Easier To Show Than Tell

I'm familiar with most of this kit from photos and books, but never seen most of them in action.

Pretty neat!

Unpossible!

Once again:

The possession, use, or storage of Weapons or Firearms is strictly prohibited on all [Brown] University Property and at [Brown] University-sponsored events, except as authorized under this policy.

There cannot have been a mass shooting at Brown University because firearm possession, use and storage has been prohibited.

Do not repeat the lies of the mass media.

Or, maybe, just MAYBE, gun free victim zones are the problem and not the guns.

I don't recall any mass shootings since Texas legalized campus carry.

Immutable Characteristics

There's a faction of people who are wanting others to stop discriminating against them for their "immutable characteristics," but are more than happy to condemn "cisgender white men."

You know, discriminating against straight white guy's for their immutable characteristics.

I guess the best thing about being a liberal is getting twice as many standards as everyone else.

Easy!

I dunno why people say opening a can with a P-38 is difficult.  It only took me a moment.

I don't know what everyone complains about.

Where DID All The Money Come From Dan?

It appears that Dan Crenshaw is suing Shawn Ryan for asking how he got so wealthy on his congressional salary.

I find that I want to hear the answer to this question because I know several people who've been working for longer at a congressional pay scale and aren't millionaires.

Almost as if there's something congress creatures get to do that normal people don't.

Not Sure Who's The Problem

I am not sure if it's Blogger or Flickr that's the problem with putting pictures on the blog.

The "by URL" inserter from the WYSIWYG interface barfs on anything bigger than x1024.

It will happily display a linked photo that's much larger if you write your own HTML string.

I am not sure if this is Flickr refusing to parse for the inserter, or the inserter being unable to process larger files before it times out.

Still No Snow

 

A pretty Florida sunset for those trapped above the frost line.

Clearing My Head

Harvey decided she needed some time to herself so I decided to go for a drive.

Five hours later, I am home.

The Beast is just a nice cruiser.

Took some new roads and did some small exploring.

Florida between Crystal River and Chiefland is about as nothing to see as you can get.

Lots and lots of deer.  Paid close attention to that with a foot hovering over the brake. 

Plastic AR Mags Again

Modern Tactical Shooting gives us a bit of history.

No real surprises.

Truism

There's a truism about WW2; "The war was won with British intelligence, American steel and Russian blood."  It's attributed to Stalin himself.

I became aware of this truism from some British subject explaining how us Americans didn't really do much and we shouldn't be saying we won the war.

They refer to WW1 in this light too.

Well, WW1 would probably have ended differently after the collapse of Russia and without the injection of American troops to the Western Front.  Even if the Germans eventually lost, the surrender terms would likely have been a lot less provocative.  Might even have prevented WW2 from happening at all.

But the "American steel" part misses something very important.

American FOOD.

If we'd sat it out completely, England would have starved.  Literally.

I don't believe that the US won the war in Europe single-handedly.  But I do think that the US was instrumental in achieving that victory.

Neither A Hawk Nor A Dove Be

On the topic of war I'm different from a lot of the people I'm reading.

I don't think one should wait until it's too late to start one, but I also don't think it should be the first step of "diplomacy."

I think that if we're going to have a war, we should to it right, follow the rules and have Congress pass a declaration of war.

I also think that the president should have the flexibility to reply to casus belli without waiting for Congress to convene and vote.

But I'm conflicted on the president being able to initiate hostilities.

"But, McThag," I hear some say, "what if a quick, surprise, attack is what's needed?"

I dunno.  That's why I am conflicted.

Considering how often the people who are on the receiving end of those quick, surprise, attacks are not national actors, then I think the old hostis humani generis rules apply.

Wanna drop a JDAM on pirates, slavers or terrorists?  That's executive power and doesn't need Congress to further authorize the force because it's long accepted that such are enemies of humanity.

I'm getting to the point of thinking that non-assimilating, illegal aliens should be added to the list.

It'd be a Hell of an incentive for them to get to be becoming 'Merican.

But if you want to make war on a nation-state, you have to get Congress involved before you start shooting if they aren't actually shooting at you first.

I get conflicted because I can easily see lots of practical problems with following the rules.

However, if war is declared, then WARRE it is!

You get us to the point where we feel the need to get that declaration, your nation becomes an entry in the history books.  Your language, culture and history will be, effectively, erased and you will be replaced by US.  Your nation becomes a territory.  Your people become territorial residents who will now have to assimilate to being Americans; like it or not.  Your grandchildren will not know how to speak your foreign tongue and will not be able conceive of a time where their home state was ever a nation-state.

I'd rather we were a lot friendlier and happier nation than that though.  I prefer mutually beneficial treaties, trade and cultural exchange.

Wiping you off the face of the Earth is the last thing I want us to do... but it IS on the list.

Just sayin'.

To Rail Or Not To Rail

Twilight:2000 happens as some long held paradigms in infantry weapons changed.

The Austrians and British had changed over to bullpup rifles which used magnified optics instead of iron sights.  The Germans were working on a caseless bullpup rifle that used a scope instead of irons.

The US and Canada were slicing the carry handles off their M16 derivatives and replacing them with a rail which wasn't specific to a particular optic.  The US with the, now, ubiquitous Picatinny rail, Canada going with a modification of the ancient Weaver system.  Picatinny is also a modification of the Weaver system, but different from the Canadian version.

It's the slots.  Weaver and Canada use narrower slots (0.180" vs 0.206").  Weaver doesn't specify spacing of the slots, Canada and Picatinny do.

Canada and Picatinny use different spacing (0.394" center to center for Picatinny) with the Canadian system getting 14 slots in the same space as Picatinny getting 13.

This creates some incompatibilities.  Don't get too down on Canada here, they simply licensed an existing Weaver modification from A.R.M.S. mere months before the Picatinny rail was developed and NATO adopted it.

Anything designed for a Weaver base will fit both.

Anything designed for a Canadian rail will fit a Picatinny rail.

Some things designed for a Picatinny rail will fit on a Weaver or Canadian rail.  Trial and error here.

And then there's the Soviets and Warsaw Pact...

Nominally there are two standard side-rails for their weapons.  The AK pattern and the SVD pattern.

The same scope can be found with either mounting style.  Except for the mounting, they are identical.

Later scopes, outside the scope (pun) of T2K have a mounting system that can used with both style of rails.

I've Said It Before

Dear YouTubers, especially GunTubers...

Tell me what you're going to say.

Say it.

Tell me what you just said.

Don't ramble on for 1/3 of the video with the justification for what you're about say.

Justfication comes after your statement, to support it, not before.

Take a couple classes on public speaking at the local community college!

Lemme Check

Ilhan Omar thinks we should have Federal gun registration.

Yeah, right.  Let's ignore that the number of firearms is increasing steadily and the rate of crime done with them is falling.

As Fuddbusters points out, let's say the, ever efficient, Feral Gubmint can register a gun a minute.

There's 637 to 985 million firearms out there to register!

At one a minute...  1,215.28 to 1,897.2 years.

This assumes 100% compliance, and even traditionally polite and law-abiding Canada can't get that!

We're also seeing the effects of giving up personal arms in places like Great Britain.

Compliance is gonna be low.

Even saying, "we're gonna register all the new guns and not worry about the almost a billion already out there!" adds 47.7 years of registration at one gun a minute every year for the 25 million guns added to the supply.

I think they can record and register the new guns a lot faster than one a minute.

It's possible to register all the new guns.

It's not possible to account for all the existing guns.

When a gun is damaged beyond repair, there's no requirement to tell anyone about it.  Some simple precautions and it's in the scrap bin.

Ten years later, what gun?

The non-compliant will simply say they had the proverbial boating accident and without a search of their residence you don't know if they're lying.  You can't know!

This also assumes they hid it IN their residence to be found during a search too.

I think your average clumsy boater is smart enough to cache their accidentally lost guns off site.

Home Depot sells everything you need to hide a gun for decades.

America Dammit

I have long held to the belief that if you intend to live someplace you should join the citizenry.

I did not move to Florida and subject them to my Iowa ways.  I attempted to act like them not force them to act like me.

I remember why I left Iowa.  Why would I want to bring that with me?

