Good

From The Book of Eli



Good flick, good message, good soundtrack. I need to see it again.

Rush Day!

Professor Mondo points out that today is 2-1-12, or 2112, the name of one of Rush's songs/albums from their epic Prog-Rock days.

Here's to those wacky libertarian Canadian rockers!

CRKT M16

Via Linoge's Soldiers' Angels fundraiser and giveaway, yesterday I came in to possession of a splendid little knife (well, biggish knife) from Columbia River Knife and Tool, a (an?) M16-13z.  A nice bright spot in an otherwise rather dismal day.  Because I like companies that support great charities like Soldiers' Angels, here's a little bit of free advertising for CRKT, in the form of some pictures and my initial impressions of the knife (note: did you see what I just did there, FCC FTC FAA FAC et al?  That's all you're going to get from me today. Go suck eggs.)

So let's see... zytel grips, spear point partially serrated 3.5" blade that flips out via a little lever (not spring powered, mind you), their "autolawks" locking system.  Sort of a diamond shaped blade, with a satin finish and a slightly off-centered edge (though very sharp), which I'm not sure the purpose of. Nice solid knife. Not huge, but big enough (and I guess big enough to count as a "weapon" in some jurisdictions, huh?).  Only thing to possibly disagree with is that it was made in Taiwan.  Some people care about that more than others, and I like to try sticking with Made in USA products, but it's hard to argue with quality, which this knife has in spades. But I thought I would mention it.

Put up next to my old standby, a Kershaw Scallion, you can see the size better:

The autolawks system is an extra little lever that blocks the liner lock until you pull it back, just an extra layer of safety, I guess, to keep the blade from coming closed on your fingers.

When closed, the blade snaps into place with what feels like a little detent of some sort to keep it from just flipping open in your pocket.  When you push on the lever (the protrusion with the hole through it in the above picture) it overcomes whatever it is that holds the blade in place and swings the blade out.  Depending on the position you are holding the knife, it may swing all the way open and lock, or you may need to give it a little flick to get it to go all the way.  When it's open, the lever acts as a bit of a finger guard to keep you from slipping up the handle.  Similar to how the Kershaw works, but without the spring power.

So to sum up, I like this knife very much. It fills a niche in my collection (a larger folder) that I was previously lacking.  Many thanks to Linoge for running the fundraiser for Soldiers' Angels, and to CRKT for providing this great knife as a prize.

A sad love song

Gaelic Storm is another one of those bands that probably should have been on my list of most listened to the other day. This song is particularly moving, I think.

Though the background picture in the video is from the wrong album.

Quote of the Day

"I am sick and tired of Bloomberg demonizing gun owners. Any politician that would get up in front of a microphone and outright lie to the media about an innocent victim of his Draconian firearms policies is unworthy of holding public office. Every mayor who belongs to Bloomberg's anti-gun-rights Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition should be embarrassed by his remarks and seriously reconsider their membership in his organization. The only thing worse than Bloomberg's New York gun laws is Bloomberg himself. If Bloomberg ever had any credibility at all it no longer exists. His deliberate slander of Meredith Graves is reprehensible, and he should be ashamed."

Alan Gottlieb, in the SAF's latest press release.

Hey Mayor Bloomberg? I think the technical term for that is "PWND, NOOB!"

Another sunrise

From this morning:

As they say in Colorado, "If God isn't a Broncos fan, then why does he make the sunrise blue and orange?"

Is a chicken a particle or a wave?

Or even, BOTH?



Minecraft+physics=awesome!

Familiar meme, with a twist

Butch Cassidy posts about not all of what is in his pockets, but the three items he uses the most.

In my case it is my Kershaw Leek, my Droid X, and my little Key-Mate light. Much like a pocket knife, I never realized how often a flashlight comes in handy until I started carrying one around all the time.

You?

