Christmas is Over....

....and we're on the downhill slide for the rest of the holidays! The last big hurdle is New Years (which I've ended up planning like usual).

Silat training should be starting up again soon, right now I'm contenting myself with the challenge posted on the Desa.

That's all for now, I've got to go help my Uncle shampoo his carpet and get ready for a lil' party tonight.

Getting A Little Behind

Well Christmas is coming and it seems like the closer we get the more hectic things become. With all the parties, get togethers and people who "just wanna hang a bit" before Christmas everything just seems to be getting stretched very thin. I am enjoying getting to see folks that I haven't gotten a chance to see in a while though.

All these commitments have put me a little behind on training though. Hopefully that will be changing today. This is the first time that I've gotten a chance to come up for air in two days.

Hey! I cooked!

Well, it's nice to get to cook a whole meal again. Usually when I cook it's just for me but tonight we had some company in from out of town so I took the oppurtunity to show off. Cooked the whole meal by my self (except desert, somehow we wound up at The Cheese Cake Factory for that....not that I'm complaining mind you).

I did broiled steak (with doctored up Montreal for a rub), marinated potato and carrot wedges (reduced the marinade to make a decent lil' sauce) and mushrooms sauteed in butter with soy and cajun seasoning. All in all it wasn't bad and I helped 3 porky folks (myself included) get a little porkier.

Most guys think cooking is somehow unmanly or not a good skill to have. I call bull on that one, being able to cook has gotten me dates and helped me salvage quite a few evenings that would have been ruined by crappy food.

The Tueller Drill (Kinda)

The Tueller Drill is when 2 men line face each other from about 21 feet away. One man is armed with a knife and the other a gun (in holster or whatever carry method he usually utilizes). At the signal the man with the knife rushes the man armed with the gun and attempts to stab him with getting shot. The man with the gun attempts to draw and fire without getting stabbed. This rarely goes well for the man with the gun unless he utilizes explosive movement. I've been trying to find the video of it and until now have been unsuccessful. Finally found a version of it in this Pekiti Tirsia video although they don't appear to be spaced out the full 21 feet.

This Week in Silat and School Mumblings....

Last week I was doing so good in Silat, at least as far as getting training time in. I had averaged about 3 days a week for several weeks consecutively. Then this week comes, with some crazy school demands and some spiffy little other surprises (like my Uncle being admitted to the Hospital with Chest pains tonight and car trouble for me etc.). That doesn't even mentioned the stuff my training partner has been going through.

Finally turned in that Damned Paper. I don't think I've ever in my life had that much trouble actually writing a paper once I get started. Freaking pain is what that was. Oh well, it's all down hill from here. We don't really have a final to speak of for this class so all I have to do is keep showing up and get my A. That will be the first grade I have received on anything academic since I was 17.

A Little Break, and Post-Thanksgiving

Well I am up at this insanely late hour writing a college paper about self-defense...

Which I thought would be insanely easy...

But is turning out to be quite difficult. I think I'm too close to the subject and losing my edge a little. Some things I take so much for granted that my reasons for believing them become a little murky and I can't as quickly call to mine the facts that I base my belief on. I think one of the stops down that road is fanaticism so I decided to write the paper to revisit one of my beliefs and make sure everything is still properly gelled and hopefully avoid getting that far. Maybe taking this little blogging break will help a bit.

This last Thanksgiving was the first time in years (probably 10 of them) when it was JUST our family. Traditionally we invite freaking everyone, and I do mean everyone. Last year we had 28 people and only about 15 of those were family. It's nice to have a break once in a while but hey, next year we're already planning on outsiders to invite, and that's as it should be.

Pre-Thanksgiving....

...And other ramblings.


The Job hunt continues. I really don't wanna go back to "paper or plastic?" or go to "would you like fries with that?" but it may end up happing soon. Definitely not getting into sales again.

College goes well though. I have an A so far in my one lonely class but it's good for now. I'm going to try to take some more stuff next semester. Which reminds me, I've got a paper due that I should start on after this. Think I'm going to try to persuade people to learn how to defend themselves. In previous papers I've compared and contrasted female personalities by hair color and descriptively written about parties I've been at. I'm very glad my professor has a sense of humor or my current grade would be far below the passing level.

PSP proceeds well, I'm averaging about three 1-2 hour nights per week. Mostly doing the lower level stuff with my buddy Morgan. I think he's ready to move to level two as soon as he goes down to St. Cloud to see Guru Stark. With the Holidays and money situation though, timing has been difficult. I'm glad I'm having to not only work the lower level stuff but teach it, as a result I'm knocking the considerable rust from my skills. They needed it badly.

