Month: December 2011

Positive retailer experiences

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

My Gun

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I bought a Smith & Wesson M&P through G&R Tactical.

For those who don’t know, yes you can buy guns online. The gun is then shipped to a Federally licensed firearms dealer (GT Distributors in this case, only $10, cheapest I found in town). Before they give me the gun, I still have to fill out all the forms, do the background check, and so on. So, all is cool.

I went with G&R because I knew what I wanted: an M&P in 9mm that did not have an internal lock, no magazine disconnect, no additional thumb safety, keep it simple. Plus, I wanted to install trigger parts from Apex Tactical Specialties, because that seems a must to make the M&P really shine. There’s something nice about buying the gun with the parts already installed by a gunsmith to ensure all will work well.

I’ll talk more about the gun later. This is about my experience with G&R Tactical.

I was able to place the entire order through their website, including a lot of additional magazines. After I put the order through I realized I forgot to order the Apex RAM. Some emails were sent back and forth between myself and G&R. I went ahead and placed a second order for just the RAM, emailed both invoice numbers to Grant, and it was basically a “no problem”.

With a few days I received an email saying the gun was being shipped. Wow. I did not expect such fast turnaround!

Gun is received, and while I haven’t taken it to the range just yet, dry firing the gun seems to be working fine.

I just wanted to publicly express my satisfaction in doing business with G&R Tactical. I goofed up my order, but Grant was polite and accommodating in letting me correct things. Turnaround was fast, and so far so good.

The Holster

As mentioned in prior articles, I’ve been reconsidering my carry holster options. That’s on the backburner now due to this M&P experiment, but I will eventually come back to it. That said, if the M&P is destined to be my new carry gun, I’ll need some sort of holster for it, if nothing else, to use for practice while I seek “the better holster”.

I’ve used Comp-Tac products for some time, with the MTAC being my current carry holster. Yes I hear good things about the Blade-Tech Eclipse and the Raven Phantom for the M&P, but let’s minimize the variables here. I went ahead and ordered another MTAC for the M&P; it’s a “known” and thus a reasonable place to start from.

When I placed the order I saw they now offered the leather backing in both black and chestnut. Black is new, and while that appealed to me, I wasn’t sure about the dye bleeding. I’ve had some supposedly quality leather goods bleed their black dye onto my clothing, which I’m not happy about. So being a little wary, I included a note in my order asking if the black has a chance of bleeding then to give me the chestnut. I expected the note would be heeded but silently so. I was surprised to receive an email from someone at Comp-Tac addressing my questions and there was even a little back and forth discussing it. Quite pleasing, and yes I’ll be getting black.

Comp-Tac has always provided me with good service. Even when there have been issues with the product, they’ve always worked to address things to my satisfaction. Can’t argue with that.

AT&T — WTF?

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

OK AT&T.

So now do you or don’t you need to get inside the house?

I’m sitting here writing another blog entry when the phone rings. It takes a moment for me to realize it’s the house line ringing.

That’s the line that’s been down.

And apparently is no longer.

So I guess they don’t need to come in at all?

Am I still going to have to sit around tomorrow and wait for a tech that will never arrive, but now for a different reason?

If all this time it was an outside problem, why wasn’t that known until now? Why was I ever told they had to come into the house? Why wasn’t it discovered on Saturday the first time around?

I’m truly mystified.

And as a result, I’m now going to have to spend time on the phone with AT&T to see what’s going on. Which, is more of my time wasted due to AT&T.

Why did I get a call saying they wouldn’t finish the work, but apparently they did finish the work? Am I going to get a call here shortly to explain that yes in fact things are fixed? Or is AT&T going to continue to fail at communicating the state of the repair to me?

*sigh*

Yeah again I know, #FirstWorldProblem. It’s still annoying to my first-world-self.

Updated: Oh this is rich. It does seem the home line is working (at least for now). So I check the “CallNotes”.

There’s a call from Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM from AT&T to confirm my Thursday afternoon appointment.

