Thursday, April 26, 2007
Global Warming Bigot
Lately, I've been noticing that I am becoming closed minded when considering Global Warming information. It's not that I truly don't believe anything someone says about Global Warming, but the mass media and the IPCC are so full of flawed theories, misrepresentation and scare mongering that I just about dismiss anything they say outright.
Recently, Bling! forwarded an article to me that indicated that a "new" island has been discovered off the coast of Greenland. I was a bit confused by the writing, but it appeared as though the island was considered part of the mainland while there was a large ice-sheet. Now that the sheet has melted off, they have realized that there is an island there.
So let's examine some of the flaws in this. Why is Greenland named "Greenland" if it's an ice sheet? Well originally, when it was settled by Vikings and the Europeans "discovered" it Greenland was, in fact, green. It took a long time, but Greenland was slowly covered with ice. My friend was telling me of a whole squadron of WWII planes that ditched there and they found the planes under 200 feet of ice!! That was since WWII.
Now, some of this ice has melted off. Is that really a bad thing? That also means that the island is not new. It was obviously mapped and known long before the ice created a solid landmass that connected the two together.
Yet the article failed to mention any of this.
The article also was confusing in saying that because of the melting ice, the seas would rise and cover the land. Wait a minute.....didn't the ice just melt and show that there was new land? Wouldn't it take the opposite effect for the seas to rise and cover up the land? How does that work?
Then there were numerous other failures and inconsistencies in the article.....like completely failing to mention that some glaciers and ice sheets are growing. They also didn't mention what they meant by "rising sea levels." Truly rising sea levels, or land erosion that looks like rising sea levels? That's a hard thing to measure.
Basically, the article was a standard Global Warming scare mongering article. It made it very difficult to read because it was so biased and so loaded with mis-information that I almost dismissed it outright. But this is not new. And what if I had dismissed it outright? Would I even consider the consequences of the Greenland ice sheet melting? Maybe. Is that a bad thing? Probably.
Because when we get to the point that we cease to have rational and logical thought that is when things get really dangerous. Hence, why I think the whole Global Warming hysteria is a very dangerous thing.
But people are already there. Already, private and governmental groups are taking radical steps to stop this man-killing Global Warming. I bet right now you are thinking, "what kind of radical steps are they taking bRad?"
How about dumping 50 TONS of iron dust into the ocean? That's right, a private group is going to dump 50 TONS of iron dust into the ocean to encourage a particular type of plankton to grow. The theory is that the plankton will bloom and suck Co2 out of the air. Again, I stress theory because nobody knows for sure what will happen or the environmental impact this will have.
How about flooding the atmosphere with sulphates to drop the temperature? This is a "man made volcano effect." We know that when volcanoes erupt they dump tons of sulfates into the air and the temperature drops. So again, the theory is to dump this stuff into the air and cool the earth down.
Let me get this right - these IPCC / Global Warming freaks are warning us about a potential and virtually unmeasurable .5 degree increase in the atmosphere but they want to go and intentionally disrupt the environment and atmosphere by manipulating it (i.e. polluting it) in an effort to change the temperature by more than 1 degree? Does anyone else see how absurd this type of thinking is?
This is not the thought process of rational people. We don't even know, for sure, what will happen when they do this. We also don't know, for sure, what the long term effects of cooling the planet by a degree or so will have. Are you OK with this, because I am not!
Recently, Bling! forwarded an article to me that indicated that a "new" island has been discovered off the coast of Greenland. I was a bit confused by the writing, but it appeared as though the island was considered part of the mainland while there was a large ice-sheet. Now that the sheet has melted off, they have realized that there is an island there.
So let's examine some of the flaws in this. Why is Greenland named "Greenland" if it's an ice sheet? Well originally, when it was settled by Vikings and the Europeans "discovered" it Greenland was, in fact, green. It took a long time, but Greenland was slowly covered with ice. My friend was telling me of a whole squadron of WWII planes that ditched there and they found the planes under 200 feet of ice!! That was since WWII.
Now, some of this ice has melted off. Is that really a bad thing? That also means that the island is not new. It was obviously mapped and known long before the ice created a solid landmass that connected the two together.
Yet the article failed to mention any of this.
The article also was confusing in saying that because of the melting ice, the seas would rise and cover the land. Wait a minute.....didn't the ice just melt and show that there was new land? Wouldn't it take the opposite effect for the seas to rise and cover up the land? How does that work?
Then there were numerous other failures and inconsistencies in the article.....like completely failing to mention that some glaciers and ice sheets are growing. They also didn't mention what they meant by "rising sea levels." Truly rising sea levels, or land erosion that looks like rising sea levels? That's a hard thing to measure.
Basically, the article was a standard Global Warming scare mongering article. It made it very difficult to read because it was so biased and so loaded with mis-information that I almost dismissed it outright. But this is not new. And what if I had dismissed it outright? Would I even consider the consequences of the Greenland ice sheet melting? Maybe. Is that a bad thing? Probably.
Because when we get to the point that we cease to have rational and logical thought that is when things get really dangerous. Hence, why I think the whole Global Warming hysteria is a very dangerous thing.
But people are already there. Already, private and governmental groups are taking radical steps to stop this man-killing Global Warming. I bet right now you are thinking, "what kind of radical steps are they taking bRad?"
How about dumping 50 TONS of iron dust into the ocean? That's right, a private group is going to dump 50 TONS of iron dust into the ocean to encourage a particular type of plankton to grow. The theory is that the plankton will bloom and suck Co2 out of the air. Again, I stress theory because nobody knows for sure what will happen or the environmental impact this will have.
How about flooding the atmosphere with sulphates to drop the temperature? This is a "man made volcano effect." We know that when volcanoes erupt they dump tons of sulfates into the air and the temperature drops. So again, the theory is to dump this stuff into the air and cool the earth down.
