Thursday - January 22, 2009

Great Grand-dad has to prove he’s over 18 to buy a sling shot.  They are called catapults here.

More MOONBAT stuff.  Hardly have to look to find it anymore. It’s everywhere. 
Thought it was a gag at first but, no.  Take a look at the old guy.

btw ... not being a fisherman ever I wouldn’t know but.  Couldn’t you do the same thing with a home made sling shot using a hanger?  We did that as kids. Making the slings that is.

This is pretty silly and so that’s why it’s posted. 

Last post for me for the day ... playing nurse to wife who has a cold but worse .... she’s really ticked off at govt. in general but particularly with the locals.
We think that very soon the powers that be are going to allow the paving over of a portion of the valuable GREEN BELT here. They wanna build like 2,000 houses plus the support things like stores and whatever else might be needed.  If our weather clears up enough in my lifetime and the wife gets better, I’ll try and get pix.  Really awful darn news if they go ahead.  But hands are tied council says, by London.  So along with sneezes, cough and sniffles, I’m getting an earful (but no bad language) and the way she’s muttering you would think I was on the darn council myself.
Non of which has a thing to do with this post however.  Just thought I’d add it in closing.

Cheers

Shopkeeper refuses to serve great-grandfather, 73, a toy catapult ‘ unless he could prove he was over 18’

Last updated at 1:53 PM on 22nd January 2009

A 73-year-old angler was reeling after a tackle shop refused to sell him a toy catapult - unless he produced ID proving he was over 18.

Great-grandfather John Payne, who suffers arthritis and walks with a limp, was told the £1.50 toy could only be sold to adults with valid identification.

Staff said the plastic catapult - used to fling fish bait into rivers - could be used as a weapon if it fell into the hands of a teenager.

Humiliated: John Payne was forced to show identification proving he was over 18 before he could buy this catapult

It meant John, who was taking one of his 10 grandchildren fishing, was forced to hand over his driving licence before the ‘jobsworth’ shopkeeper allowed the sale.

Frail John said he was left ‘utterly humiliated’ following the incident at the Original Factory Shop in Melksham, Wiltshire.

The retired foreman said: ‘At first I thought that she was just trying to be humorous.

‘But when I cheekily replied ‘Do I look 18?’ she asked if I could prove it, and then asked me to verify this with some form of identification.

‘At this point I realised that she was in fact being serious.

‘I am 73 years old and have grandchildren who are probably older than the woman serving me. I have a 50-year-old daughter, for goodness sake.

‘I have bought other equipment in the past with no trouble. Surely it is obvious that I am going to use the catapult for its intended purpose.

‘I understand that the girl had a job to do, but she should be able to show some discretion.

‘What sort of a world are we living in now when a 73-year-old cannot go into a shop and buy fishing tackle?

‘It seems some people are jobsworths who are completely devoid of common sense.’

Balding John, who suffers from crippling arthritis, has been a keen fisherman for the past 50 years.

The grandfather of nine and great-grandfather of 10 visits his local rivers most weekends, often with his young family.

But he was stunned when his local tackle shop refused to sell him the catapult - a standard piece of kit for most fishermen across the world.

The shop assistant told him that she had to screen everyone before handing over the ‘dangerous’ implement.

But John, who lives with wife Dorothy, 76, slammed his ‘nanny state’ treatment.

He said: ‘The implication is that I was not a responsible enough adult to purchase a catapult, which is designed for the purpose of firing maggots into the river to attract fish.

‘As much as I am not impartial to a little humorous flattery, on this occasion I felt extremely humiliated by the assistant’s obvious lack of judgement.’

A spokesman for the store said its shopkeeper was being ‘vigilant’ - while having ‘a bit of fun’.

He said: ‘I am sure the assistant was having a bit of fun with the customer and did not seriously expect him to show identification.

‘But this does prove that our staff are very vigilant about asking for identification.’

