Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 17th, 2016 in MainSusan thinks I exclaim “This is my favorite song!” way too often. She’s probably right. In my defense, I do have a lot of favorite songs. Typically I shout this out in the car after my iPhone, set on shuffle, randomly delivers one of these songs through the car’s stereo. What follows is a pretty random list containing ten of my favorite songs. I have lots of other favorite songs to be sure, and for this post I removed obvious songs from the Beatles and Metallica and other big name acts in order to share a few songs that you… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 15th, 2016 in MainHere’s a story about a TV tray. Venture, the discount department store, opened its first store in January of 1970 right outside St. Louis, Missouri. By 1971 there were six locations (four in Missouri and two in Illinois). Throughout the 1970s the chain continued to expand, and in 1983 Venture opened three stores in Oklahoma City: French Market Mall, I-240 and Shields, and on the corner of Sooner and Reno in Midwest City. The first two stores were former Woolco locations. The Midwest City location was new construction. Based on the numbers in the two articles I found, I believe… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 14th, 2016 in MainOnce or twice on this blog I’ve mentioned the first CD-ROM Burner I ever used, but I don’t think I ever talked about it in detail. A project I’ve recently been working on reminded me of those old days. In either late 1995 or early 1996, my department at work purchased a CD-ROM Burner. It cost $1,000. Not only was it the first one I had ever used, it was the first one I had ever seen. It was external, slightly taller than a modern CD-ROM drive, and a little over twice as wide. In addition to the actual CD-ROM… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 13th, 2016 in MainIf memory serves me correct, this is the first Star Wars item I ever owned. There’s a story associated with this watch. According to my parents I wore it to kindergarten, and after one of my classmates made fun of it, I took it off and refused to wear a watch ever again. I don’t actually remember that happening, but based on the fact that I’ve never worn a watch in my life, I assume it to be true. Bradley released a couple of different Star Wars watches in 1977. There’s one featuring R2-D2 and C-3P0, and this one, featuring… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 11th, 2016 in MainIn Disney’s 1975 classic Escape from Witch Mountain, one of the film’s mysterious interstellar twins carries with her the Star Case, s small box with a picture of two stars next to one another. That’s where I learned about binary stars — two stars that orbit around one another and depend on each other for survival. Last week, Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer of the band Motorhead passed away at the age of 70. Last night was David Bowie’s turn. He was 69. I discovered Motorhead on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball back in the late 80s. After a couple of hours of… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 9th, 2016 in MainLocated in Anahola on the beautiful island of Kauai in Hawaii sits the Anahola mountain range. One of the range’s most unique formations is Kalalea Mountain (that one that sticks up in the middle). Kalalea Mountain was originally named Mano (Hawaiian for “shark”), but due to its resemblance to a gorilla’s head (facing left in my pictures), the mountain was given a new nickname: Kong Mountain. The Anahola mountain range has appeared in dozens of movies and the island of Kauai was substituted for everything from Costa Rica to Vietnam. In fact, some of the locals used to joke that… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 6th, 2016 in MainThe year twenty fifteen brought me lots of personal highs and only a couple of lows. In 2015, I celebrated both my 20th wedding anniversary, and my 20th year of working at the FAA. In October of 2014 I moved to a new department at work, and was promptly assigned to a different work detail, which I spent the majority of 2015 working on. I applied for a different position in the summer of 2015, which I got and began in November. I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels at work in 2015, but I am very excited… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 6th, 2016 in Star Wars, Star WednesdayMy Star Wars collection consists of hundreds upon hundreds of different items, but my favorite ones are the ones that have memories associated with them, like these cup toppers. On December 17th, 2015, my family and I watched the premiere of The Force Awakens at El Capitan theater in Los Angeles, California. For the film’s debut some theater chains were distributing Star Wars branded popcorn tubs and drinking cups, and our theater happened to be one of those. Before the movie began, we purchased a set at the snack bar. Our cups came with these two figures (Chewbacca and a… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 5th, 2016 in MainBack in the summer of 2009 I posted a blog post noting that I had visited 38 of the 50 states. After realizing that I had visited almost 80% of the US, I made it a goal to visit all 50 states. In March of this year, after a 2,500 mile family road trip I was able to mark Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin off the list, leaving just Hawaii. On December 23rd, 2015, after arriving in Oahu, I was able to officially mark Hawaii off the list. That officially makes all 50 plus Washington DC, Mexico, Canada, and the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 4th, 2016 in AdventuresI’m writing this on Sunday afternoon. Everybody has already been up and is back in bed. It’s been a long 2 1/2 weeks away from home. Here’s a summary of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to. Our vacation began on Thursday, December 17th, when we flew non-stop from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. After landing we picked up our rental car, drove to the hotel to unload our luggage, and then walked over to El Capitan theater to catch the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We got back to our hotel around 1 a.m. (3… (read more)
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