Christmas

I think I am about ready for x-mas. Most of the shopping is done. The tree is up, and I think tomorrow I shall put up some lights outside, if the weather will cooperate for me. This will be the first time I have put up lights on the new house. It will be the first time I have put up lights outside in years and years. I think my son was 4 or 5 the last time I put up lights. So i am actually a little excited for x-mas this year.

Eve

So my friend talked me into trying out Eve. Really don't want to get back into online gaming, but it's a free 21 day trial. Not really into the whole space thing, so doubt I will really get hooked on it. But we will see.

My Son

My son and I went to the store the other day, and he decided his dad had been single long enough. So he decided to take action. He spots one of the prettiest women I have ever seen in real life, and starts flirting with her. Playing peak a boo and all the cute things kids can do, and we adults can't with out getting strange looks. I wasn't really paying attention to who he was putting so much energy into being cute for, I was busy trying to get the groceries in the cart and sticking to the list, and budget and all those crazy adult things. Next thing I know this lovely was right next to me talking to my son. I was speechless, as is my usual when I am around women for some strange reason. She was talking to my son telling him how cute he was. After a few minutes of this, he gets a sad look on his face, and puts his head down. She asks him whats wrong and gives him a half hug. With the saddest puppy dog look I have ever seen, he says,"I don't have a mommy" and of course she falls for this hook line and sinker. Gives him a hug and looks at us both like were lost little lambs. I am still speechless and just starting to grasp what my evil little mini me is up too. As he is getting his third of fourth hug he shoots me a evil little grin. It becomes crystal clear what he is up too. next I hear, "will you be my mommy?" Of course she is all touched by this. I am beat red, and noticing other shoppers stopping to watch this unfold. She gives him another hug and then says good bye to us. My son with out missing a beat turns to me and says, "Hey dad why are you so bright red?" Which of course brought a round of laughter to all the people who had over heard this and watched the whole thing. I push the cart towards another isle the whole time my son is giggling, and asking me why I look so embarrassed.

Creek Stewart-Build The Perfect Bug Out Bag

What a way to end a long week, but to receive my auto graphed copy of Creek Stewart's book Build the Perfect Bug out bag. Great book, and what a cool guy. Let me mail it to him signed it, mailed it back to me, and included some cool stuff along with it. Buy his books, there amazing, watch his show"fat guys in the woods" it's a great show. I can't say enough nice stuff about this guy!!

Snow

So we got 14 inches of snow. It has now turned into a giant ice rink. Gotta love working out doors this time of year. Everything freezes while your using it and your hands go numb. Hopefully it will all be gone in a few days.

CompTia Network+

Well I completed the SCTE Comp\Tia Network+ course. I still need to complete the actual test at the local college, but at least the timed scte part is done. I so do not recommend the course. I learned more from taking the test question and googling the subjects and watching YouTube video's. I highly recommend you just buy the comp\tia study guide for $50 and do it all on your own. The course was a complete waste of time and effort. I like most of the scte courses, but I got to say your wasting your money on this one. The modules need to be divided into smaller sections, and they need to go into much deeper detail on many of the subjects. You can not learn how to sub net in an 2-3 minute power point slide. Binary code takes more the an 45 second slide. There is just way to much information to take in, in a quick short power point presentation. All so the way stuff was lumped together, one module would start with one subject and randomly switch to something else that had nothing to tie them together. Again splitting the modules up would help. The study guide breaks it down to 17 modules, which seems more reasonable. So I will be spending the next few months studying the guide and many of the websites I found then will wonder over to the college  and take the real exam.

SNOW

There is snow in the forecast. Tuesday is suppose to be 13 degrees. Thursday and Friday calls for chance of snow. Son is super stocked. I am less so. driving in it and working in it really sucks. Need to get busy tomorrow and put plastic up over the windows. wrapped the a/c units today to help keep the cold out. So wish it was still summer.

HOA's

I sit here looking out my window at the vacant lot that will soon be a another cookie cutter HOA neighborhood. I can't stop thinking how un-American the whole idea of a HOA is. Not only do you give up your freedoms, but your paying someone to take them from you. What is wrong with the country now? Why would we allow this? How can it be legal? It's bad enough that these cookie cutter neighborhoods are so cheaply built and every third house is the exact same floor plan. No yard, just cram as many houses into the area as humanly possible. Another sad turn our country is taking for nothing more then some green colored paper.

Snow!!!

Well not here, but the mountains were bare the other day, over night they turned into the snow capped wonders we all know and love. Just love staring at them when there like this. So pretty!!

