Technicalities

Happy Birthday Sgt Hook!

With his usual excellent style, Sgt Hook has posted in a most eloquent fashion about his 40th birthday.

If you didn't find his birthday card, then head over to his place and wish him a very Happy Birthday!

Today's Auction Fun!

So, have you ever wanted a cluebat? There is one being auctioned off over at Castle Argghhh!!! Win a cluebat and use it to knock some sense into a loony lefty of your choice.

And even though Lileks has turned traitor and thrown in his lot with the Victory Coalition... I still love his writing and I'd still love to get him on a guest segment of Hewitt.

UPDATE**** Want to read a few thoughts on why the Fusileers are working so hard for these donations? Go check it out at Joanie's place!

Coolest Auction Item Yet!

From LT Smash

SoA Auction: Guest Segment on Hugh Hewitt!

HUGH HEWITT has joined the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom!

Hugh has offered a short guest segment (any topic) on his nationally syndicated radio program to the person who pledges to donate the most money to Spirit of America in the comments section of this post.

(More details to follow)

Bidding starts at $100 and continues through 9PM PDT Wednesday

Wow! Now if only blogless husband was working instead of looking - I'd jump in and bid in a heartbeat. Then if I won, I'd see if I could wangle a segment with James Lileks. How fun would that be!

A Unique Way to Give!

Via Claire:

Right Wingin'-it -- The Pudgy Pundit has a great deal for all us bloggers: for every TrackBack to this post, he will make a donation to the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom. How easy is that??? Link-bomb!!!!!

C'mon all you bloggers - track it back!

Hat tip: e-Claire thanks for letting me know since I'm so far behind in my blog reading I missed this one!

Fallen Heroes

The death of Pat Tillman has provoked a tremendous amount of reportage. This has worried some people. They fear that when the ultimate sacrifice is paid by someone who is "unknown", no one will notice or maybe only the family and friends will care.

Blackfive has a story about Taking Chance Home that is absolutely a must read.

The following is Marine Lieutenant Colonel Strobl's account of escorting the remains of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. It's a long and beautifully written and it deserves to be read in it's entirety. It's about Valor, Honor and Respect. Thanks to Jarhead Dad for sending it to me.

While Pat Tillman remains Pat to his family and friends who personally grieve, for the country he is a symbol of all the men and women who have given their lives so we can live in safety and freedom. There is no less respect for those who are not garnering headlines. For Pat, Chance, and all of the other men and women who have given all in this war, we honor and salute you. We grieve with your family and friends.

Spirit of America Auctions!

Okay everybody - there is some terrific stuff being auctioned for the cause! If you aren't interested in auctions, then hit the Donate button on my side bar. Otherwise, here is the current list of terrific stuff.

Sondra is offering up a genuine Baath Party Notecard!

The Ghost of a Flea offers up fancy cologne!

e-Claire has two items up for bid - her Freakin' Fallujah Taunt Contest and those exquisite photos on the top of her site!

Aaron has patriotic stuff on offer!

At Cool Blue - the X-Files!

Misty has collectable books available!

Tritcale offers The Honorverse! Sci-Fi fans of Dame Harrington, take note! (Yes, it's legal)

She Who Will Be Obeyed has another airline ticket available! (Does she travel too much, or what?)

Joanie is still offering genuine Da Goddess lingerie!

At the Castle Argghhh!!! John is offering a Canadian Ross Rifle Bayonet!

And last but not least Smash has an Iraq Tourist Map!

That's all I know about right now. So, go bid, get good stuff. Enjoy yourselves. Help raise lots of money!

Fixing Computers

Well, I spent about 3 hours today helping a friend who has computer problems. Just your average, ordinary, non-demanding user who simply wants to dial in and get her email. This was part 2 of the fixup since I spent 2 hours over there the other day working on part one. And after 5 hours... it's still not fixed.

