Oh , Happy New Year

I would like to wish all of humanity and especially those who take their invaluable time to visit here a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Lifted shamelessly from C&S

Yoouurrr so vain,

If you had ever wondered why John Edwards is referred to as "Breck girl" this video should leave no question in your mind.
H/T C&S

Sleeping around

The moral of this story should be? I wonder who picked up the bill for all the dumped garbage to be picked up?

Swing low, sweet chariot

Maybe they will hold a raffle. This should have been done a year ago.

Thanks Minnesota

Speaking in Dearborn late Sunday night, the first Muslim elected to Congress told a cheering crowd of Muslims they should remain steadfast in their faith and push for justice.

"You can't back down, you can't chicken out, you can't be afraid, you got to have faith in Allah, and you got to stand up and be a real Muslim," Detroit native Keith Ellison said to loud applause.

Ok I need some help with a definition here “real Muslim” is there such a thing as a fake Muslim? I went to wikipedia and found a definition for Muslim, I tried fake Muslim no luck, even moderate Muslim, still just one definition. However when searching Christians at this same site, there where many definitions available. I’m still troubled with Mr. Ellison and his real Muslim remark. Over the last twenty years Americans and Jews have been attacked by “real Muslims” are these the Muslims that Mr. Ellison is speaking of. I have yet to see any significant condemnation of “real Muslims” that flew planes into the twin towers.

Some may read this and say, he’s just a racist, bigot, and, maybe a redneck to boot. Fact is I don’t harbor that mind-set, there are Christian based groups that I think are just as fanatical, the difference is they don’t kill you when you say your not interested and to leave your doorstep.

Oh Canada

The next time you have a Canadian or one of the many ungrateful Americans telling you how great Canada is, toss this into mix. No it won’t change their minds or help you win the debate, just something to help you illustrate the folly of socialism.

To be fair this type of issue has happened here in the states too, just not with this kind of bureaucratic flavor.

Personal note

The winds blew hard today across West Michigan gusting up to 40MPH, keeping me out of the woods today. Deer tend to keep their travel to a minimum on windy days, and I don't care to be 20 foot up in a tree when the winds were blowing as they were today. Tomorrow's forecast calls for a 5 to7 MPH wind out of the SW, which should be good as I believe the deer will be coming from that direction in the morning.

American car ?

The Big Three, if I never saw that in print or heard it again it would be fine by me, it’s like living in the past. Toyota expects to overtake GM this year, great! The company I work for builds bumpers for the Toyota Tundra and Sienna I am currently building a prototype for the next Toyota bumper that my employer will produce. By the end of February we will have provided Honda with two prototypes bumper systems, all of which are shipped to assembly plants right here in the USA the only bumper we ship out side this country is for, you guessed it GM

This is the rhetoric that incenses me: Members from Michigan, led by Rep. John D. Dingell, have pledged to use Democratic control of Congress to help U.S. automakers.

"If Toyota's worldwide production surpasses General Motors', it will simply provide further evidence of the need for the U.S. government to pursue policies that maintain and strengthen the U.S. industrial base," Dingell said yesterday.

I’m all for a level playing field, but I know this liberal commie Dingell, and what he’s implying, he wants to pour money into Detroit for which there will be little return.

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” ok, the analogy is a stretch, but it will work here .

Over at this thread some are showing unwavering loyalty to their American cars, many of which are built in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. Good for those who have that fierce patriotic brand loyalty; somebody needs to keep funding all those pensions and benefits.

Evening Hunt

Above are a few pics I snapped, from my tree stand this eve

After nearly month’s hiatus, I was back in the woods this evening. The rain had stopped and with the warm temperature and light wind it was a great setting for an evening hunt, the only piece missing were the deer. I saw one red squirrel the entire night. Ross (my son) and I had scouted this spot back in the first week of November and I hadn’t been back since. Walking in I was encouraged by the amount of deer sign present, there was even a couple fresh rubs. Not one to give up, I will hunt this area in the morning and again tomorrow evening.

Shot across the bow

We’ve not yet begun the New Year and already Jenny is pleading poverty. Not like I don’t believe her, it’s just that she, in no way brought this up during her campaign last fall. (from the article) As for increasing taxes, the Governor would not commit when pressed repeatedly by reporters. Call me cynical but, I see this as a set up for raising taxes.

