Saturday, December 17, 2005

Ungrateful Giftee & other things I did yesterday

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In order to appease my lovely wife and child, we opened one present each of the ones mailed in from my parents. I didn't really want to, but since we were going to be out of town during XMas, and I was facing a revolt, I decided to let them win. I opened Chris' present, and with much glee, discovered that he(or my parents) had included a gift reciept for the book from Barnes and Noble. I wasn't that interested in the cabinet of Abraham Lincoln, so I exchanged it for The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins, and Ringworld by Larry Niven. Hopefully I can get around to reading them.

I also stopped by Circuit Shitty, since it was next door to check out digital camera's. They had the Canon Rebel XT that I've been lusting after, but they felt that a customer doesn't really need to see how the hands on demo actually worked, so they left the battery out, and didn't have it plugged in. This was also the same for the Panasonic Lumix FZ5 that they had on display.

I did manage to find a lithium battery for my old Canon EOS 620, which I haven't used for probably around 10 years. I'm particularly interested in what is on the half used roll that is inside.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Digital Camera safari pt 3

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Canon Rebel XT @ 1600 ISO
2.5 stdev at 400
4.5 stdev at 1600












Panasonic FZ30 @ 400 ISO
no StDev given












C-8080 at unknown ISO
4.3 StDev at 400








Above are some examples of photos taken at the maximum ISO’s of each respective cams. The noise present in the Canon is at 4 times the ISO of the Panasonic.

The Panasonic has a fixed 12x lens, and built in Image Stabilization.

The Canon uses the standard EF & EF-S mount for all kinds of lenses.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Finding the right Digital

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I've been looking around, and I thought I found the camera that I was really looking for, however, the Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom is currently unattainable at reasonable prices.

I've done some research into some other makes, and I've found several other candidates.

$584
Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ30 8mpx with a Leica 35x420mm Image Stabilization lens & manual focus ring.

$579-799
Cannon EOS 300D Rebel 6mpx (EF mount) CMOS for upto 3200 ISO

$683-904
Cannon EOS 350D Rebel XT 8mpx (standard EF lens mount) CMOS 1600 ISO

unavail.
Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom 7mpx

A Side by Side comparison.

I'm really getting tired of trying to find the best camera. I don't want the noise associated with inadequately sized sensors. Megapix now really just determines the detail, Noise is the real thing that I'm interested in, but I can't find a site that sorts camera's by a noise rating, unless you just go by sensor size. I'm thinking of just waiting until after the Holidays to buy.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Scary Pumpkin

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We spent Halloween at our friend Gabes house, and I brough over an extra pumpkin and carved a really scary face into it. Pics of Sophie to come

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Thinking of a new digital camera

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I've been thinking about getting a more hobbyist level digital camera (as opposed to the tourist level point and shoot). After finding a good Digital Camera website, dpreview.com from Dallas' blog, I did some looking for a sub $400 camera that had the best ratings and good macro capability. I found the Olympus C-7070, and has a really good price for the features. Around 340 shipped.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Music tools etc.

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I've been reorganizing and renaming all my music (almost 20 GB), and I'm having trouble finding a program that will organize them into folders based on Genre\Artist\Album. I had a program a long time ago that did this, but I don't remember the name. I've been using Music Match Jukebox to fix all the tagging, and add album art, but it just organizes playlists. I have Moodlogic, but it's organizing is limited to creating folders for artist name only.

In other news, I've bought 400lbs of topsoil for $12, 1lb of Winterizer for $13, 1lb of insecticide for $10, and 1lb of pre-emergent crabgrass killer for $13. I'm also waiting on packets of Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, and Indian blankets to plant in the mailbox area. I've also finally found and planted 2 Natchez Crape Myrtles. They have a larger yellow leaf and white blossoms.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Status update for 16 October

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There are no pictures yet, I actually worked from about 11 to sunset today, getting all the plants in the ground. I spent about an hour digging up a big bunch of day lillys, and some other flower that's rhizome looks like ginger, and has a fan shaped cluster of bluish green grass blades. While doing that, a hawk landed on the ground about 20 feet from me, with a bird in its claws. It stayed there for awhile, I guess waiting for its lunch to stop flopping around. When it flew off with its meal, it left a big circle of downy feathers on the ground.

The weather was really nice today, and I got quite a bit accomplished, without much sweating. Now, all that is needed is pinestraw, a couple of white crape myrtles, and I'm also thinking about adding a Yoshino Cherry (pictured below) next to the tilting dogwood.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

final Landscaping progress for 15 October

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I've gotten all the weed control fabric laid wherever there was bare soil. Tomorrow, I plant!!!

Pictures from the yard

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Azeleas, they are actually more red than this.

Azeleas in the ground

bed cleared and covered

Indian Hawthorn in the ground.

Bed covered with newpaper and dirt

Camoflaging the ugly utility box. 

Friday, October 14, 2005

Yard work again.

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I rented a Sod Cutter, and have almost completely obliviated the turf that was growing in the designated flowerbed zone, henceforth to be referred to as the green zone. The green zone is not green, but brown. It will eventually be red from pinestraw, but this should not be confused with the red zone, which is were the grass is. Its all quite complicated, but try to keep up.

Pics will be posted tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

News Alert -- Brandi and Charles announce joint venture project, code-named Buzz, and sets tenative RTM date.

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Montgomery, Al., October 11 2005 -- Today Charles and Brandi announce a new joint venture, code-named Buzz.

