News and mead

Truer words have never been spoken

All right people, New Years Eve is almost upon us. Those end of year lists and those looking back remembrances? Yeah, I'm sick of them too. Generally I like to avoid them. This guy with the laser beam stare is Henry Rollins. He was the lead singer for a punk group called Black Flag. He has his own show on satellite radio. Occasionally you'll see Henry turn up on the big screen. Last I saw of him was on Sons of Anarchy. Henry is one all around bad ass and I admire the man greatly.
This picture was floating around on my hard drive and I put it up for no reason other than it's cool.

Spent all day bottling my metheglin, or dry mead. It is about as simple a recipe as you can get. I would go so far as to say that it is the equivalent of Rice Krispie treats in terms of making. When it hits the tongue, the flavor is slightly sweet. As you swallow it, the crispness rolls over your pallet. I recommend serving it chilled.
I also have over Twenty-three bottles.

I'm gonna need a bigger wine rack

If you enjoy white wine, you will definitely enjoy this drink. Now I need to make labels. This was an all day task. Soaking and scrubbing the labels off the bottles. Then cleaning them inside and out. Finally sterilization, siphoning and corking the bottles. My friends come out of the woodwork whenever I announce it's ready. New rule: if you show up to help me brew or bottle it, you are entitled to enjoy it with me. Special thanks to my lovely wife who helped me get though bottling day. She also made the labels. Now we need to print them up.

Cards for Christmas

I'm going to make this a quick one while the girls get the dishes taken care of. One of the traditions in our house is the girls get to choose between two books for me to read before sending them off to bed on Christmas eve. The first is 'The Night Before Christmas', by Clement C. Moore. This particular edition is illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. I think the whole book is wonderful. Maybe it's just me but Santa on the cover looks suspiciously like Jerry Garcia.
I never get tired of reading that poem. Each time I get up in front of my audience, I find something new in it that just makes me feel warm inside.
The second choice is 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', by Dr. Suess. Another classic that will never get old.
Tonight we played a card game called Five Crowns. The beautifully illustrated cards will do their best to keep you from concentrating on the game itself. A simple rummy-style came with ever changing wild cards. This game is good because it helps my youngest with her math skills although she doesn't know it. My middle daughter the card shark actually managed to remain scoreless for nearly the entire game. 
I have a feeling there is going to be a rematch tomorrow after presents and possibly before I make pancakes.
Merry Christmas one and all!

Winter Solstace

It wasn't that the day was short, the sun never truly showed it's face. It was dark enough to turn on the Christmas lights at 4:30. My intention was to write this over the course of a few hours, however life had other plans. My oldest daughter arrived on Greyhound from Colorado. Just in time for Christmas. They always come home and for that I'm grateful.
Last post I stuck a lot of links in. Some right next to each other which is a no-no, but there's a lot going on and we are becoming part of a weird and wonderful world.
Bionic men like myself are not behaving like disabled people. For those of you joining us this evening, I detest that word, disabled. It's an ugly word. Society expects me to behave a certain way and my life should be curtailed to a cultural norm.
Fuck that shit.
Last night I got a notice somebody bought my book. Last month a dear friend overseas bought a copy. I felt ashamed because I've been working on it and she didn't buy the tighter, stronger, improved version. To my chagrin, I had to take the old version down. Createspace and Amazon were nice as far as self-publishing goes, but I soon lost patience wrestling with the format. As of this writing I can't get the margins and the bleed to cooperate. This results in sentences being cut off, chapters sliced and general shoddy appearance. I won't allow that. I turned off the distribution channels and there it will sit, until we can get this sorted out. If you were to look up Travelers Road under my name, it would show you the books are sold out. That much is true. I will be submitting TR to another publisher before the year is out, never fear. With it being professionally edited and much leaner, we may be seeing it again soon.
My mead proceeds. 

Beginning

Middle

There's another picture in here, but it doesn't want to load properly. By properly, I mean doing what I want it to.

Almost the end?

I find it fascinating with the color change in just a few weeks. I was worried that this might not be ready in time for my sister's birthday in a couple of weeks. This might come in just under the wire. More likely than not, I'll be bottling this on her birthday. Almost time to fire up the label maker.
There is another person who is defying the norm. The video I'm going to try to load and or link to is an singer named Viktoria Modesta.
Confession time. I have no idea what she sounds like. My kids say she's not bad. I looked up the lyrics and thought they were kind of lame, but a lot of songs when they're laid out on paper look a bit on the dull side. We can't all be Bohemian Rhapsody.
Here is what I see. A beautiful girl who is bravely defying conventional norms. She's not talented because of her leg. She's talented despite her leg. 
I pointed this out a long time ago. In a retail store that employs hundreds, I can go nearly a full day without people talking to me. Oh yeah, I tested that one out. We're nearly invisible. After a quick search, (my Google-fu is strong.) it turns out there are a number of authors who are deaf. Seems I'm in good company.

Target rich enviorment

With so much in the news lately, I can't help but have trouble choosing what to point out. There were good things. Also, not so good things. Things that made me say, finally! and events that made me have hope for us wee humans. I can't say we've solved all our problems, but we're getting better at it, and that's promising. From the I'm-not-dead department. The Kepler telescope is back on track, sort of.  And proof we don't know everything.

There is life out among the stars. The odds are surprisingly in our favor of finding life. We're discovering life in the deepest recesses of our own planet. Is it just me or can anybody see the similarities of exploring the bottom of the ocean and the solar system? The probes that we use to explore the Marinara trench would be equally effective when we get around to exploring Europa. I'm fairly certain that was a story by Asimov or Heinlein, somebody comment on this if they remember the title of the story. Personally I think the two fields share similar obstacles. Pressure, gravity, exploration, funding. 

As far as North Korea goes, I'm reminded of a pearl of wisdom from J.K. Rowling, Tyrants fear the population they oppress. Despite it being 60 odd years into the Kim regime, something inside tells me we might see the words Korean Spring in our future. Kim Jong-un has a unique opportunity. He can follow in the footsteps of his father and continue to self-impoverish his country, or he could pull a Mikhail Gorbachev and do a Korean version of Glasnot. The world does not abide a hermit kingdom. Choose wisely Mr. Kim.

