Quitting Time

Sometimes, it's important for a guy to step back and take a look at the things in his life that he gives priority to. It's my turn now and I don't like what I see. My family is getting neglected. God has allowed my wife and I to have two wonderful little girls that deserve their daddy to be there with them, to love them and be an example for them. He has given me my wife who needs my love, my support and my companionship.

I'm going off-line for a while. I gave up the music ministry I enjoyed for the last four years. I'm taking a break from forums for a while. I'm going to stop blogging for a while. I'm not gone forever, I'm just going to be gone long enough to see that things in my life that need priority get that.

It is God's will for me to be the spiritual leader in my family and I have failed miserably at that. It's time to start reading the Bible with my wife and praying with her. It's also time to start teaching my oldest daughter about Jesus so she can ask Him to be her Savior.

On the plus side of things, I get to go to Church with my family for a change. I have wanted for a long time to be able to sit with my wife on Sunday mornings and to worship with her. I haven't been able to do that for a long time.

I'm going off-line for a while. It's quitting time.

Things That Make You Go: LOL!

Sorry for using a stupid acronym. I hate acronyms. I think it's silly for people to use this so called internet speak. Mrs. Dorky Musician in a conversation recently removed the vowels from the word Black to describe what was for dinner. It was something about black beans. I failed to see the point of doing it. I always make people spell out the words just to defeat the purpose of their shortcuts. But, I digress.

I am reading this article and having a difficult time containing my laughter. I blogged just a little while ago about the new blog I have added to my daily reading. You'll find the article in the "What Am I Reading?" section, but this one had that extra element that I found amusing. The guy is spot on. He wrote of a gun buyback program in Oakland:

The Oakland buyback was especially absurd because of the high price offered: $250. Why didn’t anyone running the program think to look at the price of a new gun? In fact, the first two people in line at one of the three buyback locations were gun dealers with 60 firearms packed in the trunk of their cars.

One wonders why the police even bothered to buy the guns from Oakland residents. Why not buy directly from gun manufacturers?

And this:

An Oakland gun buyback is like trying to drain the Pacific — every bucket of water you take out is instantly replaced.

Here's another bit of logic that I never considered when thinking or talking about gun buyback programs:

Imagine that instead of guns, the Oakland police decided, for whatever strange reason, to buy back sneakers. The idea of a gun buyback is to reduce the supply of guns in Oakland. Do you think that a sneaker buyback program would reduce the number of people wearing sneakers in Oakland? Of course not.

All that would happen is that people would reach into the back of their closet and sell the police a bunch of old, tired, stinky sneakers.

Logic obviously escapes people sometimes. I wonder how some actually make it to old age! Read the article, be amused.

Oakland's Gun Buyback Misfires

Digging in a Gold Mine

I've been digging in a gold mine recently and discovering valuable nuggets I couldn't find using standard methods. I recently posted about a technology blog that isn't slanted left like many are. Well, today I logged into Google Reader to check my daily reading. I decided to click the "Discover" feature, the thing that recommends news feeds that may be of interest to you based on what you are currently subscribed to, and at the top of the list was the Intellectual Conservative. I read through a few articles before I go and add it to my subscription list as I have so much to read on a daily basis, I don't want to bog myself down. I have found myself removing sites that don't interest me as much like Fox News.

Take a look and see for yourself.Intellectual Conservative: Conservative & Libertarian Politics.

Appropriate Responses

I read the Rimfire Central community forum regularly. It is the one forum I contribute the most to as I don't have much going on with "The Beast" right now and I haven't been involved in shooting long enough to really add much value to most conversations. For whatever reason, about once or twice a week, a small group of folks complain about this or complain about that. Most of the time they are complaining because they don't have the riches that they see everyone else having. At least, that's my take on it.

Right now, they are complaining about the "American Dream". The question was posed whether or not the American Dream is still achievable. A story accompanied that question indicating that it was available for one individual. It was a story of what you can accomplish when you start with nothing and put your mind to doing it. I wholeheartedly believe that only in very rare cases is the American Dream unachievable. For everyone else, if they want something, their only option is to get off their duff and go get it.

The point of this post isn't to argue my point against theirs though. It's about responses to them. This is the best I have seen posted so far in a thread on "What is middle class?":

Dang! I had to double check to make sure I hand't logged into move-on.org by mistake!

I laughed out loud when I read that! It was very fitting. I have, for the longest time, desired to post my own response, but have resisted as I don't want to make enemies out of other forum members. You know the old adage, you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar. Honestly, though, I'm not interested in having flies. They're too much of a tax burden if you ask me.

I'll leave you with the response I would post if I could just bring myself to doing it:

Gag Me With A Spoon!

I try to avoid reading technology blogs these days as they usually end up being a hangout for liberals. I have no desire to read their opinions of how awful capitalism is. I don't honestly care what they think. I stopped reading Slashdot years ago. It just made me sick. I don't bother with Digg either as all the reasonable, well written comments get dugg down based entirely on the fact that they are written by conservative minded people. So, it came as a surprise to me this morning, as I was digging through Google Reader suggestions, to find a technology blog that doesn't have a problem with companies motivated by profits or free market and thinks taxes are bad.

Take a look at TechDirt: The Insight Company for the Information Age.

The Great Escape

The Great Escape
Originally uploaded by ukaaa


I was browsing through Flickr and found this photo. It made me laugh out loud, so, here it is... Shared with my friends.

Shooting Instruments

Update: I see that some people are finding this blog entry through google searches for dinosaurs. I have a regular photo blog that I keep here. This one is defunct. I don't figure too many people are really all that interested in what I have to say... Pictures are more interesting than words sometimes.

If you looked at my profile or my Toys section on the right, you probably have the impression I enjoy shooting. I mostly prefer to shoot my .22s as they are cheaper, but I get a great deal of joy out of shooting my .17hmr. It is more accurate at longer distances.

I would enjoy hunting and shooting for food. I plan on getting my sportsman's license this year as well as a shotgun so I can go out with my dad and hopefully put some food in the freezer.

I also enjoy shooting that doesn't destroy the target in one form or another. I have had in the back of my mind the desire to get into photography. So, this weekend, we picked up an inexpensive tripod. I originally intended to use it for the video camera to record Worship Services for the worship team.

Last night, out of boredom, I brought the tripod downstairs and our Olympus Stylus 300 and set out to shoot some dinosaurs. There was one problem though... I didn't have a decent background for them. I tried what I thought was a white bath towel. It turned out to be some sort of cream color. I tried some sheets. We didn't have any, but I found a mattress protector. It was too wrinkled. Searching through the house, I finally settled on a window shade. I had to take it off the window, but it seemed to serve its purpose well. Unfortunately, it wasn't very white. The shopping list for my next trip to Walmart contains a white shade.

Here are the dinosaurs I shot last night in my basement.

They didn't turn out too bad, I don't think, but with better lighting, background and perhaps a better photographer, they could have came out much better. I tried different methods. I turned the flash off, I set the timer so my hands would be off the camera when it took the picture, I tried portrait mode, night scene mode and whatever else I could think of. The above is what I was able to come up with.

My next shooting iron will be a Canon. A Canon EOS Rebel XTi to be precise.