SandCastle Scrolls

Brewer for President!

2012-01-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

One of the worst things that happened in 2008 was Obama's election.

One of the best things that happened to Arizona in 2008 was Governor Napolitano resignation to go work for the Obama administration. Secretary of State Jan Brewer then became Governor.

That set up what happened today: If you haven't seen this picture, do so now!

Brewer 2012!

Geekery

2012-01-25T00:02:00.002-07:00

The SCSon and I meet with a local electronics group on tuesday nights. Mostly we do radio stuff. Tonight a member brought in an original 1981 IBM PC complete with the original green text monitor and keyboard (that should be registered with police as a lethal weapon.)

The PC power plug needed some attention and then some . Once attended to, it eventually booted to some form of BASIC. I suggested the operator demonstrate "Hello world" circa 1976: Program it to count from 1 to 10.

"Those neurons have long since past"

I step up and carefully typed:

10 for i = 1 to 10
20 print i
30 next i

Those three lines were Greek to most present!

run

[result:]

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

You probably heard the cheers when they got the 2.5MB hard drive to boot to DOS!

Heh... playing with stuff that rightfully belongs in a museum. Does life get any better. Anyone know where I can sit down at an ENIAC? or perhaps a CRAY? Mebbe I'll bring an Atari 800 (+games) next week! 48KB & maxed out, yeah!

Geekery 4eva!

Hers and His

2012-01-08T06:00:00.008-07:00

Cz-82 & S&W 629. 24 rounds of 9mm x 18 plus 18 rounds of 240gr JHP .44 at +1400fps. Hers and His. (

This is our observation of the Tucson shootings of this date and the candle light memorials offered by the anti-gunners. We at the SandCastle instead observe with regret there wasn't a carrier or three to stop the shooter long before the before many shots were fired. These events rarely stop until someone with a gun arrives.

This case is a little different in that he was tackled while changing magazines. Good on those that acted rather than cowering in fear waiting to be shot. Still a carrier could have stopped it before half a dozen rounds were fired saving an awful lot of pain and death.

H/T Weerd Beard

Gotta love Arizona in the Winter!

2012-01-01T17:35:00.001-07:00

Summers are hot as Hades around these parts, but Winter really makes up for it.

It's New Year's Day. I was out, about and running around today in the Miata....
... with the top down!

Temps today reached 79F without a cloud in the sky.

Happy New Year!

(on the downside, I just got off the phone with my credit card's Fraud department. They tell us we won't be responsible for the charges).

December Range report

2011-12-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to the range in at least a month and it's been even longer for the SCSon. Last year he shot with the club's junior division, but this year he has a conflict with trombone lessons.

Today was not the best of days to hit the range. It was cold and raining. Cold enough to show one's breath and the bitter cold wind penetrated my jacket. That's probably an NBD for readers in the more northern climes, but it's kind of a rarity here in the Sonoran desert. I really wished for more head cover than a baseball cap. But it meant for lots of space on the range. We grabbed a pair of adjacent benches so we could shoot rifles on one and pistols on the other. That would allow us to head home in a single hot range session.

Still it was a good day at the range. The SCSon wanted to shoot the M1 Carbine. I also packed along an AR-15. He was excited to learn I'd also packed along a 9MM. I also brought the .44 Mag. It still kicks like a mule but the best shots were when the SCSon loaded just 2 shots and handed it over to me. Not knowing if each trigger pull would bring a bang or a click helped with the flinch problem. Should do that more often. Even if it left burnt powder residue on my left thumb.

The hill behind the range was obscured by a cloud and a light rain fell as we left the range. It was a good day. And the hot chocolate back at the SandCastle warmed us up nicely.

Good Shot!

2011-11-29T21:45:00.001-07:00

Local news reports a woman shot an intruder in her back yard when he pointed his gun at her. I'd like to believe it went something like this:

But since one got away I'm guessing not. Police recoveredthe bad guy's weapon at the scene.

Still good job there! The good people are alive and unhurt, and there is one less bad guy in the world.

My Worst Nightmare

2011-11-24T23:18:00.003-07:00

This is pretty much my worst nightmare as a pilot - a crash that takes out the entire family.

Short version: A plane has crashed in the mountains on the east side of the Phoenix metro area. Reports are it carried 6 people, including three children. According to news reports it flew in to pick up the children to take them to a Thanksgiving celebration with dad.

There are far too little facts known at this point to understand what happened to cause the crash. Local news offers plenty of speculation, I don't feel the need to contribute to the noise.

As the title states, this is my worst nightmare. Instead of hiding under the covers, we do everything to stack the deck in our favor. Though I am signed off to fly at night, we plan our trip for daylight hours. The engine doesn't know it's dark out, but the consequences of an engine failure are much higher at night. Also terrain is harder to see at night. Also while I am certified to fly in the clouds and maintain legal IFR currency, we plan our flight for good weather. "Legal currency" != Proficiency.

Flying for ourselves allows us the flexibility to say "I don't need to fly today. Weather's bad? We'll go tomorrow. Weather's fixin' to turn south, gotta go today!"

Godspeed to the deceased and surviving family members. You have just realized my worst nightmare. I cannot fathom your pain of losing the loved ones and now forever associating Thanksgiving with losing your family.

Update: The family has a site up for the wee ones. Wish there was more I could do.

Aw Cr@p....

2011-11-17T00:19:00.005-07:00

This post may be a bit on the depressing side, but there is a lesson we've learned the hard way. Feel free to skip to the last three paragraphs.

Long time readers may recall we lost the SCDad's wife a couple years ago. See here and here.

Though the end was on the horizon for quite some time, no funeral plans had been made. I can understand that, no one wants to go down that path. Unfortunately Dad had to work through the funeral details after the fact and in less-than-optimal circumstances.

Anyway, the mortuary has a program where they contact survivors of loved ones a couple years down the road to set up their own final arrangements so the descendants don't have to and there is nothing to fight over. This is smart from a business standpoint, as they get the $$ for dad's funeral arrangements today in return for a burger tomorrow, but also benefits us because he made the choices us offspring units would otherwise have to make.

Hey great, glad he made the choices we'd have to make when he expires. I suppose there is a risk that the mortuary could go Tango Uniform but they have been around as long as I can remember. I wish I had as much faith in the federal treasury.

Visiting over the weekend, SCDad mentioned there was one choice he opted not to make - Who would get the Flag draping his coffin. You see dad went into the USArmy and did > 20 yrs in the reserves achieving the rank of Lt. Col. I hope my siblings and I can agree on an appropriate sharing arrangement when the time comes.

Now here comes the hard lesson... I mentioned the above "Y'all have to decide how to share the flag" to the family as we drove home from the airport. The SandCastle Son piped up and asked.... " So where is great-grandpa's flag?" (My SCGrandpa was in the Signal Corps in WWI).

OH CRAP! I know my grandmother had it... she used to fly it from her flagpole when family was in town. What happened to it when she moved on? It probably was just a folded up flag, not in a presentation box. So whoever came across it probably didn't recognize it for what it was. It's almost surely gone forever. Sorry grandpa... [weep].

There is the lesson... If something is intended as a family heirloom, make sure everyone knows that it is, and mark it as an heirloom with the meaning of the item.

Update: The SCQueen thinks Dad has it and she knows where it is. Best news in a long time!

Coming Home...

2011-11-14T18:51:00.003-07:00

Called out of town on an emergency basis.
(Thursday 2PM) Customer: "We really need you on site tomorrow".
(Thursday 5PM) leave DayJob(tm).
(Thursday 9PM) on the redeye
(Friday 12:30AM) get to hotel
(Friday 9:30 AM) arrive at the customer's lab
(Friday 7:30PM) head to stay with dad for the weekend.
But there are still a couple niggling issues and he wants to turn the project over Monday AM. So we work all day Sunday and get it done. I think Friday will be a comp day.

Now I am coming home.

(note to self... if this isn't on the MP3 player, it needs to be).
More on the stupidity that is Security Theater later.

K7NRA

2011-11-05T22:18:00.004-07:00

The NRA will turn 140 on November 17 and with it comes a special opportunity for Amateur radio operators. Quoting from the YARC page:

The NRA's 140th anniversary is coming soon and with it comes a special opportunity for the many NRA amateur radio operators.
The Yavapai Amateur Radio Club (YARC) of Prescott, AZ, will operate a special event station November 17, 2011, in celebration of the NRA’s 140th birthday.

The special event will operate from the Gunsite Academy’s 2,000-acre campus in Paulden, AZ, north of Prescott. The special event call sign will be K7NRA. It will conduct operations on the following frequencies from 0800 MST to 1700 MST (1500 to 2400 UTC): 7.250, 14.050,14.250 and 21.335 MHz (+/-).

Mark the date on your calendar, tune up your antennae and heat up the finals! I just upgraded my priviledges and acquired a new radio that I'm itching to use. The radio only puts out 5W but Paulden is just a hundred miles and one mountain range as the wave flies.
Unfortunately for me that weekdaily inconvenience known as the DayJob(tm) expects my presence exactly those hours. But maybe I can work something around the edges.

QOTD

2011-10-27T09:00:00.001-07:00

True Blue Sam: "All Cats Are Always Loaded"

If you've ever taken in a cat with any "feral" in it, you'll see the truth in that statement. I LOL'd,,,

Top Shot Season 3 finale!

2011-10-26T23:37:00.010-07:00

I was busy last night so it was on tape waiting.

THE BEST OF THE THREE! Season 1 set the bar. Season 2 finale looked really scripted. Top gun definitely earned the season 3 title.

The episode fits the well established formula for the finale. First there is a three heat dueling tree, then call shot and the finale consisting of many challenges throughout the season. It's a good formula and it works. Even better with two representatives from each of the original blue ("winner") team and red ("loser") team.

Ok they mixed it up a bit on the dueling tree by making them move. The movement was slow enough that they might as well have been stationary. I don't think it was a factor. Still in each heat, one shooter clearly established an early lead and then merely had to follow behind and flip plates as their competitor flips a plate. Justin avoided elimination in a decisive 12-0 victory.

The call shot challenge was again the best ever, made so with the shots called by the competitors. Dustin established an early lead hitting a golf ball at 100 yards with a Volquartsen 10-22 prone. You could see it was comfortable for Dustin (deep breath, exhale, hold it, squeeze, break the shot, follow through) and he nailed it. Nicely done and the competitors couldn't match the call. That's what this event is all about.

Mike's calls played well to his pistol strengths. S&W .357 weak hand unsupported was a good call. Does Mike have a weak hand? And the AK-47 call strong hand only hand, unsupported was genius. Great job Gary connecting when the chips were down. But then he missed his own call and put himself out.

Before we get to the finale, one thing I was happy to see in the final rounds was the level of mutual respect between the competitors. No braggadocio, no disrespect, just proud to be here and wish my opponent the best of luck. This is more like the attitudes I've seen in competitive events. Even the fiercest of competitors wish good luck to their opponents and shake hands when it's over. Glad to see Jake go, clearly his strategy was pure Machiavelli. Didn't surprise me when he walked instead of facing the challenge. Character matters and he has none. I wonder what lessons he passes along to his football team in search of a win.

It's interesting to see the one "loser" resurrected earn a spot in the finale. No heartburn for me... Jake walked off the set and Mike came back and earned his way back in winning sequential challenges, decisively so on the zip line and dueling tree.

Dustin's flawless finish suggests he would have won even if Mike didn't get stuck on the shotgun station. Mike's weapon is the pistol. If he didn't get stuck on the shotgun, it would have been the recurve bow. Dustin's weapons are all of them. The best shot won season 3.

In Season 3 was the best yet. It was great to see the gatling guns and cannons come up in the elimination rounds. I see those and wonder how will they top this next season? How long before we see competitors trying a ground attack mission from nose of an A-10 Warthog, or some ACM (airborne dogfighting)?

Still it wasn't without disappointments. I was sad to see the two wimmen competitors sent home first. Are the challenges set up to put females at a disadvantage? I don't see it but a good blog-friend suggests there may be a bias and would prefer to see gender specific events. Guns are a great equalizer which allow a frail 80 YO defend her/himself from an 18YO thug so I would like to think M's & F's compete on an equal playing field. But is that so? There is more to the competition than just the shooting. Is there a bias? I don't see it but that is far from the last word.

As Justin said, these events are things I would pay to do. I concur and that should be a hint to entrepreneurs out there. Over dinner a couple years ago the SCQueen blurted out "we should open a range"... In the discussion that followed, I suggested one of the things it should have is an old fashioned shooting gallery. You know, stuff to make shooting fun! Shall not be questioned recently posted about a new indoor range at a former big box retailer. The $5M price tag answers why we have not proceeded with this idea (we are a little short). Still I'd love to see someone else run with the idea.

Disclaimer: advocates for the History channel sent me a bit of Top Shot swag:

A pair of T-shirts.... Size L that would have fit me 30 years ago. Too bad because I really like the shirt.
A Top Shot cell phone cover... that doesn't fit my phone.
And a Shot Glass that I am proud to put up on the wall.
Oh and they sent me some other swag apparently by mistake, all stuff representing a product I'll never buy and they won't get a free plug here.

Breakfast of NRA Champions

2011-10-23T23:46:00.003-07:00

The lady at the next table said I ought to take a picture of the product of my C-Note toaster to share. Sorry, I didn't catch your name, but this is for you!

Breakfast of NRA Champions! Bacon, Egg & NRA Toast!

Alas, I over cooked the egg :-( But no one to blame but myself.

There was a flurry of bidding at the middling two digits. I put an end to it bidding the Benjamin. I think the Lady from the adjacent table thought I overbid. I explained it was a donation to the cause and the number really wasn't important. I further explained it takes two bidders to get the price up.
We also came home with a coupla other auction buys.. The SandCastle Queen bought some artwork depicting the Boston Tea Party. The SandCastle Son spotted a Tactical rifle case and placed the winning bid. He wanted to pay for it out of his savings, but the case will of course end up in the SandCastle Arsenal so that won't happen. Glad we bought it.

We also brought home an AirRifle for the garage range. It's a Beeman and supposedly fires a pellet at around 500fps. I may have to set up the Chrono to find out for sure. In the meantime, we tried it out on the garage range upon arrival at home. First couple shots left a curl of smoke from the barrel. Guess there was a bit of residual oil. Shooting a bit right. Need to tweak the sights.

We also picked up one win from the bucket drawings. A print upon which the SCSon quickly placed dibs.

Friends of NRA dinner

2011-10-22T21:56:00.002-07:00

just returned home. We got the toaster.

*smile*

pics to follow.

Top Shot Audition review

2011-10-20T22:24:00.014-07:00

Update: Cowboy Blob has posted the final cut of Jon's Top Shot audition tape:

Cowboy Blob asks and I deliver. After all what are friends for?

My Review: 2 bullets (out of 4): half of a really good movie which puts it in rich company with Air America, Good Morning Vietnam, and many others.

I loved the first half with the subtle references to Gecko45, the extravagant "any weapon, anytime" references including blasters & phasers (Wardrobe really stepped up there!). Great post-production work. Nicely done! The folks that worked on Sarah's flick could really learn something here.

On the other hand, the second half including depictions* of criminal acts and irresponsible gun use, well not so much. Showing otherwise responsible gunnies doing irresponsible things is ungood in the parody setting (Double plus ungood in serious settings). I did get a chuckle that most of the victims wore Sun Devil shirts. I guess that UofA/ASU rivalry burns deep!**

The split personality between the first half depicting a mall ninja/bar braggard and second half criminal pulling driveby shootings didn't fit for me. I would have liked to seen the mall ninja/Gecko45 character played out rather than dropping into criminal activity. Perhaps he could have confronted just the over the top scenarios he projected and losing badly, barely escaping as the shattered trauma plates fall away to tell (and embellish) the story.

