big cliché

I think I have finally figured out what colors I like for this blog (for now, that is). I knew which ones I wanted, but the template I wanted did not use those. Since I am still a newbie to html, it took some time and tweaking to get it right. The main thing I was trying to avoid was having to degauss your eyes after reading a post! I absolutely hate pages with high-contrast color schemes that leave you seeing little text lines everywhere you look. Those folks should have to stare at their own pages for at least an hour a day to show them the error of their ways.

Jefe has added comments to his blog that come up in a pop-up window. They allow anyone to post a comment (duh) on your blog without having to do the email thing. This could present several advantages, especially not having to check a seperate e-mail acct. I have also read about evil blog-haters who think it is just down-right hilarious to put all kinds of garbage in your comments section for all the world to see. So...do I mess with the email, or admin the comments? (Could this actually be any more inconsequential?)

I think I should come back when I actually have something to write worth reading. Yeah. That's what I should do.

I didn't, but it turns out if you don't like Bush, but hate democrats on principle, you DO have an alternative this November! I found this guy while reading our local paper's article about next week's primaries here in OK. He's even got a blogger-powered weblog. Some of his t-shirts are funny, but that isn't enough to get my vote. He'll simply have to do better.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you POTW #2! Hit the link at the right to bask in its greatness! Or maybe that should be "mediocrity!"

This one actually follows the rules I set for myself so click and enjoy.

Imagine one day you grab a newspaper and read Dodge Viper Now Illegal! Intrigued by this headline, you read on and find that the quintessential American muscle car was declared illegal because it looks too fast and someone might get hurt. Even worse, they might die. After all, that car just has too many cylinders, the tires are too wide, its stance too low, and what practical purpose can a car with only two seats actually serve? Now we all know that, statistically, the faster you drive, the higher the odds are that an accident, should one occur, will be a fatality accident. But does the fact that the Viper will do well in excess of 150mph stock (1) mean that anyone driving that vehicle will always be driving in excess of 150mph? Certainly not, but that doesn't mean anything. The potential is there that someone might, and if that person was to lose control, or even worse, intentionally misuse all that horsepower then someone, especially a child, may get hurt! So it stands to reason that if you are for the Viper, then you are against children. You evil, evil person. You should be ashamed of yourself for wanting to own one of those baby killers. Why would a reasonable person need such a thing? Driving is, after all, a privelege not a right.

Now imagine that it is 1994. Now change the Viper to a certain list of 'evil looking' firearms. Now you have the 1994 Clinton Crime bill, commonly known as the 'assault weapons ban'. The really bad part is that my scenario was imaginary and the crime bill is law. Some may say that my example is a bit 'simplified' but I assure you it is not. The only thing wrong with the weapons on the 'bad' list is the way they look. The assault weapons ban, hereinafter 'awb', defines an assault weapon as having two or more features off a list that was decided by those who obviously do not know the first thing about weapons. If they had, then they would have chosen things that actually matter, such as muzzle velocity and caliber when they decided what an assault weapon should be. By the way, if I use a baseball bat to assault someone, wouldn't that make it an 'assault' weapon? Seriously, the list of 'evil' features is as follows, and this is taken straight from the the text of a 'SPECIAL MESSAGE from the Director" On the ATF website (2): the ability of a semi-automatic rifle to accept a detatchable magazine and has at least 2 of: a folding or telescoping stock; a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon; a bayonet mount; a flash suppressor or a threaded barrel designed to accept a flash supressor; and a grenade laucher. Yes, it actually reads grenade launcher. The list for an 'assault pistol' is even more ridiculous but is there for you to read if you go to the link for footnote 2. By the way, I forgot to mention that in addition to the conditions set above, there is a list of particularly evil weapons that were banned by name, which is also there on footnote 2.

