Big Bad Brad Blog

Daphne in Los Alamos Snow

2011-12-05T11:54:00.001-08:00

Personal Record Dead lift 365lbs

2011-10-29T15:13:00.001-07:00

Watch "Dead lift PR 365lbs" on YouTube

Tail Light Replacement/Enhancement for M109R

2011-10-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Goofy Gone Mad

2011-09-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

Tower of Terror

2011-09-10T16:24:00.001-07:00

USS Prebble 88 Docking in San Diego

2011-09-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

Daphne & Donovan

2011-09-09T11:42:00.001-07:00

Waiting for the USS Prebble 88 to Dock

Vanessa's New Ride

2011-09-02T12:45:00.001-07:00

2011 Highlander

Ram Work

2011-08-27T10:51:00.001-07:00

Upgrading radio with dvd and rear view camera to catch up to Vanessas new ride.

Fishy fingers

2011-08-27T10:15:00.001-07:00

Donovan bought a toy fishing game with his money.

Ashley Furniture

2011-08-25T10:53:00.001-07:00

Got this for $1500 with creative ordering.

After delivery and set up

2011-08-25T08:59:00.001-07:00

Little haul

2011-08-25T08:56:00.001-07:00

Moving new sectional about 11ft tall.

Tires complete

2011-04-14T10:23:00.001-07:00

Balancer

2011-04-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

For balancing my front tire. 2oz of ceramic beads that bounce around inside dynamically balancing the tire.

Tires off

2011-04-11T17:54:00.001-07:00

Used spark plug sockets in reverse to fit in the large hex sockets in the axles.

Tire increase

2011-04-11T17:50:00.001-07:00

240 to a Metzeler 260

Noticed rear tire wearing through after 5300 miles.

2011-03-29T14:06:00.001-07:00

New metzelers to be ordered. 260/40 rear and 160/60 front.

Living Room Done

2009-11-26T11:34:00.001-08:00

Wood In the House

2009-11-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Laid down the wood in my den and now coming out into my living room. Hopefully have the house done before December.

Spark plugs out of my Titan after 87k miles.

2009-09-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

Donovan's Broken Arm

2009-09-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Donovan broke his arm at school. Vanessa took him to urgent care right from school and after checking him out and x-raying his wrist area they let him go with an ace bandage saying his wrist was sprained. Later at midnight he was pale and complaining of his arm hurting, we took him to the 24 hour urgent care and demanded that they x-ray his arm from multiple angles.

Donovan passing out from the pain.

X-rays easily showing the "greenstick" break in the Radius. Even the Ulna was slightly cracked.

Donovan with his purple cast showing me where he fell and broke his arm. He says he fell and then his arm "slipped" out. Donovan also said he could feel the snap in his arm. It still amazes me he could fall in a way to break his arm on that foam sponge ground.

Donovan's First Day of Kindergarden

2009-08-24T12:58:00.001-07:00

Hitting the playground before class.

Bell rings time for class

Science Table

Biggest Boosh (The growth of a Bull Mastiff)

2009-07-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

August 10th, 2007 (2.5 Months Old - 20 lbs or so)

October 31, 2007 (5 Months Old - 65 lbs)

July 13th, 2009 (2 Years Old - ~130 lbs)

Easter Sunday, Thanks Claudia and Brian!

2009-04-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Eye of the Tigress

2009-03-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

Taken just a few minutes ago in the back yard.

First time in the Bumbo

Last Febraury in the sink for a clean up.

Donovan, Daphne and Celestia

2009-03-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Now Married

2009-02-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

Today Vanessa and I got married.

Daphne Vogue Style

2009-01-18T01:26:00.001-08:00

2009-01-15T22:51:00.000-08:00

Shortly after getting up to change Daphne's Diaper we hear a couple gunshots and a car peel out. After hearing a helicopter I go out front to see this on my block. Feels like I'm back in the ghetto.

Baby Daphne

2009-01-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Daphne Josephine was born Tuesday, January 6th at 6:04 pm.

Donovan's First High Dives

2008-10-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Donovan was at his classmates birthday party yesterday and thouroughly enjoyed himself. Some other kids first jumped off this ledge, then Donovan followed suit and kept jumping.

2008-08-30T01:04:00.000-07:00

Donnovan fishing with his grandpa on the coast of Mississippi a few
days before hurricain Gustav rolls in.

Lots of accidents last week

2008-08-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

Day 4 - Sea World San Diego

2008-07-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

We started our 4th day at Sea World Breakfast with Elmo and Friends. The breakfast was actually pretty decent and buffet style so you can be full for most of the day at the park.

Celestia and I split off from Donovan and Vanessa for a couple hours after breakfast. We hit the Atlantis Roller Coaster/ Boat coaster. Having it front-loaded with both of us left us soaking. The water temporarily broke my cell phone.

Celeste Matrix-esque looking just about to give me the finger for snapping her pic.

Celeste made friends with her fellow caricature artists working sea world. One talented guy gave me a complimentary drawing. Check out his blog at jackin-faces.blogspot.com

We met back up together and I was able to get some great Telephoto shots of Vanessa and Donovan coming down the big Atlantis drop.

