This rant is prompted by several people who I've
corresponded over the years, and for some reason, get their wankers out of
whack.
Many, many years ago, someone emailed me and asked me to
stop using the term "tri-lights" in reference to the type of signals where the
lenses are placed in a triangular fashion. I choose not to, stating my
reasons, and the guy got really pissed off.
Another fellow wrote to me to complain about a not so nice
term I used for the NS police because they happen to be especially arrogant and
nasty, and he did so because he had never had a bad encounter with them. I
guess he doesn't get around much.
There was also this here fellow that got out of whack
because I didn't, when I sent him an email, start off the email as "Hi Mr. Yadda
Yadda Yadda", in other words, very formal like I'm writing him a snail mail
correspondence for a job or something. He also got incensed because he
felt I should have remembered him from a previous correspondence perhaps a year
of so earlier. Excuse me, is he aware of how many people email me every
day about trains and signals??? And he has never gotten over it in
something like 6 or 7 years.
And most recently, is the fellow below. He not only
beats me up on the lens color called Cobalt Blue, but the "tri-light" thing
mentioned above too.
Give me a frickin break!
Late in 2013, I had someone email me to ask if I could
remove the term COBALT BLUE from the then Blue and Purple lens page. I courteously replied that
I couldn't, because to do so, would be a severe violation of my
responsibility to be
as complete and as factual as possible. People who do have the power to
disseminate information, as I do on my two websites, have a responsibility
to not only be accurate, but complete. By leaving the term out, I
would be nothing short of irresponsible.
So, here is how NOT to make friends and influence ANYONE.
While Paul may be a fountain of knowledge, he lacks the appropriate skills
needed to "get along with others" and to "play with them nicely". Some
people are blind to their own shortcomings as Paul here shows off his best
AND worst....
I did however, as he suggested, take the term out as being
a lens called that color, and now reference the term as being inaccurate as a
method of specifying the color.
My comments are in dark blue,
almost a cobalt blue, and my email responses are in black bold italics....
His very first email:
I am a collector of signals and have been meaning to write to you for some time
but your site takes some work to find where exactly. I guess he is due for some new glasses, for my contact info is on almost
every page, including my old page for purple lenses! It was just below the
listing of lens colors he is beating me up over!
I don't mean to be critical
(much :-),
but this last thing I just read has got to be addressed.
Todd, PLEASE don't use the incorrect term, Cobalt Blue in any way when
describing signal colors. I was looking at your section on Purple signals and
you list blue, purple and Cobalt blue as well as the others. These is no such
thing as "Cobalt Blue!" That is an inept, antique dealers term and is terribly
confusing
(not really, only confusing to him...).
We historians in the collector community (myself, Mike, Dave, Jeff, Phil, Ron
etc.) like to use the actual terms: "RSA Signal _______ " (fill in either
red, yellow, green, blue, purple or Lunar White.) (I like to use a lot of sayings too, but that doesn't mean it is going to "fly" all
the time, or that people will necessarily know what you are talking about!)
Question: If it is OK to use the term LUNAR to describe a signal color, why is
it not OK to use COBALT? For both are accurate descriptive terms for the
color that is displayed. I don't know either.
That is the truth about the misuse as you are insisting upon with the metal
"Cobalt" as a color of signal glass. It isn't one, and that is a provable fact.
In England this range of deep blue colors is known as "Bristol Blue" and
there-in lies the problem: Please, tell me Todd, what color is Cobalt
blue? I'd really like you to define it.
The RSA had that issue along with the others and they did solve it with Dr.
Churchill's assistance by October 1905. Hence the "Blue Tested" and "Purple
Tested" stickers on certain difficult to determine colored glassware. To ignore
that as you seem to insist on doing leaves you open for criticism by others
(like me) and experts which by your response is a bit difficult for you (and
me.) I am not trying to do anything here but help you out.
Why the need to get nasty and resort to name calling then because I rejected
your request?
Nor would your personal determination of what appeals and does not appeal, that
is not for you or me or any individual to decide.
I guess HIS insistence for me to NOT use cobalt blue is NOT an effort for
him to tell me what to do... because that is what HE decided??? Please, cut
me some slack here dude...
Factual accuracy must be treated with objective and dispassionate
respect, otherwise there will be someone or someones who will eventually get
tired of the inaccuracy and make a very real effort to embarrass, very badly in
fact so I'd suggest trying to avoid the "class issue" as I interpret your answer
to me. Personally, I am only a tool and die maker, a blue-collar worker, but
that does not mean one has to be lazy about doing things correctly, as
accurately as possible......for
the record
Haven't a clue what he was referring to here with class or why he felt it
necessary to bring it up, unless of course, he feels inadequate as a blue-collar
tool and die maker instead the lawyer he wanted to be, and, if anyone is
interested, I graduated in "that favorite class of mine, 69".... He has
already set himself up in an elitist class of historians and experts who think they know
better than the rest of us, poor US, we don't know any better, woe is me :-)
If you have the 1911 Signal Dictionary (I have both '08 and the '11 actual
copies)
(he starts his bragging pretty early in our email exchanges)
you know the color spectro-photometric values are listed about midway in
that tome. Cobalt is actually a metal not a color.
No Paul, cobalt is used as an adjective to further define BLUE, as we all
know, blue can mean a million different colors! Just as we would call
something moss green, or lime green!!! But wait a minute, how can we call
something LIME GREEN, when we all know LIME is a fruit, not a color... where do
we get these dorks from??? Or dark blue or light blue, that's nice for the
general shade of blue, but since there is only one shade of dark blue used in
railroading, it is fair game for people to call it what they want, whether or
not the experts agree with its usage.
I do see you're nothing more than a self appointed expert. The internet is
loaded with people full of loads. He is also referring to himself, because, by trade, he is a tool and die
maker, who spent his youth in the libraries of NYC learning about signals, he was
NEVER formally educated about signals (or worked as a signal professional), so I believe that officially places him
in the "self appointed expert" category also!
After 6
months, the Yahoo server no longer has my replies in the send directory, so I
couldn't post them here, but judging from his subsequent emails, we can pretty
much tell what they were.....
His next email:
Oh, really? Then take "Cobalt" off your website or else you are demonstrating an
obviously
Poser
(love that term! - I am, a POSER!!!!! We're going to track his name
calling in brown)
level of expertise as you've decided beginners need what you've referred
to as a complete list of colors. Besides,
if your Website isn't a clear example of self-proclaimed expertise, I defy you
to demonstrate precisely what is.
Actually, I've never proclaimed myself as an expert, I just decided one day to
start this website as a single place to go to so you can find out anything
signal related, I constantly use other peoples material, others who have way
more knowledge than I do, and if I come across inconsistencies, I point them out
to the reader with a "reader beware" warning! To answer his
question tho, his book for starters.
I have never paid for any information off the internet. WHY would anyone? Don't
take this the wrong way as I am being serious, but exactly how old are you?
