"Not Yours To GIve" -- The Video

I've posted the tesxt before, here's a video version!

Seen on Pistol-Forums.com.

Executive Summary

The Great Divide, illustrated:

Geek Humor

Seen on Facebook:

Even further winnage from Bruce Israel in comments::

I wonder if Shrodinger's cat could get out of the box by using Heisenberg and absolutely measuring his speed, resulting in him not knowing exactly where he was, and could therefore be outside the box?

I have the bestest wife in the world

The stud at about 2 o'clock is the lock.  There are small quartz chips in it, and the thumb stud.

Not sure how the reddish hue snuck in there.  Trick of the light.
Also, first time using the portable photo studio she bought a few months ago, maybe I did it wrong.

Yeah, I know, Gunny would prefer I had a Glock in there... Oh, well.

Merry Christmas

One for the troops:

Being away from home at the holidays sucks. There's usually an attempt made to make up for it, but even when you're in garrison in the States it hardly makes up for ti.  (Actually, being Stateside can be worse.)  So please remember that we still have thousands of troops in uniform away from home, many of them in places most people don't even think of.

Whether you want it or not...

This one is all over the Intardt00bz:

Please accept with no obligation, implicit or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practised within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with total respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, and their choice not to practise religious or secular traditions at all.

Additionally,

A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2014, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, sexual orientation, political disposition, country of origin and choice of smart phone, tablet device, gaming console, and computer platform of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is either revocable or limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This greeting void where prohibited by law.

Always a crowd-pleaser, that one. 

Or, as Michael Z. Williamson said recently on Facespace --apparently channeling Roger Zelazny:

May the god, goddess or other deity of your choice, or none at all, bless, curse or completely ignore you, as is appropriate to your belief system or lack of same, in accordance with your wishes, or theirs, or as blind chance may dictate.

Earworm, 12/24/2013

Not exactly Christmas-y, but I woke up with this rattling around my head:

Earworm 12/22/2013

Once again, for no discernible reason.

In college we used to hang out at the Fiddler's Green Pub and listen to Marty Burke* sing rebel songs, and whaling songs, and...  Well, whatever he felt like, but it suited us. Too bad Marty never cut an album "for sale", but somewhere I have some cassettes that were recorded live...


*The short bio at the link says Marty "knew Gordy Dickson and has been a GOH at many conventions over the years, as well as a Dorsai fan."  So, there we were,us and The Stilyagi Air Corps, and Marty says "Oh, look, another Science Fiction Author" and we yelled "Which one, Marty", cause we weren't attending meetings, and he says "Gordy" and I run back to the dorm to get my copy of "Naked To The Stars"...  Marty was the Guest of Honor at the very first FilkCon.

Self-inflicted Earworm

So, I'm sitting here with a cat in my lap and surfing, half-listening to some non-military show on The Military Channel about some lost city of ancient Egypt, and the narrator is talking about what a naughty man Pharaoh Ptolemy VIII was, and I suddenly realized I was singing to myself

I'm Ptolemy the Eighth I am,
Ptolemy the Eighth I am, I am...

And now you are, too.

You're welcome.

Bearcat gets her gun

Mentioned last month that Mrs. Drang had been looking at Star Model PD .45 ACP handguns.  They're nice and light, certainly lighter than her Star Firestar .40, and a little more compact than my Colt Combat Commander.

No PDs in sight at last weekend's gun show, but she did find nearly the same thing...

Star BKM, aluminum alloy framed 9MM; this is actually the gun the Star PD was designed after.  Being 9mm, it should be easier to shoot than the PD.

Unfortunately, there are fewer parts out there, compared to the PD.

It came with 2 mags, so we stopped next at one of the magazine vendors; an interesting contrast between what he had and what came with the gun:

The one with the steel follower came with the gun.  Not sure of brand of one with plastic follower...

A closer view:

Not sure it'll make a difference.  We'll see...

While the BKM, like the PD after it, is styled after the 1911, it is a little smaller. Here's a comparison between the BKM and my Combat Commander:

The Desecration of Smaug

Mrs. Drang and I went to see the second Hobbit movie Friday night.  I was going to write up the experience, but Daddy Bear saved me the trouble.



A note on the title of the post:  It's a device.  Despite having written a few term papers on The Lord Of The Rings for English classes in High School, I do not consider myself a die-hard Tolkein fan.  I quite enjoy reading Harvard Lampoon's Bored Of The Rings, and laugh at people who consider it or the "Secret Diary" websites that came out after the original LOTR movies to be some sort of heresy.

