Me

La la la

/ hsoi

Something happened to me this past weekend. I have no idea exactly what caused it, but I woke up Sunday morning sore all over.

There was nothing particularly strenuous about the match. I did notice my quadraceps were sore so I chalked everything up to just muscle soreness.

Well, since then the pain has been pretty ugly. When breathing is difficult, when a burp causes you to yell out in pain because of how the muscles in your chest suddenly contracted, when you can’t sleep because of the intense pain… something’s wrong. Every other bit of soreness went away but this just lingered at about the same rate. I started to wonder if I cracked a rib; don’t know how that would have happened, but given the pain did seem to run exactly along some rib paths well… let’s see the doctor.

Doc checks me out. He’s checks for a lot of things but nothing really makes sense. He didn’t believe it was cracked or broken. So he wanted to do a few tests to rule out some other low-hanging fruit. But for now he thinks it’s just some really tight and sore muscles and prescribed some muscle relaxers.

Let me tell you… that stuff is… relaxing. 😉

So blogging hasn’t really happened today because I’m just too relaxed. Not loopy, but certainly sleepy. My brain wants to move at 100 miles and hour, but my body is content to just drag itself along. I’m motivated mentally, but physically… meh.

I’ll try to blog more tomorrow.

Blarg

/ hsoi

Busy.

Lost time because of a doctor’s appointment. I’ve been in some serious pain since Sunday. Thought it might have been a cracked rib, doctor doesn’t think so (so no x-rays). Prescribed me some muscle relaxers and some tests are being run. We’ll see.

Meantime, I hope to be back here later.

More about the iPhone dying

/ hsoi

I mentioned how on Sunday my iPhone died, apparently of sudden and complete battery drain.

I’m still mystified as to why, but a friend read my blog posting and said he knew of two similar experiences. He said he believed the culprit at the time was a game called “Stick Wars Lite“. Funny he should mention that!

I was going to pick up foo.c to take him to the IPSC match but I arrived very early and didn’t know if he’d be up and about yet, so I pulled into a nearby strip mall parking lot and started to fiddle on my iPhone. To my surprise, foo.c pulled in next to me because he wa coming to grab some breakfast. I got out of the car and went into the shop with him. All this time the iPhone was in my hands. I heard some faint music and looked at my hand and noticed that the iPhone was still on and the screen must have been touched because it had brough up a game.

Stick Wars Lite.

I distinctly remember that game being active.

I then just hit the power button to put the phone to sleep.

Three people experiencing this? Might be more than a coincidence. However, I’m not sure that is the problem because I’ve attempted to reproduce it and it won’t happen (of course).

Nevertheless, I believe the phone did die because the battery was drained by something not playing nice and thus consumed all the power. One recommendation given was to never put your iPhone to sleep with an application active, to always go back to the Home screen before sleeping it. IMHO that should not be a requirement, or if it is then the iPhone ought to handle it automatically when you hit the power button.

I’ll keep an eye on things and if I can reproduce it, certainly I’ll report it to the developer. Being a developer myself, I appreciate it when people file (useful) bug reports, so I make sure to do the same for my fellow developer. Need a reproducible case first. 🙂

My First IPSC Match Scores

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The scores from my first IPSC match have been posted.

I suck! 🙂

To keep things in perspective, this was my first time and so I was going slow because I don’t know how to play the game. Along the lines of not knowing how to play the game, there were learning experiences with Comstock scoring; say if I shot twice on a target and one shot was a clean shot to a no-shoot I could shoot again and that would have affected my score. So, I don’t take my scores from the match as any sort of gospel as to what sort of shooter I am. However, it is some degree of a snapshot and I want to analyze things to see where I need to improve.

Continue reading →

Random stuff

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

From today… just some random bits of things.

iPhone

I’m peeved that my iPhone went dead. I have no idea what caused the sudden drain of battery. Google turns up this isn’t an unheard of thing and hypotheses are some apps just are poor at battery management. That perhaps somehow I put the phone to bed with particular apps still running and someone sucked the battery dry. Don’t know, but oh well.

Managing Unknown Contacts

To understand the term “Managing Unknown Contacts” (MUC) see here or here. I failed at this this morning. *sigh* When I left the house this morning I stopped into the drug store to get some food and drink to eat during the match. When I went in I saw a girl (probably 18-25 years old) gathering her stuff on a bench outside the store. I go inside, do my thing, I come back out to my car and the girl approaches me. Initially I was stand-off-ish and unwilling to help her, but she ultimately said she just wanted directions. I answered her question and she went on her way. So, it was probably nothing.

