Knowing your stuff

[Ed]

Hmm Tricky stuff here...
1) I read like crazy: 60% SciFi, 10% Mysteries, 10% Literature, 10% Nonfiction,  and 10% Fantasy.   At least 2 books a week, usually 3-4.
2) monster movies and 50-60's sci fi are my genres.  But I am no expert
3) I love to cook, and am sort of a "foodie", I'm always on a quest for one thing or another. If there was a way to make a real living (i.e. equavalent to being a professional), I'd be a chef.
4)  My wife and I enjoy working on the house and improving it.
5) I currently work a collection of part-time and contract jobs, so that fills the rest of the time nicely.
-Ed

[Brother Ragnarok]

Aside from the obvious horror movies - Godzilla, Doctor Who, and metal \m/
I used to know quite a bit about dinosaurs, and although I haven't had a chance to exercise the knowledge in a while, I'm sure it's still in there somewhere.

[Scott]

I keep an open mind on just about everything.  Always cultivating a wide array of interest. One thing leads to others and the next thing you know your into everything life has to offer.

I think sometime this month or next they are going to televise the Goverment Discloser Project with hundreds of goverment witnesses. I'll get the date if it's still going to show and post the date for it. It's suppose to be something. A lot of countries are demanding to know what all those lights are invading their air space. A lot of very weird things happening and could possible happen in the near future.

http://www.disclosureproject.org/



Post Edited (01-17-05 20:14)

[Brother Ragnarok]

> My other fields of "expertise"--I'm a history buff--not really
> any specific field, though I tend to know more about 20th
> century US history.  I have an English degree and still
> maintain an interest in literature and writing.  

I dig a bit of history as well.  Right now I'm reading Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August," which is a great narrative about  WWI.  If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend checking it out.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I have an always expanding knowledge of horror films and Foreign/Anime.  

I also have an extensive knowledge of the unexplanined/paranormal and spend most of my days in the office reading about such accounts on various sites.

As for music, I used to be heavy into punk/metal/hardcore.  These days, I'm starting to drift more towards indie rock such as Modest Mouse and Wilco thanks to people like Chopper.  

For some reason, I do have a strange ability to name most any film that an actor has been in.  Quite a few people around the office often quiz me on it.  

"Name three movies ______ has been in" and such.  I seem to never lose.  :)

[trekgeezer]

I have a lot of knowledge of old westerns and scifi movies, because I grew up watching them in 60's on the late show.  I saw lots of stuff at the theater as a kid too; 2001, Planet of the Apes, Barberella, and tons of other stuff .

I watched a lot of classic tv as a kid also (Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek, Jonny Quest.).  

I have been interested in UFO's and other paranormal stuff since an early age. I started reading books about them while still in elementary school.  I am sort of disappointed in never actually seeing one.  

I am one of those people who gets on tangents about things. If something catches my interest I must find out about it .

I also know a lot about computer hardware, since it has been my work life for the last 25 years.  Although I occasionally wish now that I didn't know anything about them so no one would ask me questions.

[Derf]

trek_geezer wrote:

> I also know a lot about computer hardware, since it has been my
> work life for the last 25 years.  Although I occasionally wish
> now that I didn't know anything about them so no one would ask
> me questions.
>

I can relate to this one. While computer repairman is only one of my hats (I also do computer graphics and teach Freshman English courses at the local junior college), people (read: my boss) expects me to know every last detail about every program he uses, whether it's one I've ever used or not. I'm also expected to diganose computer problems based on reports like, "I'm getting an error message here in Outlook. Do you know what's wrong?" or "I tried to burn a CD at home but it didn't work. Do you know what could have happened?" Needless to say, there are times I'm ready to go back in time to pre-computer days, when the worst technical problem was that your typewriter keys jammed. . .
I've got my fedora ready; let's go back to the 1940s!

[odinn7]

I was an auto mechanic for 15 years and I can understand what trek and Derf are talking about. As soon as someone would find out what I did, they would pump me for a diagnosis of what could be wrong based on some stupid, off the wall description or worse yet, they would talk me into doing the work for free. I found a solution...I started to charge for work I did and suddenly most people didn't seem to be as interested then. I didn't mind helping someone out now and then but there comes a point where you realize you're being taken advantage of.

[dudeman]

I'm big on metal and comics, those stuff are still related to b-movies though somehow.

[Kory]

Things I know about:

*The California Penal Code (whoopty frickin doo)
*Guns
*Baking
*Japanese Culture/History (not all of it- I'm getting there)
*Music (pretty much anything that isn't crap (ala Brittany & Christina)
*East Indian Culture/Food



Things I wish I didn't know a lot about, but I do:

*The California Penal Code (it's really sad how many numbers 1 person can know)
*80's pop culture- not the cool stuff, the girly adolescent stuff that nobody cares about
*Home/Office organization... it becomes annoying (according to my husband)
*Bad 80's rock

[Drezzy Mac]

Scott wrote:

> Drezzy Mac I was a big fan of Professional Wrestling back
> especially from 1979-1986. Still watch it on occassion, but
> have found that national exposure of these characters kills the
> magic it once had during the territorial days before Satellite
> TV.

I only REALLY got into it at the start of the Attitude era, which was late 1997, because I was 11 at the time and my friend Billy always quoted Stone Cold Steve Austin, so I decided to watch one night to see what the hell he was talking about, and got hooked.

