It seemed a little odd getting a call from my father. We had talked only a few days ago. He seemed up and chipper. We chatted about this and that. Then he let me know that he's had another motorcycle accident. You may recall that last year, en route to Bag End, my Dad dropped the bike and broke his clavicle. It also messed up the bike quite a bit. He's spent mush of the year tinkering with it and has been riding again over the past few weeks.
He was riding with another Pacific Coast rider when the guy in front stopped at a yellow and Dad had to hit the brakes suddenly. He stopped fine, but the bike tipped and when he put his leg out to stop the 700 pound bike from going over, he broke his ankle.
He'll be laid up for 6 weeks. The bike took a few nicks again. Our respective wives have engaged in some gratuitous eye rolling. There is some distinct muttering, My Dad is 73. Should he be riding at his age? Are his reflexes up tot he task? Last year I said "No problem". Everyone who rides WILL have an accident (likely several). This is a FACT.Having an accident in a car doesn't mean you stop driving does it?
But I cannot help but be a little worried. Time robs of of our facilities by inches. At 73 you just don't bounce back from injuries. Maybe he should listen to assorted friends and relatives, play it safe and give it up.
Or maybe everyone can just shut their mouth. The man has been riding for decades. On all kinds of bikes. That's an ass load of experience. I won't be the one to tell him to stop doing something he loves. It's possible continuing to ride will kill him. I'd be especially depressed if the accident that ends his live hurts others. But having just watched my wife's father meekly shuffle off the mortal coil I would argue that anything is better than "the straw death" as the Vikings called it.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Suck with a side of suck.
The cool thing about having a blog is that you can vent your spleen and save thousands on therapists or lawyers fees. It's been a while since I've posted but, y'know, I've been busy and shit. Working...and stuff. And then there's the dreaded facebook, which makes it so easy to just toss out a quick line or pithy statement or link. No depth.
Anyhoo I'm getting ready for MarCon. Rossana will be at Virginia. Both shows are going to suffer because I'm low on corset stock. I shouldn't be. But I am. Once again my supplier has dropped the fucking ball. Admittedly, I dropped a huge order on him. But I did it 6 weeks ago. And what do I have so far? Seven corsets. Seven.
Calls were make, some bad language was used. Excuses were made. Yadda yadda yadda. I'm sick of it. I want my stock. I want to be able to sell corsets. I'm pretty good at it, but I can't sell what I don't have. Luckily about half our sales come from smaller, non-corset items now. Thanks the gods. If I had to rely solely on high end corsets I'd be in a world of hurt.
So to beef up my supply of non corset stuff I spent the last two weeks in the shop with my friend Tony working hard. Any time the rain let up I'd try to get out and clean up the yard. Stuff got made, but not as much as I'd like. I also haven't had time to make any new stuff. Maybe next week. I so want to learn leather tooling.
With luck and hard work we'll make some sales this weekend. Also training up 2 new temp minions. I need people I can call on to help at shows if needed like this weekend. Both are great girls so i think it will work out well.
Anyhoo I'm getting ready for MarCon. Rossana will be at Virginia. Both shows are going to suffer because I'm low on corset stock. I shouldn't be. But I am. Once again my supplier has dropped the fucking ball. Admittedly, I dropped a huge order on him. But I did it 6 weeks ago. And what do I have so far? Seven corsets. Seven.
Calls were make, some bad language was used. Excuses were made. Yadda yadda yadda. I'm sick of it. I want my stock. I want to be able to sell corsets. I'm pretty good at it, but I can't sell what I don't have. Luckily about half our sales come from smaller, non-corset items now. Thanks the gods. If I had to rely solely on high end corsets I'd be in a world of hurt.
So to beef up my supply of non corset stuff I spent the last two weeks in the shop with my friend Tony working hard. Any time the rain let up I'd try to get out and clean up the yard. Stuff got made, but not as much as I'd like. I also haven't had time to make any new stuff. Maybe next week. I so want to learn leather tooling.
With luck and hard work we'll make some sales this weekend. Also training up 2 new temp minions. I need people I can call on to help at shows if needed like this weekend. Both are great girls so i think it will work out well.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
A victim of our own success.
It didn't take long for the mentally challenged among us to start with the "If Osama is really dead, where's the PROOF?" chorus.
Really? The president of the US of A tells you we killed him. We have pictures and do a DNA test. But despite the fact that faking or lying about something like this would be monumentally stupid the question remains.Where's the proof?
But lets hold on a second here. Maybe these idiots are on to something. They are doubting their leaders. They are doubting the mass media. They are asking questions. And while they are doing it for all the wrong reasons they are showing signs of rudimentary skepticism. A skepticism we really could have used, say, 10 years ago.
