Guns, Cars, and Tech

Author: oddball

  • How not to impress folks that will write about you

    I will write a general round up of NRAAM soon, but I feel the need to get something off my chest first.

    If you’ve already listened to this past week’s Gun Blogger Variety Cast, you’d already know that Erin Palette had a “less than favorable” interaction with a certain Taurus representative.  I would like to say that I was with her at that time, and I was the friend that was still standing there when she felt the need to walk away.

    For those of you that haven’t listened, shortly after we walked up to the Taurus booth, one of their representatives wearing a suit (which usually denotes being higher up in the food chain than the normal guys in polo shirts) started talking to us.  I believe his name was Kim Kyle and was the Florida sales rep.  I’m pretty sure that he quickly figured out that we were both bloggers, since we were both wearing our respective versions of “I R SRS GUNBLGGR” T-shirts, had media badges, and had our respective websites printed on our badges.

    He almost instantly started on a 5-10 minute rant about how evil and mean gun bloggers were, and how we only spew lies.  I tried to give him a couple outs, since I know that there are many out there that bash Taurus because that’s what all the cool kids do, and not because they’ve had bad experiences/done research/etc.  They’re not the only company that has that issue.  Some deserve it, and some don’t, and I have been giving them the benefit of the doubt.  He failed to act like I might be different.  Thanks to Taurus’ sales rep, I have learned that they do not wish to have the benefit of the doubt, nor would they like my good will, business, or recommendations to others.

    Oh, and I very much was considering buying one of their products in the near future (the PT-22), but it looks like I will be spending about $100 more on a Beretta Bobcat instead because I’m not a fan of giving money to companies whose representative talk shit about me to my face.  I will also no longer even consider telling people to consider buying a Taurus… something that I’m asked on a regular basis.

    Taurus, you can thank your Florida sales rep for the loss of my business, and the business of those that trust my opinion.

  • A little more info for those coming to the NRAAM

    I figured I’d add a little bit of an addendum to Wizard’s Urgent Reminder:

    1.  Nashville is essentially in a giant bowl.  The only way to get out and not go up hill is pretty much to jump in the river (I do not recommend jumping in the Cumberland).  This means that Nashville is one of the worst places in the country for allergies due to lack of air circulation beyond this bowl.  This being the beginning of Spring, and the trees liking to fornicate, everything currently has a lovely pollen yellow/green coating.  Oh, and the prediction is for Friday and Saturday to BE WORSE.  If you have allergies at all, remember to pack your Sudefed or other medication of choice.

    2.  The Nashville Convention Center and the Music City Center are two different places.  NRAAM is at the Music City Center.  The good news is that, if you go to the wrong one, you’ll only be a couple blocks away.

    3.  Please note that Nashville has decided that it’s best to just go ahead and close down a couple major roads downtown due to the convention.  Yes, these are roads remarkably close to the convention center.  Please plan accordingly.

    4.  Hope you guys have fun, and I’ll hopefully see a number of you there.

  • Well… good.

    Looks like the “guns in local parks” bill in TN passed the house earlier today.  The senate is set to vote on it in the morning.  Interestingly enough, this bill states that it will take effect upon passing, so, assuming Governor Haslam signs off in a timely manner, it will take effect before the NRAAM.

    Of course, he’s said that he’s against it, so I predict that he waits as long as he can before signing.

    Oh, here’s a link to the story.

  • Yeah… no.

    A left-wing buddy of mine posted a link to this article on Facebook and stated “I can’t wait to learn if this was a permit-holding ‘responsible’ gun owner.”

    I was able to quickly tell him “uh… no.”

    See… as the law stands right now in the state of Tennessee, you can’t legally carry without a permit, which you can’t obtain until you’re 21, and the guy was 19.  Oh, and he was carrying while in a Davidson County park, which, while we’re trying to change that, is currently illegal even if you have a permit.  Throw on top of that that he’s carrying without a holster (if you believe the story), which is one of those stupid things that folks that are carrying legally tend not to do, and since he’s 19 and in a low-income high-crime area, I’d guess that he probably didn’t acquire the firearm in a totally legal fashion.

    Of course, the story of “he was minding my own business, playing with my cat, when his gun fell out of his pocket, went off, and shot him in the head” reeks of choir boy syndrome to me.  My guess is that he was a gangbanger who got shot while playing with other gangbangers, and well… he and his buddies “ain’t no snitch.”

  • EDC knife: never leave home without it

    I was helping a friend pull an engine from the local junk yard for his truck this weekend.  This typically means that you’re going to have to cut a couple hoses and a belt or two.  It was also useful to push the valve to check to see if the A/C system was still pressurized.  Of the 4 of us there (which included an actually trained mechanic and a guy best described as a “maker”), I was the only one there with a knife at hand.  I believe my buddy mentioned something about having some cutters somewhere in his tool bag, but I had the cutting job done before he could reach for it.

