Where’s Mitchell? November 29, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in World of Warcraft.comments closed
I’m WoWing Again
Yes, sorry I’m very much out of touch with all things blogging lately. Most of my online time is dedicated to advancing new World of Warcraft characters in the Army of Morons guild on the Hellscream server. After giving it up in a puff of “meh” a few months ago I’m now right back into it. Why? Well, a few things.
Firstly, lots of things have been shaking up in Azeroth lately:
Yes, a new expansion pack is coming out in a few days. There have already been world-wide changes across the game recently with The Shattering. And even before this there was at least one major patch update that changed a LOT of the gameplay, mostly for the better I think and the latest has streamlined the questing quite a bit. One of the things that greatly annoyed me about the previous versions were quests that required a lengthy trek out to some distant section, kill some dudes or critters, come back to town to finish the quest only to be given another to go back to that area and kill slightly different versions of the dudes or critters you just killed. That drove me nuts. Yea verily much of the game simply consisted of moving your characters around from one area to another. Another drastic improvement is simply being in the Moron Army guild. Starting new characters is often a very tedious undertaking, particularly on a new server where you don’t have access to any of the resources you’ve aquired previously. The other, more advanced players have been extremely helpful in their support of money, materials and most importantly questing assistance for the lower level players. This makes for a much more enjoyable and considerably less “grindy” experience.
So if you’ve ever been interested or stopped playing this is a great time to get into it for the first time, or back in the saddle if you’ve been away.
Happy Thanksgiving! November 25, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
I’m off to celebrate with the Parental Units. I hope y’all had a good one too.
The Latest Thing November 25, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
Toilet Paper Origami!
Yes, I am leaving stuff like this in bathroom stalls. I am awesome.
Good Gravy November 17, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Food.comments closed
This post is inspired by a discussion over at NSKMD. Go read that then come back here. Done? Good, now you’re up to speed.
I’m not much of a one for cooking. When I’m at home I’m mostly a sandwich guy. I used to be a cook in my younger days and frankly detested it. That said, I love food and one of my favorite things of all time is a plateful of biscuits and gravy. You know what is the hardest thing to find in any restaurant anywhere? Decent biscuits & gravy. The biscuit half isn’t too hard, lots of places have pretty good biscuits. But finding good, brown gravy is nigh impossible. No, pretty much everybody serves up the same fluffy white sausage gravy. Which is Jimmy Dean’s brand gravy BTW. It was what we used at IHOP and I recognize the flavor everywhere. It comes in a big, frozen tube. Anyway. Mom makes the best brown gravy I’ve ever had and she taught it to me. It’s actually made up of pretty simple ingredients and not too hard to make. Mostly it’s just getting the timing of each stage right and not scorching your flour.
Get out your pen and and an index card and write this down:
3 tablespoons All purpose flour
3 tablespoons of bacon grease (or other critter squeezin’s)
1 can of beef broth (Campbell’s double strength) + 1/3 can of water
Pepper to taste
Put your critter squeezin’ in a large-ish skillet and put it on medium-high heat. Add the flour and stir constantly. You’re going to cook flour until it just turns over brown. This is the ticklish part. If you don’t cook it long enough it’s just going to taste like flour. Leave it on too long it will scorch and you have to start over. When it’s just the right brown take off heat (see below), add the liquids and stir like mad. It will thicken quickly, stir to avoid making lumps. It will be a bit loose at this stage so you put back on heat and stir until correct thickness. Add pepper to taste. Serve and enjoy!
This is the right color brown.
Fantasy Stuff November 16, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Music, Science Fiction & Fantasy, World of Warcraft.comments closed
First, if you play World of Warcraft (or have been considering it) you might be interested to know about a guild called the Army of Morons on the Hellscream server. This was set up by some of the folks over at Doubleplusundead. It’s a great guild and the everyone is really helpful.
Second, I recently bought the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian and I’m really enjoying it. I also bought both movies on DVD and they should be delivered today. Movie night!
Thirdly, it looks like I’m going to have to start subscribing to HBO:
And yes, you DID see Sean Bean in that clip.
And finally thanks for all the gun advice! Y’all are a great help!
I Need Gun Advice November 14, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Guns, Home.comments closed
Serious Yorling Business
Mom wants to buy my Dad a gun for Christmas and she’s asked me to do the shopping around and pick one out. They want one for the home and he has no interest in carrying it, so that’s not a factor. The upper limit price is $1200. I really think that a revolver like my S & W 686 pretty much fits the bill, but there aren’t any available in the seven shot model like mine. There is one in the six shot variety though. It looks identical in every other respect. They can order a seven shot 686 in a snub-nosed version though and have it in a few days. Also, amazingly I found at the same place a Kimber Stainless II. These are very hard to find as one store I went to can’t keep any Kimbers in stock at all. It’s even priced slightly below MSRP. That would be an AWESOME present for Christmas, but is it really the best option for home defense? I’m almost thinking that it would be more gun than Dad would want to deal with. But still, it’s a really really nice gun. What do y’all think?
****Above the pic update****
OK. Thanks for the input everyone! I’ve decided on the ultimate win-win situation. Mom is buying the Kimber for Dad. I’m buying the 686 six-shooter for them both. The really nice thing about the 686 is that it can load the .38 caliber that Mom can handle. And of course it loads the magnificent .357 magnum rounds!
Russ brings up the Shotgun Gambit. That actually probably is the best overall home defense weapon, really. But he gave me his old shotgun and .22 rifle a while back. He used to hunt many years ago but he has no interest in it now. He really wants a handgun.
Christmas Is Coming! November 12, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
I thought I’d post a something about some cool present ideas for y’all (because I’m a giver like that).
Here’s a cool knife I came across and you can find it at Uno Alla Volta. They have other knives and lots of other cool stuff. Yes they tend on the pricey side, but y’all know me.
In other knifery news – The Blade Shop has a secret sale on Benchmade knives. You get 10% off if you use this code today or tomorrow: BRW569. They have good prices that are generally significantly less than full retail but don’t gouge you on the shipping. I bought my Gold Class 940 series there last year.
Oh, and I did buy a set of these at Napa Style. There’s lots of other good stuff there too.
They are very well made and are kinda heavy in the hand (which I like). Anybody who receives this set of four will be delighted with them.
That’s it for now! And if y’all have come across things you think I might like to give as presents (I’m done buying for myself for a while) then drop a link in the comments.
L.A. Missile Explanation November 9, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
No worries folks!
Oops I Did It Again November 4, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
Hi, I’m Mitchell, and I’m a Saddlebackoholic
I have Problems. I’m a Troubled and Tortured Soul who’s only salve is Saddleback Leather bags. I try to convince myself that this is really just preparation for the upcoming collapse of western civilization. When it gets all Road Warrior-y it will be important to have some really well-made bags to carry around my food, water, guns & ammo, and a few other treasured items that remind me of the World-That-Was-Before while searching for other like-minded people where we can band together and set up a semi-permanent encampment in the Wasteland to fend off the raving hoards of now-starving liberals and other scumbags who want to steal all our stuff.
Or something like that.
What The Hell Nevada? November 3, 2010
Posted by Mitchell in Politics.comments closed
Seriously? We elected that corrupt, evil bastard for ANOTHER six years? Good grief. This definitely taints our overall victory for me. Ah well.
Glenn Beck was having fun this morning and watching this made me feel better: Happy Days.
Oh, and make no mistake, our Communist in Chief will become even more petty, truculent and dangerously disengaged. Hat tip to the Flea on that last one. Seriously, go read it. My blood ran cold yesterday.
The Center of the Anomaly 
