Back from California

I got bogged down with life and vacation but I'm back now. I shall resume blogging this week (including a rundown and some thoughts on the pistol shoot my Dad, brother and I did while I was home in California). Oh, and pictures of the folks puppy will be coming if I can convince them to send some to me.

It's going to snow

So I guess there's supposed to be this winter storm thing hitting tonight. Last time I checked, this was the northeast where things like that happen during winter. So, umm... relax already. What the heck is the deal with bread and milk prior to a snow storm anyway? Folks out here are very, very strange sometimes.

First shoot with the new pistol AAR

Took the Para Carry 12 out for a first shoot (FINALLY) today. I was joined by 3 coworkers, 2 of whom owned guns of their own (worshipers at the altar of Glock). One person who came had fired a gun only once before in his life.

The Para is brand new and I've never put a round through it. The total by the end of our 2.5 hour play session had 200 rounds through it and another 300 rounds combined through the 3 Glocks that were on hand.

The Para performed reasonably well. I was expecting some issues starting out. It wasn't broken in, and with the temperature inside the indoor shooting range hovering around 40 or so, and the outdoor temperature being 20, the gun was pretty cold.

I also was working with the new glasses covered by shooting glasses. Needless to say there were to many new things here for me to overly worry about accuracy.

Starting off I had plenty of jams. The first magazine had a failure to feed. The second magazine went smoothly. A repeat of the first magazine had several jams this time, mainly feeding problems. This continued for about half the shoot as I debated whether it was the ammo, the magazine, the pistol or combos thereof. Finally I just took the magazine that seemed linked to the biggest issues out of the equation all together. The gun smoothed right up and the last few rounds of shooting with the good magazine functioned smoothly. Time will tell for sure, but I'm pretty sure the first magazine is going to need some work. On a side note, 100 of the 200 rounds fired were Winchester. That ammo seemed to produce the most malfunctions. The last 50 rounds were Blazers and they had zero malfunctions with the good magazine.

The Para has the Light Double Action trigger on it. This leads to a smooth pull for me and, as I got used to the gun and the awkward vision setup from the glasses, I found that I was routinely grouping my shots in an area maybe a little bit bigger than a fifty cent piece. This was pretty much true for all distances from 10 to 25 yards. We didn't shoot any further out than that, this time. I did find that either I or the gun was shooting low. I suspect it's me. When I focused on trying to correct for shooting low, I started shooting to the left of center. Clearly, in all my downtime from shooting I have developed a problem with my grip and sight picture.

The new guy had a ton of fun shooting all the different guns. Sadly, with mine he also learned more than necessary about malfunction clearance. However on the drive back from Salisbury all he could talk about was how badly he wanted a gun of his own to go target shooting with. Score another convert for the good guys!

In conclusion, I think that with the gun close to being broken in I really like it. I have to work on the bad magazine, really make certain that I have the kinks worked out the gun, and then I need to spend some time getting my old mojo back. Fun times all around, regardless.

Now if you all will excuse me, I have some cleaning to do. :)

(Unedited) The improbability of surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

Yes, I've been playing way too much L4D on the weekends.

I had an idea for a survival short story I was going to write this weekend. Thinking on it last night, I came to some interesting conclusions.

Character: A late twenties male investment banker who lives in Boston, and spent his whole life in that general area of the country with exception of business travel, vacations, etc.

Setting: The Zombie Apocalypse

Goal: Surviving and getting to a safe place to rebuild/restart.

How the story has to end: He dies and becomes a Zombie. There is no other option for him.

Why?

The assumption is that this character is generally smart, quick witted, and probably a moderate democrat. This means that he's perfectly capable in the modern world. In fact, he's rather well off as his abilities have propelled him to great heights in the banking profession. And, like a surprisingly large number of Democrats that I know, he's reasonably well versed in some form of Karate.

When the Apocalypse hits it starts as a slow wave marching around the world (think Swine Flu but deadlier :D ). But, as is classical for a zombie story, a bite, a scratch, any form of wound at all is generally infectious and results in the individual becoming a zombie.

