;_;

I choose happy.

My face is leaking.

Free health care is very expensive.

The Armed Canadian relates his experiences with "free" health care.

Save the link for your favorite "Don't be so heartless!" lib.

Overheard at work

Coworker: "This guy was a piece of work. He wasn't a douchebag, he was captain douchebag."
Everyone: Laughter
Me: "He was a 5th degree douchebag."
Everyone: Laughter
Coworker: "He meditated on top of a mountain."
Everyone: Laughter
Me: "He lived in a monastery for 7 years."
Everyone: Laughter
Coworker: "He attained douchebag enlightenment, and wanders the Earth as a aesthetic, spreading douche across the world."
Everyone: Hysterical laughter

Tip for Perl coders

Do NOT use a function that decreases the readability of your code (WITHOUT COMMENTS) because it's fractions of a millisecond faster than a more readable function.

PERL IS QUICK AND DIRTY.

PERL IS AN INTERPRETED LANGUAGE.

PERL IS NOT THAT FAST.

IF YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT FRACTIONS OF A MILLISECOND GO PLAY WITH C.

That is all.

Quote of the impact

Have no illusions–gun control is about rich white folks making vain efforts at denying Hispanics and African Americans weapons by way of taking them away from whites, blacks, and every shade in between. It’s punishing all drivers because of the limited few who repeatedly drive and get caught with a BAC of 0.19 . It’s telling Arabs around the world they can’t fly on airplanes because of 19 crazed idiots. It’s denying you and me a glass of beer because Britney Spears can’t control herself. It’s telling glaucoma patients they can’t smoke a joint because crack dealers are killing people.

It’s what you do instead of something.

From Pro-Gun Progressive.

SUSPENDED

Clearly, the system works. This 7 year old terrorist has been brought to justice.

From David.

Better RDP brute forcing

Win.

I hated TS grinder with a passion.

UPDATE
Bugger. Seems it can't cope with a GP "Legal Notice" (banner). Oh well, it's still good.

What? What? Wait... What? Wh--

?!

Music should make you feel...

... like this makes me feel.

Overheard at work

I walked outside into the smoke and ash of Irvine to find two coworkers smoking. I walked up to them and began coughing loudly.

Me: "Excuse me, could you put that out?"
Everyone: Laughter
Coworker: "Actually, you should be sucking on one of these, at least these are filtered!

But seriously, socal is on fire, and it's working its way up. We're having power outages all around us all the way up in Irvine. Meanwhile everyone is being advised to pack their shit or voluntarily evacuate.

Tough times.

Cocking hammers and big red noses

I was watching Dexter last night (which is a series I enjoy greatly, and would recommend to anyone) and there was a scene where two former Army rangers drew pistols into a Mexican Mexican-American stand off. One had a double-action Beretta M9 style pistol, and the other had a 1911 single-action. While the scene was meant to be quite intense, I couldn't help but notice that the Ranger with the 1911 neglected to cock the hammer. The trigger was very clearly a single-action, so I couldn't even excuse it as possibly being one of those blasphemous double-action 1911s.

I immediately slipped back into gunny mode and mentioned matter-of-factly to my significant other that the hammer was not cocked, which made the offending pistol about as useful as a large squeaky toy.

Of course, immediately after I said this, I realized that it really didn't matter because it was just TV.

After thinking about this I've decided it's OK to be bothered by it. All forms of cinematic entertainment requires you maintain some level of suspension of disbelief. It is the job of the directors, actors, and writers to make you believe what is happening on the screen, and thusly, be emotionally affected by what's happening. Any glaring inconsistencies disrupt this, and remove emotional attachment to the characters on the screen by reminding the audience that what they are watching is not real.

While it is possible to simply ignore inconsistencies like this, it's still a distraction.

For example; suppose a main character was about to go off to fight the climactic battle, one which he was unlikely to return from, and a supporting character suggested he wear a big red clown nose for luck.

