Tell me something about yourself that is Amazing, Unbelievable, Surprising or Odd. =)

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My apartment building entrance (a single door between a bar and a liquor store...wonderful childhood lol) was chosen to film "The World According to Garp" where Garp and his mom meet the hooker at her/my door.
I'm not a fan of movies but I need to watch that, as I've only watched a few clips from it.
 
I've had civilized dinners with 4 Nobel Laureates (Robert Grubbs, Peter Agre, F. Sherwood Rowland, Roald Hoffman) and gotten absolutely hammered with another (David MacMillan). MacMillan was the most fun (he was buying), but Hoffman is one of the more fascinating people you could ever meet...went from Haulocaust survivor to Nobel Laureate to playwright to poet. Probably the only 4 hour scientific lecture I have ever attended that I wanted to continue because the whole thing was sprinkled with anecdotes about his life and the people that inspired him. Bob Grubbs and I simply argued basketball for an hour or so (He was a big Univ. of Kentucky fan and was therefore wrong).
 
Bob Grubbs and I simply argued basketball for an hour or so (He was a big Univ. of Kentucky fan and was therefore wrong).
My SIL was crying about one of the UK basketball players being in a car wreck when we visited back home years ago. So I asked," So you know this guy?" nope
 
I'm not a fan of movies but I need to watch that, as I've only watched a few clips from it.
It was a great movie about a very dysfunctional single mother (I think I touched upon that with "mother taking son to see a hooker").

The sobering and shocking thing was the sheer amount of work and time for a short scene. They took out our door and filmed for almost a full day for a few scant seconds.

Furthermore on my corner nearby there was a very old "Cafeteria" restaurant (relic from the vendomatic days) and they tore it apart to resemble something else to film them eating and talking there.
 
Things I've managed to get people to pay me to do:

Watch concerts
Ride motorcycles
Drink cocktails and $100 bottles of wine
Ride a Rollercoaster (for 3 hours straight, not as much fun as it sounded)
Fly in airplanes and helicopters
Drive a firetruck
Blow stuff up
 
Things I've managed to get people to pay me to do:

Watch concerts
Ride motorcycles
Drink cocktails and $100 bottles of wine
Ride a Rollercoaster (for 3 hours straight, not as much fun as it sounded)
Fly in airplanes and helicopters
Drive a firetruck
Blow stuff up
lol
I got strafed by a B-17!!

at NSL 2019, we were out looking for my rocket, when the 'Movie Belle' was on final approach. We stepped aside, and watched the beauty come in to land. touched down right in front of us..

OK, maybe not "strafed" but a very low & close fly over!!
I arrested one of the crew of Belle, (the movie crew) in AZ mid 90s.
 
After thinking about the movie I had worked on (post #32), I got to thinking about all the other crazy things that happened (the crew would joke about making a movie about making the movie), and I did remember something I'm proud of, and lucky to have walked away from.
One scene involved a scuffle involving two of the cast with a mountain lion running right through the middle of it. The first take had the cat's owner/handler releasing him to run through the scene, but the problem was that he kept running down the box canyon we were filming in, al the way back to his cage in our main compound,,, about three miles down hill. After about an hours delay, the cat was retrieved and we were ready to film another take. The director didn't want another delay, so I volunteered to station myself a bit down hill from the scene and rope the cat. Everything was casual until I dropped the noose over his neck and snubbed him up. At that point he stood on his hind legs and expressed his opinion of me. Fortunately the rope was long enough that I wasn't in "the zone", and his owner/handler got to us quick enough. I actually pulled that off for two more takes, but the cat made me work for it. So I can claim to be a "cougar roper" (just not that kind of cougar).
I just now "skimmed" through the movie on YouTube, and I'm not sure the actual scene made it to the release... but that's OK... a lot of the "insanity" I got to participate in did.
 
I almost killed my former best friend in Middle School, but didn't due to a split microsecond decision on my part.

So weird thing happened in Middle School...my grammar school bestie at the time (call him Bob) was odd, but funny. One day he tried to force himself into my apartment building despite me telling him no.

He was unhinged and for some reason insistent on coming in. I finally shoved him out of the door (the one removed for the Garp movie I mentioned earlier) and I cursed him and (I'm not proud) cursed his mother. He went ballistic, but eventually stormed off.

The next morning I was at the school yard telling my other friends what happened and suddenly I see Bob charging at me with fists flying.

Now due to my years of training, I reacted veryfast. He came at me running full speed and I grabbed his flying fist, pulled it over my head while I knelt down and swung him upside down...

Then in that microsecond of adrenaline where time seems to slow down, I saw that I was about to pile drive him at full speed head first into the asphalt.

I then consciously and purposely placed my other hand behind his neck to cup his head up and continued to throw him flat on his back as carefully as I could.

He got up unfazed and tried twice more to hit me, but I easily threw him down twice more. He finally yelled at me and ran away.

My life (and his) could've been VERY different if not for that microsecond of judgement. To this day I cringe when I think about it.

