NEWSFLASH: Scalito for Court

This morning President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Nicknamed Scalito because of his consistent conservative views, Alito looks to be a wonderful . According to the research I've conducted, Alito seems to be more courteous and diplomatic than Scalia, who is famous for his sharp tongue. It seems that Alito will be a cross between Antonin Scalia and John Roberts.

Samuel Alito is currently an appeals court judge. He has served as a judge for more than 15 years. As President Bush said, Samuel Alito “has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years.” While on the court he has ruled in favor of nativity scenes and menorahs on public property and more restrictions on abortion.

So far it looks as if Republicans love the choice and Democrats hate it. Reid, Kennedy, Shumer and Boxer have all expressed concern or opposition towards the Alito. On the other hand, Republicans look to be uniting behind him. Even Lindsey Graham* of Gang of Fourteen fame supports him, saying that if the Dems try to filibuster, “the filibuster will not stand.”

My name is Rabenstrange and I approve this nomination.

*Edit: As this entry was publishing, Lindsey Graham pledged to actively support Alito while speaking on the Sean Hannity Show.

Gone LANing, Back Sunday.

Freaky

I learned something today that really freaked me out. The governor of my state is turning the Governor's Mansion into Wonka's Chocholate Factory . She will be dressing up as Willy Wonka and handing out chocholate for Halloween. According to the official press release, Gregoire is setting aside the front porch of the Mansion as a “everybody’s non-pullutionary, anti-institutionary, pro-confectionery factory of fun”.

This sounds like something Michael Jackson would do. Not to mention the fact that the woman looks like a Vampire.

As most of you know I am rather bitter that she is in the Mansion at all. I believe that the only reason this “scrumpdiddleumptious” (that's a direct quote from the Governor's press release) event is possible is because of massive voting fraud.

Read the official Press Release. (I am not making this up. Note the "governor.wa.gov" address)

The Hero of Canton

When I mentioned that I was planning on making a Blue Sun t-shirt I thought people would see and think “okay” and click away. I might get a comment from my Browncoat buddies or one of the crafty mothers wanting to know about my painting technique. I was not expecting a request for info on Jayne and “her” Blue Sun t-shirt.

“Jayne is a girl's name”

If you have seen Firefly you know that's funny. The rest of you will have to trust me.

Anyhow, for those of you haven't seen Firefly or Serenity, Jayne Cobb is the “Public Relations” specialist on the Firefly class transport Serenity. Captained by Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds, formerly of the Independence Armed Forces, the Serenity plies the space ways smuggling, salvaging wrecks and doing other jobs of doubtful legality.

Jayne is the stereotypical mercenary. He's tough, mean and almost completely selfish. He'd be just the kind of guy to have at your back in a firefight if he weren't likely to switch sides at the drop of a large payment.

The Blue Sun shirt I am replicating was worn by Jayne in “Ariel”. He is sitting in the kitchen when River Tam enters and slashes him across the chest with a large kitchen knife. River is one of the passengers on the Serenity. She was cruelly experimented on while in a government “academy” and throughout the show she is extremely mentally instable. If you watch the show carefully you'll see that she responds very badly to anything displaying the Blue Sun logo.

Learn more about Jayne and Blue Sun

Rabenstrange, Magnifico Artiste

I've developed a cheap method of making silk screen style t-shirts. It involves sharp knives, sticky paper, a sponge, paint and a shirt.

Unfortunately it requires a relativel simple design for it to work. I am currently endeavoring to create such a design. It will be the Blue Sun logo which appears on Jayne's t-shirt in the Firefly Episode Ariel.

I found a picture to use as a model but its grainy, the wrong size and the wrong style. As a result I am creating my own logo using the original as a model. I'll post it here when it's done. It ought to look shiny.

Here it is:

On a Scale of 1-25: "Fun"

Because I have crazy-awesome organizational skills I have implemented an advanced weekend rating system. In this system I will rate the weekend numerically through a complex, entirely objective algorithm to output a quantifiable result. On a scale of 1 to 25 the algorithm gave it a score of “Fun.”

