needs and wants

Everyone in the office has been going crazy recently over the latest fad from last year.  All day, everyone's been debating among themselves about those SOG "tacti-cool" tomahawks and what bloody model they all want to get.

Personally, I find it kind of silly.

As for me, I dunno what it is, but for some time now I've been consumed with the desire to find a really nice, sturdy, and (above all else) usable butterfly knife.  Yeah, it's about as useful as that stupid tomahawk, but I just want one, okay?

Of course, you can just get those cheap Phillipino or Chinese specials you find at the gun show, but I'm looking for one that can actually function as an actual, well, knife.

Like this Benchmade model.  Nice, but still nearly $200!

After doing a good amount of searching, it's slowly becoming more and more apparent that I'm not gonna find one that's worth it's salt for under $170.  I'm beginning to think that the world has failed me; any other type of knife, and you can find some pretty serious quality for $50-$100, but it's now the 21st century and nobody is making a halfway good balisong for less than what it costs to buy a gun?  I smell an opportunity.

Contact, foot mobiles, 300 meters!

Earlier, I was coming up a bit short for topics to post about, but then I remembered my crazy adventure in the ARMA 3 alpha last night.  

The game is visually impressive, with a fantastically detailed world, but it's still very obviously an alpha, in that there are numerous bugs with the AI and some visual glitches.  The roomie and I decided to give the coop missions a try, and boy did we suck.  It's been far too long since I've played a game with any hint of realism or tactics, so we were making all sorts of progress at dying in more and more embarrassing ways.  

Sometimes this was our fault, but there were some genuinely odd and frustrating problems with the game that also caused our demise, including some rather poorly thought out mission design.  In the few moments where everything was working properly, there was some seriously enjoyable moments: stealing armored cars, clearing buildings, and sniping are all incredibly satisfying.  

Okay, so we didn't see anything this bad, but still.

In short, the learning curve was only slightly improved over the last game, and there are some technical and design issues, but I'll more than likely be playing this one more in the future.

In the meantime, I'll really be looking forward to more info on another game that's in development: Takedown by Serellan.

I got the island fever

Oh man. Wow.  If it wasn't for that crappy government and stupid judicial system of theirs, I swear I'd have moved to Great Britain years ago.  We recently had a couple reps from our London office stop by for a meeting, and just hearing that accent was intoxicating.  Of course it doesn't hurt that one of them is also a very attractive woman on top of having a heart melting accent.  So when we are asked to send someone to help them with a technical issue, it of course practically turns into a fist fight between everyone to see who can go.

Don't think I'd mind having a "relationship manager"

I was also tempted to mention something about the passing of the latest crazy cook that will not be missed, but as per usual, Tam puts it far better than I can.

Forgot to mention another conversation I had with a friend recently about some moral and ethical quandaries, and he posed the question to me, "If you had the opportunity to save a large amount of people by killing someone who had not directly committed any crimes, would you?"
"Sure. Just not for free."
I don't think my answer is what he expected.

Let's see, what else can I say...um...well I did finally see Django Unchained last week.  Like Five times.  All within a week.  So I obviously liked it.

another weekend

another video for your enjoyment.  I could have sworn I already posted this one before, but I couldn't find it and I need a tune that's just rockin.

personal ad libbing

I was with a couple of friends and we were joking around about social media and whatnots, and of my friends was trying to tell me about some journalist (Teslyn Barkman) he read recently.  Before showing me a picture of her he wondered aloud, if her name was Jewish.

To which I half jokingly reply, "A Jewish redhead in the Falklands?!?!  Holy crap!  How can I marry this woman stat?!"

When the other friend replies, Wow.  "We need to make a personal ad for you on a dating site that's exactly that, seeking Jewish redhead on the Falklands..."

