My new home project

I decided the other day that I would start a new project at home. I thought that I would take a picture of all of the different flowers that I would encounter on my property throughout the year. Unfortunately, my late start means that I missed out on a few flowers, but I know that there will be plenty more to follow. Here is an example of my project, taken with my simple, 7MP Samsung PHD (Push here, dummy!) digital camera.

A little something if you get bored:

http://ckjcwf.ytmnd.com/

When you get bored with that, try this:

http://picard.ytmnd.com/

As many of you know, I am a self-professed nerd, geek, and all-around Star Wars nut. Now, I don't dress up in the outfits, and I haven't actually purchased any memorabilia in quite a long time, but as long as George Lucas keeps pumping out Star Wars movies, I'll be there to see them!

There was a major letdown after seeing Episode III, knowing that the story had concluded, and there would be no more Star Wars movies. Then I heard rumblings... And rumors...

Imagine my excitement once I found out that this fall there is to be an animated Star Wars movie, set in the days of the Clone Wars between Episodes II and III, much like the Clone Wars animated series (which I have on DVD) from several years ago.

I'm beside myself with anticipation, and I know others are, as well.

May The Force Be With You.

Just don't call a spade a spade...

Geraldine Ferraro is on the hot seat for making the comment that if Obama wasn’t black he wouldn’t be garnering the votes that he is getting. Blacks immediately began to cry foul and said that what she said was racist. Is it really racist if it is true? In some locations, Obama is getting 97-98% of the black vote. He isn’t gathering all of those votes because of his platform! The Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world would be pontificating their own racist viewpoints if he was a white person garnering the same percentage points in white voters. I am not a fan of Ferraro, but you cannot berate her for speaking the truth!

Oh, and some of you might wonder about the pharmacy/Radio Shack. That is exactly what it is: It is a small family pharmacy that has Radio Shack products along two aisles of the store. You've got to love rural living!

Well, now that I'm back with broadband Internet, I find myself in the interesting position of not knowing what I want to talk about. I have the opportunity to quickly type up something and post it, but I'm unusually at a loss for words.

I ran down to the local pharmacy/Radio Shack and picked up a super G router for 60 bucks. Yes, I know I can find a G router for a cheaper price, but that would involve either ordering it and waiting for a week for it to arrive, or burning gas at $3.15 per gallon to drive a 60 mile round trip to the nearest Wal-Mart. The little Netgear G router that I bought was a breeze to hook up, especially if you just follow the step by step directions on the instructional CD, and it is powerful enough to reach out to my shop behind the house. I ordered a USB dongle so I can do upgrades to my other desktops, plus I can plug into my little one's computer from time to time if he wants to do a little Internet surfing (naturally, I'm going to need something like Net Nanny).

Hey, what does the Easter Bunny hide his Easter eggs?

He doesn't want people to know he fucks chickens!

Well, it's about time!

I am now back in the world of broadband, and oh, how I missed it! The Time Warner contractors came out in the pouring rain and ran the line from across the street to my house, through the brick, under the flooring, and to my desktop all within an hour.

I tried to hook up my wireless B router in order to network in the other five computers that we have, and after an hour of frustration I found out that my old Linksys router is not compatible with Vista. So, I'll probably have to make a visit to a Wally World and find my a G or N router.

Did I say five other computers? Wow, I didn't realize that. My son has a compact Dell with an LCD monitor in his room. The wife and I both have laptops. I have an old Windows 2000 computer with a 17" CRT in my shop, and I have my old HP laptop that just would not let me reinstall Windows XP running on Ubuntu Linux. Oh, and I have my four or five year old Axim X30 handheld. My ultimate goal is to have my house completely networked, with Internet access in every room (except for the bathroom; that's what laptops are four).

Anyway, now that I have by cable Internet back, you can expect to see more frequent posts.

Cheers.

