gotta hold onto ONE THING
TRUTH
Go Read the Whole Thing, please.
Not only do we need to hold truth, logic, ethics and principles close: we need to find those that DO likewise and hold them close. DO, not ACT, acting is not being truthful, DOING, that means something.
I give Burnout at work a hardtime, constantly on his case with the “Tell the truth, or at least DON’T LIE.” mantra from Jordan Peterson. I keep trying to give him little tools, phrases to keep in his head while moving through life, guideposts that I wish I had been given 30-40 years back,,,, Like “Hard choices, easy life, easy choices, hard life” and then explain what it means. Simple words with complicated ideas attached.
Don’t know that its working, but there are times I hear him mumbling them under his breath. I hope he does that when he isn’t around me,,, IF he does, then something is gonna stick and maybe, MAYBE, I will have had a positive impact in one person in this reality.
I wanted to be a teacher, that calling has never waivered in my spirit. BUT, too be a teacher, you must also be a student, FOR LIFE. You never stop learning, you never stop integrating that learning. Not if you are a true teacher, in my opinion. I recall talking to a friend of friend who is a teacher, and somehow, in the conversation, he mentioned that ‘I don’t read anymore,,, I don’t need to know that stuff, I just need to make sure the kids pass the tests.’ or something to that effect,
And I was FLOORED,,,,, NO, NO NO!!!!! That isn’t teaching SHIT!!!
But that is EXACTLY what public schools want these days: make sure the kids can pass the tests so that the school can maintain a certian budget and to hell with the actual ‘concept’ of passing on KNOWLEDGE, let alone making the next generation a reasonable facsimile of HUMANITY,,,,,
I rail about the Government, but really, truly, the problems in this country can be traced right back to our current education systems (NOTE plural form) and that really took off under Carter with his NEA creation, and then UNIONS. Schools are no longer institutions of education but bureaucracies of administration to fleece the taxpayers: actually teaching the kids has been passed over because “Thinkers” would collapse the system they built and milk for personal gains.
If you are a parent, try try try to get your kids out of any ANY public school curriculum. PERIOD, If you gotta, find a religious sect nearby and pay for it. Catholic, Christian, whatever,,, DO IT. IF that isn’t feasible, figure out homeschooling options. And those are growing in leaps and bounds these days, with some communities forming small groups of ‘moms’ to handle the kids so that other parents can maintain a dual income household (Which wouldn’t be neccesary if not for GOVERNMENT/BANKER COLLUSION< but I digress) The books aren’t the cheapest things in the world, and there are groups that collectively buy such to spread the cost out amongst the whole. I personally have all the Saxon math books from g5 to Calculus and would be wiling to loan them to a family if need be. Point being, there are options OTHER THAN the mental abuse that passes as ‘education’ these days.
One truth I face everyday. I will never be ‘permitted’ to teach while things are on current course and speed. I might get some chances, in small group, (which I would prefer over formalized class settings) but NEVER with the blessing of STATE. Too much the anarchist/rebel/contrarian and,,,,,
I want my students to LEARN TO THINK, not just spout facts and figures.. I want them to ask questions. About everything! Like “the vaccine is safe and effective’ yet “the makers are protected from legal recourse by end users’: WHY? should have been the first thing out EVERYONE’S mouths when those two statements were in ONE article. I want my students to see shit like that and without hesitation, start making waves.
sigh,,,, maybe someday,,,,
Rained out
Life carries on.
Doing the work on Selkie that I promised Brudda B I would take care of. Fixing deck chines that were broken during a strap-down for travel. And putting in new floorboards so that the ol’girl doesn’t steal shoes on exit.
There is a section of ash now glued on the bottom side of that chine, and the unfletched arrows are extras I had on hand. Figure carbon fiber tubing will do wonders for strength and flexibility to that chine. Don’t wanna have to get in there twice,,,
And I am fixing those chines before I do the floorboard (need the same access) so that I am not breaking them even more.