First of all - she is on dialup, yep the good ole 56K modem. I did install a firewall for her when she got the computer, but firewalls only work for some things. In this case, she had enough spyware on her system to be tracked by all those in the known universe. She had enough virii (don't care if it's a real word or not so don't yell about it) to infect all other computers in existence. She hasn't been able to update her service packs because dialup is simply too slow for that to be an option. Thus she arrived at the point where her printer wouldn't work and she called me.

At the moment I'd like to string up a bunch of people in this order... 1) virus writers - may you all rot in hell 2) spyware inflictors may your every move be cataloged and broadcast over the net for all to watch and laugh at 3) Microsoft operating system programmers who - even after all these years of practice, can't seem to fix the most obvious problems. May you spend eternity in a room fixing the constant stream of problems that regular users encounter. May you have to explain 80 times exactly what you're doing and how the system owner can do this too. May you then return home to find all these virii and spyware have afflicted your own system and you now have to do a total wipe and reinstall.

That's it - I'm done with computers for the night - I'm off to bed!

Happy Birthday Hook!

April 28th is Sgt Hook's 40th birthday. So, here's what you have to do:

Head over and sign his Blog-Birthday Card.

Many thanks to Tammi for setting this up. With an extra special thanks to Laughing Wolf for helping her choose a quote from one of the sergeant's favorite authors.

Linky Luv

I haven't done a link fest for a while, so I'll devote a bit of time to it tonight. But first! Before we do anything else... See the side bar? Notice the DONATE button? Well, what are you waiting for! Go donate some of the green. You may want to check in with the Castle Argghhh!!! first and see if there is anything you would like to bid on. Many of the Fusileers have auctions going. I won't link to a specific post, just scroll down that way you won't miss the latest news.

Heather has just learned the difference between a head of garlic and a clove of garlic! YUM! Garlic!

At Army of One, JD has the scoop on a program for returning soldiers. It's a writing program sponsored by the NEA. Teaching soldiers how to write about their war experiences! Amazing! I would think they would have a program to teach anti-war protesters how to write about their harrowing experiences with the law and the pro-war faction... go figure.

Harvey is a very tolerant guy. Yes he is, go find out why. Why he even seems to be tolerating the fact that his comment mailing feature is not working. Someone did mention in the comments that he had just gotten the outgoing trackbacks to work... maybe it's a mutually exclusive feature - trackbacks or comments - not both.

Now THIS is interesting. Rammer has a story about remissioning of missiles instead of deactivating them altogether. I don't know enough about it to know whether or not this is a good idea. Have a look at Rammer's take on it. See if you agree.

In case you hadn't seen it yet, Christopher links to the story where Rumsfeld says there will be no draft. I haven't been worried about a draft, but I do find it supremely funny that it's the loony left who want to impose a draft. Since they HATE the military with a passion I find it hypocritical of them to even mention a draft. I know they have their skewed reasons, but you could say that their support of a draft shows their anti-war stance to be completely bogus.

Goldie has passed the 20,000 visitor mark. Go congratulate her! Oh, yeah and check out what the 20,000th visitor was actually looking for...

Today was the Bartender's birthday!!! You're late, but go wish him a Happy Birthday anyway. Okay - I give up where are the Bartender's trackbacks???

Dana knows that her husband really loves her. Yep, I'd say so.

The Commissar is responding to cat blogging with a bit of dog blogging.

Jack has some pictures of his new digs in France. Wow - doesn't even begin to cover it!!!

Beth is contending with hotel fire alarms. Been there, done that, and I feel for her. It's all that stair walking in the middle of the night. Kinda puts you off sleeping.

And last but not least... Eric is a bit peeved over a billboard he drove past. I'm not a smoker, but I can't say that I blame him. There is a difference between ads and personal remarks.

Well, that's all for tonight. Time to get away from the computer for a while before my work week starts and I have to be on most of the time.

Three Questions... Answers

Since this gets a little bit lengthy, I've put it in the extended entry. So, go ahead and click it if you want to read more...