Well, as usual, Ernie has a unique perspective over the recent crash of a B-2 Spirit. This is excerpted from his website. The first part I know is true, because every government agency is the same. The second part is more compelling; imagine if it was you sitting in that airplane...(underlined areas are defunct links from Ernie's site).

By now everyone knows a B-2 Spirit bomber crashed in Guam over the weekend. This unfortunate event -- which is tantamount to the second coming of Christ at least in the military arena -- will probably be more thoroughly researched than the space shuttle crashes. The catch is no matter whose shoulders they ultimately pin the blame on, there is a laundry list of personnel who will suffer the fallout. It won't matter that they had nothing to do with what happened, or if they were on vacation two weeks before and two weeks after, or if they did their job perfectly. People are going to eat a lot of shit, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.
First and foremost, will obviously be the pilots. Thankfully, both ejected safely so while their asses might be intact, their careers are certainly not. They, are going to be fucking fired. And it doesn't matter if the final investigation attributed the crash to mechanical failure, pilot error, or a UFO death ray. They're fucking fired, period. And I suppose I should explain what that means in the military world, since when you're fired, you're not actually sent off to the bread lines. When a military personnel is fired they're removed from whatever duties it was they're trained to do, and moved over to what will amount to be a meaningless job. They will be given a cubicle in some janitor's closet at the far end of base and will stay in this dead end career path until they serve their twenty years to retirement, or otherwise choose to bring their commission/enlistment an end. For a pilot to be fired means he will never see the inside of another cockpit for as long as they live. It doesn't matter if they graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and joined the Air Force ROTC and graduated top of their class, and have billions of dollars of training in their heads, and are the best damn pilot their instructs have ever seen. Whatever rank these pilots took off with that day, will be the rank they retire with. And when they get out of the military, commercial airlines won't touch them. Same thing goes for the wing and squadron commanders. The rule is simple: crash a billion dollar bomber: you get fucking fired. It's the human equivalent to Sherman's, scorched earth policy.
Yes, the Air Force is going to fucking fire everyone that even came near that plane prior to its crash. Crew Chief? Fucking fired. The guy who checked the tire pressure? Fucking fired. The squadron Safety Officer? Fucking fired. The airman who drove the golf cart that shuttled the pilots out to their plane? Fucking fired. The two guys repainting stripes at the end of the runway? Fucking fired. Air Traffic Controller? Fucking fired. The guys who fueled the plane? Fucking fired. The guy with the orange cones that who marshalled the plane out onto the taxiway? Fucking fired. The cashier at the coffee shop where the pilots grabbed a cup of java while driving to work? Fucking fired. Their mailman? Fucking fired. In fact, I bet if one of the pilot's wives is pregnant, federal agents will be dispatched to push her down a flight of stairs. Their kids will get beat up and expelled from school. There's just going to be no mercy. They would fire God if they could.
As I'm pretty sure the pilots were well aware of these consequences, I ask you to consider the following. Imaging you're an Air Force pilot. You control one of the single most expensive piece of equipment in your nation's entire arsenal. You have been trained, retrained, and re-retrained a dozen times over. You know your job forwards and backwards. You are a walking, talking encyclopedia of answers to any "what if..." scenario that has ever been dreamed of. You are prepared for any in-flight emergency that fate can throw at you. So you're in your cockpit of your 1.2 billion dollar B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and you take off, and x-amount of seconds later, a snot load of red warning lights go off on your instrument panel. You training and instincts kick in, and you follow your emergency procedures down to the letter. But instead of improving, your situation worsens. Now somewhere in the back of your subconscious, there has to be that voice. That voice that reminds you that a B-2 has never ever been lost before and if something should happen to this plane, you would be remembered for all time as, "the guy who lost the first B-2". And I'm not even talking about survival at this point. Not yet anyway. I'm talking purely about the psychological impact of being the first guy to screw the pooch on this scale. I mean if one of these things goes down, you just fucking know it's going to make the headline of every newspaper, be talked about on all the 6 o'clock news, be raved about by bloggers... and then we get to the fun stuff... tied up in all the red tape from the official Air Force investigation and the inevitable Congressional hearings that will surely follow!
But that debate is happening in the back of your mind, and in the front you're still turning dials and pushing buttons and trying to nurse this wounded pig back to the ground with some shred of grace. And you understand that as long as you're in that cockpit and the plane is responding to your inputs at least to some degree, you have to imagine you still have a shot of pulling your ass out of the fire. Because like I said, the last thing you want to be remembered as is the first guy to crash a B-2. But at some point -- at some point -- your mind makes the connection. Something clicks. And as your hand reaches down for that ejection seat handle, you realize that this is fucking it. There's no going back one you yank that handle... you can't get 100 feet out of the plane and suddenly go back because you suddenly realized the problem was someone forgot to turn the "crash" switch to "off". And as you're really giving that handle a good fucking pull, that voice in the back of your mind steps forward and reminds you that it's better to be remembered as the first guy to crash a B-2, than it is to be remembered as the first guy to die in a B-2.
But consider the finality regarding the pilot's decision to eject. On this side of it, there's that chance, no matter how overwhelming the odds, that you just might walk away from this a hero for managing to get a stricken plane back on the ground. The rationalization that perhaps there's still something you can do. But once you eject, that's it. The end. Finality. So let me ask you fair reader -- average Joe Schmoe who doesn't know dick about flying or planes or stealth or aeronautical engineering -- just how many things would have to go wrong in order for you to make that distinction?