(Importance?) Do
you know how to do real primary research on a given subject? All the way back in
the
middle 1970's,
I used to go to the main public Library on 42nd street & 5th Ave. in NYC and do
my own primary research using "The Signal Engineer" magazine (going all the way
back to 1908) and the Signal Dictionaries, catalogs and many books, etc. Then
all was moved to the Auxiliary Branch on the West Side of Manhattan in the late
'70's
(Importance on the history lesson of the library?). I never paid a penny for anything in doing this research aside from the
Xerox copies I still have.
He's never paid for info off the internet, yet he wants people to buy his
book... if he really wanted to help, he should set up his own website and give
all of his intimate and expert knowledge away for free, the same way he is
advocating for the casual reader of stuff on the internet. While he was
doing this for signals, I was in the library of Tyler TX doing the same with
electronics! :-)
Look
dude,
you openly ask for corrections, but in the tradition of the
entry level internet sniping type
(So, by now, the second email, he resorts to name calling - good way to make
friends and influencing them to do whatever it is that he says he wants me to
change, so please, everyone write in and tell me who has the problem.... he
probably got beat up as a kid, because to sit there and tell me that it happened
to me, well, I go back to the childish saying of "it takes one to know
one", booyah), you lord it over people and provide no recourse.
(I do actually, and he took advantage of it by sending me emails - he just
turned into a "sourpuss" because he can't do it in a live manner) (Also, is it
OK for me to start the name calling thing, since he started it first?)
That's
juvenile
as is your blocking my inserts into your e-mail response, but not surprising. What he is referring to, is that I replied to his comments in a one by one
method so he would know exactly what I was responding to, obviously, a method he
clearly despises! See below. In fact, that is the way my responses
here are posted.
Sorry, but you aren't being "complete" by including "cobalt blue."
(This screams opinion)
You are being
deliberately incorrect, question is why. Wikipedia is very well known as
worthless shit
(Again, this screams opinion). If you've read anything on there about railroad signals ie: a
Mr. Blake having patented the Searchlight signal in 1918, that and a lot of
other detailed research, I posted that years ago
(Is he making a statement here that his posting is worthless as shit?). Not one Historian pays
Wikipedia any attention at all since anyone can change it at any time. There are
more inaccuracies in it than valid information. It's rightly ignored.
So why is it then did he waste his time contributing to Wikipedia???
So, the description you cut and pasted as "cool blue," just what does that
indicate in color spectro-photometric values? Don't know? I will tell you,
it is meaningless. Anyone can cut and paste. You've proven nothing by doing
that. It is objectively inappropriate for you to include, period.
I made the mistake of cutting and pasting a snipet from Wikipedia on the
color "cobalt blue", because he asked me what color is cobalt... ask, and ye
shall receive an answer, but he obviously did not like the answer I provided him
:-) See #1 below! The man refuses to admit that there is a color out there
called "cobalt blue". In the same vain, as I mentioned above,
what is the spectro-photometric value of a lunar white lens? Yet we use
THAT term!
Since you do not have a copy of either the '08 or '11 Signal Dictionary you are
uniformed.
A beginner?
I don't know.
Ignorant
regarding railroad signals? Clearly yes. Read those two, learn from them and a
couple of dozen others and you'll be significantly less ill-informed. Since you
claim to like this stuff why don't you do that? John's
(name changed to protect the innocent :-)
website has a nice free PDF set of manufacturers catalogs, start there read all
of it and learn. Then you will see it's illogical defending that Trilight
crap
with "who doesn't use slang?" By the way, that's a deflection not a valid
defensive argument. Ask any attorney.
As for my attitude, you are
once again
telling me
what to do, (all those nasty "authority issues" of yours.) Telling me to lose
said "attitude," it's plain you are the
irate
one here, not me.
This was in response to me telling him: if
you want to help, lose the attitude and be constructive in your guidance and the
knowledge you have that you obviously want to share, regards. If he
is not getting irate, then what started the name calling thing?????
As I have said from the beginning, and this is genuinely constructive criticism,
the term "Cobalt" is a non-viable
descriptive of
glass color and
has absolutely no place in the very finely controlled parameters of period
railway glassware:
Todd, it really does look as though your only interest here is in the
"ego" gratification
aspects of having a web site and not at all in the signals themselves.
I guess writing and SELLING books is not an exercise in in ego gratification, is
it?
That's why I asked about your age. Younger guys think that absolutely all there
is in the world is this essentially worthless internut. Not so. Not one single
question from you regarding the photos I sent to you. Now that's a plain as day
statement you could care less about this subject.
Guess he's not going to win any friends in the "younger" category, and if his
replies to my answers were typical of what I was going to get, I didn't want to
get into other discussions with him. Additionally, why would I really care
about something when he is obviously trying to beat me up, feel superior over
me?
The reason I say this is blue, purple and Lunar White are ALL cobalt blues
and even to some degree, signal green. I have been looking into making new
glassware and have spoken at length to Chroma Glass's Bruce Stevens about the
formulas. Did you know the blues, purples and greens are NOT Pyrex since the
low expansion Borosilicate glass cannot be colored in that range of the color
spectrum?
(nope, I didn't know that, thank you for letting me know, always open to
learning if done properly)
They are all a Soda Ash glass with a tempering after casting. These all have
Cobalt and other oxides and colorants in the mix.
Now he recognizes that cobalt is added to make blue!
The fist time I saw switchlamps with purple lenses were an NYO&W
Adlake #169 and a Dressel #162, back in 1972. Here is a little bit of my back
yard, all of this off the NYO&W:
(in his first email, he attached around 10 or so pictures to support his
statements, and to prove to me that he is an expert, now he includes more)
That Chicago L.Q. dwarf was installed in Burnside, N.Y. and is seen
in the distance at the point of the yellow arrow in this June 1946 Kodachrome:
Note that Dressel #162 lamp with red day targets and Purple glass
on the Ramapo #19 switch stand, identical to what is in my back yard, but the
Style B will have to be a bit shorter when put up:
I have lots of examples of purple including an extremely rare
"Synthetic Purple" inner doublet (with a center red "dot") that Mike N has been
after me for years!
I also manufacture the XXxxx line of EXACT scale signals:
An 0 Scale assortment and a Katy Style S (above) for Mike N
I took this (and other photos, including the signals with a passing
FL9) at Norwalk, Conn. in July of 1980:
Here it is now, after Phil P bequeathed it to me. He said it was
the only one with bronze castings!:
Here is my Erie Style S out of Deposit, N.Y. when it was on our
lawn in White Lake, N.Y. in 1980.
My son and I will be finishing pouring the concrete foundation tomorrow for my
Erie DW Wig Wag out of Pine Bush, N.Y. The only other signals I will be putting
up in the back yard will be my NYO&W double arm Style B and Chicago dwarf
mechanical L.Q. and probably the Style S above.
