The Independent Kixmiller Pigeon MrkII

This isn't an issue that is easy to address, depending on how one feels about the topic. Several (including yours truly) believe that one can still uphold the Second Amendment while pursuing common-sense gun regulation. One can embrace such ideas without being labeled anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment, or anti-American by those who simply see things one-sided. However, the NRA taught a whole generation of Americans, especially Texans, that the Second Amendment is to be interpreted as owning anything to your heart's content without regulation. Those who see things black-and-white have been blinded by the NRA's empty rhetoric. The once proud and respected organization, tainted by the pursuit of power and money; only proclaims people's right to own firearms because of the financial incentive,  and not  because of genuine commitment to the Second Amendment. Their presence has made a farce of the Second Amendment, and the Constitution as a whole.  The NRA hadn't cared abou...

     It was early 2000. It was a cold (by South Texas standards) day with high's in the high 40's. As a way to help pass the time, I was listening to the radio (set on the local rock station) in my bedroom when I heard Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down playing for the first time. I thought "This is a cool song". My enthusiasm continued when I heard that song repeated two hours later. After hearing the same song for the fourth time in a row, my opinion about Kryptonite started to change rapidly. "OK, this is a cool song, but don't you think you're playing it just a tad bit too much.....OK you're going to play it again aren't you."     By the end of the month, I hated Kryptonite, along with 3 Doors Down. I was overexposed to the song so much that my brain programmed itself to revolt whenever it started to play. I never wanted to hear Kryptonite again. The overexposure killed whatever potential enthusiasm that I had for 3 Doors Down as a group. Unfortu...

I just saw the debate a few nights ago between Greg Abbott and Beto. It was very interesting, and there is a lot to type. Regardless though, in this election, it's not about who you vote for, but who you're voting against. In a perfect election, one should be able to vote for any candidate because they like and support him or her, not because they dislike the other one. However, as noted in previous blogpost, this isn't a perfect world. The fact is that when you live in a two-party state, you're just given two options to choose. If you're like me, an Independent, then you don't have a choice. Republicans complain about the perceived censorship. Yet, Independents don't have a voice at all! As an Independent, you might as well be invisible! Thus, you just happen to vote for the candidate that you dislike the least. Greg Abbott has been a colossal trainwreck of a governor. We has failed this state multiple times; from Covid to the Freeze, Gun Violence, Women...

In this article, we will look at Acts Chapter 17. In the previous chapter, Paul and Silas were joined by Timothy where they went through Macedonia, which is north of Greece. They went to Philippi where they baptized Lydia, and continued in their traveling ministry throughout Greece where they were arrested, beaten and thrown in jail. This is where an earthquake occurred and the jail doors were flung open. The jailer was about to kill himself in shame before discovering that none of the prisoners escaped. From there, Paul ministered to the jailer where he was saved. The jailer offered to have them depart, but Paul refused to leave secretly, wanting to have his case heard openly. Their departure to Thessalonica is now where we enter Chapter 17. Chapter 17 Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica in Greece where they went to the synagogue. It was tradition for them to do this. One has to remember that the original disciples, along with many of the original converts, were Jewish. Early Christia...

I never had catastrophic issues with Windows ME. Now I did have my share of blue screens and those annoying memory/CPU errors. However, I had those on Windows 95 and 98 as well, so those aren't anything out of the ordinary. Windows ME can actually run very well when it's given the appropriate hardware. This though is in itself a problem. Windows 95/98 were much more forgiving about the hardware that it ran on compared to ME. As such, the nature of the problems that affected ME were very different compared to those on previous Windows. For example, on VMware Player, ME would completely lock up after 10 minutes when left in idle. I didn't know what the issue was. However, the problem went away when I deleted everything in the Windows Temp folder. I never had this issue on 95 or 98, only ME.  While weird crap happening on ME certainly didn't do it any favors, I think one of the reasons for the strong disdain for ME was simply that there was no reason for it to exist in the...

Anyone who is a regular on my blog  knows that I'm not a fan of Greg Abbott. For anyone who doesn't live in this state, its tempting to form a skewed image of him. While governors of other states will be occasionally mentioned on this blog in passing, I don't go into full detail about what happens in New York, California, or Florida because I don't live in those states. I don't feel the effects the policies and the effects that they have in those states. Also, what the governors of those states do don't affect me here in Texas.  If I was in a state that's largely run by Democrats, I would probably despise the Democrat party because of there hypocrisy. The Democrat Party is not immune from criticism though. At the same time, every complaint made against the Democrats can be equally applied to the Republican Party as well. Topics such as big money, control of lobbyist, insider politics, etc; affects both parties in the same capacity.  Things don't change b...

Anyone who's a regular visitor on this blog or my YouTube Channel knows that I'm an enthusiast when it comes to PC emulation. It allows me to relive the machines that I've used in the past along with computers that I never used before.  When it comes to PC emulation, I have standardized on as few emulators as possible to keep my configurations streamlined. For most PC's starting from the IBM Model 5150 (The OG PC) released in August 1981 up till the PC's of the mid 90's, I like to use PCEM. Created and developed by Sarah Walker and now managed by Michael Manley, PCEM can emulate a vast array of various hardware configurations. This project just amazes me to no ends. The vast majority of the screenshots of the PC articles were taken using PCEM.  As much as I love PCEM, I start to encounter issues when I want to emulate a late 90's PC using this emulator (and every other one for that matter too). Performance issues means that I've reached the capability of...

Many years ago, I had a conversation around the family table about how the extreme elements of a party can steer the whole course of the ship. This was early in the Obama Administration. One of the patterns that you witnessed was that when the extreme elements of the Republicans pushed for "loaded" legislation, the Democrat Party would try to outdo them, which would lead to even more polarizing legislation. As a result, both parties started to become consumed by extremely vocal elements of there respective parties, a "Political Arms Race" so to say. Moderates that weren't that keen on supporting such legislation now compelled to support it because if they didn't they would have become labeled as "traitors" from the fringe elements of that party, thus pushing the polarization even more. The extremist fringe elements would define the course of party politics. The Texas Republican Convention has turned into the manifestation of that reality. The Repub...

Something terrible has happened. Women in this country have just become second class citizens. The Supreme Court just declared that guns have more rights than women and children do. Women will die because of the decision made by the Supreme Court. Before I continue, there is something that I need to state: I hate abortion. At the same time though, this is a private, personal choice that isn't up to me or any preacher or politician to make for that matter. I have my belief system, but, it would be wrong to force my beliefs upon others.    Any religion has a right to exist in this country. I will uphold the rights of others when it comes to exercising there right to worship, regardless of whatever that religion is. It doesn't matter if that person if Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or Muslim. And that includes the rights of those who choose not to worship at all. As long as that group in particular doesn't advocate hate or death, they have a right to worship need be. In a democrac...

Microsoft Goes Nuclear: The Internet And The First Browser War One time, I ran across this 500 page book about the Internet that was published in 1994. It was interesting to see what PC users prioritized when it came to the Internet back at that time. It seems that most of that book covered email. There was also a very sizeable section about FTP followed by a smaller section about the Gopher protocol. However, the technology that would eventually define the Internet was covered in roughly 40-50 pages. The World Wide Web was a small bleep on a massive radar that was consumed with mostly email and FTP. While the WWW got a big break with the release of the Mosaic web-browser, it's stake wasn't exactly guaranteed either as the Gopher protocol, which was mostly like the WWW minus images, still had a massive following though a huge stretch of 94. It wasn't until late in that year that it would be a given that the WWW, through the use of the HTML programming language, would domina...