It won't take pictures. It doesn't have .mp3 ringtones. There's no organizer, no web browser, and it won't do email. If my car skids off an icy road into a gully and bursts into flame, there's no GPS chip to let the rescuers know where to pick up my charred remains...
...and it won't eavesdrop for The Man.
(H/T to Unc.)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Archaic game geekery, thy name is Tam.
Got a copy of Fallout running on the iBook SE.
Better, I think I got a copy of Might & Magic I up and running on the PowerBook 190. We've successfully generated characters; we'll give the gameplay the actual smoke test tomorrow. If the '040-powered 190 is too swoopy for the archaic software, we'll just have to use the Mac SE.
I have discovered that what was fun then is still fun now; if the game was only cool for its bling, it doesn't age well, but solidly fun gameplay is solidly fun gameplay. You know, it's been a long time since I played Zork. I'll bet it's still a hoot...
Better, I think I got a copy of Might & Magic I up and running on the PowerBook 190. We've successfully generated characters; we'll give the gameplay the actual smoke test tomorrow. If the '040-powered 190 is too swoopy for the archaic software, we'll just have to use the Mac SE.
I have discovered that what was fun then is still fun now; if the game was only cool for its bling, it doesn't age well, but solidly fun gameplay is solidly fun gameplay. You know, it's been a long time since I played Zork. I'll bet it's still a hoot...
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Politics: My ass = officially chapped.
We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you...
-from "Tommy", by Rudyard Kipling
The most recent steaming pile of "Anonymous Tell-All From Iraq" proffered by The New Republic (and already ripped by the The Weekly Standard, among others,) is going to be lapped up by its echo-chamber audience because it caters to one of two mutually-contradictory myths that they hold near and dear to their hearts; two myths that positively grind me to a halt.
The first myth, and the one not played up to by this latest laugher, is the Young Republican Chickenhawk Myth. Simply stated, it runs that the U.S. military should be brought home out of pity because it is populated by the dregs of society, uneducated dropouts from the wrong side of the track with room temperature IQ's and fewer prospects for a rosy future than the Washington Nationals, and who deserve our sympathy for being forced to fight a war to benefit the wealthy and educated children of privilege. The other myth, the one catered to here, is that of Soldier-As-Barbarian; a psychotic killer who has finally found in the U.S. military and its immoral war a family of peers and a stage for his depravity.
Compelling myths, especially if you don't know any actual soldiers. Any tales that bolster these myths are going to be believable to the echo-chamber denizen, accustomed as he or she is to being fed The Truth from Reliable Sources. For people who love their "Question Authority" tee shirts so much, they don't seem to actually do an awful lot of it; witness how little Questioning Jesse Macbeth initially got on claiming to be an Authority on Iraq.
These distorted views piss me off so badly because they spurn the reality of the soldiers and airmen I know, the ones I call my friends. An infantry mortarman working on his Master's in history; a man who gave up the pay of a nuclear physicist to go back into the army as an E-5 in the infantry after 9/11; an MP NCO college student whose father-in-law is a district attorney: are these the disenfranchised, uneducated proles dragooned into fighting for The Man? A career senior NCO with a degree in Theater and a love for the poetry of Khalil Gibran; an infantryman trained as a gourmet chef: These are the vulgar barbarians I'm to scorn?
Before trying to concoct myths, you should spend some time in the company of actual soldiers. Actually knowing a soldier other than the ones you saw on the screen in Platoon or Jarhead would make your myths so much more believable. Of course, actually knowing a soldier might make you pause before concocting your myths in the first place.
I feel so much better now, freer, now that I know I'm not alone...
...in wondering what the hell all the fuss is about Harry Potter.
I read the first book a few years ago. It was okay, I guess, but it certainly didn't have me running out to buy the rest. Last night, chatting amongst the crew here at Oleg's, I brought this up. One of the guests remarked that he'd had to read the first three books when he was in high school, "back in the day."
"If you were reading Harry Potter books in high school," I replied, "it was not 'back in the day'."
"Well, we had the choice of reading them, or re-reading How To Kill A Mockingbird."
I stood there stunned and blinking, as politely as I could, and very carefully did not say "I weep for the future of America."
The great excuse for the existence of the series is that "They get kids to read books." This is weak tea to someone whose unabridged paperback copy of Kipling's The Jungle Book was held together with a rubber band before she was in second grade; I mean, comic books get kids to read, too, but nobody's holding up The Uncanny X-Men as a classic of Western Literature.
Or if they are, I don't want to know about it. Please.
I read the first book a few years ago. It was okay, I guess, but it certainly didn't have me running out to buy the rest. Last night, chatting amongst the crew here at Oleg's, I brought this up. One of the guests remarked that he'd had to read the first three books when he was in high school, "back in the day."
"If you were reading Harry Potter books in high school," I replied, "it was not 'back in the day'."
"Well, we had the choice of reading them, or re-reading How To Kill A Mockingbird."
I stood there stunned and blinking, as politely as I could, and very carefully did not say "I weep for the future of America."
The great excuse for the existence of the series is that "They get kids to read books." This is weak tea to someone whose unabridged paperback copy of Kipling's The Jungle Book was held together with a rubber band before she was in second grade; I mean, comic books get kids to read, too, but nobody's holding up The Uncanny X-Men as a classic of Western Literature.
Or if they are, I don't want to know about it. Please.
More trouble with UN peacekeepers? Say it ain't so!
Proving once again that the UN couldn't referee a schoolyard dustup, let alone a civil war, Moroccan troops under UN command in Cote d'Ivoire have been told to go stand in the corner. Apparently they got caught trying to take a piece while ostensibly keeping the peace. It's such a warm fuzzy to know that, after a suitable number of intermediaries, my tax dollars were used to pay the salaries of rapists.
(And since when has Morocco been stable enough to be sending peacekeeping troops?)
(And since when has Morocco been stable enough to be sending peacekeeping troops?)
It's the economics, stupid.
TD at The Unforgiving Minute writes:
I was watching the promotional clip for Brainwashing 101 that I found saved on my machine at home the other day. There is a college professor interviewed in that film that looks sincerely into the camera and discusses how all the cutting edge strides in economics today are being made in "black political economy" and "feminist economy", as though supply had a race and demand cared about your gender. With crap like that being taught, is it any wonder that ignorance abounds?
Of course they are. How can you expect otherwise in a world where Marx is presented to students in Econ courses rather than in Comparative Religion?
I was watching the promotional clip for Brainwashing 101 that I found saved on my machine at home the other day. There is a college professor interviewed in that film that looks sincerely into the camera and discusses how all the cutting edge strides in economics today are being made in "black political economy" and "feminist economy", as though supply had a race and demand cared about your gender. With crap like that being taught, is it any wonder that ignorance abounds?
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Sometimes you just feel beaten...
When we last left my Charter Communications saga, I had an appointment for a line tech to come investigate the connectivity issues on Tuesday, so I left for Nashville.
A couple of minutes ago, I'm sitting here at Oleg's surrounded by preparations to go to the range. Next thing I know, Oleg's handing me his cell phone. It's my downstairs neighbor. There's a Charter tech there claiming he needs authorization from someone in order to bill me $49 to "fix the self-install" before he can begin work.
"Let me talk to him. ... Hello?"
"Yes, I'm here to fix a self-install. The charge is $49. I ne..."
"There's nothing wrong with the install."
"My sheet says tha..."
"Look, the modem's installed right where I installed the last Charter cable modem; plugged into the same outlet, hooked up to the same cable jack, connected to the same wireless router."
"Yes, well maybe the..."
"They were supposed to send a line tech out on Tuesday to see if everything was hooked up correctly after the septic tank guys cut the cable. You think that might have anything to do with it?"
"Well, self-installs..."
"I was installing internal 1200 baud modems in Turbo XT's while you were still singing along with Barney; I was working in BellSouth's DSL help center while you were still worried about girl cooties; this ain't my first rodeo. Can you just make sure I get a line tech out here on Tuesday?"
"I can't schedule that. You'll need to call the toll-free service number."
Which is back in Knoxville, where I ain't.
He hung up. I felt muscles knot and veins pound.
"Oleg, please take your cell phone out of my hand before I throw it. Thank you."
I didn't go along to the range with the rest of the crew; it's hard to have fun when you're this upset.
A couple of minutes ago, I'm sitting here at Oleg's surrounded by preparations to go to the range. Next thing I know, Oleg's handing me his cell phone. It's my downstairs neighbor. There's a Charter tech there claiming he needs authorization from someone in order to bill me $49 to "fix the self-install" before he can begin work.
"Let me talk to him. ... Hello?"
"Yes, I'm here to fix a self-install. The charge is $49. I ne..."
"There's nothing wrong with the install."
"My sheet says tha..."
"Look, the modem's installed right where I installed the last Charter cable modem; plugged into the same outlet, hooked up to the same cable jack, connected to the same wireless router."
"Yes, well maybe the..."
"They were supposed to send a line tech out on Tuesday to see if everything was hooked up correctly after the septic tank guys cut the cable. You think that might have anything to do with it?"
"Well, self-installs..."
"I was installing internal 1200 baud modems in Turbo XT's while you were still singing along with Barney; I was working in BellSouth's DSL help center while you were still worried about girl cooties; this ain't my first rodeo. Can you just make sure I get a line tech out here on Tuesday?"
"I can't schedule that. You'll need to call the toll-free service number."
Which is back in Knoxville, where I ain't.
He hung up. I felt muscles knot and veins pound.
"Oleg, please take your cell phone out of my hand before I throw it. Thank you."
I didn't go along to the range with the rest of the crew; it's hard to have fun when you're this upset.
Because they haven't yet figured out how to directly tax "fun"...
Cigarette smoking as a vice is being taxed and regulated into oblivion. I'm used to this. I'm used to feeling like I'm living in some adult-sized Romper Room with high taxes and armed guards. But they're not happy with the cigarette smokers, or "Niccers", as L. Neil Smith termed us. Now they're going after cigars, too. I don't smoke cigars. I don't plan to smoke cigars. I don't really know anybody who's a serious cigar aficionado.
Yet this makes me mad.
This is what it's come to. This is where the Republic has wound up; a never-ending quest for suitably unpopular activities to tax into oblivion to pay for ill-thought, graft- and incompetence-riddled, un-Constitutional programs that exist merely to buy votes from the soft of heart and soft of head.
Jerks.
Yet this makes me mad.
This is what it's come to. This is where the Republic has wound up; a never-ending quest for suitably unpopular activities to tax into oblivion to pay for ill-thought, graft- and incompetence-riddled, un-Constitutional programs that exist merely to buy votes from the soft of heart and soft of head.
Congress -- meeting in smoke-free rooms -- is looking for an extra $35 billion to $50 billion for the state children's health insurance program [which is none of Congress's business according to the Constitution] and hopes to raise most of it through excise taxes on products like tobacco.
...
There is currently 4.8 cents-per-cigar tax cap but under the proposed bill, taxes on "large cigars," a category that includes all but the tiny cigars sold in packs of 20 like cigarettes, would rise to 53 percent.
A version of the bill being considered by the Senate Finance Committee sets the maximum tax per cigar at $10.
Jerks.
It never rains, but it pours...
