…to never pull of a joke like that again!

It happened on April 1st. Ramon mentioned how it was April First and that we should get someone good. I just rolled my eyes. April Fool’s jokes…pleah.

As we had our breakfast breaks I thought about it and figured why not. I pulled out my phone and more or less wrote the message that I had reenlisted the week prior and had received orders to ship out to training before being deployed overseas. Nothing really big, I thought. I scrolled through my phone book and sent it to a good number of my friends and hit “Send.” I thought nothing of it as I wrapped up my breakfast and went on to work.

Throughout the course of the day I got bombarded by message replies. Parties and get-togethers were already being arranged by some people. Some buddies up in VA were already messaging everyone else of my pending arrival. The word was out, Chris was back in uniform and ready to KATN.

Feverishly, I began letting everyone know that it was a joke. In no way did I ever envision that it would be bought so well. It was nuts. Even got a phone call from Michelle, and well I’m glad I wasn’t in Virginia!

Heather yesterday told me that I should’ve stuck with the joke and went to all the parties. Wow, my head was reeling just imagining how deep underwater I would be if I ever did that. I may be tough, but all the collective masses putting their heads together to plan a come back makes me shudder. Even Heather flicking her scissors in my general direction temporarily put me on alert!

However, I did get two people calling me out right away. Moni and Agnes came on my phone and didn’t buy it! Well, I don’t have any prizes, lol… But yeah, I think that will be the last April Fool’s joke I’ll make in a while, lol.

Well, maybe karma did come back to me. I dropped the ball big time…I missed a massive opportunity as far as some tactical gear goes. One of my buddies, always looking out for me, came across a piece of kit I was looking at getting and at a deal that was just simply too good to pass up. He shot me a line yesterday and let me know what the deal was. I agreed I’d call him before noon the following day and let him know if the deal would be a go. Of course, that night I decided I would go for it.

Have I ever mentioned my memory sucks? Good. Suffice to say, Christine let me know of my grave error later on and I let the deal of the year slip past my fingers. You can ask Christine, I was verbally punching my face just about all day today!

Before I realized my mistake, we were at the Dallas Auto Show. I went previously on Saturday as well and checked it out with John and his wife, but had a tight schedule so I only got to see some highlights with them. Today, I went with the intention of covering the entire show with some thoroughness. My initial impression of the show was positive, being probably the best one that I’ve been to, and this was my third year. Stay tuned for pics and a video detailing my adventure!

Interesting was the fact that the Mesquite Police had a recruiting area in the Dallas Auto Show this year. Pretty neat. MySpacers will get to see my new profile pic of the MPD Fembot Tricycle. I know…that’s not what it really is called.

My top fives from the auto show this year are the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8, Dodge Challenger, Cadillac XLR-V and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Concept nod goes to the Jeep Trailhawk.

Then, while it was already planned ahead of time, going to the shooting range just seemed to make sense to vent my frustrations of missing out on the deal of the year. Thinking there may have been the chance that everything works out, I saved some money and bought a mere hundred rounds of ammo. Christine did the same…after standing around for about five minutes while the counter person left. To most, Christine still doesn’t have that look of the desire to shoot guns, lol!

After my frustrations and the fact that it was mid-afternoon, decided not to bother getting rifle ammo…wouldn’t have time for that anyways.

So to the pistol range we went. As we setup, we once again found the day’s “mouthers.” These mouthers are the guys that seem to like to hear them talk and usually do not have sufficient substance to complement said talk. It’s not just the fact that they’re talking, but also what they’re talking about and how they’re talking. I’m a good veteran of hearing these crowds over the years. Navy people can probably get a good example of this. It’s called your local VBSS team. I’m not throwing everyone VBSS under the bus, but let’s just say that my time on the Cole that there were more fingers on my one hand than there were members of our VBSS team that I felt genuine enough that they were competent enough AND I didn’t have to worry about. Statistically though…yeah.

We figured a good medium was the 15 yard range and we setup there. Turns out that one of the mouthers was in the military. He wasn’t so bad, though. Once he got to shooting he wasn’t talking much. Nonetheless, his 7 yard group was over twice the size of Christine’s 15 yard group…and she lost our contest and had to buy me ice cream!

Well, we didn’t really care. He was quiet and I was just bored and looking around and he was close enough I could see his target. Eventually, though, a group of guys showed up next to us and setup for the 15 yard line. Okay, now these went past the category of mouthers and they were now civy-VBSS. Lots and lots of talk and lots of oh check out my Rock River AR with Larue Rail, TangoDown foregrip and ACOG. Blah blah blah blah blah. I couldn’t even hear myself yelling at ME for missing the deal of the year!

