Not a gun, a flashlight. Wait. What?

True story. I realized that my non-gun nut friends really dig the flashlights I had. So, for birthdays and holidays, I’d get them Surefire G2s. They liked them. A friend I’d gotten one for is a contractor. He was up in an attic looking to do some repair work. He set his G2 down on a crossbeam to look at something. A few minutes later, he smelled something burning. Looked down to see smoke coming out from under the flashlight. The heat of the lamp caused the wood to start smoldering a bit.

The Gun Tool looks pretty neat.

Related: Glenn loves his skeletool. I agree.

1 – I’ve decided to upgrade the memory. What chip does the EeePC clamshell take?

2- Microsoft is pimping Windows 7 for netbooks. Anyone try this?

In 2001(ish), I bought a Troy Bilt self-propelled lawn mower. This is probably the recent model of the one that I have. I used that mower quite a bit and never had a problem with it. We moved into our current house in 2006 and we paid someone to mow the lawn. So, in summer 2006, I took the handle off the mower to make it easier to store and I drained the gas out of it. I managed to forget to drain the oil out of it. It sat in my basement for over three years and was never used.

Due to a bizarre set of circumstances, we ended the relationship with the guys mowing our lawn and I went out and bought a riding mower and intend to mow myself. After mowing with the riding mower, I had some spots that it couldn’t reach. I went and put the handle back on the old Troy-Bilt. Put some gas in it. I checked the oil and it is about 1/2 full and the oil looked like sludge. I walked the mower outside to set upon the task of starting it, expecting to fail. After all, it had been sitting in storage and no maintenance had been performed on it in three years. It hadn’t been used. I put the gas in. Primed the pump about 5 times. And yanked on the starter. It started right up the first time. Amazing.

I do need to change the oil though.

I’m really liking the EeePC. I have the clam shell model. It’s nice, sleek, and portable. The keyboard feels like a regular keyboard, which is something I did not expect as the models I played with at the store didn’t have nice keyboards. It does video nicely. A few things:

If you put the screen all the way back (which isn’t far) it feels like it will flip over. It hasn’t flipped over but it feels like it might.

It doesn’t have a CD/DVD player so installing software that you don’t download requires an external drive. Yet it comes with a DVD system restore disc.

You can flip the screen, which can be annoying. For instance, if you hit Alt-Home in a browser to get to your home page, the screen will flip. Odd. I’d like to turn that off.

I’d also like to turn off the Eee utilities that hover at the top of the desktop. I don’t use them. Can’t anticipate using them. Haven’t figured out how to get rid of it yet.

The whole no CD thing got me to thinking about office apps. I was going to put MS Office on it but then thought I might try Open Office. So, if anyone knows, I have questions. Open Office any good? I’m used to MS Office. Will an EeePC run office apps OK? And will the EeePC run Open Office OK?

It trust my life to a GLOCK. And my wife’s to a ParaUSA. International Cartridge Corporation makes kick ass ammo. Blackhawk makes the finest shirts I’ve ever owned and the excellent SERPA holsters. Crimson Trace makes the best laser sights on the market. I buy ammo from CheaperThanDirt and LuckyGunner.

The FTC can also kiss my ass.

Update: It does occur to me that I pretty much have made all those disclosures anyway because I want readers to know the relationship. Not because I care what the FTC says. So, I guess my civil disobedience isn’t all that hardcore.

Amazon wants me to let you know that they have the Wii on sale. I have one and they are great fun.

Long story that I won’t get into but I’m firing Dishnetwork. They suck and I hate them. I’ve had four DVRs in six months and they’ve all gone Tango Uniform. And every time, we lose all our programming. And every time, we have to set it all back up. Be kinda nice if they had a back up function.

That said, I’m looking at TeeVee options. Charter has decent cable and on demand things. We used to have Directv but dumped them once they dumped TiVo. I’ve even been pondering getting one of those Windows Media Center PCs. Anyone have any experience with the Media Center set up? And experience with Charter? And does Directv do TiVo again?