So the bimmer crouches in Oleg's driveway, front wheels turned sharply to the right, and I notice that... Whoah! It's new tire time on the front end for sure. I mean, the air's not showing through the tread yet, but it's about to be.
...and 225/45 17's aren't cheap.
Watch this space for some great deals on some of my swords when I get home. :(
...and 225/45 17's aren't cheap.
Watch this space for some great deals on some of my swords when I get home. :(
An accounting for taste.
Matt has a great post up on his history with beer. It's chock full of beer lore and some interesting musings on the fact that beer seems to be such an acquired taste. I know it was for me.
I had one or two adolescent encounters (and I say "adolescent" from my current viewpoint; I would have bristled at the term when I was 19...) that resulted in the expected bout of yelling at my shoes. As a result, I couldn't stand the stuff for years. I think the necessary sea change came when I was living with my ex. We were both inveterate computer gamers, and he was a serious coffee drinker. Add the two together, and between the two of us several pots of coffee could vanish in the course of a Friday or Saturday, my share of which was drunk black.
"Bitter" is not a taste sensation the young normally seek out, but several zillion cups of black coffee will make you a connoisseur of bitter. Good coffee bitter. Bad coffee bitter. This-coffee-is-burned bitter... A year later, after a sweltering summer day working at the gun shop, which was in a tin-roofed building with two glass walls and no A/C, my boss offered me a beer after we'd shut down. I seem to recall it was a Miller Genuine Draft in a bottle. I remember it was very cold, and very wet, and boy did it hit the spot. And hey, it didn't even taste bad!
Still, it remained a hot weather beverage for me. Nothing I'd seek out for the taste, specifically, mind you. It was another couple years until a friend introduced me to Whitbread Ale on draft at a local pub. This was actually tasty; something you'd drink just for the pleasure of drinking it, not just to cool off on a hot day. From there, it was a just a short hop to Bass and Sweetwater 420 IPA, Mendocino White Hawk and Stone Ruination, IPA's and Barleywines.
Anyhow, Matt, that's how it happened for me.
I had one or two adolescent encounters (and I say "adolescent" from my current viewpoint; I would have bristled at the term when I was 19...) that resulted in the expected bout of yelling at my shoes. As a result, I couldn't stand the stuff for years. I think the necessary sea change came when I was living with my ex. We were both inveterate computer gamers, and he was a serious coffee drinker. Add the two together, and between the two of us several pots of coffee could vanish in the course of a Friday or Saturday, my share of which was drunk black.
"Bitter" is not a taste sensation the young normally seek out, but several zillion cups of black coffee will make you a connoisseur of bitter. Good coffee bitter. Bad coffee bitter. This-coffee-is-burned bitter... A year later, after a sweltering summer day working at the gun shop, which was in a tin-roofed building with two glass walls and no A/C, my boss offered me a beer after we'd shut down. I seem to recall it was a Miller Genuine Draft in a bottle. I remember it was very cold, and very wet, and boy did it hit the spot. And hey, it didn't even taste bad!
Still, it remained a hot weather beverage for me. Nothing I'd seek out for the taste, specifically, mind you. It was another couple years until a friend introduced me to Whitbread Ale on draft at a local pub. This was actually tasty; something you'd drink just for the pleasure of drinking it, not just to cool off on a hot day. From there, it was a just a short hop to Bass and Sweetwater 420 IPA, Mendocino White Hawk and Stone Ruination, IPA's and Barleywines.
Anyhow, Matt, that's how it happened for me.
Blog Stuff: LOLgoats?
Remember the goat story?
Apparently Oleg did...
Yes, those are the actual goats in question. The one on the left is the star of the previous post.
Sometimes I think our boy Oleg just ain't right...
Apparently Oleg did...
Yes, those are the actual goats in question. The one on the left is the star of the previous post.
Sometimes I think our boy Oleg just ain't right...
All right!
Cheney is acting president; Bush sedated for routine colonoscopy.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
At least for a few hours.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
At least for a few hours.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Boomsticks: ...oh, and the other blog...
...the one that's supposed to be making me rich someday?
Guess who couldn't post her biggest post yet? Yeah, right in one.
But plan on seeing a magnum opus on the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 96/11 about five minutes after the Charter guy leaves.
Guess who couldn't post her biggest post yet? Yeah, right in one.
But plan on seeing a magnum opus on the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 96/11 about five minutes after the Charter guy leaves.
Jesus does not want me for a sunbeam...
...because in the mood I'm in right now, if I were a sunbeam the first thing I'd go do is fry somebody to a thermonuclear crisp.
So, Wednesday's posts were a colossal pain in the buttocks to type. Apparently all the connectivity I've had of late has been poached off a neighbor's WiFi. And spotty connectivity it's been, too. To get those posts onto the intarw3bz Wednesday required using the "repair connection" wizard every thirty seconds and rebooting the wireless LAN card twice. Then the network just gave me the finger and went away for good. Festive.
So the next morning I sucked it up and drove to the local Charter office, exchanging money I don't have for a modem of my very own. ("No thank you, I don't want premium digital cable. No basic cable either. No cable TeeVee at all, as a matter of fact. I don't care how much money I'll be saving on the package, since I don't have a, you know, actual television on which to watch the crap.") I got home and called the techies to let them know that I had hooked up the modem, and would they please provision my account?
Guess what? Problem with the wiring, and their service guys are pretty busy. Would Tuesday be okay with me?
"Would threatening to come down there and shoot people in the kneecaps until my intarw3bz are up and running speed things up? No? I guess Tuesday will be fine then..."
So...
*Ring, Ring*
"Hello?" (Said with slight Russian accent.)
"Hey, Oleg! Mind if I come borrow your couch and your WiFi for a day or so? Yes, again."
Ever feel like the fates are really pissed at you for something? Le Sigh.
So, Wednesday's posts were a colossal pain in the buttocks to type. Apparently all the connectivity I've had of late has been poached off a neighbor's WiFi. And spotty connectivity it's been, too. To get those posts onto the intarw3bz Wednesday required using the "repair connection" wizard every thirty seconds and rebooting the wireless LAN card twice. Then the network just gave me the finger and went away for good. Festive.
So the next morning I sucked it up and drove to the local Charter office, exchanging money I don't have for a modem of my very own. ("No thank you, I don't want premium digital cable. No basic cable either. No cable TeeVee at all, as a matter of fact. I don't care how much money I'll be saving on the package, since I don't have a, you know, actual television on which to watch the crap.") I got home and called the techies to let them know that I had hooked up the modem, and would they please provision my account?
Guess what? Problem with the wiring, and their service guys are pretty busy. Would Tuesday be okay with me?
"Would threatening to come down there and shoot people in the kneecaps until my intarw3bz are up and running speed things up? No? I guess Tuesday will be fine then..."
So...
*Ring, Ring*
"Hello?" (Said with slight Russian accent.)
"Hey, Oleg! Mind if I come borrow your couch and your WiFi for a day or so? Yes, again."
Ever feel like the fates are really pissed at you for something? Le Sigh.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Blog Stuff: Busy morning...
I started the day off with a bang by meeting long-time blogger Charles Hill of Dustbury fame for breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel, as he swung through Knox Vegas on his World Tour '07. He's as witty in person as he is online and, despite having been blogging since the web was steam-powered and data was transmitted by banging two rocks together, modestly starts hardly any stories with "When Glenn Reynolds was a pup..." All too soon he was off to Nashville and I was off to Turkey Creek for errands.
Before the main event at the World of Wally, I had to swing by Borders. You see, I've been re-reading (for, like, the third time) Michael Curtis Ford's The Ten Thousand which is, along with his Gods And Legions, one of my favorite historical novels. I mentioned this on my blog yesterday, and look who turned up in the comments section. When an author comments on your blog, you have to go buy one of his books. That's a rule, I think. So I picked up a copy of The Sword Of Attila, which appears to revolve around Aetius, one of the most interesting figures of late Imperial history, and is therefore pretty much guaranteed to be an enjoyable read.
Then off to Wally World for shelving. Finally having some free time on my hands, VFTP Command Central is being converted from the place where I sleep back to the place where I live. One shelving unit was of the large, black, plastic, ventilated kind to go directly behind my desk chair and serve as a rack for the PowerBook museum I have inadvertently started. Horse trading with Marko yesterday netted me a 1400 and a 2400c, and I had earlier traded him out of a longtime dream machine of mine, a G3 Wall Street. So now all the Mac laptops have a home, and I've run an extension cord up behind it so that I can keep the ones I use regularly all charged up. The other shelving unit was for DVDs, which didn't anywhere near fill it. Clever bookends had to be used, such as a neat bronze statue of a Spartan hoplite and the cup-type grenade launcher for a World War One British Lee-Enfield rifle. Old boxes are getting hauled off, things are getting sorted onto shelves, and it's starting to look like home again for the first time in the last three years or so.
Before the main event at the World of Wally, I had to swing by Borders. You see, I've been re-reading (for, like, the third time) Michael Curtis Ford's The Ten Thousand which is, along with his Gods And Legions, one of my favorite historical novels. I mentioned this on my blog yesterday, and look who turned up in the comments section. When an author comments on your blog, you have to go buy one of his books. That's a rule, I think. So I picked up a copy of The Sword Of Attila, which appears to revolve around Aetius, one of the most interesting figures of late Imperial history, and is therefore pretty much guaranteed to be an enjoyable read.
Then off to Wally World for shelving. Finally having some free time on my hands, VFTP Command Central is being converted from the place where I sleep back to the place where I live. One shelving unit was of the large, black, plastic, ventilated kind to go directly behind my desk chair and serve as a rack for the PowerBook museum I have inadvertently started. Horse trading with Marko yesterday netted me a 1400 and a 2400c, and I had earlier traded him out of a longtime dream machine of mine, a G3 Wall Street. So now all the Mac laptops have a home, and I've run an extension cord up behind it so that I can keep the ones I use regularly all charged up. The other shelving unit was for DVDs, which didn't anywhere near fill it. Clever bookends had to be used, such as a neat bronze statue of a Spartan hoplite and the cup-type grenade launcher for a World War One British Lee-Enfield rifle. Old boxes are getting hauled off, things are getting sorted onto shelves, and it's starting to look like home again for the first time in the last three years or so.
Today In History: Burn, baby, burn.
On this day in 64 AD a fire started in the market areas of the seedy Aventine district in Rome, down near the Circus Maximus. It spread rapidly (some said unnaturally rapidly) to the northeast, leveling bucks-up townhomes and posh villas on all the best land right through the middle of the city's old-money Palatine and trendy Esquiline districts.
Emperor Nero immediately invented urban renewal, and advanced the sciences of eminent domain abuse and arson-for-profit by giant leaps, when he scarfed up all the primo land at fire sale prices and used the acreage to build a palace fitting for his imperial self. (Which is to say that it looked about three fifths Versailles, one fifth rap star, and one fifth just plain bizarre.) Then he blamed some whacky fringe cult and set some of them on fire, too.
Emperor Nero immediately invented urban renewal, and advanced the sciences of eminent domain abuse and arson-for-profit by giant leaps, when he scarfed up all the primo land at fire sale prices and used the acreage to build a palace fitting for his imperial self. (Which is to say that it looked about three fifths Versailles, one fifth rap star, and one fifth just plain bizarre.) Then he blamed some whacky fringe cult and set some of them on fire, too.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Politics: Wow. Imagine that.
