Jump to content

A Thread for Random Musings


Old Man

Recommended Posts

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

An e-mail from my dad; about as random as they come:

 

It was 1958. We had two TV sets (actually we had 3, but the third one was in New Hampshire) One of them was the Zenith console in the living room. The other was a 12" Emerson table-top set that was usually in the basement. For some reason it had been put temporarily in my bedroom. I was supposed to go to bed at 9:00, but I had seen a promo for a show that looked interesting. It was a live drama about a guy from 1958 who unexpectedly found himself in Honolulu in December of 1941. The first person he meets is a sailor from the USS Arizona "When did ther pull HER out of the mud?" he asks. The sailor is quite offended. Of course, nobody believes him when he tries to tell them what's about to happen. I didn't get to see the whole show because my mother caught me watching it and made me turn it off.

 

Reading that biography of Rod Serling was a bit of a shock. Turns out he wrote the script, and had tried to peddle it to CBS as the first installment of an anthology series to be called "The Twilight Zone". The network ignored him. It got on the air, though, on a show called "Desilu Playhouse". After it aired, the network got flooded with mail, all of it favorable, and CBS stopped ignoring Serling's idea.

 

Strange to realize that if it hadn't been for Lucille Ball, there wouldn't have been "I Love Lucy" (obviously), but neither would there have been "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

When simulating the effect of a disease in a population, being able to generate negative numbers for disease duration is bad. As cool as it would be to know a person was going to have a disease before it actually started, that doesn't make your results believeable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

I have so much email, and old work files, and nowhere to store it all. Well, I could store it at home, I suppose; I've got the disk space (mirrored!) but the question is, can I suck 10GB worth of data down through my DSL connection without suffering timeouts? That would take... 173 hours. ****.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

I bought an irreverent birthday card for a friend yesterday, and a new lapel button. Not sure if I'll keep it, give it to another friend who deserves it more than anyone else I know, or give it to the barrista downstairs:

Better Multitasking Skills Through Massive Caffeine Consumption

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

I got this for my dad for Christmas.

Huge Letter Large Keys Keyboard

This oversized keyboard has high-contrast black on ivory keys that measure a very large 1 inch square. The bold letters and numbers are .75 inches high. Instead of the right-hand number pad, there are large navigation arrow keys, as well as the function keys. A great keyboard for beginning computer users, low vision users or those with arthritis. PC compatible.

He has Parkinson's, so using the computer when he's being diskinetic is a challenge, to say the least. "This is a lot easier when someone isn't moving the keys out from under me the whole time." I had to go on a good search to find a good enlarged keyboard. I'm really surprised that there aren't more of these out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

The best gift I ever gave my father is one that I hope he never finds out about.

 

For fifteen years I have put up with his wife, a woman I hated almost upon meeting. Even before they got serious, I felt talking to this woman was some form of classic greek punishment. She made him happy, though, so I didn't cause trouble. I was even best man at his wedding. Living here with both of them has been a real trial for me, and I was pretty sure I would make it.

 

Then came Christmas at her family's house. As far as I'm concerned, she crossed the line. I'm done. No more playing nice. I leave in a week, I can avoid her for the most part.

 

Dad just asked me to go pick her up at the train station tonight.

 

I'll go, but he's not able to even ride along. I can't gaurantee that she's making it back in one piece tonight. She's a creature of glass and tissue paper. If I say anything, she'll break. I fantasize about what I'd like to say to her, about all the things I've hidden, about her ansolute worthlessness as a human being, about... God help me, I don't know which would be worse: ripping into her or swallowing more depression inducing rage.

 

I love you, Dad. I hope I'm strong enough for one more week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...