The GOOD news is that little James was taken off the ventilator, started breathing with a bit of help, and has been holding his own.
The chest X-Rays still indicate he has pneumonia, but his lungs are slooooowly clearing up.
He apparently will NOT need a permanent tracheotomy, which would deprive him of his ability to make the sounds that he uses to interact with his family.
My wife just left to see him, and says they're planning on taking him off the "special" oxygen they're giving him through the little plastic "nose tubes" like you see on TV, and giving him "normal" oxygen.
From doing some Wikipedia reading, I think what they're going to do is reduce the flow rate, rather than change to source/concentration of the oxygen.
So for now, he remains is "Closely Guarded" condition, still in the ICU, but has surprised every one, including the doctors.
Now for the "bad" news........
While the MRSA wound on my tummy (around the belt line....OUCH!) is healing very nicely, and the one on my leg is just a fading red splotch, my finger aint doin so good.
At my follow up yesterday, my Doctor (great guy!) express concern that by not draining, the infection could conceivably get into my bloodstream, with disastrous results.
Namely, it can settle on your heart valves, and that would be a Very Bad Thing.
So, he got out this really neat little "pocket cauterizer", which looked somewhat like a large flashlight, and explained the operation to me.
Since your finger nails have no nerve endings, he was going to *carefully* burn through to the nail bed in an attempt to get the abscess to continue draining. The original incision made when I went to the walk-in clinic has healed/sealed back up, and it did that before the antibiotics had fully knocked out and stomped on the MRSA infection that started this whole thing.
Hmmmmm....didn't work.
So, he then proceeded to "block" the nerves in my finger with Lidocaine injections (NOT pleasant) so that he could make another incision to allow the abscess to properly drain.
He couldn't numb the finger out enough to where he was positive it wouldn't cause me considerable discomfort while he worked on it.
We had an "interesting" conversation about all the nerves and tendons in the hand and fingers while I was gritting my teeth and doing my best to flatten a tennis ball in my left hand while he made injections in my right index finger, and I learned quite a bit about the mechanics of the hand while waiting for the Lidocaine to take effect.
After 45 minutes, and with an unacceptable amount of sensation remaining in my finger, he decided that he wasn't going to be able to properly perform the procedure, as he didn't want to inject any more anesthetic than he already had.
SO....we went to "Plan B".
He extended the length of time I'll be taking the antibiotics, and we'll wait a few days to see if the infection gets stomped down enough so that the normal blood flow can flush out the dead cells. If things don't look any better on Monday afternoon when I have my next follow-up visit, he'll refer me to a hand surgeon who has much more experience with blocking the nerves, and tinkering with fingers.
And I'm still not cleared to return to work.........
.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Update From Hospital
They took my wife's grandson off the ventilator today, and after using the rubber bag respirator to get him "jump started", he began breathing normally, which surprised everybody, especially the Doctors.
HOWEVER....his O2 uptake isn't what it should be (my wife didn't remember the number, but it "wasn't good"), and the hospital Chaplain and the grief counseling staff were there before the Doctors disconnected the ventilator. They spent about an hour or so with the family discussing what would/could happen, and making sure the family's decision was "fully informed, and freely made" before they gave the Doctor the OK to shut the ventilator off.
My wife doesn't think they poor little guy will be coming home, and she said when she saw the "DNR" placard hanging on the bed, and "DNR" stamped on his chart, she just broke down and cried.
The Minister that married us was there with my wife (I'm not allowed in the ICU because of the MRSA infection I have), and helped her maintain some composure, for which I thanked her.
It truly is in God's hands now.......
HOWEVER....his O2 uptake isn't what it should be (my wife didn't remember the number, but it "wasn't good"), and the hospital Chaplain and the grief counseling staff were there before the Doctors disconnected the ventilator. They spent about an hour or so with the family discussing what would/could happen, and making sure the family's decision was "fully informed, and freely made" before they gave the Doctor the OK to shut the ventilator off.
My wife doesn't think they poor little guy will be coming home, and she said when she saw the "DNR" placard hanging on the bed, and "DNR" stamped on his chart, she just broke down and cried.
The Minister that married us was there with my wife (I'm not allowed in the ICU because of the MRSA infection I have), and helped her maintain some composure, for which I thanked her.
It truly is in God's hands now.......
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Very Sad News from the Hospital
My wife just called from the hospital where her grandson is.
He can't breathe on his own.
The recent seizures and lack of Oxygen he's suffered from the breathing problems have most likely destroyed the part of his brain that controls breathing, or that controls the muscles used in breathing.
They made the decision this morning to terminate his life support, and do their best to keep him comfortable until he passes.
My poor wife is greatly distressed, and the only comfort I've been able to give her is to tell her that her dear little grandson is truly an innocent, and will be safely home with God very soon.
The loss of a child is truly a terrible thing, but soon little James will be able to run and play and do all the other little boy things he was denied during his short time here on Earth
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
.
He can't breathe on his own.
The recent seizures and lack of Oxygen he's suffered from the breathing problems have most likely destroyed the part of his brain that controls breathing, or that controls the muscles used in breathing.
They made the decision this morning to terminate his life support, and do their best to keep him comfortable until he passes.
My poor wife is greatly distressed, and the only comfort I've been able to give her is to tell her that her dear little grandson is truly an innocent, and will be safely home with God very soon.
The loss of a child is truly a terrible thing, but soon little James will be able to run and play and do all the other little boy things he was denied during his short time here on Earth
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Off Work for Another Week.....
Got back from the Doctor's visit this morning, and although I'm healing nicely, he insisted I stay off work until the 8th, following another follow-up visit this coming Friday.
As long as the two abscess' I have are still draining, I'm still "contagious", and he doesn't want to risk my spreading this MRSA bacteria around.
It would NOT be good to have our minimal workforce decimated by this stuff!
And my sweet, loving wife has been washing all my clothes separately, with a good dose of bleach tossed in.
I wouldn't normally mind being off work, but with my right index finger all wrapped up, I can't solder!
Oh, well......it still doesn't stop me from messing around with my radios to listen and chat with other Hams.
On a side note......little James (my wife's grandson) seems to be getting better. They keep doing something to drain his lungs (a ghastly procedure, from what I've read), and while his lungs are clearing, he's still not out of the woods.
Dear wife will spend Sunday watching him with her oldest son.
As long as the two abscess' I have are still draining, I'm still "contagious", and he doesn't want to risk my spreading this MRSA bacteria around.
It would NOT be good to have our minimal workforce decimated by this stuff!
And my sweet, loving wife has been washing all my clothes separately, with a good dose of bleach tossed in.
I wouldn't normally mind being off work, but with my right index finger all wrapped up, I can't solder!
Oh, well......it still doesn't stop me from messing around with my radios to listen and chat with other Hams.
On a side note......little James (my wife's grandson) seems to be getting better. They keep doing something to drain his lungs (a ghastly procedure, from what I've read), and while his lungs are clearing, he's still not out of the woods.
Dear wife will spend Sunday watching him with her oldest son.
Friday, March 29, 2013
CQ WPX Contest This Weekend
I was just cruising around 20 Meters after dinner looking for some slow-scan TV, and all of a sudden I noticed the band get packed with wall-to-wall signals.
Turns it's the CQ Magazine "WPX" contest this weekend.
The object of the contest is to contact as many different "prefixes" as you can, and exchange a signal report and contact number.
A "prefix" refers to the first part of a callsign, which is where the station is located.
For example, I live in the FCC 6th Call District, so every callsign in Kaliforniastan has a number 6 in it.
A typical callsign would be W6XYZ. Or it could be K6XYZ, or WA6XYZ, and so on. The "W6", "K6", and "WA6" are the prefixes to the callsign, and each would count as a separte prefix.
Foreign callsigns, like "PY" for Brazil, "VK" for Australia, and "ZL" for New Zealand, also have unique prefixes, but also have an additional "multiplier" factored in to their point value in the process of determining your total score.
Contests like this are a good way to make contacts with new countries, but since it's so brief "Roger ZL2ABC, copy 5-9 #444. Please copy my 5-9 #675", and very artificial, many people almost don't consider it contacting whatever area of the world you just "worked".
I'm kind of benign about contests. I operate in them once in a while, but mostly go to the 17 Meter band where contests aren't allowed. I'd much rather TALK to somebody on the radio, as in having a real conversation with them, then just give them a signal report, and move on to the next one.
Sadly, it seems the art of conversation is becoming rare on the Amateur Radio frequencies, as some people just don't want to do anything other than swap reports and say "73".
And that's a shame, given our reputation as "Communicators".
Turns it's the CQ Magazine "WPX" contest this weekend.
The object of the contest is to contact as many different "prefixes" as you can, and exchange a signal report and contact number.
A "prefix" refers to the first part of a callsign, which is where the station is located.
For example, I live in the FCC 6th Call District, so every callsign in Kaliforniastan has a number 6 in it.
A typical callsign would be W6XYZ. Or it could be K6XYZ, or WA6XYZ, and so on. The "W6", "K6", and "WA6" are the prefixes to the callsign, and each would count as a separte prefix.
Foreign callsigns, like "PY" for Brazil, "VK" for Australia, and "ZL" for New Zealand, also have unique prefixes, but also have an additional "multiplier" factored in to their point value in the process of determining your total score.
Contests like this are a good way to make contacts with new countries, but since it's so brief "Roger ZL2ABC, copy 5-9 #444. Please copy my 5-9 #675", and very artificial, many people almost don't consider it contacting whatever area of the world you just "worked".
I'm kind of benign about contests. I operate in them once in a while, but mostly go to the 17 Meter band where contests aren't allowed. I'd much rather TALK to somebody on the radio, as in having a real conversation with them, then just give them a signal report, and move on to the next one.
Sadly, it seems the art of conversation is becoming rare on the Amateur Radio frequencies, as some people just don't want to do anything other than swap reports and say "73".
And that's a shame, given our reputation as "Communicators".
Thursday, March 28, 2013
GROAN.....It's Still Pouring.....
WELL....the finger is doing much better, but I spent a couple of hours at the doctor's yesterday getting and abscess checked out.
The lab results came back from the swab they took of the finger, and sure enough, it's an MRSA bacteria.
Since the Keflex the walk-in clinic doctor prescribed me is totally ineffective against this particular strain, my regular doctor told me to stop taking it, and prescribed two new antibiotics for me to take.
Lacking lab results, I'm sure the doctor at the walk-in ordered what he thought was an appropriate antibiotic.
I'm now taking Clindamycin and Trimethoprim, which from what I've read is a pretty potent combination.
As far as the abscess goes, it started out looking like a pimple, right on my belt line, and got very irritated. Within 48 hours of having my finger checked out, it was huge, painful, and draining on its own.
The draining on its own was a Good Thing, as my doctor didn't have to open it up, but holy smokes.....it feels like a red hot poker jabbing me!
At times like this I realize how fortunate I am to have good quality medical care, a decent job, and a loving wife to "take care" of me.
No, I'm not playing it up, but she does make sure I follow doctor's orders!
And my doctor told me to stay home from work, get plenty of rest, drink LOTS of water, and come back Monday morning to see how things are progressing.
So, I'm off until Tuesday. With this bum finger and sore-at-the-waistband, though, I can't do any of the tinkering I'd normally do in my off-time, and that's a bummer.
.
The lab results came back from the swab they took of the finger, and sure enough, it's an MRSA bacteria.
Since the Keflex the walk-in clinic doctor prescribed me is totally ineffective against this particular strain, my regular doctor told me to stop taking it, and prescribed two new antibiotics for me to take.
Lacking lab results, I'm sure the doctor at the walk-in ordered what he thought was an appropriate antibiotic.
I'm now taking Clindamycin and Trimethoprim, which from what I've read is a pretty potent combination.
As far as the abscess goes, it started out looking like a pimple, right on my belt line, and got very irritated. Within 48 hours of having my finger checked out, it was huge, painful, and draining on its own.
The draining on its own was a Good Thing, as my doctor didn't have to open it up, but holy smokes.....it feels like a red hot poker jabbing me!
At times like this I realize how fortunate I am to have good quality medical care, a decent job, and a loving wife to "take care" of me.
No, I'm not playing it up, but she does make sure I follow doctor's orders!
And my doctor told me to stay home from work, get plenty of rest, drink LOTS of water, and come back Monday morning to see how things are progressing.
So, I'm off until Tuesday. With this bum finger and sore-at-the-waistband, though, I can't do any of the tinkering I'd normally do in my off-time, and that's a bummer.
.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Heard Back from the CMP!
Well, just as with Old_NFO, they're saying 30~60 days minimum, but at least the order was accepted, and I'm "in the system"!
Time to order some of their ammo so I'll have something to feed "Duke" with.
We have received and verified your recent order. There is nothing that we will be able to tell you about the order until we have input all orders received ahead of yours into the system. Your order will now advance to our sales area and from there to our shipping area. Please note, that unless otherwise listed, our order to ship time is at least 30-60 days. You will receive other emails as the order progresses.
Your customer # is XXXXXX. The order will not show as pending on the estore until the Sales Department processes and assigns an order number to it. If you have any problems logging onto the estore, please let us know.
Thank you for your order and your support
of our program.
Time to order some of their ammo so I'll have something to feed "Duke" with.
We have received and verified your recent order. There is nothing that we will be able to tell you about the order until we have input all orders received ahead of yours into the system. Your order will now advance to our sales area and from there to our shipping area. Please note, that unless otherwise listed, our order to ship time is at least 30-60 days. You will receive other emails as the order progresses.
