Links and stories of note

After reading the news recently I'm beginning to really questioning what type of society we're living in. While I hesitate to be a fear-monger or otherwise question our government, popular entertainment, city leaders and those 'in charge' it appears there is a vast lack of knowledge, thought and caring for any views other than those of their own.

Some recent stories that have piqued my interest

Spoofing Miss California view of marriage - why is it okay for Hollywood 'actors' to be Representative of social consciousness and push their feelings and agendas on the rest of us?

Miss California in ad for traditional marriage - now we're requiring ladies in beauty pageants to represent values chosen by popular consent? C'mon ... she said what she believes and made a stand. just because it doesn't reflect what the liberals in California want it to does not mean that it isn't valid. Why isn't aren't Christians standing up for Ms Prejean and her stance on marriage being between a man and woman. This is perfectly acceptable. Typical double talk by liberals wanting any view to be accepted as long as it matches theirs. How hypocritical can a 'philosophy' be? If you disagree with someone or their beliefs there should be room to discuss, argue or come to an agreement to agree to disagree. To continue to threaten, belittle and ridicule is absolutely worthless use of time and breath for liberals and in this humble person's opinion a complete show of lack of knowledge and intellectual stupidity.

Is Corvette following Pontiac in the death march of the Obama administration? - While American automakers haven't been building cars that American buyers really want having the government take over the decision of what types of cars can be built and telling the manufacturers what is expected of them spells certain death to the American auto industry as we know it. While there is a need for drastic change (as well as better made cars) in the midst of a recession isn't the time for government to step in. If the 'Detroit 3' stop making performance cars, SUVs, etc. them buyers will buy cars from non-US brands. Chevy has continued to bring the Corvette up to the level of a world class sports car. Now that it's existence is threatened what will keep buyers from going back to Porsche, Audi, etc. There is always competition. Why force Chrysler to allow Fiat to take a 20% stake. Why send that much to an Italian company rather than keep it in the US? Real lack of knowledge or caring for the viability of the US auto industry in Washington these days.

An on to close to home for me

Myrtle Beach banishing bikers - it's amazing when this makes it onto Fox News. City council of Myrtle Beach is doing their best to kill the economy, not only of the city but the strand. While I understand some of the logic behind their new regulations and what they are trying to accomplish there are much better ways to do it than declaring war on bike week. The fact that it's only the city of Myrtle Beach and not the county or surrounding towns say something about how locals truly feel. MB City Council has allowed a small but vocal group of residents determine their future. Many bikers aren't coming this year and of the ones that are many are doing the best they can to avoid MB city limits. Mayor Rhodes has said he will continue to raise taxes until the bikers are gone. While I work in city limits I live outside and am doing my best to keep all of my business outside of the city.

For those that aren't as knowledgeable about what's going on around here there is a great website that talks about it as well as the background - biker's rights

well. My battery is telling me it is time to be done. Off to eat cheese!

Music, WalMart and weirdness

So my lovely wife went to pick up some stuff from Freecycle tonight. Three hours later she's still gone. I call to find out where she is and she's out roaming around Wal Mart. The black hole that sucks all my money. Some people have boats, motorcycles, cars, guitars or other 'interesting' hobbies to spend money on. When I balance the checkbook I realize all of our money goes to Wal Mart. Urgh.

After working around the house a little (dishes and laundry ... just a hair to help) I fire up the Corvette to make sure it will run to drive to work tomorrow. Check the tires and realize that part of the reason it may have been handling a bit oddly is due to super-low tire pressure as much as it's in need of an alignment. I do know it needs an alignment though. About a year ago I was coming back from the exhuast shop after having an H pipe put on as well as connecting the rest to my new headers when I felt something a little weird in the back. Pulled over to the side of the road and had smoke pouring out of the driver's side rear wheelwell. My five year old still points to where we pulled over to remind me of where the Corvette broke down. Called a tow truck to get it home. Coming off the flatbed I see the rear wheel wobbling around like crazy. Come to find out it's the rear wheel bearing. Wouldn't you know that it's as expensive to replace wheel bearings as it is to put new trailing arms on. Decided as they were more than 40 years old it was a good time to replace them both. Ordered offset ones from Van Steel and after several weeks fighting with rusty bolts and a sawzall I was able to get the new ones on. Of course while I was at it I decided it would be a great time to replace the brake lines, clean up the calipers and otherwise rebuild the brake system. That led into a six month long project on weekends and any spare time I had. I think it is safe to say that I have rebuilt the entire suspension now though.

I am stoked about getting it out tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to start driving it more. Need to replace the water pump now. It gets too hot sitting in traffic. I've replaced everything but the water pump and radiator at this point. I'm expecting water pump is the culprit. When I flush the radiator it flows fine.

