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Oh man do I need a life or what? Somehow the weekend doesn't seem full without an off topic thread. With Halloween just around the corner my creativity is pointed in another direction at the moment. This got me thinking (can you smeel the smoke?) post your ideas for Off Topic threads to get us started in the future for when we come up dry like we have this weekend? Or how about for all those who like to hijacking threads we could just call this a potpourri and follow the latest wind?
well lets ask this
how many days can you stay away from your computer and the internet??
me? NOT EVEN ONE DAY
Perhaps to follow on from last weeks excellent OT topic on books just what other sports/pastimes take up VDR members spare time apart from computing ?
Also perhaps as its Halloween soon some recipes/ideas/stories to keep both Children and Adults in the spirit of the event.
http://www.humour.com/images/images/HALLOWEENFLASH.jpg
Or for those who want to put off tricker treaters:
http://wwwedu.ge.ch/po/chavanne/clic...lloween_02.jpg
:D :D :D
Hope you don't mind if I save the two pictures in your post 104456. I 've got to show these to my wife. hehe :):)
Well here in Australia we don't take much notice of Halloween, but there have been two notable events this last week, the President of the US and the President of China each visited and addressed the National Parliament on two successive days.
President Bush first and President Hu next, but I'll leave out all the political stuff, but a letter to the editor sugested that perhaps the Australian National University, (that's the one in Canberra, the Capital, where the Presidents each spoke) should award the President of China with an honary doctorate, then he'd be Dr Hu, :D BF
Well since this is gonna be a potpourri type of thread I thought I would share this with you all :D BJ
First Place - The 2003 Darwin Award Winner --
When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim
during a holdup in Long Beach, California, would be robber James Elliot
did something that can only inspire wonder: He peered down the barrel
and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And now, the honorable mentions --
The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting
machine and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his
insurance company. The company, suspecting negligence, sent out one of
its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine out and lost a
finger. The chef's claim was approved.
A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during
a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had
taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver
found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting
from Harare to Beltway had escaped. Not wanting to admit his
incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone
waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the
mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable
and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3
days.
An American teenager was in the hospital recently recovering from
serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he
received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to
see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, puts a $20 bill on the counter,
and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man
pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk
promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled,
leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got
from the drawer? $15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you
money, was a crime
committed?)
Seems this Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that
he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some
booze, and run. He lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head
at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief
on the head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was
made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed
her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was
able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within
minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car
and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and
told to stand there for a positive ID. He replied, "Yes, officer, that's
her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger
King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded
cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the
cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings,
the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man,
frustrated, walked away.
Kentucky: Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running
a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of
pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper
off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the
chain still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to
the chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the
bumper. They were quickly arrested..
A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER!
When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a
Seattle Street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived
at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near
spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying
to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's
sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press
charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.
The Guest Quarters at Camp Muir
http://home.comcast.net/~jim-B22/GuestQuarters.jpg
Last hike the wind bounced me off of that Big boulder. No we did not try to summit Mt Rainier that day. No one did.
A google search on Camp Muir
Just a thing a old man likes to do. :D
How about:Quote:
Originally posted by Calpitor
post your ideas for Off Topic threads to get us started in the future for when we come up dry like we have this weekend?
i) Who do you think is or has been the best comedy actor/actress of all time?
ii) Have you ever been in a place or situation where you feel 'I've been here before' when in fact you haven't?
iii) The scariest moment so far in your life.
iv) Help and advice in finding employment now 'I'm retired/between jobs'.
Anybody been watching?
Who do you support?
Who do you think will win?
Probably more of a question for the Europeans, we are busy watching our Rockem Sockem NFL here in the States. Go Kansas City Chiefs, "undefeated so far this year" ;) BJQuote:
Originally posted by TJolly
Anybody been watching?
Who do you support?
Who do you think will win?
