big cliché

shootfirst.org: shoot first, ask questions never!

Alrighty then. I've had a bit more time to check out this website which is of course run by the HCI. Even though they like to be called the Brady campaign now, they are still HCI at heart. Which means that they fully believe that YOU are not smart enough, safe enough, or responsible enough to exercise your Constitutuionally guaranteed RIGHT (not privelege) to keep and bear arms.

The text of the article from NYT indicates that this law does not mandate trying to "escape" before turning and defending yourself. Again, I fail to see a problem. Why the fudge should I have to run from some scumbag who wants to kill me and rape my wife? In which backwards, logic defying country does that make sense? And for the record, these dimwits are ignoring the fact that ccw holders are among the most law-abiding citizens when it comes to firearms. I could spoon-feed you the stats, but the anti's will come up with a different set that indicates exactly the opposite. I've done the research, so I won't deny you the fun of bustin' off your own personal google search on felonies commited by ccw holders.

Yahoo! News Photo

Somehow, I'm failing to see how this would discourage people from visiting.

It is very obvious to me that HCI has lost their marbles.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Roberts Sworn In as Chief Justice

That's right--CHIEF Justice Roberts. Bow down, people.

From FoxNews.com:

Swirly Offense

Burger King restaurants in the UK were forced to remove and replace ice cream containers across the country because a Muslim man said the swirly image too closely resembles the inscription for Allah and is therefore sacreligious, reports the Scotsman.

Burger King said the image on the lid of an ice cream desert is supposed to look like a spinning ice cream cone.

But Rashad Akhtar of High Wycombe said he wants to put a Jihad on BK for the snafu, or at the very least a boycott.

"This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims," he said.

For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over to the TongueTied daily edition.

I don't even know what to say about this one. Although, I am 100% sure that Burger King did this on purpose just to make the Muslims angry. I'm sure you all remember the anti-Muslim advert's they ran in the 70s, right? Something like "Burger King-have it your way...unless you're Muslim".

Oh crap, now someone is going to have a Jihad against the cliché.

AAAAARGH!

That's me yelling because the shed is not finished. All for the want of a box of freaking screws. Let's review, shall we? Install clerestory windows: check. Install skirting boards: check. Install side windows: check. Build and install doors: not checked. You see, I have three sizes of screws in the garage right now that we'll call, for door building purposes anyway, too short, almost long enough, and waaaaaay too dang long. Sadly, the only store open does not carry the type of screws we need to finish the door. So Aimee's going to finish the construction of doors tomorrow after obtaining the correct screws and hopefully we'll be hanging them tomorrow after work. I have a nifty 500W halogen work lamp that does wonders for lighting up the back yard.

In news that is not even remotely related, I hate lib'ralism. Not the people, mind you, but the idiotic, asinine, truly logic-defying crap they come up with. Sorry, kiddie-winkies, I don't have a case-in-point ready to go. Sometimes, especially after watching A LOT of news, I just have to get that off my chest. I don't particularly care for the PC police either. Here's a good example of that for you: earlier today I was over at Rob H.s house to borrow a rotozip. He showed me the computer he put together for his nephew to trash..er learn mad PC skills. There on the side of the 14" (13.2" viewable) VGA monitor was a "zapper" from a communications division he was either attached to or deployed with. It was a caricature of a small, grey mouse with a yellow head lounging on a breast. Yes, folks, that's right, it was a "yellow-headed titmouse". Complete with cartoon tit. Try smacking that sticker on anything in the military today and see how far that crap flies. No sir, not far at all. Who ever would've thought we'd live to see the days when sailors are afraid of breasts.

Not much else is going on at the moment. The desktop is still dead, and I'm fairly certain it is one of those hard-core geek problems that is beyond my meager skills. The Alpha Geek has given me some things to try, but I'm just not motivated to have my butt whipped by a computer tonight...for the 15th time.

