Tom Adams
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Posts posted by Tom Adams
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RIP......my much used & liked Denon 3300.
Well, I spent the $50 bucks to have an electronics repair guy (at the same audio store I bought it from years ago) give it a look. He said that the unit checked out perfectly - except that the display didn't work. He!! - I could've told him that. Wait.....I DID tell him that. Anyhow.....
He called Denon and they told him they would be able to replace the display or they could ship him a display and he could swap it out. The latter option would require the purchase of a repair schematic. Either option was gonna cost me $350+. So I brought it home and gave it a proper burial in the trash can. Honestly, I did hook it up and tried to navigate at least the tuner and it was such a PITA, that I just said the heck with it.
Of course, that left me with no unit for my garage/workshop so I bought a factory re-furb'd Denon DRA397 stereo receiver (current model) and am quite pleased with it - especially since I only paid $165 shipped.
Tom
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Well.....FWIW, I too have felt a bit put-off by someone stating that low or no feedback bidders not accepted. I can see it from the sellers perspective. However it does make me feel like, "What?? Am I or my money not as good as the next guy's?" Like plummer, I haven't bought too many items off eBay and in some cases went directly to a sellers store.
Tom
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Why is it always a white van? Why couldn't it be a brown step van or a multi-colored ice-cream truck? Seriously, the white van thing has been going on since back in the 80s as far as I know, probably longer. (snip)
I think you answered your own question.....
It's a tradition that scumbags/dirtbags are sworn to carry on. C'mon.....how can one be considered a true scumbag/dirtbag if he shows up in a magenta Ford Econoline F250??
Tom
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Hey Michael.....what's the latest happenings with your project?? Got any recent photos? I'm finally getting near the completion of my man-cave/workshop. Sheesh....it's been right at a year since I started mine. With some luck I'll have a good portion of my stuff moved in this weekend.
Tom
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I just put south because we live in a hick town no one would recognize . I like the idea
Picayune, Mississippi is a great place. .
I've stayed there visiting friends there and am personally responsible for the demise of dozens and dozens of crawfish.
As well as being home of the dtels, it's also just a hop, skip and a jump from New Orleans.
I know where that is too.
'Course.....growing up in Pass Christian, MS it would be hard NOT to know where Picayune is.
The only demise I'm responsible for is that of a certain preachers' daughter from Picayune. But that's a different story.
Tom
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Man-oh-man......you guys are slick.
There's no doubt that I can't hang with some of you.
I mean......a couple of you guys have managed to ever so slyly introduce religion AND politics into a thread about civic duty.
Niiiiiiiiice.
'Course it doesn't suprise me since some here (and you know who you) always seem to look for threads like this to drag out their soapboxes to pontificate about various injustices.
Until your post there, everyone was having a gentlemenly discussion.
Thanks though for the generous "contribution."
How nice of you to edit out the rest of my post - which, BTW was ON TOPIC of the original post and NONE of yours has been - in order to take a cheap shot with that "generous "contribution"" comment.
KISS MY AS* Mark!
I have completely lost all respect for you. Hope you're happy.
Tom
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Bump.
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Not sure what you mean by the "real thing" though?
I just said that to tease you a bit if you are a NASCAR fan. NASCAR does provide very tight racing, as opposed to the parades that sometimes occur in F1, very high speed parades though they might be. However, F1 has the most advanced cars and possibly the best drivers, while the NASCAR machines are basically identical in terms of chassis and running gear (in the interest of safety, with the very high average speeds and frequent crashes), with only the engines and body styles varying between cars.NASCAR uses street-based 5.9 litre V-8 engines, while F1 engines are 2.4 litre V-8s that produce about the same power, but spin up to around 18,000rpm and are built from scratch as racing engines. A number of the F1 features actually find their way to production cars, like engine management systems, but not much NASCAR tech makes it to the street.
Formula 1 sees far more innovations than probably any other type of car racing, has really big money in play, has world-class drivers and is popular all over the world, making it truly international, rather than a class that's very popular in one country.Ladies & Gentlemen.........
The roaring laughter you hear is from all the engineers, aerodynamicists, chassis builders, engine develpers/builders, etc. in NASCAR.
Thank you very much.
Tom
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They're just sports figures, that's all.
I don't take anything they do too seriously. Same with Kobe Bryant, Bernie Ecclestone, Tony Stewart, Tanya Harding, Magic Johnson and a plethora of other overpaid egos.
They just don't matter in my life. Really.
Do you feel the same way about successful musicians? Just curious.
well of COURSE not, LOL, ya got me on that one (but it was too easy).
I'm not saying they don't have talent, but get them out of their area of specialty and, to me, it just doesn't matter much what these public figures say or do.
And the same with musicians.
Nice try Michael. [
]Tom
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Man-oh-man......you guys are slick.
