Home Sick

I seem to have contracted the plague from Amybear. Perhaps smooching a girl with a sore throat was not my best idea. Anyway I'm home on sick leave so I'll try to actually come up with some posts worth reading later today.

I Completely Understand

Scott Adams has this to say about the Florida teacher sex scandal:

Did you hear about the hot blonde 25-year old female teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year old student? That’s a serious crime. And yet, having been a 14-year old boy myself, I have a hard time feeling sorry for the kid, since he’s the victim of my biggest fantasy at that age. (I had this French teacher, but sadly for me she was law abiding.)

I completely understand what Scott is saying. In my high school we had this gym teacher who was smokin' hot and fresh out of college. When I first saw her, I thought she was a student and I was not alone. She got married one summer while school was out and the male student population was depressed for at least a marking period. Would I have had sex with her given the chance? Probably not. Partly because I was a good Christian boy, but mostly because I wouldn't have had a clue what to do with her besides put tab A into slot B.

Anyway the teacher, Debra LaFave, committed a pretty serious crime. She has admitted to having bi-polar disorder. In other words she is crazy-go-nuts. A 23 year-old teacher caught having consensual sex with a 14 year-old student on school grounds turns out to be nuts? I would never have guessed. Hopefully living out every 14 year-old's dream hasn't really screwed up his development.

Property Taxes

I have a new post over at Delaware 2006, wherein I question the wisdom of a New Castle County property tax rate increase when a mere reassessment or spending reduction would do. Discussion is happening over there.

Missionary Blogs

Brenda Herhei, a missionary I mentioned before, found my blog after ego-surfing her own name. She even figured out my secret identity by putting the pieces together. Then she emailed me at my personal address. Hopefully my secret is safe with her.

Brenda has also been blogging. So if you wish to give her financial support, prayer support, or just get to know her, then drop by her blog. I'm pleased to report that I finally got around to cutting her my check this week. I'll try to keep track of her blog and pray accordingly (like for her Dad who recently had a heart attack.) Brenda needs it. Frankly, all missionaries need it. Missions is hard work. It is an assignment on the front lines of spiritual warfare. Frankly, I don't think I could hack it.

Trey and the Family Stone

I'll have to hand it to the South Park guys. When Tom Cruise threatened to refuse to promote Mission Impossible III, the studio pulled the plug on the show. Trey and Matt's response?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu.

Via Paul Smith. By the way, Paul has been doing some excellent Catholic God blogging lately. I'm not Catholic so I don't have the same sacramental outlook on Confession, but that doesn't make the post (and many of Paul's others) any less excellent.

God is Working

Michelle Malkin is covering the story of Abdul Rahman, a forty year-old Afghan man who is facing execution. His crime? He has abandoned Islam and has converted to Christianity. Says VOA News:

This is the first case in which the defendant has admitted to converting and is refusing to back down, even while facing the death penalty.

Other than his verbal public professions of faith, evidence against him includes possession of a Bible. I'm sure God will be using Abdul either way, but I pray it won't be through his martyrdom.

The truth is that this sort of faith is breaking out all over the middle east. The War on Terror also seems to have it's spiritual side. It is possible that Abdul Rahman may be a Christian soldier giving his life for the faith.

Web Comics

Blugunder Schlock led me to the Weekly Webcomic Reviews. I'm not sure if I'm going to blogroll it yet or not. I don't generally blogroll sites that only sport weekly content.

However WWR also lead me to a couple of darn good new comics: Questionable Content and Irregular Webcomic. The first is just cleverly written. The second, while also cleverly written, makes heavy us of RPG minature and lego figures. I guess this is still within the accepted definition of a "comic." I also guess the author can't really draw, but he isn't letting that hold him back. Which is pretty cool.

When I need a break at work, I'm slowly moving through the Questionable Content archives. Only a few hundred pages to go. We'll see what happens when I catch up. If the comics aren't updated regularly enough I probably won't be linking to them here either. But they'll get lodged in my bookmarks somewhere.

Eye Problems

Ever been startled into unrepentant wakefulness by shooting pain in your left eye? That happens to me every once in a while. This morning was once in a while. Twice. It's probably just a stray eyelash or bit of dust, but at the time it felt more like an icepick. That was about 5am and it was down to a dull ache by 6. Then my alarm went off. I ignored it. I thought I had whatever it was out, but the shooting pain came back with a vengence around 7 just as I started to relax again. Grr. Anyway hopefully my vision in that eye will be back to snuff soon.

Kanji Tattoos

Inspired by the sites about Engrish, the use of english text in Japan for reasons of coolness, we have Hanzismatter. Wonder what the stickers on that Cavalier actually say? Do you suspect your Japanese/Chinese tattoo really says "Stupid Gaijin I Take Your Money?" Well this is the site where those unfortunate people may find out the truth.

The Segway

John asked:

So as a mechanical engineer, what is your assessment of the segway? In a tabula rasa transportation world, would it make sense?

