Personality

On occasion, we talk about winning the lottery.

Being a car guy, "what car would you get?" comes up.

I'd prolly get a new Corvette.

Why not a Ferrari?  Aston Martin?  Lamborghini?

Dunno.  I think I just like the 'Vette personality better.

The ultimate lottery car, for me, would be a C5 or C6 suspension and drivetrain concealed under the body of a C3.  The reason it's a lottery car is you start with a complete 1997-2004 Corvette, a complete 1968-1982 Corvette and a special order custom frame then hours and hours of labor.

Loving the looks of the third generation Corvette is a symptom of my age.

I've also a hankering for a '40's style body on modern running gear; but it's a nebulous urge.  I've no specific car in mind just an ideal that doesn't coalesce into a consistent image.

How To Lurk Rhythmically

Apologies to Erin.

What I Did Yesterday

Road trip and visit to Drum Circle Distillery, makers of Siesta Key Rum.

I learned a lot!

I did not know that molasses is a by-product of making sugar and that black-strap molasses is the dregs of the molasses making process.

I tried a small sample of the rum as it came out of the still.  Yuck.  When its that raw it smells like rubbing alcohol...  I don't have a basis of comparison for the flavor; it really just evaporated off the tongue.  A neat experience though.

I'm not even a rum drinker...

It was very interesting learning about different ways of making rum he'd tried and discarded and the recipes he's still using.

I am not sure why I was surprise, given the number of craft beers, that there's a craft liquor industry too.  Rums like Captain Morgan and Bacardi are the Budwiesers and Millers...  With all the same baggage associated with quality underlined by penny pinching and making a consistent product in great volume.

It's much easier to make a mediocre product cheaply, consistently and in great volume than an excellent one profitably in small volumes.  That's not really a slam on Bacardi and Budweiser but an observation that the goals are not the same between the giants and the crafters.

Troy's tour of his business is a brilliant piece of marketing, even if he doesn't know he's doing it.

Hand out samples in the tasting room... give the tour while the samples have a chance to take effect... get them back into the tasting room and next to the stuff for sale while they have nothing else to do while they wait to make sure they're completely sober to drive.

Brilliant!

More Reading

Some blogs you stop reading because the author updates so intermittently you assume they've quit.

Sometimes it's a refreshing surprise to stop in and see that they've posted while you've been away forgetting them.

Reading

Some blogs you stop reading because the author is an idiot.

Some blogs you stop reading because the commenters are idiots.

Some blogs you stop reading because you become an idiot in comments regardless of how intelligent the post you're replying to is.

A New Record

Been up for an hour and I'm already pissed at the internet.

That normally takes two hours.

Riding On The Metro

Anglave occasionally, generously, buys me a game via the gift mode on Steam.

He enjoys something, he wants to share.

His latest is Metro: Last Light.

It's a first person shooter and I am enjoying it a lot.

Now...

I did not enjoy it much at first because the first section where you're not essentially playing a choose-your-own-adventure-book the game became a slide show.

So I dial all of the graphics settings down to the bare minimums.

Slide show.

I update the drivers for my video card.

Slide show.

I look up the minimum system requirements.

My machine is just below the middle between minimum and recommended.

Hrmmmm.

Anglave has been chatting with me the whole time and offering settings suggestions.  Suggestions that aren't in the video settings menu.

That gets me to remember that there was a "choose your gamma" right at the beginning of the game.

In the process of finding where to adjust that again I find graphics related choices in the "game" menu.

"Advance PhysX" is checked.

I uncheck it.

Game runs GREAT.

It doesn't look any different (except for the frame rate).

And that was true of most of the graphics settings changes.  Changing the resolution was noticeable.  Changing any of the other selections only affects frame rate.

These options consume smoke and return nothing.

Just Sayin'

Victor / Victoria is a comedy; it is not a horror movie or cautionary tale.

Chill.

Labels

I'm 45.

Am I a young Baby Boomer or an old Gen-X'r?

All The Way

Go to your local Waffle House.

Order "Hashbrowns all the way."

I skip the mushrooms because I am allergic.

You're welcome.

Racist Flags

This is the flag the Klu Klux Klan flies (alongside the Stars-N-Stripes most often).

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KKK-Flag.svg

This is the Confederate Navy Jack.  I'd have shown the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, but its square form is less commonly depicted as a "Confederate Flag".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Conf_Navy_Jack_%28light_blue%29.svg/1000px-Conf_Navy_Jack_%28light_blue%29.svg.png

One was created by racists to fly and promote racism.