Donovan got his face painted with a snake.

The snake lasted about 15 minutes before turning Donovan into Commando-D with the help of the bumper rafts he became so fond of over this trip.

Flamingo feeding was entertaining for Donovan.

Donovan's Second Disney Trip (Day 3)

2008-06-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

We did the early entry 7am and headed straight to Space Mountain. We had almost no wait and flew through the ride.

I *barely* was able to wedge my legs inside the bar. The ride instructor insisted I must have knees inside, just after take off I released my much pinned knee from the bar.

After the ride a still mostly empty tomorrow land.

We hoped to get into the submarine ride before it got a massive backup. I don't understand the popularity. Must be the little kids (got me on it). We waited over an hour for this one.

Mom's turn to have Donovan take her for a spin.

Donovan could not get enough of Autopia.

Donovan a Goofy took a shot at playing charades of disney movies.

Slow pace hot mid-day sun boat ride into story land. Donovan liked it plenty pointing out Aladdin's city of Agraba.

We actually attempted to get all four of us into 1 teacup. Just not possible. So Vanessa and Donovan got to ride twice in a row while Celeste and I exchanged spots.

The carriage rides were a nice break from the constant marathon.

Bus rides too. Donovan sat up front with the driver.

We tried to get several pics of Donovan and the Disney characters.

This is up waiting for the monorail ride.

Donovan, my intellectual property and legacy?

Donovan's First California Adventures Trip - Day 2

2008-06-18T22:16:00.001-07:00

California Adventure Park day two of Theme Park Birthday Marathonmania!

Donovan enjoyed the Micky Mouse Clubhouse stage show with effects.

If you go to California Adventures see the Aladdin show its pretty entertaining and very extensive production.

We all went up in the giant Ferris Wheel. This cage was on a oblique track that rolled us around as the giant wheel spun. Donovan was flung from his seat. Luckily no injuries!

While Vanessa and I held bench space for the parade, Celeste took Donovan up on the Jelly fish ride.

Donovan loved the life size McQueen and TowMater. However, he expressly said that McQueen was fake because of the lines holding up his eyeballs.

This ride was pretty terrifying. No matter how safe you know the ride should be, it's very unsettling to be in a long elevator free fall that shoots you up out of your seat.

We tried to pick up a squished penny at each park for scrap-booking.

Donovan's First Disney Trip - Day 1

2008-06-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

We started our visit going to Tom Sawyer isalnd looking for his white brush. Turns out the white brush prize deal only happens in Disney Florida.
Donovan did get to meet Jack Sparrow.
And ultimately he got to find his treasure.
A few thousand steps later we had worked up an appetite from all our spelunking at Sawyer's island.
It got pretty warm in the middle of the day. Perfect time for splash mountain. The Fast Pass process was awesome since Vanessa took the time to research the best way to do Disney.
Saved $10.99 by having my camera with me for all these rides.
Fairly wet.
This was one of Donovan's favorites.
Little time at Thunder Petting Ranch.
Autopia was enjoyed a few times by Donovan.
All these photos are in sequence.
Vanessa, Donovan and Celeste took a dumbo ride.
After a meltdown from Donovan about wanting this light-saber and me telling him no. He finally got it after I found out it was only $5.

LEGO Land

2008-02-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

Donovan went on his first roller coaster ride this weekend at Lego Land in California.
He got to enjoy all the kiddie rides including this Jeep ride and many others.
There were plenty of Lego creations that Donovan got to interact with. This one reminded him of his infamous recurring "Dinosaur" nightmare he has about being chased by a dinosaur.
He of course was chumming it up and made peace with the lego monster.
Donovan is very proud of obtaining his Lego Land Driver's license.DFDFDonovan had several chances to play with Legos and built this mini creation that he was proud of.Due to going on a weekday the park was pretty empty and we got on the rides quickly and got to ride in the front frequently like the boat ride photo above.
They had some pretty neat Lego cities built including Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, DC and others.

Donovan Continues his Primary Tour with Ron Paul

2008-01-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

After getting on stage at Obama's rally and seeing what the democrats have to offer. Donovan has a clear preference for the Libertarian minded Republican Dr. Ron Paul. This is clearly because of Donovan's love for freedom to play , desire to hold on to more of his money for toy purchases, and of course Dr. Paul is his best chance to avoid a future military draft.

Ron Paul likely to be #1 funded GOP

2007-11-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

Not only has he been the most supported financially by the US Military now all people of the US have spoken with their donations to make Paul the most funded GOP candidate. I managed to catch my donation on the screen this time. We could seriously have a revolution on our hands. Ron Paul has raised more in 2 months than EVERY other GOP candidate did the whole 3rd quarter. I fully expect him to be the #1 GOP candidate this quarter. Especially after Tea Party Day.

Donovan and Caitlin's Big Drop

2007-11-22T23:21:00.000-08:00

Donovan and his cousin Caitlin put these toys together after Thanksgiving dinner. They kept getting it taller and taller until they decided to build them all the way up the stairs.

