Tuesday, September 30, 2008

TGIF



This was one of the picts tied to an Email sent to me today about a hamburger joint in Chandler, Az. Damn, I was in Phoenix just 3 weeks ago. Would have gone by, if I knew it was there. My host in Phoenix will hear about this oversight.

Here's their site: Heart Attack Grill (Sound on for the theme song.)

That was something I needed to run into today. Work hasn't been bad, but the crap going on with the bailout of the sub-prime companies has kept my blood pressure up at the limits. I now have 2 2/3 days off before my stint on graveyard shift.

Other things I ran into.

This is great: Evolution of Wedding Dance. Look like a fun loving couple. (Peruse the site, Deej has got some great stuff there)

This was inspired by the viral video: Evolution of Dance

I mentioned above the Sub-prime debacle going on, well not to be outdone, there is this fun piece of news I got this morning:


Villaraigosa to unveil L.A. housing plan
The mayor will propose a $5-billion, five-year effort to build homes for the poor and middle class. But some wonder whether it is feasible.


I ain't one of the ones wondering if it's feasible. This city can't keep it's hospitals open, the roads repaired, the tax increase that was suppose to hire more cops got diverted to gang programs that I wrote about earlier: Why Is L.A. Going Down The Crapper?. Now we are going to build "affordable housing"? We never learn. New modern tenements to warehouse the poor. By the time these things fall apart, Mayor (and "former" gang member) Villaraigosa will be long gone...along with his kickbacks.

Hell!!! Now I'm mad again.

I need a happy thought...

I'm going to meet a fellow Rottie at a shooting range in just over a week.. He sent me a list of his guns, and outside of the uniqueness of my black powders, he's got me beat. I'm going to owe him a beer.

I'll close with a song. Most of you (that would be you 7 of twelve) won't like this, but I'm not posting for you. It's got something catchy about it and it's the most requested song on the music station I listen to. Give it a chance and you may get one of them earworms. If you hate it, I didn't post it for you, I just hope it's there years down the road if I ever stumble into this again, I'll wipe the spittle from my chin and go "What the hell?", kinda like when I thought "The Knack" were hot.



Paper Airplanes by MIA

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A Good Time Was had By All

I had a major jolt of OT on my paycheck last week so I decided it was time to spend something on me for a change. I hadn't been to a gun store in close to a year and I was down to enough ammo to fight off a first assault.

I posted this at the Rott to see if they could advise me on possible next steps and I'm going to just paste it here.

Back from the toy store.

Got to caress some .45 Kimbers. The salesman handed me a stainless and I told him that while balanced it just felt heavy, so he showed me the UltraCarry (Aluminium frame), felt nice, but I bet you have to make sure the thing is spotless after firing or the pits start to happen. He also told me you don’t know exactly what color it will be, when they blue it, it can come out anywhere from green to dark blue. He also showed me a version that that was colored like a rattlesnake. They were all way too cool, but I can’t afford over $1000 for a pistol.

The main point for going was to find a conceal weapon. The only .40 that they had that was small and very very light. I figure every time I shoot it I’d have to bring my aim back from 45 degrees due to kick. It was a Kahr who I know nothing about, and when he said “until you put minimum of 300 rounds through it, it will jam. (No go)

We then looked at some .38’s and as a carry weapon, the hammerless revolvers look good. They are much thinner than I thought, and no hammer, no added catch on clothing.

I did pick up a brick of .22 ammo (I’ve got plenty, but now we can go always psycho at the range with it if we want), target rounds for the 12 ga. (There had been a run on 00). 120 rounds .40 JHP, some to run through at the range (new brand) and some for…being available. They were out of wad cutters, so I go back Tuesday to pick up a box of 00 and some target rounds for the pistol.

I wonder if other people are getting edgy, I’ve never seen this store run out of things.

If any of you GLP’s (Gun Loving Psychos) here have suggestions, I am a more than an willing student. I’m not rich, so “you can’t go wrong with Kimber” isn’t what I need. I’ll pay for a good piece of machinery that does what it’s suppose to do, but my initial budget from what I looked at today, is set around the around +/- $500 range. I’ll pay the limit if someone can convince me it’s worth it.

I asked if they were going to stock the XM25 soon, I doesn’t look promising for the near future.
==========
If anyone here has suggestions, I always open.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Earworm Outbreak

I came down with a few earworms today. I'd just shake one out and other would wiggle into it's place. I haven't heard the songs lately that I remember. I was at work for 11 hours by myself today and it was like a loop of these songs wouldn't go away. Let me try to exorcise my demons.

