Gear

CRKT, I don’t like them.

12 Comments

CRKT makes a lot of good looking blades… and they are popular with a lot of my friends and other Gun Owners who are into knives.  However there is something about CRKT that is a bit off.

For one thing, it’s their locks… or LAWKS as they say.  Gimmicky locking mechanisms don’t make a for a good blade.  A good blade is all about the blade.  And CRKT has some great looking ones, but the company takes shortcuts.  Steel quality, heat treatments… I don’t know what it is with these guys but every blade I’ve had from CRKT has gone dull faster than knife made from silly putty.  You take any CRKT knife and it can be made twice as good if they had got rid of the silly gimmicks and concentrated on making really good blades.  Like Buck.  It used to be that I’d not own a Buck.  Now I’ve purchased a couple and they are great knives.  Why?  They have great blades.  A knife is a sharp edge of metal… the cutting edge is the most important.  Everything else is just to make that edge usable.   Now I know others will say that they had great luck with their CRKT knives.  And that’s fine.  But I use my knives hard.  I’m not saying you don’t, just that my other knives hold their edges a lot better.

Government

It’s going to hurt?

9 Comments

It’s going to hurt he says.  What is going to really smart is the thrashing the Democrats are going to get come the 2012 elections.

The American Economy is a huge engine.  Extremely powerful.  Powerful enough to spin us, and to spin the economy of many other countries.  But ever since the Democrats took over Congress, it all started going downhill.  Then the Democrats took the White House as well and everything has gone to hell in a handbasket.  We hear the Whitehouse talk about all the jobs they have created… Horseshiat.   They don’t create jobs.  All the Government can do is to choke jobs.  Strangle growth.  I believe in this Nation… and I believe that it can be healed and can regain its momentum.   And a lot faster than the Democrats think.  The Administration needs to take the weight off this great engine.  But they are not going to do it.  What is going to have to happen is to get a regime change.  When that happens, we’ll get some momentum back.

 

Uncategorized

Uprising: UK

1 Comment

It looks like Uprising: UK is going to come out to be about 300 pages.   A much more manageable sized book.  While I am going through and basically rewriting it, I am being careful to give it more atmosphere.  Uprising: US was basically all about the action.  UK is going to be more about the atmosphere and I want to give it more tension building up to the action and then make that action sudden and brutal.

Some scenes in U:UK were very tight, fast, and then we jumped ahead.  Well, I want to make some of these scenes bigger.  Such as when there was a downed aircraft and a missing character.  That scene needs to be expanded.   Then there is the death of a different character, and that should probably get more time as well.   More visual, more detail, and make this story something more important than just an action/horror genre.   Because while U:UK has zombies in it, it’s not really a zombie story.  It takes a turn for the super natural… and I think it takes Uprising to a new, higher level.

The stories as written by the other Uprising authors, are being worked on… and when they are finished, these are going to be some works that you will not want to miss.  In all honesty, they are some of the best writing I’ve ever read.   And this makes me feel strange.   I kinda think they have done a better job than I have done… I started this, created this Uprising Universe, and these are the guys that have taken it and run with it…  Which makes me the George Lucas of Zombies.  Neat.  Now I need to grow a ridiculous mop of hair, a huge beard, and wear flannel.    Okay, no… I wont go there.  But this does make me think… who is my Jar-Jar?  I think that would be Musket.  Musket is my Jar-Jar.

The next books in the Uprising Series is going to be in Russia… and then to China where the Uprising was all started.  But I don’t know how it all ends.   We shall have to wait and see.

Uncategorized

The Eagle

3 Comments

I watched an interesting movie about a Roman Centurion who takes it upon himself to recover the Eagle totem of the lost 9th Legion.  I thought it was very well done and was quite interesting.   To a point.

The film makers did a great job on the Romans.  They took all sorts of time creating everything to look historically accurate.  And then they take the Romans north of Hadrian’s Wall and it all turned to crap.   Evidently the film makers want the Romans to look clean and shiny and the Scots to look like they are soggy and smeared in scat.  Until they get very far north and run into the Huron Tribe of Native Americans.  They called the tribe the Seal Tribe, supposedly some primitive Celts of some sort, but I forgot I was watching The Eagle and thought I was watching Last of the Mohicans.    I take umbrage at this.  The Scots of this time were indeed rather primitive and rustic… but they didn’t look like Indians and they didn’t shave their heads and they didn’t build silly little tents on the edges of north facing cliffs.  The film makers had a hard time filming on that location because of wind and rain blowing down their tents and such.   That should be a clue.  If you are wearing layers of Columbia Arctic Gear, Rain Gear and you have to keep putting the set back together… you can probably imagine that the Early Scots in that area were not shaving their heads, running around naked with ash smeared all over them and living in wig-wams.   They probably had long hair, wore a lot of furs, and built houses of some sort that could stand up to the weather they are living in.  Even the early Scots had a distinct culture and society.  They had standards of dress and hygiene.  Just because they were not Roman didn’t mean they were cave-men.

