Saturday, December 16, 2006
I've been collecting nutcrackers since I was six years old or earlier (some seem to have gone missing and we don't know what happened to them), so I have some that are about 21 years old now. And I love my nutcrackers. But every year when we take them out, at least one has an accessory that broke off and needs to be repaired. Well, this year I pulled one out that was about 15 years old and found that his foot had broken off and the base detached from him, which is the worst nutcracker injury we've ever had. So he can no longer stand up. And he needs some major work done to him to get him to stand. This upset me a great deal.
The nutcrackers are a tradition in my family. My mom buys me at least one each year, and as I have gotten older they have gotten more and more interesting. Like, this year she got me the pirate, but when I opened the boxes I realized there was a second pirate that we had forgotten about. They don't look alike but they make a wonderful pair. And there are the two really tacky ones, the king and queen, who have to be next to each other every year. The queen is a year older than the king, the king being the next year's addition and a perfect match to her colors. But my favorite is the first in a string of kings. We bought him in 1986. He is very, very small and has a little gold cloth crown. He's very simple. But I remember - even though I was only six at the time - picking him out over the rest of the nutcrackers because he was the king of the nutcrackers. And he was always displayed rather prominently, even after the second king came in. My collection has grown to sizes that limit the display options, so he isn't so prominent anymore. But he still stands out over the rest... mainly because he is, by far, the smallest of my collection. But I still like to think he's their ruler. :)
I told my mom that once I get my own place my first major furniture purchase is going to be another curio cabinet. I have one for my dolls, but they need it. Well, some of them do. A few of my dolls are very much collectable, and at least one - Tiny Tear - is sentamentally priceless. She's about 50 years old now. But the second curio cabinet will be for the nutcrackers. Even though they are a Christmas thing I wouldn't mind having them displayed year round. And I think it would prevent further broken limbs in the older nutcrackers. They are noticeably weaker than the newer ones, and some of the newer ones are just massive in size and weight. So they are crushing the older ones in their storage boxes. None of them have their original boxes anymore because of age, so they are all in bubble wrap. But they stay in the garage and are also subjected to the elements in there. A curio cabinet just for them would solve that problem, and would cut off any further heartbreak in the future.
When my parents are gone, those nutcrackers will be a reminder of them. Because most of them still have stories of their purchase stored away in my mind. For most of them, I still remember when they were shiny and new. For others, I know my mom spent a lot of time chosing just the right nutcracker out of the selections offered every year. This year's pirate. Last year's scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. The year before that's Viking King and Pirate. The freaky short, fat one that doesn't really blend in well. The two with people faces instead of nutcracker faces. The kings and the queen. The one with the rabbit fur hat. The duck hunter who lost his rifle to Poochanne while she was teething. The tower watchman. The one from the Nutcracker Suite. The flagman. Father Time. The Santa. The doctor. The little drummer boy who lost his foot this year. And many, many others. Most were picked out by my mom and later lovingly repaired by her, more quickly when I was younger and would cry when one broke. They're priceless. And to me, they are the meaning of Christmas.
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 12/16/2006 12:09:00 AM
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Saturday, November 25, 2006
http://www.asoldierswishlist.org/
Go to the site and adopt a trooper. You can opt to send letters only or to send care packages (you can send letters as well as care packages).
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 11/25/2006 11:58:00 PM
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Saturday, November 18, 2006
I'm now the store weirdo. I am the only person alive, I think - at least out of gun fans - that chose to shoot my Sig instead of a full auto with a suppressor. Every so often the one manager pulls out the full autos after the store closes and lets us go wild (both are sub machineguns, same gun actually, but one has a suppressor and one doesn't). I took part last time because I'd never shot a gun with a suppressor on it and wanted to give it a go. But I turned it down tonight and chose to use the free time to put a few magazines through my Sig instead. The guys thought it was hysterical and the manager even asked why I did this.