Change?

Barack Obama is running on a platform of change. Exactly what is he going to change? How is he going to change it? Whenever I hear a democrat talk about "change," I see an increase in the nanny state of being; taxpayer money going to pay for social services, like free medical insurance, free food stamps, free housing...basically making hard working people work even harder to let fat, lazy, welfare-addicted people have their way. Obama is nothing more than a rhetoric-spouting gas bag.

Another thing to ponder: A president is tasked with guarding the sovereignty of the United States, defending it against all enemies, and sending America's sons and daughters into harm's way. EVERY president should be required to have had military experience!

Time for a laugh

I saw a billboard that read: "Need help? Call Jesus. 1-800-555-3787" So out of curiosity I did. Twenty minutes later a Mexican showed up with a lawnmower.

So this guy goes into a whorehouse. Once in the room with the prostitute, he puts $50 on the table and drops his pants. The hooker almost faints, the guy has a 18 inch cock. She says," Hold on pal, I'll lick it, I'll suck it, but you're not sticking that in me." The man pulls up his pants and picks up his $50 and says, " Screw that, I can do that myself !"

What do spinach and anal sex have in common? If you were forced to have it as a kid, you'll hate it as an adult.

Vinnie and Hank are drinking, when Vinnie leans over and starts stroking Hank's beard. Vinnie says, "Your face feels just like my wife's pussy." Hank strokes it himself and says, "You're right."

I parked in a disabled space today and a traffic cop shouted to me, "Oi whats your disability?" I said "Tourettes, you fucking cunt!"

I went for a job interview as a blacksmith yesterday, he said "Have you ever shoed a horse?" I said "No, but I've told a donkey to fuck off."

A lady says to the psychiatrist, "I think I might be a nymphomaniac." He says, "I'll see what I can do to help you. My fee is eighty dollars an hour." She says, "How much for all night?"

Women eh! Boob jobs, nose jobs, teeth bleaching, tummy tucks, liposuction, colonic irrigation, botox, pierced ears, nipples, bellys and clits, eyebrows plucked, bikini wax, armpits shaved, lips tattooed, legs waxed, diets, exercise and they wont take it up the ass cause it 'hurts'.

"Take a bunch of flowers home for your wife, sir," urged the street vendor. "I haven't got a wife," replied the young man. "Then buy a bunch for your sweetheart." "I don't have a sweetheart, either." "Well then, buy a couple of bunches to celebrate your luck."

