Month: March 2010

Small win for APD

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Going to give some kudos to Austin Police Department here. It’s a small thing, but it’s little things like this that add up.

As frequent readers know, we have a lot of ducks that hang out at our house.

Well, about 45 minutes ago my kids saw some random Rottweiler trotting across our lawn. I was called to come see, and so I went and saw. He was perked up, looking at something. My guess? The ducks, but a few houses down and out of sight.

I go back to work.

A minute or so later I hear my kids screaming in terror. The Rot was attacking a duck.

Granted my kids understand nature and life, but they are very fond of the ducks… so injury to these ducks is like injuring a member of the family.

I tear down the stairs and run outside looking for the Rot. He was behind/under a truck… apparently it was just some guy driving through and he saw things too and tried to do something about it (I guess… I really didn’t know, my only exchange with him was “That your dog?” “No.”). I chased the Rot, shouting and yelling. The Rot broke off his attack and retreated back into a yard in the cul-de-sac. I don’t know what happened to the duck, but I did see him waddle off… I don’t know his condition, but it is what it is.

The Rot eventually stopped and laid down. I took out my phone, dialed 911, explained, and they said police will be dispatched. My wife was also on the phone to 311 and they took the animal control call. Yes it’s just attacking a duck but my thinking is 1. it’s a Rot, 2. if he’s showing a penchant for attacking things who knows what else he could attack, 3. no collar so who knows if he’s a pet or feral. Who knows. My brother-in-law has a Rot and she’s a sweetie. I know Rot’s aren’t evil, but there’s no question there’s a legit reason for their reputation. I don’t want some unknown Rot wandering my neighborhood.

About 10 minutes after the call goes in, 2 APD cruisers pull up. We point out the dog, explain things, they drive over to the dog. You could tell there was some joking “you get him, no you get him”. A third cruiser pulls in, and that officer had some leashes in his trunk. A little figuring out of who will do what, tasers at the ready, and the third officer approaches the Rot. He tries calling him over and the dog obediently comes, a little unsure, but obeys. Leashed up, “good dog” petting, and into the back of a cruiser. Some handshakes and thank you’s to the officers, and what’s done is done.

My take

I don’t feel bad about what I did. Granted, as the event wore on it was evident the dog is fairly well-behaved. He’s certainly someone’s pet (tho lacking a collar, but hopefully not a microchip). He did show signs of submissive behavior, but he was also constantly alert. That’s good stuff, when it’s your dog. But again, I have no idea about this dog. He demonstrated attacking behavior, and well… I just can’t allow some unknown and potentially dangerous dog to be trotting around my neighborhood with other pets, small children, and people around. No apologies for what I did.

APD took about 10 minutes to show up, and my guess is they were there that “quickly” due to the fact the dog was seen attacking. I can’t fault them… it’s not like there was a cop right here, they did have to drive to get here, so 10 minutes is reasonable. But as with all things, it shows what response time can be.

I did have my gun on me. It shows that situations can happen suddenly and you have to run with what you have. There was no time to run and get my gun or get anything… I ran outside barefoot. If the dog was a problem, yes I had no problem shooting it. I wanted to avoid that at all costs of course, but if someone’s life was in danger (because again, I knew nothing of the dog’s demeanor, other than he was attacking a duck) well… that’s how it goes. While standing off with the dog, I asked my wife for her pepper spray, as that’d be my preference. I had a prior experience with dogs and wishing for OC. I still don’t have OC on me, because I haven’t found something suitable (even tho GT Dist has some decent options).

I do hope the dog has a microchip and can be reunited with his owner… and his owner is a little wiser for the experience so it doesn’t happen again. He was a good looking Rotty, and seemed to be a “good dog”, so I do hope there ends up being a happy ending to this story. But again, dogs are what they are, and I’m not going to take a chance.

APD did well. Took care of things. Thank you to the local Boys in Blue.

20 Ways Obamacare will take away our freedoms

/ hsoi

Was browsing Google News and was presented with this article from Investor’s Business Daily.

For those that think we’re not losing freedoms and choice, well… there it is, right out of HR 3590.

Now I have to wonder. I was about to start an LLC for myself. It’d be a single-member LLC. Just me. Am I going to have to get health insurance for it, or pay the $750 annual penalty? That’s going to hurt, a lot. I need to look into this.