So the .gov decides that putting corn squeezins in the gasoline will make Greenpeace happy and Osama bin Laden sad, both at the same time, which is a win-win deal. So, being a bunch of congressmen, they decided that the best way to get those corn squeezins into the gasoline is to subsidize, subsidize, subsidize. (Especially since a lot of those congressmen came from corn-growing regions and had gotten elected by promising their constituents that they'd have them farting through silk in no time.)
So, being smart, anyone can see that you need to put your corn into corn squeezins, and not Fritos; at least you do if you want any of that sweet, sweet government candy. Only that makes the price of Fritos go up. And now we can't afford to send any Fritos to Chad to keep people there from starving. Whoops.
Imagine, government meddling with the market via subsidies distorts pricing and causes problems.
So, being smart, anyone can see that you need to put your corn into corn squeezins, and not Fritos; at least you do if you want any of that sweet, sweet government candy. Only that makes the price of Fritos go up. And now we can't afford to send any Fritos to Chad to keep people there from starving. Whoops.
Imagine, government meddling with the market via subsidies distorts pricing and causes problems.
Who could have seen that coming?
OSHA backs off...
...on the ammunition issue at least. So that's cool and all for now.
Other than that, they're still an annoying, nosy, unconstitutional waste of taxpayer dollars.
(H/T to Unc.)
Other than that, they're still an annoying, nosy, unconstitutional waste of taxpayer dollars.
(H/T to Unc.)
Tamzilla vs. Mothra
As my day drew to a close last night, I decided on one last cigarette on the side porch. Grabbing my copy of Michael Ford's The Ten Thousand, I turned on the yellow-tinted "guaranteed not to attract bugs" porch light, and stepped outside.
Normally in summer, I don't make much use of the landing at the top of the stairs. Summers are fairly buggy here on the lake, and this one had been buggier than usual. More bugs means more spiders. I'm not fond of spiders at all, but I reach a sort of modus vivendi with them in the summer months: as long as they eat bugs and don't build webs where I run into them, I let them live. (Also, they should attempt to not be gross looking and should always avoid my observation, but I try to be tolerant.) This means that by mid-July, the landing at the top of the stairs is pretty well swathed in spiderwebs, so I stand rather still while reading to avoid being forced into a spider-killing frenzy by touching a web.
Anyway, I'm standing there reading, when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up in time to realize that I was about to be divebombed by the holy crap, no-kidding, biggest damn bug I have ever seen outside of a museum. I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my neighbors, as well as probably folks as far away as Sevierville, for the big girly shriek, followed immediately by the loudly slamming door, as I dove for cover. When it hit the door behind me (and it did; it was coming right for me,) it rattled the glass in the pane. This thing was huge. Gynormous. Whamdigeous. It had to be seven inches across the wings, and its body was as big as my thumb. It could have carried a regular moth under each wing, and a good-sized Luna on a centerline pylon.
I never saw it fly off.
It might still be waiting for me out there.
Jeez, I hate big bugs.
Normally in summer, I don't make much use of the landing at the top of the stairs. Summers are fairly buggy here on the lake, and this one had been buggier than usual. More bugs means more spiders. I'm not fond of spiders at all, but I reach a sort of modus vivendi with them in the summer months: as long as they eat bugs and don't build webs where I run into them, I let them live. (Also, they should attempt to not be gross looking and should always avoid my observation, but I try to be tolerant.) This means that by mid-July, the landing at the top of the stairs is pretty well swathed in spiderwebs, so I stand rather still while reading to avoid being forced into a spider-killing frenzy by touching a web.
Anyway, I'm standing there reading, when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up in time to realize that I was about to be divebombed by the holy crap, no-kidding, biggest damn bug I have ever seen outside of a museum. I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my neighbors, as well as probably folks as far away as Sevierville, for the big girly shriek, followed immediately by the loudly slamming door, as I dove for cover. When it hit the door behind me (and it did; it was coming right for me,) it rattled the glass in the pane. This thing was huge. Gynormous. Whamdigeous. It had to be seven inches across the wings, and its body was as big as my thumb. It could have carried a regular moth under each wing, and a good-sized Luna on a centerline pylon.
I never saw it fly off.
It might still be waiting for me out there.
Jeez, I hate big bugs.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Boomsticks: k-BLAMMMM!
Back when I was working at the gun shop in Georgia, I had a cartridge collection prominently displayed on the shelf behind the counter. Folks were always bringing things in to add to it, and the star was a 4 Bore cartridge, which made even the mighty .50 BMG look a little spindly by comparison.
That is, it was the star, until a guy brought in what looked like a brass-based paper towel tube. It was labeled "0 Gauge", and was the shell from a breechloading punt gun from back in the days of market hunting. You could have dropped the 4 Bore and the .50 BMG down in there, added a .600 Nitro Express and a .458 Win Mag for good measure, and rattled them around like beans in a maraca.
Xavier has video of a sidehammer punt gun being fired.
Wow.
That is, it was the star, until a guy brought in what looked like a brass-based paper towel tube. It was labeled "0 Gauge", and was the shell from a breechloading punt gun from back in the days of market hunting. You could have dropped the 4 Bore and the .50 BMG down in there, added a .600 Nitro Express and a .458 Win Mag for good measure, and rattled them around like beans in a maraca.
Xavier has video of a sidehammer punt gun being fired.
Wow.
Tough room.
Well, at least I thought that "OMG A TRU..." was the funniest thing I'd ever written.
See, she was text messaging, and... Get it?
Sigh. Never mind.
See, she was text messaging, and... Get it?
Sigh. Never mind.
Today In History: The Big Bang.
"Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear nuclear inferno.
Happy birthday to you."
God, only twenty kilotons. They're so cute when they're little, and they grow up so fast...
"This is so embarassing that I just have to blog about it!"
Why do people always say that? "This is so embarassing that I just have to tell a hojillion strangers all about my latest faux pas!" Anyhow...
So I've got 1600-something posts here. I'd have probably twice that number if everything that came into my head got put down. I'll be wandering about the apartment and the idea for something to write will pop into my head. I'll grab my book & beer and go sit on the porch, the book forgotten as I write and rewrite the post in my head. I know it'll be good if I make myself chuckle.
Finally, with a smile, I know I've got it right. As soon as I finish this beer and this chapter, I'll go write it. Dang, this book is good. Well, maybe one more chapter. Hmmm. My beer is empty; I'll go fetch another. Is it getting dark out? And then I go upstairs and sit in front of VFTP Command Central and... what was it I was going to write about? Crap, better just throw a goofy Simpson's avatar in there as filler.
Anyhow, this morning it hit me... Did you know (and I'm not making this up) that there is a program in Windows called "Notepad"? Really, it's true. And using this program, you could make a file called something like "Post Topics" or "Writing Ideas" and put it right on your desktop, and every time you had an idea for a post, you could write it there using just a sentence or a couple words to jog your memory. Then when you wrote the actual post, you could cross it off the list. I swear to you, this is true. I know this, because I just crossed off "I'm an idiot for not making notes".
So I've got 1600-something posts here. I'd have probably twice that number if everything that came into my head got put down. I'll be wandering about the apartment and the idea for something to write will pop into my head. I'll grab my book & beer and go sit on the porch, the book forgotten as I write and rewrite the post in my head. I know it'll be good if I make myself chuckle.
Finally, with a smile, I know I've got it right. As soon as I finish this beer and this chapter, I'll go write it. Dang, this book is good. Well, maybe one more chapter. Hmmm. My beer is empty; I'll go fetch another. Is it getting dark out? And then I go upstairs and sit in front of VFTP Command Central and... what was it I was going to write about? Crap, better just throw a goofy Simpson's avatar in there as filler.
Anyhow, this morning it hit me... Did you know (and I'm not making this up) that there is a program in Windows called "Notepad"? Really, it's true. And using this program, you could make a file called something like "Post Topics" or "Writing Ideas" and put it right on your desktop, and every time you had an idea for a post, you could write it there using just a sentence or a couple words to jog your memory. Then when you wrote the actual post, you could cross it off the list. I swear to you, this is true. I know this, because I just crossed off "I'm an idiot for not making notes".
Blog Stuff: Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn't I?
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Neat places you find via SiteMeter...
Cup Of Love.
Pure blogging, as in the original "Dear Diary" meaning of "Web Log". She just types into the ether about the bazillion and one little things that make up Day To Day life. It's fun to read. :)
Pure blogging, as in the original "Dear Diary" meaning of "Web Log". She just types into the ether about the bazillion and one little things that make up Day To Day life. It's fun to read. :)
Blog stuff...
My two year blogaversary is coming up in one month and thirteen days. Barring disastrous connectivity issues, I should be able to score the 20k hits required for half a million in two years. Go Team Me! :)
Blog Stuff: Overheard last night.
I'm playing Civilization II on the old Mac Performa. Gunsmith Bob's leafing through a magazine...
Me: *snort!*
Gunsmith Bob: "What's so funny?"
Me: "The ambassador from the Persian emperor says I should be punished for my insolence."
Gunsmith Bob: "Sometimes I think you should be punished for your insolence."
Me: "Good luck with that to both of you; I just invented ironclads."
Me: *snort!*
Gunsmith Bob: "What's so funny?"
Me: "The ambassador from the Persian emperor says I should be punished for my insolence."
Gunsmith Bob: "Sometimes I think you should be punished for your insolence."
Me: "Good luck with that to both of you; I just invented ironclads."
OMG A TRU...
Let me reiterate yet again the fact that I think text messaging is possibly the single most pointless thing on the planet ("Oh, if only I could use this cell phone to communicate with my friend who also has a cell phone...") But text messaging while driving? That raises stupidity to an art form. I mean, that has got to be among the three or four most boneheaded things you could do behind the wheel of a moving motor vehicle, and that's only if we allow "putting your head in a sack" to be number one.
Un-freakin'-believable.
Bailey Goodman was driving her friends to her parents' vacation home when her SUV, which had just passed a car, swerved back into oncoming traffic, hit a tractor-trailer and burst into flames. Five days earlier, the five teenagers had graduated together from high school in Fairport, a Rochester suburb.
Goodman's inexperience at the wheel; evidence she was driving above the speed limit at night on a winding, two-lane highway; and a succession of calls and text messages on her phone were cited Friday by Sheriff Phil Povero as possible factors in the June 28 crash in western New York.
"The records indicate her phone was in use," Povero said. "We will never be able to clearly state that she was the one doing the text messaging.
Un-freakin'-believable.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall.
Countertop takes the wind out of a rude fellow patron's sails.
Go and read it.Un provoked, out of nowhere I hear “that is not an appropriate shirt.”
Not thinking it could be directed at little old me I sample some of the bruschetta (tasty, but it could use some olives), when I hear “and you have a baby with you, disgusting.”
At that, I turn around: “Can I help you?”
Blog Stuff: "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"
My favorite Google search of the day so far:
Train hard, son; train hard.
Well, it's no Lewis & Clark Expedition...
...but just some musings from the road between Nashville and Knoxville.
