Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law.
She's a beautiful baby girl.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Patriot (2000)
This film clip got me thinking.
Link
When I first saw this film back in 2000, I did not think about it much. It was a fun, if formulaic, watch. Good guys win, bad guys lose. The other day, I was wandering through a series of blogs and saw this clip on one of them. I watched it only because I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it.
I have some different thoughts today:
- The hanging of children in the beginning of the clip was not only to punish the 'wrongdoers', but to scare the rest of the people into line. This is what our government does to us today. Consider the TSA, IRS, DHS, BATFE, and your local police for examples.
- The pastor tried to avoid the 'announcement' by declaring something that all in that town already knew. The town already knew that the church was a house of God, in fact, they had probably built it themselves. The pastor was avoiding the idea that sometimes you must fight evil on the temporal planes as well as the spiritual ones. Sometimes, evil requires a well aimed bullet. Consider the 2nd Amendment and it's purpose.
- A woman (and a teenager to boot) shames the men into going off and fighting, but she does not pick up a rifle and go too. This actually annoyed me. This was Hollywood feminism at its worse. Men cannot do anything without a woman telling them how to do it right. I suspect that this never happened back then.
- The father and his son standing up to fight always give me goose-pimples.
- The young man played by Heath Ledger asks Ann's father if he can write to Ann. The father acts like a fool and is shown up by his own daughter. It might have been an amusing scene, but it makes another man look like a fool and right after the church scene in which Ann makes all the men look like cowards.
- Finally, the pastor gets his gun and goes with the men to fight. This scene is one that every pastor, priest, and rabbi need to watch and re-watch until they understand that a shepherd fights the wolves too. The leaders of the church were often the leaders on the battlefield too. They fought in the temporal realms as well as the spiritual realms. We need this today.
Link
When I first saw this film back in 2000, I did not think about it much. It was a fun, if formulaic, watch. Good guys win, bad guys lose. The other day, I was wandering through a series of blogs and saw this clip on one of them. I watched it only because I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it.
I have some different thoughts today:
- The hanging of children in the beginning of the clip was not only to punish the 'wrongdoers', but to scare the rest of the people into line. This is what our government does to us today. Consider the TSA, IRS, DHS, BATFE, and your local police for examples.
- The pastor tried to avoid the 'announcement' by declaring something that all in that town already knew. The town already knew that the church was a house of God, in fact, they had probably built it themselves. The pastor was avoiding the idea that sometimes you must fight evil on the temporal planes as well as the spiritual ones. Sometimes, evil requires a well aimed bullet. Consider the 2nd Amendment and it's purpose.
- A woman (and a teenager to boot) shames the men into going off and fighting, but she does not pick up a rifle and go too. This actually annoyed me. This was Hollywood feminism at its worse. Men cannot do anything without a woman telling them how to do it right. I suspect that this never happened back then.
- The father and his son standing up to fight always give me goose-pimples.
- The young man played by Heath Ledger asks Ann's father if he can write to Ann. The father acts like a fool and is shown up by his own daughter. It might have been an amusing scene, but it makes another man look like a fool and right after the church scene in which Ann makes all the men look like cowards.
- Finally, the pastor gets his gun and goes with the men to fight. This scene is one that every pastor, priest, and rabbi need to watch and re-watch until they understand that a shepherd fights the wolves too. The leaders of the church were often the leaders on the battlefield too. They fought in the temporal realms as well as the spiritual realms. We need this today.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tax Refund
We just got our tax refund back:
Went from owing $1500 to this.
Thank you Pete for your help.
Are you a taxpayer?
Went from owing $1500 to this.
Thank you Pete for your help.
Are you a taxpayer?
Friday, May 4, 2012
20 Things a Mother Should Tell Her Son
Apparently, this is going around Facebook and the women are loving it:
My take on what is written here (just off the top of my head):
1. Lie. Women are the sexual gatekeepers.
2. This advice should go for women too.
3. This advice should go for women too. Also, make sure your tampons, pads, etc. make it into the proper waste can.
4. This advice should go for women too, in TRIPLICATE.
5. This advice should go for women too, especially in today's feminazi, grrrrl power world.
6. Women, be spiritual followers. We cannot be leaders without followers.
7.
