Happy Birthday, TJack!

[Duke Bushido]

Congratulations on having survived through so many itterations of Tekken!

 

Man, you must be tough..... 

 

 

 

[Cancer]

Happy Birthday!

[tkdguy]

Happy Birthday!

[Pariah]

Happiest of birthdays!

[Tjack]

   Thanks for the nice and most welcome sentiment.  But you’re off by quite a bit.  As a bit of ‘net security I never put my correct date of birth down on websites.  Just in case.  
  I do appreciate the well wishes though and thank you all most sincerely.  Sorry.

 

    And to the Duke....I am tougher than boot leather and beef jerky left in the glove compartment in December in Wisconsin.

[Duke Bushido]

9 hours ago, Tjack said:

   Thanks for the nice and most welcome sentiment.  But you’re off by quite a bit.  As a bit of ‘net security I never put my correct date of birth down on websites.  

 

Honestly, I don't think anyone does.   But regardless, it provides a bit of fun for all: we can still say "we appreciate your existence;" it's just on the day you have selected as your birthday. 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Tjack said:

And to the Duke....I am tougher than boot leather and beef jerky left in the glove compartment in December in Wisconsin.

 

 

My personal favorite on such a thing:

 

There was some remodeling going on in Savannah on the facades of a few buildings many, many years ago (like the 80s) and I was walking through it with a date.  To be fair, lots of people were walking through it, but I wasn't dating them, so....

 

The young lady and I heard someone holler, and we looked up to see a guy grabbing at a line that was likely supposed to be attacked to another guy.  We won't ever know exactly what happened, but what we saw was this:

 

a scaffold walkboard was laying over sideways (don't know what happened) and a guy was falling.  He was four stories up, and was flailing.  He managed to whack his head on the scaffolding of the "floor" beneath him, but doing so kind of flipped him around so that he could grab onto the scaffolding he was falling past.

 

It didn't really help, as when he grabbed it he was jerked violently and couldn't hold on (or even slow dow, but an effort was made).

 

At that point we lost track of him behind the temporary fences erected around the work zone to protect traffic and passers-by.

 

We heard commotion and shouting, and we were pretty sure we had just watched a guy get all kinds of messed up.  The guy who (we think) first hollered was leaning over the scaffold, looking down at whatever was going on behind the fence.  After a few minutes, he stands, shoves and arm out and very definately gives "the finger" to someone below him.

 

Almost immediately the guy who fell-- clothing torn, dirt and much all over him, (weren't close enough to tell much else, but the way he moved suggested he was a bit sore) began to climb the scaffold.  He stopped on the second floor to take a hammer from his belt and throw it at the first guy with all his might.  He missed by a mile, but the intentions were clear.  He resumed his hollering and yelling and climbed up even faster.

 

 

"Jesus!"  my date exclaimed.  "That guy's tougher than a Huddle House steak!"

 

 

 

And that, Sir, has ever-since been my go-to expression for those who can push well beyond the limits of human frailty.     

 

 

 

[death tribble]

Wait Duke Bushido knows TJack ?

do people on the board actually know each other in real life ?

[dmjalund]

you guys have a real life?

[Pariah]

Lord Mhoram was the best man when Lady P and I got married. And I have video chatted with Bazza on a couple of occasions. 

[Tjack]

46 minutes ago, death tribble said:

Wait Duke Bushido knows TJack ?

do people on the board actually know each other in real life ?

   The Duke and I have never met in real 3D life before (as far as I know, I’m a strong believer in the Kevin Bacon/6 Degrees Theory) but there’s a mutual respect thing going on.

 

    I’m bored so I’ll tell a quick story.  
   For those unfamiliar with the term during the 80’s a scientist came out with the theory of viral spread that said any two people in the world could be connected by 6 degrees of separation.  This led to the Kevin Bacon game that any actor can be linked this way with KB.  ie; Samuel L. Jackson.  KB was in A Few Good Men w/ Tom Cruise. TC was in The Color of Money w/ Paul Newman. PN was in The Sting w/ Robert Redford who was in The Winter Soldier w/ SLJ. Four jumps.