I have been wondering a lot lately about the race/class thing, you guessed it, because of The Storm. I'll be perfectly honest with you, by the 3rd night of those inescapable pictures of the superdome and just N.O. in general, I was wondering what the fruit the feds were waiting for. One of our field reps lives in N.O. and I asked him about it. He blamed the guv'na. Seems, or at least I was told, the feds can't come in until the local folks make the call. To me, this was one of those times the feds should have realized that there was no way that the mayor and governor were ready for this and said 'Ahem...excuse us, but..." then came in with the big trucks of water and MREs. Oh yeah, for the record: if you're 'looting' and carrying anything OTHER than sustenance for you and yours, you should be shot on sight. If you are firing on aid workers or medical personnel while they are in the actual process of saving lives, you need to be shot on sight. Then buried in a shallow, unmarked grave so packs of wild dogs can dig up your bones and scatter them to the four points. I have some special words in my vocabulary for this kind of behavior, but I'll refrain. And if we're really real about it, you know which words I'm talking about, don't you? Granted, the ball was dropped. Hard. But should that've been the cue for people to start acting the way they did? Does that really reflect what happens to people when they feel there's nothing left to lose? I certainly hope not. I'm hoping that what we got to see was the standard 'skewed media' version of what was really happening. In either case, thank God I still live in a state that is built 1,140 feet above sea level. Coincidentally, Aimee and I were talking just last week about how nice it could be to live outside of Houston. Big IKEA, The Galleria, Hotel Derek, Museums aplenty and, most important, Galveston just a short drive away. Mmmmm. I love Galveston.

You know what else I love? The sound generated when the rings in my left ear tap together. It's very soothing and it makes me happy.

Okay--this is going to be quick because I felt compelled to whack one one of my favorite fingers with the hammer today and it does not appear to like typing very well at all.

Speaking of hammers, the shed will be finished tomorrow. Period. If I have to pound freaking nails 'til 02:00, that thing WILL be finished. The only items that remain are to build and hang the doors, put in the clerestory and side windows, and attach the skirting boards. That is it. Once it's done, I'll smack together a web page, kind of like the TORNADO SHELTER page so you can see how it went.

Finally, I was reading some news today, and there was a line from an "oil industry analyst" that said damage to the oil producing areas of the gulf appears light, but it was too early to make any determination as to whether or not this would effect gas prices. Holy tripe, people. It seems to me that those "oil industry analysts" are literally looking for reasons to raise price of a gallon of gas these days. Now that they know Americans, coast to coast, will pay 3 bucks a gallon, they are sitting around wringing hands trying to figure out if we'll beleive that a gnat landing on the arse of some camel in Saudi would be a legitimate reason to raise prices at the pump. Or maybe there could a pod of dolphins in the area of those off-shore gulf platforms which distracted workers with their hilarious dolphin hijinks, which caused reduced production, which we all know means they need to bump the price o' gas up 20 cents. I ain't kidding, folks--this keeps up and I'm getting out the bike. Once it cools down a bit, that is. Who wants to ride to work and get all shweaty in the process, then have to bask in their own funk for 8 hours? Certainly not this guy.

This is what I've been doing for the last 5 days....

C:\>dumpchk.exe
Usage: DumpCheck [y ]

C:\>dumpchk.exe -e Mini091905-01.dmp
Loading dump file Mini091905-01.dmp
----- 32 bit Kernel Mini Dump Analysis

DUMP_HEADER32:
MajorVersion 0000000f
MinorVersion 00000a28
DirectoryTableBase 00039000
PfnDataBase 8054c758
PsLoadedModuleList 8054be30
PsActiveProcessHead 8054de78
MachineImageType 0000014c
NumberProcessors 00000001
BugCheckCode 1000007f
BugCheckParameter1 00000008
BugCheckParameter2 80042000
BugCheckParameter3 00000000
BugCheckParameter4 00000000
PaeEnabled 00000000
KdDebuggerDataBlock 8053dde0
MiniDumpFields 000004ff

TRIAGE_DUMP32:
ServicePackBuild 00000100
SizeOfDump 00010000
ValidOffset 0000fffc
ContextOffset 00000320
ExceptionOffset 000007d0
MmOffset 00001068
UnloadedDriversOffset 000010a0
PrcbOffset 00001878
ProcessOffset 00002268
ThreadOffset 000024c0
CallStackOffset 00002720
SizeOfCallStack 00004000
DriverListOffset 000069b0
DriverCount 00000081
StringPoolOffset 00009000
StringPoolSize 00002610
BrokenDriverOffset 00000000
TriageOptions ffffffff
TopOfStack f8952000
DebuggerDataOffset 00006720
DebuggerDataSize 00000290


Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 1) UP Free x86 compatible
Kernel base = 0x804d4000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x8054be30
Debug session time: Mon Sep 19 02:15:59 2005
System Uptime: 0 days 0:03:04
start end module name
804d4000 806c6980 nt Checksum: 0020230B Timestamp: Thu Aug 29 04:
03:24 2002 (3D6DE35C)

Unloaded modules:
f8795000 f879f000 amdk7.sys Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
f887d000 f8882000 Cdaudio.SYS Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
f8321000 f8324000 Sfloppy.SYS Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)

Finished dump check

The desktop has been taking a regular dump (pun intneded) at least once a day, that is if I can even get it to boot, and usually more than that since last Thursday. I think. I finally found out how to decipher all the crap in the minidump file to get what you see here, but now I have no idea what it is telling me.

Any of you debuggers with mad kung-fu skills out there have a clue? I am utterly lost here so who knows when I'll get around to a real post again.

Phooey on it. I'm going to bed for now.

CNN.com - Family of Red Sox fan sues gun maker - Sep 14, 2005

While I'm 100% completely against suing manufacturers for the stoopid things people do with their products, this one (and I can't believe I'm about to say this) may have something to it. I've checked out the FN website before and they have an entire section on less than lethal. While most departments use modified paintballs and standard paintball guns, the FN is a proprietary system using a completely different type of projectile. They appear to have some type of shot or something up front to give them enough heft to fly to point of aim. The "payload" is at the rear of the unit and they don't appear to be the soft glycerin shells we are all used to from the paintball field. However, FN is quick to put up a warning about NOT aiming towards the "face neck or throat". There is always the chance that this could set a very bad precedent, but if FN was negligent in their design process then this could be one of those rare cases where the manufacturer is indeed the bad guy.

Was that lib'ral enough for ya?

Thanks to Dave W. for the link.

Well, since this is what I’ve been asking for since I started this thing, I felt it was only appropriate that I give it a go and see if it works comparably to the blogger interface.  So in the spirit of adventure, this entire post will be typed using the blogger for word add-on.  Let’s begin, shall we?

To answer Kelly’s last commented question, no the shed is not done.  We were rained out Sunday, so the siding did not get finished.  Also conspiring against us were the guys at 84 Lumber who said they would have more cedar trim for us Saturday, but just didn’t.  With even more rain in the forecast for this evening (it remains to be seen as to whether or not we’ll actually get any) the shed is securely wrapped in 5 mil painter’s dust sheets to keep the exposed (re: untreated) lumber as dry as possible.  So to be exact: the deck, framing and inside paneling are all done.  As are the roof, shingles, drip cap, siding and trim on the front.  The rest is just waiting for a dry day off to finish up and build some doors.  In reality I could probably build the doors in the garage after work, but that would be a stretch since I would need to use the table saw and the chop saw somewhere in the neighborhood of midnight-thirty.  I’ve done it before, but don’t particularly enjoy it.  Oh yes, and I must make it to the lumberyard in the a.m. to get the rest of the trim and see what I can get installed before work.  

Finally, after being greeted by 180—yes that is one hundred, eighty—emails upon my return to work Monday, I have officially decided that I need to find a job that will pay me to stay at home.  Be it medical transcription, insurance claim entry or even running a good old-fashioned MLM scam, I gots to figure out a way to stay home with my baby.  

If the rest of the world views the U.S. as "The Problem" let's just pull our money, our troops and our narrow world view out of the party and see how well they fare.

Although I really can't claim the idea as my own, I certainly agree 100%.

No "Moore" Cell Phones - Yahoo! News

Somebody give the Moore school board an internet high-five! I think these stupid things should be banned in all public spaces, but that is just me.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of cell phones. They are gadgetalicious. But cell phones in actual practice are the scourge of the 21st century.

