White Lightning Productions

It was Rita, and it was sixteen days, which I spent mostly at a friend's house with a convention in the middle.

This time around no convention, and the friend had a tree fall on his roof during the storm... but less damage overall to the area.

Well, I'm sorry to hear you're without power, and I hope it gets restored soon, and I'm glad to hear you're doing survived the storm.

I feel for yall who have had to deal with Ike...and im glad you all made it out ok.

Yay... Lol Bar1 the only reason you'd be there is so we can tell our famous con stories... Heh... Tyrant too... Lol if we can't laugh with all thats happend to us then theres something wrong. ^^

Actually K-mack I never had any problem with any of the beef M.R.E.'s , it's the "thanksgiving day special" ya have to watch out for while on duty ( the taste and texture is close akin to that of boiled cardboard for the "turkey" and ash for the "mashed potatoes" )no amount of Tabasco can "fix" this... ( I may not be that fair of a judge though , Tyrant has accused me of having an "iron stomach" on more than one occasion... )

As for alternative means of powering a laptop mayhaps a cross between solar and cranks, that way one's arm wouldn't completely fall off...

Just got word from Ricky and the Galveston crew , they have decided to abandon the city and move to Wimberley Tx. I've been there before , nice quiet community ( 9/10th's of the time at least ) on the outskirts of Austin.

While Galveston is a great loss, I'm more than sure the people will find a way to endure.

I still dont have power yet and from what i hear probably wont get it till Sunday at the earliest

I have cousins who live in Wimberley, its a nice place, they are currently experiencing a drought and were really dissapointed when all they got from Ike was some wind

Wizard: I was perusing a catalog of old Mil-Surplus stuff and came across a ChiCom Army phase-out bicycle crank charger good for about 50volts and 25 watts output when I came up with that idea. They used it for radios. If you cycle, it would be a way to keep your laptop charged without killing your arm, although you'd have to use a battery controller to keep the feed voltage steady. You're Online and getting fit simultaneously.
I'll stick with the Chinese diesel/alternator setup I have, though. 8Kw will go a long way out here in EarthQuake Land, California.
And I've been lucky in that while I have had the chicken ala king (impossible to ruin) and survived, I've never run across the Turkey Surprise you mentioned. Thanks. Should I run across it, I'll just feed it to my housemate. She'll eat anything but broccoli.
And for those without power, ask at your local Mil-Surplus store for MRE heaters for next time. All they need is a little water to work, and MRE's taste rather better when hot. Tabasco is recommended, as is Tums for afterwards.

With one thing and another, we've got a mix here of the civvie and the military-issue MREs here.

The only difference I've found is that the military issue also includes matches and two tablets which either might be gum or water purifiers- can't tell, aren't labeled. Oh- and the civ MREs include their own salt-water packets for the heaters, whereas the military expects you to use your own canteen, soldier.

(And I can just hear some sergeant now: "Men, some jackass in Washington says you're supposed to have one liter of water every hour out here in this Godforsaken desert in the sun. Thing is, that rear-echelon-motherfucker is in Washington, and that means he is NOT here. But I AM here. And that means you get one SIP of water every two hours until this three-day patrol is over. Now, with that in mind, men... how BADLY do you want your fuckin' beef stroganoff to be warm?")

those 2 tablets are laxatives disguised as gum, i got 3 mil issue mres stashed in the cupbord right now as last resort food, got a beef ravioli, a pork chow mein, and a chicken with cavatelli