  I am the KING of this game.  In my Forrest Gump of a life I’ve met Bob Hope who puts me in two jumps with most of classic Hollywood, all the Apollo astronauts (three jumps to the lunar surface) O.J Simpson and every American President from FDR to Reagan.  Also I met a few Boston comedians who later went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This connects me to all of modern Hollywood and every President from Reagan to George Bush sr.

 And when you include the fact that my sister was once part of a group blessing (for some charity work) from Mother Theresa, I figure that I’m only a couple of jumps from a whole bunch of Popes and God.

   Remember this foolishness the next time you wonder how COVID spread around the world so fast.

 

  And yes, for me that WAS a quick story.

  

[Duke Bushido]

42 minutes ago, death tribble said:

Wait Duke Bushido knows TJack ?

do people on the board actually know each other in real life ?

 

 

Dude!

 

You live just a block down the street from me!

 

How have you not noticed this?!  I've been living here for like nine years now!

 

 

 

 

 

No.

 

Duke doesn't know TJack, at least not as anything other than TJack.  Duke lives approximately nine-and-a-half-miles from The Middle of Nowhere, and so far as he knows, none of his friends or even his Players are on this site.  In fact, the bulk of Duke's associates that _are_ on any sort of social media, it's motorcycle-related (Duke himself ran a motorcycle website for over twenty years, and is just burned out on motorcycle-related social media, soo.....)

 

Duke and TJack also belong to another site, and Duke got a "someone has a birthday today" notification.  Since Duke rather enjoys TJack's contributions, and by extension enjoys the virtual persona of TJack, he felt obliged to demonstrate that appreciation with an "it makes me happy that you are alive" post. 

 

 

Now as for the rest of you lot.....

 

 

 

 

[Tjack]

1 minute ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Dude!

 

You live just a block down the street from me!

 

How have you not noticed this?!  I've been living here for like nine years now!

 

 

 

 

 

No.

 

Duke doesn't know TJack, at least not as anything other than TJack.  Duke lives approximately nine-and-a-half-miles from The Middle of Nowhere, and so far as he knows, none of his friends or even his Players are on this site.  In fact, the bulk of Duke's associates that _are_ on any sort of social media, it's motorcycle-related (Duke himself ran a motorcycle website for over twenty years, and is just burned out on motorcycle-related social media, soo.....)

 

Duke and TJack also belong to another site, and Duke got a "someone has a birthday today" notification.  Since Duke rather enjoys TJack's contributions, and by extension enjoys the virtual persona of TJack, he felt obliged to demonstrate that appreciation with an "it makes me happy that you are alive" post. 

 

 

Now as for the rest of you lot.....

 

 

 

 

   Dude, check my last post.  I think I’m connected to all of humanity. 

[Pariah]

As an undergraduate, my thermodynamics Professor was the son of a renowned research chemist who had worked with Albert Einstein at Princeton.

 

Three degrees of separation from Albert Einstein.

[MITSasquatch]

My Stepson’s stepbrother studied under Alton Brown’s teacher.

TJack and I were roommates for a time.

Before that there was a theory formed when TJack met my friends from Tokyo Paris and London who were on there way to a conference. But he tells it better 

[death tribble]

Well I met Enforcer84, Bazza, Doc Democracy, Archermoo who were in London. Steve Long who came over for Dragonmeet. Gary Gygax at GenCon in the States as well as the guys behind Necromancer Games.

I met and got photographed with Lena Headley, Gillian Anderson, William B Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas LeaJuliet Landau, Terry Farrell, Michael Masden, Peter Dinklage, Andy Robinson, Kelly Hu, Heather Spearitt and Edward James Olmos.  I met and got autographs of Elvira, Armin Shimmerman, John Hurt, Anthony Head, Charles Dance, Alexander Siddig, Andrew Lee Potts, Rene Auderjonais, Peter Miles, Guy Siner, Louise Jameson, Frazer Hines, David Collings, David Warner, the wrestler Virgil and Michael Biehn.

 

So if you can link to any of them, you can link to me.

[Cancer]

Three other members of my gaming group have been here but haven't logged in in years.  Otherwise AFAIK I haven't met anyone on these boards.  My schedule has always been such that I don't get to gaming cons much.  I've met a couple of famous gaming people, but with one exception they were all so long ago that I doubt they'd remember me at all (and one, Rick Loomis, is deceased).  Famous non-gaming people, well, I work in a small racket with some remarkably high-visibility people.