Which one is more recognizable?

The Confederate flag is used more and is seen more because while some will use it for racism and some see it as racist, it was made to symbolize other things besides racism.

The KKK Flag has never represented anything but, and you just never see it openly flown unless there's real strength in numbers protecting the Klansmen from violence.

I consider that the Klan flag is rare a sign that racism really did die in this nation a long time ago.

Star Wars (Guardians of the Galaxy Style!)

h/t The Jawa Report

I Wanna Do Over

What configuration your personal AR ends up in is, well, personal.

The popularity of them has given rise to congfigurations that didn't exist when I started.

AIM Surplus is selling an upper that I wish had been around when I built my first one.

Here are some pictures from their web site.

That's a dissipator configuration with the gas port in the mid-length position instead of the more "traditional" carbine location.

I've long felt that if you have to have a 16" barrel then a middy is the gas-system to run.  What a dissy gets you is a rifle's sight radius and longer handguards.  You lose the ability to mount a normal bayonet, but it's the lug that freaks the antis out, and it's still present.

Stats...

When I go off my rocker and spew idiotic things, traffic sure goes up.

When I am rational and even keeled, fewer folks stop by.

I can't sustain crazy well enough to keep the traffic steady!

Pure Evil

Willard is gifting a friend of ours an AR kit so he can put one together himself.

The upper came fully assembled from the factory.

It is now taken apart to full field strip standards, including taking the extractor off the bolt.

Where the evil comes in:

I ask, "we going to tell him about the handguard removal tool?"

Willard replies by shaking his head 'no' and smiling smugly.

We're going to show mercy in the form of letting our friend put it together here, where my tools are and where he can ask for assistance.

My portion of the evil is deciding that he's got to ask for the help.

I am going to Hell.  But if I was going to Heaven I'd lose my chance to kick Robert Strange MacNamara right in the nuts.  I understand there will be a line, but I'll have eternity.  Heck my plans for Bob might even land me a job!

Titanic

This is an FIE Titan.  A .25 ACP design by Tanfoglio of Italy.  After 1968 little pocket guns like this could no longer be imported, so domestic companies began making frames and importing the rest of the parts.

Prices vary wildly.  You can see them go for under $100 and I've seen them for selling for more than $300!  It all depends on finish, condition and the stock materials.  This finish with the wood stocks seems to be the rarest.  I am not sure if the finish is hard chrome or electroless nickel.

Contrary to internet rumor the slide is steel; the frame is alloy.

I had a twin to this gun when I lived in Iowa.  It's the first gun I (illegally because Story county was a no-issue zone) concealed carried.  My dad had (has?) one in blue with fake pearl grips; but I think his is a real Tanfoglio.

Something that stands out to me is the hammer blocks the sights when it's dropped.  Since there's no hold-open it might be intended as a visual indication that you're empty.

It's a bog standard, simple blow-back .25.  There's a trigger block safety and that's about it.  The magazine is a conventional heel release and holds seven shots.

Disassembly is simple.  Remove the magazine, check the chamber, put it on safe, pull the slide as far to the rear as it will go while lifting the back end up and out of the slots in the frame.  Let the slide go forward with the slide out of the slots and it falls apart like shown above.

Barrel proof marks.

Monsieur Pieper

Nicolas Pieper is a Belgian gentleman from Liege.

He did what everyone in Liege does, designs guns.

This is a model 1907 Pistolet Automatique Démontant "N. Pieper" Modèle 1909 as near as I can tell.

Can it truly be a Forgotten Weapon if nobody's heard of you?

Update:  I forgot to mention what a finely made piece this is.  Everything runs smoothly against everything else, the trigger is a little stiff, but crisp.  And the machining...  EVERYTHING is milled.  This thing would cost $1,000 to make today.

Bunches more pics below the fold!

Escape From Man Hell

The store was open.

I got out my tools.

I did what needed to be done.

Parts are replaced

Something is repaired.

A friend of ours is moving back to New Jersey.  I know!  They are driving up to take care of their aging parents so don't need a household's worth of stuff.  Literally gave everything away.  We got their washing machine.

Unfortunately the mere act of turning the valves off caused the seals around the stems to start leaking.  Thag B L33T Plumzors (heh heh, heh heh; he spelled bleat).

Note to helpful Home Depot drone.  When I show you what came off the wall, that's what I want.  I don't want what I am "supposed" to have.  Supposed to have is for new build where they no longer use boiler drains for washer hook-ups.  I didn't want to convert from 1/2" female NPT on the pipes to 1/2" compression fittings just to use the spiffy chrome plated shut-off valves.  NPT is better.

