Saturday, August 28, 2004

Fun Range Day

This is the first time it's felt really hot all summer long. I've been enjoying this summer so far, becasue it's been coolish, and even when it's been hot, it's been sort of dry, which makes it quite comfortable. Today is the first day where it's been humid and hot enough to have me sweating profusely almost constantly.

I had the best range day on Thursday with Dad. We spend about four hours there, mostly at the 100 yard range, where I played with a number of guns for the first time. The M1A was fantastic, but after 160 rounds or so my shoulder can still, three days later, feel the punishment. Also shot was the Ruger #1 in .30-.30, a very nice looking, light single shot gun that also let you know that you had shot it.

After these, I put a few magazines through his AR-15, which, even though I remembered as having "a bit of recoil" compared to my 77/22, felt like shooting a dart gun. I really want an AR, though I think I would like a CAR-15 M4-gery type thing. I like the coolenss factor, to be brutally honest, but I also like the light weight.

Sadly, the 2-300 yard range was closed, so we could not do any long range plinking. I should pick up a steel target for those long ranges, provided that the range allows their use.

At the end of the day, (lunchtime) I bought the Walther P-22 from Dad. I now am the proud owner of two guns. I was nervous about telling Molly, from her past reactions to any kind of firearm, she seems to have a visceral fear reaction to any sort of gun. However, she took it very well. I promised that it would be dissassembled while it was at home- or maybe I promised that only part of the gun would remain at home- the details are vague- I promised that it would be "safe", one way or the other. As soon as I think she is ready to handle it, I will introduce her to the thing and try to take away some of the mystery/fear associated with it.

Tomorrow morning I get to go to the Company Outing, which is renting a few 12 meter America's Cup yachts to race against each other. The last two years, I had missed this, due to a couple of emergency things, but this year, my Boss called me and pretty much locked me in. I actually resent this right now, because weekend time with my family is scarce, and I hoard it and relish it extremely.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Boston.com

Is it just me, or is Boston.com the worst website ever? Terrible design, near-total lack of vital information on the front, and just plain bland. If you are going to have no data, at least have bling. If you have no bling, at least have data.

Well, you Sons of Bitches really know how I feel now!

A-Fucking-Men! Tell it like it is, Brother!

This is one of the best rants Ive ever heard. It's from a cop. I don't know what place in the US he's from, but DAMN he is on the money with this one.

I think I'm in love with Henry "Snake" Bowman. ;)

Well, you Sons of Bitches really know how I feel now!

Some choice quotes:

If you are a uniformed Police Officer of any rank and do not fully, and honorably support the pre-existing God given rights enumerated in the 2nd Amendment, you are a disgrace to your Badge and your oath of office to protect and serve.
**********
There is plenty of documentation to support the fact that "gun control" laws in the United States are and have been rooted in the dishonorable practice generally known as "Racism." If there is any doubt about this? I suggest you do some research on your own (Author Clayton E. Cramer has written a short essay that can bring you up to speed quickly, search it out.)
**********
Understand this concept: Criminals misuse firearms in violent crime, law-abiding citizens DON'T. The mere fact that one is willing to misuse a firearm against his fellows automatically brands them an evil-doer, unfit to share the company of non-violent citizens: Their intent and action (Human responsible agency) defines them as violent criminals, mere possession of firearms does not.
**********
These dishonorable individuals are a disgrace to the Badge for their craven contempt of officer and civilian safety by condoning firearm confiscation, this "thing" called "gun control."
**********
The bottom line: Telling it like it is, and Deal with it! The constant spiteful attacks, slander, demonization and ridicule of law-abiding gun owners over the years are taking their toll. The peaceful citizens of the "gun culture" are fast reaching their limit of how much abuse they are going to take. They are fed up with being compared to violent criminals, because they know they are not.
***********
By standing against the lie embodied in this unnatural anti-self defense concept of "gun control," you are making the ultimate statement to truth, justice, integrity and honor. You are assuring that the Police in America will not go down the same path as the Politzei of the Nazi era, passively participating in the oppression of those citizens disfavored by the current government. (James Madison: "Americans [having] the right and advantage of being armed- unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.")
**************


Man, this guy, this Henry Bowman (Interestingly the same name as one of the protagonists in Unintended Consequenses) doesn't take half measures. For what it's worth, I think his message should be broadcast far and wide. Somebody give this guy a medal!

