Alaska Filippina

February 17 Announcement

2012-02-17T13:33:00.001-08:00

We hereby announce it is February 17, 2012.

We have a couple of solid months now of about the best Alaska has to offer. There will be no mosquitos. The sun is higher and it is warmer.

The snow is too deep to break out trails in the high country out back, so we are limited in what we can do. Lira has to drive.

World's Strongest Boys!

2012-02-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a Youtube Video of the current World's Strongest Boys. They're Romanian of course. We say "of course" because if they were from the USA the child protective services would have the parents in jail and the boys languishing in foster homes being sexually abused instead of setting world records:

Don't worry folks, we're not going to have our kids do amazing feats of strength or agility because we know that we live in a police state instead of a free country like Romania.

Giuliani Stroe is shown here, with his brother sitting in the background. They are 5 and 7 years old right now. Giuliani has the world record for vertical push ups.

Happy Times!

2012-02-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

We are all so happy. You don't have to be rich or powerful to be happy. It helps if your snowmachine starts on the first pull, sure. It helps if it has warmed up 75 degrees since the 50-below zero weather. It helps that the sun is out and so high in the sky now. It helps when your wife makes chocolate covered almonds and apple slices.

But most of all just being with your family and watching the kids have so much fun with life. Donny didn't want to come inside after mommy drove around on the snowmachine. Gable and Daddy watched out the window. The woods look so inviting now, and if my leg gets better I can be out there with Donny doing really fun stuff like bringing wood home on the sled. Let's hope!

Yukon Quest Winner by 24 seconds - Hugh Neff

2012-02-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Hugh Neff is the winner in the 2012 Yukon Quest, edging out Allen Moore by 24 seconds. Lance Mackey, four-time winner, was third. There are still a lot of teams out on the trail, but the top nine should all be done pretty quick. You can find the standings here:

Current Standings

It's a pretty boring day here. Nothing exciting happening. But we feel a sense of gratitude that everyone is healthy and that snowmachine girl did not crash the snowmachine today. Gable and Daddy stayed inside while Snowmachine Girl and Donny zipped around the property.

Snowmachine Girl: it is not an Airplane.

2012-02-13T16:38:00.001-08:00

Donny looking up at a raven, waiting for mommy to come by.

Snowmachine girl likes to take jumps. Launching is no problem. It's the landings. Landing nose first or on your side usually puts a stop to forward progress.

Hard to know if you can see the evidence here of jumping the bump and missing the track on the other side, landing in the unpacked snow. If you don't right the snowmachine immediately you have to just walk away from it for a while because all the gas in the carburator will leak into the cylinder and flood it.

The Alaska Filipina has a course around the property. Ten acres is plenty of room.

Snowmachine Girl

2012-02-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Snowmachine girl is out with the boys today because snowmachine boy is a loser cripple. Yee Gods the internet is slow today. We see how speed varies according to the time of day. When more users are on, this is not much better than dial-up.

It's way harder to drive a snow machine in deep snow through muskeg as opposed to the trail next to the road, so wide and hard-packed. You have to approach it as an athlete in tough ground, and if you can't do that then you're a townie loser.

The Alaskafilippina was asked what the most important thing about driving a snowmachine is: She said "think ahead". Right! You have to plan your weight shift BEFORE you get to the terrain you are reacting to, or it's TOO LATE. You tip the machine over. What's the problem with being too late? Pffft - it's too late, stupid.

Lira took this going down the trail... How much wood did you bring back honey?

You know what's crazy? She can drive a snowmachine down a bumpy trail with one hand, and hold the camera steadier than a professional TV cameraman who is standing perfectly still. It shows you how hard they are trying to shake the camera around on these stupid TV shows as a phony "action" effect.

Yukon Quest Prize Money

2012-02-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

We looked up the Yukon Quest Prize money, but it is listed in the race rules as a percentage of the total purse, which was not determined at the time the race rules were published. We saw a newspaper announcement in January that said "The Purse" of $150,000 had been raised, so if that is the total purse then these are the payouts:

1 $28,395
2 $20,280
3 $16,215
4 $13,380
5 $11,760
6 $10,545
7 $8,925
8 $7,290
9 $6,480
10 $5,670
11 $5,265
12 $4,860
13 $4,050
14 $3,645
15 $3,240

These guys do an awful lot of work for this kind of money - they definitely are not in it to get rich. They say it costs about $10,000 - $12,000 to run the quest. An article in Mushing Magazine calculated less than that for strictly race costs:

Mushin Mag Article

Those are if you are from Anchorage. But there aren't any mushers from Anchorage in the Quest. You have to train the dogs and feed them that whole training time, buy gear and booties, and pay for a fondler, er handler. Handlers usually just get room and board. There are little ads in musher or outdoor magazines that bring college kids from other countries or the Lower '48 to Alaska for a sort of working vacation. You're probably talking $6K or more for that alone. If you have just a 25 dog lot - and that's a small one - it's thousands per year. (Figure 50 cents a day summer per dog and 85 cents per day winter) That's about $6k per year in food just to have a dog lot. Wow, that's one brand new tundra snowmachine per year.

The Iditarod pays quite a bit more money, but they say it costs $20K to run the Iditarod. If you look at a tax return for a musher it would be a rare thing indeed to see anyone making a profit at it. This is about lifestyle choice. True fourth-world living where you could do better on food stamps and public housing - but you're out there freezing your butt off sleeping in your dogsled instead.

If you have to ask them why, then it can't be explained to you.

The Destructor

2012-02-11T16:11:00.002-08:00

If you saw the movie Ghost Busters, you know who the destructor is.

Grocery Haul! Accidents Aplenty...

2012-02-11T14:16:00.003-08:00

Eight hundred dollars in groceries. Thirty five thousand pesos, if you are a Filipina.

That's a record for us. Two magnum-sized carts filled up and heaped over the top, plus the racks underneath. We managed to get everything at Sam's Club, so that saved some time and all the effort involved of going to another store.

I'd say the only mistake was not getting ten dozen eggs instead of five. But Lira can run down to the little neighborhood store and buy them when we run out.

There were accidents on the road, both on the way in and on the way back. The most dangerous thing about them were the morons who pulled off on both sides of the road to "help", but what they are actually doing was making it more dangerous.

You start with someone who goes off the road because it is 100% ice covered. Then someone pulls over to one side to help, parking right next to them. Then someone pulls over on the other side to "help", and now only one car can pass by at a time - a dangerous choke point. People are walking around on the road too, with no organization.

So then you have people approaching from both ways, on ice-covered roads, on a corner, with only one car capable of passing the scene at a time. There were driveways to pull over into instead of parking on the road. When I saw what was coming, we pulled off into a driveway and waited until all the cars on our side had gone through. We couldn't see around the corner, but we were not going to stop at the accident scene and have someone slam into us from behind. We have four-wheel drive and studs, but Murphy's Law dictates the person behind you has bald tires and rear wheel drive.

We Ain't Afraid of Monsters

2012-02-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

We're not afraid of this monster, anyway. Once Daddy covered himself in the biggest bearskin we have though, and crawled into the bedroom growling. That was pretty scary.

Heat Wave Rescues Stranded Family... Sort of.

2012-02-08T12:36:00.001-08:00

A family of four, stranded in savage fifty below weather, has been rescued by a heat wave of temperatures of up to 25 degrees. But the problem now is one of fourth-world mentality. The wife and children have apparently been brainwashed by the husband, and refuse to leave their pitiful log-cabin-in-the-woods existence.

Psychologists call this the Stockholm Syndrome, where hostages come to love their kidnappers. Little Donny carries pieces of wood around saying "fireplace", and Gable calls out the letters of the alphabet on the phonics song, as if there were nothing wrong.

Fight over Snowmachine Practice!

2012-02-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Bob is always pushing Lira to go outside in order to combat SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) AKA Cabin Fever. The most important thing to do is practice on the snow machine, so that's what he asks her to do.

This morning Lira made it clear that she is not going to tolerate being told to drive the snowmachine anymore. Bob agreed, like a whipped puppy.

So look who is out there driving the snowmachine around with Donny.

Town Trip Announced!

2012-02-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

We went to town once in January.

We decided we are going to town in February too. Maybe in a few more days for a food run. Sam's Club and WalMart.

Invariably each semester as new, larger and lower-priced stores moved to Fairbanks a freshman economics student would say that the effect would be to lower prices to kill off all the competition, and then prices would be higher. People from outside would protest in our name, saying it would ruin the character of our community. We need to be kept in the stone age as a kind of museum piece.

But we vote with our dollars, just as all the other consumers do. WalMart and Sam's are kicking retail butt. Plenty of parking. It's free. No people with badges laying in wait to spring on you with fines and penalties. They even let people camp in the lots for free. See you soon, Sam and Wally!

Yukon Quest Passes By...

2012-02-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

We took the truck down to the end of the driveway and across to Pleasant Valley Road where the Yukon Quest mushers are coming off Baseline Trail and on to the main Valley trail next to the road. The first three mushers are really tight together. We waited a while for number 4, but he is apparently pretty far behind the first three.

Update: Hmmm. We had an incorrect report from the race, not worth detailing now, but we did see the first three mushers come through the valley.

Valley Center isn't a checkpoint this year. We saw a table being set up just off Baseline where Pleasant Valley Road meets the trail, so maybe that is the Two Rivers Checkpoint this year. We are so limited in our movements because of Mr. Cripple that we can't run around having fun and answer such burning questions decisively.

Sonny Lindner of Two Rivers is in first place at the moment. It's a long race, and anything can happen.

4wheeler is better than snow machine

2012-02-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

This is their flying sailboat.

It is from the kids' show "Wonderpets"

The Wonderpets rescue animals in trouble.

The theme of the show is teamwork. So this show meets with Alaskafilippina approval.

That fifty below zero weather has made someone hesitant to go outside.

So just ask him if he wants to go outside on the snowmachine, and see what his answer is!

Trail Report! and Yukon Quest!

2012-02-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

Lira reports the trail out back is pristine. Isn't that incredible? Nobody has been there. The snow is too deeep to make breaking it out worthwhile too. Once it is this deep, forget it. If my leg wasn't broken, I would not have let this happen. But that whole world of a hundred million acre playground depends on having trails.