The story wouldn't change, and when he's on his deathbed soliloquizing about his life, you may still be moved, but that wouldn't keep your eyes from darting between this dying grip on his loved ones and the silly red nose on his face.

The most annoying part of all this is that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this stuff. I don't know everything about guns, in fact, I only started really learning about guns a few years ago, but I still know this stuff. It wouldn't take much for of the crew members to pool their acquaintances and find someone who knows something about guns and just have them sit around and remind them that single-action guns need to have their hammers cocked, or that a glock doesn't make a hammer cocking sound because it doesn't have a hammer.

Of course, this can extend beyond entertainment.

The good stuff never gets old.

These still make me laugh until I can't breathe.

Double quotes

Both from Larry Correia who is now in my bookmarks for blogs I need to read more often.

The problem with this is that most of America’s knowledge about guns comes from watching movies. Where if I shoot somebody with a .45, they fly backwards out the window, do a flip, roll fifty feet, and burst into flames.

To put this in perspective, when you shoot somebody in self defense, the goal isn’t necessarily to kill them, it is to stop them. You want the bad guy to stop doing whatever it is they are doing that caused you go pull a gun in the first place. Live or die is really irrelevant. You want them to leave you alone. Sadly, the best way to make somebody leave you alone is to shoot them in their vital organs, and that often results in the bad guy’s death. But that’s his problem, not yours.

Portal Demonstration

I want to throw up.

Video pulled from youtube, catch it on liveleak

I don't use the "C" word very often because I think it's a profanity that can't be used lightly (as most of my profanity is), but as I was watching this video I surprised myself when I called her by that word out loud.

At least that horrible woman got suspended for her "investigative" journalism.

Payne Freeze

In keeping with the tone of the short story I posted earlier, I was reminded of this.

Zero Punctuation on the Orange box

Yahtzee is back this week with a timely review of The Orange Box.
timely only because I recently purchased it

I wasn't that interested in the orange box until I became aware that it included Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 in addition to Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. I pushed off buying HL2 (painfully) because I simply couldn't see spending a small fortune getting a gaming box up to spec when it was just so I could play an entertaining game.

Meanwhile back in 2004; Half-Life 2 is very impressive in all aspects and stays very true to Half-Life's gameplay, scale, realism, style, length, and breadth. (and actually plays tolerably well on the 360) Super awesome ultra thumbs up.

Oh yeah, and Portal is a hilariously awesome, mind-bending game that is awesome. Did I mention it's awesome? But seriously, it's awesome.

Rich old white guys

We got into an minor debate at work, and my opponent opined that the founding fathers were simply rich white guys who stood to make money from a war because wars always bring money.

He is misguided on a few points, but this was totally off.

I dug up this old video and sent him the link.

Wait, what?

California's second foot in the door.

Recently our Governator (R) (D) passed AB 1471 and AB 821, the microstamping and "lead ammo ban" bills.

For those who might not be up on our governor, he has been slipping for quite some time now, but he was still keeping do nothing feel good legislation from becoming law. I guess that is no longer the case. I must, however, commend him for putting his signature on them. Many thought he'd just let them sit until they were law. He wanted people to know exactly where he stood on the issue. Thanks Arnie. Now we all know.

For as misguided and heavy-handed as these bills are, they are not the end of the world. In fact there are several provisions that severely limit their applications. Microstamping requires that all patent issues be resolved, and grandfathers previously "safe listed" handguns to allow their continued purchase. The lead ammo ban is limited only to ammo used while hunting, and only effects certain areas of California.

The bills in their approved state are not that terrible. What they will become, however, is a whole other animal.

This was the second foot in the door to the complete ban of handguns, and then, guns. The first was the establishment of the "safe" handgun list, which required handguns to have certain safety features, and be submitted for testing and approval in California. Californians can only purchase a percentage of handguns on the market.

