Muttering and munging .
OK, Deb is about to do one of her “you haven’t posted in several days!” (I love you too dear!)
July passed into September and the hurricane season started in Ernest. Gustoph passed by us with a wide margin but we felt the effects of it just the same. It smashed into Louisiana and if it hadn’t been for Katrina three years ago (almost to the day!) this would have been [cue echo chamber] The Storm of the Century!
Gustoph was the storm of the year so far, Hanna is out by the Bahamas rapidly falling apart, Ike is in the Atlantic, a monster of a storm and Josephine is forming just off Africa. It’s been a busy season so far and I’m feeling like we are in the shooting gallery again. Let’s move out of this lousy state! Sheeze!
I watched the Republican convention last couple of nights. Republican Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin, the Alaskan Governor gave a speech Wednesday , a pretty good one although it had as much substance as a deflated Helium balloon. Not that I expect much, When GW was running for president in 00 he didn’t mention he was planning to invade Iraqi. I wish he’d TOLD us that! Al Gore would have not made his boring movie!
Sara Palin is a good speaker but she didn’t really SAY anything! Just rhetoric and more rhetoric. She fibbed about her record a bit, didn’t mention that she supports a group that advocates Alaska seceding from the UNION! (!!) She generally sounded like an Alpha-Bitch to me. Not that I have anything against Alpha-Bitches but I don’t think I want a right-wing fruit-bat Alpha-Bitch as Veep.
Last night, MaCain did his big acceptance speech and it was as devoid of content as his running mate’s (and she’s a better speaker!) As a matter of fact I could have sworn that it was his running mate’s speech, some of it word-for-word. One of the biggest applauses came after he intoned “DRILL OFFSHORE AND DRILL NOW!” This seemed to be his answer to high gas prices…high gas prices! We have some of the lowest prices in the freaking world! When I was last in Japan, I noticed the price for regular was around 500 yen a liter. A Gallon = 3.785 Liters! That was like fifteen dollars a gallon and I was wondering why everyone’s cars were running close to empty all the time.
This is the same bone head logic that has much of our corn crop being made into motor fuel. This is like powering a water pump with a waterwheel from a lake that is supplied by the same pump. It will work for a while but eventually you run out of water and the whole thing crashes. Come up with a solar powered device that makes gas out of pond-scum or switch grass, something we have plenty of and I’ll listen but leave our freaking corn alone!
Deb got her fall-class kennel-cough which put her out for a day. I have a touch of it now but it will likely brush past me.
Last night I rode my bike to the “writing–spot “ in Scientology City.
It’s a nice 25 min ride and I can stay off the main roads most of the way.
I’ve finally broken my writer’s block on novel II. It’s been frustrating but I decided to allow the characters to drive the story and quit forcing it. It won’t turn out exactly like I wanted but what does? Right now are heroes are arguing about using an orbiting hotel facility nested in a freaking huge and very old space habitat. The hotel turns out to be part of an old ballistic transportation system that was rendered inoperable long ago as a result of an alien invasion and subsequent quarantine of the Solar system. Why the human race is quarantined, what is about to happen to the Earth, what are the aliens, what do they want. why does the transportation system suddenly activate and what does one of our heroes do with a marble sized MacGuffin when they get captured are some of the reasons I’ve been blocked for a while.
But I did find the Obama for President office in town!
Oh yes, Hanna is passing by and will make a soggy weekend in the Carolinas. Ike is lining up to hit Florid and we were put on “first alert” today.
The Christmases season is soon amirite?
Ok; say you told me so.
Aaaa! The freaking JOYS of home ownership!
Last year we bought a new AC unit, one with higher capacity of the old one and because of the wonders of modern technology, far more economical. I talked the fellow who sold it to us to install a cutoff switch in the drip pan. The old AC overflowed for the previous owners and damaged the ceiling. This seemed prudent to me, a drip pan over a drywall ceiling does not sound like a good idea in the first place.
Well! I kept watch on the outflow, were were getting plenty of water. I went up to check it a couple of times last year, the pan’s been dry as a bone.
The other day I noticed a few drops of water on the floor under the pan, ummm…! I peeked, yup, drip pan overflowing. Drain pipe was plugged, it flowing but much slower than normal and the dad-gum cutoff never tripped!