1) Driving to Nashville, I get 30-31mpg running the A/C most of the way. Coming back to Knoxville, I only get about 28 over the same route. This is because I-40 westbound takes a brief, steep climb up out of the Tennessee river valley west of Oak Ridge, and then generally trends downhill the rest of the way to Nashville. On the return leg, it's the reverse.
2) Temperature in Nashville: 91 degrees. Temperature in Knoxville, down in the valley: 91 degrees. Temperature up on the Cumberland Plateau between the two: 85 degrees.
3) It took me a bit to realize why it got dark earlier in Nashville. I'd be sitting on Oleg's back porch reading a book and suddenly look around bewildered, "Huh? It's barely 8 o'clock. Why's it dark already?" Nashville is towards the very eastern edge of the Central Time Zone, while Knoxville is at the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone. This accounts for the sun setting 50 minutes later in Knoxville than it does in Nash Vegas.
1) Driving to Nashville, I get 30-31mpg running the A/C most of the way. Coming back to Knoxville, I only get about 28 over the same route. This is because I-40 westbound takes a brief, steep climb up out of the Tennessee river valley west of Oak Ridge, and then generally trends downhill the rest of the way to Nashville. On the return leg, it's the reverse.
2) Temperature in Nashville: 91 degrees. Temperature in Knoxville, down in the valley: 91 degrees. Temperature up on the Cumberland Plateau between the two: 85 degrees.
3) It took me a bit to realize why it got dark earlier in Nashville. I'd be sitting on Oleg's back porch reading a book and suddenly look around bewildered, "Huh? It's barely 8 o'clock. Why's it dark already?" Nashville is towards the very eastern edge of the Central Time Zone, while Knoxville is at the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone. This accounts for the sun setting 50 minutes later in Knoxville than it does in Nash Vegas.
News: Ever have one of those days...
...where you're just fed up with folks talking on their cell phone instead of driving or walking or paying for their purchases at Wally World? Doesn't it make you mad? Doesn't it just make you want to hop into your armored personnel carrier and trash cell phone towers until the police finally force you out of your vehicle?
I tell you, it's heartwarming little human interest stories like this one that make me want to go shopping for surplus armored fighting vehicles. When you snap, you want to do it with style. "I don't know, officer. This M2 half-track just came out of nowhere and ground every ramp in the skateboard park to kindling under its treads and then drove off. I swear I heard some lady cackling her head off from inside the vehicle, though..."
I tell you, it's heartwarming little human interest stories like this one that make me want to go shopping for surplus armored fighting vehicles. When you snap, you want to do it with style. "I don't know, officer. This M2 half-track just came out of nowhere and ground every ramp in the skateboard park to kindling under its treads and then drove off. I swear I heard some lady cackling her head off from inside the vehicle, though..."
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Today In History:...
From the Rush album Caress Of Steel:
If you make a point of playing it in the morning every July 14th, you're a geek. Welcome to the club. :)
There's no bread, let them eat cake
There's no end to what they'll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth
But they're marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel and let his kingdom rise
Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by
And we're marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Sing, oh choirs of cacophony
The king has kneeled, to let his kingdom rise
Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day
La guillotine claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
Power isn't all that money buys
If you make a point of playing it in the morning every July 14th, you're a geek. Welcome to the club. :)
Blog Stuff: How to tell it's a weekend...
...by using SiteMeter:
Click on the "Details" link. Are none of your visits from .gov, .mil, or .edu addresses? Everything from .com or .net?
Then it must be Saturday or Sunday.
Click on the "Details" link. Are none of your visits from .gov, .mil, or .edu addresses? Everything from .com or .net?
Then it must be Saturday or Sunday.
You know you're an introverted history geek when...
...you remember your mom's birthday because it's Bastille Day, and not the other way 'round.
You have got to have rocks in your head...
...to pay $900,000 for an efficiency apartment. I don't care if it comes with cabana boys and hot & cold running beer and the view out the living room window is nothing but sunsets and nekkid Vin Diesel. Come to think of it, actually buying a condo apartment has always struck me as an odd thing to do.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Why "assault weapon" bans don't work...
Because people are very damnably clever.
That should be good until the CADOJ gets around to closing that "loophole".
When are they just going to come out and admit they want all the guns?
That should be good until the CADOJ gets around to closing that "loophole".
When are they just going to come out and admit they want all the guns?
Boomsticks: Toadstickers.
So there's this guy who sets up at our local gun shows. He always has cool militaria. The good stuff is spread on the table: Long Garand bayonets, a Patton sword, US & German WWII flotsam and jetsam. That's not why I patronize his table, though. I'm there for the three 5-gallon buckets of old bayonets he keeps behind his table, all fairly reasonably priced. Every show, no matter how odd the gun I'd just acquired and needed a toadsticker for, he'd always come through for me:
"Got a reasonably priced WWI German Gewehr 98 bayonet?"
"Arisaka bayonet. WWII vintage. Got one?"
"Do you have a cheap Garand bayonet I can use to cover up the lug until I can afford a good one?"
"How're you fixed for Argentine Mauser bayonets?"
"Bayonet. Azerbaijani M1887 Mauser. How much?"
Okay, I just made that last one up. Still, he was batting 1.000 until this most recent show when I asked "Do you have any bayonets for a Brazilian 1908/34 Mauser?"
*Rummage* *Rummage* *Dig*
"Nope. Not here; I'll bring one next show."
I was floored. Anyhow, I did some digging around on the intarw3bz to get an idea of what I'd be looking at, price-wise. (Don't worry, I'm not going to cheat on him. He said he'd bring one; I'll buy it from him.) While surfing, I came to the site that is the point of this post. ("Point". Ha, ha. Get it? I kill me...)
"ebayonet". That is just too clever for words. Wish I'd thought of it...
"Got a reasonably priced WWI German Gewehr 98 bayonet?"
"Arisaka bayonet. WWII vintage. Got one?"
"Do you have a cheap Garand bayonet I can use to cover up the lug until I can afford a good one?"
"How're you fixed for Argentine Mauser bayonets?"
"Bayonet. Azerbaijani M1887 Mauser. How much?"
Okay, I just made that last one up. Still, he was batting 1.000 until this most recent show when I asked "Do you have any bayonets for a Brazilian 1908/34 Mauser?"
*Rummage* *Rummage* *Dig*
"Nope. Not here; I'll bring one next show."
I was floored. Anyhow, I did some digging around on the intarw3bz to get an idea of what I'd be looking at, price-wise. (Don't worry, I'm not going to cheat on him. He said he'd bring one; I'll buy it from him.) While surfing, I came to the site that is the point of this post. ("Point". Ha, ha. Get it? I kill me...)
"ebayonet". That is just too clever for words. Wish I'd thought of it...
You say "selfish" like it's a bad thing...
Touchy-Feely commenter from the Brady Blog attempts to be mean to Robb Allen and Unc, capping her tirade with:
Do you know what the difference is between you and I? I don't pretend to care about your safety. My selfishness is out in the open for all to see. You see, you don't care about my safety either. You say you do, of course, but that's not why you want my guns gone. You want my guns gone because the only safety you care about is your own, and yet you refuse to take any personal responsibility for it. Your faux concern for my safety is merely a fig leaf for your own pusillanimity.
"...neither of you are concerned about other’s [sic] safety, when it comes to gun crimes & violence. All you care about are your access to guns ~ and such selfishness comes through loud & clear buddy."You know what? You hit it right on the head. I am not concerned one iota with your safety. After all, I don't know you from Adam's housecat, so how does your fate affect me? I am, however, concerned with the safety of myself and the people I do know and care about, and I care about access to firearms as a means of securing that safety.
Do you know what the difference is between you and I? I don't pretend to care about your safety. My selfishness is out in the open for all to see. You see, you don't care about my safety either. You say you do, of course, but that's not why you want my guns gone. You want my guns gone because the only safety you care about is your own, and yet you refuse to take any personal responsibility for it. Your faux concern for my safety is merely a fig leaf for your own pusillanimity.
Blog Stuff: Capitalism keeps beer colder.
Marko has a great one up on capitalism, socialism, and which one keeps beer colder. Go read.
Politics: Where do they get off?
Some pointdexter at Oxford University in Formerly Great Britain has revived a proposal on expanding the UK's 17.5% Value-Added Tax, not normally applied to things you stuff in your cake-hole, to include foods that contain politically incorrect amounts of fat, salt, or sugar.
Let's ignore for the moment the fact that you could roam the scepter'd isle from Wick to Land's End and not scare up enough honest-to-Falwell beer guts to fill the first row of seats in the bleachers at Darlington; our man has determined that there is a problem, and Something Should Be Done about it. That Something, of course, should take the form of social engineering via taxation. Backed up by .pdf's full of charts and no-doubt-snappy PowerPoint presentations, our do-gooding crusaders claim that as many as 3,200 lives could be saved annually by this scheme.
Call me a misanthrope, but I'd have a hard time making a list of 32 lives that need saving, let alone 3,200. And I'd have an even harder time thinking of 32 that would be worth saving if the cost meant expanding the confiscatory powers of the government. "Well, Aunt Bessie, they say you'd have another three years if I agree to the tax on the Pringles... Sorry 'bout that." This is what taxation has come to in the declining years of the Western Welfare State. There's not even a pretense of it having anything to do with revenue anymore; it's all about control.
The most important question here, though, is where do they get off thinking that it's any of their business what you put in your mouth? So it's not healthy; so what? If you want to pour yourself a nice, frosty mug of battery acid and down it in one gulp, how is that any business of mine, let alone some faceless drone in the government? "Don't put that in your mouth!" is something you tell your three year old, not a middle-aged father of four.
There's a flip side to this, of course. If you do subsist on a diet consisting solely of Schlitz and double bacon cheese greaseburgers and go into cardiac vapor lock at age 34, don't come crying to me; I didn't force them down your throat. But that's a subject for another post...
(Hat Tip to B&N.)
Let's ignore for the moment the fact that you could roam the scepter'd isle from Wick to Land's End and not scare up enough honest-to-Falwell beer guts to fill the first row of seats in the bleachers at Darlington; our man has determined that there is a problem, and Something Should Be Done about it. That Something, of course, should take the form of social engineering via taxation. Backed up by .pdf's full of charts and no-doubt-snappy PowerPoint presentations, our do-gooding crusaders claim that as many as 3,200 lives could be saved annually by this scheme.
Call me a misanthrope, but I'd have a hard time making a list of 32 lives that need saving, let alone 3,200. And I'd have an even harder time thinking of 32 that would be worth saving if the cost meant expanding the confiscatory powers of the government. "Well, Aunt Bessie, they say you'd have another three years if I agree to the tax on the Pringles... Sorry 'bout that." This is what taxation has come to in the declining years of the Western Welfare State. There's not even a pretense of it having anything to do with revenue anymore; it's all about control.
The most important question here, though, is where do they get off thinking that it's any of their business what you put in your mouth? So it's not healthy; so what? If you want to pour yourself a nice, frosty mug of battery acid and down it in one gulp, how is that any business of mine, let alone some faceless drone in the government? "Don't put that in your mouth!" is something you tell your three year old, not a middle-aged father of four.
There's a flip side to this, of course. If you do subsist on a diet consisting solely of Schlitz and double bacon cheese greaseburgers and go into cardiac vapor lock at age 34, don't come crying to me; I didn't force them down your throat. But that's a subject for another post...
