GJ said about 15 hours later

Awesome! I'll post the kids' costumes tonight if I have some time.

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Abby said about 20 hours later

LOL. =)

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Geoff said 1 day later

Yes please do, I'd love to see their costumes!

GJ said about 2 hours later

Hmmm. We've never found bigfoot poop, nor a bigfoot body / skeleton / fossil record. We have "footprints," grainy "video," and grainy "pictures."

I say diseased black bear with mange.

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GJ said about 2 hours later

And, while I won't speak to Darcy's primate knowledge, this doesn't look a bit like a primate.

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Darcy said 2 days later

It isn't a great picture, but it doesn't strike me as ape-like. Quadrupedal apes like the gorilla and chimp are knucklewalkers, and this appears to be walking on flat paws as far as I can tell. So I am going with the mangy bear theory.

In the anthropology world there was only one person that I know of who seriously considered that bigfoot exists(Grover Krantz). I'm not really sure why he did, but few of his colleagues have endorsed his conclusions.

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Marc said 2 days later

Even if it wasn't a mangy bear, who's to say it isn't some guy dressed in a big foot costume? I was surprised that none of the articles proposed that.

Marc said about 1 hour later

At first, I thought ok...they're all moving and I'm not a bit surprised by the ridiculous amount of wind (Sounds like RIT does when you walk through it's wind tunnels...which has plenty enough force to knock over freshman).

But then it started cookin' and the other swings were barely budging. Not to mention the other swings were moving in the opposite axis due to the wind. Or perhaps they have it all wrong. The wind is making the middle swing move, and ghosts are sitting in the other swings holding them mostly still.

Obvious Conclusion: If it's not a ghost, it's definitely aliens.
Real Answer: It's actually caused by the gravitational forces from the moon. Yea... just like waves. Don't bother questioning this answer, it's fact. :)

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Geoff said about 2 hours later

I had trouble watching it with all that WIND.

Oh, and those little green martians too.

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Steve said about 3 hours later

If you click on some of the other videos, you'll see the ghost has friends, as a couple of swings start swinging in succession.

Want a simple solution? Change the shape or the weight of the swing, and you'll scare the ghosts away.

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GJ said about 4 hours later

Or film on a calm day.

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Geoff said about 6 hours later

Yeah..or have someone sit in the seat. You would think a ghost wouldn't put up with that!

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Abby said 1 day later

Lol.

But that CAN'T be wind- unless the wind was really strong, and in a tiny gale that only hit the middle swing, it wasn't wind.

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Steve said 2 days later

Comment deleted on 11/1/2007 at 6:52PM

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GJ said 2 days later

Please define really strong. I would say that winds gusting to 20mph could do this easily, and without a weight carried by the swing (i.e., a person), you would definitely get the twisting motion that is so apparent in the video. Listening to the audio, it sounds like it was rather blustery that day. What's also funny--I've found three more videos of this taken at different times...and each time, the microphone picks up significant wind noise.

The better question--why does it only affect the middle swing? Could it be that the other two swings proximity to the main swing supports is breaking up the wind in some fashion?

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Marc said 2 days later

That's where it's odd. If the wind is coming from the back or front of the swing to push it in that motion, it shouldn't be breaking the wind in a way that the swings next to it don't swing in a similar back and forth fashion. Sure they would be affected by each other, but the reason is looks ghostly is because the physics don't seem to add up.

I bet they just greased up the middle swing's hooks or soldered the outside swings' hooks. :)

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GJ said 2 days later

Another video I saw showed all three swings moving wildly. I think it's a mild resonance issue that's driving the swings. But ghosts? Come on, a ghost would at least keep the dang swing straight.

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Steve said 2 days later

Like I said, add some weight to the swings, or change the aerodynamic properties of the swing (remember those old hard plastic type swings with holes in them?). Those should scare your ghosts off.

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Geoff said 3 days later

Here is the simple truth...the middle swing was abducted by aliens and returned to us mutated by their evil experiments.

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Abby said 3 days later

I agree, lol.

Marc said 30 minutes later

I've been trying not to think about it, it's making me feel old. :) Happy Birthday Abby!

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Abby said about 2 hours later

Lol. =D

Oh yes... the world is MINE to rule... the rest of you can all live on the moon. Mwahaha.

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GJ said about 2 hours later

It's making YOU feel old? Imagine what Mom and Dad are thinking!!! LOL!

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Geoff said about 5 hours later

Happy Birfday Abby! Is Mars an option?

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Steve said about 6 hours later

Happy Birthday Abby! Card is in the mail!

After reading Darcy's post, I can't seem to disassociate Abby from Stewie, the character from The Family Guy. Something about world domination....

And just think, 3 years until she can start driving!!!

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Abby said 2 days later

*shrug* Go live on Mars if you really want to, lol.

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Steve said 2 days later

Well, I think you will be a very responsible driver when it comes time for you to start driving. And between you and me, we just need to convince your parents that you should take a teen driving school. They are becoming available in many more places, and I'm sure there will be some beginning in the Albany area within the next few years. We hold these schools at the test track where I work a couple of times a year. I instructed at the first one, and it was very educational and fun for both the teens and myself. I highly recommend all parents look into sending their kids to one of these teen driving school seminars. And when it snows, get your Dad to take you out to a snow covered parking lot and teach you how to handle emergency situations in the snow.

