Vitriol Espresso"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all." General James Mattis
Proof that I am over 25. And I'm kind of glad that I can't hear it considering they play this noise at my local Wal-Mart in the electronics department around the video game displays. That's right, they don't want the kiddies sticking around on the trial games for too long. But since I'm old and can't hear it, I can stand there and play for an hour or more. Go me! Hahahahahahaha. Fucking kids. I might put this on a little recorder and loop it out by the parking lot. Nice little experiment, hmm?
Meh. Okay, so my buddy and I left our guild. But it should be known, before everyone starts blaming the wrong parties, that we left because of the almighty drama llama. My buddy and I then discussed switching servers or building a guild before settling for joining another friend's guild. Starting a guild that raids and doesn't dramafest everywhere is still an option on the table. Discussions will be happening on and off.
First things first. My brother type person had his non-raiding alt leave our old guild to join an ex-guildmember's new guild. For some reason the GM of our old guild didn't like this and tossed out his raiding alt saying he'd stolen some piece of T7 gear from an Obsidian Sanctum raid.
To begin with, you can't steal jack shit from a raid if there's a master looter. Which there always is. And that person is the GM of the guild. If my brother type person got a piece of T7 gear from an OS raid it's the GM's fault. And nobody else's. Getting shitty with bro about the gear he got doesn't fuckin wash with me. But I can live with that part of it. It's a personality clash and I can deal with it.
What made me leave the guild is the fact that the GM threw out my brother type person because he joined up with an ex-guildmember on his non-raiding alt. And apparently our old GM is somewhat of a hypocrite, because he was telling people how stupid that was with another guild not a day beforehand. On top of that it's for the SAME damn reason that I left the guild previously during the same kind of drama bullshit a few months ago.
If you understood this then you were probably part of the guild I'm talking about. None of this was the ex-guildmember's fault. None of this was bro's fault. None of this was my buddy partner's fault. This one is all on the GM of our previous guild.
So much for raiding, huh? I should make a diagram. Jeeze.
There's been a few explosions lately on the WoW front and it's not really all that surprising that it's happened. What might be a tad surprising is the rumor mill assuming that everything is over and the guild is dead. Which is pretty ludicrous. The guild is only dead if it's well and truly broken. However, it might be dead for myself and my gaming buddy if things don't get moving this week. We really just don't have the time to get entrenched in another casual raiding guild before the inevitable (ask him about that, it's not being brought up here). I go where he goes. And he needs somewhere to hang out as a regular non-raiding lowbie for about 8 months this spring/summer. Doesn't matter much to me if I'm raiding or not as long as things are slightly amusing. If anything I can always raise another or finish one of the 70+ toons.
Anyway, back to the action. Our GM, a nice fella, decided on pushing for 25-man raid content. The heroic version of Naxxramas, VoA, and OS with or without drakes alive. This is all wonderful if it can be pulled off. This doesn't help the many guildies who's gear isn't good enough to keep up in a heroic Naxx raid, much less heroic 25 man raids of any kind. I still don't have my body drop from regular 10-man Naxx. I know my gaming buddy isn't anywhere near heroic raid content ready, though he could be soon. The trouble erupts when guild people realize that pushing a non-ready guild into a 25-man raid instance leads to long waits, frustrations, heavy repair/item bills, and tensions with people outside the guild. And that, I think, is what has happened here. There's just not enough lower content to keep the casuals happy. The guild simply isn't that hardcore.
The easy fix? Hey, I wouldn't be me without putting in suggestions for improvement instead of just bitching about what's wrong. Criticism is fine as long as it's constructive, no? Here it is. Make 10-man raids during the week. Limit them in time frame. Make more than one team and adjust times for maximum exposure. Don't make them every day of the week. And for those that want 25-man content? Do them on the weekends when people can stay up later. Simple. The further people get in 10-man content the better they will be at 25-man content. Eventually one will replace the others as we get these areas on farm status. It's slow going, but every guild has to do it the same way.
Watching over Glenn Beck's latest Worst-Case Scenario War Room special and I'm nodding along with him all along. If you haven't seen this, you want to. They have most of them on the Fox News Website. If you can't find them there, you can find them here on Hot Air.
These people on his show aren't tinfoil hatters. They're real analysts and professionals. This is a bit scary. And still it's nothing all that surprising to those of us who are paying attention. I know I'm screwed, but my family might make out okay through this coming decade. We don't live in cities and we have enough farmland to barter for things we might need when the dollar goes down the poop-chute. Anyone with a computer can be a rebel!! Don't let those lines go down no matter what.
