31 October 2009

Ooh, you chose poorly!

This is one of those heartwarming stories ya really like to see.

Short version:
Bad guy enters residence through a window. Produces a gun and demands money from the goodguy inside. Goodguy declines the invitation and flees the apartment to the courtyard where a party is underway chased by the badguy. Badguy demands money from the party goers who again decline. Bad guy pistol whips a party goer. Other partygoers counter with a baseball bat and two-by-four upside the head. Pistols are dropped and badguy finally escapes his beating. He makes it to his car and escapes. Police find the guy nearby and call an ambulance. One report said he's in critical condition.

At the very least he'll have a long time to contemplate his career choice.

Story here and here.

26 October 2009

How is this possible?

"Student shoots himself while talking to professor"

How is this possible when guns are banned on the ASU campus? (Ref 5-308 (f)(24))

One of the students in the radio report said something to the effect of "How can this happen, we need more security." Has he stopped to think about how many people enter the campus every day? A recent article noted enrollment topped 69000 students, and there are probably another 5K employees. The Tempe campus covers more than 1 square mile with several streets criss-crossing the property.

A reasonable person would understand that a no-guns sign with the threat of student disciplinary action has no effect on someone that already has robbery, rape or murder on their mind.

In a case like this, there was probably only a couple-three seconds between the pulling the gun from the backpack and squeezing the trigger. An LEO even a step or two away is too far.

Glad no one else was hurt.

17 October 2009

You might be a gun geek if...

You read about a license plate "1000101" and translate the binary on sight to 45 hexidecimal (base 16) and think "Maybe he's a gunnie". Apparently however the plate is on a Porsche and the owner intended the decimal equivalent (hint: four sixteens plus five).

I'm almost surprised the license plate censors didn't veto that one...

12 October 2009

There's no place like home...

Unfortunately the heel-clicking thing only works in the movies. For us it worked out to 12 1/2 hours door to door, including 6 1/2 hours airborne, a 2 1/2+ hour flight delay, one bus ride, two trips through security theater and a taxi ride back to the car.

The flight from Hawaii was really an exercise in sleep deprivation and included several hours of pot-holed skies. Leaving the aircraft, I asked the captain and he confirmed we had crossed the jet stream. "We had 100kts out of the North". Since we were more or less North East bound, that means it was mostly a headwind. He went on to explain "the atmosphere is transitioning to the winter pattern." That probably would have meant more if I were more familiar with pacific weather patterns which I'm not. I thanked him for taking a moment and joined the family escaping the Aluminium tube.

Checking in at LAX, the connecting gate agent didn't think we had a chance to make the next connecting flight about 45 minutes away and even if we make the flight it's likely the bags won't. Instead she proposed the flight 2 1/2 hours later. We said we understood the risk but would take the bet. We had 45 minutes to make it upstairs to the gate. We dropped the checked bags at security theater screening then went to find our own security theater line. It zigzagged through the lobby then out the door and several hundred feet down the street. We barely made the connecting flight (they closed the door behind us).

Somewhere in the process we walked away from a travel case full of DVDs. I personally lost "12 O'Clock High", "Guns of Navarone", "Blade Runner", "Dune", "Titan AE" and a couple others. It's probably either left on the Schmerican flight or at LAX security theater. Either way, I'm, not optimistic we'll see them again. (Time to upgrade to blu-ray?)

I made it to work for a few minutes as planned. But not for long. I grabbed what I needed and told the boss "I can do this from home. See ya tomorrow". "To sleep, perchance to dream" - this time in my own bed!

ga'nite.

11 October 2009

I hate airline travel part n+1

We've seen Kauai. It rained all day Saturday and part of today. We're tired and ready to sleep in our own beds. The flight home (on an airline that rhymes with shmerican) is supposed to be a redeye departing at the sucky hour of 9:30pm local. They just called my cell number with a recorded message that the flight has been pushed back two hours with a corresponding arrival delay. That puts into LAX 15 minutes after our connecting flight pushes back from the gate.

