Life

Always more than you

/ hsoi

We all like to feel better, to feel bigger, to feel superior. It’s human. It’s some way of saying that we have some worth, some merit, and that we’re not at the bottom… that we’re not last… that we don’t suck. We compare ourselves to others, and we like to put ourselves above others.

Stupid tea party morans.

Fucking liberals.

Yeah… “my superiority” was trotted out a lot the past some months, moreso than usual.

Here’s a lesson:

Be humble, there will always be somebody stronger than you.

– Steve Fredine

It doesn’t matter that he’s talking about powerlifting. Because there will always be someone bigger, better, faster, stronger, smarter, richer, whatever-er than you, and then that means YOU are the stupid fucking moran.

Hell, there’s much that Steve learned that apply to life (and powerlifting):

  • Less is more
  • Put your life on the line on max effort day
  • Eat and get rest
  • Be open-minded
  • If it works, figure out the why later
  • If it doesn’t work, don’t do it
  • Be patient with the uninformed
  • Be smart, but not anal
  • Don’t make excuses
  • Give back
  • Be focused, but keep a sense of humor
  • Train weaknesses
  • Train for chaos
  • A totally safe exercise is probably useless
  • Be patient
  • Be persistent
  • Be creative
  • Talk is cheap
  • Don’t worry about the other guy
  • Be humble
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff

Who knew iron could teach you so much. But you know… 200 pounds is always 200 pounds.

Be Happier

/ hsoi

Going through email this morning, I got sent the following article about 9 Daily Habits That Will Make You Happier.

Seems a little self-helpy, but there’s some solid things in here. The one that stood out to me?

5. Assume people have good intentions.

Since you can’t read minds, you don’t really know the “why” behind the “what” that people do. Imputing evil motives to other people’s weird behaviors adds extra misery to life, while assuming good intentions leaves you open to reconciliation.

Recently I’ve been dealing with some difficult people going through some difficult times, and I know if they tried this it would have saved them much grief.

I try to do this, but I can step back and see I don’t try enough. I will work on that about myself. I know it will not only save me a lot of grief, but it helps the relationship too.

Tips for teachers

/ hsoi

While the article is titled “Being a Woman is Not a Disability“, and while the article is presented in the context of powerlifting, what the article is really about is teaching.

Teaching boils down to a lot of the same concepts, whether you’re teaching arithmetic, how to bench press, how to shoot a gun, how to bake a cake. And addressing needs of a student rarely comes down to the student’s gender, race, ethnicity, religious preference, sexual orientation, age, etc.. Oh sure, sometimes those things do matter, but all too often teachers/coaches/educators apply the wrong context and thus the wrong solution. For example, many times when teaching beginning shooters, women do get treated differently. But I’ve found issues with new shooters aren’t because of gender, but because of something like smaller/weaker hands. Yes one can make the generalization that women have smaller and weaker hands than men, but I’ve seen some large strong women and some small weak men. It wasn’t their gender that mattered, it was their hand size and strength. Thus what’s important to address is their hand size and strength, not their gender.

Successful teaching does follow the same guidelines regardless of the topic being taught. Amy Wattles’ article does a fine job of presenting these guidelines:

  • The introduction is the most important part of a lesson<
  • After the delivery of your instruction, check for understanding.
  • Next, it is time to demonstrate the skill to be acquired.
  • Provide students with constructive feedback throughout the lesson.

Read her article for full details, including a good list of additional tips for teaching success.

One thing I’ll add? Know your audience.

If you know your audience, you can better shape the presentation of your message. Let’s say you want to teach how to bake a cake. How might your presentation differ if your students were a group of adults vs. a class of kindergarteners vs. veteran chefs? Your material and message would be the same, but how you present that message, how you work to convey your information, that’s going to and should differ from audience to audience. Suppose you didn’t change. Suppose you wrote it all out for a group of veteran chefs and your audience is a group of 5-year-olds? Do you think your presentation is going to succeed? Do you think you’ll successfully convey your message? Unlikely.

Some might say that they don’t know what their audience will be comprised of. If that’s the case, then you still know that fact and should proceed accordingly. But you may also be able to glean at least a little something. For example, when a new class of Basic Pistol 1 students show up at KR Training, we generally don’t know what to expect. We will have people of both gender, wide range of ages, many ethnicities, socio-economic status, background (e.g. maybe they were brought here due to a bad crime victim experience and are very sensitive)… it’s all over the map. We really can’t know much and thus have to be reserved in our presentation. But we can know they are all here to learn how to shoot a gun, and most are coming because of an interest in personal defense, so we can play off that tidbit of audience awareness.

Teaching is rewarding, even more so when you’re successful at it. Knowing how to teach helps you succeed.

Looking for a new flashlight — do you have any input?

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

For many years I’ve carried a SureFire E2L Outdoorsman. It’s part of my every-day-carry, and in fact I use it almost every day. It’s because of that daily utility that I chose that particular model of flashlight.

