Fail of the day

What can I say but “I know the feeling:”

see more pwn and owned pictures

The bailout: How did your guy vote?

Whatever your opinion on the bailout is, remember that y’all can vote your rep out if you’re unhappy.

Here’s the list to see how your rep voted.

Mine voted against it and, come November, I’ll be voting against him.

Finding my Muse again

Hi. I’m Justin and I can’t find my Muse.

Ever since I’ve gotten back from the Ike evacuation, I’ve been struggling a bit trying to figure out what to blog about.

Sure there’s the recovery from Ike I could do, but those get kind of boring and depressing, so I try to avoid it.

I could always blog about my life, but there’s one problem with that. To blog about your life you must first have a life worth blogging about.

There’s always the big topic of the day, the economic crisis, to blog about. But as I said in the comments of a post K T Cat did on it:

I'd love to have an intelligent opinion on the deal. However, a semester of economics in high school isn't really enough information to be able to assess something like this with any real know-how whatsoever.

At least I realize that, as I’m sure many people don’t.

I could do a post about the new WIndows Live Writer beta, and I probably will eventually. But I’d like to get more time with it first.

I guess that just leaves perusing the news until something strikes me as blog-worthy.

That’ll work.

Thanks again to K T Cat and Dean from Beers with Demo for guest-blogging while I was away. The help was much appreciated. Y’all be sure to let me know if I can ever help y’all out in the same way.

Departures the day of my arrival

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

142,613 People

Created by OnePlusYou - Online Dating Service

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From the nosebleeds

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

A shot from the nosebleed seats at Minute Maid Park from a game in 2006 that my ex-girlfriend's mom invited me to. I forget why she invited me, but who was I to turn down going to a game?

It's the same game where I got a shot of my ex on a humongous boot.

Cheezburger of the Day

Oh noes! We needs moar than ADT? Don't tell me we need a ... dog!

more animals

Getting started with getting things back to normal

Last night my cousin and myself got started on fixing some of the Ike damage by setting new posts for a section of the backyard fence that was built after Rita.

This is what the fence looked like when we got home:

As bad as it may look, it’s really not taking much to fix. We’ve set five posts and tomorrow we’ll put up new 2x4’s for framing and putting the pickets back up.

5 posts, 3 sacks of concrete, and 10 2x4’s. About $100 worth of materials, since it looks like all the pickets are good enough to save.

Sometime in the next few days I’ll upload some pictures to the photo gallery.

Technorati Tags: Ike

Ike Video Roundup

Being back in town now and having internet, I've had time to look at YouTube and found a few videos worth sharing.

Ike 1, Geraldo 0:

Fox News

Taking a stroll along the seawall...

KHOU

Ike tries to blow one reporter away:

The Weather Channel

And in my own hometown, a "pretty wild streak:"

The Weather Channel

Watching these yesterday brought a smile to my face.

Technorati Tags: Ike,video

Random thoughts about Ike and anything else I decide to rant about

Howdy y'all.

That's right, folks, I'm home!

On to the random thoughts:

• First, let me take the time to thank K T Cat and Dean for
• As much as I love Fort Worth, damn it feels good to be home, even without A/C
• The MLB's ad in the Chronicle is total bullshit. Let me take this time to pass on a little message to Bud Selig: FUCK YOU!
• The only thing that's missing from making being home totally 1000% awesome is not having A/C. I sure hope the tree guys get here soon.
• Tomorrow I'll be working with my cousin Wes to fix our fence. Wes built our fence after Rita and then hired me to help him building them. It'll be fun to work with him again.
• I might be getting a job helping out with the recovery soon. Not only is it good money, but it's helping the area get back on it's feet.
• After not sitting at it for a week and a half, my own computer feels foreign to me. I swear.
• Not having A/C sucks. I'd probably vote for Obama if he sent someone to take care of the tree leaning on the house tomorrow.
• Fort Worth to Beaumont's a long drive with the dogs... probably took about 7 1/2 hours since we hit a few backups on the way home.
• Massey's is awesome. If you're ever in Fort Worth, go there and have a chicken fried steak. Best I've ever had I think.

That's all I can think of for now y'all.

I'll leave K T and Dean here to guest-blog for a while while I get back in the groove of things and all that.

LOLdog of the day

Yay for throwaway posts! A bout of random thoughts coming later.

see more puppies

The Fightin' Five Year Olds!

