But Wait! There's More!

Remember when I said the window on the PMAG25 SR/LR W was useless because it wasn't numbered?

In the process of taking pictures to see what showed in the window every five rounds, I noticed:

They're very faint.

For the record:

0-rounds:

5-rounds:

10-rounds:

15-rounds:  No number for the orange coil to point at, but the bottom round lines up with a dot in the window.

20-rounds:

25-rounds:  Again no number for the coil to point at, because the coils are below the window, but the bottom round is lined up with a dot in the window.

Bigger In Every Way

 

I was surprised to find that the new 25-rounder was longer than a 30-rounder.

The PMAG25 SR/LR gets you 25 shots for 1.8 lb.

The PMAG30 AR gets you 30 shots for 1.1 lb.

7d, assuming they all hit, for 25 rounds is 612.5 points on average.

5d, same assumption, for 30 rounds is 525 points on average.

1.17x the damage for 1.64x the weight.

That's just the ammo!

The rifle is 50% heavier too!

Of course, the deer (and the floppie) can tell the difference.

FIRE!

Today the burn ban in our area has been lifted as we FINALLY got enough rain to make a dent in the drought!

Happy dance.

The Power Of Immigrant Labor

Yesterday I got to hear what construction workers say in Spanish while they turn pallets of cinder blocks into the walls of a house.

Sunday there were pallets of cinder blocks.

By 4pm Monday, there was all four walls with openings for windows and doors.  Harvey reports they had not yet shown up at 6:30am when she walked up to her parents to start her day.

I am impressed with the speed and lack of noise.

I am excited that my hood is about to gentrify!

Property Taxes

Harvey found an article saying that Governor DeSantis' proposed change to the homestead tax exemption from $50k to $250k, with a slow increase to $500k amounts to a sop to the "ultra-wealthy," whom would be the only beneficiaries.

I am shocked to find I am part of the ultra-wealthy, because I will most certainly benefit from this increase in the exemption.

Facebook is full of Democrat politicians and spokespeople decrying the tax breaks, warning that this will lead to numerous programs being defunded.

Interestingly they don't name which programs, they just imply that it's something that I care about.

I don't think they are correct about that when the governor has repeatedly stated that he wants to make sure that core duties are funded, like roads and infrastructure.

I care about those.

I think that the scare tactic doesn't name the programs threatened by a reduction in funds because they know that many, perhaps most, people will say something like, "we were paying for that with our taxes?  No, I think we can do without it."

And, as always, if there's a program you feel that people cannot do without, there's nothing from stopping you from forming a non-profit to provide that program and collecting funding from donations from like-minded individuals.

Rather than taking the money from them under false pretenses under the threat of property confiscation. 

Finally!

Sarco has been out of stock of their repop trench knife scabbards for... as long as I've known about them.

Aesop is the one who gets credit for finding that Sarco had them.

The other day I was searching for something else and got reminded they existed, so I checked the web page.  They were in stock and I ordered one!

With laser engraved markings, it's not going to be confused for the real thing.

Seeing how it's made and how it attached to a web belt, I can see why so few of them survived.

M7-B Bayonet

With the adoption of the M9, development of the M7 did not stop.

Ontario knife company reworked the handle and gave us the M7-B.  I don't believe my example is an OKC made knife, though.  Hecho en China.

The bayonet weighs 10.7 oz. and the scabbard 3.3 oz. (with shoelace). 

There are no markings on the cross guard, unlike other M7's. 

 But you do get 'UAE' and the United Arab Emirates seal on the grip.  An OKC made M7-B will have "US ARMY" and the Army seal in these locations.  I have what is known as a "representative sample."

 Along with the radical change in grip shape and materials, you also get a new way of attaching the grip to the hilt.  It's the same method as the M9.  The parts don't swap, though.

 My example came with a VERY cheap version of the M10 scabbard.  The cage code (9A148) claims it's made by Norcatec LLC.

 Compare the webbing and snaps to this General Cutlery M10 scabbard.

It fits just fine.  A perfectly cromulent bayonet for an AR/M16.

PMAG-25 LR/SR W (Black)

 For gaming purposes, I obtained a Magpul MAG292-BLK PMAG-25 LR/SR W.

