The People Have Spoken! (Responses to Comments)

Let's get to it...

Someone asks about the no good, very bad open carry moron:
blog success! I (someone who thinks all guns should be banned) even noted the cross draw failure here...knowledge obtained from this blog!
did you take that pic?
//
Nah I got that from the internet. No open carry where I live. We used to have open carry laws in CA but the open carry asshats exercised their rights to be asshats and people were like, why are those weirdos wearing guns at starbucks? And then they changed the laws. Good one, open carry idiots!

//
The other comments were generally positive. You found my fear funny. I would think it were more funny if it happened to someone else. Ugh that was horrible. 

And also you love kittens. For real I love kittens and cats too. I am thinking about getting a pet but it's too hard with work travel and my small apartment. But at some point, definitely. I miss having a pups or a cat that does funny dog or cat things. 

Thanks for reading. 

Pull it Together

Friend of the Blog Scotty McGenius sent this picture of his pups a few weeks ago but I didn't get a chance to post it. He says they go walking and sometimes her tongue hangs out. And then this happens. I laughed.

Bonus advertising for Bolter Construction. They do great work, btw.

Thanks for reading.

New Relationship

Pups found a new home. Be happy for him.

I Thought We Covered This: One and Only by Cherry Cherry Boom Boom

Here's a little slice of pop confection that I thought I had posted on the blog already. File this one under "sad songs with happy music". That's my kind of jam.

I was pretty sure I posted it but in a sort-of-not-really-very-thorough search of the blog turned up no hits. Shame, that. Let's make this right immediately if not sooner.

Pretty good video considering the budget. Song has been out for a couple years but hey you know this was recently added to soundcloud? You do now. Enjoy.

Hot Jamz: Love Me Again by John Newman (Vijay & Sofia Zlatko, Anas.A Remix)

You may remember John Newman because he sang the vocal on this anthem. (Love that song.)

This other jam has been out for a while but I was really busy haven't been able to track it down. This is slightly less danceable, but more fun to sing along with. Get involved.

Free download too, if you're into that.

Bootleg Time! Dome Counts by Rico Puestel

Been a while since we had a straight up bootleg on the blog. This track has about 1400 listens in the month that it's been on Soundcloud so it's not getting much attention. There's a limited audience for superb Depeche Mode hooks from the 80s and a deep house beat. Whatever. We got it on repeat here at the office. I like that the producer clipped the (Dave?) 'IT'S A COMPETITIVE WORLD' part of the chorus and only kept the (Martin?) vocal. That's what I call an improvement.

No free download is a minor :/  You can listen for free if you have an internet connection, you just can't put it on your walkman ipod to go. 

Do You Like Cute Babies?

Look at the Baby LOOK AT HER SHE IS SO CUTE

Hey do you like pictures of cute babies with awesome hair? Well then this post is for YOU.

That's a couple babes right there. Friend Jeffy did pretty well for himself. On the other hand, Jeffy having a daughter is proof that karma is real and she is a bitch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

An Idiot Being Idiotic

This Jackass Right Here

Gun rights are a divisive issue. Even within the gun community there are people that are so fucking dumb you can't believe it think you should be able to open carry everywhere you go. Like, fr'instance, your local Best Buy. (Open carry means that you can carry the gun out in the open, like a uniformed police officer, as opposed to concealed carry, which gives you a permit to carry a gun as long as it is - you guessed it - concealed.)

Any time those acid washed jeans ----->
aren't the worst thing in a photograph you know you have really pulled some bullshit. 

I have covered this subject before, when those pathetic losers took their combat rifles down to Chipotle to assert their gun rights. All it did was upset people. Come the fuck on.

The best part about open carry is how adamant the open carry crowd is about being able to do it. "It's my god given right and my constitutional right and open carry keeps the criminal element down and blah blah blah." Seriously if you want to give yourself the worst headache try listening to their bullshit for 2 minutes. I cannot handle it and I am very active in the shooting sports. Another red flag: when a group of die hard gun owners (like the concealed carry community) is looking at you like you're a fucking idiot then you're even more wrong than those horrid jeans.

So what else is awesome about this picture besides the jeans and carrying a gun in line at Best Buy? Well, if you're a gun enthusiast you may recognize the piece of shit Ruger SR in a Blackhawk Serpa holster set up for cross draw. That's lulz piled on lulz piled on lulz. The Ruger is one step up from useless junk but hey, if that's your thing then go crazy. You know who buys a Ruger handgun? The same type of person that buys a Serpa. Do you know who buys Serpas? People that shoot themselves. Those holsters are banned by most ranges. Don't be that person. Please. Get a real retention holster. And cross draw? Srsly?

The guy may have a medical issue or something that requires cross draw but how is he going to get his gun out of that Serpa holster? He probably has no idea. *sigh*

Sometimes exercising your right hurts your cause more than it helps.

