8/2/14 9:19 AM

Congratulations!

8/2/14 1:13 PM

A special shout out for walter who hung my "Cap and Gown" picture and also who has been a friend from afar and encouraged me when I struggled and read my personal diatribes of displeasure as I worked through this and other life struggles.

We have only met a couple of times but the internet is an amazing place. We can form bonds with people, whom we rarely speak to and even more rarely see, which are just as real and often more real than the those with the people we interact with each day. Thanks "walter". I am proud to call you my friend.

8/2/14 6:21 PM

Ok, well, you're no Laurent Fignon, but TTF could always use another scientist!

Belated congratulations!

8/2/14 6:59 PM

I have never thought of myself as a scientist unless "scientist" is used to identify a person who follows the scientific process in life, not just the lab.

My lab is in my garage and backyard.

8/2/14 10:46 PM

Awesome. Perseverance and the light at the end of the tunnel, and all that... Congratulations!

Sandiway

8/3/14 8:14 AM

there are people that are givers that make other people's lives fuller -- erik's one of those guys.

again, congratulations -- and best of luck with your re-oriented career progression or ongoing academic endeavours. whatever you choose the world is your oyster, grasshopper! :-)

8/3/14 4:50 PM

Good going. Best of luck in whatever you tackle next.

8/3/14 5:01 PM

Not quite sure what the reference to Fignon is, but "Le Professeur" was not a scientist. He was considered an intellectual in the peleton because he read Stephen King novels.

I dunno if Erik took any English, but with "diatribes of displeasure" he could have been a speechwriter for Spiro Agnew...:)

Again, nice going and good for Walter for being a constructive friend.

8/3/14 5:35 PM

Vaughters is noted as being pretty smart. He was noted as being able to figure out speeds needed to catch a break up the road just before the line in his head. I know most teams have the DS figuring that for them on a laptop and who then tells them when to go to work.

Of course I took English. Just because I live in the deep south does not mean I speak Walmart. Though if you ever need a translator I can be of assistance.

I feel I am the bottom feeder on the forum folks. This is not your average bunch of knuckle heads on a BB.

8/3/14 6:24 PM

Well done, mate.

"I feel I am the bottom feeder on the forum folks. This is not your average bunch of knuckle heads on a BB."

Well, ya got me beat. I still don't have any animal skins to hang on my wall or put on my resume. Guess I'm the forum bottom feeder now. :)

Last edited by RCoapman on 8/3/14 6:26 PM; edited 1 time in total

8/3/14 6:25 PM

I certainly didn't intend to be critical and I'm sorry if it sounded that way - I thought the diatribe phrase was kind of elegant and poetic.

I could use a bunch of translators - I do know some lawyers from the South who I can barely understand - I have the most trouble with a guy from North Carolina who is very smart and an excellent lawyer - I just can barely understand him at times. I also have trouble understanding some of my clients from Downeast Maine. I think pretty much everybody can understand me, with some displeasure at my ugly western New York accent.

Don't put yourself down - you know a lot about a lot of stuff.

8/3/14 6:59 PM

Recognizing satire over the net is a skill no one possesses. I know you were not giving me a hard time. I guess some emojis would have helped in this case.

Rob, you skill sets don't require skins to make a buck. You have something most of us don't, technical knowledge which you stay on top of. Your world, they want results and stability of service. You deliver, you get paid, a good deal I might add.

Dan, I saw on the news yesterday where a company is offering classes to employees to teach them to soften their southern accents. Sad in a way, but so often people equate southern accents with low IQ. I first learned that on day one of basic training 28 years ago. I heard it directly during my first encounter with a TI. Since that day, I try not to show my roots in my voice.

8/3/14 7:00 PM

Eric, now that you have the sheepskin, it's time for the exam:

1. Calculate the smallest limb diameter on a persimmon tree that will support a 10-pound possum.

2. Which of these cars will rust out the quickest when placed on blocks in your front yard? A '65 Ford Fairlane Wagon, a '72 Chevrolet El Camino, or a '66 Pontiac Tempest.

3. If your uncle builds a still which operates at a capacity of 5 gallons of moonshine produced per hour, how many pickup truck radiators are required to condense the product on a 97 degree day?

4. At a reduction in the gene pool variability rate of 7.5% per generation, how long will it take a town which has been bypassed by the Interstate to breed a country-western singer?

5. If every old refrigerator in the state, kept out on the porch, vented a charge of
R-12 simultaneously, what would be the percentage of the decrease in the
ozone layer, and will R-12 freon damage the Craftsman tools stored inside it?

6. A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field stone foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is half the length of the single wide 38 ft. trailer. The porch floor is 1-inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?

7. An Arkansas man owns a house on 3.7 acres of land in a holler with an average slope of 15%. The man has five children. Can each of his grown children place a mobile home on the man's land and still have enough property for their old washing machines to sit out in the front yard?

8. A 2-ton truck is overloaded and proceeding 900 yards down a steep slope on a secondary road at 45 MPH. The brakes fail. Given average traffic conditions on secondary roads, what is the probability that it will strike a vehicle with a muffler?

9. A coal mine operates in an NFPA Class 1, Division 2 Hazardous Area. The mine employs 120 miners per shift. How many cartons of unfiltered Camels will be smoked during each shift?

