Huntmaster

Last weekend I completed the huntmaster workshop. I'm now certified to put on one of the youth hunts (www.tyhp.org). They put on hunts for 8-17 year old's throughout Texas. About 75% are for deer; mostly does on MLD ranches. The hunts are typically weekend hunts from Friday evening to Sunday noon-ish. The youths have to be accompanied by a parent at all times. It's heavily geared for entry-level hunters and they really drill in the safety:

• Everyone wears the orange all weekend.
• Only one round in the gun.
• Youth carries the gun, parent carries the ammo.
• Hunter safety education certificate is required before
• Almost all hunting is done from a ground blind over feeders.

I've been to a couple of the superhunts where SCI Austin was providing the Saturday evening meal. These had about 70 youths but the typical hunts are from 5-10 youths. The superhunt is held on the last weekend of the season which is open to youths-only anyway.

The hunts only cost $110 per parent & youth pair. That includes the hunt, food, and processing. The youth has to provide the hunting license, gun, ammo, bedding, clothes, etc. If they can't afford the $110 there are scholarships available. Here's me getting my certification:


I'll post more after my first hunt.

Toy Update

Since the last post I hit a deer on the way home from work. It smashed the drivers fender back into the door (again) so I had to fix that (again). And no, the deer didn't survive. Another car hit her before I did. I drug her out of the roadway and put her down for good with 165 gr. through the heart.

Another day, the clutch linkage quit. It's a hydraulic linkage and was out of fluid. The way they route the line is awful; it's got a spot that is actually higher than the reservoir so it's not self-bleeding.

I've been chasing that damned miss in the engine since I got it. I took the intake plenum off several times to work on the injectors, which takes a couple hours by itself. I rechecked the injectors several times, cleaned the fuel rails, replaced the vacuum lines, plug wires, did another leak-down test, monkeyed with the fuel pressure, etc. It did seem that the miss moved from #6 to #1 to #5 when I was working on it. This was determined by pulling plug wires and by looking at the plugs.

The injector wires were in bad shape; the insulation was hard, had cracked, and was missing in some places. So I ordered 6 off eBay. I pulled it apart again last weekend and replaced the connectors and wiring on 4 of the 6 cylinders. I had enough connectors for all 6 but 2 were fine. I also rechecked every injector. I made a point to swap the injectors on the left and right bank.

On restarting it, it wasn't missing but after warming up the miss reoccurred. Before I took it apart the last time the miss was on cylinder #5; now it was on #6. I had swapped the injectors on those two cylinders so I was pretty sure it was the injector. I couldn't probe it with my stethoscope when it was in #5 because the plenum was in the way #6 is accessible. However it sounded like it was firing with the stethoscope.

So I grabbed one of the used injectors I had bought and re-checked that it seemed good. Then I pulled it apart again and put this other injector in, and reassembled everything. It seems to have fixed it - yeah!!!

My best guess that injector was plugging up when it got hot. This problem would probably have taken a seasoned Toyota technician a good while to diagnose correctly and fix, so i don't feel too bad. Out of the 6 original injectors, only one is still in the truck and working. Wish I'd have known that from the start; I'd have just replaced them and been done with it.

1st road trip

It's starting reliably and running so-so, so I took it on a road trip to Texas Interhash which was on lake Summerville (100m). Engine was missing the whole way there. I think it's cylinders 1 and 3 based on pulling plug-wires. #1 injector sounds like it's firing; can't probe #3. I'm starting to think this may be a mechanical problem that shows up when the motor is hot rather than an electrical or fuel issue. Could be a bad vacuum leak, valve issue, or rings. I digress...

Texas Interhash 2011

• Brenham did a really good job again (they hosted in 95 too). This is a small hash so they all did a lot of work.
  
• Over 300 people; these are getting HUGE. I suspect it'll get harder and harder to find venues capable of handling the numbers.
  
• The crowd is defineatly getting much lazier; I think a good 1/3 never left camp. There were only 18 on the ballbuster. I can remember much smaller hashes having 30-50.
  
• Seems like every time I saw Yard Ralph she was picking up trash; use to be hashers didn't litter. So much for tree-hugging liberals caring about the environment. Only the guilty need feel guilty...
• They only had a band on Friday night. This was a good thing as trying to do skits, Mr/Ms TXIH, plus a band plus the midnight hash on Sat night is too much. FWIW, we only started having bands in the last 10 years or so. The first paid band I remember was SA (at Corpus) in 2002. Maybe SA did in 97, I can't remember for sure...
• Food was okay. I got enough to eat but I sure miss Hash Potato's grubs.
• Hash drama - if you can't leave it at home, stay home. Nuff said.
• Skits were quite good this year. TiteBox probably had the best one.
  
• Ft Worthless in 2012; Wicked Itch and I are already signed up.
  

More CSI trouble

It wouldn't start again yesterday morning. I knew it was CSI related so I pulled it out and put it in a catch-cup while I cranked it - no fuel. I pulled the fuel source to it and verified that it was getting gas, so my assumptions from yesterday were all wrong. I put a test light on the connector and verified power while cranking. (That's the "STA" wire above.) Then I removed the CSI, filled it with carb cleaner, put power to it, and verified it was working. The only thing left is that it isn't getting ground, which would complete the power.

The circuit to ground is supplied by the start injector time switch. It's mounted in the engine block where coolant can get to it. What's supposed to happen is when the engine is cold, the STJ signal is connected to ground. (The contact by the arrow moves to the right.) When the switch warms up, the contact moves to the left. The resistance of the two coils are both about 80 ohms, so in the "warm" state there's about 160 ohms between the CSI and ground so it won't fire. It's supposed to switch states around 80F. The coils also heat up the switch so if you crank it while cold for a while it will switch to the warm state. This is to keep you from putting too much fuel into the engine and flooding it.

Mine is is the "warm" state mine is in at room temperature. I could only get it to the "cold" state if I put it in icewater. I found one for $20 on eBay so hopefully I'll get this finished this weekend. If the problem persists I'll add a manual switch in parallel to the automatic one so I can shoot a little extra fuel in if it doesn't want to crank.

Cold Start Injector

The used injectors showed up in Saturday, 2 days after I bought them on eBay. Spent all day Saturday cleaning the shop, including pressure washing the floor so I didn't get back on the 4runner until Sunday morning. I checked the used injectors all worked. installed one in place of the plugged one, and put it back together. The miss was gone. Took it for a test run and it ran like a top, pulling like it should up the long hill. Parked it, started it a 1/2 hour later, and it was missing again!

Back in the shop. Pulled the plugs, it looks like #3 isn't firing. Before yanking the intake chamber off again to get to the injectors (2 hour job) I decided to jumper the fuel pump ON and let it run for a long time, which would cycle the fuel through the fuel filter and the fuel system. The idea was to knock whatever crap is in there loose.

