This is hilarious!

HOW TO HUNT WISCONSIN WHITETAIL DEER WITH A MOUNTAIN HOWITZER CANNON.

Ok, here is my shot at Frank J.'s quiz:
IMAO: Who the Hell Do You Think You Bloggers Are?
The mainstream media is pretty convinced we bloggers are an unruly, vicious sort. Why, as spacemonkey pointed out, even Ted Rall is questioning whether we're informed enough to have opinions of our own. And, when a piss-poor cartoonist is questioning your qualification to have opinions on political matters, you know you're in trouble.

I think it's time for all us bloggers to prove whether we really are qualified to have opinions. That's why I made...

THE "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" BLOGGER QUIZ

1. Who the hell do you think you are?

I am Desert Cat. There is none else.

2. So, other than blogging, what's your job? Do you work at some fast food joint, dumbass?
Civil Engineer. And YOU? Make up stories or scribble cartoons for a living?

3. Do you have like any experience in journalism, idiot?
Apparently having experience in journalism is no safeguard against making stuff up out of whole cloth. I can think. I can write. That's more than some so-called journalists are capable of.

4. Do you even read newspapers?
Of course. What a silly question. But not the New York Times if I can avoid it.

5. Do you watch any other news than FOX News propaganda, you ignorant fool?
I don't "watch" the news. I read it online and in print, usually Google news, which draws from a wide range of news sources. I also subscribe to the National Review print edition.

6. I bet you're some moron talk radio listener too, huh?
If by "moron talk radio", you mean Air America, then no.

7. So, do you get a fax from the GOP each day for what to say, you @#$% Republican parrot?
A fax? No. I do regularly get nice portraits of the President and First Lady, thanking me for my efforts.

8. Why do you and your blogger friends want to silence and fire everyone who disagrees with you, fascist?
Silence and firing is not the objective. Bringing accountability to partisan media outlets shilling for Democrat candidates while pretending to be objective news organizations, is more like it.

9. Are you completely ignorant of other countries, or do you actually own a passport?
Have passport, have travelled. Probably farther than most journalists.

10. Have you even been to another country, you dumb hick?
See #9 above. Or by "another country", do you mean france? In that case, no and never.

11. If you're so keen on the war, why haven't you signed up, chickenhawk?
Last I checked they weren't interested in the over 40 crowd.

12. Do you have any idea of the horrors of war? Have you ever reached into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face?
The horrors of war do not negate the fact that sometimes war is necessary. Those who preach "peace at any cost", will eventually pay the ultimate price, or cause many others to pay that price. They are the true cowards.

13. Have you ever reached into any pile of goo?
What?

14. Once again, who the hell do you think you are?
Told you already. Desert Cat. Citizen Journalist. Free thinker. Conservative libertarian. Tell me, who are YOU to try to shut me up? Who's the real fascist here?

Home from Vegas, home from picking up the new camper.

And for my efforts, I caught myself a cold.

Dang.

What DO engineers in Vegas for a training seminar actually DO for cheap thrills and excitement?
Well, we...(click here to find out)

Caution: NSFW, children, or small furry animals...



]]]STUDY[[[

]]NAKED!![[

After we've warmed up our pocket scientific calculators and our fingers with a few HARD calculations, and the diet Cokes have us ready to go Go GO, well then we jump in bed with our calculators and our books for some HOT DIGITAL ACTION!!


(Click Here to return to Main Page)

Hi all!
If you've e-mailed me recently and I haven't responded, it's not that I'm totally internet incommunicado nor am I necessarily ignoring you. For whatever reason, my home ISP appears to be set to spit back out any e-mail sent to the Cox SMTP server that does not originate from a cox.net connection, unless the mail is being sent to a cox.net e-mail address. So I can get mail out to Daisycat (and anyone else @cox.net), but nowhere else.

Probably some anti-spam dealy. But a highly aggrivating problem for me! I'm not going to fart around with this temporary ISP I'm using and try to figure out an SMTP that works. So...I'll be home late tomorrow, gone again Saturday. Maybe I'll be back in communication by Sunday afternoon or more likely Monday.

Las Vegas is a strange place. It kind of grows on you after a while...sort of like that fungus between your toes.

I'm ready to be out of here.

Some photos and impressions--I don't want to clutter my entire page with these photos, so for those interested, there is much more when you click "The Sandbox" (at the bottom of this post).