Turkey Day, my favorite holiday! I can't wait! In my family Turkey Day is approached with the level of preparation that went into Iwo Jima or D-Day. We've scaled back this year and are only doing one ham and one turkey. Oh well, Christmas is just around the corner.

Another few jobs, one day I'll find.....

....a decent one to stay with.

Quit the job with DCSI and then got a job selling Verizon FIOS, didn't make any sales at either one so I'm outta sales for a little while. I'm putting in an application at the Hard Rock today for Guest Relations/Security. We'll see how that goes. I'm also putting in some apps for some of the places that are hiring on extra Holiday staff.

A new Job

Well I got a new job with DCSI Systems. I'm part of their promotions team, out there doing door to door security system promotions (see how I avoided the word "Sales" in there? My boss would be proud). It's comissions based so we'll see how it goes but I'm optimistic. The people that currently work there are not very motivated at all but they make decent money so I think I should do alright.

Well that went well!

Ever since I started Silat there have been two great blocks to my training, the main one being lack of training partners. Over the years I've done quite a bit to try and find someone who was interested in training on a regular basis (going into other schools, working out in parks, and generally asking folks I knew if they were remotely interested). The other block was my being a little lazy and letting life get in the way....but we won't dwell on that since tonight is a happy night :)

Anyway, several people I know had expressed an interest in training so tonight we finally went out into a park worked through Ales 1-4 and (Guru am I getting the Grammar right on this?) Pukulan-Pukulan Sterlak, Pamur, Belakang and Tukul. Everyone seemed quite enthusiastic and we're getting together again tomorrow.

We'll see how this all ends up going, but I'm optimistic (like always).

Damnit

Well, the job at EduTech didn't end up coming in. Amazing levels of incompetence in HR, Truly amazing.


Anyway, back to the Job Hunt while I do cabinets in the meantime to support myself.


In other news I will be attending my first College Class on Wednesday. Gotta admit I'm a little mixed up about it. On the one hand I was sworn to not come back to the class rooms after the debacle that was my Early Education, on the other hand getting an I R Smart degree seems to be one of those steps on the road to becoming obscenely wealthy.....or at the very least keeping myself in satisfactory amounts of Guinness Draught.

A Quick Post

Well I got a job at the nearby EduTech Centers, and if all goes well I will be starting Wednesday. I'll be doing their admissions headhunting. Which is alot better than building Cabinets outside in the Florida Summer. More to come later.

Legal Immigration?

I'm all for legal immigrants, our nation was built on immigration...but when it comes to something like this I become a little annoyed:

I know how to kill the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill and the illusions that inspire it. We need every citizen to spend a day at John and Pat King's Anvil Ranch in southern Arizona. The experience would create an overnight revolution in America's view of this domestic crisis.

The Kings live every day with barking dogs, vandalism, guns at their bedside, trash on their land, and most tragically, human remains. The bodies of seven illegals were found on the 50,000-acre Anvil last year.

"Can you imagine dying of heat prostration out there?" says Pat King, a 62-year-old former nurse. "It has got to be the most awful thing. I wish the two countries would get together and stop this. In this whole 50-mile area, there is no law. It's a frontier."

I visited the Anvil a week ago Sunday. The night before, the Minutemen had wrapped up a month-long watch at the ranch, and the nationwide demonstrations to demand rights for illegal immigrants would begin the next morning.

I've visited many Arizona ranches, and it always surprises me how quickly I can travel from Tucson to a combat zone. It takes 50 minutes to reach Anvil's headquarters in heavily-crossed Altar Valley, located to the southwest of the city. Even with that proximity, most people in Tucson-to say nothing of Maine or Washington, D.C.-live in blissful ignorance of the worsening situation here.

When Pat discusses the problem with friends, they say, "Don't you think you're exaggerating?" No one would ask that if they saw the 40 bicycles stacked against one of the Anvil's out-buildings. They're the favored means of transportation for drug smugglers, who pack their cargo onto saddlebags and pedal across our border, then abandon the bikes.

As for vandalism, Pat describes what they experience today as "wanton,"-water troughs filled with garbage, pipes cut, valves hammered to pieces. She jokes that they're thinking of putting a tetherball by the troughs to occupy the illegals so they aren't so destructive.

"You have to understand, we're under siege here," she says. "Every day my son and husband check water and fences and redo the damage they've done. Not to get on with our work, but to undo the damage. Every. Day."

