Far South of I-10

I finally got to see the revenge of the sith. I might mark myself as an uber-geek, but I really liked it. There were some sucky clunky parts (who made Natalie Portman so ugly and why?). But you had to love Yoda crawling through a tunnel to escape, I wasn't sure if it looked more like bruce willis in Die Hard ("come out to the coast, we'll have some laughs) or a typical scene from Star Trek in the Jeffries tube. The main thing is that Lucas created a fairly plausible story that showed all the things that were implied back in 1977, such as 'Vader was created when fighting Kenobi in Lava', or 'Palpatine killed all the Jedi'. It wasn't perfect, but it did a much better job than I expected given all the whining and gnashing of teeth I've read about. Also I liked that I got to see the film, since I got sent offshore unexpectedly the day it was released, I was slightly worried that I'd get killed offshore and my tombstone would read: loser-who ne...

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I've been watching Lawrence at Is full of crap participating in the 100 words or Les nessman competition, so I posted my own 100 word story to their contest today in their comments section (ya gotta go look at the picture there): As the air temperature dropped, the hairs on his forearm stood up. The course flannel of his uniform was scant protection from the chill of the downdraft, but it was all the protection he’d get on this assignment. He struggled to get the rapidly forming tornado in the frame of his camera, but it was difficult since the descending vortex was coming straight down at him. His camera and netpod were ripped from his grasp, pajamas torn from his body as his limp form spiraled upward into the worsening storm. Pajamamedia weather services’ first death in the line of duty. [yeah, well kinda sucky, but exactly 100 words isn't too easy]

When I was in england last month I stopped off in london to do the tourist stuff, and I got a couple of pictures at the Horseguards parade. The picture that I'm in (not shown here), I tried to take next to the horse without petting the horse like everyone else was doing. I ended up with a picture of me and the horse turning to look at me and saying "what's up with the non-petting" like a giant dog. A giant dog with a soldier holding a sword on its back. . Strangely enough, I noticed over at vodkapundit that he has pictures of the same guard on post from his visit to london. (looks like it anyway) Anyway, here's another picture that I liked, I took it on the Victory, looking aft from the front of the ship: . The ship is in Portsmouth, where I spent a whole day. I think it would have been better to take a tour from London, I saw one tour advertised for Portsmouth, Stonehenge and the south which was about as much as my train fare from Newark to Portsmouth. O...

Kelly over at suburban blight has a question: Is it better to work at a job you don't like for more money, or work at a job you love for less money ($10-15k less)? I think that if there is something that you know you love, and people are willing to pay you money (not just beer) to do it, then you should do it. To me, the hard part is finding some vocation that you love and are good at that will actually pay the bills. (apparently sitting and drinking in strip joints doesn’t count as a vocation) On the other hand, if it is a choice between a job you like and a job you don’t really like too much that has a short commute and pays more, then you have to go with the more money plus more time at home, not in traffic. The difference isn’t the money, it’s the like versus the love. All jobs are slightly unpleasant in some way, that’s why they’re called jobs, not fun. On the gripping hand, I would never suggest anyone do a job th...

This may be a historical first. I'm blogging from offshore on the drilling floor of an operating oil rig. [A quick check on Google for offshore, blogging, oilfield turns up a lot of hits, mostly from the left "it's about oooiiiillll", so I may be first.] who-hoo first at something.

I'm offshore this week, working atop the world's tallest freestanding structure , enjoying what might be called Spartan living conditions, except that a spartan would probably stab someone with a spear if forced to sleep in bunks three high. . Luckily, offshore I'm away from the news so I can't be too pissed off about Newsweek printing lies and traitorous trash . I feel good about the fact that I've hated Newsweek for a long time, since as a teenager I sent in a card for 4 free issues of Newsweek. When I tried to cancel the subscription I got a bill instead. I ended up paying for a subscription that I didn't want and I decided then, more than 20 years ago that I would never pay money for an issue of Newsweek again. Bastards. I hope they go down in flames. Since I'm offshore I haven't been able to see Star Wars yet. I'll be the last geek on the planet to see how Vader gets made... oh well, it'll be there next week.

Jeremy over at Who Knew? has created the Che -lectro™ Plasma Generator. This can be used to turn any photo into an icon of the left, in the same way that Che Guevara's sainted visage looms out at us from all the humus encrusted t-shirts worn by the 'progressive' students at any University or community college in world. ("Dude, I'm getting my 2 year degree in electronics so I can help free the masses from their bourgois hellholes. Pass the soldering iron") My best Chelectrolized photo is of a native member of the "Green" party. He was dating a facist pig, but now is leading the fight to free the working class. Here is Kermit Guevara:

I’m over in New Orleans for work and I was bs’ing with a client and the discussion turned to blogs and the war on islamofacism. We were discussing blogs that we both read, especially LGF and The Belmot Club, when he made point worthy of Wretchard at the BC. My client suggested that it would be a good thing if the Japanese would invite the Iranians to a very exclusive lunch. There the Japanese could explain from their past history that if the Iranians actually acquire nuclear weapons, the most likely outcome is that the Iranians will end up as mostly radioactive dust, or as my momma would say: “it’s gonna end bad”. The Japanese have the perspective of someone who tried to take the US to the limit and got nuked for their trouble. In the end the US has suffered some guilt and shame for nuking the Japanese, but most Americans and certainly our current president would make the same decision again. 200,000 of the enemy dead instead of possibly 1,000,000 US soldiers dead i...

I was reading IMAO for the normal strange humor that they write, when they pointed to a new blog called " I want to be Free " where the author discusses with fear and trepidation quiting her job to pursue a freelance career so that she will have time to write. I wish her much success, her writing is good enough to inspire a drunken haiku (are there any others? -editor). go read it. Wow. Pretty impressive. There are definite times when I can't go to the office for fear of saying 'fuck you I quit'. Just accidental like, as the words slip out, I'm suddenly free, unemployed, broke, divorced, unhappy, with no purpose in life &etc. I think I'll just keep my nose to the grindstone, and when the urge to scream 'fuck you I quit' becomes too strong, I'll just slap my hand over my mouth and keep my hand down like a character from Dr. Strangelove, (no sieg heil here) then escape across the street to Big Johns Bar. Sit there, drink bud lite and be...