Gonna be in Armadillo for a couple of days (I used to screw with the kids and call it that)… 🙂
We’ll be at AMA-Con, sponsored by the Amarillo Public Library, on Saturday and Sunday. If you’re able to make it, we’re in the North Exhibit Hall, all the way in the back, against the wall in the back right corner…LOL
There is NO way we could be any further from the entry… sigh…
Anyway, if you drop by, we’ll be happy to chat with you, and sign things!
Up to my alligator in assholes this week, so took a bit of a break. Read Pratchett’s Mort and found my copy of Doc Smith’s First Lensman. But I drug a couple of others out… 🙂
I also have a bunch of old Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey too…
Note the price- 60 CENTS!
And a couple of others, including the First Lensman, which was 50 CENTS!!!
Not saying I’ve had it for a while, but it was published in paperback in 1964, and somehow survived all the moves.
I was asked why I put other authors in the back of my book, with links to their books. This is what is in the back of the First Lensman book. New releases in SF, and Mysteries. A lot of times, you’d see something there, and end up buying another book or two that way.
I know I don’t have the coverage of a real publisher, but if I can steer folks to a good book by an author I enjoy, I’m going to do my best to help them out.
OBTW, 1964 dollar = $7.89 today. So our books ARE reasonably priced against the historic prices (if you’re under $5, that is).
When a plan comes together…
A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Navy have created the military’s first 3D-printed submarine, an achievement that may have the potential to accelerate the defense R&D process.
Full article, HERE.
It was actually completed last year, but just released. Here’s a good video on the manufacture.
And it’s going for a swim next year… In the MAST. This video gives you an idea of the capabilities of that little, well NOT so little facility.
Some folks might recognize the design, but the way it was done is the revolutionary part… Along with the potential that carbon fiber brings to the table, it could get ‘very’ interesting… At least for the bad guys! 🙂
Kathy Jackson, over at Cornered Cat has an excellent post up about protecting your kids from strangers, HERE.
My opinion, FWIW, is that the PC culture and fear of ‘offending’ someone has brought us to the point that we are afraid of any kind of public ‘confrontation’. The diaper snipers, panhandlers, assholes, and others feel free to prey on John Q. Public because they pretty much know they can get away with it. Look at all the issues with fast food and the fights, 911 calls, shootings, etc. over incorrect orders, for example…
Now, if you say something, the SJWs are going to go loud on you, trying to shame you into compliance, or possibly physically attack you if you don’t ‘let’ them do what they want.
To my mind, this is just one more reason to carry, and especially maintain situational awareness any time I’m out with my grandkids. I’m a grumpy old fart, so I’m not going to be real complimentary if you try to screw with my grands or me. This applies doubly at night or in parking lots. I like to park where I’m not next to anyone, but it’s summer in Texas, so I WILL fight you for the one shady spot in the parking lot, even if it is a quarter mile to the store…
Seriously, go read, and check the links she has at the bottom. Kathy is good folks, and a damn good instructor, in addition to being a wife and mother.
The USS Forrestal almost became the biggest single loss of life in the Vietnam conflict…
I still remember seeing a longer version of this in boot camp, and wondering what they hell I’d gotten myself into…
A rocket fired across the deck, impacting an A-4 loaded with fuel and bombs, getting ready to launch. And things went south from there.
The fire left 134 men dead and 161 more injured. Many aircraft and a large amount of ordnance were jettisoned to prevent them from catching fire or exploding. Twenty-one aircraft also sustained enough damage from fire, explosions and salt water, to be stricken from naval inventory, including seven F-4B Phantom IIs and three RA-5C Vigilantes. The fire also revealed that Forrestal required a heavy duty, armored forklift for use in the emergency jettisoning of aircraft (particularly heavier types such as the RA-5C Vigilante) as well as heavy or damaged ordnance. Sailors had been forced to manually jettison numerous 250 and 500 lb bombs by rolling them along the deck and off the side.
But the upshot of the incident was major changes to policy and procedures that saved untold lives in other incidents. One of the biggest was requiring ALL sailors to go through shipboard firefighting training before ever setting foot on a ship.
Still raises the hair on the back of my neck watching it these many years later…
I do like to cook on occasion, and I’m not above freely stealing recipes other bloggers have posted, like Brigid back in the day, Miguel, and others…
Miguel posted a recipe for a Tortilla Española. I had all the stuff, and it’s a weekend, so why not!
Well, I used his recipe, and the recipe is GREAT! However, my execution left a ‘bit’ to be desired… Sigh…
I kinda approximated the amounts by looking at the amounts he had in the pictures, and ‘might’ have had a little too much filling! I ended up having to use 8 eggs to cover it all.
