Nice toys

Had a good day getting things done around the house and time with the family. Including finding a huge chunk of old trash to throw away or donate... all in all quite productive. Then followed by a nice meal and quiet time with my wife - after this past few weeks we both needed it.

Now we're sitting together watching King Arthur on the big screen plasma TV - still amazes me the difference the HDTV makes in picture, sound and all of that... love my technology toys!

Hope your evening is pleasant as well.

Pursuits

For the second time recently our agency was involved in a pursuit which ended with the offenders dead. Robbery suspects, who were observed committing another, struck one police vehicle & were armed at the time. Can't give more details than that, but that is plenty I would think.

So - debate for all out there - do we continue to allow police pursuits where people die?

Side one would say you already have an idea who these guys are, and find them later - don't risk the lives.

Side two says they have shown they are a danger to society and need to be captured, and they made their own choices.

Discuss, with supporting facts/thoughts...

Legal madness

Two parts of this story have me annoyed & wondering:

#1 - The judge wanted to delay sentencing because he was unsure of the rational of the sentencing guidelines??? Ummm is this his first day in the system or something?

More importantly, #2 - This is the guys SECOND child porn conviction? And he only got 4 years on the first? Something wrong with this.

Sorry, too much research out there shows that pedophiles and the like don't get reformed, it's just an ongoing cycle - so why are we leaving these folks free to offend again & harm other kids?

Market system

OK, when piracy has reached the point of having its own stock exchange, it is seriously time to start reconsidering how the international community is dealing with it...

What's next, will the Mexican kidnapping industry start trading folks like commodities?

Disasters

The rest of the family is out for the afternoon, so I'm catching up on some paperwork plus a few other things while I have the house to myself.

It's a good thing I'm better as a bomb tech than I am wrapping presents. The results are terrifying, even to myself - what is it about putting a roll of wrapping paper in my hands which removes every bit of competence and ability from my hands?

For the bibliophiles out there

A collection of customer encounters from a used & rare bookshop:

We are doomed! These are actual conversations with people, who in theory, should know better. Keep in mind, these people drive cars, vote and might even have jobs.

(phone call)

Do you buy books?

Yes. What do you have?

Reading books.

Reading books?

Yea. Books you read.

Ok. But I am not sure what it is you have.

I just said. Reading books. Do you buy them?

No. Thanks for calling.

(phone call)

I found a book "---" on your web site. It was written by my Uncle. I was wondering why it is so expensive? ($50)

It was inscribed and signed by him.

Why should I have to pay for his autograph? He's my Uncle, not yours!

(sigh... and no, she didn't buy it)

Click the link for the full list and more laughs...

Early morning

So the littlest one went and woke up at 6am today - she's getting used to a big-girl bed, so now is free roaming & requires that early adult supervision to avoid destroying the house. We snuggled up on the couch and made it through an episode of Firefly before Mommy got up for the day.

Then after my wife got dressed my brilliant son looks at her and said "Hey, that's the spaceship on Firefly!" as he looked at her shirt.

Guess it's going to be another shiny day!

Smiles

Tail end of a long, crappy day (as in, folks are lucky I couldn't say "I don't care if we're in the middle of space, get off my gorram starship RIGHT NOW")...

Then I walk in a home with two laughing children thrilled daddy made it back before bedtime, and a wife who made homemade cookies for all of us.

Can't end the day much better than that.

Funny/truthful email of the day

Source unknown but listed as a Vegas newspaper:

To the editor:

I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night.

Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family?

I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests."
Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too.

How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests didn't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.)

How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?

Brian K. Shoemake

Shiny

I'm cool because I got my wife two nifty Serenity shirts today, along with a "Come to the dark side, we have chocolate" companion piece.

She's cooler because they're shirts she asked for, I didn't pick them out for her :D

It's fun living in a Browncoat house.