Big Texas Toy I-Wussed-Out-Run

This morning was the Big Texas Toy Run. It’s a motorcycle run that is held every year in N. Texas. Bikers show up in downtown Dallas, downtown FT. Worth and downtown Grapevine. Everyone who shows up must have a toy or donate $10.00. Then everyone leaves and parades to the Arlington Convention Center to donate their toys.

One year, there were approximately 50,000 bikers that participated and we raised about $750,000 in cash and toys for the kids. The turnout this year was expected to be about 70,000 bikes!!!!

Unfortunately, I was not one of them. I don’t always get to ride in the Toy Run because most of the time I am out of town. When that happens I usually buy a toy or give someone some cash that I know will be out there.

This year, though, I was home and ready to go. I had my toy, and got it all strapped to the back of the bike.

But a cold front moved in and dropped the temps. My friends were leaving out at 9:00am, which I thought was too freaking early considering how cold it was. I checked the temps and it was 22 degrees.

I put on some gear to try to stay warm – thermal undies, a wind-suit, sock, jacket liner, jacket, heavy gloves, etc. But it wasn’t enough.

I took off to meet up with my friends and made it about ½-way there before I turned back around for reinforcements. At that point my body was OK even though I was still a tad cool. The problem was that my chin and neck were seriously hurting from little exposure they had to the cold and my finger tips were stinging from being too cold.

I got back to the house and checked out my snowboard gloves, but realized I wouldn’t be able to have control of the bike so that was out. I thought to myself….I can still make it if I just take care of my face.

I got out my balaclava that I wear when I am snowboarding and it’s brutally cold. I was able to get my helmet on, but just barely and I could feel my circulation getting cut off at my neck and face from it being too tight. That wasn’t going to work.

Then I looked for a “chin skirt” – a little piece of spandex that clips on under the helmet to keep the wind off you. I know I have one, but I couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. I even found my helmet’s instruction manuals, warranty cards, etc. No chin-skirt.

Between my neck and fingers it just wasn’t conducive to me riding and either risking frost-bite, or risking not being in control of my bike because I was too distracted, too uncomfortable, or too bundled up – take your pick.

That really put me in a foul mood because I had it all done and ready, but I just didn’t feel safe riding like that. And of course, I was now sweating profusely from being in the house and being mad.

My friend was going out that way to meet up with some other friends. He was caging it so I asked him to take my toy.

I am not having a good Christmas experience.

Spreading the Christmas Cheer!

I'm on vacation from now until the end of the year. I don't have any major plans, but I may get busy. I am guessing that you will probably be busy, too...

So just in case we don't get to catch up between now and Christmas I thought I'd spread the Christmas cheer a bit with this tasty morsel.

Excess

Sometimes I just don’t get it.

Kind of like the Americanized Sushi thing. I like sushi and am fortunate enough to travel around a bit and find some good sushi places. But more and more, these formerly good sushi places have been turning into an exercise in them figuring out a creative way to serve you something fried with mayonnaise.

About a month ago Bling! and I went to a decent sushi place with his wife. I got frustrated looking over the menu because unless I went with sashimi (fish – no rice) or nagiri (fish over rice) there pretty much wasn’t anything on the menu that wasn’t fried, had mayonnaise on it…or both. Bling! asked what was wrong and I told him. I didn’t get much sympathy from him or Mrs. Bling!

I’ve never been to Japan….yet. But I am pretty sure that their sushi rolls aren’t all fried, contain avocado and have mayonnaise. Some traditional places in CA that I found hardly have any of those things and the sushi is fantastic. Why do we have to Americanize it?

Then, last night I went to go see Transporter 3. I wasn’t expecting a great flick, so I wasn’t too disappointed when it was a bit of a let down. It’s an action film like you would expect but movies are going so far over the top now that you have to really make an effort to suspend disbelief.

That wasn’t what got me, though. What got me was the excessive amount of bass throughout the entire film. I don’t know if this was from the mix of the movie, or because the theater had the bass cranked up. Either way, it was very annoying.

Don’t get me wrong….I love a good subwoofer and when something blows up I want to hear it and feel it as if my hair was about to be singed off. But people walking around or shutting a car door should not elicit concern that my testicles are going to be vibrated into a pulpy mess because the subs were turned up too loud.

I’ve noticed this same trend in radio broadcasting. Broadcaster are turning up the bass on everything. Commercials are the worst, but I’ve even noticed talk radio having some kind of funky low-end tone playing for an unknown reason. Even music that I am very familiar with suddenly has the bass cranked up if it’s coming off the radio.

I don’t get it.

The Auto Bailout

I think this is bullshit. I'm not going to pontificate on why I think it's bullshit but we need to stop bailing everyone out, suck it up and move on. Businesses need to get their shit together and stop relying on the taxpayers money to "save them."

Putting Acceleration in Perspective

My friend John sent me this and I thought it was pretty interesting:

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger. With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. As Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

If the spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence. In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.

Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter-mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher 3 times winner in the last four years). The top speed record is 333.00 MPH (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03, Doug Kalitta).

Putting this all into perspective: Here's the race.... You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a quarter-mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter-mile away from where you just passed him.

Think about it - from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 MPH & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race! That's acceleration! That's FAST!!

As a side-note:
Two new world speed records were set on motorcycles in 2008.

1 – the fastest bike in the world was a custom stream-lined motorcycle with 1200 horsepower and set a new record of 360.913mph.

2 – the quickest bike in the world was on the drag strip and set a new record of 250.97mph in the ¼-mile (5.95 seconds) with a 1400 horsepower engine!

Anyone got a Match?

One of the things I love about my job is going to new places, interfacing with new people, and getting to see things the average Joe probably never sees. Last week, my job took me to a power plant. Now, of course I can’t tell you which one but I can tell you that it is a coal fired power plant somewhere in the U.S.

Everyone was really nice and safety was of the utmost concern. As you can probably imagine the plant was very utilitarian in nature and there wasn’t a whole lot of frills and cushy offices to be found. That’s not to say it was a dirty mess, though. They were very good at keeping the plant clean at all times and I only noticed a little bit of coal dust in a few key areas.

One of the things we don’t think about is how big these plants are. I guess we always see them from the road at about a mile or so and we never get up close. One of the things I was impressed with was the sheer size of the facility. Many people had bicycles that the rode around the plant because the distances between key areas was pretty far.
The other thing we don’t think about is all of the logistics in keeping one of these places running. Let me give you some examples:

This particular power plant has four main areas that generate power. They are each identical in nature.

Each one houses numerous control and monitoring systems for all of the various functions of the plant. If any of these should become unreachable for a few seconds it is considered a failure. If a failure occurs they have to shut down production. For that unit, identify the failure, and fire (literally) things back up.

Powering the plant are these massive turbine generators. The turbines are driven by steam and in turn spin a generator. The turbine engines are approximately 900,000 horsepower (so much for the dragsters being impressive). The power generated by the entire plant is 500-megwatts.

The water used for the steam is piped in and ultra-purified. Think of the most bad-ass fish-tank filter and RO system you have ever seen in your life, and then make one that is even better. They even go to the extent of taking the extra oxygen molecules out of the water.

What is heating the water to make it steam? This is where it gets really interesting.

A unit will burn through 300 TONS of coal an hour. 24 hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year. I wasn’t impressed with the fact they burn through that much as I was impressed with the fact that there is that much coal available for them to burn. This was only one plant and it consumes 1200 tons an hour.

But the absolute coolest thing is what burns the coal. I always had this vision of some furnace where a belt or something fed coal into the furnace and you’d have this nice bed of coals heating up the water to make the steam.

Well, let’s just say I was far off the mark. Try to imagine these coal hoppers that go up several stories and funnel coal into grinders. Think of a badass coffee grinder and just make it REALLY big. That’s step #1.

Then spin up some 5000-horsepower fans and use the fans to blow the ground up coal through ducts that are about 4 or five feet across. Where do the ducts go? To the furnace of course!! But the ducts are connected to the furnace at one-story intervals and at multiple vertices (angles) into the furnace.

What results has ruined camping for me for the rest of my life. Never again will I even attempt to make the largest campfire that I can. I will scoff at people who stack trees and make bonfires in their fields. The Texas A&M bonfire paled in comparison.

Imagine if you will; a giant ball of fire that is approximately four-stories high (and equally as wide). It’s spinning counter-clockwise and is suspended in the air by its own heat and by the air blowing the coal into it. We were allowed to view this fireball up-close and personal by opening a viewing portal that is about 6-inches across and wearing a welding hood to view the fire. You had to wear the hood because of the intense heat, brightness of the fireball, and the massive amount of ultra-violet light being generated. It would fry your eyes out. And, in the event that the 5000-horsepower fans lost power for a moment the fireball might blow-back through the viewing port.