So they call the broken line to confirm someone will be coming to repair the broken line.

*headdesk*

Even when I gave them an alternate number, which didn’t receive any call (tho who knows, maybe the call didn’t go through since I was in the deep country… tho lots of SMS was sent and received just fine), they still call the broken line instead of the number I gave them to reach me on.

Yes AT&T, your repair process is broken. You fail at communication.

Updated Again: No word from AT&T on what’s going on… the line is working, but the work order is still open from what I can see on the AT&T website. So I called in to see if maybe they have any additional information.

Nope.

The lady on the phone (Vanessa?) was very kind and understanding.  She did what she could. Tried to expedite things. Anything within her power to try to get this managed.

And it sounds like no, they won’t have to come into the house. And that no, I don’t have to stick around.

But who knows. The work order is still open, so likely more work has to be done. Just a question of my level of involvement. She entered in a bunch of notes that should go right to the tech. So it’s my hope that I can still go donate blood in the morning (I just will do a walk-in), and just see if they’ll call. They’re telling me to not wait and that yes someone will call if needed. So, let’s see if that winds up being something they don’t fail (again) at.

I did find it telling that one of the closing statements she made was “Thank you for not leaving us”.

 

Hey AT&T, thanx for wasting another day

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

So AT&T has been wasting my time.

Why stop now?

When I called and rescheduled, I had to reschedule it for today (Thursday) because of a hunting trip instead of “the next day” or “as soon as possible”. No way around that since, if in fact someone had to come into the house well… Wife doesn’t care to be alone in the house with a strange man, I don’t care if he is a certified repairman.

I had them schedule it “from 2 PM to 6 PM” because there was a chance the trip could have lasted into Thursday morning, I’d be home by lunch, thus this was the earliest time I could schedule it.

And so… I’ve been waiting. Wife and I again had to rearrange our day to accommodate the repairman that would never arrive. As the hours ticked by, no phone call, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to be on the phone with AT&T until I had to call them again after 6 PM.

To my surprise, my mobile rang. Strange number on the caller ID and usually I ignore those but I figure it could be something with the repair and picked it up. Sure enough, it was AT&T calling to tell me the repairman wouldn’t be coming by today.

Of course.

Supposedly he was working on an outside line problem but would still need to come into the house to finish the work. Wouldn’t finish today, would have to come back tomorrow. Um. OK. What else can I do?

I explained my exasperation to the woman on the phone. I did tell her I’m not mad at her, it’s not her fault, but it seems to be a general problem with AT&T and their communication of what’s needed. She apologized and said that no, I didn’t need to be there and that because there was an outside problem it wasn’t necessary for us to be around — that should have been communicated to me. But uh, the whole thing they’ve said the whole time is that they needed to get inside and couldn’t due to the dog? So really, I don’t know what the story is, if they’re bullshitting me or just clueless. I’m getting mixed stories and a lot of runaround.

And I’m told that we have “priority” scheduling for in the morning. They keep using that word….

But since I have no idea what’s going to happen, I just cancelled my blood donation appointment for in the morning. More rescheduling and rearranging our lives due to AT&T’s incompetence in relaying information. Boy, for a communications company, they’re sure failing at it.

 

Making Memories

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

After Daughter snagged her first deer, my father-in-law (FIL) checked with the property owner of his deer lease to see if he could bring his grandkids out to do a youth hunt (spike and doe). Lease owner said yes. FIL told me. We worked out a date, and it was set and ready.

