the 1960s

The Beatle suits were apparently imposed by their manager. They would sweat dripping wet so the suits requited laundering after each show. High maintenance.

I’ve seen older tribute band members in Beatle suits that have gained weight and don’t quite pull off the look.

For some reason, a lot of finance people that I encounter wear the same cheesy style of suit. Tight fitting, drain pipe trousers, pointy toes shoes. They are all cut from the same cloth in the “uniform” and how they think.

 

[Passinwind]

Took a moment to think of funny boarding school stories and never made it past the cafeteria, where I ... aw nevermind that, the tale that bubbled up out of the neurosphere starts with

That course at university everyone has to pass. Of course it's a lit course (haha, at least they didn't make me take chem) and a friend's final is returned with no grade. Instead there is a coin taped to the paper, and written in red ink: Please use this to call your parents and tell them you don't belong here.

Heh!

Back in fourth grade my report card arrives: "At some point Charles will have to decide between English and Math." Of course I had other ideas, and college turned out not to be one of them, at least not for long.

My bogey was pensmanship. Being a converted lefty or actually more like ambi, I had to work quite hard just to get to "doctor on Ludes." And being a skinny somewhat awkward kid, only a heavily weighted written test on the rules of soccer kept me on the honor roll in junior high. Someone must have talked to that PE teacher, because after that I was suddenly like a B+ PE student. That was right around when I discovered a reasonable talent for skiing too though, happily.

But with all my awkwardness, the worst memory is winning the "best male math student" award in 8th grade. Had to accept it in the scary Senior High gym in front of their graduation shindig, sitting next to my female classmate who was demonstrably better at math and pretty much everything else, and who probably won every other award. She was gracious enough to decline the 20 buck prize I offered up. I just may have bought a slide rule or a hard cover book, don't really remember. A new slot car would have been more in character, and probably more relevant to how things have unfolded as well.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I tended to feel a little better when I saw the following presented somewhere...might have even been on TB. Not sure grammar enjoys the same luxury though.
Engineers rejoice!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

It’s amazing how the human brain works and knows how to interpret visual data. You have to wonder to what extent auditory information is processed in a similar way when fidelity is low. Not just for understanding the content but for positioning it in three-dimensional space.

Some of that goes into lossy audio formats where data volume reduction is desirable. It all started in the early days with Bell band passing copper wire telephone communications. It took too much energy to reproduce the low end.

 

[GonePlaid]

I tended to feel a little better when I saw the following presented somewhere...might have even been on TB. Not sure grammar enjoys the same luxury though.
Engineers rejoice!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I was somewhat surprised to realize I was able to read and comprehend this easily. The only thing that slowed me down was the 'e'-instead of 'a'-in "iprmoetnt".

 

[beans-on-toast]

I was somewhat surprised to realize I was able to read and comprehend this easily. The only thing that slowed me down was the 'e'-instead of 'a'-in "iprmoetnt".

It’s like posting. Many people can type faster than they can think.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Taking down a tree is a lot easier with a dozer. The RD6 has a three cylinder diesel engine that dates from the 1930’s. It has an elaborate startup sequence that requires a starter engine. The starter turns the main engine under low compression, when the air pressure and temperature are right, the fuel is turned on. It has a low idling RPM and lot of torque. It sounds like a rattling bucket of bolts.

What strikes me is the engineering technology of the 30’s. They knew what they were doing. The machine is still in service after 85 years.

 

[Haroldo]

Ack! The middle-age sized collarless Beatles suits just don't quite do it for me. Though, I admit, every one of these guys wear it better'n I would. It's something like 40 years ago since I coulda rocked one. But I can play the songs better now than then!
.

They are called, however, 'Susie and the Seniors'. The sartorial dissonance appeals to me.

 

[Haroldo]

I tended to feel a little better when I saw the following presented somewhere...might have even been on TB. Not sure grammar enjoys the same luxury though.
Engineers rejoice!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Didn't know you were fluent in Proto-Gaelic. A talented bunch around here.

 

[Haroldo]

Taking down a tree is a lot easier with a dozer. The RD6 has a three cylinder diesel engine that dates from the 1930’s. It has an elaborate startup sequence that requires a starter engine. The starter turns the main engine under low compression, when the air pressure and temperature are right, the fuel is turned on. It has a low idling RPM and lot of torque. It sounds like a rattling bucket of bolts.

What strikes me is the engineering technology of the 30’s. They knew what they were doing. The machine is still in service after 85 years.

The last I was close to these beasts was in 1977 working construction in Wyoming. The largest we had was the D9 - which was mighty impressive to me back then, but a pipsqueak compared to the D11s of today.

PS I almost fell off the back of, I think, a D6 with a juvenile head full of chewin' tobacky.

 

[Passinwind]

What strikes me is the engineering technology of the 30’s. They knew what they were doing. The machine is still in service after 85 years.

When I worked at the Bonneville Dam I often marveled at how much of the Depression Era machinery and other infrastructure is still original. I had access to a lot of places the public never gets to see, and still know a bunch of the mechanics and riggers out there. Just making a new bearing or whatever as needed is old hat for those guys. We depended on that a lot to get our job done.