Month: June 2011

Again, good for him, not for us

/ hsoi

In President Obama’s press conference yesterday he kept droning on about his daughters. I want to focus on is this statement:

I should also point out that I have men with guns that surround them often…

You see, this isn’t the first time Mr. Obama has bragged about how he has highly trained men and women that surround he and his family 24/7/365 (and will for the remainder of their lives), and by the duty of their job are supposed to give their life for him. He’s proud of the fact they have guns to protect him and keep evil people from doing him harm.

But Mr. Obama’s track record has demonstrated he doesn’t want you to have guns to protect you and your family. Loves guns when they protect him, hates guns when they protect you.

Hypocrite, thy name is Barak.

Concealed carry choices for women

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

The latest NSSF “Pull The Trigger” newsletter contained a link to a video discussing concealed carry choices for women

I’m mixed on the advice it gives.

Maybe it’s just a short video with limited time and they can’t touch on all the points. But given the video is geared towards women (and even produced by women), I was surprised the first thing they talked about was semi-auto vs. revolver and not the issue of gun fit. Most guns tend to be made for larger people and let’s be honest, most women aren’t of the larger variety, especially when it comes to hands. It’s far more important for a woman to find a gun that fits her and that she can shoot well, that she then enjoys to shoot, which then will enable her to seek training or try practical shooting matches. If the gun doesn’t fit, if she can’t shoot it well, if it hurts, if it’s difficult, the shooter will get frustrated and give up and won’t seek the help and education they need.

Here’s a good guide for “how to choose a gun”.

Kay comments how revolvers are simpler and semi-autos a little more complex. This is true. She then says “with the semi-automatic you’re going to have to do a little more training with it.” Well… yes and no. Yes because actions such as fixing a malfunction are more involved with a semi-automatic than a revolver; you will have to learn how to do those things. No, because that long, heavy trigger pull on a revolver is hard to shoot well. Again, if we’re talking people with small hands, with weaker hands (honestly, how many of you pull 10-15# weights with your index finger), the revolver will be harder to shoot and shoot well so that aspect is going to require more training and practice as well. Both styles of handguns will require training, a lot common to both, but certainly they each have their own unique aspects that must be trained so you can be proficient with the tool.

I do like how they suggest women try out practical shooting. No, it’s not tactical and defensive or anything — it’s a game. However, you do learn useful skills and it may be the only way you can practice skills like shooting and moving, shooting moving targets, shooting multiple targets, etc. (all depending what’s available to you at ranges in your area).

2011-06-29 workout

/ hsoi

Strong is more useful than weak.

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x120
  • 1x2x160
  • 3x5x205

Wow. Broke the 200# barrier. OK sure, in the grand scheme of things it’s not some massive weight, but it’s still a barrier I have NEVER broken before. The bar is moving a little slower, but still moving at a fair pace. Sure it’s a little tougher, it requires a lot more tightness of the abs, really working that Valsalva maneuver, minding every element of form. I’ll tell you, I wasn’t a believer in warm-up sets before, but I am now because there’s no way I could just jump to that weight without moving my body through the motions and getting it ready for the stress ahead of it.

It does feel heavy, every time I put the bar on my back it feels like heavy, a new heavy. But then the second set? It feels lighter than the first set and somehow a little easier to do.

I am wondering when I’m going to hit my limit, when I’ll miss a rep and want to consider dropping down to 5# increments. But I’m not psyching myself out about it, nor am I really caring because it will happen when it happens, and either way I’ll still be progressing, so… who cares. I will say, a belt has been ordered and once it gets here I’ll start using it (see no reason not to). We’ll see how that affects my progression.