This was going to just be Oldest and Daughter; Youngest has finally expressed interest in hunting. We thought about taking him along, maybe he could sit in a stand with his “Pa-pa” and Brother and just watch and learn, but alas the stands are small and it’s hard enough to fit 2 people in. Youngest was cool with it tho as it gave him some “spoil me” time with Mom. 🙂

Packed up the gear and the kids and away we went. Met my FIL up there. Got to the property, took care of a few chores, then got dressed in warmer clothing to go sit in the stands. My FIL took Oldest, I sat with Daughter. I took my Wilson Combat AR-patterned rifle in 6.8 SPC with the Leupold VX-R 3-9×50, Wilson Combat’s 6.8 ammo using a 95 grain Barnes TTSX bullet. Oldest wanted to use the Savage .308 bolt-action, but I managed to talk him into shooting Pa-pa’s trusty .25-06 deer rifle. My FIL has hunted all his life and shot just about everything out there, and he considers .25-06 to be about the best thing for hunting out here given how flat it shoots. I trust his word, he’s far more experienced than I. Due to this, I thought it’d be good for Oldest to expand his horizons and try something else just to see how it compares, especially something that Dad doesn’t have. But there’s more to this angle of the story later….

You have to understand that Mills County is overrun with deer. After we did our chores and before we went to the stands, FIL and Oldest ran back into town for some supplies. Daughter and I stayed at the property and the property-owner’s daughter took us around the area in their Polaris Ranger Crew (DAMN that thing is fun, I want one, Santa!). Showed us a lot of the area, which was really neat. We saw so many deer running around. Just a ton of deer. Unreal. So yeah, a little herd management is in order.

Since there were so many deer and since we were just going for does, there really wasn’t much need to be picky. Just look for older does, ones without yearlings, and then the biggest one of the lot. No need to sit for hours and agonize, y’know?

We didn’t need to sit long at all.

Started out with 4 does coming in to feed. We glassed them and figured out which one was the taker. Alas, Daughter could never get a clear shot. Either the doe was in a wrong position, or there was a tree in the way.

As we waited, more came in. And more. Probably had a dozen deer poking around (I was told this was an abnormally low count; more typical to have 30+, and sometimes upwards of 50-60 or more at a time… yeah, that ridiculous; I’m sure if we had waited longer we would have seen more). Of them all, only 1 buck. Small one, I believe just a 6 pointer (if I remember correctly). Too small and young to take, legally or management wise. There was one doe that was simply gorgeous; the coloring of her fur, this very light tan with the white under her, impossible to describe to do it justice, but she stood out beautifully. Daughter asked if she could take her, but no, one that good needs to be left around to breed.

But the waiting is always the hardest part, especially when you’re a child and the weight of that rifle starts to wear on you. But we kept waiting and waiting… and eventually Daughter had a clear shot on a big old doe.

She took it.

I could see immediately that it was hit, shoulder area. It ran no more than 50 yards before coming to rest.

Interestingly, while the other deer ran off, they didn’t run far. I thought it was odd they didn’t all hit the tree line and vanish.

We waited.

“Come on Dad! Let’s go see her!”

“No. Let’s wait. There’s 30 minutes of legal light left… let’s just wait. You never know.”

You see, the land owner was kind enough to allow me to also take a doe. So as soon as we confirmed Daughter’s doe was down, no reason to not switch off and let me try. The doe wasn’t going to go anywhere, and again, 30 minutes? No problem to wait, right?

And so I waited… Daughter grew impatient. I understand completely. But something told me to wait.

*BOOM* we hear in the distance.

(look at Daughter) “Hey… that must have been your brother.” We had been wondering how things were going for them. I guess that answered that question. Looking back, I realize the sound of his gunshot was a lot louder than I would have expected from a .25-06. I later found out why. You see, in my FIL’s rush to get out of the house he grabbed the .25-06 ammo, but not the .25-06 rifle. So when they got to the stand they realized they had a problem! FIL called back to the farm house and the property owner’s daughter let Oldest shoot her rifle — she doesn’t let anyone shoot her rifle (I later saw it, gorgeous wood work, fine piece). The rifle is chambered in .240 Weatherby Magnum. So uh… yeah… it’s got a lot more oomph. Oldest thought it was pretty cool, and I think it gave him some perspective.

Meanwhile, back in our stand….

Eventually I gave in. There was maybe 10 minutes of legal time left, so why not.

We packed our stuff up. Daughter climbed down the ladder. I started to climb down. Got one foot out the door when I looked up and out the window.

