I just got back to my room from the evening festivities, which included a performance by the Blue Man Group.



I have no words to describe, really. But to borrow from my Minnesota roots, "that was different".

From my seats it was hard to fully enjoy the show. I was way off center and I watched them mostly from an auxiliary video screen. Since much of the show's appeal is in the intense fluorescent colors of that liquid they drum up into incredible splashes of light, the video did not do the real thing justice. Front and center folks got a great show, no doubt.

Oh, what was it about? Well you'll just have to come to Vegas and find out for yourself.

But they had some light dancers performing for us at dinner. Now those girls were fascinating. They wore shimmering suits of light (fiberoptics)--ever changing color and intensity and danced and zipped around on rollerskates.


Utterly entrancing...

Some good news announced this evening also, is that AutoCAD University will be returning to Las Vegas and the Venetian Hotel again next year. That's good news, because I don't think there is a single venue in the country besides Vegas that can handle a group this size with grace. I heard tell that once the instructors, vendors and all the support staff are added together with the students, the total number involved is over 10,000 people! We're a small town all by ourselves!

So I'm still looking at the rest of Vegas with a stinkeye, but I'm definitely looking forward to the possibility of returning next year for Autocad University 2007. There's just simply no way to get up to speed with the latest improvements, tips, tricks and hacks quite so effectively as this.

Oh yeah, besides the evening entertainment, I got a lot more good information crammed into my already overflowing skull this afternoon.

There are yet more classes tomorrow morning.

Pity me.

Five minutes ago I stepped in from the noonday sun. Now I step back outside and it is twilight in St Mark's Plaza in Venice, Italy...

This...my friends, is the Trompe L'Oeil to trump all Trompe L'Oeil's!

I experienced a very real and intense moment of cognitive dissonance when I stepped into this space. What we have here, frozen in time, is that special moment at dusk, when the light is just so, as the day gives way to the easy ambiance of evening. Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light? You've been outdone by a healthy margin.

The thing that got me is that the lighting is absolutely correct. The colors of the sky are absolutely correct. But my sixth sense, that part that plugs into nature's rhythms, was screaming that IT IS NOT 6PM!!!




This is all part of the Venetian Hotel, and is not an outdoor space at all.

Geek is the wrong word. Nerds maybe? Obviously the jokes about pocket-protectors and duct-taped glasses are just false stereotypes. But geeks are a different breed, and it doesn't characterize this cast of thousands, and nerds doesn't really fit either. That is to say, there are certainly geeks and nerds here, but not the vast majority.

Between filling my head with new knowledge about AutoCad Civil 3D I've been thinking how to characterize this crowd, and the peculiar but comfortable feeling of being in the midst of it. I mused to Daiscat last night that it felt something like how a Zebra Tetra fish must feel like in a school of Zebra fish, like a Clownfish must feel like in a school of Clownfish. Like a fish *in* the water.

How to characterize then? Seventy-five hundred brains all working along the same general lines makes for a psychic climate very different than the one down the corridor and out in the casino. I think I've got a better handle on it now after thinking for a while.

This crowd is largely engineers, engineering technicians, drafting technicians and related fields. We are nearly all people who are capable of detailed visualization, who live to a signigficant degree inside our own brains in worlds of our own creation. A large majority Type B, almost all thinkers versus feelers, far more introverted than extroverted. In short, I am in the midst of a crowd probably composed 75% of Meyers-Briggs Types INTP and INTJ--the former much more than the latter.

Fantastic!

No nuclear pocket protector explosions so far, and there won't be. Plutonium we're not. As a lot, we tend to be viewed socially as the "duller" sorts, but I say that only from the perspective of the rest of you dull sorts, who prefer to chat obsessively about such trivia as Britney Spears' divorce and the latest score of the ballgame.

Just remember that my tribe is the one who creates your world.

In our midst (if a conversation actually does somehow start), the topics trend toward technical issues, maybe some project or business management thrown in for good measure. But it is interesting to be with people who are perfectly content to eat their dinner at a round table immersed in their own thoughts, with no need for conversation.

Now actually initiate a conversation with one of us, and we're perfectly willing to chat away. Remember, geeks we're not. But it's just not a necessity, you see?

We are that vague nebulous "they" that you all refer to when you ask "why don't 'they' invent/make/create/build/come up with a way to do blah blah blah...?" And you, my dull little one? While you're carping in the dark, you can be sure that one of my tribe is somewhere inventing a candle to light your way.

We are the molders and shapers of reality who, by the sheer power of our minds, create something out of nothing and make it to be real, and to work wonderfully, beyond anything anyone has dreamed up before.

It is for this reason that I am convinced God is of our tribe. He is the Original, of course, and we are his cherished progeny.

See you Saturday.

Update: Spotty connectivity at the meeting halls, but enough to get a few pre-composed posts through. I've got WiFi in my room now, so with what limited time I have left at the end of the day, here I am.

And yes yes, 'inblognito' doesn't mean what I'm using it to mean. But 'incommunicado' can't be massaged to include the word 'blog' like incognito can.

...formerly known as the IDPA Match, but as Pima Pistol Club isn't exactly following IDPA requirements, it was renamed the Combat Pistol Match. Loads of fun, whatever it's called.

The basic premise is a timed shooting competition in stages that are set up to more closely resemble real-life defensive shooting situations than the typical "stand at the bench and shoot at a target" type practice that one gets at the range. Everyone says a real-life situation is *nothing* like range practice. Everything you thought you knew goes right out the window when that first adrenaline rush surges to your throat.

These matches do have this "reality" feature to it. However carefully I may plan my approach to the stage, once that buzzer goes off, my IQ drops fifty points and I'm left floundering my way through. Gaah!

Remember that Peanuts series where Lucy, in her role as psychiatrist, was attempting to help Charlie Brown confront his social ineptitude by filming him in different socially awkward situations, and then playing back the film to him with commentary? Of course it was quite traumatic.