I’d appreciate any input.

update: Looks like TiVo and Directv kissed and made up.

Someone clipped the wife’s car in a parking lot and took off her passenger side mirror. That’s her story, and she’s sticking to it.

Anyway, she called up Honda and said she needed a new mirror. They were happy to do so for $300. Instead, we ordered one for $30, paid $15 to ship it and I put it on myself in about 30 minutes. You really can Google up directions for almost anything.

Been a while since I’ve flown but forty bucks to check two bags?

Sebastian reviews the Fenix LD10.

My past flashlight blogging is here.

The feds to crack down on secondhand sales. Asking folks to keep up with recalls that could go back decades is ridiculous. I was at WalMart recently and on their big poster board of recalls, I counted 58 recalls on the wall. And those were just currently released.

Consumer reports turns snitch:

CEI today criticized Consumer Reports for reporting a high-performing shower head to federal authorities—not because it is defective or fraudulently advertised, but because it exceeds government limits on shower head water flow.

From the horse’s, err, well you know:

Wal-Mart and the bi-partisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns have announced that Wal-Mart, the largest seller of firearms in the nation, has adopted the new Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, a 10-point code that will help ensure that guns do not fall into the wrong hands.

And if you buy a gun, you’re on video. You can contact WalMart at:

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
479-273-4000

Or hit their contact page here.

Apparently, this happened back in 2008. I don’t recall hearing about it.

Since kids, my movie watching has been slacking. Recently got at Netflix account. Love it. Some brief movie reviews:

Bubba Ho-Tep: LOL WUT. Elvis and JFK vs a mummy.

Hellboy: Good guy demon kicks unearthly booty.

Watchmen: MTV is on the air, Nixon is president, 99 Luftballons, a sociopath superhero, Vietnam surrenders, and it’s 1985

Shooter: Sans Funky Bunch, Marky Mark gets his gun porn on.

Bjorn visits King Tut’s. Me and the Mrs. went there a few years back and I’ve been meaning to go again. The food is excellent.

Junior starts kindergarten this week. We (and by we I mean mostly the Mrs.) have been doing the prep stuff. Last night was open house where we got to go meet the people who will be shaping Junior’s life. Frankly, they were not the most organized bunch and I really question some of the things they did. For instance, yesterday was open house. And this morning was document day, in which I had to haul over various documents showing proof of immunizations and such and pay some fees. Why they can’t combine open house with document day and save me 45 minutes of time, I do not know.

Also, one of the documents was a computer usage agreement. In this agreement, Junior agrees not to look at porn and bomb making instructions on Al Gore’s Internets. And she has to sign it as though it’s a contract. For a five year old. I guess we gotta introduce them to legal contracts at some point.

Next issue I had was the ridiculousness of paying for stuff. We had to pay a supply fee, buy a tote bag, and get a prepaid meal card. Now, one would think that the school would be set up to handle common transactions in a convenient manner. You’d be wrong. I have to write one check to the school. One check to the cafeteria. And one check to the PTA. I guess they don’t have an accountant or bookkeeper to sort that out. I wrote three checks today, which is more checks than I’ve written in the last five years.

Speaking of the supply fee, that really annoyed me. In addition to paying a $40 supply fee, we also had to go buy supplies like markers, pencils, hand sanitizer, and tissues. So, we buy supplies. Pay a supply fee. And, of course, I’ve paid property taxes in The City (My The City) for a while that I thought were there to partially fund the schools. But then, it gets better. You see, those supplies we bought? Yeah, they’re community supplies. They’re not Junior’s supplies. They’re for everyone. I figure it’s a good way to teach Junior about taxes. Or communism.

The tote bag seems like a scam to me. Sure, it’s only $5 but it looks like it cost $1.25 for Chinese kids to sew it together. All the kids have the same bag. Between that and the community supplies, I’m not getting a big individualist groove from the school. I think that will be a problem for Junior, who tends to take after me. Also, we were sternly warned that the bag is for school supplies only. Sorry, Sparky, I paid for it. It’s mine. I’ll use it for whatever I choose.

