| Author | Message | ||
     Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10000 Registered: 1-2003  |
This may be a perfect occasion to start my blog. One big reason I've hesitated to do so is that a blog is more permanent than messages in a transient thread. I feel there's pressure to say lofty and profound things. How can I come up with that stuff on demand? Worse, the first message in a blog is surely supposed to be profound. So here is my self-referential entry which states how I feel about initial entries. It's the best I can do. | ||
| buzzsaw Citizen Username: Buzzsaw Post Number: 2785 Registered: 5-2001  |
Nice start. lofty and profound things!?! Naaaaaaaaaaa. | ||
| Meandtheboys Citizen Username: Meandtheboys Post Number: 1774 Registered: 12-2004  |
Welcome to blogging Tom. As far as I'm concerned you always have something worthwhile to say. While it may not always be "lofty and profound," it is always worth reading. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 5528 Registered: 5-2001  |
Hell. I didn't know that there were profundity requirements involved. ••••. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10005 Registered: 1-2003 |
Thanks, folks! By the way, I hope you notice what the occasion was. It's rather embarrassing when people make note of how many times I've posted here. My excuse is that I read and type really fast. | ||
| monster Supporter Username: Monster Post Number: 1385 Registered: 7-2002  |
I see that you have posted way too many times here, don't you ever get any work done? Something to remember about blogging here, others can comment.... | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10006 Registered: 1-2003 |
That's the crux of the problem of posting too much. Too much of real life doesn't get done, or it gets done half-•••-ed-ly. I don't mind people commenting here at all. At least, I don't expect to. | ||
| Crazy_quilter Citizen Username: Crazy_quilter Post Number: 42 Registered: 2-2005 |
I had noticed you were close to 10,000 and was trying to watch when it would happen. I always like when the odemeter on the car makes a big round number. | ||
| Crazy_quilter Citizen Username: Crazy_quilter Post Number: 43 Registered: 2-2005 |
odometer? | ||
| Smoochie Citizen Username: Smoochie Post Number: 35 Registered: 8-2005 |
Tom, Mazel Tov on your milestone!  | ||
| Maplewoody Citizen Username: Maplewoody Post Number: 1056 Registered: 5-2001  |
TOM...you came out blogging on National Coming Out Day! Congrats! | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10011 Registered: 1-2003 |
You tryin' ta say somethin', fella? | ||
| redY67 Citizen Username: Redy67 Post Number: 3791 Registered: 2-2003  |
Wow tom 10,000 impressive.... | ||
| bets Supporter Username: Bets Post Number: 22437 Registered: 6-2001  |
Heck, 10,000's nothing! Check this out: <--------------- Tom, welcome to Blogs. I know you'll probably keep yours updated fairly regularly, unlike myself. I'll look forward to reading! | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10351 Registered: 1-2003 |
My new workplace has quite a strange cast of characters. From their descriptions, you'd think they're dislikable, but for various reasons, they're one reason I'm happy to be here. There are guys who drive pickup trucks, shave their heads, have tatoos and play heavy metal music. One such guy is actually a soft-spoken pussycat. The other yells and curses a lot and looks scary, but I feel fine near him. There's a lot of yelling and cursing and lewd humor, but it seems to serve the purpose of letting steam off. When I interviewed at this job, my boss's boss said we're like the MASH team on the TV show. We goof off, and some of us dislike each other, but when the choppers come in, we work like hell, and we all help each other. And that's pretty much true. I think it suits me well. They call me Doctor Reingold for some reason. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10369 Registered: 1-2003 |
Something weird happened today. Someone hunted me down on the internet to ask me a technical question. He quoted something I wrote on a technical newsgroup in January of 1992! In that message, I mentioned the sort of software I was writing at work. He asked for similar software, but I'm not doing anything related. I gave him a vague hint and wished him luck. I also commended him on his resourcefulness at finding me. | ||
| Dave Supporter Username: Dave Post Number: 7721 Registered: 4-1997  |
At least he didn't find your world-famous poop post. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10379 Registered: 1-2003 |
I'm pretty confident someone will comment on that one, and it will come out of the blue, years from now. I mean, that's how that started anyway. For those who want to know what I'm talking about: http://www.poopreport.com/Fun/Content/Firstpoop/firstpoop.html | ||
| CLK Supporter Username: Clkelley Post Number: 1543 Registered: 6-2002  |
Tom, how far back does your newsgrouping go? I googled myself out of curiosity on google groups (where all the usenet groups live now) and found stuff dating back to the mid-90s before I got bored. It was weird - kind of like a time capsule. I posted a lot to misc.kids.pregnancy when I was expecting my daughter, and reading some of that stuff is eerie. I also found ads I posted for research participants for my dissertation research, which seems like an entirely different lifetime. Have you ever done that? I suspect you have zillions more posts than I ever did though, so it might be an overwhelming task. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 5714 Registered: 5-2001 |
Tom - I have a whole new view of you after reading the Poop Report. I just have to figure out what it is.....  | ||
| redY67 Citizen Username: Redy67 Post Number: 4118 Registered: 2-2003 |
