Category: Military

Miami Military Museum

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 27, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of Fridays ago I visited the Miami Military Museum for the first time ever. It’s located about a mile west of Florida’s Turnpike off SW 152ND Street in South Miami-Dade County Florida next to Zoo Miami. In fact if you reach the parking lot of Zoo Miami – then you’ve gone too far. Make a right-hand turn just before the parking lot at the sign that leads you to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. (They share the same parking lot.)

At the present time the museum is only open for 3 days per week – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – from 10 AM to 4 PM. They prefer that you call them in advance to schedule an appointment to visit the museum.

I did that, and I got there at around 10:30 AM on that Friday. The Executive Director of the Museum and one of the museum docents greeted me downstairs. The former proceeded to informally interview me about my military and civil service history. He then picked-up a microphone, and he proceeded to announce my grand arrival military-honors-style through the entire building’s sound system – like I was a V.I.P. That was an extra special nice touch.

After that welcome the museum docent took me upstairs (via elevator), and he guided me through all of the various rooms of displays. The museum has only been open for a couple of years, so they are a work in progress. It looks like they are constantly receiving new items for display, and they are trying to figure out what to do with them all. I had a good conversation with my docent, and he displayed many qualities of a docent that I wish to have when I do what he does elsewhere. He opened-up more as he went along, and he even extended the tour outside around the perimeter of the property. They have big plans for good stuff inside and out !

If I were not moving away and retiring next year then the Miami Military Museum would be a great place for me to serve. It’ll be a great place for me to visit in the future when I come back to Miami-Dade County for visits.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll stay in Miami-Dade County, and I’ll try to figure out what other tourist attractions I wish to visit before I move away from here. Let’s keep traveling together.

2000s Blogging Internet Military Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 2002

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 14, 2022

Hello again retro music fans. Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 20 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 13TH 2002:

And here’s an actual snapshot of my Top 5 exactly the way it appeared on my web site at the time:

That’s from the 370TH online edition of my “Weekly Top 40” at the time. That was right in the middle of the 2ND era of my chart that lasted a little over 14 years from October 1995 to January 2010. For a little over 2 years from 2002 to 2004 I was immersed in the #EDM culture, and my weekly hit music chart was a pure dance chart. It was quite the experience !

DJ Sammy’s cover of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” was an International mainstream pop smash, and of course a dance smash in the clubs. DJ Sammy is Sam Bouriah from Spain. His take on “Heaven” spent its first 20 (out of 42) weeks on my chart at either # 1 (13 weeks) or # 2 (7 weeks). At the time “Heaven” was the 7TH song to spend at least 10 weeks at # 1 on my chart.

It should be noted that the original “Heaven” from Bryan Adams spent 2 weeks at # 1 in June 1985 while I was in #USAF “boot camp” at Lackland AFB in San Antonio Texas. That was certainly not “Heaven” for me !

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 25 years ago to October 1997. It’s when a # 1 country song became a 134 BPM # 1 pop-dance smash on my chart.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

Tags 2002, BPM, Club, EDM, House, Music, Radio, Techno, Trance

Blogging Geography Military Travel

Yunnan China

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 8, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This month I’m virtually visiting 5 continents in 5 weeks. Last week I wrote about Luxembourg in Europe. This week it’s eastward to Asia.

Asia is a vast continent that spans over 17.2 million square miles (over 44.5 million square kilometers). That’s almost 9% of the total surface area of the world, and about 30% of the total land area. About 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia.

I’ve only set foot in one small part of Asia, and I actually lived there for a couple of months – in Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. On the eastern end of the continent my Mom was born in the Philippines in the mid-1940s.

When trying to figure out where I wanted to write about for this edition of #TravelThursday I chose a unique physical location rather than somewhere I’ve been, or somewhere I’d like to visit someday (such as Tokyo, Seoul, or Singapore).

I took my current latitude (roughly 25.5° north), and I extended it to the longitude that is 180° from my current longitude (roughly 80.5° west). That places “the other side of the world” – at 25.5° north latitude and 99.5° east longitude – or in far-southwestern China very near the border with Myanmar. It’s near the village of Maliaotian (or Ma Liao Tian) in the county of Yongping in the autonomous prefecture of Dali Bai in the province of Yunnan.

Yunnan has a population of over 48 million, and the land is mostly mountainous and rural. The capital and largest city of Yunnan is Kunming – also known as Yunnan-Fu – with over 8 million residents. Its new and modern International Airport is actually one of the busiest in the world – serving millions of tourists – particularly from nearby India. It’s known as “The City Of Eternal Spring” and “The Flower City”. It stays mostly cool year-round despite its latitude near the Tropic Of Cancer, as it’s a high mountain valley city (over 6,200 feet above sea level).

From Asia to Australia. Next #TravelThursday I’m visiting my favorite city in Australia that I have a unique 25-year connection to – Perth. I’ve never been there, but I feel like I know the city. I’ll explain next week. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Asia, China, Kunming, Yunnan

Blogging Career Military Music Radio Travel

Luxembourg

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 1, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s the start of a brand-new month – September. With this new month it’s all about the continents. I’ll be writing about a place in a different continent each #TravelThursday this month. That’s 5 continents in 5 weeks – starting with – Europe !

Today I’m visiting the curious small country of Luxembourg. Interesting story: Back in the mid-1980s when I was living in Gloucestershire England serving for the USAF and living in the dorm on-base my weekly hobby of writing down my favorite songs of the week was in full force. At one point it was up to a Top 50 chart. I also tracked the BBC-Gallup U.K. Top 40 and the Billboard Magazine American Top 40 amongst other pop music charts and weekly music-based shows on the telly. (This is starting to sound like an edition of #RetroFriday.)

Let’s get back on-track with #TravelThursday. One day I was scanning the AM (“medium-wave”) radio dial. That was by far the dominant radio band (over FM) back then in the U.K. and Europe. I discovered what is known in the radio frequency business as a “blowtorch” – a powerful station from afar with crystal clear reception. They played really good pop music, so I stayed tuned. It was Radio Luxembourg !

It was broadcasting at 1440 AM (208 MW), and it was known at the time as “Planet Earth’s Biggest Commercial Radio Station”.

So what’s a “Luxembourg” ? I had never heard of it at the time. I had to do some research – 1986-style (no smart phone, no Internet).

Luxembourg is a small country located in northern Europe surrounded by Belgium, Germany, and France. It’s just shy of 1,000 square miles in area. That makes it over 200 square miles smaller than Rhode Island here in the U.S. It’s 1 of the 30 smallest countries in the world. Its population is just under 650,000, and the south of the country – known as the “Gutland” (or “Good Land”) – is more densely populated than the north. Per capita it’s 1 of the 3 richest countries in the world.

Luxembourg City is the capital and largest city with about 20% of the nation’s population.

I’ve never been to Luxembourg – the country or the city. The closest I’ve come is about 2½-hours away by road (140 miles / 224 kilometers) in Brussels Belgium to the northwest. If I ever get the chance to tour Europe during my upcoming retirement then Luxembourg needs to be part of that itinerary. It’s the country that I discovered simply by turning the radio dial some 36 years ago.

VISIT LUXEMBOURG

From Europe to Asia. Next #TravelThursday I’m visiting a province in the south of China. Let’s keep traveling together.