Shooting tomorrow

Gonna go shooting tomorrow with Dad!

I CAN"T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!


Tuesday, August 24, 2004

A human Right

I can't believe it took me so long to link to this site- it's one of the best sites on Self Defense that I've seen. Owned and operated by The High Road's proprietor and chief shopkeeper, Oleg Volk.

I show this to anyone who is on the fence or slightly anti- self defense. If anyone is totally anti-self defense, their logic is so skewed that nothing really makes a difference, except for the possibility of having to undergo a violent crime of some sort.

Self Defense is a Basic Human Right.

Misanthrope's Dictionary

From the Misanthrope's dictionary:

The misanthrope hates not man. The misanthrope hates idiocy, stupidity, self-righteousness, authoritarianism, selfishness, greed, ignorance, dishonesty, cant, and balderdash. All of these he hates rightfully. The problem is that all of these are shared by no other member of the animal kingdom but man. And the misanthrope does not entertain the vain hope that these traits will ever stop determining man's behavior.


Good stuff, good stuff.

Monday, August 23, 2004

Beach Weekend

We went to the beach this weekend, the one we all own. We need to come up with a name for this place- the barn-to-be "camp" will be called the "farm", but the beach is entirely a different place and needs to have it's own name which would differentiate it from going to any one of a number of local lakeside beaches.

It was a nice get-together, Me, Molly, Nate & Tess, Mom, Vic, Dad, Merge, and Nana and Granddad. It was nice to be at the beach together, but I really can't wait until the farm is built- much nicer to have a 10 minute drive back to "home base" rather than an hour and a half one.

Speaking of this Farm, I'm starting to get a little worried about it. Dad has always said that it would be like the Family Camp, the Retreat in which we would all be welcome at anytime, with no ceremony. This sounds ideal, and would really be a great thing for our family. I'm starting to think that this may not actually be the case though, as Dad said to me not too long ago to just call him if we were going to spend the night there, in case they invited one of their friends over, and they didn't want to take up one of our bedrooms.

All well and good, but this changes the idea of the farm from a place that we know we can always go to and consider "ours" to one where we just have to ask permission to go there. Once we have to ask permission, it will become Dad and Merge's farm, and going there will be just like going over to their house. Enjoyable certainly, but not "homey", and certainly not relaxing. It is their place, however, and they are certainly welcome to do what they want with it. I just hope they recognize that if it does really become just an extension of their house, we won't be over all that much.

All this being said, it's still unbelievably generous that they are doing this, and it has a lot of great potential, and I hope it brings us all together more often.

In other news, this week is the week that the Portland Maine job becomes either a reality or a rejection. I've put it out of my mind entirely, but Molly's having a harder time doing that.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Backsplash from a Pit Toilet

A couple of years ago, I went camping in New Hampshire with my friend Scott. We stayed over the weekend, Thursday to Monday or Tuesday, to go climbing at Cathedral Ledge and Withehorse.

Thursday at the campsite, one of the campsites along the Kankamangus highway, passed quietly, and without incident. So did Friday night. Saturday was a different story. The radios started playing early, and the yahoos came out of the woodwork- every *good* camper's worst nightmare. You could hear, smell, and feel the drunked debauchery and excess that was going on in quite a few of the campsites around us. Sleep came hard and late that night.

The next morning came, and we got up early to go climbing again. After breakfast, the coffee did it's usual magic, and I wandered off to the Pit Toilet to offload some excessive baggage. As I approached the toilet, I noticed something was...different. It was like something died nearby. As I got closer, I realized that the smell was eminating from the outhouse structure itself, and it stank like you would not believe. No ordinary stink, this, it was fouler than Beelzebub's own toilet after a hard night with cheap beer. But I had to poop, so I reluctantly opened the door and was almost swept away by the stench. I started to suspect that someone had thrown a body into the pit a few weeks ago, and it was only now starting to decompose. Looking seven or so feet down the toilet into the pit revealed the ugliest possible miasma of human effluent. I sat, determined to do this deed as quickly as possible.

