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.

Combining Hobbies…

So I have a friend who likes building model airplanes.  I like building model airplanes.  I also like building control systems.  I don’t think either of us remembers exactly how it started but there was mention of building a scaled replica of a B-29 and dropping an egg.

To which I replied that if we were going to drop an egg, given all the technology we could try and be reasonably accurate from a couple hundred feet with it.  Then I realized that we could go one step further and make it a full blown UAV.

Then his dad had to send him this video:

See, that’s a 1/5 scale B-29 and holds the world record for largest R/C aircraft.  Well that just answered the question of how big we need to go… The answer is 1/4 scale.  Now I wonder if I can get any 1/4 scale radial engines for this puppy.

We’re also going to work on making it exceedingly light for a decently sized payload.  We have other plans for the system as well.

I’m wanting to make the system much more automated only requiring direct human control for takeoff and landing.  The other side of this is I want the cockpit to be a computer instead of your standard radio controls.  It would take a minimum of two pilots to fly it by regular controls so,  my solution is to make it just like a drone cockpit.  That way he has everything at hand and doesn’t have to maintain constant pressure for all the controls.

Note while doing all this, I want to make it cheap, easy to reproduce, and compact enough to put in smaller aircraft.  I have other uses for such a system, so would some of my friends.

So I have yet another fun side project to work on.  We’re building a much smaller test bed version first.  Good thing I know someone with an electronics company.

SSCC #342 & #343–San Francisco

On Friday, federal and state prosecutors alleged that two of the machine-pistol type weapons were sold to Camilleri by a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy abusing an exemption in state law that lets peace officers buy weapons that are illegal for civilians to own.

See, even those most of the really fun toys are outlawed for civilians in California, police officers are exempt from the ban on fun.  I applaud him for wanting to spread the fun, except for two things.  One it was against the law, what made that person so special. Two, you’re buyer ended up being not exactly one with the most reputable of character.

Now some of the comments are your standard anti-gun rhetoric.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said the pair made thousands of dollars by selling dozens of weapons over four years. Court documents say the men sold exotic weapons including .50 caliber handguns, semi-automatic versions of Uzi-style submachine guns, and pistols that shoot high-velocity ammunition used by the U.S. military.

Pistols that shoot high-velocity ammunition used by the U.S. military, you mean like an AR-Pistol?  Give me a break there sport, this is an effort to wound up some PSH for the anti-rights folks.  Personally I think the officers defense attorney is right in the following statement:

McGowan’s defense attorney, William Portanova, said his client is a gun collector, not a dealer, who may have been confused by state firearms laws that he said are “complex, contradictory and full of silly loopholes.”

“They are so complicated that you can easily break the law without realizing you’ve done that,” he said. “Even a trained law enforcement official can do it wrong, whether he intends to or not.”

Emphasis mine.  Though it appears that these individuals acted as straw buyers, which is already illegal and well known to be bad.  Never the less, ignorance of the law is no excuse, and mens rea has gone the way of the Dodo.  Not to mention much of this confusion and loophole issues were created by anointing law enforcement.  He was exempted from laws others weren’t.  Yeah, this one a sponsored criminal.  Mainly because the onerous gun laws helped create the environment for it to happen.

State Sponsored Criminal #342:  Ryan McGowan

#343: Thomas Lu

Because the law applies to the, not to me.

via Phssthpok

Open Carry Weekend…

As usual, nothing happened!  The wife and I went out to lunch after the USPSA match specifically because it was “open carry weekend”.  TMW did it last year as well, for us though it’s really just more of the same.  I normally either open carry or concealed carry, the difference is whether or not I’m wearing a coat.  What was different for today was that laziness won out and I just continued wearing my whole rig after the match.

I snugged down the the holster to increase the retention but didn’t bother changing for a different holster and left the stack of 4 magazines on my left hip.  I know you can barely see the gun, black shirt plus black gun equals find Waldo.

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I will say, yes that shirt was picked on purpose… You shoot the paper bastards twice, other wise they call out Charlie Mike, and I don’t know why they call his name so much when I shoot.