CRomnibus?

CRomnibus sounds like a weird name, huh? Well, let me put it as best as I understand it. An omnibus bill is nothing more than a spending plan for the government when everyone agrees how the money should be spent. It tells us how much is going to which agency and department. The CR part is simply a Continuing Resolution when they can't agree. So they're telling us that they can't come to a deal on how to spend the money for the next fiscal year. So we have a budget that no one is happy about. Par for the course.
I was happy about the bill, then two heartbeats later I hated the bill. First understand the bill is 1,600 pages long. Some of it I approve of, such as increased spending for NASA. There are some other stuff in there that makes me sick, like increasing the amount of campaign donations a person or corporation can give or did you know there's another bailout for Wall Street in there?
Nobody wants another shutdown, which is why the lawmakers did what they did.
I'm beyond annoyed there were so many pork riders attached to that bill. This is why we can't have good things people.

In the brace for impact department, the Texas ledge is considering repealing the ban on open carry firearms. However,  An open carry advocate has already second ammendmented her family.  By their very definition, these people are not responsible or intelligent.
Things will not go well from here. I know a lot of responsible gun owners. They're against the open carry laws. There is a four hour course and license you have to get for a concealed weapon permit. That's not good enough for these bullies who want to terrorize the average person while they do their holiday shopping.
I've met these rednecks too, we all have. These guys think owning and brandishing a weapon makes them powerful and important. When I see them there is only one thing to do. Make fun of them. 

Too late for a photo opportunity

My wife and youngest child piled into the car on Saturday. One of my wife's cousins was tying the knot over in Houston. It seemed pretty straight forward and we made it with just under an hour to spare. Houston traffic is notorious, but with a little timing we managed to avoid the worst of the rush hour snarls. As we were closing on the final mile to the wedding, we passed Johnson Space Center. Yes, that Space Center. Of course it was on NASA parkway. I didn't think to stop and get a picture as we drove past. Then it was so late when we went by it again, I thought we might drive by it the next morning. Whoops. The best laid plans of mice and men...
I know, I know, pics or it didn't happen. I must be some kind of dork or something because I don't whip out my camera every thirty seconds. What surprised me was that it was so close to the bay. We're talking about less than a mile from the harbor where the wedding took place. Yes, the wedding pictures had a lot of sailboats and docks in the background. It was a nice touch. Very classy. I keep promising myself to go on a little research expedition to all the places I read and write about. A tour of the back roads and byways. Life is more than what you see outside the car window as you dash down the freeway. It's all right to take the back road and the long way around. We discover some of the neatest stuff that way.
A little over a week until Christmas. Is your shopping done? I'm thinking of stockpiling foodstuffs because the grocery is so jam packed. Not only do I try my best to avoid the malls after Black Friday, I only do my grocery shopping very late at night or early in the morning. Those places are crazy. I'd rather be in my pajamas with a mug of coffee or hot cocoa, not venturing out to test my blood pressure.

That feeling again

Last post I was going to mention some stuff that happened earlier in the week, but got side tracked with all the space stuff.
It was 35 years ago on December 8th that John Lennon was assassinated. I was only 12 at the time. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?
I'd discovered the Beatles from my parents record collection as well as listening over the radio. That's where I was, getting dressed for school and the announcement came over the radio. I was shell shocked for the remainder of the day, in some ways I still am. He touched a lot of people and still does. A few years back, we bought that Beatles Rock Band game. My kids enjoyed it so much, even my oldest who quipped, 'Dad, these songs make sense!'
Yes, dear, they do.
The man who shot him will be up for parole in 2016, but I don't think he is ever going to see the light of day. I really don't want to mention his name, seeing as he did what he did for notoriety. So by burying his name is my little way of saying, 'fuck you bastard.'

My latest brewing experiment proceeds apace. A couple of posts ago, I took a photo of the mead right after I transferred it to the secondary carboy. Here we are five days later.

Does this make be look fat?

Notice the color change and the yeast starting to form on the bottom. If I've done this right, it will look like white wine in color and consistency when done. The readings I took when I started indicated this will be around 14 to 15 percent alcohol. The last batch I made didn't taste alcoholic at all. It simply crept up on you like a ninja. The drinker never suspects a thing.
Hopefully this will clear up by the end of January and I'll bottle it. While every thing I've been able to read says it will be ready to drink at that time, several forums suggest that I store the mead for a year to let it mellow in the bottle. Hmm... let me get back to you on that one.

New viewers

A couple of people asked me to give them the link to my blog. That was right after they said, 'I didn't know you could spell.' Ha ha, thanks guys.
So for new viewers, here are some of the guidelines.
I try and not use individual names. Gotta protect my friends and conserve what little privacy I have.
Public figures and politicians are fair game. If you're stupid, I will call you out. Some other guidelines to go by:
My rights end where yours begins.
Treat people the way you want to be treated.
Don't be jealous of other people's success.
Do no evil, or, don't be a dick.
Never refuse home made brownies.
Beware of fast talkers.
Watch out for the little guy who thinks he has nothing to lose.
Talk to a friend.
Too much of anything is bad for you.
Be slow to trust, but steadfast in friendship.
Let go of the negative feelings.
Volunteer at least once a year.
Donate blood.
Vote.
Speak your mind, but be prepared to back your view up.
Have a garage sale.
Be honest.
You're stronger than you think.
If afraid or uncertain, fake it. No one can tell the difference.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

In two weeks the whole family will be together. My intrepid adventurer will be home from Colorado for Christmas break. To that end we are getting ready for her arrival, both on the outside.

And inside was well

Be that as it may, I have to get busy wrapping presents and I spent the morning doing this.

It may not look like much  now, but over the next month that is going to change color and appearance. Yes, I can see where I'm going to start giving bottles of mead out as presents. Note to self: make some labels.

