Happy New Years!

This is being posted one hour after New Years, Happy New Year everybody!!!!

We spend the entire time down in our newly refurbished basement playing our new WII!!!!!!!
Thats right, our family officially has it's second console, we go for sixteen years using only PCs, and then in one Christmas we get both a PS2 and a Wii! Guitar Hero 80s Rock FTW!!!

So far we have a bunch of games for the PS2, namely Guitar Hero, Vitrtual Fighter IV, and Rygar.

For the Wii, we have a hunting game which we have yet to try, the usual Wii sport pack, and Wii Resort pack as well. We (no pun intended) also have a racing game, Star Wars lightsaber duels (meh) and Monkeyball!

Funfunfun! So far I win 2/3 of the games I play, unless it is bowling, which I am good as, but my sister is INCREDIBLE at. She gets strikes 9/10 of the time!

The Resort Swordplay game is great and hilarious to watch: "Hah! take that!" "Watch out, you almost hit me there!" "What? I am trying to hit you!" "With the controller you dork!" WHAP! "HaHA!" "No fair, I was looking away!" "Well it's yer fault for-" WHACK!

*Evil chuckiling*

The Archery is the coolest though, You use the Nunchuk to pull back the arrow, and hold the Wii like a bow, so it is soo realistic.

This probably sounds stupid to anyone reading it, so just take my word for it, words cannot express how cool this thing is!

Merry Christmas Eve!

So I just finished playing Apples to Apples with my family, not my favorite game, due to the fact that it is rather random, but still fun due to to the fact I ate so many M&Ms I feel sick=D
On the whole, today has been pretty good, got some presents finished (including one for Gracie's family, Muhahahaha!) and practiced my engraving for the first time in a loooong while, trying to make a little copper ring with crosshatching on it...going OK so far.
Now trying to learn The Boys of Malin on my Pennywhistle (A six holed end blown fipple flute for those who do now know the instrument, try saying that five times fast!) Also known as Tin Whistle, Irish Whistle, or just plain Whistle. I hope to post vids of me playing eventually, but that depends on what my parents think of the matter.

I know I promised pictures of snow, but my parents have been a little more protective of me lately in regard to the internet, so that may not come to pass either....grrrr......

MERRY ONE-HOUR TAE CHRISTMAS YE LADS AND LASSIES! ALBA GO BRAGH!

Awards

I would like to thanks Kendra for the following two awards, I have seen them floating around, and hoped I might get them, as they fit my blog quite well!

SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! NEW RECORD FOR SNOWFALL IN OUR AREA!
We are now up to 10" folks, that is the most we have had for the past TEN YEARS!
Global Warming my eye! Last year was a new record as well, although it took place in JANUARY, this is BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

So, after reading an article recently (Going Cheney on Climate Debate) I had the misfortune to be given a paper to write in response to what I view as little more than a Liberal Rant. (Note the capital letters, this designates the article as a class 2 Political Phenomenon on the Einar scale, just slightly above Obama getting a dog rather than a cat, which is a 1.)

In the article the writer, a very opinionated journalist by the name of Thomas Friedman, claims that we should give the same degree of attention and recourses to Global Warming (A 3 on the Einar scale) as we would Pakistan Getting Nukes (A 10.)

This comparison is made using  a Declaration that Dick Cheney Made (2) “If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping Al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.”

Thomas claims that since Global Warming has far more dire consequences than Pakistan Getting Nukes, such as the Death of Polar Bears (0.5), it should be given just as much attention. Hidden within this argument are subtle suggestions that is should get more attention, since there is undeniably more than a 1% percent change that is will (is) happening. In fact, the few bits of data that were not proved false by the Climategate Scandal (7) were recently seen to correspond to the weather phenomenon El Niño.

The one bit I found truly interesting was a clever attempt to dismiss Climategate as nothing more than a few scientists a little data, nothing particularily important.

“Climategate was triggered on Nov. 17 when an unidentified person hacked into the e-mails and data files of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, one of the leading climate science centers in the world — and then posted them on the Internet. In a few instances, they revealed some leading climatologists seemingly massaging data to show more global warming and excluding contradictory research.

