China is on the cutting edge of space exploration!!

China's space program took a majorly huge gigantic monstrous outrageous ground breaking step forward with a 13 minute space walk.

"This mission's success is a milestone; a stride forward," Premier Wen Jiabao said at mission control.

Except that the US did it 43 years ago, longer ago than the Chinastronaut that did it this time has been alive. Must suck to be the also ran to the US at nearly every turn.

Awesome parody

For whatever reason, the kookiness of hippies has been on display in overwhelming force of late. The Earth First Kooks are pretty much the weirdest of the bunch. I heard about this video from the Glenn Beck Show (nothin' like good ol' hardcore Conservative radio at work), who called it "the funniest video ever". I think it probably is, but the other one I found while searching out this one takes the prize. Whoever you two comedic geniuses are, I salute you! We are in the presence of greatness.

Here's the original vid. Makes me wonder, though: what are the chances that the drumstick that one dude has, and perhaps the drum head itself, aren't made from trees and animals? Just sayin'...


Now, as great as that vid is, check this one out. You're gonna love this!

How cool was that?

The left is so odd

Every now and then, I plug a word or phrase into Google and see where it goes. Today, the term was "zombie". That lead me to Zombietimes.com's Hall of Shame. That's a collection of photos from the site. It appears that they have quite the collection of sought-after photos.

While looking through the photos of freaks on the left, I came across this one:

Now, one of two things is going on there. One, since this is a lefty freak, we may have the appearance of a bearded lady. The other option: he's too dumb to notice that the gummint can't be in his ovaries. This is the kind of thing that I find so hilarious about the hard left. I don't even know if they notice how flat stupid they make themselves appear, on a constant basis.

Here's another fave:

I think her sign was supposed to read "Kennedy", and she just got distracted by a shiny thing or more drugs and made a mistake. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny "what a ma-roon".
And one last one:

Apparently, she's having a little trouble with her history...but what leftist whacko doesn't?

One last bit of advice for the nut jobs on the far left fringe: if you're gonna have a protest called "breasts not bombs", put the perky ones in front, and don't let the knee shooters have signs. Those of us that like boobs would really appreciate it. The way you did it 7/25/05 was rather hideous. Then again, hot girls with perkiness have no need of political exhibitionism. Quite a conundrum, isn't it?

Busy days...and nights!

I've wanted to post more often of late-I'll be dammed if I know why, but I do-but I have not been home. Typically, that would mean I'm off having fun, bustin' primers, barbie cue-ing, watching TEOTWAWKI training films, studying the art of Ludlow-Fu, or at least being away doing something that's more fun than not fun. That hasn't been the case of late.

The software package we used at work, CAM Commerce, has proven to be an unreliable, glitch-filled beast. The thing it does worst, tracking inventory, is what it was supposed to do best. Additionally, CAM didn't appear to be able to fix it. The unfortunate conclusion was that we changed software.

If you've never changed entire systems for a retail operation, you may not know how big a deal that is. Everything you have has to be exported from one system and loaded into another. CAM being a beast meant that we found that it didn't export everything. More work. We not only have a retail storefront operation, we also have a website that has its own inventory; essentially, two different stores. Yeah, its a big deal. It kept us closed for about five days as we worked long, long hours to get open again.

I hear a couple people asking "but don't you work in manufacturing?" Yeah, but not for a week I didn't. I've got another week in the showroom this coming week as Matt E. is down in Flo'da assisting with the running of another couple classes at Camp Ares. I should be going back to QC after this week, but I will probably be transitioning back to the showroom in the near future, which I'm very interested in doing.

On top of all that, we're supplying contractors for post-hurricane operations down Gulf-way. Our division supplies the contracting division, so again, extra hours are the name of the game. I was at work on Saturday again, from about 10:30 to about 11:00 last night, getting another shipment ready to be picked up. I'm on salary, so its not like I'm pulling overtime for all this, although the company takes care of me for the extra work.

So today, I'm catching up on reading other blogs, and keeping tabs on my forum. ;) I wish it was mine; I'm just responsible for running it. That's OK, its sort of a home away from home, and I'll be seeing a bunch of those regular members at SHOT in January. I'll be in San Diego for 11 days next month, which won't be getting here fast enough. I'm dyin' for some real Messican food!

I'm lovin' it. Thuh Raiduhs...suck again!

I'm on my way to bed to get enough sleep to be able to make it all the way through work tomorrow, but I've been watching Monday Night Foo'bah this evening; Thuh Raiduhs vs Denver.

I'm not a particular fan of Denver, since they're in the same division as my beloved Chargers. However, I'm a fan of whoever is playing Thuh Raiduhs. Denver is giving out a beatdown big time. When last I checked, it's 24-0 with 8:23 left in the 3rd. This will very likely get even uglier than it already has...and I'm all for it.

I'm just glad that Alice Davis has decided to continue with Thuh Raiduh's Commitment to Excrement. Thanks, Big Al, for not being able to leave foo'bah to the professionals. It's guaranteeing that Thuh Raiduhs are gonna suck for the foreseeable future...which, of course, I'm all about!!

Sunday Mack Fest: I love the grill!

Typically, I try to make something more interesting and fresh on Sundays. Not sure why that is, exactly, but I suspect its because I get bored eating stuff out of a box or can all the time. I pretty much always grill on Sundays, but the grub differs: chicken, biff, fishies or piles of pork are in a sort of alternating kinda...uh...thing. Today, it was pork chop time again.

The past two Saturdays, I've been at Crack Barrel with Top and Paul J. after going to the range. Since Top's wife was out of town, Saturday was even more leisurely than usual. Worked out well, though, because by the time we got to The Crack, I was quite famished. The Country Boy Breakfast with pork chops has proven to be the new favorite.

