Busy Weekend… Kind of

I have some stuff planned for Sunday and today I’ve got some back end work planned.  Success may or may not be achieved.

In the mean time, enjoy this gratuitous gun porn from Boomershoot.

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Wish me luck.

In Which I Forget a Recent Lesson (And some testing)

I still haven’t written up a couple posts from Boomershoot.  It hasn’t been as much laziness as I have had other things of interest distracting me.  From ideas, to projects, to wish lists(migrating the platform for the blog from Drupal)*.

There is one story from Boomershoot I do need to write up.  The lesson though evidently was skipped over yesterday during some testing with Ry and Joe

You see, after one of the boomers went boom, Ry had a new look.

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I made the mistake of standing just slightly further back than Ry, not thinking about the amount of rain and how close we were.  I had the same outfit afterwards.

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(Yes it was cold).

Eventually I will write up a post on what happened at Boomershoot, one of the other reasons for the delay is it will also contain a review of the eye protection I’m wearing.

On to testing:

So Joe and Ry had a couple project ideas they were working on and I offered to go out and help.  While they were working on mixing up explosives for some of the tests I worked on an idea Joe had for making primers go bang.

In this section, I verify that all that Hollywood crap is exactly that.  Ry had a setup to create an arch between two wires with AC.  It didn’t make the primer go boom.  Joe had another idea using DC to make the primers go boom.  Stuff got warm but still no joy.  Then by luck I inadvertently made the circuit pass through a piece of metal in the primer construction.  That turned into a light bulb filament.  I attached a primer to it, rigged it up and gave that a shot.  10 seconds after connecting the battery I hear a pop.  So heat, not electricity makes the primer go bang.

So they go bang, but not enough for solid computer control.  Well we still have the question of will boomerite go off?  Put it in the bag of boomerite, wire it all up and it was the most anti climatic thing I’ve ever seen.  The pop was so faint I could hear the conversation between Ry and Joe who were further away than the primer.

So primers were a bust, what about the lift experiments for getting a good fuel air mixture?  I have video for that, and everyone likes vide!

This is probably one of the more interesting stills from the testing.

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You can see the water vapor form the lift, this was with ground under the targets.  Ry also had some targets with bags of water underneath.  I’m not sure it really made a difference, though it’s hard to tell with a sample size of one. 

We have a new target type we’re seriously considering putting out for the shooters.  This year things were a bit more difficult that usual.  Target distribution didn’t end up in the amounts we would have preferred.  This resulted in a lot more 4 and 3 inch targets on the hill than we would have liked.  Believe me, I don’t like it when that goes wrong.  I made a nice quote of the day that made everyone chuckle but no one remembered to actually blog it… yet another story to be told about this year.

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The tubes though are 1.5 inches in diameter (inner) and 4 feet long.  We figure we can put them horizontal or vertical.  Either it will require precision on at least one axis to make a successful hit at distance.  Personally I think they’d just be fun.  Yeah you want to get a boomer, but if it was easy that wouldn’t be saying much now would it? 

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*I’m in the beginning stages of investigating moving from Drupal to WordPress.  The latest version of Drupal is lacking a bunch of the features I want that help me with my blogging.  I could write and build the features I need but I don’t blog as a forte into working on the computer.  I have enough other projects that the last thing I want to do is work maintaining my website.  The migration however has me a bit nervous mainly because I don’t want to break any incoming links for other sites to material I’ve written here.  I think I have a solution to the issue, but even then it will probably take me about 48 hours to rip apart the databases and port the content to WordPress.  I have a VM I am using as a testing area currently and I’m learning what exactly is going to have to happen and how to do it before I bite off more than I can chew.

This is Never a Good Thing

Yeah I’m going to probably be offline tonight.  I left work about an hour early because the wife called…  I won’t say what exactly happened but there was a large amount of water that was dumped into our laundry room.  It was not a failure of the washing machine either.

By the time I got home the wife had most of it cleaned up.  Some of the awaiting laundry soaked up a good majority and acted as a barrier to the far side of the room.  However it got into the carpet outside the laundry room and it appears it got behind the furnace though in very minor quantities.  What isn’t comforting though is I found two holes that head into the crawl space that were not thoroughly sealed.  The wood I could feel felt damp.

I have baked  the wood dry with a hair dryer, as well as dried out all the floor molding.  The wife is continuing to hit everything with more heat to help dry it out.  The faster the better. 

I have the thermostat set to 90 to try and help dry things out further.  The humidity in the house is slightly higher than the usual 20% and that’s thanks to the weather.  The humidifier is off and the temperature is rising quite rapidly in the house.

I suppose this is a good time to mention, I’m not a heat person.  I hate the heat and much prefer the cold.  As I say, I can always put on more clothes but there comes a time where I will either be arrested or have nothing else left to take off… both of those occur at the same time interestingly enough.

I will say this has confirmed my plan that if I ever build a house, the washing machine and by proxy utility sink will have sloped concrete floor with a central drain.

Some Times Life Hits You Without Warning

So two of my friends lost their father early this week.  I’ve been there, I know what that’s like, and it’s never easy.  For them though it was with very little warning and quite rapid.

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I met Jack Zimmer the first time at Corina and Dan’s wedding.  Awesome guy, no matter when I saw him he had a huge grin on his face.  Not only did he have a grin though, he loved working, even more than that fixing.  After the wedding he helped Corina and Dan remodel the restaurant, he would fix Dan’s truck.  That was who he was.