I put the plugs back in this morning and it wouldn't start. Sounded like no fuel. I verified it had fire, shot some carb cleaner into the intake and it fired a little but wouldn't catch. I kept doing this and was able to get it started, and it actually ran pretty good. Then it just died and I was unable to get it restarted. I knew it was fuel related, but what? Electrical problem on the injectors because of some sensor (crank, temp, fuel pres?), or low fuel pressure, or low flow, or plugged something??? I checked everything electrical and my vacuum lines - nothing. Then I pulled the return line off the regulator, started the fuel pump, and verified there was fuel flow.

Then I unhooked the cold start injector feed line and there was no fuel that sprayed out. Normally when you unhook something on the high-pressure side there's enough residual pressure that fuel will shoot out, even after several hours. So the pressure at the CSI was low. Hmmm. I pulled the fuel filter thinking it may be plugged from the garbage in the tank (even though it's new) - it was okay. I tried up-ing the pressure by clamping off the return line hose with some vice grips; pressure should must higher now. Still wouldn't fire. Next I completely unhooked the CSI feed line, started the pump, and let about 1/2 cup go into a catch pan. I hooked it back up and it started! My theory is I had some crap plug up the CSI line and unhooking it was enough to flush it out. It ran the one time because I put enough carb cleaner in the intake to get it fired to where the normal fuel injectors could feed the engine. Whew!

Tonight I bought 5 gal of gas because the tank was almost dry, which meant it was sucking more crap into the system. Before I put it in I pulled the pump to inspect the tank. It's pretty clean but I could have done a better job with the pressure washer. If it gunks something up again I'll try to find a radiator shop to vat it out (they're getting hard to find anymore). I called one yesterday and they said it'd be at least $90. I can get a new tank for $180, shipped.

Taxes: Got my last K1 today. Now I can do this for real...

United States of Zimbabwe: I don't think a lot of people get how serious it is that the US credit rating my drop. Once confidence drops our dollar isn't worth as much, which means it'll take more dollars to buy things from other countries, i.e. oil, clothes, autos, etc. Oil is the big one; I predict gas will be $5/gal by next summer. That means anything requiring transportation will also go way up in price, i.e. food, electricity, etc. It all means massive inflation. If you want proof, next time you see me ask to see the Zimbabwe money I have in my wallet.

Found the miss

When I pulled the plugs, cylinder #1 was black. Leakdown was 98% for #1, the rest were 91-98%. I focused on the #1 cylinder... I bit the bullet and pulled the air chamber again so I could get to that injector. I was thinking maybe it was stuck open, causing the plug to foul. I got the injector out and it looks like it's plugged. That's one of the 3 that the guy in Pflugerville said he was able to clean (the other 3 he couldn't clean).

To test it I filled the top with carb cleaner, hooked 12V to the pins, and tried to blow the fluid through. It's definately plugged. You can hear it click when applying voltage, sometimes, and it's weak. The ones he marked "bad" DO flow correctly. I'm guessing they just flowed weak. He said one was stuck open; I assume it wasn't stuck open, just leaking. In any event, I'm not reusing the bad ones.

I can get one for $45 + $15 core locally, or mail order from RockAuto.com for about $37 each with core & shipping. I found another outfit called Fuel Injector Wharehouse (fuelinjectorwhse.com) that has them for $40 with core, shipped so I might try them. Also found some on eBay for $19 shipped but they're not rebuilt. They could be from a truck that has sat like mine and be screwed.

In other news, I sent the IRS a HUGE check today. I had to estimate my taxes since one of my investments does not send out their K1's until April 15! Joy...

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Inflation

FWIW, car batteries are $5 more than they were 2 months ago. (Bought one for the 4runner.)

I road tested it and it's still missing to where it has a hard time pulling itself up a long hill at 60mph in 5th. It's hard to narrow down to the cylinder by pulling plug wires. The coil is hot enough that it'll jump a 1" gap so it's very hard to pull the wires one at a time while it's running without getting shocked. I think I'll try pulling the computer codes; that may tell me more...

So the fed govt didn't shutdown and everyone is claiming they're a hero for avoiding it.

• Democraps in the senate & whitehouse didn't bother passing a budget last year when they controlled both houses. The only thing they can brag about to their voters is that they didn't give the right anywhere near the cuts they wanted ($38 out of $100 billion).
• Republicans caved in. They promised to cut spending, and they did, but they didn't ask for near enough in the beginning and they caved in instead of shutting the fed govt down. As part of the deal they will do an up/down vote on fed spending for abortions and obamacare in the senate.
  

I'm thinking they traded the billions on this bill just so they would force each liberal senator to g on record voting for these issues, which will be used against them in the 2012 and 2014 elections as they attempt to recapture the senate & whitehouse. Issues aside, the bean-counters on the right has always impressed me with their ability to model elections and put the assets where needed to win elections. There's a hell of a lot of money involved in the elections and 100x in the outcome. It'll be interesting to see if Bammi, his teleprompter, and his $1 billion can sway the sheeple again by flooding them with slogans.

Gas tastes worse than I remember

I hooked the battery up this morning and it cranked right up. No missing, even after it warmed up. It's running on fumes so I siphoned some more fuel into the tank, got a BIG mouthful of gas. I've had this happen before albeit I don't think I've ever got that much in my mouth before. It seems to taste much worse than I remember, and the worse part is that the taste lingers. Now I know what it must feel like to have voted for Obama.

ToDo:

1. Get a battery (I've been using my CJ5's battery until now
2. Get insurance
3. Get another charcoal canister
4. State inspection
   

More plugged stuff

I traced the line from the charcoal canister back to the tank. There's about a foot of 3/8" hose at the tank and the rest is hardline. I pulled the hose and it was plugged, but I got the hardline breathing. There was a hard obstruction in the line so I cut it open with a knife just to see what it was. It's actually a plastic tube about 3/4" long that's definitely supposed to be there. At first I thought it might be a one-way check valve, but whatever it was it was plugged. I jammed a scribe through the middle of it and knocked out whatever the obstruction was. Now there's just a hole in the center about 1/10" in diameter. Me thinks this is just a choke to restrict the flow of fuel/fumes to a reasonable level. That should be plenty big to bleed of the fumes but small enough that fuel shouldn't splash through it. There's no mention of this in the factory service manual.

The charcoal canister is plugged and I can't get it unplugged, so I'll either have to find another one or bypass it.

My 3 new (rebuilt) injectors arrived today from RockAuto.com and I reassembled everything tonight. There has to be over 20 items to connect on the air chamber. I missed one; a coolant line that's under the throttle body. I wouldn't have noticed had I put the antifreeze back in. I fixed that and cleaned up the mess. Benny (my renter) is asleep so I'll try to fire it up in the morning. Hope it works; I'm tired of fussing with it.

It'd be good to have another running vehicle since the world is going to explode tomorrow when we have to survive without the fed govt.

