Books

From looking at our shelf of DVDs, the Netflix envelopes by the TV, and from the new Nintendo 64 I picked up from a coworker for 20 bucks that consumed my entire Saturday, I think few would guess at a glance that Julie and I are big readers.   It's not until you see the bookshelves in the office and in the bedroom that you realize we have a lot of books, although I'm guessing some still wouldn't guess we were huge readers.  A great deal of the lower bookshelves in the office are filled up with Dungeons & Dragons, Cyberpunk and other gaming books, which I'm sure most people wouldn't count.  

The truth of the matter is, books have been a huge part of our marriage.  Easily as big a part, or bigger than watching movies.   Entire trips to Albuquerque have been for the explicit purpose of hitting a lot of book stores.    Even new furiture purchases have been book based, including new shelves to the new set of lamps we picked up so that Julie could have a reading lamp on her side of the bed.    Since we have been married, a pile of books that need to be read has been a permanent fixture on my night stand.   Now that I am working the pile doesn't move as much as it used to, but it still does.   I now stress more over what to read next, since it takes me longer to finish a book, and put off stuff I feel I should read, but am not quite as enthusiastic about.  

Julie loves to keep and make lists, and revealed the other day that she had been counting how many books she had read in the last two years.  She seemed to think it was bad that she had only read about sixty.    Back in the day, that would have been a lot for me.   I days gone by, a slow year meant I only managed to get through three or four.   But hearing her total prompted me to count what I had read, so I went over the shelves and counted everything I've read since we got married.    My total was one-hundred and sixty three.   Blew my mind, not in comparison to Julie's total, but in comparison to mine, back in the day.   A good year for me, which would happen about every three or four years used to mean ten to twenty.

The downside to all this is that I find myself largely caught up on a lot of series and genres I had been meaning to read for a long time.  I'm largely done with the essentials of Cyberpunk literature.   Have put a pretty good dent in classic sci-fi I had wanted to read.   Once I finish End War, I will have read all of the Tom Clancy fiction, including sub-series.    Only have a small handful of the original set of Star Wars novels to finish.  Finally finished all those damn X-Wing/Rogue Squadron books.   Killed a lot of the miltiary history and biography I wanted to read, although a few remain.     Julie and I read a huge pile of modern young adult literature.    I'm largely caught up on Stephanie Plum books, and the Kay Scarpetta novels.    What's left just seem to be scraps of all these series and genres.    Someday I would like to finish the Theives' World and Myth Inc. series, although by and large, I've burned out on the swords and sorcery genre.   Once you've read the greats like Eddings and Fritz Lieber, it's hard for others to measure up.   Even worse, a lot of the must read books on my list are frequently out-of-print, hard to find, and very expensive books, that I can only bring myself to order once in a blue moon.

Still, I hope to never let the pile on my nightstand never die off completely.   Much more so than other hobbies and accomplishments like beating video games or seeing rare movies, or catching up on TV shows on DVD, being well read gives me a feeling of satisfaction.   I fell like I've done something very positive when I've read something I want to read.   It has also been very fun to read something with Julie so that we can talk about it afterwards.  Many books have appeared on the nightstand because she wanted to talk about it or see what I thought.   In this way, Julie introduced me to a genre I was largely unaware of: the housewife mystery, and some of the examples she gave me to read were surprisingly good.

Right now, Julie is working on a large pile of Meg Cabot.   I'm trying to finish End War, which BTW, is the best TC sub series book I've read in a long time, so that I can start on John Steakley's Armor.   I'm very intrigued by what I've read and heard about it, and hope it lives up to the hype.   Well written sci-fi war stories are very hard to come by anymore.    Once you've read Starship Troopers, The Forever War, The Parafaith War, Footfall and Earthlight, you've covered most of the must reads.

