triticale - the wheat / rye guy

We Now Return To Our Regular Blogging

Between the SOA fund drive and DNS trouble, I haven't been posting much lately. So now that I've rebuilt my TCP parameters and done my little bit (and I would not mind more requests for the below-mentioned CD-ROM) I'll try to post some content this weekend. For starters, we have this variation on a theme going around:

1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-Player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions. Don’t name the band, nor the album-title.

People are supposed to identify the CD, and the performer, without googling the lyrics. Hah! Nearest CD is an instrumental, and if I were to burn up Pixy's bandwidth by posting an MP3, I doubt anybody would identify it anyway.

The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clarke (then newly discovered, playing in Wanda Jackson's band) and the third track is "Golden Slippers". Basically country picking, but influenced by the then-popular surf sound and The Twist. There is a cover of "In The Mood" which doesn't quite work but still supports my theory that it could be a great rocker.

Team Spirit

Now that the Fusileers have proven the strength of our positive approach to the fund drive, the focus has shifted from competition to the real goal of raising as much money as possible for Spirit of America. Accordingly, I am extending my offer of free Honorverse CDs, on the same Wisconsin-centric terms, to anyone donating under the Team Spirit banner thru any of the participating blogs. Home stretch, folks, we're pushing for a number we can all be proud of.

Update:

Collectables

How would you like to own a signed copy of this Day by Day© strip?

Click on the strip to go to the auction page. This is a serious
collectors item. Update: Chris has thrown in this extra for the winner - pick
ANY other single toon from the archive and he'll sign it too.

Cox & Forkum are auctioning off an awesome original artwork with some extra items.

The True Nature of Reality has the copy of the newspaper where the democratic party asked for Rumsfeld to be shot.

Chief Wiggles has offered to come to your area and lecture at the location of your choosing. The Chief is also offering a MINT condition Operation Iraqi
Freedom patch!

Sondra K is offering Limited Edition Campbell's soup cans, issued in celebration of the original Andy Warhol Tomato Soup print. She has also extended her official Baathist Party notecard auction!

Services And Big Ticket
Items

Aspiring (or existing) authors - no matter who you are or what you write, you need careful editing and an honest evaluation. Gerard Van der Leun has an amazing auction offer for you: Professional editing. He's got over 30 years of industry experience, which you can enlist in finishing off your pet project. Go visit the American Digest and start bidding; realize your "Great American Novel".

Hugh Hewitt is offering you a guest segment on any topic you want (8 minutes) on his syndicated radio show!!!

She Who Will Be Obeyed - plane ticket

Food/Dinners

Citizen Smash is offering dinner dates in San Diego and DC. plus other items here.

Venomous Kate is offering you a 4-course gourmet dinner and a night of drinks on the Venomous Lanai.

Dorkafork is offering to come to you (if you are in Colorado) and fix you a fancy resturant quality shirmp dinner plus wine. He's also offering to design you a blog logo for $10.

Ken Wheaton is giving away invites to a barbecue at his house for $20 donors in the NYC Metro area. His barbecue is out of this world good, so you don't want to miss it.

Sean has Krispy Kreme's for you, now at an even lower price!!!

Marine Corps Mom has biscotti up for your consideration.

Bloggers At Your Service

It's Ask a Blogger Monday! - You ask, Michele answers. I'll be matching her dollar for dollar, and should a question be addressed to me, I'll answer it there as well. At last count there are 3 of us matching Michele's dollar per answer. If you'd like to help, ask a question or even better offer to match the $1 per answer donation! See all of her answers here.

Sean will wax poetic about Dems or dishonor his love for the Packers by donning Bears, Viking, or Lions gear.

Meryl Yourish is taking a page from Michele's book and offering answers for dollars.

Laurence Simon is offering dollars for cats (actually pictures/post for Carnival of the Cats).

Michele's challenge for lefties, Red Sox fans, and *gasp* Mets fans. Here is a link to all of her payoff posts.

Jim is auctioning a short story for the cause! Update: This one is closed; new offer succeeds it. See comment below.

The Pudgy Pundit will make a contribution for every trackback to his post

Aaron is going to pieces trying to raise money!

e-Claire is still working her two auctions - slogan contest and photos!

Ilyka Damen is auctioning off poetry, interviews, card reading and $5 "you call its."

Mr. E. Poet will regale you with a special poem dedicated to you.

Hosting/Graphics/Design

Matt's amazing blog giveaway.

The Bartender at Madfish Willies is offering a blog remodel.

Pambie is offering a custom graphic to the highest bidder.

Clothes And No Clothes

Step in to the Wizbang celebrity porn closet, I've got boobies for you!

