Every dog has his day. . .FINALLY!

You are looking at Costello, the Alaskan Malamute who has taken best in show for the 2006 AKC Eukanuba dog show. What a specimen! I mean look at the neck, head, chest, and massive paws of this stud. This is no small honor for the behemoth dog. He took home near $80,000 in awards and prizes. He is the first dog in the history of the show to take home ALL the top honors single "pawed" And not only did he take best in show, but he also resoundingly won the viewer's choice award too! Incredible.

Why am I making such a big deal about this? I am a big dog lover. Currently I have three of them mooching their existence off of me, including. . .yep you guessed it; an Alaskan Malamute.





This is Kodiak. Sorry about the photo, I pulled it off of a low res video, and he was moving, so it's a bit blurry. He's eight years old, and one hundred and sixty pounds of teddy bearish, snuggling, fur-shedding, affection. This is a great breed, despite the wolfish appearance. Very loving gentle giants, who can get serious if the situation calls for it.

Anyway, cheers for Costello! I have been waiting for a Malamute to win for a long time.

The Great American Hero!

Well, you are looking at him. A classic G.I. Joe action figure like I remember him from my childhood of the 80s. What a great toy. My brother and I had several G.I. Joes including vehicles, and played with them constantly. Other kids were into He-Man, or Star Wars, but for me and my brother it was G.I. Joe all the way! I loved how when you bought a new action figure, the back of the package would have a little profile on the character. His age, birthplace, specialties, and how he came to join the Team. I was especially proud of Alpine, the expert G.I. Joe mountaineer, because he was born in Idaho, and that's where he learned to climb so good.

Now that I'm grown and have a son of my own, I have regretted that G.I. Joe seems to have fallen from his former grace. I don't know how or why it happened, but sometime in the 90s the toys began to decline. The scuplting, and imagination that went into the characters didn't seem up to snuff. The vehicles got more and more ridiculous. The ultimate sin was when they started making honorary team members out of celebrities like Mr. T. The utlimate being a figure of Refrigirator Perry of the Chicago Bears, weilding a steel football attached to a chain. This was the clap of doom to the great traditions of G.I. Joe in my mind.

Now the reason for this post. I have often wished that someone would come out with a similar toy like the old G.I. Joe, so that my kid can enjoy the same fun that I had. Yeah, there are some cheap knock offs out there, and some honestly, aren't too bad. But last night, as I browsed the toy aisle with my kids, all my fantasies came true when I saw the resurrection of my old hero. There he was not only in his former glory, but in glory to surpass my wildest expectations. The G.I. Joe Sigma 6 series action figure. Eight inches of fully posable, well made, studliness.






I am so glad to see this revival in coolness. In fact I might have to buy a few of my own. ( just for collectable purposes of course )

I might have to start with one of my favorites, Snake Eyes.





Isn't he so COOL?



GOOOOOO JOE!!!!!

Accountability

I did something today that I haven't done in a few months. Something that I've come to believe is vital to my own success in achieving my personal fitness goals.

I weighed myself.

Yep. That's right. I have been ignoring the scale for the last few months. Mostly because I knew it had nothing good to tell me. So, like an Ostrich with its head in the sand, I walked past the scale every day, refusing to acknowlede it.

This morning I realized that by ignoring the scale, I wasn't holding myself accountable for my life style. As long as I didn't step on the scale, I would never really know how bad I'd been lately. I realized that if I'm ever going to achieve my desires, then I have to hold myself accountable.

For now on I will weigh myself once a week, and force myself to behold the consequences of my actions for the week, whether they be good or bad. I think this could be one of those things that might give me just that little extra boost of will power to overcome the little temptations that come my way during the week. That donut might be less appealing if I know I have to confront myself on that scale in a few more days. Or it could give me the motivation to get that work out in that I'm thinking about skipping. I will say to myself, " you don't want to just weight the same as you did last week do you?"

This week I got in two workouts while at work. Nothing major to report. Some weight lifting, some running etc. I didn't go too hard, as I am just getting back into a routine. I will gradually increase the intensity as time goes on. My new goal is to work out at home on my days off more often, not just while at work. My major goal this week is to workout on my birthday to help counter the cake and ice cream coming later that night. I mean it IS my birthday after all. I'll be 33.

No paintball news so far, as we are still under a blanket of snow.

Rethinking The Spec Ops Positions

After a little thought, I am wondering if it would be a mistake to follow the Specops positions too rigidly. Don't get me wrong. I still like the idea of positions, but I think having certain players locked into certain roles might not allow for the flexibility that I'd like to see on my team.

Here are the positions and how I feel about them currently

COMMANDER - I think out of all of them, this position is the most neccessary. Even if you intend to do nothing else, I think it would be pure foolishness not to elect a commander for the team. So for now that one stays.

