Well. I smushed some coins on the rail road tracks by the house recently. Two big discoveries. First, use dirty coins, you know, well worn. They lose all features when the bazillion pound train crushes it, so if it is clean you can not see the features anymore, making a very dull lump of metal. If it was dirty you can still see where the features were and how they distorted, even though they are now smooth.
The other point of interest I noticed because I taped the coin down. I figured the tape would keep it from being blown off the tracks by the air pressure of an on coming train. I knew the tape would not hold once the wheel hit it, but by then it was OK. Well, the plastic scotch tape left an imprint in the coin. It seems that you can only compress the tape so much, and then it impacts into the coin. You would never think that metal could be deformed by plastic, but when it has no where else to go and the metal does, I guess something has to give. I will put a few scanner pictures of my coins up later for your pleasure.
There, in the picture of the dollar you can see where the tape was. They look better in person, so come visit me if you really care about the coins. Also, when I archive this page I am taking the pictures off to save file space (at the moment each of those pictures is bigger than entire homepage without them).
It is a quite nice day out, and it should be all weekend. I plan to go in and see Boston a bit, but am not sure which day.
My mom got a restraining order against her crack-head boyfriend. He seemed decent enough on the surface, but over time he got worse and worse, to the point where she was in more danger than any of us realized (even her)! During the three or four days of the proceedings we found out what a dangerous loser this guy is. Harassment of women, illegal drugs, prescription abuse, alcohol abuse, prior violence, stalking, firearms charges, etc. I hope he decides to obey this restraining order, though he has ignored one in the past. Crack-head. If I could I would get him sent to jail (I think he has already been fired because of this).
What else? Oh, if you are anti-war, OK, whatever. If you are anti-military and choose to slam soldiers for their actions, just go screw yourself. That's right, get the hell off of my site. All you little pukes with no brass to stick up for your own rights can shut the hell up and enjoy whatever flavor of freedom is provided to you by the soldiers you talk trash about. If you want to exercise your right to free speech then criticize the people that can change what the military does, the POLITICIANS!
Now, if it is soldiers that are not carrying out orders, such as the handful that abuses prisoners, or otherwise breaks the law, specify that, because we hate that shit, too. Unfortunately, because we are a slice of the American society, we get all sorts of retards that want to do that stuff. Is it a higher proportion than normal society, no. In fact, I would say there are fewer demented jack-asses in the military, but when they do this stuff it is just better publicized.
That is about it.
I have 34 pages of crap here on this website. Pretty impressive. I went through and rebuilt a bunch of my pages last night. It took several relaxing hours interspersed with several relaxing naps. The end result? I am happier with them, they are smaller in size (bytes, not content), and you will not be able to tell the difference. Except for the site map, which could aid in figuring out what is on this site, but is not interesting by itself.
My latest beer, an IPA, is taking forever. Relatively, a week seems like a long time. But given the higher levels of sugar in it, it should take longer (and be better)! I have nothing of great interest to say. I found it ironic that I saw a 'think green' sticker on an old diesel VW Rabbit today. I could barely read it through the exhaust fumes.
I have nothing of importance today, so I think I will put my beer files online. They are really boring, but someone somewhere might do a search and find them useful. See link above.
I am 30� years old today. No, scratch that, I am 31�. Damn, I feel every bit of it too. Which is OK for a guy that has 'old man style.' Let's face it, there are old men that are classy, even when they are bald and wrinkled, etc., they exude class. Also, there are the dirty old men and grumpy old men and a million other old man styles. I am really shooting for the classy old man style.
Well, that is all for now, go read someone else's website!
Now that I have something akin to a blog, I should tell you something personal or useless, like so many other bloggers.
There is nothing good to tell. I suppose I could talk about my beer. No, not the one I am drinking right now (Harpoon I.P.A.), but the beer I brew. I started this year with a kit I bought online. It consists of a big bucket, a big bottle, a couple hoses, and a few other do-dads. It seems remarkably simple to get it right with modern equipment. Since it has been ten or more millennia since the first brew was brewed, I am guessing it was fairly simple even before modern equipment!
I made a good Scotch Ale (Rhode Island Ridgeback Ale), and I have a Shammy Adams bottled and aging. In the bucket is an Indian Pail Ail, which seems to be progressing well.
Anyone that is interested can email me for details, but most of the thoughts I put on this page are random, and the beer thoughts are too long and focused for me to type. Plus there are nine million websites that discus homebrew, so, with the exceptions of my personal horrors and funnies, I will spare you the trouble.
I am adding a new page, too, describing my stance as a politician. Maybe I will run for office someday, and I want to have this page ready. OK, maybe I just want to see for myself how coherent my thoughts are. I will comment on big issues as I get the inclination, but I will not comment on wars or the military, etc., or any other military political issue that I am related to as a Naval Officer. For two reasons, first, I am too close to not have a swayed opinion, and second, it is an unprofessional conflict of interest.
