It Doesn't Suck

when two of my art teachers tell me I'm doing "A" work, especially when they're chiding the rest of the class for mailing in less than "A" work.

Sadly, my 1911 Day "Google Art" isn't ready for Prime Time on this auspicious occasion.

Rest of the Match Video

All eleven stages of the 2011 Superstition 3-Gun are posted on my YouTube Channel.

No Prize Table For Me

After my trip to the Dairy Queen, I was denied a trip to the Match prize table, but I still had hope of bringing home a goody. I had purchased five raffle tickets, four of which went towards this fine LaRue Tactical .308 rifle.





The other ticket went towards this Patriot Ordnance gas-piston .223 bang-stick. I add my appreciation with the rest of the shooters for the generosity of these great match sponsors!



Well, I didn't win either raffle rifle, but I had a chance Saturday night for some gunny goodies. Sadly, someone else went home with the Remington 870, FNH pistol, and matching Sun Devil upper and lower AR. Still, my banquet ticket got drawn relatively early, so I picked up this Dillon Precision shooting mat, worth a bit more than the price of my dinner!

Happy 1911 Day!

On this day in 1911, the US Army adopted the design of wily super-genius, St. John Moses Browning (PBUH), the Model 1911 .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol.

Take a 1911 to lunch!

Drink in the Beauty

h/t Susie K.

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!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night. Or not.

WINNER!

Rodney Dill of Outside the Beltway wins with:

'Tis better to have loved 5 short girls, than never to have loved a tall.

Other Contests:

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
Matthew Maynard
RT’s Ponderings
Wizbang

Toybox Complete... For Now

Director Mario couldn't secure an off-campus location for his gunfight scene, so I looks like I'm off the hook for providing real firearms for use as props in his production this weekend. I still have some goodies for him, such as a pair of M-16s and an AK-47.






For sub-machine gun fun, there's an MP-5 and two MP-5SDs, which should make audio dubbing fun for him. I hope he doesn't go overboard with flash coming out of the SDs, because that would just be silly.









Rounding out the menagerie is a pair of UZIs, a GLOCK, and a Beretta pistol. Since the pistols are not powered blow-back guns, he'll have to either add the slide action in post-production, or video them in frontal aspect where the flash will obscure the lack of slide movement. I'm looking forward to this weekend!




Oops! Forgot these two.

High and Low

First the Low: When I found out my shooter number for the 3-day POF-USA Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun Match was 86, I joked to Jon, "Oh, no! I'm gonna get DQ'd!"

Who knew I was so frikkin' psychic?

I was sent to the Dairy Queen on the 7th stage I shot for grounding an unsafed weapon. As I remember it, I think I safed the LR-308 immediately after I figured out there were no more rifle targets to engage, then unengaged it as I grounded it in the trunk of the prop automobile. A major brainfart kept me from enjoying the last four stages and from walking the prize table. What a major bummer.

I won a nice Dillon Precision shooting mat at the Shooter's Banquet, but that wasn't the high point of my weekend. That was meeting Iain Harrison (left), the winner of the History Channel's inaugural season of Top Shot. We were watching the folks from FNH-USA and the Versus Channel host this year's SMM3G episode of "3-Gun Nation" and Exurban Kevin had just pointed out that we were watching the making of 3-Gun Nation with the star of Top Shot. I had noticed him earlier, but didn't want to bother the guy, but then thought, "What the heck? Can expressing your admiration for someone be that bothersome?" At least I didn't try to pose in a picture with him... though I was sorely tempted!
In case you're keeping track, I was entered in "Heavy Metal Limited" armed with a DPMS LR-308 topped with an EOTech Holosight (unmagnified optics are now permitted in Limited), Colt "Enhanced" Mark IV Series 80, and a Remington 870. Normally I alternate between Heavy Metal and Tactical Scope year after year, but after this hollow year, I'm going back to HM, though maybe with a Scope, since I've got the hankering to get some "glass" for my birthday.

Stay tuned for more videos later in the week. I've got a buttload of schoolwork on which to catch up.

We Do Windows

Whoohoo! Day One of the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun has concluded and we ended the day on probably the most imaginative stage of the eleven featured. Even Exurban Kevin got videoed doing it.