What is the meaning of this phrase "out like trout"? I am seeing it in use more and more these days, despite the fact that it makes absolutely no sense at all. Is the person using this phrase likening their leaving to being jerked, hook in mouth, from their natural environment only to be disembowled and either poached, pan-fried or broiled to perfection before finally being devoured by a being higher up the food chain? See what I mean? I don't think I ever want to be "out like trout".

Also, why is wm still paying these people they call "greeters" when I haven't been greeted by a single one of them in the last two years. In fact, I make it a point to greet them when I walk by. Rarely, these days, do I get a response. A more apt title would be "person who stands at the front of the store and looks at you with despair and remorse as they remember the days of their long lost freedom". I guess "greeter" was easier to list as a job description in the classifieds.

CNN.com - Baby in stroller stabbed�on New York street - Sep 8, 2005

This just ain't right. Now just think: if nannies in NYC were allowed the CCW, this cat would be DOA at the ER. Who says the alphabet isn't fun?

Thanks for Paul J. for the info.

Thanks to the immeasurable assistance of Robert H. and my father-in-law, Keith A. the Shed now has a lovely roof. There was some plywood scamboogery afoot, what with the crazy rafter placement and all, but we were able to figure out a new plan and put it into action! I think the Corps calls that "improvise, adapt and overcome". I tell you what, it's a dang good thing those guys showed up today, it took all three of us to get that plywood up there and positioned. Factor that with my paralyzing fear of heights, compounded by shaky ladders and un-level ground and you begin to understand my true appreciation for their assistance. Tomorrow at 1:00p.m. I pick up the trim we ordered from our new best friends at 84 Lumber (why it has a number for a name, I do not know) so there is the very real possibility that this thing will be done by Sunday! Woo-ha! I suppose a lot of that will depend on how quickly I can get to shinglin' after I get back with the cedar.

And in other news, I received the new ear jewelry today, but was only able to get the right ear's installed! I did all the things "they" say your s'posed to do, like taking a super-hot shower, massaging the lobes and such, but the left ear just wasn't playing ball. I think if it doesn't go any better after tomorrow's attempt, I may have to actually get the 14ga and wear those for a while to get the holes stretched a bit more.

I know, Kelly is out there laughing maniacally, calling me a wimp since he was able to go from like an 18 straight to an 8, but the reality is that I simply can not afford a tear or a blowout. That would require wearing something all the time, and that is a luxury I do not have at this point in my career.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow and, for now, that 12ga in the right ear looks sweet.

Right off the bat, you need to know that Hope Lumber sucks eggs in the worst possible of ways. Aimee called them today to see if they had the cedar trim she wanted for the shed. She was specific. She asked all the right questions. The guy at the shop confirmed that they did indeed have 1X4.5 smooth cedar boards in 12ft lengths. Sweet. So we drive over to Hope and the lady behind the counter looks afraid of us. Honest to God, it was as if she was horrified that customers actually come in to the store. She was rude, not very helpful and actually quite bad at her job. The irony of it all was the giant sign directly behind her explaining that customers are "not an interruption in the job, they are the reason for the job". I am not joking. It was on the wall 6 feet behind her. So we drove to the back corner of the lumber yard to pick up our cedar and found that they were finger-joined. Or whatever you call that crap lumber that is stitched together and is no good for anything other than painting. Needless to say, we gots our money back and decided to try 84 Lumber up on 240 and Sooner.

Now that's how a lumber yard should work. As soon as we entered, we were warmly greeted by a jovial guy called Mike. Mike was able to tell us exactly where in the lumber yard the real 'board' cedar was hiding and took us straight to it, then helped us figure our board-feet requirements lickety split. I tell you what, I've half a mind to send a letter to the suits at 84 Lumber and let them know exactly how nice it was to be treated like people. Who knew something that simple could make such a difference in the overall experience?

And just so you know I'm not one of those people who boycott everyone who can't cater to my every whim, our buddy Rob H. had exactly the same experience with Hope. Net result? Another half a day wasted driving around.