Bench Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x2x125
  • 3x5x140

Here I felt strong. I don’t feel as near my “limit” as I do with squats. I was able to really power the 3 work sets, and didn’t even take a full 5 minutes rest before the last set. Felt no problem. I do feel I could jump up in greater than 5# increments, but there’s no real need to… it just means I’ll progress along this route longer, which is fine. Better to train well and recover and grow, than stall or overwork myself. One thing I really like about this program is how it works with ego. Oh sure, you could let your ego get greedy and jump up quickly in weights, but what does that gain you? you stall out faster. If you just to the program, be patient, you’ll get there — it has to be a long-term pursuit. You can always tell yourself that the weight numbers don’t matter… because you’ll get there, maybe not tomorrow, but you will, because that’s how the program works and the proof is in the pudding. It’s very cool.

Deadlift

  • 2x5x95 (warmup)
  • 1x3x105
  • 1x2x150
  • 1x5x180 (work)

The biggest thing I noticed here was my grip. First, I know the “right way” to grip is to acknowledge the weight is heavy, that it will hang down and end up in the “hook” of your fingers just due to gravity and the physiology of things. That also helps to avoid the pinch calluses that can form on the pads of your palms. However, I was a little too “hooky” with things and so the pads were still getting bunched up, just in another way and that didn’t let me have a full closed grip. I did a little more adjusting today so there’s still hook but the pad is a little more flat against the bar and I can get a more closed grip. This should serve me better.

This deadlift felt a little heavier, but good. I certainly felt worked here. I’ll do another 15# jump next week. I mentioned before that it bugs me that my deadlift is lagging behind my squat (since the deadlift should normally be more than the squat), but it makes sense when you consider the math (deadlift goes up 15#/week, squat is going up 30#/week). Like I said above, gotta put the ego away and just do the program. It should all even out. I’ll be more concerned, I guess, if numbers haven’t “normalized” say 2-3 months from now.

Commentary

If I total up my 3×5 work set weights, I’m doing 525# total. That’s not even 5RM or 1RM. In theory, my 1RM total would be around 600#. Kinda neat, and watching that number grow makes me keep thinking that yeah, joining the 1000# club  might be neat… just to say I can do it, because I’m only getting older, I obviously got a late start in life on strength training, and I can’t say if it’ll be something I can do at age 70 (tho, it’d be even cooler to do it then). Just one of those “hey, that’s cool” sorts of things.

Results are good. Strength goes up. Hypertrophy is up. And I’m just feeling really good in life, better than I’ve physically felt in a long time. I look forward to the gym. Heck, I just heard the gym will be closed Monday for the holiday and that news really sucked! How odd for me to feel that way… but I’ll go on Sunday instead, no big deal.

The journey of life is interesting, so long as you’re willing to make it so. 🙂

Hoplophobia, alive and well

/ hsoi

Some Seattle police officer had a big slip-up, leaving his patrol rifle on the back of his patrol car and even driving off with it still there.

But what really stood out to me was the choice of words used in the article:

SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department says they are “very embarrassed” after an assault rifle was left unattended on the back of a patrol car Monday night.

First published by The Stranger, Nick Gonzales snapped a picture of the menacing-looking rifle on the trunk of a Seattle Police car.

 

 

“Assault rifle”…. no, it’s just a rifle, and actually when an AR-15 is used by the police the politically correct term is “patrol rifle”. “Menacing-looking”. Only to you.

I’m not excusing what happened, but the bias of and fear within the author is evident.

Hoplophobia, alive and well.

Crippled printer… what to do?

/ hsoi

I own a Canon PIXMA iP4500 printer. It’s been one of the better printers I’ve owned in my lifetime.

Wife was printing some things and was getting new and interesting errors from the printer. I toyed around a bit, looked up the error code, and it seems the print head is kaput. I tried some tips I found online for cleaning it… figured there’d be no harm. No luck.

So I need a new one.

But I can’t get a new one.

I can’t find any for sale anywhere.

Reason? It appears all the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan have (naturally) destroyed the supply chain. There’s of course no telling when life in Japan will return to “normal”, and thus I could get a replacement part.

It seems I may have to buy a new printer, but… what prevents the same problem there?