[death tribble]

I forgot to mention Claudia Christian, Lou Zocchi, Aaron Alston, Colin McComb, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley and Keith Parkinson. These were at GenCon or on a tour of TSR in Lake Geneva. I know someone who knew Colin and got a tour of TSR as a result.

But I should also mention Brian Blessed who was at a holiday expo.

Then there are the authors Terry Pratchett, James Herbert and Carl Hiasson. The artist Chris Achilleos who did the art for the Raven books. Rowena Morrill who did Natasha Kerensky for Battletech. Clyde Caldwell who did Vampire art and dungeons and dragons art.

And of course I met Siouxsie Sioux Steve Severin and Budgie at the Banshees autobiography signing in London.

 

Again link to them and you get to me.

So easy for Tjack but probably a little bit difficult for everyone else.

[archer]

9 hours ago, Tjack said:

   The Duke and I have never met in real 3D life before (as far as I know, I’m a strong believer in the Kevin Bacon/6 Degrees Theory) but there’s a mutual respect thing going on.

 

    I’m bored so I’ll tell a quick story.  
   For those unfamiliar with the term during the 80’s a scientist came out with the theory of viral spread that said any two people in the world could be connected by 6 degrees of separation.  This led to the Kevin Bacon game that any actor can be linked this way with KB.  ie; Samuel L. Jackson.  KB was in A Few Good Men w/ Tom Cruise. TC was in The Color of Money w/ Paul Newman. PN was in The Sting w/ Robert Redford who was in The Winter Soldier w/ SLJ. Four jumps.

  I am the KING of this game.  In my Forrest Gump of a life I’ve met Bob Hope who puts me in two jumps with most of classic Hollywood, all the Apollo astronauts (three jumps to the lunar surface) O.J Simpson and every American President from FDR to Reagan.  Also I met a few Boston comedians who later went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This connects me to all of modern Hollywood and every President from Reagan to George Bush sr.

 And when you include the fact that my sister was once part of a group blessing (for some charity work) from Mother Theresa, I figure that I’m only a couple of jumps from a whole bunch of Popes and God.

   Remember this foolishness the next time you wonder how COVID spread around the world so fast.

 

  And yes, for me that WAS a quick story.

  

 

I had a private conversation with Bill Clinton, knew Newt Gingrich's lawyer, and met a vice presidential candidate (not for Clinton).

 

One remove: two different connections to Jack Abramoff who has been at the center of repeated presidential and congressional campaign funding scandals and who wrote and produced a couple of Hollywood films.

 

My niece has met Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers repeatedly. (My niece has also been asked for her autograph repeatedly as fans have been under the mistaken impression from time to time that she was part of the stars' celebrity entourage.)

 

My wife and daughter met Selina Gomez.

 

 I used to fill up at a gas station where some of the 9-11 hijackers were caught on video as they were hiding out before 9-11.

 

 

Sure, my list might be puny. But how many people know they are two steps removed from Osama bin Laden?

[Bazza]

10 hours ago, death tribble said:

Well I met Enforcer84, Bazza, Doc Democracy, Archermoo who were in London. Steve Long who came over for Dragonmeet. Gary Gygax at GenCon in the States as well as the guys behind Necromancer Games.

I met and got photographed with Lena Headley, Gillian Anderson, William B Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas LeaJuliet Landau, Terry Farrell, Michael Masden, Peter Dinklage, Andy Robinson, Kelly Hu, Heather Spearitt and Edward James Olmos.  I met and got autographs of Elvira, Armin Shimmerman, John Hurt, Anthony Head, Charles Dance, Alexander Siddig, Andrew Lee Potts, Rene Auderjonais, Peter Miles, Guy Siner, Louise Jameson, Frazer Hines, David Collings, David Warner, the wrestler Virgil and Michael Biehn.

 

So if you can link to any of them, you can link to me.

Wahoo I’m one degree of seperation from Enforcer84! ( )

[dmjalund]

i have met Chuck Norris, Richard Dreyfuss and Kathleen Turner

[Duke Bushido]

Well as long as we're playing this...