However, over the past year I’ve started to have a change of heart. Many new flashlights have come to market, and over the years of carrying I’ve started to find myself wanting… a little more, a little different. And probably too much time hanging out with TXGunGeek, who is also a big flashlight geek.

What’s my beef with my E2L?

  • High-beam output. While my E2L’s high beam is pretty good, there’s better out there now. I’ve found myself in enough situations where I wished for more light.
  • Beam quality. I don’t know how to describe it, but the high beam feels… fuzzy. Maybe it’s my (aging) eyes, but compared to some other flashlights I have, there’s something about the light quality that just doesn’t provide me with the best picture. It’s certainly good enough for most things, but if I can have a little better, since again, my eyes are getting older and anything I can do to help out is A Good Thing™.
  • High first, low second. There’s no question I want dual-output because much of my every-day light needs require a low-beam. Originally I wanted the low-beam to come on first since I figured most of my needs were mundane and didn’t need to blind myself. Now I want the high beam to come on first, because I find myself in more situations where I need a lot of light right now and don’t need to waste time clicking through beam modes. I decided if I needed low beam mode, it would likely not be a “need it immediately” need and I could do something like press the flashlight into my stomach or leg to suppress throwing light, click through to low, then there we go. Besides, when you need a lot of light right now, you need it now and need to be able to just slam the light on and get the light. Yeah I tried many times to just get used to “half click, release, full click” to get as quick as I could over the low mode and locked into the high mode or doing 2 full clicks, but it’s just too error prone, too time consuming, and too loud.

So it’s not much, but it’s enough to motivate me to look for alternatives.

But on that token, some things I would prefer to not give up:

  • Clip. The clip is very useful, especially since I can hang it off the brim of my hat for hands-free use. That means the clip needs to attach near the head and point back towards the tailcap (like the E2L has). So many flashlights have the clip attach at the tail and run towards the head, which can be good for keeping the flashlight in your pocket, but isn’t very usable during use.
  • Dual mode. I need high and low beam. Strobe? Oh please… no.
  • Size. I like the E2L’s size. First, because it means 2 batteries instead of 1 thus more runtime. Second, the diameter feels good in my hands in terms of being able to hold a grip and not lose the flashlight in my hand.

And then there’s one thing I flat out do not want: strobe. This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco. I do not need nor want strobe. I do not want to waste time clicking through a mode that I don’t need, that all too often will accidentally fire because I’m trying to click through to the mode past it. If someone can tell me how strobe is actually useful, please comment. In the dark, it just screws up YOUR vision too, and again it’s too many modes to click through to get it. Enough Low Light shooting classes and strobe never comes up as useful.  But, I will admit I recently found a use for it. While taking Kiddos around the neighborhood this past Halloween for trick-or-treating, I carried a Streamlight Super Tac-X because low beam is good for close-up work (e.g. picking up dropped candy); the high beam is bright, crisp, clean, lots of throw, lots of spread, really lights things up which can be useful when walking around in the dark and well-behind a group of kids that might need some illumination in front of them (throw!). And then… yes… strobe was useful when we would cross the street. I would aim it down at the pavement and let it blink, and saw more than enough cars react to the flashing strobe (vs. other times when I’ve used a plain beam) and slow down. So yeah, THAT was useful. But for my EDC flashlight? No strobe.

There’s no question the awesomeness of Fenix Lights, especially that they have such great output, quality, and runtime on ubiquitous AA batteries, all at such a low price. The Fenix lights I presently have are great.  Because of them, SureFire and Streamlight have had to pick up their game. So lots of new and interesting stuff out there. I focused on these 3 companies. I did look at some others, but they either were no longer in business or their lights could all be eliminated from consideration because they had features I didn’t want (e.g. Blackhawk, NovaTac, Pelican).

Streamlight didn’t have anything that would fit my bill. Mostly lost out on the clip front. In fact, on the clip front alone I pretty much eliminated most every flashlight out there. *sigh* The two I found were:

Fenix LD22 (S2)

SureFire E2D LED Defender

The Fenix has a lot of win all around. Many different modes/levels of light output. Cree LED’s. A tailcap switch, but also a side button; so yes, that means there is a strobe mode but at least it’s not part of the tailcap. There’s a clip, but I’m mixed on the fact it’s removable. Sure that’s cool from a sales standpoint, because they can sell it to more people. And I kinda like that if the clip snagged on something it would just break away instead of bend (how many times have I bent my Spyderco Delica clips because of a snag?). But… that also means it can break away, which may not be what I want. I’m unsure about the clip. I think tho the bigger concern is while it’s cool it remembers the last output setting and uses that next time you turn it on, that means if the last thing I did was read a map but RIGHT NOW I need a lot of light, I won’t get it. The Fenix looks good in so many regards, but I’m not sure it will win the “tactical need” test. But it’s only like $60, so I might pick one up anyways because I could see a lot of use for this in other contexts, like camping or hunting.

