Picoftheweek

Picoftheweek
Waaaaaaaay too many to count...

My Statement

"Let me emphatically say that I am not anti-Facebook (Fleecebook), anti-smart phone, anti-Microsoft, anti-Apple, anti-Google or anti-Internet. I do believe, though, that the consumer is being ripped off of his privacy, identity and purchase history. We are being herded into a Facebook corner where what we "Like" and where we go physically and on the net will be scrutinized and sold numerous times to actually corrode and erode our culture while tempting us only with convenience, high tech and flashing video screens. The unsuspecting consumers need to be aware..." - Gary Lapman

Quote of Note

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”-W.C. Fields

"For the strength of the Wolf is in the Pack, and the strength of the Pack is in the Wolf." - Rudyard Kipling

"Common sense is not so common. " -Voltaire

“Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, but only character endures.” - Matthew McConaughey

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him"

"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason" - Jerry Seinfeld

"Fleecebook is free, you (and your identity) is the product!" - Gary Lapman


"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves." - Eric Sevareid

"'Smart' phones are only smart for the cell phone providers!" - Gary Lapman

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” -Albert Einstein

"Technology creates the illusion of companionship without the intimacy of friendship." - unknown

"No worry, there's an app for that..." - Gary Lapman

Friday, October 18, 2013

All is Well That Ends Well...

A very unusual week. The gubmint comes through in the last minutes [as I expected].  Somehow I caught a cold [and I normally don't].  I can't remember the last one I fended off. And there is a whole high-anxiety scenario about the Vette.

I have had an ad on Vettehound.com for over a year.  You know the old saying- everything is for sale at the right price, right.  I originally listed the car at $60K, but the economy being what it was, I lowered it to $55K.  I have, in my heart, my actual bottom selling price.  While I love my car, it has always presented one big problem to me- it is almost all original and a survivor with just over 75K miles on it.  Considering that it is fifty-two years old, theoretically it should have roughly 624,000 miles on it at 12,000 a year.  It was stored for a long time, so it is called a survivor.  I was always reminded of that when I drove it, so I was essentially forced to drive it very little, just enough to keep it alive.  Also, that was a big deterrent in any resto-mod efforts, like electronic ignition or disc brakes.  I was pretty restricted. I thought that I would really enjoy working on it, and I did, for the little that I did.  I really never could make the time- which did not go well with my wife, because she saw all that money sitting in the garage- not being utilized for other things.

I really enjoy driving sports cars or muscle cars [except for today's cost of fuel]- so the economical and better thing to do is sell the car and buy something smaller, cheaper and not classic.  I'm sure this will break my heart and I definitely will regret it.

Meanwhile, my generator stopped functioning and I took the car to my mechanic friend, since I didn't have time to deal with it.  I expected that the armature could be rewound locally and all would be okay.  The model of Vette that I have, has a tachometer takeoff at the back of the generator and for that reason, it could not be rewound locally.  I was offered a place in Los Angeles that could do the job in two weeks at the cost of $800!!!  That being outrageous, I decided to find a rebuilt unit on the internet.  I found one for $300 and it was dropped by the USeless Postal Service, hard enough to break one of the end plates.  Luckily, my mechanic performed magic and the unit was still in working condition.  The seller agreed to refund a portion of the cost due to it being packed so poorly. I finally got my operational car back after a week and a half.

Meanwhile (again), there was a party in Montana that is very interested in the car.  So much so, that they are driving out here with a trailer to see the car, perhaps buy it and transport it back to Montana.  My high- anxiety came from all of this activity which could prevent me from even having the car at home and available for this potential buyer to evaluate.  Sooooooo they say, all is well that ends well.  We shall see...




Truths for Mature Humans
I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists.

Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my behind everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!





Did you know?
The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896.

Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump".

If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.

The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.

Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

If the population of China walked past you single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

A snail can sleep for three years.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

The longest word in the English language in 1909 letters long and it refers to a distinct part of DNA.

If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human's neck.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

No word in the English language rhymes with month.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months, and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

If you pass wind consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

Americans eat an average of 18 acres of pizza every day.

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.

The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

Polar bears are left handed.

The catfish is the animal with the most taste buds - 27,000.