What about
Your fave Films of all time
Fave Musical Artists and bands of all time
and basically fave of all time stuff :):)
A letter to the Editor
I recently read your column on "tough love" for grandparents of misbehaving children, whose own parents let them run wild. I have followed your advice, and enclose a picture demonstrating my technique when my grandson just won't behave while I'm babysitting. His parents (my son and his wife) have told me not to spank him, so I just take him for a ride and talk to him. He usually calms down and stops misbehaving after our little car ride together.
Signed,
"The Tough Love GrandPa"
http://home.comcast.net/~jim-B22/toughlovegrandma.jpg
Seems your a bit of a part time masochist Train and I don't mean the Grandchildren :D
Camp Muir seems a nice place to visit [at the right time of year] largest hill we have here in the UK is 1085Mts a pimple by those your used to.It makes a nice fast down hill run though and they have a yearly race to the peak and back for those energetic enough:D
Heres a live web-cam from around Snowden.
http://www.boomspeed.com/snarfll/Goofy_bat.gif
QUICK!! CLOSE THE WINDOW!! IT"S GRAMPA :eek:
Happy Halloween all!!
For those involved,,don't ferget to set your clock(s) back tonite.
And,,be sure to plug it in properly too. Instructions below...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mjhk/brazil/brazil.htm
:p :D
Which ways back-wards [scratches head] :D
http://rikkus.info/gfx/real_backward_clock.jpg
Please give us Europeans a link to 'Rockem Sockem NFL' so we can see what it's all about.Quote:
Originally posted by BIG JOHN
Probably more of a question for the Europeans, we are busy watching our Rockem Sockem NFL here in the States. Go Kansas City Chiefs, "undefeated so far this year" ;) BJ
I quite enjoy watching american football, (I hope that's what you're talking about and not baseball) but I find it to be a very slow game, it seems to take hours before anybody wins, 'time outs', quarters with breaks, let's change the team to do something else, let's let the team have a chat together, let's look at the profle of individual players, nice to watch but..........?
What I don't click with is, all these american football players are dressed in a similar manner of a Gladiator, all that 'body armour'. ( shoulder pads, helmets etc.).
If you watch rugby union, these are some of the tuffest people you could ever meet, - they don't wear any 'armour', they just get on with it and it's 40 minutes each way with no time outs, no stoppages for a chat, obviously changes of players at some stage e.g when someone is 'badly injured' not 'oh, I've just been kicked, I'll have to go off', or when tackticks apply, but they don't replace half of the team to do a 30 second stint and then they go off and the original team come back on.
One ref. and at this standard they are very good.
We have a tv chanel in the uk (Channel 4) that shows your game of football and they explain the rules etc. but when it comes to the ntfl final (hope I've got that right) it's 9 hours long.
The beauty of rugby union is no matter who wins everyone enjoys what they have accomplished and each team respect each other. Obviously the big players in the competition this time around are England, Australia, New zealand, France, South Africa, Italy, Somoa, Fuji (not in any order) and those following are Wales, Scotland, Ireland etc.
I am fortunate to be of dual nationality. I was born in Wales, my mother is Welsh (now 83yrs), my father English and therefore who do you think I support, firstly, England, secondly Wales and if they are not left in the competition, Scotland and Ireland. But, I must admit I love to watch New Zealand (All Blacks), Australia and South Africa, these teams are something else and are and should be highly respected.
I hope it is ok to post the following for our American friends and those not from europe=
http://rugby.itv.com/
May your god go with you.
TJ
Hi All
Oh! this means that for those of us in the southern hemsphere we have to go into our users control panel and change our time zone, because VDr is not really set to GMT but rather to London Time. :DQuote:
Ridgerunr said
For those involved,,don't ferget to set your clock(s) back tonite.
Poor Tuttle is stuck being 9.5 hours ahead of GMT he can't do anything about it as there is no 8.5h zone. At least his time will read correctly for the next few months? Or will it, they have daylite saving in South Oz which starts tonight.
Wonder if daylite saving could be turned off in the VDR server? Guess not, all those folks in the Northern hemisphere would need to reset their CP. :rolleyes:
We don't have daylite saving in this state, years ago the government bowed to pressure from those folks who believed that that extra hour of sunlight would fade the curtains and carpets. :confused: BF
I think this would be an excelent topic.Quote:
TJolly said
Have you ever been in a place or situation where you feel 'I've been here before' when in fact you haven't?
