big cliché

WFTV.com - News Of The Strange - Federal Agent Shoots Himself During Gun Safety Course

Dear Lord, who lets these people out. And who is giving them guns? The DEA, of course. I have no idea how this could have happened if the guy did rack the slide back and remove the magazine, but it did, and I bet he never asks anyone else to verify his weapon is clear again.

Dork.

Thanks to Jason for pointing this one out.

CNN.com - Woman drove for days with dead mother - Apr 29, 2004

Why couldn't this have been a Texan?

Yahoo! News - Entertainment Photos - AP

Isn't about time for these two to implode? Seriously--they have literally spent their entire lives in front of a motion picture camera, on a magazine cover, or splattered across tabloids. History has not been kind to the child stars of the past and, as well all know, history is one of our best teachers. I see bad, bad things for these two in the future. Not that I am wishing them ill, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them turn 18 and start doing heroin or porn (very publicly, I might add) just to shatter their wholesome all-American teen image. I think we all remember what happened when Elizabeth Berkley left the Saved by the Bell set.

Yahoo! News - Wis. Soldier Sisters Won't Return to Iraq

Okay, here's the story, and here's what Kelly had to say about it:

You know, I've read a lot of the stories on the net about Pat Tillman and how he gave up many things, that most of us would do just about anything to be offered, so he could sign up for one of the hardest parts of the military to be in and subsequently die for his country. Now I read this pathetic display of pussiness and it makes me want to puke. I feel sorry for these women because they lost a sister, but to me that does not give them any reason to "decide" to not go back into action. I would like to think, if myself and my 2 brothers were in the military and one of them happened to be killed in action, that I would grab up my balls and head back to the service that I signed up for. I know it would be a horrible thought to go back there, but I would lose too much self respect if I pussed out and asked for the equivilent of a deskjob.

But hey, that's just my opinion and much like me, many might not like it.

I have read two different versions of the story, and I am still wondering when it became optional to continue service aside from a genuine hardship discharge, that is. My inference was that the CO of their unit requested they stay stateside to avoid unwanted attention on their unit. Well it would seem they have that now, huh? I don't really know what else to say about this other than A) what kind of precedent is the Major General setting here and B) I'm quite sure that if one of my brothers or sisters were KIA, I would succumb to that most human of emotions: the desire for revenge. But it is always easy to sit here and spew opinions when it isn't my family. I thought I would have more to say on this, but I guess I am just stunned about the whole thing.

Just when you think it is safe to go to work, the stoopids are back with a vengance!

You may recall, I have two trainees. I was listening in on one of them while he was on a call (we have a special headset just for this purpose) and he had the all-time king of motor-mouths.

You ever talk with those people who, when asked a question, will explain the circumstances surrounding the question rather than just answer the dang question? Back in the day, we used to call this 'telling how to build the clock, rather than telling the time'. This guy was the one who pioneered that technique. I am firmly convinced that this was originally developed as a counter-interrogation technique for WWII POW's to drive their captors insane and facilitate their immediate release.

This guy was a machine! No matter what we asked him, he managed to speak for a solid 5 minutes without actually answering the question. I finally had to tell my guy to stop typing and just let the guy kind of run out of things to say.

Here's an example: we asked the very simple question of 'what time did this occur?' The first time, he responded that it was sometime after he came on shift but not too long before the problem reoccured but then he had to do a restore procedure.

Second time: 'OK, but what time was that?' 'Well, like I said, it was just after I came on shift, but the night shift guy did see the problem as well and they tried to reload software and that didn't help, so they they turned it over to me'.

Third time: 'Sir, we need a time that we can put in the service ticket.' He says 'Well I came on shift at 7:00 am and they told me about it around 7:30 a.m., but like I said, the night shift guy did see it too, so I guess....well no, I guess 7:30 is the first time I saw it happen today'.

By that time, I was actually cursing out loud, demanding that he shut up. Fortunately, my trainee had hit the mute button on the headset amplifier so the caller could not hear my tirade.

Our procedures require that we transfer the caller to a field support tech after we get the service ticket generated. So my trainee gets ready to do this, and puts the caller on hold after advising the caller what he is going to do. He clearly said to the caller 'stay on the line, I'm going to put you on hold while I try to patch you through to a support technician'. While the guy is on hold, I ask my guy if he provided the service ticket number. Thanks to all of my ranting, he had forgotten to do this so he got the caller back on the line, and the guy was still talking! Both of us almost lost it at that point. The caller was still yammering on about the problem, then wraps up with 'so am I supposed to hold, or what'?

When we finally got the guy back on hold so we could transfer him, both of us laughed out loud. I almost felt bad for the field support guy we assigned the ticket to, but he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.

Today I finally managed to get out of bed early enough to take the new Beretta to the range. H & H was pleasantly deserted so there was no waiting and none of those (long ago) aforementioned gun-range lunatics, until I was leaving, that is.

I headed out with 250 rounds (since most ‘authorities’ recommend running at least 200 ‘break in’ rounds through before any serious shooting is to be done) 5 magazines, a handful of paper targets and of course ear and eye protection.

After setting up and sending two targets downrange, I shouldered the weapon, sighted in and squeezed the trigger. There was a lot of take-up, but it broke cleanly. The trigger is a single action setup, so if it doesn’t go bang when you pull the trigger, you have to re-cock the weapon. This is kind of a trade-off, but I prefer the single action for its lighter trigger pull and crisper let-off. The drawback is that there is no second chance by just pulling the trigger again if it fails to go bang the first time. You, as noted earlier, have to re-cock the hammer by pulling the bolt handle all the way to the rear.

Accuracy was super-tasty at all ranges. Initially I sent the targets down about 15 yards to see if it was going to be even close. First shot was dead-on for elevation, but about 2.5 inches left. I clicked the sight one tick to the right and tried again. The second shot was now right of the bull’s eye. Turns out the rifle was accurate out of the box and Wayne was the one that was shooting left. Once I had that worked out, I ran the targets all the way to the end of the range and went at it. This rifle is accurate. Using the less-than-visible factory sights, I was still able to put all shots in the black and 4 or 5 in the bull’s eye.

I then brought the targets back in to about 15 yards and just started popping them off as quickly as I could recover a proper sight picture. I could have gotten ‘juvenile’ as Rob H. likes to say, but since I am still unclear on their rate-of-fire rules at that range, I just squeezed them off as quickly as I could without raising eyebrows.

