OK, maybe the title of this post is not all that accurate. I should not say that I'm getting "sucked" back in. I must admit that I'm walking back in to online gaming with both eyes open.
A friend sent me a "Scroll of Resurrection" for World of Warcraft. It allows you 7 free days of play plus you can transfer to a different realm plus you can level one alt to level 80. I took advantage of it just to see what the game was still like.
The game still sucks. My alt was one of three in Stormwind when I logged on. I will admit that logging on May 15, the same day as the release of Diablo III, may have had something to do with the low realm population. Or not. I found that my old raiding guild had been deleted. Oddly enough, my leveling guild that had "died" back in BC was still limping along with a handful of members.
While I was shopping with Adorable Preciousness, I swung by Best Buy and picked up a copy of Diablo III. I still have not installed it. I've been rather busy all day and I'm way behind on chores. I never got around to upgrading my PC from XP to Windows 7. I've had a copy of Windows 7 since December with the intention of buying some new hard drives to do a RAID set up but the money has not been there. I've finally decided to just pop in a blank hard drive yet I've had no time to actually do it.
Which reminds me, I need to pick up something in order to save my iTunes music. Transferring iTunes is a pain in the tuckas.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Carrying Concealed with an empty chamber.
If you have been reading any gun boards or gun blogs for any amount of time, you will find an argument about the merits of an empty chamber or keeping a round in the chamber of a firearm that you carry. I was recently on Sharp as a Marble and saw this.
Sharp as a Marble
For those of you not familiar, here is a quick rundown. The argument for keeping the chamber empty is the safety issue. If there is no round in the chamber, then you can not fire the handgun by accident. The argument for keeping the chamber loaded is for self defense. If the firearm is hot, then you can protect yourself quicker.
I can see the pro's and con's for each argument. But, there are better arguments elsewhere online so I shall merely tell you what I did.
My first firearm was a Glock 17. I had some basic training with firearms, but I was no where near an expert. I bought my pistol and I quickly got a concealed weapons permit.
See, the Glock 17 has no external safety. It has a very nice internal safety meaning you can bang around the pistol all day and night and it will not go off. The safety release is on the trigger meaning you have to put your finger on the trigger in order to release the safety. Does that make sense?
So... as a new concealed carrier, I was a little nervous about carrying a loaded firearm with no external safety. I did not fully trust my pistol at the time. I just trusted that if I needed my pistol that I would be able to draw and rack the slide fast enough.
All of this changed when I purchased my second firearm. It was a Smith & Wesson 642 revolver. I carried it a few times and then it hit me. Revolver = No External Safeties. Glock is also = No External Safeties.
Wait a minute!
So, I only carried with an empty chamber for a few months before I became comfortable enough to carry hot. But, as a new shooter I was more comfortable carrying with an empty chamber. And despite all the arguments for and against, the biggest argument for carrying with an empty chamber was that it became a stepping stone to carrying concealed properly. Had I been forced to carry hot out from the start, I probably would have declined and never gotten into firearms properly.
Sharp as a Marble
For those of you not familiar, here is a quick rundown. The argument for keeping the chamber empty is the safety issue. If there is no round in the chamber, then you can not fire the handgun by accident. The argument for keeping the chamber loaded is for self defense. If the firearm is hot, then you can protect yourself quicker.
I can see the pro's and con's for each argument. But, there are better arguments elsewhere online so I shall merely tell you what I did.
My first firearm was a Glock 17. I had some basic training with firearms, but I was no where near an expert. I bought my pistol and I quickly got a concealed weapons permit.
See, the Glock 17 has no external safety. It has a very nice internal safety meaning you can bang around the pistol all day and night and it will not go off. The safety release is on the trigger meaning you have to put your finger on the trigger in order to release the safety. Does that make sense?
So... as a new concealed carrier, I was a little nervous about carrying a loaded firearm with no external safety. I did not fully trust my pistol at the time. I just trusted that if I needed my pistol that I would be able to draw and rack the slide fast enough.
All of this changed when I purchased my second firearm. It was a Smith & Wesson 642 revolver. I carried it a few times and then it hit me. Revolver = No External Safeties. Glock is also = No External Safeties.
Wait a minute!
So, I only carried with an empty chamber for a few months before I became comfortable enough to carry hot. But, as a new shooter I was more comfortable carrying with an empty chamber. And despite all the arguments for and against, the biggest argument for carrying with an empty chamber was that it became a stepping stone to carrying concealed properly. Had I been forced to carry hot out from the start, I probably would have declined and never gotten into firearms properly.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Plugs and Surge Protectors
I have a surge protector on my computer. It's a nice one. Not the top of the line but not super cheap either. I think it came with a warranty in case it fails. Not that I kept any paperwork involving such a thing.
It has eight outlets on it. Five are side by side and two are actually off to the side. It also has protection for coaxial cable and phone line, and a cable management system and other doo-dads but I'm not going to explore them right now.
