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Man At Arms
C-ya
I'm going on vacation down south somewhere, VA I think, tomorrow morning. I don't really want to go, but it's the whole family thing... so this will probably be my last post for a good 9-10 days. I don't exactly have a large readership anyway, but to those that care, I'm not dead or anything.
The good side is I get to run and do calisthenics in the heat and humidity of the south to kind of get used to it before OSUT. From a performance standpoint I would be best off spending the next several weeks before my ship date down there acclimatizing, but I'll take what I can get.
I'll probably use my spare time writing, or at least roughing, some of the essay type things I've been wanting to write. It'll be harder without the internet's instant data but conversely easier to actually work because I won't have any distractions. Maybe I'll get some fiction going too. 'Course with my luck the place we stay will have free wireless and I'll be all distracted anyway.
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A Simple Calculation...
Social Security is, in theory--and so believed by many Americans--a government controlled savings system. You work, you pay, you take your money back out. But...
Let's assume it even worked that way (it doesn't). You pay taxes for the government to do things, which means you would be paying a fee for them to manage your money. You would not get any sort of interest on your money, like you would in the weakest savings account in any private bank. That means your money's real value is less over time.
Let's say the government uses an optimistic 1% of your social security input to manage it. That means you're really getting 99% of the money you put in. Reduce it by an average of ~2.7% per year to adjust for inflation, and after ten years your money is worth, what, 80% or so? I'm guestimating here--it's a relatively complex formula and I'd need to actually use paper or a spread sheet to chart it out--but count on losing at least 15% of your money. That's not including the loss of revenue from any interest or other investments you might make, which could be a very impressive amount of money if you're a skilled or lucky investor.
So even if it worked the way the gummint claims, it's STILL a really shitty deal. Math don't lie, folks. About the only good thing is it keeps
some money out of the hands of the 'Charge it!' crowd, but that's not a fix for irresponsible spending, it's a patch.
On a cheerier note, it looks like rain outside.
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Movie commentary
That's a pleasant surprise, Shane Brolly is in a B movie on scifi and he's actually acting decently! Shane Brolly is the guy that plays the asshole vampire Kraven in Underworld and does an
awful job of it, if you don't know. Maybe there was something to the claim that it was partly director induced... but I'd have to see more than two of his movies to say for sure. We'll see how he does in the second Underworld, I guess.
The B movie of which I speak is Deadly Swarm. It got a whopping 3/10 on IMDB, which is about the lowest score I've ever seen; it's not
that bad, but what do you expect from a scifi slot filler movie? It's decent for a TV movie; the only problem is it's not a TV movie, it's a real box office thing. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than Ocean's 12... plus Kaarina Aufranc is worth a second look. And a third.
Update: LOL! Whoa I spoke too soon. Horrible fakeness in the last quarter of the movie. 'Sandra! Sandra!' He sounds like he's calling her to dinner, not freaked out that she might be dead from the scorpion wasps. Sigh, I had such hope too. See, I hate finding out that someone acting as a professional in any arena, operating under the delusion that they are talented, really just plain sucks. That goes for sports and other such things too... it's just sad, pitiful in the true sense of the word.
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Things the Gummint Should Not Be Involved In, Part I
I'm going to use this space as a digital chalkboard to tally the things the federal government does that it has no fucking business getting involved in. I'll amend and bump it as necessary.
What made me think of this? My toilet. The first entry is...
Telling us plebeians how much water our toilets can flush!In 1992 the EPA enacted the Energy Policy Act, a part of which required toilets to reduce capacity to 1.6 gallons per flush by 1994. Prior, most toilets used a healthy 3.5 gallon flush. Ever throw a few paper towels in the toilet in a moment of carelessness while cleaning the sink, toilet, tub, whatever? Instant clog with a wimpy 1.6 gallon flush; I've done that a few times. A goddamn toilet should be able to shred the hell out of a few paper towels, but instead it turns into a six flush half hour plunger project that uses three times as much water as a single 'high capacity' toilet flush would have taken. Hell, screw 3.5 gallon flushes, I'd get the supercharged five gallon flushpuppy if I could. How much would you like to bet the patricians have real toilets in their mansions? Kind of like how they don't have to pay social security, but that's another entry.
Okay, rant off; in all seriousness, water conservation is NOT a federal issue. Here in the northeast we're hardly having a water crisis, you know. We had major rains twice in the last three months that flooded much of the area, for example. Now, in the southwest where water shortages are actually an issue, it would be a state or local issue--by law. Probably state, and that assumes that the free market wouldn't take care of itself. Fact is, this law is a solution looking for a problem and causing no few of its own. There's literally a toilet black market, if you can believe that.
Disclaimer: The most recent article I found pertaining to this regulation is dated 2000, and I can't find any actual text; I guess the 1992 Energy Policy Act is a very broad piece of legislation and googling it just gets me stuff on nuclear waste and such. Even my beloved Wiki just has a stub entry. So I suppose it's possible the law has been repealed, but I seriously doubt it; you'd think I would find a few articles about the repeal if it happened.
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Perspective
It's good to reexamine things sometimes. As much as I bitch about the way our idiotic legislatures on all levels are abusing power, violating oaths, etc; as little faith I have in the judiciary and executive branches--this is still America, and it is still the greatest nation in the world.
For now.
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Knife laws
A knife is one of the most basic tools the world has ever seen, and by far one of the most useful. In the society we live in today knives are hardly as important (in a scalar sense) as they once were, but that's not to say that knives don't retain incalculable value as tools. When you need a knife, you need one
bad.
Now, despite the hoplophobia and ignorance of most suburbanites and city dwellers, the majority of knives are not intended to be weapons. They are tools first and foremost, though the fact that they are designed as tools does not preclude them from being used as weapons. How many tools do you have that would make highly effective weapons, eh? Hammer, crowbar, screwdrivers, length of chain, washers (put them in a sock...); I could go on for quite a while. How about an axe or hatchet? A simple two and a half foot 1" dowel makes a great club.
So why are knives singled out? This is a less easily answered question than that of the war on guns, you see, because guns are indisputably designed to kill; the argument there is more what kind of killing is acceptable (self defense, resistance of tyranny). And I don't have an answer for you, other than the fact that the government is striving to control the lives of the masses and to elevate the police and military (automatic knives, anyone?) from the plebeians.
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NY Gun Bans...
Apparently the NY Assembly passed a bill that would ban several of the weapons I own. It's not a law yet, pending approval by the NY Senate--which is controlled by the Rs. See
here if you're interested. Hat tip to John Lott via SayUncle.
So. I see they have a grandfather provision that would require me to register my weapons with the police and provide ballistics. Fuck that. Also notice the quote: "Under Lavelle's bill, a semi-automatic gun with a detachable ammunition magazine that accepts 10 or more rounds would be outlawed." I don't see a 'rifle' in that sentence, so I guess they mean just about all double stack pistols in existence too. I guess the NY AWB didn't go far enough on that score?
Yeah, I'm glad I'm getting the hell out of here and I'm certainly never coming back. I'll have to find a place to store my shit out of state before November if this thing passes, because I won't have anywhere to store them wherever I get tossed in the Army--at least not for a while.
There's a 50 caliber ban coming too, I see. The usual BS claims of 'shooting down airplanes' are made, of course. Did nobody in the NY Legislature take a physics class in high school? Maybe they have an IQ cap before you can run for office.
I'm slumming on the NY .gov site and am frankly staggered by the kind of laws these fucknoses are trying to pass on us. I'd mention a few, like trying to raise the legal hunting age to 18, giving tax officers the authority to carry weapons without a license, automatic concealed carry permits for retiring LEOs, one handgun per thirty days, further restrictions on ammunition purchases... but I won't, because I don't want a fucking stroke.
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Free Choice Truncated
What the fuck gives any person or body of people the right to say what I can and can not do if there is no victim of my 'crime'? Or if the 'victim' is me?
This annoys the shit out of me. I see it all the time, the little regulations and restrictions the legislators have placed on the populace to control its actions. For example: it is illegal to attempt to go over Horseshoe Falls in the Niagara Falls area. WTF? If I want to risk my ass in a stupid stunt like that, who the fuck are you to tell me I can't? I'm not hurting anyone but me if I fail, so fuck off! The irony here is that I assume it is to prevent people from killing themselves in a stupid act, but the only way you can punish them is if they fail to kill themselves. Kind of like outlawing suicide...
Yeah I'm too scattered to write a full blown rant/analysis of this phenomenon, but it's one of the essays I have on my plate. Some day I'll publish them and you'll be shocked by my profound writings; I'll promptly usurp Bill Whittle with my insight... HA! Yeah right. While I'm dreaming, I want a pony.
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OMG!
How fucking embarassing to realize you actually like a song by one of those pouty mussed blonde teenage boys? Holy shit. I was like
XXXX XXXXXXX? Who the fuck is that? when I looked up the song on WinMX, and when I got to the homepage and saw that thing looking at me... Christ, save me.
Then comes the question: what the hell is this kid doing singing a song like that? I was thinking early 20s black hip-hop artist every time I heard the song on the radio, not 14 year old white twerp. Yeah, it does matter somewhat; how weird would it be to see a, oh, Tibetan guy singing country?
On the subject... it's weak to just sing without any other musical talent and call yourself a musician like so many people do these days. A decent singing voice is natural to someone skilled with an instrument because singing is basically a function of your ear (to a point), so it's not impressive at all to have a naturally good ear and ONLY sing. Exceptions granted to truly amazing vocalists. My standards may be set high, however; I know many extremely talented musicians and I have been a very involved musician all my life, so just learning a dozen chords on guitar or singing in a choir is going to leave me shrugging a 'so fucking what.'
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Nothing specific
Good Yankees game last night. They won... 4-2, I think. Yay. I watched it on tape, but I barely remember any cool happenings (if there were any) so you don't get any commentary. I feel weird talking about the game in realtime when it's not actually on, anyway.
I spent the rest of the night reading military forums and watching military movies to try to psych myself up again, to get inspired for training. So that was fun, like always; it gives me kind of an adrenaline jolt that lasts several days at the least.
I went running about 30 minutes ago, and that was bloody awful. I ran my regular half mile warmup, pushing kind of hard but not really--I'm stiff when I start running, usually, and a short warmup does wonders for opening up my form and letting the motion flow smoothly. I hit the canal path to stretch and as soon as I stopped I felt like I was having an episode or something: I got a really bad headache, it felt like my blood pressure spiked, I was having trouble breathing, and my throat felt really gummy and I couldn't clear it no matter what hack/spit technique I tried. Well, the run ended there, and after trying to recover for another 5 minutes I started slowly limping my broken ass home, which took 15 freakin minutes because I was walking so damn slow. That's a new experience; despite all the ways I've punished myself running, including some very hard hot weather 5k races, 8x1200 intervals at threshold, twelve+ mile days... I never felt quite that way. Kind of like someone had my lungs and trachea in their fist and squeezed; I hope to fucking God I'm not developing asthma or something, because that's an infantry career killer. I'll go running as soon as I wake up tonight around 11 and if it happens again I'll get worried. That's a lie, I'm already worried, which is why I rambled on for so long about this crap. Any kind of new, bad experience in running bugs the shit out of me because I've been running for long enough at a high intensity that I've had most of the regular problems already happen to me.