Let me get this right - these IPCC / Global Warming freaks are warning us about a potential and virtually unmeasurable .5 degree increase in the atmosphere but they want to go and intentionally disrupt the environment and atmosphere by manipulating it (i.e. polluting it) in an effort to change the temperature by more than 1 degree? Does anyone else see how absurd this type of thinking is?
This is not the thought process of rational people. We don't even know, for sure, what will happen when they do this. We also don't know, for sure, what the long term effects of cooling the planet by a degree or so will have. Are you OK with this, because I am not!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Finally! A bug boil!
So I fly in from Montana. I get in late in the afternoon and immediately sweep and mop the floor trying to get the grout dust off. Then I call Young Blood and he comes over to help me move all my stuff back.
Then it’s in the shower for a shower and shave before heading out to the Stars game where we trounced the Florida Dolphins (inside joke) 2-0!!! Side note: that makes game seven in the first round TONIGHT – which pretty much means I’ll probably have a heart attack somewhere around 9:30pm CST.
The next day I get up and ride a bit while grabbing some chow. I decided to do an impromptu bug-boil (crawfish). I wasn’t going to do it, but they (bugs) only go on sale maybe one time a year and this was going to have to be the day.
I called a few people and most people just couldn’t make it on such short notice, but I decided to do it anyway. Most of these pics were taken for my friends in MT that had never seen a bug boil before.
The boil / mix. It’s got all kinds of spices, peppers, onions, garlic, etc. in it. This is right before we bring it to a boil and start taste-testing.
This is a picture of my niece after discovering Beignets (a Cajun donut) for the first time. She ate enough of them with the powdered sugar to produce a nice exploding child effect!!!
This is one of the “bad boys” that was picked out of the lineup early on. My niece as well as several others had fun playing with the crawfish before they met their imminent demise. My niece had such a good time with them that I had to get a jar and poke some hole in the lid so that she could take couple of them home for pets and for show and tell at school.
Now that the water is boiling we have our first test subject!!!! It took us a little bit of time to get the mixture right, and my friend Dan who is a real coon-ass used his nose and taste buds to dial it in.
We had 35lbs of bugs that went along with a whole sack of potatoes, some corn, sausage and mushrooms which were all thrown in the mix to absorb the spices. Wash down with cold beer and enjoy!
Then it’s in the shower for a shower and shave before heading out to the Stars game where we trounced the Florida Dolphins (inside joke) 2-0!!! Side note: that makes game seven in the first round TONIGHT – which pretty much means I’ll probably have a heart attack somewhere around 9:30pm CST.
The next day I get up and ride a bit while grabbing some chow. I decided to do an impromptu bug-boil (crawfish). I wasn’t going to do it, but they (bugs) only go on sale maybe one time a year and this was going to have to be the day.
I called a few people and most people just couldn’t make it on such short notice, but I decided to do it anyway. Most of these pics were taken for my friends in MT that had never seen a bug boil before.
The boil / mix. It’s got all kinds of spices, peppers, onions, garlic, etc. in it. This is right before we bring it to a boil and start taste-testing.
This is a picture of my niece after discovering Beignets (a Cajun donut) for the first time. She ate enough of them with the powdered sugar to produce a nice exploding child effect!!!Here is a picture of the bugs after I purged them. Purging them is a process by which you stick them in real salty water so that they clear their bowels and stomachs. Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound real pleasant, but it’s better than eating it!!!!
This is one of the “bad boys” that was picked out of the lineup early on. My niece as well as several others had fun playing with the crawfish before they met their imminent demise. My niece had such a good time with them that I had to get a jar and poke some hole in the lid so that she could take couple of them home for pets and for show and tell at school.
Now that the water is boiling we have our first test subject!!!! It took us a little bit of time to get the mixture right, and my friend Dan who is a real coon-ass used his nose and taste buds to dial it in.
The finished product, Batch 1 !!!
We had 35lbs of bugs that went along with a whole sack of potatoes, some corn, sausage and mushrooms which were all thrown in the mix to absorb the spices. Wash down with cold beer and enjoy!
Kitchen Floor Project
The week before last was kind of hectic. I had my kitchen floors re-done. They were about 10 years old and were originally done with linoleum (ick). The stuff was starting to peel up in spots and just not quite looking so hot any more.
When I originally built the house with my now ex-girlfriend we didn't think we could afford the tile and so went the less expensive route. I wish we had done it the first time, but it's too late to cry over spilt milk.
In any case, Bling! helped me pick out my tile and accents. He has a far better eye than I do for putting colors and stuff together. I tend to vapor lock and drool when trying to put all this stuff together. As much as I can appreciate good interior decorating I just can't do it myself. We had hard time finding stuff that we liked, but ended up getting everything from Lowe's even though it was all custom ordered. The next part was picking out a pattern, and so I modified a standard pattern a bit to get the effect I wanted. The idea was to add some color, put something interesting down, and keep it so that it wasn't so busy as to be distracting to the eye.
I also had to find someone that could do the work as it was too big of a project for me and I just don't have time to do something like this. I ended up being referred to James Payton who has been doing this for a long time (20+ years!). His company is called Payton's Masonry Repair (817-925-2906) and he does all kinds of masonry (brick and stone) work including tile. He was very reasonably priced and I am pretty pleased with his work.
The first thing that had to be done was get everything out of the way so that he could tear the old linoleum out. That meant moving the fridge, stove, washer, dryer, foosball table, bakers rack, trash can, laundry basket, wine racks, etc. out of the area. Needless to say the house effectively became trashed and difficult to get around in from that point forward. My motorcycle was imprisoned for a week and we had awesome weather!!!