Well, Daisycat and I are looking through the photos from today, with many an "AAUGH!!", and realizing simultaneously that having video of our stages would be even more helpful in identifying where we go wrong. If we can endure the trauma that is, it could be a useful learning tool.


"Don't shoot the hostage!"
Oops. Heh. Dead hostage...


Ok, slow down lady. That's not a machine gun in your hand. Aim! Aim!


Starting good...whoops! Don't cover the spectators during reload!


Not covering the spectators now, good! Good!


Reload...


**clik**


WTF is wrong with my gun?!! Aaugh!! Operator error!


Start position...ready...GO!


First targets down...


Reload from cover...


Finish 'em off!!


Oops! Don't drop that magazine with bullets still in it! Penalty!


Yes, video and a rubber mallet. The mallet will be for beating myself over the head while I watch the video.

"Aaugh!!

No-o!

Aargh!!

D'OH!"

Now HERE is someone who can SHOOT!!
via Billy Budd

Update: Cowboy Blob has video up from today's three-gun match in Phoenix. And I forgot to mention, I also picked up part three of the hardware we need to participate in 3-gun! More on that when I return from Vegas.

...mostly.

And just in time to go on the road with me. I will try, *try* to remember to check on the backup solution to make sure it is working properly. *And*, remove the hard drive and do a complete image of it again, once I'm sure I've got everything installed and working properly. *And* write myself complete instructions and leave them in a text file in several conspicuous locations on my drives and linkstation.

Not that I need to be kicked or to kick myself anymore than what I've already been through, but in the process of putting everything together again, it appears that I may have found a couple copies of the complete install image that I had squirreled away (and promptly forgot about) the last time this happened. I haven't opened the files up to find out, because at this point it is moot. I had tried so many different backup solutions last time, that I've got useless files all over the place, that look useful at first glance, but aren't.

How many of you have given thought to just how much you may irretrievably lose if your hard drive crashed tomorrow?

What I finally have settled on for backup software is the full version of SyncBackSE. It's a decent little program that does what it is supposed to (except when, inexplicably, it doesn't), and is quite flexible in how it backs up stuff. No ridiculous proprietary compression formats. Standard Zip format or whole. Even FTP backups are an option. And even "open files" can be backed up if you're running Windows XP (that feature doesn't work with W2000 or earlier).

But there's nothing anywhere containing my e-mail and address book for the last twelve months. That's gone, gone, gone, and the only thing I can't recreate by any means. I'm sorry MistMe. You're fading back into the mists, and my computer seems to be cooperating with you...

K is in new wheels!

On Thanksgiving Day, we traditionally pause to give thanks to our Creator for the blessings he has bestowed upon us in the past year. I have plenty to be thankful for in terms of physical blessings, and also the blessings of relationship through my wife and my parents.

But there is more than that. I have always been a rather solitary cat. When I was a child I was painfully shy, and kept to myself mostly. Later on I was burned by a series of friendships gone south, and I largely retreated back to my solitary status, save for my immediate family, and acquaintances I studiously kept at arms length. Too much risk for too little reward, I figured.

But now I find myself in the midst of a group of bloggers who, though we're scattered across the country and beyond, and are separated by the bits and bytes that pass between us, are ready and willing to reach out and lend a much-needed helping hand to one of our number. I am moved by and grateful for your generosity. No one would have done this for a cybernetic construct, and it is a testament to the bonds of frienship that can and do grow across the virtual reality that we all interact in.

In Acts 20:35, the Apostle Paul reminds us of the words of our Lord Jesus, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. In this, too, I am blessed. And though it is not a tangible, physical blessing, it is a blessing that goes to the heart. It is a laying up of treasure in the heavenlies, but there is immediate payback. I trust that those of you who participated know just what I mean.

And thank you k, because you're persistent enough not to leave this feral cat to his hidey hole under the staircase, but persevere in extending your hand of friendship to someone who's made peace with his place in the desert. I have no good way of telling you what that means.

Happy Thanksgivng y'all! Now go eat turkey!

Elderly Woman Killed; 3 APD Officers Wounded In Shootout:

Three Atlanta police officers were shot and wounded and an elderly woman killed at a house in northwest Atlanta Tuesday night.

The woman, identified by relatives as 92-year old Kathryn Johnston, opened fire on the officers from the narcotics division at a house at 933 Neal Street, according to officials. Authorities say they received a tip of drug activity taking place at the home and officers were headed to the house with a search warrant.

The woman's niece, Sarah Dozier, says that she bought her aunt a gun to protect herself and that her aunt had a permit for the gun. Relatives believe Johnston was frightened by the officers and opened fire.

Her relatives say Johnston had lived in the house for about 17 years.

'They kicked her door down talking about drugs, there's no drugs in that house. And they realize now, they've got the wrong house,' Dozier said. 'I'm mad as hell.' Officials say they had the correct house and that the warrant they had was legal.

Assistant Chief Alan Dreher says the officers had a legal warrant and 'knocked and announced' before they forced open the door. He said they were justified in returning fire when they were fired upon.

Dozier said there were never any drugs at the house. She says her aunt must have panicked when the police forced their way into the home.

She says the officers 'shot her down like a dog.'

Perfectly understandable reaction if you're an elderly person in a rough neighborhood.

And perfectly outrageous that the APD would attempt to justify their actions in this case. You don't gun down 92 year old ladies and then brag that you had the legal right to do so!

Oh, but what if she had a little stash of pot in her house to help with her arthritis pains? Would that make it ok to mow her down like a gansta?

But there weren't even any drugs!

Stand up! Speak out! This madness has to stop!

Update: A little more information to make it worse: The officers allegedly serving the warrant were PLAINCLOTHES! Oh great!