Speaking of books, I cannot recommend highly enough one I just finished.    It's shamefully out-of-print and cost me a lot to get, but if you can find it, and science and space travel interest you, a great book is Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship by George Dyson.    That was SOOOO good.   A tale from a golden age of Cold War fueled science and engineering that has wrongfully, but long since left this world.   Such a heartbreaking ending when all the work on Orion got shelved.   Easily the best book I've read in a long time.


Posted Sunday Evening,
April 12, 2008



Turning into my father

Spring is here.   In NM it means nasty, nasty wind, like the storm we had the other day that kept me awake when I was sleeping in preparation for a night shift.    It means dust that somehow manages to get in through closed windows.   It means the roaches and weeds begin a new offensive.   And now that I am living a somewhat normal domestic life, Spring has brought chores.   The landlord gets really cheesed when the yard gets messy, so this year I thought I would get a jump on things before monsoon in July and went out today to poison everything green.   Julie began her second year of planting flowers in pots on the front porch.   Had some repairs to do to the foot boards in the bathroom where water damage had made new holes for the bugs.   And I set out a fresh pile of roach motels.    If my father could see me now, he'd probably be laughing his ass off.    That we would go into Wal Mart, and come out with mostly stuff we needed for the yard and household repair. 

Tonight's excitement before work will be an experimental recipe.   Cooking for me has become more and more routine.  Tonight I'm going to see what I can do to spice up some meat and potatoes.   Should be interesting.


Posted Saturday Morning,
March 22, 2008



E. Gary Gygax RIP

I was a child with a very vivid imagination.   The games I played with my best friend of childhood where often very elaborate and immaginative.   Things like a box of legos or blocks or a pile of action figures or even a full sandbox were valuble tools for countless hours of entertainment.   My life changed forever when I turned eight.   I went over to Scott's house to spend the night, and strewn all over the table were a lot of pieces of paper, maps and dice.    It was my introduction Dungeons & Dragons.   We played all night and well into the next day.  I was completely and totally blown away.    The very idea of a role-playing game was so out there, but so neat and inventive, that I was hooked. 

From then on out, we played as much as we could.    It led to countless hours of fights with my father over my new obsession, which eventually led to a complete ban on all gaming on school nights.   Countless mowed lawns and hours of babysitting went into buying an extensive collection of D&D books & magazines, all of which, I still have and use to this day.    It was such a powerful and inventive vehicle for a restless imagination, that I could never get enough.    By high school I had a legion of fanatic players that couldn't get enough either as I started a campaign which would go on for over seven years and see the likes of over a hundred players.

Gaming has been such a huge part of my life that I can't even imagine my life without it.    I feel I owe this hobby so much, for the countless hours of fun I've had.   Thinking about it takes me back to the early days when happiness was getting to spend the night with the guys, having pizza and chips, and a whole night to weave a story of adventure, better than any TV show, book or movie.

I think it goes without saying, that gaming gave me skills.   Plotting a story or putting together a work of fiction in my head is something I can do without even really thinking about it.   And I can't help but smile when I remember the question of I got on one of my IQ tests that I was able to answer because of something I had read about in a D&D book.   Given how much grief my father always gave me about wasting my brain power on D&D nonsense, I found that moment in my life especially ironic.

D&D, like many other things, got ruined by businessmen.  Once people decided to try and make a lot of money off of gaming, and decisions were being made in terms of profitability rather than game quality, it went to shit.  A lot of the talented players either went to other games, or let gaming completely.   I moved onto to other RPGs by other companies.   These days, most people seem to prefer a computer to a flesh and blood Dungeon Master.

I eventually came back to D&D after many years of playing Cyberpunk.   I had a new crowd of friends that used to sit for hours and listen to me talk about the good old days, and they very much wanted a taste of that, so I blew the dust off my old books, and started up again, a game that continues to this day, on the infrequent occassions we can get together anymore.

Needless to say, it was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of the man single most responsible for bringing the world of gaming to life.   I had always hoped to meet him someday.

Rest in Piece Gary.  You've earned it.


Posted Tuesday Night,
March 4, 2008




Testing, testing, testing . . . .