The James proceeded to tear all the old linoleum out, remove all the baseboards and wood trim, and scrape up all the crap off of the concrete. About this time, after returning from Chicago I noticed that my water heater was leaking so I had to have it replaced!!!! Fortunately there wasn’t any serious damage to anything and I was able to get it replace quickly. 
When I originally built the house with my now ex-girlfriend we didn't think we could afford the tile and so went the less expensive route. I wish we had done it the first time, but it's too late to cry over spilt milk.
In any case, Bling! helped me pick out my tile and accents. He has a far better eye than I do for putting colors and stuff together. I tend to vapor lock and drool when trying to put all this stuff together. As much as I can appreciate good interior decorating I just can't do it myself. We had hard time finding stuff that we liked, but ended up getting everything from Lowe's even though it was all custom ordered. The next part was picking out a pattern, and so I modified a standard pattern a bit to get the effect I wanted. The idea was to add some color, put something interesting down, and keep it so that it wasn't so busy as to be distracting to the eye.
I also had to find someone that could do the work as it was too big of a project for me and I just don't have time to do something like this. I ended up being referred to James Payton who has been doing this for a long time (20+ years!). His company is called Payton's Masonry Repair (817-925-2906) and he does all kinds of masonry (brick and stone) work including tile. He was very reasonably priced and I am pretty pleased with his work.
The first thing that had to be done was get everything out of the way so that he could tear the old linoleum out. That meant moving the fridge, stove, washer, dryer, foosball table, bakers rack, trash can, laundry basket, wine racks, etc. out of the area. Needless to say the house effectively became trashed and difficult to get around in from that point forward. My motorcycle was imprisoned for a week and we had awesome weather!!!
The James proceeded to tear all the old linoleum out, remove all the baseboards and wood trim, and scrape up all the crap off of the concrete. About this time, after returning from Chicago I noticed that my water heater was leaking so I had to have it replaced!!!! Fortunately there wasn’t any serious damage to anything and I was able to get it replace quickly. 
While I had everything out of there I decided to replace all of my lines with steel braided lines to ensure that they wouldn’t burst while I was out of town somewhere and flood the house. The washer and dryer were easy, but the check-valve for the fridge was (note was) a non-standard size of a 5/16” compression setting and everything is now standardized at ¼”. I vaguely recalled having to sacrifice a live chicken to find something that worked when we first moved in and hooked up the fridge. No such luck this time. Every hardware store told me that they didn’t make a 5/16” check valve. Really? Then what did I pull this off of? Oh, that…well…huh….they don’t make one. The easy solution? Replace it with a new check valve. No problem.
Until I get home and realize that the plumber was nice enough to have the valve encased in a little plastic recess in the wall and the pipe was cut EXACTLY to the base of the valve. This meant that I couldn’t get to the pipe! I had to cut out the wall, remove the old valve and plastic housing and then replace it all. But it’s now a ¼” check valve from here on out!!James was starting to lay tile at this point, but it took him a bit to get a feel for the patterns. He also had to hand “build” the accents on the fly. The pieces that I like weren’t made the way I wanted them. So I had to buy two pieces and then have them torn down and re-assembled while they were being laid. The two accents on the top make up what you see on the bottom.
Because of the pattern, it turned out that aside from the first two tiles that were laid down that all but four of them had to be cut if they touched a wall or other leading edge. It was LOT of work and LOT of cutting!!!But once it was all in James laid in the grout. These picture show the grout as it is still drying. It’s not supposed to be nearly this red, and most of the red hue is grout dust that I haven’t gotten off the tile, yet. I figure it will take three or four moppings to get it all up, but here is the finished product.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Just Feeling Tired
This week has been a long week. I am still in Montana, but going home tomorrow. I have pretty much been working hard and steady since I got here. I also haven't been sleeping at night for some unknown reason so I am feeling pretty wiped out.
The Dallas Stars are stressing me out, but at least they won in OT last night to keep alive in the series. I, however, may not make it. I'll probably have a heart attack before it's all over.
I am going out with a friend tonight to celebrate her belated birthday. I have another friend that is mad at me. I have to catch a flight out at 6:30am. When I get home I have to clean my floors from the tile project and move all my stuff back and re-clean everything. It's a mess. Then I am supposed to meet up with some new people and some old friends. The weekend is going to be packed.
And of course, I have to start work on Monday with some new projects that will probably take more than 40 hours to do, but they want it by Wed. "umm.....yeah, I'm going to have to ask you to work 15 hour days without rest. I hope you don't mind."
Does it ever end???
And thanks to Bling! for keeping me up on the latest and greatest with the VT Massacre and others for updates on the Imus fiasco.
I'm not sure that I know enough to comment on the VT Massacre, but it certainly seems there is a failure of us as human beings for allowing this to happen.
As for Imus - good for him! I think it's too bad he got nailed as a scapegoat, but the PC crap that we deal with day in and day out is shite and people need to start figuring it out.
Jeeze, I am too tired to even write complete thoughts.
And why is it that people will send a chain letter quoting a celebrity or something and take it as the gospel, but when I point out that they didn't actually say it I am the one that is scrutinized? Good rule of thumb - if it circulates on the Net and was said by so-and-so, it's probably not true.
I'll have to put the tile project up on here when I get a chance. And when I can find time to delve back into world affairs and relax enough to write I'll certainly give you my two-cents worth just like you expect it.
The Dallas Stars are stressing me out, but at least they won in OT last night to keep alive in the series. I, however, may not make it. I'll probably have a heart attack before it's all over.
I am going out with a friend tonight to celebrate her belated birthday. I have another friend that is mad at me. I have to catch a flight out at 6:30am. When I get home I have to clean my floors from the tile project and move all my stuff back and re-clean everything. It's a mess. Then I am supposed to meet up with some new people and some old friends. The weekend is going to be packed.