However, I got in the car and realized I failed MUC. I didn’t move well, I didn’t use my hands right (e.g. fence), wrong dialogue. I know why: I was preoccupied with the match. Bad bad bad me. *sigh*

CHL

I am surprised at the number of people who have CHL’s but don’t carry. So… why do you have a CHL?

People at the match seemed surprised that I came to the match carrying and that I wanted to leave the match carrying. They were surprised at my carry. I was surprised at their surprise, and at their lack of carry.

I want to start asking people who have a CHL why they have a CHL if they don’t carry… and carry always (apart from legal or other such reasons).

Reloading

I got to try a Hornady Lock-n-Lock AP. I’m sold. No the Dillon isn’t bad, but there’s no question the LnL AP is evolution.

Walked away with a LOT of 9mm brass today (lots of people didn’t want their brass). Happy me.

Match People

I forgot to mention about the match. I was surprised at the level of shooters. I figured it was a local club and that it might not be that hot… maybe one or two guys, but that’d be it. I was floored at the number of people with “sponsor” shirts on, race guns, and other very serious gear and really into it. Lots of quality shooters. It was good to watch them and how they went about things, from how people choose to handle the course of fire (I like that about IPSC, vs. IDPA) to how they shot (e.g. the steady cadence in particular strings of the stage). Or just being impressed with how fast some of these guys are.

Family

I love my wife. She supports me. She is a rock for me.

My First IPSC Match

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Finally!

I got to try my hand at action pistol competition. Specifically, an IPSC (USPSA) match run by the Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club (ALSPPC) and hosted by the Austin Rifle Club.

Foo.c was there too. In fact, we were on the same squad together.

This is the first time I’ve done any sort of formal firearms competition. Why do it? Because I can. Because I’m curious what it’s all about. Because I’d like to test my skills in pressure situations, and push myself to improve. I know this is not “self-defense handgunning” and I don’t pretend that it is. I do think it can be likened to sparring or how any sort of competition is akin to “self-defense” and “on the street”. It will still make me a better shooter, period, even if it’s not all “tactical”.

There were 66 people participating (fairly big turnout). Everyone was broken up into 5 squads, since there were 5 courses of fire, one in each of the 5 shooting bays. Because there were a lot of people, the match did take a while to do… 4-5 hours to run the actual match. Frankly, that’s the biggest downside to this. Cumulatively I shot probably what? 5 minutes? And meantime I was there 5 hours (a total of about a 7 hour day, including driving time). That’s the biggest bummer about it all is all the “hurry up and wait”. I will say I did like how our squad ran, in that everyone contributed to helping with tasks to make things move quickly: taping targets, resetting poppers, picking up brass, scoring, etc.. Because everyone chipped in, our squad moved along pretty well. The bummer was the squad in front of us in the rotation was moving very slowly (few people on that squad were helping) and the held up the waterworks, which was a shame. But oh well, this is how it goes.  The only other downside was today was unseasonably warm, but still a great sunny day for shooting.

So what was good about it?

Why the shooting, of course! The courses of fire were fun and challenging. I am “unclassified” since this is my first match, and I shot in a division called “Production”, which is basically using a factory-produced firearm. It can have a few modifications (e.g. better sights), but it’s nothing like the highly-customized race guns. Works fine for me, because at this point who cares. I just wanted to go and try… there’s no “gaming” involved in this (yet) for me.

My goals? To learn how to shoot IPSC, to not come in last (ha!), and to have fun. As of this writing, I don’t know the results of the match, but I did learn how to shoot it and I did have fun. I also learned a few things. I need to continue to familiarize myself with the rules of the game so I can just “go” and not have to sweat some of the stuff (e.g. making up a hit on a no-shoot). I need to do a lot more dry fire working on my trigger control (sometimes I was pressing “too hard” and thus end up pulling the muzzle down). I need to work on my long-distance shooting. A lot of the shooting today was at longer distances and it’s on those I had the most trouble; most of my handgun work is defensive handgunning and thus mostly at closer distances (and those I shot fine).

