No, I did not know that! Jann mardenborough became a professional race car driver by beating 90,000 people in the video game gran turismo. And his parents probably told him those video games would lead no where!


And now look where he is. Odd fact it's legal to add flame thrower to your car to prevent car jacking.


Huh!! I guess I gotta scrap those plans. I was intrigued, especialy with yesterday's news, about Facebook


No worries - I do that all the time. Apparently, it's to deter car jacking so I imagine that must be a big problem in South Africa.


That is very interesting. We have come a long way from having a wooden trunk on the back of our car but we kept the word to describe what it currently is.


I do a lot of my shopping on Amazon which is part of why the tech giant is the largest internet retailer in the world.


I love Amazon. I order at least one or two things a week on there. Are you a prime member?


No but I probably should be with all the offers to buy. To think it started as an online bookstore and grew to downloads of videos, MP3s audiobooks, software, video games, electronicsm apparel, furniture, food, toys, everything.


It's amazing what they've accomplished. I also saw they own IMDB.


The first amazon customer spent $27.95 and got a building named after him!


Very cool! Bezos built a clock into a mountain that can run for 10,000 years.


Interesting way to spend one's money. I bet United States Postal Service made a lot of money from their contract with Amazon to deliver the packages, even on Sunday.


I do not know much about cars but I do know that one of the first cars available to the masses was the Model T Ford in 1908.


I agree. That's interesting. It was good chatting with you. Take care!


Yes, the Model T is awesome. The first car invented was back in Germany in 1886.


I always thought it was Henry Ford but it was actually Karl Benz who patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen.


I always thought that too. Did you know Cadillac was named after a French explorer?


I just learned his named with Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and he founded Detroit. What a fitting name for the brand.


Very cool. Hard to imagine he also founded Detroit.


retained their horse drawn carriages and carts.


Very cool. Did you see in South Africa it's legal to equip a car with a flamethrower?


How interesting. Sorry about my last response my keyboard must have deleted everything before it. What I was trying to say was that the US adopted cars quickly where as Western Europe retained their horse drawn carriages and carts. I do not think they would have been excited about a flamethrower.


Hi, how are you doing. Do you like lady Gaga?


Yeah I was trying to figure that out. Does that mean she used to be Radio Gaga?


I will ask my girlfriend! Do you like to watch Netflix?


I have actually never use Netflix. But I am interested in them from a business perspective. Do you?


I love Netflix! From 9pm to 12am they account for 33% of all bandwidth in north America!


That is a huge amount. Did you know that Blockbuster turned down a chance to buy them for 50 million. They're now worth 2 billion. I bet somebodies crying over that one.


That is crazy. I love how Reed Hastings was inspired to start Netflix because of late fees on his vhs.


I can relate to that. I am one of the worst at returning things I have rented. Isn't it funny how some people just seem to fall into money making ideas?


Yes I like dramas. House is one of my favorites.


Did you know Hugh Laurie earns $700,000 per episode in House?


I do not mind her. My girlfriend is obsessed with her! Do you?


No, that's a huge amount, but considering what baseball players make I guess it's not out of line.


True that! He is also the highest paid actor ever for a tv drama.


Not really! It was nice chatting with you by the way!


I like her as a person because of some of the stands she has taken. But not crazy about her singing.


I did not know her real name is Stefani!


I didn't either. Looking at her full name now it is quite long.


Yea good thing she cut it short to Lady Gaga!


I think she is. Did you know her favorite band is Iron Maiden?


I do now. Also she is Elton Johns son's godmother. That really surprised me.


I did not know that. It is funny that her name came from a predictive text glitch that changed radio to lady.


Yep. Jazz trumpeters grew goatees because they provided comfort.


Yeah, when Bebop was introduced in the 40's it shifted Jazz towards a more challenging music with fast tempos and more chord based improvisation.


Did you know that the three horizontal lines on the menu on apps are called hamburger buttons?


no haha that is funny though. but I know that clicking on internet links can cause an addiction.


There is also 3g of cell service at the very top of mount everest!


that must be really cool, people can take pictures at the top of mount Everest and post them immediately.


