RAN RAN RU!

Know Your Meme must be destroyed. 



OH THE HUMANITY!

AAAHRGGGGAAGH!!!!

Nothing is happening.

The only thing on the news is Chelsea Clinton's wedding.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go

I'm going to chop down a tree, assuming I can get the stupid chainsaw to work. Here's to not chopping off any limbs!

Ammo Update

With what Geodkyt said here (thanks!), which pretty well fit in with what I was thinking, I hit the stores today after work.  At Cabela's there was no ammo that stood out to me, but I picked up a shirt that was on sale.  At Sportsman's Warehouse, I found the "Remington HD Ultimate Home Defense" rounds, which all evidence suggests to be repackaged Golden Sabers.  They were a good price and seemed to be on par with any of the other choices available.  I picked up enough for a good function test, and in the spirit of "the only shot that counts is the one that hits the target," I got some more Blazer cheapo for practice. 

This hopefully won't be a case of counting my chickens before they hatch, but the only thing left to complete the ensemble is pending on the Sheriff's office.  Curse your eyes, bureaucratic paperwork!

Added:  Oh, and at Sportsman's Warehouse was a traveling display of trophy elk.

Some of those things were huge!  Very impressive...

Sharing the Pain

This dumb song was stuck in my head all afternoon the other day. I thought I'd get it stuck in other peoples' heads too.



Catchy, no?

Google News Fail

To the left, you see an article about Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone.  To the right, you see a picture of Polar Bears.  The algorithm needs some tweaking...

Opening up a BIG Can of Worms Here

I need some ammo advice. But first I need to lay down some ground rules. Yes, I know it is only 9mm. So snide comments like "Well, the best self defense round in 9mm is to sell your gun and buy a .45" are not helpful. In short, I don't want this to turn into Any. Forum. Post. At. All. talking about ammo choices. Forums devolve into name calling and poor character references before any useful information is shared.

Okay!

I've heard it said that you should choose the bullet size one lower than the maximum available. As far as I know, the max is 147g, and the next lowest down is 124g for 9mm. Is there any truth in there?

Then, the guy at the gun store recommended Winchester PDX1 at the 124 grain bullet size. I am inclined toward that, but he has none in stock and doesn't know when more is coming in. Cabela's only has the 147g version in stock. I haven't checked Sportsman's Warehouse yet. His fallback suggestion was Remington Golden Saber.

The Big Green Book suggested to stuff it full of Cor-Bons and get on with your life. I like the sentiment, as I imagine most of the choices out there perform adequately.

As I am a total noob at this type of stuff, any [constructive] suggestions would be great.

Shred On

I love the David Crowder Band. About the only Worship Music worth listening to. They keep their sense of humor and their brains.

Added: I suppose I should say that another reason David Crowder is awesome is that he sometimes plays a Guitar Hero controller in concerts.

Apparently I'm 5% Hippie

I tied with Alan

You are 5% hippie.

 

Ok, you conservative soul. Do you even believe in global warming? Loosen that necktie a little, and try some organic food. It actually does taste better. And go to a farmer's market--they're fun.

Are you a hippie?
Take More Quizzes

Probably because I'm a youngster.

But I will say that global warming is a hoax dreamed up by power hungry scientists and has damaged my faith in all other areas that use numbers to prove themselves, I don't wear ties, organic food has no greater nutritional value than the cheap kind, and I don't go to the farmer's market because we have a huge garden that has more in it than we can eat. Why don't you go and stuff that carbon footprint somewhere where the sun don't shine, hippie?

I don't think they know what they are saying...

Holds up a fish: "Jacques Cousteau!"

Bad News

I was reading the news, and got depressed. Then I read this at SayUncle and was happy again.

Gurkha+Kukri=Someone I Want For My Team

Colorado Republicans...

It appears that the next governor for CO will be Democrat John Hickenlooper, by the simple expedient that the Republicans are only good at shooting themselves in the foot or each other in the back. Here, this little article pretty much sums it up.

At least I can take comfort in the fact that Hickenlooper owns a microbrewery and so presumably knows that you can't spend more money than you have. Unfortunately he is also the mayor of Denver (which, by the way, is the only anti-gun location in the state) and so doesn't know that there is a Colorado west of the continental divide.

Benedicte Maurseth

This lady was one of my favorites at the National Folk Festival.



You may recall the hardanger fiddle in the "Lord of the Rings" movies as the instrument that played the Rohan songs



(skip to about the 3 minute mark to see what I'm talking about)

Anyway, there's your random education for the day.