Your customer # is XXXXXX. The order will not show as pending on the estore until the Sales Department processes and assigns an order number to it. If you have any problems logging onto the estore, please let us know.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
When It Rains.....It POURS!
Well, as if it's not enough that my darling wife and I are concerned about her grandson, I have a small medical issue of my own that just popped up out of nowhere.
Thursday night my right index finger started to get sore, and since I use lots of hand tools, all the time, I just wrote it off to getting old.
All day Friday at work I was soaking it in ice water, as it had started to swell, and it looked like blood was pooling under the nail.
Now I've smacked my fingers before with hammers, and gotten various wood and metal splinters embedded, but even though this looked similar, I've suffered no 'mechanical' hand trauma.
Saturday morning when I work up, my finger looked like a big purple sausage stuck on my hand.
Oh, boy......my wife took one look at it, about passed out, and said "Get Thee To The Clinic!", or something similar.
Thankfully they weren't busy, and the doctor saw me in about 10 minutes.
After poking around, feeling it, and squeezing it (ouch, Ouch, and OUCH!) he said I had some sort of bacterial infection, and he'd have to "Open it up and drain it", which just about made me pass out on the spot.
I gotta tell you right now, I'm a coward when it comes to pain, ESPECIALLY when it concerns my hands, and the sight of my own blood just about turns out my lights.
He said "Well, you can come back in two days on Monday to have your own doctor do it, but I guarantee it will be much worse, and delaying it is not good".
Groan.......
I gave him the go ahead and he went to get some stuff.
He swabbed it down with Betadine/Povidone, numbed it out with Ethyl Chloride, which is a type of freeze-mist for skin, lanced it, and squeezed it three times to get the gunk out. He also collected a sample for the lab to examine so they could find out what kind of bugs caused it.
He prescribed Keflex to knock out the remaining infection, and Vicodin "as required" for the pain.
And they gave me a tetanus shot, as my records showed me as not having one since 2004.
It sure feels better, the swelling has gone way down, and it's no longer a purple sausage hanging on my hand.
I won't be using my trigger finger for a while, but I don't really need to when I assist my friend with the NRA classes.
We also went to see Bill Engvall at the Terrace Theater last night. He did a whole bunch of new material about getting old and cranky, along with some "Here's your sign" jokes, and his story about flying with the US Air Force Thunderbirds.
Laughter *is* the best medicine, and for a few hours last night we were able to just put the world on stand by, and have a good time.
Thursday night my right index finger started to get sore, and since I use lots of hand tools, all the time, I just wrote it off to getting old.
All day Friday at work I was soaking it in ice water, as it had started to swell, and it looked like blood was pooling under the nail.
Now I've smacked my fingers before with hammers, and gotten various wood and metal splinters embedded, but even though this looked similar, I've suffered no 'mechanical' hand trauma.
Saturday morning when I work up, my finger looked like a big purple sausage stuck on my hand.
Oh, boy......my wife took one look at it, about passed out, and said "Get Thee To The Clinic!", or something similar.
Thankfully they weren't busy, and the doctor saw me in about 10 minutes.
After poking around, feeling it, and squeezing it (ouch, Ouch, and OUCH!) he said I had some sort of bacterial infection, and he'd have to "Open it up and drain it", which just about made me pass out on the spot.
I gotta tell you right now, I'm a coward when it comes to pain, ESPECIALLY when it concerns my hands, and the sight of my own blood just about turns out my lights.
He said "Well, you can come back in two days on Monday to have your own doctor do it, but I guarantee it will be much worse, and delaying it is not good".
Groan.......
I gave him the go ahead and he went to get some stuff.
He swabbed it down with Betadine/Povidone, numbed it out with Ethyl Chloride, which is a type of freeze-mist for skin, lanced it, and squeezed it three times to get the gunk out. He also collected a sample for the lab to examine so they could find out what kind of bugs caused it.
He prescribed Keflex to knock out the remaining infection, and Vicodin "as required" for the pain.
And they gave me a tetanus shot, as my records showed me as not having one since 2004.
It sure feels better, the swelling has gone way down, and it's no longer a purple sausage hanging on my hand.
I won't be using my trigger finger for a while, but I don't really need to when I assist my friend with the NRA classes.
We also went to see Bill Engvall at the Terrace Theater last night. He did a whole bunch of new material about getting old and cranky, along with some "Here's your sign" jokes, and his story about flying with the US Air Force Thunderbirds.
Laughter *is* the best medicine, and for a few hours last night we were able to just put the world on stand by, and have a good time.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Family Medical Emergency
Sorry for not posting, but this week has been pretty rough on my wife.
Her 9-year old grandson is in the ICU, and not expected to come home.
When he was about 6 months old, he started going into convulsions, and having seizures. They ran test after test, and all they were able to figure out was that it wasn't epilepsy or chemical exposure.
At the time, the Doctors said that in 95% of cases like this, they never do find out.
So, his development came to a halt, and over the intervening time he's developed a host of other medical problems.
He's had to be fed with a tube almost all of his life, and because
he couldn't run around like other children, his skeletal and muscle development have been extremely abnormal.
Last week his parents noticed he wasn't breathing normally, and by the time they got him to the ER, he was gasping for breath.
Turns out he had a collapsed lung, and a massive respiratory infection, most likely caused by aspirating some of his food into his lungs.
They put him on a ventilator, and into a medically-induced coma, as he was thrashing around so much trying to pull out the breathing tube that they were afraid he'd severely injure himself.
Earlier this week they drained his lungs, and took him off the ventilator to see how he was breathing.
His oxygen uptake dropped to 30% as soon as the ventilator was switched off, so they put him back on it.
Thursday they drained his lungs again, and took him off the ventilator to see how he was doing. He didn't start breathing on his own, so they used the bag/valve unit to get his breathing started.
His oxygen uptake dropped to 5% this time, so they immediately put him back on the ventilator.
My wife went to see the little guy this morning, and they'd moved him into an isolation room. With all the antibiotics they've given him, his immune system is compromised, and they're afraid he'll get something really bad from all the microbes floating around in the hospital.
This afternoon we got word his kidneys are starting to shut down, and his blood chemistry is all out of balance, and they're not sure what, if anything, more than can do for him.
At this point I think it's out of the doctor's hands, and in God's hands.
.
.
Her 9-year old grandson is in the ICU, and not expected to come home.
When he was about 6 months old, he started going into convulsions, and having seizures. They ran test after test, and all they were able to figure out was that it wasn't epilepsy or chemical exposure.
At the time, the Doctors said that in 95% of cases like this, they never do find out.
So, his development came to a halt, and over the intervening time he's developed a host of other medical problems.
He's had to be fed with a tube almost all of his life, and because
he couldn't run around like other children, his skeletal and muscle development have been extremely abnormal.
Last week his parents noticed he wasn't breathing normally, and by the time they got him to the ER, he was gasping for breath.
Turns out he had a collapsed lung, and a massive respiratory infection, most likely caused by aspirating some of his food into his lungs.
They put him on a ventilator, and into a medically-induced coma, as he was thrashing around so much trying to pull out the breathing tube that they were afraid he'd severely injure himself.
Earlier this week they drained his lungs, and took him off the ventilator to see how he was breathing.
His oxygen uptake dropped to 30% as soon as the ventilator was switched off, so they put him back on it.
Thursday they drained his lungs again, and took him off the ventilator to see how he was doing. He didn't start breathing on his own, so they used the bag/valve unit to get his breathing started.
His oxygen uptake dropped to 5% this time, so they immediately put him back on the ventilator.
My wife went to see the little guy this morning, and they'd moved him into an isolation room. With all the antibiotics they've given him, his immune system is compromised, and they're afraid he'll get something really bad from all the microbes floating around in the hospital.
This afternoon we got word his kidneys are starting to shut down, and his blood chemistry is all out of balance, and they're not sure what, if anything, more than can do for him.
At this point I think it's out of the doctor's hands, and in God's hands.
.
.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
New Printer!
Well, my trusty, 9-year old little Brother HL-1440 monochrome laser printer suffered a cerebral hemorrhage this morning when my step-son's girlfriend tried to print a huge document.
One of the sheets of paper in the tray was wrinkled, and when it fed, it caused a massive paper jam.
It jammed so badly that the rear paper exit door popped open!
After farting around with it for about an hour, and having other things planned for today, I bit the bullet and bought an HP LaserJet Pro 200 Color Laser printer.
Now since one of the things I had planned today was to clean up the Radio Room, and since I had to literally tear apart the shelf unit that has my (poor, dead) laser printer, Canon Color scanner, and a good portion of the test gear I keep in the shack, it was a nice way to kill two birds with one round.
I was a bit leery of buying this printer at first, since the Linux Printing page (now "OpenPrinting") didn't rate it very high, claiming some of the functions didn't work properly.
And in fact, I had already run down to Best Buy and purchased the replacement Brother sells for my little HL-1440, an HL-2270DW, which the Linux Printing page states "Works PERFECTLY".
While stumbling around the Best Buy, I had noticed the HP printer, and the fact it was on-sale, my wife's two favorite words.
After I got back home with the new Brother, I thought about it, and remembered HP is generally pretty good with Linux support.
Sure enough, I Googled for "linux hp laserjet pro 200", and it took me directly to the HP Open Source support pages for their printers. After reading a bit, I saw that they have far newer drivers for this printer than OpenPrinting does, so I took the Brother back, and exchanged it for the HP.
I think the main reason that OpenPrinting kind of slammed this model printer, is that the driver you get directly from HP uses a closed-source "Binary Blob" similar to how NVidia supports their video cards under Linux, and this greatly disturbs Open Source people.
So, back to Best Buy to exchange it.
While I support Open Source, I don't have a problem with a manufacturer using some proprietary, closed-source code in their drivers, as long as the product works "As Advertised".
I preconfigured the printer for the IP address I used on my network for the Brother, and headed over to the HP support page.
The HP driver downloaded from Source Forge, and when I ran it, I was impressed with how thoroughly it asked questions, checked the system, found and downloaded the required dependencies, built the software, and installed.
Good job, HP!
Oh....and since this printer has built-in networking, I was also able to retire the D-Link print server module I had plugged into the printer port on the Brother, and eliminate a piece of hardware.
Now to configure my wife's PC, and the future daughter-in-law's laptop, and I can call it a night.
And I got the Radio Room cleaned up, too!
One of the sheets of paper in the tray was wrinkled, and when it fed, it caused a massive paper jam.
It jammed so badly that the rear paper exit door popped open!
After farting around with it for about an hour, and having other things planned for today, I bit the bullet and bought an HP LaserJet Pro 200 Color Laser printer.
Now since one of the things I had planned today was to clean up the Radio Room, and since I had to literally tear apart the shelf unit that has my (poor, dead) laser printer, Canon Color scanner, and a good portion of the test gear I keep in the shack, it was a nice way to kill two birds with one round.
I was a bit leery of buying this printer at first, since the Linux Printing page (now "OpenPrinting") didn't rate it very high, claiming some of the functions didn't work properly.
And in fact, I had already run down to Best Buy and purchased the replacement Brother sells for my little HL-1440, an HL-2270DW, which the Linux Printing page states "Works PERFECTLY".
While stumbling around the Best Buy, I had noticed the HP printer, and the fact it was on-sale, my wife's two favorite words.
After I got back home with the new Brother, I thought about it, and remembered HP is generally pretty good with Linux support.
Sure enough, I Googled for "linux hp laserjet pro 200", and it took me directly to the HP Open Source support pages for their printers. After reading a bit, I saw that they have far newer drivers for this printer than OpenPrinting does, so I took the Brother back, and exchanged it for the HP.
I think the main reason that OpenPrinting kind of slammed this model printer, is that the driver you get directly from HP uses a closed-source "Binary Blob" similar to how NVidia supports their video cards under Linux, and this greatly disturbs Open Source people.
So, back to Best Buy to exchange it.
While I support Open Source, I don't have a problem with a manufacturer using some proprietary, closed-source code in their drivers, as long as the product works "As Advertised".
I preconfigured the printer for the IP address I used on my network for the Brother, and headed over to the HP support page.
The HP driver downloaded from Source Forge, and when I ran it, I was impressed with how thoroughly it asked questions, checked the system, found and downloaded the required dependencies, built the software, and installed.
Good job, HP!
Oh....and since this printer has built-in networking, I was also able to retire the D-Link print server module I had plugged into the printer port on the Brother, and eliminate a piece of hardware.
Now to configure my wife's PC, and the future daughter-in-law's laptop, and I can call it a night.
And I got the Radio Room cleaned up, too!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Corned beef is cooking for dinner...CHECK!
Irish Salt Bread purchased............CHECK!
Potatoes being readied.................CHECK!
The potatoes are the important part. Since I'm half Irish, and half Polish, potatoes were akin to religion when I was growing up.
And my sweet little wife knows that, and treats them with the reverence they so deserve.....
Irish Salt Bread purchased............CHECK!
Potatoes being readied.................CHECK!
The potatoes are the important part. Since I'm half Irish, and half Polish, potatoes were akin to religion when I was growing up.
And my sweet little wife knows that, and treats them with the reverence they so deserve.....
Friday, March 15, 2013
Whole-House Filtration and RO System Installation Complete!
These guys were GREAT, once they got here.
The main filters and salt container were installed, plumbed in, leak tested and flushed, and then they did the under-sink unit.
And they plumbed in the ice maker for the fridge, too!