(to myself) “Oh shit! They’re coming back!”

(down the ladder) “Daughter, they’re coming back! Don’t move!!”

“OK, Dad!”

Sure enough, the ones that did hit the trees were coming back. I’m sure it was the same group, or at least, that one little buck was the same little buck.

I quickly grabbed the rifle and went to re-load it. This is one of the down-sides to an AR-patterned rifle for hunting: loading it will be LOUD. But I had no choice. I inserted the magazine, pulled back the charging handle and let it slam home. But thankfully no one noticed! No deer flinched, tho I winced in anticipation.

But the ugly part? I was in a horrible position. I didn’t want to move. I had one leg out the door, which then got wedged between the bottom of the door frame and the bottom of the door (my shin is still aching and bruised). I was basically kneeling, bad position, the rifle wasn’t well rested. I wanted to move, but was afraid of making too much noise (I’m big, the stand was very small, it was just difficult to move around without making noise). So I just did my best.

I glassed around, picked one that looked good. Slow smooth trigger press….

*click*

WTF?

Actually it was more like *CLICK*… it was a deafening silence.

First thought, dud? Do remedial action, and that told me the problem: I hadn’t seated the magazine all the way. Damnit. And I had previously told Daughter to always check the seating. *sigh*  Now I had to pull the charging handle again….. *cringe*…. and I did, it slammed home, and they heard it this time. Deer scattered, but not too far. Ugh.

My heart and head were racing. Time was ticking away. I really wanted to bag a deer as it would be sweet if all 3 of us got our deer in one evening.

I settled back down, the deer came back in. I tried to find a reasonable deer as quickly as I could. Found one, pressed off a shot… *BOOM* (good, it went boom not click).

And as soon as I saw the deer run, I doubt I had hit it. I watched as it made the treeline, no indication of faltering.

*sigh*

I did wonder if it could this be the rifle again having problems? Was it not the scope? I’m still wary with this setup, and I want to use it as much as possible to build back my confidence in the equipment platform. But in this case, I do figure it was my fault. I had a crappy shooting position and I was stubborn to not improve the position. Thinking back, I think I may have rested the barrel on the window ledge, not the rail tube. With the short length of the rifle, me being basically in the back of the stand, I recall when I first rested the rifle it “naturally” rested on the barrel, so I readjusted to rest the rail so the barrel floated. Well, when I had to reload I think in my haste I may have put it back down on the barrel, and that’s going to skew things. *sigh*  Stupid as well because I knew I’d have another chance in the morning, so why didn’t I just take the chance to get a better shot now? I was impatient, due to both excitement and being mad at myself for screwing up.

Oh well. I learned something, and will eventually stop kicking myself over it.

We went ahead and found Daughter’s doe. Notified my FIL. Eventually they came up on the Polaris with Oldest and his doe already in the back. We then headed to the barn, got the tractor (raise up the hay spear, hang the gambrel from it), and headed off to another part of the property to field dress the deer. I watched my FIL expertly clean the deer. I’ve cleaned things before, but still lack supreme confidence in my ability to dress things correctly and cleanly. So I took a lot of mental notes, knowing that when I got my deer I would clean her.

Deer cleaned. Hung up in the barn (it was going to be so cold that night). Off to bed we went, with 2 happy hunters… and a happy Grandfather.

The next morning I arose. I was going to get my deer.

Got suited up in my long-johns and gear, grabbed the 6.8, and my FIL drove me out to the stand. Opted to use the same stand as I did yesterday. Into the stand I went (solo) and FIL drove back to the house. Was out there about 6:40 AM, so I didn’t have to wait long for sunrise (legal shoot time started at 7:00).

Shortly after legal time, one small doe came out of the woods followed by a couple of others. The others ran up the hill out of sight, but the one came in to feed. I glassed her and knew she was too small and young to take, but I still studied her.

