Friday, September 30, 2022

Missed goals

 You know, I was pretty exited to have written on here every day for a year straight, but life just ends up happening. I got hit head on by another driver which broke my foot, opened up my knee, and shattered the cup of my pelvis that holds my leg in place, as well as cracking both sides of my jaw, which saw me in the hospital for over two weeks, and I'll be in a rehab facility for another 6 or so weeks. 

So, that's why things have been quiet around here for some time, and unfortunately, it may continue to be so for a while as I learn to walk again and otherwise recover. As things become less painful and I'm able to focus a little better, I'll start writing things on here again. 

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Sunday Slither

Velvet Revolver - Slither

Sunday, September 18, 2022

An underappreciated band

hat tip to Razorfist for letting me know about these guys. Could have sworn I posted them here before, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so here ya go:

Liege Lord - Broken Wasteland - Master Control (1988)

Monday, September 12, 2022

Forgotten Films: The Blob (1988)

A movie that I thought was great as a kid that I recently went back and watched is the remake of the classic 50s movie The Blob. Now I don't enjoy most horror, but the kind that is of the cosmic variety I can't get enough of and this is one of the best examples.

Compared to the original, there's not much changed from the basic concept (which always was paper thin) but a lot of the details are a bit different and overall, I think the human element of the story is a lot better in the '88 film, as it focuses more on the monster. It certainly takes itself just a bit more seriously while still having more intentional humor throughout. But the real fun comes from the absolutely amazing practical and special effects throughout that are gloriously 80s and far more gory than the original but most of the affects still look great.

It just seems that when people bring up all those lists and talk of gloriously great 80s effects movies, this one hardly ever seems to get mentioned, and that's just a darn shame because this movie is nothing less than great.Trailer included below:

Sunday, September 11, 2022

More songs from films I like

BURNING SENSATIONS - Pablo Picasso

Saturday, September 10, 2022

A brief history of the F-16 at Hill AFB, Utah

Beautiful pic of the F-105s flying with F-16s for the 466th Fighter Squadron's transition.

After the service of the F-105 had ended at Hill AFB, the immediate replacement was the F-16 Fighting Falcon, or as the pilots and crews call it, the Viper. Despite the fact the F-16 had significantly less range and payload capability than the F-105 it replaced, it did offer significantly enhanced capabilities in almost every other area, such as a more advanced and sophisticated radar, far greater bombing and gunnery accuracy, BVR A2A capability, greater payload diversity, smart weapons arsenal, and is far more maneuverable.

However, they first F-16 arrived at Hill long before the type was operated there, as there was a scheduled stop there after flying out of Edwards AFB for one of the test flights in 1977.  Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC) was also already designated as the primary maintenance center for the type in 1974 during the development of the aircraft. 

The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing received its first F-16As for operational use in late 1979 and it was the first squadron in the US Air Force to become operational with the new jet, replacing the unit's old and venerable F-4E Phantom IIs that were used in Vietnam.

The 388th's celebratory paint scheme for the 5 millionth F-16 flight hour.

The unit gained quick prominence with the type by winning the RAF bombing competition in 1981, and also winning the worldwide USAF Gunsmoke gunnery competition twice, once in 1987 and again in 1993.  In May of 1989, the very first F-16C Block 40 was issued to the unit and they also had the distinction of celebrating the F-16's 5 millionth flight hour among all the variants in December of 1996. 

The 388th Fighter Wing flew four thousand sorties during both Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, with no losses. After the war the wing continued to deploy elements of its combat squadrons to support postwar treaty enforcement in Operation Southern Watch. 

During the Global War on Terror, the wing began deploying F-16s to Bagram AB, Afghanistan in 2009 to support ground forces in Operation Enduring Freedom. They continued to support operations in that country as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel until 2016. 

An F-16 from the 466th flying over the Great Salt Lake

Along with the 388th, in 1983, the Reserve 466th Fighter Squadron called the “Diamondbacks”, it was the first Air Force Reserve unit to operate the F-16 and has had a VERY storied history operating the Viper since. 

Within the first two years of operating the type, the squadron immediately earned top honors at the Air Force’s Gunsmoke gunnery meet. In 1994, the unit deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, in support of Operation Northern Watch in Iraq. 

As for the history of combat deployments, they went on to support Operation Southern Watch at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait and while there, the unit became the first F-16s to deploy precision guided munitions in combat in 1998. Later on in 1999, while again deployed in support of Operation Northern Watch, the Diamondbacks also earned the distinction of being the first F-16 unit to employ the Litening II targeting pod in combat.

While deployed to Iraq to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch, they were also tasked with flying classified combat missions into Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Afterward, they were the first F-16 unit deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom and are credited with destroying multiple important Al Qaeda assets, and provided close-air support missions to ground troops. 


In the following years, as the Global War on Terror continued, the 466th became the first unit to fly F-16 in combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Again, in 2005, the Diamondbacks deployed to Iraq to fly close-air support missions out of Balad airbase for allied ground forces.