I drained the pan, opened the outflow pipe and took stock of the ceiling. Some of the drywall was wet, a bunch of the insulation was too. So I pulled it out the wet stuff, there did not seem to be too much. I thought that I would allow it to dry out over the weekend and and everything would be fine.
Meanwhile, Fay churned completely around the state except for our area. We got a mere two inches of rain while other places got as much a two feet!
Saturday, I was pecking away at the computer when E’ comes in.
“Um Dad,” he says , “was the ceiling supposed to do that?”
By that he meant drop about two square feet of drywall onto the floor. I check the edges of the hole its all wet. There is soggy insulation all over the place, and rotting drywall too! The part the collapsed was not even under the drip pan. It was several feet away in fact. The drip pan was not overflowing, this was old water from before I discovered the problem. There was nice dry insulation on top and an inch or two of soggy insulation.
It looks like it dropped about 50 galleons on the ceiling, we have a nice ten x six foot hole in our ceiling now. I checked the cutoff switch, it was working but it had never been set correctly, a full pan would never trip the compressor. I have no idea how long it’s been like this, days, weeks?
So what did I learn? The next house will not have an air handler over a living area, air handlers and hot water tanks belong in the garage.
Two more tropical storms in the Caribbean! uRRRR!
Last night I said “screw it” and decided to relax by riding my bike into Downtown Clearwater and writing for a few hours.
That’s relaxing?
What ever happened,… to Fay?
Been busy as per usual. We picked up E’ from the grandparents where he was spending a last few days of summer. He seemed thankful to get back to his real home, and he was happy to see his dog.
The dog BTW which was supposedly a mutt turned out to be an American Foxhound, we are about 98% certain (we will only know after a DNA test.) I noticed over the summer that she was exhibiting hunting dog behavior. I started looking up types. Bingo! American Foxhound is spot-on standard and behavior.
(not Mable)
Taller and lankier than the British Foxhound, the American variant is built for speed, are American foxes that much faster? So instead of a nice mutt for the boy we have a hunting dog. We started calling her “rocketdog,” it seems to suit her. She’s very sweet but she needs very long walks and tends to escape quite a lot.
(Mable!)
Yah; Mable.
I fought in a small tourney this weekend, did respectively well too for someone who hasn’t practiced in weeks. On Sunday I did lots of yard work and we all watched the approach of Fay, our tropical storm du-jour.
Fay is fickle, it came across Cuba on Sunday and Monday, then headed right at us. We prepped for evacuation on Monday (only at work, the humble-hut is not in an evac zone.) Work was closed on Tuesday but I had training off campus. Deb and E’ had the day off though. We did E’s school walkthrough Monday night, then pulled in all the wind chimes and furniture from the backyard.
As it turns out, Fay’s been a bust. We didn’t even get any rain by Tuesday, but watch out! The storm is doing a near 180 degree turn after it popped out of the East Coast, and it’s headed back our way.
Flying Saucer Captured!
...sort of!
Last night I was talking to one of my neighbors. He told me (among other things ) that he’s seen coyotes running around the neighborhood, coyotes have actually been spotted in the area by police and other people (like my neighbor) who’s up and around early in the morning. I tend to believe this, one of my dogs goes nuts around 3 AM, our bloodhound (the one we thought was a mutt- more on that later) smells something that drives her bananas when I take her for walks out on the pavement. It would be cool to get a pic of one.
Then my neighbor told me about the UFO he saw last spring (since I was receptive of the coyotes.) It was a huge red flickering ball that descended slowly over our house. He ran inside to get a camera but when he came out it was gone.
I believed that one too, because the UFO was in my garage.
I found this right about the same time he saw his UFO, it’s a sky lantern. I know that’s not as sexy as an alien spacecraft but it’s much more likely and fits his description. He said it flickered as it came down, very likely the candle or whatever was powering the thing was almost burned out. I found it early one morning this spring, put it away and forgot about it.
How cool is that?
( I still want to get a pic of a coyote, Deb? Can I get that low-light webcam now?)
Dark Nights, Bright Days…
Well on Friday, Deb and I went to friend’s house to take in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies.