 

Met Reagan during his first term.  Met Lindsey Thomas, too, and even though I was still relatively young and impressionable, thought he was a worm.  That says a lot, I think.

 

Raced dirtbikes against some young kid named Jeremy McGrath (and a lot of other people; let's make that clear).  Many of us got our butts handed to us by a kid.

 

Took a friend to "a place I won't get hit on by a bunch of guys."  (When I was younger, I was a much bigger guy, and for some reason, many of my single lady friends would ask me to play escort when they just wanted to go out).  Ended up at a gay bar where I got hit on and flirted with by a drag queen who would go on to be in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a movie shot locally some years later.

 

Went to a cast party and woke up in bed with a local news anchor who would go on to do a bit part in that same movie (playing herself) just a few months later.  I don't _think_ anything happened, but we have pointedly never spoken about it, even to each other.

 

I have a brother who had a classmate get a part in Swamp Thing 2 (also filmed locally).

 

I punched an obnoxious neighbor because he had gotten drunk and was howling up and down the streets all night in the middle of the week.  There was clapping.  I also confess that I had wanted to do that for months anyway, as every single conversation he ever had started with "I'm first cousin's with Normal Fell!"  (for those who don't know, Normal Fell played Mr. Roper on Three's Company)

 

My first time through college, I was asked by a lesbian classmate to be her pretend boyfriend for a weekend trip to a wedding in Anniston, Alabama.  Lots of family from Poland was coming in for the wedding.  I had never been to a Polish wedding.  We got separated during the reception.  I woke up a few hours later in a motel room with several Poles, and a very burly old man bent over, staring at me, his face just inches from mine.  He said nothing, but his stare was intense and his breath would intoxicate a horse.  Finally he grinned, shoved a bottle between us and said, in a thick accent, "DRINK!"  So I did. 

 

I woke up two days later pinned under a very nice-looking and very muscular young lady (and I know my type; I am pretty sure something _did_ happen, but to this day I don't remember what it might have been).  When I left Anniston, I was missing two socks, one boot, my wallet, and 1982 Kawasaki 1000 LTD  (my friend wanted to take the bike).  I called my brothers for a bus ticket.  I found the bike when I got home-- my friend had gotten tired of looking for me and had found my keys and wallet in our room (we took a cab to the wedding because of the dress) and she finally just rode back to Brunswick without me.  I also found out that the nice-looking muscle girl was an olympic hopeful-- a backup for the girl who was to be competing the next year (she had been given a "pass" from training to attend the wedding, but I don't remember if it was a sister or a cousin).

 

So I don't know how many degrees I am from anything or anyone, but I'm pretty certain I spent the middle of my life doing all the wrong things.   

 

 

[Tjack]

13 hours ago, death tribble said:

Well I met Enforcer84, Bazza, Doc Democracy, Archermoo who were in London. Steve Long who came over for Dragonmeet. Gary Gygax at GenCon in the States as well as the guys behind Necromancer Games.

I met and got photographed with Lena Headley, Gillian Anderson, William B Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas LeaJuliet Landau, Terry Farrell, Michael Masden, Peter Dinklage, Andy Robinson, Kelly Hu, Heather Spearitt and Edward James Olmos.  I met and got autographs of Elvira, Armin Shimmerman, John Hurt, Anthony Head, Charles Dance, Alexander Siddig, Andrew Lee Potts, Rene Auderjonais, Peter Miles, Guy Siner, Louise Jameson, Frazer Hines, David Collings, David Warner, the wrestler Virgil and Michael Biehn.

 

So if you can link to any of them, you can link to me.

  I literally bumped into Eliza Dushku ( I was not cool.) at a convention once, so even if she never had a scene with Juliet Landau directly there’s enough connection with the rest of the Buffy cast to give us at least a four jump connection.  Do you see how creepy and small this game makes the world.

3 hours ago, dmjalund said:

i have met Chuck Norris, Richard Dreyfuss and Kathleen Turner

   I’ve tried but unless you consider that all three must have been on The Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson, that still puts us at three jumps away from each other.

3 hours ago, dmjalund said:

2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Well as long as we're playing this...

 

Met Reagan during his first term.  Met Lindsey Thomas, too, and even though I was still relatively young and impressionable, thought he was a worm.  That says a lot, I think.

