Okay, not that kind of sucks.  It is very unusual though, that’s for sure.  While other 10-year-olds collect the latest trading cards, one Illinois boy collects vacuum cleaners.  Yes, you read that right.  I know some don’t want to collect old-fashioned things like coins and stamps, but vacuum cleaners?? Here’s the WPTV article:

Unique hobby for a 10 year old boy

Last Update: 8/31 10:05 am

TUSCOLA, IL–Most little boys collect things like baseball cards or hot wheels.

But not the 10-year old Gregory Evans.

He has a thing for vacuum cleaners.

He ‘s been collecting them since he was three years old.

While other kids dream of Disney World, Gregory’s favorite vacation destination is the Hoover Museum.

“I take them apart and see if there’s anything wrong with them,” said Evans.

And the 10 year old is such an expert on vacuums that he can tell which model is running by its sound.

Gregory hopes to work in a vacuum shop when he grows up, if not sooner.

Reported by: Scot England/WAND TV

If so, consider this an update.  A few months ago I found out about a talented Japanese boy named Yuto Miyazawa on the Ellen show (found out via the ‘net of course- I don’t watch shows like Ellen).  This boy at just nine years of age plays a mean guitar.  Here is the clip of him on the aforementioned show:

Too unfortunate he chooses someone like Ozzy Osbourne to imitate, but I suppose they can’t all choose more godly heavy metal like Disciple, Kutless, or Red. 😉 ) The update, if this is one, is that Ozzy just had Yuto as a guest at a concert the other night he did for Blizzcon 2009.  Here’s a clip:

Put me on the crazy train, but I think Yuto did a better job singing the song on the Ellen show than Ozzy did at Blizzcon!  Okay, to be fair Ozzy had just finished a set, and to put this politely he ain’t getting any younger.  I did have to cringe though when he dropped the f-bomb right in front of Yuto, twice.  So what do you all think?

While reading my daily geek.com, I came across this article they blogged about.  For those of us in our middle years it is really quite interesting.  To get you started, I have reprinted two or three from each section, but to read them all you will have to click the title or end of the article to go to the source.  What really makes me feel old is the inclusion of 90s things like the Playstation… 😮

Oh, be sure to click the link at the source about the young teen trying out a Walkman for a week, the MP3 player of the 80s.

UPDATE: I just visited Worthy Christian Forums, and apparently someone posted this same article, but with 37 more things (plus more in the replies)!  At a glance, I could see they weren’t just tacked on to the end and I’m too lazy to figure out which are new, so CLICK HERE TO GO TO READ ALL 137 THINGS

Audio-Visual Entertainment:

1. Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.

8. 8-track cartridges.

Computers and Videogaming:

19. The scream of a modem connecting.

22. Using jumpers to set IRQs.

33. Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.

The Internet:

38. Using a road atlas to get from A to B.

44. Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.

56. When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.

Gadgets:

58. Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?

69. Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.

Everything Else:

70. Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.

81. Han shoots first.

86. Finding books in a card catalog at the library.

(beginning of actual article follows below)

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

By Nathan Barry
July 22, 2009
8:00 am

There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks.

That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias …

[CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE ON WIRED.COM]

I found this little brief to funny not to share.  Click the title to see the picture:

THE COOLEST MUTT IN THE EAST

COOL canine Fei Fei left other dogs in the shade after his owner bought him a pair of sunglasses as a joke.

But now the fashion mad mutt refuses to leave owner Bo Lee’s home in Chongqing, central China, without being given his wraparound shades!

“I think he likes all the attention he gets on the street,” said Lee.

“I bought them to protect his eyes but now if I try to leave the apartment without them he howls the place down,” he told the Austrian Times.

How Disney gets their child stars

😀

It’s a little late in the day, but it is still Good Friday so I bring to you this galaxy recently discovered.  How is it timely? Well, I could post a picture for you to see, but I would rather you be surprised when you go to the link.  Here is part of the story from FoxNews:

An unusual large galaxy with a shape bordering between spiral and elliptical has been spotted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

NGC 7049 sits in the southern constellation Indus, and is the brightest of a cluster of galaxies, a so-called Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG). Typical BCGs are some of the oldest and most massive galaxies, which provide excellent opportunities for astronomers to study the elusive globular clusters lurking within.

The halo, a ghostly region of diffuse light surrounding the galaxy, is composed of myriads of individual stars and provides a luminous background to the swirling ring of dust lanes surrounding NGC 7049’s core.