It was entirely insane and surreal at the same time. Naturally being a fire-bug I wanted to throw something in and see how fast it was incinerated, but they quickly grabbed my right hand as I was trying to stuff my entire leather-bound executive notepad set through the view port. I’m not even sure I was aware I was doing it.

And that’s it. I saw the giant ball of fire and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Next time I am taking marshmallows and a really long stick.

The Coming of the Barackalypse

This was a term I was recently introduced to and found it quite amusing. Part of the Barakalypse is going to be the dismantling of the constitution by selectively taking away our rights to things like free speech and guns.

Right after Obama’s election gun owners went crazy and started buying everything. I posted a quick article on this (see previous entry) and the carnage is still happening. I wanted to pick up a new gun, some ammo and a few other things but I can’t get my hands on them because dealers can’t keep anything in stock and everything is back ordered.

My friend believes that gun owners are over reacting to Obama being elected. To a large extent I completely agree. Nothing is going to happen until at least Jan 20th and right now he has bigger fish to fry.

But, I’ll also point out that it is not without warrant that gun owners are very nervous about having our second amendment rights stripped away from us. See this previous post to Obama’s position and record prior to election.

Now that he has been elected he has been selecting his cabinet members. Here is some more evidence of the potential Barackalypse. This is taken from an NRA newsletter that was recently sent out:

Obama's FIRST attack on YOU: Appointing Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel to be White House Chief of Staff. In Congress, Emanuel earned an "F" rating from NRA, and while working in the Clinton Administration, he was known as the "point man on gun control." He is an avowed enemy of the Second Amendment and will wield enormous power in the battle for the future of our firearm freedoms.

Obama's SECOND attack on YOU: If Hillary Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, she'll rip the Second Amendment right out of the Bill of Rights. She'll be our nation's top diplomat with the power to determine whether the United Nations will pass, and Obama will sign, a global gun ban treaty that will surrender our Second Amendment rights and our national sovereignty.

Obama's THIRD attack on YOU: Nominating ex-Senator and former Majority Leader Tom Daschle-an avowed enemy of NRA-to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. NRA was responsible for defeating Daschle when he ran in South Dakota for re-election to the Senate. If Daschle is confirmed, he could hold the ultimate power to declare guns a "public health menace" and regulate away our essential liberties.

Obama's FOURTH attack on YOU: Nominating Eric Holder to be Attorney General. As former Assistant Attorney General, Holder was a key architect and vocal advocate for the Clinton era's sweeping gun ban agenda. He supported national handgun licensing, mandatory trigger locks, and ending gun shows as we know them.Just recently, Holder opposed the District of Columbia's Heller decision that declared the Second Amendment an individual right. Holder also called for reviving the Clinton gun bans and, as Attorney General, would fight in court to prevent the landmark Heller decision from being made applicable to state and local governments.Worst of all, if Holder is confirmed as the nation's top law-enforcement officer, he would control BATFE and wield enormous power to harass gun owners and sue America's arms makers out of existence.

Obama's FIFTH attack on YOU: In the job application for the Obama Administration, he made it clear that gun owners are second-class citizens and told 80 million gun owners not to even bother applying for a job. In the "White House Personnel Data Questionnaire" he asked:

"Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage."

This chilling notice to gun owners-that they are not welcome to serve in his Administration-shows the deep hostility for Americans' Second Amendment Freedoms that Obama and his Administration have in their hearts.

And he’ll be “Working with a Congress dominated by gun haters like Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, John Conyers, Henry Waxman, and Charles Schumer!!!”

I’d say gun owners are very justifiable in their concerns about what is to come in the next four years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No More Whinging!

I was engaged in dialogue with someone that reads the blog on their cell phone! They don’t have a working computer at the house so they hit it with their phone when they have time. Personally, I hate trying to surf the web or anything on a phone. It’s not my cup of tea.

But this person takes the cake. Apparently, some time back their phone stopped being able to get the pictures I post up or put multiple words on one screen. That’s right, this person reads the blog….one….word….at…..a…..time……on…..their…cell…phone.

Now THAT is dedication. Just think about that next time you are chilling with your full sized keyboard and wishing you had a new 22” flat-screen monitor.

Who Wants to Grow Up?

This “demotivational” poster is close to my heart. I’m probably going to hell for this, but when I was a child I pulled this very prank on my grandmother who was getting along in her years.

I couldn’t have been but about five or seven years old and my grandmother was watching me during the day while my parents worked. She was vacuuming and had the vacuum cleaner plugged into an outlet near a bed in the spare bedroom.

I was hiding under the bed and I’d let it run for a moment or two and then yank the plug out of the wall. She’d come back in, look at the plug…look at the socket and plug it back in. Sure enough, I’d wait a moment and then yank it back out. I don’t remember how long this went on for, but I do have a vague memory of trying to not make a sound while she would check out the plug. Of course, I am hurting I am laughing so hard and trying not to laugh all at the same time.

It got kind of serious when she called the electric company AND the fire department because she was afraid there was something wrong with the wiring in the house. There is some fleeting memory of my mom being really pissed at me, but we all laugh about it, now.

I often have friends that ask if I am going to turn 12 this year. I rather like that. I used to date a girl that would always ask when I was going to grow up. Why should I? We aren’t together anymore. Maybe that’s why, but I don’t want to grow up. I want to be a kid the rest of my life. It sure is a lot more fun than being serious all the time.

Scary Gun Owners

Some people shouldn't own guns. This is as natural to me as some people not getting on a motorcycle or people that get perms and have no business doing so.

I don't mean that they shouldn't legally be allowed to own them. I fully respect their right to do so. I just think that they should seriously consider if gun ownership is right for them.

A while back I had posted about the chicks at the gun range that were really scary and gave us reason to get the hell out of there. Today, I was at the range to start working on my sights for my M4. I had just picked up a new rear A3 type sight and was wanting to get it roughly sighted in. The range only had two rifle lanes of 75-feet. Good for a quickie and "getting on paper" as Bling! likes to say.

There were more people there than I expected and I had to wait a bit before a lane opened up. While I was waiting I was watching through the glass onto the first few lanes. There was a guy there that was popping off a few rounds with a pistol of some type. His target was no more than 15 feet out from him. It was probably an 8" or 10" target. The guy couldn't hit it. He hit paper every now and then but I watched him shoot six rounds into the paper below the target.

Three black guys filed off the other rifle lane which opened it up for me. I went in and started setting up. There was another guy who had also just got there and was trying to sight in a new scope. We chatted a bit and I noticed that the black guys had left a silhouette target about 1/2-way down range (keep in mind that was maybe 40 feet). I hit the switch to bring the target back. Silhouette targets are the size of huge mofos - like 6'2+ but there was only ONE hole in the entire target and it was almost off the paper. Seriously. These guys had been shooting a rifle 40-feet at a target that was at least 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall and couldn't hit it.

I just don't even see how that's possible if you made any effort at all. Forget sights. You could point the barrel in the general direction and at least hit it...at least get on paper. But these guys couldn't do it.

When I see stuff like that I just want to calmly walk up to them and explain that they shouldn't own a gun. So please put the gun down, and walk away. Sell it on Craig's List and be thankful that you won't hurt anyone.

Our Government and Taxation - It's easy, right?

I was reading the instruction guide for filing an s-corp election request. The instruction form indicates that it will take 2hrs and 33 mins to learn about the form and the law.

Yeah, well that makes sense after trying to read the damned thing. Here is one of the paragraphs regarding when to make election:

"For this purpose, the 2 month period begins on the day of the month the tax year begins and ends with the close of the day before the numerically corresponding day of the second calendar month following that month."

WTF? Don't forget the moon also needs to be full and it has to be the third moon of the last quarter prior to the preceding full moon of the next quarter and only if your jacket is hung on the lower peg and not the upper peg as instructed by your fairy fucking godmother.

-bRad

Obama Ironically Increases Gun Sales

I went to the FTW Gun Show yesterday. It was probably the fifth one I have been to this year. It was also the most packed show I’d been to ever. I’ve seen some crowded gun shows, but this one took the cake. Still, in talking with one of the vendors they said that the day before (I went on a Sunday) was even worse and that the flow of people by the vendor booths was only about 2 feet per minute because it was so crowded.

I noticed that the general price of guns was up. Not much, but a little bit. Ammo seemed about the same – if you could find it. The guys that normally sold in bulk were either out, or very close to being out. These are the guys that sell cases of ammunition. Need 500 rounds? They usually have tons of the stuff, but not yesterday!