In other news, the New Horizons spacecraft is coming out of hibernation as it approaches Pluto. Brush off your science books, they are about to be rewritten. This is the fun stuff for me. As our knowledge of the universe around us increases, so our understanding changes. Now here's the interesting part. Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet years ago, like Ceres and Vesta. When we launched New Horizons nine years ago, we had just figured out Pluto had a moon. In 2005, 2011, and 2015 we discovered the other moons. Talk about changing your flight plan. As fantastic as discovering five moons can be, another couple of problems unfolded. Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos have enough mass to effect Pluto. In fact the current theory talked about is Charon and Pluto are tidally locked to each other. Here's a page where they are counting down to the closest approach to Pluto.
Here's the second problem. New Horizons is going fast. How fast?
Try 58,536 km per hour. And it still took a little over nine years to get out there. Pretty impressive, huh? Except it can't slow down. It will be taking pictures and recording information as much as it can, but the actual time in the Pluto system will be about two hours. If all goes well, it will use Pluto's gravity to help point it toward one or two objects in the Kuiper belt. Proto planets, if you will. Don't worry, they were only discovered last year.
Things are so far away, we are only beginning to discover them. Scientists are also getting better at figuring out orbits. The link to Sedna I provided above indicates it would take 10,000 years to  go around the sun. There are other indicators that are making the scientific community scratch their collective heads.
The math doesn't add up.
Sedna's orbit and rotation would indicate it had a moon, but so far they haven't seen it. When a planetary body behaves oddly, an outside force is typically suspected. That's how they found Neptune and Pluto. Uranus was behaving oddly. Scientists in the late 19th century had plotted the orbits for Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The only problem was Uranus wasn't where it was supposed to be. The math was correct, but nevertheless, Uranus failed to be where it should have been. An outside force must be acting on what was then considered to be the last planet in the solar system. Using the information available, scientists theorized an unknown planet would be in such and such a general area, and they did eventually discover Neptune, but it wasn't behaving properly either. It seems Newtonian law is a bit on the thin side at the edge of the solar system.
Actually Newton's laws worked, but the Sun's pull was reduced and influenced by the planetary bodies exerting their own dance of gravity. It took several teams of scientists on two continents looking through photographic plates in the beginning of the 20th century. At first they didn't recognize what they were seeing, but Pluto was eventually discovered in 1930. Now flash forward to the dawn of the 21st century where we are discovering satellites around the not-quite-a-planet. And we are discovering more.
The universe is a lot stranger than we think.

Oh boy!

In the about damn time department. The Orion spacecraft is due for it's maiden launch in two days.
Here's what's going to happen. It's a two orbit shakedown to test the rocket's systems. In addition to checking out the radiation shielding and the two stage rockets, Orion is heading to an altitude of 5,800 kilometers. That's higher than humans have been in quite a while. Here's a list of the itinerary.
When Orion launches, it will look like it's on fire. That's because it is. The rocket is propelled by liquid hydrogen and right before liftoff, some hydrogen escapes near the engine bells. So when the count reaches zero and the engine fires, it really does. The surrounding air catches fire and scorch marks can be seen on the tanks. I think they did it that way to look cool.
Here's what the launch will look like.
This is all in preparation for the next big mission. NASA put dates on going to Mars and some asteroids. 
This is a short film called Wanderers by Erik Wernquist. I'm told Carl Sagan is narrating the feature. On the link I just provided there is another to Erik's page. There's a neat gallery and Erik provides some commentary. My only criticism is it's not captioned, but that's okay. I've been dreaming about exploring the stars since I was a kid, and it looks like we are finally getting around to it. Perhaps I won't make it to the moon, but my children or grandchildren will grow up knowing about the next wave of human colonization. As long as we humans are doing this now, within my lifetime, I can be at peace with it.
  

Somewhere in between

The day before Thanksgiving I found myself on a delivery run. Dropping off those refrigerators and stoves so they can shove a turkey in them for their inaugural cooked meal. 
We dropped off a fridge and stove at a subdivision alongside a golf course. Very swanky neighborhood. The houses were mansions and went for three hundred grand easily. As we were leaving this gated community, I noticed a half melted garage door frozen in mid-flow down a driveway. A house had caught fire the night before. (Not the one we were delivering to.) The roof was gone. Only partial walls and charred timbers remained. My heart went out to this family who suffered so much loss the day before Thanksgiving. I hoped no one lost their lives.
My driver and I continued to drop off appliances like Santa'a elves, spiraling out all the way to Seguin, a small town about thirty five miles away.
We dropped off a washer and fridge to a farm way off the beaten path. At a guess the farmhouse must have been built before air conditioning was invented. The ceiling had to of been over nine feet above our heads. The farmer pulled up in his John Deere tractor as we backed in. I was afraid we would get stuck in the dirt and mud and he'd have to pull us out. Originally the house must have been a two room affair. Over time, the owners kept adding rooms. We went over three different foundations and as many exterior doors to get to the kitchen.
I could tell the farmer did a lot of his own work on the house. The doors were different widths, getting the stuff on the porch required strength and a working knowledge of geometry. You notice this stuff when you have to squeeze a washing machine through a narrow archway. I'll lay money that farmer doesn't have a plumb bob in his tool chest.
Far from looking down on his creative architecture,  I found myself admiring how resourceful he was with the material he had on hand. 
My day started off witnessing a well off family lose their house, and my day ended with a man who had next to nothing hanging on and building additions to his house  as he could afford them. Seeing both of these things made me grateful for what I have and Thankful for the people in my life.

300

November 27, 2014. Thanksgiving is upon us. As I sit outside tending the turkey on the grill, my wife is preparing the side dishes. When I went inside to refill my wine glass, she was busy roasting chestnuts. Last night we made the cheesy mashed potatoes. The cornbread stuffing she is putting together now is a meal unto itself with sweet sausage and tart cranberries.
Tradition is what defines us. During the holidays our family raises our glasses in a toast at one p.m. We salute our family and friends. Loved ones and the ones we lost in the past year. It is neither festive or somber, but somewhere in between. I would describe it as heartfelt and reassuring.
Because the cornbread stuffing requires only 1/4 cup of white wine and our toast only uses about half a bottle, there is a bit left over. Pity really, I had to finish off that before I opened the prickly pear mead I'd made during the summer.
In two weeks we are attending a wedding for family in Houston. I selected the best bottle of mead I made as a wedding gift. The wife kindly printed up a label personalized for the happy couple. While the turkey cooks in the smoker, I am contentedly sitting sipping the second of the three bottles of mead. Having never tasted the fruits of this brewing experiment would be tantamount to sacrilege. Offering a newly married couple swill or at worst, poison, is unthinkable. Quality control, you understand...