GRANDAD

Posted by peiper     on 01/22/2009 at 12:31 PM   
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   Thursday - January 08, 2009

Thinking Vs Linking - Blogging Vs Microblogging

When I was helping out The Skipper with this blog, I was always the “Linker” while he was the “Thinker”.  I could pump out many quick articles linking to what others had written, while he would write long essays on many different topics.  We complimented each other well.

When I started looking for someone to take over this blog, I was glad Drew threw his name in the hat because he is a “thinker”.  You’ll notice that when I post a story, it is typically a quick note and a link to another blog or news site.  That style works best for me.

For about a month, I’ve been playing with Twitter, the “social networking” site that has become so popular.  As I wrote before, I never really got the whole idea, but then I started to look at it from another angle.  If bloggers and nes agencies are “tweeting” links to their stories, or if I come across something interesting, maybe this would be a fit to my style of blogging.

Microblogging is in.

I saw the term “microblogging” used somewhere to describe what Twitter has become for many users.  You link up, or “follow” other users with similar interests and all of the sudden you have a news network better than any RSS feed you could imagine.  Plus, when posting a “Tweet”, you are limited to 140 characters.  That keeps everything small and managable.  If something looks interesting, you click on a link and get the whole story.  If you think your followers would like it too, you can “re-tweet” the message and it goes out to your community.

If you want to see what its about, go over to twitter.com and sign up, then follow me by clicking on the link to the right.

Now, I wonder if there is a way for my “Tweets” to show up here as posts?

Posted by Drew458     on 01/08/2009 at 11:22 PM   
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   Monday - January 05, 2009

Post of a more personal nature with thanks to PIXIE.

Last week I posted a story about the treatment of a man aged 101, by the hospital he was in.

BMEWS readers all posted comments of outrage or disgust or bewilderment that anything like that was even possible.

Well, our BMEWS Pixie had one heck of a comment to make and she wasn’t pulling any punches.
Her background as a nurse had her all the more angered as it wasn’t the kind of treatment she and her class would ever have put up with.
But what she had to say reminded me of a personal experience I witnessed in a hospital in Riverside, Ca. some years ago.
Here is part of what Pixie had to say.

I am appalled by this story.........I have been a nurse (now retired) for over 40 years.  Never have I witnessed this type of treatment of a patient.  I have worked OR, as a med-surg staff nurse, a supervisor and for the last 20 years of my career in an Emergency Department.

I have never witnessed this type of negligence.

Posted by Pixie under comments

Pixie,
Good for you and I wish there were more with that attitude. 

The story got to me and reminded me a tiny bit (not quite the same but bad enough) of an experience I personally witnessed at a hosp. in Riverside,Ca. some years ago.

I was recovering from back surgery and in pretty awful shape.  Don’t have to tell you about back surgery I know. Every move agony in the hosp. bed.  So .....

I had a two bed room and they wheeled in an elderly man from surgery for prostate cancer and some other thing I can’t recall.  He was in deplorable condition and drugged out of his skull as you will know.  And lots of moaning poor man.

He came to a few times and asked for water (?) but couldn’t reach the or wasn’t aware of the call button, so I used mine.  It was awhile before a nurse came, they are short handed I know, and she took care of his request, but it almost seemed grudgingly. Now I confess that may not be the case, it was just her look.

I had to get out of bed and oh boy was that an effort, (having to hold onto the wall and anything else handy for support) to use the loo as the Brits call it.
As I passed his bed to get there I noticed a US Navy tattoo on his arm, similar to the one my favorite uncle (more like father) had.  It was the USS Chicago, and of course WW2, so this old guy was a Navy vet and from a well known ship as well.  Wow.  When he came to again (he was in and out) I was calling him “sir.”

I’m too damn long winded so here’s what happened.

