Don't lay hose in a ditch.

Glock 27 (.40 S&W)
Okay, so it actually arrived more than two weeks ago but I didn't have a chance to go shoot it until today. And so begins a learning curve that I expect will have enough G-force to give me nose bleeds.

God, she's an ugly broad, isn't she? My buddy's Beretta PX4 is about a hundred times sexier, but the Glock 27 was winning the popularity contest for concealed carry. I'm going to resist the urge to extend the hot chick/homely chick metaphor...

I brought 100 rounds with me to a local indoor pistol range and wished at the end of it that I had brought 200. The range was pretty nice - all the folks I talked to were friendly and I had the eight shooting lanes to myself for most of the time I was there. There was one wise crack made from behind the counter when I purchased 10 targets ("Geez, how much are you planning to shoot today???") but I just smiled and ignored it. My intent was to shoot one mag per target for the first 50 or 60 rounds so I could get an idea of how I was improving or not improving, and I'm glad I did it that way - just to see my baseline.

Range fee was high at $16. It will be $12 when I have my CCW, or $175 for a year (o_O). I guess I'll need to see how much ammo I can afford before deciding if that range fee will be worth it or not. The business that operates the range doesn't offer any classes that I'm interested in, so that's another mark against it.

It's been more than a month, btw, since I submitted the paperwork for my CCW. I have a feeling they're going to stretch it to the absolute limit of the 45-day waiting period, just because they can. If they go a day over the limit I'll be going to the Clerk's office for the temporary permit they're required to furnish me with. Not because I've got a hard-on to carry, but because it irks me to get jerked around by the red tape.

( more pics and targets )

New trailer from the PS3 post-apoc video game about the zombie ant fungus (Ophiocordyceps) that makes the crossover to humans.

My shed has been somewhat of a disaster lately so I cleared about half of it out and built some shelves. They give me an extra 40 square feet of storage for about $65 worth of materials. I thought about buying some of the adjustable, gray steel shelves you see at the hardware stores, but those were more expensive and didn't provide as much space.

The first thing to grace the new shelves?


Twenty-five gallons of stabilized gasoline. It's tough to guess usage, but that will last me about two weeks if I'm running the generator for eight hours a day; keeping the fridge cold, powering the water heater long enough for showers, running a window AC unit, etc. Maybe less if I'm sharing power with the neighbors, which is always a good idea in an extended power outage situation. Dang, now I feel like I need more jerry cans...

The basement walls have been set up and the concretre floor has been poured. The short wall off the left is a retaining wall for all the gravel and dirt that will be piled around the basement, burying about half of it.
( Read more... )

The Forever War makes its way on to quite a few "Must-Read Sci-Fi" lists. Mankind is beginning to explore space and colonize planets, and soon finds itself at war with an alien species. With the use of space/time physics reminiscent of Enders Game, soldiers are able to travel from battleground to battleground in a state of suspended animation, participating in wars that are fought decades apart. The main character is a soldier who experiences centuries of futile, unending combat.

The author was drafted for the Viet Nam war and the era definitely shows through. One sort of odd element that showed up in the plot is that the military is co-ed, and the soldiers all have sex with each other, on a nightly basis (actually, maybe that isn't so odd). Everybody pairs up at the end of the day, and monogomous relationships are prohibited. This particular dynamic changes quite a bit as the decades pass. I suppose for someone living in the 60s and 70s this could be a very timely theme, but it certainly dated the book in my opinion. The sci-fi and action elements are very well done. Haldeman's military experience comes to bear on themes dealing with the fog of war, morale, leadership, r.o.e., etc. The tragedy of war is addressed but it is sober and concise, not preachy. The ending of the novel is fantastic, and if any reviews of the book have left you on the fence, you could definitely pick it up for that reason alone.

The Ox-Bow Incident is a story about a lynching in 1885 Nevada. It is pretty much *the* book to read on the subject of mob mentality. In addition to being an in-depth study of the psychology of the participants, Clark is also able to describe the setting with astounding detail and vivid imagery. I especially liked Clifton Fadiman's review, from The New Yorker:

"It bears about the same relation to an ordinary Western that The Maltese Falcon does to a hack detective story. Not to put too fine a point on it, I think it's sort of what you might call a masterpiece."

I had no idea there was a movie made of this - time to hit up Netflix...