I'll admit I have been a bit biased from the start. When I was in High School in the early to mid nineties, I used to watch a show on the Discovery Channel called The Next Step. It was a tech and gadget show based out of San Francisco. In one episode the host, Richard Hart, was riding around showing off this folding electric scooter designed to fit in your car's trunk. He rode it around. He drag raced some kids. It was cool.

When I first saw the segway I thought "We've been able to build electric scooters that do the same thing for almost a decade, this is revolutionary?"

The segway is an innovative design, don't get me wrong. The problem is that it is an innovative design for a product of mediocre worth. Even if there wasn't a road and sidewalk infrastructure, the segway still has issues. It lacks the range and speed for serious commuting. If they took the speed delimiter off (fixing one of those problems), it would be too fast to use without safety gear. Because gyrostabilization isn't free, the segway essentially has to be a lot more expensive (~$5k) than a more conventional electric scooter design with the capabilities. (~$800). And it's heavier and doesn't fold up and store as well as conventional scooter.

Frankly I'd rather ride a bike or learn to rollerblade anyway.

The Microsoft IPod

Ever thought the IPod packaging was too stark and iconic? Here's Microsoft's ideas on how to spice it up a bit. Yeah now it really stands out.

And now for something completely different... the South Park send up of Scientology is well worth a watch. Hey if it gets Chef to quit the show, then it has to pretty good.

Like Driving a Bullet

It's website is down at the moment, but someone sent me a link to the Acabion over at treehugger. Essentially it is a turbocharged hayabusa engine wrapped in a low drag carbon fiber fuselage.

It is very very fast (280+ mph). But the designers dream of it being the commuter vehicle of the future (at those speeds) is very very impractical. At some point perhaps they'll realize that nobody is going to reorient the transportation infrastructure for their little epiphany. I would have thought people would have realized that after the segway.

It has a lot of potential though. The fuel economy of a small motorcycle engine put into an aerodynamic and collision safe body. Amybear might actually let me own one. But some of the reversed trikes VW and Peugeot are playing with might have more potential.

Pickups with No Pick-up

Today is my second day with the Colorado. My mazda's part should come in sometime today and I'll be back in my little Protege.

The truck has grown on me some. Or more precisely it has shrunk as I've gotten used to the size. I still have no intention of buying one. Even with the "big" 3500 engine, the truck is just dog slow. Chevy needs to drop a small block into it or perhaps turbocharge something. The smaller 2800 must be a double dog. I'm sure the 3500 is an improvement, but it isn't enough.

That said I got home yesterday with an urge to haul something in it. I had a pickup truck and an apartment full of stuff that needed to be hauled to Amy's new place. Then the wind bit into me once I got out of the truck. I decided to be lazy and snuggle with my honey instead. I stand by that decision. Especially since I can see Amy's apartment from mine and have already carried furniture between the two on my back.

Pickup Truck Pontifications

So my little Mazda is in the shop right now and I'm driving a rental. It's a Chevy Colorado mid-size pickup. In three words, no thanks GM.

First, the interior is cheap. And oddly shaped. Badly textured plastic runs as far as the eye can see. You sit on the floor with your feet stretched out in front of you like you were in a truck designed by the same people who found firebirds to be comfortable. Come to think of it, they probably were.

Second, the truck is both slow and thirsty. The 3.5 liter inline five cylinder doesn't have a lot of oomph to it. And it's the big engine. Likewise the truck sort of wallows through the turns in truckish fashion. Now this engine is the powerplant in the "fuel efficient" Hummer H3. "Fuel efficiency" in this case makes sense when the Hummer H2 gets single digit fuel economy. But there is no way I could call it a gas sipper. I'll have used $10 of gas just getting to work and back. If I listen closely I can hear my wallet screaming.

Now all this really proves is that I'm a small car guy. This is not a small car. It isn't even "compact" truck. Nobody makes "compact" trucks now except Ford. Tacoma, Frontier, Ridgeline, Colorado, Dakota? Everything is midsize now. And I'm betting it all has the same problem of being both too big and too small.

So all this rental experience has taught me is that the only truck I should consider buying is the New Ranger. And that's only if Ford ever brings it to the states and puts the 4.6L V8 and six speed auto into it like they have in the Explorer. Now that would be a great pickup truck.

Happy Pi Day!

To celebrate I intend to eat some apple pie at 1:59 on 3-14.

Shilling for the NRA

According to the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, there is a Shall Issue Carry Bill being introduced in the State House of Representatives by Deborah Hudson (R-12th). Unfortunately the bill, HB 359, isn't showing up on the Delaware legislative website. Hopefully the text of the bill will be available soon.

Here is a basic primer on concealed carry laws. There are essentially four types: may issue, shall issue, Vermont, and none. Vermont style carry (also found in Alaska) means law-abiding citizens can concealed carry firearms without permits. None means there are no provisions for normal citizens to concealed carry in that state. The most common concealed carry systems are called "may issue" and "shall issue."

As Packing.org shows, Delaware is a "may" issue state. In Delaware, you have to take training classes and go through an application process involving references, etc. Then the state "may" give you a permit. Or not. Their choice. If this system seems like it may be prone to abuse, that's because it is. In "may issue" states, issuing authorities have based permit decisions on very specious grounds like skin color, bank account size, and friends in high places.

