ww_watcher

Speaking of saddle horns.... Remember the bicycle seats that were padded and had springs underneath? Well one of my HS friend's little sister had a bike with that kind of seat only the bracket that held the front down had broken so the seat would point slightly up, suspended by the springs. As you can imagine, the front tip of the seat would bounce as she rode over the bumps in the sidewalk and street. It was a while before I realized why she rode slightly off the seat... I'm pretty sure I caught on before her brother because sometimes she would help me with my paper route for movie money and one day I saw her start to gently rub her puss on the point of the seat with a rather determined look on her face and glaze in her eyes and she would coast a lot for that bit. I look back and wonder why I didn't take advantage and also what else I missed.

I think you guys are thinkin' about "ridin' the saddle horn..."

Spent my boyhood summers on my grandparent's ranch that used horses and was an Indian Guide during the summers during my later teens at El Rancho Cima boyscout camp. I had to look up "posting." The horse taught me to be light in the saddle by occasionally but deliberately popping me into the air, then hopping sideways just enough that I would land halfway off the saddle, then stop; pitching me head over heels into the dirt. Then the damn thing would wait patiently for me to get back on. Eventually I caught on and he stopped doing that. Smart-assed equine.

Way back when...I was a pencil necked geek in high school so, because I didn't have a clue when women were coming on to me, I didn't get laid until directly after the senior prom and everyone was partying at West Beach on Galveston Island. Even then the first girl had to flat out tell me she wanted a good boinking by me. Maybe it was because I was one of 5 who had a surfboard or because I was the only one with a convertable (beautiful powder blue 71 LeMans Sport) but I had maybe said 10 words to her during the 3.5 years in school so it was huge surprise. Luckily I had ditched my prom date during the prom because of her complete failure to launch...an arguement ensued and she left with one of the biggest assholes in the school. This girl did everything, all I had to do was hang on for the ride. I think she knew she had a virgin in her grips. Afterward (the whole thing only lasted 15 minutes or so), I had a couple of beers (if you can call OE-800 beer) and went to my car to get my board. My surfer buds and I were waxing our boards for some night surfing -actually just sitting on our boards about 100 feet off shore discussing my loss of virginty) when a little cutie I did know fairly well joined us. She had grabbed my other board and paddled out to where we were. She hooked a finger into my trunks so we wouldn't drift apart stayed there for a bit before sliding into the water. I thought she was just getting wet till she slung her bikini bottom into my lap. My buds disappeared...just like magic. My trunks had also magically formed a tent. We exorcised our youthful naivete quite vigrously over the next two weeks until her Dad found out and put a stop to that nonsense - he was a deputy sheriff and large.

I read that book way back before Mr. Hawkings started developing signs of ALS. I wouldn't call him the greatest scientist of our time -I would give that to Einstein- but he is certainly one of the most influential cosmologists today. I wonder how much of it Leora understood? If she reads this then she might like to read Michio Kaku's 'Hyperspace'.

I think they are building up the suspense. Just when we start to change our focus they will do something most outstanding. I think this is called plot building/thickening, or something like that.

I already said this before we knew the sleeping arrangements...Just before Layla arrived I saw Ilona jumping for joy. She included Anna with that joyful exhuberance as they were, all three, walking into the kitchen. I surmised, I think accurately, that the new girl was going to be her friend but didn't know the depth of the friendship. After Layla arrived I saw Ilona grope one of Layla's boobs and Layla wasn't uncomfortable with that. That points to some familiarity with each other. I haven't a clue about the future but I think that they are at least as friendly (touchy-feely) as Ilona is with the other girls. I think the journy from here will be fun for us. Be patient.

Ilona already copped a feel so i think Layla will fit right in.

In one of the earlier pics posted Ilona was jumping up and down in joy and hugging Anna as they all three ran into the kitchen. If I am not mistaken that is a sign of, "my BFF is coming!!!"

Looks like she's a "friend" of Ilona's

I don't think it's a scam. You are paying for a show and you are getting one; only this is very ad lib...sort of.

I am sure she is but I hate her hair.

I just hope the new girl doesn't resemble Butch from C&S.

tact - the art of lighting a fire under someone without making their blood boil.

I look at the TV everyday...'cause my laptop is hooked up to it LOL

Just a note: when I want to translate English into whatever language, I always feed it back through to english to see if it makes sense. If it doesn't then I re-word my statement until it works both ways....more or less.

