Para Guns January 31, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Guns, Science & Technology.comments closed
Check this beauty out.
It’s the PX18.9 – a single action 9 mm 1911 style pistol with an 18 round magazine. A bit pricey at $1109, but man! It’s a nice, thick cut of Awesomeness, grilled to awesome perfection and slathered with awesome sauce.
Or not? I dunno – how does the Para Ordnance brand stack up out there among the rest?
iAm Ever So iPissed January 29, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Strange & Unusual.comments closed
My very, very expensive iPod is iCrapping out on me. Songs and album information are autodeleting themselves from the damn iThing. iCan’t add new songs to the iPOS either. It looks like iMight have to reformat the stupid thing and start all over.
iShit.
Oh, and why am iNot showing up in the Recent Comments? This is really iPissing iMe iOff.
Amazing Snooker Player January 26, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
I found this gem buried in the comments over at Fazed:
It’s about 5 minutes long, but worth watching the whole thing. If you don’t know anything about snooker, what he did in that clip was not only run the entire table (pocket every ball), but he did so in a manner to earn every single point available in a game – 147. The skill level shown in that clip is incredible. And lest you think that it’s some sort of fluke – there are other YouTube clips of him doing it again in 2003 and 2007. According to the 2007 clip, he’s done this a record-tying eight times in competition.
There’s a casino here in Las Vegas downtown called The Main Street Station that was built back in the early 90’s by a guy named Bob Snow. Bob made his fortune in antiques (IIRC) and he thought he’d try his hand at casinos. There was a big push to try and revitalize the downtown area at the time, and Main Street was a big part of it. It was (and still is) one of the nicer downtown casinos. It was also one of the most expensive ones to build down there. Bob was a “details” kinda guy and he way overspent his budget getting the thing built trying to get those details just exactly right. He also went considerably past his construction schedule because of those details. When it was just exactly right he then filled it with a lot of his personal, prized antiques and opened doors for business. I was there at the grand opening and had a great time – much champagne flowed and was consumed. Alas for Bob, the casino didn’t pull in the money fast enough to cover his note and he eventually filed for bankruptcy. The casino was sold along with a lot of Bob’s prized antiques and Bob went away a poorer and sadder man. What does this have to do with snooker? Glad you asked! Right off of a bar upstairs from the gaming floor was one of those prized antiques – a snooker table! And not just any snooker table – this table had been in Buckingham Palace itself. Bob managed to acquire it for about 2 million dollars sometime previously and there it was decorating up one of his bars. It was gorgeous. And you know what? You could actually play on it! No shit! They had the balls and cues for it behind the bar. It was expensive though $10 – $12 per game if I remember right. Dad and I would go down there from time to time for a beer and a game of snooker. Great fun. I never won a game though -Dad pwns me at snooker. The table was one of the things that got sold off to cover Bob’s debts so it’s not there anymore, but it was fun while it was here and I’ll always remember it.
The Gun Bug January 25, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Guns.comments closed
Ok. Now that I have one of these things I’ve come to realize they’re like potato chips – it’s impossible to have just one. I’m going to get a nice bonus check soon and my birthday isn’t far away so I’m looking forward to another gun purchase in the next couple months. And since I’m down at the range anyway practicing with my own, maybe I might try out one of the other fine guns they have available. I’m interested of course inn the semi-automatic line of fine handguns. A while back I went out with a guy from work and we shot his 9mm Beretta and .40 S&W semi-autos. We had fun with both of them, but since we were shooting at crap in the desert, I didn’t really get a full sense of how well I was doing with either of them. Now I know a lot more about ammunition than I did before by going out and actually shooting some my own stuff at my own targets at known distances, and help from you people, but I’d like to know more.
I’ve been poking around on the various gun manufacturer’s websites and evaluating what’s out there – guided in part by this: Gun Diversity. I wanted to make sure I hit the major players in the market. My, what a rich diversity there is out there! I’m hoping some of you more experienced gun nuts can help me out here in making a decision.
I really, really like the look and styling of the classic 1911 style pistol that the all of the major gun makers have. I’m not much of a fan of the >$1000 price tag that all of them have however. I also don’t like the small number of rounds available in each magazine necessitated by the ubiquitous fat .45 ACP ammunition standard. I have a seven-shot revolver already; I want to pack some ammo in my semi-auto.