This one hit me about 4:30 this morning while I was waiting for the sun to come up so I could get going on my project. During the week I listen to talk radio and on the weekends I listen KROQ which is newer stuff, like what my 19 yo boy listens to, so why a song from the '80's would pop up befuddles me.



"Goodbye To You"
Patty Smyth and Scandal, damn she was hot. If i had to chose between her and Pat Benetar, I couldn't do it. Great voices, great bodies and a real presence, you feel like they are really enjoying singing that song for the 500 time.

The next one I probably did catch on the radio not too long ago.



"Pork and Beans"

Weezer. To tell the truth I Have a hell of a time finding the newer stuff on YouTube. I don't listen to the DJ's so song titles and groups are not known, I just know if I like the song or not. To find the videos, I have to recite lines from the song or, G-d forbid, have to sing or hum phrases to my son and see if he can guess. He really likes it when I do this when friends are over.

The last one isn't really a "song". It's just something that I ran across yesterday and it got stuck in the rotation.



"Funny Obama Song"

I love this song, but even at 1:37, this version is a little long. If you didn't watch the whole thing, I won't blame ya. It's really only mildly funny, but I didn't ask to have it worm into my head.

Let's see if I can find the great version....Ah Yeah, here it is.



"Muppets - Mahna Mahna"

May one of these be transfered to your ear now and relieve me of my burden.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Fuuunnny!!!

Where the hell did this week go? Work is ...well, not bad, but I guess has kept me busy.

My friend, Cheapshot911 (he's a fellow Rottie, so I will make the assumption he's my friend) posted this:



I took karate in my youth, but I know now that it's best to keep it a secret till absolutely necessary. The more you tip your hand, the harder you get smacked.

Monday, September 22, 2008

ThingsThat Had To Be Done

I'm not writing anything on a topic tonight because I've ignored too many of my friends sites for too long.

I've tried to get around to some of them and post a comment to let them know I still care. It got late and I'm not going to start a post now.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

This Is Comedy???



This is the promo for her show!

If these are the highlights of what she's going to be covering, I don't think that outside of L.A. and N.Y. she's going to sell a lot of tickets. I couldn't listen to this bitch for 90 minutes let alone pay the $40 dollars or whatever for the privilege of being there to hear this shit.

Listening to this clip, I can't decided if she's drunk, brain addled or just so full of hated for the human race she can't contain herself. I think I'll opt for the latter.

Like Linda Ronstadt (Political controversy), she isn't and doesn't hold a divine handle on what's wrong with the world, and we aren't going to pay money to have you tell us how to think. We paid you to entertain us. Do the job you were hired for. Yes, it may be hard for you to grasp, but I paid you to perform a certain function. Once I bought the ticket, you were employed by me. You made me laugh with your insight on the stupid things in life last time , or you made emotions well up with your song on that CD, but you don't realize that you are just an entertainer, don't start lecturing me on how to think. If you want to do that, at least make it funny or insightful. I could get up on stage and start rambling about how I hate someone or something right now. If that's all it take to be "special", I guess I missed my calling, because I hate everyone and everything.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Feh!

The last two days at work have been...frustrating.

Not bad, not good. Not getting ahead, but not falling behind. Just a lot of walking trying to figure out an adjustment to make on some piece of equipment that would at least let me feel like I accomplished something beside maintaining our meager status quo.

I was talking to my relief tonight about the work we use to do 20-25 years ago in the oil field (I still have all my fingers)and while this job can be a bitch, we wouldn't want to go back to "the good old days", but it got me thinking about "those days" on my drive home and it made me remember this song by Madonna.

I'm not a Madonna fan, but I like some of her songs and don't think about her politics when listening. The exteriors of this video were shot on property that belonged to the company I worked for. As a favor to the employees, the owner would insist that a company rep (me) had to be on site during filming paid by the filming company. Long hours of boredom watching them shoot the same scene over and over (the kiss at 3:24...I watched them film it about 5 times, then went to dinner...good food...sat around and BS'ed with the cops on "crowd control", went back....and they were still filming the same kiss), followed by intense chaos of the crew moving everything for the next shot. I talked to Madonna, she just showed up next to me before I realized who she was (she's a dink, I'm 6'2" and she didn't even come up to my shoulder). The closing scene of her and the kid dancing up the street, if you look at the trees on the right side of the street, you can see some movement. There were probably about 50 people from the neighborhood behind those trees.