The wife was open carrying as well:

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I don’t know if Erin has her shirt or not.  If she doesn’t, she should go get one.  No one said anything, I think a couple people noticed and I just smiled as I walked by.  I think for the most part the 4 spare magazines drew more attention that the gun itself.

Can you say “Winning”

Via FarmDad in the GBC chat room:

A new gun range is in the works for Lewisville, that hopes to offer the community a family-friendly experience and kids’ birthday parties on the shooting range.

But according to those elites in the Brady  Campaign and CSGV that has to be impossible.  For you see according to them interest in the shooting sports is at an all time low.  As we all know, this is them obviously in the first stage of grief.

Given we know they suffer from “Peterson Syndrome”*, I am wondering if their condition will relegate them permanently to the first stage of grief.  Given they disassociate from reality anyway, they can continue to live in denial without ever changing.

Think about it, what would actually cause Joan** to admit that she is on the loosing side of this proposition?  There is nothing that I can currently fathom that would induce her or her compatriots with a dose of reality to the point where they move on to stage two.  Their view of reality is so skewed and tainted they can rationalize away reality.  What is there left to move them forward?

All the while, we’re winning with instances like the above.  What’s the goal of the gun range I hear you ask?

The Eagle Gun Range hopes to offer a new experience for families seeking to educate their children about proper, safe gun use.

See, we on this side say educate and train.  The other side says ignore them and be an ostrich.  Kids on our side of the fence though know how to behave when they find a firearm.  On their side of the fence, little bobby shoots baby Randy and they scream for more gun control.  Never mind the following:

  • Prohibition of Alcohol Failed
  • Prohibition of Drugs has Failed
  • Prohibition on Murder doesn’t stop it
  • Prohibition on Rape doesn’t stop it

All those prohibitions do is affect the law abiding.  The only thing a prohibition on gun control accomplishes is the prevention of the law abiding citizen being armed to the best of their ability for their own defense.

*Peterson Syndrome seems tied to Cognitive Distortion.  I also found an article about reality distortion which seems to match as well.

Hallucinations and delusions, the phenomena that lie at the heart of psychosis, are perhaps the most enigmatic of all mental  symptoms. Both entail a mismatch between a compelling representation of reality produced by the individual’s own mind and the representation supported by objective evidence.

**I am linking her purely for Farm Dad’s enjoyment.

<+FarmDad> japate’s asshole should swallow her head when she sees that lol

SSCC Honorable Mention–NYPD

Via Ry comes this wonderful doozey.

A 26-year veteran police sergeant was arrested Friday morning by the New York Police Department on charges accusing him of committing computer crimes dangerous to minors, city police said.

Sgt. Patrick Rosney, 53, was arrested Friday morning when he arrived for work at police headquarters. He was handcuffed while in uniform.

It appears in this case he is not being given any quarter and this has earmarks of moving into the Accountabilibuddyable realm.  As he was only suspended, at least without pay, I’m not quite ready to stack it in that realm.  It does have the certain possibility of making it though.

Given the previous incidents involving cops and children on the count, this is still an honorable mention.

State Sponsored Criminal Honorable Mention: Patrick Rosney

Because the best part of being a cop is all the little girls trust you.  That is except the guy that on the other end of the conversation who’s also a cop.

*As I said, some times I’ll do them on the weekend when it really pisses me off.

Modeling the Old…

There are times I wonder why I didn’t go the mechanical engineering route.  It is so much fun.

Cylinder Render Front

I spent today modeling the cylinder of a cap and ball revolver loaned to me by a friend.  For the most part I’m happy with the results.  The only thing I’m not really happy with is the cylinder incrementing on the recoil pad.

Cylinder Render Back

Getting the precise dimensions for the correct location and depth was quite difficult.  The measurements are quite close, but not 100% there.  It will take some more tweaking.

I also need to pull one of the nipples and take the measurements to make sure I have the interior threading specified correctly. I think I might actually model the threads at some point too, just for grins.

If anyone wants to try and guess the type of revolver based off the cylinder feel free.  No prizes, just ultimate bragging rights.

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.