I do like looking up random holidays/days of observance on a whim, and the site nationaltoday.com is indispensable for that kind of random crappy trivia. Today, it turns out, is National Mousse Day, one of my favorite forms of chocolate! Though, I have heard that there is strawberry mousse out there too, I'll have to give that a try. Can't think of a better way to mark the end of the month, so grab yourself some while you can.
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| On a related note, it's also National Mason Jar Day. |
I used to love reading all the Tom Clancy novels back in the day, and I still like them and the techno-thriller genre he helped spawn. I loved them because they did provide some realistic scenarios that I find very interesting to read, but as time goes on, and I get older, I have become just a little disillusioned with them.
Why? Well, I realized they are no different from high fantasy, as they are based on the extremely fictitious concept that three letter government agencies like the CIA or FBI are anything close to resembling competent or honest at all.
For some very extreme examples, here's the latest video from DJ Peach Cobbler that I not only found entertaining, but introduced me to a whole slew of new plans by the retarded agency I had never heard of.
are often parted as the saying goes. Now, I do actually attempt to be somewhat responsible with my cash, but on occasion, someone comes up with a crappy gimmick idea that hits the right spot for me, and I think this one is it:
The most wonderful time of the year is made possible by all the things that make you fat. Seriously. I don't really get the people that don't love Christmas, cause even if you aren't into all the other celebratory jazz, there's still all the awesomely tasty goodies that come from it.
Personally I love all the stuff about it, the weather, the good cheer, family get togethers, and the gift giving. But even though it's not the real reason for the holiday, we all have those seasonal commercial goodies we all like: the egg nog, Meier's cold duck, wassail, cranberry sodas and punch, gingerbread cookies, tamales, pumpkin cookies, Martinelli's sparkling cider, mint chip cookies, a resurgence of white chocolate, Terry's chocolate oranges, a wave of peppermint flavored stuff, and pumpkin spice everything.
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| Nectar of the gods, right there. |
This is why I'm trying some new diet all the rest of the year.
Went and saw the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife on Sunday, and I feel the need to give a minor spoiler-free review. I have to say that there are so many ways this movie could have gone wrong, and it still has some noticeable flaws, but it is an excellent movie that helps repair the damage that was done with the 2016 movie. It remains a jump scare comedy that is very enjoyable, and manages to also be very heartfelt, and will have you tearing up at the end if you have any shred of humanity left.
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| It's worth watching more than once. Just be sure to stay to the absolute end of the credits! |
Also, I feel ashamed to admit that at the time, I had no idea we were watching the movie on Harold Ramis' birthday. I like the serendipity there, as the new movie is dedicated to his memory and rightly so. I can't imagine that guy to be anywhere other than a far happier place, but even if he isn't, he's got the tools and the talent.
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| Totally one my childhood heroes growing up. Happy birthday, you new-age Mr. Spock! (also shamelessy ripped from reddit) |
Recently, I managed to build a kind of Frankenstein-ed hodgepodge of a M-16A1 type of AR, assembled from an assortment of spare and new parts. I put it together to give as a gift to friend and I really like the way it turned out. It's certainly not a completely correct representation, the barrel is a heavier profile and is a couple inches short, the color is black instead of grey, and the lower is an A2 design. Other than that, I still think it looks pretty good.
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| Very nice. Just ignore the open triggerguard. |
It's not my first foray in building one, as the AR that I have for myself is one I put together as well. When I did so, I was at my brother in law's house and I got one of the best compliments from my nephew, "I don't know of anything more Saint Grendel than for you to come in here with a box full of metal parts, and leave with a functioning firearm."
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| I obviously have a preference for the retro style ARs. |
Assembling ARs is pretty fun and I like to call it extreme legos. The lower receiver has a few things that can be come three-handed affairs, but is still very simple overall to assemble. As long as you aren't dealing with a complete idiot, you can teach anyone to put one together, as they are quite simple. It's even more simple if you just assemble your own lower and just buy a complete upper (or vice-versa).
