July 10th to the 18th

July 10th to the 18th.

July 18th - Thursday. Ogre the food critic. It is well known to many that Ogre loves Mexican food, and grilled food. Any grilling that has to be done, has to include hotdogs of one variety or another. Your not going to let the rug rats have at your Porterhouse are you? Certainly not. Of course while your good stuff is grilling you will want to sample one of the dogs to make sure they are good enough for the Wrecking Crew. Am I right? Of course. A normal hotdog is doable with just plain mustard and your good to go. But a grilled dawg is something a bit more special and is thus deserving some better treatment. You can go the Kraut route, the Chili way, or you can do it up Chicago style with pickle, tomato, onion, and hot peppers. Regardless of your dawg preferences, Ketchup is an important factor. I humbly submit that for grilled dogs, the new "KICKERS" brand with Tabasco is fantastic. Not too hot. Now, if you just want some hot sauce, Spectre provided us with something remarkable. Marie Sharp's Habanero Pepper Sauce is probably the best hot sauce I have tasted in over 10 years... maybe the best sauce I've ever had. Period. We all know the mighty Habanero is about the hottest that a pepper can get naturally. However this sauce isn't as hot as you might expect. It is full of flavor and the heat warms your mouth nicely, without giving you the rush of heat causing you to down a gallon of milk. This stuff tastes GOOD. It's awesome on eggs, and anything else you would put Tabasco on... but it really comes into it's own when slathered across a nicely grilled steak. Heavenly! This is something you want to keep on the table for every meal... Salt, Pepper, Marie Sharp's Habanero Sauce...

Some punkasses decided they wanted to walk into my back yard. I was out front cleaning up the yard from my mechanical work and these cats just start walking into my back yard right in front of me like I wasn't even there. I "Ahem'ed" and they stopped. One dude said "Sorry, I used to live here." I had just picked up an empty 7.62X39MM case that had fallen out the back of the Cherokee. "Well you don't now, do ya? Now your just trespassing." Kid actually had the balls to say "So?" I replied "You might get injured." He puffed his chest and was about to say something stupid so I tossed the empty case to him and he caught it and looked at it. As soon as he recognized that it was an empty cartridge case, I said in a nice and clear voice "Bang." They all got the point crystal clear and quickly and quietly went on their way. As if these "Icy Hot Stuntaz" dipshits could even come close to making me feel intimidated. The only thing is that I wouldn't want to hurt them - or anyone e;se for that matter... I'm just glad they didn't want to press the issue. That would have made my weekend plans become very complicated.

The new exhaust pipe is installed. You wouldn't have believed the shitty job that the person who "fixed" the pipe did before me. It was welded at a bad angle, with a bad weld... welding into the hanger bracket too. That's wrong. You don't do that. So part of getting everything back together involved copious usage of both a Dremmel cut-off wheel, and a large hammer with plenty of swing. Had to bust off the old welds... Anyways, after that, it went together pretty easily. Of course, the easy part came from some assistance from Mrs. Ogre who was under the Jeep with me supporting one end of the pipe while I was working on the other. Couldn't have done it without her. She rocks. That's all there is to it. It was actually kinda fun when she was under there with me. But I digress... Owning a Jeep and keeping it on the road can be a real bitch. Yet at the same time, it can give you a major sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Try doing all this with that Toyota Supra! Hell, I couldn't even change the damned oil in that ricer POS. Okay, it wasn't a POS, but it was impossible to work on. Oh, the Jeep, I didn't even have to break out the jack and the the jack-stands. I just parked it on the cool green grass and went to work. Try doing that with a Supra. Can't even slip a sheet of paper under that thing. The pipe I installed was heavy duty steel. Should last for a long time... rest of the Jeep's life. At least that section of the exhaust system.

While at AutoZone, I bumped into an old co-worker. We talked for a little bit. He is getting into Carpet Cleaning. Dude has certifications out the ass and could do anything in the world with a network... instead he is going to be cleaning carpets. How is that for the economy. You gotta laugh at the the Computer Training classes being pimped on the radio. Take this class, get the MCSE certification and get a high paying job! *bullshit* Those jobs are RARE now and getting even harder to find. Kudos to those that have them.

Check this out... AutoZone got the pipe in. Not only did they get me the pipe, but they had it FED EX'ed Priority Overnight from Tennessee... The cost of shipping it to me had to of cost more than the pipe it's self... but AutoZone didn't care. They just got me the part I needed. No questions, no second thought. Just get Ogre the part ASAP. I'm impressed. This is the 4th or 5th time AutoZone had my back when the other shops couldn't help me. Not Checkers, who is almost in my back yard. Not Pep Boys who is almost a freaking Wal-Mart of a parts store... AutoZone is the place. From now on, it's AutoZone for everything. Checker wouldn't have shipped a part overnight and not charged me a penny more. I just said I need it fast... they said "We'll call you when it comes in tomorrow." I was thinking it was coming from SLC... Nope. From TN. FedEx. I'm amazed. Other places I've had to order parts through... maybe a week, maybe more. No fast service option unless I wanted to drop major jack on it. Not at AutoZone.

