Don’t Forget the Troops!!!

I admit it. I’ve been wrapped up in my own world quite a bit lately. I had a stellar vacation up in Montana in which I got some very nice time in on the slopes and spent time with my friends I don’t get to see too often. My dad is still recovering, but appears to be in the clear for which I am thankful. I got to spend time with my family on Christmas, and I’ve been playing catch up with work.

But…. Yesterday I was listening to the radio on my way to my folks house. They were talking about women who are involved with soldiers that are deployed to Iraq. It ran the gambit from women that were loyal and dedicated to those that were cheating on them (deplorable).

One argument the host presented is that if these people really loved their spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend / whatever, is that they wouldn’t have enlisted and went off to Iraq. I have to admit, I can listen to most of this stuff on the radio and it never phases me but I got pretty bent over this and had to turn it off.

Ultimately, though, I got to thinking about our men, women, boys and girls over seas. You may not agree with the war. You may not support the war. But please, support the troops over there that don’t exactly have a choice. Many of us have friends and family over there that we cannot be with this time of the year. Take some time while you are sipping on your eggnog and playing with your kid’s new Wii to give pause and just think about them for a moment and be thankful that you are able to get your buzz on without having to worry about being shot at.

A Christmas Omen

I was making my first beverage of Christmas day. I grabbed one of my standard tumblers from my cabinets and proceeded to the ice dispenser of the refrigerator. As the ice was making it’s way into my glass, and I anticipated the taste of rum and coke, the ice broke the glass and it came apart in my hands!!

No, there were no cuts, and glass didn’t go all over the floor. I was just very surprised as I’ve never had that happen before – ever. I figured it must be some kind of omen. Based on that, I made my beverage a double.

Merry Christmas!!

…and the Little Drummer Bastard beats his drum. Sorry, that is a Foamy reference.

But, hey! It’s Christmas morning. No snow on the ground, here. It’s about 45, here and we might get up to 60 today. I should be out riding the bike!!! Last week I was boarding in about four-feet of fresh “cold smoke” powder. The highs were in the 20’s. Here I am outside in shorts and a t-shirt, but at least I’ll get to see my family.

I’ve never been a big Christmas fan. Every since I learned that Santa wasn’t real and the true “meaning” of Christmas I felt that it’s always been completely over commercialized. Then there is the pressure of giving. You have to give to everyone. Christmas cards, cakes, cookies, presents, emails, phone calls, IM’s, etc. It’s never enough. I can’t remember to send something to everyone. If I forgot you this year, I apologize. I certainly didn’t mean to. You just got lost in the mix!!!

And then there are the crowds and throngs of people all fighting to get the latest toy for their kids. Don’t hesitate too long in the grocery isle or as you reach for that last can of chicken broth you will be knocked senseless by some lady wielding a 20lb butter-ball turkey!! Hey man! I just wanted some soup!

Yes, I have no food in the house. I was on vacation for a week and my room mate pretty much scarfed down what was left while I was gone. That’s fine, and I don’t have a problem with it. But I go to the store and the fookers are parked out into the street. Really? You couldn’t have planned ahead just a little better than this? Now I have to starve or eat fast food because I sure as hell am not going in there.

I also seem to associate Christmas with relatives that have passed away either because they died right around Christmas, or that’s just when I really miss them.

So yeah, I guess I am a bit of a scrooge….but what I’d really like is just to get together with family and friends, have a bottle of wine or two, some dinner, and just be thankful that we are able to see each other without all the gift exchange hoopla. Oh…wait, that’s Thanksgiving.

I'm a Bastard!

For those of you who have been waiting to see how my father is doing, I apologize. Last week was kind of hectic between work, and making sure he and my mom were OK.

As of today, he’s at home and doing just fine. He’s still not quite eating as much as we’d like him to, but he says everything still doesn’t quite taste right. That will probably go away in time.

He also walked around the block yesterday and appears to be getting around just fine, though he is restricted from doing some every day things due to his breast bone having to heal up.

I’ve actually gotten up to Montana to have some vacation time! I wouldn’t have come up here if my dad wasn’t doing good, but since he was getting back to his old self (I got a history and political lesson the last day I saw him in the hospital) I wasn’t too worried about it.

So why am I a bastard?

Well, aside from the times when people have told me that they don’t want to play games with me –

Do you want to play Monopoly?
No.
Why not?
Because you are a bastard
What do you mean?
You play to win
And your point???

- I’m a real smart-ass and have a mouth on me.

My dad had just gotten out of surgery. We waited in the waiting room all day. It was fairly long, and we were all tired. You can imagine, we finally get to see my dad late at night and he’s barely coming around from the anesthesia.

He’s got two chest drain tubes, a catheter, a central line, pacemaker wires, all kinds of IV’s and stuff all over the place, a stomach tube, and he’s on a ventilator. It’s a little distressing seeing him like this, but his color was good and his body temp was back up to normal.

He’s very disoriented, his eyes are glazed and he can barely open them. They agree to take him off the ventilator and we step out of the room while they do this. It’s obviously not very pleasant having a tube shoved down your throat, and probably even less pleasant having them take it out after you just got through having surgery. But, they got it out and then they let us back in to see him.

He’s still pretty much out of it, but acknowledges that we are there. He manages to ask, in a very croaky voice, “What time is it?” to which my mom replies “It’s about 8:15pm.”

Now, in a micro second my brain reacts and I start to blurt out “January 3rd.” (he went in on December 11th) I had to bite my tongue and stifle a giggle. Here is my dad, laid up, just out of open heart surgery, feeling horrible, barely conscious, and just wanting to know what time it is, and then there is me with my natural reaction to fuck with somebody.

I’m a bastard.

Waiting to wait....

I am sitting in a waiting room. More specifically, I am sitting in a fairly nice waiting room that is part of the cardio vascular facility at Arlington Memorial Hospital. My father is having a triple bypass as I type.

It’s hard not to be at least a little bit worried, but for the most part I’m not overly concerned. This is a fairly routine procedure, if you find that having your chest cracked open and your heart stopped “routine.”

Besides as a friend of mine said, there isn’t any other option but for things to turn out OK.

I was on the way to the airport when I got the news he was supposed to have surgery immediately. My boss and company were kind enough to find a replacement for my gig and tell me to stay with my family. I know that my parents are comforted by my being here and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

My dad was in fairly good spirits this morning before he went in, but I can tell he was nervous. Who wouldn’t be?

I look at it like this – he had a major heart attack and lost about 40% of his heart muscle. At the time, the docs told him that if he did everything that they tell him to do that they would give him another five years. That was just over 10 years ago. I feel pretty lucky to have him around. I already got an extra five years with him. Both my parents mean the world to me.

Things and Such as they Are

I’ve taken a break from being heavily involved in political debates for the last few weeks and it’s been a bit refreshing. Other than reading a few blogs here and there that keep me up to date, I’ve kind of just ignored everything.

I guess this is extreme apathy, but I’m so disgruntled with everything that I don’t even know where to begin. I certainly feel that our government is not interested in what the people want nearly as much as their own agendas (whatever they may be).

The presidential elections aren’t too far off and there is absolutely nobody running that I want in office. Great. Since I’ve been of-age to vote I’ve never seen any candidates that I truly believe in.

*sigh*

Other than that, Christmas is coming around again!!! It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was wrapping up my niece’s gifts. Of course, yesterday it was over 80 degrees and I have been on the ‘Priller every day this week. It’s kind of hard to get in the spirit with that type of weather.

That also means I’ve been home almost a year!!! Not too long ago I looked up how many flight miles I had racked up, and it was somewhere around 38,000 miles. Considering I was racking up 90,000+ a year this is a fairly significant change and I am certainly happier with my job because of it. Averaged out, I spent about 1.5 weeks out of the month on the road. This is pretty significant compared to 45 weeks out of the year spent on the road. So these are good things.