Bushmaster ORC: Next Steps

About a week has passed, and this is what my rifle looks like now:

Magpul MOE handguard and grip, a couple P-Mags, and a Vortex Strikefire red/green dot scope.

I really like the feel of the Magpul stuff--the stock handguard was loose, as I mentioned in my first post, and I really dislike grips on any gun that have finger grooves, leading to the elimination of the stock grip.  The MOE handguard is nice and tight, with no slop that I can feel; though it is meant for an AR-15, with just a little bit of tweaking (had to bend the two rearmost metal tabs inward just a titch to get it to go on), it was a drop in part.  The MOE grip doesn't have finger grooves, is a little bit fatter than the stock grip, and has a nice, slightly rough surface, as well as having a snap out core to store random stuff in.  I should mention that I chose "foliage green" for absolutely no reason whatsoever. The P-Mags snap in and fall out easily, a great improvement over the magazine that came with the gun, which fits in the magwell too tight.

I decided to go with the Vortex red dot because it was the fastest, least inexpensive way for me to get into the game.  Time will tell how it holds up under recoil, but Vortex seems to have a good customer service reputation, so hopefully it won't all end in tears.  If all else fails it can go on another gun.

Next on the list is hunting down my friend with the range membership to get it out in the real world, then (in a couple pay periods from now, for sure) comes some sort of iron sights (I still haven't decided whether to get the clamp on front iron sight that Bushmaster sells (about halfway down the page here) or to switch out the gas block entirely for a railed one.  Then, a nicer stock, then a telescopic scope.  And dashed liberally in between all those steps, a ton of .308 Winchester. And maybe a nicer sling than the bit of nylon webbing it came with.  And probably a bayonet, since it has a lug for one.

As always, I welcome any thoughts or advice, and offer no guarantees that I will follow any of it.

And, I will just say, I am probably having more fun with this than is strictly necessary.


Insert Standard Disclaimer here: FCC FTC FAA FFA FGH FAC F ET AL.: You'd think you guys would get the idea that blogger write about stuff for the simple reason they like to show off their cool toys, not because there is some sort of grand conspiracy of being bought out by the companies who make the products they write about.  But, I guess not.  Go suck eggs.

Funny how that works

kx59 was talking to me about headers, and it made me want to make a new one.  So in honor of all you giant awesome robots out there who undoubtedly read my blog, here it is.  Don't worry, I can't seem to keep the same header for more than a month, so it will probably change soon if you don't like it.

A new toy

My mother recently expressed an interest in having some sort of pocket knife to carry around with her, a sentiment with which I heartily agreed.  However, being a school district employee (a school district which does allow knives under 3 inches, but...) I decided that it would probably be prudent to find something "cute and nonthreatening."  I purchased two knives to give her a choice, a small Classic Swiss Army Knife (which she chose), and the knife that is going to be talked about here, a Spyderco Honeybee (which I got to keep--what fun!).

I've been wanting a very little pocket knife for some time, for those occasions where one pocket clipped to your pants might not be appropriate (though truthfully I'm not sure what occasion that might be...), and this one fits the bill admirably.  Here you can see it next to my old standby, a Kershaw Chive:

Cute little bugger, huh? It has about an 1.5 inch slip-joint (no lock) blade--they make one that's even smaller, which is getting into "ridiculous" territory.  It is very sharp--probably the sharpest factory edge I've ever seen.

It is engraved with the Spyderco logo on the side, and the blade says "Spyderco" on one side and "China" on the other.  That was the only downside to this knife, the made in China business.  I've been looking and looking, but to find a small knife like this that is made in America you a going to be paying 4-5 times as much as the sub-$10 I paid for this one.

A good quality small knife, nice enough to use, cheap enough to abuse. Hard to complain about that.

Added: here's another picture to show a little better how small it is:

Beltman Belt: Year After

So it was exactly one year ago that I wrote my initial review on a Beltman belt.  Since Butch reminded me about it with his post the other day, I figured now was a good time for a long term update.  I've worn it probably 85% of the days in between then and now, though I haven't always had a gun on it (as I switched mainly to the SW642 over the summer, and occasionally didn't wear this belt then). I am still surprised how comfortable it is every time I put it on.

