Cedar season starts today

To all my fellow Texans, as I look out on this blesses land I can't help but to notice the Cedar trees outside my office window. They are turning that dreaded orange color once again.

Cedar Season has started!

Ted's bogus adventure

Anyone remember Ted Haggard? Remember......come one...I know you remember. Ok, here is a hint: He got caught snorting coke off of some male hookers wanker. Ok, I lied...it wasn't coke. It was meth. Still, you should remember him for his good deeds, such as demonizing homosexuality as leader of the Evangelical church.

AAAhhhh, know you remember. Yeah that guy. Well it seems that Ted "Teddy bear" Haggard wanted to pop his head up just enough for some spot light attention from the media. He assures us that his "sickness" still haunts him and that his struggle continues. He asks for your prayers....and of course financial donations can be made out to him directly.

Edit: forgot to include the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28303033/

Come on Ted, if you gay your gay. Its fine, just admit it. It not cool to cast down damnation on gay's and then turn around and bounce balls off your chin. Its what we call a hypocrate and frankly Ted.... you haven't been elected to congress yet.......yet.

OPEC

Here is what the headlines read yesterday

OPEC approves biggest ever output cut

$*% you OPEC! Come on Tesla! Make something in my price range fellas!

Trouble in Toyland part 2

Seems I wasn't to off the mark on my initial prediction on China's economy. My only fault was my own doubt and not saying it was going to happen sooner. My alarm came from a sweeping layoff across the mainland (remember they have Hong Kong now) of China. Recognizing that those affected would be mainly the middle class. You know....the middle class....the people who's shoulders we are putting the government securities bailout, Banking bailout, and the automotive bail on! Those people....

Watching the news today, CSPAN or CNN or Market watch or whatever was on while I play my videos games during my vacation, was talking about a major recession in China. The central planners seem to be scrambling to figure out a solution. See, their economy is closely tied their own exports AND how well the plan. Well a lot of their planning comes from buying American debt. Debt that until now was paying interest and was rock solid. Now I could say that their understanding of economics and proper fiscal planning is more than what it used to be, that of a high school loaning money to a friend. Problem is that we are not much better.

Our monetary policy is an absolute joke. Only 50 or 60 years ago, a father (typically) could support a wife, 2 kids, a car, investment fund, and a house on just one job. Now it takes two parents working 40 hours maybe even a third job, massive debt, day care, student loans, etc, etc. The connection between that last statement and the monetary policy is that our buying power of our dollar is weak. Very weak and it gets weaker by the day. We print money, we in debt ourselves to others (China, Germany, etc), issue treasury notes, and the litany of capital raising methods continue. All to pay for the program OUR OWN central planners have put forth.

Writing something to close this verbal vomit escapes me at the moment. I do want to note that when given the means to manage our own economy we did quite well. With the pervasive government we and China has today we are seeing a back lash of poor planning happening at the same time the government failed to enforce laws that protected people from having their own rights violated.

This economic recession is not failed economics, its failed government

Trouble in toyland

News has it that China is getting a swift kick in the wedding tackle. China has seen a lot of set back with a series of poor quality control, dangerous materials in the manufacturing process, and anti-Chinse sentiment. Now China is going to experince a very unpleasant slow down in their economy as a result in our economy. we are buying less and thus they are forced to sell less....and thus fire people...and thus close factories...and thus take a hit in their GDP as their export fall below their imports (which is weird since they almost never import anything)...and thus question their relance on the US market...and this question their faith in the US currency...and thus question why they buy so much of our damn debt...and thus start calling in their debt...and thus prolonging this recession.

Maybe this is a long series of lack of faith in our currency policy. Maybe its just that crazy old guy [Ron Paul] said a bunch of things that were going to happen and now.......now he is right and doesn't seem so crazy.

I don't know....maybe I am just rambling.

Sign of the times

Das link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28191199/

Sign of the times I suppose when we make criminals into a defensible class of citizens. I've always been of the mind that if you violate a mans rights by entering onto his property [without his approval] that you are taking your life into his hands. Usually that hand is holding a S&W self protection security device.

However, it seems that this man is in trouble with the law. After informing a horde of two legged varmints of their trespassing crime, then giving them a tongue lashing to further exasperate the point, he finally turned his urine filled super soaker on to the critters for a bathing in respect for other. Nevermind that he had the right of mind to NOT shoot them with a .38 and thus avoid causing them serious permanat damage or outright turning them dead-like. Nay, only a slight inconvience of poor judgement and a bruised ego.

However, now HE is in TROUBLE with the law for all of this. Let us not forget that his actions were provked after the police inept behavior of not thwarting these fun-loving criminals in a long series of absues. No, he is in trouble for defending himself

I am calling on the parents to this cabal of teenagers to bring their children into the public spotlight for only a minte. A minute where they publically spank their children and then apoligze for letting their off spring behave in such a manner.

New tunes

I added some new tunes to my playlist on the side. Go buy some of the CD's and stimulate the economy. Lord knows we all need a lil' stimulatin' every now and then....

No good piece of junk

This is the type of stuff that makes my hair stand on end. This is one of the few things that send me into white knuckles and clinched fist.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28065543/

MINNEAPOLIS - A man has pleaded guilty to answering an online advertisement for baby-sitting work and then using the client's child to make a pornographic video.

............The plea agreement says Lemon filmed the child in St. Paul after seeking the baby-sitting job through Craigslist. St. Paul police say the victim was a 2-year-old girl.

I say, just from an emotional response that I can give at the moment, 30 years should be the minimum. Ruining some little girls life just so you can make your pecker happy for 20 seconds....you better thank the police for keeping you safe from other people. Otherwise I would be happy to stand trial for ripping your pecker off and cramming it down your throat.

No good son of a biscuit

Weird quotes from work 12/4/2008

Al my office neighbor: Ha ha ha ha ha

HCB: You know....when you laugh it sounds like a grown woman crying


* Al is not laughing as much as he used too

I took a vacation

That's why there is a gap in posts. I am writing again....just want ya'll to know. I'm not going dormant again!

Updates [Part 3.1]

ok, I lied....but not intentionally. I said this update would be about the fence but I forgot to look for the pictures. Instead I happen to have the pictures about the sandbox project ready!

The sandbox project

I seem to recall it starting on a whim...or maybe I was just strolling through Home Depot. I seem to recall having a purpose while I was at Home Depot...but then I always do when I am looking at all the projects I can do and then talk myself out of cause I know I'll never finish it.

I remember looking to my left and seeing the landscaping timbers on sale for $1.50 as they had been damaged by the rain. $15.00 later I have the timbers, four long lag bolts, and landscaping screen (keeps soil in but lets water out) and I am out in the garden area looking at sand.

I bought five bags of sand and I ended up leaving Home Depot with a $50 receipt. To be frank its really all a blur. I remember the wife being slightly......justly....miffed at me.

30 minutes later I have all the timber cut and I am installing the lag bolts on all the corners. The landscaping screen has been sandwiched into the timbers as the "bottom" of the sandbox.

Then came time to empty the five bags of sand into the sandbox. Then shortly after came the immense disappointment when I realized that five bags of sand is woefully inadequate to fill my sand box. Shortly after that I realized that it would take over $200 bucks to get enough sand in the sandbox if I buy it all from Home Depot.

Praise be the Craigslist....mercy by thy name! I found some guy giving away a mountain of sand nay just a few days after the christening of the sandbox. The sand kind of like poo but a good hose bath and about an hours worth of work and the kids have a full stock sandbox. Perfect for the wife to stick them in while she reads her Vampire books (Twilight?) and drinks her Mexican martinis

Updates [Part 3.0]

So another major update that I have not blogged about (at least I don't think I have) is the front fence, the sandbox, the birdhouse, the hole in the front yard, the front retaining wall, adding a window to the tool shed, the middle property fence, the fence post storage rack, and the new old lawn mower.

I have pictures for these so I pull those projects into their own posting. Just wanted to plant a seed for you guys to come back and check on the posts. I'll work towards posting the front fence post tomorrow

Sprained wrist

About three weeks ago I managed to sprain my wrist. We were doing some grappling work at the Krav studio and the night I hurt my wrist I had partnered up with Elana. She is pretty aggressive and goes full gusto into all the moves, which is something I like from any partner. However that night she moved to fast for me to properly prepare myself for a top mount reversal.

A top mount is where the defender is on his or her back and that attacker is literally sitting on their [the defenders] stomach. The reversal part comes into play when the defender traps one of the attackers feet and, depending on the attack, bucks the attack of their [the attackers] base (from sitting) and on to their [the attackers] hands to re-base, usually.

It is at that point that the attacker, when in practice, should turn their hand(s) from palm on the mat to back of hand on the mat. As the next part of the reversal comes when the defender traps the hand that they are going to flip on. If you have your palm on the mat then all your weight is on your wrist...while turning....and you palm is great for traction...so your hand gets stuck and you end up breaking it or screaming loud enough so that you stop mid-way through and only sprain it.

