This is Odd

Switchblade

A friend just gave me one of these as a gift. Pictured is a Colt M16K automatic blade, however mine is actually a Colt AR15K - originally produced as a manual blade but custom converted to a dual action automatic with the same sleeper button as pictured above. Apparently, my friend used to deal in knives and still has quite an assortment of blades - from stilettos, switchblades, and fixed blades, to a set of brass knuckles with a button activated razor sharp "gut-hook" that pops out the side when triggered. (pictured below - the opposite side is engraved with a FTW logo...very classy item)

I was previuosly unaware of such a contraption, but now understand how handy these knuckles are for performing the classic smash-n-slash move, often seen issued immediately preceeding a finishing heel-stomp-to-the-head. This combination has been perfected by many elite military and biker gang brawlers throughout the US and abroad.

John Safran: The Pope vs the Dalai Lama

Found this on Vox Nova the other day.

Oh that wacky Benny Lava!

More YouTube goodness....

Roadie

After weeks of research and trying to decide which to go with, I took the plunge today and bought this bike. It was between this and a Cannondale, which I was interested in due to brand loyalty from my mountain bike. Ultimatley I had to go with this - the Specialized Tarmac Elite.

The good thing about buying during the off season is that I got a better deal than had I purchased in the spring, the bad thing is I have to wait for it to warm up to get any good rides in...I can't wait.

Maggot Cheese

Casu marzu (also called casu modde, casu cundhídu, or in Italian formaggio marcio) is a traditional sheep milk cheese, notable for being riddled with live insect larvae. Although outlawed there for health reasons, it is found mainly in Sardinia, Italy on the black market. Casu marzu literally means "rotten cheese" in Sardinian and is known colloquially as maggot cheese.

Wikipedia Entry

Father Matt (My Pastor)

The Deer Hunter

I took Jake deer hunting with me this year for the first time. Of course he was extremely excited, especially since we left mom and his younger brothers at home - just us guys. I'm not quite ready for him to handle high powered firearms yet, so he went only as my spotter, but a hunter none the less.

After seeing nothing but coyotes the first day and having to sit through some miserable weather, I was a little discouraged for him, and kept reminding him that sometimes that's how hunting went. Despite our poor luck the first day, he jumped out of bed and was ready for day two early the next morning even proding me along some to hurry to our stand. After another stretch of nothing, we decided to get down and go for a little walk prior to officially calling it quits for the weekend, although I had pretty much decided the hunt was over.

Just as we were returning to where we had left our gear, I noticed a buck cruising along just inside the woods opposite the field we were walking through. Perfect, I thought, Jake was going to get his deer. With an uncanny lack of hesitation I signaled for him to freeze, dropped my glove from my trigger hand, shouldered my 30-06 and squeezed off a round. For a split second I was confused when I did not see the white flash of tail as the deer jumped and stumbled from the stike of the bullet, but instead it simply disappeared from the view of my scope. I looked at Jake and saw excitement, shock, and bewilderment all in one as he screamed, "you got it!"

It was a direct shot to the head and the deer didn't feel a thing, instant death dropping straight to the ground. The round had gone in one ear and out the other, effectively shattering the skull, leaving only minimal surface wounds, and the only blood to speak of was a trickle leaving its ears and mouth. I tried to maintain a steely composure and act as if this was perfectly typical for me -as if I were some kind of highly skilled and trained outdoor assasin. I'm not sure whether he bought the act or knew there was a lot of luck involved to make that shot from a standing position 150 yards out, but either way, I'm pretty sure we made for a great memory of his first hunt with dad.

First Batch of Homebrew pt. 2

Eighth Day: Siphoning into secondary fermentor. Next weekend I'll bottle.

National Outdoor Leadership School

National Outdoor Leadership School

First Attempt at Brewing, pt. 1

Ingredients

Sterilization

Steeping uncracked grain

Malt Extract

Used uncracked grain

Boiling Wort

Excess Foam

Hops

Anchor Steam Christmas Beer

Kitchen is getting Steamy

Chilling Wort

We've got beer

Primary Fermentation

Obama and McCain - Dance Off!

I love McCain's face about halfway through.