Anti-gunners are not interested in challenging the ownership of guns in California, they're having much more success imposing "common sense" restrictions. Most Californians who don't own firearms don't seem to be opposed to other law-abiding Californians owning firearms. This is probably why a simple ban was never proposed. Antis found that they could attract a lot more support for their bills if they simply proposed "safety restrictions." Who wouldn't want a safety feature, right? No big deal, right? Not quite. The new safety features made it harder for manufacturers to comply. Many simply eschewed California's market as too complicated and dangerous for them to get involved in. Some stuck through, and jumped through all the hoops to get their handguns approved for sale in California. Now they're adding more "safety restrictions." Who wouldn't want a safety feature, right? Eventually they'll make it economically inviable to sell handguns in California.
Handguns won't be banned. You just won't be able to buy them.

The lead ammo ban passing was a surprise to many, but some expressed nonchalance on California gun forums. "The ban only applies to hunters? Haha! Now the Fudds know how it feels!" Indeed. Yet again we find ourselves playing right into the anti's divide and conquer efforts. Somehow many in the gun community (hopefully a shrinking group) feel that the goal of anti-gunners is to oppress one group of gun owners while leaving the other alone. People keep talking about hanging separately, but some folks just don't get it. Your semi-auto rifle is an "assault rifle," and your deer rifle is a "sniper rifle." Anti-gunners are anti-gunners. They're not "anti-hunters" or "anti-recreational shooters" they are anti guns, and they want to get rid of them, big or small, fast or slow, new or old, black or wood. We'd have enormous political power as a group if we'd only get this idea through our collective skull. But all this has been said, many times before. Unfortunately, I don't think anything short of a ban on semi-autos and scoped rifles will ever really unite the gun community.

Please excuse my sarcasm in the next section, but just as there is a rift between hunters and shooters, there is a rift between California gun owners and non-Californian gun owners. I know this does not represent every non-Californian, but I think it needs to be said.
But, what does this mean to gun owning NON-Californians? Oh, nothing. It isn't as though California is the testing ground for laws such as these before they get picked up by other states, and then proposed federally. No, don't worry about that, just keep hoping that Commie-fornia will break off from America and fall into the ocean. Move along, nothing to see here... Oh wait... Whoops.

Similar federal legislation is being drafted by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

But hey, I'm sure it won't make it. That never happens.

Gun control doesn't work.
Gun control doesn't work.
Gun control doesn't work.
It's not about me keeping my guns, or any "cold dead hands" bullshit, gun control simply does not work on any level.

I'm really disgusted with this whole thing. This post seems a bit sub-par to me, but I don't feel like going over it again and giving it more unity, because I just don't want to have to reread it.

OM NOM NOM!!!

Via MAKE.

To know fish.

One day a Zen master and his friend were walking near a river.

The Zen master gazed into the river and said, "Look at the fish swimming around; they are really enjoying themselves."

"But, you are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said replied the Zen master. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

Brilliant idea.

Windbelt, Cheap Generator Alternative, Set to Power Third World

Check out the video. It's quite impressive.

The Red Top

Please enjoy this silly short story. Every once something will happen, and I'll get an itch to write one. Best read as a voice over to a film noir. Loosely based on actual events :)

My eyes shot open to the piercing ring of an old telephone. I wasn't that old, but I was old enough to know that the ringtone captured the actual ring of an old rotary pretty well. It even had that faint ringing that persisted between rings. It was a shrill assault. But that's why I liked it. I was a private eye.

It was morning, and I caught an 11 on the clock as my body twisted in the cold bed to silence the noisy assailant. I was late. Again. Which meant I knew who would be calling. It would be Denise, and she would be angry. As I turned the phone over in my hand I silenced it and brought the screen close to my face. It was Denise. I sat up in bed and winced at old pains as I prepared to endure the new one in my hand. I pressed "Talk."

I wasn't prepared for what was coming out of the phone, so it took me a second to adjust. She wasn't yelling, but she was taking fast, and there was a lot of background noise.
"--rice! pep--- ---overs ref--- bottom!"
I don't like it when people call me when they can't talk.
"Denise, I can't hear--"
"It's--- red top-- wit--- bottom shelf."
"Denise, call me ba--"
"Can't-- need-- --Got it?"
"Denise! I can barely--"
"---Got it?!"
"Red top, bottom shelf."
*click*

What the hell?