This is great, going over the engine getting it as tuned up as best as I can... Been under the Jeep most of the morning. 4 bolts. 4 highly rusted and fused bolts on the exhaust pipe, in a funky position right in front of the cats. The Catalytic Converter, and Tom. Tom was giving me moral support hanging out with me under the Jeep. Thanks Tom. I needed it. After some time, careful application of brute force and PB-Blaster, the bolts gave and I was able to get them off without breaking them. Amazing. Now, I'm waiting for Autozone to call me telling me that the new exhaust pipe is in and I can pick it up. After I get it I can work on undoing the upper 2 bolts. They should turn easier as they have been soaking in PB-B for some time. The only problem is actually getting to those two bolts. I can see one of them, and the other two will require some interesting contortions to get at. I think the easiest engine to work on is the inline 6 that Ford used in the older 70's F-150. That engine had everything lined out for easy access. You had tons of space inside to work in. That would be great right now. Of course, I don't have that old Ford engine. I have a small I-4 AMC motor that for some reason is cramped inside the Jeeps engine bay. Or maybe it's just cramped for me trying to get my paws down in there and find room to turn a wrench. If Autozone doesn't get the pipe in, I'll just put the back end back up and deal with the noise. Getting to these last two bolts is going to be a major pain in the ass.

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. I don't know why I find the hysterically funny, but I do. Have a laugh.

The PERFECT job for me just opened up, and I have sent in my résumé with the most killer cover letter I've ever written. My wife was giddy when reading it. That's a good sign as she is forever making remarks on how I should have written a cover letter. Maybe this is the one. It's local here in Orem and it's not very far from my location. I could walk to work, or bike it. That would be awesome. Run home for lunch, nooners, tussle with my boys, and then run back. That would be great.

Speaking of great, this information came in last night. Angelina Jolie may become available again. Right on! Thanks for the heads up, Brad. Sorry for being "the other guy" Billy Bob... but you know how it is. Hey, you were great in that flick with Bruce about the bank robbers... great flick. Truly enjoyable. Now, Billy, if I may have a word with you in private *slap up the side of his head* What are you doing? Every man on the planet thinks your dumb, redneck ass is the luckiest on the planet. How you scored a babe like her is unbelievable. And now she might drop you? What ever your doing to piss her off - stop. Dumbass.

(A note from Mrs. Ogre - Can I say that I use this picture of Jolie as targets for my .45? That's all I have to say about that.)

Let me throw this out right now... I love Mrs. Ogre. I think she is awesome. Even if Angelina was to come over and give herself to me - no way. I would never leave her for anyone. Not even Jolie. But maybe some nice 3way action would be great! Update - the above was said to counter Her remarks... I got the reaction I was looking for. The howl of rage, the physical assault on my shoulder, and the declaration that I am a very bad man. That was awesome. he he he.

Mrs Ogre a few years ago made me a Christmas gift. It's a quilt. Now, I don't geek out over blankets - but this one is cool. A quilt for guys. It's denim on one side, made from a bunch of old jeans and stuff. The other side is flannel. It's thick and heavy - but for some reason it gives me a lot of comfort. I can feel the love in that quilt. I can't sleep well without it. I feel like Linus. (The Peanuts reference)

I think Iran has a neat way of treating murdering rapists. Put them in a bag and throw them off a cliff. If they survive, they are hanged. LOL... I think maybe we have something to learn from the Middle East after all.

A reporter is in trouble for reporting a fire at a mental hospital and using the headline Roasted Nuts. I can't help but to think that's pretty danged funny. My wife is right, I'm a very bad man.

This is truly disturbing. Police officer and SWAT veteran accidentally killed when he drops his gun and the gun discharges. Freakish accident. All modern guns are built in ways that they can not fire if dropped. This is very odd. I would like to know the make and model of this gun.

This is awesome. New questionable earning reports for AOL. We all know AOL to be evil... this comes as no surprise. DOWN WITH AOL! Now, I am not like others that dislike AOL, I have a number of very good reasons. 1, all the reasons developed while I was on AOL.. 2. They are Anti-Gun. Screw AOL. I hope they crumble so we can scorch the earth where they stood to make sure it's dead, and then salt the earth to make sure nothing ever grows there again.

Baseball or Soccer? Pitcher throws the ball and accidentally hits the batter. This happens some times. What doesn't happen is that the batter then takes the ball and chucks it back at the pitcher. Hits him in the leg. OUCH! 40 foot shot. That had to have hurt. Interesting thing, and the redeeming thing, is that both players of their own volition apologized to each other. That's cool. I guess. This may be an act or something... trying to rev up popularity of the sport of baseball. Whatever it is, baseball doesn't need it. The sport is hurting, true. But pulling WWF (oops) WWE crap like that isn't going to do anything.

