Gray Beard Nerd
Bio
A nerd who is into cars, video games, movies, book and more. I love to write and hope to share what I have written with others. Please enjoy!!
Stories (64/0)
Family Stealth Fighter Convertible
The Year was 2012 and I needed a new car. Having recently sold my daily driver I had bought GMC Sonoma pick-up truck and I hated it. It rode like an ox cart and was incredibly tiny. Of course, I bought it because I thought I would like it but after only a few weeks driving it around I could not take it anymore. The truck was not new by any means, but it was incredibly low mileage and had been sitting in a barn for most of its life. Buying it felt like the deal of the century but considering how much driving I was doing at the time for work on not the smoothest roads in the world it was just not working out.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Wheel
Ganondorf's is King
Ganondorf is a cool villain. Sometimes painted as a ruthless tyrant and others as a sympathetic villain in pursuit of understandable motivations, Ganondorf never fails to deliver menace and intrigue to a story in the Zelda universe he appears in. I wanted to take a minute of your time to go through his history and highlight some of what makes him engaging and special to me. To do this in orderly fashion we will examine the character in an order based on the Hyrule timeline, except for Breath of the Wild which I will discuss last. With the premise established let’s do a deep dive into the truly terrifying King of Thieves, Ganondorf.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Gamers
- Top Story - May 2021
Pop Up HeadlightsTop Story - May 2021
The year was 2014 and it was our tenth wedding anniversary. To celebrate we sent the kids on ahead to Disney with my parents and took two days just the two of us to drive down and have our own little adventure. This left me with an important decision to make, what care were we going to take. A convertible cruiser seemed to be a likely pick. Now my uncle was generous enough to offer us one of his cars to take and choosing between his fleet at first seemed to be difficult. Eventually though I realized that one of the cars was the same age as our marriage and the decision was made. Of course, the fact that it was a 2004 special edition Chevrolet Corvette probably helped it to be picked as well.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Wheel
I Love Sci-Fi, But...
Okay I love science fiction of all kinds. Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park and Aliens are incredible stories and concepts and anytime some new piece of information comes out concerning Back to the Future or The Predator I am eating that stuff up. But over the countless years of reading and watching science fiction you tend to pick up on some tropes. Some of them add to the entertainment value for sure. But others just need to either become less common or disappear entirely. Here is a list of things I would like to see less or more of in sci-fi.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Geeks
My Angst Playlist
Who remembers Napster? I mean the real Napster, where the music was unlimited and free for you to download. Every night I would pick seven songs to download and let them run all night on my computer, internet was a lot slower then, then I would wake up early and burn a new cd to listen to on the way to school. It was the ultimate expression of rebellion, and that is why after only a few short years they shut it down. But over those years I found and downloaded music I would never have had otherwise. Sure, know I know that it was bad, piracy and all that. But as the aforementioned angsty teenager it was almost a form of self-expression. As an homage to the short-lived Napster rebellion here is a short list of teenage angst songs from my youth.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Beat
Game Sack
Since 2011 Joe Redifer and Dave White have been reliving the glory days of gaming, sharing their extensive classic collections with the world through their YouTube channel Game Sack. From the NES to modern day consoles there is nothing the duo has not covered though they are more famous I would say for the older stuff as well as their decidedly 90's inspired humor. It at times can be pretty cringe inducing, or dare I say crass, but it hits more than it misses.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Gamers
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
As a teacher I am always looking for way to connect with my students through media they enjoy. When I teach Microbiology or a unit on Epidemiology in some other Biology course, I always bring Pandemic the strategy board game. When I am teaching the metric system or giving scientific measurements of objects, I always use Minecraft blocks as examples. When we do Chemistry, I always try to include some cool demonstration that they may have seen online but explain how and why it works. I enjoy these things after all and it’s fun to share them and apply them in a lesson. I want my classes to be fun and engaging and I want my students to learn a lot from their experiences in said class. But I teach science and one of the frustrations I experience as a teacher is when I find something that would be perfect to use in class, but not a class I am licensed to teach.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Education
$1000 Mini
2013 was a difficult year for me and my family. We had moved back home after being away for work three years and I was kind of in between jobs. My Dad's cancer was also back, and he was looking ahead at another round of radiation treatments. All these afflictions were temporary, within a few weeks I had found work and after a year of treatments my Dad's cancer was in remission. But despite my families’ circumstances improving, we were still financially drained from the whole experience. To make ends meet I sold my car.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Wheel
Hydrogen
It is the most abundant fuel in the universe and when you burn it the only byproduct of the combustion reaction is water. More than this it has three times the potential energy than petroleum so the question really becomes, why are we not using it to power everything? Well there are several answers to that question, but the most surprising one is we are already.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Earth
Star Wars Games
Star Wars day is coming and I can not help but think about some of my favorite visits to the Star Wars universe. Here is a list of a few of my favorites, some great, some just okay and some nostalgic guilty pleasures. So strap in for hyperspace and make sure you have a good blaster at you side. Let's do a deep dive into the games of Star Wars. May the Force be with us.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Gamers
- Top Story - April 2021
68 Shelby GT 350Top Story - April 2021
Growing up, my family had a special connection with cars that extends even to today. As such I got to drive some amazing and strange vehicles during my youth. But the one that stands above the rest vehicles was my dad's 1968 Shelby Mustang GT 350.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Wheel
Maelstrom
Disney's EPCOT has always been a place that fascinates me. The concept of a world's fair that never really ends was revolutionary at the time and while as a concept it has not aged to well, I will always enjoy the parks unique idea of what a theme-park can be. Some of my all time favorite Disney memories come from EPCOT and still to this day it is my favorite park to visit. But the world is changing and the EPCOT of my childhood has changed a lot to stay "relevant" and "competitive" in the modern era. But if I could turn back time I would take my family to EPCOT in the 80's and 90's in a heartbeat. In 2019 Disney announced some big changes for the park and it seems the future world of my youth will largely be going away. That said some changes have already been made and while many of them are arguably for the better, one of them broke my heart.
By Gray Beard Nerd3 years ago in Geeks