However, what I really want to do, is to assemble a G36. This sucker was built to be modular from the get go, so assembly is just stupid easy. Basically all you need is a torque wrench, a vise, and a couple small specialized tools for installing the barrel to the receiver. Pretty similar to assembling an AR upper, but simpler, as there's really nothing else left to do. After that, the remaining parts are self contained and it's basically the same as putting it back together after field stripping it.
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| Now that is one pretty rifle. This is the exact build I'd like to go for. |
They do sell parts kits for the type I want with the barrel length I like at a few places, but the problem is two fold: first, the specialized tools needed to install the barrel are both expensive and hard to find. Then, I would also need to get a TG36 receiver from Tommy Built in order to make it, but it's a shame that the guy never seems to keep anything in stock for long at all. So, who knows if I'll really be able to build one anytime soon.
Not sure if I had written about it here before, but back when I was a kid (around 8 or so), I was sent to a week (or two?) long summer camp in the Marin Headlands located in the barracks of old Fort Cronkhite. The goal was to immerse kids in lessons on ecology and marine wildlife and get kids on board with various eco-values both legit and not. I really liked it, we did all sorts of hands on stuff and got to see a bunch of different animals. Though, even as a kid, what was far more interesting to me was the location and it's history, which was almost completely ignored by the staff there at the time.
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| The old barracks I stayed at for the trip. |
Fort Cronkhite was set up in the 1930s as the threat of war in the pacific became an increasing threat, and across the Rodeo Lagoon from the barracks, there was a large coastal artillery battery set up there to defend the critical San Francisco port.
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| A 16in artillery emplacement of the time (1940s) |
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| What the emplacement looks like now. This is a far more improved condition than when I got to see it as a kid. |
Since my childhood, they have been subsequently been restored to a certain degree, as they certainly look a far sight better now. Still, I had no idea at that age that there was so much more to it while I was jumping around the concrete emplacements.
I had no idea that at the crest of the hill above the artillery emplacements was the dilapidated remains of a subterranean Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules SAM site for ballistic missile defense called SF-87/88. Technically a part of Fort Barry, construction started on the SAM facilities in 1954 and were operational later that year. Security was paramount at these sites and people stationed there were not allowed to discuss their work with any outsider, as the missiles were often armed with nuclear warheads themselves. They were designed and anticipated to be used to intercept incoming Soviet bombers and ballistic missiles. The site was operational until 1974, and was decommissioned and lay dormant until sometime in the 80s when restoration began by a local military vehicle collectors club.
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| The missile site when operational. You can see the same barracks I stayed at in the background. |
It took more than a decade of restoration, thousands of dollars, plus untold hours of time by volunteers to get it to the point it is at today. Now it is an amazing replica of the the facility at the time it was operational (minus one or two structures) that is open to the public for tours on a regular basis and (if you are lucky enough) will occasionally have Army Nike site veterans to come to assist with tours. They will also on occasion raise the restored dummy missiles from their underground storage to launch position!
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| The infamous bay area fog providing some excellent dramatic lighting for this shot. All photos sourced from Wikipedia. |
Despite the trash heap my old home state has become, I would still love to just visit certain places in (The Peoples Volksrepublic of) Kalifornia just for little while, especially this one, as I've never been able to go to the restored site yet. Any plan I have to go back to my home state, would definitely involve going there.
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| The missiles lowered into their protective underground shelter. |
For ages I had been meaning to go to the Tekoi Test Range to check it out. It's not too many hours away from me, and I really wanted to take a day to go there, but never got around to it.
For a long time, it seemed I just couldn't find much info on it other than what I could infer on the CLUI site and the very muddled and poorly written Wikipedia page on it. Maybe my google-fu just sucked at the time, but I honestly don't remember anything showing up when trying to find out more about it roughly 10 years ago. Thankfully, someone on youtube has again beaten me to the punch and made a couple of full videos on it. One video exploring the location and another video explaining not only what was done at the facility in relatively good detail, but also has some actual footage of the tests done there.