There's no doubt that I can't hang with some of you.
I mean......a couple of you guys have managed to ever so slyly introduce religion AND politics into a thread about civic duty.
Niiiiiiiiice.
'Course it doesn't suprise me since some here (and you know who you) always seem to look for threads like this to drag out their soapboxes to pontificate about various injustices.
Oh and I've gotten the jury duty call several times, yet only served once. Not a major case, just simple robbery. The trial got started late and by the time we recessed for deliberation it was after 4:00pm. At 6:30 we hadn't reached a verdict due to 3 folks "just not being convinced that that nice looking young man would do something like stealing". Sheesh - whatever. Anyhow, the judge told us to go home and come back in the morning. We did and the first thing outta the mouth of one of the biggest hold-outs was, "Last night I went home and prayed & prayed and asked the Lord Jesus to show me the truth. I even called my two sisters and asked them to pray with me. And I now know that he is guilty. The other two hold-outs say, "Well....that's good enough for us." And with that, we had a unanamous decision of guilty. We were allowed to remain in the courtroom during sentencing and it was interesting to see the looks on the faces of the former hold-outs when the DA presented to the judge a "rap sheet" as long as your arm.
Tom
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Hey dtel.....point me to the thread that explains your avitar.
Tom
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REALLY? i thought that is what we are supposed to look for when we're in the shower.
That's LUMP - which is what women look for in the shower.
Tom
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Personally, I too think Adam should've won. I know many folks say he's a screamer and in some respects he is. But what rock "legends" haven't been at one point or another?? Robert Plant? Steven Tyler? Freddie Mercury? Brian Johnson? The list goes on & on. But if you take the time to really listen to Adam's voice and get past the screaming, you'll find that he's got a very good set of pipes. Folks that have done some serious singing or been around trained singers know what I'm talking about. And to the karaoke critics I say try and do what he does. I'm confident in saying many have no idea how difficult it is to hit the notes he hits or to do a controlled slide up or down to a note. Here's a clue - he doesn't rely on vibrato to maintain pitch. Ever try to sing a note on pitch? I mean, open your mouth and just HIT a note and be dead on. Anyhow....in my mind, at some point, American Idol - whether intentionally or unintentionally - "typecast" Adam in that screamer role and I think Adam knew that was the ball he had to run with.
Kris Allen??? Honestly, my problem with him was him not being what I think he should've been all season. And that was illustrated on the last night when he sang with Keith Urban. I told my wife almost at the beginning of the season that Kris was not gonna sing anything that came even CLOSE to country music 'cause he knows that country singers never make it. Even worse - they get crappy reviews from the judges. Yet from the beginning I said that Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Rodney Adkins, etc. were in Kris' wheel house and he could knock music like that out the park. So there he is with Keith Urban and he sounds more like Keith than Keith does! But true to form Kris stayed away from "country". Even the night when they were to sing a country song, he picked some traditional country song, rearranged it and then did a "safe" performance without much relationship to "country". I have no way to prove this, but I believe it was a calculated move on his part. And if it was - more power to him for he got where he wanted to go. Personally, I wish he'd have embraced his ability to sing contemporary/rock country during the season for he could've really shined.
In the end, I believe they will both make crazy money. Adam will try the recording artist thing, but end up on Broadway. Kris will go to Nashville and become as big as Kenny Chesney.
Tom
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I was given until July 31st although my group was the first in the Accounting/Finance Division to be let go. They also were kind enough to keep our bank's severance policy so I will/should have plenty of time to find other employment. I expect I'll be taking a significant pay cut when I do find another job. I'll probably have to work a lot harder too. I certainly don't mind working hard but at this point in my career and at my age (49), having to prove myself all over again is not something I thought I would be doing. Also, I will most likely be jumping to a different industry. It's not a great time to be a banker!!
It's a very strange feeling to lose a job you've held for almost half of your life. My daughter graduated from college Saturday and she was born a year after I started!
I'm looking forward to some time off although it would be much more relaxing if I knew I had something lined up, maybe around October??? I'll just call it a mid-life vacation. I'd like to relax at the beach house and play a lot of golf. My wife thinks I should paint the house. Go figure.
Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Sorry to partially hijack the thread Josh. I'm glad you have something lined up already. It sounds like you're in good shape.
I honestly feel I can say that I know how you feel Gary. As odd as it might sound, when our RIF was about to happen, there was a part of me that hoped I would be laid-off. And I think it was so I could maybe go & do something different. I kept thinking - I've done this engineering/aerospace gig for over 27 years now. If I were to take some night classes, get into another industry, and retire at 65, that would give me another 15 years in a second career. Of course, had I been laid-off, I would've had the security of 30+ weeks of severance pay. OTOH......the notion of having to compete with young whipper-snappers ain't so great.
