| Charades |
[Feb. 4th, 2006|10:52 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
They're playing the film Charades on the local public TV station. Geez, Audrey Hepburn made Callista Flockhart look like a big old cow. But why does Hepburn look elegant and Flockhart just look kind of ill? Maybe it's just me. For me, too thin isn't good.
For a guy that styles himself the Amazing Human Blob, I guess that makes sense.
I entertain my coworkers with amusing comments about my alter ego. "More than man....he's Manatee! Lumbering out of the surf to fight crime and graze on your underwater vegetation!"
It would be less funny if I was heavier, I guess. It's nice not to have to take it seriously. |
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| Yeah, okay, already. |
[Feb. 3rd, 2006|12:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
I'm back momentarily. My Queen and I are pouring 98 60-lb bags of redi-mix today, the very last retaining/foundation wall to expand what Her Royalness terms our "Cramped Little Fart Castle". Otherwise known as Castle Bugei.
People on my friends list: I do read your postings every day, but haven't had time to post myself. A thousand pardons. But you've all been so brilliant in my absence that the smartass level hasn't dropped an inch. Bravo!
For those who are interested in such things, you may watch people beat me senseless in the West Coast Karate Classic in Rocklin next month. Just look for the Amazing Human Blob in the Geezer Brown Belt Division. Should be one stripe. It's an open tournament and you can enter at the door, should you desire to see if the legends are true. (They're not. Really.) |
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| New buzzword |
[Oct. 6th, 2005|08:40 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  determined | ] |
Having gotten a little tired of people calling my semiauto rifle an "assault weapon" and my Glock an "assault pistol" or "gang favorite", I have decided to take the non-PC route and take the battle to them. I am viewing firearms less and less in terms of their use in self-defense (since that hasn't been an issue for a quarter of a century or so) and more in terms of their use in voicing our opinion a bit more forcefully than a letter to the editor.
Any battle rifle will now be called a "Public Referendum Device" or PuRD.
Any rifle with a scope will be called a "Precision Public Referendum Device" or PuPuRD.
Any shotgun will be called a "Wide-angle Public Referendum Device" or WAPuRD.
Any semiauto pistol will be called a "Short Range Public Referendum Device" or ShoRPuRD.
Any revolver will be called a "Saturday Night Public Referendum Device" or SaNPuRD.
This ends this Public Service Announcement. Go forth: do good and avoid evil. |
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| Stirling |
[Sep. 5th, 2005|04:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
I have become an S.M. Stirling fan. Starting with the Draka books, following with the Nantucket series, I find I'm enjoying the new series, which begins with Dies the Fire. I just ordered the new one (The Protector's War) and expect to enjoy it thoroughly.
For those not familiar with the Nantucket books and the new series, they both describe the results of an event that no one in the books is able to explain. In an instant, an oval locus around Nantucket island (including some ocean including the Eagle, a Coast Guard tall ship used for training) is translated to the Bronze Age. From the Nantucket standpoint, they are stuck with conquering the world. Or at least civilizing it by force.
Meanwhile, the new series is describing what's happening elsewhere. Electronic devices don't work. Hell, steam devices don't work right. Mankind is back to horses and steel and bows and spears. Predictably, it's a huge mess with a huge attrition rate and not everyone is a good neighbor.
Anyhow....highly recommended to those with interest in such things. Specifically, the Nantucket books and the new series discuss low-tech solutions for long-term living. |
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| Katrina |
[Sep. 5th, 2005|08:41 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cynical | ] |
Look. Since the mid-Sixties, when Johnson instituted the Great Society program, the poor that the program was designed to help have gotten more and more stuff at taxpayer expense, but what they didn't get was the independence they had prior to the program. In other words, our government has taken a fair chunk of our society and taught them to rely on the government for food, clothing, housing, defense and transportation.
And when push came to shove, it's looking like the gov let those people down.