(Hat Tip to B&N.)
Happy "The Government Will Protect You" Day!
On July 13th, 1995, in the Dutch compound at Potočari in the UN-mandated "Safe Area" of Srebrenica, Serbian forces got down to the serious business of massacre. Before it was over, thousands of adult Bosnian men, as well as numbers of women and children, would be systematically killed while UN peacekeepers stood helplessly by, powerless to stop the slaughter.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Boomsticks: Reloading resource, or "The Czech is in the mail".
Owners of Czech vz 52 rifles can get spiffy reloadable boxer-primed brass with annealed case necks from here.
Politics: Intarw3bz bias.
Firefox 2.0's integral spellchecker knows "Baghdad", but not "Iwo Jima". It knows "KIA", but not "WIA".
Ironically, it does not know "spellchecker".
Ironically, it does not know "spellchecker".
Books: Tell it to the Marines.
As of this morning, I'm absolutely engrossed in American Spartans, by James A. Warren. It's a history of the United States Marine Corps that runs from the beaches of Iwo Jima in 1945 to the streets of Baghdad in 2003. Great stuff.
The battle for Iwo Jima is one of the most epic battles of all time. 30,000 Marines went ashore on D-Day, hitting the beaches of an island defended by over 21,000 Japanese troops. For those who are not students of military science or military history, it is accepted as a general maxim that at least 3:1 odds are preferred when attacking an enemy in prepared positions. When all was said and done, the Marines had suffered more than 25,000 KIA and WIA, seeing 75% casualties in many infantry units. Of the 21,000 Japanese defenders, 250 surrendered. The rest fell in combat. Again for the unfamiliar, the standard rule of thumb is that a unit is rendered hors d' combat when it has taken 30% casualties. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded to American fighting men on Iwo in slightly over one month. The island had a total area of eight square miles. This is out of a total of 464 for the entire US Armed Forces in WWII over the entire globe between 12/41 and 8/45.
I'm only about a third of the way into it, but this is definitely a great read.
The battle for Iwo Jima is one of the most epic battles of all time. 30,000 Marines went ashore on D-Day, hitting the beaches of an island defended by over 21,000 Japanese troops. For those who are not students of military science or military history, it is accepted as a general maxim that at least 3:1 odds are preferred when attacking an enemy in prepared positions. When all was said and done, the Marines had suffered more than 25,000 KIA and WIA, seeing 75% casualties in many infantry units. Of the 21,000 Japanese defenders, 250 surrendered. The rest fell in combat. Again for the unfamiliar, the standard rule of thumb is that a unit is rendered hors d' combat when it has taken 30% casualties. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded to American fighting men on Iwo in slightly over one month. The island had a total area of eight square miles. This is out of a total of 464 for the entire US Armed Forces in WWII over the entire globe between 12/41 and 8/45.
I'm only about a third of the way into it, but this is definitely a great read.
Beer: We fear change...
McScrooge's was still out of Ruination (Gunsmith Bob: "Why don't you keep telling everybody how good that stuff is on your blog? It might sell out even faster.") and I just wasn't feeling any Mendocino White Hawk or Dogfish Head 60 Minute, so I left empty handed and hopped back in the car to tool over to Leaf & Ale who, thanks to Tennessee's bizarro liquor laws, hadn't seen me since I discovered Ruination Imperial IPA after Mash House Hoppy Hour IPA got discontinued (the former is a big beer according to tn.gov, and can only be sold in liquor stores here).
A quick chat with the guy at the counter, and I was pointed to Lost Coast Brewery's Indica IPA.
Dang. This is pretty good stuff! Matt should try it, since he likes the Dogfish Head IPAs so much.
A quick chat with the guy at the counter, and I was pointed to Lost Coast Brewery's Indica IPA.
Dang. This is pretty good stuff! Matt should try it, since he likes the Dogfish Head IPAs so much.
Boomsticks: Paging Michael Crichton...
You know those heat-seeking guided bullets you made up for Runaway?
Well, New York Assemblywoman Eddington (Dolt-3rd District) knows where she can get some. Naturally, you have to launch them out of a .50 caliberassault Saturday Night Special terrorist sniper rifle, but they'll wipe out a whole airliner with one shot. Makes you wonder why the U.S. military wastes so much money on big, heavy surface-to-air missiles, doesn't it?
(Really, y'all, watch the video; the woman's shrill naivety, her malevolent ignorance, is simply breathtaking. It's a wonder she doesn't starve from forgetting which end of the spoon goes in her mouth. Also note that the rifle in question is the single shot AR-50, which the President of Armalite has stated has never even been sold to the military.)
Well, New York Assemblywoman Eddington (Dolt-3rd District) knows where she can get some. Naturally, you have to launch them out of a .50 caliber
(Really, y'all, watch the video; the woman's shrill naivety, her malevolent ignorance, is simply breathtaking. It's a wonder she doesn't starve from forgetting which end of the spoon goes in her mouth. Also note that the rifle in question is the single shot AR-50, which the President of Armalite has stated has never even been sold to the military.)
Boomsticks: Free State Project?
What we got going on in comments over here is the Free Stuff State Project.
Josh works at an institute of higher learning in California; we have those here in Tennessee, too. And while our Department of Differently-Abled Wymyn Of Color Studies may not be what he's used to at Patrice Lumumba U., we do have Glenn Reynolds.
Hm. "Move To Tennessee, Get An AR." I wonder who else we could go entice with this plan? I got yer Chamber of Commerce right here.
Josh works at an institute of higher learning in California; we have those here in Tennessee, too. And while our Department of Differently-Abled Wymyn Of Color Studies may not be what he's used to at Patrice Lumumba U., we do have Glenn Reynolds.
Hm. "Move To Tennessee, Get An AR." I wonder who else we could go entice with this plan? I got yer Chamber of Commerce right here.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Boomsticks: I love a happy ending.
My downstairs neighbors were leaving to run some errands a few minutes ago and were kind enough to bring me today's mail before they left. Atop the stack was this month's SWAT magazine. Like I do every month, I dropped the book I was reading and popped the magazine open to go look for the Pat Rogers article. Instead, the magazine fell right open to a beautiful sight...
A two-page color glossy photo of Jim Zumbo blazing away with a stubby M-16 variant on full auto, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
The accompanying nine-page article covered the whole back story of the Zumbo/Outdoor Life debacle from Mr. Zumbo's point of view; his current, much-changed feelings on the topic; and the results of him taking a tactical carbine course from none other than Pat Rogers. I started the article with, I admit, a bit of a smirk on my face, and finished it with a grin only slightly smaller than the one Mr. Zumbo was wearing while he let rip with the buzz gun. Thank you, Mr. Zumbo. And thank you Ted Nugent, Denny Hansen, Pat Rogers, and Rich Lucibella. This was one of the most happy-making things I've read in a while.
If y'all blog readers don't subscribe, you should, or at least pick up a trophy copy on the news stands when it shows up there soon. Behold the power of the intaw3bz, indeed... :)
A two-page color glossy photo of Jim Zumbo blazing away with a stubby M-16 variant on full auto, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
The accompanying nine-page article covered the whole back story of the Zumbo/Outdoor Life debacle from Mr. Zumbo's point of view; his current, much-changed feelings on the topic; and the results of him taking a tactical carbine course from none other than Pat Rogers. I started the article with, I admit, a bit of a smirk on my face, and finished it with a grin only slightly smaller than the one Mr. Zumbo was wearing while he let rip with the buzz gun. Thank you, Mr. Zumbo. And thank you Ted Nugent, Denny Hansen, Pat Rogers, and Rich Lucibella. This was one of the most happy-making things I've read in a while.
If y'all blog readers don't subscribe, you should, or at least pick up a trophy copy on the news stands when it shows up there soon. Behold the power of the intaw3bz, indeed... :)
Mac Geek Status Symbol on ebay.
Mint condition TAM, all original packaging: Six days left to go, 9 bids, up to $290 already...
...for what is, in essence, a Pentium I-class machine. Swoopy case design, though. And hand-stitched Italian glove leather palm rests. The Bose sound system kicks, too. Someone should go buy it.
The pièce de résistance? The trackpad is detachable, and its little cord spools into a recess on the underside of the keyboard. If you detach and deploy it, there's another little recess under the keyboard that contains a leather covered piece contoured to fill the gap left by the track pad. That's just ever so slick. Ten years later, and the machine still looks like a science fiction movie prop...
...for what is, in essence, a Pentium I-class machine. Swoopy case design, though. And hand-stitched Italian glove leather palm rests. The Bose sound system kicks, too. Someone should go buy it.
The pièce de résistance? The trackpad is detachable, and its little cord spools into a recess on the underside of the keyboard. If you detach and deploy it, there's another little recess under the keyboard that contains a leather covered piece contoured to fill the gap left by the track pad. That's just ever so slick. Ten years later, and the machine still looks like a science fiction movie prop...
Blog Stuff: Fear my geekitude.
On the excavated table to my left are a scattering of old PowerBooks, an iBook, and a beige Mac Performa desktop, the latter of which is up and running. In front of me is a big P4 tower covered in stickers and surrounded by speakers, card readers, a remote for the sound system, WiFi antennae, a docked Sony PDA, and et cetera.
If you didn't notice the dust on the PDA, and the fact that the P4 was doing nothing but web surfing while the Performa was idling away at a game of Civ II, you might think I was actually getting stuff accomplished. Wotan knows the setup sure looks productive.
If you didn't notice the dust on the PDA, and the fact that the P4 was doing nothing but web surfing while the Performa was idling away at a game of Civ II, you might think I was actually getting stuff accomplished. Wotan knows the setup sure looks productive.
News: Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Glasgow terrorist likely to die.
Gosh, I'm all tore up about that. Probably a pretty painful way to go, too.
Gosh, I'm all tore up about that. Probably a pretty painful way to go, too.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
From elsewhere on the 'net...
Here, in reference to this:
I'd rather everybody in this country got killed by meth-crazed biker hoodlums tomorrow than continue this inanity that goes on in the name of stopping the substance. The cure is much much much much worse than the disease.Thank god that oxygen isn't used in making meth, or the damn DEA would issue an administrative ruling making it a felony to breathe.
The liberties that have been taken by the government to fight meth make the darkest days of the "crack epidemic" look like the Libertarian Party platform...
Boomsticks: An idea...
.300 Whisper .300 Fireball .300 Whisper .300 Fireball
Now that I've got Google's attention, I wonder how low a package deal containing a .300 Fireball upper and a matching can could be priced and still remain profitable? I wonder how many people would be interested?
Discuss amongst yourselves; I'll see if I can't point certain people towards this post if it seems to arouse any interest...
Now that I've got Google's attention, I wonder how low a package deal containing a .300 Fireball upper and a matching can could be priced and still remain profitable? I wonder how many people would be interested?
Discuss amongst yourselves; I'll see if I can't point certain people towards this post if it seems to arouse any interest...
Politics: The world turned upside down.
When I was little, politics was understandable:
1) Republicans wanted to outlaw fun, but would leave your money alone.
2) Democrats would make fun legal, but would take all your money so you couldn't afford to have any.
3) Republicans got caught in other people's bank accounts.
4) Democrats got caught in other people's pants.
