Something about you that not many here may know

I've been on this board long enough that you already know what you're gonna know about me.
 
BigBadLou said:
Hmm, 3 things that members here do not know about me?
There's so much stuff ... but I'll keep it PG. :)

1) I drive a stick. I prefer to drive a stick. (When restoring my old Z28, I decided that a c*ap-o-matic transmission is a joke and put in a 5-speed manual - OH YEAH!)
2) (Just like 6PC) I dabble in guitars.
3) I am certified up to 500V in Euroland.
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Manual transmissions forever!

I can't stand automatics especially in anything remotely sporty.
 
hockeyrcks9901 said:
Manual transmissions forever!

I can't stand automatics especially in anything remotely sporty.
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I had a Honda S2000 a few years ago, fun and great sports car. Honda never offered an automatic, 6-speed manual only in 10-11 years of production. Had it up for sale and some know-it-all said he was looking for an automatic. Told him good luck, they're rare, and that was the end of that conversation.
 
mscard88 said:
I had a Honda S2000 a few years ago, fun and great sports car. Honda never offered an automatic, 6-speed manual only in 10-11 years of production. Had it up for sale and some know-it-all said he was looking for an automatic. Told him good luck, they're rare, and that was the end of that conversation.
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It is hard to find a nice S2000. I would like to get one.
 
Wish I still had mine sometimes, especially with fall coming up. Had a 2008.
 
hockeyrcks9901 said:
Manual transmissions forever!

I can't stand automatics especially in anything remotely sporty.
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In a previous life I hauled around double bottom gravel trains. 16 speed transmission with two sticks. Developed a good right arm and left leg. Haven't bought anything with a stick since. :D
 
Another stick shift fan here. I've owned 13 cars so far and 12 of them have been manuals (the only automatic was in a 1977 Firebird that I bought purposely to fix up and resell). So much more interaction with the machine, and fun to heel-and-toe downshift to match revs. (Auto-blip manuals like the Nissan 370Z and new Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman are cheating! :D) I like manual handbrakes that make that satisfying ratcheting sound too.
 
My current car is a Ford Focus ST. Six speed manual pushing just shy of 300HP running on an ethanol fuel mix. Fun fun!

My daily driver is an old pos that is an automatic but I work in mining and it's rough on cars so I don't care as long as it runs and has air conditioning.
 
Wow! Lots of interesting folks here.

I have too many hobbies, and I'm not very good at any of them.
6PC's rise to fame on POA makes me a little jealous.
I went to college for 4.5 years, was on the honor roll for most of that time, and didn't graduate.
I somehow pulled off convincing the most wonderful female human in the world to marry me.
Amazingly, despite my innumerable flaws, we've managed to produce 3 fantastic little men.
 
Palmpilot said:
While we're name-dropping, I once played bassoon in an orchestra that was accompanying Luciano Pavarotti. Highlight of my musical career.
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I played Bassoon when I was in school. Didn't accompany Pavarotti, but did play in concert band concerts throughout Europe, finishing at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen (this was in 1971).

I've sung (with a bunch of other people) John Rutter's Requiem, under the direction of John Rutter, in Carnegie Hall. And, yes, you do get there by practice, practice, practice. :D

I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 43 years (and counting). We have 5 wonderful grandchildren.

Oh, and my wife and I are retired. Gives us more time to spoil those grandchildren. According to John Wayne, "that's what they're for!" :D
 
Ghery said:
I've sung (with a bunch of other people) John Rutter's Requiem, under the direction of John Rutter, in Carnegie Hall. And, yes, you do get there by practice, practice, practice. :D
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Damn that's cool. One of my favorite pieces of choral music, but I was a lot higher tenor back then! Performed that with the University of Northern Colorado brass accompanying plus a few members of the Denver Brass visiting, and some insanely talented organ player in one of the large old churches in Denver.

Having also been a low brass player, those octave jumps for the brass must have been a biotch to play well! I felt for those guys and gals in practice sessions, they were just blowing their brains out... Not that us tenors also weren't in some sections... And the organ stuff wasn't easy either.

I think we had a little over 300 in the chorus on stage.

During ONE practice only, a baritone friend and I decided to see if it was even possible to be heard in the recording gear over 298 of our closest friends, not by not blending, but by sheer loudness. We both had some pipes back then. And it wasn't going to bother the director, he was whining for more from everyone... ffffffffff... The finale....

Yup. We checked the tape later (we ran the recording gear) and we could just barely tell our two voices peeking out of the rediculous fortissssssssssssimo practice that night. You know, the night where the director tries to get everyone TOO loud and then backs it down a tiny notch?

Haha. We could be really really loud back then. Both of us.

Of course, we only did it that night and only during the couple of resets where the director was trying to get across just how freaking loud he wanted it, while still under control. Right in the last "Amen" section at the end.

