Saturday, December 29, 2007

U-182 / The Miss Bacon

In this photo David is putting some of the finishing numbers on The Miss Bacon hydroplane, number U-182. He did a great job of choosing the number and the name. I bought the stickers.

And they aren't just your run-of-the-mill house number stickers. No, these are gasoline-proof vinyl stickers with adhesive from beyond the grave, available from your local hobby shop. You know the place...they offer balsa wood wind-up airplanes, RC cars and planes, train sets, and plastic models. They also attract kids who need to get out more, and adults who rarely see other people on a regular basis - at least the store we visited exhibited those attributes. One adult patron had breath that followed him from aisle to aisle. Another seemed to be abnormally excited by RC Helicopters. After David went over to the wooden train table to play, a boy about his age started talking at him; not to him...at him. And he didn't stop. In fact, he started following David around the store talking at him. To his credit, David took it in stride and eventually the boy's father told him it was time to go. Then David asked me if it was time to go, which tells me he was ready to bolt. On the way to the cash register, we passed a teenager who was playing a video game of flying RC airplanes in an open field.

Umm...let me get this straight; he's playing a physically non-taxing video game that represents an almost equal physically non-taxing recreational pass time?

Did I miss a memo? If it were me, I'd probably be flying the plane in the field rather than standing motionless - thumbs excepted - in front of a flat screen looking at virtual grass. It reminds me of the cartoon I saw once where a tubby kid walks into a bike shop and asks, "Do you have that new Lance Armstrong video game?"

In the future I think I'll find my vinyl stickers on the Internet. Miss Bacon U-182 deserves better!

Foo Photo - 12/29/07

Today's Foo Photo shows you how far technology has come. It was taken in November for one of David's school assignments, using the first digital camera we bought in 1999 - the indestructible Sony FD-75. The technology part? Well it has a whopping 1.0 megapixel capability, and uses floppy disks. Even the cellular phone I carry today has a higher resolution than that!

Despite the marginal image quality, it's a tough old soldier. It even has a great flash and a timer. The zoom lens works better than my Olympus digital, oddly enough. David uses it when we go looking for trains. Since our home PC doesn't have a floppy drive I purchased an external one that plugs into a USB port in the computer. So now 90s technology has a new life in the 21st Century.

Ain't technology grand?

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas from The Clarks!

Wishing you and yours a safe and happy Christmas and New Years! The above photo is of Sherry with her Mrs. Beasley Doll on Christmas Day 1969. Below you'll find Sherry with her Mrs. Beasley Doll on Christmas Day 2007:





We had a great day over at the elder Clark household today with family - eating ham, swedish meatballs, potato sausage, ham, scalloped potatoes, and ham. It was followed up with coffee, cookies, and more ham. The Clark Boys got lots of car-related presents this year, including race tracks manufactured in foreign factories with questionable blueprints. In the end, a call to the toy company will be in order, because four parts don't fit where they're supposed to - making the track nearly useless. Next year, they get wooden blocks!

Hope your Christmas Day was as wonderful as ours.

Enjoy! Kurt

Sunday, December 23, 2007

A Good Norwegian

A good Norwegian always has coffee with cake. Thank you Jack, for the illustrated lesson!