"City of Entertainment"




ceiling mirror


Manhattan Skyline and Liberty


Multi-hued clouds over MGM Grand


Lady Moon over Excalibur


Tropicana Casino and Hotel


Tropicana Casino


Bas relief Gaia on casino ceiling


Slots and small stage beneath a stained glass arch ceiling, Tropicana Casino


Lily butterfly faerie


Lily butterfly faerie detail

Las Vegas is a place seething with jackals and demons and dead souls. It's not the most positive spiritual environment, by far. I've felt like I am under siege the entire time here, so far. A dream last night confirmed it. Disquieting flying machines, strange looking jets in the air, circling overhead. Watching a double moon rise--someone said it was a rare occurence when "both nodes of the moon" are visible. Someone half mad, ranting and raving in the house behind me. The setting of the dream was a pleasant tropical backyard, but the portents were anything but pleasant.

For the people who are here for the gambling, for the shows, for the wink and nod at licentiousness, there seems to be an emptiness, a hollowness in many of their eyes. And the spirit of those who run this city is MOST disquieting, an almost vampiric hunger for the strength and substance of those who come here.



(click THE SANDBOX to read the rest...)
(Click Here to return to Main Page)

The LLama Butchers: February 2005 Archives--:
"In the Name Of The Parent, The Offspring And The Karmic Groove"

Our Friend, in your Happy Place,
We're really comfortable with who you are.
May you realize your vision and find closure,
in our delicate eco-system, as within your own personal environment."

Click HERE for the rest:
dead mousie to Ith

All my bags are packed
I'm ready to go
I'm standing here
Outside your door
I hate to wake you up
To say goodbye.

But the dawn is breaking
It's early morn
The taxi's waiting
He's blowing his horn
Already I'm so lonesome
I could cry.

I hate this business of having to go somewhere for several days without Daisycat. You know, we fight like cats and...cats sometimes, but the bottom line is, I don't think we could live without each other.

At least I would be a most unhappy camper.

I'm in Las Vegas all next week, trying to cram as much Electrical Engineering into my skull that I can in five eight-hour days, plus homework in the evening.

Las Vegas, big whoop-ee-doo! It does nothing for me. Give me a mountain forest anytime over the artificial glitz and glamour of Sin City. I'll bear it though, and I might even blog some. The rooms don't have wireless access, but for a daily fee there's a hotspot near the pool area and in the business center of the hotel.

So if blogging is light, you know why.

But when I return, there is a classic 1966 camper waiting for me to pick up in Chino Valley. Now THERE's something to be excited about!

Frank J has been reading through the bible and blogging as he goes. And if he gets through it, and I get through reading about it without splitting my guts and dying a horrible death, well, it will be a small miracle.

Go, read. Careful your guts. :)

IMAO: Frank Reads the Bible: Genesis 14-17

HAPA

We just returned from a concert with these folks--fabulous Hawaiian music, fantastic guitar work, and probably the most drop dead gorgeous and graceful hula dancer I've had the pleasure of watching. Beautiful!

It brings me to tears, because I left a little bit of myself on Kauai when we visited there a couple of years ago. The spirit of Aloha of the island of Kauai captivated me, enfolded me in her arms, and when it came time to go, she reluctantly released me. And like a hula dancer by the sea who dances to her love as he leaves her across the waves, I felt her aloha most profoundly as the jet carried me away.

I must return. The gentle siren of Na Pali still beckons to me. Whenever I go to see Hawaiian musicians in concert, they bring Hawaii with them, and I can hear her again.

I think I could segue this into sharing some more photos from my trip to Kauai. But not tonight.

Topic Drift: EWP: On Painkillers

What can I say that you won't discover by clicking on the link?

Go! Discover!

(Come back scratching your head.)

Topic Drift: Fae Wellington's The Flattened Bread Revolution

Join me in a round of good bellowing laughter. :)

Thanks, Hollywood!

dead mousie to SondraK.com

ABC News: Genetically Modified Potato Carries Hep B Vaccine

So now, instead of putting a potato in their jeans, they're putting genes in potatoes?

A few more photos here from our May 2003 hike:




Tiny fish in a canyon pool


Yellow columbines and Daisycat


Late afternoon light on a spire of rock

Sycamore Canyon (near Pena Blanca Lake)--southern Arizona--May 2003

There's several 'Sycamore Canyons' in Arizona, sycamores being such a common tree along watercourses in the state. This particular one is right near the Mexican border.


Cool Pool

Daisycat and I hiked a portion of it a couple of years ago. We encountered a naked hippy couple along the way. At the point we decided to stop and rest before returning, I took a skinny dip myself. Those pools can be awfully inviting on a hot sunny May day. :)

Here's the pool I dipped in:




Sycamore Canyon Paradise

eBay item 4525953703 (Ends Feb-13-05 19:00:00 PST) - CLASSIC RV MOTOR HOME VINTAGE 1966 DODGE MINT

I'm watching this one closely. If it doesn't go over a certain dollar amount I have pre-determined, I will be bidding on it before the auction closes.



