Climb A Mountain...
It's Deer Season, for what it's worth. I have as good of a chance of shooting a wild hog as anything. Wild hogs, Ferrell hogs, they tare the land up. They're like developers. They're not native, they eat everything they can and both are going to be Southern Appalachia for a long time to come.
I'm thinking about building me a "J- Pole" Antenna for my 2 Meter Hand Held Radio. It seems simple enough to do. Of course I could probably buy one for nearly what I could build one. But, in order to further identify myself as a Ham, I feel like I ought to build me something. And, it would be a fun thing to have around, clime up on some Bald and talk into the distance. If I'm going to hump it up a mountain though, it needs to be somewhat portable. Most for 2 meters are around 60" long and I'm 69" tall. You can make a roll up out f the flexible TV rabbit ear stuff, but if your on a Bald, you'll need something to hang it up on. Reception and transmition would not be so great on the ground. Hmm...I guess I'm just a nerd sewing my oates.
I've sat here looking at J- Pole Designs* and now I feel guilty. I've had something I need to accomplish and I didn't do it. I was able to download the software for using my Common Access Card, CAC. I was going to use it. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow night. That's OK, I'll need to get to bed early. Thanksgiving Day is supposed to be pretty. I'll be on the side of a ridge, high powered rifle in hand and...In The Clouds.
*Don't you love hyphens? We even hyphen our heritage and citizenship. Then we complain we're not united.
The Appalachianist
I'm thinking about building me a "J- Pole" Antenna for my 2 Meter Hand Held Radio. It seems simple enough to do. Of course I could probably buy one for nearly what I could build one. But, in order to further identify myself as a Ham, I feel like I ought to build me something. And, it would be a fun thing to have around, clime up on some Bald and talk into the distance. If I'm going to hump it up a mountain though, it needs to be somewhat portable. Most for 2 meters are around 60" long and I'm 69" tall. You can make a roll up out f the flexible TV rabbit ear stuff, but if your on a Bald, you'll need something to hang it up on. Reception and transmition would not be so great on the ground. Hmm...I guess I'm just a nerd sewing my oates.
I've sat here looking at J- Pole Designs* and now I feel guilty. I've had something I need to accomplish and I didn't do it. I was able to download the software for using my Common Access Card, CAC. I was going to use it. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow night. That's OK, I'll need to get to bed early. Thanksgiving Day is supposed to be pretty. I'll be on the side of a ridge, high powered rifle in hand and...In The Clouds.
*Don't you love hyphens? We even hyphen our heritage and citizenship. Then we complain we're not united.
The Appalachianist
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Tuesday, November 25, 2008
21 Comments:
I like your comparison of wild hogs and developers!
2 meters, eh? I sometimes wish I had never let my license expire some 30 years ago.
LOL, You like that Sage?
Yeah, I just mess with 2 Meter. One day I might break into 70cm. But, 2 Meter is kind of fun. Sage, you don't have to go to the FCC to get your test for your ticket anymore. The testing is done by ARRL Volunteers. Code is no longer required for a Technician Class.
I learn the strangest things on here. I look forward to using my new knowledge of the J-Pole antenna at a future social gathering. :-)
Well you know, dear A.I., that the use of a hyphen is to connect divided words so technically it does unite...it's just not very American.
Murf, J- Poles make great conversation peices. Even with the hyphen. Hyphenated Antennaism.
Just for the sake of contension, App and Murf, and certainly not to start a fight this close to Turkey Day : ) But I might have to disagree with you about the hyphens not being American.
Where else in the world do you see them used to discuss variations of nationality? In Britain you are British...you may be Algerian born or French born or Morrocan born, but when sitting in a pub in London you are British. There is no local term for the emmigrant...French-British? Doesn't work.
In America you can be a British-American...a Moroccan-American...an Irish-American...a Native American. The important thing is that America is still a major part of the identity marker for the word usage, it is just spiced up with a little ethnic flavor. We're kind of like Baskin Robbins, although we got them beat on variety. What's amazing is that a ton of different people with roots across the world who could say they are from a dozen different countries, end up using the same term in every self-identification. What's more American than that?
I prefer the British way of doing things then...except for their questionable taste in comedy. :-)
Ah man, how can you not like Monty Python?...Quest for the Holy Grail...the Holy Hand Grenade and Camelot being a silly place. Classic :)
I'm talking about somethng as cool as J-Poles and you'll want to talk about my notes...Cool!
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American."
Teddy Roosevelt Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915
I'll wager the hogs BBQ up better than the developers. Although they do call human meat "long pork"......
LOL, I never heard that one.
Long pork - that one is good, I have also heard of 'man corn' when talking about the Anasazis out West.
Also, our convo about hyphenated Americans is completely relevant to something I am reading in Anthro theory. Beyond Culture: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference by Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson. Their argument is that the standard 'this culture goes here' view taken by anthropologists is incorrect in a world that is heavily integrated and inter-mixed. And we need to rethink 'space' and cultural boundaries...they say "Englishness is just as complicated and nearly deterritorialized a notion as Palestinian-ness or Armenian-ness since England refers less to a bounded place than to an imagined state of being or moral location."