Admittedly, it's a smaller move to change from one region of the US to another, but it was a change.

Floridians chafe at New Yorker's constant bitching about how things are better in New Fucking York.

Explain, again, why the fuck you're here, again?

I mean if Florida sucks and you're unhappy here, why don't you just return to the land of good bagels and pizza?

They've forgotten why they left.

Yet, they're still Americans.  Fellow citizens.

The problem is that people who aren't Americans are living here without a plan to become Americans.

This was not true of the other mass immigrations to the US.

The Swedes, Germans, Irish and Italians who came here and manifest destinied the shit out of The West were already most of the way to being Americans because there was, like, an 80% overlap between American and anyone from Western Civilization.  Much of the gap was eliminated through learning English.

There were large enclaves of these immigrants where, if they didn't assimilate, they did not leave without harassment.  Literal ghettos used to force assimilation.

My great grandfather and grandfather on Mom's side both experienced what would be called racism if we accepted Italian as being racist.  My mother and I experienced no such prejudice.  My grampa assimilated.

The present problem is Mexicans and South Americans are present in large enough numbers that their enclaves don't resemble ghettos but colonies.  Somalians are definitely running a colonial model.

We're paying them to do it.

At least Latinos are from Western Civ, but their flavor has less overlap with American thanks to growing up under less than Western Civ governments.  It wouldn't really take a strong effort to get them to assimilate.

Somalis aren't from Western Civ and would take a lot more effort to get them assimilate.

I'm not opposed to the effort, but any refusal to assimilation should be accompanied with a deportation.

Islam may, ultimately, be incompatible with Western Civ and being American.

American includes religious freedom that's anathema to Sharia.

Sharia and the Bill of Rights have a lot of conflict too.

Conflict that, if it proves irreconcilable, means they will not be assimilated and if they cannot or will not, need to find someplace else to live.

I am not the only person who marvels that not a single Moslem refugee population has taken refuge in an Islamic country.

I am increasingly convinced it is not emigration or refuge they seek, but conquest.  Colonization.

They mean to subjugate The West.

I hope to fight it, being of The West, I have much to lose.

My Wallet My Choice

When women have 100% the choice about whether they get or stay pregnant, they don't get to claim any right to the father's money.

Their body, their choice.

They choose poorly, to Hell with them!

Enshrined in law is:

Both parents don't want a kid, kid can be aborted or given up for adoption.

Both parents want a kid, no problem, they get down to the job of being parents.

Mom doesn't want a kid, Dad does.  Mom can get an abortion or give the kid up for adoption without any recourse for Dad.

Dad doesn't want a kid, Mom does.  Mom carries to term and gets The State to take money away from him.  Again, Dad has little to no recourse if his genes match the kid's.

Since Mom gets to make the decision about having a kid, I don't see how any father is responsible unless he volunteers for the job.

No rights = No responsibilities.

Worse, Mom can completely eliminate Dad from the raising of the children while simultaneously demanding child support.  He gets no visitation, no say in how they are raised or educated.  He's just financially responsible.

So, girls, if you want men to assume duties, you have to give them rights.

It should be our bodies, our choices.

And, although it's a staid position, maybe consider aspirin held between the knees for birth control until you're in a loving, lasting relationship where the kids will have two parents who agree on it.

PS: Before you comment, this is not the place to have a debate about the morality of abortion.  If you try, your comment gets deleted and I will call you a mouthbreathing Walz.

Lightning Link

Dun dun dun!

Legally, that's a machine gun and if you didn't spend $200 and get one made, and registered, before May 19, 1986; you're breaking the law.

So...

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME IN THE REAL WORLD!

But we're talking about GURPS and Twilight: 2000 where the government has, largely, collapsed and even where it hasn't little to no effort is given to gun control.

To make one you need Armoury/TL7 (Small Arms).  A successful roll gets you one that converts most semi-auto AR-15's to full-auto only.  Change Rof from 3 to 13!.  Also change malf to 16.

A critical success means you don't have to change the malf.

You can also eliminate the malf penalty by fitting the link to the gun, Armoury/TL7 (Small Arms) -5, or by spending the extra time during manufacture to create a fine (reliable) version.

$50, neg. for Malf 16 version.

$100, neg. for Malf 17 version.

$250, neg. no Malf version.

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!

Quoted For Truth

"If you look at my characters, you will find me.  No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there."

-Jack Kirby

I've only made characters for role playing games and some amateur science fiction, but it's true.  You put yourself in your creations and there's always a little reflection that someone might spot.

Just An Engine

I watched a few of the training films that are out there on YouTube for WW2 aircraft showing how to start the engine.

I don't know why I'm surprised that everything I did to start my car in winter in Iowa before computers ran everything is stuff you do when cold starting a P-47.

The big difference is there's no spring returning the throttle to idle and the throttle is hand controlled not foot.  Oh, and an airplane has manual mixture control.

Otherwise, just your standard 4-stroke gas engine.

But it is kinda funny watching the instructor wiggling the throttle lever to "feather it" like I would tickle the pedal to get it to catch when it hasn't quite started.

Just For Fun

 Having a can opener on your Swiss army knife and USING the can opener on your Swiss army knife are different things.

It still kind of surprises me how fast and easy the knife's opener is.

 

Shoulda Written It Down

While thinking about Twilight: 2000, I came up with a really good campaign idea for once things return stateside.

Now I cannot recall what I'd come up with.

I don't even have the excuse of not having a place to have recorded it because I was typing out shit for the equipment list.

Most times, these ideas come back. 

They're Minerals Marie!

Lego Mineral collection.

Top row, L to R: Pyrite, Amethyst, Flourite.
Bottom row, L to R: Watermelon Tourmaline, Rhodochrosite, Tangerine Quartz

Remarkably complex and difficult builds.

 

How To Be Succinct

Modular weapons are a pain to express clearly in GURPS.

A flat top AR has no rear sight.

What's the Acc of a rifle without a rear sight?

I have decided that it's 0.

A rear sight also adds weight to the rifle, so I've shown it without the weight of a rear sight and a note on the weapons table, "Acc 0 without rear sight or optic. No iron sights while an optic is mounted."

Then I listed the detachable carry handle on the table, and a common, issue, optic.

Clear and succinct.

It's important, I've found to be so because you need to waterboard most players before they read the descriptions.

I Would Have Mentioned It But...

I would have mentioned the anniversary end of Prohibition 92 years ago on Friday, but I was busy drinking.

Waking The Sleeping Dragon

Today is Pearl Harbor Day.

84 years since The Empire of Japan opened hostilities against the US and touched the boats.

NEVER.

TOUCH.

THE.

BOATS!

Cue the Beatles... Abbey Road, side 2, song 1.

No New Information

It's an OK summation of the entire InRange saga.

 

The Tall Hog

In one of my nexus worlds I had a barbeque place called The Tall Hog.

It was popular with the Orc and Goblinoid crowd.

Because of this, it was also a "rough" place.

I don't recall any player character trying it out.

The Tall Hog specialized in serving people meat, it's a play on long pig.

Because the nexus was pure Barter Town, there were very few rules, but you could be assured that the "livestock" was not murdered in the nexus itself.  I didn't go into how they sourced their meat.

I had not actually decided!

But I found a note today that suggested that they were serving pork and it was all false advertising!

But I still regret never being able to do the scene where the players have figured out that Soylent Green IS People and the "Try The GIANT Burger" sign doesn't mean a bigger burger. 

This is the same nexus where I had a seafood place where the owner/proprietor/entire staff was a group mind of, what looked to be, Christmas Island red crabs.

It had a diving board above the cook-pot and an individual crab would make a great show of diving in to be cooked and served. 

Happy Independence Day Finland!

108 years ago Finland decided to stop being part of Russia and declined it's first invitation to be part of the Soviet Union.

RIP

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has passed to the actors home in the sky.

His career had some surprising turns for me.

G41? What Happened To The G36?

The G41 was a program that West Germany launched when the G11 program was showing all the signs of being an epic failure.

It's basically an HK33 that uses a normal STANAG magazine.

In the real world the end of the cold war killed the G11 project and German reunification delayed adoption of a 5.56 rifle for a few years; culminating in the G36.