As soon as all the water in the heater is replaced, we should be able to enjoy showers more, and the laundry should come out better, with less soap.
It wasn't a cheap system, and ate up most of our tax "refund", but it's something we'd both wanted for the house for quite a while.
Oh....and I took my share of the "play money" we set aside every year, and ordered my M1 Garand from the CMP.
Yes, I went "traditional", and ordered it in 30-06.
I'm not one for naming my guns, but I think I'll call this one "Duke" when it gets here!
.
The main filters and salt container were installed, plumbed in, leak tested and flushed, and then they did the under-sink unit.
And they plumbed in the ice maker for the fridge, too!
As soon as all the water in the heater is replaced, we should be able to enjoy showers more, and the laundry should come out better, with less soap.
It wasn't a cheap system, and ate up most of our tax "refund", but it's something we'd both wanted for the house for quite a while.
Oh....and I took my share of the "play money" we set aside every year, and ordered my M1 Garand from the CMP.
Yes, I went "traditional", and ordered it in 30-06.
I'm not one for naming my guns, but I think I'll call this one "Duke" when it gets here!
.
OOOPS! I Spoke Too Soon....
They arrived about 2 minutes after my previous post.
Equipment is staged, holes have been drilled, connections are being soldered, and other activities are taking place.
And again, they apologized profusely for not being on time.
Seems the "Special Deal" through Home Depot has been selling like hot cakes, and they're up to their eyebrows in work.
And one of the two guys is one that came the other night, they're both very knowledgeable and professional, and this should be an easy installation for them, seeing as they can easily get to all the pipes to plumb the system in to the house.
.
Equipment is staged, holes have been drilled, connections are being soldered, and other activities are taking place.
And again, they apologized profusely for not being on time.
Seems the "Special Deal" through Home Depot has been selling like hot cakes, and they're up to their eyebrows in work.
And one of the two guys is one that came the other night, they're both very knowledgeable and professional, and this should be an easy installation for them, seeing as they can easily get to all the pipes to plumb the system in to the house.
.
Waitng for the Plumber, or Someone Like Him....
ARRRGHHH!
We bought a nice RainSoft whole-house softener and filtration system last week,
It was a "Special Deal" from Home Depot, and included 0% financing as long as we pay it off in 24 months.
WELL....the installation company was supposed to come out Wednesday, between 1500 and 1730 to site the installation of the tanks, estimate the amount of plumbing required, and install the under sink part.
They didn't get here until 1900, and by then it was too late to start anything other than the site survey, and drop off about half of the equipment.
They told us that somebody would be in contact Thursday morning, to show up Thursday afternoon, and install the under sink pre-filter, RO unit, and final filter equipment.
They didn't call or show, so I called the office at 1600.
At 1730 the office manager called, and *promised* me that somebody would be here between 0900 and 1100 to start the installation, and that they would call 30 minutes before arriving.
It's now 1125, and no call, no show.
I'm going to call them back at 1130, and try and find out what's going on.
The guys that came here Wednesday seemed really sharp, and answered all the technical questions I had to my satisfaction, and apologized for not being able to meet the promised schedule due to some unforeseen problems at the installation they had just finished.
They showed me some pictures of the one they had just came from, and I have to admit it was a difficult installation, and they pulled it off beautifully.
The house was on a corner lot, with a very small backyard, and the owner didn't want anything visible from the street.
They dug a pit to mount the equipment in, plumbed it in to the house, backfilled it, and put a fake fiberglass "rock" over the exposed components.
I'm sure it took them a lot longer than anticipated!
Of course, that does *me* no good, as they haven't come back, or called, since the office gal called Thursday evening.
I sure hope the damn equipment works better than their scheduling process in getting a crew out here for the installation!
.
We bought a nice RainSoft whole-house softener and filtration system last week,
It was a "Special Deal" from Home Depot, and included 0% financing as long as we pay it off in 24 months.
WELL....the installation company was supposed to come out Wednesday, between 1500 and 1730 to site the installation of the tanks, estimate the amount of plumbing required, and install the under sink part.
They didn't get here until 1900, and by then it was too late to start anything other than the site survey, and drop off about half of the equipment.
They told us that somebody would be in contact Thursday morning, to show up Thursday afternoon, and install the under sink pre-filter, RO unit, and final filter equipment.
They didn't call or show, so I called the office at 1600.
At 1730 the office manager called, and *promised* me that somebody would be here between 0900 and 1100 to start the installation, and that they would call 30 minutes before arriving.
It's now 1125, and no call, no show.
I'm going to call them back at 1130, and try and find out what's going on.
The guys that came here Wednesday seemed really sharp, and answered all the technical questions I had to my satisfaction, and apologized for not being able to meet the promised schedule due to some unforeseen problems at the installation they had just finished.
They showed me some pictures of the one they had just came from, and I have to admit it was a difficult installation, and they pulled it off beautifully.
The house was on a corner lot, with a very small backyard, and the owner didn't want anything visible from the street.
They dug a pit to mount the equipment in, plumbed it in to the house, backfilled it, and put a fake fiberglass "rock" over the exposed components.
I'm sure it took them a lot longer than anticipated!
Of course, that does *me* no good, as they haven't come back, or called, since the office gal called Thursday evening.
I sure hope the damn equipment works better than their scheduling process in getting a crew out here for the installation!
.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Here's One for Old_NFO!
He's probably already seen it, but I thought I'd share it with the rest of you.
.
.
.
.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Another 18 Students Graduate from NRA "First Steps" Course
Well...we trained another 18 people today.
Some had shoot before, and were very good.
Some had never shot before, and got better as the class progressed.
And three young ladies had never held a gun before, and admitted to being scared when the class started.
At the end of the day, all 3 young ladies were "9 ring or better" for their 30 allowed shots, and kept saying things like "What's all the fuss about?".
And in our "The Law and Firearms" section at the end of the class, everyone was appalled at the legal wranglings and loss of our rights that's taking place.
And everyone said that they wished they had gotten more involved at an earlier date so they could write to their congresscritters, and state their views on what was going on.
One of the students even said "It's a Bill of RIGHTS, not a bill of WANTS", which I thought was a pretty good way to put it.
.
.
Some had shoot before, and were very good.
Some had never shot before, and got better as the class progressed.
And three young ladies had never held a gun before, and admitted to being scared when the class started.
At the end of the day, all 3 young ladies were "9 ring or better" for their 30 allowed shots, and kept saying things like "What's all the fuss about?".
And in our "The Law and Firearms" section at the end of the class, everyone was appalled at the legal wranglings and loss of our rights that's taking place.
And everyone said that they wished they had gotten more involved at an earlier date so they could write to their congresscritters, and state their views on what was going on.
One of the students even said "It's a Bill of RIGHTS, not a bill of WANTS", which I thought was a pretty good way to put it.
.
.
Friday, March 8, 2013
"First They Came For...."
Here's an 'update' to the famous "First They Came..." quotation.
Shamelessly borrowed from Ninety Miles from Tyranny.
Shamelessly borrowed from Ninety Miles from Tyranny.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Quiet Week.....
Not much going on. I've been going to bed pretty early this week to try and get plenty of rest while the antibiotics do their magic on my sinus infection.
It's working so far, as I'm able to breathe, and I'm not coughing all night long. The persistent headache I had has gone away, and my low fever (101*) has dropped back to "normal", which for me is about 97.9*.
Morale at work is pretty low, and I've moved all my personal stuff out of my office area on the ship.
Since there's NO CHANCE we'll be going out for at least a year, I figured why keep the stuff on board.
The manager I'm more or less permanently "om loan" to told us this morning at the O-dark-thirty daily meeting that the "voluntary layoff" was directed at a few specific people they're trying to get to leave "quietly". He didn't mention what group they're in, but I have my suspicions about which one it is.
And Saturday is another "NRA First Steps - Pistol" class that I'll be helping my friend with.
ALL of his "First Steps" classes are booked solid through the end of March, and he told me all the April classes are getting filled in, too.
I just hope we can scrounge up enough 22LR to keep the students equipped!
It's working so far, as I'm able to breathe, and I'm not coughing all night long. The persistent headache I had has gone away, and my low fever (101*) has dropped back to "normal", which for me is about 97.9*.
Morale at work is pretty low, and I've moved all my personal stuff out of my office area on the ship.
Since there's NO CHANCE we'll be going out for at least a year, I figured why keep the stuff on board.
The manager I'm more or less permanently "om loan" to told us this morning at the O-dark-thirty daily meeting that the "voluntary layoff" was directed at a few specific people they're trying to get to leave "quietly". He didn't mention what group they're in, but I have my suspicions about which one it is.
And Saturday is another "NRA First Steps - Pistol" class that I'll be helping my friend with.
ALL of his "First Steps" classes are booked solid through the end of March, and he told me all the April classes are getting filled in, too.
I just hope we can scrounge up enough 22LR to keep the students equipped!
Monday, March 4, 2013
A Big "Uh-OH!" at Work
I stayed home today as I'm still under the weather, and had a doctor's appointment. They've now got me on two antibiotics to try and knock out this sinus infection that's been plaguing me for several weeks now.
And my doctor had some 3D imaging done of my head (yeah, yeah, I already know it's empty) to see if he needs to get an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist involved. Hopefully the course of antibiotics will knock it out, and I'll start feeling better.
On the work-front, I received an email from a fellow employee. Seems there was an all-hands meeting today, and the company is offering "voluntary layoffs", where if you agree, you'll get 4 weeks pay, and a kick for your COBRA medical.
Offer good only until 5pm Wednesday, so hurry now over to the HR Department and sign up!
I haven't decided what to do, as I have a Worker's Compensation claim in-process, and my sweet wife is worried that any final amount will be decided by my future earnings potential, and if I'm not working, I might not get the amount the lawyer says we'll get.
I suppose I should talk to him about it......
And my doctor had some 3D imaging done of my head (yeah, yeah, I already know it's empty) to see if he needs to get an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist involved. Hopefully the course of antibiotics will knock it out, and I'll start feeling better.
On the work-front, I received an email from a fellow employee. Seems there was an all-hands meeting today, and the company is offering "voluntary layoffs", where if you agree, you'll get 4 weeks pay, and a kick for your COBRA medical.
Offer good only until 5pm Wednesday, so hurry now over to the HR Department and sign up!
I haven't decided what to do, as I have a Worker's Compensation claim in-process, and my sweet wife is worried that any final amount will be decided by my future earnings potential, and if I'm not working, I might not get the amount the lawyer says we'll get.
I suppose I should talk to him about it......
Saturday, March 2, 2013
NRA "First Steps - Pistol" AAR
Gee....I'm using the term "AAR". Never thought I'd get here......
Got to the range today about 1030, and was greeted by the lead instructor, three other volunteer instructors, and twenty anxious students.
Some of them had fired guns before, some had not, and a few were "scared" of guns, but thought they'd be better off knowing actual facts about them, rather than relying on the the lamestream media is reporting.
The classroom part starts with The Four Rules, and then gets into the basic parts of a gun ("Frame", "Barrel", "Grip", and "Action"), and then discusses ammo.
Then grip and stance are taught, moving on to sight picture, followed by a short break.
After the break, we finish up the classroom training by reviewing what was taught, checking stance and grip for each student, and answering numerous questions.
You can tell these are very interested people by the questions they asked, and by their attitude.
While the lead was finishing up in the classroom, the other instructors and I went out into the range area, set up a table, hung targets, and loaded magazines.
The pistols in use were Ruger Mark-II's, slightly modified with dots of white-out applied to the sights. A couple of years ago when my sweet wife took the course, she complained that she couldn't get a sight picture because she couldn't see the sights!
The lead took my suggestion to use white-out, and nobody has complained since then.
The first segment was 20 rounds onto a piece of paper, just to get the students used to handling the pistols, inserting/extracting magazines, and manipulating the controls on the gun.
After questions were asked and answered, stance and grip checked again, we went to 20 rounds on a standard NRA "Slow Fire" target.
As the students fired at their first target, we watched them for things like jerking the trigger, and as always, stance and grip.
The last segment was 10 rounds at a fresh target, this time "scored".
Three of the students scored 98, so we had a 3 round shoot-off to determine the "Best Shot of the Class", who won a nice baseball cap.
So.....we started with 20 students, and turned them in to 20 graduates, with a certificate, patch, rocker, and wallet card.
The class was 100% safe, none of the guns spontaneously "went off by itself", no blood was spilled, and everybody had a great time.
And the next 5 Saturdays are booked solid, so I imagine I'll be spending a whole lot of time helping my friend teach new shooters the basics.
Got to the range today about 1030, and was greeted by the lead instructor, three other volunteer instructors, and twenty anxious students.
Some of them had fired guns before, some had not, and a few were "scared" of guns, but thought they'd be better off knowing actual facts about them, rather than relying on the the lamestream media is reporting.
The classroom part starts with The Four Rules, and then gets into the basic parts of a gun ("Frame", "Barrel", "Grip", and "Action"), and then discusses ammo.
Then grip and stance are taught, moving on to sight picture, followed by a short break.
After the break, we finish up the classroom training by reviewing what was taught, checking stance and grip for each student, and answering numerous questions.
You can tell these are very interested people by the questions they asked, and by their attitude.
While the lead was finishing up in the classroom, the other instructors and I went out into the range area, set up a table, hung targets, and loaded magazines.
The pistols in use were Ruger Mark-II's, slightly modified with dots of white-out applied to the sights. A couple of years ago when my sweet wife took the course, she complained that she couldn't get a sight picture because she couldn't see the sights!
