Not a Wasted Weekend

Had some monsoon storms sweep through tonight, so tomorrow's 3-Gun up in the Northwest might be in jeopardy due to bad wash conditions.

Upon his arrival, Jon recommended a Steel Panthers MBT scenario he'd tried earlier: a Croatian holding action against Serbia (#124?). After the whole game, we'd scored a Decisive Victory, but in a different fashion than Jon had experienced. (I played the initial Croatian forces, while he ran the reinforcement column that showed up in Turn 14.)

Afterwards Jon schooled Piter on the old Korean chessboard I had to dig around to find. It was 4-0 at last (and final) check... see why I rather play cooperative games than go head-to-head with Jon? When I get high-speed internet, that might change.

Oh, yeah, Jon likes to win.




After Jon won Tactical Iron at the AZ Civilian Defense League Independence Day Match with his M1A, and shot it in every 3-Gun practice match this year, I figured he'd bring that along for tomorrow's match.

Oh Noooooo! He had to bring his uber-cool all-POF gas-piston thunderstick with the brand-spanking-new Leupold CQT scope (top) so he can utterly crush me in Tactical Scope instead of win Heavy Metal.

Oh, yeah? I think I can beat him.

From the Skivvy Nine Group

She's had it!

from Gone Rick Motel's Caption Contest

South Park Sarah Palin

h/t Pensive Jonathan

My Earworm's Korean

Min Hae-kyung -- She's got some pipes.

Firestarter?

h/t to Ace of Spades HQ

Blurred

It's not the fault of the chuckle-heads in the background for ruining this pic... it's the lack of focus on the lovely ladies in the foreground. I haven't started Photography yet, but I know when Photoshop can rescue a moment like this.

The Binker and Flower

Have a nice day!

Palin for Veep!

OMG, I'm an ART Student!

One of the few "core" courses I was able to snag in my first semester was Introduction to Rendering. [Edit - Not a Core course.]

The course description was all high-fallutin' college-talk that didn't quite mention anywhere I was gonna have to shell out a fortune in art supplies... and draw/paint by hand on... PAPER!

So here I am in a class of mostly 20-somethings and our first assignment was to sketch some thumbnails for a political illustration -- not cartoon! As the class was discussing ideas... (gush) Obama (sigh!)... BUSH (Grrrr!) WAR BAD! I knew I wasn't gonna shake the whore-in-church /nun-in-a-whorehouse feeling I was getting. I gotta hand it to the instructor (one of the gushy ones), she actually liked some of my sketches, however much she may have disagreed with the right-wing viewpoint.

On my first and favorite effort (above), I learned not to sketch in ball-point pen!

BTW: I was up at 4 am this morning (and hour 15 before the alarm), probably because I forced myself to stay up until midnight, and partially because this insomnia is probably due partly to school nerves and the other part due to alcohol withdrawal. That's a moot point since this is not only a Match Weekend, it's a pajama party night when Jon and Piter come to visit. That means there's actually going to be some Gunny content soon! But first... rum 'n' coke and Steel Panthers!

I Like Thursdays!

Can ya tell I'm excited to be back in School? Tuesday night, my eyes slammed wide open at 11 pm and pretty much stayed that way through my first class and the drive home Wednesday. I was too nervous for breakfast and I slept through lunch (no more than two hours); I kept dinner modest and reasonably healthy. Maybe I can make anorexia work for me!

This morning: BANG! Wide awake at 2 am! I tossed and turned for a few hours, then nuked a cup of tea and posted the caption contest. With all this extra time and energy, I decided to exploit the cooler temps and take a long walk. That felt good! After a shower, I rechecked my class schedule and re-realized that today's the only day that starts at 9:10 instead of 7:40 am. Score! Time to sip decaf and surf the morning blogs!

First Day of School

Good thing I reconsidered wearing shorts... the a/c was brisk inside the computer lab.

Arghh! We're using Macs.

