Love Porg Long Time

I’m happy to announce the return of pwoodford.net! Readers of Paul’s Thing and Crouton’s Kitchen should no longer be getting scary warnings about accessing unsafe sites. My SSL certificate had expired, and not being quite the nerd I thought I was, I had to ask the folks at the host server for help in renewing it. All is well now, and I hope no one was scared away!

What the hell is an SSL certificate anyway? It enables data encryption between websites and users. If you send information to me via one of my sites — sharing a recipe with Crouton’s Kitchen, for example, or commenting on something I wrote on Paul’s Thing — malicious types won’t be able to trace and hack you. This sort of data encryption is mostly used by commercial sites, and while my sites are anything but, what’s the harm in offering it? Would I have known what a hassle it would be when the SSL certificate expired, I might not have done it in the first place, but hey, it’s all sorted now. Whew.

In a past post, I mentioned NASA astronaut Bill Pogue and the unauthorized Seiko wristwatch he smuggled aboard Skylab back in 1974, a watch that has since become known as a Pogue and is now a collector’s item. I happen to own a Pogue (Donna bought it for me in 1978 and I still wear it) and love sharing the story (you may want to give me a wide berth if you see me at a party).

Another story, which I don’t think I’ve ever shared here, is about the owner’s manual that came with my first motorbike, a 1964 Honda 50, and the oddly-translated but flowery English it used. I wish I still had it (the bike and the owner’s manual). In it were some memorable lines:

• At the rise of the hand of the policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him by or otherwise disrespect him.
• When a passenger of the foot hove in sight, tootle the horn trumpet to him melodiously at first. If he still obstacles your passage tootle him with vigor and express the word of mouth the warning “Hi! Hi!”
• Beware the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass him. Do not explode the exhaust box at him. Go soothingly by or stop by the roadside till he pass away.
• Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in the roadway. Avoid entanglement of dog with your wheel spokes.
• Go soothingly on the grease-mud, as there lurk the skid demons. Press the brake of the foot as you roll around corners to save the collapse and tie up.

The language of that owner’s manual, which should have been dry and technical, was instead poetic, beautiful, and evocative. And I discovered just this morning that similar Japanese to English translations still exist. To my delight, I found this passage about Bill Pogue and his famous wristwatch in the product description section of an updated version of the classic Pogue being sold on Amazon (click here or on the image to see it in full).

Introducing a new product inspired by the first generation Speed Timer model featuring a dial color that is full of originality. The iconic bright yellow dial color and red/blue color tachymeter scale aluminum bezel display is inspired by the original 1969 model. Original Model Details: On November 16, 1973, NASA Astronaut William Porg entered the Saturn Rocket in the pocket of the space uniform pants. This watch is part of the world’s first automatic chronograph calibre 6139 Seiko “Five Sport Speed Timer” series, which started its sale since spring 1969. Porg bought it at the Air Base vendor for $71. Seiko watches are not NASA certified. However, when flight training begins, Porg trained flight with Seiko, as the official watches were still not provided by astronauts. “When using a rotating bezel to measure the burning time of the rocket engine, this Seiko was so useful.” Porg thought “I want to use Seiko in the universe, and decided to be a personal personal personal companion to the mission. And in the actual space station, the right wrist is an official NASA watch and Seiko on the left wrist for work. Despite it was not specs to withstand the space environment, it seems to accurately show the time even in zero-gravity spaces. Porg’s chosen watch features a bright yellow dial and vivid design that never looks old even after nearly 50 years of launch, and still looks attractive Porg successfully circles the Earth 1214 on this mission of Skylove 4 and served the mission of a space station for up to 84 days of space stay. Porg loved this watch for a long time after taking off the space uniform, but in 2008, he decided to take the watch to the auction. And given the full amount of bills to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

If that doesn’t brighten your day, I can’t help you. Stay fresh, cheese bags!