Beijing Olympics?! I remember when we called the city Peking and no round-eye set foot there. On Friday we were treated to a “spectacular-spectacular” the likes of which is seldom seen outside of Pyongyang.
Networks make note! I would watch and buy your sponsors products if you could get broadcast rights from the North Koreans.
What we saw was really impressive-over the top entertainment full of good old Chinese values. There were thousands – tens of thousands of performers including cute little girls on peter-pan rigs. People marching around the outside of a giant hollow sphere that lifted slowly out of the arena floor (I started shouting “AAAH! It’s a MISSILE!”) They had huge floor mounted LCD screens , fireworks that created local fog alerts (they grounded all vehicular traffic in Beijing to keep the smog down, then burned enough magnesium and gunpowder to smoke up the whole place. )
(A few days later the news services were full of a story about how some of the fireworks were faked.)
We made lots of catty comments throughout while being impressed with the immense effort and choreography. It really was spectacular; I can’t wait for closing ceremonies.
The parade of nations became the “Parade of Costume” along with our parade of catty comments. We liked the folk costumes of some countries. Russia had a strange combination of blazers over their traditional embroidered tunics. Each by themselves would have been OK, the combination looked silly.
Hungry had the worst one, red flowers over stark white dresses for the women, which made them look like they had been machine-gunned.
The US athletes looked dorky in their Disneyish – “Revenge of the Boatnicks” get-up.
I think our illustrious President must have picked those uniforms out.
Bermuda was pretty bad too, red shorts, black socks and tennis shoes. What were they thinking! You don’t HAVE to dress like a tourist!
Saturday was a complete wash, Deb was out of the house so I set about fixing our washing machine, it has a debris build-up problem that a helpful service technician would have charged us $200 bucks for. I did it and got my hands all cut up. The insides of our washing machine is like a wet-dirty car engine with razor blades in random areas.
Deb and I went to see the new Batman flick . Short version; It’s an excellent psychological thriller masquerading as an action film. I loved the interplay between the various characters, then they broke for relatively boring action bits, then more interplay. The late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker was marvelous. I’ve always thought of the Joker as the perfect villain, insane; no particular goals or motive, working towards anarchy and chaos but uncaring of the consequences should he achieve it. “Ledger stated that his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.”
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I think he got it perfectly. Overall the film was a bit hard to follow, it was edited into the current – edgy style, whatever they call it. The editing was harsh and unforgiving. Many- many tracking shots to the point of absurdity. I really liked that the film was on location most of the time, Gotham City was not some weird backlot fantasy of giant statues (that always annoyed me.) The city looked like a freaking city for once, nice touch.
Out with the old!
I guess I should be updating this more often. In looking back I note that Scientology has pretty much taken over this weblog. They have a tendency to do that but life does go on, I live a very full life without a bunch of advice and training from L. Ron Hubbard. I really feel sorry for people who have fallen into that trap. I wish there is some way I could help them and I would help if I could!Perhaps I can, you people reading this must have courage and look beyond what your people higher up the bridge tell you. I think it’s a shared illusion, I can prove it is but you have to let me inside first.
Try life in the real world; billions find it beneficial!
Enough of that! The balance of the summer came and went too quickly! Deb took E’ and visited her father out of state. I kept the home fires banked. I didn’t enjoy it very much, it was too dang quiet around the Humble Hut.
We went ahead and got the new car last July. We have been talking about retiring the old 4Runner for a while now. It was getting on the decrepit side and while, the AC went out and that’s a very expensive fix. The water pump was starting to leak around the shaft.
What we ended up getting was a 2008 Honda Fit. Smaller engine, better mileage and almost the same inside space as the 4Runner.
I like it, it’s not a sports car but it can carry all of my SCA armor. Deb and I took it, E’, E’ two cousins, the two dogs and luggage to an upstate cabin that a friend owns. There are several deep springs on the property so the boyz got to swim to their heart’s content. We recently got a hound-type dog (Deb thinks shes a beagle-greyhound mix,) we allowed her to run around the property a bit. The new dog is about a year old, full grown but still a puppy and not completely house-broken. She’s E’s dog but she is a bit of a handful!