What's the difference between Heath Ledger and Heath Ledger jokes? Heath Ledger jokes will get old.

Zebo, a half blind 5 year old African orphan has to ride 7 miles a day to school with only one leg on a bicycle with buckled wheels and no brakes. Please give just a small donation and we will send you the video it's fucking hilarious!

I was at a cash machine when an old lady came up to me and asked to check her balance. So I pushed her over.

Statistically... 9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape.

A guy gets pulled over by a cop for speeding. As the copper is writing up the ticket, the guy asks, "Can you arrest me for calling you a filthy name?" "Yes" replies the cop. He then asks, "Can you arrest me for thinking something?" "No" replies the cop. "Well then," says the man, "I think you're an asshole!"

I bumped into my ex-girlfriend in a bar. "I had sex with another woman last night," I told her. "But I was thinking of you the whole time." "You miss me that much?" she asked. "No," I said. "But it kept me from coming too fast."

I love roadside attorneys

So, the WBC was here, and I had to leave my vacation early to deal with it. I was tasked with being the on-scene command officer directly between the demonstrators and the counter-demonstrators. A few observations come to mind:

First, the fat tub of shit who was apparently a self-proclaimed expert in laws who wanted to debate with me about state law: Yes, I am aware that NC law says it is a misdemeanor to desecrate the US or NC flags. No, I am not going to charge any of the WBC wackos with this statute. Why? Because the "abuse" of the US Flag is Constitutionally protected speech. This has been proven before in flag burning cases. I'm not going to satisfy your rabble rousing, mis-guided passions in a brief display of police powers. If you've ever eaten out your wife, or received a blow job, or used a dildo (you or her), or butt-fucked your gay lover, then you have committed felonies and need to turn yourself in! What about it, Pork? Some laws are there that are unenforceable. There are others if you read through the books...

Second, if you are a counter-protestor, it would help if you didn't look and speak like you were a founding member of the concept of trailer trash. Yelling personal attacks and flipping the single digit salute does not demonstrate a high level of intelligence.

Third: I love the military, and as a student of military history, I have a great understanding of the sacrifices and heroism of the American Fighting Man. That being said, don't climb off your Harley and approach me in your "I-don't-ever-bathe-but-instead-cover-my-body-odor-with-leather" garments and make the proclamation, "I fought for their freedom in Viet Nam so that they have the right to do that!" Uhh,...err...I'm not aware of the sovereignty of the United States ever being seriously threatened by the Vietnamese (or by an Iraqi, since we have a lot of bumper stickers around proclaiming "My daddy fights for our freedom in Iraq.").

Fourth: The 50 or so people who counter protested, and the media people who arrived, did nothing but reinforce the WBC's efforts. They feed off the attention.

Fifth: This is directed to the motorists who felt it necessary to slow down and flip the bird with shouts of "fuck you." Do you feel better? Did that make you feel like a big man?

Ok, got it off my chest.

I've never trusted Oprah...

Oprah Winfrey has long touted female empowerment. Oprah is one who argues that women can do anything a man can do. Oprah has long supported women in leadership, powerful roles. Oprah says that women need to strive to attain all that they can. So...we finally have a female presidential candidate that has a chance at becoming President of the United States. We have a female candidate who is strong-willed and educated. We have a female candidate who is articulate and also is a strong proponent of women's rights. By and far, any feminist or supporter of women climbing corporate ladders would clearly be supporters of a woman with the qualities of Hilary Clinton. Hilary IS the type of woman that Oprah wants. Hilary HAS the background and capabilities that Oprah wants.

So...Oprah plays the race card and gives her support to the black guy. Hypocrite!

We have misplaced priorities

Heath Ledger this, and Heath Ledger that. Nothing but Heath Ledger on all of the news channels and the Inside Hard Special Copy Edition. Yes, I guess it is tragic that somebody who has the world by the balls dies at such an early age. Heath, Heath, Heath. Did you know that on the same day of his death, a 21 year old United States Marine died for his country, killed while engaged in combat against an armed adversary far from home? I didn't think so.

