Orwell Was Right on the Money…

So flying back last week I had to fly back commercial.  I flew out of Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) Terminal B, while waiting for boarding my coworkers and I grabbed lunch.  While eating one of them said, “TMM, look up to your right.”  I looked up and I sat there in astonishment and damn near devolved into a full verbal rant on the spot.  For you see, what did my wondering eyes see?  This pile of propaganda.

IMAG0443

(fine print: In Madrid, smarter surveillance helped cut response times by 25%.)

And there was more than just that, around the entire terminal were these ads all relating to the same big brother type mentality.  What I find most ironic though was the company who the ads were for:

IMAG0444

That’s right folks, the company responsible for that propaganda campaign was none other than IBM.  Why did I find it ironic that it was from IBM, well from their historical role with Germany during World War II.

That first picture though and it’s blatant propaganda is almost down right unbelievable.  Then I remembered that I was standing in an airport with A Security Theater at the front and everyone believes that they are actually accomplishing something.  Never mind that anyone with half a brain who can actually red team the issue knows that A Security Theater ultimately doesn’t really do anything to stop terrorism in the end.  It just makes us all live as slaves.

Nothing says free like being left to cower in front of someone who wants you dead and hoping that someone will show up and save you. I have a better idea, sling lead at over 800 fps and give the criminal a reason to choose a different profession.

Quote of the Day – Anonymous (11/29/2012)

Reverse Reactive Power is a quantity defined by the IEEE and we know it is real and exists because the lights are on.

Anonymous – Discussion during a meeting


[We spent more time arguing about this subject than should have been allowed, the instigator just wouldn’t let it go.  He couldn’t understand the subject at hand and felt that the usage of the words were wrong.  Never mind every last power engineer in the room was saying it was perfectly descriptive of exactly what was required for the specification.

For an idea of how bad it was, I was waiting for the meeting to get physical as the instigator became very aggressive about his issue and ignoring the responses because he didn’t understand it.  The person running the meeting was becoming notably upset at the unnecessary delay to moving forward and the fact he was ignoring the responses.

The person couldn’t grasp the concept of directionality coupled with reactive power.  To him it was imaginary it didn’t exist, current either leads or lags.  He couldn’t understand that while it was imaginary in a mathematical sense, it was real, and it results in things such as heat and other issues.  What really got him though was the idea that power has a direction.

Finally one person restated, yes I said restated, that the IEEE has defined this term explicitly and finally justified his point at the end by noting that the fact lights over our heads were working and so obviously Reverse Reactive Power does exist.

It was about this time I was doing everything I could to suppress laughter.

There are days I both love and hate this job.  I will say I’m saving that quote and will paraphrase it when I find a situation like this again.

We spent lunch working on educating him on all the details of what it was, how it was measured, and why there was a direction involved.  He was a bit better but was still a little confused.  I will say it was probably a good thing I was my father’s son instead of my father in this little incident.  I will say I heard his words in the back of my head, the phrase “You obviously have the intelligence of a banana slug” flashed through my brain in my father’s voice.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s smart and sharp, but he knows jack about power, power systems, and what goes into protecting them.  Truly smart men recognize what they may not know and listen instead of insisting everyone else is wrong.  Especially when the others can mathematically show and prove their point.* -B]

*Geek out moment, Reactive Power is explicitly a mathematical quantity.  It is the complex or imaginary portion of Apparent Power.  Forward and reverse is applied merely to indicate the direction of power flow relative to a location.  For example which direction is power flowing in a power line?  To people in this industry directionality is what makes the world turn.  You need to know if the fault is in front or behind your monitoring equipment.  Well if you’re looking at the output of a generator and you see power flowing into the generator (reverse), that’s not a good thing and very rarely intentional.  Something is going to get very warm if you don’t do something soon.

Another Mini Meet…

Last night I met A Girl and TSM.  We had organized a plan which almost appeared to fall apart, but alas luck won out.  My meeting ended on time and the TSM finally got out of work as well.

The drove up and we went out to dinner and since I was on the opposite coast I had some Atlantic Salmon.

A Girl and TSM had Trout.  I didn’t get any pics of that though.  We had a nice long dinner, as in we finally split up after about 3 hours of chatting about kids, life, adventures, and other general shenanigans.

Eventually I got dessert, took me trying 3 choices, but eventually that had something.  I also convinced A Girl to add another thing to her EDC tools, a Crème brûlée torch.

It was great fun and then as an added bonus I got back to the hotel just in time to catch Pale Rider in time for my favorite line, “Nothing like a good piece of hickory.”

Time to relax and get ready for another day of fun tomorrow.  Though the real fun will be Thursday with the TSA.

Blogging Might Be Irratic

You see I had to hop on one of these yesterday morning.

Thankfully the travel time was only 3.5 hours to our wonderful destination.  Yes, we were hauling ass and here’s the proof.

It is nice to not have to waste a whole day traveling, too bad the return trip isn’t going to be as nice.  Here’s the gallery of pictures from the flight, including the sunset at our destination as we arrived.

Luckily there’s some fellow bloggers in the area, one of whom I got to share company with last night for dinner.  Tonight I’m going to try and get together with another, assuming the meeting doesn’t run long.

Annoyingly the hotel I’m at doesn’t provide free Wi-Fi and wants a chunk of change for a mere 2 Mbits.  I have a better idea, “Smart Phone activate!”  Oh, is that a Wi-Fi access point my computer now sees.  I don’t need the fastest stuff in the world, but I would like decent reliable internet if I’m occupying your establishment.

I’ll blog when I can and I’m trying to get stuff scheduled up, but at the same time I’m going to be busy.  Check the people over on the side bar if you need a fix and I’m not providing.

