Author: hsoi

Sunday Metal – Great White

/ hsoi

I got to see Great White live one year during undergrad (benefits of working college radio). Scorpions were headlining, followed by Great White, and Trixter was the opening act. I didn’t get to see all of Great White’s set as I was backstage doing meet & greets with both Trixter and Great White (my friend Tori was big fans of both). But I did get to wander out near the end of Great White’s set… down on the floor, from backstage. Great location. I recall watching singer Jack Russell and how well he worked the crowd. Of course, there was guitarist Mark Kendall wearing his signature hat. I was never the biggest fan of Great White, but I always dug their bluesy, stripped-down, “good old rock and roll” sound.

I also loved their Led Zeppelin covers. I recall the first time I heard them doing “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” I was struck by how well they covered it.

Of course, Great White’s bread and butter was there own original rockers, like “Rock Me”

I’m an educated hunter

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

To hunt in Texas, you must pass the Texas Park and Wildlife’s Hunter Education course. It tends to be only offered prior to Fall hunting seasons, so to hunt like I did I had to get my license with the course deferment then ensure I took the course within a year. So, that’s all now out of the way. All done, don’t have to take it again.

I wanted to give a review of things, both of the course and my experiences.

The Course

I took the course as offered by the Austin Rifle Club. It consisted of two days: Friday evening and all day Saturday. Most of the material is classroom, and there is a live-fire event.

I took the class with Daughter. I asked Oldest if he wanted to take it, but let’s just say that he’s learning about priorities. It so happened that foo.c was also in the class too. A good number of students were minors; probably a slight majority.

The course itself is overall a good one. It discusses a wide range of topics related to hunting. From firearm basics (e.g. types of rifles), to safety (gun safety, hunting safety, rudimentary first aid), hunting ethics, game identification, and even things like how to field dress a deer. I think the material covered is useful because they can’t know what level of experience people will have coming into this, so they have to start at the beginning. The problem of that however is it then requires a lot of material to be covered. There’s only so much time in the course, thus to be so broad it cannot go very deep. If any topic was explored in-depth, it was hunter ethics, and I think that was a worthwhile thing. Another problem with such a wide amount of topic coverage is if you already know the stuff, it makes the class boring. While I understand some aspects here, it’d be nice if there was a way to place out of this. For instance, me being an NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, it’d be nice if I would have been able to bypass a fair portion of the course material. But again, I understand the course construction and it’s generally fine how they do things.

After a lot of classroom instruction, there is a 50 question multiple choice knowledge test (closed book). Then there’s a short round on the gun range, which appears to be more about evaluating safe gun handling than it does marksmanship or anything else. There is no instruction on the shooting portion… you need to know how to shoot. The only instruction given was if you borrowed one of their rifles, they of course showed you how it operated (e.g. safety here, magazine release here, etc.).

All in all, I thought it was a good course and, while it was long, I was glad that I took it. A lot of the information was stuff I already knew, but I know Daughter didn’t know a lot of the material so it was certainly good learning for her. For me, seeing the video on how to field dress the deer was probably the most informative. I wish that was on YouTube (went looking for it via my iPhone during a class break, couldn’t find it).

I will say, there is apparently a home-study option for this course. If you are a long-time hunter and shooter and know your stuff, you may be better off doing the knowledge portion via home study. For instance, to hunt via the lotteries of some states you must have an education certificate so some folks that normally don’t need to take the course may need to take the course so they can do such things. So if you’ve the long-term experience, that may be less painful for you to do; then just find a way to do the field course. If you have less hunting knowledge/experience, especially for all young people even if they have gone hunting, they certainly should take the classroom course. There’s a lot they will get from it.

Personal Experience

The hardest part for me in the course was just that it was long. The gentlemen teaching the course were very knowledgeable and friendly, but they weren’t the best teachers. They just weren’t that engaging, mostly reading from their notes or the handbook. Every so often they’d break off and talk about things, tell some stories, or some such, and that would be good. But they just didn’t feel like the most engaging of teachers, especially for all the young folk in the class. This isn’t to say they were terrible; they did just fine and obviously the kids got the needed information as I think most everyone passed the test. So, the job was done.