 

Raced dirtbikes against some young kid named Jeremy McGrath (and a lot of other people; let's make that clear).  Many of us got our butts handed to us by a kid.

 

Took a friend to "a place I won't get hit on by a bunch of guys."  (When I was younger, I was a much bigger guy, and for some reason, many of my single lady friends would ask me to play escort when they just wanted to go out).  Ended up at a gay bar where I got hit on and flirted with by a drag queen who would go on to be in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a movie shot locally some years later.

 

Went to a cast party and woke up in bed with a local news anchor who would go on to do a bit part in that same movie (playing herself) just a few months later.  I don't _think_ anything happened, but we have pointedly never spoken about it, even to each other.

 

I have a brother who had a classmate get a part in Swamp Thing 2 (also filmed locally).

 

I punched an obnoxious neighbor because he had gotten drunk and was howling up and down the streets all night in the middle of the week.  There was clapping.  I also confess that I had wanted to do that for months anyway, as every single conversation he ever had started with "I'm first cousin's with Normal Fell!"  (for those who don't know, Normal Fell played Mr. Roper on Three's Company)

 

My first time through college, I was asked by a lesbian classmate to be her pretend boyfriend for a weekend trip to a wedding in Anniston, Alabama.  Lots of family from Poland was coming in for the wedding.  I had never been to a Polish wedding.  We got separated during the reception.  I woke up a few hours later in a motel room with several Poles, and a very burly old man bent over, staring at me, his face just inches from mine.  He said nothing, but his stare was intense and his breath would intoxicate a horse.  Finally he grinned, shoved a bottle between us and said, in a thick accent, "DRINK!"  So I did. 

 

I woke up two days later pinned under a very nice-looking and very muscular young lady (and I know my type; I am pretty sure something _did_ happen, but to this day I don't remember what it might have been).  When I left Anniston, I was missing two socks, one boot, my wallet, and 1982 Kawasaki 1000 LTD  (my friend wanted to take the bike).  I called my brothers for a bus ticket.  I found the bike when I got home-- my friend had gotten tired of looking for me and had found my keys and wallet in our room (we took a cab to the wedding because of the dress) and she finally just rode back to Brunswick without me.  I also found out that the nice-looking muscle girl was an olympic hopeful-- a backup for the girl who was to be competing the next year (she had been given a "pass" from training to attend the wedding, but I don't remember if it was a sister or a cousin).

 

So I don't know how many degrees I am from anything or anyone, but I'm pretty certain I spent the middle of my life doing all the wrong things.   

 

 

    So from me to Bob Hope, from him to Reagan then R.R. to you that makes us only three jumps from each other.

[Tjack]

11 hours ago, death tribble said:

I forgot to mention Claudia Christian, Lou Zocchi, Aaron Alston, Colin McComb, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley and Keith Parkinson. These were at GenCon or on a tour of TSR in Lake Geneva. I know someone who knew Colin and got a tour of TSR as a result.

But I should also mention Brian Blessed who was at a holiday expo.

Then there are the authors Terry Pratchett, James Herbert and Carl Hiasson. The artist Chris Achilleos who did the art for the Raven books. Rowena Morrill who did Natasha Kerensky for Battletech. Clyde Caldwell who did Vampire art and dungeons and dragons art.

And of course I met Siouxsie Sioux Steve Severin and Budgie at the Banshees autobiography signing in London.

 

Again link to them and you get to me.

So easy for Tjack but probably a little bit difficult for everyone else.

 

 

    I got Bill Mumy’s autograph so that makes you and I only three jumps apart.

 

     Everyone in the world is everyone else’s brother & sister.  “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

[dmjalund]

30 minutes ago, Tjack said:

   I’ve tried but unless you consider that all three must have been on The Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson, that still puts us at three jumps away from each other.

not at the same time

[Pariah]

Hmmm, what other famous people have I encountered? I nearly ran over Donny Osmond in a stairwell once. (He's really short.) I've met local sports stars Shawn Bradley (he's really tall) and Ty Detmer. I have Ted Nugent's autograph on a $1 bill. (He's precisely as crazy as he appears to be.)

 

Oh, and my family had lunch with Bill Keyes (a/k/a teh ebil bunneh) a couple of summers ago. What a genuinely nice guy.