Secret Squirrel

I don't remember if I mentioned it here before, but the website Secret Projects has been taking up a considerable amount of my time.  It is to me what the land of chocolate is to Homer Simpson.  Once I registered, I found a dizzying mass of blueprints, technical specs, and photos of prototypes, mock ups, and concepts for military airplanes, missiles, and armored vehicles.   This place is more than amazing.

You absolutely have to register with the site to see any of the attachments though, otherwise you'll be missing out on most of the visual goodness.  However, even without that, there's still a wealth of historical and program information on a large amount of subjects.  It comes heartily recommended and endorsed by myself, so it just one more thing in a long list of reasons for me not to go out and socialize.  Yup, that's me: forever alone.

It's the most wonderful time of the year (I think)

Despite knowing better, I actually enjoy Halloween.  The only problem is that I tend to lack some imagination, so it ends up being another catch-22.  I like the holiday, I like dressing up, but I never have any good ideas for costumes, and when I do, I don't have the means to actually do it.  It makes the whole day a love-hate relationship.   Christmas and birthdays on the other hand, is super easy.  All you have to do is just listen to what people say all year, then surprise them by getting them exactly what they wanted.

Anyways, I'm also having a fun time realizing that I am completely unable to make plans anymore.  I'm one of those people who tend to get a bit anal when it comes to making plans, so I try to avoid it.  Now that I'm trying get back into the swing of making them, I come to find that I've lost all common sense when it comes to planning things out.  Great.

Open carry: my take on the who, what, why, where, and when.

Open carry.  The big topic.  I can't remember if I've harped on this subject before, but I can't help but feel a need to throw in my two cents on the matter now.  There are many differing opinions on the issue all over the interwebs, and many a gunblogger has devoted more than a couple posts on it, too.  However, what gets me on the topic, was that I ran into a entertaining young gentleman in person, who was very much against the idea; to the point that he carried on a very long argument against it one evening.

His arguments aren't without some merit, as this man works with law enforcement on a constant basis.  He believes that open carry is a stupid idea, because he feels it is intentionally trying to provoke or insight confrontation.  He also states (factually this time) that people who open carry are often stopped by law enforcement, and end up wasting police time.  He also notes the risk associated with it, in that with a visibly displayed weapon, you run the risk of someone taking your gun from you.  He insisted that if you can't conceal carry, you shouldn't carry at all.

Well, to retort, this is why I'm very much in favor of open carry, and get ready for another super-long rant.

Because I was feeling nostalgic

Again.

AIX 2.0 Soundtrack - Firestorm 

odd social life

So, went on another excursion to the local family fun center to celebrate my friend's daughter's birthday.  Maybe I'm just weird, but for me, laser tag, go carts, and arcades will not be getting old anytime soon.  I was also talked into bowling for a bit.  I'm usually pretty terrible, and I wasn't exactly doing great that day either, but I still somehow won.  Not like it means anything when you wax a bunch of kids and shut-ins at freaking bowling, but I still felt good about it.

Also, I think for the first time ever I actually got a good fortune under my Jones soda bottle cap!  Take a look see:

Now, hopefully they're talking about the one that involves wheelbarrows full of cash....or a tall redhead works.  Yeah, that'll do just fine.

Hitman, this is Assasin. Interrogative...

I like my job, but sometimes it just gets really fun.  had to test some new radios for the company's safety plan whatnot.  technically it's not our job, and we could have just let the safety officer handle it, but screw that noise, we're testing 'em. 

I dunno what it is about two-way radios, but when you're using em, it doesn't matter how old you are, you instantly revert to being a kid and feel the immediate need to buy some yourself.  We decided to go with some run o the mill callsigns for everybody.  I'm Assassin, the roomie is Hitman, and our network admins are Steel Rain and Raptor, and finally the junior member of the team is Chocolate Rain.

A kosher caliber

So I remember a while back saying I would post some results of my first outing with the Jericho, but then I encountered some issues with the built in ICS camera app on my phone.  So, more than a few weeks late, here's a couple of my groups with it. 

Now keep in mind that this wasn't the first group I shot; it being the third and fourth respectively.  It's been a couple years since I've owned a pistol of any kind, so being naturally out of practice, my first two mags shot through the thing were downright shameful (but at least none of my rounds missed the paper).  The groups shown also aren't my best, but considering my absence from pistol shooting and my rapid improvement that day, I feel pretty proud of 'em.  I love my dang Jericho 941.

Who pissed off Aquaman?

So I come in to work this morning and the ceiling looked like this:

So now my desk looks like this (after cleaning):

Yeah, a drain ended up clogging up, and now the IT offices are under a few inches of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen molecules, and it still sounds like weeping rock in here.  Despite the inconvenience and extra work it caused, the sound of the indoor waterfall can be quite relaxing. 