And granny is supposed to know the difference between plainclothes officers and neighborhood thugs busting down her door? Ever heard of "home invasions"? Yeah, we all have, and so had granny I'm sure. That's probably why she was armed in the first place.

As the story comes out, I have no reason to believe she thought she was doing anything but a "righteous shooting". *I* certainly would have shot first, asked questions later if I were in her shoes.

I guess it's all the more reason to practice those headshots and crotch shots.

"No knock" warrants and "Dynamic entry" MUST go the way of the dodo bird, for the sake of officers and innocent civilians alike, not to mention the Constitution!

More background on the problem here

This summer the Cato Institute released a disturbing report entitled Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America. The report found that, "These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongfully targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary unites dressed not as police officers, but as solders. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of who were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

Hello? Now is one of those days when I wish I had a wider audience. But fortunately there are a whole lotta people with me in outrage over this incident.

Update 2: Just gotta love those "professionals":

via Cowboy Blob

Update 3: Bane's perspective.

UPDATE FOUR: Another granny caught up in a botched drug raid!!

I am grinding my teeth to stumps, itching, itching to pummel Bill Gates and any techno-geek I can find into a bloody pulp!

(reloading system files onto my crashed laptop...)

Bloody morons, who's idea of "user friendly" is a flippin' fresh paperclip, but can't make hardware or software that works properly and consistently to save their smarmy, arrogant asses!!

via Rodger

Vox Day's six year old son recently wrote a book, and is about to have it published.

Yes, you read that right.

No I'm not kidding: A Portrait of the Author as a Very Young Man

Astounding...

Next week, eight thousand Autodesk product users will descend upon the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Eight thousand geeks in one location.

Isn't that dangerous? I mean, what is critical mass for geekitude anyway? A runaway thermonuclear reaction could spread dangerous levels of pocket protectors and duct-taped glasses across the entire city!

**sigh** Back to that bizarro city once more. I will likely be largely incommunicado most of the week. Yes, I can pay fifteen dollars a day to sit in the lobby and blog, but I doubt that will happen more than one day or so.

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Physical Touch
with a secondary love language being
Acts of Service.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		10
Acts of Service:		7
Words of Affirmation:		7
Quality Time:		3
Receiving Gifts:		3

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

Well it's a beautiful day at the rifle range
A beautiful day for a shotgun
Would you shoot mine?
Could I shoot yours?

I've always wanted to shoot a rifle
Just like yours
I've always wanted to shoot at a rifle range
With you

So, let's make the most of this beautiful day
Since we're together we might as well stay.
Would you shoot mine?
Could I shoot yours?

Won't you shoot my shotgun?

Daisycat came home with a Mossberg 500 Bantam 20 ga. shotgun this week. Now she's my shotgun wieldin' momma!

So of course we had to go to the range this week to try out the new hardware. I haven't shot my Remington since I bought it a few months ago either.

She discovered that there aren't a whole lot of places that are set up to permit shotgunning. Apparently the rifle ranges don't much like to accommodate shotguns because they tend to tear up the target stands. But the Southeast Regional Park Range will let you shoot at the backstop at least, sans target.

Load 'em up:


Aim...


Fire!


She's not as "bantam" as she thought. It turns out we had to add the stock extension back onto the gun once we got home. But the "Bantam" model was still the right choice, as the stocks on the standard Mossberg 500's would have been too long.

Here I am, demonstrating simply atrocious form:


It's been thirty years since I last fired a shotgun on a regular basis. Apparently I've unlearned a thing or two about stance, etc. My shoulder is a bit sore as a result. I also learned today that there is a heckuva difference in recoil between Federal Wingshok rounds and the standard Federal shells--almost as dramatic as the difference between a 9mm and a .45 pistol.

Wow. Bang! versus BHOOM!!


So we can stand to put a day at the range with our shotguns into the regular range day rotation, until we feel more comfortable.

Daisycat really had a good time. I knew she would, once she got over the initial trepidation about handling a long gun. She found some of my instruction regarding stance to be hysterically funny. Apparently I have a bit of flair for the dramatic.

Now I know some of you wanted to see *her* blog this, but that prognosis isn't good. Perhaps I'll have to ghost-write something for her. Or cross-post this there too.

One more to go, and we'll be set for three-gun matches!

I was distressed to read recently that k had not been able to get any farther with her malfunctioning scooter issue than she had. As you probably are aware, it is her lack of a working scooter that was mostly responsible for her latest scary MRSA infection flare-up.

I would like to see her take this all the way through the process and make the fraudulent equipment company and her worthless HMO pay for a proper working scooter. And I cheer her efforts.

However. There is the problem of "in the mean time". How long is this process going to take, and how much more risk is she going to have to take, just to take care of the essential things in her life?

I felt like I wanted to step up and do something a little more immediate. Unfortunately mobility scooters are pretty pricey pieces of equipment. But some of us recently contributed to Bane in an effort to get him a new computer in order to keep his one-of-a-kind screeds online.

How much more would this mean?

As those of you "in the loop" know, I pondered just how to go about this without triggering our girl's modest bashfulness and a potential refusal of assistance. As it turns out I needn't have fretted. She is grateful for the offer.

Therefore, as the simplest and most straightforward way to make this happen, won't you please trek on over to her website and hit that "Make A Donation" button located on her left sidebar? This way she will be able to purchase the specific scooter that best meets her needs, rather than any of us trying to figure out which one would work best for her.

Her Walter is coming home Monday afternoon (choirs of angels sing!), and I think it would be absolutely fabulous if she had enough cash in her account to go out with him then and purchase the scooter she so badly needs.

Thank you all for your generosity, whatever amount you are able to contribute. And if you are broke, believe me, the moral support you offer her is also very much appreciated, maybe more than you know.

Now I'm off to hit that button myself!

...had to steal this:



Too funneh!

...and pulled out the carpet. What's going on?

Just remodeling.



Maybe in ten years I'll put the last piece of cupboard trim up.

