Thoughts On Random Junk

OH YEAH!!!!!!

2011-09-11T17:35:00.002-04:00

Retron 3 baby! http://hyperkin.com/index.php/retro-system-retron3.html/

Nintendo

2011-08-17T22:43:00.002-04:00

OK, so I purchased an old school Nintendo about 2 months ago at a garage sale. I have already amassed about 100 games for it and I have been playing the crap out of it. I have discovered that the games that I thought were really hard back in the day are now very easy. I plan on reviewing games here. Saty tuned for more.

Pirate Radio movie review

2009-11-15T09:42:00.002-05:00

OK, so Piper and I (and Andrew) saw Pirate Radio last night. Overall a good movie with some humor thrown in. The movie was based on a true story of a pirate radio station in 1966 that was playing rock and roll music in the north sea off the coast of the UK. The movie focused mainly on an 18 year old male character who was looking for his real dad and trying to lose his virginity. It didn't really cover a lot of the radio aspect though. If you going into the movie looking for a technical side of radio or even an operational side, forget it. They do show the wire antenna on the mast of the ship several times during the movie. They also refer to the 203 meter band several times where they are transmitting. Like I said overall good movie but not really that much about radio.

Jason Style Chili

2009-10-20T12:39:00.002-04:00

OK, so Jamie shot a deer and got like 40 pounds of ground venison. What better to make than my famous (locally) deer chili. I made it about 6-8 months ago and forgot the recipe. This time I used a recipe online and heavily modified it to my liking. I made up a batch the other night and it was awesome! I am going to make up a batch today. This time I wrote down the ingredients and directions for future use. Some of the ingredients are a bit odd but trust me, this chili is the best! Steer clear if you are a vegetarian though as it has 4 pounds of meat in it. :) Here it is in its full glory:

Jason Style Chili

Ingredients:

- 3 Pounds of ground meat – Venison is best! (If not using venison use 2 pounds of hamburger and 1 pound of ground pork)

- 1 pound of bacon – Smoked is best

- ¼ cup of honey

- 1 can chili beans in mild sauce

- 1 can dark red kidney beans

- 2 cans of stewed tomatoes 14.5 oz

- 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

- 1 Vidalia onion finely chopped

- 1 Lime

- 1 teaspoon of Angostura bitters

- 1 cup of water

- 1 bottle or can of 12oz beer (I use Labatt Blue)

- ¼ cup of olive oil (you can use vegetable oil also)

- 3 tablespoons of chili powder

- 6 beef bouillon cubes (or 2 tablespoons of instant beef bouillion. Cubes are better)

- 2 tablespoons of cumin, ground

- 2 teaspoons of paprika

- 2 teaspoons of oregano leaves

- ½ teaspoon of coriander, ground

- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa

- 1 teaspoon of hot sauce(this will not make the chili hot, trust me)

- 1 teaspoon of cornmeal

- 1 teaspoon of flour

- 1 teaspoon of warn water

Directions

Step 1 – Cook the bacon. Personally I like to fry bacon because I like my bacon kind of soft, not real crispy. To stick to the recipe, fry the bacon and drain the grease. If you really want it crispy then bake it in the oven.

Step 2 – Peel and finely chop the onion and the garlic cloves.

Step 3 – Brown the 3 pounds of ground meat. Halfway through the browning process, add your onion and the garlic. If you are using venison then you shouldn’t have to drain the grease because there normally isn’t any. If you are using hamburger / pork then drain.

Step 4 – Get your large pot out (not the doobie kind). I use 5 ½ quart / 5.2 Liters. This size works good.

Step 5 – Take the bacon and tear it up (not eat it, unless you took out the wrong pot). You can usually rip a piece of bacon into 4 or 5 one inch pieces.

Step 6 – Put the bacon, ground meat / onion garlic mix into the pot.

Step 7 – Add the beer (no tasting!), water, honey, both cans of beans (do not drain the juice from the cans of beans), olive oil, honey, bitters, both cans of stewed tomatoes (also do not drain), chili powder, bouillon, cumin, paprika, oregano leaves, coriander, unsweetened cocoa, juice from one lime, and hot sauce.

Step 8 – Stir everything together really well (colorful huh?).

Step 9 – Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered for 2 hours. (Stir well every 15 minutes or so).

Step 10 – Get a bowl (again not that kind) and stir in the warm water, cornmeal and flour.

Step 11 – Stir the mixture into the chili and cook covered for an additional 20 minutes (stirring once).

Step 12 – Enjoy! If made right, this will be a great chili that everyone can enjoy. It will be somewhat sweet and somewhat spicy, but not hot. I like to add hot sauce and shredded cheese to mine!

2009-09-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

Frankenstein baby alert at 37 seconds!!!!!!

Update - I am still alive

2009-09-06T14:41:00.003-04:00

OK, I haven't posted in a loooong time. I am still alive for all who care. I am sitting here at 2:42 PM on a Sunday sipping a pear vodka martini (it is very good). Anyways, a few things have changed in my life. I got a promotion at work. I have been promoted to the assistant manager and work in the office 99 percent of the time now. I do a little of everything around the office. Medical billing, customer service, accounts receivable, network admin, webmaster, and all around computer geek guy to name a few. I guess I saw it coming since I was pulled off the road from doing deliveries in late March and was instrumental in implementing our new billing system. I also helped with the conversion process from unix to windows sql database platform (groan). Anyway, that is boring stuff. We got a new vehicle, 2009 Jeep Compass and traded in the 2001 Blazer (cash for clunkers). I am also the manager of Andrews fall peewee baseball team. We held a practice yesterday and these kids are awesome. 6, 7, and 8 year olds that are all super interested in baseball and are really good. They were automatically shifting for left handed hitters and everything! It is a lot of fun. There are 7 games total for the year. Anyway, that pretty much sums it up. Jamie is going into the 8th grade and Andrew going into 1st. I have been really busy at work and so has Piper. She got her CNA license and has been working crazy hours. We are all good and the future is looking up!

"One arm" golfer

2009-09-05T20:14:00.002-04:00

OK, so this was a fluke that a hole in one happened. That is not the issue. The issue is that they keep calling her a "One armed" golfer. What denotes an arm? As far as I can see, she has 1.5 arms. Hmmmm... If half of your arm is missing then it means it is all missing? Weird.

I am not trying to be insensitive here.... I just want to know why they keep stating she has one arm. ?????

? and the Mysterians

2009-09-05T11:55:00.001-04:00

The original

...and

The 1998 version! :-)

Andrew's talent show

2009-01-25T12:53:00.001-05:00

Beers and cheers to uncle Chuck aka Chiggins

2008-12-22T00:12:00.004-05:00

I didn't know you too well.. but you were a decent person in my eyes. Cheers.

You were a giving man. Thanks for the memories.

Now that the election is over...

2008-11-16T19:19:00.001-05:00

LOL!!! WTF?!?!?

2008-10-25T11:20:00.000-04:00

WTF?

LOL!!!

Vote!!!!!

2008-10-19T15:34:00.002-04:00

Look what Piper found!!!

Get out and VOTE!

I have never had Participation Lager. :)

See?

2008-10-13T23:01:00.000-04:00

Dear Supporter,

We're coming down to the final stretch of the campaign. Each day leading up to November 4th plays a critical role in securing a Victory for our team of reformers. And I'll get straight to my point - if we're going to win we need your immediate support.

Will you join the McCain-Palin Victory 2008 team today during these critical final days?

The Obama-Biden Democrats and their liberal, allied interest groups are spending more than $1 billion to defeat our ticket in critical races across the country. They're flooding the airwaves and stuffing mailboxes with misleading information, and in some cases flat out lies about us.

The truth is that far-left groups in this country will do anything to help the Obama-Biden Democrats win the White House and maintain their majorities in Congress. And last week, we found out they're going even further to win.

The left-wing activist group, ACORN, is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. ACORN's political action committee has endorsed Barack Obama and Senator Obama himself has said, "I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career." The Obama Campaign even paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate for "get out the vote activity." And now we find out that ACORN is suspected of voter registration fraud.

But, the Obama-Biden Democrats would rather sweep these facts under the rug and use their mainstream media allies to bury this story. But we can't let that happen. We can't allow leftist groups like ACORN to steal this election.

That's why McCain-Palin Victory 2008 has set out to ensure a fair election and I'm asking you to join us today. Will you follow this link immediately to give $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more to our effort?

McCain-Palin Victory 2008 helps fund our get-out-the-vote efforts in states across the country. We're working day and night to ensure this election is fair and we're working to elect the ticket that has a record of reform leadership.

