Black Friday: AAR

Wow. I am amazed at myself. After spending a not insignificant portion of Thanksgiving Day admonishing the very idea of leaving the house at all on Black Friday, I left the house on Black Friday.

In my defense, a couple of points. First, any and all actual Christmas shopping was done from the same laptop that is bringing you this post. We didn't need anything, but The Wifey wanted to go do some shopping. So, around 1100, we hit the road. We avoided the major roadstops (Best Buy, Wally World, etc.) and hit up a couple other spots here and there. At Target, the crowd was, well... It just wasn't. The crowd apparently had come and gone with Target opening at 0500. The shelves were not picked clean, though we spent almost zero time near anything that really qualifies as a gift these days. We bought a cool jacket and a really warm jacket for The Little Girl (who has to be regularly corrected to stop strutting when wearing the cool jacket). The Wifey increased her collection of socks by 10 pair.

From there, off to Lowe's to look at reading lamps (we're reading a lot in bed these days, as the TV is still kaput), where I spontaneously remembered that we desperately needed a Christmas Tree bag. No crowd to speak of there, either. We left sans lamps, as we also remembered that the lamps we really loved were at Home Depot. We left Lowe's.

By the time we made it to the truck in Lowe's parking lot, we decided that lamps weren't necessary right now. Instead, we headed into San Antonio to hit up Dragon's Lair. Picked up a few new games, including Guillotine and family favorite Zombie Dice. Srsly? Every family should own a set of Zombie Dice. It should be required by law.

Black Friday was braved and conquered without incident. All is well. Yesterday was kind of a bust, since I had a pretty bad stomach ache that took me out all afternoon killing my plans to perform a test-bicycle-ride to my new office and back. Today will be busy. Gotta go get the Christmas decorations from the storage unit, decorate the house, and take that ride on top of the usual Sunday-get-ready-for-the-week stuff.



tweaker

File Under "B"

...for "B"ig fuckin shock.

First, allow me to point out that Ronni Chasen's murder was heinous, and her murderer is a coward who will ultimately face justice for his crime one way or another.

That being said, the overminds at CNN are here to inform you underlings that the aforementioned murderer used at least one hollow point bullet to perpetrate his crime.

That's not just casually mentioned in the story; it's the damned headline. Not that it's the point of the story, though. The story mentions hollow points a couple times, but doesn't that headline just send shivers down your spine? It should, because that is the point.

It's almost like saying that, since the killer went the extra mile and grabbed a box of Silvertips instead of the much friendlier and more politically correct White Box, he super-extra-mega-murdered her. She's be much less dead now if he'd just used some round-nose bullets, but now she's completely FUBAR because of those damnable hollow points. It's a good thing the killer didn't use Hydra-Shoks, or the bullets would have killed her and everyone within a 100-yard radius. God forbid the guy found some of those uber-evil Black Talons, or he would have mowed down every child in an orphanage times every round fired.

Jeez, y'all. Hollow points. The money quote from the article?

Hollow-point bullets are controversial because the slug is designed to expand after it enters a body, causing greater damage to tissue than a solid bullet.

You know what? You're half-right, and I'm not going to defend the use of hollow point bullets by trying to deny that fact. Yes, hollow points expand when they enter a body, and the result is a larger wound tract. A bonus result? The other half that got left out? A bullet that expends a metric fuck-ton of its energy expanding (and slowing the fuck down) as opposed to penetrating and continuing on until it exits the body and maintains a velocity that could allow it to penetrate another body.

I'm so sick of pretending that guns can't/won't be used for Eeevil, or that bullets, once launched - intentionally or not - won't do damage. It's a bullshit argument. Who gives a flying fuck at a rolling donut whether the the shooter used FMJ, JHP, Teflon-coated, depleted uranium, or unicorn horn bullets? Ronni Chasen is dead, and that is a tragedy. Let's focus on catching the fuckin bad guy now, k?



tweaker

Turkey Day and Books

A couple things. First, Thanksgiving Day has been truly wonderful. Dinner was fantastic, it was great to have the family together, and I have so many, many things to be thankful for. I could go on for hours and hours with the good things going right now. I am truly blessed.

The other day, while at the mall with The Wifey and The Little Girl, we hit up Barnes and Nobles and each got new books. The Little Girl picked up the next Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, The Wifey got the next book from Patricia Cornwell, and I finally picked up my copy of Monster Hunter Vendetta. I wish I had picked it up when it first came out to help bolster Larry's numbers for the initial release (sorry, Larry, and I'll do better on the next books!). I haven't read it yet, but I read the first one, and I'm tellin' y'all, buy this book. You will not regret it.