July 17th - Wednesday. Thinking about using a dropdown menu for navigation. What do you guys think? The bullet's are cool, but sizing your window can screw them up alignment wise. They only look right at full screen, and even then can get messed depending on your settings.

Not to be out done, Correia has an update for us today. This time he is offering some very good advice to those of us who have friends that are thinking about getting a gun.

It has been suggested that I time stamp my entries to allow readers to follow my comments better. *sigh* Have you read the ABOUT page? I explain why. I'll explain again here and I'll be sure to use small words. Posting my comments normally will mean readers will have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to get to the fresh takes. Kind of annoying. Posting backwards allows the readers to get the fresh takes on top. I keep each take in an unformatted block so you know that each "paragraph" is it's own little article. Next paragraph can be a whole new subject all together. This isn't a book, and this isn't a magazine. And my creative writing Prof would probably shiat his Dockers to see it - but for a webpage such as this, it works. If you want to read a book, I suggest you go to Boarders or Barnes & Nobles or Amazon.com and order one. Time stamping is just a bother. Here is what you do... scan down the page till you see yesterday's date. The block above that is the first block of the day. Read each block from bottom to the top. Sometimes I break that rule in the morning when I am throwing out some of the news... I'll write conventionally for a bit there. When I leave and come back to MadOgre for another take, it goes to the top of the list. Regardless... just work your way up. Okay? Most readers stop by once a week or so, sometimes a couple times a week and they just go back to where they last checked in and work their way up the page. Of course I have my loyal Horde that need fulfillment daily and that's cool too. They also start at the bottom. Who are you to be different? You think your special? You think your an "In'duh'vidual"? If you miss something, or I had something that's now gone - check the archives. It's there. Old links die... I don't keep up the old links to articles, or old pictures. Sometimes I delete all old and unused pics, so You may find a red X in a white square once in awhile. I don't want to hear about that. But if your on a page, and the link back (Generally the Mad Ogre logo) doesn't work, then you can let me know. Last May's news article link doesn't work? Cry to CNN about it. Yes, I took creative writing as an elective in college. I also took History and Military Science among other things - these things should not surprise you.

Spectre and Shin have both submitted updates. Shin gives us some disturbing information regarding the PLA's newest toy. Shin does a lot of research about China and his information is both accurate and up to date... and scary. Spectre has some interesting thoughts regarding the new Stryker vehicle, among other things. I think the concept of the Stryker is flawed. All the Army-Think about the vehicle is contradictory at best. Is it a bus, or is it a tank? Why does it have to mount a 105? The only thing a 105 is good for is to engage other armored vehicles. And you don't need a 105 for that. If it's just a wheeled transport, wouldn't several Jeeps do better than 1 IFV? Lighter, longer range, and of course cheaper. Weapons viable for AT operations other than the 105MM are the 25MM autocannon like on the Bradley. Or even a 30MM cannon. Hell, a pair of Russian 14.something machineguns would be great. Back that up with a TOW missile and you then have a weapon system with more flexibility than a single 105. I think a vehicle that is smaller, faster and harder to hit would be better than these LAVIII based machines. The level of armor is next to useless... I mean really - it's only rated to stop rounds that an armored HUMVEE can already stop. Just add some weapons to the HUMVEE - oh, wait a sec. You can already add weapons to a HUMVEE! I know the M113 is not very popular, but I humbly suggest that a fraction of the money that goes into these LAVs could have upgraded the M113s with better engines, systems, armor, and weapons... giving you a vehicle that is small, light, better same level of armor, packs same weapons (just lose the lame 105 - if it's not a tank, it doesn't need a tank's gun!) and is sized to allow easy transport into a C-130. Nevermind the fact that tracks are better than wheels. Have we forgotten the lessons from WWII? If you can't tell... I'm not in favor of these LAVs.

The IRA has pulled the unexpected. They have published an apology to the families of all "non-combatant" victims of IRA attacks. Interesting... Useless, but interesting. I can feel for the IRA... wait a sec. No, I can't. Being a good part Irish (More so Scottish and I wont admit to the Irish blood after this) I've made it a personal concern to understand the violence in Northern Ireland, and try to see where the IRA is coming from. Here is my conclusion: Fuck the IRA. They are terrorists just like the Al-Qaida group. These guys have been bombing and murdering for centuries. Admittedly they are attacking the British, and that has some merit, it is still flat out wrong. Throwing grenades into a crowed gathered around the funeral of one of your victims? Judas Priest! That was an IRA incident a year or two ago. Nice work, there! Now your coming out and saying, "We're sorry." Sorry doesn't cut it, you jackasses. A FUNERAL? The only people there are "Non-Combatants"! I think what this is about is that the IRA doesn't want to be on the list of the Tango Hunters when they are finished with Al-Qaida. Too late. Your on the To-Do list. If you guys really are sorry - Go away. Disarm, Dispel, and Disperse. No more IRA. Period. If you guys are so fed up with England - you should of put up a better fight to keep your freedom like Scotland did.