Update:

?



?

Telegraph | News | Lose weight on red wine diet: "A substance found in red wine could double endurance as well as cut weight and reduce the risk of diabetes, according to a new study.

High levels of the substance - called resveratrol - could help shed weight and boost tolerance for exercise because it activates a "longevity gene", according to a study published in the journal Cell by Sirtris Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Prof Johan Auwerx at the University Louis Pasteur."
Continue...

DEMOCRATS?

How soon before you repeal the Patriot Act?

Hmm?

You have the power now. You demagogued it for YEARS.

Repeal it!

I dare you.



(Let the mealy-mouthed excuse-making commence...)

Don't nobody worry 'bout me.

I just got a lightning bolt insight. Just what was it that Adam did to cause his fall? We know what Eve did. She was tempted by the serpent and gave in to his lie.

But Adam?

"Because you listened to your wife..." Gen 3:17

Men, are you hearing me?

Oh LORD, the trouble you can avoid by remembering that! We have primary responsibility to do what is right. And if our wives have other ideas? Well there's your answer. Compromising the truth or doing the wrong thing for the sake of "peace" is still the wrong thing.

And the price?

Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return. Gen 3:17b-19

I recall reading one theory of why Adam listened. He knew she was condemned. He knew her sin would separate them if he did not participate in it with her. And he couldn't bear that thought. In his weakness, in his failure as a man, he chose her over doing the right thing. And in a moment all of paradise was lost.

Notice that it wasn't until he discarded his covering and put himself under her authority (by listening to her instead of the Word of the Lord) that the both of them realized they were naked.

There is a lesson there. Men, cover. Cover no matter the cost. Because the cost of failure will be greater!

..care of Cowboy Blob.

Perhaps it is time to once again resurrect a disclaimer I have posted in one form or another in the past.

I used to call this space "Desert Cat's Musings and Rants". In a nutshell, that's what it is and always has been. I muse. I rant. I say what I want to say in the manner I want to say it in, given how I may think and feel about the topic at the moment. What I am *not* doing is trying to project a certain "image", or pretend to be something I'm not(1). Nor is it typically my goal to present dispassionate, neutral observer analyses.

Someone long ago once made the mistake of thinking I was running something like a news aggregation site (susan the (presumed) journalism student). She chided me for not being more "balanced". Sorry. This place is not about being balanced. It is about what *I* think. What I think certainly changes over time, in response to new information, reexamined old information, etc., but I'm not putting on some pasty-faced pseudo-objectivity while maintaining a hidden agenda a la the Mainstream Media.

This means that I am probably going to offend people from time to time. For some people it is my choice of language. For others it's a sacred cow I'm slaughtering, or a differing political opinion I am espousing. Sometimes my opinion is laced with "attitude", and I may very well disrespect other people's opinions in the process. Perhaps I'll step on your toes in some new and novel way I'd never thought of before.

It is a risk anyone takes in coming here. Don't be misled. Just because I walk softly and have a soothing purr does not mean the claws are not at the ready, immediately beneath the surface. And I'm not going to be denied my full voice simply because it makes some people uncomfortable. (I'm sure the wildebeest would prefer the lion not roar so.) I'm perfectly happy to allow someone like LL the same, and I've spent too much effort encouraging Livey to let 'er rip on her own blog to be a hypocrite in the same vein on my own. And much as some of you may wish to think of me as a courtly, gentlemanly sort who would never be so ill-bred as to take a firm stand in the face of a difference of opinion, I must nevertheless disappoint you. I can be quite the curmudgeon betimes. And I am, after all, quite male.

I full well realize that politics have not been a significant source of blog material for me for the last couple of years. So maybe this feels like a (mostly) non-partisan space lately. I have a feeling that is going to change now, leading up to 2008. Not that I have any real hope in the political process, as many of you may know. Still I will permit myself the "delusion" that some of it does, in fact matter, and matter greatly. And to the degree that I believe it matters, I am and will be passionate about it.

Now on *your* blog, that's a different matter. Everyone has their own ground rules, whether explicit or implicit. You don't say certain things on Bane's blog, you don't overtly diss LL on hers (oops, heh. *ahem*). Want a free-for-all discussion? Check Vox's blog. Just don't insult Spacebunny. I'm all about finding and maintaining those boundaries. And if they're unacceptable? Well I just stop going there.

Here? Dissent is welcome within reasonable bounds. And I get to determine what those bounds are of course. I really have no patience for the following: Bush Derangement Syndrome in virtually all it's manifestations. Some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories. Pretty much anything that's been reduced to a slogan by the left, unless you are willing to patiently work through the details of why you believe it to be true yourself (no links to Noam Chomsky essays or conspiracy websites, etc.) Essay length diatribes? Your own blog, please. Trolling? The First Amendment doesn't apply to this space, so don't get pissy when I ban your ass. And I include in my definition of trolling, any effort to stir up argument followed by an unwillingness to continue the argument on a *logical* basis, failing to back up alleged facts when requested, creating diversions and changing topics as a *tactic*, ad hominem in virtually any form, etc. Vox is famous for tolerating this kind of crap in his comments. That's why they run to 250 comments per post sometimes. Then you read and find out it's some teenage atheist weasel without a lick of logical consistency, busy rubbing everyone's fur backwards. I'm not likely to be so indulgent. (Of course neither am I under any delusions that I would *ever* see such traffic here.)

Someone once said she doesn't read here anymore because I'm not "nice" to people I disagree with. I couldn't quite figure that one out. I guess if 24/7 "nice" is what a person wants in a blog-read, this place may be deceptively hazardous. I don't go out of my way to offend people. It's not my style. I would rather avoid discussing certain topics with people I otherwise like if I know I strongly disagree with them. But this isn't a "girl blog" and I'm not above responding to a snarky comment with a sharp retort or two.

Caveat emptor.


