Random Randomness.

[Motor City Sonics]

We'll be back with the Magic Tones for the Armada Room's 2 hour disco swing party after this short break.  Until then, don't you go changing.  

[Motor City Sonics]

Funny how Dazed and Confused makes me feel so nostalgic though I didn't graduate until 1983 and I got bullied a lot throughout school because I was small and looked young for my age.  I hated it, but I am nostalgic for it.  It's strange.   Maybe I just long for a second shot at youth, and for a time where things didn't ache so Goddamned much.   

 

[smr-nj]

OK, this is total randomness. I never really have a reason to watch a college football game, but my cousin‘s son (does this make him my second cousin, or a cousin once removed? I can never figure that out), is the new defensive coordinator at Rutgers, who is (unbelievably) now a Big 10 team. 
 

They beat Boston College today (and I have no idea whether they should have, or they did well to do so), but I thought the defense was 👍👍. 
 

I know they’ll have a very hard time with Big 10 teams, but today’s game was totally watchable. 😁

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

3 hours ago, smr-nj said:

cousin‘s son (does this make him my second cousin, or a cousin once removed?

Same degree as your cousin and once removed.

[smr-nj]

13 minutes ago, Crazy Cat Gentleman said:

Same degree as your cousin and once removed.

Thanks! (Now, what about his kids? 🙂 Are they “twice removed”?)  Inquiring minds want to know… 😂

 

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

1 hour ago, smr-nj said:

Thanks! (Now, what about his kids? 🙂 Are they “twice removed”?)  Inquiring minds want to know… 😂

 

that's correct!

I imagine we were told there would be no math, but most generally, what you do is

1. find the nearest/most recent common ancestor between two people
2. count the steps down to each person of interest
3. if the paths are of different lengths, subtract the number of steps in the shorter path from the number of steps in the longer path
4. subtract 1 from the number of steps in the shorter path

the number in step 4 is the degree of cousin-hood. two people who share a grandparent will be 2 steps from the grandparent; subtract 1 and you have 1, or first cousins. second cousins have someone's great-grandparent in common.

the number in step 3 is the removal. for you and your cousin's kid, you'll again find that you're two steps down from your grandparent, while the cousin's kid will be 3. the difference is 1, so once removed. and the same would happen if your cousin's grandkid did the same—"Sue is 2 steps, and I'm 4 steps, so we're first cousins twice removed."

Edited September 4, 2022 by Crazy Cat Gentleman

[smr-nj]

Thanks for that excellent explanation…

I think I finally DO understand! 👍

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

for a little extra fun, consider this case, which sounds kinda skeezy but totally isn't.

two brothers in a small town fall in love with and end up marrying two women who happen to be cousins. (think of it as two trees growing near each other and their branches becoming intertwined, like this only at two locations on each tree instead of just one. definitely not the same tree looping back on itself.)

one of the resulting kids—let's call him "CCG"—has a cousin (well, two, but...), and we'll call him "Pebu". CCG traces up through his father and Pebu's father, landing on the grandparents they have in common. "but wait", says CCG's mom, "your aunt and I were already related to each other before we got married!" so CCG traces up through his and Pebu's mothers this time and finds great-grandparents in common. "you're right," he says, "Pebu and I are also second cousins! and my aunt is also my cousin once removed! boy, does that sound skeezy."

Edited September 4, 2022 by Crazy Cat Gentleman

[CMRivdogs]

Maybe that's why I keep getting notices from Ancestry and 23&me about 5th or 6th cousins I've never heard of. (Who don't post trees)

[Motor City Sonics]

I fixed a bunch of stuff around the house that had been annoying me for a very long time. 

My bathroom and media room now have fully-functioning doorknobs that don't come out.  (Older house, modern doorknobs did not work).   Kind of embarrassing, but I basically live alone with a dog, so it wasn't a super big deal.

Fixed my fence gate (for now), so I don't have to lift it to latch it.

Fixed the front closet door (hinges were coming out of the doorjamb which is old.  Used toothpicks.

Replaced a broken medicine cabinet door. 

I am not good at fixing things.  This weekend was a big deal for me.  

[Biff Mayhem]

17 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I fixed a bunch of stuff around the house that had been annoying me for a very long time. 

My bathroom and media room now have fully-functioning doorknobs that don't come out.  (Older house, modern doorknobs did not work).   Kind of embarrassing, but I basically live alone with a dog, so it wasn't a super big deal.

