Another year

Popped the top on some honey beer.  Clinked glasses with the Mrs.  Now it's off to bed.

New Year's Nope

Once again, I'm not willing to go out and be surrounded by drunk morons, yahoos, idiots, and various other sundry detritus that tends to collect in bars and clubs and behind the wheel of vehicles on New Year's Eve.

Hell, I doubt I'll even stay up to ring in the New Year.  No point in it.  Not for me, anyways.  It's just another year.

Maybe that makes me old and grumpy, I don't know.  But to be honest with you, I never really enjoyed New Year's parties even when I was in my twenties.  Why spend that much money on crappy alcohol surrounded by people with the manners of water buffalo with a bad temper and a case of hemorrhoids?

The Mrs. and I will be staying home, popping a bottle of bubbly that I bottled a while ago.  And that's perfectly fine with me.

Ronda Rousey lasted 48 seconds before getting knocked out

I'm thinking it's time she retire and go make some movies.

Or find a better coach.  You knew you were going up against a striker, and you looked completely unprepared.  Who the hell is training you?  Fire them.

Something to think about

With all these folks dying.  I had to do my PHA recently, and of course they took my labs.  My cholesterol was 230 or so.  The doc freaked.

I was relating this to my mom, who spent decades as a Registered Nurse Practitioner.  Think of a nurse with a doctorate.

She told me simply that our grandparents, and her grandparents, died with sky-high cholesterol.  In their 90's.

Maybe we should focus less on how much red meat people are eating, and more on what chemicals they're ingesting, either with their food or recreationally.

Why your washing machine sucks

The Foundation for Economic Education has an article about why modern American appliances suck.

And they do.

When I was stationed at Ft. Buchanan, they installed new "efficient" front-load washers into the housing on post.  They were so "efficient" that we had to run the loads TWICE in order to get the soap out of our clothes, doubling our water usage on laundry.

Don't get me started on low-flow toilets.  I'm a bigger than average guy, but not a monster by any means.  And there has never been a low-flow toilet than can flush my morning constitutional in one flush, meaning I have to stand by and do two or three flushes.  Which means lots of extra water.

One of my friends from another post recalled that they used cloth diapers, which required lots of washing.  But they lived in Germany at the time, and the water heaters there actually HEAT THE WATER, which meant that the diapers came out of the wash CLEAN!  Try doing that with an American washer, and an American water heater, which is more like a water warmer, and you'll end up with a bacteria laden lump of crap in your washer.

Why do we put up with this kind of horrible machinery?  Government.  Plain and simple.

It's far past time we said "Fuck the government".

Today on Woot

I normally don't do many product reviews, but I have one of these bad boys I think they're pretty awesome.  I typically use it on my motorcycle.  The pocket on the back comes with what they call a "Universal Holster".  Basically a couple straps of velcro to hold everything in place.  The pocket will fit a full-sized M1911A1 and a spare mag.

It's not the biggest bag in the world, but it's one that I keep using.

Watching a neighbor's dog

Whist they go off on holiday.  Luckily, he's not the type that tries to dominate everything in the house.  However, I can see our dogs having a discussion with him come meal time.

Gonna be a fun couple of days.

Another celebrity died

I don't care.

I really don't care.  Earlier this month I was part of a funeral for a man who lived his life to the fullest.  He raised two wonderful kids who are raising their own kids now.  He retired as a Master Sergeant form the USMC.  He ran rifle competitions for both the USMC and the NRA.

His funeral was attended by maybe twenty people.  And in my opinion, he was eminently more worthy of a send-off than some Hollywood celeb.

Last month, one of the folks at my parish in California died of cancer.  We was younger than I am.  He left behind a beautiful wife and five wonderful children.  His death was exponentially more tragic than any of these Hollywood people who spent their lives doing drugs and being stupid, or in the case of Debbie Reynolds, lived a decent life and died at the ripe old age of 84.

I'm a little tired of seeing people wail and moan and gnash their teeth as these celebrities kick the bucket.  Maybe if George Michael didn't do lines of coke of a male hooker's ass for decades, he would have lived longer.  Maybe if Prince wasn't popping pills like a ten-dollar whore, he wouldn't have died.  Many people have died this year, and I've mourned for many of them but Carrie Fisher isn't one.  Without going to Google or IMDB, can anyone name a movie other than any of the Star Wars franchise that she was a part of?

I didn't think so.

More people are going to die.  We all die.  Let's mourn the folks who deserve it.

And just in case, Dear 2016:  Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham are still alive.  Just so you know.

Flashbacks

Found this thread on Twitter.

Without revealing your actual age, what something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn't understand?

— Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) December 28, 2016

Started reading down, and going "Holy Hell, I remember that!"  Amazing how far we've come in just my lifetime.

Horry Clap!

Stole it from here.

And Carrie Fisher died of a heart attack

As with George Michael, there's a lesson to be learned here.  And that lesson is this:  Don't do drugs.  Oh sure, you might not die of an overdose in your 20's, but the damage that you'll do will shorten your life dramatically.

The Day After Christmas

The Feast of St. Steven, widely called "The First Martyr".

We had an interesting sermon at Mass yesterday.  Yesterday was not only the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, but it was the commemoration of St. Anastasia III, another Martyr.  In fact, there are a whole lot of feasts coming up celebrating Martyrs throughout Christianity's existence.  And fittingly, you'll find quite a few saints who were martyred.

As the priest put it, "Martyrdom, martyrdom, martyrdom, Merry Christmas."

So we celebrate the joy of the birth of our Savior, but we also have to keep in mind that Jesus didn't come here to save us on this world.  He came here to save us for the next.

God never promised us Earth.  He promised us Heaven.

Oh, and since the day after Christmas is almost as bad as the day after Thanksgiving, there's not a chance in hell I'm going out today.  Hells to the no.  I've got some bottling to do.  And cider to make. I'm using a lager yeast, since my basement is cold enough that ale yeasts don't seem to be doing much.  It's an experiment.  And then, I've got one batch of gose to make, and from there we're off into experiment territory again.

George Michael is dead

Seems like someone saved me the trouble of hunting him down and killing him for that abomination "Last Christmas" song that I've been forced to listen to over and over and over this year.

OK, OK, that's not nice.  But neither is "Last Christmas".

For unto us a Child is Born

1 And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. 

2 This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. 

3 And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. 

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David. 

5 To be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child. 

6 And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 

7 And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn. 

8 And there were in the same country shepherds watching and keeping the night watches over their flock. 

9 And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them and the brightness of God shone round about them: and they feared with a great fear. 

10 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people: 

11 For, this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. 

12 And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. 

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying: 

14 Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will. 

Luke was the Historian of the Gospel writers.  Just so you know.