In Memory of One of Our Own

If you have seen Joe’s blog post, then you may know who I am talking about.  For those of you unaware, on November 21st, a good friend and devout Boomershoot attendee, Scott Keszler, passed away. 

In his memory, I would like to put together a slide show of pictures, stories, quotes, etc. for the Boomershoot dinner.  Since Boomershoot was one of Scott’s favorite activities to partake in, my goal is to keep his memory alive and have fun the way he would have wanted. 

If you have pictures, stories, or quotes regarding Scott, please email them to me with Scott’s name in the subject line so I can add them to the slide show. Thank you all. RIP Scott (29 Aug 1963 – 21 Nov 2015); you are greatly missed.

The Big Update

So I’ve been meaning to actually drop this on the blog for a while but busy has barely begun to describe my life.

Why so busy?

Well we went into overdrive getting the house fully ready for sale. It’s on the market, we have an offer and we’re waiting for the other party to sell their current house. If I don’t look at a caulk gun for another 4 months it will still be too soon. Same thing with paint, dry wall, and mud.

We ended up in overdrive to sell the house because well…

Barnett 2.0 arriving August 2015.

TMM 2.0 arriving August 2015.

That’s right, TMM V2.0 is due August 24th. We needed to get as much done in advance because well this month is going to be spent finding more stuff we don’t want/need to clear out, moving stuff to storage, and rearranging the house.

Couple this with job related item and other things I just haven’t had much time for anything and well the outlook into the future doesn’t look good for my spare time either.

If you need a regular fix of my dry sense of humor, make sure to hit up the Gun Blog Variety Cast. It may only be once a week but it’s better than nothing. You can also go follow me on the Facebooks.

Tis the Season…

Just rolled in to Orifino for Boomershoot 2015.

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You know you wish you were here.

Open Mouth Insert Hoof… Nick Hanauer

So I knew about this over the weekend and was marinating on it waiting to see what the other side bothers to do if anything regarding the events of last Friday.

While many may think I am talking about the school shooting in Marysville, I am not. Quite honestly I’m getting sick of people working to exploit tragedy for political gain. Which brings me to the events I am talking about…

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To the right is a real screen shot from Nick Hanauer’s Facebook Friday while in the wake of tragedy.

Now many who read this blog are from outside of the state, are not fully familiar with the ongoing legal battle, much less exactly who Nick Hanauer is.

Who is Nick Hanauer?

Nick Hanauer is a leading I-594 proponent and heir to the Pacific Coast Feather Company. To say that Nick Hanauer has had his hand in the development of I-594 is to put it mildly as he had a significant role to play in funding the initiative from the start.

Not only does he fund the initiative but he is heavily involved in Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility being their primary funder and founder.

WAGR…

Well after Friday it is obvious that WAGR is merely a xerox of every other gun control organization we have seen that is not about the things they claim but are really about exploiting tragedy for their own political gains.

Why has WAGR not immediately made a public announcement distancing itself from Nick Hanauer? Could it be because they love his money over their principles? Could it be because deep down they agree with Hanauer’s statement? Honestly I don’t think it could be put any better than a response I overheard at the fun show over the weekend:

What a ludicrous, insensitive and quite frankly, vile, comment!  I find it
offensive and morally reprehensible.  WAGR should publicly disassociate
itself from Nick Hanauer (and return the blood money they have received
from him)

That ladies and gentleman is the cold hard truth and the most basic demonstration of exactly what the other side is. They are so desperate for money that they are willing to swim with scum and villainy the likes of which would make most good-hearted people vomit.

We however will never see WAGR respond, much less distance itself from Hanauer, and never in a million years return his money. Our opponents are too desperate and honestly rely on tragedy to fuel their funding.

We hold events to raise money for charities outside the shooting sports not to mention charities within from time to time. Name one event organized by CSGV, WAGR, or the Brady Campaign where they were raising funds for anyone other than themselves. At Boomershoot we’re regularly raising money for Soldiers’ Angels.

So let me ask one real simple question, who do you really think is trying to make their communities better? The people screaming for more violence so they can capitalize on tragedy. We on the other hand get together for a weekend and say, “Hey lets help some other people while we’re at it.”

This is why we win…

Why We Win…

So if you are thinking about sending money to WAGR, you might want to think again and find a better choice.

Challenge Accepted!

Via Alan I found this.

New bombproof waste bins to be planted throughout London will address not only the city’s security concerns, but environmental issues as well.

Designed to absorb the heat of explosions, the armored receptacle collects trash and recyclable materials in separate compartments. It also displays a weather-proof LCD screen streaming news and travel information, according to a Times Online story.

Note they didn’t say bomb-resistant, they said bomb-proof.  I have the sudden urge to do an Idaho Stress Test.

The most interesting thing is it’s designed to absorb “the heat of explosions”.  Yes, most explosions are exothermic, but due to the rapidly expanding nature there isn’t much heat overall. If there is, that’s usually because of extra fuel in whatever was being used as an explosive.  Further you can’t even just evacuate air out of the tank because even then you can make explosives that can still detonate.  The pressure is the deciding factor and the hard part to defend against.

So,  to Media Metrica, if you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is, please feel free to contact me.  I know I’ll be stuck picking the bits and pieces out of the field but by god this would totally be worth it.  No matter what you can always engineer a solution to cause it to fail.

Boom!

So we’re coming up fast on Boomershoot.  I’ve got a pile of stuff I need to do to get ready and time’s moving quick.  In the meantime here’s a pic from last years fireball.

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+1 to Ry for convincing me to get the Adobe Cloud.  Here’s the before and after on that photo.

Before_vs_After_ Ry

Lightroom is fantastic with Raw photos.

ESS and Boomershoot – Part V

Previously on Masterpiece Theater:

For some extra humor, the blue canopy in the back ground is a couple of guys right next to the ESS crew that were shooting without eye-wear.  They even refused to try the stuff ESS had.  Yes, when I was told that story, I’m reasonably this was my reaction.

I chatted with Ari a bunch while at Boomershoot, awesome guy.  As I’ve said before, I highly recommend the Cross Series of products.  Just to show how much I like them, the FTC can suck an egg, I was paid nothing for saying any of this.  I got a free pair, no strings attached, but it wasn’t even really with a review in mind.

This One’s for Sean…

So, I kind of batted at Joan in my Priceless video but it wasn’t really a good solid hit.  It was more of just a fun video.  Joe took a good solid swing here which I felt was on the right track but the more I thought about it, more needed to be done.  I had piles of video of pumpkins blowing up between 2010 and 2012.

Sean posted a comment when Joe did his first post on Joan’s PSH stating we should have a self contained video that explained her break down and put everything in one easy to see spot.  Well I did just that.  Now while overall this really didn’t need to be made, it was more practice and work with the Adobe tools.  The learning curve is steep but doing projects, no matter how pointless is how you get over them.

So this one’s for Joan!

Besides, it’s quite fitting since it’s Halloween with the pumpkins and all.