Ironhold

On Friday, the right-hand turn indicator on my car failed. Adding insult to injury, the four-way emergency flashers also failed. Either failure would be enough to sideline the vehicle, as State of Texas law requires both to be functional. I had *just* passed the annual inspection check, and so these failures were especially galling. I had reason to believe that the cause of the failures was somewhere in the steering column. So my dad, a mechanic, took it apart. One of the springs governing the turn signal was busted, while the rest of the mechanism was worn and corroded; although the mechanism itself could continue to function, we decided to go ahead and replace it. And the flashers? The fuse blew. Well, as usual, I'm running close to the wire. Church starts at 1, it's 12:50, and I'm 10 minutes away. I go to back the car out, and... no right turn signal. Flashers? There goes the fuse again. This makes the second time I've missed church this year, both times due to a mechanical failure. Both parents are doing prison ministry (we've got a branch specifically to cover the local prisons), and so the best I can do is leave a message on my mom's voice mail. I come back in, sit down on the couch, and fall asleep watching BYU-TV. When I wake up a few hours later, it's a BYU-Idaho devotional about not mistaking blessings for curses. My mom has finished for the day, and so calls me back on my phone. She lets my dad know, and he's just as flummoxed as I am. We both get changed and go back out to check the car. In all the confusion that was going on yesterday (the issues with the car, the home wireless router failing, et cetra), we had failed to do the most basic thing you're supposed to do when indicators don't work: check the bulbs. Sure enough, one of my bulbs had failed, and the socket itself was badly caked with corrosion. Due to the way my car is wired, losing one of the turn indicator bulbs off-lines all of the indicators on that side. Oh, and apparently I bought the cheap fuses the last time I was at the parts store. They kept failing because they were just poorly made to begin with. My dad picked up some higher-grade fuses while he was at the store getting replacement bulbs, so hopefully that won't happen again.

Jack Reacher: Never Look Back It's pretty much your everyday post-Mission: Impossible Tom Cruise Movie. It's got humor and heart if you can sit through the violence and underwear scenes to get to it.

I'm not surprised about "Max Steel". Down in Latin America, the franchise is a massive hit; it's been consistently popular since it first came out 20 years ago, and there's no sign of it slowing down. He-Man might get all the spotlight, but Max Steel has the sales numbers to back him up. Outside of Latin America, however, the franchise has been lukewarm at best. The franchise did well when it first came out, especially given the astoundingly intelligent and well-written cartoon series it had supporting it. But things fizzled out once the cartoon ended, and so it lay dormant until the revival a few years ago... which changed things so completely that the only things shared between the two were a handful of character names. The revival was pretty well dead on arrival, but Mattel and Disney kept beating that horse anyway. The movie was first pitched back during the revival, but ended up on the back burner in favor of other projects. By all appearances, Mattel only revived it so that they could beat the "Power Rangers" theatrical revival to theaters. Given the franchise's strong success in Latin America, I would imagine that so long as the film kept costs to a minimum (I'm thinking $15 - $20 million) international receipts will at least break it even. It very much felt like a quick turn-and-burn venture, especially given the minimal promotion, so we'll see.

I have to see so much garbage in my job as a movie reviewer, and Parker & Stone have never really been all that funny to me, so this is pretty low on my priority list.

Just saw "Max Steel" this afternoon. One censored swear word as Max hurts himself in a training exercise, but otherwise it's in keeping with most teenage action films these days. The movie appears to follow more after the reboot from a few years ago than the original circa 2000 cartoon series, but it does borrow elements from the latter.

