Well, the time is here! MidSouthCon will start in just a couple of hours!
I am bringing my laptop and a wireless card to the hotel, and plan on liveblogging each night from the con. Lots of pictures to follow.
I am doing an Epic:Armageddon demo 7pm Friday night, and a tournament starting at 9am Saturday. If you’re in the Memphis area, stop by the con and enjoy some good, clean fun!

Here you go. Shooting Fish in a Barrel.
This is the story about the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Control and their efforts to wipe out drinking in bars. Somehow or another, it is now an arrestable offense to be drunk in a bar. Not driving drunk, not acting rowdy, just for having one too many.
It doesn’t matter if you are taking an elevator or a car, it doesn’t matter if you have a designated driver, get drunk in a bar in Texas and you’re going to the hoosegow to sober up.
Does this strike anybody else as just plain wrong? I mean, at this point in time, alcohol is a legal substance, and anyone partaking of it should be able to partake of it without governmental interference. Getting quietly smashed in a bar should not be against the law. But yet it is. You make the call.

As it turns out, I GOT THE JOB!
While I”m not 100% clear on the job responsibilities, I am going to be helping other mentally ill people get off assistance and get back into the work force. You can read my story if you peruse my archives, and it proved a powerful story for my interviewers.
They were looking for someone with speaking experience, as I will be making presentations from time to time, and empathy for those who have mental illnesses. Just like my present job, this one requires that you have a mental illness. It looks like I have found a new career track, as I can’t seem to get away from this.
Also, having my own laptop with wireless connectivity didn’t hurt either.
I’m off to Atlanta next month for the training, exactly when I’ll let you know when I liveblog from there.
More info as it becomes available.

Yes, this is dead dog early. I have to drive to Nashville with some clients to attend the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers Association Day on the Hill. We’re going to meet our state representatives to raise their awareness about mental health issues. So I’m off soon, and won’t be back until late.

I have a job interview today, and I’m awful nervous. I always am for any job interview. This one is a $10 cut in pay a month, and it’s full time as opposed to the 3-days a week I am working right now, but it’s a regular work week opposed to the odd hours I work now. So I’m up for this job. I consider it a step towards a regular full time job. If I can hang with a regular 9-to-5 job, then I can make it back out into the real world.
Wish me luck.

I just got word this week about Southern Thunder 2006 being held June 3 & 4. It’s a regional rocket shoot held in Manchester, Tennessee, just SE of Nashville, on some 1,200 acres of a sod farm. It’s run by the Music City Missile Club (MC²) and the Huntsville Area Rocketry Association. The club that I belong to, the Mid-South Rocket Society will be planning a convoy out there as well.
I plan on being there, with my son and the club. I anticipate 4 High Power launches, 2 with the Garth R on J350′s, and an I161 and I211 on the JL1. Then there’s the 4-6 Mid-power launches, and I don’t know how many model rocket launches. That’s just me, by the way. There should be tons of other people out there who will also be launching their rockets of all sizes as well. I’m saving every nickel I can between then and now to make it, if you want to donate to Marks Rocket Fund, the button is over there to the right. –>
There are few more adrenalin laced sports that you can participate in. Other than throwing yourself out of a perfectly good airplane, I don’t know of another sport that fills your spirit with such excitement. You haven’t lived this sport until you’ve had your chest shaken with the liftoff of an ‘M’ motor. Watching it climb into the sky, yelling “Go GO GO! Baby!” like it was a Saturn 5.
And I’ll tell you this. It’s just as exciting to a kid to watch a rocket he built blast off on an ‘A’ motor as it is for me to watch my big rockets go up.
If you want a rush, this is where it’s at. And it all starts at your local Wal-Mart or hobby store. You can pick up a “Ready to Fly” kit, which has everything you need (rocket, launch pad, launch controller, and supplies for two flights) but 4AA batteries. Want more? you can buy motors 3 for $5, and with some additional wadding you can keep flying that RTF rocket. Then go to your local hobby store and buy yourself a model rocket kit. There are lots of rockets that do a whole bunch of stuff. Payload rockets, multi-stage rockets, just plain cool looking rockets, the list goes on and on.
Just adhere to the Model Rocket Safety Code and each flight will be safe and fun. This is a sport that the whole family can enjoy, boys and girls, moms and dads.
Can you tell I’m excited about this?