Go watch the three parts they have on the website. Go. Go now. This is really good stuff.
Btw, the last post on the Financial 9/11? Think about it while you watch this. Think about it while you follow the money in your mind. I guarantee you'll come to the same conclusions that I have...
I hope you moonbats are happy now. You've bankrupted an entire generation and caused near-war conditions with nations we are supposed to have had good relations with. Even Putin is warning us not to go Socialist (video).
For me, personally, the final tally is kind of shitty. More food stamps, sure, but as a single person alone I don't rely on them to get by to begin with. The benefit is maybe a tenth of my entire food budget. And that's being kind to the statistic. You see, in welfare, the more you benefit from one program the less you benefit from all the others. So if you get a lot of food stamps, (unless you have kids) the less you get in medical care. And since I need medical care fairly badly I don't go all in for the other crap. Well, that's over now. The stimulus is taking that quid pro quo to a whole new level.
As someone with no children or husband I will be shit upon by the dem donkey.
Ah well. Guess I'll go apply for SSI so I can get myself a couple hundred bucks of free cash and start sucking on the social tit. Here's an explanation of the rest of it if you have the stomach. Most of it is programs that should have been passed seprately so that Congress wouldn't have their hands on any of the money. Because you KNOW they've shoved a lot of that into the pockets of their cronies. It's always that way with politics.
...and I haven't had any coffee yet. Thought I'd start the day with a Dr. Pepper and clear the sinus drainage outta my throat. The sparkly bubbles seem to scour out all that foul crap better than coffee, so I'll have my happy hot stuff over lunch.
Anyway, as I was reading my morning news sources (as I do every day) I ran across several things all pointing in the same direction. It seems as if The Financial Crisis was another September 11. And only now the money is being traced back to whoever engineered this particular crisis. And yes, it was engineered.
Since the biggest problem wasn't the housing bubble at the time, it's important to look at the few days /before/ this happened. If you'll recall, Obama didn't bother to address the nation about the financial crisis. Something that McCain had been predicting, literally, or years along with GW in trying to stop the bursting housing bubble.
Bigger and more awake minds than mine are examining this. To think the whole economic problem could have been engineered by some communist twat like George Soros and the Saudi royal douchebags to get Obama into the white house. Huh.
I guess we'll find out when our Democrat masters tell us what's actually in the monstrosity they've passed. And you KNOW Obama doesn't give a shit what's in it as long as he gets his way.
Meanwhile the rest of the country has begun to burn. The Porkulus Package, the Generational Theft Act, has passed the Senate. Clicky here to see who voted and how. Now, let me be perfectly honest here. This act has the capability of putting our children at severe financial risk. However, this honestly won't touch the majority of lower middle and middle class Americans. Upper classes will suffer as their tax rates will rise and their deductions will vanish. And poor Americans already suffer, but will be jumping through hoops they might not be able to see to get the benefits that this package outlines. Anybody that has a job should make plans to keep it for 10 years or more. Anybody without a job needs to search GLOBALLY to find one. Yes, I said it. Emigrate, my people. Get the freaking hell out of this quagmire if you have to. Just be careful you aren't dropping into the fire as you do so.
If you'll notice, the Dow isn't confident that this Package will help anybody except the lobbyists that pushed for it. Dipping below 8000 is one of the big indicators of a heavy drop (something that I have said several times before). We've come close to a collapse and continue to dip down every time Congress decides to stretch it's socialist fingers in the American pie.
Benefits for me personally!
Hoo-boy! Here comes the grub! As some of you may know, I have been disabled for about the last ten years or so. Techincally 17 years, but I worked through it for a while to get a little nest egg. Well, nest eggs only last for so long and although I still have some of it with my parents, I rely mostly upon Social Security to get by. There's no choice in the matter. I take out what I put in (unlike most recipients who get SSI on top of SSD) and live off the interest. Which puts me well below the poverty line. Whereas some inner city recipients are driving flashy cars and listening to iPods and iPhones an shit. So there you get the gist of how I survive in the world.
The Senate bill would give me $300 bucks for being on SSD. The House would give me $450. As much as I love my Republican roots, the dollar signs look nice to someone who has to survive on what I do. Actually, it's not something I would accept given the option. But they don't give people like me that kind of option. It's take it or take it. All electronically added to my SSD account. *shrug* I can pay up a credit card or buy myself a cat.