Even though I had the chops yesterday, I hadda have 'em again today. I got the recipe for Argentinian Style Porky Choppage from my bro Conndcj, a prosecutor in Connecticut that is my go-to authority on well made food recipes. As with most good recipes, this one was way simple: first, some pork chops. Drizzleate them with EVOO, then minced garlic, sea salt, and red flake pepper. He recommends using thin chops, which go pretty fast on the grill. When they come off, they look like this, though:

Trust me, they're better than the pic looks...and the pic makes me hungry again.

I added to that some steamed mixed corn (sweet baby corn and classic golden corn) with asparagus and carrots. Because this is clearly way too healthy, some three cheese garlic bread went on the grill, too. This time, I didn't burn it at all, which has been a garlic bread failing for me in the past. I like to cook fast. I'm finally learning to slow down! At any rate, the garlic bread was mackin', too.



Washed this down with a couple Newcastle Brown Ales. I had a couple Harps at my boss's bar on Thursday, too. That's the most beer I've had in a week in quite a while! I dunno how it happened, but I'm pretty much on the wagon most of the time anymore. Its not that I don't drink, because I still do in very moderate quantities (that's been the rule more than the exception for the past four or so years), but good beer in this area is both rare and expensive. Just not worth the investment anymore, I guess. Newcastle sure goes nice with pork, though.

Palin: Biden, you in trouble, dude.

I caught most of Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican convention this evening. I'm not gonna get too deep into it, because there are pundits on both sides spilling millions of electrons all across the Intardweb on it. I realize she didn't write the speech, but she totally killed delivering it.

I will say this, though: I think Joe "Five Years Longer in the Senate than McCain" Biden is in trouble. Its pretty damn clear that the lady can handle herself. If you like McCain for the Straight Talk Express, you're gonna LOVE Palin. She was direct, to the point, and clear in what she wanted to say. She didn't mince words. She was great.

This is only one speech, but if that's how comfortable she'll be in a debate, she's not gonna have much of a challenge from the incredibly arrogant Joe Biden. Its going to be difficult for him to attack her without looking like as ass, just because...well...he is an ass. He's got a long record of putting his foot in his mouth, and he has been on record as saying that Obama isn't ready to be president. Nobody likes Biden other than those in his district, who for some inexplicable reason, keep reelecting him. Northeastern white boys haven't helped the dem ticket. Biden is going to have that same problem.

OK, I read a lot into one speech. But I gotta say, Palin came off as the American version of Iron Maggie. I understand why she has an approval rating as the governor of Alaska of 80%. She's the highest rated governor in the country. If you look back over the history of the country, many governors have been our been our best presidents. Senators...that's a spottier record.

I won't be the only one voting for the Republican ticket more for the VP than the President, but I can get behind a lot of what McCain's about. Hopefully, Palin will be able to temper his more left leaning ideas. I think she can.

Here's a revelation: Oakley makes great eye pro!

I'm sure that title is blowin' your mind; nobody ever figgered that Oakley might be some of the cream deelie cream of eye protection and stylish shades. Gotta admit, that even if Oakley didn't make really high end, optically pure stuff, they have a unique combination of style and panache. Oakley is the supplier of shades to Megaforce...not to mention some other high speed friends of mine.

I started my journey with the Valves, specifically the Ducati limited edition version. The photo is by a dude named Boiworx. He does nice work!

I've been runnin' these for about four years now. Mine aren't as flawless as his, but they're still in good shape. They've been from Cali to Florida, and a couple points in between. Makes me look even cooler than I am in 'em.

Since most of the dudes I shoot with are/were either cops or soldiers, the ubiquitous (I just wanted to see if I could spell that word right the first time) M Frame are the eyewear of choice. That's to be expected: they're ANSI Z.87 rated (you can bounce stuff off 'em without blowing up your eyeballs) and, as with all the Oakley stuff, optically neato. That technical term means that they're clear, without distortion, all the way to the edge of the lenses. I was kinda bummed because I had a set of the very good Revision Sawflys. They're quite good, but they're not Oakleys. They're not the M Frame's equal in coolness. It really doesn't matter if you can shoot or not; if you're rockin' M Frames with Comtacs and a custom 1911 or a Glock, everyone there assumes you know what you're doing. The proving of that statement is up to you. lol!



I've wanted a pair of Half Jackets almost as long as I've had my Valves. I debated for quite some time as to whether I wanted the Valves or the Half Jacket XLJ's. The Valves won out because they were limited editions, and we had a few different types of Half Jackets to choose from. At the time, my employer was still an Oakley dealer and we could get product from them. That was shortly after the Gummint Sales Program was started, which made being an Oakley dealer outside an Army post unprofitable. But I digress. One of my SF bros recently offered a trade to me. He gave up a used pair of Half Jacket XLJ's for some customized sewing that I facilitated. I didn't do the sewing, I asked a pro to do it. And...wah lah! Half Jacket XLJ's are mine now!

After doing some research, I've come to find out that I can get Oakley to make me prescription lenses for these, too. I've got my eyes on the black iridium finish, for both my M-Frames and new-to-me Half Jackets. Then I won't even have to shoot. I can just hang out at the range and have everybody think I work for the CIA or somethin'. lol!

I know, I'm a geardo (aka gear whore, gear queer, etc). I can't help it; this stuff is too cool. There is no substitute for quality.

Bucky shoots and scores again with the Limpics.

This would be so much better if he wasn't a damn cat. In the end, though, right is right. The cat is right.

I don't know why, but there's something very funny about Toilet Bocci.