This advice should go for women too. This also means do not swing at
your husband or boyfriend either. The moment you do, you cease to be a woman and become a target. They might decide to return the favor
and you WILL deserve it.
8. This advice should go for women too. Of course, this should be tempered by
wisdom and a heavy dose of Truth.
9. Lie. Women do not want this. Chivalry or equality, pick ONE.
10. This
advice should go for women too. Don't dress like a slut, get piercings,
tattoos or other "modifications" and try to act like a lady even though
the vast majority of you are not and never will be a lady.
11. Lie. Women do not want this. They want a strong, alpha jerk. You decide to be 'tender', you will fall into the creep category in no time at all.
12. Complete and utter BULLSHIT.
13. This advice should go for women too. Manners never go out of style. Of course, this means that you must be worthy of this treatment.
14.
Agreed. Please do not dress yourself like a slut with your tits falling
out and your ass hanging out. We also DO NOT WANT TO KNOW IF YOU WAX OR
NOT.
15. This advice should go for women too. But it will never happen, women travel in packs and act like magpies. They all desire the same things, think the same things, say the same things, and act the same way.
16. Giving him sex for no reason is always a good
idea. Do this frequently.
17. Men should be a seekers of Truth and not be blindly patriotic.
18.
Agreed. We also do not wish to hear about your medical problems or
sexual escapades on the bus or in a restaurant or anywhere else for that matter when you are having your
girl's day out.
19. Irrelevant. The chances are high that this is absolutely correct. The ex-wife indeed becomes the gatekeeper. MGTOW.
20. I am sure your phone works just fine. Learn to use it.
FINALLY:
----->
Women
have no clue what they want and that includes your mother.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Book Review
Book Review: Of Thee I Zing, by Laura Ingraham (Hardcover on Amazon)
I had never read Laura Ingraham before and had never listened to her radio show either. As such, I came into this book with no opinion one way or another about this book or the author. I did not take long for me to gain opinions for both as well as the topics she focuses on.
Book:
This book is a very fast read. The average reader should clear through this in less then two hours (305 pages). The print is large and the topics are short and sweet. Most of the topics she zeros in on are less then three pages and often less then one.
Topics:
Ingraham hits everything with a very sharp eye and an even sharper tongue. Aging hippies, muffin tops, feel good Churchianity, schools, lack of manners - all are targets. It was a fun read initially, but then I grew restless as I continued through the middle part of the book. I already know there is something wrong in our society, but where were the solutions or even the causes of our societal decline? This book turned into one big, long rant about the symptoms of our decline with no solutions in sight. As I slogged through the last 100 pages or so, I got to the point of just trying to finish the darn thing without jumping out of a window. This went from a fun read to 'raising awareness,' a singularly useless thing to do.
Author:
Laura Ingraham has a very sharp tongue. She can cut a topic to the bone in a single sentence. This is probably why she is a single mother and has been engaged twice (not married either time.) No man will tolerate this no matter how attractive she is. Learning this diminished her and her efforts in my eyes. I will not be purchasing or reading any of her other books.
I had never read Laura Ingraham before and had never listened to her radio show either. As such, I came into this book with no opinion one way or another about this book or the author. I did not take long for me to gain opinions for both as well as the topics she focuses on.
Book:
This book is a very fast read. The average reader should clear through this in less then two hours (305 pages). The print is large and the topics are short and sweet. Most of the topics she zeros in on are less then three pages and often less then one.
Topics:
Ingraham hits everything with a very sharp eye and an even sharper tongue. Aging hippies, muffin tops, feel good Churchianity, schools, lack of manners - all are targets. It was a fun read initially, but then I grew restless as I continued through the middle part of the book. I already know there is something wrong in our society, but where were the solutions or even the causes of our societal decline? This book turned into one big, long rant about the symptoms of our decline with no solutions in sight. As I slogged through the last 100 pages or so, I got to the point of just trying to finish the darn thing without jumping out of a window. This went from a fun read to 'raising awareness,' a singularly useless thing to do.