Remembered the other day that I had a blog.:)   Random updates in no particular order:

1) On our wedding anniversary I decided to try something new and make Deviled Eggs.   They didn't turn out too bad.   Was just kind of weird to have a meal of only Deviled Eggs and champagne.   But whatever.   I still remember my bachelor days well.    Weird was irrelevant if there was food on the table.   Every meal was a feast.

2) After lenghty loafing it was wierd, and a bit stressful to go back to work.   But in a way strangely refreshing.   My first week back was the longest of my life.   Paid the price for sitting in front of a computer for six years.   Found out how out of shape I was.   But I suppose I needed it, in more ways than one.    Lost seven pounds in two weeks from sweating.    Would go home so wet it looked like I had stood in the shower.   Coughed so much the first night that I lost my voice for a few days.  My knee gets achy now, but copious amounts of ibuprofen alleviate that.   All that aside, kind of feels good to be in some kind of shape again, and doing something.    Since I work graveyards, they don't make me cut my hair, I can use an MP3 player if I'm working alone, and I don't miss out on any of my favorite TV shows.   The only thing that really seemed to get disrupted was my reading.    In my lengthy hiatus from work, I quite literally devoured hundreds of books, and was still working on a pile on my nighstand that had some classics, some more sci-fi, and some Ayn Rand.  (That woman is a pure genius).   It was a good run, but now I just don't have the time to read like I did.   Still reading, but at a much more modest rate these days.   I've been reluctant to tackle the monsters I had intended to read soon.  But whatever.  I'm pretty proud of the pile I did read, and I'll get to these others eventually.

3) I've exhausted a great deal of the movies I wanted to see on Netflix, and have largely moved to TV series.   A great deal of my cue now has TV shows.   Currently working my way through Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Benny Hill.    Later on will be Outer Limits, Battlestar Galactica, Lupin III amongst others.   On Julie's cue, we are working on My So Called Life, and Degrassi: The Next Generation, season 5.     These days, the sad fact is, the movies I still want to see are very rare and hard to find.    Still dying to see Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, and The Devils.   Would still like to see Greg Araki's Nowhere.    Sometimes the rare movies I want to track down end up being so bad, I suddenly realize why they were rare.   Altered States and the The Tennant were complete garbage.    But sometimes you discover a true gem, like Dario Argento's Suspiria.   That has since become my favorite horror movie ever.     The Fearless Vampire Killers was another hidden gem.  We've been pretty serious Netflix junkies, and worked our way through Freaks & Geeks, The Gilmore Girls, Popular, Wonderfalls, Dark Shadows (the remake), Sledgehammer, Agent Aika, Hellsing, Party of Five, and SWAT, amongst others.   Been some quality viewing.:)   DVDs look so damned good on the new TV. . . . .

4)  A yearly Halloween tradition has been catching up on a horror franchise.   This year, I didn't really get around to it.    Catching up on Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movies seemed like too big a chore by the time I thought about it.   But I did catch up on all the Death Wish movies.:)   Good stuff.

5)  Looks like, if all goes according to plan, I'll be able to pick up a new machine next Spring.  An upgrade is only probably about five years overdue. . . 

6) I've hit a lull in writing fan fiction.   Was cranking out a very large pile of stories last year, and for a good part of this year, but now I seem to have lost inspiration to finish anything on my hard drive.   I'm not terribly worried or upset about this right now.   The adult timeline of the ETBC now has close to eighty stories.   I've hardly slacked, and if inspiration never really returns, it was a pretty good run.   Over 1.3 million words.   Only one or two more I feel I should absolutely finish at some point.   Not that I think anyone but Julie ever really keeps up with it anymore.    I'm hoping at some point in the not so distant future my novel gets back from the people I asked to edit it.   Would like to get that project restarted at some point.   It's been completed for years now.   Really should get off my ass and try to make something happen with it.  I'm rather proud of how it turned out.

