Whipping it out…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Well, OG started it, and since I don’t have anything ‘positive’ to post, I’ll play along…


I’m gonna (once again) be an oddball, since I have actually have TWO carry knives, home knife and away knife…


On the left is my ‘away’ knife, a SOG Twitch II; on the right is my ‘home’ knife, an old Benchmade 154CM.  Both of them are kept sharp (see my earlier post about the thumb)…  I also carry a little Victronix for the scissors, tweezers, and toothpick.


Why two knives?  Simple, I’ve had that Benchmade for almost 20 years, and don’t want it to get ‘five finger discounted’ out of my luggage when I’m traveling.  The SOG is a nice knife, but I’m not really attached to it…


So that’s my pocket carries…

Cancer and our ‘bits’…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Come on people pony up a few bucks, this IS for a great cause (us guys, we ARE kinda important to y’all, aren’t we???); the numbers aren’t good if ONE in SIX is fated to get one of these cancers…

A few symptoms to watch out for:
  • Weak or interrupted flow of urine.
  • Frequent urination (especially at night).
  • Trouble urinating.
  • Pain or burning during urination.
  • Blood in the urine or semen.
  • A pain in the back, hips, or pelvis that just won’t go away.
  • Painful ejaculation.
The above symptoms could point to prostate cancer (or another condition.) See a doctor!
A few more symptoms:
  • Pain in the testicles.
  • Lumps / masses in the testicles (with or without pain).
  • Swelling in the testicles.
  • Persistant lower back or stomach pain.
  • Loss of sexual desire.
  • Increased breast size.
These symptoms could point to testicular cancer or prostate cancer.

See a doctor, and get your PSAT checked every year!!!

And a big tip of the kilt to the folks who were good enough to pony up goodies to support the cause!!!


A $250 gift card to Brownell’s, courtesy of Larry Weeks. Every gunnie’s heart goes pitter pat when the Big Brown Truck of Happiness pulls up with a package from Brownell’s!
A $250 gift certificate from Hornady Ammunition
Free registration to a pistol training class from Todd Louis Green. Carry a handgun for personal defense? Aspiring competitive shooter? Consider yourself a competent shooter, but just want to polish your skills? Then you could benefit from professional training, and Todd is one of the best in the business.
A $100 gift certificate from official Kilted to Kick Cancer sponsor, Alt.Kilt. Put it toward one of their Steampunk-inspired kilts shown here, or any of their other awesome custom kilts!
A free pair of Magnum Stealth Force 8.0 SZ CT WPI tactical boots, from Magnum Boots USA. Sorry, the Magnum boots are for U.S. residents only, folks.
Folks, I don’t care if you hit the links at the top of my sidebar, or the ones at your favorite blogger’s site, but please help out with this fund drive. We (all us guys) thank you for your participation, which will allow OUR continued participation…
Just sayin…

Trigger time!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Met up with Navy One at a ‘reasonable’ hour, drug him out to my range and ran him through a selection of shooty things… 🙂


Since he’d been complaining about not getting to shoot any ‘good’ guns, I dug a few out, the match Ruger MKII, the Python, and a couple of 1911s.


.22, .38, .357, .45 in the pistols, and a couple of other folks let him shoot various things too. All I can say is ‘kid in a candy store 🙂


Drug him over to the rifle range, and did it all over again, .22 (39A), 5.56 (M4gery), .308 (SCAR).   Some of the results are presented below!





This a one of those reduced size 25 foot targets pushed out to 100 yards.  I shot a couple of head shots with the M4gery, then gave it to N1, and once he figured out where to ‘look’ after he got used to my sight picture, he tore it up (understanding that he’d never shot an M4 until today).  I did plink a couple of .308 rounds into the target, and the barely touching shot on top of the head is mine (forgot I was sighted 2 in high), adjusted down and put one through the right eye, and called it quits…


As N1 said, we ‘took care’ of that target!  And he was smiling ear to ear 🙂  


Ironically, as we were cleaning up two more folks showed up, and it turns out I know one of them from JAPAN no less… sigh…


Good times, good conversation, and thanks for lunch N1!


I’m gonna enjoy the rest of the day, and clean tomorrow. N1 is a good guy, and he ‘may’ end up back in this area, if so, we’ve got an add to the blog shoots!