Yeah, I'm going to find some food. Have a good day.
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My poor back... an AR-180B story
My back is killing me because I just spent about a half hour trying to learn how to detail strip my AR-180B without instructions because they apparently don't exist on the internet and the stupid booklet doesn't tell you how to take down the lower half. Actually that doesn't explain the back thing... my back hurts because I did it hunched over on my couch with the rifle on my knees and tools in my lap, like almost all gun work I do. I really need to build a work table.
The secret to a detail strip lies in the e-clips. There are two larger pins that are held in place by e-clips, the semi-circular things on the small ends of the pins; one allows you to separate the upper and lower, and the other allows you to remove the trigger group. You get said e-clips off by pushing on both ends of the C (you'll see the E in e-clip when you get it off) with paperclips or punches equally. Pretty simple, really. I'm not sure how strong a point in the design they are if you take the rifle apart a lot, but I suppose we'll see in time. Maybe I'll stress test them by detail stripping it at least once after every firing session and get back to you in, oh, a couple years. I'm sure they'll last a longish time, but they might not last decades like many gun parts do.
I'm not going to talk about the rest of the rifle because I seriously doubt anyone reading this owns one, but I'm going to put together a detailed instruction sheet with photos and host it on my main server. I figure it's about time someone ponied up and got the info out there, though learning to do it yourself is a great exercise in mechanics and learning the mistakes not to make--like what parts to hold down when you remove a pin so they don't go flying across the room or smash a finger when a spring is let loose.
So after I wrote that, I figured hey why not put in that Rock River NM trigger group I have laying around? Shoot me now. It's in, but putting the hammer in is a fucking nightmare and hell on my fingers. That alone took at least 25 minutes. Argh. This detail strip I also launched several parts like both e-clips and the bolt catch and the spring that launched it. That last one came about two inches from hitting the glass of my TV at full speed... this is why my work table will include a plywood three walled part trap. I've dinged my ceiling and walls a half dozen times launching recoil spring plugs from my 1911, too.
I'm not sure I like the trigger. There's an awful lot of take-up; I know it's a two-stage trigger--and I've never experienced a two-stage trigger before so maybe this is normal--but it feels weird. The break is very clean and relatively light, though, so I'll probably leave it in, at least until I take it shooting once or twice.
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Yankees... Belated
Well, I slept through it (I'm on a F-ed up sleep schedule) but I taped the game and I'm watching it now. I'm too busy to do a total rundown of the game, but I guess I'll mention the highlights. Oh, when I turned on the TV, despite all efforts to the contrary, I glimpsed the damn score on the YES score scroller thing. It just happened to be on the one game I did not want to see the scores for! ...So the outcome of this game isn't a mystery to me. I hate knowing the outcome, because it destroys most of the suspense in a game of suspense.
Entry 1, middle of the fifth:
The Tigers have gotten a few hits, but they're scoreless at the bottom of the fifth.
A-rod has hit two home runs so far for a total of three runs in the 2nd (solo) and 4th. Posada hit a solo home run immediately after A-rod in the 4th, and Cano hit a sac-fly to bring Giambi home again in the 4th inning. Yankees 5, Tigers 0.
Mussina is pitching very well. He's given up a few hits, like I said, but he's pitching an excellent game; not once have the Tigers had a runner in scoring position for an earned run.
Entry 2, bottom of the fifth
Womack was hit in by Sheffield's deep homer to left field to bring the score to 7-0. That's the fourth home run of the game for the Yankees. Man, I'd hate to be the Tigers starter...
Oh my. Fifth home run of the game by Posada for three (Matsui and A-rod were on base)--the second of the game for him--against the relief pitcher, Ginter. That brings the score to 10-0 with no outs.
The inning ended quickly with a double play off the bat of Cano and a ground-out by Jeter. One more run was scored by Russ Johnson running for Giambi (on the double play hit), so it's 11-0.
Entry 3, no clue what inning it is (turns out it's the top of the 8th)
WTF? Quantrill apparently hit Jason Smith intentionally and was ejected from the game, along with Joe Torre... this is a new one for me. Heh. Kind of funny, I guess; the announcers are speculating that it was retaliation for the Tigers hitting A-rod after his hot game.
Tigers hitter Thames got a three run homer off Buddy Groom.
Entry 4, bottom of the 8th
Cano got a solo home run to lead off the inning, bringing the score up to 12-3. That's the seventh home run of the game, six of which were hit off Yankee bats.
Entry 5, final (Yankees 12, Tigers 3)
Well, that was a pretty one-sided game. Fun to watch the Yankees kick ass, but I feel bad for the Tigers. They got 10 hits, only 4 less than the Yankees, and that's pretty bad for only getting three runs in.
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Crazy...
What kind of crazy fucker cuts off his trigger finger to protest firearms?
This is one of the more incomprehensible things I've encountered from the antis.
Hat tip to SayUncle.
Even stranger is the fact that he's trying to sell his finger chopping device. Maybe he's hoping some other crazy ass will buy it and follow his example, or maybe he's just an attention whore trying to get some quick cash along the way... $10,000 (he dropped the opening bid) is a hell of a lot less than my finger is worth, though.
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Other movie stuff
Besides Ocean's Crap, I also got out Darkness, a horror flick, and the first two discs of Deadwood's first season. I'm watching Darkness now and watched the Deadwood episodes overnight.
I really like Deadwood. I'll talk more about it after I finish the season, but it's great how they portrayed the West and some of the significant people like Hickok, Jack McCall, Calamity Jane, etc. Western movies almost always take the romantic view, and as a result most people know jack shit about the real Wild West. I don't know if Hickok was armed with his trademark Colt Navy revolvers in Deadwood, but it looked like it. I don't know that type of handgun well enough to say without better pictures and something to compare them to. Also I don't believe he wore his guns like that: in a general fashion, yes, but I think they're slung too low and back on his hips.
Speaking of the Wild West (horrible segue) what the fuck is with the History Channel being 100% uninformed about guns? Some jackass was on there the other day saying how shooting a 44 magnum revolver could knock you down if you didn't grip it well. Note this was not getting shot and knocked down, a far more common misconception, but actually shooting it. There are tons of other examples, but that one was a record mark on the stupid scale.
About Darkness; it's creepy and suspenseful so far, and I love the house. Anna Paquin is a lot prettier with her mouth closed... her teeth freak me out. She has to be SO rich by now, you'd think she could get at least invisalign braces or something. For Christ's sake. I digress. The father is suitably freaky and good at playing the crazy guy, but the mother seems misfit; she's not acting in a natural fashion. The young kid is kind of weird. I like Anna Paquin's acting for the most part, but it's not amazing. I just hope they explain some of the random little acts (the picture of the three women, the ghost in the room under the stairs, etc) and don't just leave us to wonder. If it strikes me fashion I'll write a better review later.
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Ocean's Twelve *spoiler warning*
Summary, before you go further... if you haven't seen it,
don't.
Anyway...
WTF? What a bad sequel. Very slow start and huge leaps of logic; for example, did you see all that shit they used to break into the agoraphobic guy's house? Any clue how much equipment like that would cost? I wouldn't be surprised if it cost more than the 2.5 million they planned to score, or very close to it. So they're spending a lot of time and capital for a minimal or probably negative cash return. Brilliant plan, guys.
Okay, so I finished watching the movie a while ago and didn't bother to update my criticism until now. It was a confusing plot that relied far too much on a flashback, for starters. What was with the breakdancing thief? Laser nets... can't move like that. A laser sensor has two ends so that it can tell if the laser is broken, but if it's moving all over the place how is it supposed to know if the beam is broken? Stupid.
Other things that pop out... the holographic egg thing. How the hell were they supposed to install a whole new pedestal with impossible holographic technology in the middle of a museum? What was the point of all that? Isabel or whatever Catherine Zeta-Jones's character was named also just
knew all sorts of things, like when she just
knew they would go after the faberge egg. She just
knew where to find the gang, also. What was with Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts, also?
I can't talk about this anymore.
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Gladiator
I'm watching the movie Gladiator just now. When I watch movies I've seen before that aren't fluff I usually try to learn more about the subject matter (and am usually disappointed by the inaccuracy of the movie) by reading on the Wiki and such.
Marcus Aurelius is the emperor at the beginning of this movie. Unfortunately for the writers, he wasn't the only emperor in reality; he co-ruled with Lucius Aelius Verus, a result of fighting wars on two fronts (Marcus Aurelius handled Germania in the west, Lucius Aelius Verus took care of the Parthians--I think--in the east). Seems strange that they didn't even mention that fact, but I guess it would have ruined the story. Okay, I fact checked my ass and it turns out Licius Verus died 11 years before Marcus Aurelius, so it wouldn't have been an issue for the successor of Marcus Aurelius, our buddy Commodus.
It's not like the movie is particularly true to history in other senses anyway, though. Commodus ruled for 12 years and was murdered by the prefect of his Praetorian guard, IIRC there was no such general as Maximus, and so on. Gladitorial combat was hardly the way they portrayed it. I'm a bit rusty on this next bit, but I believe Lucilla, Commodus's sister, tried to poison him and was exiled and subsequently killed. Oh well. It's a damn good movie anyway.
Okay, not really about the movie, but I love late Roman armor and weaponry, both for functionality and beauty. A decked out Legionnaire must have been quite a sight to behold, and the simple genius behind the
pilum is just stunning. I could go on for a long time about my fascination with Rome, but I'm tired. Maybe some other time.
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Last Deanimator Post
I've grown bored with the game since I hit a mark I haven't even come close to beating since, but a reader asked for my secrets (such as they are) and I suppose I can oblige.
I guess it's a matter of arranging the priority kills in the game. You can always kill the two smaller zombie types with two shots no matter how far you get in the game: they both will fall down if you shoot them in the lower legs, and then one shot will kill them as they're getting up. Aim lower on the lower leg than high because a hit around the knee won't necessarily knock them down, and when they're down it's easiest to let them start to get back up before finishing them off because when they're flat it's difficult to actually hit them. Now, the middlish size zombie with the big head is easiest killed by knocking its head off and putting another shot in its chest, but with a horde of zombies rushing you you're probably best off knocking it on the ground to slow it down while you take care of the big ones.
So, about the big ones. They grow progressively stronger, requiring more shots from the revolver as the game goes on; I stop using the revolver on them unless absolutely necessary around 400 kills, but I seem to recall 7 hit kills around then. Basically at that point it's impossible to kill more than two or three with just the revolver and then only if they're alone and you have time to reload. The big ones are best taken care of with a single shot from the revolver before they even get out of the ground, of course.
The answer to killing the big ones is the shotgun. For about the last 150 kills I was using a true combination of the revolver and shotgun rather than just running one dry and switching, which is suicide. I'd try to keep the revolver as full as I could while switching to the shotgun to take care of any big ones, relying more and more on the shotgun for the ones already up and killing as many as possible before they got out of the ground with the revolver. Very quick shooting and counting your shots is vital because the fourth shot with the shotgun always misses and it's slow as hell to reload.