So to sum it up, Clinton and his cronies, wanting to appear tough on crime, drew up an awful, awful piece of legislation that was based entirely on speculation, emotion and political pandering and somehow got it passed. As a side note, the election cycle after that, a lot of those in congress responsible for passing the awb were swiftly voted out of office (3). They actually managed to sell this monstrocity as a way to clean up gang violence, because we all know that gang members love to run around willy-nilly with 'assault weapons' just ready to fire hundreds of rounds into playgrounds. The most ironic part of this whole thing to me is that your average citizen can't tell the difference between a pre-ban weapon and a post ban weapon! Take, for example, my AR-15 which is post-ban and completely legal, despite the fact that it is the same caliber, fires at the same rate, holds the same number of rounds, operates and breaks down in exactly the same fashion and is even the same evil black phospate finish as its pre-ban counterpart which is currently banned from manufacture! The only differences between my rifle and a pre-ban rifle are the lack of a flash supressor and bayonet lug. My rifle has a muzzle brake installed where the flash supressor would be (permanently attached, of course) and there just isn't a bayonet lug on the rifle. To me, this is legislation run amuck.

There is a silver lining to this. In September this law will 'sunset' or expire. The current members of congress would have to take decisive action to keep it on the books. The question is: are they ready to do this in an election year? If history truly is a techer, I would think not. The problem is that Bushy knows that he has the 'conservative' vote and really doesn't have to do much in the way of gun-rights advocacy, because for most of us he is the defacto candidate this November anyway. So it is then up to us, the electorate, to communicate, through our representatives, our wishes in this respect. Now if you happen to support the awb, then more power to you. You just better make sure you write more letters than I do this year!

I wasn't going to do it originally, but I have added an email link on the right. That link will bring up a nice field for you to submit any comments directly to me without you having to go to your email client. It is one of those 'extra' goodies that the folks at cox provide when you are using the cox-hosted webspace that they offer with every email account. It actually isn't too bad considering I am not paying 'extra' for the 10Meg of webspace. By the way, if you feel compelled to send something keep in mind that I may decide to put it up on the blog if it is interesting and offers a corroborating or contrasting viewpoint. Just don't expect me to respond to the 'you suck' messages.

Since I have spent the last hour messing with color schemes for my template (that I decided not to use after all) and getting the email thing worked out, I am too pooped to put up a 'real' post. Gots a jones to read something good? Pop on over to Hook Echoes and read our hero's latest installment of the Burning Man Saga. I will go off on the idiocy of the Assault Weapons Ban sometime this week, I assure you.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Teenager's Conservative Club Causes Uproar

Now I don't know exactly what this kid said, but what do you bet if the roles were reversed and he had started a liberal lodge, instead of his Conservative Club, Jesse Jackson, the ACLU and the rest of them would be picketing the school? I will say this, though: if it turns out that he is a little racist wannabe, then he should be taken out back and soundly beaten with a rubber hose. Period.

Well, it is offical. Rachel Lucas has left the blogosphere. You can read her most current (last?) post by going to her blog from the link on the right. I'm going to take it down sometime in the near future, so if yous wants it, yous better bookmark it. But, to counter losing one, I've added one! Rob pointed us to the "True Porn Clerk Stories" and I about fell out. You simply must read it if you are not easily offended by the darker side of mankind.

In related news, I just checked Jefe's blog and I honestly have to shake my head. Not at Jeff, but at my (my, as in I voted for him) president's latest verbal hijinks. Now I have already confessed to being a card carrying Republican, so it probably wasn't a stretch for you to guess that I voted for "Bushy-Bushy" in 2000. If you pop over to Hook Echoes and read the text you will see what I mean when I say, perhaps he is not the most well-spoken man. Actually, we have poked fun at Bushy several times for 'nuke-ya-ler' vice nuclear. It just cracks me up. However, he is 'my' president and I support him. And not just because he isn't Al Gore. We could have nominated a chimp in a 3-piece suit in 2000 and I would have voted for him just because he wasn't Al Gore. It is actually a PLUS that I agree with 99% of Bushy's gameplan. The only area he worries me is the AWB, but that is a different post for a different time, perhaps not so far off in the future.

Finally, if yous guys know of a blog or a site that I (and the other 3 of you still reading) need to know about, drop me a line and I will link it.

Last night as I was getting ready to leave for work, I had to make a trip to the shredder. As I was running the pages into this behemoth new shredder they installed (as a part of our 'security' upgrades, post 9-11) I noticed this little symbol next to the feed slot. It was a tiny embossed depiction of a tie going in the feed slot with the 'NO' circle and bar over the top of it. I actually laughed out loud when I saw this, thinking to myself 'Now who needs to be reminded to keep his tie out of the shredder slot'? It is sad that we have to remind ourselves of these simple, unavoidable truths, but then I remembered the stoopids and their very close friends, the liability lawyers. I have decided that these two groups are in cahoots, feeding off each other in some sick, other-worldly symbiotic relationship.