This guy was wired up with needles and tubes the like of which I never want to see again. He had them in his nose and in his (ah, you know) and and in his hands and heaven only knows where else. He was tossing and turning and I could see the tubes coming out and the straps that had him secured were beginning to come apart.  He was in some pain but he wasn’t totally conscious, and the moaning was pretty much non-stop for long periods. Like ALL night for the first couple of nights. Finally, at some point I was worried that he’d get hurt or something bad would happen with those loose tubes and things, and I also thought the straps would give and he’d fall out of bed.

This was happening around 2am, the ward was quiet and so I used the call button. Nothing.
Waited and it probably seemed longer then it was but truthfully it was a long wait.  Still no response.  What to do? Surprisingly, I didn’t see any side rails on the bed.  Or maybe they didn’t use them as he was strapped down.

With much pain myself as I hadn’t been out of surgery that long myself, I got out of bed and managed to make my way to the door, and peeked out onto the hallway.  I saw nobody at first. Not a soul.  So I’m hanging on to the door frame when I spotted a nurse coming down the hall and I called to her.  She was quite young and when I told her the situation, she informed me that this wasn’t her floor but she’d see what she could do.  I told her I was worried that he’d somehow get the straps holding him down undone and he might fall out of bed.  This was her word for word reply to that.  I have never forgotten it. 

“WE ALL HAVE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS.”

This old sailor hadn’t been out of surgery for 24 hours yet. This was the first night of the day he came out of surgery.  OK so, she more or less retied the straps while he’s tossing to and fro and not being at all still, so it wasn’t easy for her I realize. But she could have called for help and didn’t.
Think I’m through?  Nope. Because later that morning once again the straps and the wires and the tubes seemed to be falling out and the straps for certain were now undone, but he was slowly coming to but still in pain.

Hitting the call button yet again brought two nurses (this would be around 8 or 9 in the morning by now) and they started to put things back together.  And this really got to me for sheer ...????
I can’t find the word?  Stupidity is one but that doesn’t work for me as I need something stronger.
Here’s what happened next.

You know those horrid hospital gowns patients have to wear, right. They always seem too short and they usually are.
During all his tossing and moving previously, his hospital gown rode up exposing himself a little.
I watched as he tried to lower the damn thing and cover himself which he finally managed to do.
One of the nurses, an older hag says to him ....  “Thank You Very Much.” And I promise you it was said with a great deal of scorn and sarcasm. As though he were some kind of flasher and he exposed himself on purpose.  Why couldn’t she have pulled his gown down a bit?
What the heck kind of attitude was that?  She’s a nurse for gosh sake.  She’s never seen a nude patient before?

I felt very sorry for this guy and who wouldn’t?

I felt even worse when he finally came around a little more and asked me to get his carry bag in the wall closet. Locker?  Whatever. He said he had a 38 cal. in there and didn’t see the point of things anymore. 
That was scary and heartbreaking. 
That could by ill chance also be any one of us. We just never know for sure what the future holds or just what state our body and minds will be in. 

Until then, we should be thankful and grateful for any nurses out there that might be like Pixie.
Our bad luck that there aren’t more, and that ones as described here are still working in the field.

-end-

Posted by peiper     on 01/05/2009 at 01:09 PM   
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   Wednesday - December 31, 2008

THIS IS MY FINAL POST FOR THE OLD YEAR …. HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL BACK NEXT YEAR

SINCERELY WISH EVERYONE A MOST HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.

It’s been fun and rewarding and maddening but always insightful and thought provoking.

Many thanks to all those who’ve remained throughout this past year, and welcome to any new folks on the scene. 

STAY TUNED.

Posted by peiper     on 12/31/2008 at 04:01 PM   
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   Tuesday - December 30, 2008

CAPTIONS, ANYONE?  They just HAD to sign the road this way. Not that anyone pays any attention.

Hey, what’s the speed limit here?

WHY THE HECK CAN’T THE POWERS THAT BE PUT UP ROAD SIGNS THAT PEOPLE CAN SEE?

Posted by peiper     on 12/30/2008 at 04:24 AM   
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   Monday - December 29, 2008

Muslims protest before Israeli Embassy in London.