Several hours have passed since the last paragraph. Apparently I made it to the Thanksgiving dinner, stood up and proceeded to the bedroom where I passed out, drunk as a skunk. The wife says that was as drunk as I've been in over 25 years. I woke up incredibly thirsty, not for mead, but water. There is a little chunk of time missing from my memory. So my first mead making venture was a success-- for certain quantities of the word success. Good thing I'm a happy drunk. The bottle that we will be giving the newlyweds is very powerful, perhaps a warning label should be printed up. In any case, I think a business got started. The author who makes some really powerful mead. Wow.

No surprise

The rioting in Ferguson continues. Can't say I didn't expect that outcome. Also, Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted by the grand jury. It's events like this that test my belief in the rule of law.
As I've mentioned before, I'm against knee-jerk reactions in general. Everyone is guilty of them, myself included. The fact that I recognize the emotions for what they are and try to make corrections should count for something.
I read the key reports about the incident that caused the death of Micheal Brown.
Another blog I read is from Larry Correia. In the blog he describes the legalities of using lethal force. Aside from being a good writer, Larry is a certified firearms instructor.
I don't agree with him all the time, but his posts fall under intelligent dialogue and reasonable discussion. All the articles I've linked help you the reader to step back and see the larger picture. That picture is: we weren't there that August day.
The thought I'm left with is what happened before Mr. Brown got close to Darren Wilson's patrol car? 
I think Wilson got away with murder, plain and simple. I read and saw the hospital report and saw the pictures of Wilson after he was treated. I'm not buying his story of broken cheekbones and fear for his life.
While it's true I wasn't there, I have been on the giving and receiving end of disarming and incapacitating someone. Someone sticks their head in my car? They are asking for a headlock and more.
My bottom line: Darren Wilson went for his gun first, when it should have been the last.
The true disappointment I feel is with the black community and the rioters. Be mad. Be angry. Burning down a pizza restaurant and a used car dealership? I can clearly see where Little Ceasars was responsible in this matter.
Protesting for change is not a licence to break the law or destroy the livelihood of others. 

Gearing up

This may be a short post folks. I've been working on TR, but nearly as important, I'm doing a bit of homework. Call it research. My editor gave me an assignment. I needed to write back stories for the cast. Those stories in turn would help me flesh out the characters in TR. As of this writing those little vignettes won't ever see the light of day. Perhaps one day...
Been thinking about making a holiday mead. To that end, I put together a cinnamon mead with orange peel. Naturally this will not be ready before Christmas, or New Years for that matter. Last week I asked some friends if they would be interested if I held a tasting some time in the spring. Of course I'd need several flavors for people to try. Yeah, I'm exploring to see how far I can take this. So far I've asked several people, (liquor store owners, lawyers.) what kind of permits or licenses I'd need to sell mead. No one has given me a hard answer. 'It's not worth it.' was one response. Thanks, but I'd like to have some data and a dollar figure before I trash can the idea.
Last week I wrote about Anonymous and the KKK in Ferguson, Missouri. We're still waiting on the grand jury's decision and the governor has called out the National Guard. A prudent decision, in my opinion. After a week of chest thumping and a general pissing contest, let's check the score. Anonymous took down the websites, twitter accounts and posted the names and pictures of those original home grown terrorists. Anonymous warned that if the KKK chose to interfere or attack the protesters in the wake of the verdict, they would release the phone numbers and names of the KKK, effectively taking away their privacy. To show they were not bluffing, they released partial numbers. Also in the de-hooding of the KKK reveals that some members are deputy sheriffs. I read an article this morning and now I wish I saved it. In the article Anonymous warned both the KKK and the police against acts of violence. I can't find the article now, but if what I read is true, Anonymous has crossed a line into thinking it is above the law. Some time ago I mused about the limits and effects of vigilantism. Are there some bad cops out there? No doubt there are, but the officers I've met and formed friendships with are the good guys. They are the norm rather than the exception.

Some quick fun

I'm going to try and post this nifty link that came my way. It's an interactive webpage that lists all the states you've been to.

States I've visited

Okay that didn't work. Here's the link to the web page for a few minutes of wasted time.

Stronger than hate

As my brewing venture continues, so does the rest of the world. Turns out no one really cares about Kardassian butt, other than the three lonely guys who hang out at the mall. People were generally excited about landing on a freaking comet, but most of all folks were getting ready for the holiday baking season. 
My wife, ever the punster, got a box of ninjabread cookie kit. Yes, they're a thing.


Don't know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe both.
Right now she's making the label for the mead we've made thus far. So far the only idea is B+C mead, and even that is under debate.
B+C honey wine?
B+C brewery?
B+C Meadery?
B+C It's not poison, really.
Perhaps 'A Touch of Honey?' We're thinking about it.
My eldest experienced her first snowfall up in Colorado. I can't copy the video she sent me from her phone. We've all seen snowfall before, some of us more than others, but this is her first time experiencing it while it happens. Ah, the novelty of youth.
My friends over at the Planetary Society and NASA are getting ready for the New Horizons spacecraft to wake up from hibernation on December 6th. From there it will take a month to prepare for it's January 15th encounter with Pluto.
And here I was worried about the fundie's re-writing Texas history books when in fact we're about to rewrite everything we know about the outermost almost-a-planet. Between January and July of 2015, we are going to be getting a host of information about the edge of the solar system. After it's done flying by Pluto, there are three potential candidates for a flyby to explore objects in the Kuiper belt. Hey! We're exploring the solar system, baby! Oh, and it's a five hour lag between messages. What am I telling you all this for? Here's the link. Check them out.

Let's see. Wal-Mart workers are calling for a strike on Black Friday. I say, good for them. I sold my stock in Wal-Mart and don't shop there. I encourage my friends to do the same. Vote with your wallet people.