Yayy! Some pretty ladies in the class!

Arghh! The instructor wants us to buy a book they didn't tell us about.

The class is basically a dog-and-pony show for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I'm gonna have to time my 30-day trial downloads so they don't expire right when I need them. Now to download some tutorials... at dial-up speed, this is gonna take a while. Arrghh!

Update: Just upgraded to Earthlink DSL... which will probably suck due to my geographic location but ought to be less of a hassle for me than getting cable access (I got Dish Network).

Quote of the Olympics

The point is I have more gold in my stool than adorns the necks of Venezuelans!

Mmmm... Goldschlager.

How 'Bout Them Apples?

A product of Uncle Sugar's Airplane Patch Defense Force myself, I was a tad dismayed that Breda's experience with the Appleseed Project was less than positive. Heat issues aside, I wondered "What's the big deal about the sling?" I never shot with a sling in my entire USAF career! Sure, Zoomie marksmen aren't the first thing you think of when military marksmanship is mentioned, but the combat arms folks can teach a total newbie to score Expert in a day.

PDB is a bit critical. I've never been to an Appleseed event, but I know a few things about technical training and I don't think PDB is off base here. I think some of the problem might lay in Appleseed's squeezing everything into a single day, though I feel it ought to be possible. USAF Basic had a dry-fire day and a wet-fire day, but follow-on training retaught the whole syllabus in a single day. Since a lot of Basic time involved marching out to the range and back, there's no reason you can't make some decent riflemen in a single day. Maybe if they left out the slings and shooting mats and concentrated on the sight picture....

Pink Gorilla

If only Oreos could do that.

Speaking of Pros ... Ewwww

No Prose

Wonder how friendly the security guards are....

It's Spelled OLDE

I was just musing this weekend that my Stang will be 10 years old this year (and it's still short of 40k mi.) and got an Email mentioning my 30-year Class Reunion. Thirty Years! I'm still single... going back to School tomorrow... still have my hair. I guess I'm kinda low-mileage too!

Doh! Click the Penguin, Dummy!

That's what I get for jumping right in without playing with the whole program first. AudioGrabber connects to an on-line database and fills in the track info for you.

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a caption or photoshop for this photo? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar!

Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL.

You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even that old jeep that's not quite right after an off-roading trip through Arkansas.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

Winners!


Winning the Gold Medal is Rodney Dill of Outside the Beltway!

"Earl just shoonta lefta toilet seat up."

Taking the Silver is reader Timmeeee!

"Don't worry Cletus, you won't have to go back to Eye-rack, just put yore foot up'n this here stump and I'll whack some toes off fer ye."

I'll assume Timmeeee's pimpin' Roberta's blog until he tells me otherwise. Everybody else gets a Bronze Medal, a cookie, and a hug from the nice lady at the finish line.

But seriously, thanks for playing!

Other Contests:

Gone Rick Motel
Outside the Beltway
WILLisms
Family Security Matters
RT
TrekMedic
Wizbang
Support your Local Gunfighter

Help a Guy Out

As for me, I gotta wait until that crazy GI Bill money starts flowing in.

Do what you can.

70s Creepiness

nttawwt

Thank Heavens for Greatest Hits

Compilation CDs are great sources of MP3 audio, but all the typing sucks! Things lightened up when I opened up the album of Greatest Hits and Live CDs. I didn't bother with individual song titles for those... or CDs that rock all the through (like GnR's Appetite for Destruction and Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill).

I'm on Led Zep's boxed set now.

Heh, this'll be good!

Binker Plinker

Revolvers are good for beginning shooters, though I recommend a longer barrel.

Unless it's just a cap gun.

What a Scam

Last time I bought 200 bucks worth of paperbacks, I needed more than one hand to carry them.

I must be getting stronger.

If nothing else, this sh*t ought to improve teh blog. No promises, though.