There are still issues with silverlight DRM (that which drives netflix) and playing DVDs, for the same reason. The problem is money not ability. Linux is free and does not pay the licensing fees that windows and Mac do. However, the thousands of people out there who contribute to the Linux environment have their own ideas about that stuff and have various "unofficial" ways of doing things which are freely available to the Linux user. It hasn't been a problem for me yet...mainly because my smart TV, smart Blu-ray Player, and Xbox all take care of that just fine, and all my movies and favorite TV series-es (Babylon 5 etc) have been converted to .MKV files and are stored on my network drives. Just an aside, I have an old Dell Latitude 850Mhz Laptop, that has Linux 12.05 installed on it, that I used (no longer necessary) as a print server for my plotter and scanner so the windows wienees could use it too. Aside #2, Google Wine for Linux and see if it will help you run the windows apps you can't do without. I have all the Diablos and Myst games installed in Linux and they run better when playing on-line.

Read this. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/35676/how-to-choose-a-partition-scheme-for-your-linux-pc/ it can explain it better than I. However, keep in mind that Linux can navigate through NTFS and Fat32 just fine. My main 'puter is a dual boot system, because my son didn't want to run his games in Linux, and I have editted WORD and Excel files directly in the Windows side using Open Office. Another good argument for having Linux around is an episode concerning the McAfee Virus Instiller. A few years back McAfee had some problems with the checker not allowing certain programs to be installed and when you tried to install the fix it made it so you couldn't completely uninstall the software as long as you were in the Windows protected environment; and DOS shell doesn't handle long file names very well. McAfee supplied a utility to do it but it didn't work because only McAfee had the necessary permissions to delete the offending files. So I started up Linux, navigated to the proper directory and deleted the bastard files. Weeks of dealing with McAfee customer service vs. 5 minutes, including a beer break, to give McAfee the "ole heave ho."

UGH! Linux, FREE, 30 minutes to install -45 minutes if you include beer breaks- that includes updates which are included in the main install. Security included and updated regularly. Every two years they release a Long Term Service version that is already stable (imagine that!). Even if you are a gamer there is a distro of Linux just for you; Streamer OS. Yes, there will be a bit of a learning curve if you want to do special things, but if you can navigate through Winblows or MacOSwhatever, then this should be a no brainer...unless "no brainer" describes you, then it should take a few minutes longer. There are several "flavors" of Linux depending on what you want to do with it. You can start here https://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/810295-the-top-11-best-linux-distros-for-2015 if you want to explore the many possibilities. I use Ubuntu because I am a generic user, however, you can load any linux app on any flavor. There is even a Low Latency kernal version for those you who produce music and such. If you are a Pro Tools user you should check out Rosegarden. I use Ardour but I don't need anything more advanced...yet. I am sure most of you already know about GIMP, Firefox and Thunderbird, VLC, and Open Office. Installing is easier than windows and you can actually run Linux from a thumbdrive, as a test drive, without actually installing it. The most straight forward method to install it is to download the ISO and burn it into a DVD or thumbdrive and install it from one of those. Of course you can always install it from the net if you want. Ask TBG or me if you want to know more or need help. You can also install Linux w/windows as a dual boot system if you can't live without the crippling effects of Windows OSs and/or like driving a russian Trabant.

Yes, that is what I remember. They emptied all the non military personel (house-boys and maids) from the base the day before I got there and restricted us to the base. It was very tense. I was glad there was an Army presence present. My Taekwon Do master was born in North Korea two decades before the conflict started and grew up in Seoul where he became a doctor and eventually a flight surgeon for the USAF where I met him; in Houston, Tx. My wife was born in the Samchung province just north of Seoul. I didn't meet her until 1986 though. She been in the states for 7 years before this happened.

TxFeller, in 1976 when the three American soldiers were hacked to death by the North Koreans while they were clearing the brush away from a sightline of an observation post on the DMZ. I was sent from tech school in Colorado to Osan AFB to guard the flight line. Even though the 39th parallel was several hundred miles north, I always felt like I was sitting in someone's crosshairs. I never understood why the military would "beautify" a place making it a well marked target. Camouflaged trucks, camoflaged uniforms and a nicely painted path connecting them.