The poop, when it came very quickly after I sat down, was a good one. Solid, one piece, and torpedo shaped (I imagine, I didn't actually check). It came out rapidly, like a watermelon seed that was squeezed between two fingers. It shot out so quickly, and so determinedly, that my morbid imagination started to go over various scenarios, and the most likely one was that this thing was goign to hit that stuff down below...hard. What happens when a solid object hits the water straight down? It creates a hole, which the water fills up quickly with a *splat* noise, and ejects a good quantity of water upwards.

This turd hit the waterwith the poise and grace of an olympic diver and created a perfect hole in the vileness below. The vileness, in turn, rushed in to obey the laws of physics, and with a flat sounding *splat* that made me absolutely cringe, I knew I was to be on the recieving end of some really foul shit.

Indeed, that horror below was ejected up over seven feet into the air to splatter on my butt. I knew from the moment of launch that this would happen, yet I was frozen in disbelief until I actually felt it on my nether regions. Needless to say, there were no shower facilities at this campsite. It was the most disgusting thing to happen to me in a long, long time.


*************************

Break to a few weeks ago when I went with Molly and the kids to Story Land, in New Hampshire. We took the Kank because it was a more scenic route, and halfway through the drive across it, Nate informed us that he had to go to the bathroom. We stopped at a rest area on the Kank that had, right there by the side of the road, a pit toilet.

Now Nate is sort of fascinated with holes in the ground in general, and his absolute love is to drop things into the water. The pit toilet represented a novelty of the First Order. I went in there with him because he likes to have the company, and because I don't want him to pick up a candy bar with nuts in it or anything. So, he manoevers himself onto the toilet seat after a long investigation of the hole, looking at all the shite and yucch down at the bottom. He is very excited at the prospect of being able to drop something from his own body into the water, and is somehow craning his head around to look down the hole as he sits on the edge of the seat.

You know what happens next, I bet.

A big :PLOP!: and then backsplash reaches up, out of the toilet seat, into the air a few feet, and splatters onto his head. He had no idea. I was simply horrified.

I don't know what I'm going to do about pit toilets in the future.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Rules for being a Republican

Heh. Rules for Being a Republican. A little spiteful and sometimes sacrafices fact for wry humor, but still kinda funny in places.
  1. You must believe that being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime - unless you're a millionaire right wing radio personality; then, it's an "illness" and requires prayer for "recovery".

  2. You must believe that those born to privilege achieve success all on their own.

  3. You must believe that folks who work for their money should be taxed at a higher rate than those who inherit theirs.

  4. You must agree that racking up huge amounts of debt to future generations is worth the few thousand extra in tax breaks you give to your wealthy "investors."

  5. You must believe that the US should pull out of the UN, but that our highest national priority is enforcing UN resolutions against Iraq.

  6. You must believe that government should stay out of people's lives, except to punish anyone having private sex with the "wrong" gender.

  7. You must believe that pollution is ok, so long as it's profitable.

  8. You must support prayer in schools, as long as no one is allowed to pray to Allah or Buddha.

  9. You must believe that "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

  10. You must believe that a woman cannot be trusted with decisions about her own body, but that large multi-national corporations can be trusted to make decisions affecting all mankind with no regulation whatsoever.

  11. You must love Jesus and believe that Jesus loves you, and that He shares your hatred of the poor, homosexuals, and the Clintons.

  12. You must hate the ACLU for representing convicted felons, and believe they owed it to the country to bail out Oliver North.

  13. You must believe that the best way to increase the morale of the military is to serve turkey and empty praise to the troops overseas, while cutting their VA benefits.

  14. You must be willing to believe that group sex and drug use are degenerate sins that can only be purged by running for office as a Republican.

  15. You must see the "wisdom" in keeping condoms out of schools, because without condoms, there will be no sex among teenagers.

  16. You must agree that the best way to fight terrorism is to alienate our allies, rattle our saber to the rest of the world and then demand their cooperation and money.

