RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - JANUARY 2006

Cruffler sends:

Readers asking for my snailmail address to send contributions because they don't like PayPal. I am again overwhelmed by the generosity and compassion of gunfolk!

Another reader sends a couple news stories - the first I have mixed feelings about: Negligent Discharge by US Soldier. The reader sends it as counter to the idea that "only the police and military should have guns because they're trained to handle them." That's a valid argument, but I can see the antis arguing that "guns are so dangerous not even the military can be trusted with them" - and third, it shows the US military in a bad light, when they're getting enough bad press for stuff they're not doing wrong. But there it is. The second story gives me no ambivalence at all: Wyoming Moves Toward "Vermont Carry", "Stand Your Ground". Sigh.

Ya know, I'm not going to load any more Mosin rounds until I get the Mojo sight for the M44 carbine. Unless sis needs more IMR loads for her 91/30 and she can email me if she does. Then there's that powder measure experiment I was going to perform, hm.

Oh, and the car's no worse, no (additional) ill effects from the long trip.

I had developed a bond with the GP100, where it was becoming an extension of my will, familiar and comforting to my hand, its sight picture rising reassuringly to a predictable point between eye and target. Now I must work to create such a bond with the P35. This shall be done.

1041 - Monday, 2 January 2006: Snrk. New job, eh. Hate all work. Will probably feel better when I start getting bigger fatter paychecks. Have to get up earlier for this one though.

Three coworkers from the old electronic-cable Dilbertville in Beaverton, which fired me in July and went out of business the following February. Not the particularly troublesome ones, shrug.

Easy traffic on the way back, but it was a Federal holiday and lots of places weren't open. Tomorrow might be quite worse.

New bumper sticker:

Improved no-dems images:

1042 - Wednesday, 4 January 2006: Work bleah.

About halfway through McCullough's 1776. Late August and Washington gets his butt booted out of Brooklyn. The famously miraculous retreat from Long Island to New York aside, McCullough has some harsh criticism for Washington's "inept" performance in the whole Long Island affair and for not having got the hell out much sooner.

Obviously I'll have to watch Gibson's The Patriot again, for the n^th time. Cowpens, baby. Anyway, for the n^th time, historical evidence of Divine Providence choosing sides in our War of Independence shakes my agnosticism.

Speaking of films to watch over again, some days ago I saw a bumper sticker with the POW/MIA logo and the caption, "BRING THEM HOME OR SEND US BACK!" Now that, you've gotta respect, a man willing to put his hide where his mouth is, having already risked said hide. (The same bumper carried the Vietnam service-ribbon sticker.) But pretty soon I'll also have to watch Uncommon Valor again. (Is that out on DVD yet?) And that reminds me that I gotta get a Garand. Blam! "Right, two meters!" Blam! "Got him!"

Hm, lots of Kalashnikovs available, many flavors, maybe I'll get one to replace the Simonov. Later. Actually if I have a Garand the jackboots will be in even more trouble, from further away and even in heavier armor, so the heck with the (relatively) underpowered, inaccurate commie stuff. And I've already demonstrated that I can handle an M1.

And I would've posted the new Bi-Mart coupon book firearm-related items to CheapShooting today but the coupon book I got in the mail was misprinted and incomplete. Sigh. Nobody makes anything right anymore.

Oh, local ARCOs now $1.95.

Later, via The Federalist Patriot, an eloquent explanation of why I wait to get movies free from the library rather than spending umpteen bucks for them at the theater, and why I only own six DVDs:

1043 - Thursday, 5 January 2006: CommuteDilbertDilbertDilbertWorkBreakWorkWorkWorkWorkLunchWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkBreakWorkWorkCommute.

Sigh.

A little before 7pm, Portland Police officers Passadore and DeLong knock on my door to follow up on the burglary from three weeks ago. I guess Detective Anderson finally got back from vacation and checked the voicemail I left him on December 22nd about the Willie sighting. To their credit, these two officers were very professional and sympathetic and perhaps even a bit encouraging as to the possibility of recovering my property. However, I was disturbed that I had to go over nearly the whole story again and that they did not even know what type of firearms were stolen, despite my providing both the original responding officer (Mako) and the forensics officers (Smith & Singh) with a printed list. Left hand, right hand?

I am prejudiced against police, for dozens of reasons scattered throughout this Journal since I started 'blogging in August 2002. But these two were all right, obviously wanting to help (even if they did stick up for Detecctive Anderson, which made my fangs twitch). I refrained from gloating to their faces that Portland Police are banned from my club, Clark Rifles, for safety violations. Gave 'em website cards even.

But I'd bet money I could whup 'em both on steel plates, especially now that I have the high-capacity P35 running (accurately) and won't have to stop (as often) to reload. I'll have to get more details from the R/Os up there, is the ban only against officers in an official capacity and will they still let them in as individuals when off-duty? Wouldn't mind hearing (and 'blogging!) the juicy details of how it came about, either.

No practice this weekend, zzz instead, have to get used to working again after the week off, and the longer commute means an earlier departure besides which is also draining. And I'm driving on US26 again, the infamous Sunset Highway, which experience leaves one emotionally exhausted at the end of the trip. Besides I have to stretch gas & food & such. But next weekend I'll probably pick up a MegaPack ($2 off in Bi-Mart's coupon book through the 15th!) and have a proper test of the new upper.