At least the death of Heath has kept Brittany Spears out of the headlines.

Snow at the beach

Holy crap, it is cold! I took the family to Myrtle Beach for a couple of days just to get away from home. I've been dealing with the upcoming visit of the Westboro Baptist Church, which has tapped out all of our resources. You wouldn't expect sub-freezing temps in Myrtle Beach, but we had flurries yesterday and it will get in the teens tonight!

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's termwas Political Correctness. The winner wrote, "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Ernie is right!

I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table...everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And other birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and within three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be... quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal. Now let's see... our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services, small apartments are housing 5 families, you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor, your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English, Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box, I have to press 'one' to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than 'Old Glory' are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties. Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

When you dress like a ghoul, ghouls will try to get in your pants.

Has everybody seen the media articles about the reasonably attractive blonde who was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight because of how she was dressed? If not, let me describe the scenario: Said female gets on plane and is approached by Southwest employee. Employee tells female that she was dressed to provacatively and needed to take a later flight. Female protests, adjusts her clothing, and is allowed to take flight.

How was she dressed? Well, nothing too trashy, but she clearly dressed in a way to draw attention to herself. You would argue otherwise? Well, our blonde was wearing a white denim mini-skirt, short enough that if she were to bend over past 45 degrees, you would probably see foliage and early morning dew. Her top consisted of a skin tight short shirt to accentuate her tits, followed by a half sweater opened at the top to let her tits out and buttoned by one button under her cleavage. To describe her clothing, it was more along the lines of what a woman would wear to go out to a club to pick up men.

Now, here is the laughable part of the whole thing. It really would not have mattered to me about her apparel, and I would probably have cast an admiring glance her way, but in her complaint, she said that she was embarrassed and the scolding she received from the employee drew everybody's attention to her! No, Bimbette. The employee did not draw attention to you. Your slut attire drew attention to you.

Hobbies, hobbies, hobbies

This here is my Japanese I-400 aircraft carrying submarine. I usually build WW2 1/48 scale aircraft, but I needed a change of pace, so I built a 1/700 scale sub. The base is Milliput sculpting putty, painted with a thick coat of dark blue and a dry brushing of light blue and white. The sub was actually the largest submarine of WW2, and was designed to carry two specially built Seiran floatplanes in a watertight hanger to a location close US targets and bomb them.

I'm still here

Yes, folks, I am still here. The lack of broadband Internet access has limited me to the frequency of my blog updates. I've noticed the continuing work of Time Warner contractors in front of the house, and when I went out to speak to one of the crewmembers, he pointed out that they were running HD cable lines through the area. Only problem is, he couldn't say when the broadband service would be available to me.

So, what does that mean? Not a heck of a lot, just the continued reduction of my opinions, rants, and observations, plus a noticeable lack of photos, since uploading them takes forever at 28k.

Time for some more Religion of Peace truths...

"It is not a lack of freedom and democracy that produces terrorists. Neither North Koreans nor Cubans are busy blowing themselves up in cafes. The common denominator among all major terrorist producing states is Islam, as politically incorrect as it may be to say. It is this narrow and unbending theocratic civilization, which often provides education only in the form of uncompromising religious indoctrination, that actually supplies most of the fuel for world terror. However, it is the caustic sense of humiliation among many Muslims over Western ascendancy that actually lights the fuse. Muslims are raised on the belief that Islam, the perfect faith, is superior to all other religions and that the only reason that Islam is not ascendant is that the West is undermining it. Many Muslims simply find it impossible to attribute their current situation to their own civilization's failures."

Well, I still haven't had time to try out my favorite games on Vista. Interestingly, I think the solitaire game on Vista is harder than the solitaire game on XP. I know, how can that be, you ask? I'm not sure, but I can usually win about 1 in every 10 games in XP, but that is definitely a rarity in Vista! Not sure why...