Da Goddess still has her lingerie/t-shirt offer going, and is also trying to dig into the minds of the Fusileers!

Raging Dave will create your own, personalized gun belt from scratch.

Val Prieto will blog for you while dressed like a girl for every $30 donation, he'll wear makeup with that for every $40 donation and if you donate $200, he will shave HIS legs and post the entire agonizing process.

Music And Other Items

Jim is offering a smoking hot remix offer.

Dizzy Girl will provide those that donate personalized audio messages.

TacJammer is offering up a Cluebat! A Castle Argghhh! Cluebat, direct from the Imperial Armory's woodshop and the Armorer's Carpenter! TacJammer is accepting bids as you read!

Look for this symbol for exclusive offers from Team Spirit, where Quantity Is Job #1

>

Many are called, but Fusileers

It's been a lapsockdolager of a week for me, with two consecutive night drives, more exhausting than most such, followed by a DNS hijacking problem which kept me from accessing my own blog, or google to hunt for a cure. In the meantime, even without my help, the Fusileers have been doing quite well, and with the other two teams together about matching our numbers, the total is getting up there quite nicely.

Now that I'm getting involved, the numbers should go thru the roof. First of all, here is a reminder of why the project for which we are raising funds is so important. One can debate how much the Marine Corps involvement will slant the agenda of a new TV news provider , but with Al Jazeera showing itself to be antagonistic to a liberated democratic Iraq, an alternative is clearly needed.

I am not going to offer a premium which is historic, exotic or otherwise collectable. I'm taking a different tack, and putting a state-oriented spin on things. For every donation of $20 or more which goes thru the Fusileer page after this post goes up for which I receive verification and a Wisconsin mailing address (doesn't even have to be your own) I will send a copy of the Baen Publishing Honorverse promotional CD, with 28 science fiction books in four formats (RTF, HTML, Palm and eBook) which may be copied and shared freely but not sold. And yes, I have burned a copy and printed a label for the member of one of the other teams to whom I owe one.

Once again, here is the link for the Fusileers donation page.

Update: There is an updated list of donor premiums at Fusileer HQ. My Honorverse offer is included, so I've decided to upgrade it. I'm still favoring Cheeseheads, but to encourage everyone else to dig a little deeper, from now on (midday Tuesday) U.S. donors of $40 or more and anyone else at $50 or more can also get one. It would appear that John of Argghhh! is a fan, as is at least one other Fusileer. Odds are the rest of you would enjoy this too.

Update: I'll be leaving this post at the top until the fund drive ends or I do another post for it. Scroll down to see whatsoever else I post in the meanwhile.

Backtalk

Jeff Goldstein is talking back to 80's music. I do the same thing, and even do it in public. I don't limit myself to any one era's music; I didn't even pay enough attention to recall the era in question.

So, you heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend? And you believed them? You didn't have enough faith in me not to take their word for it, or at least the decency to ask me if it was true?

I also sing along, in public - I'm hot blooded, barely alive. I've got a fever of one hundred and five...

I doubt that if I had the ability to carry a tune in a bucket it would make this any more acceptable. I do not do such things in public when the wee wifey is along.

Update: Name corrected above, as per comment received. I'm running so ragged that I assumed, when I got the email notification of the comment, that I had made a minor spelling error rather than confusing him with someone else.

And They're Off...

OK, folks, we've got two goals here. The first is to generate funding for the Iraq reconstruction projects supported by Spirit of America. The second is to demonstrate that the ful-loving, forward thinking Fusileers, listed below, can generate more funding than the other stodgy alliances. So dig deep, and click on the recruiting poster to do your donating.

*At own request. Doesn't need any trolls, thank you.

That Question

When I first saw it, there were 23 questions, some of which wouldn't really work if I first read them at work and didn't post answers till I got home. This one is making the rounds by itself, so:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence on your blog.

"Maybe too good.

Honor Harrington, in The Honor of the Queen wondering if the Marine Sargeant Major would make a good sparring partner.

Of Course You Realize...

...This Means...

A friendly rivalry, couched in terms of warfare, to see who gets bragging rights for having done the most for a worthy cause.

Given that a U.S.M.C. sponsored independent TV station in Iraq will tend to make the world a better place for us all, in the long run, you can simultaneously invest in the future and strike a blow for, umm, well, egoboo for the Fusiliers. So dig deep, brothers and sisters, and click on the recruiting poster to make sure it counts.

Overt Act Toward Buying A Gun Day

For the second year in a row, April 15th has been proclaimed Buy A Gun Day across the blogosphere. At least one blogger has already made a gun purchase and dedicated it to this theme.