A not so “peaceful” protest by the followers of the ROP in London brought traffic to a standstill.

They were of course protesting the awful brutish bloodthirsty Israelis, who had the damn nerve to complain about rocket attacks against them, coming from Gaza.

Imagine that if you can.  Rockets fired from Gaza.  Israelis say stop. Hamas say haha what you gonna do about it?
Israel replies by going BOOM on Gaza and now these folks try and storm the Israeli Embassy in London and cause grief for bystanders.
That’s something muzzies have a habit of doing, isn’t it?  Here’s a shot of a peaceful muzzie. Looks perfectly reasonable. For a muslim. It almost looks human.

Way back in time before many of the folks here at BMEWS were around, there was a war in the Middle East in ‘48 and again in ‘67 and there were other times as well.  What I recall vividly however was the lack of any street protests by angry Jews.  What I do remember vividly were the stories and the arguments in the press, about the number of American Jews who volunteered to go over there and fight for Israel.  As American citizens they were not supposed to do that.
But it was early days for the young state and warm bodies were needed for the cause.  So they went.

They didn’t do street protests because there wasn’t time to engage in that sort of thing. Not that they had em much back in the late 40’s. But the point is, unlike these pictured protesters who will accomplish NOTHING but a traffic disruption, the Jews from America and I should mention the UK as well, in fact all that could go from where ever they were, did so.  This lame group of open mouthed non-entities find it much easier to shout at a building then go and actually fight for the ppl on whose behalf they are holding up traffic.

What?  you want them to fight?  Against armed Israelis? Go on.  Risk getting a boo-boo from an Israeli soldier or tank?  Much easier tossing bomb into crowd of unarmed civilians and safer too.  And a lot easier and cozy right here in London fighting traffic.

So there.  That’s my comment on this group of losers.  Now then ....

I’m ready for some Eye Candy.  So here.  Enjoy the shot.

Right. I see why they’d rather stay in London. 

UPDATE: Peiper, there was something wrong with your picture of the protester. Lemme see ... I think maybe I can ... you betcha!

See? All better now.

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by peiper     on 12/29/2008 at 09:50 AM   
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   Sunday - December 28, 2008

Government crackdown on offensive and harmful online activity to be launched in the New Year.

Well great. About time because, “it’s all for the kids.” Right?

Sure it is.  To start with.
But I have a worry here.  Please note he also would like to bring the office of the President (soon to be the O man) into this.
According to my reading, American sites could be involved.  Hey, the French already have Yahoo and Google restricted in some ways.
I just do not have a very trusting nature with regard to any govt. that talks about censorship. 

Having said all that, I do recognize there is a problem and there might be content online that’s totally off the wall and encourages behavior.
We know there are sites out there where those who are so inclined can find info on how to make explosives. Do we need that online?

I can’t pretend to have answers. Only questions. Bottom line?

I get nervous when officials with titles like “Culture Secretary” (Minister for public enlightenment and propaganda?) call for bans.  I’m never sure govts. know where the line gets drawn.

Internet sites could be given cinema-style age ratings as part of a Government crackdown on offensive and harmful online activity to be launched in the New Year, the Culture Secretary says.

By Robert Winnett,
Deputy Political Editor

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites.

The Cabinet minister describes the internet as “quite a dangerous place” and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents “child-safe” web services.

Giving film-style ratings to individual websites is one of the options being considered, he confirms. When asked directly whether age ratings could be introduced, Mr Burnham replies: “Yes, that would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus.”

ISPs, such as BT, Tiscali, AOL or Sky could also be forced to offer internet services where the only websites accessible are those deemed suitable for children.

His plans to rein in the internet, and censor some websites, are likely to trigger a major row with online advocates who ferociously guard the freedom of the world wide web.

However, Mr Burnham said: “If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that Governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now.” It’s true across the board in terms of content, harmful content, and copyright. Libel is [also] an emerging issue.

“There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.”