It also makes me wonder. I’m guessing that not all parents can readily afford these expenditures. And it might be a particularly undue burden on some of them. I guess that’s why we all pick up the tab on supplies. But what about the fees and such?

Complaints aside, her teacher and assistant seemed to be nice folks. And the school’s renovations were nice. And they have a lot of interesting items and activities in store. This is going to be fun. But I’ll still complain about it.

Gets a CompTac holster!

Seen at Insty’s: 46% More Likely To Buy Ford ‘Cause It Didn’t Get A Bailout.

I have a Ford. Been happy with it. And, in the next year or so, I’ll likely need a new ride. But I’ve decided I’ll quite likely not buy any GM product due to bail out nonsense. And it’s a pity because I kinda had my eye on a Chevy Avalanche.

If I’m ever in town, I’ll stop by:

Since the legislation passed that would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring firearms into restaurants that serve alcohol, Johnny Brusco’s general manager Kyle O’Keefe has given some serious thought to getting his own permit, so he could carry his own gun into work to make himself feel safer at night as he closes down the restaurant.

“I feel that people who are going to be carrying handguns illegally are going to carry them anywhere they want to and they’re not going to have any regard whatsoever for the law. People who carry legally should be able to carry anywhere they want to,” O’Keefe said.

Unlike other restaurants and bars in the city, Johnny Brusco’s plans to allow concealed carry permit holders to bring their firearms into the restaurant.

ZOMG!!!!11eleven!. Knob Creek is out of bourbon.

A tale of stupidity and some advice on how to fly with firearms.

Sometimes, TSA isn’t the problem. Like that time I left my ammo in Reno.

I mentioned in my review of the MTAC that I had a bit of an issue with it. Well, they sent me another and, as you can see, the magazine disconnect issue has be fixed:

From Gun Porn

They even sent me a cool hat. I highly recommend Comp-Tac. Their product and customer service are excellent. Other people are digging them too.

Looking at getting relatively inexpensive MP3 player for the car. Something like this. It must have a random/shuffle feature. Any recommendations? I don’t want an iPod.

I don’t care how cheap the iPhone is. So long as my only option for service is AT&T, I’ll never get one.

From Stuff

Snagged from Yahoo. Links to Snickers’ facebook page.

Les is right, George Dickel Cascade Hollow is good stuff. Had some last night. Pretty good.

And Bob has a photo of legendary moonshiner Popcorn Sutton. And discusses Popcorn’s product. I concur. His moonshine was the smoothest I’ve ever tasted. More on Popcorn here.

Three Rivers Corn Meal going under. I use that stuff in my cornbread.

The feds want to regulate blogs. Because some folks give bloggers free stuff and then bloggers may say nice things about their products. Sounds kinda silly. I guess some folks could say that they’ll give you free stuff on the condition that you say nice things. But I’ve never experienced that. I’ve written reviews on various products and books and things. And never felt swayed to lie or anything like that.

Disclosure: Obviously, I’ve gotten stuff for free due to this blog (training with Todd Jarrett, some Blackhawk stuff, books, etc.). But not a single company who’s given me stuff has said that it’s free as long as I write nice things about it. It’s always been understood that I would probably write about it but never once demanded. And I’ve always written about the stuff truthfully. It’s not hard to understand that if a gun nut gets gun things he’s probably going to like the gun things.

It occurs to me I use this site to get advice from readers. However, I am remiss in updating you on what I did. So, here you go.

Holster Beg: I just ordered a CompTac MTAC. The reason is that it seems similar to the Crossbreed but I can order new bodies for different guns.

Blu Ray: Haven’t gotten one yet. Still pondering.