So The Eagle had great Romans… and the Scots were rubbish.

Uncategorized

I’m going to kill my Facebook account

12 Comments

I’ve decided that I am going to kill my Facebook account.  I’m going to switch to Google+.  I don’t really know why I did Facebook in the first place… but I kind of liked it.  And then all the sudden I started getting Friend Requests from not just people who I don’t know… but also from Companies I never heard of.  If you are company that wants to be my friend – give me something.  A gesture.  Not access to my Friends List.   It’s just all too unwieldy now.  With Google+ I’m only going to accept people who I actually know.  If I don’t know you… that’s too bad.  My friends on WTA and such are welcome, Family of course, but if you are from Romania and I don’t know you and can’t pronounce your name… I’m sorry.

Probably by the end of the month I’ll kill my Facebook account.

Automotive

Cars I want:

10 Comments

If I had the means to build an automotive collection that rivals my gun collection… I’d have a few cars that I don’t think most fellows would expect.
A Jeep Rubicon, and a classic full sized Wagoneer.
Mazda Miata.
BMW M3, and a 2002.
Porsche 944S2, and a Cayman.
Toyota Tacoma 4 door, and an FJ.
A Ford Police Interceptor.

There would be some others as well, such as an Alfa Brera, and a tweaked 84 VW Rabbit GTI (again) … but the above list would be the first vehicles I’d go for.  The one car on the list that has surprised those that have first heard it, is the little Miata.  My wife’s extended family has a fellow that actually races them.  The suspension with some tweaking and the engine, with some tweaking produces a machine that is just incredible.  The balance and quick handling is astonishing… it is one of the last of the true sports cars.   To many people confuse a Sports Car for a GT car.  Two very different things.

 

Weapons

Novice Shooters and Big Guns

7 Comments

We see many videos like this on YouTube.  Here’s another one.
 

The people on this range are very lucky. Someone could have killed right there. Having this happen with a revolver is unusual. Granted. But there was a case years ago in Virginia where the novice shooter was trying a Desert Eagle and the gun gun recoiled up, pointed at the instructor behind her, and fired again… killing the instructor.
Let me be clear… this isn’t funny. Giving a novice shooter an overpowered gun for whatever reason isn’t funny. It’s serious, because bad things can happen and you can take someone interested in shooting and make them all the sudden not interested in shooting. So forget the Macho “This is my gun and you can’t handle it” bravado and stuff it. If you have a novice shooter that wants to try it, prepare them, make sure they use a good stance and they have a good grip. And only load 1 round. Just one. If they want to try it again, load another one. Once they get the handle on it, then you can let them roll off a whole mag or cylinder full.

Weapons

Glock’s 1911

8 Comments

This photo was posted on WeTheArmed.com:

A dream for some, a nightmare for others.

This is of course a Photoshop.  You can tell because it doesn’t have a funny grip angle.  But it does make one think.  A lightweight polymer framed 1911 with a super tough finish and awesome reliability…. that would be fantastic.  If only… Oh… Never mind.

I think it would be great if Glock did a 1911.  I really like SIG’s 1911’s… A company that shocked everyone by coming out with one… and now they are well proven and are arguably the best production 1911’s on the market.   I’d still like to see HK build one as well.   While I would love for Glock to play in the 1911 market, I’d first like to see them build the long rumored Glock Carbine.  Going back to the early days of TheFiringLine.com rumors from different corners of the internets spoke of Glock developing a Carbine.   This has never happened.   I wish it would.  Other companies are doing well making kits to turn Glocks into Carbines… I’d like to see Glock themselves do a dedicated model.   Pistol caliber carbines sell pretty well.  HK did some for law enforcement and grudgingly let civilians buy neutered versions.  Kel Tec and Beretta offer them and many shooters have turned their AR’s into pistol caliber carbines.   Crusader even did some.   So the market is there.

The Internet's Original Critic