Reason why I am single #10,191

Coincidentally, the number of this reason is also the year of the reign of Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV (the fact that I know this off the top of my head, is yet another reason why I'm single)

Anyways, I was conversing with a young woman I know, and she happened to mention that at one point she was involved in beauty pageants.  

Me:  Ah, you seemed a bit too accomplished at the "the royalty wave" for me to believe you weren't in any beauty pageants.
Woman:  No, I wasn't ever in any beauty pageants, I just ran a couple of them.
Me:  Well that's not any better!  That's like saying, "well, I wasn't in a concentration camp, I ran one."

Then the conversation ended with:

Woman:  Well, it was all a long time ago, so it doesn't really count at all.
Me:  Oh come on! Listen to yourself. That's like an old SS officer saying, "well, it was all long time ago, so it doesn't count."

Yup.  For all the ranting and raving I've done on this blog about equality and sexism, I'm still a pretty big jerk at times.  As for beauty pageants, I've never really been fond of them at all, but I'm not against them either, I just can't care about them either way.  I guess I'm just one of those weirdos that doesn't see vanity as a valid reason to do anything.  But then again, if you're throwing scholarships out like they're candy, well I guess I can get on board with that part.

Excellet training, I'd say

Saw this the other day:

I love it when the code monkeys have a good sense of humor.

More conversations while at work

Regarding the new James Bond theme song for Skyfall, with my roomie who knows absolutely nothing about music or musicians:

Me:  Yeah, it's done by Adele, it's pretty good.
Roomie:  Wait, I think I know who that is.  She's that fat girl, right?
Me:  What?  She's not fat.  I think she can be rather attractive, actually.
Roomie:  Well, she's bigger.
Me:  I think the term you're looking for, is that she's an 'ergonomic slum'.
Roomie:  (amidst laughter) Okay, but at least I knew who she was.

Okay, I have a somewhat high opinion of Adele, and I don't think she's fat, but I can't resist a good fat joke when the opportunity presents itself.

Telegram for you, Sir

Message to intertubes STOP Supplies low, but not morale STOP Car battery dead and needs replacement by tomorrow STOP Rest of day full of appointments that I shouldn't complain about, but am reluctant to go to anyways STOP I'm not feeling sick anymore, thank goodness, but I still have that lingering cough STOP Spent my time cleaning the house when I was sick STOP In hindsight, that was a bad idea STOP Nice to have a clean house though STOP Still have no idea as to what I'm doing this weekend because of multiple people requesting my presence STOP Just wish more of those people were single women STOP Obviously I've randomly been thinking of old telegrams and they way they had to word them for transmitting through Morse code STOP Don't know why I randomly decided to write a post like this, but now I fear I can't STOP in the name of love....

I would have loved trolling telegrams back in the day.  Once again, I am realizing I was born in the wrong era.  More to follow....

Update: Holy crap, I just realized this is my 470th post!  I think I'm gonna celebrate that, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow, when I actually have money.  

is it dark in here?

or is it just me?  So, I came down with something the other day, that has me sounding like a mix between Barry White and a random chain smoker.  That being said, I'm not too keen on writing at the moment.  Heck, it's getting to the point that I may just take the rest of the day off work.

When our powers combine...

There are now three Jerichos in the household.  No, I didn't buy another, even though I wish I had.  The roomie's just arrived yesterday, and we had to take a couple minutes and fiddle around with it. 

It's differences from mine are very interesting.  There are no import markings from KBI on it, or Century (those punks), neither are there any markings from Magnum Research.  It has these interesting little stamped marks on the barrel and trigger guard that have yet to be determined, so we'll have to do some homework on 'em.  It also differs from most in that it's a parkerized finish instead of blued, and despite being in good condition, you can tell the gun wasn't overly cared for before it sold, because of rust on the finish, and the gun wasn't even cleaned after it was last shot before being sold.

It's also a different model, the 941F which, has no decocking feature, and the safety mounted on the frame.  After holding it for a few minutes, I still wasn't quite sure how I felt about the frame mounted safety.  With how large my fingers are, the safety felt like it just kept getting in the way of the slide release. 

Another interesting difference is that I'm quite sure his pistol is of a later manufacture than mine, as the slide assemblies are interchangeable on both of my guns, but when I attempted to put my slides on his, they didn't fit very tightly.  The slide had a very loose tolerance and wobbled within the frame.  We thought it might be a difference with that particular model at fist, but further research indicates that shouldn't be a problem.  I did find out however, that later models made after they stopped making the .41 cal conversion kits had (ever so) slightly different frames, so that seems to be the primary suspect so far. 

I'll have post more info later as it comes in.

like a happy idiot

Just seems appropriate given the mood of the week.

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