Dr. No sometimes Says yes, when it's constitutional

2007-11-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how an appauling recent finding that 1/4th of our homeless are Veterans the following Passage by Ron Paul shows some compelling wisdom.

by Ron Paul, Dr. March 24, 2003
Congress narrowly passed a budget last week that calls for the federal government to spend in excess of 2 trillion dollars in 2004, which is more than double what the federal government spent in 1990. Yet while Congress finds hundreds of billions to fund every conceivable unconstitutional program and special-interest pork project, it fails to provide adequately for our nation’s veterans. In fact, the budget passed by the House calls for cuts of $15.1 billion from veterans programs over the next ten years. These cuts will affect programs that provide education benefits, compensation for veterans with service-related disabilities, and pensions for disabled veterans.
We should understand that veterans programs, unlike so many federal programs, are constitutional. The Constitution specifically provides for Congress to fund armed forces and provide national defense. Congress and the nation accordingly have a constitutional obligation to keep the promises made to those who provide that defense. This is why I support increased funding for veterans, while opposing the bloated spending bills that fund corporate and social welfare, pork favoritism, and special interests at the expense of those veterans.
Unfortunately, the trust that members of our armed forces put in our government has been breached time and time again, and last week’s budget vote represents anther blow to veterans. Even as we send hundreds of thousands of soldiers into Iraq, Congress can’t get its priorities straight.
We should remember that Gulf War I and II will swell the ranks of our combat veterans, many of whom will need medical care as they grow older. Congress should immediately end the silence and formally address Gulf War Syndrome, which has had a devastating impact on veterans who served in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. As a medical doctor, I believe the syndrome is very real, and likely represents several different maladies caused by exposure to conditions specific to the Gulf region at the time. Congress and the Veterans Administration should stop insulting our Gulf War veterans and recognize that the syndrome is a serious illness that needs treatment. We can only hope and pray that our soldiers in Iraq today do not suffer from similar illnesses in the future. Congress must, however, ensure adequate funding for the medical care that today’s soldiers will someday need.
Having served in the U.S. Air Force for five years, I feel an obligation to our veterans and current armed forces. Congress wastes so much money that only a small portion of that waste could make a huge difference in the lives of our veterans. Depending on what the Senate does, Congress may have a chance to revisit the 2004 budget and find the resolve to fully fund needed veterans programs.

Boy and Boosh

2007-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

While Boosh has been growing bigger he has become much more gentle with Donovan. They both get along much better now. Although now we need to make sure that Donovan is not hurting Boosh. Sometimes donovan will try to stand on him while he's laying down or he might grab his fur to hard with his hands.

The Bigger Boosh

2007-10-31T22:11:00.001-07:00

Wow what a difference 11 weeks and 150 lbs of dog food makes. Boosh is weighing in at 65lbs now. He's gotten much better with Donovan (not hurting him or playing hard). He's learned his position in the family pretty well. He was quickly house trained. He now sleeps upstairs next to our bed. He's also being a great guard dog by positioning himself between us and the entrance and warning us of any potential danger. When I pretended to burglar into the bedroom he pounced right towards me until he realized it was me.

MUSH! MUSH!

2007-10-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Here's Claudia and Myself squashing Tabitha our mini musher that drove us all out to the sled dog's summer camp ground.

This was a fun quick tour. The dog ride only lasted about 10 minutes but was the best part. One of the dogs defecated while pulling our sled.

BIG fish

2007-09-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yep these are the two biggest fish caught in Alaskan waters in mans history. Seriously though we have to plan a Salmon Welcome Back Bake.

BIG fish

2007-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yep, these are the two biggest fish caught in Alaskan waters ever!

GenCon 2007 (Big Man vs Segway)

2007-08-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

So while we were at Gencon for Greg's bachelor party part II Brian and I got a chance to go against each other on a segway obstacle course. They had a 250 lb weight limit so with a 200lb verbal weight loss they allowed me on. I was impressed with the segway holding up under almost 2x it's load limit. You can see me just beating Brian by 2 seconds at the end.

Bouche the Bullmastiff (10 weeks old)

2007-08-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

So we got our puppy on Friday night. Currently we have him sleeping in a cardboard box but a wire dog crate is in the works. We were working on a name starting with Bishop but we then started calling him Bushi and have mostly settled on calling him Bouche (Boosh) which is french for mouth. I am impressed with this Bullmastiff so far. He's picking up his house training pretty well and starting to come when called. He can eat a ton and will be growing at a super fast pace. He was 25lbs when we picked him up and will probably be over 100lbs in less than 8 months. And when he's 2yrs old he should be settling in at his adult weight of about 150lbs. Donovan likes the dog and knows his name. I can't wait till he can be the one cleaning the poo.

Ron Paul at the Debates

2007-08-03T10:29:00.001-07:00

Great image graphically showing strengths of the Republican debaters. Found this on the Las Vegas Ron Paul Meetup.com group.