Buzz beta
Buzz, short for Busby, is targeted as a companion product for the already successfull Sophie, formerly code-named Texanna. It's features and capabilities will be similar, but slightly different than Sophie. Expected release to market date for the yet-to-be-named project Buzz will be around March 3, 2006.















Action shots from Buzz's most recent build.

Click for high-res version link 1. (36 MB)
Click for high-res version link 2.
You might need DIVX to view this video.


About Presley Joint Venture
Buzz is the latest in a series of successful collaborations between Charles and Brandi. Charles provides the seed capital, and management, while Brandi provides the manufacturing and operations aspects.

For more information:
Charles Presley charles.presley ( at ) gmail com

Sunday, October 09, 2005

internets radio love

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Following a suggestion from Thomas I thought I'd check out last.fm. I got turned on to a swedish group called Koop and their kind of retro jazz-electronica, and in searching for them, found a result on last.fm, with a good rating from the out-foxed plug-in, which I've written about previously. I've previously used netstreams from Heavy.com and LiquidGeneration.com for cool music, and I've tried to use Moodlogic to organize and recommend playlists from my local collection, but I'm really enamored with Last.fm's setup. If I just lived in a world where I had free and unrestricted access to their music, like my own MP3's, then there would be a true killer app.

DRM is a way to keep the old, analog ways of the world around, even in the face of the new digital paradigm of unlimitled flawless reproduction that can satisfy the economic problem of unlimited wants vs. limited resources. This all is propogated by the greed of a cartel of suits that are only interested in continued uninterupted funding of their lavish LA lifestyles.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Neat new program

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In my searchings for a Landscape CAD program, I ran across several lame ones, and another, that is more of a 3d Sketching software that is capable of producing Cell shaded renderings. I'm currently learning it to create a 3d version of the new landscaping. Its called SketchUp, and it is written in Ruby uses Ruby scripting for animations. I only mention that because my cousin's boyfriend Thomas has talked about an interest in Ruby on Rails. I think just the name sounds cool as hell, like some kind of Bose - Einstein condensate laser cooled mag-lev or something, but what do I know.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

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Landscape Schematic with Electricity marked in Red, and Gas in Yellow. After trying several different freeware/shareware Landscape CAD programs, I finally settled for my old Standby, Microsoft Excel. By setting the Column and Row widths x heights to small squares, and mentally assigning them a scale of 1'^2, I was able to use the drawing tools and cell borders to do a rather good job, with no learning curve.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

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The Euonymous (yellow and green shrub) are gone, donated to a neighbor. I've gotten the stump and most of the large roots from the dogwood that Ivan blew over. I've also taken down the Bartlett Pear that was growing beside the dogwood in the rear. The white lines are from the Landscape Designer, she recommended plants and a bed design to maximize curb appeal. The circles will be hawthorns, the crossed lines will be a grass, probably Pampas. The window boxes are just sitting there to get out of the way, they have 6 Dandelions each, and some other bulbs that I salvaged from the stump area.

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Today's work. It doesn't seem like much just looking at it, but moving those boxwoods and the Azelea was tough, it was surprising how heavy they were.

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More pre landscaping

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Pre-Landscaping, notice the area's under the windows, and the side of the house

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Google Adsense nonsense.

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I've not made any money off of google's ads posted on the right, but I like to see what they put links to based on the content of my blog. Yesterday it was about going to hell, and today, it is about finding Air Force buddies.

Low carb cereal

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Breakfast of champions. 12 Carbs total.
Hi-Lo soy cereal 5 carbs
Silk Soy Milk 4 carbs
dry raspberries ~3 carbs

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New orchids I picked up at Publix. Cant beat 9.99 for a beautiful house plant that likes it when you forget to water it. In case you are wondering, I brought it outside to photograph, because it was too dark inside, and those are my running shoes in the background, I just got finished a 1.5 mile run, pretty slowly.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

It

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So my cuz, Dallas wants me to generate a list of things needing doing, and already done did. [Forgive the redneckisms, I just got finished watching the space western Firefly, which is my plum favorite show right now next to Over There.] Here goes.

7 things I plan to do before I die:

  • Finish my Bachelors (Spring 06)
  • Get commissioned in the USAF, as a pilot
  • Finish training for my Private Pilot's License
  • Get an Engineering degree, in addition to my current one.
  • Pee on every state in the Union. [WA, TX, IL, AL and MS done.]
  • Make at least Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF before I have to retire.
  • Learn to calm down and relax more.
7 things I can do:
  • Takeoff, Fly and Land a single engine airplane.
  • Fire, Disassemble, and Reassemble an M16 rifle, and M9 Baretta pistol.
  • Have an intuitive understanding of how most things work.
  • Cook gourmet food; well.
  • Make Ethernet cables, without looking at color charts.
  • Make ST and SC Fiber Optic cables.
  • Find humor in mundane or banal things.

7 things I cannot do:

  • I can't drive 55.
  • Hold my tongue when I should.
  • Accept the status quo, if there are better ways of doing things.
  • Hide my talents with humility.
  • Legally takeoff, fly, and land a single engine airplane.
  • Run a 6 minute mile.
  • Tolerate stupidity [not mistaken for ignorance, which is curable]

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

  • Looks
  • Intelligence
  • Wittiness
  • Age
  • Sophistication
  • Charity
  • Grace

7 things I say most often:

  • bad words
  • Roger that.
  • Freedom-[food]. (a running joke I have with my friend Gabe)
  • That sucks.
  • That's gay.
  • WTF
  • Shut up and go to sleep.