Author:
Laura Ingraham has a very sharp tongue. She can cut a topic to the bone in a single sentence. This is probably why she is a single mother and has been engaged twice (not married either time.) No man will tolerate this no matter how attractive she is. Learning this diminished her and her efforts in my eyes. I will not be purchasing or reading any of her other books.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Guild Wars 2
The Guild Wars 2 Beta weekend was a blast. My wife and I enjoyed trying out the new MMO from Arena Net.
Some thoughts:
- Totally enjoyed the game. If this is merely the Beta, the real game should be amazing.
- The graphics were cartoony even on the highest level, but keep in mind that your CPU was rendering most of the graphics, My graphics card sat at idle most of the game (570GTX).
- The pay for teleport needs to go.
- The lowering your level for an area is a great idea, but they went too low. When you are an ‘acting’ level 4 going against two level 3s and get killed, it is too low. I think the level should be set where you can fight a group of three enemies to a standstill. In other words, three level 3s vs. your level 5.
- The healing skills are a bit too weak, a small buff would help them here –> faster recharge?
- The spawning and re-spawning was too fast. The spawns need to spawn at a slower rate. Several times I would be rezzing someone and two enemies would spawn right on me that we had just killed…yeah, I died. Also, have the spawns come from somewhere…i.e. the wolves spawn out of a cave and run out, etc.
- Just read that the Golem Banker guy that comes in the Deluxe Digital and the CE version of the game is temporary (5 days then gone). I would suggest that it would be better if he was a permanent item (permanent summoning stone) available through /bonus BUT only in the large cities. Letting him be used in the world once every 24 hours would be a nice bonus too.
- Give us a way to earn gems through quests.
- Have crafting contribute a small amount of XP to main character XP.
- Give us a select key please (‘C’ in GW1).
- Allow us to change worlds once for free in the first 30 days of the game, then charge for a world change. When my wife came on, my world was full. We wanted to play the game together.
- Give us an ‘aggro’ circle in the radar and mark the enemies on the radar ala GW1. I would suggest 1000 as the measurement.
Thank you ArenaNet for this great game, and GW1 too. Several of my chars celebrated the six year mark recently.
Update:
"Give us a select key please (‘C’ in GW1)."
Just learned that there was a key binding for this (Thanks, Grey Freeman).
Some thoughts:
- Totally enjoyed the game. If this is merely the Beta, the real game should be amazing.
- The graphics were cartoony even on the highest level, but keep in mind that your CPU was rendering most of the graphics, My graphics card sat at idle most of the game (570GTX).
- The pay for teleport needs to go.
- The lowering your level for an area is a great idea, but they went too low. When you are an ‘acting’ level 4 going against two level 3s and get killed, it is too low. I think the level should be set where you can fight a group of three enemies to a standstill. In other words, three level 3s vs. your level 5.
- The healing skills are a bit too weak, a small buff would help them here –> faster recharge?
- The spawning and re-spawning was too fast. The spawns need to spawn at a slower rate. Several times I would be rezzing someone and two enemies would spawn right on me that we had just killed…yeah, I died. Also, have the spawns come from somewhere…i.e. the wolves spawn out of a cave and run out, etc.
- Just read that the Golem Banker guy that comes in the Deluxe Digital and the CE version of the game is temporary (5 days then gone). I would suggest that it would be better if he was a permanent item (permanent summoning stone) available through /bonus BUT only in the large cities. Letting him be used in the world once every 24 hours would be a nice bonus too.
- Give us a way to earn gems through quests.
- Have crafting contribute a small amount of XP to main character XP.
- Give us a select key please (‘C’ in GW1).
- Allow us to change worlds once for free in the first 30 days of the game, then charge for a world change. When my wife came on, my world was full. We wanted to play the game together.
- Give us an ‘aggro’ circle in the radar and mark the enemies on the radar ala GW1. I would suggest 1000 as the measurement.
Thank you ArenaNet for this great game, and GW1 too. Several of my chars celebrated the six year mark recently.