The lead took my suggestion to use white-out, and nobody has complained since then.
The first segment was 20 rounds onto a piece of paper, just to get the students used to handling the pistols, inserting/extracting magazines, and manipulating the controls on the gun.
After questions were asked and answered, stance and grip checked again, we went to 20 rounds on a standard NRA "Slow Fire" target.
As the students fired at their first target, we watched them for things like jerking the trigger, and as always, stance and grip.
The last segment was 10 rounds at a fresh target, this time "scored".
Three of the students scored 98, so we had a 3 round shoot-off to determine the "Best Shot of the Class", who won a nice baseball cap.
So.....we started with 20 students, and turned them in to 20 graduates, with a certificate, patch, rocker, and wallet card.
The class was 100% safe, none of the guns spontaneously "went off by itself", no blood was spilled, and everybody had a great time.
And the next 5 Saturdays are booked solid, so I imagine I'll be spending a whole lot of time helping my friend teach new shooters the basics.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Helping Teach an NRA "Basic Pistol" Class on Saturday
One of my instructor friends dropped me an email tonight wondering if I was free tomorrow to help him with an NRA Basic Pistol class.
Of course I said I'd be happy to help him!
Even when I'm "teaching", I learn things from the students, and some of their questions are a bit amusing, to say the least.
We all had to start *somewhere*, so I NEVER look down on them, call a question "stupid", or demean then in any way. I KNOW I asked my share of "stupid" questions when I was getting started in any variety of my pursuits, and I always say a little silent prayer for all the people who mentored me that aren't with us any more.
The question turned to ammo for the class, and seeing as I have a small stockpile of 22LR out in the garage, I offered to bring some, as his ammo orders are constantly having their delivery dates pushed back. He asked me how much I wanted for it, and I told him I'd look up what the going rate was, and we'd work something out.
HOLY SMOKES........!!!!!
A box of 500 Wolf 22LR "Extra Match" grade was going for EIGHTY DOLLARS when it was last available, and the 500 round box of Fiocchi Biathlon Super Match SM340 was ONE-HUNDRED BUCKS when it was last available.
I bought this back in July of 2009, and I sure don't remember what I paid for it, so "negotiations" tomorrow should be pretty interesting, to say the least!
Of course I said I'd be happy to help him!
Even when I'm "teaching", I learn things from the students, and some of their questions are a bit amusing, to say the least.
We all had to start *somewhere*, so I NEVER look down on them, call a question "stupid", or demean then in any way. I KNOW I asked my share of "stupid" questions when I was getting started in any variety of my pursuits, and I always say a little silent prayer for all the people who mentored me that aren't with us any more.
The question turned to ammo for the class, and seeing as I have a small stockpile of 22LR out in the garage, I offered to bring some, as his ammo orders are constantly having their delivery dates pushed back. He asked me how much I wanted for it, and I told him I'd look up what the going rate was, and we'd work something out.
HOLY SMOKES........!!!!!
A box of 500 Wolf 22LR "Extra Match" grade was going for EIGHTY DOLLARS when it was last available, and the 500 round box of Fiocchi Biathlon Super Match SM340 was ONE-HUNDRED BUCKS when it was last available.
I bought this back in July of 2009, and I sure don't remember what I paid for it, so "negotiations" tomorrow should be pretty interesting, to say the least!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
A Reply TO Feinstein
No, not from me. I'm not quick-witted enough to come up with something so sharp..
SO....I "borrowed" it from Tam.
Hope she doesn't mind......
I don't normally engage in the silliness of referring to politicians as "Kommisar" or "Reichsfuhrer" or any of that. It's simplistic and I can do better than that, but sometimes someone makes it gets really, really hard to not go there...
My personal welfare, and the welfare of millions of my fellow Americans, is generally promoted by the possession of effective weapons of self-defense: trying to take them away would be very harmful to the general welfare and practically the opposite of ensuring domestic tranquility. Stop.
.
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SO....I "borrowed" it from Tam.
Hope she doesn't mind......
I don't normally engage in the silliness of referring to politicians as "Kommisar" or "Reichsfuhrer" or any of that. It's simplistic and I can do better than that, but sometimes someone makes it gets really, really hard to not go there...
"The mothers, the women, the men of America have to make a decision as to whether their personal pleasure is more important than the general welfare," - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (NSDAP-CA)You listen to me, you meddling harpy, you jumped-up refugee from a zoning board: You don't get to pick and choose which of my constitutional rights are "personal pleasures" and further, while your job does entail a certain amount of promoting the general welfare, you don't get to compel whatever definition du jour of the "general welfare" you please.
My personal welfare, and the welfare of millions of my fellow Americans, is generally promoted by the possession of effective weapons of self-defense: trying to take them away would be very harmful to the general welfare and practically the opposite of ensuring domestic tranquility. Stop.
.
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Radio Weirdness
Well....I'm sitting here scratching my head......
My radio club runs a "Net" on Thursday nights, where we all gather around a local 2 Meter repeater, do the roll call, club officer check-ins, and swap information about upcoming events.
It's kind of like gathering around a radio-based cracker barrel, and a good way to keep in touch with friends and other club members between meetings.
Last Thursday night I tried repeatedly to respond to my call, but nothing happened.
Being a well prepared Ham, I grabbed one of my HT's (walkie-talkie to the non-hams here), and proceeded to check-in to the net.
Tonight I figured I should look into what the problems could be.
I swept the antenna with my analyzer from 144 to 148MHz, and all was well.
I connected the output of the radio to my power meter and a dummy load, and read 25 Watts output. I could also hear my audio just fine on an auxiliary receiver..
The CTCSS tone was properly set, and the "encode" function was enabled.
So, after a net for different group ended tonight, I keyed-up and called the repeater owner.
The radio sounds fine, and was "full quieting" into the repeater.
So at this point, I don't have a clue about what caused the problem last week.
Things have been running pretty smooth here lately on both the radio and computer ends of things, so maybe Murphy decided it was time to pay a house call.....
My radio club runs a "Net" on Thursday nights, where we all gather around a local 2 Meter repeater, do the roll call, club officer check-ins, and swap information about upcoming events.
It's kind of like gathering around a radio-based cracker barrel, and a good way to keep in touch with friends and other club members between meetings.
Last Thursday night I tried repeatedly to respond to my call, but nothing happened.
Being a well prepared Ham, I grabbed one of my HT's (walkie-talkie to the non-hams here), and proceeded to check-in to the net.
Tonight I figured I should look into what the problems could be.
I swept the antenna with my analyzer from 144 to 148MHz, and all was well.
I connected the output of the radio to my power meter and a dummy load, and read 25 Watts output. I could also hear my audio just fine on an auxiliary receiver..
The CTCSS tone was properly set, and the "encode" function was enabled.
So, after a net for different group ended tonight, I keyed-up and called the repeater owner.
The radio sounds fine, and was "full quieting" into the repeater.
So at this point, I don't have a clue about what caused the problem last week.
Things have been running pretty smooth here lately on both the radio and computer ends of things, so maybe Murphy decided it was time to pay a house call.....
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Mini Blog Meet
I *finally* got to meet some of my fellow bloggers in person, and have lunch with them.
What a GREAT day it was.
Old_NFO had contacted me a week or so ago, and was curious if I was going to be in town this week.
Since I was, we proceeded to 'synchronize watches.......NOW!', and agreed to meet down the road at a P.F. Chang's that was located somewhat centrally to all parties involved.
He had arranged for LL and Opus #6 to meet us there, and so we say down to a nice lunch of Kung Pao chicken, Mongolian beef, and some shrimp dish.
I kind of quarantined myself off to the edge of the table as I'm still recovering from the damn cold/flu/whatever that I thought I'd gotten over when I was out on the last launch campaign.
Before, during, and after lunch we discussed many things, and it was great to finally meet some of the people I've met 'electronically' since I entered the blog-o-verse.
And speaking of the last launch, the company is saying they still want to remain in business, and is proceeding full-speed ahead with the Failure Review Boards.
They pretty much know what happened, but as to the path they'll take to ensure it doesn't happen again, I'm not sure.
The previous launch vehicle we lost (NSS-8) was determined to have a "piece of welding slag" (the dreaded "FOD Monster") in one of the liquid oxygen supply lines of the first stage, and when the slag broke loose, it jammed between the impeller and housing of the main turbopump, causing the pump to fail in a most spectacular manner, with the resulting loss of the vehicle and payload, and significant damage to the launch platform.
The results of that FRB were to require more rigorous inspection of the welds, and a better cleaning procedure to ensure no loose bits were floating around in the plumbing. This time around they have several different scenarios to figure out as to why the hydraulic pump spun down to zero RPM. Could be many things, and we'll just have to wait and see.
What a GREAT day it was.
Old_NFO had contacted me a week or so ago, and was curious if I was going to be in town this week.
Since I was, we proceeded to 'synchronize watches.......NOW!', and agreed to meet down the road at a P.F. Chang's that was located somewhat centrally to all parties involved.
He had arranged for LL and Opus #6 to meet us there, and so we say down to a nice lunch of Kung Pao chicken, Mongolian beef, and some shrimp dish.
I kind of quarantined myself off to the edge of the table as I'm still recovering from the damn cold/flu/whatever that I thought I'd gotten over when I was out on the last launch campaign.
Before, during, and after lunch we discussed many things, and it was great to finally meet some of the people I've met 'electronically' since I entered the blog-o-verse.
And speaking of the last launch, the company is saying they still want to remain in business, and is proceeding full-speed ahead with the Failure Review Boards.
They pretty much know what happened, but as to the path they'll take to ensure it doesn't happen again, I'm not sure.
The previous launch vehicle we lost (NSS-8) was determined to have a "piece of welding slag" (the dreaded "FOD Monster") in one of the liquid oxygen supply lines of the first stage, and when the slag broke loose, it jammed between the impeller and housing of the main turbopump, causing the pump to fail in a most spectacular manner, with the resulting loss of the vehicle and payload, and significant damage to the launch platform.
The results of that FRB were to require more rigorous inspection of the welds, and a better cleaning procedure to ensure no loose bits were floating around in the plumbing. This time around they have several different scenarios to figure out as to why the hydraulic pump spun down to zero RPM. Could be many things, and we'll just have to wait and see.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Couldn't think of anything else to call this.
I'm going to see a lawyer tomorrow concerning the settlement I've been offered over the injury I had last August.
No guns, but the will be a lawyer involved, and hopefully some money.
In the meantime, enjoy Warren. He left us far too soon.
Well, I went home with a waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I'm an innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes I'm down on my luck
Well I'm down on my luck
Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
.
.
I'm going to see a lawyer tomorrow concerning the settlement I've been offered over the injury I had last August.
No guns, but the will be a lawyer involved, and hopefully some money.
In the meantime, enjoy Warren. He left us far too soon.
Well, I went home with a waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I'm an innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes I'm down on my luck
Well I'm down on my luck
Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
.
.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Reply From Feinstein
Some time ago I paid for one of those "Fax Blast" solicitations from one of the gun rights groups I get email from.
I don't recall which one, but for a reasonable fee, they send faxes to all the members of both Houses, and your state representatives.
I always figured they get ignored, except by the person who has to keep the fax machine supplied with paper, but this time I received a form-letter reply from Senator Feinstein.
Here's the reply, copied and pasted from her email, and you'll find it typical of hoplophobes in that she attacks the inanimate object, rather than the underlying causes of the person using it to commit crimes.
No mention of trying to help the sick, unbalanced, deranged or terminally angry person who commits the crime, but rather another cry to get rid of the Evil Black Rifles....again.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
I don't recall which one, but for a reasonable fee, they send faxes to all the members of both Houses, and your state representatives.
I always figured they get ignored, except by the person who has to keep the fax machine supplied with paper, but this time I received a form-letter reply from Senator Feinstein.
Here's the reply, copied and pasted from her email, and you'll find it typical of hoplophobes in that she attacks the inanimate object, rather than the underlying causes of the person using it to commit crimes.
No mention of trying to help the sick, unbalanced, deranged or terminally angry person who commits the crime, but rather another cry to get rid of the Evil Black Rifles....again.
Dear
Mr. xxxxxx
:
Thank
you for contacting me to share your opposition to assault weapons legislation. I respect your opinion
on this important issue and welcome the opportunity to provide my point of view.
Mass
shootings are a serious problem in our country, and I have watched this problem get worse and worse over
the 40 years I have been in public life. From the 1966 shooting rampage at the University of Texas that
killed 14 people and wounded 32 others, to the Newtown massacre that killed 20 children and 6 school
teachers and faculty, I have seen more and more of these killings. I have had families tell me that
they no longer feel safe in a mall, in a movie theater, in their business, and in other public places,
because these deadly weapons are so readily available. These assault weapons too often fall into the
hands of grievance killers, juveniles, gangs, and the deranged.
I
recognize that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to bear arms, but I do not believe that
right is unlimited or that it precludes taking action to prevent mass shootings. Indeed, in the same
Supreme Court decision that recognized the individual right to bear arms
,
District of Columbia v. Heller
, the Court also held that this right,
like other constitutional rights, is not unlimited. That is why assault weapons bans have consistently
been upheld in the courts, both
before and after the
Heller
decision. I believe regulation of these weapons is appropriate.
Once
again, thank you for your letter. Although we may disagree, I appreciate hearing from you and will be
mindful of your thoughts as the debate on this issue continues. If you have any additional comments
or questions, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841.