Coincidentally there is a gun store called Cheaper Than Dirt. The store normally does about $500,000 / month in gross sales. The day after Obama got elected they had their first ever $100,000 day. That’s fairly impressive!

My friend commented that it was ironic that you have someone (Obama) that favors gun control and yet that same person is the catalyst for an enormous spike in guns and ammo sales.

I was talking to one of my friends about this and they asked if it was similar to what happens to the stock market when new presidents are elected. The phenomenon is that the market typically goes down when a new president gets elected, especially if it’s a democrat. There are various reasons for this but the two prevalent ones are that democrats typically like to raise taxes and any time there is uncertainty (new president).

However, in this instance I think that this goes beyond simple perception. The reason being that the democrats control both the house and the senate. They have openly said they are for gun control. And now you have a president elect that is openly for gun control. So while you can say that its speculation, and I’d agree, I’d have my money on some new legislation being enacted that affects gun owners.

Last night I was talking to my mom about this and I used the frog in the boiling water theory. I think the same thing happens to our rights. If the government were to try to pass a law to ban guns and take our guns away from us you would have a revolt in the south and possibly some of the other states. (this would be like throwing the frog into the boiling water) But if you slowly enacted legislation and chipped away at our rights we would probably allow it to happen (putting the frog in first and then turning up the heat slowly). The end result would be the same, but it would take longer to get there and people would one day say “didn’t we used to have the right to own guns?”

One last note – I’ve come to the conclusion that the gun show is a great place to see a ton of stuff at once. You might even come across a few deals, but the prices at the show were typically higher than what I’ve been able to find for similar products at other places. Know your stuff before you fork over your cash.

Fucking with People

One of the things I like to do is fuck with people. I don’t know why, but I do. Sometimes it’s nothing more than seeing what buttons, knobs, or switches have to be tweaked to provoke some type of response. I think my favorite one is bewilderment and confusion followed by nervous laughter.

I found this picture while surfing the net and thought it was really funny. It’s just the kind of thing I would do.

Whored Out for Big Money

I’m a consultant, which basically means I’m a whore. My company whores me out for money to other companies when they need work done. It’s actually a pretty good gig and I enjoy it for the most part. No job is perfect.

But last week I think I topped my all-time most-money-for-a-gig record. It was a one day custom teach and consulting day with a client. The company charged them, get this, $6000 for ONE day of work. I was there eight hours. Stop scrambling to open up the calculator on your computer. I’ll save you the mouse-clicks and keystrokes. It works out to $750 / hr.

Now I realize that there are some working professionals in Vegas that rake in more than that but I don’t look as good as they do and I am not sure that I am “qualified” for the position, being a male and all. But for me, I thought that was pretty good bank.

Trapped in the Restroom

On my last gig, I had gotten to the client’s site early so I could setup. Unfortunately there was a scheduling snafu and I couldn’t get into the room to get setup so they stuck me off in a corner where I could surf and check emails until the room freed up.

While I was killing time I thought I’d hit the restroom so I didn’t have to go later on. I asked where the restrooms were and proceeded to make my way through the maze of cubicles walls and locked doors until I reached the restroom. The whole time I am trying to remember 5689, which is the code to get back into the secured area. I go into the restroom and I think this is a fairly large restroom. I find a stall and proceeded to do my business.

Now I am sitting on the john and repeating to myself “5689, 5689…” And then I hear the door to the restroom open an a bunch of ladies conversing amongst themselves and laughing with a quick “…catch up with you later” at which point the conversation ceases and the door shuts.

Now, I realize at this point that I didn’t get my daily caffeine down my throat because the fucking hotel only had coffee and there wasn’t a gas station between my and the client’s site. That means I am not exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment. Did I read the marquee on the door correctly? Did it say “men” or “women”?

As I am sitting there I forget all about 5689 and starting back-tracking in my mind to walking into the restroom. Did I see any urinals? I can’t remember, but I was thinking that I had not seen any when I came in.

OMG! Am I in the wrong restroom??!!!!!???!!!??? To be honest, I wasn’t really sure. I start trying to think of some logical way to get out of this because I am done at this point and I am eventually going to have to leave. Aside from that, my shoes are definitely men’s shoes and I think that would be fairly noticeable.

I start trying to peek through the gaps in the stall walls but I can’t see anything but sinks and mirrors showing more stalls – no urinals.

Finally I say to myself “fuck it. I’ve been in plenty of men’s bathrooms when the ladies came in and used ‘em. Besides it was an honest mistake.” I then proceeded to leave the stall and the first thing I see is a guy washing his hands at the sink….whew….

BTW – I had forgotten the code and had to wait until someone else entered the secure area so I could follow ‘em in.

Veteran's Day!

Happy Veteran's Day.

Please take a moment to honor the men and women who serve our country!

I'll try to write more later, but I am in the thick of it. Unfortunately, we don't exactly get holidays off.

Camping at the Power Plant!

I took off this weekend to go camping with some friends. Bling! and his wife went and were kind enough to prepare all the food as well as bring all the cooking stuff. That was good for me because I am a bit of a minimalist-type-camper. I like to bring as little as I can get away with for however long I will be somewhere. That usually means whatever I can fit in or on my pack and an ice chest with food and drinks.

Bling! took a lot more than that, though and pretty much had a whole truckload full of stuff!! We used it, though, and it worked out quite well. Somewhere there is a happy medium between all of that and I am not quite sure where it is.

Bling! also made our reservations at Martin Creek Lake State Park. Good luck finding it on a map. But it is there….on the lake…..right by the power plant!! ACK! Well, it’s nobody’s fault about that one. You never know until you get there. And for some reason people were out in droves when he was making reservations. All the parks we wanted to hit were already full about 3 weeks out. Why did everyone pick this weekend? I have no idea.

We got to the park and it was a fairly nice park. We even ended up with two nice spots facing the lake. Unfortunately, the place was packed and with all the RVers coming in and out there was a lot of people, traffic and noise. One guy must have taken 30 minutes to back his huge-ass trailer into a camp spot across the road and it was nothing but a diesel engine idling forever and ever and ever.

The power plant was on the lake and you could hear it constantly droning and making some pretty heinous noises every few hours. Then, on another afternoon some moron fires up a pressure washer and decides it’s a great time to wash his entire airstream. So much for peace and quiet.

But there was some peace and quiet. You just had to be patient. Things would settle down….we’d get the fire going and all hang out, watch the fire, make smores and have beverages.

The nights were a little cooler out in E. Texas away from the urban heat effect. The lows would dip into the 40’s and the highs would hit the 70’s. I think most of us were OK, but Bling! did say he got a little chilly one night.

Young Blood came with us and it was his first time camping. None of us fucked with him and he said he had a good time. I’m guessing that we didn’t mess with him because with all the people and crap going on it just didn’t quite feel like you were out in the woods away from everything. It’s much more fun to fuck with someone when they feel exposed and vulnerable to the elements and wildlife.

And speaking of wildlife – I really didn’t see any. I didn’t even see any raccoons, which is highly unusual at a state park. I’m guessing it was just too many people and too much noise. The only thing that spooked us a little bit is that during the last night we were there and crashed out there was a horrible screaming-death-sound of what sounded like someone’s little yipper dog tied up to an RV that something else found tasty.

But, like I said….we all had a good time and relaxed quite a bit. It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy being outdoors for the entire weekend.

An Historic Election – Our First Black President Elect

I stayed up a tad late last night and watched the election as the votes started coming in. Prior to the west coast votes coming in it was a good example of how the electoral votes count differently than the popular vote. I say this because McCain and Obama were pretty much dead even in the popular vote, but Obama had the electoral votes by a fairly wide margin.

By the time the west coast votes started coming in it was over. Obama decimated McCain. McCain called Obama to concede and then gave a pretty good speech congratulating and supporting Obama. The one thing I didn’t like about his speech was the crowd that was there. I thought it was in poor taste to boo Obama any time McCain gave him credit where credit was due.


A while later Obama gave his victory speech. It was a pretty good speech. Of course, he avoided issues and mostly made an effort to encourage Americans and let us know that he would try to do a good job, but it would be difficult.

My friend sent me a text message and asked if I was pleased with the outcome of the election. I replied that I was not, but now that it is over we must move forward and try to make it work.

And that’s really the issue, now, isn’t it? Making things work. I guess time will tell, but the bottom line is that Obama is about to be our 44th president and we should all make an effort to support him and make this work for the good of the people of the United States.