I’m not comfortable with the politics in this state. Jenny’s only concern seems to be what lies east of Lansing. This may sound petty, but I feel the south east side of state is like an albatross around our necks. We can’t get Honda, Toyota or most any manufacturer to build up here because of the taxes and corrupt unions, and the governor is beholden to them.

I find it odd how the governors office has been responsible for the budget for the last four years and wasn’t aware of its condition. Maybe instead of spending all that cash on Cool Cities and the MEDC she should have be balancing the budget.

I wrote something about MEDC awhile back. I've pulled this from my old 360 blog. After reading it I think my suspicions were founded, I haven’t heard a single radio spot since the election

Over the last couple of months I’ve been hear advertising spots on a local radio station, these ads are being paid for by me. The MEDC has been running ads touting how great it is to start and run a business in Michigan, but why run them on local stations? Would it not make better sense to run them in a competing state, it seems like their preaching to the choir. Yes, I know there are business people from out of state that travel through and may hear these ads, but still I wonder. Michigan’s economy is in bad shape, manufacturing jobs are leaving and unemployment is at 6.3% 48 highest in the nation and we have what I believe is going to be a close race for governor this November. Could these ads be a type of campaign ad, to make it seem as if things are better than are?

I have sent an email to the MEDC requesting information about their advertising, about their target demographic. I hope to gain some insight into their goals and prove my suspicions wrong; otherwise I won’t be a happy camper.

There is plenty of information of the web about Jenny's connection and questionable contacts, start with Mark Petrosky +MEDC .

Larry's nondenominational holiday story

I LOL

Zucker draws parallels

David Zucker draws very distinct parallels between James Baker from "The Iraq surrender group" and Nevil Chamberlain. After this farce, I have little faith in the leadership this country. We are headed for perilous times in this country and many just choose to bury their collective heads in the sand. I laughed, but its not funny.

H/T Lucianne

Foil hat crowd

This is good, you remember the Partridge family. Danny shows more restraint than I could
H/T Hot Air

Worth a look

As I stated in a previous post, I’m learning myself html. I’ve even gone so far as to set up a unceremonious geocities web site to demonstrate my skills. During this endeavor it became apparent that I would need a good photo editor. Being the Dutchman I am, I sure wasn’t going to spend any money, not when there’s all that free stuff on the net. After trying a couple different software’s I came across Gimp : GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. To say the least I am impressed, I use Unigraphics, a high end CAD system at work, and this tool has much the same feel of control and numerous resources. There are a lot of buttons, having never used Photoshop it took me a few minutes to fire it up and start using it. I would recommend this open source software to anyone that works with images or just has a creative flair and what do you have to lose, it’s free!

TGIF

Posting from work today, not that I have nothing better to do, just taking a break. I have gotten all the quotes done, did a bit of design work, and worked at solving issues on the production floor. This evening my wife and I will be back in Holland for a engineering staff Chrismas party!
What fun dinner and drinks with people I see all day long.

Light posting

Posting may slow somewhat, I'm learning myself html.And reading comprehension and memorization are not my strong points, so this is to become a war of personal accomplishment with many battles to be fought.
The goal is not to become a web designer; however, as I write this it does have a nice ring to it.To have some basic html skills is all I desire.

French, but entertaining

jerome murat
Uploaded by segalier

Peggy sent this my way

Rock N Roll

I was reading a post over at this guy’s blog about Petoskey stones. I spent hours in the gravel pit behind the house in Jenison as a rock hound. Must be where my daughter gets it from, she always is picking up rocks, during the summer there’s little rock piles all over the house and garage. We had rock tumblers that I would set up in the garage and run for hours on end. When finally the cap was removed it was like magic, the results of that tumbling action yielded beautiful smooth polished stones, from once dirty rough rocks.

Melting Metal

I’m so bored with my welding class. I’ve been welding most of my life, and do it proficiently. I can do a prefect weld, take it to the instructor and he will say “do another one” I qualified two welds tonight and left. When I’m done with this module of the class I’m not enrolling in the rest of the modules. I haven’t made up mind, but I think I will do a CAD class or two.

Off to a slow start

What had appeared to be a good start for this ice fishing season has now but all melted away, and a white Christmas is not in the forecast. Right now I can hear the rain falling outside the window. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, any time I can get on the ice before the 1^st of the year is just a bonus. Besides there’s plenty off work around the house that needs doing and there still a bit of bow season left.