Think about this: the stoopids don't have to heed plain and simple common sense, such as keeping one's tie out of the shredder slot, because they know if they do, and God forbid that little warning symbol was not on the shredder, they would have a free ride to the golden jackpot, courtesy of the liability lawyers. Conversely, the liability lawyers know that there are a never-ending supply of stoopids who are one slip-and-fall away from getting those lawyers their next BMW or Merc.

Now we could hope that the stoopids would eventually remove themselves from the gene pool, either by failing to take a mate or accidental removal (refer to the Darwin awards for this group) but they just don't seem to be doing this fast enough to counter the ones who are reproducing and apparently passing the stoopid gene on to their offspring. I am not being judgemental here (judge not, lest ye be judged, remember) but I have actual, honest to goodness proof that these people are out there. Case in point: remember the other night when I referred to the warrant service? Let me tell you how that ended and you make your own decision.

After I wrapped up the blogging for that night, the local PD was still outside that woman's apartment trying to convince her to come out peacefully and face the music. Remember, she had 'allegedly' stabbed her boyfriend, who was 'actually' recovering from stab wounds at the ER. The boyfriend had called the apartment from the ER and she actually answered so the boys in blue knew she was there! Now here's where it starts getting stoopid. The dispatcher called the apartment immediately after the boyfriend hung up and she picked up. She then told the dispatcher, who relayed this to the supervisor on scene, that she was actually across the street and she was watching the two officers at the front door knocking. Remember, the dispatcher called the apartment number and she answered. Also, turns out there was another officer at the side door who could hear her on the phone! It hurts, doesn't it? Apparently, the two of them were drunk when the original call came in and she informed the dispatcher she was continuing to drink, then apparently mentioned something about suicide and relayed that the couch was now barricading the front door. Then, it really got stoopid. She actually told the dispatcher, who again relayed to the on-scene supervisor, that they would have to shoot her to get her out! Excuse me? Did I miss something? Exactly what would cause one to think that you would want to tell the PD to shoot you? (Strangely enough, this is not the first time I have heard people inside the house tell the officers outisde the house that they are 'not going to jail'). Once she said that, the on-scene supervisor told the dispatcher to get the emergency response team rolling. He was tired of her stoopid and had just called her bluff, only she didn't know it yet. Oh, I neglected to mention that when this started earlier in the evening, they confirmed that the woman had existing warrants for assault with a deadly weapon.

Within 30 minutes, the ERT was on-scene and had taken over from patrol. They assessed the situation and decided the best and safest plan would be gas. Now I don't know how many of you have had the pleasure of getting a lung-full of CS gas, but that stuff is for real and they still use it for crowd control for a reason. After evactuating the other apartment units in that block, it was on. From the time they gave the word for gas until she was in custody was no longer than about a minute and a half. It seems the CS gas is still the real deal. Fortunately no one was injured and outside of the gas, she was also unharmed. Like I said to you earlier, this is not the first time I have heard someone tell the police that they weren't going to jail. The other occasion was similiar, but the couple involved didn't stab each other. Rather the male half decided that shooting at the police was a good thing. STOOPID! As a side note, aparently alcohol is actually liquid stoopid, because these things always involve the booze. Guess what? They too, went to jail. I guess now we know why police are sometimes 'less than cordial', huh.

So there you have it: real, live, genuine stoopid in action. The signs are all around us; think of how many of those little warnings you see each day and then you too will know. Perhaps the all-time greatest example was the lawyer who filed, on behalf of an obese minor child, a suit agains McDonald's alleging they were responsible for the kid being morbidly obsese! Here's the simple solution that involves no litigation what-so-ever: lay off the big macs, kid. The whole thing reminds me of that Farside cartoon where the boy is pushing as hard as he can against the door with the 'PULL' sign. Above the door is another sign which reads, to paraphrase, 'School for the Gifted'.

I have been an aspiring photographer since I was very young. However, I never really had the means to make it happen, as it can be an expensive endeavor and as a younger man, I always seemed to have something else to spend my money on that was not photo gear. I could kick myself twice for all the time I spent overseas while in the service yet did not manage to come home with a good camera rig, duty free.