I can tell you right now that the Food Stamp benefit increase is complete bullshit. If anything the criteria are even harder to match than before. And yes, that's with new rules. I'll update as any alterations are made, but according to the last calculations things have grown even harder to get because of the payments given by the Act(s). If you benefit in ONE area, you lose in another. Something a Senator apparently has no capability of understanding.
Temporary welfare payments? Dudes, that isn't much of an increase. $2.5 billion will barely scrape the surface and NONE of that money will ever leave the cities. Rural Americans will still have to deal with whatever they can scrape together and assistance from local churches. The only welfare I get outside $27 worth of food money is like $50 a month for housing. Big fucking deal. Lower my goddamn utility bill and I'll be impressed. Vaguely. I hope that part works, I sincerely do.
Another big one for me is healthcare benefits. I am on Medicare. That's because I could not get other coverage because of the pre-existing bullshit rules. A lot of folks are in the same boat as me so I feel no shame in admitting it. The care is okay as long as you aren't replacing body parts. I also get Medicaid (though that may change as the rules have drastically changed, I just sent in this year's convoluted application and I'll find out in a week or so) and private drug insurance. Under the Act in the Senate my Medicare will remain roughly the same, but in the House things will improve via updates in the system. Which is actually a good thing. The paperwork when using Medicare/Medicaid is pretty hairy and sometimes I find myself carting my ultrasounds/x-rays along with me whenever I have to see a specialist.
Small Edit: Yes, I saw the provision for 'Appropriate and Effective Treatment' as deemed by a Coordinator of Health Information Technology and keeping doctors from performing some treatments because they are not 'meaningful.' This part needs to change. Daschle has been trying to stuff this overall Government tracking of healthcare whether or not you use the Government system for over a decade. And he's finally fit it into a bill that's passed the Senate. For me, personally, this isn't much of an issue. But for the elderly this could pose a serious health risk as treatments are refused because of the relevence of age versus viability. Call or email your Senators about this. Because it will affect EVERYONE, not just those of us using Medicare/Medicaid.
As things happen, I'll update. Because honestly this whole Generational Theft Act thing affects me on a personal level. This would not be my method of improving the country, keep in mind. The updates to Medicare were long overdue and should have been handled privately instead of chunking a bunch more bureaucracy into the mix. Welfare SHOULD be revamped, but again, without the red tape. We should be working to reduce the cost, not increase. And yeah, maybe that takes a bit of a bump in benefits to make it finally smooth enough to work, but it shouldn't be a continuous and exorbitant amount of cash input into a system that never worked to begin with. Fix the system and stop throwing money at it.
Btw, Senators? Prez? There's no such thing as clean coal. Really. Look it up. Or come to a coal town and ask. If you want to burn coal it's going to be a dirty operation and that's just the way it is. Seeing the advert on TV touting 'clean coal' makes me want to throw a rock through my TV set. Because the only clean coal is not using coal. God, that double entendre bullshit gets on my last nerve. If Obama wants to stop using coal in the US he should just fucking say so and stop with the reacharound. They've been playing this bloody stupid commercial in my area for a solid month several times a day during PRIME TIME. Basically, guys, what he's saying is that anybody who works for a coal company needs to find another job soon before the big bad Obama Administration comes to shut them down. Asshole.
A question posed to me by a couple of sources, what is my vision of the End of Days. It's not a complicated question, but it is sort of loaded in it's suggestion. For one it suggests that I actually believe in some sort of apocryphal 'end time' to come. Perhaps in my own lifetime. Secondly, it was implied in a Biblical fashion. As if only the Biblical perspective is the valid one. Poppycock.
Truth is, the world is going to end someday. Not for a billion years or so, but it will end. Everything in the universe has a starting point and an ending point. So maybe I should start there and outline things as I go. Because you really can't have an ending if you have no concept of how things began. Something that has had philosophers, theologists, and astrophysicists turning to alcohol for hundreds of years (I am no exception).
"In the beginning there was Eggplant. The Eggplant slowly evolved into the Wooly Mammoth. The Mammoth then evolved into the common Frog. The Frog then turned into the Penguin. Then after some time, millions of years, the Penguin changed. It grew stupid. It forgot to fly. Forgot to be a bird. And over time it became what is now known as the Modern Polack."
Okay, okay. That's not actually how I feel about it, but it is pretty funny. The above is what my Father told me after I asked him how humans were created. Dad's not much of a theologist, apparently.