Mr Burnham also wants new industry-wide “take down times”. This means that if websites such as YouTube or Facebook are alerted to offensive or harmful content they will have to remove it within a specified time once it is brought to their attention.

He also says that the Government is considering changing libel laws to give people access to cheap low-cost legal recourse if they are defamed online. The legal proposals are being drawn up by the Ministry of Justice.

Mr Burnham admits that his plans may be interpreted by some as “heavy-handed” but says the new standards drive is “utterly crucial”. Mr Burnham also believes that the inauguration of Barack Obama, the President-Elect, presents an opportunity to implement the major changes necessary for the web.

“The change of administration is a big moment. We have got a real opportunity to make common cause,” he says. “The more we seek international solutions to this stuff – the UK and the US working together – the more that an international norm will set an industry norm.”

THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

Posted by peiper     on 12/28/2008 at 11:11 AM   
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   Friday - December 26, 2008

PEIPER’S DECEMBER RANT and SHAMLESS BID FOR SYMPATHY which he’d get at a more liberal blog.

Snappy headline, what? Yeah well it’s the best I could do on short notice.

POOR BRAIN DEAD COUSIN JO
Peiper’s Dec. Rant.  12-26-08

Dear Bmews Diary,

A very tiring day and I mean eyes closing as I write.  Not so much due anything we did today.  Fairly lazy day overall except for lunatic news stories which are posted. No.

What has me ready to fall asleep was an overlong visit from a cousin of the wife. Two hours and twenty minutes of non stop talk by Cousin Jo.

She is a kindly and charitable person but alas, brain dead.  I haven’t a clue how she has survived the 19th century. Oh sorry. I meant the 20th. century.

She always has to be asked finally, and somewhat kindly, please leave now.  And it still takes her somewhere between ten and twenty minutes to do that.

She has been taking a senior citizen computer class and sad to say her problem is mostly that she is NOT a listener.  She manages to get everything screwed up.  And she can NEVER tell a tale from A to Z without serious detours.

Example:
She is telling us about a class she has been in for months now in the village of Weeke.  A village not far from here.

“The class is made up of and I don’t know what I’d have done if I hadn’t caught the #18 bus in London oh but wait, no, no before that I went to Peters Street where I got the #32 , oh lets see, yes that’s right, which went as far as ????? where I got the #20 bus which runs and then when I finally got the #18 bus but the #32 was late anyway.”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH !!!!!

How the F&%! did we manage to be on all those fracken London buses in the village of Weeke next door???????  They’re over a hundred miles apart anyway.

She doesn’t come over often but every time she does I make it clear what our routine is here due to the old lady’s care and the wife is quite tired yadda,yadda.  And every single time she says sorry she didn’t know and we dance the same dance.

At 5:10pm I said Jo, ya know Jean is usually in bed by this time. She’s up late, she’s tired and I need a break too.

Oh dear says she. I’m sorry. I must be getting off now oh Jean.  I won’t keep you.  But my wife (the one who’s civilized here) makes the mistake of saying “Oh that’s ok Jo.” So Jo drags out her leave taking and asks, oh where’s my coat, while turning in a complete circle as though she is looking for her coat, which is on a chair in the entrance hall right through the door to her right. Just inside the front door.
I mean, this isn’t Windsor Castle after all.  One does not get lost in this tiny three rooms downstairs bungalow.

But she does finally exit the front door at 5:20pm. What happened between 5:10 and 5:20 then?  Oh boy, oh boy I’m glad you asked.

She was getting instructions from my sainted wife on, “ HOW TO READ IN BED.”

What?  You think I have the imagination to make that up?
No kidding.  She says her problem is that every time she tries to read in bed, the book falls on her head.

No, that is not the problem. The problem is that you are BRAIN DEAD!

Posted by peiper     on 12/26/2008 at 04:05 PM   
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   Thursday - December 25, 2008

YOU THOUGHT I’D FORGET BMEWS ON CHRISTMAS DAY?