In T2K, the G11's problems were solved, but it was still expensive, so the G41 was adopted as a secondary standard.

History Of Minutia

I'm having trouble finding the introduction dates for the folding backup iron sights the military issues.

I am thinking I will have to revise my T2K list, again, and make the detachable carry handle the default BUIS.

This is not to say that such sights weren't available, they just weren't issued.

I think that ARMS #40 was around in time for Twilight, but I am not certain.

Surplus And The M16EZ

Who offers the M16EZ to local governments?

I think the original game got it upside down.

But it depends on who controls the depots and the surplus.

If MilGov is offering worn parts as a kit to help local governments obtain fighting arms, that implies that CivGov controls the warehouses and depots where, literal, mountains of surplus small arms are stored.

I am thinking, in the T2K universe, that because The Cold War kept going, politics in the USA didn't go the same as our timeline.  That means no Kap'n Krunch destroying mountains of M16A1's which makes them available to hand out as government aid.

That makes me wonder if the M16EZ or LMR projects are needed unless MilGov doesn't have access to the depots where the M16A1's are stored.

The LMR is a fun gun for a player to end up with.

The big question is if the LMR barrels for T2K are 1:12 or 1:7? 

Something I just noticed from Forgotten Weapons posting of the LMR's manual is that it takes the M14 rifle's M6 bayonet not the M16's M7 (or M9 or OKW 3S)! 

9/- To 13

You find yourself in Poland, near Kalisz, in the year 2000 and your commander has just said, "Good luck, you're on your own," just before a big explosion takes out the TOC...

After a few days of dodging Soviets and marauders you decide you're fed up with the 3-round burst mode of your M4.

You remember your dad talking about how they got authorization, during the Gulf War to "bend" something in the fire control parts that disabled the burst and allowing full-auto fire.

What are you going to bend?

Well, dad doesn't know the whole story.

The fast way to remove the burst mode is to remove the burst interrupter, but that will let the normal interrupter to slide too far left to right in the trough in the trigger, giving a Malf of 16 in full auto fire.

Inserting a spacer the same thickness as the burst interrupter solves this issue.

If you're never going to put the 3-round back in, you can use the burst interrupter as the spacer by simply filing off both hooks.

Knowing this and doing this is Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms).  If you don't have this skill, the default is Engineering/TL8 (Small Arms) -5 or Guns/TL8 (Rifle) -5.

But there's another way!

If there's an M16, M16A1, M4A1, C7, C8, C8A1, or L119A1 laying around that's deadlined for some reason besides the fire control group; you swap all the trigger and hammer parts between them and et voila!

This will give a +3 to your Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) roll because it's so much simpler. 

Please note that none of this will change a semi-automatic civilian version of an AR to a select fire weapon.

For that you need to do some drilling (and machining with some lower receivers).  That's an Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) roll at -2 because of the precision required in modifying the lower receiver.  Then you toss the semi-auto hammer-trigger-sear parts and plop in the full-auto or burst parts.

Even if you make a drop-in auto-sear with an Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) you're still going to need the full-auto or burst parts.

Changing semi-auto parts into full auto parts requires adding material to the parts and some finesse.  Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) -5 and appropriate tools are required.

Neutering full auto parts to delete select fire is Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) +5.

Doing all of this legally...  If you already own a legally registered machine gun, you can swap parts to your heart's content.

If you don't have a legally owned machinegun, the police will want to have a chat and you will be booking a room in one of the worst hotels on the planet for an extended stay.

In the world of Twilight: 2000, all bets are off!  There's a slim chance of coming back under control of the chain of command who will object to modifications you've made to your issued weapon.

M16 Eh

Canada, when they changed to 5.56 NATO from 7.62 NATO in 1984 followed the US' lead and went with an M16 variant.

The C7 is very much like the M16A2 except they kept the rear sight and full-auto from the M16A1.

Also, like the United States, in 1994 they adopted a carbine version of their rifle.

The fixed rear sight C8 and the flat-top C8A1.  The C8A1 got issued with an Elcan C79 3.4x optic.

Interestingly, the flat-top C7A1 rifle wasn't issued until 2005!  Too late for T2K.

I've made amendments... again.

M16A4 T2K

While the M4 carbine is the official service rifle for the US Army in Twilight: 2000 as well as the real world...

The M4 RAS doesn't happen in time and the SOCOM barrel is not standard.

Stats for this are easy because High Tech lists it in this original configuration.

The GURPS stats include the detachable carry handle...  7.3 lb. as listed.  But the Army went with the Matech rear sight, which is lighter.  7 lb. with oval handguards, BUIS and no optics.

The listed weight for the M16A4 is all wrong though.

Without the M5 RAS handguards and with A2 handguards and a detachable carry handle it should come to 8.8 lb.  With the Matech sight, 8.5 lb., with the KAC 600m sight, 8.4 lb.

While not period correct for Twilight: 2000, an M16A4 with the M5 RAS, detachable handle, some grip panels and vertical grip, 9.6 lb.  With Matech rear sight, 9.3 lb.  With KAC 600m rear sight 9.2 lb.

They even get the M16A2 weights wrong with the oft-quoted 8.9 lb.  I get 8.4 lb.

All fixed now!

All weights include a bog standard, green follower, gray aluminum body USGI 30-round magazine, because Magpul isn't around for T2K.

Ayup

 

 Grady Judd gives the best press conferences.

No I Think Not

I went to vote for the Gundie Awards and encountered a problem:

To vote you have to accept their spam.

Fuck that.

I already delete about 200 emails from places I've done business with already and I don't want more.

Never mind the idea that there's terms and conditions to an internet popularity contest that's binding on the voters.  Even more "fun" is the terms and conditions has links to the subsections with their own terms and conditions.  You have to click to three levels on one to get the whole thing you're agreeing to.

Reminder To Stay Heads Up And Awake

 

Rosebud Massacre

Since I've made him a character in my scribbles, I've been reading about George Crook.

In particular the battle of the Rosebud.

This is where General Crook learned that the northern plains Indians fought a little differently from the Apache and Northwest Indians he'd been accustomed to.

But part of that difference was from a change in how the Sioux and Cheyenne were dealing with Whites.

They'd gotten new leaders who were aggressive, take-the-fight-to-the-enemy types.

And they took the fight to Crook at Rosebud creek.

I've read several accounts of that fight and the worst I can call it for Crook is a draw.

The outcome of the battle was not decisive for either side, but it did fix Crook in one spot for  

Both sides apparently fought until ammunition levels were getting critical and the Sioux withdrew.  Crook then sent riders to his supply dump and withdrew to a better position until fresh supplies arrived.

Those supplies did not arrive until after Col. Custer had met his fate.

Something I've not seen mentioned is I think the Indians had something of an after action review of the Rosebud battle and did a "this worked, this didn't" kind of analysis and applied it to the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

I think some historians forget that Indians are people too and capable of learning and changing their approaches to problems.

I also think a lot of historians keep missing that Rosebud and Little Big Horn are separated by about a week and how long it takes to move a supplies when it's carried by wagon or mule (or how far a wagon or mule can go in a day).

Someone mentioned that the pros study logistics, some obscure general I think. 

I have also noticed that George Crook was an unpopular officer with his contemporaries who really only kept his job by being relentlessly successful...  Until Rosebud.

There's a lot to unpack about the man, but history is written from what people wrote about someone and those someones hate you... 

Is The Extra Length Worth It

Since I have T2K on the brain, I was wondering if it was better to take an M4 or and M16A4.

Both guns are different from the present day's versions.

No RAS on either.

Both accept the same optics.

The M4 will have the earlier lighter barrel.

The M4 loses a bit of damage vs the A4.  4d+2 pi vs 5d pi.  That's 4-26 avg 16 against 5-30 avg 17.5.

The M4 loses some reach.  750/2,900 vs 800/3,500.

The M4 is lighter.  7.3 lb. vs 8.9 lb.

The M4 has less Bulk.  4 vs 5.

The M4 costs more.  $950 vs $850.

So the M4 does 91% the average damage per shot at 94%/83% the range for 82% the mass for 80% the bulk for 112% the money.

Looks like the M4 wins the min/max fight with the M16A4.

Keeping Up To Date

The M16A4 normally has a vertical grip.