It also begs the question... what might a gang-banger audition tape look like? "Yo dog... this is my Glock Fo-Tay..." (Let your imagination fill in the rest).

I would have much preferred to see Jon in the hero role, using guns for good. Perhaps recreating the attempted rape scene from Robocop, Mebbe the Deer Hunter russian roulette scene but taking out 3x on each bullet, mebbe ending Full Metal Jacket 45 minutes early by shooting the sniper's building with his .45 loaded with a very small tac-nuke. (Hey we are talking over the top!). Or instead shooting the building with the .45 just as a salvo from Big Mo's 50 cals land... (And Jon claims credit) Again, I would have liked to see Jon in the (pseudo)hero role, rather than just committing criminal acts with a firearm.

$.02 and this review is worth what you paid for it.

Post scripts:
This is not to say "I could have done it better" because I couldn't. Until I saw CB's video, it would never have occurred to me to even think in this direction. The depiction of criminal acts soured me though at the first viewing. We are the good guys and we use weapons as tools for good!

* This is not to criticize the weapon handling, but rather the depiction of irresponsible gun handling. I have every confidence it was filmed in complete safety and no one was ever at risk during filming. CB simply wouldn't have it any other way.

** I studied at neither so I don't have a dog in that fight. I have worked with graduates of both and have definite opinions on the relative quality of each!

ABC meetup

2011-10-13T23:33:00.007-07:00

I'm a pretty private person so announcing a future 4D location (x, y, z, time) is a stretch for me. However we are hosting the monthly ABC meetup this Saturday ~~2-5pm~~ 1-5PM at Chino Bandito's takee-outee Chandler location. Let your taste buds off the leash and give 'em a go. ABC is a loose affiliation of Arizona Bloggers Conservative. en Friends. Conservative Bloggers and readers are all welcome. Drop in and say hello!

Recommend the two item combo which will run about $8. Add in a soda (Pepsi products) drink and the afternoon will cost ~$10. Beer & wine are also available.

Directions:
From the SEast valley, take the 202 W, exit Dobson North. Turn right into the driveway past the SRP substation/just ahead of the tire shop. Chino's is back in the knee of the driveway.

From the West (202 Eastbound), exit Price road North. Then Right onto Frye....
From the North (101 Southbound) exit Chandler Blvd, straight through Chandler Blvd, left on Frye....

....Thence East on Frye, North on Dobson, right into the driveway past the SRP substation to Chino's in the back.

If you miss the driveway, turn right at Chandler Blvd, and another right past the Walgreens (2nd Driveway). Chino's is ahead on the left.

If you've never experienced Chino's before, step to the left at the counter and identify yourself as a first timer. There you will receive samples of their fare and they will walk you through the order process.

Update: Corrected the meeting time 1-5PM. Also they have free WiFi.

Grandpa's code key

2011-10-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

While the FCC has dropped the code requirements to earn licenses, There is still a family historical interest driving me to learn. You see my Grandfather was in the Signal Corps in WWI and this was his telegraph key:

I think he would be happy to see his key in action again by his offspring.

We don't know much about it, though it's probably at least 100 years old. There is am 1899 date cast into the receiver(?) frame. If anyone knows more about it, please answer in the comments (Bobbi?, anyone) or via direct email sandcastlescrolls at msn dot com.

Slant Alpha Golf

2011-10-02T21:08:00.003-07:00

Woo Hoo!

I gave a talk to a local low power (QRP) group back in July. In the process of hanging out with the club the SCSon learned he can get his own license. We bought him the book and he started studying on his own. He ran into trouble with the electronics stuff as he has had no formal instruction.   I've tried to teach him the basics but he's at an age where he won't listen to dad.

I got to thinking though about my own license. It will expire next year and just "sitting" while he takes his exam. Hmmm... Might as well upgrade my own ticket to General.

So a few weeks later and I'm ready to take the exam. He hadn't been studying but rather than let him sit I figured the $15 was worth it to get the experience with the exam format.

I mentioned I was taking the test to a couple co-workers and they all offered "Good Luck!". I said "Thanks, but it's not a matter of luck". Either you know the material or you don't. There are a couple questions I just wasn't going to attempt to memorize "Which of the following frequencies are within the General class portion of the 10M band?" Then lists three frequencies and All of the above. I suppose I could get an exam that had enough of these "write off" questions to trip me up but I was confident.

In the end, I passed and he failed. There's a correlation there between "I studied and he hadn't".   We are looking for a formal class for him to take. We thought we had one, 6 Satudays and close by. Unfortunately he's at a local community college and they won't register him because he's under 16. FAIL! Supposedly there are other classes that run regularly but nothing on the calendar as yet.

Suddenly I'm regretting living in an HOA neighborhood.   Even though I sleep with the HOA president, external antennas are clearly a CCR violation. This is going to take some creativity! Stay tuned.

* /AG tells the world that I have passed the exam even though the exam application and results has not been processed through ARRL and posted to the usual databases.

Where's Waldo...

2011-09-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

...with guns.

Supposedly there are guns in this sequence of pictures, but they are surprisingly difficult to spot ;-)

Seriously though, They obviously drilled the models on the four rules. So I'll assume pic 10 is not a rule 2 violation and instead is just an artifact of camera angles.

Nicely done!

Steel Meme

2011-09-20T01:15:00.005-07:00

I'm in... Here's my daily carry:

That's a Victorinox on the keyring. No I don't know which model. These take a beating in my pocket. I'm sure I could trade it in for new under warranty but I figure it's "cost of doing business". I'm not sure the use of the hook or the 'drill' pointing south in the picture, but the corkscrew is top notch. I have opened many bottles with the corkscrew and it's sure fire.

The blue knife is my Smith & Wesson. It's made in China so don't be too impressed. IIRC it was about $12 at Big 5. Straight blade on one side, serrated on the other. It's solid enough that it's the first knife I reach for and cheap enough to walk away from should I accidentally walk away from it. There have been a couple scares already and it's cheap enough I can write it off without a lot of heart burn.

BTW, Breda broaches the subject of cheap vs inexpensive. When it comes to knives, it's the quality of the hinge. If the blade wobbles, it's cheap. If it's low cost and the blade is solid, it's inexpensive! The S&W is inexpensive, but cheap enough that I won't lose any sleep if I lose it.

I carry the S&W in favor of other knives in the harem, including an NRA blade picked up at last year's Friends of NRA dinner and several straight blades.

What's in your pocket?

No words... just prayers

2011-09-16T19:31:00.006-07:00

A race plane at the Reno Air Races crashed into the spectator area. Video here at around 39 minutes (not for the squeamish).

I pray for the wounded...

2204 Update: 3 dead. One of those is the pilot leaving two spectators. That my friends is a miracle! Prayer for the deceased and the families there of...

Update 9/18 2117: The death toll has risen to 9, one was a local. His dad is still alive but in critical condition, I pray he pulls through. I am still thankful the accounting is so low, but I will not be surprised if it continues to climb.

Update 8/19: now 10. Prayers continue the toll climbs no higher.

August ePostal Results

2011-09-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here are the results of the August ePostal match. As one of the competitors observed, larger bullets make the 4's easier, but the 2's harder.

Thanks to everyone and drawing winners will be notified in the next few days.

danno

	Shooter	Distance	Make	Caliber	Score
Class 1 air pistol Iron Sights
	Bea	25 ft	Crosman	0.177	10
	True Blue Sam	25 ft	Crosman	0.177	9


Class 3 Rim Fire Iron Sights
	Mr. Borland	7 yds	S&W K-22 Revolver	.22 LR	32
	Mr. Completely	21 ft	High Standard	.22 LR	18
	Thor	7 yds	Sig Mosquito	.22 LR	10
	True Blue Sam	25 ft	Ruger Single Six	.22 LR	9
	Billll	7 Yds	Ruger Mk 1	.22 LR	20


Class 5 Centerfire Pistol Iron Sights
	Mr. Borland	7 Yds	S&W K-38 Revolver	.38 spl	27
	Mr. Completely	21 ft	Tanfoglio Gold	.22 LR	21
	Thor	7 Yds	Springfield XD	.45 auto	15
	Thor	7 Yds	Springfield XD	9 mm	14
	Billll	7 Yds	CZ-82	9mm Makarov	9
	Billll	7 Yds	Rossi 971	.357 Magnum	12
	SandCastle Queen	11 yds	Sig 225	9mm	2


Class 7 Other
	Thor	7 Yds	Baretta CX-4 Storm	9 mm	18
	Billll	20 yds	HiPoint 4095, 4x scope	.40 S&W	10
	Thor	25 yds	Baretta CX-4 Storm	9 mm	9


Class 8 null entry

Top Shot ePostal extended...

2011-08-31T22:45:00.004-07:00

through the 3 day weekend. After careful coordination with TrueBlueSam we are proud to announce the second Two-fer weekend. When you hit the range this weekend (and you know you will), take along targets for both the August "Top Shot" ePostal and September's "Trying in Vane". 10 shots on either target. The Top Shot ePostal favors large calibers while Trying in Vane favors small calibers. I love the contrast!

I need all entries for the August match by noon Tuesday September 6th. If you get home too late on the 5th, send them in first thing Tuesday AM.

Here is likely my best target and I am happy as a clam. If you looked outside, you might have seen me dancing in the streets! Shot with the new-to-me S&W 629 which I am still getting used to. It's been kicking severe left with the 240 gr Pb SWC bullets at just under 1500 fps. But the two hits on the line were the first two shot of the 10 shot string. I apparently changed what was working, probably because "it hurt to shoot it that way" and reverted to severe left. Still I'm happy as a clam with my two hits plus a liner!

Recall in addition to the normal bragging rights on the line, the History Channel has some Top Shot swag on the the line (winners chosen by random lot). You don't even have to shoot the match to enter. Just send me an scan/picture/image of the target with your name on it and you will be entered in the drawing.

Match winners and History Channel prize winners will be announced by the end of the week.

BTW, I already have an entry from Bea who is recovering from surgery, so I don't want to hear any "my dog ate my homework" excuses! Lets get those entries in to Sand Castle Scrolls at msn dot com.

ePostal two-fer weekend

2011-08-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

This is the final weekend to shoot the August ePostal "Top Shot" and TrueBlueSam has put up the September match "Trying in Vane".

It's a tough target but send in your scores no matter how low. The History Channel has put up some prizes (Top Shot T shirts, shot glass & iPod case) to be randomly awarded to the entrants. So lets get those targets in!

Geeky fun with the SandCastle Son

2011-08-14T23:44:00.009-07:00

Hi. My name is danno and I am a geek. Always have been, always will be, and proudly so. Home video offered as evidence.

Amateur radio satellite ARISS sat 1 was ~~tossed off~~ launched from the International Space Station last week. Signals are receivable by anyone with a 2Meter band receiver on 145.95 MHz.

It transmits a recorded voice messages, station telemetry and still pictures from one of four on board cameras.

It's been a learning experience. First pass we used the radio (a 20 yr old Yaesu 2M HT) connected to the J pole antenna up in the attic. The pass would occur at 6am-ish well before I'm done counting Z's. So I connected the radio to the VCR and programmed the timer (Yes I still have a VCR and it still works! old school baby!). It caught some good voice, but lots of phasing obscured a lot of the messages.

In search of a better antenna, internet to the rescue! Armed with a shopping list I hit up the local big box hardware store. A 12' length of 1/2 x 3/4" wood cost about $2.50. However they wanted about $5 for a 3' length of Aluminium rod - I passed. Instead I visited the local metal euphorium. A pair of 1/8" x 12' Al rods cost a little over $12*. Last piece was some RG-58 coax. Total cost ~$15 and about an hour to assemble. I added a PVC "mast" to fit into the umbrella stand built into the pool. Yes, We get to stand in the SandCastle pool while aiming the antenna to pick up the satellite! Given daytime temps are in the 108F range, this is a big benefit. Life doesn't get much better than this ;-) Here's the SCSon on tracking duty: (The blue horizontal pole is the pool pole and not part of the antenna).

The Yagi antenna completely solved the phasing problems and made for good reception. Reading the audacity manual I learned it can be set to timer recording! Woot, no more VCR for timer recording!

Even better is MMSSTV which decodes the images and also records. I don't know if it can timer record, but since the antenna needs manual steering, it's pretty much a moot point. Like I said, this has been a learning experience which is reason enough to make the effort.

We caught this on a pass Sunday evening:

What this post really needs though is audio. Unfortunately while blogger can handle video, still photos and text, it does not handle audio. So I'm working on editing some audio with the stills into a "video". That will take some time. Unfortunately the satellite battery is not performing as expected. So if you want to hear it for yourself, time is a wasting!

Best chance for a good pass is late in the afternoon/early evening. While the satellite charges up during the sun lit pass, it resets every pass through the dark side. So best reception is late afternoon/early evening at your location where the solar panels have had a long period to charge up the battery and before the battery has discharged during the darkness.

* A friend tells me I could probably have done better by checking the rem barrels. Doh! Wish I'd thought of that.

"Get it in Writing!"

2011-08-10T23:04:00.002-07:00

One of my mantras doing business both at the dayjob(tm) and in personal life is "Get it in writing". If the customer won't then I will. Part of it comes from a life in software development. If there isn't a requirements document in place the project never ends as the customer is never happy. That's fine as long as the customer is willing to foot the bill, but soon they get weary of hearing "Here's my bill". "This project was supposed to cost X and we're now triple that!" The only answer to that is "the price for X included only these features. You later changed these features and added these other ones." And that argument only flies if you have the original agreement in writing.

Friends ridiculed me for such a rigid stance "you are dealing with family and friends, what could possibly go wrong?" Answer, everything! It's just good business. To a man they have come back later to say "OMG, you were so right."

I previously hinted the SandCastle Queen's renovation project. All through the project she'd report "The cabinets are going to cost this, I've bought the granite for the counter tops here, and the installer is going to do his part for $x. " She had written estimates from the cabinet people, and the granite was an over the counter deal. But the granite installer never put it in writing. I asked the SCQueen and explained my concerns several times. (It's just good business!) She called and left plenty of messages without result (which is a red flag in itself). She pooh poo'd my concerns "He's recommended by our contractor friend and they all know him at the rock shop". "Get it in writing... It's just good business" I'd answer.

Mr granite guy came by today to make his final measurements now that the cabinets are in. Today's quoted price was nearly 2x the original. The 'Queen argued and got him somewhere back down to the vicinity original quote.

She called me at the dayjob saying "you were right". (I did NOT respond with "told ya so". That's just not constructive). Ok, but we fix the problem here. He needs to know no work begins without a written quote, other wise we get to go through this again next week! And next time he shows up here, there better be video running! It's just good business!

BTW, Mr Granite guy, you may think you won today. In reality you lost. Several of the SCQueen's friends are interested in similar projects. She was all set to recommend you until today. Your lack of professionalism cost you a lot of future business.

Oh, and BTW, just assume we will be running video anytime you are in this SandCastle!

"Get it in writing - it's just good business!" Today I'll add, and take audio/video of the negotiations!

August ePostal: "Top Shot"

2011-08-05T13:00:00.005-07:00

Top Shot season 3 kicks off this coming Tuesday August 9th (History channel, 10/9C).

Here's your chance to see if you've got what it takes. Last season challengers had to split a bullet on the blade of an ax. You can relive Darryl Parker's shots here.

Here's our take on the challenge. It will be a bit easier as the entire bullet width is usable. a round nose bullet on a blade might not bite in enough to split the bullet.

The History Channel has offered up some Top Shot swag on the table for entrants. Looks like they have both Red & Blue team T-shirts, a shot glass and a iPod case. Winner(s) will be chosen by random lot so there is no incentive to "fudge" on the scores. Winner(s) will be notified by email so make sure your e-addy is good.

