Uncle DT's Random Image Thread

[Blaze]

That forklift one is definitely funny. And believe it or not, we've seen that one. It took a bit, but once I saw/heard the bell and the ambulance blue light it came back to me. That was hilarious...

[Kruger]

I had heard about the dentist camera a few years ago, and after a quick search found a short vid of someone that actually has one.  I guess I never realized it failed out of the gate because USB was just getting established and his old technology just didn't cut it.  But the Coleco Chameleon was a new one for me, it's got an interesting story.  And now the Jag molds belong to the guy that started AtariAge.  But can you imagine if they revolved through a handful of other companies before finally making it to AtariAge?  We could potentially be seeing all kinds of appliances that look like the Jag, and see them as movie props all of the time.  I'd like to visit that timeline some day...

[Blaze]

That'd be a weird piece of nostalgia to have - the rights to the case molds. But yeah, seeing that case all over the place would be pretty freaking cool. Of all the timelines to be living in, this is the one we're stuck with. Of all the religions, none of them talk about being reincarnated into a neighboring timeline. And if one were to start, I think I'd be open-minded to listen. Maybe I should start one...

[Kruger]

We may not be in the timeline where the Jag case is ubiquitous and used for all kinds of appliances.  But at least this is the timeline where you said ok when Ick invited you to a football game...

[Blaze]

I guess it's a good thing that whole "don't trust strangers on the computer" didn't have the intended effect. Also a good thing there was a train line that went right past Wickham Park so I didn't have to walk all the way there...

[Kruger]

Was not trusting strangers on the computer really a thing back then?  I know my folks knew I talked to people but really didn't understand the whole BBS thing.  In their eyes, I guess they were friends and it was like talking on the phone, but typing instead of actually talking.  And it was on the phone...  I mean we used to get together for picnics, and I would spend weekends at your house and stuff, and they met most of my friends.  Really, you and Tommy went to Rehoboth with us on a couple of occasions...

[Blaze]

The warnings came from school believe it or not. We had a C64 and a modem in shop class. It was my first introduction to dialing out and after seeing how it worked I knew I needed one of those. I'm pretty sure my mom had no clue what I was doing, especially when I ordered my own phone line. Although, I'll never forget when the two linemen came into the room to finish up the connection and S.O.D. What's That Noise started playing. Never seen two grown ass men laugh and giggle their asses off...

[Kruger]

Coventry High had a bunch of TRS-80's in the lab and none had a modem.  It was an older friend that had an 800 and a modem that convinced me that it will open up a whole new world.  When I first got it, we connected directly and chatted for a bit, then he sent me a game.  Then he sent me a couple of BBS numbers to try out after.  And he was right, it did open up a whole new world.

But it wasn't the computer that was a problem, I really think people had no clue.  Or it being a couple of years earlier (maybe?) and the seedy side of online hadn't really made itself known.  Even Wargames just raised some awareness but may not have raised any alarm bells.

What did raise alarm bells was that music that I listened to...

[Blaze]

We had TRaSh 80s too in our computer lab. I still remember getting kicked out - actually had to take my chair/desk and move it into the hall - because the instructor actually accused me of cheating on the computer test. Apparently, getting a perfect score was impossible since no one has ever scored higher than a 55 in that class. He said I hit that orange break button, looked at the basic code for all the answers and used that. If someone was that smart to do that, that should be an automatic pass. But I didn't. I told him I'd take the test again right in front of him and prove I didn't cheat. Of course he didn't take me up on that. So, fuck you Mr. Skinner if you're still alive.

Ya know, funny enough, no one ever questioned my music or made any kind of remarks akin to narrow minded opinions. In fact, no one questioned this shirt. Although, when I said it glowed in the dark they were more curious about it...

[Kruger]

Your test sounds like my fourth quarter drafting class.  I decided to take drafting my senior year, I had an open slot, needed an elective and thought that would be fun.  Anyway, I had all of the other shop classes and drafting was one that I hadn't taken.  So fourth quarter and I nailed every test, quiz, extra credit, assignment, etc... Everything, even to the point where I finished the assignments a few weeks early and I asked for other assignments just because it was fun.  So with extra credit and everything, my average was well over 110.  The last day and Mr. Page pulls each of us up to give us our grade and he said I got an A.  I argued that it should be an A+ since it was over 100, except he has never given an A+ before.  At least he saw my argument and as far as I know, I'm probably the only one he has ever given that grade to.  So not the same, our shop teachers were all really cool and absolutely nothing like Mr. Skinner....