Killing Time and Taking a Break…

Well Thanksgiving is here.  I’m having dinner with some family friends Thursday night and have today through Sunday off.  I will probably write a few posts here and there but honestly me thinks I’m going to take some me time.

It’s been a long time since I got a game at release time.

I picked up Hitman Absolution on steam at 10% off with all the previous games as well.  Since I missed Blood Money I figured it was a good deal at under 50 bucks with tax.  So I’m going to spend this weekend killing virtual people in creative ways.

I need to let my mind unwind since I have a week of fun starting Monday.

I’m also in the process of setting up a new Tablet.  I feel like I’m in Star Trek.

Quote of the Day – Ambulance Driver (11/20/2012)

But as a son, no matter how far you have ventured into manhood yourself, you are never prepared to tell your father goodbye. I know this for a fact.

Ambulance DriverBob Scruggs
September 10th, 2012


[QFMFT.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  I remember taking a couple midterms just after finding out about it.

It wasn’t really surprising to either my mom or I, cancer’s a bitch like that you know.  A friend of mine actually came up to the UW the day before to give me a ride home so I could say goodbye since it was obviously coming.  I said my goodbye’s though a part of me wishes I hadn’t because that is the image burned into my head, not as I saw him when I left back to UW that Sunday night.  That Sunday night was when he said his final goodbye to me.

I still wasn’t ready for it though.  Nothing ever really makes you ready for it.  I remember the Calculus test I took shortly after my mom told me over the phone.  I don’t however remember what I got on it.  I do remember the TA and professor looking at me like I was nuts.  My dad would have kicked my ass for using it as an excuse and I knew it.

Luckily the next week was Thanksgiving break, my roommate and I played a couple of rounds of Command and Conquer Generals as well as Ghost Recon trying to keep my mind off of it.

Come to think of it, I think that’s also when we recreated part of the battle of Gettysburg on the ceiling of our dorm room.

You thought I was kidding didn’t you?  Sadly I can’t find the rest of the pictures I took.

The wife was in the Cougar marching band and Apple Cup was at UW that year.  I drove back up early Saturday morning and worked on homework and played games.

I don’t remember who won, I do remember walking back across campus to the dorm with her after the game and someone said something derogatory about her, it was then I knew I was in the second stage of grief.  While wearing a UW sweatshirt I replied, “Said like a true Hucking Fusky” and just  squared my shoulders back while looking at him.  They peeled off as some of his friends urged him and we continue across campus uninterrupted.

There’s no way I would have swung first, but I kind of wanted someone to try it.  I wanted someone to fill in for the nameless unseen mass that had upended my life.  I wanted something to direct my anger and rage at.

I never really denied it, for the most part I just accepted it.  Just because I accepted it doesn’t mean I was happy about it.

While you can prepare for death as much as you would like, no matter what it just never seems to be enough.  Death however is a fact of life and boy does it suck. -B]

For Tam…

So I’ve been a little bit quiet, not because I don’t care, but because I really hate cancer.  Doubly so this time of year…

For those who don’t know because they’re not wrapped up in the gun blog world.  Tam is knows as the mistress of snark.  She is extremely witty, wonderfully smart, and just a down right awesome person from everyone I’ve ever talked to that’s met her.  If you’re wondering how witty she is, some bloggers have a ban on quoting her because otherwise no one else would ever get quoted.

Well it ends up that my online friend has a touch of Basal Cell Carcinoma.  As she puts it:

… if you have to get cancer, is probably the way to get it. Hell, it’s barely even cancer; it’s more like cancer’s farm team.

Never the less cancer is still down right scary no matter the form.  It’s even scarier though when you’re doing it without insurance since you’re a self employed writer.  Enter the gun blog-o-sphere which has rendered Tam speechless which is honestly saying a lot.

Why is she speechless, bloggers are raffling stuff off in an effort to raise money for her.  Not only are we sending her funds, but we’re incentivizing others to give to her as well.  I’m going to focus on the concentrated raffles here:

So check out this page from Jay G, which lists off a bunch of the different raffles as it first started.  Since then it’s been concentrated to make life easier. 

If you look on the list of packages to win, you will notice a hat being offered from the wife.  We will custom embroider a design or logo and personalize the hat for the winner.  If they are unsure of a logo, the following will be used in it’s stead:

 

MolonLabeSnake-Gun

The location for the writing will probably shift as this was being laid out for a polo, but you get the idea.  So if you haven’t gone to help Tam, please do.  There are plenty of prizes to choose from, but the best prize is helping Tam because honestly she’s that awesome.

Truth as Drawn by Gabe and Tycho

That right there is a heaping dose of truth.  My inbox has been full of “Black November” deals.  There are a few things I would like to get, one of which I would like to order enough in advance so I have it prior to a business trip just after Thanksgiving.

But I digress.  The rule growing up was Christmas was a forbidden item until the day after Thanksgiving.  After that we could put up decorations and the like.  For the most part when I was real little that was even avoided.  One we had a live tree so the longer it was in the house the more likely it was to combust.  The other reason was to provide a demarcation line between my birthday and Christmas.

Overall the obsession with sales the day after Thanksgiving has always bugged the hell out of me.  Even more than that with it now encroaching on Thanksgiving dinner itself it just seems all sorts of wrong.

One, I don’t like masses of people, especially if something spooks them its a great way to end up in a bad situation.  The other is you know what I really would rather do that try to buy the newest Tickle Me Elmo?  Sit around with friends and family, chat, drink, and enjoy each other’s company.  If you’re so obsessed with buying something that you forget the little things, try living in a house where layoffs usually occurred around Christmas.  It certainly helps you realize what the real priorities are.

Gabe nailed this on the head, people who shop on Thanksgiving are monsters and should not be encouraged.