I already told Christine they were going to suck at shooting. And they did. One guy started firing some good groups until I saw the profile of a 1911 in my peripheral. Sure enough, he picked up either a Glock or a Ruger that they brought and I was able to stand by my statement. We had setup some tactical targets which would be more forgiving for Christine as I refined a few tips to her and watched her accuracy go up…but she still had to buy me ice cream!

Buy now, the civy-VBSS team posted a new target that had multiple two-inch diameter Shoot-N-C’s scattered throughout. They couldn’t even hit a six inch circle earlier…

Shots were fired as they fired at every part of the paper’s surface, every part except the two inch circles. Everytime a round would hit they would comment, “Good shooting!” It’s only good if you consistently do it, otherwise it’s dumb luck. Then they remarked at how hard it was…see comment about six-inch target above. Then they made the comment, “Yeah, this is where a laser would come in handy…next time I’ll bring my laser.”

No…this is where all of you get off the lane, move over to the THREE yard lane with your six-inch target and start there and move up to the five, seven and so forth distances. You don’t make some electronic gizmo make up for your crappy handiwork. Remember a while back when I went with a couple of coworkers over to George’s Area 51 and did some shooting? I was tagging targets with open sights three times the distance that Alpha Team was with their RDS systems, they should’ve been able to hit it faster, more accurately and more consistently. Oh well…

Needless to say, Christine and I got our entertainment as her group was about 1/4 the size of our loud-talking neighbors and I had the group the size of an orange…so Christine would get me ice cream.

Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to attend another drill from an LE officer who even got the opportunity to help train the Iraqis in firearms proficiency. There were eight of us in various modes of tacticalness, I suppose. To my surprise I believe I was the only person with a stock weapon. We did some drills with the pistol, and it appears that as far as experience level I was at the bottom rung. I was definitely not catching up with the lingo, stories of training were shared but I really had none to give out except my Navy times and other somewhat informal events like this, and I think I’m the only person that hasn’t done some form of competition.

That said, it appears I was ranking up there…only trailing behind an active shooter in training, competition and drills. I forgot what he did though, but he showed up with his own bullets that he loaded…that’s about all I remember. We ended up doing four competitions in the end. That guy one two, then I came up won a prize myself. The final competition, our lone participant with a 1911 had the upper hand over us and won first prize, with me coming in second and receiving a prize as well.

I take that as an accomplishment. I don’t want to be stuck up on myself but I don’t know what I did that made me valuable…truly…while I was in the Navy. I know it’s a mix of heart, attitude, logic and all this other fuzzy principles. I know my time in CAP and Police Explorers honed it some…but I said honed, not taught.

In a world of books, Internet forums, sites, magazines and here there everywhere and the seemingly endless “my gun and gear is blacker than yours” (and for those that are not tactically fluent, but are racially fluent, this is meaning the black gun, black gear, etc…so don’t give me your speeches and moans). I was here, welcome to learn. I said nothing and expected lots, and I received lots. The guy running the show challenged me. Most of the guys to my left and right were not talkers, mouthers or VBSS clones. I don’t spend a lot of time sitting around learning techniques and gear flavors of the week. It was important to do that in the Navy because third-class Firecontrolmen don’t know a single thing about ATFP, I was the most clueless idiot and I should never have a gun. Yup.

But now I’m out. Not saying I’m staying static, I need to evolve. But the need to follow the fads and spend money on “research” isn’t there anymore. Want to know my research? My research is about twenty minutes a day, in my head, while I eat lunch. I figure out the solution…THEN I will find (not research) to find the means to accomplish my solution.

Is this close minded? Most likely. But I am a civilian right now and that’s no excuse, except that it seems everyone’s buying into everyone else’s info, ranging (very rarely) to a pot of gold all the way to complete crap. That’s because nobody wants to figure it out anymore, let’s just Google it or go to our favorite forum and listen to what the 11-year old airsofter who has convinced us that he is an 80-year veteran and served in all military branches, all SOF units and even created a few that are stationed in the underwater island of Atlantis.

I think the tactical world is unfortunately being a big fad. Here’s the thing…look hard at yourself. Any tactical conversation you have…are your answers to questions really and truly yours…or are you just reflecting someone else’s. Sure there’s a time to relay (as skill and experience would offer)…but you’re missing the point. Is it really your answer?

Lastly, Glenn has emphasized this as well. To really be honest with yourself, you have to question everything. EVERYTHING. So is this technique or concept, you’ve been able to reinforce it for years and you are dead set on it. There are a lot of things that I have realized and am sure of…I still constantly question and evaluate. For a year or two, I made the mistake and got a little lazy of answering questions with answers that came from someone else and stayed with principles with very little thought. I’ve been trying to change that…strangely, I am getting much better. Don’t have to agree with it…but if everyone agreed, then no one is thinking.