It wasn't like her to skip an opportunity to yell at me. Denise didn't sound like she was in the office. She didn't even sound like Denise. What the hell was she talking about? Women.

The cold shower woke me up quickly. It always did. I stopped taking hot showers about two years ago. Ever since our hot water heater was stolen. Who the hell steals a hot water heater?

My stomach groaned as I finished dressing. It was empty, but that's not why it protested. It objected to the thought of yet another pot of bland instant ramen. It would rather go hungry.
At least we were on the same page.

I tried not to think about the strange call I got from Denise as I walked the four blocks to the office. The more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. She didn't usually make those kinds of annoying calls. Maybe it was my imagination, but she sounded a bit frantic. I figured my questions would be answered as soon as I checked the thing with the red top on the bottom shelf. Whatever it was. My stomach indulged in the thought that she was talking about the refrigerator. Denise hated leftovers so whenever she went out and had some food left, she usually brought it in for me. She was a doll. She was my only partner on this private eye farce of mine.

I hated that we had no work, but I hated more that I couldn't afford to pay her this week. It was a punch in the gut when she told me. I told her to go home, but she just ignored me. She said if she left I'd be closed up inside a month because I couldn't manage my way out of a paper bag. She said she'd have to go find a real job with a real boss who wasn't the bum I was. Then she sat down, pointed to my office, and yelled at me for still having unread prospects on my desk. Like I said, she was a doll.

The blinds were closed behind the large glass window on the office door. Denise usually opens them when she's in. I saw her car, so I figured she was down at that horrible deli on 22nd she likes for some damned reason. With the white blinds as a background the painting on the glass stood out. A magnifying glass over an eye, and "Sal Jacks, Private Eye" below it. It was too cliché for my tastes, but Denise liked it and it got the job done. I dug my keys out of my pocket and unlocked the door.

The place had been tossed. It didn't look professional, just two or three Billys knocking everything onto the floor. Either looking for something or looking to leave a message.

"Huh." I hung my coat.

If I was lucky Denise would walk through door with a deli bag in her hand. But I'm not a lucky guy.

I looked across the office and spotted that red top Denise told me about. Leftovers in some tupperware lying on the floor next an open box of baking soda in front of the empty refrigerator. It looked like some kid of rice dish. She was a doll. Now I just gotta get her back.

I opened the door to my office and stepped over the broken glass on the floor. At least I didn't see any blood. But I didn't see any notes either. I tossed the tupperware onto my desk and dropped into my chair. The top drawer on my desk was open and empty. "Ahh, not my cigars..." I pulled the short cigarette out of my mouth, and opened the tupperware. Rice with ground beef and what looked like tomato sauce. This didn't seem right. They've got Denise and I've got nothing. Where's the threat? Where's the brick wall Billy to work me over and tell me what mess I'm in now? Where's the nasty phone call telling me I'll "never see her again unless"? This didn't seem right.

The worst part was, I couldn't do a damn thing until I got a knock on my door or a phone call. Well, that's not entirely true. I picked up the plastic fork.

The food was great, and my stomach was full. Maybe now I could figure out what the hell is going on. The phone rang. Finally.

It was the cops. Denise was dead.

Fell off a bridge. They didn't mention why she walked 11 miles from the office, wandered out to the middle of the bridge and tripped over the edge. They never did.

She was murdered. And the only clue I had was working its way through my lower intestine.

My stomach turned as I though about the cold entrée I had so carelessly eaten.

An entrée of trouble.

BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!

Many things stay in my mind for a very long time;

one of them is this lady's angry face sputtering the word "BABIES!" for a fraction of a second. (0:22)



"Babies EVERYWHERE!"

Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the Quote of the

If I really did have mind control powers, I wouldn't be here playing with you! I would have a harem and be sitting in Fort Knox, rubbing my testicles on pure gold. Because I could!