He was right... He was trying to utilize the natural reverberation of the cathedral, he just needed us all a little louder. And as we all worked on it, and folks quit singing too timid... holy crap did it work well. That break at the end before the final Amen echoed. Was the coolest thing to hear on stage in a concert choral piece I've ever heard due to sheer loudness.

Audience seemed to love it, too. Wish I could have heard it live from the other direction, and recordings can only reproduce so much

For those wondering what I'm rambling about...


Start just before 5:27 in that video. I just picked a choir from YouTube, no relation to ours. That one is similar in size and scope and venue as we had, but smaller cathedral and only the brass, not the full orchestra like Utah apparently used here.

Still, they got the echo right, listen in the break at 5:34. Imagine the amount of sheer sound necessary to reverberate that echo that long in that break.

Totally a blast to sing that. Would have been an honor to do it under Rutter himself. Wow.
 
Norman said:
In a previous life I hauled around double bottom gravel trains. 16 speed transmission with two sticks. Developed a good right arm and left leg. Haven't bought anything with a stick since. :D
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Well, I have to restate part of that. Honda Gold Wings do not have automatic transmissions. :oops:
 
- I played pipe organ for 8 years. The primary organ I played has 8,000 pipes and is considered one of the "great organs of New York". http://www.nycago.org/organs/nyc/html/HeavenlyRest.html
- In college I made money hauling cars around the country and drove 40-65k miles per year, often driving 2,000 miles in a weekend. In one summer vacation I drove 30k miles going wherever the jobs took me, all around the country (although mostly west of the Mississippi)
- My father is considered the father of biotechnology, at least by some
 
I recently started playing the penny whistle.
I am not Scottish.
I grew up on Merritt Island and saw all the Apollo launches, including while I was fishing.
My sister was bit by a moose
 
I lived in Germany (was there for 9/11) and Virginia for two years.

I have a flag (and matching certificate) flown at 60,000 feet in a U-2 on an operational mission over South Korea.

I was on Turkish national television.

I remotely drove a humvee full of important people around a lakebed with a PS2 controller, a camera feed, and a radio.

I have been in the tunnels under the tunnels at Denver International Airport. I was in control of all the doors and cameras and guards as well.

I got to help with/watch an autonomously driven vehicle avoid getting bombed by F-18s in Nevada.

I am (still) engaged and hope to be married by the end of the year if the planets align.

I havent been on a boat since i was a kid and would jump at the chance.

Also
 
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jkaduk said:
Best car ever. Performance better than many cars costing $$$ more.
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They're fun, but the early cars were a little bipolar in the powerband dept. Sorta Civic-like at lower revs, but excellent above the VTEC transition point.

I vastly prefer the later cars with a bit more displacement, albeit with a slightly lower redline. They'd still spin to 8000 rpm, though!

For a company having pretty limited experience with RWD production cars, Honda did a fantastic job...NSX as well!
 
Hmm, I thought of another 3:
1) I used to sing in a choir as a kid (then the voice change started and got kicked out)
2) I once put 3 bullets through one hole at a benchrest match (still got the target)
3) I yell obscenities at hockey matches (thanks for reminding me @hockeyrcks9901 )
 
While on 7th grade trip to Washington, DC, touring the White House was shoved to the floor by an older, and forever in my memory, student right in front of Pres. and Mrs. Eisenhower who were coming down the steps. Ike helped me to my feet and asked if I was alright! Thanks older student!!!!!

I trained and raced harness horses (Standardbreds) in Illinois.

Had my picture on the front page of the Champaign-Urbana sports section with one of my horses.
 
I've produced concerts for, and sung onstage with, my all-time favorite folk group since the early 1960s, The New Christy Minstrels. The first record albums I bought were NCM's. The first concert I went to was NCM (at L.A.'s Greek Theater; Woody Allen was the opening act).

NCM_Redding_zpsdwlqqqbx.jpg


Yours truly second from right in 2007, with six of the original ten NCM members from the classic 1960s albums. At far left is Barry ("Eve of Destruction") McGuire.

The first concert I produced for them was in 2003, right after the movie A Mighty Wind came out. There were times I felt I was living that movie. Fittingly, when the local paper published an article about our concert, it was headlined, "A Mighty Coincidence".
 
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BigBadLou said:
1) I used to sing in a choir as a kid (then the voice change started and got kicked out)
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Same here. I sang at Carnegie Hall when I was 13.
 
A weather delay is the reason my wife and I are now married.
 
While I was not a General, I was once reduced to rubble by an Army General in a one sided shouting match over some perceived paratrooper jump problems on the C-17 program. He later broke his arm when hitting the ground after, up to that point, a successful jump from a C-17.

Karma

Cheers
 
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