I just got off vacation from Thanksgiving, and now December is here. I am heading out of town next week to a client’s site, then I get back for one day and am heading up to Montana to see my friend’s and do some snowboarding. Then I get back for Xmas, then off to Vegas for New Year’s!!! So lots of traveling over the next month, but it’s mostly for having a good time. I’m sure my credit card companies are going to love me.

A New Low for eBay

It's illegal to sell or auction off body parts on eBay. But apparently it's perfectly legal to sell or auction off fake body parts on eBay. I'm referring to porn star Mary Carey's eBay auction of her implants. It looks like the starting price was $1.00 and is currently up to $6,600 at the time of this writing!!

On a slightly more useful note, I just got my Joby Gorillapod in the mail today. I haven't gotten to play with it yet, but it looks like it's going to work like a champ. Often times I wished that I had a tripod, or even just something to hold my camera for a moment while I snapped off a photo. Well, the Gorillapod does just that. It's a tripod, but it also grips unusually shaped objects for that "quick hold my camera" moment when nobody is around. It's also fairly small and compact so you can carry it in a pocket. I had it hanging on a door knob earlier, just to see if I could.

Go check it out!!!

Smart Car vs. Ferrari?

Well....give someone enough time and they'll figure out a way to have some fun with two objects that should not go together. I'm referring to the Smart Car and a Suzuki Hyabusa motorcycle engine!!!

Yes, some brave soles have started bonding these two with impressive results. Did you ever think you'd see a Smart Car smoke a Ferrari?

Tres Cool Coffee Table

Uber geek or Uber cool? I want one!!!!




I believe it's made by a company called "Because We Can" and starts at around $2500. Apparently, this is the new thing in coffee tables....

Cherry - if you are reading this, don't let Bling! see it.

Brad Pitt Announcement

...so i am talking to my friend in CO and she is sick as a dog. She asks me if knew what Brad Pitt said this morning.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Brad Pitt was supposed to make some big announcement this morning, but I didn't hear it."

"Really?"

"yeah."

Ok, I'll tell you the same thing I told her. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that Brad Pitt could announce that would have any relevance in my life or have a substantial moral, political, or religious impact on the rest of the world.

no offense, Brad....but when you get right down to it, you are just an actor.

Coming Together

Last night I watched a movie called "Talk to Me." It's a movie that chronicles part of the life of Ralph "Petey" Green. He was a radio personality that was the voice of black people in Washington D.C. He had some brief notoriety and momentary fame, but eventually elected not to pursue it.

Part of his time spent on the airwaves was when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed. He apparently helped quell the fury and riots as well as helped soothe people during this time of mourning.

While watching this particular part of the movie I was trying to figure out why it always takes a tragedy like this to bring our country together. We have all kinds of divisional boundaries - religion, politics, racial, social, etc.

It seems the only times we truly come together as a country is during times of crisis and mourning. MLK assassination, JFK assassination, the shuttle explosion(s), and 911.

Why is it that for a while we can put aside our hate and prejudice, but not continue to do so?

A Quick Lesson On The South

Many people often confuse the Confederate flag with the Confederate Battle Flag. Here are pictures of both of them:

Most people are familiar with the Confederate Battle flag (bottom), but would not recognize the Confederate Flag (top).

A Day in the Life...

So I've had a fairly productive day in the sense that I got a few things done without being stressed out. You also have to discount the fact that I didn't really get anything accomplished until after about 10:30am. I am on vacation, after all!!

But I got some air in my tires and made it up to the mall. Even for a Wed. after noon it was quite a scene. MILFs were abundant with strollers and little kiddies everywhere (don't these people work?). Some of the kiddies were on leashes, and it looks like they needed to be. Come to think of it....My folks said they put ME on a leash.

The strollers, though, were hard to navigate around. These things have gotten huge! Some of them had more cargo space than my truck and that was for just ONE kid. I'm not kidding, I saw some of them that were easily three feet long with sleeping quarters. The double-strollers were also quite massive and it was entertaining watching the women try to man-handle these things while simultaneously juggling shopping bags and the happy meal from sonic.

At one point, I was walking through the food court and got trapped / surrounded by several of the behemoths. Oddly enough, it was well choreographed and I had faint memories of watching a water ballet on the Olympics.

But I made it through the food court only to be called out to by a cute young girl at a kiosk selling iPod accessories.
her: "Hi! Do you have an iPod?"

me: "yes, I do."

her: "which one?"

me: "ummm....the 30-gig classic." At this point I got the deer in the headlights look. This model is only a year old, but I could tell she had no clue what I was talking about.

her: "so, huh, have you seen these converters that let you listen to them in your car?"

me: "yeah, but I don't listen to my iPod in the car very much" Mind you, I am standing there in full riding gear holding a motorcycle helmet. I am still getting the deer in the headlights look and I almost thought to ask her "Which one is bigger, an elephant....or the moon?"

fortunately, she let me out of this one with only a warning....
her: "ummm....ok, have a nice day."

At which point I made a bee-line to the gift giving tree. This is similar to the Angel tree, but it's sponsored by Big Brothers and Big Sisters. It's interesting that over the years it has changed from:
basketballs, skates, and remote controlled cars

to:

games for my [insert game system here]
MP3 player
CD player
etc.

Still, though, the ones that really get to me are the ones where the kids are just asking for clothes. If a 14-year-old boy is asking for clothes that's really sad.

So I loaded up on gift cards to clothing stores and an AMC movie pass good for a few rounds at the movies and dropped it all off. That made me feel a little bit better, but there is still the Toys for Tots Run coming up. As usual, I'm having problems finding which one is the right Toys for Tots Run.

But then it was off to find a tank protector only to find out another motorcycle dealer has moved or gone out of business. You would think that with the increasing popularity of motorcycles it would be easier to find dealers, not harder. But here in S. Arlington you are pretty much fooked unless you want to go to D&S Kawasaki, and I hate those guys.

So I took the bike and flogged it down 157 through the twisties. I think, for once, I really didn't speed too much.....as long as you don't count doubling the posted warnings for the corners, but I don't think that is actually speeding. Only once did I look down and realize I was exiting a corner at over 70mph and the posted speed limit for that stretch was somewhere around 50mph.

Aside from the wind, the weather was great. One layer of thermals on my legs, a long sleeve shirt and my jacket (no winter liner). It was cool, but never cold and for some reason it was just very peaceful to be on the bike letting the miles click off on the odometer.

I Blew My Wad at Fry’s

….and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Actually, I didn’t even get that. I had to argue with the manager to try to get them to let me guarantee my purchases beyond thirty days as they were all Christmas gifts.

But I have gotten about 90% of my shopping done for the year!!! WHOOOHOO!!! Tomorrow I think the ‘Priller needs a good flogging.

Global Warming Evidence

So Bling! and I are having a conversation and he says to me that “a lack of evidence is not evidence.” This was in reference as to why I don’t agree with global warming theories.

A bit stunned, we got interrupted and I didn’t get to finish the conversation with him. But he does have a good point even if I think the logic is a bit flawed.

But more importantly I think it’s necessary to recognize who is responsible for the burden of proof . You don’t see me running around shouting that we are all doomed and must change our politics. If someone is going to shout that there is global warming and that we need to make radical political and sociological changes then I believe the burden of proof is on them.

Yet, the IPCC has consistently failed to meet that burden of proof. In fact, (here is some evidence) none of what they have predicted has come to fruition. Oh, wait! Maybe that’s a lack of evidence though we can prove that what they said would happen didn’t actually happen.

