The "O" Word
Conservative by Nature, Christian by Choice
Wait!  Where's the pictures?  They're supposed to be right here!  I swear, you can't find decent help these days...

Can You Pass This Test?

March 10th, 2008 . by Cary

Follow the link and take this test.

Report your score in the comments section below.

A 24 or better is required to pass. According to the information I received with the link, 96% of High School seniors who took the test failed. More than 50% of people 50 and older failed too.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

P.S. – I scored a 27.

Give Me A Break

February 25th, 2008 . by Cary

Oh, my aching head. (link may require a bit of information from you. tell them you are male, born in 1932, and live in 86001. that should throw them off…)

At 2000 hours, on March 28th, 2008, we are told that the city of Phoenix and all Valley residents “who care to join in” will turn off their lights for one hour.

Give me a freakin’ break. The “organizers” are saying this is mostly a “symbolic gesture” meant to show that “each person” can “contribute” to “reducing” their “carbon-dioxide” “emissions”.

So will not breathing for an hour. And, if you buy into this whole “man has caused the earth to become overheated” claptrap, perhaps you, too, should join in the “not breathing” crowd. That way, the seeohtwo emissions will be GREATLY reduced, and the rest of us can continue to live on this earth without being bombarded by the media panic-du-jour. (early 1970’s – global cooling and the ice age; mid 1970’s – population boom and an overpowering of earth’s resources, which lead to 1970’s – “energy crisis” – etc., etc., ad nauseum …)

Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do your part to reduce your energy consumption, but for crying out loud, let’s have some common sense here. Turn off your lights when there is sufficient outdoor light to illuminate your area. Turn off lights that aren’t being used (you know, like in the room you just left). Unplug electrical zombies that aren’t being used – like the microwave, the stereo, the TV, your cell phone wall charger, your electric rechargeable razor after it’s charged – they suck power even when you aren’t actively “using” them, and that would certainly reduce energy consumption.

(nuh uh, cary – my tv doesn’t use any power when it’s “off” – that’s why it’s called “off”!)

(really? how does it know when the remote tells it to turn on? it’s called a “wait state”, when it’s just sitting there, “waiting” for a signal from the remote)

*sigh*

So, Cary – (you ask, hoping i don’t drop back into snark mode) how do you save energy?

I’ve outlined several ways above. Mostly, I try to avoid using electricity where and when possible. But, there are times when I have to use it – like on the computer, or when I’m working in the shop, or when the sun goes down. Other than that, I try to keep my use to a minimum. I do leave my DISH receiver plugged in all the time, though – otherwise the schedule doesn’t get updated, and I can’t find my favorite races…

I think the number one thing that we, as a people, can do to reduce energy consumption (notice I didn’t say anything about impacting the globe here…) is to unplug the “convenience” appliances – the chargers – that come with the mobile technology that is our life now. Just doing that will make a bigger impact than turning your lights off and sitting in the dark for an hour.

clarification: leaving your phone plugged into the charger after it is fully charged is when the electricity is vampired. any electronic item that can be controlled by a remote control device sits in a “wait” state; that is, it uses electricity while scanning for the signal that tells it to turn on. while I have some cfl bulbs in use, i have been reading nasty things about these bulbs – it can take up to ten minutes to reach the brightness of the incandescent it replaced, they contain amounts of mercury so if they break you have a hazmat situation on your hands (according to federal regs, anyway – i remember playing with mercury in science class), also when they break they can send shards farther than an incandescent will, simply because instead of the vacuum in the incandescent the cfl bulbs are pressurized. just thought i’d clear a few things up. thanks for listening.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Monday? *blink* *blink* Really?

February 11th, 2008 . by Cary

I have misplaced most of the weekend. Actually, I know where I was, I just don’t know what happened to the time. I’ve been fighting this cold, and Tylenol makes a really good medicine that knocks me out and lets my body heal on it’s own. So, I was sleeping most of the weekend. I go see the Doctor today. I sure hope he has something good for me.

While I shave, I have time to think about things. Mostly, I am concentrating on not slicing my own throat, but there are stretches where I am not near my throat, and I can think – and this weekend, due to all the sleeping being done in the name of physical health, I was thinking about Newton’s Law. You know, the one that says “A body at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force?” Well, I came up with Cary’s Theorem: A body, resting, attracts other bodies that want to rest, usually canine in form.

We have five dogs, and four of them are able to get on the bed under their own power. Logan has polyneuropathy, and is unable to jump up on the bed, but the rest sure like to join me when I’m trying to nap. And, when the smallest dog is 35 pounds, and the largest is 105, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for me. At night, we have to strictly enforce the two dog rule – only two dogs allowed, and then only at the foot of the bed. Otherwise, there’s no room for humans.

How was your weekend?

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Copyright Laws?

February 4th, 2008 . by Cary

What are those, and why should we be aware of them?

Ron Paul Copyright Infringer

Paultards Ignore Copyright Law

“I’m Ron Paul, if you don’t like a law, ignore it until someone changes it…”

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Long Story Short

January 28th, 2008 . by Cary

Motherboard went the way of the dodo bird.

New MB, case, and power supply, since the manufacturer of the old one no longer supported it, or even made replacement parts.

I’ll be back in the swing of things after I make sure everything is hunky-dory.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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