22:42EST-FRI-1/30/2004
- Owned Forums. Go. Register. Laugh.
21:53EST-MON-1/26/2004
- I have become a lot more interested in world politics ever since I've started reading all my Tom Clancy books. Good stuff. I just finished my 5th one in the past month. I love them.
1:16EST-SAT-1/17/2004
- I'm really digging all the Tom Clancy books I've been reading. Makes me really miss not being able to be in the service. I still feel robbed of what I'm sure would have been a good time in the Marines. Sigh... Oh well. Oh, and for those who have been submitting votes, the Walther P22 Target is in the lead.
21:33EST-THU-1/15/2004
- Ugh... Now I gotta pick a Best Man for my wedding. Who do I know that's been a good friend for ages and is good at making interesting speeches?
15:20EST-SUN-1/11/2004
- So... Whaddaya think? Should my next pistol purchase be the Ruger 22/45 or the Walther P22?
18:22EST-THU-1/8/2004
- My fragile little world has been destroyed! Mr. Rogers is no longer the man I thought he was. =(
14:42EST-THU-1/8/2004
- Yesterday was a damned good day, for lots of reasons. Wulf was in town so we went to Magic Wok and enjoyed some tastey goodness. After that, we were going to go out shopping for gun stuff. Yay, gun stuff shopping! We were going to go out and explore all of our old favorite haunts but a debate between the two of us over whether or not there was a new store in Farragut resulted in a quick trip through the yellow pages. I was right, of course. =P While there, I found a nifty add (see add on this page) for Coal Creek Armory, Inc. and noticed that it was in Oak Ridge. Cool, I'm in Oak Ridge! New gun store time. The add also mentioned being fully Class III FFL. You know, the type of liscense required to sell fun stuff like silencers and fully automatic weaponry. That, combined with several other aspects of the add made me think it was one of those dealer-only or LEO (Law Enforcement Only) shops that annoy me because they won't let me touch anything. Well, this was a phone book and there was a phone number so I called. After a few minutes of basic Q&A (Thanks to Wulf for providing a reason to call) I found out that they were less than a block from my house. Right next to a daycare. Oh happy day! We piled in the car and rolled down the block to the store. Not because it was far, but because it was cold outside. We laughed and snickered at the daycare as we parked next to it and entered what was soon to become my new favorite store. Oh, the sights! The sounds! The smells! The tastes! The weighty smooth cold comfort of weaponry in my hands. I don't know what it is, but the more Congress hates a weapon, the more I like it. Could it be that 'forbidden passion' thing? Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 98% Preban Franchi SPAS-12, 20" barrel 8+1 Pump/Auto, folding stock w/ hook. Ok, maybe I covet just a little bit. In the mean time, I have a great little gun store down the street from my house with really great guns and really good prices. Plus, the guy speaks my language. His choice of inventory was right up my alley and we agreed on the points we both made as we talked about what we liked or disliked in a firearm. As a direct result of our talk, I've opted to get either a Walther P22 or Ruger .22/45 pistol instead of the Glock 26 with a .22 conversion. Let's see... $900 or $235? You got it. I'll covet m'self a little bit of that too. =)
14:18EST-THU-1/8/2004
- Sigh... I get the strangest email at work. If it hadn't been for Sydney, I probably wouldn't have heard of Landover Baptist Church and their Special Offer. For that matter, I wouldn't have seen such fun products as these.
1:29EST-MON-1/5/2004
- Strange things are afoot at the Piggly Wiggly.
22:09EST-SUN-1/4/2004
- Oh... My... god...
21:42EST-SUN-1/4/2004
- Can you believe we've already got another rover on Mars? That's great! I hope this one goes better than the last three.
18:25EST-SAT-1/3/2004
- Curse you, Crutchfield! How dare you tempt me with all your beautiful glossy pages of shiney things knowing full well that I'm po'.
17:37EST-FRI-1/2/2004
- Right about now, Adrienne is at work. I hope she does well. We can sure use the extra money for fun stuff like food and bills. A phone would be nice. Thank god we've still got DSL. Odd, eh? They'll shut off our phone but I'm still pillaging Kazaa. Makes it hard to call in to work when I have to wait for someone to cheat and log onto a chat proggy. On a completely unrelated note, one of the guys here at work gets Popular Science and Wired magazines then brings them to work. When he goes home, I read them since they're frequently left laying on the desk for us to peruse. Peruse I do. All sorts of articles that I find immensely fascinating. Such as the powered exoskeleton which is meant to give people the ability to walk again and basic arm skills. This is just a few steps away from my dream projects and the whole reason I wanted to be a robotic engineer for so long. I'll spare that rant for now. Body suits that use the motion of the body to produce electricity like a still suit would purify water. Contacts that use blinking to power night vision cells to allow you to see in the dark. Fun stuff like that. Right now I'm reading about a 1000hp VW product. Gotta love those crazy bastards at Bugatti. Let me read you a bit about the contacts... "Night vision is totally a Bond-stealth idea. Night vision goggles, on the other hand, are more Revenge of the Nerds than GoldenEye. Which is why we like the idea of blink-powered Night-Vision Contact (NVC) lenses. Featuring a thin three-layer technology inspired by plasma TVs, the NVCs' fanciful design multiplies low levels of ambient light up to 200 percent. When the wearer blinks, an electromagnetic coating applied to his or her eyelid charges the lenses. As dim visible light passes through the layers, the charge magnifies the light and directs it toward the wearer's retina." Outfuckingstanding!