Friday after work, Shadow Walker picked me up and we went to church to assist in an event for married persons sponsored by our church. I get paid quite well for my technical assistance.

Friday night TBQelite, who also helped out at church, and I saw the new Wallace and Gromit movie.

Saturday, we had a Bible Quiz meet. Since I am to old for actual quizzing and because their was desperate need, (my head coach practically got down and begged) I served as a Quiz Master for the first time. It was interesting.

After the meet, the Team went out and saw Serenity. This was the second time I've seen it but I enjoyed it immensely nonetheless. I spent another night at TBQelite's house, during which we rented and watched ConAir.

Sunday morning, I caught a ride to church with TBQelite's family so that I could run Camera for the 9:00 service. I was a late but only by a couple of minutes so it wasn't a big deal. I met up with my parents and caught a ride home with them. After I got home, I spent a nice afternoon reading.

A Pox on Spam!

It is hereby declared by the Grand Pooh-Bah of the Completely Unknown Region that:

I am fed up with spam, snail-mail, email, blog etc..

As a reflection of my utter abhorrence for the spam filth, it is hereby declared by Order of the Grand Pooh-Bah of The Entirely Unknown Region that:

It is time for some, focused, corporate hating, in the grand tradition of George Orwell. It is ordered that all the Citizens and Peons in the Completely Unknown Region shall under threat of an unspecified, but undeniably ominous retribution, gather together to concentrate their combined Hate against the institution of Spam for Two Minutes at 1300 PST. All foreigners who wish to participate in the Two Minutes of Hate are welcome to do so.

While the Grand Pooh-Bah has according to his Fearful Pooh-Bahness granted the Citizens and Peons in the Completely Unknown Region the privilege of Free Style Hatred, he has, in his abundant benevolence, provided the following suggestions for Hateful thoughts:

A Digital Pox on Spam Servers!

May the fan on the processor that spawned this filth stop!

Hate Spam! Hate Spam! Hate Spam!

Please note suggestions for more Hateful thoughts may be submitted to the Ministry of Unkindness by clicking the link labeled “Comments” below.

Freakish Behavior

As most of you have probably discerned, I am a somewhat eccentric fellow. I thought you might find it amusing to know that I am one of those freaks who goes to movie premiers and goes to marathon movie parties.

The first midnight movie premiere I attended was The Fellowship of the Ring. My friends and I, got our tickets months ahead of time at the best theater in town. This was necessary being that in addition to having a Lenin statue downtown, Seattle has a relatively high rate of Elvish speakers per capita. I ended up waiting outside for 4-5 hours in typical Seattle December weather. This, combined with the fact that I had friends who held me a place who had arrived about 12 hours before I, allowed me to be only 200 people from the door when they opened.

I missed the Two Towers premiere because Mom and Dad didn't want it to seem unfair when they denied my younger sibs. I would have gone to the Trilogy showing premiere and payed my way through college eBaying tickets when prices hit $200+ a seat but the online ticket server crashed. I had to make do with the Cinerama's make up premiere a day or two later.

In addition to The LotR movies, I also went to premieres for: Spiderman 2, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (with a towel around my neck), a pre-screening for Red Eye, and a couple others that I can't recall at the moment. Additionally, I went opening day to: Star Wars III, Serenity, Hero and more.

I started Marathon watching with the original Star Wars Trilogy. Dad and I watched it together when I was 9 or 10. Since then I've seen all three LotR movies, a different time we did all three LotR EE. We were going to do the new Star Wars movies but ended up seeing, Miss Congeniality 2, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and a few others. The last one we did was all 14 episodes of Firefly in a single sitting.

Anyhow, I like watching movies with friends a lot better than by myself. We get together for LAN parties or movie marathons probably once a month.

Securing the Border

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, announced today the adaptation of a policy to deport every illegal immigrant that crosses the border.

While I think that this a step in the right direction, I am skeptical on how effective the proposed restructuring of our border enforcement efforts will be.