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
At least it only wasted electrons, and not a sheet of paper in my fax machine.
.
.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Storage Food SALE!
Courtesy of Mr. Rawles' Survival Blog.
Safecastle and Ready Made Resources are both having 10%~25% off sales, with FREE shipping!
I just ordered some Mountain House stuff to add to our "Earthquake Kit".
If you can't stock up on Bullets, get some Beans while you can at lower prices.
Both of the vendors linked above also carry other items besides bulk food, so do a little looking around over there. I'd be curious how their prices match up to other sources.
I tried some of the Mountain House stuff I bought earlier this year, and it's quite good. Just follow the directions when you rehydrate and heat it, and you'll be surprised.
Even my wife enjoyed it, and she's a little picky about her food.
Sure beats eating MRE's every day!
Safecastle and Ready Made Resources are both having 10%~25% off sales, with FREE shipping!
I just ordered some Mountain House stuff to add to our "Earthquake Kit".
If you can't stock up on Bullets, get some Beans while you can at lower prices.
Both of the vendors linked above also carry other items besides bulk food, so do a little looking around over there. I'd be curious how their prices match up to other sources.
I tried some of the Mountain House stuff I bought earlier this year, and it's quite good. Just follow the directions when you rehydrate and heat it, and you'll be surprised.
Even my wife enjoyed it, and she's a little picky about her food.
Sure beats eating MRE's every day!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Where's Waldo?
I'm sure you know who I'm talking about....
In between working on the new driveway gate, I've been listening to my scanner seeing if I could hear anything about the whereabouts of Mr. Dorner.
The only obvious thing, besides the huge amount of air assets and boots on the ground, is that they don't have a freakin' clue where he is.
Somebody "thought" they "maybe heard a shot" come from the cabin that burned down, suggesting a suicide rather than burning to death, but until what's left of the cabin cools down, and they can get in there, it's just speculation.
And I find it somewhat amazing that this guy has reached Folk Hero status in just a couple of days.
But then that's usually the case with this newfangled "Social Media"......somebody pops up out of nowhere, gets a huge following, and then just fades away.
It'll be real interesting to see how this all plays out, and if, indeed, Mr. Dorner self-terminated rather than burn to death or surrender.......
****UPDATE****
Well, this is real interesting. It seems the SBSO deliberately set fire to the cabin, and then delayed allowing the USFS in there for about an hour.
There was radio traffic indicating they lobbed 7 "burner" (aka "smoke") grenades into the cabin.
Quotes from a radio BB I get:
What's interesting - the SBSO lieutenant called for "Burners" - then later said "We have 7 Burners deployed and fire to the front" -
Interestingly, LAPD SWAT turned up close to the scene unannounced and unrequested and were advised by SBSO to redeploy and stage in Big Bear. An LAPD SWAT officer was overheard stating "Why can't we go to the BBQ!"
The Daily Breeze (and I'm sure other papers) have some audio of the radio traffic online.
So much for "Due Process", eh?
.
.
In between working on the new driveway gate, I've been listening to my scanner seeing if I could hear anything about the whereabouts of Mr. Dorner.
The only obvious thing, besides the huge amount of air assets and boots on the ground, is that they don't have a freakin' clue where he is.
Somebody "thought" they "maybe heard a shot" come from the cabin that burned down, suggesting a suicide rather than burning to death, but until what's left of the cabin cools down, and they can get in there, it's just speculation.
And I find it somewhat amazing that this guy has reached Folk Hero status in just a couple of days.
But then that's usually the case with this newfangled "Social Media"......somebody pops up out of nowhere, gets a huge following, and then just fades away.
It'll be real interesting to see how this all plays out, and if, indeed, Mr. Dorner self-terminated rather than burn to death or surrender.......
****UPDATE****
Well, this is real interesting. It seems the SBSO deliberately set fire to the cabin, and then delayed allowing the USFS in there for about an hour.
There was radio traffic indicating they lobbed 7 "burner" (aka "smoke") grenades into the cabin.
Quotes from a radio BB I get:
What's interesting - the SBSO lieutenant called for "Burners" - then later said "We have 7 Burners deployed and fire to the front" -
Interestingly, LAPD SWAT turned up close to the scene unannounced and unrequested and were advised by SBSO to redeploy and stage in Big Bear. An LAPD SWAT officer was overheard stating "Why can't we go to the BBQ!"
The Daily Breeze (and I'm sure other papers) have some audio of the radio traffic online.
So much for "Due Process", eh?
.
.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Home Improvements
WELL...I finally got started on replacing the gate across our driveway.
It looks like a "kit" of some kind, with the pipework supplied by Sears, and possibly the wood, too.
It's got 6 posts properly leveled and anchored in concrete, with two frames that swing, and some tongue-and-groove pickets attached to the frames.
The problem is the wood is all rotted out and falling apart.
When I cleaned out the rock garden along one side of the driveway, I patched and re-screwed most of the wood back on to the cross pieces, but when the cross pieces are rotten, well....there's just not much for the deck screws I used to grab onto!
So, after making several pages of notes and drawings, I figured out what sizes of boards I'd need to make the backing, and we picked out some nice cedar fence panels to use for the new fronts.
I went and got all of the "backing" wood today, along with a couple of boxes of galvanized carriage bolts, flat and split washers, and nuts. The original hardware was cheap-o zinc-plated 1/4-20, and I upgraded to 5/16-18, so it should be a little stronger.
I'm also going to change how it's built. The cross pieces were bolted to the pipe frames with the 1/4-20 hardware, and then the front picket sections were nailed to the wood cross pieces. I'm going to run the new, bigger bolts through both the picket sections AND the cross pieces, so ALL of the wood is securely bolted to the frames.
And in those areas between the pipe frames, I'm going to bolt the picket panels to the cross pieces rather than rely on the small nails they used.
The whole thing should be much stronger, and being made of cedar, WELL soaked with Behr Premium waterproofing and sealing compound, should last a good bit longer than the original gate.
The way the gate is now, I have a feeling if you got our dogs mad enough, they could bust through it, NOT something we'd want to happen!
Tuesday will be spent measuring and cutting the backing cross pieces and treating them, and Wednesday I'll do the same for the cedar fence panels I'll mount to the frames.
If everything is dry enough on Thursday, I'll mount to two fixed panels, and then do the swinging parts on Friday.
It looks like a "kit" of some kind, with the pipework supplied by Sears, and possibly the wood, too.
It's got 6 posts properly leveled and anchored in concrete, with two frames that swing, and some tongue-and-groove pickets attached to the frames.
The problem is the wood is all rotted out and falling apart.
When I cleaned out the rock garden along one side of the driveway, I patched and re-screwed most of the wood back on to the cross pieces, but when the cross pieces are rotten, well....there's just not much for the deck screws I used to grab onto!
So, after making several pages of notes and drawings, I figured out what sizes of boards I'd need to make the backing, and we picked out some nice cedar fence panels to use for the new fronts.
I went and got all of the "backing" wood today, along with a couple of boxes of galvanized carriage bolts, flat and split washers, and nuts. The original hardware was cheap-o zinc-plated 1/4-20, and I upgraded to 5/16-18, so it should be a little stronger.
I'm also going to change how it's built. The cross pieces were bolted to the pipe frames with the 1/4-20 hardware, and then the front picket sections were nailed to the wood cross pieces. I'm going to run the new, bigger bolts through both the picket sections AND the cross pieces, so ALL of the wood is securely bolted to the frames.
And in those areas between the pipe frames, I'm going to bolt the picket panels to the cross pieces rather than rely on the small nails they used.
The whole thing should be much stronger, and being made of cedar, WELL soaked with Behr Premium waterproofing and sealing compound, should last a good bit longer than the original gate.
The way the gate is now, I have a feeling if you got our dogs mad enough, they could bust through it, NOT something we'd want to happen!
Tuesday will be spent measuring and cutting the backing cross pieces and treating them, and Wednesday I'll do the same for the cedar fence panels I'll mount to the frames.
If everything is dry enough on Thursday, I'll mount to two fixed panels, and then do the swinging parts on Friday.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Back Home to Rain
Got off the ship today about 1400, picked up my luggage, and was headed out the gate at 1430.
As far as the cause of the launch failure, NASA_Spaceflight.com has an excellent discussion at this thread.
The actual discussion of the launch problem starts here.
This site has NO affiliation with NASA, and is a privately run website that caters to all aspects of spaceflight.
And I don't mind the rain, as SoCal is a couple of inches below "normal" for this time of year, and we can really use it!
As far as the cause of the launch failure, NASA_Spaceflight.com has an excellent discussion at this thread.
The actual discussion of the launch problem starts here.
This site has NO affiliation with NASA, and is a privately run website that caters to all aspects of spaceflight.
And I don't mind the rain, as SoCal is a couple of inches below "normal" for this time of year, and we can really use it!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
L- 2hrs, 20 minutes, and counting
They started filling the launch vehicle with LOX and Kerosene, and all is proceeding well.
Gonna get pretty busy here, so see you all tomorrow!
Gonna get pretty busy here, so see you all tomorrow!
Monday, January 28, 2013
"Sundown at Coffin Rock"....Our Future?
I remember reading this years ago, and it took me a while to track it down.
For those that haven't read it, it's definitely worth the time.
So, presented here as I found it, with all attributions, is "Sundown at Coffin Rock"
MOLON LABE!
Behind him, the boy shuffled along, trying to imitate his grandfather, but unable to mimic the silent motion that the old man had learned during countless winter days upon this wooded mountain in pursuit of game. He's fifteen years old, the old man thought. Plenty old enough to be learning. But that was another time, another America. His mind drifted, and he saw himself, a fifteen-year-old boy following in the footsteps of his own grandfather, clutching a twelve gauge in his trembling hands as they tracked a wounded whitetail.
The leg was hurting worse now, and he slowed his pace a bit. Plenty of time. It should have been my own son here with me now, the old man thought sadly. But Jason had no interest, no understanding. He cared for nothing but pounding on the keys of that damned computer terminal. He knew nothing about the woods, or where food came from...or freedom. And that's my fault, isn't it?
The old man stopped and held up his hand, motioning for the boy to look. In the small clearing ahead, the deer stood motionless, watching them. It was a scraggly buck, underfed and sickly, but the boy's eyes lit up with excitement. It had been many years since they had seen even a single whitetail here on the mountain. After the hunting had stopped, the population had exploded. The deer had eaten the mountain almost bare until erosion had become a serious problem in some places. That following winter, three starving does had wandered into the old man's yard, trying to eat the bark off of his pecan trees, and he had wished the "animal rights" fanatics could have been there then. It was against the law, but old man knew a higher law, and he took an axe into the yard and killed the starving beasts. They did not have the strength to run.
The buck finally turned and loped away, and they continued down the trail to the river. When they came to the "Big Oak," the old man turned and pushed through the heavy brush beside the trail and the boy followed, wordlessly. The old man knew that Thomas was curious about their leaving the trail, but the boy had learned to move silently (well, almost) and that meant no talking. When they came to "Coffin Rock," the old man sat down upon it and motioned for the boy to join him.
"You see this rock, shaped like a casket?" the old man asked. "Yes sir." The old man smiled. The boy was respectful and polite. He loved the outdoors, too. Everything a man could ask in a grandson ....or a son.
"I want you to remember this place, and what I'm about to tell you. A lot of it isn't going to make any sense to you, but it's important and one day you'll understand it well enough. The old man paused. Now that he was here, he didn't really know where to start.
"Before you were born," he began at last, "this country was different. I've told you about hunting, about how everybody who obeyed the law could own guns. A man could speak out, anywhere, without worrying about whether he'd get back home or not. School was different, too. A man could send his kids to a church school, or a private school, or even teach them at home. But even in the public schools, they didn't spend all their time trying to brainwash you like they do at yours now." The old man paused, and was silent for many minutes. The boy was still, watching a chipmunk scavenging beside a fallen tree below them.
"Things don't ever happen all at once, boy. They just sort of sneak up on you. Sure, we knew guns were important; we just didn't think it would ever happen in America. But we had to do something about crime, they said. It was a crisis. Everything was a crisis! It was a drug crisis, or a terrorism crisis, or street crime, or gang crime. Even a 'health care' crisis was an excuse to take away a little more of our rights." The old man turned to look at his grandson.
"They ever let you read a thing called the Constitution down there at your school?" The boy solemnly shook his head. "Well, the Fourth Amendment's still in there. It says there won't be any unreasonable searches and seizures. It says you're safe in your own home." The old man shrugged. "That had to go. It was a crisis! They could kick your door open any time, day or night, and come in with guns blazing if they thought you had drugs ...or later, guns. Oh, at first it was just registration -- to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals! But that didn't work, of course, and then later when they wanted to take 'em they knew where to look. They banned 'assault rifles', and then 'sniper rifles', and 'Saturday night specials.' Everything you saw on the TV or in the movies was against us. God knows the news people were! And the schools were teaching our kids that nobody needed guns anymore. We tried to take a stand, but we felt like the whole face of our country had changed and we were left outside."
"Me and a friend of mine, when we saw what was happening, we came and built a secret place up here on the mountain. A place where we could put our guns until we needed them. We figured some day Americans would remember what it was like to be free, and what kind of price we had to pay for that freedom. So we hid our guns instead of losing them."