All in all, I only had 2 failures and those were because the ammo did not have enough ‘oomph’ to get the bolt all the way back to ensure proper extraction/ejection of the spent cartridge. I guess that’s what I get for buying the $5-a-box S&B ammo.

The look of the rifle leaves, IMO, something to be desired, but the ergonomics as well as the fit and finish are standard Beretta, which is to say top notch all the way. Function, outside of the two hiccups already mentioned, was flawless and I can’t really blame Beretta for S&B not getting enough powder in the case to make the weapon function properly, so I’m going to give it 5 stars out of 5 and recommend that you get one right now.

I am beat!

Which is a lame way of saying that I am not going to post anything of substance tonight. I did get a good submission from Kelly, but that will have to wait until I have enough energy for a full-on rant.

Until then, please recall my whining about losing Justin to the evil that is day shift, then read THIS.

Curious, no?

Good news is that I got a call today from the Dutch Ninja! I am happy to be able to share with you that Lee is back in the country and survived his Mid-East desert tour. What a relief.

Bad news is that I called my Mom today, who informed me that BIL2 is somewhere outside of Tikrit and there was a car bombing today. No one has any information yet, so everyone is still a bit tense.

Yahoo! News - N.J. Boy Suspended Over Peanut Allergy

Here's another tasty tidbid (pun intended) that Kelly sent over. He titled it "The Weapon of the Future". Anybody for PB&J?

Alright, Alright--I know I have been slacking on the POTW. So much so that I felt it should be the POT? for fear of false advertising lawsuits.

Just so you know, it is new this week and I will endeavor to keep it up to date, but I ain't making any promises. My next project will be to shoot this year's self portrait. I read about a guy who shoots a self portrait every year on his birthday and I thought It was a good idea. Why whouldn't I want to document the gradual decay of my health, looks, etc? Seriously though, I thought it would be a very interesting thing to document, not only how I change year to year, but how I choose to shoot it year to year.

I'll let you know when it is up. For now, feel free to enjoy week 8 by clicking on the POT? link.

Yes indeed, it is that time of year again! The irises are in bloom, the hostas are leafing up nicely and the artists are taking over OKC. I am, of course, referring to the FA2004.

Each year, they close the road between the Myriad Botanical Gardens and Stage Center and the artists take over. There are oils, acrylics, pen and inks, watercolors, photography, sculptures, mixed media, jewels, art glass, tapestries, art clothes?, and all imaginable forms of art and performance. There are tons of booths chock full of colors, smells and pretty things in general.

For me, the best thing this year was the absolute variety of spectacles that I thought had gone away. People wear the strangest eyewear! I saw everything from the simple John Lennon-inspired round wireframes to the big black boxy-framed Harry Carry specials that are just ducky. I almost laughed out loud when I saw one particular example that were kind of oval-shaped and cat-eyed with rhinestones in in both corners where the temples attached. There were, of course, designer names of all kinds, and I distinctly remember Dolce & Gabbana, and some old school Cazals. We even saw one pair that I couldn't make out the logo on that had thick, 1" temples that were quilted!

Getting back on track though, even though I don't know art, I love to look at the canvases. The oils and watercolors are probably my favorite and there were tons. Too bad I didn't have 3K to drop on art this year. I saw two or three that were stunning in their use of color. Very abstract but still bold, interesting, and captivating all at once. Hopefully, I can duplicate some of that for the living room. It was abstract, after all. There were several artists that made extensive use of geometric shapes that I really loved, the most impressive of which was Oluf Nielsen, if I remember right. I should have made notes. Lots of cubes; lots of smaller tiles attached to larger canvases. Good stuff.

We did rather an abbreviated walk through this year, completely skipping the sculpture garden with the exception of a few pieces on the lawn by Stage Center. We also completely skipped the food court area despite the lovely smells coming our way on the gentle breeze. The only area that we covered in depth was the actual artists area on the street. If you haven't been there, I would reccomend it. There is so much to look at that anyone should leave feeling inspired to do something.

And yes, Jefe, the clown pic is just for you. I think his vest had a URL about Clown Porn or something on the back.

This has been a busy week.

Monday is just Monday.

Tuesday I just don't remember all that well.

Wednesday, we got the call from the shipping company informing us that the new furniture was on its way and would be in Thursday morn between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00. So, Wednesday night was spent moving the old furniture to make room for the new. As a result: no blogging. No checking email. In fact, I did not even turn on the monitor at all. Then it was off to bed at 3:00 a.m. because they were arriving so dang early.

Thursday night, the furniture is moved in, but we are both beat from getting up so unbelievably early! Then, we have to get things put away--tucked in their respective places. Again, no blogging; no email. Again, off to bed early because we are beat, and I will have to get up early (again) to run to the city to pick up a package and do some shopping Friday morning. And again I will be going to bed early to get up tomorrow to run, yet again, up to the City. Still haven't checked email.

Fortunatley, tomrrow's City run will be all pleasure. The package I was retrieving this morning was the new Beretta CX4 carbine and I will be going to H and H (Gunworld got themselves blacklisted; I'll tell you later) to break it in. I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning. It smells like...well, gunpowder really. Kind of sulphur, burned and pungent all at the same time.

Saturday, after shooting (provided I get out of bed) will also be the Festival of the Arts in OKC, so I hope to see you there!

Sunday, we are supposed to help Aim's mom redecorate her guest bedroom.

Does it ever stop?

Tour 3 is losing another one.

Tour 3 is the shift I work. It is the 3rd shift of the day; roughly the last 8 hours of the 24 hour clock. For some odd reason, the Team calls it a 'tour' instead of a shift.

As I said, I am losing another good employee to the seductive mistress that is day shift. It has been this way since I have worked there. Out of the guys who were working tour 3 when I started, I am the only one left. Aristides Wade, the supervisor I replaced, moved to the east coast so his wife could go to school. Robert P. moved to Texas shortly after his wife got a sweet job down there. Eric D. moved to a different department, as did David W. and they both work days. Arlene F. also went to days and a different department, and they just plain fired Mike T. Finally, Brandi S. just kind of stopped coming to work.