Killing wasps in the attic: I consulted an exterminator. He said use a fogger. Most foggers don’t advertise killing wasps and bees. But he said that any fogger that kills ants or fleas is also good for stinging critters. So, I got up early in the morning when the wasps weren’t active. This does a couple of things. First, they’re unlikely to sting me since they’re sleeping. Next, it ensures that I kill them all and not just the ones that happen to be in the nest while the others are out scouting for food. I put two foggers (Raid Max) in the attic. Then, I waited a couple of days. And I went up and finished the nest off with a whole can of Raid Wasp Spray. Ok, I lied. I hate bugs and paid someone to go spray the nest directly. But I did put the foggers in the attic.

So, there you go.

So, I asked earlier why they make me get a cashiers check as part of closing. So, at closing, I decided to ask. The title guy said it was required by state law. I asked if cash would have been OK and he said it would have been.

Also, we went to a local bank to close. The bank had nothing to do with the transaction other than, apparently, the title guy or mortgage lady rented a conference room from them that was convenient for us to get to. Heading into the bank, I was met with this sign that caused me to stop and laugh out loud:

From Misc

Wow. Relying on a sign. Why not put up a Robbing is Prohibited sign? And there’s the fact that their other sign prohibiting weapons does not appear to comply with Tennessee State Law which has requirements for signs prohibiting the otherwise lawful carrying of weapons by permit holders.

Regardless of that, I won’t be doing any business with BankEast.

Update: Heh:

Why didn’t they just staple a sprig of wolfsbane and a few cloves of garlic over the doorway while they were at it?

Walmart’s ammo shelf this morning:

From Misc

Got a new vacuum. Wife always wanted a Dyson but I always thought spending near $500 on one seemed excessive. But Big Lots has Dyson DC18 Slims on sale for $250 at their store. Granted, they are refurbished. Helluva deal, compared to other Dyson prices. So, we snagged one up. Does a great job. We had just vacuumed a couple days ago and so the floor should have been fairly clean. After I ran the Dyson, it looked like I’d sucked a whole cat out of the floor. It did that good a job of cleaning. The only problem I have with it is that the electrical cord is too short.

One of our DVD players went poop. So, we need a new one. I figured I’d go ahead and get a Blu Ray unit at some point. Thing is, I know nothing about them. I gather they play DVDs as well. And some of them are wifi enabled so that you can stream audio/video from your PC.

Anyone have a recommendation?

Via a thread at ar15.com on flashlight advice, comes word of a 200 lumen flashlight at Home Depot for $25.

Continuing our semi-regularly occurring flashlight theme, check out the Fenix TK 40:

# Cree MC-E LED with a 50,000 hour lifespan
# 2 Modes, 8 Total Outputs

* Primary Modes (in order)
o Turbo – 630 Lumens, 1 Hour
o Low – 13 Lumens, 130 Hours
o Medium – 93 Lumens, 11 Hours
o High – 277 Lumens, 4.5 Hours
* Strobe Modes (in order)
o Strobe
o Slow Flash
o SOS
o Fast Flash

Wow. Spendy though.

For Christmas, I bought my wife a few house cleanings from professional cleaning services. I wasn’t sure how the gift would go over but I was pleased to learn she liked the gift. Anyway, I learned last week from the cleaning lady that WD 40 works well for cleaning stainless steel. That was the cleanest our stainless kitchen has ever looked.

However, I did not know you could repair and inflate a tire with WD-40:

Les Jones, who suffers severe flashlight addiction, reviews the Nitecore Defender Infinity flashlight. Bonus: It takes AA batteries!

Past flashlight blogging here, here, and here.

I’m thinking about upgrading my dishwasher. I don’t want to break the bank, and will probably go with a black model rather than stainless. Apart from that, I’m wide open to suggestion. I’m replacing a low-end 24″ Kenmore unit that’s extremely noisy and doesn’t work very well. It came with the house.

My only real requirements:

1) It works well.
2) It’s relatively quiet.
3) It’s energy-efficient.
4) It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Any suggestions?

In an impressive update to my flashlight post, a hell of a recommendation by Unix-Jedi. Behold the 220 lumen, 4 hour run time (8 on half power) OLIGHT T20. Those are some impressive specs.