Newspaper reports that it's a Renter's Market right now. With so many vacant rental units, you can have your pick of locations with some bonus concessions such as a couple months free rent, or free cable, etc. I humbly submit that it's not just for residential units. Office spaces are ripe for the picking as well. Whole office complexes are empty and waiting for business to come in. Just take a drive up I-15 from Orem to SLC and you will see whole buildings and some office parks waiting for occupants. From my house I can throw a rock at a dozen small offices that are empty. If you have a SMB that needs a home base - Utah is the place. You can get your office for cheap. You can get your apartments for cheap. You can get your labor for cheap as well. Maybe it's because Utah's economy is drying up. Some business are leaving. Gateway did. Intel is. Intel just announced 4,000 layoffs. Who else? Micron never really even moved into Utah before it backed up. Nothing wrong with Utah, it's just everything is drying up like that. However, if your looking for a home base for your company - regardless of what your company does - Utah would be the perfect place to bring it.

Last night was fell asleep with the TV on the Tech TV channel. Just before I closed my eyes for the rest of the evening, the "news" show came on. They ran a story about a bill being passed or is up for consideration to sentence Hackers to LIFE IN PRISON for hacking. Now, as much as I am not pleased with hacking, I don't think that it's on the same level of punishment as Murder. If the company that got hacked is worth it's salt, everything would be backed up, and the website would be restored within moments of the attack. To quote overly inflated monetary damages is bogus. Hmmm, just like the accounting at Worldcom. Anyways, Prison sentences need a little more consideration. Life in Prison should be reserved for those that actually hurt other people. The human predators that prey on other humans. Instead, violent offenders are released early because they are running out of space in the prisons... to make room for hackers? WTF? I'm not defending hacking by any means, but there are basically 4 kinds of hackers. Kids who want to try to see of they can. Middle aged cats with a boredom issue. Gen X & Y cats looking for holes to report to the company in search of Security Consultant fees or positions. And lastly the hackers looking to do damage. Those cats need to be punished, sure, but life in prison? Gimme a break! Let's save that for people who Drink & Drive... 2nd DUI conviction? You go to the hole. Buh-Bye! America needs to do something else with Government instead of inventing new ways to put people in prison. New laws are passed every day... have been for 100 years. Will continue to do so until everyone is in prison.

Here is something we didn't see coming. Spain just invaded Morocco. 6 soldiers captured and no shots fired. No one injured. Well, I guess that is the way to launch an invasion isn't it? Seems Morocco is a little pissed. They had just taken that island last week! LOL. Let's let them keep this up all they want. As long as no one has been shot, it remains fun to watch. Vegas casinos may start quoting Odds in this game.

Speaking of funny. NEW MONTY PYTHON! Unperformed Monty Python sketches will be performed. These are old sketches that just never got to the stage. That's so cool. I love Python. Very funny stuff. I remember once me and Shin watching it late at night and laughing our asses off until my father comes trudging down the stairs to yell at us to keep it quite. Oh Man! That was FUNNY! Spam Spam Spam Spam...

The new tires on the Cherokee feel good. I still need bigger tires. These are the same small sized tires like I had before. A jeep needs some big meats. One day. After I get a job. When I get my Transfer Case (and everything in it) replaced, I'll get some big fatties for it too. Why not? If I have to drop 800 bucks on it, what is another couple hundred? Yeah, while jeep was in the shop getting the front end checked out, I had them check out the grinding and popping noise under when I went into 4 wheel mode. His professional opinion was that the T-case was "Fucked". That's funny, that is what I said. Oh, the power steering fluid leak... That will cost 400 bones to fix. So I'm looking at 1,200 bucks to fix that. That's not even regarding the exhaust pipe issue. Patches wont hold and welding wont work because of the position of the break in relation to the Cat. Needs to be replaced. I'm getting that done today. Have to get this shit straightened out before our trip to northern freakin Idaho. I don't want my loud engine noise to wake up the bears & moose up there.

July 16th - Tuesday. Spectre has sent in his first submission. Take a minute to read it over and learn a bit about where he is coming from. He also sent in a couple new pics that I threw up on the Project Jack page.

Again, out playing with the Jeep Cherokee. A split bushing in the front end caused some problems that lead to .8 of an inch toe-in on the front tires. Got that fixed. Now I need to put tires on it. I have a set of big 33's I could put on it right now, but those tires wont pass inspection. Aargh. Nothing is a problem if you have the money to throw at it... but when you don't have money - everything becomes a problem. I've got to get this Jeep ready for a road trip up to Northern Idaho by Friday. I've got that set of other tires mounted on some nice wheels for a Ford Ranger. If I take a grinder to them I can make them fit my Jeep. I just might do that. Then I could just find some used tires for the existing jeep wheels that will pass inspection yet be nice and cheep. No shop here in Utah County has a used tire in this size... but they would be more than happy to finance me a new set of really nice BFG A/Ts! I can understand financing a lot of things... houses, cars, maybe a boat or some appliances for the home... but TIRES? You finance assets - not consumables. Tires are consumables. You don't open a new line of credit just to fill up the gas tank once, do you? No way. Not even for those 80,000 mile tires. Welding the exhaust pipe isn't going to work due to the location of the break. I'm going to have to drop the pipe and refit a new one. Freaking lovely. There is another 50 bucks. I was lucky to discover the cause of my leak in the power steering system. I'll need 400 bucks to fix that. No problem. Or, 50 bucks and see if I can get my father in law to rebuild it. Too bad he hates working on cars.