(1) Says the guy with the large cat avatar...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

What was it, twelve years before I shook the accent?

...I'm outta here for a few days.

Update: Oh, and Happy Veteran's Day.

I just had a *FANTASTIC* idea!

We're always using cardboard to tape our targets to at the range. Well, how about old campaign signs instead?!

"Janet", riddled with holes.

(Yes I know I know, it's some petty offense to nab 'em. But who cares after the election?)

Season Shot - Ammo with flavor.

"Shoots, Kills, Seasons"

Bwahahahaha!! What a country!

...with automatic and high-powered weaponry!

Those of you who, either through your rhetoric or your votes contributed to Tuesday's results, and who claim to support our troops in Iraq, might want to read this:

Thoughts on the Election Results from a Soldier in Iraq

Ok, you know who Bill Whittle is? If not, when Bill Whittle posts, people come running from miles around to see what he's written. Here:

Eject! Eject! Eject!: SEEING THE UNSEEN Part 1

...ho ho yes! YES!



Hot girl with automatic weapons! I have goosebumps!

Clicka da picka!

dead mousie to KisP

Update: Clicka da picka! Clicka da picka! It's not just a photo. There's a video behind it. Don't make me reach through the screen and grab your finger for you. Geez people. I put up these links and what, one out of TWENTY OR LESS of you actually click on them. Some days it's enough to make me want to quit blogging.

(Yes, I know whether you clicked or not.)

Sheesh...

Oh, and go read Bill Whittle too, hm? (next post up)

Fwance demands Israel stop mock raids, as fwench troops experience loose bowels and psychological trauma.

Next Israel will try mock diving raids by chickenhawks to test their relative effectiveness, as a cost-saving measure.

Defense Ministry officials would not elaborate on why French troops decided not to fire or explain why they waited eight days to announce the incident.

It took that long for the new shipment of Depends to arrive. As for the first part, well...they're Fwench!

...you will be missed.

November 5, 2006

My Dear New Life Church Family,

I am so sorry. I am sorry for the disappointment, the betrayal, and the hurt. I am sorry for the horrible example I have set for you.

I have an overwhelming, all-consuming sadness in my heart for the pain that you and I and my family have experienced over the past few days. I am so sorry for the circumstances that have caused shame and embarrassment to all of you.

I asked that this note be read to you this morning so I could clarify my heart’s condition to you. The last four days have been so difficult for me, my family and all of you, and I have further confused the situation with some of the things I’ve said during interviews with reporters who would catch me coming or going from my home. But I alone am responsible for the confusion caused by my inconsistent statements. The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem.

I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.

Through the years, I’ve sought assistance in a variety of ways, with none of them proving to be effective in me. Then, because of pride, I began deceiving those I love the most because I didn’t want to hurt or disappoint them.

The public person I was wasn’t a lie; it was just incomplete. When I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness increased and finally dominated me. As a result, I did things that were contrary to everything I believe.

The accusations that have been leveled against me are not all true, but enough of them are true that I have been appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry. Our church’s overseers have required me to submit to the oversight of Dr. James Dobson, Pastor Jack Hayford, and Pastor Tommy Barnett. Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage, and my family.

I created this entire situation. The things that I did opened the door for additional allegations. But I am responsible; I alone need to be disciplined and corrected. An example must be set.

It is important that you know how much I love and appreciate my wife, Gayle. What I did should never reflect in a negative way on her relationship with me. She has been and continues to be incredible. The problem was not with her, my children, or any of you. It was created 100% by me.

I have been permanently removed from the office of Senior Pastor of New Life Church. Until a new senior pastor is chosen, our Associate Senior Pastor, Ross Parsley, will assume all of the responsibilities of the office. On the day he accepted this new role, he and his wife, Aimee, had a new baby boy. A new life in the midst of this circumstance—I consider that confluence of events to be prophetic. Please commit to join with Pastor Ross and the others in church leadership to make their service to you easy and without burden. They are fine leaders. You are blessed.

I appreciate your loving and forgiving nature, and I humbly ask you to do a few things:

1. Please stay faithful to God through service and giving.

2. Please forgive me. I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I caused this and I have no excuse. I am a sinner. I have fallen. I desperately need to be forgiven and healed.

3. Please forgive my accuser. He is revealing the deception and sensuality that was in my life. Those sins, and others, need to be dealt with harshly. So, forgive him and, actually, thank God for him. I am trusting that his actions will make me, my wife and family, and ultimately all of you, stronger. He didn’t violate you; I did.

4. Please stay faithful to each other. Perform your functions well. Encourage each other and rejoice in God’s faithfulness. Our church body is a beautiful body, and like every family, our strength is tested and proven in the midst of adversity. Because of the negative publicity I’ve created with my foolishness, we can now demonstrate to the world how our sick and wounded can be healed, and how even disappointed and betrayed church bodies can prosper and rejoice.

Gayle and I need to be gone for a while. We will never return to a leadership role at New Life Church. In our hearts, we will always be members of this body. We love you as our family. I know this situation will put you to the test. I’m sorry I’ve created the test, but please rise to this challenge and demonstrate the incredible grace that is available to all of us.

Ted Haggard

And Jesus wept.

He said he would purify his Bride, make her spotless, before that day. And he is faithful to his word.

There may be more reasons however. We will not rule this world in Jesus name, until He comes to claim His Kingdom. Any efforts on our part prior to that day are as doomed to failure as Abraham's futile efforts to fulfill God's promises for him. Ted Haggard was amongst those who seem to believe otherwise.

"I will not give my Glory to another", and "'vengeance is mine' says the Lord, 'I will repay'". His is the kingdom and the honor and the power and the glory. The Pharisees of Jesus' day thought they were paving the way for the Messiah too. But they missed the boat as sure as the dominionists will.

Study: Long-Term Heart Health Issues With Low-Carb Diets Unfounded

Finally a long-term study that proves the safety of the low-carb lifestyle!