(read article on breitbart.com)

March of Cambreadth

I've had a Celtic war song pulsing through my head all day long. Although it was written a few years ago by a hippie filker it sounds like something conjured up by an angry Woad. A female vocalist takes some of the impact from the song but its still nifty and very, very catchy. The fact that I've been listening also been listening to Joy Electric makes the song seem stranger.

To give you a taste of the song:

Axes flash, broadsword swing,
Shining armour's piercing ring
Close your mind to stress and pain,
Fight till you're no longer sane
Fight till every one is Dead
Raise the flag up to the sky,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

You can download the song for free.

Post Millennialism

*Edit: I have rewritten the body of this post. I didn't answer Emily's question very well and instead went off on a tangent. Hopefully this revised version will prove more helpful.

Emily a.k.a. thefrazzledsister of Em's Blog, asked me this evening if I was a postmillenialist. I am not.

As I understand Post Millennialism, it teaches that the Christ will return only after the Church has converted the entire world. A Post Millennialist believes that Christians through aggressive evangelism, missionaries, and political involvement will convince the entire world to believe and be saved. They believe that this will result in a golden age that will last until Christ returns to reign over the earth. This golden age is known as the Millennium. There seems to be disagreement whether the Millennium is a literal 1000 year period or whether it is a non-literal undefined length of time.

While I am not by any means an end times Scholar with a readily defined eschatological theory, Millennialism seems to be inherently flawed.

According to PM teaching, the world should be getting better and moving steadily towards Christian dominance. It isn't. In actuality, the opposite is happening. Christians are steadily losing face and influence in Government. Gay marriage is established in at least one state, abortion has been legal for thirty years, the Ten Commandments were taken down from the courthouse in Alabama. While Michael Newdow hasn't been successful in removing “under God” from the pledge, do we really doubt that it will be done, probably sooner than later?

Additionally, I believe that the Scripture portrays the last days as a time of turmoil and great suffering. In Matthew 24, Jesus tells the disciples that there will be wars, natural disasters, and persecution. False teachers and messiahs will come and deceive many. 2^nd Timothy 3 describes a world consumed by arrogance, immorality, and blasphemy. Verse 12 says that all Christians will suffer persecution. This hardly seems to be the description of a Christian golden age.

To address Emily's other question: I have not read the “TULIP” pamphlet. Furthermore, I am unsure whether you are referring to a publication of TULIP.org, the acrostic describing the five points of Calvanism or something else entirely. I will be happy to answer any question you have about this pamphlet if you give me a little more information. You can email me by clicking the “Ask Rabenstrange” link located in my sidebar or by sending a message to rabenstrange@gmail.com

I'm Off to Read

I haven't alot to say today.

Since I don't have anything thought provoking or interesting to give you, I'm planning on heading to my room to read The Fortunes of War, #5 in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

Have a nice week end everyone.

Top Seven

I was tagged by Jennifer.

Seven things I plan to do before I die:
1) Write a novel or few.
2) Marry someone I love.
3) Own my own home and maybe a few investment properties.
4) Have lots of kids.
5) Train up said children to be strong Christians and good citizens.
6) Get my bachelors degree.
7) Write a will.

Seven things I can do:
1) Fix my own computer
2) Make my liberal professors look like idiots (I usually exercise restraint though).
3) Update my blog regularly.
4) Work with kids.
5) Dislocate and relocate my thumb.
6) Read.
7) Legally purchase a rifle.

Seven tings I cannot do:
1) Sing.
2) Dance.
3) Legally purchase a handgun.
4) Whistle.
5) Drive.
6) Acrobatics.
7) Anything else that requires co-ordination.

Seven things that attract me to the opposite sex (godliness is a given):
1) A nice figure. Hey, don't be surprised, my body produces hormones just fine.
2) Intelligence.
3) Good conversation skills.
4) Cooking skills.
5) Love for children.
6) Practicality.
7) Respect for and good relationship with parents.

Seven things I say most often:
1) Greetings.
2) Indeed.
3) Oooooh, shiny!
4) Indeed.
5) I see.
6) Just a minute.
7) I'll do it later.