So here are a few other quick factoids:

The IPCC manipulated models, graphs, and evidence that were contradictory to their agenda. They also “silenced” IPCC reviewers that disagreed with their falsified findings by refusing to publish their reports. And yes, this is fact.

It has not been proven that there have been any significant increases in mean sea level as recorded by satellites, gps readings, and markings made by man. There is some evidence that the sea levels have changed, but it there has been no clear determination of whether the sea actually rose, or if the land shifted (up or down).

Co2 has been proven to have very little if any effect on temperature and certainly not enough of an effect to cause global warming on the scale that the IPCC claims. Water vapor, however, has been proven to have this effect.

There is evidence that shows that solar activity has a far greater effect on our planet than anything mankind has done.

The IPCC, NASA, and other scientist have failed to provide a consistent and precise protocol for measuring temperature across the planet and over time so as to provide a true and accurate recording of the average or mean temperature.

Even that being said, there is evidence from satellites, weather balloons, and other instruments that support that the earth is not, in fact, warming by any significant amount.

Evidence also shows that the earth has been significantly cooler and significantly warmer throughout history.

There is evidence that shows that ice shelves, landmass, and glaciers are increasing in size while others are decreasing (just like always). One might remember that it wasn’t too long ago that Greenland was green and not buried under ice and snow.

I suppose I can go on, but I don’t think I need to. Don’t forget to review this older post for more facts.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, and still fail to see how there is evidence that supports climate change, but not this impending doom then perhaps I have failed to do a good job.

I’m A Fanatic!!

While preparing to gluten myself on holiday turkey and other tasty morsels of food I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and he said that both me, and my father, were fanatical about being anti-global-warming.

I was a bit stunned by this as I certainly don’t see myself as fanatical. I typically think of someone that is fanatical as someone that is willing to go out of their way, alter their behavior to some extent or otherwise become obsessed about something as to be fanatical.

The issue is most definitely divided and we have people that both believe in global warming, and those that do not . Yet, I wouldn’t throw any of them into the fanatical crowd.

The people that I would throw into the fanatical group are those that are flying around the country scare mongering people into believing that we are all doomed. These are people that are willing to go the extra mile to preach what they believe in (or do they?) and have us change our lifestyles, ideologies, and even our laws. To me, that is fanatical.

What do I do? Well, I do think that we have an inherent responsibility to educate ourselves and our future generations. It’s exactly why we spend money on public education. So, all I do is try to let people know that I don’t believe in the scare mongering and why I don’t believe in it. You don’t see me lobbying and protesting with anti-global-warming signs and crap like that. For the most part, I even keep my mouth shut when people bring it up. I hardly call that fanatical.

Insurance Company Credit Scam!

Ok, so it’s not really a scam….but it seems highly unfair and unfounded as to why an insurance company is allowed to check you credit history to determine if they will cover you and what rates they will charge you.

I could understand this if you were borrowing money from them, but you are not. It would make more sense to me if they could run some kind of check to see how many filings you have had in the last few years. That makes a lot more sense as to whether or not you are going to be a high-risk client.

What I’d really like to see, in all fairness, is some type of statistics that show how many first claims are denied. I’d also like to see that for second claims and some ratio showing how many claims that were denied on a first or second filing basis that were eventually paid.

Turnabout is fair play and that would allow us, as consumers, to know what kind of a company we are going to be dealing with. But that will never happen. The insurance companies have way too much money and are sucking the proverbial dicks of the legislature so well that we can be assured that we will continue to be treated as peons and that they can get away with just about whatever they like.

Dumbest Contestant Ever?

Aside from the Beauty Pageant contestant that left me feeling like I can eat Cheetos, drink beer, never work again and still be OK we have a new winner!!!

I saw this and laughed until I cried. It just struck me as highly amusing. I then had visions of the producers with their jaws hanging open wondering how they were going to fill more air-space because nobody could be that stupid. “Quick! Cut to commercial! Cut to commercial!!!’

As it turns out, she wasn’t that stupid after all. The picture is a hoax. I found that out afterwards, but it really made me question my faith in humanity. Well, then again…there really isn’t any question. Yes, I believe people are that stupid. Sorry, there you have it.

Black Friday

The AP reported that you crazy bastards waited in line, camped out, crushed each other through doorways, got into fistfights, and broke record numbers of spending. Up 8-point-something percent you managed to spend $10.3 BILLION dollars on Black Friday.

I read numerous reports of fist fights, people camping out, etc. Let me just tell you….you have got to be high on crack, or at least should be seeking mental help. Nobody in their right mind can cost-justify torturing themselves to that extent to save a few extra bucks. Trust me, it will be on sale again before Christmas, and again after Christmas.

Maybe it’s the whole camaraderie of being a crazy bastard along with all the other crazy bastards that are camped out. I don’t know….but I can tell you this white cracker will not ever be amongst you. So shop at will, and thanks for helping support the economy!
BTW – if you took some of that time and energy and put it back to helping people out that would be a real gift this year.

Microbial Hydrogen!!!

Here is a quick article forwarded to me by Bling! The article is spot-on when it states that part of the problem with using hydrogen as an alternative fuel source is storage and production. This article addresses the production piece of it and it’s a very innovative alternative.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=9278

Just a Few Quickies

Here are some random thoughts, ideas, and things I’ve heard over the last few days. I’m not saying that all of them are mine, or even that I agree with all of them.

Caddo Lake
I spent the weekend at Caddo lake with a friend of mine. I had never been there before, but it was pretty cool. The lake is more of a swamp, with an average depth of only 6 feet and huge groves of cypress trees and all kinds of aquatic life.

Personal Property
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine regarding the ownership of, and the use of, personal information. They presented this as being anything that is personal or proprietary to the individual including photos, DNA, etc.

The idea being that if you picture or photo is utilized by the government, you can sue them and ask for compensation because it is your property. The same would go for your DNA records, medical records, etc. Part of what is driving this is that the government has been, and still is collecting, massive amounts of information about individuals. So if you grab this photo of yours truly, I expect something back......

Can I touch it?
no, don't even look at it.
I can't look at it?
no




Helmet Laws
Yesterday I took Hopper’s bike out for a quick spin around the block. If you have read my blog for any length of time you know I am an avid supporter of wearing protective gear when riding.

This one time, though, I was just taking it for a quick spin so I didn’t bother to grab my helmet. In fact, I didn’t even grab my wallet (though I briefly looked for it). I took the bike out and, of course, got pulled over.
The officer pulled me over and told me up front he stopped me for not wearing a helmet. I got a warning on that one, but also got a $225 fine for not having my license on me even though he validated it from the information I gave him and I now have to go down and show them my license. Supposedly that will get the ticket dismissed.

Afterwards, I started looking into the law on helmets again. It’s still a very convoluted issue in Texas and the officers, judges, and court clerks still don’t know the law and are merrily violating people’s civil rights and fining them way too much money.



Using Ethanol as Fuel
A few excerpts from an article forwarded to me regarding some of the far reaching impact of subsidizing and mandating of ethanol for fuel:

Ethanol, it turns out, may be great politics in Midwestern corn growing states, but it is terrible environmental and economic policy. As more and more food is diverted from human consumption to producing fuel, prices for basic food are skyrocketing around the world. Deforestation is on the rise as third world countries try to cash in on the boom, and violence has broken out as small landholders are being kicked off their land to make way for large palm oil farms.

A coalition made up of Oxfam, the World Wildlife fund, and other groups is raising concerns about the current rush to replace fossil fuels with biofuels. Increased Ethanol production has led to a spike in corn prices that has caused food shortages in third world countries, including our neighbor to the South, Mexico. African and Asian countries that are currently unable to produce enough food for their own populations are clearing cropland to supply Ethanol for Europe’s new mandate of 10% Ethanol in all their gasoline.