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

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Heading home on Monday

(posted via email)

The city just lifted the boil water notice, the last thing we were
waiting on before we went home.

We don't have air conditioning because a tree leaning against the
house crimped the freon line from the compressor, but it should be
nice enough outside that we'll manage with fans.

The tree doesn't appear to have done any major damage so that's good.

Monday can't come soon enough,
Justin

Switching Channels

I do a semi-regular feature on Friday’s over at my place called Radio KBwD. Its an opportunity at the end of the work week to just relax and to introduce what I feel is some great music. . The tie-in here was too difficult (obvious?) to resist. The song you are about to hear is also the title track of the very first album I owned (tape cassette - yes, I’m dating myself). For my money, the man stands only behind Jimi Hendrix in terms of greatest rock’n’roll guitar players… and they’re standing very close to each other. I walked around in a daze for a day or so after finding out he had died in a plane crash in Wisconsin. He left us way too early and he still had so much great music to make. We will always have, though, what he left behind. . Ladies and Gentlemen, from Austin Texas…. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble performing “Texas Flood”.

Yarrr! 'Tis Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Avast there, me hearties, tis I, K T Cat, boarding Justin's blog to give him another guest post. Yarrrr! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so ye need to pull into port over at the TLAP site and learn how to navigate in these waters. And be sure tonight to raise a mug of grog to the greatest swashbuckling buccaneer that ever swashed a buckle, Errol Flynn.

Yarrrrr!

Firing a shot

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

A Texas Wildcatters player fires a shot during an intrasquad scrimmage during their 2006 training camp.

I just thought this was an interesting shot, seeing the bend in the stick and all.

Technorati Tags: hockey,Texas Wildcatters

"Ike" fallout reigns supreme

Last we left the Houston Astros, they were on a 15-1 tear that put them within striking distance of the NL Wild Card lead. . Enter “Ike”. . The first two games of the Astros’ highly anticipated home showdown with the NL Central-leading Cubbies this past weekend were postponed and moved to “neutral” Milwaukee. . If by “neutral”, one means a 90 minute drive up I-94 from Chicago. . In the ensuing games, the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano twirled a no-no on Sunday which was followed-up by Ted Lilly, one-hitting the ‘Stros on Monday in front of very-much partisan Cubby crowds. Yeah, Ted Freaking Lilly. . Needless to say, MLB has done the Astros no favors in piling-on after “Ike” and the Astros now face an uphill battle to remain in playoff contention as they are now 4 games back in the wild card chase with 11 left to play. . But wait, there’s more: The Houston Texans’ schedule is also altered as a result of “Ike” and their game against the Ravens originally scheduled for this past weekend will be played on Nov. 9 because of hurricane-related damage to Houston’s Reliant Stadium. . When things like this happen in real life, why is it then that people like Roger Goodell, the NFL commish, think it a good idea to recreate a make-believe hurricane or other natural disaster and schedule regular season NFL games overseas? . Last year’s Giants-Dolphins game in London stunk as surely will this year’s Chargers-Saints game played in the same Wembley Stadium. . Please, Rog… "Ike" has gone away, so to with your ridiculous overseas scheduling idea.

WE CAN HAS LIGHTS!!!

(Posted via email)

Just heard from my cousin that we have electricity.

We're still gonna wait until next week at the earliestnto go back tho.

--
Just a 23-year-old South Park Republican with a blog and a lot of free time.
http://www.jrtblog.com/

The Evacucation

(Posted via email)

Good news on the home front today. After looking at the news I believe
it's safe to assume that we'll be home next week, hopefully as early
as Monday.

Of course, that doesn't mean an end to the guest blogging so soon,
there's still no telling if we'll have internet hooked back up.

In other news, we're ordering take-out tonight from Spring Creek BBQ.
They have some of the most awesome BBQ ever, give them a try sometime.

Trying to enjoy my evacucation,
Justin

--
Just a 23-year-old South Park Republican with a blog and a lot of free time.
http://www.jrtblog.com/

It Won't Be Long Before We're Overrun By Roaches

Hi-ho there, it's K T Cat with another guest post for Justin while he recovers from Ike. Today we're dealing with an insect invasion...