So for my website’s blog, I think I can add the category of “Seanism” to this blog. Many Cole Sailors around my time frame will know Sean, so that’s really all that needs to be said. While Christine was posing one of her random (grotesque) medical questions, I…in the spirit of Stu’s skits…came up with my own random (slightly) medical questions:

In those shooting video games, if you shot a pregnant terrorist in the abdomen/crotch, would you receive a “Headshot” score?

I…don’t want to be at work…

Time flies when you’re having fun and four days was simply not long enough.

So we should start from the beginning, eh? What would that be…Wednesday? Well, first we here Glenn on the radio talking about Barneys New York. Apparently, they are having a rather green Christma…I mean, holiday. Well, seeing that we have a Barneys over at Northpark Mall, I half jokingly have Christine go over to investigate. What do you know? Apparently, if you are reading this blog shortly after I posted it and click the Barneys link above, they have some green greeting or something too.

Well, Jason has come up from Houston for Thanksgiving and I met up with him, Melissa and Litsa at the Galleria. After a short stint there, it was time to eat and it was decided that Jason’s palate needed to be expanded. Expanded in the Asian direction. Melissa appears to have a new favorite restaurant, Litsa enjoyed it and even though it was like tip toeing through a minefield (I later learn Jason doesn’t like seafood), he finds something. I try something new myself and it’s back to the Green Tea Ice Cream Cake for me. Yes, same place I took my Mom for her birthday!

That done, Melissa and Litsa had off to finish off the day, Jason and I find ourselves at Northpark Mall as the nearby movie theater. Inside, we do peer over at Barneys New York. What’s this? Rudolph the Organic Recycling Reindeer? His nose is green? This is retarded…I also notice one green eye is hanging out of his socket. Jason thinks it may have happened afterwards…but being Barneys, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional.

Note: I later find out through Christine and her picture taking that both eyes were supposed to be normal…oh well.

Despite a nice nighty-night at about two in the morning, I was up nice and early for Turkey Bowl 2008. I did the filming work last year when they played in Grand Prairie. This year’s game was at MacArthur HS in Irving. Talk about timing, this was also when this super cold front swept across Texas. It was ticking over the freezing mark, but being a nice strong cold front…let’s talk about WIND!

Those that know me, you know that I am oddly resistant to cold weather. I’m not saying that I do polar bear swims for a living. I can get cold…but usually big clunky Filipinos don’t like the cold…hmm, but there aren’t many big and clunky Filipinos either! My Mom and siblings get cold, I don’t. I still remember sea and anchor security watches on the Cole in the winter and everyone is about mummified on station except myself. There I am wearing nothing more than BDUs (maybe a base layer if the wind’s over 20 knots) with sleeves rolled up. We could be rushing into that 20-30 knot winds while going about 20 knots ourselves…so a tad on the breezy side. I’ll have gloves to keep my digits warm, but that’s about it.

Well, time for it all to be put to the test once again. I would not be running around on the field and wanted to try a less chaotic camera angle. One of panning on the sidelines, versus the “Guy On the Field About to Be Ran Over” perspective. By the second half of the game, the almost icy wind was taking its toll on my right hand and forearm. I couldn’t wear gloves or I wouldn’t be able to operate the controls on the camcorder. So there I was standing out there, trying my best to keep the camera steady and losing feeling on both hands and my right forearm. By the way, Ben and his team wins again!

That done, to the house where I baked some pies, minimally helped with the ham and began doing a brush edit on the game. Then I changed into more normal clothes and headed off to my Godparents’. Ben and Robert were there, Lisa and Jimmy and Linda lived out of state and had come home. Lily, I learned in the morning, was also out of state now and she was home as well. Dylan also showed up as well. There was also a brother-sister group that I had seen at Lisa’s wedding, but didn’t know who they were or their relation to the family…but that rounded out the people in attendance for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving meal was pretty good, though it was insisted to cram just about everyone onto the dining room table. For that, I did not go beyond two plates of food. I did not feel like elbowing and eye jabbing people to get to the food.

Then it was dessert time. Good Thai snacks along with their chili pepper which I took a good bite from. About three people stopped and stared intently at my face, recording every little nuance. You know what? That’s familiar…I remember that many years ago in Virginia Beach when Anthonie intently stared at me after convincing me that the big green ball on my sushi plate was guacamole and I ate the entire ball in one gulp (it’s really wasabi, by the way…never tried it? Go to a sushi bar or going to Arby’s and gulping three cups of horsey sauce with two spoons of pepper will do. BTW, I wasn’t much affected by that at all). Well, I could feel the burning fire spread across my tongue…I’ve had this pepper once in my life beforehand which probably gives me good resistance to spicy food.

