Rantings Diversified

The time has come again to give a shoutout to some new blogs and some old blogs that I like a lot.

First up is Sam, Problemchildbride. She is by far my favorite writer on these here interwebicals.

Next up is a new blog I found called BrianDamage. He’s a D4 guy with an attitude, a funny way of looking at the world and he doesn’t post enough so go tell him to post more often.

Thirdly is a kid from Budapest, Hungary who calls his blog Emperor Ropi. This guy has way too much knowledge of history for his young years. He’s good and English isn’t even his native language.

Fourthly, everyone needs to check out Sameera’s Haven. She’s a very good writer.

Lastly, Please go give some love to my fellow Podcasterlings.
Jefferson Davis, Grandad, Baino and Dr. Don

It’s that time again folks. The most recent episode of the Kilos of Craic Podcast is now available for your dining and dancing pleasure. It was recorded just the other week Saturday 19, January.

This episode features Jefferson Davis, Dr. Don, Grandad and myself.
To download it you can go here, here or here.
Go on! Do it! You know you want to.

Sometimes I find a movement or an organization interesting. Occasionally one appears that markets themselves in such a silly and funny way that I take notice. Anonymous is one such organization. I’m left with the distinct impression they don’t like scientologists. Ha!
Well lets look at this. Martians dropped the souls of their enemies into a volcano and now the souls of the bad guys have infiltrated humans and we all need to release them so they can go back to Mars. To find out how to accomplish this one needs to PAY the church thousands of dollars to become a disciple. Huh? Did I miss something along the way?

I like this Anonymous thing because their motto is Knowledge is Free!

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Albert Camus

February 10, 2008
Expect us!

I’m considering getting another motorcycle this spring.  I have  it narrowed down to one of these two.
First up is the Triumph Speed Triple.
The original Hooligan bike.  The original Naked bike.  The original Streetfighter.  It’s 1055cc motor puts out 131 horsepower and it only weighs 400 lbs.

The other one I’m considering is the Suzuki Hayabusa.
This is the fastest factory motorcycle in the world.  It’s fuel injected 1340cc motor puts out 180 horespower!!

So what do yous’ guys’ think?
Should I go with the uber cool Triumph Trip’ or the uber fast Zuki’ ‘Boosa?
Both of these bikes can Ton-Up without thinking about it.
Come to think about it both of these bikes can do a Ton and a Half easily.
I’m leaning towards the Trip’ but the ‘Boosa is not out of the running.
Let me know which you like in the comments.

The beast showed himself. Though it was fleeting I was able to make a positive identification. Over the next few days I took to the future field of warfare and sought out his lair. There were many places there that looked promising though no defining evidence was to become apparent. I amassed my weaponry and began my preparation for battle.
I set aside both the Woodland Camouflage BDU’s and the Natural Gear with pine camouflage clothing. This I laundered with no-scent detergent and then sprayed it all with scent-lok. The Columbia hunting boots with Gore-tex lining were brought forth and prepared. I decided on the OD green Jeep cap over the ski mask because I also retrieved my camo face paint.
While preparing for a long and protracted battle I was mentally preparing myself by putting myself in the beast’s frame of mind. Were I a beast of his ilk where would I hunker down during the day so as not to be discovered, I asked myself over and over. Were I this beast what avenues of infiltration would I prefer? Would I rely solely on the lay of the land or would I just take to the cover of night? These questions and more plagued me during my draw down of equipment and gear. Next came weaponry. I considered the 12 gauge riot gun loaded with 00 buckshot and the M16 and a few thousand rounds of SS-109 steel core ammo and the M1911 as a back up loaded with some good old fashioned 230 grain hardballs. That is an awful lot of POW’s (Personally Owned Weapons) to carry so I considered some well placed incendiary IED’s along with a Danger Close air strike but then I remembered all the paperwork involved and chose against it.
So last night before retiring I set some booby-traps. I decided on a Hiram Maxim design. Now I know he is best remembered as the man who invented the Machine Gun but he is also credited with a very good booby-trap known to be quite effective in situations like mine. I only set two of them just to see if the beast would ‘take the bait’ so to speak. When I awoke this morning I found the bait had been stolen over night and only one of my traps had worked as designed but alas it triggered too early thus allowing the bait to be stolen and surely it will be used against me. A wiley beast he is.
It appears this enemy is not as backward as I first thought. So today I am setting myself to the task of redeploying the booby-traps and this time I’m going to set six instead of just two. There is strength in numbers.
If this technological warfare fails then I am going to be forced to use my chemical stockpiles. I will have to break into the stash of Agent Orange and poison the beasts food supply and hopefully force him out into the open where some light grazing fire and a burst or two of concentrated three point anti-beast fire should dispatch him with extreme prejudice.
Please excuse me while I prepare for this evenings battle. I have sniper posts to scout out and machine guns points to set and I need to set my perimeter with land mines and Claymores and concertina wire. I also need to do some forward scouting so as to have correct targeting numbers for the Artillery.