Our team of reformers is ready to lead. We're ready to tackle issues affecting your family. But we'll get never get there without your support. Will you join our team in the final stretch before Election Day? With your help, I know we'll ensure this election is conducted in a fair manner. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Governor Sarah Palin

Weird Old Ham Radio Videos

2008-10-12T18:10:00.002-04:00

Cider Mill - ahhh nutz

2008-10-05T12:50:00.004-04:00

We (Piper, the boys, and I) went to Yates Cider Mill yesterday http://www.yatescidermill.com/cider-mill.php . It is in Rochester Hills or Shelby Twp. or something like that. We took the camera but we forgot the memory card for it. Too bad we forgot it because there was some interesting things we saw. The first thing was a giant pair of testicles hanging from someones pickup truck trailer hitch. Jamie said "whats hanging from that guys truck?" and I replied "Looks like a big sack". Always great to have a giant pair of nuts hanging from your truck at a family event. Here is where you can buy them and what they look like http://www.thatsnutz.com/truck-nuts-c-65.html

When we went inside there was a sign on the door that said something along the lines of: If you don't want to be filmed then don't come inside. We thought it was kinda odd until we got inside and noticed they were filming some type of commercial footage or something. I got filmed paying for the cider and donuts. Maybe I will be in a commercial? :)

After we got our Cider & donuts we went for a walk about a mile down a path that was next to the Clinton River. At the end of the path there was a river with stagnant water. Not quite the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As we were walking back, Piper said "whats that seed pod"? Well, it was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium We should have ate the seeds, it would have made the path more interesting. :) We also saw some weird plants growing that looked like bamboo but had the same texture as a green onion. We couldn't figure out if they were Cat tails or reeds or what?

We had a good time and stopped at Buddy's Pizza on the way back. I haven't had it for about 15 years and it was better than I remember it. We got the meat special with mushrooms and Antipasto salad.. Yummy!!!!

On the way back, Piper spotted the Girls Gone Wild bus merging off I-75 on to M-59 West... here is what it looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRrr97mGipo

A very interesting family? day.

Yesssss.. We are not all fat geeks.. and hot chicks play too!!!

2008-09-29T22:50:00.001-04:00

Check it out.. :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26947992/

I don't feel so bad now..

Weirdest song lyrics ever

2008-09-29T18:26:00.002-04:00

The Mars Volta - Televators from the Deloused In The Comatorium album.

	The Mars Volta - Televators

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Lyrics:
Just as he hit
The ground
They lowered a tow that
Stuck in his neck to the gills
Fragments of sobriquets
riddle me this
three half eaten corneas
who hit the aureole
Stalk the ground
Stalk the ground
You should have seen
The curse that flew right by you
Page of concrete
Stained walks crutch in hobbled sway
Auto-da-fé
A capillary hint of red
Only this manupod
Crescent in shape has escaped
The house half the way
Fell empty with teeth
That split both his lips
Mark these words
One day this chalk outline will circle this city
Was he robbed of the asphalt that cushioned his face
A room colored charlatan
Hid in a safe
Stalk the ground
Stalk the ground
You should have seen
The curse that flew right by you
Page of concrete
Stain walks crutch in hobbled sway
Auto-da-fé
A capillary hint of red
Only this manupod
Crescent in shape has escaped

Pull the pins
Save your grace
Mark these words
On his grave
[x3]

You should have seen
The curse that flew right by you
Page of concrete
Stain walks crutch in hobbled sway
Auto-da-fé
A capillary hint of red
Everyone knows the last toes are
Always the coldest to go

My Ham Radio Logging Setup

2008-09-28T20:10:00.002-04:00

OK, so most of my blog readers are people that come here that I make contact with on the radio. They look up my call sign on www.qrz.com and see the link to come here. This is a breakdown of my logging setup here. Computer is a old Pentium 2 - 400MHZ with 384MB RAM and a 20GB HD. Not much of a computer by today's standards but enough to log my contacts and soon serve as the digital nerve center for all my digital mode transmission including but not limited to RTTY (Radio teletype). The digital stuff is coming in a few months... check out www.tigertronics.com Signal Link USB... OH YEAH! OK, back on track here. The logging software I use is Amateur Contact Log 3.0 from Scott - N3FJP. I highly recommend it. Check out all his software (I own it all) at www.n3fjp.com Great program, the best for the the money. This log program does it all and is simple to use. Every other log program I have tried has way to small print to read and way to complicated to mess with. Scott has it right with this one. A lot of people use his software worldwide and I can see why. Anyway, so that's the program I prefer. I also subscribe to qrz.com's XML data service which links with the log program to look up all the details instantaneously (such as state, county, grid square, blah blah blah) for $29 a year. The cost of the $29 for a year subscription far outweighs going through and manually putting in all the details. You can download the data from the FCC and convert it yourself, but it will not contain grid squares and counties, or data from different countries. The nice thing about the log is that it has a feature to automatically interface with LOTW (Logbook of the World) www.arrl.org/lotw Logbook of the world is great because every contact confirmed there is equal to using a paper QSL card. Old school operators don't usually like LOTW because it is difficult to install and they think it is the same as EQSL which in my opinion is garbage and means nothing. I have about a 10 percent QSL rate with LOTW and I am currently working on my basic WAS (Worked All States) through LOTW only. So there you have it. That's my logging setup here. Either you are asleep by now, or you found this informative.

Financial Crisis!

2008-09-25T16:29:00.001-04:00

I just received this email from Ron Paul...

Dear Friends:

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.

Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary.

The president assures us that his administration "is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?

We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.

Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).

Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk."

Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal government" were in fact correct?

Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.

It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.

The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.

F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:

Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.

To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.

The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?

Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the American people.

The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.

I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn.

H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

3000 contacts and rising

2008-09-25T16:12:00.002-04:00

Well, I just made my 3000th radio contact. That is just since I started logging. I have 3044 to be exact in my log. 43 States and 37 countries confirmed electronically through LOTW (Logbook of the World) www.arrl.org/lotw Yes Alaska counts as a separate country and state. Here are the countries, states and callsigns worked below.

Alabama	KF4GRA
Alaska	AL2V
Arizona	K7L
Arkansas	W5VAN
California	K6DEX
Colorado	W0RIC
Connecticut	W1AW
Delaware	N8NA
Florida	K4PPK
Georgia	WA4TII
Hawaii	KH6LC
Idaho	NX7TT
Illinois	K9CT
Indiana	N9YK
Iowa	W0EWD
Kansas	W0BH
Kentucky	KB4AMA
Louisiana	W5WMU
Maine	KV1J
Maryland	W2CDO
Massachusetts	W1PLM
Michigan	K8BB
Minnesota	K0TG
Mississippi	KD5JHE
Missouri	W0MA
New Hampshire	N1IW
New Jersey	K2SQS
New Mexico	N2IC
New York	N2SQW
North Carolina	K0HWY
Ohio	W8OSP
Oklahoma	W5IF
Oregon	N6TW
Pennsylvania	KB3JGU
South Carolina	NN4F
Tennessee	KA4WTB
Texas	KD5LNO
Utah	KG7C
Vermont	N1LDT
Virginia	N3AO
Washington	W7DX
West Virginia	AJ1M
Wisconsin	KC9ECI

ALASKA	AL2V
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA	V26B
ARUBA	P40A
BAHAMAS	C6ANM
BARBADOS	8P5A
BONAIRE,CURACAO (NETH ANTILLES)	PJ4/PA3CNX
CANADA	VE3CX
CANARY ISLAND	EA8/DL3FCG
COSTA RICA	TI50DX
CZECH REPUBLIC	OK1CF
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	HI3T
ENGLAND	M3SDE
EUROPEAN RUSSIA	RX3AGD
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY	DL2MWB
FRANCE	F5KEE
FRENCH GUIANA	FY5KE
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS	HC8N
GRENADA	J37K
HAITI	HH4/AF4Z
HAWAII	KH6LC
ICELAND	TF3Y
ISLE OF MAN	MD0CCE
ITALY	IR4X
LUXEMBOURG	LX7I
MADEIRA ISLANDS	CT3FQ
MARTINIQUE	TO5A
MEXICO	XE2WWW
MOROCCO	CN3A
NICARAGUA	HT2N
NORTHERN IRELAND	MI0LLL
PUERTO RICO	WP3ME
SAINT KITTS & NEVIS	V47KP
SLOVENIA	S52OW
SPAIN	EC1CT
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS	VP5DX
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	K2SQS
WALES	GW4BLE

Oldie but a goodie

2008-09-18T21:45:00.002-04:00

Higgins Lake 2008 ("Bring the kids. It will be fun")

2008-08-25T19:59:00.014-04:00

It started on Sunday morning...

Car loaded up & the kids ready to go.

We stopped at Tony's for breakfast. ummmm bacon!

Can you handle all that food, Jamie? :)

Andrew made his signature coffee cream pyramid.