Okay, last item. The one that inspired the title. Time for us to turn our attention back to Ferguson, Mo. and the trial of Darren Wilson, for his crime of killing an unarmed black man, Micheal Brown. The tension is very high and people are preparing for the worst. The KKK announced that they would use lethal force against any protester after the verdict. Presumably the protesters would go after the police. Such a bold threat did not go unnoticed by the Hacktivist group, Anonymous.
The KKK websites were hacked and information about the Klan's members were made public and posted to You Tube. In fact, several sites are posting the identities of Klan members. Special thanks to Anomoly100 and Libraland for alerting us to this. It gets better. Tiffany Willis of Liberal America reposted the story and it got a lot of attention, especially from the KKK, who didn't like being unmasked. Then a person from the KKK called and left a threatening voicemail. I can't make this stuff up.
The next morning another voicemail came. This one was a bit different.
This would be entertaining, (and on one level it is.) if the underlying threats weren't there. Like my friends above, I don't do fear. Sure I get scared once in a while, but not for long.
My question to the KKK: compensate much?
Oh yeah, the hashtags #OpKKK and #Hoodsoff are good things to add to your twitter.
These KKK assholes are insecure bastards. Thanks for removing their hoods Anonymous.

  

Faith in Humanity

The other day I was talking about Pope Francis and the way he's leading by example and making progressive changes in the Catholic church. When I hear about the stuff he is doing, there is a deep seated belief that he's going about it the right way.
Here are some other people who are doing the right thing.
The ESA landed a probe on a comet. While everyone was ogling Kardashian bubble butt (I call photoshop on that), and the neo-cons are shouting how Obama is behind the spread of Ebola, the European Space Agency was making real news.
Philae, the probe from the Rosetta spacecraft, landed on comet 67P Churyumov-Garasimenko.
That's harder to spell than Kardashian, but at least the ESA is doing something nobody has ever done before. This is much more news worthy. The ESA topped NASA. Of course the boys down in Florida are going to be visiting Pluto in a few months, so that should count for something.
The BBC has an excellent article describing the landing and just how difficult it is.
Upon landing the drills and harpoons in the lander's feet were supposed to anchor the probe to the surface. Think about it, the gravity is almost nil. So yes, the probe actually bounced when it landed. 
I want to give you some perspective.


This is comet 67P photoshopped in with a picture of downtown Los Angeles. Originally, the probe was supposed to land on the far right side of the comet, roughly in the 3 o'clock position. Now we don't know what made it bounce. It could have been the harpoon as it deployed. It could have been the engine on top of the probe. The surface of the comet could be a lot less dense than anyone could guess. We don't know, and that's all right.
The philae probe has touched down, but they think it's on a slope or on it's side. Notice how it looks like two spheres mashed together? We'll call them bubble butt One and Two in honor of Earth's own Kardashian bubble butt. Hmm, would that be referred to as the greater and lesser B.B?
The top people at the ESA think that the probe is some where near the peak on the top of lesser B.B. Roughly twelve or twelve thirty. Oh, and keep in mind the probe is only about as big as a washing machine. So we landed a washing machine on bubble butt two. Boy, the jokes we could have with that.
Assignment time: Somebody photoshop the Philae lander on Kim's butt cheek please. Then we will really break the internet.

Pope watch

Just because I've been busy writing, doesn't mean my head is in the sand.
Pope Francis demoted a cardinal for his conservative views. Reform doesn't come easy, especially for the Catholic Church. The cardinal in question has always criticized the pontiff for his progressive stance regarding homosexuality and abortion.
Recently the Pope excommunicated an Argentine pedophile priest.
This goes a long way towards healing the rift between the church and the public. Some say the Pope isn't moving fast enough. Instead we should all say thank you for bringing action to something that was overdue.
I'm not religious, but I have to admire the man who sets an example of leadership. This man is someone we can all look up to. I already admire him for his efforts to bring the Catholic church into the twenty-first century.
In my humble opinion, Pope Francis is reaching out and spreading what it means to be a man of faith. By preaching tolerance and setting the example of inclusiveness, Pope Francis is doing more for the Catholic church than any pope before him.
Well done!

A little closer to home, the argument of net neutrality came up. Since Ted Cruz knows nothing about it other than President Obama advocates neutrality, he's against it. Never mind he showing his ignorance again. He can't help himself, being born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Fighting fear and ignorance where ever possible,  The Oatmeal breaks this issue down into bite sized pieces even Ted Cruz can wrap his tiny brain around. Before you get on the defend Ted bandwagon let me tell you. He's a self-serving spineless troll who takes money from corporations and will do whatever you want him to do, provided you give him money.
Now that I think about it, we should raise money for Ted to go jump off a bridge. Seriously, he's a proven money whore. He'd feel right at home after jumping off the bridge, he'd be down with his own kind, the bottom feeders.

Now what?

So yesterday I pushed through and got the last dozen chapters edited. Spelling and grammar, check. Sentence structure and tightening, check.
Next up, tieing characters to the plot and taking an axe to the story line. Here's the litmus test: if it doesn't move the story forward, it gets cut.
I started with the biggest chunks first. There was this one whole chapter that I didn't like. It had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story. Didn't advance the plot. No bearing on the rest of the story, so away it went. 2,000 words at the push of the button. I've a few more ideas about what to get rid of, but right now I'm concerned with my cast of characters. To that end I'm going to write a little short story featuring each character. I'm reasonably sure these won't see the light of day, but I might weave them into TR to flesh out the characters. Think of it as shots of adrenaline for ailing people. I need these guys to be up and about, not shuffling listlessly through life.
In my mind, I had a time table. The edits would take X amount of time. Submitting the story for publication (which would be immediately accepted.) would be done inside a month.
Only a fool would think it was that easy.
That little time table in my mind allowed me to set a pace. Every time I touch TR, rough patches disappear. Corners get smoothed over. The story becomes streamlined.
It's not that I think the story is no good, quite the opposite. The book needs to be living up to it's potential.

