Because Knotheaded

Took the PSA supplied handguards out of the storage bin I tossed them in when I grumbled at the quality.

I just can't give up on some things.

The reason they didn't fit well is because whomever was supposed to clean them up coming out of the mold did a bad job at the breech end.

A couple minutes with a knife and the plastic parts fit together like they're supposed.

This is something I've been doing with plastic models forever, so it was a no brainer to check.  Odd that I didn't until now...

So the USGI A2 handguards are back in the bin and the slightly oval ones are back on the Dissy.  I kinda like the slightly chonkier look of them.

I've read that the more oval pattern of "A2" grips comes from Canada's later versions of the C7 rifle.  They did theirs in green.

But I Was Told

The alleged FSU shooter is 20.

I was told in the wake of the Parkland shooting that the law banning people younger than 21 from buying guns would keep this from happening.

Shall we run down the list of laws broken before the first shot was fired?

Shall we do it again?

Do we need to?

Especially since it appears that he stole the gun from his mother, a Leon county deputy.

She's gotta be in a great place mentally right now.

Stolen gun.

Under 21 carrying.

On campus carrying.

Shooting people.

Murdering people.

Yeah, I think we need to make it more illegal.  That always helps.

Or maybe, just maybe, the idiot politicians actually listen to us for a change and make things safer by acceding to what we've been saying for decades.

Gun free zones kill people.

Pulse Nightclub, Ft Lauderdale Airport, Parkland...  And those are just the disarmed by law places.  Several happened where it was legal to carry, but the policy of the owner/tenant of the place barred guns, like the GMAC shooting.

Ya Think?

 

Active Shooter At Florida State University

That's up in Tallahassee, so not local to me at all.

But just to get my version of blood dancing out there...

Guns are banned from any and every Florida school from kindergarten all the way to college and university campuses.

Gun free victim zone strikes again.  Update: Literally again!  This is the third or fourth active shooter at FSU since we started lobbying for campus carry!

For decades we've been demanding campus carry only to have the Florida Sheriff's Association order the Florida senate leadership to do nothing.  Stab the "marion" tag to see other times it's been killed.

But this time we have a study that found that us common citizens are far better than the cops at stopping this kind of shit...

And no common citizen is armed.  Because common citizens obey the law and don't carry into gun free victim zones. 

So, I says the blood is on the Florida Sheriff's Association and the Florida Republican party's position that the Florida Senate consider no bills allowing citizens to be armed on campus.

Dissy Comparo

Ten years ago, Willard made himself a Dissipator too!

His upper came from Spike's Tactical.

I noticed they do things a little different from Palmetto State Armory.

They used a little stub of a gas-tube to keep the handguard cap from spinning.  The lighter barrel profile forward of the gas block also shaves about two ounces.

 

PSA uses an allen head screw.

What that means is USGI triangle handguards won't quite fit in the handguard cap.  A little bit of carving should allow them to work, though.

The quality of the handguards that come from PSA is disappointing.

Happily, I had a set that came with the upper I used making my M16A4 clone.  Much better fit.  Bonus!  They're 2.2 oz. lighter as well!

Something I've noticed about dissies in general and mid-length dissipators in particular is that they come and go as a stocking item.

There's long gaps where nobody makes one then someone will get brave and put a run up for sale and it takes forever to sell them.

Willard, as I recall, got his on sale from AIM Surplus.  Mine was deeply discounted in the Easter sale.  They're out of stock now.
 

Dissapator Dottie

Palmetto put their middy dissapator uppers on an extreme mark-down.

I am not made of steel and I had a left-over lower already assembled.

Colt originally did something like this back when Vietnam was still going on.  Their barrel was a bit shorter (15") with the flash-hider right up against the front sight base.

They kept the rifle length gas system, so reliability was a bit erratic from the lack of dwell.

Bushmaster liked the idea and increased the barrel length to 16" for legal reasons.  But they kept the rifle length gas system too, and had pretty much the same reliability issues.  They're the ones who coined the term "dissipator."

After a while someone realized that you could put a low-profile gas-port at the mid-length location and get the proper dwell time with the dissapator's rifle sight radius.

I am strongly considering doing some parts swapping and making Dottie an A1 carry handle gun.

I am ashamed that this is not a fully accredited "assault weapon" because it lacks a collapsible stock.  The bayonet lug, though, is just there to get AWB points!

8.6 lb. loaded and it points extremely well.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want

I really like the Chessex Vortex series of dice!

 Now I have all three colors!

This Is Why I Learned To Spin Wrenches

Got an estimate from the local AC shop:  The local shop with a good reputation and is known for being reasonable on pricing.

Labor
R/R evap - $1,667.50
R/R expansion valve - $58
R/R heater core - $43.50
Evac and charge AC - $213.15

Parts
Evap Core - $244.88
Heater Core - $237.58
Expansion Valve - $51.45
Refrigerent (17oz) - $63.75
$597.66 for parts

 Total, including tax:

 $2,760.40

Rock Auto parts

Evap Core - $59.79
Heater Core - $58.79
Expansion Valve - $11.44
Refrigerent (17oz) - $13.46
Misc Seals and Dessicant - $17.30
Shipping - $10.99
Tax - $11.08
$182.85 for parts

I can do the job, and the nearly $2,300 in labor is inspiring.

Cargo Flight

Passenger is a form of cargo that complains, but it's cargo.

The Blue Origin flights send up passengers, not crew.

The vehicle is a robot.

The people on board don't have a means to affect anything.

They're cargo.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the means to buy a ticket I'd be in line waiting for my turn to be on the manifest. 

But having the means and taking the flight grants me nothing.

It also does fuck-all to contribute to anything.

Which isn't bad.

Bezos gets to make some money.  Maybe...

But it's a sight seeing trip.  Like helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

It's not a vital contribution to Mankind.  It does not advance women's rights.  It does not suppress minority rights.

It simply is what it does.

Don't Throw Us In The Briar Patch B'rer Pooh

China just cancelled delivery for about 200 Boeing jets, blaming the tariff war.

Boeing will shortly be letting about 200 other customers in their over six thousand plane back-order their delivery date got moved up. 

When I took the plant tour in Seattle the guide explained how customers paid.

1/3 on order.  1/3 on first flight.  1/3 on delivery.

And pretty much unrefundable.

So Chairman Pooh just paid 2/3 the price of a plane that Boeing will repaint and deliver to someone else.

Boeing will almost definitely be pocketing the money and charging full price to the new owner.

Again

This marks the... lost count... number of times I have ordered a part for The Beast that has been cancelled because the part was discontinued and not really in stock.

How hard is it to make and maintain an inventory system that doesn't lie to you and your customers?

Some places seem to do this effortlessly.

Others... like GM, not so much.

Looks like we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

Rock Auto's inventory system has never lied to me.

Leak

Marv came over and, graciously, put R134a into The Beast again Sunday night.

The AC ran great all the way to the dentist and back yesterday.

It was inop this morning.

I couldn't find any evidence of leaks at the lines, so I jacked her up and looked for the drain port that lets condensation escape the HVAC box.

I didn't need to find the port because the black light showed a streak of dye down the transmission tunnel aft of it.

My worst fears are realized.

It's the evaporator.

That requires the complete disassembly of the dash to access it.

On the plus side of the ledger, the evaporator is less than $100.

But...

If you're in there, might as well do the heater core too because sure as shit, that thing will start leaking the moment you button it back up.

Another $100.

But!  GM parts dealers still have a complete HVAC box with blower assembly for about $500.  One of the local places even lets me skip the $250 to $300 shipping!

$300 more, but it's got all new stuff.  Many of them are already discontinued, like the actuators for the flapper doors.