Hates the rain-outs. But what can you do when what you do is seasonal. Only option would be to take on a second job, or abandon this’un and take on different. Kind of invested in this one since I am now making more hourly, (but not making squat when NOT working,,, Grrrrrr) And I really don’t wanna start over again elsewhere until I can move on from this place: when I can literally ‘start over’ and ‘get it right(er)’ .
Lord knows I wanna. I call this area the armpit of Appalachia, (and its not limited to my immediate area, this covers a broad expanse) for reasons. Too many deadbeats and pillheads, too many ready to take the dole because they can, not that they need it.
sigh,,,, watching epoxy cure,,,, long cure to boot. not the 5 or 10 minute stuff. but its tougher and more flexible than the quick cure,,,,
All i have is time right now. Guess I’ll get some more reading in.
Like rats abandoning ship
McTurtle stepping down as house minority,
Peelousey saying ‘my last term’
I think the writing is on the wall, and those that can, are getting clear while the gettings good.
I know its all Kabuki theater, I know it. NOT watching is not an option these days because to not watch is to get broadsided by something truly nasty later.
and there are the days where abandoning society and being that wanderer of the world is more and more appealing.
Here Local, we have a couple of ’em. One, most people call him ‘Johnny Walker’ because the man walks everywhere and at a pace most people would need to jog to keep up with. His real name is Tim, not sure of his last name. I’ve met and talked to him a couple of times. Blew me away the first time as his speaking voice is that of one who spent years in higher ed, not the southern appalachian drawls that need interpretation like most in these hills. The man is fit as a horse, walks everywhere, has a six-pack stomach. And everyone thinks he’s crazy as a loon. I found him to be highly intelligent and coherent. I think most people do the ‘automatic assumption’ of ‘he’s insane’ because he doesn’t live in THEIR normal. Sane? Seems to me we are insane when you watch the ‘news’.
and he doesn’t give a hot damn about the rest of the world or its doings. Others opinions mean squat. The man walks so much, the clothes on his back will wear away to rags, and he doesn’t care. (in that sense, yeah, he’s a little off center since he will wear the same clothes until they are literal rags billowing in the breeze.)
BUT, he’s happy in his little niche at the bottom of the world.
And I dunno where I was going with this,,,, more later
buggies and guessed right
had a few days of warm and damp here and last night, felt like I was right back in the battle of the bugs, hackin’ up crud, schnoz runnin’ like a hose, ughs and high temps,,,,
Allergies. Mold and mildew and pollens. not many trees bloomin’ yet, but the wisteria and others are in full force.
not just the plants either. smacked down a few skeeters and gnozeeums,,,,
Its only the first week of March and it feels like mid/late April.
Not complaints on the weather but its really muckin’ up my internal clocks.
Anywhoos, today I am doing the allergy med drop, and keeping on the mucinexlike stuff to keep the lungs clear. Trying to keep things to bare minimum as I don’t like taking drugs,,, Will, but don’t like it. (Side note, tried the Ivermectin thing,, three days. only noted that, about an hour after taking it, I would be light headed as hell for about three hours. Stopped taking it, lightheadedness went away. Not using it anymore. Not saying that its a bad thing, but it doesn’t sit well with me. And yes, that was listed as a rare side effect. Guess I am that rarity.)
Lots going on in the world, and watching the kabuki theater from the sidelines.
Saw a rarity of a UNANIMOUS DECISION from the SCOTUS. Amazingly the libtarded robes didn’t agree with a dissent comment. Maybe they are feeling the winds of change coming.
and the winds they are a blowin’.