That's a 25 round magazine for your "AR-10" with the SR-25 or DPMS magazine well.  The standard magwell now that the AWB is dead.

It sticks out a bit more than the 20 rounder.

The extra five rounds comes with a weight penalty; 1 lb. 12 oz. loaded compared to 1 lb. 6.8 oz. of the PMAG-20 LR/SR.  1.8 lb. vs 1.4 lb. in GURPS terms.  That changes the weight of the M1956A2, pictured above, from 11.7 lb. to 12.1 lb. as shown.  That also changes a load of 6 spare magazines from 8.4 lb. to 10.8 lb.  The more traditional 4 spares for a battle rifle goes from 5.6 to 7.2 lb.  You do go from 120 spare rounds to 150 (or 80 to 100 with the traditional loadout).

The cute little window is rendered a little useless by not including any numbers, but you can still check to see if there's any ammo in there with it.

Magpul no longer includes a dust cover.  C'est la guerre.

I Just Noticed

Speaking of things that resemble each other...

The Magpul TMAG has a striking resemblance to the discontinued EMAG.

Excepting for the translucency of the materials, of course.  And the obvious changes from M2 to M3.

The PMAG M3 allowed for fit in STANAG mag wells that the M2 didn't, thus a separate magazine was unnecessary.

But there are hard core fans of the EMAG paying extra money for them, the last one appears to have been made in 2013.  I wonder if they noticed the TMAG is very similar.

THAT'S What It Reminds Me Of

Something about how Dottie looked was reminding me of another gun.

At first I thought that it was an AR-18, but it hit me today:

Dottie most resembles a Taiwanese T65 rifle.

 

It's similar, not exact, but...

I can relax now.

Back In Stock In All Three Colors!

If you're following along on the Dissipator Dottie adventures and want to participate, PSA has the uppers (sans bolt-carrier-group and charging handle) for $219.99 in Black, OD and FDE.

I've been very pleased with mine so far.

 

Proing

Got the Wilson Combat AccTac flash-hider installed.

I like the retro-modern look of the AccuTac, and I've used them before.

Olive still sports one, albeit in 5/8-24 instead of 1/2-28 on account of being 6.8x43mm.

Because that upper used to be Dottie's, it seemed appropriate that Dottie return to wearing this model of 3-prong.

FuzzyGeff, has one on his Olga.

Will it make Dottie more accurate?  Probably not.  Does it do a better job of hiding the flash?  Very marginally vs the A2 birdcage I took off.  Does it look cooler?  Subjectively, yes it does! (YMMV)

Dottie, strangely considering I have a purple AR, has become the gun of whimsy.  Hardly a thing about her current build is to make her more functional.  But I'm ending up with a carbine that points well, shoots well and is very comfortable.

Accidental functionality in the pursuit of fun?  I will take it! 

Buffering

Something I like about my M16 clones, in addition to the fixed stock, is the buffer just works.

The rifle buffer is 5.2 oz.

The OG carbine buffer is 3 oz. and, over the years, they keep making it heavier to compensate for the extra bolt speed from the gas-port being so much closer to the chamber.

The H3 carbine buffer is, in fact, heavier than the rifle buffer at 5.4 oz.

An old timey solution was to use a 5.5 oz. buffer from a 9mm CAR-15.

One of the reasons I like the mid-length gas system is it works well with both the standard and slightly heavier H buffer (3.8 oz.); but Dottie has shown that the rifle stock and buffer work fine with this gas system too.

I think it's because the rifle buffer and spring are longer.

Semi-auto guns are a lot less sensitive to the buffer weight than full-auto.  While you're resetting the trigger, there's plenty of time for the gun to catch up.

What buffer weight should you run?

Check your ejection pattern.

Adjust accordingly!

Be Veeewy Veeewy Quiet

Today is the opening day of hurricane season.

Make sure your tags are in order. 

The Curriculum Was Thorough

I am going to make a character who's a graduate of a fencing academy.

He knows how to wield a sword, wall in a backyard and sell stolen goods.

Just For The Record

If you're converting a different Fantasy game to GURPS, you will need Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers and Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics to retain the Magic User/Cleric/Druid distinctions and flavor.