Since the entire assembly has to come out any way, getting a complete assembly actually saves some labor.

And it leaves me with a complete unit to rebuild.  So when the next time this happens, I can swap assemblies.

Victory?

Over Thunk

Moxie, being a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox with AWD has a known flaw.

The all wheel drive system.

It's typical afterthought engineering that lets you simply and easily have front wheel drive only and all wheel drives share nearly all the same parts.

The rear differential is powered by a driveshaft that comes from a power-take-off on the front transaxle.

But this doesn't always drive the rear wheels.

For that, there's an electronically controlled set of clutches back there.

There's also, apparently, some sort of electronic limited slip in there too.

The problem is the electronic controller loses its mind as the clutches get worn and the rear end starts trying to do an imitation of a Detroit-Locker.

There's two, time honored, solutions to this.

One: New differential.  A truly new one is REALLY expensive.  $1,400 before shipping, plus $2,500 for the electronic clutch module.  Used ones abound for around $300 shipped.

Two: Remove fuse #46 from the underhood electrical center.

Solution two makes your car front wheel drive only and tells you to service the AWD module.

After the tooth and AC shit on The Beast I have selected solution two.

All I need is a functional vehicle and she's functional (and perkier) with the complicated electronic diff disabled.

Because It Works?

Data culled from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) show far more deaths associated with the vaccine than with measles infection.

If a vaccine is successful at immunizing people from a disease, then you should expect that more people will die from an adverse reaction to the vaccine than from the disease.

This is like noting that since transatlantic travel transitioned from ships to planes that there are far more deaths from plane crashes than shipwrecks now.

Wait! Keep Doing That!

When a friend calls and says, "I almost died!"

Don't say, "Don't do that!"

You don't want them to succeed at dying!

"I almost died!"

"You fucking quitter!  You can't do anything right!  Why can't you be more like your...  Uh...  Get well soon?"

Someday I will master not putting my foot in my mouth.

Color Text

Something that's missing from Technomancer and Funny New Guys is what a racist calls a chimera.

It's mentioned that chimera are part of the civil rights movement along with blacks.

What's the equivalent to the N-word for a chimera?

Even if we have to use code like "N-word" to say it, there should be something.

In world, there definitely will be such a term.

The Fees Add Up

Watching "Becoming Led Zeppelin" and they flash some concert tickets on the screen.

In 1969 it cost $5 to a mainline band like Led Zeppelin.

That's $43.57 in today's money.

What's Ticketmaster want for Metallica tickets?

Surprisingly, $55 for the upper tiers.  $250 for the next level down.

That $5 ticket is a $250 ticket today.  The venue is still there!

Crowned

I have a permanent crown now!

I was totally fine and relaxed until the dentist asked, "you want to be numb?"

Lizard Brain says, "I'm in charge now!  PANIC!"

Monkey Brain tries to explain it to the dentist.

I did make a game attempt to skip the novocaine.  He got the tools on to remove the temp crown and before I could say, "let's go with numb," he had the needles out.  I guess it was obvious it was painful.

The fitting went well, the measurements taken two weeks ago were accurate.

The only discomfort after getting numb were a brief flash when the temp crown was broken free and when they hit the raw tooth with air to dry it off to apply the new crown.

I never wanna do this again!

Good news, I prolly won't have to if I just keep brushing.

Brushing is something I neglected severely for years and years.  I'm born again about it now.

Even my gums have recovered to the point that he said I could change back to normal toothpaste from the special "detoxifier" stuff.

That's Cheating

Pic stolen from Irish.

Here are some more examples of things my players would scream bloody murder about if they got caught up in them.

The Traps/TL skill does give a roll to spot these dirty tricks, but a bad roll means kaboom.

Players hated realistic stuff like this.  Impersonal and deadly. 

I learned most of these tricks from a buddy who was a combat engineer and most of them are incredible simple.  Many are reasonably easy to spot and disarm, but you have to take the time to look and the time to carefully expose them.

Which is the point.

To tie the enemy down removing your mines and stopping or severely slowing their advance if they have the temerity to go through the minefield instead into the channel you've made with your obstacles.

You might even get time to reposition and attack them trying to clear mines while they're stationary.

Didn't Come To Fruition

GURPS, technically, has a default campaign setting.

It's a multiverse time-travel cops sort of deal.

I only glanced at it and I can't be arsed to even look up the name.

OK, I lied, I couldn't not look it up.

Infinite Worlds.

Brainstorming with FuzzyGeff I hatched a campaign idea for this setting that would have taken considerable time and lots of work on my part.

The players would have to make, at least, two parties.

Then they would set about playing against each other.

This is a red herring for when they figure out they're playing against themselves.

It's not Team A vs Team B.  It's Team A vs Team A and Team B vs Team B.

But the situations are similar enough to make them think its A vs B.  Plus everything has a lot of overlap on the Venn diagram.

A does something.  B is called in to fix.  A is called in to fix what B fixed which leads, eventually to A being sent to fix what A did.

It'd be even more interesting to have a different set of players and GM with a Team C and D too and overlap everything.

But I can't even get ONE group together for more than two sessions a year and this is a campaign idea that needs to be run weekly for a couple years to pay off.

Don't Be Seen

 

I Disagree

Bearing Arms author Tom Knighton feels that shooting that autistic kid was self defense on the part of the cops.

I have a huge problem with that.

All they needed to do was to step back four feet from the fence and the kid could have waved that knife menacingly all day.  They were not in imminent danger.

Tom, stop licking the jackboots.

It's not self defense unless and until you're in imminent danger.

Next, I think it's high time we get night sticks back on the belts of law enforcement.

This could have ended with the kid having a broken wrist instead of being ventilated by four cops and lots of rounds.

Back in a better time shooting the suspect was not the first choice.  It was well down the list.

I know that we're jumpy about night sticks since Rodney King, but it's the original less lethal weapon for cops to carry.  Hell, in many places that truncheon was a constable's only weapon for a long time.

I've watched the video, and saw that the police didn't do fuck all to de-escalate the situation.  They rolled up, gave orders and when they weren't instantly obeyed, they opened fire.

Fuck you Pigs!

A free citizen doesn't owe you instant obedience.

Fuck you and your officer safety trigger happy bullshit too.

We give far too much deference to them while we forget that they're on the vanguard of fucking us out of our liberties and rights.

It's almost enough to say, "defund the police."

Hear Me Out

Will simply labeling an aircraft "10mm Socket" cause it to disappear?

Worth trying.

Draining

The temporary crown is ill fitting.

The material it is made from is a way better temperature conductor than natural tooth.

If I forget and get something hot or cold on the temporary crown it sets off my whole jaw.

That brief event will lead to hours of my jaw aching.

Happily, over the counter pain meds take care of it, but I tend to gut out pain rather than take an ibuprofen.  My legs don't hurt less when I take OTC meds, why should other pain be different?

But this new source of pain has reminded me that being in pain is fatiguing.

It all added up today and after nine hours of sleep, I woke up, ate lunch and got another five hours.

I feel a lot better!  I even chewed some with the temp crown to prove I could do it!

Oh, chewing with just one side of your mouth is also tiring and will make the hinge on the side of your jaw you're not using to ache too.

Paradigm Shift

If your car has electric power steering:  The reservoir is the battery and the pump is the alternator.

Hope this helps.

Gone Like The Mastodon

Every single thread on SKS's mentions the $50 Chinese guns from the late 80's.

Dear Boomer:  That was 40 years ago, at least.

Even accepting the government's numbers, that SKS should be $150 today.

But it isn't.

China can't export them to the US any more.  Thanks Slick Willy!

That means the supply is fixed.

Demand is not declining, so the price must go up.

