I know this is wrong

To be blogging while in the mountains, but I’ve got three bars and I just have to let you know that we’re pretty sure a mountain lion was trying to sneak up behind us while we were sitting at the campfire just now. At least, it was some sort of large critter with a white face and forward facing eyes… so between me and my friend else we’ve got three guns, an axe, and a big D-cell mag light… but we were in tents…

Photodump for yesterday: Grand Mesa

We had real good timing with this, last weekend was “Color Sunday,” where everyone goes up on top of the Grand Mesa to look at the changing colors. Being just a few days behind was probably even better.

The top of the Mesa is above 10,000 feet; it was kinda freaking out my Montana friend that we were higher than the tallest peaks in Glacier NP but didn’t feel like we were on top of a mountain (until you get to the edge and look down).

Today we’re planning on hitting up the local museum in the morning and then hitting the road down to Ouray to go camping for a couple nights. So, just so I don’t wind up like that moron from North Carolina who followed Aaron Ralston’s lead, we’re going to Ouray, and if you don’t hear back from from me by, say, Monday, then it’s time to start the search parties.

Photodump for yesterday: Colorado National Monument

Ute Canyon

The Coke Ovens

Kissing Couple

Independence Monument

Pretty neat place, a big hit with my Montana friend. My pass will work for a week so we may go back and hike some of the canyons.

Math–no longer absolute

If you ever thought that, perhaps, 2+2 doesn’t equal “4,” but actually equals “the social injustice of poor inner-city students who would excel if only they had someone who would stop trying to teach them math but who would be supportive and believe in them,” then Prof. Mondo brings news of an exciting new development in math education!  Really, explore that link, and then tell me what planet we’re on now, where this is even an issue.  I shared it with a friend of mine, the one I play minecraft with and who built his own 3-D printer, and who I really think is the smartest person I know, and he said:

“My brain hurts now. Someone is using logic that I can’t even parse because they’re assuming to be false what I had taken to be axiomatic. I can’t even figure out where they’re wrong because the totality is so contradictory.

No, wait. Yes I can.

IT’S MATH. IT’S RIGHT OR WRONG. NONE OF THIS SUBJECTIVE CRAP.”

Can I get an amen?

Oh, look

A moron was impressed by another moron and went and impersonated him, nearly down to the last detail, only missing what limb he broke.

“I was so impressed with Aaron Ralston’s story, the way he went into the desert and didn’t tell anyone and nearly died. I’m going to do the same thing.”

I would say that he could have gone one step further and amputated something important, but it appears he already amputated his brain prior to the hike.

My faith in humanity just died a little bit more.

I’m Back and I’m Going Again

Had a pretty good time in Denver over the weekend, despite it being Denver.  The traffic was atrocious and there were “medical” marijuana stores on every block, there were jillions of people everywhere, and I still don’t understand the appeal.  However, my friends and I, being the wild and crazy guys that we are, visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Downtown Aquarium (I hope to get a few of my pictures up eventually), saw Captain America at the $2 theater, and watched half a season of Futurama.  What a birthday for my friend! 

But now I’ve got another friend coming down from Montana today, so I’ve got to get a good day of work in before I go and goof off for another week.  We’re hoping to get a few good hikes in and maybe a few days of camping.  Posting may be light, but then again, it may not.  We’ll see what happens.

Three Years Ago

Hey dad. I’m really glad you were mine. Looks like you got out of here in the nick of time.

See you again someday…

Into the belly of the beast

Today is my friend’s birthday, so me and my friend the history major are going to go and visit him over the weekend.  The problem:  he lives in Denver, so that is where we must go.  A more wretched hive of scum and villainy has not been seen this far west until you hit Sunny CA, or this far east until Chicago. Seriously, it’s the only place in CO with any semblance of a traditional gun ban.

Wish me luck. (And to keep up with the Star Wars references) “You’re gonna need it.”

Oh, and they have already had to close I-70 a bit because of accidents caused by ice (with which, I remind you, I have a proven history), so wish me luck there, as well.

Quote of the Insult

What with all the gunbloggers contracting out and selling their services in the artistic spectrum, I wonder if there is a demand for colorful, yet [relatively] clean insults?  Because I’m pretty sure Borepatch could make a living with quality like this:

Progressives are a bunch of thieving, hypocritical  bastards that couldn’t tell their asses from a hole in the ground because they’re so blinded by their Moloch ideology that they will prostitute their body and soul for a cheap tumble in the sack with any old pretty Progressive face, as long as he flatters their sense of Moral Righteousness™.

They’re so slutty and easy.

I like a good insult, where your opponent, in all likelihood, has to look up what you are referring to.

And while I’m at it, you really ought to read what it is that caused all this ranting. Chilling stuff.  Evil exists, and when it is state sponsored… well, do you know where your line is drawn?

Another Air Show Disaster

The pilot at low level had no control over his aircraft. It narrowly missed the crowd
gathered for the air show and slammed into four buildings. One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside those buildings.

The following photo of the accident in progress may be something that those of the weak of heart look away for:

(Oh the humanity!)

(From an email I got.  I’m not above stealing those things, you know. )

Speaking of awesomesauce…

Sriracha on cole slaw. Thank me later.

What 5 gallons of tomatoes looks like when condensed down into awesomesauce

My uncle has what is known in “The Biz” as a “metric crap ton” of tomato plants (maybe a quarter acre or so), and he recently “gifted” us (or more like “assaulted” us) with a five gallon bucket of tomatoes. Does he know that we have our own garden? Yes. Does he care that we have our own garden? No.

But, as the old saying goes, when life gives you a surplus of tomatoes, you cook ‘em down into condensed awesomesauce!

That’s 5 jars of homemade ketchup, or catsup, I suppose (‘sup, cat?) and 5 jars of homemade barbeque sauce. All canned up proper and ready to sustain us in case the zombie uprising happens this winter!

Awwwwww yeahhhhhhh!

Stealing from work

Well, OK, “stealing” is probably a little harsh. What I’m actually doing is dumpster diving from work.

This is what I found:

No idea if it works or not; I’d guess not as it was out in the rain and such. But it ought to have all sorts of gears and motors and such on the inside, and be fun to take apart…

Another Mantis

This one was inside, and I have no idea how it got there. I put it out on the trumpet vine I’m trying to start:

Hopefully it will make it out to the garden somewhere and eat lots of bad bugs.