Spent the last few days out in the Shenandoah mountains, painting my parents' barn on their new property. I got two sides completed in about 25 hours of work. It was pretty light labor, the weather was beautiful, and I was out there by myself, so it was a fairly relaxing mini-vacation.

( cut for pikshers... )

I've changed my user name to zadok_allen because "pyrophile" sounded too squirrelly and it was bugging me. Apologies for any initial confusion.

TSA terrorizes 4 year old. Awesome. Great work guys.

I've been reading a lot of emergency preparedness blogs and forums lately, and the material has made me realize how much room I have for improvement. That's my face-saving way of saying I feel completely unprepared. I'm still probably better squared away than many of the people on my block, I suppose. I keep a 72-hour bug out bag in the house and a smaller, abbreviated version in the truck. I have a generator and enough fuel for about 4 days, about a one-month supply of canned and dry food, means for treating and filtering water but not much for storing, a few firearms. I guess I can say I'm "good" on the bug-out bag (although they always have room for improvement) and cross it off the list, but I'm really pretty light on everything else. The two biggest things I want to focus on are fuel and food storage.

The fuel is probably the easiest - I've actually got 25 gallons worth of storage containers in the mail heading to me right now, so I'll be able to cross that off the list pretty soon. I'll need to find a big bottle of fuel stabilizer somewhere and then clear out a corner of the shed for the fuel cans. Gas prices are usually lowest in the winter, so I'll probably choose then to rotate through my stock.

Food is slightly more challenging, but has greater money-saving potential. My problem, like most folks, is space - my house is tiny; 900 square feet. I have a closet in the dining room that is 14" deep and 36" wide which serves as a pantry. I've been keeping a little bit of everything in there, but I organized the contents, threw out some Jello mix that expired in 2003, and added an extra shelf.

.......

I also have a new membership to Sam's Club. You can't believe how difficult it was to keep myself from driving right out there and loading up on canned goods to stock those empty shelves. The savings potential with buying in bulk has definitely gotten my interest. I went to Sam's Club this afternoon and priced a bunch of staple items, then went to the local supermarket I usually patronize and priced the same items. I've listed some of the price comparisons below:



While I was at Sam's Club I bought $52.83 worth of merchandise and then figured up how much it would have cost me to buy the same amount of product at the supermarket - it would have cost me an extra $48.76. One small trip to Sam's Club to buy five items and I've already paid for the membership. The trick is to find a place to put it, but you can be damn sure I'll be stashing canned corn underneath the bed for that kind of money.

Daring Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) attempting a competitive eating record with an Eastern Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum).

Dead in the West is a zombie western that was available on Kindle for $0.99 for a limited time - it's back up to $7 now. It's a quick, pulpy action/horror novel, with a few over-the-top goregasms; the kind of scenes you'd expect in movies like "From Dusk Till Dawn" or "Planet Terror". It also makes a reference to the Cthulhu Mythos, which instantly made me want to buy the book in hard copy. Good for fans of zombies or the occasional slasher film, notable for being one of the only zombie westerns I've read - a setting that I'd love to see explored and exploited more often. I'd also recommend it for anyone who liked the Deadlands RPG or the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare third-person shooter. In fact, the setting for that video game dlc is pretty much spot on for this book - just compare the covers.


The Gift of Fear easily makes the short list of books that I would recommend to absolutely anyone. It's essentially about learning to trust your instincts when they're speaking to you. That part of our brain that we refer to as our intuition or gut-feeling is the same part of the brain that was in charge tens of thousands of years ago, when we were throwing sharp sticks at rabbits and looking over our shoulder for the mountain lion that wanted to make a meal of us. That same part of the brain is useful today for identifying human predators. Becker points out that almost all victims of violence, when asked after the event, say that they had a "bad feeling" about the perpetrator shortly before the attack. They knew they should cross to the other side of the street, or turn away from the elevator and take the stairs, but they ignored their intuition because they didn't want to be seen as rude or odd, and then they became a victim (or volunteer, if you like). There are dozens of similar concepts presented in the book, usually coupled with real-life anecdotes - you can read the first six pages on Amazon for a good example. It's not about being fearful, it's about allowing your intuition to help you predict and avoid violence, and the edge that fear can give you if it becomes necessary. This is an incredible collection of work, and the cover promo that "this book could save your life" is, in my opinion, not hyperbole at all.