Now that I have devoted money as well as time to my photography, I have a respectable Nikon system and a minimalist collection of lighting accessories. Since I am shooting 99.9% digital, there is no excuse for me to not be shooting something every day, or at least most days of the week. So to this end, I will start putting up a Photo of the Week, hereinafter known as the 'POTW'. The link will be over to the right with the rest, and I will build the site later this week. At first, I will concentrate on getting the pics up, but will eventually give a bit of a narrative as to why I chose the shot, what I like about it, don't like about it, and any interesting or unusual circumstances that brought about that image. Some of them will be strictly practice, so they may not be 'moving' or touch the soul; but rather a technical exercise to become proficient with my gear and lighting setup. I hope you'll enjoy the images as much as I enjoy making them.

All I have to say is if this person has sold one of these kits, he is a marketing genius! Many thanks to Kelly for bringing this to our attention.

Check it out!

Well it sure is good to be back on my regular schedule again. Amazing how having to work dayshift for one day can mess up a whole groove.

The class was informative enough, but let's face it, a new phone system at the helpdesk is not exactly what I would call an epiphany. It is nice, and has will be a lot more 'user' friendly for certain things, but we have lost a few features. I feel myself falling asleep even while typing this, so I will spare you the terribly boring details.

Which brings me to the topic of the day, The Evil That Is Dayshift!

It all started with having to go to bed early enough so that getting up at 0700 would not actually cause death, or at least brain death. Keep in mind that I normally work 2pm to 10pm. Now there are some who go home and promptly go to sleep when working these hours, keeping some semblance of a 'dayshift' life. These are usually the ones who have kids, or are attending classes. Not me. Aimee and I have truly and utterly embraced the tour 3 lifestyle. Neither one of us has ever been 'morning' people. (For those unfamiliar, tour 3 is the third 8-hour shift of the day on a 24hour clock if one starts at 0001). When I get off work at 10pm, it is just as if I were to get off work at 5pm. We prepare dinner, watch any shows that we have taped (since I work during primetime) then maybe watch a movie, work on any projects we may have going, or just catch up on surfing or blogging. So, by the time we are ready for bed, it is usually around 3am or a bit later. Which if we refer back to our 5pm example would have me in bed by 10pm or a bit later. My day is the same as most dayshifters, just shifted about 7 hours later. OK, back on point. The first thing I noticed at 7:45am was that there is about 3 to 4 times the amount of traffic I encounter when I am headed in at 1:45pm. Now I love living in Norman, but I will be the first to admit that we have the absolute, hands-down, no doubts about it worst drivers in the entire state, if not the whole of the southwest. It is truly mind boggling how a little college town of about 100K can generate such a disproportionately large number of unbeleivabely bad drivers. It is staggering. Anyway, the traffic at that hour was, as I would find out, mild by comparison to the 5pm traffic.

Now I know the afternoon traffic is worse, but remember: I work during rush hour so I normally don't have to get out in it. After getting off work at 4pm, I came to the house to get a package that needed to be mailed and headed off to the post office. The line there was the absolute longest I have seen it. Anyone familiar with the Gray St PO will appreciate when I say the line was all the way to the west door and be immediately sympathetic. Strangely enough, I was actually comforted by this. Long lines at the PO could indicate a few things, but the most noteworthy is that people are using the USPS to send packages. This, in turn, generates revenue for the USPS. Since Wayne is a contractor for the USPS, anytime they are doing well financially, Wayne is happy. I was almost hoping that the guy behind me would crack wise on the state of the line so I could tell him how happy I was about it.

About a half hour at the PO, and I was off to the vet to pick up some things for the dog. We live on the far east side of town, the PO is central, and the vet is on the far west side of town. This means that I had to traverse the entirety of Norman twice. That is a lot of bad drivers for one day, let me tell you. About the only good things to come of my driving all around town at that hour is that Aimee didn't have to do it and I got to hear all kinds of fun things on the police scanner that I would not normally be privy to since I am not generally listening at that hour. So I guess in retrospect it was a good refresher course on why I love the tour 3 lifestyle. Even more so now, as I sit here at 02:36 sipping a nice cup of tea and typing this up, all the while listening to our local PD preparing to serve a warrant on an 'upstanding' citizen who 'allegedly' stabbed her boyfriend earlier this evening. Ain't life grand?