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His response after I say put your best side forward… Dan and I thought it was funny.

Come to think of it, I think the last time I saw him I ran into him at CD’s and he was climbing back under Dan’s truck to fix something.

He came up to visit family last week and spent his time fixing things for his children and playing with his granddaughter.  For that I am thankful.  I just wish that the story kept going to a happy ending.  Alas it does not.  I won’t go into details of what happened, but we’ll just say Ambulance Driver was pissed about Law Dog’s incident for a reason.  Not the same condition, but stupid behavior on the part of some doctors strongly contributed to aggravated the issue, and yes there are some angry medics.DSC_0013_tonemapped

Good bye Jack, I’m sorry I’m not able to sit down and have another beer with you.  You will be missed.  Thank you to you and your wife for raising two such wonderful girls my wife and I are glad to be able to call our friends.

This one time at band camp…

So, this past Saturday the husband and I went out to the Boomershoot site to help Joe Huffman with a private party. Joe got a quote of the day from me as he was giving a tour of the site. Here is the back story of that quote:

In high school I was a member of the marching band and at band camp the band moms held a belching contest for anyone in the band who wanted to participate. To say the least, I won, beating out the guys in the process. During an awards ceremony of sorts at the end of camp, I was awarded the best tone quality award for the belching contest. My mom was not enthused when I got home, but my dad thought it was a hoot. It was proud moment.

Back to Saturday, I belched while out at the site and I was congratulated for it. The husband made sure to mention that it was an okay belch and that I can do much better, hence the quote.

~TMW~

Moka

Moka was a beautiful chocolate lab who has been part of the family since I was 13. Yesterday she was put down. She was 13 and she was suffering from arthritis, amongst other things, and could barely walk let alone stand. Below is a poem I wrote.

She started her life as a happy, bounding ball of mischief.
Her energy knew no bounds.
As time went on, she became more than a pet;
she was a loyal member of the family.
She hunted and chased anything and everything,
just for the sake of protecting her domain.
Nothing entered her territory without permission first.
Protective, loving and carefree,
she lived her life to the fullest.
She was a rare one indeed; as she was able to catch a squirrel,
a feat not easily achieved.
Friendly, proud and beautiful,
she could really bring out the smiles.
She never turned down attention
or an opportunity to curl up by a warm fire.
Scratches behind the ear were pure pleasure for her.
She did get into trouble from time to time,
but who doesn’t?
No matter what, she knew she was loved.
Thirteen wonderful years she lived,
happy and loyal to the end.
She is now at peace.

Rest in Peace Sweet Girl
April 1, 1997 to May 21, 2010

 

 

Due Process, What’s that?

Evidently Child Abuse registries are much like restraining orders, due process is unnecessary to be listed. Many people do not realize how many rights are disrupted without requiring your presence in court. Merely being charged with a felony permanently disrupts your ability to purchase firearms. Well permanently unless you’re willing to pay money to the ATF and FBI. I was unable to purchase firearms due to a NICS black list for a year after the charges were dropped. I was not convicted of a felony, the charges were dropped, the State of Washington even returned the firearm I had in my possession the day of the accident, yet I could NOT purchase a firearm. That NICS hold did not even require my being found guilty in court, it was automatic. To this day that blip on my record still causes issues. I receive a week hold when purchasing firearms others can walk out with immediately. I’m delayed in background checks for other materials, such as when I got checked out to work for Joe. Once your name is placed onto any list, it is difficult if not impossible to remove. If you can remove it, they extort you for money.

It ends up that someone getting a restraining order also results in limited rights for the target without due process. If rights of an individual are going to be limited, substantial evidence along with due process is required. Some people may feel I’m being too harsh, but if you are so afraid of your Ex that you feel you need a restraining order and their rights should be limited, you need to be willing to go to court and testify in front of them. You also need to have evidence to show that your fear is well founded. No person’s rights should be violated, much less without due process. If you feel differently so be it, however I would like to point out the Fifth Amendment says otherwise (emphasis is mine):

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

While all these things are done with an effort to do good things, rarely do I ever see any real good come out of them. Restraining orders are often abused as well and used as a revenge tactic because of their hampering ability. For some it’s a way to “get even”. More often than not I hear about honest hard working people caught in the middle. Furthermore, if you’re that afraid of your Ex, I highly doubt a restraining order is really going to do it. I would suggest instead getting a hold of myself, Joe, Laurel, anyone in the gun community and ask, “Can you teach me to shoot and defend myself.” I do not know of anyone who would not take the opportunity to teach and help. The wonder of the freedoms we have in this country come with responsibility, if you don’t want the responsibility, you will inherit the risks that go with it. Because of that fact, any law that attempts to solve a “problem” and violates due process and hampers and infringes on the rights of law abiding citizens is not acceptable and not a solution.

Light Posting

Yes, posting has been light as of late. Numerous issues have plagued my pc, home, and life in general.

I think I finally have solved the hardware issue plaguing my PC, I’m working on installing a CAPTCHA on the site. Currently I have to approve all anonymous comments. It’s a pain in my ass.

This is a test to see if the software update was successful.

As there’s an Erupting Volcano in Iceland, here’s a pic my dad took while stationed there.