American football season is over, at least for our high school.Whew! Not a moment too soon. We have a cold front coming in tomorrow. Laugh all you want, but the collective IQ on a San Antonio driver goes down about 75 points when the ice and snow hit.

This weekend I bought a small wine rack to lay my mead sideways. I'm actually looking at recipes to try and make five gallons of mead sometime in the near future. On a side note, I think a line was crossed when I realized the need for a wine rack in my house.
This way when my family comes for a visit, I'll have some mead properly bottled and aged. Which reminds me, I better get a label maker. Any suggestions?

Quick post Halloween post

Hey guys, things have been a little busy here. I survived the five girl sleepover on Halloween and I have the pictures to prove it. Not those kind of pictures, get your mind out of the gutter.

Actually a cool bunch of kids

They had fun. I made pancakes for them in the morning. That was a win/win.

Then it was time to bottle the mead. Then off to finish editing my book. As of this writing I've thirty-nine chapters completed.

I take a chapter or two with me and I edit them on my lunch hour. After making dinner, I work on it some more. I stop when my eyes have trouble staying open.

October has been a busy month for everyone. The last football game of the season is tomorrow. If it rains or gets too cold I might not go.  The wife and I have to start making Thanksgiving plans. Christmas plans are already underway. We have to get our oldest home for the holidays. She'll be taking the bus back to Texas and I'll be taking my vacation time to coincide with her visit. I am hoping to have the edits done before the month is out. What I actually mean is I hope to have it submitted to the unsuspecting mortals-- er publishers, by then.

Today I'm in the doghouse. My beautiful wife sent me a lovely text. 

'Love you, hate not pleased with your hobbies right now.'

'I f'ing hate beer.'

The holiday beer I started yesterday sort of erupted. Blew the airlock off the carboy. Guess who had to clean it up?

I can only say I'm sorry so many times. Looks like my next few projects are going to be mead or wine. They won't blow up like a baking soda volcano.

Now I need a wine rack

New Years mead

Today was bottling day for the mead that has been sitting next to my desk for the last couple of months. Here's what it looked like before.

Cloudy with a chance of poison

Then over the weeks it changed to this

Interesting

So I let it do what it was supposed to do until today arrived. I spent a little time cleaning the bottles my sister collected for me. I peeled the labels off, sterilized everything along the way. This was the final result.

Not a big change

Makes three bottles

A two gallon jug makes three bottles. The first bottle came out the clearest because it was siphoned off the top. The second and third are cloudier. My next batch I'll strain them a little bit better. The cloudy bottles are yeast sediment. Harmless and easy to strain out while pouring. These bottles will be ready for New Years Eve although I'm going to only open one. At this point the mead will mellow with age, so no touching until spring. I'm considering getting some melting wax and sealing the bottles. Which reminds me. I should make some labels.

Doxxing and girl geeks

Despite what people think, I'm a bit reluctant to be the first one one the block with the latest tech. I'll wait till the bugs are out and the first product recall or patch, if necessary. Case in point- I signed on to Tumblr last night. As I was touching base with things, I came across an essay from Felica Day.
Day is an actress and all around geek who proudly bears the title. For those of you who don't know her, she's famous to the nerd and gamer set. Her tie-in to Texas? She attended UT Austin and double majored in Music and Mathematics. A stunning example of beauty and brains.
The essay involves the sexism and misogyny in the gaming community. The first time I heard of it was a couple of years ago when a person told me my girls can't be 'real' geeks because they were female. (Yeah, I tore that dipshit a new asshole as soon as the words came out of his mouth. I wasn't bullying him, I was forcibly correcting his childish behavior.) My oldest wasn't accepted by the local gaming club in her high school at first, until she beat them at a few games.
Role-playing games, board games, comic books, video games are all incorrectly perceived as male-centric. Female game developers and journalists have received death threats and have been doxxed for speaking out about the unequal treatment or active discrimination in the gaming community.
Doxxing is when your private information, addresses and numbers are publicly revealled, making life a living hell for the people involved.
Former NFL player Chris Kluwe, Wil Wheaton, and Felica Day all spoke critically about Gamergate. Guess which one got harassed?
This is the equivalent of a fat slob behind a keyboard saying, 'Be silent wench!' What is this, American Taliban?
Unfortunately there are no rules or laws regarding this sort of conduct, other than your own personal morals. Oh, there are anti-bullying and harassment laws on the books, but they're tough to enforce. When said fat slob hides behind a computer screen, he's not invisible, just very hard to track down, especially if he knows what he's doing. Welcome to the 21st century where you can be a prejudiced bigot online. This fourth grade mentality exists because it can. If the fat slob were face to face with the female gamer, a different conversation would be going on.
Here is a link to Felica Day's website and her essay describing Gamergate.
This is the twenty-first century people, wake up and grow up.

busy little beaver

Apologies for not updating Monday. I got my book back from my editor and I've been correcting stuff all weekend long. In fact, I knocked out chapter ten on my lunch hour. There are a few points she made that drove the point home. 'Tough, but fair,' is what she promised and boy did she deliver. I'm working through the structural issues and tightening up sentences to transform this book into a page turner. I'd read TR so many times and tried to fix what I found wrong, that I found myself nodding off.
Turns out, it wasn't just me.
Some poor word choices on my part left things bland and tranquilized people. Okay, my bad, but I'm working to fix it!
Well, I'm off to fix chapter 11. Let me leave you with a funny picture for the day.

Just saying.
This cartoon was rejected by the New Yorker. They've gone ahead and made a book with all the stuff that they didn't want in the New Yorker magazine. Here's the Amazon page. Your welcome.

Getting ready for Halloween

Even though my youngest is in her teens, she wanted to go out trick or treating. After a few questions I got the truth: she wants to dress up and get some candy. October is the busy time of the year for us. If it isn't a football game, it's a debate tournament or a band competition. Plus, she's a tad too old to go out trick or treating. Case in point: Oct. 31 there is a debate tourney going on. Nevertheless, I agreed to something slightly less hectic. I'm going to host a Halloween party for about 10 or 12 kids.
I must be nuts, but if I'm going to do this: I might as well put some effort into it. Decorations, party favors, candy treats. I've got a bucket, so perhaps we'll bob for apples? The wife just suggested caramel apples. I like that idea better. That's why I like her: she takes my good ideas and makes them great.
I've still got that soda mix. Birch beer and sarsaparilla. Today I thought about adding a bit of ginger and some melted butter to the soda as I'm making it. If I do this properly, there will be butterbeer served at the party.
The wife will be working that evening, so this is all going to be on me. So my weekend now looks like soda making and cleaning the house.
Here is a picture of what the mead looks like.