Mama Told Me Not To Come – Roseanna Vitro…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

One of my high school classmates, Roseanna has been singing for years, and is REALLY good! She is also one hellva good person! She’s always had a passion for Jazz, and has performed for the troops and as an ambassador for Jazz throughout the world… Take a few minutes and enjoy her creativity!!!

Medal of Honor, SGT. Dakota Meyer USMC…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to


CORPORAL DAKOTA L. MEYER
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

For service as set forth in the following
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on 8 September 2009. Corporal Meyer maintained security at a patrol rally point while other members of his team moved on foot with two platoons of Afghan National Army and Border Police into the village of Ganjgal for a pre-dawn meeting with village elders. Moving into the village, the patrol was ambushed by more than 50 enemy fighters firing rocket propelled grenades, mortars, and machine guns from houses and fortified positions on the slopes above. Hearing over the radio that four U.S. team members were cut off, Corporal Meyer seized the initiative. With a fellow Marine driving, Corporal Meyer took the exposed gunner’s position in a gun-truck as they drove down the steeply terraced terrain in a daring attempt to disrupt the enemy attack and locate the trapped U.S. team. Disregarding intense enemy fire now concentrated on their lone vehicle, Corporal Meyer killed a number of enemy fighters with the mounted machine guns and his rifle, some at near point blank range, as he and his driver made three solo trips into the ambush area. During the first two trips, he and his driver evacuated two dozen Afghan soldiers, many of whom were wounded. When one machine gun became inoperable, he directed a return to the rally point to switch to another gun-truck for a third trip into the ambush area where his accurate fire directly supported the remaining U.S. personnel and Afghan soldiers fighting their way out of the ambush. Despite a shrapnel wound to his arm, Corporal Meyer made two more trips into the ambush area in a third gun-truck accompanied by four other Afghan vehicles to recover more wounded Afghan soldiers and search for the missing U.S. team members. Still under heavy enemy fire, he dismounted the vehicle on the fifth trip and moved on foot to locate and recover the bodies of his team members. Corporal Meyer’s daring initiative and bold fighting spirit throughout the 6-hour battle significantly disrupted the enemy’s attack and inspired the members of the combined force to fight on. His unwavering courage and steadfast devotion to his U.S. and Afghan comrades in the face of almost certain death reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
Sgt (then Cpl) Meyer did his job, and does not believe he is a hero, instead deflecting the honor to those who didn’t come back and those who helped him.  Thankfully, he and military members like him continue to join and serve the military.
Hand Salute!
Ready Two.
You can read the unvarnished story HERE, thanks to Military times.

Dear Tech Support:

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources.  In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity.  Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Golf 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.

I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn’t work on Wife 1.0. Please help!

Thanks,

A Troubled User.


REPLY:

Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that men complain about.  Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!!  It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0.  It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this.  Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support.  I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation.  I suggest installing the background application “Yes Dear” to alleviate software augmentation.  The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance.  Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.  However, be very careful how you use these programs.
Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag, Nag 9.5.  Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software.  I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0!



WARNING!!!  DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3.  This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of luck,

Tech Support


What can I say… 🙂  A little humor to brighten up what has been a pretty lousy week for a lot of folks…

Knuffingen Airport: The world’s smallest…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
SIX years and 3.5 MILLION Euros, but a truly fascinating model airport!

Take five and enjoy the German’s engineering ability and design! Modeled on Hamburg, GE airport, if you’re curious. 40 aircraft an 90 vehicles move around the ‘airport’, including takeoffs and landings!

Simply amazing… 🙂

Remember…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
WTC   AA11   UA175   Pentagon   AA77   Shanksville   UA93



Budweiser just replayed this commercial for the second time ever, and at the end added the words “We did not forget”…  Class act…  

Upsides…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Traveling a lot has many bad points and a ‘few’ good points…


Two high points of the last trip were getting to meet Navy One, and getting a decent lunch out of the deal 🙂 We talked about the Navy, our respective career patterns, and the ‘joys’ of blogging… Truly a nice guy, and worth the read- And yes, he’s as nuts as he appears to be on his blog…LOL


The other high point was actually caused by the power outage in SOCAL Thursday night.  I was privileged to be able to spend an hour or so with some veterans of the 6th Bomb Group (or 6th Bombardment Group) depending on who you were talking to.  One of many links can be found HERE.  These ol’ boys and their wives were in San Diego for a reunion and being ‘typical’ aviators, knew there would be free booze… 🙂


As I posted, the Hilton did an outstanding job of putting on a free spread for us, and I had plopped down in the lounge with a retired Marine Gunny when four of these gents wandered in, took one look at the food (I do remember hearing the ‘rabbit food’ comment) and making a beeline for the bar.  We were at the far back table, and these guys wandered over and asked if they could sit, so we got up to move, but they waved us back down.  