Sniper - I'm up in the air on this one. I hate to see someone so locked into this position that they aren't capable of anything else should the need arise. I'd like to see more what I call a sharp shooter. Someone who has the basic ambush, observation, and technical shooting skills as a sniper, but his equipment is such that he can step up and switch to something else in a second without being limited by his gear, ammo and gun. In short. I'd love the whole team to be able to assume this postion, and unassume it at any given time.

DAGGER - This is supposed to be a light weight, hard charging forward guy. It should be played by someone of a smaller frame, quick, and in good shape. according to Specops, he should always be found at the fore front of the fight mixing it up in an aggressive fashion. I guess I have no problem with this position. Except again, I would rather see someone that can play this, but when the situation calls for it he can settle down, or play back when needed. Or be sent on a stealth mission instead of something in your face. But, having someone who's willing to play this aggresively would be nice.

SABRE - this is the medium rifleman. In my opinion this is the foundation of the team. This is what everyone on the team should be capable of playing. A whole team of Sabres that can switch to sniper or dagger and back out again when they want would be fine with me. These are the guys who get the job done through the use of good team work and solid common sense tactics.

BROADSWORD - This is a heavy rifleman. not as mobile as the Sabre. He carries a lot ammo and grenades and is not afraid to use them. He should be laying down a lot of supressive fire, keeping the enemy at bay. This is ok, I guess. I would rather just take a Sabre or two, and alott them more ammo, and call upon them for cover fire when needed. No need for a specialized position here.

HAMMER - The only thing seperating a Hammer from a Broadsword, is a special gun you have to buy from Specops, that is capable of firing off 30 rnds a second. So, in my opinion this is a luxury position, not a necessary one. If I had a player willing to go out and by the Hammer gun, then yeah sure that would be fine with me.

Anyway, I am not trying to cast a bad light on Specops. I like the basic idea of positions. But, I think each team needs to tailor those positions to fit their own needs.

For me, I see us all mostly being a bunch of Sabres with mabye one or two guys willing to run up front as daggers, and a couple of guys packing more ammo to lay down lots of fire when needed. And everyone on the team being well skilled in ambush, camoflauge, and flanking like a sniper. Basically a bunch of Sabres who can adapt their tactics and style fluidly from situation to situation.

That's the team I think we should be trying to achieve.



A side note. I used to get comments when I talked about other stuff. Hmmmmm must not be anyone out there who cares about paintball. :(

Progress Report

Well, I thought I'd make a quick post, just because it's been so long since my last one. There has been no progress so far since my last post to filling slots in the team.

However, I have done a lot of thinking over strategies and what not. One big question I am having at this point, is this: With a ten man team, who is going to play in what positions? And how many positions do we duplicate.

At this point, I think the best route for us is to practice and train using the Special Ops positions found on their web site.

HAMMER - Super heavy gunner
BROAD SWORD - Heavy mobile gunner
SABER - Medium rifleman
DAGGER - Light rifleman ( recon )
SNIPER - well a sniper is a sniper = )
COMMANDER - leader

You have six positions here, and all but the Commander can be duplicated. What I need to figure out is how many of each position should we have, and where on the field do we place them? I guess once we get a real team together, and start practicing, everyone can start to get a feel for which position(s) suite them best, and we can also discuss as a team how and where and what we want to do. I already have some ideas about some fundmentals we should maybe look at.

For example: We need organized offense and defense. We should have guys on the team that specialize in defending, and guys that specialize in assault. One thing I'd really like to set up is plays. Yep, plays just like a football or basektball team. You could have pre arranged plays that are designed for certain situations, and during the game a commander, or squad leader can call out a play, and have it immediately executed. No questions, or confusion, or having to sit and make on the spot plans, which waste time. Nothing complicated or overly done. Like if a commander yells out ZULU! ZULU! It could mean something as simple as; regroup at our base, or lay down suppressive fire whith two flankers on that position.

Well that's the update for now. Unfortunatley there is snow on the ground, and the temps are in the single digits these days, so there hasn't been any paintball lately. As the weather starts to warm up, maybe we can get some games going, and I can start recruiting for the team. The SPPL regionals are in July. I don't know if that gives us enough time to get a team together and practice enough to be much of a threat. So, maybe I'm looking at getting a team together to spend the summer practicing, and then enter the SPPL tourney the next year. I hate to see a whole year go by though.

No Room For Pride

Well, I got some feedback from some good experienced paintballers from a forum at specialopspaintball.com

I asked about my idea of using sectors. Has anyone tried anything like this before? If so, how did it work?

I got a good answer, and it has changed my plans for sectors.

