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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)