7) I really wish the new format war would play out, because I want to buy one of the five disk Blade Runner sets around Christmas.   Will definitely get regular DVD, but it would be nice to know whether getting a Blu-Ray or HD version would pay off in the long run.

8) Although it's a bit premature, it looks like Smokin' Aces is going to have a lock on movie of the year for me.    Admidst the summer of 'three-quels', and other garbage, there were a few gems like Children of Men, Hot Fuzz, 28 Weeks Later, The Kingdom and Grindhouse.   Nothing has entertained me like Smokin' Aces though.    I enjoy it every time I see it, and it leaves me sitting with a stupid grin for at least an hour.   I will save final judgement however, until I see 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot'em Up, and 30 Days of Night.

9) In addition to all other cooking accomplishments, with Julie's help, we turned out a batch of meatballs which was rather tasty. 

10) The new Assemblage 23 album is very, very good.

That's all for now.:)

Posted Friday Night/Saturday Morning,
November 10, 2007




Recently Overheard in the Spargo Household

1) I hope there is a commercial soon so that I can check on my lasagna

2) Both of those stroganov recipes look good, but I'll try this one first.

No, neither of these quotes came from Julie.   What's happened to me?:)


Posted Thursday Night,
May 17, 2007


Cooking and Other Domestic Matters

Over the years, a number of women I have been involved with, and even a few I haven't took it upon themselves to domesticate me.    They insisted that my lack of household apptitude was merely a lack of effort on my part, and for the most part, that was probably true.   It was also true that a lot of things about cooking were not intuitive to me, like they are to most normal people, and there were going to be some stumbling blocks, which is why I was never eager to start the process of learning to cook.   Cleaning was a different matter.   I've always known how to clean, it was just a matter of gathering up the will to do so.

Since I've been married however, in a very noncombative way, Julie has eased me into the world of cooking, and I suddenly woke up one day and realized I could make a lot more than I realized.    I can now manage things like pork chops, casseroles, salads.    I can do hamburgers for real.  Before it was a matter of throwing a piece of meat on the stove and hoping not to start a grease fire.    Now I can actually prepare and season the meat so that it actually tastes like a hamburger and not just a chared greasy piece of ground beef.

It was still much to my surprise that I found myself asking my friend Trever for a recipe when word got around that he had come up with a killer recipe for Nachos.     He started this particular visit the way we usually do, i.e. we rounded up the old crew and drank until we were trashed and/or sick, but later in the week when we just hung out and watched movies, I put upon him to teach me what he does.   It ended up being much more involved that I thought, but the experience was worth it, as Julie and I subsited on Nachos for a couple days.

So don't faint, or try to get your affairs in order.   The world is not coming to an end.   Yes, Eric is going to post a recipe on his blog.:)   I don't know what to call these, but since they were invented by two Navy men, I'll call them Navy Nachos.


Navy Nachos

Ingredients: 

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef.  At least 91/9.
McCormick (or whatever brand you can find) Hamburger and Mesquite seasoning
All three types of Cracker Barrel cheese (or more as needed)
Large bag of Tortilla Chips
Milk
Butter (real butter, not margarine)
Flour
Small Stick of Pepperoni

Directions:

1) Shred one half stick of Cracker Barrel cheddar cheese into large bowl.   Add half stick of cheese from all three types for each person eating.  Save at least one half stick for later.

2) Shred about a half stick of pepperoni on cheese grater with small holes.   Peel off skin if needed beforehand.

3) Add quarter stick of butter into bowl per brick of cheese into saucepan and melt.

4) Put meat and pepperoni into skillet.   Spice lightly with both types of spices and cook.

5) Add flour to melted butter until pasty

6) Add cheese from large bowl into butter flour paste.   Add cheese to thicken, add milk to thin, and repeat until you have a thick, but pourable cheese sauce.

7) Spread chips on cookie sheet.   Add cheese sauce from pan over chips, as well as meat from skillet.

8) Pour more chips over this, and then add the rest of the cheese sauce and meat.

