While the title is referencing the Nibblonians of Futurama, it’s all I could think of this morning. For you see, my morning ritual now includes washing my walkways and driveway of all the poop left by the muscovy ducks that congregate at my house. I am amazed how much poop one duck can produce.
Life
False urgency
Did you ever notice when something is done because a sense of urgency gets foisted upon it, that it often winds up not working out? That something that deserves a lot of research, homework, discussion, debate, consideration… when you ignore those things because “damnit we need action now”, that you wind up with a bigger mess in the end?
If something is truly a good idea, doing it now or later won’t matter all that much. If it allows people to do their homework on it, heck, a good idea will only wind up becoming a better idea, a stronger idea. Why wouldn’t you want people to do their homework, because it only strengthens your cause!
If something is a bad idea, the only way to get people to buy into it is to fool them, don’t let them do homework, don’t let them read, don’t let them research, don’t let them debate and discuss, and insist that if they don’t act now Bad Things™ will happen. Then once you get your way, who cares if it winds up being a stinker… you got your way.
There are some things in life that require urgent response, but most things don’t. Even in those things that require urgent action, you cannot approach them haphazardly without any knowledge or plan and expect success. False urgency is a tip-off that things may not be as great as they seem.
There is a time to give them up
When do we give up our guns?
Never!
“Cold dead hands” and all that.
Right?
Well, maybe not so much.
Joe recounts a personal story, which tells of a good time to give them up.
Aside from the personal drama, the lesson I want to impart is that there IS a time when we need to give up the guns.
The problem is that we won’t know when that time has passed. I know my uncle [who suffers from Alzheimer’s] wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he doesn’t understand the “sudden” mistrust. All he knows is that he does not want to hand over a prized possession, nor be disarmed.
But the doctor reports near 90% loss of short-term memory. He may take an “unloaded” pistol and find it loaded after all.
I empathize, but I know the guns have to go. My only option that night was to forcibly take it, but I was not prepared to devastate a huge, strong man for whom I care very much. Afterwards, he went in the kitchen and looked so absolutely hopeless and depressed… to say it was hard to watch is a gross understatement.
Give the whole piece a read. It’s moving.
So what do you do?
Caleb recounts how he just went to a concert and had to disarm himself. I’ve run into this same situation.
This is why we cannot be one-trick ponies, relying upon guns alone. To carry other weaponry such as a knife, collapsable baton, pepper spray (women will likely be able to get away with this more than men can) — a layered approach. But of course, even those may not be permissible given the venue. Thus all you are left with are your wits and your hands.
This is why it’s good to know how to use your empty hands.
But this is why it’s even better to know how to use your brain, keep your wits about you, be aware, and follow that first rule of self-defense: ABC — Always Be Cool. That seems to hold even moreso in a context like a concert, where cool is so much what it’s about.
The dumbers are getting more dumberer
Walter Williams, a professor at George Mason University, has published an article on the failed public school system.
The solution? Decentralization and competition (imagine that!):
Any long-term solution to our education problems requires the decentralization that can come from competition. Centralization has been massive. In 1930, there were 119,000 school districts across the U.S; today, there are less than 15,000. Control has moved from local communities to the school district, to the state, and to the federal government. Public education has become a highly centralized government-backed monopoly and we shouldn’t be surprised by the results. It’s a no-brainer that the areas of our lives with the greatest innovation, tailoring of services to individual wants and falling prices are the areas where there is ruthless competition such as computers, food, telephone and clothing industries, and delivery companies such as UPS, Federal Express and electronic bill payments that have begun to undermine the postal monopoly in first-class mail.
We homeschool our kids. Can’t get more decentralized than that!
(h/t to The Liberty Sphere)
Little things
A few days ago we took the kids out for ice cream. Went to the Baskin Robbins near our house.
When we were walking in, a man was sitting outside on one of the benches. We’ve seen this man before inside the BK; we believe he is the owner of the store; at least the manager, but probably the owner given what we’ve seen. We nodded and smiled and said “hello” on our way in. He smiled and said “hello” back. And we continued into the store.
