Tuesday, February 28, 2012

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

From www.Weather.com for my zip code:

"A Winter Storm Warning is in effect.

A significant winter storm or hazardous winter weather is occurring, imminent, or likely, and is a threat to life and property. Stay vigilant for severe weather."

Today's forecast:

"Wintry Mix, High 35 degrees

Snowfall:
<1 in
Snow accumulations less than one inch"

Tonight:

"Rain/Snow, Low 33 degrees

Snowfall:
0 in
No significant snow accumulations"

Tomorrow:

"Rain/Snow, High 35 degrees

Snowfall:
<1 in
Snow accumulations less than one inch"

Some of these things are not like the others. Usually by the end of February I'm looking forward to the end of snow and sub-zero temps, this winter I get as excited as a ten-year-old at the prospect of a mere flurry.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Man Cannot Live by Bread Alone

But it sure is tasty, or so I remember. 2+ weeks in on Raw February and a little over 1 week to go. I've gone 100% except for a couple of pieces of pizza and a soda the first Saturday and a single beer last Saturday. Social gatherings are tough.

But...

Sleeping better? Yes.
Waking easier? Yes.
More alert? Yes.
Dropped 10+ pounds? Yes.

I haven't had any real cravings, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to a pizza and a Coke next Wednesday night.

Raw February - I think I'll do it again next year. Maybe I can even convince my esteemed co-blogger MeatAxe to join me. I don't think he minded last time.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

No Thanks, I'm Not That Hungry

I'm trying out a raw diet again - me and a work buddy declared "Raw February". So for a month, my diet will consist of:

- Raw beef. Sometimes I 5-second-sear the outer edges for variety, but 100% uncooked is yummy too.

- Veggies. Always a problem for me since I literally can't eat things like broccoli, and I really don't like most other vegetables. Carrots, cucumbers, and other weak tea-types are pretty much all I've got.

- Fruit. Love fruit. bring it on.

- Raw nuts, some roasted types.

- Raw cheese.

- Water

The last time I did this I had an easy 1st week and a rough 2nd week. This time the first couple of days were hard - messed-up sleep, not feeling well. 2 weeks was enough last time, but since I know what to expect, I think I can make the whole month this time. Problem is, eating raw is boring - no cooking, no smells, and for me, relatively low variety.

Now, after a couple of days you stop eating to be full and start eating to not be hungry, which is easy to say, but weird to experience; and eventually food just stops being important. Eating is something you do to not feel that hunger pain. You don't even drink a lot of water - you don't need it.

I like food being important, and I love to cook, so I would never want to try this as a permanent thing, but even a few days brings changes that are almost embarrassingly-indicative of how poorly I normally eat: excess weight just drops away (mainly because of no carbs), everything physical improves (hair, skin, breath, "functions"), I wake up in the morning and don't zombie around for a half-hour feeling dead - I am just "awake".

Anyway, this is only Day 4, but still, I just had 3oz of beef and a couple of pieces of cheese and a glass of water, and man, am I not hungry.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Newtonian Fluids Running Down Our Legs

So I'm supposed to not like Romney because he's not a conservative firebrand. Okay, I can understand that as far as it goes, but Newt Gingrich instead? Aside from being no more or no less of a conservative firebrand than the RomneyBot 9000, he's kindof icky-scary to the mushy American middle that actually determines the presidency. We all know that, right?

Newt is a weapon in the holster of a Republican leader, not a leader himself.

As far as I'm concerned, the "make it as bad as possible so we get a Reagan" vote made their point and did enough damage to the country in 2006 and 2008 - do you really need to do it again in 2012? Do you really want another Obama term, because that's the "equal and opposite" reaction we're going to get if we really put this guy at the top of the ticket.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

This Better Be For Real: FDR --American Badass

Monday, January 16, 2012

If I Could Take it With Me

In the past humans were buried with items, or people, that might be of use to them in the afterlife, or were among their favorites.

My Logitech Harmony One universal remote is coming with me.

I'm in the process of upgrading my home AV setup - moving to a true HTPC system - with all the lovely PITA issues that come along with mucking about with hardware setups that have been in place in a room and your habits for years.

But plug the Harmony into the USB cable and you can change its settings via a pretty nice web page interface. It's lovely. Now, if I could find the genius who designed my Sony CD player remote with no on/off button...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Dropping Things from Space, the Final Frontier

I'm not going to thump my chest for an American company doing cool things related to an American product, because there are one or two other places on the planet that could have paired the same things. Well, maybe a little chest-thumping.

More importantly, the cool factor of testing your iPad protective case by DROPPING IT ONTO THE GROUND FROM SPACE (even just weather-balloon-popping space), is just too nifto-keano.

Talk about resetting the bar:

"Hey Bob, nice holster you got there. Have you DROPPED IT FROM SPACE yet?"

"Well gee, Winston, I don't that's really a relevant test of -"

"Later, loser, I'm going to go buy some shoes that somebody DROPPED FROM SPACE."

