Sunday, December 31, 2017

Catching Up With the Last of the 2017 Friday 5's

Placeholder text in here. Will be back to enter and edit.

Friday, December 8, 2017

Friday 5 for December 8: It’s Electric

From Scrivener's Friday 5 site... It's electric.... yep...

Hot Wired

1. What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done with electricity?

Back in the 1990s I connected the wrong power adapter to a portable CD player that someone gave me. Duh. I guess the voltage did not match. The moment I plugged it in and turned on the player, a sickening puff of light white smoke emerged and the player was promptly fried. Oh well.

2. How did you last pass the time when your residence was without power for at least a few hours?

Since I live 8 floors up I either just stay at home until the power comes back on, read a book if it is not dark or if it is, look for batteries and turn on my flashlights. Then I listen to the radio. Oh, and I use my landline phone to see if other people have power who also have landline phones. Most of the time the outage is in one small area which means other people do have electricity. Whatever.

3. Around how many AA and AAA batteries do you have on standby?

I have 4 sets of rechargeable AA & AAA lithium batteries that I use mainly for cameras and gear that require them. I sometimes swap into other devices such as a portable radio. I also have dozens of spare alkaline batteries around just to be prepared for like a power outage of something. I have to be able to at least play a radio and use a camera during an outage situation. I also have cameras and other devices that use proprietary batteries and some devices with built in batteries, that I generally despise since it is the manufacturer's way of forcing obsolescence on consumers... don't get me started on built in batteries. I generally hate them because they are not easily replaceable. A crime when I open my drawer and look at my 6 older iPods that I can't use as portable devices unless plugged into a power outlet. I mean the devices work just as fine as they did when I first bought them... but because the built in batteries don't hold a charge I feel that I was cheated by Apple. That is why in recent years my enthusiasm for Apple is not as great as it used to be.



4. How do you feel about lightning?

Film it! I try.... I like it... and thunder... it's something different.

5. When did you last dance the Electric Slide, and if you’ve never done it, what’s the closest you’ve come to dancing the Electric Slide?

Heaven's no. I suck at dancing and as a former school dance DJ I played the song only once in 1994, more than a decade after I did my last school dance, this time at a party at a church function on the Big Island. That was the last time I did a public DJ stint.

I do have a digital copy of the song in my iTunes library and is played about as many times (rarely) as the "Macarena". Heh.





Friday, December 1, 2017

Friday 5 for December 1: Lady Bird

"Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your website. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website."

"Five questions inspired by the new Greta Gerwig film Lady Bird, which I recommend."

One quick comment here. Movies  are so expensive at the theater these days. It is far more cheaper to wait for a DVD or streaming release. There is only one movie I plan to see in the theater this year, and that would be the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi.



1. What was moving out of your parents’ home like?

Easy though I still have a few things (like record albums) in my parents' former home which is now my sister's.

2. What makes popular kids in high school popular, and how were you like or unlike them?

Been many decades since I been in high school, but I would venture to guess popularity reigns in whether or not you are in the correct peer group or participate in something popular like band or sports. I hung out with some of the more nerdy kids, though we had no computers back in the day. We caught our thrills playing chess, checkers, Stratego or with the then new finagled "calculator". I was one of the first kids to get one back in 1973.

3. When you were in high school, where in the neighborhood did schoolmates hang out?

During recess we kind of hung around in the library and talked too much. After school some kids hung out at friend's homes and stuff. Other kids hung out at the local Dairy Queen drive in or the convenience store. I have to idea where the tough kids and druggies hung out as I was not in those groups.

4. What was learning to drive like?

My Dad helped my "tutu man" work on his ranch when we were very young. I learned to drive up in the ranch at the age of 10. The vehicle? 1960 Willys Jeep pick-up. When I became of legal age I learned on my Mom's 1972 Chevelle. Back in the day there was no requirement to take driver's education. My parents taught me well. To this very day, more than 40 years later, I have never gotten a speeding ticket or into an accident.  (Photo 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle on Wikipedia)

5. What were your most difficult and least difficult subjects in high school?

Most difficult - Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, etc).... P.E. - I sucked at all sports.

Least difficult - History, Art, Music, Reading, English, Writing, Civics