And yet, out front the Yukon Quest is going by tomorrow and those trails are used by all the people in the valley! What does it say about you when the Yukon Quest sled dog race goes by the front of your driveway, and there is no trail whatsoever out back? It says FOURTH WORLD baby!

Here is the Quest website:

Yukon Quest

Being a musher is something I never aspired to, and despite liking driving dog teams, which I have done a few times thanks to friends that have them - a life of living in dog poop does not appeal to me.

We live in the dog mushing capital of the world. Two Rivers I think has five teams in the Yukon Quest this year.

Log Cabin Technical Services Triumphs

2012-02-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Golly, we saved a hundred bucks by getting our router configured with the help of the Belkin people instead of the technical service we were handed off to by Hughesnet.

You know us, and how we love deception! We had trouble doing the configuration and called Hughesnet for specs on their modum connection type, host name, blah blah blah, and were handed off to a "partner" who spent a lot of time looking into the speed of my computer and viral threat history - when I had stated numerous times I wanted to configure the router, and that's all. "But sir, there could be a remnant of a virus or something that is causing the problem..."

After a lot of time spent doing this it finally dawned on me this guy was trying to sell us hundreds in services I did not want - cleaning up the computer and making it run faster, plus a monthly service. So of course like everyone else who is tricked this way and expressing surprise we had been transferred to a place that was going to charge us big bucks for things we didn't want - the salesman pretends to be innocently surprised. "Oh, I thought we made that clear in the beginning... [where you are supposed to translate "partner" into "charge by the minute for things you don't want"]

I think it was $450 plus ten bucks a month for everything he wanted to do, $100 of which was programming the router.

Good God that was frustrating though - every sentence is new acronyms, and each acronym requires learning some technical thing, and it all boils down to a couple of stupid numbers that a monkey could be trained to enter. And he would charge just a banana.

If it were not for the fact I think this knowledge is useful, I would probably have paid the hundred bucks to avoid the aggravation.

Interwebs?

2012-02-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Hughesnet installer called, and wow is this guy tough! It's 35 below and he's going to try installing anyway. We'll see what happens...

Bwahahahahaha!

The Alaska Filipina has high speed interwebs. We have it to one computer, and for some reason the wireless router is not working. But we only need one computer working - and that's Lira's.

We aren't sure if she is running off with the Hughesnet installer or withdrawing the divorce papers. We'll have to see!

A Walk Outside With the Boys

2012-01-30T23:42:00.001-08:00

The weather broke today with thirty below this afternoon, and snowing. It is unusual to see it this cold with snowing at the same time, but Lira got the boys out for a very short walk (to the shop) outside just to keep the S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) at bay.

Bob is working on a professional paper and the boys have decided the fireplace shovel is some kind of cleaning device. Their slide, once on its side, is a big truck, and it needed to be cleaned with the fireplace shovel. So they were taking turns with Donny saying "cleaning! cleaning!" while rubbing the shovel against the imaginary truck.

Donny also helped carry wood in today with mommy. It was so cute! But his hands got really cold quick after carrying three pieces of wood, and he had enough. Just ask him if he wants to go out and get wood after he gets cold. The answer is "No!" But if he is warm the answer is "Boots". 'Cuz he wants you to put his boots on.

The Depths of Winter

2012-01-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is the real deal now. Seventy below zero windchill when we went to bed last night, with 51 below raw temperature. Warmed all the way up to fifty below zero temperature by noon. Ice fog in Fairbanks. We aren't going anywhere.

It's a Dr. Seuss bookfest at the cabin.

Enough Already...53 below tonight?

2012-01-28T21:14:00.000-08:00

Forecast is for 53 below zero tonight. It was up to at least 44 below at one point today, and I think probably even warmer, but it just passed through 47 below on its way back down.

We see this Alaska show on the tube today and saw them down to the last day of firewood before they went out to get more. Sheesh. Must be nice living on the coast where it rarely gets colder than twenty below. You can't rely on your machines working at fifty below zero. I've had snowmachine engines seize up on me, and just breaking the track out is a big effort. You burn up your drive belt just trying to get the track to move. The oil is like concrete.

A Girl and her Woodpile

2012-01-28T14:48:00.001-08:00

Long ago I read somewhere that there is nothing a man looks more fondly upon than his woodpile. Or was it that there's nothing he fondles more than his wood? Whatever it is, the Alaska Filippina's woodpile is rapidly depleting at these temperatures. She's carrying eight or more armloads of birch inside each day. When she's done, Donny gives a great big heave of breath because that's what Mommy does!

It's too cold to be running the snowmachine, and with the recovery program Bob is undertaking, he isn't driving it. So for the first time in 24 winters the trail to the hills out back has not been busted out. With luck, in a couple months we'll be hauling wood home though. What's more fun than being the only one out in the forest, bringing home fuel? Bombing civilians in the name of "access" to oil in the Middle East, right?

Hey, the Yukon Quest sled dog race of 1,000 miles starts next week in Fairbanks. It will go right by our driveway, on their way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Valley Center is usually a checkpoint so there will be a lot of people out here.

Windchill Chart

2012-01-28T11:18:00.001-08:00

It is a comfy forty-eight below zero this morning. Comfy because there is no wind. It definitely seemed colder when there was some wind yesterday. Our handy windchill chart here is provided by the national weather service.

Heh. Last night it was off the chart! Because it doesn't go past -45 raw temperature. But it was a six mile an hour wind before we went to sleep. So we were in the seventy-below zero windchill range at some point.

Nobody seems too interested in going outside. In fact, Donny hasn't come out from under the covers yet and he is usually playing with his trucks by now, making up various fantasies.

Wow, was Donny entertaining fantasies last night! He was climbing in a tree with birds and a leaopard, giving us the whole story as he went. He was climbing up the wall, as he can fit his fingers between the boards.

sixty-five below zero wind chill and dropping...

2012-01-27T21:35:00.000-08:00

It is a comfortable forty-five below zero outside, but that nip in the wind makes it a tad chilly at sixty-five below zero. Usually it is calm at these temperatures. But we have weather systems moving around. It is still dropping, so we might very well see a seventy-below zero windchill or better tonight, as the evening is still young. One can hope, anyway.

My handy chart says frostbite will take a full five minutes to set in at those temperatures. We all noticed a certain quickness to the step of the Alaska Filipina as she brought in armloads of firewood today. Not to mention the somewhat less than cheery attitude upon completion of her duties. But we did apply the correct medicine, so all is well in hoo-ville.

Gable is walking a lot more regularly now. Donny and Gable watched a leaopard, cheetah, and lion on Big Cat Diary and are busy copying the noises they heard them make. Gable is especially committed to the lion roar. He thinks that's big fun.

Grandma Dot's balloons seem to be the biggest bang per buck item in the birthday box - there is something hysterical about balloons being kicked around.

Protecting us to Death II: Picture of the Deadly Device

2012-01-27T15:03:00.000-08:00

This is the medical device the Federal Government was protecting us from and adding weeks to the delivery time along with vastly higher cost. It was finaly delivered by a monstrous Lynden Freight truck that was so big it could not even fit under the power line to the shop. It is the biggest truck ever to set foot on the property, including my dump truck rated at 55,000 lbs. I had cleared a huge area with the plow truck for the satellite installers, and even that was barely enough for him to turn around.

The reason is that inside this little device is a tiny lithium-ion battery. The whole device is smaller than a computer battery, and the battery itself is but a fraction of that. But the supplier told me federal regulations precluded FedEx from flying it here or having it delivered to my mailbox. So it was delivered overland freight.

I realize the Stupids, the Ignorati, and the Sheeple cheer at these kinds of regulations and rush to the defense of keeping my medical device from me and harming my recovery. The basis to the regulation is that if a fire breaks out in an airplane cargo compartment, the lithium-ion battery could heat up beyond its ignition temperature and catch fire itself. It is NOT that the lithium-ion battery will spontaneously ignite, regardless of whether that is possible or not.

I'm sorry, but if the fucking plane is already on fire, this tiny battery is a whole lot less to worry about than the cardboard box and paper packing that came with it. If we apply the same logic to everything shipped on airplanes, then you wouldn't even be able to wear clothes on airplanes. In fact, given the number of stories on human combustion, even people themselves would not be allowed on planes.

How about fuel? A 747 can carry over 50,000 gallons of fuel. Shouldn't we prohibit fuel on planes? Talk about a fire hazard! All you need is a spark, and ka-boom!

Libyan Torture and Murder Courtesy of US/NATO

2012-01-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

Obomba neglected to mention in his State of the Empire speech the widespread reports of torture and murder by our gallant allies in Libya that we fought a war to install.

The most recent story is that Doctors Without Borders has left Libya because the regime was using them to resuscitate over a hundred victims between torture sessions:

Doctors Without Borders Quits

That is, the doctors were being asked to patch these souls up enough so that they could be tortured again. But hey, the Libyans are doing nothing more than what the US does itself or by contract through other torturers, so what can we expect?

Amnesty International has already reported widespread torture in Libya by our new government there:

Amnesty International on Libya Torture

Of course, this is what happened in Iraq too. History is repeating itself with lies about protecting the country from evil leaders being the reason for attacking, and then the new government.

Our Dear Leader told us of our glorious triumph in Libya, so this can't be happening.

On to Iran now! Let fly the bombs and bullets so that peace and democracy can be brought there too - sort of like when we overthrew their constitutional government in the 1950's and installed the dictator Shah in power, to set loose his secret police upon the people for decades.

These reports are not news to the people who were paying attention to who we were arming and bombing for in Libya. It is no surprise the government has called for Shariah law either.

So why did we make war upon them? Because as our constitutional forefathers told us: this is the way of despots, and the very reason for keeping the power of war from them. They impoverish their people and destroy their liberties through war. There is no exception to the rule about power corrupting. Electing new despots will change nothing. We have to take the power of making war away from our presidents.

forty two below

2012-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Forty two below zero and still dropping. How do you cope? Omlette, rice, sausage, and tomato.

State of the Union - Why Bother?