1044 - Friday, 6 January 2006: Survived a week at the new job and a week without income. Car didn't blow up in Friday traffic.

Reader sends gas-station gift card! Thank you! That really hits the spot!

1045 - Saturday, 7 January 2006: Zzz.

To help explain why my fangs come out when I see a badge, creating Good Cop, Bad Cop page.

Reader sends word that Uncommon Valor is out on DVD!

1046 - Sunday, 8 January 2006: Upon further examination, one pair of the 13-round P35 magazines appear to hold, and function with, 14 rounds. Okey-doke.

Really must have a .357 revolver. They're just too useful and versatile and simple and reliable, every gunfolk should have one.

.22 conversion kit for the P35 is climbing the wi$h list. There are at least three (1, 2, 3) to choose from. Then there's this little add-on. Buuuuut, how different will the POI be between 9x19mm and .22LR? Will whatever optics I might put on it have repeatable adjustments so I can dial in from one to the other and back? Will it return to zero when I swap it back and forth for the regular grip? Hmmm. Sure looks like fun though.

1047 - Monday, 9 January 2006: Bleah work. Actually the commute is the worst part.

Finished McCullough's 1776. The author sees that year as the formative time for Washington, who he accuses of badly bungling nearly everything until the legendary Trenton raid; but then he gives Washington full credit for learning from experience and for having the towering personal character and unshakeable resolution to carry on even after a string of disasters: He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgement. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up. ...Without Washington's leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed. This book, in my opinion, isn't as thrilling as Fischer's Washington's Crossing (reviewed August ‘04, and which McCullough lists as a source and, with others, calls "first-rate and essential"), but it's a good and useful read, giving insight and depth to that time and those people.

Elsewhere, some things never change: Washington had seen enough of New York on prior visits to dislike and distrust the city as the most sinful place in America, a not uncommon view. To which is added Henry Knox (the father of American artillery), in a letter to his wife Lucy about New Yorkers: "The people - why the people are magnificent: in their carriages, which are numerous, in their house furniture, which is fine, in their pride and conceit, which are inimitable, in their profaneness, which is intolerable, in their want of principle, which is prevalent, in their Toryism, which is insufferable."

Starting Weber's latest Harrington, At All Costs.

Oh yeah, on the Christmas trip I learned that the supposed 1/8-1/4 Indian blood is Sioux - not that it narrows things down much. And, Pennsylvania Dutch - which may tenuously explain my affinity for firearms, as the so-called "Kentucky" rifle was actually developed by Dutch gunsmiths in Pennsylvania.

And if there's any Quaker blood in me it's long since been boiled off.

1048 - Tuesday, 10 January 2006: Bleah.

Some coworkers are moonbats, suffering Bush Derangement Syndrome. New bumper stickers to come. Must... keep... fangs... tucked in....

More bigotry from the left.

First sis reports second sis is progressing, and is also interested in plate matches! Wants to try the March match. (First sis says she's coming for the February match. Second sis visiting the area on business in early February, will go arms-shopping with her but probably won't have an opportunity to shoot.) If I still had my GP we'd be all set, but with only my P35 and sis' Taurus to go between three shooters there could be problems. I surely want both my sisters shooting, and shooting more, but I don't want either of them to have to worry about switching weapons and having to handle something they're not familiar and comfortable with, while still trying to be competitive. I want everyone to have their own personal piece.

Again I say, a .38 or .357 revolver is an excellent subversion tool. Most of them work in exactly the same way so there's minimal cross-training required; even a Ruger and S&W are almost identical from the operator's point of view. Fully-established gunfolk can bicker for hours about relative smoothness of actions, engineering philosophies, trigger weights, timing, fit & finish, corporate ideological purity, etc., but for the newly-subverted, one double-action, swing-out-cylinder revolver is much like another - and that makes them quite valuable as training tools, as well as comforting bedside pieces. This is now a large gap in my arsenal which must be filled.

At All Costs: Weber is wordy, compared to Ringo, but I keep turning the pages. Weber isn't as fangs-out un-PC as Ringo either (at least here in the "Honorverse", though there were moments in The Stars at War), but it's fairly obvious he's on our side.

1049 - Thursday, 12 January 2006: One of the moonbats at work, assuming, as they do, that the entire universe thinks exactly like him, said to me, "I saw this really cool bumper sticker, ‘No one died when Clinton lied'." Naturally my fangs came out and, a couple days later, here are some results. I'd like some feedback on the two Clinton bumper stickers below; are they appropriate? Defensible in fact and reality? Fair?

I don't want to descend to the moonbats' level of fabricating the most outrageous garbage. "BUSH LIED, BUSH LIED!" they shriek. Riiiight, George W. Bush caused Hurricane Katrina, his daddy in the CIA created AIDS to wipe out black people, the New Orleans levies were bombed, Haliburton drove the dinosaurs to extinction, and everything Dan Rather ever said is Absolutely True! And what else did Michael Moore tell you while you were having vegetarian brunch with Louis Farrakhan in the alien mothership? And as for weapons of mass destruction....

The main reason I support President Bush is that the bigoted, venom-spewing, hatemongering Left, which hates me and most of the things I stand for, hates him. I don't like Bush much either, but my reasons are different - and I voted against the other guy, both times, with my eyes open.

This third one, I think, is fine as-is. (Yes, I've been listening to Savage again.)