For some odd reason, all of these people, except Dave W. (and me) have children. I don't understand why people with kids want to work days. I keep trying to tell them that what they need to do is get their wife on the tour 3 schedule and home school the kids. They all give me the same puzzled look. I have also tried to impart to them that if the Team wanted them to have kids, they would've been in the orientation package. Again, that puzzled look.

Fortunately, there is hope. I have two new guys who are showing quite a bit of promise. Only problem is that they both have kids!

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Ex-NFL Star Pat Tillman Dies in Afghanistan

You should read this.

If for no other reason than to put a face to the one of the names of those who have given all to preserve our way of life. The reason I am so moved by this is that on top of enlisting immediately after the worst events in recent American history; in doing so, he turned down the opportunity to continue doing something he loved. Sure, then you can factor in the 3.6 million dollars he walked away from. I would be willing to bet that if he had survived the offer would have still been there for him, but to walk away knowing that what he was undertaking could cost him his life? This is the kind of patriotism I could only aspire to.

I remember thinking to myself after we got back from Massachusetts (Aimee and I were vacationing in NYC on Sept. 11 on our way to Randolph MA to visit my grandparents, but that is a different post) that if I were a single man, I would probably have joined up again. Mr. Tillman had only, as I understand it, been married a short time. So on top of everything else, he left behind his newlywed wife to go thousands of miles away to hunt out the scum of the earth to hopefully make our country and world a safer place.

I certainly don't want to take anything away from any of our American sons and daughters who have also made the ultimate sacrifice, for they too knew the risk and took it on proudly. All who serve do. So may God keep close and comfort all those families and friends who have lost someome, because this is going to get worse before it gets any better.

Ladies and Gents, Hook Echoes has split in two. The new entity is called Seeing In The Dark and, of course, will be a perm-a-link on the right.

If you are curious as to why, jump over there, scroll all the waaaaaay down and read the first post. That is the only thing strange about reading blogs; the last-post-first style.

Enjoy!

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004�

Looks like Air America is in trouble again. (Listen: you can almost hear me snickering). I was really hoping this would take off for them, so they would be too busy to make the talk show circuit every time they published another book!

Wish 'em well!

Yahoo! News - Senator says US may need compulsory service to boost Iraq force

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat! Did he say draft? I think he did! Now that is where I draw the line. I am as hawkish as the next guy, but I will not abide by a draft. I volunteered, and I feel that our military should be all volunteers. In my mind, it makes it the best it can be. Start forcing folks and God knows what would happen. Making service compulsory is not what is needed for this mission. It is Iraq for Pete's sake; not China or the old U. S. S. R.

I still feel that what we are doing in Iraq is the right thing, even though I am not so sure anymore that Bushy-Bushy led us in for the right reasons. Ridding the world of saddam should have been done when I was over there 13 years ago, but it wasn't. My brother-in-law and a good friend are both over there now doing the job and I pray for their safety, but a draft is not necessary to suppliment or replace them. What is necessary is to turn it over to the interim gov't on June 30, as advertised, and get our troops back home to their families and friends.

If any one of my rep's or senators goes alone with this, I swear right now that I will vote democrat next time around, and you know how I feel about that.

Now I know I have gone off before about how most companies practice what I call customer tolerance, but today I am going to bring up the other side of that: Bad Consumerism.

Bad consumerism is all around us and is, I feel, one of, if not the main cause of bad customer service, or even companies just plain behaving badly. I am not at all against people making a buck. Obviously they have to or they couldnt' stay in business. The country would most likely fall apart if people weren't making and building, buying and selling. It's what America does. What gets me going are these people who will spend any amount of money to get what they want; thereby establishing a bad precedent for the companies to continue fleecing the rest of us reasonable, comparative shopper types who know that paying twice retail just so we can 'have it now' is a bad, bad idea.

Think about this for a second: there are precious few things in life that actually cost what we pay to produce, refine or otherwise manufacture. Obviously, we are going to have to pay for the fact that someone else did the production, refining or manufacturing and that is fair. But then, every time that merchandise changes hands the price raises so that everyone involved makes their money. This is obvious and expected. But what about when it reaches the final retailer and he then bumps it up 300% just because that is what some idiot is willing to pay? That is how you end up with $300 beany babies or the $500 tickle-me freaking Elmo. Neither of these items has any real intrinsic value. They are plush toys. Try selling that to anyone who doesn't collect beanies or have a kid, and guess what? You are going to get exactly what a plush toy is worth. But it is too late, the damage has already been done. The next time a manufacturer thinks they are going to have the 'hot' item, they put it on the shelves with an exorbitant price tag and then people snatch it up because it if costs that much it must be the buddha, right? It just goes on and on and on.....

You get the picture. But it won't change unless the rest of us somehow stop the stoopids from doing this. Half of me thinks that if you have so much money that paying $500 for Elmo is something you can do, then enjoy your $25 plush that you paid $500 for, you silly, silly person. But then the other half of me wants to just snatch these people up by the scruff and lecture them for thirty minutes on why they are screwing the rest of us with this irresponsible behavior.

Ebay is a perfect example. I just bought an item for $33.12 from an on-line retailer. Just out of curiosity, I checked eBaY to see if I could have done any better, which I doubted, but the curiosity got the best of me. Turns out I did just fine. My item, plus shipping came out to $40.07. A quick check of completed items on ebay turns up a range of $69 to $132.50. Why? If I was able to find the thing after a 10 minute Google, why weren't these folks able to do the same? It isn't as if Google is some ancient Chinese secret that only us chosen few know about. Did they just want to pay that much? I don't get it. And the worst part is that they 'endorse it with their dollars', they are telling these ebay sellers that it is A-OK to put a buy it now price of 4 times the retail on an item! Then they decide that they don't have to mess with customer service and adopt that 'if you don't want to buy from me, get stuffed' mentality. It remind me of when Aim and I decided to try a new eye doctor and when I told him we weren't buying his overpriced frames and lenses, he actually told me that losing us would not break his business. True enough, but what kind of referral was he expecting from us? (by the way it is the eye clinic just east of 12th and Robinson, so make sure to avoid him! heh.) We thought we could save some time and money since he was literally blocks away, but now, we find, that we are going to have to drive all the way up to SW 59th and Penn just to find an eye doc who is competent and knows how to treat his patients. By the way, patients are really customers and the quicker these quacks realize that, the sooner they'll be making more dough.