While wifie was gone I decided to mess with my old bass. My nice five string is at the old house for now. I'd been reading that a tube screamer, big muff and crybaby sound good with a bass so I tried that out. I'll have to agree that a tube screamer makes a crybaby sound sick. Very techno, crunchy stuff. I've not played bass with effects in a long time. I usually play my les paul as I know how it always sounds. For some reason my beautiful bride thinks I have too many guitars now. I've been told I shouldn't buy the super good deal Epi 335 on craigslist :(

I've seen some weird things in town recently that have really tripped me out. The best was the two big mean looking dudes driving crazy in a silver new Malibu with big pink butterfiles and a big Carolina Girl sticker on the back window. I was wondering if they were trying to be mean looking to cover up their relationship or if it was somebody else's car. The next best was a big dude on a small moped wearing a winter coat with a helmet over it. I'm not quite sure the logistics of that one. I don't know if he thought the moped was so powerful that he needed double padding or if the helmet was so big he needed the second layer. Really bizarre. Never know what you'll see around here with the freaks at the beach. A close runner up was (wish I'd been able to get a picture) one of those hoopty machines (old Chevy with 22+ inch weels) painted orange with a 01 on the side. As the to was higher than my van I couldn't tell if there was a confederate flag on top but I have a feeling that the NAACP wouldn't have been pleased in any event.

I reckon that's enough thoughts to think for one night. Going to bed to eat cheesy popcorn and watch Terminator.

Always think NKOTB are #1!!

craigslist

What is it with Craigslist? Why can't people use the right grammar? You don't really have a Harley for sell. You don't really have a Boat to trade/sale. Spelling kills me also. It isn't really that difficult to use spellcheck (or common sense) before posting something.

While I'm ranting ... why do people think it's funny to treat my knowledge of working on computers and such as something funny. I can't count how many flippant comments I have about how people just don't know how I do it. I truly enjoy what I do but working with the users that don't have a clue and then need help to fix what they've broken (and continue to break) gets old. Especially after they ask their co-worker, friend, brother, sister's cousin twice removed (who is supposed to be very good with computers) to 'look' at it.

On a more positive note - what's up with the car industry. I work at a credit union and have been reading about the big three working deals with credit unions to make loans. What an awesome idea. Credit unions are all about helping people and those that are underserved. It's called Invest In American and appears to be working. Link to a story. What an awesome way to help the economy. If only our elected officials could be as creative!

And how time flies. We were at a birthday party for a good friend's baby's first birthday. What a day! I still remember being the first one that he told that they were having a baby. Seems like yesterday. My twins turn two in a couple of weeks. That doesn't seem possible either. Must mean I'm getting old. I reckon age is how you live life. Long as you don't act like you're old it's only a number.

Remember - a big bucket of buttery popcorn is the best dinner ever!

WE WANT CHANGE!

Yet another totally random thought (two in one night ... whodda thunk)!. We were at a different church on Sunday which was a unique experience. It was all prayer and worship. Not the traditional Sunday service. I enjoyed it for the most part but that's not where I'm going. One of the prayer times was for our country. The lady that was leading that time was talking about how Satan is really good about using our political views as a distraction and a way to drive a wedge between us, our country and our government. I found this very insightful as I'm not very fond of our new president but I truly believe the best thing we can do is pray for him and the administration. I believe that's what the Lord would have us do as Christians rather than continue the false internet rumors, gossip and overall complaining about all the issues we have with decisions he makes. Just think of how the majority of Jews felt about Jesus when he was on earth talking about 'change' and overturning the ruling powers. He was crucified for his talk of change. Are we doing what's most productive to show our light and love of Christ to others when we are talking nasty about the leader the vast majority of America voted for? It really made me think about what I say and how I talk about our government listening to this lady talk. We need to build up and guide with prayer (unless in a position to do something - which we can by our votes each fall)! I'm tired of people complaining or talking about things they don't really know anything about rather than what we as citizens of this great country can do to make a vast change and bring it back to focus on being a Godly nation again.

remember Cheese is awesome!

Rudeness

Why do some people feel it's okay to just be outright rude? I'm in the middle of a project at work and one of the vendors has a horrid attitude. While I'm used to dealing with rude users I'm rather taken aback by the rudeness from a vendor. We're paying them for the service and they're rude to us as well as the other vendor involved in the enjoyment of the project. It ties in with the whole bike month debacle. If it wasn't for a few rude people there wouldn't be a problem. Now MB has come up with an entire list of local laws for motorcycles (helmets, quiet pipes, curfew, etc.). It affects everyone that rides a bike in city limits. Way to go Mr. Mayor. He raises property taxes to offset lost revenue from bike month. Lots of coverage about bikes on the local paper http://www.thesunnews.com/bikers/