>Started watching it about 1979 when our new cable system
> was upgraded and we picked up WTBS from Atlanta as one of our
> channels and they showed GEORGIA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING and
> that is how I recall becoming a big fan of the "King of
> Sports". I always was curious about wrestling in the 70's, but
> it was on late at night, but always noticed the bloody covers
> on Wrestling magazines when going to the local newstands where
> I lived.

Yeah, the 70's was an awkward period for wrestling. The end of the true territorial days, and the matches were usually pretty terrible, but the workers knew how to make the crowd get into them better than the workers these days do.

I'll give you some comparisons to modern-day wrestlers to your favorites, as long as I can compare them.
 
> Favorite Wrestlers of all time are:
>
> Kevin Sullivan
Raven

> The Fabulous Freebirds
DDP, though he WAS a Fabulous Freebird in the late 80's and early 90's.

> The Masked Superstar
Gah?

> Brusier Brody
Mick Foley admitted to patterning himself after Bruiser Brody, minus the whole "backstage prick" thing.

> Abdullah the Butcher
Abby still does shows, oddly enough. I think he's in his 70's about now. A wrestler that is similar to him would be Madman Pondo, a deathmatch expert that does little else but bleed like a stuck pig.

> Dory Funk Jr.
Terry was better. =)

> The Shiek (original)
Naturally, Sabu would be the modern-day equivalent, considering he is the real-life nephew of The Shiek. Rob Van Dam and Sabu also trained under The Shiek, so there's some added info for you.

> Stan Hanson
LARIAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTT~!~!~~!~!~! Closest comparison I could make would probably be Bradshaw, or as he calls himself now, JBL. But...really, no true comparison, considering Hansen was great.

> Superstar Billy Graham
He eats t-bone steaks, he lifts barbel plates, he's sweeter than a German chocolate cake...and he has no true modern-day equivalent.

> Harley Race
Closest one I can think of would be Vader, because I do believe that Vader trained under Harley, or at least was taken under the tutelage of the original King of the Ring.

> Iron Shiek
Hmmmm...I can't think of any real equivalent. Muhamma Hassan comes close, but that's only due to the gimmick.

> Catus Jack
FOLEY IS GOD. He's my favorite of all-time, right up there with Raven and Chris Benoit, and I truly feel that NOBODY got a crowd into his matches like Foley could.

> The Samoans
Well, considering almost every Samoan wrestling today, with the exception of Samoa Joe and Sonny Siaki, are related to Afa and Samu...yeah. Rikishi, Ekmo, and Rosey are good comparisons, and ALL related to Afa and Samu.

> Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito tag team
Never seen anything with Fuji before he was a manager, so...

> Terry Funk
Only wrestler that might end up like Terry Funk one day would probably be CM Punk, and I don't know why.
 
> Current Wrestlers that I like are:
>
> Eddie Guererro
If you like Eddie, you should check out Hector Garza of AAA and TNA fame. Not as good a wrestler, but definitely similar because of the Lucha Libre style.

> Tajiri
Check out LowKi, whose kicks are 100x better (and he actually has more control over them, since he actually STUDIES martial arts as opposed to just looks like he does), or Shinjiro Ohtani, as Tajiri patterned himself after Ohtani a great deal (I think the only thing he didn't take was the bootscrapes, but every independent wrestler these days does them).

> The Undertaker
...blah. Abyss owns Taker's ass in every way possible.

Some modern-day wrestlers you might want to check out include:
-LowKi
-"The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels
-"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson (who many consider to be the greatest technical wrestler {think Bret Hart, or Dynamite Kid} of the last decade)
-"The King of Old School" Steve Corino
-Samoa Joe
-"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles (if he doesn't amaze you, nobody will)
-Kid Kash (think of the dirtiest bad guy wrestler {heel} you've ever seen, and add on some amazing top-rope maneuvers, and you get the Notorious K-I-D)

[Scott]

Oh yea, I forgot about Steve Corino. He was a great character with ECW. I actually saw one ECW show and all the great ones were on the card that night. They went 100% for a small crowd of maybe 300 people in Atlantic City Armory. It was great !

The Dudleys
Shane Douglas
Sabu
Rob Van Dam
Lance Storm
Tanaka
Taz
Chris Candido
Fancine
Tommy Dreamer
Sandman
Spike Dudley
Balls Mahoney
Knonos
The Blue Meanie
Danny Doring
Tommy Rich
Jack Victory
Little Guido

Now the Samoans I was thinking of were Afa and Sika the first Samoan tag champs. Not sure if you know  this tag team, but I forgot to mention The Minnosota Wrecking Crew: Ole and Gene Anderson.

Another favorite was Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. One of the great ones. Jimmy Snuka during his bad guy days was also great. Don Muraco was one of my favorites also.



Post Edited (01-20-05 17:06)

[Menard]

Ya know what we call wraslin' in the South?

A backyard picnic ( :

[Chopper]

you gave me props for getting you more into Wilco and Modest Mouse, i'm flattered.  :)

[Ozzymandias]

Hansome Harley Race is a frequent guest on the sports station I work at. He runs a wrestling school at Eldon. He does a lot of charity shows at schools in Missouri.