For analysis, please consult ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) commander_zero. My suggestion is the same as his: during crisis, handle your own needs if possible. And avoid government types. Even if they're legitimately trying to help, they may be completely incompetent and still willing to force you to do things their way -- at gunpoint if necessary.
Consider a used RV-type trailer as a first stage. Put the major supplies in it. Then strap the bikes to the truck/car in case you have to unhook and leave the trailer behind.
----------------
Still building forms, but I may actually pour some concrete next weekend.
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Would usually buy guns during someone else's crisis, but can't think of any I just absolutely have to have. Would kind of like a Springfield SOCOM 16, but don't want to pay the freight for it.
----------------
Gotta buy a couple of cases of MREs for the Airstream. |
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| Annnnd....we're back. |
[Aug. 21st, 2005|12:21 pm] |
Been a while since I posted. So here it is, all in one big gush, because I'm blocked at work and have to do it in my copious (snort!) free time:
--------------------------------
( Political comments )
Teaching your kid to ride a bike
I don't normally do this...but I'm doing a plug here. We got Boy a bicycle when he was five or so. Training wheels, the usual thing. But once the training wheels came off, we spent _years_ of trying to teach him to ride it. We'd go out every couple of months, up to the Middle School where they have a nice flat blacktop. He'll fall down a lot. Recriminations. Unhappy, hurt, crying boy. Guilty, incompentent parents.
So I Googled "teach your kid to ride a bike" and saw a flock of hits all pointing to a particular website. I went to the website, downloaded a video, started it up (had to go a payment website and put $20 on the plastic, but read on) and watched it. It took about an hour to go through it a couple of times, make some notes and get the concepts down.
Okay. Listen. I'm not exaggerating in the least. After having watched that video, I taught Boy how to ride a bike in fifteen minutes. At the end of that fifteen minutes, he got on and rode a big circle around the blacktop.
He's been riding maybe ten times since then, and he tears around like he's been doing it all his life.
If you've spent more than an hour trying to get your kid up on two wheels, do yourself -- and your kid a favor. Be a hero. Go to Pedal Magic and learn how to teach it. Highly, highly recommended.
I'm back to feeling like a good father, rather than an incompentent moron trying to teach my kid something that just gets him banged up. This is better.
--------------------------------------
Sporting the wood over a power compound miter saw I picked up yesterday. Rigid brand. Don't even have it out of the box yet, but it's going to be fun. Yup.
--------------------------------------
Beginning of next month, Boy tests for orange belt and I test for purple belt. Due to the time he's missed this summer (sick, among other things) and the fact that green belt is shorter (three months), I managed to get two belts up on him instead of just one. Which is good, because I can still help him with the material, if I can just stay ahead.
--------------------------------------------
( Knife project ) |
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| Week from Hell |
[May. 26th, 2005|05:25 am] |
This is truly the Week from Hell. Oh, not really. Nobody's getting shot at in my neighborhood and the family is all healthy and relatively happy. But busy? Mmmm-hmmm!
First, I've moved into the intermediate (green/purple belt) classes and the physical requirements in the way of crunches and pushups are 150% of what they were in the beginning classes. Predictably, I'm sore all over and expect to be for another couple of weeks until the muscle tissue quits kvetching at me.
Second, I'm supposed to produce a report on the latest governmental wierdness, but the project manager is very, very busy and can't meet with me to go over the wording until an hour or so before my deadline, thenk you oh-so-much.
Third, we broke ground on the addition Wednesday AND had an acid neutralizer, water softener and tankless water heater installed the same day.
Fourth, we gotta go after work Thursday and sign the family trust, wills and living wills at the lawyers.
Fifth, Friday I have my choice of two family things that I didn't hear about until Wednesday. Either I can go to my dear niece's high school graduation (and deliver the blowgun she doesn't know about yet but will be very happy with) or attend my wife's grandfather's 88th birthday BBQ. He's a fine old piece of work, a studly old gent who operated heavy machinery all his life. So I'm torn.
Saturday I expect to be completely anti-social and hiding from everyone.