My current situation is such that I will deferr the purchase for a while. I am in the early stages of moving, and am not ready to buy and install a gun safe at the new location. What I have done, as my first official act at the new address, was to enter a request for an F 7CR - Application for License (Collector of Curios and Relics) Under 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44, Firearms. I've been planning this for some time, but put it off because I didn't want to muddy things by having to file a change of address after getting my license. There is a wide range of firearms which have been classified as curios and relics, suitable for shooting or collecting. In the short run, I'm just looking to get a couple of the incredible bargains available to C&R holders, a CZ52 semi-automatic pistol and one of the bolt action .22s, but if things go well I just might get carried away.

By the way, I already have one of these, and the retail mark-up was more than the cost of a C&R for one year.

Heh??? Indeed???

Maybe the alleged puppy smoothies dulled his tastebuds? If nothing else, it should make the knowledgable wonder how he became rated a pundit after he's posted this banality:

Though I'm not a serious Scotch drinker, they gave us a sample of Aberlour A'bunadh, which was very nice if rather strong.

I have a 10 year old Sherry Cask Aberlour which one might call very nice. One might even use that label for the Signatory Highland Park if unaware of what to looke for deep in the finish. A whisky bottled at cask strength is of course rather strong but this does not mean there will be the alcohol bite of a af a lower strength cheap booze. The tasting experience warrants instead words like intense or complex. On this one topic, Mr. Knowitall is closer to Big Dumb Moose, but I reckon that all of us have topics like that.

First Name Derrick?

I worked for 22 years in the industrial overhead lifting business, where their last names had similar meanings. As a result, I have found it amusing to conflate Elmer Gantry with Ichabod Crane. I never read the book or saw the movie about the first of these but I find this so absolutely spot on that, even with Dean Jagger and Shirley Jones in the cast, I find myself tempted to check the videocassette out of the library. Never have I seen the similarity between religous and environmental fanaticisms raised more damningly.

Is This Random?

Colby Cosh has posted what amounts to an obituary for a reporter he had worked with, a Marxist with sufficient intelligence and understanding of classical economics as to have written for a conservative publication. The man had a disdain for deadlines and for the constraints of functionality I have encountered myself among such people, and recently died of a heroin overdose.

This piqued my interest because fully half of the heroin addicts I have known have been Marxists of one sort or another (one was a Trotskyite; I don't want to factor that into this analysis) and despite the limited sample I have to wonder if there is some common causuality or a cause and effect relationship.

Fridanother Five

It's Friday so here's another five.

1. What do you do for a living?

Data collection and analysis for the optimization of a cellular network.

2. What do you like most about your job?

Drive testing, where I'm out on my own. The test equipment does most of the work and I'm just cruising. Sometimes I drive a predetermined route, and sometimes I drive around a problem area paying a bit of attention to what the computer is reporting. Yesterday I drove several hundred highway miles, listening first to Condi Rice and then to rockabilly CDs, with less than half an hour of overt work involved, to determine where our customers would have roaming access on a new partner's network.

3. What do you like least about your job?

Trying to fix a trouble spot by tweaking parameters because corporate doesn't consider the Milwaukee market worth the investment of adding new cell sites.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...

I'm in the office processing customer service tickets and most of them are stupid. I'm getting one almost every day about lack of coverage in another state roaming off our network, and most of the rest don't have enough to analyze (and usually look like a bogus attempt to get out of a contract).

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?

Something else equally geeky. I stumbled into this line of work and this is my third contract doing it. Before that I was doing support and configuation of industrial control hardware. I interviewed a couple of years ago for a position doing onsite maintenance of point of purchase computers in stores and restaurants and thought that would be fun.

There were things I enjoyed about manufacturing metal work, but I'd rather do hobby gunsmithing or modelbuilding than go back into that as a career.

Evermore

The little dead girl is back, but at least she's not pissed.

A Toast

The Gathering of the Blogs has been a success. Not just another orgy of linky love, but a real opportunity to discover interesting bloggers with something in common. More have been added to the extended entry below since I posted it this morning. I've already had occasion to link to one in a comment elsewhere.

In its honor, I raise a toast.

The drink is a Rusty Nail, Drambuie and Scotch. An Dram Buidheach, the drink which satisfies, was Prince Charles Edward's liqueur, fine whisky with heather honey and a hint of Highland herbs. The whisky is from my dusty bottle of White and Mackay's, a 21 year old vatted (blended, but uncut) masterpiece, rich with peat and wood.

The toast is to the King, with the glass passed over a glass of water in a gesture once treasonous and romantic.

It's Tartan Day

For now, it just means that I'll be going to work in a flannel shirt which approximates the Clan Ross tartan. Check out any or all of the other participants to see what else is going on.

