FreeWill Deals Me In
Dec. 6th, 2012 04:11 pmIf you thoroughly shuffle a deck of cards, the novel arrangement you create is probably unique in all of human history; its specific order has never before occurred. I suspect the same principle applies to our lives: Each new day brings a singular set of circumstances that neither you nor anyone else in the last 10,000 years has ever had the pleasure of being challenged and intrigued by. There is always some fresh opportunity, however small, that is being offered you for the first time. I think it's important for you to keep this perspective in mind during the coming week. Be alert for what you have never seen or experienced before.
Dad is really antsy that I find some sort of going income. Filling online surveys for money, having a shop on eBay or ClickBank or Amazon.com, microgigging--none of it seems very plausible or promising.
Mum said I needed to invent an industry and be the first professional in it. I'm just looking for the box so I can think outside of it.
Dad is really antsy that I find some sort of going income. Filling online surveys for money, having a shop on eBay or ClickBank or Amazon.com, microgigging--none of it seems very plausible or promising.
Mum said I needed to invent an industry and be the first professional in it. I'm just looking for the box so I can think outside of it.
The Alchemy of the Iron Chef Premise
Jun. 7th, 2012 04:55 pmOver the weekend was the drawing for a sweepstakes I had entered online (and of course, did not win)...it was from Ford Racing and the prize was a 7-liter V8 race car engine of the latest version.
I had no ready use for such a thing, but it was fun to brainstorm possibilities. What WOULD I do with such an engine? Did I have a tasty recipie for the Secret Ingredient?
Upgrading an existing vehicle is the most basic idea, of course. Mustang, T-Bird, Taurus, Crown Vic, Pickup, Lincoln Mark #, Cougar, whatevs. Sure. Plenty of project cars to be had. Heck, that Mach 1 across the street is still theoretically available.
Early Thirties "rat rod"? I know a local shop that can build one in their sleep.
Replica Cobra roadster or Shelby Mustang? That's practically a cliché for current kit cars. Repro bodies-in-white for Sixties Mustangs are almost a phone call away.
Spec racer? Late model? Road-legal NASCAR stocker? I know where to look for those too.
So where did I wind up going on my train of thought? GTs. Ford had two from my lifetime that I was interested in: the GT70 and the Mustang GTP. The former was a possible follow-on to the GT40 that Ford developed at the end of the Sixties but never put on the track. The latter was run in IMSA in the early 1980s...but never built with a V8 engine, although Roush Racing wanted to build such a machine. A replica of something that never was? A rewrite of motorsports history? Could I have gotten away with it?
I had no ready use for such a thing, but it was fun to brainstorm possibilities. What WOULD I do with such an engine? Did I have a tasty recipie for the Secret Ingredient?
Upgrading an existing vehicle is the most basic idea, of course. Mustang, T-Bird, Taurus, Crown Vic, Pickup, Lincoln Mark #, Cougar, whatevs. Sure. Plenty of project cars to be had. Heck, that Mach 1 across the street is still theoretically available.
Early Thirties "rat rod"? I know a local shop that can build one in their sleep.
Replica Cobra roadster or Shelby Mustang? That's practically a cliché for current kit cars. Repro bodies-in-white for Sixties Mustangs are almost a phone call away.
Spec racer? Late model? Road-legal NASCAR stocker? I know where to look for those too.
So where did I wind up going on my train of thought? GTs. Ford had two from my lifetime that I was interested in: the GT70 and the Mustang GTP. The former was a possible follow-on to the GT40 that Ford developed at the end of the Sixties but never put on the track. The latter was run in IMSA in the early 1980s...but never built with a V8 engine, although Roush Racing wanted to build such a machine. A replica of something that never was? A rewrite of motorsports history? Could I have gotten away with it?
RUNNER-UP REVUE
A stage show, or possibly a "permanent" theater, based on/cast from former contestants (and not WINNERS) of American Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent, The X Factor, The Sing-Off and other such shows.
A stage show, or possibly a "permanent" theater, based on/cast from former contestants (and not WINNERS) of American Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent, The X Factor, The Sing-Off and other such shows.