Fixed my fence gate (for now), so I don't have to lift it to latch it.

Fixed the front closet door (hinges were coming out of the doorjamb which is old.  Used toothpicks.

Replaced a broken medicine cabinet door. 

I am not good at fixing things.  This weekend was a big deal for me.  

This reminded me of a funny story.

The house we lived in when I was a young kid had an intercom system. It was a convenient way of getting five kids to come to dinner etc. So we sold the house and eventually one of the next owners, rather than removing the system or unplugging it, simply wallpapered over it.

Fast foward a number of years, my neighbor next door, who still lives there, is a HAM radio enthusiast. Due to the age of the intercom system, it would occasionally pick up the signals from his HAM radio. The people thought the house was haunted because of the muffled voices coming out of the walls.

Funny enough, it didn't even happen when he was using it. It was picking up random signals from all over the world so sometimes the voices would be speaking foreign languages.

[Motor City Sonics]

4 minutes ago, Biff Mayhem said:

This reminded me of a funny story.

The house we lived in when I was a young kid had an intercom system. It was a convenient way of getting five kids to come to dinner etc. So we sold the house and eventually one of the next owners, rather than removing the system or unplugging it, simply wallpapered over it.

Fast foward a number of years, my neighbor next door, who still lives there, is a HAM radio enthusiast. Due to the age of the intercom system, it would occasionally pick up the signals from his HAM radio. The people thought the house was haunted because of the muffled voices coming out of the walls.

Funny enough, it didn't even happen when he was using it. It was picking up random signals from all over the world so sometimes the voices would be speaking foreign languages.

LOL.     We had that in Sterling Heights.   House was built in 1969ish.   It was a one-level house and it's not like it was huge, anyone's voice could easily carry through it.   But my sister and I would annoy the hell out of my dad.  Every time he'd use it (and it was never anything serious), while he was talking we'd always hit the mic button wherever we were and it would be nothing but feedback and you'd hear my dad yell out "ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH"   Had a radio built in and on the weekends if my mom was out my dad would put Ernie Harwell on throughout the house. 

[Motor City Sonics]

Whenever I hear Ernie Harwell I think of 2 things........My red bike with the purple banana seat.      And the time that all the family came out to our house to a gathering.   My dad had 9 brothers and sisters and 6 of them lived closed by. Dozes of Cousins..............we had a pool.     My dad's father was still alive at the time.  He was Serbian and he was a very soft spoken and unassuming man (10 kids'll do that to you).  We couldn't find Pa.  Nobody knew where he was.  He wasn't senile or anything like that.  Finally, we found him sitting in a car down the street listening to Ernie.   It was a hot day too.  He didn't want to bother anyone by asking to put it on in the house  "the kids want to hear their music".   We had a radio and he wound up sitting in the garage listening.     He never went to a game and almost never watched them on TV, he just loved listening to Ernie.       

Edited September 6, 2022 by Motor City Sonics

[chasfh]

On 9/3/2022 at 7:56 PM, Crazy Cat Gentleman said:

that's correct!

I imagine we were told there would be no math, but most generally, what you do is

1. find the nearest/most recent common ancestor between two people
2. count the steps down to each person of interest
3. if the paths are of different lengths, subtract the number of steps in the shorter path from the number of steps in the longer path
4. subtract 1 from the number of steps in the shorter path

the number in step 4 is the degree of cousin-hood. two people who share a grandparent will be 2 steps from the grandparent; subtract 1 and you have 1, or first cousins. second cousins have someone's great-grandparent in common.

the number in step 3 is the removal. for you and your cousin's kid, you'll again find that you're two steps down from your grandparent, while the cousin's kid will be 3. the difference is 1, so once removed. and the same would happen if your cousin's grandkid did the same—"Sue is 2 steps, and I'm 4 steps, so we're first cousins twice removed."

Here’s a nifty chart, below.

I just kind of short-hand memorize that someone’s children are siblings, each of their children’s children are cousins to each other, and each of their children’s grandchildren are second cousins to each other. Basically, my kids and my cousins’ kids are second cousins. I don’t memorize anything beyond that because it kind of doesn’t matter, at least for me, since I don’t even know any of my own second cousins.

There was a physical therapist I was chatting with once who insisted that his cousin’s child was his second cousin, and I replied it was really his first cousin once removed, and this PT got really agitated during the discussion, in the way someone who has “known” something for decades gets when that “knowledge” is challenged. That’s the down side of chatting with PTs, I suppose. 😉

Edited September 6, 2022 by chasfh

[oblong]

3 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

This reminded me of a funny story.