We decided not to got to Pennsic this year. I’ve gone to the last 18 of those dang things and I miss it! However it was new car or Pennsic, the car won out.
Catching up; Interesting Times 7.0
I’ve been off-the-blog for a while, the wife and kid were away for two weeks and I’ve been taking a break. Last Saturday there was another Anonymous protest and I ambled over to Clearwater on my trusty bike to take in the locals and see what the Anons were up to.
Like the other protests, this one had a theme. It was “Spy vs. Sci,” to highlight Scientology’s intelligence gathering wing the Office of Special Affairs. Naturally they deny that the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) is any more than a PR department, just like they deny that harassment and vicious litigation are sacraments in “their religion.” What? Litigation and harassment are sacraments? How can that be?
Scientology’s core belief is that anything said by L. Ron Hubbard is true and correct. Furthermore they have to read and sign a document called “keeping Scientology Working” which says in part,
(Hubbard describing non-Scientology-like thinking.)
This point will, of course, be attacked as “unpopular”, “egotistical” and
“undemocratic”. It very well may be. But it is also a survival point. And I
don’t see that popular measures, self-abnegation and democracy have done
anything for Man but push him further into the mud. Currently, popularity
endorses degraded novels, self-abnegation has filled the South East Asian
jungles with stone idols and corpses, and democracy has given us inflation and
income tax.
So in other words, it’s OK to attack anyone who refuses to join Scientology or is skeptical of it. That’s because freedom, democracy and all of that crap has produced nothing of value anyway. Only good old fashion tyranny works in human society.
What kind of twisted- demented person could sign such a piece of drivel?
Drivel or not, this is part of the Scientology religion and is therefore a sacrament, that is assuming Scientology is a religion at all.
This is of course utter nonsense, East Asian jungles are full of stone idols put there by thriving civilizations that lasted far longer than this one has. The only reason Scientology was able to grow at all is because of a tenancy in our society to be liberal and tolerant of new ideas.
Hubbard was nothing if not completely ignorant of history which in my experience is reflected in his followers.
But the point is that the basic tenants of Keeping Scientology Working are twofold, 1) Anything Hubbard said is correct and true. 2) any idea that Hubbard did not come up with is false and harmful. Then Hubbard makes additional statements demanding that his ideas be applied to everyone on Earth.
It’s difficult to read that stuff and NOT get a sense of dread urgency about how far this organization has run afoul. It’s my understanding that this document is read and signed each time a person takes a course. It is a sacrament of their “religion” to hold the document in high esteem and hold the tenants described in it as truthful. Anyone who holds those words in the center of their being is (in my estimation) sick. Don’t take my word for it! I’m not a doctor. Read this crap for yourself!
Said Hubbard. In Keeping Scientology Working.
“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.”
I suppose if this were not a recipe for a fanatical belief I don’t know what would be. I can only hope some of these people pinch themselves and realize what they are looking like to the rest of us. Upon reading KSW a few times, it’s no wonder some Scientologists behave like loons.
***
So the protest last Saturday was small, about 30 people picketed downtown Clearwater. A couple of people wandered off the main group and were reportedly accosted by Mr. P. I’ve heard this story repeated, it seems when the Anons are alone or in small groups, Mr. P. pops out of the woodwork and begins demanding names. They had a couple of blokes covered from head to foot with voice distorters and they told me that Mr. P. seemed pretty frustrated with them.
I met a couple of fascinating people at the protest. I didn’t see Mr. P. or “KP.” But I have bumped into people who know them. Reputations run deep and the folks who have ended up running things in Clearwater have some very interesting pasts. “KP,” has got some interesting history in Clearwater.
Some of the most fascinating stuff is happening away from Clearwater though. There are minor incidents happening every day it seems like. People get accosted, followed, one lady says that some people followed her into a bar and she stayed there for over five hours. In Stockholm a couple of young girls grappled cameramen, in Battle Creek MI some folks marched out of an org and tore up protest signs.
One of the strangest tales comes from Hollywood California, a lady brought her kids to a protest and when they broke for lunch they found a Scientologist barring them from entering a restaurant. It’s unclear if the restaurant owners cared one way or the other but the Scientologist supposedly physically prevented the kids (five and six years old) to take off their masked of not go inside. The police were finally called and the Scientologists fled. Apparently the woman has nothing to do with the restaurant, she just took it upon herself to block people she didn’t like from this public place.
