bigbear427

WOW! What an interesting discussion, so many points of view. You know, I was going to question John's (apparent) assertion that "homosexuality" is a socially acquired "behavior", but in the final analysis I think the more important point is the issue of 'classification'. As the 'thinking' animal, we use symbols to think and communicate. We classify things, labeling them, in order to make them easier to deal with when we think, and to give them intangible form, so we can communicate about these things with others. We dissect complex phenomena into smaller and smaller quanta, labeling each piece in the process, and pretend that each piece of a phenomenon stands alone; is a single thing. A simple example is this: John uses the 'label' "Bisexual" in the description of his sexuality on his profile. I seriously doubt however, that what I think that means is the same as what John thinks. In my case the 'label' on my profile says "Gay" but, in truth, someone would have to have a fairly lengthy discussion with me to discover what I mean by that. Undoubtedly, my definition would not be the same as anyone else. For instance, does "Gay" mean I have never had, or will never have sex with a woman? The first assertion is definitely false, the second-- well anything is possible under the right circumstances, though not likely. Yet, how I see myself IS "Gay", as I have a strong preference for men over women. I look at men, not women, when I 'people watch', and yet the beauty of the occasional female will also catch my eye. All of this is to illustrate the folly, and danger of substituting the symbols we use for the actual phenomena we are thinking about. And the simple fact that human sexuality is such an EXTREMELY complex phenomena as to defy any labeling we may try to apply. In the end, "Gay", "Bi", "Straight", or any other label we care to think up only applies at the grossest level of understanding of what we are talking about. A 'Gay Caveman'? Hilariously funny, but what do we REALLY mean by that? Given historical context, the label has no meaning at all...

ABSOLUTELY DEAD ON! This of course relates to the whole Prop 8 discussions over in the Soapbox, and anything else I'd probably want to say belongs over there... But I know exactly what you mean. My partner will probably soon undergo surgery, and we are dealing with the same issues. A legal marriage would alleviate all that....

This, of course, is one of the definitions of "Bears", like me.

WOW! Bob, another 1130 user! We should talk sometime. My first experience was programming FORTRAN on an IBM 1130 at UC Riverside when was about 13 years old. It wasn't online, though. How I managed that, is a (semi) interesting tale, and I consider myself the first 'hacker'. (At least I was a probably close to first.) I wrote an essay about it... MY IBM 1130 For as far back as I can remember, I was always interested in how things work. A technophile from the word go. Sometime early on, computers caught my interest and I had to know how they worked. I read all the books I could find, which weren't many in the small town where I lived. In those days of course (the mid 1960's), no one had even thought of building the PC, much less owned one. When I was about 13 and in the 8th grade, my 7th grade English teacher (who lived next door to my parents and I) took me one Saturday to UC Riverside and took me to see my first real computer. He was friends with someone at the computer center there, and managed to talk them into letting me into the machine room. There, I was delighted to find myself in the presence of an IBM 360/65 mainframe computer. Most people have no idea what an impressive sight these machines were. It had over 100 flashing lights on the main console, and a chattering IBM Selectric-style typewriter, banging out requests to the operator. The console was attached to a huge cabinet housing the central processing unit, usually painted bright red or cool blue. These were flashy, 'movie style' machines. Below is a picture of a similar system (courtesy of IBM, thanks folks). I was in heaven! IBM 360/50 (Photo courtesy of IBM) The day I was there, an IBM technician was there performing the routine maintenance cycle and, to impress the young visitor he found there, he grabbed a tape from his bag and ran a program. Behind me, I then I heard the high-speed printer begin to ‘sing’, music was coming from the printer! I stood there dumbfounded as the 1403 printer played out on its print hammers a medley of Christmas carols, while at the same time, printing out a series of pictures on the long ribbon of computer paper. It printed everything from Christmas ornaments and holly to a long banner of Santa Clause riding in his sleigh pulled by his eight reindeer. I think this was the moment in my life when I decided I was going to spend my life working in the computer business. Of course, this grand machine was totally beyond my reach. I could hardly touch it, much less use it. The morning went on, and after annoying the people there with a thousand questions, I was politely shooed out, as they had real work to do (he he). *** So, I was left to wander around the campus for the rest of the day by myself. Now, since science and technology were always my main interest, I inevitably ended up wandering the halls of the Physics building, just looking to see what I could find. I remember talking for a while to a graduate student as he was using a punch card machine to encode the data from some kind of nuclear particle experiment. But, as my wanderings continued, I found it! There on the second floor of the building was a room I would later visit many times in my youth. For it was there I found an IBM 1130 computer. It was a very simple machine by any standards, even those of the time. It had 8K (that's 8,192 words) of main memory, and a disk drive with 512,000 word capacity (that is, 1 MB). It also had a very slow printer and card reader. A modern PC is thousands (perhaps, millions?) of times more powerful. But there it stood, the doors to the room were wide open and students using it with their own hands. It looked much like this one below (sans the pretty model). IBM 1130 (Photo courtesy of IBM) I spent quite a while there that day, the students were friendly and happy to show me how the machine worked. I paid careful attention and I was pleased that they actually let me touch it. In fact, I was pushing start buttons when they told me to, learning how to load paper into the printer and how to feed cards correctly into the card reader. I even got to use the old manual card punch to punch a few cards. I had an extraordinary day. I'm pretty sure now it was the most important day of my life. *** It wasn't long before I paid a visit to the offices of IBM in Riverside (with my mother in tow, of course), where I purchased a copy of the FORTRAN manual for the 1130, and a box of blank punch cards. (Anyone remember Hollerith punch cards?) At a mall bookstore, I also bought a textbook on FORTRAN programming1, by the legendary computer scientist, Daniel D McCracken. I took it all home and began to learn. A few weeks later, I was ready. I hopped a ride with my ex-English teacher again (he often took courses at UCR on the weekends), and quickly found my way again to the second floor of the Physics building. Looking back on it now, I'm quite sure the students who were working in the lab that day must have been quite astonished to see a 13 year old kid brazenly walk into the room, sit down at the card punch, load it with cards from the box he was carrying, and begin to type. I'd really love to know now what they were thinking... After struggling awhile to get the cards punched just right, I added the necessary cards to the front of the deck needed to run the job and, when the machine was idle, put the cards in the reader and hit the 'READY' button. The job started and, as all programmers know, a program never runs on the first try. Mine didn't either. But, I got the printout off the printer, sat down and read the error listings, got out my books, and kept trying until my program ran. Thus, I wrote and ran my first "Hello World" program on 'my' IBM 1130 that day. Many, many, such weekends followed. I can't recall now, of course, exactly what I did on those many visits to that wonderful room. I only know now, that was where I got my start writing software. *** I will finish this memoir with a final story from a few years later. I attended college for a year at California State University at San Diego (now SDSU). While there, I got a student job as a computer operator for the Engineering and Astronomy departments working in... you guessed it, their IBM 1130 computer lab. I ran the computer there for the students. In this lab, the students weren't allowed to run the computer themselves. Of course, I spent as much time as I could (ok, more than I should have) there. Just being the operator there taught me much more about programming than you might think. Almost daily, I would find myself face to face with a bewildered engineering student, asking me why their FORTRAN program wouldn't run. This is where I found that all those weekends at UCR were valuable and worthwhile. I became very adept at looking over a program listing and locating at least the gross errors in the program. After some practice, I could often perform this feat in less than a minute or so while the standing at the operator's station. I imagine that I acquired a reputation there, though I never really thought about it at the time. Obviously, this experience has served me well in all the years since. The ability to quickly find errors in a program's source code is a gift I'm grateful for now. *** I've been in the computer business for almost 40 years now, but I'll never forget the IBM 1130 and what it taught me. It was a fantastic little machine! If you are interested, here are some links to websites about the IBM 1130. http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/1130/1130_intro.html http://www.ibm1130.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1130 1 McCraken, Daniel D. (1961) - A Guide to FORTRAN Programming. (At the time, of course, I had NO idea who he really was) Photos Copyright © IBM Corp., used with permission.