More Guns, Less Crime

2007-07-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Above is the conclusion from an article published in the spring issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the nation's most widely distributed law review. It's a rather long PDF so I just posted the conclusion. They go into great detail pointing out the trends of gun ownership rates and violet crime rates correlations of many different countries and regions throughout time. The entire article “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” is available here if you would like to read it.

Donovan Learns Underwater Swimming

2007-07-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! We were very surprised to find Donovan purposely diving underwater last Sunday at the community pool. He had a couple of times where he gulped some water and coughed it up. Overall he became very good at going under and popping back up for breaths when he needed it. He refused moms help when she tried to pull him up telling her "No, don't help me!". He also kept his eyes open underwater so he was probably enjoying his aqua vision. We gotta get him back in a shallow pool before he forgets what he's learned.

Puppies!

2007-07-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

We are seriously looking at getting one of these 3 Bull Mastiff puppies. I've looked at several breeders and for the past 3 weeks have been dealing with the one I found to be the most responsible and knowledgeable. This breeder is a extreme fanatic about the Bull Mastiff breed. When we visited his house he had something like 23 dogs (counting puppies).

Currently we are considering taking what he considers the pick of the litter as a fully registered AKC dog with the caveat that we will allow him to breed the dog and allow the breeder to show the dog.

Below is a picture of the sire (Bukas) and the dam (Bella).

Windows Mobile is Iphone

2007-07-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

So it was with green envy I have transformed my PDA phone into an Iphone mimic. I'm happy with the results and pretty new interface. I like to call it the Iphone Deluxe Version.

Ron Paul is Maher's Hero.

2007-07-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Turns out that Bill Maher says Ron Paul is his hero after watching him in the June 5th Debates. My previous video posted Bill seemed hostile to Paul. Here he says "If America was a smarter country, Ron Paul would be leading in the polls".

Building Guns

2007-07-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've done a lot of work on my AK from its original state. Here's what I recall doing:

1. Taken off the furniture (wood) reshaped it stained it and finished it.
2. Polished the charging handle to silver instead of black
3. Replaced pistol grip
4. Replaced folding stock (after it broke)
5. Added a blackjack recoil buffer
6. Replaced the fire control system
7. Added a piccatinny railed side scope mount
8. Added an Eotech Red dot scope

I've had a lot of fun messing around with it adding and changing things to more customize it to my wants. I'm interested in building an AR possibly from the ground up and also interested in putting together an AK pistol kit. I'd sure like to find someone interested in building such guns but who's not nutty.

Ron Paul for Pres..

2007-06-28T12:42:00.001-07:00

I can only hope that Ron Paul can get better recognized and get the republican nomination. I'd actually vote for a big party if he got in. But really he's a libertarian taking an old Republic stance of small government.

I like bill Maher and he can usually handle himself in a debate but Ron Paul totally destroys Maher in this interview. Best he can do is keep saying "against the civil war" but Ron Paul points out that the Civil war had very little to do with slavery.

CERT Disaster Training

2007-06-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

What you are looking at here is not BBQs gone wild. Its serious distaster training in progress at the down town fire department. Vanessa, myself and many friends are taking a disaster training course sponsered by FEMA so that we will be valuable to ourselves and our community in the aftermath of a disaster such as an Earth quake or major terrorist attack.

After we graduate from the course we will receive a Disaster pre-paredness backpack and be on some kind of reverse 911 emergency assistance list.

The Price is Right

2007-06-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

With the recent retirement of Bob Barker I thought I would share my appearance on TPIR for those that missed the airing.

Donovan Pretends

2007-06-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Donovan's Birthday we got this little gem videoed.

Donovan Turns 3!

2007-06-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

After Filling up 300 balloons we got Donovan's 3rd birthday party started. He had a great time playing with the other kids and finally getting his "Thomas the" Train birthday cake. Several days earlier Donovan had been claiming it was his birthday. We finally had him understanding his birthday is June 1st and that he was turning 3 years old. Vanessa came up with some good games for the kids including pin the number 1 on Thomas, finding Gummy Bears in a bunch of wet pasta, finding marshmellows in flower, and a pinata. Donovan and the kids enjoyed all the bubble toys and then we let the kids release most of the balloons into the night sky. By the end of the night Donovan just conked out while trying to stay up to watch more Thomas the Train on TV.

Lake Mead

2007-05-29T11:36:00.001-07:00

We started the Memorial day weekend on friday morning 8am renting jet skis and towing them out to lake mead. Renting and gassing them up took a long time but just after 10am we were in the water.
The skis took some getting used to and we had some early slow falls.
Then we all took turns on the 4 rented skis which were tons of fun.
The water skis were broken out and shortly thereafter Dave's Tibia got very broken by the water skis. That was the end of the water skis and did put a damper on things. We got Dave back to shore and wheeled him back to the car so Merideth could get him to the hospital.
After zipping out to Hoover damn we were all getting a bit playful on the jetskis. We caught the attention of the police and JT received a $300 reckless boating ticket. The cops were being rather overzealos almost siting another of our group for *almost* towing a water skier incorrectly.Towards the end of the day everyone was pushing their jetskis to the limit.We did have some damage to the jetskis (someone stepped on the jet breaking a bracket and we had some cracks from bad docking) which added $100 to the rental bill. Even with some of the bad luck we had, overall it was a great time and after learning some lessons I'd love to do it again.