The only thing not mentioned in the video is the variety of the rockets tested there. Some of the more prolific ones other than the Trident SLBMs motors that were tested at the site are likely to be:
A little known, but influential site in Utah Cold War history, is the Buckhorn Wash Underground Explosive Test Site #8. Also know today as simply the MK tunnel system. I'm not sure how I initially found out about them, but for this article I'm using the Cold War Tourist site as a source, which has excellent write ups on the program and it's sites. Go give it a look see, it's an excellent site with details on a lot of other places of note.
Morrison Knudsen was a company contracted by the US Army in 1948-1952 to set off controlled detonations on the naturally occurring rock in the San Rafael Swell area in Utah as a part of the Underground Explosion Test Program. The purpose of these tests was test the suitability of the rock and to refine the design of underground structures to defend against aerial explosive attacks of various sizes and in various locations across western states.
The site is Utah has three sandstone tunnels of various sizes, in which 19 explosions were set off at various depths above the tunnels with payloads ranging from 320 lbs. of explosives to a whopping 320,000 lbs. of explosives!
Being a very soft rock, the sandstone there was likely deemed unsuitable, and then another phase of the UET program later began testing in the granite cliffs of Unaweep Canyon, Colorado. These tests likely directly contributed to the eventual development of the famous Cheyanne Mountain Complex later. Although I don't have any sources or info to back it up, I did hear somewhere that the info from these tests also contributed to the development of the underground facilities built for the Titan II missile launch complexes.
Utah is a funny place and I will admit a lot of it is because of the dumbass voting habits of Mormons. Despite being one, I can't help but admit that Mormons as a group tend to vote very stupidly.
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| All three variants of the Minuteman missile from History.com |
For example, there was a big fuss back in the day about not basing Minuteman ICBMs here, with huge protests about it at the state capital that occurred back in the 70s. Instead of basing the missiles here, the USAF just based the logistical and maintenance headquarters here instead of actual missiles. Yet, to this day, it is still a hot topic here considering the Minuteman missiles are planned to be updated/refurbished, so lawmakesrs are still huffy about it.
Yet at the same time, nobody here seems to have any issue with the state being completely riddled with Uranium Disposal Cells, which, IMO, are far more potentially dangerous. Looking at history, it seems like ICBMs are pretty benign, considering they are highly maintained, very secure, and the goal is to NOT use them (and we've done pretty well so far). Whereas nuclear waste handling facilities have had a far worse track record for accidents, as well as the fact that not all dump sites are official or even regulated.
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| Both images from the Center for Land Use Interpretation |
So, all you retarded Mormons who think you did any good at all, had better be proud of yourselves for stopping those icky ICBMs, cause look what you did instead, you idiots. I bet if we actually had ICBMs here, we would have had better oversight for how the nuclear waste is handled in the state. Just for fun, here's a list of disposal sites in Utah:
https://clui.org/ludb/site/mexican-hat-uranium-disposal-cell
https://clui.org/ludb/site/monticello-uranium-disposal-cell
https://clui.org/ludb/site/crescent-junction-disposal-cell
https://clui.org/ludb/site/green-river-uranium-disposal-cell
https://clui.org/ludb/site/clive-radioactive-waste-site
On top of these, there are also lots of unlisted nuclear waste dump sites within the Skull Valley with only signs to guard them.
UPDATE: totally forgot to add the Green River Facility and Energy Solutions as well.
A good friend of mine has a little youtube cooking channel and it reached 100 subs early last week. Figured I'd share it here for anyone interested, as I do find him to be pretty funny. Nice to see the channel grow. Pretty sure I was like the 9th subscriber or something when he went live with his first episode.
In other news, I was told this exemplifies me:
Not too long ago, Jeff Bezos said that if their new Lord of the Rings show Amazon is producing ends up a failure, they are getting out of the business of producing their own original shows permanently. Well, since he's too dumb to see that it's guaranteed to be a failure already, let's move on to talk about Netflix.
Now there's a company that seems to put out original crap a lot more often than hits. They have had a slew of garbage shows produced, and even the good ones they put out tend to have some serious flaws *cough* Bird Box *cough*. Although, I will admit Squid Game was actually very enjoyable, but we'll see if that trend continues. Anyways, there's still an unending amount of reviews and articles about how disappointing most Netflix originals end up being.