*sigh* The LLC wasn’t going to make huge money… something where $750 would actually be a rather substantial cut. *sigh*

Honestly, if I’m going to have to do that, I may not start it. The startup costs are already going to eat me alive, the insurance costs, and other such things. And then this on top of it? Yeah… way to fight for the little guys there.

Well, just have to see how everything pans out in the end. The dust has yet to settle.

I want accountability

/ hsoi

The thing about the “health care reform” that gets me is there’s no accountability.

Regarding the recently passed legislation, Nancy Pelosi said:

Health insurance reform will stand alongside Social Security and Medicare in the annals of American history.

Hrm. So it will stand alongside two failed and bankrupt Ponzi schemes. Ironic foreshadowing?

If I ran my household like our Federal Government is run, I’d be bankrupt or thrown in jail. There’s no CEO that can run a business like the government is run. Ultimately it’s all down to one thing: accountability. I’m accountable to my wife and children, to my parents, to those interested in the well-being of myself, my wife, and my children. I must run my household well, else I will pay the penalty. If a CEO runs their business in a poor manner, they will lose their job, they will lose the compensation, the stock options, and if they ran it in an illegal manner they will go to jail. But when the President, when the Congressmen and Senators, when they run things in a terrible manner… where’s the accountability?

Well, we say that it’s to the voters… that they will be voted out and lose their jobs. But the way this “reform” was pushed through? It’s evident there’s no concern for being voted out. Congressmen were promised appointments to other government jobs in exchange for their votes (e.g. Bart Gordon (D-TN) promised the job of NASA administrator, John Tanner (D-TN) US ambassador to NATO). So what’s to fear? Get voted out, big deal… they’ve got something to fall back upon. Gosh… wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all could live our lives this way? Try telling those making up the 9.7% (as of Feb. 2010) unemployment rate.

When one is directly accountable for their decisions and actions they tend to make far more thoughtful decisions and take more careful action. But when you’re spending someone else’s money, when you know behaving in one way will benefit you (even if it hurts millions of others), when you know there’s no downside or loss to you personally for making poor choices… what reason do you have to care about how you act?

This isn’t about health care. This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. This is a long-standing problem with all the “elected officials”.

I do think the first step is to vote the bums out.

The second step is We The People need to work to improve our system to enforce greater accountability. I’m not 100% sure what the best means to accomplish that would be, but I’m open to discussion.

Disappointed

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I’ve got a RINGS Blue Gun. It’s a basic dummy gun that replicates my carry gun, and is useful in many training and practice applications.

One thing I’ve wanted was some dummy magazines. Sure I can practice with spare magazines, but why put them through the abuse? Furthermore, one advantage of the BLUEGUNS is they are distinctive in their look: solid blue. They do not look like firearms and it’s highly unlikely to mistake them for the real thing. It would just be terrible to be practicing reloads and accidentally reload live ammo. Of course, you can avoid that situation, but then you’re using empty magazines… and they don’t have the same weight as a loaded magazine. So you can attempt to put in dummy rounds but the cost of those add up… or if you reload you can make dummy rounds but again you better be sure their look is distinctively different. Bottom line: it’s about being able to practice as real but as safe as possible. To get some weighted dummy magazines is a good thing in my book.

Trouble is, it’s hard to find the magazines for sale anywhere, especially the weighted ones. But just give RINGS a call and they’ll take your order. So me and a few other guys pooled our wishlists together and I put in an order.

We waited and waited. The weighted mags are custom made. So we waited.

Eventually we got them.

I tried out 2 XD-9 magazines. Immediately a problem: the magazines weren’t staying in the gun. Reason? The hole in the front of the magazine where the mag catch catches? It wasn’t there… well, you could see a faint imprint from their mold, but it wasn’t enough to actually catch. I called RINGS and asked. They apologized because there should have been a cut made by the worker after the mags came out of the molds (and they took my name to look up my order so they could talk to the tech that made them). But I could fix it by using a knife and making a slit or using a Dremel and making some room.

So I was just in the garage Dremeling notches in 2 of the mags. One worked great! The other kept sticking. I saw a small rise on the back, so I took sandpaper to it. Still stuck. I pulled out my calipers. A proper XD-9 magazine is 0.80″ thick. This bluemag? 0.82″ at the base (a little less towards the top). Thus why it was sticking… it’s too big! I checked the other 4 XD-9 mags that were ordered. In total, 4 of the magazines were OK (save for the lack of mag catch), measuring maybe 0.78″ or so thick. Then there was the too-thick one, and then there was another that had some odd seam/bulge in it. So that’s 2 that are just flat bad and unfixable by me.