As soon as I read this thread, we checked with our friend in Auckland, and unfortunately things sound bad in Christchurch. Our thoughts and best hopes go out to all who live or have friends in the area.

WOW, i was looking at the website, and I wonder if being a 'Gay Bear', qualifies one as a furry? OH MY!!! My partner and I DO tend to collect teddy bears, if only casually.

As an old geezer, I have to vote for Beethoven's 5th symphony. While everyone is all too familiar with the first movement (da da da DUHHHHHH, etc.), I'd recommend gritting your teeth and sitting through the entire piece. Actually, my favorite part is the fourth movement, a real treat, with a poetic complexity.of melodies and harmony.

I'd have to say, although not really a "sad" movie, that "A Beautiful Mind" made me cry. Hard to describe exactly why. I guess I'd say i am overcome with empathy for the courage John Nash had overcoming his disability, on his own terms, and achieving incredible success in life. A truly amazing story. It brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.

I'm just a regular member, but i don't think that is the problem. For example I posted this "how to be a successful evil overlord" in the Humor forum, and it is over 200 lines. Help up out Mods. Am I giving out bad info?

Well, by illegal, I mean that the cops will give you a ticket if they see them on your vehicle. Along the same lines as obscene bumper stickers, right? HMMMM, I wonder if it's considered a "moving violation"? LOL!

Here's another way of looking at the subject... There are actually two different units of measurements here. In my job, I've had to write programs that dealt with calendars and date calculations, so I was forced to research this craziness. The statement that 1 AD was the first year is correct, and so it was the first year of the first CENTURY and also the first year of the first DECADE, thus the year 11 AD was the first year of the second DECADE, etc. But the 'teens, 20's, 30's, etc., measure the number ranges of years, and as such are out of sync with the measurement of centuries and decades. Example: "The 20's" refers to the LAST year of the SECOND decade in any century (say, 1920), and also 9 of the 10 years of the THIRD decade in any century (in this example, 1921 - 1929). It's no wonder people were confused about the beginning/end of the MILLENNIUM! Crazy, huh? Remember to take notes, there will be a short quiz at the end of the period...

Interesting to note they are illegal here in California, of all places!

It does seem reminiscent of something that Roy Lichtenstein might have painted. But that's probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Well we all know the outcome now. In case anyone missed it, the Packers won, and they were my choice (although, my favorite team is the Bears, go figure...), so YAAAAAY!!! A good game too, all around... But in fairness to all, how about some post-game analysis/comments?

What a terrific ending! Even if it wasn't entirely unexpected. I've always loved all of your stories, but i think this one has something special. It was intriguing how the 'alien', unfamiliar with our emotions and culture, still managed to bring the young pair together. Right up there with Gone From Daylight, in my opinion.