At All Costs: Weber thinks big. Not as big as, say, Larry Niven (who in turn doesn't think quite as big as, say, E. E. Smith - well that's debatable if you figure in the time factor, at which point Saberhagen's Berserkers enter the competition), but pretty durn big, with astropolitical considerations, hundreds if not thousands of star systems, giga- if not teracredit economies (and similar figures for populations), war and diplomacy as continuations of each other by whichever means seem convenient. Weber's Harrington universe may not be quite as "big" as Niven's or Smith's (i.e. the Skylark series) or Saberhagen's, but I think it fair to say he's crammed a lot more stuff into it. This is not a book one can just jump into, it's the latest in a saga spanning decades, with a tremendously deep protagonist character and dozens of rich supporting figures, and now consisting of 17 volumes, counting franchised anthologies, much which are required reading for context. Yum.

1050 - Friday, 13 January 2006: The crisis has passed and I have income again, at least until I sink my fangs into some moonbat coworker's throat. Barberton and pistol practice tomorrow.

A reader from Texas, disliking PayPal, sends a money order! Thank you very much! Gunfolk are the most generous and helpful people!

1051 - Saturday, 14 January 2006: Snrk. Barberton - mob! Parking backed up all the way past the NO PARKING sign on the other side of the street! At least the show is getting a healthy amount of attention. (I wonder if I have anything to do with that?)

Custom knife maker, show regular, short on liquid assets as I frequently am but wants to become my second web-design client - offers a custom knife in barter! Slapped something together, which will no doubt be adjusted.

Sightings of interest: S&W M622, .22LR stainless, the discontinued one with the underslung barrel, 6" adjustable - one of the semi-regulars at the plate matches uses one of these and does rather well. $300. I've been thinking of getting a .22 pistol, but on second thought a conversion upper for the P35 would serve; on third thought my sisters might find such a piece entertaining. Browning Buck Mark, nickel 4", $250; Ruger 22/45, ANIB w/2 magazines, $319. Besides this, still a S&W M10 for $200; a 6" Dan Wesson .357, $350; Ruger Security Six, 4" stainless adjustable, the exact model the GP100 replaced in Ruger's lineup, $300. Remington-Rand M1911A1, $500. Marlin M39M w/scope, $299. Taurus M66 blue 6", identical to sis', $250. Miroku .45 percussion rifle still there, $115. (About March or April or so I think I'll buy it.) Yakked with Cruffler. The other club officer not there, no further discussion of their website this month (and he checks his email, like, weekly, or less, argh); the reader tips I have advise me to discuss who's name is on the domain hosting bill, and suchlike.

To range with P35. Didn't count rounds but I think around 250, mostly my handloads. Again zero malfunctions not attributable to magazines. Some UMC FMJ, most accurate of four loads tested; Win/USA and UMC 115gr JHP both reliable but seem less accurate (the USA might be a little tighter than the UMC); my 147gr RNL was all over the place, but it cycled properly at least. Kinda hard to say about accuracy as the hand tremors came back, even from the bench. Well, more practice. Will probably use the UMC FMJ in the plate match, POI is also acceptable. Of the eleven magazines, both 13s, both 14s, one 15 and the 22 appear reliable; the other two 15s and all three 33s don't. But that's how it is with magazines, and that's why we go practice, to learn such things; and a half-dozen magazines, the smallest holding thirteen rounds, oughta do. The 13s are still a little sticky on ejection but the 14s drop free easily, and that latter pair has been on-duty since the Christmas trip.

My pistol works, I have income again, I now have one paying and one potential web-design clients. Life sucks less.

Added heap o' links to Good Cops, Bad Cops.

Ordered extended ambidextrous safety for P35, $34.05 with shipping. Don't expect it to arrive before the January match, but OTOH don't really expect a January match.

Aaannd, the crab meat I got at Grocery Outlet today is marked "Thailand" instead of "China". :)

Of course all these nice things happening probably means that my car will explode some time in the next week.

1052 - Sunday, 15 January 2006: Zzz.

Gun Talk, presidents of Ruger and Taurus - no mention of Bill Ruger's betrayal; mention of something resembling a Ruger custom shop, not-quite-standardized engraving options; talk of what new revolvers are being made or not. In the Taurus segment they discussed the new "45-Ten" revolver, which fires .45 Colt and .410 shotshells interchangeably. Now this is not a very big deal; derringers and single-shots have been available to do this for years, and Back In The Old Days legend holds that the old-timers used to occasionally fire .45 Colt rounds through ordinary .410 shotguns, though of course that was a Bad Idea with the state of the art as it then was. The thing about this new Taurus that weirds me out, though, is that in the 2005 print catalog, which I grabbed at Sam's in Everett when testing my Christmas present from sis, it's described as a "44-Ten" which is claimed to also fire .44-40. And that's just not right. .45 Colt is a straight cartridge with a .451-inch bullet; .410 shotshell has about the same cartridge dimensions at the points where it most matters. Federal law (NFA 1934 I would guess) requires barrels below a certain length to be rifled to avoid NFA/AOW restrictions; and to get reasonable accuracy and, of course, basic engineering safety, that bore needs to be of an appropriate inner diameter to handle the .451" projectile. But, .44-40 (aka .44WCF) fires a .429" bullet from a (subtly, but still) bottlenecked cartridge. Firing a .44-40 round in a chamber that will accept a .45 Colt will, at best, result in split cases, and firing a .429" projectile down a .45 bore will give no accuracy to speak of, even if you somehow avoid having hot nasty stuff squirting out of the weapon at several points. No mention whatsoever of the .44-40 on the radio show but right there on the last page of the 2005 catalog the .44-40 is all over, even on the barrel markings in the product photograph. What was being thought by whom? When I first saw the catalog page I though maybe they were using a squeeze-bore, a barrel that reduces in inner diameter from breech to muzzle. Anyway what I heard on the radio makes much more sense, but how many copies of that catalog are in circulation and how many people will rush out and buy one of these revolvers and then try to fire .44-40 in it?