The belt itself has been broken in over the last year, to the classic "belt banana" shape.

There is a small amount of wear around the buckle region, superficial, but there is no sign of cracked leather or anything like actual damage.

I put Obenauf's on it occasionally, which keeps it in good condition and keeps the squeaks down.  I also loctited the screws holding on the buckle, as suggested by the maker.  For everyone out there who carries a firearm on their belt and who don't have something like this belt, I really really, really urge you to try something specifically made for the purpose.  It makes life so much more comfortable, which in turn makes you much more likely to carry, which was the whole point of the exercise to begin with.

And while I'm on the subject, and because Butch asked, I'll throw up a couple pictures of the "BLACKHAWK! Leather Compact Askins-style" holster I use for my XD.

A few dings on it here and there and the belt loops have stretched a bit to fit the thick leather of the belt, but still fits tight and secure, and holds in the XD, even though games of hackey-sack and such.  While I realize now that I coulda/shoulda/woulda bought a custom leather holster of greater beauty for not much more money, this is a quality product, it's what I have, and I would have no qualms recommending it to anyone else.

And for the FCC/FTC/FAA/FBI/FAC/FETCETERA:  My stuff.  Money was earned, money was exchanged, for products, and life went on.  Not that you would have any idea about real life, you useless, big brotherly, government hacks.

Photodump: Lake Powell

We got to the lake just as the sun was going down, and my uncle picked us up in his little purple speedboat. Unfourtunately it was too dark by that time to really see any of the landscape; the moon on the water was the only thing visible.

But the next morning when the sun came up...

Blue water, blue skies, and only red rocks and sand in between them. 

There's the little houseboat--just big enough. We had a party of four adults and one cute little girl (seriously--only four years old, but she was hilarious), and we were comfortable, but there are four bunks, two fold-down couch/bed things, you could sleep under the awning up top, or you could even pitch a tent on the beach if you aren't afraid of coyotes.  Enough room for as many friends as you want to bring, or as few.

Miles and miles of canyons.  Lake Powell, when it's full, actually has a larger coast line (around 1900 miles) than the entire west coast of the US (around 1200 miles).  It's really amazing to see.

A (slightly blurry) cormorant in Halls Bay, where we camped for most of the time.  My uncle, the mechanic of old vehicles he is, pointed out that the logo of Packard Motor Car Company had a cormorant in it.

And this guy kept buzzing us as we puttered around in the purple boat one day.  He was doing touch and gos. I love me some piper cubs and I love me some seaplanes--so I have more pictures of this than could be considered perfectly reasonable...

We camped next to this little rock, so I had to go out on top of it.

The water was somewhere around 74 degrees, definitely on the chilly side, but not so much so that you couldn't go swimming for a while before the cold got to you.  And you couldn't have asked for nicer weather, with hardly a cloud in the sky, highs of around 80, and lows in the 50's. 

And here, in Lost Eden Canyon, there's a really cool overhang/amphitheater thing the water is still a couple hundred feet deep under there, so we just bobbed along marveling at it for a little while.

The formation on the west side of Halls Bay, where we camped, is called Waterpocket Fold, because of all the slick rock potholes that collect water, and stay wet even in the summer.  This arch was only a short hike up from our campsite.  And you can barely see my uncle waving back at me from on top of it.

Behind the arch are a bunch of the water filled potholes, which just keep going up the drainage in a string like that.  Saw a few little froggies living in the holes.

And, in the southwest, where there are canyons, there are indian ruins.  This place is called Defiance House, and consists of several of stone dwellings and a kiva up on top of a rubble pile under an overhanging cliff, near the end of the water in Forgotten Canyon.