Instead of dividing the field up into imaginary sectors, you overlay an imaginary football field over the paintball field in your mind. The actual field doesn't need to be one hundred yards long, as long as the fifty yard line is pretty close to the real center. And instead of the yards going like this: 10,20,30,40,50, and back down;l 40, 30, etc. You just keep adding up: 50, 60 , 70, and so on. Your home base is always at the one yard line. Basically you are dividing the field up into hundreths. There probably won't be any need to get anymore specific than five yard marks. Then you just refer to actual areas on the field like this; thirty left, or thirty mid, or thirty right. To get a little more specific you could go with mid-left and mid-right to name in between the middle of the field, and left or right.

So let's say your sniper is up field a ways, and runs into an adversary patrol. A radio exchange between him and his captain would go something like this, " Juliette, Charlie. Three bogies sixty right moving fast your way.

" Juliette copies. Charlie hold your fire. Bravo, and Lima. Set up a hasty ambush at thirty right. Charlie when they are in the trap you close the door on them from behind. "

" Charlie copies "
" Bravo copies "
" Lima copies "

This will be much easier to learn and use than my sector idea. I'm a little bummed cause I really liked my sector idea. But, part of being able to put together a good team is going to be having the ability to recognize when someone else's idea is better than yours, and being humble enough to admit it, and use that better idea.

Finding That Edge

I have been thinking a lot lately on some of the small things a team could do in a tournement to gain tactical advantage over an oppenent. One huge advantage I think to a team would be familiarity with the field being played on. If we intend to compete in tournements, one big obstacle we will run up against, especially in the woods ball scenario is trying to coordinate and be effective on unfamiliar terrain. So, I've come up with a solution to the dilema. It doesn't really solve the problem entirely, but I think this system if practiced, and put into play by a team could give a team a big advantage that they would have normally gone without.



My idea is to mentally picture any field you come upon sectioned up into six sectors. You can see my illustration of what I mean below.









You don't get to play on a perfectly rectangular field usually, so I drew a randomely shaped field to show what the sectors might end up looking like typically. Sectors one and two would always be the nearest to your teams home base. In this case the blue box, represents the home base. You start on your left and begin numbering left to right.



I think using this, a team could arrive on a field they've never been on before, and still be able to somewhat communicate to each other more accurately of what's going on out there. Imagine your forward man or sniper is somewhere in sector three, and spots an enemy patrol moving in his direction from the other side. He can simply guestimate the sectors and give decenty accurate info over the radio of enemy movements without having to be expertly familiar with the terrain. As long as he's pretty sure of about where mid field is he will be pretty accurate. i.e. "Lima, Juliette I've got four bogies sector six moving slowly towards sector 5, copy?" Just one quick sentence, and the whole team can now visualize pretty clearly what he sees and react accordingly. This would be much better than, " Johnny this George. I can see like four guys. They're about one hundred hards to the front and right of me, and they're moving kinda diagonal across the field. Kinda by the middle."



I would like to give this a try. It will take some dedication and practice to get it down, but I think the advantage to learning this would be well worth it. In fact, If the team gets it down pretty good, then I would like to take it one step further by dividing each sector into quadrants. So you'd have Sector Two Alpha, or Sector five Bravo, etc, and be even more accurate while communicating on the radio.



It might be too much and too complicated to learn though. But, it might be worth a try. I know we use nicknames for a bunch of spots on the field we play on now, and it really works well to our advantage to call out on the radio, " Ambush at Arnold's trap!" Why give up that kind of advantage just cause you happen to be on the road?

Ch ch ch Changes. . .

Well, I am considering giving up on this blog in a sense. Not abandoning it entirely however. I think I am going to give up on my rather lame attempt at providing profound remarks on the latest news and current events. Once in a while something might enrage me to the point of posting something here, but I think for the most part I am going to leave that kind of political analysis to the pros. Instead I am going to start narrowing the range of topics on here. I would like to start focusing in and making this more of a blog centering on my paintballing. And since my performance on the field is directly affected by my own fitness level, I will most likely make some fitness comments as well.

There's kind of a reason for this sudden switch, and that is I am seriously considering putting together a real team and for the first time in my paintballing career competing on a competition level. i.e. tournements and the like, instead of just shooting it up with pals in the woods on the weekends. So let this post be the first in the beginning of my newly themed blog about my journey in pursuit of excellence in the competitive paintball world.

------

As the season for outdoor paintball winds down I'm getting depressed. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted to this summer. Work schedules, and especially the weather did not work out. This spring was way too wet and cold to play, and the summer was DANG HOT! I enjoyed a few games this fall though, and made a new vow not to let the weather play such a factor in going out or not.

Ok so here's what I want to do. I want to put together a ten man team and compete hopefully next year in the SPPL. I've been glued to the web site ever since I discovered it, and the more I think about it the more I want to do it. This tourney has me written all over it!