Another good thing? The people. Everyone in my squad ranged from friendly to very friendly. We had a mix of old timers and n00bs like me. While the guys that knew each other certainly joked around a lot with each other, they were all willing to answer questions, help out, and just talk and have fun. It was a great attitude and great group of people. I’m sure I’ll see many of them again at future matches. This is also a good thing because of the wait factor. Having good people to talk with really helps pass the time.

So that’s all good stuff. I learned a bit about how to shoot IPSC. I learned about some things I need to work on. I had a pretty good day. I’m sure I’ll do it again.

BTW, no pictures because something strange happened with my iPhone and it lost all battery charge. Don’t know why, but I’m bummed I couldn’t get any pictures or video because the phone crapped out. Oh well, next time.

Learning to Program

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I learned to program on my Apple //e a long long ago.

But I did take a class in undergrad that was a sort of introduction to programming for non-programmers (now that I think about it, I don’t know why I took the class as it was well below my knowledge level). It used a neat book called Karel The Robot. You can Google on “Karel the Robot” and all sorts of stuff comes up, including a lot of love and praise for it. It’s really a good way to learn how to program because it’s simple and friendly. It doesn’t focus upon a particular language, which is part of the simplicity and appeal. It allows people to learn about general programming concepts and constructs, and how to use them as building blocks to solve problems. After you grok the concepts, then you can get yourself caught up in the semantics of a particular language… trying to do both at once is just too much to focus on.

So I’m writing this blog entry as a bookmark to myself. I’ve been wanting to teach my kids how to program and wanting to use Karel to do it. So I found Karel on SourceForge. I also found RUR-PLE (history of it here) which is a Karel-like approach that uses Python. There’s also Guido van Robot. I really like Python as a language (tho I don’t get to use it often enough), and feel it’d be a great first language for my kids.

Anyway there you go. Karel.

Making Lemonade

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

This weekend marks the opening of the (firearm) deer hunting season in Texas.

And I won’t be a part of it.

*sigh*

All that work on the lease, working towards this point. And I can’t capitalize on it. My first opening weekend.

*sigh*

Why not? Work obligations. To be fair, no one at work is forcing me to do this. I spoke with a co-worker about a problem the product is presently experiencing, and given the scope of the problem, the customer requirements, the greater implications for relations and contracts and revenue and so on well… in my mind the only right thing to do is stay home and work on the problem.

I’m mostly doing it out of obligation to myself. I just feel that’s the right thing to do. As soon as the fix is completed and given to the QA department, you better believe I’ll be out hunting. The rut is on and I don’t want to miss it. I already put in for a day off (to have made for a longer weekend), so if it means mid-week next week I just take a single day and spend it out in the stand, then that will have to do.

It’s life. These things happen. You roll with it. And in this case, I may be able to make some lemonade.

You see, due to all the rain we’ve been having the action shooting bays at the Austin Rifle Club have been soggy and any Steel and IPSC matches have been cancelled for the past some months. Finally the rain has held off long enough for ARC to get in and repair the bays, and so this weekend ALSPPC won’t be holding an IPSC match: they’ll be holding 2 IPSC matches! One on Saturday, one on Sunday. If you read this blog regularly you know I’ve been trying to get out to competition but the weather and range issues or some other 3rd thing always prevented it. But now it’s here, and if workload is such that I wouldn’t be able to go hunt, I ought to be able to at least slip away for half a day and shoot my first IPSC match.

Don’t know how it will go just yet, but here’s hoping for a little lemonade this weekend.

Updated: I want to go on public record saying, Jon you’re a good guy.

1911 dreams

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

The 1911-style pistol.

It’s something I don’t have, but something I want.

Yesterday my interest was renewed yet again due to that race gun. I spent some time last night drooling over the STI website trying to figure out what model I’d want someday.

Then this morning I read about new guns from STI.

And about Ruger making a 1911.

And Taurus debuting a 9mm 1911.

Just a day for 1911’s.

The fact I’ve got a bunch of .45 ACP bullets and brass and other .45 ACP-related reloading gear, but no .45 ACP gun in which to use it… gosh Honey, I really need to give them a home. 🙂

Passed up a deal?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I was at my local Cabela’s to pick up some last minute hunting items and also check out the reloading supplies (no primers, but I picked up some bullets). On my way out I always like to stop into the Gun Library to see what’s there.