Update:
"Give us a select key please (‘C’ in GW1)."
Just learned that there was a key binding for this (Thanks, Grey Freeman).
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Very Cool Musical Instruments
These are really cool musical instruments.
Sweet Home Alabama
House of the Rising Sun
Dueling Banjos
In the Hall of the Mountain King
And some other guys:
The Masters of Lightning Play Toccata & Fugue in D Minor with Zeusaphones
It is not often you see Tesla coils making music. He is using over 24kw to do this!
Totally awesome!
From the description below the first video:
These are two gigantic solid state musical Tesla Coils. A Tesla Coil is a special type of transformer invented by Nikola Tesla that is able to generating extremely large voltages using a phenomenon known as electrical resonance. Each coil in this video is capable of generating a 13 foot spark. This equates to about 500,000 volts of electricity.
The primary drive system for the coils consists of high power semiconductors arranged into an H-Bridge switching configuration. During a spark event, the coil is pulsed on for a few hundred millionths of a second. During this short time, thousands of amps circulate within the primary tank circuit and the energy is coupled into the secondary resonator through magnetism.
So what appears to be a continuous burst of sparks is actually a specific number of sparks generated per second. By modulating the number of sparks that emit from the coil each second, different tones can be produced by the coils.
These coils were constructed by Eric Goodchild and Steven Caton.
Eric Goodchild is currently an EE student at ASU Polytechnic.
His personal website is: http://www.goodchildengineering.net/
Steven Caton is currently an EE student at UCLA
His personal website is: http://stevencaton.com/
Sweet Home Alabama
House of the Rising Sun
Dueling Banjos
In the Hall of the Mountain King
And some other guys:
The Masters of Lightning Play Toccata & Fugue in D Minor with Zeusaphones
It is not often you see Tesla coils making music. He is using over 24kw to do this!
Totally awesome!
From the description below the first video:
These are two gigantic solid state musical Tesla Coils. A Tesla Coil is a special type of transformer invented by Nikola Tesla that is able to generating extremely large voltages using a phenomenon known as electrical resonance. Each coil in this video is capable of generating a 13 foot spark. This equates to about 500,000 volts of electricity.
The primary drive system for the coils consists of high power semiconductors arranged into an H-Bridge switching configuration. During a spark event, the coil is pulsed on for a few hundred millionths of a second. During this short time, thousands of amps circulate within the primary tank circuit and the energy is coupled into the secondary resonator through magnetism.
So what appears to be a continuous burst of sparks is actually a specific number of sparks generated per second. By modulating the number of sparks that emit from the coil each second, different tones can be produced by the coils.
These coils were constructed by Eric Goodchild and Steven Caton.
Eric Goodchild is currently an EE student at ASU Polytechnic.
His personal website is: http://www.goodchildengineering.net/
Steven Caton is currently an EE student at UCLA
His personal website is: http://stevencaton.com/
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Happy Easter!
Please remember the reason for this day is not bunnies, eggs, and jelly beans.
He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Happy National Athiest's Day!
"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1:22 NIV
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Third Time is the Charm?
This takes some work.
How can anyone manage to get pulled over for speeding three times in a row in ONE HOUR?!!
She gets pulled over twice for going over 100 miles an hour...and is given TICKETS! I suspect that if this was a male, he would have been in jail for the first offense. Supposedly, doing over 90 MPH is an automatic arrest and impounding of your vehicle.
By the third incident, the car was finally impounded and she was finally arrested and taken to jail.
I have driven HWY 70 in the area where she was cited, it is NOT a road for doing over 100 MPH. Even in a sports car (she was in an SUV), this road is not designed for that.
Her "reasoning" for the speeding leaves much to be desired.
“I’ve never driven 100 mph, so I didn’t know my car could even go 100 mph, but I wasn’t worried about that. I was worried about my mom,” she said.
As a final note on this incident, why did the police allow this to go to three incidents? What would have been the public response had she killed someone after the first ticket?
But she got away with it twice. I guess the third time was too much for the blue knights to overlook.
I wonder if being female had anything to do with it?