The environmental benefits of using Ethanol are miniscule to non-existent—some estimates even show that it takes more fossil fuel to make a gallon of Ethanol than it yields as a fuel. Water resources are being stretched to the point of disaster, and food prices are spiking across the world. The Japanese car companies warn consumers to avoid biodiesel as it lowers the life-span and efficiency of their engines.

Politicians and other ethanol advocates have argued that government mandates and subsidies and mandates were needed to “jump-start” the ethanol industry—that someday, some way all these government subsidy will pay off in better and more efficient fuels. After 30 years of government subsidies and mandates, Ethanol production is as inefficient today as it was then—only now it’s hurting more people.




Kermit Sings Hurt
This is just….wrong, in so many ways:






Ironic, Isn’t It?

New Mexico Grants Drivers Licenses to Illegal Aliens

I really thought it would be California that did this first, but it looks like the state of New Mexico is now granting drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Other states are considering doing the same. Unbelievable. I saw this right before I stepped on a plane and fumed about it the whole way home.

It’s mind boggling to me. I simply do not understand how we can allow felons to come into a DMV and get a drivers license without getting arrested! My friend tells me that we need to have a talk about constitutional law. I really would like to be enlightened on how this works because I simply don’t understand it. I am not being facetious. I really want to understand what I consider to be a serious flaw in our system. But it probably wouldn’t do any good anyway as it certainly doesn’t seem that our government cares to fix the problem.

There isn’t much I can do as I am not a citizen of the state of New Mexico, but I am so disheartened by this that I just feel like giving up on our government. I cannot express in words how angry and sad this makes me all at the same time. It’s no wonder that other countries have no respect for us. We can’t, or don’t, enforce our own laws.

Just Time for a Northern Quickie

Here are some pics from my recent trip into the Massachusetts area. I’ve never been up here before so it was a bit of a change for me. Everyone kept telling me that I missed the turning of the leaves, but I still thought they were beautiful! You can tell that some of the trees have finally shed their leaves outright, but for the most part there were still plenty of colors to behold no matter where you went.

There is a lot of history right here where I am at. Most of it seems to be related to electricity and mills. Here is a quick picture of the Crane Paper museum, which was part of the original mill. Crane paper has the distinct honor of being the only mill that produces the specialty “paper” that our currency ends up being printed on. You are probably already aware that it’s not really paper but a textile like cloth. In fact, the original paper that the mill produced was from recycled rags. The guy I was working with has an original ad that read something to the effect of “ladies, don’t throw your rags away.” They also print all the stationary that the White House uses. Surprisingly enough, even though they pretty much ARE the town of Dalton, I couldn’t get my hands on any of their stationary!

A last little tidbit is this guitar. Now, I know it doesn’t look very special from the photo and if you know anything about guitars you might pony up a few bucks for it if you saw it at a garage sale. If you knew even more about guitars you might check the model and serial numbers and realize that you had a pretty special “one off” production guitar and pony up even more dollars for it.

And then if you were really serious you would take it to have it appraised, which is just what the guy I was working with did. After he told me about it, I guessed at a value of around $75,000. He said that’s what he thought, too. After having it appraised though, he was informed a “serious collector” might pony upwards of $500,000 for it!!!! HOLY SMOKES! Like I said, it’s relative. My guess is that a realistic price for it is probably around $250,000. He let me play it a bit, and it was pretty nice. Nothing extrodinary, though. The neck was a bit wide – like that of a classical. But it had a great tone. Check out some of the pics of it. Yes, that is a real rosewood body. Sorry the pics aren't great, it was kind of on-the-fly.

The Witching Hour?

So I woke up this morning and had to use the little boys room. I made my way in the dark, stubbing my toe in the process. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I guessed between 3:00am and 4:00am. Being a bit of an insomniac I have some experience at guessing the time.

As it turns out, it was 3:33. Not quite 6:66, but half of that.... does that mean that it hints at being half-way evil?

Football Or Nothing!

No wonder the northerners are enraptured by football. There isn't anything else to do but suck back a cold one and watch the boys throw the pigskin around!

Just Ramblin' A Bit

As always, I have all these great ideas to write about when I am flying and then can’t seem to articulate any of them in the same way when I actually sit down to write about them.

I suppose it has a lot more to do with freer flowing thought as I stare out of an airplane window and I just can’t get to that same place in a hotel room. Because my laptop is a behemoth and my battery doesn’t last long it is rarely worth it to pull it out on an airplane. Besides, I think they have weight restrictions on the tray tables..

Lately I’ve been dreaming a lot. For many of you, this may not be unusual. For me, it’s highly unusual. I’ve read that everyone dreams every time you sleep, but that we may not have any recollection of it. I can believe that, and if that is the case then lets say that I rarely remember that I even dreamt at all.

To take it a step further, many of you are already aware that I am a bit of an insomniac. Sometimes it’s the traditional form where I toss and turn and just outright can’t sleep. More often though it’s a bit different for me. I can’t seem to shut my brain down and therefore never reach a truly deep state of unconsciousness. I’ve had people tell me I was sleeping when I would swear up and down I was awake the whole time. It’s not that I don’t believe them, it’s that my brain continues to function on some level that eludes to a level of consciousness for me. The nights I lay down, finally fall asleep and then am just out for several hours is few and far between.

Now I can get very relaxed and my thought stream will get fairly creative and surreal. I suppose that is similar to a dream, but I don’t realize I am asleep and I am pretty sure that sometimes I am for sure NOT asleep as I can recall things going on in the environment around me.

But lately, I’ve been dreaming more at a level where I know it was true REM and I can recall that I had a dream. Not that I always remember the dream, but I at least know I had one. I’m not exactly sure what to attribute this to but it’s interesting and I’m exploring it a bit further.

I’ve also been trying to be a bit more introspective lately. It’s always hard to see yourself as you are, but I am fortunate enough to have some friends that tell me how they see me and how others see me. I’m not really trying to analyze how others see me, though. I’m trying to analyze how I see myself. Sometimes that is far more important than how others see you.

I’ve learned some things I was unaware of and have looked at things from a different viewpoint. I am not saying that I agree with them, but it’s always interesting to hear a perspective or viewpoint that you were not aware of.

Then I get to thinking if I have made good, and correct decisions and where that leaves me in my life. Over all, I’d say that answer is “yes” and I am probably more “good” than most of your weekend Christians….even though I certainly like to have my fun.
But I wonder sometimes if I missed my calling. What does that even mean? To me, it means whatever we were supposed to do. I think that we often miss-interpret that to mean that we thought we should be famous or something like that. I don’t think that I should have been famous, but it would have been a sweet ride. I have a handful of talents that I believe are more prevalent than in others. My question to myself is more of a moral dilemma to wonder if I should be exploiting them more….and not just for me, and certainly not for monetary gain, but for humanity.

As an example….what if I was really supposed to be a musician? What if I was supposed to create music that people listened to and it touched them in some profound way? In that capacity I would have been doing something more than what I am. What do I do? I make 1’s and 0’s travel around and get them where they are supposed to be. I am good at it, but what benefit am I really providing to mankind?

I have said it before, but I’ll say it again. I think most people are just sheep. I don’t believe that they have any redeeming qualities or anything to offer and if they do then they have no ambition to explore it and become more than what they are as an individual. I supposed that is pretty pessimistic, but if you really sit back and look at the percentage of the population that inspires you for any real reason you might find that it’s pretty small.