Chick Auctions off Virginity

Today I was in the gym and on one of the TV’s the Trya Banks Show was on (whatever it’s called). I couldn’t hear what was going on, but I could read the closed-caption prompt and there was a chick on that is auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder.

Wait…I take that back. After reading some articles on this she says it’s not just about the highest bidder, but she also wants someone that is intelligent and good looking. Yeah, um…sure. As long as they have the million dollars she is hoping to get out of this. You heard right, she hopes to get one million out of it.

Her motivation? She’s a whor…er….she wants the money to pay for her master’s degree. At least that is what she says.

Is anyone surprised by this? I’m not. Only that it’s making big waves in the blogosphere and the media. I don’t personally care if she auctions herself off or not, but making this out to be anything other than prostitution is ridiculous, and if that’s her gig then more power to her. If I was a hot chick and I could get things in life because of it, I’d use it to my advantage, too!

Now she has taken a lie detector test, and is willing to submit to a gynecological exam. Still, I’d be leery of any girl that is supposedly a “virgin” and is willing to plook some total stranger for cash. Ever hear of the chicks that do everything under the sun, including anal sex, but don’t have vaginal sex and claim they are “virgins?”

Maybe this guy will be the highest bidder. It certainly looks like he has enough cash with that huge-ass gold chain and cross around his neck. That had to cost some bucks, and clearly he has morals. He’s for Jesus!

In Debt? Move to CA!!

I headed into the grocery store today and while I was on my way in two women were on their way out. One was talking to the other and I overheard her say “…you need to eliminate your debt. Maybe you should move to California.”

I wanted to turn around and ask if the lady was high.

Me – are you high?
Her – what?
Me – you are telling your friend to move to CA to get out of debt? When was the last time you were in CA? Do you have any idea how much it costs to live out there?

I can’t imagine anyone significantly increasing their cost of living by moving to CA as a way to get out of debt faster.

Kudos To Sears

I had some tools that got broke over the last year and they’ve been sitting on my top shelf of my tool box for a while. I finally remembered to take them to Sears so they could replace them. All Craftsman tools have a lifetime warranty.

I walked in, found a dood, showed him my tools. One of them was a bit older and they didn’t make the exact same tool anymore. He grabbed the new version, plus a replacement for my others.

Walked to the counter, he rang it up – didn’t ask me my name, phone number. Didn’t ask me to sign anything. He just handed me the new tools and said thanks!

I know Sears has been getting a bad rap lately, but I couldn’t have been happier with that kind of customer service.

Get out and Vote!!!

I noticed this year that I haven’t seen much in the way of grass-roots vote movements like Rock the Vote. Maybe they are happening and I am just living under a rock. I don’t watch TV much, and I don’t listen to the radio very much anymore, either.

I went and did early voting yesterday. I was already hearing that lines were getting long and I didn’t want to waiting until Tuesday and have to stand in 2+ hour long lines! My experience was pretty nice. I was in and out in about 10 minutes but some places already have long lines.

I’d love to tell you that I don’t care who you vote for, but that’s not true. I do care who you vote for as I certainly believe one candidate is better than the other. I might ask that you please vote on issues and not race or gender. I also might ask that if you don’t know the issues that you try to learn about them real quick. A person voting blindly is probably worse than someone not voting at all.

When I was going over the ballot there were several candidates for offices and positions that I was not familiar with. In some cases I knew I didn’t like some of the candidates, but didn’t know enough about the others to cast a vote.

And as much as I keep hearing that the U.S. will never support a 3rd part there were a surprising number of libertarians on the ballots this year.

If you listen to the mainstream press it certainly seems like Obama is going to be our next president. I can’t say I am very happy about that, but I don’t think it’s going to be quite as bad as everyone is making it out to be (thought I still think the potential for it to be bad is there – I am not for socialism, fascism, and government control). It’s funny that I’m reading some of the same rhetoric coming from the right-wing / conservative bloggers that I heard from the left-wing / liberal people when Bush was about to get re-elected. The big one being “if he gets elected I am leaving the country.” Not many people left. I certainly have no plans to leave.

That’s it. Get out and vote. Exercise your right as a U.S. citizen. One way or the other, history will be made in the next week.

A little Halloween Humor

Here are a couple of items that were sent to me that I thought were funny....enjoy!

Me and My Bike

No, not my motorcycle. I mean by bicycle from years gone past. I used to ride my bike a lot. I didn’t sit inside and play videogames if it was nice out. I was outside riding my bike, going places my mom told me not to go, and generally getting into something that would resemble trouble.

My niece hasn’t fared so well at learning to ride her bike. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that she lives on a very busy street and can’t “practice” all the time. I’m not sure she has many other kids to play with on her street. I said she could come over here and ride since there is hardly any traffic and there are always kids outside learning to ride their bikes.

And I love my mom, but anytime bicycles are brought up she has to recant that I got stitched up a lot “falling off my bike.” Hearing it from my mom you would have thought I was a ‘tard that didn’t know how to ride a bicycle. “But there was gravel….” She’d say, as if this made it all better. As if it made it OK to wipe out. What she doesn’t realize is that now I sound like an even bigger ‘tard.

“Yup, there was gravel there but Brad was so retarded that he’d ride in it anyway, fall off his bicycle and then we’d take him to the hospital to get stitched up.”

Actually my mom would never say anything like that, but you can see the wheels spinning even in the minds of seven year olds (even if they can’t ride a bike very well). You can see them looking at me, an old man in their eyes, and thinking I’m an idiot. So much for respect.

That’s when I always have to tell the kids what it was really all about. I’d tell them how I’d ride my bike for hours all over the place. How we had real trees and woods to ride in. We’d go down to the creek and setup ramps to jump across the creek – sometimes we didn’t make it.

And the gravel? Well that was an opportunity now wasn’t it? You’d have to start way, way, way back. As in maybe at the other end of the block, preferably uphill from the gravel. Why? So you could build up plenty of speed of course.

You’d mount your bike and start peddling. Then you’d lean over the handlebars to get the maximum amount of torque possible to will the bike to go faster and faster….and as the wind picked up, your hair blew back off your head, and the landscape would become a blur you would spot your target – the accumulation of gravel in the corner from weeks of traffic without rain or maybe even a refresher from the friendly road crew.

Balls out, no fear…. You hit the gravel!! And…..lock up the rear tired and put the bike into a power slide….5 feet….10 feet….15 feet!!! You just did a monster power-slide through the gravel!!
Of course, it didn’t always work out that way. Sometimes it was epic failure. Sometimes, like a tard, I’d wipe out and have to go get stitched up. Maybe mom is right after all.

Re-Visiting the Pucker Factor

Yesterday was a pretty nice day here. It was almost 90 degrees with a cold front knocking on the door in the evening. I hadn’t been on the bike since my trip to E. Texas and while it is still pretty filthy I thought I’d try to ride a bit.

I guess it just wasn’t my day to ride. I tweaked the tire pressure to get it right and then took off to get a bite to eat. Part of the parking lot is a one-way “strip” or alley. I looked in the direction of on-coming traffic and nobody was there so I started to execute my turn and some fuck-tard was coming the wrong way down the strip. I didn’t hit them (or vice-versa) but there was a brief moment of panic until I made sure that they weren’t going to take me out.

After scarfing down on some food and getting my blood sugar in order I took off and hit some faster sweepers, but it was not to be. There was too much traffic and I had to take it easy. Not a big deal as I don’t need any more tickets.

I made myself get lost on some back roads and was taking it pretty easy as I just didn’t quite “feel right” for some reason. I was coming around a bend in a road at a fairly low speed, maybe 15 ~ 20mph, and just started to lean into the turn when it started sliding out from under me. I don’t mean part of it stepped out, the entire bike started to fall away.

This would be the pucker factor kicking in.
Purely reactionary I stuck my right leg out and caught it and then kept the throttle on just a tad and sure enough it hooked back up. I never saw anything in the road to indicate it was that slick. I wasn’t going fast. My tires were plenty warm. I have no idea why that happened but I decided that I had enough and it was time to go home.

The problem, now, is that I am rapidly losing confidence in my tires. It seems that since I have put new tires on the bike I have had several such “odd” episodes in which the bike has simply failed to perform or respond in a predictable fashion. It could purely be coincidence. The tires I have on it are supposed to be really nice tires with good traction, but I don’t have much confidence in them at the moment.

More stuff that pisses me off...

I had just posted an article about Card calling the liberally biased media out when I come across this article posted in the Chicago Tribune.

Apparently, the left doesn't take to kindly to conservatives calling Obama a socialist. It isn't hard to see that the democrats have been implementing socialist policies for years and that Obama is clearly for more socialist policies.