And then, thinking to help my sister(s) shop, I grab a Nickel Ads and look at the Firearms classification (#1260). And I see:

Publisher's Notice

The policy of our paper prohibits the use of inflammatory or slang terms. We may choose to decline any firearms and/or weapons advertising.

Snarl. I'd build me a pile of VolksPistolen, of a type which would otherwise be "legal" (i.e. barrel length, overall size, and other GCA 1968 silliness - but no serial numbers, as long as I'm daydreaming), and hide them away, give them away (so I couldn't even be accused of selling them without some damned license) to family and friends, "ghost guns" that the government can't track. And as a public service to the Culture and the Cause, I'd create a .PDF with complete plans and instructions that could be carried out by anyone who knows their way around a ~$500 ChiCom mill/drill from Harbor Freight (hence the standardized third-party barrels and magazines, which seem to me the most difficult parts to make), and make it available for free download. $omeday. Maybe a single-shot VolksGewehr first, with alternate plans for receiver threads to accept various makers' take-off barrels, which I see at every show for not much more than pocket change.

Dumpster still in the driveway (since 28 November), Very Little Work being done on either vacant unit, office-lady's cell phone number disconnected. That's... just swell.

Reader sends this story of a deputy in Ohio whose firearms, badge, and car were stolen. Heaven and Earth were moved to get those back, of course, not like they belonged to lowly "civilian" peasants like us. Snarl. Added to the Stupid Cops section because no innocent citizens were actively persecuted in the incident, so far as I know.

No feedback on the Clinton bumper stickers? Up they go then.

Otherwise slacking on email again.

10pm and I get out of bed with another thought on my VolksPistole: striker-fired may offer an advantage over a hammer design in grip size. I want to keep the grip size down so the product will fit as many hands as possible, even with a double-column magazine; getting rid of a hammer also gets rid of the traditional mainspring for that hammer which takes up extra space in the backstrap. It's vaporware now of course but maybe someone else will read this and beat me to it, and then at least someone will be making it. A DAO trigger should work with a striker, yes? Complete with second-strike capability for inferior cartridges? Hm, I should probably stare at a Walther P99 diagram....

1053 - Thursday, 19 January 2006: Bleah work. Email backing up.

1054 - Friday, 20 January 2006: Regular weekly pay, $295.08. Went a little nuts. Got new shoes, necessary; replacement butane stove, $16 on coupon at Big 5, excusable on preparedness grounds; at Bi-Mart, a less-justifiable splurge on another UMC 9x19mm MegaPack, a 525rnd bulk pack of Federal Champion .22LR plated hollowpoint on sale (eight bucks!), boxes of 100 each Speer Gold Dot .355" 115gr JHP and Hornady .310" 123gr Spitzer projectiles, for experimental purposes, also on sale. Oh, and an oil filter for the car (change is due, but of course the dumpster is still in the driveway), like 5% of the total money I spent there today. But that still leaves plenty in the bank and there's another check, already earned, before the rent is due. Attacking phone and electric bills online, got car insurance earlier.

Raining almost non-stop for almost a month now. New wiper blade a few days ago may have saved my life on that 6am/70mph commute. Meanwhile, leaving work at 3pm, traffic isn't quite terrible, though as I described to a coworker one can feel it closing in behind one as one plummets down Sylvan Hill toward the Vista Ridge Tunnel, like a tornado chasing a car down the highway in some disaster movie.

As for work, I'm not, as I speculated, refurbishing old monitors but assembling and/or enhancing new ones, high-end high-tech LCD displays for laptops, handheld GPS receivers, aircraft instrumentation, some military applications. The work itself is fine but the commute is slightly (like, three more exits) nastier than the electronic-cable job from a couple years ago. Presently I work in a filtered air room, which isn't quite a clean room, all duded up in ESD stuff and with nitrile gloves on. Beats sorting screws and dodging forklifts. And, the nearest moonbat seems to have grasped that I have fangs and am not afraid to use them. Elsewhere, supervisors impressed with my work, already have me training people who started the same day as I did.

But I'm still buying lottery tickets, what the heck.

Will work on email over the weekend. Really.

Finished Weber's At All Costs, big and deep. Leeched the entire Honorverse to date from the CDROM in the back, with much other Weber work. Now on Stan Lee (probably not the same one)'s Dunn's Conundrum, spy story, one of a sackful donated by first sis' husband. Eh, not sucking.

Later, slogging through the daily webcomics - on Day by Day I see a BlogAd for the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, which is mostly Fred's bunch!

1055 - Saturday, 21 January 2006: Zz.