In fact this study also showed that a low-fat diet that is high in refined carbohydrates is actually significantly more dangerous for heart health than is a low-carb diet.

And a low-carb diet that gets its fats and proteins from primarily vegetable sources indicates a 30% lower risk of heart disease!

So! More ammunition against the Health Nazis who are trying to make us "healthy" by banning fat.

"Get that rice cake out of your face, you fat slob hippy! And ditch that sugary "energy drink" too! Have this nice healthy steak and broccoli platter instead."

"Scrambled eggs, bacon and hold the toast for me, please. No more danish and diet coke breakfasts for you, you miserable sickly wretch!"

Veggies sauteed in a generous portion of olive oil. Mm! Lentil soup. Yum! Chili with beans. Oh yes! A nice thick bean stew with pork hocks laden with fat. Oh health food HEAVEN!!

I say we outlaw sugar and high fructose corn syrup, make wheat, rice and corn contraband for any purpose except fattening up those tasty cows and pigs. We know who the real culprits are now! We've been lied to for a generation.

"Low fat low fat low fat low fat" and we got fatter anyway! Any surprise now?

Here's a new slogan for a new generation:
Eat Fat, Stay Slim!

...I'm going to make a bold prediction today.

Those of you who voted Democrat in hopes of seeing a quick end to the US involvement in Iraq are going to be severely disappointed. I predict that we may see some adjustments and rearrangements, but no end to the occupation in the next two years. Your people will make a big show and much public bloviation about the supposed "crimes" of the Bush administration in prosecuting this war. And they will use the attacks on our homeland that will now surely come to great effect in 2008 against the Republican party candidates.

But after two or three years of your candidate being in the office of the president, you are going to be bitterly bitterly disappointed that, not only have we not withdrawn from Iraq, but that our military involvement in the regime has doubled or even tripled into a wider conflagration that has started under the dubious watch of the Democrats.

Of course by that time you will have been drawn into the lie and will be masking your disappointment with a vigorous defense of the policies of your party's presidente, blaming her predecessor for the mess she seems incapable of extracting us from. However the truth will be that the leaders of your party have always seen what is going on there, and has always supported the need to intervene vigorously. You will feel cheap and used, and you will be right.

And I will point and laugh sardonically, but take no real pleasure in this evil fate. Because the fallout of lost liberty will be upon us all.

Several rounds of Unreal Tournament 2004 on Instant Action Deathmatch--CBP2-Achilles, and a couple glasses of wine later, and I'm feeling a little better.

I'm still going to be angry at libertarians this week (not you specifically LL). Next week I'll be angry at the Republicans. I hear tell that Rush has a nice fat head start on me. Rush Unleashed--to be all the conservative libertarian he really is, so I hear.

I think there's a definition of Bane's Liberaltardian that I can live with. I call them the Libertarians who can't be counted on to be *pragmatic* when it matters. *I'm* a (small l) libertarian! But I'll be damned if this is the result I wanted, and I sure as hell didn't vote this way.

Cowboy Blob has a good one here. Sorry this time you'll have to follow the link.

Update: Here's a snippet from Rush, from today's transcript:

The way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, "Well, why have you been doing it?" Because the stakes are high. Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country's than the Democrat Party and liberalism does.

I believe my side is worthy of victory, and I believe it's much easier to reform things that are going wrong on my side from a position of strength. Now I'm liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don't deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don't deserve it. I did not want to sit here and participate, willingly, in the victory of the libs, in the victory of the Democrat Party by sabotaging my own.

PRECISAMENTE!

Update II: Not *much* better, mind you. I'm watching this a few times over to soothe me. (Another one, new to me, here. Beauty. A terrible, terrible beauty.)

Yeah yeah, if you're on the winning side, you can just *deal* for a while. I *will* vent until I'm done. I'm not blaming *you* for this, after all. Not really. Sheeple led by the MSM, members of the drive-through, microwave, video game culture, how could you be expected to hang tough for the duration and see the greater stakes involved? No, I'm sharpening my sword for the responsible parties on my side. I have a feeling this next couple of years will make Stalin's purges look tame by comparison. There had best be no big spending statist RINO's in leadership positions by 2008. A clear distinction between the parties is mandatory, and a return to the principles of 1994 (as a start) is a winning hand.

And if not? Then long live the Lizard Queen! May she carpet her palace with the corpses of the RINOs and appeasers.

"It takes a woman to clean house."

CNN.com - Transcripts

Mm hm.

Are you happy? Are you HAP--PY?!

Libertarians, did you get what you wanted? Are you well-pleased with yourselves? Are you patting yourself on the back and preening, now that Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker of the House? Are you jumping for joy that now the Democ-rats in Congress will have free-rein to undercut the troops in Iraq and their mission?

Are you all giggly at the thought of increased capital gains taxes, a return of the marriage penalty and the death tax, and higher rates across the board? Increased social spending? More transfer payments of your hard-earned dollars?

Are you dancing for joy at the imminent ressurection of the assault-gun ban? How about a national handgun ban next? Are you giddy at the thought that our precious right to self defense, won state by state over the last several years is about to be assaulted by socialist utopians?

Fools!

It would appear that I've pissed off the Loopy Libertarian.

Drawing upon another portion of the article linked in this post, I made a snarky counterpoint, the essence of which was, Republicans have not earned our vote over the last few years, but we have not earned ourselves the Democrats as replacements. "Out of the fry-pan, into the Lake of Fire".

Said comment has been deleted, together with any others that may have been posted after (I don't know--I don't check back more than a couple times a day.) Whatever. No real skin off my back. It's her blog, and she can carry on how she wishes. "I am a loopy libertarian who pisses off easily, loves hard, and tries to keep the voices in my head from taking over." Well I see that first part today, for certain. I am dithering between being mildly peeved at the hissy-fit or just indulgent of this particular quirk. The peeved is meaningless, so in all likelihood I'll settle on the indulgent.

