Guns, Cars, and Tech

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  • Quick notes from my first Appleseed Shoot

    I had the pleasure to shoot my first Appleseed this weekend. I’ll leave the more in-depth review to others who where there, but here are some quick things I learned.

    • When they say you need a GI Sling, they mean you need an M-1 Garand sling, not some crappy 3-point you bought 5 years ago. The GI Sling has a loop in it that I can’t really describe (due to not personally having one) that allows you to disconnect the rear sling point and wrap it around your arm so that you get good support structure in prone. I didn’t have that, so I shot hasty-sling all weekend.
    • QD Sling swivels are awesome. I also discovered that the rail-mounted sling adapter I’ve had for years actually has a QD sling point, which was neat. (It is this one, though I don’t see myself having paid $40 for it.)
    • Use a 10/22. With a scope.
    • When they say you need a shooting mat, they really mean a Shooting Mat–not a doubled-up comforter or some foam padding. My ribs started digging in about 2/3 of the way through day 1, and I have a visible bruise.
    • Bring a bore snake and some CLP
    • My abdominal muscles hurt today. I suspect that means I wasn’t doing something right
    • My shoulder also hurts. 500+ rounds of .22 with no rubber pad seems to have taken a toll, though I’m not sure I’m ready to admit that. Also: I’m not as young as I used to be.
    • From a training perspective, you can skip Day 2 if you’re on the fence about attending one of these events but don’t want to dedicate an entire weekend. There is no additional instruction on Day 2…just repetition. Go if you can, it’s useful.
    • The history lessons were awesome.

    The shoot boss told us that next year they’re planning on having some events at a range that’s about a half mile from my house. I almost qualified twice, so I really want to get back and do it.

  • Robb needs something for his birthday

    And no, it’s not pants.

  • Monster Hunter International RPG?

    Shut up and take my money!

    (unlike Rob, I do play such games)

  • They lurk… in the shadows…

    So, I’m up here at my company’s office up in the Boston area, and a couple of my coworkers come down the hall discussing the Fast and Furious debacle. One of them is skeptical that the thing is real, so I jump in on the side of reality (not too hard, but a “yes, it exists,” here and a “it doesn’t fit the media’s view on the world” there.

    As they break up, I mention to the guy that I was defending that I’m a bit of a gun nut, so I follow that stuff pretty closely. He responds in hushed tones that he’s into guns, but has to be careful who he tells up here. We quietly talk for a bit about such things, and I tell him that if he makes it to Nashville to let me know and I’ll take him to the range to play with my toys.

    Turns out he’s already scheduled to come down in December… I’m thinking he’s adjusting his travel plans so that we can get some range time.

  • Quick weekend wrap-up

    We had one of those bachelor parties where me commenting that I had a tarp, 100′ of paracord, and duct tape in the car was perfectly appropriate for the conversation.

  • Now I remember why I stopped doing this

    That new server I’m building?

    Won’t boot. No POST, no beeps (and I had to drive all around town looking for a PC Speaker since for some reason Gigabyte doesn’t include an on-board speaker. WTF?)

    There are rumblings on the intertubes that even though Gigabyte says the CPU I bought is compatible with this motherboard, it’s only compatible after you do a firmware update.

    Which you can’t do unless you have a compatible CPU.

    So I guess I’m going to see if Amazon will take this board back.

  • So… busy week coming up… Anyone in the Boston area want to get together?

    Naienko is very happy about this, but starting tomorrow night, the only time she’s going to see me for ten days is when she’s dropping me off and picking me up from the airport.

    This weekend, a buddy of mine is having a truly geeky bachelor party.  None of us are really into the bar hopping scene, so we’re going to shut ourselves up at the house of one of the groomsmen, drink, play games, and watch bad movies all weekend.  There was talking of maybe getting some strippers, but the owner of the house said, and I quote, “if I have to clean up stripper juice, I’m gonna have to cut a bitch.”  There are talks of making T-shirts with that on it.

    I’m going to have to abandon that party Sunday morning to catch a flight to Boston for work, and fly back on Friday evening to drive down to Manchester for Project Appleseed.

    Speaking of Massachusetts, and believe there’s a couple of folks from that area that read this.  I know it’s short notice, and I’ll only be up there during the week, but any of you guys want to try to get together for dinner?  I don’t know exactly where you guys are, but I’ll be staying in Lowell.

  • It’s like something from a crime drama

    CSI:Rural TN.

    Yesterday, the big story around here was that 4 people died in a house fire. It was a couple in their 70s and their two grandchildren. In one of the stories I read, the sheriff said that it was difficult getting to one of the children’s bodies because he was special needs. They reported that the had recovered all the remains.

    Until today.

    Now, the TBI and local law enforcement are saying they haven’t found the children and have issued a missing persons alert. The ATF is involved, presumably because the TBI found evidence of arson. Or they’re trying to justify their existence. Hard to tell.

    Note in the first article that one of the family dogs was running down the driveway on fire when the firetrucks got there. That says accelerant to me, but I’m just a layperson who liked to set fire to things as a child.

    Conspicuously absent from the coverage is any mention of the children’s parents, or why the kids had been living with their grandparents for the last five years.

  • Brown Truck of Happiness!

    I’ve gotten a couple of delivery notifications today. I think all my stuff is in for the new media server.

    Based on the comments to the last post, I’m guessing there is a desire for a write-up on how I actually put the thing together?

  • Just on the off chance anyone has a yahoo mail account…

    I just got an identical spam email from two email accounts belonging to friends.  I don’t have any confirmation from tech news sites, but it looks to me that Yahoo email passwords have been compromised.  If you have one, I’d change your password just to be safe.