It's NOT a Dry Heat

Not in Phoenix in late July, anyway. Still, we slathered on the sunscreen, pounded down the water, and the more foresightful among us wore Nomex gloves to handle the hot black guns. Jon was Top Riotgun Limited, out of us five pump gunners (we all brought our Rem. 870s).

Video

The New Thumper worked great, but the Ole Noggin wasn't making good decisions or applying the fundamentals very well. Must have been the heat. Chuck wanted to play the Thumper game sans Garand, so he made a deal on a DSA FAL and brought it out. The muzzle brake was as painful as it was effective. Me want!

Video

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

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Got a better caption or photoshop for this pic from my Human Biology and Nutrition Final Project? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

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 your 1975 Pinto.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

ExUrbKevin wins with:

Bug Out Bag - You're doing it wrong.

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Rodney Dill
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Stupid VH-1 Earworm

The audio engineer does more work on Katy Perry's "California Gurls" than Katy ever does.

These hard-working Pennsylvanians don't have whipped cream spraying out of their brassieres, but....

Angel Flight

Lil Bro sent me this:

Is This Part of the Service?

Google Maps....

Should I be Flattered?

Myspace....

The Harvest is In

Tonight my Biology and Human Nutrition class harvested the salad greens that we planted in Earth Boxes at the beginning of the semester. (Kind of embarrassing that the non-organic box had a higher yield than the organic.) One of the planks in this class' platform is to encourage the consumption of local/ whole/ organic/ cruelty-free foods and educate us with the latest food wisdom and equip us to see through the ruse of the Great Big Food Industry's "Nutritionism."

Our Professor is a vegetarian and a good number of our class are too, or even vegans. Boy, do I feel like a whore in church. Still, since starting the class, I've been inspired to lose some weight (only 5 pounds so far, but I'm using up stuff in the pantry before I start investing in transfat-free peanut butter and stuff.

Every other week, our class put on a "Taste Test," a little pot-luck sponsored by a third of the class at a time. In the meanwhile, our Professor and several students have brought in organic, healthy goodies. I think only twice have those "goodies" been cookies. Mmmmm.

Meet the New Thumper

No, I haven't given up on the SOCOM-16, despite my miserable performance at the ID4 Rifle Match, but there's now a competitor for my Major Caliber Gunly Affections. The New Thumper is a DPMS LR-308 "Sportical" which already wears the GG&G flip-up BUIS that BoG2.1 wore before she blew up. (The replacement upper featured a continuous top rail that wouldn't let me use the front sight made for a lower gas block rail.)

I took the new beast for a sight-in this week; I definitely like the GG&G's skinnier front sight post better than the fat blade on the Springfield. The new rifle's impulse is rather sporty. The buffer tube soaks up some of the recoil, but I'm hoping to put a muzzle brake on it to tame the one o'clock muzzle climb... if it doesn't turn out that the birdcage is permanently welded on. I don't expect it to shoot as fast as a .223 AR, but I want to be able to shoot it at least as fast as Jon shoots his Big Thumper.

The New Thumper is chambered in 7.62x51 NATO, so it can handle all the mil-surp ammo I've got saved up. It came with two "19-round" DPMS magazines -- they hold 20 rounds. I immediately ordered three C Products 20-rounders from 44mag.com for barely more than the price of one DPMS mag (DPMS was out of theirs). One of the C Products mags will only fit 19 rounds (go figure). All five mags worked flawlessly their first time out.

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky: Scroll down for new stuff.

Got a better caption or photoshop for this pic sent by my Lil Bro?? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

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 your 1975 Pinto.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

Gordon R. Durand of Zeta Woof wins with:

"Service engine soon," it said. So how was I to know it meant, like, "Now!"

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I Blog Like...

Who? It took me long enough to find a blog post where I actually wrote something.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I Write Like...

Heh. I pasted a post from my History of American Cinema class into the tool and got this:

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I wonder what my blogging will score?

In League with the Undead

Did you know you can't shoot a target featuring a face at the county range? It was a new one on me. So, of course, this target was not shot at the county range.

I think those county bureaucrats are all in league with the walking dead, or at least, Democrats.

Stateside Base Exchange with a Gun Shop!