Frankly, I found it very disappointing to read a leading climate scientist writing that he used a “trick” to “hide” a putative decline in temperatures or was keeping contradictory research from getting a proper hearing. Yes, the climate-denier community, funded by big oil, has published all sorts of bogus science for years — and the world never made a fuss. That, though, is no excuse for serious climatologists not adhering to the highest scientific standards at all times.

That said, be serious: The evidence that our planet, since the Industrial Revolution, has been on a broad warming trend outside the normal variation patterns — with periodic micro-cooling phases — has been documented by a variety of independent research centers.”

Wrong.

The scientists did not “massage” data, they created it. These “priests” of the Global Warming Religion (3.5) ran out of misinterpret-able evidence with which to confuse people, so they created their own.

 In the rest of the article, Mr. Thomas went right back to the Global Warming Mantra (3) of “Evil Co2!” No logic, no consideration that perhaps there are more e-mails we didn’t find, and no acceptance that perhaps he has been fed a bunch of lies.

Einar “Political Weatherman” Alimson

Tagged by Kendra AND Gracie

1. Do you believe Jesus is the reason for the season?
Yes.

2. What is your favorite Christmas beverage?
ROOT BEER FLOATS!!!!!


3. Do you have any Christmas traditions?
We have a mouse that someone hides, and whoever finds it gets to hide it in a different spot. That mouse has been some REALLY crazy places.

4. What do you do on Christmas Eve?
Go to eat at either my Mom's Dad's house, or her Mom's house, since they refuse to be in the same house, even on Christmas.

5. What do you do on Christmas Day?
Open presents. Socialize. Eat FOOOOD!!! Then open Stockings. Hide loot.

6. What is your favorite Christmas song?
What Child is This?

7. Do you usually have a white Christmas?
I have never had a White Christmas.

8. How long did you believe in Santa?
Never, my parents dislike the idea of Santa in general, and so do I. My grandpa did not know this however, so it was very confusing for me when he showed up at my 3rd Christmas dressed as Santa.

9. Who’s your favorite reindeer?
I don't discriminate, venison is venison.

10. What’s the best thing about Christmas to you?
The Family that comes to our house.

11. When do you put up your Christmas tree?
This year it was the day after Thanksgiving.

12. Do you hang mistletoe?
I actually think I have never even SEEN mistletoe.

13. Does Santa wrap the presents or just stick them under the tree?
Santa gets "bumped" by me in Wal*Mart so the whole line of plastic santas gets knocked over like a bunch of dominoes *evil snicker* fat RED dominoes....

14. Do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving, especially when I have a easy enough scedual to carve/hammer/sew/build/buy all my friends something I know is JUST right.

15. What do you want most for Christmas out of everything in the world, material and nonmaterial?
A NICE practice set of Ulian Pipes

16. Do you go to lots of parties, parades, etc. during the Christmas season?
MMmmmmmmm.......no

17. Describe Santa.
 WHAT THE HECK IS WITH ALL THE SANTA STUFF? HE IS A FAT OLD MAN IN A RED SUIT THAT SNEAKS IN YOUR HOUSE AT NIGHT! BAD!!!

Pipes

ARRRRRGGGGG!!!!

I just realized that the sort of bagpipes I have been wanting to learn to play is not the Great Highland Pipes as I first assumed, but the Irish Ulian Pipes.

Highland Pipes have the same range as a recorder, are very loud, and are played standing.
Ulian Pipes are quieter, and have nearly twice the rang of GHB, enough to play something other than marching tunes. They ARE played sitting down, but use a bellows, rather than a blowpipe, thus allowing one to play without growing a second set of lung muscles.

I already have a practice chanter for the GHB which will be going up on e-bay soon, hopefully the money will be a good start to my practice ulian set.

Botheration!

CLOAKS!

The excellent Gracie recently sent me a picture of when she accompanied me and some friends to the Ren Fest last year (08) since it has a picture of the (old) cloak, I am posting it here until I can get some more recent pictures of my costume. Sword not yet included, but on the way as soon as I get the $190.

I made this thing from the heaviest material I could find, it is water resistant, and so functions as a poncho when needed. Also, it is so heavy that I occasionally go mad when wearing it and begin screaming about giant squids, carpet monsters, and bread dough.