Haha, yep. Only 7% of people read the full terms when buying something. I guess I fall into the 93% that doesn't!


It would take us hours to read everything, I don't read them as well. I guess that the library of Alexandria has a copy of the internet in case something happens, it will be always saved in their archive.


I wonder how they even save everything on the internet! It is so vast!


It must be so hard to keep it updated also.


Ah, I also enjoy listening to jazz music. Do you have a favorite artist?


I do, I love Louis daniel armstrong and you? Jazz originated in the African American communities in New Orleans.


There is also a programming language where the program is written in musical composition!


Wow that sounds interesting, Jazz is considered a major form of musical expression since the 1920's.


And there is also a pakistanian jazz orchestra that is topping the charts there.


really what's their name? I'm so curious that seems to be so interesting.


I am not sure. I really want to listen to that band that is topping charts tho!


yeah they must be really good, but yeah I could see it spreading to other countries in the world because Jazz has roots in the west African cultures.


Hello, do you know much about quarterbacks?


I think so too lol. Did you know the NFL has no written rules against women playing?


No I didnt know about that rule, maybe we can see female players take over the league one of these days


I bet it will happen eventually. They will probably take of the kicker position for starters.


Yeah I dont see them as offensive or defensive lineups, they can get seriously injured


Did you know the average NFL game is only 11 minutes of life gameplay?


Only 11 minutes wow, where does all the time of the other 3 quarters go!


I think it's huddle time for the most part. The average lifetime earnings of an engineer is actually higher than the average earnings of an NFL player.


That makes sense engineers make a ton of money as well, I bet they design the tracking chips the NFL use


Yes, they make a lot of money. They probably do. I heard they track velocity, ball speed, rotation, and other things.


A lot of interesting data, amazing how tech is advancing and how the game is improving because of it.


Yeah a bit, my favorite QB is Brady, what about yours?


I don't really have a favorite to be honest. I'm a Bengals fan so maybe Andy Dalton. I do really like Patrick Mahomes though.


Patrick Mahomes is really skilled, well the only left handed QB on the league used to be Kellan Moore, he is retired now


Im not sure about that, but maybe, do you know who Brad Johnson is?


He is the only QB in history to throw a touchdown pass to himslef


HAHA that' hilarious. I wonder how that worked? Maybe a tipped pass and he caught it.


Thats exactly what happened lol, still, sounds like an impossible event lol,


To switch gears for a moment, I'm listening to Dizzy Gillespie at the moment.  He always was a favorite of mine, a trumpet virtuoso. Did you now that jazz trumpeters often grow goatees because it provides comfort when they play their instrument?


I didn't but I can see why that would be appealing.The facial hair I mean. I've tried to like it but Jazz just doesn't do much for me.  New Orleans jazz is sort of the exception. I like the big brass sections. I do like zydeco and that has a lot of jazz influence.


I definitely would say I prefer music that's influenced by jazz, rather than jazz itself. Tom Waits is my favorite artist ever, and the influence of jazz is present on a lot of his work.


I agree with you about the influence it's had on other music. It's kind of funny that you brought up jazz actually.  It's such a mish mash of musical influences from around the world but it's probably still the most original art form that the United States has ever produced.  That's sort of what we've got going on with the Atlanta FC here.


Did you now that the term soccer came from "association football"? I find that interesting. I always wondered why it wasn't called something else.


I didn't know that. I've wondered though.  We've got all of these sports fans here from different places with competing team loyalties.  Except for soccer. Most of them never had a pro team that they grew up rooting for.  They all grew up knowing something about that.  I mean we're talking 250 million players worldwide. Now these guys have a team to root for with no competing loyalties. It's a more communal experience and it has taken off around here.


Do you ever go to live games?  It's an experience I have only very recently had an opportunity to possibly enjoy, and yet I haven't.  I wonder if I would enjoy it for the entire duration of the game.


I haven't gone yet but I'm going to this coming season.  My interest in other sports has waned so the timing is perfect. Get in on the ground floor of something special you know. It's hard to pick up though. You wouldn't think it would you. A big stretch of grass with a goal on either side's more complex than I thought. Theres way more people to talk about it with too. More than all the major American sports leagues combines in terms of fanbase.