You see, everyone tells me I need to take neck shots. I see why they aren’t promoted to young hunters or inexperienced hunters, because a vitals shot is a more sure thing and a lot easier to hit. Neck shot, you have to get it just right. But if you do, you save a lot of meat and should get a “DRT” (Dead Right There) hit and not have to chase/track the deer, which is ideal. I’ve been studying the anatomy of things and I wanted to do my first neck shot on this deer. So while this little doe wasn’t going to be shot, I kept watching and studying her in my binoculars to be sure I felt comfortable with shot placement.

I kept seeing movement by the tree line. Other does were coming out, but none wanted to come in. No matter. More will come. Patience.

Eventually some did, but either not shootable or not in a shootable position. Then I see off to my right, some others come in. One stood out to me: a 4-point buck, limping pretty badly. His right hind leg was messed up somehow. His left side was facing me so I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong, but it was a good limp. He was followed by a doe, which I figured was his girlfriend. The buck eventually laid down while the doe poked around at food. I glassed her. She looked good, a taker.

I waited for an opportunity. Yes, I was going to take the neck shot.

She gave it to me.

DRT.

Obviously I didn’t need to wait. Signaled to my FIL that she was DRT. Packed up the bag. Headed down the ladder.

Walked about 90 yards to see her…. and then I realized… her was a him.

Yes, I had shot a spike. The antlers were barely peeking out of the fur on top of his head, but they were there. Who would have known at 90 yards? Impossible to have known. Size and coloration and everything looked like an older doe. But… wasn’t.

FIL later told me he was standing out in another field watching and saw the limping buck and the one I shot trotting over my way. FIL said that he had turned around to walk back to the house and hadn’t gone 10 steps when he heard me shoot and knew it was time to get in the Polaris to come get me. 🙂

We loaded him up, got the tractor, and under the expert tutelage of my FIL I field dressed the deer. I do feel more confident and, provided time isn’t critical, will certainly continue to dress and quarter my own in the future. The kiddos? They’re not quite ready for it. 🙂  Managed to save the heart and liver for the dog (she loves deer liver). I also was able to see that my neck shot was a little low, base of the neck, but still did the job of DRT. I learned from the experience.

Kiddos were done. They were ready to head home. I figure long weekends in the field will come later. I haven’t found the right words for hunting, but I have them for fishing. See, there’s “fishing” and then there’s “catching”. You can fish all day and never catch a thing and it’s a good day fishing. As a kid, as a first time fisherman, you want to catch; you don’t want to sit there and wait for hours and hours and never catch any fish. But the more you fish, the more you’re happy to sit and wait, to fish, to work, and again if you go home empty-handed after sitting all day on the water, that’s alright. For me, I’m transitioning from catching to fishing… well, hunting. I still want to take things home, I still get excited, I still want to “catch”. But I’m growing more and more content to sit, to wait. To see. The kiddos? Well, this was Oldest’s first deer and second kill; it was Daughter’s first whitetail and second kill. So they’re still squarely in the “catching” camp. And once we caught, they wanted to get back to the warmth and comfort of home. It just means we have to go hunting more often, that’s all. 🙂

In the end tho, it was a great time. I’m so happy that my FIL got to spend time with his grandkids. I know he’s been looking forward to hunting with them for a long time, and finally he was able to. He told me Oldest was so thrilled, so excited, and listening to my FIL recount the moments tells me that he’s got some pretty happy memories made by this hunting trip. To me, that’s what it was all about.

BTW, no pics because my phone camera doesn’t have a flash, but FIL’s did. So he took all the pictures. But he’s still out hunting for a few days and the reception out there is pretty bad. When he gets back home he’ll send me the pics he took.

I learned a lot on this trip, be it to double-check the seating on your magazine, to just risk improving your shooting position, that I really want a Polaris Ranger, improvement in my cleaning/field dressing skills, or to strive for the neck shot (DRT is good). I learned. It was enjoyable to spend time with my father-in-law and to learn from him. I liked being out with my kiddos, but again, I think the best part of this was enabling Grandpa and Grandkids to make some memories together. I know the Kiddos were happy for it and are looking forward to more opportunities in the future, as is Grandpa.