I heard a guy recently give a speech and he asked “what are American values?” His answer was fairly sarcastic and pretty much on the money. But, then he said it should be God, Family and Country. I took these answers and thought about the root effect of any of them and my summation is that it’s to be part of something larger than yourself. With religion, it’s God. With people, it’s your family. With America it’s our country. We can become part of something larger than ourselves, but I think most of us choose not to for some reason or another. I wonder if I have also inadvertently chosen this path and don’t realize it?

It makes me feel good when my friends tell me that I inspired them in some way. Often times I don’t realize I did it. Maybe that’s my contribution. Maybe, it’s that I chose to be a good person and put other people and my country ahead of myself and by doing so have become part of something larger than I cannot see right now.

I feel pretty fortunate that I have great parents and a stable environment in which to grow up. I believe that to some extent it allowed me to develop into a fairly intelligent and well balanced person. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I am super smart. I know super smart people and I simply am not genetically as intelligent as they are no matter what I do to exercise it. It never fails to humble me to be around my father, some of my friends, some of my colleagues, or others I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in my life.

So again, I wonder am I doing enough with it? Is there something more I should be doing with it? With any of it? Don’t worry. I’d not say it’s a mid-life crisis by any means, but if I can find a good Vette then I’ll buy one.

I once wrote on here a quote that I really enjoyed. http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2007/02/brief-quote.html

I think most of us are completely missing the point and just going about our lives as we go through the motions without making any real effort to better ourselves, recognize the beauty of the world we live in, or try to be at peace with each other and make the world (not just good ‘ol USA) a better place to live. I think most people are hollow and empty inside and have lost the ability to fill that void. But I also know there are people out there that are not like that. That are doing something meaningful and purposeful in a way that cannot be expressed in financial success or popularity. They are the people that create, that are giving of themselves, that have obtained some sort of peace and balance, have chosen to be more than a rat in a cage (sorry for the cheap analogy), and are kind even though they may not always be kind. They are the ones that inspire the rest of us. I hope, in some little way, that I am one of those people.

Electric Cows

I’m working at a fairly interesting research facility this week. I can’t tell you the name of my client, but let’s say they test and research high-voltage components and scenarios. The guy I am working with was telling me of a time when they did an experiment with cows.

Apparently, some dairy farmers were trying to lay to rest the question of whether or not dairy cows (Holsteins) produced less milk in the presence of high-voltage wires. Now, before you go thinking that they electrocuted a bunch of cows it was nothing of the sort.

They rented (yes rented) some cows and stuck them in a field with some high voltage lines. It took them a little while, but what they figured out is that the hooves of the bovines not only conduct electricity, but also act as a collector. So the cows would roam around the field and build up a charge. When they bent their heads to eat the grass they would ground themselves out and receive a mild electric shock for their efforts.

As far as they could tell, this didn’t really hurt the cows but it discouraged them from eating in the same quantities they would have had there not been any electricity around. Thus, it turned out it was true that cows which were in proximity to high-voltage lines produced less milk….just not for the reasons people were thinking.

BMW – The Hydrogen Anomaly

I saw an ad for the new BMW Hydrogen Series while walking through the SJC airport. I stopped and read the ad and apparently they are making and marketing a new car that can do 140mph, but has nearly zero CO2 emissions. They purport that the emissions are almost all water vapor. I had to go on the web site and read about how they pull this off.

What’s more interesting to me, though, is that the ad naturally goes on to say that because it’s water vapor, and not CO2 that is emitted that the car is a “green friendly” car. I suppose that if you buy into all the hoopla that the IPCC puts out there then this would be a very likely assumption.

However, the reality is far more different. While there is virtually no scientific evidence supporting global warming through CO2, there is a substantial amount of data that shows how water vapor in the atmosphere directly affects the temperature in a given area. If you have ever heard of the urban heat island affect then you are already aware that population densities often increase the heat in a given geographic area. There are a lot of reasons for this, but water vapor is one of the primary contributing factors.

Upon further investigation what I found is that the car can run on either hydrogen or gasoline. When operating on gasoline, BMW is claiming a 17 miles to the gallon fuel economy. Not the greatest, but still better than some others. However, when operating on hydrogen the car gets 4.7 miles to the gallon (liquid hydrogen).

To make matters worse, hydrogen is readily available but only after you expend quite a bit of energy to extrapolate it for large-scale purposes….which really means that it is, in fact, not readily available to the average consumer. Combine that with the energy required to store it as a liquid form at -423 F and the manufacturing of safety equipment when dealing with liquid hydrogen, and the benefits of this vehicle start to rapidly diminish.

According to sources I could find, the energy required to store the fuel alone eats up to 1/3 of energy contained in the tank, which holds roughly 17.6lbs of fuel. Unfortunately, due to insulating properties and trying to keep the fuel cold, the tank ends up being the size of a 45 gallon tank, takes up ½ the trunk space and within 9 days ½ of the tank will go bad (can’t keep it cold forever).

From sources I could find cost of a kilogram of liquid hydrogen is approximately $6.50. Do the math on that one and you are looking at about $50.00 to fill up your hydrogen tank and you should fare about 124 miles out of it.

The car is still being researched and is only being release (sold) to some celebrities and stuff in the first year of production. Based on what I have read, it seems unlikely that the car could experience any real success.

My friend asked me if I thought it was a bad idea to be exploring alternative energy sources. I think it's a great idea, but this one doesn't seem to be well thought out.

I'd really like to think that it is ignorance on BMW's part. Or that there is some other objective that I am unable to ascertain. I hope it is not another example of an automobile manufacturer playing upon the fear mongering and ignorance of the general public. I suppose this is nothing new, but if you are really worried about globing warming it would seem to me that you would avoid a car like this so as not to be wasteful of resources and / or pumping even more water vapor into the atmosphere.

Thumb Owie

If you ever think that your sprockets on the motorcycles aren't sharp, here is a quick pic of my thumb after getting it caught between the chain and the sprocket. I was cleaning the chain and rotating the tire and my thumb, even while wrapped in a rag, got caught. This was just from me manually turning the wheel. The bike was not under power or I think I would have lost the end of my thumb. I'll be lucky not to lose part of my nail as it is. The sprocket basically punched a hole in my thumb right where the nail connects.

Panty Crickets Invade North Texas

This year, Brittany Spears herself arrived at the Oak Lawn Halloween party!! Unfortunately, she wasn’t getting laid as she also brought a horde of Pantie Crickets with her. Nobody had a condom big enough, or strong enough, to withstand the onslaught of partying festivities that inhabited her nether regions.

Ummm….so as you can probably tell there was a group theme party this year. The girl that did Brittany did a great job. And the two ladies that put the costumes together also did a great job.

Me? All I had to do was fly back in town, put on my costume and have a good time! It was quite simple.

We went down to the Oak Lawn Halloween party. I was told that this has become the third largest Halloween party in the world. I couldn’t confirm it, but it was PACKED. You literally had to fight your way through the crowd just to walk across the street. But everyone had fun and nobody got hurt (in so far as I know!) so I thought I’d share a few quick pictures with you.

Check out the biker “cricket” on my shirt!!! Hey man! If you can't laugh at yourself.....

More Gore Hypocrisies

Al Gore recently spent $2-million (yes, that is million – with an “m”) on a condo in San Francisco, CA. His daughter also has a condo there while she attends college.

There are multiple debates on why he bought the condo. I mean, for a man that has places everywhere, did he really need another residence? Oh! I’m sorry, it’s not an official residence. Wouldn’t want to do that, he’d have to pay more taxes that way and we all know that the taxes in CA are brutal.

But what I question is this:

For a man that believes in Global Warming as the eminent catastrophe and doom of the entire planet and human race why would he spend $2million on a condo in San Fran? If the sea levels are going to rise and wipe out San Fran, would you really expect someone to invest $2million in property there?

