Tag: Things Having Nothing to do with Anything

Hours of Amusement

Perhaps I’m just easily amused by I find myself uncovering amusement wherever humans gather and interact. A social phenomenon that fascinates me are arguments in social groups over what does and doesn’t belong to that social group. To amuse myself I often find myself transversing Reddit. Reddit is where you can find many lengthy and epic arguments about nothing of importance. Do you want to join in my amusement? If so it’s easy! Go to Reddit and do the following:

Watch atheists argue about what is and isn’t atheism in /r/atheism.

Watch anarchists argue about what is and isn’t anarchism in /r/Anarchism.

Watch libertarians argue about what is and isn’t libertarianism in /r/Libertarian.

Watch metalheads argue about what is and isn’t trve kvlt in /r/Metal.

It fascinates me how much time is spent by self-proclaimed members of the same social group arguing over what their group does or doesn’t stand for. I’m left wondering what percentage of the Internet has been dedicated to arguments over what social groups do or do not stand for. It’s likely a mind boggling large percentage.

The Dying Art of Craftsmanship

The New York Times has an article up that states something I’ve been griping about for a while, the dying art of craftsmanship in the United States:

THE scene inside the Home Depot on Weyman Avenue here would give the old-time American craftsman pause.

In Aisle 34 is precut vinyl flooring, the glue already in place. In Aisle 26 are prefab windows. Stacked near the checkout counters, and as colorful as a Fisher-Price toy, is a not-so-serious-looking power tool: a battery-operated saw-and-drill combo. And if you don’t want to be your own handyman, head to Aisle 23 or Aisle 35, where a help desk will arrange for an installer.

[…]

This isn’t a lament — or not merely a lament — for bygone times. It’s a social and cultural issue, as well as an economic one. The Home Depot approach to craftsmanship — simplify it, dumb it down, hire a contractor — is one signal that mastering tools and working with one’s hands is receding in America as a hobby, as a valued skill, as a cultural influence that shaped thinking and behavior in vast sections of the country.

Among my friends I’m a fairly rare bird, I have a toolbox with a vast selection of tools and the knowledge required to use them. When something of mine breaks my first reaction isn’t to take it in for repair, instead I attempt to repair it myself. I perform all of the maintenance on my mountain bike even though such things are still covered for another six months (my reasoning is that I can learn to do it now and not have to worry about it in the future). When the derailleurs need to be adjusted I adjust them, when a new brake cable needs to be installed I install it, and when the chain needs to be cleaned and oiled I clean and oil it. Most of my friends who have bicycles choose to take their bikes in for every minor repair. The same goes for automobiles. My father is a top-notch mechanic and has been running his own shop for decades. While I’m nowhere near as skilled as my father I am skilled enough to perform most of the required maintenance on my truck, which I do.

Being able to work with your hands is incredibly valuable. The amount of money you can save by fixing your own equipment is well worth the time required to learn the necessary skills in my opinion. Such knowledge also grows rapidly because things you learn to do one task make it easier to learn another (many things become intuitive).

It’s an interesting article that is worth a read through.

The Reds are Invading Minnesota

It appears as though I’ll soon have to run to the wilderness and fight for my survival against the invading Red Army. They’ve already sent their fighter jets in but they’ve had little affect:

A vintage Russian jet was destroyed after crashing Thursday morning in Eden Prairie as it attempted to land for this weekend’s annual air show.

The pilot, who hasn’t been identified, was landing his 1975 MiG-21 at 10 a.m. at Flying Cloud Airport for this weekend’s Wings of the North AirExpo. Officials said the jet’s parachute, which helps slow the aircraft, was deployed, but appeared to collapse and detach, causing the plane to overshoot the runway.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to hear about MiGs crashing in my area… ever.

My Al Qaeda Membership Arrived

Last week my Al Qaeda membership arrive. I never knew it was so easy to be a terrorist but for just a hair over $10.00 I too am officially recognized as a terrorist in the United States of America:

For those who are confused see this post from last week.

Seriously though, for $10.00 this is a pretty bloody good watch. Obviously it’s lacking in features, feels cheap, and isn’t much to look at but it tells the time and date, has a built-in stopwatch, has an alarm, and even has a little LED light so you can read the display in the dark. Unlike the old cheapie Timex Expedition I used to have way back when, the buttons on this cheap Casio are very easy to press. On top of all of that it’s water resistant and the battery will supposedly last for several years. While this isn’t a watch I’ll likely wear often it’s certainly a great example of a cheap watch that serves the intended purpose of telling time without costing anything. I would certainly have no issue taking this watch anywhere I’d feel a high likelihood of losing it existed.