Later in College almost the same happened again...
 
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Reminded today by the announcement of the passing of Kirsti Alley, that I got a kiss from Lt. Savik (Robin Curtis), Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), and DS9's Leeta (Chase Masterson) at Star Trek Cons.

I also shook Jimmy Doohan's hand at one too.
As awesome as those kisses would be I’d trade ‘em all to shake James Doohan’s hand! A genuine crazy Canuck bonafide WWII hero - we won’t see his kind again my friends.
 
After thinking about the movie I had worked on (post #32), I got to thinking about all the other crazy things that happened (the crew would joke about making a movie about making the movie), and I did remember something I'm proud of, and lucky to have walked away from.
One scene involved a scuffle involving two of the cast with a mountain lion running right through the middle of it. The first take had the cat's owner/handler releasing him to run through the scene, but the problem was that he kept running down the box canyon we were filming in, al the way back to his cage in our main compound,,, about three miles down hill. After about an hours delay, the cat was retrieved and we were ready to film another take. The director didn't want another delay, so I volunteered to station myself a bit down hill from the scene and rope the cat. Everything was casual until I dropped the noose over his neck and snubbed him up. At that point he stood on his hind legs and expressed his opinion of me. Fortunately the rope was long enough that I wasn't in "the zone", and his owner/handler got to us quick enough. I actually pulled that off for two more takes, but the cat made me work for it. So I can claim to be a "cougar roper" (just not that kind of cougar).
I just now "skimmed" through the movie on YouTube, and I'm not sure the actual scene made it to the release... but that's OK... a lot of the "insanity" I got to participate in did.
o_OHoly crap, I just read the wiki. It was truly an insane shoot. Here are some excerpts:
Due to the large number of untrained animals on set, there were a reported 48 injuries within two years of the start of filming.[66] It has been estimated that, of Roar's 140-person crew,[45] at least 70 were injured during production.[39] In a 2015 interview, John Marshall said that he believed the number of people injured was over 100.[46]

Noel Marshall was bitten through the hand when he interacted with male lions during a fight scene; doctors initially feared that he might lose his arm. By the time he suffered eight puncture wounds on his leg caused by a lion which was curious about his anti-reflection makeup, Marshall had already been bitten around eleven times.[67] He was hospitalized when his face and chest were injured[68] and was diagnosed with blood poisoning.[39] Marshall was also diagnosed with gangrene after being attacked many times.[49]
During a promo shoot in 1973, Hedren was bitten in the head by a lion, Cherries, whose teeth scraped against her skull. She was admitted to Antelope Valley Hospital after Tembo, the five-ton elephant, picked her up by and fractured her ankle with his trunk before bucking her off his back;

Hedren was also scratched on the arm by a leopard and bitten on the chest by a cougar.[24] Griffith received 50 sutures after being attacked by a lioness. It was feared that she would lose an eye, but she eventually recovered without being disfigured, although she did require some facial reconstruction.[46][24] A lion jumped on John Marshall and bit the back of his head, inflicting a wound that required 56 sutures.[8] Jerry Marshall was bitten in the thigh by a lion while he was in a cage on set, and he was in hospital alongside Hedren for a month.[74][54]
Most members of the crew were injured, including de Bont, who was scalped by Cherries while he was filming under a tarpaulin;[75][53][76]he received 220 sutures, but resumed his duties after recovering.[49][53] Togar, one of the lead lions, bit assistant director Doron Kauper in the throat and jaw and tried to pull off one of his ears after Kauper unintentionally cued an attack
And that’s just a part of what’s documented in the wiki.
:headspinning:
 
Things I've managed to get people to pay me to do:

Watch concerts
Ride motorcycles
Drink cocktails and $100 bottles of wine
Ride a Rollercoaster (for 3 hours straight, not as much fun as it sounded)
Fly in airplanes and helicopters
Drive a firetruck
Blow stuff up
Now that I think about it, I've technically been paid to throw up in an Extra 300L. :)
 
The sobering and shocking thing was the sheer amount of work and time for a short scene. They took out our door and filmed for almost a full day for a few scant seconds.

Tell me about it... That third (?) Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson? The opening scene, (I think) where the front fascia of a building blows up on 6th Ave... I think it's on screen for 5 or 6 seconds, took a week to set up and shoot. Bonkers.
 
OK, I'll jump in. Though, I'm still most amazed by waking up each morning. :)

I worked for NASA at Esrange in Sweden above the Arctic Circle in May/June 2006 (the sun never set). I designed telemetry and control systems for the first ULDB super-pressure balloon (300 ft diameter), capable of lifting two-ton scientific payloads to 20+ miles up for weeks at a time.

I built a video tracking system to view the critical inflation of the balloon as it rose 200 miles downrange. I manually controlled the pointing system for over an hour.

1670361994618.png1670362098540.png

Here's a photo of me by the rocket junkyard at Esrange. They are required to recover all expended articles due an agreement with the aboriginal people who live there.