SCTE Comp/Tia Network+

Wow, what a brutal program. I am powering through it, but wow!!! Learning how to do Binary code. Six more modules to get through. Hope to get through two to three a day. The next few look much smaller and easier. hopefully I am correct on that.  

So I made it through all the modules on this course. it is not that bad. there are two that are brutal but the rest are not bad. I am working on the 800 page study guide and doing the practice tests now. will hopefully not have to ask for a extension.

Hi, I know your probably laughing right now, but lets please take a moment to think about things. All religions when boiled down to there most basic, key word here is basic, principals, are all the same. Things getting messed up when we add in the little things, and the deities. There a million forms of Christianity none of which can agree on everything, the same is true for all other major religions. We get lost on the little things. The church of Santa-ology is here to fix that. Forget the little things. Life is too short to argue over semantics. The basics-Be good to each other. Be good to yourself. It's better to give then to receive. Forgive and forget. Love everyone for who they are, not what you want them to be. Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a wonderful day. May Peace and candy cains be with you.

Lawn Mower

So we broke down and finally got a lawn mower. Started mowing last night stopped when it got dark. It's slow going when the grass is over knee deep. but it looks so much better. It's nice to finally have a little cash free to fix up the place. I will be mowing again today, I got about 2/3 of it done yesterday.

DIY Survival Matches

DIY Survival Matches

MyApocabox

So I just signed up for the "Myapocabox". It's a every other month delivery of survival/bush craft supplies. It also has a challenge that teaches you a skill. It seems very cool. It costs $58, which includes S&H, but they say every box contains $100 or more of stuff in it. I will get the box in mid October and will post a review of it. I have been reading up on the first box that went out in August and everyone seems pretty impressed by it. http://www.myapocabox.com/
https://www.facebook.com/apocabox

Should be receiving my box in about a week. Feels like Christmas. 

So I got my box on Friday. Came with some cool things. So lets dig in. 1st was a fire keeper, valued at $12, it is a hard plastic holder for a disposable lighter, with a lanyard. kinda cool. not worth $12 in my opinion, but any-who, moving on. 550 fire cord. very cool product value $13. 25' of para cord, that ha been made to be used as fire tinder. remove inner strands and use as tinder the outer can still be used for cordage. Then we have a Olympia granola trail bar. $2.99, and a 15% discount coupon. I know hippy food costs more, but I can honestly say I would not pay that much for this thing. It was o.k. tasting, but for the size vs. the cost, way not worse it. Then we have a patch for a bag or coat, cost 5.95. I guess that's about right price wise. I haven't shopped for patches but the few I have seen are around that price. Then we have a E.D.C handcuff key. Pretty cool item, slips on a belt loop, can barely see it is there, cost $9. Have seen these a few dollars cheaper, but all so seen them a few $'s more. Now we have the big money item. I gotta say at first I had no idea what it was then I was blown away by it. Item is called "a bug out band" price $19.95. Basically you have one of those slap bracelets that has an 1 gig USB hidden in it. Now in a survival S.H.T.F situation I would probably want to black out or scratch off the giant white letters that say bug out band, so to make it a little less obvious. After that we have a Marbles razor knife $4( I was so hoping for a real knife like the first Apocabox had, still kicking my self for missing out on that.) Knife is maybe 2 inches long folded up. doubles in size with a very long nasty looking razor in it. could be very useful in a mini-tin kit, Feels pretty sturdy for it's size. 4 more items to go, so we have a solar parabolic fire starter $14,(this is part of the monthly challenge) so I will post how the challenge goes, it is way to windy to be starting fires today, but I have always wanted one of these types of fire starters I have not worked with one, and living in the high desert it makes thence to have a fire starting option that works with the crazy amount of sun we have. I will watch Creek's video on how to use it later and maybe tomorrow give it a try. It also came with a nice little bag of tinder options to use for the challenge I will definitely keep the sack for keeping fat wood and other tinder in my kit. So next up is Zombie Tinder, $9.99. It is almost Halloween after all, small tin of 100% water proof tinder. never goes bad, can be used with wet wood, and burns at 1,600*F while still being non toxic. Really looking to trying it out this winter doing some winter camping with my son. 2 more items to go, thanks for sticking with me, a pack of playing cards, $9.95, now these are not regular cards, while they can be used to play card games, they all so have info about wild edible plants in north America. so see, learning is fun. plus it looks like the box was signed by the creature, Mr Sergei Boutenko. Last Item, Creek had one of the last textile mills in the U.S. make a bandanna that he designed. It has an American southwest feel to it. Bandanna's are super helpful in every one's kit, so you can always use one more. Price on it $5.95 Total price, $106.78

Would I recommend the Apocabox? At this time I would say yes. Are you really getting your money's worth? I don't know about that, a few of the items I think were over priced and just filler(granola bar and fire keeper), but there were some real good items that have some real merit(bug out band, solar fire starter, wild edible cards). So I feel it is a nice way to treat yourself. Who doesn't love getting a package with goodies in it? Plus your getting knowledge, your getting challenged to get off your but and put skills to work, which is something we all need to do. Your all so getting exposed to new products(zombie tinder, 550 fire cord) I will get at least one more Apocabox before I really decide if this is worth it. I can honestly buy a lot of gear for the same price, but there are so many items and new ones all the time so it is nice to get exposed to some of those items. 

