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.