That price is $500-$800 now.  Depends on completeness, condition and provenance.

You're not impressing anyone with your, "back in my day!" objections.

A movie ticket isn't 5¢ anymore either.

Denying that prices have climbed over the years means you're not getting an SKS unless you find a chump.

I'm a little raw about this because I've been dealing with it with car people for decades.

Yes, that Chevelle is worth $50,000.  No, they're not letting it go for $2,500.  It doesn't matter if you sold one just like it for $2,000 thirty years ago.

Movement

A Swiss pharmaceutical company is either building a new plant or expanding an existing one here in the US.

This is in response to the Chinese tariffs and not on the Swiss ones.

Interesting.

Even better, getting the production out of China should assist with quality control.

I'd heard rumblings back when my mom worked for Roche that they lost as much to riding their Chinese workers to keep quality up as they saved in cheaper labor.

And that was nearly 30 years ago.

I'm thinking that some companies were itching to make the change and now have the political cover from the US to do so now.

366.24

Did you know that every year the earth actually rotates 366.24 times?

"But there are only 365 days in a year!" I hear you object.

Both are true.

We lose a "day" each year to our rotation around the sun.

Neat, huh?

In Accordance With Departmental Guidelines?

These four officers are fucking heroes.  No doubt about it.

Unloading on an autistic kid with a knife while on the other side of a barrier.

I, for one, am ecstatic that they all got to go home safe.

Because that's what's important.

That cops are safe.

That's all that matters.

The above is sarcasm, just in case you can't parse it.

I'm utterly fed up with cops being held to a lower standard than the general populace.

There was very little that autistic person could have done with that knife from the other side of the fence.  That means there was no imminent danger to the four officers.

The autistic person was also, apparently, contained in their own yard, so no imminent threat to the public.

What, most likely, happened here was Karen got mad at the kid, dialed 911 and started filming.

Except for The Boy having a knife or getting shot, we've been here and done that a lot.

The main difference is our sheriff isn't in the habit of hiring and covering for cowards.

The Boy, in fact, was a driving force in the local department changing training and guidelines for dealing with the mentally challenged!  Some of my legal drama contributed, in fact.

 

Thanks Unnamed Asshole

The entire point of having an NAS is to be able to access and edit my files from any machine on the network.

That point is defeated if the files become read only.

I am not sure how it got set, but something created a hidden file that told LibreOffice that the file I wanted was locked.

I didn't do it, but there was a ~lock<filename> in the folder.

The cat's proclivity to walk on keyboards and activate unknown keyboard shortcuts is suspected.

Skunk Rewrite

I think I messed up the affliction for the skunk.

Bad Smell is, I believe, the primary effect of being sprayed by a skunk with blindness and coughing only happening as follow-on secondary effects.

Going to make it cost more, of course.

Being a skunk is expensive! 

Update:  Turns out I already had official stats for the skunk's spray in Dungeon Fantasy 5: Allies.  They are cheaper than what I had.

Affliction 1 (DX; Based on DX, Both rolls, +40%; Disadvantage, Bad Smell, +10%; Extended Duration, x300, +100%; Malediction 1, +100%; Nauseated, +30%) [38] 

That gives us:

Exalted Skunk

-67 Points

Attribute Modifiers: ST -4 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [-24]; DX +2 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [24].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -3.

Advantages: Acute Hearing +5 [10]; Affliction 1 (DX; Based on DX, Both rolls, +40%; Disadvantage, Bad Smell, +10%; Extended Duration, x300, +100%; Malediction 1, +100%; Nauseated, +30%) [38]; Blunt Claws [3]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Fur [1]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Sharp Teeth [1].

Disadvantages: Bad Sight (Nearsighted) [-25]; Cannot Speak [-15]; Quadruped [-35]; Social Stigma (Wild Animal) [-10]; Restricted Vision (Tunnel Vision) [-30]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].

Features: Tail.

 

Full Restoration

A side effect of living in the same town as Iowa State University is rubbing shoulders with both agronomy students and farmers.

You pick up bits and pieces of practical genetic manipulation here and there.

Nothing you can use for anything, but enough to not be lost in the conversation.

Reading about these dire wolves is sounding awfully similar to listening to two friends discussing soy beans.

That makes me say that they have not made dire wolves at all.

It's not a gray wolf or dire wolf.  It's something new.

There was a quote with several articles that I can't find now but the gist was they wanted to restore the dire wolf to its proper place in the ecology.

So you're going to kill those three pups you spent so much time and money making?

Because that's a dire wolf's proper place in the ecology.  Dead.

They went extinct when gray wolves kept going.

I'm not a scientist, but part of me thinks the damn things might have been dumb as posts and that's why La Brea is full of dire wolf skulls and not gray wolf skulls...

Personally Affected

I ordered a spare keyboard for DerpyPuter on ebay.

It was in China.

Tracking says, "returned to shipper."

I'm thinking the tariffs have something to do with that.

But if that helps to get Chairman Pooh disposed, then I am proud to be doing my part!

Retired Names

The two storms that went over my house last year have had their names retired.

That's a first for me.

Helene and Milton will not be used again.

Fuck This I'm Out UPDATED

I said with The Biscayne that I was never doing unreliable AC again.

The Beast has unreliable AC.

I'm out.

I don't have the resources to keep fixing things and never getting to the modding part of hot rodding.

Update:

It might have been a simple fix.

I went out to the car to move it more out of the way, since I was planning on letting it sit for a while.

On a lark I popped the hood and pushed down the plunger on the HP port.  Hardly a pssssh.

I had a can of R134a laying around so I put it in.

Compressor fired right up and the air was blowing cold!

That's a positive sign.  I had been imagining that the sealant we tried had clogged something.

So I shut it off and disconnected my fill line and I heard hissing from the LP port!

So I asked Marv if he could come over with his gauges and a couple cans of R134a, then removed the schrader valve from the LP port; losing that can I'd just put in...  C'est la vie.

New schrader installed, two 12oz cans installed.  Pressures reading correctly and air blowing 43° at the center vent (just like the tables in the service manual says for 93% humidity at 73°F.)

Cautious optimism installed!

If we're really lucky, this was where the leak has been all along.  Eyes crossed.

The Sleep Of The Just

 

Mist and Shadow have scampered themselves to exhaustion.

Well Worth Watching

H/T Feral Irishman.

Turkoon

The corvith just gets me going on all other kinds of hybrid animals that could be created if a wizard is responsible for things like the owl-bear.

Same sort of thing, except turkey and racoon.  Turkoon!

A sort of gryphon made with a pigeon and a rat.  Update: I asked FuzzyGeff what one would call this and he said, "I think the traditional answer is 'pigeon'."

The possibilities are endless!

Really Unfamiliar

I looked up familiars in the D&D books I have.

AD&D and AD&D 2e's find familiar spell summons a real creature and grants powers to both the wizard and familiar.

OG's list of familiars is a lot more fun than 2e's.  2e is just some normal small critters, OG summons stuff like quasits and pseudo-dragons.

4e and 5e you're not summoning a real creature.  You're summoning an entity that takes the form of a creature.

The 4e list has lots of fun options.

5e is mundane critters like 2e...  LAME!

But now I have what I want to create an analog for GURPS if I ever get my extended module run going.

I Chewed!

Harvey made meatball subs and, without thinking about it, used the right side of my mouth to chew.

That's where the temp-crown is and I had no problems beyond noting that I'm a little more temperature sensitive than before.

That tooth has always been sensitive, it's just worse with the temp. 

I am significantly less sore than last monday.

UnFamiliar

Statting out the corvith reminded me to read up on how to get a familiar in the 4e rules.

It was not near so complicated as I'd feared it would be.