Even if there’s only one person to stop by here on the day ... then this is for us.  I’m including myself and naturally it HAS to be Country Music, given my background.

So Merry Christmas to anyone falling by here today.

I will soon be off to a traditional English Christmas day dinner with a neighbor who has been hosting this family every Christmas for forty years.

Couldn’t get it all in this one shot but, the chef is a GREAT cook. I must marry her in the next life before friend and husband Tim meets her.
All the veggies grown in their own garden btw. 

Christmas of 2007

Posted by peiper     on 12/25/2008 at 04:46 AM   
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   Tuesday - December 23, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BE OF GOOD CHEER … FROM ACROSS THE BIG POND TO BMEWS.

Christmas 2008

As the year comes to it’s close I want to wish a very Merry Christmas to all of you wherever you are.  Most especially however my thoughts are home and with my compatriots so a special Merry Christmas to you in the USA.
My Home Sweet Home.

I cannot post this and end the year without singling out two really special people here at BMEWS.  Now unless you’re a kitten or a puppy or maybe my wife, I am not a touchy-feely person at all.  However, I have to single out Mr. Christian and Drew.

I was fairly new to BMEWS a year ago and certainly very new to the blogging world.
I have a computer, a keyboard and an opinion or two and Mr. Christian emailed me and invited me to join the BMEWS team.  That was a shock of the first order.  I was flattered and would be less then honest if I didn’t own up to that.  I was not sure I was up to it.  Mr. C. must have thought I was, and told me I’d do fine and if I had any questions I could always ask. 

I had never before had to cope with things too technical and if I did, I didn’t.
That is, I turned my back on things tech because I have a hard time grasping the idea. It’s all-new to me.  And it is true that it’s near impossible to teach an old dog new tricks.  It has been like returning to school and I didn’t care much for school.  I was mostly bored.  Well that sure isn’t the case here.  I was literally handed another life, in a manner of speaking.  And it began with that invitation from Mr. C.

And so it started.  With emails from me to him.  Hey Mr. Christian, how do I do this?
What happens if?  Where do I find?  How do I go about? Yadda,Yadda? 

I could just see and hear him after awhile saying,
“Oh Lord. What have I done?  Why me Lord?”

I have discovered how rewarding BMEWS is and also just how time consuming it can be.  Especially when you barely know what you’re doing and still learning the tech ropes. 

There are some very smart and very articulate people here and I do not kid myself that any one of them could easily replace me and BMEWS might be the better for it.

If any of you people think I take you for granted, think again.  No way.  I have the greatest respect for the people who populate this site with their insights and comments.  Even where I might question some comments, you folks have the knack to make me stop and question my own position and take a second look.  I might stick to my original thought but you made me dig a little more and forced me think more.
I cannot thank you all enough.

Ah … so now we come to the second troublemaker.  DREW!  He can write on any subject and really does know what he’s talking about.  The problem is, sometimes I don’t. LOL.  I’m pretty sure it was one of our two Christophers who once said it wasn’t a good idea to have anything liquid near a keyboard when reading Drew because often, out of the blue he will say something on some subject and in a way that starts unexpected laughter.  Usually while holding a cup of coffee or worse, a mouthful.  Drew is the chief engineer at BMEWS, the tech guy who keeps it up and running.  When Mr. Christian more or less withdrew to the background to tend to things like family and personal life, and also to escape my endless questions, guess who took his place?

He (Drew) is very tech savvy.  He’s even taken courses in things tech.  I could do that too.  Except I wouldn’t understand any of it.  From my years as a disk jockey at many radio stations in my working youth, I came to know a few chief engineers.  These are the guys who can read a schematic, know how everything is wired and are in fact so knowledgeable they could if they wanted to or had the money it takes, and some actually did, build their own radio stations.

Drew falls into that wizard category and here’s an example.  I once told Drew this after he answered one of my questions. I now share it with you.