Each kiddo got a single scoop on a cone, then we all went outside to sit on one of the benches, enjoy the evening, and eat our ice cream.
Within 2 seconds of her starting to lick her ice cream, Daughter’s scoop departed the cone and landed on the ground. *DOH*
We just told her to pick it up, throw it in the trash, and we’d go inside and buy her another scoop.
As we were doing this, the gentleman (owner?) spoke up. He saw what happened and told us to go back inside, get another scoop, and to tell the girls behind the counter that he said to just give us the scoop. Free.
That was unnecessary, but kind and generous. We thanked him, and spent time with our kids talking about such generous acts. Sure you could say this was just good for business, and certainly it does make us regard him and his business more positively and makes us want to go back to his store. But the man did not have to do this. That he did was a little bit of kindness, and it shows that it takes almost no effort and no expense to be good to others.
Little things mean a lot.
The Spoetzl Brewery
Today was a special day for a few reasons, and putting those reasons together gave me and my good buddy W a chance to do something that all good Texans must do at some point:
Visit the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. Makers of Shiner Bock and other Shiner-brand beers.
(Don’t let ’em) Grind Ya Down
This morning I’ve been listening to Iron Fist, one of my favorite Motörhead albums. There’s a track on there that serves as a good reminder.
People gonna make ya wonder if you’re right,
Keep ya wide awake and worried late at night.
Why don’t ya tell ’em to beat it?
Why don’t ya tell ’em to eat it!
They’re just a bunch of clowns,
Don’t let ’em grind ya down.Sons of bitches, crocodile tears in their eyes.
We scare ’em shitless just by showin’ up alive!
Why don’t you tell ’em to shove it?
You know they might as well love it.
Give you runaround,
Don’t let ’em grind you down.Evil bastards ain’t got nothin’ else to do;
Make your life a misery and put you off your food.
Don’t you dare to go under!
Don’t let ’em steal your thunder!
Listen to the sound,
We’ll let ’em grind that down.Don’t let them bastards grind ya down!
Finally!
How serendipitous!
A bunch of things finally came together and today I introduced (at least my older 2) children to Magic: The Gathering.
I started playing M:TG in grad school. When I first arrived, I met a couple guys in the department and was immediately invited to an evening at their apartment where they introduced me to the game. This would have been when The Dark expansion pack was out. I remember that because I thought that expansion was really cool and I only wish I knew the game better at that point as I would have bought a lot more expansions of that set. 🙂 I played while I was in grad school through Revised Edition, Fourth Edition, The Dark, Fallen Empires, Homelands, Ice Age, Chronicles, and into Alliances. After leaving grad school however, I had no one to play with (Wife tried, just not her thing) and the cards ended up in the closet… hoping that one day I’d get to play them again. Or sell them and make a lot of money. 😉 And while most people kept wanting me to sell them, it was always my hope that I could actually play again because I did enjoy the game so much.
Just a few weeks ago, Linoge had a posting about the game, which brought back so many memories. As well, since M:TG’s explosion in popularity years ago, collectible card games became quite the thing. I’d say the most successful other has been Pokémon. While I tried to dodge that bullet for years, eventually my kids got into it (I think due to one Christmas with my nephews some years back). I never was that upset about it, as I always figured if they liked one collectible card game they might like another! Often our kids would get together with other kids and out would come the binders of Pokémon cards… sometimes tho I felt like they cared more about collecting than playing, but I eventually did see the kids play the game. Then one day, at the birthday part of one of Oldest’s friends and I see a lot of the other boys there with cards… and not just any, but M:TG cards! Certainly recent editions, but it was M:TG and it was cool to see kids were still into it. I think that sowed a seed back in Oldest’s head.
Then the serendipitous thing was last night. My good friend W is about to move out of Texas 😦 and in the midst of packing he and his wife are trying to get rid of things they don’t want to pack and/or move. One thing was a couple big boxes of W’s old Magic cards! He sold off all the cards worth money, but that’s OK as this is about playing, not money. He gave me a lot of cards, and his cards were heavy from Alliances and Ice Age, some Chronicles and other sets from around that time. My oldest 2 kids immediately were curious about “the cards” I was taking home, so last night when I got home I pulled out a rulebook, refreshed myself on it, and introduced older 2 kids to it today. Gave them a quick overview of the rules, then we played a game.
