I have an odd sense of humor.

August 29th, 2011

Sorry for the radio silence the past few days. Two reasons:

  1. There just hasn’t been that much to report. I understand there was an earthquake somewhere, and a hurricane in some other place? Other than that, I got nothing (well, except it hit 110 in Austin over the weekend).
  2. I’ve been running around Armadillocon 33 all weekend.

Content will, perhaps, resume soonish. In the meantime, here’s a picture I took Sunday morning, just because I happened to have the book with me at breakfast (I was expecting to be eating alone) and the juxtaposition amused me.

 


The book is Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill, a book which I don’t feel I can recommend. (There may be a longer post later on this.) The dish is pigs in a blanket from the Original Pancake House. The arm belongs to the elusive Mike the Musicologist.

Barbecue update.

August 24th, 2011

Per the Statesman, Sam’s BBQ in East Austin has reopened. You may (or may not) recall that Sam’s was one of the three places involved in the meat sting back in July.

The owner is quoted as saying he was able to get his health permit back because “the kind of meat involved in the sting isn’t what’s sold on his menu”. To which we say: ?!

TMQ watch: August 23, 2011.

August 23rd, 2011

This week: TMQ’s AFC preview, and this is the last time we’ll ever have to read about “Friday Night Lights”. After the jump…

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For the record…

August 23rd, 2011

I have given up on the Cubs winning the World Series and paid Lawrence his $5.

However, I feel like I’ve gotten more than $5 out of entertainment out of our bet, so overall, I’m a winner.

More SDC updates.

August 22nd, 2011

Added February and March 2011, did some small updates to May 2011.

Proud. Happy.

August 22nd, 2011

Blacklisted.

So that this isn’t a total waste, I’ll throw in a bonus link by way of Borepatch: The Children’s Illustrated Clausewitz.

You know something?

August 21st, 2011

I didn’t have to use my AK. All in all, I’d have to say, it was a good day weekend.

I got up bright and early (by Saturday standards) and staggered down to the Saxet Gun Show, where I met up with the legendary Borepatch and some other folks. (I am leaving their names out because I want to protect their privacy. Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket. It has nothing to do with me being a bad and evil person and forgetting their names. It is all about privacy protection. Just ask my wife, Morgan Fairchild.)

I don’t have much to add to Borepatch’s report. I only found one gun I really liked at the show (a Savage model 24, .22 LR over 20 gauge) and the owner was asking just $250, but I didn’t have that much cash on me, didn’t want to leave and find a bank, and…well, if it is there next month, maybe. This would be a good survival gun for the car.

Also, Borepatch is right about the number of approving comments that Sean Sorrentino’s Gunwalker t-shirt received. Borepatch and I discussed the idea of trying to sell them at gun shows, which is a very tempting idea indeed.

(While I was there, I met another gentleman who recognized me from my statement in Borepatch’s comments that I’d be wearing that shirt. It turns out he’s a regular reader of Borepatch’s blog, my blog, and the Saturday Dining Conspiracy pages. Personally, I thought reading both my blog and the SDC pages was an approved method of “enhanced interrogation” for prisoners at Gitmo, but hey, whatever gets you through the night. I was going to introduce him around, but I was on my way to see a man about a racehorse at the time, and when I came back, he was gone. Feel free to leave a comment, Mr. I’m Not Identifying You Here For “Privacy” Reasons.)

(I also saw one of the H&K .22 rimfire MP5 clones. It was going for around $600, as I predicted.)

After the gun show, I went down and paid off my layway at Tex-Guns, official purveyors of fine weapons to WCD. I now have a very nice Marlin 336 lever gun in .30-30: once I get some logistics worked out, and September 1st rolls around, this is going to sit in my car as my equivalent of a “patrol rifle”.

And then I went and had dinner with my mother and some friends at the Vivo on 620 at Lake Creek Parkway. The current chef, Paul Petersen, ran a place called the Little Texas Bistro in Buda; we ate there once, and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Then he moved out to Marathon and worked at the Gage Hotel there for a while. Now he’s working at that Vivo, and hasn’t lost his touch. I had the”surf and turf”: one crabmeat enchilada and one brisket enchilada. It was one of the best meals I’ve had this year, and very reasonably priced.

(I did have some problems with Vivo, but none of them were with the cooking. They all stem from the current management’s decision to encourage an active singles/pick-up scene at Vivo. We were in a semi-private room, and towards the end of the meal, the music was loud enough that some of our party had to leave. Also, I’m not a prude, but when you’re taking your mother someplace, and there’s paintings of topless women everywhere, and a photo collage on the wall of the semi-private room featuring butts and other body parts, that’s a bit disconcerting.)

Today, of course, was the long threatened trip to the Snake Farm. I’m happy to say that everyone who went also came back, they all enjoyed themselves (from what I hear), and everyone who wanted one got a t-shirt. Or, as we like to say around here…

the guys get shirts!

And much progress has been made on getting the Saturday Dining Conspiracy logs up to date. Which is comforting.

And Lawrence has put up some good photos from Worldcon, including a few of friends of mine I haven’t seen in a long time.

So, yeah, it has been a good weekend. How was yours?

(For those of you who don’t understand the “didn’t have to use my AK” reference, which is probably 99+% of my audience because you’re not fans, I suggest you go to your refrigerator and look at some Ice Cubes. (Warning! Adult subject matter!) Actually, I’m not a huge fan, either, but “It Was a Good Day” tickles my funny bone for some odd reason.)

Linky love.