But then they go on to note that people are still wrapped up in the idea of nationality, of a homeland...like the ability for politicians to get people worked up by preying on their sense of how things used to be...or the immigrant's continued attachment to 'the old country'.
I can understand the idea of breaking down the traditional boundaries of culture through immigration and people who live on the fence between places, but they seem to be arguing that anthropologists can't specify a place as American or English or whatever...which is kind of dumb.
Anyway, I'm using the quote from Roosevelt that you posted, App...thanks for bringing up points that made me think about my theory stuff in a new way, guys : )
Not a big believer in hyphens myself.
If you need a hyphen to define yourself, then it's too bad you're that insecure.
You're not an Appalachian-American. You're an American. From Appalachia.
I much prefer commas anyway. For example, I am sensible dude, compassionate, only not.
Works much better than hyphenation at providing a complete definition.
I hope you'll had a good Thanksgiving. I can't complain.
My modem went out, and try finding an external dial up modem in a store....Yeah...Anyhow, coverage here at Appalachian Patria will be spotty.
Pisqeak! "thanks for bringing up points that made me think about my theory stuff in a new way, guys : )...This is the South, we say "You'll"...Just kidding.
Hey, Ed! We can call it "Commanation". Whaddayathink?
It is interesting that you quoted a speech by Teddy Roosevelt. I believe that a tremendous effort in the schools and civic life was made about that time to educate the hoards of immigrants coming into the country about what it meant to be an American . . . at the core, it was as important as Roosevelt's words imply that all become Americans and without the hyphen so to speak. I think that is the way I read it. Put another way . . . Army green. Bill
yeah I never got the 'you'll', now I like ya'll, but only when spoken. I have an issue when novels try to convey the Southern accent by using a lot of apostrophes and not completely spelling out words. It generally makes the Southern character seem hokey and contrived. Anyway, I've got my head down for the next two weeks finishing up the last bit of this semester - think good thoughts for me : )
Glad you had a good Thanksgiving and good luck with finding more reliable internet coverage.
Pipsqeak, I suppose that you are right. I do play with words once in a blue...WHaddayathink? Only when I'm in a good mood. It conveys...You pick a word...Sometimes I write as I talk, and then sometimes I write like I'm somebody. I'll think good thoughts for you.
Bill, you said it, Army Green. No other instition melts so many from differnet subcultures so succesfully than the Military. When your family, your family. All differneces aside.
I was or became very proud of that fact . . . I never lost faith that if I were in trouble that the people I worked with would come for me. My recently deceased cousin was a combat medic in Vietnam . . . Richard Ladd in the Au Shau Valley . . . excuse my spelling . . . many helicopters were put down, but they never stopped . . . I am not that brave, but I appreciate those that are . . . at the end of the day we . . . the country will have to be that way . . . it is as hard and as simple as that . . . sorry about the preachin' . . . got to make Obama the best damned President we have ever had . . . . Bill
Didn't mean to include you in my kind of negative assessment which was written at night when I was tired..I think...maybe during the day when I hadn't slept? Anyway..when the Southern vernacular comes out on this blog, it's authentic. In some crappy dime store novel...especially those of the romance variety...it comes out contrived and stereotypical. Kind of like what I am noticing with the dramas on tv now...if there is a religious couple they are all pretty much portrayed as Southern. As if only Southerners can be religious..and its never the feel good religion, its always the 'oh we won't have that surgery because God will take care of us' kind...that just reinforces the idea that Southerners are just a bunch of slow, ignorant folk who don't know nothing about the big city. I like the assessment of the husband from the movie Sweet Home Alabama..'just because I talk slow doesn't mean I'm stupid'
Well, thanks on the comment, Pipsqeak. I did get a taste of what you talked about from some qoutes on Guliyahi's blog from a book published maybe a hundred years ago. (The post about a Bear Hunt). When I read it, I thought of your comment. I've encountered it before, people are misrepresented. I wasn't thinking you were saying anything negative, I was just relating. You don't have a need to apologise, and I hope you get some sleep.
Bill, a good point. We do need to look out for each other. Now, making this man the best President ever, I don't think that is in our hands. He, afterall, as a Senator voted for a bailout none of us wanted. People can get mad at me for saying it, but, I will speak my mind. People can say Clinton, Bush, whatever, but we are only folllowing a trend deeper with each passing President and Congress. I think that is the reality of it. I don't wish him well, as much as I wish our Country well. Not that I don't wish him well.
I don't disagree with you . . . I meant it in the same way the dadgum Seventh Cavalry needed to make Custer the best damned commanding officer it ever had . . . failure is not an option. I am not saying anything bad agin' nobody . . . we as a people need to do better . . . and just be successful at living and protecting ourselves and keeping our families and building our schools and just doin' better . . . gettin' the trees to grow again on the mountains . . . it is like a line from Seven Days of the Condor when the Redford charater says he wants to go home . . . he says he misses it when he has been gone too long. I miss it too. I don't feel comfortable with the selfishness that fills our culture. I'll hush up . . . an old man's memory . . . pass a law making all the damn CEO's, bankers, and developers watch "Its a Wonderful Life."
Bill, I can agree with that. As for A Wonderful Life, politicians ought to be in that mix too.
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