New Shotgun News, feature article on FN PS90, legal semiautomatic rifle version of the P90... uh... submachinegun I guess. The 5.7x28mm cartridge is intriguing for its penetrative capability (still thinking about armored jackboots), but I still don't like bullpups. The weird 90-degree turntable magazine is Mechanically Interesting... but I still don't like bullpups. The FiveseveN pistol is likewise interesting, but a CZ52 in 7.62x25mm can be had, and fed, for a fraction of the price. Then, in The Knox Report, the Firearms Coalition's agenda for 2006 includes: Stolen Property - In many jurisdictions, firearms that are stolen are often destroyed, or go to police evidence rooms where they are kept in perpetuity - or sometimes fall off the shelves into the pockets of those with access to the storage facilities. Firearms owners are victimized twice - once by the original criminal, and once by the government. Gun owners' property needs to be returned. Not expecting the blueshirts to give my property back, ever, even if they do find it, and even if they deign to tell me they did. Will work toward replacement.

Portland mayor Tom "I Terrorists" Potter proposing city income tax to fund socialist indoctrination centers (public "schools"). Fangs. Several callers to the Jeff Kropf show relating how they will, or already have moved out of Portland and Multnomah County.

Starting on backed-up email. Reader sends another Stupid Cop story.

All over the net (here for example), Winchester is closing their New Haven, CT plant and it looks like two iconic American rifles, the M70 bolt-action and M1894 lever-action, will be out of production - the latter for the first time since its introduction as a John Browning design well over a century ago. The Herstal Group (aka FN) owns Winchester (US Repeating Arms Co.) (plus Browning and gods know who else) and is making the move based on costs (apparently between machinists' unions and doofus management). A Japanese plant will continue making Browning A-Bolts and other stuff. ...This may count as one of the Seven Signs. How can you have America without the ‘94 Winchester? (Or the Model 70 for that matter.)

Both sisters visiting the first weekend in February! May be too busy running around metro shopping to actually go shooting. First sis lusting after a 1911, leaning toward Kimber. Now, I have particular tastes, which may not mesh very well with my sister(s)'s. My knee jerks at the full-length guide rods in so many modern 1911s, especially Kimbers and Springfields - you need a screwdriver or hex wrench to take the weapon apart and that's contrary to the Doctrine of Saint John. However, the latest SGN also has a feature article on the Kimber Desert Warrior, designed for a MEU/SOC requirement... and that model has gone back to the original short-rod-and-plug arrangement. And it's still a pretty Kimber. And the Desert Warrior is the new model, the regular Warrior has a more conventionally-appealing black finish. Of course the MSRP is four figures.

And then in the mail I get a notice from the property owners that my rental agreement will be terminated on midnight 23 February unless I pay $203.62 in utilities. The same utilities (specifically city water) that are included in the rent. The same utilities Veteran and I have been getting bills for, which the same property owners told us to ignore. (He hasn't got a similar notice... yet.) Phone office, left angry message. Ominously, the company name on the paperwork has changed. ...Not pistol practicing today, a bit shaky.

Blew out electric bill, $158.something. Would've paid partial but the website is set up to sucker one into paying the full amount, the transaction was finished before I could find another option, so now money's a little tight again, but I'll still make it.

Veteran, on his way out, comes back and knocks on my door - a couple workers are putting a FOR RENT sign out front, for "the unit in back." Fangs.... Quickly determine that it's Willie's ex place, not mine, and after I vent some they contact someone - a different office lady who I don't recall dealing with before - on a cell phone and I vent some more. Office lady is under the delusion that I was supposed to be paying utilities and will check my rental agreement when she gets to the office on Monday.

Shortly thereafter, found my copy of the rental agreement:

Keeping it on my person against future disputes.

Afternoon and the generosity of gunfolk o'erwhelms again! This time an area reader donates a complete computer system, a P-IV 800MHz, CD-R/W, 17" monitor and a bunch of other stuff! Surplus to needs after the reader got an even hotter machine, lacking only an OS. What a score! As soon as I get this latest hottest machine running I'll finally get around to refurbishing one for Veteran, including the cheesy little $10 webcam, so he can take pictures of his artwork and advertise them. And then I think I'll refurbish another for my mother in Everett, who is still using an Apple IIc (!!!) which I helped her pick out a technological eon ago before I exiled myself. -Ooo, and now I can burn CDs! -Okay, P-III 750MHz, still way hotter than the old Compaq I'm running now. Had to swap the power supply; the donor advised that something was not right with it but other accumulated computers spat up a suitable replacement and away I go, installing... well... Win98 but what the heck else am I gonna use with all my applications and such? And finally I'm getting off my butt and juggling files and drives and eventually getting a clean OS under all my crap.

1056 - Sunday, 22 January 2006: Match day! Maybe. OAC show first - theme Single Shots & Single-Actions, some very fine displays. Two notable pieces, S&W M63 J-frame .22LR 6-shot, stainless 4" adjustable, $325, would be a lovely subversion piece; S&W M10, "Royal Hong Kong Police" w/lanyard ring, also $325 (but two kinds of cooties, cops and monarchists).

To the range. Met match director, but the regular handgun line, downrange of which the plate match is run, is already full of regular shooters, and match director reports that only three people counting myself showed up fro the match, so as expected there's no January plate match. Sat down and discussed match rules and safety rules, took notes. Gave up on shooting today, back to hovel just in time for Gun Talk - first segment, naturally, about the Winchester shutdown. Listened while adjusting plate rules documents - reports of a run on M70s at some stores. S&W announces they will be making AR15 clones (they're already making 1911s). Boston politician wants S&W to put GPS tracking devices in firearms - I'm not making this up. (And there we are at the untraceable VolksPistole again.) In advertisements, the Cascade Policy Institute sponsors a local visit by John Stossel on 5 February, espousing Republitarian ideals and denouncing cityfolk blue-state complacency and dependence on technology, infrastructure, and govenment. Not going - he'd be preaching to the choir in my case, and I'll be busy with my sisters - but there it is.