This is Rich

What the Arab League Said: "Please, stop the madness and impose a No-Fly Zone over Libya!"

What They Meant: "Hey, here's how we can get the West into impale itself onto the Libyan spear and kill off some of them!"

What We Heard: "Hey, it's okay this time... for reals!"

What the West Said: "Okay, No-Fly Zone, that means we first kill all the air- and ground-based Air Defense, including the decision-makers!"

What We Said, "[Something French here]," and some Washington wishy-washiness.

What Moammar said: "*Sob!* That was my favorite goat! KILL the Crusaders!"

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!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night. Or not.

WINNER!

Reader LPF wins with:

At least the dog's paying attention.

Since I have no identifying information for LPF, I'll keep last week's Blog Ad up for another week. Thanks, LPF!

Other Contests

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
Matthew Maynard
RT's Ponderings
Wizbang

What I did on Spring Break

The Advanced Video Production professor encourages his studnuts to schedule their shoots for Spring Break to ensure maximum availability of classmates to help crew the production. Two friends asked me to help their flicks -- but weeks after Spring Break, and on the same weekend at that. I had to chose the one who asked me first (over a year ago!). I'm glad no one asked me for help this coming weekend, because I'm doing a shoot of my own... at the annual Superstition Mystery Mountain 3-Gun Match in Mesa AZ.


The shoot I crewed this weekend was not a Pima shoot, but a low-budget short produced and directed by perennial classmate Chris Raboin (right), Chief Buddha of Nine Buddhas Productions. He rented the same Frontier Motel rooms where he directed PCC's AdCin film noir "Byline." By low-budget, I mean folks worked for a DVD copy, cast and crew credits, pretty good catering, and the plunder of leftover Craft Service goodies. Before the shoot, Big Chris presented me a DVD for "Confidence Game," the 48-Hour Festival movie in which I'm credited as Sound Director.






"Announcements" is a dark tale of the consequences of a Not Quite Immaculate Conception in which Chris employed some ambitious special effects. It was shot in HD by three Canon EOS 7Ds; I was the Sound Guy again. I look forward to seeing (and hearing) the final edit!

Bersa .380 Drum Mag: Is this just WRONG?

A DRUM magazine for the Bersa Thunder (.380?). (At Cheaper Than Dirt)

I saw some of these for sale at the BX today. A 22-round magazine for the lightweight, concealable semi-auto favored by some of my favorite lady bloggers. I guess you can carry one in your purse or large fanny pack just in case you need to provide suppressive fire for a fighting retreat or storming a stronghold, but really, is there a market for super-cap mags for marginally effective .380 ACPs?

What say you, Thunder fans?

Close Moon

I'm still learning to use my new (to me) camera, but this isn't too bad, considering it was taken through a light haze right after moonrise and I was working in the dark without my reading glasses. Lots of trial and error with exposure times. I was a bit miffed that the camera didn't accept my cable release... unless it's somewhere else on the camera instead of the shutter button. Where's that damned manual?















Update:

Second try.

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!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Exurban Kevin of Exurban League wins with:

Behold, the first email order bride!

Other Contests

Support your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings
Sonic Frog
Wizbang

Eyes to Japan

Funny how the only pics I took on three trips to Japan were of my NCO Leadership School class and some JASDF aircraft in the Misawa AB pattern. This was back in 1986.

I have several friends in Japan and friends with family in Japan, so this quake got and held my attention right away. This is serious stuff, an 8.9 Richter quake in a crowded First World country dotted with nuclear power plants and high-speed mass transit. I'm thankful for friends' updates on Facebook. Keep 'em coming, y'all!


We now return to our regular 24/7 Charlie Sheen coverage.

Time Travel

I remember the year after I came back from 2 years in Korea, I was stationed at Fort Meade MD. I'd just spent all weekend immersed in a video game (with no TV or radio on) and when I reported for work Monday, I was an hour late, having never gotten word that Daylight Savings Time had just occurred. Now I'm in Arizona which doesn't play the DST game. Suck it, bitches!

Commercial Art: Wanna Buy a T-Shirt?