We showed up around 2 or 3 PM and Craig arrived about 5 minutes later. He started a fire around 4 PM. :-)

Monday, we all got our shoot on. :)

Later on that day, Glen & Ali arrived. Glen burnt off his eyebrows starting a fire about 3 or 4 hours after arriving. His chainsaw provided plenty of fire wood with Jamie's
help dragging logs from the woods.

The gang enjoying some grub.

Guitar Hero was a staple for the kids.

We had some fun times by the fire at night.

Craig taught Jamie many lessons.

Andrew had many philosophical discussions about guitars and video games.

All in all we had a good time. Thursday night we went to the bar for comedy night and saw 2 comics that were very funny. I got very drunk. The only thing that sucked about the whole vacation is the fact that the entire vacation my shoulder was killing me. My back was good though. Jamie did lots of kayaking in the lake (thanks Ali & Glen). Glen's dad came up for a few days and we played some softball which was fun except for the fact that I can't catch a fly ball. Ali was quite the outfielder though. Glen's dad was the long ball hitter of the day and I ended up being the pitcher for most of the outing. It rained 2 days lightly but the weather was nice other than that. That about covers it. I think I need to take another vacation to have a vacation from this one. :)

Guess what time it is?

2008-08-09T22:36:00.003-04:00

Its meat thirty!

16 pounds of Delmonicos. Oh yeah!

My sister

2008-08-08T12:31:00.002-04:00

LOL! My sister met Jimmy Fallon

Preparing for "chiggins" lake

2008-08-07T22:16:00.004-04:00

Made a stop at Target tonight. Got some things for the trip this week. Many community items.

:-)

Barrel of dried fruit & Barrel of Roasted cashews

Large bag of swedish fish. Bite size style too! Not the giant stupid ones.

2 Boxes of wine. Tour de Franzia

Jug O' Heaven Hill Rum. This has become a chiggins staple.

Brand spanking new, yellow, Malibu official frisbee 110 gram flying disk

2 six packs of Clif Bars.

Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

Not pictured - 2 pairs of cargo shorts. New polo style shirt that is green and white striped. Aqua shoes (yes!). 2 six packs of much needed (Jason style) socks. New sandals for the kids, and a plethora of orange tic tacs and mentos for the drive. Also, the new Rock Band with 20 new songs and the '80's Sing Star karaoke game. I have a feeling that we will have to pry the mic out of Glen's hands. :)

I volunteered (groan!) to go into work tomorrow and work for about 3 to 4 hours. I didn't want to, but if I didn't we would have lost about $3500. I figured I would be the martyr and go in and get the job done.

Tomorrow, I need to get 2 more things for the trip. Insane amounts of steaks and a 30 pack of Ice House. Yeah, Baby, we are rollin'

Tomato Worms

2008-08-07T22:07:00.003-04:00

OK, so I have tomato worms.. These things are nasty. Where do they even come from? They give me the Heebee Jeebees. ewwwww!

This the the back of it with some weird horn thing sticking out.

You can't really judge from the picture but the thing was 4 inches long!

Here it is crapping out green balls that looked like mini tomatoes. I guess it crapped these out due to the trauma of being pulled of the tomato plants (not by my hands. I will not touch them).

Anyway, I haven't seen anymore..

/knocks on wood

Oxygen Tanks

2008-08-07T22:02:00.004-04:00

Here are some pics of oxygen and nitrous oxide tanks from my work. I just decided to post them for the hell of it. You don't usually see stuff like this everyday. Enjoy!

Highland Appliance

2008-08-05T18:43:00.000-04:00

OMG LOL!!!!!

Remember?

Cool Site

2008-07-26T12:34:00.004-04:00

Here is a cool site I found where you can add your own text to images. Check it out

www.imagechef.com

Old skool fast food joints

2008-07-23T21:49:00.003-04:00

Remember Burger Chef? It was sold to Hardees in 1981. Check it out: http://www.freewebs.com/burgerchef/. Hardees is still around in Michigan. I forgot about the one on the east side. http://www.hardees.com/home. There are actually 3 left in Michigan. Remember Arthur Treachers? There are none in Michigan left. http://www.arthurtreachers.com/

This guy is a tool too, by the way. It sucks he is named Jason. :-(

What happened to Long John Silvers? There are 5 left in Michigan. http://www.ljsilvers.com/ I used to tear up their hush puppies when I was a kid.

Remeber Top Hat. Piper used to tear that shit up, the one at 59 and telegraph. They tasted like shit to me. They became Sonic. http://www.sonicdrivein.com/ There is now 1 in Michigan. In Southgate, 32 Miles from my house. The food looks awesome from the commercials. Who knows?

White Castle is still going strong. 36 locations the the southeast Michigan area. I still love a slider every now and then. http://www.whitecastle.com/

I can't think of anymore... anyone else?

Oh!!!! Rally's. The best fries in the universe!!! They are still Rally's in Kentucky and Indiana.
http://www.rallyburger.com/
They became Checkers elsewhere: http://www.checkers.com/
There are 12 in the southeast Michigan area all within 25 miles. I might have to check them out. They look the same with the Rally's style fries. hmmmm...

SAUSAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-23T21:23:00.002-04:00

So Piper cooked up some sausages tonight. That got me thinking...... 2 classic sausage videos for your pleasure.

Random pics from my digital camera

2008-07-20T14:46:00.003-04:00

Here are some random pics that were in my digital camera last time I downloaded the memory card.

Oliver found a warm spot

Sitting in the stands at Comerica Park

Drinking beer from a giant boot

Piper drinking from the same boot. Everybody drank from that boot. Kinda like the Stanley Cup.

Wires that came down in front of our house that caused a 5 day power outage. I estimated 90 mph winds. They were actually around 80 mph.

My small driveway garden

2008-07-20T14:32:00.005-04:00

I have been growing hot peppers every year for the last 3 years. I am the only one that likes hot peppers and I usualay end up making a salsa with them. This year I decided to get 2 Tomato plants, an Okra plant, and a Green Pepper plant. The tomatoes are doing great so far. The Okra is a hybrid plant and has 4 vegtebles growing on it already! The Green Pepper plant had a nice pepper growing on it but the wind snapped it off. The wind also broke my dipole antenna that day as well but that is a different story. There is a lot of new growth on it so I am not worried. I might get 2 or 3 peppers still from it before the end of the season. I did have a few brown spots on the tomatoes and the leaves which worried me. I did some reading on tomato worms and I don't think I have any. I am a tomato virgin however so we will see when I harvest them. Here are some pics:

No too shabby for a driveway hobby garden. :)

My back is blown out again.

2008-07-20T13:56:00.002-04:00

My back pain came back again a little after 1 year from the last time it was "bad". I didn't have to get the Morphine / Toradol / Flexeril cocktail this time tough. I ended up getting the Toradol shot and a CT Scan. I am supposed to go in a few days and see what the deal is. Pinched nerve? Surgery? who knows. I have been taking Muscle relaxers and Vicoden which has been helping some. The thing that sucks about it is that the pain has spread to my neck and shoulder on the left side. Also the pain has spread to my leg and foot. Basically the entire left side of my body is shot. If I sit too long it takes a few min before I can even walk. If I walk too long it takes a few min before I can even sit. It sucks. I have been on "light" duty at work which means no heavy stuff for a week. I am just glad it wasn't as bad as last time though. I have a high tolerance for pain but last time was just about the worst pain of my life. I am already starting to feel better now and probably within a few days I will be back to "normal". I have to get back to the gym and lose some weight. Wish me luck.

Another Revelation - Seperated at birth?

2008-07-20T13:48:00.003-04:00

I have been saying this one for years.. lol!

Chad Smith - Drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Will Ferrell - Comedian

Weird huh?

Biggest idiot so far this year

2008-07-10T23:32:00.002-04:00

This is the biggest materialistic idiot I have seen this year. Go ahead and email her and let her know how "cool" it is to own 300 pairs of shoes and get shopping advice. I actually saw this on channel 4 news tonight. Must be a slow news night. People like this are sad. People like this have no clue about anything. Can anyone guess if she has a tribal tattoo on her lower back? or she maybe wears 1985 big, old lady sunglasses like my mom wore when I was a kid. and we wonder what is wrong with the city of Detroit / the nation.

