Nonsensical Multisyllabic Words

Additions...

2011-04-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

..are time consuming.

And so mine must be.
I've been busy.

Thinking.
Adapting.
Developing.
Planning.
Orchestrating.
Leading.
Enlisting.

Well, Thinking of a way to make TADPOLE sound bad-ass took me 15 seconds, but...

Anyway, my pieces will be farther apart than they used to be (minus the months in hiatus), but closer than they were (plus the months in hiatus) which means, er... a few days. I've decided to actually think out my posts instead of randomly patch together concepts in 15 minutes, as has been my MO since being here (er... well, minus the months on hiatus...). More in a few days. Hopefully they'll be a bit... hmm... 'broader'. My thinking is usually non-linear, so my abstract writing is hard to decipher sometimes... or, maybe it's too simple... I write like I think: In quick indeterminate bursts that are meant to obfuscate my reality... or yours.

In any case... see you in a few days.

We see only reflected light deep within our caves...

2011-04-10T08:01:00.000-04:00

Plato's The Allegory of the cave has always made me think about life outside of my little cave. The Basarwa man from the desert of Africa will see things far differently than the man in Oregon.

We're all in our own caves, seeing reality and the stories before us as truth. But, how do we know?

It's become clear to me over the past several months that the things we read and watch are nothing but a reflected light show, entertainment to keep us chained in our caves.. passive, docile, obedient, complacent.
I had my suspicions, of course, but thinking hard about this was warranted.

An example of this would be the 'Government Shutdown' pre-game show we had before the weekend. How many times have they done this? And, how many times have they 'compromised' at the '11th hour'? Bread and circuses, to be sure. We've not advanced past the Roman way of thinking really, have we?

As an example:

Law and Order: STFU and CSI: WTF-EVER have not helped us from our caves, have they? Have they made us better people by watching them? Have they helped us become more than we can be? I'd say the opposite is true. These 'Idiot-Box' shows have enslaved a lot of people, made them 'feel the need' to talk to authorities without a lawyer for any. and. every. single. reason. They've made people into blithering idiots in a lot of ways.

This whole 'Flock Mentality' is going to get a lot of people hurt and/or killed before the proverbial day is done.

Will people ever see the flickering reflections for what they are? Will they ever feel the need to turn around and look behind them, to see the machinery involved in enslaving them? Will they ever walk into the daylight and look at the splendor and truth in sunshine? My hope is yes. Yes they will. But: Probably only as a last resort, and probably many of them kicking and screaming on the way out, as babies who don't want to take baths.

At that point, when everyone wakes up at once, the proverbial 100th monkey, Will things be different? Or will we construct new caves, and watch new and improved lights flicker?

Adapt or Die.

.

The Internet

2010-07-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

We take for granted how much information is truly out there. From Googlegangers to String Theory, and everything in between. All there, at the click of a mouse and a few finger movements, for anyone to see.

Dangerous, Exciting, Terrifying. May you live in interesting times, indeed.

I love knowledge. Knowing is being prepared; even if it's just theoretical knowledge that you haven't put to the test, at least it's something you can go on.. a direction, if you will.

There's a great website I like to visit often: How to Make Everything. Sure, it's not much to look at graphic-wise, but I'm not looking for fancy pixels. I'm looking for information on a vast scale.. And, again, sure, some of the links are dead, but most work, and there's a lot of them. Mostly for the distribution to 3rd world countries (which, ironically, we may be one of those soon...), the site is free for the perusing and free downloads of all information within. The sister site is here, with over 13 Gigs of information. Agriculture, Metalworking, Macro and Micro Economics, you name it, it's in there.

Another great site is offered by NDSU (North Dakota State University) Extension Service.

Full of plans ranging from outhouses to large houses, and all points in between. These are in .PDF format, so you'll have to save and open.

Hope this helps in preparing.

If knowledge is power, than What Hath God Wrought?

Gun Show Bounty

2010-07-17T13:38:00.001-04:00

Got back with a few nice grabs!

Pack. Complete with two side mount pouches, butt pack, and frame. $25 (I'm finally updated from Alice, and at a way decent price..)

A sweet Day Pack I picked up for the boy. $10

New in-box Goretex boots, with 2 sets of booties. $10

So, for $53 (admission $8) I was able to come home with some good deals. Made a contact with a guy who makes really nice knives.. interested in learning the process. All-in-all, a great day!

Gun Show!

2010-07-17T07:10:00.001-04:00

Finally! A Gun Show I can go to and maybe spend a little cash! I'll update later today and share what I came back with.

Wish me luck!

NIA Alert

2010-07-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

The National Inflation Association came out with an alert that I'll forward.. Since I don't have everyone's email address, I thought it'd best be shown here. All credits to NIA, and such.

My comments after.
------------------------------

July 13, 2010

Empty Store Shelves Coming to America

The National Inflation Association today issued a warning to all Americans that empty store shelves will likely be coming to America as a result of government price controls during the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis. This morning, NIA released a video preview of what hyperinflation will look like in the U.S. This extremely important must see video is now available on NIA's video page.

NIA's six-minute video released today goes into detail about an event that took place just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in May of this year. This story was widely ignored by the nationwide mainstream media, but NIA believes it was one of the most important news events of the first half of 2010. Although this particular crisis in Boston was due to decaying infrastructure, NIA believes a currency crisis will lead to the same type of panic on a nationwide basis.

NIA hopes that this video serves as a wake-up call for Americans to take the necessary steps to prepare for hyperinflation and become educated about the U.S. economy. In Zimbabwe during hyperinflation, Zimbabweans were forced to transact in gold and silver. It's only a matter of time before the U.S. dollar becomes worthless and the only Americans with wealth will be those who own gold and silver.

Citizens of Boston were able to survive their recent crisis with the help of the National Guard, but the National Guard won't be there for Americans during hyperinflation. 40.2 million Americans are currently living off of food stamps, but food stamps won't have any purchasing power during hyperinflation. The United States' day of reckoning is ahead. We cannot go on living with record budget deficits and accelerating national debt growth forever.

Just yesterday it was announced that for the first time ever, a major credit ratings agency has given China a higher credit rating than the U.S. While most credit ratings agencies including Moody's, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings still rate U.S. debt as AAA, NIA believes the real credit rating of the U.S. should be junk. The only way one could possibly justify a U.S. credit rating of AAA is by taking into account the Federal Reserve's ability to monetize our debt through inflation. However, printing money to pay off debt is a lot worse than defaulting on it. Inflation is very deceptive, it destroys the value of savings while transferring wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich.

The U.S. has a budget deficit just from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone. NIA urges President Obama to implement dramatic cuts to these entitlement programs immediately, while simultaneously reducing the size of government across the board. Time is growing short for Obama to rein in government spending. The longer Obama waits to reverse course, the harder it will be for the U.S. to recover from the calamity that is about to unfold.

Please forward this message to everybody you know. It is essential to the well-being of all your family members and friends that they watch our new video entitled "Empty Store Shelves Coming to America" by going to: http://inflation.us/videos.html

Please continue to spread the word about NIA by telling your friends and family to subscribe for free.

--------------------------------------

This may not come as a shock to most of you. I'm in concurrence with the authors. It's extremely important to prepare now while there's still money to prepare with that's worth a damn.

Erm... wait, no, that IS hilarious!

2010-06-07T19:33:00.000-04:00

I caught Glenn Beck today, and I saw the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It's funny 'cause it's true. We're so screwed it's hard not to laugh.

Wow, quick, don't look!

2010-05-04T18:04:00.000-04:00

lets discuss how high gas could go this summer. 5 bucks? I heard from a bird that 10 bucks would reach us if offshore drilling were stopped due to some 'emergency'.

Seriously, though, I live in Florida, and the 'loop current' is not cool at this point. If it reaches my coast, I'll be the first to start helping however I can. We have a strong fishing community here. So strong, in fact, that 'The Perfect Storm' was about guys right here in town.

Lets not let this crisis go to waste, as Rahm would say. Crisis often pushes people closer together.

which reminds me... we'll all be real close if we're all riding bicycles to work.

Look who's coming to dinner!

2010-05-01T10:46:00.000-04:00

I'm a little late to the party, I've been ridiculously busy these past few weeks, so my apologies.

But, what in the sam hell is this?

In addition to the litany of bad policies contained in the Dodd Financial Reform bill is this nugget on pages 1039-1040. In short, it extends government reach to every deposit account of every citizen.

Ok, If and/or when that happens, I'll be sure to let my bank know I'll no longer be using them.

Not that the healthcare bill doesn't already have certain key points such as this in it, but this would wrap it all up quite nicely for them, wouldn't it?

Intrusion doesn't even begin to describe what's about to transpire in our country. It's past intrusiveness, and well on its way to them living in our houses whilst eating our food and shitting in our toilets without even asking to come in before doing so.

Either get them a blanket and make them comfortable, or shove them the hell out of our house. Only two choices I see at this moment.

Look whose coming to dinner, indeed.

Although, some dinners may be laced, so watch your back, you unwanted guests.

QotD

2010-03-25T18:45:00.000-04:00

Quote of the Day:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
-Frederic Bastiat

Deem This, You Crocodilian* Wench!

2010-03-17T15:06:00.001-04:00

I saw someone anonymously comment on another blog a bunch of stuff, but I found this quip to be quite genius.

" ...Perhaps I'm confused here, but if they want to toss the rule book out the window, then they have no basis to turn to me and say, "Play by the rules.""

Indeed.

Madam Speaker, I deem you, and your crocodilian* cohorts, completely irrelevant henceforth.

*please note, this in no way references crazy talk about 'reptilians' or any other such nonsense of that particular scifi/conspiracy genre. I refer to her as a crocodile because, well, she looks a lot like a primal lizard, and I have no doubt she sounds and acts like one behind closed doors. Much like Stacy Keech's character in one Cheech and Chong movie, sans the mary jane. Furthermore, I will surmise that you probably can't read this, but if it so happens that you can, please feel free to do some photoshopping of Pelosi and send it to youtube marked "Reptilian Conspiracy Exposed!" or something of that nature. That stuff is hilarious!

Defining Poverty

2010-03-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

Defining Poverty: New tools to help us become... .... tools.

The Obama administration is setting new standards for determining who is "poor" in America, announcing a new formula to supplement the one established during the 1960s. Why the change? Because Obama's definition of poverty seeks to include "modern" expenses like child care and health care.

Go here for more. Also, and more to the point, here.

Quip:

The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which will be used in fall 2010 in a Census Bureau report, will not completely replace the old measure. It will be used to calculate an alternative poverty rate, but the new formula will not be used to determine eligibility for government programs.

Emphasis added, of course.

Wait... Alternative? Alternative to what, exactly?

So, riddle me this, Batman. Since it won't be used to further government welfare, what will it be used for? Toilet paper? (Maybe for me, but...)

Hardly.

I surmise this will be used as a propaganda ploy by the POTUS to show why we need UniversalSuckCare now, more than ever, because so many people are impoverished!!

Balderdash, is what it is.

Deja Moo - The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

Water Treatment -- Shocking!

2010-02-27T14:16:00.000-05:00

When I heard about treating water with pool shock, I was floored.

I've since done away with bleach bottles all together, and now use pool shock to create my own bleach. 3.77 for a small bag of shock, and one teaspoon makes a gallon of strong bleach.

Bleach starts losing its potency as soon as it's bottled. a 6 month gallon of bleach will start losing 20% of its potency every year, until it's nuthin' but salt, and water.. BUT: Granular bleach, aka Pool Shock, aka calcium Hypochlorite, will stay in its crystallized form for a hell of a lot longer.

Here's what the EPA has to say about it:

You can use granular calcium hypochlorite to disinfect water.
Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately ¼ ounce) for each two gallons of water, or 5 milliliters (approximately 7 grams) per 7.5 liters of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 milligrams per liter, since the calcium hypochlorite has available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 ounces) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water or (approximately ½ liter to 50 liters of water) to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the disinfected water by pouring it back and forth from one clean container to another.

http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/faq/emerg.html

Since reading Ron Fontaine's article regarding this, I studied and researched, and it's all true. I've been doing this for about a year now, and the savings on bleach bottles alone is worth it.

A 1-pound bag of calcium hypochlorite in granular form will treat up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water.. something to think about.

Thought I'd pass this info along. :)

Wally-World and canned goods

2010-02-23T14:18:00.001-05:00

I went for a long overdue stock shop two days ago, and Wally world had a hell of a deal on "Stone Mountain" brand canned goods (veggies) at .50 cents a piece! I only found corn, peas, and green beans in that brand, though.

2 for a buck is good for them, since they've raised prices (Inflation!) on canned goods 3 years in a row. Right now, wally brand canned goods (veggies) in my area are .76-.78 cents a pop... Needless to say, I doubled-down on that deal and bought twice as much as I was going to... not sure how long they'll have them, or how long it'll last, so I'm passing the word out!

Project: Chicken! -- Eggs!

2010-02-23T14:12:00.001-05:00

We now have two layers! Waiting on that third one shouldn't take more than a week or so. I'd upload pictures, but I keep eating them.

I'll remind myself to take a few pics before scrambling ;)

Logan has been chasing off unwanted cats, as well. And squirrels. And birds.

He's becoming quite the large one.

BTW: anyone know how to powder an egg? (Dehydration, that is) Please feel free to post some ideas... I'd like to try it.

Revo.. wait, what?

2010-02-23T14:07:00.001-05:00

So the clientele at work is rather diverse. We get all sorts through there, and I hear all sorts of things, but the one thing most of them seem to have in common is the word revolution.