7 celebrity crushes:

7 people I want to do this:
  • Brandi
  • Gabe
  • Chris
  • Wendy
  • ...
  • ...
  • ...

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

End of Cycle - Heat Stroke induced thoughts.

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I've just finished a 3 day cycle of Augmentee duty, where I check ID's and allow people on base, or refuse entrance. I've had to wake at 0400 to be there by 0500, arm up at 0530, and be on post by 0600. I then work a gate with one other person until relieved, usually around 1800, 13 hours later. Sometimes the work is slow, and we can take turns on break, an hour at a time, but on some gates, and at particular times, it is so busy that we need extra help from the patrols to keep the traffic flowing.

I worked September 1st,& 5-7th. thru the 6th, I've been at gates on Maxwell, and there have been quite a few evacuees from the Mississippi area. They are all affiliated in one way or another to the military, and many of them here with just what they could fit in their cars. They've turned an entire hangar into Kennels for the evacuee's pets. Many active duty permanent party families are "Adopting" and evacuee family, so that they don't have to sleep in the gym.

I was pretty flippant about the hurricane before it hit, thinking that it would be another Ivan at worst, but more likely a George, which did minor damage in 1999 to the Biloxi area. After seeing the damage caused by the hurricane in Biloxi and New Orleans, I count myself really lucky that it didn't turn towards us. We wouldn't have been hit by the surge, but the winds would have really messed things up.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Sheehan drama

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Cindy Sheehan is the mother protesting the death of her son by standing outside of the White Ranch, with the unrealistic demand to speak to the President. I can certainly sympathize with her loss, but just like Terry Schiavo's parents, she needs to move on. Her son was an adult, and he knew what he was doing. He had even re-enlisted, and as a re-enlistee myself, I can definitly say that I knew what I was getting into the second time around.

My point is, her son was an Adult, and he made adult decisions that lead to his death in a warzone created by Presidential bungling and/or deception. Mrs. Sheehan has every right to blame Mr. Bush for the situation in Iraq that was created after our meddling, but do not pull the innocent son crap. We are Soldiers, Sailers, Marines and Airmen. We are a professional all volunteer force that deserves respect, not just for our sacrifices, but for our decision to serve. There are plenty of ways to get out of the Army, and if Casey Sheehan had wanted to get out, he probably could have.

Perhaps Mrs. Sheehan is being exploited by the left, but it's not any different than Terry Schiavo was by the right. As far as I'm concerned, it is the same story, parent(s) upset by the loss of a child, unwilling to let them go. I really think that Mrs. Sheehan should follow the Presidents example and "get on with [her] life."

Did I just agree with the President? It must be the Nyquil talking. Just as two wrongs dont make a right, a right and a left dont make fair and balanced. We need more moderate coverage of situations in the blogosphere, not just on CNN.

"this is the big one...I'm comin' to join ya, honey".

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I was driving the swede-mobile back from the Courthouse, when I noticed that half of the idiot lights on the dash were lit up, including the service light. I also noticed that I wasn't getting any cool air from the A/C, and the battery meter was dropping. I figured something was wrong with the alternator and proceded back to base. After lunch, the problem was still persisting, and since it was hotter, I figured we better check it out. Apparently the Alternator belt had lost half its teeth, and had come off. Along with my friend Gabe, we were able to make it to Napa auto just in time before the car died from a lack of spark. I then proceded to replace the A/C and Alternator belts in 110 degree heat index weather. I think I must have sweated a good quart of water.

I'm just now starting to recover from the heat shock, but it's all good now. I feel like a real burly man now that I've brought a car back to life in a parking lot, with nothing but a box of tissues, a spring from my ball point pen, and some chewing gum. Look out MacGuyver.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Back from the hills

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It's been a while since I've last posted. I recently purchased a 1987 volvo 740 Turbo, to use for getting to work, and I thought we would take it on a road trip, to keep the miles off of the Altima. The problem is, the 740 doesn't have Cruise Control, and it rattles and buzzes like it's about to fall apart. We drove up to Arnold AFB in Tullahoma, TN to visit Brandi's sister. We had plans to go out on the lake on Saturday, but it was overcast, so we went to the Jack Daniels distillery tour instead. It was quite interesting, and after seeing the giant charcoal filters they use for the Lincoln County Process, I know that the Brita filtering I use to improve the taste of cheap vodka is not unproven.

We got back fine, although we realized that gas had climed 10 cents in price since we left, friday evening.

Monday, June 27, 2005

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Headshot

On the train

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This photo was taken while we were on the train at the Montgomery Zoo.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

A/C fixed

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We had Luquire come out and fix the air. The compressor fan motor had given up the ghost, 2 months after its fifth birthday. After a couple of hours, and 335 dollars later, the house was back down to normal operating temperature.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

A/C out

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What a day to wake up without A/C. I got up sweating at 7:30 today, and noticed the A/C was blowing warm air, and the thermostat read 85. Yikes, sounds like it's time to sit on the porch and drink sweat tea until the repair man gets here.

Friday, June 24, 2005

New Food log

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I've decided to transition all my dining critiques over to my new blog, which I've called Eating Montgomery. If web logs are blogs, then I guess E|M is a flog, or perhaps a dlog.