When you do this move right in training then you [the attacker] literally spin your backhand-to-mat and everything is fine and dandy.

To make matters worse...I kept going. My wrist didn't hurt initially, I mean except from the sharp pain from when it happened. About a minute later it went away and I kept going. Later that night I was doing some bag work and I managed to roll my wrist on a right jab. It was then that I knew I did some damage is it did not stop hurting. It was a bad night for me and it put me out of Krav for about three weeks now. I am dying to jump back in!

In summary: Elana is a warrior beast woman and really has no concept of scaling back....which like I said is a good thing....usually. She trains like she fights and that means someone is eventually going to get hurt...which is expected. Just wish it was someone else.

My milkshake is better than yours

I.....I um....well I had to share this. I can't justify it. I would say its work safe but if someone you respected saw you watching this it could set your career back.

Updates [Part Two]

Loosing weight

I've lost about 20 pounds since February through exercise only. I know if I had a 80/20 diet of 80% vegetables and 20% lean meats (chicken, turkey, fish) that I could shed another 20 pounds. However budget constraints at the moment are making their presence known. And I have blogged about this before.

The update is my BMI gains! I started with a 31.5 Body Mass Index......which is fat. I think it losely translate to 31.5% of your body is FAT. I am happy to report that I am now sitting on a 21.5% Body Mass Index! YEAH! I lost 10% of my body fat! I lost 1/3 of my starting body fat weight!

While my total body weight may be holding at 180 it does mean that I am converting the lighter fat into heavier muscle. The mirror and the wife doesn't lie. Everyone has noticed muscles popping out and my tummy shrinking! I can even see my........feet again.

Updates [Part One]

Its been a rough couple of months and my post count reflects that. Once an avid poster, my post count has slowed to a trickle. I have had a lot going on recently that took so much of my time that I either did not have time to post or I simply did not want to.

The first thing I have been doing in my free time is EVE online. EVE is a video game that you log into and play with other people from around the world. Its a game that is based in a futuristic space empire type setting. You have four main races/empires fighting for domination. Its a game I played many years ago when it first went to beta testing.

Back then I had started my own corporation (guild) called Atlas Incorporated. We grew quickly and became one of the top corporations in the game. It was thanks to my ex-wife that I had to quit the game and give it all up. It was something that nagged at me for years. So about three months ago I decided to give it another go and try to recreate what I had lost.

Three months ago I started a new corporation (new character as well) and started building it up. Taking lessons learned from the first time plus lessons learned in real life and putting them to application. We actually grew very very quickly and wildly successful. We were building things for the in-game market, turning a nice profit, mining low security space, developing players, etc.

Things started to turn downhill about a month ago. To make a long story short, the economy is bad, I have to figure out how many people are going to lose their jobs, I can't run a video game guild and do that at the same time. I asked a friend to help me run the corp, he sucked at it and blamed me. Everyone believed him and left my corp for his newly formed corp.

Now there is a lot more to this short story. But it did teach me something...if you are going to build an organization of any kind, plan the infrastructure well in advance. The second thing I learned was that when it comes to video games I really need something I can pick up and drop down when I need too. EVE online is not one of those games. As such, I am selling my account in hopes that some pale faced kid in his mothers basement will give me his paycheck from the video store.

Nostalgia

Sorry for the complete lack of postings....I have a short break in our planning cycle so I posted this until I can get my groove on.

See....I care........ but only just a little. CLICK ME!

Pundit Kitchekn 1.2

moar funny pictures

Starting my Pundit Kitchen career

Funny stuff! :)

here is my first attempt



moar funny pictures

The Horns FTW!

First let me say......what an intense game!

Two very good teams with two excellent quarter backs playing a phenomenal game of football! Easily one of the best games ever!

Now that the Texas Longhorns (#5) have a victory of OU (#1), thus dethroneing OU, does that give us the number one slot. Possibly so! Yesterday was the day of the Under Dogs.

Florida (#11) had its victory over LSU (#4) AND Oklahoma State (#17) win over Missouri (#3) upset the top five. I dare say this clears the way for a UT #1 spot?

By the way I did call both of those games and I have my wife, mother-not-in-law, and Aunt-not-in-law as witnesses.

Got my yellow belt! Part Two

So the actual test....

It was on a Saturday....bright and early on a Saturday. But my test didn't start then....no sir. My test actually started a week before. See I started my testing by eating lots of leafy green vegetables, mainly spinach. I had to get my fiber up so I could absorb water better.

Now if you ask anyone I am pretty dedicated to staying well hydrated. I drink about a gallon of water a day. And for a 3 1/3 hour belt test....staying hydrated is key!

So I started my belt test on Saturday with what most people in Krav Maga call "the workshop". Its basically your normally Saturday class but the instructor is deliberately, more so than normal, trying wear you out. After a grueling hour of kicking as hard as you can, punching as hard a you can, kneeing as hard as you can, running as hard as you can, jump as high as you can you actually start the test....two and a half hours to go!

You practice all of your Level One Krav Maga moves in every scenario. In the bathroom, in the toliet stall, in the hall way, in an open space, in a parking lot, between cars in a parking lot, getting throw against a hot metal wall, out in an uneven field, out in the drainage ditch right by the high way, out in a gravel parking lot, etc etc.

You basically spend the next hour and half doing every move from the most likely spots that you'll get attacked. Which are Bar restroom, in the Bar, in the bar parking lot.

You send the last hour or phase...however you look at it repeating all the moves again. This is after you have been brought to the brink of exhaustion in the first hour and after demonstrating all the moves in multiple environments for the second hour. Now you spend the last hour after you are totally spent trying as hard as you can to show that you can still do the techniques perfectly.

Once that is over you finish your testing with the "cherry on top". The instructor lines up all the students in two parallel columns. One student stands in front of everyone else. The instructor engages in a choke of his or her choice against this one student. The student then has to break the choke while returning simultaneously with an attack. Then run down the columns, aka the gauntlet, whilst the other students, using body pads, try and prevent the students progress. After breaking out of the gauntlet you fall to the floor and the instructor top mounts the student. The student then has to break the attack and flip the instructor off and over and come up attacking. Rinse and repeat with the next student until everyone has gone.

I did pass.....at no point did I think I did poorly. I know I busted my ass for 3 1/2 hours and did everything perfectly. And as the title gives it away I was awarded my yellow belt in Krav Maga. As for the rest of my weekend. I spent it severely dehydrated trying as best as I could to rehydrate.

Here's farting at you kid

A West Virginia man has been charged with battery to a police officer. "Officer" T.E. Parsons is accusing Jose Cruz of battery for…….get this……farting on him! Yeah, no sh!t! Farting in him!

Apparently our flatulent fellow faces felony fines for farting farcically forthwith fanning foul fumes forward. Our Officer in this story, T.E. Parsons, is now laying assault charges on the farting felon.

If farting on someone is enough to get assault charges laid on them then I am in dead doo doo. I think there is a class action law suit forming against me here at the office. Not to mention my wife….who in this criteria is assaulted nightly…….

LINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26877682/

*MSNBC.com as of 9/25/2008

Neo-cons EVERYWHERE

My brother recently called.

Initially I am excited but our conversations soon turn towards politics. Its really a love hate thing with me and politics right now. I stepped out of the political spot light for a much needed break. I guess I was never much suited to wield the powers of control.

Oh, right! So we start talking about politics. Now my brother is a die hard Republican and....well I have principles. No, I am not a Democrat. So when you start mixing principles with Republican/Democrat agendas you tend to get one hell of a $h*t storm. Oil and water those two.......oh get it! Oil! HA! I wasn't even trying on that one.

Anywho, so we go down our normal discussion on how the Republicans are worse than the Democrats. Democrats lie, cheat, steal, are openly socialist and all that crap BUT at least they tell you to your face. Republicans lie, cheat, steal, are closet socialist. You don't find out about it until one of them is snorting coke off some interns cock.

My brother and I are in a political dog fight that would put Manfred von Richthofen to shame. And, as usual, I lay out example by example how the GOP is about preserving the "business" and not the Republican principles established long ago. *COUGH* Small decentralized government, excise only tax, no meddling in affairs of other nations, free trade

Usually my brother tires of the philosophical ass whooping and switches to baseball discussion or suddenly has to go and put the kids to bed (at 3pm in the afternoon?). This time however he said to take it to the blog. Intriguing! Can I accept this pseudo-challenge to express my logic backed views with full references on a publicly viewable online log of written thoughts?

By golly I think I can take a crack at this!

Holy moses! I have playlist!