And of course, I have to start work on Monday with some new projects that will probably take more than 40 hours to do, but they want it by Wed. "umm.....yeah, I'm going to have to ask you to work 15 hour days without rest. I hope you don't mind."
Does it ever end???
And thanks to Bling! for keeping me up on the latest and greatest with the VT Massacre and others for updates on the Imus fiasco.
I'm not sure that I know enough to comment on the VT Massacre, but it certainly seems there is a failure of us as human beings for allowing this to happen.
As for Imus - good for him! I think it's too bad he got nailed as a scapegoat, but the PC crap that we deal with day in and day out is shite and people need to start figuring it out.
Jeeze, I am too tired to even write complete thoughts.
And why is it that people will send a chain letter quoting a celebrity or something and take it as the gospel, but when I point out that they didn't actually say it I am the one that is scrutinized? Good rule of thumb - if it circulates on the Net and was said by so-and-so, it's probably not true.
I'll have to put the tile project up on here when I get a chance. And when I can find time to delve back into world affairs and relax enough to write I'll certainly give you my two-cents worth just like you expect it.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Rain On Me
I am up here in Montana. It's been raining and snowing all day long. What happened to Global Warming again?
I also saw on ESPN that a huge percentage of games have been postponed until later due to winter (read snow) conditions compared to 2 years ago. More global warming?
And my beloved Dallas Stars are screwing up in the playoffs and are about to get eliminated.
I still have a bunch of stuff I want to write about, but I've been REAL busy. I'll try later on tonight after dinner.
I also saw on ESPN that a huge percentage of games have been postponed until later due to winter (read snow) conditions compared to 2 years ago. More global warming?
And my beloved Dallas Stars are screwing up in the playoffs and are about to get eliminated.
I still have a bunch of stuff I want to write about, but I've been REAL busy. I'll try later on tonight after dinner.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Idiocracy
I watched a movie the other night called Idiocracy. Now, don't run out and go watch this movie. It sucked. But, even though I sat there and wasted a little over an hour of my life on it I fear that the point of the movie was prophetic.
The basic premise of the film is that the military takes two average people and accidentally hibernates them for 500+ years and they wake up in the future. In the future these two average people are now the smartest people on the planet because we have continually been dumbing down society to the point where everyone is a moron.
The sad thing is, I don't think they were too far off the mark. The opening few minutes of the film is the best part where they show how evolution has basically ceased and that population growth and explosion are attributed to stupid people, while intelligent people are being bred out. The basic reasoning for this is that intelligent people are less likely to have children as they are more likely to wait until the timing is right (financially, socially, etc), while stupid people are more likely to reproduce again, and again, and again without cause or concern for themselves or the young ones.
Now, if you stop and think about it....this is exactly what is happening!!!! And then, of course we have the dumbing down of our social system, schools, etc. The movie also attributes our future stupidity to our value of entertainment over more cerebral activities, such as reading. Maybe I really don't want to be here in a few hundred years.
The basic premise of the film is that the military takes two average people and accidentally hibernates them for 500+ years and they wake up in the future. In the future these two average people are now the smartest people on the planet because we have continually been dumbing down society to the point where everyone is a moron.
The sad thing is, I don't think they were too far off the mark. The opening few minutes of the film is the best part where they show how evolution has basically ceased and that population growth and explosion are attributed to stupid people, while intelligent people are being bred out. The basic reasoning for this is that intelligent people are less likely to have children as they are more likely to wait until the timing is right (financially, socially, etc), while stupid people are more likely to reproduce again, and again, and again without cause or concern for themselves or the young ones.
Now, if you stop and think about it....this is exactly what is happening!!!! And then, of course we have the dumbing down of our social system, schools, etc. The movie also attributes our future stupidity to our value of entertainment over more cerebral activities, such as reading. Maybe I really don't want to be here in a few hundred years.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Back From The Dead
I think I am finally back online. As I was indicating my laptop was dying on me and it finally did. Unfortunately I was in Chicago when it happened.
After I got in on Easter Sunday I started the process of recovering my data. I got lucky because at this point Windows would no longer boot and gave me a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) indicating that it couldn't mount any partitions. In computer-speak, this is usually very bad. But I got my data onto my portable HDD and then wiped out the HDD and started re-loading Windows XP.
It was fairly obviously that the drive was fooked because the load was taking far longer than necessary and when I tried installing the 8-billion patches to XP I started getting read/write failures on the drive. At this point I realized it really was hardware related and not just Windows messing up.
I called HP to order a new drive. They wanted $450 for a new 60GB (giga-byte) drive!!! I was fairly astounded and explained to the guy that was about 1/2 the price of a new laptop! He then tells me he is "authorized" to sell me a new laptop for just $400 more with Vista.....and I cut him off and told him he was smoking crack. "Joe" really wasn't sure how to handle me at this point. I then said I was going to source the drive somewhere else at which point he tried to tell me that it wouldn't work right and blah blah...CLICK! Oh, I'm sorry? Were you saying something?
I ran down to Fry's and picked up a new 100GB, 5400 RPM drive for a whopping $99+ tax. They had a 120GB for just $5 more, but they were out of stock. The kicker is that it is a Toshiba drive, just like my old one. So far, it's working great and I have all my data intact (MAKE BACKUPS!). It just took a looooooong time to get it all back together. I still have little things I am tweaking here and there, but for the most part I am good to go.
And as for HP? I wrote them a letter, but I doubt I'll hear anything back.
After I got in on Easter Sunday I started the process of recovering my data. I got lucky because at this point Windows would no longer boot and gave me a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) indicating that it couldn't mount any partitions. In computer-speak, this is usually very bad. But I got my data onto my portable HDD and then wiped out the HDD and started re-loading Windows XP.