Who wudda thunk it?!? The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Exchange here in Tucson opened a gun shop this month!

This is a first in my adult life. My Dad picked up what would later be my first gun, a beautiful Remington 870 Wingmaster, from the Johnson Air Base (Japan) BX back in the 60s, but I've never before seen anything other than slings and gun cleaning supplies in a stateside exchange before.

The gun prices look a little high, but then you realize that's the walk-away price (no sales tax!). Now, I wasn't in the market for a new gun, but seeing one great deal, I got an itch I just had to scratch. Guess the make and caliber and win a week-long Blog Ad on my side bar!





When I first saw the display at the right, I thought, "Oooh, nice AirSoft guns!"

I'll post Gun Pr0n and hopefully a glowing range report soon after the above contest ends.

Marketing Genius... Not

Just because I bought a Flip UltraHD camera a few months after I bought my first one, Amazon has been sending me recommendations for every single frikkin' Flip cam that hits the market... Oooooh! I want the one with the Twilight skin!

Reminds me of the local Ford dealership who, days after I bought my brand-new truck, obviously recognized me as someone who buys vehicles and sent me brochures for every sale they'd have that year. Jeez, I just bought a new truck! Gimme a coupla years to pay this one off!

Hey!

He's Back!

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky: Scroll down for new stuff.

Got a better caption or photoshop for this pic? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

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 your vintage PPSh-41 magazines.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

Mostly Cajun wins with:

Then the first sergeant told me, "If the army wanted you to have a wife, they'd issue you one."

And here she is.

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Wizbang

Fail and Win

h/t Leebear

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky: Scroll down for new stuff.

Got a better caption or photoshop for this pic? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

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 your custom barrel cozy.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

Loose Gravel of Red God's Laughing wins with:

Would you PLEASE quit monkeying around with the sights?

Maybe he'll blog more if more people visit?

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Some 4th of July Fireworks

BTW, that's Jake wearing the skir Tactical Kilt. The Range Officers shot earlier than us commoners, so we were not subjected to the trauma of seeing Jake jump into the prone position.

Why Last Weekend Was So Screwed Up

Well, this was my first warning sign.

I didn't know why the vehicles were stopped along South/Eastbound Interstate 10, but a long trail of tire rubber throughout my trip gave me my default suspicions. That and the 100+F temps.

After I passed that point, for some strange reason I wondered when it would be a good time to rotate my tires. I'd been experiencing a slight pull to the left... Gee, this road is feeling pretty bumpy -- at 85 mph!

Suddenly, BANG! Thunk! And other cheesy Batman-like sounds. I made my way over to the right shoulder and found that all the rubber outside the steel belts of my left front tire had shed itself, and banged out my left front fender. Luckily, I was near an I-10 exit into the Casa Grande Outlet Mall, so I limped on over and found a deserted corner of parking lot. My first instinct was to call my buddy Jon and see if he couldn't find me a garage open late on a Sunday afternoon. Dry hole. Not a Triple A member, I gave my insurance agency (State Farm) a call for a recommendation... since AAA's recommendation insisted upon cash I didn't have on me. State Farm found me a towing company that took credit cards!

I should say that I was extraordinarily prepared to take care of this myself, as God and Robert Heinlein intended. I donned my Nomex gloves and tactical kneepads I had on hand for the Cactus Match 3-Gun, but for the longest time I couldn't figure out how to unleash the Ranger Motel's spare tire, and once I did, how to loosen the lugnuts with what little strength I had in my heat-weakened, carpal-tunnel ridden extremities could manage. With my History of American Cinema mid-term awaiting my last-minute cramming, I jumped up and down on the lug wrench (rather dizzily I must say; my water reserves were rather warm by now). I actually got the spare on by the time the tow-truck arrived, but the fine gentleman from Rats Towing tightened the nuts for me, and filled my spare with much-needed air, then refused payment when I offered! Although he might have been shy about defrauding my insurance company for unused services, he should have gotten something for his troubles, so he's got my marginally public blog adoration for his Good Samaritanism.

Here's some video.

And after I got my hastily finished term paper ready, my Professor posted that the web site was a week early with the deadline. Doh!