You need not convert all the powers or spells from the old game because you're playing GURPS now; so play GURPS!

Play it in the other setting, but play GURPS.

Unwilling Suspension Of Disbelief

Because I'm a gamer and because I have Amazon Prime, I get the animated productions from Critical Role.

The most recent outing, "The Mighty Nein," has messed with my suspension of disbelief with a musical number.

In a burlesque style strip club they played a speakeasy jazz number.

Nothing about the way it's been presented lead me to expect music or technology past the 13th century.

I sometimes wonder if most fantasy worlds can best be explained by the Aladdin theory that it's set after an apocalypse that dimly remembers the world before, but not very accurately.

Missing Wonder Nines

The OG Wonder Nines™, in roughly chronological order, are the H&K VP70, S&W 59, CZ CZ75, Star M28, H&K P7M13 and Beretta 92.

This is if you accept:

"Wondernine: A term coined by gunwriter Robert T. Shimek to denote the modern breed of 9mm Parabellum auto pistols of recent design, usually featuring high magazine capacity and a double-action trigger mechanism or other modern ignition system (e.g., the squeeze-cocker of the Heckler & Kock P7 series or the Safe Action of the Glock)." 

J. Libourel

I've argued that the hoary old Browning Grand Puissance should be included despite the lack of a double action.

I further define the OG's as pre-Glock, so vaguely 1980 for the cutoff.  Yes, I know the Glock P.80 didn't enter service until 1982, but that 80 stands for 1980! 

I don't really think of the H&K P7M13 when I think of wonder nine, but Shimek included it.

I'm missing examples of the VP70, CZ 75, P7M13 and Star M28.

I don't have the first three because they're expensive as fuck compared to other guns.  The Star is a bit obscure but I've seen one for sale on Gunbroker every time I've looked.

CZ thinks they are H&K with regards to pricing; though prices appear to have come down a lot lately.

The VP70 and P7M13 are actual H&Ks in addition to being collectibles.

I've fired them all though.

I like the CZ quite a bit, but I appear to be immune to the Kool-Aid.  My ham-fists aren't precise enough to grab the narrow slide sometimes and the disassembly is archaic.

The VP70 is just plain unpleasant to shoot because of that trigger.  I remember seeing a lot of them in Polizei holsters in and around Stuttgart.

The P7M13 is goofy.  I found it tiring because I over-gripped the stapler-gun safety.  I wasn't given enough rounds to get the front blazing hot.

The Star I got to shoot had a bad extractor and didn't run well, but it was comfortable and the bullets went where they were told.  It's got the same narrow slide problem I have with the CZ.

Broken Fixed Broken (Updated)

Even though I'm not an accredited expert in the eyes of Steve Jackson Games, I was once dismissed as a hobbyist, I do know a thing or two about guns.

What exactly is a hobbyist?

They're the experts in a topic who don't make a career out of it and educate themselves on their own dimes.

I've been calculating various rounds with GURPS: Gun Stats and this book has been found wanting.

Sad trombone.

The first, gigantic, problem is that .30 Caliber M1903 ball out performs .30 Caliber M2 ball.  It's like it was stupid for everyone to change over to spitzer rounds.

But spitzer rounds carry more energy farther than round-nose bullets.  The 1/2D numbers generated are backwards of reality.

This fails the reality check. 

Then I calculated a few pistol rounds.

9mm came out almost the same as published materials.  .40 S&W was a bit worse than published and a bit better than my house rule...  But .45 ACP was as good as the legends!

Way more range and +2 to the damage.

The old numbers were 2d+2 pi for 9mm and 2d pi+ for .45 ACP.  This gives them almost identical damage to tissue (avg. 9 points vs 10) and reflects that 9mm is slightly better at punching things like car doors.

New numbers has .45 at 2d+2 pi+, so it will now punch car doors the same and do more damage in tissue (avg. 9 points vs 13).

This fails the reality check.

I missed something.

First, I had the wrong bullet diameter, copy paste error.

The ranges are calculated differently if the muzzle velocity is under 1,000 feet per second.

Now the damage is 2d+1 pi+ and that changes the average damages to 9 for 9mm and 11 for .45.  .45 is slightly worse at car doors again!