Ghosts in the Toy

Sunday afternoon I opened up the shop doors and it was pretty warm out. I'm behind the 4runner and I hear what sounds like a pump running. I've got the fuel injection all torn apart so there's no battery in it, so it's impossible for anything to be non-static. So I thought... I walk around front and gasoline starts shooting out of a hose on the air chamber, which goes on top of the intake. I stopped it by loosening the gas tank cap.

To explain what happened I need to describe the fuel system. The fuel is pumped from the tank to the fuel rails, which connects to the injectors. The injectors need a constant 40 lbs of pressure so they use a fuel pump that will put out well over 40 lbs and have a fuel pressure regulator that bleeds off anything over 40 lbs. The excess is returned through the return line to the fuel tank. The return line actually runs to the bottom of the tank rather than dumping it in at the top to minimize splashing.

When the fuel in the tank sloshes around or gets warm, it releases vapors. These need to be vented before the pressure builds and causes something in the fuel system (like the tank) to rupture. It used to be they just had a breather line that vented this into the atmosphere. But this is an emissions vehicle so it's a closed fuel system. The vapors are vented through a 3rd line at the top of the tank (where vapors are highest) back to a charcoal canister which can store the fumes. When the motor is running it sucks the fuel vapors out of the charcoal canister and burns them in the engine. You may save a teaspoon of fuel per tank; it's more for keeping emissions out of the atmosphere (or your garage).

I had noticed when I removed the fill cap that air hissed out; there was pressure in the fuel tank. This means the venting wasn't working properly. My guess is it was also plugged from sitting so long. So when I opened the shop doors letting hot air in, the tank warmed up and the vapor pressure built up with so much pressure that it forced the gasoline through the return line to the air chamber. It was shooting out because I had a line unhooked between the air chamber and the pressure regulator. (I had to remove it to take the air chamber off.)

I started checking things tonight. The charcoal canister is almost plugged; may not be able to unplug it. Damn thing is over $300, so I'm REALLY going to try to bring it back to life. There's a rubber hose that comes off the tank that's got an obstruction in it that's so hard I couldn't break it with a screwdriver. A foot of 3/8 line is only a buck so I'll replace that. The rest of the lines seem okay.

Injectors:
I got those back today. He said they were the dirtiest he'd ever seen. Normally he cleans them within a day but he worked on these 4 days and couldn't get 3 of them cleaned. Said one was stuck open? He charged me full price ($15/ea); not sure that was fair since he technically didn't clean them... I hooked power to them and could hear them clicking so I don't know how bad they really are. I did verify I could blast some carb cleaner through the 3 "good" ones when they were energized. I ordered 3 more through rockauto.com, $123 shipped with the core charge.

Injectors

I pulled the "air chamber" off and got the injectors out. The air chamber is this big aluminum thingy with a jillion hoses going to it that's between the throttle-body and the intake manifold. You have to remove it to get the injectors out.

I got it out and the only casualty (so far) was I broke the line going to the PCV valve. It was old and had gotten brittle. Easy enough to replace with a 6" piece of 5/16 hose. I had to cut the one end of the busted line off the PCV valve and when I did this my jackknife slipped and I put a deep slash in my thumb. If I was a liberal I'd demand a purple-heart, take a month of sick days, and sue Toyota & the knife maker for a jillion dollars. It really is a deep cut though, was still bleeding tonight about9 hours later.

I found a guy in Pflugerville that cleans injectors. I debated doing it myself. I've got some REAL carb cleaner but I'm afraid it might eat the plastic parts of the injectors and ruin them. They're expensive, $50-75 each, so I don't want to muck them up. He only charges $15 each. We'll see how it goes...

So what's up with Bammie invading Libya? Not really vital to our national interests. Perhaps he knows he's going to be ousted in 1212 and doesn't want to be known as a prez who didn't invade another country. Now he's arming the al queda rebels. Weren't those the bad guys? I miss GWB.

4runner

I found a 89 4runner off a chick on Craigslist 3 weeks ago. 200K+ miles and she said she quit driving it because she could pull it out of first gear without putting in the clutch (So???) They said it hadn't been started in 2-3 years so the battery was dead and I would not be able to start it much less test-drive it. Every body panel on it has some dings with the worse being the driver's front fender; the neighbor backed into it, knocking it into the door so it wouldn't open more than 1/3. They hadn't pried it open with a tire-iron like most morons do; all that does is create more bodywork. Interior was better than average for the age. It's the SR5 model, 4wd, V6, and 5-speed. It had obviously never been off-roaded as it was clean and straight underneath. Tires were very good. Looked completely stock except for green shag carpet and a cheap equalizer. I got it for $800.

I trailered it home and pulled it off the trailer with the tractor. It almost yanked the rear bumper loose, the damn thing was about to fall off and it had a 2" ball!

I parked it in the shed and the first thing was to drop the fuel. These things actually have a drain-plug in the fuel tank - sweet! The tank had about 8 gallons of green-funk in it. Next I pulled the tank, which wasn't much work either. The in-tank fuel pump and fuel-level sending unit were caked in rust. The pump was locked up from the grunt so I ordered a new one online for about $25. I cleaned the sending unit and got it working again. The tank looked pretty bad inside. I hit it with the pressure washer and it cleaned it up surprisingly well. The only crap still in it is on the top of the tank where I couldn't hit it with the washer.

She had some service records in the glove box that I went through. She got raped on a master cylinder, $288! (I can get them for $50.) The last time it was worked on was 2002 so I assume
it was parked in 2002. There were no tags or registration to tell me otherwise.

I put a battery in to check the lights. The highbeams weren't working. I took the switch apart and it buzzed out okay but when I put it back together still no workie. Hmmm... Apart again for a better look; it had enough continuity to turn on the buzzer in my meter but there was about 25 ohms across the contacts. I pulled the switch apart and they looked a little burned. After a little time with a points file and a cleanup with contact cleaner and they were reading close to 0 ohms closed. Put it back together and the lights work correctly, except for the back license-plate light. I cranked the key and the motor turned over! That's a good sign; I know it isn't locked and the starter works.

I checked out the rear bumper and it's mounted to 2 sheet-metal points either side on the body. 3 bolts total (1 was missing) and all the mounts were ripped on the body. They also had some 20ga angle-iron going to the frame, which did no good. It was about to fall off on it's own and they actually towed something with it. Criminal!

I got the new pump in a few days, reassembled everything, and put a battery in. Then I jumpered the fuel pump and let it run for a few minutes to cycle some new gas through the system before trying to crank it. It took a minute or so of cranking but it slowly started firing. Sound like it's hitting on 3-4 cylinders, not bad!

I did a compression test which showed a couple cylinders a little weak. Next I ran a leakdown test which is much better. Cylinders 2, 3, and 6 were leaking pretty bad through the intake. #3 was the worst at 50% leakdown. Sounds like it needs a valve job.

