MatthewMaynard.net

Imagine for a moment – a flight of P-38s is escorting some bombers over Germany. Suddenly, two of them spot a group of about 50 Me-109s approaching. They break off and drop their external fuel tanks, closing to engage. Just as Robin Olds, flight lead, lines up his four .50 caliber machine guns and 20mm cannon on one of the 109s, his engines sputter out and die.

If you were in that situation, what would you do?
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One of Jennifer and my goals this year is to reduce our food budget. Part of this will be done by maxing out our garden. Previously, we have tried to grow in the spot where the previous owners had their garden, but it didn’t work as well as it could. For one thing, the place is shaded most of the day, and for another, we didn’t really know what we were doing.

But we’ve learned a couple things, and will be making some changes. We’ve decided to move it to another part of the yard, which will help with the sunlight exposure. Another thing we’ll be doing is fencing the garden with fishline. The idea, reported with success by some people, is that deer will try to get the food but get pushed back when they touch the fishline. They won’t see it, so they won’t know how high it is, and won’t try to jump over it. Hopefully this will work, because the alternative is to install a 10 foot fence, which some people say is merely a suggestion to deer around here.

We’re going to start seeds indoors, but instead of the prepackaged peat seed starters we just put some starter soil in an egg carton and planted the seeds in that. The good thing about the egg carton is that since it’s made of recycled newspaper, it will break down if planted in the garden. Whenever we pulled up stuff we started in peat pellets, the little nets were still around the root bundle, which certainly stunted the plant’s growth. We could also just remove the soil pocket from the carton and plant it directly, to avoid taking chances.

Another thing we’ll be trying is a potato box. The idea is to maximize growth space by growing the plant vertically instead of letting it spread out in a row. I built the frame and first layer of board today, and we’ll start some potatoes inside, then move them outside after the last frost, which is probably later this month.

All in all, I’m looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully we’ll get some good stuff out of this, and be able to can some of it.

We’ll certainly need to, because despite what The Bernank says, we aren’t growing our way out of this recession, and inflation is not too low.

Skip ahead to 3:40 if you like.

And no, Botasky, an M14 is not useless. Unless you don’t reload it.

Amateurs.

Jennifer is on a coupon doubling-tripling-discount card craze right now, and it is paying off well. She saved just under 50% today by taking advantage of a sale at a local grocery store.

But I misspeak. Far be it from me to discourage Proverbs 31 behavior in my wife, but you don’t “save” 50 cents with a manufacturer coupon, get the store to double it, and apply it to a product with a store quantity discount, then split your purchase into three in order to get more savings and end up knocking 75% off the regular price. That isn’t saving, it is merely failing to spend. You don’t save that money until you transfer it into your savings account, growing your money at a rate that beats inflation. Until you do that, you are merely reserving the unspent money for another budget item.

It is rather like the politician who says “Well, I was going to spend $14 million on a fountain in the Sonoran Desert to water the rabbit population, but because of your protests, I’m only going to spend $10 million on the project. See? I saved you 29%! Aren’t I wonderful?”

You don’t save those $4 megabucks until you fire his ass and apply the money to paying off his other boondoggles, or cutting the taxes that fed his sick habit in the first place.

We watched Top Shot tonight, recorded from yesterday. I am convinced that the don’t-do-this-at-home warning at the beginning of each segment is the most ridiculous lawyer-repellent ever. I mean, seriously, they tell you how each course of fire goes, in detail. Just about the only thing you can’t do at home is the high speed photography. Who wouldn’t want to at least try?

I’m telling you now, if he tries that crap with me, there’s going to be a throwdown in the supermarket. And I know a guy who used – USED – to work in a supermarket.

He attacked someone one day, then moved on to the shoplifting scene.

Gilby’s a rough one, for sure.

It’s been 99 years since they joined the Union as a state, and all anyone ever talks about is how much the roses and chocolates cost this year.

Here’s to a happy statehood day for my home state of Arizona, just one shy of a century.

The trailer for the new Atlas Shrugged movie is out, and the obvious joke writes itself.

Ron Paul won the Presidential Straw Poll at CPAC this year, making a 2-year winning streak at the convention. He beat Mitt Romney by 7 points, but the story apparently is how Mitt(ens) is the stronger than expected candidate – strength now being defined as the ability to bring in less than a quarter of the nonbinding votes at a political convention.

And people say we’re dumbing down our language. Hah!

I could vote for Ron Paul, but I could not vote for Mitt Romney. Seriously, how can Republicans put forth a candidate that created a state run health care system that served as a model for Obamacare, while at the same time saying that Obamacare needs to be repealed? It will come across as power-seeking, when the people of this country want a return to the values and convictions that made this country free. Romney is not a good candidate – at times he looks like he is only seeking power, while at other times he looks like a pandering, calculating politician of the same stripe that got us into this mess.

Ron Paul, on the other hand, has support in the party that’s a mile deep and a foot wide. He sticks to his principles better than any other candidate I’ve seen with an R after their name, but always comes in last in the only elections that count – the primaries. I probably will vote for him, if he chooses to run, but I don’t see him winning. Not that it matters – my conscience is more important to me than picking the winning candidate.

The Republicans, it appears, are settling for the candidate that will win against a Democrat, and aren’t accepting the best one available. Not that the candidate necessarily is Ron Paul, but I don’t see who it could be at this point.

Just remember, CPAC is notoriously bad at picking the winning nominee at their convention. According to the chart at Wikipedia, they’ve picked the eventual nominee in just 3 out of the last 14 contests (I’m not counting 2009-2011, since we don’t know the next Republican nominee).

So Ron Paul haters, take heart. At least he probably won’t get the nomination.

Let’s see here, Mitt Romney throws a bunch of easy jabs at the President in front of a crowd that responds well to them. By doing so, he doesn’t take a position that puts him at risk, making himself appear palatable while not mentioning his major weakness – his own support of an individual mandate in his own state.

In the other corner, Ron Paul directly addresses an issue he believes firmly in (no entangling foreign alliances), but on which he is viewed as wrong, even dangerously so, by many in his party – this despite an obvious show of support from the crowd.

Well, if nothing else, this little exercise in Republican pageantry shows which of the two is more manly, more willing to take risks that could be personally damaging, and more willing to stand on his principles.