While it seems to do fine with pistols, this book does NOT GURPS! 

Poof It Was Gone

 

I was out at the rumored $2,600 price point.

I don't think it's really an unreasonable price for a gun with so many unique and bespoke parts.

$3,300 is more than I want to spend on one.

BUT!

The entire production run sold out in less than an hour.

That speaks to an unsatisfied demand.

All of those expensive, bespoke parts get cheaper if you make a lot more of them and get the price down.

I am not sure what the number of people who want such a rifle are, but I was tempted at $2,600 and out at $3,300.  It'd have been a done deal at $2,200!

I am, also, not sure of what kind of margins are built into the production of this rifle.

Economies of scale can make a lower margin pay more than a higher margin in increased sales. 

It's A System

I got GURPS: Gun Stats in January, I didn't do much with it except notice that the formulas don't recreate the, already, published stats for the M1 Garand.

An M1, in GURPS: High Tech, does 7d+1 pi out to 1,100/4,500, as does the Winchester Model 70.

So, armed with real world numbers for Cartridge, .30 caliber, M2 Ball, I dutifully plugged information into the formula and got:

7d+1 pi (so far so good) out to 890/3,700 (whups).

So I did .270 Winchester, which, according to Pulp Guns Vol. 2 stats for the Winchester Model 54, should do 7d pi out to 900/3,600.

The formula says: 7d+1 pi to 1,150/4,800.

Then I remembered that M2 ball's pressure curve is atypical of .30-06 and plugged in the numbers for Remington 150gr Core-Lokt.

7d+1 pi out to 1,020/4,300.  That's a lot closer to the published stats than what using the M2 ball figures gets you.

So I moved on to the AR.

An M16A1 (High Tech) firing M193 ball gets 5d pi; 500/3,200.  Gun Stats calculates it as 5d pi; 440/3,100.  Close.

An XM177E2 (SEALs in Vietnam) firing M193 gets 4d+1 pi; 420/2,700.  Gun Stats calculates it as 4d+1 pi; 370/2,600.  Also close.

An M16A2 (High Tech) firing M855 ball gets 5d; 800/3,500.  Gun Stats gives 5d pi; 460/3,200.

An M4 (High Tech) firing M855 ball gets 4d+2 pi; 750/2,900.  Gun Stats gives 4d+2 pi; 430/3,000.

So far the damages have been about right, but ranges differ greatly from published weapons.

But what really clonked me was calculating .30-40 Krag.

Adventure guns says the M1892 rifle does 6d+1 pi; 1,000/3,900.  Gun Stats says 6d pi; 1,030/4,300.  A round nose 220gr bullet at 2,000 fps outdistances a 152gr spitzer at 2,800 fps.  Also notice, except for the damage, that it calculates nearly the same ranges as a modern .30-06 load!

Spain's 173gr 7x57mm loading comes to 6d+1 pi to 1,190/5,000 so the Spanish Hornet still outranges the boys on Kettle Hill.

.30 Carbine takes a big hit, going from 4d+1 pi; 330/2,100 to 4d pi-; 290/3,200.

Which brings us to the Big Huge Question™:  With the disparity between published and calculated stats: do you use the calculated stats for unpublished weapons alongside the published weapons, or do you recalculate ALL the published ones?

Especially considering that the Douglas Cole calculations and Vehicles for 3rd Edition come much closer to the published stats. 

Cheap

The video in the previous post alludes to something about weapon quality.

It's even mentioned in the Basic Set on p. 274 under Melee Weapon Quality.

"The mass-produced swords issued to ordinary soldiers are often of cheap quality."

This is going to be most of the swords we encounter made in a certain range of dates. 

I Still Haven't Come Up With A Solution (Updated)

Back when I was talking about "tailor's swords" I was referencing this video:

Lots of swords are less than ideal for fighting, and many serve social functions or as badges of rank.

The thing about several examples in this video is they are not poorly made with regards to strength or durability.  They are poorly made in that they are difficult to put to work.

They should get a skill penalty.

There's no methodology for that in the rules as written. 

Update: 

Daosus in the comments reminded me of the Poorly Balanced option on page 59 of Low Tech in the Weapons of Quality box.