If you wouldn't mind, I'd be happy to proof read your posting to your web site
for accuracy in the details. Let me know. Thanks. Paul
In my reply, I stated he got my name wrong by putting as "S" on the end of it,
it's not near as irritating as his weak attempts at mudslinging
His next
email:
Sorry about adding an "S" to your name. Do you see how irritating
something insignificant to someone else can be to you when you know there is a
correct and incorrect about it and you feel there really should be
a factual and accurate reference source... such as your site?
That is the truth about the misuse as you are insisting upon with the metal
"Cobalt" as a color of signal glass. It isn't one, and that is a provable
fact. In England this range of deep blue colors is known as "Bristol
Blue" and there-in lies the problem: Please, tell me Todd, what color is
Cobalt blue? I'd really like you to define it.
(I made the mistake of copying a clip from Wikipedia for this answer)
The RSA had that issue along with the others and they did solve it with Dr.
Churchill's assistance by October 1905. Hence the "Blue Tested" and "Purple
Tested" stickers on certain difficult to determine colored glassware. To ignore
that as you seem to insist on doing leaves you open for criticism by others
(like me) and experts which by your response is a bit difficult for you (and
me.) I am not trying to do anything here but help you out.
Your site is enjoyable and fun, but do please consider what being a target means
to you when you act as an authority
(I have never, ever, eluded to being an expert, and it is stated so on my
website) yet you insist on perpetuating a significant and very
confusing misconception. Blue, Purple and Lunar White are all, when measured
by any standard of discussion, "Cobalt Blues."
(For the layperson, I don't think if they see something white or purple, the
term Cobalt Blue is going to enter their mind) My simple suggestion is delete it from your list
(and I did, so see, I did listen to him) of colors because everyone interested, aside from the beginner has
the CD ROM of the 1911 Signal Dictionary and that says no words, nothing of
anything Cobalt. That work is THE defining authority and must be
respected for and as the Bible it is.
Why not instead get into the never discussed subject of, kerosene purple
and electric purple? I can supply images of both if need be, including
that "Synthetic Purple" already mentioned. I always thought that lens should be
placed into a CUT dwarf top marker with a split-flat purple roundel in the SA
mechanism of the same type the NYC used. Mike N has a double headed dwarf GRS
SC searchlight signal that has two of those almost Ultra-Violet purple
roundels. They makes the conic US&S ones seem washed-out, really pale.
As
my original intent in writing to you is the attempt at providing accuracy for
future reference, material for 15 year old Johnny (I was nine when I started
(are we bragging again???)
with Erie Style S semaphores in 1963 and my first 4" o.d. BLUE... NO GREEN
switch lamp lens, lol) why not clarify all instead of continuing this
obfuscation? Then you truly would be an authority.
Also and since you brought it up, the slang name Tri-lights is a localized term,
one found only the North Eastern U.S.
(where the great majority of them show up!)
and /or by the younger (50's and under) interested parties. The very use of
slang has it's pitfalls as once again Union Style "R's", TR-2's, P5's, N's,
N-2's, L's, GRS D's, E's, L's, G's, Chicago Color Lights, Searchlight signals
and even SafeTrans Triangular Color light signals all qualify as "Tri-Lights,"
or don't you see that? The use of "Tri" can just as easily mean the count, the
number of the lamp units or colors used. Soon we'll be hearing about "Quad
Lights," those four color Safetran color light signals.
(I actually like that idea! - I think I'll run with it :-) Also,
to me at least, Tri-light does sound a little too much like some little girl
vampire movie series... EWWW.
(sounds to me like a personal problem, ewwww)Triangular color light, isn't all that hard to say or write and it is
accurate in at least the arrangement of the lamps.
His next comeback is in reference to a trolley museum I belong to, where they
spent an inordinate amount of time making a trolley wheel, used on the trolley
poles, because ones they were given by the MBTA in Boston were not of the
correct diameter.....
As to the trolley wheel diameter analogy, that really would not hold up in
court.
(I guess it's a good thing for me that we're not going to court on this issue,
huh ? :-)
Museums are authorities
(only some are, not all, some exist solely to JUST satisfy the members)
and must do the most accurate work possible, all for future reference. Nor would
your personal determination of what appeals and does not appeal, that is not for
you or me or any individual to decide.
BUT, by virtue of him trying to tell me what to do, he is doing just that!
He JUST does NOT want me to fully inform readers...
Factual accuracy must be treated with objective and dispassionate
respect, otherwise there will be someone or someones who will eventually get
tired of the inaccuracy and make a very real effort to embarrass, very badly in
fact so I'd suggest trying to avoid the "class issue" as I interpret your answer
to me.
(he not real good at interpreting things)
Personally, I am only a tool and die maker, a blue-collar worker, but that does
not mean one has to be lazy about doing things correctly, as accurately as
possible......for the record.
For the record, he has just stated that he is a self educated AND appointed
expert in the field of signals and anything else he claims to be an expert on!!!
Examples of where I interjected responses into his email,
a practice he absolutely and obviously hates! :-)
1)
That is the truth about the misuse as you are insisting upon with the metal
"Cobalt" as a color of signal glass. It isn't one, and that is a provable fact.
In England this range of deep blue colors is known as "Bristol Blue" and
there-in lies the problem: Please, tell me Todd, what color
is Cobalt blue? I'd really like you
to define it.
I
don't believe I am advocating the use of the term cobalt blue, what I am
advocating, is to be complete in my discussion about colors, as such, since the
term is out there, whether it be accurate or not, it needs to be mentioned so
that EVERYONE can be as informed as possible, as I stated in my original reply,
and as you stated about the antique dealers, there are people that use the term
(and I'm one/was of them) who doesn't/didn't know better.... so in order "to be
the authority", one must be complete as possible in his treatment of subject,
even if that means bringing up something that is wrong, otherwise, how are the
uneducated going to turn into "the educated"???
Also, I believe the British are perfectly welcome to call the color whatever
they like, so that the masses will have no difficulty in conjuring an image of
said color....
2)
Your site is enjoyable and fun, but do please consider what being a target means
to you when you act as an authority yet you insist on perpetuating a significant
and very confusing misconception
(as said above, if I use the correct term, and then tell people what it is
commonly mis-called, I am not perpetuating a misconception as much as
I am pointing out the cobalt is the wrong name to be using..... to be an
authority also means you need to be complete, sorry if we don't see eye to eye
on this :-(..... )
. Blue, Purple and Lunar White are all, when measured by any standard of
discussion, "Cobalt Blues." My simple suggestion is delete it from your list of
colors (done) because
everyone interested, aside from the
-beginner-
(I guess I'm still a beginner since I don't have the book)
has the CD ROM of the 1911 Signal Dictionary and that says no words, nothing of
anything Cobalt. That work is THE defining authority and must be
respected for and as the Bible it is.
His next
email:
Hey Todd, I do see you're nothing more than
a self appointed expert.
The internet is loaded with people full of
loads.