Check it out.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Awesome Drug Ad parody

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I clicked on an ad on someone's blog which lead me to a great parody of these generic Pharmaceutical ads.

Arrow in FedEx

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I just ran across something about the "Famous" arrow in the FedEx logo. Am I the only one who has never noticed it?

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php

I followed it from a link next to this one, which is equally interesting.

New Restaurant review

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Red Star Tavern is a new restaurant in town, located in East Chase, where Crepes Egg-cetera used to be. I was initially hesitant to go there because the sign outside is off a martini glass, and I associate taverns with bars, not grills. I would have to say I was completely mistaken.

Walking in, you see the atmosphere is wood paneled upscale chop house. Walking through the bar area to the spacious seating area, you will pick up a beat in your step from the classical Jazz and blues playing overhead. It is like an upscale BBQ shack, serving everything from the lowly $12 meatloaf, all the way up to the $33 Porterhouse.

For drinks, I had a golden Cadillac martini, which was essentially, a mini margarita, made from Patron Anejo Tequila, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, and Sweet & Sour. It was served in a stemless martini glass, and shaken and poured directly at my table.

Our appetizer was a sweet pepper cornbread with honey butter. It was really good, the Jalepeno's really complemented the sweetness of the corn bread. I would have to say that this was even better than Smokey Bones' corn bread, witch I like as well.

Dinner was a sesame encrusted Tuna steak with ginger sauce cooked MR for myself, and the Sirloin Stack cooked MW for the wife. The tuna was cooked spot-on, although for $20, I would have like to get more than just 8 oz. The ginger sauce went really well with the tuna, but the sauce on my plate was broken, and was mainly islets of flavor surrounded by butter fat. The tuna without the sauce was unremarkable, and almost tasteless. I would definitely try it again if they could keep a sauce together. I had a Cesar salad and sweet potato fries for my sides. The Cesar was good, but a little different, instead of Parmesan, it tasted like they used blue cheese or gorgonzola and the croutons were toasted chunks of their sweet corn bread. The sweet fries were great. I first discovered them at a place downtown called Noble's, and these are almost as good. The Sirloin stack was a stack of thin cuts of Sirloin interleaved with thick oven roasted tomato slices, on a bed of carmelized onions. The sirloin was tender. The cooking to MW left charred stripes of burnt that detracted from the flavor. The onions were soft, but not carmelized. The mashed potatoes that came as a side were good; had a good balance of both mealy and new potatoes; and had bits of red skins, adding to the texture and presentation.

We had the brownie for dessert. It was truly an abomination of anything even resembling food. It was a homogeneous lump of what looked and felt like solidified slurry of cornstarch and cocoa powder. It broke apart into solid chunks, in almost crystal-like formations of irregular cubes. I think that someone must have messed up that batch, as I don't think any self respecting chef would ever conjure up a recipe so sadistically gross.

The service was spectacular. It was definitely outstanding for Montgomery. We had an attentive waiter that was actually interested in helping us, and at least 3 floor managers that were genuinely interested in our dining experience. The staff was familiar with the menu, although hazy on wine recommendations. Our waiter served my wine with my cocktail, and took a really long time getting my sweet fries out. That by itself did nothing much to detract from the meal, and we left pleased and ready to return.

Overall, on my Bonefish rating scale, I would have to give Red Star 1.50 Bonefishes. Their menu is more varied, the dining area and bar is larger, the ambiance is better, and there are more parking spaces. The Service is on par with, or slightly better than bonefish as well. Red Star is a definite must eat.

Father's Day

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This was the first Father's day I've been actually able to enjoy. All the others were just Hallmark marketing gimmicks, because the only person I'm a father to was not sentient enough to make it special. This year, Brandi and Sophie made me breakfast in bed. That was good, but I would have to say the best thing that day was when Sophie told me Happy Father's Day.

Super tight things

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I've loaded up this cool FF extension mentioned on BoingBoing called Outfoxed. Its a pretty neat concept that ties in social networking with searching and browsing teh intarwebs. It's still in beta, and it causes FF to crash when I use the back button, but its still a Super tight thing.

I've also joined Technorati it is like a blog indexing service that tracks linkage to posts and the like. I'm still not exactly sure of it's utility, but I'll give it a tenative rating of Super Tight.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

GOP Hootenany 2004 speaker

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I was in Books-A-Million tonight passing the time while the wife shopped. On the way out, I noticed a book by Zell Miller, the Democratic Senator that spoke at the 2004 GOP convention, slamming his party. This was an interesting quote that was on the back of the dust jacket:

"There have been ten generations of Americans since this nation was founded….Each left this nation in a little better condition than they had inherited it from their parents. This is the first generation at risk of doing the opposite. Why? I have come to believe that it is because we failed to acknowledge and discipline ourselves with the spiritual truths that have made us great for these two hundred years—faith, family, country, values. This book is about how one man thinks they may be restored and yet save this great civilization from itself."


Now, I haven't read this, so I'm not sure what Generation he is talking about. Who the hell does he think he is, to pass any judgement on a generation. This guy started public service in the Sixties. I can almost definitivley state that any surpassed generation says the same things about the currently ascended generation. Those kids and thier Jazz music. Those beatniks with the long goatee's. Them hippies with their marijuana and free love. Those statanic heavy metal rockers. Those kids with their rap crap music, spraying grafiti and selling drugs.