Our big starring moment comes at 3:45, that's our oil well.



If you ever rep for a company during a film shoot, bring a lawn chair and a book. I've worked a few and it's boring as hell.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Cavuto v O'Reilly On Gas Prices

HT: Hot Air

I like Cavuto. He seems to be very up with business and how it affect politics and can explain it well.

O'Reilly, I can take him or leave him. He was my original draw to Fox News, but I tired of him over the years. Now I'll leave it running if he's on, but I don't schedule my day around him.

One area that O'Reilly pushes my buttons is when he goes off on oil. Here's a video with Neil and Bill going at it:



I love how Cavuto quietly explains how Bill is picking numbers that fit his position and ignoring those he doesn't like. Bill starts raising his voice to prove his point saying he likes "these numbers", even though they relate to different periods. Neil quietly tells Bill to "stop yelling at me".

Bill's big point was that oil prices have dropped 33% and we haven't seen a 33% drop in the price of gas. One thing that was pointed out and Bill didn't want to hear was that even though the price of oil had increased threefold, the price of gas had not even doubled.

I buy gas also. I have the same heart attack as everyone else when I fill up. Hell I've got a 30 gallon tank on my truck and if I don't catch it before 1/4 tank, at $4.00/gal.,the damn pump cuts me off before full ($100). I've also worked in gas stations, the cents they make on each gallon has to be able to pay for the next load coming in. The price drops slower that it goes up because you have to guess what that next load is going to cost.

I haven't seen a 33% decrease in the price, but it had gone down 28% as of last week when I bought gas, but the price of oil shot up $2 today after dropping $10 over the previous two days. You tell me what the dealer is going to pay for the some thousand gallons of gas he's ordered so you can make snide comments to the poor SOB working the cash register.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Why I'm So Damn Sick of the Elections

The primaries ran what? About 3 years? If it was a strategy to make the populace just bore and sick of the whole thing, it seems to have worked with me.

I decided how I was going to vote at the end of the conventions, and now I just wish we could cast our vote and get the thing over with.

For the last couple of days I have been listening to the Dhimicrats gloat over how bad the economy is and how we can't afford 4 more years of the policies that got us into this shit.

They just forget to mention the facts behind the collapse of Bear Sterns and the collapse and bailout of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG.

What was the Bush policy on Fannie and Freddie? (From the NY Times Sept. 11, 2003)

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.


Whoa!!! We can't have that! Imagine the nerve of trying to rein in a runaway train 5 years before it hits the wall. Surely the Dhimicrats foresaw the problem also.

Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,”
Mr. Watt said.


Either they really didn't see it coming, or they were just using their usual playbook and giving "free" money to people to win the next election. Whichever it was, can we afford four years of a continuation of this type of planning and policy?

It goes back way further, back to our old buddy Clinton. (from IBD)

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street’s most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but “predatory.”

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the ’90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck.

And it was the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that over the decades have come to manage the real estate market in America.


The Demorats set it up in the '90's and when Bush tried to correct it, they told Bush he was racist, denying affordable housing to the poor and minorities. Now that their homes are foreclosed and their credit is fubar, I bet they'd really thank their protectors on the left side of the aisle, not to mention how trilled I am to pay part of the mortgage they never should have had in the first place.

When they raise my taxes to pay this fiasco off, there is a good chance I may not be able to meet my obligations, so the situation won't be getting better. It'll most likely get worse being we're already committed to the bailouts.

On top of this, WTF is the gov't doing pledging to cover housing for a month for the people of Texas that were displaced by the hurricane? Since I was born, I've heard the rest of the U.S. bitch at me about if I live in an earthquake zone and get hit, I deserve the grief. We get a quake that does damage about every 10 years. You asshats that live in hurricane and tornado country get nailed how many time EVERY year? And then go right back into the same place and rebuild, but don't worry, we'll bail you out again next year.

World...Hell...Hand basket. I think it's already been assembled.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Rip Van Winkle Impersonation

After the fine welcome back the site gave me, things just got better.

I didn't disappear over the last couple of days, I was asleep.