I could go on and on about this, but I will spare you and just hope that the next time someone tries to fleece you, no matter how much you want that new gadget, stereo, gun, motorcycle, car, or whatever it is that floats your boat, you show that you are a good consumer by just walking away. And if you get bad customer service, talk to the manager. If the manager can't help, go to the president. You would be amazed what kind of results you can get if you politely explain what has gone wrong and what you expect to be done to correct the situation. Anyone can find the fault, but rare is the person who can find the solution.

GHOST TOWN

Here's a tidbit Derrell sent over. I have no way of verifying this woman's claims, but it seems legit. Be your own judge; it just might send a chill up your spine.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Cannabis 'Scrips to Calm Kids?

This is absolutely delightful. I'm surprised the homeopathic community isn't all over this!

Check out this tasty little gem from, of all places, Staten Island.

Gun owners oppose bill requiring childproof 'smart gun' technology

This should be a fun issue to watch once the technology is ready.

What a day!

Norman did their HazMat clean up today, so I was up at the crack of...1:30p.m. to take our old paint cans to the collection, which is done at the Lloyd Noble parking lot. This, of course, means I had to go through campus to get there. Ech. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was apparently some kind of sporting event at the stadium, so there were droves of stoopids in red and white polluting the roadways, which despite what they think, are still for motor vehicles! This is really not a life altering event, but since I am a bit tired and feel like being whiny...well you get the picture.

Since I was already up, I decided to make good of the time and install Aim's car speakers. I had already installed the head unit earlier in the week so all that remained was to tear the doors open and smack 'em in. If there is one thing I could share with you, it would be get your stereo gear from Crutchfield. They don't have the best prices, but what they lack for in bargains, they make up for with service. They sent absolutely everything I needed to install the head unit and the speakers for free. As well as their 'master sheets' which are vehicle-specific instructions for installing your gear. For my money, that alone is worth paying a few bucks extra. The whole thing went relatively smooth except for the rear speakers. Man, o man--whoever at Acura decided to put round speakers into a rectangle hole should be soundly caned. That was a giant pain. It is finished though, and I even re-installed the euro tail lights. Don't ask.

In a quick news note, you may have noticed that Israeli helicopters fired on and killed the top hamas guy in Gaza. If you have seen this, you have probably read about the international outcry over Israel's 'assasination' of terrorists. Apparently, we in the west aren't the only ones who have issues with this kind of thing. Don't you find it strange though, that the US is over in Afghanistan hunting out al qaeda, but when Israel does the exact same thing with hamas everyone has a fit?

Ok. By now you should have read the article I linked earlier.

So-called smart gun technology is nothing new. As far as I know, different companies have been toying around with it since the late '80s and early '90s. The first ones were based on the same concept, only much larger and more primative. Some used a magnetic ring that the operator wore on their grip hand. Others used a RF bracelet. Whatever the mechanism, they all pretty well work on the concept that if you do not have the 'magic key' then you are not firing the weapon.

The drawbacks have always been the reliability, but more important to law enforcement agencies, the cost of outfitting their departments with the weapons. According to the article, these weapons would be about twice the price of a 'dumb' gun. (Don't forget; some departments require their officers supply their own duty weapon as well as a backup). Then you have to factor in the time to train all your officers, add personnel to ensure that all weapons and 'keys' match as well as retrain all the armorers who have to work on the blasted things. Sure, here in Norman, OK that could be done in less than a month, but how about the mega-departments like LAPD and NYPD? What about the FBI, INS or CIA? These agencies are huge and guess who is going to ultimately pay for all that new technology? That's right, homies: we are! That money would be much better spent on weapon-retention training, or even updating some of those antique radio dispatch systems out there.

Here's something else worth rumination: why would you add another way for a weapon to fail when it is most needed? Despite all efforts, the semi-automic handgun is still not 100% reliable. It's sad, but true. There are quite a number of moving parts involved and most times they work just fine. In fact, I have almost 1000 rounds through the Beretta 92 without a single hitch. However, I don't depend on my pistol the same way officers do. If I have a stove-pipe jam or failure to extract it is no biggy. I just clear it and go back to punching holes in paper. If a cop has a failure, it is almost assuredly going to be after he/she has drawn the weapon to defend their personal safety or that of another. Not a good time to have a failure, and certainly not a time to be wondering if your bracelet or implant chip is close enough to the RF receiver to allow your weapon to fire. This a perfect example of the stoopids using the old rhetoric of public safety when there isn't a problem with it in the first place.

A main argument for smart guns has always been that they would potentially protect officers whose weapon is taken from them in a fight. Well, here are some numbers for you to chew on. According to the USDOJ, there were 796,518 active duty law enforcement officers nationwide in state, local and federal agencies in the year 2000. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program for the same year, there was exactly 1 officer slain with his own weapon. That's right, 1. Go to the link, then scroll down to Table 14.

Oh yes, and did anyone ask these officers if they wanted a tiny subdermal ID chip in his/her hand? I don't think so. Who's to say what else they could encode on that chip? Don't get me on that conspiracy soap box. Seriously though, would they be relegated to desk duty if they refused the chip? Would they be fired?

So what is the real reason the stoopids want this so bad? Simple. They want to eventually federally mandate that all firearms be 'smart' and that all gun owners have to get on board with the new technology or turn in their guns after a suitable grace period. I assure you, I am not joking. S.448, aka the 'Leave No Child Behind Act of 2003' allots $10,000,000 to further research the smart gun technology. The exact text is as follows:

A) IN GENERAL- The Attorney General, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Justice, shall carry out a program to research and develop smart gun technology.

(B) DEFINED TERM- In this paragraph, the term `smart gun technology' means a device--

(i) incorporated by manufacture and design into a handgun in such a manner that the device cannot be readily removed or deactivated;

(ii) that allows the handgun to be fired only by a particular individual; and

(iii) that may allow the handgun to be personalized to an additional individual.

(C) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS- In addition to any other amounts authorized to be appropriated for such purpose, there are authorized to be appropriated $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2004 to carry out this paragraph .