Check it out if you wanna hurl - http://www.angelaseye.com/

I guess I am running for president now

2008-07-06T00:13:00.001-04:00

My radio, and life in general

2008-06-19T21:26:00.002-04:00

Yes... I am still alive.. Lets start with a radio update. I got it back and it worked fine for about 2 hours and took a dive again. I sent it back and it was determined that it was a bad solder joint. Radio was fixed and sent back. It worked great for about 2 days and died again. It is back en route again for the 3rd time since the end of April. What sucks is that I won't have the radio back in time for field day next weekend. Field day is the biggest contest/emergency comms event of the year. I asked Ray at work if I can borrow his Yaesu FT-897. He said I could borrow it for the event, however he only has a hand mic with the radio and that sucks. I will have to lower my goal for 1000 contacts due to the fact that It will be hard for me to computer log and key the hand mic at the same time. So that about covers it for the radio side of things. My laptop motherboard burned out also and it would cost about $250.00 for a new board so I decided to part it out and sell it on Ebay.

We also had some big storms here last week with 80MPH winds that knocked our power out for 5 1/2 days. That sucked big time!!! We lived out of coolers with ice for the duration and I spent a lot of time reading. Piper, and the kids and I went to a Tigers game the week prior to that. My sister called and told us that her neighbor had free tickets. They were awesome seats, 20 rows behind the dugout with free parking right next to Comerica Park! It was the day after the Red Wings parade and the Stanley Cup made an appearance! That was the first time I ever saw the Cup in person. Piper and Andrew saw it 2 days in a row because they went down to the parade the day before that on Friday. Renteria hit a grand slam and the Tigers won 8-4 so it was pretty cool!

I went to the gym tonight with Piper also (I am way out of shape) for about a 45 min workout. I did 2 miles in 20 minutes on the elliptical machine and 3 Miles in 8 minutes on the stationary bike. I have decided to try to go at least 3 times a week now if not daily. I am up to 250lbs and I just feel unhealthy :( I didn't feel like I got a very good workout though, I was just starting to break a sweat when we were getting ready to leave. I think I am going to do a 3 mile elliptical and a 5 mile bike tomorrow (I know that is weak to most people but hey I am out of shape). This weekend I might even start to walk / jog. When we got home from the gym we had some pasta and chicken and took about a 30 minute walk. Now I need to quit smoking and cut my beer consumption way down and I should start losing the weight. Wish me luck!!!

The 746Pro took a major dump (at the worst time)

2008-04-23T21:57:00.002-04:00

I was working the Michigan QSO party on Saturday and about 2 hours into it, my radio died. I was about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the contest, working 40 meters with 49 contacts, 31 states, and 6 Michigan counties. I have been having trouble with the rig for about a year now with ALC spiking and power intermittently dropping. I never really though much about it except the fact that maybe there was a slight problem in my antenna system. Apparently, the problem is due to the driver board on the rig getting to hot due to the factory bias being set to high around 1.5 amps. I contacted a few repair techs to see if they knew what the deal was. I don't have the knowledge to work on surface mount technology so I will have to send it out for repair. Sending to Icom s way too pricey and takes way too long. About 4 techs said it was probably the final transistors with would cost anywhere from $250-$400 plus shipping (OUCH!). After hearing nothing but good things about Scott Malcom of MTS, I contacted him with my symptoms. He used to work for Icom for about 10 years and is an authorized Icom repair center. He said that more than likely 4 updates can be done to the radio to fix the problem. Take a look here: http://www.n1eq.com/tech/page_01.html MTS said it would be about 60 bucks estimate plus shipping. I am going to be sending it to him this weekend. Fingers crossed! I will be without an HF/50MHZ rig for a liitle while just when sporadic E season is starting for 6 and 10 meters.

Severe Weather - Tornado Watch

2008-04-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

Severe Weather Event Friday Apr 11th 2008
RELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI
937 PM EDT FRI APR 11 2008..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..____________________________________________________________________0354 PM HAIL 4 NNW BURT 43.29N 83.94W
04/11/2008 M1.00 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
M-13 AND RATHBURN
0355 PM HAIL BRIDGEPORT 43.38N 83.88W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0424 PM HAIL ST. CHARLES 43.30N 84.15W
04/11/2008 M0.75 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0429 PM TSTM WND DMG VASSAR 43.37N 83.58W
04/11/2008 TUSCOLA MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
WIRES DOWN
0440 PM TSTM WND DMG CARO 43.49N 83.40W
04/11/2008 TUSCOLA MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DOWN
0442 PM HAIL FAIRGROVE 43.52N 83.54W
04/11/2008 M0.88 INCH TUSCOLA MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0524 PM HAIL 10 S UBLY 43.57N 82.93W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH SANILAC MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0600 PM HAIL 3 N OWOSSO 43.04N 84.18W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH SHIAWASSEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0614 PM HAIL 3 SW NEW LOTHROP 43.09N 84.01W
04/11/2008 E1.75 INCH SHIAWASSEE MI MESONET
DURAND AND ALLEN RD
0640 PM HAIL GOODRICH 42.92N 83.51W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH GENESEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0702 PM TSTM WND DMG HOWELL 42.61N 83.94W
04/11/2008 LIVINGSTON MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DOWN AT GRAND RIVER AND FLEMING
0707 PM HAIL NORTH BRANCH 43.23N 83.19W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0710 PM HAIL 3 N GRAND BLANC 42.97N 83.62W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH GENESEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0733 PM HAIL HOLLY 42.80N 83.62W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0734 PM HAIL WHITE LAKE 42.65N 83.50W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0735 PM HAIL COLUMBIAVILLE 43.16N 83.41W
04/11/2008 E0.25 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
HAILED FOR 5 MINUTES. COVERED GROUND.
0735 PM HAIL COLUMBIAVILLE 43.16N 83.41W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
HAIL OCCURED FOR FIVE MINUTES AND COVERED THE GROUND
0740 PM HAIL LAPEER 43.05N 83.32W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0758 PM HAIL BLOOMFIELD HILLS 42.58N 83.25W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0758 PM HAIL WATERFORD 42.66N 83.39W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0804 PM TSTM WND DMG BROWN CITY 43.21N 82.99W
04/11/2008 SANILAC MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DAMAGE
0810 PM HAIL IMLAY CITY 43.02N 83.08W
04/11/2008 M1.00 INCH LAPEER MI MESONET
0817 PM HAIL BIRMINGHAM 42.54N 83.22W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0828 PM HAIL SHELBY TOWNSHIP 42.67N 83.03W
04/11/2008 E1.00 INCH MACOMB MI TRAINED SPOTTER
WIND EST AROUND 60 MPH WITH SMALL BRANCHES DOWN
0830 PM TSTM WND DMG PECK 43.26N 82.82W
04/11/2008 SANILAC MI EMERGENCY MNGR
POWER LINES DOWNED IN PECK
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURRED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.25 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURRED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES

John Corbett is to Jeff Bridges as Gary Busey is to Nick Nolte

2008-04-12T20:32:00.007-04:00

I had a revalation tonight.....

John Corbett

Jeff Bridges

Gary Busey

Nick Nolte

nuff said!

Weekend Update: Work, The Mall, and Jesus - The Small Beetle Man?

2008-03-31T22:56:00.004-04:00

I have been really busy at work lately.. I have become the "webmaster" and have been charged with the task of building the company's website from the ground up. It has been fun and I have been learning alot of HTML along the way. This weekend was a break time from that. Piper had four days off work so we decided to go to the mall on Saturday. We got to the mall around 11am or so and about an hour later I got called into work. Piper decided that she would stay at the mall with the kids while I drove back out to work and took care of business. After finishing with my first call, I got a second call (groan). I took care of the two calls and headed back to the mall where I located Piper and the kids in the food court in the Taco Bell line. I headed off to the Panda Express line for some Beef Broccoli, chow mien and Kung Pao chicken. Afterwords, we wandered the mall for a bit and I ran into Circuit city to get a USB flash drive. I found a Sony 1GB on sale for $9.99 (bonus). When I took it to the register, it rang up at $17.99 (WTF!?) I went back and got the sign that said $9.99 and the sales person called the manager. The manager said that I could not have it for $9.99 because the sale ended 4 days ago. I said "That's not my problem, you have a sign for $9.99, you have to give it to me for that." The manager said "Fine, we will do it for you this time." like they were doing me a favor. I got pissed and told them "Don't act like you are doing me a favor for 8 bucks. I am doing you a favor by not buying all ten of them on the shelf for $9.99." After that they shut their mouth and I was on my way. There was a Singstar http://www.us.playstation.com/singstar/ booth setup so people can play the game. It is a karaoke type game. Andrew and Jamie sang Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and had a good time. We ended up buying the 90's version of the song with 2 mics where I promptly lost my voice.

