Post #3196

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
—Mark Twain

Post #3195

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then say it with the utmost levity.
—George Bernard Shaw

Post #3194

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.
—Mark Twain

Post #3193

Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family: but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything.
—Willa Sibert Cather

Remembering Ben Akers, BTC - A Few Words From A Shipmate

 Robert H. "Bobby" Akers Jr.

December 19, 1968 - November 28, 2018

He was "Ben" to his shipmates. We served together in "B" Division onboard The USS Dubuque between 1987 and 1989, stationed at Sasebo, Japan. Ben was ten years my younger and ten times the BT.

The self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.
—Thomas Szasz

It's normal for us not to be able to remember everyone we ever served with, when and where. For me, Ben Akers was easy to remember because he was hands down the hardest working Hole Snipe I ever knew. He was strong, tireless, resourceful, and not afraid to get dirty. He had a kind of quick, dry wit about him, as I recall. Even tempered, he spoke with a Western Pennsylvania dialect. Akers was the last person I ever heard use "yinz" in a sentence. He was a 4.0 Sailor. Squared away. His "gig line" was straight. Pick your metaphor, but Ben Akers was born to be a BT in The US Navy. I was honored to serve with him.

So, since the last time I saw Ben Akers, a lot has changed. The introduction of the World Wide Web was a biggie. I tried to search him out many years ago, but nothing came back. I remembered him again just yesterday, so I sent out another search. This time I got the sad news of his sudden passing back in 2018. Condolences to his widow, and his family. Jimmy Buffett wrote;

He's somewhere on the ocean now
A place he oughta be
With one hand on the starboard rail
He's wavin' back at me

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Shipmate.
―Strasser, BT2

Post #3192

Artificial Intelligence is of two kinds:

1. the ability of machines to perform tasks that are typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning and problem solving.
2. the ability of humans to fake their own intelligence to make themselves appear smarter than they actually are.

—holden klass

Jimmy Buffett Has "Crost the Bar"

December 25, 1946 - September 01, 2023

Be good and you will be lonesome.

―Mark Twain

····

Be lonesome and you will be free

Live a lie and you will live to regret it

That's What Living is to Me.
―Jimmy Buffett

Son of a Son of a Sailor · The Captain and the Kid · A Pirate Looks at Forty · Cowboy in the Jungle · Havana Daydreamin' · He went to Paris · Tin Cup Chalice · Margaritaville · Come Monday · Tides · The Wino and I know · Trying to Reason with a Hurricane · Cheeseburger in Paradise · Fruitcakes · Life is Just a Tire Swing · Door Number Three

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

I've been listening to Jimmy Buffett's stories since The Great Filling Station Holdup. Inspired! I wanted to be a Sailor so I joined The Navy. I wanted to hang out on the beach so I spent a year in Costa Rica - on the bum. Everywhere I've been, the wit and wisdom of Jimmy Buffett was right there with me, and I thank God for that.

Breathe in, Breathe Out, Move On

Jimmy Buffett, The Sailor, Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Businessman, Philosopher, and Philanthropist will forever be an inspiration to people across the globe. Passed from this earth now, but not forgotten, his legacy is the gift that keeps on giving.

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Jimmy.

—dave

Post #3191

Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Post #3190

The person portrayed and the portrait are two entirely different things.
—José Ortega y Gasset

Post #3189

Few blame themselves until they have exhaused all other possibilities.
—Anonymous

Post #3188

Thinking is difficult. Therefore, let the herd pronounce judgement.
—Carl Gustav Jung

Post #3187

The simplest things give me ideas.
—Joan Miró

Post #3186

It is better to know nothing than to learn nothing.
—Anonymous

Post #3185

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
—Lin Yutang

Post #3184

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
—William Penn