I’ve been intending to set my old Protest Warrior email to bounce, since all I get there now are viruses and spam thanks to some idiot script-kiddie and Indymedia.  However, it has been informative.  I’ve learned today that the 419 scammers have branched out.  Instead of being from some unfortunate soul in Nigeria, the latest one was from “MR JIMMY BAZHAYEV” of “CHECHNYA,RUSSIA.”  Mr. Bazhayev is seeking my “ABLE ASSISTANCE TO RECEIVE THE SUM OF US $15,500,000.00(FIFTEEN MILLION,FIVE HUNDRED US DOLLARS ONLY).” 

It amazes me that they keep sending this crap to people, since it can only mean that someone, somewhere is responding.   

I recently acquired a Surefire G2 Nitrolon which comes with a 65 lumen lamp assembly.  This thing is blinding and if you should point it at yourself, you’ll be seeing spots for a few minutes.  Not being content to leave well enough alone, I ordered the P61 lamp assembly, which is rated at 120 lumens. 

I wasn’t going to try the “shine it in the eyes test”, though, given my experience with the stock lamp.  However, I still managed to blind myself.  I had it pointed down when I turned it on, but didn’t think about the reflective qualities of white paper.  The paper reflected enough of the light to leave me blinking at the red spot in my vision for a few minutes.  I think the reflected light from the paper was at least as powerful as the original 65 lumen lamp.

I think I’m going to keep this one around for handling things that go bump in the night.  If the light doesn’t vaporize them, I’ll at least be able to completely identify the target. 

After experiencing the 120 lumen lamp, I can’t even imagine what the M6 Guardian would be like, with its 500 lumen lamp.  I suppose you could use it for interplanetary signalling if you don’t go up in a ball of flame from the heat it puts out.  Surefires get very hot very quickly.

I’m off to the range for the evening.  Provided I’m ideologically pure enough to be allowed to do so. 

Is it just me or does anyone else find the idea of the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway humorous?  I wonder how the macho, beer-drinking race demographic is going to like this one…

For my NRA post I wanted a picture of a clothespin.  While looking for one I learned that you have to be sure to vet your search results carefully if you just Google for clothespins.  The first link was to a BDSM FAQ on how to use clothespins for sexual purposes, the second was to a domain for sale, and the third was to another BDSM article.

The fourth link looked more promising, until I clicked it and realized that “JT’s Stockroom” is a BDSM shop, and these clothespins were special, having been coated in black rubber to eliminate the “scratchy feel of bare wood.”  How considerate of them, although I wonder just how much this helps, given what they’re planning to do with them.   

Lately I’ve been listening to this station in the mornings because they don’t talk a lot (no DJ) and I need all the help I can get to get myself moving.  But there’s one song (make sure your pop-up blocker is fully engaged before clicking) in particular that’s been bugging me.

Let’s set the background first, which includes infidelity and an unexpected pregnancy:

Now this gon’ be the hardest thing I think I ever had to do
Got me talkin’ to myself askin’ how I’m gon’ tell you
‘bout that chick on part 1 I told ya’ll I was creepin’ with, creepin’ with
Said she’s 3 months pregnant and she’s keepin’ it
The first thing that came to mind was you
Second thing was how do I know if it’s mine and is it true
Third thing was me wishin’ that I never did what I did

He can keep wishing that until the sun implodes, but wishes are worth what he paid for them.  Anyhow, after screwing everything up, he whines that this is “the hardest thing I think I’ve ever had to do.”

This by far is the hardest thing I think I’ve ever had to do
To tell you, the woman I love
That I’m having a baby by a woman that I barely even know
I hope you can accept the fact that I’m man enough to tell you this

You know, I can almost believe that it is the hardest thing he’s had to do.  He obviously has no experience doing the real hard thing, which is living up to his obligation not to screw around on his girlfriend (and that’s not even mentioning the danger of what he’s likely bringing home from his unprotected encounter with the other woman and exposing his girlfriend to; this bugs me no end, because I know a young woman who got a really nasty, lifetime surprise of high-risk HPV from her no-good ex-boyfriend, one that will likely mean she can’t ever have children). 