Well the most difficult part of the painting is done: the 'West Wall'. It was a mighty adversary, but in the end was not wall enough to stop the Centurion-like advance of paint! Yeah, that was super-cheesy. Could be because I've only had like 9 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. Sunday there was a gun show that needed attending. (Found some .223 tracer rounds, so I'll let you know how that goes). Then today I got up early to go to my parents house and do some tweaking on their PC. Normally, I would stay up late (it is now 23:36) and blog away, especially now that the Iowa caucuses are history, but I have to get up at 7 freaking A.M. tomorrow to go to a class on our new helpdesk phone system! De-freaking-licious! I'll put up some pics AFTER we get the furniture back in the dining area so you can bask in the sweet chocolatey-brown goodness of 'the wall'.

Haven't had much time to post this week. We are getting our home improvement groove on! The current project: Kitchen/Dining area. Aimee decided to do a harlequin pattern on the east and west walls of that area. This sounds simple enough, but if you really want to find out exactly how far off plumb and square your walls are, try painting a repeating geometric patter on them, using the baseboard and ceiling as your guidelines. Silly us.

We got the basecoat up pretty quick. Since this is a tone on tone thing, the base coat is lighter, then the "diamonds" that make up the pattern are a shade or two darker. After much geometry and basic math, I had all the dimensions of the diamonds plotted out on graph paper and we were ready to transfer them to the wall. Problem turned out to be the while graph paper is plumb and square, our wall is not. Of couse we did not find this out until AFTER we had plotted our reference points on the wall and began 'connecting the dots'. Needless to say, progress stopped right then. Tonight we spent much time establishing a plumb line to start off as a reference. After that, things went smooth enough. It was teeeeeedious and slow going, but we now have all the reference marks up, and tomorrow night should be able to connect the dots and finally mask up and finish painting. Jokingly, tried to convince Aimee that if it didn't work out this time, we could borrow an overhead projector, and project a big fleur-de-lis and paint that in. She didn't find it as funny as I did.

Hopefully we'll be done this weekend and I can get caught up on some other projects.

Updates and maybe even some pics to follow.

Once upon a time, there was a man with a vision. I believe his name was Bob Pittman. He envisioned a network that played nothing but music videos! Blasphemy! How could this work? At first, it didn't and MTV didn't even come out of the red until 1983. By then, it was already too late. They had started down the slippery slope of commercialism, never to recover.

Why, then, does a man my age still watch the MTV? I love music. Seriously. I love to hear a new song for the first time that actually catches my attention. There is so much crap out there these days that when a rare gem does come along, it is truly worth listening up for. The only problem is that you can bet your bottom dollar that you will not see it on MTV.

Now I understand that MTV is a television network and as such has to reach their greatest demographic and bla-bla blabedy bla. I don't care. Advertisers know what they are getting into when they put an advert on the MTV. Oh by the way, what the heck was old Sy Sperling thinking? I remember there was about a year-long stretch where EVERY freaking comercial break you were guarenteed to see Sy telling you that he was not just the owner, he was a customer! How many 14-24 year old bald people do YOU know? Back to the point. Silly me thinking that MUSIC should be MTVs breadwinner. They have so many extraneous programs out there now that for the 3 hours a day they are actually playing vidoes (from midnight to 3 a.m.) they don't have time to play anything but top 40, pop, and hip-hop. I don't like these, but I don't have anything against those who do. What does make me want to puke is the fact that they are all pre-packaged crap trotted out by the recording companies designed to make sure that if Record Company A rolls out a new boy band, then Record Company B has something ready to go that can compete. Think back: NSync : 98 Degress. Brittney Spears : Christina Aguilera. Beyonce : Mya. Now I honestly don't know if all of these hacks are on the same labels or not, but perhaps you see that THEY ARE ALL THE SAME! Originality be damned! Where are the videos by Placebo, Massive Attack, Tricky, or Tori Amos? Where are the rest of the videos by Radiohead, Coldplay, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Portishead, Fear Factory or insert your favorite band in this spot. Unless you wanted to see a video from 50 cent, John Mayer, Beyonce, Outkast, 3 Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd, or Jenny from the freaking block, you are officially invited by MTV to kiss their money-making booty.