What does that mean for today?  Well click on the title to go to the news story.  If you would like even more suspense first, click this link to space.com instead to see a video leading up to the breathtaking final moment.  I only wish I could find a high-resolution version of this picture to use on my desktop.

When one goes on a trip, they all go.  I really need more readers for my blog.  Sigh.

Well, on the lighter side is a look at some weird computer keyboards I just read about on another site.  Here are just two examples:

Just click here to go to PC Worlds’s article and read about these keyboards and more, including one for the Trekkie in most of us. 🙂

(From now I won’t add graphics to every post to save on time for me, and prevent scroll-wheel syndrome for my fellow readers with paltry sub-1080p screen resolutions 😛 )

There have been some strange advertisement campaigns in the past, but this is the first time I have heard of one like this.  Usually this sort of thing is left to the commercials on TV, and there have been some really strange ones like this one, this one, this one, and even some of these.  This though is big, it’s live, and you can win a trip to Africa.  I will quote the blog post from Capcom:

Majini *coughZOMBIEScough* have gone through a small part of London, leaving behind a trail of remnant body parts from their victims. Find the bodies on the morning of Thursday March 12th and win a vacation to Africa.

Register at residentevil5@capcomeuro.com to be sure to receive the clues as to where the remains can be found.

Find as many of the bodies as you can, or what is left of them, and return them to Westminster Bridge by 11am.

The body parts will be hidden at locations near Trafalgar Square, within this area.

And this is where you should take them.

Alert us to your presence by standing on the bridge, holding the artificial body parts over your head and shouting “Kijuju!” We will be there, watching you, and will approach when you make yourselves known.

Points allocated for each body part – 2 points for arms, 2 points for legs, 3 points for torsos, 5 points for a head. The more body parts you find and bring to us, the more points you get. The player(s) with the most points by 11am win the trip to Africa.

The game begins at 9am. Good hunting – we will see you on the bridge. Take pictures, take video, have fun. And don’t wear your best clothes – it’s going to be messy.

A little strange this one.  All I have to say is, “Kijuju!” (whatever that means). 

Back in 2007 the world learned that Andrew Lloyd Webber was writing a sequel to his world famous musical, The Phantom of the Opera.  At that time he revealed the setting would be New York rather than Paris, the setting of the original story.  Little more than that was known (at least by me) until last Sunday when he revealed more details including the possible move of opening in three places at once at the end of 2009.  Also revealed was the location in New York as well as the reunion of the Phantom and Christine Daaé, as the title, Phantom: Love Never Dies, suggests.  I can’t get over the location though- Coney Island.  I guess this quote from the man himself explains this choice:

“It was the place,” Lloyd Webber said. “Even Freud went because it was so extraordinary … people who were freaks and oddities were drawn towards it because it was a place where they could be themselves.”

In the article he also mentions the role of the phantom is as good as cast, but left the name a mystery.  Any ideas?  As I haven’t been part of the musical theatre scene for a while I offer no guess of my own.  Anyway, read the article at msnbc for more info:

‘Phantom of the Opera’ sequel due in 2009

Raise your hand if you remember Winnie the Pooh and his tendency to get his head stuck in the pot of “hunny.”  Okay, you can put your hands down now.  This story isn’t about Winnie the Pooh, but rather Gracie the horse.  I honestly can’t say I have ever heard before of something like this happening.  Fortunately the horse is relatively unharmed from her ordeal.  Story below picture.  Click picture or headline for original story with a second picture.

Having a mare: The horse who got its head stuck in a tree

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:00 AM on 21st October 2008

They say curiosity killed the cat. It didn’t do this poor filly any favours either.

When she managed to squeeze her head into a hole in a tree she had been keen for a good nose around.

The only problem was she couldn’t get it out again. Tired of trying, and stuck fast, she looked as silly as Winnie the Pooh with his head in the honey pot.

Finally, neighbour Jason Harschbarger heard her dismayed whinnying across the fields in Pullman, West Virginia, and came to her rescue.

Gracie, as the horse is called, was left with a dislocated jaw and a few cuts and scrapes from her ordeal.

The tree, however, was considerably worse for wear.

Mr Harschbarger had to resort to a chainsaw to cut Gracie free.

He said: ‘She has a few cuts on her face and ear.

‘Last I heard her jaw was a little dislocated but I think it is healing up and she can eat on her own again.’

I guess that’s what happens when you start horsing around!