Watching puddles gather rain...

Dying of brain cancer and finding out you don't have life insurance...

2009-10-29T16:22:01Z

My father in law is dying of brain cancer. He had an egg-sized tumor removed two months ago and underwent all kinds of chemo and radiation and now he can barely move or talk. We are all hopeful for recovery, but just don't know what the next day holds because he has another smaller tumor that the doctors haven't even looked at yet. Please pray for him.

On top of all that is going on, we got some really bad news yesterday. My father in law is a co-owner in a pretty good size local office supply business. He always thought that he had a half-million dollar life insurance policy. However, we found out that the business has a half-million dollar policy on him. If he dies, the business gets $500,000 and his wife gets jack squat.

This type of life insurance is called a 'key man' policy where a small business insures itself against the loss of an owner. I don't know if my father in law got screwed over by his partners or was simply misinformed. Either way, it's too late do to anything about it now. He does have enough stock in the company that his wife could sell it back and be OK as far as bills and paying off the house, but the whole situation really sucks.

Long story short, make darn sure you got all your insurance matters in order, no matter how young you think you are, because the time might come when it is too late to do anything about it if there is a problem or you come up short. My father in law is in his early 50's. A few months ago, none of us would ever have expected something like this to happen.

New website!

2009-06-21T04:18:54Z

This might be my first post this year...OK, maybe the second.

Anyway, I have my own website now! I've got some content up and am toying around with some ideas. Check it out, if you like.

http://www.WFulks.com

Deer Season 2008 - Opening Day

2008-11-30T04:03:07Z

Where I hunt in southwest Mississippi, deer season always begins on Saturday morning of the weekend before Thanksgiving. In all my life, for I’ve been hunting as long as I can remember, I have never missed opening day. It’s like a family tradition. This year, 2008, was no different.

My alarm went off at 3:30am and I quickly snoozed it for another 10 minutes, but after that I knew I had to get up. I had a two-hour drive to the hunting camp and needed to be there by sunrise, which was around 6:45. I stumbled down the hallway to the living room couch and turned on the TV to help wake me up. In case you ever wondered what’s on that early in the morning, or that late at night depending on how you look at it, let’s just say you aren’t missing much. I eventually got my stuff together and was on the road by 4:45am.

The drive from my house to the hunting camp, which is on private family-owned property, consists mainly of Interstate travel with the last twenty or so miles going through back roads that eventually turn to gravel logging roads. Just as I was turning off the last bit of pavement, a doe ran out in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting her. I took this as a good sign that the deer were moving.

I arrived at the hunting camp right at 7am and it was pretty cold outside, but not freezing. I debated whether or not to even wear a jacket over my three layers of shirts, then a cold breeze hit me and I knew the jacket was going on. Within a few minutes, I was walking down a long trail toward an area where I’d seen a lot of deer activity last year. My dad and a friend were already there from camping out the night before, and we’d agreed earlier on where everyone was going so we wouldn’t cross paths and mess up each other’s hunt.

After about twenty minutes of still hunting, a young spike buck emerged from a clearing and presented a nice broadside shot for me, but unfortunately it is illegal to shoot any buck of less than four points in the state of Mississippi. I tried to take a picture of the deer with my cell phone, but he saw me and darted away. I stood by and watched him meander on through the woods because I didn’t want to spook him too bad in case there were other deer around.

As I moved further into the woods, I suddenly saw a huge mass of movement up ahead, but the woods were so thick I couldn’t make out anything. I wasn’t sure if it were several deer or a small pack of coyotes. Because the ground was so dry and I couldn’t risk making a bunch of noise by moving, I stayed hidden behind a tree and eventually lost sight of whatever it was until I walked ahead about forty yards.

That mass of movement I had seen earlier was a doe with three yearlings. I’d never before seen so many little ones with one doe, and those yearlings were literally running circles around her. It reminded me of how my young nieces run around their grandparent’s house. I watched them all through my scope for a while, as they were oblivious to my being there. Although none of them had any spots, I wouldn’t dare shoot a doe with young ones around, nor would I take such a young deer. Compared to the full grown doe, they were all very small.

I didn’t see any more deer for the rest of the day, although I did spot an opossum and an armadillo digging around in the woods. Squirrels and woodpeckers were aplenty, as usual. I think it was a little too dry for a decent hunt, because the leaves crunched too loudly under foot. The hunting usually doesn’t get good until there’s been a solid overnight freeze, which just hasn’t happened yet.

Tomorrow morning, I will be headed back out to do it all over again. I’m bringing leftover turkey sandwiches with me this time.

Use your PS3 Sixaxis controller on your PC!

2008-11-24T03:20:29Z

I finally figured out how to make my Sony Sixaxis controller from my PlayStation 3 work on my Windows Vista PC! There's two different ways you can do it, or rather two different sets of drivers to use, and one worked while the other did not. I was able to play a game with it and the controls work just fine!

Whether you use XP or Vista, check out my article at Brighthub.com for instructions on how to configure either one. There's no need to buy any kind of adapter when you can do it for free!

Anybody do blogspot?