How can anyone manage to get pulled over for speeding three times in a row in ONE HOUR?!!
She gets pulled over twice for going over 100 miles an hour...and is given TICKETS! I suspect that if this was a male, he would have been in jail for the first offense. Supposedly, doing over 90 MPH is an automatic arrest and impounding of your vehicle.
By the third incident, the car was finally impounded and she was finally arrested and taken to jail.
I have driven HWY 70 in the area where she was cited, it is NOT a road for doing over 100 MPH. Even in a sports car (she was in an SUV), this road is not designed for that.
Her "reasoning" for the speeding leaves much to be desired.
“I’ve never driven 100 mph, so I didn’t know my car could even go 100 mph, but I wasn’t worried about that. I was worried about my mom,” she said.
As a final note on this incident, why did the police allow this to go to three incidents? What would have been the public response had she killed someone after the first ticket?
But she got away with it twice. I guess the third time was too much for the blue knights to overlook.
I wonder if being female had anything to do with it?
Monday, March 26, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
For my brother...
I cannot tell a lie, My wife told me to post this.
"I don't remember eating that..."
Best line EVER!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Words as Scalpels
Last night my wife and I
watched the Stargate Atlantis Episode, The Seer (S4E08). One of the things that really struck me was the dialogue that was written for
the man who played Davos (Martin Jarvis). It was beautiful. It was almost
Shakespearian in character.
As a contrast I was also
thinking about some of the lyrics from the Lady GaGa song Pokerface:
I wanna roll with him a hard pair we will be
A little gambling is fun when you’re with me, I love
it
Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun
And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t
fun, fun
Contrast this with Romeo and Juliet Act 3, Scene 5:
ROMEO:
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die
Few would deny that
Shakespeare was a true master artist with the written word. In this single
section of conversation, he presents an imagery of morning that is creative and
witty. How often have you imagined day standing on its tiptoes on the mountains
in the east? Lady GaGa’s lyrics seem crude by comparison.
To use the titles comparison,
Lady GaGa’s words are like trying to use a chainsaw for surgery. Shakespeare’s
are the scalpel; precise, clear, and imaginative.
So why am I going on about
this?
As it is a bit obvious from
the first few posts on my blog here, I have been spending a great deal of time
reading and writing legal documents. This has been an effort in specificity as
I and my wife tried to write the most airtight documents we could. Since these
are intended to protect us from intrusion from the Powers That Be, learning and
using the correct language has been a bit of an eye-opener to how sloppy we as
a society are in the use of language.
But I guess that depends on
what the definition of “is” is.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I had to laugh at this as I am of Irish and Scotish descent:
Drink lots of Sierra Nevada for me!
**From Feral's Site.
Drink lots of Sierra Nevada for me!
**From Feral's Site.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Stepping Out of the System
This is stolen from The Feral Irishman's blog.
This is EXACTLY what my wife and I are doing right now.
We are leaving their system.
The entire system in this country and around the world is based on our consent. We consent to be taxed. We consent to be arrested for ridiculous "crimes." We consent to fines and fees and penalties. We consent to be bullied by government bureaucrats who are our SERVANTS. We consent to the courts and judges "orders." Here in California we consent to not even protect ourselves.
Take a look at this and ask yourself why anyone would consent to this nonsense.
We do NOT consent.
We wish to be free.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Lisa-Marie, Fitzpatrick's Copyright
Declaring Truth.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Some personal items and names and autographs have been redacted for privacy reasons.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Some personal items and names and autographs have been redacted for privacy reasons.
Lisa-Marie, Gislon's Copyright
Declaring Truth.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Some personal items and third party names and autographs were removed for privacy reasons.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Some personal items and third party names and autographs were removed for privacy reasons.
Scott-Michael, Fitzpatrick's Copyright Notice
This post is a bit odd. I am merely showing a single document to the public at large. It is in four separate parts.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
A few things have been redacted as they are personal or are a third party's name and autograph.
Thanks.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
A few things have been redacted as they are personal or are a third party's name and autograph.
Thanks.
Monday, February 13, 2012
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