Decency is in the eye of the beholder.
I think the problem now is that the boomers, as they decline into the surpassed generation, are becoming hesitant to relinquish beholder status. The problem is that the boomers will still out number us, not accepting their diminished generational currency.

If you don't like it, sit on your porch and yell at kids for walking on your lawn. There is no such thing as the "Good Old Days". Time erases the bad old days. The low crime, white bread, better living through chemistry, decent america is a myth, and it always has been. There was less crime because blacks and hispanics were oppressed through legilated discrimination. The chemistry that improved life thinned the egg shells of condors and bald eagles. Decent America had their cross dressing J Edgar Hoovers and just as many homosexuals (albeit more were closeted).

I don't know why all of a sudden there is this culture war between fundies and the rest of us non-zealots. Fundies have a specific forum for their religiously masturbatory ideologues. It is called a Church. Leave the government to the secular humanists, just as the secular humanists leave the Church to the fundies. The first amendment protects the fundies from any restrictions on religious practices. Perhaps there needs to be a new book in the bible that prohibits fundies from imposing on those that choose to live differently.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Something rotten in Denmark

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This whole thing with the Repubs threat of the Nuclear Option is, according to my conservative friend Gabe, just sour grapes over Roe v. Wade. Pro-Lifers are resentful that they were not given a voice over the decision. For that I have two thoughts: the first is the doctrine of Judicial Review, and the second is the amount of time since 1973 that legislators have failed to act to fulfill their wishes democratically.

The judicial review doctrine is outlined in the Constitution, and allows judges to strike down laws that they feel are contrary to the Constitution. This is not called writing laws from the bench, it's call throwing out laws that are garbage. Judges are not activists; they either follow a strict interpretation of the Constitution, or try to apply the Constitution to modern problems that weren't necessarily considered in the times of our forefathers. One of the things that make this country work is the doctrine of judicial review. If legislators want to override the Supreme Court, they can either pass a law that addresses the concerns in ruling, or they can attempt to pass an amendment to the Constitution. The other issue is that the legislature has had 32 years to pass an amendment to the Constitution or another law that dodges the Courts objections. It has not been able to achieve the needed number of votes in any case.

This is the democratic process as it exists in the United States. The Repubs, neo-cons and pro-lifers claim that judges striking down laws on the basis of unconstitutionality are undemocratic and activistic. They are not. Republican Senators attempting to subvert the Constitutional protections of the minority by undermining the filibuster is activistic and undemocratic. When the cloture rule was added to parliamentary procedure, it was the most democratic method of ending a filibuster.

This is dirty pool because the Repubs cannot convince enough people to confirm the President's appointments, and are afraid that they do not have enough support for a cloture movement in the event of a filibuster. Democratic means to resolve the current situation are already in place. What is going on now is an underhanded attempt to change the rules mid-game to favor the majority. This whole activist judge thing is an attempt at riling up a certain conservative part of the populace that are too simple minded or just plain ignorant of what is written the Constitution. They rely on talking heads like Painkiller Limbaugh or Pretty-blonde Coulture to tell them what the Constitution says, instead of reading it for themselves.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Live by the sword and what not

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Kohl's Frozen Custard - Everything Else Is Just Ice Cream!

The latest finger biting incident at Kohl's frozen custard, (isn't that gelato?) has enabled another get rich scheme, I mean tort. The workers fingertip was sliced off, and being preserved in frozen custard, could have probably been reattached. But instead, this understandably upset customer chose pursue the get rich route over the compassion route. The finger biter refused to return the severed tip to the GM so that he could try and have it reattached to its rightfull owner.

If I were a lawyer, I would personally offer my services to the short fingered worker, so that I could sue the shit out of the asshole that wouldn't give the finger back.

It's this attitude that tort reform needs to fix, not caps on malpractice. It should be done in a supply side manner, punishing lawyers who encourage victims to with hold fingertips from being sewn back on, so that they can get their fee from whatever settlement.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Latest email to My Rep.

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Judge Poe,

 

   I recently read your explanation to your vote against returning to House ethics rules. While I think your explanation is well intentioned, I can't help but think that our elected Representatives should be held to a higher standard. You talked about the Constitutional protects for the alleged, but I can't seem to draw the same parallels between the requirements for a Representative to step down from a committee while under indictment, and the loss of liberty associated with the criminal justice system.

 

I do see this as ironic that when the Republicans passed the "Old Rules", it was in their best interest, as it is now, when they are trying to hang on to the more lenient rules that they have recently brought about. I also see that the Honorable Tom Delay, who redistricted you into office, is the reason why the Republicans are against the rules.

 

I want to believe you voted for the reasons you give, but because of the Delay debacle, the Schiavo meddling, and the threat of the Nuclear Option, I have almost no faith in Republicans to do what's right for democracy, instead of furthering their own self interests.

 

v/r,

Charles F Presley II

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Strawberry desert

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Last night I made this kickass desert. I mixed a chopped up pound of strawberries with a 1/4 of sugar, 1/2 tblspoon of lemon juice and 1oz of vodka and let it steep for an hour. Once it had gotten juicy, I spread it all over a giant, dinner plate sized sponge cake. After the juices soaked in I sliced it, and then put whipped cream on top.
I'll have to make it for a party next time, because it isn't nearly as good the second day.

Exercised the Nuclear Option today.

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I had the perfect opportunity to insert a Simpson's quote into modern life, but it fell on deaf ears as I went to lunch by myself today.