I will read MHV, but it's gonna be a while. I have started reading The Lord of the Rings again. Currently, the hobbits are in Bree, and are making arrangements to leave with Strider. Needless to say, I've a bit of reading ahead of me. I think I'll take my book to work (at my new job).

Nighty night, intarw3bz.



tweaker

Stop What You're Doing

I can think of no clearer message.

Fix bayonets, indeed. Read it.

h/t to Borepatch.



tweaker

Don't Adjust Your Monitors

I started the new job Monday. It's cool. I like the people I work with.

I also like having a mac-daddy of a MacBook Pro. My job requires mega-power and portability. This thing is stupid fast, which is necessary to edit hi-res audio using mastering software. It also surfs the net pretty good;)

Anyway, I'll get some meaningful content up once I get settled in.



tweaker

ZOMG ROBBERZ PLZ SND BKUP

This morning brings us a happy little story of the dear bobbies in England, who are apparently being told to send text messages instead of call in on the radio.

Let that sink in for a minute: whip out your mobile phone, send a text (in code, similar to ten-code I'd imagine), leave the radio silent. What could go wrong?

Well, we could spend all day answering that question. (Yes, I know that they are only supposed to text routine messages, like 'I'm going to lunch'). More importantly, how did Scotland Yard wind up in such a predicament? Well, in stark contrast to the strictly hardware-based 2-way radio systems in place in the US, our LEO friends across the big lake us a system maintained by a service provider. Said provider literally operates like a mobile phone provider, where there is a specific number of minutes (and, apparently, seconds) that can be used per month. The company is alleged to charge the limey equivalent of $3US/second for overages. Three-by-God-dollars per second. The American Prostitutes Union is reported to be flabbergasted.

"Bollocks!" you might say, "Why not just dump that company like yesterday's fish and chips and find a new provider?" Well, you can thank the European socialist regime bunch of mouth-breathers British federal government for this one. The above linked story suggests that Britain's law enforcement was forced to use this sole provider for their radio communications services. So, once again, you have government interfering in business to their own demise. It's okay; I'm sure there's a nigh-limitless pool of taxpayer dollars just waiting to cover those pesky overages.

I haven't researched this, but I'd bet you one second's worth of radio talk time that the company lobbied the shit out of Parliament (read: lined the fucking pockets of the politicians they bought) to get that exclusive contract, and had that same Parliament negotiate the minutes contract with minimal input from the poor bastards that would be utilizing it.

*sigh*

To add insult to injury, someone that article's comments said that, if they were the British government, they'd be filing a lawsuit against the provider to protest the obviously unfair charges. Who among you will be surprised when that's just what the Brits do?

Not a Number...

...I'm a free man.

As of 5:00 today, I am an unemployed, deadbeat dad/husband. At 7:30 a.m. (!!!) Monday, I start my new job.

I plan to do what all unemployed, deadbeat dads/husbands do with their weekends. I'm gonna drink. Y'all have a good one!



tweaker

Stand Aside...

...for a hero today. How will you know when you see one?


He will be a United States Marine. Happy Birthday, Corps!



tweaker

Beyond Her Years

So we're finally getting around to watching Casino Royale for the first time. Since it's rated PG-13, I figure The Little Girl can watch it. It'll be full of bad guys getting beat up and explosions and stuff. Everything a growing girl needs.

*SPOILER ALERT*

So we get to the part where 007 dodges the girl and flips the (ohmyGAWD) Aston-Martin. As soon as it comes to a stop, The Little Girl chimes in:

I hope it's not a rental!

If she gets a line from a movie or TV show, she'll tell us. According to her, she came up with that line all by her onesies.

That's my girl;)



tweaker

"Don't fuck it up, Sparky."

I know this is the second post in a row that I've linked up SayUncle, but some things just need to be said. Twice.

I’m pretty sure, right now somewhere, the Republicans are having a meeting and planning exactly how they’re going to fuck up this supposedly historic win.

Go. RTWT.



tweaker

Hammer-struck Nail

Via SayUncle, on whether we can have a bipartisan gun rights movement.

It will be interesting. Gun owners are to Republicans what minority and gay voters are to Democrats. They pander to them in election years and they’re the first constituency forgotten when it comes time to do stuff.

I admit I never thought about it like that. True, though, ain't it? I wonder what my Friends Who Are Gay* (and voted for Obama) would think about that little tidbit.

*It's okay, at least they're shooters.

You know, with gay rights being such an issue to, well, gay people, it really does surprise me that more gay people aren't Libertarians. Srsly. Libertartians are the only folks I know who could give two shits or a fuck about who you do or how you do him/her/them/it.



tweaker