It's under the Ally advantage and there's notes specific to making a familiar.

It's straight forward.  First you stat out your familiar like a character to determine how much they're going to cost as an ally.  Then you purchase any special abilities they grant you with a -40% limitation "provided by familiar".

Done.

That was way simpler than I expected.

I remember the 3e version being nearly impossible to parse.  Update: The rules were in Compendium I and they are not as bad as I recalled.  They are VERY expensive, so I can see why our mages didn't have familiars when we played a fantasy setting.

I'm leaving figuring out were-creatures to FuzzyGeff.  With the exception of Mikhail, he's the only other player I remember who played a were-thing.

It was the morality skunk.

My only sort of were-creature was a Oriental Adventures Cat-Hengeyokai played in one of Standing Bear's worlds.

Corvith (Updated)

Corvith

ST 4; DX 14; IQ 4; HT 10
Will 10; Per 12; Speed 7; Dodge 10;
Move 7 (Ground)
SM -3; 8 lb.

Traits: Acute Vision 3, Extra Arms (Beak); Domestic Animal; Flight (Winged -25%; Air Move 14); Fur; Horizontal; Sharp Beak; Catfall; Combat Reflexes; Night Vision 5; Sharp Claws; Temperature Tolerance 1.

Skills: Brawling-14; Jumping-15; Stealth-14

Exalted Corvith

52 Points

Attribute Modifiers: ST -6 [-60]; DX +4 [80].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move +1 [5]; SM -3; 8 lb.

Advantages: Acute Vision +3 [6]; Extra Arm (Beak, Short -50%, Temp Disad - Cannot Speak -15%) [4]; Flight (Winged -25%; Air Move 14) [19]; Fur [1]; Sharp Beak [1]; Catfall [10]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Sharp Claws [5]; Temperature Tolerance 1 [1].

Disadvantages: Horizontal [-10]; Social Stigma (Domestic Animal) [-10]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].

Features: Feathers, Fur, Tail.

Racial Skills: Brawling (E) DX [1]-14; Jumping (E) DX+1 [2]-15; Stealth (A) DX [2]-14.

So You Want To Play A Skunk

Exalted Skunk

-40 Points

Attribute Modifiers: ST -4 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [-24]; DX +2 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [24].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -3.

Advantages: Acute Hearing +5 [10]; Affliction 5 (Blindness +50%, Contact Agent -30%, Jet +0%, Limited Use, 5-uses -10%, Reduced Range /2 -10%, Rear Only -5%; Secondary - Irritant, Coughing +2%; Secondary - Bad Smell +2%, Extended Duration, Permanent (2-weeks or special cleaner to remove) +30%) [65]; Blunt Claws [3]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Fur [1]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Sharp Teeth [1].

Disadvantages: Bad Sight (Nearsighted) [-25]; Cannot Speak [-15]; Quadruped [-35]; Social Stigma (Wild Animal) [-10]; Restricted Vision (Tunnel Vision) [-30]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].

Features: Tail.

Coincidence

So, I went looking for what historians believe caused recessions and depression in American history.

Even the downturns that coincide with tariff increases are generally attributed to speculation and collapse of a foreign bank or market.

There's no causal relationship between the tariff increases and the downturns.

The 1828 recession that many people are blaming on the US increasing tariffs was happening because the United Kingdom had banned trade with the US.  The tariffs were a, "yeah, fuck you too!" measure that didn't really affect the loss of trade.  The increases were also set to match the tariffs that England had placed on the trade it had just banned.  Oh, and it lasted about a year.  Hardly the existential crisis that some people are making out to have been.

The 1820s saw a lot of recessions, actually.

Hmmmmm...  The '20's seem to be bad times no matter what two numbers are in front of them.

History might not repeat, but it rhymes.

Also, the Great Depression was shorter and less severe than many in the late 1800's and early 1900's!  It lasted 3 years 7 months and the economic downturn was around 25%.

The Panic of 1873 aka The Long Depression lasted 5 years 5 months and the downturn was about 34%.  Some historians say it really lasted until 1896.  It was caused by (surprise) economic problems in Europe and a domestic bank that was invested in those European problems failing.

Look it up!

I'll bet you'd never even heard of The Long Depression!

That there are many, compelling, arguments to the cause of the Great Depression that contradict each other, you cannot say, with certainty, that any one thing caused it.  Written by very highly educated and competent economists.

As with everything affected by the invisible hand, it's the combined circumstances that do it.

It's speculation AND tariffs AND changing the monetary policy AND deflation AND...  AND AND AND.

But That's Not What You're Buying

$1,300 for the, nicest, M1911A1 from CMP seems steep when compared to Tisas or Rock Island Armory.

It even makes a brand new Colt seem quite affordable.

But what so many people are missing:

You're not buying the gun, you're buying the history.

An extreme example is a beat up old Remington revolver with provenance that it was actually owned someone famous.

Are you buying a beat up old revolver or are you paying for that provenance?

If the provenance means nothing to you, it's just a beat up old gun.

But you gain no moral superiority over the person who wants that provenance and is willing to pay for it.

Though, I suspect that much of the heat from people declaring that they'd never get one is sour grapes.

Get Smoot-Hawley Out Of Your Whore Mouth

The circumstances behind the Smoot-Hawley act and the reciprocal retributive tariffs are not even similar.

Yes, they are both tariffs, but that's about where the similarity ends.

Nothing in SH reduced the tariff if the foreign nation reduced theirs.

The reason it was an economic problem was other nations retaliated against our tariffs.

If you're going to cite SH, then you need to get the roles straight.

We are retaliating against the rest of the world's version of SH, NOT passing one of our own.

Did you see the chart that Trump had up with the various tariffs?  Where we're going to put about half what they put on us?

Have you seen a refutation of that chart?  One that says, "China isn't really charging a 67% tariff on US goods, it's really x%."  That 67% is the Chinese Smoot-Hawley act.

Most of the nations on that chart are in serious discussions about getting off that chart.

That, you economic and historically illiterate morons is the fucking goal.

Opening up THEIR markets to OUR goods so WE can make some money for US for a change.

Or did you think the trade imbalances were entirely because our goods were no good?

The EU is getting off fucking light with just a 20% tariff, by the way.  The maze of entry barriers to their market is dizzying and mercurial.  The Ur-example is Boeing v Airbus.  If the federal government subsidized Boeing the way Airbus is, Boeing would be barred from European skies.  But when we threatened to bar Airbus planes because of their subsidization, again Boeing would be barred from EU skies.  They've been having their cake and eating too while we stood watch against the Soviet Union and Russians for them.

But go ahead, tell me you don't know fuck all about this topic without saying you don't know fuck all about this topic.

What Do I Know I'm Brainwashed

I am sure he's a nice guy, but I'm fucking over him.

When he accused all us American veterans of being brainwashed all y'all said, "well, he's Russian..." as if that actually explained something.

Well, I've been reading his thoughts on Facebook about economics and I can definitively say that he's an excellent photographer.

But, hey!  He's Russian!  I guess it's fine they're not only economically illiterate, but repeating stuff that's just not true because it makes a good TDS soundbite. 

PS: He's been here long enough that he'd better stop being Russian and start being American.  Just sayin'.

PPS: If you say that he IS an American, then you cannot use the "but he's Russian" as a defense of his slandering anyone.  A uneducated foreigner gets some slack, but he should know better by now.  It's not that hard to say, "I'm sorry," but all y'all defended him so he didn't have to either apologize or learn.

Because I Seen It

Something I watched more than once in Germany was someone bringing their American car over and overheating it on the autobahn.

American cars aren't made to run at 100 mph for hours.