People are getting pissed off, our money is worthless and getting worse, our voices mean nothing in the realms of the political world but carry mad weight in the social ones, and the social ones are taking fire left and right. People DO see that and that only adds fuel to the anger fires. GAB is catching hell right now for restricting content, even though I understand that they are under economic contstraints of server availability. I get it: both sides of that story. Personally, I don’t care,,, I tried using GAB, but I never liked Twitter/now X, had an account in both but never use either,
and reason being, I prefer a much more sedate form of communication. More like the SubStack form. Anyone can post whatever they want, and because the feeds are subscriber based, no adverts to muck up the flow, and the flow is much more like a river, not a raging stream gunning for the oceans.
The biggest problem I have with the twits/X forum is how fast the flow is. I don’t have, WON’T SURRENDER the time to try and keep up with all the tweets. and in some cases they build to incredible numbers of responses so fast, it would take hours to unravel the mess. Don’t give a fuck: thats how propaganda programs a body. Bury the information under tons of opinion ‘backed by experts’ and so quickly, CRITICAL THINKING is waylaid and left for dead in a back alley. At least when I read ‘the stacks’, I can take a moment, double check some quote, reference, link, see if such were illuminated correctly or edited out of context, etc etc etc. And In time, find writers I feel our forthright and honest, even if I don’t agree with thier political leanings , Thats how you keep from being sucked in by the blob, or buried under mushthink, like DIE or CRT peeps want you to be.(and I am going to use the DIE variant because that is what THEY want us to do,, be honest in all ways is my aim.)
ANywHoooozzitss,,,, I have to get a go one early to the J.O.B. as I am in Demand (or D-man as Son of Bossman said last night) Long drive so we leave early, but
HOURS that I desperately need,,,, no complaints.
More laters.
A point for preps
A thought that went through this wee brainium late yesterday.
THIS IS NOT A FIREARM
The Federal Gang that regulates what shouldn’t be regulated does not consider this a firearm. You can order this through mail order from several places and get it without need of filing any paperwork and usually with nothing more than showing ‘I’m over 21’ ID.
Even Felons can order these without tossing up redflags,,,,
NOW, these DO require a bit more work than just tossing some rounds in a mag and Mag-dumps are not a thing, but they do ‘pull trigger, go bang’, and a .44 round ball leaves a good sized hole in things. But, more work, more discipline required.
For one thing, shooting Cap and Ball (which is what these are) requires a steadier hand than modern cartridge rounds with ‘HOT’ primers and double base powders. There is a slight ‘lag’ when you pull that trigger to when the round is headed down range, and a twitch will send it somewhere other than where you intended. Its not much of a lag, but it IS there. Hotter caps make this less, a clean chamber will to, but there are more variables than in a load, point, shoot ‘firearm’. Even the humidity of the air when you loaded it can make a difference.
And you can’t really leave the bloody thing loaded laying about waiting for need, like you can with a cartridged weapon. You can, but it takes some off the wall procedures to do and the clock is ticking to the day when it goes ‘pffrfft!’ instead of ‘bang’. (or worse, ‘click!’)
For the long(er) term load, you have to keep the powder isolated from atmo and anything that may hold moisture. Powder is hydroscopic: it drinks humidity/moisture out of anything it can. (and in the process losses its bangy quality.) So, the powder gets loaded into the cylinder and a DRY ball is loaded in right next to it. Don’t lube the ball, don’t add a patch between ball and powder. The LUBED patch will go over the ball after its loaded. Then you place the cap on the nipple and with some lacquer based nail polish, seal the cap to the nipple; Cover the seams really good. At that point you have a couple of months before you must ‘clear the weapon’ and that ‘couple of months’ is highly dependent on how high the humidity is in your area and what it was the day you loaded it. The longest I held a load like that was 4 months and I had 2 misfires out of 6, and they weren’t misfires so much as squib loads: fired enough to clear the chamber but you could have caught the bullet with bare hands at 10′.
