Yesterday morning my wife and I went to look at some motorcycles.  Huge dealership not too far away.
Honda, Zukes, Yamaha, Kawasaki.  All bike types.  They had everything.
Many bikes to drool upon.
But one bike specifically caught my attention and held it and I’ve not been able to think of anything else.  It’s like it was designed for Me.  It fit.
The Star Bolt R Spec with the Ogre Green tank.
Its not a fancy bike. Or fast. Or anything special.  Its just a simple motorcycle.
I love it.  I’ll have to get one some day.

I hear and read the word “Testing” a lot in the gun community.
Stop it.
That word does not mean what you think it means.
You are not testing anything that hasn’t been tested already a million times over.  “Trying it out” or “Plinking” or “Blowing shit up” are usually the more accurate terms rather than testing.   They just don’t sound as self important.  To some guys, every time they thumb a round into a magazine, they are “Testing”.  No… No you are not.  You are not applying any Scientific Method, recording results, or following any metric to make any comparison to anything else other than the last shot you fired, which was probably from a different stance with a different grip at a different empty Mt. Dew bottle.
Testing is boring.  It is all about observation and control and measurement.   Running your mags dry as rapidly as you can generally only turns money into noise and yields little scientific results.
Some guys hate the use of the word Clip.  Well, we misuse the word Test a lot more and I’m starting to hate that too.   I love how someone is doing an “Accuracy Test” yet only fire Remington UMC FMJ ammo.  And then they do so free hand.  You want to test accuracy?  Really test accuracy?  Read any article by Charles Petty.  Look how he does it.  He uses a Ransom Rest quite often, or when not available, sandbags the pistol in an effort to remove as much human error as possible.  And then he fires controlled groups using 5 or more different loads.  That is a test.  That is boring as shit, but that is a test and that’s how you do it.  As much as his articles are as thrilling as a Restaurant’s Menu, the information is good and solid because the man knows how to run a test.
I’ve read too many reviews from guys who should know better, who test accuracy and reliability with only 1 box of ammo.  Just because your gun doesn’t like Remington UMC ammo doesn’t mean the gun is second rate.  It only proves Remington UMC ammo is shit.  I’ve had better consistency with Tula ammo.  And don’t give me “Well if the gun can’t run UMC” line.  Because crap ammo is crap ammo and has no bearing on the accuracy or reliability of the gun.  Guns are Ammo dependent and are only as good as the ammo you run in them.   In other words, if you are testing Crap, you are only running a Crap test.

This is why there are so many arguments on the Gun Forums about a gun.  Because no one is Testing.  Your experience with a Firearm and 1 box of ammo is too small of a sample size to base any judgement on.  Don’t fool yourself.  You have an Opinion based on a First Impression.  Nothing more.  Such a limited experience trying out the gun that belongs to a friend of a friend who let you run a Magazine or Two only gives you an impression based on whatever ammo  he had in that caliber.   And usually guys out shooting are not shooting “The Good Stuff”.   But don’t tell everyone that you “tested” it.  You got an Impression and nothing more.

Don’t get me wrong, guys.  There are many suspicious Mt. Dew Bottles out there that need to be shot.  That’s fine.  Just don’t call it ”Testing”.

There are differences between Utah and the East Coast.

1.  Pretty Girls Riding Bicycles and Smiling.  If you drive around Emerald Island, or pretty much anywhere along the East Coast that I’ve seen… you will see Pretty Girls riding bicycles.  They are all over the place.  And every one of them is smiling.  At first I thought this was lovely, but the consistency has become disturbing.  There is something Stepford’ish going on here.  I don’t trust it.  I stopped at a Stop Sign waiting for traffic when one of these Stepford Girls rode up and stopped next to me.  She said “Hi” and smiled.  She was gorgeous.  I screamed and drove off in a cloud of tire smoke.

2.  If you buy Grits and the Grocery Store the Cashier doesn’t look at you funny.

3.  They have Grits at the Grocery Store.   The real stuff.  Not Quaker Instant.

4.  BBQ is a Serious thing and it’s not to be taken lightly.  Do not – Do NOT – ask for Ketchup at a BBQ place.  I witnessed this happen to a guy who had New Jersey plates on his car.  The establishment’s Pit Master damn near jumped the counter.  No, I mean he was half way over when other people in the kitchen caught him and dragged him back.  I believe this is where the term “Ruckus” comes from.  The New Jersey Guy was ordered to leave or he’d be thrown on the grill next.  He left.  Very quickly.
Also, going along with this… Don’t be from another region and try to boast that your region’s BBQ is better than the one you are in.  You just eat your BBQ in the manner of the locals and shut your dirty heathen mouth.

5.  People will Abide.  In Utah, people are always in a rush.  No matter where or when, they are always in a rush.  No one just takes a moment to enjoy where they are at.  If there isn’t something going on, their noses are in some Electronic Device.   Here on the Coast, I’m seeing people just kicking back, taking in the awesomeness of their surroundings.  I did this myself.  Just sat on a bench by the docks, and watched the boats and people and the sea birds… You know what?  I could do that every day for the rest of my life.  It’s nice to just… Abide.  Turn off the Cell Phone.  Turn off the MP3 Player… and just be where you are.  People will do that here.  They don’t do that in Utah.

Our friend John Estes did this for us today.  Awesome.