The problem with such a set up on a surge protector is that most electronic devices now have an electronic box of some type attached to the end of their plug. Therefore instead of a nice normal little plug they have this monstrosity of a box. With that box the plug will then block several outlets. My cell phone charger has a narrow box that would actually only block one slot if the outlets were horizontal instead of vertical. Instead the bloc physically covers two outlets and the cord interferes with a third outlet. My router has a monstrosity of a square box that can block the outlets on either side and from top to bottom. However, my printer has a nice box that is actually in the middle of the cord so that the box will sit on the floor and it has a normal plug to fit in the surge protector.
Thus, with all of my computer equipment, I now need to purchase a second surge protector to protect everything. Currently, my speakers and my cell phone charger are plugged in with no protection. I wish that these companies would make smarter equipment and start adding a "normal" plug to everything.
It has eight outlets on it. Five are side by side and two are actually off to the side. It also has protection for coaxial cable and phone line, and a cable management system and other doo-dads but I'm not going to explore them right now.
The problem with such a set up on a surge protector is that most electronic devices now have an electronic box of some type attached to the end of their plug. Therefore instead of a nice normal little plug they have this monstrosity of a box. With that box the plug will then block several outlets. My cell phone charger has a narrow box that would actually only block one slot if the outlets were horizontal instead of vertical. Instead the bloc physically covers two outlets and the cord interferes with a third outlet. My router has a monstrosity of a square box that can block the outlets on either side and from top to bottom. However, my printer has a nice box that is actually in the middle of the cord so that the box will sit on the floor and it has a normal plug to fit in the surge protector.
Thus, with all of my computer equipment, I now need to purchase a second surge protector to protect everything. Currently, my speakers and my cell phone charger are plugged in with no protection. I wish that these companies would make smarter equipment and start adding a "normal" plug to everything.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Studio Gainex!
I find it quite odd that I have failed to post this video. The music is "I Want You" and it is off of the OST that the anime is based on.
For those that are interested, the title of the anime is "Panty and Kneesocks with Garterbelt." Yes, it is as absurd as the title suggests, but what else would you expect from the studio that also brought you FLCL?
For those that are interested, the title of the anime is "Panty and Kneesocks with Garterbelt." Yes, it is as absurd as the title suggests, but what else would you expect from the studio that also brought you FLCL?
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Playing on the internet.
Between my normal work schedule, training, overtime, and Easter I've been very busy. Adorable Preciousness woke up at 3am and wanted to play, then woke up again at 7. I finally got her down for her nap and tried to work on transferring files to my wife's new laptop. Going from Vista 32bit to Win7 64bit is... a lot more trouble than it's worth. Unfortunately, I'm spending more time playing on the internet than I am researching how to properly transfer all of the files.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Once upon a time....
Once upon a time, I was a Dispatcher. I worked the Emergency Call Center for a local county. All Fire, Medical, and Law Enforcement calls went through us. Also, as we were a county wide dispatch office (instead of just an emergency office) we handled calls for other county services: Schools, Animal Control, Public Utilities, Et Al.
This lead to some interesting calls.
Our county was... Growing. When I was a kid, the county was considered poor but being on an interstate some interesting industries had opened up. These industries gave the county a nice tax base and when I was in college the county was able to install a 911 system. Shortly thereafter the low cost of property lead to a lot of people with money moving in.
It was actually quite common to drive around and see a McMansion constructed next to a hand build shack.
Hmm... Let's find a story for me to tell about my adventures as a Dispatcher. Let me preface it with the fact that the county had always been friendly to agriculture. Plenty of farms. This county was the only local area where exotic animal farms were legal. Suddenly they were popping up everywhere. Lions. Tigers. Monkeys. Ostrich. You name it, someone probably raised it. With the exception of elephants. I never saw any elephants. Those things are pretty hard to miss.
I was taking calls and someone called in to the non-emergency number.
Caller: "Sorry to bother you, but this is kind of odd."
Me: "No problem, that is what we are here for. What is going on?"
Caller: "I'm not too sure, but I swear that there is an Emu in my back yard."
Me: "No problem ma'am. I'll notify Animal Control. You are only about a mile from an exotic animal farm."
Actually, I do find it a little odd that someone can live so close to an exotic animal farm and not know it.
This lead to some interesting calls.
Our county was... Growing. When I was a kid, the county was considered poor but being on an interstate some interesting industries had opened up. These industries gave the county a nice tax base and when I was in college the county was able to install a 911 system. Shortly thereafter the low cost of property lead to a lot of people with money moving in.
It was actually quite common to drive around and see a McMansion constructed next to a hand build shack.
Hmm... Let's find a story for me to tell about my adventures as a Dispatcher. Let me preface it with the fact that the county had always been friendly to agriculture. Plenty of farms. This county was the only local area where exotic animal farms were legal. Suddenly they were popping up everywhere. Lions. Tigers. Monkeys. Ostrich. You name it, someone probably raised it. With the exception of elephants. I never saw any elephants. Those things are pretty hard to miss.
I was taking calls and someone called in to the non-emergency number.
Caller: "Sorry to bother you, but this is kind of odd."
Me: "No problem, that is what we are here for. What is going on?"
Caller: "I'm not too sure, but I swear that there is an Emu in my back yard."
Me: "No problem ma'am. I'll notify Animal Control. You are only about a mile from an exotic animal farm."
Actually, I do find it a little odd that someone can live so close to an exotic animal farm and not know it.
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