2012-01-26T16:52:00.001-08:00

Why bother listening to O'Bomba's State of the Union Speech? You know he is going to pretend to be for energy production while recently blocking a massive pipeline for oil directly from Northern Canadian fields to Gulf coast refineries. You know he is going to say the wars are victorious and all the troops are home now, that banks should not be bailed out, that companies should build factories in the USA instead of China, that rich people do not pay enough in taxes but we should never use crass appeals to class warfare. He will say there are too many regulations and bureacracies at the same time he is announcing new ones.

He'll take credit for things he didn't do, and ignore the broken promises from the closure of Guantanimo to the super-secretive nature of his administration - this is a campaign speech, not a State of the Union presentation. Why bother?

The State of the union is that the national debt is at a world record and climbing quickly. The credit rating of the federal government has been downgraded for the first time in its history. The bill of rights is defunct, and the primary purpose of the federal government is to protect those rights, not to abolish them.

I'm going to confess I read it. One of the most laughable parts was the appeal to the alleged assassination of Osama Bin Laden. He actually referred to that famous photograph where Hillary Clinton and the rest of them were pretending to be watching the Navy Seals during the raid - with Clinton holding her hand over her mouth as if they were watching a dramatic firefight.

All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves.

Are we that stupid? The photo was staged specifically for political marketing and it was a lie - the feed was not even being broadcast during the assault. So using this photo as his centerpiece and closing appeal is perfect for representing this administration's relentless focus on perception management and the uselessness of listening to anything he has to say.

Hughesnet Personnel Kidnapped

2012-01-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

Apparantly Hughesnet personnel have been kidnapped. Today is supposed to be the re-scheduled installation by their top secret installer. It's cloudy at the moment, and only around twenty below, but there's forty below coming so this is the time to do it.

The original sales call was made with such confidence about installation in a week. It's been three weeks so far. They sure were quick about charging our credit card for the first month of service though - that part of Hughesnet works instantly.

Baby Powder!

2012-01-25T18:20:00.001-08:00

Donny found the baby powder.

Being Protected to Death by the Federal Government

2012-01-25T13:39:00.001-08:00

It has been a month and a half since Bob was prescribed a bone stimulator medical device by an orthopedic surgeon. Thanks to the Federal Government and crony capitalism together, it will be on the order of two months to get here - if at all.

The latest delay is that the Federal Government has classified the little ion lithium battery inside this small device as a hazardous thing that can't be shipped to me. Somehow the computers and cell phones are getting shipped here, and the computers definitely have larger batteries. So we wait while being protected from our medical device - to see if the supplier can figure out how to get it here by overland freight.

Prior to that it was the insurance company crony capitalists that got laws in place to first make insurance benefits non-taxable so that businesses bought insurance for employees instead of paying them cash. The big lie here is that your taxes go down. The truth is they had to raise the tax rate on cash income in order to make up for the smaller tax base. If they made insurance benefits taxable, people would stop wanting overprovision of insurance. They would also start paying attention to how much things cost when they go to the doctor and price competition would start back up again. It is the only industry in the USA where it is an ordeal to find out how much something costs. The prices are marked on every other good or service - on the item itself or prominently on the wall. But not in the medical industry.

People were not insuring for regular, predictable medical expenses before that - they were only insuring themselves against catastrophic losses or not at all. So for 20 years Bob paid ten thousand dollars a year for insurance he didn't want. You have no choice because the employer negotiates a contract with the insurance crony capitalists for all employees. I also resented paying the same amount as someone with four children - all our cash wages went down by the average cost of insurance instead of paying according to use.

So now it took weeks for the insurance company to "approve" of this expenditure, and there will be more wonderful paperwork now too, making sure they pay the right amount, figuring out the deductable and copay. There was a time when you could just buy things with your money. We're supposed to be happy that the insurance companies got the law changed, causing the insurance industry to grow exponentially and placing them in charge of what we are allowed to buy. We are supposed to be happy that the EPA has a "materials safety data sheet" protecting me from my medical device.

We aren't. The treatment should have been finished nearly a month ago if it worked well enough - and we still do not even have the device thanks to the federal government.

Gable Birthday Pictures

2012-01-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

Incredibly, the hi-speed internet started working today because it warmed up and the tree with the dish mounted on it moved into the correct position. It lasted almost an hour! The temperature dropped and is headed towards forty below tomorrow.

We owe these fine pictures to Howard and Florence Benson, who came out to visit on Gable's birthday. We don't get a lot of visitors. Two times in the last year.

Donny enjoyed showing off.

He was so disappointed when they left. He pointed to his coat and said he wanted to put his coat on, and kept demanding "truck!" "go!" because when they drove off he wanted to follow them.

Lira made a pork roast that was soooo yummy. A great salad, which is something important because Lira never ate vegetables before she met me - amazing. She would always forget to make a vegetable so sometimes I would cook and bring her just a bowl of green beans with no rice or meat as a little helpful hint. The chocolate cake explains what is on Gable's face.

Such a happy boy. That's the main thing about these kids - happy, happy, happy.

Hi FLorence! She is from Ghana. Bob has known Howard for over 20 years way back when he was in the Alaska Independence Party. Howard went on the famous protest drive into McKinley park with no permits that had the Feds so apopleptic. The road belongs to the State of Alaska, not the Feds. So we put copies of the 1959 deed on our windshields as our permits.

This was their wedding on December 31 of 2011. Only one cripple in attendance. It was more than thirty below zero on that day.

Birthday Box from Grandma

2012-01-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

Dial-up is very sloooooow... and the battery on the camera is dead. But Donny and Gable opened their box of birthday presents together! There are books and balloons and turtle, and rice crispy treats, building blocks, nursery rhymes on CD's... and lolipops!

Thank you Grandma! Donny knows the box is from Grandma. Gable says dooooo!

Fairbanks Annual Temperature Profile

2012-01-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is a picture from data I downloaded a couple years back, but it is still handy for showing the average highs and lows, plus the record highs and lows throughout the year in Fairbanks. We're almost through the typical bottom of the trough, but February can bring us some fifty below for sure.

Wood consumption sure skyrocketed during that cold snap. It looks like we'll make it through to near the end of February with the wood stored next to the door, which was the plan. The other pile of wood is a longer walk for Lira, but wood consumption should fall precipitously throughout March, and then with the divorce she won't have to carry any wood at all!

Hiding on Your Spouse

2012-01-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

How many spouses are hide on each other? It's a lot harder now with Bob's broken leg, but he did get one really good one in recently despite one leg in a brace: If you have just come inside from town the first thing you are going to do is hang the coat up on the spikes on the wall - so hiding behind a full-length arctic coat is going to work perfectly. She's going to hang her coat right next to you and not notice your coat looks a little fuller than normal against the logs.

The object here is not to scare the heck out of them. Just a little bit. What you do is ask something innocently like "did it seem cold out there today?", when you are a few inches away and they don't think you are there.

Lira's best stunt involves turning the light on in the bathroom or laundry room, but leaving it dark everywhere else so it looks like she's in there. But she's actually crouching down behind the couch to let you pass by. Then she'll reach out and touch your leg if she doesn't burst out giggling first.

When Bob's leg is better we can get back to the real good stuff like using your arms and legs to suspend yourself over the stairs, above where she can see. The sneak-crawler is always good too: while one of us is washing dishes or busy cooking or whatever, the other crawls up very slowly. The very best of these is when you can stand up right behind them and wait for them to turn around, not realizing anyone is there. You don't need to say a thing. Give her that dead-pan face, then the quizzical look after she jumps: "is something wrong?" "Do I have something on my face?"

Torque was more cooperative than the kids. She basically ignored you. But the kids give you away just about every time.

We have no idea how many people do this, and it is impossible to google because all the stuff you come up with is about hiding affairs or hiding purchases from your spouse. But it never gets old, and lets them know you are still the third-grader they fell in love with.

Happy Birthday Gable!

2012-01-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Gable is one year old on January 23. He is only slightly above average in development. So we have not been raided by Child Protective Services to rescue him from being too far ahead of his peers. Maybe someone can call them to report Gable is playing with this dangerous toy from his Grandma so we can lock her up.

Yes, he's standing and walking on his own. It's interesting that he will walk more if he is holding something - but I guess that makes sense because if you are crawling you can't carry your green ring with you.

Gable really likes music and sways from side to side whenever he hears it. Donny is working on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the piano, and some of the names of notes. Every note is "C" at the present time.

They both love the show "Nick Jr." and "Wonderpets". Wonderpets fly around in a little sailboat rescuing animals in trouble, so the laundry basket is their sailboat.

Pretty fuzzy because they are both moving. Any state Child Protection worker can tell you that these smiles could just be a mask for the terror they feel inside, and demand that you prove the negative: prove they aren't terrorized underneath those happy faces.

Windy!

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, is it ever windy outside. So Donny and Gable both have a new word. Wind! Donny is running around waving his arms and making a sound like wind now. He's very excited about wind.

The good thing about wind is it never comes in the deep cold. It is only -4, but with the average wind at 16 mph the wind chill is -25 or so. it's snowing very lightly.

Boy, Newt the Grinch creamed the competition in the South Carolina primary. I guess the key to success in the Republican primary is to keep calling yourself a conservative regardless of your record. Someone who actually votes for smaller government and individual liberties - that's a crazy person.

Net Obomba Approval at -16

2012-01-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

It only took six months for President Obomba to prove himself a con-man with a polished voice. "Let me be clear..." (followed by dissembling, lying, etc.) If you are speaking with clarity, you don't need to say such a thing. You should be saying "let me be verbose".

The Rasmussen poll net approval rating here is the percent who strongly approve of him as president minus the percent who strongly disapprove. It is still amazing how much approval he does have from his liberal anti-capitalist base that seem oblivious to his continuation of Bush era policies of unbridled executive power, trampling of the bill of rights and war.

The index began with a wide margin of net approval, after years of disasterous Bush presidency, but quickly moved into negative territory, where it has remained. Yet, who is being put up against him? Gingrich is probably the most obscene of the bunch, but he is leading in South Carolina. If you think this margin is bad, wait until Gingrich is president.

Free Food at McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell for Service Reports

2012-01-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

We just got two more free food cards today from McDonald's for making another nice report about their service. It's been quite a run, with complimentary meal cards from McDonald's (twice), Burger King, and Taco Bell (twice) in the last few months. It came with this letter we quote in part:

Thank you for taking the time to share your complimentary comments with McDonald's. It's a rare person who makes the effort to compliment. Thank you for being that person!

