Damn

The Iron Sheik has passed.

I'd met him once.  The AWA wrestlers had a cabin adjacent to a friend of my Dad's up in Northern Minnesota.

New Analysis

Did you know that Russia intercepted every single Patriot fired the other day with their hypersonic missiles?

I'm impressed.

Speaking Of Race

That graduation shooter sure dropped off the front page fast.

19 year old suspect whose name isn't mentioned by Yahoo! or FoxNews?

They don't even mention the name of the school that was graduating.

SPOILER

Perhaps because a certain demographic is over-represented?

I, for one, am sick of this tendency to cover for the "doesn't fit the narrative" shooters by the media.

You Know It's A War Right?

Reading the articles about how someone (I'm guessing Russians at this point) blew up a dam in Ukraine.

The tone is universally horror that someone would do such a thing.

Yeah, war is pretty horrible, your point?

Bridges, dams and power plants are legitimate military targets.  The only reason to not blow them up is if you expect to use them soon or keep them after the war.

Yes, it's a humanitarian disaster.  Because, you know, so is war.

So far, nobody's come up with a sure-fire 100% certain method of preventing war.

Perhaps it's because we've gone so long without experiencing one, personally, at home that we're unfamiliar with what war means.

Arrested

The shooter was arrested upon completion of the investigation!

I'm actually shocked.

Not that she was arrested.  Shooting through the door is hard to justify.

I am shocked that the likes of Ben Crump were angry at someone worth being angry with for a change!

Side note to Sheriff Woods: She had called you.  Repeatedly.  You did nothing, and when law enforcement checks out, the people start to take matters into their own hands.  Dwell on your failure, Sheriff.

Things You Didn't Know You NEEDED For 1000

That'll keep the neighbor's kids on their toes!

Airsoft CIWS

Couple this with that guy who made that tracker for paintball and it would be sporty in the backyard for the squirrels!

Cue The Racebaiters

Mom shot dead during long running dispute.

FAFO.

I try to be neutral about this, but...

The people who are responding and demanding things about the shooter make me think that the deceased is not a pillar of the community whose loss will be deeply felt for generations.  They have not backed an innocent person yet.

However: If you can't keep your kids from screwing with the neighbors, you don't get to be mad at the neighbors for acting out against your crotch fruit.

Then, when you didn't take the hint from all the complaints and cops being involved...

Make note of that, there's a history here. 

You should NOT angrily charge up to the neighbor's house and pound on the door yelling!

You might just get shot.

Oh, wait...

D+ 28,852

Today is the 79th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

It's not far from being gone from living memory, so it's up to us to remember.

Whats To Do

Warhammer has its own magic system.

I think I can make it work with GURPS.

Magery levels become your Wizard levels.

Sanctity levels become your Cleric and Druid levels.

Magic Points will come with the levels and I think the cost structure is already proportionate to the original game.

Then I'll have to go through all the spells and give a write up of each in GURPS terms.  Tedious, but not too hard.

Probably simpler than trying to get the GURPS spell list to work in WFRP.

Well...  It would be simplest just to ignore the WFRP spells and use the GURPS: Magic book.

But the Warhammer spells have a distinct flavor to them and the specialized wizard classes are worth keeping.

How Long

The idiot 20-something neighbors have been yelling at each other for, no shit, 20 hours straight now.

Harvey and I have had screaming matches ourselves, but for Fuck's sake!

If you can't articulate what's pissing you off and at least get to a agree to disagree point in two hours, you're not going to ever stop having this fight and it's time to cut-bait.

I am certain the man in this is only staying with her because he was stupid enough to get her pregnant three times and she's the kind of vindictive that will take every penny in child support while also getting every dime of welfare there is.

Skilled Conversion

Went through the list of skills in Warhammer and figured out their nearest GURPS equivalent.

I am coming to the conclusion that the WFRP writers were theater people.

Lots of specific kinds of theatrical performance are given their own skill.

GURPS just says, "Performance".

Many of the "skills" turn out to be advantages in GURPS.  One is even a disadvantage.

Second Pass

It's not that hard to translate.  10 or less on 3d is a 50% chance, for example.  So a 50 Dex would be DX 10.  A 5 S would become ST 10.  And so on.  The average human in WFRP has lower stats than the average human in GURPS.  ST, DX and IQ would be 8 or 9.  HT would be 10 or 11 though!

It's not just a shifted mean, the average human in WFRP really isn't as good as the average human in GURPS.

The average range of stats for WFRP 1e comes close enough to the base stats in GURPS to say "close enough" for new character generation and just use the standard base 10.

I am uncertain that I need conversions for existing characters, but I think I can come up with them.

GURPS is a 3d6 system and you roll target or less.

WFRP is a percentile system, rolling target or less.

I suppose I'll have to make a chart or something.

This applies to skills as well, and turns out to be easier than feared.  Most "tests" are applied against the governing stat with a modifier for having an appropriate skill.  Since GURPS skills are stat-based, I'm 2/3 the way there!

Definitely going to need a table of WFRP Skill = GURPS Skill.  Same for spells...

First Dive

Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 1e to GURPS 4e:  Stats.