Actually shooting the target to enter is not required and there is no entry fee. Anyone wanting to enter for the drawing should download the target, fill in at least your name and email it to me. Presumably the email will include an email address I can follow up with to get a mailing address should your entry be drawn. Odds of winning depend on the number of prizes and number of entry. Neither of these are known at this time but will be published when known.

Course of fire:
Download and print target here.

One target, 10 shots.

Range: 7 yds or range minimum which ever is greater. Standing unsupported, one or two hands. No time limit.

Update Revised scoring scheme:
~~Scoring is binary. Either the shot cuts the line or it does not. +1 for a hit, +0 for a miss. Max score: 10, Min score: 0.~~
Cutting the line is a difficult shot. The original scoring scheme reflected that. On my first try I scored a couple of 1's. The rest of the sand castle crew tried and scored goose eggs. So here's the new scoring scheme: Cutting the bullet on the blade the ax scores 4 (previously scored 1). A hit completely within the ax scores 2 and a hit touching the ax scores 1. Max score 40, min score 0. I don't want to discourage "low scoring" entries.

It is still a difficult target, but the new scoring scheme should produce more "partial credit". Sorry for changing the rules mid stream, all I can say is "my bad" and better to change mid stream than push a bad position.

Ties will be broken by distance. The longer distance takes the place (7yds < 7 M < 25ft < 10 yds < 10M < 11 yds).

Enter as many times as you like with as many weapons as you can lay your grubby hands on.

Classes: You got it? shoot it and we'll find a place to record the score. (I reserve the right to draw the line at tater-guns & scatter guns). Obviously wider bullets have an advantage but you can shoot it with anything you own or can legitimately beg, borrow or steal.

.177 cal air pistol, iron sights (air or C02 powered)
.177 cal air pistol, optic sights (air or C02 powered)
.17/.22 cal rim fire pistol, iron sights
.17/.22 cal rim fire pistol, magnified optical sights
center fire pistol, iron sights
center fire pistol, magnified optic sights
Misc. If it doesn't fit above, tell me how you shot it and we'll record it here.
Null entry (for people that want to enter without shooting)

Score submissions: scan or photograph your target, fill in the gun info (make & model & caliber), distance, class, on-line identity (name/pseudonym as you want it on the score sheets, blog reference for linky love ) however you want to be remembered on the score sheets... email to SandCastleScrolls-at-msn-dot-com.

Post Scripts (the fine print):
Thank you to the History Channel for putting up the prizes.

FTC disclaimer: I have not been, nor do I expect any actual money to change hands in exchange for running contest. Mr. C had a hole in the schedule and I wanted to run this tie-in. Win-win. The History Channel has suggested some trinkets might be in my future, but nothing as of yet.

As always, your electronic information will be kept confidential. I will not add you to any mailing lists. If necessary to send out prizes, information may be shared with the History Channel.

If you've never shot before and want to give shooting a try, drop me a line with your general area (city & state). Many gun bloggers are open to taking first timers out and I will try to refer your to someone close by. No Guarantees, but we'll try.

SQUIRM

2011-08-04T00:28:00.002-07:00

You've seen it in the movies, you've seen your friends do it and it just looks cool with the handle sticking out. Of course you lose style points when it's your "fiancee's pink pistol" sticking out of your waistband.

This is why you should never just stick a gun in your waistband. Even the powder burns to the wedding tackle at that range are going to leave a mark.

The 911 call is a good example of why 911 recordings should not be public domain nor played on TV.

911op: "Apply pressure to the wound, but don't look."
911reporter: "I already looked..."

There are a lot of questions not answered by this story. Hopefully those details will come out in the near future.

'Twas a dark and stormy night!

2011-07-30T23:56:00.004-07:00

No, really it was. But then every writer dreams of that opening. Here's my chance.

Your humble host was invited to give a talk to experienced engineers on the DayJob('tm)'s products. Our hosts were most gracious and treated us to far better accommodations than when I perform similar duties for the $DayJob(tm). Still while our host covered our room and board, the bed quite frankly was about as comfortable as a cement slab! The SCQueen and I actively discussed what might have been softer.. the bed or the floor. Another renter suggested a box of doorknobs would have been more comfortable.

Plan A was to enjoy the nice dinner & campfire with the group, spend a 2nd night at the inn and return Sunday AM. But with fresh bruises from the previous evening... the SandCastle Queen wanted nothing more than her own bed tonight. Call it Plan D. (plans B & C were already in the rear view mirror!)

So we enjoyed a pleasant dinner with the group and made our departure around 7pm. Initially the lighting was far off in the distance then struck closer. Soon the SCSon was asking questions about "what happens when an aircraft is struck by lightning?" (Answer: Faraday cage: don't sweat it!)

A couple strikes were so close it merely lit up the landscape like a flash bulb (for those that remember flash bulbs). It rained so hard visibility dropped to around 100 ft even with wipers set on kill.

Leaving the storm in the rear view, lighting struck a quarter mile off the freeway... "Yawn"... it's already shown us better than that!

We're home safe now and will be in our own beds tonight... it doesn't get much better than this.

Don't wake me in the AM!

Gunnie TV

2011-07-28T22:00:00.008-07:00

main stream gun shows are taking over the airwaves. Sons of Guns has started, Top Shot season 3 is about to kick off and there are more shows in the wings.

Sons of Guns has been running new shows for a couple weeks. Looks like they've extended it to a 1 hour format with 2-3 projects per episode. I'm going to skip right over the custom machine gun build and get right to the best part of the episode: a race between Jerry "full auto finger" Miculek" firing a semi auto AK-47 and a full auto AK-47. Hmmm seem the race really is really a race of reaction times. JM probably can't pull the trigger faster than an AK-47 but his reactions could be fast enough to make up the deficit.

Since Discovery has not put up the best 2 minutes of the episode, I'm going to spill the beans. It was close but full auto won.

But the numbers are interesting: From the low ready *Beep* to 10 trigger pulls, Jerry did it in 1.52 seconds with a 0.31 second reaction time. Chris ran the full auto dry in 1.40S. I really wish they mentioned Chris' reaction time. Bet it was slower than JM's but the gun made up the deficit. Here's a link to a bad version of the clip (recorded off the TV). But for now it's the only one I can find.

Top Shot season 3 will start Tuesday Aug 9th 10/9C. BTW, the season 3 preview shows one character holding an RPG. I wonder if that's a hint of what is to come this season (heh heh heh, what kind of match could you come up with using RPG's? In CALIFORNIA where the show is filmed?). The email also suggests they might put up some more swag to give away as contest prizes. I have some ideas there but need to get some buy in from them before announcing. Stay tuned. If I can score some swag to pass along, I will.

Full disclosure always... the History channel sent an email suggested they might send some swag my way. I've posted about the show in the past and likely will continue to post about it in the future trinkets or no. (But it's nice to be appreciated) Also the few trinkets won't stop me from posting my opinion. For example I was really disappointed in how Season 2 ended. It seemed very scripted by at least two of the three finalists. See also The Undefeated. But I'll be watching again this season.

Finally David Codrea hosted Kristi from MetalFlowerMedia which produces "unscripted TV shows" (AKA reality TV). They are looking for families for a new show:

This is a very special series for a major tv network* featuring families across the country who celebrate fundamental values of family first, pride in your country, and protecting what matters most. These families value our second amendment rights and are the backbone of our great country.

You can apply here.

David's radio show is on 7-8AM AzST (Arizona Standard Time - the most stable time base ever - we never change!) Currently this is the same as PDT. You can listen via the internet here (click on listen live). The last week show archives are here. Updates have been spotty but they are getting better.

* until today they major TV network was mentioned right their on the website. oops!

Monster Hunter Alpha

2011-07-25T20:37:00.007-07:00

The SandCastle Son and I did something I rarely do: Made a trip to the mall. All it takes is a little proper motivation. In this case today is opening day for Monster Hunter Alpha. Actually we didn't go into the mall, just to Barnes & Noble which is at the mall which means dealing with mall parking and that's a big reason I don't go to the mall!

Helpful hint to my good friends at B&N: It's easier to buy a book when it's out on the floor and people can see it!

We looked around for the book without success and waited a while at the information desk while the one clerk explained the basics of the Nook to a couple qtips. Eventually a second clerk arrived looked it up for us. She led us to the SciFi section where books #1 & 2 were on the shelf. Then she went "into the backroom"... and came back with... a Halo book. She enlisted the help of "She who is in charge of special features". Apparently the feature won't start for a couple days yet. But at least she came back with a copy of the book.

The SCSon is reading it now I and I should get my turn in about a day and a half when he's finished.

Hey Larry - When are you coming to town to sign it?

Oh and clerk #1 was still explaining the basics to the qtips when we left.

Hi Point Carbine/Video test

2011-07-18T22:20:00.003-07:00

TBS posted Bea's Hi-Point carbine. Long time readers may remember I picked one up a while back to shoot in a local club's pistol-caliber carbine match. Rumor has it they will offer up another at GBR IV. Good on 'em and thanks for the support.

So I finally got out to the match last month. It's a hoot to shoot and cheap both to acquire and shoot. Here's the stage 3 setup...

And here's the big picture

Here's what it looked like from the perspective of the gun. (Disregard the date & time in the lower right. It's wrong) PS... This stage was shot with a pair of ProMag 15 round magazines instead of the factory 10 rounders.

The Undefeated

2011-07-16T18:08:00.003-07:00

The SandCastle crew spent the afternoon enjoying AMC24's air conditioning and the Sarah Palin movie. The story was interesting from the early days cleaning up the mayors office and taking on the Corrupt Bastards Club. It nicely filled in the story I didn't know prior to her arrival on McCain's team.

By the end the audience was clapping at the applause lines in both Reagan's and Palin's speeches. It was really a fun afternoon.

On the other hand, the cinematography is horrible and really made the movie unwatchable. Many scenes are out of focus, as though they were filmed in closeup off a TV screen. The talking head scenes are a blur of zoom in/zoom out, shift right & left, pop right & left, sepia tones, normal tones. Some of the TEA party scenes are so shaky it almost had to have been done intentionally. I assume it's supposed to make it "artsy" but...

Great Story, but visually unwatchable.

Run Sarah Run!

Monster Hunter International

2011-07-14T22:59:00.005-07:00

I meant to write this review several months back after reading "MHI: Vendetta" (the 2nd book). My bad, but not beyond redemption. The 3rd book "Alpha" will be out in a couple weeks so get your pre-orders in now.

So here's the deal.... Your humble host bought the first book ("MHI") on a "signed by the author" deal and highly recommended by other gunbloggers. I like having books signed by the author. (I have several!)

I was expecting the typical "start from the bottom and work up though the hierarchy of baddies to the big dog. But no. Larry launches into battles between the heros and the undead at the top of what I knew of the undead food chain, and heads uphill from there!

The 1st book opens with a couple lines to appeal to most any oxygen consuming reader:

On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth story window.

Even though I don't feel that way about the current boss, I suspect we've all felt that urge toward a boss at some time in our life. I know I have.

MHI is a very entertaining read. The 600-700+ pages fly by. About 75-80% through the book I'm at the point where I think "Ok, he's written the hero into a corner. How will he get out of this?" (And he does) As fellow fan "AerialApplicatorDoug"* observed "Larry really knows how to spin a tale". Amen.

Ditto for MHI: Vendetta. Where I bought the first book on the recommendation of others and shared it with the SandCastleSon, the SCSon spent his own hard earned money on MHI: Vendetta. (Thanks Larry for autographing it in Scottsdale, AZ). We will acquire MHI: Alpha as soon as released.

And Larry, we *EXPECT* to see you here in the desert to sign it soon!

* I considered referring to Doug as AADoug but that might leave in incorrect impression... of both of us...

ID#235

2011-07-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day, #235.

The Stars and Stripes are flying here at the SandCastle.

(others MM, Traction Control have posted thoughts from the time so no need to duplicate).

Hope your colors are flying as well.

Epic suckage....

2011-07-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

I cut out early form the DayJob(tm) to meet up at PRGC with the cool kids from GreatSatanInc for a round of fun steel. We'd blown off the last couple weeks due to the 110+F temps. But today's forecast called for "only" 107.

Normally we meet at 5:30 (nominally) 5:45-ish. But today we both have evening engagements so we met at 3:30 and were the first ones on the course.

Stage one was deceptively difficult: 5 round targets at staggered distances, hit each twice all from box A (two runs). Turns out the first three are easy but #4 & #5 (diagonally across the bay) were surprisingly difficult.

Stage two was very similar: 3 normal sized circles and 2 miniatures set further back. Two hits on each from box A, then again from box B (one either side of the bay). I did my best on the normal circles and made token attempts at the minis.

I do not remember how many penalties I rang up but I'm fairly certain it's more than the sum of every other stage ever shot in my life. I'd guess 7+/-2. I also realized I'd burnt up more than half of the 150 rounds I'd brought for the match. Comparing notes while reloading for stage 3 the entire squad told the same story.

Stage three consisted of a plate rack + 2 poppers, x3. I don't know if any of us actually finished the stage. I aborted with a couple plates left on the last rack.

Part of my issues were a couple magazines that wouldn't reliably feed. Note to self, get these to the range and identify & replace the offending magazines. Single shot is a slow way to shoot.

By then none of us had enough rounds left to make a credible attempt on stage 4 so we turned in our cards and retreated to the AC of our cars.

This was my worst performance ever... Still two hours shooting [and largely missing] beats two hours working!

The 'Nuge is coming to KFYI

2011-06-28T16:29:00.002-07:00

Mike Broomhead (KFYI 4-7pm) will ~~turn over the microphone~~ host Ted Nugent from 5-6pm tonight. You can listen here or get the video here.

Should be an entertaining hour.

KFYI typically makes the show archives available on line. I'll post the link ~~when it's~~ up here.

Easy hint to sales droids...

2011-06-27T23:55:00.009-07:00

If you promise a quick stop "just to measure" (after you've already seen other vendor's site measurements) and schedule it for 6pm (around these parts we call it "dinner time"), and then stay until "prime time", don't be surprised when you get a cold response from the person that will eventually write the check.

Think about this for a second... It's her project but I'm the one that gonna write the check. If I introduce myself as "starving" you damn well better hightail it and don't be offended by the slammed door on your way out. You should have GTFO at least 30 mins ago.

But we are a team and she drives a hard bargain. Let me school you in on the obvious. She's already over budget (waaaay over budget) and you're standing between me and dinner. I can work the budget issue, but there is no negotiating with dinner time. That's a bad place to be. '

You should have recognized this when you walked in the door. Yea... you overstayed your welcome. A lot.

If it were my deal, My answer would be:
Alpha
Mike
Foxtrot

You caused an awful lot of marital discord tonight. This is not a good business plan.

Hope you're happy.

Miata Bleg...

2011-06-25T23:30:00.001-07:00

Has anyone replaced the top on a Miata? I'm about to embark on the process and consumed all the info.net I can find on how to do it. The new top is on site and before starting to remove the old top, I've been walking through the process. First thing I noticed is that the cables are broken.

Does anyone know if these are available locally in the Phoenix area? All the internet sources seem to be on the east coast and UPS shipping the top from NC took a full 7 calendar days. I really want to get this project going and I don't want to spend stupid amounts on fast shipping.

I really rather drive somewhere close and pick them up.

Wish I were there...

2011-06-17T15:43:00.004-07:00

The SandCastleSon's Bday was last month. Today Grandpa is giving him his present: his first actual flight lesson. He's flown with me his entire life but I'm not a CFI. Today he received his own logbook and will log his first hour with an actual instructor. I wish I were there to see it.

Stay tuned for pictures.

Update: [from the comments] The SandCastle Son has his impressions posted up at his blog here.

One down, two to go...