For some
reason, even tho in his last email, he admitted to being self taught too, he
does not consider HIMSELF as a self appointed expert. He has never worked
in the field, none of his books are used by any authority like the FRA for
anything, so what makes him exempt from being a self appointed expert? He
doesn't even have his own website (which costs next to nothing to run!)
Yeah, I don't know either :-) (Love the term "loads" he uses :-)
Look dude, you openly ask for corrections, but in the tradition of the entry
level internet sniping type, you lord it over people and provide no recourse.
(if I had a blog type set-up on my website, I would always be checking for
people who don't want to play nice ot do a lot of cussin, don't need it, no way,
no how - so I guess he is calling EVERYONE that doesn't have a response system
the same - a juvenile!)
That's juvenile as is your blocking my inserts into your e-mail response, but
not surprising.
It's not surprising either that he feels threatened by responding to something,
where it is in the email.... it's more effective, and you don't have to figure
out what I'm responding to if it's all at the bottom....
Sorry, but you aren't being "complete" by including "cobalt blue." You are
being deliberately incorrect, question is why. Wikipedia is very well known as
worthless shit. If you've read anything on there about railroad signals ie: a
Mr. Blake having patented the Searchlight signal in 1918, that and a lot of
other detailed research, I posted that years ago. Not one Historian pays
Wikipedia any attention at all since anyone can change it at any time. There
are more inaccuracies in it than valid information. It's rightly ignored.
I'm sure it is ignored by all experts, real or self appointed, and Wikipedia
wouldn't exist if there wasn't a need. While, no, not ALL of their
information can be relied on, it is nevertheless, a source of info......
So, the description you cut and pasted as "cool blue," just what does that
indicate in color spectro-photometric values? Don't know? I will tell you,
it is meaningless. Anyone can cut and paste. You've proven nothing by doing
that. It is objectively inappropriate for you to include, period.
Since you do not have a copy of either the '08 or '11 Signal Dictionary you are
uniformed. A beginner? I don't know. Ignorant regarding railroad signals?
Clearly yes. Read those two, learn from them and a couple of dozen others and
you'll be significantly less ill-informed. Since you claim to like this stuff
why don't you do that? Zach Gilliam's site has a nice free PDF set of
manufacturers catalogs
(see, he speaks from ignorance, for I do have a complete set of US&S catalogs
from the early 1900's - he should learn to keep his mouth shut as much as he
tells me to!!),
start there read all of it and learn. Then you will see it's illogical defending
that Trilight crap with "who doesn't use slang?" By the way, that's a
deflection not a valid defensive argument. Ask any attorney.
Again, I'm not going to court with this, so I have no need to ask a lawyer, and
I'm not trying to make a valid defense argument.... simple truth is, that since
the term exists in relation to the triangularly shaped lens arrangement, why not
use it? As Dennis Miller says: "I could be wrong.....".
As for the Bible, bad analysis as well. Not one word has been changed in the
Old Testiment. Ever. Sir Issac Newton learned Hebrew
(yeah, OK, so I learned how to read it too, and your point is what? I have
a Torah in Hebrew, as well as a Hebrew to English dictionary, courtesy my
neighbors from Israel, that has EVERY word in the English language in it!)
just
so he could read the original word of God. That and invent the Calculus and
some other inconsequential "things." He jumps on my
sheet later on for making spelling mistakes, and asks how hard is it to spell
check something... he should practice what he preaches!!!
He mis-spelled Testament....
You did not mention the model signals. Why not? Do you recognizeanyof them?
Nope, sure didn't, why, should I have??? They're OK looking, but not
everyone has that kind of money to spend on signals, when for most railfans,
it's one of the last details they put on a pike, and most don't care if they
even work, much less if they are really all that accurate looking...
So in summary Todd, what is your problem with getting busy and genuinely
learning about railroad signals? You might actually enjoy it. But you will
(painfully) find out you don't know much about this subject
(nope, it can't be painful, cause I already know it... again, I never claimed to
be an expert)
no matter how "cool" you think your website is.
(well, it must just not me that thinks that way, cause there is only one way to
be at the top of every search engine results when you're not paying to get
there... again, I challenge him to start his own website and "clear the air"...)
Being a
Poser
doesn't go very far with those who really are what they say they are.
Most EXPERTS don't have the need to sit there and say they are, people know...
His next email:
Oh, really? Then take "Cobalt" off your website or else you are demonstrating
an obviously
Poser level of expertise as you've decided beginners need what
you've referred to as a complete list of colors. Besides, if your
Website isn't a clear example of self-proclaimed expertise, I defy you to
demonstrate precisely what is.
First, I never referred to it as a complete list of colors, just, a list of lens
colors used in American railroad signals, there is a difference Paul! And
secondly, again, he keeps referring to me as a self-proclaimed expert, when he
admitted that he is the same by virtue of his schooling in the subject!!!
I have never paid for any information off the internet.
(yet he wants people to buy his books, a really one way of looking at things) WHY would anyone? Don't take this the wrong way as I am
being serious, but exactly how old are you? Do you know how to do real primary
research on a given subject? All the way back in the middle 1970's, I used to
go to the main public Library on 42nd street & 5th Ave. in NYC and do my own
primary research using "The Signal Engineer" magazine (going all the way back to
1908) and the Signal Dictionaries, catalogs and many books, etc. Then all was
moved to the Auxiliary Branch on the West Side of Manhattan in the late '70's.
I never paid a penny for anything in doing this research aside from the Xerox
copies I still have.
You don't need to pay for information unless you go to these idiot sites you are
talking about. As I said Zack G. is a really good guy. He has scanned and
posted for everyone interested at no charge a great deal of information.
(unlike Paul and his books) Even the 1909 Hall Signal Company catalog I gave as a gift to the
late Paul B of Binghamton, N.Y. That is where Zack acquired it on his passing.
Todd, it really does look as though your only interest here is in the "ego"
gratification aspects of having a web site and not at all in the signals
themselves.
(hum, not unlike that of some idiot who keeps telling me how to do things! :-) That's why I asked about your age.
(age is really irrelevant, and he just alienated all of those "younger guys" out
there) Younger guys think that absolutely all there is in the world
is this essentially worthless internut. Not so. Not one single question from
you regarding the photos I sent to you. Now that's a plain as day statement you
could care less about this subject.
(actually, it shows that I simply don't care about acknowledging someone who is
obviously blowing their own horn in a weak attempt at talking down to me)
As for my attitude, you are once again telling me what to do
(really, like he isn't trying to tell me what to do??? Seriously?), (all those nasty "authority issues" of yours.) Telling me to lose
said "attitude," it's plain you are the irate one here, not me.
As I have said from the beginning, and this is genuinely constructive criticism,
the term "Cobalt" is a non-viable descriptive of glass color and has absolutely
no place in the very finely controlled parameters of period railway glassware:
ABOVE: From
THE 1911 Signal Dictionary. Not to be found there, any mention of the metal "Cobalt."
