Friday 5 for May 22 - Mail Order

The tower version of this computer was the largest item I got in mail order.

A week late and a dollar short but here are may answers to the May 22 topic "Mail Order" from Scrivener's Friday 5 site.

The Questions:

1. What is your most recently mail-ordered item?
2. What’s a catalog you’ve always wanted to order from but never have?
3. What is physically the largest item you ever mail-ordered?
4. What catalogs do you still receive in the actual mail?
5. What are some obscure or unusual catalogs you’ve received?

The Answers:

1. The last time I got an item actually mail ordered to me from Amazon.com was probably a CD - can't remember which one it was, but it was in 2014. Haven't ordered anything physical from Amazon this year.

2. Catalog I always wanted but never have.... SEARS - They discontinued the big catalog several years ago. But now I wish I had those since the SEARS store in Honolulu was torn down to make way for some high end stores.

3. Largest physical thing I actually got in the mail was way back in 1997 when I got my PowerCenter 150 Macintosh Clone desktop computer tower and monitor from Power Computing out of Round Rock, Texas. That was a good computer and was my main workhorse with Mac OS 7.6 to OS 8.5 and BeOS until 2001. Was a secondary platform until around 2009 when I sold it. 

4. Currently no catalogs.

5. In the distant past I used to get a scientific supply catalog from Porter Spear Company and recently I've been annoyed with some junkie sports betting catalogs. Those are immediately thrown in the trash. My favorite catalog that I used to get was Crutchfield and the occasional C-Crane electronics catalog.

Friday 5 for May 8: Vinegar and Brown Paper

Questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog.



1. What kinds of vinegar do you have in your pantry?

None at this time.

2. What was the last purchase you made that was carried home in a brown paper bag?

Groceries from Malama Market in Honokaa on the Big Island of Hawaii. There is a plastic bag ban on the Big Island but some stores do give out a paper bag and charge you a nickel for it I believe. Most recent purchase as such was on Sunday, May 3, 2015.

3. What home remedies do you swear by?

Chicken soup for when you have a cold, keeping warm and out of the draft when you're sick, bed rest when you're sick.... that kind of stuff.

4. How many Jacks and Jills do you know?

Jack Schneider, a businessman, and State Senator Jill Tokuda are two that are at the top of my head.

5. How would you rate your gift-wrapping skills?

I use a lot of tape, and can wrap adequately. Photo at the top shows gifts wrapped by my sister and her cat, Poof sitting on them.

Friday 5 for May 1: Baby It's Spring

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. 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!

1. How do you feel about the smell of babies?

It depends when you smell them. Mostly good but avoid after a poop.

2. Pretty much all animal babies are cute, but which are the cutest?

Kittens.

3. Veggies are pretty good in their adult form, but put the word “baby” in front of some of their names, and they can be transcendent. Which baby veggies do you especially love?

Don’t know about love but I would say baby carrots are convenient.

4. How cute a baby were you?

Ugly

5. How many songs in your digital library have the word “baby” in their titles, and which is your favorite?

Currently 250 miles away from my 16,000+ iTunes Library but off the top of my head here are my top 10 baby songs:

1. Baby Blue - Badfinger (1972) - This is the one played the most
2. Pretty Baby - Blondie (1978)
3. Baby You’re A Rich Man - The Beatles (1967)
4. Don’t Drop the Baby - The Judybats (1991)
5. Baby I Need Your Lovin’ - Johnny Rivers (1967)
6. Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles (1968)
7. Be My Baby - The Ronnettes (1963)
8. Baby It’s You - Smith (1969); The Beatles (1963)
9. Baby Hold On - Eddie Money (1978)
10. Baby I’m A Want You - Bread (1971)

Friday 5 for April 10: Opposition

From Scrivener's Friday 5 website, this week's topic is OPPOSITION.

1. What’s a current political or social issue on which you stand opposed?

There are plenty things to oppose. Here are a few of them:

Honolulu Fixed Rail Project - Too expensive, won't solve traffic woes, mainly lining pockets for developers. Ugly as shit. Tax burden on the public is too great. Stop rail now.

President Barack Obama - Everything about his tenure as president is bad. He is trying to move to country too far to the left. I oppose Obamacare, normalization of relations with communist Cuba, rule by executive orders, outlandish spending for Hawaii and other vacations, arrogant, Benghazi, allowing illegal immigrants to achieve legal status, and much, much more.

More Taxes - Politicians are never to be trusted when it comes to managing government finances because they almost always advocate for increasing taxes. Especially Democrats and liberals. Taxes should be cut.

Need I add more to this list? Not now.

2. What forces have worked against your efforts this week?

More than you would want to know.

3. Would you rather have to climb a steep hill in order to get into your house, or climb a steep hill in order to get out?

I actually prefer flat, level ground. Hills should only be a backdrop that you look at from down below and appear in landscape photographs. Hills and mountains should also be avoided by low flying aircraft.

4. In what way have you recently made things difficult for someone else?

Now why would I want to disclose that...next....

5. In what way has the “opposites attract” cliche been true in your life?

Kind of sort of with my current close, friend.

Friday 5 for April 3: Extinction

From Scrivener's Friday 5 site: "Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. 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!"