Everybody in my Color Theory and Rendering class decided to do a poster or album cover for their Year of the Rabbit themed watercolor projects. As for me, I went the Cafe Press route. I think this would look good on a coffee mug too!

Say Ello to My Leetle Frien, Comrade

Been playing with AfterEffects again... instead of studying or finishing up my real AfterEffects homework. It would look a lot better with a real actor, since the camera shake was too hard to chase with the stand-in Beloved Leader -- but then I'd have to use a fake Uzi... and add a big Hollywood muzzle flash that never appears in bright daylight in real life. I ought to take it to a night shoot somewhere just to see if there's any flash at all. You know, as a rule, all Hollywood gunfire is faked, right? Ever see Stallone with foamies in his ears? That's also why the cliched Hollywood gun shoots forever, because showing a close-up realistic re-load is a pain in the production ass for the armorer and slows down the action anyway.

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!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday Night.

WINNER!

Serr8d of The Cutting Edge wins with a Photoshop!

Other Contests

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings
Wizbang

Setting Up My Rifle for 3_Gun

I imagine these things have been all over the Forums by now, but this is the first I've seen. Language NSFW.

In the Toybox

Not attending any "shooting" classes this semester, I still have an "in" with veteran classmates, many of whom are taking their second or third iteration of Advanced Video Production in order to hone their directing and videography skills. Not only can they use the school's industry-quality high-def movie cameras and lighting kits, they can avail themselves to the class Casting Calls to find talent.

Last year, a friend approached me about an idea he had for an all-action short for the advanced class that featured a cast of dozens and a gun for each of them. That's when I decided to build upon my movie prop gun collection, which consisted of only two Korean AirSoft guns and, of course, some carefully controlled real guns. Next month, the "Toybox," an Army surplus medical equipment container, ought to be full when I bring it to Mario's movie set.

There's still some painting to do; the MP-5SDs still have orange markings and my odd gray GLOCK will be black by then. I wonder whether helping Mario with the post-production can be applied to my AfterEffects final project?

High Flight

My latest Adobe AfterEffects project is an animation of the memorable poem "High Flight." The narration is the same as an old TV sign-off clip from the 1960s, featuring the most awesome aircraft in the world, the F-104 Starfighter. Nowhere is the narrator credited, but it's a good guess that it's the recording Orson Wells made in 1926 for Reader's Digest.

This poem is my favorite of all time. I had them print it on the back of my retirement program pamphlet when I finally left the USAF. It's only fitting that my retirement flag flew aboard the aircraft that shared a body with the F-104, the U-2 Dragon Lady, the ultimate High Flight aircraft.

Enjoy.

I Coulda Swore

...I saw a Phantom yesterday. Turns out I did, though I don't know from where it came. I read somewhere all the Luftwaffe F-4Fs at Holloman NM went back to Germany. A pilot-flyable Q-F4? Privately owned, maybe? I brought my camera and a telephoto lens along just in case I saw them again.

Today I saw my first F-22 Raptor turning and burning over the Base, then practicing vertical Hammerhead/stalls/reversals or whatever the zipper-suited Sun Gods call them. Muy cool.

Update: At least I know why they're here.

Jeez

Would y'all shut up about him already? Kthnxbye.

h/t AA

Brainworm

Even worse than an Earworm, once a Brainworm (or properly, persistent malapropism) gets in your head, you'll never hear the correct lyrics again. It's even worse when you don't know the language.

I used to admonish my tech school students not to tell me what they thought they heard when I helped them review recordings of staticky radio traffic (I'd have them write it down where I couldn't see it.) One night, a studnut handed me her headphones and said, "All I hear is 'Candy Bar!'" Strangely, I couldn't hear anything else but that when I gave the audio a listen.

My other persistent malapropisms (from pop music):

"There's a bathroom on the right." (CCR)

"You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille. With 400 children and a crop in the field." (Kenny Rogers) Thanks, Cousin, Beth!

Do you have any brainworms?

What are your brainworms?

How could I forget, "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy." (Jimi Hendrix)?

Take a Tour

...of a movie studio back lot, via the magic of chroma key ("green screen") cinematography.

Darwinian