RECCE ROOM

From the article,  I Was a TSA Agent for 2 Years—and This Is Why You’re Getting Stopped at Security  - there are some interesting concepts in this article. I believe it reads more like a "justify the unconstitutional actions of the TSA" service announcement.  We're trained to look at your eyes Their "training" sucks.  We can tell if you've had too much to drink Bad news - that is not a superpower.  Avoid tank tops I cannot believe these words and the "explanation" made it past an editor.  We might make you do squats Pure propaganda to make wine moms feel better about giving up their civil liberties. Have never seen this, nor have I seen a video of it. This would have become a viral video if true.  Don't be wary if the alarm goes off Most of the metal detectors are designed to go off as every tenth passenger walks through them regardless of if they detected metal or not. Try not to be offended if you are selected for an additional security check...

From the article,  6 Things You Won’t Be Able to Do on Airplanes Anymore , and my thoughts on each: 1. Board without a mask Funny - I was on 4 airplanes last week. A total of 3 people were wearing masks. None of the rest of us did. 737 aircraft, mostly full (fewer than 10 total empty seats on the four flights).  2. Fly that airline again if you flouted that mask policy So, in other words, even though we all know now that masks were a scam, the airlines are not going to admit they were wrong? Double down it is, then.  3. Get fancy meals I had not seen these to begin with. Dozens of domestic flights. They may not have ever existed.  4. Order alcohol on some airlines The ones that used to offer alcohol, now do again. I saw them selling alcohol several times in the past 8 months.  5. Read magazines This might be true. Haven't seen a magazine on an airplane since I resumed flying.  6. Hand over your ticket Hit and miss. American allows you t...

Saw this video -   don't co-sign a loan.   Agreed 100%. There is a reason the borrower doesn't qualify to borrow the money for the loan.  That reason is, the person will not repay the loan! Hence the need to get a co-borrower.  If you are the co-borrower, just know that you will have to pay the entire thing back.  Yes? There are exceptions.  Exceptions prove the rule. 

Last Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21, Global Vision Bible Church hosted the following event: According to Pastor Greg Locke in a Facebook video, there were over 3000 tickets sold to the event. Even with recent property acquisitions, the parking lot there holds barely 700 cars, max (ask me how I know). If each car had 2.6 people in it, that means 1100 cars would have needed to park. Based on what I saw, that adds up pretty close.  The county put out cones along Old Lebanon Dirt Road on Thursday night, as well as signs that parking along the side of the road was prohibited. Residents pulled cars down to the edge of their driveways. They had seen all the parking debacle at the New Year's Day service at GVBC, and they didn't want to repeat the difficulties.  This past weekend, people parked all over the campus, and then overflowed into neighboring properties and roadways. A couple of enterprising folks with land were charging $20 - $40 for parking. Most were not, and yet, p...

From a reader: "So I read that you left Global Vision . What do you think about Pulpit & Pen since you have left?" Excellent question - worthy of a blog post.  In prior posts, I referred to Pulpit & Pen as "PP" and stated they were #FakeNews. Those statements still stand, because those statements are fact. Seth Dunn is their primary source of articles of late. The self-described insufferable autistic accountant  continues PP's historical attacks on people of the faith. Not very Christian actions. Occasionally, he writes something with some fact. I would suppose that if you are of a similar opinion, then his writings would be interesting to you.  JD Hall filed for bankruptcy in 2021. Reason? He badgered and defamed someone, with utter and complete fabrications , got sued for Libel, and could not afford the mounting costs of the suit. This from the same individual who badgered a young person on twitter, leading to the youth committing suicide . Not very ...

Was watching this video recently, and a point needs to be made. Joshua Fluke, with whom I so frequently agree, makes the statement that SalesForce "fired" 7000+ employees. The fact is, to be very literal, that SalesForce laid off  7000+ employees.  Although all words are made up , the fact is that language is an agreement upon specific words having specific meaning. When meanings are conflated, or when the same word has multiple, unrelated (or even conflicting) meanings, the word loses its value. And someone who uses words to mean what they do not mean is certainly not an effective communicator.  Therefore, for the sake of clarity, let's define these words. Yes, it could be argued that these words are HR buzzwords. Nevertheless, it is important to make the distinction.  Fired: "to terminate an employee's employment" - often with what the employer considers to be "with cause."  Laid off: "to terminate an employee's employment due to lac...

For this week's installment of iFails, let's talk about the Zoom app on iPhone and what it cannot do.  Zoom became a major market force during the "pandemic" as it offered a reasonable platform for communication via internet when people were sheltering inside. This author prefers Teams due to functionality, but Zoom is certainly a fine platform and has been used many times to communicate with persons of all sorts.  A network outage beyond this author's control forced attendance on a Zoom meeting with a client. As it was one of the first Zoom meetings since being hired by this employer, the name displayed was this author's first initial and last name. When the attempt was made to change the name displayed (usually using the triple dots on a laptop/desktop or on an Android), it was discovered that there were no triple dots. Nor did the iPhone have any other buttons available to mute, unmute, turn camera on/off, or any of the other rudimentary functions the app h...

From a reader - "How do you justify the transition from teaching martial arts into teaching firearms?" Perhaps this question arose after the reader read this post .  Nevertheless, it is a good question, and one I am happy to answer.  My martial arts background: Started Judo in 1982, but did not attend anywhere near enough.  Started karate in 1985. Discontinued teaching it in 2021. Still practice to this day.  Started jiu-jitsu in 1987. Discontinued teaching it in 2020. Still practice it to this day.  Needless to say, my Senseis have been very impactful in my life. And it is from them that I draw the inspiration to teach what I teach. John Suarez taught the Wado-Shiho-Kai style of Wado-Ryu. The tenets of that style are Kata, Kihon, Kumite, and Koshin. Most karate styles stop with kata, kihon, and kumite. For clarity: Kata - traditional forms. Prearranged patterns to practice muscle memory.  Kihon - fundamentals. The building blocks of fighting technique. K...