Shamelessly stolen from James, who never ceases to entertain.

Quote of the Awesome

This quote comes to us from Larry Correia, who has a hilarious letter up bashing HK's holier-than-thou attitude toward the civilian market. Definitely worth the read!
HK. Because you suck. And we hate you.

Plus we’ve fired 100,000,000 rounds through one with zero malfunctions, and that was while it was buried in a lake of molten lava, on the moon.

Fucking win.

That thing is made fuck and win.

Quote of the strengeness

...dreamy guitars lilt and sway as synths and steady hypnotic beats create a shimmering soundscape that brings space and time to a virtual stop.

Quite.

That is a very strange statement that I enjoy reading almost as much as I enjoy listening to the CD.

Let me break it down for you...

...Don't go into Power Dome A

Sanitize your input.

You certainly don't want something like this to happen.

and don't forget input that is managed by java (direct POST modification bypasses java restrictions), and input that calls web pages by IDs for SQL queries instead of actual URLs.

Quote of the WTF?!

This little gem comes to us from the illustrious Steve Ballmer, monkey boy himself. Boy is it a doozy.

I would love to see all open source innovation happen on top of Windows.

Yeah? I'd like a few acres in a semi-rural area with a quarry with a 600 yard range, and plenty of varmints to shoot. Only difference is, I actually have a chance of getting my wish.

Blogrollamabob Updatification

My anti-blogroll at the bottom of the right column has received a long overdue update.

Before I get into the changes, let me remind you once again, that the "Blogs I Frequent" section does NOT contain anybody who links me and certainly does not carry the expectation that I be linked back. They are simply blogs that I see fit to visit almost every day, and carry my suggestion that your time will not be wasted by reading them.

The Unforgiving Minute
TD has a great mix of Geek, guns, politics, knifery, cookery, and general miscellany.
(and the weekend hotness ain't bad either)

Smallest Minority
Kevin consistently provides great write-ups on a variety of topics (most recent of which, a great piece on journalistic integrity), they always cover the topics well, and are full of info. Always a great read.

Armed Canadian
The Armed Canadian visits a number blogs you might not, and always has another great read or a fine bit of wit on a variety of topics.

The Firearm Blog
The Firearm Blog is relatively new to the blog scene, but is eager to impress with interesting posts on a wide range of gun topics. You'll find guns new and old, tips, tricks, reviews, links galore, and (of course) teh gun pr0n.


While I'm on the topic I'd like to say some positive things about a blog that has been linked ever since I kept links, Say Uncle. This blog links a lot of gunny goodness. He'll cover politics, news, guns, and pretty much anything else. Uncle's is easily the blog that I have the most clicks through. By the time I'm caught up, I've usually got somewhere between 5 and 10 new pages to look at, and they're usually all worth my time. Uncle covers a lot of info, usually with little comment which helps you quickly decide if it's something you want to read. It's a great linking blog.

Quote of the Need

What's it [20mm rifle] good for? Hell if I know; probably useless for anything except turning money into noise, but that's never stopped me from dropping a wad of cash at the fireworks store.

From Tam

Sorry, no rights today; computer's down.

To those who would argue that a right inconvenienced is still a right, I link the following;

Gun sales resume as TBI check system operational

After almost three days of being down, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s system for conducting criminal background checks on potential gun buyers is back up and running this afternoon.

Kristen Helm, a TBI spokeswoman, said a software issue “crashed the server” at about 1 a.m. Monday morning, halting all gun sales in Tennessee for almost three days.

Whenever people talk about the right to keep and bear arms, there is usually an argument that if people eventually get their guns, there's no real obstruction of rights. Therefore, "cooling down" periods, the time it takes to run a background check (10 days in some states), or time limits on handgun purchases (1 per 30 days in California), don't interfere with your right to keep and bear arms.