Obviously, we're going to toss the old system's number in favor of the new, but we have to select values that reflect those in the old system.

WFRP has many more stats that GURPS.

14 vs 4 primary, 4 derived.

WFRP gambles for stats and GURPS spends points.  So we see what the dice will give and see if there's a basis for comparison with GURPS.

Strength, Wounds, Dexterity and Intelligence equate to ST, HT, DX and IQ.  Will Power equates to Will.

Movement equates to Basic Speed.

The standard human will come in at just under the default GURPS starting level.  8 or 9 compared to 10 based on the chance of a check against that stat succeeding.

The career classes add to the stats give suggestions to add to the stats, so most character templates will get more than GURPS 10's.

The WFRP encumbrance system is a weight and bulk composite model, GURPS is pure weight.

Some rough calculations makes me think that just using the GURPS Basic Lift will come out close enough at the end of the day so we can ignore the WFRP numbers entirely.  Between the Basic Set and Low Tech, we have all the equipment listed in WFRP, so just use the GURPS numbers.

I'm going to use Low Tech to generate the armor listed already, so...

Happy Come And Take It Day

The pistol brace amnesty has expired and the numbers are in.

Around 250k people did the Form 1 to make an SBR out of their pistol with a brace.

Out of approximately 40 million of those braces in the wild.

That is epic noncompliance.

The kind of "fuck off government man" stuff the nation was founded on.

It will be interesting if the suits are successful and SCOTUS rules on it before someone lights the candle on more kinetic resistance than passive noncompliance.

I'd love to see a ruling that agrees with ATF that a brace makes a pistol a short barreled rifle BUT the Constitution doesn't give the government any power to regulate barrel length or overall length of any firearm because 2nd Amendment.

484 Years!

484 years ago Hernando De Soto landed in what's now Sarasota.

Florida has changed hands so many times, but it was part of Spain longer than it's been part of the US.

Thanks For The Update

My NAS box decided to delete write privileges for everyone but Admin during one of its firmware updates.

Thanks!

This led to a running battle with Harvey and several phone calls to JT to find a solution.

I stumbled on the loss of rights on my own when everything else we could think of had failed.

Not least of which was her machine logging into the other wifi network that didn't have the NAS on it.

Cool! Now Do Civil Forfeiture

Unanimous ruling that takings be takings.

It's long seemed to me that civil forfeiture was a taking.

It's also an excessive fine.

So we have the 5th and 8th amendments in play here.

Just like the linked case, victims of State theft have been denied standing.

Why Is It Wet In Here

The other day, Harvey noticed there was some wetness under one of the floor mats in the rear of The Beast.

I had no idea where it could have come from, and promptly forgot it.

Today, while goofing with The Boy, I turned around and saw water dripping from the rear dome light.

Turns out, one of the rubber plugs in the holes from police service decided to start leaking.

I'd planned for this!

I'd gotten an XM "shark-fin" in the hopes that my Aussie radio was Sirius/XM capable.  It wasn't, so the antenna sat on a shelf.

Thanks to the hole being lined up with the dome light, I could remove the light from the headliner and get direct access from below.

Now there's an antenna in that hole and no more leak.  It's non-functional, but it will suffice.

I'll probably have to get the other plug hole filled with the GPS canoe antenna I've got laying around soon or suffer more leakage.

On a humorous note: I forgot the child locks were engaged and managed to lock myself in the back until Harvey sent The Boy to come rescue me.  Yes, he mocked me!

Big And Round

If people are making fun of you because you're fat when you are, in fact, fat:

You can lose weight.

You can stop going where they make fun of you.

You can ignore them.

And that's pretty much it.

I say this as someone who is possessed of extra gravitational pull.

I could lose weight, but I'm not really serious about it, so I just ignore the jokes.  Even better, make the joke BEFORE the other person can.

I'm fat, I know it, and it doesn't really bug me too much.

Celebrities and YouTubers should get thicker skins.

A List Of Criminal Accomplices

Some Latino businesses are going on strike today to show what a day without immigrants looks like.

As always, they're trying to muddy the water.

Florida's shiny new immigration law isn't about legal immigrants, it's about illegal immigrants.

If you have the requisite identification, your being an immigrant doesn't matter to this law.

The article makes a big deal about there being more Hispanics in the Tampa area than ever before!

Then makes note that those numbers don't include illegals.

Huzzah to the 100,000 new Hispanic residents of the Tampa area whom are here completely legally!

I have no problems with y'all.  Or the millions of others in the area.

But those people, my legit neighbors, aren't the people this law is about.

The press and the accomplices of illegal immigration keep trying to make this about all immigration and not about the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.

Why Did You Buy It?

If you purchased your home for any other reason than a place to keep your ass warm and dry, you are a fucking moron.

Lemme say that again, THE ENTIRE POINT OF SHELTER IS TO KEEP YOU WARM AND DRY; IF YOU HAD ANOTHER REASON FOR GETTING SHELTER, YOU ARE A DAMNED FOOL! 

Don't like that?

Tough shit.

If you accept that the reason you bought a house was to stay warm and dry, then the fluctuations of the real estate market stop mattering so much.