DO NOT USE DOUBLE BASED POWDER IN THESE GUNS. I can’t stress that enough, they aren’t designed for it, they aren’t structurally able to withstand the pressures and if you do, you are holding a frag-grenade that isn’t predictable in any way (other than that trigger,,,) It might shoot just fine for two or three rounds and that fourth one blows hell out of the gun and your face and hands. or that first round starts a chainfire and blows the whole cylinder apart along with your face. You have been warned!!! (note, chain fire is possible even with the black powder, usually due to improperly loaded cylinders, sloppy loading of powder etc. Chainfires WILL destroy a cylinder!!!)
The advantage of BP for a prep situation is in resources. You can make Blackpowder at home. I won’t go into the details of it here, but there are many links on Utoob to how to do it, do it safely and do it from literal scratch; starting with wood ashes and toilet paper to the final product of bangy goodness in whatever grade you desire.
And a truly resourceful type can make the caps as well. I have the press for making the cup that is a cap, I have not tried making the cap go bang yet. BUT, It can be done and can even be ‘fudged’ with alternatives like matchheads and other things. (I do not suggest such, just saying there are alternatives,) And of course, you can buy the stuff to cast your own boolits,,, lots of choices from round ball, Minieball, and hollowpoint/others. I find that mine works best with simple roundball and a hot load. (and thats the other side of this; you get to play with loads to see what works best for you and your tools) I also shoot semi-wadcutters and those do VERY well for hunting. (yes, primitive weapons season allows you to use a BPwheelie gun for deer (.40 or larger)
And if you wanna take it back even further in time you could go the whole flintlock route and not worry about cap primers. (I like my wheelie guns and cap-n-ball. Single shot sorta sucks IMO)
But heres the thing that I wanna point out. Shoot Cap-n-ball for a bit and watch your skills improve with modern stuff. That lag in CB forces you to hold on target longer and that starts good habits that improve in the modern stuff. You’ll find you squeeze the trigger smoother, hold on target longer and your groups will get tighter. You will find you hold your breath better too. (you don’t wanna breath that cloud that BP makes,,,)
I would NOT suggest taking one of these to a gunfight,,,, Not in this day and age,,, Just sayin’ The two shown above are able to hot swap pre-loaded cylinders without needing to be torn down to do so, but there is no way in hell you can ‘speedload’ one. And those cylinders are clonky and dangerous pre-loaded. (exposed caps!) The other problem is that cloud that black powder makes. You fire one shot from cover and you are suddenly exposed because everyone and their brother knows exactly where you are. You just sent up a smoke signal saying ‘here I am, fire away!’
but for a prepper in the sticks, long term, these make a certain amount of sense as listed above.
Oh, Let me count the ways,,,,,
Somedays,,,,
synopsis of my mind this AM,,, Genocide sounds like a plan,,,,
Somedays, dunno why, I wake up just hateful of the Human Species,,,, May be that I have a lost puppy in my recent history that is feeding that, and my failure of being able to re-home her here. Not that I am holding the katz responsible; I knew before hand that it was going to be an issue. The whole Grizzy telling me in no uncertain terms “her, or me, you choose” was THE deciding factor. When the furball was sitting on the hillside, IN THE RAIN and wouldn’t acknowledge me, but as soon as he saw her, POOFED UP then strolled into hiding.
But that doesn’t ‘equate’ to the hooman species does it?
Whats got my ire up? How about a long read for y’all,,,,
Agree and don’t agree in areas, but I can’t argue that what we see, day to day, is very much PROGRAMMING, and the only ones that don’t seem to be getting it are the ones ‘unplugged’ . That there aren’t many of them (and I can not claim that status,,,) means there are more ‘factions’ of programmed masses than those running on basic operating principles.