  17. You must agree that government-run health care is a disaster, while insurance companies only care about giving you the best darn health care there is, damn the profit. You must also believe that providing health care to Iraqis is good policy, while providing it to Americans is a "Socialist plot."

  18. You must agree that the link between tobacco and cancer is "dubious," that claims of global warming are "junk science" and that creationism has a sound scientific basis that should be part of all school curricula.

  19. You must believe that waging war with no security or exit strategy was wrong in Vietnam but right in Iraq.

  20. You must agree that Saddam Hussein was a good guy when Reagan was sending him arms, a bad guy when he invaded Kuwait, a good guy again when Cheney did business with him at Halliburton, and then a bad guy again when Bush decided that a war in Iraq would be a very lucrative deal for his "investors."

  21. You must believe that the Bill of Rights is absolute in the case of the Second Amendment, but the rest of the document is negotiable.

  22. You must agree that the adulterous affairs of Democrats require public embarrassment and impeachment, while those of Republicans are a private matter, and excusable because, well, "boys will be boys" (or girls) You are also required to ascribe to the notion that the Clintons' business deals are major breaches of the public trust, while the fact that Dick Cheney is still being paid by Halliburton, which is now getting billions of your tax dollars, is simply not a big deal.

  23. You must agree that lying about a country in order to start a war is simply how you do business, and no one should be upset by it.

  24. You must believe that everything that Democrats do should be public knowledge, but that the public has no right to know anything that Republicans do.

  25. You must always deride a Democrat's changes of mind and philosophy as a "flip-flop," while referring to those of fellow Republicans as "growth."

  26. You must openly support "state rights," except when John Ashcroft wants to force local libraries to turn over their records or Tom DeLay wants to impose new districts because he doesn't like election results.

  27. You must agree that the outcome of an election is always more important than making sure everyone got to vote and that all votes were counted.

  28. You must agree that income tax cuts for the rich are good for the economy, while payroll tax cuts for the working class are bad. Furthermore, you must believe that making sure that the rich have a few extra dollars in their pockets is good for the economy, while raising the minimum wage is detrimental.

  29. You must believe that trade with Communist Cuba is wrong, while increasing trade with China is perfectly fine.


Thursday, August 19, 2004

A Little Story

I typed up this story for a Subaru board I'm on, to describe RKBA to those who haven't yet "taken the red pill"

Lemme tell you a story.

A long time ago, a bunch of guys got together with a really unique opportunity. They got to build their own country *from scratch*. No one had done this in a very long time, and they all came from places in which rule and government, had, for centuries, been from birthright alone.

Think about that- you get to build your own nation, make up all of your own rules, and do anything you want! No precedents anywhere that you have to follow.

So, as everyone knows, they came up with a few ground rules- Chief among these were that the government of this new country would *always* be a government of the people, and the people were served by the government. This was key.

From this one ground rule came a bunch of sub-rules- like people could say what they wanted about the government without restriction. All men are created equal, etc. People have the freedom to choose a religion they like and worship they way they want to. They covered all the shortcomings of places that they left.

Now remember- the basic rule for this new country was that government will always be a people's government. They put in safeguards to that it would be hard for government to go out of control. They instituted the three branches of Government, made up a system of checks and balances, and restricted terms in office and suchlike. The key idea here, again, was to keep the government under control.

However, even with all these checks and balances in place, there were still plenty of examples throughout history in which the government started out doing what it was supposed to, then accumulating more and more power, and then the people were pretty much out of control and at the government's mercy.

So, they instituted an additional rule, which was considered to be an integral part of the checks and balances system of their new nation- the rule was that all people shall have the right to keep and bear arms. Not to defend the country against invaders, and certainly not to have the right to hunt, but rather so that if the new government *did* somehow go out of control, the citizens would always have the right and means to regain control of the country by force.

A final "reset button" if you will. A means of, when all else (and I really mean ALL else) fails, the people can rise up and take control of the country again. This is why the second amendment exists. It is for this, and for no other reason.