Your house triples in value?  Are you warm and dry?  Win!

That value suddenly drops back to what you originally paid for it?

ARE YOU STILL WARM AND DRY?

If yes, you win!

A house is a box to keep you and your stuff out of the elements and nothing more.

If you're thinking it's a vehicle to become rich, you're stupid.

Do I really need to cite the years where the market proves me right about this?

Home TL

When a stone-age asshole in a cave in Afghanistan has a smart phone, one has to wonder what's going on with the tech-level.

They can't make smart phones in Kandahar.  Kandahar is, tops, TL5.  Smart phones are TL8.

This makes me wonder at what's available in "lower" TL's in Traveller.

All kinds of stuff, I imagine.

They can't make it, but many things are simple enough to operate that a TL skill isn't needed.

Renewed

For just under $60 I am licensed to conceal carry weapons in the state of Florida!

In just over a month, I will not need the license to carry.

It comes with other benefits, like skipping the waiting period when I buy a gun.

Also, it keeps my Utah non-resident permit active and lets me carry in such tourist destinations such as Milwaukee and Seattle.

Fail

Something that finally connected about the Iowa turret explosion.

Everyone in the barbette died.

Despite all the things in place that were supposed to isolate an explosion to JUST the compartment it happened in, everyone in the barbette died.

The gun room failed to contain the blast from the powder.

The powder trunk failed to prevent the blast from traveling down to the powder handling area.

Those compartments are billed as being able to contain exactly what happened to Iowa in the single gun room where the explosion originated.

Mississippi had had similar explosions, and efforts were made to make later classes less susceptable to total party kills like this.

To no avail, apparently.

Watching Star Wars With Harvey

We just got done with Tales of the Jedi and Obi Wan and have started in on Andor.

It's sparking ideas for Traveller.

Most especially a character who's filthy rich, but doesn't appear to have even a centicredit to his name.

I've played a genuinely dead-broke character before, but never someone faking poverty.

From Both Ends

This years anal probe will include an extra-long probe that will check my esophagus as well.

Or two separate probes, one from each end.

I hope they wash it after having it up my rear...

I made the mistake of admitting that, sometimes, I have trouble swallowing my multi-vitamin.

Also learned today:

Once you're on a cane, you are marked "fall risk" forever.

Happy Moment

I discovered that JT owns a Hypertech HP Tuner MVPI2.

We confirmed that his software can shut off the DOD on my car, saving a ton of money if I decide to remain sane on my cam selection.

Several people claim that the LS3 cam can be used without changing the tune because it's very similar to the one that comes with the car.

That puts the DOD delete within some judicious saving's reach!

Second he's got a scanner that can read the PID for oil pressure.

35psi at idle with the engine at running temp.  That's excellent!  That's better than the engine in The Precious had.

Access

Took a pic when it was all apart, Terrapod asked about how hard it was to access.

The last bolt by #7 cylinder was awkward, but not too bad.

For The Fallen

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.


Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.


They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.


But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;


As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

Today is not about sales. It is not about summer starting. It is not about grandma.

It's is about those who served and have passed beyond the vale.

I want them all back.

To:

Bernie Canniff (Korea, in a car club together).

Jason Kruzic (a fellow gamer from high school.  He came to an odd end.)

Carol LeFon aka Neptunus Lex (patiently explained both real world and flight sim military aviation to this tanker).

Davy McGuire (COB USS Whale, originally a friend of my Dad's, later me).

Fred Gabow (we served together, his wife hired someone to murder him).

Ian Gates (Comrade in arms to Willard).

Jerry Pournelle (you do read, don't you? Willing to be wrong and listened to my correction!).

Kevin O'Brian aka Hognose (our beloved Weaponsman).

Rabbi (Uncle Ben, another friend of Dad who got me a ride in an F-14A).

Rich Sickels (brother of my Father in law).

Robert Smith (uncle by marriage to Mom's sister).

Standing Bear aka William Dawkins (WW2 and Korea, who taught me gaming).

The world is better that you were in it and worse that you have left.

Tick Tick Tick Tick

 Had a ticking from somewhere under the hood of The Beast.

Marv thought he heard an exhaust leak from the manifold.

So I ordered parts!

JT came over today to hand-hold socialize with me because I ain't never spun a wrench on no LS motor!

He brought his special-scope stethoscope to make sure it wasn't the manifold to cat-convertor seal.

Confirmed!  #7 was leaking.

The torque values on these single-use bolts is shockingly low.  One pass at 11 ft-lb and a second at 15 ft-lb.

The key her is single-use.  I know from the Sarasota Sheriff's Office's records they did a cam and lifters at 90k and they might have reused these bolts.  The leaking cylinder was nearly finger tight! 

I used new ones.

While I was in there, I replaced the valve cover gasket on that side which was showing signs of seeping.

The tick is gone!  The odd glonk noise at 1200 rpm in 4 cylinder mode at light load is gone too.

All for less than $50 because I have tools and friends who can still hear directionally.

Test drive went well, the driver's information center shows a small increase in mpg and it's MUCH smoother.