Now politicians can't even get their scandals right: Louisiana has a Democrat Congressman who got busted for a financial scandal, and now they have a GOP Senator caught up in an illicit nookie scandal.
What's this world coming to?
1) Republicans wanted to outlaw fun, but would leave your money alone.
2) Democrats would make fun legal, but would take all your money so you couldn't afford to have any.
3) Republicans got caught in other people's bank accounts.
4) Democrats got caught in other people's pants.
Now politicians can't even get their scandals right: Louisiana has a Democrat Congressman who got busted for a financial scandal, and now they have a GOP Senator caught up in an illicit nookie scandal.
What's this world coming to?
More obsolete Mac stuff, with even more yet to follow...
So, finally having the free time to do some serious archeology in my apartment, I excavated the table next to VFTP Command Central. It was originally intended to hold my three old Mac laptops, but some rearranging of the freshly cleared surface allowed me to lug an object that had been collecting dustbunnies in the corner for years over and plop it down on the table. I dug through a box full of old cables, found what I was looking for, and plugged it in to put my plan into action.
Flashback to a conversation earlier that day:
Me: "So do you remember if that Performa 636CD had any problems? I don't think I ever booted it up."
Marko: "No, it was working when I tried it out back then. I think the battery on the motherboard is dead, though."
Me: "Cool. I'm going to hook it up tonight."
So...
Lug. Sweat. Grunt. Heave. Whine. Poke. Bonggggg! Chime. Happy Mac. Cool!
The computer that had sat untouched in a corner for over five years ground to life. I poked around on the hard drive and, Hey! Presto! It has Civilization II loaded! I sat up 'til the wee hours last night playing one of the best computer games ever on a computer that required no shortcuts, workarounds, or kludges to run it. I think I'll leave the machine set up on the desk for that reason alone. Is any other reason really needed?
Flashback to a conversation earlier that day:
Me: "So do you remember if that Performa 636CD had any problems? I don't think I ever booted it up."
Marko: "No, it was working when I tried it out back then. I think the battery on the motherboard is dead, though."
Me: "Cool. I'm going to hook it up tonight."
So...
Lug. Sweat. Grunt. Heave. Whine. Poke. Bonggggg! Chime. Happy Mac. Cool!
The computer that had sat untouched in a corner for over five years ground to life. I poked around on the hard drive and, Hey! Presto! It has Civilization II loaded! I sat up 'til the wee hours last night playing one of the best computer games ever on a computer that required no shortcuts, workarounds, or kludges to run it. I think I'll leave the machine set up on the desk for that reason alone. Is any other reason really needed?
Today In History: *Glub.*
It's fashionable to natter on about "Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys" and so forth when discussing the French in the far right reaches of the blogosphere, but I've never joined in the chorus.
And the reason I've never joined in is because on this day in 1985, without waiting for UN permission or seeking any kind of world consensus or anything, the Frogs sank the hell out of that floating Greenpeace annoyance, the Rainbow Warrior. Anybody who sends a barge full of hippies to Davy Jones' locker can't be all bad.
I think I'll have some brie.
And the reason I've never joined in is because on this day in 1985, without waiting for UN permission or seeking any kind of world consensus or anything, the Frogs sank the hell out of that floating Greenpeace annoyance, the Rainbow Warrior. Anybody who sends a barge full of hippies to Davy Jones' locker can't be all bad.
I think I'll have some brie.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Blog Stuff: Thanks, SayUncle!
Regarding the tee shirt in this post, here's the video:
I've got the CD single in the drive right now. Incidentally, the opening lines should begin "Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true. Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil. Jesus was an architect, previous to his career as a prophet..." They're abbreviated in the video because the video is set to the mix on the CD called the [Short, Pusillanimous, So-They-Can-Fit-More-Commercials-On-The-Radio Edit]. Sixteen years later, it still makes me want to go drive. The back of the tee shirt says, in bold, black, sans-serif caps, "No Man With A Good Car Needs To Be Justified." I dread the day that shirt starts falling apart...
(For the gearhead geek, the engine on the t-shirt and CD cover is a late-'60s Mopar 440 Six-Pack.)
H/T to SayUncle.
I've got the CD single in the drive right now. Incidentally, the opening lines should begin "Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true. Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil. Jesus was an architect, previous to his career as a prophet..." They're abbreviated in the video because the video is set to the mix on the CD called the [Short, Pusillanimous, So-They-Can-Fit-More-Commercials-On-The-Radio Edit]. Sixteen years later, it still makes me want to go drive. The back of the tee shirt says, in bold, black, sans-serif caps, "No Man With A Good Car Needs To Be Justified." I dread the day that shirt starts falling apart...
(For the gearhead geek, the engine on the t-shirt and CD cover is a late-'60s Mopar 440 Six-Pack.)
H/T to SayUncle.
Boomsticks: Train, train, train.
pdb on a DCNC Defensive Pistol course.
Oleg Volk on a handgun course with Steve Fisher of Michigan Defensive Firearms Institute.
Oleg Volk on a handgun course with Steve Fisher of Michigan Defensive Firearms Institute.
Politics: I'm not sure I believe the headline.
So I click on CNN.com, and the first thing I see is:
I expect to now go to the science page and see "Black hole gets denser" or "New, wetter water".
With any luck, both sides are busy enough with the hatin' that they forget to do any legislatin'. The next best thing to no government is a gridlocked one.
Feud between Bush, congressional Democrats heats up.
I expect to now go to the science page and see "Black hole gets denser" or "New, wetter water".
With any luck, both sides are busy enough with the hatin' that they forget to do any legislatin'. The next best thing to no government is a gridlocked one.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Boomsticks: 1911 mods for the meathook-challenged.
For the Charter subscriber from Picayune, Mississippi who was wondering about "1911 modifications for a small hands", I would recommend three things:
#1: A short trigger. These are available from pretty much every aftermarket trigger manufacturer. I'm partial to STI, but Greider makes a nice unit if you don't want a polycarbonate trigger pad.
#2: A flat mainspring housing. I like Smith & Alexander because I like lanyard loops (which can be used to open bottles.) I've also had good luck with Ed Brown's part.
#3: Slim grips. These will require slim grip screw bushings and short screws. As an alternative, Navidrex offers coke-bottle contoured slim grips that will allow you to use the factory screws and bushings.
Et voila! A 1911 set up for the small of hand.
Avoid putting an extended slide stop on the gun. These are too easy to hit by accident with the support-side thumb while shooting, plus their increased mass can give them enough inertia to lock the slide during normal cycling. Nothing screams "teh n00b" like an extended slide stop on a 1911.
#1: A short trigger. These are available from pretty much every aftermarket trigger manufacturer. I'm partial to STI, but Greider makes a nice unit if you don't want a polycarbonate trigger pad.
#2: A flat mainspring housing. I like Smith & Alexander because I like lanyard loops (which can be used to open bottles.) I've also had good luck with Ed Brown's part.
#3: Slim grips. These will require slim grip screw bushings and short screws. As an alternative, Navidrex offers coke-bottle contoured slim grips that will allow you to use the factory screws and bushings.
Et voila! A 1911 set up for the small of hand.
Avoid putting an extended slide stop on the gun. These are too easy to hit by accident with the support-side thumb while shooting, plus their increased mass can give them enough inertia to lock the slide during normal cycling. Nothing screams "teh n00b" like an extended slide stop on a 1911.
Don't skimp on your tires.
Why you shouldn't buy cheap tires for your jumbo jet, courtesy of Phlegm Fatale.
Windoze and iBorgs...
So Kim du Toit links to the post about Apple's iPhone battery goofiness, using it as the springboard for a rant against all things Apple. I don't see how anybody can get that worked up about them, but ranting is Kim's schtick, and he does it well. What followed is, however, pure comedy gold.
The iBorgs showed up in his comments section, sounding very Microsoftish with their "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" claims for the lack of battery swappage on the new iPhone, and pointing out that the iPod was this way, too. This ignores the fact that if your iPod batteries go dead, the worst that happens is you can't use your Super Walkman for a couple of days. The iPhone, on the other hand, is touted as a device to run your whole fricken' life; if it goes Tango Uniform, the consequences are much, much worse. There are plenty of people out there who don't even have land lines anymore; if they need to ship their iWidget off for battery replacement, they are well and truly screwed until it gets back: incommunicado, with their phone directory gone so they can't even call folks and tell them why they can't talk to them.
I really like Apple products for the most part. I collect old Macs. I paid over a grand for a TAM on ebay back in '03, coming out on top in a three-way bidding war. It was built in '97 and I still use it as a bookshelf stereo. I could probably get my money back out of it right now, too. By contrast, the Compaq Presario I owned back in '97 is probably in a landfill someplace. In 2001, I was looking to buy a portable DVD player. Most of them on the market back then were selling for about $1k. I bought a used iBook instead for about the same price; it's the computer I was posting on from Oleg's, having performed yeoman service for six years now far above and beyond its original duties as a gadget for watching movies on roadtrips.
Macs have always been solidly built, and their design has always inspired bizarrely cult-like loyalty. I mean, I love my Color Classic, but not like this guy does. However the iBattery thing is just the latest in a string of "WTF were they thinking?" moves that have been with us since the Mac debuted on my birthday in 1984. Take the Mac's mouse. Please. I know they claim they have reasons for it, and clinging to the archaic one-button setup is probably single-handedly responsible for the existence of Logitech, but have you ever seen anybody offer a one-button unit for Wintel machines? I rest my case.
Another annoyance is the Mac's keyboard. Every time I transition from my home machine, a Wintel P4 tower, to the iBook, I have to remember that I no longer have both "delete" and "backspace" keys, and that "delete" now means "backspace". Again, has anybody ever offered a simplified Mac-like keyboard for Wintel machines? No, but you can buy lots of zillion-key Wintel-type keyboards for your Mac.
The worst thing, though, is the fans. The iBorgs. I mean, does the bunker mentality come free in the box, or do they ship it to you after you've sent in the registration card? It's the same reason I have a cordial dislike for Glocks; the product may be adequate, but if you use it, people might think you're one of them, and I'm just not ready to join The Collective, thankyouverymuch.
(A PS: I would like to clear up one point, however. KdT got some digs in on TD's work in firing up his old NeXTstation, poking especial fun at this:
The iBorgs showed up in his comments section, sounding very Microsoftish with their "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" claims for the lack of battery swappage on the new iPhone, and pointing out that the iPod was this way, too. This ignores the fact that if your iPod batteries go dead, the worst that happens is you can't use your Super Walkman for a couple of days. The iPhone, on the other hand, is touted as a device to run your whole fricken' life; if it goes Tango Uniform, the consequences are much, much worse. There are plenty of people out there who don't even have land lines anymore; if they need to ship their iWidget off for battery replacement, they are well and truly screwed until it gets back: incommunicado, with their phone directory gone so they can't even call folks and tell them why they can't talk to them.
I really like Apple products for the most part. I collect old Macs. I paid over a grand for a TAM on ebay back in '03, coming out on top in a three-way bidding war. It was built in '97 and I still use it as a bookshelf stereo. I could probably get my money back out of it right now, too. By contrast, the Compaq Presario I owned back in '97 is probably in a landfill someplace. In 2001, I was looking to buy a portable DVD player. Most of them on the market back then were selling for about $1k. I bought a used iBook instead for about the same price; it's the computer I was posting on from Oleg's, having performed yeoman service for six years now far above and beyond its original duties as a gadget for watching movies on roadtrips.
