Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14, which means one thing: It’s Pi Day! (For those of us who slept through math, pi = 3.14 = March 14

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062865089986280348253421170679...

Computers have corrected to about 1,000,000,000,000 places.

This Will Make Your Blood Boil!

President Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theaters, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS!

The Over 30 Crowd, Do you remember?

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways? yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!
And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores! And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Word History 101... SHIT!

Here is an interesting fact you should know. I was once told that this was a word of nautical origin, but never knew the story behind it. Thought you might like to expand your field of general knowledge.

Authoritative sources rarely agree on the origin of most words. Sometimes, it can be as simple as the following explanation:

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, a by-product of which is methane gas.

As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, there was a significant BOOOOM! ...and lots of floating wood shards..

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening..

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term 'Ship High In Transit' on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term ' S.H.I.T. ' (Ship High In Transit), which has gained official "word" status, and has come down through the centuries and is still in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I. I had just always thought it was adapted as a golf term!

Yeah, I know... Sounds like so much bullshit!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are my three valentine's

US Soldiers using "Jesus rifles"

ABC News reports that US soldiers are being issued Trijicon sights for their weapons. Trijicon, who makes some of the best weapon sights in the world has been called out for placing biblical passages on their product. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, says that the inscriptions have always been there.

The article quotes one of the complainants "It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Michael "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

"It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles," he said.

Thought the story was interesting and kind of ironic, given our enemy's reason for fighting. The entire story can be read here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-mil...ory?id=9575794

DMV - Excuse for a ride...

I needed to take care of some paper work at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Since it was 62 degrees I decided to ride.

The hill's are turning green. Looking east toward the lower Sierra mountains.

As the map shows, the route I took around the county took me through a lot of orange orchards, grape vineyards and farm land.

Is there any other?

The hills are green now, but wait for a couple of months and they will be brown and ugly.

The road up though the hills.

Is there any other, really?

This shot is looking over the San Joaquin Valley in the direction of Arvin and Lamont

And some of the farm land. As usual always hazy.

There is a saying in the valley, "where the water flows the food grows" Water is very critical in the valley and it seems like the farmers are always having to fight for water. Seems like the Delta Smelt is more important than human life.

This is the way water was pumped in years gone by.
This is the way water is pumped today.

Eighty miles later, I got my DMV taken care of including a great ride

Do you feel lucky? Well do ya...

I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum - the most powerful hand gun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question--Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk!
Dirty Harry

The Pueblo Incident

A few days ago at work a song came on the radio, my work buddy Tim asked me if I knew the words to this particular song. After listening to the tune for a few moments I knew I had heard the song before but admitted not knowing the words. The song was performed by the one hit wonder "Blues Image"

An international incident 42 years ago remains shrouded in mystery.

On the bitterly cold morning of Jan. 23, 1968, an American intelligence vessel, USS Pueblo, was operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea. It was surrounded by four North Korean patrol boats, with two MiG aircraft flying overhead. The boats ordered the Pueblo to stop and let the North Koreans board. The order was refused. The Pueblo headed further out to sea. The North Korean boats immediately opened fire. Armed with only a 50-caliber gun secured from the freezing temperatures by a tarp, the Pueblo was unable to fight back.

With more North Korean boats appearing on radar and heading its way, the Pueblo had no choice but surrender -- the first U.S. Navy ship since 1807 to be captured by a foreign power.

One Pueblo crew member was killed in the attack; the remaining 82 spent 11 months in a prison camp before being released. The Pueblo remains in North Korea.

The Pueblo was immortalized in song; 'Ride, Captain Ride' and is played to this day on radio stations across the USA, yet few Americans realize the true meaning of the popular 70's song.

Some people think the song was written in response to the "Pueblo Incident"

Listen to the song

Welcome to 2010

I think 2009 was pretty hard on most folks! I wish 2010 will be better in all aspects for everyone.