I confess that even though I have pulled the glass out of pinball machines many times over the years, even now I am still afraid I may screw up and break it.
(hopefully no one scrolled this far down, to see that now I am goofing off again).
Quoted from EJS:I confess I feel like I might be turning into JohnnyPinball007 the more and more I type.
You are doing fine, pretty easy to read, just space a little more. No one here is getting any younger, and the eyes go pretty quick.
Little Johnny ain't got no wings, he don't fly.
(I did long ago, but even before the 9-11 stuff security was already harassing me more than I cared to deal with).
The last time I ever flew was in 1998, and it just sucked, and I said never again.
Around 2005 the FBI subpoenaed me to go to Chicago, to testify in court against a internet crook that I had been helping them with.
(the crook had got me for over 10 grand on eBay, but luckily most of that was on my credit card, and after extra bull crap like having to get a police report done for the credit card company, I did not lose too much).
Anyway, when I called about the subpoena they said they were sending me a airline ticket.
I said HELL NO! I do not fly!
They said alrighty then, just make sure you are in our office in Chicago at such and such time March 17th? May have been 11th.
Anyway, sitting in the room with the other people that had also been scammed, 12 of us, I was joking about how bad that snow was going through Indiana, and how I could barely see the interstate.
The other 11 people in the room was like what! You drove here? The FBI would not let us drive, insisted that we fly.
I said I just told them that I do not fly, and that was it.
And I said I brought 8 cases of beer with me on this trip, how in the hell could I fit that in a plane anyway. (I think I was drinking Bud Select at the time).
That turned out to be a awesome road trip!
(and the FBI paid well for my time and trouble also, gave me what the plane ride would have cost, which was a whole lot more than I paid for gas).
At the end of that they thanked me and said they hope I will help them again in the future.
I said hell no, not unless the crook is in Miami or somewhere nice, no way I would go to Chicago in March again. Too damn cold and windy.
No way would I ever fly commercial again.
BUT, one of those smaller planes, like from the smaller airport near me, that does not have all the bull crap going on. and you can actually still even smoke to this day on some of those planes, then yeah, I would fly.
Local news all the time talks about if you plan on flying, allow yourself a extra 4 hours to get through security lines.
They can keep that. In 4 hours I already have a 300 mile head start on where a plane would take me, without all that other crap.
And gas is a whole lot cheaper than a plane ticket.
And if you do fly, then what do you do? Get a rental car or taxi to get to where you really want to be?
Or do you just plan to vacation at the airport that you just landed at?
When I take road trips, I try to plan a lot of different things along the way.
BUT! Forget all of what I just said. Please keep flying to where you want to go.
You do not want to take any road trips, not safe at all, and plenty can happen like a flat tire and you get robbed while changing it.
Whew, glad I caught myself, last thing I need is the interstate more congested while I am on a road trip.
Confess when I did that quote, I did not get a error. Weird, I am not even plugged into the internet at the moment. Nice to know that!
Yeah, because of all the hacking and everything else, I keep my computer unplugged as much as I can.
I plug it in long enough to get some new stuff. (hopefully not any hacker stuff).
Anyway, I can not remember anytime in my life that I had any kind of jealous feeling.
There are people that have more than me, and people that have less than me, and even the ones that won a 800 million lottery and blew it all in 2 years, I am just laid back and cool with most everything.
Confess I would love to win a 2 million lottery, and it would last me the rest of my life.
Quoted from EJS:It also sounds like my family is moving really close to where JohnnyPinball007 lives and works
Hell yeah! I just found out for sure I can do these quotes, and I am not plugged in to the internet, so all I have to do is plug in to send all this ranting nonsense that I am having a blast typing!
Sorry, I was thinking and typing out loud.
Anyway yeah, that area is pretty wild. It used to be just a out in the sticks kind of area, but now areas there are pretty trendy with some wealthy people moving in, and near there they also film a lot of movies or TV shows or something.
While I was working there we got a call that a helicopter would be landing soon, to stay clear, and I have no clue who that helicopter picked up, but that was the only time in my life that I was told to watch out for that helicopter about to land near where we were working (on the same property).
All I know is I was operating a excavator, building a 4 acre pond for this rich dude with my friend that I help, and he has known the rich dude forever, and used to go to school with, and now they go off to Vegas and a lot of places.
And yeah, I am somewhat invited, but they know I do not fly.
Of course they never offered the helicopter to pick me up either, I may would have considered doing that.
In my down to earth opinion, and I do not want to tick anyone off, if I had that kind of money to move to that area, it would be the last area I would want to live in.
Maybe your family is involved in some film? TV or movies?
The rich dude that we were building the 4 acre fish pond for is in other businesses totally unrelated, and he has done very well, and for whatever reason he loves the area.
That is a very high tax area, and I do not see it, or get it.
But just like with pinball machines (I had to mention that again to stay on topic), we are all different and we like a whole lot of different things.
I have been told that soon we will be working in that area again, so who knows, may even be for EJS relatives.
It is a small world. We are probably all related, like not a 2nd cousin or something, but more like a 2000nd cousin.
And hell no I do not send out birthday cards, and I hate when anyone sends me one, so do not ask me for my address or birthday, I do not want any cards.
And yeah, I like the movie The Jerk, I watch it once every 10 years or so, and the thought of sending out birthday cards to all of you reminded me of the end of that movie when he has all of those refund checks to mail out.
That movie is just so funny, with stuff like when Steve Martin learns that he is adopted, and he says "you mean I am going to stay this color"?
Confess, my lifetime of watching movies, comedy and horror, the horror ones have got a whole lot better, while the comedy ones have became so lame I can not watch anymore.
For me anyway, the last best comedy I ever seen was The Hangover.
Hostel took horror movies to a whole new level. my girlfriend said she liked horror movies until I played that DVD, now she will not watch any horror movies with me.
If we ever meet in person, I am just totally normal, like we may be related, and we most likely are like 2000nd cousins.
I love drinking beer and goofing off typing all of this.
And I like, not love, reading others long posts, as long as it is spaced out.
Confess there have been a few long posts, that I put reading glasses on, and used the mouse to help track where I was in some long bunched up crap that was interesting enough that I tried to read the whole thing.
And if you actually did read this entire book that I am about to post here, I hope after all of that time spent I said something funny enough or whatever else, that you are not ready to just shoot yourself.
In a couple of months, I will be on vacation, I will not be here at all for a week. I will let you know, so that no one is worried.
Yes I did feel really loved here after that storm hit and I had no power for days, and no internet for weeks, and I had so many PM"s asking if I was doing ok.
My best friend passed not long after who-dey did, and I had sent him emails at the time that he was never able to answer.
Life is short. Enjoy it the best you can.
If you love what you do, hell yeah, keep working hard and making more money.
If you hate what you do, change that up if you can, and find something else that you will love.
At least my friend loved what he did, and I think who-dey also was very happy.
There were things with work that was ticking me off, and I am self employed for the last 20 years, and now some things I will not mess with, no matter how much it pays, life is short, do all you can to make every minute count.
And there is a member here that also needs to get a boat. They make pics around boats, and tempted.
And I really hope something that I just typed, helped LTG and others to also remember something cool.
I hope all of you have a awesome week!
I confess the whole thought of flying just made me post a longer rant than normal.
I confess that long ago when I had a Bally Playboy pinball, I bought a whole lot of spare light bulbs for it, and I think I never used more than 3 out of that 10 pack.
(I threw that in for anyone that just scrolls to make sure this is a pure pinball confession, maybe they did not notice the long rant before that).