*****

Now, that all being said, the country is a pretty stable place right now. We have democratically run elections every four years, the checks and balances system more or less works, and it's been running okay, with some major changes here and there (think: Income tax- only started in the 1930's) but otherwise pretty stable. Those guys did a really great job when they wrote those rules. It has produced a pretty stable, flexible, and prosperous country so far.

But...

There are changes. Lately, the Patriot Act for instance. It was a law that passed into being under somewhat shady circumstances, if you recall. So far it has restricted the freedom of the people only a little bit, not too much to be concerned with. But it will still be law when the next president rolls into town. And the next one.

In ten years, they could easily strengthen it. Especially if (when) there is another terrorist attack. And what would you do if, in 20 years, it gets strengthened again, and this time there is a curfew involved for some people? You can see where I am going with this.

The reason the RKBA people are so zealous over this issue is that it gives away the final, ultimate control that citizens have over the government. And while we don't necessarily need an assault rifle today to overthrow the government (Heck, it's almost
2PM and I haven’t needed an assault rifle *all day long*), can you guarantee that you won't need one in ten years? Twenty? How about fifty years from now? How about a hundred? Two hundred?

Take the guns away now, and they will be gone forever. We want this country to be around and stable for a long, long time. That's why they fight this stuff so hard right now. To paraphrase the gun control folks, it’s For The Children.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Foresight Pays Off

I forgot to mention this for some reason, but a few months ago, the company decided to move to a new cell phone service. When I was speaking with the CFO, we had the choice of base-level phones for people. It turns out that the camera phones were only a dollar or three more than the non-camera phones. I had a strong suspicion that, one way or another, having these camera phones would pay off.

Indeed they did. Now there exist some very compromising pictures of one of our staff members, who willingly put her camera to Good Use. The pictures are known to a very select number of people here, almost entirely in the IT department, and the person who took the camera home, studied poses in an adult magazine and did her level best, does not know that they are more or less public domain now. Even though no one will or should know about this in the company, and hopefully never will, I feel that somehow I deserve a raise for this little piece of foresight.

So tired

So freaking tired all of the sudden. The network at work has gone all to shit, as have the phone systems in the farther-flung sites. I think work is telling me in no uncertian terms that it wants me to leave and go do something more fun until things straighten themselves out again.

I killed my potential job at Cambridge Health Alliance today. Just flat turned down a $84k/year job offer coz I just didn't feel like a-doin' it. I can see project managing something if you are familiar with it, but I'd have two additional things to project manage there, both of which I have no experience with at all. Top that off with the fact that there is only on-street parking, in which you have to move your car every two freakin hours and I say No Thank You. I can't see ebing overwhelmed with a new job and having to be interrupted four times a day to fight for scarce street parking. I'll stay with my job here 'till something comes up in Maine.

On the plus side, I was able to disassemble my ruger magazine last night, clean it, and reassemble it. Hopefully it will still feed cartridges- I'll find out today, if I can duck out of work for a quick break.

Work places ought to have napping rooms available to employees.


Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Another day, another Jimmy Leg

Today, thanks to the Urban Dictionary, I've learned the definitions of the following: Jelly Donut, Rear Admiral. It is high time to use these in everyday conversation.

I've become re-aquainted with the word "blumpkin", which is one of the funnier words in the language for some reason. You can look that one up for yourself.

I took the Boy into work today so the Girl could have an allergist's appointment in relative peace. I took him to the shooting range for a bit, which made a big impression on him. We shot my Ruger 77/22 a little, but not more than 25 rounds or so, because I noticed that my magazine was sticking and not springing the cartridges up into place to be stripped off by the bolt. That reminds me, I gotta clean that tonight.

I think I'm going to try to get together with my Dad later this week to buy his P-22. I have such a good time shooting that little thing, andI think it's time to break it to Molly that I'm gonna be a handgun owner. She's handled the rifle pretty well, now it's time to take it to the next level. <- I hate this phrase so much, because it doesn't really describe anything, it's just a vague idea form. Also, people who are against the idea of self defense use it a lot to indicate why bringing a gun to a gunfight is a Bad Idea- it brings the violence to the "next level".

Monday, August 16, 2004

Brillinace. Pure Brillinace.

I have a headache. :/ Woke up with it this morning. Ouchie.