We both commented on their ‘crew’ hats, and started chatting with them.  When they found out we were both veterans, the ‘sea’ stories…er, wait a minute, what does the Army call sea stori… oh never mind…


They talked about flying off Saipan and Tinian, and how touchy the birds were.  I mentioned I had met Dutch Vankirk when I picked up a book on the 509th and Col. Tibbets at the ‘military’ opening of Udvar Hazy at Dulles.  I mentioned I was amazed by the 750 miles plus from Saipan to Iwo basically in ground effect due to the overweight airplanes and the Gunny mentioned that his dad had fought on Iwo.  After that they really opened up to us, and told even more stories. 


Two that stand out- The first is that last year the had some old WWII airplanes available for ‘viewing’ and one of their number was going to get a flight in a T-6 Texan.  It seems there was some hate and discontent (at least with these four) over the guy that got the short straw (e.g. he cheated somehow)…  About this time the ‘guilty’ party (all 5’5″ and maybe 120 lbs) showed up at the table!  We made room and the story continued; the ‘instructor’ pilot was 81 years old, and “Jack” was 88!!!  So the guy telling the story says something to the effect of, “We watched the takeoff, and they start climbing out, and then the start playing. We figured he was giving Jack a show, and about 10 minutes later they come in and land, and it’s a PERFECT greaser!!!  So we walk over, and they are laughing and the ‘instructor’ is asking Jack how to make landings like that!”  


At this point Jack, with an urchin like grin (if an 89 year old can look like an urchin) says, “Hell, it’s like a bicycle, it just took me a coupla minutes to remember things, and I had over 500 hours in the back seat of those damn things as an instructor, and I always COULD land it better from the back seat.”


One of the others pipes up, but you hadn’t flow in 28 years, and Jack comes back with a comment about how ‘certain’ things are easy to remember, and they all busted out laughing…


The second-  To a man, they are totally disgusted with the current ‘revisionist’ history being put out there about WWII and their actions, as most of these guys also did tours in ETO, before coming to B-29s and WESTPAC.  They all said what they did was right, and they were there to WIN a war, minimize US losses and they had all seen/heard about the Japanese atrocities, and knew what they were doing was a critical piece to that effort.  They talked about their own losses, and how those have been minimized, and again how touchy the B-29 was to fly, especially in hot/heavy conditions, at low altitudes and occasionally high altitude bombing missions… And these guys by a large didn’t have a lot of hours either in the air or in the birds.  Jack said he might have had 1000 hours total, and half of that was as an instructor and he had maybe 120 hours in 29s when he was designated as the A/C.  The consensus was the night mining missions were the ‘worst’, since the crew had to be on their toes the whole time, and the best missions were the POW camp drops (which I’d never even heard of), where they dropped CARE packages on the Japanese POW camps holding prisoners. I truly wish I had brought a tape recorder with me, and had thought to get their names, as those gentlemen and their compatriots are truly the Greatest Generation…  Gentlemen, I can only offer my deepest thanks and appreciation for what you did!!!

This is interesting…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

The ENTIRE county of San Diego just lost power… Cause unknown, but this ain’t good! This from SDGE-

There’s a major power outage in the region. SDG&E crews are working as quickly and safely as possible. We don’t have an estimated restoration time. The power could be out through the night and into tomorrow. The outage has affected street lights. Please drive safely and treat the street lights as a four-way stop. If you have a personal family emergency plan, please activate it now.

1946- still no power apparently the SOCAL grid is down. Kudos to the Hilton Harbor Island, they’ve brought out food, water, cylumes and flashlights! Food, water, ice cream and beer are FREE!!! They are running emerg gen to keep basic stuff up and going out of their way to provide for guests!!!

Posted in WTF