But it's just a -1 to skill for a 60% price cut...  Actually a -0.6 cost factor, which is it's own little trial of remembering simple math.  You multiply the base cost of the weapon by 1+(add up all the cost factors) as explained on page 14 of Low Tech.

So a poorly balanced and elaborately decorated rapier with an open basket hilt...

$500 for the base rapier.
CF -0.6 for poorly balanced.
CF +4 for "presentation quality" decoration.
CF +0.25 for the basket hilt.

$500 x 1+(-0.6+4+0.25)
$500 x 1+(3.65)
$500 x 4.65
$2,325

This is surely a weapon that you wear to impress people and not one you use to impress an opponent in a fight.

The tailor's sword, I think, can be made with going poorly balanced (-0.6), cheap (-0.6), open frame basket hilt (0.25).  It's basically a short sword ($400) to start with...

Since the modifiers drop the price below 20% of the original price, it's 20%, or $80 for our tailor's sword.  If the tailor is being honest, and I get the impression that they weren't.  The tailor probably would have sold it for the full $500 that an open frame, good quality, short sword should cost.  Caveat Emptor, Bitches!

Teardrop

Lavender Linda and Dottie have exchanged forward assists.

Three-prong is in her future!

It makes me giggle that I'm combining modern and retro on Dottie like I am.

A flat-top, middy-gas, R605 with a forward assist.

It Must Be Seasonal

Sarah Hoyt is talking about libertarianism too.

Drinkin' Horn

A few years ago, Mr Fleetwood bought me a drinking horn.

It's cool as fuck, but unhandy.

That's because you can't set your drink down.

He apologized for the place he got them from for being out of stock on the stands.

I finally remembered to get a stand!

Awesome!

Kinda reminds me of Gerb...

More To Say Than A Comment Will Bear

Joe Huffman posted.

At issue is:

Once you hit about a 20-point IQ gap, communication starts to completely break down.

It’s not that the lower IQ person is “stupid” (although that can often be the case) or the higher one is arrogant, it’s that you’re literally operating on different systems.

A 20 point difference (roughly 1.3 standard deviations) means:

Vocabulary and abstraction levels diverge sharply. What feels like crystal clear logic to one side sounds like vague, pretentious word salad to the other. Jokes land flat. Metaphors get taken literally. Complex cause and effect chains get simplified into “this good, that bad.”

Different time horizons and pattern recognition. One person thinks in months or years and sees systems, the other is locked into days or immediate rewards. Trying to explain second order effects feels like speaking another language.

Also, processing speed and working memory gaps. The higher IQ person is already three steps ahead, getting impatient. The lower IQ person feels talked down to or overwhelmed.

Both walk away frustrated.

Both have wasted each others time.

Jøhnathan @Heavenly_Race_
Posted on X May 25, 2026

I have frequently been the person who's 20 to 30 points behind the person I've been talking to.  Marv's 152, for example.  The physics students who played in my Traveller campaign definitely had higher IQ's.  I dunno what FuzzyGeff or Technomad score, but I know it's higher than me.

I routinely tested around IQ 139, despite that being below the threshold for Mensa, I still passed their silly test.  I declined the membership because...  Have you been to a meeting?  It'd be faster to tattoo your score on your forehead so everyone can segregate properly and look down their noses appropriately.

I have noticed that I'm making connections that others do not see when figuring out something abstract and complex.

Because a draftsman is a translator between engineers and tradesmen, I learned to speak both languages.

And it's more of a dialect problem than a language problem.  Terminology not words.

But being smart doesn't give one the magic ability to suppress instant gratification.

Most of the smart people I know have poor savings skills.  But the ones who do have good skills in this regard have exceptionally good skills.

Many of us have extremely awkward social skills that have hampered conventional success.

Vocabulary is more a function of education than ability!  Those tradesmen include some VERY intelligent people who don't speak with a college vocabulary, but can understand and visualize what they're about to build and what they need to build it faster than I can.

Post Fodder From Arfcom

There's a thread asking if our adult gun purchases have exceeded our childhood expectations?

In a word, "Wildly."

I think I still own one of these guns.

 

Though if I traveled back in time and told Young Thag, "You will never own that Galil ARM, but it not bother you you don't."

