Vindication

I have twice taken driving personality tests that say I am a aggressive but safe driver. Most of the people at work who have ridden with me or followed me, are of the opinion that I drive like a nut. The least unfavorable comment from a co-worker about my driving is that you have to be an ex-cop to ride with me - and that guy used to be the Police.

I maintain that I do what I have to do to maintain my right of way and the structural integrity and uprightness of my car. A couple of days ago, my Darling Wife was riding shotgun with me and (as usual) people did stupid things with their cars in rapid succession and in near proximity to our car. She put on her surprised face and used her surprised voice and declared that I must be "a magnet" for stupid drivers.

I told you so!!!

Parenting Pro Tip

Do not let a two-and-a-half year-old boy watch Kung Fu Panda. Trust me on this.

Your Music Really Stinks.

My drive home is usually accompanied by the rice crispies sound of AM talk radio. My preferred station is turned down after sundown . . . and as it is winter, this coincides with "right before end of business" for me these days. So I went to the other station I sometimes listen to. . . inanity. Then another station. Vanity. Okay fine, I'll take a chance at some music.

I had known but blocked from my memory how crappy is most of the music on the radio these days. Start with a song that is musically inept with meaningless lyrics, overproduce it to cover the lack of artistic talent, and then compress it so it gets the bass and treble through a cheap car speaker. This ends up sounding like so much jangling noise on a decent audio setup such as the one in my hot rod. Next station. Next station. Next. Next. Finally I ended up on one of the local black music stations where they were playing "My Chick Bad" by Ludacris. I cranked the loudness, volume, and bass controls. It is still a mediocre (at best) piece of music, but it wasn't over-produced, and it was also not over-compressed for broadcast. Plus, it has a decent bass line and it made me think happy thoughts about my special lady-friend.

I usually don't turn up the music in my car to the point that it shakes its mirrors in disapproval because by then the interior is also rattling. This time the rattles matched the music so I toin'd it up to 11. I've got to get the CDs out. How can you people listen to the junk coming down the FM dial? Is this what happens when we cut music out of the government school curricula?

All Hail The Victor Triumphant!

I just burned my finger. I burned it on a transistor. The transistor is being used as a switch. The switch is part of a heater control that looks like a pile of junk. I designed it. And it controls to a set temperature. And apparently this transistor needs a heat sink.

I designed a solid-state thermostatic controller for a heater. It is part of a larger project I have been working on between family/work/school/etc. for the last seven years.

Finally I have a working protoype of something new on this project. I had previously constructed a precision voltage source, but now it is dead and needs to be repaired. The main event was at one time partially-working, but I managed to blow it up also. It still needs to be fixed and have the design finalized and constructed, but I think I have all the proper parts for it.

It WORKS. I designed and made this thing and it frikken works!!! w00t!

Armed Response Saves The Day In Wisconsin

When the Police showed up, the "suspect" shot himself. If there had been an armed teacher or school security guard, this could have taken n fewer minutes to happen. Time and again experience shows that the best way to get a gun-wielding Bad Person to stop wielding their guns in a "gun-free zone" is for someone else to show up with a gun.

Tell me why, again, we disarm the Good People in schools in America?

That school will be out and mental health councilors will be in tomorrow is a sign of mental frailty on a tragic scale - and I'm not talking about the students.

And I've Got A Bridge For Sale.

Further proof that you don't have to be smart to be the owner of important stuff: a Spanish woman has claimed ownership of the Sun. Yes, that the Sun. She wants to raise money for her bankrupt nation by charging royalties.

Good luck collecting on that

Good luck proving ownership in court if you try collecting on that

I'll be joining the class-action lawsuit for damages from sun burns, but I expect the people dying of melanoma will probably beat me to the payments.

You, Senora, are an idiot.

No Smoke, Just Mirrors.

President Obama hiked the baseline federal budget to a couple trillion MORE dollars in the red, then started making insignificant mentions of cutting spending and being fiscally responsible. Part of that newfound "fiscal responsibility" is cutting out future increases in federal employee pay . . . after federal employees are reported as already being paid way more on average than private employees. The MSM is reporting this as being tough on spending.

Okay, then. Way to go there chief. I've cut back on spending to pre-recession levels and then some. When the .gov starts doing the same, talk to me again about fiscal responsibility.

Nothing, That's What.

"I've prayed for my family and friends, because obviously if someone was deliberate to do this, what's to stop them from coming to our homes and our schools?" said Mohamed Alyagouri, who worships at the same mosque as a dude who tried to wage Jihad in Portland.

The entire article -which includes quotes from multiple people who worship at this mosque- fails to mention any public statement of condemnation of the anti-human activities of Mohamed Mohamud, who was recently arrested when his atempt to be a good muslim landed him in jail.

They are upset that someone set their islamic center on fire. That is proper. What would also be proper is for their imam to be all over the news saying he's against blowing up innocent Americans over religious differences. Here's a hint: if you don't want to be associated with a terrorist, make a very big public effort to come out and say you're against him. Otherwise (note I am not advocating, only mentioning) don't be surprised when you are lumped in with your co-religionist and your mosque is set on fire.

But VFD, they HAVE condemned the bombing plot! lookit here! (.doc file warning) they're part of the religion of peace! There's no reason to try to burn down this Islamic Center!

Uh-huh. I'll allow for the sake of the current discussion that the general falsehoods in that condemnation don't make the whole thing a farce. Then we are left with (at least) three other obvious possible explanations:

shades of reichstagbrand

random act of violence, or

shot across the muslim world's collective bow


A lot of nominal moslims who were not participating in Jihad were killed in the crusades. The crusades were not started because there was nothing else to do that Tuesday.

I'm just sayin'.

Technical Difficulties

Busy with computer troubles. Spent two days trying to get up to date and 100% backed-up. I hate dealing with computer security junk. I wish people wouldn't be jerks and write malicious code so I could just USE my PC.

Update: Temporary (?) Good News!

You may recall that we were losing a lovely little section of woods behind our house. I noted that the workmen didn't come back after the weekend to finish the job. There was a note on our door that they were not going to continue the clearing until further notice. One of the neighbors said something about destroying wildlife habitat and that was enough to kill the project, for now.

I'm happier to have coons, 'possums, pigeons, cardinals, and mosquitos than I am to have a view of the neighbors, so whatever. I guess my tax dollars are going to be used for an environmental impact study here shortly, if the City wants to keep clearing out the ditch. I hope not - I hope they decide to just leave it. It's not hurting anybody and not clearing it saves the city probably a few thousand bucks. We'll see.