The first step was signing up for the $50 concealed carry class at Bob's Gun Shop in Norfolk. This class proves to the state that I've gotten some basic firearm safety instruction, and familiarization with the VA CCW laws. This course also required some range time to demonstrate at least some proficiency with a handgun. The same training obligation can be satisfied with a free Hunter Education Class from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, but I was willing to pay for the more relevant course.

The video and lecture portion of the class was three hours long. Even though I knew a lot of the information I didn't get bored - there was a lot of humor and story-telling, the instructor was very chill and eager to answer questions. He didn't even roll his eyes when someone said "clip" instead of "magazine". He was enthusiastic about the material and just helpful all around. Pretty much the exact opposite of the salespeople at the store. It seems like a bit of a cultural standard to have surly men behind the counter at gun stores, but the guys at this one are worse than usual. I think it's because everything in the store is overpriced - it's a huge three-story building with an indoor range and at least a dozen sales people and armorers at any given time. The cost of operation gets passed on to the customer and as a result a $480 Glock starts there at $590. That leads to lots of customers coming in to paw at the stock but not buy anything, which leads to surly sales people. My shooty friends say you're paying for the expertise and the customer service, but I can say you're definitely NOT paying for the customer service.

There were about 30 people at the class, which surprised me, and about 10 of them were female, which pleasantly surprised me. I've been reading The Gift of Fear lately and I can tell you that book is getting recommended and shared with all my female friends and family as soon as I'm done with it. I was encouraged to see such a high percentage of the class were females interested in self defense.

After the class we went to the range and I did my "qualifying" with this Arminius .38, a hand-me-down from my father. It's a hog leg, to be sure, but I like the grips.



Now I do not want to be the asshole that is criticizing his neighbor's gun work at the range, especially since I had put myself in the beginner's section, but the guy to my left had a target that looked something like this:



We were shooting from 7 yards, which isn't technically point-blank range, but it's pretty close. I had all of my shots in the X and the 10 circle, with three or four in the 9, and I thought that was ok but not great for the distance. I dunno, seemed pretty wild to me, but we were there to learn, so I guess I shouldn't criticize.

After the class we were given a certificate of completion and I was done for the night. The next day I had to go to the City Clerk's Office with the VA State Police Application for Concealed Handgun Permit. Application fee: $50. One interesting section of the form:



I don't want to get too paranoid about Big Brother, but why would they want my e-mail address? It's not so they could send me a friendly time-to-renew reminder, that's for sure. I didn't really care if they had my SS# or not, but I left it blank on general principle. The application gets signed and I had to swear to the notary that I didn't make up the part about never being committed to a mental institution or convicted of stalking. After that I had to go to my city's central police precinct and get fingerprinted. Not all cities require this, but mine does. I felt weird about this because I associate getting fingerprinted with being guilty of a crime. It does remind one of the responsibility and liability of CCW, I suppose. It doesn't really matter anyways - I was fingerprinted by the FBI a hundred years ago when I was doing construction on one of their offices. That was back when they still used ink.

At the police station there was a sign-in book for residents needing to be fingerprinted. Next to your name you wrote a number to indicate the reason - 1 was for CCW, 2 was for record expungement (which I didn't understand; if your record is being expunged, why are you getting fingerprinted?), 3 was for sexual offender registry, and I forget what 4 indicated.

I signed in and took a glance at the 20 or so names above mine. Two were there for CCW, and about a dozen of them were for sexual offender registry. One more reason to have a concealed weapon permit...

Total cost of the process: $50 class, $21 box of Federal .38, $50 application = $121

After years of procrastination, I finally went out and applied for my CCW* permit.  I think the final straws were the fact that we're in an election year, and this Martin/Zimmerman case that's going on.  Get it before it's gone kind of deal, not that the gov't couldn't just take it later.  I have several reasons for wanting to have the ability to conceal carry.  I wouldn't say I live in a bad town, but we certainly have our share of violent crime, aggressive pan-handlers, and car jackings.  Pitbulls are immensely popular around here and as a result we have regular pitbull attacks.   At any given time I'd say that about 80% of the dogs the local SPCA is housing are pitbulls, possibly more if you look at their breed identification with some scrutiny.  I'd also like the ability to keep a loaded handgun within reach in my vehicle.  I've decided I should probably be carrying when I go camping alone.  I certainly don't fit the standard victim profile for wilderness disappearances, but some hillbilly pig rapists are less picky than others. 