We also got a $50 certificate from a service complaint we made about a hotel we stayed at in Anchorage, so altogether we have well over a hundred dollars in free food or certificates for taking the time to comment.

We resolved ourselves to not letting covert aggressives and other nasty people get away with treating us badly, so we report them. But we also report excellent service, and it takes very little time. For the last one with McDonald's there was a telephone number on the bag, so we called that number on the cell phone and had the report done before we finished our french fries. We also asked the manager to come out from the back so we could point out the employees that were so on-the-ball and thank her for their attitude. And you know what - that lifted the mood of everyone behind the counter.

One establishment was rude to my brother after screwing up his order when we were on vacation, and they heard from us. I'm sure my brother feels a lot better about his treatment knowing it got us a couple of whoppers. We did that one on the internet, as with the last report on Taco Bell.

All of these chains have internet sites for reporting, and there's free wifi at many of them, so just bring your laptop in with you and do a report while you are eating. There is something deeply satisfying about this because you are going to reach people in corporate management that are definitely going to take action on what you say. Keep your receipt because the receipt number goes on the report, and they know who was operating the register at that very minute.

In that Anchorage hotel, we reported the desk clerk to the manager on the spot, but that manager was just about as rude as the desk clerk. That's fine, ladies - we just went to the corporate office and wow did they jump to attention. They not only sent us money, but we got both telephonic and written follow-ups to make sure we knew there was some butt-kicking going on.

So howz that nasty attitude workin' out for ya, ladies? And to the clueless manager of the taco bell in Southern Louisiana - you made a judgement error with us too. All we had to do was tell the truth, and both of you will remember who we were.

That reminds us - when we were in Iowa at a Wal-Mart there was a lady who was very helpful with Lira making photo prints for Grandma Dot, and we actually took the time to hunt down the manager who was on lunch break at the time, even though we were in a hurry. We're glad we did because the manager told us that she was a single mom and a new employee that really needed that job. He was very glad we gave him feedback. She was kind of a tough-looking biker chick with a bunch of tatoos but so what - she was Wal-Mart friendly.

We encourage everyone else to take the time to comment when service is either extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad. Because all employees have to learn is that when customers leave the register, it ain't over either way: good service is going to have lasting affect on them, and so is bad service.

Heh - January 25 note: hello to our fans who always appear whenever we mention covert aggression. It took five or six days for your "watchers" to report we mentioned your favorite word again - and here you come running. The thing we relish most is that we're sure you say how weird we are for talking about it from time to time - but it is the only time you show up en masse. So who is weird and fixated? We have areound 1500 posts, with on the order of one percent or two mentioning covert aggression - but there is a class of you so fixated you turn yourselves inside out whenever we talk about it.

Princess in the Tower and Hughesnet

2012-01-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

It is noon, and the Princess looks out her window to see if Hughesnet is approaching on the white horse, or if it was all a cruel hoax. Promises of one megabyte per second, and forty dollars a month...

Wasn't Obomba supposed to give us high speed internet, close Guantanimo, and be the most open administration in history?

When I asked Donny if he wanted to go outside today, you know what he said? "No, it's cold out there..." But wow, eighteen below zero today seems like tropical weather!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2012-01-18T00:57:00.000-08:00

It's forty-four below zero and Lira is taking the edge off with chocolate covered strawberries. These are white chocolate affairs, and boy are they good. She's had something spectacular every day for her family. We all love you honey.

Gable is walking a lot more now, and at one year old is testing his parents. It is very interesting to see how early kids practice the manipulative arts. One of the things they do is see how many times a parent is going to say something before they "really mean it". You can't fall into the trap of telling them something twice or more. I have seen parents say things over and over and over again - because the kids know they can get away with it.

Another trick is to pretend being so upset about getting scolded for something they know they should not have done in the first place - to see if their protestation will make the parents give in. But these wiley parents know how to bust them at that by making them laugh while they are in the middle of pretending to cry. Then they have to try hard to go back to crying when they're laughing.

Thirty Below Heat Wave...and What is a Father?

2012-01-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

We were all sweating last night and had trouble sleeping on account of a temperature surge to an incredible -24. At the moment it is only thirty below, so we are going to take this break in the cold weather to empty the ashes out of the wood stove. When you are flying through the wood like this you accumulate a lot of ash.

I had occasion to think about what being a father seems like to me, which is something I never thought about before. My feeling is that of being on a team, and more precisely being a cheerleader. I don't have any kind of feeling about being a boss or figurehead. I do still beat Lira regularly, just to keep her terrorized of course.

Reading at Two... and the Anti-Learning Luddites

2012-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

We haven't said much about Donny's reading but we want to make a note for ourselves here. He's had the entire alphabet down for a while now, both phonetically and the names of the letters. Plus counting zero through ten. He has higher numbers down somewhat too, but gets mixed up between things like 62 vs 26. I'm not sure where he is getting that from because I have not been teaching him past ten. He blurts these things out when he sees them on signs or packages or whatever.

He has an ever-expanding vocabulary and written word recognition. We are putting together sets of written words now instead of one at a time, like "black pawn" and "white pawn". (He knows the chess pieces because he sees mommy and daddy using them.) He understands that adding "ing" to a word transforms a verb into the present tense (eg walk vs walking and run vs running). For our malicious stalker friends and retards at Child Protective Services - this is called the present participle, but don't worry because we don't expect this much from you.

He has not developed any skills yet in writing out the letters. He doodles with pens or pencils, but writing on the back of his hand or arm is much more fun than using paper, so that's what he does.

Gable has not learned to recognize any letters yet, but he isn't even a year old.

We read anti-learning literature, and know better than our malicious stalkers what reasons can be offered for not learning to read earlier than average. For example, one class of anti-learner Luddites likes to say that children are not learning to sound out letters, and are practicing whole-word memorization instead, which is not reading. Well - that isn't what we're doing. There is another class of anti-learner Luddites that say the constant crushing of the child's ego from failure at this age turns them against learning. Talk about logical fallacies - teaching earlier means you use punishment and ridicule instead of reward and nurturing?

A third class of anti-learner Luddites likes to point out that the advantages of learning to read early tend to dissipate over time as the kids enter public schools - that is: other kids catch up later. So it is a waste of time. Well, public schools are about the last place we would ever want our kids to go, and it is abundantly clear why a kid that starts ahead but is then placed with kids that are behind him would have his development slowed. He would also be bored and probably even have behavioral problems stemming from that boredom.

It is bizarre to discourage learning on the basis that other people will learn the same things later. Why learn anything at all with that mentality?

Another of the anti-learning Luddite charges is that nobody can point to a Nobel Prize winner who learned to read early. This presumes that we are teaching our children to read early, thinking this will get them the Nobel Prize. Well, no - we think it is a certainty that teaching them to read will enable them to read. They have a lot of fun reading, so why should we deny them this enjoyment?

But the best (most absurd) reason from the anti-learning Luddites we reproduce here in full:

The danger is that if we allow the hares to redefine reasonable expectations, the tortoises may lose motivation and accept the conclusions made about them after just the first few laps. What if a kid who has the potential someday to write the next great American novel throws up his arms in the second grade and says, "I'm no good at reading"?

Anti-Learning Luddites on Early Learning

That's right folks - we should not be teaching Donny or Gable to read because their ability to read will be damaging psychologically to other children! Teaching our child to read early will not only hold him back, but it will hold all of society back too!

Most of the anti-learning Luddite literature characterizes early-learning parents as pressuring their kids to learn when the kids don't want to, and carries with it the presumption that children hate to read until the magic moment of average attainment. But ours carries blocks with letters to us on his own volition, telling us what the letters are. He gets up on my lap and says "word!", which means to open up microsoft word and do some reading practice. He loves doing it, and claps gleefully along with us. So we aren't going to tell him "No, you bad boy, don't you dare show excitement about learning how to read this early." If he doesn't show enthusiasm for something, we just don't do it.

January 14 Firewood Report

2012-01-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

Fans have been demanding we give a firewood inventory report since we're headed into a month of the coldest weather Interior Alaska can dish up.

I'd say we have a little over four cords of birch left, plus a very small amount of spruce. That should be enough to make it through the winter. We burn oil too, with a little oil heater in the kitchen. We've been keeping the kitchen warmer than we usually do, and that is going to continue on since Bob is interested in keeping Lira as a wife. We're definitely going to run out of the oil in the tank, but we have a couple of 55 gallon drums we bought too.

So we're looking good for this year, but normally I would be out there right now bringing birch in for next years' wood. What we're saying is that next year looks to be a looming crisis. We're hoping for pre-emptive federal disaster relief.

Fifty Below

2012-01-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

We had a fifty below zero night, but it has warmed up to 45 below by 11 am. When Bob sleeps by the wood stove, things stay warm for Lira and the kids upstairs. If you sleep with a t-shirt on the couch, the cold will let you know when it is time to feed the fire.

We went to the doctor and also got a month of groceries so we can wait out the cold before venturing to town again. It sure hurt to see the grocery bill. I was shocked.

Donny says "It's cold downstairs". Bob says "isn't this fun?" Lira says "we're leaving Daddy". Gable says "apple" and "woof".

Thanks for bringing the wood in every day honey, thanks for all the wonderful cooking, and good luck with a decent husband in the future.

Gable is Walking... Fifty Below Zero Coming

2012-01-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

Gable walked five steps holding a picture frame today, at eleven months old.

It is a balmy five above zero right now, but the forecast is for a low of fifty-one below zero on Friday. I guess they just want to remind us that we are in Alaska.

Heat Wave!

2012-01-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

Oh my God, it's nine degrees outside. We bet on the temperature. Lira lost, and owes me a thousand dollars.

She's going to need to win a lot of chess games to make that one up.

Cabin Temperature Gradient

2012-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

Just for fun we compared the temperature on the kitchen floor with shoulder-level, where the thermometer usually sits. It was 68 F at shoulder level, and 36 F on the floor. Isn't that crazy? A 32 degree difference in less than five feet. A few feet higher upstairs it is probably more like 80.

