Decades ago (the mid 70’s) my Mother sent a “Humor in Uniform” letter to Readers Digest (we don’t believe they ever published it) relating an incident that involved me.

The year would probably have been 1967 as Dad was in Vietnam for his first of two tours of duty over there.  Mom and I were standing in line at the PX at Fort Huachuca and there was a tall black Sergeant in line in front of us.  I would have been 4 years old at the time (Mom would have been 23).  Of course given the tenor of the times and the fact that Dad was in Vietnam Mom had the evening news on every night so you can imagine what she thought was going to come out of the mouth of her babe when I looked up at that Sergeant and said “I know what you are”.  He looked at her and then down at me and asked “Yeah, what am I”.  My sweet little voice responded “A Soldier”.

As someone that drives and races a Formula Car I can attest to what Jeremy Clarkson of the BBC TV show TopGear is saying in this article.  It is hard to get people to understand how different they are to drive.

A few weeks ago I pulled the F500 out of the garage after getting it running from it’s long hibernation being on display over at F1 Race Factory.  So I push the car into the street.  Climb in, strap the car on (you wear a Formula Car) and fire it up to make sure it’s working by taking it into and around our cul-de-sac.  FYI: the transmission of an F500 is setup so that it will not even engage the clutch until you hit 5000 RPM - just to move the car under it’s own power from point A to point B is like a drag racing hole shot.)

Step on the throttle and watch/listen to the RPM climb up from an idle of about 1,500.  Finally, as the revs hit 5,000 and the car realizes that I’m serious about wanting it to move it launches itself.

Because the street was cold as were the rear tires I immediately had to feed in an armful of steering to keep the car pointed down the street since the rear end is stepping out propelling me down the street sideways.   When the spinning rear wheels finally “start” to get some heat and hook up the speed increases as I straighten the wheel just as I need to turn hard right to navigate into the cul-de-sac.  Of course the front tires have no heat in them so the car just pushes/understeers/plows straight ahead.  I had wanted to go round the cul-de-sac toward the left.  Ended up having to go round toward the right since the front end didn’t bite until I was well past the entry to the cul-de-sac…

Enjoy Clarkson’s article…

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Good sources of info on the Butcher Che Guevara

http://www.trenblindado.com/featuredwritings.html

http://marcmasferrer.typepad.com/uncommon_sense/2006/05/the_ch_guevara_.html

http://cubaarchive.org/home/index.php

A site not to be missed…

http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/

The following table lists the meals I had on this diet and the weight that the scale showed in the AM (before breakfast). 05/26/09 - 05/29/09

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http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blind the foolish.

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Having given it some thought and seeing that I went from bouncing around 175-176 to to quickly bouncing around 179-181 after stopping the diet and maintaining that level.  After almost a two week break from the diet I have decided to go back on and try for a weight below my initial goal of 170 by getting down to 165.  I figure if a bounce up five pounds is to be expected I’ll try for 165 to see if that will then see me start bouncing around the 170-175 range instead.

Collection of most of my Korean version of American Movie posters.  Still have most of these, though I did sell a few on eBay.

An interview at Reason with Greg Gutfeld.

http://reason.tv/video/show/784.html

Lori and I have enjoyed watching his show, “Redeye”, on Fox since it debuted.  Fun, irreverent and the only really non-PC show on TV (despite what that poser Bill Mahar calls his own pathetic show - Gutfeld rips on Mahar at the end of this interview)

While I am certainly a Conservative I have decided Libertarian leanings on most topics but would have a hard time voting for a “Libertarian” candidate as they tend to be as rigid in their doctrine as a typical Democrat or Republican is in their’s.

The weight loss goal had been 175.  I have been bouncing at 175-176 for 10 days.  That’s been consistant.  I’ve been out of Ketosis (other then trace) for the past 4 days.  The Doctor wanted my measurement to be down to 38″.  This morning is was 38.5″.

fin.

To celebrate we went to Yen Ching where I had a bowl of Hot & Sour Soup and Mandarin style Sweet and Sour Pork.  Closest to the type of Tang SuYuk that is made in Korean Chung-Kuk-Sik Tangs that I have been able to find locally.  Brought almost as much home in a to-go box as I had at the resturant.  Watching portion sizes will be key I hope to keeping the weight off.

Time will tell.

The following table lists the meals I had on this diet and the weight that the scale showed in the AM (before breakfast). 05/09/09 - 05/15/09

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Two boats does not a fleet make - but it does make a Squadron!

Added a new boat this past week.  I occasionally check Craigslist for Sailboats and the other day I found another Force5 listed.  This boat was located down in Sierra Vista and I was not about to make a run that far to look at a boat.  Emailed the owner and asked if he ever came up to the Phoenix area.  He replied that he was headed through here the next day on his way to Flagstaff. I told him no promises but I was interested.  The next morning at 6am here was at my door.  Bought the boat and trailer for a reasonable price.

The hull number on this boat is AMF18992M74I.  Which means that this boat was built in September of 1974.

My current boat is just a few months older (July of 1974) with a hull number of AMF15360M74G.  AMF built about 12,000 Force5’s so the serial numbers of these two boats show them to be  3,632 boats apart

The lines for the Cunningham and the Downhaul were missing while the line for the Vang is too short to be useable.  No big deal.  I’ll make a quick trip to West Marine to replace all the lines with new and the boat should be ready for a shakedown cruise out to Tempe Town Lake.

Next up will be to build a top bunk on the trailer to carry one of the boats inverted (deck-to-deck) with some support bars between the boats to cary the masts and booms.  Then I can sell the  bigger powerboat trailer that the Red boat is currently sitting on.

Started this process on the evening on 2/2/09 at a weight of 216 (Dr.’s office scale = 214 at home) with a goal of reaching 175 on my home scale.  This morning I made it!  The drop from 216 to 185 went fast.  That last 10 lbs took forever!.

The measurement around my “waist” (mid point between my sternum and my belly button is 39″ and the Doc would like this to be at 38″.   She said rather than work to a weight goal I need to set it to the measurement goal and then let that be the weight goal to try and maintain.

We’ll see.  Another inch is probably no big deal so I’ll stay on the diet for a another week or until the inch comes off. Which ever comes first.

The following table lists the meals I had on this diet and the weight that the scale showed in the AM (before breakfast). 05/02/09 - 05/08/09

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Not often that someone actually brings a SuperCar out to do an HPDE1 event.  Yesterday (5-2-09) was one of those times.  The husband had done the school in this car - Ferrari F430 (he is now driving an M3 in one of the race groups) and he had his wife take the class with the car too.

I actually like instructing females in the class.  Unlike the guys they don’t tend to allow their egos to get in the way and think they can drive fast.  Rather they work on their technique and as they get comfortable and their confidence incresaes so does their speed.

In the first track session we only got as fast as 55 in the oval and about 80 down the front straight.  In the second session she got her speed up to 80 (while passing another car) in the oval and hit 100 down the front straight.  She had fun and the car was quick and the sound of the exhaust was awesome.

Top Gear evaluates the F430 Coupe and Spyder

The following table lists the meals I had on this diet and the weight that the scale showed in the AM (before breakfast). 04/25/09 - 05/01/09

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