2011-06-15T23:07:00.001-07:00

Sweet!

Nevada will soon recognize AZ CCW permits!

The SandCastle Queen and I obtained our CCW permits not only to carry concealed in our own state, but for the additional states allowed by reciprocity. Unfortunately most of our adjacent states (CA, NV, NM) did not recognize the AZ permit. But two of the three recognized the Utah permit. However both dropped reciprocity almost simultaneously with the SCQueen and I receiving our permits. Drat.

But it looks like Nevada is back!, at least starting the bottom half of the year. Woot! I presume cooler heads prevailed.

(NM, you're next and CA, one way or another, your days of denying the inherent human right of self defense by the best means available are numbered as well!)

Talk Radio Gunnie Style

2011-06-14T21:52:00.002-07:00

Checking NBC1260 (KBSZ)'s website, I see not only does David Codrea have an hour each weekday morning, they also carry Tom Gresham's GunTalk in real time Sundays 11-2PM and replays again at 6-9PM.

The schedule also shows gun talk at 6-7AM week days. The picture included shows Tom Gresham so presumably they rerun the Sunday show an hour at a time. But I'll never know because I'm not generally conscious at that hour.

The 1260AM transmitter is in Apache Junction (35miles east of Phoenix. The daytime coverage map shows at least "fringe" daytime coverage over the greater phoenix area and surrounding communities. They also simulcast on 96.1 FM, suggesting a cleaner signal for those closer in.

Thank you NBC1260 for bringing Gun Talk and the War On Guns to the airwaves!

WOG comes to Phoenix!

2011-06-12T15:37:00.001-07:00

Now that is cool. David Codrea is bringing War on Guns to the Phoenix airwaves.

Scottsdale-based radio station KBSZ 1260’s new program, “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” debuts on June 13 in the 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. time slot to provide a much-needed voice to counter and refute those who demand citizen disarmament, and to argue instead for freedom.

More here. I'll be tuning in! If I read it right, it's also simulcast on 96.1 FM.

My Story

2011-06-11T22:38:00.009-07:00

... Jennifer asks how I became a gunnie.

I wanted to learn to shoot as far back as I can remember, but grew up in suburban California where no one had guns or talked about shooting. Mom was hoplophobic as Sarah Brady herself. We weren't even allowed cap guns as kids and water guns were only barely tolerated.

First chance to shoot came at boyscout camp. We had our choice of "classes" to take and once I'd heard shooting was available, I knew that was the one for me. I don't recall it being a particularly positive experience.   I suspect that was more due to the fact that shooting is not something mastered in a five day course than anything about their program (However shooting was supposed to also be available during "free time" and it wasn't.

Circa 1975 I took NRA hunter safety as an elective in grade school, from a teacher I absolutely loathed. He had been my 6th grade teacher and we did not get along. But I took it because the carrot, getting to shoot at the end of the class, was worth putting up with him.* So I went through the class, learned a lot and never got to shoot. They tried a couple times for a range day but each was rained out and finally gave up.

The desire to learn pretty much died out for many years through high school and college. This was California and as far as I knew, guns were illegal here. I shot archery in college (25# recurve bow), wishing it were guns. It was fun and I did well enough that I was frequently shooting the nocks off my arrows Robin Hood style.

Following college and starting a career, I soon landed in the Free state of Arizona. Some co-workers discussed going out into the desert to shoot over lunch one day and they invited me to tag along. Years of pent up desire came flooding back and I soon placed an order with my friendly local FFL and bought my first gun. And joined the NRA. Then followed another purchase, and another, etc...

Learned my fiancée (now wife) liked to shoot. Her grandmother was an Annie-Oakley style sharp shooter. Family heirlooms include a collection of plugged nickels that were shot out of the air.

Since then we have acquired a good sized safe and filled it. Handguns, rifles, shotguns. I learned about the CMP and quickly decided the Garand deal wasn't going to last forever. I bought one for me and one for the SCSon. Then an M1 Carbine. Then I learned IBM made some carbines and scored one of their precious few (I'm a geek, had to have one).   I hadn't really considered a Mosin Nagant, but the SCSon developed an interest via one of his video games. The store up on the hill had them for less than a C-note so "heck why not?" BVTW, the only regrets buying guns are the ones I passed on and should have bought. I actively avoid looking at the Aim Surplus website because I too frequently find stuff I want to buy. The SandCastle Queen kinda now gives me that "numb" look when I tell her I bought another gun, you know, kinda like Ferdinand Marcos when Imelda announced she bought another dozen pairs of shoes.

We have a couple of her grandfather's rifles here in protective custody after the SandCastle Queen found them in a shed suffering from exposure. We also have my dad's gun which he got when he was twelve. It was in my grandmother's closet (recall mom hated guns). I took both he and the gun on a range trip. Near as we can tell, he hadn't picked up that gun in 55 years nor fired a shot in the last 50, yet he hit a 2" swinger at 50 yards on the first shot. Apparently he remembered the sight picture.

I have taught the family that these guns are family heirlooms not to be sold, traded or surrendered. Nothing would make me happier than to see these handed down 10 generations from now. Nothing would break my heart more than to see a relative take one to a pawn shop to see what they can get for it. I didn't buy these so you could sell them to a pawn shop for 30 cents on the dollar. These are your birthright and yours to exercise your second amendment rights.   I will come back to haunt anyone that pisses that away.

A decade ago the inescapable logic of "911 won't save you but 1911 can", "When seconds count, police are minutes away", etc. Now both the SandCastle Queen and I both have multiple CCW permits. I hope I never have to use it, but I don't go to an ATM without a gun. (Not that we need the permit as AZ now has constitutional carry but the permit lets us carry in about 35 other states).

We have lots of fun with shooting. We shoot Mr. Completely's ePostal match (and currently host the May match). We shoot a local fun steel match. I've shot a high power match, and the SCSon shoots Olympic 4 position small bore with the clubs junior smallbore division , a program I would have loved to participate in when I was a teen. I'm looking forward to shooting the clubs pistol caliber carbine match. One of the few items left on my "to-do this life" list (AKA bucket list) is to shoot a high power match at Camp Perry. I won't make it this year, but I'm aiming for 2012.

* in hindsight, I shouldn't be too hard on the guy. He taught NRA hunter safety in a California public school and wasn't charged with a felony for bringing a gun on to school grounds. That included him bringing his 30.06 deer rifle into class, demonstrated cleaning the rifle and letting us learn the sights. But that's how I felt at the time.

May ePostal "Necco Mania!" results

2011-06-05T17:36:00.006-07:00

Here are the results for the May 2011 ePostal match. Thank you to all that participated!

	Shooter	Distance	Make	Caliber	Score	Notes
Class 1 air pistol Iron Sights
	Mr. Borland	7yds	IZH 46M	0.177	19	Perfect!
	Danno	7yds	Crosman 1377	0.177	5
	Bea	21 ft	Crosman 1377	0.177	4

Class 3 Rim Fire Iron Sights
	Bill Llewellen	7yd	Ruger Mk I	.22LR	16
	Mr. Completely	25ft	Hi Standard Supermatic Citation 106	.22LR	13
	True Blue Sam	7yd	Ruger Mk III	.22LR	7
	True Blue Sam	7yd	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	7
	Engineering Johnson	21 ft	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	7
	Danno	11yd	Ruger .22/45	.22LR	6	Tie broken by distance
	Engineering Johnson	21 ft	Ruger Mk III	.22LR	6
	Danno	11yd	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	5	Tie broken by distance
	Thor	7M	Sig Sauer Mosquito	.22LR	5
	Mrs. TrueBlueSam	21ft	Ruger Mk III	.22LR	4
	Mrs. TrueBlueSam	21ft	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	4
	SCSon	11YD	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	1	Age 12

Class 5 Centerfire Pistol, Iron Sights
	Thor	7M	Springfield XD	9mm	11
	Thor	7M	Springfield XD	.45 ACP	5

Class 8 Rimfire Rifle Optic Sights
	Danno	25YD	Ruger 10/22	.22LR	10

Class 11 Other
	SCSon	25YD	M1 Carbine	.30 Carbine	6	4x scope off the bench

Class 12 Low Ball
	Danno	11YD	S&W 629	.44 Magnum	1

Normally I don't call a winner. We had real good entries from the usual suspects, Billl turned in a 16 and Mr. C forgot his holdover a couple times to score "only" 13. However Mr Borland turned in a perfect target. 19 shots, 19 targets hit. Didn't even need the free miss. I politely inquired about if he'd followed the course of fire.

I confess to having shot it 2-handed. 10m purists would wrench their garments at the sight, so, for them, I shot a second target 1-handed. I pulled one shot a bit and used all 20 pellets. I didn't see any style points being awarded - I figured a 19/19 beats a 19/20, so in it went.

Nope, no style points. But I guess if you've spent a significant amount of time shooting air pistol at 10M, shooting 1" dots at 7yds is child's play. Great Shooting Mr. Borland! Thanks for entering the match. Here's the perfect target:

Finally, "Getting Schooled" is up over at Random Nuclear Strikes.

Security Theater...

2011-06-03T00:25:00.004-07:00

First off, please understand I absolutely *loathe* what airline travel has become. Our general feeling is if we can't fly ourself, we're not going. Unfortunately the DayJob(tm) has a policy against me flying myself on company business. I can usually evade airline travel requests with a simple "I don't have a passport". Unfortunately that excuse failed with a request to visit a California customer. I strenuously objected "Yea they might technically be one of the 57 states, they are in reality a foreign country and I don't have a passport, let alone a visa. Heck I even doubt my shots are up to date for a visit." The weren't buying it and unfortunately I am (Tix that is)...

Outbound leg: 20 minutes in the 'theater queue and finally at the front of the line. TSA'droid finishes with her previous priority pax and tells me to hold "I don't have a line to send you to". I politely inquire about line "n" which seems to have a reasonably short line. "Oh no... that line is too long too."

A millesecond later the 'droid next to her becons. He scans my details and promptly sends me on to the very same line "n" I previously inquired about.   The lips vigorously struggle to contain the tongue as it struggles to erupt and point in the first 'droids general direction.    Happily it seems to be the one line where the virtual voyeurs are on break. So no "harmless" (mostly) irradiation.

Meeting over and my exit visa came through to leave the PRC (Peoples Republic of California). Rental car refueled and returned (another story in itself). Across the street, up the escalators to enter the security zone; Shoes off, laptops (plural) in separate bins, along with shoes, glasses, coinage, etc.

Suddenly an alarm is called.   A couple minutes later even the TSA 'droids manning the gate are grousing about the drill. "We already had a real event this morning, why do we need a drill now?" Everyone is frozen in position and there is no commotion to suggest the event is real. But the exit doors are closed and locked; the only thing moving here is the line and it's growing! 15 minutes later the all clear is called. No sweat for me, I'd allowed for a long commute in from over the hill and traffic was lighter than expected. Whatever//// just a couple fewer pages of Weston Ochse's "Empire of Salt" consumed before boarding (and it's really getting good).

Meanwhile I'd recognized one of the TSA 'droids manning my checkpoint. Last time through the same checkpoint he noted the (subdued) NRA logo on my bag and we got to talking about guns. I reminded him of the conversation and he too remembered. The ensuing gunnie talk helps to pass the time.

BTW, I was happy to see the "irradiate me now" machines were closed and blocked off; Only the metalDetectors.std were in use.

The freedom flight pushed back at the scheduled time, and between me and the guy on the aisle we managed to ward off a middle seater. Not fighting over the armrest dramatically improves the quality of the flight.

So fifteen minutes of delay for everyone, for absolutely no return.   My only takeaway from this exercise is that the 'droids hearing the initial SOS call is 100% functional today. You're welcome for the 15 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Gawd I hate what airline travel has become...

Closing Time!

2011-05-31T20:45:00.002-07:00

May is in the rear view mirrors and so ends Necco Mania! The DayJob(tm) has me on a plane at OMG-darkthirty tomorrow so I'll take scores through the end of the week. Don't wait, lets get 'em in!

Update:
Random Nuclear Strikes is on deck but hasn't posted yet. Stay tuned over there, something will be posted soon. (I like the OBL - zombie edition suggestion ;-).

Blog roll addition

2011-05-29T21:45:00.005-07:00

Airplanes and guns. That's the same combination that drives me so how could I not add All Nine Yards to the roll?

(HT via Robb).

Last Call!

2011-05-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

The May ePostal contest ends next week so this is your last weekend chance to shoot Necco Mania!

If you're heading out with the family, take some targets and enter the whole family! Don't worry if they can't quite shoot the match as called, enter the target and we'll find a place to record the score.

And don't forget the low-ball class. Send in your worst target even if is from the same gun as entered in a previous category.

nicely done...

2011-05-20T21:26:00.001-07:00

Heh. The SandCastle Queen just left one of these on the on the neighbor's door.

(HT Capitalist Pig via fb)

We use term "abducted by aliens" at the dayjob to describe someone who has been let go for some reason*. They are seemingly there one day and gone the next, their entire physical existence within the company scrubbed. We may need to update that to "raptured".

ePostal class 12 entry

2011-05-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

I spent a pleasant shooty afternoon last Saturday. First was a trip to the range to give "reactive targets" a go. Followed by an evening of ~~sniffing of Hoppes #9~~ cleaning the guns and finally reloading the .44 brass.

One of the guns I brought to shoot was this years BAG day acquisition, a S&W 629 in .44 magnum. I figured the large diameter bullets making the effective target size a little larger would compensate for the magnum recoil. Turns out not so much.

20 rounds down range, 15 hit the hit the 8.5x11" sheet of paper and exactly one clipped a target circle.

In my defense, this was shot at 11 yards (minimum distance the club allows), and this gun is the newest addition to the SandCastle weapons locker. Even after the 20 rounds for the target, I have less than 50 rounds through it.

Still, this is why the class exists. Sorry to set the bar so low ;-)

Reactive Targets

2011-04-29T22:00:00.008-07:00

I'm going to jump the gun and put this up a day early because step one is a scavenger hunt. Also as a reminder Today is the last day to shoot the April contest. JimmyB the Conservative UAW Guy wants targets in by midnight!

I got into shooting because it's fun! Unfortunately what most people do with guns is to focus on the least fun aspect of the sport: punching holes in paper. Don't get me wrong, it's the only way to measure repeatable accuracy. It's the only way to see who's the best. But the real fun is in putting that bullet where you want it with instant pass/fail feedback.

For that you need reactive targets. Targets that let you know immediately of a hit or miss. That means steel plates, poppers, and plate racks; clay pigeons, an old time shooting gallery and the big daddy of reactive targets, Boomershoot (playing out this very weekend). These are a lot more fun than punching holes in paper.

Unfortunately the fleeting nature of reactive targets make them hard to put into the ePostal format of "try as many times as you like and submit your best". But I think I've found a way that at least some ranges will allow the target. These reactive targets are non-explosive and biodegradable but provide the desired response.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Shooters everywhere, I give you "Necco® Mania!"

Necco Wafers are pressed sugar wafers which shatter when hit with a pleasant rain of sugar fragments.

As hinted late last year, this match is posted in three parts.

Scavenger hunt: Procure a roll(s) of "Necco Wafers". In the days of my youth, every grocery and liquor store carried these candy rolls. They probably sold for a dime like every other candy bar at the time. They are still produced but are no longer in wide distribution. I the SandCastle Queen found these are our local specialty candy store.
Affix one wafer to each target circle on the linked target. White glue, contact cement or double sided tape have all been successful. This is our target. I opted for the "chocolate flavors" as there are more dark colored wafers per roll. The normal roll has lots of pastels which might not contrast well with the white paper backing. Coloring the wafers for maximum contrast is allowed. The SCQueen suggests food coloring if you want to eat the misses afterwards. Ink or paint coloring is not recommended for human consumption.
Shoot said target, enjoy the sight and sound of shattering wafers; and HAVE FUN!