No two ways
about it. I am satisfied. Good luck to you.
I have examples of GRS, Union and the rarest of them all; Hall Signal
Company Dwarf CPL's in my collection. What if anything do you have?
What if I have none??? I guess I'm really, really a poser then, huh?
Again, this is his way of talking down to me and bragging about what he has, and
then he has the nerve to sit there and complain about what I do and don't!!!
Six months later, I receive
another email:
I just saw that you posted
some of our emails. Jeeze guy, don't you understand most people know that your
doing this actually makes you look as bad or worse than you've attempted to make
me look? That's since it's your website and the other fellow (me) has no
recourse, no avenue for response.
(He's more than welcome to email me at any time, most people do not have open
forums on their websites because they don't want to spend the time policing
them.....
By this point in time, most people have had that
internet
experience themselves, or
something similar somewhere in life and do bring those lessons from that
forward. The internet has suffered much due to such pettiness. Your not
notifying me of these postings and not offering me an opportunity to respond
really is just plain petty of you.
See above
Since our exchange, I see that it has to some extent caused you to look into the
physics of light. That's good, I'm glad you did. A more basic primer before
going into the hyperbolae of nanometers of EMF as color.... etc. would be
beneficial to those less technical
(And now he finally realizes that the beginners need a term they can wrap their
heads around, like cobalt blue, wahoo).
By the way, LED's are not "lasers" they're diodes. There are laser diodes that "lase"
at certain thresholds of power, wherein they start to produce coherent light.
But not all LED's are lasers as the light they produce is incoherent.
I guess he's so perfect that he has NEVER made a mistake, this is what I get for
cutting and pasting from other places on my website for different
discussions....
What I also can tell you is there are "electric purple" color-light signal inner
doublet lenses that do look purple under ambient incandescent light. In my
collection is a "synthetic purple" inner-doublet that is primarily such an
electric purple with a brass bezel in the center
surrounding
a cemented in single RED
glass element in the center. M. North has a double
stacked SC dwarf each with a flat
purple, pre-cracked roundel (like a GRS SA green) but of such a deep saturated
hue, the light produced is almost ultraviolet. There's a NYC shot taken in 1941
on 4"x 5" Kodachrome by one Mr. Novak, (the Official NYC photographer) of the
Empire State Express streamlined J3a Hudson with an "ultraviolet" lit SA dwarf.
It's in one of the Morning Sun books on the Central.
But for me, the simple issue with you was your setting yourself up as the
ultimate "decider," your insisting what's to be known as blue and what's to be
known as purple. You claimed yourself the expert
(Again, I wish that now, I had claimed myself as an expert so I could be guilty
as charged)
on
what is well known railroad signal history and changing that recorded history to
suit your own
website fiefdom.
Todd, it is you who can't defer to expertise as it has something to do with who
you are.
(WTF?)
I really don't care to go into it, but I could as I am qualified
(On what, annoying people?).
I'll spare you having to face yourself. To publicly shame someone who is in the
right and then to exercise total editorial control is well, a FIB! Most peoiple
know that. A LOT of people do know me, and actually like me!
If he keeps on going on and on about how superior he is over and above
everybody, he probably won't for long, and that's probably why he wants to keep
these emails private, and please, clean up your spelling by running spell check!
There are
indeed
other people that view your
website who also see this, but say nothing. Here's an example:
The reverse 45 indication
above is indeed LW and not purple. How did I get this photo? Well, I took it
of my own Union Dwarf CPL many years ago
in my old family home. For
fun, I created the upper image in Photo Shop and sent it to Mike N just to mess
with him and he took it as intended, as a funny joke. But unfortunately,
as a result
of his seeing this fictitious creation of mine, he really wanted one, including
the RSA BLUE lower marker!!! He wanted this thing so badly he went out and had a
stained glass shop make up the appropriate filters and fitted them to his US&S G
dwarf. He had posted the top image to the signal Chat Rooms
shortly after I'd sent it to him
also for a laugh as he was tired of the banal commentary being stated by the
plethora of self-proclaimed experts that all knew oh-so-very-much about railway
signals.
So here Todd is a peace offering, as I certainly didn't expect you to what so
many know is a one-sided and therefore unfair presentation by you of me.
If I had gone to that top rated (We're bragging
again) law shool that accepted me some 30 years ago, I'd be
making your life miserable after reading what you posted. Lawyers can do that
and do do that. But you didn't, so get over
that one....
Yes, I
agree, fair is fair, but...... you called me a poser, a self exclaimed expert
while you sir are in the same category since you told me you are a machinist by
trade, and everything else you learned is on your own. You are no more of a
professional in the field than I am. I applaud your motivation, but when
you jumped on your high horse and told me in no uncertain terms that I should
not use the term cobalt blue, to even relate the term to those who don't know as
much about as you say you do, I have to draw the line because to NOT tell people
out there about the term would be a mistake on my part for not telling people
the whole story, besides, that real big signal guy in Ohio who makes it to all
the train shows uses the term, as do those of us who are on the Yahoo Railway
Signaling group.... that is good enough for me!...... If I have your whole
name on the page, I will shorten it, I don't recollect offhand cause I haven't
looked at the page since I redid it...... I have no doubt that you have many
friends, just as I do, but please don't ever come to me like a bull in the china
shop again, I do resent that, for I'm sure you know how to compromise.....
regards.... and, BTW, PS, I moved the lenses around on my dwarf CPL so I could
use it on the back of my truck for turn signals and brake lights, so the yellow
lenses occupy the 10:30 and 1:30 positions.... purists hate it, but cops love
it!
His next email:
Once again, here in this very email, you are wrongly defending your "right" to
slander me. The actual legal term is Libel as it is in written not spoken
form.
Nope, it's called an opinion, just as he has one for everything I say....
It is still true that simply put, "cobalt blue" is an inept and lazy Antique
dealer's term
(yeah, so what if it is???),
not a railroader's expression of accuracy
(NEVER claimed it was).
Over in England, the same wide range of shades of deep blue glass are known
exclusively as "Bristol Blue." The term "cobalt" has NEVER been used in the
railroad or glassware industries to describe signal glass color(s)(Again
NEVER claimed it was).
The reason is the
obvious
potential for confusion of
indication. Lives were and are at stake. You cannot use "cobalt" as you have and
yet continue to profess expertise. That is all there is to what I said.
In today's email, you have used "since I told you" as a way of excusing yourself
from continuing your publicly defaming of me with what in reality,
is actually
punishable under the law. Did you ever Google me? Have you asked anyone about me
or some of the things I've done? "When you assume, you make an ass....." you
know that one, and in this case, you just plain did.
sorry, NOT
Oh, and he has NEVER EVER assumed ANYTHING about me, right?, comon, are you
frickin kidding me???
Machinist only,
(lol!) hence poser, me?YES, YOUo, I really don't think so! I am very
much a "professional in the field" sir.