We had to take a 3 day HAZWOPER class to be certified as first responders to any oil spill. Normally I don't mind taking a class, but this time it sucked. I'm working graveyard so my schedule Sunday though Thursday was this:

9PM to 5AM: Work

5AM to 8AM: Sleep in my truck on site.

8AM to 4PM: Class

4PM to 9PM: Drive home, grab something to eat, sleep, get up and get stuff together for work, go back to work.

I got about 4 1/2 to 5 hours sleep broken up, which didn't seem to do any good. I use to be able to do things like this, but no longer. When I got home Thursday morning, I was so tired I couldn't go to sleep, so I goofed around until about noon, then laid down and left the world for 24 hours straight.

The problem with sleeping that long is that you want to keep on sleeping. Saturday was a total waste as I couldn't work up enough energy to do anything. So today, it's catch up day. Laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, bill paying.

I don't return to work until Tuesday afternoon, so life may return to what I consider normal by then.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

9/11/2008

My God! It's been seven years since we were attacked on our home turf.

I'm torn about my feeling as we cross this anniversary.

The good:

We are safer than we were in 2001.

We did major damage to the assholes that hit us.

Iraq looks like it on the verge of becoming a stable country and we can start to draw down our troop strength.

They put out two 37 ft. beams that will be used as a memorial to the people that were murdered on 9/11 that the public can sign in tribute.

The Bad:

A lot of our Safety is cosmetic like Airport Security which is mainly for show. Grandma gets strip searched because of her underwire bra, while Accchhhmed cruises through because if you stop more than every 18th person of "indiscriminate nationality" you're racial profiling.

The assholes for allah that we didn't whack, cockroached across the border of Pakistan and set up bases there. (Though I read yesterday that we are hitting them with Predators and now sending SpecOps across the border to engage them and fuck the do nothing Pakistani gov't.)

It took six years for our gov't to commit to the fact that if you're going to fight a war, you go in with overwhelming force and kill the enemy.

It took seven years for us to get our act together and just start on the project that will "show that the U.S. will overcome this and build something bigger and better".

I'm tired. It's been a looong week at work (details to follow). I haven't had anything that would approximate enough sleep for four days now and my head feels like it's stuffed with cotton.

I'll close out with two videos that bring tears to my eyes every time I see them, both are listed as Permanent Posts on the right sidebar.

First Darryl Worley, "Have You Forgotten?"



And finally this:

Never Forgive, Never Forget.

May all our soldiers return home victorious and whole, and may God Bless America.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Why Did I Come Back?!!?

I had a marvelous vacation! More things to do than we had time for, but 6 days with my two closest friends and their overly understanding wives. Typically we guys acted like we were back in college again and I'm not sure about them, but I'm still sore and tired three days later.

An added bonus to the trip was I got to see my godson who was, by luck, out for the holiday from New Orleans. He was safe in Phoenix while hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana. Of course he was suppose to fly back on Monday, but with the airport closed and the city still shut down, he couldn't get home until Thursday night (broke his Mom's heart having him home three extra days).

I hadn't realized how long it had been since I had driven to Phoenix until I got outside of San Bernardino and the speed limit jumped to 70 MPH. Last time I drove, we were still stuck with the 55 limit. Arizona had to do us one better and when I crossed the state line, their limit was 75 MPH. With the truck on cruise control and staying around the speed limit, I was there in 6 hours, including one stop for breakfast and one stop for gas.

My hosts had just had a pool installed that is 4 1/2 feet deep...designed for pool volleyball, and did we play a lot of volleyball. I can hardly lift my arms over my shoulders. The night my godson had all his old friends over and they forced me to drink to much and insist I get involved with their game didn't help this 50 something old man. Fun, and the patience of a cagey dink shot just over the net can throw off the power game of twenty year old's.

The drive home was boring,but I did stop by a Indian casino and donate some funds to the tribe. Doubled my money in the first hour, then gave back my winnings plus the initial bet in the second.

Went back to work last night (graveyard), and was told everything was running smoothly and it should be a quiet shift. Two hours in and I get an alarm. A valve blew on something I had walked by 35 minutes before and water and silty mud was ankle deep in one of our containment basins.

I diagnosed the problem, figured out how to fix (bypass) it...but...for lack of a 15/16" box end wrench and/or a 1/2" drive ratchet (found a socket), I couldn't break the bolts to isolate the leak. I kept the site running for another 2 hours until my tanks were full and I had to shut the entire site down.

It was a fine "Welcome Back!", but it is what I've come to expect in my life.