2008-09-21T05:28:42Z

Anybody here use Blogspot? It's run by Google and I like it a lot. I started a gaming blog on there called The Bald Gamer. I'm going to make a logo or something for it, too. I plan to use it as a point of reference for all the gaming reviews I write on Brighthub and Epinions. Check it out!

Legend: Hand of God

2008-08-27T03:08:19Z

One of the things that has always bugged me about PC gaming is when I get a buggy game. Why is it that console games are released with much higher standards? It's like so many PC games get released with bugs so they can be patched later. It's no wonder so many industry insiders worry about the future of PC gaming.

Legend: Hand of God is a perfect example of the 'release now and patch later' mentality. This game had a lot of potential to be great, as it combined many elements of games like Titan Quest, but it is so damn buggy that I gave up playing it. I felt like I was beta testing the software, when that's something the developer should have done before releasing it to market.

I think this game still has some potential, but until they work out the bugs and release a major update, it's not worth your time or money. Why pay for something unfinished?

New shoes

2008-07-31T04:36:41Z

I love Skechers shoes. They always have the weirdest designs. I picked up a pair of these today, to replace my Sperry's as work shoes. Those deck shoes just aren't that comfortable for walking around a lot. These things feel like tennis shoes.

Wedding photos

2008-07-13T23:03:33Z

These have got to be the most incredible wedding photos I have ever seen.

Christina, you better have some tissue handy...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034570/The-beautiful-wedding-year-scarred-soldier-marries-sweetheart.html

Blind Melon @ Soul Kitchen - Mobile, AL

2008-04-28T05:21:56Z

Here's some photos taken from the awesome show Blind Melon put on at the Soul Kitchen in Mobile, Alabama. They played a solid two hours, with material from every album.

See Rogers behind the bubble?

Book Cover Ideas

2008-01-27T23:19:27Z

I took some photos this afternoon that I may use for the cover of my Katrina Wedding book. It was just an idea I had to get a wedding photo and make it look like it was in the rubble of a house that had been knocked down.

I also had the idea of getting a cheap frame and maybe busting it up a little, then sticking it in the same woodpile. Another idea I had involved going to the beach and maybe partially burying the frame in the sand.

What do you think? I removed all the color except for the photo, just to make it stand out more.

Heath Ledger is DEAD!

2008-01-22T22:03:06Z

Holy crap! Heath Ledger was found dead today. First, Brad Renfro, now Heath. He is going to appear in the upcoming Batman movie as The Joker. This sucks!

First Deer of the 2007 Season

2007-12-24T17:17:18Z

The Sunday before Christmas 2007, I woke up at 4 A.M. and got ready to meet my dad at 5 A.M. at his house. We then hit the road, heading over to our property in Liberty, Mississippi, which is just south of McComb. We have been hunting deer over there for the past two decades. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive away, which is why we left so early.

We arrive at the deer camp around 7:30 and started getting ready. My dad was already walking into the woods while I was lacing up my boots and getting geared up for the hunt. It was in the upper 30’s outside, so I needed to add some extra layers of clothing to keep warm. By 7:35, I was walking up the main camp road toward my deer stand. It was to be about a half mile walk and I always go in on foot in case I jumped something along the way.

I walked all of about 250 yards when I started hearing something scratching around on the ground. It sounded almost like somebody was raking pine straw, but I couldn’t see anything. I readied my rifle and slowly walked up the road, taking only a few steps at a time before stopping to look around. I went forward another 100 feet until I reached a small bend in the road where a huge pine tree stood. I could still hear the scratching sound, but saw nothing.

When I took a few more steps forward, which put me just the other side of that big pine tree, I saw a buck looking right at me. He was standing by the side of the road, perfectly still, and looking in my direction. He must’ve heard my boots stepping on the gravel in the road. After I saw his body standing broadside in front of me, I saw his antlers next. He wasn’t a huge buck, but he was definitely a nice size, and bigger than any I’d seen in several years.

Using slow, even movements, I carefully switched the safety on my rifle to fire, then I raised the gun while looking into the scope. A second later, I had the deer in my crosshairs, and I fired. He hit the ground, got back up, then ran about 50 feet before keeling over, dead. When I went to inspect the deer, he had a very symmetrical rack with six tines, thus making him what we call a six-point buck. It would turn out the scratching sound I heard was him making a scrape on the ground to attract does.

Just to reiterate, I woke up at 4 that morning, drove 2.5 hours, and hunted no more than 10 minutes. It was the quickest deer hunt I’d ever been on. I was almost a little disappointed because I now had to wait on my dad, and that could take all morning. Fortunately, he came walking back into camp about an hour later. When I told him that I got a six-point buck, he said, “Mine’s a seven.” He had shot one about an hour after I did.

We spent the rest of the day getting the deer out of the woods, then cleaning and quartering the body. Tomorrow, we begin the process of butchering the meat. We’re going to have a bunch of salami and sausage made up, then use the prime parts like the tenderloin and backstraps for grilling.

