Category: Life

Categories
Blogging Career History Holidays Life Music Travel

Saturday Night Retro

The long Memorial Day holiday weekend is here all across our 50 states, and it’s the unofficial start of the 101 days of Summer from now through the Labor Day holiday weekend at the start of September. It’s when schools let out, vacations begin, and schedules change for Americans everywhere. It’s where we go out and enjoy the world around us while the weather is warm and the days are long visiting new and different places nearby and far away.

I’ve enjoyed many memorable Summers over the past 43 years of my lifetime. Some were memorable for bad events (such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992), and some for good (such as Panama City Beach in 1990). Many I can’t remember at all, so they were clearly forgettable. Looking back I regret not making some type of a memorable impact during those past unremarkable Summers. Of course some of those Summers were forgettable because I’ve chosen to forget about them over time because they were too traumatic for me.

Two Summers in a row were quite memorable for me in a favourable way because I was living them in a foreign land. I was living on an American Air Force Base near Fairford Gloucestershire England in 1986 and 1987. It was an enjoyable, exciting, and ecstatic experience abroad with friends, co-workers, and natives of the land. I was very honoured to be able to live such a rewarding life back then as an 18, 19, and 20-year-old USAF Airman serving my country in another country. I was thankful to be able to return back home again with all of those awesome memories.

This Memorial Day Monday here on my blog I’ll be posting a very special entry to honour those who served before, alongside, and after me – but never made it back home again. They died fighting for freedom while serving their country. Just like this soldier that everyone knew as “Camoulflage”:

Categories
Blogging God History Life Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Looking Back At This Blog – ‘The Major’s Life Blog’ marks its 3RD anniversary in existence this week going back to the ancient history days of Myspace. (They seem so long ago.) The blog has developed and evolved greatly over the past 3 years, and although it’s not nearly as popular as it once was back in its hectic heyday (2008) it is still very relevant. It keeps me accountable to those of you within my church family that love and care for me on this fantastic journey. I’m celebrating my second chance at Life, so what better way to do so than to share it with those of you who are rooting for me to succeed. God is using me and this blog to minister to the world. Based on personal feedback over the past 3 years lives are being saved out there because of this blog’s existence. The Truth is I am not saving lives. This blog is not saving lives. God is saving lives. He is my Almighty Leader, and I am just one of His millions of Disciples here on His land – His creation. My words are really His words when I minister His Good News. I take no credit at all. It is all because of Jesus.

Looking Ahead At Summer Television – The 2009-2010 television season officially comes to a close tomorrow night (the 26TH of May), and then summer reruns and new and returning series take over from there. I always look forward to Summer television. Three of my favourite broadcast network prime time shows air solely in the summer – “America’s Got Talent” (returning June 01ST), “Hell’s Kitchen” (returning June 01ST), and “Big Brother” (returning July 08TH). Summertime is a fun time to watch my favourite shows as well as catch-up on those that I missed during the regular season but managed to preserve on DVR. I’ve got some CBS sitcom marathons to watch soon !

Looking Out At 40,000 Feet – On a recent flight aboard a Boeing 777 from Miami to Dallas cruising altitude was at 40,000 feet. That’s probably the highest above the Earth that I have ever been in my entire lifetime. Although it appears to be peaceful and quiet outside at 40,000 feet – 7½ miles above sea level – the weather is harsh, fierce, and unlike anything we’ve ever seen here on earth. Oh sure the sun is out and shining brightly against a crystal clear deep blue sky with all of the clouds way down below, but air temperatures are about -60°F to -80°F. That’s a full 130° to 150° colder outside than it is inside the cabin. Oh yeah let’s not forget about those ferocious winds that are blowing up to 250 MPH. That outrageously cold air from the outside is essentially cooked by the engines of the jet aircraft, and then it is cooled back down by the air conditioners so that it feels comfortable to our human skin. How dry is that cooked then cooled air that touches our skin ?  It’s as dry as it can possibly be – there’s only a trace amount of water in that air. It’s less than 2% water, so that explains why we’re always thirsty inflight and our skin seems to dry up. It doesn’t really explain though why some of us (me included) have to take Dramamine in order not to get sick inflight and embarrass ourselves. Well that’s because the barometric pressure inflight is much lower than we’re used to – unless of course you live on a mountaintop that’s at least 7,500 feet above sea level. You crave oxygen ?  Well there’s much less of it inflight. Happy Flying This Summer !

Categories
Animals Blogging Computers History Internet Life Music News People Radio Television

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.

Categories
Blogging Career Computers Food God History Internet Life Money Philosophy Weather

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 !