How does that argument stack up against technical difficulties? As a member of the IT industry I've seen crashes so bad they've taken weeks to recover from. I can only imagine that government facilities, without a monetary incentive to bounce back, would suffer longer delays.

So the question is;
If no one could buy a gun for a day do they still have the right to keep and bear arms?
If so, or if not, why? What if it was three days? A week? A month? A year? At what point do we say that being denied the right to buy a gun (which most gun-restricting states still do not dispute) is being denied a constitutional right?


As a side note; if a woman in California is threatened by her ex-boyfriend, buys a small handgun, (and survives the waiting period) and fires a warning shot when her EX kicks down her door, the police will take her gun as evidence for the investigation, and she won't be able to buy another handgun until 30 days after her first purchase, while her EX remains at large.

Hat tip to David

Didn't the Nazis do something similar to this?

Doc, what’s up with snooping?

They’re watching you right now.

They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox game.

They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke.

They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it.

They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State.

Apparently the AAP feel it's the duty of doctors to grill children on their parents' illegal activities.

“The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,” my daughter told us afterward, rolling her eyes in that exasperated 13-year-old way. “She asked if you two did drugs, or if there are drugs in the house.”

Well, so long as they're only asking about illegal activities, it's OK right?

Debbie is a mom from Uxbridge who was in the examination room when the pediatrician asked her 5-year-old, “Does Daddy own a gun?”

When the little girl said yes, the doctor began grilling her and her mom about the number and type of guns, how they are stored, etc.

If the incident had ended there, it would have merely been annoying.

But when a friend in law enforcement let Debbie know that her doctor had filed a report with the police about her family’s (entirely legal) gun ownership, she got mad.

Whoops.

If I would have told you that people you trust were encouraging your kids to tell them about your activities so they could report you to the authorities, you'd probably laugh in my face.
(I probably would have too)

This is just so wrong that it would almost be comical if it wasn't actually happening.


Good fucking luck to all of us. We're going to need it.
(BTW, I'm getting tired of having to say that.)

Quote of the AWESOME

From The Brenda Fallacy

A shotgun in the house seems to be the thing for taking care of those pesky home invaders...plus, imagine their surprise when they find me there to meet them in the dark of night. A pissed off me, with fuzzy slippers and a pink shotgun, shouting, "Stay on the tile! Stay on the tile!" (much easier to mop up later.)

Hat tip to James

lolcatpumpkin

I can haz pumkin plox?


Via MAKE

It's a-me, Mario!

Oh, that Mario. Always announcing who he is and such...


LETS-A GO!

Questionable arousal

Tycho is known for his questionable... taste...

They're doing it!

It's awesome again! Looks like the show starts at 8pm pst!

I'm at a loss for words.

Just... soooo... much... awesome!

EDIT: Oh sweet and sour Jesus this shit is good. I'm going to have to rip the entirety of the shows so I can listen to them later and burn them to CDs so I can listen to previous shows in the car. Thank god for Mplayer!

Music radio had a good run.

I don't exactly have popular tastes.

This makes listening to music on the radio an exercise in frustration. What's that? You say you're playing that new pop song by that new pop artist? Great! It's kinda catchy! What's that? You're playing it again? What's that? You're going to stop just short of playing it back to back?! Hey, thanks for that. After all, if people didn't want to listen to the same song over and over again, they'd probably just change the station to one of the other 10 music stations owned by the same company, playing the exact same bullshit songs over and over. People usually listen to the radio in short blocks, around two hours, if you listen beyond those blocks, you realize that they're playing the same songs they just played. Try it, and keep long slender objects out of reach so you don't try to jam them into your ears after hearing that new hit single for the 11th time today.

