Pretty frickin quiet if you ask me...

[VirginiaJim]

Doing my part to get us back on the Moon...and so it begins.  I do meet the age requirements.

[Big Red]

That's badass.

[VirginiaJim]

I know.  Did you notice the number of pieces?  1969.  Coincidence, I think not.

[VirginiaJim]

Lego is going to spend up to a Billion dollars in Chesterfield County VA to build a new manufacturing plant.  It would be their 7th one in the world.


https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/06/15/breaking-news-lego-to-build-1m-plant-in-chesterfield/


Coincidence, I think not.

[Strawboss]

The recent warm weather has me reading a bit more than usual. "The Spandau Complication" by Bob Orkand, "Open Season" by CC Box, "The King's War" by Mark Logue and "31 Kings" by Richard Harris.

all have a WWII connection except Open Season which is the first in the "Joe Pickett" series of books and a great debut it is, written in 2001 he went on to write many more Pickett books. It concerns a Wyoming state game warden dealing with murder, politics and family life while working his dream job.

The Spandau Complication is about a U.S. Army officer stationed in Berlin in 1966 and his dealings with superiors, Soviets, fellow army personnel, women, and Cold War intrigue.

The Kings War is the sequel to the book and film The King's Speech which takes you into the world of royalty and how he dealt with the war with his sometimes crippling speech impairment.

31 Kings is a continuation of a series of novels involving Rchard Hannay, WWII intelligence and a rescue mission in the days right before the German Army occupies Paris.

[tweeter55]

Doing my part to get us back on the Moon...and so it begins.  I do meet the age requirements.

Yepper. And it gives you 14+ years to finish it. 😉😉

[VirginiaJim]

I'm just trying to figure where I can spread it all out.    There's 12 bags of all kinds of Legos.  I now know how the Saturn V engineers felt.....well, not really but it's a daunting piece of kit with a huge user manual.

What's really ironic here is that I'm putting together a rocket designed by Wernher Von Braun. He's the guy that designed the V-2 rocket which was used to attack England (and my mother) during WWII.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYzlLhinEeQ

[maxtog]

I love Legos.  Have been around them most of my life.  I still have two tubs of them.  So much better than erector sets, Lincoln logs, or tinker toys.  Was my all-time favorite toy.

My Mom was constantly yelling about them being all over the place.  And, really, they do hurt when you step on them barefoot...

[Boomer]

Doing my part to get us back on the Moon...and so it begins.  I do meet the age requirements.

That's not the age requirement, that's required IQ level. Are you sure you meet that? 

I still have a few Lego models here and there, but my favourite construction toy was Meccano.
Because of my Meccano obsession, I was given 2 tea chests of Meccano bits for Christmas by one of my cousins when I was 9 years old.
He had collected all the Meccano no longer used by his friends. Most awesome Xmas present ever! 
My "piece de resistance" was a fully functional roller coaster that completely circled my room (30+ feet of track) with 2 ascents.
I could lose hours just watching the cars go round and round, and then I would explode into action to fix a problem, or tweak it, or modify it.
Meccano, and my Dad of course, was what got me into Engineering & Science.

[tweeter55]

It’s amazing how vivid the memories can be when something like this triggers them.

[VirginiaJim]

IQ is 13, however I'm not going to let that stop me.  I have a Meccano set as well.  You know my hobbies are changing or lets say evolving.  Once I retire (year or so maybe) I want to restore my vintage radios and Garcia Mitchell fishing reels.  It's really weird but I'm getting interested in Math and Physics.  I did ok in those subjects in High School but never were fascinated with them then.  I started watching a Youtube on Algebra the last month or so and have got into it again.


Riddle me this....what is the square root of 4 (no cheating and looking it up first)?


Neighbor was over for our Thursday wine tasting....more like drinking.  Her husband died a few years back.  He was a rocket scientist for the Navy.  She mentioned when we were going to have a fire in the pit next.  Why?  Her late husband had his old 80's math and physics books and she wanted to get rid of them.  I was horrified at the thought of burning any book.  Reminds me of the Nazis.  I said give them to me and I'll start going through them.  Worst case I'll sell them on ebay or Amazon for a few bucks.