But that isn't what gets me...this quote, and the fact that it is not refuted by the paper is what gets me:

"Obama is about as far from being a socialist as Joe The Plumber is from being a rocket scientist," said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. "I think it's hard for McCain to call Obama a socialist when George Bush is nationalizing banks."

Really? George Bush single-handedly started nationalizing banks? Of course! Why I didn't I think of that. Forget that it was democratic policies that started the process. Forget that it was democrats that cooked the books and took big payouts, forget that these same democrats are still in office, and forget that the republican party - including Bush - tried repeatedly to stop it, but were blocked by the democratic party.

Let's also forget that congress nationalized the banks and which party controls congress right now? Oh! That's right, the democratic party!

The fucking press blames everything on Bush as if he somehow bypassed the entire system and did whatever he wanted to. BTW - I almost forgot, he's certainly capable of it. Anyone that has God-Like powers and can cause hurricanes, flooding, and global warming could probably circumvent our existing governmental system. Doh!

A Skewering of the Press

When I was significantly younger my friend gave me a book by Orson Scott Card entitled "Ender's Game." I really enjoyed the book even though I am not really into sci-fi reading. In fact, I went on to read several more of his books that were part of the series.

Yesterday, Bling! sent me a link to an article that was written by Card. Apparently he also moonlights as a newspaper columnist. Card is a democrat and he essentially skewers (Bling!'s word) the liberally biased media and press. Not because they are liberally biased, but due to their lack of integrity and inability to report the truth when it comes to any type of political issue.

I found it very refreshing to see a democrat in the media calling people out on it.

http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html

Why are we turning Socialist?

Last night we were having some wine and cheese and inevitably the conversation turned towards politics. I must work for the only company in the state of CA whose employees are predominantly conservative (not necessarily republican).

One of the questions I asked is:

if we are able to look the history of fallen nations and countries, and if we are able to look at existing nations today, and we are able to determine that socialism and socialistic policies do not work and lead to the corruption and downfall of the country, while simultaneously hurting the citizens, the very ones that socialism is supposed to protect, why are we, as a country, continuing down the path of socialism and why do people vote for socialist policies and leaders?

It didn’t take even two seconds before one of the other guys spoke up and said he had the answer. I asked what it was and he said “human nature. As humans, we want something for nothing.” And everyone agreed.

I’m not sure it’s all-encompassing, but it sure did fit.

Hunting AIG Scumbags

I had recently written about AIG’s discretionary spending while getting bailout relief money. As it turns out they also went on a nice executive hunting trip to the tune of $86,000 while they were requesting another $37.8BILLION!!! Would someone please tell me again why we are bailing them out?

One thing that is kind of nice is that the NY Attorney General told them to back off or they would start prosecuting them. A quick excerpt from the AG’s letter to AIG:

For example, in March 2008, ignoring the massive losses AIG was experiencing, the Board awarded its Chief Executive Officer a cash bonus of over $5 million and a golden parachute worth $15 million. Similarly, in February 2008, a top-ranking executive who was largely responsible for AIG's collapse was terminated, but still permitted by the Board to keep $34 million in bonuses. This same individual apparently continued to receive $1 million a month from the company until recently.

Moreover, even after the taxpayer-funded bailout of AIG, the company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for luxurious retreats for its executives, including an overseas hunting party and a golf outing. We believe these expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration, violated New York law, specifically, N.Y. Debtor & Creditor Law fj 274, which deems such payments to be fraudulent conveyances.

Obama Supporting African Thugs

Prelude:
Here is a post that I put up about a week ago. One of my friends wrote me an email to let me know that I had been duped and that my facts were wrong according to Snopes. Sure enough, I went out to Snopes and was a bit surprised that most of what I had written, and been writing about, and had known to be true was suddenly wrong!!

Since it was so far out of whack, I pulled the entry down as I didn’t want to be someone spreading dis-information as easily as everyone does on the Internet. I also went back to researching the information and made a startling discovery.

Snopes is liberally biased and this is proven repeatedly by showing Snopes reports compared to actual facts and events that shape politics. Do a google on Snopes and liberal. So I went back and continued to do some more research on my original post. I am going to let it stand. The only thing that is partially unclear is whether or not Obama is really Odigna’s cousin. What is not unclear is that Obama has some sort of relation with the man and has campaigned both with and for him at various times.

Snopes may be good at dispelling hoax emails, but I can no longer trust them to accurately report on political issues. One report I read indicated that the author searched multiple instances of Obama and then multiple instances of McCain. Overwhelmingly Snopes reported negative information of Obama to be False, while it simultaneously reports negative information about McCain to be true. Who do you trust? I suppose you have to gather the facts for yourself and arrive at your own conclusions.

And now, without further delay….the original post!



I’ve written about Raila Odinga before. He’s Obama’s cousin and as he puts it, they stay in close contact. Obama recently donated almost $1-million U.S. dollars to Odinga’s cause. BTW – the Obama camp refuses to comment on the donation.

What is his cause? Rewriting the constitution of his country to change it to a nation of Islam based on Shira law. He was just recently involved in a political melt-down in which thousands of people were slaughtered – mostly based on their race. Odinga was just named Prime Minister in an effort to stop the violence! This is not the first time Odinga has been involved with this level of violence. Let’s call it what it is – genocide.

Again, you just don’t hear about this much here in the west (America). Not only do you not hear much about the Muslim violence and genocide in Africa the media consistently fails to report it in any manner associated with Barack Huessein Obama.

And yes, I used his middle name just like Sherrif Mike Scott who is now being persecuted by the press.

Look – you people that support Obama seemingly and consistently turn a blind eye to his political and Muslim ties, and ties to violence, outside of the U.S. And why is it important that it’s Muslim ties? Because the violence and genocide that is occurring in Africa and other parts of the world is directly related to Islam, its beliefs and it’s teachings.

It’s hypocritical to fault the Bush administration for continued violence and the war yet you turn a blind eye to Obama and his support of his cousin (Odinga) who could be called an orchestrator of mass murder.

That’s why conservatives in the U.S. are very concerned about Obama’s loyalty to the U.S., and the constitution.

One way to wake up….

This morning I got up a tad early. It wasn’t hard since I am in PST and my body is two hours ahead from normally being in CST. But the world is just not made for non-coffee and non-tea drinkers in the morning. Here I am in a huge-ass hotel and casino and I can’t hardly find me a soda to drink in the morning. But after walking around for a while I was able to get a soda and blueberry muffin to start the day.

I then went to my massage appointment. Everyone was really nice and I was scheduled for a deep tissue “fusion” massage. Cisco footed the bill, including the tip and I was told that there wasn’t an upgrade available. I’m not sure what it cost for sure, but I overheard the receptionists telling some of the other people that the “lower end” massages were around $130. I figured this one was probably about $160+.

The woman was really good and definitely got deep. She would get it to the point where it hurt a little bit and just when you thought you couldn’t take it anymore she would roll through the muscle and finish it off. Then she followed up with a lighter massage and heat rocks.

Since I had access to the gym and spa (which I refused to pay for yesterday) I took advantage of it and hit the steam room with eucalyptus in it. I sweated it out for a good ten minutes or so and then spent time alternating between the dry sauna and the steam room before showering and getting back to the grind.

There are worse ways to start the day off.

To Cheap to Work Out

I am a cheap bastard. I totally admit it. But I am also practical and a man of principal. I'm staying at the Bellagio in Vegas courtesy of Cisco. They are having a partner appreciation and awards function here and invited me to attend.

I've got a real nice room with a king-sized bed. I don't know what it costs, but I can assure you that it is not cheap. I wanted to squeeze in a workout so I went to the spa and health center. They told me it would be an additional $25.00 / day to use the facilities.

WTF? I stay in hotels that cost far less than this and have FREE access to the workout facilities. Hell! My gym membership doesn't cost me $25 / month!!

it seems absurd to me to have to pay that kind of money to use the workout facilities.

I guess I'll be working out in the room.

Financial Quote of the Week

In light of the recent crash of the stock market, here is a quote that was forwarded to me by my friend John:

"THIS IS WORSE THAN A DIVORCE. I LOST HALF MY MONEY AND I STILL HAVE MY WIFE"

More of your Tax Dollars at Work!

Just days after the feds gave billions of dollars to AIG they took off an went on a $410,000+ executive retreat.

Then they asked for another 30+ BILLION dollars.

Nice. I'm glad to know my tax dollars are well spent.

At least they decided that spending another 1/2-million dollars for a retreat at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay was in poor taste....

Just updating....