Earworm, 12/14/13

Brilliant!

At the gun show today, we stopped by the GettingPrepped table, as Mrs. Drang is putting together a care package for a deployed troop and wanted some of the "no water required bath towels" they sell.

Well, their source for those seems to have dried up, so to speak, but they have a new product that truely falls into the "Why didn't I think of that?!" category.
The Simple Shower

Photos from Simple Shower's web page:

Pretty good flow.

While Fido may not seem to be enjoying his shower, he's probably happier with it than he would be from the garden hose...

$10.00.  Available from Amazon, or from several retailers local to us.  (Including Getting Prepped, obviously.) We bought one for each BOB.

Assorted Geekery

I don't usually purchase beer, wine, or hard liquor based solely on the label.  But sometimes a clever name or image on the label will induce me to look closer, and I'll then purchase it.

What geek could resist this beer?

A closer look at the label art:

Beer for warriors:

The "Khukuri" is a product of the UK, by the way...

Also, gun show tomorrow, so I decided I'd see what the ammo supply is like at local stores, so I'd know if any gun show "deals" really are.

Now, I'm not superstitious, but I will confess that I am as ready to jump on someone for "jinxing us" as the next guy.  Part of this stems from my Army days when, sure as shooting, some jackass would comment on how nice the weather was, and it would instantly turn to shit.  Or, they would complain about the weather, and it would turn shittier.  (We got rained on at Ft. Irwin and 29 Palms.  You think rain in the desert is a Good Thing? Try it when you're sleeping on the ground and living out of your rucksack...)

Conversely, if one everyone was truly prepared for crappy weather, it seemed like it would not appear. (Coincidence that"m posting this on Friday the Thirteenth...)

Anyway.  Last week I noticed that my nice rag wool, thinsulate, and gore-tex watchcap that I've had longer than I've known Mrs. Drang was falling apart.

And today I discovered that Sportsman's Warehouse now stocks Stormy Kromer caps.  At the risk of jinxing us, I will say that, now that I have a wool cap designed by a railroad engineer, and made in Ironwood, MI, it will probably never get below freezing here again...

Coincidence?

Born on December the Thirteenth:

• Alvin York
• Ted Nugent

(The answer, of course, is "yes, it is.")

Happy birthday...

... Amazing Grace.

Heckuva view

Heckuva porch...

Time lapse video from the International Space Station.
That's Comet Lovejoy near the end.

I highly endorse embiggenating this to fill your biggest, best hi def screen.

"Task Force"

(Originally posted from my cell phone; typos corrected...)

Walked in on Task Force, with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, on TCM.  The movie follows the development of naval aviation from 1922 through WWII; I walked in on the aftermath of Midway.  The next scene was off Okinawa, so obviously I missed most of it.

Cooper was his usual self, convincing as the taciturn Man Of Action, less so when trying to show weakness.

Odd to see Walter Brennan in a role played straight...

I will say that they did a good job selecting "live" (Combat Camera) footage to use, no F4Fs in 1945, TBMs not TBFs, the Japanese aircraft really were, etc.

Found myself ID'ing aircraft by wing shape, landing gear, windscreen; guess some stuff never goes away...

Infamy

h/t Only Color Footage of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 12-07-1941 - The Federalist Papers

It's cold out there!

It's a good day to celebrate the Repeal of Prohibition with a Hot Buttered Rum:

Hot Buttered Rum Batter No. 1
1 lb Brown sugar
1/2 lb Butter, salted
1 tsp ground Nutmeg
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tsp ground Cloves
1 tsp ground white Cardamom
1 tsp Vanilla
Blend all ingredients in a food processor or mixer and store in the fridge or freezer. To make a drink add a shot of good dark rum along with 1 or 2 tbl spoons of batter to a mug of very hot water. Serve in Irish coffee cup.

If you can find cardamom pods, the cardamom itself will keep almost indefinitely.  Not that we found some cardamom pods in the pantry that predated our marriage or anything...

 Note: I have no idea where I found this recipe. If it is copyright, I invite the owner to contact me and I will remove it.

Stop ATF 41P!

Robb Allen has a good piece up from Florida Carry about the ATFEIEIO proposed rule (41P) making it harder for aw-abiding citizens to establish or become part of a trust to own certain firearms-related objects, including safety equipment like sound suppressors.

The comments period is closing shortly, and maybe we can drive a stake through this one in time...

Dear fellow geeks...

The SighFiFoFum Channel says they want our input.

Sign up here, if you think we can convince them to drop all the occult and rasseling shows...: Viewer's Voice