But they were waiting for my ear drums and eyeballs to melt and drip down my head, with which I was giving them none of that. There was some slight disappointment, they wanted to see me hop up and down I’m sure. So I felt proud, that is until my Godmother sat down next to me and ate one whole pepper in a single bite. Super Tactical Christopher, Master RSC of the Cole…whooped by his Godmother in a Thai pepper “contest”…boo hoo.

Note: My Godmother is the one in the middle.

Near the end, I hung around and Ben said he was gonna meet a couple of friends and watch movies. Two choices were Hitman and 30 Days of Night…or something like that. He didn’t care for vampire movies, and he kept his standards low on Hitman. I like to see if there are things I missed, so Hitman also it was for me.

So it’s time for the Hitman movie review. Did I like it? In a sense, yes. To many I know who like the game, it’s overwhelmingly favorable though some disappointment by a few. This was different. I feel this movie was a game adaptation to film…for viewers not familiar with the game.

The girls just had an “Eh…” feeling for Hitman, citing low ratings from the newspapers. Well, we know I don’t really listen to movie reviewers much anymore. I think the level of logic by some…I dunno. I also have to remember about two years ago when I was over for Christmas and the decision was to be made to watch Syriana because of the glowing movie reviews. I think we all remember what I thought about that movie.

Then there’s the whole game-based movie part. It was already amusing to read reviews…but I doubt they seriously understand game-based movies. And in some way, I don’t want them to…on the flip side, it makes reading their reviews that much more amusing. With examples from Roger Ebert and E! Online, what a fuss over 47’s barcode. Just an example, but it’s amusing…especially for those of us who played the game.

Honestly, I thought this movie was going to suck anyways. This was one of those movies I did not know how it should go as far as being a movie, so my standards were also lowered significantly.

In the end, I really liked it…though here are the caveats. Some things that kind of disappointed me, but I didn’t care about…some little twists to the game weren’t there. He did choke someone with their belt, but is that the same? Disguises were done…just not in the same manner. He wasn’t as mystical as in the game either…just some oddball with a barcode on his head and bed manners that absolutely fail! Also, a lot of his own past and personal story is nonexistent in the movie…I think they sacrificed that to keep non-players from getting lost. Like I said, it seemed accommodating to the non-player.

What I didn’t like…the soundtrack. I had listened back to my Hitman 2 soundtrack. Many could’ve been done well in the movie, even remixed. As if the whole lack of depth of 47 will turn off some to the movie, the movie…listed as an hour and forty minutes…felt rushed in the storyline. As well as the mystique assassin, he goes all over the world to do his hits…he was in only three locations in the movie, though there’s a map with pushpins to represent his handiwork. Sorry, not good enough for me. If they wanted this to be successful, I think they could’ve easily and loosely followed the storyline of the games with some hints of creativity here and there. Not possible? I think Silent Hill did a good job of that, and I think turning that into a movie for non-players is a much larger challenge.

That done, it makes up for some good action…and surprisingly it was also pretty funny in some parts too. His versatility in combat was shown with remote explosives, sniping, cool-guy firearms handling, explosion evading and even a little dramatic close quarters fighting with empty hands and gigantic Hissatsu blades. Some of the little nuances that gamers will recognize in the game were also put in the movie. Olyphant might’ve not made a menacing 47 (but I honestly can’t think of an actor that can either…and don’t even say Vin Diesel…) like he had the walk down, I know as Anthonie and I joked about 47’s walk inthe game. When he did his walk, the camera angle was similar to the game. All in all, if they made Hitman the TV series, this would’ve been a very good first episode. I am mixed in my feelings that it was a much better movie than I thought but it left us players out. For a game-based movie, I don’t know if it’s a good formula of having some of us hang for the benefit of those that don’t play. Oh well.

Friday, I just about stayed indoors. For all I care, the Silent Hill siren was sounding outside. I was in Mesquite a little bit after midnight. I remember Town East Mall saying they would open their doors at one in the morning. I thought about going there and seeing what’s going on, but figured there wouldn’t be much of a turnout and continued on. I’d later learn in the news that Town East was among the first shopping places in the metroplex to open and there were legions of shoppers lined in front of the doors. Then one o’clock came, the doors opened and people were rushing in, pumping fists in the air as if they were getting free cars. Featured on the news was also Mesquite Police, though I didn’t get to see the story. But yeah, with the whole Town East Boulevard/I-635 construction in progress this Christmas shopping period, Mesquite is gonna be a popular shopping venue that will probably try a lot of peoples’ patience.

I did go to see Christine as she had to work, I also had a surplus of pies and managed to get one in Melissa’s hands. From my Godmother and Melissa, looks like my cooking doesn’t kill just yet again!