We also stopped to look at this (you may need to click on the photo to see what I'm talking about).  There are some foot holds carved into the rock right here that come right up from the water and go up the cliff.  My uncle said that he once had himself dropped off there and he climbed up it--at the top are a bunch of areas that were obviously farmed by the natives way in the past.  There are little square plots of dirt, no more than an acre, and channels cut from more potholes for irrigation.  I would have liked to have climbed up myself, but we were running out of daylight and still a ways out from the houseboat.

This past year's runoff was exceptionally good (you've heard me talking on and on about how high the Colorado has been in town here, remember?), the lake hasn't been this high in many years--only about 30 feet down from high water.  This makes it much easier to get to and from some of these places, where in the recent past it has been necessary to bushwack through miles of tamarisk to get to any of these things. On the one hand, I can see why environmentalists consider Lake Powell to be some sort of disaster--it really is equivalent to flooding the Grand Canyon--but on the other hand having a lake and a boat makes everything so much more accessible.  And there's that whole "electricity" thing that Glen Canyon Dam does for us.  TANSTAAFL.

Speaking of free lunches, in return for all the fun times, this was the last outing for the year of the little houseboat, so we had to help clean it up and winterize it.  It's now tied to a buoy in Bullfrog, awaiting next year's adventures.  Sadly, many of its buoy-mates' owners seem to have fallen on hard times, what with the economy and all. People are deciding it's cheaper to give up their dreams and let the boats rot, rust and sink away, forfeiting them for the marina to deal with.  Kind of sad, really.

And speaking of lunches, boy did we eat like kings.  My uncle was expecting a few more people than we ended up with, so between the steak, barbeque pork, and bleu cheese hamburgers, we were all expected to drink up the large supply of beer, gin, cheap tequila, and rum. Well, all of us but the cute little girl.  And with Radio Margaritaville on the satellite radio, we did our best.  I think I gained 5 pounds.

So that was my pretty neat spur of the moment vacation from last weekend.  Hope you're at least a little envious; otherwise I didn't do a good enough job writing this all out!

Books of 2011: Dragaera

You probably thought that I've given up reading, haven't you? Actually, I've just been waiting for an opportune moment! to strike! This one was important to me.

...

Let me ask you: can you tell a who is a Steven Brust fanboi by looking at this picture?

With Vlad Taltos:

Included in The Book of Jhereg: Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla
Included in The Book of Taltos: Taltos and Phoenix
Included in The Book of Athyra: Athyra and Orca
Dragon
Issola
Dzur
Jhegaala
Iorich
Tiassa (the only one not in the picture, as I got it from the library and don't own it yet)

The Khaavren Romances:

The Phoenix Guards
Five Hundred Years After
The Viscount of Adrilankha, which includes The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode

And The Brokedown Palace standalone

...

What do I say about some universe that I own nearly all of the books of? How do I sum up something that I enjoy so much and try to make you interested in it? Well, here goes nothing...

Dragaera is a world with two main races, humans, who are actually humans, but called easterners by the dragaerans (because they come from the east), and dragaerans, who call themselves humans, but who the humans call elves (and who come from The Empire. say it with the capital letters). Oh, and one more thing, dragaerans live several thousand years, while easterners are just regular humans. Did any of that make sense? Anyway, as a swashbuckler fantasy, there are swords and magic and Halls of the Gods and much buckle swashing. That's the setting.

So then in the Vlad Taltos series, we follow an easterner named Vlad Talos, who through a series of foolish moves by his father, is also a citizen of The Empire and a member of one of the Dragaeran houses, of which there are 17, and which are all named after some animal of Dragaera. Specifically, though, Vlad is a member of the only house that cares more about money than appearances, House Jhereg, which is sort of the organized crime syndicate of The Empire. As an easterner, Vlad has learned how to use "witchcraft," and has a familiar named Loiosh, who is a smartass Jhereg (which are small flying scavenger lizards, not dragons) and as a citizen of The Empire is also able to use dragaeran "sorcery" which is more of the traditional fatasy magic. Vlad is a small time boss in the organization, and on the side is a pretty good assassin. Much hijinks and witty dialogue ensue, etc, etc.