I started tearing it apart in prep to remove the motor. Looks like a big job. Then I got to researching and there's a product called "SeaFoam" that's supposed to clean sticking intake valves. I figured I'd give it a try; $10 crap-shot against doing a valve job. You put 1/3 of the can in the tank and let it warm up and then pour it into the intake through a vacuum line. After the can is empty you let it sit 15-30min and then start it up. It'll smoke like hell for a while as it knocks the crap loose. It didn't seem to stop the missing but it was running a little better. I took the plugs back out, did a leakdown again and the valves had sealed! 2 cyl's were a little low, 91% and 86% but leaking through the rings this time. (I could hear air coming out the crankcase vent.) I stuck my stethascope on the lifters to listen for them clicking. $6 sounded real good, #2 and #4 were weak, and #1 wasn't doing anything. I couldn't get to #3 and #5 because they're under the intake thingy. I got another can of SeaFoam and treated it again, hoping it would help the injectors. Also put in a new set of platinum plugs because it had some cheap ones that were shot.

The next morning I started it up cold and it was running pretty smooth; didn't seem to be missing. But after it warmed up it started missing again. I let it cool down, restarted it (ran fine) and it started missing as it warmed up. Hmmm... I change out the fuel filter and cursed those Toy engineers for putting it in such a crappy place. It's on top of the crossmember so it's hard to get to but there's an open spot on the frame 8" forward; wouldn't have cost any more to locate it there. I digress... Must have taken an hour to swap out the filter. Good thing I did; the old one was almost competely clogged. I fired it up again; same symptoms. #1 and #3 don't seem to be firing at all and #2 and #4 are weak. The injectors on #2 and #4 don't sound near as strong as #6 but #1 sounds really good even though that cylinder doesn't seem to be firing. I shot some carb cleaner into a vacuum line and the engine sped up some, so I think some cylinders are starving for fuel. Most of the problems I've found have been fuel-related. I was hoping that driving it would clean out the injectors but I'm staring to think I'm going to have to pull the injectors and clean them manually. There's a couple of places I found that will clean them for a little over $100 or I can do it myself for under $20, but I've never done it before. Either way I have to remove them which is quite a job on the V6 because there's a lot of crap in the way.

Other stuff: The rear pinion seal is leaking; common but it takes a 30mm or 1 3/16 socket to remove remove the yoke on the pinion. Will have to purchase one as I have a 1 1/8, which won't fit, and 1 1/4, which is too loose.

Miss Me Yet?

Password Security

I went to a seminar at lunch today over at National Instruments. Some group called "OWASP" that had me on their mailing list. It was free, about hacking passwords using the GPU, so I gave it a shot.

The speaker, Rick Redman of Korelogic, is a professional hacker who is hired by companies to try to break into their systems.

How passwords are stored: Typically when you sign up to some internet site (facebook, blogger, paypal, etc.) you have to enter a username (or email) and password. They store the password on their servers. Usually they run the password through some encryption and store the encrypted password. An example of a simple (crappy) encryption algorithm would be to increase every entry by one. Make every 'a' a 'b', every 'b' a 'c', every 'S' a 'T', every '6' a '7', etc. Here's some examples:

Un-encrypted password		Pencil		Number1Hasher
Encrypted Password		Qfodjm		Ovncfs2Ibtifs

When you enter your password "Pencil" the first time they store the encrypted password "Qfodjm" in their password file. Then everytime you log in and enter your password it runs it through the same encryption algorithm and verifies it matches. "Pencil" will yield "Qfodjm" and match while "Pancil" will yield "Qbodjm" and fail.

There are less than a dozen common encryption algorithms. Some are fairly simple (not nearly as bad as mine) and some are quite complex but the algorithms are all known and readily available. Usually the more simple algorithms are used because it takes more CPU cycles to execute them or the implementer is just lazy.

A couple years ago a company called "RockYou!" wrote a plug-in for facebook. They asked for you facebook password so they could link in with your facebook friends, interests, etc., and said they would never store the password. Well it turns out they actually did store it and they didn't even bother encrypting them. They had horrible security on their own server and someone hacked it using an old, well-known hack (SQL injection?) and got full access. They snooped around and found a file called something like "passwords.txt" which contained 32 million un-encrypted text format. The hacker posted the file on the net and hackers around the world downloaded it and went to town. The entries looked something like this:

username		email		password
johnsmith		jsmith@aol.com		pencil
janedoe		janedoe1@myspace.com		123456
superhasher		hasher1@yahoo.com		onon

So now you could hack anyone's facebook account that used "RockYou!". Not really a big deal in itself, but the password file was gold. Turns out most people love to reuse passwords, so the hackers simply went to paypal and tried to log in using these email accounts and passwords. Most didn't work but a whole bunch of them did work and then it was just a simple matter to tell paypal to transfer money from these user's accounts to themselves. After paypal they tried the same idea on a few of the major banks and mutual fund companies next and, well you get the idea... Yikes!!!

Not done yet... Before this the hacker community had a "dictionary" of what they thought were the most common passwords they'd use when trying to hack into an encrypted system. An amazing number of people use things like "password", "password1", "pencil", their favorite sports team or college, etc. So there was a dictionary of about 500 words that were tried against every account. The list wasn't that good so their success rate of cracking the passwords were low. But now they had a list of 32 million actual passwords that people used. They piped this into a spreadsheet and found the most common ones, and then updated and vastly improved their dictionary. To illustrate how poor of passwords are commonly used, here's the top 10:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. 1234567
8. rockyou (hacked website was "rockyou")
9. 12345678
10. abc123

By having this huge database they vastly improved their knowledge of what people commonly use for passwords, so they can had a better dictionary and were able to write smarter algorithms for hacking passwords.

There's a couple of free tools they recommended: John The Ripper, hushcat, and oclhushcat. John is open source, the other two aren't. oclhushcat is valuable because it uses the GPU instead of the CPU, which is at least 2 orders of magnitude faster. You feed these tools an encrypted password, some parameters like the dictionary and what to check for, and it uses brute force to tries every combination of password you specified to find a matching solution.

What I came away with:

1. Never use the same passwords for goof-off accounts (facebook, blogger, etc) as I do for ones with data I need to protect, i.e. online banking.
2. Verify that my "strong" passwords weren't on the list.
3. Avoid using any site that has access to your money that forces weak passwords. For instance, RockYou! would not allow special characters.
   
4. Have a better idea of what people commonly do and avoid it:

• Mix lower and upper case letters, and don't just capitalize the first letter, i.e. "Password"
• Add numbers and not just at the front or back, i.e. "password123"
• They know all the tricks for substituting numbers/special characters for letters, i.e. '3" for 'E', '$' for 'S', 'I' for '1", etc.
• Horizontal keyboard patterns like "qwertyuiop" (top row) are well known and checked for
• Vertical keyboard patterns like "NHY^6yhn" are known too. (Up in caps, down in lower case)
• People love putting in dates, i.e. "2011", "Feb2011". These are used especially when they have to change their passwords monthly.
• Common and uncommon names of people, places, sports teams, etc are known.