Great. What will we do when bears learn to turn the key?

A family in Larkspur (south of Denver) had their car broken into by a bear, who then honked the horn and took it off park.  Luckily he only made it down the road before running into a tree.  But, I ask, what will we do when the inevitable happens and the bears take over our vehicles?  You thought zombies was a fun intellectual game to play to prepare for the worst?  Bear motor gangs isn't a game, folks, and it is worse.  This is real life.  Be prepared.

Hmm. I Aways Wondered.

That explains everything!

One word news commentary

Fired USDA official Shirley Sherrod offers Obama a lesson on Civil Rights

My commentary: "Ouch."

NEVER STOP!

 There is no such thing as too much bacon!


This is the weirdest web comic I've seen for a long time.  If you enjoy very random humor, look at Nedroid Comics.

Movies. Lots and Lots of Movies... This One is "District B-13"

A video store in town is going out of business, and they have movies on sale, 10 for $10. Among the ones I picked up was a French action movie called "District B-13." All of the action is Parkour. Here is a clip from the movie:



As you can see, it is probably about the best thing to come out of France since they exiled Napoleon. At least equal to some of Tony Jaa's stuff Well worth the $1 I paid. Might even be worth more.

Headlines: "Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier"

Read the article here.

Read my commentary here: 

Too Bad! So Sad! Obama's "Hope" Was Just a Fad!

Is it a Week of Memes?

Another meme, now from MacBourne.  Political Quizzes!

The "conservative quiz"

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Free Marketeer, also known as a fiscal conservative. You believe in free-market capitalism, tax cuts, and protecting your hard-earned cash from pick-pocketing liberal socialists.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

Okay, I somewhat expected that.

With trepidation, I took the "liberal quiz" too:

My Liberal Identity

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

Whew! The best worst choice. Of course, you know that if it had been "Tree Hugger, likes to kill babies to offset carbon" I wouldn't have put it on my blog...

FYI, I have so far managed to avoid the one that tells you who you write like.

The Romance is Gone, and with it the Dreams

ASM826 just had a post up about the space program, it's past and it's future.  It got me to thinking about where we are now in the science world.  Growing up in the '90's, I never got a sense of the magic of space--I don't ever think I even knew anyone who wanted to be an astronaut.  By the time I twelve, the shuttle had pretty much sucked the soul out of NASA. 

Now today I read an article about the opening of the Northwest Passage.  Leaving out the "climate change" portion of the article, it pointed out that while Russia has 20 something arctic icebreakers and so is able to move about the ice, the United States has only two.  While Russia plated a flag on the sea floor at the north pole, the United States doesn't even seem to care. 

Now, the United States is still the best country in the world when it comes to our relative freedoms, but at the rate we are sinking into debt and apathy, does it even matter?  How can a country that doesn't care about the future keep itself and it's citizens sovereign? How much longer before we turn into the society in Anthem?

I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

This is so wrong.

Viking?  Rapper? Salvador Dali painting?

Huh?

Rock Sugar

In case you haven't seen it, here is Rock Sugar, an awesome band that does heavy metal versions of 80's pop rock. Pretty much awesome.

As Per Weer'd Beard: 5 Songs Meme

I don't usually like to get involved with memes, but I do like me some music, so here are 5 songs to summarize me and my musical tastes (in no order):


(official video here; no embedding)


(offical video here; embedding disabled--it has an attack by an evil squirrel army, I recommend it)


(official video here; embedding disabled)


(finally, that is the official video!)


(I can't complain a whole lot...)

As with all meme's: pass it on, it's fun! But if something horrible happens, blame Weer'd Beard. He started it.

Speaking of Hot Stuff...

Yikes! Yowza! Yodeling Yetis! It's hot out there! On the way home from work my Jeep's thermometer said it was 105!

Slippy Toad keeps saying in the back of my head:

"It's too hot! I can't take it anymore!"

Which is really annoying.

I think I maybe played Star Fox 64 too much when I was little...

Update on that "Hot Chip" Video...

Apparently the embed which I used for this post no longer works, but you can still watch it on Youtube. I only tell you because this video is totally worth it. A real "huh?" type music video.

YOU CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL!

...well, not youtube, at least... for now...

DOUBLE RAINBOW, ALL... THE... WAY!!!!!!!!

Across the sky!!!



It's... so... bright... it's... so... beautiful! *cries* It's too much! *sobs*



I think this guy needs to get out more... or maybe he needs to come in? I've seen double rainbows before, and I never cried. Maybe I'm just not "in touch with the earth-force" like I bet this hippie is.

