Posted a song written by my momma on the music page. The Vickers Girls came by to work it out and my dad and I chunked around on the guitars. Recording was done with two microphones into a MiniDisc player, the levels are a little on the low side, but you can get a feel for my mom’s writing talent.
Mom writes all the family songs, this one is for Aunt Hazel and her daughter, Sherry, who both lost late-teenage sons without warning.
If you don’t want to start crying just pass this one by.
I’m going to feel that one in the morning! I finally got around to getting my back screwed together on Wednesday last. Pretty gnarly stuff, really. It turns out that this kind of surgery takes approximately all day to complete. Not that it means much to me -I was quite asleep, but I’m sore like you wouldn’t believe. Just wanted to throw an update out there, I’m really in no shape to be driving this thing on The Internet. Out!
dbaker brought his new Z4 to Nuclear Taco Night last night. Pictures do not do those things justice. I think you have to hear it to really appreciate the looks. But I’m extra happy about it because now there’s someone else with a black car to share my pain.
Speaking of Nuclear Taco Night, it looks like NTN-SXSW is going to be a go. This will be the premier event of the SXSW season. Don’t miss it.
I was at BoA today and my realest parts dude Bo gave me a free hat. I don’t know if they’re really just passing out free hats right now, or if I just caught Bo in a really good mood, but the lowdrag tip of the day is stop by and pretend your head is cold or something. It’s really a nice hat.
Fence Update: My driveway is featured prominently on the front page of the paper today. It’s a big story about the city council approving ten-thousand more tax dollars to try to acquire my driveway. The newspaper writer doesn’t seem much more amused by this than I am. There are some quotes from the city attorney explaining why they are doing this though. It would seem that there is a lot of private property being used by the public around here and they need to make an example of me. I guess I feel better knowing that it’s not just because they hate me.
But anyway, the real weird deal is this: If you’ve been keeping up you know that I went to visit a couple lawyers who were reputed to be pretty good with this stuff, but I wasn’t really thrilled with either of them so I held out, thinking that the force of the arguments in my answer would persuade those in power that it was all good, and they should try to work things out with me in a more civil manner. This had the side benefit of being a real money-saver for me and my fellow taxpayers. But alas, it was not to be.
So anyway, Kevin is talking to Carlisle about my sad plight one day and another cop overhears and says something like: “Hey, I just took this Leaving the Scene Collision and the victim said he’s a lawyer that specializes in helping property owners who are being oppressed by expansionistic municipalities” and presents the business card of said attorney.
Anyway, this seemed like too good a story to pass on, so I went to see him and the guy is too cool. He’s fired up about the whole thing and seems to think he can save my driveway. Whee! Unlike the other two guys who seemed to be trying to sell me on their pricing structure before even looking at the case, this fellow is very confidence-inspiring. Finally some good news in this saga. Stay tuned!
Stopped by Terry Sayther’s shop today to get my srs light reset (it turns out that the airbag check circuit is smart enough to know if the passenger seat is taken out, but it never checks to see if it’s been put back (also, it turns out that the reset tool is a couple thousand bucks)). It’s not that I particularly enjoy rolling around in gear oil or putting my hands on hot headers, but I would not be able to stand leaving my car with someone to get it fixed. I figured my chances of getting this dirty business done and getting myself out of there were better at a nice independent shop like Terry’s than, say, BoA (for example; I have no idea what’s supposed to be on that website -looks like a big blue box to me (?)).
Anyway, the rest of the story is that it took about five minutes, I never lost sight of Whitey, I didn’t get my name added to anyone’s database, and to top it off, the guy (Hector, Arthur, Alfonzo, something like that) wouldn’t let me pay him. The guy (Alfred maybe?) read the codes to me, asked about the car and generally seemed like he was interested in what he was doing. Lowdrag seal of approval and mad props to the Terry Sayther empire.
I really wish I could remember that guy’s name, I want to add him to my Christmas card list.
UPDATE: His name is Rafael, and he’s the employee of the month. Congratulations Rafael!
Is This as silly as I think it is, or am I just biased againt saint-worshipping ninnies? Maybe both.
Mrs. Bumper told me about the papist’s search for a patron saint of The Internet last night, but I thought she was just trolling me. The Romish Church could go a long way to establishing some legitimacy by naming Mike Muuss as the official Saint of The Internet, but I’m sure it’ll end up being some long-dead burner of Protestants that has nothing to do with anything. I wonder what The Internet Pope has to say about this.
Took the baby and my baby to see Blast! today. I’m not sure what it was but it was quite a spectacle. Mrs. Bumper said it was like a long halftime show and I can’t disagree. The coolest part is that they all ran around and blocked the exits and did an encore in the lobby.
Whee! I made it inside Command Magazine this quarter. And, man I’m looking good. Thanks guys!
Fence Update: I filed our answer with the court on Friday. I had checked with a couple of lawyers, but apparently the city’s attorney wrote their petition in such a way that no one is ever going to recover any fees in this case (what does he care, he’s getting paid), and I couldn’t really get anyone interested. Anyway the basic gist of our answer is that the city council has been infiltrated by space-clones intent on taking over the Earth one driveway at a time and only The Court can stop them.
It’s actually not so easy to deal with the courts as a “civilian”. Those people won’t tell you anything, man. I just want the barest information about administrative trivia: “Does this need to be notarized?”, “Does this have to be an original?”, “Do you need two copies of that?”. They always answer that they aren’t allowed to give legal advice. I’m really only asking them what they want. They’re all very nice but it seems that the policy is that they would rather you hired a professional.
My Mom, and fellow plumophile gave me a Pilot Q7 recently. I’ve only been carrying it for a couple of days now, but it is compelling. The stroke is a little thinner than I usually seek, but it’s dark and uniform and the friction is really about perfect. It’s a needle point, click-style pen with archival-safe acid-free gel ink. It could be a little heavier, but other than that it’s nice.
I bought myself a box of Bic Z4s out of desperation about a month ago and have been not unhappy with the performance. They are a little sloppy and do bleed through, and they are a removable-cap style, but they’re cheaper than the Z4 I really wanted, and do have a nice bold stroke. They’re really a solid enough pen, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to go back.
The pen is mightier than the sword. While this is probably true in a larger sense, in a one-on-one fight I’ll put money on the guy with the sword every time.
With the big fence deal and Detective’s School and my socks being too tight I forgot all about the TTPOA SWAT Conference being here next week. I hope I can sneak away from class a bit and see some old friends. Lots of good instructors this year, and it’s in Austin so I expect rave reviews. I notice the C.A.T.I. guys will be there. It’s worth it to spend a day with these guys just so you can laugh about it with other alums. The techniques aren’t really funny, but the fact that in Brazil they actually do hostage rescues by twisting the bad guy’s arm is hilarious.
— This site best viewed on my monitor. —
It turns out that Internet Explorer renders my big tranparent png at the top there as not transparent at all. I filled all the stuff that I intend to be transparent with my favorite color, 5b6b56, and then gave it an opacity of ‘0’. We’ll see if that helps. Give it a <shift>+reload and let me know.
I can’t remember if I knew about this ugliness before and chose to ignore it, or if I just thought about checking and didn’t. Oh well, maybe this’ll fix it. Of course, maybe it won’t.
Does anyone have a copy of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure I could borrow?