BTW Gary - although quite a few things went with my last divorce, I still have a very nicely framed, pencil sketch portrait of Frank Sinatra (remember that Sinatra stuff I got from you?) hanging in my office room. I chuckle some times when I look at it and recall that story you told me of that guy getting a stuffed animal off Sinatra's grave.
And yes Mark - I have a geat appreciation for the wordsmiths and their ability to "spin" the fact that your employment is being terminated.
Tom
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You have GOT to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sheesh......what a loss.[
] I have 3 of his CD's. Oddly, when I first heard his music, I just couldn't place the name but knew it was familiar. It wasn't until I went to his website that I made the connection to him playing in the NBA.Yeah - he seemed like a very genuine & grounded guy and the kind of pro athelete kids should look up to. He was on my list of folks I'd like to see in concert just as Grover Washington was.
Thanks for (sad) news.
Tom
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I read through these types of threads & posts and come away feeling........sheesh, not sure how to express it. Inadequate? Humbled? Stoopid? I mean, I feel I'm pretty handy with power tools, do a decent job with woodworking, and hell - I'm kinda smart......but stuff like this just impresses the hell outta me. And my compliment isn't just for GotHover, but goes out to all the other modder's on this forum. Seriously - my hat is off to you. Hopefully my new garage/workshop will motivate me to try some of the builds I've seen chronicled here. OTOH - I hope I don't go off the deep end like JWC has.
And while I'm thinking about it, I wish there was some way this forum could condense & compile some of these "builds" such that one could just access a file (for lack of a better term) versus having to do a search and then wade through page after page of posts. For instance, if there was a "How To Build" section of the forum and in there was a folder called Cornscala which was a read only type thing (no posting allowed) that had all one ever wanted to know about building a Cornscala - everything from wood to speaker components to crossovers to whatever. Just a single repository for that project. Anyhow.....
The one thing I don't like about this particular project is that it once again leaves us vertical horn Cornwall owners out in the cold.
Tom
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Ahh, so that's where my socks went.More like navel lint. Anyhow........
If you REALLY want to waste your employer's resources, go here: http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JTrack/3D/JTrack3D.html
Once the "space window" opens up you can click on each dot and it will show you the orbit of the object. You can also click and hold down and drag to your hearts content.
BTW - if you use the satellite pull down menu you'll see that there's (3) Skynet satellites out there. Can you spell Terminator?????
Tom
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My wife & I have tickets to see him here locally (Savannah, GA). He's appearing with Johnny Lang. Should be an interesting mix of old, old school and new old school.
Tom
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Yeah, it's pretty degrading. One day you're doing a fine job, the next morning the building superintendent is standing by as security while you empty your personal items into a copy paper box.
Yeah, some companies seem to make it a point that it should be degrading. When I worked for one of the large PC companies, we had a huge layoff and they hired the Brinks company to bring in a dozen guards. They covered every entrance and exit. The layoffs started one by one at 9:00 o'clock. A guy would be called from his cube by a security guard, taken to personnel, given his paperwork, taken back to his desk with an official carton, pack his crap and be walked to his car by the security guard. Mostly 40 and 50 year old professional guys and it looked like a perp walk. This went on for about 6 hours, during which everyone was supposed to sweat out if they were next. It was the most insane layoff process I ever witnessed.
I too am sorry to hear about your lay-off Josh & Gary. I've been fortunate in only being laid off once and it did indeed turn out to be for the best. So I'll say a prayer for you guys.
And I agree with many of the comments here about the manner in which the employee is "treated". One of the the first lay-off's I went through here was close to what Mark said with the exception of using Brinks. I can remember that day like it was yesterday. No productivity.....folks just sitting at their desks or making whisper small talk all the while waiting for the grim reaper to show up to escort you to the Director's office. The person would return with a Company security guard and their supervisor in tow as they watched the employee clean out their desk into a copy paper box. It was gut wrenching to watch. The laid-off person would look at you as if they were being led away to the lions. Nobody was making eye contact. It was BAD. And the laid-off guy didn't even get the opportunity to say good-bye to folks they worked with - and some of those folks had worked here for 20+ years!
Last Thursday was almost as bad. Again, folks just sitting in their cubie waitng for the axe to fall. Fortunately we only had one person let go. Our "participation" (as they called it) in the RIF was achieved mostly through cancelled open positions. The guy that was let go worked right across from me. They did allow him to pack his stuff un-supervised and there was some level of dignity in that he got to talk to folks and they said to report back to the manager's off when he was done packing. It was weird when, at around 3:30pm, we get this email from our senior manager informing us that "our participation in the RIF has concluded".
Contrast this with the voluntary separation program (VSP) that precluded the RIF. Those folks had a month to walk around in lame duck session giving every one grief about how they were on their way out (many were retiring) or wishing folks well or thanking folks, or whatever. Completely different vibe.
Tom
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I'll tell ya another one about that POS stealership Southern Motors Acura.............
