I find that the purpose of message boards are for the exchange of information, not as communal center for mindless banter and chit-chat by senior posters. If people want to goof-off and joke around as if this were their personal lounge, wouldn't that be more suited and efficiently performed in a designated chat room?
[FONT=verdana, Arial][SIZE=-1]Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969![/SIZE][/FONT] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]Should there be a crash, Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana, Arial]There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants![/FONT][/SIZE] [FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]The Mona [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off[/SIZE][/FONT] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile![/FONT][/SIZE] [FONT=verdana,arial][SIZE=-1]The Philadelphia mint produces 26 million pennies per day![/SIZE][/FONT] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]It is estimated that 4 million "junk" telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States! [/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]it takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill![/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=-1][FONT=verdana,arial]Almost half the newspapers in the world are published in the United States and Canada! [/FONT][/SIZE]
Chuck, I like that, you stuck your neck out and took a shot. You got my attention. I don't agree with you but I still respect you and appreciate your input. See, we can agree to disagree and still remain friendly. With me, the door of friendship will always be open. This is my chat room. I prefer this kind of forum as opposed to blog, twitter, peep, honk, chat room, phone sex and whatever else you want to add. It is what it is. It is what we make it. Bigford, Now, that's a whole bunch of trivia. A real exchange of information. Interesting stuff there. Sounds like David Letterman's fun facts. To all tuned in, Life has been defined for me by the church I belong to, my social circle, the club's I've joined, my work environment and my family around me. Quite frankly I'm kind of tired of it, all the nonsense and hypocrisy. I don't need anyone else to define how I feel, think and believe. Quite capable of doing that myself. The principal I go by here is simple. I don't own what goes on here... even if I start the thread. A thread is like a good discussion it goes where it goes and it belongs only to the participants that share here. This thread lives up to all of that. Good to see...from these eyes. My best advice: Define yourself and define the values by which you choose to live by. Don't be a floor mat and let no one tread on you. Be responsible to yourself and those you choose to love. I do enjoy myself here. I've had some fun. Ok, some mindless banter perhaps...to those who don't agree. However, as long as we continue to have fun...it works for me. If it isn't fun you won't find me doing it. Why waste my time? Life is to short and getting shorter. If you've followed my thoughts here...you, should know by now who I is. Have fun!
Look up, if it's available, the archive of the "Aggravation" [sic?] thread on the old Atlas forum. It was a classic hijack-upon-hijack that went on for weeks or months.
Yup. Have you ever been to a town meeting in New England? That's for serious stuff like the town budget, the building of a new high school and, if you're away for just a minute, a 50% raise for the townies who mow the grass. See, the townies can discuss anything, and for a long time, so the serious folk get bored and miss the raise. A forum is a community. Any community run by too-stiff rules ends up stiff as the rules. Anyone who doesn't like chit-chat by senior posters doesn't realize it's the senior posters who keep a forum alive.
A long time ago, in forum years at least, I did a statistical analysis of the numerical distribution of posters on one forum. A forum year is like dog years in concept, except it's much quicker. I'd guess a forum year is about 200 normal years. Since this was about seven forum years ago, I don't remember the exact nature of the distribution as it was, for me at least, about 1400 years ago. It showed a very few very high posters, then few high posters, then more regular posters, then all the rest. It's on my computer in Albuquerque. Except I'm in Ohio right now, on a different computer.
I should probably also mention that my 30-pound male and 22-pound female Maine Coon cats (Napoleon and Josephine) have finally passed on, and I now have a 62-lb Gordon Setter dawg. He's from a shelter. He is getting me into shape!
One way to hijack a thread is to keep on posting. But there will be Stupid Mistake 109 one of these days, having to do with driving at night and dodging deer in SW Ohio! Oh, it also has to do with railroad tracks, so it might be on topic. Not this topic, of course.
I dunno Fitz, do you prefer "freshman" instead? I think we can accommodate. :silly: Uhoh, There has been 8 posts since Rick chimed in, so I think he's due. paging Dr. BarstowRick....
Ha ha ha ha haw haw haw hee hee I'm a tenor does that qualify? Oh Lord, Pete, now I really know who you are. Ha ha ha and still LOL'ing. You guys, I'm going to have to get myself to ER for some belly stitches. To funny, just to funny! You were doing so well, I thought I'd sit this one out. Keep it rolling, don't stop now. Chuckles, as I head off to bed.