You can tell it was designed in a foregone era because it’s not giga-huge-ginormous. The modern trend in wristwatches is to make them as large as possible, with 40 to 42mm being fairly common (heck, 48mm watches are becoming more common). As a guy with small wrists who isn’t looking to mount a satellite dish to his arm this is a rather annoying trend. Then again it’s obvious nobody asked me for fashion advice or there would be more guys walking around in combat boots and 5.11 Tactical mall ninja pants. Fortunately fashion trends are cyclical and small watches should be in vogue again meaning I’ll actually be “in style” for a few years.

Did You Enjoy Your Pagan Holiday

Yesterday was May Day, a day celebrated by socialists as International Worker’s Day. Long before the socialists hijacked the holiday May Day was one of the most important holidays for European pagan. The Celts celebrated Beltane while Germanic pagans celebrated Walpurgis Night, both on the day we no refer to as May 1st (OK, technically Walpurgis Night is celebrated on May Day eve). With the Christian’s success of hijacking pagan holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc.) I guess the socialists decided to it a whirl and International Worker’s Day was born. I find this kind of ironic being Marx advocated atheism and even went so far to refer to religion as the “opium of the people.” Why would followers of an atheist philosophy feel the need to hijack a pagan holiday? Most socialists will tell me that International Worker’s Day commemorates the Haymarket Riots but that happened on May 4th so I find such a claim a little dubious.

Either way I hope you had a great pagan holiday. Spending the day lighting bon fires and dancing around maypoles is far more fun and productive than doing single day boycotts that accomplish nothing because everybody you’re boycotting knows you’ll be back tomorrow. Also, pagan mythology is far more interesting than the history of socialism. You really can’t compare stories about great gods doing battle with text books talking about the exploitive nature of capitalism.

One of the Greatest Compliments I’ve Ever Received

It’s not often that I’m honored deeply by a compliment I’ve received but one of my friends on Facebook said the following about me:

Yeah, I mean, she’s [Ayn Rand] practically a socialist compared to you. (-:

That’s right, compared to me Ayn Rand is practically a socialist. I’m doing something right!

I Love My Ford Ranger

Say what you will about the Ford Range; it’s not fuel efficient, it’s not fast, and it certainly isn’t big; but it is easy to change the oil on without the assistance of a hoist. I live in an apartment complex so my access to actual equipment needed in the repair and maintenance of automobiles is fairly limited. My father does own an autoshop but lives three hours away meaning I’m either in for six hours of driving every time I want to change my oil or I can get on my back and do it myself. Thankfully my Ranger is tall enough that doing the latter is actually very easy.

I did experiment with taking my truck to an oil change place but they merely put the wrong filter on (thankfully it was big enough to seal and thus no damage occurred). Needless to say if you want something done right do it yourself.

Peace Sells but Who’s Buying

Apparently not Dave Mustaine:

Speaking of news, you were a correspondent for MTV during the 1992 presidential election. What’s your take on US politics in 2012?

“I’m just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican. I can’t bear to watch what’s happened to our great country. Everybody’s got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, ‘Oh, Obama’s doing such a great job…’ I don’t think so. Not from what I see.

“Looking at the Republican candidates, I’ve got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney’s five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there’s some questions there. And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he’s just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was – that angry little man. I still like him, but I don’t think I’d vote for him.

“Ron Paul… you know, I heard somebody say he was like insecticide – 98 percent of it’s inert gases, but it’s the two percent that’s left that will kill you. What that means is that he’ll make total sense for a while, and then he’ll say something so way out that it negates everything else. I like the guy because he knows how to excite the youth of America and fill them in on some things. But when he says that we’re like the Taliban… I’m sorry, Congressman Paul, but I’m nothing like the Taliban.

“Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable. Also, just watching how he hasn’t gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney’s done against Newt Gingrich, and then the volume at which Newt has gone back at Romney… You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I’m hoping that if it does come down to it, we’ll see a Republican in the White House… and that it’s Rick Santorum.”

While Dave has become loonier by the year his endorsement of Santorum slightly surprised me. Being a born again Christian has lead to lots of idiotic decisions including his refuse to play many old Megadeth songs because they’re “satanic” in nature and playing shows with “satanic” bands. Either way with his absolute fear of a new world order I can’t believe he thought supporting a tyrannical bastard like Santorum was a good idea.

My respect for Mustaine has been dwindling for ages now but it’s almost entirely gone. The man fronts a band that was once great and is responsible for writing much of the Metallica material I really enjoy but his loony ranting is difficult to separate from his music.