I also heard of tires coming apart at those sustained speeds because cheap tires aren't speed rated for that.

The reason this bubbled back up for me was Texas saying they were going to remove speed limits in some parts of the state.

I think a lot of people are going to learn the same lessons my fellow soldiers did in Germany in the 1980's.

An Idiot's Guide to GURPS Basic: Characters

If you're trying to get someone to play GURPS, get them to watch this.  I think it will help.

Life Support

The AC on The Beast decided to start fading on the way back from Ocala today.

Typical symptoms of low freon in a WM car is the AC runs colder at the vent than it should and the compressor shuts off momentarily, but with increasing frequency, until it stops working altogether.

Since I've been smelling the PAG, that means the leak is prolly at the evaporator.

If a $30 can of sealant will cure it for a year, I can face pulling the entire dash and replacing the evaporator!

It's not an expensive part, it's just hard to access thanks to making cars Union Assembly Easy.

The AC on Harvey's Equinox has been spotty for a while and it's been strange.

When it finally decides to work, it works great, but we can't count on it working.

Tonight I finally remembered to check the relay.  If you jumper it, the compressor kicks on and works.

Tapping the relay a few times got it working again!

New relays are on order.

Popular In Singapore

Got 15k views from Singapore the last couple days.

Somehow, I doubt it's actual viewers.

A Win11 Feature I Can Embrace

As a blogger who writes total B.S. on occasion, an app that automatically goes to all-caps without spellcheck would be handy.

Sucks When Your Paradigm Breaks

I'm still on Steve Jackson Games mailing list and I got this today:

An Important Message From Our CEO Meredith Placko

On April 5th, a 54% tariff goes into effect on a wide range of goods imported from China. For those of us who create boardgames, this is not just a policy change. It's a seismic shift.

At Steve Jackson Games, we are actively assessing what this means for our products, our pricing, and our future plans. We do know that we can't absorb this kind of cost increase without raising prices. We've done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely.

Here are the numbers: A product we might have manufactured in China for $3.00 last year could now cost $4.62 before we even ship it across the ocean. Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins, and that once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That's not a luxury upcharge; it's survival math.

Some people ask, "Why not manufacture in the U.S.?" I wish we could. But the infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production – specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components – doesn't meaningfully exist here yet. I've gotten quotes. I've talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren't.

We aren't the only company facing this challenge. The entire board game industry is having very difficult conversations right now. For some, this might mean simplifying products or delaying launches. For others, it might mean walking away from titles that are no longer economically viable. And, for what I fear will be too many, it means closing down entirely.

Tariffs, when part of a long-term strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing, can be an effective tool. But that only works when there's a plan to build up the industries needed to take over production. There is no national plan in place to support manufacturing for the types of products we make. This isn't about steel and semiconductors. This is about paper goods, chipboard, wood tokens, plastic trays, and color-matched ink. These new tariffs are imposing huge costs without providing alternatives, and it's going to cost American consumers more at every level of the supply chain.

We want to be transparent with our community. This is real: Prices are going up. We're still determining how much and where.

If you're frustrated, you're not alone. We are too. And if you want to help, write to your elected officials. You can find your representative and senators' contact information at house.gov and senate.gov. Ask them how these new policies help American creators and small businesses. Because right now, it feels like they don't.

We'll keep making games. But we'll be honest when the road gets harder, because we know you care about where your games come from – and about the people who make them.

 

I'm not finding a lot of sympathy in my heart for them. 

I don't think they realize that what they are really saying is, "our business model of having someone else be the manufacturer of our products has just failed."

They are just a design studio because they have no production of their own.

I remember full page ads from the companies that did the printing and die cutting in America when everyone was, "it's so much cheaper in China!"  Those ads were practically begging for business and support.  But companies like SJG went to China instead of supporting the domestic company and the domestic companies went under.

But I have an observation:  This looks like an opportunity!  Buy a building.  Buy some machines.  Invest in those domestic companies who are willing but lack the ability to do the volume required.

Sell at a price point that is lower than the 54% tariff!  Which, by the way is actually 34%, don't lie.

This, by the way, is the real intention of those tariffs.  To get production back on shore.

Rather than complain that mean old orange man fucked me, be the savior of the industry and start being the domestic company that actually makes the games!

Or are you spending too much on DEI to afford it?

Mist The FEMA Kitty Update

She's up to 5 lb. 7 oz.  Up from the emaciated 1 lb. 6 oz. when we took her in and expected her to up and die on us.

Going to be getting spayed in a couple weeks.

 

This Is Awesome

 Best April 1st video ever.

Refreshingly Honest

Spoke to the person at the local VSO that the American Legion hooked me up with.

For the first time, ever, the person who is supposed to help me wasn't even implying that I would be getting a substantial increase in my compensation.

There was a bit of a hang up trying to explain that I'm wanting an increase because the underlying problem got worse since I got out, not that I want something from before I left the service added on.

We're going to reconvene after my neuropathy assessment.

Appreciation

 My blade of Slavic might has gone up in value a bit since 2017.

$39 then, $100 now.  Even the ones with mismatched serials are $80.

Instantly out of stock, as is typical of emailings from Atlantic.

I Like Him As An Actor

Val Kilmer has succumbed.

Wikipedia says pneumonia.

I watch one of his earliest movies, "Real Genius" fairly regularly.

Quote Of The Day

"Uh oh!"

-G. A. Custer

Crowned

Got my tooth, temporarily, fixed.

I needed a new crown on the bottom, aft-most molar on the starboard side.

This tooth has been a bane for years.

It was the first tooth I'd ever needed a filling in.

The first tooth I'd lost a filling from.

The only tooth that needed a second filling.

Now.

The only tooth in my skull that's needed a crown.

The temp crown is mounted while the permanent version is being fabricated.

Should be installed in two weeks.

Despite the panic attacks, the dentist and his assistant were awesome!

He warned that, sometimes, once they started they'd find a root-canal would be needed.

We didn't end up there, but I told him that if we needed a root-canal on that tooth we'd revert to the Spanish and say, "extraction!"

He started to object and I said, this damned tooth has caused enough BS and this is its last chance!

Asking The Important Questions

Should Northrop-Grumman win the F/A-XX bid...

What cat name should be applied? 

I like Bobcat because the stealthy thing will almost certainly be tailless.

Speaking Of Itty Bitty Ribbons

The Clint Eastwood film "Heartbreak Ridge" has an interesting scene.

When he first arrives at his new duty station Gunny Highway bumps into his future LT.

LT Ring looks at his ribbons and gives a little exclamation.

It's subtle.

It's the sort of thing I've seen in person.

My 1SG was a medal of honor recipient and it was always fun seeing the reaction from people who'd forgotten where they'd put him.

My most amusing day was when top was all pissed off at something with me in tow and he blasted past CG 1st Infantry without saluting.

CG bellowed out, "First sergeant!  Wasn't there supposed to be a salute there?"

Top looked at him and replied, "It's OK, Sir, I don't really mind."

While CG was turning purple, his Aide-de-Campe reminded him of whom he was speaking...

That three star snapped to attention and gave the sharpest salute I think I've ever seen.

Top just returned the salute and said, "Carry on, Sir."

Yeah

Watching the last season of Cobra Kai and they discover a chest in Mr Miyagi's old house where they find he had a dark past.

Um...

I could have told them that from the first movie.

Staff Sargent Miyagi is a Medal of Honor recipient from the 442nd.

There's no happy, bright, shiny path to that itty bitty ribbon.

For Fuck's Sake

The company we're insured through did not change.

The member ID number did not change.

The group ID number did not change.

The persons covered by the policy did not change.

So why did my dentist think the policy was inactive?

Because the date start date changed from 01Jan24 to 01Jan25.

