I decided to hop in and do a Friday Five for a change. This week's theme was to remember 5 of the toys we cherished as a child. Click the picture to the left if you want to join in.

1. Lite Brite, Etch-a-Sketch, Spirograph
My sisters and I spent hours with these things. My dad would bring home scratch paper from work (one side used, the back blank) and we'd devour it in the Spirograph. All the hole patterns for the Lite Brite were used, but we'd use them over again and change the colors of the pegs to try to make them better. My sister got pretty good at the Etch-a-Sketch, but never quite mastered the ability of excitedly carrying it into the next room to show off.

2. Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos
We had a huge round box of Lincoln Logs.  It must've been 3 feet long and a foot in diameter with a round metal lid, and it was chock full. I think the container of Tinker Toys was about the same size. I'd mix and match, and build things using all three sets.

3. Matchbox Cars
I had a giant collection of cars and trucks, as well as things like race cars, firetruck, ambulance, police cars, etc. Most of them were involved in smash-up derbies at one point or another, but I don't think one of them ever broke.

4. Schwinn Stingray
Yeah, with the big banana seat. Mine was red. I'd go everywhere on my bike, and when my parents first let me ride to school I thought it was the greatest thing ever! I could get there in 5 minutes instead of 20.

5. Multiway Rollway

My whole family spent hours with this thing. There were long chutes and short chutes, cube risers, tall risers, and tiny risers, tunnel cubes with a 90 degree turn, and a half dozen wooden marbles. You could put two tunnels together to have the marble do a 180 turn, or even just stack them together so the marble would snake down from the top to the bottom. I think my mom still has this thing, with grandkids around she wouldn't give it up!

James Van Ivere is a man that got involved. Maybe a little too involved. He was arrested and charged, while the real doofus in this story walked away with a stupid grin on his face.  Hey dude, turn your porn down, will ya?

On the other side of the coin is the case of Angel Arce Torres of Hartford, CT. This video has been shown on multiple news sources today, and it sickens me that people could so callously stand by and watch someone suffer.

This story from last year encourages what they call "Active Bystanders". In a college dorm, students were asked what they would do if they saw somebody scrawling "FAGS DIE" on a gay student's dorm room. Their answers changed significantly when the scenario involved a good friend.

Where do you stand? Would you take a risk, a few minutes out of your busy day, and get involved to help a total stranger? I hope so.

It's just gross...

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine... And those who don't. As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in Scotch there is strength, in beer there is freedom, and in water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilogram of Escherichia coli, (E.coli) the bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming about 2 1/4 pounds of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or Scotch whiskey, Tequila, Rum or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop; Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service.

Dear LifeGem,

I can't really afford to have my hamster cremated, so I buried him in the back yard. If I just dig him up and cut off his tail, would that work?

Geek

Look at the picture above and you can see where this guy broke  through the guardrail, right side where the people are standing on the road pointing.  The pick-up was traveling from right to left when it crashed through the guardrail.  It flipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet, and landed right side up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which he was traveling.

Click here to see the second picture.

If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he does now?

I read an article the other day about how Google Maps has added eight new cities to their "Street View" data, and those cities included Dallas and Fort Worth.There are now 23 US cities that have this type of image coverage.In the pictures below, you can click the picture to see the full-sized view (per Flickr's Community Guidelines).Clicking the link below the picture will take you to Google Maps where you can see exactly where the image was captured.If you're familiar with Google Maps, you know you can "drag" the map around and zoom in and out.When the Street View image openes, you can do these same things, and more.You can zoom in and out using the slider on the left side.You can change the angle of the view horizontally left and right using the arrows at the top left.A white line on the image shows the path of the vehicle that took the pictures.When it is visible, you can click the arrows to move along the road.You can drag the image left and right to duplicate the function of the arrows, but you can also drag the image up and down to change the view even more.People have found some very interesting things in the data.All links will open in a new window or tab.

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Richardson, TX
Here's where I live.

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Forest & Audelia
I lived in an apartment in this area from 1988 to 1994 before I bought my house.

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Forest & Audelia with Street View
If you click the "Street View" button (circled in red), you'll see little blue outlines appear on the streets.These are the paths that were taken when the vehicle took the pictures.It's interesting to zoom out and see the entire city covered with blue.That's a LOT of driving.If you zoom out even more so you can see the whole United States, the blue disappears and each city with Street View data shows a camera icon.

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Drag the Dude
The little yellow map appears when in Street View mode.You can drag him to a new location, or just click somewhere on a blue line.Let's take a walk down Forest Lane.

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Goober in the road
What's this?There's somebody standing out in the middle of the road!Let's zoom in for a closer look.

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Mark's back
I'll be darned.It's Paul's buddy Mark!What is he doing?Let's move around and look from the other side.

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Mark from front
There's a bag in his hand.It looks like he's walking home from the grocery store.Is he talking on a cell phone?Smoking a cigarette?Picking his nose?What do you think?It's a little hard to tell.

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Six Flags map
The map of Six Flags over Texas isn't very exciting.

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Six Flags satellite
It gets a little more interesting in Satellite mode.