Could it be that even Gore doesn’t believe his own rhetoric?

California Gay Rights and Liberalism

I’ve always viewed California as a pretty radical liberal state. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I reside in Texas, which is pretty conservative. So I wasn’t entirely shocked when my friend, Phil, sent me a link to this article posted on Townhall.com.

The article indicates that CA has recently passed three new bills that will radically change how the state educational system views and allows sexual subject and content to be introduced to children.

SB 777 bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as discriminating against homosexuality, bisexuality, transexuality, etc.

AB 394 requires the state department to monitor adherence to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment requirements involving “actual (or get this) perceived gender identification and sexual orientation.”

AB 14 prohibits funding to any program that does not support alternative sexual practices. This includes, but is not limited to, state-funded social services run by churches.

Now before you go off thinking I have a hard-on (no pun intended) against homosexuals or something to that effect that is simply not true.

I do, however, take issue with the state educational system or government funded programs being allowed to dictate that we have to require all kind of alternative lifestyles be incorporated into our programs.

I don’t think a young child growing up should be subject to learning about homosexuality or transexuality in school. Not only do I believe that is the parents responsibility (although most parents aren’t doing a good job of this), but it’s hard enough growing up and figuring yourself out much less having to try to choose which bathroom to use based on a sexual preference you can’t even begin to understand.

It’s also interesting the The Governator vetoed similar bills earlier, but now signed these in to law. The article isn’t able to explain this one, either.

The last paragraph is of particular importance because I pretty much agree with it. In summary, the author writes that:
“We must make Americans aware of what is happening and be prepared to fight it. Either that or we must be prepared for the “tolerant” left to begin persecuting those who advocate social and cultural positions opposed to theirs. This is as gross an abuse of power as I have ever seen.”

I don’t completely agree with the “gross abuse of power” but this is certainly going to set a precedence. Private schooling in CA is exploding due to issues like this. I certainly would not want my child coming home from school wondering if they should be gay or not, if they are gay or not, or were born the wrong gender altogether.

One thing I do not understand about liberalism is the ideology that everyone is allowed to be their own person and have individual rights provided that you are forced to acknowledge everyone else’s beliefs and cultural stances.

I think that were the goal to increase tolerance of other sexual behaviors and cultural stances that it could be done in a better way.

How Good Is Your Eyesight?

Saving Water one Piss at a Time!

I was teaching at the San Jose campus for Cisco Systems. At this particular facility they have installed the Sloan Water Free Urinals in the men’s bathroom. Now I had seen and used these before, but this was the first time I used one on a regular basis in a non-public building.

The web page for Sloan advertises that these are “odor-free.” I’m not sure what they mean by that. My guess is that the intent is that under normal use they aren’t supposed to smell. Or maybe, it’s a marketing thing and they are saying that the porcelain doesn’t smell. No shit. But let me tell you something - these things may save millions of gallons of water every year, but they stink to high heaven.

Now Cisco has a nice campus facility and as far as I could tell the bathrooms were maintained at least twice a day. These were not highly trafficked bathrooms but this thing stank so bad I had to hold my breath to be near it. I ended up going in the stalls just to get away from it. That and the pubic hairs and crap all over it just made it completely revolting to even be around.
I’m sure we can think of some other way to save water than to make us have to put up with nasty, stinky, latrines.

More Plane Morons

On the flight out there was an obnoxious guy sitting across the isle from me. Next to him was an older guy that was clearly from India. The obnoxious guy is trying to strike up a conversation with the poor fellow who clearly does not speak English very well (not that I can write it any better!).

So I hear the guy ask the Indian a question a couple of times, and then he proceeds to increase his volume until he is practically yelling at the guy. Now I realize I am no master of physics or human psychology, but the last time I checked you couldn’t make people understand you any better by yelling at them if they didn’t speak the same language.

I wanted to yell at this guy “HE DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH. HE CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU.” “why are you telling at me?” “BECAUSE HE CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU.”

I’m not sure he would have gotten it and something tells me that I would still be detained by the friendly TSA folks at SJC.

Teaching in San Jose

As many of you know by now, when I get busy teaching class and am away on business I tend to not be able to blog as much. No apologies anymore. I do what I can, and I appreciate those of you that read and keep up! However, when I am teaching all day and I still have my “regular” work load to keep up with the last thing I want to do is sit here on the computer and type something out.

Global Warming Conspiracies!

I took this pic from http://www.john-daly.com/ it shows how in 1841 Antarctic Explorer Capt. Sir James Clark Ross marked what represented mean sea level on the Isle of the Dead, Tasmania. The mark is 50cm across with a tidal range of less than a meter. The picture has a highlight of the mark. The original photos and source are on the website.

On my dad’s blog, he quotes an article by Dr. Vincent Gray. Dr. Gray is a member of the UN IPCC Expert’s Reviewer Panel since inception. I’ll let you read the article, and if you believe in global warming as hyped by the media, and politicians, then you really should at least read the article.
http://politicalangstinamerica.blogspot.com/2007/10/here-is-piece-by-member-of-ipcc-that.html

After reading the article I decided to try to find a direct link (not through my dad’s blog) to the article. What ended up happening is that I stumbled upon many a web site for pro-global warming and those who don’t believe it.

Apparently, Dr. Gray’s qualifications as well as his motives are called into question on several web sites. A few key points seem to be factual and without challenge:

He holds a PhD in Chemistry
He has had a long research career in the UK, France, Canada, China and New Zealand.
He has researched coal, timber, other building materials, etc.
He has published many of his findings
He is a member of the UN IPCC Expert Reviewer Panel
He has submitted a plethora of articles to the IPCC all of which have been rejected.

Here are the key challenges that I could find:
He is not an expert in climate
His skepticism is motivated by funding from oil companies

What I have to ask you, dear reader, is do you follow logic or not?

If you read the article that is posted, which he wrote, he clearly attacks the IPCC as a corrupt entity. This attack is primarily based on the fact that the IPCC has consistently rejected the scientific method and open debates. Now whether or not you believe that Dr. Gray is qualified as a climatologist, he unequivocally understands the scientific method. Failure of the IPCC to embrace and practice standard scientific methods have been a charge of thousands of scientists (and non-scientists) for years.

I actually like the people pointing out how he is not a climate expert. The reason I like this is that the scientific community (as well as non scientists) has been saying that the alleged “thousands” of scientists that unanimously agree on global warming and Co2 as the cause are not, in fact, qualified to do so. By that very logic, if you conclude that Dr. Gray is not qualified you are in fact supporting the supposition that the IPCC is not made up of people qualified to accurately and scientifically figure out what is going on and report it to the public.

As a side note, of the 2611 or so scientist that the IPCC touts as being members only one-in-ten have scientific backgrounds and only five of them have training in weather, climate, or other atmospheric sciences.
Source: http://www.ff.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=373&Itemid=67

Let’s also look at the questionable intentions of Dr. Gray. Several blog sites and boards cite that he has received funding from oil companies. However, he denies these
charges and as best as I can tell there is NO evidence that this is true. This seems to be a favorite conclusion of many global warming advocates: The oil companies are paying them off.

Obviously, there is money on both sides of the fence. But let’s look at reality for a moment. Global Warming is a multi-multi-multi-multi-billion dollar a year industry. You simply only have to say “global warming” or “eco friendly” or anything to that effect to get grant monies or have an effective advertising campaign. Just look at all the eco-friendly cars that actually have a higher carbon impact than other not-so-friendly cars, yet folks are shelling out the money for them.

From my dad’s blog:
“….One factually incorrect aspect of your story is that the global warming deniers are lavishly funded. According to Senator Inhofe governments and others have spent $50 billion supporting the global warming supporters, while the deniers have been funded at $19 million.”