Now they are moving on to adapting my favorite show of all time, Cowboy Bebop. This upsets me for a few reasons other than the one mentioned above. When adapting something that already exists, they tend to love to deviate from the source materiel as well as not use anywhere near the appropriate budget to not appear as a half assed production. The openly admitted to completely disregarding the input of the original director and writer, Shinichirō Watanabe, who has already disowned any association with the production.
Then add to the fact that the chick who plays Faye Valentine in the new production has already jumped on the high horse of calling the fans sexist for thinking her costume sucked. Add to that, the fact that she never bothered to learn anything about the original character before complaining about her, since one of her arguments was that she wasn't properly tall enough and bimbo looking enough to look like her (nevermind they are they are nearly same height, and the actress has performed in far skimpier outfits).
The only thing that is remotely good I've heard so far about the production is that John Cho insisted that he's too old to play the main character, but is still going ahead with it. however, he did manage to convince Netflix to hire the original composer and he actually watched the whole show to get the character right. Good on ya, Cho, but it's just not enough to give me any hope about it.
I'll still give it a try, but it seems they are hell bent on making it a complete remake of the original series, and have completely changed the nature of multiple characters. I think remaking it is a massive waste of time, as the original show is animated and holds up far better than live action with CG these days. Just on a technical perspective alone, the new show will be outdated far faster. Once again, this is a situation where I think they would have been better served by making a companion piece to the original series instead. That's all fans have been clamoring for since day one was more of the same, not make it different. Heck, as I've said before, any show that is a success (and isn't forgotten), doesn't need to be remade, because by changing it you've already likely lost some or most of what made it good to begin with.
Come to hear now that reviewers are not impressed with what they have seen so far either. I generally go by audience reviews rather than pro reviewers, but the audience also gives most of the marvel movies high scores, and most of them are garbage, too. Well, there's still the original if you want to watch a show that's sure to be good that doesn't call you sexist.
Not gonna lie, I'm just too lazy to post on the weekends, so I usually type up these music posts way ahead of time and then just choose which one to do on the weekend. That being said, I still like posting stuff I think is good, so enjoy:
Stormtroopers of Death - Sgt. D and the SOD
Historical humor is a fickle thing; there's plenty of it around, but rarely does it make me actually laugh. Even more rare is when a guy on youtube who does videos mostly on video games makes the funniest historical joke video I've ever seen. That, and I gotta lighten things up around here after the past few days.
Let's face it, every guy who is dating someone whom he isn't sure is the right one to marry, will eventually make a pros/cons list of marriage to that woman, and war crimes is certainly not a dealbreaker when on the cons list.
Don't really expect more of these kind of videos on his channel, but he does have some interesting ones on topics other than video games that are really good. Though, even his takes on video games are pretty insightful/thoughtful, unlike most people doing that kind of thing on youtube.
Basically, Wikipedia describes it as a South Korean holiday similar to Valentines day, but revolving around the sweet stick cookies called Pepero. Wikipedia gives an account of what started it, but I would throw that to the wind and say it was more likely to be a marketing ploy by the company itself that started it, since the tradition seemed to start the same year the product was introduced. Though, there's nothing wrong with that if people are having a great time with it.
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| They came first, and I can't help but like 'em a bit better. |
I like the standard chocolate and cookies and cream flavors from Pepero, but I hope no one from Korea takes offense to me preferring the original Pocky (especially the strawberry, yum-o!). I do know some Koreans who like Pocky better, so hopefully I won't be starting up more rooftop Koreans.
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| Roof Korea is best Korea. Also found on a subreddit called r/roofkoreans. |
I may have touched on this before on this blog, but Veteran's day wasn't always known as such. The day was specifically commemorated as Armistice Day because of the ceasing of hostilities between all factions on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in the year of our lord 1918; ceasing what we know now as World War 1, but known at that time as simply "The Great War".
The Great War was, and still is one of the most horrifically large losses of life the world over, and most unfortunately, one of the most pointless. World War 2, on the other hand had very good reasons for being fought, but without the Great War, would likely never have been needed to fought at all.