A nice surprise, and a rough end

So I got a very nice surprise this week. I opened my mail to find we got a bonus check from the old company. Was able to make a extra payment on the house, pay a few bills, and go stock up at Costco. Then Saturday to end my work week, I get a kidney stone. End up going home like a half hour early and spending the night and part of Sunday in a bit of discomfort. Thankfully it was a small one and passed pretty fast. So I week of highs and lows.

View from work today

I joined this cause, because I believe everyone has the right to believe what ever they want, and there beliefs should be treated with respect and understanding. With that said, the post before mine, by Hira Qureshi, is a prime example of why we have to have causes like this. If you don't believe as I do go to hell?? We all need to take on a attitude of patience and respect for others. Don't curse them, prey for them to find there way.

Very true. The weirdness kept me away for a long time. I just recently joined Facebook, do to pressure from almost everyone I know. When my mom and dad(both retired) began heckling me for not having a Facebook page when they both did, I caved. I am still treating it like a strange science experiment, that both amazes and scares me.

Paver Patio, Day 1

We started a paver patio project a year ago. I got pretty frustrated with it because it just wasn't going right. So today I yanked it out and started all over. I think I finally got the right pitch. Had to stop when my supervisor fell asleep.

New Bag

I have been shopping for a new bag for hiking, and/or as a bug out bag. I got one from National parks depot, they were having a killer sale. got it for like $39, plus S&H. Ordered it on Saturday, had it Thursday. So far I gotta say I am really impressed by it. It has tons of molly, came with three extra small bags. My only concern is it is single stitched, but it seems really heavy duty. I was going to post a pic, but have had not been able to attach a picture to any posts thence Google took over and fucked everything up.

A great teacher is humble enough to admit they still have something to learn, and actively look to expand there knowledge.

September

So September has been going well, I guess. Been trying to get the home ready for winter. So much work. The change of management at work has gone much smoother then I expected. I always expect the worst. It's kinda weird having everyone being a FNG. My only complaint is I wish they would have timed the take over to happen at new years. That way it wouldn't have messed with the health benefits as much. But the new benefits are much better, so I can't complain to much.

Blogger

Not digging the changes to blogger by Google. Gotta say if it ain't broke why fix it? I guess I will get used to it, but I doubt it will ever be as good as it once was. 

Ok, So I guess Google and Blogger don't work with the new IE. Way to stay up with the times Google. 

So,,,What's new with you?

 So what's new, been living in central Oregon for 3.5 years now, Just had our 2 year anniversary for buying our home. My youngest will soon be a teen, so scary. I feel so old.


 Work has been good, the company got bought out by a huge publicly owned company called TDS. The sale goes through tomorrow I believe. I am really excited about it. I think it will open a lot of doors for me and my co-workers. The benefits appear to be much better, and the company seems like a good place to work for.


 This past winter my wife was able to track down my father who I hadn't seen thence I was about 4 or 5. So we have met a few times, and we are slowly building a relationship. It is hard to have someone just pop back into your life and try to make up for 34 or so years. I am glad my son is getting to know him. I am not a real talkative person and not real emotional at times so it is hard for me to go through this but I am trying. I am having a hard time with the emotions. Part of me is very angry, part of me is I don't know what. Strange sight note, his wife is about 4 month older then I am. That is a bit weird.


 I am currently working on getting my ass back into school. I have completed some SCTE courses(it's a cable thing). I recently won a scholarship from them that is paying for me to take the CompTIA networking certification. It's a ton of info to get into my head in just 12 weeks. It's a online course which makes going back and reviewing material a pain. I am going to go back to college and work on a business degree next term. The new company has a amazing program to help it's employees go to school. It will probable take years and years. I will only be taking 1-2 courses a term, but am going to go year round. So hopefully one day I will have a degree and make something of my self.

One of these days,,,,,,

So I keep trying to be more active on this thing, but continue to find my self getting pulled in a million directions. The house I bought is always needing work, work of course is always pulling me. Family, kids are teens now,,,so scary. I will try to post at least once a month, that is my goal. Hopefully I can do more, but once a month is my goal.