Tell me, does this not have "Desertcatmobile" written all over it?

(Ok, what exactly is the criteria for that?)

Got me there. It needs to be a two person camper that's also small enough to tool around town, but roomy enough not to feel cramped for a week of camping. And it needs to have a certain...class to it. No Class C bunk-over-cab, run-of-the-mill, box-on-wheels for me, please.

The current Desertcatmobile is a 22' Xplorer--a Class B Dodge camper, sort of an oversized conversion van. But at 140,000 miles it's seen its better days, and it may be time to move on.

I've also been keeping my eyes open for a nicely restored mid-70's 21' Winnebago. By restored, I mean including the removal of any avocado green shag carpeting and the repainting/replacement of anything else with any other similar garish colors. Plus a top condition engine/drivetrain of course.

But this unit easily outclasses anything made by Winnebago.

UPDATE: Rats! I am WAY depressed now...

UPDATE 2: I am SO DEPRESSED!!! AAUGH!!!!!

UPDATE 3: SNAZZY NEWS!!
The high bidder has released her! Right now I'm in the midst of arranging downpayment, financing and delivery. Oh, this is SCHWEET!

But first: Cheap memory is not worth the difference! Buy quality.

Having said that, I think I've finally cured the remaining ills in my upgraded computer. There was a bit of a voltage sag in the supply serving the DDR and AGP slots. I bumped them up a half-tenth volt each and the problem seems to be resolved. Also I decided not to trust the "automatic" or "default" settings in the BIOS when it comes to memory speed. I set the DDR speed manually to 400 MHz.

Now it is running Unreal Tournament 2004 without crashing due to general protection faults. Yaay!

Sound is working on the new motherboard!

Problem Details:
Soyo KT 880 Dragon 2 Motherboard onboard audio--no sound after all drivers are installed, updated drivers are downloaded and installed, speakers correctly plugged in and powered up, jumpers correctly in place on J30 (bottom 5 pairs of pins need jumpers, top two must not have jumpers).

Solution:
Check to see if there are stray motherboard standoffs in incorrect locations behind the motherboard. In my case there was an extra one I inadvertently left in the case from the previous motherboard that was shorting across a capacitor at the rear of the case near the PCI connectors.

I read somewhere that this is the cause of a common problem with IDE 2 not functioning correctly with this motherboard. You may have an extra motherboard standoff in the case where there is no hole for a screw. In this case it would be directly below the IDE 2 connector.

There ya go! I did not find that bit of information anywhere online in my searches, so I throw it out there, hoping someone else will find it useful.

Search Keywords: Soyo KT880 KT 880 onboard audio not working sound not working

Plugging away, working in my cube, grooving to smooth jazz, and suddenly I feel awfully good.

What does the clock say? 3:14! And it's not even a sunny day. In fact it is raining in Tucson today.

Does anyone else have a certain time of day that they just feel at their best almost always?

Update: And the other odd thing--I frequently just happen to look at clocks when it is 4:20, like just now I glanced down at the lower right corner and sure enough. For another recent example, I was outside much of the day last Saturday. When I came down off the roof where I had been working, it just happened (again) to be 4:20 when I saw the clock in the kitchen. Now that time has a particular meaning to a whole demographic, but why I should be noticing it is a mystery to me.

The Therapist: Islamic Divorce Court Awards Woman Half Of Face

Wow. Next thing you know, they'll only be stoned half to death for adultery.

The air is heavy with the spicy-sweet fragrance of damp creosote bush.

Delicious!

In other news, Desert Cat is ears-deep in computer upgrades. There's nothing that will make you gnaw your tongue in frustration like purchasing new computer components only to find that it was a *different* component causing the problems.

When a new motherboard and a new processor and new memory, and a fresh (attempted) install of Windows on a reformatted drive, causes the *same* Blue Screen Of Death, (now more consistent than ever), it's time to reach for the Pepcid AC.

So my latest iteration is to replace the power supply (again). Seems 350 watts may not be enough. Now my computer will be able to double as a small space heater.

On a more serious note...

DriversLicenseSearch.com -- National Driver's License Records Bureau

Big brother is watching you - See anyone's driver's license on the internet!
Now you can see anyone's Driver's License on the Internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it was...picture and all!

Thanks Homeland Security! Maybe we should start up a petition or something protesting this. What do you think? Go to the web site and check it out.