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Six Flags coaster
But turning on Street View is a lot more fun!

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Dallas Zoo
The giraffe in front of the Dallas Zoo was nearly the highest monument in the state.They added a lightning rod to the end of its long tongue to push it to the top.

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Dealey Plaza
Dealey Plaza is where, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot by an assassin's bullet as the Presidential motorcade rounded the plaza.The square brown roof is the top of the Texas School Book Depository.

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School Book Depository
Lee Harvey Oswald is thought to have been on the 6th floor, in the window at the center of this picture.The Sixth Floor Museum is there now, and contains some very interesting stuff.

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Grassy Knoll
This is the infamous "Grassy Knoll".

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American Airlines Center
Here is the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Stars play hockey, the Dallas Mavericks play basketball, and countless artists have performed concerts.

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Dick's Last Resort
I've been here recently.

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Dallas Alley Walkway
I even walked through this area here.

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St. Barnabas Satellite
This is my church in Satellite mode.The picture is obviously quite old - we added on a new building to the west of the courtyard over a year ago.

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St. B from Mimosa
The Street View mode shows the new building.

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Back of Car
If you pan down on any of the Street View images, you can see the car that was used to take the pictures.

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Front of Car
The white line in the images matches the blue line on the map, and seems to correspond to the passenger side of the vehicle.

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Straight Up
You can even pan up and see the sun.This is more than a panoramic camera taking a 360 degree picture.They're taking photos in the entire sphere.About every second...How many miles of roads do you think were driven to make the blue lines for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex?How 'bout the other 22 cities?I wonder how much data storage they carry in the vehicle...In any case, this represents a BOATLOAD of data!They don't call 'em Google for nothing.

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A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a couple dozen of these little pocket screwdrivers from Lee Valley & veritas.  They sent me an order confirmation email immediately, and the next day, I got a second email - a shipping confirmation that included a link for FedEx tracking.

A few days later, I clicked the link and saw that the package was in transit. Last Tuesday, I checked again while at work and saw that the package had been delivered at 12:15pm and left on the porch - no signature required. When I got home that evening, I brought in the mail and the small box that was sitting on my porch, but had some other things to do (read: House, MD) so I didn't open the box.

The next morning I saw the box sitting there and sliced open the tape. A CPAP mask? Huh? Looking at the box, I notice it's addressed to a neighbor - across the street and two doors down. Looking at my handy dandy neighborhood crime watch map hanging in the kitchen, I pick up the phone and call them. No answer, not even an answering machine. That's weird. I figure that FedEx got the two boxes mixed up and they got mine. Then I felt kind of stupid for opening the box without paying attention to the label. I got some packing tape and sealed it back closed.

That evening, I walked down the street and rang the doorbell. No answer. Hmmmph. I could hear the TV on in the house. I knocked.  Loudly. Still no answer, so I walked back home. I called again later that evening and again got no answer. I noticed cars that are normally there were appearing and disappearing. I called again a couple of times and walked over one more time before realizing "This isn't my problem, FedEx is the one that screwed up".

I took the package with me to work last Thursday and dialed the number listed on the label. While I was on hold, I went to their website and entered the number from the label. The tracking showed that the package was delivered on Tuesday at 12:15pm and left on the porch - no signature required. Uh huh. I finally got A Real Person on the phone and explained the situation. She said she'd have the driver come out the next day to retrieve the package I had and check if the neighbors had my package. She took my cell phone number.

On Friday, I left the package on my front porch as instructed. Probably the shortest delivery that guy would ever make. When I got home from work, there was a box on my porch. Ugh. The same one. I brought it into the garage for safekeeping.

Saturday, the FedEx driver pulled up and rang my doorbell. I fetched the package from the garage and gave it to him. He said something about the routing numbers being messed up that day or something and I watched as he drove two houses down. I couldn't really see what was going on, but he was there for quite awhile. Then he came back and told me that the neighbors didn't have my package.

I waited. He didn't have anything else to say to me. So I just asked him "So.. where is it?" and he said "I don't know." So I asked him, "What do I have to do to get it or get a refund?" and he told me that I'd have to call and make a claim, and then he would come back out, give me a statement to sign, and if my claim was approved, and he'd have to pay for the missing package himself. What a hassle.

So I realize that previously I'd dialed a number that was on the package label, and I no longer had the package. (After all, my neighbor might have use for some little screwdrivers, but I have no use for a CPAP mask.) I checked the FedEx website and just got frustrated. Finally found the number through Google. When I got A Real Person again, I said I wanted to report a claim, and explained what had happened. They asked for the tracking number (and now I wonder why they did that). Then they told me that to file a claim, I'd have to download the form off their website, fill it out and either mail it or fax it to them. If the claim was approved, a refund would be sent to the SHIPPER by mail in 4-6 weeks. I complained that that wasn't anything like the procedure that delivery driver had told me, and the voice on the phone apologized that the driver had given me misinformation.  Sigh.

