Treasure everywhere, and no shovel in sight

So, I've talked before about how much I would absolutely love to have a double stacked 1911 .45ACP.  The trouble is, that the only one I knew of that was worth it's salt was the Para Ordinance 14-45.  Then, not too much later, I heard of the Sarsilmaz K2-45 (which, in my opinion, is still the best of the bunch), which are much cheaper, but are just too darn hard to find.  But now, ladies and gents, I have heard that Rock Island Armory is now offering a double stacked 1911 that has a built in picatinny rail for a reasonable price!

This baby has almost all the same features that I wanted out of the Para, but for just more than half the price!  I'm gonna be itching to see what the availability of these things are in my area.  I've just got to have one!  Ugh!  I'm getting rainbow drool all over my keyboard just thinking about it.

 Pity I still don't have the money to afford one just yet...

Educated guesses

So, a coworker has recently finished working on "sporterizing" his Mosin-Nagant, and I must say, it is one slick (not so) little gun.  I always loved Mosins, but always hated the stiffness of the bolt actions on most and the insanely long creep on the triggers.  Once you resolve those issues, it's an incredibly accurate and fun rifle.  The real bonus being that parts are often quite cheap, with ammo being the cheapest.

One consequence of this however, is that my roomie is now completely dedicated to getting a semi-auto rifle that fires the 7.62x54R.  He debated for a short while about getting one of those Romanian PSLs that was slapped together by drunken monkeys, because it was one of the only ones he could afford.  He then discovered that they actually manufacture Vepr rifles in 7.62x54R, which I had no idea that they offer them in that caliber. 

The PSL-1 produced by the "drunken monkeys" over at Century Arms

He asked me what the difference between the Vepr and the PSL.  I am not too familiar with either since I haven't had hands on experience with one or the other.  I told him so, then gave an educated guess that the Vepr would offer a much heavier, longer barrel, and offer a much more robust receiver, which translates to longer range and better accuracy.

The very finely crafted VEPR

I had a limited amount of time, and so couldn't research my theories further, and told him to find out more about 'em.  Fast forward to a few hours later, and I'm just tickled pink that I managed to get a 100% accuracy on my estimations.  I love it when I'm right about such things on a hunch.

Brain doners anonymous

So, a coworker got a papercut, and so another coworker and I decided to comment on the matter while the bleeding associate removed his band aid in front of us.

Me:  Jeez, what's with the no band aid?  Is he trying to spread biological matter everywhere?
Coworker:  Yeah, he could be spreading SquAIDS
Me:  Or ShAIDS.
Coworker:  I wonder which SquAIDS is worse though.  Squirrel AIDS or Squid AIDS?  Maybe with the squid AIDS you could at least develop the ability to squirt ink, or something.
Me:  I'm thinking squirrel AIDS is worse, because then you'd just become more annoying.
Coworker:  Yeah, then they'd just be running around all hyper looking for nuts.
Me:  No, that's how you get SquAIDS

Move Review: The Hunger Games

So, last night I was given a chance to see a free screening of The Hunger Games.  I remember seeing a preview for it a while back, and thought it had potential to be good, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to see it for free.  In all honesty, the real driving force for me seeing it was to see the actress playing the lead role (wowzers!). 

So, after what seemed like an abusively long running time, I came to the conclusion that this movie can be summed up quite well by saying that it's a very predictable, slow paced, Americanized (sanitized) version of the much more entertaining "Battle Royale" Book/Movie.

Now, Hunger Games was somewhat entertaining, and wasn't a bad movie, just don't go in expecting to be surprised, as it's not a particularly good one either.  It's also worth noting that despite spending a significant amount of time developing a few characters, you still don't care about them by the end of the movie, nor is there anything actually accomplished or resolved by the end of the film (for better and worse).  In particular, the story focuses some time on a possible love triangle that is both worthless and unimaginative, and seems to just get in the way of the real story.

It's also funny to note that when the book (of The Hunger Games) released, it was even then criticized for being a more boring version of Battle Royale.  So, long story short, if you want a less violent, more family friendly, and also a boring version of a great film, go give The Hunger Games a shot, while the rest of us watch Battle Royale.  I promise that even though you have to put up with subtitles, BR will give you much more entertainment.