The wafers are NOT required to shoot the match, they just make it more fun! You can just shoot the naked target itself.

Course of fire:
Download and print target here.

19 targets, 20 shots. These are tiny targets, you are allowed one free miss. The target has 19 spots while each Necco roll contains 38 wafers by my count. You may assume the even multiple is not an accident.

Pistols: 7 yds or range minimum which ever is greater. Standing unsupported, one or two hands. No time limit.
Rifles may be shot any position including off the bench, but rests such as sandbags and bi-pods are disallowed. The fore end of the rifle must be supported by the offhand elbow*. No time limit.

Rimfire, both iron sights and scope: 25 yards (4 MOA).
Centerfire iron sight: 50 yds (2 MOA)
Centerfire scope: 100 yds (1 MOA)

Scoring is binary. Either you hit and destroyed the wafer or you did not. +1 for a hit, +0 for a miss. A cracked wafer counts as a hit, assuming there is a hole just adjacent to the target circle). But only the first hit on a target circle scores (since the wafer was destroyed by the first hit). For those shooting the naked target (no wafer), standard rules apply: A hit touching the target scores. Max score: 19, Min score: 0.

Ties will be broken by distance. The longer distance takes the place (7M > 7Yds).

Shoot as many times as you like with as many weapons as you can lay your grubby hands on. With the exception of class 12, we only want to see your best scores for each gun. Save your worst of the month for class 12 (any gun).

Classes: You got it? shoot it and we'll find a place to record the score. (I reserve the right to draw the line at tater-guns & scatter guns).

.177 cal air pistol, iron sights (air or C02 powered)
.177 cal air pistol, optic sights (air or C02 powered)
.17/.22 cal rim fire pistol, iron sights
.17/.22 cal rim fire pistol, magnified optical sights
center fire pistol, iron sights
center fire pistol, magnified optic sights
.17/.22 cal rim fire rifle iron sights (25 yds)
.17/.22 cal rim fire rifle magnified optic sights (25 yds)
center fire rifle iron sights (50 yds)
center fire rifle magnified optic sights (100 yds)
other (anything that doesn't fit the above categories)
Low-ball (if you managed to put twenty holes on paper and yet miss most, submit your target here. This class is open to all comers and may duplicate the firearm used in prior categories. Inspired by Mr C's March Mess. Can anyone beat my -19 in March?)

Non-magnified optic sights (e.g. reddot) count as iron sights. 1:1 "RedDot" sights might be slightly faster to align than normal iron sights as there is only one sight to get on target, not two. But speed is not a factor in this game so it's a wash. Take your time and make good hits with either system.

Score submissions: scan/photograph your target, fill in the gun info (make & model & caliber), distance, class, on-line identity (name/pseudonym as you want it on the score sheets, blog reference for linky love ) however you want to be remembered on the score sheets... email to SandCastleScrolls-at-msn-dot-com.

Post Scripts:

* handicapped shooters are invited and encouraged to participate. Waivers will be granted to the extent of the limitation. Come and shoot with us!

"Necco" is a registered trademark of the New England Confectionary Company, Inc. Revere MA www.necco.com
#include std/FTC.disclaimer... This match is not endorsed nor sponsored by Necco (Dang.. I wish I'd thought to ask). I nor any of the SandCastle Crew have received compensation of any form for what might be considered "product placement". They offer the product and this seems to be a fun way to enjoy the product.

HatTip: The "shooting at biodegradable targets" idea comes from friend and fellow shooter JJ. Sorry, no web presence so no linky love. Still credit where credit is due.

Atlas Shrugged

2011-04-16T21:31:00.017-07:00

I haven't waited this breathlessly for a movie to debut since "The Empire Strikes Back". Heck, I haven't seen a movie in a theater in years, as the "movie experience" bears a striking resemblance to the "airline experience" and the payoff is usually not worth the hassle.

Atlas Shrugged is a classic story we've waited decades to see on the silver screen. But first a confession. I haven't actually read the book. I'd always meant to but never found the time. Years ago I found the audiobook on the SCMoms shelf and borrowed that. It was 16 45 minute sides so I'm sure it was an abridged version.

Still the script closely followed my recollection of the audiobook. I loved the epic scenery and CGI for the train scenes (at least I assume it was CGI, how else could it have been done?). The cast fit well into their roles. Mrs. Reardon plays the royal bitch very well. I've known people with a spouse like that and don't understand why they stay in the relationship. Seems to me, life is too short to spend with an abusive spouse. Here is another with Dagney confronting the union rep. BTW I prefer movies with unknown actors; they don't bring along any baggage to the role.

Currently it's only showing on two screens here in Arizona. After a late lunch I dropped back in on the theater while walking back to my car. I asked the manager "How's business?" He had a great big smile on his face and said "this is the busiest I've ever seen this place. My next two showings are already sold out." Our 1:30pm Saturday Matinee performance was also a sellout.

Continuing on the sidewalk back to my car I overheard a cellphone call which I think summed it up well "...This was a book written over forty years ago and accurately predicted what is happening in the world today."

BTW, props to Vox for showing up in a shirt decorated with Taggart Transcontinental and Reardon Metal logos. Nicely done! (I wish I'd thought to do it, and will take your left overs to apply to a shirt of my own!)

Bottom line, best movie I've seen in years. Go See it!

*** Warning Spoilers below ***

A coupla quibbles...

1. The deal with John Galt seems to be "Right here, right now. You walk away from everything and come with me". And yet the first guy ("Kellogg?") was able to go in and explain to Dagney that he's resigning and there is no offer she can make to keep him. Why did he get a different deal? (Req'd for the story I'm sure. Nuff said)

2. The movie portrayed the rail line first run as "Ok tracks are laid, lets take our train out and run it up to full speed. Let's see if this Reardon metal is any good or not". That simply doesn't happen... A series of test runs are conducted to gradually expand the performance envelope at a slow deliberate pace until full performance is achieved. A friend agreed but noted the movie didn't have time to show that in the 100 minute film. And I can agree with that, but I think there should have been a couple sentences of dialog to show that proper engineering procedures had been followed. After all Dagney was trained as an engineer and she would know that.

3. Whilst showing the industry magnates in their mansions and being chauffeured around in their limos, why aren't the government parasites shown the same way? When was the last time Mr Mouch drove himself anywhere? Last presidential cycle John McCain was demonized for not knowing how many homes he owns (apparently the answer was 7). We are currently in a situation where government employees are paid significantly better than the private sector for comparable positions, enjoy glorious benefits and never have to worry about layoffs or pay reductions (I took a 10% pay cut last year to avoid layoffs). That side should have been shown. Perhaps it will come out in future parts (after all, this is only part I).

Shiny!

2011-04-15T08:40:00.003-07:00

BAG day actually came a little early to the SandCastle. I was expecting to order so I was planning ahead. But to my luck I found what I wanted locally and was able to make the deal is just a couple days.

S&W 629 .44 Remington Magnum

I waffled for several months over the .44/.357 question. I have dreams of visiting Alaska and would want the .44 in case of bears. OTOH, the .44 is a beast to shoot and is a heavy thing to carry around if you don't need it. The .357 is lighter but still powerful.

My friendly local purveyor of phine phirearms distilled the dilemma like no one else. "It really doesn't matter which one you buy first because you will eventually own both." I couldn't argue with that. If you can afford one, you will afford both (eventually).

Mr Chono (before the SCSon destroyed the sunshield) shows the WWB 240gr soft nose leaving the muzzle at just over 1300 fps. That's a heavier projectile leaving the muzzle >50% faster than a .45 auto. Not surprising she kicks like a mule. I keep reminding the SCSon the classic energy equation E=MV^2. Talking to a friend, he has a Scandium .44 with a 2" barrel. It's light but I'm sure the recoil is brutal. Hmm... fire his beast, set off M80's in my bare hand or let the bear gnaw on me for a bit... tough call.

Now to the economics... the WWB factory ammo ran right around $0.70/round tax included. Looks like I can reload for around 1/3rd of that (Hornady 240 gr FMJ-HP). So the $25 die set will pay for itself back quickly. Of course I'll probably want to set that up on the Dillon 550B which requires a additional $45 powder bell & shell plate kit. Still a $70 investment against a $0.40 per round advantage is still a good investment.

But if I ever end up in Alaska staring down a surprised bear, I won't be depending on "HEY BEAR, GO AWAY" or asking "Um, Mr Guide, did you perchance bring a fire arm?"

Shooting is not the first course of action, but the Messer's Smith & Wesson option will be on the table!

DQ'd

2011-04-10T19:25:00.001-07:00

... in three shots.

Not me, the SandCastle Son. Let me explain.

The SCSon came out to Thursday Night Steel and really wanted to shoot. The club has no minimum age, but merely must know and understand the rules. Also demonstrate proficiency with the weapon. We also did not have all the necessary equipment. Specifically he didn't have a belt.

He also struggles with racking the slide on the Hi-Power. He wanted to show me he's ready and I wanted to see if he's ready. But first I wanted to get some Chrono data on my BAG day purchase* and had the Chronograph set out. Once that was done he wanted to get some practice changing magazines from slide lock. So the drill was a simple shoot one, reload, shoot one.

I reminded him several times "Don't shoot my chronograph". "Don't worry Dad, I got this". You can see where this is headed. Third shot destroyed the front sunshade. I declared a DQ, we packed up and went home. This is the penalty for breaking the rules.

* BAG day came a little early... details on April 15th.

Quotes from the range...

2011-04-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

SandCastle Queen: "I'm a Sniper..."
Me: "... With a 3 1/2 inch barrel!"

The SandCastle Crew met up with the good folks at GreatSatanInc for a round of Thursday Night Steel.

Stage 1 (which we shot last) was a "modified Outer Limits" scenario. From box A, hit a circle target at 20 yds and a square at 35. Then from box B hit a second circle at 20 yds, square at 35 and finally a circular stop plate at 20 yds.

The SandCastle Queen had little trouble even with the 35 yard squares, despite shooting a Sig P225 with a 3.5" barrel. She just takes her time, lines up the shot and squeezes the trigger.

"Ting!"

Every time.

Her stage times are nothing to write home about but who cares? My uncle plays golf with his wife and never writes anything down on the score card. He's having fun with his wife so who cares what the number is. In this case someone else is minding the SCQueen's score card so the time is recorded, but I pointed out she doesn't have to look at the number or care what it means.

"Did you have fun?" "Heck yea... this is a lot more fun than just shooting paper on the main range."

And that's all that counts.

Joe, you're killing me...

2011-04-03T19:42:00.007-07:00

One of the highest items on my "ToDo this life" list is suddenly within reach.

Joe has 5 positions open for Boomershoot and I'm not ready. I haven't been working on sighting in the rifle & working up the loads. And I don't think I can get ready in that time.

(To tell the truth, I'm even more interested in the Fri-Sat precision rifle clinic than the Boomershoot event itself.)

Ugggh... I WANNA GO!

Update: It's not just the gunnie stuff that's holding me back. Family responsibilities are also a major factor. Catching the clinic and Boomershoot means heading up on Thursday and home on Monday. That's three vacation days which is doable. However the rest of the family will want to come and three days out of school are a bigger problem (and I'd want the family close to help with spotting).

Also, there the "if you're to be in the neighborhood" factor. The route takes us within shouting distance of family a couple times over. So it would be rude to come so close and not connect for at least a meal. That means a couple more days off and again the SCSon is in school.

Update II... I haven't given up on this. The SandCastle Queen understands what this means to me. SandCastle Son wants to come but his grades are insufficient to skip a couple days of school. Perhaps this could be the incentive to get his act together. I haven't booked a position yet but the game is still in play.

The Long Watch

2011-03-31T13:44:00.003-07:00

It's a RAH Favorite in "The Past Through Tomorrow".

Unfortunately we may be seeing the story play out in present day Japan. The premise is different but the end result may well be the same.

Godspeed guys.. We are all counting on you.

ePostal reminder

2011-03-27T17:32:00.001-07:00

The first ePostal of the season closes Thursday night. Targets are due by midnight Monday night.

I took a couple more tries at the match today. Here's a target i won't be submitting:

Of the shots that hit, all scored negative for a total of -19. Fortunately the other target turned out much better.

The correct number is zero, not one or two.

2011-03-24T22:03:00.005-07:00

The media is in a tizzy over a tower controller that (apparently) fell asleep on a very slow overnight shift. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood reacted demanding two controllers on the overnight shift.

Here's the deal. Landing at an airport without an active control tower is No Big Deal. Most airports do not even have a tower, and most of the towers close over night. Instead of getting clearance to land from a controller, they check the runway themselves looking for unsafe conditions and broadcast in the blind to tell other aircraft in the area where they are and what they are doing. Then land on the runway of their choice. If there is more than one aircraft in the area aiming to land, pilots self coordinate who is first and who will follow.

In reality, the tower controllers job is very simple. Look to see if the runway is clear and assuming no one is holding a drag race on the runway, clear the plane to land. Why do we need a highly paid professional to check the runway then get on the radio and say "Citation 12345, cleared to land runway one niner". Then a second call as they clear the runway "Citation 12345, taxi to parking, monitor ground, good night."

Pilots are a self sufficient bunch. They can judge their own runway safety and find the way to their destination on the field. The go-around on short final due to a fouled runway is a standard training scenario.

Reagan National airport (KDCA) is at the center of the most highly restricted airspace in the country. The TRACON controllers watching the airspace out 30 miles know what planes are in the area and where they are. I cannot think of another airport more secure both in the air and on the ground, and less in need of an overnight controller.

A comment at MArooned notes there is no commercial traffic after 10PM.

LaHood's two controller "solution" effectively means one controller's job is to make sure the other does not fall asleep. What a waste of a second controller! Train engineers I understand have a deadman switch that requires a human interaction every so ofter unless the controls are otherwise adjusted. In my experience working off shift, the second one controller means will cover while the other one sleeps and vice versa. They will each spend half the night sleeping, snoozing for dollars.

There's an old joke about the aircraft cockpit of the future. "The crew will consist of a pilot and a dog. The pilot is there to monitor the autopilot and systems. He doesn't actually do anything since that's all handled by computers and controlled from the ground. The dog is there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything."

The right answer is not one or two controllers, but no controllers. Close the tower overnight and save the money. DCA is probably the most secure airport in the land. Pilots can judge their landing runway and taxi to their destination. We do it all the time.

Even if there is some reason to keep the one controller, a better solution is to hire a dog. Or a very loud alarm.

Ronald Reagan Library

2011-03-17T20:55:00.002-07:00

The weeks leading up to this vacation week were filled with "What shall we do while we are there?". The obvious "Disneyland", and "Universal Studios" immediately headed the list. I checked out Jeopardy (Yea, I'm a geek) but they aren't taping this week. The SCQueen caught a "100 years of Reagan" or somesuch on the tube. She asked how close it was to the timeshare. A quick mapquest check showed 100 miles and just under 2 hours one way without traffic. Ok this is LA, when is there NOT traffic? The "with traffic" time pushed beyond 3 hours.

Uggg. But I talked to a local that had spent some time there and his only regret was that he didn't have more time to spend. OK because I love my wife and this is a one time deal, "We'll" make the drive*.

And it's well worth the trip.

The Library is set up to chronologically follow his life from school years to early career, acting roles and into politics. He was governor of my home state for several years before I became politically aware. Still I am proud to have cast my first presidential vote for Reagan late in 1980. It was the first and possibly only "affirmative" for a presidential candidate. 1984 was even easier. Most if not all of the rest have been "negative" votes against the other guy. The lesser of two evils.

I recall this statement. This is the statement of an office holder that understands the shareholder-employee relationship. Contrast that with the current residents "I won, you lost" attitude.