I've got a relatively neat house. I try to keep it clean and bug-free. However, our Maximum Leader, in her desire to hunt, keeps bringing in these:

We don't have mice or rats in the area and the birds are all in the trees and hard to get. The roaches, on the other hand, rush about in an attractive, random way and provide plenty of exciting chase opportunities. Our Maximum Leader catches them outside and then brings them indoors to present them as gifts and continue to play with them. After a while, however, the roaches get boring and she wanders off to the food dish to see if anything new is in it. The roaches, still alive, crawl under the coach to plot their revenge.

Pretty soon we're going to be living in a terrarium.

HERO

Dean here. I found this over at a fellow Theocrats, Ohioan@Heart. I don't want to clutter this up with a lot of meaningless sentiment when the video above says it all but... reasonable people can agree or disagree on whether we should've gone over there in the first place but once we did go, the fact there were people here who did not get onboard and not only did not get onboard but levied false accusations against our troops or played games with or denied funding the war effort altogether was extremely discouraging and disheartening. How some people over here with the way they talked and behaved could look this young man in the eye is inexplicable.

Meaning of my name

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

To check out the meaning of your name, go here.

Here's what they've got for Justin:

Just; upright; righteous. Form of New Testament Biblical name Justus.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Damage report

(Posted via email)

We lost part of the fence in the backyard and a whirlygig blew off the
roof. My cousin didn't see any water damage.

This is GREAT! It could have been so much worse.

As for my return, there's no telling, but i think it'll be at least a
week from now.

I have internet access through my PDA via a neighbor's unsecured wifi
if you must know.

Hopefully I'll be back in town soon. Until then, I'll keep twitter and
utterz updated.

Y'all take care now,
Justin

--
Just a 23-year-old South Park Republican with a blog and a lot of free time.
http://www.jrtblog.com/

You know who else hates Hurricane "Ike"?

… the Houston Astros, that’s who. Howdy, its Dean again. The Astros had won 14 of their last 15 games to vault their way to within 3 games of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card race. “Ike” has forced the Astros to postpone both their games on Friday and Saturday against the Cubbies. They will resume play again on Sunday against the same Cubbies at Minute Maid Park. Now that’s a rally killer. Hey, have you ever sat around with your friends and wondered what a bunch of people living together in an old folk’s home would sound like if they started a band and covered some classic rock anthems? You haven’t? oh. Well, if you did I betcha didn’t think they’d sound like this. H/T: Head Noises

The Latest Seinfeld - Gates Ad

K T Cat here again, filling in for the vacationing fleeing Justin. Here's a quickie I think you'll like. I don't get what the point of it is, but it's funny.

Over the shoulder

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

This week it's another pic from the July 4th celebration at church:

Photo links to the picture in my photo gallery.

Technorati Tags: 4th of July

Hurricane "Ike" Update

Dean here. Justin is enroute to the high ground of Ft. Worth because of “Ike” and has asked me to hold down the fort. I, of course, said yes and am honored that he would give me the keys to the family station wagon. (Oh, you can find more of my stuff over at Beers with Demo (aka the Theocracy’s Monastery of Miscellaneous Musings) where I run a collective of one… with some occasional outside help.) Let’s check on Ike’s progress here. (Weather Underground is a great site which Justin turned me on to). Looks like the models are predicting landfall in Galveston early Saturday morning by which time it will be a Cat 3 Hurricane. Good times. I’ll be back tomorrow with some music. Not mine, thank goodness, but someone else’s.

Never forget

I've got a couple of links to old posts of mine to share with y'all.

The first is to my post about Linda C. Lee for Project 2,996 two years ago.

The second is my post last year about how I found out about the attacks.

This year I'll share another story I just thought of.

I had a substitute teacher later that school year for World Geography. She'd worked for either one of the big banks or brokerage firms (I forget which) and was supposed to be at the World Trade Center for an early-morning meeting on 9/11, but something kept her from going. I think it was that one of her kids was sick, but I don't recall for sure.

After that, she realized she must have been meant for something more, so she quit that job and was getting into teaching.

Maybe I should just move up to Fort Worth...

It's now official. Jefferson County just called for a mandatory evacuation due to Ike.

Needless to say, after having to do this for Gustav just a week and a half ago, I REALLY didn't want to have to go through all this shit again.

We've got some hatches to batten down, but we'll likely be heading out this afternoon or early tomorrow morning.

How it's looking I think we're far enough away from the center to not get whacked too hard (assuming it holds the forecasted course) but I'd rather be wrong in Fort Worth than wrong here.

On an unrelated note, feel free to steal my button.