Busy Things

Long time no talk. I have blog stuff piling up but I've been busy and stuff. By 'and stuff' I mean that I hurt my back at the gym and have been in no kind of mood for the blog. It was a bad several weeks. This past weekend was a low point. Crippling pain and limited mobility. Yuck.

I'm doing PT now and that is helping a little bit. Also I'm taking an extended break from the gym. That's probably helping too. Not that you care about any or all of this but hey when you get a blog you can write about what's bugging you. I could have written 10,000 words on being depressed but who wants to read that? About the same number of people that want to live it, amiright?

Work is good. I still have a job. Sometimes I travel. I'll keep you posted.

What are you looking at?

KITTEN I LOVE YOU

Kids these days, I swear.

Why are they looking at the dishwasher?

David vs. Goliath

This has been in my inbox for about 10 months. (I've been busy.) Hat tip to Big Cheese for the link.

Malcolm Gladwell revisits David vs. Goliath. Some people get down on Gladwell because he tends to oversimplify, and also that some of his positions are much disputed (the 10,000 hours thing, especially). The New Yorker has a diligent fact checking staff so his articles tend to be a better read than the books. Anyway: video.
Enjoy.

It's the Thought that Counts

Strong life lesson right there. The box with the writing on it really brings it home.

Cribbed this straight from Alligator Sunglasses. 

Throwback Thursday (late): Forever and Ever, Amen by Randy Travis

This song came out in 1987. Country song of the year, according to wikipedia. I tried to hate on it back then but secretly thought it was great. It was the only country song I liked until I heard Sonora Death Row by Robert Earl Keen (that song gets its own post).

Hadn't thought about this song since ~1988 but they played it in between sets at a country music show I went to this past week. For some reason (I'm old?) it sounded really good to me. So here we are.

Sloth

This was stuck in my Outbox for months. Silly iphone.

It's a drawing of a sloth.
No reason.

Nice Clothes, Lame Copy: Why I Won't Wear Triple Aught Design

Triple Aught Design is a company based in San Francisco that apparently makes some pretty cool gear. It is well designed, form follows function, low profile and (as far as I can tell) well made.

I refuse to wear it.

Their marketing copy reads like something out of a J. Peterman / Dynamic Pie Concepts wet dream. For example:

"Encountering a cold front mid-mission requires preemptive plans for being properly prepared and the right performance tools at your disposal to ensure success."

What the fuck? Maybe I'm cherry picking - let's try another one, this time for pants:

"This quick drying, packable, lightweight 100% nylon fabric ensures that you can move seamlessly through multiple environments, endure changing climates and easily transition to water-based missions."

Nope. Water-based missions? The fuck are you talking about? It goes on in this vein for most of their products. It's ridiculous, which is too bad because the clothes are right in my wheelhouse.

Thing is: I don't go on water-based missions or encounter cold fronts mid-mission. I just, you know, do shit. Often outside, usually with a firearm, sometimes in the rain or changing weather, and always in some type of multi-purpose clothing, a combination of Crye Precision / Arc'Teryx / Icebreaker.

People I know that actually do go on 'water-based' missions would never, ever talk like that about clothes. TAD is marketing to people that live in some kind of weird dot MIL fantasyland. It's not a mission - it's a trip to the grocery and I want to stay dry. Or it's a long hike and it might get cold on the way there or the way back.

I'm all for situational awareness and being prepared but when do you cross the line into being a complete and utter yahoo? I think it's right around the time you start reading that copy from TAD and believe that it is sexy instead of just overwrought and ridiculous.

Everything Old is New Again: Exile - Kiss You All Over (Starkiller Edit)

This is not the hottest slow jam - the edit could have omitted the mediocre chorus intro, as most of the mixes that incorporate this edit tend to do. No matter. There's a lot to like here: it keeps the 70's tempo of the original and makes it danceable, that guitar riff, and the big ending. Enjoy. 

When You Gaze Into the Abyss

A couple weeks ago I spent the night in San Diego for a conference. I stayed at the Hard Rock downtown. It was very well appointed, modern, and expensive. Kind of odd, 'edgy' interior though. To wit:

When looking for something I dropped I got down to look under the bed. Saw some legs and thought there was a dead body under there. I looked up towards the head and a person was looking back at me and I thought there was someone hiding under the bed and now I was going to have to kill them and/or run away or both.

Oops! Just kidding about the monster! The bed went all the way to the ground and for some completely unknown reason there was a 4" strip of reflective material around the bottom. WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY WOULD YOU PUT A MIRROR UNDER THE BED? FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK I ALMOST TRIED TO FIGHT THE MIRROR.

Go ahead and laugh at the video - someday you will see a monster and you will understand.