Back then, we took the government at their word. We took political leaders at their word. Not about everything, they were still politicians. But in matters of national security and the act of going to war, well, that's some serious shit. You don't fuck around with that kind of thing. You get your smartest people together and think real hard before pulling the trigger, so to speak.
But we didn't do that. Did we? We somehow associated Bin Laden with Iraq and then ignored reality and all kinds of experts by making Saddam Husein a nuclear armed super genius with his finger literally on the button. We went to war and then brought in morons to oversee reconstruction. We poured billions of dollars and thousands of lives into that pit.
We declared war on a concept. We passed the patriot act. We created the TSA. We did these things to help us be safe. We did these things because we were told it was necessary. Then the cracks started to show. Were there WMD's in Iraq? Yes! (No) Did the phone companies pass info to the government without warrants? NO (Yes). Did the Bush admin out a CIA agent? No! (Yes) Are the prisoners at Gitmo being tortured? NO! (Yes), Did we get good intel? Yes! (No) Were the prisoners at Abu Garaib tortured? No! (Yes) Are there secret CIA black sites where rendition victims are taken and tortured? NO!! (Yes).
Are you seeing a pattern here? The fact is we were misled or outright lied to about some pretty huge things over the past 10 years. By our leaders and by our government. And that may have finally trickled down to the unwashed masses. Maybe that's why some people question Obama's birth certificate. And maybe that's why there's a cry for graphic proof of Osama's death. Because we simply can't trust the people we put in charge to tell us the truth. Even on simple things like "This guy is dead".
And that is a sad state of affairs.
Really? The president of the US of A tells you we killed him. We have pictures and do a DNA test. But despite the fact that faking or lying about something like this would be monumentally stupid the question remains.Where's the proof?
But lets hold on a second here. Maybe these idiots are on to something. They are doubting their leaders. They are doubting the mass media. They are asking questions. And while they are doing it for all the wrong reasons they are showing signs of rudimentary skepticism. A skepticism we really could have used, say, 10 years ago.
Back then, we took the government at their word. We took political leaders at their word. Not about everything, they were still politicians. But in matters of national security and the act of going to war, well, that's some serious shit. You don't fuck around with that kind of thing. You get your smartest people together and think real hard before pulling the trigger, so to speak.
But we didn't do that. Did we? We somehow associated Bin Laden with Iraq and then ignored reality and all kinds of experts by making Saddam Husein a nuclear armed super genius with his finger literally on the button. We went to war and then brought in morons to oversee reconstruction. We poured billions of dollars and thousands of lives into that pit.
We declared war on a concept. We passed the patriot act. We created the TSA. We did these things to help us be safe. We did these things because we were told it was necessary. Then the cracks started to show. Were there WMD's in Iraq? Yes! (No) Did the phone companies pass info to the government without warrants? NO (Yes). Did the Bush admin out a CIA agent? No! (Yes) Are the prisoners at Gitmo being tortured? NO! (Yes), Did we get good intel? Yes! (No) Were the prisoners at Abu Garaib tortured? No! (Yes) Are there secret CIA black sites where rendition victims are taken and tortured? NO!! (Yes).
Are you seeing a pattern here? The fact is we were misled or outright lied to about some pretty huge things over the past 10 years. By our leaders and by our government. And that may have finally trickled down to the unwashed masses. Maybe that's why some people question Obama's birth certificate. And maybe that's why there's a cry for graphic proof of Osama's death. Because we simply can't trust the people we put in charge to tell us the truth. Even on simple things like "This guy is dead".
And that is a sad state of affairs.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The print on the page...
Yesterday we visited the Guttenburg museum. We had to endure a truly awful walking tour with a Fin who didn't speak very good English to get there. The cool part was that I got to take part in a demo of a Guttenburg screw press. She was a beauty. Printed out a page from a Guttenburg bible in 3 colors on good quality Amalfi paper.
Upstairs in their treasury they had several amazing books including 2 original Guttenburg Bibles. Each was slightly different as their owners had requested extra illumination to decorate some of the pages. They said it was hard to estimate their value but it was certainly in the millions. Depite being such an important figure a lot about his life is unknown. Although it does seem he was a terrible businessman. Several lawsuits and a few unpaid loans. He did gain some status later in life but didnt live long enough to enjoy it. The museum also has a wing dedicated to the Chinese, who, contrary to what I had learned, also developed some movable type (although impractical due to Chinese being a pictographic language requiring thousands of blocks). I knew they had done block printing, but movable type was a surprise.
