Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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It’s Not Even Ikea-Level

Assembling a moderately large piece of furniture from a kit with more than 200 parts (plus hardware *sigh*). I’d almost rather just build one. The “instructions” are primitive pictograms that aren’t anywhwere NEAR “Ikea level” pictograms, and include parts that are not in any way needed for the piece and pics that. . . no, that canNOT fit that way!

Once I figured out the particular perceptual defects the creator of the instructions was laboring under (“No, your OTHER right!”) things began moving more smoothly, as I could more easily discern which pictograms to ignore, flip, laugh at, or whatever.

It does help to use things like a power drill that allows at least rough torque settings. The wood glue provided with the kit was trash, but that was all right, too.

Chinese, of course, but well-made parts. Instructions, though? Almost total crap.

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When DidGeorge III Actually Go “Round the Bend?

Apropos of nothing in particular apart from a wandering mind, I have long wondered if England’s Regency Period should not have started MUCH earlier, given the acknolegement of Georgie Porgie’s mental instabilities, which could have had a hand in him losing the American colonies. . . That he was whacko by the time of the Constitutional Convention, there is no doubt, but did his cray-cray start earlier? Maaaayyyyybe. . .

(Yeh, I think maybe he was the very model for CwaZy (pervy, racist) UnKa JoE, ZOMBIE POOPY-PANTS President in Name Only’s “reign” in the Oval Orifice, hence the last four years of a “long train of abuses”?)

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Political Dumbassery

Politics. #smh What leftard politicians and Hivemind Media Podpeople simply cannot understand is that their attacks on Trump’s cabinet picks are simply them digging the hole they are already in deeper. Take Kash Patel, for example. They cannot attack his record, because it is sterling. Did I say “sterling”? Nay, solid platinum. So? “Oh, yeh, let’s attack his demeanor and his attitude! That’ll do the trick! He just doesn’t fit with the FBI’s image and ethos.”

What they cannot see (because they are willfully blind) is that no rational, ethical, moral person approves of the ethos and image of the Felonious Barony of Iniquity. It is like Crabby Appleton: rotten to the core, and thus it should either be given an institutional purgative or completely razed to the ground.

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The Theory of Education in the US

Fascinating, challenging, frustrating, disheartening, encouraging: the 1931 Page-Barbour Lectures at the University of Virginia, compiled into The Theory of Education in the United States, by Albert Jay Nock. A significant read, IMO. My library? Two electronic formats and paperback. Read this, then Ortega’s Revolt of the Masses. The two seem to cover most of the bases in revealing why our society is so muddled. And often (appears to be?) sinking.

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Good Practice. . . and Fortuitous Discovery

Demands on time and $$ have pretty well dictated limited range time. VERY limited range time. *sigh* Therefore,

Dry fire practice does aid in target acquisition and training for best handling, though only live fire can really lock skills in definitively. Still, when needs drive. . .

On a side note: I discovered that a lil antique (well, according to the standard, RW definition of “antique”—more than 100 years old—though not the stupid ATF definition) firearm I was given quite some years ago, can easily and very safely accommodate more powerful ammunition than that which came with it. In fact, it was designed and manufactured for more powerful ammunition, and has checked out as being in top condition. So. . . graduating from plinking and small game to small-medium game. Now, I just need to get to the range. . . *sigh*

I had wondered for years about the chamber length as opposed to the ammunition I was gifted to use with it. . . Been using the “wrong” (though perfectly safe and usable) stuff for years. No wonder there was so much chamber fouling. (Not a bad thing, really, since I like the aroma of Hoppes. ?)

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Leveling Up

I have Leveled Up several times in the “Achey-Breaky Body” game. I have dislocated a knee rolling over in bed and dislocated a hip by just laying there, unmoving.

And then there are those “rough patches” of clear, smooth, open floor. . . Dangerous when barefoot or in shoes that give good traction, ya know. Socks or smooth-soled slippers, dude. Less likely to trip over a stray cat hair.

And lest you think it’s all age-related, nope. Pretty much been this way my whole life, with the rare decade of well-coordinated, healthy, fit body wedged in.

Of course now, what with New Guy puppy* and all that, it’s fun working downfield past a VERY active Defensive Tackle; it’s challenging. . . *heh* (I dunno why he’s working so hard to take me down when he has rung his Doggy Door Bell to go out, but I guess that’s the game, eh? *heh*)

*At least, as a puppy, he needs about as much sleep as he does activity, so I do get a little bye on heading “downfield,” at times. 😉

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Mass Murder? Oh, Well, It’s in a “Good” Cause, Right?

“Goo-goo” hucksters (self-anointed paladins for whatever “cause”) are prone to hyperbole, but when they stray into outright lies, things can get hairy. . .

The outright lies “Saint” Rachel Carson (she who is still much-adored in the enviro-whack community) have resulted in more human death and suffering than all the depradations of the worst mass murderers of the 20th Century—Hitler, Stalin, Mao—combined. Heck, her lies resulted in more than double the maximum number of deaths attributed to the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan.

Silent Spring was, at the time, one of the most blatant examples of outright lies in its deliberate misrepresentation of the effects of DDT, yet today it would just be everyday, ordinary toxic sewage swallowed by folks feeding at the Hivemind Media trough.

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It’s Not Unusual (Not the Tom Jones Version)

Just see if you can spot the “Odds” in history. Let me get you started. One of the most famous Odds in all of history was Moses, who described himself as “a stranger in a strange land”—an experience that most Odds find hauntingly familiar. Norms, OTOH, just look around (if that—experiences of actually LOOKING are usually reserved for high-functioning Norms) and see The Ordinary, even “everyday miracles” as. . . ordinary. . . )

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The Cost

The Crosses Grow on Anzio

Oh, gather ’round me, comrades,
and listen while I speak;
Of a war, a war, a war —
where hell is six feet deep.

Along the shore, the cannons roar.
Oh how can a soldier sleep?
The going’s slow on Anzio
and hell is six feet deep.

Praise be to God for this captured sod
that’s rich where blood does seep;
With yours and mine, like butchered swine;
and hell is six feet deep.

That death does wait there’s no debate;
no triumph will we reap
The crosses grow on Anzio,
where hell is six feet deep.

~Audie Murphy (age 19).

This, from someone who left school in fifth grade to pick cotton in order to feed his siblings, enlisted in the Army with forged papers (because he was too young), was wounded in battle many times, in the course of a little over a year in theater became the most highly decorated enlisted soldier in US history, and among the honors won through “blood and sweat and toil and tears” was warded the medal of Honor at age 19.

The visceral response to war he penned in response to his experiences speaks to the price all too many have paid, pay today, and will pay in the future to purchase your liberty.

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HVAC Project

*sigh* It’s nice when the main element of a major installation arrives 4 days before its promised delivery date, except. . . some auxilliary materials necessary to the installation are still on schedule to arrive at the projected times, so. . . *meh* just continue prep work with large (moderately heavy) boxes staged for deployment. . . only slightly in the way of work flow. I expected some tweaking of the process would be necessary, but this was not one I thought would be likely.