Try YouTube. You'd be surprised what they have on there these days.

http://info.kopp-verlag.de/hintergruende/enthuellungen/gerhard-wisnewski/anetta-kahane-wie-eine-ex-stasi-frau-die-oeffentlichkeit-und-das-internet-terrorisiert.html -> original article https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Finfo.kopp-verlag.de%2Fhintergruende%2Fenthuellungen%2Fgerhard-wisnewski%2Fanetta-kahane-wie-eine-ex-stasi-frau-die-oeffentlichkeit-und-das-internet-terrorisiert.html -> machine translation via Google The German government has partnered with a series of NGOs in order to police "hate speech" on the internet, with some of these NGOs using definitions so loose that anything which is contradictory to the "progressive" movement is subject to being flagged. An investigation has determined that the leader of one of these NGOs is a former member of the Stasi. She is known to have reported at least two people to the Communist authorities (a writer who was later deported, and an actor who later killed himself), and she is also known to have enjoyed perks exclusive to high-level members of the Party. Despite this, she continues to claim that she never did much and never rose to much. German YouTube host Kraut and Tea has been all over this, using language so strong I can't post his videos here. The latest twist in the matter (the source is one of these videos) is that the German branch of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream has become a corporate sponsor and partner for this effort... despite, by their own admission, knowing full well that she used to be Stasi. I... don't see this ending well.

Middle School: The Worst Years Of My Life Tried... and failed. The film has heart, but it ultimately comes down to an arms race between the male lead and the principal as to who can break the most laws.

Not only have I seen people argue that it is, I actually saw someone argue that "Men have no right to say anything negative about the new Ghostbusters movie because Bronies."

Actually, the chain name is HEB. http://www.heb.com/ Toy semi hauler they commissioned from Galoob back in the 1990s. (source -> http://m2museum.com/SemiTrucks/Semi_trucks_box.htm )

The name H-E-B comes from the initials of the company's founder, Howard E. Butt. https://www.heb.com/static-page/article-template/Our-History Yes, that was his name.

Well, my page is up, and I've got seven videos going. Right now, the best I can afford is the microphone and camera off of my laptop, meaning that I've got a few issues as far as quality I'm having to ferret out. Any feedback, positive or negative, is very much appreciated at this point. Also, I think I've found the image I want to use on a more permanent basis. What does everyone think of it? Thanks.

H-E-B is a regional grocery chain that operates in Texas and Northern Mexico. H-E-B uses a pretty aggressive "low-cost leader" strategy, in which they push in-store coupons and store brands like "Central Market Organics" and "Hill Country Fare" in addition to their own logo as active competitors to national brands whenever possible. They're also big on giving back to the community, which is why every single week one in-store coupon will net you a free kid's book courtesy of Bendon Publishing (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bendon_Publishing_International,_Inc. -> TF Wiki.net article on them; yes, I wrote it). The idea is that by doing this, they can get books into the hands of kids who might not otherwise have them. Furthermore, every September they have a 2 - 3 week period where all in-store coupon deals provide a free book, and donation bins are set up so that people who do not want their books can donate them; the books are then collected and distributed by the company.

Down here at least, Chef Boyardee is often significantly cheaper than Spaghetti-Os. I can buy a 10-pack from Sam's Club for $9 (or $0.90 each), while Spaghetti-Os are usually $1 each per can, if not more. Raw price alone means that Chef is a better deal, but adding insult to injury is the fact that the Chef cans are usually bigger, too.

Yeah; just last night I was watching a YouTuber's "this week in the internet" news bit, and he mentioned the leaks in passing. He himself noted that the bulk of the footage he saw was pretty mundane, and that there were only a few instances in which he saw anything worth getting upset about from his perspective.

If you have a good ad-block program, here's the link to a response I did to a popular anti-Halloween tract. Hard to believe how long ago I did it, too. (If people don't have ad-blockers going, let me know and I'll just post the transcript. The site's bad for click-jacking, but "free" is all I can afford for hosting right now.) http://ironhold.deviantart.com/art/Response-to-Chick-3-67673538