First things first. I have to find ten to twelve guys willing to do this. It's going to take dedication, and commitment to do this, and I can't afford to have any last minute flakes on the team. So, selecting and putting together a team is going to be hard. I have about six guys now, they are:

Myself ( Lima )
Delta
Bravo
Juliet
Hotel
Alpha

For their privacy I've given them code names for the blog.

One major problem with this group is that Bravo and Delta both live four and three hours away respectively. And Juliet may be going off to med school. So, who knows how this will turn out. Gonna have to start keeping my eyes open for potential candidates to join the team. Not only do I need to get a team together, but I need to find a group of guys to practice with. Another team perhaps, or a group of recreational players that would be willing to help us practice. Basically be our tackling dummies. This isn't as easy as it may sound. To be a tackling dummy wouldn't be your typical day of playing paintball. Lots of stops and starts, and probably lots of getting hit. Being asked to do things you wouldn't normally do in a regular game. The most important thing at this point is to find a TEAM. . . no team no tourney.


Well, that's it for now. I will be on to update as time goes on.

Uber Geek

I was just thinking about my hobbies and interests the other day, and what an uber geek I really am. An uber geek goes beyond just geek. A normal regular geek might just be someone who's good at math and got a good job in computers. Or just some guy who likes Star Trek a little too much. But, an uber geek is something different. An uber geek is geeky in all sorts of ways, and to the max. Ok, so maybe I'm not a complete uber geek, but I'm definately a geek. Anyway, I started thinking of how I can tell if I'm a geek, or just an uber geek, and as I thought and thought, I sort of started coming up with a mental list of uber geek indicators. So, I decided to share on my blog my top ten indicators that you are an uber geek. So, in the tradition of Jeff Foxworthy, but probably not as funny and creative, here you go.

1 - You've ever mixed your own soundtrack for playing Dungeons & Dragons

2 - When you get together with friends you always get discouraged trying to squeeze XBOX time between your busy paintball, and radio controlled car schedule

3 - Your senior year in high school you were voted MVP of your debate team

4 - You've read Lord of The Rings more times than your pastor has read the bible

5 - You have contempt for anyone who claims to be a fan of Lord of The Rings, but has never even read the books!

6 - You recently broke up with your long-term girl friend because she refused to email a picture of herself to you.

7 - You're 32 years old and your kids have to drag you out of the action figure isle at Toys R Us.

8 - You're frequently on a waiting list for a new video game release.

9 - You own a real sword, and you're actually pretty good with it. You're pretty good with a bow-staff too.

10 - You host your own blog site.



Well, there you have it? Are you an uber geek like me? I'm not saying I qualify with all ten of those indicators, but sadly many of them I drew from my own life. But, I'm not telling which ones. NO WAY.

Go Ahead. Take God Out!

Ok, so the nasty little debate over The Pledge of Allegiance is back. Goody. For the past few days I’ve been listening to both sides go at it back and forth. Both sides heatedly and passionately battling it out in the arena of thoughts and ideas.

Let me set something straight right off the bat here. I do believe in a supreme being, a creator, God, or Great Spirit if you will. I believe that we are a nation under God, and that it was through his intervention, and his will that we even became a country. I believe that He sustains our existence as a nation from day to day. I also believe that when we as a nation ultimately turn our backs on him, then we will reap the whirlwind.

That said, I don’t think that taking the words “under God” out of the Pledge is going to spell out our ultimate demise. After all, the original version of the Pledge didn’t even contain the phrase. But, is it so necessary? I mean what is the big deal with these atheists? They say it’s unconstitutional for a child to be forced to acknowledge the existence of God. Last time I was in school, nobody was being “forced” to recite the pledge! We had a member of the Jehova’s Witnesses in our school, and when we said the pledge she would just stand silent. No big deal. Can’t these atheist kids do the same? Can’t we just avoid dragging the country through the muck on this?

On no. Some little attention starved attorney, has to have his fifteen minutes of fame, at the expense of the nation. Well, you know what? I almost hope he gets his way in this. I almost hope the Supreme Court decides in his favor. Cause, you know what I’d love to see? I’d love to see the kids in the schools of this country stand up as one voice and tell the courts and politicians that enough is enough! That we are sick and tired of our right to free speech, and our right to pray, and to have clubs, and to read certain books, and study certain topics being trampled on by lawmakers all in the name of “separation of church and state.” Here we have a free country where supposedly the right to express ourselves is the most valued sacred right we have, but enter one of our public schools, and the thought, and speech police are watching from the front of every classroom.