Oh, I almost forgot!
I finally got around to getting my Level 2 test taken last weekend, and I passed it with 100%! So now the paperwork is on its way to NAR and I should have my Level 2 card back in the mail within a couple of weeks, plenty of time for Southern Thunder.
Congratulations to me! =)

I actually missed this, I was busy having an attack yesterday.
Eighty years ago yesterday, the first liquid fueled rocket flew in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was the first step that led to a pinnacle of American ingenuity and drive on July 20, 1969 on the Moon. “One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for Mankind.”
But Dr. Goddard didn’t know that. He was a scientist, just seeing what he could do with his rockets.
And so it goes today. There are thousands of rocket scientists in this country, from 6 to 60, all engaged in model and high power rocketry. The only difference between me and NASA is they have a bigger budget. The concepts and scientific principles that they use adhere to me as well. The dream of going to the stars is still alive in our youth today.
One day, hopefully soon, Man will venture out beyond Earth orbit once again to explore our solar system.

From time to time, I peruse the left-wing moonbat blogs, just to see what they are thinking and saying. I found out this “blog meme” labeled as “ITMFA, “Impeach the MF’er already.” I also heard something about “Give the bastard a blowjob so we can impeach him already.”
Yes, that is what the moonbats are thinking and saying.
I have a response to what these, idiots, are saying. And I can sum it up in two words.
President.
Cheney.
If that doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of the Liberals, I don’t know what will. And if that doesn’t work, there is always,
President.
Hastert.

It looks like Justice Souters (house) has dodged a bullet. Souter home safe, symbolic vote in his favor.
Too bad. I think it should have been brought down. But the good news is that there is an anti-Kelo legislation in the works in Hew Hampshire. And all over the place.

My good friend Mike is back to blogging! If you want to get a wonderful insight into Memphis politics, that is the place to go.

I only work three days a week, but one of those days is a Saturday. This precludes me from flying rockets, and participating in most wargaming tournaments. Unless I can take a day off, in which case is like pulling teeth from my boss.
But last week, my boss asked me if I wanted to do something else. I’m not sure of the details as yet, but it would still be working with the mentally ill. I don’t know the hours, or anything. I will find out more today. I just thought you’d like to know that things might be changing around here at the Zone. If I do have to abide by normal business hours, this will mean me getting up real early and doing all of this stuff.
I’ll let you know more tonight.

What a day of gaming!
I attended the “Ides of March” Epic:Armageddon tournament yesterday. There are two twists to this tournament to make it interesting.
The rules were simple, you brought a 2,700 point Space Marine army with a supreme commander. Everybody plays Space Marines to make sure that everyone starts on an even footing.
First, everybody secretly draws a random card, one has “Caesar,” one has “Brutus,” and the rest say “Senator.” If your supreme commander is killed, you surrender your card. If Brutus kills Caesar, many points are given, enough to just about automatically win the game. If Caesar kills Brutus, less points are awarded, but enough to possibly win. Last year, I was Caesar and I killed Brutus, but that “reverse” rule wasn’t in the tournament.
Second, you randomly picked which army you would play. You could draw your own army, you could face your own army.
So on to the battle reports.
First round, I faced John, who drew his own army. I had Mike G’s army (we had three Mikes at the tournament), who he purposefully hosed. He weighed down his terminators with a Dreadnought, so they couldn’t teleport. He also had one Tactical Detachment without transports. The short story is, I was spanked. I was so hobbled with the army and I faced a Warlord Titan that I didn’t have a chance. I lost 3-0.
Second round, I faced Mike H, with Johns army again. This time, I had my army, which while not optimized to face a titan, I was better equipped to face the rest of his army. This one I won 1-0. This is the first time in a while that I won (albeit by the skin of my teeth) against Mike. The last 3 times we faced each other with SM vs SM, we fought to a 4 turn draw on victory points. So winning, even with my own list, felt pretty good.
Third round, I faced Mike G, with guess what? John’s army. This was getting annoying. For this round, I had Greg’s army. At least this time I had a Warhound titan (a smaller version of the Warlord I have been facing all day). This one was a very bloody battle ending with me losing by victory points in 4 turns.
So I went 1-2 for the day, but my army went 3-0. This, with my perfect sportsman scores, boosted me to 4th place out of 8. A respectable showing for the day.
MONDAY UPDATE: I just got an email from Greg, the organizer of the tournament, and he said I got Best Army for composition. I had a little of everything, best equipped to handle anything. Except Titans.

Here are some pretty amazing pictures. They are chalk drawings on sidewalks that have the amazing effect of 3-D. Here is one example:

Go and visit the rest of them. They are truly amazing.

You tell me what the implied message of this image is:

If you guessed, “Cheney should retire, then DING DING DING you got it! How could you possibly get any other message in this heavily cropped photo. For those of you wondering, Reuters is responsible for this.
The press is as subtle as a brick through a window.