Guard Dog

HOOYAH! Versteeg into the empty net. Cats win 2-0. Boston along with the Avalanche are the biggest Panther killers in the league. This is a big win.

Panthers are up 1-0 on the Bruins, 2 min to go!

Excerpt: Read the article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8...-Milky-Way.html Voyager might actually be second probe to exit the solar system. Pioneer 10 may have done so by now but communication with it was lost in 2006. I remember clearly as a kid when the images transmitted back of Jupiter and Saturn by Voyager 1 & 2 were all over the nightly news. I was enthralled. It's simply amazing that not only do they still work but are expected to continue sending data back until their fuel is spent sometime around 2020. By that time Voyager 1 will have traveled some 12 billion miles from the sun. And in 76000 or so years it may well be captured by the star Proxima Centauri. It would be cool if the human race has already been there and someone is there to greet it. Don't you think?

Any thoughts on the realignment plan next year? I was a little iffy at first but I kind of like the conference the Panthers ended up in. If you haven't seen it:http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852

I finished Fallout New Vegas for the first time tonight. That really was a hell of a game. Josh, Chris & Co. really knocked that one out of the park. I bought a new car to begin restoring. It's a 1969 Plymoth Fury convertable. No engine, no transmission and the wiring has all been ripped out but the frame is not bent and the body is in fair shape. No rust at least. I can't wait to get started.

I've been very busy of late wrapping up all the license and compliance paperwork for the FCC for all of our clients. Finally finished. Nothing to do at work now but cruise until next year. And of course not get drunk and make a jackass of myself at the Christmas party.

Very true (as was the rest of your post). Although there is a protectionist argument to be made in favor of asset backed currency. However, as I have conceeded numerous time here, the advances of the economies and standards of living we have seen over the past half century probably would not have happened had we not abandoned the gold standard. Either way WoD it's a moot thing to argue because that genie is not going to get put back in that bottle.

Panthers win again last night, 2-1 against the Rangers. All those years of high draft picks is staring to pay off.

Condolences Raithe, that is terrible. And so sudden too.

Ok I think you are on to something here. I was investigating if any conferderate veterans turned up in the French Foreign Legion, or the British Army following Approtimax but I like this idea too. On a book note I'm now reading The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks. As many of you know it was the Barbary Coast campaign where the line in the Marine Corps hymn "To the shores of Tripoli" came from. Fascinating reading.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone to whom that pertains. Happy Thursday to the rest of you folks. It's just me and the dogs today. But I'm cool with that. I'm grilling venison tonight and I've cut flank meat into strips that I'll put in the smoker to make jerky for the dogs. In the mean time I'm going to sit on the porch, drink my coffee, watch the dogs play in the yard, and enjoy the cool weather.

I've never read the book, the movie was ok, the best part being a brit and an aussie trying to speak with southern accents . But I'm thinking a completely different story. Cold Mountain ends when the soldier comes home. I'd begin there. Also, it was set in a part of North Carolina that did not see any fighting. I was thinking Georgia/South Carolina, right in the path of Sherman's March.

Well, I am dropping that idea because I found myself planning a rewrite of The Heart of Darkness and Conrad already did a pretty good job of that story. Plus my research into the history of the Kansas/Missouri border war made me realize that while it was historically significant, it was not strategicly significant and not something a Confederate commander facing an immenint invasion would dedicate assets to. I also find a lot of compelling stories in the dissolution and further activites of Quatrill & Bill Andersons raiders but that has been done to death also (ever heard of Jesse James, the Outlaw Josey Wales, etc). Instead I'm looking at a story about a regular infantry officer returning home and trying to rebuild a life in the post war south. His family is missing, home has been confiscated, his country is in ruins. I might have something to work with there.

Panther win 4-3. Yesssss! That snaps a two game skid. Kudos to Chris Versteeg for two.

Not a bad idea, just not an area I'm well versed in. I'd still like to so something with the post-war south. The Reconstruction, both the good and the bad is a fascinating subject to me because it's influence can still be found even 145 years later.

Watching Panthers/Devils game right now. It was ugly at the end of the 1st with NJ leading 3-0 but the cats have battled back to 3-2. They've got a good team this year. For a change.