The oval office is an exact replica of the Oval Office as it was during his watch. I should have taken more pictures to splice together *sigh* my career as a photographer is a history of regrets and "almost great" shots. This is yet another one.

The Hinckley assassination attempt was covered in dramatic fashion. I guess I never realized the attempt was made with a .22 revolver. The exhibit shows a like model Rolm RG-14 revolver.

The collapse of the Berlin wall was a significant portion of the visit. The portion of Reagan's speach "...Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" was in heavy rotation,

The SCQueen asked a nearby docent if she gets tired of hearing that line. She answered "Never! I hear that line hundreds of times a day and I never tire of it." Amen.

The current 747 based Air Force One 28000 was ordered during Reagan's second term but not delivered until the HWBush's term.

What do you suppose this bad boy is worth:

S&W .44 Magnum base price (est) $1500
Optional engraving with gold inlay $5000
Owned by President Ronald Reagan:PRICELESS!

Finally, here's a panorama looking out from behind the library:

Bottom line, it was well worth the trip. I say that even considering this "trip" cost driving 100 miles across the heart of LA in rush hour traffic twice (there and back).

Road Trip!!!

2011-03-15T17:59:00.004-07:00

The SandCastle Mom (not to be confused with the SandCastle Queen) loved to travel. To that end my parents bought a couple time share weeks here and their. They rarely stayed at their timeshares but rather traded them for weeks at other locations. Now with mom gone, dad has no appetite to travel. So we scheduled the SCSon's spring break week out in La La land.

Part of the reason for picking this resort is that it's close enough for fly ourselves. Plan A was to fly out, land at a nearby airport and rent a car for the week. Unfortunately the plane is down with a leaking fuel fitting. Plan B was to just rent a car in Phoenix and drive. However between spring training and spring break, the rental cars were sold out. We looked at several other options including Southwest, AmTrak and Greyhound. Surprisingly, of the three Greyhound was most expensive (over $300 per person). Whatever happened to "Go Grehound and leave the driving tu us". If those were plans C, D & E, plan F was to rent a car from Tucson. It'll adds a hundred miles each way to the trip, but it also cut $100 off the weekly rate in Phoenix.

Driving I-10 to LA Sux! It's a 7 hour trip, most of which is spent trying to avoid those trying to kill you. SCS-1 makes the trip in under 2 hours without the high speed close quarter stress. We also made our first > $4/gallon fillup. Monday we drove the length of the LA Basin to visit the Reagan Library, Griffith Observatory & La Brea Tar Pits (look for future posts on these topics).

LA freeway traffic just about put the SCQueen into a catatonic state. It's sometimes 70 mph bumper-to-bumper, and sometimes stop and go. The transitions from "go" to "stop" tend to be particularly abrupt tending toward scary. I could not make this drive on a daily basis but I'll make a one time exception to the visit the library of the greatest president of my lifetime.
We visit the Queen Mary Wednesday.

I'll add more on our visits as I get time to go though the pictures.

Crescent Moon

2011-03-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

The weatherman mentioned we had a space station flyby scheduled for last evening. I needed to visit the airport anyway and grabbed the camera and tripod to see if I could get a shot.

No luck there but we had a nice moon. Here is via a 15x optical zoom.

I took several shots with varying settings and this came out the best. So while I'm happy with the shot, I didn't take any notes so I have absolutely no idea what settings worked best. I didn't get any smarter (which is the whole reason for taking the pictures!) Maybe I can find something in the metadata.

Spring Training!

2011-03-11T22:50:00.002-07:00

This is a really nice time of year here in the desert. February started with sub freezing temps but a month later it's really starting to get nice (87F).

This time of year a large portion of our division at the DayJob(tm) takes an afternoon off to visit a spring training game. The stress of tracking down bugs is traded for the stress of avoiding sunburn and dealing with traffic.

Today the DiamondBacks dropped in on the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Here's what it looked like during the Angels pre-game workout:

The home Angels are the team in red and the visiting Diamondbacks are the team in (slightly darker) red. Had to look close to see who is who.

These "action" shots were taken with the "advanced sports action" settingand I must say it's not what I expected. I'd hoped it would "prefocus" to minimize the shutter delay. Instead it seems to stretch out the shutter speed to blur the action. There are times that makes sense, (like taking airplane pictures - fast shutter speeds stop the propellers and just doesn't look right). But in these shots, I'd rather catch "the instant" rather than seeing the bat and ball as a blur. I'm still learning and got a little smarter today.

The Pickoff. Note the ball just right of the first baseman's head.

Here's a hit with a ground bounce. The ball is the streak in the grass on the left and you can trace the line back to the dirt splash.

Anyway, you get the idea.. It was actually a pretty good game. started out slow with no action but the Angels pretty quickly built a lead. The local team battled back to tie and then take the lead. But the Angels got some players on base and retied the game. For a while it looked like the game might end in a tie. But next at bat scored a run for the win in the bottom of the ninth.

I hope your Friday was as pleasant.

People of the Gun

2011-03-02T22:48:00.005-07:00

People of the Gun is back and now hosted by ammo.net!

I liked this project from the get go. To me it was a collection of people that believe in safe gun usage. A politician at the time was trying at the time to paint gun owners as bad guys of all sorts: gang-bangers, mobsters, etc. This shows we are your next door neighbor, your meter reader, plumber, coworker, dentist, airline pilot, etc. In other words, we are the Good guys.

One item jumped out at me back in the early days of the project. Jeff sent out the call for pictures without any rules or guidelines on what the pictures should show. The only guidelines were on image size in terms of pixels. New pics rolled in for weeks and months with one common theme: Safe gun handling. Muzzles were pointed in a safe direction and fingers were off the triggers, except for the obvious live action shots. And those were typically taken from behind the firing line. This is a testament to the mindset of responsible gun owners - we are safety minded and we do it right.

If you believe in and practice the constitutional and natural right to self defense, please submit your photo to ammo.net's POTG sign up page I loved tuning in every day and seeing another couple rows of photos added to the page. Join us!

You can see our picture in the 6th row from the top, right most column. The SCSon launching clay pigeons and me doing my best to ensure they do not land safely!

A new low in PSH*

2011-02-09T18:01:00.002-07:00

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

2011-02-09T01:04:00.002-07:00

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!

Winter ePostals...

2011-02-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Algebra is easy!

2011-02-01T22:21:00.008-07:00

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!

Movie Blogging...HopScotch

2011-01-29T00:48:00.003-07:00

I'm a MovieBlogging virgin but what a flick to start off with. TCM tonight drug me in with "The Odessa File". I recall the book on the camper bookshelf. The title sounded ominous and I probably read a few pages but don't recall reading the whole thing. I tuned in tonight thinking it was a different story.   [standby while I recall the other title]. Gotta love TCM for no commercials and leaving the flick intact, four letter words and all.

Following that TCM ran "HopScotch" unedited and without commercials.

Starring: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty.

Holeecow, this alone was worth the cable bill for the month!   If you look in the dictionary under "intelligent comedy", "Hopscotch" ~~will~~should be listed!

Of course I cannot endorse the movie gunnie-fu in any shape or form. (is Danny Glover a WM protoge?)   Throughout the flick WM presents as a nonviolent gunhater. He even congratulates a former colleague for carrying his gun unloaded, after WM uses said unloaded gun to subdue said former colleague! (see above -- former colleague knew of protagonist's aversion to guns and also knew his gun that protagonist that now had his gun is also unloaded but put up no resistance).

Ok, it plays the CIA as bumbling fools and Walther Matthau as the uber-agent running (and flying circles) around the agency[I doubt the portrayal remotely resembles reality]. But the flick portrays it masterfully!!

The flick is copyright 1980 so you probably won't find this in your local redbox, nor will you find it on BluRay 3D, but if you've got a couple braincells to rub together it's worth tracking down in whatever OldTech format you can find. The story is worth the ride.

heh heh heh... (evil laugh)

2011-01-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

I just had a brainstorm... Assuming Mr. C allows me an ePostal match in the coming year... heh heh heh!!!

Three clues:
.... part one: scavenger hunt (one item)
.... Part two: Some assembly required!
.... part tre: Reactive targets! (heh heh heh!)

oh please oh please let me have a slot.... this should be fun!

Stay tuned!

Cats and Dogs, living in peace

2011-01-11T22:00:00.005-07:00

If you asked me last week to name an issue that would have the whole of state government speak with one voice and unanimously pass the legislation and the governor would sign, I could not have come up with an answer.

Tonight we have the answer "West Borough Baptist Church".

Specifically their plan to picket 9 year old Christina Green's funeral.

When I read they were planning to protest, I thought "What pigs". How could you possibly make a case that the killing of an innocent 9 year old is a good thing.

Arguably the most polarizing figure on the political Left is Kristen Sinema. She's out in front of any issue and she's loudly leading the left. On the right we have Randy Pearce who most recently made political enemies leading the SB1070 fight.

These two could not be anymore political opposites. But they and many others saw the need and sponsored the bill.

When the state legislature stands united and says "we shouldn't have to pass this if you had a shred of human decency. However you have proven you don't so we have to act." That should be a clue that you are not just on the fringe of society but completely off in a different dimension.

Tonight I am proud of my lawmakers. Good on ya guys!

Update.. Now I'm concerned about the unintended consequences. How will this law be twisted to criminalize objectionable but otherwise free speech. I don't see it today but that's how the law of unintended consequences works.

Sometimes the problem is obvious...

2011-01-10T22:43:00.005-07:00

... once you get to it.

The heater blower in the car went inop a while back. Normal checks were inconclusive. Blowing the fuse must have been a recurring problem because the car ships with a resettable fuse (circuit breaker?). But that hadn't popped.

I kept thinking it was a bad starter interlock relay or bad connection. But the tests all showed good connections. Finally I pulled the motor out and the problem became obvious. While installed in the car, this connection is only visible by standing on ones head and using an inspection mirror. The connection to the motor developed a bit of a "high" resistance connection which gets hot. And once the heat starts, the metal parts corrode and the resistance goes up. This connection eventually became hot enough to melt the nylon connector and plastic housing together. Oh and the insulation on that wire is supposed to be blue.

The good news is the motor still works. All I need to do is cut out the cooked wire section and splice in a new wire & connector. Then clean up the corrosion on the connector and reassemble the parts. From here it's a twenty five cent fix.

Physics content:
Power is an I²R equation. When I (current) is high, the almost any resistance is too much. The current was probably in the 20-25 amp range. Square that and multiply by 1 ohm at this connection gives 400-525 Watts. That's a lot of heat! Even that much current with a .1 ohm drop is still a lot of heat (40-52W) in such a small place.

Junior Small Bore

2011-01-07T22:15:00.005-07:00

The SandCastle Son started with the Junior rifle division at our local club. The club runs what looks like a very successful junior program. They train for Olympic four position shooting (prone, sitting, kneeling & standing). They provide everything for the juniors: Shooting mat, jacket, glove, targets, gun, coaches, etc. Even ear plugs in case anyone forgot hearing protection. The best every year go to Camp Perry and a one or two every year go on to the junior Olympics.

The program is open to all comers. Tonight we were the only club members out of a class of 8 shooters. Some come to fulfill merit badge requirements, others come for their own reasons.

They start noobs first making sure they have the sight picture, then shooting off a rest. I suspect once they start shooting tight groups, move them into the different positions. Tonight they set the SCSon up with a nice target rifle and he turned in some decent scores in the mid to high 30's out of 50 possible. Not bad considering the ammo was random headstamps. Some I recognized (Federal, Winchester, Remington), some I didn't. Here is his best target of the evening...a 39/50. All scores were in the mid-30's with a 20 minimum score (scores below the minimum are not recorded).

Interestingly, the coaches scoring the targets use complementary math. Instead of directly adding up the scores, they add up the differences between perfect and what was actually shot. For example, the target here scores as 0+1+1+3*+6 = 11. 50-11 = 39. As the shooters get better and most of the shots are 9's & 10's the complements are 0's and 1's which are pretty easy to add up. Makes complete sense!

SCSon wanted to bring a rifle from the SandCastle Armory which offers a couple appropriate choices. One is Grandpa's Springfield 84C equipped with Redfield sights. There is also a Danish target .22 with a very light trigger pull. I opted not to considering the possibility the club could easily have a better rifle to loan! I begged for a dry fire on the SCSons rifle and couldn't feel any take up. They estimate the trigger pull in the ounces range and I believe it!

CMP currently has Kimber 82 target rifles (surplus/unused) for $600 and we may pick up one of those. Or maybe we'll see if he sticks with it and go straight to an AnSchutz a couple years down the road.

What I want to know is "where the HELL was this program when I was a kid?**" Back then I wanted to learn to shoot more than anything, but mum was vehemently against guns. "gunsRbad" She may as well have been Sarah Brady herself. Even capguns were verboten. I went so far as taking NRA Hunter Safety from a teacher I *hated* just for the opportunity to shoot once (and we never got to shoot). With a couple decades hindsight, I'll give him props for offering the class in a Junior High School. Today that would be clearly into the nospeak category.

* Possibly being generous... 6/7 is a judgement call but especially on a first night I think being generous is a good call.
** Another possibility is a very similar program existed back then but the 'rents didn't want me involved for any number of reasons from irrational fears of risk to doesn't fit with social schedule.

Rolltop desk for sale

2011-01-07T21:26:00.001-07:00

The SandCastle Queen has a rolltop desk for sale. Going on Craigslist tomorrow, sneak preview tonight here at the SandCastle. $200 as-is, where is.

I don't think it's an antique. But it's real wood not pressboard or anything cheap. Email sandcastle scrolls at msn dot com and I'll connect you to the queen who can answer questions intelligently.

Update: I was only going to post the one pic but what the heck... I'll throw in this one only because the cat was hiding behind the desk, sort of.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T23:35:00.001-07:00

New Years day broke clear and bright. It snowed a couple days ago. I took the opportunity to fly out and get some pictures of the snow swept peaks. This is four-peaks on the East side of the Phoenix Metro area. If anyone wonder's why we put up with months of triple digit heat, I hope these pics explain the answer. The short version is "Yeah it may be hot, but I don't have to shovel it off my driveway!"

Mount Ord, NorthEast of Phoenix. There are a couple repeaters on the left two towers. The right most tower is a fire spotter. Probably only a couple inches of snow but I'd hate to have to report to the tower even now a couple days after the snowfall.

Happy new year. May it be a darn sight better than the last!

Customer Service Update

2010-12-27T22:46:00.001-07:00

I started to do an update to "A very short play in three scenes" but it quickly became a little too long for the update.

First, let me give props to Buds gun shop. I sent emails to both Buds who sold me the gun and Hi-point who manufactured it. It wasn't clear who assembled the package deal and hence who is responsible for the fix. Derek at Buds emailed on Dec 26 (Sunday after Christmas) and explained they buy the package deal from Hi-Point but offered to assist in resolving the problem with Hi-Point.

Hi point never responded but they did answer their phone today. The phone was answered by a realperson(tm) not a voice-jail system. I explained the problem and she answered "I know there's an easy solution to that problem but I don't know what it is. Standby while I connect you to someone that can explain it."

Next human voice on the phone says simply "Turn it over". And patiently waited over my objections how it can't be done. Eventually I unscrewed the mounting screws and the solution became obvious. The rails are C channels but with different lengths on the legs. One side fits 3/8" rails and the other side fits 5/8" Weaver rails. Nice!

He said there is supposed to be some documentation in the box explaining this (RTFM!) but I still haven't find it.

I'm just glad it was an easy fix.

November ePostal results are up

2010-12-27T01:45:00.001-07:00

Manfred has posted the November ePostal results. I congratulate the winners and my only regret is the few entrants this month even with the 2 week extension. I count only five discrete shooters.