Young Thag would not believe me.

Further, if I told him, "Your favorite rifle will be an AR-15," I think he would try and get the crazy old man talking to him committed.

That, of course, means I'm talking to the Thag who's just discovered role playing games and is slowly coming to the realization that you actually could just buy some of these guns.

Not all that long before that, despite my interests in military history and technology, he'd have been shocked that someone could amass such a collection.  Nobody NEEDS a gun, after all.

FuzzyGeff, talked me down.

Anachronism

Dottie is a contradiction in terms in a couple of ways, on purpose, because it amuses me.

I glanced over where she sits and saw the round forward assist button and thought, "with the retro furniture, should I get a tear-drop forward assist?"

That leads, inevitably, to:

The big question is which three-prong flash hider?

Even saying, "a retro one," results in, "which one?"

Duckbill?

OG 3-prong?

Wilson AccuTac?

The OG is cheapest.

All of them give a tuning fork tone when the action is operating.

I think the finish on the Wilson matches the barrel's finish best. 

Obstructive Facilitation

There's a ticket processor called EventBrite.

Nominally, they facilitate the purchase of a ticket for an event for small and local venues so that the small, local, venue doesn't have to deal with the headache themselves.

It's a win for everyone, in theory.

What's that line?

In theory, practice and theory are the same.  In practice they're not.

The first problem has been fee creep.  They, like TicketMaster, are asking for a larger and larger portion of the total price of the ticket.

Then their web page has become increasingly difficult to navigate.

This is to motivate you to download their app so they can better harvest your personal information to sell.

When every link to your tickets is interrupted with, "download the app!" and you never actually get to the ticket download...

Then, suddenly, it works fine.

I didn't do anything differently, it's like they give up and let it work like it's supposed to work after you do the loop a specific number of tries. 

Mods ≠ Value

Over and over I see someone who's heavily modified their car and think that just because they spent $15k on the mods, that means they've added $15k to the value of the car.

If the car is normally $10k, they want $25k for it.

That only works if the prospective buyer wanted that model car with those exact mods and the seller is the only one with this combination.

By this logic, I should add the price of every oil change to the value of the car.  I spent the money, right?

The $15k in equals $15k out also forgets something important, depreciation.  Everything loses value when you break the seal on the box.

If that really bugs you, I suggest a different hobby from hot rodding.

Hot Rods are a money sink.  You just don't break even unless you got lucky and your make and model becomes the hot collectible.

If you are lucky and owned the thing before it became the new hotness, you stand to make money, or at least not have lost money due to inflation; and what you've done to the car won't matter.

Wait, I'm making my point again...  Your mods don't affect the value.

The condition, year, make and model determine the value; in many cases the mods reduce the value.

Another interesting thing here with people trying to recoup their mod expenditures is the number of folks who have very recently completed the mod.

That's worrisome to me.

It makes me wonder about the value of the mod in the first place.

Did it make the car miserable to drive?  Did it crater the mileage?  Is it now unreliable?  Did it break something you only notice after owning for a while? 

Opening Beer With A Knife

Harvey found a vid where someone, effortlessly, opens a beer with a butter knife.

They tap the neck twice, then the body twice then sweep off the cap.

Sensing bullshit, we gave it the ol' college try.

The taps do nothing.

Any motion that brushes the cap will just knock the bottle over.

HOWEVER!

I remembered how to open champagne bottle with a saber and the same technique works with a beer and a butter knife.

It is also, like a saber with champagne, impervious to being filmed.

I opened three bottles of champagne with a saber at a wedding, with a wedding photographer trying to capture it, and he didn't manage to catch the moment even once!

The same thing happened with Harvey trying to video it.  As soon as she hit stop, with me flailing away, I hit the sweet spot and off the top of the bottle flew!

True Crime

The Lovely Harvey reads true crime stories.

We're watching "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," which includes a fictionalized version of the Sharon Tate murder.

Fictionalized in the respect that Sharon Tate is not murdered.

Oh, spoiler alert for a seven year old movie, I guess.

She's already spotted that it's not going exactly to the facts in how far along Ms Tate was in her pregnancy.

Wait until she gets to the end!

