Another Political Quiz

This one claims to be able to predict your political outlook based on whether you prefer dogs to cats and your choice of web browser.

You may have to click on it to actually read the text.

So apparently Southern Man's only "liberal" qualities are a slight preference for cats over dogs, his use of a "modern" web browser, and his proclivity for fine art over crowds. But there's no arguing with the results.

Movie Review: Robocop

This is a Teen Daughter weekend and it turned out to be fairly low key but much to Southern Man's surprise when he offered her the choice of a movie to see she selected RoboCop.


Southern Man had his doubts (the original was a favorite and he wasn't all that excited about a PG-13 remake of a hard-R film) but went with an open mind anyway. And indeed the new Robocop film has quite a bit going for it. There was considerable exploration of the impact on his wife and son, for example, so with her as the love interest "Lewis" was transformed into his male partner. They throw out a few lines from the old movie ("I wouldn't buy that for a dollar") and some interesting takes on RoboCop-1987 scenes to amuse us older fans. The principle antagonist was a criminal kingpin in league with crooked cops, rather than with the corporation. And there was even quite a bit of emphasis on Robocop's abilities and vulnerabilities ("You're tough, but not invulnerable") so Southern Man was hoping for action scenes with actual tactics.

He would be disappointed. Robocop's preferred strategy was (again) to blast his way into a crowd of bad guys, shrug off their (sometimes considerable) firepower, and shoot whatever he saw. At one point he even takes ED-209 fire right to the back - which according to earlier dialog should have perforated him like Swiss cheese - with little ill effect. But later RoboCop does manage to shoot off his own (robotic) hand. RoboCop, again, is as vulnerable (or invulnerable) as the plot demands.

The new and improved ED-209. However, no stairs were attempted in this film.

The PG-13 rating meant minimal blood and gore and "taser bullets" that incapacitated without killing and so on but we do get a startling look at RoboCop's remaining human innards.

Followed by the obligatory Iron Man-esque automatic suit assembly.

So Robocop 2014 gets a "meh" thumbs up but Southern Man may dig through the DVDs and watch the original one day soon.

In The Navy

Cribbed from the USS Gunston Hall Facebook page...

That's Southern Daughter on the far right.

Southern Man is very proud of her. Can you tell?

iTunes bricks the iPad

While Southern Man has been in computers for a long time he had never owned an Apple product of any kind - no Apple ][, no Mac, no iPod or iPhone (although he's purchased plenty of both as gifts for the Southern Children) until his former employer bought iPads for everyone.

And, yes, the Apple Kool-Aid is sweet indeed and Southern Man loved his iPad enough that he bought it from them when he left their employ.

That said, Southern Man is firmly convinced that the unholy abomination that is iTunes is of the Devil's Software Workshop.

But as Southern Man was "synching" the iPad the other day iTunes suggested that it install the latest and greatest version of IOS. Southern Man agreed. And when the update was finish the iPad's Wi-Fi was greyed out.

That is a bad thing as the iPad isn't much good without a 'net connection so Southern Man did a little Googling and found that, yes, IOS updates occasionally knock out the Wi-Fi and so even though it was years out of warranty Southern Man took the iPad to the Apple Store to see if they had a fix. And here is what the "genius" at the genius bar had to say:

Well, we do see this a lot. It's because when you update the operating system the iPad is under a lot of stress and that causes the Wi-Fi hardware to fail.

Yes, he really did say that.

So, the iPad is now a very pretty brick. Southern Man must now contemplate just what he should do with it.

Weekend Update

The big event on Valentine's Day was that The Huyndai turned 100,000.

Of course Southern Man didn't take that picture himself while driving at 60 mph. That would be crazy.

Southern Man's first car, a '64 Mercury, was old at a hundred thousand; The Hyundai is nicely broken in.

On Saturday Southern Man wandered out to the Ancestral Manor to help Southern Father erect the scaffolding...

Scaffolding is up to repair the roof on the playhouse in the middle of the pecan orchard.

...and to do laundry...

Southern Father hangs his laundry. It irks him to no end that Southern Man uses the dryer instead.

...and to pick up a fifty-year-old table saw motor that needs a rebuild so that Southern Father can get back to build birdhouses.

On Sunday Southern Man got out early to tackle a rural geocache before church. He encountered a deep gully and was pondering how to cross it when he noticed...

Well, that was unexpected.

...a concrete bridge. In the middle of nowhere.

And then after church and lunch with the gang Southern Man went to a gun show "just to look around" and almost - almost - walked out with a Glock 26 that he didn't need but probably would have bought anyway if there hadn't been a stack of medical bills at home.

But it was pretty, and it had night sights, and the price was right...

This was the first warm weekend in quite a while and Southern Man enjoyed his time outside. May there be many more!

Weekend Update

A busy weekend!

This was a Teen Daughter Weekend so on Friday Southern Man headed out to rendezvouz with Southern Ex to retrieve her. Naturally the first thing she did was grab the camera and start to play.

The Eye

I have stared at this for an hour and still have no idea what it is.

Saturday morning was the monthly geocacher's luncheon...

Girl Scouts Have Cookies!

Alex, an air traffic controller and geocacher from Germany, is in Southern City for some training at the FAA center.

We start 'em caching young.

Bubbles!

Southern Man hit a few nearby caches after the meeting; he was just leaving this one when Insane Posse pulled up.

...and Saturday evening was the monthly Christian dance.

As usual, the only dance floor pics that were remotely in focus were of everyone's butt.

Pool Sharks.

Shirley and Jeri are two of Southern Man's favorite gals.

It's like saccharine - a thousand times sweeter than sugar.

And then the weekend was over all too soon and Southern Man had to take his girl back to her mother. But we had a blast - at her suggestion we purchased cards and candy and $5 gifts for each other to celebrate Valentine's Day early. Her card has one of those sound chips in it that sings a silly song but it ends with "I LOVE YOU!" and Southern Man loves it even though the voice sounds like Spongebob Squarepants on crack.

Rebel Base

The Lockheed SR-71 production floor. Date: unknown. Location: fourth moon of the planet Yavin.

Coffee Talk

Today was our monthly get-together for coffee and breakfast and fellowship and a little Bible study...

At the kitchen table...

In the living room...

A lovely couple.

A princess.

Southern Man's geocaching partner.