Like no sh*t! I've had a play list on playlist.com since I could entertain myself by wiggling my own wiener and that's like.......like.....a long freaking time. You should see some of the tricks I can do wi.....yeeahaha ok. Lets gets back on topic

I guess Blogspot is taking on wordpress in the Gizmo market and added a TON of new stuff. AND one of those new things was the playlist.com widget! NOW! I can listen to bad arse tunes at work and you can listen to them to....my music! Oh yeah baby! Nothing says quartlery business review like ZZTOP and "La Grange" playing in the back ground!

History ... reduex

What was it..... I think it was the Orleans and London Avenue canals that had its retaining walls pushed out during Katrina? I seem to remember it being those two but let me recap what I am babbling about.

We all remember Katrina and how New Orleans flooded. Now something about the geography of New Orleans. It sits BELOW and BETWEEN a huge arse lake and the huge arse Mississippi river. BELOW and BETWEEN......like a city size punch bowl.

Now Katrina didn't dump a lot of water on New Orleans. Not so much as any other hurricane and if it had just been that then things might have been very different for New Orleans. What Katerina did do was PUSH a whole hell of a lot of water into the New Orleans canal system. One particular canal, the industrial canal, was over come with a type 3 equivalent surge that capped the canal walls and spilled onto the ground holding the foundation. As you can guess water washed away the ground and with nothing else holding the wall up it......promptly fell.....flooing down town New Orleans.

The one-two combo on Katrina was the previous two canals I mentioned. It seems that when the Army core of Engineers build those two canals they didn't seem to do much with the soil. This very sand soil with clay on top. This sand rich soil was no match against type 1 equivalent surge that raced down the canals. And as the water NEVER reached the top of the canal walls it merely pushed them....like you would a toy bulldozer pushes sand in a sand box.

Well, you should know me by now. I usually don't bring stuff up unless there is a reason. And had it not been for an article that came out last May, then I might not be alarmed. But then I looked at the weather report. And I started reading about how tropical storm Gustav is going to become hurricane Gustav. And then I read how hurricane Gustav is going to be a level three hurricane. And then I said to myself....."Self, I wonder where this level three hurricane is heading". Glad I asked myself as this is what I found.

Um.....to quote Braveheart on this one "The good lord tells me can get me out of this one but he tells me, you're fvcked!"

Eating right

You may not have noticed my weight ticker as been plateaued at 180 and if you haven't you're a bad person. Sorry, if you haven't noticed my weight ticker as been plateaued. I've been at 180 for about two months.....maybe less.

Not to say that I am not losing fat....just gaining muscle as fast as I lose weight. And I do notice when I do those midnight nude poses in the mirror. I'm very sexy.

Yeah, anywho, 180....last two months...right...right. So needless to say I got a little frustrated at not being able to drop down.

So I looked towards changing my diet. I did and that the end of the blog post. Crap man....I need a scribe. BRB and I'll finish this post then........crap. Did I save this post or publish it? Damn, gotta run

Banks....and how they suck.

Ron Paul was quoted and immediately laughed at when he said our economy is in a bad shape and will get worse before it gets better. He was talking about the debt minded spending and poor monetary policy of the United States and the citizens there of.

He mentioned that we failed to learn the lessons of the past of risky spending, risky lending, and dept spending. Nay only 18 years ago did we face a similar situation when the real estate industry had over spent their supply capital and met diminished demand. Banks buckled because they lent money to capitalist that talked a good game but didn't have the market to back their pitch. Rather than listen to their senses, the banks listened to sales pitches.

The capitalist got what they deserved. They failed to analyze the market correctly and they lost…….but rather than allow the FREE MARKET system to work, i.e. purging the inefficient capitalist from the market. The US government established aid from the treasury.

Now 18 years later here we are again. People who should NOT have been loaned money to buy a house, got exactly that. Banks that should have NOT lent sub-prime to people at EXREME risk, did. When the first little tiny itty bitty tencie wencie hic up in the economy happened (gasoline prices) those people at risk fell, the banks got soaked…….and then again we [THE GOVERNMENT] came in and saved the day.

In the word of substance addiction that called BEING THE ENABLER

Of course what could you expect? People are increasingly converting to the "entitlement" mentality. It’s the same thing that happened to the Greek Republic and to the Roman Republic. It comes in cycles. Death of a Republic comes not from out side the walls…….but from within.

Suzanna Gratia-Hupp

I love this woman

Talking heads

The talking heads

Sofa King Retarded

Who wants to go see Tropical Thunder? I do but if I was Suzanne Shepherd, of the local Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas (DSACT), I would be up in arms.

Now what in flying cow crap does this have to do with anything? OH! I am so glad I asked myself! Retarded.....that's the reason. non-retarded people said the word retarded and retarded people are mad that non-retarded people said retard because saying retarded is like...um...a form of social retardation and not considering the feelings of retarded people when non-retarded people say the word..."retarded".

So now its retarded vs. non-retarded and what an awesome UFC fight that would be!

Now if I can have my little five seconds to talk about mean and nasty names. It's like this folks. People can and will say some mean stuff. Really mean, mean enough to make you sad or even make you cry a little. See....people say this mean stuff to get you to feel bad about yourself. Why they say this mean stuff is anyones guess and it really doesn't matter if little Johnny hates his mother and his father doesn't love him anymore. What matters is that you let someone hurt you. You let your image of yourself become a weapon against you. And really, that truly is the problem.

Trying to prevent people from calling you names because it hurts you is avoiding the real problem. Be black, white, gay, straight, American, Mexican, normal, or retarded. What you are is who you are. It makes up who you are in your experiences and your journey to succeed in life no matter what hand you are dealt. You cannot let yourself be marginalized by someone that is, frankly, ignorant of who you are.

Humor is such a powerful, powerful weapon against intolerance and ignorance. When you can learn to laugh at yourself. When you can learn to laugh at the words of hate laden speech then the hurt stops. The words become void of the value they had. The words fall and you stand tall.

What this movie is about? Its about laughing. What the DSACT and Suzanne is about? I'm pretty sure is publicity. What is my motivation for my gratuitous and tasteless barrage of the word retarded? Simply to point out how retarded getting upset over a word is just so absolutely.....retarded

Warriors for Innocence

I cannot express the importance I place on my children's safety. I don't mean the little cuts and bruises of being a care free child. No, I mean the safety of my children from the real life monsters of this world. Kid f&ckers for another term...

Now these little perverts are one of the few people on this Earth that set my hair on end and teeth snarled. I honestly don't see how I could control myself in the presence of one of them. I would probably lose it and not feel guilty for what I would do. Mortal enemies would be the word for it.

ANYHOW! I found this excellent blog that is spreading around the Krav Maga community. Its a blog that helps track these scum, raises awareness, and provides literature on how to spot a child rapist. It has a lot more and I encourage you.....maybe even I'll beg a little. Read the site

Oh...and a word to for you cowards. Know that people trained in hand to hand combat are looking for you.

http://www.warriorsforinnocence.org/

Hmmm...taste like elbow

We did breaks from a guillotine choke today in class. I've done them before when I was in the level one class. My Krav Maga center likes to mix level one and level two stuff into the level one class. So here its the level two class and I am practicing a move I have some experience in before.

So I show my training partner how to do it (remember we "technically" have not learned this yet). Whack to the groin, elbow to the face, break the lock, pivot, stand, base the arm on your shoulder, slide the attackers hand in two a wrist lock, and take the SoB down. Simple and I impress my training partner with my speed and accuracy.

Now he gets to practice!

I put him in the guillotine lock he whacks my cup and then *CRUNCH*

My ears are ringing and he stops for a split second. I say split second because if you pause when I am training with you then I WILL attack you and make you hurt a little.

My two rules are 1) always finish and 2) never apologize

Well, after my ego filled explanation on how to do this move I put my guillotine choke on and my instructor, who I think is aware of my progress is giving me a nod of approval and then...like a dumb ass...I bask in the glory and not pay attention what is going on. I paid for with with a solid elbow to my jaw.

I heard the crunch, then the ringing, then my head hurt a little, saw some spots......but I kept going like nothing happened. When my training partner finished the move he made it worse by asking if I was ok. So of course everyone wants to know and he is freaking telling everyone.

I did get a little lucky. Usually when someone gets hurt the instructor will stop the class and review the safety precautions for the 100th time. This time I think he knew that I know them and I was just a super idiot and I deserved to eat elbow. He didn't call me out with a talk about shop safety.

Just a side thought....if you ever wondered how much force you need to take someone down with a good elbow to the jaw/chin........its not much. Not much at all

Got my yellow belt! Part One

The first level of Krav Maga (or a Yellow belt student) is to first learn about a correct stance. Learning how to stand might seem silly but a lot of how you defend your self comes from how you stand. Think about standing with your feet together...how well do you think you can keep your balance with an aggressor attacking you. You'd fall over in a heart beat. Then the same goes for standing with your legs way to far apart! You might be able to keep your balance but a counter attack or even defending yourself is near impossible, not to mention you are wide open for a shot to the groin.A good stance lets you keep your balance, react to attacks, prevents you from tripping over you feet, and lets you burst(move)in different direction.