10. A woodcutter has a chainsaw which operates at 2700 RPM. The density of the pine trees in the plot to be harvested is 450 trees per acre. The plot is 2.5acres in size. The average tree diameter is 14 inches. How many 6 Packs will he drink before the trees are cut down?

8/3/14 7:07 PM

ROFL

8/3/14 7:23 PM

Kerry, your answers.

Eric, now that you have the sheepskin, it's time for the exam:

you failed. It is Erik with a K. ( a problem I blame on my parents, not you)

1. Calculate the smallest limb diameter on a persimmon tree that will support a 10-pound possum.

1/10 the size of the "O'Possum" neck unless you are shooting the limb with 12 gauge then double the limb size

2. Which of these cars will rust out the quickest when placed on blocks in your front yard? A '65 Ford Fairlane Wagon, a '72 Chevrolet El Camino, or a '66 Pontiac Tempest.

None of them, the '78 Dodge Dart rusted out three years prior to you asking the question.

3. If your uncle builds a still which operates at a capacity of 5 gallons of moonshine produced per hour, how many pickup truck radiators are required to condense the product on a 97 degree day?

This could actually be calculated. But without knowing some key info like the total capacity of the radiators, starting temp of the alcohol steam and pressures involved we can't really tell.

BTW, it does not really matter, the lead poisoning you will get from the "pie" will kill your brain cells long before the alcohol will.

4. At a reduction in the gene pool variability rate of 7.5% per generation, how long will it take a town which has been bypassed by the Interstate to breed a country-western singer?

It won't, they all come from "the voice" now and are products of Blake Shelton's machines.

5. If every old refrigerator in the state, kept out on the porch, vented a charge of
R-12 simultaneously, what would be the percentage of the decrease in the
ozone layer, and will R-12 freon damage the Craftsman tools stored inside it?

This is impossible to answer because the ones on the porch all leaked out their R12 long ago, which is why they are on the porch holding the Craftsman tools. The tools were rusted when they where stolen from the neighbor's garage so we can't tell that either.


6. A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field stone foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is half the length of the single wide 38 ft. trailer. The porch floor is 1-inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?

For a 38 foot singe wide the answer is 6. Two of which may have already been dead.

7. An Arkansas man owns a house on 3.7 acres of land in a holler with an average slope of 15%. The man has five children. Can each of his grown children place a mobile home on the man's land and still have enough property for their old washing machines to sit out in the front yard?

Yes, as long as they use just one front door and place the trailers side by side. No, to the washing machines. They don't own one and all go to the laundry mat once a month to wash their overalls and wifebeaters.

8. A 2-ton truck is overloaded and proceeding 900 yards down a steep slope on a secondary road at 45 MPH. The brakes fail. Given average traffic conditions on secondary roads, what is the probability that it will strike a vehicle with a muffler?

0, no one puts muffler's on a mule's ass unless you are in downtown Charleston, where they actually put diapers on them.

9. A coal mine operates in an NFPA Class 1, Division 2 Hazardous Area. The mine employs 120 miners per shift. How many cartons of unfiltered Camels will be smoked during each shift?

120, that is easy, everyone knows black lung is not caused by coal dust but instead by unfiltered Camels. A carton a day per slave is the norm. BTW, one of my classes was industrial hygiene, so unlike 3 years ago I understand this crap!!!

10. A woodcutter has a chainsaw which operates at 2700 RPM. The density of the pine trees in the plot to be harvested is 450 trees per acre. The plot is 2.5acres in size. The average tree diameter is 14 inches. How many 6 Packs will he drink before the trees are cut down?

2 six packs per afternoon but none of the trees will be cut down because the damn husky 2 cycle saw won't start.

8/4/14 5:33 AM

A great aacomplishment. Your welcome for the "reduced" cost education', but the real thanks is to you for your service to the country over many, many years.

8/4/14 6:07 PM

quote:

---

you failed. It is Erik with a K

---

8/6/14 4:48 AM

Half way through week 1. Well, I have run 2 5ks, lifted twice, Started reading yet put the fiction books down in favor of an astronomy book I have and have not been able to read. It is a big coffee table book with an Atlas of the moon and the terrestrial planets. I dug through some photos I took of the moon and matched them up with my maps. I have a picture that ID'd the Apollo 15 landing site! No I can't find a flag...

I broke out my 8inch Dobsinian telescope last night and was able to see divisions in Saturn's rings! Even with the horrible seeing conditions due the humid summer air and the moon out.

I also have gone to two of my son's swim workouts where he has shown to be the fastest boy on the team even though he is just a freshman and small. A summer of two a day workouts is showing!!!

I have not learned to play the guitar yet.

8/6/14 7:09 AM

Don't let up after this week, in fact don't ever let up!...keep doing what you been wanting to do.... time has a way of getting "sucked up" after a while...

8/6/14 6:05 PM

I tried to hang a pic on google+. fail...

8/14/14 9:40 AM

Keep your wits about you LOL :)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151373593085584

8/14/14 2:03 PM

I did not give up on it. In fact many hours in the treestand where spent writing papers and doing homework on an iPad.

That won't happen to me. I am "skert" of those antlers and hooves.

8/14/14 2:34 PM

Makes a good case for a side arm with/while hunting actually.

8/14/14 3:41 PM

Which I always do. but we digress.