Does it have anything to do with ball tickling or peeing in the shower? | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10384 Registered: 1-2003 |
redY67, I think you're the obsessive one. The more embarrassing aspect of the poopreport story is my grammatical errors. I started reading newsgroups in 1985. I once did find two posts of mine from 1987. They were dirty jokes. So be careful what you write. I don't find them now, nor do I find my writings from 1985 through 1990 or so. I think my prolificity, if that is a word, (prolificiency?) hasn't really hurt me, much, anyway. I think they googled me before hiring me at my current job, and I think it helped, since I've written a lot about software, and I work at a technology company. I am the only Tom Reingold on the net. Sometimes my name is spelled Tommy Reingold or Thomas Reingold. There was a site called http://www.anybirthday.com which had birthdays of lots of people. It was so useful that it was scary, and I think I'm glad it no longer exists. When it was up, I looked up Thomas Reingold and learned that there was (at least) one other person in the country with my name. He's approximately my age. He lived in California and then Colorado. I think it's a rare name because (1) Reingold is relatively rare, and (2) it's a Jewish name, and Thomas is a Catholic name. I have never met a Reingold I'm not related to, though I've emailed one and come close to meeting a couple of others. Omer Reingold, who is from Israel and now lives in NJ, came to Bell Labs to give a talk when I worked there. I decided to avoid the talk, to keep my record (of not meeting other Reingolds) consistent, similarly to how my college friend never went into a Brigham's when we lived in Boston. | ||
| Jay Citizen Username: Jaymon Post Number: 1004 Registered: 10-2004  |
So you have family in the beer busness, or is that the wrong spelling? Yeah, interesting combination of first and last names. If you had blond, blue eyed children, that would be even scarrier. Prolificity? Not a word, unless you are so prolific that Webster let's you make up your own words. I make up my own words, drives my wife nuts. So hate playing Scrabble or Boggle with her. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10387 Registered: 1-2003 |
We make up words all the time at home. I always say "alba" as the plural of "album." The beer is spelled Rheingold. Growing up, people used to say, "Oh, Rheingold, like the beer?" and it made me fed up. (Fed me up?) But then my father said it's really useful. They may tease, and they may misspell it, but at least they remember it. Now that the name disappeared and reappeared but is still not well known, people who are younger or aren't from this area have never heard my name, which illustrates my father's point. A kid in my ninth grade class teased me for being a walking commercial. Thomas' english muffins, Lee jeans (which I wear almost every day) -- that's my middle name, and Rheingold beer. Oh, and for what it's worth, Rheingold is a gentile name. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 5717 Registered: 5-2001 |
I wouldn't have thought that Reingold was such an unusual name. My youngest brother also has a "Christian" first name. By the time he came along, my mom was really fed up with her quasi-Orthodox Jewish in-laws & wanted to name him "Christopher", mostly to piss them off. My father freaked. His current name is not too much different, but at least has no derivation of "Christ" in it. TS's surname used to be very unusual. When we lived in JC, she was the only one in the phonebook. When we moved here, she was also the only one in the phonebook. Now, there are tons of them. We get strange calls every couple months or so, wanting to know if she's related to someone with the same name. She never is (that we know of, anyway). | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10388 Registered: 1-2003 |
The story of my name: My parents agreed to name me Joshua. After delivering me, my mother told my father that she really wanted to name me Tom. My father couldn't oppose a woman who had just delivered a baby, so he agreed. They also agreed that I would have no middle name. They were late in submitting my name, so I was officially nameless for about a week or two. Somehow, my father ended up filling the form out. He felt an awesome feeling of power, perhaps because he was angry at my mother for giving in to her, so he decided to give me a middle name, without her consent, so he chose Lee. He also likes the rhythm of five-syllable names better than four-syllable names. greenetree, TS's surname is common in England, of course. And your father was as bad as mine, because he'd use his son as a weapon against others. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 5720 Registered: 5-2001 |
No, it was my mom who wanted "Christopher". I don't think she thought of it so much as a weapon as her bizarre and, at times, inappropriate sense of humor. Actually, TS's name is spelled differently in England. Her's has a distinctly American provenance. | ||
| SoOrLady Citizen Username: Soorlady Post Number: 2663 Registered: 9-2003 |
With each of our kids, we went into the hospital with one name in mind, took one look at the child and decided that the name we had chosen did not fit. Child #3 ended up with the name we had chosen for Child #1.. it suits him, but definately would not have suited Child #1. | ||
| Lizziecat Citizen Username: Lizziecat Post Number: 902 Registered: 5-2003 |
My sons have no middle names. We had enough trouble finding one name for each of them. We figured if they wanted or needed middle names, they could choose their own. | ||
| Brett Citizen Username: Bmalibashksa Post Number: 1981 Registered: 7-2003 |
There are only 9 Malibashka's in the world. And only 2 of them are males that can pass on the name, Chase and I. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10399 Registered: 1-2003 |
