Docwagon

Check your sent items. You sent me two, three minutes apart. I tried to cut and paste but it says I'm not allowed to use that extension. Bronies at 10:22 am bronies at 10:19 am I'm guessing cheetara is from a kid's cartoon? Is she more or less sexed up than the pony art Datte makes?

Sennex, if you think Datte's pony is sexy that's your issue. One you don't really need to PM me about twice and post publicly as well. Was that what you were referring to when you said we'd all seen a pony in lingerie in a sexy pose? Holy crap did I never consider it that way, and at least per Manjohnny's post I wasn't the only one. I took it for what it was, an old school pinup like you see on bombers, but done in a pony theme. If that's overly sexed up for you, though, you should probably steer clear of Disney cartoons. Mice have came a long way since Minnie was topless and flashing her giant bloomers. Hell, that chipmunk isn't even wearing pants!

Same here. Thanks for that. There's a community of Disney pervs, too. I'm sure there's Spongebob porn out there, but I'm not going to be the one to Google it. (Suck it NSA, one less thing for you to laugh at me about).

Her mother was on her side but unwilling to go against the father and brothers. They are not. She still has contact with some of her brothers that didn't side against her. English. Unless we were going to discuss my desire for tea or converse about the Three Bears, my Arabic wasn't going to cut it. I spoke about as well as a dim kindergartner. Qatar. We didn't enter the states until November of '05. While? Yes, very much so. It had to be secret or he could simply send her to Jordan or Kuwait and essentially hide her from me. Afterward, not as much but it was a possibility, hence the false trails and she basically lived in hiding for many months afterward. Even afterward she didn't go out of the house without me and I always employed counter intelligence methods while we were out. I also made no secret of my more violent talents. I have no idea. Women just like me. I talk to them like regular people and am not intimidated by beauty. I'm also, if I may say so, one funny motherfucker and if you can get a lady laughing you're 2/3 of the way there with any woman worth having. Everyone says that. It is a good story, but its also a relatively short story. There's maybe 20 pages there, and a lot of it is going back and forth between various embassies, foreign affairs offices, and civil bureaucrat offices getting required documents, getting them stamped, getting signatures, getting them translated, etc. I'll have to ask her before posting any pictures.

They reconnected for awhile via telephone and e-mail, but could not maintain the relationship. It was simply a bridge too far and they could not reconcile long term. I'm not sure that *I* understand all the cultural implications, but what she did is simply not done, which is why the false trails were laid even after the marriage. It is difficult to express her bravery in this, bucking her culture and family. Its difficult to express the level of trust she put in me to make it happen, to not betray her or leave her behind (which many people told her I would), etc. It is humbling to this day to think about.