Participating Blogs:

Absinthe & Cookies


Ninjababe's Ramble


Jen Speaks


Frozen In Montreal


Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love


Grim's Hall


Miss Apropos


Jackalope Pursuivant


Accidental Verbosity


Right Wingin-It


Drowning at 2 Feet Sea Level


Straight White Guy


Hard Times


TacJammer


BabyTrollBlog


Triticale


Laughing Wolf


Da Goddess


ChristWeb


Mudville Gazette


I Love Jet Noise

Sekimori.org - Live Blog


Swanky Conservative


Arguing With Signposts


G'day Mate


Sketches of Strain

Tartan Day

This Tuesday is Tartan Day, the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath , an event and document which laid some of the groundwork for our own Declaration of Independence. In honor if this event, Ith has put out the call for a Gathering of the Blogs.

One need not oneself be Scottish to participate; I ken that marrying into Clan Ross and enjoying Scotch whisky is reason enough, and the history of the day will be reason enough to enjoy a wee dram of the Whyte and Mackay 21 and my wee firebrand.

Joogle

My brother, who practices the faith of our fathers, says that "Whenever I forget that I am a Jew, an anti-semite reminds me." He thinks of himself as Jewish far more than I do, but I am certainly aware enough of what being a Jew, and being hated for it has meant for others that I cannot ignore this.

It is worth noting that the blogger who brought this project to my attention is not himself a Jew in any sense of the word. In fact, altho he recognizes the value of religion, he is himself an atheist.

No, Really, Things Are Terrible

Owen has linked to this article (I won't) about an upcoming report which was deliberately designed to show that nearly half the population of Milwaukee is out of work. Before even considering what is wrong with his analysis, I would like to point out that it is the job of the director of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Center for Economic Development to make Milwaukee attractive to business. Given his efforts to do the opposite, he should be summarily fired for cause.

The study gives percentages of Milwaukee residents who are employed, by race, and compares that to a national average, which by my calculation is about 5% better. This tells us next to nothing. How does Milwaukee compare to industrial cities of the same size, and how does it compare to wealthy Sunbelt retirement communities?

Without having read the study I cannot know how the data was collected, but I have reason to question its accuracy. Although I live in Milwaukee and work out of an office in suburban Waukesha county, I am, as far as the paperwork is concerned, employed in Illinois. Since no job I've ever held would have shown up on the BLS Establishment Survey, I have no idea what impact this fact would have on the study. Because my son's legal address is under our roof, he would count as being jobless in Milwaukee. He has in fact chosen to take a leave of absence from his job to enjoy a hippie wanderjahr and at the moment is helping my sister in California around the house in return for room and board.

It will be interesting to review the study once it is made public, but I fear both the deliberate representation of immiseration and the grains of salt with which it all will need to be taken will be bad for my blood pressure.

Daylight Breakeven Time

Dustbury points out the general uselessness of offsetting our clocks this weekend, but points to Erica, who gains an hour of pay by working thru the fallback. Since those who work odd weekend shifts don't typically work all of them, she might not ever have to give it back.

My wee wifey gets the same benefit, but the tradeoff is that I get an hour less sleep before I pick her up tomorrow.

The Muve Continues

The Munuvia World Domination program is bring in more bloggers from blog-city, which means more minds applied to the fascinating puzzle of how to translate blog-city archives for import to Moveable Type. Advice from anyone outside mu.nu who has done so would of course be welcome.

In the meantime, I've started importing my most important posts (does that mean the copy at the old site was exportant?) by brute force cut and paste.

April Fools?

I assumed that this news story, which I got found via the Illinois Concealed Carry mailing list, was an April Fools joke. I even emailed the reporter to question it, because it seemed so ridiculous. My wee wifey's stepmother is visiting today, and I was able to confirm that it is not a joke.

Effective April Fools Day, the tax on cigarettes in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago and close suburbs) goes from 18 cents a pack to one dollar. Laffer is no doubt laughing. Some people will be inspired to quit smoking, and some revenues may be raised, but the main effect will be to induce massive buttlegging. There is already a considerable business in selling cigarettes just across the state line in Indiana, where the taxes were already lower. Perhaps the owners of these outlets were behind the new legislation.

Chicago and Cook County have long had their own taxes on gasoline. For many years I lived in Chicago and commuted to the suburbs. When I kept track of it, I found that I typically spent $800 per year on gasoline, $15 of it in Chicago when I failed to plan ahead. On one occasion I heard George Gilder on the radio state that "Taxes do not redistribute wealth, they redistribute taxpayers." For a while after I heard this I was inspired to drive a little way out of Cook County and pay even less for my gasoline. I was obviously not alone in this practice, given the number of Chicago gas stations which went out of business. I predict much gnashing of teeth when the same thing happens to convenience stores.