For Daughter, it was tougher. The first night went until 10:00 PM and that’s way past her bedtime. Then having to get up very early the next morning to head back was tough as well. I also wish they could have done the shooting portion first thing Saturday morning instead of at 2:00 PM, when it was 100º+ outside. But they did it how they did it, and thankfully the outdoor portion didn’t last too long in this oppressive heat.

What also made it tougher for Daughter was the test. I recall looking over at her and seeing her holding back tears. At the time I wasn’t 100% sure why she was breaking down, but I just put my arm around her and kept encouraging her to do her best, to go to the next question if that one was stumping her, and just trying to continue to encourage her and support her through the test. I spoke with her afterwards, and the main issue was just testing overload. She just wasn’t sure about some questions and that number of “I don’t know” seemed to stack up against her. She didn’t want to fail the test, so she built herself up a lot of pressure. I will say that was one tough thing about the course (especially for the kids). There was a great deal of information presented in a limited amount of time. Often times the answer to one question might have been covered in the span of 5 seconds and if you missed it you missed it and there’s just no way you could reason your way to the right answer. Furthermore, some questions would be things that were of questionable merit. Does she really need to know what a percussion cap looks like (not is, looks like)? It’s arguable, but I’d say questions about hunter safety and ethics were more important. I watched her mark her answers, and I noticed that the questions that really mattered she did just fine on; maybe not knowing the answer right off the bat, but was obviously able to reason it down and mark the correct answer. She had the most trouble on more esoteric knowledge. But, since you don’t need a perfect score to pass, such questions are able to be missed and still produce a passing score. Daughter did pass, so no real troubles. Once she found out she passed, all her stress over the test was gone. 🙂  In fact, the gentlemen running the course complemented her on her tests (hey, she shot a better group than I did…. she used our scoped Ruger 10/22, I used one of the club’s Winchester bolt action .22’s with open leaf sights).

As an aside, looking back on things, I realize that during our lunch break (written test was after lunch) I should have gone back over the course handbook with Daugther. Problem was simple: with the new iPhone we were both wanting to play around with it and so we did. I’m sure if we spent time reviewing prior to the test, she would have fared much better.

Anyway, long days, but good days. I learned something. Daughter learned something. We’re both certified. And Daddy and Daughter had a lot of good time together.

KR Training August 2009 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The KR Training August 2009 Newsletter is up.

Much talk of upcoming classes, an IPSC match at Austin Rifle Club this Sunday (wish I could do it), various training opportunities, and other things.

All you locals, check it out.

My new iPhone

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I finally get to join the ranks of the cool kids. I bought an iPhone 3 GS. Trying out the WordPress app.

More later….

Updated: oh… man I gotta get used to typing on that thing. My poor thumbs…  I’m fixing and updating this post on my laptop.

I always knew the smooth face of the phone was good in a lot of ways, especially that it allows you to do well, anything as it’s adaptable. But the total lack of tactical feel of keys beneath your fingertips doth suck.

Important statistics

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

So Sotomayor is now a member of SCOTUS.

I wanted to see how the vote broke down. The Washington Post has a breakdown of the vote.

They break it down by party, by state, by region, by gender (why not by race?), by boomer status, by next election year, and then… by astrological sign.

Leo’s and Libra’s seem to be big Sotomayor supporters. Taurus’ are about split evenly, but it seems Virgos in general have something against her. And apparently Edward Kennedy is a Pisces.

Hey Linoge! You seem to like making graphs and performing statistical analysis. I’d like to see some analysis of this. Maybe astrological signs should be the big issue in the next election.  You know… important things like that. 😉

Will a 9mm +P shoot in any 9mm pistol?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Being the geek that I am, I like looking at my blog statistical data. One of the more interesting things is to look at the things that people are searching for that leads them to my blog. I’ve been thinking about responding directly to some of them, as I find interesting ones. So, why not go ahead and start.