Seven celebrities I would like crushed (Note: This is metaphorically crushed. I am not advocating people running down celebries in their SUVs):
1) Hillary Rotten Clinton a.k.a. The Hildebeast
2) Ted Kennedy
3) George Clooney
4) Johnny Depp
5) Marilyn Manson
6) Ozzie
7) Cindy Sheehan

Five people who should do this:

Hmm, it seems that most everyone has already done this.
1) Anna Speck
2) Christy
3) EJB
4) AritaL
5) TBQelite
6) The Pickle

The Wild Wolverines

Every Wednesday night I help out at church with the Ranger Kids. Tonight my kids were relatively well behaved and we made alot of progress on our patrol flag. My hard work on trying to get some of the roudier boys to shape up seems to be paying dividends. At least I like to think I had something to do with it.

For those of you who don't know, Royal Rangers is a ministry for boys sponsered by the Assemblies of God. In the younger groups are like a cross between Awana and Cub Scouts. The older groups are like a strongly Christian version of the Boy Scouts.

I work as a Lieutenant Commander in the youngest age group, Ranger Kids (K-2nd). My main duty is serving as a Patrol Leader for five 2nd graders. We have chosen to be the "Wild Wolverines" patrol.



Tonight we worked on our patrol flags. Since the Ranger Kids Commnader (the top guy for the age group) wanted me to try and come up with something new for our flag (Apparently, he's tired of all the flags being rectangles.), I worked up a design which incorporates a circle inscribed in a square. It looks pretty sweet. Online, I found a clipart image of a snarling wolverine which our group unanimously voted as the picture for the flag.

So far we've got the basic flag design drawn out. Next week we should finish coloring it and I'll punch holes in it so that we can lace it onto our poles. It should look pretty sweet.

Anyways, that's what I've been up to tonight.

Media Review: Aubrey/Maturin Series

Written by Patrick O'Brian, the Aubrey/Maturin books have been a long time favorite of historical fiction fans. Now that the series has inspired a movie(Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World*) it may get a wider readership.

I started reading the books a few months back and leisurely made my way through the first two books. While I enjoyed them, my continuation of the series was cut short by missing volumes in library. Not to be discouraged, I filed a purchase request and last week received book 3, HMS Surprise.

Fast forward 4 days and here I am having devoured not only #3, but #4: The Mauritius Command, as well. I am hooked.

The series traces the careers of “Lucky” Jack Aubrey a brilliant sea captain in the English navy and his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin who also happens to be an agent of the Crown's intelligence service. Taking place during the Napoleonic wars of the mid 1800's each book offers a wonderful look into life aboard a naval ship of that era.

Action and adventure abound as Aubrey and Maturin travel the world from the East Indies to the West Indies capturing, destroying and burning the ships of the hated French and their allies. The intrigues the pair find themselves party serve to deepen the stories and provide an interesting break from sea board life and combat.

I give the series **** out of ***** stars.

*I also recommend this movie. While it doesn't really follow the plot of any single book it is a great movie and does an excellent job of capturing the books spirit.

An Intriguing Question

I have wondered for along time why it seems that most younger people are for more tolerant of the popular music of their parent's generation than parents are of what's currently popular.

For example, my friends and I greatly appreciate the music of the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. I listen to the Beach Boys, Beattles, Simon & Garfunkel etc.. I also like most of the classic rock bands of the 70's and 80's although I don't have disks of them.

On the other hand, Mom and Dad despise anything from the 90's on. Softer rock(Lifehouse, Switchfoot), Emo (Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World), Punk (Good Charlotte, Relient K), Pop (Back Street Boys, Brittany and clones), Techno (Juno Reactor, E-Type), and Rock of all varieties, (Creed, P.O.D., Pillar, Demon Hunter, TFK, Kutless ad infinitum), not to mention Rap and Hip Hop (Which I also hate.) they are all disliked.

I know that my examples aren't very representative but it seems to be true no matter what band or genre you put on.

It seems to be true of my parents generation as well. Dad doesn't mind 40's and 50's music but parents of that generation seem to have hated the rock and roll bands that he liked.

Is this something I am just imagining or is it real? If it's real, is there some fundamenta lreason for it?