Sad

In a not so distant past, I raised tropical fish and corals.
The fish, corals, and all the equipment is gone now, this is all that remains.

Something I've never tried

And probably never will, feral cat hunting. Here's the catch, with a cannon. Now, I like cats we have one, but he stays inside and out of trouble. A feral cat is like any other varmint, and should be dealt with accordingly. My suggestion is a 22-250, .17 HMR or maybe just a .22 , I wouldn't go so far as to use a cannon, but then again, this guy makes it sound like fun.

A day of rest

I’ve been off and on this computer all day, and still haven’t come up with any thing to say here, not like it matters, I think I’m about the only person who reads this drivel. The house is quite, wife took Sarah and a couple friends ice skating, so it’s just Ross and I. There have been a few things accomplished today, small in scope but moving in the right direction. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting in Grand Rapids at a tool & die shop to discuss a prototype tool their building for the company. The next three months are going to be busy for myself with all the prototype work coming up.

Last night

I’m back out in the shop today; like superman had his “fortress of solitude” I have my “shop of solitude” not quite the same level of solitude, but that’s all I have. As I had said in a previous post my life sucks, and I wasn’t kidding, it does, it was easy for me to find someone worst off than myself. At times people will let you down; many times I’ve been that person.

Last night we went to the Santa Claus parade in Coopersville, our newly adopted home town, all the kids have now left Ravenna schools and now go to Coopersville. The parade was long, especially with temps down in the mid 20’s and a stiff breeze, let’s just say it was freezing; however, there was plenty of free hot chocolate up for grabs to combat the chilly weather. Before the parade started we toured the Coopersville museum and the farm museum, both quite interesting. The kids got to feed and pet some reindeer and collect more candy than they need, sometimes it takes times like this to balance out bad.

Yup, sums it up !

Not what you think it is, this is a G rated blog, well maybe PG

Woodworking

I have just finished gluing up a shelving unit I've built for the laundry area . Simple design with dado construction, will work well down here.

beta blogger

Just changed over to the new Google blogger. Sure hope I don't regret this decision.

Saturday morning

What a beautiful day. The sun is out and there are blue sky's overhead. the garage is nicely warmed up and I've started on the weekends projects.

Right on schedule

Winter has arrived here in west Michigan, ok maybe 20 days early but it is December. Last nights rain had turned to freezing rain and snow by this morning coating everything with an icy snow mixture. As the day progressed, the sky opened up and dropped another 4-6 inches of heavy wet snow. The morning tomorrow will be spent digging out the snowblower, taking care of a few last things outside, clearing out the garage. As much as I enjoy hunting it will be nice to spend the day here out in the garage with the wood stove burning, drinking coffee and just puttering around.

Back to class

Back to the school routine, tonight I started what I hope is my last class I need for my degree. I chose to take the easy way out and take a welding class, I am already a proficient welder. The classes are open entry-open exit, meaning you can start them at any time and finish it as fast as you can or just take a whole semester to do a module, classes are broken up into generally 4 modules. Tonight I was able to complete Five welds, about a 1/5 of the module, this will become my Tuesday - Thursday routine for the next couple months.

The look of things to come

Won't be long now, temp will be dropping to the very low 30's by Friday and snow is in the forecast. Not that I mind, I enjoy the winter season and do what I can to make the best of it. Deer hunting is on hold for a few weeks if not done for the year, I will try to get out and do a little late season bow hunting if the weather is right. The next few weekends will be spent at home, the chores around here have piled up since I've been hunting almost every weekend from the 1st of October. Besides, normally don't have good ice before Christmas.

Summer pics

More of Michigan's beautiful upper peninsula. Chippewa county, click---> Tahquamenon falls

Pictures, I took this summer.

Auto Repair

I’ve been driving this 95 ford Windstar since this spring, and it’s had a bad left front wheel bearing the whole time, the thing growled like a bear. After doing an oil change this morning I decide to take a look at the problem. After removing the wheel, brake pads, caliper, and caliper mount all of which where quite rusted, had to put the torch on the caliper mount screws to break them loose, I can remove the rotor and see that I still have to remove the 30mm axle nut, it take a bit of heat but I manage to remove it. Having gotten this far I reassemble everything knowing the next steps are no return once taken. After dinner I drove into Muskegon, picked up a new bearing, upon returning home I began the repairs.