We dumped the latter half of our walking tour to go back and just gawk at the amazing presses and books (both hand written and printed). When we left I noticed a print shop next-door to the musuem that appeared to be associated with it, but there was no time to find out for sure.
Although there is no evidence to supporso such a thing, I sometimes get a strong feeling that I was somehow associated with printing and books in some previous life. It's uncanny.
Upstairs in their treasury they had several amazing books including 2 original Guttenburg Bibles. Each was slightly different as their owners had requested extra illumination to decorate some of the pages. They said it was hard to estimate their value but it was certainly in the millions. Depite being such an important figure a lot about his life is unknown. Although it does seem he was a terrible businessman. Several lawsuits and a few unpaid loans. He did gain some status later in life but didnt live long enough to enjoy it. The museum also has a wing dedicated to the Chinese, who, contrary to what I had learned, also developed some movable type (although impractical due to Chinese being a pictographic language requiring thousands of blocks). I knew they had done block printing, but movable type was a surprise.
We dumped the latter half of our walking tour to go back and just gawk at the amazing presses and books (both hand written and printed). When we left I noticed a print shop next-door to the musuem that appeared to be associated with it, but there was no time to find out for sure.
Although there is no evidence to supporso such a thing, I sometimes get a strong feeling that I was somehow associated with printing and books in some previous life. It's uncanny.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The bonds of the sea
Last night we officially began cruising on the Main river. The ship is almost silent and very little disturbs it. We are travelling down river and this requires passing through a number of locks. After dinner I went up on deck as night fell and witnessed this process first hand. The First and Second captain (there are three) were sipping drinks which alarmed me at first.I mean this IS Germany and they do drink a lot, but apparently their shift was over and they were just relaxing before going below. The third Captain wasnt actually in the pilot house. He was posted at a set of controls port side. There is a matching set starboard. Although the ship is fairly narrow there is no room for error in entering the locks.
As the ship moved forward the captain made dozens of small adjustments using bow thrusters. Inside the pilot house a mate and a sailor watch the radar and use binoculars to keep an eye out for obstructions and other craft. Not only is the ship a tight squeeze side to side but top to bottom. Some of the locks and bridges are so low that the pilot house and a sun screen must be lowered in order to make it underneath them. This was done as we entered the lock. The pilot house lowered about three feet into the body of the ship.
About five of us male passengers stood on deck for this, despite the cold. A woman popped up top and asked what we were doing looking so intense.
" We are sharing the bond to our seagoing ancestors" I said.
"What?"
"We're ready, at a moments notice, to unfurl sails, or heave to on the mainbrace. Should there be call, we will waltz the capstain and climb the mizzen."
The woman looked at us like we were mad, shivered, and went below.
The man folk kept our vigil.
"Does this ship have any of those things?" asked the man next to me, as we narrowly passed below a gangway on the lock.
"No. But but thats not the point, is it? We could."
As the ship moved forward the captain made dozens of small adjustments using bow thrusters. Inside the pilot house a mate and a sailor watch the radar and use binoculars to keep an eye out for obstructions and other craft. Not only is the ship a tight squeeze side to side but top to bottom. Some of the locks and bridges are so low that the pilot house and a sun screen must be lowered in order to make it underneath them. This was done as we entered the lock. The pilot house lowered about three feet into the body of the ship.
About five of us male passengers stood on deck for this, despite the cold. A woman popped up top and asked what we were doing looking so intense.
" We are sharing the bond to our seagoing ancestors" I said.
"What?"
"We're ready, at a moments notice, to unfurl sails, or heave to on the mainbrace. Should there be call, we will waltz the capstain and climb the mizzen."
The woman looked at us like we were mad, shivered, and went below.
The man folk kept our vigil.
"Does this ship have any of those things?" asked the man next to me, as we narrowly passed below a gangway on the lock.
"No. But but thats not the point, is it? We could."
Monday, April 18, 2011
All aboard.
We have left Prague behind. I wish we could have had at least 1 more day to explore. We boarded a bus and drove to Nurenburg, a walled city we have visited before. It being Sunday most of the shops were closed but there was a market day in the town square. Sausages and kraut!
We had an all too short walking tour of part ofnthe walls before rebounding the bus and driving past the buildings were the post war Nazi trials were held. Then we visited the massive parade grounds were the glory of Nazi Germany marched by their Messiah. These must have been awesome and terrible sights to behold. Today, the stands where Hitler stood are crumbling away and the encircling spectator stands are mostly overgrown except for one corset which is apparently a soccer field. The area around and in front of the stands is a park where people rollerblade, play with RC cars and show off their motorcycles and pimped out rides.