I don't care for it, but...

It's not clone correct, but I'm OK with a representative example of the breed.

It's interesting to me that three companies still make the M5 RAS and none of them sell them to the unwashed public.

Tells

How can you tell someone is a bigot about straight white shit?

The word "cisnormative" comes up a lot.  Said with all the tone and bile of a Klansman saying CENSORED.

The assumption that biological sex and gender being aligned is the default state.

That belies any statement of understanding.

Cisnormative white men deserve the bad things that happen to them because of their moral corruption.

Cisnormative white men are The Other.

The Other are not people, so they get to treat them as less than people.

Don't like me pointing out your bigotry?

Tough shit.

A real tell is the screaming that someone who's cisnormative can't speak about any situation where LGBT folks are involved, but they sure as fuck can speak about any situation where cisnormal white men are.

Even if speaking in favor of the LGBT folks!

Tells

How can you tell someone is a bigot about LGBT shit?

The word "degenerate" comes up a lot.

Morally corrupt and given to vice.

That belies any statement of mental illness and compassion for the sufferer.

Degenerates deserve the bad things that happen to them because of their moral corruption.

Degenerates are The Other.

The Other are not people, so they get to treat them as less than people.

It's their invisible friend in the driver's seat and in a nation with religious freedom, PEOPLE are free to ignore the diktats and dictates of other people's invisible friends.

Don't like me pointing out your bigotry?

Tough shit.

By the way, I've read the book attributed to your invisible friend and you idiots are completely misreading the section on pederasty and applying to homosexuality.  The gay sex part is pretty mild.

But even accepting your invisible friend says no butt stuff, there's not a word about being generally weird.

And the constant mention of LARP and Furry says, to me, that the real issue isn't the buttsects but the being strange or different.

New To Me

Andre Norton wrote a book, "Star Rangers."

I read it in junior high.

I recognize the cover of the copy I got from ebay.

I remember a line or two, here and there.

But the book was as if I'd never read it.

If you wait four decades before you re-read it, it's gonna be fresh again!

Huzzah!

There's a second book set in the same universe, "Star Guard," that came in the same clump of Andre Norton books that I got "Star Rangers" with.  I only found out about "Star Guard" when I started looking around for "Star Rangers.

Looking forward to reading it! 

This Is The End

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is over.

It's been effectively over for some time as the weather cooperated and didn't spin up the normal Caribbean and Gulf storms in the latter half of the season.

The December 2024 prediction was 15 named storms, 7 hurricanes (3 being major).

The June 2025 prediction, as the season was starting was 17-9-4.

What we got was 13-5-4; and just one that was really bad.

Fish storms were the norm this year.

I'll take it. 

Littered About

Still thinking about the world of Twilight: 2000 and things that I never considered back in 1985 when I first got the game and started playing.

We didn't do mines, so there were no minefields.  There should have been.  There should, at least, be signage indicating minefields, even if they are fake, just to keep some of the marauders out of the crops.

Unexploded ordnance would be everywhere.  The T2K world exists before agreements about cluster munitions were signed and Soviet bomblets had a depressingly high percentage that didn't go off on impact as intended.

Because of marauders and how the militaries generally treated the civilian populations, they should be a lot more hostile to the party escaping Kalisz.  It makes me wonder if a re-writing The Seven Samurai for T2K would work...  No, I don't wonder, it'd work great!  The big question is whether the players would be the Samurai or the bandits.  It works great both ways.

Because the characters are soldiers and the equipment list is, essentially, a weapons list; two big things get missed.

The Battle of Kalisz is the end of the war.  The party runs for it, but the battle ends with both sides basically wiping each other out.  WW3 is over except for the mopping up.

Because the war is over, they can participate in the rebuilding of society and having a part in how that proceeds.  They can settle.  They can try to get home.  They can be part of a local warlord or town becoming a government or nation.

The vistas are wider than I would have imagined in 1985 when the Soviet Union was just a solid as the West and NATO. 

Ewwwwwww You Check

Holdout is the GURPS skill that allows you to conceal things on your person.

A medieval crossbow is a -6 penalty to your holdout skill.

Being naked is a -7 penalty to your holdout skill.

That this means is a normally clothed person has an extremely good chance (74%) of concealing a crossbow on their person with a skill of 18.

It also means that a naked person with a skill of 18 has a chance at all (a bit less than 5%). 

Odd Solution

I wanted to post a picture to Facebook, but my phone doesn't have the login.

How do I get it to my laptop? 

The phone, which took the picture, does have my Google Chat login.

So send the picture to Marv, copy it from the message, paste to Facebook.

Voila!

The thread on Facebook was about a man over 50 being required to carry a knife in their pocket and getting bonus points if you can use it to open a can or bottle.

I have used that can opener to open cans and it mystifies some people. 

Matches My Research

Thanksgiving post at ¡No Pasarán!

My research has led to some awkward conversations with my Blackfoot wife, Harvey.

Nobody wants their ancestors to be the baddies.

This research has made it exceedingly difficult to make progress with my little Sabers and Sorcerers story because all the bad shit I'd planned for the Googoo to do to show how baddie they are...  The Sioux did in real history!

Never mind the Sioux crossing to the alternate Earth, Maka Tanka, and doing unto the Googoo what white gold prospectors and the US government did to the Sioux in the Black Hills.  For the Sioux it's kind of a repeat because they'd already done it to the Cheyenne and Pawnee.

SIGH

Encumbrance

Thinking about sidearms reminded me of something that has failed in many game rule sets.

The encumbrance rules almost always just track the weight or mass of what the character is carrying and not the bulk.

The first time it came to a head was when I tried to railroad a player's character into being captured via their weapon, an M16A2, jamming in Twilight: 2000.

This gambit failed because they had enough encumbrance to have been lugging FOUR M16A2'a around with them.

I've carried four of those things around before, and you're not going to be very tactical while doing so.

Even slinging three of them across your back doesn't really get them out of the way.

There's nothing in GURPS that reflects the tanglefoot contraption that is a Stewart saber hanger.

This doesn't interfere while mounted, but even then you're supposed to unclip it from the chaff and attach it to the saddle in front of your left knee.

But even clipping the sword higher doesn't keep the bottom of the scabbard off the ground.

The rules don't account for this and a GM would have to do what I did and try to walk around wearing one to see what's wrong.

The rules also don't account for about 1/3 of those rounds being really hard to reach and half of them can't be reached unless you change hands.

Encumbrance does not GURPS.

Sidearm

A thread about swords on Arfcom got me thinking...

Swords are sidearms, not primary weapons most of the time.  It's the weapon you pull when your main weapon goes tits up.

It's a weapon to show your status.

That's not how most of us gamers did it most of the time...

When we did, however, we hardly ever had cause to use them.

I've got so many character sheets that have secondary weapons that I never used.

Not a sword when I had a polearm.

Not a pistol when I had a rifle.

But...  You never knew when the GM would decide to break your main weapon and better to have it and not need it that to need it and not have it.

Where have I heard that before?

Figured Something Out

Flickr adds a lot of extraneous stuff onto the end of the image links.

The full size photo link is:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54825718145_1d2ce9b74d_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDgyNTcxODE0NSwiZSI6MTc2NDMxNjI1NywicyI6ImEzMWJjY2EwZTE3NmRhMWI0ZGUxZmJhYTk5OGEwOTExMGE4MjJlMTUiLCJ2IjoxfQ

Won't work to insert an image using the URL link with Blogger.  You have to trim it down to: 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54825718145_1d2ce9b74d_o.jpg

Even that doesn't always work...  But selecting the 1024 image often does...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54825718145_5ff00e1a42_b.jpg

Manually copying the HMTL code always works!  This is that overlong string.

The links are good, but Blogger refuses to fix their "what you see is what you get" editor.

Shiny Let's Be Badguys

It's recently come to my attention that Pam Bondi's office thinks that SBRs are just for criminals.

What a waste of $600 on tax stamps and being all law abiding and shit.

I guess I'm just a very odd criminal that lets the government know what I'm doing...

Not so odd in putting my "crime" on the internet.  I've seen many real criminals do that.

Itch Fully Scratched

There's a local gun shop that's doing door-buster Black Friday deals.