Also, here are some relevant local links. I know I've posted them before, but I figure it's good to have them here for quick access:

• SciGuy - Written by the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger, I've found it's one of the best places to watch when it comes to the tropics.
• The Beaumont Enterprise - Local newspaper.
• KFDM, KBMT and KBTV - Local TV stations. All have video.

I've got a couple guest-bloggers lined up to try to keep this place fresh. This time I think I'll let them introduce themselves.

Thanks, y'all!

I leave you with this:

Technorati Tags: Ike

Still livin' on the edge

Looking at Ike today, it looks about the same as last night.

Since I last wrote about Ike, the forecast track has shifted up the coast a bit. We're still on the edge of the cone.

As of now, there's no planned evacuation of the area, but that could change if it goes more to the north.

My gut feeling is that we won't need to pack up and head out, since the NHC has a pretty good track record with forecasting storms like Ike.

We should have a better idea what we're looking at tomorrow.

I swear, having to deal with this stuff twice in such a short span has really got me wanting to move away from the coast.

I hate this stuff.

Technorati Tags: Ike

Your very own Sarah Palin?

Yes, that's right! For just $29.95 you can have your very own Sarah Palin action figure, courtesy HeroBuilders.com.

You can choose from three variations. They've got the plain one with her in a pantsuit, one with her dressed up as a school girl, and the "super hero" one.

I think I'll pass...

Technorati Tags: Sarah Palin,action figure

Livin' on the Edge (of the Cone of Uncertainty)

Since yesterday, Ike's forecast track has shifted dramatically to the left.

That's a good thing, and it leaves me cautiously optimistic about Ike. It's looking way better than yesterday, when the forecast had Ike pointed right at Galveston. Now it looks to be aimed more towards Corpus.

However, it's important to remember that Ike's still four days out and not even in the Gulf yet, so it's too early to sound the all clear. I don't expect to be able to do that until Wednesday night or Thursday at the earliest.

I'll be back tomorrow with another update.

Technorati Tags: Ike

Fail of the day

Mmm... tasty?

see more pwn and owned pictures

Technorati Tags: Burger King

A random thought about Ike

According to the Atlantic tropical storm name list for 2008, the next storm that would form would be named Kyle since Josephine already formed and fell apart.

If Kyle should form really fast, would it kick Ike?

Technorati Tags: Ike,Kyle,South Park

"This is like deja vu all over again"

Hoping this works for Ike, too...

Technorati Tags: Ike

My first GraphJam submission

I got some inspiration from a song to send this in to GraphJam:

If you don't get it, listen to this.

So maybe I'm not all that weird after all

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Are 32% Abnormal

You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Technorati Tags: online quiz,wieird

Going for a run

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

I'd had a different one scheduled for this week, but I loved this one so much I had to move it up.

I'm gonna catch you, Taffy!

While we were up in Fort Worth for Gustav, we let the dogs out in the backyard at my aunt's house and stayed out to watch them. I decided to bring out my camera and the long lens (because she has a big backyard) and take some pictures.

The one above is a snapshot I just happened to get lucky on.

For those that haven't seen One Hour Photo, here's a quote that will explain what I mean:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary... the word "snapshot" was first used by an English sportsman by the name of Sir Andrew Hawker. He noted in his diary that almost every bird he shot that day was taken by snapshot... meaning a hurried shot taken without deliberate aim.

I've got tons of good ones I'll be able to run, but I'll hold off on sharing them until next month, when all the ones I have scheduled have run.

Technorati Tags: Beagle,dog,dogblogging

LOLdog of the day

I just couldn't pass up posting this one:

see more puppies

My take on Sarah Palin

I have to admit, I knew a little more about McCain's Veep pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, than most people.

My grandmother had heard a rumor about her being considered on TV somewhere a few months ago and called up my aunt that lives in Alaska.

My aunt said something that really speaks well for Palin and what she's done. It was something to the tune of:

"I didn't vote for her, but I really like what she's done"

Politics being what it is, that's a pretty strong statement. Seeing as her approval ratings hover in the 80-90% range, it's safe to assume that it's a sentiment felt among many Alaskans.

Anyway, after that I did a little research on her and saw the things she'd accomplished in her short time as governor and I was very impressed. It was clear to me that she didn't just talk the talk when it came to change, she walked the walk.

Ever since then, she'd been who I wanted McCain to pick.

So, last week when I heard the news, the first phone call I made was to my grandmother, who was visiting her sister in Fort Worth, to see if she'd heard.