It's weird to hear coming from a 70 year old man, and 5 minutes later come from a spanish landscaper.

"Wait, what?" is my usual response.

The context of the word is as vast as the people who frequent the establishment, but none more prevalent than the connotation of the original intent of the word.

What's unusual to me is it seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue these days.

Memes work in mysterious ways.

New Family Addition

2010-01-07T18:48:00.001-05:00

Or!

Project: Logan!

I moved my mother to Tennessee a few weeks ago, and when I came back, we had a new dog. Half Border Collie, half Australian Shephard. He's a sweet lad, and it seems the herding runs deep, because he likes to try and herd the chickens, which is quite hilarious!

here're a few pics of the ol' chap.

He's sleeping, of course. Long Christmas Day.

No eye color change, but that might not happen, either.

11 weeks old, he already knows how to fetch (mostly, lol) and herd chickens (well, chase, but still...). The weird thing is, he has a fairy saddle (dark mark on the snout) just like the cat, Emma.. plus: They're almost completely opposite colors (cat mostly white with a few brown and black marks on the chest, tail, body and face).

Logan fits in well.

Funny story about his name, actually.

The Boy (step-son) wanted to name him Dogzilla (erm... no.). My step-father came over and said, "Hey, Wolverine!" I chortled, then remembered the second X-Men movie where Logan (Wolverine) killed an intruder with his claws in the kitchen. This discussion happened in the kitchen, so I said, "Ha! Logan!" and now you know the REST of the story. :P

Update, finally!

2010-01-06T20:08:00.000-05:00

This will be short, but I thought I'd let everyone know I'm still alive. Family issues have detained me for some time... I need to ship something out to someone (you know who you are, and it will be in the mail soon, promise!), and I need to get back into the swing of things poste-haste.

Sorry for the delay... but, you know... after more than a month of non-computing, I feel refreshed. ;)

Are Video Games Adequately Preparing Children for the Apocalypse?

2009-11-26T11:15:00.000-05:00

Hilariousness Ensues!

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Jeffersonian School of Government

2009-11-24T18:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been absent this week... it's been ratather hectic at work, and a guy who got hired with me put in his 2 weeks, so I'm preparing for a wicked time by myself. That's alright though... I live for this shit!

Anyhowl, I came across these quotes today, and I thought I'd pass them along.

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"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.
---
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
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I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.
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I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.
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I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
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I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
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If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
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It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
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It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
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It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
---
Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.
Power is not alluring to pure minds.
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Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law” because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
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Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
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That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
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The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
---
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct."

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Hope you liked it.. I did.

Free Will and Slavery, via Outer Limits

2009-11-17T21:21:00.000-05:00

I loved this show when I was a wee lad... just so happens I've been revisiting a few old episodes.... this one, though, has taken the proverbial cake in the context of current events...

Oh, the best parts are at the end, as usual.

Blind faith does not a smart man make.

CNN does Militiagan

2009-11-17T18:53:00.001-05:00

Actually, a pretty good piece from CNN. Potok is still an asshat, but this piece is still good. And a reporter got to fire a mythical black rifle. Fascinating, to be sure.. it seemed like he enjoyed it. Good.

HealthCare: A novel

2009-11-09T19:40:00.000-05:00

I'll shorten it:

Here goes!

--------------

(Kids may look away!)

--------------

Fuck off.

-------------

Tada!

.............Seriously, though. Go pound kitty litter.

You'll get nothing from me. E.V.E.R.

You don't mess with carnies. E.V.E.R.
--------------------------------------------------
(does his best Tyler Durden Voice)

We make your elephant ears; We drive your tractors; We scratch your cars. We bang your daughters while you sleep (No, seriously). Do. Not. Fuck. With. Us.

Consider this a warning.

The Long, Dark Path: Carnie is as Carnie does

2009-11-09T19:11:00.001-05:00

Let's explore my past. It is restless, and demons need to be chased from time to time, instead of doing the chasing.

You'll find my past to be quite interesting, seeming it has not been written yet, only lived.

I, for one, find it very interesting, since I lived it.

This might be a little... eclectic, but bear with me.
-------------------------------------------------

The Long, Dark Path

by Tangalor

Carnie is as Carnie Does

-------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

-------------------------------------------------

There's a Black chick getting a tattoo of a white rabbit from my dad, which even at nine, I find ironic. The irony doesn't stop there, however. She's very nice-looking, and somewhat young (25? 26?). She steps into the Winnebusso with my father for about 30 minutes. She doesn't have to pay a dime for that tattoo.

*scramble*

This assclown of a kid is 7 years old, and he's pushing my temper, which, at this time, is quite hard to accomplish. Being his elder at 8 years old, I decide to invite him to come into the 'ring' (Boxing ring... at the carnival.. it was rather new at the time). He comes in, thinking he'll win over all of these 10-year-old chicks. We don't fight, because he makes an excuse or some such; he gets out, sits down on a folding chair, gets a bunch of girls around him, and smiles big.

I've had quite enough of this jackass.

I climb over the ropes, drop down, walk over to him, where he's still smiling... so are the girls.

I punch him, square in the mouth, and knock out a tooth (I still have a scar where my knuckle landed on his tooth. Ha!). He falls backward, and lands head-over-heels over the chair. I let out a deafening guffaw! This is hilarious! Asshole deserved it, all the times he picked on me for living in a bus.

The girls scream, he screams, bloody mouth running away to get his 17 year old brother..

I'm on my back 10 minutes later, his brother punching my chest 'how you like it now, fucker?!' spittling out of his slack-jawed, fool mouth.

My father comes out of the bus with a hatchet.

"Touch him again and I'll chop your fucking head off"; sidearm slightly showing from his western-style shirt.

*scramble*

Walking in a cloud is a lot like... walking in a cloud, and a lot less like walking in fog... there's something... surreal about it... I think I'm 7 or 8..

*scramble*

Bruce, my fathers' friend at the time (before he ruined that, too) is showing me how to set up a fish trap in a small creek, overlooking a beaver pond. Thus my teachings of wilderness begin.

*scramble*

I'm somehow fieldstripping an AR15 blindfolded... I think I'm 10 by now...

(I couldn't tell you if I could still do it, but be damned if my father didn't ingrain that into me)

*scramble*

I love "The Zipper" ride... in the early mornings, before the drunken ride-jocks awaken from their stupors, you can find wallets, keys, loose change, cash, smokes, drugs... all under one ride, and no one's smart enough to not come with this shit in their pockets to a carnival they know they'll lose it at.

---------------------------------

Again, the demons are chased... for now. Maybe I'll have good sleep tonight... or maybe I'll dream about the time.... oh, I'll just write it down here next time

The Man In Black

2009-11-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

One of my all time favorite artists, Johnny Cash.

This is a nice video compilation to his song "When the Man Comes Around"

An Ode to Sunday Doom & Gloom

V - Interview

2009-11-05T19:45:00.003-05:00

The show V promises to be good, haven't seen it (Don't have cable), but plan to at some venture.

Now, this must be a DNC Interview, or even a White House Interview.

No, seriously.

Children of the Con

2009-11-05T18:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, I spelled it right.

Check this site out, and watch some of the Obama-Be-Praised Videos our school kiddies are making.

Friggin' sweet.

Here's a sample.

When I was a wee lad, I remember ... well... not doing any of this.

I love jokes

2009-11-04T18:26:00.000-05:00

Funniest joke I've heard all day!

Near my home in Texas , there is a large German-speaking population, a rancher walking down a country road notices a man using his right hand to drink water from the rancher's stock pond.

The rancher shouted: " Sehr angenehm! Trink das wasser nicht. Die kuhen haben dahin gesheissen." Which means: ("Glad to meet you! Don't drink the water. The cows have sh*t in it.")

The man shouted back: "I'm from New York and just down here campaigning for Obama's health care plan. I can't understand you. Please speak in English."

The rancher replied: "Use both hands. You'll get more."

Courtesy of UrbanSurvival.

Suture Question

2009-11-03T21:09:00.000-05:00

Me and the wife were discussing medical supplies and we noticed we're in no supply of sutures. Needles or otherwise. Anyone know of a website or wholesaler who can point us in the right direction?

PS: no need lecturing me on the guage stuff... I know all about needles. Just need to know where to get it relatively cheap (I know I know you get what you pay for... just looking around for now).

Any help will be much appreciated :)

Sorry I havent been posting, btw: Fall does this to me, and the fact I get off work 30 minutes before it gets dark doesn't help at all. There will be more posts in the coming days. Promise. :)

Project: Garden - 3/4 Full

2009-11-01T17:47:00.001-05:00

(Click all pictures to enbiggen)

My new job is at a Wholesale Landscaping business, and it happens that a cubic yard (front-end-loader bucket-full) is only 10 bucks and change. I bought some, and took it home 2/10ths at a time. A Cubic yard will cover a 10'X10' area at 3 inches deep. I still have 2 recycling buckets full of the stuff, and I guess I'll amend the other half with it.

A side note: One side of the garden is composted Cow Manure, and now the other side is composted plant matter. We'll put this experiment to the test.

The first half is a-blazin! Two weeks later we find that growth is exponential, and we have numerous baby tomatoes and bell peppers. We'll soon have heads of cabbage, I have no doubt, and broccoli is sure to follow soon after.

Planted Onions (12, unseen) Potatoes (10, see mounds/circular dirt) Romaine Lettuce, and Bee Balm (For tea, along with the mint in the other quadrant), and still have a dash of this quad left over for small herbs as yet unplanted, and unplanned (suggestions would be sweet).

A closer look at the newly planted lettuce and Bee Balm.

Fern Leaf Dill was planted in the borcolli/herb Quad today (medicinal, so I hear). The Spicy Globe Basil is going completely insane, and at this rate, I may have more than enough to give away to relatives.

Red Cabbage is doing extremely well, and I hope to see heads very soon.

This Heirloom Mr. Stripey Tomato is over 3 feet tall. I've never been able to keep tomatoes healthy for long, and this whole half quad is doing exceptionally well... exceeding my expectations exponentially.

A whole Quad unused, but I plan on making this the strawberry patch.

Compost, previously discussed.

The fact that 10 bucks can take this project so much further is awesome. Paying 2+ bucks for a bag of 40# manure was getting more expensive than I wanted it to be.

So far, so good. Veggies coming in, and hopefully we'll get those strawberries next weekend in the ground and ready to run.

Dude, Where's My Jar?

2009-10-30T21:48:00.001-04:00

I. Want. Some. Of. This. Scotch.

Srsly.

Shackleton may have been a failure at that particular venture, and a few others, but aging whiskey he was not. Well Done, Shackleton, Well Done!

Quip:

Polar explorers of that era relied on their alcohol of choice to help them and their crews through the long Antarctic nights and insomnia-inducing days. And Shackleton knew a thing or two about being well prepared for an adventure. On a later trip to the continent he kept all 28 members of his crew alive during 15 harrowing months after their ship got marooned in and then slowly devoured by ice. So it's no surprise that he brought 25 crates of Scotch with him when he set off on an expedition to the South Pole in 1907.

The earlier trip didn't go well, either. Shackleton turned around 97 miles short of his destination, telling his wife, "I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion." When the ship arrived in 1909 to pick the men up, they left their supplies behind in their hut, including reindeer sleeping bags, tins of boiled mutton and bottled gooseberries. And, as we now know, they also abandoned two cases of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky.

That man had a li'l Captain in Him.

And there was a comment on this article that said:

Oh Boy, I hate to throw water all over the place here - but I just HAVE to ask... what sort of person/people find themselves in Antartica these days without an ice axe - or a dozen? They couldn't dig out the crates? Surely they have a better excuse.

FOOL! And ruin 2 crates of 100-year-old Scotch?! Are you mad?!

Two more comments made me chortle:

Haven't they heard of global warming? Just wait a bit and there will be plenty Arizona State sorority girls tanning and oiling on the sunny shore of Antarctica during spring break to share the booze with.

Retort:

RonnieB, we've all heard about global warming...ad nauseum. It's been downgraded officially now to "climate change". Hadn't you heard ? and as climate change it is likely to mean cooler temperatures. Too cool for sorority girls.

Interw3bz. Huzzah!

Hitler Was a Leftist

2009-10-30T19:38:00.000-04:00

Quip/Quote:

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country." --Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced and with a new preface by H. R. Trevor-Roper. The original German papers were known as Bormann-Vermerke.

Another:

Nazi Weapons Act of 1938 (Translated to English)

Classified guns for "sporting purposes".

All citizens who wished to purchase firearms had to register with the Nazi officials and have a background check.

Presumed German citizens were hostile and thereby exempted Nazis from the gun control law.

Gave Nazis unrestricted power to decide what kinds of firearms could, or could not be owned by private persons.

The types of ammunition that were legal were subject to control by bureaucrats.

Juveniles under 18 years could not buy firearms and ammunition.

Go read the rest here. Very Interesting.

The Long Dark Path: Death, Death, and his other brother Death

2009-10-28T20:13:00.000-04:00

Let's explore my past. It is restless, and demons need to be chased from time to time, instead of doing the chasing.

You'll find my past to be quite interesting, seeming it has not been written yet, only lived.

I, for one, find it very interesting, since I lived it.

This might be a little... eclectic, but bear with me.
-------------------------------------------------

The Long, Dark Path

by Tangalor

Death, Death, and his other brother Death

-------------------------------------------------

First Chapter Here

-------------------------------------------------

So the kid died because of the Oldsmobile. Suck. About 2 months later, some other weirdness..