It was fairly obviously that the drive was fooked because the load was taking far longer than necessary and when I tried installing the 8-billion patches to XP I started getting read/write failures on the drive. At this point I realized it really was hardware related and not just Windows messing up.
I called HP to order a new drive. They wanted $450 for a new 60GB (giga-byte) drive!!! I was fairly astounded and explained to the guy that was about 1/2 the price of a new laptop! He then tells me he is "authorized" to sell me a new laptop for just $400 more with Vista.....and I cut him off and told him he was smoking crack. "Joe" really wasn't sure how to handle me at this point. I then said I was going to source the drive somewhere else at which point he tried to tell me that it wouldn't work right and blah blah...CLICK! Oh, I'm sorry? Were you saying something?
I ran down to Fry's and picked up a new 100GB, 5400 RPM drive for a whopping $99+ tax. They had a 120GB for just $5 more, but they were out of stock. The kicker is that it is a Toshiba drive, just like my old one. So far, it's working great and I have all my data intact (MAKE BACKUPS!). It just took a looooooong time to get it all back together. I still have little things I am tweaking here and there, but for the most part I am good to go.
And as for HP? I wrote them a letter, but I doubt I'll hear anything back.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Can I Write?
I've had a few people give me compliments on my writing on here. As much as I appreciate them, I am far to critical to acknowledge them. I read a lot. And I do not feel that my writing would be, at best, a pale comparison to some of my favorite authors.
My friend, Bling!, recently loaned me a book that I have been reading on my trip to Chicago. It's by Tim Cahill and is called "Pecked to Death by Ducks." I haven't ever read his work before, but I have been enjoying it. The book is divided into small, readable chapters with a near stream-of-consciousness writing style. It is highly entertaining, but go read it for yourself if you like that type of thing (hint - the title has almost nothing to do with actual ducks).
Still, in reading his work I fear that I am no where near as eloquent or descriptive in my style. I don't think people can truly get a sense of my thought process from reading what I write. I am not sure that *I* can even get a sense of my thought process. That lends me to believe that perhaps I have failed in being able to bestow upon the reader of this blog how I feel and think.
Maybe, secretly, on some level, I don't want to....and maybe I do. I am not sure that I have figured that one out, yet.
My friend, Bling!, recently loaned me a book that I have been reading on my trip to Chicago. It's by Tim Cahill and is called "Pecked to Death by Ducks." I haven't ever read his work before, but I have been enjoying it. The book is divided into small, readable chapters with a near stream-of-consciousness writing style. It is highly entertaining, but go read it for yourself if you like that type of thing (hint - the title has almost nothing to do with actual ducks).
Still, in reading his work I fear that I am no where near as eloquent or descriptive in my style. I don't think people can truly get a sense of my thought process from reading what I write. I am not sure that *I* can even get a sense of my thought process. That lends me to believe that perhaps I have failed in being able to bestow upon the reader of this blog how I feel and think.
Maybe, secretly, on some level, I don't want to....and maybe I do. I am not sure that I have figured that one out, yet.
We are in the Frying Pan!
I see that the US Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA now has control over greenhouse gases. Apparently, they (the court) "emphasized the link between increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and rising temperature" (USA Today).
Since when did the U.S. Supreme court starting sitting scientists capable of making these types of decisions?
What we really have going on here is another political scam based on the scaremongering of the Global Warming alarmists.
I fear it shall only get worse. And what happens when they finally realize they were wrong? Do you think the laws will revert back to the way they were before? Keep dreaming....
Since when did the U.S. Supreme court starting sitting scientists capable of making these types of decisions?
What we really have going on here is another political scam based on the scaremongering of the Global Warming alarmists.
I fear it shall only get worse. And what happens when they finally realize they were wrong? Do you think the laws will revert back to the way they were before? Keep dreaming....
My Laptop is Blown Up!
Well here I am, stuck in Chicago, and my laptop is having major issues. Last week we had some good thunderstorms and even though I keep this thing on a UPS and all that it must have got hit with something.
The HDD spins and spins even though I have a gig of memory. Windows boots up sometimes, crashes others. A checkdisk took over 7 hours and found "nothing wrong." Umm...yeah, right.
If windows does boots, it takes about 30 minutes. Want to switch between emails in Outlook? Give it a good two to three minutes. Don't even try anything fancier than that.
Fortunately, I have backups..... and if I can get this thing online when I get home I'll back it up again and then I'll probably wipe it out and re-load it.
My last-ditch effort prior to this is running some 3rd party hard drive utils, which I don't have with me up here. So if I am not writing much, you know why!
The HDD spins and spins even though I have a gig of memory. Windows boots up sometimes, crashes others. A checkdisk took over 7 hours and found "nothing wrong." Umm...yeah, right.
If windows does boots, it takes about 30 minutes. Want to switch between emails in Outlook? Give it a good two to three minutes. Don't even try anything fancier than that.
Fortunately, I have backups..... and if I can get this thing online when I get home I'll back it up again and then I'll probably wipe it out and re-load it.
My last-ditch effort prior to this is running some 3rd party hard drive utils, which I don't have with me up here. So if I am not writing much, you know why!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Approaching Storms
Last night we had some good thunderstorms roll through here. There wasn't any hail, but there was some lightning, hard rain, wind gusts, and even a tornado up near Oklahoma. I spent some of that time at dinner with my neighbors, but then came home and chilled in the hot tub to ride the rest of it out.
Now if sitting in a tub full of hot water outside while there is a T-Storm going on doesn't sound like a good idea, well....it isn't. I think my only saving grace is that the houses that are behind me are significantly higher and I think one of the guys is a HAM operator as there is a huge antenna and lightning road that must tower over my house by about 30 feet.
