I, Robot

Some of you may have read my blog about ONSTAR. I thought then that computers are going to take over our lives. Now I believe that they are trying to kill us.
There are stories in the news about getting wrong directions from your on board computer navigation system. One such story is about a guy whose on board computer told him to turn right. He did and was hit by a train.
Now I am wondering...did he make his computer mad? Did he not change his oil when his computer emailed him to do it? Did his computer try to commit suicide?
To all of you out there who have on board computers or ONSTAR....be very very careful.

Did you see the Will Smith movie "I Robot"

What ever happened to the good old fashioned city street map? I have used them for years. I can go into a strange city, where I have never been before and, if I have an address I can find it.
I have never felt the need to have an inanimate box talk to me, telling me that I should have turned right at the last intersection.

You ever notice that the computer voice is female?

Do computers get PMS?

Ahoy

There was a TV commercial that showed two guys building then sailing a small sailboat. It made me flash back to my sailing experiences.
One bright and sunny day on lake Wichita it was decided that I should learn how to sail. These people were really into sailing and needed a back up crew member for their Windmill. They had a number of different boats and they took me out on the Sunfish. A little, short, yellow sail boat that was big enough for one person to move around comfortably.
They towed me out into the middle of the lake with a little power boat. I thought they were going to get into my boat and give me instructions on how to sail. Instead once Mickey got into my boat he promptly stood up, grabbed the mast and tipped us over.
I swallowed half of Lake Wichita and came up swearing, wondering why these people hated me so much that they were trying to drown me and leave my body for the fishes.
Mickey explained that sailboats tip over and before you could really learn how to sail I had to learn how to tip the boat back upright. I said "##%$%^&**.

But he explained how I should swim around to the bottom of the boat. Once there I noticed a board sticking out of the bottom. (I later learned that is was called a DAGGER BOARD and the bottom of a boat was call the KEEL.)
Mickey told me to gather up the SHEET, the what? The rope for the sail. Oh. Yea the sheet.
I was told to stand on the dagger board and haul back on the sheet. I did this and VIOLA, the little boat righted itself.
I scrambled on board and sat there deep breathing, feeling pretty proud of my self and Mickey said "Tip it over and do it again".
This went on for about an hour but I started to feel confident with this part of boat handling so then we moved on with actual sailing.
I picked up pretty quick on pulling in the "sheet" to tighten up the sail to make the boat go. It was like making a wing out of a piece of canvas. I could make the boat go and I could make it stop. We were pretty much into the wind and I learned the basics on how to tack and guide myself towards a certain spot. This case being a buoy. I even learned the correct terminology.
Every time you were getting ready to tack you announced to the crew "Ready about" and then you swung the tiller (the stick that guides the rudder) and ducked. You ducked because the boom swung across the boat to the other side. You then gathered in the sheets and you were on you way on another tack.
Now let me tell you about doing this downwind.
When you are sailing down wind your boom is way out to one side and to change tacks you have to swing it all the way over to the other side. You announce to your crew (me) "Prepare to Jibe"
then you push the tiller, and duck. Really duck. That freaking boom comes across at about mach 2 and when it hits the other side it really throws the little boat out of whack if you are not quick with the sheets. Did I mention that sailboats tip over? When you do a flying jibe like that it doesn't just tip over. It crashes. You don't just fall overboard. You are thrown way out of the boat. I was a good thing that I spent the first hour righting a sail boat.
So for the next 30 minutes or so I practiced jibing. I would jibe. I would right the sail boat. I would jibe. I would right the sailboat. I did this until I thought I could handle it.
By this time I had spent more time in the water that in the boat and I was ready to head in. I took a bead on the docks and started in. A couple of tacks and I was feeling pretty good even if my fingers were wrinkled from being in the water so much.

The last maneuver I had to do before docking was a flying jibe. There was a small group of people on shore watching so I had to do it right.
"Prepare to jibe"....duck...Oh #%&@....
While I was thrashing around trying to find my sheet and swim around to the dagger board, my feet touched the bottom. I just said to hell with it and walked in to the docks, pushing my little yellow Sunfish. I tied it up and climbed up onto the docks. The small group of people gave me a nice round of applause.
Believe it or not, I went on to some fun things and won some bling. More about championship sail boating in another post. Stay tuned.

Now you're talking

Just when I thought all was lost, John McCain pulls a rabbit out of his hat. Sarah Palin.
Who?
Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska (of all places)
Some of you out there don't know me very well, but people who do know me will know what I mean when I say that this woman is perfect for Vice President.

I have never been much of a fan of your basic shrinking violet type of woman. I've always liked the type that would look good in a ball cap driving a pickup to a fishing hole.

Mrs. Palin is a hockey mom. She took her kids to their hockey games when they were growing up. She played hockey. I don't know if she plays golf, but nobody is perfect.

She is a life time member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). That means she can shoot a gun and that she probably owns one or two. She obviously believes in the 2nd Amendment. If she gets elected I really don't see her trying to come and get my guns. She hunts. She fishes. She is an outdoors person.

She believes that this country's energy needs can (and should) be taken care of right here in this country. she believes we should drill in ANWR. She believes we should be energy dependent on no other country. She agrees that we should take care of the environment but that there are some critters on the endangered species list that are put there by the wacko environmentalists.
But she knows that our technology has advanced so far that drilling for oil is or can be environment friendly.

She raised the capital gains tax on big oil in Alaska. Then turned around and gave every citizen of Alaska an $1,200 check.

She is married to an oil field working man. But that may be a problem. You see...20 some odd years ago he was arrested for DUI. (tsk tsk)

Her oldest son is in the Army and is shipping out to Iraq.

There is something that makes this country a little nuts. She announced that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant and is planning on keeping the child. The daughter is planning on marrying the father, just not right now. Now madam Governor doesn't sound like an anointed one. She sounds just like an ordinary American Mom. Right! I am willing to bet that everybody out there knows someone who is pregnant or has had a baby out of wedlock.

I believe that our forefathers intended our legislators and elected officials to be "Citizen legislators". To come from the "People" for the "People" by the "People". I don't think they intented this country to be ran into the ground by professional politicians.
Sarah Palin is of the people. She is a good person. She knows what the people want because she will listen to the people, not act like a professional politician and try to tell the people what they want.
Sarah Palin is the perfect pick for Vice President. If the Democrats want to play hardball with this woman...well...batter up. She will chew them up and feed them to the overpopulated polar bears.
Besides...She looks damn good in a ball cap, driving a 4x4.