On Sept 13th, 2004, a man who had fled to a war zone to save himself from himself was able to marry a woman who was brave enough to go against her family and her culture in the name of love. In the summer of 2003 the man had an epiphany. For reasons that are irrelevant to this story, he realized he needed to start over before his behaviors destroyed him. He remembered the last place he'd been happy was the military, but with his fucked up knee he'd probably not get far in trying to reenlist. He also wanted more freedom than an enlisted man had. So he became a security contractor, moved half way around the world away from all influences and alcohol, and before Christmas of that year he was in a foreign country watching the sand blow around. She was living with her parents, as is the custom of her land for unmarried women, and working as a pharmacist. She'd had an arranged marriage planned, but it had fallen through when the man had immigrated to another country before they were actually married. She was young, beautiful, and with a respectable career. She had no shortage of suitors, she had taken to wearing a ring and pretending it was a wedding ring because she got so many proposals in a day. Wealthy men, men of local fame from the media and the government services attempted to catch her eye. None did. She originally thought he was Lebanese, as he was sundark from working in the desert heat and dressed in local fashion. He spoke Arabic poorly, though, and he was in fact an American. She had nothing against Americans, she'd lived in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion, and like the native Kuwaitis remembered US soldiers as liberators. Still, Americans were an unknown quantity, often looking for a short term relationship that would destroy a woman's reputation and chances of a respectable marriage. She initially was leery of the American, but finally relented and went out with him for dinner and a beach visit. He invited her to his upcoming birthday party, she agreed to attend. They would have their first kiss. Love would blossom. They would consider marriage. Her father initially agreed, but due to pressure applied by the brothers for reasons that are unimportant to this story, withdrew his consent. This made marriage impossible in the country they were in, as his signature was required for a legal marriage. They created a plan that was both simple and devious. She would say she wanted to fly to Jordan, where they maintained a home, to forget about the American. He would fly to Jordan with all of the required paperwork. Jordan did not require the father's signature because of the earlier arranged marriage, he had already signed stating she could be married and Jordan didn't require him to say WHO she could marry, just that she could. Over the course of weeks she brought clothing and documents, he took them and stored them in his house. She flew out on the 8th of Sept. He flew out on the 10th. Her father would fly out on the 14th, which would greatly limit her movement, as he would want to spend the time with her. On the 9th he received a call from a lawyer in Jordan he'd hired to research and was told he needed many more documents than what they'd already gathered. The details are unimportant to this story, but he was hard pressed to gather them and there were some shady dealings, but he got it done. The plan was almost destroyed due to bureaucrats and a religious holiday. They were unable to marry on the afternoon of the 10th, as had been the original plan. He hired a fixer. The fixer, The Chechnyan was very resourceful, drove them to multiple embassies to get required documents and stamps. He stole court documents, he may have kidnapped and/or bribed a sheik to do the ceremony, it was never quite clear which. Like I said, Jordan's not real picky as long as the right people get paid. The details are unimportant to this story. For the price of a lawyer who thought he could get it done in a few months, months they didn't have, he made it happen for the couple on the Express plan. They were married on the 13th of September, 2004, in the living room of a man they'd known for all of 3 days, in front of witnesses he'd hurriedly gathered from his neighbors. There were no pictures. They were in a hurry, she needed to return before her cousins grew suspicious. He had not thought to bring a camera, his nerves were raw. She returned to her home, he to his hotel, to await their marriage certificate. The Chechnyan went to the court to get the certificate, knowing there were "irregularities" in the packet of documents but also knowing how Muslim cultures work he said this was best. He told them we'd already left on our honeymoon, which they would understand to mean if they revoked the marriage she would be unable to find a proper marriage again. The Chechnyan returned with the certificate, legally binding in any Muslim country and with it, one could get a civil certificate binding in the US. In gratitude, when The Chechnyan refused to take any additional money, he bought a mattress and box spring. He knew that the one The Chechnyan and his wife slept on was worn out and they suffered from back pain because of it. The Chechnyan had no choice but to accept, as he knew it would go to waste if he did not, and his honor was not impugned by accepting the gift. He only had to get his bride away from her family to spirit her away. He was now familiar enough with Muslim culture to know there were places that unescorted women could go that no man could enter, such as a hair salon. He told her to make sure she had her passport and to go get her hair done. Sure enough, her father dropped her off with the understanding he would pick her up again in 3 hours. The Chechnyan pulled up, she came back out of the hair salon, and he drove her to the hotel where her groom was waiting, not willing to risk the father seeing him if he went to pick up his bride. The Chechnyan took the couple to the airport, where they would fly back to Qatar. He gave his cell phone to The Chechnyan. Just before the plane closed its doors and the no electronics message was read, she sent a text to her father telling him not to pick her up, that she was with The American in a private cab on the way to Syria to be married. The false trails were laid. The Chechnyan would call him a few days later and say that yes, the father had called the phone. Yes, he'd told him that he'd bought the phone from an American at the airport in Damascus for a very good price because he was flying to the USA with his new bride. The false trails were complete. In an abundance of caution, they would fly to Cyprus two months later and get married again in a civil ceremony. The documentation was cleaner, it was in English, it would be a much easier presentation for her visa to move to the US with him. They would continue to celebrate the 13th as their anniversary, though, because that's when they knew that the law, her family, and the culture couldn't keep them apart any longer. The couple had a son. Once his contract was up, they moved to the US and built a life. It wasn't always easy. There were adjustments, there were misunderstandings, there were some tough times and some hard work, but they built a life. He was forever changed. His anger subsided, he adjusted, he learned moderation. He had, quite frankly, been a gigantic dick for much of his life. He realized that she was much too good for him, and he strove to be who she deserved. He failed. He backslid. He still does, but he's a much better human being for the trying. She is, he believes, happy. God send that it remains so.

The sound track of my Army days: Today is the first time I ever watched the videos on these. If you aren't familiar with "The Refreshements" (second link) they have a great southwest/rock sound to them. I had a roommate in the barracks who played the living shit out of this song. I warmed up to them about the eleventy-billionth time I heard it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_gdG4kHEg ..and finally...SCOTS. Southern Culture on the Skids, the folks who are on a search for the truth, some pointy boots, and maybe a few snack crackers. It don't matter if your pants are shiny if your dick is big or your dick is tiny It don't matter if your wig's on straight if you show up early and party to late Soul City! Soul City! The shoes are big but the women are bigger and them pantyhose make them look winners and their hit single before they faded off the airwaves (still do live shows, attending one of their concerts is on my to do list. Baby? Would you eat that there snack cracker in your special outfit for me? Please? **I've tried to get the last one to link several times and it keeps showing the link instead off the video, cut and paste it I guess.