Macs have always been solidly built, and their design has always inspired bizarrely cult-like loyalty. I mean, I love my Color Classic, but not like this guy does. However the iBattery thing is just the latest in a string of "WTF were they thinking?" moves that have been with us since the Mac debuted on my birthday in 1984. Take the Mac's mouse. Please. I know they claim they have reasons for it, and clinging to the archaic one-button setup is probably single-handedly responsible for the existence of Logitech, but have you ever seen anybody offer a one-button unit for Wintel machines? I rest my case.
Another annoyance is the Mac's keyboard. Every time I transition from my home machine, a Wintel P4 tower, to the iBook, I have to remember that I no longer have both "delete" and "backspace" keys, and that "delete" now means "backspace". Again, has anybody ever offered a simplified Mac-like keyboard for Wintel machines? No, but you can buy lots of zillion-key Wintel-type keyboards for your Mac.
The worst thing, though, is the fans. The iBorgs. I mean, does the bunker mentality come free in the box, or do they ship it to you after you've sent in the registration card? It's the same reason I have a cordial dislike for Glocks; the product may be adequate, but if you use it, people might think you're one of them, and I'm just not ready to join The Collective, thankyouverymuch.
(A PS: I would like to clear up one point, however. KdT got some digs in on TD's work in firing up his old NeXTstation, poking especial fun at this:
NEXSTEP, by the way, was the first operating system shipped on CD-ROM. NeXT computers, though, did not come with CD-ROM drives.It should be pointed out here that the NeXT was not a home computer, but a business workstation intended to operate on a network. The reason it had no external media drives is so that Suzy Secretary or Joe Accountant or Eddie Engineer wouldn't go sticking floppies or CDs with virus-filled, buggy Mahjongg games and Star Trek screen savers into their work computer. If software needed to be loaded, it'd come from the server. If the OS needed to be re-installed, some guy from IT would trot down with an external CD-ROM drive and install it. In other words, it was designed to keep the end user from dicking around with things with which they had no business dicking around, something that every IT guy who supports an office full of Wintel machines would heartily applaud.)
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Bleg: SWF, old, cranky, eccentric, ISO...
...battery and A/C adaptor for PowerBook 520c. Other accessories considered. Must be cheap(ish).
Boomsticks: If you are not aware...
...of the monumentally stupid new proposal from OSHA regarding ammunition and reloading components, War and Peace has the situation summed up in a nutshell.
I missed it. (But not much.)
The first Live Earth concert in Australia, that is. Still, it must have had its moments. For instance:
TASS er, CNN reporting.
Is that not just pure comedy gold? I note, however, that a more cynical attitude towards the Live Earth concerts has begun creeping into evenWolfmother's wild-haired Andrew Stockdale was more bombastic, in keeping with his Grammy-winning band's Deep Purple-style stadium rock aesthetic.
"Saviors of the world raise your hands," he shouted.
Critics say Live Earth lacks achievable goals, and that bringing in jet-setting rock stars in fuel-guzzling airliners to plug in amplifier stacks and cranking up the sound may send mixed messages about energy conservation.That sounds more like something from Les Jones' Live Earth site than from CNN. Pravda on the Chattahoochee remained staunchly loyal to the official party line, however:
"The last thing the planet needs is a rock concert," The Who's singer Roger Daltrey recently told a British newspaper.Honey, according to your own beliefs about human effects on the climate, the best thing you could do for the planet would be to stay home and shut the hell up.Organizers say the concerts will be as green as possible, with a tally of energy use being kept. Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward distributing power-efficient light bulbs and other measures that will offset the shows' greenhouse gas emissions, they say.
"This is going to be the greenest event of its kind, ever," Gore told The Associated Press recently. "The carbon offsets and the innovative practices that are being used to make this a green event, I think, will set the standard for years to come."
...
In Johannesburg, four-time Grammy nominee Angelique Kidjo offered a tart response to Daltrey's comment. "Criticism is easy," she said during a news conference Friday that involved performers in the local concert. "And there is a kind of fashion of cynical people around us. You are cynical — what the hell are you doing to change the world? Get your butt out there. Do something."
And it is beyond time to do so, she explained.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Who didn't see something like this coming?
iCan't believe they're that dense.
$79 and a three day turnaround? That's going to play well in Peoria. Good job limiting your potential market to the bunker-mentality types with Apple tattoos, Stevie. Now the rest of us will just have to wait until Sony clones your toy for less money, but with replaceable batteries.
(H/T to #9.)
$79 and a three day turnaround? That's going to play well in Peoria. Good job limiting your potential market to the bunker-mentality types with Apple tattoos, Stevie. Now the rest of us will just have to wait until Sony clones your toy for less money, but with replaceable batteries.
(H/T to #9.)
W00t!
VFTP Command Central is wired for sound again, baby!
I'm posting from the comfort of my own office chair with my own iTunes playing and with a cat trying to scale my leg and mooch some of this cheeseburger I'm eating. (No, I'm not kidding and no, she can't has cheeseburger.)
I'm posting from the comfort of my own office chair with my own iTunes playing and with a cat trying to scale my leg and mooch some of this cheeseburger I'm eating. (No, I'm not kidding and no, she can't has cheeseburger.)
Blog Stuff: Leaving Nash Vegas.
Well, the cats are probably plenty hungry by now, and I don't want to get caught up in rush hour either here or back in K-ville, so I reckon I'd better point the Zed Three eastward. Hopefully service has been restored back at VFTP Command Central.
Catch y'all on the flip side.
Catch y'all on the flip side.
If you just have to extort money from me...
...then at least spend it wisely. Here's a good example:
Say you need to design a new glove for astronauts. You could establish a new NASA Glove Design Laboratory, or you could take $200k (which wouldn't cover the annual salary of a few government engineers, let alone equipment, facilities, and assistants,) print that amount on a big cardboard check, and offer it to the person who brought you the best space glove.
Hey, presto! It works.
(I wonder if we'd achieve similar results if we just printed a quarter of NASA's budget on a cardboard check and offered it to anyone who, say, gave us a space program...)
Say you need to design a new glove for astronauts. You could establish a new NASA Glove Design Laboratory, or you could take $200k (which wouldn't cover the annual salary of a few government engineers, let alone equipment, facilities, and assistants,) print that amount on a big cardboard check, and offer it to the person who brought you the best space glove.
Hey, presto! It works.
(I wonder if we'd achieve similar results if we just printed a quarter of NASA's budget on a cardboard check and offered it to anyone who, say, gave us a space program...)
I love how the...
...Live Earth On MSN logo has swirly green vines and noble lions and majestic monuments like the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, and the Brandenburg Gate. Omitted from the final design were ice floes, sand dunes, tundra wasteland, tumbleweeds, a chigger, a pack of jackals, the anopheles mosquito, a Sudanese slave market, and a brothel in a back alley of Bangkok, since these were not considered part of the live Earth.
Save the planet, kids. (Or at least the pretty parts.)
Save the planet, kids. (Or at least the pretty parts.)
News: Our agent has failed!
The CIA mole we sent to Venezuela under the thin cover of US Ambassador has failed in his mission to destabilize the government of Pugsley and topple him. We must recall him in disgrace, and send another crafty minion of the Evil Overlord Bush.
Via Site Meter...
...I notice that I seem to have inadvertently doubled the normal daily traffic of Concretechange.com, leading proponents of "Visitability" on the 'net. Sorry 'bout that.
More stuff I just don't get.
TFS Magnum links to a Tulsa World article on concealed carry in Oklahoma, which has been around since 1995 now. In the article is the expected line
So, here is your journalist working for the Capital City Picayune in Capital City, Anystate. They've grown up in the 'burbs of Capital City, wrote for their high school paper, put in their four years of partying at Anystate U., and now have their dream job writing for the big paper that they grew up reading, maybe even on the editorial page. Guns are just not a part of their life, except what they've seen in the movies and on TV shows like Law & Order and CSI. Now the big news is that Anystate is about to vote on shall-issue concealed carry, so they express their opinion that it will lead to "Dodge City" and "shootouts over parking spaces."
And that is what I just don't understand. Is our hypothetical journalist's work ethic that poor? I mean, all the states bordering Anystate have concealed carry laws; some have had them for decades. Our journalist works in the news industry; don't they keep up with the news? Don't they think that if permit holders were likely to engage in shootouts that they'd have read about it occurring in neighboring states? If they hadn't been keeping up with the news from neighboring states, did they not do one iota of research before setting fingers to keyboard?
For heaven's sake people, if you are going to be that lazy at your job then you have no right to bitch and complain when the nasty wingnuts call you stupid or evil; you have only your own slack to blame.
"In the beginning, some people thought a wave of shootings by license holders would occur, but those fears have proved to be unfounded, [Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation] said."Now, I'm going to step back from the snark for a minute. While I don't believe that a BA in Journalism from a state college necessarily indicates that the holder of said degree is likely to stumble across the Unified Field Theory or write the next Great American Novel, I do accept that it probably proves that they are smarter than your average box of rocks. I also don't think that the typical journalist is maliciously eeevil, and would willfully write a lie so transparent that they know it would be pounced on within minutes of publication. This leaves only one explanation: Ignorance.
So, here is your journalist working for the Capital City Picayune in Capital City, Anystate. They've grown up in the 'burbs of Capital City, wrote for their high school paper, put in their four years of partying at Anystate U., and now have their dream job writing for the big paper that they grew up reading, maybe even on the editorial page. Guns are just not a part of their life, except what they've seen in the movies and on TV shows like Law & Order and CSI. Now the big news is that Anystate is about to vote on shall-issue concealed carry, so they express their opinion that it will lead to "Dodge City" and "shootouts over parking spaces."
And that is what I just don't understand. Is our hypothetical journalist's work ethic that poor? I mean, all the states bordering Anystate have concealed carry laws; some have had them for decades. Our journalist works in the news industry; don't they keep up with the news? Don't they think that if permit holders were likely to engage in shootouts that they'd have read about it occurring in neighboring states? If they hadn't been keeping up with the news from neighboring states, did they not do one iota of research before setting fingers to keyboard?
For heaven's sake people, if you are going to be that lazy at your job then you have no right to bitch and complain when the nasty wingnuts call you stupid or evil; you have only your own slack to blame.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Future computers from the past!
TD fires up a NeXT. At the end of the epic saga, victory.
As someone who has engaged in a vicious ebay bidding war to win a TAM and occasionally boots up her Color Classic just to watch toasters fly, I can totally sympathize.
As someone who has engaged in a vicious ebay bidding war to win a TAM and occasionally boots up her Color Classic just to watch toasters fly, I can totally sympathize.
News Flash! Desert is hot in July!
This has apparently taken some folks by surprise.
Some non-desert areas got fairly warmish, too. Spokane hit 100, which is only 8 degrees shy of the record set back in SUV-crazy, CFC-pollutin' 1928.
Personally, I blame the Gulfstreams For Global Warming concert and all the CO2 from Al Gore III's doobies.