I see email them and please forward 100$ to my account as a token of appreciation for this awesome advice. I say do a reverse trace on that email, find who sent it, steal their identity and clean out their bank account. Now that would be irony!

Forget my previous idea... the theme has been done to death and all the story outlines I've come up with strike me as improbable. The key to good historical fiction IMHOP is if the story could have happened. Does the plot fit into the historical setting? In this case, no. The trouble is my military service has left me with the impression that the military is highly organized and moves with a great deal of coordination. That was not the case in the Civil War, particularly in the south because every state fielded it's own army. There really was no unified command as there was in the north.

Nice to see you Tarna! Had a date last night. Don't see this working out because she is afraid of dogs.... that could be trouble. But it was a nice time at least.

Stayed up intil 4 am playing FONV. Very tired today, but it was worth it.

That is bsed solely on my own observations. I put 0 research into that statement. So take that (and everythng else I tell you) with a grain of salt. Except for what is in my 401k & IRA I've gotten out of stocks all together for the time being anyway. Like you I got started about 8 years ago when I found myself with some cash I did not know what to do with and like you I am self-educated about the process. I read everything I could get my hands on and for a time I was constantly trying to "game" the market by timing the rise and fall of stock prices. It's a ton of work and it just boils down to a crapshoot. Since then I've followed a different strategy, chasing small cap stocks for short term growth and I've enjoyed a little success. It's a strategy called "Bottom Feeding". The idea is for each transaction to net a small return but you do a lot of transactions. Before long pennies become dollars, etc. A few years back I bought into a company called Conserve when their shares were at $0.40 or there abouts. I had a standing order to buy at $0.40 and sell at $0.70 (or close to it). That stock was jumping up and down back then and I'd buy and sell 1000 shares several times a week. Sometimes several times a day. Not a lot of money each time it happens but this went on for weeks before it levelled off around $0.50 or so. You get the idea. Since I got out I've gotten into commodities as we've discussed but I'm backing off that now and looking into real estate. In the US that has hit rock bottom and even if it takes years to recover the time to buy will never be better.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back. And in some cases, whatever has been in the barrels before (say, sherry) plays a big part in the formation of the taste of the whiskey. As is the case of the above mentioned Auchentoshan. I had a boss was in the habit of saying that it's a proper gentlemanly life when you're enjoying whiskey and female company at the same time, and the whiskey has been aged longer than the female company. Though apparently he fell on tougher times and went to prison later on, I hope he didn't switch to cheaper whiskeys. Might explain how he ended up in the big house

I have tried brewing beer which is legal and there are tons of places to get equipment and ingredients from but I never could get the carbonation right. Either it was too fizzy and tasted like some weird cross between beer & ginger ale, or it was flat. I gave up after a little while. It is fun to do though.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back. Do you work in a brewery or something? Because that was fascinating to read. No, I just watched the discovery channel. Plus I am a connoisseur of fine bourbon. One correction though, it's oxidation not alcohol that causes the chemical breakdown while aging in the barrel. I guess I sould proof read before hitting "add reply" huh? IMHOP the best bourbon whiskey in the world is Knob Creek Small Batch. It's bottled at "barrel strength", undiluted like the regular brand which gives it a bit more heat but the wort uses molasses for the fermentation rather than corn sugar which gives it a more earthy flavor. More smoky, less nuttly like the regular brand. It's a little bit more expensive but I never drink more than one or two glasses a night anymore so I'm going for quality over quantity these days.

It's called distilling, and nah I've never tried that. Believe it or not that's actually illegal in the US and quite difficult to do. Brewing beer is easy (well, brewing beer that tastes good is not so easy). Freshly distilled whiskey is clear and almost all alcohol. It's actually only called moonshine if it's made from corn mash. Commercial distillers age the fresh whiskey in charred oak barrels for the period of time. Jack Daniels for example ages their black label for seven years. During that time it picks up it's color and flavor interacting with the barrel wood and as the ingredients in the wort begin to chemically seperate and the alcohol breaks down. Then they dilute it to reach the percentage they want becasue fresh out of the barrel it's around 120 proof. There was a great show on Discovery about that a few years back.