Jun. 15, 2008 - What's new
We’ve been preparing to move for almost a year now, and our house is now in contract. If all goes well we should be down in the San Antonio area by the 30th.
It’s surprising, but there’s really not much to write about. During the past week we’ve been getting together with friends and saying good-byes. But I’ve told them; the only way they’ll ever be rid of me is when I’m dead and buried, and even then they’d better bury me facedown so I can’t dig out. Maybe cremation would work better....or not....
So to all my fans out there, I’ll soon have something to write about. I’ll be living on a farm, shooting hogs and coyotes when I’m not fixing fence or working livestock.
Don’t take anything for granite. That’s what tombstones are made of. —John R. Erikson
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Jun. 9, 2008 - Knifemaking
First off, apologies to all my fans for my mysterious absence.
Now for blogging:
I’ve been making a knife out of an old lawn mower blade, using an angle grinder and a belt sander. The blade has been molded after a Japanese Tanto, and has been detempered along the bone in the Japanese method. I have researched the Texas Penal Act, and the blade is approximately 5 inches long. The overall length is 10 inches. All perfectly legal.
Here’s a quick runthrough on the process: I cut the knife out of the blade with an angle grinder, smooth it out with a belt sander, grind some more to give it the best shape, sharpen it on the sander, dip in epoxy and give it a handle.
I’ve taken several pictures through the process, and here they are.
The knife has been cut out of the blade.
I’m smoothing with the sander, and my sister Anna is keeping the metal cool with a spray bottle.
It’s been ground some, but as you can see the tang is wider than the blade. I need to grind it some more.
Now I’ve leveled the tang with the blade and evened up the guards. The pitting looks worse than it really is, since I haven’t yet figured out how to turn the flash off on this camera.
I’m waiting on more sandpaper to smooth out the rust pits and put an edge on. After that, I’m going to give it a black epoxy treatment and wrap the handle in black-dyed military surplus seven-strand core para cord. I’ll post more photos when I do.
There’s five wrong ways of doing every job, and a guy ought to try every one of them, every time—John R. Erikson.
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Mar. 10, 2008 - Stress Check
Read this FIRST, BEFORE looking at the photo.
The picture in this test has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Mary's Hospital. Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins. The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may want to take a vacation.
Don’t take anything for granite. That’s what tombstones are made of—John R. Erikson
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Feb. 22, 2008 - I got tagged...
I was tagged by rivergirl. What did I ever do to her?
8 Things I'm Passionate About:
Including, but not limited to:
Church
Karate
Carnivorous Plants
Danger (It gives me a high)
8 Things I Want to do Before I Die:
Publish a book
Travel to Japan
Haze my future brother-in-law
Have a carnivorous plant greenhouse
Put together and manage a band
Breed a carnivorous plant cultivar
Build a log cabin
Have a true adventure
8 Things I Say Often:
Uh
Uh huh
Nuh uh
Grunt
No
I didn’t do it
I did do it! An hour ago! Oh, that...
I forgot
8 Books I've Read Recently *-stars rate the book (five being the highest)
Congo by Michael Crichton *****
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton ****
Star Wars Episode 3 by Matthew Stover *****
The Last Command by Timothy Zahn *****
Star Wars Episode 4 by George Lucas ****
Star Wars Episode 5 by Donald F. Glut ****
Star Wars Episode 6 by James Kahn *****
Redwall by Brian Jacques ****
8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over:
None
8 Things That Attract Me to My Friends:
Clean speaking.
Intelligent talking
Sharing some of my interests
What else?
8 Things I've Learned This Year:
In two months? Well...
Do a harder middle block
Be more careful with my guard
Women are hard to figure out
Women are impossible to figure out
Might as well give up trying
8 People I'm Tagging:
Lyric
MusicFreak
WriterWoman
Antelope
Pedro
I don’t know anyone else.
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Feb. 15, 2008 - Things You Learn When You Live In Texas
Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road with all
four feet in the air.
There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in
Texas.
There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in
Texas, plus a few no one has ever seen before.
Raccoons will test your melon crop, and let you know
when they are ripe.
If it grows, it will stick you. If it crawls, it will
bite you!