Then there's the stoopid's all time favorite that they always roll out when they want to get your attention: guns kill children. Yep, so do cars, baseball bats, planes, trains, dogs, and of course, peanut butter. Why isn't anyone scrambling to ban those things? Where are the smart cars that only allow the lien holder to drive them? Where is the peanut butter that you just can not choke on? Or dare I even say 'why is smoking not illegal?' GASP! HE SAID IT! Tobacco kills more folks than guns ever wanted to, yet it is still legal? I am not talking about banning it in public places, I am talking about an outright ban on the production, consumption, transportation or sale of tobacco. You and I know that would never, ever happen (prohibition should have shown us that) but the point is that it kills hundreds of thousands and it isn't even a Constitutional right. So why then, if we are using the public safety rhetoric again, is it legal?

Alright alright, I'm getting a bit far out. I'm sure some people may think this is a good idea, and after all if it does make guns safer, than what the heck am I so spun up about? Part of it is that you can't prove to me that it does make guns safer and you certainly can't say it makes them more reliable. The other part is that the government has no more right to insist that I have a smart chip in my gun than they do to insist that you have a breathalyzer on your car to make sure that you aren't drinking and driving. Finally, even if they had a breakthrough and like magic all pistols were 100% reliable without any subdermal anything and were brilliantly smart, you know as well as I that Sarah Brady, Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein would still be looking for a way to make those guns illegal too.

Yahoo! News - 'Smart Gun' Technology Getting Closer

This worries me quite a bit. However, I will have to explain why when I get home tonight. So your job is to read the article so when I do go off on this tonight, you will have the back story.

Yesterday was our (usually) monthly food day. The menu, you ask? Pizza! Wait a second, that sounds really lame, huh? Well we made our own, so there.

However, Paul and I were the only ones to remember it was food day. Fortunately, Paul brought enough toppings and cheese to make up for the other slackers.

The original intent was that we would each make a medium-ish sized pizza on a pre-made crust. Remember, we have to be able to make this in the HD, then take it upstairs, bake it, then bring it back downstairs without burning anyone, or making a general mess of things. After each of us 'designed' a pizza, we were going to quarter them and everyone would be able to try each other's mad scientist creation. Great idea, but when half of your peeps forget what's going down, it kind of narrows your menu. Somehow, we survived. After all, it was pizza and even a bad pizza is still pretty darn good.

So about 5:30 or so we bust out the goods and gets to making pies. Paul presented a triple meat feast with his pepperoni, salami and pancetta with tomato sauce and mozzerella offering. Delightful and meaty. In short order it was named the meaty-meat pizza. I could almost hear Zim going on about the 'Meats of EVIL!' It kind of reminded me of the pies I used to get around Boston.

I tried a different route, by brushing my crust with garlic/oregano/basil infused olive oil, then adding a few big spoonfuls of sweet pepper relish, spread evenly. I then arranged marinated artichoke hearts and brie and topped the whole thing with a few slices of prosciutto which I rolled up and sliced real thin. Not a tomato in sight! I thought it worked well, as did Paul, but the rest of the crew was apparently afraid of the pizza with no red sauce, which they started referring to as the hoity-toity pizza. Worked out to my advantage though, since I had the left overs for dinner earlier tonight!

With the remaining ingredients plus the extra crusts Greg picked up, we were able to make an extra pepperoni and pineapple (fresh pineapple, of course) as well as a half and half with grilled chicken/salami. Not bad for a bunch of geeks with no formal training. Despite my earlier comments, yes, you can screw up a pizza. A while back, Pizza Shuttle sent me a small italian sausage with a big black beetle included at no extra charge! The funny part was when I called to ask why they had included the bug, the half-wit on the other end actually said "Man, I'm sorry, that happens all the time!" as if to imply it was nothing personal. Somehow, that lacked the comforting effect I think he was going for.

Next month...TACOS! (Oh, the tacos I will give...I will give you tacos as you have never seen before!)

Last night, I was surfing some blogs, and I ran across one making a brief commentary about the atrocities commited in Rwanda 10 years ago this month. It got me to thinking and, as usual, one thought led to another and so on down the line until I realized that we will, IMO, never 'win' the war on terror. Despite Bushy-Bushy's reassurance earlier this evening that we will indeed do so.

The post I was reading made reference to the last time we tried to accomplish anything in Africa. You may remember those events as what would become the movie Black Hawk Down. The Somalis did not enjoy our presence, but even more disturbing was the way they treated the bodies of the downed helo crew. My blood boiled. I personally know people who were there, and according to them, the situation was exactly as bad as portrayed. Almost immediately after that, then-president Clinton pulled us out and the whole affair was soon forgotten. As a side note, I think the American public in general has a shorter attention span than a fruit fly. Part of the problem with Somalia, and in most recent conflicts, seems to be that everyone wants to pussyfoot around, afraid to just do the job and be done with it. To me, this is the crux of the problem. If we are engaged in a war on terror, why aren't we acting like we are at war?

Now here comes the unpopular part, and more to the point, why we will lose this 'war': terrorists believe with all their hearts, minds and souls that what they are doing is right and just and has the blessing of their god, if they the religious type. Even if that means killing countless women and children on buses in Jerusalem (killing themselves in the process) kidnapping, killing and mutilating the bodies of foreign nationals and yes, the attacks of September 11, 2001, they will see it as necessary work and there will be no end to the martyrs willing to commit such atrocities. Here's a question for you: when was the last time you heard of an American citizen, abroad, willing to die for what they believed in? I am not talking about trained soldiers either, I am talking about our average citizenry. One name comes to my mind. Only one: Rachel Corrie. You may recall last year she died from injuries suffered when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home. Granted, not the most glorious way to die (if there ever was one) but I have to respect that she left her home here on 'easy street' in the USA to stand up and ultimately die for what she believed in. I can't say I agree with her politics, but the fact is that 99.999999% of Americans will not make that type of sacrifice for anything, let alone a group of complete strangers thousands of miles away. Unfortunately for us, there are tens of thousands of terrorists who are all willing to make that sacrifice. Also unfortunate is the fact that no matter how much love Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon try to show them, they are not going to stop. You can't 'love' terrorists enough to make them stop what they are doing. They have more commitment to their causes than most of us will ever understand and they have a bone to pick with America for whatever reason and, sadly, there are lots to choose from.

So then, how do we stop this? Simple: eradicate every last one of them. Scatter their ashes to the wind, all the way down to the teenage boys who think they want to emulate their brothers and fathers, uncles and cousins who have gone before them. Now do you see why this is never going to happen? You think the American public has no taste for violence against their own, imagine the outrage when our troops burn entire villages, razing every last suspected terrorist. Another big problem with this approach is the obvious question of 'now who's the terrorist?' This is what I think of every time I see a picture of a ten-year-old wearing a hamas headband, or holding up an AK-47. This thing is a 'war' against a faceless enemy who could be a boy, girl, man or woman of any nationality and we, being civilized and all, are not going to be the ones to stop them. Let me digress a bit and tell you a quick story.