=====================
Boy needs glasses. I expected that; I think I started wearing them at six instead of eight. Maybe in a few years we can have his eyeballs sculpted. He doesn't seem upset...at least not as upset as I am. But still.
=====================
We bought a '62 Airstream the other day. It needs a little work, but is usable as is. I think of it as disaster insurance; if push comes to shove, you'll have a roof. Light, mobile, sturdy. I'm 6'2" and I can stand up in it (I'd heard otherwise, but it turned out to be a base canard) and can even lay down in it -- the beds are long enough. Longer than my sofa at home (which I cannot lay down upon, at least not full length. It's a long story, involving a professional interior designer that I'm married to and a smallish living room.
We haven't picked up the Airstream yet (hello? Week from Hell?) but will probably acquire the necessary hardware and get after it next week.
=====================
Newsweek. I haven't read that piece of crap since the hostage crisis in Iran. No, before that. Since the axe murders at Panmunjom in '76. They chose their sides and I'd rather just have the data. But for those who haven't seen how Newsweek really feels about America and its citizens, this might be an eye-opener for you. |
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| Friendly Fire and stuff about Boy |
[May. 23rd, 2005|10:28 am] |
Okay, this pisses me off a bit: "They blew up their poster boy."
Friendly fire happens. When it does, fess up, fix your rules of engagement as much as you can and drive on. But you owe your dead honesty about their deaths. Anything else is a violation of the service member's trust that their family is going to get the straight scoop. In cases like this, don't give me the "national interest" horseshit: to me, somebody screwing the pooch ain't a "classifiable" truth.
=========================================
Meanwhile, back at the dojo: intermediate class is a lot more workout than the beginning class. Duh. Boy got a chance to spar a bunch of other juniors: he was the lowest-ranking in the class. He still doesn't want to close and deliver, but he isn't flinching when he takes a hit and I can live with that.
========================================
We're pulling Boy out of Montessori and putting him in public school. The Lovely Wife is apprehensive, feeling that there may be bullies and people won't all be nice to him. He's a sensitive boy, and that's true.
But I can absolutely guarantee that there will be bullies and people won't all be nice to him. So why am I sending him there? Because they're going to be third-grade bullies. And people will be mean to him in a third-grade way. We're going to let the system boil the frog and get him desensitized to the cussedness of humans little by little.
His mom is more worried than he is, I'm pretty sure. We talked about it and I told him that not everyone is going to love him like we do. And people are allowed to say anything they like, even bad stuff about him. But they're not allowed to hurt you. And if he has to defend himself from people physically hurting him, that's allowed.
And yeah, we'll bury as many people and hire as many lawyers as it takes to defend that position, presuming it comes up.
More like, he'll be less sensitive and more self-reliant as time goes by.
==========================================
I was talking to Boy the other day about being eight years old. That we only have another ten years together before he goes off to build his own life somewhere else. It's a sobering thought. He has so much to learn between now and then, but that's not what worries me.
What worries me is living without him once he goes.
Okay, so that's enough sniffling. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 10th, 2005|10:12 am] |
I'm not suggesting that anything be done about these guys. I'm just saying that it takes all kinds of disgusting jerks to make a world.
==========================
Two dead girls in Illinois. Last seen riding their bikes home from a party, later found stabbed to death. I'm not a big fan of law, in many cases: it doesn't seem to deter the bad guys. But I'm in favor of a new one. Let's call it Hurt a Child, Go To Hell".Or One Strike and We Kill You.
Here's how it works: get convicted of any crime where you touched a child in the course of it and we execute you. Bump a kid running away while robbing a bank. Tap another car with a kid in it while making your getaway. Anything. And we execute you. Federally.
One appeal to a nationwide board of three judges selected from three different federal courts of appeal, said appeal to have three days to run: if the appeal court doesn't rule in your favor within 72 hours, the default sentence stands. Lose that appeal and we cook your ass. Electric chair. Within a week of sentencing.