Sunday, Piper and I went to breakfast at our usual spot because the kids were at church with the Grandparents. Our place was closed (DOH!) due to a power outage. We ended up at Big Boy down the road where we sat next to an energetic 4 and a half year old boy who was making lots of noise. The noise didn't really bother us too much because we are used to Andrew. At one point, the kids mom was telling the other people at the table (the kid's grandparents maybe?) a story. We couldn't help but listen in. The mom was saying how the boy a few days ago told her that "Jesus was very small". The mom said "What do you mean Jesus is small" The boy said "Jesus is small like a beetle". The mom said " No, Jesus is big, he is the size of a man". The Boy responded with "Yeah, a beetle sized man!" LOL! There was also an older couple there having breakfast that I noticed. They were both reading the paper and didn't say a word to each other the whole time they were there. I asked Piper if we would end up like that someday. I think her response was "I don't know?" Weird.. It is strange that you would even go to breakfast and not enjoy the other persons conversation.. Oh well.. I am off to bed for now. BTW, we had some thunder and lightning here today. The Tigers also lost their home opener. :(

I am still around. :)

2008-03-23T14:13:00.002-04:00

I am still around. I have been really busy lately. I have been working on my works website which has taken a lot of my time. We had about 5 inches of snow here the other day, most of it has melted now. Happy Easter!

Log! by Blammo!

2008-03-16T11:49:00.000-04:00

Remember this:

LOL!

Antenna Realization

2008-03-15T15:53:00.002-04:00

I put the G5RV up with bad results. I have come to the conclusion that due to my location, 60 feet is about the longest dipole I can hang with half way decent results. The 102 foot G5RV that I "bent" to fit was great on 75 / 80 meters put absolute garbage on 40, and it barely worked on 20. I took it down and put the 52 foot G5RV-JR back up and within minutes I worked a station in Texas on 40 with an S9 signal report. Shortly thereafter I worked the Virgin Islands on 14.243 (20 Meters) with 5x9 + 20DB over report. I guess I am just going to stick with the JR on 40-10 Meters and maybe get a hamstick or rotatable dipole for 80 meters. Really, I am not too worried about making contacts on 80, but it would be nice to have the band for contests because sometimes it is the only band "open". In other radio news, I did get the phono plug to wire a mic to the Clegg and I still need to run a ground wire outside to the ground rod. I also need to see about getting some RTTY (Radio Teletype) going soon. I do have the computer interface for that.

Yesterday was a good day

2008-03-15T15:31:00.002-04:00

Everyone was unusually nice that I encountered yesterday. It was about 58 degrees and sunny most of the day. My morning started out going to Ferndale down the dreaded I-696. To my pleasant surprise, I was like moses driving down the middle lane. Cars were "parting" and there was smooth sailing. The only problem I had was going through Southfield next to all the radio and TV transmitters. I am sensitive to RF / EMF and I always get a headache through there. After the trip to Ferndale was Novi, Milford, Bloomfield Hills, and a few more. My day was mostly driving (160 miles). I got a call from the office around 11am asking me where I was at. I told them and they said to call when I was 15 minutes away. I called (thinking there was more work to do) and was asked "what do you want on your whopper" (shit, I am getting bacon on that MF'er). I got back and a whopper meal was waiting for me, bought by one of the managers (bonus!). After that, more driving where I noticed that due to the warm weather, there were many females out jogging with tank tops on (also bonus!). I saw a few guys "basketballing" snowballs into a dumpster behind an oil change. Everybody was just in a pumped up good mood due to the weather I am guessing. The only weird thing I saw all day was a sign that said "hurting after abortion?" with some 800 number to call for help. I thought how ridiculous of a question that is. Somebody is supposed to not be hurting? Weird. Anyway, towards the end of the day I bought a 2 dollar scratch off ticket (I usually buy either a 2 dollar or 1 dollar scratch off every Friday) and won 10 bucks off it! I did get a bit of exercise when I had to setup a hospital bed down in the basement of a house with 2 flights of stairs. I partially worked off the whopper anyway.

Ham radio stuff and an active morning mind

2008-03-12T22:17:00.003-04:00

Regarding a previous post referring to the Clegg 22'er. I have noticed that my mind is very active in the morning lately. My alarm is set for 7am but I usually hit the snooze about 3 times and don't get up until 7:30. Between Jamie milling about, clanking his cereal spoon and Andrew "writing" new songs in his head and singing them aloud in his bed, it is a moot point to try to fall back asleep. I usually lay there in a limbo state unable to turn my mind off. I have noticed during this state that I have many "revelations". The most recent, from today was the fact that I realized that the fact that my Clegg 22'er is not broke but simply needs a microphone wired to it. As much as I hate wiring mics, it has to be done. The manual is not exactly clear on how the "SPOT" feature on the radio works. It says "change the knob to spot and it will resonate the harmonic frequency of the crystal". I tried that and the crystal does not resonate. OK, well, what I didn't obviously realize until my mind activity period this morning is the fact that maybe the radio needs to be keyed in a transmit state first? It is a long shot, but the bottom line is that a mic needs to be wired just to see if the rig even transmits before I give up on it. Looks like I will be hitting radio shack Friday on my travels to grab a phono plug to wire up.

Also, I ordered a full size G5RV dipole http://www.radiowavz.com/html/g5rv.htm The antenna is 102 feet in length and I will have to manipulate it a bit to get it to work. It should be a lot better than the 52 foot long JR version I have now. It should also get me on 75 and 80 meters now which is important for contests. Since the Michigan QSO party is coming up next month, this should do the trick. Tomorrow is supposed to be close to 50 degrees, so it should be OK for a quick "hanging". My current antenna is in need of replacement anyway. I have repaired the wire part already due to the lawn service "whacking" it and cutting it in half while it was down. I have also repaired the 350 OHM twin lead very crudely with electrical tape (also due to the "whacking"). I told Steve (KD8EMZ) that he can have the G5RV JR to mess around with. Hopefully the full size gets me on 80/40/20 at least. I have an Antron 99 for 10/12/15/17 that I can use in full contest mode, or when the DX is rollin'. The 2 meter / 70cm ground plane is coming down by the end of this month anyway so I can switch between the Antron, the 6 meter loop, and the 2 meter beams. I love the spring / summer!

No nap time? WTF!?!?!

2008-03-11T23:54:00.005-04:00

I went to Andrew's Kindergarten orientation today with Piper. I have a few questions.

#1 - Why did the principal of the school keep calling it "Kinneygarden"?

#2 - Is everyone that has kids now look like they are 50 or am I getting really old?

#3 - How come they set such low standards for kids? ie. Learn how to spell your name / learn the alphabet ect. (Andrew is way beyond that crap).

#4 - Where the hell is nap time?

Someone asked about "nap time". I thought it was the most legitimate question of the night.

Remember nap time?

They used to turn the lights out and sometimes read to us and sing songs? We even had mats!!!

The answer was: "We don't have nap time for the kids. After they come in from recess, they have a 15 min period to take their shoes off and get their drinks" WTF?!?!?

I think this is absolute BS. That is the whole problem with the world today. Nap time not only gave you a chance to reflect on the mornings paste eating activities, it gave you a chance to wind down and relieve some stress. Lets face it, it is hard trying to cram all that learning into your small brain when all you want to do is run around.

Oh well. I guess my kid will never enjoy "nap time". Shit, they even have nap time in India where all our jobs are going.

Makes you think, huh?

Top 5 Albums of all time

2008-03-10T18:46:00.011-04:00

I have been thinking about this for a long time. What are the top 5 Music albums of all time? I will count them down with my thoughts. This is just my lame opinion. :)

#5 - The Cure - Wild Mood Swings. (1996)

I never was a real big Cure fan and still am really not. Piper introduced me to them right after we first met. It was tough to pick between this album and "Faith". Faith is a cool sounding album but as you will see as this list goes on, I am more into lyrics instead of the music. (Except for #1 as you will see) This starts will the track "Want" which goes for 2:19 with just music. The core of the song is great and has a good flow. The next track "Club America" is kinda weird / different but good. It doesn't really sound like Robert Smith, he changed his tone. Track 3 "This is a Lie" is pretty good but kinda brings you down at the same time. Track 4 "The 13th" picks up the mood a bit and almost makes you forget the angst of track 3. Nice use of horns as well. Track 5 "Strange Attraction really steps it up a notch. This is one of my favorites on the album. When I hear this song, I can't tell if I am supposed to be happy or sad. They nailed it! Track 6 "Mint Car" is a happy go lucky song that is bubblegumy and almost made to sound fake. This is the peak happiness of the album. Track 7 "Jupiter Crash" brings it back down to famous Cure levels of melancholy. This is a great song though. It reminds me of being outside with someone special and looking up at the stars and being overcome with a flood of mixed waves of emotions. Track 8 "Round & Round & Round" tries to pick up the pieces from Track 3 and 7. It is a valiant effort. Track 9 "Gone!" is an overall great sounding song with a good mix of emotions. Mostly this song just sounds like a bad motivational VHS tape from the late 80's, but in a good way. :) Track 10 "Numb" brings it back down a notch and makes you think. The song really isn't all about drug addiction I think. It is just about addiction in general. What is your "drug"? Track 11 "Return" makes the last attempt to bring it back up a notch with dutiful success. Track 12 "Trap" is where the album starts to wrap and and you are taken out on an almost angry yet relieved state. Track 13 "Treasure" sounds at first to take you back down to sad, almost upset even. The more you listen to it however, the more you realize that it is more of a reflection on the past. The past is the past, you can't do anything about it. Track 14 "Bare" the final song. This song wraps it up pretty well. A wild mood swing roller coaster of emotions. Don't hide all your wild mood swings, "Bare" everything. It makes for a much easier time.

