Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

From Politics to Hollywood to Technology. The Coots are Eclectic.

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Coot Smirk, Technology

Jul 072014

Do you ever have this post written in your head and even mostly edited, it just takes too much time to get it written? Yea. Turns out there is not a plugin to allow people access to your wonderfully crafted posts in your head. You still must write them out!

So this week has been interesting for Coots subject matter. Bob’s wonderfully snarky post about bin Laden, Ralph’s lament over old movie theaters, well, today, I wan’t to talk about a very special birthday. And then you go and do some more research and find that there is a “(the quotes are important here, think air quotes to get the sarcasm implied)”WEBSITE” that has a different date than the other 47 sites that you look at. Imagine that, something on the internet is wrong.

So I searched for something else that happened on this day in history and came up with the first H bomb test or a patent for wireless radio broadcasting. I don’t really feel like writing about nuclear warheads so I am going to go with wireless broadcasting.

Back in 1908 Nathan B. Stubblefield created a primitive cell phone type device that transmitted via electromagnetic induction. Didn’t work very well and would never be real “radio” broadcasting like Marconi came up with, but it was something to send information over space without wires. Think of what we do now without wires. I am writing this post on my laptop that is connected to the internet over a wireless network. If I wan’t to print, the printer is in the basement hooked to my other computer, but I can connect.

I have wireless headphones, wireless phones, wireless keyboards and mice, heck even my new MP3 player can connect to the internet wirelessly. Think how much easier losing wires has made our lives. How many electronic things actually have to be connected anymore?

Now I am not saying Nathan Stubblefield is the cause of this wireless revolution, because his inventions are not actually radio waves. For instance, his inventions could never reach the International Space Station, yet with other technology we can. (just an aside, I think that the ISS is the freaking coolest thing that mankind has ever invented. That is another post though.) But Mr. Stubblefield was a thinker. He saw potential in holding a device and talking with someone far away.

Even if his tech isn’t used today, the same thinking and desire to do the next biggest and greatest thing still pushes people. The entrepreneurial spirit still makes people bust their humps to invent things that they can use on the ISS. (did I say that is the coolest thing ever?)

Now, my question to you all is, what have you invented? By invented I mean written or created. Will your idea spark millions of others? Will it inspire people? Will your name end up on a “this day in history” search because of your invention? If not, get out there and create. Quit following the pack and create your own spot in history. Now if you will excuse me, my Stay at Home Dad site needs some work.

Thanks for reading.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down with Neglect!

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Down with

Jul 072014

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It is easy to sit here and come up with little things to complain about. But that is not Cantankerous, that is just crabby. Some days it is hard to find the Cantankerous side of things, especially with a holiday like Christmas staring us in the face.

I recently moved my desk to the other side of my living room in preparation for Christmas decorating. we have to find a place for the tree. This move was good though, because now I have a window to stare out of. I try to justify it to myself as creative thinking when I am staring out the window but I am convinced that most of it is wasting time.

I keep thinking of what I could write about for this site based on what I see out of my window. I could complain about all fo the leaves that have fallen on my lawn, or the wind that blew them around, or even the rain that will make them harder to rake up, or even the snow that now covers them.

I could complain about the snow plow that keep filling up my driveway approach with snow that I get to shovel out again and again. Or I could complain more about the TSA, airports in general, or the fact that egg prices have gone up almost double since last month. Again, mostly not Cantankerous.

Here is what I can wax cantankerous about. People who don’t do whatever it takes for their kids. I have seen way too many kids at the elementary school who are outside in the cold wearing 2-3 tshirts or a parents flannel shirt. It has been running at less than 30 degrees in Salt Lake for a couple of weeks now, this week is the warmest and will barely be in the 40’s. Now I understand that some people just can’t afford to buy new coats all of the time for their kids.

I get it, times are hard. But, there are 2 goodwill stores, one Salvation Army and one Deseret Industries within 2 miles of the school. Coats can be had for cheap at either of these places. Sometimes even that is too much for people, yet a good portion of the time, these people have a perpetual cigarette in their mouths. I can’t imagine letting my kids go without anything that they need. I don’t buy myself stuff most of the time because A-I don’t need it and B- I can use the money for my kids.

2 years ago my daughter had her coat disappear at school. A few days later we saw another little girl with the coat on, and she was one that needed it. We never pursued the fact that it was stolen, my daughter had another coat anyway and we figured that this girl needed it worse. But what are some people doing when they let their kids resort to stealing from other kids just so they can be warm?