Another Fee?

I've noticed "shipping protection" on several online orders lately.

I'm all fee'd up with them.

It, apparently, is extra insurance past the normal protection we've had since it was 6-8 weeks for shipping.

What has been a little hard to determine is exactly what it's insuring that wasn't covered already.

Porch pirates?

Dunno.

Just getting sick of a $5 charge on a $20 item in addition to taxes and shipping.

Dunno What Grade

A YouTuber I follow for Holden content, CommodoreMan, just mentioned paying 2.89AUD for a liter of gas.

That translates to $7.889 per gallon here in the US.  I'm rounding the 3rd digit to 9/10 of a cent because all US gas is PRICE + 9/10¢.

The cheapest average price that Petrolmate has for gasoline in Australia is $4.999 per gallon for E10.

I am a bit jealous that 91 octane is considered regular there, but it's $5.329 per gallon.  I think this also explains why the owner's manual for the 14-17 Caprice changes the recommended octane to 91 from 87 in the 11-13's.  A couple years of seeing what mild knock was doing to maintenance sheets prolly pushed the change.

The Beast, an immigrant from Australia, has been eating 93 octane Premium lately.  Current price is $5.079 (1.86AUD per liter) at the nearest Exxon.  Premium is 95 octane in Oz and it's averaging $5.759.

87 octane at that same station is running $4.279 per gallon; 1.57AUD per liter. 

The real surprise in Aussie gas prices on Petrolmate is E85.  The low price is 99.9c/l, with an average of 244.6c/l.  Those translate to $2.729 per gallon low price and $6.669 for the average.

The local RaceTrac has E85 for $3.769 per gallon (138.3c/l).

I wonder at that price range, anyone on the other side of the planet have any insight? 

History of Dottie

Dottie has seen almost as many changes as Kaylee.

Dottie's name derives from a line in the movie, "Armageddon". The amateur astronomer who discovers the planet killing asteroid wants to be able to name it after his wife, Dottie, because she's a life sucking bitch from which there is no escape.

Dottie is a "franken AR", her parts are from everywhere. The lower is Spike's Tactical, the lower parts kit is CMMG. The upper is a mid-length Dissipator upper from Palmetto State Armory.  Handguards are Brownell's Retro.  Optic is a Vortex SPARC AR.

A Bit Late I'm Afraid

I used to have a '79 Camaro Berlinetta.

It was extensively modified and I had to give it up because I couldn't get body parts.

The white on the ground in Iowa in the winter isn't snow, it's salt. 

This was back in 1995 or so.

Today, Facebook is aggressively advertising that just about every part for a 2nd gen Camaro is available now.

To the point that I don't think you need suffer with a single genuine GM part.

Thirty years too late, I'm afraid. 

Fat Ass

Way back when...

I was 156 lb.

This was when I could run, bike and walk without a limp.

Today I am 275 lb.

I can get the -3 points for being Fat in GURPS.

Joy.

This is the second time I've been this big.

Right after getting out of the Army I ballooned up to 300 lb.

I had kept eating like I was doing PT every morning, but wasn't because I could barely walk.

I reduced my intake and got down to 200 lb. and stayed there for years.

Sadly, my metabolism has slowed again and I gained a great deal back.

I am at a loss as to how to address it within the confines of being crippled. 

Oversight

 While the MBUS3 sights were functional, I didn't really like how they looked on Dottie.

I was resigned to putting up with function over form until I noticed that the American Defense mount puts the Sparc so high that don't have a co-witness and can readily see over the top of the rear sight to aim with the red-dot.

So I put the fixed A2 stub rear sight back on.  Arguably, it's more functional than the Magpul sight because it has a dial for range.

As I was putting the camera away, this angle caught my fancy for how it caught the red of the lens coating.

Zap!

The heating element in the oven decided to arc and die.

Happily, we noticed one spot glowing yellow when the rest of it was orange and ordered a replacement element a few weeks ago.

This is the third such element we've gone through.

The quality of replacements just isn't as good as the original, sadly.

The Chinese made items we can get from Amazon last about five years. 

I noticed that I might have mounted the previous one a bit low, there's a lot of space in the slots, and that might have affected longevity.