Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday

Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced 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 organic fresh produce.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Reader Skip wins with:

Comrade, it seems that you did not pass.
You cannot be employed here, unless you know stuff 'bout rockets.

Skip, let me know if you'd rather advertise something else.

Other Contests

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RT's Ponderings
Wizbang

Uh Oh

Looks like the Pima County Sheriff's Department has lost one of their helicopters. No word from Sheriff Dupnik on whether racism was to blame. Please pray for the crew who're teetering on a cliff at the moment. Four on board, two talking on cellphones, two in and out of consciousness.

Update: they've got live aerial footage of the crash site and three personnel were shown standing outside the flattened overturned 4-man craft. Didn't seem to be on much of a cliff, but there is some slippage potential evident.

Update: USAF parajumpers are on the scene, along with one Border Patrol trooper!

Update: Bunch of boots on the ground and one man out of the craft.

Last Update: At least one air-evac'd out. Channel 13 is losing track of the patients and I'm headed for school.

Last Update and Final: Looks like the pilot didn't make it and another is still critical. Prayers to all and their families.

Plausible Deniability

h/t Attack Cartoons

How Irish Dance Was Invented

h/t to Lil Bro

Emo Kid

resolved at Power Point Ranger.

h/t to CKent

Found Somewhere.

Brodie

Why, SIG, Why?

I'd stopped in to the BX today before school, picked up Tom Clancy's new hardcover, then ambled back to the gun shop to see if anything was new. I noticed a SIG-Sauer P250 in .45 that was selling for what I later learned was a trifle over MSRP, which is a great deal when you're not paying sales tax. An older gentleman handed back a piece he'd been handling and asked to see it before I could speak up. Unfortunately, I was so helpful with advice related to DAOs and the SIGs I already own, he bought it right off before I could get my hands on it. Of course, it was their only one in inventory.

Granted, the gentleman was better off with the pistol than I was, since he was shopping for one and I was fighting the impulse to buy a gun I don't really need. I was curious about the new offering, so right before class, I surfed for some reviews on the P250, then visited the SIG Store. What freaked me out was that SIG offers a paddle holster for the new gun, which includes an accessory rail... but the holster covers the rails!



Looking at GLOCK, I don't know whether the Rail Generation changed their holster dimensions... there doesn't seem to be much difference. Are the SIG folks waiting for Fobus to make a useful holster for them? Actually, I haven't seen anyone else make a holster for an accessorized GLOCK, so maybe they are.

Does the BLACKHaawk!!!1!! Serpa Level 3 w/light fit the bill? I guess, what I'm trying to say is that gun makers probably don't believe that accessory rail is really useful if the only holsters they provide for that model don't accommodate the rail in use.

PHX Rod & Gun Club 3-Gun Match

It kind of pains us to miss our home club (Cactus Combat Match League) matches, especially since I've been tasked with designing the stages, but Jon and I need to practice for rifle ranges beyond the mere 100 yard stages to which the CCML is limited -- in order to prepare for the upcoming Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun in March. The Phoenix Rod & Gun Club holds their matches on the same 4th Sunday we normally shoot CCML, but offers similar targets to the Superstition at ranges out to 400+ yards.

This month, (as usual for this time of year) Jon and I resolved to get serious about match practice, and our friends Big Bob and Ron decided to join us at a new venue (for them). Personally, I only did a smattering of plinking down back of Mom's house during Winter Break, so I felt especially rusty (and yucky match nervousness) during today's sojourn to the South Mountain range adjacent to the Phoenix Police Academy.

It was a challenge itself shooting at a range, unlike Ben Avery, where the sunshine is always behind you, to shoot where the winter sun shines straight in your eyes when the targets are oriented to the left. This is not a bad thing, because adverse shooting conditions are the spice of life. The first three shooters had the sun behind the mountain, but I had Mr. Sun straight in my eyes, which gloriously backlit all my gunsmoke and the dust kicked up by #6 shot smacking into the berm. Big Bob shot right behind me. After the shotgun targets, we had three arrays of cardboard we had to dispatch with two to the body and one to the head.

Our next stage had some fiendish long pistol steel targets, some of which activated swinging targets to be engaged by rifle later. After clearing a Texas Star, we transitioned to rifle, then cleared the rifle targets, most of which were head & shoulders targets protected by cover.

The shotgun-only stage featured 23 stationary clays and two distant slug targets. New to PR&G, our friend Ron acquitted himself well with only a +1 extension to this Remington 870. That's a lot of reloading, just what Jon and I needed to prepare for the match in Mesa.

The long-range stage featured five resetting small intermediate targets and five "flash" targets ranging from 200 to 415 yards. Surprisingly, I bested Jon on this stage, but I'm sure Jon crushed me, matchwise.

Utah Recognizes Saint

John Moses Browning, that is.

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced 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 organic fresh produce.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Lil Bro wins with the low-brow humor that seems to run in the family:

Let me explain why the cucumber display smells like a cod boat.

Other Contests

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings
Sonic Frog
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It's a Wrap

This weekend I joined some classmates in a 48-Hour Movie Challenge and I got to man the boom for the entire production. Being a Nine Buddhas Production (Chris Raboin, Director), the 3-minute video was jam-packed with local acting talent. Chris always puts on a generous feed and provides good equipment. That's one of his Canon EOS 7Ds on the tripod and a Sennheiser MK416 shotgun mic on the carbon-fiber boom. Kick ass.

There was lots of eye candy, this being show biz and all. It's tough work holding a mic over a hot tub full of beautiful girls, but someone's gotta do it.

Update: Our film "Confidence Game" was disqualified for an award because it was submitted mere minutes after the deadline. That's one of the drawbacks of shooting a movie in Tucson for a Film Festival in Phoenix. Chris said it turned out great and I should expect the DVD soon. I won't be YouTubing it since some of the participants are SAG members.