Among them are $99 Glocks.

Besides not being willing to engage in hand to hand combat to get close enough to the door when they open to snag one before they sell out...

My Glock itch is fully scratched.

The Glock 21 is my lesson to not trade off a gun for stupid reasons.

The two Glock 17's are nostalgia purchases to fill the holes left by my first two Gen1's.

The Glock 45 is my "modern" Glock, which I mainly got because Glock offered Blue Label guns to veterans.

S&W M&P are my plastic fantastics of choice.

Deviled Egg Salad

The Lovely Harvey makes deviled eggs for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Far more often she makes egg salad.

She put the halves of the whites in the holder and started mixing up the yolks with the deviled egg ingredients.

Turns out there's a lot of overlap between what goes into egg salad and deviled eggs and while on autopilot she can add the stuff that's outside the overlap.

Like the dill relish.

Good news!  If you've made this mistake, chop up the whites and mix with the yolk concoction and you've got egg salad!

Bad news!  It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and someone (me) needs to hit the grocery store for eggs.

Happily, everyone was focused and cheerful at Publix and the only thing the employees said was in short supply was gravy from the deli.

I got eggs, beer, chips and some Pubsubs with little drama.

Something To Remember

The entire world was on the gold standard in the 16th and 17th centuries.

One of the reasons for the golden age of piracy was the massive devaluation of gold thanks to Spain massively increasing the supply of available gold in Europe because they were moving it from the new world.

It's a great example of how even gold can have inflation.

It seems unlikely that we're going to find a massive enough amount of gold to cause it to devalue like when Spain toppled all those kingdoms in the new world, but Elon is still working on super heavy launchers.

Who knows what's in the asteroids?

I'm Gonna Save Y'all 22 Minutes.

Got a link to this video in the comments.

It's 22 minutes of, basically, repeating the same thing over and over about each of the bad brands.  Tedious delivery of good advice.

The bad brands listed are:

#11 Safeway
#10 7-Eleven
#9 Sam's Club
#8 Circle K
#7 Murphy USA
#6 Speedway
#5 Love's Travel Stops
#4 Amoco
#3 Pilot Flying J
#2 Sunoco Regular Grade
#1 Unnamed bulk suppliers, very unhelpful inclusion

Good brands: 

#5 Chevron with Techron

#4 Shell

#3 Exxon Mobil

#2 Costco

#1 BP-Amoco Ultimate (Isn't it odd that Amoco is the #4 worst, but this sub-brand is excellent?)

I'm a devotee of the Top-Tier Brands, so this wasn't a shock to me.

The Lovely Harvey did an, unplanned, experiment with our 2002 Civic and got it to run like garbage because she'd fill up at the closest, handiest place like she had to WALK to get gas and carry it in red Solo cups.  The car got carbon build up something fierce and we managed to correct it by putting Sea-Foam in the tank for several tanks. 

I've two friends with Corvettes and both buy gas from 7-Eleven and it makes me twitch every time they get gas.

The local Shell stations are on my shit list.  They're normally 5-10 cents more per gallon anyways, and they ALWAYS charge 10 cents more to pay at pump.  Worse, their loyalty rewards program changed from 5 cents to 3 cents.

A nearby 7-Eleven, though, has Mobil gas and doesn't play games with the prices. 

Brace For Impact

Something else that encourages bigger houses in my area is the impact fee.

This is a charge on new-build houses that's supposed to go towards the infrastructure to support the new housing developments.

Finding out exactly how much this is in my area has defied a simple search, but a couple of sites are saying $13,500 to $20,000 per home.  The variation is based on the exact parcel and is not changed by making the house larger or smaller.

If we assume $150 per square foot for a new house...  My house, plus garage and porches, is about $240k new built; but it has the same impact fee as a house twice the size.

Would you rather pay a 10% fee or a 5% fee?

But, since the fees are assessed to the builders and developers before construction begins it trends to fewer lots and larger houses so as to make the fee a smaller portion of the cost of construction. 

Compression

Accidentally stumbled upon something interesting...

2011 to 2013 Caprice PPV fuel recommendation is 87 octane.

2014 to 2017 Caprice PPV fuel recommendation for V8 engines is premium 91 octane.

From what I've been reading the fuel tables are the same for all years.

The engines are mechanically identical.

I think they use the same PCM. 

My "runs smoother" feeling seems to have some empirical basis to it.

Supply And Demand That's It

If something is too expensive you have two choices to make it cheaper:  Increase the supply or reduce the demand.

Considering that an increasing price is the invisible hand pushing on demand... you really only have one choice.

It's super simple in theory and ultimately, everything in practice will boil down to supply and demand.

Another part of this bedrock is "scarcity" which is Econ 101 for "finite" or "there's only so much of something to go around at any given time."

And we keep talking about "affordable" housing.

How do you make it cheaper?

Make more houses seems the obvious answer.

Well, you cannot build a house like mine in my county any more.

The minimum lot size is now 10,000 sq ft.

Mines just under 5,500.

So we already have decided to have fewer houses in the same area.

The max footprint of the house cannot exceed 40% of the lot's, and my little place is just 30%.

There's not a damn thing wrong with my old house for a single family.  I know this because we ARE a single family and we're doing fine.

My county appears to be addressing the housing "shortage" not by making smaller lots with smaller houses, but by making much bigger buildings and MUCH smaller dwellings.

Apartment complexes.

It's like they don't want people to own a home.

Critical Hits

In GURPS on the critical hit table you roll 3d after getting a critical hit; which is making the roll by 10 or more or rolling a natural 3 or 4.

Results 3 and 18 do triple damage.

Results 5 and 16 do double damage.

Results 6 and 15 do maximum normal damage. 

Any of these results explain Charlie Kirk's injuries and rapid death following the shot.

The problem is the critical hit itself.

It would mean that the shooter was aiming for the neck.

That doesn't taste right and that's why I didn't calculate the values.

Aiming for the skull or heart make more sense, especially if the shooter learned to shoot via hunting.

Visualizing

I was talking with Harvey about my Will it GURPS of the Kennedy assassination and she asked if the shot was really hard or not.

One thing I expressed was the distances weren't terribly long for a rifle.

I reminded her of the time we spent on a 100 yard range once and said, "that's as far away as Kennedy ever got from Oswald."

She said, "that was pretty long..."

I replied, "But did I have any trouble hitting with my Springfield?"

"Oh!" she said.

The difference in elevation and the movement of the car are complications, but not insurmountable ones.

It's moderately difficult, not impossible.

It is within the skill set of most hunters.

Understanding The Rat Rod

I washed and waxed The Beast in preparation for a car show at a favorite local brewery.

A Caprice PPV is NOT a small car.

I am gaining an understanding in why rat rods are getting some traction in the hot-rodding hobby.

When it's got "patina" you don't have to do near as good a job washing.  Plus, "Wax?  What is wax?"

Well, I've got a minimum of "patina" and rust spots on it and I want it to stay that way!

So, it's washed and waxed.

I even have windshield wipers and a headliner!  David Freiburger can't say that about a lot of his cars!

Shooting Mr Connally With Standard Assumptions

An M91/38 carbine does 5d pi.  That is 5-30 points of damage (17.5 average) with ball ammo to the body.

The second shot hits Kennedy in the back, exits the front and hits Connally in the back, exits the front and hits his wrist (hand location for GURPS).

Using the standard Overpenetration rules on page B408, a person provides a DR of what ever DR they're wearing on each side penetrated and their hit points.

So a person wearing DR 3 front and back with a ST of 12 will provide DR 18 for the person standing behind them; or in front if them if shot in the back.

Kennedy is not wearing armor, and we're assuming his frail condition leaves him 10 hit points; so he's DR 10 for Connally.

Connally's torso is DR 10 to protect his wrist.

So, as before; 23 points of damage will penetrate both Kennedy and Connally's torsos and do enough damage to cripple the hand and cause Connally to drop his hat.

The difference is Kennedy takes 23 points of damage to the torso this time.  Then Connally takes 13 to the torso and then 3 to the hand.

So Kennedy will need a consciousness roll (which he makes because he's holding his throat when round number 3 hits him in the skull) and will need a death roll (which he also appears to make).  The 60 that we assigned to the skull brings him to -73 hit points.  -50 is auto death.