We left Nuremburg and finally arrived in Wurtzburg to board our ship. Our cabin is a small and efficient affair. Two single beds. A bathroom that doubles as a shower. We are right above the water line which is freaking Rossana out a little bit. Our fellow travelers are, for the most part, an older lot. But interesting. There's a couple from Cuban I'm keen to speak to.
Today we will visit the Residence palace and then take an excursion to Rothenburg, one of my favorite cities. Last time we were here, we abandoned our group and spent the day enjoying the city and the medieval market. Alas, we can't do that today as we need to get back to out boat before it leaves without us.
We had an all too short walking tour of part ofnthe walls before rebounding the bus and driving past the buildings were the post war Nazi trials were held. Then we visited the massive parade grounds were the glory of Nazi Germany marched by their Messiah. These must have been awesome and terrible sights to behold. Today, the stands where Hitler stood are crumbling away and the encircling spectator stands are mostly overgrown except for one corset which is apparently a soccer field. The area around and in front of the stands is a park where people rollerblade, play with RC cars and show off their motorcycles and pimped out rides.
We left Nuremburg and finally arrived in Wurtzburg to board our ship. Our cabin is a small and efficient affair. Two single beds. A bathroom that doubles as a shower. We are right above the water line which is freaking Rossana out a little bit. Our fellow travelers are, for the most part, an older lot. But interesting. There's a couple from Cuban I'm keen to speak to.
Today we will visit the Residence palace and then take an excursion to Rothenburg, one of my favorite cities. Last time we were here, we abandoned our group and spent the day enjoying the city and the medieval market. Alas, we can't do that today as we need to get back to out boat before it leaves without us.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Prague
We arrived if fairly good shape thanks to
Air Canada. From Frankfurt we had a short flight to Prague. Lufthansa does not fuck around when they fly. I swear we tAxied at 30 mph. As soon as we hit the main runway Bam we were off like a damn shot.
By the time we made it to the hotel I was getting shaky. I never sleep on planes so I'd been up quite a while. Crashed for a few hours before going out and
Exploring.
Prague is a lovely city I wish we had at least another day. The Old Toen is very picturesque. Everything is decorated for Easter. Lots of temporary food stalls serving all kinds of tasty dishes. Visited the old Jewish quarter but being Saturday everything was closed. Many of the synagogues here are now museums. After the war only 3% of the Jews returned.
Air Canada. From Frankfurt we had a short flight to Prague. Lufthansa does not fuck around when they fly. I swear we tAxied at 30 mph. As soon as we hit the main runway Bam we were off like a damn shot.
By the time we made it to the hotel I was getting shaky. I never sleep on planes so I'd been up quite a while. Crashed for a few hours before going out and
Exploring.
Prague is a lovely city I wish we had at least another day. The Old Toen is very picturesque. Everything is decorated for Easter. Lots of temporary food stalls serving all kinds of tasty dishes. Visited the old Jewish quarter but being Saturday everything was closed. Many of the synagogues here are now museums. After the war only 3% of the Jews returned.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Up up and awaaaaaay.
We head out soon and the first issue I'm going to have to deal with are the new scanners at the airport. This is our first trip since their installation and since the entire project has been a fiasco that has proven to be unreliable (and potentially less safe than claimed) I have decided that if possible, I will opt out.
I've been patted down in several countries. But only in America do people tell of having TSA agents shove their hand down your pants. I'm not cool with that. But rather than complain without any experience I'm going to see how things are run in Cleveland. It's not a good statistical sample but hey.
The interesting question is whether I'll actually do it. There's something called Implied Authority Syndrome. It states that most people will do something if they think someone in authority is telling them to do it. So when a person in a semi-police looking uniform tells me to step into the scanner will I say no, or chicken out?
I've been patted down in several countries. But only in America do people tell of having TSA agents shove their hand down your pants. I'm not cool with that. But rather than complain without any experience I'm going to see how things are run in Cleveland. It's not a good statistical sample but hey.
The interesting question is whether I'll actually do it. There's something called Implied Authority Syndrome. It states that most people will do something if they think someone in authority is telling them to do it. So when a person in a semi-police looking uniform tells me to step into the scanner will I say no, or chicken out?
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Wrecked
I just started to read this thread over at Reddit.com I couldn't get all the way through it. Couldn't see the screen through the tears.
It was nice to see people giving well wishes from all over the world to a person who could no longer travel the road. I'm gonna go tell my wife I love her now.
It was nice to see people giving well wishes from all over the world to a person who could no longer travel the road. I'm gonna go tell my wife I love her now.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Good.
