Category: Computers

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Saturday Night Retro

Exactly 17 years ago yesterday morning on the 21ST of May of 1993 in the heart of Melbourne Florida ‘Captain Airwaves’ was officially born. He was my original pseudonym in cyberspace. Of course back in 1993 nobody knew what the World Wide Web was all about. After all Al Gore had just invented it, and he hadn’t yet explained it. Back then the most popular form of modern communications between personal computers across the free nation was via the telephone dial-up bulletin board system (BBS). Mine debuted real early on that morning 17 years ago, and it was named after my lovable childhood cat (still alive at the time) – Fluffy. She was a Manx, and the name of my first creation in cyberspace – ‘MANx CAT BBS’. That first bulletin board system lasted a little over four years, and it eventually spawned a spinoff site on the emerging web at the time – ‘MANx On The Net’. That web site eventually morphed into the ‘MASSIVESMASH.COM‘ hit music web site that survived and thrived for the better part of a decade during the late-1990s into the new millenium. It faded several years ago, but it inspired this personal blog that continues today.

‘Captain Airwaves’ was actually the pseudonym of the late great John Carmody – the famed daily television columnist of “The Washington Post” newspaper from 1977 to 1998. During my high school years in the early-1980s he inspired me to get in to the entertainment business somehow someway. The bulletin board, the web site, and the blog was as close as I got to that dream. I adopted the ‘Captain Airwaves’ pseudonym for the BBS, and then after a couple of years my followers at the time (known affectionately as ‘MANxsters’) promoted me to ‘Major’, so I became ‘Major Airwaves’. When the web site hit it big I took on the ‘Major Hitwaves’ name and persona to more accurately reflect my role at the time as a deejay on the web. Nowadays I’m still ‘Major Hitwaves’, but I’m more commonly known as simply ‘The Major’.

17 years ago this past week I was unemployed, living off of my savings, and having way too good of a time with all of my friends and neighbours in the Melbourne area. The 1400 block of South Oak Street rocked back then, and ‘Captain Airwaves’ was crankin’ out the hits from his second floor studio efficiency – and all up and down the U.S. 1 and the A1A.

Here’s one of those hits of the time – an obscure track that was a local smash on the radio and in the nightclubs of Melbourne. It’s His Boy Elroy – and a track about them “Chains”. As are most of the songs that I feature here on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ it’s one of the greatest songs ever made according to me.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– This is the one blog per week that’s never scripted and never planned.
– It just happens – right here – right now.
– I have no earthly idea what I will type out next.
– I’m thinking much faster than I can type.
– I hope that I don’t offend anyone this week.
– If you ask me what religion I am then I will tell you that I’m not religious.
– That’s because religion hates, destroys, and kills humans.
– Jesus Christ loves, rescues and saves humans.
– I follow Christ – that’s my passion – it’s not my religion.
– Today was one of the craziest and most unpredictable days at the workplace.
– A work day like today only happens about once every several years.
– The enemy was everywhere today, so I’m glad that I had my armour on.
– Mixed in with some of the lowlights were a whole bunch of highlights.
– One such highlight was the always dependable Lunchtime hour.
– Lunch was served at the Longhorn – where nearly everybody knows my name.
– The Longhorn is one of my favourite weekly traditions.
– The ‘Cowboy Pork Chop’ – I dig.
– I’d dig it even more if it were twice as big.
– I’ve now been on Twitter for 9 months (and 3 days).
– During those 9 months I’ve sent over 1,380 tweets.
– That’s roughly 150 tweets per month – or 5 per day.
– I really enjoy tweeting, and I can’t imagine Life without it.
– It’s a form of accountability (as is this blog).
– I want my closest friends on this journey to always know what I’m up to.
– The rainy season has officially begun all across America’s Riviera.
– It’ll be a rare day or night when there is no organized rain somewhere nearby.
– This is what we’ve got to look forward to for about 5 to 6 months.
– We’ve also got to deal with an active hurricane season.
– This may be our busiest season since the record-shattering season of 2005.
– I’ll be your personal storm forecaster – not your fearcaster.
– Look to my tweets for common sense storm forecasting all summer long.
– The stock market collapsed again today.
– Money evaporated into thin air just like that.
– I’m in it to win it for the long-term.
– That’s what I said when I first went public as ‘Captain Airwaves’.
– 17 years ago tonight I entered cyberspace for the very first time.
– It only took a couple of years to go from ‘Captain’ to ‘Major’.
– I eventually took my ‘Airwaves’ and converted it into a ‘Hitwaves’.
– This weekend on ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I’ll look back on 17 years of fun.
– On Sunday I’ll mark exactly 45 months on ‘My Fantastic Journey’.
– Stick around for fresh new blog posts during this upcoming weekend.
– Follow me on Twitter in the meantime.
– Thank You for living Life with me.
– Now go out and have some fun !