More fun happenings around here. The Run To The Sun car show was over the weekend. Somewhere around 2500 cars at the show. Mostly hot rods. I'm not sure how many more '57 Chevys can I see at one place. Seems to be two extremes. Either the $5k hot rod that's driven too often or the $100k + super clean that never gets dirty. Neither have much appeal for me. Car shows tend to just make me want to drive my Corvette. Some of the highlights for me

I love old rat rods. There are a couple of ebay that I was looking at. I think my wife thinks I'm
joking about them ... someday I will own one. I

need to get my Corvette in a little better shape first though. I do love the flat black, super channeled, lowered to the ground, big engine rumbling look. This truck amazes me. My favorite body style of truck. I looked at one as a kid that was in pretty rough shape. My dad & I still make fun of it. Comments by the owner such as 'The tires were new at one time' and 'I painted it myself ... with a roller like you'd use on a house' and 'the key isn't working right now. Just have to climb underneath it and put these two wires together and she'll start right up!'. For a 16 year old with limited funds I decided it probably wasn't the best way to go. In retrospect, it would have been a lot of fun.


And on that note ... another one of life's mysteries ... why do Christians think that Christian rock is 'of the world' or Satanic? Our oldest is moving schools to be closer to the new house and one of the Christian schools we were considering has a policy that they can't listen to any Contemperary Christian Music, etc. due to the beat and lyrics being worldly. They obviously haven't listened to bands like Flatfoot 56, Pillar, Flyleaf or Day of Fire. I'm not sure the lyrics could be much more overtly Christian than those. I always think of a question posed to Family Force 5 was awesome when they were asked about why their lyrics aren't 'Christian' enough and the response was that they're on stage every night talking about Jesus and God's love for us. What are we doing with that affect. That had a profound influence on me and thinking of how I critquie other people that are serving Christ. This is an awesome interview with FF5. Just found it while trying to find the one I reference.

Time to sign off for the night.

My toe is no longer constantly throbbing. That's a good thing.

It sounds like my kids are all asleep. Yay!

For Jason ... I love cheese

And so it starts

wow - my first blog post. You'd think after being in IT for many moons now that I'd have started a blog long ago. I didn't really think of it much until vacation in Aruba a few weeks ago when I busted up a toe and my wife said I needed a blog to post pictures of it on. Facebook is good but not quite as easy to use (I'm hoping).

In any event, for those that are 'in the know' life is finally settling down around here. The past month has been a never-ending train of to-do lists and traveling. Back in January we made an offer on a house that was accepted so we started packing. Closed on February 25, left for Aruba vacation on February 28. While in Aruba I managed to bust up a toe which has moved to the entire foot. Of course it was the second full day there so I got to deal with it the next three. On vacation. In Aruba. Like I'm really going to sit and prop it up with ice on it ... I am sorta regretting that now. Makes it very difficult to walk, shift gears on a motorcycle or keep from being called gimpy or crip. At least the weather was perfect and the pool was relaxing. The twins weren't so sure about the five hour flight from Atlanta to Aruba but did reasonably well for being not quite two.

Came back from Aruba and started moving to the new house. Starting the following Monday I had jury duty for a week. Murder trial in Myrtle Beach. Much more frequent than I'd like to think. The paper continues to rant about the biker weeks and noise and crime that happens during the month of May (even saw a sticker on an SUV on my way home today which said 'Stop the MAY-hem', I made sure to rap the pipes at him real loud a couple of times on the way past). The thing that seems to be overlooked or ignored is the common crime. Just today there were three stories on the local non-news website (www.thesunnews.com) about prostitues being arrested. There was a double shooting in Socastee and much other totally non-biker related crime. I'm supremely happy that I don't live in MB city limits and have to deal with the batch of incompetent fools that are city council.

On with the show .. at least that's what I did after jury duty. Leaving super early Saturday morning for Ameila Island FL and the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance (http://www.ameliaconcours.org/). My bro talks about it much more intelligently than I can on his blog (http://foremostcarguy.blogspot.com/). Suffice it to say that there were way to many cool cars to see with a busted up foot. We were there for 'Dawn Patrol". This requires getting out of bed at an ungodly hour to see the cars drive on the show field. All the while getting yelled at by a psycho lady on a hill, hoping to get free Hagerty hats and donuts and trying to not get run over by the many Dusenburgs, Ferraris, Rolls, Bentleys, etc.

Finally back home and back at work. Loads of fun trying to catch up on the hundreds of e-mails that I couldn't really deal with on a Blackberry. Figuring out why card conversions aren't the easiest thing to handle as well as ordering equipment for a new branch. Why can't Cisco keep numbering schemes consistent and finally ... why in the world wouldn't you check that your monitor is TURNED ON before calling IT in a really crappy mood that your computer 'just won't work and it needs to NOW!'

At least I have an amazingly awesome wife who went to buy me more guitar effects pedals today. She doesn't really understand what they do but know that I enjoy it and she's willing to support that. How cool is that?! Now I need to get enough patch cables to actually play all of them at the same time!