road trip

My Darling wife bought me a retirement present.

Her being her and me being me,

It is as far from the standard gold watch as you can get.

A 2006, Mercedes Brabus modified, Turbo Diesel Smart Car.

Believe me in that this is very a very different vehicle

from your average smart car.

Brabus is the official tuning, hot-rodding shop for

Mercedes vehicles. 

Brabus has customized multiple types of Mercedes

vehicles, for varying roles.

I've got a lot of studying to do on this vehicle.

I'll be reading the manuals today.

It is in the driveway right now, needing a good

wash and detailing from the trip last night.

We took an insane one day, 1500 mile round trip

 to pick up and drive home my retirement present.

Some people would consider our trip highly irregular.

The 750 mile return trip, through mountains,

at 70mph plus, in the pocket rocket Turbo Diesel took

for the complete trip, only 11 gallons of diesel.

I do mean pocket rocket...

as you can see below----

In fact that's what we have named our smart-car.

The Pocket Rocket.

Owning the eclectic things i own creates continuous difficulty.

For example:

One of my eclectic weapons is a 1936 French Army MAS 

bolt action rifle.

Ammo can be very difficult to find--

When i discover 7.5x54 rifle rounds offered for sale i try to buy some.

Only the Serbians make 7.5x54 French rifle ammo now?

My first thought is what the fuck is with that?

Why are Serbians the only people on the earth manufacturing

ammunition for a 1930's era French military rifle?

A mystery for sure.

I happily just located and purchased an 

additional 100 rounds for the upcoming 

Zombie Apocalypse.

I haven't had a chance to write much lately.

I'm not upset about my lack of production.

I am tho, trying to keep track of concepts 

that have popped into my head

while not writing.

"I am just one human being."

Dalai Lama

You Cannot Push the World

What is this Thanksgiving?

I seem to be in an ongoing loop of 

reading, writing and watching streaming TV.

As if trapped eternally waiting in an Airport boarding area.

It's OK for now.

I just hope it doesn't go on for so long

that i can't get myself up and out of it?

And
While others seem upset regarding current events.

I could give less than a shit about anything, anywhere. 

The world inside my head is a constant war zone.
The enemy combatants are the opposed concepts of:
Time waits for no man
and
Timing is everything.

I had to make myself back off pushing the world
this weekend.
I almost fell into the trap of forcing things, pounding the 
square peg into the round hole trying to
 make something happen before it's true, proper time.
I had a distinct tendency to do that with everything
I encountered when i was young.
I would try to force things to go my way,
regardless of timing, or logic.
The consistent result for me was failure.
The problem with this problem is:
You really, truly, honestly----never know
if you did the right thing.
Did you miss a not to be replicated opportunity?
Or 
Did you miss a not to be replicated failure?

I have been revising, rewriting what's been written.

Revising gives you a break.
It allows you to sharpen a tool that you created,
or to remove flaws through refinement.
The difficulty is that one can easily become lost in rewrites.
So i write new material until i become lost 
and then review, refine, rewrite until i become lost 
and
Repeat as necessary.

I am currently reading through the Last Policeman series of three novels

by Ben Winters.

They are so far, excellent.

A really unusual concept.

Chef is a five star, beautiful little movie.
I cannot recommend this film enough.

AND

"Go to Heaven for the climate,

Hell for the company."

Mark Twain

Good bye Ken Takakura

A week of work done.

A month till retirement.

I'd really like to carry one of these in

my EDC bags. They are hellishly expensive.

15 for $50.00 if you can believe that!!
So these are a logical no-go
but you cannot argue the cool factor.

We've been sort of all over the viewing map recently.

White collar on DVD=blah, the latest X-men on DVD=blah.

The Rock embarrasses in the totally, completely massive suck Hercules.

Thank God we still have a couple of years of NYPD Blue on streaming left.

Ken Takakura died this week. He was 84.

Ken Takakura was known as the Clint Eastwood of Japan.

His long and highly praised career in films began accidentally.

He was applying for a job as an account manager for a Japanese

film company when "discovered" and asked to audition for

a role in a low budget gangster film.

Americans may remember him, 

(if at all, we are such a dense culture)

from the films

Black Rain, and the little known cult classic, The Yakuza. 

His personal style fit perfectly into portraying the honorable man

forced into dishonorable positions by those around him.

He had that distinctive Japanese stoic presence.

I will miss him.

I am considering building a ship model for display in the nerd cave.

Me being me it cannot be the standard fair of an aircraft carrier or the like.

I am considering, but only considering building something 

very steam-punkish model such as:

The 1900 Chinese steam and sail Cruiser Chih Yuen

Just thinking and researching at this point in time.

This time frame ship, would, when finished, 

make an excellent display in the nerd cave.

Right next to my Dirigible and flying boats.

"Reading maketh a full man;

conference a ready man;

writing an exact man."

Francis Bacon