The house we lived in when I was a young kid had an intercom system. It was a convenient way of getting five kids to come to dinner etc. So we sold the house and eventually one of the next owners, rather than removing the system or unplugging it, simply wallpapered over it.

Fast foward a number of years, my neighbor next door, who still lives there, is a HAM radio enthusiast. Due to the age of the intercom system, it would occasionally pick up the signals from his HAM radio. The people thought the house was haunted because of the muffled voices coming out of the walls.

Funny enough, it didn't even happen when he was using it. It was picking up random signals from all over the world so sometimes the voices would be speaking foreign languages.

In my old house the landline would pick up WJR sometimes.  Only WJR.   That's how I found out Barry Sanders retired.  The other person on the line would hear it too.  We were talking on the phone, back when you still did that, and suddenly we heard breaking news and my friend says "Did he just say Barry retired?"

When we switched to Vonage (Remember that???  $25 flat, including LONG DISTANCE!) and then later broadband it all went away.  

[John_Brian_K]

I think this fits here....sitting outside waiting on the bus with my kids (the bus stop is at the end of my driveway) and my daughter points to something on the ground on the lawn.  A Winchester knife, half open, fully functional and in good shape.  I did not notice it before.  I usually have to pick up the random water bottle or monster energy drink can etc to throw out and did not see it, but it was right there.  Picked it up by the blade just in case.  No signs of blood or anything and no recent occurrences in my area of a stabbing or attempted murder etc.

[Biff Mayhem]

6 minutes ago, John_Brian_K said:

I think this fits here....sitting outside waiting on the bus with my kids (the bus stop is at the end of my driveway) and my daughter points to something on the ground on the lawn.  A Winchester knife, half open, fully functional and in good shape.  I did not notice it before.  I usually have to pick up the random water bottle or monster energy drink can etc to throw out and did not see it, but it was right there.  Picked it up by the blade just in case.  No signs of blood or anything and no recent occurrences in my area of a stabbing or attempted murder etc.

I would have picked it up with a bag just in case.

Fun fact: the pistol used to murder the inhabitants of Cielo Drive was found by a kid who, familiar with police shows, handled it properly to avoid smudging prints. He gave it to a police officer who just grabbed the butt of it and it ended up in the storage room for months before somebody remembered it. They had the murder weapon for months.

[CMRivdogs]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

In my old house the landline would pick up WJR sometimes.  Only WJR.   That's how I found out Barry Sanders retired.  The other person on the line would hear it too.  We were talking on the phone, back when you still did that, and suddenly we heard breaking news and my friend says "Did he just say Barry retired?"

When we switched to Vonage (Remember that???  $25 flat, including LONG DISTANCE!) and then later broadband it all went away.  

One of the houses I grew up in used to pick up a radio station thru the water pipes. The tower was a few miles away and if I remember correctly at the higher end of the dowel. I think they ran about 10 thousand watts directional. Nothing like country gospel when you're sitting on the john.

[gehringer_2]

Somebody's gonna need a lot of clean fill.

 

[casimir]

It’s national double cheeseburger day.  I used pepper jack for mine.

[Motor City Sonics]

One. Two........Tell me who are you?  The Bears

Three. Four.........Tell me who's gonna score?  The Bears

Five. Six...........Tell me who's got the kicks?  The Bears

Seven. Eight........Tell me who's really great?   The Bears

Nine. Ten.........Tell me who's gonna win?  The Bears

 

The future wife of Tom Hanks wins !

[Biff Mayhem]

I was yesterday years old when I learned that "America" is the same song as "God Save The King" with different lyrics. Troll level expert.

[smr-nj]

Random randomness epitome —- I can’t believe that I’m actually this jazzed & excited about Aaron Judge on the cusp of tying/breaking Roger Maris’s HR record.…. But I am.  I’m on “Judge watch”. ⚾️

[smr-nj]

…. And now, I can catch up on my binge-watching “The Vikings”. 🙂

[gehringer_2]

NASA trying to arrange with SpaceX to boost Hubble's orbit to keep it in service another 20-30 yrs. 

Hubble with an amazing life considering it was almost DOA when launched.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-spacex-to-study-hubble-telescope-reboost-possibility

Edited September 29, 2022 by gehringer_2