If you were to ask a chief engineer what the time of day was, he’d tell you how to make the damn watch instead! So when I started to pepper Drew with questions, he started teaching me HTML.  Or tried to anyway.  Our emails went flying back and forth, I’m a first grader, no. Make that kindergarten, and he’s speaking Latin or maybe it was Greek, in replies. ??  Well it certainly was all Greek to me.  He finally got me books.  Thought he’d get rid of me that way.  Ha.  Boy have I got a surprise for him.  I have all these notes see, and a stack of questions just waiting for after the first of the year.

So Mr. Christian and Drew,
My special wishes to you and to your families for a Very Merry Christmas and my thanks as well for your continued patience.  I hope your holiday will be restful cause I’m gonna need that patience extended for another … oh … lifetime?

Finally, I can’t quit just yet because there are two others that I must thank.  One not with us and of course that is The Skipper. 

The other is a friend and he is Vilmar.  He too has answered questions I’ve struggled with, and done so with patience.  So, I thank him here publicly and wish he and his a wonderful Christmas.

It is amazing that so many people who are total strangers come together for no other reason then the desire to be helpful to one another.

So thanks to all of you, and to all I hope the New Year will be more then happy.  I hope it will be healthy as well.  Oh yeah. And safe.

Posted by peiper     on 12/23/2008 at 03:36 PM   
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   Saturday - December 13, 2008

Peiper gets new neighbors

Stoaty the WeaselBlogger has moved to Peiper’s corner of Jolly Old. Perhaps Steamy could arrange introductions? He is the perfect go-between.

Fans of Stoaty have known this move was coming for a long time. And they know it actually happened several weeks ago. But you don’t want to barge in on the new neighbors right away. Give them a chance to get settled in a little, sign up for milk delivery, and so forth. Then perhaps you try to “accidentally” run across them down at the market and make a polite overture. Don’t want to be too pushy you know.


But I somehow think they’d get along just fine. To quote the Stoat:

I have to be cute about the exact town, since that plus the name of the house (not really Badger House) is sufficient unto a mailing address. Houses with names are common here, but our whole neighborhood is houses that are named but not numbered. That’s just how special we are. I think I can safely say Sussex.

Heh heh. Weasel make funny. The county of Sussex is so wide that, for administrative purposes, it has been divided into West and East Sussex since the Twelve Century. Had to be, since you couldn’t ride a horse from one end to the other in a day.

The motto of Sussex is “We wun’t be druv” — which means I shall end my life as it began: in the company of stubborn, illiterate rednecks

Badger House is walking distance from the nearest good sized town and a few miles from the English Channel. On a clear day, we can stand on the shore and see France, but not well enough to get a missile lock.

Yup, just fine.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/13/2008 at 02:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • UK •  
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   Sunday - December 07, 2008

RSS for the rest of us

Hey look, a web site that gives you links to all the blogs and other websites you’ve always meant to visit. Pretty cool. They do the RSS work so you don’t have to. I don’t think BMEWS made the cut, though I didn’t explore the place fully.

Maybe they’ll have a bunch of the gun blogs when the Sports area gets finished. And I hope the milblogs are strongly represented too.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/07/2008 at 01:10 PM   
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   Monday - December 01, 2008

JUST WHAT MAKES THE BRAIN WORK, AND WHY IS IT DIFFERENT IN VARIOUS PEOPLE? WHAT MAKES US TICK?

This will take a bit of explaining and it’s all Drew’s fault because he got me to thinking about the subject.  In fact, this started out originally as a note to Drew
but as I wrote it I got to thinking more about THE BRAIN.

How it all started was getting tons of help with tech related things.  One or two may not have even had to do with BMEWS. Just tech in general.
So there was a flurry of emails from me to Drew asking how to do something, or else an email from me asking him to please translate into my language, just what he was talking about.  One does really need to be careful asking questions of those who are quite savvy when it comes to things tech.
They always understand exactly what they’re talking about.  People like me listen carefully and come away thinking, nah.  He’s kidding.  I know how it’s really done.  It all done with mirrors and magic and these tech folks just don’t want me to know the secret.  Cause then it wouldn’t be magic anymore.

