GregKopp.com

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure sto ... Read More »

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, September 22, 2006

Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well.

Today's Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine emperor's remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of Islam and violence:

· In the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims attack seven churches.

· In London, the ever-dependable radical Anjem Choudary tells demonstrators at Westminster Cathedral that the pope is now condemned to death.

· In Mogadishu, Somali religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin calls on Muslims to "hunt down" the pope. The pope not being quite at hand, they do the next best thing: shoot dead, exec ... Read More »

Here is a great statistic to bite into: Cooking four normal sized hamburgers in a fast food joint emits the same amount of VOC's (volatile organic compounds) as driving a current model car for 1,000 miles. (Engelhard) in Hong Kong, "The 9,000 restaurants in HK also contribute to fine particulates and volatile organic substances. Other components of fumes are oils, fats, aliphatic hydrocarbons, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, aldehydes and elemental carbon." (read study here) In New Jersey, 16,000 restaurants release 2,226 tons of particulates, more than all of the heavy diesel vehicles in the state (1,329 tons, Read More »

On Sunday, John Kerry said of Israel's war against Hezbollah, "If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," adding, "we have to destroy Hezbollah."

But wait a minute — Hezbollah didn't attack us on 9/11! Wouldn't fighting Hezbollah distract us from the urgent task of finding Osama bin Laden?

Democrats can't come out and admit that they refuse to fight any war in defense of America, so they utter the "Where's Osama?" incantation to pretend that they'd be doing something. To wit: dedicating the entire resources of the U.S. military to locating Osama bin Laden.

Thus, in the third presidential debate, Kerry complained about the cost of the war in Iraq, saying the war was "the result of this president taking his eye off of Osama bin Laden."

After making the capture of Osama bin Laden their sole objective in the war on terrorism, now Democrats expect us to believe they would have been fighting every other Muslim jihadist on the planet like mad — just not ... Read More »

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He roll ... Read More »

I could then use the styrofoam as a template to cut out the 1/2" plywood subroadbed to match using a jig saw. I designed into the cutout a wider area around each turnout for placing the Tortoise slow motion switch machines. I should have done more research. I assumed that the Atlas code 55 turnouts were operated like the HO turnouts I had years ago, by a hole in the center of the the throwbar between the rails. Oops. The hole for the switch machine actuator is at the ... Read More »

Now that I have my track plan, it was time to get down to actually building this thing. Off to Lowe's for some lumber. The benchwork is constructed of 1x4s glued and screwed. Everything went together fine and I kept making sure everything was square while the glue dried.

Now that the base of the benchwork was built, I decided to use it as a temporary workbench to work on the subroadbed. I cut a piece of styrofoam slightly larger than what I needed and taped my full size track plan to it ... Read More »

After realizing the Atlas code 55 track was the way to go, I redid the layout using the new switches. I also measured some of my existing structure kits and found measurements of kits on the market today and created templates in XTrkCAD so I could easily place them and consider the space needed.

I decided to move the tunnel to the lower left to make room for the right two sidings in the timesaver part of the layout. Then I sketched out a possible plan for the sructures and any roads. I often have a tendency to over plan or under plan a project, and I didn't want this one to be the latter. Many of the plots for structures are taken from DPM kits. I already ... Read More »

What can you possibly do in a 2 ft. x 4 ft. space? Well, quite a bit but not enough, actually.

Scenery has always been one of my passions when it comes to model railroading. It's why I gravitated toward N-scale, I guess. So I knew, that unless I stuck with a simple loop and one or 2 sidings, there was little chance for that "long" tunnel and "towering" mountains.

But I also wanted something that provided more than just a loop of track. I wanted to be able to operate. I use the word operate loosly here, as there is no way I am going to be able to really operate this small railroad in any prototypical fashion, but I at least wanted to have enough sidings and industry where I can do some switching.

I recalled reading an a ... Read More »

I've been an "armchair" model railroader for years. I would read the magazines and have lots of interest, but I haven't gotten around to actually building a layout. For those non-modelers out there, a "layout" is a model railroad, no matter the size. It has track, maybe some buildings, and trains that travel on the track.

When I was a kid, I had a few HO sets. I even had the proverbial 4x8 loop. But how much fun can that be? Well, for a kid, watching the train go round and round can be fun. But as an adult, maybe not so much!

The closest I actually got to a real layout was a 4x6' HO loop with 2 sidings and a tunnel. I got as far as laying down the track and had the fist layer of the scenery shell. I put the hobby aside for a little while. One day, my young (at the time) nephew decided he wanted to test the strength of the mountains, and, well, you can guess the rest.

I've always liked scenery and details, but always wanted more than I had space for. That's whe ... Read More »