Sis got skillz

2007-05-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

After having a big famliy mothers day brunch at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris we went over to my sister's charicature booth over at the Aladdin and had her draw Donovan. She did one a bout a year and a half ago, so I want to keep getting them done every so often as he grows up.

Good Article

2007-05-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

'Gun-Free Zones'
By DAVID B. KOPEL
April 18, 2007; Page A17

The bucolic campus of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., would seem to have little in common with the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City. Yet both share an important characteristic, common to the site of almost every other notorious mass murder in recent years: They are "gun-free zones."

Forty American states now have "shall issue" or similar laws, by which officials issue a pistol carry permit upon request to any adult who passes a background check and (in most states) a safety class. Research by Carlisle Moody of the College of William and Mary, and others, suggests that these laws provide law-abiding citizens some protection against violent crime. But in many states there are certain places, especially schools, set aside as off-limits for guns. In Virginia, universities aren't "gun-free zones" by statute, but college officials are allowed to impose anti-gun rules. The result is that mass murderers know where they can commit their crimes.

Private property owners also have the right to prohibit lawful gun possession. And some shopping malls have adopted anti-gun rules. Trolley Square was one, as announced by an unequivocal sign, "No weapons allowed on Trolley Square property."

In February of this year a young man walked past the sign prohibiting him from carrying a gun on the premises and began shooting people who moments earlier were leisurely shopping at Trolley Square. He killed five.

Fortunately, someone else -- off-duty Ogden, Utah, police officer Kenneth Hammond -- also did not comply with the mall's rules. After hearing "popping" sounds, Mr. Hammond investigated and immediately opened fire on the gunman. With his aggressive response, Mr. Hammond prevented other innocent bystanders from getting hurt. He bought time for the local police to respond, while stopping the gunman from hunting down other victims.

At Virginia Tech's sprawling campus in southwestern Va., the local police arrived at the engineering building a few minutes after the start of the murder spree, and after a few critical minutes, broke through the doors that Cho Seung-Hui had apparently chained shut. From what we know now, Cho committed suicide when he realized he'd soon be confronted by the police. But by then, 30 people had been murdered.

But let's take a step back in time. Last year the Virginia legislature defeated a bill that would have ended the "gun-free zones" in Virginia's public universities. At the time, a Virginia Tech associate vice president praised the General Assembly's action "because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." In an August 2006 editorial for the Roanoke Times, he declared: "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Actually, Virginia Tech's policy only made the killer safer, for it was only the law-abiding victims, and not the criminal, who were prevented from having guns. Virginia Tech's policy bans all guns on campus (except for police and the university's own security guards); even faculty members are prohibited from keeping guns in their cars.

Virginia Tech thus went out of its way to prevent what happened at a Pearl, Miss., high school in 1997, where assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a handgun from his car and apprehended a school shooter. Or what happened at Appalachian Law School, in Grundy, Va., in 2002, when a mass murder was stopped by two students with law-enforcement experience, one of whom retrieved his own gun from his vehicle. Or in Edinboro, Pa., a few days after the Pearl event, when a school attack ended after a nearby merchant used a shotgun to force the attacker to desist. Law-abiding citizens routinely defend themselves with firearms. Annually, Americans drive-off home invaders a half-million times, according to a 1997 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Utah, there is no "gun-free schools" exception to the licensed carry law. In K-12 schools and in universities, teachers and other adults can and do legally carry concealed guns. In Utah, there has never been a Columbine-style attack on a school. Nor has there been any of the incidents predicted by self-defense opponents -- such as a teacher drawing a gun on a disrespectful student, or a student stealing a teacher's gun. Israel uses armed teachers as part of a successful program to deter terrorist attacks on schools. Buddhist teachers in southern Thailand are following the Israeli example, because of Islamist terrorism.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., long-time gun control advocates, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), agreed that making airplane cockpits into "gun-free zones" had made airplanes much more dangerous for everyone except hijackers. Corrective legislation, supported by large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, allowed pilots to carry firearms, while imposing rigorous gun-safety training on pilots who want to carry.

In many states, "gun-free schools" legislation was enacted hastily in the late 1980s or early 1990s due to concerns about juvenile crime. Aimed at juvenile gangsters, the poorly written and overbroad statutes had the disastrous consequence of rendering teachers unable to protect their students.

Reasonable advocates of gun control can still press for a wide variety of items on their agenda, while helping to reform the "gun-free zones" that have become attractive havens for mass killers. If legislators or administrators want to require extensive additional training for armed faculty and other adults, that's fine. Better that some victims be armed than none at all.

The founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, understood the harms resulting from the type of policy created at Virginia Tech. In his "Commonplace Book," Jefferson copied a passage from Cesare Beccaria, the founder of criminology, which was as true on Monday as it always has been:

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

We Got Crabs

2007-05-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

After Donovan picked up a little goldfish at his daycare "spring-fling" party we kept it in a vase with water. After surviving for 2 weeks and being named "Frank" by Donovan, we decided to get an aquarium. After getting Frank in the aquarium he seemed very lonely so we started picking up fish and other critters. We now have 3 crabs, 3 gost shrimp, 2 aquatic frogs, 8 neon tetras, 2 black molleys, 2 fancy guppies, 2 red wags, Frank the goldfish and 1 black moore. We did have a Green Spotted Puffer named "barack obama" but he turned out to be very aggressive and ate 2 neon tetras, some gost shrimp and 4 legs off our crabs. So we flushed Barack Obama down the toilet.

Choctaw Nation

2007-04-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to a local Las Vegas meeting of the Choctaw nation. Surprisingly there were probably about 100 poeple at this vegas meeting of these Oklahoma indians. The Chief is holding Donovan in the picture.

Gunsmithing

2007-04-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

First time replacing sights on a pistol. Here's some after pictures of TFO (Tritium Fiber Optic) night sights. they're pretty neat, they glow constantly from the radioactive tritium and have a bright glow in lighted environments because of the fiberoptic portion.

AFAN AIDS Walk

2007-04-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well thanks to all your help I raised $100 wich Penn&Teller doubled to make $200 bucks donated to AFAN. My sister and mother-in-law also joined Penn&Teller team and showed up to walk.
There was quite a lot of poeple there 200 from our team. Overall Team Penn&Teller raised a total of $65,000 donated to AFAN, which was nearly 3 times what they were able to do in the past.
Donovan got to ride along in style for the entire walk. I did actually train for this walk by going to the gym treadmill for a few weeks ahead of time. Perhaps I'll aim for the half marathon next.

2007-04-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

This sunday I'm participating in the Las Vegas AIDS walk. I teamed up with the Penn & Teller Team. Please visit my sponser page and help, any donation amount you give will be doubled.

I'll post pictures of the event monday.

XD40 Sub Compact

2007-03-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

Took out my new Springfield XD 40 Cal. out to shoot last Friday with my brother. First time shooting it and it felt great. I like it more than my original Glock. Seems like some guns are just built much more solid than others. The only other gun that felt this solid is my colt python revolver (the one shannon likes to shoot) . In my opinion Springfield has really given Glock a run for their money. It's a better pistol for cheaper that comes with more accessories (Holster, speed loader, mag holster). I'm thinking of getting some night sights put on the gun but fear doing the install myself as I have heard the one bad thing about the XD series of pistols is that the sights are SO hard to remove that many armorers refuse to even try. I'll learn more about swapping sights since I think I'll be making this my regular carry gun soon.

Barack Obama

2007-02-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

So we went to see Obama yesterday. He was almost an hour late to his speech leaving all us poor folk out in the heat and sun. I ended up getting burned. He talked about problems without really giving any solutions except that 10% of healthcare costs can be reduced by fixing administrative red tape and that he would start bringing back all our troops right away. He did mention that blacks and women shouldn't be slaves and be able to vote. The crowd really got behind him on his anti-slavery and pro-equality points.
I can't really tell what kind of watch he's wearing, but I feel that his fingernails should be more trimmed. At least he's not a nervous nail biter.
Now I assumed this was a PDA phone on his belt when I was taking pictures but now that I look at it I'm begining to think it's not a phone but some other electronic device. Any Ideas? Of course Donovan got selected out of the crowd with his stylish mohawk and vampire powerlike charm.
It's hard to tell but that's my hand on the right shaking Obama's as I took a picture at the same time. There was also a rare JayCat sighting in the crowd.

Brad Ward P.E.

2007-02-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

It's been 5 Years since I graduated with my B.S in Mechancial Engineering and now I've finally recieved my Liscence and Stamp to practice Mechanical Engineering here in Nevada. Nevada law required that an engineer work in his field full time for 4 years ( 2 of which under a P.E.) after graduating before he was allowed to take the 8 hour exam for licensure. This summer they enacted a change that allows a graduate to take the exam any time after graduating but still requires the 4 years before they get the license. So I was part of the last engineers that had to get licensure the hard way (being out of school for at least 4 years to forget everything).

Funny Video

2007-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

El Morro

2007-01-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

The day after the wedding there was a planned brunch in old San Juan which is like a midievil european city. After brunch and touring through the city we went to El Morro, which is a fort in old San Juan which had seen some battles and bombardments (even vs USA). We were a bit rushed doing the tour but got plenty of photos.
El Morro, looking out to sea.A model of El Morrow from a birds eye view.

Aaron's Wedding

2007-01-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Here's the wedding on the beach in San Juan January 3rd, 2007. The wedding went well in that it rained before and after but was perfectly clear during the planned time. Once we got done doing post ceremony photos it started to rain as we walked inside. Donovan was also the ring-bearer and brought me the rings with Vanessa's guidance. Figure this is about Donovan's 5th wedding and time for him to get involved. Even though it looks like the officiant (the Bride's brother) is going to grab the ring pillow Donovan stopped him and said "No for daddy!".