How about this heat? I have a creek that goes behind my property. When we moved in last October, I started working on clearing a path to the creek, since it was a nice, fast flowing creek that varied from several inches deep to about a foot deep in certain parts behind the house. I helped my little boy build a twig and stick dam, elevating the water level to about two feet. Great times! Now, with the current drought conditions here in eastern NC, that same creek has not had any water in it since April. It is bone dry, with plants and trees growing on the creek bed. It has been so dry - in fact - that we've had several serious gulley washers pass through the area in the past two weeks, and even those torrential downpours in the area have failed to put any water in the creek. To think that I was getting ready to go over to the creek by my parents' house and catch some minnows to release in my creek! Anyway, at least the mosquito population has been kept low. You can actually go outside in the evening and not need a blood transfusion when you come back inside.

I watched the season premiere of Dogfights on the History Channel last Friday. I had purchased the first season boxed set, and my little 6 year old has been running them like mad. He's the only 6 year old I know who can give you detailed specifications on the Bismark class battleships and various combat aircraft! I think it's great, because he doesn't realize that he is learning history, since it is just "fun stuff" to him.

Vista pains

So, I am still on my vacation, this being the first day that I was actually out of work. It would have been cheaper for to have gone to work. I spent over 300 bucks on a new fish tank, and then bought a new computer with 19" LCD and AIO printer. The computer is made by Acer, who was the maker of my very first computer, which really sucked (actually, I believe the OS - Windows 98 - is what made it suck). I've not heard a lot of good things about Acers, but I couldn't pass up the package deal. Plus, I only need to get about three or four years out of it to make it worthwhile. My previous home desktop was an eMachines, and I got five fantastic years out of that computer. It was still going strong when the motherboard finally gave up. So, I am also enduring the pain of learning a new operating system. Vista Home Premium is unusual, I'll tell you that. I played hell trying to get my Office 2000 to load, but I persevered, because I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $200 just for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

I'll have to figure out whether my favorite game - Empire Earth, Art of Conquest - will play on Vista. Stay tuned...

...and life continues...

I know that it has been a long time since I posted, and my posts have come less and less. The basic reason for this is because I no longer have broadband, and doing updates-including photos and such-takes way too much time with paltry ole dial-up.

Life continues at the new house. I recently discovered that the wooded area that surrounds my property on three sides is rampant with blackberry vines. Now, blackberry vines are listed as a nuisance weed in many locales, but who can deny the sweet, fruity taste of blackberries? The blackberries will go along great with the apple (2 types), pear (2 types), mango (don't ask how my mother managed to get mango to grow here!), and fig trees I have growing. Plus, I have a garden with abundant amounts of tomatoes, peppers, and yellow squash (I accidently killed my snow peas!!!).

Anyway, today is Father's Day. I look at my life and must say that things can't get much better (except for hitting the lottery). I have a nice home. I have a healthy little boy. My parents are healthy and nearby. I have a really hot wife who is the MILF of all of the local county emergency services employees but is in love with yours truly. I'm healthy. Life is great!!! Of course, I have worked hard to get to where I am.

I will try to be less of a stranger from now on, dial-up or no dial-up. Just don't expect fancy pictures.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there!

So the weather gets warm, and I open up the windows. Then the pollen starts, and it becomes the worst pollen allergy season I've ever endured, so the windows get closed, and the a/c gets turned on, and I turn off the gas log pilot light. Then the weather gets so cold, we set record lows, and the gas logs won't come back on because something is blocking the line! In addition, the shoots of zucchini squash, vine tomatoes, and snow peas all die despite my best efforts when the air around the garden drops to 24 freakin' degrees!

Anyway, work progresses on the house. I booted the 18 year old out of the house when he felt like he should be able to do whatever he wants, so we are converting his room into an office. The painting is finally complete, so now we have to move the computer desk and purchase additional furniture for the room.