Category: Computers

Categories
Animals Computers Driving God History Holidays Home Internet Life Music People Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Saturday November 13TH 2010
Volume 3 / Number 10 / Edition 107

Back during the Summer of 2004 I was living in my current home and driving around in my current car, but things were a bit different back then than they are now.

At home I had a vibrant cat by the name of Boots following me around and loving me. On the road I was driving around in my fairly new (one-year-old) car. On one particular road trip that Summer I drove further west than I had ever previously driven in my entire life – all the way to New Orleans and back. It was my very first visit ever to ‘The Crescent City’, and I got to see and experience it a full year before Hurricane Katrina damaged it.

Back then my Mom and Dad were healthy and living and working in Jacksonville Florida, and my brother was still married to his first wife and living near Columbus Ohio. My Grandmom died that Summer in Maryland at the age of 88. I got to see her one last time during the Summer prior (in 2003). It was my first visit back to the Washington D.C. area since 1996, and I haven’t been back since.

The more things change – the more they stay the same. My cat died. My Dad has passed on. My Mom is now retired and living in Fairview Texas about 5 miles away from my brother. He’s been happily married to his 2ND wife for the past 3½-years, and they have a beautiful 7-month-old daughter (my niece). Still living with them – Buddy – the dog that was featured on my blog post from last night. I’ll be there in just about 5 days to enjoy the holidays with all of them !

When I look back at the Summer of 2004 I hear this song in the background. It seems so long ago. It seems like I lived it in a previous life.

I’ve found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is You.

2004 FACTOID OF LIFE – Myspace replaced AOL as the hottest place to hang out online. It began AOL’s long descent from its lofty peaks of 2002 that continues to this day. I was dragged onto Myspace in 2007 – and then quickly abandoned.

Categories
Commerce Computers History Internet Life Movies Music News Radio Shopping Sports Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Saturday October 16TH 2010
Volume 3 / Number 6 / Edition 103

11 years ago back in October and November of 1999:
– The Shops At Sunset Place was the hottest new joint to hang out.
– AOL released Version 5.0, and the entire free nation celebrated.
– Moviegoers were blown away by “American Beauty”.
– The population of the world reached 6 billion.
– The Yankees swept the Braves 4 games to 0 to win the World Series again.
– EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 217 on board.
– “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” skyrocketed to the top of the TV ratings.
– Exxon and Mobil combined to become ExxonMobil.
– The world prepared for the upcoming uncertainty that was Y2K.

1999 was certainly a party year as we ushered the end of a year, a decade, a century, and even a millennium. Even Prince made a big deal out of 1999 some 17 years earlier. He knew that it was gonna be big – and memorable. A lot of great party music came out in 1999. It was certainly a year to get up and dance !

Here’s the 1999 techno dance remix of the classic 1968 Steppenwolf track “Magic Carpet Ride”:

Categories
Animals Career Computers Driving History Home Life Music People Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Saturday October 02ND 2010
Volume 3 / Number 4 / Edition 101

Let’s take a ride back 14½ years ago to the Spring of 1996. Back then I was not quite 29-years-old and living in the same home that I’m living in now and working at the same place that I’m working at now. In fact I was sitting at my computer (a different more primitive one back then) and working from the same home computer workstation that I’m working at now. All of the furniture here in my living room is the same furniture that I had back then. The more things change over the years – the more things stay the same.

Back during the Spring of 1996 my Mom, Dad, 21-year-old brother Danny, and our two cats Fluffy and Barney (born in the 1980s) were still living up in the Washington D.C. area. They were living in our McLean Virginia house that we moved in to back in November of 1980 when I was 13 and my brother was 5. Later that year (in November of 1996) everyone would move down to Jacksonville Florida. I got to visit the old house (built in the 1950s) one last time in May of 1996 when I drove up for a visit. I didn’t really know at the time that it would be my last visit. The move down to Jacksonville just 5 months later was a bit on the low-key side. My family lived in that house for 16 years – the longest tenure for any one home. I only lived in that house for 4½ out of those 16 years until I began my USAF career. Now I’ve been living in my current home for over 15 years. It’s hard to believe that I moved in to this place back when I was in my late-20s, and now I’m in my mid-40s. There’s a lot of history of me in this home of mine. Back in 1996 a young black cat by the name of Boots was loaded with energy – running all over the place and loving me. Today I have a little memorial set up for him at the edge of one of my living room couches where he enjoyed relaxing. This home of mine is indeed ‘Retro’.

On the radio back during the Spring of 1996 me and my brother listened to this song as we drove southbound on I-95 in Virginia en route to Kings Dominion to spend a fun May day at the park in the chill, fog, and drizzle. My brother won free tickets to the park by winning a radio contest on the rock station DC-101. Here’s Spacehog – “In The Meantime”:

Categories
Animals Annoyances Blogging Computers Driving Food History Internet Life People Television Travel

The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
I’ve got an interesting idea for a new and innovative television show. It would be similar to the long-running “Cops“, but this show would utilize helicopters instead with no police action involved. They would fly directly above our streets – neighbourhood and city roads and high-speed expressways alike. They would simply fly around the region and record the traffic down below. Don’t even look for anything unsual. Just record what’s happening down there. Make sure that the cameras that are utilized to capture this footage are very high quality so that everything is clear and visible (aside from license plates and people’s faces). Make it in HD. We could then show that footage during a half-hour nationally syndicated nightly TV show – perhaps right after the local and national news at 7 PM. We’ll have a variety of traffic analysis experts in the studio showing each day’s footage and analyzing it via the extensive use of telestrators. They can tell us everything that’s being done wrong and right while we drive. They can show us all of the near collisions that occur. They can spotlight the good, the bad, and the ugly. They can tell us what we need to know to survive and stay alive. I bet that most people don’t have any idea on how bad their driving actually is, but if they saw it for themselves on television then maybe they would get a clue. The TV show idea sounds simple enough. I’d watch. Not reality. Actuality !

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
It’s been a too long 25 days since I last ate Lunch at my home away from home – Longhorn Steakhouse – so what better way to spend an hour late on a Friday morning than to pull in to the parking lot, open the front door of the joint, and be welcomed by my regular greeter and my regular waitress. FRIENDLY customer service. DELICIOUS food. I can’t ask for anything more out of a Lunch hour. I enjoyed my standard fare – Renegade Top Sirloin (8-ounce / Medium-Well), Mashed Potatoes, Bread, Coke.

RETWEET:
Facebook is like your high school yearbook getting circulated and signed by people you don’t know or like. Twitter is like tagging a wall.

THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:
My longtime cat Boots (1995-2007) did this frequently with geckos on our back porch screen. It was his warning call. If the gecko didn’t scram within a reasonable amount of time then Boots would run and jump on it and push it off the screen himself (thus saving my life of course). Here’s somebody else’s home video that reminds me of the fun times that I enjoyed while I was living with my very own feline buddy. Maybe some day – when the time and the place is right – I’ll go to a local animal shelter and adopt another abandoned feline and bring him or her to my loving and happy home.

BLATANT PROMOTION:
The weekend blogging continues tomorrow night with the 99TH edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’. I’m flashing back to 2003. It was only 7 years ago, but it seems like an era that’s just so foreign to me looking back at it from the light of the present day. Don’t forget that you can stay in touch with me and my Life in-between the weekend blogging simply by following me on Twitter – @majorhitwaves. Watch as I tag my walls with the more notable events of my Life. Have a fun and safe weekend my friends, and I’ll see you out and about.