Many times as I see this day pass, many people from a European origin or residence will point out the sweet and reverent tradition that is common in that part of the world of wearing a red poppy in commemoration of the sacrifices made in the war. Originating specifically because of the poem In Flanders Fields which documented the aftermath of a battle in Belgium in 1915.
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| A picture of a bronze memorial of the poem at it's author's birthplace. Pic from Wikipedia. |
Some people tend to lament that wearing the red poppy is not more common in the US, but I tend to disagree. I don't think the tradition is bad at all, not in the least. However, as America did not enter the war until 1917, it would seem to me a little presumptuous for Americans to don it (though I certainly don't object to it at all), as the battle in Flanders wasn't fought by us at all.
As well, being Americans, we tend to (and have intentionally set out to) be different from our European brethren. This shows in almost all things we do, even up to and including spelling words differently from our English friends across the pond. In fact, German ancestry was was far more common and was far more celebrated in the US until the events of WW1, but most Americans decided to disavow their ancestry due to their fierce belief in American ideals and patriotism. Weather right or wrong, the point is simply proven that Americans love doing things their own way, and I don't see why we shouldn't continue to celebrate that.
As for me, I generally try to do something nice for my co-workers, as most of them are veterans, by getting some donuts for the office or something. Generally, most of them can't stand people verbally thanking them for their service, and I can kinda see why. At the end of the day, I'll like to remember all veterans, but will always try to remember why the day was commemorated for the end of WW1 as well. Usually doing so by watching the last episode of Blackadder, which always surprises me by how heartfelt and touching it's final scene is.
I generally believe in treating others with respect by default, but I certainly don't believe in treating all ideologies with respect. Especially when the tenants of that ideology insist on disrespect to individuals without regard to judging them fairly. I prefer the philosophy of "by their fruits ye shall know them", so that's why I can't stand modern feminism or other 'woke' ideologies at all.
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| This one's gonna induce some broken feefees |
First off, they seem to think that they need to have more "representation in media" because they have been treated unfairly and have suffered through the #metoo fiasco(which I feel has permanently hurt those who were actually abused, but that's another argument for another day). They insist on having their own movies, but then just rip off existing movies instead of coming up with their own stories. I mean, if you really believed women were smart, strong, and independent, why can't you come up with your own damn movie? Instead you straight up bastardize existing franchises like Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Star Trek, and now possibly Indiana Jones. Then, when they inevitably bomb, because they suck, you call fans of the originals misogynist or sexist (including female fans!), even after you've irreparably ruined the franchise.
Then there's the pay gap myth. Not too many years ago in my dating days, I was at the home of a female friend, with another girl I dated briefly. Somehow that damn retarded 'pay gap' study came up, and the girls I was with insisted that it was horrible that women were still being "oppressed" or "marginalized" or "unfairly treated" because it proved they were being paid less than men. I quickly brought up that the study never accounted for the fact that men tend to work significantly more hours, tend to qualify for higher level positions, as well as the fact there is already an existing law that makes paying someone less for the same amount of work in the same position based on sex is illegal! But they refused to accept my argument despite the obvious. Needless to say I don't associate with them anymore, as they seem to think I was problematic for more reasons than just that.
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| Because I don't buy into your crappy "pay gap" myth. |
Even if the pay gap myth was true, I'm of the same opinion of Bill Burr on the subject. Society still expects me as as man in the event of an emergency to assist women and children first, and I'm expected to die for that if needed. So, I'll happily take my "I'm going to die first tax." since I'm also registered for the draft by law and they aren't.
Even classical feminists of the suffrage kind of annoy me in that they pissed and moaned about getting the right to vote, but refused any of the responsibilities for doing so (hence why many women did not actually want the vote). They didn't actually believe in equality, as they were not required to be a part of the draft or local volunteer fire brigades, or any other responsibility associated with the right to vote.