I spent yesterday with Nate, we went shopping, to the mall, like a couple of girls. Granted, we spent most of the time in the arcade playing driving games, then went to "daddy's toy store" which had guns, primarily, and then "Natie's toy store" which had toys.

I finally realized how to beat the big bull creature in Doom too, last night. It was sort of pissing me off that you had to kill it in such a wierd, lame way, but oh well.

Tomorrow Nate will be coming with me to work- I think I'll take him to the range and let him watch me shoot. If I think that it is right, I might let him sit with me and pull the trigger. I think he'd love that. My idea is that I would hold the gun on target, resting on the table top, and Nate would reach in to do it. I don't think his hands are really big enough to grip around the stock though, so I'm not sure how this would work out.

At any rate, we shall see how it works out.

New job update: Hoping that a job in Portland ME works out. Am interviewing for a Cambridge group that wants me badly, will give me a small raise, but it's project management, which I hate, it's only a 2 year position, which is risky, and there is NO FUCKING PARKING at the site- this grates on me most of all, I think.

It turns out Andy Molloy knows, hunts and/or fishes with the CEO of the Portland group, and Tykie also knows one or more of the doctors there. We shall see what we shall see.

And now, Frogboy.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

My CCW letter

In Massachusetts, you need to provide a reason to your local Chief of Police in order for him to issue a License to Carry Class A (Otherwise known as CCW). Here is the letter I had written him last January. It worked, and I have the license to carry concealed.

Dear Chief L****, (or Chief F*****, depending on when you get this)


I am writing you this letter in order to clarify my reasons for requesting a Class A license to carry firearms.

In the past, I have not felt the need to carry a weapon of any sort, with the possible exception of a short time that I lived in Miami FL. (I had some mace then.) S******* is a very quiet town, fortunately, and I am thankful for that, and I expect it to continue to be a quiet town, with a very low probability of encountering any threats to my person.

I work, however, in an environment that is changing. I am the IT manager of the MRI Centers of New England, and we have 8 sites currently, all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island. My job is forcing me, more and more, to start transferring large amounts of valuable merchandise, (laptops, computers, flat screen monitors, and medical equipment) late at night to do my work, when the centers aren’t so busy. Specifically, I have had instances when I haven’t felt safe loading things into my car from the site, or vice versa. I have had, on occasion, to stop what I was doing, and go inside until I felt that I was no longer getting unwanted attention from people. It is times like this that I have a reason to fear injury to my person or property.

We have centers in Chelsea, MA (100 Everett Ave) and Springfield MA (3500 Main St). These two places are not in the best of neighborhoods, and I don’t see my job function changing anytime soon.

I don’t intend to carry a weapon on a regular basis, around town, or on the weekends. I would carry during those times at work when I felt that the risk, and my exposure, is higher than it normally is. I also don’t intend to get rusty or unfamiliar with the weapon I would carry- Our Woburn center (where my office is) is about 200 yards from the Massachusetts Rifle Association, so I can practice daily, almost, on my lunch break. I have been shooting rifles and handguns with my father for the better part of twenty years now, on and off. I am familiar and comfortable with firearms, but I have never lost the respect I have for the damage they can cause when inattentive or careless with them.

I fully understand the magnitude of responsibility you bear when you carry a weapon. Not only do you expose yourself to civil and criminal suits should you need to use it, but your judgment must be absolutely solid, your situational awareness must be very alert, and your ability to verbally defuse a potential situation becomes that much more important.

I hope to God that I never have to use a weapon to defend myself, but afraid of that as I am, I am even more afraid of leaving my wife, 4 year old son, and 1 year old daughter without a Dad.

You probably get many requests for this, and I understand a Police Chief’s hesitation in granting such a license to a person that they don’t know. I can assure you, however, that I will do everything in my power to be one of those people that you simply never hear about until three and a half years have gone by, and it’s time to renew again.

Thanks for considering,


J. Hollister

Another 4AM Day

Tess started crying this morning at a little before 4 Am- about 3:45 or so. "Mama, Mama, Mama!!!" I went in to her, and she usually responds to my questions like "Do you want to get all cozy?" and such, but not this time. All she would say was "Mama! Mama! Mama!"