Imagine a judgment being made to remove the phrase, “under God” from the pledge. Now imagine a pep-assembly at a high school at Anywhere, USA. Think of the kids reciting the pledge, and when it comes to the omitted phrase, as one united student body, they all include “under God” extra loud, and extra clear. Think of this happening all across the USA. How awesome would that be. What are they going to do about that? I’d love to see it. I’d love to see crowds of kids gathering every morning before the bell rings in front of their school to independently recite the pledge, and acknowledge this country’s freedom as a divine gift. I would love to see it. Love to.

It might be crazy enough to work

Just read an interesting article on the Fox News website. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169052,00.html

It's titled: Pentagon Considers Nuclear Deterrent for Terrorists

Here are some phrases from the article that caused me to pause a moment after reading them.

- A Pentagon planning document being updated to reflect the doctrine of pre-emption declared by President Bush in 2002 envisions the use of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies.

- in a changing environment "terrorists or regional states armed with WMD will likely test U.S. security commitments to its allies and friends."

- the U.S. needs a range of capabilities to assure friend and foe alike of its resolve

- "U.S. forces must pose a credible deterrent to potential adversaries who have access to modern military technology, including WMD and the means to deliver them."

- In such cases, deterrence, even based on the threat of massive destruction, may fail and the United States must be prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary."

- U.S. policy has always been purposely vague with regard to when the United States would use nuclear weapons and that it has never vowed not to be the first to use them in a conflict.

Anyone else find those excerpts interesting? I'm still deciding what to even think about all this. Is this the right road to be heading down? A big part of me says, YES. Nuke em' and be done with it. But, another part of me thinks of the old saying, " you reap what you sow. " If we were to start using nukes, what Pandora's box are we opening? On the other hand, I think of when we had Bin Laden cornered for a bit in Tora Bora. Anyway, they are pretty sure he was there, and barely slipped through our fingers, leaving his followers behind to fight us to the death. Imagine if we'd just nuked the mountain side. Hmmmm. It sure is tempting isn't it?

I think a bit more on it, and you know what? I'm for it. I am for taking a hard stance against these villians. They don't think like you and me. They only understand violence, and slaughter. We are eventually going to have to start playing hard ball with them if we expect any peace. They have families and loved ones too. Maybe they'd be less willing to conduct the work of death if they knew our retaliation would not only consume their lives, but the lives of their families as well. I'd love to see the look on Bin Laden's face if a week after 9/11 we had started nuking the whole Mid-East. One terrorist sponsoring state after another. And the look on Kim Jong's face would be pretty priceless too.

AMEN BRUTHA!

I found this while surfing around. I think it hits the nail on the head of how many of us "angry white males" in America feel. Beware of a little crudeness.

Enjoy-


George Carlin

- I Am Your Worst Nightmare.
- I am a BAD American.
- I am George Carlin.
- I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid-
level governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.
- I'm not in touch with my feelings and I like it that way, damn it!
- I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer.
- I believe it's called the Boy Scouts for a reason.
- I don't think being a minority makes you noble or victimized.
- I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, you'd better do it in English.
- I don't use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for unpopular opinions or actions.
- I think fireworks should be legal on the 4th of July.
- I think that being a student doesn't give you any more enlightenment than working at Blockbuster. In fact, if your parents are footing the bill to put your pansy ass through 4-7 years of college, you haven't begun to be enlightened.
- I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God.
- Hillary Clinton is a carpet-munching lesbian... not that there is anything wrong with that
- My heroes are John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, the Simpsons, and whoever canceled Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
- I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
- I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time arguing about it.
- I think global warming is a big lie. Where are all those experts now, when I am freezing my ass through a long winter?
- I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I didn't wander forty years in the desert after getting chased out of Egypt, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you, so shut-the-#$%!-up already.
- I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches. And where does he get his money. And why is he always part of the problem and not the solution.
- I think the cops have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you're running from them.
- I also think they have the right to pull your ass over if you are breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.
- I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation the next four years.
- I hate those bastards standing in the intersections trying to sell me crap or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause.These people should be targets.
- I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again.
- I think beef jerky could quite possibly be the perfect food.
- I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.
- I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement.
- I think Dr. Suess was a genius.
- I'm neither angry nor disenfranchised, no matter how desperately the mainstream media would like the world to believe otherwise.
- I believe if she has her lips on your Willie, it is sex, and it is sex for both of you. This even applies when you are President of the United States.
- If that makes me a BAD American, then yes,.. I'm a BAD American.

What's Your Opinion?

I friend of mine asked me to post a question on my blog and see what others out there think of his current situation. I haven't gotten a comment on my blog for a while, and so I don't know if anyone is even reading anymore, but here goes anyway.

He is a newly wed of about five months. About a year ago his wife bumped into her old high school boy friend. They were a couple for about two years, and were sexually active with each other. She broke up with him their senior year, because he was making her uncomfortable. Basically stalking her. They've had no contact until running into each other accidently a year ago.