By the way, my wife's site is now up and online!! Check it out:
This is a test of the non emergency blog system. If you cannot see the font that really looks like my hand writing, too bad. You are probably looking at something that calls itself Arial. Well, it is not Arial, it is some piece of crap imitation that Microsoft felt good about pirating because it looks good on computers.
I give up, I cannot even get the font to show on my 'puter, much less anyone else's! You are all going to suffer the pain of Times New Roman, the most over used font on Earth!!
Although I wrote it a couple days ago, I will put a recent rant up here for you under the next block. It is fairly pointless and completely spontaneous, so if you want to blast it... dude, whatever.
Drinking my morning coffee, complaining about the world.
People with more money than brains annoy me. They can afford a 22-foot speed boat with a 350 Mercruiser inboard, but never seem to be able to afford a copy of the International Rules of the Road book ($2.95, required by US and international law). The same jack-asses can afford Cliffside Pacific property, but then can�t seem to figure out why it is falling into the ocean after they built six feet from an eroding cliff. My big problem here is that the government seems to like those people.
I pay taxes, and I do not like giving up money. But at least I can understand it. Sometimes. Having an ambulance? Sure, that is a good thing, though I think there are other ways to run the ambulance company, at least I can see that as a reasonable thing to WANT to have funded by the government. Fire departments, police, national defense (where I get my paycheck); all reasonable to WANT the government to pay for.
The debate may rage about whether taxes are inefficient and whether privatization would be better. Put that argument aside for a minute. If you buy land that everyone knows is eroding at three feet per year, then build a million dollar house six feet from the edge� you have more money than brains. I should not need to have the government bail you out. No one WANTS that, and the only tax payers that think that is a good idea are the people that built there! They should have done one of the following:
- Purchased �Property being swallowed by the sea� insurance (pricey, but effective).
- Not purchased the land, or purchased it and not built there.
- Built there and know that it is a temporary residence.
- Built a house on tracks that can be extended and moved very year.
The government has more money than brains. Your taxes are it. We support these idiots. You think they are the only ones? We allow people with a brain to get away with it, too. You know the people that live in San Francisco. The ones that have their houses destroyed by earthquake every few years. Why would anyone live there? Because they can follow the number one suggestion above and buy �earthquake insurance�.
Now, we all know that earthquake insurance has to pay out every few years, so why can everyone afford it? Because the government subsidizes the insurance companies. With taxpayer dollars. They do not subsidize my car insurance� (What if I have collision insurance and park my car in a building that is slated for destruction? I ignored the signs and the insurance company will not pay. San Fran residents know the big one is coming, ignore the signs, and they will still get paid, because the government has more money than brains.)
As an incentive for economic growth in a region the government offers these subsidizations (also, flood insurance in the Mississippi basin, hurricane insurance in Jacksonville, Florida, etc.).
I suggest that we should not subsidize it! If people want to live there they can either shake and quake into poverty or buy ridiculously high priced insurance. Eventually, all those people will say to hell with earthquakes, and move to Oregon. All the same economic growth will happen somewhere else, and the people will not only save money on earthquake insurance, but their taxes will be lower, too, since they are not paying for the earthquake coverage of 30 million other people that live on the crumbling coast!
OK, now, Federal Emergency funds. If a New England town gets snowed in and they didn�t budget for snow removal, should the Fed bail them out? No. If the Mighty Mississippi overflows and floods uncle Jessie�s barn for the fifth time in ten years, should the Fed bail him out? No. If a meteor lands on the town hall in BadAxe, Michigan, should the Fed bail them out? Yes. That is something unforeseeable. When you live in an area you should know the risks, and not rely on the government to bail you out using my money. No one really expects a pattern of skyscrapers being hit by planes, that is a good use for federal funds.
In addition to those mentioned: Hawaiians, there will be volcanoes and tsunamis. Oklahomans, build a tornado shelter. Montana, there is going to be a forest fire this year, I would bet my shirt on it (but not my house)! Arizona, don�t complain about the drought, without it you would have a �wet-heat�.
If Nome has a F5 tornado that kills 500 people, that is a surprise, bail them out.
If Phoenix floods, that is a surprise, bail them out.
If Seattle has a three-year drought, that is a surprise, bail them out.
If Boston is hit by a 8.3 on the Richter Scale, that is a surprise, bail them out.
A Hawaiian snowstorm, that is a surprise, bail them out.
BOTTOM LINE
There is almost nothing we can do about this, as people like having more money than brains. That is (one of many reasons) why society is so screwed up. I am sure I am guilty of a few examples of this, too, but do not recognize them as such. So, there is no call to action in this rant, it is truly that, just a bitch about society.