It sure seems that many of my entries have been about politics lately. As much as I don’t want my site to be considered a “political” blog it is obviously something that is important to me. Combine that with the upcoming elections, the economy and the bailouts and I guess you can expect to see a fair amount of entries on it.

But that’s not all that is going on. I’ve been working my ass off in CA this last week. I had a terrible experience with my client and am trying to “fix” things. I spoke to someone here and told them about my solar panel analysis. They didn’t think that $25+ thousand dollars, 3000 sq. feet of solar panels and an 18-year ROI was that bad. Freaking Californians.

But the weather here has been great. I got me another convertible and the morning and evening drives are great. I pretty much don’t see the car beyond that because I’m putting in 12+ hour days with clients….but not tonight. I am going to go somewhere and have a “beverage” and a decent meal.

And what is it with drivers out in CA anyway? You are cruising down a highway marked at 65mph and people are driving 50 or 55 all over the place. Back home if you are on a highway marked 65 you better be doing 80 or you’ll get ran over. I don’t get it.


Last night I had my beverage out on the back lawn overlooking the valley. There were dear grazing in the yard below where I was. They didn’t seem to care I was there. I went out for dinner and tried this Sushi place I hadn’t been to in a while.

I valet parked the car since there wasn’t anywhere else to park and went inside. Then I left. Why? Because they wanted $24.00 for a freaking bowl of soup!! No, I am not kidding. Sushi rolls were anywhere from $20 ~ $35 a roll. I told them I was appauled at their prices. I think they were high as kites, but the place was packed. Hey! If they can get morons to pay three times as much as other places then more power to ‘em, but I wasn’t going to do it.

I went to another place in Saratoga – still pricey but I had a bowl of soup, some sushi, and a small saki all for $20.00.

I have been opening the windows at night. It’s cool outside. I was worried about not having screens on the windows but surprisingly I haven’t had any bugs fly in the room and try to eat me alive – even with the lights on. Did CA outlaw bugs?

VP Debates

I was watching some of the VP debates. It was fairly interesting and I was wondering why Palin kept coming back to energy issues even though the question was clearly about something else.

But, when Biden indicated that the major difference between himself and Obama vs. Palin / McCain was that they knew that climate change was all man-made and that you couldn’t resolve an issue unless you knew what the problem was. I completely lost my respect for him and whatever else he had to say.

Why? Because it shows me a man that is not willing to listen to reason and logic. A man that is willing to ignore science and the scientific methodology that, in fact, shows that we still do not know 100% what is causing all of the climate changes we see.

Steve's Bailout Bitch

I called my friend Steve up to talk shop about music. He was in the middle of watching the updates on the bailout and boy was he pissed. In fact, he was livid. He was so mad that he could barely complete a sentence.

He was pissed over several things….I’ll list some of them here, and I apologize that these are not direct quotes but paraphrases that I remember from our conversation:

One of the things he was really pissed about is that nobody, including McCain has the balls to stand up and point the finger at Obama and members of his staff for being directly responsible for the situation we are in.

True and I agree. And, if you want to argue that feel free. The media may not be portraying it much but democratic economic policies, bills, leaders, and cover-ups are directly responsible for creating the sub-prime market and the meltdown. Google it, watch it on Youtube, whatever.

Something else he was really pissed about is that he doesn’t believe an economic bailout is appropriate, yet the government (both republicans and democrats) are going to shove it down our throats. (As of this writing it has just been passed by both the house and senate with Bush signing the bill). I suggested Steve try calling his representatives but he and I both had the same problem – we couldn’t get through due to the call volume from people requesting that it not be passed.

Agreed. I don’t know anyone that wants this. I even know a few people that are fairly empathetic to the government bailing people out and even they aren’t sure this is a good thing. Economists seem to be split on the issue. So why is the govt. shoving it down our throats?

And Raines? Steve was furious about Raines. If you don’t know who Franklin Raines is he is a fellow democrat that cooked Fannie Mae’s books, drove ‘em into the ground, and then took a huge $20+ million dollar payout. As Steve put it, this is bigger than Enron (I agree) and Raines did the same thing Ken Lay did so why is he not under indictment and being prosecuted?

It might have to do with him being Obama’s top economic advisor. And sadly, we have a presidential nominee that had a big hand in the problem, with a top economic advisor that was directly responsible and yet somehow the story is not getting out and people aren’t going to jail.

Obama and Free Speech

You don’t hear about it much in the mainstream media. In fact, you may not have heard about it at all. Anti-Obama media is being attacked not only by Obama supporters, but by Obama himself.

I think it’s fairly typical for people to attack the other party or other party’s leader via phone calls, blogs, writing letters, etc. To take it a step further, I’ve been hearing about people that are afraid to put McCain stickers on their vehicles because they are being vandalized. Of course, you can’t exactly prove it’s an Obama supporter but it certainly seems that the people are “anti-McCain.”

But Obama himself takes the cake. Obama’s lawyers have filed numerous threatening letters to radio stations, the NRA, TV stations (ABC) and other media outlets for people speaking out against Obama. Fairly “thuggish” behavior for such a nice guy.

I’d like to point out that democrats are not the only group to try to stifle free speech. Right-wing republicans have been doing it for years and are still doing it. The slight difference is that right-wing republicans attack free speech under the guise of moral turpitude, where as democrats seems to attack free speech in order foster their political agendas by suppressing opposing points of view.

Deceptive Politics

Obama appears to like to deliver speeches and campaign ads in a interestingly deceptive manner. Politics is a game. Make no mistake. And Obama plays it as well as any, but most of you are deceived by it. He’s no politician. He’s different. He is….The One.

The two incidents that strike me are one in which Obama made a reference to “..at least keeping machine guns out of the hands of teenagers.” (sorry, that may be a paraphrase and not an exact quote). If I recall correctly the speech made a reference to keeping guns out of the hands of illegals and teenagers.

Ummm…someone needs to tell him that it’s already illegal. He isn’t proposing anything new nor is he shedding some golden light on the situation.

The other incident is part of his campaign in which he attempts to lure the vote of women by lying about McCains voting record on a law that would provide equal pay to women.

You would think that since Obama is a lawyer he would know that it’s been illegal to deny equal pay to women since 1963 via the Equal Pay Act, and reinforced in 1964 via the Civil Rights Act.

BTW – McCains female staff earns $1.04 for every dollar that his male staffers earn while Obama’s female staff only earn 83 cents for every dollar that his male staffers earn.

Hoper is Gone!

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful. My friend, Hopper, decided to join the Army. He’s a crazy bastard anyway, but now I know he’s completely freaking nuts. He sold off a lot of his stuff, put some into storage, and then needed a place to stay while he waited for his day to ship off to basic (boot camp).

I have a spare room so I told him to stay with me if he’d help out. He did, but I could really see it stressing him out as the day loomed over the horizon. He was drinking a lot and Hopper can be a bit obnoxious anyway….but when he’s wasted he can be especially difficult to deal with.

In any case, he left last week. The house is quiet again and I think I am regaining my sanity. I don’t do too well with roommates. I need my space and my solitary time.

I hope he’s doing well in basic.

My Bike Is a Torture Rack

My family had a reunion right off of Lake Nacadoches in E. Texas. One of my distant cousins lives there and hosts the party every year or so. I haven’t been to one since prior to Katrina mostly due to my work schedule not allowing me to go. I was actually going to make the one that coincided with Katrina, but you can guess the rest.

My great aunts are all getting up there in age. They have a myriad of problems. One can’t hear. One can’t see. One is having short term memory loss. Another can’t get around too well. But they are all pushing 90 and have had a pretty good life so I certainly don’t hold any of that against them. I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in several years so that was pretty nice, too.

Several members of my family live in or near Houston. Most of them had their houses wiped out and it was touching to hear their stories and how they are handling it.

I took the bike to save gas. I average about 43mpg when I slab it down the highways like that. Compare that to the 12 or 13mpg my truck gets and it’s a quick economic decision. Besides the weather is ½ way decent right now especially in the mornings. It’s even cooler out of the Metroplex so it was fairly nice to get on the bike and ride.

But I still have a sports bike. It still has low clip-ons, raised foot pegs, etc. It gets uncomfortable after a while. My round-trip total was 457 miles and you can figure I was on the bike about four hours straight each day (Sat. and Sun.).

Today I can really feel it in my traps. They are going to be sore for a day or two. Even my butt is a little saddle sore from droning for so long. Surpassingly, the twisties wear you out in a completely different way. You have to use your muscles differently as well as rapidly altering your position on the bike. It doesn’t give you much of an opportunity to get sore in any one spot.