You're up shit creek if you have four or five zombies coming using the shotgun and an empty revolver; at that point you're best off blasting any big ones (up to 3), not reloading, switching to the revolver, reloading, and killing the rest with it. But! You'd want to switch back to the shotgun and shoot off the shells before the CLEAR thing was all the way on the screen, because you can reload while it's up so long as you are done with the actual firing before you can click to the next level. I do not know if you can begin the reloading (but not finish it) and click to the next level and still have a reloaded gun because I never took the chance.
Reload management is the absolute most important thing in the game besides actually being able to hit your targets, and I'll still occasionally struggle through lowish levels (like 14-15) if I make a crappy reloading decision. I've died at only 150 kills a bunch of times because a big bastard got the jump on me when I was reloading. Oh, when you're done reloading if you start firing as soon as possible sometimes you can get an extra shot before it starts subtracting from your 'magazine,' but I didn't spend any time trying to figure out what sort of timing or conditions there are to do so, because it feels somewhat like cheating. I don't complain if it happens on accident, but I won't strive to do it.
Er, some miscellaneous tips... Any lull in the fighting means shooting off the ammo and reloading if the revolver has four or less and the shotgun if two or less. If you hit the big bastards in the right spot (around the hips?) sometimes they'll take a step back, which is helpful. I don't practice that technique, really, but it's worth knowing. It doesn't matter where you hit the big ones with the revolver, they don't die any quicker. I could go on for a while (sorry if I repeated anything I wrote before) but the best help you can get is practice and luck.
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It's morning...
You might be surprised how many entries I decide not to post here. Well, maybe not, I suppose... but I probably write two or three for every one that I post.
There are many topics I wish I could write coherently about--in politics and law especially--that I just can't seem to properly express. A number of basic problems crop up, see: I might not feel I have enough knowledge to properly support my points, or I might not have a clear enough point in mind to begin with. Maybe I feel something is true or right but I can't adequately explain why, or maybe I'm trying to pick up a thread that I left off of three months ago and have a dozen answers at my fingertips without recalling the reasoning behind them. Even if I can say 'thus and such is true' and I am 100% positive I am correct I don't feel comfortable posting it without a solid explanation.
Well, I think that's the way things should be. There's no use thinking 'the right thing' if you're thinking it for the wrong reasons, or for no logical reasons at all. If you come up to me and make a statement, you should be able to support it with facts and logic; even if I agree with you, I'll probably ask you why you think it's true, and I'm not going to feed you my own reasons. It's called critical independent thinking, folks. A vanishing skill in today's society, it is: most all the people I know in my generation get really pissy and whiny when I challenge their statements, and most adults are about as good at defending their POV on 98% of the issues today as they are growing raspberry trees. What a sentence that was...
****
I'm cheating. I got out of my warming-up bed to write something fictional (and listen to music... I had the third Harry Potter soundtrack stuck in my head and it was distracting me from reading) and here I am writing on blogger. Lame, Dave, real lame. Five days ago I told myself I would write X (I was going to go by how well my first session went, though the theoretical number was three) pages per day no matter what, and so far I have a total of 0 pages. I fucking suck. I think I'm afraid to write because I know I'm nowhere near as good a writer as I once was and it's a lot easier to ignore that fact when I'm not
actually writing. Sigh.
Okay, I'm tired as hell, but I'm going to write 1500 words good or bad before I let myself lay back down. The sooner I start writing again the sooner I'll get through the bloody fucking awful story phase. I doubt I'll post again until late tonight (I have no clue if I'll be around for the Yankees game again, life intrudes), so have a good day y'all.
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Miscellany
Kelly Clarkson has an amazing voice.
DO NOT buy a Para Ordnance pistol. I've had two fucking parts break in light use (one is a god damn pin!) and apparently they don't use standard magazine catches, so I have fucking three mag catches from different manufacturers that I CAN NOT get to fit my pistol. They are not cheap either, about $25 each. I'm pissed as hell because I could have gotten a Springfield for $200 less and avoided these problems entirely, but Para Ordnance is a quality company, right? What a load of shit!
Airborne Physical = biggest waste of time in recent memory. I spent a total of 22 hours on this project, from getting in the car at 4:30 yesterday to getting home today, and guess how long I actually spent doing something worthwhile? Ten. Minutes. Assuming three hours of travel no matter how long I was there, that means the Army operated at 0.8% efficiency. Thanks a lot guys.
I see the Yankees lost last night. I only saw about three plays on ESPN (six fucking times because apparently SportsCenter's idea of a good show is replaying the same shit over and over for two hours), but that ends the winning streak. They're now six games back in fourth instead of tied for third with the Blue Jays at 5.5 back, but I'm not too worried about it yet.
Sgt Hartley has a Dodge Stratus sedan (I think, it might be an Intrepid... I generally ignore Dodge vehicles), and I actually like it a lot. It's roomy and comfortably powerful. I'm trying to figure out what kind of cars there are out there that meet my specifications for a supplement to a full size truck, see. A Cherokee Sport would do nicely, actually... good power and torque with traction for shitty weather without gulping fuel like a 350 cubic inch V8, compact, and roomy to boot. Ah, yes, I would love a 1996 or so Cherokee Sport. I think I just solved my own puzzle. So for my third vehicle (pending lotto winnings) I'll just buy a third generation RX-7 to fill the sports car slot in my garage. No problem.
Bill Whittle has a new essay up, a two parter. See
here and
here.
Oh, I didn't even ask about the leaving early thing. Events transpired to make me reconsider that option, and you don't get to know how. Nya nya.
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What an asshole
Michael Crook of the indescribably loathsome website Forsake the Troops faked his own murder a few days ago. Now, I don't want the guy to get murdered, but I would not have been terribly upset if his hoax was real.
Where the hell would you get the idea you could get away with making high profile claims like that? We live in a society where anything can be fact checked with two minutes on the internet and a phone call, stupid! It might have worked 30 years ago (for a few days), but it sure as shit isn't going to fly now.
Oh, by the way, it's illegal; the regional police departments were swamped in inquiries after the hoax bloomed, which may well have preventing the solving of other time sensitive crimes. Nice job dick drip, you may be responsible for a murderer getting away.
I hope this asshole goes to jail or is ruined financially with a huge fine. Whatever else happens he ruined his credibility (such as it was) with the rational segment of America, sinking his own cause. The irrational military haters will love him for this, of course, regardless of the morality of his actions, but they aren't the people that matter.
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MEPS...
I'm real nervous. I've been through this before, so you'd think it wouldn't bother me, but... I don't know. I'm just nervous.
I'm making up a list of questions to ask my recruiter, like how long I'll be waiting between my ship date and the start of OSUT. I'll ask about moving my ship date up with this option, probably just if he's heard of it, but I guess that's why I'm so anxious... if I am offered it, what do I do?
I do want to leave early, but. But... will I regret it? Long run, I don't see how it matters. It might even be better because I'll get tossed into the situation with less warning and I usually perform well that way. See, I'm my own worst enemy and by making all kinds of assumptions and dwelling on things ahead of time I get a skewed point of view for a while when I finally get where I'm going. It sets me back for a short time until I realize I'm being an idiot, and that's just a fact of Dave life. However, in the short term... well, I don't think I'm missing any opportunities, really. Maybe one, but it's not the kind of thing that would be affected by leaving in 3 weeks rather than 1. It's just hard to make this decision.
Well, I've got three hours to figure shit out. All I have to do is a wash so I don't smell like a yak tomorrow, trim my stupid goatee (I eat way too much protein... my beard is like 3 inches long), and find stuff to read. Maybe I'll run by the store and grab some benadryl to help me sleep tonight. I got about 6 hours of sleep last night, not quite few enough hours to assure an easy entry to dreamland about 9-9:30 PM. Sigh.
I shouldn't post anything else before I go, and obviously I won't be around for the Yankees game tonight, so I'll be back tomorrow night sometime.
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Hey, yet more random stuff
It was suggested in the comments at some blog (SayUncle probably) that the revolver in Deanimator was a Webley, seen
here. I disagree, as the Webley is a break top, and it's obviously not a break-top clearing action when our hero empties the pistol. I'm guessing an early model S&W. Anyway, I
really want a Webley Mark VI some day... though maybe converted to 45 ACP (I think they can do that...). 455 Webley ammo is a bit 'spensive.
I'm watching this movie on Scifi about two thieves who are on a religious quest or something. I only watched about half of it. Anyway, it's called Soulkeeper I think, and one of the actors (the one that doesn't blow himself up at the end) looks a hell of a lot like a younger Ray Liotta. Kind of confusing.
It seems the older and wiser I get and the more knowledge I accumulate, the less I enjoy movies and television. Soon my only refuge will be in books, not that that's a wholly bad thing.
Sometimes in science fiction you're better off simply not trying to explain your universe's technology. That way in fifty years when humans can actually do the things your books suggest, you won't look like an idiot when you're wrong. Hard scifi (as in books that actually do have a very deep basis in science) is limited to the near future, generally. I enjoy the other kind more, though I suppose at that point we're talking fantasy.
You know that commercial where the father is sitting in a chair watching TV and a channel he wants to watch is blocked? He asks his daughter what's up, and she says he has to ask his wife for permission, and then she walks in with her hands on her hips and says '
No.' What a flacid tool that guy is.
I'm not a fan of big pieces of garlic. I really enjoy the taste, and garlic salt/powder is great, but actual chopped garlic is gross. For example; when eating a slice of fresh garlic bread, biting into a large chunk of soft, mushroom like garlic is an awful experience. I like that about as much as finding hard bits in a hamburger or hair in my sesame chicken. Okay, I've never found hair in my sesame chicken, but the hard bits in hamburger thing is nasty and happens all too often.
Why do they put shrimp in egg rolls? And why does it only happen sometimes, with no noticeable pattern, so I have to examine each proposed bite of egg roll before I take it to ensure no shrimp finds its way into my mouth? Generally when we order Chinese I get 6-8 egg rolls to enjoy over the next two days as snacks; sometimes I'll go through them all without finding a single bit of shrimp, and others it'll look like someone used the egg roll batter as a bloody shrimp net. Yeah, we always order from the same place, I'm not dumb enough to miss something that obvious.
I kind of like power outages. The last one we had was a little over... two years ago, I think, in March or April. It was an ice storm and we lost power for about four days. We have a cast iron wood stove in the living room that we use for heat in those situations, and it would get VERY warm in that room, like 85+ degrees, while staying below 45 in the rest of the house. My parents were crazy enough to sleep in their bedroom across the house, but I slept in the living room to keep the fire going. I can't wait until I have a little house of my own with a fireplace and wood stove that I can use just for the hell of it. There's nothing quite like laying back on a soft couch, reading a good book by candlelight and being surrounded with the smell of a wood fire.
I'm running out of stops on this thought train. It probably wasn't obvious but I was writing about whatever popped into mind thinking about the previous post; the power outage thing was because we last got Chinese from a different takeout place during that ice storm (and the sesame chicken was hair free, though very spicy). Obvious where egg rolls fit with the post above. Above that... well, it was a bit more random. The last few posts flowed more because I had the TV off, where before I had more influences on my mind.
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Gambling stuff
Acidman posted about this the other day. I'm watching the Roulette episode now, though I did see the blackjack one he wrote about.