Needless to say we were both very happy with the pick.

And then, while we were evacuated to Fort Worth for Gustav, this story about Palin's oldest daughter being pregnant came out.

I could care less. That kind of thing's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. First off, parenting shouldn't be on the table in the political realm. Secondly, even the best parents have kids that make mistakes and are, using Barack Obama's own words, "punished with a baby."

And then there was Palin's speech last night.

Her speech really impressed me. I suck at critiquing speeches, but I thought she knocked the ball out of the park last night. She was energetic, feisty, and got people fired up. She did what she needed to do.

For a more detailed analysis of her speech, check out my guest blogger K T Cat's breakdown of the speech. It's worth the read.

All in all, I'm really happy with the pick and her performance so far.

(The polaroid image above was made with the Polaroid Picture plugin for Windows Live Writer, which I've decided to give a try.)

Technorati Tags: Sarah Palin

The cake is a lie!

Well, it was last night.

The first choir practice of every month we traditionally have cake to celebrate the birthdays that month.

Well, last night there was no cake.

I'm sure it was because of Gustav, but I couldn't help but think of the phrase last night when I saw there was no cake.

The only thing that kept me from saying the phrase was that I'm sure nobody else in the room would have gotten it.

If you don't get it, click here for an explanation.

Gustav, you pain in the ass you!

Sunday morning, we made the call to pack up.

We had a really good route picked out:

View Larger Map

It's not the way we normally go into Fort Worth, but the normal ways you'd go from here are both blocked off during mandatory evacuations because they cross other evacuation routes.

Anyway, our evacuation was as smooth as it could be. We got to Lufkin in about two hours, the same amount of time that it'd normally take to get up there, and a vast improvement over the 20 hours it took during the Rita evacuation.

The only bad traffic we hit the whole way was in Jacksonville, which was purely a creation of all the stoplights in town.

The dogs handled the trip up really well, sleeping a good chunk of the way.

My time in Fort Worth was short and uneventful. The dogs didn't adjust to being up there too well at first, but they could have been a lot worse. Monday I went to Wal-Mart to get an oil change and then planned to do lunch with Twitter friends @shika and @GadgetVirtuoso but I was forced to cancel the lunch.

Why?

My cousin and grandmother decided they wanted to go home then to beat the traffic and avoid getting caught up in the massive rains expected from Gustav on Tuesday.

I hated missing lunch, but what could I do?

The drive back, which was my normal route, went smoothly.

Man it felt good to be back home.

It turned out to be little more than an inconvenience, which I'm thankful for.

I'd rather not be inconvenienced like that again, but I'll settle for that over coming back to a torn-up town any day.

Technorati Tags: Gustav

Getting back into the groove

Today I'm going to start back to my normal blogging.

I'd like to take this moment to thank K T Cat again for filling in for me while I was gone. providing us with a video from Red State Update and A Sarah Palin fact.

Let me know if you ever need me to help you out a little K T, I'd be honored to fill in for you anytime.

Because, you know, I have other things to do

I'm going to miss Sarah Palin's speech tonight.

I was actually planning to watch it, but I called my church up this morning and found out that we'll be having choir practice tonight.

Guess I'll be watching it on teh interwebs sometime later.

I'll probably blog what I think about it.

A Sarah Palin Fact

Here's my first humble entry into the growing list of Sarah Palin facts, the complete set of which can be found here.

When Sarah Palin cooks snake, it doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes better.

There's no place like home

And I'm back.

Gustav ended up not doing much here, I don't think we even got any rain today.

I got in last night about 9 PM and the winds were about 20 MPH gusting to 30.

I'm going to keep K T Cat on as a guestblogger for a few days while I settle back into normal life down here.

I'm already unpacked and everything, but I am so worn out. Two long drives following two nights of less than adequate sleep is enough to take it out of just about anybody.

I'll have a post about the experience in the next few days, but I'll take this moment to applaud the local officials, TxDOT, the DPS, and everybody else involved in making the evacuation process as smooth as possible.

To give you an idea, Lufkin is about a 110 mile drive away. During Rita, it took us around 20 hours to get there. This time it took about two.

And I'll also applaud the NHC for their forecasting of Gustav. They were very accurate, even five days out.

Enough for now, I'm off to bed.

(Note: I scheduled this post last night, I'm not really going to bed at 6 AM, it's a little before midnight right now)

Technorati Tags: Gustav,evacuation