Today had something interesting.

There was an STI race gun. Used, of course. It was a 2011. Not exactly sure what model as there was nothing stamped on the left side of the slide and the right side had only the STI logo. Totally decked out as a gaming/race gun: chambered in .38 Super, C-More sight, big old mag well, big old mag release, compensator, awesome trigger. It was tricked out to the gills, ready for IPSC open competition.

For only $999.

Consider that the MSRP of a race gun from STI can run at least $3000 or more, that basic STI 2011’s are $2000 or more, that $1000 for a used tricked out race gun seemed like the deal of the century.

I didn’t have a lot of time so I just saw it in the showcase, looked at it for a few seconds, then had to pay for my stuff and get home. But it nagged me all the way home:

1. Wow, that seems like a great deal.

2. Wow, that deal seems so great, it’s almost too good to be true. I mean, if they’re selling it for $1000 used, how much did they buy it for? There’s got to be a catch.

I got home and was emailing foo.c about it. I couldn’t stand it any more and went back to Cabela’s. But even on the drive I had second thoughts, bad enough that I pulled over and called foo.c to talk about it. I figured it was worth giving it a fair shake to see what it was about.

I got back there and looked at it. Asked the guy to take it out of the case so I could fondle it. Yeah, trigger was sweet. It was evident it was a very used gun. Looked down the barrel and you could see the wear. Sales guy said that his boss was able to shoot it and said “it was a tack driver” (whatever that means in this context). I asked how he was able to shoot the gun and apparently the seller was a regular customer and boss and customer went out shooting before the sale and boss was able to try out the gun. So I had as much information as I could get. I needed an opinion. I called Karl. We spoke for about 10 minutes. There’s no question that, on the surface, it’s a bargain deal. The reality is if it’s going to be a .38 Super race gun I must reload for it. Or I could get it rebarreled in 9mm. Karl made some generous and helpful offers, but bottom line was while the tag might say $1000 the gun was likely to need some work and who knows what the cost would be. Plus if I had to reload well… while reloading is happening, it would push up the need to buy a progressive press, which I wasn’t prepared just yet to buy.

While I was on the phone, the gun was placed into the back office and salesguy helped someone else. The issue that someone else had was rather time consuming, but that was good because it gave me a lot of time to think while saleguy was helping him. I noticed a couple guys in the back office that weren’t in Cabela’s employee shirts but seemed to be “relevant” to the office. They were fondling the gun so I went over and joked about not getting too attached to the gun I was about to buy. Talked with one guy that said he’d love a rig like that for shooting hogs (awesome) and then another guy said something that I didn’t quite catch. But it was something that led me to believe there was something wrong with the gun… not that they were selling a brick, but that the gun had some problem that was repaired or fixed or rebuilt or something… something that gave me the impression as to why the price was so low (not just the fact it’s an old gun with a lot of wear). The way the conversation in the small group was going I didn’t get exactly what he said, but the vibe was enough.

So while I waited for the salesguy to come back to help me, I kept hearing this voice in my head saying “don’t do it”. Ever since I laid eyes on the gun it kept smelling of “too good to be true” and there just kept a nagging bit in me. I think the only reason I cared to entertain it was because it appeared to be a great deal.

Maybe it is.

But I passed it up.

I’m sure the gun is OK. I’m sure it shoots fine for what it is. If dropping $1000+ wouldn’t be something that made me cringe, I’d buy it. Of course, if I could toss around $1000 without flinching then I’d also be able to just afford a brand new STI without flinching.

I have to also consider other things, like wanting to buy a progressive reloading press. Spend $1000 on a gun? or on a press? The press then lets me reload a lot, which means I can shoot a lot, which means I can get better. Hrm… I think that route is better.

Furthermore, I haven’t even been able to start competition shooting! There’s always been something confounding it. It feels strange going straight to an open gun, but the only reason I was considering it was purely because it looked like a once-in-a-lifetime deal. I didn’t feel like I “deserved” such a gun at this stage of things.

So well… at least as of this afternoon there’s (still) a used STI race gun sitting at Cabela’s (tho it’s not on their Gun Library website yet for some reason). I feel OK in my decision to walk away from it. I may kick myself because on paper it looks like a great deal, but I just had that feeling that in the long run the deal would have turned out to not be so hot. Besides, I think there are better ways for me to spend my money right now.