One And The Same?
Aug. 5th, 2011 06:48 pmSome of my Dad's e-mail gets forwarded to me.
Mostly his junk. Got a piece the other day from the Warner Brothers video club, since we're sorta signed up with them, in spite of never actually buying anything from them. Header said "Cartoon classics..." Only it wasn't Looney Tunes they were pushing--it was old Hanna-Barbera stuff from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. (And I don't mean THEIR really old stuff from the Sixties!)
All of a sudden I wonder if there might be a shotgun marriage in the works between Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear. Ugh. Why is youth culture in America SO OLD?
Mostly his junk. Got a piece the other day from the Warner Brothers video club, since we're sorta signed up with them, in spite of never actually buying anything from them. Header said "Cartoon classics..." Only it wasn't Looney Tunes they were pushing--it was old Hanna-Barbera stuff from the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. (And I don't mean THEIR really old stuff from the Sixties!)
All of a sudden I wonder if there might be a shotgun marriage in the works between Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear. Ugh. Why is youth culture in America SO OLD?
Phone Rings
Jul. 5th, 2011 07:37 pmPhone Rings...
The party on the other end may or not may be recorded. She talks fast in a carefully-constructed statement words to the effect that you won a prize and that you have to call back to a 1-800 number (with an extension) to claim the prize. You don't hear what the prize is, who the prize is intended for, or how come they have your number. (She made have said something, but it isn't very clear on this end.) There is no possibility that you can get her to repeat the information or just push a button on the phone to switch it to the number/extension she means.
How is this supposed to succeed?
The party on the other end may or not may be recorded. She talks fast in a carefully-constructed statement words to the effect that you won a prize and that you have to call back to a 1-800 number (with an extension) to claim the prize. You don't hear what the prize is, who the prize is intended for, or how come they have your number. (She made have said something, but it isn't very clear on this end.) There is no possibility that you can get her to repeat the information or just push a button on the phone to switch it to the number/extension she means.
How is this supposed to succeed?
Tags:
I think my cell phone stinks. Its good points:
1) I got it for free as a birthday gift from my brother;
2) I don't have to pay the bills for it, as the number is part of brother's account at the moment.
3) It has a lot of features that sometimes work but I don't know for sure do because I haven't tried a lot of them out.
Meanwhile, I sporadically get calls from people trying to reach the previous owner of the phone number, which annoys me and also annoys them when I tell them that I'm not who they were trying to call. I never actually learn anything from these exchanges.
The feature I'd like to see, as a follow-on to the Caller ID that these phones already have, is a "Look-Up" function. If you get a call from somebody you don't know, you can tell the phone to do a look-up of the number that called and get the directory information: Name and Address. Then you can decide whether they were in fact trying to call you or just had the wrong party, and perhaps add the caller to your Contacts if it is the former situation. It would cost the phone companies very little, and would share information that is virtually public anyway.
1) I got it for free as a birthday gift from my brother;
2) I don't have to pay the bills for it, as the number is part of brother's account at the moment.
3) It has a lot of features that sometimes work but I don't know for sure do because I haven't tried a lot of them out.
Meanwhile, I sporadically get calls from people trying to reach the previous owner of the phone number, which annoys me and also annoys them when I tell them that I'm not who they were trying to call. I never actually learn anything from these exchanges.
The feature I'd like to see, as a follow-on to the Caller ID that these phones already have, is a "Look-Up" function. If you get a call from somebody you don't know, you can tell the phone to do a look-up of the number that called and get the directory information: Name and Address. Then you can decide whether they were in fact trying to call you or just had the wrong party, and perhaps add the caller to your Contacts if it is the former situation. It would cost the phone companies very little, and would share information that is virtually public anyway.
Tags:
Sizes And Prices Of Toys--Continued
May. 14th, 2011 12:14 amHey.
My obsessions take me a variety of places. As said, I'm more of a wanna-be gamer than an actual one. And more of an idea guy than an implementer.