No matter... I love the concept of heading to the range with a specific mission. I'm not just randomly poking holes in paper with some nebulous "good enough" yard stick to measure by. This is a more measurable standard to judge by.

Losing 2x2 (same two pistols, he beat me both ways) to my good blog-friend TrueBlueSam, I would love to to shoot a match side by side. I fully expect the result to come out the same, but I also expect to learn something in the process! TBS, you have an open invitation on my range any time! And if I put wheels down somewhere in your vicinity, I hope you'll have time to offer a lesson.

I will also say, shooting the Crosman .177 air pistol has taught me a lot about patience and smoothness.

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille

2010-12-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

The SandCastle's DSL modem chose Christmas day to give up the ghost. I didn't touch it, I swear! All I did was attempt to enable the wireless networking.

Customer "service" in India said since I'm renting the modem they would send me a new one but it would be 2-3 business days. At $5 a month, I've bought that modem about three times over so I didn't really want to rent their @$#* modem anyway so instead we just bought a new one locally today. This one combines the DSL modem with the router so it's simplified the wiring here in the process.

This morning the SandCastle Queen brought home the new one this morning and we were back up and running in about 10 minutes. Just need to call billing in the AM and get them to stop the modem charge.

A very short play in three scenes

2010-12-23T23:30:00.004-07:00

Scene I - The SandCastle dinner table
The SandCastle crew is enjoying a dinner prepared with love by the SandCastle Queen. The SandCastle Son pipes up with "So dad, what's the newest gun you have?" I sheepishly look up from my plate and muse "would that include the one that is currently in transit?" SCQueen rolls her eyes and lets out "Oh geez... what'd you buy now?" "Oh trust me" I answer. "You're going to like this one!"

Scene II - Flashback to Local gun range a couple weeks ago.
It's a beautiful winter Saturday at the range, recall this is the Sonoran Desert so it's sunny and temps in the low 70's. Setting up on bench 25 I recognize another AZ blogger** The Capitalist Pig two benches down with a new rifle. Blogger tells me about it and why he picked it up. You see a local range hosts a fun steel pistol match on Thursday nights. One night a month they also run a "pistol caliber carbine / shotgun" match the night prior to the pistol match. His new acquisition was a Hi-Point carbine in 9mm. This was his missing piece to shoot the match. I watched his progress and it looked like entirely too much fun. It also doesn't take much time to figure the cost savings shooting 9mm over .223.

A few days later I found my self on the site of Buds gun shop. Buds offers several different packages in 9mm, .40 and .45 and with several sighting options. The straight 9mm with iron sights is $257 (cash/shipped) and $281 including a Red Dot sight. I decided to think about it more and moved on. A few days later I was back at Buds and the rifle was now sale with only a $1 delta between the basic package and the Red Dot package. I reread it several times looking for the catch. $1 to add the Red Dot sight? I weakened and pulled out the credit card. (It also helps that a good friend is an FFL and already on their shippers list. This makes the legal transfer entirely too easy!)

Scene III - Today at the range with the SandCastle Crew and the new carbine.
It shoots pretty nice though the trigger is a bit stiff and it's shooting a little high and right at 25 yards. It's constructed of stamped steel and plastic. I'll admit is has a "cheap" feel to it, but what do you expect for a coupla*** C notes?

It would have been nicer if the "Red Dot" package had included instructions on how to mount the Red Dot scope with a 3/8" mount onto the 3/4" Weaver rails on the gun. Still nicer if either company (Buds who sold the package to me or HiPoint that presumably wholesaled the package to Buds would answer the emails asking for help.) Stay tuned for yet another tale of customer service how-to or how-not-to. So far no response from either inquiry.

* Posting new acquisitions to the armory would create an searchable inventory of the SandCastle Armory (as if the trail of 4473's doesn't already do this). Still I don't want to make it easy hence the "don't post new acquisitions" rule.

** normally I would send some linky-love to said blogger but he/she/they have not web-licly announced possession of said rifle and I don't want to spill the beans so to say. (The "don't post new acquisitions" rule referenced above applies to others as well)

*** A "coupla" is more than one but less than a "handful".

Update: The anonymous AZ blogger has web-licly outed themselves with said rifle via a YouTube video and granted linky love permission. I ask you, does this look like fun or what! I need to acquire a couple more magazines but I'm there next month!

Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-21T00:49:00.004-07:00

I hope your viewing weather is better than ours. We have a very powerful cold front approaching giving us high thin clouds. The camera has a slow scan mode using a ~2 second exposure. The slow scan is great for detail, but in this case it just gives it time to blur the image and the clouds race past the moon. The total eclipse was completely obscured.

Sarah Palin channels JayG!

2010-12-13T19:40:00.003-07:00

Did you catch Sarah Palin's Alaska last night?

There is a scene where they are taking bear safety training and reviewing the different bear repellents available. First was a flash/bang type shot gun round, then bean bag and graduated through to buckshot and slugs.

The scene ended with a charging bear scenario using a bear target on a movable cart. Sarah got two shots off, both good hits before the "bear" made it to Sarah. Sarah then utters ".. and here is where I use the bayonet." It was said quietly and missed it the first time through.

I think this is definitive proof SP reads StuckInMassachusetts.

Start at 3:55 in the embedded clip. Money quote at 4:10:

December 7th, 1941

2010-12-07T17:12:00.001-07:00

It started here...

And ended here on the deck of the USS Missouri:

I have best job in the world!

2010-12-03T00:13:00.008-07:00

As a rule, I do not talk about the dayjob(tm) here beyond the occasional oblique "dayjob" reference. We have people whose job description includes "corporate mouthpiece" and it's not me. Instead I keep my trap shut on that subject. Today I will open it just a crack but you'll have to forgive my lack of details as they could tip off competitors and I can't go there.

I've said "I have the best job" for years. I know this because every year I sit down in a quiet place and ponder "if I could have any job in the world, what would it be?" And every year, the answer is "I have it and I'm with the right company". my day-to-day activities are closely in-line with what I'd otherwise call "play time". It's an old saying* "find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." I think I'm there. Also, Many companies mouth the words "Our employees make this company what it is" or some such. The difference is this company actually means and puts it into practice.

Here are the few details I can share without giving too much away: I returned from lunch today to find access to my office blocked by a box nearly as long as my height - a 50" plasma TV (and assorted accessories). Yea, my current project requires access to a BFTV! This TV is so big it won't fit in my office. I'm gonna have to annex an office and move out most of the furnishings to make the space. On top of that our stock price was up a couple percent today beating the DJIA & NASDAQ handily. Double plus good!

BTW, most people in our section do this stuff at home anyway. We do this stuff for fun, so the paycheck and office are just a reason to get us out of bed in the morning!

Don't envy me. Do your own pondering and find your dream job, the job that pays you to do stuff you'd do anyway! Then you'll never work a day in your life either. I wish you the same success I've found.

* my internet search for the source of the quote turned up many. Several cited Confucius. Some cited others I've never heard of. Just know it wasn't me.

Netbooks..

2010-11-25T21:34:00.010-07:00

I want one... a light sub 3 pounds, all the peripherals my 5+ YO laptop doesn't have (Wi-Fi. bluetooth, camera) and enough battery life to not even sweat the usage.

I've been waiting for prices to hit my $250 trigger point and they are finally getting there. Unfortunately it appears they are reaching that point by cheaping out on the battery. The new low priced units only offer "3 cell batteries, with up to 4 hours battery life.

Caveat Emptor, baby! Read those specs carefully!

Yuk... I'm not buying those either.

PS... Samsclub had an HP that looked good for $228. But I couldn't find in the ad when the sale started. I figured it was probably 5 am but in what timezone? No matter, apparently the sale has started and they are already sold out online. And there is NFW I'm getting up at OMG-dark-thirty to try for one at the local store. I'd rather pay the extra $50.

Update: The SandCastle Queen is nothing if not relentless. While we missed out on the SamsClub HP deal, a little bird tells me she found an even better deal in today's Fry's ad. A Toshiba with the 6 cell battery for $199! And our local store still had two in stock. She beat feet up the road and caught one of them. Looks like there will be a netbook under the SandCastle Tree! Woot!

Top Gear, American Style

2010-11-21T22:14:00.012-07:00

Episode 1 leaves me less than impressed. The BBCA shows are a hoot with the interaction between Jeremy, Hamster & May. Even a former neighbor visiting from the UK (picture middle aged British mum, about as far from a gear-head) raves about the show.

Mega props for dramatic photography and the cool cars. But starting off with not just supercars, but the ultimate in supercars leaves me concerned. Specifically, where do you go from there?   Can they talk superlatively about the latest BMW, Porche or Prius after driving the hottest Lambo's & Vipers?

Good call to start off with Buzz Aldrin as the first guest.   Talking about the cars he's owned and why is good, but where are the questions like "so you walked on the moon at age 39. What have you done since then? Surely he'd have had some more interesting stories to tell (Seems I've read of him criticizing NASA for not pressing more for a Mars mission). Guess that footage ended up on the cutting room floor. He drove your car, give him a chance to sell his vision.

But so far the host personalities aren't there. NYTimes has an article detailing the history of the show and the attempts to transplant it noting especially there have been several cast changes. That suggests it's hard/difficult/one-in-a-million chance to get the three way chemistry to go critical. NYTimes article notes one guy is a stand up comic and another does stand ups for NASCAR. Could be but I wouldn't know as NASCAR is about the one form of motor racing I don't follow.

Also it's embarrassing(an insult really) they felt the need to explain "The Stig". "You will never see the face nor hear the voice." Did WKRP have to explain Les Nesman's bandaids? Or Captain Kirk's ripped shirts? NOOOO! Let the audience figure out the gag, explaining it in episode 1 is an insult to the audience's intelligence! What's next... explaining that the hosts never win any of the challenges?

The SandCastle Queen suggests one of the hosts should be a woman. Maybe she's right. Surely there is at least one female gear-head that would fit in and offer an alternate perspective to the "My Lambo is better than your Lambo" argument beyond "Your's is made of plastic".

However the look forward to next weeks show holds some promise.    Two of the hosts make fun of Tanner Foust for being a drifter "So you're the Brian Boitano** of drifting?" Maybe the personalities will come through.

Top Shot also started off slow (like the first 8 episodes), Maybe this is a similar slow start. I'll stick with Top Gear for a while. But so far it's miles behind the original.

(How are they going to top Jeremy's V8 Blender? And how about the absurdity of their version of the Olympic Biathlon? Enquiring minds want to know!)

* An uber-technical driver is not required for the show, but hosts should be able to rattle off the cars specs and know what the numbers mean. ("redline" is not a makeup tip.)

** I had to look up the spelling because I care about spelling names right. I didn't know how to spell the name because I follow ice skating even less than NASCAR. In fact, any "sport" with subjective scoring, really isn't much of a sport.

Bad career choices for $400

2010-11-19T20:03:00.002-07:00

Answer: Robbing a Phoenix jewelry store.

The owners are on site and they are armed. In this case the good guy fought back and bad guy #1's gun went off killing bad guy #2. The good guy is OK.

Look for this to bump Marooned's DGC.

I Opt Out.

2010-11-16T23:26:00.016-07:00

I love to fly but I hate airline flying. When death row inmates have more rights than an airline passenger, something is very, very, wrong. And that was pre-"enhanced passenger screening". It has only gotten worse.

My objection stems from the fact that airline passenger screening is a joke. It's a show to make other passengers feel good. TSA is looking to prevent the last attack. Current radiated/gropage protocol is a result of last year's (yes, a year delayed!) underwear bomber attack. But it doesn't stop the creative and determined terrorist. Just ask any ~~prison guard~~corrections officer about how thoroughly do they search (patdown) inmates and visitors, and yet how much contraband makes it way into jails and prisons. I don't want to get too graphic and fortunately I don't have to since Christopher Walken explains it so eloquently. Do you really want to go through airline security after terrorists set off a bomb secreted inside their body?

Considering all the ground time associated with airline travel (drive to off airport parking, ride the bus to the terminal, wait in line to get irradiated or groped (your choice) , walk the 1/3rd mile to your gate and check in early enough to ensure your seat. Not to mention the taxi time at some airports from the gate to takeoff can be nearly an hour ( I once asked a ~~stewardress~~flight attendant for a class of water 45 minutes after leaving the gate and with the runway threshold nowhere in sight due to choking on a dry throat). The breakeven between driving and flying is around 6 hours. Last night a caller to Cam & Company noted he quit flying several years ago. Where he used to fly he now drives. His additional time in only about 2 hours.

Pre-9/11 I could put up with about 3 airline trips a year. Post 9/11 that dropped to one a year. Now in the year of "You agreed you be groped when you bought your ticket". I'm done. Alpha Mike Foxtrot. It's one thing to grope me, I'm adult and never been raped. I can "close my eyes and think of England", but totally another to expose my family to the gropage. Go grope someone else.

Now here is where I have an advantage. As previously mentioned, I love to fly. Many years ago I realized a lifelong dream and earned a pilot certificate. Today instead of cruising the freeways at 70MPH, I'm cruising the airways at 220 MPH with me in the front-left (captains) seat. That moves the time-wise break even point considerably further out. As a bonus, SandCastle Airlines has NEVER lost my luggage! As a general rule "If I can fly direct (no fuel stops) I beat the airline's direct flight. Similarly, one stop for me beats one stop for them. (5 hours at 220 mph works out to at least 1100 miles). (There is a delta cost but I'll pay that and consider it the cost to log the time and avoid the grope).

The best part is I completely avoid the security theater. Instead, I fly in the best security available. I personally know each and every single person in the aircraft.

I Opt Out. If TSA is involved with me getting from here to "there", I really don't need to be "there". Or maybe if I do, I'll have a fourth amendment case!

* open offer... if this "opt out" option tickles your fancy I am happy to explain how to get from here to there and what it costs and answer questions though the training process. I do this pro-bono. Not see a nickel of your $$$ will end up in my pocket. Rather I'm interested in seeing more certificated pilots out in the air. I can only hope my guidance will add to this goal.

Merle seeks airgun recommendations...

2010-11-07T22:44:00.013-07:00

Merle in the comments to the post on the value of practicing at home with an airgun when you can't get to the range asks:

Well, that pretty much does away with my last excuse to not buy an air pistol.

Does anybody have a preferred brand, perhaps one with a better trigger?

I want to give his question maximum exposure so I'm bumping it to it's own post. By all means, do your research (Caveat Emptor, baby!) Though you might have better luck on a specific air gun forum. A quick search turned up "the new Crosman forum" and surely as the Sun will rise in the East tomorrow, there are more out there.

I bought the Crosman 1377 pistol because it looked like what I wanted (a target airgun) and the price was right (~$50). So if you have a favorite airgun recommendation, Merle would like to hear from you. Consider the comments section open to recommendations.

I also complained about the trigger in the comments but I'm wondering now if I've been overly harsh. It's heavy and it has a bit of creep. Or does it...

My fish scale shows the trigger break at about 3# with a full 10 pumps, 2 1/2# empty. Nothing wrong with that. It may feel heavier because it's a thinner trigger than my other pistols (1/8" vs 1/4"). BTW, the Crosman forum mentioned above includes a step by step procedure to carve a trigger "shoe" out of PVC pipe to improve the ergomonics by spreading trigger load on your finger . TBS, I'm thinking Bea would appreciate this mod.

I think the trigger creeps a bit but I'm not sure how to accurately put a number on it.

Also, it's a $50 pistol. The trigger group is almost certainly constructed of stamped metal parts and they probably don't spend a lot of time cleaning up the mating surfaces. A nicer trigger is going to require more careful machining and that will drive the price up.

