Tag Archives: throwback

Throwback Thursday – Roller-coaster!

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Gemini - Photo from Cedar Point's web site

Gemini – Photo from Cedar Point’s web site

It was huge.  No, huge couldn’t even begin to describe the massive wooden city that had in the last year sprang up from the mild Ohio woodlands.  There were towers 125 feet tall with twists and turns.  Every so often the sound of fury and thunder arouse from the surreal forest of wood and metal.  It was unlike anything I’d seen before.

At the age of 14 I was standing at the foot of Cedar Point’s newest roller-coaster, the Gemini.  At the time it opened it was the tallest, highest, fastest, steepest and meanest roller-coaster in the world.  Later they had to change it to the tallest racing coaster, but at that time it still held the record and it was huge.  The park’s other wooden roller coasters seemed tiny in comparison.  The mild Mine Ride boarded on boring.  The Blue Streak fit the original definition of thrill ride, a seat of the pants scary ride.  You never knew if the  ride would finally come off of the tracks or if you’d fly out of the car.  But still, it was just a simple loop, not much of a ride, really, if you looked at it.  The Gemini, though, was huge and complex. Continue reading →

Another Victim of 2016 – Throwback Thursday

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(Click here if you don’t see the video)

At the tender age of 6 I became a synthesizer fanatic.   My first exposure was Wendy Carlos’ epic album, Switched on Bach.  After hearing that I tried to find anything and everything that had synthesizers, particularly the big Moog modular synthesizer.

At about 12 I saw an album cover with the coolest synthesizer on the back.  I had to have it!  But at that age I really couldn’t afford it.  Now the stories differ.  I remember buying it for my brother for Christmas while he says he bought it himself, the first album he actually paid for.  Whichever way, that cool looking album ended up in my brothers hands.  Of course at 12 that meant it is almost mine forever.

I was totally blown away when I first heard it.  Although I was a synth-fanatic, I had never heard sounds quite like it.  There was lush soundscapes, complex textures, shimmering glides, ethereal voices and surrealistic instruments.  Sure, there were some quirky, silly and novelty sounds mixed in, but as a kid I loved it.  More than anything I’d heard created by synthesizer, this sounded living, organic.  And yet it sounded spacey and futuristic. Continue reading →

Throwback Thursday – A 13 year Old at the Movies

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Milky Way above Dennisport

Milky Way above Dennisport

I sat in the theater anxiously waiting for the movie to start.  We’d had to wait well over an hour to get in to ensure we had a good seat.  I was told I’d love the movie, but I wasn’t so sure.  From the commercials it looked like a hokey Buck Rogers style movie using Space 1999 spacecraft.  I was a hip and jaded 13, I didn’t need to have Hollywood shoving this kids’ stuff down my throat.  So I sat there, watching the cartoons on the large screen, not realizing that in the not too distant future the cinema would be cut in half and later cut in half again, creating a postage stamp size screen in each theater, and waited for the main attraction.

Finally, with a fanfare, the movie started.  Words floated through space in a giant block.  The effect was cool, but they actually expected us to read in a movie?  Read?  As the words floated off to infinity the camera panned down.  We were in orbit around a planet, and it looked like a planet.  Not a distant ball like that old TV show, Star Trek, but a real, honest to goodness planet.  And we were in a low orbit so the world below filled my whole vision, going out to the end of my peripheral vision.  It felt real.  It felt like we were in space.  Nothing, literally nothing, had been like this before.  We were in orbit around a real planet.  We really were.

Before I had time to totally take in this planet, a spaceship zoomed overhead.  Sure, there were some similarities with the Space 1999 ships, but this looked so much cooler.  It looked the way a spaceship should.  And I could tell it was pretty big, a good 80 foot long.  Maybe bigger.  It was firing laser blasts at something following and there was return fire.

And then the other ship came on screen.  Remember, this was a huge screen that covered my whole vision, from left peripheral to right.  And the ship filled the screen.  After the entire top of the screen was filled with spacecraft it kept coming.  And it kept coming.  And coming.  And coming.  It was huge!  It was the size of a city! A super New York in the sky.  And every detail was perfect, though by then I was so immersed that it didn’t need to be perfect.  I was in the movie.  And my young mind was blown. Continue reading →

Throwback Thursday Linkup – Backstory

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Walk

Once again I’m joining the Throwback Thursday Link Party hosted by Part-Time Monster, Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy  and  The Qwiet Muse   again.  The idea is to put up a link to a post that is at least 30 days old.  Again I decided to go back to the early days of my blog, December 27, 2013 to be exact.

As I mentioned last week, most of my early posts were along the lines of writer’s resources and cultivating creativity with the view of writing in mind.  This post was the first of a series about how walking helps spur my creativity.  Well, it went much farther than that.  For many of the stories I write, what is on page is just a small shadow of the whole story.  If the story is very involved there may be volumes of things I think about before I write it.  That’s what my throwback post is about, The Unwritten Backstory.  Enjoy!