We also learn the basics of punching, open hand strikes, several different kicks, and defenses against just about every type of choke. You think a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick. Not so, punching correctly lets you minimize the damage done to you as you punch while optimizing the damage done to your attack. You also learn that punching correctly actually conceals your punch so that it is much harder to defend against. An untrained puncher will swing his/her arm out and parallel to the ground making a huge, wide swinging, and very noticeable movement.

As for kicking, its amazing how underutilized a kick is during a street fight. Speaking from experience, an average street fighter only uses a kick when the opponent is half way, or all the way on the ground. Basically it is not used until the attacker/defender realizes that their opponent is in front of their leg and doesn't pose a threat to their face.

In Krav Maga we learn that it is a weapon that should be used first, in total contradiction to what an untrained fighter is going to use. We learn how to kick correct to add maximum power with extreme training on keeping our balance and choosing how our stance is going to develop from there. For example are we going to kick and recoil, going back to our original position. Or do we kick and progress to an advancing stance. Its all based on the stimuli and how your opponent reacts as well as how well you placed the kick and the power behind it.

Sounds silly? Six months of training on kicking? Well concider that when I first started I could barely get my leg high enough to kick someones knee. Not to mention the big bag, which I could hardly kick. Now......now when I kick it can be from your knee all the way to your throat. And the power I have behind it is enough to knock the bag over. To give you an idea on how hard it is to knock over one of those big bags, you would have to have a grown man run at full speed and slam into the bag. He would have a 50%~50% of knocking it over. If you ever get a chance try it out.

ANYWHO, we did other stuff such as chokes, head locks, and ground work. The ground work was how to get up while keeping your defense up. How to throw an opponent while they are on top of you. How to defend from advance while on the ground. I do it disservice to gloss over it but I need to move on to the actual test.

<.. On second thought I am going to break this up into two posts..>

Aw hell.....sorry folks

MY BAD! I got all the e-mails, all the nasty IM and text messages.....I get the picture. Get off my arse and start writing again.

So I am going to jump back into "it" again. I set reminders on my outlook (e-mail program) to remind me every morning to write a post.

Romance and Flatulence

Oh my sides hurt!

A Republic, Not a Democracy

If blogger stops barfing I would like to share this video with you. If blogger is still being a little piss about it then go to my syndicated blog here, El linko

Uncle Jay

A new link for you folks. It Uncle jay explains the news! This site has me in stitches at times and I think the guy is local to my area.

UNCLE JAY, explains the news

Intake Summary 6/22/2008

Summary: I was sick on Saturday. Yesterday was mostly about recovery.

Category	Observed	Goal	% to Goal
Calories	661	2000	33%
Total Fat	28	65	43%
Saturated Fat	10	20	50%
Cholesterol	40	300	13%
Sodium	1178	2400	49%
Total Carbohydrates	81	300	27%
Dietary Fiber	10	25	40%
Sugar	10	50	20%
Protein	35	50	70%
Water Consumed	3/4 of a Gallon	1 Gallon	75%
Minutes of Exercise	0	60 Minutes	0%
Calories Burned	0	?	0%

I'm a loser

So far I have lost 15 pounds! I dipped below 180 for the first time in ....well.....since I was a teenager. I gained a lot of weight when I was married to my ex. A lot of it was depression weight since I had the supreme lack of will to do anything. My blubber Zenith hit 195lb and that is when I told myself that this is it. I simply cannot continue to live this way.

So I told you about joining the Krav Maga gym as a way to help my son with his karate. A side goal was for me to lose weight. The problem I was having is that I talked a good game. "Oh yeah, I'll do this, that, and the other thing and presto" I would say to my wife. Then I would promptly watch a movie and forget about the whole thing.

I even joined the company gym and was a regular for like......a whole week! Come to find out that like most people the goal of losing weight to reach x pounds is just to elusive. You might be in the same boat on this but have you told yourself "I'll lose 20 pounds" and there is no real connection to that goal. Like its just a number and there is no emotional retainer to it?

Well, I am doing Krav Maga as a way to goal set and put some weight (punny) behind it. See, have you ever started in something and wished that you weren't the new guy? Wished that you were better at something? That is the way I feel with Krav Maga, I don't want to be a yellow belt. I want to try for the higher belts. I want to become good at this!

So I have three methods of attack on this....by the way, see what I mean. Attaching my emotional wants to this has helped me bring this goal into my sphere of control. I am now making plans to reach this goal that I want badly....the goal is Green Belt in Krav Maga, and my weight is not the goal. The weight is simply the means to my goal.

Sorry, back to how I am going to get my Green Belt. First, attend Krav Maga class every chance I get. This ensures that I get my physical exercise and gives me the hands-on time I need to perfect my training.

Second, Losing weight through a proper diet. This plan will help me subtract negative compounds and chemicals in my nody. This allows my body function correctly as time goes on. Where love handles hindered my movement before, I hope to lose them in the future to free my range of motion.

Third, better fuel through proper diet [yes, two sub goals with one category of strategy]. See increase my consumption of the minerals and vitamins that I need helps my body function correctly. It also helps my development, like having all the right fuels for muscles development and making sure I don't have excess' [sugar] that can be burned before I have a chance to start burning fat. Fiber is another good example! Good fiber intake help my absorption of hydrating fluids. This is crucial to proper cooling during long work outs.....say for a certain three hour green belt test!?

So all of this is starting to work for me. I am losing weight I am now able to find stuff. Like being able to look down and see my.......uh.....feet. I've been working out but now I really need to bring my diet into check. To help with this I signed up for my calorie counter. Its a fantastic little tool that allows you to keep track of the foods you eat and their nutritional contents. Their database on foods is fairly robust and what I could not find on their site only took a single Google search to get the break down.

From here on out I'll try to post a daily summary of the previous days intake. What I hope to do is to show how I lost my weight and maybe inspire a few readers to do the same.

OH! I also put a weight lose counter on the side of the blog. I don't put a lot of stock into BMI but it is a widely accepted index. My target weight should be 140 (I say 160) and I started at 195. So keep track of that and my food summary and lets see where this thing goes. Green Belt I hope!

Constitution Blog

I am adding a new blog to my blogroll list. Its called Constitution blog and it is written by a college of mine in the liberty movement by the name of Jon Roland. Now I typically jest that Jon Roland can put you to sleep. Yet, to be fair and frankly honest, he brings up clear and concise discussion about civil and criminal law in regards to the constitution all in the light of classical liberal philosophy.

For those of you Republicans that get hung up on the word liberal....its what Thomas Jefferson was before the word liberal was attached to socialism. Orwell warned you.....you failed to listen.

Further more Jon doesn't people to sleep. So if you are reading this Jon then you have it in writing and you can shake your finger at me and remind me about the blog.

Please check out his blog, read as much as you can, comment frequently, and let him know how much of a snooze fest his blog is, but remember to thank him for teaching you about civics!

http://www.constitutionalism.blogspot.com/

Shhhh, I'm hwunting wabbit

Nothing.....that is actually what I felt and heard when I ran over a rabbit leaving the house today. I thought that maybe a little bump like a low speed bump or something. Nope! nothing.

It was a quick death before all you PETA freaks skin me alive and wear me for a coat. The rabbit, for reasons unknown, decided to bolt across the street. I didn't see him, and lets be fair, or her until it was too late. All the weight of my truck was brought down to his/her little rabbit head. It happened in less than a fraction of a second. The timing was, ironically, perfect for a quick bunny death. I don't even think the Texas Death Row has a quicker and more humane method of death.

So this brings my road kill stats up to: Frog, squirrel, a bird (yes, for real), and now a rabbit.

No card carrying members of PETA were harmed in the making of this post......but they should have been.

Oxymorons

I actually hear this stuff at the office from time to time.........

Coming from how stuff works:

1. virtual reality

2. original copy

3. old news

4. act naturally

5. pretty ugly

6. living dead

7. jumbo shrimp

8. rolling stop

9. constant variable

10. exact estimate

11. paid volunteers

12. civil war

13. sound of silence

14. clever fool

15. only choice

1930s Marital Scale

I picked up this little test over at Tam's place. Don't asked me how I rank so high, I really did answer everything honestly.

110 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Scoring:

0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)
25-41 - Poor
42-58 - Average
59-75 - Superior
76+ - Very Superior

Pee fingers!

Does anyone else find it disturbing that some people answer their cell phones while in the rest room? I for one do....find it disturbing that is! I think it is gross! Do you (if you are one of the people that do this) realize that we can hear you and other people doing their business. Frankly when I am discussing quarterly business performance I don't want to hear the guy in the next stall going in a full out blitz to clean his colon.