Slow Fade

On this eve of election day, I can't help but reflect on my political views. The short answer is: I'm a republican...but in reality it is much more complicated than that. More specifically, I am both socially and economically conservative, and I disagree with some of what both candidates are bringing to the table. Economically speaking, our country always has, and will continue to go through cyclical periods of relative prosperity versus downturn. To some degree, this is unavoidable regardless of any particular Commander in Chief...life will go on regardless of the tax rate.
Our country's collective value system, however, is not cyclical. I say collective because I truly believe that the majority of Americans still hold traditional values (life, marriage, pride in country, hard work, and self reliance/responsibility) true to heart. The problem is somewhere along the line we've become scared and ashamed to hold our neighbors to the same set of standards. How often do you hear, "Well I wouldn't do that, but it's not my place to tell them they can't." Really? Why not? Or how about, "I don't mix my religion and politics." What? How can this be? I propose that if you truly have religion, or better yet faith in Christ, you can't not mix the two. If you believe it's not right for you, why would it be right for someone else? Why do we as Americans allow the vocal minority to intimidate us into compromising our beliefs? I realize that some people really do think that abortion is ok, or that gay marriage is perfectly acceptable, or that it's ok for hard workers to support the lazy - but most Americans simply do not agree. I don't have facts and figures to back this up, and maybe I'm being naive, but I don't think so.

Unfortunately I have more questions than answers, but it boggles my mind as to why we are so afraid to embrace our own convictions. This doesn't stop at politics, but the weakness bleeds into our everyday life, conversations, and situations. The "right" thing is becoming increasingly less popular to do. I'm sure you can come up with a variety of applicable situations -I know I can.

All that said, I will be voting for McCain. Not because he's on the Republican ticket, and certainly not because I agree with his all of his policies, but I do believe he best represents the values I referenced above...and without these, the other stuff really doesn't matter.

As an ironic twist of fate, my oldest son's football team was featured in the recent Obama infomercial. I cringed at hyperlinking that, so I'll offset it with this one.

Venture to Run

I decided to start a personal blog to journal the running component of my life. It still needs some formatting work, etc., but you can check it out here: Venture to Run

Autumnal Ruminations

Autumn is in full swing finally, and temperatures have begun to fall. We had our first freeze this week on Tuesday. Lethargy not-with-standing, this is my favorite time of year. My main compulsion during this season is to brew a pot of tea, sit in my recliner next to the fireplace (with fire of course), wrap up in a blanket, smoke my pipe and read a good book. On the weekends when I don’t have to get up in the morning I might substitute tea with a bottle of wine or porter. The warming effect of alcohol, along with its penchant for inducing nostalgia, is ideal for brisk Fall evenings.

Outside howling winds rush through the trees, branches clack together, a distant rifle shot from the farm down the road – all enhance the cocoon-like coziness.

Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock

I guess if there was a band that kinda captured those first couple years down at Springfield this would be it. I can remember just laying on my bed with the windows open listening to those characteristic Corgan guitar harmonics. I know they tried to come back...what was it last year?...anyway it's weird to me how they've really just disappeared when they used to be so huge.

Arkansas Cult Leaders Tony and Susie Alamo

"We smoke cigars when we ain't brainwashing."

"Looking for a Donkey Companion and Some Donkey Info"

Today, upon checking my email, I found the title of this post in the subject line of an email I'd received. At first I was like, where have I gone on the world wide web that would constitute me getting bestiality spam? Then it dawned on me that this might actually be legit because I'm on the Growing Growers listserve, which is a listserve for local farmers. Sure enough, that was the case. Anyway, I thought that was too funny not to share.

Kansas City Homes Tour

Our home is one of four pre-1900 houses on the Pendleton Heights Homes Tour, Rockin' in 2008! All are welcome and even encouraged to attend. Pre-November 15 tickets are $10, and $12 a piece after. Further details can be found here:
http://www.pendletonheights.org/holiday-homes-tour/

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning

Okay, I'm nerding out here but this game looks pretty cool. If I didn't think the learning curve was too high for a non-gamer type such as myself, I'd actually give this a try. Oh well, I'm sure I've got better things to do than to get caught up in some fantasy realm with a bunch of kids and grown men living in Mom and Dad's basement.



Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Okay, this settles it...I'm definitely votin' for McCain now!

Bocephus - "The McCain-Palin Tradition"

Bumper Stickers...more politics

Follow me...I'm going to FRONTLINE!

Psychedelic Conception

More experimentation with iMovie.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

By Rudyard Kipling

BookMooch

I thought some of you might find this BookMooch site useful.

He's not getting my vote.....

While I was doing some browsing of our so called "economic meltdown", I came across this quote on CNN by John McCain. “The first thing I would do is say, ’Let’s not call it a bailout. Let’s call it a rescue,” McCain told CNN. The Arizona Republican said that “Americans are frightened right now” and it is the job of political leaders to give them both an immediate solution and a longer-term approach to the problem.

Oh yeah, nothing like using euphemistic language as your first solution to this problem! This just straight pisses me off! The American people have clearly ruffled a few feathers in Congress for this bill not to pass, they're not "frightened", they're pissed off!! To me this shows just how out of touch ole grandpa is with the people. I know, I know, this is probably considered a little bit of "gotcha journalism" but sometimes I just cant help myself. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

Photos from My Retreat at Conception Abbey