Saturday was the gun show and it was time to meet up with my new friend. Figured I’d help a friend overseas, especially in the quest to enhance himself on the two-way shooting range. That and I get a slightly used optic that I was eyeing, and two people have run it and it checks out fine. My short time with the optic has revealed my thoughts about it and I am keeping a running diary on it. There are no whiz-bang perfect optics for combat and you just have to understand the capabilities and limitations with what you have. I was prepared for that, and I learned a lot more in the day I’ve had it. I’ll be keeping a running diary for myself on this optic, but so far I am liking it…just have to mentally reprogram myself to a few things.

Afterwards, it was more or less a Metro Time Attack as I coursed through the cities of the metroplex either looking for goodies (not shopping, shopping includes events where you loiter until something catches your eye) and meeting people. I also stopped over and got Ben his Turkey Bowl DVD and then stopped over to see Maribel and gave out my last surplus pie.

Sunday, after hours and hours of being really OCD and trying to line up my optic perfectly (it’s not, and I gave up…lol…) it was off to check it through Tony. Christine seemed satisfied with the alignment and nothing struck Tony wrong. So now it was off to the overpriced range. That, and I bought the wrong bullets! But it was good enough for a starting zero. At least it is shooting closer to POA than earlier (which was about ten inches up and right at fifty yards).

That done, it was time to meet Tony on his lunch break. There we just sat and ate Taco Bell (because Christine had her lunch breaks cut in half, we would have Taco Bell…so this four day weekend I got to become very familiar with all that is Taco Bell!). Then it was back to work. Chip came to the Galleria and I met with him after Tony returned to his patrol…some things caught his eye and he wanted me to see it. Well, Chip and I checked out that American Girl store that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Weird…we were in and out in about five minutes.

Then in the Galleria itself was a new yoga store. So lots of young women in stretchy-stretchy outfits, one of them doing yoga on a display window. It was strange, it was weird…but at the same time…Awwwww Yeeeah!

Oh, in the movie Hitman…the hot prostitute (hey, that’s how she was cast as…) helped the movie, lol.

That done, Chip headed up to Frisco and it was back to me reassuring and redoubting myself over the alignment of my optic and testing out more ideas (well, as much as can be had indoors as scanning a neighborhood with rifle on the ready is generally frowned upon).

And now I realize…it’s about over. But this is the teaser. Christmas is around the corner, then New Years. The fun…the fun!

Final note…Tony sent me an amusing video for you all to be reassured that Navy VBSS is on top of their game.

Oh yeah…some of you inquired about the Neiman Marcus tree I was talking about on my last post or so…enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOOOH! Gloating time…if you’re reading this TODAY, go to Glenn’s website and scroll down to the Picture of the Day! Awwwww Yeeeah!

…says media superstar Paris Hilton. Gotta love the young generation’s role models. If we’re gonna give celebrities the status of being role models, can’t we find any DECENT ones? Trying to think of one off the top of my head…actually, there’s one that I always seem to mention and as far as I can tell (being someone who is not “connected” to all things entertainment), who is that…Mandy? I don’t see her getting in all these ridiculous amounts of trouble. She’s successful, does some talent with music and film and what not…but then again, she seems to be well-behaved. Can’t have THAT for a role model, now can we?

ADD Note: Whoa…she has a new CD? Oh yeah, she sang before, didn’t she?…

So lately, more and more people have been bringing up the clueless state of this country’s populace lately. About a year ago, I read an amusing (but not surprising) article in the newspaper about how businesses today are trying to deal with the new generation of workers…which is pretty much my age category and younger, those that can work. Turns out, this is the generation where everyone got a trophy, there were no winners and losers and everyone was special. Well, they’re not getting their praise and all that at work and they are going into mental breakdown. How sad is that… I remember in the article they even did things like have someone with a bucket of confetti stand by and throw confetti in the air and praise people just for showing up on time to work.

Bill had today brought in his analysis on the growing trend of road rage. Jeff had talked about it about two days ago as well. We have all heard my mounting frustration of being on the road (btw, I may have bad days but I have so far succeeded in NOT taking it out on drivers around me…those drivers around me, do NOT get an attitude with your crappy driving and if I annoy you that you confront me…you do not want to do that). Bill has a key portion of the blame going on the Internet.