Fast forward to today, and now that women may soon be a part of the draft, they piss and moan about it again. Except now, they insist women be a part of combat units but then refuse to meet the basic physical requirements for those roles and wonder why they are so disrespected in the ranks. It's because you did nowhere near the amount the next man did to get the same position/posting/rank, so you don't deserve the same respect.
Needless to say, the pun is intended in the title of this post. That, and I can't help but notice a lot of behavior that results in extreme feminists 'eating their own' so to speak, that I talked about before. To wrap up here, I believe in treating others with respect regardless of color, gender, etc, but not all cultures or ideologies. Recognizing there are differences in us all is not bad and nature itself has determined dimorphisim is the best way for us to thrive. That, and if the fruit of feminism is nothing but vitriolic screaming, denying science, and peddling lies, it's not good at all.
Also, the latest Freedom Toons on the subject is amazing if you haven't seen it before.
I love my Jericho, but the 941R model I have usually has the extended slide stop. I don't mind the length at all, but the fact it drops down closer to the grip really gets in the way and I find that I end up actuating it without wanting to. My solution was to get the newer slide stop for the steel frame models, but no one seemed to have it available anywhere.
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| Length is good but height is terrible. |
Now, since the Jericho is basically a CZ-75 clone to start with, and has a number of parts compatible with it (I already use 19 round CZP01 mags for my gun, and it's able to use the same barrels), I got to thinking if the slide stop would be interchangeable as well. So, I went on ebay and picked one up for pretty cheap and waited for it to arrive.
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| With the CZ part installed. |
Not too much later, when it finally arrived, I slapped it in. It fit into the gun perfectly, but then I did notice the dimensions are different on the little nub on the stop that actually catches the follower, which ended up being nearly twice as thick than the Jericho's. I was a little worried this would interfere with feeding, but I did test the feeding with no issues, so the only thing left was to test fire it.
Lo and behold, it worked flawlessly, as I was able to test fire several mags out of it with no issues last weekend. All in all, I like how that turned out, the CZ stop is a bit shorter than I prefer, but still not bad and has no issues I can see so far. Though the real goal is to still get the new model slide stop:
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| Holy freaking awesome sauce on a flaming stick! How did this game not make me a gaming nut? |
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| A great read, even for non-fiction. |
John Moses Browning is the Mormon that will never die, as his guns will live on forever. Even if you aren't into guns, or even know who he is, you likely have either heard of some of the things he invented, or were affected by them in some way, shape, or form. Technically, he died before he could finish the design of the Hi-Power, and the work was continued by his protege in Belgium just before World War 2 broke out.
Since then it's seen service in almost all the free (and not free) world, being the standard sidearm of the militaries of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Nazi Germany :(, India, Greece, Denmark, and Austria just to name a few.
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| Oh so pretty. |
Bowning HPs are not exactly hard to find or expensive, but they do have a bewildering amount of variations and can sometimes be in a condition that are a little worse for wear. Even then, some do have a few annoying features to modern shooters and is not quite as customizeable as newer guns.
So, it's just nice to see that Springfield Armory is bringing back the Browning Hi-Power in a big way. Glad to see Springfield Armory has poured on all the features that I like into it, you got the rounded hammer, no magazine safety, improved sights (IMO), and even increased capacity mags. Bonus video from the firearm blog on the thing, too.
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| I mean, it IS really darn nice. |
Overall, they did an amazing job, but I do have a couple major gripes. I do think they should have included a full beaver-tail for it, but that would add to the price and weight. Being tight on money, I'm not likely to get one of these anytime soon, as it also MSRPs for about $700 (WTF?!). So yeah, not at the top of my list of essential guns when I'm broke. Lastly, EAA already did this ages ago and it has pretty much all the same features, retails fantastically cheaper (MSRP $528), and likely has a higher quality.
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| Slap some wood grips on there, and it's even better. |
However, if I ever find myself with all the other guns I need, and have some change burning a hole in my pocket, I'll have to jump on the EAA model, because most of Springfield's lineup has not impressed me much in the past.