That actually makes it make sense. I figured out the ratios but didn't really understand WHY those were the ratios. Thanks.

So...apparently the anti-pony crowd seems to rely heavily on believing its tied to sexual perversion? I love cartoons. Not just the "made for adult" cartoons, but shows like Recess, Phineas and Ferb, Spongebob, etc. I watched Recess when I first got out of the Army and didn't even have kids. I was a very angry person at the time. It was a bright spot in my day. If the pony thing gives that to someone else, who cares? They try to force it on you? Holy shit I hope you never meet a sports fan who's team is finally winning and how everyone else is just jumping on the damned bandwagon, not REAL fans like them.

Intuition seems to say it wouldn't matter if you switched or not. You know one of the boxes you didn't pick isn't the winner, so it should be 50/50. Figuring that's too simple, I drew it out. I drew 12 sets of boxes, with the prize in a different box each time (It appears in each position 4 times total) then always selected the middle box. I'm assuming the game show host will know which box has the prize and won't open that one, or he'll ruin the game. So, you eliminate one box as the one the host opens, and then switch every time. I "won" 8 times out of 12 by switching. The experiment seems to show you have an increased chance of winning by switching. P = Prize X=other box. P X X X P X X X P P X X X P X X X P P X X X P X X X P Your initial selection is always the middle box (to simulate a random guess, since you are making your own experiment obviously you know which is the prize). So now P = Prize, S = Selection, E = Elimination x= No prize p = prize (Elimination will always be no prize) #1: P Sx E. By switching, you win. #2: X Sp E. By switching, you lose. #3 E Sx P. By switching, you win. and this pattern repeats, resulting in a 2/3 win ratio if you always switch vs a 1/3 win ratio if you never switch. I don't really get why, it still seems intuitively wrong, but that's what I came up with. My actual results from always switching with the above 12: Win Loss Win Win Loss Win Win Loss Win Win Loss Win **on edit** I'm going to play around with it and see what the result are if the host doesn't know which box holds the prize. ** final edit** Ok, that's why. If the host doesn't know which box has the prize in it, the intuitive answer works. 1/3 of the time he'll eliminate the prize box, resulting in a loss for the player. 2/3 of the time he will reveal a non-prize box, and its 50/50 on if you win by switching or not. Assume you don't switch and the host always reveals the first box. HL = Lost because host reveals prize W = Win by not switching L = Lose by not switching HL W L HL W L HL W L HL W L Total odds of winning 1/3 Now eliminate the times the host causes you to lose by taking the correct box out of play: W L W L W L W L You have 8 chances to win if the host reveals a non-prize box. Not switching will result in 4 wins (as shown above), so of course switching would have the same number of wins, just opposite times. So switching when the host doesn't know the correct box has no affect on your odds.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Trekkies, DnD geeks at GenCon, those guys who wear cheese on their heads and paint their obese bodies for a football game, etc. etc. Why all the angst about this as some oddball sub-culture? C'mon people, go judge people based on race, religion, and sexual orientation like a normal asshole.

That doesn't help me in the slightest. I honestly can't tell if this is satire or if this is a serious thread. The whole post reads like "brony" is a substitute for "gays". In the closet? Tolerant as long as they don't force it on me? Is this like when one of the Teletubbies was supposed to be gay?