Micaela McGibbon, Pat's daughter, took me on a ranch tour, and in one mile we crossed 30 smuggling trails. In a wash, we inspected sophisticated brush huts in which illegals rest during trips north.

But this nightmare comes right to the Kings' doorstep. Imagine living under permanent stakeout. The Kings do. They removed mesquite trees from around their house because illegals would hide underneath them and wait for the house to empty.

For nine years, the family has been unable to leave home unless someone stays to guard against burglars. They celebrate Christmas in shifts. On Christmas Eve, Pat's son and daughter-in-law go to Tucson to visit family, and when they return John and Pat go on Christmas morning.

Micaela can no longer do chores unless accompanied by her father or a brother, and taking her 4-year-old daughter out on horseback is forbidden. "We can't go anywhere without an escort," Micaela says.

The Kings have complained to politicians and law enforcement for years. "They talk this rule of law stuff, but it doesn't mean a thing," Pat says. "When you realize nothing's going to happen, you have to do self-protection."

During their April watch, Minutemen spotted 1,501 illegals on the Anvil, and of these the Border Patrol arrested 500. But it turned into a circus. ACLU volunteers showed up every day to monitor and harass the Minutemen, at times sounding car horns and flashing lights to alert the illegals that the Border Patrol was coming.

This is the border crisis in microcosm-confused Americans rush to defend lawbreakers while ignoring, even demonizing, law-abiding citizens who suffer daily affronts to basic liberties on land their family has tended for 115 years.

The Anvil's location, 38 miles north of the border, means that by the time illegals arrive there, they've been walking for days and are sometimes in desperate shape.

Between May and August last year, cowboy Jason Cathcart found four sets of human remains. He came to dread spotting what looked like little white balls in the distance. Those "balls" turned out to be human skulls.

In March, a man arrived at the Anvil's front gate so distraught that he ran into the yard and tried to impale himself on a pitchfork. Later he took up a bale hook and used the pointed end to slash his throat.

"This is what life is like in the Altar Valley," says Pat.

Certainly the McCain-Kennedy bill will do nothing to change life here. Pat likens the bill, with its plan for amnesty, a guest-worker program, and negligible enforcement, to swatting flies in your house with the doors and windows wide open.

Ask yourself: Would the Altar Valley be a war zone if McCain lived here? If Kennedy's Hyannis Port compound were magically transplanted to southern Arizona, how long do you think it'd be before he rewrote his bill? The first time Kennedy saw 30 illegals dashing across his property, he'd trip over his Guatemalan lawn guy rushing to the Senate floor to demand enforcement.

That's one of the American tragedies at play here, the abandonment of ordinary citizens by our country's elites, and most strikingly, the abandonment of the very laws they themselves have written.

The resulting invasion has driven legal Arizona residents from their land, including John King's aunt. She lived south of the Anvil for more than 40 years, but sold out rather than keep fighting a battle the federal government has no intention of winning.

Pat thinks the street demonstrators-she calls them cowards-need to show their bravery by returning to Mexico and changing that country, not ours.

"We did that with the Boston Tea Party," she says. "We were taxed without representation and we rose up and changed it. I think the students in the streets and these young ACLU individuals here are being used. When you talk to them you realize it's all emotion. There's no logic. They don't have a clue."

When it comes to what's really happening on our southern border, neither does the rest of the country. But that would change if every American spent a day at the Anvil.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...RhMGY5MjBkN2Y=

The Weapon is Civilization

WHY THE GUN IS CIVILIZATION
By Marko Kloos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding
under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those
two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is
the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon
that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger,
a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger,
and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys
with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical
strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a
defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm
makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course,
is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed
either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most
of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the
banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and
the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A
mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a
society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal
that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on
the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't
constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings
and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun
makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker
defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is
level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal
and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,
but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means
that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm
afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the
actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the
actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the
equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

Edited to cite true source of article.

And Again.....we Post!

Well this last year has had some interesting turns and twists:




I'm still in the National Guard although it looks like I'll be doing the 24 Month contract time out since we can't seem to get my back straightened out.

I won't be attending Keluarga this year unless something drastic changes. Just don't have the finances for it this time.

It's looking like I'll finally be making the long trek to college.....who'dve thought that I would end up being one of those college kid types I useta make fun of?

And I'm finally having stuff settle down enough that I can start training again in the Martial Arts (specifically PSP, I've got some serious rust to knock off my skills).

My Back still hurts all day, every day but I'm learning to manage the pain a little better. It's been a while since it put me down flat like it used to. Thank God for the Small Miracles.


All in all life is looking up and I can't wait to see whats around the corner.