The Family

Subject: Liberal, Conservative or Texan?

Which are you??
The Difference Between The Liberal and Conservative “Debate” Over The War On Terrorism:

Question: You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner and is running at you while screaming obscenities. In your hand is a Glock .40 and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?

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Liberal Answer:

Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that is inspiring him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me or would he just be content to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days to try to come to a conclusion.

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Conservative Answer:

BANG!

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Texan’s Answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click… (sounds of reloading)

Wife: “Sweetheart, he looks like he’s still moving, what do you kids think?”

Son: “Mom’s right Dad, I saw it too…”

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Daughter: “Nice grouping Daddy!”

Forget about doing a ginger bread house.  Everybody’s done those, right?  So, let’s see about something new.  How about recreating the Battle of Pelennor Fields?

The Battle of Pelennor Fields

(and check back were they did the battle of helm’s deep too)

If you had cloth grocery bags would you use them?

If you did, would you prefer heavy-weight stiff canvas (well not that stiff) or something light weight but still strong (nylon, like a windbreaker, perhaps)?

I have been thinking about it for myself… ecologically sound and all that….

Any thoughts on the subject? Size? Long or short handles? Closures at the top? Dark or Light color? Print or solid? etc.

I feel like i have been online all day. I keep leaving the computer, but returning.

Found a very sweet/sad/happy romantic true story…. wanted to share.

As you may recall, a while back i discovered that my blog came up near the top of results when i did a search for my name. Not only did the blog come up, it took the searcher to a vent that i would not want the ventee reading. It freaked me out and i passworded the whole blog.

I have been intending to read thru, or glance thru, and see if there are any other entries i would not want someone chancing across and then un-passwording. Well i have finally done so. From now on if i write something i would not want someone to find, i will password the entry.

I like having you (ya’ll) reading my blog, including anything i may password. So what would be an easy password for everyone to remember? I was using lnrcaz because we used that for a long time and it is just a list of initials so is easy to remember. But it is outdated now that we have added family members and i am… oh i don’t know….. it is easy for me to remember and i like the way it looks, but is it easy and appealing for everyone?

I was thinking of using my name… or initials…. or maybe neljaz… anything easy for everyone to remember, but someone chancing across it wold not think of (which is why something based on my name is iffy)….

Oh well, it is not crucial.

I have not been writing anything lately… but i may… Just wanted to say that it is not passworded any more.

For years automotive companies have been buying ideas like these and not developing them. I wonder if there is enough demand now for something like these to be developed and made available (for a price one can afford).

car that runs on water

car that runs on air

So, anybody have anything they want to admit to?

My only real goal this year is the general ‘improve the house’ goal.  Add more storage, clean up the garage, toss out stuff we don’t need anymore; stuff like that.  I’m not setting any special personal goals as I’m not sure what goal to set.  There is always the general ‘get more exercise’ option though.

Figured we should have a place to write down Christmas plans…

There was some debate over how the opening of Christmas presents was going to work and that the rest of the family was split on how to do it.  So we got the last ‘vote’.  We figure that the best policy is to only bring the presents you have to.  No need to bring presents that are just going to get packed right back to the car/plane/sailboat/etc.  Just makes extra work and it takes up space that’s going to be at a premium.

I’ve also heard some questions on what we’re planning on the day of.  So far as I’m aware, ya’ll are coming in around 12:00 or so.  Do come with an appetite.  We expect to have our Christmas Meal ready around 1:00 or so.  This is coming from Christina’s side of the family, so here’s how it generally works:   Food is all preped and dropped in a central serving area, everyone walks through, fills plates, and finds a place to sit.  Eating, light conversation, and comments on the proof of the eggnog usually follow.  (well, ok, we’ll probably leave that last one off at our place; Christina’s not a fan of eggnog).  We’re probably not going to attempt to put down formal plates or anything.  (a) We don’t have that much table (b) we’d run out of glasses quick (c) I want to fully use the dishwasher for cleanup.  We’ll have wine around, feel free to bring any you particularly enjoy.