And I figured that if the shipper was going to get the refund, I ought to call them to let them know what was going on. I found an 800 number for customer service in both of the emails I'd received, so I dialed it. A Real Person answered the phone. I explained what had happened, and said they were not to blame at all, but I would like the order reshipped when they received the refund from FedEx. He asked for the order number. He confirmed the order and my address. I griped about FedEx service. He told me they would re-ship the order, and that they would handle the claim with FedEx. I was floored, and told them I was very impressed with their customer service, and I should've just called them in the first place. He thanked me for my business.

I asked him to ship the replacement order by UPS.

Pat's pulling socks and mittens out of the closet. There are six identical mittens (they can be worn either on the left or the right hand) and nine identical-looking socks in the closet.

How many pieces of apparel had to be taken out of the closet in order to be sure to find: 1) a matching pair; 2) 3 identical matching pairs; and 3) 4 pairs of socks?

In a few weeks little Freddie will celebrate his tenth birthday. In 11 years Freddie will be half the average age of his parents. His mother is only 17 years older than her son. How old are Freddie's father and mother?

Four members of the Knott family intended to cross a lake in a small rubber dinghy. They soon discovered that it wouldn't carry more than 200 pounds, and that's what Albert weighed all by himself!

The rest of the Knott family were considerably lighter. Gigi, for instance, weighed in at only 104 pounds. Nita's weight was six pounds less, and all four Knotts together did not weigh more than 494 pounds. But weight was not the only problem. Nita Knott didn't know how to row (although everyone else, including Mona) did.

After considerable debate, the Knotts figured out a way to cross the lake safely. What was their solution?

It was wartime when the Fisks found out they were going to have a baby. Harry Fisk was called to duty - a call he accepted bravely. He did not leave, however, until he had made out a will.

He determined that the money in a savings account - $14,000 - was to be divided between his wife and his child-to-be. If the child were a boy, his wife was to give him twice the amount of her portion. If the child were a girl, the mother would get twice the amount the girl was to receive.

We can't begin to understand what was going on in Mr. Fisk's mind to leave such a will. And we never will find out because, as fate would have it, Mr. Fisk did not return. Mrs. Fisk gave birth to fraternal twins. You guessed it - she had a boy and a girl!

How was the money divided?

The Gooch family, the McCoy family, a bachelor, and a couple without children have decided to buy a summer home together. They divided the purchase price based on the sizes of their families adn how much time they would be spending in the house.

The summer house costs $264,000. The smaller of the two families - the McCoys - have two children and will carry one third of the cost. The larger of the two - the Gooch family - will pay three times the amount of the bachelor's share and twice the amount the couple will pay.

How much will each party have to pay, and what equity in the house are they buying for their money?

Grandfather Hooper figured out the following: "My son Charley is 24 years younger than I am and 35 years older than my grandson, Tiny Tim. Together our ages add up to 100."

How old are they?

Richard is 33 years old today. This is three times as old as his brother Philip was when Richard was the age that Philip is today.

How old is Philips?

Mr. Hooper goes to work by a private bus that picks up all the company's employees. He gets on at the first stop and has a long way to go, so he usually naps along the way.

Today, Mr. Hooper is particularly tired. He falls asleep when the bus still has twice as far to go as it has already gone.

Halfway through the trip he wakes up as the bus bounces over some bad potholes. When he finally falls asleep again, the bus still has half the distance to go that it has already traveled. Mr. Hooper wakes up at the end of the trip.

What portion of the total trip did Mr. Hooper sleep?

Attached below is an HTML file that can be used with Multiply. Save it to your Desktop. Then right-click and Open With Notepad to edit. Entries that start with "My..." are mine - change "geekintx" in those to your own Multiply ID to make it your own, then save it. In Firefox, you can click Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks, then File -> Import to bring these into your list. I put them in the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder in a "Multiply" folder for quick access.

All Posts

Blocked Users

Blogs: Mine

Blogs: Contacts

Blogs: Mine, Contacts

Blogs: Close

Edit Profile

Group Posts

Home

Invite

Network

PMs

Post

Preferences

Search

Signin

Toolbar

These should work for anybody (you can even click them here).

All Posts is similiar to your home page, but it only lists those in your contact list, and nothing from your groups.

Blocked Users just shows you a list of users that you've blocked, if any.

Blogs (or Journals) are for various groups. Mine shows only the ones I've written. Contacts shows those written by my contacts, but doesn't include my own.  "MIne, Contacts" is both.  And "Close" includes friends of friends.

Group posts are things from groups you belong to, and doesn't include things from your contacts.

PMs brings up a list of all personal messages that you've sent or received.

Edit Profile, My Site Edit, and Preferences are just shortcuts to configuration things.

Hopefully everything else is obvious.  These are all things you can get to from the home page, I've just collected them into a single place so I can more easily find them. Feel free to use them if you like.

The lake had only one waterlily in the beginning of June. But then it rapidly became covered with waterlilies. The area covered doubled daily. By the end of June, the lake was completely covered.

1. At what point was half the lake covered with waterlilies?
2. How long would it take for two waterlilies to completely cover the lake?

How can you measure one liter of apple cider out of a barrel, if all you have available is a 3-liter and a 5-liter pitcher?