So I gave up and eventually Molly went in there to pick her up and hold her. I didn't go back to sleep myself, but lay awake in bed listening to Tess burble away happily in her mother's arms for the next 45 minutes or so.

She fell asleep, and Molly put her back in her crib, came back to bed, and we counted to about eighteen before Tess woke up again with the same MO- wouldn't respond to me, only wanted Mommy. After the third repetition of this, I just said that she would just have to cry it out. This was at about 5AM, and naturally the noise woke Nate up, who came into our bed and started poking Molly, talkng to her, and trying to shove her off the bed.

I took him out to give Molly some rest, Closed all the doors to minimize the noise, and went with Nate into his room to keep him company. Every so often I would poke my face into the screaming girl's room to tell her that all was really okay, and she should give it up and go back to sleep. I checked her every now and then to make shre she was not rashy or feverish or anything, but she was just fine. And pissed off.

At about 5:30 or so (Nate was playing in his room) I made some coffee, washed some dishes, cleaned up the kitchen a little, got the kid's breakfast ready in preperation to bring them all downstairs for a little video oriented parenting, but by 5:50, when I told Nate that it was okay to get up and get out of his room, Tess had fallen asleep, proned out over her warm water bottle.

I cant wait.... wait a sec....Tess is up again. It's 6:15. She's screaming again. Well, it's time to get up anyway.

.....

She is very happy to be downstairs with her brother and I. I think I need a lot more coffee.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Long day at work

Long day at work today. Kids were up at 4:30. What can you do? One starts crying, 1 starts talking, they want to see each other, etc etc.

Up at the Data Center at 6am, installed stuff and was able to reboot the servers before 7Am when people get to work.

OTOH, Molly might have found me a great job up in Maine. It seems almost a perfect match. I emailed them my resume and such, we'll see what happens.

My motherboard crapped out two mornings ago, so it's been difficult to continue my Doom 3 game. Still in the Delta labs, and I won't be getting to hell until I get a new motherboard. Especially if it's an intel one. :)

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Beheading Hoax

I love this beheading hoax.

News sources yesterday reported an American beheaded in Iraq. It was splashed all over the place. Next day, (this morning) it comes out that apparently it was done by some guy in California with his friends, to make a point of how the media can present something as fact with no verification.

Now, the guy is being questioned by local authorities and the FBI. This is the best part: They are seeing if the "can press any charges" against the guy.

The government is embarrassed, and now they want to bust him for something, using sensitivites of beheading victim's families as the cause, or injured party.

So Michael Moore can make statements like this with video, and is an Icon, but the average guy has to hire a few lawyers?

Of course, only a few hours after reporting this fakery, the embarrassed media as shuffled it off to page 298378427- I doubt we hear about this in the popular media again.

Bleh. I hate media.

What, no Firefox?

OK, I am extremely disappointed that this blogging software doesn't support my browser of choice, Mozilla's Firefox 0.9. Can't seem to log in with that one, although IE works just fine. Hopefully they will rectify that in the near future.

Edit: Seems to work now. Good going, Blogspot, being so quick with fix requests like this. :p

A LITTLE ABOUT ME:
My name is James, I am 38 years old, and I live in Massachusetts. I have two kids, a 4 year old boy and 1 year old girl. I will be interrupted a lot.

(after 4 hour interruption)

Back. I work full time, my wife stays home with the kids, and we own a house. Pretty white bread stuff. I get my news almost entirely from the internet, usually from Google News. Other news sources include a subaru web board, and a gun owner's board

Also, I am getting fatter, tipping the scales at almost 200 pounds lately.

Start Here

This is the start of my blog. I bet quite a few people start this and continue it maybe one, two weeks and then decide that they're bored and give it up.

This will be me, I'm sure.

I have away too much going on in my life to blog regularly, and adding to that, I don't have any dep thoughts whatsoever. In fact, whole days go by without me thinking, even at work. So whomever reads this is not going to get away with any additional cool or relavant information at all.

Anyway, self fulfilling prophecy check #1:
This won't last too long.

-James