Some non-desert areas got fairly warmish, too. Spokane hit 100, which is only 8 degrees shy of the record set back in SUV-crazy, CFC-pollutin' 1928.
Personally, I blame the Gulfstreams For Global Warming concert and all the CO2 from Al Gore III's doobies.
Tam sells out!
AdSense.
I feel so cheap. Next comes the tip jar... (Advice from anyone who has successfully fiddled with ads & whatnot are always appreciated.)
Hey, hopefully this visit to Oleg's will generate some gun pr0n for more essays at the other blog when I get home, and people will be so amazed at the new content there that they will say "You should get paid for writing!" and then, you know, actually do so. (Assuming I has teh intarw3bz there again.)
I feel so cheap. Next comes the tip jar... (Advice from anyone who has successfully fiddled with ads & whatnot are always appreciated.)
Hey, hopefully this visit to Oleg's will generate some gun pr0n for more essays at the other blog when I get home, and people will be so amazed at the new content there that they will say "You should get paid for writing!" and then, you know, actually do so. (Assuming I has teh intarw3bz there again.)
Boomsticks: Game face.
Breaking the weak-side elbow a bit much, and my left thumb is wandering, but I look rilly, rilly serious. ('Nother photo from Oleg Volk.)
Visita-what?
Look, I spent time in a powered wheelchair in a 1920s-vintage bungalow that was as far from wheelchair-friendly as Superman's Fortress of Solitude, but talk of mandating "visitability" features in private dwellings always puts my hackles up.
When I design my dream home, it's not going to be visitable by a SEAL team with air support, much less a lone individual in a wheelchair; I'm thinking barbed wire and tiger pits, not ramps and braille on the doorbell. It's not that I have a problem with visitors gimpier than myself; it's visitors in general that make me want to release the hounds.
"Avon lady in the wire! Blow your claymores!"
Sorry, just fantasizing for a moment, there...
When I design my dream home, it's not going to be visitable by a SEAL team with air support, much less a lone individual in a wheelchair; I'm thinking barbed wire and tiger pits, not ramps and braille on the doorbell. It's not that I have a problem with visitors gimpier than myself; it's visitors in general that make me want to release the hounds.
"Avon lady in the wire! Blow your claymores!"
Sorry, just fantasizing for a moment, there...
*sniff* It's a thing of beauty.
Kevin at The Smallest Minority absolutely fillets an hilarious article by thimble-headed gherkin Drew Westen, a psych professor at Emory U. in my sainted hometown. (Emory is also, perhaps not coincidentally, the former home turf of Michael "The Sprinklers Ate My Homework" Bellesiles.)
In his article, Westen proudly displays his passport from Bizarroland, a place superficially similar to planet Earth, but where drooling idiots with hearts full of hate run amok absent guidance from their spiritual and intellectual betters in politics and academe. This is something that is beginning to profoundly disturb me: I expect a certain juvenile simplicity of outlook from the average mouth-breathing cretin, fogging his monitor as he types his semi-literate screed and hits the "post" button at FreeRepublic or Democratic Underground, but when did such breathtaking naivety become not just allowed, but expected of educated people in positions of authority?
When you're wandering out in some far corner of the internet, you expect to read crap about how lizardoid aliens and Freemasons are controlling the Zionist Occupation Government; when you're off nosing around in the backwaters of some survivalist message board, you are not surprised by posts about how Hillary Clinton is going to make the UN invade and round everybody up, using WalMarts for detention centers because they have lots of bar-code scanners to read our new Number Of The Beast tattoos. But this, this... This isn't some random self-published screed on the web! This is not an attack blog or a humor site; this is an article written by a paid professor at an accredited university who is publically claiming that the noble and cerebral Democrats can't battle the hypnotizing, hate-filled White Southern Males of the Eeeeeevil GOP. Really. I was waiting for the lizardoids to show up around paragraph seven or so and symbolically rape Gaia while carrying off Al Gore to be a slave on their homeworld, Karlrovia. How does this get past the editorial process?
Anyhow, go read Kevin's fisking, but pay close attention to what's being fisked. The cat who wrote it might be teaching your kid.
In his article, Westen proudly displays his passport from Bizarroland, a place superficially similar to planet Earth, but where drooling idiots with hearts full of hate run amok absent guidance from their spiritual and intellectual betters in politics and academe. This is something that is beginning to profoundly disturb me: I expect a certain juvenile simplicity of outlook from the average mouth-breathing cretin, fogging his monitor as he types his semi-literate screed and hits the "post" button at FreeRepublic or Democratic Underground, but when did such breathtaking naivety become not just allowed, but expected of educated people in positions of authority?
When you're wandering out in some far corner of the internet, you expect to read crap about how lizardoid aliens and Freemasons are controlling the Zionist Occupation Government; when you're off nosing around in the backwaters of some survivalist message board, you are not surprised by posts about how Hillary Clinton is going to make the UN invade and round everybody up, using WalMarts for detention centers because they have lots of bar-code scanners to read our new Number Of The Beast tattoos. But this, this... This isn't some random self-published screed on the web! This is not an attack blog or a humor site; this is an article written by a paid professor at an accredited university who is publically claiming that the noble and cerebral Democrats can't battle the hypnotizing, hate-filled White Southern Males of the Eeeeeevil GOP. Really. I was waiting for the lizardoids to show up around paragraph seven or so and symbolically rape Gaia while carrying off Al Gore to be a slave on their homeworld, Karlrovia. How does this get past the editorial process?
Anyhow, go read Kevin's fisking, but pay close attention to what's being fisked. The cat who wrote it might be teaching your kid.
See what you miss...
...when the clumsy oaf with the backhoe severs your connection with the Hive Mind?
Here is why I loves me some pdb:
Here is why I loves me some pdb:
"Know that government interference always results in higher prices and shortages. It is not a matter of opinion, it is as much a physical reality as gravity or evolution. If your proposed solution involves government interference and promises lower prices or greater availability, you have just proven yourself to be an idiot who has no understanding of how the world works."
Politics: Helpin' a brother out...
The story of concealed carry efforts in Wisconsin is a long and sad one. Twice now, the people have had their legislators draw up and pass bills that would allow them to apply for and receive CCW permits, just like the rest of America (less Daleyville). Twice now, amid shrieking newspaper editorials warning of shootouts over parking spots at the mall, the state's governor has vetoed the bills.
One guy has had enough. He has noted that there is a provision in WI state law for a referendum, and decided the best way he could help was to provide a place on the web to organize. He needs exposure. He needs folks on the ground in his home state to help. I can help with the former; maybe some of y'all can help with the latter.
One guy has had enough. He has noted that there is a provision in WI state law for a referendum, and decided the best way he could help was to provide a place on the web to organize. He needs exposure. He needs folks on the ground in his home state to help. I can help with the former; maybe some of y'all can help with the latter.
End of West coming "Real Soon Now" says Al-Zawahiri.
Unfortunately, this guy's every bit as vague as every other prophet. Can I get a timeline here, please? I'm going to need a more specific date than "on the horizon, with Allah's permission and will" if I'm going to know exactly when to sell my Raytheon and Boeing stock and buy into the soon-to-be-booming prayer rug and burkha industries. Help me out here, Al; I'm not asking for classified data, but a cryptic little tip like "dump your General Dynamics and get into Ali's Koran Publishers before third quarter of '09" would be sweet.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Project update.
The slot atop the barrel nut thingie makes an inadequate substitute for a spanner, but forty year old congealed WD40 makes a perfectly adequate substitute for glue.
After a bit of swearing, some sweating, and tracking down a pair of needle-nose pliers, I have a pile of Frommer. Sexy gun pr0n by Oleg Volk to follow before too long, hopefully.
After a bit of swearing, some sweating, and tracking down a pair of needle-nose pliers, I have a pile of Frommer. Sexy gun pr0n by Oleg Volk to follow before too long, hopefully.
Boomsticks: I have an idea...
Purely for entertainment purposes, I am going to attempt to field strip my Frommer Stop.
Hilarity may ensue.
(We're trained professionals on a closed course; don't try this at home, kids.)
Hilarity may ensue.
(We're trained professionals on a closed course; don't try this at home, kids.)
My Shooting Today = teh suck.
I started out fairly strong, making fast moderately quick A-zone hits from the leather... er, borrowed kydex. Our instructor pointed out that I was "bowling" the gun. Aarrgghh! A bazillion presentations (to the point of annoying friends and coworkers) trying to practice a smooth draw and presentation and it all goes out the window under pressure. I should've quit while I was ahead, but I got flustered and started gorilla-gripping the pistol and trying to force the trigger, tossing rounds low & left. Not badly, but plenty embarrassing. Ah, well, time for more practice.
(The problem in a nutshell was that once I have one miss a little bit, I start ignoring the single best piece of shooting advice I'd ever heard: I once heard a nationally-ranked bullseye shooter I worked with say to someone "Don't try and make the gun go off. All you're doing is pulling a trigger." When I get flustered, and the sights are lined up just like I want them, I try to make it go off right now! Quick! While the sights are lined up! This leads to squeezing the gun, jerking the trigger, poking the gun towards the target, et cetera, as I try to spastically will the gun to fire. Rather than just driving the sights and letting the trigger finger mind its own business, surprising me when the gun goes bang and puts the hole where I wanted it.)
(The problem in a nutshell was that once I have one miss a little bit, I start ignoring the single best piece of shooting advice I'd ever heard: I once heard a nationally-ranked bullseye shooter I worked with say to someone "Don't try and make the gun go off. All you're doing is pulling a trigger." When I get flustered, and the sights are lined up just like I want them, I try to make it go off right now! Quick! While the sights are lined up! This leads to squeezing the gun, jerking the trigger, poking the gun towards the target, et cetera, as I try to spastically will the gun to fire. Rather than just driving the sights and letting the trigger finger mind its own business, surprising me when the gun goes bang and puts the hole where I wanted it.)
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Shoot off some fireworks for me, 'cause I, supragenius that I am, left mine at home. :-(
On the other hand, I may get to do some shooting today, which will be fun. There will even be an actual instructor type present, so I might learn something to improve my mad 1337 pistol skillz (or lack thereof.)
On the other hand, I may get to do some shooting today, which will be fun. There will even be an actual instructor type present, so I might learn something to improve my mad 1337 pistol skillz (or lack thereof.)
I'm late to the party...
...but I had an excuse.
Mingle2 - Online Dating
What did you expect? 22 uses of the vile curse word "gun", not to mention the leading source of Horrible Screaming Death on the 'net. There you have it.I has a intarw3bz!
...or at least my friend does.
Oh, jeez, I have so much to catch up on.
The gun show was festive; some stuff went away, and some stuff showed up. Look forward to new posts at the other blog on an Argentine 1909 Mauser (with an intact Argie crest!), a Brazilian 1908/34 Mauser (.30-06!), and a Frommer Stop.
Now it's off to check my email, read the news, and see if I can generate some snark for the morrow. :)
Oh, jeez, I have so much to catch up on.
The gun show was festive; some stuff went away, and some stuff showed up. Look forward to new posts at the other blog on an Argentine 1909 Mauser (with an intact Argie crest!), a Brazilian 1908/34 Mauser (.30-06!), and a Frommer Stop.
Now it's off to check my email, read the news, and see if I can generate some snark for the morrow. :)
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