"One fellow I knew disagreed. He said we ought to use our guns now and stand up to the government. Said that the colonists had fought for their freedom when the British tried to disarm them at Lexington and Concord. Well, he and a lot of others died in what your history books call the 'Tax Revolt of 1998,' but son, it wasn't the revolt that caused the repeal of the Second Amendment like your history book says. The Second Amendment was already gone long before they ever repealed it. The rest of us thought we were doing the right thing by waiting. I hope to God we were right."
"You see, Thomas. It isn't government that makes a man free. In the end, governments always do just the opposite. They gobble up freedom like hungry pigs. You have to have laws to keep the worst in men under control, but at the same time the people have to have guns, too, in order to keep the government itself under control. In our country, the people were supposed to be the final authority of the law, but that was a long time ago. Once the guns were gone, there was no reason for those who run the government to give a damn about laws and constitutional rights and such. They just did what they pleased and anyone who spoke out...well, I'm getting ahead of myself."
"It took a long time to collect up all the millions of firearms that were in private hands. The government created a whole new agency to see to it. There were rewards for turning your friends in, too. Drug dealers and murderers were set free after two or three years in prison, but possession of a gun would get you mandatory life behind bars with no parole.
"I don't know how they found out about me, probably knew I'd been a hunter all those years, or maybe somebody turned me in. They picked me up on suspicion and took me down to the federal building."
"Son, those guys did everything they could think of to me. Kept me locked up in this little room for hours, no food, no water. They kept coming in, asking me where the guns were. 'What guns?' I said. Whenever I'd doze off, they'd come crashing in, yelling and hollering. I got to where I didn't know which end was up. I'd say I wanted my lawyer and they'd laugh. 'Lawyers are for criminals', they said. 'You'll get a lawyer after we get the guns.' What's so funny is, I know they thought they were doing the right thing. They were fighting crime!"
"When I got home I found Ruth sitting in the middle of the living room floor, crying her eyes out. The house was a shambles. While I was down there, they'd come out and took our house apart. Didn't need a search warrant, they said. National emergency! Gun crisis! Your grandma tried to call our preacher and they ripped the phone off the wall. Told her that they'd go easy on me if she just told them where I kept my guns." The old man laughed. "She told them to go to hell." He stared into the distance for a moment as his laughter faded.
"They wouldn't tell her about me, where I was or anything, that whole time. She said that she'd thought I was dead. She never got over that day, and she died the next December."
"They've been watching me ever since, off and on. I guess there's not much for them to do anymore, now that all the guns are gone. Plenty of time to watch one foolish old man." He paused. Beside him, the boy stared at the stone beneath his feet.
"Anyway, I figure that, one day, America will come to her senses. Our men will need those guns and they'll be ready. We cleaned them and sealed them up good; they'll last for years. Maybe it won't be in your lifetime, Thomas. Maybe one day you'll be sitting here with your son or grandson. Tell him about me, boy. Tell him about the way I said America used to be." The old man stood, his bad leg shaking unsteadily beneath him.
"You see the way this stone points? You follow that line one hundred feet down the hill and you'll find a big round rock. It looks like it's buried solid, but one man with a good prybar can lift it, and there's a concrete tunnel right under there that goes back into the hill."
The old man stood, watching as the sun eased toward the ridge, coloring the sky and the world red. Below them, the river still splashed among the stones, as it had for a million years. It's still going, the old man thought. There'll be someone left to carry on for me when I'm gone. It was harder to walk back. He felt old and purposeless now, and it would be easier, he knew, to give in to that aching heaviness in his left lung that had begun to trouble him more and more. Damn cigarettes, he thought. His leg hurt, and the boy silently came up beside him and supported him as they started down the last mile toward the house. How quiet he walks, the old man thought. He's learned well.
It was almost dark when the boy walked in. His father looked up from his paper. "Did you and your granddad have a nice walk?"
"Yes," the boy answered, opening the refrigerator. "You can call Agent Goodwin tomorrow. Gramps finally showed me where it is."
Editor's note: "Sundown at Coffin Rock" is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual events or to actual people, living or dead, remains to be seen. - Mark Pixler, Editor
World-Wide-Web html format by
For those that haven't read it, it's definitely worth the time.
So, presented here as I found it, with all attributions, is "Sundown at Coffin Rock"
MOLON LABE!
-
This article was originally posted to the Internet by "Annonymous"
This story originally appeared in "The Blue Press" (a catalog/magazine put
out by Dillon Precision Products, Inc., 7442 Butherus Drive, Scottsdale,
AZ 85260, phone 602-948-8009.) The editor, Mark Pixler, was kind
enough to allow distribution on the Internet.
This story may be reprinted as long as due credit is given to the author and publisher.
Sundown at Coffin Rock
by Raymond K. Paden
The old man walked slowly through the dry, fallen leaves of autumn, his practiced eye automatically choosing the bare and stony places in the trail for his feet. There was scarcely a sound as he passed, though his left knee was stiff with scar tissue. He grunted occasionally as the tight sinews pulled. Damn chainsaw, he thought.Behind him, the boy shuffled along, trying to imitate his grandfather, but unable to mimic the silent motion that the old man had learned during countless winter days upon this wooded mountain in pursuit of game. He's fifteen years old, the old man thought. Plenty old enough to be learning. But that was another time, another America. His mind drifted, and he saw himself, a fifteen-year-old boy following in the footsteps of his own grandfather, clutching a twelve gauge in his trembling hands as they tracked a wounded whitetail.
The leg was hurting worse now, and he slowed his pace a bit. Plenty of time. It should have been my own son here with me now, the old man thought sadly. But Jason had no interest, no understanding. He cared for nothing but pounding on the keys of that damned computer terminal. He knew nothing about the woods, or where food came from...or freedom. And that's my fault, isn't it?
The old man stopped and held up his hand, motioning for the boy to look. In the small clearing ahead, the deer stood motionless, watching them. It was a scraggly buck, underfed and sickly, but the boy's eyes lit up with excitement. It had been many years since they had seen even a single whitetail here on the mountain. After the hunting had stopped, the population had exploded. The deer had eaten the mountain almost bare until erosion had become a serious problem in some places. That following winter, three starving does had wandered into the old man's yard, trying to eat the bark off of his pecan trees, and he had wished the "animal rights" fanatics could have been there then. It was against the law, but old man knew a higher law, and he took an axe into the yard and killed the starving beasts. They did not have the strength to run.
The buck finally turned and loped away, and they continued down the trail to the river. When they came to the "Big Oak," the old man turned and pushed through the heavy brush beside the trail and the boy followed, wordlessly. The old man knew that Thomas was curious about their leaving the trail, but the boy had learned to move silently (well, almost) and that meant no talking. When they came to "Coffin Rock," the old man sat down upon it and motioned for the boy to join him.
"You see this rock, shaped like a casket?" the old man asked. "Yes sir." The old man smiled. The boy was respectful and polite. He loved the outdoors, too. Everything a man could ask in a grandson ....or a son.
"I want you to remember this place, and what I'm about to tell you. A lot of it isn't going to make any sense to you, but it's important and one day you'll understand it well enough. The old man paused. Now that he was here, he didn't really know where to start.
"Before you were born," he began at last, "this country was different. I've told you about hunting, about how everybody who obeyed the law could own guns. A man could speak out, anywhere, without worrying about whether he'd get back home or not. School was different, too. A man could send his kids to a church school, or a private school, or even teach them at home. But even in the public schools, they didn't spend all their time trying to brainwash you like they do at yours now." The old man paused, and was silent for many minutes. The boy was still, watching a chipmunk scavenging beside a fallen tree below them.
"Things don't ever happen all at once, boy. They just sort of sneak up on you. Sure, we knew guns were important; we just didn't think it would ever happen in America. But we had to do something about crime, they said. It was a crisis. Everything was a crisis! It was a drug crisis, or a terrorism crisis, or street crime, or gang crime. Even a 'health care' crisis was an excuse to take away a little more of our rights." The old man turned to look at his grandson.
"They ever let you read a thing called the Constitution down there at your school?" The boy solemnly shook his head. "Well, the Fourth Amendment's still in there. It says there won't be any unreasonable searches and seizures. It says you're safe in your own home." The old man shrugged. "That had to go. It was a crisis! They could kick your door open any time, day or night, and come in with guns blazing if they thought you had drugs ...or later, guns. Oh, at first it was just registration -- to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals! But that didn't work, of course, and then later when they wanted to take 'em they knew where to look. They banned 'assault rifles', and then 'sniper rifles', and 'Saturday night specials.' Everything you saw on the TV or in the movies was against us. God knows the news people were! And the schools were teaching our kids that nobody needed guns anymore. We tried to take a stand, but we felt like the whole face of our country had changed and we were left outside."
"Me and a friend of mine, when we saw what was happening, we came and built a secret place up here on the mountain. A place where we could put our guns until we needed them. We figured some day Americans would remember what it was like to be free, and what kind of price we had to pay for that freedom. So we hid our guns instead of losing them."
"One fellow I knew disagreed. He said we ought to use our guns now and stand up to the government. Said that the colonists had fought for their freedom when the British tried to disarm them at Lexington and Concord. Well, he and a lot of others died in what your history books call the 'Tax Revolt of 1998,' but son, it wasn't the revolt that caused the repeal of the Second Amendment like your history book says. The Second Amendment was already gone long before they ever repealed it. The rest of us thought we were doing the right thing by waiting. I hope to God we were right."
"You see, Thomas. It isn't government that makes a man free. In the end, governments always do just the opposite. They gobble up freedom like hungry pigs. You have to have laws to keep the worst in men under control, but at the same time the people have to have guns, too, in order to keep the government itself under control. In our country, the people were supposed to be the final authority of the law, but that was a long time ago. Once the guns were gone, there was no reason for those who run the government to give a damn about laws and constitutional rights and such. They just did what they pleased and anyone who spoke out...well, I'm getting ahead of myself."
"It took a long time to collect up all the millions of firearms that were in private hands. The government created a whole new agency to see to it. There were rewards for turning your friends in, too. Drug dealers and murderers were set free after two or three years in prison, but possession of a gun would get you mandatory life behind bars with no parole.
"I don't know how they found out about me, probably knew I'd been a hunter all those years, or maybe somebody turned me in. They picked me up on suspicion and took me down to the federal building."
"Son, those guys did everything they could think of to me. Kept me locked up in this little room for hours, no food, no water. They kept coming in, asking me where the guns were. 'What guns?' I said. Whenever I'd doze off, they'd come crashing in, yelling and hollering. I got to where I didn't know which end was up. I'd say I wanted my lawyer and they'd laugh. 'Lawyers are for criminals', they said. 'You'll get a lawyer after we get the guns.' What's so funny is, I know they thought they were doing the right thing. They were fighting crime!"
"When I got home I found Ruth sitting in the middle of the living room floor, crying her eyes out. The house was a shambles. While I was down there, they'd come out and took our house apart. Didn't need a search warrant, they said. National emergency! Gun crisis! Your grandma tried to call our preacher and they ripped the phone off the wall. Told her that they'd go easy on me if she just told them where I kept my guns." The old man laughed. "She told them to go to hell." He stared into the distance for a moment as his laughter faded.
"They wouldn't tell her about me, where I was or anything, that whole time. She said that she'd thought I was dead. She never got over that day, and she died the next December."
"They've been watching me ever since, off and on. I guess there's not much for them to do anymore, now that all the guns are gone. Plenty of time to watch one foolish old man." He paused. Beside him, the boy stared at the stone beneath his feet.
"Anyway, I figure that, one day, America will come to her senses. Our men will need those guns and they'll be ready. We cleaned them and sealed them up good; they'll last for years. Maybe it won't be in your lifetime, Thomas. Maybe one day you'll be sitting here with your son or grandson. Tell him about me, boy. Tell him about the way I said America used to be." The old man stood, his bad leg shaking unsteadily beneath him.
"You see the way this stone points? You follow that line one hundred feet down the hill and you'll find a big round rock. It looks like it's buried solid, but one man with a good prybar can lift it, and there's a concrete tunnel right under there that goes back into the hill."
The old man stood, watching as the sun eased toward the ridge, coloring the sky and the world red. Below them, the river still splashed among the stones, as it had for a million years. It's still going, the old man thought. There'll be someone left to carry on for me when I'm gone. It was harder to walk back. He felt old and purposeless now, and it would be easier, he knew, to give in to that aching heaviness in his left lung that had begun to trouble him more and more. Damn cigarettes, he thought. His leg hurt, and the boy silently came up beside him and supported him as they started down the last mile toward the house. How quiet he walks, the old man thought. He's learned well.
It was almost dark when the boy walked in. His father looked up from his paper. "Did you and your granddad have a nice walk?"
"Yes," the boy answered, opening the refrigerator. "You can call Agent Goodwin tomorrow. Gramps finally showed me where it is."
Editor's note: "Sundown at Coffin Rock" is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual events or to actual people, living or dead, remains to be seen. - Mark Pixler, Editor
World-Wide-Web html format by
- Scott Ostrander: scotto@cica.indiana.edu
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Little Duece Coupe
Watched "American Graffiti" today, and every time I saw Milner's '34 coupe, this was in the back of my mind.
Enjoy!
Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know what I've got
(You don't know what I've got)
Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know what I've got
Well, I'm not braggin', babe, so don't put me down
(Deuce Coupe)
But I've got the fastest set of wheels in town
(Deuce Coupe)
When something comes up to me, he don't even try
(Deuce Coupe)
'Cause if it had a set of wings, man, I know she can fly
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
Little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
Just a little Deuce Coupe with a flathead mill
(Deuce Coupe)
But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still
(Deuce Coupe)
She's ported and relieved and she's stroked and bored
(Deuce Coupe)
She'll do a hundred and forty in the top end floored
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's got a competition clutch with four on the floor
And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar
And if that ain't enough to make you flip your lid
There's one more thing, I've got the pink slip, Daddy
And comin' off the line when the light turns green
(Deuce Coupe)
Well, she blows 'em outta the water like you've never seen
(Deuce Coupe)
I get pushed out of shape and it's hard to steer
(Deuce Coupe)
When I get rubber in all four gears
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got, what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
Enjoy!
Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know what I've got
(You don't know what I've got)
Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know what I've got
Well, I'm not braggin', babe, so don't put me down
(Deuce Coupe)
But I've got the fastest set of wheels in town
(Deuce Coupe)
When something comes up to me, he don't even try
(Deuce Coupe)
'Cause if it had a set of wings, man, I know she can fly
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
Little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
Just a little Deuce Coupe with a flathead mill
(Deuce Coupe)
But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still
(Deuce Coupe)
She's ported and relieved and she's stroked and bored
(Deuce Coupe)
She'll do a hundred and forty in the top end floored
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's got a competition clutch with four on the floor
And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar
And if that ain't enough to make you flip your lid
There's one more thing, I've got the pink slip, Daddy
And comin' off the line when the light turns green
(Deuce Coupe)
Well, she blows 'em outta the water like you've never seen
(Deuce Coupe)
I get pushed out of shape and it's hard to steer
(Deuce Coupe)
When I get rubber in all four gears
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
She's my little Deuce Coupe
You don't know what I've got, what I've got
(She's my little Deuce Coupe)
(You don't know what I've got)
Saturday, January 26, 2013
We've Arrived
At the launch site, 0*N, 154*W, elevation ZERO.
We started performing our "L-3 Day" launch processing, BUT ULA is launching an Atlas-V with a TDRSS bird for NASA, and they have priority for use of the TDRSS network.
They were supposed to launch a day before us, but due to some problems with their launch vehicle, have slipped one day, and are jnow right "on top" of us.
SO....we'll go ahead and finish the L-3 day processing, and do about half the L-2 day processing, and then stand down until they either launch, scrub, or abort.
If they scrub the launch, we *might* be able to go ahead and launch, depending on what NASA decides to do. If they don't want to, or aren't able to, reconfigure for our launch, and meet their crew rest requirements, we'll just sit here and wait for the Atlas-V launch.
If they slip a day, then we slip a day, and so on, up to a 4 day maximum at which point they have to roll their launch vehicle back for various reasons.
We're hesitant to go ahead and finish L-2 and proceed to L-1, as this is when we roll the rocket out and stand it up. At that time we start using up liquid nitrogen to keep things purged and inerted, and since we have a finite supply with us, we'd rather not do that.
The "Saturday Night Movie" for me will be "Quigley Down Under", which I'm looking forward to watching.
I also brought "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" with me, and a whole back-pack full of other movies, so I should be able to keep busy!
In the meantime, we're all "Standing By To Stand By", as I'm sure some of you are very familiar with.....
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We started performing our "L-3 Day" launch processing, BUT ULA is launching an Atlas-V with a TDRSS bird for NASA, and they have priority for use of the TDRSS network.
They were supposed to launch a day before us, but due to some problems with their launch vehicle, have slipped one day, and are jnow right "on top" of us.
SO....we'll go ahead and finish the L-3 day processing, and do about half the L-2 day processing, and then stand down until they either launch, scrub, or abort.
If they scrub the launch, we *might* be able to go ahead and launch, depending on what NASA decides to do. If they don't want to, or aren't able to, reconfigure for our launch, and meet their crew rest requirements, we'll just sit here and wait for the Atlas-V launch.
If they slip a day, then we slip a day, and so on, up to a 4 day maximum at which point they have to roll their launch vehicle back for various reasons.
We're hesitant to go ahead and finish L-2 and proceed to L-1, as this is when we roll the rocket out and stand it up. At that time we start using up liquid nitrogen to keep things purged and inerted, and since we have a finite supply with us, we'd rather not do that.
The "Saturday Night Movie" for me will be "Quigley Down Under", which I'm looking forward to watching.
I also brought "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" with me, and a whole back-pack full of other movies, so I should be able to keep busy!
In the meantime, we're all "Standing By To Stand By", as I'm sure some of you are very familiar with.....
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Tuesday, January 22, 2013
"The Night Stalkers" by Durant, Hartov, and Johnson
The Night Stalkers
My wife bought me this for Christmas, knowing how much I respect our troops.
It's the story about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) of the U.S. Army.
In case you don't know, these are the helicopter pilots who take the various Special Forces units into combat, and retrieve them.
I have to say this is a wonderful book. While I enjoy reading books by Matthew Bracken, and Kenneth Royce, those are fiction.
This book is about REAL people getting shot at, wounded, and killed, by REAL bullets.
As Admiral Tarrant says at the end of the movie The Bridges at Toko Ri, "Where Do We Get Such Men"?
Where, indeed..........
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My wife bought me this for Christmas, knowing how much I respect our troops.
It's the story about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) of the U.S. Army.
In case you don't know, these are the helicopter pilots who take the various Special Forces units into combat, and retrieve them.
I have to say this is a wonderful book. While I enjoy reading books by Matthew Bracken, and Kenneth Royce, those are fiction.
This book is about REAL people getting shot at, wounded, and killed, by REAL bullets.
As Admiral Tarrant says at the end of the movie The Bridges at Toko Ri, "Where Do We Get Such Men"?
Where, indeed..........
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Sunday, January 20, 2013
Quiet Weekend
Well, we pulled out of Long Beach at 1000 Saturday morning right on schedule.
We'd had our safety and lifeboat drills by 1130, so I had a light lunch, and took a nap.
Proceeded to finish reading "Patriot Dawn", and watched "Casino" before hitting the hay at 2200.
Today was a "No Work" day for most of us, so I started watching the PBS series "Warplane", narrated by Stacey Keach.
If you haven't seen it, it's great, and Keach, as usual, does a great job narrating it.
The IT guys set up streaming video on the big TV in the Lido Lounge, and football was enjoyed by all.
Except me.
I. DON'T. Watch. Football.
Period.
"Pro" football has to be the stupidest scam ever foisted on the American "Sports Fan".
How ANYBODY can take a nominal ONE HOUR game, and bloat it out to FOUR FREAKING HOURS is beyond me.
And I won't even go into the obscene money paid to the thugs on the field, the team owners, and the ticket sellers.
It's almost as bad as "Pro" basketball, but I won't go there, either.
ANYWAY....the ship's catering crew set up a nice hot buffet for all the people watching the game, and we had hot dogs, burgers, and meatballs in red sauce.
Hope you all have a good week!
We'd had our safety and lifeboat drills by 1130, so I had a light lunch, and took a nap.
Proceeded to finish reading "Patriot Dawn", and watched "Casino" before hitting the hay at 2200.
Today was a "No Work" day for most of us, so I started watching the PBS series "Warplane", narrated by Stacey Keach.
If you haven't seen it, it's great, and Keach, as usual, does a great job narrating it.
The IT guys set up streaming video on the big TV in the Lido Lounge, and football was enjoyed by all.
Except me.
I. DON'T. Watch. Football.
Period.
"Pro" football has to be the stupidest scam ever foisted on the American "Sports Fan".
How ANYBODY can take a nominal ONE HOUR game, and bloat it out to FOUR FREAKING HOURS is beyond me.
And I won't even go into the obscene money paid to the thugs on the field, the team owners, and the ticket sellers.
It's almost as bad as "Pro" basketball, but I won't go there, either.
ANYWAY....the ship's catering crew set up a nice hot buffet for all the people watching the game, and we had hot dogs, burgers, and meatballs in red sauce.
Hope you all have a good week!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
*FINALLY* Feeling Better
After being knocked down by this damn flu bug for over a week, I'm finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, just in time to pack my stuff up, and head out to sea again on Saturday.
I made a COSTCO run tonight and picked up a bunch of snacks and things for the trip, and I'll lug some of that in Friday moring.
2x 3lb bags of pistachios
2x 12 pack bags of beef jerky
100 packets of Emergen-C drink mix
1 LARGE bottle of glucosamine sulfate for my battered old knees
2 bottles of Robitussen
2 boxes of Chloroseptic throat lozenges
1 HUGE bag of Hall's Mento-Lyptus cough drops
And various and sundry other items.
I also bought a new set of headphones, as my Koss Pro-4AAT cans finally bit the dust.
I had to replace the cable between the earpieces a few years ago, and then the 1/8" stereo plug failed, and now the plastic has broken on one of the earpieces so it won't stay on the headband.
I found a set of Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor phones at a good price, and they're quite nice. They don't seal out the background noise as well as the Koss' did, but they sound very good, with solid bass, midrange, and treble.
They probably reproduce more frequencies than my ears can pick up these days, as in my youth I subjected myself to a LOT of open-exhaust race cars, and el-cheap-o aviation headsets that hardly blocked out the noise of the little Cessna and Piper aircraft I used to putt-putt around in.
But I *ALWAYS* wore ear protection (and eyes, too) when shooting.
.
.
I made a COSTCO run tonight and picked up a bunch of snacks and things for the trip, and I'll lug some of that in Friday moring.
2x 3lb bags of pistachios
2x 12 pack bags of beef jerky
100 packets of Emergen-C drink mix
1 LARGE bottle of glucosamine sulfate for my battered old knees
2 bottles of Robitussen
2 boxes of Chloroseptic throat lozenges
1 HUGE bag of Hall's Mento-Lyptus cough drops
And various and sundry other items.
I also bought a new set of headphones, as my Koss Pro-4AAT cans finally bit the dust.
I had to replace the cable between the earpieces a few years ago, and then the 1/8" stereo plug failed, and now the plastic has broken on one of the earpieces so it won't stay on the headband.
I found a set of Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor phones at a good price, and they're quite nice. They don't seal out the background noise as well as the Koss' did, but they sound very good, with solid bass, midrange, and treble.
They probably reproduce more frequencies than my ears can pick up these days, as in my youth I subjected myself to a LOT of open-exhaust race cars, and el-cheap-o aviation headsets that hardly blocked out the noise of the little Cessna and Piper aircraft I used to putt-putt around in.
But I *ALWAYS* wore ear protection (and eyes, too) when shooting.
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Sunday, January 13, 2013
My Flu Shot Didn't Work
I've been getting flu shots since 2009 when I got really sick for about 2 months with some bug that just wouldn't go away. So far, things have been fine, with just "regular" colds.
Not this year.
I noticed I was starting to get a sore throat on Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I could hardly speak, and was running a fever.
"Dr. Mom" insisted I got to bed early, and loaded me up with some OTC stuff that helped. Thursday I stayed home from work, and Thursday night I had one of those coughs that kick in about 3 minutes after you lay down, making it rather difficult to get any sleep. I called in to work Friday morning, and my boss told me to STAY HOME, as we're too close to leaving to have me come in, spread something around, and have everybody else sick just as we're getting to the launch site.
Friday and Saturday morining I was pretty 'zombiefied' from whatever hit me, AND the cold meds, so I just kicked back and didn't do much.
I went in to work today at 0800 to help set up and run the final RF testing we do before they lower the rocket, and roll it back in the hangar, and everything went smooth as silk. We were finished by 1430, and rather than hang around, I came back home to take it easy. Tomorrow we'll get all our gear on the platform stowed for transit, and then wave them off Tuesday morning, with us following 4 days later on Saturday.
So beware!
There's a nasty bug floating around out there, and I hope it misses you....
Not this year.
I noticed I was starting to get a sore throat on Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I could hardly speak, and was running a fever.
"Dr. Mom" insisted I got to bed early, and loaded me up with some OTC stuff that helped. Thursday I stayed home from work, and Thursday night I had one of those coughs that kick in about 3 minutes after you lay down, making it rather difficult to get any sleep. I called in to work Friday morning, and my boss told me to STAY HOME, as we're too close to leaving to have me come in, spread something around, and have everybody else sick just as we're getting to the launch site.
Friday and Saturday morining I was pretty 'zombiefied' from whatever hit me, AND the cold meds, so I just kicked back and didn't do much.
I went in to work today at 0800 to help set up and run the final RF testing we do before they lower the rocket, and roll it back in the hangar, and everything went smooth as silk. We were finished by 1430, and rather than hang around, I came back home to take it easy. Tomorrow we'll get all our gear on the platform stowed for transit, and then wave them off Tuesday morning, with us following 4 days later on Saturday.
So beware!
There's a nasty bug floating around out there, and I hope it misses you....
Friday, January 11, 2013
No, I Don't Need "10 Bullets To Kill A Deer"
But I damn sure might need more than 10 to defend my family!
Mark Levin puts it all into perspective.
Please, give it a listen.
H/T to therightscoop.com
Mark Levin puts it all into perspective.
Please, give it a listen.
H/T to therightscoop.com
Thursday, January 10, 2013
We Need More Baseball Bat, String, and Knife Control!
On the other hand....don't get the leftwing moonbats barking about this.
They might try and turn us into (formerly) Great Britain!
H/T to MissK and It 'Aint Holy Water.
They might try and turn us into (formerly) Great Britain!