But my point stands. Those currently directing policy are not conservative by any standard. They have abandoned the libertarian principals of limited government and fiscal restraint. They don't deserve our (conservatives and libertarians) vote, by any measure.

But do *we* deserve what we get if we stay home in droves? Well yes, *if* we stay home, we will deserve what we get, which will be a House and Senate dominated by far leftist and socialist ideologues who will set straight to work undoing much of the progress we've seen in recent years and starting to work on their own radical agenda. But we don't deserve that.

So as I see it, there's no point in jumping out of the frypan into the Lake of Fire just to spite that nasty ol' frypan.

If you haven't yet, go vote! Polls are still open in most places as I post this.

UPDATE: You've got your lake of fire now. Happy?

Update 2: I'm *mostly* on the same page with you babe. So...whatever. Difference of opinion on tactics.

Well.

I am impressed.

I found a piece of software that virtually writes articles automatically, based on a set of keywords that you feed it. I ought not name it here until and unless I sign up as an affiliate, because otherwise you'all might go search on the name and someone else gets the commisssion.

Nevertheless, because I love my readers so, I'll give away the store. It's called Instant Article Wizard.

Here is an example of what I was able to create with ten minutes working with the program and another ten minutes of massaging it just a bit for readability. Yes, it's a bit rough in places, but if I were serious about writing an article about migraines, I would simply insert some more focused keywords into the program to spit out some more focused, topical paragraphs. That, plus some old-fashioned editing, will make anyone appear to be an instant "expert" in any field he wants to be!

When the word processor came out, I bemoaned the fact that I had gone to college (the first time) without benefit of that fantastic tool. Now with the availability of the internet and tools like this, term papers will literally write themselves.

Do students even write term papers anymore?

Migraine is a common but often misunderstood condition and, in fact, one in four households has one member of the family who is a person with migraine. Migraine is a type of headache marked by severe head pain lasting several hours or more. But a migraine is far more than just a bad headache. Migraine is an ongoing condition. Migraine is the most common neurological condition in the developed world. Migraine is the most common form of acute-recurrent headache in children. The prevalence of migraine is 2-3 times higher in women. Migraine is not a psychological problem. Migraine is often misdiagnosed as sinus headache or tension-type headache.

Twenty-five percent of women and 8% of men suffer from migraine headaches. I suffer from migraine too. In fact, 4-5 percent of children suffer from migraine with many experiencing their first before the age of seven. During childhood, boys and girls suffer from migraine at about the same rate. From what I have learned, migraineurs very often suffer with depression. More than 28 million Americans --"three times more women than men" -- suffer from migraine headaches, a type of headache that's often severe. Every eight adults in Sweden suffer from migraine. An estimated ten million Germans suffer from migraine headaches.

Could my headache be a migraine? In assessing a patient with a headache, clinicians are faced with an important question: Is this headache a migraine? One of the most helpful tools for you and your doctors is a Headache and Migraine Diary. The pain may be accompanied by nausea or vomiting and / or aura symptoms, but no, or very mild, headache. There is evidence of a complex relationship between sexual activity and headache. A tension headache is caused by the tightening of muscles in the neck and head. In some cases, a sinus headache may actually be a migraine headache. The most common type of vascular headache is migraine. People with fibromyalgia can suffer from a combination of two headache types--tension and migraine.

Why do so many more women than men suffer from migraine headaches? While it's not yet completely known why people suffer migraine headaches, researchers believe migraines happen to people who have a predisposition to them. Sixty percent of women who suffer from migraine headaches report an increase in headache frequency during their menstrual period. Women are much more likely than men to suffer from migraine, and more than half of female migraineurs will have menstrually related attacks. Women on occasion will suffer migraine attacks at ovulation which occurs midway through the menstrual cycle. Another fact that links migraines and female hormones is that many women no longer suffer from migraines once they reach menopause.

For people who suffer from debilitating migraine headaches, advances toward alleviating their agony can't come quickly enough. If you're one of the millions who suffer from migraine, you probably know that avoiding your trigger foods can help ward off migraine pain. Some patients suffer from migraine while taking some particular foods like chocolate, cheese, fatty foods, oranges, tomatoes and onions. At the University of Missouri, research has shown that people who suffer from migraine, frequently suffer from hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) as well.

Obese people are more likely to suffer migraine headaches. Children who suffer from migraine headaches are 36 percent more likely to be overweight, according to a new study.

There are several avenues of relief for migraine sufferers. Instant relief for migraines may be accomplished with over the counter medication such as ibuprofen or migraine-strength aspirin. Highly effective, all natural remedies for headache relief and migraine relief. Biotech finds wine to be a headache relief. Because it provides pain-relief in general, MSM may be useful for some migraine relief. Plastic surgery offers hope of relief for migraine patients.

The class of drugs called triptans are providing relief for migraine sufferers. Clinical studies prove that with RELPAX® 40mg more people got relief of migraine pain with just one dose than those taking Imitrex® 100mg. ZOMIG® (zolmitriptan) is a prescription medicine specifically developed to provide fast relief of migraine pain. AstraZeneca's Zomig (zolmitriptan) nasal spray provides significant relief from migraine. A recent clinical study showed that MigraSpray provides relief from migraine attacks in less than 7 minutes for 88% of those studied. Hence, breakthroughs in treatment offer hope and relief for millions of people who suffer from the physical and emotional pain of migraine.

Migraine is a common but often misunderstood condition and, in fact, one in four households has one member of the family who is a person with migraine. Migraine is a severe, episodic disorder with freedom from symptoms between attacks. Migraine is one of the most common diseases of the nervous system. A migraine is more than a headache. Migraine is much more common in women. Finally, the appearance of migraine is strongly age dependent.

And I'll bet you even learned a thing or two.