And then, if you care to watch it, there is the auto-tune the news version:



Hmmm... what else can I find on youtube?

Update: Here's another one! It's added on top of Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection."

This Just in: Obama is a Pot, Calls Republican Kettle "Black"

The $34 billion needed to extend benefits would be borrowed, adding to the nation's mounting debt. Republicans have tapped into the public's anger and concern over that debt, saying they would only support extending benefits if the bill was paid for.
Obama pushed back in his address, accusing Republicans of making their stand at the expense of the unemployed "after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit."

O-o-o-kay...

Are these "policies" that turned a surplus into a deficit the policies that allowed the Democrats to still exist?  Because as far as I know, this massive deficit we have going on now was pretty much put there by Obama himself.

Super Mega Ultra Photo Post: Montana Vacation

Oh the sights I saw and the places I went to etc etc! Really it was good.

On Friday, I went on a hike up to a place called Goat Flats in the Pintlers.  It was a fun hike with some great views.

We saw some mountain sheep and goats running down those rocks on the right side of the picture towards the lake.

The evening after the hike was when the 72nd National Folk Festival started.  Here is a picture of the main stage:

It's an old head frame from the mines that they built a stage in and around.  Pretty slick.

...and a close up of the flag:

There was one of everything there.  We heard Delta Blues, Quebecois, Traditional Celtic, Salsa, Gospel, Zydeco, Traditional Norwegian, Tango...

 

...Tap Dancing--it was pretty crazy.  They had about 5 stages set up in various locations around Uptown Butte, so if you didn't like what was playing, you could move somewhere else.

Of course, you have to be careful while moving around or you could do this to your toe:

Dagnabit, I stubbed it on an old rusty (but suprisingly sharp!) signpost that had been cut off at about 3 inches.  And then I got a tetanus shot! Yay!

We also visited the Berkley Pit, Montana's deepest body of water:

Also the heart of the USA's largest Superfund Site.  It's full of sulfuric acid and heavy metals.  I was talking to a freind once and he said something like, "If Montana ever had an enema, Butte would be where they would do it," to which I replied, "Yeah, they've already got the big hole."  But with a name like Butte (i.e., Butt), the jokes pretty much write themselves.

We stayed at some freinds I have who live about 10 miles out of town on a ranch:

It is so green this year up there.  They have been getting a goodly amount of rain for once, which is good for the hay.

And being that we were out in the country, we were able to break out the guns:

One of my friends bought a .300 Remington Super Mag hunting rifle (it's behind the cardboard box), and boy does it kick.  And now I need to clean my pistol, which I guess is a good thing.

It was a good vacation.

I'm Back

Now, if only the stupid internet would work long enough to get something done...

Perhaps I'll put up some pictures of the festival later.

Update: I take it back. Maybe if the internet would stay down I could get something done.

U2: Public Relations WIN!

I'm still gone. Be strong.

This is a video off of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, "All Because of You."



If Bono wasn't such an activist (I use it in the worst possible way), I would like U2 a lot more. As it is, I listen to the music and don't listen to the band.

Last Day...

And I'm still at the National Folk Festival.

But it's almost over.

But I'm sticking around MT for another few days to hang out wit' mah peeps.

In the meantime, enjoy this:

Still Hiding...

I'm still here.

But you probably don't care.



Tom Waits
No One Knows I'm Gone

Hell above and Heaven below
All the trees are gone
The rain makes such a lovely sound
To those who are six feet under ground
The leaves will bury every year
And no one knows I'm gone

Live me golden tell me dark
Hide from Graveyard John
The moon is full here every night
And I can bathe here in his light
The leaves will bury every year
And no one knows I'm gone

...

Okay, that was depressing.

I'm Trying to Hide

I'm still lost in Limited Internet Land.



At least in Limited Internet Land it is harder for them to watch you...

And I'm blending in with a large crowd... here.

Have you ever seen anything this... weird before?

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

It starts out like N-Sync or something, right?

...

But then a radioactive cancer patient floats in the door, and then a laser dance fight happens, and, well, you just have to see it to believe it.

This might even beat that "fly away in my space rocket" song.

Update: "Not available in my country"? Screw you. You can't stop the signal! Watch it here.

Bama Breeze

I don't know why, but I really like this song. It's probably a moral failing that I enjoy some of Jimmy's newer music over some of his classics.

It's not smart, or correct, but it's one of the things that makes me who I am.