It's supposed to look like that

I was thinking of starting another batch. I'm also feeling I should make some holiday beer for Christmas. Decisions, decisions...

The mead has to clear up. It will simply take time, that's all. This is one of the things I can't hurry along. We must be patient.
Speaking of patient. I'm going to need a lab coat and a bow tie for my Halloween costume.

Feeling bad versus depression

This goes out to a friend. Another thing I can't say in 180 characters or less. If this is a way of reaching out for help, I would be remiss if I didn't respond. This meme picture came to my attention via Facebook.


No, you don't sweetie.
You may despair. Your spirit may feel crushed, your heart broken, but you do not want to be dead.
Every human being at one point in their lives feel like you do. Intelligent people are more in touch with their emotional state, that is why you feel a longing for release from your current situation.
You may think it, but you are not alone in your suffering. There are friends who like you. People who count on you. Children who look up to you.
It seems crass to simply say 'get over it', but that is exactly what needs to happen. Given time, and something you enjoy occupying your time, will heal those wounds you feel in your heart.
All too often people faced with what feels like insurmountable challenges turn away from them, rather than facing them head on. People hide and retreat into drunken stupors in an effort to numb the pain they feel, but it's only temporary. The emptiness inside remains, now coupled with a hangover to add to your problems!
If I may suggest an alternative: Cry. Get it out of your system. You have been hurt and you feel betrayed. Face your pain. That is the only way to make it go away.
Next: realize that the only person who is responsible for your happiness is you. Surround yourself with people who accept you and make you feel better. Do things with these friends. Do things that satisfy your needs and wants. You can't go back to the life that was. A new way to live lies in front of you. 
Finally: Forgive the person that has wronged you, and truly mean it. That person no longer has a hold on your heart or shares your life. What is most satisfying is the person you've become is because of what was done to you in the past. Ironically, those who broke your heart actually help you in the long run to become stronger and a better person.
In telling you this, I tried to draw on past experiences without saying what happened to me personally. If my former girlfriend hadn't acted as she did, I would have never have met my wife or my daughters.
Now there will come a time when I find myself face to face with my ex-girlfriend who broke my heart and hurt me to my very soul, and I will say these words to her: 'I forgive you for what was done in the past.'
If Karma and fate have anything to do with it, I will say these words as I roll up the window to my limousine. Life is full of ironic moments like that.

Perserverance

Not too many people can admit they're wrong. Who forgot to take out the garbage? Oh, mea culpa. That sort of stuff is easy to admit and it happens to the best of us. We deal with it. Live and learn.

But what if it's something that goes against your core beliefs? Copernicus and Galileo are today considered the founding fathers of astronomy, yet their heliocentric ideas went against the Catholic church doctrine. Copernicus was reluctant to publish his book on heliocentric ideas for fear of retribution. Galileo was actually convicted of heresy and under house arrest for nearly the remainder of his life.

Even today birthers (left wing nut jobs) vehemently deny that President Obama was born in the United States. News flash: Hawaii become the 50th state in 1959. There is a lawyer who is trying to get the President deported. I can't make this stuff up even though my imagination is quite healthy. I realize this is a piece of drama and fluff with no substance, but it only serves to add to the FUD. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
Fox 'news' thrives on that and you know the trouble? People are gullible enough to swallow it. Repeat a lie often enough and people begin to doubt. Is it really too much trouble to check an independent source? When Donald Trump started spouting that birther nonsense (As opposed to the usual drivel that comes out of his mouth.) I simply looked at the public record. Yet these idiotic people will continue to deny the truth. Seems a bit juvenile, doesn't it? Shouldn't they be locked up in an asylum for being that delusional? At best it is a childish temper tantrum.

My anti-vaccine friend from a couple of posts ago has effectively shut down/ kicked out/ unfriended/ any reasonable discussion of view points that don't align with his narrow world view. 
I've often wondered about the next big die off. In their history, humans have survived plague, wars, and famine. It's my personal belief the human race is overdue for a culling. Perhaps it's not going to be a flood and hurricane like Pat Robertson says. (Ha ha, that guy cracks me up.) Maybe we are going to kill ourselves with stupidity. The optimist in me would like to believe we are going to be improving the gene pool in grand Darwin Award fashion, but we have entirely too many stupid people saying idiotic things. This is one of the times where I wish stupidity was immediately painful. Not in a 'hold my beer and watch this' moment. (Although those are entertaining in and of themselves.) Perhaps a buzzer that goes off, giving the liar a headache. For repeat offenders, an electric shock sent through your cell phone as a reminder of your stupidity. Of course that's not going to happen, but I can day dream of electrocuting Bill O'Rielly for being an asshat.
For a long time now I've been following/ reading a blog from James Randi. His JREF foundation has a one million dollar challenge  to anyone who can demonstrates psychic, paranormal, or supernatural ability under satisfactory conditions. So far no one has taken him up on the offer. There is a quote from him that I'm very fond of. It sums up a great deal and shows why I am in awe of this man.
“There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion and cling to that belief regardless of any evidence that might, for anyone else, bring it into doubt. They are the ones who encourage and support the fanatics and the frauds of any given age. No amount of evidence, no matter how strong, will bring them any enlightenment. They are the sheep who beg to be fleeced and butchered, and who will battle fiercely to preserve their right to be victimized… patent offices handle an endless succession of inventors who still produce perpetual-motion machines that don't work, but no number of idle flywheels will convince these zealots of their folly; dozens of these patent applications flow in every year. In ashrams all over the world, hopping devotees of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will never abandon their goal of blissful levitation of their bodies by mind power, despite bruises and sprains aplenty suffered as they bounce about on gym mats like demented (though smiling) frogs, trying to get airborne. Absolutely nothing will discourage them.” 
― James Randi