There was a lady who was my fathers' roomates' Girlfriend.

It was take your son to work day, so he did. Construction, that month. On Anna Maria Island (Florida). We had (well, I had) a blast. I saw all kinds of stuff I never saw before. We came home.

Upon opening the door, a wierd and VERY pungeant smell wafted out of the apartment. It reminded me of Iron... rotten, wet iron. And shampoo.

My father told me to stay outside, and he went in. I went in not 10 seconds later.

The smell was... Vivid. I smell it every time I smell raw steak or taste myself after a firm cutting from some accident.

He walked to the kitchen. Nothing. Livingroom. Nothing. Bedrooms. Nothing. Bathroom. Bingo. She was... very dead.

Slit wrists. In the Tub. Full of water. Well.... Bloodbath comes to mind, and that's exactly what I think about when someone says, "Bloodbath".

She was 24.

I smelled it again when my father died and I had to tell them he was my father. I was 12 by that time. A looooong way away.

*scramble*

My father was a 'biker' *wannabee*

He had nice friends. *chortle*

They were very swift, to be sure. *sarcasm*

One, the name escapes me, happened to be drinking and cutting logs. He was ever known as 'lefty' after he hacked his own right foot off with an axe. At night. When he was drunk.

*scramble*

I'm 6 or 7. My father has me and my stepmother holed up in a backroom. He's shot a 9mm twice in the ceiling. He got angry at the people who were giving us room and board, because they thought he was too irrational when he drank.

Cops are called.

Standoff time!

2 hours later, I run out in my underwear, along with my stepmother, behind a police car.

He comes out and does 2 weeks in jail.

We leave for Georgia.

Happy days.

---------------

Again, the demons are chased... for now. Maybe I'll have good sleep tonight... or maybe I'll dream about the time.... oh, I'll just write it down here next time.

Digital Ants take on Digital Worms

2009-10-28T19:36:00.001-04:00

Quip:

Scientists from Wake Forest University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created an army of digital ants and their superior officers, digital sergeants and sentinels, to search out viruses, worms and other malware.

Well, that leaves my SimAnt software in the dust! Dude.. I always loved SimAnt.

Quip:

Like their biological counterparts, each individual ant is not very bright. A connection rate, CPU utilization or one of about 60 other technical details is all they can sense. When an ant detects something unusual, it leaves a digital pheromone, a tiny digital sense that says something unusual is going on here, and that other ants should check it out.

The digital ants report any suspicious activity to a digital sentinel, a program designed to watch over a set of computers in a network. The sentinel sorts through all the information the ants gather, and if its suspicious, passes the information on to a digital sergeant. The sergeant then alerts the human supervisor, who can the deal with the problem.

Ahah! Human Supervisor? We're all friggin' doomed, as the Mogambu Guru would tout (he's right!). As soon as the Human Supervisor get's his cheesy-poof-laden hands on the situation, I might as well kiss my software goodbye.

Quip:

If a particular kind of ant finds lots of problems then more of them are created to monitor the problem. The entire system is modeled off of a normal ant colony and uses "swarm intelligence" to find and diagnose problems.

Sweet, swarms! I love swarms, except swarms of Zombies, of course.

Final Quip:

The researchers created four digital ants of the 64 types then eventually want. To test their effectiveness, they set up a bank of computers and released three worms into the ant-infested Linux-based computers. The four digital ants in the computers had never seen the viruses before, yet identified the virus by only monitoring four very specific aspects of the computers.

Apparently, The Ants don't do typos. Too bad... we could all use that.

Linux FTW! BorePatch will be pleased!

SimAnt!

Helmet-Mounted Radar, son!

2009-10-27T21:38:00.000-04:00

No, Srsly!

Quip:

a miniature, low power, near 360-degree field of view Moving Target Indicator (MTI) radar sensor that will alert the soldier to the whereabouts of a target out to at least 25 meters. The sensor is to be mounted, embedded, and integrated within the Advanced Combat Helmet and associated sensor suites.

And... LOL! Quip:

The HMRS description also encouragingly specifies that “the effective radiated power of the system has to be low enough not to affect the health of the soldier” -– and presumably not the other members of the squad either, who are likely to be lit up by each other’s radar from all directions. Anyone worried by cellphone radiation emissions need not apply, tinfoil helmet liners optional.

Hilariousness about tinfoil liners, being as there might be OathKeepers about (suck on it Chris Mathews!).

Wonder what that near-miss from 360 degrees is? what, 1-5 degrees? and at what angle? They better get it right, though... a blind spot is a blind spot, and technology will get you killed once you've become accustomed to it. All of this nonsense is okay, but the first EMP, and they'll be swingin' swords again.

I always say I'm torn between being a techie and a luddite, but, dude, a radar on your head? That's way too cool. Just don't forget to use that thing your helmet is attached to... you know, that head thingy. Yeah, it's got more goin' for ya than a piece of tech.

I'm Boba Fett, and I approve this message.

Slingbow

2009-10-27T21:18:00.000-04:00

No... not slingblade, slingbow.

A concept I found amusing, and very versatile for many things, and much cheaper than a compound bow, if'n I do say so. Watch this video, then, if you're interested, go to youtube and look up wildernessoutfitters (or click there if you're too lazy.. they have several modification videos, like a fishing lure attachment as well as other cool stuff... and no, I do not work for them.. just thought it was awesome)

And, yes, I made one, but I'm waiting on the whisker biscuit, Wally World had none, so reports of the outcome will follow. I had everything except for the biscuit, in fact, which was upsetting....

New Job

2009-10-26T18:29:00.001-04:00

Many Hours.

Very Tired.

Here's a cool picture, until I return tomorrow with (hopefully) more energy to spare.

click to enbiggen. It's actually kinda funny.Photo at SteveQuale.com

The Long, Dark Path: Birth and the Carnival

2009-10-24T22:12:00.001-04:00

Let's explore my past. It is restless, and demons need to be chased from time to time, instead of doing the chasing.

You'll find my past to be quite interesting, seeming it has not been written yet, only lived.

I, for one, find it very interesting, since I lived it.

This might be a little... eclectic, but bear with me.
-------------------------------------------------

The Long, Dark Path

by Tangalor

Birth and the Carnival

-------------------------------------------------

So I was born. I know, shocking.

My first memory was snow in Arkansas, my mother was pregnant with my brother. We had a Great Dane named Rommel and a Wolf/Husky named Pahoo Katewah (if the spelling for that is correct, I never saw it written down). I rode Rommel like a horse, which was vastly entertaining.

*scramble*

I was always a serious lad, with a stern look on my face at least 75% of the time. My manners shocked people because I always said yes sir and yes ma'am. Always.

I was quiet and reserved (Still am) and I kept to myself. My mother always told me I was an old soul and was born in the wrong era. I believe that. To this day.

*scramble*

I saw a kid get hit by an Oldsmobile doing 55 miles an hour once. He said he was superman. He flew over the first lane, no problem. The second lane... not so much. That was the day I asked my father if I could go to his (that kids') grandmothers' house, and he actually said yes. He said no on countless occasions prior to that.

That kid died. In front of my eyes. Doing at least 45mph across the asphalt... after being hit side-on, that is. I was 7 years old.

*scramble*

I was helping the Ride Jock (carnie who sets up rides) put in R keys into the correct positions in the ride (Carnivals are.... unsafe. I was 6 at the time) he was putting together. Ride Jock says to me, "Kid, you gotta get outta this place... if it's the last thing you ever do..."

I was 16 before I realized the analogy. I was well past 'out of that place' by that time.

*scramble*

I'm 5 years old, and my father has a gun to my head, and he's screaming at my mother. "Shut the F***k up, I'm taking him, not his brother."

*scramble*

I see tomatoes, and lots of them. I'm speaking spanish before I'm speaking good english. Nice babysitter, but she's killing my prep-school endeavors. Not that I ever had any.

*Fin*
--------------------
More next time. Hope you enjoyed the trip... and yes, this all happened, but not in the order it appeared, and certainly I'll explain it all... somehow... sometime.

NATO: "Obama, you're an idiot."

2009-10-23T15:28:00.001-04:00

Well, maybe not in so many words, but...

Quip:

“What we did today was to discuss General McChrystal’s overall assessment, his overall approach, and I have noted a broad support from all ministers of this overall counterinsurgency approach,” said NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Ha! So, Obama says to McC, "Meh..." And McC says to him, he says to him,. he says, "Blow it out yer ass, I'm goin' to Slovakia to pitch it to NATO"

But a fair assessment? This will not end well.. Obama has other plans for troops (Iran, maybe?).. if not, why hasn't he deployed them? After all, it's not like McC is playing the role of Philip from Braveheart, where he gets tossed out of the window for being an idiot. McC is far from it, but I got a feeling he's gonna end up on the receiving end of the King's wrath, so to speak. Maybe not out of an actual window, but out of a proverbial one, instead.

Yeah. That guy.

Glueball Wormening!!1!!1

2009-10-23T14:09:00.001-04:00

Ok.. so I'm bored enough to paruse motifake today, and find this gem

Bruce Wayne was a Communist!

2009-10-23T14:04:00.003-04:00

Ha!

Copenhagen Posted

2009-10-21T08:48:00.001-04:00

So, I was driving last week, and heard this caller on Glenn Beck (I've been listening to him since he was a local guy here in the Tampa area, way back in '00, and not nearly as psychotic) start talking about BreakItApart.

The premise is, say, a 1000 page bill is broken down to 1 page. Your last 3 or 4 digits of your social security number will determine the page (or you can just pick one if you're uncomfortable) that you break down and put into regular words (not lawyerese) in a sentence or two what that page means; after every page has been done, you slap it together and read.

Anyhowl, they posted the Copenhagen treaty this morning, so head on over and get yerself a copy. I got it, and it is the real deal. 181 pages, so not that bad, but I can't read it until Friday, which puts me in a bind.

Rhodes, Potok and Mathews - Video!

2009-10-20T21:44:00.001-04:00

Video!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Smack from the Future

2009-10-20T09:41:00.001-04:00

I LOVE this stuff! Especially when an actual scientist comes out and says it, not some Trekkie.

Quip:

Large Hadron Collider 'Being Sabotaged from the Future'
Monday, October 19, 2009

Scientists claim the giant atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being jinxed from the future to save the world.

In a bizarre sci-fi theory, Danish physicist Dr Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr Masao Ninomiya from Japan claim nature is trying to prevent the LHC from finding the elusive Higgs boson. Called the "God particle," the theoretical boson could explain the origins of mass in the universe — if physicists can find the darn thing.

The scientists say their math proves nature will "ripple backward through time" to stop the LHC before it can create the God particle, like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

“One could even almost say that we have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in an unpublished essay. “He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”

"While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus," Dannis Overbye wrote in the New York Times.

"In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus."

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr Nielsen told the New York Times.

Ha! Take THAT, death machine!

Anyhowl, I've been reading a lot of science this morning, and just happened to come across this, which struck me as amusing.

Lord Monckton is his name...

2009-10-20T09:16:00.001-04:00

...and Thatcher was his game... back in the day, anyway.

That's the guy from the video. I've heard him speak several times, but have never seen his face, and all you brits sound alike (I'm just kidding, of course, as I can imitate quite a few British accents, as well as Scottish, Irish, Australian, and, my favorite, Slack-Jawed Yokel).

A little background:

Wiki Quip:

Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (born 14 February 1952) is a British politician, business consultant, policy adviser, writer, columnist, inventor and hereditary peer. He served as an advisor to Margaret Thatcher's policy unit in the 1980s and invented the Eternity puzzle at the end of the 1990s. More recently, he has attracted controversy for his public opposition to the mainstream scientific consensus on global warming. He also announced a sequel to his original puzzle called Eternity II in 2007, and it is still unsolved.

And, in April of this year, we had this:

Washington, DC -- UK's Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at a high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

“The House Democrats don't want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”

So far, I like the guy. When I heard him denounce Global Warming as a total farce on the Glenn Beck show some 2 years ago, I was really interested, since the 'science' was not settled for me.

I'm still looking for the actual document (not the draft I posted yesterday) that states global governance. It may be in there, I haven't read the whole thing. But: The actual treaty is 200 some pages long, and the draft posted yesterday was only 78 or summat, so it's watered down nonsense unless I see the actual doc.

Kyoto Redux - Copenhagen Shenanegans

2009-10-19T10:17:00.001-04:00

The Copenhagen Treaty is a Kyoto redux, to be sure. Here are some quips from the draft of the treaty:

The US and other Annex I non-ratifying parties should take on reduction targets
of a comparable nature and scale to Annex I parties that have ratified the Protocol as
well as be able to participate in the Kyoto Flexible Mechanisms, emissions trading
and be bound by the Kyoto compliance regime.

-----------------

All developed and newly industrialized countries should reduce their emissions,
as a group, by 23 % below 1990 levels in the 2013-2017 commitment period. This target
is consistent with an emissions reduction trajectory that yields a 40 % reduction
in emissions by 2020 and represents the annual average reduction for the commitment
period ( i.e. what the target in 2015 would be ).

-----------------

a ) T o assist in the development and implementation of a visionary long-term
plan for a low GHG emissions trajectory for each Party included in Annex B based
on the global carbon budget in 2050 and the interim targets for Parties
included in Annex B, as a group, in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 ;

b ) T o assist Parties in the identification and achievement of the timely
investments required for the economy-wide transformation needed to achieve
low carbon sustainable development in accordance with the provisions
of Article 2 ; and

c ) T o assist Parties in undertaking the necessary policies, measures and
actions to fulfill their support obligations in accordance with the provisions
of this Protocol.