Nothing will kill a mesquite tree.
There are valid reasons some people put razor wire
around their house.
A tractor is NOT an all terrain vehicle. They do get
stuck.
The wind blows at 90 mph from Oct 2 till June 25; then
it stops totally until October 2.
Onced and twiced are words.
Coldbeer is one word.
People actually grow and eat okra.
Green grass DOES burn.
When you live in the country you don't have to buy a
dog. City people drop them off at your front gate in
the middle of the night.
The sound of coyotes howling at night only sounds good
for the first few weeks.
When a buzzard sits on the fence and stares at you,
it's time to see a doctor.
Fix-in-to is one word.
There ain't no such thing as "lunch". There is only
breakfast, dinner and then there's supper.
"Sweetened ice tea" is appropriate for all meals, and
you start drinking it when you are two.
"Backwards and forwards" means I know everything about
you.
"Jeet?" is actually a phrase meaning, "Did you eat?"
You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't
matter what time it is. You work until you're done, or
it's too dark to see.
You measure distance in minutes or hours.
You can switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
Stores don't have bags. They have sacks.
You see cars with the engine running in the Wal-mart
parking lot with no one in them, no matter what time
of the year.
All the festivals across the state are named after a
fruit or a vegetable.
You carry jumper cables for your own car.
You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" are.
You only have four spices in your kitchen: Salt,
Pepper, Ketchup, and Tabasco.
You think everyone from north of Dallas has an accent.
The local papers cover national and international news
on one page, but require six pages to cover Friday
night high school football.
The first day of deer season is a state holiday.
You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
You find 100 degrees a "tad" warm.
The four seasons are: Almost summer, summer, still
summer and Christmas.
You know whether another Texan is from East, West,
North, or South Texas as soon as he opens his mouth.
Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past-time known as
"goin Wal-Martin" or "off to Wally-world."
You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as
good chili-eatin' weather.
A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola, or
pop....It's a Coke regardless of brand or flavor.
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Jan. 29, 2008 - What's in my pockets?
As I sit here, I contemplate the contents of my pockets. Other people call me paranoid, I just like being prepared.
Starting with my right front pocket and proceding around me to the right:
Change, multibladed knife.
Bone-handled very sharp knife
Wallet, two guitar picks
Mini composistion book, stub pencil, a twenty-dollar bill
Compass, backup lockout knife, whistle, hakki sack
And on my belt, a 5-LED flashlight and a lockout hunting knife
Now decide for yourselves: Paranoid or Prepared?
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Jan. 17, 2008 - Scooby-doo rant
The reason that Scooby-Doo went down the tubes in my opinion, was that it started out silly, and they tried to make it more real. And that’s not Scooby-Doo. Scooby and Shaggy are silly, and any attempts to make them serious detracts from the whole concept. I still watch and enjoy the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You show, but can’t sit through the other shows. And this comes from the same mind that can be totally entertained by Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Now that was a lame movie, but if I’m in the right frame of mind, it doesn’t matter. But the only people that watch and enjoy the modern Scooby-Doo are too young to care what’s on TV, and probably shouldn’t be watching it that young. They’re doing just what Pirates of the Caribbean did, lay a good reputation and ride it down the tubes. And that stinks. It gives storytelling a bad name. At least Pirates of the Caribbean II was funny.
It doesn’t take any brains to be stupid, but even though something is stupid doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you—John R. Erikson
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Jan. 17, 2008 - Brontosaurus or Apatosaurus?
The thing that drives me nuts more than anything else—except for squeaky markers, fingernails scraping paper, bad puns, and five hundred back-to-back renditions of ‘Three Blind Mice’—is when people refer to Apatosaurus as Brontosaurus. That is simply incorrect. When hip and backbone fossils of Apatosaurus were discovered by Othniel Marsh, the skeleton was named Apatosaurus. Later, Marsh found an almost complete skeleton that was missing its head. Instead of recognizing what he had seen before, he found a skull from a Camerosaurus in a different layer of strata, tacked it on, and named his find Brontosaurus. The confusion persisted, however, and it wasn’t until 1975 that scientists recognized their mistake. The general community, including toy dinosaur manufacturers and the U.S. Postal Service, still cling to the incorrect form.