The Schmerican gate agent wouldn't lift a finger to help us in any way, not even to seat us together on the new flight (our current seat assignments are a dozen rows apart). Nor would the Schmerican call in reservation center. "Kelly @ DFW" said there are at least 5 rows with the needed seats together but "they are all under control of the gate agent. The same gate agent that wouldn't lift a finger 20 minutes earlier when she was FTF with the SCQueen.

The connecting airline wasn't much help either. They want $100/ticket to confirm us on a later flight. However we can fly standby for free. We'll see how that works out for us.

The one saving grace is the timeshare. Knowing we had a late departure we asked for and were granted a late checkout. Apparently no one is checking into the unit this afternoon so they said "Stay as long as you need". If we had to be out by noon we'd be hurt puppies, and certainly smelly puppies by boarding time.

I was supposed to report for work at 1pm local tomorrow... Who knows if we'll even be in town by then, let alone in a mental condition to actually work.

Schmerican - You Suck! It will be a cold day in Hell before I buy another ticket with you.

View From the Porch

No not that Porch, the view from the porch on Kauai.
(click on image for full size)
A Cruise ship pulled into the harbor for about 36 hours midweek:
Feral Fowl are everywhere on this island. We heard various stories on how they got here but all seem far fetched. The fact is they are here and they are everywhere. OTOH, given how prevalent they are it is surprising how few ended up as road kill. I think we only saw one or two the entire week. These guys were right outside our front door.

08 October 2009

Pearl Harbor obligatory gun Pr0n

If you thought the FN-SCAR made his day. Check out the Quad 40mm!
2/3rds of USS Missouri's 16 inch guns:

Free Hawaiian vacation so far

Day 0: two trips through security theater, two airplanes, one flight delay, 55 minutes to rent a car and 15 minutes wait for the security guy to venture forth to let us in to our room. 6 1/2 hours spent airborne, 16 hours door-to-door. We are staying on the island of Kauai so most of the pics will be from here.

Oh and woah Nelly is it humid here! Temps at 10PM local are still in the high 80F's with humidity to match. I'm drenched by the time I lug the first load up the 29 steps to the front door. The news reports the normal trade winds are broken leading to the high temps/humidity. Maybe they'll return around the time we leave.

Day 1: We head South and West to the Waimea Canyon. It's a short drive distance wise maybe 50 miles, but a long trip time wise. About 2 hours one way. The speed limits are low but it's not a factor as the road is twisty and we're frequently stuck behind Qtips doing 15 or maybe 20 on the straights. BTW, The road up to Waimea would be a hoot to drive in a sports car. Heck, it would make one heck of a hill climb event. Sadly the squirrels powering the PTcruiser just aren't up to the task. The view however is well worth the drive!

Day 2: Headed to the North side of the island. We drove 'till the road was no more. Here is the Kilauea Lighthouse.

Day 3: Hop over to the Island of Oahu to visit the Pearl Harbor sites. A visit to the USS Arizona memorial is on my "to do this life" list. Check!

Day 4: Back on Kauai. Yesterday's trip around Oahu involved a lot of walking and I have the blisters to show for it. I need an easy day to nurse the soles of my feet. We took a short drive south to the Spouting Horn:

Stay tuned for more, including some obligatory gun pr0n.
I reserve the right to revise and extend my remarks.

02 October 2009

Quality Time

It's said a lot of being a parent comes down to "being there".

The SCSon just came bouncing down the stairs rattling off something about "The best weapon to kill werewolves is a shotgun!" Hmmm.. That's interesting, what makes you say that. He had been playing a werewolf game on Roblox.

That led to a conversation on undead beings and what does it really mean to kill and undead, then a peak at MHI where he started to read at page one. I think the book is still a bit over his ability. He understood but was having to work at the understanding. Thence onto a few minutes of quality time reviewing the MHI unit patches

BTW, while the autograph in the front of the book scored serious cool-dad points, then showing him an actual MHI patch was a home run if not a grand slam.

If you still haven't read the book, a) what's wrong with you and b) what's stopping you? I've read it once and started a second read. Larry reports it's into the second printing, but no details on whether autographed copies are still available. If you're interested, it's worth asking the question. Worst he can say is "no".