I’m still amazed, truly I am, by what comes over that copper wire connected to our house. And now there’s some new miracle called fiber optic that’s supposed to be even better and it’s said faster.  More amazing to someone like me, there are actually people out there in the world who do really understand how it all works.  How do they do that?  Why do some take to something and suss it out, using a Brit expression, and others are left behind?
The Brain.

Well I’m glad I have that worked out now.

So, Drew dropped something in my lap for which I’m very grateful, and I feel a bit like a first grader being given an assignment at college level.

IT’S A QUESTION OF BRAINS

December 1st. ‘08

Look forward to the newest adventure in my life. BUT, ya know it really is true that the brain works in different ways with regard to subject matter.  Like, what makes some people math geniuses?  What makes some people really great wordsmiths?  There are those folks who are way, way out there and not at all in a bad way.  But they somehow comprehend the most incomprehensible to most of us mortals.

Einstein is a good example and of course there are others.  Something about how the brain works.
Why are some people chess masters and the rest of us hardly adequate?  My wife used to play chess on more then one board. And was a winner.  I was damn lucky to play on one.  I taught a cousin to play and was never able to beat her after that.  Something in the brain.  Something that works with some puzzles while others try to puzzle out the solution.  Many fail while a few succeed. 

It’s the very same with computers.  If I had another lifetime I still would never be able to do the wiz bang stuff Drew and Rancino do.  And btw, not all 13 year olds are computer whizzes.  It’s what each individual brain is easily receptive to that counts. 

When I was in the Navy we had a fellow in our division whose name I never learned because everyone just used his nickname.  Which was Moose. Really.  Very nice guy.  He was fairly big but so damned trusting and good natured that people got away with taking advantage of him.  But he was strong as an ox and if anything needed lifting and you were two men short, you’d call Moose cause he could generally pick it and you up all by himself.

Well, Moose it turns out liked Chess. Oh boy. Did he like that game.  The problem was, he didn’t really understand it.
See, Moose would read Chess books and Chess plays and then memorize the moves he read.  Moose could read a page in the phone book, hand it to you and tell you what he saw on the page.  Man what a gift.  But he could not play Chess.

What he did was memorize moves and no matter what you did to counter what he had done, he would continue to play out the moves he memorized right up to and including, CHECK MATE!  Game to you.  He just never cottoned on to the idea that unless you were playing the losing side in a book he was playing from, he didn’t stand a chance.

Ok so now you guys might think what jerk. He’s dumb.  Maybe.  But there were things he could work out that some others couldn’t.  True, Moose wasn’t a rocket scientist.  He could probably read a science book and memorize it without understanding a word.  I guess my long winded point is, there is something in one part of our brain that allows some to do things that others either find impossible or at least extremely difficult. 

OK .. enough of this.  With all that said:  Drew, I have this question.....?

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 12/01/2008 at 09:52 AM   
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   Sunday - November 30, 2008

SANDI TOKSVIG IS ANOTHER FAT CLUMSY CLOWN and SPOONS MADE ROSIE FAT.

I should have posted this a couple of days ago.  Could have fit right in with Drew’s Rosie post.
At the moment I’m angry with another fat cow on this side of the Atlantic (Sandi Toksvig) who fancies herself a wit.  Yeah,yeah, the old Americans are dumb thing.
She mentions a few loony tunes but makes it look as though the USA is made up of only that fringe.

To be expected of course as she’s a somewhat liberal Bush bashing Obama loving fat twit.  Gee I’m in a good mood.
Well, I was till I read her weekly column.  Seems like I always just have to see what folks are up to with regard to us and then regret the curiosity.
Must be a gift I have.

Ok so here a real laugh. 

Posted by peiper     on 11/30/2008 at 10:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Guns and Gun Control • Humor •  
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