I know a lot of people don’t understand deer hunting and think it’s just a bunch of rednecks going in the woods with their big guns to terrorize and kill animals, but it is quite a lot of work. I hunted for 10 minutes and my dad only hunted for an hour, yet we spent several hours working on those deer after we shot them. I guess we could have paid somebody to do that for us, but why waste the money on something you can do yourself? It’s not exactly fun, but at least you know that the meat has been handled properly.

We hunt deer for both economical and health reasons, on top of enjoying the outdoors and getting away from ringing telephones and loud televisions for a little while. Out of those two deer, we’ll end up with over 100 pounds of meat. That’s meat from an animal that was never fed any kind of hormonal treatment or genetically engineered food. Those two deer were about as ‘free range’ as one can get. You just can’t get the same quality from beef bought at a grocery store.

Photo: Me posing with the two deer. Mine is the one on the left.

HB sucks balls

2007-11-10T00:32:26Z

Anyone thinking about applying for a job at Hancock Bank?

Don't!

They've been laying off a bunch of people. Many of them have been there for a number of years, too.

You don't want to work there.

Justice is served

2007-10-11T02:27:57Z

Anybody who regular subsribes to any kind of online community, such as this one, has probably had an encounter with a troll. By troll, I mean the kind of asshole user who causes nothing but trouble and just makes a big ass of themself. Some website have measures to deal with these type people, and tonight I found where one was dealt with. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that things finally worked out.

The moral of the story: Don't pick fights you can't win.

Windows Vista and the Creative Zen Micro MP3 Player

2007-08-31T23:41:50Z

If you are one of the many owners of a Creative Zen Micro MP3 Player and having problems getting it to work in Windows Vista, I have figured it out for you. The article below will tell you what needs to be upgraded as well as how to upload music to the Zen Micro.

How to Make the Creative Zen Micro Mp3 Player Work in Windows Vista

Thanks!

-Bill

mruppercut @ 2007-07-21T15:27:00

2007-07-21T20:29:38Z

How many of you out there do the My Coke Rewards thing, and how many points do you have?

I've got 200 right now, but I know people who have thousands.

(If you drink Coke and don't do the rewards, please send me your codes and I'll love you forever!)

Rocky

2007-04-21T05:26:54Z

Who here is glad that stupid gay Rocky Horror shit has been shut down and finally exposed for what it really is? I'm surprised it has taken this long for the police to take notice of them. It's been around for YEARS...

HAHAHAHAH!!!

2007-04-03T04:41:37Z

Alanis Morrissette sings....Lady Lumps!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

mruppercut @ 2007-03-04T11:52:00

2007-03-04T17:52:48Z

Hahaha...I just made a web page for my dog!

http://www.dogster.com/dogs/491445

mruppercut @ 2007-02-17T23:33:00

2007-02-18T05:34:43Z

Chris Cornell is leaving Audioslave.

I think this is a good thing. I liked the first album and only parts of the second album. I didn't like the third album much at all.

In the meantime, RATM will be regrouping for a show, supposedly to be a one-time deal. Right!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/16/people.chriscornell.ap/index.html

Dancing!

2007-01-28T00:16:13Z

Here's my full report from Dancing with the Stars in Nashville.

http://www.epinions.com/content_4945846404

Also, pictures (yes, that really is Joey from NKotB):
Joey

mruppercut @ 2007-01-21T17:52:00

2007-01-21T23:53:35Z

Damn...could the Saints have fucked that up any more? Could the QB not tell the uniforms apart in the snow?

mruppercut @ 2007-01-19T21:49:00

2007-01-20T03:50:16Z

This weekend, my wife and I are driving up to Nashville to see the Dancing With the Stars live. They are doing a national tour with some of the celebs from the show. I just read that Jerry Springer will be joining them for several shows in January, including Nashville!

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

mruppercut @ 2007-01-18T13:36:00

2007-01-18T19:38:05Z

Today is my last day at my 'old job' and I leave in less than two hours.

What sucks is that I now have to deprogram all that I've learned over the past 3 years. All that stuff about banking policy and procedure is useless to me now.

Lesson learned.

I will miss a lot of the people around here, though.

Bloodthirsty car dealerships

2007-01-17T19:47:56Z

I don’t think I’m going to deal with my car dealership any more. Two strikes is enough for me! After buying almost $50,000 worth of new vehicles from them, you’d think they’d cut a repeat customer some slack.

Strike one was when I had two nails in my tire and they said it was not fixable and I’d have to buy a new one. I informed them that my brother-in-law manages a tire place and I’d take it to him. He was able to plug both holes and it hasn’t leaked since. That was over a year ago.

Strike two was yesterday when they would not replace a hub cap that fell off my truck. With my type truck, it’s sort of a common problem for the center hub caps to pop off. I used to have a slightly older model version of the same truck and I lost two from it, and this same dealership replaced them at no cost. With my new truck, they said it would cost $68 plus tax for a new one. They said that it would only be covered under warranty if I brought them the old one to show where the spring attachments had failed.

So if my hubcap flies off while I am driving down the road, they expect me to pull over and go find it before they can honor the warranty? WTF?!?!

Anyway, I just checked eBay and got the same center hub cap for less than 20 bucks, including shipping.