Anyway, I think we get entirely too complacent with our world. We get hung up in the politics (dems vs. Republicans, or libs vs. conservatives), the bullshit entertainment, our jobs, getting food at the grocery store, keeping up with the Joneses, etc.
What we forget to do is stop and smell the roses. It's an age-old saying, but it's so true. Last night I was able to block it all out and appreciate where I was, in the moment. My oak tree is budding out. It's beautiful in it's simplicity. I planted it with my ex-girlfriend when it was only about 7-feet tall and maybe an inch or so in diameter. Now it's over the house and providing enough shade to kill off the grass underneath it.
The sky was churning and turning all kinds of colors. Low clouds would whisk by at a high rate of speed all the while changing form and shape. The upper level clouds would lumber slowly while changing their hues and lashing out at the ground with rain and lightning.
My vines on the back fence were swaying with the wind and all around me new plant life was coming forth with the new spring.
For just a moment, all else was forgotten. Fierce beauty reigned supreme and I was just a small part of it.
Then again, maybe it was the Jack Daniels.....
Now if sitting in a tub full of hot water outside while there is a T-Storm going on doesn't sound like a good idea, well....it isn't. I think my only saving grace is that the houses that are behind me are significantly higher and I think one of the guys is a HAM operator as there is a huge antenna and lightning road that must tower over my house by about 30 feet.
Anyway, I think we get entirely too complacent with our world. We get hung up in the politics (dems vs. Republicans, or libs vs. conservatives), the bullshit entertainment, our jobs, getting food at the grocery store, keeping up with the Joneses, etc.
What we forget to do is stop and smell the roses. It's an age-old saying, but it's so true. Last night I was able to block it all out and appreciate where I was, in the moment. My oak tree is budding out. It's beautiful in it's simplicity. I planted it with my ex-girlfriend when it was only about 7-feet tall and maybe an inch or so in diameter. Now it's over the house and providing enough shade to kill off the grass underneath it.
The sky was churning and turning all kinds of colors. Low clouds would whisk by at a high rate of speed all the while changing form and shape. The upper level clouds would lumber slowly while changing their hues and lashing out at the ground with rain and lightning.
My vines on the back fence were swaying with the wind and all around me new plant life was coming forth with the new spring.
For just a moment, all else was forgotten. Fierce beauty reigned supreme and I was just a small part of it.
Then again, maybe it was the Jack Daniels.....
Looking.....Looking
Lately, it seems less and less likely that I'll ever meet anyone that I am truly interested in. As much as I know that it's probably a perception issue, I just can't believe how disappointing the whole dating thing is.
Most of my friends will tell me that I am just too damned picky. I suppose that is true to a large extent. But, like playing golf, I just can't quite seem to get all the elements to come together. While there is a good percentage of guys that go for one thing or the other, I admit, I want it all. Why settle for less and be disappointed in a few years?
If I meet a cute chick, she is either dumb as a brick, too high maintenance, or lives in a fantasy world.
If I meet a smart chick, she doesn't do it for my physically.
If I meet a chick that I get along with and can talk to, I find that she isn't into the things I am into and while it may be a good friendship I don't see it going any further than that.
The ones that really confuse me are the ones that talk to you or contact you and then *poof* disappear like the dinosaurs. Maybe the "I love Midget Porn" t-shirt scares them off?
Most of my friends will tell me that I am just too damned picky. I suppose that is true to a large extent. But, like playing golf, I just can't quite seem to get all the elements to come together. While there is a good percentage of guys that go for one thing or the other, I admit, I want it all. Why settle for less and be disappointed in a few years?
If I meet a cute chick, she is either dumb as a brick, too high maintenance, or lives in a fantasy world.
If I meet a smart chick, she doesn't do it for my physically.
If I meet a chick that I get along with and can talk to, I find that she isn't into the things I am into and while it may be a good friendship I don't see it going any further than that.
The ones that really confuse me are the ones that talk to you or contact you and then *poof* disappear like the dinosaurs. Maybe the "I love Midget Porn" t-shirt scares them off?
Monday, March 26, 2007
Gore is a Hypocrite - How Surprising
I was reading in Forbe's magazine of Gore's flagrant use of electricity and energy.
According to this, Gore spent approximately $30,000 in electricity for his Nashville mansion. The entire estate registered almost 221,000 kilowatt hours. The average household uses less than 11,000. And of course, this is just ONE of his places and doesn't take into account his planes and all that stuff.
Another great example of "do as I say, not as I do." You would think that if he is willing to testify to congress how important the dangers of global warming are that he'd at least try to make some type of effort to mitigate his own impact.
I guess not.
According to this, Gore spent approximately $30,000 in electricity for his Nashville mansion. The entire estate registered almost 221,000 kilowatt hours. The average household uses less than 11,000. And of course, this is just ONE of his places and doesn't take into account his planes and all that stuff.
Another great example of "do as I say, not as I do." You would think that if he is willing to testify to congress how important the dangers of global warming are that he'd at least try to make some type of effort to mitigate his own impact.
I guess not.
A person’s Net Value
Bling! And I were out and having lunch. We happened to be sitting near two younger guys that had some interesting opinions about the world, but neither of us thought they had much in the way of substance.
In any case, Bling! And I started discussing politics and other things going on in the world. He and I don’t always see eye-to-eye politically, but that’s not to say that we don’t respect each other’s opinion. I always appreciate the fact that he has an intelligent, alternate point of view.
So while we were talking Bling! Indicates one of the things he thinks about and concerns him is a persons net value to society. So we explored this subject a bit and had some interesting ideas. Keep in mind that these are still fledgling thoughts and we didn’t take the time to work it all out. I’d also like to know if people have ever tried this before and whether or not they came up with a workable model.