By the way, that's $11.50 in valves and $21 in new hoses to completely cure the leaks.  The appliance place charges $50 just to come out to attach hoses, and they don't fix valves.  The plumber charges $150 for the first two hours (or part thereof), $50 for each additional hour plus parts which are triple what Home Depot charges (and they don't attach hoses).

It's nice not to be helpless in the face of home-ownership.

Man Hell

Something needs repaired.

You know what needs replaced.

You know how to replace it.

You have the tools to replaced it.

The store with the parts is closed.

Rants And Rambles

The tags / labels for posts are more than just an organizational marker for me.

It never occurred to me that y'all can't read my mind and know what I mean when I tag something.  Telepathy training is mandatory and forbidden Troubleshooter...

"rant" and "ramble" are used to indicate that no filters were used when writing the post.

Filters that include, but are not limited to, rational thought, fact checking, logic, politeness, spelling, grammar or citations.

What these posts end up being is the placekeepers for further thoughts and a more rational regurgitation later.  Stuff that I want to talk about rationally, but am too emotionally chaffed about to actually be rational about; yet cannot sit on until I can think straight.

Sitting on it makes it worse.  It makes the posts less rational not more.  It makes posts that I am so damned ashamed of that the shame of memory-holing them is much easier to bear.

Can't Find It

I know I wrote a post about the Miller decision meaning that the 2nd protected military weapons strictly.

What I can't remember is WHERE I posted it.

No on Blogger, that's for sure.

Possibly on Livejournal, but searching that thing is near impossible.

Usenet?  Maybe.

A comment to someone else's blog?  Possibly, but I really think it was someplace of mine.

I know FuzzyGeff and I discussed it often.

Ponderous

The NRA is a massive organization.

Such creations do not turn on a dime.

The nature of this inertia means that sometimes an opportunity to do something small is missed but will save time and effort down the road.

I am willing to bet there's a whole department's worth of folks there who look back at those moments saying, "if only..."

I means that they kind of have to already be about something before it becomes an issue.

I freak out from time to time because the NRA is not an NFA organization.  They don't oppose NFA items and think they're neat like I do; but it's not what they're mostly about.

I want them to be more of an NFA org.  I fervently believe that if the NRA was a lot more active about it, then this whole thing where NFATCA and the rulemaking all went wrong.

NFATCA isn't a big enough gorilla.  The NRA is.  If they'd take the job.

Even as I type that.  Even as I want them to.

I wonder...

Should they?

It's nothing to cancel my membership over.

The only NRA thing we've cancelled here is The Lovely Harvey cancelled her subscription to The American Rifleman because I get it too and she wasn't really reading it.  Let them save the printing costs.

Organic

When you get right down to it, crude oil is organic.

Kinda takes the wind out of organic food don't it?

Really

"Ugly as homemade sin."

Rather than picture what that could be, it made me wonder how it compares to the looks of store-bought sin.

Quoting? Bill Ruger

The more than ten shots thing has been disputed by Tam.

Who has a copy of "The American Handgunner" September 1992, page 18?  He's reputed to have said:

"The best way to address the firepower concern is therefore not to try to outlaw or license many millions of older and perfectly legitimate firearms (which would be a licensing effort of staggering proportions) but to prohibit the possession of high capacity magazines. By a simple, complete and unequivocal ban on large capacity magazines, all the difficulty of defining 'assault rifle' and 'semi-automatic rifles' is eliminated. The large capacity magazine itself, separate or attached to the firearm, becomes the prohibited item. A single amendment to Federal firearms laws could effectively implement these objectives."

That's supposedly from "The Ruger Letter" dated March 30, 1989, sent out to Congress.  What I can't find is any reference to it in the congressional record, nor can I find a denial from Ruger.

From that and quotes from an NBC interview by Tom Brokaw;

"No honest man needs more "than ten rounds in any gun," and "I never meant for simple civilians to have my twenty- or thirty-round mags or my folding stock," and then said: "I see nothing wrong with waiting periods."

Quotes found on the internet.  But I remember being really pissed at Bill over the AWB back in 1992-94 and it wasn't about the size thing.  The quotes are oddly specific so finding a source to verify them is a matter of time and effort.

I lived through this shit.  "I heard it on the internet" is the same as saying I made it up.  Just because something is on the internet, doesn't make it true.  Just because something isn't doesn't make it false!