August 21st, 2011

The Gun Blog Black List, an idea covered in awesome sauce and served with a side of fried awesome.

Saturday Dining Conspiracy updates.

August 21st, 2011

Added May, June, and July 2011.

There’s only been one SDC in August, and I need to get some information before I post that. Also, I need to back fill some information for one of the May conspiracies, and add Lawrence’s comments when he gets them to me. (This isn’t badmouthing him; he’s tied up and will get them to me as soon as he can.)

I’m thinking about converting the SDC to a more standard blog format, but I haven’t made up my mind if and how I’m going to do that yet.

That ivy-coverd burial ground.

August 19th, 2011

Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry out.

The Cubs went 749-748 in his tenure.

Does anyone know if the Cubs are, officially, mathematically eliminated yet? I want to make sure my bet with Lawrence is properly settled.

(Subject line hat tip: come on, if you don’t know the words of the national anthem, what’s wrong with you? Okay, it isn’t the national anthem, but it should be. Either that, or Dave Van Ronk’s “Last Call”.)

TMQ watch: August 16, 2011.

August 17th, 2011

Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday! Nitro-burning Tuesday Morning Quarterback after the jump!

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Staplerfahrer Klaus, call your office, please.

August 17th, 2011

A Fort Worth man remained in custody Tuesday on at least five charges after he climbed aboard a forklift and led police on a chase that reached 16 mph and ended on Interstate 30.

The gentleman is charged with stealing the forklift (duh), drinking while driving (and that should be pretty easy to prove, since he’s also charged with throwing beer bottles at traffic), evading police, and…aggravated assault. Aggravated assault? Does that mean that he…tried to kill someone with a forklift?

Also, it is apparently not a good idea to follow a police chase and film it with your iPhone. Important safety tip there, guys.

(Subject line hattip.)

TMQ watch watch.

August 17th, 2011

Yes, TMQ is back. WCD is a bit tied up, but we hope to have the first TMQ Watch of the new season up tomorrow later today. We would have sworn we’d posted this last night…

Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away….

August 16th, 2011

I am a shy and private person.

Whenever someone does the “go around the room and introduce yourself” thing, I cringe. When my turn comes up, I give the minimum amount of information I can get away with: basically name, rank, and serial number.

(As a side note, there’s a story in Chuck Hustmyre’s book, Killer with a Badge, that I find darkly amusing. Basically, the Fine New Guy brought in to head up the New Orleans PD is going around the room doing the “introduce yourself and tell us a little about you” thing, he gets to our hero, and our hero stands up and says “Hello. My name is Eddie Rantz, and I’m an alcoholic… <long pause> I’m sorry. I must be at the wrong meeting.”)

Tycho’s promotion of Google-, “the social network for narcissists”, has a certain emotional resonance for me. (Though I don’t consider myself to be a narcissist; just, as I said earlier, almost pathologically retiring.)

My resistance was never about privacy. I don’t trust Facebook, Google, or any other large corporation (as I’ve said before, anyone who trusts a large corporation, outside of the bounds of a legally enforceable fiduciary duty, should have their sanity checked), but I believe I’m smart enough to manage the privacy issues.

There was a strong element of drama avoidance going on. I didn’t (and don’t) want to water people’s Farmville crops or get caught up in all the other various interpersonal dramas that seemed to play themselves out on Facebook. Not having a Facebook account gives me what the Nixon administration called “plausible deniability”.

So  “Why did ‘mr. anti-social networking’ decide g+ was worthwhile?” to quote an email I received this morning?

Two reasons:

  1. It isn’t Facebook.
  2. A very close, very dear friend asked me to join. When I say “very close, very dear”, I mean if they came to me and said “I’m storming the gates of hell. Want to ride shotgun?” I wouldn’t even stop to pack a sack lunch.

So, yeah, I’m on Google+ now. I’ll probably add a link to the contact information. I’m following Lawrence’s policy; I only add people to my “Friends” circle if they can pick me out of a police lineup. However, the nice thing about Google+ is that I can have another circle for people who don’t meet that criterion. Indeed, I can have many circles; one for fellow bloggers, another for people I like but who would fail the police lineup test, another for family, and even another for the mothers of my illegitimate children. (Just kidding, Mom. I don’t have any. That I know about.)

The fun never stops here at WCD. Watch this space for more random G+ thoughts as they come to me.

(And thank you, again, to my friend, who shall remain anonymous to protect his/her privacy.)

Viva, viva…er, something or other.

August 16th, 2011

Today’s LAT brings word that MGM Resorts International wants to stage another building implosion in Vegas.

The target in this case is unusual: the Harmon tower, part of MGM’s City Center project.

Construction of the Harmon was halted after inspectors discovered problems with steel reinforcing bars in 2008. Other parts of the CityCenter complex opened in 2009.

More:

Last month, an engineer hired by MGM said in a report that a strong earthquake could fell the building, which stands between the Cosmopolitan resort and CityCenter’s Crystals mall on Las Vegas Boulevard.

I know I drove past the Harmon (because I remember seeing the Cosmopolitan) but it doesn’t stand out in my mind.

(To be fair, though, I didn’t drive the Strip as much as I did on previous trips; I was staying at the Rio, which is off-Strip, and given traffic on the Strip, I found it easier to drive Paradise or Koval to Flamingo, then go up Flamingo to the Rio.)

(Speaking of Vegas, there’s a Gilley’s in front of Treasure Island now? What the heck?)

(How common are “strong earthquakes” in Las Vegas, anyway? I don’t recall Nevada being a seismically active zone.)