Judge rules out evidence, dismisses pot-case charges | www.azstarnet.com

Last November, Tucson police announced the breakup of one of the most sophisticated marijuana-growing operations they said they'd ever seen.
They said they found more than 700 plants and seedlings in a home in the 100 block of East Blacklidge Drive and estimated the value of the plants at about $1.4 million.
On Oct. 25, however, the case against the alleged grower, Swale Meaudine, was dismissed.

Read the rest.

Do it right boys, or don't do it at all. The rules you work under are there for a very good reason. Don't think you can disregard them for some "higher cause", or because you believe a majority of the public would support your actions. They're going to get tossed in court, as in this case.

Better yet is for the politicians to revamp our ridiculous marijuana prohibition laws. Colorado is on the right track, but Washington isn't paying attention to the people.

Bane says he's changed his mind.

Well I'm not sure of that. Actually I always think he had it made up for the R column. But he has a point:

"I'm voting Republican, straight across the board, except for one write in candidate for Sheriff.

My assholes are better than their assholes, and that is, quite simply, all there is to it. My assholes scare me, their assholes terrify me."

My assholes may piss me off, and I may have ranted against them repeatedly over the last couple of years, both here and elsewhere. But the bottom line is this: you can bloviate from your bunker under a mountain in Tennessee or from the (relative) safety of Switzerland about the uselessness of voting Democrat or Democrat-lite, but failing to vote at all because you're disgusted is the equivalent of endorsing the status quo and the general direction we're headed.

Oh, you can *say* it doesn't mean that, but it does. Your "voice" may never be heard in this generation if it relies upon TEOTWAWKI and the business end of a firearm to be heard. In the mean time you can be safely ignored by the powers that be.

A better way to be heard is to get involved with grassroots lobbying organizations such as the NRA/ILA or other local freedom advocacy groups, or other grassroots groups that represent your perspective. But of course the other side of that coin is actually voting for the candidates they endorse and against the ones who have proven to be hostile to your agenda.

And if you don't think involvement in such groups has a profound impact on the public debate, then you're suffering a case of cranio-rectal inversion too severe for me to assist you with.

Go vote, damnit!

Sorry Cowboy Blob. I don't know where you get these, but you gather some of the funniest.

People, if you're not reading Cowboy Blob ya oughta be. I know though, if I just pointed you with a link, 90% wouldn't go. So I'll keep snagging the good stuff.

I rather hope that the Lord will take requests when it comes to my home in paradise. Because there is a certain moment of afternoon light that I would like to freeze-frame and just revel in for a few millenia.

I've mentioned my affinity for 3 PM before. But it is not that exact time, as the time actually changes as the seasons change. Right now it is about 2:00 PM where that certain slant of light strikes a deep chord in my soul.

And it is all too fleeting.

Yesterday I was working on the roof of my ramada in San Pedro when the moment came and passed. I noticed it, and a sense of wistful longing befell me. There is eternity in that moment, and I long to be bathed in that golden light forever.

O-K, I'm still receiving fallout from my laptop crash. I realized that I have no record now of a number of people's e-mail addresses. Last night and this morning two of you came to mind with something I wanted to e-mail.

K?

MistMe?

Anyone else I've corresponded with via e-mail recently?

Mind firing off an e-mail to me at desertcat10 (at) cox (dot) net? (spammers excluded, of course)

Thanks!

ps, I hate when this happens. I even made an effort to get regular backups set up last time this happened. For whatever reason they stopped working several months ago, and now I'm out a lot of e-mail and addresses. I've gotten smarter though. I'm keeping most of my valuable data on a Buffalo Linkstation with a USB drive backup. But not my e-mail stuff. I haven't been able to figure how to force Mozilla Thunderbird to use the Linkstation to store the data files.

I look, and LO! She is arisen!

In the night, when the moon is just so,
My soul slips to the grate and through,
Dances in the light, while the keeper sleeps.
In the morning she stares hard at the moon-prints on the wall.

The moon was just so this evening. Though I did not dance, I tarried well past dark and took a stroll through my moolit woods before I went.





The desert under a full moon is an enchanted place.



And the moonshadow followed me home.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

These metallic blue were stunning. I spent a lot of time chasing them around the greenhouse trying to get a good picture. Unfortunately they spent most of their time at the windows trying to escape, instead of posing picturesquely like the other species. Unlike some, they don't look good backlit. They need the sun on their wings to shine.

Swiped from SondraK

Rustled from Cowboy Blob

Charleston Daily Mail:

Campaigning in California...Senator John Kerry said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.

"If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

It was an egregious insult to everyone who has ever worn the uniform, and it drew an outcry.

But the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee balked at apologizing.

Kerry's staff said he botched a joke, and that President Bush was the target of the insult.

Nobody bought it. Kerry has a long record for insulting American troops. Many veterans first wrote off Kerry 35 years ago, when as a decorated Navy lieutenant and political hopeful, he told tall tales of war atrocities to a Senate committee.

Only when Democratic candidates began canceling campaign appearances with Kerry this week did he apologize -- for being misunderstood.

That's not an apology at all.

Typical John F'ing Kerry crap.

I don't buy his explanation that he botched a joke that was supposed to be at Bush's expense. Because the notion he expressed is a common theme amongst leftist critics of the military. In their bigoted universe, only illiterate hicks from the sticks join the military. Furthermore it fits with the Vietnam-era mindset, where staying enrolled in college--any college, any program--was a way to avoid the draft. In that world, it was only those too stupid to make it into college who ended up in Vietnam.

So, no. I'm not buying his "apology", because I believe he meant to say exactly what he said, his protestations aside.

Flippa, flippa, flop. That leopard ain't changed his spots.

Democrats: You guys going to run this head case again in 2008?

Heh.

Update: He said something very similar in 1972

I'll try more later from home. Apparently it's been another Blogger issue.