Pirates

If there's anything a privateer hates (other than those customs bastards), it's a pirate. Especially a pirate that picks a fight with a major naval power:

"From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl. "(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy."

Now, it's been a fair while since I was actually out to sea, but I remember my shipmates (both those in blue and those in camo). And I KNOW what their response would be to this: come get some.

Read the article here. What do y'all think the response is going to be from Washington (and our Appeaser in Chief)?

Second Chances

OK... OK... I'm Posting already..... Its only been a few minutes......er.... days.........ok too damn long since I posted last. As to date my posts have not been anything that is really about me and who I am, no substance of how deranged is Slytly Deranged. This will be no different....

A lot of changes around here since my last post, I now have custody of my 16 year old son. I am overjoyed with this. I could write about it all day long and still never get out my feelings about him or how happy I am to have him. I could......but I won't. Two reasons....1.) If I did, this post would be different from my previous posts and I have already mentioned that this post would not be much different.....2.) I would rather you see his words about how he feels about being here.
I pulled the following from his myspace blog. These are his words, copied and pasted, no editing on my part:

A new school, a new home, sounds like an everyday thing in my life at this point huh? Well, this time it's different. I now have a place where I'm staying. I have a house and a school I don't have to leave anymore. It feels good to finally have some stability in my life. I get to have friends here that I won't leave two months from now, or just jump up and move without even saying good bye to them. I finally have a place where I can be me, but also I have a place I can care about. I used to not really care what anyone thought of me because I knew sooner or later, I'd be gone, far away from that place and probably never coming back. Granted, what I did to get here was nothing short of bad, I pretty much killed my mother with heartbreak. But when I think about how much better I'll have it here, I know I had to do it.... Here.... I don't have to worry about college tuition or a job or anything like that. Here, I can have everything I want because I now hold the tools I need to get them. When I was there, I was so un-happy all the time because all I would worry about was my future, here, I have another chance to re-write my future to a better ending.... My second chance in life.... Maybe one day you will all get one yourself.

Differences

So... today we FINALLY got intrawebs access at our new berthing. This has been something of am irritation to us: we'd occasionally catch the public access wifi, but it was spotty at best, and only worked with my ladpot. We HAD scheduled an install, which we had to cancel to pick up 2 new cars (yes: both Spoon & I had to replace our vehicles at the same time. Talk about suckage).

So... plans were made, money set aside, and we were told the installer would be here "between 10am and noon". Guy called us at 0955, and was the most awesome installer I've ever seen: made sure we had signal, helped set up to make sure the net worked, even advised against the "self install pack" because it adds needless software to your machine. Finally got out of here at 1210 or so.

Which was good: my chapter VP was getting access installed today too, and called me for help. Now, keep in mind that this is the same company here. At her berthing, the guy made sure the cable had signal, handed her the modem and self install pack, and told her "follow the instructions" and left. The modem he handed her had the wrong transformer, and she had ZERO idea how to set the damn thing up anyway.

Two employees, from the same company. But WOW, what a difference in attitude!

The Honeymoon

So... heard a story a few years ago, about the origin of the term "Honeymoon". Seems that, in a more civilized time, there was a tradition for one of the parents to provide a newly wedded couple honey for a month's worth of meade. Hence, the term "honey-moon"...

Y'all might ask why I bring this up. Seems someone decided to pull a fast one.

Go here, then here.

AD and Babs: all joking aside, I wish y'all nothing but the best. And, should you decide to tie the knot, give me a year's warning (and a favorite fruit): I'll provide the meade*... ;)





*this is an honest offer: you get married, y'all get one carboy (five gallons) of my homebrew. Don't drink it all at once.