I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while. 

do or do not, there is no try

When quoting that to someone yesterday, they said they disagreed it, because it isn't factually accurate.  I asked how so, and they responded by saying, "Well, it doesn't make sense, because you can try to move a boulder all you want, but it most likely won't move, but you still tried."
then I responded with, "Okay, that just means you didn't move it.  The end result is always whether something happened or not, so simply trying doesn't matter."

On a completely random note, I'm trying hard to see if I can utilize the terms "fop" and "dandy" more often in my day to day speech.  I think it would be particularly fun to use it to describe someone who annoys me while said person is in my presence. 

sleazy magazines

Finally got those dang 9mm CZ-75 mags in the mail!  Well, after learning the hard way that they are coated in a grease that really stings the eyes, I decided to make quick comparison between them and the stock IMI (Tanfoglio) mags.  The IMI mag is on the left with the red follower, and the CZ mag will always be on the right.

Immediately noticeable is that the IMI mag is slightly taller than the CZ, which also has some curious holes cut into the front of the mag

As you can see, the Jericho (Tanfoglio) mags have a symmetrical notches on either side for the mag release, whereas the notches for the mag release on the CZ mag are not.  Perhaps not as noticeable, is that they are of a different shape, size, and have a slightly different placement (ie. lower) as those on the Jericho's.

The Jericho mags also have a notch just before the feed lips, when the CZ mags don't, and I'm wondering if these will have an effect on the actuation of the slide release after the last shot fires.

After looking at their physical differences, I went on toy with them a bit to see how they do in the Jericho.  I noticed that the CZ mags are not as easy to seat in the magwell as the Jericho mags, requiring a good slap or two in order to make sure it locks into place.  When loaded, they also have a much tighter fit as evidenced by the following comparison.  First, the IMI mag:

note the amount of space between the baseplate fo the IMI factory mag and the magwell

Now the CZ:

Jeez, that's a tight fit!

I continued to experiment by loading a few snap caps into the CZ mag and cycling the action.  All signs point to a flawless operation, but I'll wait until I go to the range for a final verdict.  Also, the Jericho has a notoriously east to actuate slide stop, so I can't reliably verify how it will perform with just the snap caps.

Now, since I can't seem to find a box of ammo at non-wallet-raping prices, I'll have to wait till I can afford a few boxes of real ammo to see how they preform at the range.

I needed that

Spent the weekend doing as little as possible, and well, it was sorely needed.  Running around like crazy all over the valley, although always entertaining, gets tiring very quickly.  Just had to sit down and enjoy a good amount of time just playing Planetside 2 with the brother, which was a good amount of fun.

Speaking of video gaming whatnot, I'm really excited to hear that after much silence, that Insurgency 2 will be opening up for Beta pretty soon, and that pre-ordering the game (for only 20 bucks!) gets you early access to said beta.  I may just do that.

Also, today is the day I stop being the FNG around IT.  Not sure how I feel about it, as he's technically going to outrank me, and be younger than me, but I'm hoping for the best, so we'll see how things go.

'nother earworm

Dunno why, but I had this one stuck in my head all day.

and another one comes

Heralding the new month over here is that we have a new guy starting in IT on Monday.  It's been pretty exhausting for everyone that's been doing the interviews to even find someone who knows what they are talking about.  But alas, we finally find someone who seems qualified  and now is the ultimate test to see if he throws off our collective groove.  All I have to say, is the guy better enjoy guns, cause that makes up a good portion of office conversation for us.

Speaking of which, I spent a few bucks on a couple new CZ-75 magazines to use with the Jerichos, and I'm eager to see if I'll be needing to make any modifications to them to get them to work properly.  There's endless forums on the subject with many people giving differing reports and opinions on the matter, but the way this market is, I thought getting two new mags for any gun would be a worthwhile investment regardless if they work with mine or not.  The only problem being that they're restricting customers to being able to buy only two, which is kinda lame.

Though I wonder if I should be a bit more frugal with my purchases, because I'm still itching for a good rifle, which is something I haven't owned in a good long while, and that's just inexcusable.