One that came in my current stats is:

will a 9mm +p shoot in any 9mm pistol?

I’m assuming the person is curious to know if 9 mm (Luger, Parabellum, 9x19mm, etc.) +P ammo can be shot out of any gun chambered for 9 mm.

Short answer? No, +P won’t shoot in any pistol.

Longer answer? Any pistol? No. Some pistols? Yes, but you better check first (and not by trying it and seeing what happens).

The thing is, any ammo that is +P rated means that it’s loaded to a higher pressure than the standard (non-+P) load; generally about 10% higher pressure. Thus, more pressure means more well… pressure and stress being imparted upon the firearm. Take a balloon. It’s only able to handle so much air pressure within it before it pops. But if you inflate it with more air pressure than it’s designed to handle what happens? It pops. More or less, that’s what could happen to your gun if you use ammo in it that it is not able to handle.

Thus, you must know your firearm. You must know if it can handle +P ammo before you use +P ammo in it. If you’re not sure, contact the manufacturer of the firearm and ask them. If for some reason you cannot do that, contact a reputable gunsmith. Yes, you could also try to find things out on “t3h int3rw3bz”, but that can be a crap-shoot; know your source. In the end, it may be safer to err on the side of caution and not use the +P ammo.

Note as well there’s a further variant known as +P+, which means the ammo is loaded to even higher specs. This is another thing to ask about and watch out for. Check this Wikipedia article on Overpressure Ammunition for some details on the topic.

Granted most modern firearms can handle the additional pressure of +P rounds, but it’s still wise to know for sure and not guess. Read the user manual, ask the manufacturer. Know before you do. You really don’t want to be on the receiving end of a firearms failure.

Paired Round Loading

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I’m working my way through the postings at SnubTraining.com. I just came upon a set of postings regarding reloading your snub. This particular drill about “paired round loading” caught my eye. The background is that while at the range we might always reload our guns to full capacity, in a pressure situation we may not be able to. We may be able to unload the gun then only partially reload, either by choice or by time constraint, and then have to get back into the fight. So this drill is discussing that you may only be able to do a partial reload. Assuming your snub holds 5 rounds, maybe you can only get 2 rounds reloaded (thus “paired round”).

What Michael points out is how/where you do the reload. Chances are, we’re going to reload those rounds side-by-side. He presents some statistics worth considering:

If you were loading to protect your family wouldn’t you have better served them if you had loaded those roundsanywhere other than side by side?  When loading side by side you run a statistical risk of closing the cylinder and having to cycle through three or four empty charge holes (depending on if you loaded a five or six round cylinder) before you hit upon your first live round.  If you had split the loading then your chances for a live round earlier would have gone up to 25% with a five shot revolver and 20% with a six shot revolver.

Quite a good point. Yes with only a partial reload you have to keep pulling the trigger over empty chambers before you get to a loaded chamber, but now with the rounds spread out you’ve got a statistically better chance of getting at least one shot off sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, by practicing this way you give yourself an inexpensive “ball and dummy” drill. It can help you work to eliminate flinching. Load a couple rounds, spin the cylinder so you don’t know where they are, close the cylinder, then go. Work to eliminate any flinch or anticipation.

I’m not saying this is the best way to do things, or the worst. I do think it’s worthwhile food for thought.

Heaven Six in tonight’s class

/ hsoi

Sometimes the stars align and life is good.

In Kali class tonight we spent most of the time working on Heaven 6. Just a few days ago I blogged about Heaven 6, taking it beyond the use of sticks and applying it to empty hand work. That’s just what we did tonight. It’s been on my brain, and to take it further in class was serendipitous.

I have no idea what my problem was, but take the stick out of my hands and suddenly I couldn’t do it. 😮  I could do a single pass at it, but to just flow constantly just wasn’t happening. Could be that I’m mentally distracted, I don’t know. But regardless, it means lots of homework and practice for me, which isn’t a bad thing either way. So to make up for it, I just slowed down. That’s just as well. Better to be slow and correct. Speed will come.