It's unbelievable!!! Just enter your name, city and state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked "Please Remove". This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

Under the American Driver's License Identification Information Act (ADLIIA - enacted on July 9, 2000), every state in the union is required to make available to the public a digitized copy of each and every valid driver's license, in their respective state. The National Driver's License Records Bureau has been established to create the country's only centralized database of driver's licenses, on the more than 220 million licensed drivers, in the United States.

UPDATE: Don't take it out on me! The only way to deal with this kind of humiliation is to pass it along to someone else. RROWRR!!



No...no dead mousies to ANYone... >:^(

Switching to Wordperfect or OpenOffice not an option for the Middle East, says new Secretary of State.
Excite News

"The poor thing has scratched itself raw right there", said one scientist, pointing out the location in a satellite image.
Excite News

...from Desert Cat's Paradise. These photos were taken last July in my back yard.


Goldfish


Fountain Pixie


Fountain and Pond


Red Dragon

I can't tell you how thrilled I was when these guys showed up in my new lotus pond. They were very rare visitors at the old pond and fountain, as I keep goldfish in that pond. I had waterdogs at one time in there too, but I think the goldfish eat them. It did not take the dragonflies long to find the new pond though, and there are at least a couple of waterdogs still in there over the winter. I brought one of the lotus pots indoors, hoping it would keep blooming in the warmer temperatures, but both the indoor and the outdoor pots have gone dormant. However as a bonus, I had a hatch of mayflies from the indoor pot. I noticed them flitting around the greenhouse one sunny afternoon. I am hoping that they are devouring the whiteflies that are plaguing my salvia plants, but I don't really know what mayflies eat.

I received an email from Tiger Direct today, entitled "Your Shipment Notification".

I am trying hard to control myself, lest I descend into paroxysms of orgasmic ecstacy! In this shipment are several computer components that I have been waiting a very, very, VERY long time to order.

My computer sustained a lightning surge about 2-1/2 years ago that fried a couple of components, including the power supply. I replaced what was obviously damaged, but the rest of the unit has not operated quite normally since then, and lately it has continued to degenerate (read: blue-screen-of death on a daily, if not hourly basis). Fortunately I have had the use of my laptop during this time, plus Daisycat's computer for Quicken stuff.

Finally now the blue-screen stuff has rendered it pretty much useless, so it was time to upgrade. What I have cumming..er, cOming in the mail is a Soyo KT880 Dragon 2 Motherboard, an Athlon XP3000+ processor, 1 GB of Ultra PC3200 memory, and a CPU cooling fan. I really wanted to make the jump to the 64 bit processor, but I couldn't justify the cost differential at this time. I will have to wait for Daisycat to finally tire of how slow and inadequate her computer is, before I can make that transition. I also wanted to go with Serial ATA drives--two 200 GB in a RAID array (think: music CD's galore all a click away, and organized into custom playlists). But that wet-dream will have to wait for fulfillment too.

Now if I could just fast-forward to next Wednesday...

Update:
Feb 8, 2005 6:50 A.M. TUCSON, AZ, US OUT FOR DELIVERY
3:18 A.M. TUCSON, AZ, US ARRIVAL SCAN

Ooh! Ooh! It's rumbling around Tucson somewhere on a delivery truck now!

Iraqi villagers kill 5 insurgents. 04/02/2005. ABC News Online

The insurgents raided the village of al-Mudhiryah south of Baghdad after warning its inhabitants not to vote in the election. The villagers fought back, killing five of the insurgents and wounding eight others. The insurgents' cars were then set alight.

Al-Mudhiryah's tribal sheikh says his people are sick of being threatened by Islamic extremists.

Yes! This smells like the tide turning.

Take up arms, Iraqi citizens, against these scum who are trying to steal your future. It's your job now.

dead mousie to SondraK

What is it about contractors? You throw a handful of tools and supplies in the back of your truck, and all of a sudden you have to drive 10 mph SLOWER than everyone else on the road?

Contractors are the laziest drivers on the road. I see a pickup with tools and stuff in the back, and I'm looking for a way around them just about every time. They checked in at the office, they are in no hurry to get to the job site. Sip that coffee, pick that nose, contemplate the Zen meaning of "green light". The work will be there when they EVENTUALLY get there.

Gaah!

But when I finally arrive at my destination, owly and put-out, this sight greets me as I get out of the Desert Catmobile:


Morning light on Pusch Ridge - Tucson - February 2005

Ahh yes. The day is good after all.

Frank J. gives the smackdown to liberals here:
IMAO: The Iraqi Elections Prove that Conservatives Are Right About Everything
An Editorial by Frank J.