When I was in the UAE, I had never felt more comfortable about carrying my wallet. Every other country, I carried a small wallet; money and ID only in the front pocket. In the UAE, I carried the full whammy; check book, credit cards and all sticking proudly out of my back pocket. I did this because I knew I was in a country where they still cut off the hands of thieves. In fact one of our cabbies, apparently feeling that our western appetites would enjoy such a spectacle, commented that if we had pulled in just a week earlier, we could have witnessed a thief losing a hand. He seemed almost sad that we had missed that bit of culture.

Now, if we were cutting off hands in this country do you think pick-pockets would still work the crowds? Obviously our Consitution protects against that kind of thing, but if there was the certainty of a swift and just punishment looming overhead, where do you think the crime rates would be? Likewise, if every single terrorist knew that at best, they would be jailed for the rest of their lives after a swift trial and conviction, or at worst they would catch a .223 round in the head do you think they would still be lining up? I mean seriously, we still haven't been able to find Osama for crying out loud! What message is that sending? By the way, when I say 'jail', I ain't talking about these US country clubs. I am talking Midnight Express in all of its stinking, festering glory.

It is my belief that this, along with this current situation in Iraq, will be Bushy-Bushy's undoing. Accoring to the NPR folks, after his speech tonight, his approval ratings are at an absolute all-time low. By my count, we've got about 7 months to the elections. Which means Bush has 7 months to get his ducks in a row, transfer rule of Iraq to their interim gov't, catch Osama, find those damnable weapons of mass destruction (do you believe he had the nerve to use that phrase tonight?) and run a campaign! Now that'll be a hat trick + 1 if he can pull it off. It saddens me to think about it, because I really don't know if he can do it or not. As far as I can tell, getting all of the above done (war on terror not withstanding) is his only real hope of convincing enough of the undecided voters that he is still the man for the job.

CNN.com - Transcript: Bin Laden determined to strike in US - Apr 10, 2004

Not quite sure what to make of this yet 'cause I am too tired to give it the thought it deserves. However, since Dusty sent it along, I am sure it is worth a read.

I remember back in January mentioning to the guys at work how much fun this whole blogging thing can be. I went on about how therapeutic and rewarding it seems to be a part of a much larger community. As far as I know Justin is the only one to pick up the torch, and I think he is out to set the world on fire with it!

I just finished reading the entirety of his posts to date and look out! The faint of heart need not apply. Those easily offended are going to be...offended. No ifs ands or buts about it. But, I did find most everything funny on some level, and who can't use a good laugh? Some of it is in that 'uh, you're scaring me now' kind of vein, but still funny.


*******************************************************

The mere fact that I am typing this should be ample indication that I still have not installed Splinter Cell PT. I have too much to do this week and I am on call this coming weekend, which means any real plans are basically shot. And you know what that means.

Tonight, after returning from the grocery store (and Buffalo Wild Wings again) I installed a wireless router, which is only one of the aforementioned 'to-do' items. The new laptop has built-in 802.11g and with BIL1 down this weekend, I had a chance to experiment with it. Two days later, and I now have the same wireless router nestled ever so sweetly between the fax and monitor. That's how delicious, IMO, the wireless is. I know, I know it shouldn't be that close to any device emitting EMI, but that is where it has to sit until I get a some longer CAT5 cables. Besides, the signal strength is 'excellent' and I doubt I will be using the wireless for any UT2004 gaming. And to think just 6 months ago, I was talking smack about the wireless. Tsk Tsk. I have to stop doing that.

Justin has entered the blogosphere! I assure you it is not for the faint of heart or PC. If you are ready for a stroll on the dark side, click the link to the right. He is new to this, so be gentle. I hear comments are coming in short order.

Dusty was kind enough to put up a comment on the Mail Call piece that I thought warranted posting here. You will see though, that the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer. After this I am off to bed. Seriously. Thanks to Dusty for contributing.

Yeah, I was reading this and thinking "at least you could GET mail!"

There was no mail on a sub while at sea. Anytime we were at periscope depth we did get news updates (headlines, sports, etc) sent via Navy News. That's what we looked forward to, the rolled up scroll of the lastest Navy News...normally found in the nearest bathroom stall.

They would radio family emergency news, though. We had a guy whose g-mom died while were away. He got picked up by heli and flown home for the funeral. I've always been impressed with how that was handled. They didn't ask, and he didn't have a choice. He WAS going to fly home for the funeral. CO's orders. heh

Anyways, no mail for submariners.

P.S. You were on a ship, Wayne. Not a boat. :p

First off, Happy Easter everyone. Lest you think Easter is just for Christians, I would suggest you take a stroll through the seasonal isle at the local wm. You will see tons of easter candy without any reference to Jesus--although outside of commercialism, I fail to see the point.

By now, you have noticed the new color scheme. I guess you could say I am in my blue phase. I messed about with different colors, but the blue literally fell into place and I am digging it. By the by, if you are looking for bright colors, tough noogans. You should recall how I feel about bright, high contrast color schemes and their evil purveyors.

SIL and BIL came into town this weekend to lavish Aimee's Dad and me with gifts and well wishes for our birthdays. As a result, you may not be seeing (or reading) much of me over the next few weeks, as I have been given the PC version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. I have purposely not loaded it yet because I know I won't get much, if anything, done once I do. Yep, I am a junky and I will admit it. There is just something about that stealthy goodness that eats up my time, and I don't even feel guilty about it. I wonder if that is what the heroin is like.

It has also been a slow news weekend, so I don't really have much to share with you in that respect. Rather than put off the inevitable, I guess I will be off to bed. I have a ton of errands to run before work; mostly those I put off last Monday. Ah, the joys of procrastination!

You may recall my mentioning the young woman who was found hanging in the tree some weeks ago. I can't find the link to the article any longer, but NPD has concluded that her death was a suicide. Probably based on the note she left and the state of affairs when she disappeared last year, but they did not elaborate.

Yahoo! News - Mexican Woman Performs Own Caesarian to Save Baby

Double dang! This is the absolute, unabridged definition of tough.