9) Shred the half block of cheese you set aside and sprinkle on top of both layers.

10) Broil in oven until the cheese and chips on top are slightly browned from cooking.


Takes about an hour to prepare.   Best served before cheese sauce hardens into cement like substance.   Keep cardiologist on speed dial and enjoy.


Posted Saturday Night,
May 5, 2007



About F****** time.

Looks like a federal court finally grew a pair and made a pro-second amendment ruling.    The gun grabbing libtards are shitting ice cream.  If this ruling gets upheld by the Supreme Court, it will open the door to countless suits that will overturn seventy years of bullshit gun control laws.   If they decline to hear it, the people of Washington DC will still get a break, and it will still open the way for similar suits in places like New York and Chicago.    This makes my day.:)

Posted Friday Night,
March 9, 2007



Ode to an old Friend

I've known Jim since 1993.   I've known him well since 1996 when we first became gaming buddies.   I worked for him from 2002 through the present, where I was introduced to the wonderful worlds of e-commerce and mixed martial arts leagues.  Jim has been through a great deal in the last few years.   His building and center for so many of his businesses burned down in 2005.    His marriage of nine years fell apart.    But I found out today from a casual glance at a newspaper that he had been put into one of the worst situations that anyone can be put in.    A week ago, while getting out of his car, the night before one of his events, he was jumped by five thugs, all high on meth, and two of them armed.    They attacked him with the intent of ending his life.    They began by trying to smash his head with his car door.    He fought back long enough to get to his gun, and thinking quickly, two quick shots put two .45ACP hollow points into the ringleader's chest.     The ringleader was so juiced up on meth, he was still able to run away.    His posse of cowards followed suit.   An hour later, the ringleader joined the likes of many other junkies in cowards in hell.

I was able to talk to him today.   Although he is doing okay, he was obviously still a bit shaken over what had transpired, but he knows, as well he should that it was him or them.    I feel terrible that he was put into a position where he had to take a life to continue his own, but also feel grateful that he had the courage and strength to fight back.     In a world were victims get the press, and often, the press tries to make the victimizer out as a victim of the world, few people pay any heed to those who are strong and courageous enough to take some personal responsibility for their own safety.

My frienship with Jim has gone through some rocky patches in the past, but on this day, I have never been prouder to know him and be able to call him a friend, and whereas I can only pray I will never be saddled with such a terrible choice, I can only hope that if it comes to it, I will be able to act as courageously as he has.


Posted Friday Night,
February 9, 2007




The Real Election Tragedy

Yes, I have been following the American elections all night, and I am certainly disappointed in some of the outcomes, but I don't think it's the end of the world.    The key issue for me is gun control, and whereas I don't trust Pelosi or Conyers as far as I could throw them, I don't think anyone is ready to piss off the gun owners like they did in 1994.   A lot of moderates have come to power, and I'm okay with that.

The real tragedy for me was in an election that took place earlier this week in Nicaragua.   As many people know, my mother emigrated from Nicaragua a while back, and I am half Latin American.    Nicaragua was ruled for decades by a family the U.S. put in power in the 1920s.    Things did not go south until one of them got hooked on cocaine, got into all kinds of bad shit, and starting going after his enemies rather ruthlessly.     Most people in the country just learned to stay out of his way, and that was that.  

There were some tense moments in the house when he got outsted and the communists came to power.   The Sandanistas proved to be ten times worse.    They basically stole all the land and property they could and drafted boys as young as 11 at gunpoint to fight the rebels.    The rebels didn't prove to be a lot better and stole whatever they wanted and needed in the name of fighting the Sandanistas, and did so with Reagan's full blessing.    He turned a blind eye to all the crap they were doing.    The revolution destroyed the only chance I was going to have to meet anyone on that side of the family.

It took over a decade, and spawned big messes like the Iran-Contra scandal, but there were finally free elections in Nicaragua and the Sandantistas were sent packing.    They left quietly, albiet with about as much of their stolen booty as they could.