Now, luckily for our hero, he manages to avoid becoming undead in the initial outbreak. But the city is in ruins. Nothing is going to work. If you really think about an urban area in this sort of situation, he MUST get out. Municipal water supply will probably be tainted if it works at all. Who knows what sort of debris will be strewn around. No electricity... oh, and a city full of zombies. Take New Orleans after Katrina and add several hundred thousand zombies (that would be a great level for L4D 2).

Now since most transactions are electronic these days, our hero will not have much cash on hand. He won't have stockpiled any food, water, batteries, medical supplies, anything really. The last time he got gas was probably a week ago. Luckily he has close to a full tank since he normally would take the T into work. No weapons either. The only gun he's ever seen were in the movies and the one time he visited a brother who is in the army. Generally speaking he's pretty neutral on the gun issue. Knows nothing about them, can't see why you need them, but is okay with others having them (remember he's a moderate Dem).

So step one is he gets out of Boston. This is okay, he has gas and can get pretty far out of the city. Easy enough (assuming he doesn't get bitten by zombies on the way to his car and the roads aren't blocked.

Now he's probably going to try and city hop until he finds a safe location. He's an urbanite. Cities are "safe". Now, since he's quick witted and knows he's in a survival scenario, he does his best to bring what he has lying around with him. Some bottles of water (that he normally used when bike riding), some oil for his car (it was leaking last month), a couple of batteries and a flashlight (everyone has those). Etc.

The drive out of the city is going to be a pretty harrowing journey. Zombies are everywhere. Tunnels are blocked. He barely gets everything into his car and gets it started. Makes it out of the city okay but the roads have debris (cars, trucks, etc.) all over them. Slow going.

Now assume he passes out of MA into NY state (he's going generally west). He comes across a food store that seems generally untouched. Does he go in? Okay if he does, he grabs what food and water he can find. Smart. What about alcohol or chocolate? These are vices that probably don't cross his mind. He almost certainly will not consider them for their value in what has probably become a survivors bartering economy. And he has limited space. He does have the foresite to grab some empty gas cans that the store luckily had for sale. Even though without power anywhere and no money, he doesn't know how he's going to fill them.

Luck! He finds a gun store! Being luke warm about them he's still decided that long range protection is better than the risky hand to hand zombie fighting that is his only weapon right now. The store offers pistols, rifles, shotguns (a bunch of dead zombies and a shop keep who looks like he committed suicide rather than become one of them). Ammo. Magazines. Knives. Woohoo!

Now what's the best to take? How does it work? What ammo does it take (all those hundreds of boxes in different colors with strange numbers on them do not help him). How much can he carry. Can he find spare magazines for the correct weapon? Rifles? Does he realize that he might be able to barter with the ammo too?

He moves on. Fifty miles later he runs out of gas. Now he has to keep moving, and ditch everything save some water, food, and he decides to hold onto a pistol and a rifle.

Of course the story ends in him shooting as the zombies mob him. Doubtful he found a survivor enclave. It's a sad story. And his entire journey was essentially doomed from the start.

:(

Effectiveness of simulators

Okay, weird topic but...

How many would be interested in an article on the effectiveness of PC based simulators on training for the zombie onslaught?

The Big Tuna

So with today being my Friday off I proceeded north, along the coast to Kittery, Maine. Along the way I stopped in Portsmouth, NH for some lunch (Portsmouth Brewery Restaraunt, yum). But it was a historical sign that pulled me off the highway originally. After lunch I visited it.

Hull number 569. USS Albacore. An unexpected treasure. Yes, I went inside of her. The following pictures show her off a bit.

The forward berthing area (tight bunks)

Hatch to somewhere, I forgot to actually see where it went.

Chart room

Controls

Engine room (that thing running along the center is the propeller shaft housing.

A very fine rear if I say so myself.

View from starboard looking forward.

Quite a pretty little boat isn't it?

A quote borrowed because it is just that awesome.

"The pacifist helps give war its point, to make the exercise worthwhile, by allowing you to enslave him, to take his wife to serve yours, his daughters to warm your bed, and his sons as machine gun fodder, safe in the knowledge that he will not lift a hand to stop you, lest he risk compromising his "principles.""


Colonel Kratman and R. Cruze Jr.

Yes, I do agree. --> TEMD