I agree that it's total bullshit to get thrown out just for being a skilled player. What kind of deal is that? Hey, if you're not an amateur and uninformed player, you don't get to play! Assholes.
Cheating is another thing. I don't believe paying attention to the odds on a particular Roulette wheel is cheating by any means; it is simply being smart. That's all they're doing in this particular episode. If you do cheat, you deserve to get left in the alley missing teeth; the problem is that casinos are prone to calling you a cheater just for winning regularly.
I'll never play a game of chance that doesn't involve skill on my part. Blackjack? Sure. Poker? Absolutely. Texas Hold'em is my favorite game, though neighborhood poker (each dealer gets to play whatever variation of poker he wants) is very fun.
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Yep
Well I decided not to actually ban anyone because they're fun to piss off, but I did delete the comments. We'll see how persistent they are.
I call shit like I see it. I am dedicated to the truth, and if you are a woman and don't like what I have to say about women in general, well, too fucking bad. That's the way it is, and to pretend otherwise is foolish.
It probably would have bothered me once upon a time to have people rag on me. Not anymore. Like Acidman says, to blog you have to grow a cast iron ass. I long since stopped being politically correct, and I have no need for everyone to like me. Why should I? Being PC is one of the most basic societal problems we have. More on that later.
Oh, and by the way: if you don't fucking like what I say, fucking leave. I'm not shoving your face against the monitor, holding your eyes open with toothpicks and forcing you to read it. I do this for me, whether my close friends alone or the whole world reads it. I'm not changing for you.
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Sigh, Yankees
Not really in the mood to do this tonight, but I don't have anything else to do, so what the hell. Since blogger doesn't like letting me indent, I'm adjusting the format for ease of reading tonight.
Inning 1
NYY: Jeter leads off with a bunt and almost makes it on base. Not sure I agree with that tactic given his performance in the last several games, but whatever. Womack is back in the lineup tonight, batting second. He flies out to Winn in left. Two down, looks like a slow start this game. Up next is... Sheffield? Yep. He starts out with a big chop at empty air. There's a fly to Ichiro in right, three down.
Mariners: Carl Pavano is the starting pitcher for the Yankees tonight. Ichiro starts out with a one pitch fly to Womack in left, one down. Winn hits a hard grounder to Tino, who tosses it to Pavano, who tags Winn right before the bag. Beltre is up next... strikes out swinging on a high fastball. Quick inning.
No score.
Inning 2
NYY: Matsui gets a nice single to right field. What happened to his slump? Nice, A-rod grounds one past short for a single; two men on, no outs. Tino! Eh, 0-2 in the count, both strikes looking. C'mon Tino. He flies to center, no runners advance. Posada is also back tonight. Sounded like a broken bat; single over 2nd to center, Matsui scores and A-rod makes it to second. Giambi, heh, got a nice high fly that wasn't caught, amazingly. A-rod scores, Posada stops at third. Cano flies high to Valdez (the SS) for the second out. One runner in scoring position for Jeter. Struck out swinging. Two runs for the Yankees.
Mariners: Argh I wasn't paying attention because I was reading the fun hate comments and deleting them. One out though. Ibanez grounds to Tino who easily steps on first for the second out. Boone is up next. He made it to first on... something. I was doing more blog-management. Nice hustle by Matsui in center to catch Reed's deep center hit.
Yankees 2, Mariners 0
Inning 3
NYY: Womack flied out to Olivo (the catcher) who made a funky teenage mutant ninja turtles back slide catch. Sheffield just flied out to Ichiro. Matsui hit a deep line drive to right field, but Ichiro was there for the play. One, two, three.
Mariners: The lead off batter lined one right to A-rod for out number one. Valdez grounded to Jeter for an easy out at first. Ichiro chipped one foul... Should've been caught but three fielders converged and all slowed down. Ichiro looks out of rhythm, or maybe he just has a funky swing. Geez, he's fouled off like five in a row now. Okay, inning over, he chipped one again right to Jeter.
Yankees 2, Mariners 0
Inning 4
NYY: A-rod leads off, 0-2 in the count just now... 2-2... 3-2... Popped up to Sexson well foul. One down. Tino! Full count. And he walks. Well, Posada flied out deep enter. Giambi comes on... Olivo fails to stop a pitch and Tino takes second. Two outs here, Giambi needs a hit to keep the inning alive. And there it is! Tino scores easily because Ichiro bobbled the ball and Giambi takes first. It was on the ground between first and second, if you're curious. Cano delivers a base hit to move Giambi to third. Nice inning so far. Jeter's up! Well, Jeter grounded to short for an out. Three down, one run.
Mariners: I'm covering this game very poorly. Winn and Beltre both, I think, grounded out, but I'm not sure. Sexson just hit a single past A-rod to left. Oh man, Ibanez just hit a single past Cano to right! Men on first and second, two outs. Pavano is ahead in the count 1-2 against Boone... struck out swinging. Whew.
Yankees 3, Mariners 0
Inning 5
NYY: Womack doesn't look happy with the pitch calls... not that it matters because Ichiro made a great play to catch his bloop to right. Not many RFs would have made that play. One down. Sheffield--and what a weird martini stir that is--makes it to first on a slow grounder to third. Beltre missed the barehand grab anyway, but Sheffield would have been safe regardless. C'mon Matsui, home run! Or a single. Whatever, get on base. He's behind in the count 1-2... fouls one off... high fly ball to Reed in center. Two down, Sheffield just chilling on first base. A-rod is up; and that's a home run! 5-0 Yankees! Sweet! Aw, poor Tino. That was a good hard grounder that should have got him on base, but the Mariners 2nd baseman made a diving stop and got him out at first. Three down.
Mariners: Reed grounds to Cano for an easy first out. Olivo strikes out swinging. Pavano is pitching a good game so far; he's only allowed 2 hits in 5.1 innings. I believe his average is 1.333 per inning, but I could be wrong. Uh oh, full count for Valdez. That's a chop over Pavano's head to Jeter, who makes the play to first to end the inning.
Yankees 5, Mariners 0
Inning 6
NYY: Posada leads off. Posada is down in just three pitches; he struck out swinging. Giambi takes the plate... Whew, home run for Giambi. Nice job buddy. He's doing fairly well lately. Whoa buddy they're closing the roof! OMG IT COLLAPSED ON THE FANS! Ha just kidding. Cano is at the plate, and he just struck out swinging. Jeter's well ahead in the count 3-1, and he'll ground it right to Valdez at short for the third out.
Mariners: Interesting, the home plate ump didn't call time for Ichiro and Pavano put one right down the center as Ichiro stepped back for strike one. We'll see if it stands, the Mariners manager is out there arguing. Yep, it stood. He's behind in the count 1-2 now... quick grounder to A-rod, out at first. Randy Winn takes the plate... grounded straight to Cano; he didn't even move. Two outs. Womack makes the catch on the move for the third out from the bat of Beltre. Inning over.
Yankees 6, Mariners 0
Inning 7
NYY: I was out of the room, but Womack flied out and Sheffield walked. Matsui is full on the count 3-2, and he struck out swinging. Two men down. Heh, they boo A-rod every time he walks out. Two balls, no strikes yet. Full on the count with one badly called 'strike' in there. Well A-rod almost got a home run there, but it was just a little short to center. Three down.
Mariners: Sexson grounded to A-rod for the first out. Whew, Ibanez came close to a home run, but it flew foul past the right field post. Struck out swinging on the next pitch. Two outs, no men on. Oh no! Boone got a hit over A-rod's head, a line drive to left. He stopped at first. Reed grounded to Cano for the third out.
Yankees 6, Mariners 0
Inning 8
NYY: Tino's up first. Aw, he struck out. Poor Tino, he's not doing much this game. I hope his hot streak is just hiccuping and not coming to an end, because I really like to see him deliver. Posada's up next, taking a big swing at pitch #1. Strike one. Posada gets a single hit hard on the ground past the second baseman. Next is Giambi... eh, popped up foul, and that's an out. Bah. Two men down, one on first. Cano is 0-2 in the count. 2-2... and that's a strikeout. Semi-swinging; he tried to hold up but couldn't do it.
Mariners: Remember when I said I didn't know how Boone got on base a while back? He got hit. Olivo's at bat, out on a hard grounder to third. Valdez grounded to Jeter, and that's it for him. Up next is Ichiro Suzuki. 1-2 in the count. Holy crap! He struck out (swinging)! Inning over.
Yankees 6, Mariners 0
Inning 9
NYY: Jeter leads off with a first pitch fly right foul. He took a ball high and fouled one back for a 1-2 count. Ouch, very deep hit to center which Reed caught. I thought it was a home run, and it was only a few feet short. One down. Jeter doesn't look happy about that. Womack is behind in the count 0-2, and that's 0-3... struck out looking. He's 0-5 this game. Sheffield walks in 5 pitches. Matsui takes the plate... blooper to the second baseman, three outs.
Mariners: Pavano is going for the shutout here. I'm betting he'll get it. One down on a grounder to Jeter. Hansen is behind in the count 0-2... make that 2-2... argh, 3-2... c'mon, Pavano. There's a hit past second base to short center on the ground. Sexson is up... one strike. Oh man, Posada just took one in the face off Sexson's bat. Tough guy, he doesn't even look phased as he checks his mask for damage. The count is 2-2 on Sexson. 3-2... Pavano might get pulled if he doesn't take out Sexson here. Sexson fouls one back... fouls another one back... just get out already! Shit, there's a hit past Jeter. Men on first and second, one out. I want Pavano to finish the game for the shutout, so he'd better not wuss out. Good, he's staying in. Pavano is behind in the count for Ibanez, 2-1. 2-2 on a swing by Ibanez. Jesus, Ibanez fouled three in a row. HA! Cutter in the dirt and Ibanez swung at it. That's two outs. Olivo is the last batter we'll see, I hope. 2-0 on the count. Damn, Posada just took another ball in the face off Olivo's bat. Olivo took a big swing at an outside pitch for 2-2. Full count, 3-2 and 2 outs. The drama! And that's the game, Sheffield makes the catch in the right field corner.
Final: Yankees 6, Mariners 0. That's 10 games in a row, go Yankees!
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Totally lied
Yeah here I am. My friends ditched me so I have nothing to do now that I'm done with my cleaning for the day.
So since I've been talking about my bad experiences with women, I figured I'd say good stuff about them.
I like having female friends. I have always had more female friends than male, for whatever reason. I think girls are more interesting to talk to in general (assuming they're not shallow), and there's little I like more than spending time with an interesting woman and talking.
Women are more open, and receptive, in my experience. I don't believe in hiding feelings all the time to be 'manly' because that's just plain stupid. It's good for mental health to let things out and not let them sour you inside. Women are better listeners than most men.
What do I look for in a woman? Well, being prone to 'vapors' is a major turnoff. I like women that are capable, hard working, intelligent, and at least somewhat self reliant. A partner, if you will. I like women who are willing to get their hands dirty. I like a challenge. Here in suburbia there are few women like that; as such, I've been attracted more to small town and rural girls than others.