Connally needs two consciousness rolls (he makes both) and will not need a death roll because he's only at -6 HP.

The Kennedy Assassination still GURPS.

Update:  Alternate rules interpretation:

One could take the position that you roll the 5d pi damage for every thing in the path of the bullet and subtract the DR of the intervening cover each time.

So Kennedy just needs to take more than HP worth of damage to allow the round to hit Connally and then Connally has to take more than HP worth of damage to get to the hand and that just needs 3 points to cripple it, and 5 is the minimum.

Shut Up The Shooter Explained

Charlie Kirk was struck in the neck by a .30-06 round.

.30-06 will do 7d+1 pi damage.  Hollow point or soft-tip ammo will do 7d+1(0.5) pi+ damage.

If you use the Bleeding and Body Hits rules as I did in the Kennedy assassination write up, the max damage you can do is equal to the hit points, the rest carries on to whatever is behind them.

The neck is the same as the body for piercing attacks.

So...

Ball round will do 8 to 43 points of damage (25 on average).  Hollow point will do 10 to 63 (36 on average).

If Mr Kirk had 11 Hit Points (he was stocky, so maybe)...

Standard rules:  Average ball round will get a consciousness roll and a death roll.  Average hollow point will get a consciousness roll and two death rolls.

Optional rules:  Average ball hit will do 11 points of damage and get a consciousness roll and a -5 to the Health roll for bleeding.  Hollow point will also do 11 points of damage, but get a consciousness roll and -7 on the HT roll for bleeding.  With a HT of 11 that's a 6 or less to prevent 1 HP of damage every minute with a ball round or 4 or less to prevent that loss with a hollow point.

Using the standard rules, it GURPS.

Using the, optional, Body Hits rules with bleeding does not.

Getting Organized

For some reason I was not putting the ammo I've been buying into the clearly marked ammo cans I have just for storing ammunition in a manner that lets me find it when I want it.

That means four boxes of .30-06 and ten of M193 have moved from a shelf NEAR the safe to the cans labeled for them.

I think some of the M193 is from last year's Ammo Day too.

From The Grassy Knoll I Shoot At Thee

Assuming Oswald makes the relatively simple shot...

-7 for the skull.

+4 for Acc for aiming.

+1 for braced.

40 yards for the first shot, (-10 for elevation) effectively 30.  -7 for range.

The 20 yards per second speed of the limo adds to the range making it 50 yards, effectively, and -8 to hit.

-10 to hit, this is the shot that missed!  He'd need a skill of, at least, 13 to get a roll at all.

70 yards for the second shot.  90 for the third.  Very little lateral movement from vehicle speed.

-9 for the second shot and -10 for the third.

-7 to hit the skull.

+4 for Acc for aiming.

+1 for braced.

-11 for the second shot, -12 for the third.

To get a roll at all for the third shot, Oswald has to have a skill of, at least, 15.

I've statted myself at 16 from measuring my groups and accounting for all the variables and I don't think of myself as an awesome shot...

I've seen players roll statistically unlikely rolls in the game before, so a skill of 18 and a rolls of 9+, 7- and 6- in a row is plausible.

5d pi to the neck/body.  No DR.  10 HP.  Avg damage roll will be 17.5 points, or 17.  Possible damage ranges from 5 to 30 points.

10 HP done to Kennedy, 7 continues to Connally.

Hit to the body.  If average hit, wrist cannot be struck.

Normally the rules don't allow for the wrist to be struck either, but we can extrapolate...

It would take 3 points of damage to cripple a hand.  That means Connally had to have taken 13 points of damage and Kennedy 23.

Using both the Bleeding rules from B420 and the Body Hits rules from High Tech 162, the first shot only does 10 points of damage to Kennedy and 13 to Connally.

Both people hit appear to have made their consciousness rolls.

5d pi to the skull.  DR 2 from the bone.  An average, 17 point, hit will get 15 points to penetrate and is quadrupled for 60.  Auto death.

The Kennedy assassination GURPS. 

Update:  Simple math mistake fixed and the effects of that changed.  4 x 15 is NOT 30.  DURRRR.

Mobile Gltich

The crash glitch on Crispy IV moves from one box to another.

I have two T420S boxes.

Moving the hard drives from the newer (to me) machine to the older (to me) machine moves the glitch.

That makes me think that it's not the box, but something on the drive.

I have JT on the case and he's thinking hard upon it.

Some Things Need Details

The Dungeon Dudes are using the default game rules for their setting, which means you just buy the equipment off the table included in the Player's Handbook.

For a GURPS Fantasy setting you have to pick a tech level.

I've mentioned that much of the armor depicted in D&D is actually TL4 when most people think of TL3 when they're thinking Fantasy.

The easy way out is, "A wizard did it!"

Or, rather, the Elves and Dwarves did it.

Through different methodologies, they make the TL4 armor that most players expect, and the player will pay twice as much as listed for the privilege.  Rather more, actually, since the armors that the Elves and Dwarves sell are typically decorated, and really should be fitted because of the pride of the makers.

They just don't make cheap, "mass produced" examples of their best types.

Interestingly, this should make the four times as expensive bronze plate armors cheaper than steel. 

It'll Never Work

Here's the Trump peace plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

I think you can click to embiggen.

I want it to work, but... 

Polishing The Cannonball

Ginny Di posted a video where she interviewed The Dungeon Dudes...

It made me realize that I was overprepping for things that never happen, or are going to happen and that my most successful worlds were ones where I'd come up with the idea the previous Wednesday, run it past FuzzyGeff or Mikhail Ronaldovich on Thursday and we made characters on Thursday.

Prep that I'd never do if I were running Twilight: 2000 or main timeline Traveller.

Though I need to do a bit more prep the next time I try T2K to get all the units on at least one map so I can better herd the players down the railroad to their doom give the players rational choices to give them a better experience.

But lots my Traveller time is just winging it.  It tends to work.

I will heed their advice about the pantheon of a fantasy world.  They're correct, I really only need the party's cleric's god and, maybe, the opposition's god too.  And a general framework for what kind of pantheon/holy aspects there are will suffice.

I feel better now!

And sad.  I think I've taken the Interstellar Wars era campaign about as far as I can.

To go much further means risking the entire party on the whims of the ship combat system and a Lightning class merchant is not a real warship. 

Speaking Of Guzzlean

The Beast has 10.4:1 compression.

In ye olde days that would mean 87 octane would be a no-go.

This is because a distributors couldn't retard the timing far enough to prevent detonation.

Now that electronically controlled ignition is here, there's no actual limit to how far the timing can go.

So the car is tuned to use 87 octane and it runs just fine on it.

It also has a table for E85, which it also runs just fine on.

Just for fun, I've been running 93 octane, despite not having a fuel table that will advance the timing to take advantage of the compression that's mechanically part of the engine.

It's "seat of the pants" smoother with more octane.

It will not show even a thousandth of a second improvement in the 1/4 mile.

It gets about 1.5 mpg better mileage, but that's because the smoother means I stay out the pedal more not because the engine is being inherently more efficient on higher octane.

I've paid for HP tuners.  Supposedly you can add a 93 octane timing table and keep the ability to run 87.  I know The Precious did.

It's Like They Don't Want The Money Sometimes

About once a quarter or so, I have trouble finding a gas station willing to sell gas.

The preferred station, a Mobil, didn't have a single pump in service.

The Shell across the street from them refuses to let me pay at pump, but wants me to see the cashier...

The Wa Wa down the road worked fine, but I prefer to get the "Top Tier" gas as recommended by GM for my motor.  Wa Wa is not "Top Tier" 

Damn Just Damn

Gyroscopic forces are amazing.

When the plane rotates on take-off the engine, whose fan is basically a big gyroscope, doesn't want to go with.  That puts tremendous force on the mounts that are forcing the fan to change plane with the aircraft.

Those same spinning forces send the engine off over to the right.

Also of note is there's enough fuel and fuel pressure in the feed lines to run the engine after it has separated from the wing.  That's why it got so far above the wing when it broke free.  Frame 5 shows the smoke of it flaming out.

Damn.