Proud while others are dissapointed

Throughout the course of life, everyone picks up more than a few worthless or useless skills.  Skills that have no real everyday value, but that we might even actively try to keep honed, for whatever reason.  Mine just tend to be more than a bit eccentric and useless than most.  For example, I was cruising the news on the Defense Industry Daily website, and was skimming over an article on an Indian produced fighter(the LCA Tejas), and saw the following picture representing the aircraft's engine:

Now, without thinking, or even treading the article, I thought to myself, "Hey, that looks just like the F414-GE-400."  Lo and behold, I was dead on. 

But then I had a pang of disappointment in myself.  I expressed this as an internal dialogue: "Why in the heck am I wasting precious disk space in my brain for this crap?!"
At that moment however, I remembered and answered myself, "Because it's cool."

Beware betazoids bearing gifts

So, in my escapades to be as lazy as possible, I neglected that something awesome happened to me yesterday.  I got me un uh dem fahncee Betazoid gift boxes!  You know the ones, right?  The creepy face that springs to life and gives you a predetermined message?

Okay, not really.  But I'm willing to say that it was better.  How, you ask?  Well, I dunno how to put it, really.  Definitely one of those times in which I had at least a mediocre camera to show it to you.  Oh, well.  No fine details for you then.

U mad?

The final voyage...

into a sea of nothing but heartbreak.  Today marks the start of the final cruise of the U.S.S. Enterprise.  Soon, she will be decommissioned and have her precious fuel removed, then possibly scrapped.  I can think of no better send off than the one uttered by 'the shat' himself (even though it was for the fictional ship):

"Captain's Log, stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun, and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man... where no *one* has gone before"
 
Here's to the "Big E"

Week of weakness

Once again, I completely pass the whole week by without posting anything and something terrible has to happen.  I belatedly heard the news that the blogger going by the moniker Neptunus Lex had died in an accident involving his F-21 Kfir. 

I always meant to add Neptunus Lex to the blogroll, but like my posting, I decided I'd just get 'round to it.  Now, we are left with another space that is on the internet with some of the musings, thoughts, opinions, and experiences of a very interesting man that does for a living what I always dreamed of doing.   In my eyes, this man was a hero, someone of great substace and character to look up to.  Who, thanks to the internet, people can still get to know a little.

May the wind be at your back.

Because nothing else is happening

Here's some more good music, since I've also been neglecting to do that, too.

Self assessment

So, yeah.  The dancing.

I have come to the realization that I don't think on my feet too well.  Everything I do has been premeditated, pondered on, or planned out up to days at a time.  So, when I'm introduced into an environment based solely on quick thinking, I seem to muck it up by a decent amount.  But it was only my first day, so I can't be too hard on myself.   In all actuality, I was being complimented on my progress for a first-timer, and I had a really good time to boot.

The whole time I couldn't help but just quote Bruce Lee: "Don't think!  Feeeeel"

But enough of that, I'm just glad it didn't turn out like this:

Oh S**t

Me and my fat mouth.  So, long story short, I ended up agreeing to taking a swing class.  Why?  Because I'm an idiot.  Not that I hold no interest in learning to swing dance, I've always wanted to take the time to learn it, but I just don't think I would have gone out of my way to take a lesson.  Heck, I've had people try to teach it to me before, but I'm pretty sure I hospitalized two out of the three that have attempted to do so. 

But, apparently all it takes for my brain to stop functioning is the mere thought of a tall redhead.  I should just break my foot and find an excuse to get it out of it now, because I'd hate to hospitalize someone that cute.  I can't really complain though, I'm sure it'll not only be good for me, but perhaps there's way I can use swing for evil, or at least it's something for me to do on the weekends rather than just sit on my fat butt, writing on a no-name blog in the wee hours of the night.

In other news, it's the birthday of a good friend of mine, and I hope you stop tripping over being 27, because your lamentations are lost on all of us that have already reached that point.  Oh, and Happy Birthday, buddy.