This should be easy for the bigger bloggers to get references to.  I know people hoard gun magazines, someone has that American Handgunner and a scanner.  But I don't think it's either of my readers.

Update:

I've found Neal Knox talking about it attributed to December 1, 1989.

Update Again:  Link from Tam.  I remember reading this before!  Better organized and cited than anything I've come up with.

Moar SRS

I R MOAR SRS THN U K THX

Quibble

Designed to do and intended use aren't the same thing.

Even if a firearm is intended as an offensive arm; it's designed to do the same thing as a defensive arm:
Propel a projectile at high velocity.

It's clip/magazine all over again!

Backlash

I figured out why my knee jerked about the condemnation of the Open Carry Texas people.

Bill Ruger.

Bill was pro-gun, just ask him!  He owned a company that made guns, how much more pro-gun can you be than that?

Except he didn't think that unwashed civilians had any need for a gun they could hide or for more than ten shots. shots than ten. (Better?)

It was "pro-gun" folks like him that made getting concealed carry such a damned slog for so many years.  Look at the map and notice how many years pass where nothing changes.  Lost years because we kept own-goaling ourselves.

It was when we started speaking with one voice that progress begins to pick up speed and becomes an avalanche.

We're no longer speaking with one voice when it comes to open carry.

There are those who'd use the (proven) LGBT model of "we're here, we're queer"; those who prefer quieter and more subtle open carry demonstrations (like the FL Carry fishing events); those who are happy with the status quo and CCW and those who are actively opposed to open carry.

I checked.  Many of the same voices condemning OCT are those same people who disliked open carry all along.  To their credit, they're consistent; but this isn't really a reaction to a strategic marketing mistake by OCT but a confirmation of their biases.

Like Bill Ruger they don't see why anyone would need to do what they desire to do and oppose it as a bad idea for everyone.

They feel vindicated because OCT did make a strategic mistake in the way they demonstrated.  I personally don't oppose what they are trying to achieve, but I see now that they may have been going about it the wrong way.  Pay close attention to those condemning them and see if you don't notice they oppose the goal more than the method.  In the long run, those people really aren't on our side; like Mr Ruger.

This Just In

It only takes the press, with hundreds of staff and thousands if not millions of dollars, only six years longer than the average dim-witted conservative to see that a single term 47-year-old senator with zero executive experience might not be up to the task of being president.

I've Got Yer Solution Right Here

Reading this.

The libertarians are correct.  As long as you are harming nobody but yourself, you can ingest, inject and inhale anything you want.

Here, I'll repeat the pertinent part, in bold and underlined.

AS LONG AS YOU ARE HARMING NOBODY BUT YOURSELF

Every evil about drugs the author goes on to list is about harming others and the libertarians agree with him.

What's really wrong is looking at legalizing drugs without changing anything else in the laws.

I've mentioned some of what needs to happen.

Anything you do while stoned becomes premeditated.  First degree.

Kill someone while high; no longer manslaughter but first degree murder.

Hit someone with your car while drunk who lives (and even recovers from their injuries); no longer negligence or reckless driving, but attempted first degree murder.

Punch your spouse while jacked up on crack; no longer domestic assault, but attempted first degree murder.

Pass out at the wheel and take out a parked car; no longer reckless driving, but malicious destruction of property.

Felonize driving without a license.

See how this works?  And since alcohol is just another drug now, same penalties for drunkenness.

I agree you can't just legalize drugs and declare problem solved.

Unlike the libertarian anarchist ideal society, my idea would require a government; making me a statist bastard.

Day By Gone

The nifty little thumbnail of the Day By Day comic started malfunctioning when I accessed my blog.

Dang it.

Did anyone else have this issue?

The comic's web page opens with no issues.

Not Me

I am not that person.

I did not put in the effort to be that person.

I did not even want to put forth that effort.

I will never be that person.

I am this person.

I am not sure if this is who I wanted to be because I never really set a goal.

What I do know is that I'm actually rather content.  My wants are just that, they are not needs.

Motive

In lots of fantasy campaigns there's just no reason for the dungeon crawl; or for continuing to adventure once a certain level of wealth is attained.

When you're richer than the king, do you care if you're just fifth level?

In Magic Returns, I'm working on motive.

First.  Why are there dungeons?  First, they're not dungeons.  They are vaults.  The cyclical nature of the mana level created a need to store valuable magic items while the mana dropped to zero to prevent them from being damaged or lost because they were confused for something mundane.