102 on the range today…
Just a ‘tad’ warm! Did a little old school, and some ‘new’ school…
A little over 100 rounds, and it truly sucks when your hands are sweaty and the sweat is running into your eyes. I did pretty well at 5, 7, and 10 yards until the last mag, when I dropped four rounds. I was regripping and trying to blink the sweat away, but it obviously didn’t work real well… Sigh…
And that SAA at 10 yards was ‘interesting’ to shoot offhand as sweaty as it was, but I did keep them on target! 🙂
Not something I’d recommend, but I wanted to see what/if I could handle the heat and shoot successfully (there is no cover at the range). Much like winter shooting, it’s an ‘acquired’ taste, mostly salty… sigh..
And Jim Jim got his bi-annual post up, HERE! 🙂
Military fakers in Pennsylvania may want to consider a change of station. The state has passed stolen valor legislation that will make impersonating a service member or veteran, or wearing unearned military decorations, a third-degree misdemeanor if it’s done “with intent to obtain money, property or other benefit,” the legislation states. The
law goes into effect in late August. “This legislation is incredibly important because
Pennsylvania has the fourth-largest veteran population in the country,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said, “and it is our duty to be certain that benefits for those veterans are
available to those who have earned them.”
Third-degree misdemeanors in Pennsylvania can result in jail time of up to a year and a fine of up to $2,000. The law expands upon the federal statute, which provides for a fine and up to a year behind bars for wearing unearned military decorations such as the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart or Combat Action Badge, with the intent to receive some
tangible benefit.
That law went into effect in 2013, a year after the Supreme Court struck down existing federal stolen valor legislation on free-speech grounds. That 2005 law did not include language limiting punishment to those seeking or obtaining financial benefit; in a case involving a California man who lied about receiving the Medal of Honor, the court
held that “falsity alone does not bring speech outside First Amendment protection” and ruled the law unconstitutional.
Many states have passed stolen valor legislation in the wake of that ruling. Just in 2015, for instance:
• A Massachusetts law with similar provisions to the Pennsylvania law gives fakers up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
• A New Jersey law mandated a minimum $1,000 fine for impersonating a service member or wearing unearned medals, and attempting to benefit from the ruse. The money goes into a scholarship fund for military dependents.
• A Texas law upped the stolen valor penalty in that state from a maximum $500 fine to a $2,000 max fine and up to 180 days in jail.
h/t Mikey
It’s cars…
Back when you could actually tell them apart…
And VERY few of them had AC. I can remember going for ‘Sunday’ drives as a kid, and first learned about the 2 55 AC there… And it was actually in a 53 Bel Air like the one pictured… Sigh…
Drive-ins are mostly a thing of the past, but they used to be VERY popular with teens and parents with kids, usually NOT on the same night…LOL There has been many a baby ‘conceived’ in a drive-in. And the best car to take to a drive-in was an early 70s Caddy. Seven in the seats and four in the trunk (not that I was ever involved in something like that)! And it cost something like three dollars a car… The one below is from the late 50s in South Bend, IN.
And you hung one of these in the window and cranked it up… Tinny, lousy sound, but who cared! 🙂
Sigh… I miss the cars, I miss the fun we had, and I know we can’t go back, but damn…
The is a bleg for all of us poor, bottom of the list authors, that live and die by reviews… If you’re an indie writer, publishing via Amazon like I am, 50 reviews and 100 reviews are the two keystones for getting ‘better’ pushes from Amazon for our novels.
If you’ve read any of my books, the short story, or the novella, and left a review, I greatly appreciate it. If you haven’t and don’t mind taking 5 minutes, I’d appreciate an honest review.
The ones I’m shortest on are the Rimworld short, Rimworld- Into the Green, and The Morning the Earth Shook. All of those are below 50 reviews. HERE is a link to my author page which has all my books.
In other news, it looks like I’m not the only one getting those ‘lovely’ one star reviews. Both LB Johnson, and JD Kinman also got nailed on the 21st of July by an ‘undisclosed’ reviewer. JD put up an excellent post on the book of face, HERE, if you’re interested. While we, as authors, are cautioned to ‘never’ read the reviews (for good reasons, mainly our sanity, or what little of it is left), there ARE times when you get something like these that is just totally frustrating, even more so, when they are not verified purchasers, and ‘anonymous’. They fact that all three of us are christians and conservatives may or may not have played a part… Who knows…
Kicking the soap box back in the corner…
In the GOOD news category, if you want a paperback copy of The Lawdog Files, just click the cover below to go directly to it! 🙂
It’s officially out!!! 🙂 And yes, Lawdog is hyperventilating again…LOL