And, as luck would have it, our reunion coincided with some Harley event just outside of Chireno that I believe is called the Wild Hog, or Hog Wild rally. Something like that. I never saw the huge throngs of bikes that others saw, but I passed a good many Harleys on the highway. Some of them even gave the friendly biker wave, but most of them were too goddamned stuck-up even for that (me being on a sport-bike and all).

And as I was trying to make my way back….it happened. It’s the number one reason I hate riding with or around cruisers. I was clipping along around 75mph (speed limit was 70) came over a hill, around a bend and all of a sudden I am in traffic…. In the middle of freaking nowhere on a Sunday morning (before Church lets out). Can you guess? That’s right…a whole stream of bikes going under the speed limit. They didn’t leave a trail of motorcycle parts, oil, grease and beer cans…. Well, they might have done that. Harley’s are known to throw parts going down the road – another reason not to get to close to the back of ‘em. But what they did leave was a wake of pissed off cagers (cars) about a ½ of a mile long.

It’s hard enough to pass on the country roads in a car. You just don’t have much time before you are back in a no-passing lane. But when there are 30 bikes to get around you simply can’t do it.

Theoretically, it should be easy for me. I worked my way around all the cagers stuck behind the bikes and then hit the pack. If the speed limit was 70, they were doing 50 – 55 mph. When it dropped to 50 I thought “well at least we are already going 50” and they would slow down to 30mph. Are you fucking kidding me????

Most bikers have the common courtesy to scoot over to the right-hand side of the lane and let a fellow biker go by. But not these folks. I kept waiting for a nice up-hill climb that opened up to two lanes to let the slower traffic get to the right so that others can get by, but it never happened. Mile after mile goes by and I’m thinking soon…soon…soon…I can get by these assholes. But no, it doesn’t happen. But finally…a passing lane. Not a big one, but I downshifted hit the gas and blew by about 10 or 15 of ‘em before I had to scoot back into the pack. I am sure they were not very happy about that as I split ‘em. Another passing lane and I went back to the oncoming lane and got by the rest of them. I think the leader was flipping me off. Fuck him.

They faded from my review mirrors as I got back up to the speed limit (and maybe a little extra). I just shook my head. I don’t get it. Why ride a bike and be such a nuisance to everyone like that?
For some reason, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Jenny not too long ago. I was telling her I hated pot-luck lunches because people always bring stuff I hate – beans, potatoes salad, cole slaw, some pasta-something dish and everything is slathered in mayonnaise. To me, riding a Harley is like that. You are one of the people that goes to the pot luck all the time. Your dish is just like every other dish and they all get by, but none of them really stand out. Your bike is the mayonaise. As Jenny said “enjoy your mayonnaise.”

Lazy Charities

A day or two ago I was talking to Hopper about a birthday party one of his kids attended. Apparently the parents of the birthday boy / girl sent out the invites with the note that the child was registered at a store (Toys R Us?) and could people please make sure they don’t buy and give the same toys.

Are you kidding me? Since when did kids start registering for their toys? The point of a bDay party is to celebrate that particular day with your friends and have some fun. Yes, it’s nice to get some really cool toys but it seems awfully presumptuous to expect people to go down to the toy store and look up the registry information.

I think I would be offended to get such an invitation.

Today, a friend of mine emailed me about a fund-raiser their child is doing for school. Their child is very young and the fundraiser is online. One of the selling points – it’s all online so there is no cash exchanged, the items you buy come directly to you, and the child doesn’t have to get out and canvass.

WTF? What the hell kind of lesson does that teach our children? That isn’t being entrepreneurial and assertive. That’s being lazy, pure and simple. Why not just ask me for money? I’d appreciate that more than trying to disguise it behind a rouse of the child trying to raise money for school.

Fundraiser are supposed to be about hard work, creativity, and social networking. This type of fundraising doesn’t encompass any of those things.

I fear for the future of our children.

PS – I just received another one of these things from another friend. This time it was to go and order pizza’s, but plug in the kids ID code to get the discount and credit the kid’s program.

Obama – I think not!

A few days ago a friend told me that they thought there wasn’t anything they could say to convince me that Obama would be the right candidate to vote for. They are probably right, but not because I won’t listen to reason.

First off, I flat out do not like him. I do not like politicians in general, and no matter what he says he is clearly a politician. Obama is a very charismatic person. But I am leery of anyone that people “flock” to so readily without providing anything other than rhetoric. I find all this talk about “change” and calling him “the one” deeply disturbing. People that are able to orchestrate large scams are often able to do so because they are able to draw the people in the way Obama has. It’s not until later that someone says “how did he manage to do that?” So again, I don’t like him and I don’t trust him.

Now what about change? This one is leaving me empty. Anyone who takes that office will be a change from what we have today. And who says change is a good thing? When the Nazi party took over Germany that was definitely a change, but I’d say that mankind has agreed that it was not a good change. BTW, I’m not comparing Obama to Hitler unlike so many people that would ludicrously do that to Bush.

Ok, so change. We get that, but let’s be more specific and move on.

Obama, like many democrats, favor socialistic policies – whether they come out and say it or not. Socialized medicine, increasing control and regulation of and by the government, increasing taxes (but not for everyone!), are all socialistic policies. Even today, congress is leading the way to put us in the same financial positions as our brethren in the U.K. and France (two countries that are suffering disastrous consequences).

Financial policy? Every economist I have read so far indicates that they think his policies will be a disaster. He’s already had to revise them because they were so far off the mark he couldn’t get elected with them.

Obama favors gun control, and I think I’ve written enough about that.
http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama-and-your-2nd-amendment-rights.html


Foreign policy experience? Forget it….but at least he has Biden to help with that.

Leadership experience? Just about nill as far as I can tell. I’ve read his voting record and while there are a few things I’d agree with I simply do not agree with most of his policies (the few he actually cast a definitive vote on as opposed to being “present.”).

And finally, my biggest problem with Obama. Forget the crap circulating out there that is pure bullshit for a moment. Obama has strong Muslim ties including financial, political, and family ties. I’ve posted articles on this before as well. Prior to running for President Obama was well known as a Muslim sympathizer. Combine that with other things that he has said / done and I simply do not trust his loyalty to the United States. And let me be frank for a moment – fuck everyone else. This is the U.S. and our country and countrymen (women) should come first. Take care of ourselves and then we can worry about other people.
http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-and-my-concerns.html


Notice I haven’t bagged on McCain / Palin. Well, it’s not that I like McCain and Palin….but this was about me not liking Obama.

But the good news….. I think Obama will probably get elected. People had enough of republicans for a while and even though the democratically controlled congress has a lower approval rate than Bush I think people will vote for Obama. So the good news? That the President of the United states can’t control the country. Sure, they can do a lot of damage (or a lot of good!), but ultimately it’s Congress that we need to worry about. They can’t do much without Congress.

Fat Ed's Furry Fucking Guide To Metal

AT&T And Binding Arbitration

I’ve been trying to keep track of arbitration information. In some ways, it appears as if consumers are slowly turning the tide on big corporations forcing them into arbitration. Recently there have been several cases in where the courts told the big companies to take their binding arbitration and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine and that they would be going to court.

I’ve seen other cases where the courts indicated that they violated the law and they couldn’t hind behind the guise of arbitration.

And then behold what I get from AT&T (I have DSL)….

For all Members:
Arbitration Agreement. We have added language that requires customer disputes with AT&T regarding AT&T Internet Services to be submitted to binding arbitration or small claims court. Arbitration is less formal than a lawsuit in court and often faster. In addition, AT&T will pay for all costs of arbitration, no matter who wins, as long as your claim is not frivolous.


First off, here is the big bully company forcing people into arbitration. Did you notice that they’ll pay for it? Of course they will! They want to control the entire process just like all the companies! This is their way of ensuring that you get fucked. I also like the part about AT&T paying for all costs of arbitration no matter who wins, as long as your claim is not frivolous. Who do you think gets to decide if your claim is frivolous? Probably the arbitrator….who is already being paid by AT&T. Yeah, that seems fair to me.

I am generally opposed to the government sticking their nose in private business. I’ve said that over and over and over again. Yet, I fear that we may have another instance where capitalism has broke down. The companies are too greedy and the general consumer too ignorant to know any better. It has gotten to the point where you don’t get a choice anymore and that’s bad for consumer. This will be an instance where I favor some type of government intervention. I don’t think that it has to be made illegal, but it should be made optional.

Blink and You May be Ripped Off!!

In the mail today I received my new chase Visa card with Blink. My existing card doesn’t expire for a couple of more months, but I guess Chase wanted me to start using their new Blink technology right away.