Back in the 1970's and
'80's I used to go to the 42st & 5th Ave main
library just to research the "Signal Engineer" magazine and the other
engineering texts in signals and signaling
(Yep, that makes him an expert, yesiree)
. Then in 1982, they moved all that to the 11th Avenue annex.
SEE, SELF TAUGHT, NOT A PROFESSIONAL
Since then, I have accrued quite the library of original source materials, going
way back to 1880. I am
sorry, but it is obvious you never did primary research on signals and signaling
based upon what and how you've written.
You really actually do look bad
(That's me, bad to the bone :-)
to many others who have read my numerous published signal articles, my all color
book on the XXXXX with it's heavy emphasis on the road's signals and signaling:
And what about those who have bought
and covet Xxxx Company
products or have traded
prototype equipment with me? Guys like: Andy B, Bill W, Mike N, Dave V, the late
Phil P (a very close friend for many years, I read the eulogy at his funeral and
was one of the Pall Bearers) the late Ron M and his son Matt, Tracey S, the
famous Bill S, Steve C, the list goes on and on. YOU GET
NO POINTS FOR BRAGGING, COME FIX A RADAR IF YOU THINK YOUR SO GODDAM SMART! :-)
PS, THANKS FOR THE PICTURES, THEY'LL LOOK GOOD ON MY PAGES
(this was one of my replies to him)
I bought my first switch
lamp lens, a 4" OD Corning 10-10-05 green off the NYO&W for 75 cents at the
Middletown & Unionville N.Y.'s "#103" steam locomotive ride. That was in August
of 1964. When were you born Todd? How many people do you
know who have 3 complete Erie Style "S" semaphores, an NYO&W Style "B" complete,
or NYO&W Chicago LQ dwarf (the only examples of either of those to survive off
the O&W!) Yo, dude, knock it off with the bragging
ok, it's not making any brownie points with ANYONE...
SO BE A NICE
GUY and take down what you've posted and stated about me and maybe I'll help you
out on your website with really good
stuff from time to time, ok? After all, there aren't a lot of signal
enthusiasts now are there? (There's enough)
Oh and just because I am a self proclaimed "machinist" doesn't mean I don't have
a Bachelor of Science in Radio, Teveison and Film production and a Master's
Degree in Business Adnministration from one of the top schools in the U.S.,
because Todd, I do. Having a BS and an MS
hasn't seemed to do much for him with the spelling :-)
Kind Regards,
My Reply: Since
we do not see eye to eye, let's just agree to disagree, and end it now, I am not
going to engage in this mierda any more. PS, since you went to the library to
learn about signals, yes, you are self taught and educated as I am, it was not
how you made your living, hence, you are not a professional at it. I fix radar
airborne and airport systems for a living, hence, that is my profession..... And
no, never Googled you, no need to, and I'm not making ANY assumptions about you
other than from the way you decided to attack me over the use of cobalt blue,
really?, Someone I know thinks they heard of you in something to do with model
railroading, but I never had the desire to find out what, because you are
probably self taught on that too!..... do you attack everyone that disagrees
with your way or point of view?, I hope not, that's very closed and narrow
minded.....mm end edit, you're now on my spam list, wahoo, regards
I dunno why I keep engaging in your petty childish
antics, but you really are so full of yourself.... you should get over yourself
:-)..... and, if your signals are as good as you say, then how come every hobby
shop doesn't carry them? I guess not everybody must agree with you :-) Gee, it's
your opinion again, imagine that. Just as everything I say is my opinion,
yep...... And, therefore, that's why "lets agree to disagree" IS a valid
argument, even tho you (gasp) don't AGREE. Also, I would question WHY you keep
feeling the need to convince ME that you are an expert, and keep sending me
pictures to try to prove it.... I don't care dude. Those that ARE experts would
have left the building a long time ago and left me alone to squander in my own
stupidity and ignorance :-) (according to you.... oooops, I'm sorry, that's just
another opinion)... Just as you say you know more than most signal people, I
have more expertise than most of the radar engineers helping me fix shit, and,
unlike you who learned thru books, I learned from hands on and making mistakes,
something you have never done with signals, AND, since you obviously don't know
(so you too, shouldn't make comments out of ignorance), I had to go down to El
Salvador to bail out an engineer who had been there for two weeks trying to fix
a radar at the airport, and I found the problem the second day I was there, so,
so much for your oh no comment..... opinions, opinions, opinions, we all got em
just like, well, you know...... mom died a month ago... and just before I had
the pleasure of reading your email this afternoon, I find out a long time friend
just had a severe stroke, so excuse the sheet out of me for being easily pissed
off by your (still) ignorant comments and childishness...... As I said way back
in Septemebr, I'm not trying to pass myself off as an expert like you are, I
rely on you experts to screw-up.... nobody has to pay for my shit and then
discover that something in a book isn't true, and then it keeps getting quoted
as "the last word"......
His next email:
He is now using the method
by which I reply, and he stated he really hates the method, and, by what
standard of measurement does he think he is capable of making the "oh dear god
no" comment? And, I never stated that using cobalt blue is correct, he
seriously has some attention and understanding problems....
Since we do not see eye to eye,
let's just agree to disagree, and end it now, I am not going to engage in this
mierda any more. PS, since you went to the library to learn about signals, yes,
you are self taught and eduacated as I am,
(then use spell check) it was not how you made your living,
I have been selling the world's best
scale model signals fort 40 years you fool hence, you
are not a professional at it.
I know more that 99% of todays maintainers know 0 about semaphores, or is that
also too difficult for you to grasp. I fix radar
airborne and airport systems for a living, hence,
OH DEAR
GOD...NO!!! that is my profession..... And no, never googled you,
no need to, and I'm not making ANY assumptions about you other than from the way
you decided to attack me over the use of cobalt blue, really?,
Yes you are a fool for insisting you are correct when Mr Aviation the federal
bureau of standards adopted the RSA's signals colors for aviation. Jeeze learn
to clam up when you're in the wrong. m There is no such thing as "Agree to
disagree." ALL that means is you know you're wrong an too weak a person to
acknowledge that fact! Someone I know thinks they heard
of you in something to do with model railroading, but I never had the desire to
find out what, because you are probably self taught on that too!..... do you
attack everyone that disagrees with your way or point of view?, I hope not,
that's very closed and narrow minded.....mm end edit, you're now on my spam
list, wahoo, regards, todd......
Look out for a lawsuit JACKASS
His next email:
Hi Todd,
WELL, I win,
(Sheet, I missed that we
were in a
competition.... darn, I
would have upped the
ante by saying they were
both killed in a car
crash)
my mother died on Labor
Day. My Dad 8 years ago.
What is it that you say
is inaccurate in my
book?
I said those things just
to test you and as I
suspected since you have
answered, you didn't put
me into spam, lol! Your
responding is requisite
behavior of that
"Get-it-Ovah" New Yawk
thing. Of course I won't
sue you. You're not
worth the grief.