And I am going to spend the rest of my days know that the cell phone is never going to get washed. Yeah, that's right! You may wash your hands after you spray down the urinal but does your cell phone get sanitized? The answer..... NO. No it does not! And you know what!? About five second after you walk out the restroom you are reaching for that phone again, assuming you ever put it away. Now all that funk is back on your hands and just waiting for you to run head long into a spear like attack in an attempt to shake my hand.

Then you are going to stand in my office smearing your hands all over my desk.....your pee hands, all over my desk. Did you learning nothing of Athens! Hygiene is paramount in cramped and crowed spaces. My god I work with crazed feces throwing baboons. Why even come into the office dressed and hair combed? Screw it! Really! I mean you totally cannot respect anyone else. Why give us the curtesy of business dress code. Just come into work in your scooby-doo PJ's and a wicked case of bed head.

Hell, just bring you breakfast too! Plop down in the middle of the hall way and slurp your frosted flakes as your read your god damn comics! Why, for the love of a civilized society, should you even give a damn about common courtesy. And you might as well relief yourself in the corner, you've shown you can't even take time out of your life to dress yourself on our behalf.....go for it all! Just completely abandon the last threads of what makes us top of the animal hierarchy. Just start eating your own children you horrible animal! Wander these lands in a primary driven lust for the basics of the Maslow hierarchy!

Piss on all the accomplishments and standards we set for civilized human behavior! PEE BOY! ARG!

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Happy Monday everyone!

Found a new site

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

I am on page nineteen. :)

Happy now!

OK MATT! I POSTED! Now get off my ass!

It has been a while....

Busy times, not a lot of free time to blog. Or sit down and collect my thoughts! my neighbor is going back to Iraq. Before he left he wanted to finish some projects around his house. I pitched in as much as I could. We built a fence for his back yard that is about 150' long if stretched out in a line. We also built a deck for his wife (again for the back yard). We also managed to build him a little parking lot for all of his cars. He has a whole mess of restored cars he fixes. And finally we fixed his septic line to his drain field pumps.

To top all of that off I built my own fence, at 100' down the front of my property. Its a lot of work and I am drained of enthusiasm for any other projects that spring up. Not to mention I got a wicked sun burn! I usually don't get sunburn bad being a sun child and all but this one has me AWOL from my Krav Maga classes. I rarely miss class!

Last time I got burned anywhere close to this is when I turned 20. My friends took me to one of the thousands rivers down here, Comel is the name of it I think. We lathered on the sunscreen and hoped in the innertubes and went a float. Some where between the beer, bikini's, and other party favors I lost the sun screen (rubbing on the tube or something). Twelve hours later I am in pain and later that night I go to the E.R. I kid you not!

My skin was starting to bubble and fill with fluid! I was in agony....what would you have done? Anywho, the doctor just about smacked me with his clip board and told me I had voluntary second degree burns from the blazing sun and my amazing stupidity.

To this day I do not having a lot of feeling on my shins and I can wear shorts in winter and not be phased. Cute little story huh? That's what you get Matt, for pestering me. The bubble skin story! Now go back to work before I drop another load of "To-Do" on your desk. I don't pay you to read my blog you little bastard.

Tell the wife "hello" for me

My ideal body weight

Ideal weight range is 146 - 160.6 lbs. (66.4 - 73 kg.).
You are overweight by 19.4 lbs. (9 kg.).

Why do you need to know this? I'll tell you why and don't act all surprised. You knew I was going to say that!

At the hight my flabbery I hit 195 lbs. For my height and body frame that is thirty five pounds over weight. That makes me technical obesity! that freaked me out!

I know everyone has that story "Yeah, I was 155 and all muscle" but I really was. I spent 99% of my time outdoors doing stuff. Then I started working in the corporate world, got my ex wife pregnant, had a kid, got divorced, did the rediscovering life thing, met my wife, got her pregnant, got married, did the kid thing all over again......*poof* land whale.

So I decided to do something about it and it happens to align when my son was getting frustrated with karate. I decide to start doing Krav Maga to help him with his motivation and to help me with my growing back side.

Almost four months later I went from 195 lbs. to 180 lbs.! I lost fifteen freaking pounds! I have twenty more to go and I haven't really set a date. I just might stick to five pounds a month since it seems like a steady number to me. Still, this is exciting for me. The first time in almost a decided that I have started to lose weight. No....I didn't lose anything. I WON weight!

I am winning my weight goal, I am winning my muscle tone goal, I won my endurance goal, and I am just happy all around.

So that is the reason for the ideal body weight thing at the top of this post.

Status on the A/C

I think I told you but in case I didn't I'll force you to read the boring story.

Last year we bought El Rancho de Braco on April 13th....Friday the 13th. I pushed for the date so don't think it fell on our closing date by chance. Yes, I do have a dark streak of humor. For the first month the A/C worked great.

May of last year was also very rainy and thus very cool. It wasn't until June rolled around that it got hot. That is when we found out our A/C stopped working. We tried for a month, in vain, to get the A/C to cool the house. Then by chance I happened to be leaning against the house after doing some laborious task and felt cool air flowing from under the house. So I hopped into the crawl space and started looking around. I discovered that a thirteen inch piece of my duct work was missing. well not really since I looked on the ground and found it in pieces. I also noticed claw marks and bit marks. Dogs have been known to find some cool dark place to give birth to their puppies. And there are a lot of dogs in my area.

K, so now you know the history. Fast forward a year and it is starting to get hot again. Real hot. Already hitting one hundred degree's and it May hot. Like oh sh!t this is going to be a crappy summer kind of hot. So I decided to do something about it.

I searched high and low for duct material. Home Depot and Lowes did not have what I need. Wifey called ever A/C place in town, out of town, above town, below town, and some random people just for fun. Nothing!

So I get frustrated and decide its time to make my own. I got two 30" X 26" pieces of sheet metal, A/C caulk, twelve carriage bolts. I also called my buddy Brandon over who happens to be a military aircraft mechanic. i.e. knows a thing or two about fabricating parts from metal.

A bend here, a cut there, some caulk there and presto! I have a replacement part for my A/C duct system. Then another hour or so as we cover ourselves in fiberglass but its done and for the first time in a year the A/C gets cranked on! Its a little weak and not as cold as I would like but a day or so later the A/C guy comes out. He gave a thumbs up on my repairs, added three pounds of $180 freon to my system and left. It cools a little better but it is going to be a hot summer. I think we still need some window units to help cool the house.

Either that or I need to build a roof with an attic, re insulate the walls with good insulation, and get better siding for the house.

Birthday

So it happened.....I'm a year older. Twenty nine now and just one year away from thirty. My one gray hair turned to nineteen over night. My back is sore, my stomach is sore, my arms are sore ...... oh wait I know why. *ahem*

Uh...yeah so. Yup......................*sigh*

Been searching Craigslist for an hour looking for a walker. Might was well be prepared.

Dining Room Floor Project - DONE

Well here it is folks! Say goodbye to nasty ugly carpet and say hello to the new dining room floor! It's tons easier to clean too! From dust to big chunks of food that escapes our little human wood chipper. Easy-peasy-crunchueasy! Just scoot it all into one corner with the swiffer and then into the dust pan.

Plus the dining room feel comfy now. Before it was a room of over powering white. Now it has richer tones that kind of wrap the room around you. Rather than make you feel like a stranger in a sanitarium. Even the wifey has picked up her laptop and works from there most of the time now.

Dining Room Floor Project Part Two

I admit that this month has been a little dry on the postings. Deal with it man! Its summer and that is when I go out and play in the sun. Disc golf, climbing, camping, caving, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking......yup. All stuff I do during the summer.....six years ago.

Now I lay down new dining room floor for fun. The work slowed down as I realized that I had not sanded the floor before we laid down some of the faux hardwood planks. Lucky for me I happen to have a belt sander and after an hour or so we had a sanded floor. Gripping isn't it!

We had about six box fans all aimed at the window. Still....all that sanding dust managed to get in the air, settle on everything, and give everyone in the house a major case of congestion. Our Cute Little Girl [The CLG] is mighty pissed off in this picture. Not only is she having to wait on the side lines but she is tired of all this work. There she is [picture on the right] whining it up to mommy.


I got you another money shot here. This time without the CLG and all the other stuff. Kind of gives you an idea of what the floor will look like. If you can, Imagen an off white carpet with nasty black stains in it. You know the kind they put in cheap apartments. That is what this room used to look like.

Anywho, it looks like we are almost done here so I'll let you look at the pictures and you can bask in the glory that is our work. :P

New dining room floor

The family had some of our stolen money (Tax Return) given back to us. So we invested in some mutual bonds. Kidding.....no we actually diversified our stock portfolio. KIDDING! No for real we paid off some of our standing debt.! *giggle*

Seriously, we decided to re-do our dining room floor. My daughter still has trouble shoveling food into her mouth. Its either ALL going in her mouth at once or ALL going on the floor at once. Carpet + Food = Funky moldy spot.

