09 February 2011

A new low in PSH*

A local talk radio show opened with an interview of a local police officer.  The officer related an incident at a local restaurant.

Here's the short version:  Officer is meeting with some department management.  Restaurant manager tells officer his gun is offending a customer and would he mind taking it off.  Listen here.

Hopefully he can get the restaurant's side of the story.   Should be good.

I'd love to hear the "offended" person's side.  Just how does someone become so offended at the sight of an inanimate object.

The mind boggles.
* PSH reference here.

Top Shot season 2 debut

Season two kicked off tonight.   It kicks off much harder than season one.  More on shooting and less "getting to know you, getting to know all about you..."   I'm sure we'll get to that later.  Looks like a solid field.

Nice start to see the "best" shooters choose teams grade school kickball style.  Though I wonder if Mr. Lim's shot was luck or skill.  I'm in solid agreement... once is luck, twice is skill.  They started down this path but we didn't see the result which makes me wonder if his second shot wasn't a miss [terminating that story line].

Glad to see more "Tara's" this season.  On average, what the fairer sex seems to lack in aggression, they make up in patience and dexterity (though this field is far above "on average").    Sorry to see the wimmenfolk selected at the bottom of the field.  Just doesn't look good.

While I agree with Mr Reed's "I'll take any 7 of the remaining 14 against the rest.  They all earned their spots here" at a gut level, I'd like to think in their shoes, I'd take after Mr. Lim's methodical attempt to build a balanced team.  

BassProShops is obviously a sponsor.  Welcome!  I hope you find your sponsorship profitable!  What do you have available in magnum calibers? (I'm in the market).

$2k card for each challenge win.  Nice touch.  But I bet Kelly is wondering "WhereTF were you last season?"  He'd have made a nice sideline last season.  How many challenges did he win? At least 4 IIRC.

Mr. Lim so far is listed only as a "golf pro" and future highlights hint at discord within the ranks.  I wonder what kind of "underdog creds" we'll see from him and from Ms. "guess no one wants me" last chosen.

Who doesn't love an underdog story?  Good start to the season!

06 February 2011

Winter ePostals...

Merle "Most Prolific" passes along a couple ePostal matches currently underway.

First a rifle match from the Surplus Rifle Forum featuring MilSurp rifles. Funny how that works out.

Also the Ruger Forum has a pistol match running. The match attempts to simulate the life and death charging animal scenario. So the intent is to get your heart rate up and empty your magnum into the "charging animal" (simulated by a standard paper plate). This match exposes a glaring empty spot in the safe. The Magnum Revolver!

Note to self.. research and acquire a magnum caliber revolver. Something in .357 or .44 would suffice nicely. As I've not yet begun the research project, feel free to nominate your favorite in the comments.

01 February 2011

Algebra is easy!

So sayeth the SCSon!

MArooned bragged about his son pwning the boards at his local league.  Good on ya.   Ain't it great to be a dad!  But I didn't expect I'd get to follow on anytime soon.

The SCSon has struggled in math, mostly because he wants to take short cuts and gets lazy.  He loses carrys & borrows.  Been there, done that.  I check his homework every night and most of the time the first pass is about 50% and it takes 4-5 passes to get it right.  I won't do his work for him but I'll have him explain his process and ask where he went wrong.  If he doesn't see it, I keep asking questions until he discovers the error.  It's a long and tedious process, frequently involving tears and tantums (IOW, "JUST FIX IT DAD!")  But I won't.  Your work, your score.  You're the one that has the test on Friday, not me.

I asked about his homework tonight.  He said "it's over there and it's all correct."  They are doing simple algebra (x-15 = 27, solve for x) and somehow it clicked in his mind.  He only missed one (a picture problem where he didn't write the initial equation correctly) and he inadvertantly skipped a problem.  So one to "do" and one to "redo".

Dang! Who are you and what have you done with my son!  What a quantum leap from the usual math struggles.

He started to get cocky. "I got this Dad"

"Ok, lets look ahead a little bit." I said and wrote out a couple more equations:
X + 15 = 7.  He said "Impossible".  "Bzzzt, wrong answer!  Apply the same rules you've learned."  He did and came up with the correct -8.
7x = 21   He correctly applied the inverse divide by 7 and got the right answer
x/4 = 20  Same here.
7x+3 = 24  It didn't immediately click but we talked about strategy (you are trying to Isolate 'x').  But he quickly got it.

It's really good to see him with confidence in the class where he's struggled in the past.  I just hope he doesn't get complacent and continues to pay attention in class.   (um, that would be a lesson from the school of been-there-done-that-'cuz-I-thought-I-knew-everything-and-had-to-work-really-hard-to-catch-up-when-I-found-out-I-didn't.  It's a hard but important lesson to learn).

But Daaaang!  Right now I think I could teach him trig!