Busy Weekend

My weekend has been pretty busy.

Saturday, I went to work and spent all day painting, varnishing etc and generally doing maintenance type stuff while the shop was closed. After I got home, ate dinner and tried to do some reading. I kept dozing off though, so I went to bed at the preposterously early hour of 8:30. Thus I didn't get in a blog post.

Today I went to church as I am apt to do on Sundays. The pastor preached on giving. I hope I don't sound to calloused but it wasn't very inspiring. After main service, I went to Bible Quiz practice. Things don't look good for our meet in two weeks. People haven't been doing much in the way of studying. It sure is nice being a Coach and not having the pressure of intensive memorization on my back. It's kind of ironic though that now that I have more free time than I've had in years I'm not quizzing anymore.



After church our family went out to eat for the first time in months. We went to Skippers. I got all you can eat fish and clams which was pretty good. Unfortunately, I wasn't super hungry and only managed two helpings.

Since we got home I've been shuffling around doing my usual, pointless, time-killing routine. Now the weekend is pretty much over. It wasn't exactly what I dream about every Monday but such is life.

Rethinking Miers

One of my favorite talk show hosts, Michael Medved, has given me a new perspective on the issues surrounding President Bush appointing Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court justice.

Instead of worrying about Miers and vainly wishing that the President had chosen someone else, I have to accept that Miers is chosen, and look at it from the standpoint of what happens next.

Either Miers will be confirmed and she may or may not go on to be an excellent judge, or she will be rejected in which case the President will appoint a “Consensus” candidate, which basically guarantees a moderate.

Additionally as more information and analysis becomes available it seems that Miers may not be a bad choice at all. While she almost certainly wasn't the best person, she has the potential to be very good.

If nothing else her strong Christian faith is going to make the confirmation hearings very interesting. Kennedy, Schumer and Biden are likely to get rather irritable and mercilessly tear into her because of her beliefs. Fortunately for us, those beliefs are widely held in this country and their bullying will likely cost them a lot of public image.

As these events unfold remember to pray that God will direct Miers and help her to be the kind of justice this country needs.

Tagged Again!

The Pickle tagged me again. Apparently, this meme tries to help bloggers go back to their roots or something to that effect.

Rules:
1. Go to your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest)
4. Post the text of the sentence with these instructions.
5. Tag 5 people.

Here's mine:

"They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." (See complete post)


I will tag:

Mama and Me
Lilyofthefield
Shadow Walker
Neemund
Krissy

The Last in Line Was Madeline

My smallest sister Madeline just celebrated her second birthday. She is very small for her age but no one minds. We get to have her stay a baby for a little longer.

Because I know that many of my readers are Mommys, big sisters and aunts, I won't go so far as to say she's the cutest baby in the world. However, I will say she's at least tied for first.

I wanted to post pics sooner but I opted to wait until I could get my grubby hands on the birthday pics.

Like most two year olds, she is very stubborn and has a tendency to get into things. We are always losing things and finding them in odd locations that reveal Maddie as the thief. She is sometimes very possesive of her toys and its rather amusing watching her tell Zach off when he tries to take them.

For the Record...

There seems to be a little confusion among my readers as to what my name is. Since I inadvertently made things more confusing than was strictly necessary, I offer this explanation that will, hopefully, make everything clear:

The Rabenstranger = the Blog

Rabenstrange = the Dude

Notice how the blog title has an "r" on the end and my name does not. I initially thought that The Rabenstranger would be a nice easily remembered title. Unfortunately, it now looks as though it merely proved perplexing.

My Political Orientation

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (93% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I consider myself to be a guns and taxes libertarian. I am not a drugs and sex Libertarian. I believe that God has given humans freedom and that things work best when people are allowed to do as they wish and be forced to live with the consequences of their actions whether good or bad.

Here are my views on many of the issues that affect my political affiliation:

I am against abortion as I think it is medically provable and my conscience confirms that an unborn fetus is a distinct human life and therefore has the same rights as the rest of humanity. (Actually, I think they have more rights in that the baby's parents have a responsibility to care for any child they conceive.)