#4 - The Church - Starfish (1988)

Most people forget / forgot about this album / this band. This is really the only album that I like from them. Track 1 "Destination" is a great song from start to finish. A great way to start the album. My 2nd favorite song on the album. Track 2 "Under the Milky Way". Most people have heard this song on the radio during the 90's at some point. Another great song overall, not the best on the album. Very strong lyrically and gets an A- for bagpipe usage in a rock song. Track 3 "Blood Money" is probably my least favorite song on the album but starts getting the album ready for the upbeat songs. Track 4 "Lost" is a good song overall. It reminds me of the band "Soul Asylum" and their style of music. Track 5 "North, South, East, West" picks it up a bit and gets a little more rocky sounding. Good song overall with a good mix of slowness and heaviness. Track 6 "Spark" keeps the up beat rock sound going. This song is almost borderline punk sounding. Track 7 "Antenna" is my favorite song on the album (and no, not because I am an amateur radio operator). This song makes you really think about what it means (GASP!!! Not intelligent rock!). Track 8 "Reptile" is easily my 3rd favorite song. It gets high marks for the cool guitar riff and the comparison of a significant other to a snake. Track 9 "A New Season" slows it back down a bit. A good song and very listenable. Track 10 "Hotel Womb" wraps up the album well. Another song that make you think.

#3 - Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (Double Album, 1975)

Well, what can you say? Led Zeppelin. You either like them or you don't. Most people don't. Either they don't get them, or they think they are overplayed / overrated. Think what you will, this is a great album. Track 1 "Custard Pie" is a typical sounding Led Zeppelin tune and a good way to start the album. Track 2 "The Rover". This is one of my favorite Zeppelin tunes. It doesn't sound like much of the rest of their music and really showed what they are capable of. Track 3 "In My Time Of Dying". Awesome song! This song absolutely rocks out. This is also one of my favorite Zeppelin tunes. Track 4 "Houses Of The Holy" is also a later album name. This song is not the best and the only bad thing about the whole album. If you can get through it, many treasures await! Track 5 "Trampled Under Foot". A good rocky / bluesy song that is typical Zeppelin. Not as bad as the previous track. Track 6 "Kashmir". Alot of people hate this song and call it monotonous. I think it is a great song, especially the orchestrated sound of it. Track 1 Album 2 "In The Light". This is where those treasures I was referring to start. This song is great from beginning to end. You can't find anything bad about it. I remember listening to this song constantly when I was about 17 years old. Track 2 Album 2 "Bron-Yr-Aur". Awesome Jimmy Page acoustic guitar style. Need I say more? Track 3 Album 2 "Down By The Seaside". This song sounds nothing like typical Led Zeppelin. The song is an absolute masterpiece. It makes you want to go to the ocean and "just sit". Track 4 Album 2 "Ten Years Gone". This song is also far from sounding like typical Zeppelin. Once again, one of those treasures I was telling you to hold out for. Track 5 Album 2 "Night Flight". Now we are getting back to typical Zeppelin sounding tunes (which is not entirely bad). Track 6 Album 2 "The Wanton Song". Awesome. This song rocks out as well. I can almost picture Jimmy Page with his patented "fish look" playing the guitar with his head going back and forth. :) Track 7 Album 2 " Boogie With Stu" is a feel good out right jammin' song that makes you wanna dance. Track 8 Album 2 "Black Country Woman". You have to like blues to like this song. Period. Track 9 Album 2 "Sick Again" is a good way to end it all. Just in case anybody was wondering if they still had their "Zeppelin" sound or if it was coming back for the next album.

#2 Rush - Presto (1989)

This album should be number 1, but as you will see, number 1 is number 1 because of what it is and cannot be trumped by even the almighty Canadian power trio. I am a huge Rush fan. Most Rush fans will tell you that this is their worst album (I think Vapor Trails is). This album is a lyrical masterpiece throughout. I really think this is / was the peak of Rush. Track 1 "Show Don't Tell". This is my least favorite song on the album and it is a great song. You get the idea. A bad song on this album is not really bad. I really just don't like the chorus on the song, the rest is fine. Track 2 "Chain Lightning". Wow! This song is absolutely riveting from beginning to end. It takes you to a warm summer night, possibly away from city lights with storms "firing" on the horizon, sky blanketed by stars and a feeling of pure energy in the air. Track 3 "The Pass". This song starts out with a strange / different but good bass line. This song takes you to a changing point in your life. A point in ones life full of important decisions. The choices are laid out for you. Everybody goes through it and the bottom line is the fact that no matter what you choose it will most likely be the wrong decision in your mind but possibly the best decision you will make. Track 4 "War Paint". Also another song about life decisions. Dealing with more of a younger version or oneself that is confused and scared. A version of oneself that you don't understand until you are much older and experienced in life. Track 5 "Scars". A metaphorically inquisitive song that deals with oneself wearing their emotional scars in the open. The drumming on this song is superb Neil Peart quality. The song overall reminds you how powerful the human mind is. Track 6 "Presto". Well, here it is. My second favorite Rush song. Separation angst mixed with a bit of felling sorry for yourself with a dab of self realization. Track 7 "Superconductor". My 3rd favorite Rush song. Rush has never done anything before that sounds close to this song. This song is very dark and evil without sounding like it. That's actually quite difficult to do. This song sounds kinda upbeat and "poppy" but something is not quite right. Something underlying is going on but you can't quite figure it out. Brilliant! Track 8 "Anagram (For Mongo)". I am not quite sure what to thing of this song. It is a song about how things are not always as they seem? (no, that was the previous song). The beauty of this album is the fact that you take something different away from it on every listen. Track 9 "Red Tide". By far the most "upbeat" song on the album, if you can call it upbeat. A song about how life is too short to be worried about all of the BS out there. Live your life and be happy, not scared. Track 10 "Hand Over Fist". The album is winding down now. This is not one of their best, but certainly listenable. A good prelude to the end. Track 11" Available Light". Great way to end the album. There are lots of positive things out there, you just have to "learn" to look for them.

#1 - Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

I discovered it when I was 12 years old (like almost everybody did). 12 year olds are still discovering it. James (my 12 year old) will more than likely pick up on it later this year. The first time you hear it, it changes your life and your taste in music forever. I am not going to write a track by track review on this album. It would be like trying to disprove God or building a time machine just so you can create a paradox and destroy the entire space time continuum. From beginning to end, pure genius, all the bullshit aside about Wizard of Oz and how overplayed the album is.

In the words of the great Ted Nugent "If you don't eat meat, you have shit for brains"

Flea Market! C'mon Ya'll

2008-03-09T12:09:00.002-04:00

LOL! Glen just sent this to me:

Training

2008-03-08T08:53:00.011-05:00

I have decided to take all of the FEMA online courses here: http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp

There are 63 in all. I already have taken IS-2 in the past which is not on there for some reason. Most of it will just be review for me but it is always good to have a refresher. I was thinking of all the emergency training that I already had and figured since these courses are free, I might as well take them.

The training that I have currently, off the top of my head:

Firefighter 1
Firefighter 2
Hazmat Awareness
Hazmat Operations
Basic Incident Command
FEMA IS-2
Skywarn Weather Spotter
C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team)
Medical First Responder
CPR
Non Screened A.E.D.

I have affiliations with the following:

Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness
ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service)
RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service)
C.E.R.T.

I guess I just figured that the more training, the better. The fact that it is free and online is good too. I helped out last year with a tornado devastated area and it was a good feeling to lend a helping hand. Most of the help I provide now is just radio communications, but with the C.E.R.T. class I just took, hopefully I can do a little more.

Andrew is wigged out.

