Thursday, April 04, 2013

one over a fragment

The ratio of one over a fragment would equal a large value since the fragment would approach zero.

Well if you are looking for value in fragments, you need to check Mrs. 4444’s blog. Her collection of Friday Fragments are priceless (and free too).


Mommy's Idea


This week we celebrated the 40 anniversary of the first cellphone call. Do you know most of the world calls them mobile phones? As an engineer I am still amazed how the industry was able to shrink the size of the phone. At first they were not as mobile as they are today. We had a bag phone. Did you?

Oh did you celebrate the 40th? I sent a text (first SMS text message was sent Dec. 1992 in the UK). Really who sends cards anymore?

my flip phone on our old bag phone  time for ebay?


Monday I pull a prank on the blog. Pulling that prank relieved that knot in my back. (a link to Monday’s prank post - you might want to read if you didn’t since I’ll probably do it again next year

April Fool’s Day and Easter just missed each other this year. I knew Easter moved around from year to year but wondered how often they match (complex formula for setting the date -  NOT involving white smoke). I went to the answerer of complex things - google search and found it has matched and will again. Last Easter on April Fool’s Day was 1956 and next time will be 2018. God pulling a prank on mankind would be - ?? I don’t know if there is a word for that. Righteous?

don't let Dino bite your butt


Last month I mentioned that I should work on my epitaph since it might have typos in it. This week while my wife (She doesn’t want to be identified up here. I should create a code letter for her. I already have an ‘X’, so she could be ‘Y’.) was perusing the Irish sports page (obituaries).  Y found a very funny obit. Here’s a line from it (full obit): 
“He held a real estate license and a hypnosis certificate, which probably would have worked in his favor had he practiced both at the same time.”


This past week I virtually visited two old sites. Sites that at one time I browsed over to every few days. One site is the Onion and I posted about that. The other is called I Used To Believe. I added a belief to that site once but today I don’t remember what username I had created for it. Here’s a funny belief from the site:
At dusk, when the sky would turn pretty swirling colors my mom would tell me, "Santa's making candy!" To this day whenever I see a pretty sky at night, I get nostalgic and think about all the ways I'm going to lie to my kids when they're old enough to understand, but young enough not to know better.

I hope the ratio of enjoyment over the time spent reading this post gave you a good value - thanks.

23 comments:

Cheryl P. said...

We did have a bag phone that looked pretty much like that. One of our cars had car phone in either the late 80s or early 90s that took a chunk of space on the console.

Some of those things that kids used to believe sound rather traumatic. The kid that thought moles on his skin would turn into real moles when he got older. Holy crap, I am surprised he made it to adulthood.

lisleman said...

There are some weird ones up there. Of course you don't know if they are jokes. I suspect most all of them were real beliefs. When I was in grade school I believed in mental telepathy. I kept sending thought messages to one girl. Never worked. I should have just written a note.
thanks

Secret Agent Woman said...

I was late to get on the cell phone wagon, just as I was late to sign on for the internet. But I find it interesting that cell phones got very, very small and now have expanded a bit. So wild that we carry mini computers around with us.

lisleman said...

The expanded size compared to the flip phone is one of the negatives I have for smartphones. I suspect a properly programmed smartphone would have easily controlled the Apollo missions to the moon. The computer in lunar module was slower and less memory capacity than a smartphone. One important difference is smartphones are operated by many kids with less knowledge than the astronauts.

Heather Smith said...

We had a bag phone twice over... once when they first came out that was my mom's .. and then when Wayne and I were first married we lived outside of Digital coverage on the Bruce Peninsula and got an old bag phone because it had superior analog reception!

Cheryl P. said...

Maybe the girl was hearing your telepathic messages but was playing hard to get.

Single Mom in the South said...

I had a bag phone when I traveled for the job I had in college. It had an antenna on a wire that you stuck out the window of the car and you had to keep the bag on the dash to get a single. Totally safe, I'm sure!

Stacy Uncorked said...

Wow! Your bag phone looks like it's in pristine shape! You might think about donating it to a museum. ;) My dad was a cheapskate and never got the bag phone (they actually resisted getting any sort of cell phone until the last year or so, and only because they were driving from WA State to Iowa to visit my sister and thought it would be wise to have a phone with them). ;) I remember being in awe of the car phones like they had in Miami Vice in the 80's - my first personal cell phone wasn't until my first flip phone in the late 90's. :)

That obit is HYSTERICAL!! And I'm chuckling over you referring to your wife as 'Y' - you could use DW for 'Darling Wife', or 'SW' for 'Super Woman'... ;)

Friday Fragments Easter Funny Chocolate Rules

lisleman said...

Yeah she was probably saying "what are these voices in my head"

lisleman said...

The bag phone didn't get much use. It was for traveling and reception was bad and call expensive. We probably made less than a 100 calls on it. It was a security blanket. I'm glad you checked out the obit and like it.
thanks

lisleman said...

Yeah that heavy bag on the dash might have hurt if it went flying in a crash. Signal strength and the antennas had to improve or the smartphones would have never made it. thanks

lisleman said...

I don't think you can even use an analog phone anymore. No analog service offered. Not that you would want to. Thanks for sharing.

longhollow said...

It did! As always!

Keetha said...

I named you AND linked to you in my ff post today.


Of course, since I BARELY got it off the presses in time to actually COUNT as today, I'm not sure if anyone will see it or not.


:-(

lisleman said...

thank you and I'm sure many will see it. That's a great FF post title you came up with too.

lisleman said...

thanks

lisleman said...

Ours was only for the car too. Interesting, I just thought they would be called mobiles down there too. thanks

unknownmami said...

Very satisfying set of fragments. I can't believe you still have that old mobile phone?

lisleman said...

thanks We have an unfinished basement what can I say? Want to buy it?

Mrs4444 said...

Love the obit clip. I would love to have a humorous obit. In fact, maybe I'll write one as a post.


Love the Santa-making-candy reference, too.


There was once a blizzard on my birthday (April 26th). I'm not old enough to remember the last time Easter and AFD ran into each other. I love that you looked that up and shared it--Interesting.

lisleman said...

The internet has become my look-up some odd curiosity question place. Glad you enjoyed the post. I think writing an obit for yourself is too weird. thanks

Lilly said...

Mobile phone, lol. Oh that takes me back. My first one was huge too and I thought I was pretty damn special when i first got it too.

lisleman said...

New technology sells itself with that feeling of being pretty damn special or cool. Then the next thing and next thing comes along. Color TV was really cool long ago. I like to look back and think of the changes.
thanks

Featured Post

Feedback can be amazing