The ACLU will claim that the perpetrators are sick. Fine. Stipulated. If the ACLU has a cure for pedophilia or the desire to just injure children with no sexual component to it, then the ACLU should produce it. If they cannot, then these guys get what mad dogs get, and for the same reason. No sane society can survive the presence of those who are so driven to evil that they cannot take consequences into account. Law simply doesn't work on those people. Neither psychology, psychiatry nor chemistry will work on those people, not to permanently modify their behavior.
One Strike and We Kill You.
Recidivism rate zero.
I'd be honored to pull the switch. Or the trigger. Or the Bowie.
I guess you can tell that this is one of my trigger points. I came to paternal feelings about a second after my little boy crowned...I guess I have years of letting this kind of thing roll off my back to make up for.
================================
Greenpeace convicted of not filing paperwork on one of their oil spills. Tsk.
=================================
New body armor material: Dyneema.
Sigh. Science can be good.
Mmmmmmm. Science.
=================================
Any of you who in the PRK who haven't written to the Governor and demanded he veto Bullet Serialization (AB357) if it gets to him, please do so now. Call if you want, but a good, serious, polite letter will have the most impact.
Citizens, do yo' stuff.
================================= |
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| Bullet @&!#*$ Serialization for idiots |
[Apr. 27th, 2005|01:28 pm] |
...because only idiots think it's a good idea.
Okay. Before you ask, the answer is yes. They have been told that this is stupid. But they're going to try it anyway: bullet serialization.
Oh, and here's the pictures to go with it.
SAAMI told them they were stupid.
Somebody is going to get rich, because there is one -- and only one -- source for the kind of bullet imprinting they're talking about: Ravensforge in Seattle. Are they a super-sophisticated ammo manufacturer. Nope. They make junk to deter skateboarders. So glad they're on the team.
I wonder if the Attorney General of the Great State of California and his buddies Perata and Dunn, own stock in Ravensforge. Maybe someone should investigate. Hmm. Who would do that investigation? The California DOJ, maybe? Hey, waitaminute!
Screw it. I'm buying a couple of AKs and 4 cases of ammo. I'll have to keep them in Nevada, but only until the social and legal structure of California implodes. Then what's legal and what's not won't be so important.
Come to think about it, it's not important to me now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 8th, 2005|12:54 pm] |
The Belmont Club has some interesting comments, as usual. It's not Christianity that Islam fears...it's democracy.
Remember the warehouse the Ark of the covenant was put in at the end of Raiders? Want to know what else was in there?
Great Big Stuff.
When I was a kid, they had these plastic balls with a stem on each side. You'd pry them open, put in a scoop of ice cream, shove one end in a Coke bottle and have an instant Coke float. I can't find those now. Too bad. Someone should make them again and make a mint. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 7th, 2005|08:31 am] |
Ahhhh...Florida.
From The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: "And an illegal immigrant is not a "undocumented immigrant" any more than a rapist is an "undocumented boyfriend"." Ooh. Nice.
Down to 225, thanks to Atkins. And 8 months away from brown belt, I found out last night. Apparently, only two stripes to green belt, due to the short kata for that belt (naihanchi). Five stripes for purple and then test for brown. Sigh. Time does fly when you're having fun.
Boy got up and had to go to the bathroom last night. He took a moment to detour over to my chair, put his arm around my shoulders and say "You know, when I say that I don't love you, that's just because I'm mad. I don't really mean it."
I knew that. |
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| Saint Gabriel Possenti |
[Apr. 1st, 2005|12:22 pm] |
Once an authentic saint, then decanonized, the struggle to get him recognized as the patron saint of handgunners continues. Well, they're lobbying the church, anyhow.
In the meantime, I'm reliably informed that it wouldn't hurt -- on those occasions when you feel you need a little luck -- to say "Saint Gabriel Possenti -- guide my aim!" Like a hostage shot, for example. |
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| El (Pah-TOOEY) Presidente |
[Mar. 25th, 2005|10:37 am] |
I'm unhappy about the President's comments regarding Project Minuteman. He called them "vigilantes" among other things.