I've shot a few full autos now. For me... it was fun, but the wow wore off after the first time I did it. I have the experience, I can tell friends and family what it was like while we're hiding in a bunker from the criminals with guns because our government took the legal ones away and we're sharing stories while the rest of the Constitution crumbles down, too. But I see it like this: shooting a full auto is like riding a roller coaster at Disney World. For the coaster, you wait in line for two hours to take a 30 second ride. With a full auto you spend 5 minutes loading a magazine and then shoot them all out in 5 seconds. Shooting my Sig at least serves a purpose for me. I carry it at work and also outside of work a good deal of the time. If I am ever attacked, being able to handle my Sig well to save my own ass is a must. Because of that reason, I enjoy shooting my Sig every time. And you get to enjoy every shot. Free ammo makes it even better! LOL!
I don't think they see my reasoning as they enjoy shooting the full autos whenever they get the chance. And that's fine. Its fun, I won't lie. But I just lost the taste for it. I've gone out on the range many, many times with full autos, especially these little HK sub machineguns or ones like them. I prefer using the guns customers bring in because at least those are guns I may one day have a chance at owning. A full auto... even if I did get the proper licensing to own one, a "cheap" one costs $10,000. I can't even imagine dishing out $1,000 for a gun, let alone $10,000! Call me cheap.
Speaking of Disney World... I feel like a kid getting ready to go there for the first time in the morning! In a few hours I will be hunting for my rifle, and hopefully I'll be bringing it home. And shortly after getting said rifle, I hope I'll be back at the place of employment with it having some fun on the range during my day off. Most of my co-workers have already requested a chance to shoot it. LOL! So if I have enough ammo tomorrow, I'll be letting people fly with it. I get the first shot, of course.
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 11/18/2006 01:00:00 AM
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Friday, November 03, 2006
These photos were posted at a forum I frequent, and I thought it only right to share. For those who don't know much about guns let me give you a quick lesson so these next few photographs make some sense.
On occasion, while shooting, you may get a round that has no powder, or whatever the case may be. The result is the projectile (read: bullet) may become lodged in the barrel, causing an obstruction. When this happens, if you fire the next round and send a second projectile down the barrel, the result very well may be this:
What you are looking at is a badly split barrel. Injuries can occur from this, obviously, and whether or not the shooter of this one was injured, no one actually said. But the cause is usually a build up of gas.
Now, that was the first photo above. Here are two more looks at this barrel:
Not everyone realizes when they have had a projectile lodge itself in the barrel, so these things do happen. It happened to me once with my Sig, when I first got it, but my slide locked partly open which disabled the gun. I couldn't fire another round.
However, this photo is the reason why this is your "DUH!" moment of the day:
That is a bore sighter. It is placed in the muzzle of the rifle while bore sighting a scope. Some have lasers to help; the one I use just has a grid that you focus the scope on at full power. It is a large piece that is attached to a rod. The rod is slid into the barrel and holds the large piece - which contains the grid - up over the top so it can be seen through the scope. Basically, what this does is it focuses the scope where the barrel is pointing.
As you can see, the above bore sighter - which appears to be a laser instead of the grid like I use, but it is still placed inside the barrel - seems to be badly damaged. The reason?
He shot it. The owner of the rifle forgot to remove the bore sighter before he shot the rifle. It acted in the same way as having an underpowered projectile lodged in the barrel. As you can tell, this is a costly mistake at best, if we say the shooter was uninjured, which we hope he/she was.
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 11/03/2006 11:35:00 PM
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Thursday, November 02, 2006
- I went to do my early voting this afternoon since I had a half day at work. I think I may have inadvertently made a political statement in the process, and I never even thought about it. See, this area I live in has outlawed open carry and they are all very anti-gun around here. Yuppies, they love changing the south and trying to make it the north, and they're sadly doing a good job of it. But when I went to vote I'd just come from work. So in I walked in my gun store uniform with my holster still on, although I'd removed the gun and locked it in my glove box. Needless to say, I got watched very closely and stared at. I stuck my paperwork in the machine that oddly sounded like a shredder, and I turned to the room of people who were working the polls (imagine that, I was the only one voting at the time) and said, "Just so you know, and in case you didn't notice, I am a law abiding citizen and gun owner, and I left my guns in the car for this event, as the law states. I don't appreciate being watched like I'm a terrorist. I'm only a regular person who still believes in the Constitution, as rare as that may be these days."