Was watching a big playlist of movies over the Halloween weekend with the wife and her family and we got into a conversation of Halloween movies vs. horror/scary movies. There are plenty of movies that fit the theme for Halloween, but they aren't always actually horror or scary movies. It got me thinking a bit, since there aren't a lot of horror movies that I actually enjoy. I'm not an overly huge fan of the horror genre (especially slasher flicks), because too often they rely on people being incredibly stupid for the plot to advance. Thankfully, that is not always the rule, and I had to think of what my favorite scary movies actually are. So here's a pretty comprehensive list of the ones that I really enjoy and in no particular order:
Now at the same time, there are plenty of movies that tend to mix genres, like action-horror and comedy-horror, but I wanted to leave as much of those out that I could and focus on movies whose primary goal is to just be a scary movie.
I hate the epic games store for a number of reasons, one of which is the fact that the primary controlling shares are all commie Chinese owned. I mean, they install spyware on your machine to send your personal info to the Chinese government, which is the most unsettling part about it. Let's face it, do you really need any more reason than that?
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| A prophet of our time. Too true, buddy. |
Regardless of politics, Epic as a company is the exact opposite of their namesake for a variety of reasons. Their CEO loves making twitter drama, you also have the absolute retardation that is the Apple vs Epic lawsuit which actually manages to make Apple look like the good guy for the first time in 30 years. On top of that, the app is generally terribly made as it doesn't display any common info on games the consumer generally want to make an informed purchase, as well as it can be a resource hog on your machine. I don't even bother with the free games on there, cause I don't want to even touch that crap. Then there is also the damn exclusivity deals. Even if commies are not your concern, what should be a concern is the terrible business practices of the company and is ability to completely hamstring their own customers.
Look, I generally don't have too much issue with exclusivity deals to a certain extent, as long as it's restricted to a couple months or so. However, epic is doing a disservice to both their customers and themselves by squeezing year-long (or longer) exclusive deals for the games they offer. It hurts the consumer by either forcing them to a platform they hate, or not getting the game. It also hurts the game devs in the long term as the profits from the game would have likely been more than the exclusivity money, and it hurts epic themselves by using the exclusivity as a crutch to delay or never improve their product.
In fact, they've pissed off so many people, that there's an aptly named subreddit for this very topic...
Some time ago, in fact, right at the time I sopped writing on the blog last around 2014, my brother had come up to visit me and was staying with me for about a week or so. By way of a gift from our mother, we had an opportunity to go on a check flight with a local instructor in a Cessna for an hour or two. The flight itself was great, as is any flight time I get theses days, but the real treat happened after we landed.
As we were gabbing with the instructor, somebody popped their head in the door informing us that the Vampire was outside and would be taking off soon. I was immediately shocked by it, asking "Wait a sec. A vampire? Here? Really?" After ensuring that I was informed correctly, we all immediately rushed out of the room to the flight line to see her. As soon as we were out of the hangar, we saw her sitting there on the tarmac, and what a gorgeous sight she was.
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| When I first saw her, she still had the old camo livery. She has since been repainted. Photo source. |
For those not in the know, the de Havilland Vampire is one of the first operational jet fighters in the west. Developed in Great Britain near the start of world war two, and entering service around a year after the war, it's a very rare sight these days. What makes it even more rare is unlike most (even early) jets, is that it was primarily constructed from wood. On top of that, the model that was at the airport was a two seat trainer variant which (I believe) was likely one of only 6 aircraft that started life as a T.11 trainer and later was converted to an upgraded model, the T.55. Even more impressive is that there are only six airworthy models in the US at all.
I was pretty amazed and happy that day, and was even able to get up and take a look at the very (let's say) cozy looking cockpit. The experience didn't end there, as we were able to hear the high pitched whine when they started the engine, and she took off not long afterwards. It was just a such a great sight and sound to behold and I just love seeing stuff like that.
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| Here's a more recent photo from 2019 showing what she looks like now. Photo Source. |
One thing I can't help but think of every time I see or hear of the Vampire, is the excellent short story written by Frederick Forsythe, The shepherd. Also pertinent to the topic of late Halloween stories, I included a link to a free version you can read.
