Warning this post is mostly a rant (mostly about religion [you can't discuss religion with most of the people here as they are not at all open minded and just get mad if you say something that contradicts what they believe] so you are forewarned)and is not ordered very well.

This past Tuesday NC had their primaries. On the ballot was an amendment (Amendment One as it's known) to change the state constitution to say the one recognized domestic relationship in the state is marriage between one m...
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I just saw this article and video on the internet about the current CO of the Enterprise when he was the XO. It's about the videos he made to entertain the crew. Here is the link http://hamptonroads.com/2010/12/raunchy-videos-starring-enterprise-skipper-come-light. I personally didn't find the video offensive. Stupid yes but offensive no. I can however see how someone could see them as offensive. I am not here to write about how offensive or inoffensive the video is. The bigger problem I see ...
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Well it's been a few months since I did anything to my blog. But I assumed no one read it and it was mainly a means for me to vent and whatnot. Well today I found out I have subscribers. That was quite surprising. So I figured I would do a little update.

Crystal is pregnant again. We found out a bit ago that it is a boy. He is due 1/11/11. Hopefully he is born at 11:11:11 am because that would be awesome.

Been working at Dupont since May 18th. Life is good out there. No duty, 8 hour days, no go...
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So since getting out of the navy life has been pretty busy. I have filed for unemployment and applied for numerous jobs. I have taken a test for a job at DuPont. I have been gardening and started a new bonsai then my old bonsai died. All my herbs and most of my peppers have sprouted. But the thing that has lifted the most weight off my shoulders is yesterday I had my interview with DuPont. There was 3 applicants and we got a tour of the facility followed by a panel interview. This morning I w...
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So I finally made it out of the navy. I honestly can't say whether I would do it again given the chance. Yeah it wasn't especially fun but it has helped me in ways outside of the navy and it helped me be a great judge of character but again I had to deal with a whole ton of BS for the last 4 years of it. I am definitely glad to finally be done with it.