Shows how fragile and interconnected we are, doesn’t it?

The standard for FoF training

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The Handgun World Show podcast episode 128 pays a compliment to my boss, Karl Rehn of KR Training. The episode is talking about choosing a good handgun trainer, they mention Tom Givens, but then go on to say around 1:19:54 in the podcast:

When you look at force-on-force stuff? Karl Rehn out of Texas is the standard, from KR Training. When you want to know how to do force-on-force and not have it turn into a giant (garbled) match, Karl is the man to go to.

Thanx to Tim for passing this along.

Austin Flash Mobs… not the good kind

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Friend of mine that lives in North Austin sent me this:

We were both gone Saturday. Neighbors reported that around 2 pm we had a gang of between 8-10 “YUTES” arrive on foot and, starting at the beginning of my cul-de-sac on both sides of the street, were smashing car windows with bats and burglarizing whatever contents they could find. An APD unit responded in less than 5 minutes (I was told) and while this was still in progress, but the “YUTES” split up, ran in different directions, and disappeared into backyards and over fences.  I am not aware that anyone was either detained or arrested.

Coincidentally, just yesterday Gabe Suarez posted on the topic. It’s a rising problem, but for whatever reason the media and police aren’t reporting on it. Curious that….

I was wondering when this was going to start happening in Austin. I guess that question is now answered.

I do hate how the term “flash mob” has been co-opted and turned from something spontaneous and fun to something so malevolent. Nevertheless, the take home is things are getting uglier out there. The predators are traveling in bigger packs.

Stay alert… and carry your damn gun, people.

 

 

2011-06-27 workout

/ hsoi

Today’s workout was a little odd.

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x115
  • 1x2x155
  • 3x5x195 (work)

I struggled a bit on the first work set but got the 5 reps. Ensured a good 4-5 minute rest between the other work sets and actually felt more powerful and stronger in them. Not sure if I just needed a little more rest between warmup and first work set, or if perhaps it was just a neuromuscular adjustment/adaptation to the weight.

I’m kinda stoked tho. Next workout I do 205#… breaking the 200# mark is kinda cool. No it’s not grossly strong, it’s not even my bodyweight. But it’s just a cool milestone/barrier to pass. 🙂

I also think that it’s time to get a belt. I’m not sure I’ll start using it right now, most recommendations seem to be to wait on using a belt until you’re doing more than bodyweight. Nevertheless, I see no harm in getting it ordered now because it may take time to make, ship, and so on. Plus doing some manual break-in work. Might as well get the ball rolling so I’ll have it when I need it.

Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x3x55
  • 1x2x70
  • 3x5x85 (work)

Biggest thing I noticed here was I’m not pressing the bar up in a state where the bar is constantly parallel to the ground. It’s worse with lighter weights, so the fix is to lift heavier. 😉  Still, it’s there and something I’ll need to keep aware of.

Chin-ups

  • 1x9xbw
  • 1x6xbw
  • 1x5xbw

I noticed on my very first rep that my chest was going all the way to the bar, but subsequent reps did not… chin over the bar, but chest was dropping. That is not good. The chest needs to come to the bar to get a proper full range of motion, especially the back muscles squeezing at the top. I worked to combat that, tho it still wasn’t as ideal as it could be. So, reps didn’t go up, but form improved… but needs more.

I’m thinking about perhaps dropping the reps and trying to go uber-strict on form, because I cannot see how I’ll work my way to full-on proper chins if the final bit of the concentric motion isn’t there and is weaker than the rest of the movement.

Commentary

This workout was good and bad.

Good: tickling the 200# mark with squats. That every workout I think damn this weight is going to be crazy, and nailing it every time. It’s really cool. Seeing progress is motivating.

Bad: distraction.

