If YOU get caught selling counterfeit goods, expect to get raided, your stuff to get confiscated, and spend some time in prison.
If a Detective gets caught selling counterfeit goods, expect them to keep their jobs while authorities decide whether or not to demote them. Jailtime is for those other people.
Please update your scorecards.
First off, just want to thank Wizard for letting me play in his sandbox. I’ve been lurking around a number of gun blogs for a couple years now, yadda yadda yadda…
Ok, now that that’s over with, on with the actual post.
Back in January, I picked up a Springfield XDm compact in 9mm for when I finally get my rear in gear and get my carry permit. I enjoy the gun. The only complaint I really have is that, since it’s such a new model, it’s damn near impossible to find magazines for it besides ordering from the factory. I can find the full-sized mags in some shops, but none of the grip extension sleeves. Oh, and Springfield ran a special right before and right after I bought it where they would give you 3 more mags… grr.
Anyways, I was shooting it a few weeks ago at a shoot after a hacker con here in town. No problems other than my usual bad aim when I pull the trigger and the report felt and sounded wrong, plus my face was sprayed by… something. I froze as I waited for my hands to start letting me know that something was wrong. Fortunately, there was nothing to report. Next was “did I have a squib load?” no… I saw the bullet strike the target.
I finally actually inspected the gun. The slide was forward, but jammed up tight due to the slide release being on the wrong side of the slide. The RSO saw me wrestling with it and came over to investigate. Between the two of us and some percussive maintenance, we got the slide open to find this:
Apparently I had a round with a weak casing, which blew out. This was a new manufactured Monarch brand (Academy’s bargin brand) round. I’ve shot thousands of this brand of various calibers, so I think I just got the one in a million bad round.
After getting the slide off, I was able to get the slide release back in it’s channel and working. I reassembled the pistol, and the RSO and I both inspected the pistol for damage. It’s probably a sign of something that I was then willing to try some more rounds through it. So far, I’ve put about 100 rounds through my gun without incident since then. I guess I would say that’s a pretty good indicator of the quality of the XDm!
Oddball and I go way back. He and I ran in the same circles in high school, and we think we might have run into each other back then. We really started hanging out about 7 years ago when I moved back to Nashville and started getting involved with a local group of geeks.
When I started this blog, I knew from day one that I’d bring him on eventually. He’s the guy that helps me put on “New Shooter Range Day” and I often ask him to join me when I’m taking someone new to the range. His firearms focus is more from the historical perspective than mine (his only EBRs were bought from me). Loves his Nagant and .22lr revolver.
He also loves his cars. I’ll let him tell you about his Fiero.
And of course, since I met him through a group that puts on a hacker convention every year, he’s got mad tech skills, too!
My goal for 2011 was to get a suppressor. That’s still in progress, but I’ll call that a success.
My goal for 2012?
Take as much training as I can. Cool guy gear is nice, but being able to run what you brung is more important IMHO. I had a blast at LuckyGunner’s event last year, and the highlight was the training class from Rangemaster. It really whet my appetite for gun school.
I’m already signed up for an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor class. With that, I’ll also be able to become a state certified Handgun Carry Permit instructor–but that’s not the point of me taking the class. The point, for me, is to be credentialed. I have this feeling that if I’m credentialed, new shooters will be more comfortable taking instruction. Might be just in my head, though.
I want to take four other classes throughout the year. I am open to suggestions on where to go and what to take. Right now, I think I want to take classes that cover:
So, anyone have suggestions? I’d like to stay within 200 miles of the Nashville area if I could, but I may be open to classes farther away. I certainly don’t want to have to pay $500 for airline tickets to a $90 class, though.
One more criteria: Weekend classes > weekday classes. My son is due in February and I’m pretty much going to burn all my vacation for that.
Last Thursday. A decision is due sometime in mid January, according to the article.
I want to pull two very telling things from that article. First:
At the hearing, “information was presented by the police administration, city law department and also from the (Fraternal Order of Police),” Ream said.
That may or may not be standard procedure, but don’t you think they might want to hear from the citizens this man has been videotaped terrorizing?
The second pull quote is really hard to believe:
Harless has been on paid medical leave. After running out of his own sick time, some other officers have been donating their sick days to Harless, which is permitted under the union contract.
The next time someone says “oh, it’s just one bad apple, none of the other officers support his actions” just point them here. If the other officers thought he had done something wrong, I doubt they would be paying for his time off.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xw0Ze6G-xo&w=420&h=315]
Casey is about 70lbs of muscle and teeth now. She needs exercise and so do I, so we go on two 20 minute walks each day. I had been listening to podcasts on these walks, and one of them mentioned The 4 Hour Work Week. A few days later, mrs wizardpc asked me if I had ever heard of the book. Shortly after that, my sister asked the same thing.
I have this rule where if multiple people in different areas of my life suggest I check something out, I do. So I did.
I got a copy of the audiobook from a friend and have been listening to it for about 10 days. It’s hilarious. The main point of the book is ruthless efficiency and automation to practically eliminate the need for you to go into the office, and the author uses personal anecdotes to describe what he did, how he did it, and why. I don’t know if I’ll be implementing anything that he suggests, but from a pure entertainment value the book is great.
If you notice, the link above is to the paperback instead of the audiobook. The reason for that is the first half of the book is full of stories, but the last half of the book is full of resources and links. It’s kind of annoying to have the narrator read URLs to you for 20 minutes. That’s the only knock on the audio version. I’m buying the paperback just so I can have that list of resources.
Have any of you read it? What did you think? Have you implemented any of the author’s suggestions?
…but the man sure does good work. I no longer have those God awful default headers rotating through. I also have a nifty logo! Always wanted a personal logo. Might drop by The Hacker Consortium in the next couple of weeks to get some time with their laser engraver and vinyl cutter.
I think an AR with my blog logo engraved on the lower would kick ass.
I also did some other style changes recently and added a canned privacy policy (apparently having a privacy policy is good for Google).
So, what do you guys think? Anything else I need to change (I know the headers were pretty universally hated)?