Last of all he said the best hash encryption algorithm was bcrypt, MD5 the worst. They may have to try several million passwords to find a match, each time running through the encryption algorithm. It takes a couple seconds to compute bcrypt, which kills their brute-force methods whereas MD5 takes a few milliseconds.

There was a guy last year at defcon who built a machine with 6 high-end GPU cards. It could crack any 8-character MD5 password in 2 minutes (or something along those lines...) This is by using brute-force, i.e. checking every possibility of every character combination (6.6 quadrillion) instead of using intelligent search patterns. A longer password stored with bcrypt would take much longer but could still eventually be cracked. The idea is to make it so time-consuming (in terms of CPU cycles) that they'll give up and find easier prey.

You may be a muzlim...

1. If you refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
3. You have more wives than teeth. ..
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon unclean...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four...
   You may be a Muslim
   
   
10. Your cousin is president of the United States...
    You may be a Muslim
    
    
11. You find this offensive or racist...
    You may be a Muslim
    

I'm a Happy Camper

I won this at a benefit banquet the Austin Friends of the NRA put on last night. Red's Gun Range was kind enough to donate this fine weapon. It's a Browning Composite Stalker in 30.06. It came with the Redfield 3-9x50 scope, matching case, and bore-snake.

Country Music

Nice

The Resolute Desk was built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. Many presidents since Rutherford Hayes have used the desk at various locations in the White House, but it was Jackie Kennedy who first brought the desk into the Oval Office in 1960 for President Kennedy. It was removed from the White House for only one time, and this was after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, when President Johnson allowed the desk to go on a traveling exhibition with the Kennedy Presidential Library. After this it was on display in the Smithsonian. President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back to the Oval Office, where President Ronald Reagan, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and now President Barack Obama have used it in this, its most famous location. It is considered a national treasure and icon of the presidency.

Right again

Re: My 4/16/2009 post with the poster below... Some laughed at me then, called me crazy, etc etc. The numbers from the National Shooting Sports Foundation are in.

	2008	2009
Jobs	166,200	183,424
Wages	$6,361,205,400	$8,210,881,000
Econ Impact	$19,199,634,700	$27,846,304,300

Delaware Upgrades

Governor Jack Markell (D) has signed House Bill 258 into law. (Right to carry reform bill)

Definition

Obamaville

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Someone has put a lot of thought into a welcome sign that may surprise you, it's in front of a homeless camp off I-25 in Colorado Springs.

Its message, "Welcome to Obamaville, Colorado's fastest growing community." Despite repeated calls no one could answer the question, who put up the sign?

To some homeless the sign's message says enough. Mark Limonez, a homeless man living in "tent city", says the sign doesn't make him feel good about trying to get back on his feet. "Guys are trying to work but there's not enough work out there, so they go pan handling or flag a sign" Limonez says, "I've never seen so many camps since I've been out in the streets - there's no money."

There are no logos on the front of the sign and no clues to where it comes from.

An argument for gun control

Poor Home Invaders

San Marcos Police Investigate 2nd Home Invasion This Week

Last night’s disturbance, in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Dr., comes on the heels of another break-in Tuesday night at a San Marcos apartment complex. The San Marcos Police Department’s Commander Penny Dunn says this time, the 21-year-old intruder got a surprise. “When he came in through a back door, one of the residents shot the suspect who was armed with what we have recovered as a BB gun that resembles a real pistol.”

Commander Dunn says the intruder, whose name has not been released, was shot three times. She says he made his way to Central Texas Medical Center and was later transferred to University Medical Center at Brackenridge in Austin. She says he’s in stable condition, but so far, no charges or arrests have been made.

Tuesday night, two men from San Antonio broke into the apartment of a man living at University Heights Apartments on North I-35 in San Marcos. The resident was allegedly shot by one of the intruders and later hospitalized. The two men were arrested in the apartment complex.

Damn bugs!

Saturday night one of these guys was walking across the living room. I found the one in the pictures below outside 3 years ago. It's not a photoshop hack - they really are that big. The latest one was even bigger, so big I was afraid to pick him up with needle-nose pliers so I sucked him up with the vacuum. I've got one of those whole-house vacuum systems. I checked the canister the next morning and it wasn't in there so it's in the pipes in the walls ... somewhere.





Killed 2 scorpions in the house last night. Ugh!

Home at last

I just got this back from my taxidermist on Sunday. I think it was 4 years ago with my bow when I killed him. It was my first nice buck with a bow and I thought he was majestic enough to warrant preserving so I had him mounted.

Savannah Mugging

This ad was supposedly posted on Craig's List 05-27-09, 1:43 AM EST:

To the guy who tried to mug me in downtown Savannah night before last.

I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on my girlfriend and me, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings.

I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message.

First, I'd like to apologize for your embarrassment when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening.

Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head, wasn't it?

I know it probably wasn't fun walking back to wherever you'd come from bare footed since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. After I called your mother or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode of what you'd done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as four other peoples in the gas station on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 150 gallons and was extremely grateful! I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go's, along with all the cash in your wallet. (This made his day!)

I then threw your wallet into the big pink "pimp mobile" that was parked by the curb — after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver's side of the car.

Later, I called a bunch of people from your cell phone. Ma Bell just now shut down the line, although I only used the phone for a little over a day now, so what's going on with that?

Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA's office and one to the FBI, while mentioning the president as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess it was long enough for them to have traced your number).

In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you, but I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate “pressing issues” and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon and perhaps reconsider the career path you've chosen to pursue in life.

Remember, next time you might not be so lucky.

Have a good day!

Thoughtfully yours,
Alex

P.S. Remember this motto — “An armed society makes for a more civil society!”

Bottle Openers

Made from gemsbok (aka oryx) horns we found while stalking same. Required because sometimes they really put the caps on tight & you need extra leverage...

Houston H3 30th Highlights

• Good times albeit I've never had a bad time with H4.
  
• ~50 hashers total, only 5 from Austin
• Great seeing folks again after many years.
• Funny seeing HooterBill get pissed cause he got there 5 minutes after Friday's trail started so he had to do it solo. Took him 1:15 to do a 1-mile trail, came back raising hell about how f'kd up it was so he did it again and it still took him over an hour. Gave the rest of us a good laugh.
• Drunken ranch hand at Fri campfire kept telling me to turn it up. Retard: It's an acoustic guitar!
• Good trail Sat but no BallBuster (wimps!) Welcome cold front during trail.
• I'm wondering how long it will take before someone shows up with a "tippy cup champion" tattoo (latest drinking-game fad.) Before that it was 3-man, then beer-pong, et al.
• Keg-stand is a bad way to cure hicups.
• Hog Stradler loves being reminded of...
  