Because of the slowness and bugginess of dialup, sometimes I'll use the computers at the Public Library if I need higher speed connectivity. Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook is a current obsession, and so I did half an hour of that at the Library today. 30 Minutes is a standard block of user time there...if they're busy it is all the staff will allow.
After that, I went to a Dollar store to try out an idea related to the Carrera slot cars I'd been thinking about getting into. They have cheap toy cars roughly the same scale as the slot car hardware, so after I took measurements of a Carrera car (at the Knoxville IPMS meet site Tuesday) I compared my measurement notes and a ruler to the specimen cars on the shelves. I soon found out that while they were close, I'd still have to somehow "stretch" the toy car's body in both length and width to get it to fit over the Carrera hardware, and the result would look somewhat like this:
Not that it isn't far from my original idea, but not exactly what I'm going for either. I have more rumination to do.
My obsessions take me a variety of places. As said, I'm more of a wanna-be gamer than an actual one. And more of an idea guy than an implementer.
Because of the slowness and bugginess of dialup, sometimes I'll use the computers at the Public Library if I need higher speed connectivity. Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook is a current obsession, and so I did half an hour of that at the Library today. 30 Minutes is a standard block of user time there...if they're busy it is all the staff will allow.
After that, I went to a Dollar store to try out an idea related to the Carrera slot cars I'd been thinking about getting into. They have cheap toy cars roughly the same scale as the slot car hardware, so after I took measurements of a Carrera car (at the Knoxville IPMS meet site Tuesday) I compared my measurement notes and a ruler to the specimen cars on the shelves. I soon found out that while they were close, I'd still have to somehow "stretch" the toy car's body in both length and width to get it to fit over the Carrera hardware, and the result would look somewhat like this:
Not that it isn't far from my original idea, but not exactly what I'm going for either. I have more rumination to do.
Bad Ideas For TV Shows
Apr. 8th, 2011 08:41 pm1) Plan 9. Based loosely on the notorious Ed Wood horror schlock spectacles, this series is about a duo of uniformed LA cops who are put on the Weirdo Beat to "keep them out of trouble". The scripts are written by a committee of Internet-forum dorks and Middle School Kids, with the lowest possible production budget and the worst actors who carry SAG cards.
2) Sucker Punch: the Virtual Reality Reality Show. Contestants are recruited from computer gamer conventions. After having their virtual reality characters codified by real-world physical tests, the contestants must run them through adventure worlds created by inmates in psychological asylums, who are strung out on medications of various kinds and babbling to voice-recognition computers equipped with AutoComplete.
2) Sucker Punch: the Virtual Reality Reality Show. Contestants are recruited from computer gamer conventions. After having their virtual reality characters codified by real-world physical tests, the contestants must run them through adventure worlds created by inmates in psychological asylums, who are strung out on medications of various kinds and babbling to voice-recognition computers equipped with AutoComplete.
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Paul Francis had the remake of The A-Team on his DVD player during the Build Day party at his place yesterday.
Okay, it's generally agreed that the original show of the 1980s was dumb and mediocre at its very best. It was a modern-dress Western with low production values. It ran as long as it did because it was cheap to make and appealed to the lowest common denominator. I get that.
But it doesn't excuse Hollywood from making a "pitiful" feature film version.
Okay, it's generally agreed that the original show of the 1980s was dumb and mediocre at its very best. It was a modern-dress Western with low production values. It ran as long as it did because it was cheap to make and appealed to the lowest common denominator. I get that.
But it doesn't excuse Hollywood from making a "pitiful" feature film version.
Back To The Bargain Bin
Oct. 11th, 2009 05:05 pmToday I (in what longtime readers of mine will realize is a nigh lifelong habit) went shopping without buying anything. Big Lots. Careful examination of the DVD bins. They had some new material, but not anything that I really felt a need to buy right away.
Would you believe I saw a DVD there that was a rip-off of one of the movies that made Rotten Tomatoes.com's list of the 100 worst movies ever made? Is Hollywood so devoid of ideas today that they feel the need to go after even the bad ones?
Would you believe I saw a DVD there that was a rip-off of one of the movies that made Rotten Tomatoes.com's list of the 100 worst movies ever made? Is Hollywood so devoid of ideas today that they feel the need to go after even the bad ones?