James Hanson is an advocate of global warming and is good at supporting the cause and scaring the public into the belief that imminent doom is coming. Hanson received $250,000 from John Kerry’s wife’s foundation, and another $750,000 from the Open Society Institute. I have not seen, nor heard of any figures of oil companies paying off the other 17,000 scientists in such numbers – though that is not to say that I don’t think there is healthy lobbying there as well!! To me, the bottom line that any nay-sayers of global warming are funded by oil companies is a fairly weak argument.

As much as I think things are turning around, I think much of the damage has been done. It’s effecting our budgets. It’s effecting our politics. It’s effecting our economies. It’s effecting our general outlook on life. Some of this is good, and some of it is bad. I’ve always thought that using global warming as a scare tactic for monetary and political gain has been the end-goal all along and unfortunately that battle has pretty much been won.

But, people are starting to realize that all these predictions aren’t happening. They are starting to realize that not all scientists agree that the debate is “over.” They are starting to realize that the seas aren’t rising; we haven’t been thrown into some cataclysmic eco-holocaust. The polar bears are thriving. New ice shelves are being formed and old ones are moving along and breaking off as they have been for millions of years. We even had one of the nicest summers I can ever remember here in Texas. It may be a little too little too late.

What I Did Last Weekend

Here is a small post to show those that think Texas is flat and barren that there are some areas that actually do have forests. All of these photos were taken on land that my family owns in far E. Texas, which is the start of the Piney Woods belt that runs up into the northern portions of the U.S.

I went down there with my friend Droid to check out the property and perhaps find him a good spot to get a deer for the season.

The first photo is just a quickie shot looking down one of the "roads" that divides our property, which is on both sides of the road. Nice and thick! We had fun on the roads at night doing some mudding and just looking at the stars. You can see the Milky Way with the nekkid eye! Hard to explain it if you are a city person, but just sitting in the back of the truck under the stars and having a cold beer is very peaceful to me.

This next photo is a shot of our land where they had set up a logging operation to thin out some of the trees so that the nice straight ones would have more room to grow.

We also did some mudding in the truck and the next day we found this little morsel on the inside of the door. We have yet to figure out how this happened.

And last, but not least, here is another shot of some of our land while Droid takes aim on a target that we had setup. As you can probably tell, it pretty much requires a truck to get up in there.

Your Right To Ride Slowly Being Eroded

I constantly try to get riders and people to be cognizant of the machine that is our government. Most of them don’t give a rats ass. They don’t vote, they don’t get involved. But, whether they realize it or not they are involved. And some of them are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Unlike automobiles, motorcycles in the U.S. are seen as recreational vehicles and not necessary forms of transportation. Most of this is perception, but even from a legal perspective we (the U.S.) haven’t made much of an effort to protect, encourage, and support motorcycling in the U.S. even though it is a far more efficient form of transportation than most vehicles.

As motorcycling has been growing in the U.S. the general public (cagers) are starting to get fed up with the antics of morons on bikes. This comes from the two major sides of the house:

Sportbikes – typically doing stupid crap like stunting in public or excessively speeding on congested freeways.

Cruisers – typically with loud pipes and drinking while riding.

Whatever you ride, whatever it is you do, these people are ruining it for all of us. Taken to the extreme there are reports of people that are literally laying down oil or other slick substances in corners known to be well traveled by bikers. For us, this is the rough equivalent of pointing a loaded gun at someone and pulling the trigger. You might hit them, might not, but if you do you are certainly going to hurt them in some manner.

But what is also happening in the background is that people are trying to enact laws to prevent motorcycling all together. Surprise! I get a lot of reactions on this one such as “they can’t do that” and “it will never happen.”

Really?

Just recently in Tennessee they made it illegal to wheelie.

New York introduced a bill to prohibit “exhibition driving” punishable as misdemeanor. Keep in mind that “exhibition driving” is completely subjective.

In Missouri they are proposing making motorcycle stunting a felony on a second offense. They define stunting as “removing both hands from the handlebars while operating the motorcycle.” For those of you who are cagers, I do this all the time while approaching a stoplight. It’s no more dangerous that doing it on a bicycle and probably less dangerous than taking your hands off the wheel in a cage as I still have more control of my bike.

In certain parts of CA they are proposing legislation that would allow townships to make illegal to ride a motorcycle in the town!

I have had some involvement in the TMRA II here in Texas and it’s amazing some of the crap they try to pass or sneak in under another law. Like the time one moron proposed a bill that would organ donation MANDATORY if you were hit on a bike.

Another proposed bill in the works will give insurance companies the right to refuse coverage because you were engaged in an extreme hobby (riding a motorcycle). Imagine you are out riding and a cage takes you out and then the insurance company refuses to pay you life insurance policy to your wife and kids.

*sigh* and on it goes. But I tell my friends and other bikers about it and they still ride like assholes in residential neighborhoods. They still rev their bikes with the pipes under bridges and in parking lots so that people can’t hear well enough to talk to each other. They still get on their bikes completely wasted and ride. I still see “stuntahs” riding wheels at 90+mph down I-30 in traffic, doing “stopies” at red lights, and running 100+ mph down 360.

So please, next time you get on your bike, think about what you are doing. And if you don’t want to do that, then you better get out there and vote and get involved or pretty soon you will be looking at bikes in a museum saying “I remember when we used to be able to ride those things.”

Sanctuary Policies Still on the Table

Our friendly representatives are still pushing hard to make it easy and easier for illegal aliens to not only flood into our great country, but also give them access to benefits and protection that even an American citizen doesn't have access to.

In the latest round, the Sanctuary Amendment failed in the senate. This amendment would have prevented federal funds from being awarded to states and municipalities with sanctuary policies in place. The idea is that you cut off their funding and they would do away with sanctuary policies. But, now that is not going to happen.

On an interesting note, it's against federal law (section 624 of the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996) for municipalities to to adopt policies (formally or informally) that prevent employees from communicating with with the DHS. Apparently this has never really been challenged by the DOJ.

Burning it on Both Ends Again!

I've had plenty of time to reflect on my life and where I am at. How did I come by all this time? Quite simply by being in my truck or on my bike back and forth to the Big D many, many, many times over the last month.

I'm not a big fan of Dallas, TX. I don't care much for the people and the lifestyle (too pretentious). I don't like the city council or the school board (morons). And I especially don't like the traffic.

I don't go to Dallas, much. Usually for Dallas Stars games or some concert. Lately, though, I have been to Dallas (or some part of the area) more in the last month than I have been in the last three years. Why so much? A few quick reasons:

1) work! I've had clients in the area requesting time from me in some fashion or another.

2)Home projects - while most of the materials for the wood flooring came from Arlington, some of the pieces like the transitions came from Dallas and I made multiple trips to get them.

3)events - concerts and shows that I wanted to go see

4) new friends - especially one in particular that I've been trying to see whenever I have the time.

So during all this time I've done my usual thinking about the way things are going. Maybe, for me, it's simply thinking about thinking. With some minor exceptions I have been pulling things back together over the last year since being home. I have a few more things I'd like to work out or straighten out. Always striving to be better. And does it really mean anything? I just watch my fuel gauge get lower and lower. Maybe I should get something more fuel efficient, like a Corvette!!!!

BTW - for those that don't ride - when you ride a motorcycle you lean the bike over into the corners to counter the effects of g-force. As you lean the bike over, the contact patch of the tire to pavement moves to the side of the tire. The more cornering you do, the more you wear out the sides of your tires. The harder you corner, the further to the side of the tire you wear them. The space that never gets worn down is called a chicken strip because you are too scared to come through the corner fast enough to get your bike over and utilize the edge of the tires. Does the above picture make more sense, now?