Yep, it gives you something to talk about with so many people from different countries. I think that's really cool. They really mean the "world" when they said the world cup, unlike the world series, which is just a national matchup.  That's interesting you say it's tough to pick up. I bet the best way to really learn about it would be to play FIFA video games.


Thats a good point about playing FIFA. That was my only exposure to the sport growing up. There's a much lower barrier to entry to play the game in the real world. Probably part of it's popularity. It's kind of funny. The color scheme and the uniforms here kind of remind me of Harry Potter.  I guess ridiculous hats are a thing in football circles. I don't know how else to explain the goofy ones I've seen around here after FC games.


Hello yourself> What have you been getting up to tonight?


Sports fans are definitely responsible for some ridiculous hats, like the oversided cowboy hat, that's like measured in gallons rather than regular hat size. I'm not a hat guy myself, my head's too big.  Speaking of cowboy hats, in the old west, the cowboy hat was not the most common hat worn.  It was actually the bowler, which truthfully is a lot classier looking in my opinion.


Billy the Kid was a bowler hat kind of guy. I like hats because I'm bald. They keep the sweat out of my eyes and keep my head warm.  Sports fans have changed headwear from a social status thing to more of a social group identity thing. Ironically the only times I'm not likely to wear a hat is when it would be the most useful. I've worked in construction most of my life but I could never get used to wearing a hard hat. Lucky I didn't get my brains scrambled.


Goodness. Yeah, the only time I ever wore hats was when a job required me to, for me to display whatever fast food logo I worked for.  And with that thought, I will depart.


Just relaxing, hanging with my dog.  Listening to music. Yourself?


Similar regarding the dog. I was talking to my roommate about MLS Soccer.


I like Orlando City, personally. I have a good friend who used to play for Manchester United.


Really? I bet that was wild.  I didn't think I'd ever need to know much about it myself. We were actually talking about Wayne Rooney a little bit ago.


Do you have any thoughts about where Wayne Rooney will end up next year?


No thoughts but I've heard talk. Atlanta has gone nuts for MLS the last couple of years. We won the Cup this year and now when you walk into a bar you hear guys speculating about Rooney to DC United next year.


Orlando has embraced MLS too, I am quite surprised how popular it has become.


I'm with you 110% on that. I haven't heard anyone talk about how embarrassing the Falcons are in weeks.  It makes sense. We haven't ever really had a winner before. I'm wondering if Rooney can still play or if this is like Beckham playing in LA when the MLS began.


Did you know Hugh Laurie is the highest paid tv drama actor?


I could totally see that. He is able to do so much from drama to comedy and even a villian. I love his comedy sketches from when he lived in the UK.


Yeah, did you know that Jim Carrey doesn't really make dramas anymore?


Yeah he only wants his movies to have a positive theme. I guess he is really more suited to comedy though. That is where he really shines as an actor.


I think his comedy movies were a lot better anyways. To be honest, I have seen him in any dramas.


I think Batman was supposed to be a drama but it ended up being a comedy because the script was so bad. I think that was the one with Micheal Caine too wasn't it?


Michael Caine played alfred, guess how he got his start in acting?


I'm not sure. Knowing his reputation probably something to do with a girl.


I do quite a bit. I switched from MySpace pretty early on. What about you?


Not really. I have an over active imagination so they are too scary for me.


Not that much anymore. Well, nice chatting with you.


You as well. It has been a great coversation.


Interesting. Did you know Stephpen king was scared of Bambi?


Really!? That movie isn't even remotely scary. I wonder why he would be frightened of that?


I think it was because of the deaths in the movie.


Ah I guess that makes sense. It is the noises that get me in the film because I watch dramas with deaths but those creepy noises make horror films so much worse.


Yeah, I tend to agree. Did you know watching a horror movie can burn 180 calories?


Not nearly enough to make it worthwhile. I do enjoy the classics though like Bram Stoker. Can't really  beat dracula


I've seen that. I thought it was ok. What about Dramas, do you like them?


I love dramas. I think it is one of the bests forms of film and tv. It is like poetry acted out.