At least we used to have VH1 and we could occasionally get a video made by someone over 25. No sir, not any more. When MTV bought out VH1, they promptly gave them a new look, new logo and most important, a new playlist. I swear to you one night I checked VH1, MTV, MTV2 ("where the music's at" my butt) and they were all playing the exact same video! I got to see Outkast's Hey ya 3 times in a row! What a treat. I actually kind of dug that song until seeing it 4,352 times while just trying to see the new A Perfect Circle video once.

I remember a while back when MTV2 was still in cahoots with "the Box" here locally. They actually played some really obscure and scarce stuff. You might actually see Tom Waits snuggled right up next to some old Queen Latifah. Now that's variety! Not any more. They are cranking out the booty videos just as fast as original MTV (or could we even call that MTV classic?). Which finally brings us around to what I consider to the the fall of MTV. The booty video. The most reviled, disgusting, mass-produced, cookie-cutter piece of un-originality on the face of the planet. The formula is simple enough: a few guys, lots of beer, crystal or whatever, and lots and lots of ladies (and I use that term with healthy pinch of salt) dressed, or more accurately, undressed in the tiniest thing the FCC will let them get away with, shaking that booty over and over and over and over and over and over. Don't forget to sprinkle in the expensive cars and huge houses. Then, the guys point at the booty, and nod while grinning from ear to ear. Then pour the beer/crystal/whatever on the booty. Then repeat the whole thing for 3.5 to 4 minutes. Just typing this, I can feel my IQ dropping. And now, it is not enough that the guys are doing it. Now the WOMEN are doing it in their OWN videos! Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Pink and a host of others are now wearing less and less, I guess in an effort to keep up with the sales of Bubba Sparxxx and the like. Even Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has his own booty video.

Now some people would argue that if this is not "what the public wanted" then this is not what MTV would be showing. I disagree. I think that by MTV's deliberate omission of anyting ELSE, they have created a generation of viewers who don't know any better and who have finally been beaten into submission by repetition. Poor souls. They didn't stand a chance.

Here's one last thing to think about: You can thank MTV for the current onslaught of reality television programs we are expect to endure every season. Three words for ya: The Real World!

It is just as I expected. I did some quick checking; asking folks here and there if they were ever able to (or for that matter KNEW anyone who was able to) complete one, JUST ONE, of their resolutions. I even went a step further and asked if they could even remember the resolution on December 31st of the same year. Apparently the world really does suffer from short attention span syndrome. I couldn't find anoyone who could even remember the resolution, let alone have completed it.

But the plot thickens! Our buddy Rob has decided to be the guinea pig for our highly scientific, double-blind research study. He has made, and publicly announced, his resolution for this year. I am not going to say what it is, because I don't want to jinx old Rob. If he doesn't make it, then I'll discuss it. Until then, "Good Luck Rob!"

Just a quick, happy note for today. Sure, I could go off again on something, but I really want to stay away from a completely negative vibe. Tends to put people off. Or at least me anyway.

You may recall from my first post that I was going to take my brother-in-law shooting the day after Christmas. (Yes, I said CHRISTmas, but that is a different post for a different time). Anyway, we went out to his family's land south of town, set up some clay targets and unleashed the Dogs of War! Ok, ok, we fired about 300 rounds of 9mm and .223 and left, sporting that aforementioned stupid grin . As a side note, I like clay targets (aka 'skeet') because they are cheap, easy to see, and biodegradable. I hate it when idiots take a bunch of glass or plastic bottles to the range and then don't pick them up. Anyway, I got home that night and began cleaning the rifle. For those unfamiliar with the AR-15, the firing pin is retained in the bolt carrier by a small cotter pin. This pin is, for obvious reasons, called the firing pin retainer. Well the one that came with my rifle was a bit 'sprung' so that it did not go in to bolt carrier as easily as it should. It did not create an unsafe condition or anything so it was not a big deal, but was a genuine pain in the butt to get back in there....and get out of there.