Even when the music is tolerable, "deejays" can't help but interrupt over and over to remind you that they are, in fact, playing music. Or they take advantage of the rule that you don't talk over vocals, and when a song is starting out and building to the vocals, they feel free to yammer about nothing in particular over the first 45 seconds of a song. What really pisses me off, is when they're not trying to squeeze in announcements or information, they're just relating a story associated with the song. Ah, so when you first heard this song you liked it a lot? Please tell me more, Mr. Deejay. Additionally, instead of just holding down the button and telling us the story all at once, tell us the story in 4 second bursts so the music fades in and out annoyingly over and over. By the way, Mr. Deejay, after you've finished your story, feel free to continue to speak though you've nothing to say! Bonus points if you can continue saying things like "Yeah...", "Sooo..." and "Yep..." until just before the vocals start and quickly say the name of the show and the station and release the button with the satisfaction of knowing that you are a complete tool douchebag. (a tool would just say the station name; you bore us, and interrupt our music before saying the station name.)

Stations available run the gamut of music; oldies, rock/alt, country, rap/r&b, jazz/easy listening and... Oh, wait. That's it. Being a fan of electronic music I'm forced to suffer through Green Day's Time of your life, which is the 200th time in my life I've heard the damn song, before they actually consider playing a song I might actually enjoy. But every few years a station will pop on the dial that actually plays electronic/dance music, and for 6 months, life is good. No, life is awesome. Having great music to listen to when driving here and there or reading at home really makes a difference in my mood. Which makes it all the more wrenching when 6 months from the station's founding, I'm listening to my favorite music at 11:59pm, and at 12:00am I'm suddenly listening to mariachi music. Fuck you guys. How many truckloads of money did Clear Channel back up to your station to buy you out and eliminate you as competition? It isn't as though people didn't like the station because when the station shuts down and you flip to one of the "popular" stations that wouldn't play electronica if you chained it to a burning car as it rolled slowly toward a cliff siding a canyon filled with jagged rocks, broken glass, and salt; and surprise surprise, they're playing music straight from a playlist they snatched from the warm, dead hands of the dearly departed station. As if to say, "Hey, we hate what happened to that poor station too, but we've got what you need! I'd like to say this goes on for a week before they return to the same bullshit music, but it's usually about three days. Why mix up their "winning" line up of new pop song, old pop song, and popular 90's rock song, unless they thought there were ears to be bent? In my short life, I've seen this happen THREE times. After the last time I stopped listening to music on the radio.

Fortunately, I'm usually able to find independent stations that play interesting music. I'm not talking about the "Super Indy, Independent music radio that is totally not owned by some huge corporation so don't even bother looking at who funds us... please"-station, I'm talking about college radio stations. These are great for some interesting music, but you don't get any guarantee that you'll hear what you want. Fortunately, these stations usually have an electronic or semi-electronic night show.

After my most recent loss (which was surprising because the station had been around for a long time), I found a station that fulfilled my specific trance/dance/lounge/jazz taste. Another college station that could barely reach my area. After trying to catch a station name through the static that interrupted the music every 5-8 seconds, I found the station online, and it has an internet radio station. My DecTOP is going to get plugged into the sound system so I can stream constantly and just turn it on whenever I want to listen at home. Awesome. The station is KSBR, and is currently playing some easy listening... I'm guessing that awesome starts in the evening (PST), right now it's generic smooth jazz. Check it out later.

With my mounting frustration with radio, I'm finding the idea of paying for radio to be more and more attractive. I'd get the kind of music I want whenever I want, with (likely) minimal intrusion from "zany" deejays trying to make themselves memorable in some way so they don't get replaced when people realize they're just monkeys that push buttons.

Bed bath & beyond + $8 = Rifle Rack?!

Clicky for larger size

I defy you to do better for $8

These are called curtain holdbacks and would normally be... holding... curtains? They're better than most of the single rifle racks I could find which were little more than stands with shallow "u" shapes, which wouldn't be very helpful in the event of an earthquake.

Let mom sleep! (No sleep remix)

The song starts at 2:02

Soon... Soon...

I've been suffering through slowly dying copies of copies of CDs only available in Japan for some masochistic reason.

I was wincing at the skipping of one of my favorites when I switched back to radio and cursed the luck that made it impossible to purchase goods and wares from Japan. At which point I considered driving into a pole to punish myself for never once considering that whole "internet" thing.