If you didn’t realize how bad feral hogs were…

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

… you need to read this forum thread.

It’s an engaging account of one man’s fight against feral hogs on his East Texas ranch. It’s a thread on a forum called The High Road, and the thread has been active for over 2 years. That alone should tell you something about his fight.

What I found so engaging about the thread however was the man’s willingness to recount as much as possible and answer all the questions he can. You gain a great insight into these creatures. It’s a mixture of a lot of respect, but also a lot of hate for the damage and hell they cause. Plus, reading his “play-by-play” you can see what is dealt with over time and just how smart and difficult the hogs are to control.

If you’re not here and living within the feral hog problem, you just can’t truly fathom what it’s like. But I will say, if you read this account all the way through, it’s just like you’re there in the thick of it and you will gain a deeper understanding of what’s involved and why this is a problem we have to work to remedy.

Back from hunting

/ hsoi

Just returned from a successful whitetail deer hunt with my father-in-law. Took Oldest and Daughter. We each got a deer. I’ll regale you with tales from the hunt later. Must catch up on numerous things first.

Things productive people do

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

This is a short but great article listing 7 things that productive people do.

My experiences with them:

1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks.

That’s pretty much the way you have to do things: figure out where you want to go, then figure out how you’re going to get there, and break it down into small, manageable chunks and even break those chunks into smaller chunks if needed. Not only does it make the work manageable but it also gives you positive feedback and motivation on progress as you whittle down the list.

2. Stop multi-tasking

As much as the world touts this, it’s terrible. We’re just not made for it (maybe you are, but most people aren’t). You get a lot more done if you focus, or at least can selectively multitask across as few a things as possible. But note if you do this, have some way to preserve state when you context switch (pardon my programmer lingo). For example, I might have a few things going at once because they are tasks that take time: need to talk to Fred but he has a lengthy turnaround time, I need to debug this problem and that could take a long time. Trying to do these serially wouldn’t be the best use of my time because they both take a long time. But since Fred could take a while, I’ll go ahead and contact him first thing in the morning, probably by email if I have the choice (see points further down). Then I’ll jot in my notes (I keep a running note log of my day, because I can’t remember it all) that I emailed Fred at 7:00 AM about the thing and awaiting his response. Then I’ll start debugging and let myself focus there because…

3. Be militant about eliminating distractions.

Amen to this. Ever been deep into something and something interrupts you and there you go, blows your train of thought and either you lose the idea or if you’re lucky you can get back into it but it takes you some time and the vibe is lost? That sucks, and is a big waste of time.

I wish some managers actually understood this and enabled it. My current managers are fine, but I had one in the past that was bothered and offended by what I did. I actually closed my door, and even put a note on the door to “knock first, and wait for a response”. I did this so I could manage distractions, but they had a problem with it. Silly me for understanding how I worked and had a desire to be productive. *sigh*

And then there are those that think open cubes and other such “open, collaborative workspaces” somehow lead to productivity… a decision typically made by managers and VP’s that have 6 walls and a door and all the privacy they want. *sigh*

Close your door, ignore the phone, ignore IM, ignore email, and generally turn things off. And yes, don’t check Facebook and Twitter every few minutes — the world goes on even if you don’t keep up with it, and you’ll love. You have to have the self-discipline to say no and deny things so you can get work done.

4. Schedule your email

This was one of the best things I did many years ago. It was all the rage to poll for email every few minutes. But I found it a constant distraction to hear the “ding” of new email, especially because I would feel a pull to check and respond — interrupting my work. So I stopped polling for email and have been very happy. Unfortunately some months ago the day job finally forced me off POP and onto Exchange so my email gets pushed to me the moment I get it. *sigh* What’s worse is culture is so strong around email and this immediate delivery that you’re expected to notice and handle email the second it arrives… or maybe 5 minutes before it actually was written. *sigh*  But I don’t care. Turn it off and people can deal with it if you didn’t get and handle the email the second it got there. Quit the email app, stop polling for mail. Handle email when YOU want to.