What makes a person valuable to society, or the human race? I’m sure people like Al Gore believes he is pivotal to society at large, but is he? How do you quantify that?
One qualification might be whether or not you contribute to society economically. Are you a drain on society or do you promote the economy. As an example: Bling! Is an engineer working on the new Boeing 7E7. He is probably paid fairly well, though I don’t know the specifics. He owns a house, has a couple of toys and is married to Mrs. Bling! (who is self-supporting as far as I know).
It would be quite simple to take the simple approach and say that he makes X money, and spends Y money and arrive at a conclusion of whether or not he contributes financially to society. If that is all you look at, you are missing the bigger picture. Bling! Is contributing to a massive economic project – the 7E7. The 7E7 project is the reason tens of thousands of people are employed for one reason or another. It also will allow for travel, which is one way people conduct business.
Then you have to consider that Bling! Also spends money at the grocery store, buys toys, etc. All of which again contribute in some way to the economy as a whole. It’s not a cut and dried approach.
But if you could factor all this in, you would eventually arrive at a conclusion that what he does either is, or is not productive for society at a financial level.
But that is just one aspect. How about other factors such as morality, or a general pulse of enthusiasm or happiness? How do you measure those factors?
A comedian might rank low on the financial impact scale, yet rank very highly on the enthusiasm scale because he / she makes people happy.
A priest is probably high on the moral scale, and probably also high on the happiness scale, and again low on the financial scale.
One of my good friends is probably financially “neutral” but I’d say ranks fairly high on the happiness scale because he always makes people laugh.
A street bum probably doesn’t contribute to any category as an extreme example.
What I am getting at is that you can break it down to several factors:
1 - Financial contribution
2 - Moral contribution
3 - State of well Being (happiness) contribution
4 - And perhaps one for health contribution
I’m sure we could make more categories if we thought about it, but you’d want to keep things broken down to the basics. Even going with a health contribution may be a sub factor of well being.
But you take these factors, figure them all out and assign weights to them. Then, from there you take the mean score of a person and find out if they are an asset to society or if they are liability.
The bigger question, then, is what do you do with people if they are a liability? What is the next step? This is where things could get really scary.
I Shoped and Saved!
Over the weekend Bling! and I were out looking for a bike for Mrs. Bling! (she still hates that). We found some interesting deals, but I think I came away with a pretty good one.
I had been needing a new helmet for quite some time. You are only supposed to wear a helmet from 3 ~ 5 years because the foam liners that protect your skull break down over time. My old Arai helmet was easily at the 5-year mark and maybe older!
I found a new helmet that I liked, also and Arai, but it goes for about $650 and that is far more than I wanted to spend on a new lid. When I was at one of the dealers the Shoei representative was there and asked if I ever tried them. I had in the past, but they didn't fit my odd-shaped skull. He said they had changed some of the shapes and had me try one on. It fit pretty good, but again I was looking at $600+ for a new helmet. Forget that.
On to another dealer. They had a handful of these helmets on a baker's rack for 50% off, but nothing that would fit me. I started talking to one of the guys and to make a long story short he was able to let a few go for almost the same discount. I don't know if you can tell by the sticker, but the original price of this helmet is $692.00!!! I was able to get it for $415!! That's a savings of $277!!! I am not overtly fond of the paint scheme, but I couldn't pass up that kind of deal when I needed one anyway.Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Look Into My Eye!
Today is my birthday. I turn 36 today. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I have made it this far in my life. Sometimes, I get tired and I wonder how I am to go another 35+ years (should I be so lucky).
But over all, I love life. I don’t always like what it has to offer, but each experience is an experience. And I’m in a pretty good spot. I still have my parents and immediate family, I have some good friends, and I have a good job and a roof over my head. Things could always be substantially worse.
And yet, here I am….36. I wanted to go Sky Diving for my Bday. Maybe I still will. The weekend is coming up, ya know?
When the color of the night
And all the smoke for one life
Gives way to shaky movements,
Improvisational skills,
A forest of whispering speakers
Let’s swear that we will get with the times,
In a current health to stay
Let’s get friendship right
Get life day-to-day
In the forget-yer-skates dream
Full of countervailing woes
In diverse-as-ever scenes
Proceeding on a need-to-know
In a face so full of meaning
As to almost make it glow
O’for a good life, we just might to weaken
And find somewhere to go
Go somewhere we’re needed
Find somewhere to grow
Grow somewhere we are needed.
Find somewhere to go
Let’s go somewhere we’re needed
Find somewhere to grow
We grow where we are needed
…..The Tragically Hip
But over all, I love life. I don’t always like what it has to offer, but each experience is an experience. And I’m in a pretty good spot. I still have my parents and immediate family, I have some good friends, and I have a good job and a roof over my head. Things could always be substantially worse.
And yet, here I am….36. I wanted to go Sky Diving for my Bday. Maybe I still will. The weekend is coming up, ya know?
When the color of the night
And all the smoke for one life
Gives way to shaky movements,
Improvisational skills,
A forest of whispering speakers
Let’s swear that we will get with the times,
In a current health to stay
Let’s get friendship right
Get life day-to-day
In the forget-yer-skates dream
Full of countervailing woes
In diverse-as-ever scenes
Proceeding on a need-to-know
In a face so full of meaning
As to almost make it glow
O’for a good life, we just might to weaken
And find somewhere to go
Go somewhere we’re needed
Find somewhere to grow
Grow somewhere we are needed.
Find somewhere to go
Let’s go somewhere we’re needed
Find somewhere to grow
We grow where we are needed
…..The Tragically Hip
Jesus, Witches, and Global Warming
What would Jesus do? No seriously, I am not going down that path. But it is interesting to me that Global Warming is seriously starting to parallel witch hunts and religion. People believe the earth is in danger of Global Warming. They also believe that the Co2 output of mankind is solely responsible for this.
