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Anorak

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Anorak
Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 10:20 AM

From USA Today - Briticism's

Anorak • A short weather-proof hooded jacket or parka (the term is borrowed from the Inuit of Greenland) – but also a nerd, someone obsessed with a boring hobby, like watching trains or being obsessed with soccer statistics. (Anoraks have a lot of pockets for holding the notebooks, pens, etc. that such people would use.)

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 10:25 AM

Anorak, the original "hoodie."

The Inuit had hoodies before they were cool!

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 12:42 PM

That's USA Today to the life: quoting a disparaging term and getting the definition wrong.

The better definition for 'anorak' isn't a train-WATCHER, it's a train-SPOTTER.  These are people with little notebooks who live for seeing each example of a locomotive or car, a bit like 'album' coin collectors --- or Heritage Unit stalkers --- something that DPM might have a bit more trouble writing approvingly about.

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Posted by NKP guy on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 12:53 PM

   "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!"

                                                                                ---Rob't Burns

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 1:39 PM

"I resemble the incineration of that remark!"

                                                                            --- J. Lester Horwitz

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Posted by Samuel Johnston on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:17 PM
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources.
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Posted by Samuel Johnston on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:34 PM

Anorak.  Annoyingly overpriced gear sold by some retailers; "cute" Inuit name given to boost sales.  Waterproofed non-zipper sweatshirt.  Trainspotting is little-practiced in the US.  OK, so I kept track of which of Boston's PCC cars I rode when I was going to BU before AOC had even been conceived--of.  There were some Arborway-based and Mattapan-based cars I missed but I got all the surviving Tremonts and all 25 All-Electrics (including 2 marooned at Mattapan).  Train-watching is old-fashioned; the old timers went somewhere and saw/photo'd every train that passed for the day.  By my time train-chasing, moving with the train,  was the game.  Besides, train-chasing got one to interesting out of the way places with opportunities to meet interesting people.  Better than going to rock concerts or hiking or injuring oneself skiing.  To each his own.  Trainspotting got a bad reputation from that dreary English movie about drug addicts.  

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:34 PM

Samuel Johnston
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources.

Are you the chicken or the egg?

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:34 PM

Actually, every time I see those stick-figures I scratch my head trying to figure out how he does it.

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Posted by Samuel Johnston on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:36 PM
J Lester Horwitz--didn't he used to collect mileage?
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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:37 PM

Most hobbies are strange and weird to people that don't partake.  Kind of what makes them fun.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 1:59 PM

Samuel Johnston
J Lester Horwitz--didn't he used to collect mileage?

No, but he and his brothers Moses and Samuel got pretty good mileage from such as these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP5lWQH7uFQ

 

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Posted by MikeInPlano on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 9:14 PM

Samuel Johnston
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources.

If that simple animation is "gobbling" your computer's resources, you're long overdue for a new computer. Very long overdue... 

 

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Posted by MikeInPlano on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 9:16 PM

Samuel Johnston
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources.

If that simple animation is "gobbling" your computer's resources, you're long overdue for a new computer. Very long overdue... 

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 10:15 PM

MikeInPlano
 
Samuel Johnston
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources. 

If that simple animation is "gobbling" your computer's resources, you're long overdue for a new computer. Very long overdue... 

That particular animated gif was 27.4 KB.  It's predecessor was 32 KB.  No animated GIF that I have used have exceeded 200 KB

I have no idea how things act on 300 baud accustic dial up modems.

 

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 8, 2019 9:55 AM

Samuel Johnston
Could you lose that annoying stick-figure animation? The Very Soul of Proud Stupidity--plus gobbler of computer resources.

Well, you got just what you asked for.  I hope you're satisfied.

Note to the person formerly known as Firelock76: these things are called animgifs (for animated sequences of images in the old Graphics Interchange Format) and one reason they were popular is that they take up very little space and require very little computer 'power' to run.  (In fact, one amusing consequence of the earliest attempts at 'turbo' overclocking of "IBM-PC clones" involved hard-coded animations for slower processors now starting to run at insane speed ... see one of the common sigs involving GG1 'variants' on RyPN for a taste of the effect...)

There are sites that specialize in providing these, at least one of which has been BaltACD's 'go to' source since he started using the one about 'crossing the chasm'.  (Should I mention here that I still sorta miss that whitewater-rafting cat, something else that would probably infuriate Johnston?)  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, August 8, 2019 3:26 PM

Interesting Mod-man, thanks for the explanation!

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Thursday, August 8, 2019 8:37 PM

kinda sounds like an Amtrak nickname

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Posted by rdamon on Friday, August 9, 2019 7:05 AM

ATSFGuy

kinda sounds like an Amtrak nickname

 

I hear that it was the runner up to the name Acela  ;)

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Posted by NKP guy on Friday, August 9, 2019 7:46 AM

Overmod
 (Should I mention here that I still sorta miss that whitewater-rafting cat,

+1

 

Bring back the cat.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Friday, August 9, 2019 8:40 PM

rdamon

 

 
ATSFGuy

kinda sounds like an Amtrak nickname

 

 

 

I hear that it was the runner up to the name Acela  ;)

 

Ancient Egyptian god of passenger travel maybe?

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Posted by zardoz on Friday, August 9, 2019 8:48 PM

BaltACD
I have no idea how things act on 300 baud accustic dial up modems.

Slam dunk! Beer

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