It's thirty-something below zero outside. At forty or fifty below it's an even more extreme gradient. Our wonderful dog Torque passed away, but when she was with us it was common for her dog bowl of water to freeze on the floor when it was 45 below or so.

Sun is Rising but soooo low

2012-01-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

The sun is rising slightly higher every day, but we have no direct sunshine on the cabin or yard because even at its highest, the sun does not rise above our trees on the south side of the property.

So every day we look at the hill out back to see how far down the hill the direct sunshine is, and in two weeks since winter solstice we can see the difference. When we finally get sun shining directly on the ground instead of being in the shadows, it perks up your spirits. But that is still weeks off.

Donny and Gable have different sleep schedules. Donny stays up later in the night so Gable gets up earlier. But then they change shifts. Donny wakes up and Gable takes his nap.

Gable is starting to add words to his vocabulary like Doggy and Kitty, and call them out when he sees them on the Kids' show they watch.

Make up your Mind!

2012-01-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

It is alternating between forty below zero with clear skies vs. twenty below and snowing hard. We're keeping our heads above water, but this is definitely January in Alaska.

Donny's vocabulary is expanding, and we are constantly amazed. Can he really read like this at two years old? Words he has not seen before?

We'll probably get raided by Child Protection Services now that we have divulged that. They'll want him evaluated for developmental delay because he is too far ahead of his peers.

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

2012-01-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th Anniversary Honey Ko!

Hard to believe how fast these four years passed by. I told Lira when we met and had those first five wonderful days together that it was a "false honeymoon": that later it would be a lot of hard work and struggle.

But that hasn't happened yet. We are still on our honeymoon.

Gable is a powerful little engine now, in four-wheel drive mode. He is such a bright, happy boy. Donny has always been happy, so Gable is following the same happy path. He's Donny's shadow.

Donny has longer sentences now, and at times babbles on, pointing at things and waving his hands. His trucks can fly. The laundry basket is some kind of portable pond with water in it. He has quite an imagination. He took the flying truck and portable pond to see His aunt, uncle, and grandma yesterday apparently.

4 Years

2012-01-07T10:51:00.002-08:00

It's Been Four Years.
But Still, I always Remember.
The Day, I Met A Wonderful YOU.
Since That Very First Day.

I Know, I Already Found YOU.
YOU That Will Take Care And Love Me.
YOU That I Will Take Care And
I Will Love For-Ever.

Time Just Passing By.
In Our Four Years Together.
We Have Been Blessed.
With Our Two Adorable Boys.

Two Wonderful Boys.
Make Our Life More Meaningful
And More Fruitful.
Make Us More In-Love And Happy.

Happy Four Years Anniversary My Honey Ko.
I Love You More And So Much!

Iron Chef Lira

2012-01-04T22:55:00.001-08:00

Lira continues to out-do herself in the kitchen. There was a shrimp-spinach salad today along with roasted oyesters, cheese and spices melted over those. She made these gooey cinnamon rolls for dessert.

So naturally, being the manipulative husband, I gave her a backrub. Oh yes and a kiss on the cheek.

Internet Solutions on the Edge of the Wilderness

2012-01-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

We do not live in the wilderness, but we sure live on the edge of it. So there's no cable here. We have Dish Network for TV now and use a little micro-dish for internet, which is mounted on a tree and aimed at a tower in the valley.

Twice a year the ground moves. It freezes and then thaws, which changes the position of the tree and knocks the dish out of alignment.

We have called various installers for Hughesnet, and the last one wanted $900 for installation and couldn't do it at these temperatures. Before that I went through a run-around with a different Hughesnet provider. He did not have reliable installers, of whom the cheapest in theory was $500, but after winter vacation if then.

So we just got a call for free installation of Hughesnet, one or two weeks installation max. It is a faster speed. It is $40 a month. It might end the necessity of the dial-up as backup because that is the main reason I am also paying for dial-up in addition to micro-dish: because of the unreliability of the microdish.

Faster internet. Lower fee. Free installation. A week or two off. Somebody pinch me. Lira has really missed talking to her family on videochat, and our revenues are really down with Bob's nude chat channel. So this comes to the rescue!

Chef Lira

2012-01-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

It is thirty-eight below in Fairbanks, at least wherever our internet weather station is and feels about the same here. It was a very cold night, maybe 45 below zero or worse. Not fifty. But cold.

Lira has taken over the kitchen by storm recently and has cooked some amazing things. Today she cooked a pizza from scratch. Pies and other desserts, western food, eastern food - she is on a rampage and nobody can stop her.

We decided we better keep the truck plugged in at these temperatures because if someone has a medical emergency, we can't be waiting hours for the truck to get warm enough to start.

It's downright hot upstairs, but you have to keep it that way or else the kitchen floor is ice. Thanks for all your wonderful cooking honey.

Colder still... - 42 at 11:40 am

2012-01-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

The trend line concerns us as the temperature is now 42 below at 11:30 am, at least nearby. We check weather reports because our thermometer is still stuck at 120 degrees.

It can easily be ten degrees either way - colder or warmer - than any of the weather stations nearby. The water pipes froze under the cabin, so we have to turn heat on down there. Plenty of hot water in the tank - it just can't make its way to Lira's kitchen.

We are staying put. Everyone hear us? The roads are very icy. It is extreme, life-threatening cold. We have plenty of food. Thirty below zero is a pretty reasonable cut-off: Any colder than that and you better have a really good reason to be leaving.

Sheesh. It hurts out there. Painful. It makes us wonder how the animals do it, and yet they thrive.

Happy New Year - Forty Below?

2011-12-31T14:02:00.000-08:00

It's 1 pm and it has warmed up to 31 below zero. It's been dipping around 40 below, maybe not quite there, but the cabin started popping last night. The logs twist when they get really cold, and you can hear loud pops. At about 45 to 50 below they're really loud!

We are trying to gear up for a wedding but the truck is not wanting to start despite being plugged in. So Lira carried out the 40,000 BTU propane heater and we'll see if that won't turn things around for us.

Happy New year everyone. Hope it was as good as the last.

Happy Year-End

2011-12-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

Dial-up does not inspire posting, especially images, whilst some year-end tax calculations and decisions are made. We came through this year well enough. Seeing family and old friends was wonderful, and now we're hunkered down for the duration of winter.

Because of the new treatment for my broken leg, we are severely curtailing activity and don't have snowmachine or wood cutting reports and such. We are getting this bone stimulator shipped up, and really limiting movement, even in the cabin. Lira is doing all the wood chores in addition to taking care of three babies - Bob, Donny, and Gable.

Merry Christmas. White and Cold.

2011-12-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone. Not sure about how cold its been at the cabin because the thermometer is stuck on 120. It's a spring-operated thing that gets banged around a lot.

So it looks like lows of thirty belowish these days, and -11 in Fairbanks at mid-day. We are on dial-up so pictures take too much time on the line. If it warms up, the tree will go back to its warm-weather position and we will have five or six times the speed on the internet. We are going to post pictures through the day of Grandma and Auntie & Uncle's booty for the kids. Wow do they like the toys.

Gable can go up and down the stairs now at 11 months. He just needed to be shown a couple of times. It was so scary for him, but half way through the third time he took over. That was the end of it. He can go both ways now.

Announcing Hot Water and Lemon Mirangue Pie

2011-12-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

Yikes. We went six months without a water heater. We had an on-demand propane unit for 25 years and the replacement was $1300 plus fittings. We waited hoping for a Craigslist steal - one in the box at half price that someone didn't install or whatever - but a deal never came. Two vendors no longer carry them because the manufacturers will not warranty them in Alaska. It's too tough on them.

We tried a used one but it was unsatisfactory and Lira saw this 45 gallon tank unit on Craigslist for $350. If we had found a new tankless heater at less than half price we would have gone for that, but the economics on this tank were impressive. We're $1,000 ahead on fixed cost, but it costs more to run. Probably something like a hundred bucks a year. Because you always have hot water stored instead of just heating what you want to use. We heated wood on the stove for showers and poured five-gallon jugs of it on each other, or else used the showers down the road at the laundromat. This will be a lot nicer.

Merry Christmas honey. Thanks for the Lemon Mirangue Pie. Well done.

Happy Solstice and Remembering the Inquisition

2011-12-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Solstice everyone. Check out my diagram.

Long before the modern religions, so-called primitive people built astrological observatories and studied heavenly bodies like the sun and moon that were the great engine behind the earth's seasons.

Knowing when to plant or harvest, organize a moonlight hunt, and not be freaked out by eclipses - most of all how to plan is all based upon solar and lunar cycles: One pass of the earth around the sun is one year. One moon cycle is a month. One rotation of the earth is a day. This is the basis for a calendar.

It is true that they didn't have the entire thing understood in terms of where the center of the Solar System was until after the telescope was invented in 1600. But many centuries before the alleged life of Christ the ancients were incorporating astrological phenomenon into their temples and building observatories.

Egypt's Abu Simbel Temples were erected beginning in 1264 BCE, and "tuned" to Oct 21 and Feb. 21, two months before and two months after winter solstice. There is one North of Lima, Peru (just discovered) that is 4200 years old. The oldest on record I could find was ten thousand years old. This knowledge pre-dates every existing religion and government. The knowledge exist in spite of them.

What religion or government fails to stamp their own stupid agenda onto this important science? Even if you believe in Christianity, there is nothing whatever in the Bible saying Jesus was born just after solstice. The solstice celebrations long pre-dated Christianity or Judism or Emperor's birthdays or great wars of Empire.

If winter solstice stands as the pre-eminent celebration then science is placed at the forefront of human knowledge over the universe. Turning people's attentions instead to myths, silly superstitions, dictators' megalomania, bigotry and racism - so much knowledge is forced aside, supplanted by self-destructive ignorance.

Look how Galileo was locked in a tower by the religious authorities merely for pointing out the motions of the planets were about the sun rather than the earth. There are countless examples of where both government and religion actively persecuted scientific knowledge. A glance at North Korea at the moment would do. But the quintessential example has to be Galileo

It was a decades-long supression (beginning in 1616) of Galileo's observational telescopic proofs of Copernican doctrine, the Sun at the center of the universe (and therefore the seasons of the earth). The Church was backing geocentrism, the earth at the center of the universe. His first condemnation by the church was in 1616.