And you never KNOW which program is leading those you meet in the day to day.
honestly, seeing the world through the lense in that article, makes me want to find a hole and pull the entrance in behind me. OR Put-in a trib someplace and keep paddlin’; don’t look back. (and people are like, but what would you eat,,,, us oldskool survival types have our means,,, and maybe that means would be better for the body in the longrun,,,,)
Not that I am going to do that. I have my anchors of Da and the kids here at home that keep me quite well in place. Grizzy is very much the main reason behind many of my choices,,,,, You may wonder why one little kat would hold such sway on this hooman, but if you go back to the start of the COOF of 2020 and follow along my blog, you will find that GRIZZ has been intergral in a lot of my choices, this version especially, but the last version as well. When Grizz1 succumbed to whatever it was that took him down (was taking him down, I made the call to stop the suffering) and the fact that it was during lockdown: vets played into that too,,,, And then a year and half later, his IDENTICAL twin dropping into my life. and I do mean IDENTICAL,,, looks, attitude, character, even some mannerisms (such as liking to look at me from upside down,,
alright, I took a side trip there,,, back on track,,,
PEoPleS,,,,, Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and I haven’t had much exposure to them today,,,, and probably for the best,,,, Not a nice person today.
so the rest of the day, I am going to climb in that hole, pull the entrance in behind me and fall the rest of the way into a book I am currently in, and FUCK THE WORLD for a spell. Get my head on, get my head OUT of the programming cycles, (read that article, you ARE being played if you have any online presence,,, ANY!!!! even if just as an observer,,,) and take a short trip back in time to when ‘programming’ was much simpler, and could be completely ignored if one so chose.
And plans for next weekend (can’t take the week off, finances have been running way too slim of late, between sick and seasonal slowdown.) I am thinking, kayak, lake, campgear and a couple of days with PHONE LOCKED IN TRUCK while I go play in the woods and water. Need some time to get me head on, oriented correctly, and attitude adjusted to
sumpin BETTER
carry on
Histories,,,,
I found a copy of a book I read waybackawhen,,, Like prepubescent age (I think I was 12 when I read it then, so 43 years ago,,,,) This book is no lightweight book either,,,, Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa no affiliate link there, I was reading Stephen King and many others for years and at that time, I was into the Japanese thing hardcore,,, James Clavells Shogun, among many others. (by the way, in re-reading this book, I was sort of shocked at the type face,,, something like 8 point microprint,,, and the book is still 970 pages in length,,,, I need my readers for this one and I don’t normally,,,Certainly did not as a kid,,,,)
But it got me to thinking about things, historical and what not. Look at Japan, centuries of being a Country, a set of ethics, A CULTURE for cripes sake. Look at Russia, A thousand years of history dating back to the collapse of The Holy Roman Empire and the breakup of the Church between Roman Catholic and the Orthodox church ( When Constantinople was a place, ‘Istanbul not Constantinople, its Istanbul not Constantinople’,,,, thats nobodies business but the Turks,,,,’ ). China,, same: thousands of years of history, going back as far as the Roman Empire, even so far back as to Alexander in some areas. India much the same. Maybe the borders have changed some over decades/centuries, but the Cultures are much the same,,,,
Its why I think China was so readily absorbed into communism of their own flavor and why the Soviet flavor didn’t sit well for very long. The cultures make it or break it. (and why Japan did not fall under Communism seeing how tiered their people have been for centuries,,, maybe it was the militant tiering that kept them safe,,, dunno)
But think about the time periods of those people. There were, ARE, towns in Russia that have history that goes all the way back to the Mongol Hordes, towns that didn’t collapse, but surrendered and paid the tithe to maintain a certain amount of sovereignty during that time. (You did know that Genghis offered that to every city/state, right? Refusal was a death sentence,,,). Doing so allowed them to survive and keep their culture. Culture that, yes, has evolved some over the decades/centuries, but is still very much a part of the people. Culture that transcends borders, culture that molds thought processes.