I guess the boy friend is married now with kids.

Well, he immediately starts calling her all the time, and sending her text messages on her cell phone, and by her own admission has said a couple of things that she said were inappropriate for a married man to say to another woman.

Here's where it gets wierd. The four of them, ex-boy friend and his wife, my friend and his wife, all get together and do stuff as friends. They will have dinner together, or whatever, and sit around talking about the good ole' days of high school and stuff. Everyone but my friend who didn't go to school with them.

This whole situation makes my buddy very uncomfortable, and he hates going over there, and doing that. He thinks it's dangerous for their marriage, and that x-boy friend has more on his mind than just being friends. He's tried to talk to her, but she is VERY stubborn and determined to keep up this so-called frienship. He asked me to blog about it, and see what the opinions of others might be out there on the situation. He'll be checking in to read your posts, and he'll probably eventually show them to his wife.

Your help is appreciated

Scatter Brained

Well, what can I say. It's been a while since my last post, and that's mostly because nothing worth mentioning has really happened of late. I actually have a lot of thoughts swirling through my brain right now, and I think I will randomely just jot them down until I get tired. So, here goes.

That lady down in Texas protesting the war is dishonering the memory of her son. He volunteered. He made the ultimate sacrifice, but she detracts from what he did for us with her little tantrum. On the same note, he did die to give her the right to protest. So there you have it.

I'm tired of the Natalie Halloway story. People go missing every day. Why all the attention just to her?

I'm starting to think that buying and caring for a horse might be cheaper than filling my cars with gas anymore. But, I'm not blaming the president for prices. It's the market, and the market - they say - will correct itself if left alone. At least cars don't run on Nyquil.

Cinderalla Man starring Russel Crowe is an excellent movie that everyone should see. It meant a lot to me, because my late grandfather was a Golden Gloves boxer during the same era. Chalk it up there with movies like Hoosiers, Iron Will, Rudy, and Remember the Titans.

Never pay anyone to hydroseed your land. Especially some twenty year old high school drop out with a mohawk and pierced nipples. Pay them to level it, and then plant the grass yourself, or you might end up all pissed off like me.

I love this time of year. The temperature starts cooling off, and you can tell Fall is right around the corner. Fall is the best.

Well, those are some random thoughts that tend to cross my mind about every day lately. Maybe next time I will be a little more focused on one particular topic.

Out.

Maybe a small thanks can go a long way

The other day I had to come into work on my day off for some extra training. What a day it was! For anyone new here, I work as a security officer at a nuclear complex.

Anyway, we got trained on the HK 69 grenade launcher. Yep, I got to shoot real grenades. It was pretty cool. I got a real "bang" out of it. = )

I also got to be trained on the FM 240 Bravo. For those of you who don't know, the 240 is a machine gun kinda of akin to the famous M60 that you see in all the movies. What a weapon. This is the swivel-mounted gun that you see on TV, mounted on the turrets of Humvees in all that Iraq war footage. After shooting of a belt of ammo, I actually almost felt pitty for Al Qaeda. I can't imagine squatting behind a mud wall while someone fires off bursts at you from that gun! What a nightmare that would be! At least it would be a short nightmare. But, also a HOOT to shoot. Everyone should have one!

But now the point of my whole post today. At the end of the day we did a combat scenario exercise with equipment that we call Miles Gear. Miles Gear ( and I may be spelling it wrong ) is basically a high-tech Laser Tag system that allows you to use basically a real gun, but shooting blanks.

The scenario pitted four of us against two snipers in the sage brush approx. 500 yards down range. It was a moving and tactics exercise. I partnered up with a guy named Chris and off we went leapfrogging through the sage brush desert. After about ten minutes of running, diving, shooting, crawling, and picking cactus needles out of our skin, I was exhausted! Suddenly I realized I had gained a new appreciation for our guys over there in Iraq. It was around 101 degrees for us, and I thought I was going to die from the exertion. My throat was parched, and my legs felt like rubber. I thought to myself while catching my breath behind some cover, " Man, those guys in Iraq have to do this in heat and conditions waaaay worse than this, and on top of that. . .IT'S REAL!

I just want to say, hats off to the American Military. They really are sacrificing over there for us and deserve our honor and respect. I don't care what end of the political spectrum you fall on, or if you agree or disagree with the war. These men and women deserve your respect, and your support. I can't imagine if I was there putting my life on the line, and hearing some of the crap coming out of people's mouths over here. So, here's my small and insignificant way of saying thanks to the troops. A lot of us believe in you.

Just for the fun of it

I never thought I'd say this, but running can be fun. Yeah, seriously! All it took for me was to get off the treadmill, and go for a run outside.