----------

There. I'd advise at least a skim through the 78 page document before you set yourself on fire and dance through the streets screaming 'the world is ending!'

Again, you can get a copy here.

What's this guy babbling about?

2009-10-19T09:53:00.002-04:00

To me, it doesn't sound that ludicrous, but I'm not hearing what the name of this 'treaty' is, nor do I know who this guy is. Something about Greenpeace was mentioned, but again, I got nuthin', so credibility is denied as far as I'm concerned. Until someone can enlighten me to who he is, what the name of the so-called treaty is, and why people feel inexplicably drawn to believe and trust a guy with a british accent.

Worth lookin' into, as is anything else, but I'm not losin' any sleep over it.

Remember, Given an infinite universe and infinite time, all things will happen. That means that every event is inevitable, including those that are impossible.

Do I believe this guy? Meh, as far as I'm concerned we lost our sovereignty a long time ago, so if this were true, we're just making it official.

When this turns out to be a bunch of nonsense? Quick, look surprised!

UPDATE:

I found the treaty, 'Copenhagen Treaty' and here're some facts, as per greenpeace website, no less.

The full legal text of the NGO Copenhagen Treaty - written by a team of 47 experts from environment and development groups across the world, including Greenpeace. Very serious legal text

And, if yer curious, cuz remember, Glueball Wormening and all, here's the link to get it via .pdf

I'll copy and paste some of the script as time allows. Should be an interesting read, I see it's getting a lot of buzz. I really should wake up more before posting, that way I can actually research something before looking like a tool. :P

Quote

2009-10-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

"Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: you get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you." ~ Albert Jay Nock

Project: Chicken! - Redux!

2009-10-18T19:39:00.002-04:00

So after the attack we planned on minimalizing the coop, and fortifying its integrity to the nth degree. Success has been achieved, with no trial and error, and no new materials. A rework was necessary, to ensure maximum strength without jeapordizing the lightweight portability of the structure.

Here is what we have done thus far:

I broke some pallets down to use on the perimeter of the garden, when the attack happened, so we used the wood for the stand of the coop instead.

We took 2/3rds off of the original coop, which was a minor task. We cannibalized parts to make a swing down door for the entire front side, so they can come and go during the day, whilst being secure at night once we strap it at the top, as seen in the above picture. Also, we use the bottom as a hay keeper, also shown.

As seen in this picture, milk crates serve as nesting areas, while the swing door serves as an entrance. The step-ladder is in the way of the door going all the way to the ground. When it goes to the ground, they use it as a ladder to their new coop, which works out well.

The wooden rod was lashed for a nice perch to the middle of the structure, and the tarp is for warmth and protection on 4 of the 6 sides.

The entire thing stands 6 feet tall, well off of the ground, and anything that may have attacked it, or thought about it, has no chance. All sides are triple-reinforced wire, instead of the single layer we had prior to the incident.

If anything gets in there now, it must have opposable thumbs, because that's the ONLY way in.

This. Is. SPART.. .. ... SAN FRANCISCO!

2009-10-18T17:01:00.002-04:00

Hilariousness. I love Gerard Butler (hey, I'm Scottish, so sue me..) and his sense of humor. here's a clip from SNL (which I rarely find funny anymore, even at the best of times). And, excuse the 30 second ad.. I'd take it off if I could. :)

The Plans! The Plans!

2009-10-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

SurvivalBlog yesterday had a great link to this site.

Plans and layouts galore, all with .pdf downloadable formats. Granted, most of the plans are from the 30's, they worked then, they'll work now, so go get some!

I have a lot of downloading to do :P

Vegetarian Spider. No, Srsly.

2009-10-16T14:19:00.001-04:00

I kid you not. Way cool.

Quip:

A tropical jumping spider that eats mostly plant buds has been identified, a new study says—making it the only known vegetarian out of some 40,000 spider species.

photo and story from National Geographic.

Vegetarians will be happy to quip this phenomena I have no doubt.

Quip:

"It is utterly surreal," he said, "to see a spider use such effective hunting strategies to hunt a plant."

I can hear the lettuce screaming from my garden as I type this.

Enemy at the Gates

2009-10-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

Quotes from a pretty good movie.

Well, there wasn't a sickle, but there was a hammer and bang...knocked out all my teeth. That's right, boy, have no illusions. That's the land of socialism and universal bliss for ya.

Nobody gives a shit about the telephone guys

I've been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbour. But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.

He doesn't know you exist, but at that moment you're closer to him than anyone else on earth. You see his face through the sign. You see whether he shaved or not. You can see whether he's married if he's got a wedding ring. It's not like firing at a distant shape. It's not just a uniform. It's a man's face. Those faces don't go away. They come back and they get replaced by more faces.

Project: Garden. Growth!

2009-10-15T14:39:00.001-04:00

Growing nicely, actually. The ammendment of Black Kow has kickstarted all of the plants quite nicely. We have a few plants that have some holes chewed in the leaves, so I'm tryign to figure out what, exactly, is trying to eat them. Other than that, great progress.

We have another rain barrel we need to install next to thr first one, connect, and we get 110 gallons of watering power.

Some then and now pics:

Then (10/3)

Now (10/15)

Good growth for about 2 weeks. I plan on light fertilization in another week or so.

Recent photos of my new IIIper Merch.

2009-10-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

Minus, of course, the Gadsden, which has been on my car for more than a year.

Sticker sources: Zazzle.com

And my flag that came in, which is facing the street via carport, for lack of a flagpole with which to fly it:

iPhone, ha!

2009-10-15T10:23:00.001-04:00

BorePatch had a funny this morning, and it reminded me of my favorite Friday show (that I no longer watch because we cut the cable), the Soup.

Hilariousness.

And, of course, the original:

Ahh, the funny

2009-10-15T09:57:00.001-04:00

My favorite comic of all time is Pearls Before Swine. Here's today's comic, which is a good one.

Click to enlarge, and such.

But from Sunday, with hilariousness. Again, click to enlarge and whatnot.

FBI Building new system

2009-10-15T09:42:00.001-04:00

FBI building system that blows away fingerprinting

Quip:

TAMPA – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create what's known as "multi-modal biometrics."

Erm, ok, but then there's this:

The FBI, under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, is now allowed to collect reference-sample DNA material for biometrics analysis purposes at the time of booking, Grever said. "DNA has become a powerful and timely tool," said Grever, adding there are no "privacy or civil liberties issues beyond those associated with fingerprints."

I call shenanegans.
A fingerprint is a print of your finger.
Your DNA is a part of you, or, in a broader sense, all of you.
No privacy issues? You kiddin' me? And, what if you're booked, and found not guilty? Should your DNA be saved for 'reference', or tossed?

I'm not saying we shouldn't file criminals and such, but where do the lines between taking DNA from newborns, and taking them from criminals, intersect? It has to intersect at some point, and what bucket will it all ultimately be dumped in? Will I be getting a call in 10 years from a Pharma company because my DNA shows my family is prone to Heart Disease, so I need to be on X medication, ask my doctor?

Scary, sometimes, how you think the world might turn out. Sometimes I feel like such a Luddite.

Record October Cold.. Ha!

2009-10-14T19:06:00.000-04:00

From the Billings Gazette:

Record October cold has folks scrambling to winterize

please. It's been over 90+ degrees here for a week!

I'm 'Scrambling' to shower twice a day so I don't chafe from the stuffing mark down to my legs, for the love of Pete!

A record-breaking cold snap that has made this the most frigid start in memory for October has people scrambling to winterize home, car and self.

So says you.

Pfah!

Come to Florida, we could use your money to increase our tax revenue.. wait... Never mind, it doesn't snow here, and I don't need your idiocy on our 'safe' roads. We already have enough of it during the Summer months.

New Job

2009-10-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

Huzzah! I worked yesterday at my new job. 10 hour days, 5 days a week, time-and-a-half for OT (5-10 hours a week) Friggin' sweet, since I couldn't get more than 30 hours from my current job. My 2 week notice was given Sunday, although I doubt I'll be staying the whole 2 weeks. I normally do, but tensions between co-workers are making things tough for me to want to stick around any longer than I have to. We'll see after today.

Reporting back at 5pm...
...or before.

Federal Police?

2009-10-12T09:34:00.000-04:00

...I stumbled upon this picture

Homeland Security

Federal Protective Services

Police

....ok, 'the hell does that mean? I was not aware of a Federal Police Force (well, you know what I mean). Not the FBI, CIA, or other alpha units.

If anyone can enlighten me on this, I would be much obliged. :)

PWNED! Transvestites Fight Back! FAIL at 11!

2009-10-12T08:52:00.003-04:00

Mountain Dew spewed from my nose when I read this tale of, well... Total Awesomeness.

Thugs attack two transvestites... who turn out to be cage fighters wearing fancy dress

Gardener and Fender were left dazed and seen staggering to their feet after their failed attack.

Go to the link and watch the video report... apparently these guys attack super heroes too, because after this FAIL they went after Spider Man.

I guess the two would-be muggers couldn't see the Adams Apples on their selected targets, nor could they see the biceps that were bigger than their fool heads.

And, you know what? Eddie Izzard is somewhere laughing his british arse off.

Project: Chicken! - Attack!

2009-10-09T15:45:00.001-04:00

They were attacked last night (which is why I have not posted recently), and Kindle (NH Red) was pretty beat up. Leg may be broken. The lady at the feed store has an injured one at her house, and she volunteered to take care of ours so it can have some company. Our Americana, CawCaw, had some leg damage, but is otherwise well off. I grabbed another chick (NH Red, again) to keep her company, and it's a total Spaz, so, thusly named as such.

I believe the attack was a feral cat that haunts these parts... The Wrist rocket and ball bearings are at the ready as we attend to the hardening of the coop from any further probes or attacks. My wife suggested the Mosin, and I calmly told her that this is a cat, not a Nazi, and no loud 'booms' should be necessary.

(Tangalor rolls 2 six-sided die: 11! Tangalor wields Scimitar of Sarcasm!) More to follow on this interesting phenomenon.

Misdirection and Control of Forums

2009-10-07T14:18:00.003-04:00

This is a tad long, but if you've ever been a member of any forum, you'll recognize some of these tactics. Ask yourself if they were coincidence, or actually employed.

Full Link Via DailyPaul.com can be found here.

COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a 'uncontrolled forum.'

Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING'

If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by 'forum sliding.' In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to 'age.' Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a 'forum slide.' The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a 'forum slide' and 'flush' the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then 'replying' to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting 'slides' down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.

Technique #2 - 'CONSENSUS CRACKING'

A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at www.abovetopsecret.com) is 'consensus cracking.' To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger 'evidence' or disinformation in your favour is slowly 'seeded in.' Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then 'abort' the consensus cracking by initiating a 'forum slide.'

Technique #3 - 'TOPIC DILUTION'

Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a 'RESOURCE BURN.' By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a 'gossip mode.' In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to 'drive in the wedge.' By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.

Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favourite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - 'ANGER TROLLING'

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to 'stage' a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to 'lead' the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you 'do not care what the authorities think!!' inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - 'GAINING FULL CONTROL'

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavourable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the 'ultimate victory' as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a 'honey pot' gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.

I thought it interesting, and now I recall a few things in the past that raise red flags now.

What'd I say about Czars yesterday?

2009-10-07T09:29:00.002-04:00

Something to the ring of 'Kings, by historic definition, do not play nice...'

Now the headline

'Czar' wars pits White House against lawmakers

Remember, Kings have to conquer other kings before they control fiefdoms. The serfs sit on the sidelines waiting for the next king to take over.

Quip:

WASHINGTON - -- In a city where power is carefully hoarded and monitored, President Barack Obama has drawn complaints from Congress about his use of so-called czars, or officials he has appointed to coordinate environmental, health and other policy areas among various departments.

Lawmakers in both parties have sent letters to the White House challenging Obama's appointment of the czars, saying their appointment circumvents Congress's authority to confirm top executive branch officials and subject those officials to oversight hearings.

But when senators called a hearing on the legality of the czars, the panel of experts they convened did not support their cause.

Called together by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who had written to Obama asking for more information about the czars, the panel of five constitutional experts concluded that as long as the officials in question do not overstep their authority, there are no legal issues.

Who were these 'constitutional experts' and who's money are they taking? Follow the money, and Cui Bono?

There are more issues at stake, for example:

"The president's personal staff are independently responsible only to the president -- and in the end he is the only 'czar' that is," said Bradley Patterson, a presidential scholar. "And he is accountable to the American electorate."

Sure. I'll believe it when I see some actual accountability.

"Neither the purpose nor the effect of these new positions is to supplant or replace existing federal agencies or departments," Craig wrote.

I call shenanigans. Things are about to heat up. You watch.

Chess... gotta love it. But, so many kings on the table you'd think it was checkers.

Czars by definition

2009-10-06T12:38:00.002-04:00

also tsar or tzar (zär, tsär) KEY A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917.
A person having great power; an autocrat: "the square-jawed, ruddy complacency of Jack Farrell, the czar of the Fifteenth Street police station" (Ernest Hemingway).
Informal An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity: a racetrack czar; an energy czar.