When it comes to tech stuff, I don’t know…he is tech handicap himself! Though in this line of thinking I can see where he’s going. He finds that nowadays, a lot of people go on their computer and create their virtual happy world. Where they get to do whatever it is they want on command and things go well and blah blah blah. Then they go out to the real world…they can’t take it, because they are as small as everyone else, usually not mattering to everyone. Most importantly, they can’t get what they want all the time. This frustrates them and causes people to be ticking time bombs in some ways. Someone brought up the fact that when you bump into someone in person, you’ll do a quick “Excuse me” a maybe reconciliatory gesture and move on. In the virtual anonymity of your car, you cut someone off or vice versa and the only thing left to take it up a notch is to mount a machine gun to your roof.

I have repeatedly brought up how more and more people tune out the world. It makes them upset hearing this or seeing this and blah blah blah. Yeah, I love being a gloomy person, let me tell you. Everyone’s watching American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, but tune out anything related to what’s going on in the world. Me, I love watching people get their heads sawed off or people burning in an airplane crash…I love it, can’t you tell? That all still makes me a little lightheaded, but it happens and I’m not going to tune it out because it makes me a little uncomfortable. How weak have some people gotten? A few months ago, two news helicopters collided filming a car chase with police. One person I know can’t watch the video from one of the helicopters that crashed. Have you seen the video? You see the car they are tracking, then about half a second of static, then the world is spinning. That’s it…yet someone I know cannot stomach that. Then they make the excuse that it’s about the people dying in there. Quit with the excuses.

I, for one, am glad of the limiting of my computer use. I have brought my computer usage to where it has been since I was much younger. Mainly for work and research. There is some entertainment here and there, but hey…so what? A little here and there doesn’t hurt. But if you’re using up your daily life on pretty much entertainment (don’t loophole it, if you’re not honest with yourself then you’re just screwing yourself over), you must be very fulfilled in what you’ve done for the day. Actually, most of my “entertainment” comes from writing and posting these blogs. They have also saved me money from buying game consoles or a more powerful computer. I’m happy with the few games I play, if I want to shoot I’ll do it in real life at the range…it’s stress relief too!

There was even a discussion of how many people can really do the hard work. Not saying my job is so tough, but it is fairly involving and does require about as much gritting of teeth as when I was in the Navy…except with no air conditioning (but on the flip side, no repeated topside preservation!). A lot of people I know twiddle with a keyboard and/or paperwork, physical labor is minimal. Apparently, some industries (like construction) are getting a little hurt because of that.

Then, everyone thinks they’re special. Especially when they go online to their virtual happy land. They get to spew how great they are on their MySpace and Facebooks. In real life, they’ll only have maybe half a dozen decent friends but online they’ll have hundreds. Don’t tell me it’s the whole diverse and global reach either. If that’s the case, I can have my hundreds…though my definition of “friends” in the virtual world is roughly with very slight differences the same as that in the real world. People will put their entire life’s effort to something online…well, good for you. There’s plenty of people that can honestly applaud your efforts, or you can cleverly exploit and dupe them into thinking how great you are. I mean, those were some giant US military missiles hitting the NYC World Trade Center towers, right?

I’m just glad my worth in the real world is much more weighted than in my virtual world (which isn’t much of anything, so I guess that kind of nulls out the sentence, ha ha!). I don’t need to have my “legacy” posted on some virtual list where I have to keep going to the computer to constantly gloat to myself. My accomplishments are not some initials that will vanish on a memory reboot, a virus or any other hindrance on the world of ones and zeroes. If you die, will people be able to stand and show that you definitely came to this world and made a difference, or will people be trying to search for URLs in your bookmarks or other gaming systems?

I had made a comment, along with others, that we kind of looked forward to some of the new cars coming out. Latest entry being the GT-R, amused to see how that will turn out. Then we have some people that obviously have no time as it seems they have multiple browser windows opened and spaced with anti-GT-R (or whatever car’s being mentioned) to quickly send our way. You know what’s funny? A lot of them say “Skyline” even though it’s said this is more or less a ground up vehicle. The other side will say, “Yeah…that’s what they say.” And if not, so what? What’s in a name? To me, it looks more like a 350Z…another car they tried the ground up bit, since it sure doesn’t look like the older Zs. Then you look at some of these people’s profiles…yep, the Internet makes everyone look important. So important, you’re gonna talk about things like to Skyline or not to Skyline…but hey, whatever makes you and your favorite car brand feel special.

Wil had posted this a few days ago. I’ve seen it for a while, but it does need refreshing sometimes…

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787,Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’
‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’
‘From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.’
‘The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years’
‘During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage’

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Gore: 19 Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000 Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:Gore:13.2 Bush:2.1

Professor Olson adds: ‘In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…’ Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ‘governmental dependency’ phase.

I had talked about the people that drown the world away with their iPods (I’m not picking on you iPeople, though when it comes to these traits, a majority of you have them white headphones), little games and other systems. No matter where you go, it’s just a game and you talk about how awesome you are. All everyone knows about you is how good you are at manipulating buttons and switches.

