I found a swash-buckle-ready replica of Jack Sparrow’s sword from Pirates of the Caribbean. The thing is an almost exact copy and it’s intended to cross with any Royal Navy officer who tries to stop you.
Jack Sparrow Sword
Title: To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
Author: Arthur Herman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN-10: 0060534257
ISBN-13: 978-0060534257
I found this book at Barnes&Noble the other day, and as I can’t resist anything dealing with naval history, I bought it. At first I was concerned that it would be one of these books which attempts to argue that something is the motivator for a particular phenomenon in modern life. So it was a pleasant surprised to read the work and discover that the book is, above all, a history of British naval power, and that very little of the contents are devoted to discussing the influence of this battle or that admiral on modern politics, society, etc. To Rule the Waves is well-paced, with an appropriate mix of informative historical background; political, social and economic theory; and thrilling, at times even swashbuckling narrative.
I want this thing. Like in my house.
http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com/2009/11/heres-thurible-to-end-all-thuribles.html
I’ve been working on Ensign’s blog off and on for the past couple of weeks, and as I’m no webmaster, the going’s been a little slow. She liked the PressRow theme, but wanted some changes, primarily in the color theme. That was the easy part. Then I noticed that there was no link to older posts on the main page. That took me about 4 hours to figure out how to do. Then I had to figure out how to get the solid background to break into three vertical bars. Then when it was all done, I clicked on one of the posts, and found out that the mainpage nav that I added was also tagged for the nav on the full post page, so I had to write a new tag for that. So I ended up with (I think) what she wanted, and this is the result.
I know that to many of you this really isn’t worth writing about, but seeing as I literally have no experience with PHP, and very little with CSS, I’m rather proud of myself. This is really my first experience with having to design by code only, and I think I’m getting the hang of the basics.
As the Iraq war becomes increasingly unpopular at home, politicians search for an exit plan. Of course we could just pull the troops and bug out, but many Americans cannot accept the possibility that we might not win or “tie” in this war. They cannot face the prospect of losing. To suggest this has been political suicide for many. The only option is to win the war and win it quickly. Sure, and while we’re at it why don’t we turn the country into the garden of Eden and solve world hunger, right?
Impossible as victory seems, I believe that it can be accomplished by employing Total War. As some of you may know I am a history student, and am particularly fascinated with the American Civil War. Perhaps my favorite element of this period is trying to figure out what made the late-war generals [Sherman, Grant, Sheridan] succeed where the early-war generals [McClellan, Hooker, Burnside] failed miserably. read more »
Don’t bother with the video, just listen to the music. I think this is my favorite contemporary Christmas song.
“Not you. We named the monkey Jack.”
Yep, that’s right, The Booty and I are going to be having a little monkey. We found out about a month ago. Needless to say things are rather exciting around here right now. At the moment we’re in the market for a new vessel. It’s a good market, but there’s a lot of other captains hoping to commandeer a worthy ship. Wish us luck!
I got to thinking today, and we all know how dangerous that is. The following is just some thoughts on modern education, sparked by a discussion about history, which I happen to have some opinions about.
So last night Ensign was studying for her American History class, and she mentioned that she was very confused because, while studying the American Revolution, her professor had maintained that the revolution had little or nothing to do with taxation because the American colonies paid relatively low taxes as compared to the rest of the British Empire. Her book on the other hand, claimed that taxation was a primary motivator behind the American independence movement. read more »
So I promised a little something about tobacco, government and other such things, but I’ve realized that instead of doing this myself and doing it poorly, I should just refer you to an article that’s actually worth your time to read. Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State by Joe Jackson.
However, I do have something to say on the subject of personal freedom, and this extends beyond the issue of tobacco to all areas of life.
(Edit: For any non-US readers, I apologize for my US centered language. I do not intend any offense or disrespect to other nationalities. It’s just easier to use “our” or “us” than to say “the Americans’” or “the Americans”.) read more »
Just thought I’d share: my blog now has enough posts to need a second page. Yep, I’m moving up into the big leagues. Or something.
On another note, I’ve got a semi treatise in the works about tobacco, government, privacy and things of that sort, so keep your eyes out for that. Not the usual entertainment around here, but something I’m passionate about and something I’ve been thinking about lately.