2008-03-06T21:39:00.006-05:00

OK.. I didn't mean to wig out Andrew... Honest. Last night, I was informed by Piper that the shelf above his head was "barely screwed into the wall". I made a statement that it should be taken down because it could fall on Andrew in the middle of the night. At this point Andrew did not want to sleep in his bed. He was convinced that the shelf was going to fall on him and crush him in his sleep. I took the shelf down to alleviate any problems. Earlier that day, I came home from work to find Blue toilet paper. This is the first time I have ever had colored toilet paper in the house. I might have mentioned (loudly) while on the toilet that blue toilet paper gives you ass cancer. Big mistake. I got a call from Piper today while I was at work that Andrew would not go number 2 because he didn't want cancer and the blue toilet paper was bad... I had to explain to Andrew (in front of everybody at work) that I was just kidding and the blue toilet paper was fine to use. After 2 or 3 rounds of his inquisitiveness, he finally bought into it and all was well.

Lesson learned: Watch what is said in front of Andrew, he is a very smart almost 5 year old who really "listens" to what his dad has to say.

Maybe I should start talking about how cool doctors are.. Doctors that buy their balding dads red Corvettes.

As a side note. Ray informed me today that his grandpa (who died from colon cancer) had pink dyed toilet paper in his house.. :(

So I married a ?

2008-03-06T20:53:00.004-05:00

Don't ask... It was one of those nights.. All is well now. I think.

Ham radio stuff update

2008-03-06T20:45:00.002-05:00

OK... So I got the transmit crystal in the mail. It fits! However.. The radio has a spot feature that is supposed to transmit the harmonic of the crystal... NO JOY! It does not.. Does that mean the transmitter is crapped out? The only solution is to wire up a phono plug mic (groan) because the mic I got in the mail was a 3 pin mic, not a phono as I was led to believe. Anyhow, either the radio transmit and the spot feature is broke, of the crystal is bad.. Maybe this weekend will lead to a mic wiring party (groan).. Maybe this radio will just be "offed" at the Milford swap in April.. We will see.

Ham Radio Stuff

2008-02-24T07:51:00.002-05:00

I went to the Livonia swap last weekend. It was an OK swap I guess.. There was an ice storm and the roads were pretty bad. Alot of people showed up anyway. It was a very crowded swap with narrow isles. I ended finding and buying a Clegg 22'er. This is a 2 meter AM tube transciever. The radio is in almost mint condition. It didn't come with any transmit crystals or manual or mic. I bought a 144.45 transmit crystal online as well as an OEM Clegg mic and scanned manual. The whole setup costs less than 100 dollars. It will be interesting to see how it preforms on the air. The radio is capable of about 20 watts, although I have seen reports of the radio doing close to 45 so we will see. I think I am going to take the radio to work tomorrow and blow all the dust out of it so it is ready to go when the mic, crystal, and manual come.

Also, on a side note, a Shure model #450 Dispatch Mic sounds like crap on a Yaesu FT-1802. :)

Why did Romney lose Florida and dropout?

2008-02-18T20:33:00.002-05:00

Romney lost Florida for one reason. http://ema.arrl.org/article.php?sid=802

1. How many old people live in Florida, Romney?
2. How many old people are Ham Radio operators?
3. How many old people go to Florida each year thatlive in Michigan?
4. How many people in Michigan didn't like your daddy when he was governer?

Michigan Has 22467 Ham Radio Operators.
Florida has 42141 Total, the second most. Only Texas beats Florida with 48052 (and that is because of the size of the state and population).

Bottom line here is: He flat out pissed of Ham Radio operators. As of Feb 10th, 2008, there are 772,261 Ham Radio Operators in the U.S. Good job pissing off 3/4 of a million people with a BS statement that you know nothing about, then not even explaining yourself. Romney is a big twat, plain and simple. I am glad he dropped out.

/waves

2007 CQ WW DX SSB Contest

2007-10-30T23:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I worked my very first CQ WW DX SSB Contest over the past weekend. I set
a goal for 500 contacts for myself. The goal was set before I realized that
the stations were going to be all from other countries, nothing stateside. The
stateside contacts didn't count for any points, just other countries and other
zones. I had a good time overall with 20:18:33 total operating time. That
includes tuning around and trying to work stations. I was originaly going to
pick a frequency on each band and call CQ Contest but that didn't work out to
well because there were not many stateside contacts as I mentioned. The
Contest was for 160M, 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M, and 10M. I have no 160 or 80 antenna
here so I was limited to only 4 bands. Station was a 746Pro Icom running 100
Watts. Antenna was a G5RV-JR, 52 foot long 40-10 Dipole up at 15 feet high.
Stats are as followed:

40 Meter = 48 Contacts, 22 Countries, and 14 Zones.
20 Meter = 65 Contacts, 31 Countries, and 15 Zones.
15 Meter = 27 Contacts, 19 Countries, and 9 Zones.
10 Meter = 13 Contacts, 10 Countries, and 7 Zones.

153 Total Contacts, 310 QSO Points, 127 Multipliers for a total score of 39370.

Not too bad for my modest setup. It was awesome to see 10 meters open into
south america and the caribbean. I was hoping to work Barbados on 10 but no
joy. I did however work Barbados on 40 and 20. 8P5A on 40 and 20 and 8P6SH on
40. I had a good time. Not as many contacts as field day but quality DX
contacts.

I won money! (for real this time)

2007-10-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

I am slow to upate this, sorry. About 3 weeks ago I was at work when I got a call from Ray. He said that one of our clients sons ran into our office and said that I won money on 94.7 WCSX www.wcsx.com I was skeptical at first. Anyway, I called and was added to the workforce. You get added to the workforce and every hour they call a name, you make 100 dollars right off the bat and if the next person they call doesn't call back then you keep winning 100 dollars an hour. I wound up winning 400 dollars! I was pretty pumped! Me and Piper and Andrew went down to the studio to pick up the cash a few days later.. It was awesome! We got to go back into the studio and they recorded a promo with Andrew saying "My dad won 400 dollars on 94.7 WCSX". It really helped out with the bills. :)

Ghost in the machine = DEMON

2007-09-18T19:41:00.000-04:00

Well, the Acer Notebook crapped out... It is En Route to Texas for warranty repair as I write this. I am glad that it crapped out while it was still under warranty though. I have this IBM thinkpad that I am using now but I do have the choice of 5 computers in the house to use. Hey, Glen, what was that about Acer being owned by NEC now and the quality. :) Oh well.

WOW!! A HERO!!

2007-09-04T22:29:00.000-04:00

This is amazing. This is a 60 year old guy who lives on lake Erie in Ohio. He sees a Plane crash into the lake and his first thought? Grab a rowboat and start going towards it to help. What an amazing guy! Most people would just call 911 and say to themselves "Man everybody is dead" or "Let the professionals handle it" This guy saved the life of a 7 year old kid because of his actions. It is refreshing to see something positive in the news for once. It is too bad the kid lost his brother and dad in the crash. I almost started crying when I saw this story. If I was in that situation, I would do the same thing. I am the kind of person that doesn't think of the consequences in an emergency situation, I just act. Amazing! This guy should get something for his effort. Watch the video for yourself and tell me that this guy is not awesome. WOW! I just can't believe this. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/09/04/oh.plane.into.lake.erie.wews

BBS back up and running

2007-09-03T12:44:00.000-04:00

The BBS (Bulletin Board System) is back up and running after being down for about a month and a half. It was moved from an EMachines crap computer (The motherboard fried) to an IBM eServer. The eServer is pretty cool and I have 3 - 40GB Hard drives in it and 512 MB ram, the processor is a Celeron 2GHZ (Which is more than enough to host my BBS. If you want to check it out and remember the good old days, download and install this program http://www.theroughnecks.net/download/mTelnet-1.0b12-Setup.exe After you install that (make sure you don't uncheck any of the boxes during setup) go here to log on and enjoy the BBS telnet://scannerbbs.dyndns.org

Ghost In The Machine

2007-09-03T11:20:00.000-04:00

I have been having some computer problems here. For one, my AMD Turion 64 notebook's USB ports stopped working. This happened about 4 days ago. I devoted much of yesterday to try and fix it. I searched and searched online for about 2 hours looking for people with similar problems. They were all XP related.. Nothing reported in Vista since that is what operating system my notebook runs on (Blech!). I fiddled with it for a good 4 hours total before just finally giving up. This really sucks too because I hate the touchpad mouse and had a wireless laser mouse hooked up. This also meant I had to Install Itunes on a different computer and all that too. I had a dream last night that I plugged in my mouse and it worked so I work up this morning, plugged it in and HA HA! It works. All the ports work now and so does my Ipod. Weird, I guess I had a premonition about it. I also had a dream that I was doin' 2 chicks in a big hot tub. :-) Anyway, maybe something I did yesterday fixed it, or maybe it was my dream. At any rate, Windows Vista is know for weird intermittent problems. I have seen more weird stuff going on with Vista than anything else. I am just glad that it works now, and hopefully doesn't happen again.