The real question is what do I expect for $50? I'm calling the 1377 a fair deal.
Surfing the interwebs turned up some posts suggesting it may be possible to improve the trigger but I need to do more research before I start grinding metal. I'll start with carving the shoe.

SCSon's LEGO(r) mission

2010-11-03T22:50:00.001-07:00

A few posts back I mentioned the SCSon created the program to complete a FIRST LEGO league mission in about 90 minutes.

Here are the details. The mission has two parts. First to insert a "bone bridge", into the bone. The bone bridge is the white/gray piece at the bottom of the pic and it has to be placed into the slot on the just above it.

Second part requires bumping the opposite end of the bone to kick the ball into a goal (not shown).

Here's how it looks with the SCSon at the controls: Note the robot guides against the south wall to ensure it's correctly positioned to set the bone bridge.

Heh.. we may need to dial back the kicking force as it broke the bone bridge and left the ankle disassociated with the leg. That would be a bad thing (though the rules say if the ball scores, so does the bone bridge!)

chalk one up for Linux...

2010-11-03T01:24:00.003-07:00

I use an fairly ancient Dell Laptop for remote uses. It dates back to the generation just prior to "built in WiFi" and hence I use a slide in PCMCIA card for wireless access. It seemed to work fine for FIRST LEGO league this afternoon but would only stubbornly BSOD at the Conservative Bloggers thing tonight.

Fortunately the laptop is configured to dual boot with Fedora Linux and it had no problem with the WiFi card. Thus I was able to actually surf and post while Winder's XP sucked wind.

I'm just saying, While Windows blew chunks, Linux saved my day.

October ePostal results

2010-11-03T00:15:00.004-07:00

Traction Control has posted the October match results.

Lest you think you can't get to a range to shoot these contests, know this. I tied for second place, one point out of first, shooting a stock $50 Crosman air pistol and the cheapest .177 pellets I can find. The range is setup inside my garage.

The pellet trap is $16*. The swingers are fun but the first set broke before I'd shot through the first tin of 500 pellets. I also use an old piece of carpet as an extended backstop for shots that miss the trap.

So there you have it... 2nd place with a $50 gun and a range set up in my garage. If I can tie for second, you can do better!

Manfred is scheduled for the November match but is battling system issues. In the meantime CTD has a zombie match up. Entries due by Nov 29th. Stay tuned, it's looking like a two-fer month!

* Eye protection is absolutely mandatory. A significant percentage of the shots are reflected back into the garage.

Stand By!

2010-11-02T15:09:00.004-07:00

The SandCastle crew will be hanging with rest of the Az cool kids live blogging the election results from the KFYI studios. We'll be on live starting about 7PM local. See you then.

Update: Internet issues are now resolved and we are up and running. Comments will appear here at the SandCastle proper and also on KFYI's wordpress sight.

Update 2: Apparently the crossposting is inop. You can follow the goings on over at http://dollarjoe.com/election2010/

As good as it gets!

2010-10-31T22:35:00.005-07:00

As weekends go, this was a pretty darn good one.

Saturday the SCSon and I worked on his robot program.    He is involved in FIRST LEGO(r) league. The short version is that the teams are given a set of missions to accomplish in 2 1/2 minutes. The teams have 3 months to build a LEGO robot and program the robot to accomplish as many missions as possible. The missions are intentionally "overcalled". That is, they intentionally specify more missions than a normal team can complete in the timeframe. This forces the team to exercise some level of triage. Which missions have a favorable payoff/reward ratio. Some missions are easy and pay a lot, others are hard and pay the same or less. Unfortunately the coolest mission "bad cell destruction" falls into the later category. It will require a lot of effort but only pays the same amount as the much easier missions.

His teammates had decided the "Special Bone Repair" mission was too difficult and wanted to focus on the low hanging fruit. But the SCSon said "I can do it!" and took it on.    The mission has two parts. First the robot has to insert a "bone bridge" (it's a pretty small target to hit) and then bump the other end of the bone (it's on a pivot) to kick a ball into a goal.
(stay tuned for pictures)

We went from zero to Mission Complete in about 90 minutes.    One problem we ran into is that the robot ends up so close to the wall, it doesn't have room to turn. The SCSon said "Hey, no problem, lets just back it all the way to base and have a second program to run around and kick the goal. This has the advantage that, if the inserting the bone bridge fails, we can try again without penalty.

This is the kind of effort we need.   I hope I can work with the rest of the team like this.

Next we headed out to the range where we took the opportunity to shoot some October ePostal targets. The SCSon has taken a liking to the newest 9mm in the arsenal (FM Argentine Hi Power). Unfortunately out of the 20 shots fired for the match, 3 hit the paper and only one scored. No matter, we submitted the target anyway. I also shot a target with the Hi-Power, but all the bullets seemed attracted to the same hole. Normally this is a good thing, but not when aiming at 20 separate and distinct little targets.

I'd also brought the AR-15 which the SCSon tried for the first time. He was surprised at how little recoil it has just like mom and dad have been saying all along! We even arrived at the range just as a cease fire was starting which means we put our targets up straight away and didn't have to wait for the next cease fire.

Heading home from the range, temps were in the mid-70's and we had the top down on the roadster. There may be better days than this, but they are pretty rare.

Oh and Sunday's weather matched Saturday's. I took advantage and got some air under the tires. Cool temps, calm winds and greaser landings.

Saturday was a really good day and Sunday made it a really good weekend!

Will that apply to union T's as well?

2010-10-21T22:22:00.005-07:00

So Coconino county has agreed to allow a Flagstaff woman to wear her TEA party T-shirt while voting. However the story at KFYI notes:

The injunction applies only in Coconino County. In Maricopa County*, elections director Karen Osborne says they will strictly enforce the "no electioneering" rule within 75 feet of all polling places. That includes t-shirts or buttons endorsing any candidate or party, whether it's a Democrat, Republican, independent, or tea party.

Asked about people who insist that the tea party isn't an official political party, Osborne says that doesn't matter: "They have many candidates that they're supporting. They have all the earmarks of a party except to be filed as one."

Wow... talk about the pot calling the kettle... and what an open invitation to a lawsuit.

The SCQueen worked the polls a while back. While training warned over and over again not to discuss any issues or candidates on the ballot, they exposed their liberal biases at every turn.

With such a kind invitation to a lawsuit, what do you bet some fed up conservative out there dons a TEA party T shirt and heads to the polls with appropriate documentation equipment (such as MP3 recorder & video). Then waits in their car until someone walks up with a union T shirt. Then heads inside to cast their ballot. If they are denied the right to vote, question why the union T was allowed. Unions have candidates they are supporting too with millions of dues dollars paying for political ads, not just parties and rallies. Then walk away peaceably and file suit.

This isn't rocket science. If I can envision this, you know a lot of others can too!

Bring popcorn! [I've already voted so I'm ineligible.]

* Maricopa county includes Phoenix and surrounding metro area. It's 4M population is by far the lions share of Arizona's 6.6M population [US Census Bureau]. Probably 40% are registered Republican, likely a similar proportion of the "independents" also lean conservative. That's 2Million give-or-take opportunities for this scenario to play out. I'm pretty rusty on game theory but I'm thinking the needle here bends way close to "sure bet".

I voted today*

2010-10-20T00:02:00.007-07:00

Election day isn't for a couple weeks but I voted today. There a couple reasons at play... one, I hate standing in lines, particularly when the people controlling the lines are unable to hold any job other than "poll worker". Needless to say, these aren't the brightest bulbs out there.

Also, campaigns are notified when I return my ballot and stop ~~filling~~ cluttering my mailbox with their bile once my ballot is returned.

Here's a couple thoughts on the ballot.

I find it amusing the NRA uses the tagline "Vote Freedom First" but when push comes to shove they really mean "Vote ONE Freedom First". Ok, I get they are a single issue organization and the 2A is all they care about. But I do care about all freedom's and hence take their recommendations with that large grain of salt.

First off, I can't hold my nose and vote for McCain. Instead I wrote in "JD Hayworth". I can't take credit for this idea though...I saw it somewhere else on line.

Also I'm normally a "no vote" on all propositions. However this time around there are some really good ones.

Prop 106 gives the middle finger salute to federal control of healthcare. Easy choice. I vote YES.

Prop 107 amends the constitution to eliminate all preferences based on race or gender. The text of the amendment is really very simple:

36. Preferential treatment or discrimination prohibited; exceptions; definition
SECTION 36. A. THIS STATE SHALL NOT GRANT PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT TO OR DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP ON THE BASIS OF RACE, SEX, COLOR, ETHNICITY OR NATIONAL ORIGIN IN THE OPERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, PUBLIC EDUCATION OR PUBLIC CONTRACTING.

Followed by a couple common sense exceptions.

Ward Connerly recently visited Arizona and talked at length why this is overdue. The one that struck a chord with me was the Michigan school of law case decided at the supreme court on a 5-4 decision with Arizona's Sandra Day O'Connor casting the deciding vote in the wrong direction. I could not believe such an abomination was approved by the SCOTUS. The admission process gave more weight to a specific race than any other other factor (LSAT scores, grades, etc.) Instead they were mostly interested that applicants were of the correct race.

On what planet is this fair? YES on 107.

Prop 109 makes hunting and fishing a constitutional right. While the ALF's wail this isn't necessary, history shows it clearly is. We have seen time and time again where unelected bureaucrats issue rules interfering with hunts and allowing populations to run wild. Hunting is a valuable component of wildlife management. [See also New Jersey Bear Hunt]. So this comes down to putting a constitutional block in front of bureaucrats doing HSUS' bidding. I'm not a hunter but I vote YES.

Prop 110 deals with a technical point on swapping state land in favor of protecting our military bases. I have mixed feelings here. While our military bases bring in a lot of money to the economy, and while Arizona's 350-VFR-days-a-year climate is the most efficient flight training environment, I'd also like to put my skidmarks on those runways! The former Williams AFB is now a public use airport and I've marked them several times. Luke AFB however is still a very active training base and I've only marked the runway once (and had to sign my life away for the permission). If luke were to close, it'd also become a public airport and I like that. Still it's better for the nation and the state as is. I vote YES.

Prop 111 retitles the "Secretary of state" to "Lieutenant Governor" and requires they run as a ticket. Currently Arizona has no Lieutenant Governor. Instead the Secretary of State succeeds to the Governor. This proposition would require that both Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a ticket. Now recent history shows the Secretary of State has assumed the office with surprising frequency. Napolitano was vehemently against any pro-gun laws and vetoed several. If a D had succeeded her hasty departure just ahead of state bankruptcy AZ would not have constitutional carry or a number of pro-gun laws today. I vote NO.

Prop 112 changes the deadline for propositions from 4 months ahead of the election to 6. Eh, more time to consider is better. And if you miss this bus there will be another coming soon. So + on the upside and not much downside. I vote YES.

Prop 113 Right to a secret ballot.

SECTION 36. THE RIGHT TO VOTE BY SECRET BALLOT FOR EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION IS FUNDAMENTAL AND SHALL BE GUARANTEED WHERE LOCAL, STATE OR FEDERAL LAW PERMITS OR REQUIRES ELECTIONS, DESIGNATIONS OR AUTHORIZATIONS FOR EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION.

This again falls into "On what planet" category. On the list of fundamental freedoms, the right to a secret ballot is pretty high. Think back to why we have a private ballot. It allows each voter to cast their ballot according to their interests without outside interference. However when the ballot is public, one side or the other can "influence" the vote towards their interest and away from the individual's interest. I vote YES.

Prop 203 "Medicinal Marijuana" gives more grief than any other issue on this ballot. On one side, The woman that bore me died after three years battling cancer. We visited a couple weeks before she died. One evening we had dinner ready (roast chicken from the local market) but all she could stomach was all of one chicken wing. The lack of nourishment had to have played into her longevity. Also the SCQueen had a friend going through stage IV breast cancer and sent out for some weed. It kept her appetite up and kept her strength up a couple weeks longer.

OTOH, seems anyone and their brother is qualified to write a prescription for pot and there is no measure of the potency (dosage per hit) and many (most?) of the scripts are written to 17-35 YOs for "chronic pain". The most credible argument against the prop is that the quantity allows for something like 10 doobs per day and smoking that much pot would qualify the same person as chronically disabled and hence eligible for welfare.

The libertarian in me is in favor of expanding individual rights and I can see the potential benefits for victims of devastating diseases. However the potential trail to welfare fraud has me concerned. I made my call, you make yours! (no recommendation)

Prop 302 Diverting Cigarette taxes to the general fund. A 2006 proposition raised taxes on cigarettes some $0.80 per pack with schools as the beneficiary. However the funds are administered without any legislative oversight and questions remain about how they administer the funds. Now I'm not a smoker and never have been, hence I don't pay the tax. Still I'd rather see the tax and spending board eliminated completely. Short of that, I'm in favor of eliminating the arbitrary spending board and closing the deficit. YES on 302

School budget overrides: NO EFFIN WAY! Our school populations are shrinking. They have grown addicted to budget overrides which turn up on our tax bills. Few tax dollars actually make it to the classroom. Just look at the list of stuff your child's teacher asks you to provide for their class. These overrides provide 6 digit salaries and walnut paneled offices to administrators. JUST SAY NO.

UPDATE: Vox calls 'em here.

The Four Rules

2010-10-16T08:36:00.001-07:00

This week was Spring Break for the SCSon. We took the opportunity to trek to NorCal to visit the SCDad. We learned my nephew and namesake is entering BoyScouts/Cubscouts/Tigerscouts or what ever is age appropriate for a 6YO. He's attending camp soon and especially excited that he will get to shoot an airgun. The SCSon seized upon the learning opportunity to introduce the four rules.

The SCSon drew up a paper gun and a sight picture as training aids. He then instructed the nephew in the four rules and brought him up to demonstrate his understanding. He also gave him a crash course in Eddie Eagle (What should you do if you come across a gun? Stop, don't touch, leave the area and tell an adult).

Unfortunately the nephew was unable to recite the four rules when prompted. But no matter... Many need to hear something several times for it to sink in. The SCNephew has now heard the four rules (and associated consequences for failure to abide) at least twice so he's pre-exposed.

We've also promised to take him shooting next time he's in town. Of course that means Mom & Dad will also shoot and that will also be a new experience for them, making two more Californians against gun control.

For the sake of completeness, here are the four rules:
1. The gun is always loaded. That means...
2. We never point the gun at anything we do not intend to destroy. Also..
3. Finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target. And...
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond.

Mark your Calendars...

2010-09-27T19:20:00.004-07:00

Mr. Monster Hunter himself will be in Scottsdale signing books.

2pm October 24th at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale.

You say it like it's a bad thing

2010-09-10T21:34:00.002-07:00

How "progressive" am I? 75/400 "Very conservative".

I'm OK with that...

Gotta Love Arizona

2010-09-04T01:02:00.002-07:00

The SCQueen's ToDo list for today included visiting a local pool supply company about 20 miles up the road to pick up a part for the pool. However a neighbor stopped by pointing out the significant police presence in the neighborhood. They were looking for a couple guys wandering about breaking into homes.

She decided to stay close to the SandCastle on guard duty and instead called the pool company asking "can I pay for the part over the phone and have my sister (who works nearby) pick it up?". the pool company lady declines "we really don't do that". Ok, could sound like a con but we aren't talking about big bucks (OTOH, it is a pool part so it's priced about 10x what it should be).

But the SCQueen presses the question explaining why she doesn't make the trip herself (bad guys may be in the neighborhood, husband is away and she's guarding the Castle.)

"Do you have a gun?" the pool company lady asks. SCQueen explains the bigger question is "which gun". Pool Lady approves and OK's the transaction.

I bet if she had answered the question along the lines of "No, I don't like guns", Pool Company Lady might have served up a lecture that can be summed up as "When seconds count, the police are minutes away."

Gotta love Arizona!