What is Blink? It’s similar to a “smart pass” card some of you use at the gas station. For specialized readers, you can simply hold your card up to the reader and it will read your credit card information. You don’t even have to sign for anything. In fact, you don’t have to take your card out of your wallet. Isn’t that nice?

See, they’ve embedded an RFID tag in the card. That way any merchant or technology savvy hacker can glean your credit card information just by being in proximity of you. Isn’t that special? And since you don’t have to sign for purchases over $25 they can use that card all they want before you probably realize it’s been duplicated.

Oh! Now, I almost forgot! They do tell you that it works just like a normal credit card in that you have the same type of theft protection. So if someone did rip off your credit card then all you have to do is tell them it wasn’t you…..provided that they don’t ask you to prove that it wasn’t you. I mean, you didn’t sign anything, right?

Needless to say that because I work in the wireless space I am not too keen on RFID tags with this type of information in them. I called chase to get a normal card, without an RFID tag:

Me: Hi, I just got my new credit card with the Blink RFID tag.

CSR: Great! What can I do for you.

Me: I’d like you to cancel it and send me another card without the RFID tag.

CSR: Can I ask you why you want to do that?

Me: Because I work in the RF space as well as IT and I don’t think it’s secure.

CSR: It’s very secure. You don’t even have to swipe it like a regular credit card. In fact, you don’t even have to take it out of your wallet. (I don’t bother to explain this is what bothers me. I guess they haven’t seen the articles, forms, and videos of hackers stealing credit card info just by sitting on the subway train next to you.)

Me: I see. So you’ve seen all the youtube video’s of people hacking these things, right?

CSR: Uh, no. [silence] Let me see what I can do to get you another card.

Stormbringer Coming….

Hurricane Ike made its debut in North Texas and then left without too much excitement. For those who were on the coast, they got hit pretty hard. Galveston, Houston, Beaumont and all the other cities really suffered.

We had a bunch of evacuee’s shipped up here from the coast. The highways were a little congested and DOT signs were telling evacuees where to go. Jenny told me that she heard some folks call in from the coast that refused to evacuate and were now stranded on the second floor of their home in two feet of water.

But here?? Despite all the warnings and emails and everyone freaking out and stockpiling water, food, candles, batteries, generators etc., we only got a little rain out of it.

And no, I am not kidding. People were flocking to the stores to buy extra water and food….food that you could cook without electricity! People were buying generators and spare candles and all kinds of crap.

I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and while Ike was a big hurricane we are still almost 300 miles from the coastline and they just don’t have much of an impact this far inland. Dallas got it a little worse than we did, but there weren’t any high-winds (a few gusts) and no record breaking rainfalls. We had a nice all-day soak and managed to cool off into the 80’s.

No electricity going out. No fires. No blown down trees. No flooding. You get the idea. In fact, by about 9:00pm on Saturday night the “worst” of it was over and I spotted a BMW with the top down at the local Starbucks. That’s how bad it was here.

I feel a little ripped off. I had my water hose ready to put out fires (yes, people were suggesting that) and I was ready. But it was really disappointing. It was barely windy enough to take the kites out. Imagine if you had the opportunity to have sex with your favorite supermodel / actress / etc., and they weren’t any good in the sack. That was Ike in N. Texas.

PS – this is how people senselessly get killed in hurricanes.

Obama and Your 2nd Amendment Rights

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know I’m not a big fan of Obama. I’ve made a bit of an effort not to just rail on ‘em, but this is one issue that has come to light and it concerns me.

Recently when the Supreme court upheld the second amendment I was bothered by the fact it was a 5-4 decision. To me, it shouldn’t even be that close but my friend pointed out that a 5-4 vote may not be what it appears.

In any event, Obama was questioned about it and it and in typical politician style he flipped and flopped like a well lubricated fish so you couldn’t quite get a straight answer.

The NRA is posting synapses of his 10-point-plan:

1. Ban use of firearms for home self-defense.
2. Pass federal law eliminating right to carry.
3. Ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.
4. Close down 90% of the gun shops in America.
5. Ban rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.
6. Increase federal taxes on guns and ammunition by 500%.
7. Restore voting rights for five million criminals including those who have been convicted of using a gun to commit a violent crime.
8. Expand the Clinton semi-auto ban to include millions more firearms.
9. Mandate a government issued license to purchase a firearm.
10.Appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal judiciary who share his views on the second amendment.

That doesn’t sound much like someone that supports the second amendment. If you google Obama and what his official policy is you will find something close to the following: “As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms.” And then he’ll turn right around and support banning hand guns.

Even if the NRA is a little over the top, I don’t think they are too far off the mark. Here are some examples of Obama and his “support” of the second amendment:

- Respects the 2nd Amendment (Feb. 2008)
- Supports local governments to enact handgun bans (Apr. 2008)
- Obama endorsed Illinois handgun ban (Apr. 2008)
- Co-sponsored a bill to limit gun purchases to one a month (Oct. 2007)
- Concealed carry OK for retired police officers
- Stop unscrupulous gun dealers dumping guns in cities
- Keep guns out of inter-cities.
- Bush erred in failing to renew assault weapons ban.
- Ban semi-automatics, and more possession restrictions.
- Voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

You can read between the lines but it basically says that he’ll publicly support the 2nd Amendment to appease people (voters) but he clearly favors enacting other laws and supporting lawsuits in an effort to take our guns away.

Maybe it’s not a big deal to you. Maybe you aren’t into guns and don’t get it. That’s fine. I was raised in the south and have been around guns all my life. But for me, it’s more than that. The second amendment provides us with a mechanism to curb and prevent a tyrannical government from imposing it’s will upon the people via an act of force.

It has been shown that throughout history once this basic mechanism is taken away, the ability to defend yourself, that those who protest against the government and could enact change are swiftly silenced.

And I’ll break out my “what if stick” or as Jenny said, my “slippery slope argument” and ask you….which constitutional right do they have to take away before YOU get upset?

Medical Bills You Shouldn't Pay!

Here is an interesting article about how medical companies are ripping off patients, most of the times quite illegally. It’s worth a quick read and you might find yourself in a better position next time you have to visit the doc!

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_36/b4098040915634.htm

Killer Remote!!

This last weekend I finally broke down and bought a new remote control. I know, I know…big deal, right? But I’ve never been very happy with any of my remotes that have come with my stereo / TV components. Even the ones that do some of the other functions on the other remotes only do just that…..some of the functions.

Plus, anyone else trying to watch my TV or a DVD was completely lost. You had to change the TV to the correct inputs, then you had to set the receiver to DVD, and then there was the DVD player itself.

For a while I was checking out remote controls and trying to find a really good universal remote that could replace all my remotes and have macro functionality. I didn’t want to get into a $1000 remote (yes, they have $1000 remote controls) and as I looked around Harmony seemed to be the one that consistently got good reviews. Sure, some people didn’t like them or they didn’t do some odd thing just right but overall most people were happy with them.

Since I had a spare $200 from my piggy bank I went ahead and used that money to pick up a Harmony One remote.


It has a docking station that recharges the batteries. This is good for two reasons. First off, you don’t have to replace the batteries all the time. Secondly, you almost always know where it is if it’s back on the docking station.

But the best part? I spent about 30 minutes setting it up and it worked like a champ to control all of my stuff (including my iPod dock) the first time!!! Setting it up was really pretty simple. You install the software, create an account, and then plug-in all of the devices that it will control. The database at Logitech has all the devices in it and then it programs the remote via a USB port. Real slick.

The remote supports things activities such as “watch DVD” – turn on the TV, set the inputs, turn on the AV receiver and set it to DVD, and then turn on the DVD player and start playing the disc (if one is in there) – all with the touch of ONE button. Not two, not three, not switch devices and change things. One button. *click*

You want to turn everything off? One button.

You want to switch from watching DVD to satellite TV? One button
Switch from satellite tv to HDTV tuner? One button.
Listen to the iPod? One button.
Make scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon? Well, better get your honey to do that one for you and perhaps she only has one button you have to push.

Oh! I almost forgot…. It’s touch-screen. Really really cool. I’m still learning where all the buttons and stuff are and the one I have the most problem with is the volume and the channel as they are on the opposite sides of the remote from my old one. I keep hitting the wrong one, but since the remote has a motion sensor and it lights up when you pick it up it’s easy to look down real quick and hit the right buttons.

Is it pricey? Yes. But it freaking ROCKS!!! It has serious bling! and cool factor. It replaced seven remote controls and it did it all without batting an eye.

Give me a month and I can tell you all the crap wrong with it, but right now I am very impressed!