Showing posts with label Commander Zogg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commander Zogg. Show all posts

Friday, March 1, 2013

Remington 8 Number 8,000,000 80th Birthday!


On March 1, 1933, Remington manufactured its eight-millionth machine. Unlike most typewriters, we know exactly when this one was made since they affixed an engraved nameplate.


A proper birthday celebration might have featured party hats, party favors, a Deco style layer cake, lots of sugared up portable typewriters, a bouncy castle, dancing bears, mimes, jugglers, fire-eaters and a Polka band. However, it's Friday and we are just getting over the latest blizzard and the school/work week. MEK of the House Full of Nerds baked banana bread today. I'll take fresh banana bread over a store bought cake any day!

As I was taking these photos, my Spousal Unit, MEK, commented that "This has to be the Nerdiest thing we've ever done!" Well, I beg to differ. We went one step further and sang "Happy Birthday" to the typewriter. Extreme Nerds have no limits!

You can read about this lovely machine in excruciating/loving detail at ITAM Special Report: The Eight Millionth Remington

If you dare, read all about this machine's acting debut at "Last Stand at the Remington"  Godzilla loves the attention!

This was all Teeritz's fault. That and an impulse control issue on my part.

Happy Birthday, Remington!

The Dread Copyright Notice: All words and images are copyright Dwayne F. of vintagetechobsessions. Beyond penalties allowed under law, we have a legion of barely controlled robots and giant monsters at our command. You don't really want to meet them in the middle of the night. Share the love and link back to this site. I'm good with non-commercial use with attribution. See, I can be totally reasonable.



Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas from the House Full of Nerds!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays/Holy Days from all of us to all of you!

Vintage Technology Obsessions passed the 30,000 page view mark sometime last night.  I appreciate your visits, comments and all your creative endeavors.  The Typosphere is a darned nice place to be.

As for the handsome guy at the center of this photo, be sure to read about the Origins of the Christmas Squirrel at
http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-origins-of-christmas-squirrel-part-1.html
and
http://vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2011/12/origins-of-christmas-squirrel-part-2.html


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Off to San Francisco and Pre-travel Ramblings

Bad Godzilla!  Drop that rhino, right now!

Greetings, all!  I'm sorry for the scarcity of posts as of late, but life has been busy and complicated.  Tomorrow, I get on the plane for San Francisco!  In looking for maps and background information, I ran across this unfortunate story on Google news.  It appears that an undersea earthquake caused the usual awaking of giant monsters.  Poor San Francisco!

Thank goodness local emergency management officials planned ahead and built up their inventory of giant robots!  The battle of the titans will no doubt cause much damage and chaos.  However, this is a near montly event in the Bay Area.  I have faith that the BART will still be running on time.

As for this beautiful city, I probably won't see a lot of it.  I am attending Greenbuild; the main event for everything related to sustainable buildings.  The sessions will be great along with four evening receptions and a day spent with the third-party laboratory and certifier I work with.  Yes, pity me.  I will be trapped inside a convention center from sunup to sundown.

There is supposed to be a really nice typewriter shop in Berkeley.  I'll be within a mile or two of it during some Monday meetings, but probably won't make it there.  <sigh>  I most likely will make it to the Super7 store!  It is home to many amazing vinyl monsters and is pretty much Nerdvana.

It will be a week or two before the next entry.  The recent event summary goes like this:  My oldest daughter has been down with a migraine for several days.  We tried to deal with the swirling vortex of leafpocalypse today.  The wind is not helping.  I did a major garage cleaning and organizing binge last weekend and now have some great rolling racks.  The garage work bench is once again clear and I can work on my latest acquisition.  I'll blog it later, but here is a little preview.  No, you should not be worried - much.


As Claire noted, it is extremely beige.  I'm thinking it will need to be repainted dark gray.  Isn't this a nice look?

Source
OK, time for some truth in advertising:  I did not get the full size leviathan Adler.  It is a 1966 Adler Standard.  The only information I have found on this particular model comes from Richard Polt's blog. As for the San Francisco backdrop, that was a bit of amazing timing.  When I went out for lunch on Friday I found this lovely piece of black velvet art at my favorite thrift store for $2.00.

I look forward to sharing some pics from San Francisco and the Greenbuild Expo.  My employer is exhibiting, but I stopped working the booth a couple years ago to immerse myself in the education and networking activities.  This year I get to check out the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Google's Green Team lair.  Nice.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Last Stand at the Remington: Starring Godzilla and a Noiseless 8. Really.