- Obviously, since the big day is coming, the ads on TV for those running are becoming more and more. I'm sure you've noticed. What pisses me off is the stream of how much this person sucks, so vote for me. Why don't you tell us what you are all about? What are you for? What are you going to do? I don't care who is getting Stanley Cup game tickets. I don't care how insane you think someone is. And I surely don't give two shits about the fact that our current sheriff had an affair with a married woman two years ago. Big story on the news tonight! Apparently Donnie Harrison is getting some nookie, or at least he was two years ago. Had they told me he'd slept with a kid, yeah, now that is a serious problem. Had they told me he was caught on video rolling in the hay with a goat, I may have done a double take. And while I think it is just awful for someone to threaten a person's marriage, it does take two to tango. And either way, it doesn't make a god damn lick of difference about his politics. And I love how they kept saying, "The person who released this info says it isn't politically motivated." Yeah, I'm sure. During early voting and a week before the big voting day, I am sure this completely needed, two year old info about the sheriff's sex life wasn't politically motivated. And I'm sure the holier than thou won't be thinking about it when voting. Because you know, he's the only person in the world to ever have an affair with a married person. Uh huh. Heck, it would make me think he's not as grumpy since he's getting laid, right? Or maybe not, since they said the affair ended two years ago.
- Me watching the news is bad. Another story that got me bristled was a story about Halloween. On Halloween in NC, they have a huge party in Chapel Hill on Franklin St. Thousands of people and ass loads of cops attend this event every year. Well this year someone video taped the cops using "excessive force" on rowdy participants. With all the recent shootings at such events, as well as fights, etc., I am betting the cops were on edge. Now, I attended this boring party a few years ago. It was nothing. It is a massive crowd of people in dumb costumes (or no costumes, most aren't dressed up) that walks from one end of the street to the other and then goes home. Woo. But what I saw while I was there was this: cops lining the streets and the barricades closing the streets to cars. And people randomly walking up to them and assaulting them. I saw at least five cops have some random person walk up to them and belt them right in the face. Apparently this is a yearly event. Most were taken away calmly, no real cops showing "excessive force." And kudos to them. Because if I was on Halloween watch with a shit load of drunk college kids and some asshole walked up to me while I was talking to someone and belted me in the face, you can bet your ass it would be on right then and there. And what I saw in the videos they showed was kids fighting and the cops trying to break it up. One guy got real hostile towards the cop and the cop toppled backwards still holding onto the guy, then he rolled over on him and cuffed him. I didn't see any excessive force. I saw no guns, tasers, batons, nothing like that. It was all bare hands. And even then I didn't see any cops throwing punches or doing anything other than restraining people. The one cop they showed wasn't touching anyone, he was telling them to back off and move along. He wasn't even yelling, for God's sake! This is another one of these things where your only reply to the accusers is "shut the fuck up." I don't give a shit what color your skin is or what color the skin of the cop is. You aren't free to beat the shit out of random people on the road, nor are you free to belt cops for no apparent reason. If you do, be ready to get arrested and take it like a fucking man!
There you go. Goodnight.
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 11/02/2006 11:36:00 PM
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006
It was a good Halloween! We actually had a butt load of kids come through this year, which is very rare indeed. A lot of babies. But hey.
Mom gave out full sized candy again this year. And she bought a bag of chocolate and peanut butter eyeballs for one of the kids. He had eye surgery a week ago, it made him feel a lot better. But mom knew this because this kid was one of Lily's "friends." A lot of the kids in the neighborhood know Lily now because she always goes over to play with them and she's just really excellent with kids. But Miss Lily did not sit out front with my mom and I while we passed out candy. She got really scared of my mom when she put on her pirate costume, and when they went out for a walk all the kids in costumes scared her. So she stayed inside.