Man, my memory is kinda bad, cause I can't remember where I first saw the Aviator Arms X-1 Bi-Axial Recoil Device. Possibly from their own youtube video announcing it some time ago. However, I watched the Military Arms Channel review of the product just a few days ago.
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| I miss the 'ol pvtmurphy webcomic |
The big idea behind it is to save space and make a much more compact weapon by eliminating the stock from the AR15. Gotta agree with MAC on this one, the first time a saw it, I couldn't help but think it was really flimsy and kinda pointless, considering the space saved by not having a stock is moot when firing anyways. Unless you just want to have a funny range toy, I don't see any real practical use for the dumb thing. The big selling point is that it is cheap (about $400), but MAC offers some significantly better alternatives in their video.
I felt like just making a few other points that was missed in MAC's video on it. First, as far as a drawback goes, it likely drastically affects the intended balance of the AR, making muzzle rise a problem when shooting. MAC also lists some great alternatives, but he missed some viable ones both on the low and high end of the spectrum.
On the high end, The Z-M Weapons LR-300 is far closer to an AR and has a significant amount of parts compatibility, and you can even convert an AR into one with a simple kit. Unfortunately, the last iteration of it made by Para Ordnance was not known for being very well made and Allan Zitta (the inventor) is currently between companies at the moment, so they are hard to find and expensive to buy. Hopefully Mr. Zitta manages to find another manufacturer soon, because I would still love to buy one of those things.
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| I mean, just look at that thing! Does it not look amazing? |
Another alternative on the low end, is the range of folding stock adapters by Law Tactical. These may not be able to fire while folded, but accomplishes the goal of shortening the rifle while being cheaper and far more robust (IMO) than the X-1. If you are willing to remember to unfold the stock before use, it's an outright better option. Personally I don't really care for them, but I'll still say it's a great option for those looking for that feature.
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Just in time for Halloween to be over with, I completely forgot I wanted to say a blurb about this until RazorFist streamed it earlier this week for his Nightmare Arcade. The excellent Ghostbusters video game was (relatively) recently remastered and re-released for it's 10th anniversary. I love the game and am glad's is been given new life, as I basically had to get it in an underhanded fashion because it was unavailable to purchase for so long. I'm currently installing the remastered version now, so the following will be my experience with the originally released game.
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| Sheer effing awesome. |
Actually written by Dan Ackroyd alongside the late and great Harold Ramis. Both men considered this game the real 3rd movie in the franchise, as they could never get their movie idea picked up by any studio. Also, the game features all the original cast to reprise their roles (with the exceptions of Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver). It is just a joy to hear them all in top form again. Since we also mentioned the original writers were involved the humor is spot on, as well as having a few actually spooky moments.
If you haven't tried it, it's everything a fan of the original movies could want. It's set in 1991, and of course, New York, so you will be running around the old firehouse right at the start! It's great in that you get to fulfill the childhood dream of joining as a new recruit to the team then be immediately thrown into the fray with a proton pack to wrangle 'em up. Heck, if you're missing 'ol dickless over there, you even get to see the infamous Walter Peck again.
The game is basically a 3rd person shooter with some fairly simple mechanics. Some might complain about this, but I think it's a good idea to rope in people not overly savvy with video games to enjoy it, as well as you don't really need complicated gameplay for it. Why not try to appeal to anyone and everyone who just wants more of the Ghostbusters?
A common gripe I have with video games is the inclusion of long or numerous cut scenes. My complaint still stands, but here, you're basically getting more of a great movie to watch with characters I love, so not as much of a problem in this case. The game does sometimes feel a bit low-budget as I would have loved a section in which I would drive the Ecto-1, but that's just nitpickyness on my part.
Also, it's a nice touch that they dedicated the remastered version of the game to Harold Ramis as well, as he passed not too many years after the game was released. All in all, just get the dang thing already and start busting some heads...in a spiritual sense of course.
Although, the original trailer is a bit more fun, even if it's not as pretty. Now, I'm off to collect some mold, spores, and fungus.
Oh yeah, on a related note, one of the best compliments my wife has ever given me was that Peter Venkman was my spirit animal.