ETYMOLOGY:
Russian tsar', from Old Russian tssar, emperor, king, from Old Church Slavonic tssar, from Gothic kaisar, from Greek, from Latin Caesar, emperor ; see caesar

OTHER FORMS:
czardom (Noun)
Usage Note:
The word czar can also be spelled tsar. Czar is the most common form in American usage and the one nearly always employed in the extended senses "any tyrant" or informally, "one in authority." But tsar is preferred by most scholars of Slavic studies as a more accurate transliteration of the Russian and is often found in scholarly writing with reference to one of the Russian emperors.

--------------------
Ok. I think the third one has been added kinda recently methinks, but you get the picture. I'm sure you've gone over it, but lets get down to Brass Tacks here.

First, reread the above definition, and then look at this list.

Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke
AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley
Auto recovery Czar: Ed Montgomery
Border Czar: Alan Bersin
California Water Czar: David J. Hayes
Car Czar: Ron Bloom
Central Region Czar: Dennis Ross
Domestic Violence Czar: Lynn Rosenthal
Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske
Economic Czar: Paul Volcker
Energy and Environment Czar: Carol Brower
Faith-Based Czar: Joshua DuBois
Great Lakes Czar: Cameron Davis
Green Jobs Czar: Van Jones – Resigned
Guantanamo Closure Czar: Daniel Fried
Health Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle
Information Czar: Vivek Kundra
International Climate Czar: Todd Stern
Intelligence Czar: Dennis Blair
Mideast Peace Czar: George Mitchell
Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg
Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein
Science Czar: John Holdren
Stimulus Accountability Czar: Earl Devaney
Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration
TARP Czar: Herb Allison
Terrorism Czar: John Brennan
Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra
Urban Affairs Czar: Adolfo Carrion Jr.
Weapons Czar: Ashton Carter
WMD Policy Czar: Gary Samore

Minus Jones, we now have 30 Kings. That's right, Kings, here in America. Answerable to the POTUS only. Now, it's my understanding that kings, by historic definition, do not play nice with their subjects. We're inferior, you see, since we are the unwashed masses.

Now, switch words with me.. instead of, say, Great Lakes Czar, say King of Great Lakes. Manipulate the language (hey, why not, they've been manipulating it for years). King of Domestic Violence. King of Terrorism. King of Health. King of Information.

The euphemism is not lost on me, nor the irony.

Funny things, words and language. We've been manipulating them for eons, yet when stuff slips through the cracks, it slips in a big way. I'm surprised no one has noticed it quite the way I have. Maybe they have, who knows, but no one is talking about it.

You use a word enough, and it looses its meaning, its substance. Sure, the meaning isn't really lost, but it becomes a shadow, a hologram of what it actually is. We take for granted the words that we use, and are used against us, as nothing more than that: words. But words are more powerful than most people realize, because memes and manipulations reach out to our sub-selves and touch lightly upon the things we think about. Do it over and over again, it becomes not a meme, but propaganda, skillfully and stealthily implemented into your noggin to create thoughts you've never thought, and take actions you've never taken.

Wind-up mobile phone

2009-10-06T11:57:00.001-04:00

I'm always torn between analog and digital. The techie in me loves digital, the realist in me knows this stuff won't last. But this is cool, and quasi-analog.

Friggin' Sweet. Telegraph UK:

The phone, which has the working title Ventus, is in the prototype stage at the moment, but the first model is scheduled for launch in the first half of next year. Its creators expect it to sell well in developing countries.

Tony Davies, the director of TCL, the company behind the phone, says that India and Africa in particular would be good markets, as they have very good mobile coverage but very poor power infrastructure.

TCL, which also produces wind-up radios and torches under the Trevor Baylis Brand, created by the British inventor of the wind-up radio Trevor Baylis, says one minute of cranking will allow for four minutes' talk time. A specially developed ultra-thin dynamo creates the power.
Better still, it can be left on standby forever if its rear-mounted solar panels are in sunlight, before being wound up if a call needs to be made.

Hand-cranked mobile phone chargers are already on the market, but TCL says that because the new device charges the battery directly, rather than having to go through a phone’s mains plug, it is much more efficient.

Mr Davies TCL told the BBC: “With our system the generator accesses the battery directly, and that really increases the efficiency of the system."

What does he think of me, a sperm bank?!

2009-10-06T10:04:00.001-04:00

Hil-Arious! And sad... but still damn funny. (I know, my humor is dark and twisted, but.. meh, forgive my shortcomings)

MANILA, Philippines - Even veteran policemen were shocked over the brazenness of a young man to surrender a decapitated human head which he admitted chopping off from his employer.
At around 7 p.m. Tuesday, a 23-year-old canteen helper, who gave his name as Srejan Sia, came to the Plaza Miranda police community precinct carrying a plastic bag. At the table of PCP commander Senior Inspector Rodolfo Samoranos, the visitor unwrapped the bag revealing a decapitated head of a male person.
Without signs of remorse, Sia verbally admitted killing his employer and cutting off his head, Samoranos said. Then Sia led policemen to Bernadette Eatery along San Rafael street in Quiapo where he hid the body of his headless employer Jimmy Preston, 59, in the bathroom. The body was in near state of decomposition.
Asking for sperm
In front of police and reporters, Sia verbally owned up to the crime. Sia who speaks English fluently said he served as a helper in the eatery. He claimed he was not being paid for his services and was cruelly treated by Preston. When asked why he killed his employer, Sia said he got mad when Preston asked for his sperm. “He asked for my sperm. What does he think of me, a sperm bank?” Sia said.

Well, I guess that guy needs some help. and I'm sure he'll get it in a Philippine jail cell.

Whacko. Hilarious, but still a whacko.

Seriously? 44 tons?

2009-10-05T10:02:00.000-04:00

Really? 44 tons? Holy shishkabab!

BRIDGEWATER, S.D. - Behind the freezer doors at a meat plant mysteriously abandoned by its owner, the 44 tons of bison meat managed to hold its own for months, masked by the brutal chill of two South Dakota winters.

Once the power was cut and spring thaw arrived, nature took over. And enough rotting meat to fill a high school gym did exactly what you'd expect: It stank.

It stank at the bank. It smelled at the law office. It reeked at the cafe. Even the jewelry store wasn't immune. Everyone in this tiny town could smell it, everywhere they went. A putrid odor so downright nasty the cleaners sent to mop up the gooey mess of liquefied meat — topped by a blanket of swarming white maggots and buzzed by a legion of flies — gave up after two days.

"You've also got the city offices, the grocery store and the post office. And then you spread out to the local residences," said Mayor Marty Barattini, pointing to each place. "This is a small town. We have just over 600 people, so that stench was enough to overwhelm the entire town. Not just this street."

Fed up with the smell, a brave crew of 18 city and county workers took matters into their own hands this summer and stormed the plant to haul away the putrid meat and take back their town. What came next was the biggest indignity: Three months after the cleanup, the owner still hasn't paid the $11,151 cleanup bill, and owes about $14,085 in unpaid property taxes on top of it.

"We tried to work with that guy," said a dismayed Barattini.

‘This is worse than rotten bodies’
The saga of the smell began in January 2008, when owner Ilan Parente closed Bridgewater Quality Meats and moved the business to Dawson, Minn., as Noah's Ark Processors LLC. He left the boxed kosher bison meat behind, apparently to be sold to a pet food company. It stayed frozen until the electricity was cut off in December for lack of payment.

When the town about 40 miles away from Sioux Falls began to warm in the spring, the smell began to creep out. Some said the scent was like road kill. The mayor said he spent two tours of duty in Vietnam and could not recall smelling anything as bad.

"This is worse than rotten bodies," Barattini said.

The city sent a notice to Parente to remove the caustic cause, and he dispatched two workers who toiled without protective masks, clothing, equipment or access to water or electricity. Defeated by the mess, they quit after two days.

So city and county officials got permission from the South Dakota Animal Industry Board to go inside and finish. It then became clear that the source of the smell was the meat: 88,420 pounds, according to the scale at the Sioux Falls landfill, where the mess was hauled in five dump trucks and three extra-large trash bins.

The crews and a skid loader spent two days removing the meat, which had swollen so much that the shrink-wrapped bags had burst, which caused the stacked boxes to topple. Most crew members wore an oxygen mask and hazardous materials suit because of the strong ammonia odor. Crews cleaned the building with fire hoses and doused it with bleach.

City employee and volunteer firefighter Todd Letcher wore his fire gear. "I don't think anybody should ever do something like that," he said of the job. "That was bad."

Owner: Meat wasn’t ever a health hazard
Parente's phone number is disconnected and the attorney representing him, Mike Unke, declined to comment. A woman who answered the phone at the Minnesota business said Parente is no longer affiliated with it. Requests for someone to comment went unanswered.

Parente has said before that he checked the meat in May and found it iced over due to a broken water pipe. He's claimed the meat might have stunk but says he never put anyone in danger.

"I feel bad for the people of Bridgewater who had to live with the smell. But that's really where the extent of my feeling bad goes. It wasn't ever a health hazard to anyone," he told The Daily Republic of Mitchell in July.

...more.

---------------------

Dude, that's just foul.

Project: Chicken!

2009-10-04T23:46:00.002-04:00

..I told you the chickens were coming.

Sure, it looks crooked, but it's been moved and based more permanently (much to my chagrin) along the side of the house.

The chickens are 'bout .7 months old. That's right. POINT 7 months old. They're just flailing limbs and squawking fluffballs for now, but I have it on good authority that they'll start laying eggs in about 4.3 months. Huzzah!

For cereal, though, the chickens are a hoot to raise, and the Children think they're a blast to chase around the yard at all hours of the day.

So, on to the mobile (not so much anymore ... .. ...) coop and how much I paid for it.

Nuthin'.

That's right, I paid nuthin'. I had a Gift Certificate at Home Despot. But, if'n ye must know, it was 55 bucks.

8 10ft sections of 3/4 PVC, 10 peices each of Elbows and Tee's. 2 50ft sections of 2X50ft rolls of chicken wire (can get by with 1 and 1/2 rolls, but we went all out) and a roll of 16 guage steel wire I already had for making chainmail (previous endeavor... yes, she still loves me... and no, I do not have said chain mail shirt .. ... ...yet....)

I know it looks a little awkward because of the way it was built, but it is a strong structure, especially after it is next to a wall.

It looks a little weak, but it's very sturdy, but I'm willing to take serious suggestions about what we do next. This design is not pretty, but is lightweight, and we like that cheap lightweight nonsense around here.

BTW: nests are made of milk crates and straw and cinder blocks. The Chicks love them.

Project: Garden.

2009-10-03T22:28:00.000-04:00

We've dug 11X15 out of our backyard for our garden, here're some pics.

Square foot gardening is what we're aiming for in the long run, so we've cut it into 4 sections. We amended 2 sections with composted Black Kow (our compost is far from done).

Complete with Rain Barrel Irrigation!

Southwest Florida is a great place for winter crops due to minimal freezing during winter. We've got Heirloom tomatoes (2 varieties), orange and red Bell Peppers, Purple Cabbage, Broccoli, Globe Basil, Spearmint, Thyme, and Catnip. That's half done, so we're planning on putting some red potatoes in potato boxes, planting some Snap Beans, and not sure what else. Anyone have some suggestions? We have plenty of room left, so I'm willing to listen. :)

The soaker hose works much better than I expected. Due to the lack of pressure from the rain barrel, I was only expecting a very weak drip, but it greatly exceeded my expectations because I forgot to factor in the gravity of a full 55 gallon barrel of water (do'h!). I expect it to deteriorate in proficiency when the water gets low, but that may be a while, since the soil we dug out is unusually good for around these parts (usually it's nuthin' but sand, which is a major suck factor for growing here).

Anyhowl, more to come on this little project.. Next: Project: Chickens

3 more bank failures bring U.S. tally to 98 in 2009

2009-10-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

Warren, Mich., Bank--
Warren Bank's failure will cost the federal deposit-insurance fund $275 million
Jennings State Bank, Spring Grove, Minn.,--
The bank's failure will cost the federal deposit-insurance fund $11.7 million
Southern Colorado National Bank of Pueblo--
The FDIC estimated the cost to its insurance fund will be $6.6 million

Resistance is Futile.

2009-10-02T13:32:00.000-04:00

Assimilate, or Die.

Quip:

Not only will we be immortal, but we'll be superhuman, too:
"Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively. Within 25 years we will be able to do an Olympic sprint for 15 minutes without taking a breath, or go scuba-diving for four hours without oxygen… Nanotechnology will extend our mental capacities to such an extent we will be able to write books within minutes."
If that doesn't sound wild enough, it only gets more fanciful from there. Play us out, Kurzweil:
"If we want to go into virtual-reality mode, nanobots will shut down brain signals and take us wherever we want to go. Virtual sex will become commonplace. And in our daily lives, hologram like figures will pop in our brain to explain what is happening. So we can look forward to a world where humans become cyborgs, with artificial limbs and organs."

----------------------------------

And if Jeane Claude Van Damme is still around, he might feel justified in making a crappy movie.

Or Not.

Zombie Preparedness!

2009-10-02T12:59:00.001-04:00

University of Florida creates plan to handle zombie attack

By The Associated Press --

Tampa Bay Online

updated 3:49 p.m. ET, Thurs., Oct . 1, 2009

GAINESVILLE - No one expects a zombie apocalypse. But the University of Florida is making sure officials are ready for a night of the living dead, just in case.

The school has a plan for responding to the undead on its Web site among outlines for dealing with hurricanes and pandemics.

The exercise lays out how university officials would respond to attacks by "flesh-eating, apparently life impaired individuals." It notes that a zombie outbreak might include "documentation of lots of strange moaning."