Changing this bearing requires that the steering knuckle, which holds the bearing be removed, quite the daunting tacks when you first look at it. The removal want quite well, and all was left was to replace the old bearing with the new. After applying heat to the knuckle I used a large piece of round stock and a 3 pound lead hammer to beat out old bearing, cleaned up knuckle installed the new bearing, and decided to take a break and watch a movie with the kids.

With the kids in bed I returned to the garage to put the whole thing back together. The reassembly went very well, although I still need to pick up a new retaining bolt for the lower ball joint, it’s recommended that it not be reused, I put it in anyhow and took it for a ride. It was like a day and night difference, it even seemed like it had better pick up.

I did notice a scraping sound, probably the brake pad. What is funny about the whole thing is that I’ve been listening to this bearing noise the entire time and it cost me less than $25 to fix it.

Hunting has been slow for sure! Tomorrow its back to work for the day.

Saturday December 24, 2005 - 02:40pm

I enjoy shooting, either at game or targets. I generally like military type weapons. Above is a selection of weapons I own. From top to bottom; The Mosin-Nagant , Weatherby-Vanguard in .270 Win, Yugoslavian SKS , and a J.C. Higgins model 30 in .22LR this old gun is one straight shooting rifle. Had it not been raining today I would have most likely had a couple of these down to the range this morning.

Saturday December 24, 2005 - 01:48pm

This is latest member to our home network. Dell Optiplex GX110 this baby has a Pentium 3 - one gig processor and 256 RAM. I got this unit for my dad from work, they putting them up for bid, got two W/ 15” monitor for $125 a piece. This one came back to me infected; nephew was doing some porn surfing. Well I finally got around to fixing this weekend and I like it so much better than my laptop (from work also) I may just hold on to it.

UPDATE

This computer has since gone back to my dad, and I'm now using a dell optiplex 750 I picked up at work for $ 111

Fun with Ronald

Saturday December 24, 2005 - 10:24am

Yesterday my daughter and I went to Mickey Dee’s it seems that she had entered a contest, drawing of sorts and you had to be present to win. Now, mind you I was going out to for some holiday human interaction, and my wife says, “Take Sarah to McDonalds for the drawing”. Ok, I’m game, should be no big deal its right there by Sam’s club anyhow. We get there to 12:50, drawings at 1:00, we walk in I ask a girl at the counter about the drawing, still on for 1:00. There are not many times I am hungry enough to eat at Mickey Dee’s and yesterday was one of them, but I ask Sarah if she would like something, to which she replies no. Having purchased no food, we sit down in a far corner and wait for the festivities to begin. Looking extremely out of place, sitting there with no food, we are approached by a woman with a large duffle bag she asks” are you here to see Ronald McDonald do the magic show?” and I say “no we’re here for the drawing” This is where I’m told we have to sit thru the magic show before the drawing. Ronald makes his grand entrance, I stop feeling sorry for myself when I see this guy. After some “slight of hand” Ronald says lets draw a name for the big prize! I would guess there were maybe a dozen kids there and the lady hauls out this box with oh, I would guess to say 300 entry forms, and the clown hits one out of the park with” you folks may want to order dinner” Luckily it was after only 30 or 40 names Ronald pulls out somebody who’s there. As the fanfare begins Sarah and I leave, oh well, better luck next time.

Nothing to do ,and all day to do it !

Friday December 23, 2005 - 08:30am

First day of my Christmas vacation, got up about 6:45 been down here fooling around waiting for kid to get up. Got to get out and get supplies for the ice fishing derby next week. We may stop over at Wolf Lake; check out what’s doing over there.

Food, food and more food

Thursday December 22, 2005 - 07:59pm

Today we ate and then we ate more! I hate eating like that, fun while you’re doing it, but you pay for it later in more ways than one. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, beans with sausage and apples, meatballs and that was just the main dishes. There was cake, pie, candy and soda. Chips, pickles, olives, vegetable tray, fruit tray, and we never even got out the shrimp. Way too much food for a dozen guys.

What a long strange trip its been

Monday December 19, 2005 - 09:49pm

While driving through the longest tunnel in Norway 24.5K, you will pass through three of these vast blue rooms. I believe they are to comfort those with phobia's http://www.bergen-guide.com/538.htmtunnel

Norwegian ink

Monday December 19, 2005 - 10:21pm


In the Norwegian country side tattoo shops are not everywhere. Although in the town of Hamer I found this place. The Hamer tattoo studio. My co-worker Roger sat and watched as I was given a dose of pain. Well its not my best tat by any means, but it is the only one I have from Norway,Thanks Hydro!