Now… where have I heard this before?
I remember now!
There is another story, again from California (LA this time) where they roped off several city blocks for some gathering. Apparently they were making people who live in the area walk three or four blocks out of the way to get to their homes, one old lady on a walker was seen to accost the people guarding the empty side walks, “L. Ron Hubbard doesn’t run my life,” she shouted… “Bad people!” and pushed passed the guard..
Bad people indeed, the evidence of just how bad is mounting.
Happy Independance Day!
I ventured to downtown Clearwater last night, on my bike. I’ve been restoring an old all-terrain bike that someone had placed on a curb with a “free-take it!” sign. It looked like it had been in a ditch, there was a lot of rust and crap all over it. But the mechanical bits were in fine condition. I repacked the bearings and I’ve been cleaning the other parts. It is not as good a new but it is very usable, and free!
I mounted lights and last night I took off to see the fireworks. An easy 30 min later I arrived at Coachmen Park.
Well, sure (Mr. P.) I had ulterior motives, don’t all SPs have ulterior motives? The Anons were holding a protest and I wanted to see what they were up to. There were a small group of them in a “protest paddock” that the Clearwater PD set up. It didn’t matter much, there were a lot of people walking by and talking to them. I met a couple of Anons that I had not run into before and they told me an interesting thing. The told me that someone was handing out letters with names on them.
Not cease and desist letters it turns out. I’m not sure what I would call them, dead-agenting letters? Attempts to intimidate people with their real names? After I read a few of them I can see that Scientology is still under the assumption that anyone associated with Anonymous is guilty of whatever anyone does anonymously, anywhere in the world.
Such a long, strange leap in logic but what can you expect from them?
Ironically, Scientology members have been joining Anonymous protests as Anonymous members protesting Anonymous! It’s happening in California and a few other places.
I wonder if that idea makes their heads hurt as much as it does mine?
So anyway, technically (were I to nit-pick at the level that they do,) anything that is done in the name of Anonymous is also being done with the endorsement of Scientology! Since the Scientoligists posing as Anonymous protesters are doing so under the direction of the higher-ups in Scientology, it makes it a matter of official policy as well. I really don’t think they want to go there, but common sense does not seem to be their strong suite.
Well the fellow handing out letters was none other than Mr. P. He’s apparently been hatted with handling the protesters. Most of the conversation between he and they Anons can be found here. Like before he steered the conversation into places he wanted. He kept repeating that he didn’t want to speak on camera. I still get the impression that he really does not know what to do about the whole Anon thing. ( I don’t really blame him, Shawn Lonsdale was (I think) a simple non-problem and they made him into a major headache. They don’t wan to make the same mistake with 10,000 Shawn Lonsdales.
I would be happy to have a conversation with Mr. P. or anyone over at Flag, heck I invite any of them to respond here. I have this wacky idea that anything one has to say to another should be for public consumption for ultimately, nothing it private. I hope none of the Anons make the mistake of entering into negotiations with Scientology. They really don’t seem to have anything to offer. All they can do is attack and threaten (and if you think what Mr. P is doing is not a threat, think again.) It’s more subtle than their usual thing but a threat is a threat. They will try to dead-agent the protesters like they have always done. I don’t think there is much room to compromise in any case. Compromise in Scientology lingo is just a bribe.
But Mr. P and his bosses need to remember what also happened last Friday night in Clearwater. The place was full of non-Scientologists. In fact the palce was full of people indifferent if not actively hostile to Scientology. The protesters are a group, only a few hundred people in the area have taken part. But their feelings about Scientology seem to be echoed by almost everyone in this community.
The next protest is on Saturday, July 12th, 2008. The Anons will be mustering at Coachman Park at around 10:AM.
More info can be found here. PM me if you would like to know more about what this is all about.
Interesting Times 6.0
Went to the anti-Scientology protest Saturday. (The pics were unabashedly ripped from here) There were around 40 people at peak. It was all very orderly and peaceful. I me a couple of people that I’d only gotten to know on line. The Fort Harrison is a beehive of activity, construction people are on the roof waving at us.