I've attached a pic of all the parts of that kit..  OMG!  So many parts and so little time.

[Big Red]

Kinda nice that Lego sorts them into bags for you. I've bought a few of the military Lego compatible Mega Bloks over the years. They made a BIG space shuttle I did, too.

[VirginiaJim]

And their directions are great!


I've started reading the Chronicals of Narnia books by C. S. Lewis.  Just got the first one in the series 'The Magician's Nephew' and it has pictures in colour!

[Boomer]

Burn books? 
Enjoy them 

If you like square roots, try the square root of -1. 
When I went to University, they evaluated our mathematical ability with a sheet of questions and we were asked to answer the most difficult question we could. I answered the one on Laplace Transforms and was excused from the entire 1st year engineering mathematics course. 

Vintage radios sounds fun. Valve radios are cool.

I've just re-read the entire E.E. "Doc" Smith collection as well as the 4 non-Doc Lensman books and the D'Alemberts.
About to start on all the Asimovs, then the Heinleins, Clarkes, and the Harrisons.
I'm revisiting my youth following the loss of my Dad last August.

[VirginiaJim]

Burn books? 
Enjoy them 

If you like square roots, try the square root of -1. 
When I went to University, they evaluated our mathematical ability with a sheet of questions and we were asked to answer the most difficult question we could. I answered the one on Laplace Transforms and was excused from the entire 1st year engineering mathematics course. 

Vintage radios sounds fun. Valve radios are cool.

I've just re-read the entire E.E. "Doc" Smith collection as well as the 4 non-Doc Lensman books and the D'Alemberts.
About to start on all the Asimovs, then the Heinleins, Clarkes, and the Harrisons.
I'm revisiting my youth following the loss of my Dad last August.

The square root of 4 is 2 and -2


I think I have the Lensman series still stashed in my SF collection.  Now I have to dig them out and read them again.  I love pure science fiction which is what Doc Smith wrote for the most part.  Typically it's 40's, 50's and 60's from the main stream authors that you mentioned.  I started collecting them when my dad took ill as I scarfed them up from the VA hospitals and used book sellers back in the late 60's and 70's.


You're lucky you had your dad all this time, Boomer.  I lost mine in 1969.  I was 12.


For those of you not knowing what a valve radio is.....vacuum tubes.  Those are the ones I have such as the Zenith Transoceanics...

[Big Red]

How’s the SV coming?

[VirginiaJim]

I'm going to start it later today so no progress yet.  You can actually get a frame from Lego to hold it upright..


https://smile.amazon.com/Display-Science-Building-Creative-Project/dp/B08KZQ1PY5/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2IDPZJ822MPK7&keywords=lego%2Bsaturn%2Bv%2Blaunch%2Btower&qid=1655644971&sprefix=lego%2BSatur%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-2-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFLOFFZU0NYQUZTUyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRJZD1BMDQ3NDg2NkRJNzZPT0wzUVRZUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzY0NjAyMTlCMUQ4NkdRSlBPWSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

[Strawboss]

Anybody read any Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels? "Guns of the South" was the first one I read a long time ago, it involved aliens giving AK-47's to the CSA. Aliens were a common theme for him for awhile and I stepped away as those stories don't interest me but lately he's been writing a series of alternate histories of WWII.

[m in sc]

probably selling the 99 soon, been enjoying the 2 strokes way too much this year. who says a 50 year old bike cant be reliable? 

hwy runs today, up to charlotte, lots of running around up there, then back. about 5 hours worth of riding.  zero issues.   

[maxtog]

probably selling the 99 soon, been enjoying the 2 strokes way too much this year. who says a 50 year old bike cant be reliable? 

Yeah, it is amazing how much power a tiny 2 stroke can make, especially with the weight advantage thrown in.  You just have to deal with the fumes, so-so mileage, measuring out oil each fill, and typically being kind of vibrationy and loud.