Enough, say we, for we shall march forth from this humble abode and seek new flooring *sound trumpets*!

At first I wanted hardwood floors. I love hard wood floor. I like the sound when you walk on it, I like the look of it, I like telling people that I have hard wood floors. But I don't like the price...no....don't like the price at all. Even engineered hardwood floors is like $3.90 a square foot. Dining room: 1,200 sqft * $3.90 = $468. I'm not going to slap down $500 for a new dining room floor.

Then there is laminate at $1.98 * 1,20 sqft = $237.60. It's a better price but you know what happens to your Wal-Mart coffee table? Over time the finish wears out and you have those white spots that poke through! Its that compresses paper/wood stuff and it just looks funky. So I really don't want my floor doing that either.

Then I found these Vinyl "wood" planks that are self-adhesive at .97 a sqft. So 120 sqft * .97 = $116.40. Wow! These things are going to last forever (the planks, not sure about the adhesive), cheap, and they look like real wood.

I loaded up the cart with seven boxes of the stuff and mowed down some old granny on my way to the check out line. Sorry Mrs. Henderson! I promise to cut your yard all summer.

So the wifey and I pulled up the funky carpet. Removed the carpet tack strips and spent several hours popping out nails and staples from when some lazy contractor/previous owner had stapled down some linoleum that apparently runs through out the house. This linoleum lurks under our current flooring as we find out later.

And then we begin!

I am.....

Feeling goofy today....

Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope

Meet my new telescope....when it arrives that is.....a full two weeks before the "ex" would have

Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope

Cancelled the StarBlast 6

I called up www.telescope.com and let them know to cancel my order!

Look, it said free shipping. There was not special writing, no asterisks by "free shipping", no special markings. Trust me I am pretty anal when it comes to looking for little "gotcha's" but this was condition free. That is the who reason why I placed the order with www.telescope.com! let's face it. When you are talking to someone like me I expect you to live up to your word or to established expectations. In this case it was both as they SAID free shipping and did not clearly or unclearly indicate a special condition. In fact it was totally absent in this case.

After the series of events on Monday, the apathetic attitude of Jon the customer [no]service representative and this constant feeling that I was really pissed at being lied too I just had to cancel the order. There was no way I could enjoy the product with that type of taint on the experience.

Oh man I am still reeling from the BS attitude I got....yeah, it really does make me up set. The SoB chastised me for not looking through 19 pages of literature to find one little sentence. Up your dude! If you want to do business you need to be clear and upfront on how you are going to conduct yourself.

So I swung over to www.telescopeS.com. That is Telescope with an S at the end, yes that makes it plural. I did a quick buying wizard and found a telescope that is just slightly less powerful than the StarBlast BUT has a tripod AND is $100 less!

I loaded that into my shopping cart and not only is in stock (something that www.telescope.com can't say) but shipping REALLY is free with this company. So the scope is on order and should get out to El Rancho de Braco by the 13th, www.telescope.com was going to ship on the 19th.

Competitive shopping for the win!!!

StarBlast 6 Astro Telescope

Done! I placed the order just now...

I got a few of you smacking me upside the head and telling me to buy the StarBlast. "You want to down grade over a tri-pod" one person wrote. A few other well placed comments also motivated me move on the StarBlast.

So I placed the order for the telescope, a 2x Barlow lens, and a moon filter which makes my order will over $250. Now the company I ordered from is Telescope.com, which for this week being national astronomy week, has free shipping. Free shipping....cool huh! Shipping is free for all order over $250, which is my order!

So I plow through the order process, enter in the promo code for free shipping and *click*....my order is placed. So there I am, all sweaty for spending so much money all on one place when I noticed that the shipping is $50.

WTF! Free shipping for astronomy week sure is not suppose to look like $50 on a invoice. So I work my fingers on the telephone and pull up Jon for customer service. He proceeds to tell me that he can take off some of the shipping but since it is an over sized item that I will get charge $35 or something.

Again, WTF! www.telescope.com has it clear on their website that shipping is free. There is no crazy little cross, or asterisks, or marks of any kind that says there is a special condition. Reviewing that statement Jon agreed but stuck to his guns that he could only rebate the shipping and not the heavy. He then went on to tell me that if I noticed a tiny little icon somewhere on the page where the telescope was (not the order page but the specs for the telescope) I would have noticed an "oversized" decal. Then had I known to visit the customer [dis]satisfaction page I would have been informed that special shipping waivers doing apply to oversized packages.

Well.....if I had known that maybe I might have done with telescopeS.com which is a totally different company and maybe they can man up to their promotions. So far my experince with telescope.com (without the s) is crappy. Its not so much the money, which telling the truth I would rather have $50 then not have it, but its being deceived like that. Lets see how the telescope fairs out....

Yours truly and a little grumpy, HCB

Which one?

Well my annual celebration of my birth is coming quickly....too quickly. Hitting one year before death (death being 30) I am harboring mixed feelings. On one hand, as I mentioned, I am about to die. I can't say that I am particularly pleased with the idea of my life ending as I know it. I mean 30.....that's when you switch from Ac/DC to a disturbing collection of Michael Bolton and Enya. House socks, those water fall things you buy a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, SHOPPING at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and those awful multi-colored globe things on the Roman column you put in your "victory" garden........its all life after death [30].

What makes this just all worse is I have to spend the last year of my life preparing for the after life. Do you know the amount of research it takes to understand the subtle positions of yoga? The correct berry combinations of yogurt? Finding a good colon doctor?!?! I mean there is not a freaking book that says "30 and your dead, here is the how to guide"! So my last year ......

The one good news is that with the IRS refund we got this year I am going to buy a telescope for my wife to give to me for my birthday. No, not the Stimulus check. We have to save that one to offset the devaluation of the US dollar due to a massive spending to pay for the stimulus plan without an increase to government income [taxes].

Yeah, sorry, the dilemma for me here is which telescope do I get. Oh, did I ever mention I like looking at stars? K, just did. So which one do I get.

• StarBlast 6 Astro Telescope at $249.95
  
• Observer 70mm Altazimuth Refractor at $129.95
  

Keep in mind that each is going to require a moon lens, a 2x Barlow (magnification eye piece), and ideally a sun filter lens.

The Star blast has an impressive 300x useful magnification! I can see comet sneeze with that. However it is $100 + more and has a [what I call] a lame base. I am not a big fan of the Dobsonian type base. I prefer a tri-pod in lieu of the base. It would/will be different when I have the house built and a second story deck to plant this monster down on.

The Observer has a 140x useful magnification but comes with a tri-pod, is 100$ cheaper, comes with a bunch of accessories.

Right now I am kind of leaning to the StarBlaster. It will scale to my future needs and knowing my buying habits I will not buy another scope for a long time. However the Observer is perfect for what I am looking for....a scope to share with my son. I have a hard time seeing us trying to lug the monster StarBlaster around the front property. The Observer however is something we can plop down and start gazing.

*sigh*

It's Monday

Here I sit, listening to the mono tone voice of one of my planners. She is a sweet person but to listen to her run a meeting for an hour is a sure fire way to put yours truly in to a full blown on drooling sleep.

My life in terms of work....excel sheets. Twenty, Thirty, maybe Forty excel sheets all linked together in a spaghetti of complex mess. Assumptions built upon assumptions built upon even more assumptions all being held accountable to deliver accurate results.

Keys being clacked in the back ground of the conference call I am on.

*Ding* An alert invades my lost thoughts "Your next meeting is in five minutes with so and so of this one group at that place you meet in Mondays". *sigh*

No tag backs

I don't want to be THAT guy. The one that is anti-social and doesn't want to play in fun little games. Well, actually I am and it normally doesn't bother me but Monica anticipated it and recently some have given me a few jabs about this. So ok, fine! Six things you didn't know about me but now you will. May Shiva frown upon you and fruitcake will become your Christmas gift this year. >:-(

1. I have wanted to write a book (Monica did too but since I am older it means I wanted to first and she is just a poser.....if you have a full sentence can you still use a parentheses?). I even have several manuscripts that I have hidden away in fear they may see the light of day and thus waves of ridicule and pointed laughing in my direction.
2. I am SCARED of heights. Coming from a fella that finished the Air Force ROTC and has his ground wings....SCARED of heights.
3. A former huge fan of horror movies...I am now border line schizophrenic thanks to that devil movie "The Grudge". Cats scare me now.....
4. Abused child
5. The first love of my life died in a car wreck three weeks after she told me that she felt the same way about me.
6. I LOVE Goldfish crackers! They smile until you bite their heads off

So I have to tag six other people, so the rules go. So,

1. LawDog
2. AD
3. Mr. Fixit
4. Marko
5. Tamara
6. Memphis Steve

More braining on the FLDS thing

My wife and I had a great debate the other night about the FLDS people in West Texas. She is pro-whatever is against the FLDS. I know she wants the men to be found guilty and I don't recall her stance on the mothers or the children. I know she defiantly wants that cult gone.