July 15th - Monday. Swat Magazine just published a fantastic article! It's about the .32NAA Cartridge... oh... and I wrote it. he he he. How cool is that? My picture is in there twice. Sweet! My first gun "printed on paper" magazine article, hopefully not the last. I have a couple other article ideas that I think would be of great interest to a gun rag.

Correia just sent me his first installment for his section. It's his introduction. Take a minute to read it over. What he has left out is that he is a competitor in IDPA and 3-Gun matches, took 8th overall out of 50 at the last one and is a team member with me for the TFL team at the SWAT 3-Gun World Tactical Championship Match.

Why is the stock market slipping? Could be a couple of things. With more layoffs and corporate mergers out there, people just don't have the money to be investing? No. Corporate merger's are one good reason though. People are just waiting to see what happens... Then once it looks good - people are going to jump all over it. So we have all these cats waiting and ready to pounce. Then you have the guys that are keeping an eye on President Bush's new task force against corporate jackoffs like Enron and Worldcom. Who knows what they will find? It's a safe bet to say that these kinds of deals are far from over. Sure, these things are not quite good for the economy... right now. But take a second and look at the long term. When the Enron Fall Out (including all other corporate investigations are over) passes, what remains are companies that are stronger. Honesty in reporting. More careful spending. Bosses listening to Employees about things that need to be fixed. It will be for the better and it will in the long run STRENGTHEN the economy. I have full faith that the US Economy is not a dying animal... we will bounce back. And we will have a slingshot effect... Hell, even in the Tech Sector. Right now everyone has a computer. But once the economy bounces... everyone will be able to get those newest and fastest computers like we all want. It will be like the glory days for outfits like Gateway & Dell. Things are looking up if you think about it. But right now, we just have to take out the trash. These big companies that are full of corruption... disgusting. We need to take out the trash, spray everything down with Lysol, wash our hands... and things will be back to normal.

Blowgun attacks in DC. People are living in fear. No one is safe. Oh the HUMANITY! *snicker*

The "American Taliban" pleaded guilty. Why does the media keep calling him Taliban. He wasn't Taliban... He was Al-Qaida! He wasn't just a member of some Muslim branch... He was a member of that branch's active terrorist arm! He should have been given a very short trial by a military tribunal followed by a very swift execution by a firing squad. That should have happened right off the bat. Giving this guy a civilian trail in prolonging his 15 minutes of fame and I bet will end up in book deals for him making him somewhat wealthy and letting his family benefit from from their son's traitorous actions. Fuck this guy. Someone needs to just drop a very large rock one his head and be done with it... He isn't worth the cost of 6 rounds of .308!

You gotta love this... Some Iraqi General just won the "No Shit" award. Major General (that's spelled with 2 stars) Najib al-Salhi, leader of the Republican Guard (those are the brave and best of the Iraqi best who did just run away from us, but ran away while firing!) says that if the US attacks Iraq, the US will walk all over them. To quote the article:
"The Shi'ites are mostly relegated to the infantry," said Salhi. "They will be the first ones to leave their posts and either join the advancing forces of go home." Salhi dismissed U.S. concerns about Saddam's possible possession of chemical and biological weapons, saying the Iraqi leader did not have means to deliver such weapons. The United States, Salhi said, must declare that it is only after Saddam and not his troops, otherwise it would not have support of the Iraqi people or the army. "This cannot be two armies facing each other. The United States must make it clear that it is only after Saddam's head," Salhi said. He forecast a scenario in which Saddam would be on the run, suggesting that U.S. aircraft policing the "no fly zones" could be used to b ack an advance on Baghdad by rebel forces from the north "Saddam will try to escape, but he find that he has nowhere to go," Salhi said. "We will not be able to put him on trial. The people will get to him first." I'm happy to see that most of Iraq is on our side. They hate Saddam. They think he is nuts. They don't want to throw there lives away for that asshole. You know, it would save us all a lot of problems if they would just take that SOB out. They don't have to kill him. I like the treatment of the Mummy guy in the movie THE MUMMY. That would work nicely. Bind him up and seal him in a casket. Throw in whatever else you like. Then bury him. Unmarked grave. Under a sidewalk so the people of Iraq can walk over him like how he walked over them.