I don’t like people who break their promises and then whine about the consequences.  I’m not one of those social conservatives who rails about people screwing around (heck, I’m not even a conservative).  Instead,  I think about things in terms of commitments (sort of like contracts, actually).  People can do whatever they want with one another, provided that everything is consensual and all parties are aware of and fully understand the terms.  There’s a wronged party in this situation who only found out after the fact, once the damage had been done.  If he wanted a “chick on the side”, he should have found someone who was OK with that. 

I know, this is just a song.  I need to get out of here and hit the range.  I missed my fix last week.

Am I missing something with HP selling iPods?  I just don’t see the point.  As far as I can tell, they are selling the same iPods as Apple, and given Apple’s MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) rules, they can’t provide any price differential. 

All I can see is that HP has become an Apple reseller who only carries the iPod.  Where’s the value add? 

Over the past few days I’ve heard the Dixie Chicks a couple of times now as background music.  Once in Bass Pro and again in Chili’s.  Given the close temporal proximity of these sightings (soundings?), and not having heard them in a long time, I wonder if someone is trying to test the waters for a comeback.  Slip them in on a few stores’ background music and see if anyone complains.  It has been a while since the original flap (a year and a half), so maybe they’re hoping people will have forgotten (or at least calmed down).

Or pehaps I just hadn’t noticed them before and there’s nothing to all of this.  However, I suspect I would have noticed if I’d heard them before.  I tend to notice music and I can sometimes determine a song from just the first couple of notes.  Given the Dixie Chicks situation, I’m pretty sure I would have noticed (it’s what made me pay attention when I heard their songs this weekend).

Lately I’ve been working more hours, which has cut down on the number of posts I’ve made.  After spending 10 hours or so in front of a computer, sitting down in front of another one to write blog entries just doesn’t seem very appealing. 

However, now that I’m using Expression Engine 1.1 I can post entries that will appear later (this was possible with 1.0, but I had to hack it a bit to do the gunshow page, breaking the ability to do future entries on this weblog; 1.1 now handles this on a per-blog basis).  I’ve written 10 posts today, most of them for next week.  I’m thinking that I might start writing articles on Sunday to have them appear during the week.  For some reason, I feel I should write something every day (at least during the week, not so much on weekends).  Writing everything on Sunday lacks timeliness, though.  Perhaps I could do both—write up five entries or so on Sunday and then try to write as time permits during the week.  At least that way there would be something every day.

I always like a good article about some person who refuses to give up his property for the whim of some city pipe dream to build some kind of fancy park or other feel good project.

Fred Mitchell stood his ground for years, refusing to sell his house near Johnson Creek for a flood control and parks project.

This week, he waved the white flag—sort of.

Mitchell, who has lived in his three-bedroom house since 1969, finally agreed to sell it to the city for $137,500.

However, under a life-estate agreement approved by the Arlington City Council on Tuesday, Mitchell will be allowed to stay in his house until he dies or chooses to leave.

“I fought them for eight years because I knew what they were doing was wrong,” said Mitchell, 72, a retired Air Force radar technician and former city worker.

Yes, they’re claiming it’s a flood control project, but it’s interesting to note that somehow it got turned into a park.  But nevermind my take on it, consider what Mr. Mitchell said about it.

For years, Mitchell has contended that the corps is using an outdated, 1975 flood plain map that does not accurately show the depth or width of the creek or the areas that might flood.

His small brick house was built in 1959 on the north side of the 700 block of Mitchell Street. The houses across the street that backed up to the creek and those closer to Collins Street have been demolished. Only the arching magnolias and spreading oaks remain on the grassy lots.

“They had no business taking some of those houses,” Mitchell said. “Nobody on this side of the street ever flooded.”

I guess he finally realized that he wasn’t going to be able to hold out forever.  I like his attitude about it, though:

“I’m not going to move,” Mitchell said, “I ain’t got that much longer to go. I might as well stay put.”

While the city ultimately will get the land, they’re not going to be able to force this guy off his property.  I bet this situation is really chapping somebody’s ass down at city hall.  Good.  These petty little local tyrants need to be reminded from time to time that they don’t own the city.