Despite all of the reasons, I'm still not sure if I'll actually carry or not.  It's an enormous responsibility and the liabilities have been made clear by the Zimmerman case.  I don't have much of an inner gorilla (more of an inner spider monkey) but there are a few embarrassing instances in my life where I allowed myself to be provoked into chest bumping shouting matches with rival gorillas.  A very clear rule of CCW is that you absolutely must make every effort to avoid or flee the conflict.  Perhaps the responsibility and potential liability of CCW makes that easier.  Responsibility has that affect on me at work; there, it's not uncommon at all for me to get punched, kicked, bitten or spit on by combative patients, but the thought of retaliation never comes into play because I've accepted responsibility for that person's care.

I have a theory that another reason I'm hesitant to carry is that I have little training with handguns.  When I hobby shoot it's always with rifles just because I enjoy shooting them more.  The familiarity makes me comfortable handling and operating rifles.  Once I get the pistol I'm going to CCW (Glock 27) I'm going to get a membership to a local range and start practicing regularly, possibly attend some shooting clinics.  I think the familiarity will go a long ways to making me comfortable wearing the thing.  Until then, I'm going to be honest with myself about my comfort level - no bravado, no machismo. I'm pretty sure the folks who are impatient to turn 21 so they can apply for a CCW and "get strapped" are more dangerous than the folks who are second-guessing and considering it carefully.  

*CCW stands for "concealed carry weapon" but the VA permit is for handguns only; no knives, shotguns, billy clubs, nunchuks, or ninja stars allowed.

next post: the permit process

This is an Estwing Sportsman's Hatchet that I've had for decades - after I became a home/property owner, it became my euthanasia axe.

My neighbor is a very nice lady but she likes to feed, capture and then spay or neuter the local feral cats. That would be an altruistic thing to do if it weren't for the fact that she continues to feed them afterward. So what she has is a collection of bored predators wandering the neighborhood, decimating the local prey species. For my backyard, that's mostly rabbits and songbirds. This morning I stepped out of the shower and saw a cat strolling across my backyard - I took a second look and noticed that a badly injured rabbit was dragging itself across the lawn about 15 feet ahead of the cat. I threw on some clothes, went outside and put the rabbit out of it's misery. It had two broken legs and was missing a large patch of skin from its back.

Euthanizing animals like that doesn't bother me but it certainly isn't a pleasant chore. What bothers me more is that my neighbor is screwing so hard with the natural order of things. Feeding feral cats makes them breed and puts unfair stress on any species that may be prey to them. I like having wild rabbits in my yard because it reminds me of where I grew up. I also like being able to listen to song birds, but they are notably absent from the area. It isn't especially fair to the cats either - when the prey species or provided food runs out, the cats starve to death. It's pretty hard to explain these things to my neighbor, though, who sees the furry little landsharks as her pets. I could start tossing dead rabbits over her fence, I suppose, but that's a little too passive-aggressive.

I was originally given the hatchet for camping, but it's so lightweight that a machete can do the same job. Now that it's found a new purpose, I suppose I should clean it up and sharpen it before the next time I have to play Hand of the King with some unlucky bunny.

Went to a local park to play disc golf with the girlfriend and snapped this cellphone pic of a black snake that had just caught a Five-Lined Skink. I was happy for the photo op but it's disappointing to know how much nicer the picture would have been if I'd had a real camera :-(

The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor is a zombie novel about the development of "The Governor", a character that has yet to be introduced in the AMC TV series but with whom fans of the comics will be familiar. The best recommendation I can give is that, if you enjoy the TV series or the graphic novels, you'll very likely enjoy this book. It isn't required reading for understanding the title character, but it will provide him with more depth. The story arc is a little predictable, but the action and story telling more than make up for it. I had some of the usual gripes about some of the details: using firearms when they know it will attract more zombies, stealing Harleys when quieter, safer vehicles are available, etc, but nothing that really turned me off.