A bunch of XD-45 mags were ordered as well. I don’t know the thickness of a proper XD-45 magazine, but measuring these showed a host of differences so it’s going to take trying them in an XD-45 to figure it out. When I get together with my buddy’s that bought them (hopefully within the next few days), we’ll try and see.

I had also ordered 2 AR-15 weighted mags. They were expensive. And they don’t work. One doesn’t latch at all… doesn’t catch… just falls right out. The other latches, but then rides too high and my bolt won’t close. 0 for 2.

Needless to say, I’m disappointed.

I’m not ready to give RINGS too much crap yet. I want to get together with my buddies and let them try in their guns and see how things go. Once we get all the duds figured out I’m going to call RINGS back and see what I can see. They previously sounded like they’d be happy to remake and replace them, so that’s good. But IMHO, given the amount of money spent and the fact this was their defects not my changing of mind or just not wanting them any more well… I don’t want to pay for all the shipping of this. Because to be honest, I’m nervous I’ll get a replacement batch and they too will have problems and I’ll have to do this again… and pay more out of my pocket for someone else’s mistake.

But we’ll see.

Nevertheless, I don’t want people to take this as being turned off by using such products. They have a place and are good training tools. I’m just hoping RINGS will do right.

Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo

/ hsoi

Yesterday I took my family to the Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo. It’s an annual thing in Austin, but this is the first time we went. I’m so glad we did. Weather was perfect, time was right.

The Kid In Me

I went to county fairs and rodeos all the time when I was a kid. My Dad had to campaign in various counties in Nebraska, and county fairs were good places to meet with the public. So Dad would be there all day pressing the flesh, and we kids would get to run around and enjoy the fair all day. I’ve got lots of fond memories of those times, from all the midway games I’d play, to the rides (I still will not ride The Zipper… not into things that make me throw up), to even the people I’d meet. A lot of the same carnival groups would be at the various county fairs, so I got to see a lot of the same carnies over and over. I got to actually know a couple fairly well because hey… I loved the “pop gun” booth (little pump rifles that shot small corks out the end… you’d shoot the corks at these little wooden stands and when they flipped off the back of the rail you won the prize) and spending so much time at that booth I got to know the lady running it. I also recall that’s how I learned about the band Bad Company; talking with another carnie, he told me to check out their album (their self-titled) and eventually I did and glad I did.

And of course, growing up in Omaha, there was Peony Park.

So with many fond memories in my head, I always wanted to take the kids to some sort of fair. There’s frequently a fair running in town, but I can never find out when they’re here. It’s one of those where I’m driving in town, I see it in the distance, “OH man!” and then we can’t go for some reason. But now we had a plan!

The Joy of Mobile Internet

Of course, I look up the fair online and find out they even have an iPhone app just for the fair! The iPhone app had a few rough edges, but it was pretty useful. I thought the best part was how they used the GPS services on the map to say “here’s where you are, and here’s where you want to go” to help you get around the fairgrounds. Nice!

But the real treat? I found out you could buy a carnival wristband for $20 online, which included the gate entrance fee. Sounded like a winner to me. But when I got there, yes it was an online-only deal. If you bought at the fairgrounds, $7 for adults $4 children to get through the gate, and $25 for the carnival wristband. Man… that online deal is a deal. So I went back to the car, sat down, pulled out my iPhone and purchased online right there in the parking lot. 🙂 That saved some money… or so I thought. It’s only saving money if you’re going to ride a lot of rides. Most rides cost 3 tokens and each token was $1. So you’d need to ride 8 rides or so to make it worth it. Was it worth it? No, because we didn’t ride that many rides (more on that shortly). The thing was, I was under the impression you could only do the carnival if you had a wristband. That is not the case. The wristband is only good for carnival rides, and you can pay tokens for rides as well. So if you’re all about the rides and expect to ride a lot of rides, a wristband can be the way to go. Else, just pay tokens as you go. Live and learn.

The Rides

For me, a big part of a fair are the rides. I did not know what to expect with my kids… would they like these rides? Would they not? The first ride? The Tilt-a-Whirl. That’s one of my favorites. I have many fond memories of riding that at Peony Park with my Dad while growing up. All 4 of us climbed into a car and off we went, tilting and whirling. I saw nothing but smiles on the faces of my kids. We have a winner!