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I should be leaving Japan finally on Thursday the 18th. Then I get to spend a week and a half or so in Bangor, WA before the navy flies me back to Idaho. I will be in ID for a few days before finally returning to my family in Winterville, NC. Things are really looking up for this branch of the family tree. I have a very good job opportunity which I should interview for shortly after returning home but if I don't get that job I will just start school this fall with the GI Bill. If I get the jo...
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So I had just finished cleaning rooms at work today and was sitting in the office on a break when I had my first stoke of brilliance that I knew I needed to write down since about 2005 or 2006 and here it is:
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As ocean levels begin to rise when the ice caps melt the people of the world should grab any plastic container with a seal-able lid they can find, the bigger the better. These containers are then filled with water and sealed. After the sealing you just bury the bottle underground. Ever...
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So last week I started taking the stop smoking pill Chantix and today is my official quit date where I actually try to quit smoking. I hope this works as I really don't like smoking and it is expensive as hell. The drug works by blocking the nicotine receptors in the brain so you don't feel the effects of the nicotine and it releases a small amount of dopamine (the "reward" hormone) throughout the day to make up for the decrease in dopamine release (nicotine causes your body to release the re...
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I just finished reading "Under the Dome" by Stephen King and it made me realize why I like most of his books so much. Most of his books are 99% building up to the climax then 1% resolution and conclusion. He doesn't answer all the questions which leaves the reader wondering the rest and wanting more. It keeps us coming back. I suppose thats the same reason I like Lost and Heroes they spend a season or in the case of Lost, the whole series, building up and conclude at the very end with questio...
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In case no one told any of the people who read this blog. Anything I say about anyone in this blog is my OPINION. If I rant about certain things you aren't good at it doesn't mean you are a bad person and I dislike you I am just saying there are some things that could use some work. I had some people on the ship that I hated working for but outside of work we would hang out without issue but at work there were issues. I love my daughter but even though I have never seen her in a leadership po...
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Well I just got back to Japan a little bit ago after 13 awesome days of leave. The worst part was having to leave. Especially since my flight left RDU at 8:50am Christmas morning. When I went back to work to sign in off leave I got an earful at work from someone at work about random shit I don't feel like talking about right now. Which really brought home the fact that I am definitely back at CFAY. Though I now know that my website audience is bigger than I thought. Crystal was really excited...
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I just finished setting up a homebrew automatic watering system for my bonsai tree. I am now seeing how long one small Arrowhead bottle of water will last. Hopefully it is able to maintain a nice slow constant water supply over a week or week and a half so the tree doesn't die when I go home on leave. The setup is job a bottle hanging upside-down  above the tree with a short length of rope going from a small hole in the bottle cap down to the tree. So far it is going pretty slow but I have to...
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Well I have started on a new adventure along with Crystal. We are starting up a photography business so I haven't had much time for my normal hobbies. It is hard to help set up a small business from 7000 miles away. Our website is http://www.memoryweaverphotography.com. If you are ever in Eastern North Carolina and want pictures done you should give us a call. If you mention you saw this blog I will have Crystal give you a 15% discount. This discount is valid until June 30, 2010. The website ...
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So not much has been going on. On my birthday (Nov 1st) I managed to pick the protec one time but have not been able to replicate those results so it could have just been a fluke but whatever. I don't claim to be able to pick the lock. Saying that would imply being able to do it consistently. Hmm what else? Uh I think I may have posted this already but I got an amateur radio. I can't transmit yet as I have no license but the barracks I live in obviously wasn't built to help with the wave prop...
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So today I went to a bonsai exhibition at the Yokosuka Cultural Center. It was pretty cool. If you want to see some pictures click on the Bonsai link above.
This exhibition was a perfect example of a difference between the American culture and the Japanese culture. I was the only non-Japanese person at the exhibit. Most of the people knew maybe a word or two of English but they would still come up to me and see if I had any questions. Then this elderly gentleman came up and he knew some Engli...
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This is not about locks at all just a rant about the navy. Why is it that the navy has such horrible leadership? In my going on 6 years in the navy I have worked for tons and tons of different people yet only 2 of them would be considered good leaders in the civilian world. One of which was the departmental Master Chief for AIMD on the USS George Washington while the ship was in San Diego in the summer of 2008 I think his last name was Duncan but I'm not sure. The other was MMC Sanborn my sec...
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So after reading something about the DG on LP101 I decided to disassemble one of mine because on of the guys on there disassembled one and it had no security pins in it. I could have sworn by the feel and actions of this lock I disassembled that it had at least one spool inside but as it turns out it has no spools and it is master keyed as you can see in the picture above. I was actually quite surprise to see the master wafers in there but they are there on the pins 2-4. I was under the impre...
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Nothing new going on in this part of the world. Still no word back from Abloy so the protected part of the site loses the password in 1 month and 2 days unless I get word from Abloy between now and then. I am also seriously considering getting into amateur radio but won't be able to get my license until I get back to the states unless TIARA does the exams sometime between now and when I get back. Stay tuned for udpates.

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I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures of the prototype of a lockpick for the Abloy Protec padlock I own. I still have a couple things I need to work on such as the groove for the decoding part and then some sanding to de-burr some of the edges.

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Well I finally got around to making a pick that is somewhat like the drawing on my protec picking page. My camera battery is charging right now but I will post pictures of it on said page. On a side note about the pick it cost me about $12 in materials I believe and I few hours in construction time (from having to jury rig quite abit to things to work right). I haven't tested it out yet just because I wanted to make sure everything was all setup so it doesn't fall apart. I probably won't go i...
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I am learning fast that a couch doesn't make the best place to pick locks. Especially recliner couches. If you drop anything it is pretty much guaranteed to fall into a crack and since the cushions are attached to the frame it will if you are lucky fall to the floor where you have to crawl under the recliner to get it or if unlucky it ends up somewhere in the couch. So far the best place I ave found for picking is a computer chair at a desk or table since if you drop anything there is no furn...
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So I finally decided to jump on the blog bandwagon and well this is the first post thus far. I pretty much intend to blog about random stuff involving my life and hobbies. This may include updates about my family, lockpicking, lock pick making and lock collecting. I will probably add some huntig and fishing stuff after I get out of the navy.

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