To continue: We didn't get so damned worked up over cartoons. If you liked Transformers and I preferred GI Joe (which I did), we didn't make it a gay marriage issue and entrench in respective cultural norms. No, we talked about who could kick who's ass (GI Joe, they blow up vehicles all the time while the Transformers *never* kill a human) and what a bunch of pussies the Thunder Cats were. For some reason, we did get pretty worked up over shoe brands. Alas, I was never one of the cool kids with the pump up shoes. Urban legends of the day were full of street robbers cutting off someone's feet to get their tightly laced pump up sneakers. We didn't have Snopes back then. At least in my area, the accepted term was still "colored" for black people. The hypenation process started a bit before I went in the Army, IIRC. My recruiter, being used to hilljacks, casually mentioned that we should refer to black soldiers as "African-American" and not "colored" when he took me to MEPS. I was aware of the shift, this was not a revelation to me. I still occasionally forgot and said "colored". No one seemed offended. Foreign cars were econo-boxes. Sure, a Toyota got good gas mileage and was reliable, but souping one up? Fuck that, might as well stick to lawn mower racing. The Mustang and Camaro was the hot rod platform of the day, for the most part. We'd have laughed someone out of town if they'd shown up with one of those big fart can mufflers on a rice burner. We weren't real crazy about the lowrider trend, for the most part, but that might be more of a rural thing than an age thing. Lowered trucks don't do real well on gravel roads. Oh, we still had gravel roads. Far as I know, there's only one left in the county I'm from today, and its in the forestry. They paved the road I lived on some time when I was in junior high. We knew who are daddy was. He may or may not be around, but we knew who he was. Running a still was common place. So common that I'd been a cop for about 4 years when I found out it was illegal. Who knew? We knew how to drive a clutch. Most of us knew how to back a trailer. Again, this might be a rural thing. I amazed the shit out of some city boys this week backing a 26' enclosed trailer into a warehouse on the first try, and several of them were about my age.

Seriously? Is the pony thing really such a divisive issue? Why? I mean, nobody gives me shit about liking Family Guy, and its a cartoon.

Making Thanksgiving awkward for everyone:

Inspired by Drifter's "Get off my lawn" thread. Back when I was your age, we all knew sluts got famous by being sluts. Madonna's cone bras and bustiers, Cher using her hair as a bra, that whole basically topless except for the things coming off my Egyptian hat thingy, it was how you got "discovered." Nobody debated on WHY they were being sluts, they were being sluts because that's a tried and true formula to fame for female celebrities. Miley is not breaking new ground here, she's following a very worn and proven path. She's just had to up the game a bit because what sluts used to wear (say, Kelly Bundy on Married with Children) is now less slutty than what Disney girls wear. Plus, you know, sex tapes and whatnot. You just have to keep out-slutting the last generation to get the media attention. On a side note, we used to use the word "sluts". The Japanese were taking over the whole damned world. They were this efficient little super race slowly eating us alive with the ever widening trade deficit. Wal-mart would proudly hang signs over a toaster or pair of socks that would read "this item produced 15 jobs in Chickenfuck, TN" or where-ever. Oh, and Wal-mart used to close for the night! Hell, just before that there wasn't even a Wal-mart in most towns. Yeah, I know. China made plastic party favor shit and most people figured they were still using rickshaws and wearing pointy straw hats in their rice fields for the most part. Let's see, what other catastrophes were going to kill us all. Well, the Cold War until the Berlin Wall thing. Yeah, the Russians were the bad guys back then. Smokey Bear was telling us not to burn the damned woods down, and did it so well that apparently we didn't let the woods burn quite as often as we should have. Sorry about that. Alar on apples was poisoning us. I guess that shook out ok. Drunk driving was WIDELY accepted in society. Then MADD came along and the pendulum swung way way way the other way. To this day, we don't do checkpoints for any other misdemeanor, how many TV commercials have you seen about not doing some other misdemeanor crime? Yes, kids, drinking and driving is bad, but holy crap to we emphasize enforcement of that (along with seat belt laws) way out of proportion to its actual damage to society. On a side note, seat belts were optional. Not just use, but installation. Older folks had new cars with no seat belts at all. I had two that had lap belts but no shoulder belts. We didn't know we wanted more cowbell.

..aw man, I just remembered this one. I listened to the crap out of this song while I was in the Middle East. Yeah, I know. I had this song in my guard tower play list. It entertains me endlessly when I'm stuck doing something boring. There's just something about the way the eternal optimism shines through with the way the song picks right back up after the list of things he has to do.

Junior Brown is amazing. I don't know why he never became a bigger celebrity. IIRC he was nominated for a CMA award but never won. Doc's something else. You can hear the heavy Bluegrass influence. Speaking of Bluegrass... Here's one that the younger folks won't know, and a lot of the older folks will only know from Hee-Haw. Grandpa Jones and one of my favorites: "That's a fine ol' bed and it's worth a lot of money, it goes back to Louie the fourteenth." "We got one over at the house that goes back to Sears & Roebuck the fifteenth." Most of you youngins' used to the Interweb and Wal-mart never knew the world of mail order catalogs, but rural folks used to make pretty extensive use of them. It was a big deal with the Sears & Roebuck catalog came in the mail. When I was older this was supplemented by catalogs like FingerHut and the like. We called them "Wish Books" and would spend time browsing through them and talking about what we'd like to have if we had the money (which we seldom did). Sort of like browsing Amazon, but in semi-glossy paper...

