The main ingredient in soap is tallow products. For those who don't know what tallow is, here's the definition: Hard fat obtained from parts of the bodies of cattle, sheep, or horses, and used in foodstuffs or to make candles, leather dressing, soap, and lubricants. Hmmm, sounds kind of disgusting. So basically we wash ourselves in animal fat. Yuk. Who thought of this? Ok, I use soap too, but this does sound pretty nasty.

Today I dug out my old double edged Weck safety razor. I know the razor is old and was made in Germany, but beyond that I don't know much about it. I know there are some folks out there who collect vintage razors and I'm hoping maybe someone can fill me in a little on it. It has "WECK" engraved on the top, "Germany" on the under side, and on the bottom of the handle is the profile of a man (kinda looks Roman or something). No idea how old it actually is so I'm hoping someone will know a bi...

This morning, after showering for work, I noticed the bathroom floor was soaking wet. I mopped it up and went on about the business of getting ready for work. When I returned home this eveving, I found yet more water on the floor. What the? After some investigating, I discovered that my bathtub is cracked underneath the rubber bath mat. How did this happen? Oh great. So tomorrow after work I will be visiting Lowes to see what is available to repair a cracked fiberglass bathtub. What a p...

A couple of days ago as I was riding through Kentucky, something caught my eye up ahead and on the side of the highway. I had to do a double take because I didn't believe I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. Sure enough, there was a camel, large as life, walking along the fence line beside the interstate. And what was even more odd was the fact that there was a donkey following it. Now that's something you just don't see every day.

I am parked in KY for the night about three hours or so from my first stop. Close enough. It's a little truckstop out in the sticks and I really didn't expect to be able to get WiFi service here. I managed to pick up a weak wireless signal, although I'm not positive where it might be coming from. There are no houses that close, so it's either coming from the CB shop, or one of the three transmission towers I can see from here (doubtful, but possible). Or there is a house close by that I ju...

I've had more than 300 sutures/staples in my life so far. I've had a double lumbar lamenectomy (sp?). I've had my neck broken. I've had my eyes rendered non functional by lightening. I've had my pelvis shattered. I've had my spleen and a lung punctured by bullets. I've had my colon pierced by a knife. I've had my body breached by numerous attacks and accidents. By rights I should probably be dead. Been damned close to it a few times. But the human body is an amazing thing. It's really ama...

How ya doing? How are you? How's it going? People ask these questions all the time without actually giving a damn about the answer. So I'll ask here, how the hell are you doing?

I started a rather large DVD iso download a couple of hours ago. The download manager I am using, KGet (a KDE DE Linux app), was minimized in the system tray. While working, I decided to log out of the KDE environment and log into the XFCE4 window manager. No real reason for it other than XFCE4 uses fewer system resources than KDE. Fluxbox is really my favorite as it uses the fewest resources. I use Fluxbox when I want to work with resource intensive apps as they run faster. Anyway, I dig...

I got out my old mesquite hiking stick just to check it's condition and because I was considering putting it in my truck in case the hip was feeling especially good some time out on the road and I wanted to try a short hike. It's a great stick as mesquite is a very strong wood as well as light, and is the perfect length for me. As I was checking it out I noticed that it's feeling pretty slick these days. Nothing worse than working up a good sweat and trying to hang on to a slick wooden sta...

I'm getting ready to go back out on the road as soon as they call me with a load. For this reason I don't want to go to the grocery to buy anything that I may not eat before having to leave. I'm using up what's left here. I was getting hungry and rummaging around to see what I could come up with for lunch. Well, let's see, I have some macaroni, tomato sauce, assorted spices and herbs. I cooked up some macaroni, drained it and added the tomato sauce, oregano, dried onion powder, salt, an...

A wonderful tribute to liquid bread! Ho! Ho! Yes! Yes! It's very all well, You may drunk I am think, but I tell you I'm not, I'm as sound as a fiddle and fit as a bell, And stable quite ill to see what's what. I under do stand you surprise a got When I headed my smear with gooseberry jam; And I've swallowed, I grant, a beer of lot - But I'm not so think as you drunk I am. Can I liquor my stand? Why, yes, like hell! I care not how many a tossed I've pot, I shall stralk quite wei...

The lightening and thunder just started about three minutes ago. A very loud crack, a loud peal of thunder,. Socrates diving under the couch,. and me closing the skylights to stop the sudden inpouring of rain. Gotta love living in a tropical climate. I wonder what's gonna burn down this time?

I'm making spaghetti for dinner. I like to make my own sauce as I haven't found any jar sauce I really like although the Newman's Own aren't bad in a pinch. I like to make a fairly thick spaghetti sauce. I know a lot of people make a pretty thin sauce. Personal preference thing I suppose. So, my question is which do you prefer? A thick spaghetti sauce or a thin one? Lots of meat, a little meat, or no meat at all? Spaghetti sauce is a very individual thing are there are so many possibilitie...

I love this person! What a great and humorous way to deal with a neighbor stealing your wireless access. I love it. Link

I volunteer some time at a large and well known Linux help forum to assist people with Linux related technical issues and answering questions related to Linux. They are often newbies who are just learning the OS and need a bit of help, often with some pretty basic things, as they learn the different ways of getting things done in Linux as opposed to Windows. One thread today was a person asking about installing a new version of Firefox. His questions were extremely basic and it was obvious...