I am absolutely for unrestricted, unregistered private ownership of firearms and other weapons. I believe that people have a fundamental right to protect their persons, families, rights and property from anyone that would take or damage them whether criminal or government.

Taxes should be massively slashed for two reasons. First, taxes confiscate the property of citizens to fund projects which they may or may not support. Secondly, taxes give the State money to do things. The more things a State does the more it will infringe on its citizens rights.

Capital Punishment is effective. It serves as a fitting punishment for serious criminals, a strong deterrant for future criminals and justice for victims.

Government welfare should be eliminated. It steals wealth from productive members of society to reward the people who do nothing. The job of helping the poor and disadvantaged properly belongs to private charity.

I do not support the existence of government schools. The bureacracy inherent in such a school system detracts significantly from the quality of education while increasing the cost tremendously. Additionally, the installation of moral and life lessons properly belongs to parents and the Church not to the State.

I'll update this occasionally as I feel like it.

Which Book of the Bible am I?

You are Romans.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I thought a lighthearted quiz might be fun seeing as how my last few posts were of a serious nature.

NEWSFLASH: BUSH PLAYS RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

As most of you probably know already, President Bush has appointed Harriet Miers to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Sandra Day O'Connor. This is in line with the implication in his earlier statement that the new justice would be a woman or minority.

Unfortunately for those of us who are strongly conservative Bush didn't pick a known strict constructionist, such as Janice Rogers Brown but rather an unknown quantity who just so happens to be one of his homies.

If you read the conservative blogs, listen to Rush, or check out the Townhall's latest columns you'll find that the reaction of most on the right is a feeling of betrayal. They point to the fact that Miers has no qualifications, no record, no paper trail of any kind except that she and Bush are best buddies. There seems to be no solid basis for saying that she is conservative, has the spine to not bend away from the Constitution or that A quick look at Alberto Gonzalez shows that this doesn't necessarily bode well for the Right. Ann Coulter makes the point well by pointing to what we were told when Bush Sr. appointed Souter.

It's possible that Miers turns out to be a great canidate. She's a Sunday school teacher, a faithful church-attender and openly confesses to be a Christian. She appears to be pro-life. In her speech accepting Bush's nomination she implied that she thought that the Constitution should be interpreted in the way the Founders intended it. Is that chance enough to make her a good pick?

I think not. Even is she turns out to be great, Republicans are going to burn in '06. We didn't vote for Bush because we wanted him to appoint his country club to high office. We voted for him because he promised us Scalias, Thomases and Borks. Instead he gives us “stealth” nominees that keep us guessing.

There are alot of Republicans out there saying that we need to trust the President. They say that he knows the lady well and that he wouldn't betray us. I look at his past appointments, the blossoming federal spending and I find it very hard to trust him. I think the words of Thomas Jefferson apply now as much or even more than the did when he spoke them: "The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Edit: Even More Reasons to Fear Miers

The following quotes from prominent voices on the left scare me:

"I reserve the right to change my mind, but Miers' biggest sin, at this early juncture, is her allegiance to Bush. That her appointment is an act of cronyism is without a doubt, but if that's the price of admission to another Souter or moderate justice, I'm willing to pay it.
. . .
[M]y early sense is that this is already a victory -- both politically and judicially -- for Democrats. In fact, it should be great fund watching conservatives go after Bush. He may actually break that 39-40 floor in the polls, given he's just pissed off the very people who have propped up his failed presidency."

-The Daily Kos, hardcore leftist blogger

"I like Harriet Miers."

-Harry Reid, Seanate Minority Leader

Is Big Business Bad?

Big Business in America has been given a bad reputation by modern, liberal historians. They claim that Big Business' greed and tendency to victimize consumers is proof of laissez-faire capitalism's failure and of the need for government intervention in the market.

I reject this hypothesis. Huge corporations have only arisen in two basic circumstances: being significantly more innovative and competitive than anyone else, or through government intervention, whether by subsidies, barriers to market entry or some other means.