In all probability, I'd
say you already know
that all I have been
trying to do is to help
you out, nothing else,
so you didn't look bad
on your own website. You
could and really should
have kept it all
private. That would have
been the intelligent
thing to do.
The only reason he wants
to keep his emails
private is so he doesn't
look like an asshole to
his friends....
Actually, I'd really
love to discuss the most
esoteric things I have
discovered about
railroad signals
especially semaphores,
but alas, as Mike N
pointed out
to me
many times,
you and your ilk
know so little about the
subject, there's no one
besides me to talk with.
I guess, the way he
makes it sound, that he
is the only one in the
world living that is an
expert on signals... And
I guess there is
absolutely no-one on the
Railway Signaling group
that knows JackSquat....
By the way, being
employed in a given
field means only that
you are able to do the
assigned tasks, nothing
more. Today's signal
maintainers know
absolutely nothing about
the development and
types of semaphores and
searchlight signals.
(Maybe because it's not
needed in their job?????
Just maybe?... He
forgets that this is a
job for 99% of these
guys, not a hobby, not
an obsession, it's just
a job)
But Jerry M of Hancock,
N.Y. who got
me
my first Erie semaphore
and who was the Chief
Superintendent of
Signals on the Delaware
Division of the Erie,
then Erie Lackawanna and
finally Conrail was a
friend of mine. I
learned a great deal
from him those 35 years
ago. He was in his 50's
back then and knew all
there was to know. Not
today's young jerks who
only do the minimum, who
regularly drink and drug
themselves into a total
stupor and screw off the
rest of the time.
(maybe where he works as
a tool and die maker it
is)
Sound familiar?
Yes it does, he is again
placing himself ABOVE
almost everyone he can
think of...
As a radar "expert,"
What do you know about
the development about
your radar systems?
I' m
quite,
sure absolutely nothing.
(He's assuming again,
because it makes him
feel superior, and again
Paul, I never claimed to
be an expert in the
field, I just know my
shit when it comes to
electronics because I
read every book I could
get my hands on as a
kid, besides, isn't that
the way he became a self
proclaimed expert?...
can we say YES!!!)
My father was very much
involved in designing
Radar during WWII.
(had to be after my
company, Westinghouse,
came out with the first
radar, in use in Hawaii
during the attack on
Pearl Harbor, so I guess
he worked for the number
2 company, and not the
experts)
But as a
Scientist
for the DOD, after the
war,
he headed up the
maintainability and
reliability of the BQQ
4&5 Attack Submarine
Sonar systems for the
688's; or as you may
have heard of them, the
Los Angeles Class
Nuclear Attack subs of
the US Navy, like the
"Dallas" in that very
silly movie (As
silly as he may make it
out to be, it was still
a good and fun movie,
and show me a Hollywood
movie that isn't just
the slightest incorrect),
Red October.
Nope, never heard of his
father either, just as I
had never heard of him,
but we're back to the
bragging thing again,
why does he feel the
need to do KEEP this one
upmanship thing???.....
Now I will explain why
XXX signals are not
available in "Hobby
Shops." That's for three
reasons;
1) Hobby shops: WHAT
HOBBY SHOPS?? They have
almost all closed due to
the internet. The few
that remain sell only
high volume junk toys,
not the very best
high-end scale models.
If you know what a brass
locomotive,
(Correct me if I'm
wrong, but didn't he
leave an "is" out here,
jeeeez, why doesn't this
guy see he is just as
bad at this as I
am???... And no, I
didn't leave it out to
make a point)
I want you to go and
tell me the name of an
open hobby shop in your
area that sells those. I
mean it, go and do it!
(Actually the local
Hobbytown guy does, but
he has built up quite a
business for himself)
These
signals are obviously
the only scale signals
that have ever been
produced. I started
making the searchlights
in 1974, that's 40 years
ago dude! I have sold
THOUSANDS of them!
I guess this is why he
can live around the
corner from a Rolls
dealer, while I live in
squalor in a $450K/house
neighborhood :-)
2) I see you don't
understand
marketing channels of
distribution for
some reason.
Distributors buy at 55%
off retail and resell to
hobby shops. I wouldn't
make anything on a $200
semaphore at that rate.
Yes that is what I
charge per signal. Add
$50 if you want it
motorized.
They take quite a while
to build from the very
expensive lost wax cast
brass and photo-etched
components they're made
from. You saw the B&W
catalog photos I
attached to my last
email and yet you still
say they aren't any
good. What's wrong
with you?
Something's not quite
right with your mind or
else you wouldn't; a)
challenge that; b)
correlate expertise with
employment; and c) make
the looney claim that
quality is measured by
availability. Where's
your nearest Rolls Royce
dealer? Mine is only 3
miles from here, around
the corner from my son's
High School in La Jolla,
California. Is yours
next door to the local
Ford place? I don't
think so.
(Can SOMEONE please tell
me WTF a Rolls dealer
has to do with signals,
or are we just making
another weak attempt at
bragging about where he
lives - if anyone knows
about Ruxton MD where I
grew up, they would know
that's where the people
buying them thar Rolls
Royce's live!!!)
You
have this need to have a
web thing about
something as obscure as
choo-choo signals in the
first place. WHY?
I can easily turn that
one around by asking him
why he would spend so
much time in becoming an
"expert" in something,
as he says, "obscure",
and then go on to author
a book on something that
is so obscure.....
WHY???
3) I dare
you to open the
attached eBay sales
page of a single arm
Style B Exact scale
H0 semaphore KIT
that I produced some
30 years ago (I took
the kits out of
production way back
in 1986.) Adjust
that $34.00 sticker
for inflation and
you'll see the kit
should be about $150
based on standard
rates of inflation,
so this guy got a
real deal at $103
plus shipping! Now
add to that price, 5
hours of skilled
soldering to build
it. THAT'S why they
are not in hobby
shops!
I swapped two built
H0
(Notice his use of
the number instead
of the letter in HO)
signals, one double
and a single-armed
Style "B" with Les
M, the Southern
Pacific's Chief
Superintendent of
Signaling. That was
back in April of
1991. In exchange
for those two H0
models, he had the
railroad load one
each of the real
things onto my
rented stake bed
truck in Hyder,
Arizona in exchange.
I have photos. Fair
swap I'd say! When
Les and his good
friend Bill S
(another S.P. Signal
Superintendent
friend of mine) both
said (and they did)
that I was indeed
a signal expert,
then you
youngster,
know this: I AM A
SIGNAL EXPERT!
I know we can't
educate this guy on
ANYTHING, but he IS
younger than I am.
He makes an
assumption, but this
time, he is only
making an arse out
of himself :-)
From your
phraseology and form
of argument, you are
using the
psychological term
"projecting." That
projecting of
your own
shortcomings onto
others. In this
case, it's me but
I have no doubt onto
many others on a
regular basis.
See, he is wrong
again, for anyone
who has had the
pleasure of meeting
me in person, knows
that I freely admit
to not knowing
something when I
don't know nothing
about something
:-).....