This is some good news. The evil assholes that kidnapped Daniel Pearl have all been convicted. Ringleader is sentenced to death. I suggest cutting his head off with a small knife like they did to Daniel, and then playing soccer with it, while the rest of his body is fed to some hungry hogs. If there was some way to keep the head alive for a few minutes so he can watch his body being eaten by hogs - that would be great. And THEN play soccer with it until everyone needs a break for some cold ones... and then throw the head to the hogs too. What they did to Daniel Pearl was just horrible. They deserve the same treatment.

Since I'm on a movie kick. (since I saw one last night... don't worry, it will be over in a minute) We now see the official green light for the Aliens VS Predator motion picture. This movie could be very very cool. But I bet you anything it will be very very lame. If it doesn't feature "Colonial Space Marines" with M41A1 Pulse Rifles, then it will just suck.

July 14th - Sunday. Just came back from seeing Reign of Fire. Cool flick. I like it. But I have some issues. Guns don't kill dragons, but a harpoon and Ol' “Duke's of Hazard” arrows do? While I liked the movie for the characters and the dragons - the plot makes some major leaps of reason. Problem 1. The military can't figure out how to get the dragons, but some bumpkins do? Problem 2. Where did all the adults go at the castle? One minute you have all of them partying and the next its just two and a bunch of kids. Problem 3. The movie posters show Apache Longbow attack helicopters... I was expecting to see a couple Apaches dancing with the dragons. Didn't happen. Disappointed. The only chopper is a "Slick" with no guns. Lame. Problem 4. Kill the boss dragon and all the other little dragons just evaporate? There was thousands of them. Where did they go? Problem 5. Dragon's eat ash? Or Meat? I thought they ate virgins. Problem 6. Where did these cats get all the fuel for the bird and the trucks and a Chieftain tank? These guys can't even grow anything but some tomatoes and cabbage - but they can distill booze and evidently fuel at will. Problem 7. The big daddy dragon is almost as big as a castle and has the wingspan of what looked like the Buckingham palace or what ever that is, but then conveniently shrinks down to easy archery targets for Hazard County arrows. Problem 8. Gabriel survived 8 years as an "Archangel" jumping missions like that? Where did he go if he is that badass? The head scary bald guy in charge - You could get the feeling that he cared about his men. That's good. A good quality for a leader. But the man has no skills as a military commander. His battle plans were a little retarded. He lost EVERYONE in 1 single pass by 1 single dragon? Yeah, they musta been good troops. It's a wonder they made it as far as they did. And for a dragon that can turn a Chieftain into slag with one blast - how come it didn't get Quinn who just ducked behind what looked like a garbage dumpster? Anyways, other than those notes... Here is another: Dragons are pretty tough beasts. Yet I think .50BMGs would do well against them if they had hit one with them. So would LAW rockets and Bofors and Recoilless Rifles, and 105 & 120 Smooth-bores... Even 40MM from an M203 would do just fine. In those cases - how come the Military and Police didn't kick Dragon Arse? Oh, that's right... They were in England. Evidently we kicked there arses here in the states, ran out of Dragons to hunt, and had to fly over to England to get a few more trophies. Leave it to the Brits to hang on long enough for Americans to come and bail there arses out. Give it a couple more years and we Yanks would have the dragon issue sorted out... The only problem we would have after that is dealing with that Aussy nutcase trying to get bit by one for his TV show... "Crickey! This Dragon is REALLY PISSED NOW!" I think we would have made short work of Dragons and we would all be wearing Dragon Hide Leather Jackets, Boots, Belts and Holsters. Heck, just the Utah Chapter of TFL would have made MINCE MEAT out of them Dragons. Heck, Correia alone could take one on head to head... taunting it "Get in me Belly!" And then when the dragon swoops down, Larry would pump 20 rounds of .308 AP through it's eye sockets. Done. There's one Dragon down. Then we have Pvt Pyle - who would snipe them out of the air. I think we would be grilling some Dragon meat before the sun set. Breathing fire? Feh... we have Utah Summers. We're used to the heat already. You guys could order Mad Ogre Dragon Leather swag by the month's end.

One thing I love about the movies are the trailers for other movies. I love trailers. They are often better than the movies. This time around I noted two movies that I am looking forward to. 1. xXx. Triple X is like James Bond who hung out too much with Jesse James and the West Coast Choppers crew. The stunts look terrific and forget that wussy little DB-5... xXx has a real muscle car to play with. I want to see this flick because it's looking like a James Bond flick that I would have directed. Cars, Guns, and all that - American style. Forget Pierce Brosnan as James Bond - that cat always looks like he just sniffed a fart. The other film that looks like it's one I want to see is called "Fear Dot Com". Scary flick. I like scary flicks as much as I like action flicks. Oh, wait a sec... speaking of action flicks... Another Shanghigh Noon Jacky Chan Western. This time they go to England. Classic line in the trailer: "This country blows!" Amen to that. Movie looks great. We ogres are all over that one. The Chan Man is a personal favorite of Mad Ogre. We have many of his flicks.