A University of Florida spokesman says the exercise was written by an employee at the school's academic technology office to "add a little bit of levity" to disaster preparation discussions.

--------------------

If the extension office is doing classes, I'm in.

47%... Friggin Sweet.

2009-10-02T11:56:00.003-04:00

This was in my headline roll, but I thought I'd take the time out of my day and actually post this all the way.

47% will pay no federal income tax

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true.

In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable tax breaks.

The ranks of those whose major federal tax burdens net out at zero -- or less -- is on the rise. The center's original 2009 estimate was 38%. That was before enactment in February of the $787 billion economic recovery package, which included a host of new or expanded tax breaks.

The issue doesn't get a lot of attention even as lawmakers debate how to pay for policy initiatives like health reform, whether to extend the Bush tax cuts and how to reduce the deficit.

The vast majority of households making up to $30,000 fall into the category, as do nearly half of all households making between $30,000 and $40,000.

As you move up the income scale the percentages drop.

Nearly 22% of those making between $50,000 and $75,000 end up with no federal income tax liability or negative liability as do 9% of households with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000.

Of course, income taxes don't tell the whole story. Workers are also subject to payroll taxes, which support Social Security and Medicare.

When considering federal income taxes in combination with payroll taxes, the percent of households with a net liability of zero or less is estimated to be 24% this year, according to the Tax Policy Center's estimates.
A key reason why there is a zero-liability group at all is because the U.S. tax system is progressive. Those who bring in more money pay more than those lower down the income scale to support government functions such as national defense and social safety nets like Medicaid for those in need. That progressivity can be dialed up or down.

"Some think it's too progressive. Some don't think it's progressive enough," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the center.

President Obama falls into the latter camp. He has proposed increasing the income tax burden on families making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000, while offering new measures to reduce the tax bite for most Americans making less.

One of Obama's proposals is to extend the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts for everyone except high-income tax filers, which was the group that derived the most benefit from those cuts.

As a result, under Obama's budget, he would keep the ranks of the non-payers higher than they would otherwise be.

Why the tax-free matter

The question of who pays and who doesn't is not a trivial matter. But Washington policymakers are not dealing with it in an explicit way.

And that's a problem, given the country's fiscal outlook.

If asked to vote up or down on whether they are comfortable with such a large group of voters contributing no federal income tax or payroll tax revenue, the majority may well decide it is appropriate given the means of the households involved. Or they may decide that it's not.

Either way, that decision should inform the debate about the many costly policies and deficit-reduction strategies that lawmakers will be grappling with for years to come.

"As the number [of nonpayers] becomes larger, we have to question whether we'll make good decisions about how to allocate resources," economist George Zodrow, a professor at Rice University. "Most people don't understand how skewed the tax distribution is."

Experts say that to pay for all the things on the country's growing tab, the money can't just come from a shrunken pool of taxpayers.

"Over the long run, you'll have to have a broader base," Zodrow said

---------------------------

Friggin' Sweet. Redistribution of Wealth has begun, I'd wager.

Daily News headlines

2009-10-02T11:40:00.001-04:00

Systemic Failure Approaches

Twilight of Pax Americana

Credit Crunch May Be Only Half Done: Whitney

Lawmakers Cave to FBI in Patriot Act Debate

47% will pay no federal income tax

U.S. Economy: September Job Losses Exceed Forecast

Yay. Fridays rock for suck news. Tomorrow: Bank closings.

Augmented Google Earth Gets Real-Time People, Cars, Clouds

2009-10-02T10:48:00.001-04:00

Augmented Google Earth Gets Real-Time People, Cars, Clouds

September 30th, 2009 The surveillance side of this is the chickenfeed. There’s something far more sinister than the simple surveillance… an angle we haven’t heard about yet.

Tice never did tell his story to Congress about this different aspect of the program.

Well, my guess is that it has something to do with providing surveillance data for this SEAS World Sim thing, and that individual Americans are being watched and potentially targeted with it. Tice’s background seems to involve a lot of traditional electronic warfare, radar and ELINT stuff. Maybe Tice’s deal involved the collection of the mobile phone GPS and/or triangulation data which would provide realtime spacial/geographic data to the SEAS system. In other words, SEAS sees you. They could bring up a map of a city and plot your path based on the information that your phone is exchanging with the mobile network.

—Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation
Via: Popular Science:

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth, adding dynamic information to the previously sterile Googlescape.
They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

They use motion capture data to help their animated humans move realistically, and were able to extrapolate cars’ motion throughout an entire stretch of road from just a few spotty camera angles.
From their video of an augmented virtual Earth, you can see if the pickup soccer game in the park is short a player, how traffic is on the highway, and how fast the wind is blowing the clouds across the sky.

Up next, they say they want to add weather, birds, and motion in rivers.
They will present their paper at the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality next month, but you can read a draft PDF here.
Research Credit: JB

-------------------------------

And an interesting reply by someone, with this:

# Zuma Says:
October 1st, 2009 at 6:13 am

from a few years back:
what *is* it with these popsci editors?
popular science? popular to whom? who is the mag’s market?

and then there’s this on space surveillance:

Space Surveillance

The Bush NSP does provide updated and improved language in several areas, most notably, as referenced above, regarding space surveillance. There is a new emphasis on providing U.S. space surveillance data and situational awareness analysis – gathered by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and managed by Air Force Space Command – to non-military users, including foreign governments and commercial companies. The policy states that the Defense Department shall:

“Have responsibility for space situational awareness; in this capacity, the Secretary of Defense shall support the space situational awareness requirements of the Director of National Intelligence and conduct space situational awareness for: the United States Government; U.S. commercial space capabilities and services used for national and homeland security purposes; civil space capabilities and operations, particularly human space flight activities; and, as appropriate, commercial and foreign space entities.”

Legislation Still Under the Radar Would Devastate U.S. Gun Ownership Rights

2009-10-01T13:59:00.001-04:00

Legislation Still Under the Radar Would Devastate U.S. Gun Ownership Rights

I'm sure all of you are aware, but I still think its worth mentioning for those who don't.

Quip:

HR 45, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, would make it illegal to own a gun unless you are fingerprinted and can provide a driver’s license and Social Security number.

Additionally under HR 45, a person buying a gun would have to undergo both a physical and mental evaluation before making a firearm purchase. It also would require guns be secured from access by children under age 18, and would empower law enforcement officers to come into your home to check compliance.

S 1317, introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenburg, would give the attorney general the right to block gun sales to people on terror watch lists. A third bill, HR 2647, contains a companion clause to S 1317 that gives the attorney general the authority to determine who belongs on terrorist watch lists.

APF head Hilton has history of legal trouble

2009-10-01T13:48:00.001-04:00

APF head Hilton has history of legal trouble

Michael Hilton of American Police Force arrived in Hardin with promises of Mercedes police cars and expertise in operating prisons. He delivered the cars last week, but may have learned about prisons following a 1993 conviction for grand theft.

Public records from police and state and federal courts in California show that Michael Anthony Hilton, using that name and more than a dozen aliases over several years, is cited in multiple criminal, civil and bankruptcy cases, and was sentenced in 1993 to two years in state prison in California.

Hilton pleaded guilty in March 1993 to 14 felonies, including 10 counts of grand theft, one count of attempted grand theft and three counts of diversion of construction funds, according to Orange County court records. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but it is unclear how much time he served.

Court records in that case list his real name as Michael Hilton, but they also include the aliases Midrag Ilia Dokovitch, Midrag Ilia Dokovich and Michael Miodrag.

Hilton, who speaks heavily accented English, has told reporters that he is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Montenegro, a country bordering Serbia, and once part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia.
The same aliases and other similar ones, all with slightly different spellings, show up in many other court documents citing Hilton, including a May 2003 Orange County case in which Hilton pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol.

A booking photo from the Huntington Beach Police Department from Hilton's DUI arrest on March 14, 2003, shows him heavier, beardless and with more hair than he has now.

It also shows the same facial features, including a distinct arched wrinkle over his left eye, along with three deep brow furrows, small, circular indentations in the center of his forehead and a cleft tip on the nose.
Michael Hilton and his aliases are listed as defendants in various Orange County civil cases alleging fraud and breach of warranty, including a March 2000 case where he is accused of fraud, larceny, breach of contract and false pretenses.

Court documents in that case allege that Hilton and others solicited investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the plaintiff for the creation of collectible Super Bowl commemorative coins.

The complaint alleges that Hilton and others falsely told the plaintiff that the money would be used for the design and manufacture of the coins, and to pay for a National Football League license to produce them.
In fact, the complaint states, no such license was ever issued by the NFL.

Court documents show that the plaintiff obtained a 2001 judgment for $200,000 against Hilton, listing his aliases of Miodrag Dokovich and Midrag Ilia Dokovich.

Hilton also declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy twice during a 15-month period.
He filed under his real name, citing the alias Miodrag A. Dokovich, in November 2002, listing a Stanton, Calif., home address and a Fountain Valley, Calif., business address tied to the Belgrade Market Liquor and Deli.

In February 2004, Hilton filed under his real name, citing the alias Miodrag Dokovich, and listing a Santa Ana, Calif., home address. He estimated his assets at less than $50,000, and listed as creditors only a credit union and his landlord.

Both bankruptcy filings appear to have been intended to delay eviction proceedings against him. Under federal bankruptcy law, tenants are generally protected from eviction while they reorganize their finances.
Anh Q.D. Nguyen, a Garden Grove attorney, said in an e-mail that he represented Hilton's landlord in an eviction case against Hilton that was filed in January 2004.

Nguyen said that Hilton "filed an eleventh-hour bankruptcy petition in which my office successfully obtained relief from the bankruptcy automatic stay, in order to reclaim possession of the rented premises."
Hilton had also been named as a defendant in July 2002 as part of separate eviction proceedings before his bankruptcy filing that year.

Hilton filed both bankruptcies without an attorney, paying less than $275 in filing fees for each. Both petitions were dismissed by the court after Hilton failed to provide necessary documentation, including a financial reorganization plan.

Chapter 13 bankruptcies generally remain on personal credit histories for seven years, and show up on standard credit checks.

When asked on Wednesday about Hilton's business dealings before his involvement with APF, company spokeswoman Becky Shay said, "That information is not going to be made available at this point."
"That's his private business. He is a man who distinguishes between private and business, between personal and corporate," she said.

Shay said she would check with Hilton for a comment about his DUI arrest, but did not provide further details.

She did not respond to an additional call made later Wednesday seeking more information about Hilton's other past legal problems.

SwapTree

2009-09-30T09:33:00.004-04:00

Ok. So you have a ton of DVDs you don't watch anymore, some video games you don't play, some CD's you've grown out of, and some books that you thought could have been better. All just layin' around, and no one will buy them at your yardsale. Sucks to be you.

Not anymore!

I've been using Swaptree for about 6 months now, and I've loosened up some of that dead-end stuff, and swapped it for something I actually wanted. A DVD for a book? No problem. A book for a CD? Sure! A CD for a DVD? Ayuh. A video game for a book? You guessed it.

Me and my wife have accrued so many entertainment things we didn't use, we started shopping around for something to do with them (the only books I let go are ones I've read and didn't like... which aren't too many) that didn't involve a yard sale ("I give you fifty cents, Si?" "No. That Game cost me 20 bucks!").

SwapTree was the answer. Easy, cheap, and requires little more than shipping charges. You can even print the shipping label at home!

This is not an infomercial, I swear to you. I just save so much money not going to the movies because of this, I thought I'd pass it along.

Now, you also need a debit card (they bill monthly, but 20 bucks a month for entertainment ain't bad, hoss (we have kids, so entertainment can get quite expensive)). Our first bill was 78 bucks, because we went a little... erm.. crazy. But after that, I lowered our bill to 25 bucks or less, we average about 22 bucks a month.

(Note: you're bill can be as little as zero.. you're only charged for the shipping you accrue once a month. No trades that month, no charge.)

Here's the skinny:

our want list and have list
Getting started is simple:
tell us the items you want
tell us the items you have
Swaptree creates trades by matching items that you have with other people who want those items, and vice-versa. It's almost magical! And it's free!

HINT: Make sure you put items on BOTH your want and have lists. We recommend that you put at least 10 items on EACH list.

These were my last 5 trades:

item you received item you traded

9/17/09	Evil Dead Regeneration	Druids	completed
9/13/09	Big Fish	Ernest Goes to Camp	completed
9/7/09	Just Between You And Me	Thomas and the Magic Railroad	completed
9/7/09	Lullaby	Philosophy of Punk	completed
9/7/09	Highlander	Bless the Child	completed

That's roughly 10 bucks, 5 things I didn't need, for 5 things I or my wife wanted. (We have kids, which explains Ernest and Thomas over there.) Now, we've done this for birthday presents for several people, and we plan on doing a lot of Christmas, too.

Since Christmas is kinda close, you can get a good head start. I mean, 2 bucks for shipping, and you have a present for someone. Not that you're cheap, or anything. ;)

BTW: if there is a trade you don't like, you can reject it, saving you have a valid reason.

TaDa! Tangalors Two Bits on Trading.

Even MORE on APF.

2009-09-29T19:08:00.001-04:00

William Grigg, who is infinitely more verbose than me has summed up quite nicely some of the things I couldn't.
I follow Mr Grigg closely, because he has much wisdom, and it is inherently unwise not to learn from someone much wiser than you. ;)

Go and read.

Martial Law Is Their Business, And Business Sure Is Swell

Even more on APF!

