I saw Flippo The Clown live

Flippo was a tv clown in the 1950's in Columbus,Ohio.  He had a show that came on at 3 PM every weekday showing Popeye cartoons which later change and only showed Popeye cartoons just on Friday. Rest of the week he showed movies.Even tough Flippo was a local celebrity he did have his picture on the National TV guide along with a written article.

On one Saturday Flippo the clown was live at the Hudson's movie theater before the movie started Flippo entertain us by letting us sing certain songs and following a balancing ball on the screen and telling jokes. after which everyone got his autographed picture even as a kid I could tell the autograph was a pre-print.The movie they were showing that day was "Smiley"

I do not have Flippo's autograph picture any more  because when I grew up and became a teenager that picture went into the trash.

Below is a Popeye cartoon that uses rotoscoping (tracing the outlines of real people movements one frame at a time). Not only that they had panes of glass on a round table in which the cartoon cels  and backgrounds were place  on vertically and the cartoon camera was at the side not on top like most cartoon cameras.  This gives the cartoon a foreground, middle ground and background effect.The dance routine in this cartoon will amaze you.

click here for Popeye With Heart cartoon

In the 1960's the tv station odered more Popeye cartoons but were cancelled after two weeks even Flippo the clown said that they are not like the others. Flippo was  right. They still use cel work but today the following Popeye cartoon below could have been done on a computer without cels,paint,  etc.A cel is a sheet of transparent plastic with a character drawing to be place on a background.

click here for Bore Me Popeye Cartoon

In the 1950's  at the month of November the Hudson theater advertise that they are going to show 30 cartoons on Thankgiving day. Guess how many people showed up ?  Two just me and my friend Barry. After the 30 cartoons and comedy shorts were shown we tried to stay to watch it again, but we were asked to go home.The theater made 50 cents that day and lost lot of money cartoon reels are expensive to rent. 

The Mystery Of The Phantom Train

 In the 1970's for two days straight at 2:30 in the morning people heard a train going through their small town ,but the thing was they had no tracks in that town.  The phantom train was not heard for the next two months, but after the two months the train was heard again
and again it was at  2:30 in the morning.

Well it was someone playing a joke this person (I am not saying who--lol) had a Hi-Fi stereo sound effects cassette tape and was playing it  full volume while riding his bicycle in sync with the sound .At that time this small town had no security lights and was almost pitch black.

At 2:30 in the morning here is what the town's people heard "WOOO WOOO  ! cluck-a-lug cluck-a-lug".This guy (whoever he was--lol) plan it just before it rains maybe to erase his bicycle tracks.

Yep, he went through this small town for two days straight and then quit.He figured the authorities  would have  the town under surveillance for at least the next two months .After the two months this prankster started in again for one day only and again at 2:30 in the morning after ward he had quit forever.

The town's people had no idea how they heard a train at 2:30 in the morning ,especially since they had no railroad tracks ,but they did put up a sign at the entrace of their town saying "Home Of The Phantom Train"  read on..

Below is a clip of the sound effect (audio only) 30 seconds except the prankster's cassette tape was much louder along with Wooo W000 and bells and whistles. Also the prankster did not stay stationary he kept riding his bicycle matching the speed of a train to complete the illustion.

It's not working, It may work.

Okay you start off your day by trying to mircowave a tv breakfast but it is not working. Could it be something minor?  It could be. The main problem with appliances and electronics these days are the computer chips inside them and they can get confused.

For an unworking mircowave unplug it for a while and plug it back in and also make sure the plug is not loose and see if that works.

On laptop computers if there is nothing but a blank black screen scaring at you try this : Turn the power off on your computer, if the display lights are still on after a while remove the batteries and leave it that way for at least 6 hours and then reinstall the batties and turn on your computer and see if that works.Important give it ample time to boot up.

Now sometimes windows update will blank the screen but if it is way too long follow the instructions in the previous paragraph.

If your enegry efficient furnace blower is too fast and just blowing cold air try this : If you have a on/off switch near your furnace turn the furnace off for at least 20 secords or more and turn it back on.See picture. If there is no switch near the furnace you may have to go to the circuit breaker box or fuse box and turn it off   from there.

But remember if the weather is way too cold some furnaces just can't keep up.Read on...

Okay so what is a therm ?  A therm is one cubit foot of gas.
Now sometimes enegy efficient motors will run contintinually but the motor will take no more electricity  than a 100 watt  light buld.The flames in the burner are not knee high as the old furnances.

Assuming your electirc cost 10 cents per kilowatt hour the motor will cost you a penny for every 100 hours or 1/100 of a cent per hour.

It is the gas and oil that costs. Usually my bill is about $230 a month which is not too bad for winter especially since I have enegry assistance and budget billing from my ele/gas company ,so I won't have to make any payments until February (Catch up month)which is usually around $200.
 The above figures are base on my 80% enegry efficient furnace.

Beating the lottery odds

So you want to beat the lottery odds give it up no one can but however there are ways to improve your odds. Let's use the Illinois 6/52 lotto what are the odds of winning the jackpot with just one ticket ?  Well, let's find out;  It involves math .