I have a theory that the brain works something like a computer with both temporary memory and permanent memory like RAM vs File on the HDD.
When you see or hear something the details are put into RAM (the temporary part of your brain) the act of remembering is the same as clicking 'save as', however for some experiences the 'save as' happened automatically so you get the 'this file already exists, do you want to over write it' message. This is the deja vu experience.
I've had a number of these over the years. Guess I need a hardware upgrade. :D BF
It's because american football is the toughest game on the planet. BJQuote:
Originally posted by TJolly
What I don't click with is, all these american football players are dressed in a similar manner of a Gladiator, all that 'body armour'. ( shoulder pads, helmets etc.).
TJ
I would imagine there are many who would disagree with such a statement. Aussie Rules Football and Hockey come to mind.Quote:
Originally posted by BIG JOHN
It's because american football is the toughest game on the planet. BJ
That game that the Irish play called Hurling comes to mind as being prone to injury.
http://www.gaa.ie/images/FootHurl/players2.gif
As to US football being tough its hard to qualify that statement when they wear all that padding now Rugby theres a mans sport,no padding and the sound of bone on bone contact. :D
I would have to agree....while I am a american...and an american football fan.....the dudes that play rugby are tough s.o.b.s Much tougher than our players....
No padding here!
http://westcoasteagles.com.au/cp2/c2...e/008517af.jpg
Well perhaps the shins ;) BF
and the third leg BF :D
Here's an interesting clock that automatically re-set itself to US Central Standard Time at 2am.
http://www.andre-michelle.com/studies/cable_clock.htm
- football (NFL) players still have their ears and teeth at the end of the game (providing they had them at the beginning of the game).
- NFL players make a hell of a lot more money.
- NFL is much more tactical with hundreds of different plays, whereas rugby is just get the ball, run and hope no one rips your ear off in the process.
- I believe both to be very tough, and can't say that rugby players are tougher than NFL players, but they do play in tougher conditions (ie no padding).
I lived in both the US of A and England and I myself am an NFL guy (go Giants!).
Now what about cricket? Tea and cucumber sandwhiches anyone?
Lastly, I don't celebrate Haloween, but have a good one all!
Another great topic, (if you can call it a topic). So many suggestions I'd like to repsond to, but I'll start with the football theme.
I'd agree that Rugby and Aussie Rules Footballers are probably a tougher lot than our American version players. But I can also understand the need for the protective gear the NFL'ers wear. American football has a stronger emphasis on the strategic element (matching specific players against each other, deceving your opponant through misleading formations, trick plays, clock management through the effective use of time-outs and play calling, etc), which is why there are so many pauses between the action. Call it micro-management. Because of this, all the action comes in very short, intense bursts, increasing the likelyhood of injury. The physical strain on NFL players is concentrated into very short periods, where in rugby the strain would seem to be somewhat less in intensity but sustained over a much longer period. I can't think of a single NFL player who could play even half a rugby game; they just don't have the stamina. Likewise, put a rugly player on the line-of scrimmage in the NFL, without any protective gear, and I'd almost guarentee you an injury in very short order.
And for the record, I'm a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, though this year there ain't been much to cheer about :(
And as long as this is a free-for-all, check out http://www.ninjai.com Its a flash-animation series about a little ninja. The first few episodes are little slow, but it really finds its stride by Episode 5. The animation is amazing, given the platform: it really showcases what talented people can do with a fairly limited medium. Its downright cinematic.
Dang! usil posted faster that I did! Guess I'm not the only one who gets on the computer this early in the morning!
All this talk about action sport means that I must post a picture of the one that I follow:-
http://www.bcf.uk.com/images/news_le..._report_05.jpg
I sit up into the wee small hours watching the Tour de France and similar events. BF
I quite agree Ninjai is very good little animation series which has just released its latest episode after being unavailable for several months due to its own popularity overloading them so I understand.