Yahoo! News - The latest fashion must-have: eyeball jewellery

NO NO NO NO NO! What is wrong with these monkeys? I meant to put this up last night, but the mail call post got out of hand and it slipped my mind.

Thanks again go to Kelly for sending this along.

For some odd reason, most announcements on naval vessels are made twice. I guess it is for the benefit of thsose deep in the bowel of the ship, surrounded by noisy machinery. Or perhaps it was to make sure that everyone on board knew when the mail had arrived.

Those four words were probably looked forward to more than any other combination with the definite exception of 'now switch to port duty'. The only problem with mail call was the waiting. You see, the annoucement over the 1MC (the ship's main intercom system) was the signal for each department's mail petty officers to come to the ship's P. O. and get the department's mail. Then it would have to be sorted again. Let's start at the beginning.

When I first joined the Navy, there were a number of things I had given absolutely no thought. Knowing how they take place in the real world was enough for me. Giving consideration to how normal, everyday events take place on a ship at sea was of no concern until, of course, I too was at sea. A good example is showering. At home if you want a shower, you get in, the turn on the water, wait for it to warm up, maybe fiddle with the temperature, and take your leisurely time getting in and doing your bit. Not so at sea. First off, the water has to be made. "Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink" sound familiar? It is still true today, I assure you. Remember, the engineering department has to desalinate every single drop of potable water onboard a ship, and you can bet they are not going to purposely waste a drop. The showers on board looked normal enough, until you noticed the showerhead was on the end of a 4' hose and had a button. The button, obviously, allowed water to flow only when pressed. Waste not, want not. Needless to say, there were no leisurely showers on da boat.

Now, apply this same type of treatment to the mail. At home you walk to your mail box, open the door, and pick up the mail that your carrier has so conveniently deposited therein just for you. At sea the mail has to come to you by way of C. O. D.--carrier on-board delivery. Everyone was happy to hear the COD had landed.

The COD itself was a modified Grumman C-2A. Modified for carrier landing, that is. The stresses generated during an arrested landing, as mentioned earlier, are immense and without the proper mod's would likely rip an aircraft apart. Add a few thousand pounds of mail to that and you would have a bunch of very unhappy squids.

When we were in range, meaning that the COD could reach us before running out of fuel, they would arrive fairly regularly. This was initially taken for granted. Once we were waaaay out, or even in 'the combat zone' the mail ran...when it could. Add to this the fact that we were always moving. So if the P. O. forwarded all our mail to Dubai, that may be good for a month or so, but once we were too far out for the CODs to reach us from Dubai, then they would have to start fowarding the mail to a different staging location, and hope they got all the mail left over at the original staging location shipped to the new staging location. Usually, they would try to work it out so that if we were on the downside of an 'at sea' period, they woud just send the mail to our next port, so they wouldn't have to fly it out, then on-load it with the rest of the supplies. See how fun this gets? It was commonplace for me to get mail at sea that was 3 weeks old, then pull in to port the very next week get stuff in port that had been sailing around less than a week. Then there were the letters that just didnt' show up at all. The only way you would know that had happened was when you received a letter that referred to events you had no idea about but were treated as common knowledge. Very strange.

Anyway, we could all see the COD land, and it was usually 2 hours later before my mail was ready for pick up at the admin office. All mail came off the COD in those beautiful orange nylon sacks, but none marked with anything other than U. S. Mail. Which means the ship's mail had to sort it by divisions. 1 hour gone. Then when you heard 'mail call' you knew that your division guy would be going to pick up the mail, but it would have to be sorted by shop. Another hour gone. The only redeeming aspect of all that moving about was that by the time the mail caught up with you, there were usually 2 or 3 letters that had accumulated. And I savored every...single...one of them.

You may be wondering who would be writing. I got the occasional letter from Mom and Dad, a few from school friends (very few, actually) but the all time, hands down, letter writing champion was April Glasser. This sounds very quaint and nostalgic in this age of electronic communications, but 15 years ago, I had an honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned pen pal.

My first cruise, I had the distinct pleasure of spending the Christmas holidays at sea. Unbeknownst to me, Reader's Digest had my back. They apparently used to publish the addresses of ships that would be at sea for the holidays so kind souls could write us to ease the homesickness and let us know that someone was still thinking about us. At first, I thought it would be...well, just oldsters who read 'the digest' so I wasn't that interested in corresponding with some well-intended, blue-haired old lady with a dozen cats. Yes, that is terribly rude, but remember: I was 19, at sea, and about to spend my first Christmas ever away from home. Daunting stuff for a small-town boy from OK. I finally gave in, went down to the admin office and picked a letter. I would like to tell you I got April's on the first go. Not so. I got, well I don't really remember what I got, but I distinctly remember not being in too much of a hurry to write back. Then, I heard Mike Brady (no kidding) who was one of the plane captains bragging that he had gotten a letter from this 'rock-n-roll chick' in PA and the letter smelled 'gooooood'. He even tried to bust off a little Barry White as the word 'good' rolled off his tongue. It failed miserably, partly because Brady was a lanky white guy from the midwest, but mostly because he would never, ever be that smooth even on his best day. I don't recall exactly how I got the letter away from him, but I'm sure there had to have been some serious bartering, plus my constantly reminding him that he liked country music and there was no way the two of them would ever have anything in common.

I wrote April back in short order and we kept it up. I found out she was just a bit younger than I, and was indeed a rock-n-roll chick. I mean Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Extreme kind of rock. Not the Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer I was digging at the time, but we had fun taking jibes at each other over it. We also wrote each other while I was back on base in Lemoore, but not nearly as frequently. That was mostly my fault because at sea, I could easily write 3 or 4 letters a week with little or no distractions. On base, rooming with Latch, there was always a distraction. Usually in the form of beer or a trip to Fresno. Fortunately, she is a patient person and when I found myself at sea the second time, she was right there with pen and paper. Nothing brightens a day like a friendly word, so if you know anyone in the service, take a few and drop them a note. I promise, you will make their day. So much so that April and I still write occasionally but with her having kids it is harder for her to find the time. Fortunatley e-mail is much faster than COD.

You thought I had forgotten about promising a 'mail call' post, heh? Not so, folks. I have just been trying to get things together here lately and have been a bit behind.