Physically? Eh, I don't like a standard 'type' of girl. Looks are less important than the rest, of course; the mind is the most important trait in a woman. That said, in general I'm more attracted to athletic, read fit, women. Heightwise I've found delightful both very short and medium, though almost never tall girls. One girl, a Rachel (not
the Rachel) from early high school, is only 4'11 or so. So cute. 5'6 is a good height with the right build; taller seems strange to me. I'm only 5'10 or 5'11, after all, and I'm very much used to looking down at girls.
A natural draw would be horseback riding and shooting, of course. I know not one single girl personally who shoots, but I know several riders. Oh my.
Women can be delightful creatures, and I have many more good memories than bad. Ah, I feel good about the 'fairer' sex now. Good to dwell on their good traits, it allows me to expunge the shitty experiences of late.
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Oh boy, threats *RANT WARNING*
Hey, it's like a anti-woman night! As I said before, I don't hate women, but this is the second occasion today in which blogging material has been handed to me, and it just happens to be the same general topic.
Word of advice to all men: If you break up with a woman, get her the fuck out of your life forever. Nothing good will ever come of dealing with her again.
I've been threatened a few times now over nonexistant and imagined threats, or just flat lies they convinced themselves of. Just now, in fact, my crazy ex Erin decided to threaten me with legal action if I didn't 'stop'. Stop what? I'm not doing anything! Evidently I'm a dangerous crazy guy that could decide to kill her at any moment!
Well, yeah, I have the capability. So fucking what? I've never laid a hand on any woman in anger, nor would I ever. The irony here is that Erin did, on several occasions, hit me in anger. And I'm the abusive one? Yep, that's the femmelogic for ya. And you know what? She would probably win in court. How? She would lie her ass off.
I love the twisted perception that I'm somehow 'stalking' her, too. Oh, by the way, this is about the third girl (Abby did it, I think... Rachel for sure, and now Erin) to accuse me of stalking when in fact I did nothing of the sort, so I guess it's a common theme. I'm not the only guy I know that got this shit thrown at him, either. So we've had a very up and down relationship since we broke up; the last about six times we were talking again she initiated contact. Now she's saying she's told me dozens of times to leave her alone and OH MY GOD I just never do! Right. Again, riiiight.
No, what happened the second to last time we spoke was she was having an emotional breakdown in class and texted me asking me what she did wrong to drive me to Rachel, and against my better judgement I answered as truthfully as I could, which of course she would not accept. She was normal for a few days, even to the point where we agreed we should get together and talk shit out to try to settle issues between us. Then I made a joke about checking her story (note JOKE) when she said she was busy all week, and BAM, psychowoman was born (again), rising from the ashes of sanity like a fucking phoenix. Suddenly I was acting suspicious and wouldn't answer straight (I asked her to drop it after the fifth persistent question HOW COULD YOU DO THAT), and now I'm stalker Dave. I told her it was a joke, and I wouldn't be able to check her story even if I wanted to, but nope. I'm Stalker Dave now!
Okay, so I was really upset because I'm sick of being viewed as a psycho, so I Txted Rachel to ask her what the hell she told Erin about me way back when they got together for Hate-Dave sessions. I'm serious, they did that. Now I'm a stalker for her too! No matter that we talked for months rationally without her once saying LEAVE ME ALONE. Don't you love the magic?
Ugh. So, guys, unless you want to have a similar experience, learn from me and stay the fuck away at all costs when you break up with a woman. Just do it. Your heart will ache to have her back (unless she's a total bitch), but just stay away. Did I do everything right here? Of course not. I felt like I was going to have a fucking stroke when I realized what Erin thought I was. Probably my youth alone saved me; John Ross had a similar experience in his divorce, though he actually DID have a stroke when he heard his wife said he was abusive.
No doubt any women that read this will think I am a psychotic killing machine rapist baby killer who eats puppies for breakfast, and I'm not interested in such commentary. If you don't have something constructive to say, don't fucking say it. If you attack me in the comments, I will erase your comment and block your IP, same as I said last post. Nobody's forcing you to read it.
I told everything above as honestly as I could (you might need background to get some of what I said), and that's all there is to it. Women go crazy sometimes and they just can't help it. That's why you learn to stay the fuck away from them when they do.
Argh, I just got distracted from cleaning yet again. I have another half hour or so before I can drag the TV up here, find the cable in the crawlspace where I tossed it, and hook it up. Then I'll sit on my ass (aka go running and do pushups and situps) for a while before the Yankees game, and hopefully write a bit. This is definitely my last post before my baseball post at 10... unless it isn't. We'll see.
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Hate comments!
Sweet, I got some hate comments for the first time in months! Look down to my coverage of the Yankees game last night if you're wondering what I mean.
I'm not going to go into the situation with my mother, because frankly it's none of your business. It's telling though that all three commenters are women as well, and assume I'm in the wrong here without any real knowledge of the situation. That's a frequent issue I run into; if I talk to a random female friend about a problem with another girl it is assumed that it is my fault, no matter what. I'm a
man. It
has to be my fault.
This is the victimization attitude so many women fall prey to in our society, and one of the major reasons American men are so much better off marrying foreign women that don't think they're entitled to the hard work of their husband just because they lack a dick. Also, sex is not rape. It's not entirely the fault of the feminist movement, however; it is also the fault of many men failing to stand up for themselves. Read
this essay on the subject by Kim du Toit.
I'm not a 14 y/o kid venting. I'm an adult, have been for some time, and I've been stuck in this hellhole because college was nearby and not worth paying room & board for. I leave in a matter of weeks, possibly in a week if I can wangle it, and Thank God for that.
I don't hate women. I find certain classes of women morally and culturally disgusting, and the unfortunate reality is that a large percentage of American women fall into that category. Oh, here's a
good essay by our expatriate buddy Fred on this subject.
Another...Do not even think of posting a comment here without reading the articles I linked or spewing off meaningless drivel. If you do and feel like trying to bite my head off for posting THE TRUTH, well, kiss my ass. I encourage such comments so I can delete them and ban your IP.
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Argh!
For starters, cleaning sucks. I'm making headway, though. I'll easily have my TV set up before 10:05.
The Argh! is for a different reason. I think I may be missing an opportunity to leave early. My current ship date is June 15, but a DEPper I kind of know says he was given the option of moving up to May 24 and retaining all of his options, plus a larger bonus. I want that!
I'm really sick of sitting around. I know I should be working harder than ever to get my running and situps in better shape, but I just want to fucking leave. I'm confident in my abilities, which is the most important thing.
I'm going to MEPS again tomorrow for my airborne physical, whatever that is. I'm always on a really fucked up sleep schedule when I need to go to MEPS; lately I've been going to bed around 5-6 AM and getting up at 2 or so in the afternoon. I'll have to wake up at 5 AM on thursday... I don't know how I'll pull that off. Probably I'll have to go to bed at my normal time, get up on like 2 hours of sleep, and fix my schedule in one excruciating day.
Oh, I get the pre-Basic PT test on saturday, too. Yay! I have to do like 13 pushups, 17 situps, and run an 8:30 mile. I'd cry if I couldn't do that.
I've distracted myself from cleaning for too long...
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Sigh, Cleaning
Man, I've really got to come up with some system of organization that's deeper than taking out the trash every few days and putting the cans in boxes for returning. My room is a massive mess.
It's not unclean in the sense that there's mold growing in the corners and I don't need a heater because of the decomposing food or anything, I just own enough junk for a small house and it's all crammed into this one room.
I figure I could have my daily checklist, where I make sure all of the cans and junk are out of my room (or in boxes) before I go to bed, same with dishes when I eat up here, etc. A clothes hamper would probably help too. Weekly checklist could be... well, other stuff. Maybe just go through the room and put everything back in place, books and such.
I'm being a slacker right now, because I should be cleaning, and I'm blogging instead. Argh, I really hate cleaning this room. It was fun when Erin was around to help... that's the reason, actually, that my room is so fucked up now. For a long time I pretty much avoided everything we did together because I was totally destroyed, and then I moved to the basement for a while... only for the last few weeks have I really been up here a lot, and I've been putting off this awful cleaning day the whole time.
Really the only reason I'm doing it now is the intrahouse, self imposed exile I'm practicing from now until I leave. I need to get my TV set up for the Yankees game tonight at minimum, which means cleaning a whole half of my room. The rest I can spread out over a few days if I get too sick of it.
Sigh... alright... back to cleaning now... if I have to.
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Night stuff...
My mother is fucking insane. She finally crossed the line tonight, and that's the end of our relationship so far as I'm concerned. She's been pulling this shit for years, and I'm fucking sick of it. I'm not speaking out of anger here, by the way; I mean every word. She's a control freak, and she can't stand that I'm not a pussy that's going to get bossed around like some crony at work.
Yankees block:
1st Inning: Jeter leads off with a single, just like the last several games. Cano grounds to short, who fumbles enough to just get Jeter instead of pulling in a double play. So Cano is on first, one out. Sheffield walked, Matsui struck out looking. Two on, two outs. Bah, A-rod grounded to third and that's the end of the inning.
...Weird, Womack's not playing. I'm glad he was pulled rather than Tino, though.
Ichiro Suzuki leads off... I like watching this guy play. Wow, nice hit. He hit a short line drive right over second: leadoff single. Ichiro steals second base. Winn grounds to short and is out. One man on second, one out. Crap, Beltre got a nice single to short right field. Ichiro was held at third because Sheffield has a cannon for a right arm. Two men on, one out, one in scoring position. What we need right now is a grounder to third or a line drive to an infielder to stop Ichiro from scoring. Or a strikeout! Yay. Two outs. Shit! Two runs on a double by Ibanez. Damn! Base hit from Boone, so a man on first and third because A-rod fell in the mud. Thank God, it's over with a fly to Matsui in left.
Yankees 0, Mariners 2; inning over.
Inning 2: Tino grounds out to... second, I think. Bernie Williams is back tonight in CF, and up now... full count... walked. Giambi has been doing decently the last few games, so I hope he delivers now. Even a sac fly would be fine. Man, he's been up there forever. Shit, he was down looking. The 3rd strike looked a bit high to me, but what do I know? Oh, it was well within in the strike zone. Flaherty is our last chance this inning. Full count for Flaherty... nice! Bernie makes it to third, Flaherty stops at first on a light bloop to short right field. C'mon Jeter! Nope, grounded to short and the Mariners are up.
The first batter flied out, I think. I was writing about marriage below, so I wasn't watching. Bloomquist grounds to Jeter at short, who makes the play to Tino. Two outs. Ichiro hits a line drive right to Sheffield in RF, and it's over.
Yankees 0, Mariners 2; inning over.
Inning 3: Cano got a nice double to deep center field. Sheffield walks for the second time this game. Two men on, a big fat zero outs! Nice. They HAVE to score this time! Whew, not if Matsui keeps swinging like that though... I have to wonder how weird this is to read. It makes sense to me because I have the game on, but it seems like I might sound like a nut to an outsider. Matsui is ahead in the count 2-1... and I'm not sure that was a strike. 2-2, though. Matsui chops one to second, advancing the runners though getting out himself. Good play, all things consider. It doesn't rest on A-rod's shoulders this time, but I'd sure like to see him get a solid right field single just now. I realize that right handed batters don't typically hit to right field... and he doesn't. Grounded to third, and Cano scores. Tino just got intentionally walked; pussies. They're banking on Bernie's rust. Just like yesterday I hope he blasts one out of the field for a 3 run homerun. Just like yesterday, it doesn't happen, and Bernie grounds to first for the third out.