Klaus revisited

2007-09-01T12:18:00.000-04:00

Awhile ago, Glen sent me a video about a German man named Klaus. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. I have long since then lost the video and haven't seen it around for a long time. Ray found it on YouTube recently. Here it is, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r5gZnx4y0c

My Space is stupid and it sucks and is dumb and not cool.

2007-09-01T11:58:00.000-04:00

I like writing and reading blogs. However, It sucks when everyone I know (Glen excluded, I don't think he has a My Space page) has a My Space page and you can't look at their pics or read their blogs because you don't have a My Space page. I caved and created one just for the fact that I would like to do those fore mentioned things. Don't expect anything flashy from it though. I spent 3 min on it and it is going to stay that way. If you are still curious, here it is: http://myspace.com/w8zzu

I look like people?

2007-09-01T10:56:00.000-04:00

I was at work yesterday setting up a hospital bed. The daughter of the person I was setting up the bed for said "You look like Tony Stewart". I said "Who is Tony Stewart". She said "He is a nascar driver, he drives the number 20 Home Depot car". That is why I didn't know who he was, I don't follow nascar. So, I said "Is he good looking or ugly?" and she said "He is real good looking". At that point, I was wondering if she was hitting on me or what. Sometimes I am a little slow with things like that.. Anyway, I decided to look up this Tony Stewart. Below is a Pic of me and a pic of Tony Stewart. Hint - I am shooting the shotgun.

You be the judge. I was told awhile ago that I also look like Justin Leonard. He is a golfer. Here is a Pic of him:

I think I look more like Justin Leonard than Tony Stewart. Maybe it is just the sunglasses? Oh well, if you go back far enough, we are all related anyway. :-)

Drunk Driving Ads

2007-08-31T08:07:00.000-04:00

I was watching TV last night, Independence Day to be exact (I haven't seen the movie in awhile and watching Jeff Goldblum is like watching a train wreck), anyway, I saw one of those ads for drunk driving. The ad goes on and on about how "If you had 1 too many drinks" you shouldn't drive, or "If you are over the legal limit" you shouldn't drive. How about an ad that says that you shouldn't drive if you have had anything to drink. It seems to me that the ads are saying that it is ok to drink as long as you don't have one too many. That is pretty messed up. Most people when they start drinking don't realize when the are over the limit. Shit, I have had like 6 beers before and have felt fine to drive. Does that mean - If I feel like I am not drunk, then I am not drunk driving? I think they need to re-think their ad campaign to promote not driving at all, even when you have had one drink. Bars are stupid anyway. They are over priced and meat markets. Oh well.. Just my thoughts on this subject.

I haven't posted in a loooong time...

2007-08-30T08:05:00.000-04:00

Wow! March 25th was the last entry.. Well, I have some time almost every moring now to post since Piper got promoted to manager at work. I have to be up at 6am mon-fri now so I have about an extra hour each morning while I sit here at work. Look for more posts.

WAHOO, We won the Lottery.... DOH!

2007-03-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

So, I am standing behind my work smoking on thursday thinking "man, I wish we had more money" when I looked down at my feet and spotted a lottery ticket. Oh, whats this? an Ohio lottery ticket. We live in Michigan (not too far from Ohio, about 50 miles) and strangely enough, I have never seen an Ohio lottery ticket. I inspected it while I smoked and noticed it had about 7 different drawings on it. It was raining and wet out that day so the ticket was soaked. I put it on the floor of my work van and ran the heat on low to dry it out. When the ticket dried out I inspected it some more. I noticed that the mega millions was played on the ticket along with a "kicker" number... to say the least, I was intrigued by this "kicker" number. I couldn't wait to get home and check this baby online. All the games on the ticket were for Wed, March 21st. I couldn't help thinking "this was a winner and someone dropped it". Anyway, I got home and showed Piper (my wife) and got on the computer to check it. The first thing I checked was this "kicker" number, and it matched!!!! HOLY COW, PIPER WE WON!!!! I looked at the prize - $100,000. Wow!!! Sugar Plum fairies were dancing in our heads! "We can pay off the bills" "We can take a vacation". So, I started looking at the rules and looking for a number to call so I could verify this. The rules were a little unclear as to how you actually win this "kicker". I was so hung up on this "kicker" that I didn't even check any of the other numbers. I called the 800 number for the Ohio lottery commission and got to a person. I explained to the person that the rules were a little unclear and I wasn't sure if I had won or not. The lady on the other end said "As long as the Kicker number matches, you've won". I hung up the phone and was pumped at this point, making plans to drive to Ohio to claim my prize. This had to be too good to be true so I called again. This time I gave the lady on the phone the serial numbers... "I am sorry sir, those are not valid" So I said, "well, maybe I read them wrong, I will give them to you again" This time as I was reading them back, I looked at the top of the ticket... "Winning Numbers For 3-21-07" and it hit me like a ton of bricks... This was just a printout of the winning numbers. I went back in and checked online with the other numbers... Sure enough, they were all matches.. I broke the news to Piper and we went from big pimps back to normal people in seconds flat. Oh well, at least now I know what it feels like.. :-(

Wendys 4 Alarm Chicken Sandwich = Burning Butthole

2007-03-18T19:13:00.000-04:00

So I saw an ad on TV for Wendy's new spicy 4 alarm chicken sandwich. I had to have one. What makes it 4 alarm is that it is spicy chicken, spicy pepper jack cheese, spicy chipolte sauce, and jalapeno peppers. It didn't taste spicy while I was eating it. I guess it was a little spicy, nothing out of the ordinary however. It was not very good to say the least and it gave me the worst case of burning butthole I have ever had in my life. The question is, don't the taste testers tell the Wendy's corp. that they get severe burning butthole the next day. Is the burning butthole just implied because of the nature of whats in the sandwich? Whatever the case may be, I think I will give my bowels a rest for awhile.

Motivation

2007-03-15T21:23:00.000-04:00

I have been motivated to redo my web page: http://www.qsl.net/kc8szu
I have not done any work on it in years and it needs a serious re-vamping. The new site URL is: http://home.comcast.net/~w8zzu I have added a link to the new site URL here on the blog page. Keep checking it frequently, I am going to be working on it slooooowly.

A Tale of 2 Rotten Brewed Drinks - Recipe For Diarrhea?

2007-03-14T18:19:00.000-04:00

Rotten brewed drink #1 was yesterday when I was craving a Lipton Brisk iced tea with lemon. I stopped at a local gas station and picked one up along with A teriyaki beef jerky stick. I took a bite of the beef jerky and all was well. Next I took a drink of the Brisk and it tasted rotten. I wrote off this rotteness as just a weird teriyaki after taste making the Brisk taste weird. This sometimes happens when you mix 2 different tasting things, ie - Toothpaste and Orange juice. Needless to say I drank half the bottle before I realized how rotten it was and looked at the date.. 1-10-06 YES 2006 not 2007, thats 1 year and 2 months past the drink by date. Drink by dates on pop usually just make the pop lose carbonation, but on tea that is brewed, it's not cool, trust me. So today I was going by McDonalds and saw a sign for "New Iced Mocha Latte" . Little did I know that this was going to be Rotten brewed drink #2, the possible second and final ingredient in the recipe for exploding diarrhea. So, I went through the drive thru and saw the price, $2.97? Wow, this must be a good drink with chocolately goodness for that price, I'll take it. I knew something was wrong when I saw the lady at the drive thru holding the clear plastic cup and it had no ice in it, WTF? Now I am not a hardcore coffee drinker or anything but I like a good iced coffee every now and then. I have had my fair share of iced mocha's and everyone contained ice. They brew the coffee strong so as the ice melts it doesn't water it down. Anyway, back to the McDonalds version. I said to myself, no big deal on the ice it will just be stronger, at least it had whipped cream on it! I took a drink, YECH! Rotten tasting. I thought to my self at this point, "I will mix it around with my straw and stir the whipped cream in". I first tasted it with my finger to make sure it was ok and it tasted fine. The stirring made it taste even worse and warmed it up a bit so it wasn't even really "iced" anymore. Needless to say, I drank the whole thing for the caffiene content. 5 hours later, I was driving down the road and had the worst gas pains I ever had in my life. I knew I had to crap and do it NOW! Luckily I was only 2 miles from my house when this started. The bad part, the guy in front of me was like 80 years old and driving 10 MPH slower than the speed limit. I finally made it home, flew into the house, ran into the bathroom and had exploding diarrhea. All I remember is my wife saying "That bad huh?" as I was running by. I also remember her making farting noises outside the door of the bathroom, in which I yelled "Leave me alone, I don't feel good". So was it the Brisk that brewed in my stomach for a day that did it? or was it the Iced Mocha? or a combination of both? Whatever it was, I think the lesson is, If it tastes rotten, then it is, and don't drink it. Also, McDonalds needs to stick with greasy fries and burgers, not fancy coffee drinks.