When Paul commented about the VT shootings, I found the latter part of his comments to be fairly important…

For many years college police departments have ignored active shooter
training. Many do not have shotguns or rifles as they are “too offensive.” Scanning
the many photos and video, I still find that many do not carry bandages or litters.
You see multiple officers dragging out hostages (that have not been bandaged) in
every type of carry configuration. We must do better.
As for swiftness of response, it is critical. We have raised a generation of selfserving
kids who would rather go fetal and cower than take offensive action.
Further, most would rather run than come to the aid of their fellow student. Few if
any would take the fight to the cowardly murderer and stop his onslaught.
I applaud the actions of the 76 year old engineering professor Liviu Librescu and
consider him a true hero. A concentration camp survivor who understood the
meaning of life and who probably deserved to live more than most of his students.
Instead of running, he knew what was at stake and he chose to hold the door with his
aging body so that his young, strong and able bodied students could scramble to
safety. It is sad that the male students of his class left an old man to watch their six
while their only concern was to save their own skins. This does not say much for
some of the students at the school.
As for the “memorial” for the shooter, he was a cowardly piece of shit that decided
to vent or “twist off” on unarmed kids. He had many choices in life and decided this
was the best course of action. My only hope is that there is a Hell and he is burning
every second of every minute of every day…

If you’re getting offended by this, I guess that means I’m talking to you. You probably closed this already, because you can’t stomach this. You’ll go to your BFF Jill and show her this place where you can just laugh, assure yourselves I’m crazy and move on into your virtual world, talking to a “friend” who is really a 40 year old pedophile that will rape and kill you when you finally meet. I wish I was joking, except it’s happened a few times already.

Some of you even want to get a job that’s “tough”…civic duty like police, fire, emergency…or the military…or helping people in a hospital or what not. If you are offended by this, or if little things (you may think they’re big, but sit it out and see if you can realize if it’s genuine or if you’re making a fool of yourself…) get you riled up, I worry if you want to do those type of jobs above. You can’t handle sounds from a speaker, or even your little virtual world? Well, for one, we’ll eventually Matrix ourselves anyway…but till then, you might as well start spending more time in the real world, that’s where it really matters anyways.

Wil:

Veterans…PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider public office. All of you with your patriotism and drive, youre exactly what this nation needs when you return to the civilian world.

Jim:

This is precisely why our warrior class needs to reaffirm the ideals they are grounded in, all of them. In times of hardship, the temptation to serve a Caesar will be great, liberty by its nature always being the harder row to hoe.

*Awww…looks like the Paris Hilton story is retracted. Oh well, whatever keeps her clean and out of jail…I think I still would’ve welcomed a drunken elephant story, lol.

Today was a pretty fun outing with Chip and Christine…though while we were at Fry’s I saw that they were playing each other on the computer on a game of chess. This wasn’t pivotal or anything, but I guess it helps me explain an observation I’ve been noticing amongst a large number of people. People don’t know how to play chess anymore nowadays…by this I’m meaning the chess that is life.

It’s easy and convenient to just go on and blah blah blah about how things didn’t work out because of this person, that organization, this policy and that situation. We don’t look at ourselves into the mirror. But Chris, WE didn’t do anything wrong…it’s all on them. Really? Is it? I really wish it was black and white like that, I could be really efficient in my life and how I do work and interact with people. It would’ve made my job easier on the Cole. Either people agreed with me or I threw them over the side. Great plan, huh? I might as well get my ESWS pin, because I’ll be the ONLY person on the ship that agrees with myself. Oh, and I’M subject to being thrown over the side myself because the other person doesn’t agree either.

We don’t have the chess game…and it doesn’t have to be conflicts either. Don’t be embedded into the chess game, otherwise you become some dark evil politician and frankly we already have way too many of those as well. By the way, they can’t play chess either. Most of those guys make their pieces move however they want it, you know…the whole distorted reality of things.

You want to sit in your corner and moan about how the world is doing you wrong, go right ahead. I learned, without having to always stick my neck on the chopping block, that you can’t Marcinko yourself in the Navy. Not saying he was a bad influence, but I would’ve been your rut E-1 if I followed him to the letter. I had to play the chess game and in the end, things just worked out for me. Out in the civilian world, it may not be necessarily harder, but the chessboard that I personally play on is much bigger. Well, I’m not really addressing anyone really so no point for me to go on. However, if for one moment your twitched reading this then you’d better be looking in the mirror. Because I find more people with these issues than not and that’s just a shame.