• Perfect Sunday trail but that was the 1st time I was ever expected to shovel shit for the privlege of hashing. WTF?

Apples

The family apple orchard had always produced an abundance of super quality, firm, sweet, scrumptious apples due to the dedicated diligence, work ethic and attention to detail of the owner/operator Apple family. Of course, Mother Nature was helpful some years, and a real problem others. On bumper crop years, the Apple family could hire extra workers because the crop demanded so. Others, not so much.

At some point, a union organizer entered the scene, demanding a guaranteed wage for a guaranteed number of workers. Logic dictated that the fluctuation in productivity would ultimately determine profit and the capability to hire workers. But somehow, logic was abandoned by this new unionized workforce, and more horrifically, negotiations always seemed to insist on worker benefits but not quality, efficient productivity.

As fate would have it, following a particularly cold, dry spring, apple production fell off, but the workers insisted on being paid based on past, higher productivity. The Apple family simply couldn't pay what was not produced, and the union workers took over the orchard. Demanding more money than was coming in, and paying little heed to quality control, the bloodsucking whiners virtually guaranteed the ruination of the once great orchard, and ended up cutting down the trees to sell for firewood. Welcome to the Obama AF of L See I'm Sleeping America, or Zimbabwe, I can't tell.

Producers and parasites. Assets or liabilities. Can there really be a question?

Federal Deficit (Bush vs Obama)

There's approximately 300 US citizens of which only 60% pay taxes. For those that can apply 2nd-grade arithmetic that means there's 180 million taxpayers that must pay for this. This yields an average extra debt of $10,000 per taxpayer.

Since I don't want any of the extra crap B. Hussain Obama is blowing this on, can someone who does think this is a good idea send me a check to cover my share?

AM

Finished butchering the feral sow I arrowed on Saturday, chopped up some spuds and fried them in a little olive oil with mega garlic salt & pepper until they were sizzlin & browned, added sow's t-loins, more garlic, then 5 scrambled eggs, salsa, and enjoyed the breakfast of a king. Farted all day but blamed them on Shadow. Plan to bring one porky butt to TXIH again.

Dallas Trip

Wicked, Shadow, and I went to Dallas this past weekend. We left Shadow at Pussy Tail's Friday morning and did the Dallas Safari Club had their hunting convention. I was able to get through it in less than a day this time, even though it grew. The difference was I wasn't actively looking to book a hunt. Last year I was there 2 days and didn't see it all. Here's some pix of the taxidermy:

Another reason we went was to take my PH (Mare') and his wife Elma to the Medievil Times. (http://www.medievaltimes.com/) This place has an arena where they put on a medieval show where some prince is captured, a knight from another kingdom infiltrates their show, and they must sort it out. The cool thing is they have a jousting tournament and end up swordfighting to the death. The swordfights are about as real as pro wrestling but the jousting and horsemanship are impressive. They also give demonstations on the training of their horses and another part is on falconry. (Cursed bird swooped withing a couple feet of my head.) A wench also feeds you while this is going on; dragon blood soup, 1/2 a falcon, a dragon toe, and a dragon egg. (Veg soup, chicken, BBQ rib, & a spud) It's a bit expensive and they keep trying to wring more money out of you selling trinkets, but it's worth seeing once if you're in Dallas or one of the other cities they have these in. Mare' and Elma, being from the 3rd world nation of Namibia, were quite impressed. He videotaped everything and wanted pictures with everything - total tourist. He said he was acting like I did. I hope I wasn't THAT bad!

We stayed at Tail's place Friday night and hit the Big Town gun show in Mesquite on Saturday. It was the busiest I'd ever seen it. Wicked bought 500 rounds of ammo while Tail & I somehow managed not to buy a new gun or 10K rnds of ammo each. It's good to go to these and see how the threat of the incomming dems have adjusted prices on the EBRs and hi cap mags. I was surprised that even the high-end EBRs have gone up 30-50% in the last 6 months.

We stopped at George's in Waco on the way back. Their chicken fried steak dinner is the best for 100 miles.

Whitetail Season Ends

That's a view from one of trees I hunted out of. The season ended in Williamson county on Jan 4. I probably hunted 30 times and only killed one doe. So much for deer hunting being easy...

We've got antler restrictions that really worked against me. The restriction is deer are off limits if they've got a forked antler and a spread under 13". The intention was to allow younger bucks to grow before allowing them to be killed. However in this area that means big-antlered bucks (about 2% of our deer), spike bucks, and does are legal. Few of our deer don't have the genetics to grow bigger racks, so they'll get killed while the smaller-racked deer pass on their genetics. I DID go to the TX Parks & Wildlife meeting and spoke against this but my concerns fell on deaf ears.

There were two small 4-pointers who came around regularly. Neither was afraid of me and I knew they saw me. I shot one of them 3 different times in the butt with a judo point, just out of spite. Does however were on full alert. Didn't matter if I was 25 feet up in a tree 35 yards away, full cammo'd, and motionless as a hippy when you offer them work; they busted me very time.

I only saw one legal buck all season. He walked through the front yard while I wasn't hunting but was gone before I could sneak out there.

Deer hunting ain't fair. The deer cheat.

Buglary Commercial

Warning: Not for the faint of heart

Deer Season Status

I've only got one doe this year so far. It's my fault - I haven't been putting in enough tree-time. My bowsight was in pretty poor shape from crawling around through the hookthorns in Namibia but I got that replaced last week. It's shooting good again.

Last night I was getting cold from the wind so I made a quick dash to the house for more clothes. Of course when I reached the back door a buck and I made eye-contact. He had a really nice rack. Damn! After that I only saw one shit-buck. By that I mean he's got a small rack and isn't legal to shoot because of our antler restrictions. You basically can't kill anything with less than a 13" spread unless it's a spike. I think he winded me anyway as he was acting goofy and took off before he got close. There used to be a pair of them but I'm guessing the other one got poached.

The hashmas party was last night and I drank entirely too much. The flying saucer has great beer and I've got an achillies heal for good stouts. They sneeked one of my African hunt videos in with the hash photos. It was the one where I arrowed a warthog. I think most people were impressed by it but a couple harriets were offended. Their complaints were more than offset by those thanking me watching the demeanor of said harriets.

This was good education as far too many don't wish to believe that for every chicken mcnugget, hamburger, and fish fillet there is a gutpile.

Rules for Survival

Liberals:

1. Have no personal possessions, and for God's sake don't carry money or credit cards.
2. Whenever possible, stay locked at home, and never venture out.
3. When at home, have a can of hairspray, a whistle, and be ready to dial 911.
4. Appeasement has worked so well for Europe over the last 500 years, try preemptively giving them what they want before you are attacked.
5. During the attack, try and figure out what you have done wrong to deserve the attack, and try and avoid similar behavior in the future. Consider the first attack a polite reminder to help out the city's less fortunate.
6. If the punk starts shooting, try and get away from the bullets.
7. A few community pride projects, like a playground cleanup, will probably do more to protect you than any self-defense measure.
8. Suggest to the criminal that he participate in a gun buy-back program as a more legitimate source of revenue in the future.
9. Since these encounters are about control and ego, show that you are terrified and will submit meekly to the punk's every whim. If possible, try to urinate in your pants. Predators respect fear and weakness.