The exceptionally long zero period the previous cycle had caused the collapse of society and the loss of many of these vaults.

Second, other than greed, why adventure in the first place?  It's an open secret of the mage's guild they seek very high mana zones to occupy.  Cash and knowledge rewards are given to mages who find and secure such zones.  Animals with magical metabolisms also seek such areas as they tend to not give up all of their magic during the zero times.

The Gods mandate the spread of civilization.  It is the duty of the priests and acolytes to bring the proper methods of worship to the barbarian wilderness.

This Holy Mandate has an effect on the mundane as well.  If you can carve a place out of the wilderness, secure it and hold it for five years the Princes will ennoble you and create your fief out of your holdings.

Of course, there's always good old fashioned greed; unfortunately this is a society without a middle class.  Social statuses of 0 or 1 are still commoners and cannot own land except under very limited circumstances.  A commoner's rights to own property and wealth are somewhat truncated compared to most nobles (taxation is very high).  But don't despair; there are several paths to nobility and one of them is flat buying a title.

The campaign TL is 1, bronze age.  One of the principality city states has achieved TL2 and there are a fair amount of TL3 items surviving from before the last zero time.

TL2 iron armor is made (x2 cost) but bronze armor is far more popular despite its 4x cost.  The reason (motive) is status.  Iron armor is more suited to mass issue to soldiers and city guards; bronze is a status symbol.  Recall that dressing and acting below your present social status can easily result in you becoming a member of that lower rank.

Iron weapons, on the other hand, are prized.  As are steel.  The TL3 steel weapons that have survived are nearly all highly decorated so will be far more expensive than the mere x4 TL differential.  This is because the weapons that are issued en masse aren't status symbols like swords but rather things like spears.

They All Hate Us

MS has an "interesting" code of conduct.

As I have said over and over, they hate us.  They only put up with us because we're a shit-ton of people with a shit-ton of money.  Given ANY excuse they will do anything they can to mess with our lives.

I don't recall any open carry demonstrations at the MicroSoft campus...

Meanwhile At Weer'd's

Good News On The Puppy Front!

The antibiotics worked better than expected and it's possible we won't have to have his tooth yanked!

Fingers crossed while we give it a couple weeks to see if the abscess returns.

Look Ma No Wires

Got a Logitech M570 wireless trackball.

The ratfuck bastards discontinued the wired version of this form factor and the only wired trackball they offer now is the Trackman Marble, which is a very comfortable pointing device, but it lacks a scroll wheel.  Excellent for CAD, shitty for everyday surfing.

Today is day one of the supposed 18 month battery life.

If the experiment goes well, The Lovely Harvey will be getting one too.

Happy Father's Day

...to me!

The Boy has been listening to The Lovely Harvey plotting to buy gifts for our 14th Anniversary.

That's Ivory for those scoring at home.

He knows I like guns, he sees Mom looking at stuff.

"Get Daddy those!"

Boone Trading Company bonded ivory grips for a 1911.

They do look fine on a blue .38 Super, don't they?

Abramski

"Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan said the federal government's elaborate system of background checks and record-keeping requirements help law enforcement investigate crimes by tracing guns to their buyers. Those provisions would mean little, she said, if a would-be gun buyer could evade them by simply getting another person to buy the gun and fill out the paperwork."

ABC News

Take note folks.  If the process wasn't including some sort of hidden registration then this paragraph would be meaningless noise.

Even if it is meaningless noise then we've got to get on our congress critters to deregulate the gun laws and get things to where ATF is only enforcing the law.

We need to get the NRA to get it's ponderous ass in gear and start grading a B for politicians who merely keep the status quo and only award the A's for those who actively, I say again ACTIVELY, advance gun rights and reverse the 80 years of bullshit we call the federal gun laws.

High Standard Of Training

From time to time the gun grabbers mention making training mandatory for owning a gun.

This bugs me because the only people who'll get the training are those who are planning on buying a gun.  In some places the training is only available to people who are in the process of buying that gun.

So a list could be made of the people with training and that should lead to gun owners.

I don't like that idea.

I do like the idea of people learning better how to use something with the inherent risks carried by firearms.  It's prudent to learn more about how they work and how to use them!

How to separate getting schooling from being a gun owner and that being a de facto registration?

It's in the first sentence.

Mandatory.

Everyone learns it.

Every year from K-12.

Your high-school diploma would be proof of training.  Give a tax break equal to your GPA too!

It'll never happen, but it's amusing to consider.