I saw on the other side was a “scrambler”, tho this one was called The Scorcher. We climbed into that one, Youngest and I in one car, and Oldest and Daughter in another. Off it went. This one went a bit faster than I remember them going, so the G-forces were pretty strong. It was fun, we all enjoyed it, but we all also had the same thought: geez… this is getting boring, can you stop now? It just got old because it ran for quite a while. But I was happy the kids enjoyed it…. tho Oldest didn’t like it as much as he would have because well… I told him to sit on the out-side of the car so he had his sister squished into him the whole time. 🙂

Then… the bumper cars.

I’m glad this wasn’t a “modern” bumper cars where everyone was told to just drive in a circle and not run into each other. Yes, I’ve encountered those and what fun are those? The whole fun about this is to bump into each other. Head-on collisions are what makes bumper cars fun. 🙂 Daughter climbed into a car, Oldest into a car, and I took Youngest in a car with me. I gave them a briefing on how they work (e.g. press the pedal down and don’t let go, if you turn the steering wheel all the way around you’ll go in reverse), and off we went.

So while the kids and I were having fun bumping into each other, Wife was standing at the railing taking pictures. And boy, was Wife taking a lot of pictures. She was heavily interested in taking lots of pictures. Why? Because the carnie working the bumper cars was being very friendly with her. Not too friendly, but friendly enough that Wife did her best to be polite yet tried her best to make it clear she was more interested in her big husband than him. Oldest got mad that some other man was trying to hit on his Mom but he saw me laughing and not worried about it… but I can’t argue with my son’s desire to defend his mother. That’s a Good Thing.

Of course, what trip to a fair would be complete if there wasn’t a ride that was a little too much. There was a ride called The Orbiter. Didn’t get a picture of it, but this Wikipedia entry is close. The cars were more enclosed cars and it didn’t go 90º (maybe 45º??). The thing was, when we saw it earlier it seemed somewhat gentle, so Daughter and I went on it. Youngest wanted to go but Oldest didn’t and you couldn’t have single riders, so only Daughter and I went. Well… that was a mistake. The sensation was really weird and the G-forces very strong… because of the angles you were put at, the resulting angle of the G-forces just did not sit well with Daughter and she was most unhappy. I just cradled her to keep her from banging into the car, and eventually the ride ended. Cross that one off the list for the future. Me? I thought the ride was OK… it did mess with my equilibrium a bit (I had “sea legs” for a short while after getting off the ride), but how could I enjoy a ride while my child was hurting? Ah well… it was a good experience no matter how you slice it.

The Food

What can you say? If you can fry it and put it on a stick, it’s carnival food. Oh, and expensive too.

Actually the food was pretty good. Of course fried, greasy, salty, huge portions, and just horrible for you… but no question it was delicious. If it wasn’t so darn expensive we would have eaten more.

The one bummer? I didn’t get a funnel cake. I love funnel cakes. But at $7 a cake? Sorry… my wallet was hurting. I had to pass this time around. *sigh*

Attractions

There were a lot of cool fair attractions.

They had some small bands playing free shows on a back stage. There was a ZZ Top cover band called Cheap Sunglasses that were playing when we arrived. They were actually pretty good! I enjoyed them a whole lot. Later that evening another band was playing… I don’t know who they were, but they were doing a horrible job butchering Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine” and I couldn’t stand it.

We wandered through the livestock barn. Lots of cattle and pigs, a few goats and rabbits. Spent a little time watching the judging of a youth cattle show. All I could think to myself was how much tasty beef was out there. Eventually we had to leave as the smell was overwhelming everyone.

Of course, there was a petting zoo with llamas, goats, sheep, some sort of deer… and again, I just kept staring at those deer, finding that kill zone. Now that I think about it, I should have used that as a time to talk kill zones with the kids! I mean, I had a live sample right there and could have walked right up to it and pointed everything out! Missed opportunity.

Concealment, not cover.