I ask myself, Do I deserve the recognition of those who put themselves in the line of fire on a daily basis? Hell no. Did I try to do my part to insure the safety of our country? Hell yes. I am a post Viet Nam war vet. I was in the US Air Force as an Avionics tech. However, on weekends I would put on a badge and either hunt down those who were AWOL or clear the Airmen out of off-limits bars. While on duty I have been shot at several times, shot once (but the actual target had nothing to do with us - just in the wrong place), stabbed with an ice pick in bar room brawl started by the biker/owner because we were clearing out his best clientele, but not once was I attacked by an enemy of the country. I have had to make arrests that weren't peaceful and once as a Pinkerton Man I had to shoot someone with a "bean bag" then cuff them. That is the extent of my combat experience but it is more than most and I can say with certainty that most tough talking humans are not prepared even for that. You have to ask yourself, "Can you realistically protect your household?" If the answer is no then you need to fix it or plan for it. The time has come when we no longer have a choice to rely on our local law enforcement to do the job.

It is hard for most people to prepare for something when really have no idea what to expect, the reality of the resources available to them, or, and most important, how to control your emotions under stress. I am sure that there are enough hunters in this group to know what "buck fever" is. For those who don't, it is the shakes that you get just before you kill a living creature...like a deer (buck)...for the first time. It is very important because you can freeze up at the wrong moment and that be the difference between life and death. That's what I mean about emotional control. Like several others here I do have some combat experience but never had to actually kill anyone. I am a hands-on kinda guy but I don't even like to hit people. It hurts me inside. Laugh if you want, my resolve would allow me to step up if I had to defend my family or the students here but would/could a normal person? I would say that most people can not do this. They would require someone with training to protect them. I don't know how you would prepare an average person for a possibly deadly confrontation without some professional training. I've seen mean ole bullies crap their pants and cower to the ground after getting shot at by a farmer with a shotgun loaded with rock salt.

Thanks Itay. Back in '78 and '79 I taught, at different times, Iranian and Arab airmen how to maintain the Reccon cameras on the RF-4 Phantom. One of the fellows I taught was, and don't laugh because it has been 35 years, Womafar Medhi Khoukohee. That's the best I can remember his name and rank. Although we were all friendly, he stood out; I think because he was the only Christian among nine other Muslims. I was a bit too unrefined for the Muslim fellows who came from wealthy families and had some college already. One of them was a musician and played some traditional Persian music, which I happened to like, and I got to accompany him on bass. Anyway Medhi (I hope I am spelling his name correctly) told me a little about the politics of Iran. He said it was good the Shah was in control of the country because of medicine and general quality of life. I may have misinterpreted some of what he said but when the Islamic revolution hit he disappeared and his buddies accused us of hiding him because he was Christian. We had no idea where he was for about two weeks after the others had left. It turns out that he had applied for political and religious asylum because some members of his family, who were government employees, had been killed on the first day. He didn't have any other family as far as I knew. We never saw him after the day he came to gather his belongings and say his goodbyes. He did get the asylum though. He spoke English as well as most high schoolers so I doubt he had any problems fitting in here.

May I step in. I haven't pissed off enough people today. In fact we (the US) helped put Shah Pahlavi back on the throne in 1941. He was ousted by the Ayatolla Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution because it was alleged that the British, who owned the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, was controlling the Shah and ripping off Iran, and the Ayatolla wanted the Oil company nationalized. He managed to gain enough backing of the imams and other parts of the religious community to depose Shah Pahlavi, in 1979 (?) and then kicked out the british. At that point Iran became an Islamist state. The Christians were allowed to stay but could no longer hold a part in the government. This pissed-off the USA and UK because they no longer had access to a huge oil reserve and the Ayatolla didn't play well with infidels. What's funny is that under the Shah the Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany were given refuge and allowed to make homes there. They still have a large commuity there but are largely ignored as long as they remain quiet. We did foster the war between Iraq and Iran to more or less protect Israel from Iran. We had already supplanted Saddam Hussein in Iraq and gave him weapons to fight Iran. However we needed Iran to be able to fight back so we secretly laundered the money from the drugs, brought out of Cambodia and Laos, through the BCCI bank (remember the Iran-Contra scandal where Colonel Oliver North was directed to fall on his sword -take the blame- and in return got lots of money and a quiet retirement) and the money went to the Contras in South America and turned into weapons for Iran. That's why we knew Saddam had chemical and nuclear weapons; because we had given them to him. The BCCI bank was started with money from Clinton, Bush Sr, Carter, and the banking community of the Federal Reserve. We are still in Afghanistan because the countries around the Caspian Sea are oil rich and we want to capitalize on this and Afghanistan is the easiest route to the gulf but we can't build the pipeline until the country has adopted a form of government we can control. BTW I think the Paris attack and the 911 attack had more in common than a few terrorists. Another day perhaps. Can I piss off more folks today?