Exercise.

I just came across this exercise program which is strongly recommended for seniors, it's designed to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. It seems so easy, I thought I'd pass it on. The article suggested doing it three days a week. Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 2kg. potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Do it again 10 times then stop. Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a little bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 5kg. potato sacks. Then 25kg. potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 50kg. potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. After you feel confident at that level, put a small potato in each of the sacks.

Lotus Symphony

Blokes and blokettes that have fiddled with computers for a number of years will remember the ONLY spreadsheet program that was worth its salt back in the 80's was Lotus 123 - it still holds the record as one of the all-time best selling application software packages in the world. The name "1-2-3" stemmed from the product's integration of three main capabilities. Along with being a spreadsheet, it also offered integral charting/graphing and a database operation. Lotus gradually faded into the background as its popularity was superseded by the mighty Microsoft stable, but it's still available, and now it's free.

Lotus123's successor, Lotus Symphony, was Lotus's entry into the anticipated "integrated software" market. It intended to expand the rudimentary all-in-one 1-2-3 into a fully-fledged spreadsheet, graph, database and word processor for Windows.

In 1995, the computer giant, IBM, acquired Lotus Development and with it, Lotus Symphony. IBM have made this software available for download free of charge. It's similar to Microsoft Office and if you don't want to shell our hundreds of dollars for Office - but want a good reliable integrated package, for free, you should try Lotus Symphony. You can get yours HERE.

More free stuff.

Talking of free software, Microsoft gives away its new Internet Explorer Ver 7 for free, just as they did with versions 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. But Microsoft integrated their copy protection program "Windows Genuine Advantage" (WGA) into Internet Explorer 7. To me, it doesn’t It make a lot of sense to check free software and make sure it has not been pirated.

Flying

If you want to see some serious flying, click HERE.  The site takes a little while to buffer but it is worth the wait.

Computers at rest.

When you go to bed at night and forget to shut down your computer, I think you ought to know what actually goes on. It's 2am and do you know where your icons are and what they are doing?? Click HERE to find out. (Sound up)

Get noticed

If you find that you have been by-passed at work, that over the years you have not got the promotions that you know you deserved, that your mates have all been promoted way above you and left you far behind, then perhaps it’s because you’re the sort of person that just melts into the background. You need to be noticed, to stand out from the crowd, to be unique! If that’s you, here are a few ways you can turn your life around and make sure that the people that matter know of your existence.

*     Regularly ring the boss and tell him you’re sorry that you can’t talk now as you’re off to a meeting.

*     Wrap toilet paper around your head and walk though the office wearing diving goggles and large flippers on your feet. If anyone asks, say your are preparing for a focus group.

*     Send an email to the sales manager telling him his latest idea is absolutely fantastic and that one day he must tell you what it is.

*     Walk into your boss's office and look at him/her through the prongs of a fork.

One thing's for sure, you do this for a while and you'll definitely be noticed.

Your girlsfriend.

If you want to keep your girlfriend keen and very interested in you, there are certain things you can do. Click here to find out what.

Round engines.

All those who flew with the "ROUND ENGINES", will know what I'm talking about when I say "we gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation"... A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat. Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from "OFF" to "START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.

Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a horny mistress.  On some planes, the pilots aren't even allowed to do it... Turbines start by whining for a while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder. Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two, more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a BLOKE thing... When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead.  Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting. When you have started your round engine successfully your crew chief looks up at you like he'd let you kiss his girl!

Turbines don't break or catch fire often enough, leading to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow at any minute. This helps concentrate the mind! Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's attention. There's nothing to fiddle with during long flights. Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps.  Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell. To hear what a Pratt and Whitney R-4360 with 28 cylinders sounds like starting up, click HERE (turn your sound up) or if you want to hear 168 cylinders all firing and flying overhead, click HERE.

This engine, the R-4360, was used to power the B-36 (above) and the C/KC-97 and the C-124, and also the legendry Spruce Goose which was built by Howard Hughes, although, the Spruce had 8 of them. It was the biggest mass produced radial engine ever made in the USA.  

DVA Welfare

If you are a Veteran and entitled, or think you are entitled, to benefits provided by the DVA's Repatriation System, but you do not know, or you are unsure, to what you are entitled, then there is a wonderful little booklet that has been provided by the DVA for use by its Welfare Officers. This booklet has been designed to guide the Welfare Officers in assisting you in your dealings with DVA. It clearly sets out your entitlements to medical, optical and dental services, to housing and accommodation assistance, to the grants scheme and to many other benefits. You can get a copy HERE.

There’s no truth in the rumour that K-Mart in Baghdad

There’s no truth in the rumour that Joan of Ark