So I've got the rifle all torn down in the garage on the workbench and I've had to resort to a pair of pliers to get a sure enough grip to remove the firing pin retainer. As it would happen when the pin came loose I flung it across the garage and heard it bounch off the wall, then the shelves, then the wheelbarrow (in that order) and never saw it again. I still have not seen it. Go ahead, laugh. Rest assured, if I saw you do this, I would be laughing. Now where is the 'happy' note I mentioned? Today I arrived home from work and found the TWO replacement pins I ordered, as well as my new Ergo Grip sitting in that familiar Priority mail package on the dining table. I ordered the grip for two reasons: first, the stock grip on the AR-15 is a most uncomfortable item and should (IMO) be promptly replaced and second, the retainer pins are $0.95 each! The shipping from Fulton Armory was $7.00, so it would have been ridiculous to pay for the pins and then 300+% for shipping. By they way, they are not really "cotter" pins. These have a flattened eye (where cotter pins have a rounded eye) so a trip to the hardware store may have netted what I needed, but I didn't want to risk my safety to find out. The last thing I wanted was for that pin to fail while firing the rifle. That would be.....bad. Very bad.

So now my rifle is once again fully functional and even ergonomicly enhanced. AND I even have a spare pin in case I lose it again. Maybe I should go ahead and get a field spares kit while I am at it.

I guess that wasn't such a 'quick note' after all.

Sometimes I absolutely can not believe the plethora o' stoopid floating around out there. I was just surfing along, minding my own bidness when I decided to see what our bud Sarah Brady was up to. The assualt weapons ban is written to sunset in September and I wanted to see what her site had to offer in the way of advice for her rank and file supportes. However, I was distracted by The NRA Black List! Of course, I had to check it out. An enemy of my friend is my enemy, right? So the first thing I notice is that the people chosen to scroll on the "XXXX is on the list" text crawler are all entertainment types! There's a shocker for ya! They mixed in some organizations too, but all of the individuals are hollywood nutjobs and self-important music types (see earlier post). Now obviously the NRA put these people on the "list" which is, according to The Brady Campaign a list of folks the NRA has allegedly "blacklisted" for being anti-gun. Oddly enough, the only thing I can find that appears to reference the list is a link on the NRA page for you to add your name to the "good guy" list. But I digress. What was really on my mind is the incessant stoopid of the mindless microcosm of hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole. These people have bought the liberally-slanted media portrayal of guns hook, line and sinker. Somehow, they have actually gotten it into their little pea-brains that less guns must therefore mean less crimes. Egad! The stoopid! Make It Stop! Why else would they ally themselves with The Brady Campaign? (Which, by the way, you should remember was originally called Handgun Control, Inc. and was a much more accurate moniker given their agenda). Free publicity? Getting to see their own face on yet another website? You see, I have a theory about these entertainment industry buffoons. It is along the lines of my buddy Nate's "car salesman, cops and CEOs" (which may not actually be Nate's, but he is the first one to mention it to me). I am now firmly convinced that people have been blowing smoke, sunshine, flowers or whatever you want to call it, up these peoples' rear ends for so long that they actually, genuinely and honestly believe it in much the same fasion as the chief character from The Emperor's New Clothes! Let me clarify: these people are constantly being told how beautiful, how important and how meaningful they are that they now have accepted it as fact and as as result have no solid grasp on what you and I know to be reality. They now live in a fantasy world where how people feel is far more important than anything so silly as a Constitutional right. (But they are all too quick to scream "first amendment" when they want to protest a war or produce some new brand of filth). They sashay through life patting each other on the backs, then throw parties to facilitate even more back-patting (can you say Oscar, Grammy, etc) all the while adopting causes and doing PSAs because it makes them feel good; like they are giving something back to the little people. But all hope is not lost. Apparently there are a small group of folks who are on "anti-stoopid meds". The first who comes to mind is Mel Gibson. Why else would he be "pro-gun" and make a movie about Jesus' last hours that is not a musical or degrading in a town where it is generally considered social suicide to be "pro-gun" and make a movie about Jesus that is not a musical or degrading? It would seem that Mr. Gibson has his own beliefs in spite of the smoke sunshine, flowers or whatever you want to call it, that hollywood keeps trying to blow his way.

Well we made it to and from the Fort with no mishaps, accidents or any other generally bad things happening. It was a good trip. Got to see everyone except for the youngest brother. He decided his main squeeze back on-campus was too important to stay and see old Wayne. Well fine. He just doesn't get his gifts until next year! Seriously though, it was really nice to see the whole Fort crew and have some time to visit. Took some pictures of #1 nephew and made dinner for the fam Sunday. We got back just in time to see the Sooners had lost the big game. Oh well. I have never been a "true" football fan, and didn't even watch any of their games until this year, so it is not like I had a vested interest in their performance, unlike many of my friends.