That reminds me. My grandfather Reingold had four kids and 11 grandchildren. I'm the only Reingold boy in my generation, and I had two daughters, so the name is dead with me. I mentioned this to my father, assuming he'd care, and he said, "So? Waddaya got a sense of dynasty or something?" | ||
| Brett Citizen Username: Bmalibashksa Post Number: 1982 Registered: 7-2003 |
My fiance' would like to keep her name. I'm not supposed to post it but.... _____Man _____ Size ______califragilistic ______ Duper You get the idea. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10927 Registered: 1-2003 |
My mother had a sister named Dorothy. My mother called her Dot, so my sister and I called her Dot, too, but no one else did. My father taught my aunt Dot to play the guitar. Eventually, Dot made a career out of music, specifically music therapy. She also became an expert in folk music. My parents divorced when I was young. They separated when I was four and my sister was six. When I was nine, Dot gave me my first music lesson. I later went to music school and became pretty serious about music. Funny that it should bounce from my father to my mother's side and to me, i.e. my father didn't give me any music lessons. Dot died in 1988 at the age of 63. She was only a year older than my mother. I still miss her, many years later. Dot was married to Joe. He was a rough, crude, and slightly rude man. He teased Dot and my cousins. But he was gentle to me. I have a couple of memories of him and me being alone together. Joe died in about 1990. All these memories came back because my cousin, whom I only talk to every few years, sent this picture of Joe holding me, at about eight months old. My mother doesn't like the picture of me because she says I wasn't a pudgy baby. So maybe it's not all that accurate, but it brings back nice memories. They lived in a house on Long Island, which was a nice contrast to the upper west side of Manhattan where I grew up.  | ||
| wendy Supporter Username: Wendy Post Number: 1814 Registered: 5-2001 |
Raise your daughters so they are proud of their name and who they are and they might want to keep THEIR name - which is actually just your name and not their mother's anyway. Taking someone else's name is somewhat feudal (property rights and all that). I gave my son my last name as a middle name. Let the next generation work out the kinks. The Spanish sort of do it now. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 2012 Registered: 9-2003  |
I kinda agree with Wendy. My maiden name is Wilber, which is a bit unusual spelled that way. I used it a middle name in my first marriage (followed by Cain), kept in my second, and this time round dropped it due to fatigue and prospect of having a kid. But, I will always think of myself as a Wilber. Most of my Wilbers are from around Kingston/Woodstock, and way back when, it was shortened from Wilberforce. No reason why your girls mightn't keep their name. I rhink you and your uncle look nice, father-sonly. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10933 Registered: 1-2003 |
I didn't mean to imply my daughters would change their names readily. They have discussed the idea that they would not, which sounds good to me. My musing with my father several years ago was about the fact that when my sister (who kept the name) and my daughters die, there'll be no more Reingolds. I don't expect them to pass the name on to their kids. My sister has a kid with her husband's last name. | ||
| Wendyn Supporter Username: Wendyn Post Number: 2429 Registered: 9-2002  |
My friend gave her son her husband's last name and her daughter her last name. Seems to work well for them so far. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10997 Registered: 1-2003 |
After two years in college, I dropped out to take time to decide what I wanted to do. I was majoring in music (voice) but realized that's not what I would do professionally. My first year, I worked as a bicycle mechanic in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I loved that work. I got to see the fruits of my labor all over Boston and Cambridge, locked to parking meters. I was earning very little money but spending even less. My bank account balance was increasing. I got the idea to take a trip. I had never been to Europe. I mentioned the idea to my father, half expecting him to tell me what a stupid idea it was. He told me it was a great idea. He said, "go until your money runs out, and I'll put you up when you get back. Never again in your life will you have both the time and money to do this." I didn't appreciate that last sentence until years later, of course. I took my money and bicycle and took a standby flight on Iceland Air. Had a layover in Rekjavik. So here I am in my passport picture, days before I embarked. I was 20 years old. The year was 1981.  Would you have sat next to this man on a plane? I spent late September and early October in France. Then I went to England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I came back when my money was about to run out. It was also cold and damp and dark. The sun sets at 3:30 in England in December. Also, southern England got covered in snow, which is unusual for them. They were very tied up as a result. I will never forget that three-month trip. | ||
| Meandtheboys Citizen Username: Meandtheboys Post Number: 2153 Registered: 12-2004 |
What a nice memory, Tom. How lucky for you to have such a wise and thoughtful dad. I think I might try to remember that when my boys are 20, and send them on an adventure! | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 10998 Registered: 1-2003 |
I could write a lot about that trip. And I should, but it's late now. I learned a lot of lessons of life then, and they are still useful now. |
