Happy Birthday Arizona!

Today is a lot of things...

Valentines Day (hope you bought your honey a card!)  The SandCastle Queen commanded "only a card" this year as she has already procured an epic "family valentine gift".
Starbucks Buycott
Arizona's Birthday.

Not just any birthday, our Centennial.  Today she turns 100.
Arizona was the last continental territory US to become a state.  Only Alaska and Hawaii followed into the union.  (so far, but we have a long ways to go to get to 57 states).

Arizona is an interesting state.   Most people here are from somewhere else.  We have a lot of "snowbirds" here.  A while back RNS linked a slide show extolling the virtues of Wa State. Hey great, but we sure see an awful lot of Washington state plates round these parts this time of year.  Why is that?  And why are they trying to turn left from the high speed lane instead of the provided left turn lane?

The SandCastle Queen is a rarity:  A native, born and raised here.  She has personally seen more than half the life of the state.

I'm not a native but I'm an Arizonan by choice!  I was born and raised elsewhere, but purposefully chose to live here.   I used to visit the parental units in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia the week between Christmas and New Years.  The papers were always full of "new laws enacted this year and taking effect on 1/1/xxxx"  After about three days of this I'd just get mad and yearn for my free state of Arizona.  Crossing the Colorado river I'd always let out a yell to celebrate my return to freedom.  Alpha Mike Foxtrot Kalifornia.

Arizona is not a perfect state.  Far from it, We have a big illegal immigrant problem and a budget problem as big as any other state (proportionally), but it's one of the best from the personal freedom standpoint. Arizona has constitutional carry.


Happy Birthday Arizona!
I'm glad to be here!

I've been tagged!

Thanks Kevin

I haven't blogged much lately.  Lots to do and by the time I get around to the blog, it's old news.


The rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award.
3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs. 

Vox,  True Blue Sam, Sailor Curt, All Nine Yards, Arizona Rifleman


TAG, YOU'RE 'IT'!!!

Update:  Wilson-Blog tags-up.  Roger that, I'm honored!  I've been kinda quiet lately.. glad y'all are still out there monitoring.

Surrender Start

Not a DGC addition, but when a guy attempted to rob a smoke shop, the only thing he got for free was a bullet.

Still I love a story with a happy ending.  Good guy unhurt.  Bad guy receives some negative feedback on his activities.

Brewer for President!

One of the worst things that happened in 2008 was Obama's election.

One of the best things that happened to Arizona in 2008 was Governor Napolitano resignation to go work for the Obama administration.  Secretary of State Jan Brewer then became Governor.

That set up what happened today:  If you haven't seen this picture, do so now!

Brewer  2012!

Geekery

The SCSon and I meet with a local electronics group on tuesday nights.  Mostly we do radio stuff.  Tonight a member brought in an original 1981 IBM PC complete with the original green text monitor and keyboard (that should be registered with police as a lethal weapon.)

The PC power plug needed some attention and then some .  Once attended to, it eventually booted to some form of BASIC.  I suggested the operator demonstrate "Hello world" circa 1976:   Program it to count from 1 to 10.

"Those neurons have long since past"

I step up and carefully typed:


10 for i = 1 to 10
20 print i
30 next i

Those three lines were Greek to most present!

run

[result:]

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10


You probably heard the cheers when they got the 2.5MB hard drive to boot to DOS!

Heh... playing with stuff that rightfully belongs in a museum.  Does life get any better.  Anyone know where I can sit down at an ENIAC?  or perhaps a CRAY?  Mebbe I'll bring an Atari 800 (+games) next week!  48KB & maxed out, yeah!

Geekery 4eva!

Hers and His

Cz-82 & S&W 629.  24 rounds of 9mm x 18 plus 18 rounds of 240gr JHP .44 at +1400fps.  Hers and His.  (

This is our observation of the Tucson shootings of this date and the candle light memorials offered by the anti-gunners.  We at the SandCastle instead observe with regret there wasn't a carrier or three to stop the shooter long before the before many shots were fired.  These events rarely stop until someone with a gun arrives.

This case is a little different in that he was tackled while changing magazines.  Good on those that acted rather than cowering in fear waiting to be shot.  Still a carrier could have stopped it before half a dozen rounds were fired saving an awful lot of pain and death.

H/T Weerd Beard

Gotta love Arizona in the Winter!

Summers are hot as Hades around these parts, but Winter really makes up for it.

It's New Year's Day.  I was out, about and running around today in the Miata....
... with the top down!

Temps today reached 79F without a cloud in the sky.  

Happy New Year!

(on the downside, I just got off the phone with my credit card's Fraud department.  They tell us we won't be responsible for the charges).