None of what I said
regarding signals or
signal glass color
was opinion. Look at
the page below from
my original copy of
the 1911 Signal
Dictionary,
specifying the 1905
RSA Signal Standard
Glass colors.
ABSOLUTELY NO
mention of "cobalt."
Your claiming of
externally
verifiable facts as
"opinion" doesn't
make them so. I'd
say you've had an
abusive childhood.
(Gee, now we're
playing shrink?)
No doubt your father
beat you, that is if
you knew him.
(How does this guy
get to be so frickin
smart? Just
how does he do it?
I wish I could be
like him when I grow
up, able to analyze
anyone from a few
email exchanges!!!)
Otherwise, why set
yourself up as an
expert without
bothering to find
anything substantial
about a given
subject and then
regularly
demonstrating that
you do know nothing
on that
insignificant
website of yours? To
any casual observer
you so often
demonstrate your
complete and total
ignorance of
railorad signals and
virtually every
subject discussed. "LED's
are lasers." That
issad,
really and truly
sad.
Good luck.
And my reply: First, I do check my spam box,
for there are emails that don't belong in there all the time.
Second, I never eluded there being anything wrong with
your book, because I have never seen it, so I can not comment on it......
AND, I also did not berate your signals other than to
say "if they are as good as you say", since I haven't seen them in person, I
cannot not really pass judgment on
them either.
The reason we both keep sending emails back and forth
is because we are both type A personalities, and we each have the need to
have the last say :-) My mother and I used to engage in the same type of
no-win conversations.
I do tho wish I knew as much as you did on everything, you're just like the
engineer I was in El Salvador, who did the same thing with me as you have
been doing since email #1, trying to make me feel inferior with your
"superiority" by the game of perpetual one-upmanship,
in any topic we may engage on. I wasn't trying to win anything by telling
you about mom, but somehow you turned it into a competition with your reply
to my statement, prove me wrong.
And as a last resort, you try to prove your superiority
by
psycho-analyzing me. I don't mind it so much, because your way
off base on everything you have second guessed.
BTW, what color would you say is admiralty green? And
how does one characterize a railroad lens in that color? I'd say it is about
as descriptive as cobalt blue, wouldn't you? Would you tell all the people
that collect royal blue colored glassware as being posers too? :-) And while
we're on the topic, lunar white is not a really accurate description of a
color's hue either, is it? Yet, we use the term.
You also criticized
my spelling, but if you go back over your own emails, you will find as much
misspelling
as there is in mine, and, regardless of whether or not things are spelled
right, you somehow manage to understand. Booya.
And finally, in your need to sit there and again, try
to demean me and my website as being insignificant, as I kinda said in my
last email, what does it matter to you if what I say is correct or not??????
Double Booya. If you really feel that my website is as insignificant
as you believe, please, by all means, put up your own and give away all that
knowledge instead of selling it. I started my website to have fun, at no
cost to the user, and no ads, but it seems like you got into it to make
money...
These conversations didn't take a nosedive until I told you I wouldn't take
cobalt blue out of my description, and because you're an "expert", you
couldn't accept someone not taking your advice (or whatever your reason was
for getting pissed off). You've been trying to bully me since that point and
make me feel inferior, talk about SAD!!! :-) And talking about Bible's, I
guess you don't practice the Golden Rule much, huh?
You are right about one thing however, that an outsider
listening in on our "conversation" would not be able to tell who the asshole
is, so I took our dialog off the page.
WHAT-ever
His next email:
Lunar White accurately
matches the color of the moon at it's zenith. It like signal blue, is a cobalt
oxide colored blue glass if you weren't aware. Less copper and iron oxide
though.
Admiralty green as in
blue-green, an aqua green, like the sea. Pretty straight forward.
Not at all deceptive,
nothing like using the name of a metal oxide that is white until blended into
and melted with silica to create colored glass.
I haven't seen the term admiralty green show up in any "official" references, so
why is it OK to use it to describe green, when cobalt is NOT OK to describe a
blue shade?
WHY don't you understand the color table on the Signal Dictionary's page I sent?
It's self explanatory, unless you are not very good at abstract concepts. I
expect you to take that as an insult. It's an observation based on all this back
and forth crap.
If he thinks all this back and forth banter is crap, then how come HE
continues to participate???
As for you apparently continually being berated, you could reduce that somewhat
by modifying that "edge" to your personality.
(Likewise)
Stop
taking everything as a personal challenge.
(Again, likewise)
Round that edge off a bit.
(Yet again, likewise)
It is clear other people do
know far more than yourself on railroad signals.
(again, for like the millionth time, I told him I'm not an expert, he is the one
who keeps insisting I say I am)
Yet you can't or won't whatever learn more on your own. Instead you start a
poser web site
looking for other people who know less than yourself on the given subject in
order to bolster your
flagging ego.
(Ewwwwww, it's nothing like his bragging at all, eh?)
So many people do just this sort of thing.
(Like him?????)
Other people have names for the ones that do that.
Let's hear them, I'm a big guy, I can take it....
The engineer you mentioned reacted to you as I and others have because more than
a
"Type A
Personality," (sorry but you do not have one)
(gee, he is again playing shrink, is there nothing that this guy can't do, I'm
just so frickin impressed by all of his self taught talents, phew, makes me
tired! :-)
it's your insecurities directing the majority of your behavior. A
"Type A Personality," is
simply driven to achieve more than mediocrity.
(No ,not really, he DOES need to read more on this!... Maybe he should bury his
head in something besides signal books :-)
That behavior does not correlate with your "sliding" on the research needed to
comprehend this or I suspect any other subject.
(Now he thinks he knows me like we're best friends or something)
Unlike you, I am self driven, very much so. I have produced some of what has
been called by others "the word's best."
and no doubt, by himself too!
So, my issue with you
is your disrespecting other people, in this case, me.
(When you first meet someone, you don't know them, so
respect hasn't been earned, therefore, it can't be given, and he has not shown
me or told me anything to change my mind that he should be respected)
You do not defer when your argument has been totally demolished. Root
word of "deference," which is what one should do when bested, as you have been.
You keep writing to me because you are bored (I AM
bored, playing with him is a bit like a cat playing with a half dead mouse)
and have nothing else. I do because I want those private emails taken off your
site. That's all. As for what you took as a competition about your mother,
once again, you just don't understand (Yeah, I don't
understand his continued efforts at one-upmanship???) . It's like
this, you aren't the only one who has suffered. You sound like you're still a
real loner cry baby.
Ouch, now that hurt :-)
I'm done. Bye.
Throughout all of his email
exchanges, he has sent me oodles of photos, by which I guess he has given me
right to use since the emails are personally addressed to me!
Also, if he wants to be technically correct, then he should
be inserting TWO spaces in between a period and the next letter instead of one,
after all, it is only proper English!
Please, if you have something you would like me to change,
DO NOT use this guy's approach!!!