Alternate suggestions by Drill Sargent Joe B. Fricks:

1. Forget about knives, bats and fists. Bring a gun. Preferably, bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. Bring four times the ammunition you think you could ever need.
2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive.
3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.
4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.
5. Move away from your attacker and go to cover. Distance is your friend. (Bulletproof cover and diagonal or lateral movement are preferred.)
6. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a semi or full-automatic long gun and a friend with a long gun.
7. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
8. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.
9. Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
11. Always cheat, always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. Have a plan.
13. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work. "No battle plan ever survives 10 seconds past first contact with an enemy."
14. Use cover or concealment as much as possible, but remember, sheetrock walls and the like stop nothing but your pulse when bullets tear through them.
15. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
16. Don't drop your guard.
17. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. Practice reloading one-handed and off-hand shooting. That's how you live if hit in your "good" side.
18. Watch their hands. Hands kill. Smiles, frowns and other facial expressions don't (In God we trust. Everyone else keep your hands where I can see them.)
19. Decide NOW to always be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.
20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet if necessary, because they may want to kill you.
22. Be courteous to everyone, overly friendly to no one.
23. Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.
24. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".
25. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. "All skill is in vain when an Angel blows the powder from the flintlock of your musket." At a practice session, throw you gun into the mud, then make sure it still works. You can clean it later.
26. Practice shooting in the dark, with someone shouting at you, when out of breath, etc. Regardless of whether justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperature.
27. The only thing you EVER say afterwards is, "He said he was going to kill me. I beleived him. I'm sorry, Officer, but I'm very upset now. I can't say anything more. Please speak with my attorney."
28. Rules for un-armed combat: Never be unarmed.

Old Tom Quotes

• When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
• The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
• It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
• I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
• My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
• The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
• To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
• I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

-Thomas Jefferson

Kalifornia

Work sent me to CA for 10 days, including Thanksgiving. I did get 3 invites for Thanksgiving day, but of course I'd much rather be home. Then yesterday (Tuesday before Thanksgiving) I find out they're not working Thurs & Fri. WTF? It's not that I'm not willing to work holidays but I don't expect to be the only one.

Flights are crowded today so I'm heading back Thanksgiving day. Guess I'll have Thanksgiving dinner in the Phoenix airport, although I'm not complaining. Many have it much worse. Take 2 seconds tomorrow before you choke down way too much food to give thanks for how good we have it.

I did manage to hash twice, in Cuppertino last Thursday night and Mountain View on Saturday. On the first hash the cool weather & low altitude made for great running. I had one of those runs you only have every few years where you're just flying and never get tired. 4m trail but I prolly did almost double that zenning and didn't come in last. The next day I was actually sore from going so hard. Need the exercise with all the shit food I'm eating...

Namibia Safari

Details with pix are here: https://sites.google.com/site/ahansennamibia2008/Home

Happy Ruttoween!

The bucks were horny & chasing the does this morning. This doe finally let down her guard and I was able to get an arrow into her. She was under 20 yards and I forgot to aim low with the 25yd pin so the shot went a lttle high. It got the spine going in, the top of one lung, and broke off in the far shoulder. She was still very alive when I got to her so I choked her out. Then I field-dressed, skinned, and butchered her before breakfast. To be honest, it was a late breakfast. This is actually the first time I've killed a whitetail in the morning; all the rest have been in the afternoon or evening.



I'm still working on everything I did in Namibia. There's so much that I think it's best that I put in on it's own web page. I'm a little over halfway done with the writeup; so much happened...

Chuck gets it

Morning hunt

This morning at first light I got my lazy ass up a tree. A doe almost came in but she was nervous (think she winded me). She was almost over it when a squirrel jumped from one tree to another and spooked her.

I had a couple of limb-rats entertain me. I thought one might climb right over me. He knew I was something but not sure what. He got close enough to sniff my boot before going back to acorn hunting.

Got down about 9, so I could fletch some arrows, and then about 10 I went to swap flash cards in the trailcam. Turned around and there were 2 bucks on the north side of the house eating acorns, and here I am without so much as a broomstick! I slowly sneaked behind a tree, waited for them to settle, and made my way back to the house w/o spooking them. I grabbed the bow, some head camo, got within 25yds, and had enough cover to draw. However both were shit 4-pointers, which aren't legal to kill. I hate these cursed antler restrictions!

Here's a 5AM trailcam pic which I call "Doe Eating & Crapping". Enjoy:

I found a bow appropriate for Brownie (click on to enlarge):

Popeye (1st shot at YouTube)

Gun Control

Finally a couple of factual documentaries that Brownie can rally behind:
Home Invasions
Carjacking

Democrats on an Escalator

Hands-on Grocery Shopping

Observations from the Dem & Rep conventions so far:

• I take the cheers of the crowd with a grain of salt as they're preaching to the choir. These are delegates and other wannabes who went to the trouble of getting elected/appointed so they could attend these conventions (at their own expense).
• Hillary's place taken by another woman -- again. Perhaps Ted Kennedy will give you a lift home?...
• To those soulless, masked pieces of shit who were looting, vandalizing, and attacking news reporters; What species are you from? Planet of the retarded apes? You're not protestors, you're criminals. If I'm attacked by anyone wearing a mask someone will be calling 911 afterwards to clean up the mess.
• Rudi was on a roll last night. Heard it caused Obama to start his period early again.
• MSDN reporter vs Newt - reporter quickly retreated like a frenchman
• I despise telepromptors. They tell me you don't know or don't give a shit in what you're talking about. Appropriate for evening news anchors who are reporting the news (as it happens) but for speaches it's basically "Let me read to you what someone else wrote". Ditch them for power-point and present your case like the rest of the working world.
• White folks can't dance
• Sarah Palin sounds like Ted Nugent with a uterus

Shall Not Be Infringed

Though I never needed confirmation of the self-evident truth and God given individual right to keep an bear arms, the US Supreme Court finally addressed and confirmed today that the 2nd Amendment means what it says. Our founding fathers were so certain that God gave each of us the individual gift of life and that we have the right and moral obligation to protect this precious gift from tyranny, that they found it prudent to put these truths to paper for future reference in the Bill of Rights. The bastardization of these truths by the cult of feel-good liberals in the form of anti-American, anti-Constitutional, "gun-free zones" was a violent criminal's dream environment where innocent, law-abiding citizens are forced into unarmed helplessness resulting in the highest body count stacked up by evil perpetrators on the helpless sheep to slaughter. For shame.

The result will not be widespread shootouts in the streets; we heard those fantasies about concealed carry laws and they never happened. Next...