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  April 20TH 2004 – April 19TH 2010 – If you follow me on Twitter then you probably already know by now that I made a somewhat radical (some would even state shocking) upgrade to my technological life. I replaced my often ridiculed 6-year-old antique cell phone with a brand new modern one. Here’s the most fascinating aspect of it all. I unknowingly did this almost exactly 6 years to the date that I bought that antique cell phone. My T-Mobile service agreement that was given to me upon leaving the store yesterday afternoon showed my original 1-year contract period (from my original phone) for the 20TH of April in 2004 through the 19TH of April in 2005. I thought that it was a misprint until I came home and looked at my old credit card statement from April of 2004 that shows me buying that antique cell phone exactly 6 years ago today. So there’s something quite special about the 20TH of April that makes me want to go out and buy a brand new cell phone. Here’s hoping that I buy my next modern new cell phone before the 20TH of April in 2016 !

II.  Hablo Inglés, ¿ Como ? – I found this rather fascinating. It was a question on a recent episode of “Are You Smarter Than A 5TH Grader ?” It’s the most spoken languages in the world by number of native speakers. Arabic is in 5TH place – followed by Hindi in 4TH place. The TOP 3 are fairly obvious with Chinese at # 1 (one billion people who understand each other) – and Spanish and English virtually tied for 2ND place. But there are evidentally a tad more Spanish speakers than English speakers, so Spanish is at # 2 and English is the 3RD most spoken language here on the Planet Earth. I wonder if there are more English-speaking people that can speak Spanish as a second language, or if there are more Spanish-speaking people that can speak English as a second language. I’m guessing that those two numbers are fairly similar as well.

III.  Road Trip ! – My self-imposed ‘Vacation Of The Month Club’ kicks into high gear this upcoming weekend. I’ll be visiting a large chunk of southeastern Florida that I’ve never seen before during my 22 years of living here in Homestead. It’ll be roughly a 400-mile road trip as far west as the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee – and as far north as Fort Pierce Beach along scenic Florida State Road A1A. This week is a rare two-blog-post week. I’ll have your ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just about 48 hours from now, and then I’ll have no new blog posts until next week’s ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. Be sure to follow me on Twitter. Now that I’ve got a 5 megapixel camera with my brand new cell phone I can take some cool pictures of my adventures on the road and then upload them instantly to Twitter and this blog. I’ll try not to get too carried away with the taking of pictures on my new toy.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s roll.
– I got off work like 90 minutes earlier than normal this afternoon.
– I’m actually away from the office all this week in a network security class.
– I knew next to nothing about this material when we started on Mon. AM.
– Now I think that I can pass the big test first thing tomorrow morning.
– That was the goal of this training – to pass the big test.
– It’s material that has next to nothing to do with my daily job.
– Next week I go back to the wonderful world of MONEY !
– That’s my real job is all about – the ‘dolla-dolla’.
– Like – you know – like – you know – like – you know – like – you know – like …
– That was my impersonation of a 16-year-old kid talking.
– It’s gonna be a nice and peaceful and relaxing weekend starting tomorrow.
– I’m hosting the 9 AM service again this Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church.
– That means Scripture study on Fri. and compilation and rehearsal on Sat.
– Next weekend I’m embarking on a nice little road trip not too far north.
– The furthest north I’ll drive is the A1A on Fort Pierce Beach.
– I’ll be visiting a large chunk of Florida that I’ve never seen before.
– I’ll also be checking out Lake Okeechobee for the first time ever.
– Less than 3 weeks after that I’ll be flying to Dallas Texas to visit my family.
– My niece is due to enter this world sometime in the next 15 days !
– I want to be known as the ‘lovable’ uncle – not the ‘scary’ uncle.
– Happy Birthday to my lovable sister-in-law who turns 29 this Saturday !
– My little baby brother turns 35 in a little over 2 weeks.
– I’m just about 50 days away from turning 43 (an odd age).
– People that don’t know my age usually think that I’m in my 20s or 30s.
– Of course there are the anomalies.
– Like that lady that thought I was a teenager over in Estero last month.
– Flattery will get you nowhere you cougar !
– Hear Me Now !  I am serious about buying a modern new cell phone !
– I actually watch intently all of the cell phone commercials on TV now.
– My bud Jonathon told me to donate my current cell phone to the Smithsonian.
– I have a Seiko watch that they may also be interested in.
– I like to rock it ‘old school’, but there’s a certain point where it’s just time.
– It’s just time to say ‘good-bye’ to a longtime friend.
– So long 2003-era cell phone that everyone makes fun of.
– Speaking of rockin’ it ‘old school’ I’m rockin’ 1988 on ‘Retro’ this Saturday.
– And don’t forget ‘My Fantastic Journey’ on its new day – Sunday !
– Until then my friends – keep on doin’ your thang.
– Be safe.
– Love all.