H/T to MissK and It 'Aint Holy Water.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Pre-Departure Preps Underway
They rolled the payload over to the ship this morning, and tomorrow we'll do some RF power checks from the launch vehicle up to one of the equipment rooms. If that goes well (it always does), then Friday morning we'll flow live data from the ship, through the NASA TDRSS network and do an "End-to-End" test of the entire network we use to relay telemetry from the launch site to all the places it goes.
Yesterday they filled the LN2 tanks in the Launch Platform with NINE tankers of Liquid Nitrogen, and today they started loading the LOX. There were 8 tankers on-site when I left, with another 25 on the way. The day before departure they'll bring in three more to "Top Off" the LOX supply, for a total load of THIRTY SIX tankers of Liquid Oxygen. Something like ONE TON per day boils off during our transit down to the Equator, and we carry enough to make three launch attempts. The fuel can be drained back out of the launch vehicle and saved, but pumping LOX always incurs losses.
Almost all of the RF testing my little group handles is finished, and we're kind of sitting around twiddling our thumbs until Sunday, when we do "Roll Out and Erect", and run the full countdown, minus fueling the launch vehicle. The satellite builder for this launch is an American company we've worked with many times, and things go very smooth, as all involved have done this before, and we all speak English, unlike the last launch, when we could barely communicate with the foreign customer, leading to some "interesting" problems, and very long days.
Yesterday they filled the LN2 tanks in the Launch Platform with NINE tankers of Liquid Nitrogen, and today they started loading the LOX. There were 8 tankers on-site when I left, with another 25 on the way. The day before departure they'll bring in three more to "Top Off" the LOX supply, for a total load of THIRTY SIX tankers of Liquid Oxygen. Something like ONE TON per day boils off during our transit down to the Equator, and we carry enough to make three launch attempts. The fuel can be drained back out of the launch vehicle and saved, but pumping LOX always incurs losses.
Almost all of the RF testing my little group handles is finished, and we're kind of sitting around twiddling our thumbs until Sunday, when we do "Roll Out and Erect", and run the full countdown, minus fueling the launch vehicle. The satellite builder for this launch is an American company we've worked with many times, and things go very smooth, as all involved have done this before, and we all speak English, unlike the last launch, when we could barely communicate with the foreign customer, leading to some "interesting" problems, and very long days.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Lucky Gunner Brass vs Steel Cased Ammo Test
I don't know how many of you received this in your email, but it certainly is an amazing amount of work and data gathering.
Go here and read the whole article.
Just amazing....
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Go here and read the whole article.
Just amazing....
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Monday, January 7, 2013
An Entirely New Meaning for the Term "Enemy of the People"
As ususal, T.L. Davis has an excellent piece over at his place.
Please, go RTHT.
I always thought the phrase meant a person or persons who were at odds with society, and dangerous to society.
TL turns the meaning around with something so obvious I felt like I just got clobbered with the fabled "Clue-By-Four".
On a side note, when I worked at DirecTV we used to joke about how somebody would change the title to a movie to make it more "relevant" to the foreign audience.
When Will Smith's "Enemy of the People" was playing, and we were broadcasting it to South America, the tile had been changed to "Public Enemy".
A subtle change to some, but considering how corrupt most South American governments are, it was a telling change.
.
.
Please, go RTHT.
I always thought the phrase meant a person or persons who were at odds with society, and dangerous to society.
TL turns the meaning around with something so obvious I felt like I just got clobbered with the fabled "Clue-By-Four".
On a side note, when I worked at DirecTV we used to joke about how somebody would change the title to a movie to make it more "relevant" to the foreign audience.
When Will Smith's "Enemy of the People" was playing, and we were broadcasting it to South America, the tile had been changed to "Public Enemy".
A subtle change to some, but considering how corrupt most South American governments are, it was a telling change.
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.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Traffic Web Cams As Remote Intelligence Assets
Found this over at Rawles' Survival Blog, and it looks like a great idea.
Use all those Nanny State traffic cams to see who's moving what to where.
As long as you have power and an Internet connection, these could be useful.
This website has all sorts of webcams that might provide some "interesting" viewing.
Use all those Nanny State traffic cams to see who's moving what to where.
As long as you have power and an Internet connection, these could be useful.
This website has all sorts of webcams that might provide some "interesting" viewing.
Friday, January 4, 2013
"Fiscal Cliff" Survival Package
From a friend.....
Just wanted to let you know - today I received my Fiscal Cliff Survival Pack from the White House.
It contained a parachute, an 'Obama Hope & Change' bumper sticker, a 'Bush's Fault' poster, a 'Blame Boehner' poster, a "Tax the Rich' poster, an application for unemployment, an application for food stamps, a prayer rug, a letter of assignation of debt to my grandchildren and a machine to blow smoke up my ass.
All directions were in Spanish.
Keep an eye out. Yours should arrive soon.
Just wanted to let you know - today I received my Fiscal Cliff Survival Pack from the White House.
It contained a parachute, an 'Obama Hope & Change' bumper sticker, a 'Bush's Fault' poster, a 'Blame Boehner' poster, a "Tax the Rich' poster, an application for unemployment, an application for food stamps, a prayer rug, a letter of assignation of debt to my grandchildren and a machine to blow smoke up my ass.
All directions were in Spanish.
Keep an eye out. Yours should arrive soon.
Weird Network Problem at Home
Well, I got home from work the other night, and proceeded to fire up my PC to check my email.
Hmmm.....no network connectivity.
I powered up my Ham Radio PC to see if it had a network connection, and got the same type of error message.
I went and reset the Ethernet switch in my little "Network Closet", and things worked for about 2 minutes, and then the network connection dropped out.
About this time, my stepson arrived home, and said "Hey, could you check the Internet for me? I can't get on".
I told him I was in the process of doing that, and went and power cycled our Verizon router, and waited for it to come back up.
STILL no Internet connectivity, so then I tried to connect to my weather server, which is loacted in the living room, but on a different segment of our LAN.
Uh-Oh.....can't get to it, either. Hmmm....my little $20 "Dynex" Gig-E switch in the closet must have rolled over and gone casters up.
Since my Audio/Video PC is still set up on the dining room table, I powered it up, and was able to get on the Internet to see what Best Buy had in stock for a new Ethernet switch. I would up buying a Netgear 8-port switch like the one I have on my desk in the Radio Room to tie everything together with, and proceeded to swap out the "dead" Dynex switch.
Oh, boy......STILL no Internet access from the Radio Room.
Thinking perhaps the cable from the router to the switch had gone flakey, I then pulled the cat6 cable going to the router, and ran a cable directly from the router to the switch on my desk.
STILL no Internet! I went back to the living room, and tried connecting to the Home Theater receiver and/or the Oppo Blu-Ray player (they're both "Net Aware"), and discovered I couldn't reach either of them.
Hmmmm...something is definitely rotten in the network segment with the Home Theater, Radio Room, and stepson's bedroom, but a direct connection to the router works, as my wife's PC, and the Audio/Video editing PC have full connectivity.
Back to the network closet, where I unplug everything except the cable back to the router, and the cable to the Home Theater gear, which has it's own little D-Link 4-port 10/100 switch.
NOW I can get to the Onkyo receiver and Oppo Blu-ray player from either PC that has a direct connection into the router.
I reconnect the cable to the Radio Room segment and all works well.
I reconnect the cable to the back bedroom, and all works well.
I reconnect the cable to stepson's bedroom, and BLAM.....the whole network GOES DOWN.
And for the first time I noticed via the LED's on the network switches, that there's a tremendous amount of traffic flying around.
I pull the cable to stepson's bedroom, and all the traffic disappears.
HMMMMMM......WTF is going on in there? His PC and his X-Box are turned OFF, and I know I have the BIOS in his PC set so you can't remotely hit the PC with a Magic Packet to turn it on.
X-Box go berserk? Cable get crushed/shorted?
I go into his room, and he helps me pull his PC from under the desk, and I see the special Netgear "Home Theater and Gaming Series" Ethernet switch I bought for him some time ago. This switch has the traffic on certain ports prioritized, so that your X-Box or PS3 gets priority over any other device connected to it. It supposedly reduces the "Ping Times", something critical for networked games, but otherwise it's just an Ethernet switch.
It has five ports. One port goes to the Network Closet in the Radio Room, one port goes to his PC, and one port goes to his X-Box.
But all 5 ports have cables in them. It's then I notice that two of the ports are "bridged" with a yellow cat5 jumper cable.
I seem to remember having a yellow Cat5 cable in there so his girlfriend could use her laptop until we got all the wireless issues solved, but I thought I'd pulled it out after we got her laptop working on the wireless network segment.
I ask him why he has the cable connecting the two "unused" ports, and he says he doesn't know anything about it, but then his girlfriend chimes in and said she saw the free end of the yellow cable "just dangling there" and decided it had to go *somewhere*, and since it looked like it would fit into the unused port, she plugged it in!
Now, I don't remember specifically why you never connect two ports togther, as it's lost among all the dust of my brain somewhere under "Networking 101", but I know it's a Bad Thing to do so.
Ahh....found it. It's called a "Switching Loop" and causes the switch to broadcast out of *every* port it has, causing a "Broadcast Storm", and will bring even a well-managed network to it's knees.
As soon as I unplugged one end of the mysterious yellow cable, "traffic" on the LAN went to about zero, and all connectivity was restored.
In retrospect, I should have fired up Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) on my Linux box and observed what type of traffic was bringing the network down, but by the time I "fixed" the problem, and restored everything to normal, it was 2130, and my bed time!
Hmmm.....no network connectivity.
I powered up my Ham Radio PC to see if it had a network connection, and got the same type of error message.
I went and reset the Ethernet switch in my little "Network Closet", and things worked for about 2 minutes, and then the network connection dropped out.
About this time, my stepson arrived home, and said "Hey, could you check the Internet for me? I can't get on".
I told him I was in the process of doing that, and went and power cycled our Verizon router, and waited for it to come back up.
STILL no Internet connectivity, so then I tried to connect to my weather server, which is loacted in the living room, but on a different segment of our LAN.
Uh-Oh.....can't get to it, either. Hmmm....my little $20 "Dynex" Gig-E switch in the closet must have rolled over and gone casters up.
Since my Audio/Video PC is still set up on the dining room table, I powered it up, and was able to get on the Internet to see what Best Buy had in stock for a new Ethernet switch. I would up buying a Netgear 8-port switch like the one I have on my desk in the Radio Room to tie everything together with, and proceeded to swap out the "dead" Dynex switch.
Oh, boy......STILL no Internet access from the Radio Room.
Thinking perhaps the cable from the router to the switch had gone flakey, I then pulled the cat6 cable going to the router, and ran a cable directly from the router to the switch on my desk.
STILL no Internet! I went back to the living room, and tried connecting to the Home Theater receiver and/or the Oppo Blu-Ray player (they're both "Net Aware"), and discovered I couldn't reach either of them.
Hmmmm...something is definitely rotten in the network segment with the Home Theater, Radio Room, and stepson's bedroom, but a direct connection to the router works, as my wife's PC, and the Audio/Video editing PC have full connectivity.
Back to the network closet, where I unplug everything except the cable back to the router, and the cable to the Home Theater gear, which has it's own little D-Link 4-port 10/100 switch.
NOW I can get to the Onkyo receiver and Oppo Blu-ray player from either PC that has a direct connection into the router.
I reconnect the cable to the Radio Room segment and all works well.
I reconnect the cable to the back bedroom, and all works well.
I reconnect the cable to stepson's bedroom, and BLAM.....the whole network GOES DOWN.
And for the first time I noticed via the LED's on the network switches, that there's a tremendous amount of traffic flying around.
I pull the cable to stepson's bedroom, and all the traffic disappears.
HMMMMMM......WTF is going on in there? His PC and his X-Box are turned OFF, and I know I have the BIOS in his PC set so you can't remotely hit the PC with a Magic Packet to turn it on.
X-Box go berserk? Cable get crushed/shorted?
I go into his room, and he helps me pull his PC from under the desk, and I see the special Netgear "Home Theater and Gaming Series" Ethernet switch I bought for him some time ago. This switch has the traffic on certain ports prioritized, so that your X-Box or PS3 gets priority over any other device connected to it. It supposedly reduces the "Ping Times", something critical for networked games, but otherwise it's just an Ethernet switch.
It has five ports. One port goes to the Network Closet in the Radio Room, one port goes to his PC, and one port goes to his X-Box.
But all 5 ports have cables in them. It's then I notice that two of the ports are "bridged" with a yellow cat5 jumper cable.
I seem to remember having a yellow Cat5 cable in there so his girlfriend could use her laptop until we got all the wireless issues solved, but I thought I'd pulled it out after we got her laptop working on the wireless network segment.
I ask him why he has the cable connecting the two "unused" ports, and he says he doesn't know anything about it, but then his girlfriend chimes in and said she saw the free end of the yellow cable "just dangling there" and decided it had to go *somewhere*, and since it looked like it would fit into the unused port, she plugged it in!
Now, I don't remember specifically why you never connect two ports togther, as it's lost among all the dust of my brain somewhere under "Networking 101", but I know it's a Bad Thing to do so.
Ahh....found it. It's called a "Switching Loop" and causes the switch to broadcast out of *every* port it has, causing a "Broadcast Storm", and will bring even a well-managed network to it's knees.
As soon as I unplugged one end of the mysterious yellow cable, "traffic" on the LAN went to about zero, and all connectivity was restored.
In retrospect, I should have fired up Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) on my Linux box and observed what type of traffic was bringing the network down, but by the time I "fixed" the problem, and restored everything to normal, it was 2130, and my bed time!
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