Far too many feminists are, indeed, that divorced from reality. One recent example is the Hugh Mungus incident, in which a feminist special snowflake took what was obviously a fake name someone gave her as sexual harassment: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hugh-mungus Or there's Trigglypuff, whose demands to be treated like an adult were delivered in the form of a temper tantrum: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trigglypuff If you can stand cussing going along with the discussing then I can recommend some YouTube channels to check out. The best one is Sargon of Akkad, who has a 10-video series dealing with feminism in addition to all of his other words; 95% of video #9 is simply stock footage of feminists screaming their lungs out, while video #10 is him recounting the blowback he received after he asked feminists if they'd be willing to support prostate cancer research. It'll take you a solid afternoon if you mean to watch it all in one sitting. As far as my personal experiences with these kinds of feminists go? http://community.beliefnet.com/go/thread/view/43851/30310067/Kids_Exposed_To_Religion_Have_Difficulty_Distinguishing_Fact_From_Fiction?post_id=540915153#540915153 That's Kristi Winters and one of her sycophants telling me that, as a "non-scientist", I don't have any right to question anything published in a scientific journal... despite the fact that while pursuing my MBA I did a side jaunt into marketing research, meaning that I know full well how to read an academic paper of that level *and* know full well how to design & conduct studies of my own. The study she hung her hat on to "prove" us religious types were mental cases was so badly flawed that even some of her own allies were disavowing it, yet she responded by insulting me there and going over to Get Religion.org to cuss out anyone who raised a criticism of the paper there. She used to post absolutely asinine and mind-numbing insane / sexist / bigoted / et cetra comments on Beliefnet all the time back when the forums were functional, much of which I can't post here. Those actual science types I showed the above thread to denounced her, which should tell you something about how well she truly embodies anything scientific; she goes on and on about her credentials, yet only honors them when it suits her. But despite it all, Winters has still become one of the bigger names among the world of internet feminism. The only difference between her and Ed Decker is that, so far as I know, nobody's been murdered because of her words.

I have to work on Halloween this year, so it's a moot point for me this time around.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. To be brutally honest, it's not worth the price of a ticket. It doesn't rise much above the conventional for the genre, and the climax of the movie rests in large part on the implausible instead of the impossible. If you do wish to see it, rent it instead... assuming, of course, that you've got a baby-sitter lined up, as the film contains a fair amount of violent content, some of it graphic. And before you think about using VidAngel to get rid of it, be advised that some of it is so plot-critical (the Hollows need to eat Peculiars in order to stave off the effects of a botched science experiment) the film wouldn't entirely make sense without it.

Storks. Good, (mostly) clean fun.

OK. http://motto.time.com/4502866/amy-schumer-blake-lively-girls-life/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook http://www.snopes.com/girls-life-vs-boys-life-magazine-covers/ It seems that there are entirely too many people who don't realize that "they have similar titles" does not automatically mean two magazines are published by the same group. Boys' Life is an official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and is aimed at helping boys explore the world and be better scouts. Girls' Life is yet another title from a teeny publishing house. They have nothing to do with each other beyond the similar titles, yet try telling that to a legion of special snowflakes and habitually offended.

The internet. My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's during my senior year of high school, and so leaving town for two years wasn't an option; both of my brothers had left and my dad was transitioning from the military to civilian life, and so my mom would have effectively been left alone to take care of her if I had gone anywhere. Instead, I ended up as the group of internet pioneers who helped pave the way for the Bloggernacle as we know it.

I live next door to a major military base. It's common to see military service members of *both* genders come to church wearing their uniform, a result of their either just coming off of duty or having to report for duty once they get out and not having time to change beforehand. As such, I can't think of anyone who has issues with seeing women wearing the uniform-mandated pants. It's also common for people to show up in everyday clothes because they're moving in or out and their Sunday stuff is packed. The US military reserves the right to shuffle service members around as there is a need for them at one base or another, meaning that some service members can relocate as often as every six months.

A question, if I may. I'm trying to set up a YouTube page -> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsEFbjapoK23Gjukt4hdfrA - in support of the weekly newspaper column I'm doing. I'm setting it up so that I can cover things that I either don't have room to cover in the space of my column or that otherwise need some sort of special - and more prompt - attention. Does anyone else here have one? If so, can I get some advice on how to curate it and grow it? Thanks.

Cove I.