In the Khaavren Romances, we follow a character who is only briefly mentioned  in the Vlad novels, Lord Khaavren, who at the time of the Vlad novels is the Empress's head of the Guard.  The Khaavren Romances, however, written in the verbose form of Alexandre Dumas, take place somewhere around 1000 years in the past from Vlad, and follow Khaavren's rise to fame through the fall and rebirth of The Empire during its 17th Phoenix cycle (it's complicated).  I know that the wordy style can be an acquired taste, but I find it really funny.  These are very swashbuckly, and it's fun to see some ot the characters you've gotten used to from the Vlad series written in a completely different style.

The Brokedown Palace is completely separate story, set in the East during a time of change for the Kingdom of Fenario.  It is really hard to explain.  Just be sure that you read this one after you've got some of the other ones under your belt, or else you will miss about a thousand foreshadowings and references.  Many theories abound at when it takes place in relation to the Vlad stories, and how certain other characters are related to Vlad and his acquaintances.

And that brings me right in to one of the best things about Steven Brust's Dragaera stories.  Everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--is connected and related.  Vlad starts to explain a story in book and decides not to finish, and you wonder what happened, and then three books later he finishes it.  Or a small object mentioned in passing becomes a major plot item many years down the story line.  And it's all the more amazing considering that the first novel was first published in 1983!  I have no idea how Mr. Brust keeps all the details straight in his head, or even how he keeps them in his head.  And it's even more amazing on top of that that the stories are written all out of order.

So there you have it, one of my absolute favorites.  I highly recommend that you go out and search them down.

Ahoy! Here there be knife memes

Cap'n Weer'd Beard brings news of an exciting meme, one that cuts deep near me black heart. "What is it" ask ye? It be "Whip out whatever pocket knife be in yer pantaloon pockets!" How could I resist such a meme?

What ye see here be me wee Kershaw--as fine a folder as ye ever did see. This item I looted from a sporting goods store in the cold land of Montana back when I was but a wet behind the ears lowly college crewman. It has served me well in the past five years, as faithful a servant as can be found! What be in yer pocket?

Things that give me a perverse sense of joy

Passing the white-haired hippies in the Toyota Prius Mk I with the back plastered in "Make peace, not war" bumper-stickers in my much larger pickup truck with the "Peace through superior firepower" sticker.

I take whatever that is awesome you have seen today and raise it by the power of LEGO

Proud winner of today's "T-T-T-ToooOOO Much! Time On My HaaaAAAnds!" award:



43280 parts. 180 pounds. Made entirely out of LEGO's, no superglue no internal frame.\

Wow. Just, wow.

Books of 2011: Monster Hunter Alpha

I read Larry Correia's latest MHI book, Monster Hunter Alpha, over the weekend.  We get to see Earl Harbinger away from his teams, in a small Northern Michigan town, dealing with an outbreak of the supernatural.  It was great, though I missed Owen and Milo and Skippy and all the rest.  And dammit now I need the next one to come out. And I think now I need to go back and re-read Vendetta.

9/10, with one dinged off for [redacted, spoiler].

This is the high life

It's 95 degrees out, the garden's watered, the dogs are walked, and I finally found a store in town that was selling Fever Tree tonic water. With a little Tanqueray and a lime, and a fancy phone with built in image editor:

Now, if I could just ignore the news, like 90% of the population of the US seems to do, I could truly say that life is good.

Great music from a great film

Back when I first saw it, Spirited Away was the first (and only) movie I ever saw that I sat down to and didn't move a muscle until the end. Quite amazing. Half of the magic was from the score.



It's not often that I agree (or even pay attention to) the Oscar award, but I have to say that this movie certainly deserved the one it won.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  And all of Hayao Miyazaki's other films.