El Yunque

2007-01-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

The start of my brother's wedding festivities included a brunch out in "El Yunque" rain forest in Puerto Rico. We had our brunch then proceeded to hike almost a mile down a steep river until getting to this waterfall. It was humid and warm but the waterfall was ice cold. It was very powerfull too. The water felt like a powerfull massager bearing down on our backs. That's Me and Aaron in the photo.

Another HDR image

2006-12-23T19:52:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would post another HDR I put together from jpg images I took with my canon Xti while I was in Mississippi. This picture was taken at night (see the stars) and all the lighting is from the house's lights.

Thanksgiving Week in Mississippi

2006-12-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Our trip started out with some emergency on the airplane. The crew asked if their were any nurses or doctors on board. We think a lady up-front was having some kind of heart or panic attack. We were close to landing when this happened.
Donovan adjusted quickly to being at grandpa's house in Mississippi. Thats Donovan with his Grandpa Jack and cousin Mckenzie.Grandpa had aquired a battery powered Jeep for the grandkids to drive around his property. Donovan was getting pretty good with the pedal but not too great on the steering.
Donovan was constantly after Cleo the cat when he found her outside. Luckly the cat was very tolerant and would mostly run away when handled too much.Donovan constantly wanted to go for walks outside. He loved the shrubbery , leaves and trees. I don't know why the Mosquitos didnt bite him up (they certainly ate me alive).His cousins Mckenzie and baby Ely were there only for the first weekend but Donovan maxed out any available play time.Here's Dman and his little cousin ElyTowards the end of the week I cut Donovan's hair. He looks like a little soldier starting boot camp in the woods. This is Vanessa's Dad's house in it's current state. The Bay area where this is located has just a handfull of houses rebuilding where there were hundreds.The park next door to Granpa's house had a fresh coat of paint and wasn't seeing much use at all. There was also a TON of mosquitos that weren't much worried about the DEET I hosed onto myself.This is an example of some of the damaged but not cleared out properties that were to be found around the area.
The bridge across the bay was knocked out. They had just started a free ferry service in lieu of the bridge. We took the ferry accross.
Across the bay there was more of the barely surviving trees with a noticeable lacking of houses.Across the bay they did have a nice new park. Im not sure the purpose of the ball thing im climbing. I think it's just for climbing into/around. I couldn't fit inside the rope area so I tried climbing ontop of it.Donovan was very excited about both plane rides. Im not sure if he understands that he's actually flying up in the air vs the window being like that of a TV. We tried to give him the full flying experience by showing him the window take off/landing.

HDR - High Dynamic Range Photography

2006-11-27T23:52:00.000-08:00

I've just started creating HDR photos with my Canon SLR digicam. The picture on top is an HDR photo created by merging three various exposed shots. The picture on bottom is what one would normally get from a single point and shoot picture.

Oh, btw this is where we are staying at right now in Mississippi.

Dusk Shooting

2006-11-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Some good pics from shooting tonight. These are of my SP101 snub nose .357 revolver. Lots of flame that you don't even realize during the day.

Donovan's The New Sheriff

2006-11-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Sheriff was in town last night. Vanessa got him this costume last minute (because we couldn't find the spider costume prior). turned out pretty well. Everyone on the street kept commenting on how handsome the gunslinger looked.
Donovan did manage to get the hang of knocking on doors and saying "trick or treat" then thanking the person. He also kept pulling candy out of his bag and asking me to open it for him. Eventually he figured out how to unrap the candy himself.

2006-10-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Donovan seems to have lots of fun at his daycare. He now starts singing and dancing a variety of songs he learns there. Twinkle Twinkle LIttle Star, Wheels on the Bus Go Round, ABCs, and Itsy Bitsy Spider are his main favorites. He just got a new teacher that seems to be a foriegn national. I hope language is not a barrier for her to continue the songs.

Voting Time

2006-10-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the ballot questions:
http://www.co.clark.nv.us/election/2006/GEN/Quests_06.asp

I plan on voting on them as follows, anyone have insight on why I should vote differently than this?

1. Amend constitution for legislature to fund schools before rest of budget.
No, just a complete waste.

2. Amend constitution to on public use of emminent domain/
No, added too much crap to this and will hurt our city and prop values

3. thrown out

4. Preserve right to smoke in casinos, gaming areas, bars etc.
Yes, keeps our freedom to smoke

5. Prohibit smoking in restaurant bars and other places
No, takes away our freedoms

6. Raise minimum wage
No, as much as I like inflation, this would just push me closer to earning minimum wage instead of causing inflation.

7. Amend statutes to regulate, sale and tax marijuana
Yes, will reduce crime, move drug profits from criminals to state income, and increase our freedoms (prolly boost our tourism)

8. Allow full tax credit for Vehicle trade-ins and allow credit for farm machienery
Yes, less taxes for those who trade in... kinda on the fence on this one (I dont like the farm part)

9. Convert the Board of regents from 12 elected to 9 appointed
Yes, either appointed or elected we're gonna have the same bucnh of clowns. At least this way we'll have less of them.