Instead of the usual rock music over the stereo, the gym was playing… NPR. WTF? The thing is, music is something I can tune into the background. But the sound of people talking distracts me. The people in the gym I can usually tune out because their conversations are usually chit-chat and something I don’t care much about. But when you hear news, inevitably you’ll hear a trigger word that keys something in you, some issue or some news topic that perks your interest. And try as I might to filter it out, I can’t. So, my brain wanders… the hard part being that then I’ll recognize I’m losing focus and then actively try to filter things out, but that’s still a problem because now I’m focused on being focused, not on lifting. *sigh*

So it threw me a bit, and is perhaps one reason why my lifts felt a little off. Nevertheless, you adjust, you deal with it, and you still get your work done and get out of the gym.

I’m not sure I want to put the iPod earbuds in. We’ll see.

Anyways, I still feel overall good and am enjoying the progress on this program. This marks week 4 of following this “Starting Strength”-inspired program. I’ll reflect back on my first month come Friday.

Sunday Metal – Ignitor

/ hsoi

I get an email saying that Ignitor is now following me on Twitter. OK… who the heck is that?

A little Google and I find this video for “Construct of Destruction”.

As soon as I see and hear the singer it’s like… oh shit! That’s Jason McMaster! Bad ass.

And so, they get a Sunday Metal entry. 🙂

Looks like they’re finishing up a new album. Preview here.

To the man at the gun counter that kept pointing guns at me….

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Dear Customer at the Academy Gun Counter:

Your gun handling sucks.

You have almost no awareness of where that muzzle is pointed, or maybe you intended to point it in every possible direction in 3-D space — including yourself; I don’t know. I say “almost no awareness” because when you decided it was time to point the gun in some direction so you could look at the sight picture, you did seem to care about where the muzzle was pointed… but you still pointed it in less than optimal directions, because tho you can’t see anyone in that aisle now, it doesn’t take but a blink for someone to come around that endcap. Furthermore, all that cardboard and thin shelving steel isn’t going to stop a bullet — safe direction doesn’t stop where your line of sight does, safe direction means where the bullet will come to rest. The safest direction would have been at those huge gun safes behind the counter, which no bullet would penetrate and while it might cause a little lead splatter, that’s certainly more acceptable because the bullet would stop and we would know where it would stop.

I tried to step out of the line of the muzzle, but you kept flipping the guns in every direction possible, and apparently invented a few new directions. I’m not one of those little Chinese contortionist girls so I just couldn’t move well enough to avoid how you flashed that muzzle about.

It didn’t help that your finger was constantly on the trigger.

I so wanted to engage you and correct you and enlighten you about your poor gun handling skills. But I know how the conversation would have went.

Me: Excuse me sir, please keep that gun pointed in a safe direction.

Customer: (Defensively) It’s OK. It’s unloaded.

Me: Col. Cooper would disagree with you.

And I would repeat both Col. Cooper’s 4 rules and the NRA’s 3 rules, whichever set you follow you are egregiously violating. I would attempt to politely educate about better skills… but it wouldn’t work. Your ego would be bruised, you would become defensive for being publicly corrected, and I’ll admit… why would you take any correction from me? There’s nothing you could perceive that puts me in a position of authority on the matter; I just look like some young long-haired dude that’s correcting you. Your lengthy conversation with the employee demonstrates you read a lot of gun magazines, so hey… you’ve got all the knowledge you need, and I don’t appear to be anyone worth listening to.

Granted, I could be assuming too much and maybe you would be willing to learn and improve. If that’s the case, show up at KR Training; there are lots of classes and I’d recommend you start at Basic Pistol 2. There’s a class on July 9, still open for enrollment. If you do show up there, I’ll gladly shake your hand, look you in the eye, apologize for being wrong, and thank you for coming out.

Sincerely,

John Daub, who is tired of having guns pointed at him.

P.S.: Mr. Employee behind the Academy Gun Counter: you suck for not being any better with your gun handling safety, thus I can’t expect you to have done anything about Mr. Customer’s failure.

P.P.S.: Mr. Employee, you think internal locks are a worthwhile feature? *sigh*