Leadoff batter grounds to A-rod at third, who makes the play to Tino for the first out. Whew, big swing by Beltre. Wang is even in the count, 2-2... slowish grounder to short, two outs. I feel bad because I don't know most of the Mariners' names. The huge 6'8" first baseman is up now. Nice, Wang struck him out looking. Oh, Sexson is his name.
Yankees 1, Mariners 2; inning over.
Inning 4: Giambi starts out with a slow chop to the pitcher who will beat him to first for the out. Flaherty... is I have no idea where in the count because they don't have the thing that tells you up on the screen. Well, he flied to Winn in left, so that's two quick outs. Jeter gets a nice line drive single to right. Cano, damn, just railed it to third. Quick three outs, that was.
Ibanez grounded out, though I'm not sure where. Boone grounds right to Tino at first. Whoever the third batter was chopped right to Wang for the third out. Very quick inning.
Yankees 1, Mariners 2; inning over.
Inning 5: Sheffield got on base somehow... and subsequently gets caught in a run down when he steals too soon. Brilliant. Matsui grounds right to first for an easy second out. A-rod walks. Nice hit by Tino: a single on the ground past first to right field. Two outs, two on; if Bernie doesn't deliver I'll be sad. He's far behind in the count, and I'm guessing he'll choke. Yep, he flies to Winn in left. Great. How many runners have they left on base so far, eight? Jesus.
Olivo grounds to A-rod who makes the play to Tino at first. Easy second out grounder to Cano. Looks like it's going to be another short inning. Well, maybe not, Ichiro is up. I'm betting he'll get at least a single here. And I lost that bet; another grounder to Cano for the third out.
Yankees 1, Mariners 2; inning over.
Inning 6: Giambi leads off. Oh, I was wrong about how many they left on, by the way. It's 9 runners in 5 innings. AKA awful. Back to Giambi... his second strike out tonight. I honestly don't think he's playing that badly lately, despite appearances. I don't want to see him kicked to the minors, but I have a bad feeling about Giambi's future. Flaherty is up now; struck out swinging. What an awful pitch to swing at, though he's hardly the only one to fall for Sele's slider tonight. C'mon Jeter, again! He doesn't look too happy right now... it's 2-2 on the count. 3-2... struck out swinging. Argh. Sele struck out all three batters this inning!
Randy Winn leads off for the Mariners. He grounds one to Tino, easy out at first. Beltre is up next... struck out swinging. Sexson, Mr. First Base Giant, fouls two right away. Low/left ball, foul... high ball... ball inside/low... struck out swinging! Nice job, Wang.
Yankees 1, Mariners 2; inning over... running out of time.
Inning 7: Cano starts out with a grounder to second; out. Wow, Sheffield almost turned himself inside out on that swing. Whoa, nice diving stop by the Mariners SS. Sheffield made it to first, with one out. Matsui knocked one off the right field wall there, only making a single but moving Sheffield to third. It was only about 8 feet short of a home run. A-rod walks, bases loaded for Tino! Now would be a great time for another grand slam. If they don't score here, with the bases loaded and only one out, I might just stop watching tonight. Shit! Broken bat grounder to third, but lucky that Sexson didn't hold on to the ball at first for the double play. Bases still loaded with Bernie coming up, two outs, no runs. SWEET! Grand slam for Bernie! 5-2! Giambi got a hit! Man, this is great. Flaherty makes a nice single line drive to the gap between left and center. Womack comes in to pinch run for Giambi at second. I won't be disappointed too bad if Jeter doesn't make it happen here, but I'd love to see something... Womack steals third. Triple twos! I can come up with dumb sayings just like an announcer. Full count for Jeter; he fouls it off to right. Jeter struck out looking. Well, no big deal. Grand slam! How freakin cool is that.
Wang is really pitching a great game. This is the guy up from AA, if I recall correctly, which makes it all the better. Alright, so the first batter for the Mariners flied out and the second hit it to center where Bernie should have got it, but he got a slow start for some reason and missed the catch, leading to a double. Bah. Well, Reed just got an RBI double deep center which let the other runner, Boone I think, score. Wang is done; they're bringing in Tanyon Sturtze, which I think is a good choice. Suddenly 5 runs doesn't seem like that many... 2 runs is easily doable in a good inning. Olivo is at bat, behind on the count 0-2 now. C'mon, strikeout. I want this inning to end before the lead shrinks to one. Heh, he swung but the ball was in the dirt so he's out at first. Bloomquist is done for the game and Hanson is pinch hitting instead. Foul fly for the third out to A-rod, inning over. Sweet.
Yankees 5, Mariners 3; inning over.
Inning 8: Oh my, what a start. Cano got a single, then Sheffield grounded one to Boone who messed up the shoulda-been-double-play and now Cano is on third and Sheffield on first. No outs. Matsui is 2-2 on the count; he grounded one to Boone at second, who barely made the play at first; Cano scored, Sheffield is on third, and there's one out. Very close play at first. WTF? A fuckin redo? Are they going to explain, or what? They're saying Matsui might have hit it twice in the swing (again off the bounce). And now he strikes out. Ugh. *angry face* C'mon A-rod, make 'em pay! Nice, RBI single for A-rod. Cano scores (again), Sheffield goes to second. Two runners on, one out. Sigh, Tino flied out to Ichiro. Two outs. Bernie is up.. first pitch strike. Yeah I don't think that second pitch was a strike, looked high to me. 0-2 in the count. Grounded to first, three outs. That makes it 6-3...
Ichiro leads off for the Mariners. Easy grounder to Tino, one down. Tom Gordon is pitching this inning, if you're curious. 3-1 in the count for Randy Winn; make that a walk. One on, one out. Beltre is up... a strike and a foul so far, 0-2 in the count... 1-2... two more fouls, still 1-2... ugh ball in the dirt, Winn moves to second. 3-2 in the count... strikes out swinging. Hot. Two down, one runner on second. Nice, some Mariner hit a foul fly that Tino caught over the rolled up tarp. Three outs, one man left on.
Yankees 6, Mariners 3; inning over.
Inning 9: Womack starts off for the Yankees. The score/count thingy isn't up, again, which is annoying; I think he's 3-1, but who knows? 3-2 on a foul. Struck out swinging. Flaherty comes up... Mariano Rivera is getting ready in the bullpen, if you're curious. Jesus, keep chopping there Washington. Two strikes swinging in a row... fouled back... 0-2 in the count. Slow grounder to third, two outs. Jeter is 1-1 in the count; big swing, big fat strike. One ball, two strikes (swinging). Ball in the dirt, 2-2. Fouled back, still 2-2. Struck out looking, apparently three strikeouts in a row for Jeter. Barring a Seattle miracle, this game is over.
Well that's 3-0 so far for the first Mariner up. Walked 'em. Great start. Jesus, that's 6 balls and 2 strikes for Rivera so far. It's 2-1 in the count for Boone. Double play grounder to Jeter, two men down. Good play. 1-2 in the count for... I don't know who this guy is, #7. Broken bat single to short center field for Reed (apparently). Two outs, runner on first. Dobbs is 1-2 in the count... fouls away to stay alive... argh, ball in the dirt through Flaherty's legs, and Reed moves to second. 2-2 in the count. Another foul, Dobbs is stiiiiiilll alive. Whew, game over on a swinging strikeout. Heh, he swung at a shoulder high pitch.
Game over! 6-3. The Yankees are 20-19, having won 9 games in a row now. Cool.
I've been thinking about how crazy you would have to be to get married these days... if you're a man. Women are favored incredibly in divorces, and since over 50% of American marriages end in divorce, of which 70% are initiated by women... you'd have to be a moron to go into that situation with your eyes open. I can forgive ignorance, but if you know what you're getting into and end up getting shafted anyway, well, nice job idiot. That won't be me, ever. I don't care what kind of woman you are, I'm not taking the chance. If you trust someone and love them enough to marry them in the SPIRIT of the ceremony, why should it matter if you don't get married? Why do you need a contract? Risk vs gain... marriage is a terrible proposal for men in America.
Man, it's hard to talk to people online, write on here about non-Yankees game stuff, and write about the game all at once.
I feel like I'm always living for the future these days. The sad thing is for some people they do it their whole lives. There has to be some balance...
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More Deanimator!
Well I totally crushed my old high score of 361 this time. Five hundred freakin forty two. 542! I have a new method of shooting, see. I can't reveal it because it's a top secret formula for Deanimator success. I would have a higher score, indeed I would still be playing right now, if the background color wasn't really bad in level 28. It's worse than the purple in 10-12, and while I can dick around in a lower level and survive, it ain't gonna happen on level 28. I'll have to try out the new technique on my laptop where the contrast is good enough that I can see the whole game on the dark levels.
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Lovely morning
One of my favorite things in the world is waking up to messages from someone I care about more than most anything ruining my day.
On the way downstairs I punched my door in anger and got a splinter in my knuckle. Annoying.
I want her back. That's no secret. I don't want to jump back into a relationship, by any means; I want her to at least trust me enough to believe me when I answer her questions. She evidently doesn't, now. She probably never will. I'll never hold the one girl I loved more than life itself in my arms again, I'll never look into her loving eyes, I'll never see her shy smile when she brings me an unexpected present for no reason just because she loves me... sigh.
The only thing I know to do is harden my soul and move on. I don't want that. She gave me so much, and it feels like all I did was destroy her. The amount of self loathing I feel... I can't even describe it. Probably the only reason I'm still sitting here typing this is I don't trust the 9mm cartridge to kill me, and since I got my .45 I haven't felt the death wish I did for so long. You know, it's funny, all I could think about when I held that pistol and looked death in the eye is what whoever found me would feel, and I realized I could do that to anyone.
I'm not here for pity, and I frankly don't give a shit what anyone reading this has to say about it. I'm just getting my feelings out, because I'm stuck in a corner here and I can hardly breath for the stress I feel.
For all the anger I feel toward her for hurting me, for believing the shit she at least says she believes about me, I love her. I love her more than anything. If she really wants me to leave, if she can't trust me, well I guess I don't blame her. I fucked it up, I ruined what we had, and that's all there is to it... it makes it a little easier to handle. I deserve this.
But I still love her.
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I lied...
Because I'm posting again before sleeping.
I was reading up on space stuff, like known planetary systems and galactic properties and junk.
...How the fuck can you look at the numbers and think it's even remotely possible we're all alone in the universe? The Milky Way Galaxy has, what, 300 billion stars in it? Let's say that only 1 in 1000 stars is a planetary system, and only 1 in 100,000 of those systems has a single Earthlike planet conducive to carbon based life. That means 3,000 such planets exist in our galaxy alone. Note I'm not saying that complex life will exist on them, merely that they exist. I personally think the numbers I quoted were grossly low, I might add.
How many other galaxies do we know of? A couple dozen? So tens of thousands of planets at the least exist in the known universe given my probabilities.
Life is out there.