So Christine and I decided to check out “The Kingdom” today. Really good movie. Yesterday, I got to see some blogs of either side of the political spectrum moaning about some parts of the movie. Well for one, if both sides are moaning about equally, I guess it’ll be a fair movie. But then again, why are we politicizing anything? That’s the sad state of YouTube…Christine once showed me a sushi video on the site, part of it was for the video…the other part was because it became a heated exchange over Darfur. Some people just need to shut off their computers and go outside. Get a life, and I don’t mean Second Life, Home or Halo either.

Movie was good, it stuck pretty much with the movie though there was a geopolitical angle, which is to be understood with this storyline. Seemed good enough without leaning either way. The story and action were pretty good. The movie also reflects my chess game statement above, where our protagonists…the FBI team and accompanying Saudi security must find the right moves on the board, because odds were definitely not in their favor when it came to investigating the attack that they were responding to. But hello? This is life, life ISN’T fair…something that many people have no comprehension of.

Man, subliminal loathing here, lol!

Technically, the movie was pretty good. Though I will have to emphasize…when you’re in a vehicle (especially the lone vehicle) and you get attacked, especially with RPGs, get AWAY from the vehicle! Also, as will be seen on the movie…if you do see things that feel funny and/or look odd, alert the team. Do not let things horrifically unfold at the speed of light. By the time you open your mouth to scream, the damage is done. Good movie…the director will be doing Marcus Luttrell’s “The Lone Survivor” which is my favorite book of 2007 so far. I think he’ll do a good job…can’t wait!

I like how the ending wrapped up. It’s all about the whispers…yeah, you’ll have to watch the movie to understand. But it’s an important lesson in life. If you come across someone who has went through an emotional situation and is crying, you must whisper these comforting words to them. You’ll know what it is when you watch the movie. So whether the person’s crying because they graduated high school or college, found out they are pregnant, just got married or won the lottery (just a few of many examples where people can potentially cry) utter these words and watch as you change their world!

Got and listened to the new Maximum Tune 3 soundtrack. I know, some people are asking how I’m doing with the game. To this day, I am always impressed. I don’t care if my name is on a time list, if it is…that just means most everyone sucks for me to be beating them, lol. I could care, it’s a great release after working during the week. You know, work hard…play hard! I will not be on message boards, hanging to every person’s word so that I can have an unshaded car. I do not care if I’m that good on the game…besides, chances are if you drive good in the game you probably suck in real life…ESPECIALLY if you think the way you drive on the game is the same on the road.

First impressions…Yuzo Koshiro is the MAN! He did such a great job on the first two games, I have no clue if this newest installment is better. It’s just…different. It’ll suit whatever tastes you have. However, there seems to be a technical theme change. Whereas the first two were a trance/atmospheric type song, the newest are mostly techno/club (barely/distressed theme. Practically all the songs have been completely redone, you may sense some bare similarities here and there but they are for the most part fresh new songs. Only Blackbird’s song is the most recognizable, with R200 being a very distant second. All the other songs pretty much bare no true resemblance. All in all, a pretty good music score, though I’ll have to say there are a few songs that don’t have me in the driving spirit. I know, I did my own “Metro” around the metroplex and had to catch myself as my foot dug into the pedal a little further!

Well, another good weekend taken care of. Rounded out well with Chip and Christine’s strange photos taken at Fry’s. If I get to it, I might post it on my site which, yes…I know, you’ve ALL told me, needs to be updated!

Anyways, I got a video link from Chris…which was kind of a surprise. But it’s a pretty nice video so I decided to put it up here.

At least, that’s the prevailing, if not coincidential, wisdom for countries like Russia and China. Last night, I caught a glimpse of news on TV about Russia testing their “father of all bombs” and doing their typical show off on weaponry and gear. Being typical of their country it has to be bigger, hotter, this, than and whatever else.

I had a couple of friends e-mail me about this and I greeted it all this morning. So let me tell it to all the world. I’m not impressed. The bomb will look good on a comparison chart list, no doubt…but yeah, not impressed. No secret to it…those that know my way of doing things in warfare no I look for the other factors, and when you put it all together you just have a gigantic piece of crap that makes a big boom. Besides, they said they used a Tu-160 bomber…the largest in the world, to carry and drop it. What a bunch of wimps…that’s not impressive, watching the All-New Toyota Tundra do the exact same thing…now THAT’S impressive, lol. But no surprise…it’ll probably shake some wimps in Washington DC, but for me and most people that are still currently doing an outstanding military job…just another page in a Jane’s book.

I know this will piss off the Christopher Assassins, who surprisingly haven’t sent me any messages concerning this. They’ll probably read this and just fume…

Also, Russia is handling things in a not-so-eloquent way. As we know, birth is down and the populace is getting older and older. So one Russian region is having a Conception Day contest. Yes, kinda weird…but not as creepy as the procreation camps that I read about a few months ago.