I donated a bag of the ole O-Neg, and afterwards, I drove to the Bowling Alley on base and got a bite to eat. I ordered a fillet o'fish sandwich, and as I went up to the counter, I said to myself, Let the fools have thier Tar-Tar Sauce.

I got a good laugh about it, and I consider it a high point in the day, although I had just bled out a pint of blood, so it was probably just the wooziness.

a drink I would like to call Death in Venice.

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One of the stories I had to read in the recently concluded World Lit II class in meatspace at Troy was Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. It is a story about a man who discovers a pederastic yearning for a young teenage polish boy he sees on the beach of Venice. One time he drinks Pomegranate Juice and Soda. I thought I would give it a try and bought some POM pomegranate juice at the Yuppiemarket and some diet Sprite. It tastes pretty good, especially if you add rum or vodka.

Finals Over

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I have now officially finished Spring Term 2005. I took my last final at around 2:30. I am really loving Troy U's online classes. They are easier than the real thing, and I don't have to drive an extra 20 miles to go to school.

I now have a 3 week break that I will need to utilize to study for Microeconomics. I really need to CLEP it, so that I don't waste my summer spinning wheels on prereqs.

New reader base expands to 4!

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I now have a subscriber base of 4!
Wendy May, who I met a mutual friends dinner party.
Dallas Smith, my cuz.
Some anonymous reader that tracked back my blog from a comment I posted on another blog.
And my friend Gabe, who hasn't really posted any comments, and I'm not really sure if he blogs.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington or How I learned to stop filibustering and approve the crazy republican judges.

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Got an all American classic that, just like It's A Wonderful life on Christmas, every good red blooded patriot should be forced to watch annually, lets say 4th of July.

I think that during this current debacle in the Senate, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is especially appropriate to watch.

Saw Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

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Brought along the wife and kid. Sophie liked it. It had been sufficiently long enough since I read the book, that I didn't nitpick over any missing details, like a real life embodiment of The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy pointing out incongruencies between the X-Men movies and the comic book plot.

miscellanea

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miscellanea: Definition and Much More From Answers.com

Thought I would just save time and put all my ramblings into one post, but decided against it in favor of Quantity over quality.

I decided to keep it though because of the URL to the pronunciation was amusing.
http://www.answers.com/main/content/ahd4/pron/M0330500.wav I think that this must be the first time I've ever seen 'pron' used for a legitimate purpose.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Cheaper to Keep Her.

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A meme?

I heard a song on good blues shoutcast I discovered tonight, Winamp Link
Windows Media Player Link. The song sounded like it was by Elwood Blues, titled Cheaper to Keep Her. The same phrase was used last night at a party we went to at a friend's house.

It's always funny how I'll notice something unique, then all of a sudden, I'll notice it all over the place. It could be that I just never heard it before, but I don't think that's the case. Kind of like deja vu but not. Babelfish tells me it would be called juste revu.

I just googled, and it looks like 'Cheaper to Keep Her' was indeed sung by Elwood on Blues Brothers 2000. I wonder if that's where the person I heard if from got it.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Ate at a new restaurant

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Menu
We finally got around to eating at the pub. We never went to it's Montgomery mall location, mainly because the Montgomery Mall location was in the 'hood, and we didn't want our car broken into, or deal with the roving gangs of hoodlums that loitered there. I swear, so called "urban" fashion these days makes grown men look like little boys wearing their daddies clothes.

Anyhow, back on topic, The Pub has a great new location on the fringes of the boonies of Montgomery. We were sat in the bar area, which was cramped, loaded with red-necks in shorts and t-shirts, and detracted from the english pub setting. Perhaps I just think of O'Doherty's Irish Pub in downtown Spokane when I think of pub. We had a round of cocktails to start off. I had a Crown and Coke, and Brandi had a fairly mediocre $7 apple martini. If you are going to charge 7 bucks for a martini, you should use something better than Absolute! Bonefish uses Van Gogh in their $7 Sour Appel Martini. Anyhow, it was just absolut, apple pucker and S&S. I make a much better Apple martini with even cheaper vodka. Our house salads came without croutons, not a big deal. I chose the house dressing, which allegedly was a balsamic vineagrette. I say allegedly because, although it shared the characteristically brown color, it tasted more like steak sauce watered down with malt vineagar. It was not sweet at all, like one would expect. Oh, and save your fork. Even though all entree's are served with salads, you silverware is not served with a salad fork. Brandi ordered the Filet and Crap Cake, and I ordered the Split Beef Tenderloin. Our steaks were both well cooked to order, and even though they were only USDA Choice cuts, they were very tender and flavorful. I chose green beans for a side, and they were quite good. Brandi had a "loaded" baked potato, which arrived late by the way. On thing that I can't stand is when a baked potato is served with less than what god intended it to have, Bacon, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives. Brandi's only came with butter and sour cream. I went out on a limb and ordered the desert. I tried the bread pudding, which was not bad. It was certainly better than Ryan's left-over yeast roll pudding, but it was very dense, and lacked any visual appeal, since its only garnish was a poof of Whipped cream and Maraschino Cherry.

My final verdict: Not worth waiting more than fifteen minutes for a seat. The price level on most of their better entree's are disparate to the level and quality of service. If you want country service, go to a meal and three, if you want good service to go with your good food, go to Bonefish.