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3 AM Monday...
I had a good night so far. Went over to Kaitlyn's house after the Yankees game to watch the original Star Wars trilogy; we only got through the first two, but it was fun. I could say stuff about her that's good but she might read this! Can't have that. I will say I like her house. Oh, and I got called gay by her 17 year old sister. I guess it's a hobby of hers to insult all of Kaitlyn's friends.
I'm watching Return of the Jedi right now. This is my favorite SW movie. Like all things Star Wars, it makes me want to write. Argh.
I'm almost done with Silverberg's The Man in the Maze; it's a good book, though with about 15 pages to go I'm really wondering what kind of ending there can be. I'll review it fully when I'm done, maybe tomorrow if I feel like it.
Beat my
Deanimator score just now. 361; not a huge improvement over 355, but considering that it's only the second time I broke 300 even, I'm happy. I regularly get 255-270 before dying, usually due to fucking up my shotgun/pistol rhythm.
I'm really tired and achy, and I would love to take a bath, but I don't have anything to read... I have another book I'm about 20 minutes away from the end of, but that's nowhere near long enough for a soak. I usually put about an hour into a bath, more if I'm sedate and the water is hot enough, so I read on average probably 100 pages per bath. I like to have a huge margin or another book on standby so I don't run out of reading material and have to get out early. I don't understand the people that take baths without doing something else; hell, if I plan to sit under the water for a while in the shower even I bring a book. Hardcovers are better for this; the glossy covers of paperbacks get wet from the condensation, and I have to hold the book in a small washcloth to avoid that annoyingness. No, I've never ruined a book in the shower, and only once did I drop a book in the bath. That was Michael Crichton's The Lost World, a hardcover, and it happened about 8 years ago. Hardcovers suck in the bath; I hate reading hardcovers laying down as well, because it's hard to lay on either side comfortably while holding one.
Wow, how long can I go on about baths and reading in them? Jesus. Alright, I'm off to sit in this semi-comfortable-but-bad-for-my-back recliner (my God I would love a Benchcraft chaise...), maybe write some scifi, and watch ROTJ. I'll write something tomo--er today, before the Yankees game at 10 PM, and then I'll probably blog the Yankees game again. I really enjoy doing that, even if you don't enjoy reading it. Nya nya.
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Sunday stuff
So now it's Sunday, and I got up about 2 hours ago, at 2:30 in the afternoon. 12 hours solid of sleep because I was up for 36 hours with only a few naps in the car the whole time. The Yankees are playing, off to a shitty start. Jeter got a lead off single and the next three hitters dropped the ball. It's 0-3 at the end of the 1st, so they'd better turn on the magic. I wasn't really paying attention to the manner in which the A's scored their runs, but I suspect Randy Johnson was pitching like crap. No defensive errors stood out in my mind other than the one he made.
Updates per notable (or every, as it turns out) inning.
2nd Inning: Tino got a home run. Yay Tino! Nobody else did anything for the Yankees; A-rod grounded out, Posada struck out, and Giambi flied out.
For the A's, two hits so far but Cano flipped to Jeter to get the lead runner out. Good. Keep those runners out of scoring position. Ugh, stolen base. Okay, a slow grounder to Tino got one out, now there are two outs and a runner on third. A short tap to Tino ended the inning, no runs.
3rd Inning: Cano and Jeter both grounded out to short. Womack got a hit to mid left field, and is on first. Sheffield's 0-2 in the count but Womack stole 2nd base, so a decent hit here could let Womack score. I'm guessing Sheffield will strike out. ...Nope, he hit a straight up fly to the catcher. Whoo.
The A's first hitter grounded out to A-rod. Thomas got nailed by a pitch, which looked a lot worse than it was. Kinda dramatic scene, he flopped to the ground like a dropped fish. Ok, the third batter grounded to A-rod who tossed it to Jeter for a double play. At risk of sounding like a Tino Martinez groupie... he made a good play there.
4th Inning: Matsui got a nice leadoff single. A-rod hit an out to center on the first pitch. WOW. Tino got his 2nd home run of the game for two runs, tied the game at 3-3. Jesus. He's playing incredibly hot lately. Posada flied out. Giambi walks. Moron fans run out on the field and should be shot with potato guns... still waiting after several minutes. Cano got a nice hit to center, and Giambi made it to third. Jeter's up with two runners on 1st and 3rd, and I'll say that Cano has really picked it up lately. I'm beginning to look forward to him hitting. Jeter got a single! 4-3, runners on 2nd and 1st. Ok, Womack grounded to short and they tossed it to 2nd for the end of the inning out. Great inning.
Don't know how the first batter got on base, but he did. Johnson walked the second batter. Two on, no outs. Grounded to Cano who tossed to Jeter who missed the double play to Tino. Quick throw so I won't hold it against Jeter too much, but it's uncharacteristic. Someone flied out, still two runners on (1st and 3rd) and two outs. A quicker runner would have tagged third and scored on that play, so it's good he's pokey. Damn! Single to left that lets the runner on third score, and Womack didn't make a perfect play but at least it didn't get past him. Even if he made the catch on the first bounce it would not have stopped the run. The next batter flies out foul to Posada. Inning over, tied 4-4.
5th Inning: Sheffield hit a leadoff double. Thank God. That's his first hit in at least the last seven at bats. Matsui hit one out to center. A-rod struck out, and now they're walking Tino. Pussies. I hope Posada knocks one 600 feet out of the fuckin park. Bah. Posada grounded to first. He swung on two shitty pitches right off the bat; that's just not smart hitting. A-rod and Posada have both been disappointing lately.
Cano caught the fly from the leadoff hitter. Broken bat grounder to Tino, easy out. Next up a short grounder right into Johnson's glove, or so it looked. I'm sure he was trying to catch it. Easy out to first. Good inning; the way Johnson started out pitching the leadoff hitter I was expecting at least a hit.
6th Inning: Giambi flied out. Cano got a single, which just reinforces my belief that he's shaping up to be a real player. Weird hit by Jeter, looked to me like it should have been a double play but instead it's 2 men on and only 1 out. Another shoulda-been-DP hit from Womack, but his Speedy Gonzalez impression stopped the double play. Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 outs. If Sheffield delivers, it'll be a 5-4 game. Womack stole 2nd... sweet. Sheffield broke a bat on that pitch, grounded to third... out. No runs. Oh well.
Two outs, not sure how that happened because I was juggling conversations. A hit over Jeter, one man on 1st. Alright, Cano made a good play, inning over.
7th Inning: Matsui popped one up to left, one out. A-rod was walked. Tino is 0-2 just now, I think he won't get a hit here. I'd love to see another home run, but I doubt it's in the cards. Yeah, he flied out left foul. A-rod tagged and took second, though. Posada is due to do something, so we'll see what happens here. Well, Posada walked, and Giambi is up. Excellent! RBI double by Giambi, 5-4. Runners on 2nd and 3rd. Cano hits an RBI single, another run! Giambi is on 3rd and Cano on 1st, 2 outs. 6-4, Jeter coming up. Bah. Jeter struck out looking.
New pitcher for the Yankees, Tanyon Sturtze. Funny name. Huh. I was playing Deanimator so I missed how the first batter got out. Second batter grounded to short, easy out at first. 2 outs, no hits so far. Third hitter grounds to short again; whew, nice play by Jeter. Inning over.
8th Inning: Womack leads off. Ha! Grounded and SHOULD have been out, but he was zippy and made it to first. Womack stole second. Runner in scoring position, full count on Sheffield but no outs yet. Sheffield walks. Two runners on, no outs. Matsui is looking a bit shaky, and I'll be surprised if he gets a hit this AB, but I'm hopeful. Nope, he lined to right and is out. 2 runners, 1 out. Womack stole 3rd. A-rod struck out. Tino is getting walked intentionally again. Bah. Posada flied out with the bases loaded, game over. Sigh. That should have been at least a one running inning, I mean come on. Dinner time so I'll be missing the A's at bat, probably.
No runs, that's all that matters. I was eating pasta and fresh parmesan. Oh, I saw an A get hit in the hand from afar. Interesting. The only thing was it looked to me in the replay like Posada threw the ball... odd.
9th Inning: Giambi got out somehow. Cano got a nice hit to right field and a double out of it. Jeter struck out swining. Womack grounded to first, three outs.
Mariano Rivera is coming in to pitch. The leadoff batter flied out. Second batter grounded to Cano, out at first. Third batter shattered a bat and hit it directly to Rivera, game over.
That's 8 wins in a row. Go Yankees.
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Bad Saturday
I had a pretty crappy day yesterday. That's why I didn't really write anything last night; I knew it would be negative.
So let me explain what happened so you can feel sorry for me. First of all, my 1911 broke. Not a major problem: the magazine catch broke, which is a problem I've never heard of, but it ended my 1911 shooting because I wasn't going to load the gun one cartridge at a time. I was shooting well enough, though, about 5" groups at 20 yards. I was shooting into a big woodpecker hole in this dead tree in the woods because there were too many people around at the cabin to shoot there. I did recover one bullet, entirely intact except for the rifling.
The AR-180B has never been sighted in, and a half mile up a logging road I realized I forgot my leatherman so I couldn't adjust the front sight. No big deal, I figured I would shoot at 25 yards and make sure the windage (left and right) was correct. Well, no fucking dice. It was shooting 10-12 inches high at 25 yards! Dear lord. So I fired 29 rounds; the stupid magazine spring was too weak to properly position the 30th round for feeding, which pissed me off on top of everything else so I stopped shooting at that point. Six hours in the car total for less than 75 shots. Fucking brilliant.
After I got home my day went better. The Yankees kicked ass last night, winning 15-6 over Oakland. It was great! Four home runs, three of them multiple runs I believe. Jeter and Tino both got 3 run home runs and Posada got a two run homer, with the individual home run going to A-rod. A-rod made several errors in the game, though one of them got stuck in Tino (WTF). There were some other defensive mistakes, but all in all it was a decent game.
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Record!
I got a new record in Deanimator. That's the game I linked to before, if you don't remember.
Blasted past my old mark of 289: 355 kills on level 22. I like the green; on this monitor the purple background is fucking awful because I can only see the middle half of the game. Good thing it's only purple for levels, I believe, 10 through 12, because those aren't very hard.
And now, I'm going to watch the Yankees.
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Some night stuff
Yankees are playing well. It's 5-2 in the top of the 8th, actually make that 6-2 off the sacrifice fly by Matsui. Sadly Tino isn't hitting very well; I think it's 0-3 tonight. He won't have more than one more at-bat, which means his home-run game streak might be over. This will be, I think, a 6 game winning streak assuming they don't blow it. My dream ending? Tied in the bottom of the ninth and a game winning home run by Tino in the 11th inning. That would be sweet!
I've been playing
this game a lot in the last few days. My record before about an hour ago was 211 kills, but then I blasted through it for a new record of 289. Good luck, should you choose to play it; the only advice I'll give is look for the weakness, or rather most efficient way of killing the different types, shoot them before they get all the way up, and shift gets you to the shotgun. Hat tip to
Sayuncle.