A Drinking Joke

A little guy is sitting at the bar staring at his drink, when a large, threatening biker steps up next to him, grabs his drink and gulps it down in one swig.

"Well, watcha' gonna do about it?" the biker says menacingly, as the little guy bursts into tears.

"Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd cry. I can't stand to see a man crying."

"This is the worst day of my life," says the little guy. "I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car stolen and I don't have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my wife in bed with the gardener and then my dog bit me. So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all."

"I buy a drink. I drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve. Then this huge wise-ass shows up and drinks the whole thing!"

Going North for Awhile

I'm going up to MT for a week or so to prove to my family that I really do have friends at school. Not sure how much I'll be able to make it to a computer; we'll just have to see what happens. I'm trying to get a few random music videos scheduled up for your enjoyment.

Life Turns

I was out in the garage rummaging around and found a whole cabinet full of some of my dad's gun stuff. I knew he was getting into shooting and reloading right when I left for college, but I was never around when he did anything with it. I found a ton of .270, both reloaded and non-, a bunch of birdshot in various gauges, all of the reloading stuff, a stack of unused targets, and 2500 rounds of Federal .22LR marked "1984." It is weird that I still think of all of his stuff as "his," even though he died almost two year ago. It is weird to think that it is all now mine, since my mom and brother have no interest in it. I look at it and feel kind of like I'm stealing from my dad, which is also weird.

I am reading through Ecclesiastes right now and was struck again by chapter 3 (here from the HCS translation):

Ecclesiastes 3
The Mystery of Time
1 There is an occasion for everything,
and a time for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to give birth and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to uproot;

3 a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to tear down and a time to build;

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;

5 a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;

6 a time to search and a time to count as lost;
a time to keep and a time to throw away;

7 a time to tear and a time to sew;
a time to be silent and a time to speak;

8 a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

I guess there is also a time for leaving your dad's stuff in boxes and a time to shake the dust off and use it.

I've been needing some targets, and my 10/22 is beckoning me...

Fourth of July

Had a good Fourth. My Uncle dragged out his "Weeder-ita" maker.

Yes, that is a weed-eater-powered blender for making a couple gallons of margarita at a time.  If you don't think that is the coolest thing ever, I don't want to be your friend.

And it made a pretty good margarita.  No gasoline taste at all.

Piano Man

I think it's amazing that he can play the piano and the harmonica at the same time... with a mustache like that.

A July 4th Joke

Q: What does a flag say to greet another flag?

A: Nothing, it just waves!

That's all from me, folks!  Go and blow something up (but not like this yayhoo) in honor of our independence from jolly old England!

Code of Ethics

90's Christian Techno. Yeah, what?

We are Soooooo Screwed.

As first seen at the Gormogons, our congress (D) can't even pass a real budget.

As it has been said elsewhere, "If there was some sort of vast conspiracy behind everything to destroy our country, I don't see how it would be any different than how it is now."

News of the Beer

The last batch is bottled and drinkable (and delish!) so I made another batch.

I've never done anything Belgium-y, so that's what I decided to go for.  Without further ado, I present to the world:  bluesun's Bugeye Belgium

1 cup Fair Trade Cane Sugar, heavily carmelized
5.5 lb Ultra-light Liquid Malt Extract
0.5 lb De-Bittered Black Malt 509L, steeped 30 minutes
0.5 lb Special B Malt 118L, steeped 30 minutes

1 oz Saaz Hops 3.3% AA@ 60 minutes
0.5 oz Saaz Hops 3.3% AA@ 20 minutes
0.5 oz Saaz Hops 3.3% AA@ end

Belgian Ale Yeast White Labs WLP550

And I'll say that if you've never made your own beer, you're missing out.  It's fun, easy, and way tastier than that disgusting yellow fluid you can buy at the store.  And if you are like me and like to collect skills, what more of an excuse do you need?

We'll see how this one turns out... I'll let you know.

Give a man a beer and he'll waste an hour.  Teach a man to brew and he'll waste a lifetime.                                                         --Confucius Say

CARS

Send Justin Bieber to North Korea!

It's winning!

B-25 Reunion

Found this over at JayG's, and I don't feel bad at all about re-posting it. As a rule, if it's good enough to give me goosebumps I don't feel bad re-posting anything.



B-25's are pure win.

I don't know why...

But though I greatly enjoy Robb Allen's Sharp as a Marble it was never on my blog list.  Problem has been rectified.

8-Bit Muse: Uprising

Way cool.

Apparently I am on a random music kick. Bear with me.