Hold on a second, there, Tex. You took the oath. You are required by that oath to protect the borders of the United States. But you aren't, are you? Nope. You'll spend about 25 billion to protect the borders of frigging Iraq but not our border.
The FBI director just suggested to Lautenberg that maybe the Brady Act ought to be tightened up some.
You know, Tex...you're starting to screw up.
Straighten up. |
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| Child molesters |
[Mar. 24th, 2005|12:22 pm] |
A solution for child molesters
Look, they just get worse. They never really get better. We send them to prison and we just get them back in a couple of years, escalating all the time. So okay; let's do a permanent solution.
1) Make it a capital offense.
2) Upon conviction, they are conveyed to a tannery, where they are skinned and all their orifices sealed...EXCEPT for the rectum, which receives a gas valve. Then the skin is tanned.
3) Every holiday, we dress them up differently, inflate them with helium and tie them to the "HANDS OFF THE KIDS!" float in the parade, to float along, happily reminding everyone what happens when you can't control yourself.
At the Christmas parade, they can be dressed like elves. At Easter, like bunnies. Fourth of July, Uncle Sam.
I'd really, really like to see any member of NAMBLA...or all of them...bobbing gently as they are towed behind a float of laughing, carefree children. |
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| West Coast Karate Classic |
[Mar. 20th, 2005|10:15 am] |
Haven't been posting lately. For the reader that actually looks forward to these posts (if any), sorry. Been quite busy at work and gearing up for a karate tournament. On which I'll post now....
I am now the West Coast Karate Classic champion in my age and belt group, but it's not as big a deal as you might think. (Cut so as not to irritate those who are sensitive to such things)
( Read more... )
Say, that didn't hurt at all, using the LJ Cut! Okay, so I'll cut long posts. Wouldn't want to tick off abz6598. Who would?
Dumb question. Why does the spell-check for LJ feel that the words "didn't" and "wouldn't" are actually two words each and the first one is mispelled? Geez, you'd think they'd cut some slack for people who use contractions. /rant. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 9th, 2005|08:10 am] |
Took Boy to Cub Scouts last night. They have an achievement patch for watching movies. Yup, that's right. But actually meaningful, because they were seeing how Grandma and Grandpa got to see movies at home. They had popcorn popped on top of the stove and watched silent 8mm reels of Abbot and Costello. I think it was the last reel of Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Geez, those kids were just rolling in the aisles! So today, I got some Abbot and Costello and some Stooges on Netflix. I'm sure he'll enjoy them: think about it if you have kids.
============================================
Boy passed for yellow belt: awards ceremony tonight. I got another stripe on the orange belt, but I'm still unhappy at how I'm putting too much force into my sparring. It's slowing me down and the upper belts are constantly telling me about it. It's not that I disagree: this particular style cries out for light, quick movement and if I'm going to be good at it, I have to do it that way.
It's just that I have a lot of programming to overcome in order to install the new programming. Sigh. It was hard to install the programming in the first place. And now it's hard programming over the top of it. Such is the life of a lower belt.
============================================ |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 18th, 2005|10:20 am] |
Brandishing
In Kalifornia, it's against the law to "brandish" a firearm. That means letting someone see it. Even if you have a CCW and you inadvertently expose it in your normal day-to-day existence. So if you go to the supermarket and reach for the top shelf and your jacket rides up, exposing your hip holster, you are just one little-old-citizen-with-a-grudge away from losing your CCW and ending up in court. Or if some weenie breaks a bottle, comes at you and drops it when he finds that he's brought a bottle to a gunfight, a police officer coming by would be asking things like these:
"This guy says you pulled a gun on him. Is that true?"
"Self-defense? Against what?"
"Well, I see a bottle on the ground, but I don't see him holding it. But I figure you did pull a gun on this guy since he knows you have one, and he must have seen it, right?"
