An excellent piece on situational awareness.
The money quote:
Carrying a firearm for protection is a great step – you have the best tool available for the job of defending yourself. However, if you miss the early warning signs and have to be accessing that tool after the attack has started, you’re way behind the power curve.
I don’t know what came over me.
I’ve decided to pay a little more attention to Twitter.
I obtained a Twitter account (you ought to be able to figure out it) mostly to ensure the name was reserved. Then I hooked up my postings here to auto-publish to Twitter as well. But mostly I ignored Twitter in terms of keeping up with it, posting to it, whatever. But something bit me last night.
Upon the suggestion of a friend, I’m trying out Twitterific as a desktop client app. Like all things the Icon Factory does, the interface is beautiful and well-thought out. Obviously a lot of influence from iPad and iOS development. But really, it’s slick and well-done.
We’ll see how it goes. I doubt it’ll be a primary source for me to send information out, but I’ve been spending the morning finding people to follow that might present news or information I care about. We’ll see how this goes.
I’ll just let Alice Tripp tell it.
SB 321 by Kleinschmidt/Hegar to allow the legal possession of firearms in an employee’s personal, locked vehicle when parked on their employer’s parking lot passed the second reading in the Texas House today at 7:48 pm. The vote came after nearly 3 hours of debate and attempted amendments.
SB 321 was substituted for HB 681, Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt’s bill. SB 321 by Sen. Glenn Hegar had already completed the process and had passed in the Texas Senate.
Rep. Kleinschmidt and his 98 co-authors successfully fought-off gutting amendments that would have turned the bill on its head by requiring specifically designated “gun parking areas” offered by Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) and another amendment would allow the employer the right to vehicle inspections. It was offered by Rep. Juan Castro (D-San Antonio).
Seven amendments, not acceptable to Rep. Kleinschmidt, were attempted and all failed.
The debate led off with Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) calling a point of order. If the point of order had been sustained, the bill could have been slowed down or killed. The point of order was overturned.
Senator Glenn Hegar, Jr. (R-Katy) has passed this legislation twice in past sessions but it’s a first for the Texas House. The legislation has always stalled in House Calendar’s committee. In addition to the hard work of Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington), special thanks must go to Calendars Committee chairman, Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) and Speaker Joe Straus.
Thanks also to our House Committee Chairman, Rep. Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont), for his patience and for his help at the front microphone.
The next step is the vote on third reading. Then SB 321 will return to the Senate for a last approval or discussion. If all goes well, it next moves to Governor Perry’s desk and could take effect Sept. 1, 2011.
Uh… guns, politics, beer, lifting weights, heavy metal, computers, programming. You know, blog topics.
Busy today so far, busy day ahead. I’ll write more later if I can.
In other news, I think puppy wants to play the deer that wander into our backyard area. We haven’t known what to make of how she acts around the deer… until this morning, when a doe came up to the fence to eat and Sasha started making play requests (the body posture, the bark, etc.). Deer didn’t want to play. 🙂
Oh… anyone in Austin, do you know if there’s any store in town that sells Speer Gold Dot .357 Magnum 135 grain? I want to try some out.
Not feeling it today.
For all the great progress and improvements I’ve made every workout well… eventually you have to stumble. Today was that day. 🙂
I don’t know what it was, but I have a few guesses. When I started my jog to the gym, another person was out jogging. I thought to myself that I’d like to see if I can keep up with them or even pass them. It was evident I wasn’t going to pass, but 1. that did push me harder, 2. at least I tried to keep pace. That confirms what I knew, that my jogs decline as I go along… slow down, stride decreases, etc.. By the time I got to the gym I felt I had worked harder than usual. I start into my lifts, squats, bent-over bb rows, bb flat bench press, and I found myself still breathing hard and also pushing every rep a lot harder, a lot faster, a lot more explosive.
I think I wore myself out.
When I did barbell curls and rope triceps pushdowns, I was pretty zonked and opted to just superset them. I was just starting to feel drained, and even felt like I could go home and nap for a few hours.
I know I lost the mental game. My brain never was into the workout (I recall not wanting to go, but no… you must push yourself through), and it just got worse.
I still pushed hard. I still worked towards muscular failure. I did go up in weight in some exercises, but stayed the same or dropped reps in other exercises. But pushing harder during the set well… you tell me how it all went. It’s not just about numbers, it’s about overall impact.
I still think it was a good physical workout, just not a very good mental one. Not going to worry about it too much.
I have been thinking about how to change the routine, but I’m not ready yet. I’ll stick on this at least 2-4 more weeks before I switch. When I do switch, I’m thinking about doing a 2-day split, 2x week (e.g. Mon/Tue, Thu/Fri). Probably upper body one day, lower and abs the other. I’m going to keep the same exercises I’m doing now, but then add an isolation exercise. So for instance, bb flat bench press, then cable flies. Not all strictly that way tho, for instance the bent-over bb rows but then lat pull downs… not isolation, but ensuring a more thorough workout for that gross body part. Not totally sure, still thinking it through for what would be best and not lead to overtraining.
Osama bin Laden is dead.
I wonder what difference it will make. Ten years later and it feels largely symbolic at this point, but it’s still good to have a madman gone. What difference will it make? I’m sure within some circles he’s now considered a martyr, but how much will that strengthen the cause? How much was bin Laden still in control of terrorist efforts and actions, thus will his demise actually weaken anything? It’s too soon to tell, but I do hope it leads to positive things for the world.
It feels like not just a chapter has closed, but a whole volume. What will be interesting is to see how the next volume will develop in light of this incident.
Hail hail the witch is dead!
No… the Republic of Texas biker rally isn’t for a few months yet.
I’m talking about feral hogs.
Apparently they started showing up in a northeast Austin neighborhood.
I can’t say I’m surprised because I know friends that live east of Austin have seen them running around. And so, the feral hog problem starts to come closer to home for the urbanites!
You know… I’ve got 6.8 Special ways to take care of a hog problem. Just give me a call!
Tho granted, the best way to try to manage this is going to involve trapping. If they’re as small as the article reports, trapping should be more effective AND they better do it now because they’re just going to reproduce like the plague.
Every three days, more Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest than the number who died in the 9-11 attacks. You can lessen this recurring loss by learning Continuous Chest Compression CPR, a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more likely bystanders will try to help, and it was developed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
Not everyone can learn CPR and keep up with how it changes. For instance, when I learned CPR it was ABC – Airway, Breathing, Circulation. But very recently they changed it to CAB: Compressions, Airway, Breathing. When I first heard about this compressions-only technique I was skeptical, but the American Heart Association endorses it, supposedly this video is a Mayo Clinic presentation. When you consider the realities of why guidelines have changed and what this is about — keeping blood flowing — then it seems pretty sound. Granted, there are strict circumstances for its use, but hey… this is much easier for the average lay person to know about and perform, plus it alleviates a typical concern people have about germs/disease through mouth contact.
This was brought to my attention some time ago. It’s been sitting in my inbox for a while with the intent to blog on it… and finally I’m getting around to cleaning out my inbox. 😉 Seems like a good thing to share with others.
Arrr! Pirate Metal! Alestorm’s “Keelhauled”
I love the use of the keytar.
And I just don’t know what to think of this. I mean, there’s the whole folk metal thing. This is… silly. It’s a little stupid, a little “trying too hard”, but in a “lighten up, Francis” moment I have to admit it’s funny. I can’t help but laugh and smile. And well… they do their idiom just fine, even if it’s one they apparently have invented. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 