During the three-hour show, also fiddling with the new system. Both old and new have USB; I can, tediously, use the digital camera and the third-party card reader to transfer files while reducing the risk of transmitting possible viruses from the old machine to the new. First I have to get the OS just how I want it with sound and video drivers and such. Reloading table temporarily out of service, shoving stuff aside to make room for the new machine so I can have it and the old one running at the same time without having to set up the card table where I put my air mattress at night. (Did I mention the hovel is crowded?) USB card reader in the old machine, camera (yay, AC adapter) in the new machine with the USB cable it came with, 256Mb xD card to shuttle files over - tedious but I'm kinda paranoid about hooking the two hard drives together like I normally would.

That's going to take some time, days perhaps. Later, back out and across the river for the club meeting and board elections, where I also delivered updated copies of the plate match rules for various approvals.

Okay, I'm still slacking on email.

1057 - Monday, 23 January 2006: Saint John's Birthday!

Work bleah. Well, commute bleah - I've been there three weeks and now they have me training someone who's been there a year. (Insert rant on public education.)

No message from property owners, but it looks like Fuji knocked the phone off the hook sometime today. Shrug. I have it documented that the utilities the incompetent office lady thinks I owe are included in rent.

Still transferring files to the new machine. Still slacking on email.

Mail - crap, Numrich is out of stock on the P35 safety I ordered. OTOH I have $34.05 back in my account at a slightly tight moment. Searching - non-ambidextrous model also sold out, "try back in 30-60 days", oh well.

At least the rain's stopped, for the moment. Changed oil in car, a couple hundred miles overdue (new filter every time anyway), on the little bit of driveway the dumpster isn't blocking next to the street. Fortunately I know how and it took maybe 15 minutes, which was about how much daylight I had left. (Insert rant on urban Blue-State self-proclaimed intellectuals who would never stoop to do things with their haaannds. And what are they going to do when the OnStar system goes down? Gawd, every time one of those OnStar commercials comes on the radio I yell at it, Quit yer *&$# whining! Doesn't anyone know how to do anything for themselves anymore? (Aside from the Red Staters of course, which is the point of this whole rant.))

Veteran reports that he too has received a notice of termination of rental agreement, same reason, except they want him to pay three hundred something. He's been here since 1979 and has never paid utilities and I imagine his rental agreement, rewritten as mine was with the change of ownership, says the same thing in that regard as mine does, especially considering we're in the same structure with the same water supply. Told him a) it's *#!%, b) dig out his rental agreement so he can see for himself it's %#!*, and c) it's his turn to leave an angry message at the office with the paperwork in his hand to describe, with paragraph and line, why it's #!%*.

Aw crap! I forgot the Big 5 post yesterday. I'll get it tomorrow after work.

1058 - Tuesday, 24 January 2006: Completely spaced this week's Big 5 sale until a reader emailed me about it. Too much stuff happening on Sunday I guess, with the match-that-wasn't, typing up the match rules, then the club meeting and some other errands.

Hm, I need a shotgun but want specific features - like, a Mossberg M590, catalog #50668. But maybe I'll try a Remington M870, get a used one cheap at a show or pawn shop and rebuild it as a fighting weapon. Eventually.

Hm, while researching Kimbers I note their recommendation to replace recoil springs after so many rounds - and my Commander-length P35 now has a dual, nested, and decidedly non-standard recoil spring. I have the spring from the original upper and could conceivably cut it down for length, and I guess it would fit the existing full-length guide rod and slide recess in the new upper... eh, no crisis, just thinking ahead.

Well crap! Willie is still stopping by to pick up his mail at the apartment he was evicted from! Sorely tempted to Go After Him but the blueshirts have cowed me - if I held him at P35-point they'd probably shoot me dead the moment they arrived, and even if I avoided that they'd throw a plethora of persecution at me and I'd likely lose what gun rights I have left - and then they'd pat themselves on the back for "getting more guns off the street" while I rotted in a cell (which they'd miraculously find funding and space for by releasing some serial rapist). Left another angry message at the landlord's office (no response from previous messages), then left particularly nasty email with the Portland Police Bureau. Not that I expect either to do any good. Meanwhile Veteran reports that a derelict moped, a hovelplex fixture for years, and a car fender from U-Pull-It intended for his wagon after the collision he had last year, were stolen today, probably for scrap metal.

I have to move. But where am I going to find another place I can afford? I'm making less than $300 a week and paying $295 in rent and it looks like the new owners are slumlords - it may take months to save up enough to move at all and then I can't imagine not paying vastly more rent, and then there's all the junk I have packed away in the hovel over the last eleven years. The landlords want $545 (!) for Willie's ex-place. Gobbling antacid and fiddling with the P35.

You see why my email's backing up? If you haven't heard from me yet, I've been kinda distracted.