In 2007, the 466th Fighter Squadron began flying and maintaining a shared fleet of F-16s alongside the 388th Fighter Wing in what was called "Total Force Integration". Finally in September 2015, the 419th began it's transition to the new F-35A which eventually completely replaced the F-16s in the unit by September of 2017. 

Despite the F-16 no longer being based with any unit at Hill AFB, it is still the primary logistical and maintenance hub for the type on the western half of the US, so F-16s can still be seen on occasion going in and out of Hill. Recently, the Air Force has also determined the F-35 is both too expensive and maintenance heavy to fully replace the F-16, and so they type will be upgraded for the foreseeable future until a 1:1 replacement can be designed.

Pics and sources:
https://www.hill.af.mil/About-Us/Organizations/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/388th_Fighter_Wing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/466th_Fighter_Squadron
https://www.419fw.afrc.af.mil/About-Us/History/

Friday, September 9, 2022

Vito's Bountiful

Pic was swiped from the USA Restaurants site.

Right off of the Main street in Bountiful and 100 South is Vito's. They label themselves the Philly King of Bountiful and they are right. There aren't a whole lot of places you can get a solid Philly sandwich in the state, and this is certainly one of them. Among a huge variety of Philly sandwiches they also offer great meatball subs, Rubens, and Italian sausage subs.  

The place is rightfully jam packed during the lunch hour, so I would recommend going during any other time of the day to save you some time. Also, last I checked, they don't take cards and are a cash-only establishment, as it is nearly a one man operation. That being said, they also don't have any official site I know of , so you'll have to google the place for a menu if you want to know before you go. 

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Again, Utah is the nerdiest state

Believe it or not, the Disney company was not always seen as the truly evil empire it currently is, and they actually put out good stuff every now and again. One of those great gems they put out was the 2009 movie Up. Spawning many memes and being a generally great movie overall has given it great longevity and fondness in the eyes of most. 

Enter now the address of 13222 Herriman Rose Blvd in Herriman, Utah is a a near perfect exterior and interior replica of the protagonists house from that movie. Created by the Bangerter Homes company specifically as a way to promote themselves and create a tourist destination, the company received permission from Disney to create it and painstakingly researched every known detail with Disney in order to create it. 

It is now privately owned and the owners do have a website detailing it's history and some FAQs about visiting here: http://www.therealuphouse.com/ Also, Disney itself loves the promotion given by the house and made a short film about the family living there that you can see on youtube:

The only shame about the place is that it's stuck in the general area of Provo which is basically the leaky butthole of Utah, with the highest concentration of jerks in the state. 

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

The internet Archive

The logo of the organization

Located in an old Christian Scientist church in San Francisco’s Richmond district, lies one of the most indispensable and yet often overlooked and underappreciated projects/resources of the modern age: The non-profit Internet Archive. Strangely enough, the location itself was chosen for the project as the building resembles the logo for the organization. 

A picture of the building taken from their site.

Perhaps most famously, they are the ones who operate and curate the famous Wayback Machine that seeks to catalog and archive all websites on the internet, including defunct ones. Starting in 1996, it is offered as a free service to all for finding old sites that no longer exist, seeing how changes were made to sites over time, or (my favorite use) to see how blowhards and politicians have walked back or reversed their claims or statements over time. This in itself is a monumental project, but it isn't the only thing that they do there. 

They consider themselves an open library to all and also offer a project in which they are digitizing books, have an archive of TV news broadcasts, audio recordings of live concerts, as well as archiving free software, and projects to digitize a variety of other physical media among many other projects. It's near impossible to detail it all here, but you can go directly to their site to find out more: https://archive.org/about/

As an added bit of interesting trivia about the location is that the church's chapel is still intact and has more than 120 ceramic sculptures of the Internet Archive’s current and former employees situated among the pews that were created by a local artist. Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the massive amount of data servers needed for the project are so vast, that they serve as the building's heat source! Pretty neat eh?

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Watching from the sidelines is interesting:

As I have stated before, I didn't think the Ukrainian conflict to be particularly interesting or noteworthy when it started, but the longer it goes on, the more fascinating I find it to be. So far, I think there are some interesting lessons we have learned in Ukraine outside of the combat:

1. The Russian logistics system is a joke and cannot cope with the pace of operations or losses.
2. They are a joke because Russian corruption is rampant and is also a joke on an international level.
3. Ukrainian resolve and nationalism is no freaking joke and with good reason, as the aggression/instigation is purely one-sided.
4. For supposedly being the world's second largest military power, Russia is also having a really hard time with combating the world's 22nd largest military, and are now on pace to be losing a majority of the ground they took.
5. Win or lose, it will be interesting to see how quickly the US/western nations either abandon or turn on Ukraine when THIER corruption comes to light or the forefront of the news. 

As a small bit of evidence to prove Russian incompetence, I present a video from the Funker530 channel on youtube:
Russians Are Wearing Fake Ballistic Helmets Into Battle