For the last several days during my alotted workout time at work, I've been finishing up with a two mile run down a dirt road that winds through the sage brush out here.

Tonight I ran as the sun sank below the Lemhi Mountains to my left. It's at this time of night the desert comes to life. I saw rabbits scurrying out of my path, and a huge desert owl of some kind gliding gently in the evening breeze on huge wings. I noticed that even the desert is beautiful in its own rugged sort of way. My lungs were engorged on sage scented air, and for the twenty minutes I ran, it was just me, and the desert, and the mountains in the distance.

I am realizing some things lately about fitness and staying in shape. If you can find something new, different, or enjoyable, then it goes from being "excercise" to a hobby or an activity. For example. I have fallen in love with mountain biking lately. As I pedal along the rutted paths, steering around and over different technical obstacles, I don't even notice my own heavy breathing, or pounding heart because I'm having a killer time!

The new goal is to continue to explore ways to make fitness fun, fresh, and enjoyable.

Shadow Spawn gets censored!

Today, I got up and first off mowed my 3/4 acre lawn. Then I hacked some brush on my property with a machete until I was a glistening sheen of sweat. After that I came inside, and hit the weights on my new olympic weight set. Did some back, biceps, and triceps. After that we packed up the kids and went to the lake. I swam for a while. . . nothing tremendous. Then we came home and I went on about a ten mile bike ride through the surrounding hills of my home.

Whew! What an active day, and I feel great! I think I ate pretty sensibly all day too. Just got to maintain this level of activity and I’’m bound to lose some weight.

Now for my topic of the day.

All this week, I have been engaging in political debate on another blog named americablog.blogspot.com These guys are extremely on the fringe of the left. Very liberal. It has been fun to take them on in the arena of words. While doing this I have been called a Nazi among other unmentionable names in the comments section. Our views are so different, that many of them think I am kidding and just trying to generate rage to attract attention to myself. By the way, if you are thinking about going there, be fore warned that it is a site laced with profanity and very adult topics sometimes, so be careful.

Anyway, I was involved in a debate over homosexuality yesterday that earned myself tons of criticism, and not to mention attacks from the creator of the blog John Aravosis, who supposedly has a law degree, been a guest on several talk shows such as O’Reilly Factor, and claims to speak five languages. Anyway, I posted a comment stating a belief I held about homosexuality that I won’t get into here, and boy did they all get angry with me. They all called me names and bashed me on a personal level, but nobody would counter what I had said. I even challenged them. I asked them to counter my point. All I got in reply was, “ You have no point.” I must have really gotten to them, because I little while later when I went back to continue my argument, I found to my shock and amazement that my comments on that post had all been deleted from the web site. Everyone else’s was still there, but mine were gone.

This is the final point I want to make. They continually rage on that web site about the freedom of speech, and the right to express yourself. Well, I just want to make this observation. They sure love the freedom of speech all right. . .unless you say something they don’t like. Then you get censored, and erased. Can you imagine how they’d behave if the tables were reversed?

Daddy, are there such things as monsters?

Last night my four year old girl got out of bed and came to me because she was afraid. I asked her what she was afraid of. " What if the orcs come?" She asked, her big blue eyes glistening, and wide expecting an answer.

"Don't worry about orcs ( it's pointless to tell her they don't exist ) Daddy can kill any orcs that try to come in here."

"What if they have swords?"

"Daddy has guns. Now off to bed."

As I tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss I thought to myself what an innocent time childhood is, when fictitious orcs are your biggest fear. Monsters aren't real, yet to her they are. Then a darker thought clouded my mind as I remembered the eighteen Iraqi children killed by a homicidal bomber on wednesday, and the score of kids that have been in recent news as victims of murderous predators. I grimmaced and thought to myself, monsters are real. And they are more terrible in real life than any imaginary orc.

The real monsters come in the form of terrorists, murderers, molesters, abusers, drug dealers, the porn industry, and many other nameless forms. As a father I wondered how to protect her from the real monsters. If she could only just stay afraid of orcs for the rest of her life.

Today I sit in fatherly indignation at the evils lurking in the world. Who would plow through a gathering of children and blow up themselves in a vehicle, killing all the kids, just for the chance to get at two Americans handing out candy? What monster is capable of such evil? I think of the sicko, Joseph Duncan, who kidnapped Shasta Groene, and while repeatedly assaulting her sexually over the next several days bragged to her about murdering her family. The real monsters are out there. The evil is real, and for crying out loud, the fight needs to start getting REAL.

I for one am sick of hearing that 9/11 was our fault. That we need to see what we did to make the terrorists mad at us. I am sick of hearing all the crying and weeping over the so-called poor conditions at GTMO! I am REALLY REALLY tired of finding out every time a child is murdered that it turns out to be a repeat offender, who should have been in jail!