The only notable thing was the fact that the Scientologists seem to have decided that the protesters are not raving lunatics (not raving in any case,) and that they are in no physical danger from them. They were out and about in usual numbers (my thumbnail average is sighting about 10-12 people in Sea Org uniforms at any given time, more if it is during a shift change.) They were not out in force and they were avoiding the protest routes. The few we encountered made a big show of no making eye contact.
We had one rather rude lady hassle some of the people who stayed behind watching the rally point. She was reportedly yelling and cursing people, one fellow approached her and she did a camera grab. She came by several more times just giving people the finger and suchlike. Some of the homeless people hooted at her.
I chatted with one older fellow who claimed to have been on Hubbard’s ship back in the 70s. He made a point to tell us that “Scientology is the only religion that offers a refund!” I didn’t argue the point with him (what would be the point?,) I did mention that some people seemed to have difficulty on that score.
I asked him what he thought was going on here and he said that he had no clue. He was very nice, but rather insistent that “young people nowadays don’t bother to check out things for themselves – they really don’t know what Scientology is” He said that he was not really a Scientologist any more, I don’t know if that was true or not and it really didn’t matter. He scoffed at some of the fashion choices of the Anons, their hair especially. I gave him the line about “every generation thinking that they invented sex and Mohawks, and being wrong on both counts.” Conclusion? He was probably posing, it’s difficult to tell. He did not behave like some of the Ex Scientology people I’ve met, he was a bit more scripted for lack of a better term.
I spoke with some of the Clearwater homeless, they seem to get a kick out of the anons, one fellow was in the Nav about the same time I was. I was wearing my Ship’s ballcap and we chatted about Navy stuff. I get a little irritated at the Sea Org and their military pretense. Phony people bother me and they are phonies in my book. Some of the guys sitting around the park were pretty vocal in their support. Oh yes and so are many people passing by on the roads.
As with the last few protests, Clearwater was very quiet. I didn’t see as much as a furtive camera man although there seemed to be a few PIs around. They mostly stayed in their cars with the windows rolled up and the AC running. I said hi to Mr P. and the Flag security honcho (Mr. K.), it’s the very first time I’ve seen him at any of the downtown protests. He’s one of the folks who claimed that I encourage people to shoot Scientologists with machine guns, I suppose if he really believes that, even showing his face must be a tremendous act of bravery on his part. If he does not believe it, I wonder how he looks himself in the mirror. I sincerely hope I didn’t frighten him.
So; once again I thank the Anons for putting on a fine protest, the Clearwater Police who (as always ) did an exemplary of keeping order. Scientology – once again was on its best behavior, the “no anonymous “ signs in the store windows were amusing as allways and I think the construction people on the Ft Harrison got a kick out of the protesters. I bet next time, they won’t even look up. What are the odds?
Insanity can be defined as….
Just goes to show you how some people do the same things over and over again expecting different results. I know a teacher with a sign on her wall that defines this behavior as insanity.
A few years ago Mark Bunker was filming the Scientology Celebrity center and one of their big young goons quietly walked up behind him and they bumped. This resulted in the police being called for an alleged assault charge, the whole absurd thing was caught on camera. It came to nothing, the police were scratching their heads at a young fit man claiming that he was injured after Mark accidentally bumped him and apologized.
The other day, Stu “Killdozer,” Wyatt, a scooter-bound protester in Plymouth England allegedly ran over the toe one of the local Scientologists and was arrested for assault. From what I saw on the video, the Scientologist was deliberately sticking her feet under his scooter, something that he warned her about.
Not that this means anything, if Scientology thinks you are an SP they can use whatever means necessary to have you arrested for “crimes.” Hubbard told them that anyone who does not like Scientology is a criminal and guilty of murder and other capital offenses.
It’s right out of the old script. Bump them, cry havoc and call the cops. Say how threataned you felt, from the fellow in the wheelchair.
They have managed to shake up a flagging hive of Anons once again (good move guys! ) Stu is incognito and for some reason his PC and video equipment was confiscated. It’s going to be interesting to see how far this goes.
One thing for sure, this time it is going to be far more public and immediate.