It was much to my dismay earlier this week to find out that Daniel Ortega, the head Sandanista won the election for president.

Most people don't know much about what went on in that part of the world, in such conflicts as Nicaragua and/or El Salvador.   I think most people assume that because we stopped hearing about the fighting and revolutions on the news that the reporters got tired of talking about it, and that it was still going.    It took a long bloody decade of fighting, that cost 30,000 lives in Nicaragua alone, but both there and El Salvador know peace, and have for a while.    I'm desperately afraid that this may be a sign that the shit is about to start up there again, and that my family will suffer some more.   

I'm also desperately afraid for another reason.   At the end of the week, my parents are going down to visit my grandfather for a week.     If anything happened to them, I would probably go down there myself to exact revenge.    I just hope and pray they get back okay.


Posted Tuesday Night,
November 7, 2006



Life's Little Milestones

From a couch potatoes vantage point, Halloween has been an exciting time of year.  Especially in recent years when I had the good fortune to live somewhere where I could have cable.    I always loved all the ghost hunting shows, and historical ghost story stuff they would air.    Was a bit disappointed that they don't do that as much anymore.    But a lot of the movie channels did step up to bat and play a metric shit ton of slasher and horror movies.    I skipped quite a bit of them, because I either own my own copies, and/or have seen them a lot.    But they served up a lot I had not seen, and I took advantage of the fact to catch up on a lot of things I had been meaning to see, but never gotten around to.

Julie and I have been tearing it up with Netflix, and whereas I will probably never catch up to the likes of legendary film fans like Quentin Tarantino or Nivek Ogre, I am positively reveling in the ability to tear through literally scores of cult movies I had been meaning to see forever.    But chewing through large piles can take time, and it's always nice when cable obliges and helps me catch up.

So I now have the dubious honor of saying I have caught up on all the films on not one, or two, but FOUR well known horror frachises.   I have now seen ALL the Halloween movies, ALL the From Dusk Till Dawn movies, ALL the Exorcist movies, and ALL the Ginger Snaps movies.    I can add this to the fact that I saw all the Hellraiser movies, or at least the first four theatrical releases, before they started churning out straight to video wonders.    Maybe someday I will catch up on all the Friday the 13th movies, the Howling movies, and all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

I know, I know.  I have entirely too much free time.


Posted Halloween
October 31st, 2006



Blowing the Dust Off

Wow.   Been a while.:)   Not a whole lot has changed.   Have two Fright Night stories done.   Read a lot more.   Actually went back and caught up on a bunch of Star Wars books I bought ten years ago that I had never gotten around to finishing.   Still devouring books about the war in Afghanistan.  

It appears though, that while I was doing all this reading, my brother turned around and became a rock star.    Last night, for the frist time in a while, I checked in on Silencer's web site.    Now I had run out to see them when they played some shows in support of their new album.  Bought one of the new shirts, and patch and buttons.    I had been waiting for them to update their merchandise on the redone website, and periodically checked to see if they got it up.

I go last night, and low and behold, not only had they done so, they had done a lot of other things.   I was very slack jawed as I looked over their new MySpace.   But the real kicker is when I did a search on google, and went through five pages of reviews.  Of course it seems like about half of them were in German, but they appear to be a known and viable quantity in the metal world.   It was surreal to see the new album on Amazon.     I'm going to have to raz my brother on Monday.


Posted Saturday Night,
October 27th, 2006



Killology

I did something recently that was uncharacteristically brave of me.    In this last year of voracious reading, I have by and large stuck to books that I have really wanted to read.    And I set aside a lot of what I normally pick up for something I hadn't done in a while.    In slow years, my reading is typically things like cheap techno thrillers and fluff sci-fi, such as Star Wars books, that I will often read just to stay in the habit of reading something.     When I have a good year, I tear through a lot more, and try to mix it up a bit more.    This last year, I read a lot of something I hadn't read since I had been a member of the military book club in the early 90s.    Read a lot of military history and biography.  Have actually been picking up a fair number of non-fiction books.  