This isn't about republicans, democrats, liberals or conservatives. I'm just a father, husband, and American and I know I'm not alone in my desire to protect my family, and my freedom. I see evil at the doorstep. I see the monsters in the dark, for who they really are. . .Monsters, and they should be treated as such.

It's All About Lifestyle

Wahhhh! The vacation is on its last gasp now. Only three of the twelve days left! And I didn’t get to do half the cool stuff I was hoping to do. The white water trip got postponed, and the paintball game fell through. Jeeze! I did make it up to Mesa Falls for a day with the family. Mesa Falls is a gorgeous waterfall up in the mountains of Idaho that border Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks. Took some pics and amazed the kids, and realized it’s been way too long since I’ve been out in the mountains. Gonna have to start planning some backpacking, and camping trips. Right now though the temps are in the high nineties, and so we’ll most likely wait for things to cool off.

I’ve got a new diet and exercise program I’ve been trying out for the last couple weeks. It’s called the JUST WATCH WHAT YOUR EATING, AND BE A LOT MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE program. So far it’s been great! I have started biking every day now. I started with a six mile ride into the rolling hills near my home. that’s been now increased to ten miles and includes spontaneous excursions onto dirt paths that wind away mysteriously into the hills. I have been trying to include the whole family in my new program, so my wife accompanies me on many of these rides, and the kids follow behind in a bike trailer. We also go to the pool as a family now about every other day or so, and swim. My wife spends time with the kids in the kiddy pool at the beginning, while I head to the lap pool and swim laps for fifteen or twenty minutes. The other day started with a swim, then got home and went on a bike ride, and then later walked the dog for two miles. I figure hey! you gotta notice a change if you start having days like that. Right?

On top of all that, I bought a three hundred pound olympic barbell set on Saturday. I am still shopping around for a bench though. But, once that’s all set up, my days will also include quick, high intensity weight lifting routines. I got a mega deal on the weights, and the sale was ending that day, so I just bought em.

Last and finally on my list of ridiculousness is I have been itching for a kayak lately. Once the white water rafting trip got postponed, I realized how much I was really looking forward to doing it. Now I unexplainably find myself on the internet reading articles and blogs dealing with white water kayaking. I don’t have a lot of “river” experience, or boating experience at all, so the thought is a little daunting. Am I going to get myself killed? Luckily I have a neighbor who is an avid river runner, and former guide. At least I have his brain to pick. And maybe, just maybe he’ll agree to take me along some time to show me the ropes.

Final thought: My prayers go out to the people of London. They deserve our honor. They stepped up in our defense when we needed them, while others turned their backs to us in fear. I hope they catch the cowards responsible.

The Lettermen Leave an Impression on Gen X

Last night my parents took my wife and I to a Lettermen concert that was held here at our civic auditorium. Yep, that’s right. . . The Lettermen, as in “ Put your head on my shoulder”, and “When I Fall In Love” Lettermen.

As a member of the much misaligned generation X, I must admit, that I wasn’t sure what to expect as my wife and I took our seats on the sixth row back from the front of the stage. Oh, I’m no complete stranger to the works of the Lettermen. I remember hearing those unforgettable ballads on my Dad’s vinyl records while growing up. I have to admit, I was almost frightened on their behalf, as I waited for the concert to begin. Yes, I was doing the math. “ Let’s see. Not sure when they hit it big, but let’s say maybe 1965 they were maybe 20 - 25 years old? That would put them somewhere in their sixties? Maybe getting close to seventy? Can they do this?”

Suddenly they were announced, the music started, and my fears seemed on the verge of realization when I saw three bent-over, bald, or gray-haired old men walk out on to the stage in tuxedos. But. . .Then they started to sing. I was astounded and amazed. The same melodious, harmonizing voices from my childhood filled my ears. My eyes refused to see the truth for what it was at first. I leaned in towards my wife and whispered, “ Those voices don’t even match. I can’t believe those voices are coming from those bodies.”

For the next two hours I sat enthralled with the music, a stupefying grin plastered on my face. They sang a mixture of patriotic tunes, and some of their hits from the sixties and seventies. When it was over, they got a standing “O” from the audience. I rushed home to bu y a CD from Amazon. Yeah, I’m a sucker for music.

What has happened to that kind of talent? Yes, there are a lot of talented contemporary musicians out there, don’t get me wrong. But still, after seeing this show I was left with a feeling that there is a void in today’s world of entertainment. A feeling of longing and nostalgia gripped me as I drove home, the dial on the radio tuned to KUPI 98 Gold. I laughed to myself as I thought that maybe someday I’d be taking my kids to see a bent over, balding, gray-haired Jon Bon Jovi perform at the local auditorium, and my kids would be wondering, “ What’s happened to the music? “