It's really odd that this tripped them up because they managed to automatically update this every year for the past five.

But not this year.

Not when I have a cracked tooth to look at.

No Dentist For You!

I am sure glad my cracked tooth doesn't hurt because I cannot see my dentist.

They can get me in today, but the fucking insurance that The Lovely Harvey pays for every paycheck apparently doesn't show as active in the system.

She called HR two hours ago and they have not replied yet, so I had to cancel my appointment.

This isn't something that should be difficult, but her HR department routinely fails to get it taken care of.  We went through the same shit with her health insurance over her knee and a recent eye appointment.

Crunch

That crunching was not a bit of eggshell missed in the making of hard boiled eggs in the chicken salad.

It was a point off the back of a molar.

Happily, no pain!

Sadly, the dentist doesn't open until 0800.

The same bottom rear molar that I had filled in a few years ago.

Fair Winds Anjin-san

Richard Chamberlain has shuffled off the mortal coil at 90.

I enjoyed his work in more than one instance.

Most especially in the Shogun miniseries.

Contractual Obligation

There is, often, a deliberate disconnect between what marketing says and what the contract stipulates.

If you signed the contract based on the marketing and didn't read the contract, that's on you.

If you trusted someone with marketing and contracts that don't match, it's completely on you.

When the other party adheres to the contract rather than the marketing hype; you were not betrayed.  You were duped.

You are among the many born every minute.

But since the contract was available for you to read, submit to your lawyers, develop counter proposals, do your own marketing...  Fuck you.

Wuhan Flu Redo

Back when COVID first started going around, me and The Boy (and Marv) all clearly had it.

I never got vaccinated, I figure that catching and surviving a disease being the surest form of immunization I'd be fine.

I have been.

I know several people who took the jab and are on their fourth or fifth round of being sick with Wu Ping Cough.

It's like the jab not only doesn't prevent you from catching it, it also keeps you from building an immunity from surviving it.

That's not how vaccines are supposed to work!

I Like Big GURPS And I Cannot Lie

I keep sticking my nose into RPG debates abotu which rule set is best.

Being a passionate advocate for GURPS, it's the rule set that I think is best.

I'm the first to admit that I haven't played a different system since...  1995?

And that was AD&D 2e.  I didn't have much fun because I was forced into the Cleric job.  I'd never made a cleric before.  Then I wasn't familiar with Forgotten Realms.  I wasn't familiar with the campaign.  AND I was only there to demonstrate to another player that they could be replaced.

Not a recipe for fun.

But picking a system and sticking to it doesn't mean that I didn't learn and play others.

I played every edition of D&D from the OG boxed set to AD&D 2e.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1e.

Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing in at least three settings.  Stormbringer being the one we used these rules for the most.

What became the Megaversal system with Palladium fantasy and Robotech.

Top Secret in two editions.

Champions in more than one edition.

Boot Hill.

Gamma World.

Star Frontiers.

Traveller LBB.

Twilight: 2000 1e.

Ghostbusters.

Teenagers from Outerspace (TFOS).

Toon.

FASA's Star Trek RPG.

2300 AD.

Mega Traveller.

You know what I found?

You can play, with one exception, any of those settings with GURPS.  The only sets of those rules that were better than GURPS was Champions and TFOS.  At least with GURP 3e.  4e is at least as good as Champions now.  Only Toon completely failed with GURPS.

The great thing about it was that once we learned the rules we didn't need to learn new rules for a new setting.

The bad thing was keeping the players out of the parts we weren't going to use.  That's a headache.

But nothing about my passion should make you feel bad about using a different system and having fun.

I've had fun with almost every one of the above listed systems.  The GM makes or breaks the game.  Your fellow players make or break the game.

But I am sick of people shitting on GURPS because they had a bad experience.  *A* bad experience doesn't mean the system sucks.

My bad experience with AD&D 2e had nothing to with the rules.  My conversion of my Wemic cleric from those rules to GURPS came with reading the 2e rules and Forgotten Realms setting.  I think it was a very streamlined experience from OG AD&D.  I think I would use those rules to play D&D if I were to use a D&D ruleset.

I've no experience with later editions, though I've heard positive reports.

It is clear, though, that later editions are emphatically, not the D&D I played once upon a time.

New races.  New classes.

A Warning

While everyone focuses on the weaponry; the truly impressive and frightening thing about the US military is this:

We can put a fully stocked, fully staffed, ready to begin sales, Burger King anywhere on the planet in 48 hours.

Think hard about the implications.

From A Treatise

I was reading about dueling and found a translation from the Italian:

"He runs his mouth as if he could hold a sword."

That, is a burn.

Now With Better Cameras

If you remember this post from a couple years ago...

A different channel has revisited it.

It goes without saying, do not stand in front of 75mm cannon unless you're Superman.

Update:  The PAK 40 firing an APCBC PzGr39 round does 6dx10(2) pi++ with follow-up of 3d cr ex.  APCR PzGr 40 should do 6dx12(2) pi++.  They don't mention what they're firing...

But 6dx12 pi++ from a mild steel solid will, on average, do 252 points of damage which will be doubled in a torso hit for 504.  60 gets you to auto death and 110 gets you to unresurrectable.  This GURPS!

The headshot is 6dx18 pi++.  378 on average. -2 for skull DR.  x4 for brain.  1,504 delivered.  Dead right there, not coming back.  This GURPS!

It Wasn't Like AAA Came And Got 'Em

 

FTL Speeds

In case I never calculated it before:

Jump 1 is 170.1c

Jump 2 is 340.1c

Jump 3 is 510.2c

Jump 4 is 680.3c

Jump 5 is 860.3c

Jump 6 is 1,020.4c

By way of comparison...

Larry Niven's Known Space quantum I hyperdrives are 121.75c.  Quantum II are 420,768c!

Star Trek speeds for the OG TV series were supposedly the cube of the warp factor times the speed of light or:

Warp 1 = 1c

Warp 2 = 8c

Warp 3 = 27c

Warp 4 = 64c

Warp 5 = 125c

Warp 6 = 216c

Warp 7 = 343c

Warp 8 = 512c

Warp 9 = 729c

Warp 10 = 1,000c

This is not consistent and several point in the various shows contradict it.

Ooops!

This is just down the road from me!

Plane flips after emergency landing. 

No injuries, they say.

When I first saw the pics I thought it looked like a very survivable crash.

I Have Fond Memories Of MAD Magazine

 

FB

I'm reading about how Boeing got the contract for the Air Force's F-47A.

Most of the press is saying that it's Boeing's first "clean sheet" fighter design.

That's not true.

The FB was not developed from another design.  Nor was the F2B.  Nor was the P-26A.

The first clean sheet design since the merger with McDonnell-Douglas?  Yes.

The first clean sheet design ever?  No.

I read the story and went looking for the P-26A as the first clean sheet design and was surprised that they'd made two fighters for the Navy before they made the Peashooter for the Army.

Not Suppressing Your 1st Amendment Right

I am not saying you cannot say that.

I am not trying to forbid you from saying that.

I am making fun of you for saying that.

Things You Can't Do Anymore

In 1984 or 1985 the motorcycle gang club my dad was a member of decided to do a winter road trip to Mexico.

We started in Minneapolis.

In WINTER.

If you rode the whole way, you got a special patch!

Since I already had all the winter gear from riding three-wheelers in the snow, I opted to ride the whole way.

I, foolishly, left my patch jacket with my dad when I moved back to Iowa. 

However, this story is not about that!

This is 500 bikers descending on Mexico in January for three weeks.

Actually, it's not a story.

It's mentioning that I climbed the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.

That is no longer allowed.

I can understand why.