The further we get into this project, the more I want to personally smack the people at Hometime. Just to give you an idea of what I'm on about, imagine a 6' X 10' room with 7' walls. Now, imagine that you add 21" to the height of the front 10' wall. On top of that, you're going to build a slanted roof going from the top of the 7' wall, running 6' to the top of the (now) 105" wall. In the roofing bidness, this is called the pitch of the roof. According to Dean, who's building the exact same shed we are, that somehow comes out to a 4/12 pitch, which should indicate that the roof rises 4" vertically for every 12" of horizontal run, giving you 24" above the original 7' wall. WRONG! Aimee was curious about this yesterday, and even asked how he came up with that number, but it wasn't painfully clear until we cut the first rafter. If you look back at our numbers (provided you haven't fallen asleep yet) you can see that the rise is 21" across that same 6'. NOT the aforementioned 24" that would result from a 4/12 rise. The CORRECT rise is 3.5/12, which was proven to be the case when I took an extra stud and laid out the birdsmouth notches. (These are cut into the rafters so they rest nice and flush on the horizontal studs). This was determined by dividing the vertical rise (21) by the horizontal run (6). Wa-la! 3.5 inches of rise for every 12 inches of run. AKA 3.5/12. Now, for those of you who already know all this, good for you. Aim and I had to figure this crap out on our own because Dean-mother-fudgin-Johnson is a TV show host, not a freakin' carpenter! Fortunately, I think we are to a point where there just can't be that many surprises left. (He said naively).

***

Still no CBBs in the mail today. I guess I am just used to the tasty goodness we call priority mail. Just about everything I get or ship when doing ebay bidness is good ol' priority mail and it usually takes about 3 days. Period. I shipped that guitar to Hawaii by pm, and it only took 4. Sheesh.

Here we are at the end of day three on "Shed Build '05". Saturday we got the deck laid out after figuring out that we had obtained the wrong type of lumber for the deck framework. Sunday, the deck was finished and we framed the walls. Before dinnertime, the walls were up and braced plumb. Today, we got the top plate cut and put in place (which doesn't sound like much, but the plans specified that the top plate would be 1/2" plywood instead of the normal 2X4, so I had to rip those off a 4X8 sheet) finished the door framing and built the clerestory window frame. And there was another trip to Lowe's to get shingles, roofing nails and some of the lumber the plans neglected to mention, but more on that in a sec. Tomorrow, we attach the clerestory framework and start with the rafters.

The biggest difficulty so far, has been having to run back and forth to either Depot or Lowe's because the morons who did the plans for this shed screwed them up royally. And I'm not just saying that to try to cover for my mediocre carpentry skills. They printed part of the list twice, omitted several items altogether and then gave wrong dimensions for some of the others. We spent $25 for the plans to a shed that Hometime built on one of their shows. The shed is simple enough, I think, but the fact that the plans don't match the video is complicating matters more than they need be. If you check out the picture of the shed, you notice the roof has about 6" overhang on the side (or short) walls. The plans do not account for this! In fact, if you look at the front elevation of the shed in the plans, it shows the roof to be built with no overhang at all on the short walls. Needless to say, we've had to watch the video, or parts of it, at least a dozen times so far.

In any event, construction continues, albeit at a slower pace than we had hoped. And we still have to locate an affordable source for cedar siding. Redwood (as they have pictured) is just tooooo dang expensive.

Lastly, I haven't received my new 12g cbb's yet, so I'm still sportin' 16s. I completely forgot when I ordered them that today was a holiday and there would be no delivery. I was hoping they'd be here Saturday, but no such luck. I'll keep you posted.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Kanye West Rips Bush at Telethon

If you didn't see this, try to find it in reruns. It was rather...different. I am personally boycotting all Kanye West productions as a result. If you want to go off on Bushy that's fine. Just don't do it when people are trying to come together and raise money for relief efforts. Dolt.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Dead

When I left for work today, regular unleaded fuel was $2.97.

When I returned from work today, regular unleaded fuel was $3.09.

Every grade of unleaded fuel in Norman is now over $3.

Anybody got a cheap vespa for sale? I guess I really should stop being such a selfcentric ass, though. I still have my family, a home, a car, a truck and a job which is more than some Americans can say right now. Keep them in your prayers and thoughts.