Lee's Dunn's Conundrum had some good action and suspense, but I was somewhat disappointed by the anti-war message at the end. Starting Call to Duty by Richard Herman, Jr., Clancy-esque but not expecting it to rock like Ringo. Apparently similar to Dale Brown's stuff (remember Flight of the Old Dog? Somewhere I think I still have the ancient, DOS-era computer game based on it...).

Police. (Insert dripping scorn.) Society has reached the point where criminals and social parasites have more rights than lawful, productive citizens - and police work to keep it that way by busting any such citizen who dares stand up for his rights or for what is right. Not feeling well. Probably wake up with acid reflux at 2am. Again.

Fer cryin' out loud, what the hell was I in a past life, that I get all this in this one?

1059 - Wednesday, 25 January 2006: Argh. Sigh.

No reply from blueshirts, but a detectably-chagrined message from the property owner's office-lady telling me to, again, "disgregard" the water bill. Flipped the tape over in the answering machine to save that message. Shared news with Veteran.

Laundromat ick.

Local ARCO fluctuating around $2.03. At least the cancelled Numrich order left me with gas money ‘til payday. Money wouldn't be tight at all right now if I hadn't blown out the electric bill in one lump. Eh, direct deposit in two days, I can make it ‘til then easy.

Dumpster still, and a growing pile of scrap lumber, with screws and nails, inches from where I presently park my car. Tossed onto lawn. Strangers crunching through the gravel driveway to look at the unit for rent.

From the lists, another stupid cop story to add to the growing list. Wider discussion of the topic on AGO. (And don't forget my other such list, Crimes of the Left - appropriate, i.e. firmly documented, contributions to either are appreciated.)

In email denial.

1060 - Thursday, 26 January 2006: Letter from landlords, "Sorry for the confusion." Keeping it with my rental agreement, in a safe place.

Most files transferred to new computer, now I have to get it online and figure a way to transfer all my bookmarks and filters and archived emails. -Okay, got the new machine configured to connect, downloading fresh Opera browser via MSIE. This will still take a while, I hope I can locate and transfer whatever files Opera uses for bookmarks and I think I've already located the files Outlook Express uses for stored emails (I have a jillion folders off my Inbox for electronic packratism - hey, at least it's not paper). And I have several other things to do this week and this weekend, like change the cat's litter before he starts going somewhere worse than the shower, drive up the Columbia Gorge to examine a Washougal arms shop where a Kimber 1911 was sighted, get pistol practice of my own, do several computer things for my sister, maybe get a haircut (it's starting to get into my sight picture again), sleep, clean the hovel for the sisters' visit next weekend, and still slog through a couple dozen pieces of backed-up email, all while commuting about 50 miles round-trip each day and stressing over the rising sense of insecurity in this neighborhood.

Youdamnbetcha I'm still buying lottery tickets. But typically no more than $5 a week, often less when I forget a drawing, maybe seven or eight total when I'm across the river going to or from the club. Oregon Lottery billboards - "Play Blackjack for cash on your PC." Now that is something that I think would become a Problem if I tried it.

Okay, I found the file Opera v7 uses for bookmarks, Operadef6.adr, in the main Opera directory, and I found what appears to be the corresponding file in Opera v8.5, in /Opera/Defaults. Transferring... fiddling... using "Import Opera Bookmarks" option... it worked!

Just one thing left before I switch machines, then the rest is nitpicking, chasing down the last few files from the old one, reinstalling things from CDs or fresh downloads: Outlook Express v6. Found the stored files, in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express. Copied - using same version of MSOE on the new machine (which sucks files off the xD card faster than the old machine pumps them onto it) - aha! I'm not using the same version of OE. Or IE. The new machine was done with a Win95 full-install CD and a Win98 Upgrade CD and they have v4.something of both OE and IE, while the old machine now has v6. Back online with the new machine to download the appropriate Service Pack from MicroSoft. Something over an hour to download and install with a 56k dialup account.

And then I'm going to bed and messing with it more later.

If I can put down Herman's Call to Duty. This appears to be part of a series and it seems to me I've read part of it before, some of the characters seem familiar.

1061 - Friday, 27 January 2006: And I get back to the hovel about 4pm and the water is off. Again. Phone landlord office - leave nasty message. Phone office-lady cell (the previous one, now working again) - leave nasty message. Phone property owner cell - leave nasty message.

Hssssss.

Successful transfer of Outlook Express files, yay. Beginning to switch machines now.

~5:45pm, call property owner cell phone again, got through, "I'll get someone right over there." He'd damn well better.

~6:50, call again - get the work crew's number. "Someone will be there in twenty minutes."

7:30, call that number again - "Someone on the way there right now." Dueling. Should. Never. Have. Been. Outlawed.

Swapping computers. Looks like this is going to work. Everything seems at least a little faster, including connection speed, though I may have to get into CMOS to adjust the keyboard buffer, and why is the mouse's scroll button acting normal in WordPerfect and Opera, but sluggish and/or jerky in Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, which it didn't used to? Will have to rebuild macros and Start Menu hot buttons and such but it looks like all the important files they will link to made it across without mishap. Days or weeks from now, when I've sucked everything off the old machine, I'll wipe that drive and repeat the process (‘cause I want the 8Gb drive of course) - except this time both drives will be presumed clean and I can just hook them together with the IDE cable instead of all this xD/USB stuff. Included in the donation was an OEM Win95 CD so I can finally do full installs on wiped drives without having to shuffle files to use the Win98 Upgrade and risk viruses or corrupt files or whatnot getting transferred over. Which means I can finally start refurbishing some of these other machines that have been cluttering up the hovel.

