Good Advise!

The Wizard of Oz (http://othersiderainbow.blogspot.com/) posted a number items under the heading of "free advise". They are quite seriously, excellent advise for anybody who has a credit card, a wallet, and lives in a place where the above may get stolen. Which is...um...all of us....

Things like "instead of signing your credit card, put the words "photo ID required". and to once in a while take everything out of your wallet and photocopy it, both sides, and keep the copy in a safe place.

He also has a cool tune in the background.......

Its only a hockey game....

Its no shame to lose to Russia. They played brilliantly. Like they had a play book on the ice with them. Canada merely played extremely well. They have finished out of the medals. Ah well. It won't make me turn to drink!

Course, this is only Men's Hockey. The ladies brought home the medal for Women's Hockey, and there is no doubt in my mind if THAT team were up against the Russian Men's team, they would have body checked them back to Moscow.

Curling does NOT belong in the Olympics. Sorry. Even though we are doing so well, it STILL doesn't belong.

grumble grumble grumble

Go Team Canada Go!

Well, team Canada in the Olympics will have to get their fingers out...its Russia they have to beat now! After holding on for dear life in a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic in the final game of the preliminary round, Canada faces Russia -- which beat the U.S. 5-4 -- in quarter-final action today at Torino Esposizioni.
Puttin' in the chips and beer for a long afternoon!!!

What am I saying! I gots too much to do to be watching a hockey game! Even such a great game as this one! Today, I have to find out why my sword blanks came back from the heat treaters as "sword like objects". Bad steel? Bad heat treating? And I also have to figure out how to pay for a new set of sword blanks. Brenda is not keen of dropping 3 or 4 grand on a bunch of blanks I can't use!
At the same time, I think I will try and see what the heck is holding up my English Wheel! I made a beginners stupid mistake...I finish paid the job when there was only a week to go! Now that week has stretched to two months! What IS it about sub-contractors? I hope my banker is not as incompetent. Or maybe she is....but is better at covering it up? (Lordy I am getting suspicious these days!)
I seem to be in the unusual position of not haveing any work coming in the door! What a concept! That IS unusual. Now I have no excuse to ignore Brenda's honeydo list.

ice

My place on Friday. Decided to stay home. click on images to enlarge.

Many dead on local highways....2 huge (thirty car) pile ups on the 417. Countless fender benders. It was like the movie "Day after Tomorrow" out there, with a 15 degree drop in under an hour.

Valentine's Day Hearts

In reverse order, here are three hearts for the ladies in my life....or at least, in my blogs.... all unrequited love alas!
The flower for Jennifer.....the um...piercing for Pei Ling, and the sunflower for the one who got me into blogging, Ovonia Red.

Ugly helms

What follows is a stream of consiousness....feel free to click "next blog"....

Here are a couple of the "ugly" helms I made this week. Why are they ugly? Well, the welding is technically excellent (I didn't do it...grin!), the helms are fairly plain, but those big grills out in front just make a nice looking helmet fugly. I don't normally make grill faced helms...guess this is why! However, the customer is always right, and knows what he wants....and ugly takes a back seat to function, visibility, breathing (always handy, that!) and winning the battle. The old saying....Good Fast or Cheap, pick any two. I think I can now add "Pretty" to that list. But you still only get to pick two! This fellow clearly picked "functional and cheap", and will win all his upcoming battles. Ah well, at least if he loses them, he can't blame me for making him a helm he can't fight in!
Compare to the barrel helms in the January archives....I think I prefer the closed in barrel helm to this wide open bar face.
The other helm is a round top grill face. It is the "alpha" version, and so needs some tweaking. However, there are some different things about it....it is basically a good looking helm which has been covered with a face grill. The grill is built upon a cut out plate, which although 12 gauge, is pretty light since most of it is cut away. I had 20 of them plasma-cut to a template I built (rebuilt, and built again until I got it right!) Now I just have to make a LOT of face bars! This should be the new "hot seller". They don't take all that long to make....just requires a lot of waiting time for the stages....usually it takes a couple of weeks to get into the welding shop, but only 2 hours to cut out the plates! Then another two weeks to get the welding done later!
The tops are spun bowls which have had a half inch taken out of them and then welded together. Another 2 weeks...Hey, I think I know why this project is taking all this time!!

New rules for 2006

George Carlin has his new rules for 2006. Ones that particularly caught my eye were these...

New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."

New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.

New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're a dope. If you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you're a grown man , they're pictures of men.

Please visit
http://www.strangecelebrities.com/content/item/113583.html
for the rest of them. Guaranteed to start your day off right.

(I know....its not about ME....but I am a little tired this morning....I laid awake all night trying to figure out what "existential" means. I don't get called existential very often. I think it is a good thing...

Joke of the day.....I walked into the bar and told the bartender "My wife doesn't understand me". He said "Well, wadda ya mean?"

Another week!

Another week, another helm! These are quite pretty...the visor comes up and overhead, to sit in back. The simple most straightforward SCA helm I make! The gorget has been fire coloured. Yeah...I'm showing off...grin!

Just had an interesting visit from an old friend. He is an amazing person, lots of life experience, very interesting, and psychotic. I mean, REALLY diagnosed truly Manic. Even under the control of his medication, he is a bit challenging to be around. I get the feeling that I am in a cage with a rattlesnake...and if I do or say the wrong thing, I may precipitate an unfortunate event. Not that I am worried for my safety, but rather the safety of our friendship. I think everybody has a friend who does odd things...but it helps to know and respect people who have real problems to realize how minor the idiotic behaviour of your boss or co-worker really IS. As a retailer of swords and knives, I often have to deal with people that have an unfortunate attitude....and I refuse to sell to somebody who I think is more than a little eccentric. Since anybody who buys weapons is de facto eccentric, this tends to be a value judgement.
A lot of my friends don't want to have anything to do with someone with a mental illness. Like, Dude, you CAN'T catch it...its not contagious! Such people fall into the category of "interesting". Lets face it, they are incredibly more interesting than a dozen people I know whose babies are their life... or those whose jobs define their world, or who spend inordinate amounts of time on line. http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Blizzard_Christina/2006/02/08/1430745.html

Ah well...back to work...bashing metal. Trouble with a job like this is that you are by yourself all day. It is good to have yourself as company, but there is a tendancy to think too much.

Bill

Military

No special reason for this....just thought I would share my wallpaper with y'all. Its off the Mars.com web site.
(click on the image to enlarge. Save it the usual way.)