"Would you mind putting your hands on the hood of my car, please?"
Well, a legislator in Montana is aiming to fix that. He has introduced a bill that would make self-defense a positive defense for brandishing charges and would require the law-enforcement folks to investigate the self-defense claim, dismissing the charges if they can't PROVE that you weren't involved in self-defense.
My take? Good on 'em. But in a rational society, this would be a moot point.
===========================
My mechanic is very impressed. He's never actually seen anyone tear a spark plug in half while it was in the engine. He's heard of such things, of course, but hasn't actually met anyone stupid enough to break one off below the wrenching flats.
It is foolish to admit this, but apparently, I "righty-tightied" the sonovagun to destruction.
At first, it looked like pulling the head and sending it to a machine shop was the only alternative. Instead, my mechanic used a major penetrant to soak it overnight and then found something to grab onto (there are "good" and "bad" ways to break a spark plug in half, apparently. I employed the "good" method, breaking out the center and giving him something to glom onto) and whopped a cheater bar on the whole mess. It came out.
Cost of having the plugs replaced by a mechanic instead of by me: about $40.
Cost of breaking off spark plug, pulling head and sending to machine shop: about $1,000.
Cost of actual repair thanks to diligent and honest mechanic: $160.
Cheap lesson: "Pay the professional. Especially if you're subject to the occasional lapse of judgement." "Occasional lapse of judgement", as used here, means "inability to apply a wrench in the correct direction." Or "drooling". Either way, I'll be having the mechanic install the shocks because I don't trust myself anymore.
Sigh. Some days I actually can tie my own shoes. Honest.
===========================
Some guy with a semi-auto rifle went shooting in a mall in New York the other day. I wonder if Chuck Schumer and Senator Clinton will claim their share of the blame for disarming the innocent citizens of New York and making them easy prey for every whacko with a grudge? Doubt it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 9th, 2005|06:37 am] |
Frockazulu (whose name reminds me of "Rock-A-Hula", a lesser-known classic of the King) has a brilliant treatise on using MP3 players to provide background music for your life. At last technology has provided something worthwhile.
Come on. Admit it. We tend to look at our lives as if they were a movie. And every movie needs a theme, a background score, to enliven and enrich it.
So. Two questions and you can answer in the comments.
1) What would you use as background music to your life?
2) What music would you use as background music for the lives of the people on your friends list?
See, this way, we find out what you think about yourself. And what you think about everyone else, too.
You needn't restrict yourself to a single choice in either category. Go wild. You know you want to.
I'll start it off.
My life: "Flight of the Valkyries" (Wagner) for the days when I'm a little on the irritable side. For work, "I'll Be A Big Man in Town" (Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons).
I'm seeing "Eye of the Tiger" (Survivor) for Secret Squirrel. All day, every day, though it's been overdone to death. I guess overdoing it to death may be the whole point, heh.
For Commander Zero: "Eve of Destruction" (Barry McGuire).
For Kitiara: geez. Hm. You know, girls are harder. I'll have to think on it. Maybe "It's A Jungle Out There" (Bonnie Tyler). Nah, that's not right. See? Hard.
Not sure about Frockazulu yet, either.
============================
Boy's first night of Cub Scouts last night. He enjoyed it immensely. There are a dozen in the den, of which nine were there. They're like puppies, rambunctious and won't mind. And yet all the activities got done and everyone had a good time. Boy was shy to start, but getting into the swing of things.
More work for Dad, but it's good work.
============================
Awards ceremony at the dojo tonight. We're starting a new family tradition that when Boy gets a new belt, we celebrate at McDonalds. Got him a new gi and the patches he needs (this dojo is nuts for patches, but it's part of the whole experience, so I go with it) and sparring gear. He's looking forward to sparring.
============================
Studying for the Senior Information Systems Analyst exam. It'd be going better if I didn't disagree on a practical basis with a lot of the material. Still, ours is not to reason why. Ours is to find a comfortable niche and try to be productive. |
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