Dogs are good... no matter what 3rd world country they are stuck in...

Another reason that third world countries should stay third world and more proof that dogs really are man's (and woman's) best friend... WOOF!!!! Dogs ROCK!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080422/od_nm/child_dc_1

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of villagers have flocked to a remote Indian village to see a baby girl who was saved by stray dogs after she was abandoned in a mound of mud by her mother, officials said on Tuesday.

Villagers in the eastern state of Bihar saved the newborn on the weekend after they saw three dogs barking near a baby covered with mud.

"The dogs removed the soil around and began to bark and the baby started crying which drew attention of the local villagers," Ram Narayan Sahani, a senior government official, said on Tuesday from Bihar's Samastipur district.

"The girl is crying but is safe in the lap of a childless couple who have adopted her."

Police said they were looking for the girl's mother, who they think had left the girl to die.

Female foeticide, though illegal in India, is widespread as boys are traditionally preferred to girls as breadwinners, and families have to pay huge dowries to marry off their daughters.

The United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

(Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Guess that accent you all hear is your hearing problem!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
The West
Boston
North Central
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have">What American accent do you have? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I have often been accused of having a bit of a drawl in my speech patterns... well according to this, I guess I's just a derned midwesterner. Sheet, I got nuthing agin anyone with a accent.

later!

I drank what!?!?!?

This came in an email from my good gamer buddy Stu in North Dakota! Take it for what it's worth!


To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine and those who don't.
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in Beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) bacteria in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop.
However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine and beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember; Water = Poop, Wine = Health. Therefore it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I am doing it as a public service.


Later!

Tastes good so far!

An update on my wine making efforts! So far we have a Liebfraumilch, a Merlot and a Carbernet in the bottle with a Port close to bottleing. Both my fellow vintner and I are sci-fi geeks, (first and foremost Star Trek) and so we decided to honor that love of Star Trek with a few labels giving a nod to the best Sci-Fi creation ever! Here are pics of the first two sets of labels we have come up with. More labels that will expose our geekiness will be forthcoming. I think that some of my labels may move into the fantasy genre shortly. Possibly with the Port.... Wish you could enjoy a bottle with me! By the way, we are not selling our wine..... only giving it away to those who wish to try it.

Later!

Turkey Run State Park

Over the recent spring break, the family and I headed out to Turkey Run State Park, Indiana. This has been a favorite place for me to go and enjoy the outdoors, get some great excersize and enjoy the scenery. If you have nver been before, you will be amazed that this place is in the mid-west and not someplace out west or near the mountains. The natural formations of erosion of the sandstone and shale is really awe inspiring. It is a very well cared for location and kudos to the Indiana DNR for taking such good care of it. I was not able to enjoy it as much as I normally do as I had an injury to my knee at the time and spent most of the time dragging my leg behind me, but we still did some of the hardest trails the park has to offer. The kids and Gunnar really enjoyed the chance to just climb and go off leash - so to speak. They have quite a nice campground near by and the Turkey Run Inn is really nice and about half of what you would expect for a place that nice. My wife and I will be taking advantage of the Inn sometime this year I think. (especially seeing how cheap it is over the "off" season.) I encourage everyone to check it out if they have the time. And make sure you do trail number 3! It is the best of them all! Later!

Those hood wearing thugs!

Check out this article from the Telegraphco.uk website! Maybe I should try to incorporate the "hood"lum aspect into the the re-enacting that I do. I know of a couple of teenagers that could pull it off!


'Hoodies' were the scourge of Medieval London By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 1:20am BST 08/04/2008
They are the symbol of today's disaffected youth but a historian has revealed that the hoodie-wearing yob is not just a modern problem.
Professor Robert Bartlett, who is an expert on the Middle Ages, said hooded tops were also the garment of choice for 12th-century juvenile delinquents.
The teenage apprentice boys of London were lawless, violent and the scourge of the capital."They were away from home for seven years with no parental control and they would riot regularly for political and religious reasons," he told the Radio Times.
Hooded tops were worn by most citizens during medieval winters, he said, and they also served to hide the identity of young miscreants.
Prof Bartlett, of the University of St Andrews, said the life of the period resonated with today in other ways.
The English, who are now among the worst binge-drinkers in Europe, were also renowned as drunks in the Middle Ages.
"A surviving 12th-century Latin manuscript refers disapprovingly to 'Potatrix Anglia' - 'England the drunken'," said Prof Bartlett, who is presenting the series Inside the Medieval Mind on BBC4, starting next Thursday.
He will reveal the opening of the North-South divide, with the first recorded case - in 1120 - of a southerner complaining that he is unable to understand the speech of a northerner.

More demo photos...

Here are the photos from the DAR talk in Sibley. All the kids present were winners for various topics or categories sponsored by the DAR. If you notice, Cora, my daughter is not smiling as there were dozens of people taking photos and it was kind of a late night the night before. She was tired and maybe just a bit embarassed by all the attention. She did a great job at the presentation though.

Rest in Peace... job well done!

Thank you and good-bye to Charlton Heston, best know to most gun owners not as the actor who supported 2nd Amendment rights, but as the best president the NRA has probably ever had. The image of him with a flintlock rifle raised above his head, commenting to Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, saying "from my cold dead hands!" is iconic for most 2nd Amendment right supporters. He pretty much changed the landscape of politics when it came to gun issues and did it with class and style. Job well done. Maybe someday another similar personality like his will take the president's position and do a good of a job. Some people would say Ted Nugent might make for an interesting NRA president. "Interesting" would be an understatement!

Remember that the 2nd Amendment is the 2nd one on the list... right behind the freedom of speech, religion and press.... standing behind to insure that the First is protected!

Later!

Working in the Past Tense...

Just a bit of an update to the blog. This last weekend I think I spent more time in historical costume than I did my 21st century clothes. I did a 14th Century demo at the Monticello Middle School, talking about archery and general subjects to the 6th grade class. I really love going there cause the kids are really receptive and the librarian does a bang up job of making a whole week long affair on studying the middle ages. A parent with a decent camera sent me some photos of the archery talks and demonstration and some of the general discussion. As is apparent from the photos I have started wearing armor and such at more an more demos as I am slowly trying to get a decent man-at-arms gear together. I am just about there. All I really need is some better footwear or leg protection to make it all work. And if you notice, in both photos I am wearing weaponry at no time did any kid go crazy and try to take the blades or something stupid like this. I like the fact that most schools are starting to understand that this zero tolerance for weaponry on school property needs to be dialed back a bit so that some teaching and learning can be done. While you can talk about the middle ages and not mention warfare, you are leaving out alot of discussion of "policy making" that went on at that time. I am finding that many more schools are opening their doors to having demonstrators come in and bringing their tools of the trade, even if those tools are guns and knives sometimes.

I also did a talk for the DAR (Daughters of the Revolution) in Sibley, IL. This was a incredibly receptive audience and I was really in a groove talking with them. We could have gone on and on with a Q and A session but they had students to recognize with awards and they normally have fairly short meetings. But this was a really smart group of people and they got into the presentation, which very quickly turned into a discussion group, which I found refreshing! I will load up some photos from that soon if I get any from the photographers.

That is all for now. I promise to do better in the future!

later!