If there’s anything more annoying than Pretence, it’s Reality. And anything that weighs a thousand pounds and bites, kicks, and stomps, must be considered Reality—John R. Erikson
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Nov. 15, 2007 - Introducing myself
Maybe I should tell about myself first. I am your typical Hulking Surly teenager, except for the hulking and surly part. Unfortunately, people tend to forget that not all teenagers are threats to society. Weren’t they teenagers also, once? But I digress.
I play the guitar and piano. I also grow carnivorous plants, build with LEGO bricks, hunt, and study Isshinryu Karate. I climb trees quite well, stand on my head, put my foot behind my head, and, if someone helps me, I wrap my leg backwards until my heel touches my forehead. Our household has two dogs, two cats, two guinea pigs, and one gerbil.
I am not an environmental extremist, nor do I think that Global Warming is true. I have very strong opinions on subjects like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Yeti. I have not dismissed these things, but don’t yet believe that they are real. Until further evidence comes up, I shall remain aloof.
I am rather paranoid, and never feel safe in bed unless I have a flashlight near at hand and am on my top bunk. The top bunk is safer, because it is very difficult to strike someone without the momentum of the swing. I carry my 3 3/8 inch hunting knife everywhere I go, and hate sitting with my back to a door. I also enjoy thinking to myself, If I were a criminal, how would I go about robbing this house, or bank, or restaurant?
I am very good at arguing, except with my parents.
I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light, that no one will come to heaven but through Him, and that all other roads lead to hell.
I think that Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon and Eldest, ripped off Lord of the Rings, Shannara, The Dragon Riders of Pern, and Star Wars. He has a talent for ripping off the bad scenes.
I will get into each subject in more detail later, and in separate posts.
You add all this up, and you don’t get Superman, just me. –John R. Erikson
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Nov. 13, 2007 - Largely Unknown--Megaraptor
In Argentina, ten years ago, a scientist found fossil foot fragments of the latest and greatest carnivore. The foot bones included a toe-claw, similar to a Velociraptor, except that it was sixteen inches long. When coated with a layer of keratin, the claw would be more than twenty inches long, making the wearer of such a wicked weapon almost ten feet high and twenty feet long. This discovery, christened Megaraptor, is largely unknown. As they say, ignorance is bliss.
Something that big would be able to challenge Tyrannosaurus Rex. It’s a frightening thought.
Some of us are born confused, and some of us get that way through hard work—John R. Erikson
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About Me
Welcome to the private den of Daniel M******! Thanks for visiting. Please take the personality quizzes and leave your answer in the cbox.
Links
• Home
• View my profile
• Archives
• My Little Sister's Blog<%LinkTitle%>
Friends
• doglvr
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• musicfreak
• rivergirl
• Antelope
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• Lyric
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• Pedro
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Page
My LoTR Alter Ego
I sometimes retake these as I mature.
Your results:
You are Iron Man
| Iron Man |
| 65% |
| Robin |
| 60% |
| The Flash |
| 60% |
| Supergirl |
| 55% |
| Catwoman |
| 50% |
| Superman |
| 40% |
| Spider-Man |
| 35% |
| Batman |
| 30% |
| Wonder Woman |
| 30% |
| Hulk |
| 25% |
| Green Lantern |
| 20% |
|
Inventor. Businessman. Genius.
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Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...
Your results:
You are Magneto
| Magneto |
| 77% |
| Apocalypse |
| 77% |
| Dr. Doom |
| 77% |
| Lex Luthor |
| 69% |
| Juggernaut |
| 63% |
| The Joker |
| 52% |
| Mr. Freeze |
| 47% |
| Riddler |
| 47% |
| Dark Phoenix |
| 46% |
| Green Goblin |
| 43% |
| Venom |
| 42% |
| Poison Ivy |
| 41% |
| Kingpin |
| 41% |
| Mystique |
| 39% |
| Two-Face |
| 35% |
| Catwoman |
| 30% |
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You fear the persecution of those that are different or underprivileged so much that you are willing to fight and hurt others for your cause.
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Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...
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