Still, it's neat to be able to say I did something like that.

It also occurs to me that seeing both the Teotihuacan site and several Egyptian pyramids (though from a distance) makes me a bit unusual.

The trip to Egypt was taxpayer funded and the whole battalion got to go play in the desert with our tanks.  The exercise was cancelled because of a terrorist threat, so it was really camping in the desert with tanks rather than a real joint exercise.

The ride on the ship across the Med was fun.

Grecian Formula

This is an M1951 web gear compatible Greek M1 Garand ammo pouch.

It is 2 lb. 11.5 oz. with four 8-round en bloc clips and 8.4 oz. empty.

There are M1951 style grenade loop and retainers (as shown with my fetching dummy grenades).

The clips need to be inserted as shown!  If they are both nose down or nose up, it's very difficult to get them out with the pouch loose in your hand, and would be impossible with it attached to your web gear.

 

If you have the outside clip nose up, the back of the inside clip snags on the hem of the mouth.

A decent means of carrying 32 rounds for your Garand and, I assume two pouches were given each soldier for a total of 72 shots.  Less than the 104 carried in the WW2 pouches, but all of them are more readily accessible in the Greek method.  Three pouches and a canteen would balance OK to tie the capacity of the old 1923 belt.

By way of comparison the M1956 Universal Small Arms Ammunition Pouch is 12.5 oz. empty and 2 lb. 15.7 oz. loaded with two 20-round FAL magazines.  With a basic load of two pouches and one mag in the gun we have 100 rounds on tap for just a 1/4 lb. more on your belt and a pound more in your arms. 

Loading a field dressing and four 20-round M16 magazines loaded with 28 rounds each is 3 lb. 6.6 oz.  Two pouches and 18 more in the M16A1 gives 162 rounds.  For about 3 lb. more on your belt and almost the same less in your hands.

A Soviet pigskin ammo pouch for a Mosin Nagant carries 30 rounds on 5-round clips for 2 lb. 4.4 oz. (6.6 oz. empty) and you get a much lower rate of fire for not a lot of weight savings.

Daytona Spring Fling 2025

The Beast and the car formerly known as Biscayne SS.

My buddy JT rode with me and we met with Adam.  Adam is whom I sold the Biscayne SS to and from whom I bought The Beast.

Attendance was, I am told, down from last year.  They suspect that was because of the admission going from $40 to $60 per show car.

There were still some interesting cars:

'62 Biscayne with a 409 and three on the floor!

I took this shot because I loved the color.  It did not photograph well.

'70 Mercury Cyclone.  A friend of mine had three of them and all met bad ends.

Dodge Custom with lots of subtle changes.  Including a 6.2 Hemi™.

Just room for your ass and a can of gas!

Motivated seller.

This car, also, didn't photograph well.  It looks black until the sun hits at the right angle then it's a dark bronze.  Epic Mercury Moterrey!

Mandatory General Lee.  Required by law at any car show with more than 20 cars south ot the Mason-Dixon line.

 

Update:  

There were many fake Camaros at the event.

 Just as all Chevelles are SS's, all real Camaros are SS/RS/Z28 Yenko Pacecar Convertibles.

Don't be fooled by kit cars.

I Don't Remember It Being This Complicated

My dad and I dropped a 250 into a '47 pick-up and it didn't seem as complicated as this to get the electrical system updated to 12v in 1984.

 We replaced the entire starter and alternator without rebuilding anything.

Are parts to do the conversion in one step no longer common?

How Did I Miss This!

Feeling It

Both knees and my left hip don't appreciate the activity of messing with the wheels and cleaning the car.

Luckily, there's self-medication!

Beer!

Doesn't dent the neuropathy in my shins, but it does help with arthritis. 

It's as close to exercise as I can manage and a lot of it is completely off my legs anyways.

I have a little roller stool instead of "rice paddy prone" for lifting the wheels back on and the behind-the-bumper work was sitting on the cold, hard concrete floor of the garage.

Cleaning the car needed more standing up, but I could brace off the walls and such.

Ready To Roll

The Beast is not getting smaller as she ages.  I started washing at about 4:30 pm and am just getting done waxing at 8:00pm.  The pic is from before I started waxing.

I took a few breaks, had dinner and helped the neighbors hang a blind in there too.

I don't wax her every wash.  McGuire's TechWax2 is pretty resilient stuff, I get 6 months easy before it stops beading.

Adam's Wheel and Polish's Wheel and Tire Cleaner is the shit!  Spray it on the rims and brake caliper, let it sit for a minute and hit it with some high pressure water and VIOLA! them rims and calipers be CLEAN!  Best wheel cleaner I've ever used.  Thanks to Marv for finding and trying it out.

Now I am ready to leave in the wee hours for the Daytona Totally-Not-Spring-Fling-Because-That's-Trademarked-By-Somebody-Else Turkey Rod Run Spring Car Show!

We still call it the Spring Fling and have to remember Turkey Rod Run to find the show information...

I have not gone to this show in 10 years.  Last time I took The Precious.  The Biscayne SS went several times too.

 

A Duel!

I hearby challenge President Donald J Trump to a duel!

Between whatever 150/40/5 point GURPS 4e character he dares bring to the table and a character of my own creation of the same points!

Winner gets to brag about it.  If I win I'm framing his character sheet and hanging it on my wall!

I will supply dice, snacks and beer.

Our seconds can decide the TL and weapons allowed to the characters.  They will also decide if dropping all 150 points into a single skill is allowed.

I'd argue against it, a well rounded and complete character will make for a more interesting game.

I'd say it was a duel to the death, but I doubt there's any physical risk past a paper cut and an imaginary character really isn't alive so it can't die.  Also, The US Secret Service gets REALLY touchy about even joking about killing the president.

I'm not even threatening him.

Though it might be hilarious to see what the Secret Service does about having the president visit the home of a gun owner to play a couple hours of GURPS.  Prolly insist we meet someplace a bit easier to secure.

Detailed Documentary About How USAID Works

 

Rare Pic

 Check out that grenade launcher on the left port side!

That's a Mk 20 Mod 0 40mm automatic grenade launcher.  It fires normal 40x46mm grenades. 

It's not often pictured, they didn't make very many.

It's hard to tell, but that's actually a color picture.

L->R Mk20 Mod0, 2x M16A1, M79, 4x S&W Model 15-2, 3x M16A1, M60C and the muzzle of an M60 blurry in the foreground.

Non Video Version

To ghost load your Remington 870:

Load the magazine with as many rounds as you want with the action open.

Drop a round in the chamber.

Place a round on the elevator.

Push down on the round as you partially close the action to get it started.

Pust the elevator back up as you close the action the rest of the way so the nose of the round partially enters the magazine.

Viola!

I don't know if this works with other pump shotguns.

In Phase

Prior to taking the front wheels off to gain access to the fog light housings, it was smooth sailing up to about 60, then the steering wheel would shake until about 70 when it would clear up again.

One, or both of those tires are slightly out of round.

A trip to meet a friend for dinner had a more pronounced vibration at 55 that kept getting worse past that point. 

Rotating the front-right wheel two lugs forward seems to have corrected the issue and I'm back to smooth up to 60.

Even better is the wheel shake is less at 60 and hardly apparent at 65+.

Victory!

The ultimate solution will be to get new tires that haven't been screwed up by worn suspension components.  But we're not to affording that yet.

Torque

I previously lost confidence in my torque wrench because the rear axles came loose on The Precious.

I have been suspect of its replacement because of a recurring vibration at about 60 that can get worse if the wheels are out of phase.

Tonight I took out the old one, dialed it to 140 and checked it against the lugs which had been torqued with the newer wrench.  It clicked without moving them.