When I was introduced to the game, the way we played was the experienced players made some decks and let the newbies play with the new decks. We would play the games open-handed, so every player’s hand was face-up on the table. This allowed no surprises and many chances for instruction. We’d play games this way until the newbies felt comfortable, then we’d move to close-hand games and normal gameplay would commence. So this is what I did with my kiddos today, playing an open-hand game with some decks I had made… decks that I made probably 13-14 years ago, still in their boxes, waiting for the day when someone would play with them again.
I’m so happy that day finally came. 🙂
The kids enjoyed it, especially Daughter. I did my best to keep things moving and keep the action high, despite the slower nature of an instructional game (lots of pausing to explain things). I also did what I could to sow the seed in Oldest’s head that he’d want to check this out… before he went to bed last night I was flipping through the cards and came across Orcish Conscripts (click the link, see the card). I knew Oldest would enjoy the humor of the artwork, and even now he’s still asking me to see more Orc cards because well… Orc cards have a lot of humor in them. Whatever works, if it keeps them interested and wanting to play.
Of course, I’ve got tons of cards between mine and the ones W gave me, so I don’t expect we’ll be buying any time soon. Besides, after reading Linoge’s post all the new rules, other things to keep up with, bleah. I’ll worry about that later. I’m sure once the kids are well-versed I’ll want to do some sealed decks, and that will mean new cards, but that’s fine. I look forward to it.
Happy day for me.
Another class – post mortem
Helped out with another Basic Pistol 1 class today.
There were 10 people in the class, 6 were female. Wide range of ages of folks too.
The class was good. People got to learn a lot, set a solid foundation, and try out a bunch of handguns to figure out what worked best for them. One of the best things about this course is the smorgasbord of handguns you get to shoot, because it helps you figure out what works right for you. The biggest issue is gun fit and being able to find a gun that fits you, thus you’ll be able to shoot well. You walk out of that class with the knowledge of how to be able to shop for a gun, how to buy ammo for it, and the basics of how to shoot it with good technique.
In today’s class, I happened to have my Springfield XD-9 Subcompact with me. I let people shoot it next to a full-sized XD-9 so they could compare and contrast. My point? I wanted them to see that you will shoot a large gun better than a small gun (all other things being equal, but for size). Larger guns have more frame to grip so you can get more hand on them and better control them. Larger guns have a longer sight radius, so you can be more accurate. Larger guns are a little heavier, so they will absorb recoil better. This isn’t to say you can’t shoot a small gun well (more in a moment), but as a beginner you’ll find more success if you start out with a larger gun. Smaller guns are more concealable, but with the right strategy you can conceal a full sized gun without much problem.
On the small gun note, I actually did some shooting with my subcompact today and was quite pleased with the results. I don’t shoot that gun a lot, but because I’ve been improving my skills on the larger guns, all that came back down here. The only thing that wasn’t fun about shooting the subcompact was it has the factory sights: big fat front sight that fills up most of the rear notch (little light on the sides, harder to get things lined up), 3 white dots although I did black out the back 2 dots. I just like my Dawson Precision sights. Nevertheless, I was shooting some timed drills and did quite well because while I knew I had to shoot fast to make time I didn’t sacrifice good form for time… I didn’t rush just to get the shots off in time. I even recall a few times distinctly withholding the shot until I had the proper sight picture, my eyes focused on the front sight.
Speed is important, but I’d say accuracy is more important. No one cares about the first person to get the wrong answer, to miss, to screw up. Use good technique. Watch that front sight.
And I got to ride my motorcycle to and from the range. Gosh it’s hot out. 🙂 I’ve been having thoughts about selling my bike, but I enjoyed the ride too much today. I may not ride as much as I used to, but I think I’d be unhappy if I sold her.
Stuff From Hsoi 