Here is the formula for figuring the odds of the 6/52 lottery game.

(52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 x 47) / (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 1)=20,358,520

so your odds of winning the jackpot with just one ticket is  1 out of 20,358.520 

Now suppose  a person played 6 random games what are the odds then ?  Simple, since he/she is covering 6 combitions simply divide the jackpot odds by 6.   (20,358,520) / 6  or 1 out of 3,393,087

But instead of playing  6 random games let's chose 12 numbers and sort those 12 numbers in 6 number combitions,So here's the new formula:

(52 x 51 x 50 x 49 x 48 x 47) /(12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x 7)=22033

Even without giving the answer you can tell the odds of winning went way down.In fact the odds now are 1 out of 22,033 and also notice the odds are not in the millions anymore but in the thousands.

Those are the odds of winning the jackpot if a person decides to play a full 12 number system.

(12 x 11 x 10 x 9 x 8 x7)/(6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1)=924 combinations.

Many people cannot afford that unless she /he are in a lotto club;But there are shorter systems that win a prize when 6 out of 12 numbers are guessed.

Why play this way ? Well it is slightly easier to guess 12 out of 52 numbers rather than 6 out of 52 numbers.By the way it is against the law for a person or lotto club to play every combination in the lottery game.

Let's recap : Playing 6 random games in the 6/52 lottery odds 1 out of 3,393,087  playing 12 numbers sorted 1 out of 22,033

Below is a video for the shorten 12 number system (no audio). Guessing 6 out of 12 numbers will win at least one 4/6 prize or better .Now what numbers to  pick ?  It's up to you if you're a sports fan how about the numbers of the players' uniforms ?

Just simply substitute your 12 numbers for the 12 letters and please play responsibly and probably just use 1% of your winnings for mad money just to get it out of your system.

ABCDEF

ABCGHI

ABCJKL

DEFGHI

DEFJKL

GHIJKL

Even if this was figure for the 6/52 lottery it will work on any 6 number lottery system, but the odds would be different more or less (end)

The Negative 40 Mystery Solved.

Okay, you go online because you want to convert the fahrenheit temperture to celsius you enter -40 cesius and the answer comes out -40 fahrenheit. You say to yourself that can't be right so you try again  with another webpage just to find that still -40 fahrenheit equals -40 celsius.Well, believe it or not : that is correct.

Suppose two cars are traveling in the same direction one car going 30 MPH and another at 60 MPH .The car going 60 MPH will evenually met the car going 30 MPH. The 60 MPH will go on but the two cars did meet.Everything has a midpoint.Read on...

Now suppose you wanted to try some recipes from a book your friend gave you ,but there are two problems : The tempertures are in celsius and you do not have a computer handy but just have a regular calculator the one without any special math operations; What do you do?

Well, there are formulas that convert one temperture to another using fractions but since we're using calculators let's use the decimal equivalent. It's really easy.

To convert celsius temperture to fahrenheit take your calculator multiply the celsius temperture by 1.8  (notice the decimal point between the one and the eight) and then add 32 and that's it.

Now if you want to go the other way converting the fahrenheit temperture to celsius take your calculator subtract 32 first then divide by 1.8
       
 F=  (1.8 x C) + 32       C=(F-32) / 1.8
IMPORTANT: Always do the math operations in the parentheses (brackets) first, not doing so will give the wrong answer.
Why do things the hard way when there are easier ways ?.Read on...

The link below is a conversion calculator site and their formulas use fractions but as we have found out using the decimal equivalents are easier and a lot easier to remember.
 click here for temperture conversion calculator

My Female Crush Autographs

I have collected some autographs through the years some starletts I have seen perform live tough we never met.  I don't care about jewerly,cars or how much they make.  All I care about is something that has their personal touch like a starlett signing an autograph and had to hold the picture down with her hand nor am I interested in buying and selling (I'm not).

Even this year starting in June I have been requesting  autographs via snail mail it's November haven't recieve one yet. I am not too worried they're most likely copies anyway.I don't know if the delay  is because of California's drought or not or if the mail people went back to riding ponies.

My Karen Black autograph should be worth $400 but since it was personally signed to me it goes down to $200.; But since she died it goes up to $1000 except it is again personally signed to me so it goes down to $500.  Pawn shops should offer $250. Most likely no one would buy it because it was personally signed to someone else..ME  :)

Pawn shops usually quote 1/4 the value of an item is worth and let the customer talk them into 1/2 of what the item is worth ,so the customer will feel like he's/she's getting a good deal and winning.

A video collection of my female autographs is below. Hey, don't judge me. I bet girls have mostly an all male autograph collection.Video below best viewed in full screen.

To prove I actually have these autographs the "My Autograph Wall"  video is below. Autographs from 1983 to present.

END

Superstitions of Dogs,Cats ,Hats..,clocks and mirrors.

You probably not heard of this superstition: When a person takes a picture of his/hers dog, the dog dies withing one year.The fact is when a dog is about 15 years or later their masters want to take pictures of their dogs  before they die for a keep sake.Taking pictures were expensive back then.