That glow in the dark shirt was very cool.  Even when you're drunk and passed out and someone sees the skeleton on the back...

[Blaze]

Our drafting instructor was ex-military - not sure if he was a drill sergeant or not - but he put the fear into a lot of kids. He used to give me a hard time because of the Irish name and would make comments how I'd down a glass of whiskey every day after school or I just had a shot after lunch. I got an A in his class too, but one interaction was great. We're doing isometric blueprints and we had our T-squares and two triangles to make sure we're drawing the angles correctly. Lining up the triangles was a giant pain in the butt so I just used my one straight edge and eye-balled the entire thing. He comes over and sees what I'm doing and he nearly had a stroke/heart-attack with his beat red face and the steam coming out of his ears. Then the shouting and trash bin throwing started up. Well, all eyes are on me now. He screams at me about what I'm doing and how the measurements and angles needed to be exact and blah blah blah... I tell him I'm just eye-balling it and it looks pretty accurate. He proceeds to bust out his compass and scale and pushes me out of the chair and he begins measuring everything. To his credit, he does admit when he's wrong and calms down and he says, everything is exact, although I'd still like you to use the T-square, triangles and ruler when doing the classwork. He walks back to his desk and says he'll have a bottle of whiskey in my name when he gets home. From that moment on, I was his best student and he definitely treated me a lot better than everyone else...

[Kruger]

There are a handful of teachers that thinking back were pretty awesome.  At one point a few years ago I had thought about getting away from technology and finding a new career, and teaching did cross my mind.  Mostly because of those cool teachers and I thought I could have a positive impact on the future generation...

[Blaze]

I've only had two teachers that I thought were cool. The best one was Ms. Gamble - a concentration camp survivor that had the tattoo numbers on her forearm. She was bent at the world, never smiled, always had a scowl, and was a lunch monitor where she would end up breaking a yard stick once a week slamming it on a table telling kids to shut up. She was also the art teacher (grades 6-8). I had just transferred to this new school, had no friends (rumors started fast and over the top because someone found out what school I was at that had the reputation of being a "children of the corn" type place where we actually killed a teacher - we didn't, but I do have stories), and sat alone in the back of the class. The assignment was to do a Christmas card transfer. Basically, pick out a Christmas card, roughly 5x7 and transfer the image to a poster 24x36 using a grid system. So I'm in my own world penciling this image. I'm just about done and this kid comes by and tells me I did it all wrong. It was supposed to be in color using the paints. I'm like, I don't care. I'm done, I'm not painting it. I'll take the F. I hand in my piece and walk out the class. The next week, she's handing out everyone's pieces and she's extremely annoyed saying how everyone's work was sloppy and just bad. Everyone was getting like D's and C's for a grade. After that, she says, one person didn't get their piece back. Of course the class is looking at me and that kid who said I was supposed to use paints is being all cocky and had that joyful glee in his eye about "see, I told you - you failed miserably and she's going to be yelling at you". Ms. Gamble then goes on to say, "the reason why this student didn't get their piece back is because it's hanging in the superintendent's office". After class, she stopped me and gave me a lot of words of encouragement, and I got to see her smile. The following year, she helped me out during graphic arts when a silk screen project got all boogered up and she managed to design a new screen to cover up an area where the ink leaked out...

I think if you became a teacher, you'd definitely be one of the awesome and cool ones...

[Kruger]

That is a great story, it was always pretty feel good when a teacher that you admired thought highly of you.  The closest that I came to that was one teacher that all the guys drooled over asked me to be her teacher aide.  I happened to have a study hall the same period that she had an empty classroom.  So I basically hung out in there and we listened to music and chatted every day.  I still helped out running the ditto machine for her and stuff like that, but it was a class credit to hang out with the hottest teacher in the entire school...

I doubt that being a teacher is in the cards, it's just not feasible at this point in my life...

[Blaze]

Nice. I was never as lucky to have any good looking teachers, let alone a little hotty. So no distractions in that department. But that ditto machine brought back some memories about how I needed to be "rescued" from the copier room. You were supposed to leave the door open when making copies. I closed it. I knew exactly what I was doing. They made me go to the nurses office afterwards...