Last night we had the message on the answering machine (Okay, Qwest's voice mail service) that Spectre arrived back at his base in one piece, and all is well. We look forward to his trip report to kick off Spectre's new Ogre section. We look forward also to some report regarding the new Striker vehicles, and other current Military goings on... some insight into hand to hand combat... and General Cool Shit as it comes up. We also want to hear about is his unit's impression of the Samurai.

Larry has a couple images of the TFL Swag that you can order. I'm putting them up because while Correia is one hell of an accountant, he doesn't know how to put up a webpage. That's okay, Larry. Neither do I. It seems like most of my T-shirts are from him now days. Cool.

Steve sent over a couple of new buttons for Correia and Spectre. They are not linked to anything just yet. Soon. Soon.

July 13th - Saturday. I was wanting to head out to the Bowl area, but we have some things going on today that takes us up to SLC for the day. Combined birthdays and a couple things of that sort. Alexia is turning 1 today and Mrs Ogre is tickled at baking a "Girl" cake. This leaves Ogre to wander a mall looking for what to buy a little girl. I was thinking maybe an H&R break open 20 gauge, or a nice fixed blade sheath knife with a blade of 3 or 4 inches.

Take a look at the Project Samurai Jack page... Here.

Shin Tao has something to say regarding the FAL rifle, see his section for it. This is interesting... Spectre had the chance to examine and fire an FAL for the first time the other day. He was impressed. No bullshit star shaped chamber that you can never really get clean, no direct gas... full power .308 that bucks the wind like no .223 round could ever do. The FAL is indeed one of the worlds finest. There are only a couple other rifles that compare to it. The G3 is one and the M-14 is the other. However, while those others are indeed fine - they are not as elegant when it comes to simplicity of design, flexibility, and ruggedness. The FAL is, in my opinion, the worlds best battle rifle. Period. I like the AK a great deal, but it is under the FAL in the pecking order. If I had the power... I'd have all US Soldiers packing FAL rifles. Correia has a design for a bullpup variant of the FAL. With the help of Mike Bond, I think we can get that design prototyped.

July 12th - Friday. Speak of the devil... Just got a phone call from Spectre. He is ½ way home and is kicking back in a hotel some place in Oregon. He said there was a “couple little things” but didn’t tell me… said he would make a report about it. I had been worried about him… the rig was never road tested on the freeway. But the little problems could not have been too bad because he’s gone over 500 miles now must have been making good time considering a Sammy is never a very fast vehicle. I’m interested in what the “couple little things” were. Feel guilty… if it was something that I could have foreseen and prevented, I’ll be kicking myself in the ass. I studied that machine and went over everything I could think of that might cause a problem. He sounded very tired on the phone… I can see him kicking back, drinking a cold one and sleeping like the dead till sunrise. While he was here, we had late nights and early rising with long hours in the sun. I know my ass is kicked today. I can’t keep my eyes open! But with all these kids running around and worried about a call from John saying is broken down in the middle of nowhere – I just couldn’t relax. I have to admit, I really like Spectre. He felt like a brother. He’s welcome here any time.

This just in from Shin: Spiderman will make you gay.

Spectre and I went by Van Wags yesterday and looked at some guns. I think I know what my next handgun is going to be. A $150 old surplus CZ-52. Van Wag's has a nice big steel bell looking thing... many handgun hits on it and each hit is marked with the round that hit it. Many of the hits are dents, many are holes. The round fired by the CZ-52 made the cleanest cut through the steel... looked like it was drilled. The CZ-52 is a sleek gun with nice lines. However at the same time it's rather crude and orcish. It would make good medicine for anything hunting you. The sleek lines would allow easy CCW carry IWB in a simple leather pouch type holster like the bottom rung Bianchi offerings. I'd get one and take it straight to a gunsmith for a "melt" job, refinishing and an action/trigger job. Yeah, the gun is only 150, but it's worthy of a little extra work on it due to a couple factors. 1. The gun is very accurate according to all reports. 2. The gun is firing an overheated Russian round like William Gibson described in Virtual Light. And lastly, #3, the gun is cool looking. I don't think it would be good for IDPA or 3-Gun because I don't think people would like me punching holes through the steel plate targets. Oops! My Bad! One last thing... I'd have to get some nice wood to make some custom grips for it... Finish them in a deep red with an inlaid red Russian star in them. That would be the shit.

This has been a long 48 hours, rather busy and very productive. We spent most of the time getting the Samurai finished up and ready to roll out. Spectre is now heading back for his home base, driving the Samurai. Ft Lewis is a 17 hour long drive, but I'm more than confident that the vehicle will perform just fine... it's running very well. Looks great. The Recaro seats and the lock box look great. Later today I'll upload a few images and updated the Off-Road page. Project Jack was a real bitch, but it turns out that it was worth it and I'm calling it a success. Spectre thinks so as well. He loves it.

