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Hey, I'm going to have my tombstone purposefully made with an error. Other than my epitaph reading "Logged Off", I'm going to have my birth year start with an 18 instead of a 19. If anyone even notices, they'll say, "Wow he lived a long life!"

I kept my landline until 2022 and probably never had a personal call on it since 2015. About the only time it ever rang was solicitors, politicians, or someone begging for money for the firemen, police or some other dubious outfit. Now I'm strictly cell phone. Heck, even the BBS I call (Heatwave) is via the Internet or the telnet APP on my cell phone. As times changed over the decades, and magazines going the way of the Dodo bird, about the only solicitation calls that didn't increase in frequency were the magazines.

It's sad, but in this day and age, would you let a kid small enough to ride that toy out to spend hours like we did on our bikes or trikes?

Well, a few years ago, probably not. Now as my advancing decrepitude has been advancing, it can make life easier, and who knows, one day I might say, "Alexa, help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

I'm no expert or fortune teller, sadly just a slowly fading super-fan of the TI-99/4A, which appears (in my personal assessment) to have "peaked". Years ago there were hundreds of messages a month in places like the old Yahoo site and then AA. Some very happy, helpful and influential people have passed away though, others were driven off for various reasons which may have affected the fun factor and contributed to the declining participation rate. Along the way there was a fantastic Newsletter by a guy called "Sparkdrummer" that was called Yesterday's News" in it he covered the best of the best from older newsletters in a format that matched the Newsletters of the time. I'm sure many of us are waiting for the day when Sparky starts uploading them again. Now there is a recently "reborn newsletter", but I caught myself asking, "Why"? Yeah, I shocked myself too! << THIS LINK >> will get you a free PDF copy of it, but after looking it over, for the rebirth issue, wondered what it had going for it that 5 minutes with a search engine on the Internet could not have provided. I really hope this takes off for them and they get the new content they want and viewers and readers they want, because the TI community needs to be more diverse and inclusive, even of newbies or those who are not master programmers or hardware gurus or those that simply want to play games. DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET! If an online community is declining, there may be a reason for it other than beloved members passing away, or people being banned, other things may be going on behind the scenes, attitudes, egos or whatever. So, I hope this Chicago Times Newsletter takes off and brings more people to their website and can help inspire people to engage or reengage. Whatever though, don't let people influence you to "stay put" and not investigate new things, especially if their format is no longer working. Sometimes new faces and new ideas can start a whole new chapter... maybe that person will be YOU!

I don't use it to turn my TV on or off, but I do have it turn on and off lights and a couple of other items. Just don't ask it to fart, trust me.

If you're not a big space nerd like me, you may not get this one.

Sometimes, not always often you come across a video short that has a new concept or is amusing that was fun to watch. Post video links here you deem worthy. I'll start it off with this one...

This one is for @TrekMD

Remember Lincoln Logs?

@TrekMD I saw one of those in a store once, I could never figure out why anyone would want to buy one... BECAUSE YOU CANNOT CRASH THEM (no challenge). It was just like an endless motion picture with a car that could go side to side.

... I found the robot << at this link >>

Yeah, I one as a toy after by dad finished it off. I also had a plastic robot that had bubble bath in it, it even came with a plastic wrench to remove it's arms and legs. Excellent post, Avon like Tupperware remind us of a bygone era.

Creativity to save a buck? Ever wonder what happens to all those stolen shopping carts? I guess if you don't look close... I guess if you don't want to spend thousands on a houseboat, a multi-purpose use trailer can do in a pinch.

Thanks, I'll try that when I get the time, it might be a week or two though. It's not a vintage board, it one of the first batch Ksarul made. I'll switch it out for one of my original 32K boards and retest and while it's out of the box I'll clean the contacts.

Now that I got my TI hooked back up, I thought I'd test the SAM's card...

WOW, I'm envious! No one deserves it better than a doctor into Star Trek. I wish there was better button than the heart I could have pressed, because I think this is simply awesome.. Congratulations.

After I moved into my retirement condo, my TI had everything in place, but nothing was plugged in. I've been calling Heatwave BBS with my cell phone or PC using Classic 99, but tonight since I had a few minutes, I finally took the time to hook everything up. With the exception of some issues with the FinalGROM, everything else seems to be working. Yeah, eight months is a long time, but there is so little TI activity here, I've not felt any rush to jump into action.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Nothing like this existed, so I had to make it and print it myself. So now this spring I'll be able to install that stealth loop antenna on the patio.

I just had to post this after your Wayne's World clip @RickR

Remember this ad from the back of the comic books when you were a kid? I bought one and this is what it really looked like... It worked surprisingly well!

When I was a kid they were built like tanks. After I grew up and had kids of my own I saw them in a store and was amazed they were still made, but they were no longer as durably constructed, but I still bought one for my son anyway.