Western swing/Texas swing is a genre of classic country, influenced by big band swing, polka, and jazz, it incorporates horns, accordians, and typically has larger bands than traditional country. Bob Wills is probably the most famous, and the name that is most likely to be recognized today. Spade Cooley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAPLc52PnQo and a more modern interpretation (starts at 0:28, Junior Brown doesn't break between his songs, he just flows from one into the next)

....must...resist...temptation.... Self-control.....fading.....ARGH!!!!!

Today's installment: How to check your set up. This is essentially a guide on how to see if what (and just as importantly, how) you are carrying is working for you. This is geared toward defensive carry, but similar checks with a few tweaks work fine for checking a competition rig. 1) Shot timer Your goal here is speed and accuracy. You want a bit of pressure on yourself to see if your draw stroke is smooth and consistent and how fast you can put rounds on target. The important thing here is to practice like you actually carry, and to be consistent. I recently ran 150 rounds through two handguns to see which I was actually the fastest with. I simulated the most common type of self defense shooting, a surprise encounter within 7 yards that is resolved within three shots, single target or two targets tightly spaced. All runs were started with my hands either at my sides like I walk or near my chest like I was writing in a notebook, (3 of each). The timer was set to start the string of fire randomly between 3 seconds and 9 seconds. Time stops after the 3rd hit on a small torso steel target. The first number is the time (in seconds) to the first shot. The second number is the time at the 3rd shot. Only hits count, but at 7 yards I didn't miss a shot. Averages: Sig P220 in Bianch Shadow 7 concealed under sport jacket: 2.2 - 2.6 Sig P220 in Crossbreed concealed under untucked shirt: 2.52 - 3.17 Sig P220 in Bianchi Shadow 7, open carry: 2.01 - 2.5 GP100 in Galco Speed Paddle, concealed under sport jacket: 2.45-3.17 GP100 in Galco Speed Paddle, open carry: 2.30 -3.01 LCR in Uncle Mike belt pack holster: 2.75-3.20 I was also going to test my Glock with the trigger job, but forgot to pack any .40S&W ammo, so it just sat in the range bag looking lonely and sad. Conclusions: The Sig P220 with Shadow holster is the fastest and most consistent style of concealed carry for me at this time. Its also how I carry at work now. My exercise set up (LCR in belt pack holster) is faster than I thought it would be and provides a better and more reliable grip than I thought it would. This is the only spread that I don't trust, as I was running standard pressure .38's instead of +P ammo through it. Real world shooting would be using +P and the higher recoil would space the shots out a bit more. The GP100 is still a completely adequate choice for carry, although slightly slower at close distances. However, I am still more accurate with it at longer distances even with the new sight setup on the Sig. Everything is a tradeoff, and since the Sig is fastest in the most common encounter, I'm choosing it as my every day carry. 2) 21' drills **THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS IF DONE IMPROPERLY, GET PROFESSIONAL TRAINING** Essentially a 21' drill is a high pressure test of if you're set up works correctly. This should first be done with an empty gun, preferably with a yellow barrel (plastic barrel insert that is incapable of actually firing). Shooter stands facing a cardboard target at 5-7 FEET, not yards. Partner stands to the shooter's NON-GUN SIDE parallel to the target. In other words, if the shooter is right handed, the partner should be 21' directly to his left. At some point, Partner rushes Shooter. Shooter needs to unholster weapon and fire one round at the target before partner tags him. A chalk knife is a great training aid in this. After everyone is comfortable with this, the barrel can be replaced and wax bullets or simunitions can be used to mark the target. Remember one shot per drill. I do NOT recommend doing this with live ammunition at any time. It is simply to dangerous if the Shooter gets bowled over by the Partner. Even simunitions can cause injury at near contact distances, use eye protection and your brain. This is *NOT* an accuracy drill, live ammo is irrelevant! You are checking that you can get your gun out of its holster and fired under pressure in a short time to a perceived threat. This will show you: Issues with retention holster. (Thumb break that sticks, lever that's not natural to deactivate, etc.) Issues with draw stroke. (Inconsistent grip, dropping the weapon, etc.) Issues with manual safeties (Inability to deactivate the thumb safety, poor grip not deactivating grip safety) Your own speed. I was introduced to 21' drills about 13 years ago. When I started carrying my first semi-auto handgun, a CZ40B, I learned I could not deactivate the small thumb safety reliably, so I started carrying hammer down with safety off. (The CZ40B can be carried hammer back/safety on or hammer down/safety off). Shortly thereafter I went to the 1911, and the large thumb safety was never an issue with it.