Met two CPF members from China today (in Boston/Cambridge Mass)

Today I met two really nice CPF members (and their patient non-flashaholic friend) from China on the sidewalk in Harvard Square. If either of you see this, it was really nice running into you... if I wasn't on my lunch break and it weren't ten degrees out I would have chatted much longer! I hope you have a great visit.

Cool. How'd you find out they were CPF members?

LGT said:

Cool. How'd you find out they were CPF members?

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One had a SureFire patch on his backpack... within two minutes of complimenting him on it I was looking at pictures of his great E-series collection (on his phone).

fresh eddie fresh said:

One had a SureFire patch on his backpack... within two minutes of complimenting him on it I was looking at pictures of his great E-series collection (on his phone).

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fresh eddie fresh said:

Today I met two really nice CPF members (and their patient non-flashaholic friend) from China on the sidewalk in Harvard Square. If either of you see this, it was really nice running into you... if I wasn't on my lunch break and it weren't ten degrees out I would have chatted much longer! I hope you have a great visit.

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Now that is cool! Connecting with people from the other side of the world.

What an awesome experience, randomly bumping into two CPF members from halfway across the world.

Cool! I only met one CPF member in my life. It was a bunch of years ago, I had medics back me up on a call and one had an E1b and the other had a surefire with a Malkoff drop in. The one with the Malkoff drop in is a CPF member, I forgot his CPF handle but I know his name and see him often. I think he was the reason his partner had an E1b.

It didn't really hit me how cool it was until I got back to work. I think the whole reason why we all joined CPF is to connect with people, there I was talking to a couple of people with the same hobby as me from so far away.

As as far as meeting CPF members, I always assumed I would run into Woods Walker while hiking somewhere in the White Mountains of NH someday first!

I think you need spell check. Everybody knows there are no r's in hahvid.

There has to be a get together coming soon if you want to take the ride to PA. even in a two-day downpour it was fun.

A few years ago, I was ordering dinner in a restaurant, and had remarked that the lighting was rather too dim to easily read the menu.

The waiter agreed, replying, "yes, we really should have little ten lumen flashlights set at all of the tables here for diners to use" (!)

I had literally never heard the word "lumens" spoken in conversation, ever (before or since) , and was too stunned to ask if they were familiar with CPF perchance :huh:

It's almost a code word! We need a secret handshake to go with it.

LGT said:

I think you need spell check. Everybody knows there are no r's in hahvid.

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Haha! I'm not originally from here, but I caught myself saying "Midfid" yesterday!

aginthelaw said:

There has to be a get together coming soon if you want to take the ride to PA. even in a two-day downpour it was fun.

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Where in PA? I lived in Pittsburgh for a while.

archimedes said:

A few years ago, I was ordering dinner in a restaurant, and had remarked that the lighting was rather too dim to easily read the menu.

The waiter agreed, replying, "yes, we really should have little ten lumen flashlights set at all of the tables here for diners to use" (!)

I had literally never heard the word "lumens" spoken in conversation, ever (before or since) , and was too stunned to ask if they were familiar with CPF perchance :huh:

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Coming soon: The Malkoff MD2 M61LLLLLL menu light.

Nimitz68 said:

It's almost a code word! We need a secret handshake to go with it.

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Maybe that is what SOS mode is actually useful for... like a Bat Signal to other CFP members!

That's pretty cool fresh-eddie.

Once I was in a class and when the attendees were asked to describe themselves in 25 words I said "I'm a flashaholic". One of the intructors said to see him after class. Uh oh I thought. It turns out he was a cpf lurker looking for advice on a good little flashlight he could use to thwart a rustler on his ranch. (Yup, they still exist.)
Him knowing the martial arts in a few forms, I knew what kind of light he meant and helped him out.

Fast forward like 3 years later, the day I started a new project at work and one of the bosses says "hey I remember you". "Whuhhh?" I thought. "You're that bykfixer guy at a flashlight forum"..... " Uh, ya got me at a loss here." He says "you're the guy who reccomended a weaponlight to the teacher at that class, right?" "Uh, what class?" I responded.... "You know, that bridge class". I'm leaving out the F words here. It dawned on me he was the guy who used the F word literally 5-6 times in a sentence at it made sense.... Turns out he to had lurked cpf looking for a flashlight. He ended up buying a NiteCore something or other and the teacher bought a PK FL2.

if i ever meet any one from cpf im going to giggle then run into the woods

raggie33 said:

if i ever meet any one from cpf im going to giggle then run into the woods

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Ummm, is that just CPF members, or everybody in general?
Townspeople.." oh I'm sure you've met him before, talk to him and he runs into the woods giggling..

It was easier to recognize CPF folks 10 years ago. After all, someone with several expensive lights on their belt was a give away. I met a guy 400 miles from home at a Burger King in the little town of Weed Calif who was a CPF member. He had lights all over his wheelchair. I had a home made polished aluminum one on my belt. I don't recall who brought up CPF first. That was 8 or 9 years ago.

My doctor is a CPF member. I found out when his penlight battery went dead so I offered my Mag solitaire that was altered to run NIchia LED at a full 40 ma. This was back around 2001 when that was real sexy. He turned me on to CPF.

Dan

I recently met a guy who wasn't on cpf or blf, but we all still would like him. He had a maxpedition sling bag with an s1 baton clipped on it. I showed him my mini mkII, which he was thrilled about. He opened his pouch to show me his Prometheus top with ruby tip. I told him they make great lights to which he replied what are you talking about? I showed him the website and he never even saw that page before. He showed me ti pry bars, i showed off my nitecore tip and acebeam ki.

It's awesome how a tiny little clip will give away so much about us.

gadget_lover said:

It was easier to recognize CPF folks 10 years ago. After all, someone with several expensive lights on their belt was a give away. I met a guy 400 miles from home at a Burger King in the little town of Weed Calif who was a CPF member. He had lights all over his wheelchair. I had a home made polished aluminum one on my belt. I don't recall who brought up CPF first. That was 8 or 9 years ago.

My doctor is a CPF member. I found out when his penlight battery went dead so I offered my Mag solitaire that was altered to run NIchia LED at a full 40 ma. This was back around 2001 when that was real sexy. He turned me on to CPF.

Dan

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I guess now that lights are getting smaller, we have less external indicators... I think from my first E2E onward everything fit inside my pocket. Maybe if I started wearing a 6P again I would meet more CPFers.

aginthelaw said:

I recently met a guy who wasn't on cpf or blf, but we all still would like him. He had a maxpedition sling bag with an s1 baton clipped on it. I showed him my mini mkII, which he was thrilled about. He opened his pouch to show me his Prometheus top with ruby tip. I told him they make great lights to which he replied what are you talking about? I showed him the website and he never even saw that page before. He showed me ti pry bars, i showed off my nitecore tip and acebeam ki.

It's awesome how a tiny little clip will give away so much about us.

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I always love random gear talk with strangers!

I once thought I'd spotted a CPF'er in the wild, but it was a false alarm. He had a Surefire 6P on his belt in a Surefire branded nylon holster. Never having seen a high end flashlight that wasn't mine (or at least purchased by a family member because of my influence), I accelerated into a state of ecstatic bliss. Turns out someone gave him the light and he didn't know anything about it. I wanted to know who gave it to him, but he thought I was weird and the conversation ended. I'm not weird, though.