For example the old Poloroid  camera the filmpack costs $20 and only took 10 pictures that's $2 a picture.It was not like today were almost everyone has digital cameras and can take thousands of thousands of pictures.So go ahead and take many pictures of the pets you want ,it'll cause them no harm  except maybe temporary blindness from a flash.(20 seconds)

What's with the blue eyes in the dogs' pictures that is just a reflection bouncing back from their retinas of their eyes when using a flash with humans  they appear  red.

Do cats have nine lives ?  No, this superstition came about because under certain conditions cats can spread their bodies and legs like a parachute and simply float down. No other animal can do this.

Wearing a hat indoors may cause baldness well it may if the hat is on too tight and cuts off the blood supply to the hair..otherwise it just nonsense.

What about the old superstition that breaking clocks and/or mirrors are back luck ?  In the earlier centuries  clocks and mirrors were made by hand and were expensive to buy. Not like today when we can buy them cheap.

Fixing Video Problems Via Youtube.

Okay, I was in front of my video/music studio ...Wait !  I have a video/music studio?  Yes, so does everyone else who has a computer with editing software ;)

Well, anyway when a video is finish uploaded to youtube and the procession is done you may see a prompt saying "We have detected ways to improve your video, you want us to fix it?" It won't hurt to click on yes"

Once the video is fixed you will see the prompt "We fixed your video do you like it ?"  and two buttons on the above right on your video  "Yeah, keep it" or you can  choose "undo"

Not only that but youtube allows you to download your own videos. Under your own video(s) simply go to "Video Manager" and click "edit" for the roll down menu and finally click "Download mp4"

When the video you've made yourself does not have any copyrighted content like singing  or dancing to a song, or if it just has public domain content youtube will allow the download.They will also allow the download if you are owner of all the video's copyrighted material.

The videos are always downloaded in the mp4 format which makes it faster to download and upload. The video will not play in the Windows Media Player if you have a windows XP or earlier. You will need to download a player that plays the mp4 format.But the downloaded video(s)  can still be uploaded to other sites if you want, and they'll still work.

Playing mp4 format videos in Windows Media Player on Windows 7 or higher is no problem.MP4 format is the compression used most recently on DVDs.

See picture below, "Not legally authorize" is the title of my video that I am about to download to my desktop.

Is It Good Luck Or Bad Luck.

Okay, I am riding down a roadway and suddenly got a flat tire and had to stop ,just a split second after that a car perpendicular from me is racing through a red light. Is that good luck or bad luck?

Is it bad luck that I now have a flat tire?

Actually, good luck and bad luck depends on how a person looks at things.For example the story above ;It was bad luck that I got a flat tire ,but it is also good luck because I wasn't hit by the on coming racing car.In other words I've lucked out. 

Yep, it is bad luck that I got a flat tire and also have to walk home but it also good luck because I do not have far to walk (1/10 mile--about the size of two city blocks)

How about finding money it is good luck if a person finds a $10 bill ,but it is also bad luck because it was not a $1000 dollar bill.

Okay how's this ?  Suppose I found a wallet filled with $100 bills that would be good luck, but bad luck because I'm honest and would turn the wallet  over to the police.But suppose the owner gave me $25 for finding the wallet that'll be good luck.

Suppose my toxic uncle came over to watch hours and hours of football games and makes me sit down to watch them all, to me that is bad luck ;But suppose those footgames got rained out and the station decides to broadcast reruns of Dr.Who starring Billie Piper to me that'll be good luck.(at this point I should make my uncle watch)...:)

In short bad luck and good luck depends on how a person looks at things. Luck does not exsist and yet at the same time it does exsist. What a paradox?

Census Bureau Phising Scam

First off if we had to do a census bureau survey it would have been all over the news.

Second their mention website starts off with "www."  it should start off with "https://www." notice the "s" if the "s" is not there and there is no padlock symbol on their site then it's a fake goverment site.Also a real goverment site will only allow 20 minutes at a time for security reasons.

As for the barcodes shown they could simply use their copy and paste. Using the copy command from a real form and paste it on their fake form,Also it seems that those barcodes are not magnetic, just copies of the code.

Third and the main red flag the document is not signed by any government personal.

Finally, they say that they're going mail us instrutions on how to fill out a survey. Do we really need instrutions on how to fill out a survey?  When we buy a broom, rake or hammer etc. does it come with instructions?  :P
Click video below to see the false document.

Little Arrows and the furnace

Not replacing your furnace filter once  a month or twice a week can damage your furnace motor not only that it can be extremely dangerous and may cause a fire. The filters cost about $3 or less so there is no excuse for not changing them.

However, there is more than that replacing furnace fitlers. First off  look for an arrow on your furnace filter that says "air flow"  if you cannot see any arrows saying "air flow"  the filter should still have an image of an arrow head either at the sides or above.

When replacing the filter behind the furnace door  be sure the "air flow" arrows are pointing towards the furnance.

Now if you have central air with a floor return grate it is the same deal under the grate the "air flow" arrows should be pointed down.You can tell a return grate when your central air is on ,it will not be blowing out  air, but sucking the air in.

                     click here to hear Little Arrows song.