Rippin'

Thank's to AlanDP's advice, I finally downloaded Audio-Grabber and started replacing many of the crappy Napst3r MP3s I downloaded during my Korean imprisonment with audio files I actually paid for a decade before. This could take years, but I started in the best place, my compilation album, chock full of goodies like 16 volumes of Rhino Records' Have a Nice Day collections. I filled in some of the blanks with some Billboard annual Top 10 CDs and still have plenty to go before filling a 700 MB data CD for the Ranger's MP3 player. Will I have the endurance to bear that much sappy 70s music?



This ought to keep me busy long past when school starts next week.

That's a lot of typing! Do modern CDs have embedded text already?

I'm So Proud!

Looks like BinkerDad's been doing some teaching!

When I'm home next, I wanna hear the Four Steps according to Eddie Eagle from the Binker....

and the Three Rules from the BinkerDad!

Last Two

I promise I think.

Gotta Admit

This is a good way to recycle old posts!

Bet Y'all Can't Wait

...til I start gettin' homework to do.

From Mobog

CB's Summer Book Report

Finally finished David J. Williams' Mirrored Heavens, which I neglected to take along on vacation. Perhaps in future studies I'll learn to write glowing reviews that get published on book jackets, but you'll have to settle for a bluntly honest one.

Mirrored Heavens is the best book ever sent to me by the author and the greatest I've ever read in the sci-fi cyberpunk genre!

In full disclosure, it's the only book on both counts. Can I prevent it from being the last? Call me the Full Metal Skeptic.

DJW is certainly a good writer; it was partly due to my own limitations that resulted in me dragging myself through the story kicking and screaming. His dark future of political intrigue (the plot's more of an onion than a parfait) and self-contained bionic super-hackers is riveting enough, but the inclusion of common jet/rocket-powered battlesuits threw this tale into the fantasy genre for me. It's a shame the Japanese islands were practically obliterated in a fusion accident in this world; they would have enjoyed seeing their manga/anime stories come to life.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke's Third "Law" of Prediction

In a Voltron cartoon, it's easy to create a "mech." Just draw on some mechanical limbs, some weapons, rocket thrusters, etc. And it'll be as tall as a 10-story building so it can hold some fuel tanks and/or reaction mass. Shrink that down to a manned suit that can operate inside human spaces inside Earth buildings and habitations on the Moon... where's all that fuel or reaction mass stored? Man-portable rocket packs exist today, but they're limited in range due to thrust- weight- fuel limitations. What's powering them in this story? A tiny fusion reactor? That's gonna create heat, but heat's not gonna move you anywhere unless it's pushing out a reaction mass (stored in a 5000 gallon Bag of Holding, I suppose). Or is a tiny closed-circuit fusion steam reactor turning itty-bitty "jet" turbine fans? What's shielding the user from heat and radiation?

What is the waste product of a fusion reaction (it's Helium and a neutron) and why is Japan a "contaminated wasteland?" Maybe it wasn't safe for human habitation for a while, but if it's been depopulated, it ought to have reforested itself in time. Same with the Middle East to a lesser extent (due to climate), depopulated by nuclear war. Williams' horribly polluted Earth could have sprouted new lungs despite the loss of Amazon rain forests. Since fossil fuel use has long since peaked, what's polluting everything? Carbon dioxide? Trees love that stuff! Forests that burn to the ground come back over time. Battlesuit exhaust? Why do they wear and use them inside lunar habitats? Don't they know that's murder on the ventilation?

See why this disjointed questioning may have affected my enjoyment of the story? My failure to suspend disbelief is at fault here. You ought to buy the book! It's reasonably priced, so check it out and maybe you can add to the debate.

Thanks again, Mr. Williams, for sending me the book. Good luck on your next one (that one I'll buy)!

Meanwhile, I'm gonna slip Project A-ko into the video player.

PS: Funny, I don't have the same hang-up about Warp/Alderson/Hyperspace Drive and Underpants Gnomes.