This post has gone from a rant to a sad commentary on society. I don’t know the answer to this problem. We can donate to all sorts of charities and some people get the help they need but there are others who are not quite poor enough to qualify for some programs but not rich enough to keep their growing kids in clothes that need help too. Go out and see what you can do in your community to help those who need just a little bit. And it doesn’t need to be coats, some climes do not require them. I am sure if you looked you could find something that needed to be done.

Consider that your homework for the week, do something for your community. See we here at the Coots do believe that it is a good thing to help out your fellow man. We just don’t believe in letting people suck us dry taking advantage of us. Get ready for the Christmas season, no matter your religion, there are people out there who need you and your support.

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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And then there were two…

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Coot Comedy, Coot Smirk, principles, Uncategorized

Jul 072014

City Lights, France-Italy Border (NASA, International Space Station Science, 04/28/10) (Photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center)

By now, Ralph is winging his way over the ocean heading towards the land of canals and spaghetti, Italy. He has his bags packed, his cell phones rented, and this blog pushed to the back of his mind where it will reside with many other undesirable things like pond scum.

A vacation. Do you ever have a “vacation” that you come back from, rested, relaxed, and ready to return to work? Yea me neither. I am hoping that it will be different for Ralph. See, he is just going with his wife to Italy. We can only hope that he brings her back with him. I guess it depends just how bad the flight actually is. But that is another story.

Over the past year I do believe that I have grown complacent, letting Ralph and Bob, well mostly Ralph, have at this site and run with it. Now It is back to me and the fine work that used to fly from my fingers.

Have a great Vacation Ralph, you deserve it.

As the pony stumbles… (cantankerousoldcoots.com)
NASA Unplugs Its Last Mainframe (science.slashdot.org)

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down with Protesters

Posted by Justin at 04:14 Down with, principles, rants

Jun 112014

I don’t know if this is a phenomenon local to Salt Lake City or not. It seems that businesses all over the valley have been targeted for years by a group of protesters.

These protesters always have a large printed sign on a PVC pipe frame that declares in large red letters, “SHAME ON….” the business name, and “Labor Dispute” on the bottom. I have never been able to see a pattern to it or a reason for it.

These signs are attended by usually 3 or 4 people of various races, genders and persuasions. Again, no real pattern to it.

Now I am all for Free Speech and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of these United States, but come on, When you start protesting the hospital that saved my baby girls life with 2 years of dialysis and then a transplant, you piss me off no matter what minimum wage, questionable legal right to work in the US, labor dispute your tiny mind dreams up on bottom shelf liquor and who knows what other substances.

I don’t know what their issues are, I can’t find out anything about them on the net. And forget asking the protesters themselves, they just look at you an shrug like they don’t understand English.

You know I did see one of these signs outside of Disneyland last year. I guess it is not local to SLC. That was the guy I asked what they were protesting. “Labor Dispute” was all he would say.

You know, go ahead and protest, just know what in the name of all that is holy and right you are protesting about. Or at least have some sort of….something on the net to tell me why I shouldn’t bring my right to bear arms in direct conflict with your right to assemble and freely speech.

I’m just sayin’

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Haiku, Haiku, Why?

Posted by Justin at 04:14 Plain 'ol Cantankerous, rants

Jun 112014

Haiku. Who picks these topics to vote on….ok it was me so I guess I asked for it. I sat down to write this post and tried to figure out how to address haiku without writing a bunch of them. (I did write this part of the post before Ralph got his post out, but had I written a bunch of haiku I would just look like a follower and that is in no way cantankerous.) So I decided to see how many words I could think of that rhymed with haiku.

Here goes: achoo, pew, phew, do….. Eventually I am going to get in trouble for words that people get offended by. Sorry Bob, I’ll stop with the list.

So now, I have to laugh at this picture, explaining a Japanese poem in Russian with a bit of English tossed in. Just struck me as funny that’s all.

Ok so haiku, a small poem with a 5-7-5 structure. Used to create something profound or beautiful in a structured, disciplined way. I am not good sticking to those rules. I like my meter to flow better. Iambic Pentameter is kind of fun, sticking each like to 10 syllables but haiku is just not long enough. That must mean I am too wordy. (Shut up Ralph).

I do agree that limericks are much more fun to write and to read but that is not the topic. You know I went and read the Wikipedia article about haiku and as much history and significance as they put into it, it still sounds like a bunch of drunk Japanese guys writing BS and passing it off as art.

My opinion. If you are a huge fan of the art, write me a post about it and I will run it. Other wise…..at least limericks written by drunk Irishmen are funny or even profound.

So here is a Coots toast to Haiku:

I hope I never

am forced to write another

a stinking Haiku.

Have a good weekend kids, we will be back with more on Sunday with Ralph’s look at the news. Right now, I have to go shovel some snow. Spring in Utah, gotta love it.

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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