    It always amazes me at the number of folks that don’t carry a pocket knife with them.  Whether it be a Victorinox Swiss Army knife, or something more sturdy and single purpose, like my Spyderco Endura.

    I’m a big believer that, unless you’re in a location where carrying such things are barred by law, you should always have a good EDC knife on you.  I know some people love carrying specialized fighting knives like the Kabar TDI (I believe that’s what Erin likes to carry), which is great, but I tend to think of EDC knives as more multipurpose than that.

    My Endura has been used for everything from the example above, to opening boxes, to cutting up fruit, to cutting and serving a cake.  While I haven’t been required to use it in self-defense, it is a favorite of the martial artists I know and I’m confident that it will stand up to that task.

    If you don’t already have and carry one, it’s one of the most useful things that you could possibly carry in your pocket.  While you can spend big bucks on a Benchmade, high end Cold Steel, or Spyderco blades (hey, $70 is a lot to some folks.  I know I resisted dropping that money on a knife), you can also get perfectly good blades for less (I’d recommend CRKT or Kershaw).  I’d also highly recommend a locking blade, and, if you’re going to carry it in your pocket, you probably don’t want a blade over 4 inches.

  • Testing the waters

    So… I should have probably posted something about this earlier but…

    Anyone interested in another Bidet Shoot in June?

  • So… assault weapon laws aren’t new

    In case you guys didn’t know, I’m a pretty big fan of knives, swords, and other weapons that predate the gun.  As such, one of the Youtube folks I watch is Lindybeige, and came across this video on the Messer:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLcsvw8rw0&w=560&h=315]

    The part I found interesting is right at the beginning of the video.  Apparently, it was illegal in Germany for most people to wander the streets with a sword.  Not terribly surprising.  What was surprising to me was that apparently the Germans had defined a sword in such a way that the messer was, legally speaking, not a sword.  The reason?  It hand a knife handle on it instead of a sword hilt.

    Anyone else instantly make the connection to the modern assault weapons bans where one rifle is ok because it has a traditional rifle grip on it, but another is evil because it has a pistol grip?  Or better yet, my Beretta Cx4 that has a “thumb hole grip” that I can stick my entire hand through, and isn’t a pistol grip because of a thin piece of plastic?

    Yep… making things illegal because they’re scary looking/designed for the military has been going on for centuries.

  • Time to go hug your family and friends

    I’m hoping that your family and friends are having a better Christmas season than mine are.

    Just got news that one of my friends had a stroke last night.  He’s in the hospital, and the doctors are saying that he probably has 3 or 4 days to live.

    A friend of a friend is in the beginning stages of a divorce with an abusive husband.  She’s taken out an order of protection on him, and had to call the cops on him a couple times in the past couple months.  Oh, and that includes when he kicked the driver’s side door hard enough to leave damage while she was in the car and then take off with their 3 year old kid a couple days ago.  I’ll be meeting with her in the morning to go over some hand-to-hand self defense stuff, and maybe get her going on buying a gun (the gun thing *will* happen, it’s just a question of when).

    Hope you’re having a less eventful.  Excuse while I go hug my wife.

  • ’tis the Season

    Well… since it seems like all the cool people (ok… maybe just Borepatch) is posting Christmas music, so here’s mine:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-Mce9VpmY&w=420&h=315]

    I was going to post “Christmas at Ground Zero,” but I think someone beat me to that one.

  • Sometimes it’s the little things.

    This past Tuesday night, I saw a post on a buddy’s FaceBook page that his computer’s CPU fan had died, and he was wondering if anyone knew where he could get a new one locally for cheap.  It was an older chipset (AMD socket 939), so he was thinking he might have serious issues finding one.  I replied that I might have one that he can have, made a not to look for one the next morning, and called it a night.

    The next morning (ok, closer to noon), I was checking FaceBook, and he had posted that he had check several places nearby for a new fan with no luck.  He was rather upset that ordering one would mean (at best) no fan until Monday afternoon (due to it being Thanksgiving evening).  I quickly found the part in my computer graveyard, shot him a message, and went over to his place to install it for him.  That’s when I found out why it was such a big deal.

    I knew that he had been put on disability a few years back, and had to move out of his own apartment, and back in with his parent’s place.  Obviously, that’s not a great situation to begin with, and adding serious clinical depression into the mix just makes it worse.  I didn’t know about the situation with his brother.

    Apparently, his brother had also struggled with depression.  Unfortunately, he turned to illicit drugs to deal with it.  Later, he apparently started throwing alcohol into the mix.  My buddy’s brother ended up OD’ing and dying in his old room at his parent’s place on Thanksgiving two years ago.

    So… you can imagine that he wasn’t exactly looking forward to this holiday weekend.

    My buddy’s particular escape/coping mechanism of choice is video games.  While having his computer capable of playing games taken away for a few days would normally be a “well, damned.  That sucks,” it was a devastating notion this particular week.  Me coming over with the needed part was a small miracle in his eyes.

    Just thought I’d share this story.  Sometimes doing something nice that means little to you can mean the world to someone else.