I think that the only airport they could have brought it down safely once this happened is Edwards Air Force Base. 

Dear Tax Fattened Hyenas

Swalwell's little mortgage problem reminds me of others, but something isn't always pointed out about them: 

A politicians primary residence, by law, is supposed to be in the place that elected them.

If they don't live in their districts, they're ineligible to be elected.

Swalwell is from California and was elected by the people of their 14th congressional district.  His primary residence is suppose to be within the confines of that district and not in Washington DC or surrounds; even if he spends a lot of time in DC doing his job as a representative.

So if his primary residence is, indeed, in DC, then the fraud he needs to be prosecuted for is election fraud instead of mortgage fraud.

The real problem is we let congress creatures get rich enough to buy land around DC.

I propose building luxury condos for The Old Guard and moving Congress into the, now, vacant barracks at Fort Myer.

Be a handy reminder that they SERVE and not rule. 

Bringing In The Pros

A local shop we used in the distant past is going to diagnose Moxie properly for us!

They guesstimate it will take about an hour and cost about $138.

I admit, she has me stumped.

But the pros have the scan tools that can isolate modules to see where breaks in wires are without manually tearing into every bundle. 

Times To Try My Soul

Got ready to run Marv to get a new battery for his car and got the low tire pressure light.

Assuming it's because it was the cold, I pulled up the pressure display and saw that it was 32 psi on every tire but the right rear that was at 22 psi.  It's ALWAYS the right rear.

I sigh and grab the pump and ran it up to 35 psi and heard hissing.

Not gonna stay 35 long with audible hissing.

Hoping for a quick plug job, I have Harvey back the car so the screw I found was at an angle to work with; and I gashed my head open on the garage door rail!

Then I couldn't find the rubberized ropes to save my life.

So Harvey ran Marv to get his battery and I asked them to pick up some new ropes on their way back.

Pretty much as soon as she was out of sight, I found the old ropes.

I then discovered that I couldn't get enough push under the car to get the ropes into the freshly reamed out hole (which was now also spewing air).

GRUMBLE!

Pull car forward again, pull the wheel, fire up the pump and try to get a rope in.

I have never had to fight so hard to use one of these things in my life.

It would almost go in and then the insertion tool would cut the rope.

I repeated this step seven times before I managed to get one to insert properly.

Even lubing them up with rubber cement didn't help!

All's well that ends well, I guess. 

T2K LARP

The AKB-23 gets run through its paces by GunJesus®.

 

 I still have latent wants for an L85 because of my long association with Twlight: 2000.

I've fired a lot of bullpups and never really found one I loved.

The FN FS2000 is closest, so far.  It's also the newest one I've shot.

I think there's an irony that I didn't really care for shooting the L85A1 when we did a little cultural exchange with the Brits in Germany; but I still kinda want one.

I wonder if that SUSAT is more expensive than the whole rest of the gun. 

National Ammo Day

November 19th is national ammo day, where we gun owners are supposed to go out and show how much economic clout we have by buying 100 rounds of centerfire ammo.

Thanks to the fine folks at Widner's, my tally is 40 rounds of .30-06 M2 ball and 60 rounds of 5.56x45mm M193. 

That Did Not Take Long

 

The things are barely on the shelves and someone has already managed to make a switch for one despite all of the anti-Glock Switch provisions Glock made to change from Gen5 to GenV. 

With enough effort, any semi-automatic firearm can be converted to full auto or select fire.

Even the more complicated 1911 has been so converted.  All the way back in the 1920's!

PS: You will note that I did not tag this post with the "crime" label.  This Glock Switch appears to have been made by a licensed SOT/FFL, and is thus perfectly legal.

A Matter Of Tips

I just read that it's been 33 years since Dateline NBC tried to convince America that Estes rocket motors were OEM parts on 1973 to 1987 GM pickups.

I had something of a personal connection to this story.

Michael "Boom Boom" Gartner left NBC to come back to Iowa and run the Ames Tribune.

He'd order pizza from the place I worked as a delivery driver.

We'd fight over who had to take that order because he was a notoriously bad tipper.

As far as I know, I was the only driver who knew about his connection to Dateline NBC.

The other drivers just knew the tip would be bad and it'd happened enough they remembered the name and address.

We were very aware of the tips.

On the other hand there was a Mexican restaurant and a motel we fought to get the delivery.

Both were excellent sources of tips.  Interestingly, the motel was the one the dancers at a local strip club stayed at.  Strippers are EXCELLENT tippers.  They were also very casual about getting dressed when answering the door.

Burner Baby Burner!

Got my burners replaced! 

No idea how much I saved doing it myself instead of calling an appliance repairman.

I do know a brand new glass-top range is about $500 (plus taxes and shipping) if I install it myself.

This was a mere $145 total.

Amazon screwed up and their packing allowed the ceramic terminal block to get broken, luckily, one of the old burner's block was intact and I reused it.

I'm too lazy and apathetic to demand a return.

All Electrical All The Time

Our motion light on the garage side of the house decided to become a disco light show instead of staying on.

Lots of clicking from the unit like it was a bad relay or something.

It's only been up there for... uh... years.

Got the new one up and it's passed all the daylight tests.

Waiting for it to get dark enough for a night test of the motion detector. 

Update: It has passed nighttime testing. 

Arcing

Went to boil some water to make some cup-o-noodles and I got rewarded with arching from the burner!

Got a couple of cool Jacob's ladder style arcs off the pan before I got the switch shut off.

DAMMIT!

The stove top is original to the house and dates back to 1969.

And you can still get parts!

While in the process of finding the model number of the stove, I found the ceramic insulator/isolator block around the leads to the OTHER 8" burner had broken somehow.

That puts the big burners out of service until parts arrive.

So I'm getting two 8" burners for it.  $65 each.

The 6" burners are $50 and we're deferring replacement because the do many fewer miles than the big burners.

Life happened and, hours later, I decided to finish making my cup-o-noodle and the rear burners weren't working.

Turns out the fuse on one leg of the oven/range circuit had done it's job when the burner arced!

In the process of troubleshooting this I discovered that the 20 amp fuse under the stove is for a 110v plug that runs on one leg of the range/stove circuit.  I checked it because turning on the rear burner restored current to the plug.

I replaced the fuse and ordered more.  The smallest pack of the 40 amp fuses I can order is a 10 pack.  SIGH.  Lifetime supply, I guess. 

They Be Ignurnt

Extremists in Congress are trying to pass a national concealed carry mandate, which would force states to allow people to carry hidden, loaded guns without training or passing a background check.

 

This dangerous mandate would reward the states with the weakest gun laws and punish those that have taken real steps to reduce crime. It would bulldoze local safety standards and put every community at risk.

 

If this passes, anyone you see could have a gun on them—and the police would be powerless to protect you. Leaders must stand up for public safety and put a stop to the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.

 

- Giffords Org 

Well, there's 29 states where you can carry without any training or permission slip already, so odds are the situation is already "anyone you see could have a gun on them."

You're also very unlikely to need the police to protect you from a perfectly legal activity.

41 states already recognize each others permits.

It's literally not a problem except in the states with the most draconian gun control and the highest crime rates. 

Could It Be That Simple

Considering how antisemitic the left is, I kinda wonder if the whole thing about Sidney Sweeny and jeans is because Levi Strauss was Jewish.

They've been more retarded about less, so it's actually possible. 

How Big Is The Overlap?

Lego has just announced they're making a USS Enterprise NCC-1701D from The Next Generation.

Included is the main cast in minifig form.

If you act now, you get a minifig scale shuttle pod and a minifig of ensign Roh as a free gift with purchase.

$400.

Like Lego a lot.

I've spent some money on Star Wars sets.

But I don't think there's enough overlap on my Venn diagram between "Liked Next Gen" and "Likes Lego" to spend $400 on the Enterprise D.

I might be coerced into spending on the OG Enterprise and cast though.  Especially if they do the series and movie versions in the same scale.

Scale is a huge problem with Lego for a lot of sets.  They aim for the models to all be about the same size, which leads to them being vastly different scales most of the time. 

Update: An unsigned commenter says that making them all about the same size is called "box scale" and I remember the term and its usage in plastic models... but needed the comment to be reminded.  A pity they didn't sign the comment so I can thank them by name. 