2009-09-29T16:22:00.002-04:00

Seems they've got an IT problem, because, all of a sudden:

The page you tried to access does not exist on this server. This page may not exist due to the following reasons:

1. You are the owner of this web site and you have not uploaded (or incorrectly uploaded) your web site. For information on uploading your web site using FTP client software or web design software, click here for FTP Upload Information.

2. The URL that you have entered in your browser is incorrect. Please re-enter the URL and try again.

3. The Link that you clicked on incorrectly points to this page. Please contact the owner of this web site to inform them of this situation.

Huh... interesting!

This is panning out all sorts of weird, now. More info to follow, as long as info can be provided.

Also, This states that They were using Serbia's Coat of Arms. LOL!

Take a look at This Wiki Page. Strikingly Similar, if'n I do say so myself.

Deliver Us, Obama!

2009-09-29T10:41:00.001-04:00

at about :52, "Hear our Cry, Obama!" As these whackos pray to the Almighty Messiah.

And they think we're nuts?!

By the way: got it from Breitbart.tv, and this is only a preview of the full video.

More on APF

2009-09-29T08:38:00.001-04:00

Here's a news story from local (To Hardin) KULR8 news.

Interesting information.

Also, the most fascinating piece by far is this:

defenseproductsolutions.com is hosted on the same IP (97.74.186.121) as americanpolicegroup.com. Both sites feature the same logo. Click on the Catalog link on defenseproductsolutions.com and say ‘hello’ to Edward Angelino. Other business names associated with him: Allied Defense Systems, Inc.

(allieddefensesystems.com) and Defense Consulting Group, Inc. There are almost certainly many more. I only spent ten minutes on this. I looked through a couple of the sites that use the same template and noticed this:

allieddefensesystems.com/aboutus.htm:

Founded in 1990, ADS and its veteran team have serviced a variety of contracts under extreme conditions in the Middle East. Our projects have ranged from base camp construction operations to supplying world-class military vehicles. In the midst of international tensions, ADS will perform.

defenseproductsolutions.com/aboutus.htm:

Founded in 2004, DPS and its veteran team have serviced a variety of contracts under extreme conditions in the Middle East. Our projects have ranged from base camp construction operations to supplying world-class military vehicles. In the midst of international tensions, DPS will perform.

HAHA.

Searching eangelino@aol.com will bring up more links for anyone who’s interested in unraveling these antics. Oh yeah! Do you have a, “2002 Lamborghini Murcielago tail winng or spoliler”[sic]? You might have a buyer. Guess who? Yep, that’s right. There are many addresses, phone and fax numbers associated with all of this. I’m not sure why the Associated Press and others haven’t made these connections, but it’s all available on Google.

Link to the rest of the interesting article here.

So, the guy is a scam artist extraordinaire! I'll lean that way, anyway. Seems more likely than some shadow-ops nonsense. Although, truth be told, the APF website is a little creepy.. but maybe it's meant to be. Plus, having a typo on the main page of such a 'professional' website is my first and last red flag. I mean, seriously? A company as big as that and they can't have an editor or a decent IP guy who can spell? Pfft.

I should have stayed up 10 more minutes last night so I could finish, this all would have been one post. But two works, because I hate editing. And being a spelling Nazi.

Who is APF (American Police Force)?

2009-09-28T21:18:00.003-04:00

I ran across this tonight in my meanderings, and I take everything on Steve Quale's site with a seriously large grain of salt. But I thought I'd look into it anyway..

Quip from the article in question:

Things are moving so quickly and we are out of time! The spirit of Pharaoh has entered our land! We have found out that our little town of Hardin is the 'test town' for President Obama’s new law to privatize the police force of local communities. Last night, the city council voted to disband our sheriff’s department and to bring in a private security company to police the town.

Interestingly, earlier in the day, the mayor when asked in an interview about the privatization of our police department completely denied it and said that would not be done with out a council meeting. Then that evening, a council meeting was held in regards to that very thing. At the beginning of this month, our local prison signed an agreement with the American Police Force which is a subsidiary of a larger private security force that the U.S. used in the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina.

Now, usually, about the time someone spouts 'The spirit of the pharaoh has entered our land!' I end up with glazed-over eyes and thinking about the farcical 'Mummy' movies... But I said, 'wait a sec.. what's this American Police Force they're yammerin' about?'

Thought I'd give a look see, being as how I'm curious and all.

Well, turns out there are a couple of articles about Hardin, its troubles, and about APF. Huh. Wtfer? I've never heard of them. Don't mean squat, though, I haven't heard of a lot of things. Still...

American Police Force leverages the talent and expertise of their extensive global network to provide local, regional, and national security solutions to the United States Government and other clients who are in need of customized private investigative services. Some of our servces include highly sophisticated background checks, asset searches, undercover investigations both domestic & international, and much more.

Ok, I thought, Servces? This is a quickly flung-together website meant to make whomever is looking for it believe they've found something...

Well... I'm out of time tonight... tune in next time, for another episode of... is it real?

Seriously, though, have a look at the articles in question, put together some dots, and tell me what you think... farcical nonsense, or truth, ye be stranger than fiction?

BTW: Images taken from their website.

So... is this for real? I've done about as much research as what I've told you, and plan on going to bed.. maybe since I have tomorrow off, I'll look into it a little further... their website seems a bit... generic, to say the least, so I'm leaning towards at least the website being a front... but for what? I know they exist now, they're in the news! So were 10's of thousands of tea party protesters (Tangalor rolls 2 six-sided die; 11! Tangalor wields Scimitar of Sarcasm!).

Anyhowl... what say you?

Sleep tight.

III % Bump

2009-09-26T00:16:00.000-04:00

Here.

Quip:

We are the people that the collectivists who now control the government should leave alone if they wish to continue unfettered oxygen consumption. We are the Three Percent. Attempt to further oppress us at your peril.

Dark Tower Wiki

2009-09-25T12:39:00.001-04:00

I was searching for possible movie news about my favorite book series when I happened upon the wiki entry.

Thorough, and pretty good, too.

Here.

---------------------------------

The Dark Tower (series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see The Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower
"The Dark Tower" painting by Michael Whelan
The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004)
Author	Stephen King
Illustrator	Michael Whelan, Phil Hale, Ned Dameron, Dave McKean, Bernie Wrightson, Darrel Anderson
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy, horror, western
Followed by	The Dark Tower (comics) The Little Sisters of Eluria

The Dark Tower is a series of seven books written by American author Stephen King between 1970 and 2004. The series incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy fiction, science fantasy, horror and western elements. They describe a gunslinger's quest toward a tower whose nature the books call both physical and metaphorical. King has described the series as his magnum opus. Besides the seven novels that compose the series proper, many of his other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses. After the series were finished, a series of comics prequels has followed.
The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

[edit] Plot summary

In the story, Roland is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of "Arthur Eld," his world's analogue of King Arthur. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. While the magical aspects are largely gone from Mid-World, some vestiges of them remain, along with the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams — mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Even the Sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals and age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.
For a detailed synopsis of the novels, see the relevant article for each book.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters from the Dark Tower series

Along his journey to the Dark Tower, Roland meets a great number of both friends and enemies. For most of the way he is accompanied by a group of people who together with him form the Ka-tet of the Nineteen and Ninety-nine, consisting of Jake Chambers, Eddie and Susannah Dean, and Oy. Among his many enemies on the way are The Dark Man and The Crimson King.

[edit] Places

Main article: Places in The Dark Tower series

[edit] Language

Main article: High Speech

King created a language for his characters, known as the High Speech. Examples of this language include the phrases Thankee, Sai ("Thank you, Sir/Ma'am.") and Dan-Tete ("Little Savior"). In addition King uses the term 'Ka' which is the approximate equivalent of destiny, or fate, in the fictional language High Speech (and similarly, 'Ka-tet,' a group of people bound together by fate/destiny). This term originated in Egyptian mythology and storytelling and has figured in several other novels and screenplays since 1976.

[edit] Series

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997) - Locus Award nominee, 1998^[1]
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003) - Locus Award nominee, 2004^[2]
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) - Locus Award nominee, 2005^[3]
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004) - British Fantasy Award winner, 2005^[3]

[edit] Illustrations

Each book in the series was originally published in hardcover format with a number of full-color illustrations spread throughout. Each book contained works by a single illustrator only. Subsequent printings of each book in trade paperback format usually preserve the illustrations in full, except for books I and IV. Pocket-sized paperback reprints contain only black-and-white chapter or section header illustrations.The illustrators who worked on each book are:

Michael Whelan, multiple award-winning science fiction and fantasy painter. The Dark Tower is among his early notable works.
Phil Hale, the only Dark Tower illustrator who created a second set of illustrations for a later printing of the book he illustrated.
Ned Dameron.
Dave McKean, graphic designer noted for working in many media, including photography and film. The only Dark Tower illustrator to work in photocollages.
Bernie Wrightson, established illustrator for 1960s and 1970s horror comics.
Darrel Anderson, the only Dark Tower illustrator who used digital illustration techniques.
Michael Whelan, returning more than 20 years later as the only recurring Dark Tower illustrator.

[edit] Reception

The Washington Post's Bill Sheehan called the series "a humane, visionary epic and a true magnum opus" that stands as an "imposing example of pure storytelling," "filled with brilliantly rendered set pieces... cataclysmic encounters and moments of desolating tragedy."^[4] The Boston Globe's Erica Noonan said "there's a fascinating world to be discovered in the series" but noted that its epic nature keeps it from being user-friendly.^[5] The New York Times' Michael Agger was disappointed with how the series progressed; while he marveled at the "sheer absurdity of [the books'] existence" and complimented King's writing style, he said preparation would have improved the series, stating "King doesn't have the writerly finesse for these sorts of games, and the voices let him down."^[6] The San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Berry, however, called the series' early installments "highfalutin hodgepodge" but the ending "a valediction" that "more than delivers on what has been promised."^[7]

[edit] Other media

[edit] Tie-in books

The series has prompted related non-fiction books by authors besides King. Robin Furth has published the two-volume Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, an encyclopedia-style companion to the series that she originally wrote for King's personal use. Bev Vincent has published The Road to The Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus, a book containing back story, summary and analysis. Stephen King has endorsed both books.

[edit] Prequel comic series

Main article: The Dark Tower (comics)

A prequel to the Dark Tower series, set around the time of the flashbacks in The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass, has been released by Marvel Comics. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born is plotted by Robin Furth, scripted by Peter David, and illustrated by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. The project is overseen by King. The first issue of this first arc was released on February 7, 2007. A hardcover volume containing all 7 issues was released on November 7, 2007.
The second arc in the Dark Tower comic series was released by Marvel Comics, and it is called The Long Road Home. The first issue was published on March 5, 2008. A hardcover volume containing all 5 issues was released on October 15, 2008.
The third arc in the Dark Tower comic series was released by Marvel Comics, and it is called The Dark Tower: Treachery. The first issue of the six issue arc was published on September 10, 2008.
Following the completion of the third arc a one-shot issue titled The Dark Tower: Sorcerer was released April 8, 2009. The story focuses on the history of the villainous wizard Marten Broadcloak.
Marvel Comics has also published three supplemental books to date that expand upon characters and locations first introduced in the novels. The Dark Tower: Gunslingers' Guidebook was released in 2007, The Dark Tower: End-World Almanac was released in 2008, and The Dark Tower: Guide to Gilead was released in 2009. All three books were written by Anthony Flamini, with Furth serving as creative consultant. End-World Almanac and Guide to Gilead feature illustrations by David Yardin.

[edit] Film adaptation

IGN Movies has reported that a film adaptation is in the works; whether it is for a movie or a television series is unknown. J. J. Abrams, co-creator of the television show Lost, is supposedly attached to produce and direct.^[8] Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, who co-created the show Lost with J. J. Abrams, have optioned the Dark Tower series from King for a reported nineteen dollars, a number that mysteriously recurs throughout the Dark Tower series of novels.^[9] According to issue #923 of Entertainment Weekly, King "is an ardent supporter of the desert-island show and trusts Abrams to translate his vision" into a film franchise with Lindelof being "the leading candidate to write the screenplay for the first installment."^[10] In a July 2009 interview with C21 Media, Lindelof revealed that he and Cuse had indeed optioned The Dark Tower's rights, but said he was wary about committing to such an ambitious project: "The idea of taking on something that massive again after having done six seasons of Lost is intimidating and slightly frightening, to say the least." ^[11]
King also reported that he had turned down long-time collaborator Frank Darabont, creator of such films as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, after he had asked to do the film.

Roland as depicted in the opening credits of another Stephen King movie, The Mist.

Multiple mock trailers have appeared on YouTube. Also, the official Grand Prize winner of Simon & Schuster's (King's Publisher) American Gunslinger contest,^[12] "Roland Meets Brown",^[13] by Robert David Cochrane,^[14] can be found there.
In King's 2007 film The Mist, the main character, David Drayton, can be seen painting a movie poster with Roland in the center, standing in front of a trans-dimensional Ghostwood door, with a rose and the dark tower to each side.
In April 2009, both Abrams and Lindelof revealed that they would most likely begin adapting the series when Lost concludes in 2010.^[15]
In May 2009, rumours emerged that Christian Bale was the top contender to play Roland.^[16]

[edit] Connections to King's other works

Main article: Stephen King works related to The Dark Tower series

The series has become a linchpin that ties a lot of King's work together. The worlds of The Dark Tower are in part composed of locations, characters, events and other various elements from many of King's novels and short stories.