A little too much carbonation

I was working on a blog entry, but I'm going to have to put it off for a bit. I'm currently typing with band-aids covering several places on both hands.
Yesterday my sister came over with some wine bottles that I'd use for the mead currently bubbling away near my desk

Bubble, bubble

She also brought the case of cider I'd made for her. My first time making it and I didn't put enough sugar into the mix. The cider was so tart it was undrinkable. Not that it wasn't poisonous or whatnot, simply bad tasting.
Figuring I'd make the most of a bad situation, I poured one into a glass with a teaspoon of sugar. Wow, what a difference! It actually tasted good, but the sugar didn't fully dissolve. Hmm... My wife suggested the agave nectar I had. The nectar sweetened it up and dissolved into the cider, but changed the color of the cider to a dark amber. I also noticed that the cider had very little alcohol in it. Four ciders with various sweeteners and all I had to show for it was a couple of trips to the bathroom. One side note: about three of the bottles foamed up like a baking soda volcano when opened. I made a mental note to open them in the sink from that point on.
Today after a hard days work, I put the dinner in the oven and decided to open another cider. As I began to open it, the bottle went off like a gun shot. Right now I'm glad none of my neighbors called the cops. Yes, it was that loud. I think I taught my kids some new words. Daughter number two sprang into action and put the dog out before I had a chance to give the order. So putting her in for a commendation for quick thinking.
Next up: triage. Daughter 2 and 3 helped Dad get washed up and band-aids over the worst ones. To my surprise, I'm currently sporting a couple of  puncture wounds above my belly button. It went through the shirt I was wearing. Ouch.
Then the clean up. Most of the glass shards were in the sink. I had to fish a few out of the garbage disposal. My daughter swept the kitchen floor, but left the blood drops for me to clean. Fair enough I suppose, it was my mess.

just a couple of flesh wounds

Screw drinking the rest. I'm going to open them wrapped in a rag in case they go off like the other one. I am extremely thankful my sister didn't get hurt by one of my rogue brewing concoctions.

being right or popular

Yesterday a friend of a friend posted an article about how an HPV vaccination killed a 12 year old girl. I read the article which was full of anti-vaccination buzz words. All the links in the article pointed toward anti-vaccination stuff. The byline is your fist clue. It was originally published in natural news, an anti-vaccination web site.
With cynical shields up, I went to snopes.com
Which by the way, is an excellent resource for checking up on hoaxes. A quick search revealed this. Snopes gave it a rating of False and provided the links, backing up the facts.
I included the link for the vaccination facts from my last post. This morning I got a response from the people who posted about vaccines being deadly.

"Sorry, he's a liberal nut job from San Antonio and has been unfriended."

Not that I'm going to lose sleep over that, but I am amazed with the closed minded thinking. I have friends that I don't agree with all the time, but I'm pretty sure they're not Hitler incarnate. I've half a mind to call up my lawyer and ask if he can draw up some papers. Since this guy is obviously not going to vaccinate his children, perhaps I should should propose a bet: If he or his heirs die from a disease that could of been cured with a simple vaccine, I'd like to be named in his will as sole beneficiary. Come on, it'll be fun! 
Conversely if I die from a curable disease in addition to signing over my house, I'll allow him to write anything he'd like on my tombstone.  

Not just me

This morning was one of those times where the sewage line broke next to the air conditioner. Perhaps that metaphor doesn't work. One small detail resulted in some very huge consequences. Two people forgot to do one aspect of their job. When we get a delivery truck, the doors are opened as the trailer backs in. This allows the night crew to unload the truck. The next morning people like me can put it all away.
Except the truck driver and the receiver both forgot to open the doors.
A call was made to the trucking company to send another truck out. Naturally, they were the only ones who were allowed to do it. The trailer needed to be moved so the doors could be opened. Then eight or ten people unloaded half to three quarters of the trailer before the appliance truck arrived. All this before 8 AM.
This was an avoidable mishap. It put a strain on a lot of people. We had to unload it faster, put it away quickly and get ready for the rest of the day's arrivals... all before noon.
All I can say is; I'm glad it wasn't me. While a lot of good natured teasing went on, there were no repercussions for the responsible parties. Bet your butt they would have made a big deal out of this if I was the one responsible.
As it was, no lasting harm was done, we all just had to squeeze a lot of work into a very short time. It does make the day go faster. I am going to bed early, that's for sure.

This came across my desk about the Berlin patient.
Scientists are a step closer to finding a cure and it might not be one single thing, but perhaps a combination of factors. Any way you look at it, Mankind is closer to understanding how to beat this horrific disease. Stuff like this makes me feel hopeful about humanity. Perhaps we're salvageable after all.

Idiots

Smart people can change their minds. We can believe in something until evidence comes along that makes intelligent people re-evaluate their mindset.
Even then, amid a host of facts and evidence, a certain segment of the population refuses to accept common sense.
And then the rest of us have to be blunt. This is an article that was published last spring about vaccinations. In the past I've touched base on this, but it bears repeating.
Vaccines save lives. End of discussion.
People say measles isn't deadly. Guess what? If you're not vaccinated, I hope you have your affairs in order.
I thought that was too harsh a wording at first. The pictures say otherwise.
First off it's a virus. What does a virus do? It mutates. When some of the population gets immunized and even a small portion of people don't receive immunization, that virus lives to get stronger. We (as in a world-wide 'we'.) almost had this thing beat.
Unvaccinated travelers returning from the Philippines infected an unprotected Amish community in Ohio.
Every single argument and discussion point has been refuted by qualified scientists. The article I posted a link to at the beginning bears repeating in case you didn't read it. They site a whole plethora of links stating the case for immunizing your child. Please read the whole article and click on the links they provide. 
I grew up in a time where there wasn't vaccines for the majority of childhood diseases. Even though I was inoculated as a child, I still caught chicken pox as a young adult through one of my students. 
This is one of those things that doesn't go away, but viruses like this can be reduced to non-zero statistics and keep the population safe. Wouldn't that be worth it?