Gun cleaning supplies are fun. Cleaning a rifle without a table at all and keeping shit on each knee with the solvent on the floor etc is rough, though. One of my rods either wasn't shipped or was stolen/fell out in transit; I ordered three 24-25" Dewey nylon coated rods, two for rifle and one for shotgun, and the shotgun rod never showed up although a tube for it did. The tube was not sealed like the others (plastic cap and staples), so I'm not sure what happened. I'll contact MidwayUSA to find out on monday, I suppose.
I'm going to the cabin to shoot and stuff tomorrow. I'll be bringing three pistols and three long guns, though I'll be concentrating on my 1911 and AR-180B. I'm bringing my Mosin Nagant M38 to see if the extensive cleaning I did (without the table...) helps with my case extraction problem. The others are my 870 to shoot with the new Hogue furniture, Ruger P95 9mm for the hell of it to burn some 9mm ammo and warm up before shooting the 1911, and my Single Six just for fun. Oh, hell, I'll bring the 336 as well. It's bored and wants to be shot, I'm sure, though I have very little (like 75 rounds) ammunition for it.
I'll be able to try two, maybe three target handgun engagement drills because I'm bringing the other standup target down. I have 198 of the 200 silhouette targets I bought in February left and only a month to use them so I will burn through a few dozen of those without worrying about getting 50-100 shots out of each. I'd also like to try rifle/shotgun to handgun transitions and other fun drills like that, but I'll probably be so tired by the time I get around to it I just won't have the will.
Speaking of handgun stuff, I'm still waiting on two holsters and two mag pouches I ordered about 4 and 8 weeks ago (one holster and pouch for each length of time) from CopsPlus. They keep pushing the backorder time back, which is annoying enough, but they also don't bother to tell you something is on backorder or low stock before you place your order to begin with. I liked them before, but they've been really pissing me off with this sort of thing. I can not recommend them. Some other stuff I'm waiting on.. my Anzas, though that doesn't bother me quite so much. My Marvel Precision 22LR 1911 upper. Some other crap, I think, but I don't recall off the top of my head. It's getting down to the wire, here, and I'm wondering if I'll even fucking be here by the time these morons get off their fat asses and SHIP ME MY STUFF. Ugh. The holsters and 1911 upper REALLY bother me because even if they get here monday morning at 7 AM I'll hardly have time to use them in any practical sense before I ship. Thanks a lot guys, I thought a three month buffer was enough but I guess I underestimated your incompetence. I'm getting really frustrated right now because it seems like 80% of the stuff I planned and invested in got shot down by other people being complete fucking assholes.
Well, about 2 minutes ago Tino got walked. Two walks in a row, actually, now, so unless there's some A's miracle this game is over and Tino's streak is over as well. Sigh. That's
really disappointing. I was greatly looking forward to this game because I wanted to see him hit at least 6 (that would make him the 4th or 5th Yankee to ever hit a 6 game home run streak). Who gives a shit if they win if Tino loses? As I wrote this Giambi hit in 2 runs, so I think the A's are done. Poor Tino...
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A few, er, many things
I'm thinking about taking titles off.
Via GWA45, we have a Victor Davis Hanson piece about the revisionists and WWII... read it.
There's a lot of crap happening in the country that I want to talk about, but I can't focus enough to write about it. Take the REAL ID act, for example. Aside from the fact that one of the greatest problems in our legislative system is the irrelevant amendment issue... see? Lost my train of thought. I think TV is giving me ADD. I really have noticed a decline in my ability to focus on things since I started watching it more. I've been cutting back to just watching movies occasionally and baseball, though, so we'll see if I fix my brain.
UPDATE: Since this post turned into a pile of crap and I don't feel like editing my 100 minute blather, you can just skip to the bottom and read the bullets for a recap if you don't want to read it all.
Anyway, about the REAL ID act. Aside from constitutionality issues (10th Amendment, anyone...?), it poses a very real security issue. See Bruce Schneier here for more on that.
I feel overwhelmed by the degree of government invasion our lives have realized in the last 25 years. My whole generation grew up accustomed to meaningless and arbitrary restrictions to the point where they do not question them, nor do they understand why I am so angered by them. For example: If you told most people walking on the left side of the hall would result in an automatic reckless walking ticket, they would not question the government's authority to decide that issue for them, and they would comply. I don't remember my point... besides that my generation is a bunch of fucking sheep.
Let me explain something: our legal system is (supposedly) based on the concept of negative law. That means unless you are specifically restricted from doing something--AND the law is constitutional--you can do it. The US Constitution does not follow the same rules, however; it is a description of the powers granted and denied the various levels of government, and all powers NOT granted are illegal to wield. Read the Constitution some time and compare its text to real life and see how far the Federal government in particular has strayed. Maybe I'll do a comparison some day when I have a lot of time and energy. I'll give you a basic clue: the gummint ain't supposta be that big.
How much do you pay in Federal income taxes? I pay jack shit right now because I'm unemployed, but my parents pay 35%. Way back in 1861 the first income tax was passed into law, a 3% tax on individuals with an income over $800 (about $16k now) and 5% on citizens living outside the US. It was never enforced. In 1862 a new tax act was passed into law, 3% on incomes from $800 to $10,000 and 5% on higher incomes. That's 3% on 14,500 to about 182,000 dollars per annum and 5% on the incomes higher than that. Three to five percent. Wow. Those were the fuckin days. Can you imagine having that much of your income back? The only reason a federal income tax was levied to begin with was to pay for a war, and they had been doing just fucking dandy without it for the first 70 years. How far we have fallen. I could go on about taxation for a while.
Oh, and let's revisit an old point: The BoR (Bill of Rights... there's always one that doesn't get it) IS NOT THE THING THAT GIVES YOU THE ENUMERATED RIGHTS. It is an affirmation, a list, that's it. They are innate rights, rights you have simply by existing. Thank fucking God it was put in the Constitution, since many of the states believed it so obvious as to be unnecessary. Also, the list of enumerated rights is by no means complete. It is merely the most important few. How many people do you know that have no clue what their innate rights are? Do you?
Important distinction: right != privilege. Right does not equal privilege for those of you that do not recognize code speak. To say that the BoR grants rights is an oxymoron; rights can not be granted. That which is given can be taken away, and that's not the way it is. You can try, and most people might let you, but be prepared to dodge bullets if you try it with me.
Are people scared of having rights? I think many are, especially in our current societal climate of 'it's not your fault'. No, no, it's someone else's fault. Blame it on the video games! Blame it on the music! Blame it on the guns! The movies! The chocolate! The pizza! Whatever. With all the emphasis on 'self esteem' these days in schools especially (my school didn't have that shit, thankfully), nobody ever takes responsibility for their actions. You don't expect kids to magically grasp calculus without teaching, so why would you expect them to understand personal responsibility and the fact that there are consequences for actions without SHOWING them? There's no "'You fucked up, Timmy,' said the teacher as he reached for the cane..." anymore.
Yeah, I believe in corporal punishment. Not for all things, obviously; if you cheat on a test, I don't think you should be beaten by your teacher. Nope, ripping up the test and writing a big fuckin 0 on your forehead would work fine. But if you mouth off to a teacher, I don't think it's a bad thing to get whacked on the top of the head with a ruler. If you get up in a teacher's face or are beating down some other kid without provocation you should be tossed into a wall a few times. My parents taught me that shit because they were actually good parents and not spineless fucks, indulgent saps, or crack addicted gutter whores or any of those things. Students should respect their teachers, not walk all over them, and they should be smacked the fuck down when they violate the rules, instead of being sent to an administrator (MAYBE) and given detention. I got detention once in HS and all I did was read a book the whole time: totally stress free environment. Big fucking deal. I was embarassed without help from the school because I knew what I did was wrong, but most other kids would just shrug it off and learn nothing.
Gratuitous Heinlein quote:
Eh, can't find it online and I can't find my book so I'll add it later. It's the one about learning and the puppy in Rico's civics class.
My parents didn't coddle me when I did shitty in school; I'm a damn good speller because my father made me work at it until I got them all right. Also he checked my math through 10th grade, helped me study for science, etc. My mother handled the music end of things and helped with projects. They encouraged learning and sports and were willing to shell out money to help me learn or improve myself in some way. They never did any work for me, of course, but they made sure I did my work and learned the lessons about life school contradicts these days. Bad schools + bad parents = socially retarded adults. We're on about the third generation of the evolution of idiot sheeple coming up in schools these days.
New topic...
Why is it so accepted that 'he had a gun!' is a bad thing? BFD. I have... *looks around room* two handguns and three long guns in view. Mosin Nagant boltie, Marlin 336 lever action (loaded), Armalite AR-180B (loaded) with thirteen full 30rd mags in various rigs, Ruger Single Six 22LR revolver, and a loaded 1911 in my back pocket. ...Yeah I got fed up with putting a holster on every time I changed pants so the back pocket works fine, as long as I don't move too quickly or jump around. Three loaded 1911 mags on the bed and a few more spread around the house, one in my pocket. How about 'he had a knife!'? I have... *looks around room again* an open knife drawer with about two dozen knives in it, sundry folders scattered around the room (my Opinels came; they're a little lighter than I imagined, but nice), a CS Kobun on my belt, Marble's boot knife on my belt behind my right hip, and a Gerber AR 3.50 folder in my pocket. I'd have a lot more knives in here but half of my fixed blades are in the basement where I was sharpening them. Oh, I have a sword over there against the wall too, a 'practical' Wakizashi by... CAS Iberia, maybe. I dunno. It's a low level sword but not a cheap POS like most of the production japanese blades.
The point is that the capability to do harm is feared these days. If owning a single gun makes you a murderer in waiting, what am I? I have martial arts training and I study human anatomy for weak points and practice crippling/lethal techniques with bare hands, knives, bludgeoning weapons, and of course guns. Holy shit, I'm the next fucking Jason Voorhees! I even have a machete! What other crap is there? Oh, I wear real boots, boots that turn my feet into SUPER NINJA FLYING MINISTERS OF DEATH! Well, maybe the irrational fear of inanimate object phase hasn't progressed that far, but it will some day. Look at the airlines; instead of the logical arming of pilots and allowing CCW holders to carry handguns on planes, they try to make sure NOBODY gets through with anything more deadly than a quarter. It doesn't even work! My mother brought a carryon soft cooler type thing on the flight to Yellowstone with a medium size paring knife in it on accident, and nobody caught that. It was big enough that I would feel comfortable fighting with it, especially against an unarmed foe. It was sure as shit more capable than a box cutter!
Lost my train of thought... I got distracted by Bigger Than Cheeses comics. Oh well, I've been rambling for like an hour and a half.
To recap:
REAL ID is bad
Gradual violations of basic freedoms are the best way to remove them
Income taxes are insane
Right != privilege
Corporal punishment is NOT abuse
Capability != desire nor intent (to hurt people)
Basically, our society has begun to backslide while claiming that things are better than ever before. More on this in (yet again) a dedicated post later.
...WTF is with the word verification? Fixing the text color issue apparently means I'm a spam risk. Well, whatever, it's no big deal but it's the first time I saw it.
...Yeah, except the fix didn't work. I love it when Blogger gives me bullshit problems for no known reason. Fucking A. Bullets != proven technology, I guess, since they are the things messing up my formatting.
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