The SureFire E2D. Funny how things happen. My only beef with this? The fact it looks aggressive. Of course, that’s the point of the “Defender” models, and I’m honestly not bothered by it myself. But as I wrote in my old “why I like the E2L” article I specifically avoided that light for its looks. At the time I was active in Boy Scouts and a lot of parents there did not “get it” and would freak out at the thought, and I just didn’t need the grief. As well, I flew and didn’t want to have some TSA goon take my $150 flashlight. But these days? I don’t fly. I don’t do BSA, and operate my life in a different context. Besides, I’ll still have my E2L in storage and can always pull it out and use it if context changes.

So yes, presently I’m leaning towards the E2D. I even emailed Comp-Tac to see if their flashlight holster for the E2L works for the E2D.

What’s your input?

13-Nov-2012 Update: Comp-Tac replied:

From what I can tell the e2d and e2l have the same bezel diameter. However, the e2d has that crenellated bezel, which adds to the length a small amount.
I would feel comfortable in saying that it would work.

So I figure if I go with the E2D, I’ll get it, try it, and hope for the best. If I do have to buy a new pouch, I reckon the existing one would work well enough until the new pouch arrived.

 

Epitomizing the Warrior Ethos

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

A Gurkha soldier who single-handedly defeated more than 30 Taliban fighters has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross by the Queen.

Corporal Dipprasad Pun, 31, described how he was spurred on by the belief that he was going to die and so had nothing to lose in taking on the attackers who overran his checkpoint in Afghanistan.

His gallantry award is second only to the Victoria Cross – the highest honour for bravery in the face of the enemy.

Read his full story.

The unwritten rules of Halloween

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Putting on my Old Man hat for a moment….

Taking two-thirds of Kiddos around for Trick-or-Treating last night and gee… have manners totally died?

Granted, it wasn’t across the board, but I did see lots of people just barging around, not waiting their turn, not saying “thank you”, being greedy rude little fucks.

And that was just the adults.

*sigh*

I know Halloween etiquette isn’t written down anywhere, but it seems to be understood that porch light on means “someone’s here, candy available, come knock”. Porch light off means “no candy, don’t knock, keep moving”.  That you wait your turn, letting the group already at the door finish up and allowing them to exit (since many doorways are narrow) before you go in for your turn. That you don’t ask for the candy, or for another piece; you get what you are given and you say “thank you” (even if it’s a pencil, a box of raisins, or a penny). That you don’t half-ass it: that you make some sort of effort with the costume, with the evening, and not just wandering around trolling for free candy.

But all these unwritten rules of Halloween seem like they might be dying and being lost.

Or… I’m just getting old, and more crotchety than I was yesterday. 🙂

Oh… and don’t trample on my lawn and through my garden! Use the walkway!

Let us learn from his mistakes

/ hsoi

Just because we’re teachers doesn’t mean we know it all — first and foremost, we are and always will be students.

So when my fellow KR Training assistant instructor, Paul Martin, had an event at his house in the middle of the night well… he wrote about it so we could all learn something from his mistakes.

Thankfully it was a non-event, but there was still much to learn from the event.

Attitude – she haz it

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Eighth grader, Danielle Harbour, broke the record for the most back handsprings: 40 (prior record was 36).

Watch the video

I’ll do it at the next football game… just for fun.

Just for fun. No workup, no pressure, no prep, no nothing. Just confidence, just knowledge of herself that she already has the skills. No fear.

In the middle, at like 20, I was like… I started slowing down… and I was like “Oh my gosh, I have to keep going… I have to keep going!”

And then when I got to 39 I was like “Oh my gosh, I can’t do one more!” and then I was like “I gotta do one more! I gotta make 40!”

She didn’t know quit. She pushed through pain, because she knew greatness was on the other side. Oh sure, back handsprings don’t mean much in the grand scheme of the life and the world. But her attitude means everything.

Congratulations, Danielle.

Senior Engineer

/ hsoi

John Allspaw writes “On Being a Senior Engineer“.

In my long career, I’ve met lots of people with the title “senior engineer”. We’d joke and call them “señior engineer” because it was all too often thrown around as some title of arrogance or tenure, but was about as meaningful as a “perfect attendance” award  — sure it’s great that you showed up and have been here a while, but that didn’t mean you knew anything.

Or were mature enough.

So with that, I’ve often cast off the title because it’s tended to be meaningless, maybe useful for business cards or at most on your résumé. But John’s article gives a perspective that the title is meaningful, if applied to someone who actually fits the role.

Of course for it to truly be meaningful, the title needs to be properly applied over the course of a career, not just because you’re the lone coder at some startup you and your other 20-something-year-old friends put together over beers one evening fresh out of college.

In the end, it’s just a title. It doesn’t really matter. But the merits and qualities of a senior engineer, as John lays out, are what really matters and what are worth striving to be.

Quote for today

/ hsoi

The devotion to tabloid is a symptom of our sick society. We don’t idolize heroes, we canonize failures, falls from grace, human weakness, Our priorities are warped and insensitive.

– Lonn Friend

Full article.