1670361330090.jpeg

Almost every sounding rocket you can name!
 
Glory. Some of this stuff is amazing, alright. I'm about as vanilla as you get -as a matter of fact, vanilla has more flavor to it. You don't get more nondescript than me, maybe that's my amazing thing. About as exciting as the white of an egg...
 
I just remembered after reading about movies that I was in two TV shows. When I worked at the gun range in Vegas we had two TV crews come in to film. One was BBC 4 from England. They were doing a show on The Mob and Vegas. The star was dressed up as a Mob guy. He shot a Tommy gun. I did the instruction and stood near him as he shot. The other was an Australian show. Must be real funny down there. They brought two people. The guy was SURE that the ET's were after him. The girl thought he was nuts. I thought he was nuts. On camera we had a discussion as to what would be the best gun to protect him. I had a bunch of fun with him. At one point I asked, how do you know a gun would protect you from an ET. The three of use went back and forth for about 5 minutes. Since I have never seen the shows I don't know if the parts I was in actually aired. I'm also in a bunch of YouTube videos that people posted after coming to the store. I remember when one of the other guys told me about it. I was very surprised to see myself on YouTube. Look up the Las Vegas Gun Range on YouTube.
 
Glory. Some of this stuff is amazing, alright. I'm about as vanilla as you get -as a matter of fact, vanilla has more flavor to it. You don't get more nondescript than me, maybe that's my amazing thing. About as exciting as the white of an egg...
Please don't feel bad about not having things to add. While some of these are amazing, others are pretty bad/harrowing. I sometimes wish I had a normal "boring" life.

Also what's great about living in our time here is that nowadays you can make your own amazing adventures.

It's as easy as a Google, Groupon or Meetup to:
  • Drive a race car (I raced an Audi R8 against Porsches and Ferraris at Englishtown Raceway from a Groupon...lapped them all!)
  • Try hiking a mountain
  • Skydive
  • Learn to fly a plane
  • Whitewater raft
  • Etc.
But truth is sometimes what I enjoy most is staying home and building rockets. :wos_love:
 
I am terrified of heights, yet I have been skydiving, done aerobatics in an open cockpit biplane, hung outside a helicopter with my camera countless times, have walked across the catwalks in the ceiling of the VAB at Kennedy Space Center, all with no issues. But get me up in a scissor lift or a boom lift at work, and I instantly freeze up.

Over the past three years, I have flown over a million miles each year.

served as a crew member on one of the first COVID relief flights to repatriate US citizens from Asia in 2020.

On the same day, carried Arnold Palmer's golf clubs, and the guitars for Duran Duran (I worked at a FBO in Seattle as a ramp rat, and both flew in that day. Palmer in his Cessna Citation X for a golf tournament, and Duran Duran for a concert the next day. Duran Duran arrived in style in a BAC 1.11. The first and only time I have seen one actually operational).

On the day of the 20th anniversary of STS-1's launch, I was chosen to be the green room escort for John Young and Robert Crippen at the celebration event at Kennedy Space Center.

once sat in a James Bond screen used Aston Martin at 35,000ft for 30 minutes
 
I dreamed up a cross-country road trip to national parks in one of my classes senior year of college and actually followed through on it: I started in MD and drove all the way to CA and back, visiting more than 15 national parks along the way. I spent at least two days in each and drove ~10hrs a day the other days, living out of my 15-year-old Camry and sleeping in a tent. Two weeks with my best friend, two weeks alone in CA, and two weeks with my fiance. Bryce and Zion in UT, Sequoia in CA, and Grand Teton/Yellowstone in WY were my favorites. I got my buddy and I semi-lost in the UT desert for a bit; we ran out of water about 45 minutes before we got back. Climbed Half Dome alone and had a great time; the view of Yosemite valley is incredible from the top (Yosemite could be the best NP in the US if it weren't overrun with idiots). I had a very close nighttime encounter with a bear because a previous visitor to the campsite had left the bear box filled with food trash (I was only at this campsite for one night and hadn't checked the box). I took a huge detour around a massive bull moose eating right on the trail in Grand Teton. The whole thing was on a shoestring budget, and I had essentially no money besides rent for the month between returning and starting my job.

Best trip of my life, and I've had some pretty great ones with my wife since.
 
On the day of the 20th anniversary of STS-1's launch, I was chosen to be the green room escort for John Young and Robert Crippen at the celebration event at Kennedy Space Center.

John Young is one of my all-time favorite astronauts. Flew on 3 different rockets to space! He and Bob were quite brave to fly on the maiden launch of STS-1! Bob had a lot of charisma! :cool:
 
Even when my brisket turns out tough as a boot, my wife saves it with her slow cooker... smoked brisket stew 😍
100% correct solution to my problem. If brisket was a little less expensive, I'd try more cooks, but it seems like every time I try, I end up spending $100 to eat poorly prepared steak. . . 100% agree that brisket stew/chili is awesome and a good recover point.

Sandy.
 
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