5. Use the phone

I will agree that sometimes the phone is the more productive way to get things done, but sometimes email remains better even for longer conversations. If there are a lot of people involved, it may be the best way for everyone to converse (you may have geographic and/or scheduling issues that prevent anything else). If there needs to be a paper trail or ease of recording. As I wrote above, sometimes the delay and control you have over email sending and response works more in your favor in terms of managing your time. What’s important is to not neglect the phone as a communication device (very easy to do these days), just learn when it’s time to use each method of communication.

6. Work on your own agenda.

Yup.

Not always 100% possible, but as much as possible, do so.

7. Work in 60-90 minute intervals

You gotta rest. You have to take breaks and recharge. And that doesn’t mean switch from email or the conference call to checking Facebook. No, you should get up, get a big glass of water, have a small snack, and walk around a bit. It helps, a lot.

In fact, big glasses of water throughout the day are really good for this. Not just because having a lot of water in a day is good for your body, but since it eventually works its way out of your system, the need to go to the bathroom helps force you out of your chair and to walk around. 🙂

One, or more?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Unc defends the fact he may not carry one gun always.

I do think there’s something wise about carrying one gun in the same location, because it’s a matter of what you train to. You do something so much, things become so natural to you that even when you know it’s not the case, you may still do it. For example, for those of you that wear glasses. Ever have your glasses off, and despite the fact your vision is blurry, you still make the motion to remove your (already removed) glasses? I’ve done that numerous times… getting into the shower, take glasses off, something distracts me, then I go to take my glasses off again. We are creatures of habit, thus it makes sound sense to have the same one and carry it in the same way all the time.

But as a friend of mine likes to say… “You don’t play golf with one club in the bag.”

Life isn’t always conducive to carrying the one gun in the same way all the time. Nor should we pick some least common denominator way to carry and thus carry that way all the time. Carry the best you can as the circumstances dictate. Maybe most of the time you can carry your Government-size 1911 OWB at 3 o’clock, but then there are those times you have to go into an N.P.E. (non-permissive environment) thus the best you can do is a Kel-Tec P-32 in a SmartCarry. Your life is different from my life, our circumstances will not be the same.

If you do have to have different modes of carry, you would be wise to practice with that mode of carry. I recall Tom Givens saying that practice isn’t as much about how much you do it rather how often and how close you were to the last time you practiced (Tom said it far more eloquently). That is, practice a month ago isn’t as meaningful as practice 2 days ago. You’ll get more out of practicing 15 minutes every couple of days than doing a marathon session once a month. Based upon that, if say you have to switch from your 1911 to your Kel-Tec, before you holster up the Kel-Tec in that SmartCarry, unload it and do 15 minutes of dry work with it going over the basics of drawing, sights, trigger press. Make sure you’re familiar with what you’re about to strap on.

I do agree you shouldn’t change your carry options based upon fashion or some other arbitrary reason. But sometimes we can’t carry our ideal piece because well… life isn’t always ideal.

The cause of civilizational decline

/ hsoi

The cause of civilizational decline is dirt-simple: lack of contact with objective reality. The great banker-journalist (and founder of the originalNational Review) Walter Bagehot said it well almost 150 years ago:

History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.

Every great civilization reaches a point of prosperity where it is possible to live your entire life as a pacifist without any serious consequences. Many civilizations have come to the state of devolution represented by modern Berkeley folkways, from wife-swapping to vegetarianism. These ideas don’t come from a hardscrabble existence in contact with nature’s elemental forces; they are the inevitable consequence of being an effete urban twit removed from meaningful contact with reality. The over-civilized will try to portray their decadence as something “highly evolved” and worthy of emulation because it can only exist in the hothouse of highly civilized urban centers, much like influenza epidemics. Somehow these twittering blockheads missed out on what the word “evolution” means. Evolution involves brutal and often violent natural selection, and these people have not been exposed to brutal evolutionary forces any more than a typical urban poodle.