Since Bonefish Grill is my Benchmark for grading restaurants in montgomery, I would have to give The Pub a three quarters Bonefish rating.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Google Search: florida handcuffed

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Google Search: florida handcuffed

What the hell is wrong with this country. I'm not talking about handcuffing a out of control 5 year old. I'm talking about how some people are outraged over this. The child was irrational, and would not settle down until the police came. The lawyer for the case talked about how the child was traumatized. PULEEZ!! The only trauma that has occurred is that the child seems to have been raised in a household that does not value discipline. It is a shame that the lesson that this child learned early enough so that it won't show up on any record will be wasted by the parents "you did nothing wrong darlin, we'll just sue them and cash in" attitude. It looks like the school and the assistant principal went to extraordinary lengths to calm down the brat. I would have beaten the shit out of the punk or locked her in a closet long before they had to call the cops.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Netflix: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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Netflix: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
I thought this would be appropriate in light of the ongoing debate in the senate. I also like this article from the Oregonian:

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Amazon.com: Music: Kasabian

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I was in wally world tonight browsing throught the Electronics system when I wanted to check out the Kasabian cd, based on how much I liked the Club Foot single that was on my PSP Sampler Proprietary Media Disc. I was all set to buy it, it was <$10, but then rrrrrrt, right on the front, it mentions that it is crippled to prevent you from copying it, and that you have to take extraordinary measures to get iit to play on your system. 2 words, FUCK THAT! I'm now going to download an album that I was actually willing to buy. I gotta tell ya, its not very often that I want to buy CD's, since I usually download them. Its unfortunate that the greedy record label did such an effective job of spurning more than just my attempt to purchase.
Amazon.com: Music: Kasabian

Saturday, April 09, 2005

PSP Web Portal

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Bought a PSP, mainly because I was looking for a media player. I'm really impressed with it. It has no bad pixels, and because of the referenced url, I can now surf the intarweb with the game Wipeout PURE. Pretty tight.

Now, if someone can just figure out a way to add a hard drive to it.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Schiavo parents to sell donor data to direct-marketing firm

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The Schindler's (in)famous for not accepting reality and using tears to twist and corrupt the checks and balances of this democracy are now selling all information from (in the words of my friend Gabe, a neo-con himself) the bed-wetting bleeding heart Neo-Cons who helped contribute to thier shenanigans. I heard many allegations by the talking head and so-called compassionate people slanderous or otherwise, the Mike Schiavo was only doing this for financial gain. The real swindlers here are the Schindlers, and the politicians like DeLay for exploiting this situation for gain.

from: Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Be careful jumping to 64 Bit

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Be careful jumping to 64 Bit
I've just upgraded my boxen to a AMD64 3200+ with 2GB of ram. I downloaded WindowsXP 64 bit eval from microsoft (free, not pirated), and thought the same thing as the guy in the post. I am finding that most drivers and software written for x386 procs do not work, even though MS claims that it will, unless it contains legacy 16-bit code.
I guess I'll just roll back to 32bit XP, until MS releases the XP64, and all my drivers support it. This reminds me of back in the day when windows 2000 came out, or when Windows 9x came out. It took a good year after release before new software started to run natively in 9x, and about that same time for drivers for existing hw to support NT5. I hope it doesn't take that long, it seems like 64 bit procs have already been out a year.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Knitting

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I ran across this post on a new blog I currently use to help waste time at work. I have no intrest in knitting, but I have a cousin who does.

elective Amputation fetish

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An interesting article is posted on BoingBoing about nuts that want to have specific body parts amputated. Perhaps they should join the Army or Marines, where is seems to be a frequent occurance right now.

Monday, March 21, 2005

More Right to Die rantings

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I heard on the radio today that there was a memo circulated around congress to the republicans extoling the political benefits of passing a law just to save Mrs. Schiavo. Among the benefits was that it will make Democrats look bad, and there is a Florida Democrat up for reelection soon. This is all part of the same faux sentimentality that will let a Texas Governor and now PUSA condone the death penalty, and deny clemency out of one corner of his mouth, but in rushing back in an 11th bid to contradict the Judicial branch, gush about how laws should favor life, out of the other.

This is quite ironic that the neo-cons don't see the disconnect between their pro-life agenda, and their pro-death death penalty beliefs. How can executing retards, underage offenders or anyone for that matter be a law that favors life?

I'm glad that the Catholics are taking this opportunity to try and fight the Death Penalty again. It only serves to point out the hypocrasy of the "compassionate" conservatives.

It is better [that] 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer." Benjamin Franklin

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Republicans as aimless hippies.

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Congress wastes time

The recent attempts by congress to save the life of a human vegatable by manipulating the law to keep her alive is an attack at the very checks and balances that help ensure democracy. By congress trying to call Terry Schiavo as a witness to ensure her safety is a prime example of one branch of the government over stepping their bounds. If she is a brain dead vegtable, then what good would she do as a witness? This hipocritical compassion for the hopeless is no different than PETA's compassion for only cute animals. The president is rushing back from the WhiteRanch so that he can sign a bill that will completely ignore the Florida Supreme Courts ruling, completely overturning the checks and balances afforded to the Judicial Branch of the Federal Government. He puts no value on the human lives that were taken due to overzealous torture directives by the now NSA Morales, but goes back to work early so that he can prevent the wasting of an empty shell. If they had any compassion, they would euthanize her. An overdose of morphine would put her body into an endless sleep, and finally give Terry the dignity of a burial.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Grrrr

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The douche that shipped me a broken radio from ebay has now stepped away from mediation, and is now threating me with legal action because I gave him a negative rating. The mediation was the only way of me redacting the rating, and I paid an extra $20 just to try to work it out with him. Why I am suddenly an asshole magnet?
[Legal disclaimer: douche and asshole are totally deserved terms that have only been assigned after the displeasure of dealing with this douche]
I swear I'm racking up a huge karma credit; I need to start buying lottery tickets.

