Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards. – The Pragmatics of Patriotism
30 Days of Heinlein – Day 16
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/30-days-of-heinlein-day-16/
Thought for the Day
Teacher always says that whenever someone rings the 300 yard gong, an angel gets her wings!
Capra changed it in the editing room.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/thought-for-the-day-30/
Today’s Earworm
Frosty the Snow Ghoul
Frosty the snow ghoul
Was a slushy, slimy guy
With a mouthful of teeth and a carrot nose
And murder in his eye
Oh Frosty the snow ghoul
Was undead as he could be
And the legends say
He could laugh and slay
Little kids like you and me
Down through the village
With a war axe in his claw
Swinging here and there
All around the square
Feeding children into his maw
Choppety chop chop
Choppety chop chop
Look at Frosty swing
Choppety chop chop
Choppety chop chop
That evil undead thing
There must have been some magic
In that Mosin Nagant I found
For when I tried to cycle the bolt
I was able to load a round
Oh Frosty the snow ghoul
Melted in the fireball
So we collected his axe
And we nailed his hat
Up on the city wall.
Frosty the snow ghoul
Is a curse upon the land
So say your prayers
And always walk in pairs
For his return may be at hand!
Posted by daddybear71 on December 19, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/19/todays-earworm-77/
Thought for the Day
Christmas Tree – American colloquial roughly equating to “cat emetic”
Posted by daddybear71 on December 18, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/18/thought-for-the-day-31/
Quote of the Day
When are the nanny staters going to learn that there’s a wide swath of the American public who are going to do exactly the opposite of what you tell them, because Americans don’t like to be bossed around? The fastest way to encourage Americans to do something is to ban it. The fastest way to get them to stop doing something is to mandate it. We just don’t like being told what to do.
Tam, “Eat Your Spinach“
Both the nanny-staters and daddy-staters think it’s their electoral mandate to keep us from making bad decisions. If it’s not “drive a car that doesn’t use much fuel” it’s “you shouldn’t be drinking or smoking that”. We do best when we are left to make our own decisions and are left to deal with our own consequences.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 18, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/18/quote-of-the-day-32/
30 Days of Heinlein – Day 15
You live and learn. Or you don’t live long. — Time Enough For Love
My Take –
We all make mistakes, and the ones we make collectively are going to be legendary as history and myth. The survivors are the ones that are honest about those mistakes, figure out what they did, and learn to not commit them again. Everyone else? Well, they tend to be grease spots on the walls of the cave.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 18, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/18/30-days-of-heinlein-day-15/
Today in Geek History
On this date in 1987, Larry Wall released Perl to a newsgroup. For you non-geeks, this is the equivelant of celebrating the day that someone first demonstrated super glue to the masses.
Perl is one of my favorites. Honestly, I learned to script in Perl before I learned shell scripting in sh or ksh. My first tech job in the Army was big on Perl, so I learned Perl as I was learning to be a SysAd.
Perl is a bit of a jack of all trades scripting language, being good at a lot of things, but not as good at most of them as languages that are specialized. For example, a lot of Internet code used to be written in Perl, but most now is written in PHP or some other language that is specific to the web.
I get the feeling that I’ll still be using Perl in one form or another for a long time.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 18, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/18/today-in-geek-history/
Feline Cage Match
I have to quit leaving the TV running when I’m not in the room. Koshka apparently has been watching Mixed Martial Arts fighting while I’m not home.
I opened a can of tuna to make a sandwich for lunch. I immediately had all three cats wanting some. No surprise there. They are cats, after all.
After emptying the can, I put it down so they could have a treat. Annja backed down with just a look and a huff from Koshka. Timmy attempted to use his greater girth to force Koshka to the side. Koshka then kicked him in the head with her back claws, grabbed his head in her front paws, and held him by the throat with her teeth until he stopped struggling. No amount of work on my part to get her to let go of his neck would work unless I applied so much force that she would have ripped out his throat.
Once Timmy stopped resisting, Koshka let him go, at which point he ran to the basement and has not been seen since. Koshka then finished licking the tuna can clean, meowed at me over possession of the sandwich, and has been having a good afternoon of lounging in sun beams.
I think I just saw Timmy tap out when Koshka choked him over the water and fish particles left in a tuna can. Yes, she’s the Siamese, she’s a tad psychotic, and yes, she’s the dominant feline in the house. I don’t think Timmy is going to need a reminder of that for a very long time.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 17, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/17/feline-cage-match/
30 Days of Heinlein – Day 14
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once. — Time Enough For Love
My Take –
We spend billions of dollars every year on military defense in this country, and Lord knows how much more for law enforcement. Add to that the millions spent by private citizens on personal defense. Why do we do it? I think that it’s because we know that a weakly defended country, population, or person invites attack and repression. We can hope that someday the lion lays down with the lamb and I look forward to beating swords into plowshares as much as anyone, but until that day comes, I’ll trust John Moses Browning and George Patton more than I will those that believe that disarming and thinking good thoughts will keep politicians honest and barbarians out of civilization.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 17, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/17/30-days-of-heinlein-day-14/
What I’m Drinking Tonight
It’s kind of chilly and damp here in IndiUcky tonight, so I made myself a nice drink to warm the bones.
Ingredients:
3 cups apple cider
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon or one cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon caramel sauce or two Kraft caramels
Bourbon or cinnamon schnapps
In a small saucepan, heat the cider, cinnamon, and caramel until it just boils. Pour bourbon or schnapps to taste into a large coffee cup or cappuccino mug. Fill mug with hot cider. Enjoy.
Here’s another one:
3 cups milk (real milk. Soybeans, coconuts, and almonds don’t have nipples)
Hot cocoa mix
Chocolate sauce or syrup
Peppermint Schnapps
Heat the milk until it almost boils. Mix in the hot cocoa mix. Mix in chocolate sauce and schnapps to taste. There is a balance point where the taste of the chocolate mixes in really well with the peppermint, but that point varies from person to person.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 16, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/12/16/what-im-drinking-tonight/
DaddyBear