HB 359 would change Delaware from "may" to "shall" issue. I don't have specifics on the bill, but there will probably still be a training requirement and an involved application process. The difference is that when you apply the state "shall" give you a permit. Unless the state has grounds to deny your permit (like a history of mental problems or criminal activity), you must get your permit. No denial based on skin color or politics is possible.

Some claim that shall issue will turn your state into the wild wild west. This has never happened. Historically, shall issue is very safe. Data from Michigan has shown that permit holders are actually less prone to firearm and violent crime than police officers.

I like shall issue concealed carry. I have a real problem with the government restricting self defense rights without just cause. Shall issue fixes that, but weeds out potential wackos and ensures some level of basic firearms competency. I would also prefer that unlicensed carry take the form of legal open carry, not concealed carry.

Hopefully HB 359 will get us shall issue, but if not then we'll keep trying. Recent history has given us some very good gun laws, like mandatory state CCW permit reciprocity. Lets hope it gives us this one too.

Cross posting on Delaware 2006.

By George, They're Right!

NRA Member You are 86% of a gun nut!

You have excellent skills in weapons handling. I could definetly trust you to cover my back. Matter of fact, you're probably packing right now!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 93% on knowledge

Link: The Gun Nut Test written by slayer1am on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Via Tamara.

The Marrying Kind

Alliance Member Paul Smith is responding to David Warren's post on modesty. Paul hits the nail on the head with this one:

The Sexual Revolution is over, and men won. Thanks to feminists who somehow thought they were acting in the interests of women, men can now obtain what they've always wanted: commitment-free casual sex. Way to go, feminists!

Exactly. There are men out there that just want sex and now they can easily get it. On the other hand, men like me who want wives are looking somewhere else. We may look at the tarts and sexpots, but we don't touch. We don't know where they've been.

Gunshow Truth

Geek with .45 is telling it like it is:

It came to pass at a show out in Virginia, the one near the Dulles airport, perhaps a year after 9/11. Apparently, there was some sort of emergency at the airport that called for the evacuation of the gunshow. A voice came on over the PA, announcing the situation.

My friend tells me that the hall grew quiet, as people listened. In that silence, just about everyone in the show simultaneously arrived at the same decision, and for the next 30 seconds, all you heard was the kerplopple of steel on kydex and leather, the snips of zipties coming off, and the glorious ka shink! of a thousand people simultaneously racking rounds into chambers.

Movies generally do a really crappy job of portraying gun owners and gun shows. In Dirty Harry the villian has been disarmed so he goes into a convenience store, looks over the counter, steals the owner's gun that is kept there, and shoots the owner with it.

In Showtime the villians shoot up a gunshow with automatic weapons. They do the typical A-team shoot-over-everyones-head thing. In the movie the gun owners run like a typical frightened crowd and the villians walk out of the arena unscathed. In real life the villains would have about thirty seconds to shoot and scoot. After those thirty seconds are over, the gun show attendees will have gotten their bearings and there won't be anything left of the villians except bloodstains.

Good Job, Chip

I went shooting on my day off Friday. It was fun, mostly because the range is pretty empty on weekday mornings and partly because the weather was great.

Three guys at the range were taking turns shooting one of the stupidest weapons to ever come into widespread use. I am talking about the pistol grip shotgun. While their shotgun was not as duded up with tacticool accessories like the one in this picture, that doesn't make it any smarter.

For those not in the know, a real stock is necessary on a shotgun. Without the stock you have no way to get a cheek weld. Most shotguns use a bead sight and rely on a good cheek weld to get your eye in the proper alignment with the little brass bead at the end of the barrel. Without the stock, you have no way to aim the shotgun properly. Technically you don't aim shotguns, you point them, but you get my drift.

Also with normal shotguns, you absorb recoil by placing the stock in contact with your shoulder and absorbing as much recoil as possible with your body and legs. With a PG shottie, you have to use your arms to manage most of the recoil. If your arms aren't good enough, you may end up using your face to get the recoil to your body and legs.

That last bit is exactly what happened to one of the three guys shooting next to me. Before I was finished setting up, the short stocky one knocked out a tooth (or part of a tooth) with the butt of the pistol grip. Ouch. They packed up and left shortly thereafter.

My shooting went pretty well. With an empty range I got to shoot the breeze with the range officers while I loaded my magazines and took my time shooting on the line. The result was almost that my groups were the same size with both my 9mm and my .22 buckmark. That never happens. I usually do much better with the buckmark. I was shooting slightly to the right with both guns (which means either too much thumb or too much trigger finger), but I had none of the usual vertical stringing with the 9mm (which is usually a recoil anticipation problem). On the next trip to the range I'll try to shoot high thumbs more and continue take my time. Speed will come.

Oh and for the sake of completeness, there are a handful of places were a PG shottie is useful. But if you aren't a security guard for an armored car company then you probably won't see any of them.