Think about the Samurai of Japan, the mindset that is still very much alive today in the way they deal in business (well, to some extent, it was much more prevalent in the 70’s and 80’s)
Thousands of years of culture,,, thats a force multiplier in some theaters. In some ways, its also an issue. Like that situation in the Kraine,,, Many on both sides of the front speak Russian, are Russian in thinking, and the problem really boils down to Government, not the people themselves. But I digress,,,, (and why the FUCK are we still playing these Cold War mind games? Seriously, that shit is DEAD DEAD DEAD!!!! )
Look at us though: Here we are, Fresh meat on the world stage in many ways. Canada is another such (as is pretty much any one country on the American Continents; north south or central.). Less than 500 years in the making. Our own country is only 248 years old. We have a culture, kind of, one that is the ODD of the children of the world, Some of European or Asian culture would even say we are the Autistic brats on the playground,,,,
Gotta say, I kinda take a certain amount of pride in that, seeing how I am a contrarian at my deepest core,,,, (Think about it, I was the wyrd kid in school that carried ‘Fun’ reading material around that wieghed more than my Textbooks did,,, and had a backpack that had all my AD&D books for when I wasn’t at school, that weighed even MORE,,,,)
And yet here we are,,,, Being torn apart from the inside by bad actors of our own making (so to speak,,) they look like us and talk like us, but they AIN’T AMERICAN in my humble opinion,,, They invite in ‘replacement peoples’ to displace those of us that were born here or came here to BE AmeriCAN’s, not drag those shitholes we fled with us (Keep that in mind, those fleeing the bluehives,,, You voted for that shit, and it drove you out; don’t bring it with you dammit!!!).
I go back and watch the Tucker/Putin Interview and I see that HISTORY, I see the,,, I want to say ‘contempt’ but I think that is too harsh a word, more like the Elder looking at the fumbling of the young and just shaking heads at the foolishness. That Putin has thrown in his ‘bid’ for Biden actually tells me he would rather see America Fail without a bullet fired than have to face a strong America,,, Can you blame the man? He is a ‘world leader’ and while maybe he does, or doesn’t have Empirical goals for his country, EMPIRE is the natural evolution of Government, and CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT at that,,,, Russia definitely has that Centrailized thing going. Every Government out there does currently,,,
BUT
I see that trend dying as we watch. I think that is what is driving all of us just a little bit batty right now. We are a Young Country that grew way too damned fast, thanks to Technology and the timing of WW2, and the fact that we have one big landmass surrounded by LOTS of ocean to deter invasion.
UNLESS, we invite the invasion IN,,,, As our Current Shaminstration has been doing the last three years,,,
And the fact that we keep electing people that actually HATE the idea of Freedom of the People,,,, These people in office, both in front with names known and those behind the scenes that make the actual decisions; they despise people being autonomous and individual. THEY want widgets, slaves, cogs that pay; NOT PEOPLE because they are only interested in one thing
POWER. Power as explained by Orwell. “Power for powers sake, nothing else, ULTIMATE POWER.”
And they can feel it slipping from their grasp,,, That’s the point of all the talk of censorship across world nets. The continuing grab at the 2A, even now going through SCOTUS, yet again,,,, The ‘don’t give a damn’ spending that goes against 80% of the populace’s opinion, left and right combined,,, THEY WANT US DESTROYED because we are the ‘outlaw that shows the hole in their ideology’. THEY have to destroy America, or THEY will find they are the hunted when the rest of the world figures it out, AND THEY KNOW IT!!!! Even Putin is in on this in some way.
And this country is about to be made a laughing stock of the world yet again, very soon. Kraine and Russia are in talks with the House of Saud acting as mediator,,,, Maybe the characters involved are part of that Centralized Government thing that is taking a hit, but when its all said and done, the people will still see how fallible the Big Gov’s truly are,,, (Wanna know just how fragile they are? Look deep into the House of Saud and find out how much that group pays their people to NOT riot,,,, Eye opening that one was,,,,)
Ok, Had to get that stuff outta me head,,, may be I am overthinking shit again, (usually) but I look at current events and the insanity that is the ‘norm’ currently has me looking for solutions to a future that is decidedly “unclear, check back again soon”
Dio's Workshop 