If you look into it you will find that in general businesses have become more centralized and less competitive as government exerts more and more influence into the private sector through regulations, subsidies and “anti-trust” legislation.

A key tenant of their argument is that Big Business and market centralization is a bad thing. This is only sometimes true. As long as the government doesn't give a firm an unfair advantage which allows it to grow beyond the size it normally could in a free market or penalize new business and thereby unnaturally reduce competition, businesses are forced to become greatly superior to their competitors to achieve large size. This drive to succeed, instead of being condemned as greedy, should be praised. Without it, the options available to consumers would be lessened, and the remaining choices would undoubtedly be inferior.

Sorry, I'm in a hurry due to my two year old sisters impending B-Day party and as a result I haven't been able to put as much energy into this entry as I would have liked.

Testing the BOB

This weekend was quite eventful. Friday, I went to work, got off at lunch time and then went with TBQelite and The Shadow Walker to see Serenity(which I intend to rave about in a Media Review). It was a great movie.

Walker gave me a ride home and I packed to go and help out at a Primitive Shelter & Snare Merit overnighter for the Royal Rangers.

I realized that the camp out presented the opportunity for a timely test of my BOB out in the woods. I built myself a shelter using natural materials and the contents of my kit which kept me dry in the usual Western Washington drizzle. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to show off my 1337 pyrotechnical skill. I did however live off my kit food for dinner and breakfast.

In the morning while Dad and Gerhalt's father taught the snare portion of the class, Commander Kirk, Gerhalt, his bro and I played pinochle. Gerhalt and I were partners and we were soundly beaten. (170ish to 115ish).

After the kids finished their merits, we did a little paintball. The tragic thing was that Dad and I thought that the paintball portion of the camp would be canceled due to the poor weather so we left our gear home. If I had my own gun those n00bs would have gotten pwned.

Fortunately, Gerhalt's bro let me borrow his gun which unfortunately was plagued with terrible accuracy (more due to slimy ammo then the gun). Down to five rounds, I was forced to make a mad rush on the last two enemies in the tree fort. I got under the fort taking only a non-kill hit to the gun. Then when my team mates, who were completely out of ammo, drew the fire of those in the fort, I climbed half way up the ladder, stuck my gun into the fort and fired my last five rounds, three into the first guy and 2 into the other. It was immensely satisfying.

We had to leave early, but that turned out to be fortunate as a few minutes after we pulled out of the driveway it began dumping down hail the size of Jelly Bellies. I imagine the affect of said hail on those out paintballing was rather demoralizing.

That's what I've been up to for the last two days.

For those of you interested: My shelter consisted of a lean to against a fallen log, covered by .7 mil painters' plastic. I laid down a mylar space blanket over a bed of ferns to prevent soaking up water and heat loss through the ground. While my shelter was somewhat cramped it fulfilled my needs and kept me warm and dry during the night.

The applicable items from my BOB and my clothing:

M65 Army Surplus coat with extreme cold weather liner

Switchfoot T-shirt

Polar fleece pants from BOB

BDU pants

3 pairs socks (two from BOB)

Leatherman Multi-Tool

Wire saw

9x12 sheet .7 mil painters' plastic

2 heavy duty black trash bags

2 packs Ramen noodles

20 oz. bottle of water

Aluminum mess kit

There was some other stuff such as matches, firestarter brick, compass etc. that I didn't use and therefore am not listing.

Please note: I'm tired about writing BOB stuff for awhile and therfore the completion of my BOB guide will be delayed indefinitely.

I Done Been Tagged

The Pickle tagged me, thereby obligating me to reveal my 5 favorite songs.

They are in alphabetical order:

Bring Me to Life - Evanescence
Jesus Freak - dc Talk
Let That Be Enough - Switchfoot
Sick Cycle Carousel - Lifehouse
Softer To Me - Relient K

My preferences change frequently but those are my current favs.

I would like to tag and therefore coerce, through unnamed and ficticious threat, the following people to list their five favorite songs:

Virtual Mindshare
Jennifer a.k.a. thepatriot15
The Shadow Walker
Christy of Prarie Daisie
EJB