The final sentence of Galileo came at his Heresy trial by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633, that forced him not only into recanting and then silence, but also under house arrest for the rest of his life:

for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the center of the world

Scientific knowledge has been extirpated by governments and religion in order to plant their own propaganda into the minds of the people instead. Imagine how much further we could have advanced in science if, for the last two thousand years the great majority of the people were looking at diagrams of the solar system and the position of earth at this time of year.

Not that it should be forced onto the people. Just allowing the freedom to publish and speak on science is enough. Beyond that though too lies the problem of education being in the hands of the State or Religion in any way that is compulsory. Because both of them turn education to their own ends, which is political indoctrination. It is a very long history we ignore at our peril.

So we take this time at our world-renowned blog to celebrate the solstice as our celebration. Thank God too, because the sun is on its way back. Check out this picture of winter solstice over Stonehenge. 3,000 years B.C., so more than five thousand years old:

If these monuments have still lasted, ten thousand years later, then how much earlier than that were the principles discovered by man? Another thousand years surely, probably more, which according to the Bible was twice as long ago as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - the Biblical beginning of time. The fact the scribes took such pains to create precise fake lineages in both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Christian appendage to it (New Testament) is proof enough what liars they are. The only universal truth for over ten thousand years - and millions of years beyond that - are the forces we marked with these observatories.

Look how Stonehenge is recording the lowest angle of the sun on Winter Solstice. It means "sun standing still". The sun has been getting lower and lower in elevation, until this day, when it pauses to begin its ascent into the sky to warm things up. The cold is going to be with us for months, but the inexorable return of sun elevation will kill winter. An unstoppable juggernaut.

In the extreme north like this, the darkness is the worst part of winter. So this is a thing to celebrate indeed.

Iligan Bridge Out - Typhoon Washi

2011-12-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

This is a bridge some blocks down the road from Lira's family. Pretty frightening. Hundreds were killed.

This river was dry for short periods a couple of years ago in a drought. They had to store water for hydro power, so they shut off the spigot except for a tiny trickle. So while the average rainfall is pretty good, it has been either too high or too low.

Anyone with a little shack on that flood plain was wiped out.

All of this debris was pushed downriver by the flash flood. That's why it knocked the bridge out: all of these big trees got caught on the bridge, and the surging water shoved its way through.

Mystery Books

2011-12-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

Check us out four years ago!

Mystery books have appeared in the mail. Dr. Seuss books. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish; Green Eggs and Ham; The Cat in the Hat; Hop on Pop; Fox in Socks..

I had all these when young. Look How I turned out! Thanks to our benefactor!

For wont of a flaring tool the ship was adrift...

2011-12-18T15:02:00.001-08:00

And although found, productivity with a broken leg back in the brace is very, every low.

Interwebs is On the Blink

2011-12-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

Our interwebs dish is having issues. But today it is on. We have a lot of home maintenance we are doing. We'll see if things work before we talk big. No, it isn't a docking facility for Lunar Spacecraft. More down-to-earth matters like warm water.

There is a big Typhoon that hit our city in Mindanao - Iligan City. Our family is OK and is helping others. Hundreds are dead there according to accounts we are getting, from flooding and landslides.

Thanks Honey Ko

2011-12-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks Honey Ko.

Gosh, where were we both four years ago? Can it be four years? Does it seem more like four centuries?

Home Sweet Home

2011-12-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

The Logan's back in Alaska. We have a very wonderful times in every Family and Friends whom we spent time with. We enjoyed their company. And Thankful for their Warming and Kindness Heart. A Special Thanks to (Grandma Dot and Fred) (Don Logan's Family) ( TErry Slifer's Family) (Blaine's Family) (T.Elmer's Family) (Ned Ashton's Family). Thank you and We enjoyed our stayed and time with you all. Have a very Happy Holiday's :)

Saying Goodbye To Grandma

2011-12-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

Our vacation is almost over. We have a very Great Time spending time with our Family and Friends. Special Thanks to the Great Grandmother,who spent her time with us. We appreciate everything Mom,Thank you very much for everything. WE LOVE YOU :)

@YMCA kids gym (II)

2011-12-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

Slif

2011-12-04T19:40:00.001-08:00

Slif was and still is my best buddy from high school days - but a problem has developed in our relationship. He was at 185 lbs when I was 105. Now we weigh about the same. That's more of a problem for me than it is for him.

Here's to ya, old buddy!

Had Fun With the Great-Grandma

2011-12-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

We love you Grandma :)

Gable meets Gable

2011-12-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Gable Logan meets Dan Gable. This was at the Iowa-Illinois dual meet, which was exciting, with the number one Hawkeyes edging the number 7 Illini 20-13.

We have a lot of catching up to do at the Blog. But we are going to have to do it when we get home. We have seen a lot of wonderful people from the past, all the way back to Junior High School days. Forty years ago. Almost twenty years before Lira was born, I was in 7th grade at Miller Junior High in Marshalltown.

Fixer-Upper

2011-11-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

It's a fixer-upper.

But it has a tornado shelter.

This is the view out front.

Downtown Marshall, Arkansas.

Twenty-Eight Below Blues...Secret Mission On.

2011-11-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

It's twenty-one below zero in Fairbanks right now. The low is going to be twenty-eight below zero tonight. We feel real bad about that. It's about a hundred degrees warmer here.

Phase II of our secret mission is in play now. Phase I was in Eastern Arkansas, and was accomplished on the way down here. Phase II is in Western Arkansas, and is more extensive in scope. So far we are very pleased with the results. We're in Eldorado Arkansas at the moment and are very much looking forward to the key mission segment ahead of us.

Bourbon Street Debauchery

2011-11-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

It was family night on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Donny was a huge hit with the dancing girls, especially the ones from Larry Flint's Barely Legal Club.

We spent a grand total of $0 on the evening. No need to enter any clubs, even though there was no cover charge at this time of year. The action is on the streets with mimes, fortune tellers, voodoo, and sundry other performers. Plus there are many dancing girls at the doors to the clubs - so cheerful and inviting, and clad in a few square inches of material.

What kind of husband turns down three hundred cash and a "night off" from his wife? This husband did. Talk about a collosal waste of money. Hey, nothing against the institution - I just prefer the wife and kids.

Marooned

2011-11-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Another day alone at the beach.

I guess everyone is in the bars drinking.

Lira is running, and the boys following.

Pacman Wins; Gayweather Sprouts Breasts

2011-11-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

Manny Pacquiao won another close match against Juan Manuel Marquez last night. We didn't see the fight because we were being held hostage at the beach by pelican terrorists.

In related news, Floyd Gayweather has grown female breasts, and was last seen squealing "help me mommy" when the Pacquiao management team contacted him to attempt arranging a fight.

Gable at Muscle Beach

2011-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Gable has attracted every female on the beach with his marvelous physique.

He's got the moves.

Plus he has a happy-go-lucky spirit.

He knows some slick pick-up lines.

Like daaa and baaa!

One Crisis after Another

2011-11-13T09:34:00.001-08:00

Today's crisis is that the bread got squished, and our sandwiches are not perfect.

Just think about it: mustard on your fingers, crumbs falling all over...

Not to mention it was sunny and hot today, and we were all alone on the beach again.

People down here seem to think this is cold weather. So they're inside their houses shivvvvvvvvvveering by the fire.

Pelicans were threatening us today too. You can see them in that top photo. It was a narrow escape.

Pavlov's Covert Aggressive Dogs

2011-11-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

Whenever we talk about covert aggression we get a wave of visits from message boards populated by covert aggressors/invalidators/nasty people. We never read them. We just see them in the visitor statistics.

The literature says the best thing you can do is remove them from your life. So we did. You could write it all yourself anyway. It doesn't take any intelligence, just a lack of maturity and a mean disposition. The books compare them to children who never matured, and indeed all of the tactics are used by children.

You would think after nearly four years though they'd give up trying to invalidate you. But then again the books say they are more like machines than people, and they will never, never give up. So I guess the literature is right.

The thing that makes us laugh the most about them is that here they are, internet stalking, sifting through our 1,500 posts so that the relatively few times we talk about this subject they can seize upon it as evidence of how abnormal we are. It only takes one day, and they come a-runnin'. Not the kind of groupies you can be proud of, but hey - it's better than being one.

Woof.

Dial 911!

2011-11-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

It's an emergency - a cloudy day.

Donny and Daddy did some reconnaissance on the beach. There are apparantly no survivors. We were alone.

We waded out to a sand island where there was a great flock of birds. Most already flew away with Donny telling them No! No! No!

Mom should recognize this tent. It's hers! This was right before the fire destroyed it. Joan should recognize the car. It's hers! We meant to ask if the driver's side was crumpled up before we borrowed it. Wow, the whole side from front to back is really torn up.

Her highness, the queen.

It's windy so we cook inside the screen porch. Donny and Gable help with cooking, mostly by emptying the salt and pepper containers.

Dolphins Flipping

2011-11-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

There were some dolphins playing in the ocean. I caught a little one doing a flip in the air here, and a bigger one surfacing next to him. What were they so excited about?

They were excited about this! Me too.

Day at the Beach

2011-11-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

Hi folks.

We can't lie any more about where we are.

We're down at the beach.

In the Gulf of Mexico.

We are very sorry to be missing the storms in Alaska. They made national news. Sounds like we better stay right here.

Our Favorite Retail Covert Aggressor... Fired :(

2011-11-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

I forgot to report some months ago that our favorite retail covert aggressor got fired. He worked at Sam's Club. I remembered because today we saw a new covert aggressor, not near as bad, but this time I reported him to his manager immediately instead of letting it go.

The one who got fired had a station at the exit where you had to contend with him because he checked your receipt before leaving the store. He was an expert at looking the other way as customers approached. He made sure that everyone got a dose of being ignored as they approached before he snatched the receipt out of your hand, made a mark on it, and handed it back without ever looking at you or saying anything.

When I had called the manager to say how rude he was they knew who I was talking about before I even said his name. He made slight improvement before he got fired, but never once did what management told him, which was to greet customers and thank them instead of making sure they knew this guy had no respect for them.