There will be a couple new sections to MadOgre.com that will be coming soon. Spectre will have a section as will Correia. These sections will be written by them, and I'll just post them up for them. Whatever they want to talk about. Should be interesting because these guys are very cool people, smart, and have a lot of insight to the matters of arms. Correia is a shooter, 3-gun competitor, B-Movie aficionado, the worlds most dangerous accountant with an FAL rifle, and an yet an absolutely genuine teddy bear. He's Chewbacca. Spectre is a shooter, a poet, martial artist, 11C grunt... a true Warrior-Poet. Modern Samurai. Well rounded and studied in combat and the finer things in life. He's great with kids and I think he has a friend for life in my youngest son Torin. I don't offer a MadOgre section lightly... Absolutely hand picked contributors. So far, I've only had ONE (but many requests). Shin-Tao is the only cat that I have ever given a section too, and he is a fellow that I have know for a long time. Some may think that he's opinions may be extreme - but he is also quite right. One of the most interesting fellows you will ever meet, and a great guy to hang with. He would give you the shirt off his back. Just don't piss him off. Ever.

I've now got Photoshop so I'll be able to do a little more with some of my images to make them a little more web-friendly. Paint Shop Pro is pretty cool, but Photoshop does beat it. Some nicer features. I'm looking forward to learning how to use it!

While Spectre was out here, he met a lot of good solid people. Steve Ting, with whom we did some shooting with down at Rangemasters. Mike Bond, who at the drop of a hat was able to come up from Payson to fabricate some mounting brackets to make the Recaro's fit. (The E-bay sale said they were for the Samurai, but really were not - Now they are!) Larry Correia & James Bunten who we did a little shooting with out at the Official World Famous TFL Gathering Bowl, and then went out for some late night Italian food. I think we had a good time and worked hard on Project Jack... I think we showed him some good things about Utah. Too bad we didn't have the chance to go up into the mountains and some of Utah's back country. Probably a good thing, because if we did, he would go AWOL and not go back to Ft Lewis!

Further observations from the Airport. September 11th rocked our world and made America different. Nothings changed about the level of security at the airport. Your no safer now as you were before - your just at risk at a different location within the airport. In fact, your even at a GREATER RISK now. Only ticket holders can go to the gates... meaning "past security". So you have a huge congestion of bodies near and around the ticket counters and the luggage claim areas. And no one has yet to go through security. Nice. That's just great. Feeling the safety now! I arrived at the airport a couple hours early... so I made it my job to study the security in this area. Here is what I found. --><-- Nothing. Ziltch. There was one cat wearing army greens that walked around in a very predictable pattern and timing. I actually was able to predict when he would come around the corner and ride the escalator up stairs again. I was within 10 seconds. That's UN-COOL. Then I was able to observe an unattended bag incident. Here is what happened, I was sitting there reading a magazine (Maxim, the Shakira issue) and watched this guy get up from his seat to go to the bathroom. I watched him go in and was watching for him to come out. Never mind the fact that you have to be a complete dumbass or a terrorist to leave you bag to go take a dump. Within a minute or two there was an airport employee eyeing the bag and calling on the radio. +1 point for quickly noticing the bag. -1 point for using the radio only 2 feet away from the bag. Another employee of the airport walks over. +1 for back up. -1 point for the fact she just wanted to jabberjaw. A couple minutes later an airport police officer range-walks to the location. +1 for the quick response. The cop eyes the bag for only a split second before he opens the damn bag right then and there. That's a -1,000 points right there. You need to observe the bag and look for things. oil marks, fluid leaking, sounds from the bag, and smells from the bag. Also look for any notes like "Ha Ha Ha" or "Surprise your dead". Then he just snatches up the bag and walks off with it. Another - 1,000 points. The classic action came next, 10 minutes later when the owner came out of the bathroom to discover his missing bag. Dumbass. If you want to jack around with an airport, I'm of the opinion that it's a lot easier now than it was before September 11th.

While at the airport I bumped into Jeff Spears, a cat that was on the team I used to manage. Good guy. Solid. It was good to see him again even for only a minute.

July 10th - Wednesday. Spectre arrived to town today and we spent the day crawling all over the Samurai getting it ready for the road. Lots of final odds and ends done today with some more left for tomorrow... finishing touches here and there. Oh, and some other things like taking a hacksaw to the exhaust system, drilling holes through the car, and using an expended .50 caliber cartridge as an engine component. Don't ask. And in the process I managed to drill right through the brand freaking new fuel filter. New fuel filter installed, getting the lock-box bolted in and getting some other things done... like custom fabrication of seat mounts to get the Recaro seats installed. However, tomorrow afternoon it will be ready to hit the long road home. He has towing and roadside on his insurance so he is good to go. I have full faith that the machine will make the trip with no problems. It's running great. It's running better than my Jeeps are that is for sure!

Observations from the airport: If your a woman that is so overweight that your gut hangs to your knees - DO NOT wear a tight mid-rift exposing halter top. If you do - Please Wear A bra with it. The most disgusting thing I've seen in a long time.