I shall return with the head of the beast or I shall return on my shield! So say I.

Here is your chance to make a difference in the US Presidential Primary.
Just click…

HERE

1.  An armed man is a citizen.  An unarmed man is a subject.
2.  A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3.  Colt:  The original point and click interface.
4.  Gun control is not about guns; it’s about control.
5.  If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6.  If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7.  Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8.  If you don’t know your rights, you don’t have any.
9.  Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10.  The United States Constitution (c)1791.  All Rights Reserved.
11.  What part of “shall not be infringed” do you not understand?
12.  The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13.  64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14.  Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
15.  Know guns, know peace, know safety.  No guns, no peace, no safety.
16.  You don’t shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17.  911:  Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18.  Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19.  Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
20.  If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21.  Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
22.  You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
23.  Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don’t make more.
24.  When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25.  The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

Are you ready for some Football?

At 1500 EST the New England Patriots will face the San Diego Chargers at Foxborough. Then at 1830 The New York Giants will walk out on to Lambeau Field in an attempt to end the season of the Green Bay Packers. The temperature at game time is expected to be below 0 degF or a whole lot of degrees below 0 degC! The winner of each of these games shall go on to play in this years Super Bowl championship game.
Personally I think San Diego will be embarrassed by the Pats’ and I also think, “Little Bro” Manning will be beat up and spit out by the Pack Attack.
I would really like to see Brett Favre give Tom Brady his first loss of the season and to do it in the Super Bowl would be too too cool
Well, whatever the outcomes of these games today I know what I’m doing this afternoon and early evening. I’m going to smoke another Habana made Cohiba #2 cigar while sipping a glass of Jameson’s Irish then I’m going to order a pizza. In case you’re keeping score at home it’s going to be large deluxe with Pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms and black olives. Yummmm!

UPDATE:
New England beat San Diego 21 to 12
New York beat Green Bay in OT 23 to 20
February 3, 2008  Glendale Arizona, Patriots vs. Giants