10. Allow special sessions of legilature be called by the legislature instead of just the gov.
No, less special sessions the better I'd think

11. Pay legislators more for the 120 day session
No, Come on, like paying these bastards any more will get us better lawmakers.. puhleeze

strange night

2006-10-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

today started out normal enough. Got a reluctant donovan out of bed and off to school and myself to work. on my way home I see a car on the craig/95 off-ramp engulfed in flames as the firetruck is arriving.

so then around 7:30pm as I'm getting ready for LOST, we get a call from vanessa's mom who had just been attacked by a couple of pit bulls while she was walking her dogs. So instead of a night of relaxing TV, we transported one of her heavily wounded dogs to the animal ER. her other dog "Little bit" a dachshund, was killed. Some good samaritans helped get the pit bulls away by shoving a broomhandle down the lead dogs throat. In the scuffle 3 people got bit by the dogs.

Now we're here in the people ER where V's mom is being checked out. gonna have to download lost. anyone want to watch it this weekend?

Balloonapalooza!

2006-09-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

We missed the mass balloon lift-off this morning but did manage to catch this tethered balloon ride. Donovan was excited until he got up close. The gigantic size and flames got him scared and he didn't want to ride.
We went on to the carnival side of events and Donovan began to tantrum because he didn't understand he had to wait in line to go. As soon as he got to the bottom he was ready to go right back up again. He went through the wacky-house that ended in a spiral slide about 5 times before we could take him to the bumper cars for a ride with Vanessa.

Donovan then got to admire the ducks and pond since the event was being held at a golf course.

2006-09-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last night while I was re-arranging my garage to accomodate a play area for donovan he got interested in "daddy's chopper" He was afraid to touch it and backed off when I told him he could touch it. So I put him on it and he was quite happy.

My workplace

2006-09-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

just thought I would share the place where I'm spending my workday at. I sit in an uncomfortable chair infront of these two monitors. I do have a window behind me.

Bathroom Completed

2006-09-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Vanessa and I took on painting stripes in our downstairs bathroom. This is the first time I've tried painting a pattern on a wall. Turned out pretty well but was a lot more laborous than just painting one solid color.

2006-09-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Donovan the Jumper

Donovan started jumping from this cardboard box when we brought it home. He did end up scuffing his knee on the carpet and got his frist scab.

red rock stay

2006-09-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

stayed at the red rock again last thursday. the rooms seem bigger this time. probably because of all the crappy hotels weve stayed at since our last stay at red rock. they should have their pool open past 7pm. that was bogus.

Donovans Donuts

2006-09-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pics explain it all.

New Phone

2006-08-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Finally got myself a phone that will ring. Replaced my Treo 650 with a Cingular 8125. Besides being able to ring this phone runs windows mobile 5.0 and has Wifi. Hopfully ill be able to dial up network with my laptop using bluetooth.

2006-08-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Channel 8 news, las vegas

In case you missed it here's the interview from channel 8 at my suprise birthday party. Thanks for the press Claudia!

Hello computer... Shut up computer!

2006-08-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I got a giant copper ZALMAN cooler for the CPU on my desktop. Wow, that sucker keeps my CPU 20 degrees cooler and makes no sound. Now I run my machine 10% faster (3.3gHz). My brother told me how much better it is to have a quiet computer. Now I realize how unpleasant my old noisy fan was. Peace at last!

Car Stereo work

2006-08-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

Finally got enough courage to crack open my titan now that it's a couple years old. My college friend James came over and helped me install a subwoofer box under the rear seat with two 10" speakers. Also put an amp under my drivers seat. Im also *Almost* done hardwiring in my GPS/MP3 player to the center dash.

24th International System Safety Conference

2006-08-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

I spent last week in Albuquerque attending the conference. I presented a paper on the safety change control for the Krakatau sub-critical experiment. The photograph is of Jeff, Martin, chuck, and myself just after Chuck and Martin accepted the award for Krakatau which won the group scientific achievement award.

I asked Martin (who lives just outside London) if they had casinos in england. He said they are almost non-existant there and nothing like the ones we have in the US. Seemed the discussion went to the value or damage to the economy that casinos cause. I thought that although gambling is a zero sum game, it does serve as an economic engine pushing people to work more. Casino patrons get some playtime enjoyment and in the course lose their money and need to work again (and end up gambling some more). Ends up being a perpetual work cycle for the poor laborer. I know of a few people who were in retirement who took a trip to vegas and had to come out of retirement after gambling away all their savings. Sucks for them, good for getting them back to work.

So what do you think? Casinos good, casinos bad? and for who?

2006-08-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

Dirt Avalanch in Albuquerque

This was some video I caught while we had some record rains here in Albuquerque New Mexico. Just to give some reference that dirt wall is about 40 feet tall. Some people had come up and walked up to the edge. Lucky they didn't fall to their death.

Red rock

2006-08-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

Stayed at the redrock sunday night. The pool was a litttle warm but otherwise a real nice place. I was impressed with the rooms

Meteor Crater

2006-07-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

anyone been to meteor crater in arizona? its bigger than sedan crater at NTS (at least wider I think)