I am not taking the pro-FLDS side but I did take the pro- due process side as I have in the last FLDS post.

The first point was what boundary's does that state have when religion is in play?

Her position was that religion can only go as far as one civil rights are not violated. She went on to state that the mothers and children were brain washed into thinking that what they were doing was part of their religion when it actually is not. Thus their rights were violated as they were denied a chance to learn about other religions.

My position is you would have to take to court the entire catholic church, every evangelist, every Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. every religion indoctrinates their children to really only to understand their own religion. Even in my own fairly liberal church we were not educated on anything outside of the bible, period. Now when I got to an age to start exploring other faiths I was able to walk my own path.

A sort of similar argument can ALMOST be said for this cult. However, their [the parents] children are held hostage if they ever try to leave. So there could be a clear contest for violation of civil rights. I'll have to stand back and let the State Attorney do her work....right, has she taken office yet?

The second point was you could claim everything that a religion calls part of its practice, legal

My wife contested that (according to my argument) someone could claim that killing children is part of their religion.

I objected. First the religion has to have some sort of doctrine. A written testament to moral behavior. Every religion has one....it keeps the people of that faith in control with the religion. You can't just, on a whim, start tagging all the children in your convent and then claim religious exemption. There has to be a written moral definition and cause for following the moral code.....like worship me or burn forever.

Where in the FLDS bible does it say that the leader of a church has the grace of god to drop his pants and squirrel away at the blond haired boy? So no....religion can not play the faith card and get away with everything

Lastly, (this was one of my points) that this is a clear example of persecution

I admit, what these people have been alleged to have been doing turns my stomach. However, when this story broke several years ago....yes its been that long. I clearly remember that local officials made the statement that they would be watching Warren Jeffs like hawk and bring this compound down. They came through on their promise.

My point was that the catholic church has been doing this exact something (not the polygamy but the kiddy lovin part) for CENTURIES. Their are victims coming forward from these acts as far back as the sixties. When the catholic church story broke it got a week or to of prime time coverage.

With the FLDS people we are going on a month, Dr. Phil is all over this, and I wouldn't be surprised if a trading card game comes out about this.

The point is that when a Catholic priest spreads the love of god through the anus of little Bobby its brushed under the rug. the FLDS people do it and its prime time TV for lord knows how long.

Why? Cause they are WEIRD! Yeah, they are very weird and I'll admit that. I cannot relate to them and thus this is interesting. The FLDS people are not like us and for that we hold their morals up to the light of our morals. Some how we become the judge of how they should live their lives.

Its food for thought. Lets hope in the end we, as a society, can help the children in this mess.

The Jesus Fish Chronicles: Chronicle Six, Soccer mom

Wow! It's been awhile since I last blogged about JFC.....heh.....that kind of looks like KFC. OK, sorry off topic. JFC, right! It has been awhile....hmmmm.....last September if my little blogger dashboard is correct. Living in the country side shields me from a great deal of the crazies. Never the less, I do have to drive in to the city for work, which leads me to.......


The Jesus Fish Chronicles: Chronicle Six, Soccer mom

April 22nd
6:30 pm (ish)
Blue Mini-Van

On the poor lane of 183 north, before 620. I am heading North on the poor lane to head home to dinner. This, apparently, pissed the crap out of Jesus Fish. A blond haired, what appears to be a small to medium framed woman. Lets say early to mid 30's and happens to be driving a blue mini-van.

Her expression about being behind me is one of anxiety and the look of trying to give birth to a water buffalo right there in traffic. I apparently was in the wrong! I was in front of her you see and that prevented her from moving through me and into the spot in front of me. Thus further adding to her frustration and complicating her labor pains. IF she could have furrowed her brow any more than she was, it may have also served as a well placed napkin holder.

The true icing on the cake of our Jesus Fish, Blue mini-van driving, my bumper riding, soccer mom is that she was smoking.....in the van.....windows up....with her kids in the car......with a cross hanging down from the rear view mirror. Shalom! Every life is precious right?

Our oblivious Jesus Fish also managed to flippantly almost run another person off the road in her mindless pursuit of self serving behavior. The expression on her face....she couldn't give a hoot. Horns honking, fingers flying, high-beams flashing, our vaporous and vacant vixen, true victor of vehicular vanity because SHE owns the road and you are just a nuisance to her.

She, my gentle readers, is a Jesus Fish.

FLDS cult in Texas, my thoughts

The FLDS [Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints] has been in the news a lot down here in the nation state of Texas. The short and skinny is that these folks bought some land out in west Texas and built themselves a rather large commune. Last I heard they have themselves cattle, crops, a water treatment plant, and a Starbucks.

Now as of late they seem to have gotten themselves in a bit of a pickle. The allegations go that church leaders married individuals off as young as 14. Most, if not all, husbands have several wifes. The way the state sees this is that this is statutory rape and some violation of federal marriage law that you can only marry one person?!

Now my thoughts on a 14 year old getting married are not in line with the FLDS. I tend to agree with my wife that you should be at least 25. Not that I am for a law or anything, lord knows we have to many damn laws. But I think as a rule of thumb, you should listen to family when they say "hey stupid, wait till your older". Now I understand that this is part of their religion and the Constitution of the United States prohibits the state or the federal government from taking action. It is true that the State of Texas is over stepping their constitutional limits.

Further more, the legal consent age in other states ranges from fourteen to eighteen (maybe higher). Which begs the question "With such a large variance in legal consent from state to state...what do we concider a legal age"? In Texas its eighteen years old .... I think.

Second, why is the Federal government in the business of telling us how many wifes we can have? I for one can't imagine any self-respecting male being able to handle one wife let alone SEVERAL! I think several wifes ranks right along with water boarding! If a fella can handle more than one wife.. I say let'em. Its none of my bees wax what they do and frankly we should stay out of their business.

Now there is an allegation of forced intercourse against the will of the girls [wifes] of the compound. To my little knowledge and second-hand information that comes from friends inside the LDS church, there is no biblical law that authorizes spiritual marriages as described by the FLDS nor the ritual of the spiritual consummation of the forced marriage ceremony. I.e. girly raping.

Also, further allegation state that there is boy lovin' too! Again not stated in the FLDS lexicon of spiritual proclamation. It seems that this compound may have been setup solely to meet the sexual desires of those few church leaders, as outlined in the allegations.

I think it is unfortunate that the truth may never come to light. And please don't take this post as the source for news. I am just blogging my thoughts on the FLDS compound in west Texas. Feel free to share your own.

Sallie Mae

Not many of you know this but I am one of those college graduates. I gots me and edsumkation wit a dgree ands evrythang!

As I am part of the population that is "under unprivileged", basically a white male, I have to pay my own way through college. Meaning, since I don't have a skin color other than white, I have to secure loans on my own credit and I can pretty much kiss any grant away. I do qualify for some Hispanic loans I think!? Due to my last name being Hispanic but I didn't even bother. I mean I would walk into the first qualifying interview and I would be crossed off the list pronto, post haste even!

Oh well.....so goes racial inequality. ANYWHO, I did mention that I had to get all my own loans on my own credit. One of those lending companies is Sallie Mae..... the mother f*@king anti-Christ in corporate form.

If you are more than 30 minutes late on a payment you can expect, without fail, a barrage of collection calls EVERY 30 minutes on any of your listed telephones. Such has been the case this weekend EXCEPT that I paid six days early.

Regardless of my EARLY payment, Sallie Mae has taken proactive measures and started collection calls from the 17th until today. My payment is due on the 25th.

Now mind you I answer all my calls and I usually get a recorded greeting "This is an important message, please stay on the phone". My policy is to hang up! First, I do not recognize the rights of machines to make calls to my person. I consider it an invasion of privacy to have one companies corporate assets call to harass me. Second, if this IS an important phone call.....why delegate it to a machine? Me thinks that this a devaluation of the word "important". Like when Sallie Mae said I was an important account and then turns around and calls me every thirty minutes to bug the snot out of me for paying early!?!?!

Soooooooo.........Today a PERSON from Sallie Mae actually calls me. WOW! They tell me my account is delinquent and that I have to pay.

"Great!" I proclaim! "Now if you could actually check your records and find the last time I paid" I say.

"Well Mr. We-trapped-you-in-an-outrageous-interest-rate. You need to provide us with the records that shows you paid us" he hisses.

"Well, Mr. My-parents-hate-me-and-kicked-me-out-of-the-house-after
-I-told-them-want-to-major-in-liberal-arts I have the e-mail right here and your recor *click*....."