So then, since it is April, I would like to wish Jeff, Kerrens and Dusty a very Happy Birthday. You guys know the dates better than I, so please apply those wishes to the appropriate dates. Terribly sorry, but now you know why I got a handheld to keep track of things. I am, for the most part, a scatterbrain. However, I can blame part of that on the Nav. Their philosphy when it came to remembering important things, like how not to screw up the maintenance on a 32 million dollar aircraft, was very simple. Do not memorize the procedure, memorize where to find it. Hence, rather then remembering the actual dates, I memorize who I can call or email to find them out. Oddly enough, however, I seem to have an amazing ability to remember things that are completely inconsequential and trivial, such as the number of heart bpm of a bull Asian elephant. How's that for backwards?

Lastly, for now, in a surprising development we have located a chain restaurant that does not suck! Shock, Shock; Horror, Horror! Don't get me wrong, they are not serving up any star cuisine, but if you wants a quick bite that is a tick above fast food and served in a decent sports-bar-type environment, check out the Buffalo Wild Wings off 19th street in Moore. I can personally vouch for the grilled chicken buffalitos (bad name, good meal) and Aimee confirmed that their grilled chicken sandwich is A-OK. Don also informs us that the buffalo chips (yep, bad name again) are quite tasty for humble fried potatoes. The best part is that they have quarantined all the tobacco junkies in their own little glass-walled, seperately ventilated smoking room. Good for them, good for us. Speaking as a convert, I have decided that there is nothing worse than a good meal ruined by the smell of a burning dog turd masquerading as an 'expensive' cigar. Yech. So if you are tooling down I35 and need a snack and a cold (commercially brewed) beer, they are worth a go.

By the way, the bpm is 25-50.

Today is our anniversary. Yes indeed, 8 years of marriage and all is well.

And it has gone by fast. It seems like just last month we were living in that tiny one-bedroom on Woodcrest. And just a bit before that, we were pulling our hair out because of Janiece's shenanigans. For those of you who don't know the story, I will elaborate just a bit.

When Aimee and I first decided that we were at a point in our relationship where it was time for cohabitation, we agreed to take up residence with Janiece, who already had the lease on a sweet old 3 bedroom house, which is really why we agreed to move in. The place had good bones, and tons of potential that was, sadly, never realized. Strangely enough, and perhaps Jefe can help out on this one, I can't recall her last name. I may have blocked it out because she became such a flake towards the end of our stay. The only positive bits about living in that house on 36th street were: a) I was living with the woman I loved, and b) I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Jeff M. Franklin. At first, all was well, but when the polite wore off, things got...weird. Sufficed to say that when we moved out, I was never more glad to be leaving a place. The only real sadness that came from moving was the realization that despite my often paralyzing fear of heights, there would be no more rooftop parties at Jefe's place, no more boxes of wine and no more meandering through the park across the street at all strange hours of the morn. Perhaps some of the most memorable moments of 'the 36th street days' were those spent at The Shutterbug, which was the most perfect dive I have ever been in. Period. But those are tales for another time.

After that, we moved to The Heathers over on Penn and Heffner. For some odd reason, the entire time I lived on the north side of OKC, I was working in Moore, Norman or Noble (all south of the city). I didn't start working with Jefe until after I moved to Norman. A person would think I could have somehow worked that out the other way 'round.

Finally, we settled in Norman and have been here ever since. It's been almost 7 years since we moved into this house and I can still remember the boxes sitting in each room the day we moved in. I remember the quiet after everyone left and it was just Aimee and me sitting on the floor in the living room looking around in wonder.

Every day I think of just how fortunate I am to have Aimee in my life and every day I thank God she is here. I like to think I would still be doing well if I hadn't met her, but I know I am doing my best because I did.

What a weekend!

I was able to parlay all that overtime mentioned from last week into a three day weekend, by telling the boss how much money it would save the company if I just didn't work Friday. Yeah, boy! And I didn't even have to use any of my vacation. Ain't nothing wrong with that. So then, what did I do with all that time? Squander it, mostly. And not in a particularly good way. I spent the majority of the time looking at used cars.

I was thinking about getting a nice used convertible, to put at bay all those motorcycle longings I have been dealing with. It is like a virus, I tell you. Own one bike and sure enough every two years, the bug will bite and it will seem the only thing that can cure you is a leg-over a crotch rocket and a twirl through the twisties at an insanely unnecessary speed. Turns out that the car I was looking for just wasn't to be had. So, we got a new laptop instead. Infinitely more useful and won't cause my insurance rates to rise in the least. Since the company took back the original laptop they had doled out (so I could dial in on my 'on-call' weekends) there was a big, blank spot where the should be a laptop and it just made sense. What about those motorcycle cravings? I'll just have to make do by driving the wife's hot-rod instead. The integra is really quite sporty and with a few aftermarket tweeks, can be even more so, I'm told. Let's face it though, after driving the big black truck for 6 years, a moped is sporty.

To wrap up the weekend, we spent the compusory (if you live in Norman, that is) afternoon at the Medieval Fair. For those of you in the know, this is the second year they have had it at Reeve's park instead of the duck pond. Don't think that will happen again though--there is a big sign indicating that the Med Fair was set up on the land that is to be the Cleveland Co. Veterans' Memorial. Sadly enough, I am not eligable to be 'memorialized' there because I was not born in Cleveland Co. nor have I died in Cleveland Co. Not just yet, anyway. But I digress, the Med Fair is either getting more and more lame, or I am just getting bored of it. The same SCA goofballs (and I mean that with the utmost respect) show up every year, and put on the same shows, display the same crafts and beat each other silly with the same padded sticks as the year before. Half the reason for going is to get those huge, ooey-gooey, cinnamon delights known far and wide as the 'fair cinnamon roll'. Guess what? This is the third year in a row that guy hasn't bothered to show up. Hmmph. But it is always a good reason to get out the camera. I have yet to really go through this year's pics, but when I do, I may put up a few of the better ones.

No artichokes in sight, by the way, so the POTW will, as usual, will probably be delayed. Sure, I could put up one of the Med Fair pics, but it is 4:49 a.m. and I need to get up and go to the City around 11:00 a.m. I think. We'll see what happens when the alarm goes off. In case you failed to notice, that is how you know you are officially an Oklahoman: if you refer to Oklahoma City as 'the City' it's too late. You've been assimilated.