I’m gonna post this now and add my thoughts on the various manufacturers and models I’ve looked at later. Let me know what you think about them first, and I’ll consider your recommendations.
Fred Out? January 21, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Politics.comments closed
It looks very likely considering his not so great results in South Carolina & elsewhere, and the fact that he’s pretty much out of money. Sad, but not really unexpected at this point. I had really high hopes for him last summer when rumors he was considering a run were flying around. I really think he was the best guy for the job considering the rest of the field in the GOP – hell, I even sent him $100. Now, of course Ace is airing the rumors are that he’s eyeballing a VP spot. If it is true, at this point I’m hoping he throws his support behind Romney and that Mitt, in turn gives Fred! a real consideration for his running mate. I sorta expect that Fred? will actually toss in with McCain though. That would be unfortunate as I don’t think I can support McCain. I get waves of Han Solo levels of A Bad Feeling About This every time I see the guy. I don’t like the Arkansas shuckster Huckabee at all. The man is dangerously incompetent. I don’t think I would mind Rudy, but his candidacy is tanking right along with Fred’s so he’s not really even in the picture at this point. Go Romney/Thompson in ’08!
I guess. I dunno. Sometimes I wonder if maybe we deserve another disasterous Carter-like dimocrap presidency that the Shrillery or Obamination would certainly give us. It would suck major ass for a lot of people to be sure, but maybe it might be better for the country as a whole in the long term? Or not. I can foresee a myriad of extremly bad things stemming out of just such a thing too. We can only do what we can do though and make the best out of what we’re given.
Cloverfield January 19, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Art, Science Fiction & Fantasy.comments closed
So, after I did my civic duty and did the caucus thing (see my comment over at Bmac’s if you’re curious) I went to the movies to see Cloverfield. My one word review: Huh! Another member in the audience had a one word review at the end too: “Boo.”
It wasn’t what I expected, although I’m not sure what I was expecting. Overall I really liked it and it was really very suspenseful. Even more so than usual for me because I was having a mild anxiety attack during the whole thing too. The anxiety thing wasn’t related to the movie though – I started feeling weird before I even got to the casino. Anyway – a good movie if extremely unconventional. I think that’s what was the real surprise for me. I wouldn’t have guessed you could get a major nationwide released movie made this way. I hate movie spoilers, so I won’t say anything more about it.
Riding High Onto the Jewish Line January 18, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Art.comments closed
That’s how I’ve misheard that lyric on Blondie’s Heart of Glass song ever since I was a kid until today. I always knew that was wrong – it doesn’t make any sense. I was listening to the song again and that part came up – blahding, blah, blah-blah blah Jewish line. NO. I stopped the song and finally looked it up online. Ah – “riding high on love’s true bluish light”. Now I know. That lyric was like having a pebble in my shoe for 25 years that occassionally rolled up under a tender spot. And it’s finally removed! Huzzah!
How about you? Any misheard lyrics that bugged you before you found out what they really were? Oh, and do y’all remember the old 80’s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati? They’ve issued the first season on DVD finally, although stripped of most of the songs they played at the station and replaced with generic rock music. Anyway – at the end of each episode when they rolled the credits there was another song playing with a male vocalist. Did you ever try to make out what that guy was singing? I did, and I never could. That always bugged me too. I listened to the commentary track and found out that there are no lyrics. The guy was just singing nonsense along with the tune. I believe the term is scatting.
Blogging Don’ts January 16, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
I found this over on NRO’s The Corner: Blogging cliches to avoid. Heh.
New Blog On the Block January 12, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Destined for the Gulags, Food, Shrinking.comments closed
Well, I started another blog – Fat Man Blogging. As you might expect from the title, it’s where I’m going to record my efforts to lose weight and related information. Why another blog, when I hardly ever do anything with this one? Because I can and it’s free. Also, I want to keep a tight focus without a bunch of extraneous stuff. I am going to try and keep it updated every day. Drop by if you’re inclined!
So… January 11, 2008
Posted by Mitchell in Art.comments closed
I got nuthin’. Politics is depressing these days so how about some music? Everybody likes YouTube clips and I really enjoy this song.
The Center of the Anomaly 