Category: Personal

2007 has been a pretty good year.  Definitely better than 2006, which sucked.  Best part of 2007?  Starting a blog to impress Bitter and actually having it work!  I hope everyone has a Happy New Years.  Tonight will be spent consuming adult beverages with Bitter, ringing in the new year, so that tomorrow I can head back home to Pennsylvania.  Hopefully my house is still there.

Bitter and I are headed back to Northern Virginia today in order to spend New Years there.   Tomorrow I head back to Philly.  Blogging will be light.

Bitter and I are headed out into the wilderness today to spend some time in the mountains of North Carolina, before headed west to hang out with the Knoxville gang tomorrow.  As far as I know, I’ll be meeting such fine folks as Les Jones and Tam, who we missed last time we passed through.  I think Glenn and Helen are planning to be there too.  They were kind enough to buy us lunch when we passed through last March.  Hopefully this time I’ll manage to say more than 10 words the entire time, now that I don’t feel as much like a newbie to this whole blogging scene.

Needless to say, posting might be a bit scarce tomorrow and Saturday, so I’m going to open up to my friend Brad and Ahab to post one or two things if they feel like it, to keep people interested.

Best….. cake….. ever!  Their butter cream icing is to die for.

The holidays aren’t over for me yet.  Today was spent getting a few more shooty goodies at the local Sportsmen’s Warehouse here in Roanoke, namely a chronograph.  I never understood why those guys who used those were so intent on knowing how fast the bullet was going, but now I know, and have decided to become one of those guys.  For Christmas I got some powder, bullets, and a digital scale.

I’m hoping tomorrow morning to go to the range in Blacksburg, that is if Bitter will agree to come spot for me.  I want to try out this chrono gizmo.   I’m thinking in the afternoon, we’ll go to the talkie pictures.   After that, I think Bitter will have some last minute holiday baking to do before we head off for a day in the wilderness before heading to the Uncle compound near Knoxville for some shooty fun and then dinner and drinks.  I’ll be on holiday all week, but will try to post as much as I can.   Today there was plenty of time for posting, just not much going on right now.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday.

They always love to rub their good weather in the rest of our faces ;) Today in Roanoke, where I’m spending the holiday season, it’s bright and sunny, and 54 degrees. Compared to home, it’s spring!

Often commenter Ian Argent has an interesting post on how our society treats children:

I certainly wasn’t an adult at 12-13. But I certainly wasn’t helpless, defenseless, or hapless. I no longer needed the kind of close supervision a young child might need – I was allowed to operate within fairly loose guidelines (in some ways, looser guidelines than I was when I was in my later teens, because I did have somewhat less responsibility). Nonetheless, I’m quite sure that had the need arisen for me to fly unaccompanied, my parents would have made sure the people at the other end knew my flight info, and then dropped me off at the airport (accompanying me to the gate if possible under time constraints), and expected me to make my way onto the plane, into my seats, and off the other end to the people I was going to without expecting much, if any, official support form the airline.

I flew to see my grandparents in Florida when I was pretty young, in so far as I can recall, I was in this age group.  It had to have been a while ago, because Eastern Airlines ceased flying in 1991.  You have to wonder about an airline who’s logo is a seatbelt.  What’s that supposed to mean?   “Hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” or maybe “Eastern, wear your seatbelt or you’ll die.”

I seem to recall the grandparents dropping me off at the gate, and my parents picking me up.  Of course, now you can’t do that because we’re all more worried about terrorists than perverts or kidnappers, but that was also in the days before cell phones, when all had to be pre-arranged, and it was just hoped everything would go off without a hitch.  Nonetheless, Ian has a good point that kids today are no doubt not any less safe than they were twenty years ago.  That’s certainly true, even with all the terrorists.

The Geek doesn’t like them. I can’t say I disagree with his logic, yet I have received and purchased a gift card in the past. What is the allure of these things?

In one sense, you could say the person is sending the message “I gave you this gift card, because I know if I give you cash, you’ll just use it to buy crack.” In some cases, that may be true. In others, perhaps it’s a way of saying “I know you well, because I knew a gift card to this establishment would be something you would use and appreciate.” I would have to say the latter is true in most cases. Gift cards have value because they signal familiarity between the gift giver, and the gift recipient.

I’m done with work for a week, and all is well.   Over the Christmas Holiday, I will be visiting with Bitter’s family.  We also plan to stop in Knoxville, TN on the 29th for a shooty fun time at Coal Creek, then some holiday festivities with some of the K-ville clan at the Uncle Residence.  Countertop is stopping by K-ville that day too.

From this point on, blogging will be more sporadic than usual.  But I will be putting things up, so stay tuned.