You Can't Hi-jack A Thread Either I know how to shut down a thread (without trying) or kill it.err: This was fun and yes even serious at times. It is what it is. Review: I don't own this thread and neither do any of you. Collectively, WE own this thread. Summary: You can't hi-jack a thread no matter how hard you try. No such thing. Get with it and get over it. :we2-policeman: Personal Note: The family has left and all the celebrations are over. If you don't mind I'm going to settle in for a long winters nap. Those grand daughters can be a pistol to keep up with. Sigh! rolleyes: Nothing like it!biggrin:
So-- Kay and I usually go out to lunch and drink iced tea. Sunday we went out to dinner and had a few glasses of wine, and came back in the dark, when the deer roam. Actually, in Oxford, they roam all the time, wherever they please. The speed limit on this back road near Oxford Ohio was 55 MPH. But there's a railroad grade crossing about halfway between McGonigle and Oxford. I have no idea why it's called a grade crossing: it's more like a mountain crossing--the mainline is that high. So the speed limit is 45 MPH around it. If you go 45 MPH over it, you do wish that your car had wings. Or at least a belly pad when it comes down. 25 MPH is a more reasonable speed, although that still gives your tummy a weightless feeling. So I was just picking up speed when a herd of seven deer bolts across the road. I think I still have the white "tail" hairs of one deer caught in one headlight, and the nose whiskers of the next deer in the other headlight. I thank the Chessie for its mountain crossing.
Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders, Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail. All along the southbound odyssey The train pulls out at Kankakee Rolls along past houses, farms and fields. Passin' trains that have no names, Freight yards full of old black men And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles. CHORUS: Good morning America how are you? Don't you know me I'm your native son, I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done. Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car. Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score. Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor. And the sons of pullman porters And the sons of engineers Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel. Mothers with their babes asleep, Are rockin' to the gentle beat And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel. CHORUS Nighttime on The City of New Orleans, Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee. Half way home, we'll be there by morning Through the Mississippi darkness Rolling down to the sea. And all the towns and people seem To fade into a bad dream And the steel rails still ain't heard the news. The conductor sings his song again, The passengers will please refrain This train's got the disappearing railroad blues. Good night, America, how are you? Don't you know me I'm your native son, I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
I had a close call with these urban vermin once while riding my 12 speed bicycle. Right in the middle of suburbia a few miles from my house one morning. I was just riding along a boulevard when three deer came out of a side street bolting from some guys mowing the median. The first clue I had was the clattering of hoofs on pavement. I looked up and one dashed in front of me about 10 feet away. I hit the brakes and another one just cleared my front wheel. Then the third one brushed my rear wheel as it passed behind me. They never whistled for the crossing or anything. Scared the tar out of me for sure.
This thread is both good, funny, informative and ridiculous. Also, Happy belated Birthday Rick. The funniest part to me, is that I very very rarely see a true Hijacked thread on this board. To successfully hijack a thread, the thread needs to be Established, ie people have posted to it on topic The new topic must dominate, ie the new topic has more posts than the original topic and finally, the new topic must be very much unrelated. I've seen a lot of threads here, where someone asks a question that triggers a tangential question in the mind of a reader who then adds their question to the thread. I do this all the time, I don't see that as hijacking a thread, because its still more or less on topic...now if the original poster's question is never answered, but my subsiquent follow on is discussed adnauseum, then that's unfortunate, but probably says more about our comparative skills at asking interesting questions than it does say anything about netiquette. Heck, perhaps if the thread hadn't been hijacked, there would be no replies at all. Is that better? Now sometimes, forum owners will create "official" threads. On trainboard, this would include various pictures of the week threads or even forum rules, like new threads in the Railfanning forum must include pictures. In that case, perpetuating discussion that doesn't fall within the bounds of the rules of the thread should be frowned upon... Not squelched with Authoritarian precision and haste, but frowned upon. Like I said though, in general Trainboard doesn't really have these kinds of problems the way many more general interest boards do. And personally, I'm way more offended by having admins and mods delete posts. I don't care what level of invective was present, I consider it censorship. I understand it will happen and its for the best and all, but I don't like it. If someone says something that violates the terms of service, then it can be deleted, but if its just a harsh argument, then close the thread, but let the posts stand as a negative example to those that follow. We can learn good things even from bad examples.
Rick here again! You'd think I own this thread. Nope! No chance. Just chiming in. YoHo, Now that's a handle for you. I share your sentiment. I understands.