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Geoff said 2 days later

Make sure you work in some time to play "hit the bank"....

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GJ said 2 days later

Don't know of any such schools in the Albany area right now, but you can be certain that all my kids will learn how to drive responsibly. After all, I can't very well let kids like what we were like in our teens drive my pre-midlife-crisis commuter car, can I?

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Marc said 3 days later

Buy them a Prius, then they won't cause any trouble. It's the Electro-Metro!

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GJ said 3 days later

I've been passed by more than a few Prius over the past few months. Their owners apparently are unaware that driving at 80mph and accelerating like crazy probably gets them worse gas mileage than I get. :)

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Steve said 3 days later

Hopefully young kids today will have the benefit of driving "old" cars that actually have very good handling capabilities, and very good crash performance. Get them into anything built since about 2004 and it should have very good impact performance. And while 2004 models aren't old now, they will be by the time Abby, Trevor, Aaron, Kyle, and Katelyn start driving, especially the younger ones.

As for the schools, I'm fairly certain they will be popping up all over the place now. People are finally taking teenager driver education seriously, and many of us in the auto industry and in sports car clubs are working on putting on schools ourselves. So I wouldn't be surprised when your local Sports Car Club of America region offers the school (likely only offered once or twice a year, as it is a volunteer school). BMW, and Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge both have teen driving schools that travel the country. Chrysler even has a website http://www.roadreadyteens.org/ to help educate teens about safe driving.

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Steve said 3 days later

Oh, that roadreadyteens website isn't just for teens, it's also for parents of teen drivers.

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GJ said 4 days later

:)

Marc said about 6 hours later

I haven't had a problem with it. Does it just not install and if so, is it showing you any errors?

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Steve said 1 day later

It says it installs just fine, but I can't view any video via flash, like watching webisodes of TV shows I missed, etc. I'm about ready to say f-it and just switch over to Mozilla full time. I can watch it with Mozilla no problem.

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Marc said 1 day later

That sounds strange, you might search for Adobe Flash beta and see if one of the betas works for you. That's if you wanna stick with IE. Firefox is probably a better choice. Any reason why Firefox doesn't interest you now? Or is it more the occasional website doesn't render correctly in Firefox?

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Steve said 1 day later

IE...force of habit. It's what I've used since graduating from Netscape Navigator back in college (a long time ago for me...

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Geoff said 1 day later

Kill IE, go FireFox....much better.

Steve, check out www.driveshowroomtraffic.com

I am working on this mini site and it has Flash video. See if it works for you in IE.

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Marc said 1 day later

Yea, definitely go Firefox. It actually renders pages faster too, so you'll notice a slight speed increase while browsing the web. It takes a little longer to startup than IE the first time you run it after a reboot, but after that it's good to go.

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GJ said 1 day later

bad news, though, is that it doesn't work well with Microsoft's Sharepoint app...surprise, surprise. However, you generally only encounter that beast at work, on your internal network.

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Geoff said 1 day later

Microsoft sucks.

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Steve said 1 day later

Weird. It works on the sight Geoff pointed me to. I'll try to start to migrate to Firefox.

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Geoff said 2 days later

Hey Steve, it works because I built the site, and I wrock.

:)

Marc said less than a minute later

In case you want to know how many, it was 15.

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Geoff said about 1 hour later

Is that even legal lol. Unbelievable!

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GJ said about 2 hours later

If anything was unbelievable, it was the pathetic defense effort. Pretty sure that a well-timed tackle would have ended this whole thing.

Steve said 4 minutes later

Oh, I should also comment that I don't use my well water for drinking water, as I don't prefer the taste, and I also don't use it for washing my car, as my outside spickets are currently plummed to provide non-softened/filtered water.

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Geoff said about 3 hours later

I would think city water would be more enticing to a homeowner, less worry about changing filters. But then again, 6k is a fair amount of change. Probably isn't tax deductible, but the interest on it might be perhaps? I just found out for 2007 that my mortgage insurance is tax deductible for 2007, sweet! That should offset the big radical tax increase the Democrats have in store for us. Go Hilary...?!?

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Steve said about 4 hours later

Yea, those dem's just screwed me in Michigan. $25 more a month taken out of my pay because they don't know how to balance their checkbook. Idiots...

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GJ said about 4 hours later

Another thing to consider--well water requires a pump, and pumps don't last forever. Yet another cost to you or a future homeowner.

Also, wells can dry up over time. I think, on average, they last about 50 years. Not sure how old your well is, but the one place I rented that had a well was on well no. 2, for a house that was about 45 years old. If you have a septic field, that can also foul up your well over time, too. :)

City water can be expensive, however. I know of one town near me that screws it's residents with water fees. However, having city water also allows you to measure your usage--not sure if your well is setup to do that (doubtful). I've found a few leaky toilets that way.

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GJ said about 4 hours later

Oh, oh, oh--well water also should be tested annually, especially if you use it for drinking, or cooking. Not quite as critical for bathing, but I'd still get it done if you haven't yet done that.