When I last came home excitedly from the book store and made a giant stack on my nightstand to read, there was a book at the very bottom that I had been meaning to read for some time, but unconsciously put off.   Now that it was the last one the in stack, I finally picked up and started it, and much to my surprise, it has completely sucked me in.    The book in question is book that is relatively famous within military science reading circles and one that is part of the cirriculum at the Air Force Academy, as I understand it.    It is a very controversial book written by a former Army psychologist and West Point professor, Lt. Col. Grossman.    It was a study of the psychology behind killing and war.   It is called On Killing.   It's a topic the author rightfully feels has been neglected despite all the talk of war and violence in today's world, and hoped to stir more serious look at 'Killology' the same way pioneers such as Kinsey wanted to spur more serious and scientific talk about sex.

The book is controversial because of a number of conclusions Lt. Col. Grossman puts forth.    I had heard of Grossman long before I had heard of his book, largely due to his claims that video games such as Doom was training a whole generation of psycopaths.    It's a kind of thinking I abhor, because it usually comes from very self-righteous social conservatives looking for an excuse to censor something, and seldom troubles itself with fact, and it overlooks any sense of personal responsibility.

I think one of the reasons I unconsciosly resisted reading this book at first is that I knew it was going to make me mad.   I knew when he reiterated his claims, I was going to be pissed.   

Instead I find this book rocking my world.    It is intelligently written, very thoroughly researched, and lot of the ideas and conclusions it put forth are very logical and mind bending.    I think it successfully challenges and destroys all kinds of assumptions most people have about war and a person's willingness to kill, or lack thereof.     In the end I do not think Lt. Col. Grossman will change my mind and in the end I still won't think that games like Doom or violent movies have any sort of power, magical or otherwise, to churn out a generation of Hannibal Lecters.   But I think I will still be deeply affected by a lot of the things this book says and it will shape my perceptions.

My reaction to this book got me more thinking about more than what the book was talking about.   Got me thinking about people's viewing habits and what people chose to read or watch.  

By and large, when people read, or watch new on TV, they tend to gravitate to things they already agree with.    Conservatives stick to watching Fox News or Rush, or to listening to Imus in the Morning or religious leaders.    My friend Lance is about as liberal as they come in most issues, and when he reads, he tends to stick to punk rock activism style newsletters and blogs.     When people absorb non-fiction, they seem to seek out reassurance in what they believe in.    My theory on why Fahrenheit 9/11 failed to significantly influence the election is that it was preaching to the choir.   The people that ran out to see it didn't need to have their mind made up.     On the flip side, there is Michael Crichton's book State of Fear, an extremely well researched book which reaffirmed my belief that 99.9% of the environmentalist movement is based on bullshit junk science to cover up a thinly veiled political agenda.    I don't think this book is going to be popular reading at Rainbow Gatherings or protests any time soon.    It's obvious from the reviews I read of it on Amazon, most of the people came in ready and wanted to slam it, and few bothered to really read it or consider what it had to say.

I haven't really been an exception to this.    I've been reading a lot of biography and books about the recent war in Afghanistan and Iraq.   By and large, the accounts from the soldiers themselves have been pro-war.    They believe in what they are doing, and most of their qualms about the war on terror are about particulars of the how we are fighting it, and not the with why we are fighting it.    I personally feel that the soldiers on the front line are infinitely more qualified to commentate on the war.    After reading about how most of the reporters in Iraq operate and report, it amazes me that people believe a word they say.

But I digress.   I'm feeling unusually proud of myself for reading this book.   I'm glad I have given it a chance, and I am proud of myself for seriously listening and considering what Lt. Col. Grossman has to say, and when I finish this book, I will consider myself better off for having read it, and for considering it, and given it a chance.    And I won't nearly be so hesitant when I pick up it's sequeal and companion book On Combat, to read it.