Then I moved one wheel two lugs over and torqued it down with the old wrench.

Then I checked the torque with the new wrench.

They agree!

The problem with the axle nuts on the C6 wasn't torque, but it's really not a good design.  I ended up using a jam nut arrangement to keep them secure.

The vibration is from damaged tires from the ruined front suspension and taking way too long diagnosing it.  Holden really did a number with the geometry and it defies my double-A-arm education.

Tentative

If we can believe the statements of the Secretary of Education, the dismantling of her department is not supposed to get in the way of student loans.

That's a sigh of relief for small colleges all across the nation.

A big fear of these places is that the only source of higher education would be the state run land-grant universities and the states choosing a path that eliminated competition.

Eyes crossed most selfishly because Harvey works at such a small college.

The Hook

Remember back when they declared Biden not competent enough to stand trial over those documents?

Think they will use that to show he wasn't competent enough to sign pardons?

Interesting times.

What About Higher Ed?

All the news talk about shutting down the Department of Education is talking about concerns K-12.

Nary a peep about what higher ed programs are affected or what's to become of them and how this will affect colleges, big and small.

Our secretary of education keeps repeating that she wants services to continue to the people who need them, but the details are scanty.

Installed a better quality fog-light housing into The Beast!

TYC vs West Taiwanese No-Name:

Pic of the new housing installed without the bezel in the way so people can visualize how to do it:  Bog standard M6-12 flange-bolt and flanged nut.  GM uses a $9 plastic nut that clicks into the hole and you screw the bolt in from the front.  Since you have to access the tabs for the bezel from the back anyways...

 

The TYC has a better pattern than the West Taiwanese version (though they're prolly both made there) and they're aimed better because both bulbs are seated correctly.

Ghost Loading

I never take a shotgun when making a character, but this is a neat trick that you'd have to show the GM the video for them to let it happen.

 

Update:  Hope everyone saw that, YouTube has decided that loading an extra round in your shotgun is violation of their terms.

Mom's Favorite

I found this great spot on a grassy knoll and I'm standing there, braced and aiming when his fucking head explodes!  Then the bimbo is on the trunk lid picking up parts and they speed off.

I didn't even have to shoot!

That fucker you picked to take the blame actually did it!

Yes, I still want paid, you cheap bastard.

Not Cool

One nice thing about having never been cool is that I'm never going to try to get it back.

I feel left out of the cool kids things from time to time, but it's better to have never been cool than it is to have once been.

Bonus, there's no urge to change to remain cool or cutting edge.

I don't have to jump to the next big thing just to stay where I am.

I'm looking at a couple of bloggers who're clearly broken by Trump 47 in a way they never were by any previous president.  They say they aren't, but didn't feel the need to justify their actions when they were doing then what they are doing now...  Even though now is much more pointed, harsh and frequent than then.

I will even cop to agreeing with several of their points!

I can't put my finger on, exactly, what reads different now, but it is different.

It might just be that it's no longer cool do be doing their schtick with the current Ocupante de la Casa Blanca.

The Science Is Settled

Neil DeGrass-Tyson says there's only eight planets.

OK Boomer. I have a different scientist of equal credibility!

Interplanet Janet says nine.

 If you've ever answered a test question by singing a School House Rock song to yourself, you might be Gen-X.

Positive Note

Got a couple pieces of good news from my doc at the VA.

First, for the first time ever, I lost some weight!  Just five pounds from last year, but it's not a ten pound increase like it's been for the past five.  At this rate I will get to my target weight just in time to die of old age.

Second, he's referring me to the neuro people to confirm the neuropathy diagnosis I'd gotten after my bone scan five years ago.  If they confirm it, then it will go a long ways towards increasing my disability percentage.

My cholesterol is par for the course for my family.  Higher than they like, but without any of the things that it's normally a precursor to.  McThags don't have heart problems as long as we avoid diabetes (and my A1C is perfect!).  We have cancer, liver and dementia killing us.

I Learned It From YOU OK?

What makes a battle rifle?

What distinguishes it from an assault rifle?

Easy, right?

Turns out, it's nothing official.

The M16 isn't called an assault rifle.  It's just a rifle.  "Rifle, 5.56mm, M16" in fact.

Change that to M16A1, M16A2, M16A3 or M16A4 as needed.

Surely the M14 is a battle rifle then?

Nope, "Rifle, 7.62mm, M14."

Yet.

We know what we mean when we say "assault rifle" and "battle rifle" don't we?

They're informal designations.

Looked at one way, "assault rifle" can mean any rifle used in an assault.  A battle rifle can be any rifle used in battle.

But we typically mean that an assault rifle is select fire, detachable magazine fed and firing an intermediate power round.

A battle rifle is the same, but firing full power rounds.  Right?

But isn't a Garand a battle rifle?  K.98k?

Not so clear cut is it?

Especially since battle rifle is used informally for any military issue rifle, regardless of if it's full power or intermediate.

I know where I first saw the distinction.  Twilight: 2000.  The FAL and G3 were battle rifles.  The M16A2, AKM and AK-74 were assault rifles.  I am sure they didn't invent the terms.

And Everyone Knew It At The Time

The agreement to defend Ukraine's borders if they gave up their nukes was meaningless when they wrote it up.

The president of Ukraine was Moscow's buddy and they were really looking for assurances that NATO wasn't going to invade them and if they did, Russia would help stop the slavering western hordes.

NATO knew they weren't going to invade because NATO doesn't do that.

Russia knew they weren't going to invade because they had an agreeable government in place in Kiev.

That Ukraine would become pro-West and anti-Russia was never contemplated.

Russia invading wasn't on anyone's bingo card in 1994.

It was a big, meaningless media event calculated to make Bill Clinton and the UK leadership look good in the press at the time.  "Look!  We're bringing peace forever by reducing the number of nukes out there."

Actually it was good, those nukes were aimed at the West at the time too.

The Budapst Memorandum is doubly meaningless because the actions required of the signatories are minimal.

All it really says is Ukraine's borders will be treated in accordance with the Helsinki accords.

You know the non-binding Helsinki Accords?

So if you're on your high horse saying we betrayed Ukraine, remember that doing nothing is allowed under the Helsinki Accords.

But I was around and blogging in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine the first time.  Ukraine didn't give Crimea to Russia.  Russia took it by force of arms.

Where were you Uke boys then?  I heard nothing for 8 years.  Obama certainly didn't send troops or arms.

Well, if you read the Budapest Memorandum and Helsinki Accords, we're supposed to head to the UN and hammer it out there.

1. Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders (in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act).
2. Refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the signatories to the memorandum, and undertake that none of their weapons will ever be used against these countries, except in cases of self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
3. Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine, the Republic of Belarus, and Kazakhstan of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.
4. Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".
5. Not to use nuclear weapons against any non–nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories or dependent territories, their armed forces, or their allies, by such a state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state.
6. Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.

We sure made some sternly phrased resolutions.  That we did!  Just like the non-binding-never-ratified memorandum says we should.

Read that part again.

NEVER RATIFIED! 

Without ratification we're not obligated to do fuck all.

For 20 years everyone acted like we'd ratified it, but we hadn't.

It's like going to court for a crime that congress passed but the president didn't sign.  It's not a law, so your behavior wasn't illegal.

So, for the "nobody is ever going to trust us again" crowd; you've been complaining for three years about something that wasn't ratified for 30.  Where were you then?

I know where I was.  I was thinking it was pretty slick of Willy to have gotten those nukes away from a pro-Russian state without giving them anything in return.  And I hate that fucker.  THAT was our national interest and national interest goal achieved without any losses.

I think a lot of people need to learn how things really work out there before they go a ranting about betrayal.