Lily wasn't afraid of my costume, oddly. Not sure why. But I guess she saw it and just thought, "Figures."
Well, as usual, I set out this year with an idea for a costume and it ended up as something completely different. I set out to be a wizard and ended up as a witch. Normally I do my entire face in makeup, but it was too hot this year, with the added warmth of my costume. Best wig I've scored yet, though. And the eyelashes stayed on the entire time, too. I wasn't expecting them to, but they did.
Here's some pictures:
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 11/01/2006 01:08:00 AM
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I'll admit, I have this unhealthy love of reading current events books. You know the ones. The books written by some guy or gal telling us all what is wrong with the world and why. Occasionally you'll get a how to fix it. And I'll read these books on any side, liberal, conservative, moderate, insane, whatever.
I am currently reading "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" by Michael Savage. I can't help it, I think he's funny. I catch his radio show every so often when I am driving home from work. I always thought he was very colorful and entertaining. And someone told me his book was pretty good, so I picked it up. It's the only one of his books I have read to date.
But I have a small collection of these books on several sides, some are really good and some are really laughable. Like "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. That man never ceases to amaze me... in a bad way.
However, I've read. I've listened. And I have thought. My thoughts are the same for these guys as for most people whose blogs I've read or who I have come across online.
I was one of these guys a few years back. I had a radio talk show. It was a college radio station and the show came about because the station manager was very politically minded and thought my idea was a good one. So I had this show and I had the most amazing co-host known to man. Mike and I did pretty well once a week on the air for about two hours.
But that is where it stopped. The both of us were outside speakers as well. We didn't stop on the air or in our newspaper articles for the school and for local newspapers. We ran for political office. Obviously we didn't get elected, and it was a starting small kind of deal. But I actually ran for mayor in the town I was living in.
My thought process was this. I can sit in this chair with the microphone bouncing off my nose as I rant on and on. I can write letters and articles for the local papers and the college paper. I can stand outside holding a sign and screaming at the top of my lungs. But what is the best way to get things done that you want done?
Do it yourself! Attack from the inside!
So I ran for office. I am waiting now for my residence requirements to be met so I can run again in my new hometown. Because I figured there were things I wanted done on a local level as well as a national level, and you have to start somewhere, so start small and do it yourself.
And I can't help but have this thought pop into my mind while I read these books. These guys from all sides have these things they bitch and moan about regularly. And some of them actually have plans on how to fix what they think is wrong. But what are they actually doing about it?
A good portion of America isn't reading their books. They aren't listening to their radio shows. Let's face it, when you are in the car or where ever, you listen to radio shows that make you feel good. So most of their listeners already agree with them. Basically, they are preaching to the choir. It's like the customers I deal with who go on endlessly about gun rights and the Constitution. You're standing in a gun store talking to an armed employee! Preaching to the choir! And the same goes for books. Most people don't read these type of books because for 9/10s of America reading the latest romance novel is far more interesting. Of the amount that does read your books (and don't give me best seller stats... how many books did you buy and never read?!), most people tend to buy books written by people that they at least mostly agree with. Very few people do as I do and buy for both sides to see what both sides are whining about now. So your radio shows and books aren't reaching the ears you want them to reach.
The politicians know what you're saying, I am sure. But they don't care, either. They know what I just told you. The only way to get the government to do as you want, or to at least try to get it to a state that you want to see it in, is to follow the age old cliché... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
So why haven't all these guys and gals with all these wonderful ideas and plans run for office (I know a few have, but most do not)? Why is the Terminator in office and not someone with a thought out plan? Is it lack of funds? Lack of motivation? Comfort in where you are right now? That good old can't do attitude? The desire to hear your own voice and not really accomplish anything? Cowardice hiding behind the people's "right to know?"
Give me a break.
Suck Lead did something BAAAAD at 10/13/2006 11:29:00 PM
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