It's arguable in almost every perspective how the universe began. For the most part the accepted theory is the Big Bang theory, but even then there's arguments on how the Big Bang itself came about. If God created the Universe, why would he create Time? Why would he have everything expand from a single point and not create the elements as we know them now from the very beginning? He wouldn't. Come on, nobody is so thorough with their plans as to predict the creation of physical forces and unknown elements. Maybe Stephen Hawking, but he doesn't count since he's not God. Nowadays the physicists speak of String Theory and Brane Theory. And I see a grain of truth in those. In order for the Universe to have been created there had to have been a creation point. The beginning of Time as we know it. We also know that Gravity came into play from the first second. However, Gravity is pretty freaking weak so everything flew off in every direction to make everything in the Universe. Why is Gravity so weak when everything else is so strong?
Well, let's put it together. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that there is something extra-universal out there. And it's pretty huge. Let's also take into account the Brane Theory/String Theory that there could be 11 or more dimensions associated with our Universe. Have you ever met someone who wore clothing that was completely straight with no wrinkles or motion whatsoever? No, of course not. I liken this Membrane (Brane Theory) to clothing worn by a God. A dancing God! Thus the Church of Cow was born. With admittedly flawed theology, the idea is the same. Something outside our Universe bumped into something else outside our Universe. The bumping of these Membranes/Strings caused a flash of dimension that grew into the Universe that we know today. Which, ironically enough, is the universe that was yesterday the further away we look. Time is already pretty unreliable when associated with Mass and Gravity. So why wouldn't it be possible for Gravity to be weak here and strong in another dimension? Why couldn't Gravity be the influence on ALL the dimensions and thusly be weak in each one since it is so split into parts? I certainly hope I am not the only one asking these questions.
So there's a start. Now, it seems to me that everything we know has some kind of limit. If there's a start, there's an end. That is literally Universal. Even if all the Universe does is expand to infinity that would still effectively cause the end by placing so much empty nothing between somethings that everything isolates and eventually dies. Because that is the nature of the Universe. Even Time would end with the absence of Mass, Gravity, and Light. But that's not how I think that everything will end (although it seems the most applicable result). Other hypotheses include Black Holes hoovering everything into giant lumps of 'really heavy shit' and everything coming back together to the Big Bang singularity to start all over again.
No, things will end when sentience ends. Why? Because nobody will give a rat's ass about the Universe after sentience is gone and it will cease to be a problem. Viola. And that is how the Universe will end. What, you thought I was gonna quote scripture? Hahahahahaha....OH, you wanted something POLITICAL and THEOLOGICAL. Well, too bad. Next time, perhaps. ;)
It's been an odd week for me. Trying to find places to go so that I don't go completely stir crazy. Cabin fever is definitely setting in with a vengeance. So, it's been decided that a trip out of town three times a week to walk around in a different place other than this shithole of a village is the best prescription. Which is fine cuz therapy comes on those days and a cooldown is a good thing.
And now for funny stuff:
It's a good thing Blogger is blocked in China. Xu would kick my ass for posting this. Sorry, Xuxi!
Back to reality, in any event. Think I'll make a big pot of chili tomorrow after I'm done doing my thing.
We knew this was coming. If you want a firearm, you had better get it now before the law changes. From Nurse With a Gun comes our warning about House Resolution 45. Click the links to get more information. Here's the excerpt that NWAG gives:
It shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to possess a qualifying firearm on or after the applicable date, unless that person has been issued a firearm license--
‘(A) under title I of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under that title; or ‘(B) pursuant to a State firearm licensing and record of sale system certified under section 602 of Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under State law.
‘(36) The term ‘qualifying firearm’-- ‘(A) means-- ‘(i) any handgun; or ‘(ii) any semiautomatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device; and ‘(B) does not include any antique.’.
So basically every five years you have to 'apply' to own a gun that you already own even if you don't use it for anything but keeping your family alive. It's the gun control bill we were waiting for, complete with enough vague statements to make it illegal to own anything even resembling a gun given the right justice.
Call or email your congresspeople about this and get it canned NOW.
The whole Democraps being hypocrites thing people bring up from time to time? Yeah, this sort of looks bad on your whole 'love the world' schtick, kids. You think it was bad when Bush supposedly ignored Katrina, well now you can bring up reason after reason Obama can't help Kentucky while WHITE PEOPLE slowly die of cold and starvation. I guess snarky ignorance comes in all stripes, huh?