WARNING:  This blog post contains disturbing images of potential historic typewriter abuse.  The viewer is advised that no typewriters were harmed in the making of this flight of fancy.

My Noiseless 8 still requires finesse.  I find there is a fine line between over-powering the key stroke and getting a proper space advance.  It is loosening up with use and I am experimenting with Remington gun lube.  As for me, in the age before word processors, I could actually spell words like "heroes".  Sad.
So, just when you thought this blog could not get any weirder, along comes a story featuring Godzilla, a robot and a very strange vinyl toy I can pretty much guarantee you have never seen.  Before I go any further, I must give credit where credit is due:  it was a Typospherian and blog follower, teeritz, who suggested that the Remington Noiseless 8 looked like a Deco skyscraper.  I just took that concept a step further.

OK, I took it a few steps further.

The story starts with a trail of destruction that did not get captured on a digital sensor.  Well, it was, but the photographer was crushed by falling debris.  The best documentation from the scene starts with a lone robot, Commander Zogg, making a valiant last stand at the Remington Building.

The National Guard tried; they really did.  If you are at all familiar with the depredations of Godzilla in Tokyo, you have an idea of how well that worked out.  Still, the government had one secret weapon in reserve.


Pretty much any pilot worth their salt can tell you that we're all just one atomic breath weapon away from eternity.  Just like those poor Japanese pilots.  It was a nice plane.  Bummer.

Things were looking pretty grim for our hopeful hero.  A space robot can only take so much.  The radiation was getting intense and Godzilla was throwing everything he could get his scaly claws on.


Commander Zogg withstood a barrage that would have brought the great kaiju of Japan to their knees.  The roar, while painful to his auditory sensors, was manageable.  He easily absorbed blast after blast of the atomic breath by rotating the frequency of his quantum resonance shielding.

People fleeing in terror stopped long enough to look over their shoulders at the tremendous confrontation.  At least one adorable boy in a private school uniform even dared to voice hope: 

"It's Commander Zogg!  He will save us!"

But hope is a rare and tenuous commodity.  How quickly a situation can change.  And change it did when Godzilla unleashed his most powerful weapon:  the full body nuclear pulse.  Suddenly, it appeared that Zogg, the bravest robot of his time, was doomed.






As Commander Zogg's strength began to wane, he was surprised when the mighty lizard paused his orgy of destruction.  As if in a dream, a new hero appeared.  Yes, it was the mighty Astro Mu Earth! He came from Japan by way of Jupiter as soon as he detected the world wide distress signal.



Godzilla isn't known for restraint or logic.  While quasi-intelligent, he is primarily a creature of passion and instinct.  Few weapons are known to injure a monster of his stature.  However, he does remember pain.  He also remembers the Oxygen Destroyer all too well.  Having been skeletonized  once before, he eyed Astro Mu's canon with trepidation.

  
With a grudging snarl of admiration, the Tyrant Lizard broke off his assault and trudged through the debris of New York back to the inky depths from whence he came.



New York, or what was left of it, was safe once again.  Godzilla may return, but he will certainly face new, determined defenders.

        The End

Behind the Scenes

With the largest budget ever in the history of Vintagetechobsessions Productions, the crew created an unparallelled  alternative reality for our viewer's pleasure.

Typewriter safety is a priority at the studio.  In order to assure humane treatment, a representative from the Typewriter Protection Society (TPS) was on hand to witness filming.  An after action report was filed in accordance with the Typewriter Safety Act of 2004.


Cast and Crew:

Godzilla                         Shogun Warriors Godzilla (second version*)
Commander Zogg         Himself 
Astro Mu Earth             Reproduction Astro Mu (because the real one is unattainable)
Remington Building     The Eight Millionth Remington Typewriter

* Yes, it takes a true Nerd to know the difference.

The Outtakes

Ultraman was originally cast as one of the heroes.  A product of the studio system, he looked heroically heroic.  However, his conventional good looks did not set well with the the Executive Producer's vision.



All photos and text are copyrighted by Vintagetechobessions in association with Vintagetechobsessions Productions.  Unauthorized reproduction may result in strange toys appearing in your bedroom late at night. Yeah, they are watching...

At Vintagetechobsessions, We Make Farces Fun! (TM)

My Remington Noiseless 8 is reviewed in full and loving detail elsewhere on this blog.  As always, thanks for reading!