The last time I went in before he was fired was fascinating because I had always wanted to talk to him, but these people are experts in making you cause a scene just to get their attention. So I watched him again for a little while before I shopped and realized that everyone was an obedient little customer, stopping and waiting with their receipt out for him to ignore for a moment before his terse little routine of snatching and marking. He doesn't even have to ask for the receipt.

So therefore I resolved to exit without acknowledging his presence - a taste of his own medicine. I was amazed at the effect it had. As I went by him, he reacted with such shock he could not even formulate words. He blurted out some kind of noise, but it wasn't any term of the English language. So I turned and looked at him, but not with my receipt out. It was the first time he ever looked at me. Instead of that uber-confident prick from the past was this quivering, stammering fool with a look of fear on his face.

Instead of handing him my receipt I explained to him that he was going to go a lot further in life if he didn't dedicate himself to showing every customer how much spite he had for them. I told him I meant him no harm, but that I had reported him to his manager already and I was going to keep reporting him until he changed his behavior towards me. He said "thank you, sir" - and boy he said that like he really meant it.

I thought that maybe there was hope for this guy. Maybe he'll be a good employee and down the road he'll have a good career. I worked in a grocery store and my God I was always cheerful to the customers just because I was a cheerful person. But I was mistaken about this guy. If you have to pull a stunt like that just to have him look at you for the fist time - he is off the charts and not a lot can be expected. I didn't see him for a while, so I asked another employee about him. He had been fired. Too many complaints. Boy he sure showed everyone, didn't he? Now not only had he been fired, but the next job is going to be very hard to get with this economy and a record of being fired for being such an ass.

Today a Sam's club cashier ignored me when I greeted him. He said two words to me. He stated the amount I owed, and he stated the change due. So I asked him where his manager's office was. His manager happened to be twenty feet away, so he pointed her out, and as he was doing so she looked over. He said I wanted to talk to her about something. I told her that this employee needed to be instructed that when customers greeted him that he should return the greeting instead of ignoring them. It wasn't anything he needed to know because I have already talked to a Sam's Club manager who explained to me how they are trained to greet and thank customers.

The instant this guy realized the complaint was about him then just like the other covert aggressor, suddenly he was thanking me and wishing me to have a nice evening - and wow was it perfectly done for its appearance of genuine warmth and care. Smiling, and gesturing with his arms, whereas before he would not even acknowledge my presence. It proves the kind of acting skills these aggressors have. They can put on the charm or they can act like you aren't worth the dirt under their feet. What dictates how they behave is accountability. They know exactly what they're doing - being rude on purpose - and unless they think they will be held accountable, they'll be booting you in the ass on the way out the store.

HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY MOM

2011-11-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

A very special Happy 80th Birthday to the one and only (DOT LOGAN).

Smiles and laughter, joy and cheer
New happiness that stays throughout the year
Hope your birthday brings all these and more
Filling life with surprise and joys galore!

Body Art

2011-11-07T07:31:00.001-08:00

Internet (Tree) Outages!

2011-11-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our internet dish is mounted on a tall tree next to the house, and every winter after freeze-up it shifts positions. So it has to be tuned twice a year: Once in the summer and once in the winter.

But we need to let it settle down for another month. The last few days it has been off a lot so the ground is freezing up. Once it is completely frozen the internet will be off for good. But we don't want to tune it too early.

So we'll be a little spotty in here for a month or so. We are missing our family and wish we could see them. Especially Mom. We thought we were going to the Philippines, but work is going to keep me here unless we just can't hack the winter.

Our number is 867-5309 if you need a personal briefing by phone.

Bad Ass Snow Cat

2011-11-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

Check out this bad-ass snow cat my sister posted on her facebook page. It's up on Beaver Creek Mountain where she lives.

He's on a cable, which we point out not as "cheating", but to confirm the grade he is on can flip even one of these monsters. I'm all green with envy for whoever is driving that machine.

Ten Below Zero... Twisted Spruce

2011-11-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Gee, it's ten below. I thought it was cold with bare hands on the maul, the sledge, and the wedge. We're splitting this big spruce up, the last of it - and it is a mother humper. Wow. When a tree is in any kind of wind, they twist instead of growing up with a straight grain. You can't throw a maul in a spiral. You have to pound a fat wedge in with a sledge hammer.

Lira has been carrying wood in every day to save my leg. But then every night it's the same thing. I can't talk about it.

Hall of Fame Wives Series VI - Wayward Drivers

2011-11-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

Third Time's the Charm

Today we bring you Hall of Fame Inductee Clara Harris, who ran over her husband three times in her Mercedez-Benz, with his daughter in the passenger seat, in front of the mistress, at the hotel where they were having their affair.

Talk about a strong finish. Incredibly, she had hired a private detective just that morning to spy on her husband, providing the hotel information - but she couldn't help herself and showed up while the private detective's camera was rolling.

First, she attacked the mistress in front of ten hotel employees, screaming about the affair with her husband David. The employees managed to get them outside, but she slipped into her Mercedez and with wheels screeching drove towards the crowd, jumping the curb and driving over her husband. One account has an initial "bump" that launched him 25 ft. That was followed by three times over him in the forward direction, then in the reverse direction too, and ending by parking on top of him.

The 16 year old daughter in the passenger seat jumped out of the car, which was parked on top of the husband. She punched her step-mother in the face. The step-mother claimed it was an accident, although it is unclear if it was the first, second, or all three to five times that were accidents.

She got twenty years. Texas lets juries do sentencing, and although they convicted her of first degree murder, they allowed for her state of mind. This is the state that executes the most people, so that sentence is getting off easy in Texas.

First Thanksgiving

2011-10-31T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is a depiction of the 1621 Plymouth Plantation Thanksgiving. It's a bigfoot in the background being roasted.

NEW RESEARCH FOUND: THE BOOK ON HOW TO UNDERSTAND GIRLS

2011-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hall of Fame Wives V: Taking Charge

2011-10-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

In this episode of Hall of Fame Wives, we introduce a story filed by police chief Abdul Rahim Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 24 this year.

It seems the wife broke in on the mistress as the husband called her from his home. He was forced to listen on the phone while the wife beat and tortured the mistress. He thinks he's about to schedule the next bootie call, and the wife sez "hi honey, I'm taking over now. Just listen to this..." First, she tunes up the mistress on her own, but after she's done she turns the job over to these fellas.

The wife then calmly hung up and let the husband stew on it for a day while she enjoyed the company of the mistress, as did the four males she brought along with her. So the next day the wife calls the husband again for some more delightful conversation, what with all the background partying still going on with the mistress and these men. No, she's not going to need any nookie when we hand her over to you honey. The four guys have been working for the last day non-stop trying to slake this girl's lust.

"Don't be jealous that she's with these men either honey because all of us swear she's thinking about you the whole time - just listen".

The wife says she'll be glad to give him back the mistress, with all working parts except the head shaved for about $30K large. So you can see why we awarded her the Gold Medal in Turning the Tables. She saw an opportunity to turn misfortune into profit. So she maintained that positive spirit despite what appeared to be a setback initially.

Wife Tunes up Mistress

Although we admire her take-charge attitude, she was apprehended before cashing in on her prize. Some Hall of Famers are bright comets, that although beautiful fade in the end.

Gaslighting... Manipulative Trick of the Day

2011-10-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

We just read about an interesting tactic of manipulative people called "gaslighting". It is named after a play in which the husband lowers the gas lights so that his wife will notice, but he denies it is happening so he can say she's crazy.

He does more than just adjusting the lights of course. In the play the husband sets about a long run plan of action to drive her insane. We put gaslighting on stage of course because it's covert aggression, baby! They're on the attack with extremely malicious intent, but it is delivered underhandedly. Deceitfully. Like a person who puts poison in your food. An assassin.

You see it in a lot of other contexts, like when people are having affairs. The victim notices changes, suspicious ones, and the cheater says the victim is crazy. If anyone is changing it's you - just look at yourself all stressed out and unhappy now. What's wrong with you? If you can get people questioning their own judgement, you have disabled them, and they can be manipulated easier.

Another example would be Lira cooking key lime pie and key lime pudding after I mentioned my grandmother used to make it. Then there was my mention of mom's meat loaf, mashed potatos and gravy, and corn. So the next day look what she's got on the table - meat loaf mashed potatos and corn.

She says nothing is happening, but just look at the pattern. It can't be coincidence. She is trying to drive me insane.

Tonight it was these giant meat balls and mashed potatos, gravy, and onions. Think of what this kind of relentless psychological warfare does to a man. Delicious honey, especially the asparagus!

Here is the most bizarre context in which I saw it used on me: I was having an argument with someone about "terrorism", and in this context it meant people who rationally chose guerilla war because they were massively overpowered. It is an elementary rule of warfare going back further than Sun Tsu, and has operated continuously through time up to the present wars.

There isn't anything rational to argue about on this point let alone get so emotional over, but the manipulator pulled this out of his hat: "But the terrorists aren't brave..." to which I responded in bewilderment that bravery was not the issue, but rather straightforward logic and common sense, not to mention basic published military strategy. You are taught in military school to do this, and covert branches of the superior military force are specialists in it too.

But he got increasingly psychotic about this bravery thing, really beyond comprehension why he was so frantic on this point. I kept saying it didn't matter to me, why are you being so shrill about it? Fine, call them cowards, I just don't care, can we now move on with the discussion? You come out of nowhere with this "bravery" thing and are using it to defeat any other discussion. It is more than the logical fallacy of the Red Herring - something more than that is going on here.

Then he accused me of being the one who started the Red Herring by saying how brave the terrorists were! I denied doing so rather vehemently of course. This was way too bizarre given my complete neutrality on the matter and my whole effort to put it aside due to its lack of relevance. But that just brought on even more craziness from him about how unreasonable I was now denying how strongly I had praised the bravery of the terrorists!

It had me completely baffled to where I was asking if I had been in the same reality he had for the last twenty minutes, so I just stopped talking. The attempt prior I was saying look, maybe you are responding to some position you saw on TV or something that you are projecting onto me, but I implore you to stop - I have said no such thing, I would never say such a thing, and even if I did then why wouldn't I be allowed to correct that position? OK, OK they are the scum of the earth, worse than rats can we please go on now? "But you said they were brave..." The only thing that stopped it was to stop talking, period.