Best Use Of 1980's Music In A Video Short Goes To...

 

But It's Legal Here

Something that just hit me about the injustice of banning felons from owning guns is all of the states have different laws.

Something that's a felony in California could be perfectly legal in Florida.

Catch a felony conviction in California, and you can't own a gun in Florida for doing something that wouldn't have gotten you a stern look from a cop.

That seems very unjust to me.

I've never seen it suggested that we even try to fix it.

But I think it's worth trying to fix!

I Don't Think The Problem Is What You Say It Is

The new mayor of NYFC wants a national ban on everyday normal rifles.

He cites the crime statistics in NYFC and says there's nothing NYFCPD can do because they're legal outside the walls of his Socialist Utopia.

Except...

Every time a liberal takes over the mayor's office in NYFC, there's a wave of retirements from the NYPD who move to Florida and decide they have a few years left in them before actually retiring and join the local PD or sheriff's department.

Florida, where everyday normal rifles are legal, doesn't have the crime problems that NYFC does.

But we have the same cops who couldn't keep it under control where such things were illegal.

Hmmmm.

Considering that crime with everyday normal rifles isn't actually a problem anywhere, the FBI doesn't even break them out from the rifle category in their crime report and hardly any crime is done with rifles...

Yeah, another lying liberal mayor of NYFC.

The pity of it is that city has far too much influence on other idiots who still vote.

Perhaps less than ever before, but...

Still time to sell the place to the Bureau of Prisons.  John Carpenter is still around to help with the design. 

Not Much Here

I, sort of, got a picture of the aurora!

Thanks to all the ambient light in the neighborhood we get just a hint of pink to the north instead of red.

Naked eye you can see a faint glow around the tree.

It's Not That It's Actually All That Cold

What makes 50° weather in Florida seem so damn cold is that it's normally mid-80's the previous day.

So dropping to the low 40's in three hours from sunset accentuates how it feels.

In a couple of days we'll be used to wearing socks again and it won't seem so cold.

Wrong Day Sir

I have checked my calendar.  It is not May 17th.  It is not May 26th.

It is November 11th.

Today is not for the fallen in the USA.

Today is not for those who still serve.

They've their own days that we do observe.

Please let us have this one to ourselves.

Record!

Global warming caused the weather to break a 133 year old temperature record last night!

In 1892 the low was 40°F in Tampa.

Last night it was 38°F!

I blame SUV's and cow farts. 

Veteran's Day

Today, in the USA, it's Veteran's Day.

A day set aside for those who went in and came out.

It seems odd to have to say it, but today is not for the fallen in the USA; that's Memorial Day.

It isn't for those whom are still serving; that's Armed Forces Day.

If you know a vet, buy them a beer, take them out to dinner, get them laid.

Remind them of all the freebies available!

When you hit the places giving out freebies, be gracious and buy something that's got big margins (like a beer) because it wasn't so long ago that nobody but us and the post office remembered Veteran's Day at all.

Plus!  Tip the wait staff like you'd paid for the meal, not on just the cost of the beer.

Also, let the stolen valor people go.  This is the only validation they're getting in their pathetic lives, can you think of a harsher punishment than letting them be what they are?  Don't save them!

It Was Science Fiction

I've been re-reading Twilight:2000.

Movie announcer voice:  "In a world where..."

The Soviet economy worked and their weaponry performed like the CIA thought it would.

The USA supplied Communist China like we're supplying Ukraine today.

You have to really hold your nose from today's perspective to get that willing suspension of disbelief going; though once you get the situation rolling it still holds together.

It's just the triggering events and the reactions that lead to the Twilight War are just so implausible in hindsight even if they were possible from a 1985 perspective.  Even making them possible is a bit of a stretch but...

The point was to have the conditions as declared at the start of the game and it didn't take THAT much handwavium to get there.

At least no laws of physics were broken...

No Material Effect

I am sitting here looking at 41 days of the government being shut down and except for the ATC slow-down...

I'm not seeing any ill effects.

And the ATC slow down doesn't really affect my non-flying ass.

It's really making me scream, "If we don't need it, why do we have it?!"

Moar Magnets

The spiffy case that allows for wireless charging also has a MagSafe compatible ring on the back.

That let change the mount in The Beast.

That done, I realized that it'd be nice to mount my phone up where the camera could record fun things like a lap at Daytona.

The mount that does that ALSO has wireless charging in it and it uses the same USB-C cord I've been using and is already in the car!

Win win!

The big decision is whether to keep the other MagSafe mount or just use the camera friendly one.

But I'm Too Ugly

"I will grant you a handsome reward!"

But I'm ugly...

Happy Birthday Jarheads!

A completely true and totally not made up documentary about where the first Marine signed on the dotted line.

Sometimes You're Speaking Gibberish

"I meant what it said.  If I could have said it any differently, I would have."

- Stanley Kubrick

That was Mr Kubrick's response to being asked what he was trying to say with Barry Lyndon.

With that answer in mind, you have to assume that gibbering like a mad man was what Mr Kubrick mostly intended to say with a couple of his films. 

Victim Of The End

From what I've been able to find...

We transitioned to the M1A1(HA) just before the Berlin Wall came down.

I question this transition actually happened with my memories being so very messed up from my very bad evening when the wall did fall.

I know we did the training, and I'm reasonably sure the tank I took a swan dive from was an A1...

What makes me doubt my recollection is that 1st Infantry Division was GONE from Panzer in 1990.  Mere months later.

What makes me sure of my recollection is we had no idea Cold War was ending and the change to newer tanks was long planned.

Considering how hard it is to find ANYTHING on 3-34AR, it's hard to confirm or deny my memories.

I definitely remember rolling out the gate when the "unrest" in Berlin started and staying out at the company maneuver area for the next three days and learning about The Wall coming down while we were camping.

And falling off the tank while we were packing up to head back to post...  Though for years I had trouble reconciling the dates on my records with events.  Trauma does that to your mind, in case you didn't know. 

Gotta Save This For Twilight: 2000

Divisional Org Chart for the 1st Infantry Division in 1989.  One of the few things I've seen that admits there was ever a 3rd battalion of the 34th armor regiment.

I hope you can read that, it might embiggen if you click on it.

My Old Ride

The M1(IP) I was assigned at Panzer Kaserne taken just before the unit started getting M1A1(HA)

 

I've always had a soft spot for MOPARs...

The location of this photo is now a PX! 

Happy Birthday!

Guinness for strength!

Jameson for courage!

Happy birthday (posthumous) to our dearly missed Captain Carrol "Neptunis Lex" LeFon (USN Ret).

As long as we remember them, they're not quite gone.

Anniversary

36 years ago, today, I stopped being being able to walk without a limp!

Oh, and the Berlin Wall came down too. 

Is Hitler Cool?

I would say that it depends on the weather and how deeply buried his remains are.

At times I'd say he's quite cool.  Others, he's rather warm and still others, quite cold.

The important thing is that he's dead and good riddance!

The prick added genocide to the lexicon and he isn't even in the top five for most murders by the leader of a government.

So, piss on his grave (if you can find it) and a pox on anyone who agrees with his ideals. 

Non-Anon

The comments policy and the non-anonymous anonymous posting was formed from dealing with dickheads and assholes.

I didn't want to do it.

If I just let every anon comment post, you'd see maybe two or three a day with my normal traffic.  And most of them have excellent points or good observations.

The policy came from disagreeing with, Aesop, for example.  He and I, more or less, civilly disagree and post to our own spaces to spar about it.  I only go to his blog when the traffic sources in the stats say I'm getting a lot of hits from his place.

I call them the flying monkeys.

They post anonymously and break my rules.  They forget they are guests.  They are rude.  They don't stay on topic as they post gigantic diatribes.

Filtering the good from the bad got to be too much effort and it seriously affected my desire to blog.

Since blogging is a release valve for me, it's something I need to do.

So I nuked anonymous comments to make sure I would still post.

I did toss the people who refuse to make a Google account a bone!

If you put a little signature after your comment you're 95% likely to have your comment posted.  Several readers comment this way successfully!  Just make your last line your name and voila! you're not anonymous any more!

This also works if google logs out you for some reason.