Sombytch hung up on me!

Here is my new Sallie Mae motto to their customers:

Sallie Mae......we bring a new level on belligerent harassment.

Living Skeletons

I don't know about you but run way models gross me out. I don't mean the REI hiking models showing this years "IN" repelling equipment....no I mean the Paris fashion industry kind. The Skeletor Olsen kind of run way models. You know exactly what I am talking about too....don't even sit there and try to say "Man I totally don't watch that stuff!". I know the truth! You, like me, are desperately waiting to see last years throw cover turn into this years glam dress! You get'em Chantecaille! You go girl! Grrrrrrr- moew!

Eh...uh, no what I am here to write about is my love hate feelings towards the fashion industry. Even for a dude that is fashion challenged, I do pay attention of the fashion industry in pure economic terms.

You see models in the fashion industry, through tradition, like to appear slim. And in an aggressive, dear I say, free market competition have gone to extreme measures to be "more slim" than the next girl. This somehow gives some serious wood to the fashion designers as a measure of their models commitment. Now all you hippies out there are jumping up and down with delight screaming "See! We need more government regulation". Hold on my friendly little granola pounders. Its time to check the other side of the Birkenstock.

The MARKET is now turning. Consumers are now protesting, aka using their supreme vote, and refusing to buy products from designers who use skele.....anorexic models. In hippie terms, this is what us economist talk to you about. That "invisible hand" that "natural correcting action" that "freedom of choice". You know when I talk to you and say that an industry will boom, then recede, then it will become ultra competitive, consumers will correct market fractures, then market demand will swing back in play to stabilize the market. Crap......did I lose your attention already?

Ok fine. The hippies tuned out and are now trying to develop new ways to solar dry their socks. I just talk to the rest of you then.

You get what I am talking about right? I didn't mean to throw your thinking off with all these gross pictures. But you get what I am talking about. With the market system, not a bastardized one that we have in the United States, you [the consumer] have all the power in an industry. You may not feel it with power houses like Wal-Mart but you really do.
Consumers alone made such an outcry of disgust that fashion designers are making pledges to only hire"healthy" models. Aka, ones with body fat.

Coming from an industry that is so fickle, self-righteous, pompous, and so indignant to basic moral character when engaged to free enterprise......free choice is an ear-ringing wake up call to the fashion industry. It should also serve as an example how people, not governments, may have a better position to govern the social matters that exist in our time.

You see, this change in the fashion industry wasn't voluntary. I know, you are scratching your head. This change you see here....it was a pure and simple change the way you operate or go out of business.

Consumers CAN control business WITH OUT laws. All you have to do is simply exercise your CHOICE.

The Front Walk Way Project

I have a new project....well several new projects. Specifically this one project is called the front walk way project.

The front walk way to my house is been something my wife has been asking me to deal with for awhile. She wants to put up some new solar lights in the area (front walk way) but the soil and the run off from our roof prevents that at the moment.

The run off from the roof, of course, falls and hits my soil pretty hard. I have a rock perimeter that is made up of small stones that is left over from the rain pounding the soil away. Eventually I want to add gutters to the house so I can redirect this rain.....maybe into a dry well?

Second, I live on a hill. Naturally my property slopes. This makes a bit of a problem for my front stairs. Its quite a hefty first step from the ground to the first step. Add in a little soil erosion and this can quickly become a problem.

Enter in a 16' ( ' is foot, " is inches in case anyone didn't know) long by 6' wide raised front walk way. I have cut stone on my property, plenty of soil, the tools to do so, and a little time here and there to make this happen.

What you see here in this picture (right) is me lining up the future lay out of the walk way with some PVC pipe. Just trying to get a feel for what it would look like.

I put up some stakes and mason line to give me a guide to work by during excavation. It kind of helps but I found out yesterday that its not exactly straight. It doesn't matter to much though. I have to remove all the dirt in the area, remove most of the rocks (keeping the smaller ones), and then get everything wet enough so I can level everything out and then tramp it down.

The purpose of all that is that with dry soil it has all the lumps from digging, holes from removing rocks, and just soil compression. If you get it kind of muddy and then smooth it all out...let it dry for a little bit and then tramp it you get a nice slightly compacted soil that is level.

It helps to not only lay down the retaining stones but it makes putting in a drain cloth super easy AND the paver stones that will go in. Having a nice level and compacted soil is crucial to landscaping like this. Having uneven soil will give you a wavy unappealing path which can also be a trip hazard and could end up cracking your pavers.

I'll try and remind myself to give you a shot of the tools I am using.

Sweet Jumping Jupiter!

Only in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas' marriage-age crisis is over. A law that mistakenly allowed anyone — even toddlers — to marry with parental permission was repealed by a measure signed Wednesday by Gov. Mike Beebe, ending months of embarrassment for the state and confusion for county clerks.

Yes..............we are all laughing at you.

My scribblings

My scribblings......or lack there of as been due to another recent surge of work. It happens.

As of late, I have been putting more focus on my personal network. I'm in the process of cleaning up some rough edges, removing people that don't belong and can be damaging to my network.

In other news, I did my federal theft summary report last night. I show a hefty return of my own money coming back to me.....that was until my filing got rejected. So now I have to go back and check everything, which is a total pain in the rear end.

I have also been playing this game called Ikariam (www.Ikariam.org). It is mighty addicting for a history nerd like me. It is set in ancient Greece and you have to build your city-empire. This is my kryptonite. I put a link off to the side of you to go check it out. I live on Iota server and if you plan on signing up just shoot me a message. I'll try my best to help out.

let's see.....there is other stuff and I'll try and make another post during lunch when I can catch a break.

Mouse Hands

Well this sucks! I have two computers at work that I use at the same time. So I have double mouse hands! Here is a chain mail I got:

Hello dear friends,

We just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year:

Thanks to you, we no longer open any public bathroom door without using a paper
towel.

We can't sit down on any hotel bedspread because we can only imagine what may have happened
on it since it was washed.

We have trouble shaking hands with anyone who has been driving because
the number one pastime while driving alone is picking your nose.
(Cell
phone usage may have taken over the #1 spot.)

Eating
a Little Debbie causes us a guilt trip because we can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats we have consumed over the years.

We can't touch any woman's purse for fear she once placed it on the floor of a
public bathroom. Yuck!

We send special thanks to whoever sent us the one about poop in
the glue
on envelopes. Now we must use a wet sponge with every
envelope that
needs sealing.

Also
for the same
reason, now we must scrub the top of each can before we open it.

We sent all our savings to a sick girl (Penny
Brown) who
is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th
time.

And now we're penniless, but that'll change once we receive
the $15,000
that Bill Gates, Microsoft and AOL are sending us
for participating in their special e-mail program.

We no longer worry
about our souls because we have 363,214 angels looking out for us, and St.
Theresa's novena has granted our every wish.

We no longer eat at KFC because all their chickens are actually horrible
mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

We no longer use cancer-causing deodorant, even though we both smell like water buffaloes
on a hot day.

Thanks
to you, we have learned that our prayers only get answered if we
forward an
email to seven of our friends and make a wish within
five minutes.

Because
of your concern, we can no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet
stains.

We can never buy gasoline unless someone is along to watch the
car so
a serial killer can't crawl in the back seat when we are pumping
the gas.

We can't drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper because the people who make
these products
are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on
their cans.

We don't use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes
cancer.

And
thanks for letting us know we can't boil a cup of water in the
microwave anymore
because it will blow up in our face and disfigure us for
life.

We no longer check the coin returns on pay phones because we could be
pricked with
a needle infected with AIDS.

We never go to shopping malls any more, because someone could drug us with a
perfume sample
and rob us.

We refuse all packages from UPS and FedEx
since they are actually Al Qaeda
in disguise.

We no longer shop at Target because they are French
and don't support our American
troops or the Salvation Army.

We're afraid to answer the phone because someone could ask us to dial a
number for
which we will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda,
Singapore and Uzbekistan.

We won't buy expensive Neiman
Marcus cookies now because we have their recipe.

Thanks
to you, we'll never again use any toilet but our own because big
brown African
spiders lurk under the seats to bite our butts and cause instant death.

And
thanks to your great advice, we can't ever pick up a $5 bill lying in
the parking
lot because some
sex pervert probably put it there and is underneath our car waiting to grab our legs.

We can no longer
drive our cars because we can't buy gas from certain gas companies!

Now! If you don't send
this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with
diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon, and the fleas from 12
camels will infest your armpits and cause you to grow a hairy lump. I know this is true because it actually happened to a friend of my next door
neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's
beautician...

Have a wonderful
day!

Oh, by the
way.....

A German scientist
from Argentina has
discovered after a lengthy study that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail
with their hand on the mouse.

Don't
bother taking it off now,
it's too late!