"Oh yeah, well that's just fine, dickweed! Dammit, gotta get me a damned weather balloon and a spare .38, -grumble-..."

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Moses and Aaron on a Sharp Stick!!!!!!

First the Higgs Boson, now this: Mayan Ruins in Georgia Mountains!!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Tough Mudder Training


So, I'll be running the Tough Mudder (again) in May of 2012.

Last year I raised about 600 bucks for Wounded Warrior and I'll probably be nagging you all again for money as that event gets closer.

My training regime has settled down into this:

Monday lunchtime: 1 hour of conditioning class. This involves 55-60 mins of exercises divided into 2 or 3 minute rounds. This usually starts with  jumping rope and then exercises like pushups, burpees, planks, situps, plyometrics, ball & mace swings, Indian clubs ,tug of war, rope climb... plus some more exotic stuff that our instructor picked up in his 30 years of martial arts training. Its fighter conditioning, basically.

Monday evening. 2 hours of Muay Thai classes.

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday is the same as Monday

Thursday: rest

Friday: 1.5-2 hours of Savate classes. These are more technique-focussed, but work balance and flexibility instead of being the savage metcon of the Muay Thai workouts.

Saturday: 1- 1.5 hours of , Bag work, and weight exercises. This varies a lot. I've been doing the 300 Workout from GymJones.com, the Tough Mudder workout, or things I make up on my own using weights, rings, the C2 rowing machine etc. .

Sunday: Run day. Ive been going over to the gravel pit near my house. Nobody's there on the weekends, and its about 50-60 acres with a lot of ramps and slopes and hills. I go faster up the hills --note that I do not sprint, but I do try to go faster. I usually go for about an hour or so. As I get closer to May, I'll work in more runs.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Navy Books

On the recommendation of my esteemed co-blogger I just bought these books:

Neptune's Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the US Navy's Finest Hour

Usually I buy stuff like this in paperback or hard cover so I can flip back and forth between the maps and the narrative, but this time I bought them for my Kindle app on the iPad.  So this is something of an experiment, if you follow me. To see if the Kindle works for a book where you want to consult a map as you go.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

New Woodsman Pix ( If Anyone's Interested)






Saturday, December 10, 2011

Colt Woodsman (90-Something%, Box, Papers, Tool, Target)

Hello Gun People,

I have recently become the owner of a Colt Woodsman Sport Model. (4.5 inch barrel)

This firearm has never been fired outside the factory (as near as I can tell), and comes with original box, papers, bore cleaning tool, hang tag, and factory target (nice group, too).

The blueing is pretty darn good, with a few small scratches. This model does not have the elephant ear grips, but it does have the crosshatching on the backstrap to indicate it can fire higher velocity .22 ammo.

If I keep this pistol around, I might shoot it, and that's definitely going to push the value down.  I think a collector who really loves the Colt Woodsman would enjoy this pistol more than I would.

Anyone have any thoughts on what this might be worth? I looked in the Blue Book of gun values, but the listing is inconclusive for a Woodsman that comes with all the extra bits as listed above.

Please leave any thoughts in the comments.

Pics continue:.


Saturday, December 3, 2011

What. The. HUMP?

Police arrest teacher who made students dress in bras and panties

Via HotAir:

An Oklahoma elementary school teacher who hosted a tree trimming party for students at her home is in police custody. Her crime is not violating a politically correct school or local policy that bowdlerizes references to Christmas. Rather, it is the unorthodox dress code that she enforced—bras and panties with a Christmas theme—as well as the age of her guests: All were third graders (h/t The Smoking Gun).
The teacher, Kimberly Crain, 48, was arrested on Friday and arraigned on charges of child pornography. Pottawatomie County District Attorney Richard Smothermon has asked that bail be set at $1 million, stating that Crain is a flight risk. Crain resigned her position at McLoud Elementary School on Thursday.


Okay, I don't have kids, so it's easy for me to say things like "if I HAD a kid there is no way in hell I would not home school them."

But if this kind of thing doesn't reinforce that stance for me then I don't know what would.

My blog-partner MeatAxe (or "Me - ay - taxi" as a friend of mine said upon first reading this little internet way-point) has heard me say on multiple occasions that, in Africa, everyone above the rank of Captain should be summarily shot just to give the place a chance to air out. Now I'm thinking that every American teacher with more than 10 years in needs to be shot into the Sun, just to be sure.

WTF?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Merry Taxmas?

When I first read this one yesterday, I really thought it was a spoof that had gotten through, like when people get up in arms about an Onion article. But as far as I can tell it's real.

Obama is the Grinch.

The Hot Air article pretty much says it all:

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.


... but I just wanted to share it around. Almost makes me want to get fitted for a Wookiee suit.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

He Must'a Thought It Was White Boy Day

But it ain't white boy day.

One more dickhead shuffled off. Only a few thou more to go.