After the meal we’ll congregate in the living room and start filling trashbags with torn paper and such.  Well, whatever paper Aleah’s not running off to add to her coloring paper stockpile.  I will add that I don’t plan on the present opening part of the evening lasting very long.  (by virtue of having smaller piles or by virutue of opening them quickly; more likely a combination)

Anyway, that’s the plans we’ve got.

On Saturday we all got up early, ate a quick breakfast, and headed up north for the River City Aquatics year end sale.  We’re after one thing:  Clean Up Crew.

We got there a few minutes after 10:00 and found everything was in  full swing.  The BBQ out front was decimated (the owners had sent someone off for more) and there was already a line fifteen people deep at the register.  We fought our way to the back of the store to the tanks with snails, crabs, and assorted shrimp.  After waiting for twenty minutes or so one of the workers was able to get back there to help us (and about four other people) get our chance at the livestock.

Our goal was to pick up two animals:  crabs and snails.  Each one has the same price: 1.99 each up to 10,  .99 each for 20.  So, buying 20 is the same price as buying 10.  We’re going for a full restock here, so we picked up 20 crabs and 20 snails.  We also picked up 5 more nassaius snails (little guys that do a lot to mix up the bottom of a tank).  There was another cleaner that caught our eye:  the peppermint shrimp.   One of the hardiest shrimps, which is a great thing for our tank.  We nearly lost out on him as the people ahead of us put in an order of “All the peppermint shrimp you have”.  The worker that filled that order didn’t dig around in the tank enough:  he missed one!  I don’t blame him though; our shrimp must have just molted or something, the striking red color associated with this shrimp is nearly invisible.  A bit of food will help that out.

Anyway, we made our way through the line, talked tank with a few people, and made our way out front.  We found the restock of the BBQ had happened, so I made up a quick plate that we ate before leaving.  The trip home was quick and we started to acclimate the new arrives to our tank.  (open their bags, insert drip line for a few hours to slowly normalize the pH/salinity/etc levels )  After a quick water change, everyone was added to the tank.  I always enjoy adding new hermit crabs to a tank; they are very enthusiastic about spreading out and exploring everything in sight.

So, up to that point, everything was going peachy.  Then, a bit after supper, The Bug struck.  I’m not sure if it was something I picked up at the fish store, something form the food, something from work… whatever it was, my body didn’t like it.  I went from ‘feeling funny’ around 10:30 to ‘feeling bad’ around 11:30 to “I’ll just stay here in the bathroom…” from 12:00 to 4:00.  I was able to go to bed because I didn’t have anything left to expel.

Sunday was spent in bed (for the most part) drinking water.  I ate a light (rice, beans, chicken) dinner.   Mostly I was fighting dehydration.  And fighting the upset stomach after expelling the entire contents.  Rebuilding the gut flora is not unlike building up a fishtank: put in certain addatives to help, avoid these lest you lose all progress, and keep tabs on it all the time.  Fun times.

Anyway, I’m better now.  The tank is looking good too.

I do a little (stress ‘little’) side work for a historical group that Christina’s mom used to be very active in.  (active as in, ‘was once president of’).  Anyway, I do web updates to their website, make a few reports about web traffic, and a few other simple things.  Not bad work.

Well, a long while back I made a preview/beta version of their website available on 4101.  I did it so they could take a look at some changes that, at the time, were going to be sorta major.  It served the purpose well and life was good.  I left the site there as an older backup and in case I wanted to use it again.

Flip forward a few months and I found out something both funny and sad at the same time.  If you search for the name of the historical group in google, you get the 4101 beta site as the first link.  The real website is second.  I discovered this when my bandwidth started to jump from the beta site.  (as in from 40mb a month to 400mb+) .  I’ve updated the beta site to match the real site, and will continue to do so in the future.

Anyway, I thought it was funny.  I imagine that if people from the group find out they will be less than amused.