My ex bought a car from them (just before we got married) and financed the car through Honda. Her first mistake was trusting the salesguy when he said, "Don't worry. You said you wanted your payments to be under $500 and that's what we're gonna do. Take the keys to your NEW CAR, leave me the keys to your trade-in, have a nice weekend in your NEW CAR, and we'll have everything sorted out on Monday." Monday rolls around, she gets a call, and is told the financing went through. Two weeks later she gets something from Honda Financing with her payment book showing......(drum roll please) a payment of $659/month.
She calls Honda and they said that was the best they could do based on her credit score. She calls the sales scum and he plays dumb. She says fine - state law allows me to rescind the car purchase contract within 7 days so I'm coming to get my old car. They say it's been sold. She's screwed. Well, she did managed to get her bank to feel sorry for her and refinanced the car for $100 less.
What I'd really like to do is tie some GM senior cost accountant to a chair, stuff bamboo shoots under his nails and "make him talk". What we'd probably find is that a $42K 2009 Tahoe LT costs $12,376.48 to build and that the $29,623.52 goes to pension plans, bonuses, Washington lobbyists, etc.
Tom
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Hey Mark -
I've been on this forum for a fairly long time and have read many of your posts. Now, I've not read ALL of them mind you for, unlike some, I have to work 50+ hours a week and then there is the wife I must service, er.....I mean, uh....pay attention to and of course there's grass to cut, my workshop (almost done), motorcycle racing, and......well you get the picture. Anyhow.......
From what posts I have read, there's a question I keep hearing in my head. And that was a question posed to me many years ago by Emile Casadaban.....
"Have you ever considered the possibility that maybe.....just maybe.....you might be wrong? And when you are wrong, what do you intend to do about it?"
Just curious........
Tom
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Having worked in the space industry for a few years, I'll share with you a little known fact about all that space debris.
There was an initiative to "collect" most of that debris via several shuttle missions. In fact, there were several proposals on the process of capturing and storing the debris seeings how the shuttle would have to match the orbital speed of the "junk" that was to be collected. After some months of noodling through how all this would happen and solving all the problems, the program was shelved because of an impass with regards to one problem that just couldn't be solved. And that was........a contract with the garbage workers union.
That's right, they wanted NASA to package up the debris such that one person could handle it without any potential for back injury. They were also demanding better food during the flight and break times not measured in solar time. The straw that broke the camel's back was the acceptable levels of radiation from nuclear power cell exposure.
In the end, NASA decided to contract it out to Sagwau & Son. (key music......)
Tom
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This was an interesting post as well.........
I've stated this here before. I am an Earth Science teacher in a government school in rural SW Pennsylvania. I teach my students to be wary of any governmental intervention or regulation of the environment. The EPA classification of carbon dioxide as a pollutant is no exception.
What is missing here is an answer to a very simple question. So far, in all of the debate over climate change, no one has been able to answer this question. Throughout the history of Planet Earth, the temperature has been warmer than it is now, and it has been cooler than it is now. These changes in temperature have gone on for millions of years without human beings on the planet. So, the question is this: What is the ideal temperature for Planet Earth? Are we certain that the warming or cooling trend that we are currently experiencing isn't part of the natural cycle of temperature changes of the planet? What should Earth's temperature be?
Until someone can answer this question, the entire argument of climate change/global warming is irrelevant. -
Also saw this post.......
CONFESSIONS FROM A FORMER GREENHOUSE SCIENTIST
David Evans used to be a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office. He spent six years with the Australian government building models about the influence of carbon emissions on our atmosphere. This was the Aussie who wrote the carbon accounting model that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Well .. guess what Dr. Evans is saying today? Since he started working in the office in 1999, "new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming." By the year 2007, the evidence is conclusive: carbon played only a minor role in recent global warming and was not the main cause.
Dr. Evans put together some basic facts for the public and government officials in regards to global warming. Here is just a taste.
1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it.
2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming.
3. The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year (to the temperature of 1980).
4. The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect.
Keeping that last point in mind, Al Gore still preaches in his movie that the ice cores are the sole reason for believing that carbon emissions cause global warming. Dr. Evans says, "In any other political context our cynical and experienced press corps would surely have called this dishonest and widely questioned the politician's assertion."
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] I have 3 of his CD's. Oddly, when I first heard his music, I just couldn't place the name but knew it was familiar. It wasn't until I went to his website that I made the connection to him playing in the NBA.
What is it with the Jerks on E-bay.
in General Klipsch Info
Posted
Well....like I said, I understand it from the seller's perspective and am ok with it. I'm sure if I was selling on eBay a lot, I'd be the same way. I was just commenting about how it made me "feel" that's all.
What I really think this points to is how sad it is that it's come down to this due to all the less-than-legit folks out there.
Tom