Posted Wednesday Morning,
July 19, 2006




Just Where in the Fuck are My Manners

I forgot a very important birthday.    I don't know the exact day, but one hundred years ago, a new cartridge was introduced for the Springfield 1903 rifle that forever changed warfare and hunting.      As a .30 caliber bullet introduced in 1906, it went on to be known as the ubiquitos .30/06.     In addition to being one of the most popular hunting rounds in America, .30/06 made it's mark on history, by being the main bullet for American military rifles for two world wars and saw use in both the Korean War and Vietnam Conflict.    Legendary Marine Scout/Sniper Carlos Hatcock used a Winchester Model 70 and did his best work with .30/06.     It was fired by such great guns as the M1 Garand, Browning Automatic Rifle, and a whole line of belt fed machine guns.

Happy Birthday .30/06!

Posted early Sunday Morning,
June 4, 2006


Full Disaster

After years of hearing about it, I finally made it to the Hurricane Cafe in Albuquerque to try their legendary Disaster Burrito.  For those of you that have read my very old fan fiction, and read the story where Trixie comes to NM, I had Mart eat one.    So today I tried one, and ordered a Full Disaster.   When I got it, it looked to be about the size of a Typhoon Class Submarine.   I managed to finish half of it.  Back in the day, I could have had the whole thing.   These days since I have been dieting, I get full quickly.   But it was fantastically good.   The best burrito I've ever had.    When I brought the other half home to Julie, she weighed it.  Just that half was two pounds.   Good eatin.   I can't wait until I can have another.

Posted Thursday Evening,
May 25, 2006



As Seen on Leslie's Blog

1996

Ten years ago, it was spring 1996. Take this survey, post the results, and see how many things have changed since then.

Q1) How old were you? Twenty-four

Q2) What grade were you in? Had just dropped out of college.

Q3) Where did you go to school? I had just dropped out of N.M. Tech and given up on college for good.

Q4) Where did you work? Furr's Supermarket's Inc.

Q5) Where did you live? Socorro, NM

Q6) How was your hairstyle? The fucking crypto-fascists at the Supermaket made me keep it collar length.   Once in a while they would let it slide, but then a district manager would see it and I would have to cut it.

Q7) Did you wear braces? No

Q8) Did you wear contacts? No

Q9) Did you wear glasses? No

Q10) Who was your best friend(S)? Ian Troy, Bill Gilson, Lindsey Troy, Trever Braun, Mike Mundy

Q11) Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend? Nothing steady

Q12) Who was your celebrity crush? Jodie Foster

Q13) Who was your regular-person crush? I was after a girl named Tanya

Q14) Were you a virgin? No

Q15) How many piercings did you have? None

Q16) How many tattoos did you have? None

Q17) What was your favorite band/singer? Pretty much the same as it had been for a while and still is: Iron Maiden.  Was listening to a lot Metallica and Ministry that year as well.   Was a banner year for concerts.

Q19) Had you gotten drunk or high yet? Yes.  At that point I had quit illegal drugs for about six years, but was still drinking like a fish.

Q20) Had you driven yet? Yes

Q21) If so which car? Didn't have my own car, but would sometimes drive a friends, and had driven my parents car a lot in high school

Q22) Which of your pets from then are still alive? Didn't have any pets then.  Didn't get Pinky until two years later.

Q23) Looking back, are you what you thought you would be in 2006? No.  I didn't imagine I would be married, or that I would have escaped from the store.   I've done both.

Posted Sunday Night,
May 21, 2006

Real Sci-Fi

In my perpetual quest to lower the pile of books on my nightstand, last night I completed Arthur C. Clarke's 1955 novel Earthlight.   I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.   In spite of his somewhat leftist political views, I always enjoy his work.   I don't know why I haven't read more.   He has yet to let me down.   Maybe, while I look for more old Heinlein, I will track down copies of 2061, 3001, and ther rest of the Rama books.    No one belts them out anymore like the old masters.

Posted Thursday Night,
May 4, 2006