Suffer the little Polar Bears

The following is an article taken from Townhall.com about global warming and the decline of the polar bear. Thanks for the forward, Phil! In short the article surmises a book by Bjorn Lomborg's entitled, "Cool It: A Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming."

The summation is basically yes there is climate change. Yes there is global warming. No, it's nowhere near as severe as people are making it out to be. No, the bears are not really suffering because of it. Pretty much what real scientists have been saying for a while now.

Here is the write up:


Of Polar Bears and ConsensusBy Mona CharenFriday, October 12, 2007

Consensus can be wrong. So warned The New York Times in a science section piece on Oct. 9. "Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus" reviewed the history of our belief that dietary fat was as big a health risk as smoking. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared as much in 1988. He was speaking not for himself but for the scientific community, which was nearly unanimous in fingering fat as the cause of heart disease and cancer.

The trouble was, study after study failed to prove the hypothesis. It was a case, the Times explains, of "informational cascade" -- a phenomenon in which groups tend to reach false conclusions because individuals often assume that the majority must be right.

Thank you, New York Times. It's a good cautionary tale about human psychology and one the Times ought to take to heart in its coverage of the global warming question. That is the issue we are currently "cascading" to conclusions about, the Times no less than anyone else. The climate of opinion on climate is dogmatic verging on hysterical. Kids are coming home from school in tears having been taught that the world they were born into will soon descend into a nightmare of massive storms, swamped cities and dying animals.

The dying animals is a big favorite in the schools, particularly the stranded polar bear on an ice floe searching for land. That one even got to my worldly sons. So I was particularly happy to have Bjorn Lomborg's new book, "Cool It: A Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming," on hand.

Lomborg does not deny that global warming is happening, nor that it is the result of human action. But he does apply a necessary damper to the white-hot rhetoric and scare mongering of the global warming fanatics. A political scientist by training and an economist by outlook, the man The Wall Street Journal called the "golden-haired Dane" applies common sense and cost/benefit analysis to a subject brimming with emotion and unreasoning fear.

Along the way, he debunks some of the myths. Pace Al Gore it seems that of the 20 subpopulations of polar bear, one or possibly two are declining in population. But more than half are stable, and two are increasing. Actually, the world population of polar bears has mushroomed over the past several decades, from some 5,000 in the 1960s to about 25,000 today, due to stricter regulation of hunting. As for those two subgroups that are declining in population, they live in regions in which the temperatures have actually been dropping over the past 50 years, whereas the subgroups that have seen an increase in population live in areas that have been getting warmer.

The polar bear example is instructive because the solution being urged upon us to save the bears is a massively expensive but ultimately nearly fruitless effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. If we follow Kyoto or some other framework, we can at best save .06 bears per year. "But," Lomborg writes, "49 bears from the same population are getting shot every year, and this we can easily do something about."

It's the same with climate change writ large. Drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions is hardly cost free. To achieve the goals outlined in the Kyoto accords, for example, would cost the world $180 billion annually for 50 years.

Examined rationally, it is clear that while global warming will do harm to some parts of the world, it will also do good to others. Might not the money be better spent mitigating the negative effects of a warming planet?

Lomborg's book focuses on trade-offs. If we're going to spend a fixed amount of money to improve the world, what makes the most sense? Or to put it another way, which dollar spent produces the greatest benefit? According to a group of economists (including four Nobel Prize winners) who examined this question in 2004, the answer was clear. One dollar spent fighting HIV/AIDS produced $40 in social benefits. One dollar spent on fighting malnutrition yields about $30 in social benefits. Other efforts, like ending agricultural subsidies in the wealthy countries and ensuring worldwide free trade, would net a $15 benefit for a one-dollar cost. Cutting CO2 emissions, by contrast, yields between 2 and 25 cents per dollar invested.

The consensus is wrong on global warming. Wonder when The New York Times will figure it out? In the meanwhile, Lomborg points the way toward clear analysis.

Helping Friends Move

WARNING! Some of these images may be graphic!!! And they were all taken with a camera phone so I'll apologize in advance for the poor quality.

Never, and I mean NEVER again will I help someone move up to a third story apartment. I often get asked to help move because I have a truck. It's one of the bad things about having a truck. However, in this case, Young Blood didn't need my truck. He just needed a body he could abuse for a few hours.

Truck-wise, he had us covered. He works for a company that happens to have several large trucks. This one, here, had a crane attached to the back of it. Did we use the crane? You betcha! No fooking around here! Got a 300lb entertainment center to move? Get it close enough to the edge so we could get the crane to it and stick it on the truck. Did it freak the neighbors out seeing us moving furniture? Probably, but we weren't there long!

Unfortunately, when we got to his new place there was no way to maneuver the crane up to the third floor balcony so we ended up doing the old fashioned way by killing ourselves. I think Hopper got the worst of it, though. The worst thing we had to move was this stupid armoire that must have weight more than Oprah during one of her yo-yo eating binges. We didn't have a good hand-truck. All we had was a cheesy little dolly that might as well have been made out of Lego's for all the good it did us.

So up three flights of stairs, and as luck would have it, there wasn't enough room on the landings to rotate the thing appropriately so we all pretty much strained, stretched, or broke something trying to get it moved around. Hopper, got stuck underneath the thing and Young Blood and I picked it up and moved it not realizing he was in a bad spot and it crushed him into the wall. All of a sudden this nearly in-human sound came out of Hopper. It sounded something like a cross between a walrus, and a hound-dog in heat. Needless to say YB and I lost it and were laughing our asses off. Hopper is still making noises, but by now the more noise he makes the more we are cracking up. At one point, I literally couldn't breathe and had tears rolling down my face. The whole time we are trying to tell him to STFU! so we can regain our composure and get the thing off of him, but we can't because we are laughing too hard. We finally got it off of him, up the stairs, and into the apartment. My knee was not too happy after that, but it's feeling pretty good again today!

YB says he should be there at least a year. As long as they don't jack up his rent to bad, he'll sign again. That's nice....and I really don't care because he'll be on his own next time.

Now, here are some pics of stuff I've only ever seen on the Internet. It's pictures from YB's room mate's room. These pics were not staged or edited in any way. Trust me, I tried not to touch ANYTHING. And you can't even imagine the smell.... OMG! It was horrible. Again, it's from a camera phone. My amazement is that someone could actually LIVE like this. YB isn't like this and aside from the usual accoutrement's of stuff in his apartment, I'd have never known this other guy was there. I'll spare you the graphic details of what all I saw while in there. You can probably draw your own conclusions.

Can you say ick? This guy wonders why he is single.

Floors are Finished!

Well, it's been a long while coming but the floors are finally all wrapped up!! Here is the original post on when I started the project. http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-floors.html Over the last week I was able to acquire the transitions (shown below) that go from the wood floor to the tiled floor. I had to sand them down a few times and try a few different stains and varnishes but I think I got them where they look good and then we glued them in.

Of course, then the project escalated because I had to get rid of my old entertainment cabinet for my stereo. Because the new one didn't have a true cabinet below it, I had to find some new storage for my DVD's. I was already over-running my old CD rack so I ended up buying a whole new one of those, too. In the end, I think it worked out....

Here are a couple of before pics and then the after pics!

Wood and glue for the floors: ~ $1600.00

Transitions: ~$120.00

New Stereo Rack $400

New CD Rack $300

Trips to hardware, floor, or lumber store: ~7

Hours into the project? Hard to say for sure, but somewhere around 50 or 60 if you count all the trips to the stores and stuff., but I am very pleased with the way everything turned out! And again, many thanks to my friend Andy (aka Droid) without whom this would not have been possible.