20:42EST-THU-1/1/2004
- (chortle) I'm engaged... (snicker)
18:06EST-THU-1/1/2004
- I've come to the conclusion (again) that I really need to get a .22lr pistol for practicing. While my rifle skills firing from a fixed position are respectable, my pistol skills are unsatisfactory. Rifles are easy, compared to pistols. Then again, you have to consider that I'm using rifles at 200 yards (with my goal of 1000) and pistols out to 50. THAT IS HARD. Pistols at 50 yards is haaaard. I would go through an entire clip and be lucky to be able to hit a piece of standard notebook paper with the words "you suck!" written on it. With my Ruger, I could dot the exclamation point. It's just so much easier. That, and I have thousands and thousands of rounds of practice with that rifle alone but just a few hundred rounds of experience with my pistol. That needs to change. My pistol is fun and all, but if I ever need to use it in a serious situation, I need to be absofuckinglutely sure that if I squeeze the trigger, a hole appears where it needs to be and not somewhere else. Unfortunately, I don't see any .22lr conversion kits for my pistol. Sure, I could get a .22lr pistol for cheap but it would would not be the same. If you get good with a particular pistol and ammo combination, you are good with -that- pistol and ammo. You are used to it. It doesn't have any surprises for you. It will do what you expect of it. Hopefully. Guns and ammo of lesser quality tend to be more surprising, and can sometimes be downright dissapointing. Infuriating even. WTF did I spend $100 on this piece of crap??? Fortunately, I know better than to have wasted money on cheap guns. Well... I take that back. I once bought a gun for fifteen bucks. It was a cheap old Rhom revolver with plastic grips that were too cheap to imitate wood other than being vaguely wood colored. The trade mark emblem was a sticker. The features of the gun were completely non-existent. It was a crappy little .22 Short that had trouble piercing a milk jug and twice as much difficulty hitting it. I've had cap guns that were more useful and far less dangerous to the shooter. I think I sat on it and broke it. I don't remember. Anyway, I was talking about being well practiced. I make my own ammo. I know exactly what goes into them. My technique and materials are getting better so they're performing more consistently too. I need to get a couple more pounds of gunpowder and make another batch soon. I only have 400 bullets left. Zak and I made 750 in a single afternoon while waiting for someone to come over. If I were to get a second pistol just because it was .22lr then I would want one that handled and felt as close to my USP as possible. The closer the two guns function, the more your practice with one will carry over to the other. I'm sure you already know that, but I'm rambling by now so I'll just go with it. If you didn't, you do now. While I can't think of a 22 conversion kit for my USP off the top of my head and a 5 minute search on Google didn't turn up anything useful, and I'm grokking the HK Pro forums in search of a solution. Failing that, I guess I'll have to seriously consider a second hand gun. As much of a fan as I am of the Ruger MKII pistols (unsurpassed accuracy and reliability IMHO compared to anything less than one of the 1500 Hammerli pistols) I just can't get over the grip. The handling characteristics are COMPLETELY different than my beefy USP and I'd wind up shooting a lot lower than intended when I pick it up again. That means I would have to look at something else, like the Buckmark. An interesting little pistol but I recall it being really finicky. Maybe it was just because the one I tested was DIRTY AS ALL HELL. Maybe I should go ahead and get a smaller secondary pistol. That's something I've wanted ever since I realized I am too skinny to use a shoulder holster in the summer with my USP without everyone in the world knowing I was packing. A word any responsible firearms enthusiast and self defense buff can appreciate is 'subtlety'. As such, I've been looking for something small enough to be tucked away safely in my armpit while having all the other features I demand. A grip fat enough for my enormous meat hooks to wrap around, a nice crisp trigger, reliable safety, decent magazine capacity, an accessory rail, a calibre with sufficient stopping power for critical situations, fun to shoot, and easy sights. This seems a bit too much. I am seriously considering getting a Glock 26 and a .22lr conversion kit. I know, I know, I've always talked trash about Glocks in favor of HK products, basically because I detest the lack of an external hammer and safety mechanism. I just wouldn't feel as safe. Still... I've handled a few and can understand why they're so popular. I've fired a 17 with a lot of custom work on its ergonomics, a 26 that was stock, and countless airsoft versions. While I know the airsoft counterparts count for jack shit as far as trying to gauge the performance of the real-steel firearm, but it allows me to see just how easy it is to conceal and since that's the primary reason to get the second gun, it had better not come up short in that respect.
0:44EST-THU-1/1/2004
- Ok, get this... A few minutes after midnight I asked Adrienne to marry me. She said "yes". I was shocked. Awe. This means I'm officially engaged. It's still setting in, but I like it. Wish me luck. =)
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