It was 12 years ago this coming Sunday.
Today I packed up all the little mementos from my flight of fancy to Arabia.  You know, all my boarding passes, hotel receipt, the menu from The Grind, my Arabian cell phone, a bag from the al Manera supermarket.  You know all the little things that document my trip.  I also added to this bag a printed copy of the trilogy in four acts I call, “My Adventures in Arabia”.  There are a bunch of other things in this bag but you get the idea.
While taking it up to the attic to pack it away in my footlocker I remembered something that has lived in my footlocker for many many years.  This thought coupled with the comments I received on my post “My New Cell Phone” I decided to bring this thing out, photograph it and write this post.
It was January 20th, 1996 and I had been out at the pistol range that afternoon working up a load for my Makarov IJ-70 chambered in 9X18 MAK.  I had some Sierra 95grain hollow point bullets, some brand new Starline brass and I was trying to develop a load with either AA#2 or AA#5.  If I remember correctly I ended up using AA#2 with a 3 yard cronographed velocity of 1060fps.  I was trying to duplicate the Chinese military load and without going downstairs and digging up my old load data book I’m fairly sure those numbers are correct.
I came home from the range that day and just dropped my range bag on the floor in my living room.  I went about my business.  I spent my time making dinner and watching TV and whatever else I felt compelled to do on that particular Sunday evening.  As it started getting late I thought maybe I should clean my pistol before I put it away.  This I did.  I broke out my whole cleaning kit.  The bottle mixed half and half with Hoppes #9 and Kroil as well as the FP-10 oil and all the little gizmos and gadgets used in cleaning a firearm.  I sat on the floor in my living room with newspaper spread out in front of me just scrubbing and cleaning away.  As my cleaning went on I decided to do a thorough and deep cleaning of this pistol, so I disassembled the entire slide, safety, firing pin, everything.  I worked a good three hours on this task.  It was shiny and gleaming when I got finished.  I had put just the right amount of oil on all the metal surfaces that come in contact with other metal surfaces.  The main spring was oiled and wiped down and re-oiled.  The slide was oiled wiped clean and re-re-oiled again.  Many many cotton patches and Q-tips gave up their lives in this pursuit.  I even broke down all my magazines and cleaned and oiled them also.
So I reassembled it and it was functioning as smoothly as it ever did.  There wasn’t a speck of dirt or carbon residue on it or in it…anywhere.
With the gun all put back together and functioning perfectly I reload a magazine and insert it into the pistol.  I racked the slide thus chambering a round.  I removed the magazine and topped it up with one more.  You see this way I have nine shots rather than eight.
I turn the pistol over to its left side to engage the safety.
Brain Freeze!!!
Is ‘Safety On’ up or is ‘Safety On’ down?  Hmmmm?
All of a sudden I can’t remember which position is ‘Safe’.  Is it up or down?  Now wait a second!  Some European guns are backwards from American guns.  Some decocking levers are backwards to others.   Hmmmmmm?
Well it’s a Russian copy of a German gun so it must be backwards.  I snapped the safety switch DOWN and while sitting on my couch at 12:20am
Need I go on?
I quite decisively killed my leather bound edition of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  It is a compilation of all five books in one cover.  It was given to me as a gift.  The 95 grain Sierra hollow point traveling at 722.72 MPH or 1060FPS or 1163.12 KPH entered the book in the spine and exited the top through the pages.  It continued into my bookcase where it still lives to this day.  The top of my bookcase was slightly split and bulged up.  I took a hammer and pounded it back flat.
Once I got over my embarrassment and admitted what I had done to some friends, my bud Mike thought it was so funny he went and bought me another copy of the book.  He made me promise I wouldn’t kill this one.
So this dead book was laid to rest in my footlocker and has been there ever since.  Now that I photographed it and written this I’ll return it to its grave.  I keep it as a reminder to myself not to be a bonehead.
So there you have it.  A true story illustrating that there is no such thing as an accidental shooting but instead there are lapses in good judgment.  It wasn’t the gun that killed my book but it was me that did it.

Happy Belated Blogiversary to me.
I missed my blogiversary.  It was 10 January.
One year ago I got talked into starting this noble experiment in my rantings, diversified.
To celebrate this annum I present you with my first post.

I Have No Clue What I’m Doing But Here Goes Nothing
January 10th, 2007
Hi Folks,
Well, I finally took the plunge into this so called blogoshpere, fashionably late again. In the upcoming days, weeks and months I guess we’ll see if it pans out.  I’m not completely sure why I’m doing this other than to vent on my keyboard so if you enjoy it or loathe it just leave a comment and let us all know how you’re doing

So it appears that nothing has changed in a year.  I still have no clue what I’m doing but I wrote 198 posts and got 896 comments.  Here’s to another year. 
Sláinte