So, returning from an "internet free" zone I found I was behind on e-mail (or should I say deleting my spam?) and the blogs. Turns out Jeff and Rachel, as well as others, have been busy (see links at right). Even tho Rachel isn't really blogging the way she was last year, her archives are super-tasty and well worth a read. I reccomend starting with "Ass-Hatted celebrities". It is good stuff.

What I was really thinking about today as I caught up on the blogs was my time working for/with Jeff. You see, back in the day I did something incredibly stupid. I know, I know, it doesn't seem possible, does it? Well believe me, it happened. I left a mediocore (read: steady paycheck) job to sell Kirby vacuums door-to-door (read: no paycheck)! There. I said it. Whew, confession is good for the soul after all. Needless to say, after a month of working at all crazy hours of the day and night and almost losing my girlfriend (soon to be fiance and later wife) I decided enough was enough. I actually managed to sell 3 of the stupid G4s without making a thin dime! (There should be a class in school about the evils of MLM scams). So, I went to Jeff and asked if he had anything for the summer. My dad was going to try to get me on where he worked, but they would not be ready until the fall. So, Jeff put in a good word and I became the maintenance shop's un-official "Man Friday". I was slated to work in the shop (much the same as "the liar" from Jeff's current post) but actually worked wherever the owner needed me for the day. Usually I was actually working on the mowers, trucks, and general equipment, but if there were parts to pick up, deliveries to be made, dumpsters to be waded through, or just plain grunt work, I was the man for the job. The "real" mechanics were too valuable and were being payed too much to be driving around town picking up payroll, or what have you (and that was reasonable, I knew my position on the food chain) and obviously Jeff had to run the office and the day-to-day of the bidness so the grunt jobs usually feel to me or one other guy who happened to have a strong predilection to breaking equipment. If they didn't want it broken, they had me do it. Where am I going with all of this? Simple: we always joked that there were the makings of a FUNNY movie, or at least a good short film at that place and it seems the tradition lives on. After reading The Chronicles of Dwarf and Liar I am still quite sure that if there were someone who knew enough about story development there is ample character running around that place. I could see it something like Caddyshack meets Men at Work (but funnier, of course) written by Broken Lizard. Who knows? Maybe some day I'll write it. They made Hillary a senator, so stranger things have happened!

Does anybody actually know all the words to that song? I know I don't. In any event, I wanted to say Happy New Year to you readers who I have not bored into a coma yet.

I spent most of the evening at work so by the time I got home, Dick was already rockin' in the new year in Times Square. I am sooooo thankful that no one tried to pull anything untoward. I was a bit worred about that in the back of my mind. Since I was building a PC for my brother, and the wife was putting the finishing touches on a picture frame we built, we both practically forgot about the New Year! I looked at my watch at like 11:59, so we ran in the kitchen, grabbed our glasses and immediately poured our drinks, toasted in the New Year and enjoyed a quick smooch. Then promptly went right back to what we had been doing. How's that for livin la vida loca! Yeah! (Side note for Jeff: you weren't the ONLY one not drunk and not at some raging party). {take a few and pop over to Jeff's blog, then you'll get that too}

Any resolutions for this year? None for me, thank you. I have quit smoking, all but quit drinking, I don't go chasin' after the ladies or crashing wild parties so the only vices I have left are good food and coffee. I will be damned if you think I'm giving up those. I suppose I could resolve to lose the pounds that the good old desk job has put on me, we call it the Helpdesk 20 'round the office, but I will get to that in my own good time. No reason to go adding one more thing to life to stress over. Now that I think about it, I can't think of one single person I know who has actually stuck to a resolution. Seriously. I think I will ask around to see if anyone else can think of someone they know who has actually lost the weight, cleaned out the attic, quit the smoking/drinking/heroin, finished their first novel, got the better job or who can even remember what their resolutions were on December 31st of the year they were made.

I will get back with you on that one.

We are going to the Fort this weekend to visit that crew, so I will probably not post again until Monday. Maybe a quick one before we leave, but things get hectic when we get ready for a Fort trip. So everyone have a great weekend and just in case you were curious, try this link.