Happy 1-19-11!

At Down Range TV!

A SHOT show is on my bucket list.

As for the Zippo segment, I'm a competent boom operator and audio mixer (and have my own equipment)... perhaps I can offer my services for the next show?

The Semester Begins

The 2011 Spring Semester at Pima College kicked off this week, and this time I have the unpleasant task of buying ART SUPPLIES again. *Sigh* Just found out my Digital Drawing and Painting class requires a Wacom tablet. Also learned that my other "art" class, Color Theory and Rendering, a class requiring manual drawing and painting (and ART SUPPLIES), is a prerequisite for the other class, so that should be interesting. What the heck, I took Basic Cinematography and Basic Video Production the same semester as the prerequisite Digital Video Editing, so I might be able to pull it off.

Tomorrow kicks off Lighting for Film and TV, my last core requirement for the Digital Art/Film associates degree. That should be fun, since I've been doing my own lighting for my earlier film and video projects. It's also the last class with Pima Guru Professor Dave Wing -- until I retake the two advanced Cinematography and Video classes next year after my GI Bill money runs out. I want to work in an internship next year too before I graduate.

My weekday 2D Animation: Adobe AfterEffects class got canceled over winter break, so I'm stuck taking the Saturday class... that'll put a crimp in some of my competition shooting opportunities this Spring, It's just as well that I don't shoot ACTS matches any more. AfterEffects is the awesome software that inserts muzzle flashes and other cool effects into video. Boo-ya! I would have just taken it as an extra course to supplement my Film degree, but, hey, I had money left in my GI Bill, so why not get the Animation degree too?

Speaking of shooting, I'm joining Jon and Friends at the Phoenix Rod & Gun Club 3-Gun this Sunday, instead of the Cactus Match at Ben Avery. We need the long range practice that South Mountain provides in prep for the Superstition 3-Gun in March. I've already provided Cactus League with stages for January, and they're over-run by the Cowboys' Winter Range in February, so I only need provide stages for one match I can't attend in March, since I'll be busting caps in Mesa. Fortunately, I can use my spare EOTech Holosight in case GG&G hasn't fixed my Quick Mount by then. Heavy Metal, Baby!

Coulda Been

If only I'd mounted the Flip cam on my dashboard instead of driving white-knuckled through two states, I could have blogged some impressive-looking wrecks on I-40 and I-30. Lots of SUVs, tractor-trailers, and abandoned cars.

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced 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 movie's YouTube trailer.


Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Desert Cat wins with:

"Calvin caught hisself a tiger with a tuna sandwich. Lessee what I can catch with THIS!"

Other Contests

Support your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
Wizbang

Oh My Heavens!

Look who's Seven!

Or Maybe....

we'll get a scientist! (She got a telescope last year.)

Sometimes I Wonder

Are they raising a Hippy?














Or a capitalist?

Back in the Olde Pueblo

Nothing like Mother Nature to made a road trip an adventure. After climbing Mom's as-yet unplowed driveway and escaping the Pennsylvania blizzard, I found refuge in snow-free Maryland to visit the hearth and home of dear friends. With an eye on the weather forecasts along my route, I set off for the return leg Sunday morning, hoping to clear the Smokey Mountains before the snows hit. I made it past Nashville when the flakes began falling and reached Jackson TN before ducking into a motel to avoid the treacherous roads.

Fortunately, TennDOT proved to be competent at clearing the Interstate in the morning. Arkansas... not so much. I must have passed a dozen wrecks and as many abandoned vehicles before I reached dry roads in Texas. The only scary moment then was as I pressed through rush hour El Paso traffic -- my eyeballs, one by one, plopped out of my head and rolled around on my dirty floor mats. I ducked into a mall parking lot and was disappointed to discover my eye drops were missing. After a short eye break and dinner in Las Cruces, I found New Mexico I-10 to be manageable once the sun went down.

The entire way, I made liberal use of McDonald's coffee and free wi-fi to take more breaks than usual (for me) and to surf the weather reports of the route ahead. I also kept in touch with loved ones via FaceBook, since the cellphone charge was saved for emergencies. I would have ordered a car charger by now if I hadn't been considering upgrading to a new phone... but who knows when I'll the trigger on that upgrade?

Now to get ready for the Spring Semester!

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced 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 movie's YouTube trailer.


Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Craig S. Miller of Broken Patriot wins with:

Hey, kid, can you blow into this? I had a few and I can't get it started.

Other Contests

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
Wizbang

It's Orange

My new equipment case makes a damned fine pistol case, too!

New Year New Shooter Report

The new shooter? The BinkerMom, my Baby Sis! When the BinkerDad heard Lil Bro and I were planning on ringing in the New Year with a bang after Mom's New Year Egg Roll Feast, he immediately offered to run home and get his pistol and eye/ear protection. The BinkerMom surprised us all by asking him to fetch her stuff too. I got them matching earmuffs and glasses 3 years ago when we introduced our Brother-in-Law to the gunny world with Dad's .22 revolver. It was such a surprise that BinkerDad confessed he hadn't grilled his wife on shooting safety, as she'd only been interested in keeping guns out of sight and reach of the Binker.

After a thorough review of the Rules, Lil Sis started off with Hubby's .22, and as we all cycled onto the firing line, she graduated to his Browning BDM, my Glock 19, and pair of Colt .45 autos, until she gamely tried busting caps with my DPMS LR-308. Hopefully Lil Bro and BinkerDad and give her a longer, less rushed range day (maybe on level ground, too!) some time in the New Year.

The downer to the outing was when Lil Sis' first shot with the LR-308 broke the Quick-Mount on my EOTech Holo-sight. I hope I can get it fixed before the Superstition 3-Gun Match.