It’s also important to realize that while there’s a lot about Filipino martial arts that’s common, there’s also so much that’s different. There’s thousands of “flavors” of FMA and while foundations are similar, details are different. Little details in how my Guro applied the empty hand Heaven 6 was really nice. For instance, assume you’re facing an opponent and they throw a right punch at you (e.g. the classic “right haymaker”). Doing the 3 motions you use your right hand to parry/block, then the left hand comes in… and that becomes basically a backfist into the inside of their bicep. It’s not how Janich was doing it, but boy I like this way because it works to continue the flow of things but not just being defensive but damaging as well. Nice stuff.

Nevertheless, I continue to be impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of Filipino martial arts. Something as fundamental as Heaven 6 is just awesome and ever so useful. I need more practice.

Gettin’ better

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I’m a hard workin’ man, doin’ all that I can, tryin’ to make ends meet.
Just a makin’ my way through this jungle today, it’s gettin’ the best of me.

But I know it’s gettin’ better, and a change is gonna come my way
Yes I know it’s gettin’ better, better every day, a-huh yeah.

Been a changin’ the scene, if you know what I mean. Good things are comin’ my way.
Now I’m livin’ my life, and I’m doin’ it right. Sun shinin’ every day.

I can feel it gettin’ better, and a change is gonna come my way.
Yes I feel it gettin’ better, better every day.

— Tesla, “Gettin’ Better”

Yes, things are getting better around here. Past some days have been kinda shitty for me, but you accept the lemons life gives you and you make lemonade. There’s a Taoist notion that the way to be rid of a disease/sickness is to welcome it, be with it, and let it pass through you. Just roll with it, be like water.

Presenting sitting in my backyard, enjoying the fact I live in the city but the unique location of my house on the outskirts of the city makes it like I’m in the country… one of the local does came up to have an evening nosh… I’ve got my laptop with me, playing some Led Zeppelin via iTunes (let’s hear it for wireless networking), blogging, enjoying a Rocky Patel Vintage 1990, a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA,… life is good.

I’m not really a cigar smoker, but back in my college days me and 3 buddies from high school had a ritual. When we’d come back to home base during our respective college breaks, we’d gather and have a “stogie night”. I miss those guys… we’re in touch, but haven’t physically seen each other in years. Haven’t smoked cigars since then (I quit cigarettes many years ago and have zero desire for them; in fact, they sicken me to breathe/smell). But my buddy W is a cigar smoker and he introduced me to Rocky Patel’s. I tried one to see if I’d care for it or not, and lo.. I liked it. I don’t intend to make cigars a habit, but today I couldn’t help but go out and buy one to enjoy. Don’t know why… just felt right and I went with that emotion.

No real point to this post… just relishing that in the end, life is good. We have our hardships, we have our shit to deal with, but in the end, life is still good. In fact, to make it better, we have to sometimes just put the shit aside and forget about it… and find something to just enjoy and lose yourself in, even for a little bit. Gotta keep our sanity, gotta keep our balance.

And never take life too seriously. 😎

Random grossness

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Actually… I have two random bits of grossness.

Random gross #1

The other day when I came home from the indoor range, I put a tissue up my nose to clean things out. When I pull the tissue out, there’s black on the tissue. Eh? I do a bit more cleaning in and around both nostrils and find more black. I am not 100% sure what it is, but I can only deduce it’s from the indoor range… all the smoke, especially given the guy shooting the muzzleloader in the bay next to me. Who knows what else I inhaled. This is just another reason why indoor ranges aren’t the greatest thing… or that Red’s needs to massively improve ventilation. Rather gross, and unsettling as to what I took into my body.

Random gross #2

The new kitty? She has the most god-awful farts, and has them rather frequently. Or at least, it seems the cause-effect is pick up kitty, get a nasty fart for your troubles.

Joy. 😕