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Steve said about 22 hours later

I had it tested when I moved in about 3 years ago. I don't cook or drink it, but I should probably test it again soon. I don't have a septic field, we actually have a sewer system here, so that reduces the risk of damaging the well. That said, there are farms in the area, which could affect water quality, depending on what they use for fertilization.

I think I'm on the original well, which means it's about 24 years old. I talked with one of the guys at work today, who's on a township board in another area, but who recently had city water put into his township. It cost him about $13K, and he said he'd do it again in a heartbeat. He had a well dry up on him about 4 years before they put city water in, which was really frustrating and expensive for him. It sounds like drilling a new well could be just about as expensive as having permanent city water plumbed in. So I'm going to send my letter back supporting bringing city water to my area, and if offered, I'll pay the $6000 or so to have it plumbed in.

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GJ said 1 day later

Yeah, I figured drilling a new well would be expensive. So is replacing the well pump when it goes offline. :) Good luck. I wish I could get sewer--instead, I have septic + town water. And my septic system will need replacing in the next few years. Yay.

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Steve said 1 day later

Interesting coincidence - the guy that sits in front of me at work just had his well collapse in on itself yesterday, putting a ton of sediment into the well water. He's having an all new well dug, expected cost of $4,000, not including well pump, which he'll take from his old well, as it was just replaced 2 years ago. I found this out about 10 minutes after talking to my boss and another coworker, both of whom said not to bother with the city water, that wells last forever, etc....

GJ said about 1 hour later

yawn

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Geoff said about 8 hours later

haha I half expected another slam fest. I do enjoy his videos. He has a charisma that only I can apparently appreciate. He kicks ass, what can I say.

On a quick side note, Giuliani is a freaking moron...I don't even like to hear him speak...must be that lisp of his. If anyone has some good videos or info on their candidate of choice, please do post. I've seen a bunch of the earlier Democratic debates...and I personally didn't get nearly as much quality information as I did from the stuff Ronny has to say. I also watched a few Republican debates...some of it made me cringe.

I did like some stuff Biden had to say from the D side, though his thoughts on creationism was a copout. I don't think you have much choice if you want any chance of election.

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GJ said about 20 hours later

You figured out why Ron Paul is even noticeable--he has charisma. That said, you need more than charisma to run the government. He's a libertarian with a religious right bent, so he's one I won't even think about voting for.

I agree about your Giuliani note. He's an ass. But then again, so it practically everyone on the GOP plank. :)

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GJ said about 20 hours later

oh, and btw, as site owner, I'm asking for a stop to posting political ads for your favorite politicians. I have no problem with folks discussing it, but these Ron Paul videos are ads created by the Paul campaign. I'll give Paul credit--his supporters practically own youtube right now, and I don't think the traditional pols understand the impact of that.

So--no videos produced by a political camp. If you have one that shows an entire debate, that's fine. Anything else is likely an edit job done by one campaign or another, and I don't see the need to give any of them free advertising.

And Geoff thought I wasn't going to start another slam fest. :)

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GJ said 1 day later

Oh, and this is not aimed at just Geoff--this goes for everyone. Even me, never mind that Clinton's campaign doesn't seem to know what to make of youtube. :)

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Steve said 1 day later

I say ban talk of presidential election politics until 6 months before the election. I'm so freaking sick of it already.

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GJ said 1 day later

:) Yeah, let's go back to discussing (or was that dissing) religion. hahahahahah

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GJ said 1 day later

Oh, and you know you want Half-Life. It's calling you . . .

Geoff said about 9 hours later

Nice read

Marc said about 1 hour later

Well, for one, I have no idea what that giant microphone was all about.

Number two and I hope this is what you're talking about. The sound man or Eddie Van Halen's guitar tech should be fired. I thought maybe it was the camera man's camera, but everything sounded fine except the guitar. It couldn't have been more out of tune. And if it wasn't out of tune somebody screwed up the controls, it doesn't sound like a blown speaker, otherwise everything would sound bad. Absolutely terrible.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by Rush's perfection.

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GJ said about 2 hours later

The keyboard sequence was a tape, and it was playing at 48.1 hertz instead of 44 hertz. Sound man at fault. What you're hearing is Eddie trying like mad to match up tonally, and finding it nearly impossible.

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Marc said about 3 hours later

I read up a bit on that, there's apparently two things at fault. The synthesizer was "out of tune" and playing the keyboards incorrectly (The 48.1 hz vs. 44 hz) and good 'ol Eddie has apparently adopted a new tuning, which is really what attributes to the horrible sound. It's clear whatever Eddie was doing was a poor choice. I'll give it to them for continuing on and still trying, but the sound man should have recognized it and fixed it before the horrible sounding guitar solo.

As someone said in the forum I'm reading: "Lesson is real bands should not play with backing tracks." Almost every band nowadays overlays several tracks, so you either need to hire more people to play or to actually impress people, use triggers (Not hooked up to synths).

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GJ said about 11 hours later

Good catch--I hadn't heard about Eddie's new tuning item.

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Steve said about 21 hours later

Yuck. I used to like Van Halen....