8pm - recording. 8:15 - recording. 8:20, work crew arrives, can't find anything wrong, describes decrepit condition of pipes and speculates that something has given way - can't do anything tonight for lack of manpower, will come dig stuff up tomorrow. Hssssss. This means I'm not getting my hot shower first thing in the morning and in my case that's rather worse than not getting the stereotypical first cup of coffee. SNARL. At least I still have stored water, and the electricity's still on so I don't even need to use the butane stove to heat it. Veteran reports he has some too.

Argh.

1062 - Saturday, 28 January 2006: Heat water on stove, pour over self in shower, lather, rinse. Sigh.

~9:45am, some activity. ~10:30, disappeared. Phone work crew cell, "going to get parts."

Paid a month ahead on storage rent, then off to Washougal, AAA Pawn (19th & B St.) to investigate reported sighting of Clackamas-made Kimber - yes, basic model, fixed sights, .45 of course, internal extractor and probably no firing-pin safety, looks stock and about VG, maybe +, $675. (D'oh, didn't note whether it had a plug or a full-length guide rod - well, the rest is still standard and GI parts will retrofit.) Also noted Norinco M1911A1, non-standard wood finger-groove grips, $385; Ruger 22/45 in box with two magazines, $275; a couple sporting-model Mossberg 500s (one a Western Field), $125 each, and Hobbyist at Barberton can whack a single barrel to fighting length for $10; and for masochist Cruffler, an H&R 10 gauge single-shot, also $125, with the long barrel for physically whacking geese-in-flight on the noggin. Assorted sporting long guns including an obscure Mossberg lever-action that looks like a Marlin 336 but is very different inside, first one I've seen other than in The Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly, Part IV: Centerfire Rifles. Not bad prices, on the list for future visits.

Forgot Washington lottery tickets on the way back, oh well. Got Oregon tickets. Then gas (still $2.03 at Portland ARCO; $2.07 in Washougal and Vancouver) and groceries; then back to hovel about 1pm and there's a crew actually working, who reports that the plumbing is a mess, but at least the water was back on long enough to fill the toilet tank and refill a couple apple juice jugs I've been using since yesterday - still working on it - water is back but reportedly leaking, message left with landlord to send the real plumber.

Bleah. Taking real shower now. I'm gonna be real grumpy, hiding out in the sticks in the next civil war, when Queen Hillary's goons have deprived me of indoor plumbing. Hot showers rank with microwave ovens and personal automobiles as the greatest inventions in human history, sez me.

No shooting this weekend I think - gotta start cleaning the hovel anyway. ...Aaaand the donated computer also came with Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I remember playing the original, 2D, top-down game on the Apple IIe a looooong time ago. Except I haven't played anything like this (i.e. Doom, Descent) in years and have lost my tolerance for it; I'm getting a bit motion-sick....

And, still in email denial, I've been chugging through another webcomic archive and found this little gem. And in a related rant....

1063 - Sunday, 29 January 2006: Zzz. Up way too late blasting Nazis and Zombies, missed the first half-hour of Gun Talk. Attacking email now, got most of it.

Reader sends this story about bureaucracy and body armor for our troops. I bet Johnny Rico and the Mobile Infantry didn't have this problem....

And, back around the 23rd, a reader wishes me Happy St. John's Day! Yay, a new holiday! :)

Canada Still Sucks. And anyone in favor of firearm registration is evil.

Local FAL parts supplier GunPartsGuy reports they now have US-made FAL barrels, to compensate for a recent BATFE decree that barrels could no longer be imported.

Reader sends another Bad Cop story.

Cruffler sends this amusing comparison of Kalashnikov, Armalite, and Mosin.

Hillary still hates the military - and the military remembers.

The southern border is getting worse.

ACLU Gives Aid and Comfort to Enemy in Time of War.

Reader sends The Bonnie Blue Flag! If I ever get a cell phone I'll put the chorus in as a ring tone. Just to be un-PC.

Cops Shoot Cop. And this is why I didn't tackle Willie. Urk - time for more antacid.

1064 - Monday, 30 January 2006: Bleah Monday. And the rain's back.

China Sucks. And so does Google.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: must... play with... fallschirmjägergewehr.... (Drool....)

1065 - Tuesday, 31 January 2006: Cruffler reports he went and got the H&R 10 gauge and the weird Mossberg lever-action I reported seeing Saturday at the Washougal pawn shop. That'll keep him reading what he derides as a "sci-fi blog," heh. (He also reports that the Kimber 1911 has a full-length guide rod. Unfortunately sis' 1911 fund is under attack from other expenses. BTDT....)

So I'm driving back to the hovel and listening to Tony Snow, who often strikes me as too moderate, but then Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, comes on and starts sounding like an actual Republican, talking about cutting government and cutting taxes and cutting commie social programs and gutting the tax code and a bunch of other interesting republitarian stuff. He would not give a straight answer to whether he would support repeal of the 16th Amendment but the weasel words he chose were not entirely discouraging. Hmm.

Alito confirmed to the Supreme Court. Haven't been following it very closely, but anyone the Democrats hate so much must be a good man.

State of the Union Address - coulda been better, coulda been worse. Coulda been delivered better fer damn sure, even by me. Nothing in it made me puke anyway.

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