I went to the doctor today, and was prescribed some Antibiotics for whatever infection I have. I has already kind of made me feel better. Just in time for Friday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

nyquil high

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I am just starting to feel the effects of 30mL of CVS brand Nyquil. Why am I taking nyquil you ask? Because I am sick. My neck is sore, my throat hurts, and I'm getting hot and cold flashes like a 50 year old woman. I felt even less like running today than I normally do. I've also had my birthday forgotten by Mama-C and even worse, my own brother. I don't know if its the forgetfullness, or the fact that I am now just 3 years away from 30, or 1 year closer to death. Speaking of which, I followed a link from boinbboing to Make magazine's blog http://make.oreilly.com/blog, and found a site called deathclock.com or something. It says I'm going to die in October, 2051. Thats pretty depressing. I've also sold out a little by adding googles ads to the right of my page. it was empty space anyway. So be nice and click on a link, I might just get a couple of cents out of it. I think I'm going to pass out now, I'll post more later

Saturday, March 12, 2005

No Slapped head, bad controller.

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i took the bad HDD out of my comp, Of all the drives in the array, the newest one is what failed. I would have figured my IBM DeathStar 75gxps would have failed already, since I've had them for almost 5 years. Instead, a 1 year old Maxtor Diamond Max 40GB weent out. The bios doesn't even recognize it, so I suspect the controller board. I took it apart and noticed several dark brown spots on the foam that insulates the controller board from the hard drive casing. This may be normal, but I suspect that several resistors overheated on nthe board, causing or resulting from the damage. Now, my only hope to recover the 120GB RAID 0 array is with the extra 40gb drive that I ordered. If it is the controller board, then a direct swap of the boards should work, if not, then I'm really screwed. If weren't for my work laptop, I wouldn't know what to do. I have a paper due on Monday, and thankfully I found a draft of it in my GMAIL account.

I also had a guy come by and pick up a fender and hood from my wrecked 240.
I think I will go running in the park before sunset, the winds look really good for flying a kite.

Head slap

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I sent this email like 7 days ago, I don't know what is up, but blogger really sucks balls when it comes to posting via email.

Offline forawhile. cpu is down. A bad sector must've popped up where my system files are. So i am posting from my cell.

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Thursday, March 03, 2005

I have a baby in my belly

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Tonight, Sophie told a waiter that she had a baby in her belly. The doctor put it there.

I checked my grades and looks like I got an A for Accting. I think all I needed was a 78 on the final, but 90% is the same as 100% when it gets simmered down into a 4. I've had to deal with more crap related to this jerk who sold me a broken radio on ebay. Maybe the possibility of mediation removing his negative feedback will convince him to make good.

I still have an overdue lab to turn in for my online Earth Science class, and 3 quizes.
I'll be glad when this school thing is over.

I'm now registered for 16 hours this semester, its forcing me to really learn time management.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Long Day over

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I took my World Lit 2 mid term, and think I did really well considering I read the cliff notes for 2 of the books, Madame Bovary and The Death of Ivan Illich. I would really recommend www.sparknotes.com for anyone that wants an indepth executive summary, and test prep. I also took my Accounting 1 final. I think I might have gotten a B or a low A, depending on the Curve, but all i need is a 78% for an A in the class. I also had to deal with a slacker of a seller on ebay. I bought a stereo for my car in December, didn't receive it until January, and it was broken due to poor packaging/mishandling. I had to file my first negative feedback on someone, but I am attempting to resolve it through mediation. Time for bed, 15hr days suck.

Monday, February 21, 2005

< EoD > ramblings < /EoD >

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I just finished a test in my Bookkeeping class that I was stressing about because I hate bookeeping and I never actually mentally attended the classes. I think I did alright, I attended the review session and crammed during the class before. Thank god for low educational standards in Alabama. My new theory is that if they set public school standards too high, then all the dumb jocks wouldn't be able to go to, and graduate from college. To anyone that is unfamiliar with Alabama, it is very difficult to determine the precedence of College football to Christianity. Maybe its because there are no NFL teams here, or perhaps they aren't here because of the UA/Auburn obsession. Chicken or the egg.

I got to thinking about burning 4000 $1's, and how much they would weigh and such. http://www.faqs.org/qa/qa-11871.html says that it would weigh 8.8lbs. I found the dimensions of the bill to be 65mm*156mm. I just need the height of $50 crisp new bills to visualize what the pile would look like.

Update on Accident

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I called my Insurance Company today. The bad news is that Alabama's
uninsured motorist coverage does not cover property damage like Texas'
does. The good news is that I don't have to worry about selling my car
now. I think that setting fire to a pile of 4000 $1's would have been a
lot more fun to watch than this.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Hit and Run, news at 11.

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I had just left Maxwell last night after my Dual Cross Country Night flight when I was rear ended by an asshole that chose to remain anonymous by driving away. I've attached some crappy cell phone pics until my Sony gets charged. I'm alright, I just have a bruise on my head from the button on the top of my hat, when my head hit the ceiling. My neck is also a little sore, but otherwise, I'm alright.