The Most Disastrous Movie Opening in Recent History.
Granted there were a couple times when I went to the movie house and was the only tush in the seats. Fire Birds and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.
Granted there were a couple times when I went to the movie house and was the only tush in the seats. Fire Birds and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.
...The False Positive.
I mean, I remember sometime last year coming across a subject I thought I knew enough about, but I didn't take enough notes, and didn't bookmark the site.
Now when I try to look it up, I wind up with 20,000 sites that have nothing to do with it. Sheesh. I guess I'll have to figure out a "back way in".
* * *
Happy birthday,![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ryalyn_kylene! Hope you can do something fun today.
FP
I mean, I remember sometime last year coming across a subject I thought I knew enough about, but I didn't take enough notes, and didn't bookmark the site.
Now when I try to look it up, I wind up with 20,000 sites that have nothing to do with it. Sheesh. I guess I'll have to figure out a "back way in".
* * *
Happy birthday,
ryalyn_kylene! Hope you can do something fun today.FP
Invention...Contention? Or Just Tension?
Feb. 2nd, 2008 12:49 amToday I got an e-mail solicition from "Davison Design and Development, Inc". Since it was addressed to me personally rather than just my address, it seemed more legit than the come-ons I usually get.
After a little internal wrestling with the prospects, I submitted one idea for an invention and tried to submit another, only to have their submission form go wonky. Perhaps I'll try again later.
Then again, I may not.
If they're going to pirate my idea(s), power to them...the idea(s) won't do me any good otherwise. If they didn't get the second idea that I tried to submit, then they should pay me for it.
FP
After a little internal wrestling with the prospects, I submitted one idea for an invention and tried to submit another, only to have their submission form go wonky. Perhaps I'll try again later.
Then again, I may not.
If they're going to pirate my idea(s), power to them...the idea(s) won't do me any good otherwise. If they didn't get the second idea that I tried to submit, then they should pay me for it.
FP
A Bad Idea That I Need to Put Out Again
Apr. 9th, 2007 04:05 pmI was re-reading The Third World War: The Untold Story and the parts about the use of penal soldiers (literally, men taken directly from prison) as shock troops in meat-grinder campaigns, and thinking about how it can happen here.
The idea: a company that privately runs prisons for the government merges with a "defense contractor" which is actually a mercenary army. In order to foment a war to drum up business, they shanghai a number of hardened criminals from lock-up and send them, totally untrained and unsupported, in a raid on a nation like Cuba or North Korea or Iran where they are guaranteed to be killed when they arrive. Just a very sick version of Ten Little Indians.
The idea: a company that privately runs prisons for the government merges with a "defense contractor" which is actually a mercenary army. In order to foment a war to drum up business, they shanghai a number of hardened criminals from lock-up and send them, totally untrained and unsupported, in a raid on a nation like Cuba or North Korea or Iran where they are guaranteed to be killed when they arrive. Just a very sick version of Ten Little Indians.
Carrier Noise
Jan. 17th, 2007 03:19 pmNews is this week that the Navy Department has dubbed the upcoming aircraft carrier, currently only a collection of drawings and designated CVN-78, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
This act is making a large number of Navy veterans angry, especially veterans who served on the carrier USS America, which was scuttled in the Atlantic some time ago as part of a munitions test program. They wanted the new ship, which is also the lead ship of a new class (replacing the Nimitz-class), named America to honor the previous one. Frankly, I see their point. The new class will be the most powerful and advanced surface ship ever put to sea by any navy. Why should Ford get the honor of having this ship named after him? Just because he died at the right time?
FP
This act is making a large number of Navy veterans angry, especially veterans who served on the carrier USS America, which was scuttled in the Atlantic some time ago as part of a munitions test program. They wanted the new ship, which is also the lead ship of a new class (replacing the Nimitz-class), named America to honor the previous one. Frankly, I see their point. The new class will be the most powerful and advanced surface ship ever put to sea by any navy. Why should Ford get the honor of having this ship named after him? Just because he died at the right time?
FP