I've read on a few forums and book reviews that this novel is used as an example to argue that Robert Kirkman is a sexist and a racist. That really surprised me because I read a lot of post-apocalypse novels and many of them are written by paranoid, Jingoist, chauvinist, right-winger survivalist types, (Forstchen/Gingrich), so I've gotten a little hyper-aware for that kind of content. I didn't pick it up on Kirkman at all. It's true that the only strong female character in the book is a waspish old maid with no interest in men, and the only ethnic character has an extremely short role, but there are only four "real" developed characters to begin with and the shrew and the black guy aren't in that group; they're just walk-ons. I haven't picked up on racism or sexism in the graphic novels or TV series either; Morgan, Tyrese/T-Dogg, Glenn and Michonne are all strong ethnic characters, Maggie and Andrea are powerful females...I dunno - gender and racial issues certainly come into play, but I didn't see Kirkman favoring any one side.

The Night Land is a fantasy novel that was published in 1912 and is available for free on Project Gutenberg. I picked it up because it received some high praise from H. P. Lovecraft. When I first started reading I was afraid I was going to regret it because the writing is in a style that modern readers will not be accustomed to, especially the fondness for commas. Here's an example that made me snort:

"And she asked me plainly whether I was not truly very strong; and when I laughed with young and natural pride, she caught my arm suddenly to discover for herself how strong I might be. And, surely, she loosed it even the more sudden, and with a little gasping of astonishment, because it was so great and hard."

The novel is basically a damsel-in-distress fantasy epic. The hero has to escort a maiden across a land of perpetual night, contending with hordes of giants, Abhumans, and monstrous insects. He slays them with something called a Diskos which, by my understanding, is a circular saw on a stick. You know those Robert E. Howard covers where Conan is standing on top of a pile of monsters, sword upraised, with a scantily-clad slave girl clinging to his thigh? The Night Land is that kind of story, except it's told under turn-of-the-century moral constraints. Despite the era, there's some relatively risqué stuff going on; both characters see each other naked pretty frequently. The hero has a fascination with the maid's feet that certainly approaches fetish status; there are literally dozens of scenes where he fondles, massages, and kisses her feet. There's also a seriously sick father/child, master/slave, abuser/battered wife relationship that develops between the hero and the maid. On several occasions he actually beats her for defying him and then apologizes to her after the whipping and explains to her how she made him do it! It's unbelievable, but I guess that's a mark of the era. Here's an example:

"And, in verity, I shifted my hand and loosed the fastening of her garment, so that her pretty shoulders did be bared. And her face to change sudden, and she lookt up at me an instant, with a little gasp; so that I knew she did be all unbroken, as was mine intent; but she did not yet have learned deeply in her heart, all that I was minded she learn; for even in that moment, she made a sound that showed she did try to mock me; but truly, she did not know in that instant whether to mock or to weep; though she did try to suppose that she had an heart for mockery.

And I set the belt thrice across her pretty shoulders, where they did be bared; and surely the blows did be very stern and sharp. And lo! in one moment Mine Own broke into an utter weeping, so that I took her instant into mine arms, and did hold her strong and gentle against mine armour. And she to be as a child in my arms, and did sob very strange and bitter, as that she did be all undone in the heart."

What a freakshow.

This story was run in The Daily Press about how the warm weather has led to an early and unusually large first harvest of blue crabs. The blue crab fishing industry is pretty big around here; the fishermen are always in the paper bitching about how the season isn't long enough, or the 51 bushel limit is too small, or how crab fishing is a vanishing trade because aren't enough crabs in the Bay to make a living from it. In the video linked above they're bitching about how they don't have enough migrant workers to shell the crabs they have.

Now look at the picture above. Those are ALL pregnant females, carrying between 600,000 and 8 million eggs EACH! You can bet that later in the season, when pickings are lean, they're going to be bitching again about how they can't get enough crabs for the market. But they're gonna cook those females instead of throwing them back and catching them a week later after they've spawned because these fishermen don't think that far ahead. Morons. I haven't got an ounce of sympathy for people who are such poor stewards of their own resources.

This is the Battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk, turned into a museum now. The parking garage across the street made for a good picture taking platform. Please excuse the weird pics - I was playing around with a camera app on my phone.

( some more photos )

Glen: holy shit man you swept your damn FACE with your own shotgun in the car!

Lori: officially the nuttiest broad on the show. Pick a side, woman, or we're feedng you to the walkers.

Rick: glad to see you're finally losing it. Let it go, buddy, let it go.

Michonne: you complete me.

(S2 finale spoilers in comments)

Guys, has this ever happened to you? Women, have you ever done this to your significant other?

I had it happen to me once, years ago. It literally ended up with her crying and me pulling the whiskey out of the cabinet at three in the afternoon.