Sometime later I did try to re-approach it because I was still bothered about being accused of going around celebrating the bravery of whichever terrorists these were.

His response was he didn't remember it happening. I remember being baffled by that answer. I pressed him. You can't be serious! You don't remember this huge argument that went on for twenty minutes? It was on a hike that took 28 minutes, well more than half the entire hike. The argument started right in the beginning and the whole rest of the hike was "terrorists aren't brave!" screeching, with this person doing histrionics pointing at me and insisting I'm the one raising the stress level, and how I just won't let the issue of bravery in terrorists go.

So through reading you finally learn the names of the things people have perpetrated on you. Learning about gaslighting underscores two things for me. First, how important it is to trust your own judgement. But the other is again how utterly without scruples people can be to do this to someone else. Never let the depravity of others surprise you.

So I can look back now at the beginning of the hike, and understand. When you change your assumptions, look how a baffling incident suddenly makes perfect sense. You are in a discussion and someone is about to box you in logically. It's inescapable so what do you do? Concede? No, you gaslight your way out of it. You pull some stunt that can't help but be noticed, force people to deal with it, blame them for it, even make them doubt reality over it: they imagined the whole thing.

You win the argument by sabotage while claiming the other party is the saboteur. His motto was "if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin."

The rich irony is in remembering this was a discussion about guerila war tactics. Here our covert aggressor is shrieking about how the very tactic he is using would only be used by a coward. Someone who would conceal their attack is a coward. Here you are gaslighting me - committing dirty psychological warfare just to avoid conceding a point? Gah, what a waste of everyone's time!

I don't know what is going on, but like Dr. George Simon says: if you ever have the feeling like you are being led somewhere, and like you are engaged in some kind of struggle, but it isn't clear what is going on, then you are dealing with a guerilla fighter. Covert Aggressor. They're all about camoflage and diverting your attention, ambushes and deception. If they were honest they would say "I'm going to abuse your trust to get what I want, which in this case is to stop your line of reasoning, without telling you what I am up to."

You wonder how on the one hand they were acting so outrageously, yet seemed to be in control of things. Because they know from the outset that twenty minutes hence they will be blaming you for what they are intentionally starting, and that they will also deny it ever happened. They've done it before - just bewildering people with outrageous behavior.

Yeah, I guess - I did just fall off a turnip truck in some respects. But you try to learn and do better. Gaslighting: the scruples of an assassin.

The Kanook Starter Bypass

2011-10-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to announce an engineering break-through on Ski-doo snow machines. We are calling it the Kanook Starter Bypass. It is a way to engineer around the retractable pull-start by replacing it with an old-timey rope pull-start.

This model of Ski-Doo Tundra II has an engineering flaw. The retractable pull-start was changed. They decided to design a plastic housing or shroud that goes around the entire engine in order to contain heat and direct it up to the windshield above.

The problem with doing that is if the shroud comes the slightest bit loose, the whole pull-start assembly is no longer tight against the motor. So you pull on it, but it fails to grab the engine and your machine is disabled.

The worst part about it is you have to remove the entire engine from the machine in order to completely remove that shroud, just to tighten it! The pull-start gear is also manufactured in plastic instead of metal, so at forty below zero it is guaranteed to chip, crack, and shatter.

See that rope pull-start? This is a fail-safe method, guaranteed to work every time at a hundred below zero.

I had to raid the same piece off an old engine: the part the rope is wrapped around. There are two of them mounted on this engine. One below the one you can see. Then a layer of metal roofing between them. I cut it to fit, including the bolt holes and used a grinder to make it smoothe.

I bought way oversize bolts so they could reach from further out. It is really light. I reduced the weight of the machine by about ten or twelve pounds, in the front where it matters most. To us, in the woods, fabricating your own solutions, especially if they are cheap, is a big deal. Not going to town. Not relying on people getting parts right, things on back-order, saying the parts are there because the computer says so - but not actually looking. A day blown in vain.

Ski-Doo is made by Bombardier in Canada. That's why it's the Kanook Bypass.

US Al Qaeda Footsoldiers Rack up the Atrocities in Libya

2011-10-26T20:31:00.001-07:00

Our gallant Al Qaeda footsoldiers for the Nobel Peace Prizer O'Bomba are sure racking up the points in Libya! What with 52 summary executions only days ago and a mass grave of 572 and counting in Sirte, where loyalists of Qadaffi Duck defended the country's leader at the end.

Naturally, we'll here the "boys will be boys" line, and "you have to break a few eggs to make an omlette" from the people who claimed we entered this war in order to stop people from being massacred just like what is happening now. We'll be told we're stupid for thinking war can be made without spilling blood, and how we have to sympathize with these people because some of their comrades died in the fighting.

Sure, I remember how George Washington, right after the Revolutionary War, summarily executed all the British Soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs like in Sirte. Oh yes, and after WWI and WWII, remember how we shot all the German and Japanese prisoners in the back of the head? So I guess yeah, we need to be understanding about our Al Qaeda footsoldiers in Sirte shooting all those people with their hands tied behind their backs in the head. Our kind of people.

Even CBS is picking up on this now, although anyone paying attention from the beginning knew about the executions of blacks - and how back then the excuse was that they were mercinaries. We hear that now too. Anyone with a bullet in the back of the head was a mercenary.

CBS coverage of atrocities

That is another well-known exception to any rules of war: the mercenary exception. You get to torture and cannibalize mercenaries. Anyone with a brain in his head knows that much. And hookers - you get to rape wartime hookers. Hoarders have their stockpiles automatically seized, etc. There's a very long list of exceptions. No mercy to any of these. That's the spirit!

Hall of Fame Wives Series IV: Chubby Chikas

2011-10-26T11:14:00.001-07:00

In today's installment, we bring you Chubby Mia Landingham of Cleveland, Ohio who sat upon and squished her skinny husband to death. We knew there had to be a 300-lb plus porker out there with a skinny waif of a husband to fill a classic hole in our series. So we've rolled out this Heffer for your enjoyment.

Chubby Mia was placed upon the Police scale after her arrest, but the scale could not register beyond 350 lbs. So we cannot render an exact figure, but her husband was subsequently weighed at 126 lbs in the coroner's office. Maybe Massive Mia is a better description, at three times the size of her husband.

It seems Mr. Landingham had been out drinking, and was in a bit of a foul mood upon returning home. The Chubber was intent on teaching him a lesson about spending the family money on booze and keeping that bad attitude in check. She sat upon his backside as he lay face-down on the couch. We reckon she accomplished both objectives, and let that be a lesson to future suitors.

According to Ms. Tubby, his last words were "mmmph! mmrgh!", as bones were heard snapping and splintering below. Due to the extreme breadth of her bottom-side, Mr. Landingham was not visible to authorities until she got up off the couch.

One of the reasons we have selected this Pork Chop over her competitors is that the roll-a-baby served no time in jail for squishing her husband. Three years of probation, and we hope too a restraining order to keep her hands off the twinkies. But that's the kind of slick evasion women can admire and aspire to. We presented her with the gold medal in escaping accountability: free to squish again.

Snow!

2011-10-26T11:03:00.001-07:00

More snow today. This is out the office window looking at the hill out back. Pretty impressive compared to overlooking Central Park in New York City, don't you think?

The Manhattan executives don't plug their four-wheelers in, and they have snowmachine drivers that pick them up at the elevator door. I don't understand why they don't drive their snowmachines by themselves. I'd rather drive than be on the back, wouldn't you?

Twilight Zone of Foreign Policy

2011-10-25T18:27:00.001-07:00

We've paid less attention to the debacle in Libya, but near as we understand it Shariah Law has been declared by the ex - Al Qaeda military commander in Tripoli.

His name is Belhaj, and you'll remember he is the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group commander now in charge of Tripoli, former combat enemy of the US in both Iraq and Afghanistan. he was captured by the CIA in Bangkok, tortured, renditioned to Libya for more torture, and demands an apology:

Al Qaeda Commander Demands Apology

There is a National Transition Council that is the public charade-face given to the NATO overthrow of Quadaffi Duck, but it was the military commander that issued the edict the NTC speaker Jalil has now made public. That's the way democracy works, you know - the military commander puts in religious law.

You have to ask yourself if you are in the Twilight Zone. Because the backdrop to all our wars - A TRILLION DOLLARS now spent - in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya - was our Battle of Civilizations, the war against radical Islam and Shariah Law. It is the Law of the Land in all three now.

Qadaffi was ridiculed as a babbling idiot for saying the Benghazi rebels were Al Qaeda, yet our own West Point study cited that area as the highest concentration of Al Qaeda suiciders killing Americans in Iraq. The man recruiting them appears to be in charge of Libya at the moment.

Hall of Fame Wives Series III - the Choppers

2011-10-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Chop! Chop!

Our mail bag has a number of inquiries wondering when Lorena Bobbit was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for cutting off her husband's organ. Well, it isn't that easy to gain entrance into the Hall of Fame. First of all, it is hardly an original act, with instances stretching all the way back to ancient historical records in China, Egypt & etc.

But we specifically rejected Lorena Bobbit for her failure to follow through. We remind readers that Lorena threw the member out the car window, it was retreived, and re-attached to the wayward John Bobbit.

It seems the Asian women have better follow-through so we offer a pair of entries today, both showing the kind of spirit we think exemplifies a real Hall-of-Famer.

Chien Liu-liang, age 51, cut off Yao Kuan-jung's willy with scissors, and flushed it down the toilet. The husband bled to death. He never had another affair for the rest of his life. See the kind of finish we're talking about? The toilet is not original, true - but he's dead and permanently separated from his working part.

Thai husband Prayoon Ekklang, a 47-year-old taxi driver in the northeastern city of Nakorn Ratchasima, was hospitalized after trying in vain to catch his wife when she ran with his penis. She had first drugged him, but the intense pain from the "operation" awoke him to see his wife holding the knife in one hand and his unit in the other.

We applaud her for the originality in follow through. The upstart wife attached the prize to helium ballons and let them waft up into the sky as the husband watched helplessly below. She won the gold in dish presentation.