Let's talk about witches for a moment. During the early part of our history as America there were massive witch hunts. Leading members of science and the Church imbibed fear into us that these witches would do us great harm and were legions of Satan himself. It's a good thing that we had these people to lead us, as sheep, during these times because clearly we were not capable of logically understanding what a witch was or was not. And obviously, it was true, wasn't it? Since there aren't any witches today we can come to the logical conclusion that these people were spot on the money and eradicated all the witches.
So let's look at Global Warming. Despite that the entire scientific process of peer review has broken down, despite irrefutable evidence that Co2 is not the cause of warming, despite evidence that suggests a far more complicated model than we can comprehend, despite evidence that the earth has always had a dramatically changing atmosphere people still believe in Global Warming. Why is that?
How is it that conservatives, on the whole, can have faith and believe in Jesus and God without scientific proof, yet require this proof for Global Warming and don't believe the leftist media hype? However, if we look at the more liberal folks we typically see a strong belief in Global Warming DESPITE scientific evidence to the contrary, yet they also typically shun Jesus and God.
I find this to be a very frightening situation. You cannot prove, nor disprove, that God exists. Yet you can disprove the theories of Global Warming. So if people believe in it, with blind faith apparently, what is one to do?
What would Jesus do?
Let's talk about witches for a moment. During the early part of our history as America there were massive witch hunts. Leading members of science and the Church imbibed fear into us that these witches would do us great harm and were legions of Satan himself. It's a good thing that we had these people to lead us, as sheep, during these times because clearly we were not capable of logically understanding what a witch was or was not. And obviously, it was true, wasn't it? Since there aren't any witches today we can come to the logical conclusion that these people were spot on the money and eradicated all the witches.
So let's look at Global Warming. Despite that the entire scientific process of peer review has broken down, despite irrefutable evidence that Co2 is not the cause of warming, despite evidence that suggests a far more complicated model than we can comprehend, despite evidence that the earth has always had a dramatically changing atmosphere people still believe in Global Warming. Why is that?
How is it that conservatives, on the whole, can have faith and believe in Jesus and God without scientific proof, yet require this proof for Global Warming and don't believe the leftist media hype? However, if we look at the more liberal folks we typically see a strong belief in Global Warming DESPITE scientific evidence to the contrary, yet they also typically shun Jesus and God.
I find this to be a very frightening situation. You cannot prove, nor disprove, that God exists. Yet you can disprove the theories of Global Warming. So if people believe in it, with blind faith apparently, what is one to do?
What would Jesus do?
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Ringing in my Ears
I have probably mentioned Dream Theater on here several times. They are one of my favorite bands, but there is another band that I really love called The Tragically Hip. They played in Dallas last night and I was there.
I hadn't seen The Hip in about four years. Me and my friends try to catch them every time they come through the area. Sometimes we'd even drive to Austin or another neighboring city / state just to catch them twice.
This was also the first time I have really seen a concert since having my eyes fixed and I can tell you it made a HUGE difference. I didn't have to take my glasses off from fear of them being crushed in the pit (even though The Hip is not a mosh-type-of-band) and I could clearly see everything going on. For me, that was a beautiful thing.....
The Hip hales from Canada. There, they sell out huge arenas and stadiums. They have a massive following and can pull of a great show. Here, nobody knows who they are. They often don't even sell out the small venues such as the one they played at last night. What this means is that you get to get up close and personal with a band that plays at a caliber far exceeding most "club" bands.
Every time we have seen them in the past they have put on a great show and last night was no exception. The only hard part was paying attention to the band instead of the incredibly cute brunette that was right in front of me and kept asking me about the songs they were starting to play. Too bad her boyfriend was also there.
But, even so we were just a wee bit off the stage and to the right. Almost underneath the huge stack of speakers and it was extremely loud. I should have had my earplugs in, but I think I'll be OK in a day or so.
They tore it up on the songs that were more upbeat like "Locked in the Trunk of a Car" and "Hundredth Meridian," yet were able to draw us in on slower melodies like "It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken," "Fiddler's Green," and "Sherpa High."
Could you feel it move through you? Could you? Because I could feel it move through me.....
I hadn't seen The Hip in about four years. Me and my friends try to catch them every time they come through the area. Sometimes we'd even drive to Austin or another neighboring city / state just to catch them twice.
This was also the first time I have really seen a concert since having my eyes fixed and I can tell you it made a HUGE difference. I didn't have to take my glasses off from fear of them being crushed in the pit (even though The Hip is not a mosh-type-of-band) and I could clearly see everything going on. For me, that was a beautiful thing.....
The Hip hales from Canada. There, they sell out huge arenas and stadiums. They have a massive following and can pull of a great show. Here, nobody knows who they are. They often don't even sell out the small venues such as the one they played at last night. What this means is that you get to get up close and personal with a band that plays at a caliber far exceeding most "club" bands.
Every time we have seen them in the past they have put on a great show and last night was no exception. The only hard part was paying attention to the band instead of the incredibly cute brunette that was right in front of me and kept asking me about the songs they were starting to play. Too bad her boyfriend was also there.
But, even so we were just a wee bit off the stage and to the right. Almost underneath the huge stack of speakers and it was extremely loud. I should have had my earplugs in, but I think I'll be OK in a day or so.
They tore it up on the songs that were more upbeat like "Locked in the Trunk of a Car" and "Hundredth Meridian," yet were able to draw us in on slower melodies like "It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken," "Fiddler's Green," and "Sherpa High."
Could you feel it move through you? Could you? Because I could feel it move through me.....
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