There was a cowboy shootout. Not a lot of action, but the comedy was funny with 3 bumbling robbers and eventually the sheriff coming to break up the party. They shot blanks, which were pretty loud so everyone would jump when they shot. I did think it was cool how they ended it tho: having all the “dead” robbers get up to show that no one was really hurt. But they also talked about how they used blanks and that blanks can still be dangerous (they shot an empty soda can pointblank and you got to see it blown apart). Then saying to be thankful for the police so we can live our lives today without us each having to carry around 6-shooters ourselves. Uh huh. 😉

One more thing on the shootout. Those guys had terrible trigger discipline. But I’ll chalk it up to old-time realism because Jeff Cooper wasn’t invented yet. 😉

We missed the “Swine Sprints”, but we did catch Whiplash. Whiplash is a little money dressed up like a cowboy that rides on the back of a dog. The show actually started off with a young man doing roping tricks, which was pretty impressive. Then onto the show. A little money, in a cowboy suit, on the back of… a border collie. That’s important. What was the show? Three sheep were released into the area and Whiplash the monkey cowboy (or is it cowboy monkey?) herded them around. But the reality? The monkey was just the attraction that put the butts in the seats. The real work was the dog, and the dog was on. The moment those sheep were let out of the carrier, the dog was locked onto them. It was so cool to watch how tuned in he was. And the sheep were huddling together, because they knew there was something out there with fangs. And the dog went to work, and the monkey just held on. Wife and I didn’t care about the monkey, just the dog. He was awesome.

Heading Home

So a long afternoon and evening spent at the fair. No, we didn’t get to see any actual rodeo, because that cost a lot more money. Apparently there’s a rodeo in Marble Falls in July and we may go check that out.

But still, we had a good time. Got to see animals, got to see some shows, got to ride rides, got to learn all about carnies, got to eat terrible but delicious food. The kids had a great time, and Wife did too (tho she wishes she had worn her Ariats and not her Luccheses). For me? Reliving some childhood family memories and making some new ones with my own family? All worth it.

Improvised Weapons – Magazine

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

While we all would prefer to have the right tool for the job, sometimes you just have to roll with what’s available to you. Improvised tools and weaponry is better than nothing.

A rolled up magazine? Yes, you could use that as an improvised weapon. A lot of dan bong techniques can be applied using a rolled up magazine.

But really… the best thing about using a magazine as a weapon? The comedy gold:

Updated: hrm. Seems the video changed to private after I posted it. Updated with new link.

Lockhart BBQ Wars

/ hsoi

On the cable TV channel, Travel Channel, they have a new show called “Food Wars“.

Normally I don’t care for such things, but when I saw a commercial for the Lockhart, Texas BBQ battle, well… I can’t resist wanting to watch this episode.

I love the BBQ from Lockhart so much that I go there just to buy food and bring it home to eat. Yes there are BBQ joints closer to me, but none come close to what is produced in Lockhart. Yes I personally prefer Black’s BBQ, but Smitty’s does make good brisket. There’s of course Kreuz’s but I just haven’t been impressed with them, to be honest. What I like about Chisholm Trail BBQ is actually eating there… a strange and warm nostalgia about it all. Now I must say, much of what I say about this rests upon evaluation of their brisket because in many respects, beef brisket is what Texas BBQ is about; Black’s wins hands down. But sausage is something too, and for that I’d prefer Smitty’s… the way Black’s grinds their sausage, it’s OK but not my preferred texture. Of course if you want sides, Chisholm and Blacks have you covered, but if all you want are beans and potato salad well, anywhere will suit you. I will give Kreuz’s credit for offering tortillas… mmmmm.

Thing is folks, if you haven’t tried the Lockhart BBQ joints then you just don’t know Texas BBQ and how yes there is a difference and how yes things are better in Lockhart. It shows that competition is good and helps to foster better products.

So yes, I’ll be watching Food Wars this evening. I’m curious to see how it goes. It won’t settle anything, but I’m sure my mouth will be watering.

If you’ve never experienced Lockhart BBQ and you’re in the area, let me know. I’ll be happy to take you around. 🙂

Erwin Ballarta Retirement Tribute

/ hsoi

The Edged Weapon Defense seminar I attended a few days ago was headed by a man named Erwin Ballarta. Erwin spent many years as the head of Texas DPS’s Defensive Tactics. When he retired from DPS, a Recruit Cadet made a tribute video:

Pretty cool. 🙂

There’s one quote/voiceover in there that is a great adage for self-defense:

Move and stun, stun and move.

It’s simple. In a self-defense situation, you have to keep moving. Moving, attacking/defending, moving.

Another good quote?

Don’t give up.