Time to Clean the Jeep, Ladies

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a caption or photoshop for this photo? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar!

Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL.

You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even that old jeep that's not quite right after an off-roading trip through Arkansas.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday PM.

Winner!

The Duck at The Maddened Fowl wins with:

The sculptures at the National Redneck Museum appear nearly life-like.

Other Contests:

Gone Rick Motel
Outside the Beltway
WILLisms
bRight & Early
SYLG
Family Security Matters
Radioactive Liberty
Right Pundits
RT's Ponderings
Wizbang

Dry Run

Saturday, I swung by the College on the way home to find the place and clock the distance on the odometer. About 20 miles. Today I timed the trip there during the noon rush hour (a skosh under 40 minutes), got my student ID card made, and scoped out the inside of the Santa Catalina building.

I'm psyched that I felt none of the anxiousness/ nausea/ butterflies I normally get in new social situations. Yay, me!

And screw respect for institution... I'm wearing shorts on the 1st day of school next week!

I don't normally watch the BBC but....

Preseason NFL was a whole hour away.

Now the Games Get Interesting

Going to Hell for This

So far, blogger-folks have been pretty tolerant of the photoshops I've done in fits of extreme boredom (especially when they discover themselves featured). Thanks (in no particular order) to Desert Cat, Breda, The Anarchangel, and Kees Kennis for being good sports.

I got a feeling any good sportsmanship from this point forward might only include giving me a running head start. :)

Heh, I got a glowering punctuation mark out of Fits, at least.

Uh-oh... Tam's punctuation is a tad more than glowering....

Very Funny, Kirk

I didn't know today was Airborne Day.

I was a different kind of Airborne than Kirk... I didn't believe in jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft.

Speaking of the Olympics....

This is Sparta?

Thankfully, it wasn't too stinkin' hot to go shooting today. It wasn't even hot enough to keep the loonies in their air conditioned asylum. Head Loon Jake (He of the BattleKilt) launched an experimental division for the heat-addled hardcore among us. Named Agoge (Ah Go Gay) after the Spartan training regimen, the division requires you to carry your entire load-out through the whole match (kinda like CavArms' Trooper division) and incorporates a physical challenge immediately after the start signal. Half the shooters, some of them first-timers, gave it a try. Not me... I was having enough of a physical challenge participating in the match!

Our first stage was out on the 200-yard stage; we did that first so we could finish up in the shade. The firing position was at the halfway point; the energetic Ago-getters had to run an 80-yard dash after the buzzer to reach their rifles. A few dropped magazine penalties were dished out to teach guys to secure their gear better and the exertion naturally played hell with accuracy. Jake flounced skipped manfully charged through the catcalls and scored several hits within the 60-second par time. Since the "Cover" provision in the rules was suspended for this stage, I shot the steel standing up... and thought I did pretty well until Aaron the Nemesis showed up.

Next was an attack/retreat "buddy drag" featuring a 100-pound duffel bag. We mere mortals had to start in the supine position; the crazy ones had to do five revolutions around the Dizzy Bat before staggering into action. Oh, how I wish I'd videoed one of those! Aaron the Nemesis had a smokin' time on the stage, but it was more smoke than fire as his penalties might let me catch up.

The last stage was actually a two-fer; we shot it pistol-only first, then rifle-only. The physical challenge was either six "squat thrusts" or 20 jumping jacks. Jake decided to shoot the pistol stage one-handed only. That's hardcore enough, then I noticed from the picture above that Jake is a south-paw and he shot the stage weak-handed. I don't think I'll be ribbing Jake for low scores this time. Kilt jokes are another matter....

Whoohoo! Match winner, Baby! I won't let my head swell, though. I barely squeaked ahead of Aaron, who shot an iron-sighted short-barreled rifle. Krazy Karl led the Agoge Fans.

Update Too! Dizzy Bat Video!