All this time, and I was just 5 minutes from salvation...

It should be here soon.

What THE FUCK?!

WARNING: The rant mode is ON and turned to 11.
REPEAT! RANT MODE: ELEVEN!

Target Lawsuit Given Class-Action Status

The plaintiffs fault Target for not adopting technology used by other companies to make Web sites accessible to the blind.

What the fuck?

What the fuck?!

WHAT THE FUCK?!

I'm just about ready to stand next to these guys and encourage them. I WANT this kind of idiotic ADA bullshit to be brought to the light of day so everyone can start to realize how RETARDED the whole idea is! Today, when EVERYTHING is a disability, you can't argue that everyone has to cater to YOU. It's impossible.

But don't worry, I think I've got a winning idea to bring a head to this idiocy;

Nutritional facts are NOT blind-person accessible.

They're federally required to be printed on comestibles, (think of all the lives saved!) and blind people are legally defined as disabled under the ADA, and since these nutritional facts are UNREADABLE by blind people, they should sue, and require that every nutritional fact label include a braille version. That's right, I want all this information to be reprinted IN BRAILLE, ON THE PACKAGING.
I want to see one foot of braille attached to a god damned stick of lip balm.

I must have a case, because if a blind guy can't read a private company's website, he deserves cash money.

I just need to come up with some idiotic "disabilities" and sue everyone under the ADA. Perhaps I should develop a phobia of the ground, and require all publicly available businesses to have a helipad installed on their roof. Maybe I should be wheelchair-bound and deathly afraid of ramps, requiring all publicly available businesses and services to accommodate my idiotic fear or physical malady. Maybe color-blind people can sue all companies that produces goods that use more colors than they can see! Maybe if I cut off my thumbs, I can sue the manufacturers of ALL ITEMS THAT REQUIRE THUMBS TO OPERATE. I wouldn't have any thumbs, but for the money I'd be given, I could pay someone else to play Halo for me!

Lets see, since websites not being readable by the blind is an issue; what ELSE is not readable by the blind? Cell phones. ATM card swipers with digital buttons for PIN entry. Restaurant menus. Highlighting. Tie-related warnings on paper shredders. Text on paper media that comes out of a printer (sue the printer manufacturer!). DVDs. Movie theaters. Traffic lights. CARS! the list goes on.

Maybe not speaking English could be determined to be a disability! What about dyslexia! If I can't read text, the company that printed the text needs to provide a person to stand there and vocalize all the text on all the products they produce!

RANT OVER!
probably... this really pisses me off, so I promise nothing...

OK. The class action suit complains that the site did NOT provide software that would vocalize the content of the web page. You know where you can find software that vocalizes the text on a browser?
THE FUCKING INTERNET
The FIRST result points to a browser that can *gasp* READ WEB PAGES TO YOU! Holy fucking shit, I might just die. You're saying that I have a disability, and someone has developed some software to make my life easier, AND they've made it available to me for FREE?! FESUS JUCKING CHRIST! It's almost as though when I make a MINOR effort, I can find solutions to my problems WITHOUT PURSUING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST A PRIVATE COMPANY! I could even (gasp) buy a braille terminal and read the text on my computer??? Of course that would require me to get off my BLIND ASS and actually TRY instead of playing victim!

There are plenty of disabled people in this country who are living normal or near-normal lives of self-sufficiency or near-self-sufficiency. My guess is that these guys resent idiotic lawsuits that pervert the spirit of the ADA (which, being a free market kind of guy, I barely agree with in the first place).

Die in a fire,
ExistingThing

NOTE: This post is NOT available in braille unless you MAKE AN EFFORT to convert it!.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

Recheck your rifle's bore the day after you clean it after firing corrosive ammo. You think you got it all? Check again.

It takes almost no time, and can save yer damn rifle! DO IT.

Concordantly; CLP does NOT seem to dissolve the salts from corrosively primed cartridges, and I was 10 minutes late for work today.