Living in the Middle East CAN have its advantages. It was morning many hours ago :DQuote:
Dang! usil posted faster that I did! Guess I'm not the only one who gets on the computer this early in the morning!
Most rugby players tend to have their ears and teeth at the end of the game (providing they had them at the beginning). Dangerous tackles are not allowed, nobody plays the game with the intention of ripping anothers ear off or causing any injury to another player.Quote:
Originally posted by usil
- football (NFL) players still have their ears and teeth at the end of the game (providing they had them at the beginning of the game).
- NFL is much more tactical with hundreds of different plays, whereas rugby is just get the ball, run and hope no one rips your ear off in the process.
Rugby is not just get the ball and run, a lot of skill is required in:
i) Possession of the ball. When a player is brought down he can't just cover the ball so that nobody else can get at it, he still has to get it backwards.
ii) Passing the ball amongst the team, remember they can't throw the ball forward.
iii) Avoiding tackles from the opposition.
iv) Kicking the ball at goal from various angles and distances.
v) Obtaining the possession of the ball from a 'line out' or 'scrum'.
I wouldn't say that rugby union is less tactical than american football but, I would say that rugby union at world class level is far more interesting to watch.
Btw USA has a team in the 'rugby world cup' and they are entertaining to watch. Please take a look here:
http://rugby.itv.com/Latest_News/story_32045.shtml
I don't know, that jai-alai game is very deadly. Think about it, a solid leather ball passed around at baseball-pitch speeds. It's so dangerous, they have a huge wicker basket type thing affixed to their hands to catch the ball, as opposed to a mitt or gloves. :eek:
Sports Note: My NY Giants beat Minnesota today :). I couldn't believe it. Kind of takes the sting out of the Yankees loosing the World Series. :(
Hockey now there's a sport for the blood thirsty. Aye laddy! High speed action, filled with charging, tripping, clipping, and lots of fist fights! And that aint all no! Name me another sport that straps knives to your feet and provides you with a five foot long stick to use as a weapon ideal for things like hooking, slashing and poking. So brutal a sport is this that each team enlists in its ranks are those known to fans of the sport as "Enforcer", "Annihilator" or "Hitman". These fine gentlemen are expected to not just take their opponent out of play but out of the game by any means necessary up to and including stripping his intended victim of his helmet and pummeling him into a blubbering bloddy mass of unconsciousness! If that isn't enough to keep up the speed of the game we have found that by freezing the puck not only is hard as a rock but it will travel faster while on the ice. With a properly executed slapshot it travels upwards of 120 miles per hour. Is there any better explanantion why we consider the goalie as the craziest person on the team? Aye Hockey... a fine Canadian tradition and a real sport for real men.
Hockey now there's a sport for the blood thirsty. Aye laddy! High speed action, filled with charging, tripping, clipping, and lots of fist fights!
And that's before the face off!!!
I've been up to Coral centre to watch the senators play a time or two. My son-in-law is a Senators fan. I've got two grandsons playing highschool hockey here, sure keeps me busy in the winter.
Now HOCKEY IS A REAL SPORT!!!!
imagine the frustration those players go thru just to get ONE goal!!! no wonder they get in fights!:eek:
Every sport requires some skill. What I said was tactics. Every NFL team has a playbook with hundreds of different plays, that all players have to memorize. Try playing John Madden NFL computer game, and you will see that even YOU have to learn the plays. It can get very complicated. I don't think the two sports can be compared.Quote:
Originally posted by TJolly
Rugby is not just get the ball and run, a lot of skill is required in
Show me one rugby player with a mouth full of teeth and I'll stop trying to claim American Football is better :DQuote:
Originally posted by TJolly
Most rugby players tend to have their ears and teeth at the end of the game
Also, some rugby players where a protective head piece so that their ears won't be ripped off :p
Lastly, Hockey rules. Its the only sport I can think of (besides boxing) where players are encouraged to drop the gloves and go at it one-on-one. These players are real tough!
See ya all next Friday, same time same channel. :D BJ