1. What’s the coolest of the extinct animal species? 

For this exercise I'd go with the Dodo bird. It definitely was not cool and was probably the ugliest bird that ever existed on Earth. The thing couldn't fly, had no natural predators on its home island of Mauritius, and fell prey to non-native animals such as rats and pigs. They were hunted by sailors for food. The bird became extinct in the 1660s.

Speaking of dodo's, I know a few humans who would qualify as such. Hah!

2. What classification (however you want to define that) of human being seems to be an endangered species? 

My family line. We don't have much children after the current generation so my kind are definitely endangered. Otherwise it has been noted that in 200 to 300 years, blond people will become extinct due to a lot of interracial births.

3. How do you feel about the disappearance of the neighborhood video rental store?

I don't miss it as much as the record store. Both record and video stores were good places to browse and if motivated buy music or a movie. Today we got streaming which is what seems to be dominant. Back in the day I preferred to buy vs. rent since I usually always forgot to return the video on time.

 

I think CDs are better than pure digital files. 

Plus you can get many used ones like this for as low as $1.00.

4. What’s an older technology that you consider better than a newer technology that’s replaced it?

I like compact discs better than just plain old MP3 or AAC files you purchase or download online. Today some used compact discs can be bought at a dollar each which is way cheaper than buying only one single track as a downloadable file for $1.29 each.

But then again, I still like and hold on to a lot of my old vinyl records. Records are cool to play and they come with big graphics and information that you don't get with many CDs and almost not ever with digital.

When it comes to single song purchases, with vinyl records you usually always got two songs (A side and B side) for the price of one, no matter how much they charged for that single. And some of those B-sides were killer tracks that never appeared on record albums and CDs until years later when the record company or artist issued them on an expensive compilation album.

5. What no-longer-available snack item do you miss most?

Horlick's malted milk chocolate candy that came in a bottle for a long time. I used to like the bubblegum cigarettes, and the sugary juice candy that came in a wax container shaped like a gun.

Friday 5 for March 27: Without Lamps, There’d Be No Light

From Scrivener's Friday 5:

"One of my favorite movies of all time celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and I had the pleasure to see it on the big screen for the first time Thursday evening. I was sixteen when it came out (yes; I’m 46), and too young to see it in theaters then, so although I’ve seen it on cable and DVD at least fifty times, this experience was a first, and it was incredible. So this week’s questions are inspired by that film."

1. When you were seventeen, how did you spend most of your Saturdays?

At home or with friends.

2. What was your high school locker like?

Cluttered if it was not vandalized.

3. When did you last have to replace a missing screw? 

Can't exactly remember. If I take something apart I put the screws in empty 35mm film containers so that they don't get lost.

4. What was the last thing you drank out of a Thermos?

That's a long time ago. Can't remember... probably hot water or chicken soup.

5. Do you still possess anything you created in high school (say, an elephant lamp that lights up when pull the trunk)?

I was on the high school yearbook staff, so that means I still have my senior yearbook from Herff Jones.... are they still in business? Their crummy book binding started falling apart shortly after we got our books. Josten's is better.

Video: "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds. The song was used in the movie The Breakfast Club as the closing credits ran on top of it. The track also topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.

Molly Ringwald: Loved "Pretty in Pink" and I wish she had gone with Duckie. Haven't seen her in anything recent.

Ally Sheedy: "Number 5 is alive!" "Nice software"... heh heh

It's sad that John Hughes died unexpectedly. "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?"....

Friday 5 for March 20, 2015 - Stitches

I saw this question last week, and meant to reply then since I recently had some stitches put in. A week late and a dollar short but now my response is up. Mmmmm.

1. Where on your body have you had stitches, and what were the circumstances? 

You see the photos at the top and bottom of this post? Well those are the most detailed photos you'll see of me anywhere. Last year after what I thought was a giant zit on my back that bothered me for a few years, I decided to have it checked. The doctor said it was a cyst and that I could have it removed. So one day in late September 2014 I had the darn thing removed through a "minor" surgical process.

As you can see from the photos at the top the cyst was quite large. There it is in the little cup. Gigantic pustule that occasionally oozed from time to time when I had it. 

Doctor removed it and replaced the incision with the stitches you can see above and below this paragraph. The top picture is of the first day. The bottom photos are of subsequent months... November, December 2014, and March 2015. Photos by the doctor's nurse on the first day, and by friend Lisa and sister Sandra. I took the photo of the cyst in the container with the nickel. It is located on a part of my back that I can't reach.

The hospital kept the pustule, examined it and declared it cancer free! Yeah.

2. Who most recently left you in stitches? 

Myself and my sister several years ago after she noted the holes in my socks and we laughed about it a lot.

3. “A stitch in time saves nine,” says the proverb, which means that mending one small tear in a fabric now prevents having to make nine stitches later when the damage is worse. How has this been illustrated in your life? 

See number one above if it is about me. Otherwise the other one I can literally think of is when my Dad had bypass surgery and he had big stitches all over. This was back in 1988. Doctors gave him another 10 years on life at that time. He lived longer than that and passed away in 2010.

4. What are your thoughts on Disney’s Lilo and Stitch? 

"Ohana means family and nobody gets left behind." Loved  the movie; good storyline and it is based in Hawaii. What's not to like? It is the only Disney animated flick I have in my DVD collection. This was also the last movie I saw in the Waikiki #3 theater back in 2002.

5. What experience do you have with needle and thread?

I can sew a button back on to a piece of clothing. That's about it unless you consider the stitches story at Q1.