The decision confirms that the right to own arms is an individual right. Furthermore it confirms the right to bear arms, that is, an individual may not be required to lock up their arms in safe or store them at a gun club. It also confirms the right of the state to regulate arms, which is keeping them from felons and mental patients. Basically in line with the NRA and opposite of the democratic party's position.

So I celebrate this gun victory by buying bow. Go figure...

Heatstroke

... almost killed Shadow on Sunday. He's hashed with me though 5 summers now on much longer runs than Sunday's w/o a problem. 2nd half of the hash was only about 3 miles but it was 100 degrees with no shade. He started the classic "drunken walk" and collapsed. I got him to shade and gave him what water I had. Then I carried him to a water hydrant & got his core temp down. Glad I remembered what I read in that old SOF article - it saved his life.

After about 20 minutes he quit panting but his hind legs were extended and stiff, and they hurt like hell if I touched them. We got him into some AC and he was coming around but couldn't use his back legs so we got him to the ER. They started some phys therapy on him and I know it hurt like hell cause we could hear him howling. He apparantly had enough of that shit & got up on his own; much to our relief. They kept him overnight. The vet bill was pretty steep; wiped out the donation I'd been saving for B. Hussain Obama.

In other news I got a new (old) bow, Mathews Switchback. Gotta get another cam for it because the draw length's too long but I shot it anyway last night. Quite a bit different feel from my Browning, not better or worse, just different. It's wicked accurate and quiet. I predict it will be involved in the deaths of many animals.

Normandy Invasion

64 years ago today was the start of "Operation Overload", now known as D-Day. In the preparation leading up to it in April & May, 12,000 men were lost. On June 6, 150,000 allied troops stormed the beaches, about 1/2 American and there were 10,000 casualties the first day. Freedom isn't free. Celebrate it.

San Antonio 21 and My 45

Good party this weekend at the dog pound. I prefer these low-key bring-yer-own-everything events to the "we'll pamper yer arse" ones. Highlights:

• 1st campout in a long time w/o loosers that everyone avoids.
• The hash sucked.
• Wicked calling me out for B-Day down-down. How the hell does one drink with that PVC pipe on your arm?
• Float trip down the Guadalupe was mostly uneventfull (relative to years with high-water), although many kept running into felled trees due to zero level-of-awarness. What were those all those turd-looking things in the water?
• Dinner was bring-yer-own dead animal carcass BBQ (burp).
• Jammed with with TiteBoxx by the bonfire. FUKnave thought he could out-redneck me - poser!
• Padre burned his flipper attempting to jump said bonfire.
• Annoying illegals blasting their Tejano/rave at us until wee hours of the morning. FknAnnoyin' correctly suggested a few homemade pyro devices tossed in the river would have corrected issue but I came ill-prepared. Need to add a couple items to my camping list.

Big thanx to SA hash!

Stud Test

http://www.oink.com/studtest/

Chuck Heston

I learned yesterday of his passing on Saturday at 84. Condolences to his wife Lydia of 64 years and son Fraser. The NRA show had a 3-hour tribute to him last night with many of those who knew him telling their personal experiences with this most honerable man. A bunch of his speaches are archived at http://www.nranews.com/ under "browse archives", then under the middle tab find "speaches".

Judge strikes down Texas strip club fee

"3/28/2008 - A state district judge has ruled that Texas may not collect a $5-per-customer strip club fee that went into effect in January. Judge Scott Jenkins wrote in an opinion Friday that the fee, while furthering laudable goals, violates First Amendment free speech rights so it's invalid. The Texas Legislature created the fee last year to pay for sexual assault prevention programs and health insurance for low-income Texans. The Texas Entertainment Association Inc., which is a group of topless clubs, and Karpod Inc., the owner of an Amarillo club, sued the state over the fee. Attorneys for the state could appeal the ruling."

Help the topless: report_on_discrimination_of_topless_women

Easter Supper

• Hone shooting and stalking skills
• Locate, stalk, miss, stalk again, kill, skin, gut, clean, and cut wild boar into meal-sized portions
• Clean & cube 1/2 backstrap; give scraps to spoiled dogs
• Thoroughly cook boar in olive or peanut oil with g-salt & g-pepper
• Add can Bush's beans, rotel tomatoes, hominy, more garlic, & simmer 1/2 hr
• Plop over biscuits or indian fry bread, eat like king, blame farts on dog

Black Hog Down

Here's Reap and I with our feral hogs. We bellycrawled to 30 yards from a group of them. He brainshot his with a 32-cal flintlock. They jumped up but were confused to what had just happened and were oblivious to where we were. One gave me a broadside and I put an arrow through her, and a huge crimson spot immediately appeared. Reap's hog was down but still kicking, so he reloaded and we approached it. Then it got back to it's feet & things got real exciting. He shoots from 5 feet away and misses it completely. The shot spooked a BIG hog that we didn't see about 10 feet away behind a log. It leaps to it's feet and took off before I could get an arrow off. We were now 10 feet from a mad, wounded hog w/o a loaded firearm ... Think Mark Sullivan w/o his double rifle. It takes a couple minutes for Reap to reload so I put an arrow through it's vitals. Blood & air gushed out like the aftermath of a good texican dinner and the boar quickly went down for good. Then we bloodtrailed mine about 50 yards to where she expired.

Robin Hood

Heard the 2nd arrow hit the first & thought I just nicked another one and broke the knock.

Ruined a perfectly good carbon arrow ($10-sniffle).

Going feral hawg-hunting this weekend, should be fun.

Troubles at Walmart

Good read reinforcing the importance of a heightened level of awareness. (link)

Plan B: Cower into the fetal position and hope for the best.

Salt Lake

Wicked and I were in Salt Lake City last week for some much needed R&R. I generally take about one weekend day off every other week so I got 9 consecutive days w/o any work contact. (Really needed that!) I got 6 days of boarding in at 5 resorts, she did 5 days. Show was better than average this year so boarding was very good. The Beams watched Shadow while I was gone and I'm sure they spoiled the crap out of him because he pouted after we left.

One day we hit the hunter's convention at the Salt Palace. I was somewhat concerned that Wicked would be bored to death but there enough stuffed kitties and guns to keep her attention. This convention was geared more towards N. America and taxidermy while the Dallas show was more for world-wide hunting. There was a cute pink gun that Brownie might like (to match his Wrangler).

There were a several furriers and one had a gorgeous men's coat that really cought my eye. It was made from about 5 different kinds of critters, maybe a little overboard there... They guy told me it was designed for Kid Rock (no I'm not a big fan) and they made several variations of it. $8K (yikes!). This are a couple of pix I found:




Before I left I talked to a couple of hearing aid vendors. If anyone has experience with these, I'd be interested in their thoughts. Need to know about things like feedback, reliability, comfort, battery life, maintenance, background noise, features you want/don't want, etc.