[edit] Intertextual references

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

As with most of Stephen King's novels many elements of real life popular culture are mentioned in each of the Dark Tower novels including other books, poetry, songs, and movies. These works may be mentioned in passing or often as important plot devices.
Included here is a list of such references. All works mentioned below occur within the books' narrative and do not include any mentioned in the foreword or afterword of the books:
Books

Shardik by Richard Adams (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands and The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Plague by Albert Camus (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Browning by Robert Browning (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands and The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass)
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla and The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of Calla)
Watership Down by Richard Adams (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower III:The Waste Lands)
The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla)
Carrie by Stephen King (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
The Shining by Stephen King (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower II:The Drawing of the Three)
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
Insomnia by Stephen King (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
The Collector by John Fowles (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
The Magus by John Fowles (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)

Poetry

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Waste Land (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)

Movies

The Shining (The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three)
Halloween (The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three)
The Terminator (The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three)
The Last Starfighter (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
The Dark Crystal (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
War of the Zombies (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Hud (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
RoboCop (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Wizard of Oz (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands and The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass)
The Magnificent Seven (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
Flash Gordon (Serials) (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of Calla and The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Rebel Without a Cause (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Blood Work (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Child's Play (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Cujo (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Westworld (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
The Lost Continent (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Stalag 17 (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)

Songs

Hey Jude by the Beatles (The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, et al.)
Shall We Gather At The River? by Robert Lowry (The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger)
Ease on Down the Road by Charlie Smalls (The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger)
Oxford Town by Bob Dylan (The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three)
America by Simon & Garfunkel(The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three)
Velcro Fly by ZZ Top (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Careless Love by Janis Joplin (The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass)
Someone Saved My Life Tonight by Elton John (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla)
19th Nervous Breakdown by The Rolling Stones (The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla)
Man of Constant Sorrow, traditional (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
Hang on Sloopy by the The McCoys (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again by Bob Dylan (The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah)
The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Hurt by Nine Inch Nails (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Bad Company by Bad Company (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)

Other

Hand in Glove, a short story by Robert Aickman (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)
Maverick, the television series (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
Christina's World, the painting by Andrew Wyeth (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower)
The Lottery, the short story by Shirley Jackson (The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands)

Props to Tam..

2009-09-25T09:43:00.000-04:00

..over at View From The Porch for propelling me into 1200+ visits. Never thought I'd see that many visits.

Be sure to check her site out. I envy her Snarkiness.

Words of Wisdom

2009-09-25T09:04:00.000-04:00

This from George Ure in this morning's Urban Survival report.

My personal take on the danger of non-lethal weapons is that they provide a 'migration path' (to use the marketing term) which provides the increasing intertwined military/police complex on American soil a way to edge soldiers who would never begin use of lethal force against U.S. citizens a way to slowly work up to it.

............................

The use of 'migration pathing' is also clear as the New World Order of the Bush Era is being rolled out under the context of 'maintain global economic order'. Reuters has a pretty good piece on how the "New world economic order takes shape at the G20."

What are we going to do tonight, Brain?

2009-09-24T22:19:00.001-04:00

..The same thing we do every night, Pinky, Try to take over the world.

...or blow it up.

Well. Yes. Russia has a Doomsday device. Has for 25 years. Wired story link below.

Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine

All your Wii are belong to us!

2009-09-24T13:49:00.001-04:00

N00bs. They are teh sux0rz.

Teh story:

BARTOW, Fla. (AP) - A Florida sheriff says he is embarrassed that investigators from a narcotics task force were caught on camera playing a video game while searching a convicted drug dealer's house.

Video obtained by WFLA-TV in Tampa shows several officers enthusiastically playing a Nintendo Wii bowling game after the task force entered the house to execute a search warrant.

Sheriff Grady Judd from Polk County said Tuesday the incident is being reviewed and disciplinary action will be taken if necessary.

A motion-sensitive video camera on a computer in the house recorded the officers, who came from several agencies including the sheriff's department. Convicted drug dealer Michael DiFalco was already in custody at the time. His lawyer declined to comment on the video.

---------------

Flawless Victory.
Finish Him!

*Chortle*

"This information was properly withheld from you."

2009-09-24T10:04:00.001-04:00

Federal Reserve Admits Hiding Gold Swap Arrangements, GATA Says

MANCHESTER, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Federal Reserve System has disclosed to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. that it has gold swap arrangements with foreign banks that it does not want the public to know about.

The disclosure, GATA says, contradicts denials provided by the Fed to GATA in 2001 and suggests that the Fed is indeed very much involved in the surreptitious international central bank manipulation of the gold price particularly and the currency markets generally.

The Fed's disclosure came this week in a letter to GATA's Washington-area lawyer, William J. Olson of Vienna, Virginia (http://www.lawandfreedom.com/), denying GATA's administrative appeal of a freedom-of-information request to the Fed for information about gold swaps, transactions in which monetary gold is temporarily exchanged between central banks or between central banks and bullion banks. (See the International Monetary Fund's treatise on gold swaps here: http://www.imf.org/external/bopage/pdf/99-10.pdf.)

The letter, dated September 17 and written by Federal Reserve Board member Kevin M. Warsh (see http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/board/warsh.htm), formerly a member of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, detailed the Fed's position that the gold swap records sought by GATA are exempt from disclosure under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Warsh wrote in part: "In connection with your appeal, I have confirmed that the information withheld under Exemption 4 consists of confidential commercial or financial information relating to the operations of the Federal Reserve Banks that was obtained within the meaning of Exemption 4. This includes information relating to swap arrangements with foreign banks on behalf of the Federal Reserve System and is not the type of information that is customarily disclosed to the public. This information was properly withheld from you."

When, in 2001, GATA discovered a reference to gold swaps in the minutes of the January 31-February 1, 1995, meeting of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee and pressed the Fed, through two U.S. senators, for an explanation, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan denied that the Fed was involved in gold swaps in any way. Greenspan also produced a memorandum written by the Fed official who had been quoted about gold swaps in the FOMC minutes, FOMC General Counsel J. Virgil Mattingly, in which Mattingly denied making any such comments. (See http://www.gata.org/node/1181.)

The Fed's September 17 letter to GATA confirming that the Fed has gold swap arrangements can be found here:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATAFedResponse-09-17-2009.pdf

While the letter, GATA says, is far from the first official admission of central bank scheming to suppress the price of gold (for documentation of some of these admissions, see http://www.gata.org/node/6242 and http://www.gata.org/node/7096), it comes at a sensitive time in the currency and gold markets. The U.S. dollar is showing unprecedented weakness, the gold price is showing unprecedented strength, Western European central banks appear to be withdrawing from gold sales and leasing, and the International Monetary Fund is being pressed to take the lead in the gold price suppression scheme by selling gold from its own supposed reserves in the guise of providing financial support for poor nations.

GATA will seek to bring a lawsuit in federal court to appeal the Fed's denial of our freedom-of-information request. While this will require many thousands of dollars, the Fed's admission that it aims to conceal documentation of its gold swap arrangements establishes that such a lawsuit would have a distinct target and not be just a fishing expedition.

In pursuit of such a lawsuit and its general objective of liberating the precious metals markets and making them fair and transparent, GATA again asks for financial support from the public and from all gold and silver mining companies that are not at the mercy of market-manipulating governments and banks. GATA is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit educational and civil rights organization and contributions to it are federally tax-exempt in the United States. For information on donating to GATA, please visit here:
http://www.gata.org/node/16

People also can help GATA by bringing this information to the attention of financial news organizations and urging them to investigate the Fed's involvement in gold swaps particularly and the gold (and silver) price suppression generally.

-------------

Quick! Look surprised!

Sensing

2009-09-24T09:12:00.001-04:00

There's a tenseness in the air. Restlessness in the slumber of millions.

You could cut it with a knife, and will probably have to.

It's the deep breath before the plunge.

It won't be long now.

Prepare.

IronKey

2009-09-21T11:52:00.000-04:00

I want.

Friggin EXPENSIVE but I still might buy one.

https://www.ironkey.com/demo-personal

A self-destruct mechanism on a flash drive? Friggin' Sweet.

Hardware encryption and central management meet the needs of sensitive military, government and enterprise users. The only flash drive validated to meet Security Level 3 requirements of the FIPS 140-2 standard, it keeps data secure with AES 256-bit hardware encryption while intelligent anti-malware protects PCs and networks.

Military-grade hardware encryption safeguards your personal files while stealth Web browsing, anti-malware and password management protect your privacy and prevent identity theft. Requires no drivers or software.

https://www.ironkey.com/personal

Hardware-Level Key Management and Defenses
When an IronKey drive is plugged into a laptop or desktop computer, the user must authenticate with a password before data and applications are accessible. Unlike software-based encryption, the IronKey Cryptochip prevents encryption keys from being transferred and stored on PCs, where they are vulnerable. IronKey protects against brute force password guessing attacks by using non-volatile access-failure counters stored on the Cryptochip. If a thief tries to break into an IronKey and enters 10 incorrect passwords, the Cryptochip will securely erase all of the encrypted data with patent-pending Flash Trash technology. This ensures no trace of your data can be recovered from the device.

Rugged and Physically Secure
Your IronKey is an investment that will last for years. Its rugged metal casing protects against physical damage, and the internal components are sealed to protect against tampering. Also, your IronKey drive has passed and exceeded military waterproof testing requirement.

..Friggin' Sweet.

Birthday Update

2009-09-20T20:16:00.003-04:00

Solly Cholly... Did not get the riot gun...

I did, however, get 2 troy ounces of silver. Close enough for government work.

And a 20 FRN, as well as a 25 FRN GC for Home Despot. Chicken Coop, here we come.

We put the rain barrel and gutter up. In the rain, no less. Works. Garden next.

Go Steelers. Or some such.

Sipsey Street Has a Powerful Message

2009-09-20T17:48:00.000-04:00

Go read it... here's a great quote that will never leave me:

We face the greatest challenge of our time and it will not be met by timid souls who fear to let go of the hearth, the hem of the skirt or the cradles blanket. We must know and accept that our presence in that world of relations and temporal pleasure make us but temporary lodgers waiting to bid last farewells and shed final tears before we embark on the true reason for our being.

Moving.

So it's my birthday...

2009-09-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

...and all I asked for was nothing, but you know certain people demand a list or two, so I came up with one. We'll see how that pans out :P

Which is why I just write a generic list, so people can fill in the blanks. I do not expect a riot gun on my birthday.. did I ask for it? Not exactly, but the hints were dropped.

I usually just want to have a few beers and relax on my birthday, and spend some time with my wife and kids... but now that we've moved in to a new house, it looks like I'll be doing yardwork in lieu of the relaxing thing... Setting up a garden, and a rain barrel (this house has no gutters, so some must be put up) among other tasks, are on the agenda. Hard work never killed anyone, so the saying goes.

We're off to visit my parents, they have something for me... I think it's a Home Despot Gift Card.. which is fantastic, because I need to build a small chicken coop this weekend, too.

My favorite funny so far..

2009-09-20T09:03:00.001-04:00

Nonsensical Multisyllabic Words

Additions...

We see only reflected light deep within our caves...

The Internet

Gun Show Bounty

Gun Show!

NIA Alert

Erm... wait, no, that IS hilarious!

Wow, quick, don't look!

Look who's coming to dinner!

QotD

Deem This, You Crocodilian* Wench!

Defining Poverty

Water Treatment -- Shocking!

Wally-World and canned goods

Project: Chicken! -- Eggs!

Revo.. wait, what?

New Family Addition

Update, finally!

Are Video Games Adequately Preparing Children for the Apocalypse?

Jeffersonian School of Government

Free Will and Slavery, via Outer Limits

CNN does Militiagan

HealthCare: A novel

The Long, Dark Path: Carnie is as Carnie does

The Man In Black

V - Interview

Children of the Con

I love jokes

Suture Question

Project: Garden - 3/4 Full

Dude, Where's My Jar?

Hitler Was a Leftist

The Long Dark Path: Death, Death, and his other brother Death

Digital Ants take on Digital Worms

Helmet-Mounted Radar, son!

Slingbow

New Job

The Long, Dark Path: Birth and the Carnival

NATO: "Obama, you're an idiot."

Blogroll Addition - Armed and Safe

Glueball Wormening!!1!!1

Bruce Wayne was a Communist!

Copenhagen Posted

Rhodes, Potok and Mathews - Video!

Smack from the Future

Large Hadron Collider 'Being Sabotaged from the Future'

Lord Monckton is his name...

Kyoto Redux - Copenhagen Shenanegans

What's this guy babbling about?

Quote

Project: Chicken! - Redux!

This. Is. SPART.. .. ... SAN FRANCISCO!

The Plans! The Plans!

Vegetarian Spider. No, Srsly.

Enemy at the Gates

Project: Garden. Growth!

Recent photos of my new IIIper Merch.

iPhone, ha!

Ahh, the funny

FBI Building new system

Quip:

Record October Cold.. Ha!

From the Billings Gazette:

please. It's been over 90+ degrees here for a week!

I'm 'Scrambling' to shower twice a day so I don't chafe from the stuffing mark down to my legs, for the love of Pete!

New Job

Federal Police?

PWNED! Transvestites Fight Back! FAIL at 11!

Project: Chicken! - Attack!

Misdirection and Control of Forums

What'd I say about Czars yesterday?

Czars by definition

Wind-up mobile phone

What does he think of me, a sperm bank?!

Blogroll update

Seriously? 44 tons?

Project: Chicken!

Project: Garden.

3 more bank failures bring U.S. tally to 98 in 2009