Besides just my little blast from the past you should also go look at some others.  Go to the link-up linky and ready more or even participate.

Throw back Thursday Link Party – Patterns

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Chapins Beach

Chapins Beach

I decided to join the Throwback Thursday Link Party hosted by Part-Time Monster, Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy  and  The Qwiet Muse   again.  The idea is to put up a link to a post that is at least 30 days old.  The other times I joined I went back exactly one or two years.  My post is from January 4, 2014.

I started my blog to support the book I had written. Because of that, I did a lot of “writer’s resources” types of posts.  Actually, most of the posts were about creativity and given a slant towards writing.  I’ve reposted a few, but there are still plenty out there.  The one I’m using for today’s Throwback Thursday dealt with patterns.  I see  patterns in everything, including writing.  Some patterns are subtle, some are in  your face.  Take a look at Patterns in the Sand!  Oh, BTW, I still haven’t published that first book, or the next one i wrote.  I am going to self-publish a book of short stories soon.

Besides just my little blast from the past you should also go look at some others.  Go to the linky and ready more or even participate.

 

Throwback Thursday Link Party – Future Job

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Creativity

I decided to join the Throwback Thursday Link Party hosted by Part-Time Monster, Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy  and  The Qwiet Muse   again.  The idea is to put up a link to a post that is at least 30 days old.  The other times I joined I went back exactly one or two years.  This time I picked something almost at random.

It is possible for almost every job to be automated out of existence.  As employers think of employees more as costs than as assets, it might not be that far down the road before your boss replaces you with a computer program or a robot.  This isn’t science fiction, it has been happening pretty much forever, but the rate of being replaced by technology is increasing exponentially.  In the past it was mostly manual labor, then blue collar.  Now white collar jobs and management positions are at risk.  If you are starting out in the world today, were do you see yourself in 20 years when 75% of job positions now available are gone?  That is something I looked at back in October of 2014.

Besides just my little blast fromthe past you should also go look at some others.  You can go to Diane’s Link Party  for a more formal invite, or Click here for Link-Up.

Throwback Thursday Link Party @ Part-Time Monster’s Blog

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Idea Tree

I decided to join the Throwback Thursday Link Party hosted by Part-Time Monster, Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy  and  The Qwiet Muse   again.  The idea is to put up a link to a post that is at least 30 days old.  I have taken it a little more literally.  The last two times I linked to posts that were exactly a year old.  This time I went back two years.

My post was called “How Did You Every Think of That?”  Have you ever imagined that you are a famous author and an interviewer asks that age old question about your current work?  I find that it is a great exercise, to actually think of were all of the elements came from.  You see, most stories, and blog posts for that matter, leap into my head unbidden, forming themselves whole and complete, kind of like Athena from the head of Zeus.  But how did they actually get there?  It isn’t foolproof, but sometimes thinking about how I came up with the idea for a story, poem, blog post or other piece of writing helps me create a new one.

Darn, I just told you the important take away from that two year old post!  Oh well, go back and read it anyway!  And go to Diane’s Link Party and read other people’s blog memories!  (Click here for Link-Up)

Throwback Thursday Link Part @ Part-time Monster!

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Loons

Diana over at Part-time Monster is having a Throwback Thursday Link Party!  I know, it’s Friday, but hey! I post Friday Fictioneers on Thursday, so why not Throwback Thursday on Friday?  The idea is to join the link-up with a post that is at least 30 days old.  Oh, read the original for more details.  Anyway, I went back exactly a year from Thursday.  What is weird is that my “blog memory” was a post where i was remembering a time that I was revisiting (remembering) my childhood.  So, is the link a memory of a memory of a memory?  You decide!

Here is the link-up.  Go read everyone else’s “blog memories!”

Throwback Thursday – Sweaters

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then-and-now

I bought several sweaters when I first moved to New Hampshire.  I hadn’t really worn sweaters before that, but loved the one wool sweater I did have.  Years later I still have most of those original wool sweaters.  The very first wool sweater that I bought while still in collage is only worn for doing chores around the house, but I do wear some of the others from that era all of the time.  The most expensive of the bunch is the one in picture to the right.  It really didn’t last very long.  For years I kept it in the dog crate so there would be something that smells like me, but I think it has been gone for quite a while now.

I took the picture on the left this morning with one of the original sweaters.  I will not say when the other picture was taken ;) One thing, as you can see I am NOT wearing a turtleneck in the old picture!  These days I am almost always in a turtle neck if it’s cool enough for sweaters.  Here is an old post, Turtleneck Trent.

Just a little blast from the past!  Happy Thursday!