Shawna Ford was found guilty of murder. Good. She is a crazy and evil person. She shot several people she thought were illegals so that she and her crazy Minute Man friends could take jewelry and hopefully drugs to finance MORE killing.
So what separates her from the other mouth breathing brown-people hating Neanderthals out there screaming about the evil Gub'mint, socialist Muslins, takin away tar gunz and the rest of the lexicon of crazy?
Not much really.
So what separates her from the other mouth breathing brown-people hating Neanderthals out there screaming about the evil Gub'mint, socialist Muslins, takin away tar gunz and the rest of the lexicon of crazy?
Not much really.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Wikipedia, is there anything it can't do?
Today I was reading an interesting discussion about the few facts relating to Jesus existence. In it I learned about Apollonius of Tyna, who shared many features with Jesus (including miracles) but who said God didn't give a shit about prayers, only reason.
Fascinating stuff.
Fascinating stuff.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Not a good move...
Egypt turned off the Internet today. That's some serious shit to be doing in the 21st century. I understand the thinking. The government wants to stop the protesters from using Twitter and Facebook to organize. But at this point, the cat is out of the bag guys. And while Cairo is a huge city, people generally know where the protests are being held now.
What isn't being reported, is that when Monday comes, they better be back online because banks, the stock market and many businesses will be unable to operate without net access. The stock market has already taken a 15% hit and dropping tourism is going to hurt even more in a country that gets 12% of its GDP from it.
What isn't being reported, is that when Monday comes, they better be back online because banks, the stock market and many businesses will be unable to operate without net access. The stock market has already taken a 15% hit and dropping tourism is going to hurt even more in a country that gets 12% of its GDP from it.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
It's the story...
There's an old saying in the newspaper business, its the story people remember, never the retraction, or correction. Last week some nutjob went on the radio and said "I've spoken to the Governor of Hawaii, and he said there is no birth certificate for Obama".
Except he didn't.
He's sorry he misspoke. But that's not the important thing here. This is the kind of shit we are seeing more and more of from the Right. They will say outright lies with conviction. They will ignore facts, twist statistics make insane connections and suppositions. And when someone calls them on their bullshit they might MIGHT mumble something about "maybe you misunderstood what we were saying". It's tiresome.
Except he didn't.
He's sorry he misspoke. But that's not the important thing here. This is the kind of shit we are seeing more and more of from the Right. They will say outright lies with conviction. They will ignore facts, twist statistics make insane connections and suppositions. And when someone calls them on their bullshit they might MIGHT mumble something about "maybe you misunderstood what we were saying". It's tiresome.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Back at it.
I've done relatively little web development over the past year or so. There are a number of reasons. One is the stress. For every new client I take on I take on a lot of responsibility and a lot of potential headaches. When something goes wrong (and something always goes wrong) I'm on the hook for it. A few years ago my little webhost was bought by a company that managed to fuck up half of my clients websites. This happened while I was in Oklahoma during a windstorm. It was so bad I was screaming at a low level technician in India from inside a porta-john. It was the only place out of the weather that I could hear anything. I got physically ill from that experience.
Another annoyance is the failure of some of my clients to pay their hosting bills. I don't change much, but getting it is like pulling teeth. From a Woolly Mammoth. Buried in the Siberian tundra.
But the software I've been using is getting out of date. Hackers are finding weaknesses and clients want new features. So I'm downloading the latest version and will have to familiar with it's new features. I'm going to have to be the Guinea pig and test it out with my own store. I also need to look for a new webhost since the last one let a site sit broken for 5 days, which in internet time is like a million years.
I don't want to do this, I have several big projects I'm elbow deep in. We wanted to get out to the West coast and do some shows, get our product seen but that isn't going to happen. I wish I could fob this off on someone else but we're mostly a two person operation here. Oh well.
Back at it.
Another annoyance is the failure of some of my clients to pay their hosting bills. I don't change much, but getting it is like pulling teeth. From a Woolly Mammoth. Buried in the Siberian tundra.
But the software I've been using is getting out of date. Hackers are finding weaknesses and clients want new features. So I'm downloading the latest version and will have to familiar with it's new features. I'm going to have to be the Guinea pig and test it out with my own store. I also need to look for a new webhost since the last one let a site sit broken for 5 days, which in internet time is like a million years.
I don't want to do this, I have several big projects I'm elbow deep in. We wanted to get out to the West coast and do some shows, get our product seen but that isn't going to happen. I wish I could fob this off on someone else but we're mostly a two person operation here. Oh well.
Back at it.
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