You need to read the rest of it (h/t Jim Wendler), especially if you read the above and were offended by it; maybe you should look hard truths in the face more often.

Hey AT&T, thanx for wasting my day

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

I’m writing this to explain the situation, vent a little, make it publicly known, and to pass along to AT&T Customer Care in hopes they might actually fix their broken process in hopes other people won’t have their time and life similarly wasted.

Last Wednesday our home phone line went dead. No dial tone. Can’t make nor receive calls. I filed a trouble report on the AT&T website. I received confirmation saying the repair would be fixed by Friday 7:00 PM.

I later checked the status report to see if there was any update. It said “testing the line” and now the repair estimate was bumped to Saturday at 7:00 PM. *sigh*

Because of locked fences and our dog, I put on the original report “dog, locked fence, call first” (they don’t give you much room to enter notes). I did give them my mobile phone number to call. Saturday came and went and no call came through. There was one call that caller ID said was “BLOCKED” which maybe was them, but I wasn’t going to answer such a call. I was out on Saturday visiting relatives and what could I do? When we got home there was a tag on the door saying AT&T was there but nothing was written nor any boxes checked as to what happened or why things didn’t happen. Just a “AT&T wuz here” sort of notice.

And of course, the phone line was still dead.

I logged in to the AT&T website to check. It said that they needed access to the property thus they’d have to come back. Fine. I tried to reschedule it on the website, but the website kept failing with 404 errors and I couldn’t “continue” with the process. So I tried calling. Sat on hold for about 20 minutes before I hung up because I had other things to tend to; I planned on calling back later. Then around 7:00 PM I receive an automated phone call on my mobile from AT&T saying they tried to come, couldn’t come, and that I was automatically rescheduled with a PRIORITY appointment for Monday between 8 AM and 5 PM. My feeling there was “priority”? between 8 and 5? That doesn’t feel very “priority” to me. But whatever. Their automated system said the appointment was rescheduled so I left it alone.

And so today, Monday, I sat around all day waiting for them. Wife had to reschedule a dental appointment to accomodate this. We both had to shuffle and deal with various inconveniences so someone could be here waiting for the repairman. The hours ticked by, nothing. 5:00 PM rolls around and nothing. Figures.

I try the website again. Still same problems.

I call AT&T’s repair center. I wait 15 minutes to finally get to talk with someone and the moment they pick up the line disconnects and I have to start all over.

I know it’s not obvious from my writing, but at this point I’m pretty pissed off.

I call back, go through the plethora of menus, and sit around again. Again am told “2 minutes to talk to someone” and at least 5 tick by before I get someone. While waiting, I wondered if Twitter might be of help and so I tried tweeting to @ATTCustomerCare (and that’s why I’m writing this, to facilitate explaining things). Yes that lady was polite and nice, I don’t have a beef with her, and in fact she was very understanding that I was upset about the runaround and bullshit. Apparently tho there’s a problem with the system. For you see, it seems that because there was “dog” in the equation no, in fact I was NOT automatically rescheduled — I had to call to schedule it. Something in the system broke down. No indication that I had to manually reschedule the appointment, not by the hang tag, not by the automated call (which in fact informed me incorrectly and was the seed behind the wasted day), not the website, not anything.

So AT&T, you’ve got a problem with your system. You need to fix it. If in fact someone must manually reschedule, you need your system to manage that for them. Heck, if your automated system can automatically call them to notify them, how about having the automated system — if they get a live customer on the phone — go ahead and automatically connect them to a customer service person to get the appointment rescheduled. In fact, actually make them a priority in the phone queue (there’s that “priority” word).

If “customer service” is about serving the customer, then well… you ought to do so. By all accounts here, you’ve failed.

I know. FirstWorldProblems. I know there’s more important things in the world and this doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the scheme of the grander cosmos. But I’m human, get irritated, and need to vent like everyone else now and again.

BTW, as I’m finishing writing this, @ATTCustomerCare just replied to me on Twitter. Let’s see what happens.