Another day in happy valley !

Things at work are just fine, for a change somebody else took the ass beating. I think my boss is starting to get the hint that I plenty to do, without other folks piling design work on me.

Thought I might go fishing this evening, But that was not to be. A walk was just the thing to take my mind off my situation. No wind blowing,so walking around the village was nice. I went to the cemetery to visit my son Max, its been some time now. Next I ventured into the woods, walking on the snowmobile tracks I went to a bridge over the stream, so quite, but for the sound of the water. Walking back up the main drag I almost stopped at the local dive for a drink, but that would be so unlike me, I just kept walking.

FTD day

From 12/20/05

Well, not much is getting done up here in "crows nest" today. Did a few details this morning and now I've lost all my ambition! My boss (the company) gave all the guys in the tool room a Gerber multi-tool for Christmas, very nice! I've already made up my mind, I won't be going to class this evening. Tomorrow is a day of feasting here in the tool room, not much will be done, besides eating.

Dumping 360

I will be posting all of my yahoo 360 posts over here. The next 100 or so post will be from almost a year ago to present. 360 has done some weird stuff lately, so I'm going to give it up. Blogger has more to offer anyhow.

I like this photo. It was taken at the mouth of the cut river in Michigan's upper peninsula.

Found my way back

Almost forgot about this place.

Range time

Today has been a bit on the lazy been spending much of it on the computer. Getting off to the range seemed like a fine use of an hour before dinner. I loaded up 10 rounds of .270 win with IMR4895 at 47 grains topped off with a 130gr speer splitpoint. My first shot didn’t even hit the plate; I wondered if my scope had gotside had ten bumped? The next shot was about 3” high and 3’’ right I gave the scope 4 clicks down and 4 clicks to the left. I proceeded to group the next 3 at about ¾” apart in a vertical pattern, still to the right, but consistent. Of course the bugs where out in force, mostly biting horseflies, so I didn’t even take out my pistols.

Who I may be

This is the part where I tell whomever about myself, this is a recent photo of me relaxing at home.

I live in the village of Ravenna, quite small about 1,000 residents. Its location is not secret, but easily missed, its out in the middle of the corn. I was not raised here, that took place in the distant community of Jenison. My reason for being in Ravenna is, well just the luck of the draw, influenced by a couple factors. My wife is from Muskegon, 20 miles west of here and I was working in Grand Rapids 25 miles south east. When my father found a house in Ravenna it seemed like a good location. Now we can’t stand living here, because of our financial situation and that we have a teen in high school here we are stuck here for another three years.

My wife and I hare raising three children, Kory the oldest is from her previous marriage, we’ve had three children together our first son Max died at 11 months due to complications from premature birth and an intestinal disease. Our son Ross was born and our daughter Sarah was born 14 months later. Ross is now 10 and Sarah 9

I consider myself an expert driver; I drive 80 miles a day commuting to Holland where I work as a Tooling Engineer for Hydro Aluminum Automotive Structures. I have been working since of age of 14 and have held many positions, generally in some type of construction or mechanical trade. At the age of 29 I went to work for Autodie International and soon started an apprenticeship as a tool and diemaker. This was a pivotal point in my life which has taken me to where I am today in my career. After a lay-off at Autodie, I did a two month stint at Acemco in Spring Lake. I started at hydro in August of 2002 as a tool maker, although a union shop it was a step up in pay and working conditions from Acemco. Even though I was making less money and driving further than Autodie I was content there and when, like clock work Autodie called for me to return, I turned them down, one of the best decisions I have ever made.

When I’m not working I enjoy spending time outdoors, fishing is one of my passions, it is a year round obsession with me. I also hunt with gun and bow, which now with more vacation time this year I will be able to spend more time doing. I have a respectable collection of weapons that I take pleasure in shooting. I have also completed training and hold a CCW permit. I spend much time on the weekends helping my retired parents work on their house they are building near Howard City; we also get in quite a bit of fishing at nearby Whitefish Lake.

That’s a glimpse into who I am. Now lets talk about you!

For whatever reason, I've put off doing this blogger thing. I think my main reason doing this was to see if I could link it up with my 360 page and blogger seems to offer a few more options than 360. Lets see where this goes shall we!