Me

No competition for me, yet.

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I mentioned before that I’ve wanted to get into competition shooting.

Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club has a steel match this Sunday, but I just got the email about it and it seems like it’s going to be a big shin-dig that’s kinda appropriate for folks that have been around for a while… not exactly the place for a n00b to show up to. I could, but I think I’ll wait a month and go when things are more subdued.

Instead, I’m going to try for a nice long motorcycle ride on Sunday morning.

It’s the perfect weekend for it.

Strange dream

/ hsoi

I had the strangest dream last night. Of course I don’t remember all of it, but I remember a few things.

I was hunting, sorta. I recall being up on something, like a platform or a deck (like a wooden deck you’d have off the back of your house). I think foo.c was there. I know I had my M1A in my hands. Hogs were all around, on the ground below the deck, fair easy to get a shot off. I recall looking through the scope but not being able to see anything… it’d be blurry, or I couldn’t get a bead on a hog. But then when I would get one, I’d pull the trigger and nothing would happen. I’d rack the bolt and a round would eject, new round chamber, pull the trigger again, still nothing. Eject that round. I’d look at the ejected cartridge and the bullet would be all deformed. Like a oozing blob of copper and lead. Very strange. Then I’d try to chamber a round by hand, and I do remember being gentle in releasing the bolt so as not to cause a slam-fire. Then I was able to get a shot off, but I don’t recall if I actually hit anything.

There were certainly other bits and pieces to the dream, but it’s interesting how the brain works and how this is telling of what’s on my mind:

  • I’m thinking about the hunt. I’m excited about it.
  • I know I’m going to take my M1A.
    • I can’t see through the scope. I think this is indicative of the cheek weld. The stock provides a perfect cheek weld if you’re using iron sights, but put a scope on there and now you need to raise the comb. I’ve just ordered one of Karsten’s adjustable cheek rests and am waiting for it to be delivered.
    • The smooshed rounds I think stem back to the ammo selection issue. Thinking about how soft-points are bad. I’ve picked up some Federal Premium Vital-Shok P308H (.308 Win Barnes Triple-Shock X-Bullet) which should feed just fine but I haven’t had a chance to fire it yet so I don’t know how it will perform. I’m guessing it’ll be just fine.

Dreams are always interesting things.

of SQL and other programmer joys

/ hsoi

I know it’s been a light posting day. I’ve been buried in code.

I’m an application programmer. I tend to write most of my stuff in Objective-C and C++ (and Objective-C++ and sometimes straight C). Sometimes I do some work in Python. A few other bits of dabbling now and again.

I haven’t looked at serious database work in almost a decade.

But today I needed to consider using SQLite as a solution, so I had to pull out my SQL book and remind myself just how it all worked.

Of course by the end of the day I came to the conclusion that going straight to a relational database wasn’t going to be the best avenue to solve my problem. Instead, I think I’m going to use Core Data. I’ve used it numerous times in the past but didn’t feel it was the right fit for the work at hand (given Apple’s design intent/constraints on Core Data). But the more I thought through things, the more I think it’s going to be the way to go. At least, that’s my thinking right now. Could change tomorrow when I start prototyping.

Yeah, this probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to most of you. But I’ve been nose-down in that all day, thus minimal blogging.

Beautiful day for a ride

/ hsoi

That rain that came through the area yesterday was brought by a strong cold front. This morning the temperatures were in the low 60’s and maybe even slightly lower out in the country. The skies were mostly cloudy, which helped to keep the early morning sun out of my eyes. Made for a cool but wonderful morning motorcycle ride.

The Texas Hill Country is gorgeous this time of year. Things are still green (not yet scorched by the summer heat and drought), seas of wildflowers in bloom. Rolling hills covered in lush foliage. Sure I could go 70 MPH but why? I’d miss all the beauty out there.

Bike was humming along pretty well. I noticed I was getting about 40 MPG which I am happy with, but I think the bike can do a little better. When I got home I leaned out the pilot mixture screws on both carburetors a quarter turn. We’ll see how that fares. Hopefully I can just tweak it there and don’t need to tear into the carbs to adjust things like the needle shims… much of my throttle is spent in the pilot circuit and I don’t want to lose much power in the needle circuit, so we’ll see what this tweak does. Such is the fun of a carb’ed bike. 🙂

Bottom line: I was just happy to ride. After not being able to ride to/from Houston yesterday, just being able to ride about 100 miles this morning was a welcome thing.

KR Training May 2009 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The May 2009 KR Training newsletter is now available.

Even if you’re not a local and think the newsletter may not be useful to you, check it out. There’s some interesting stuff from Rangemaster, a Citizine magazine article co-authored by Karl on basic handgun safety, and some really cool slow-motion videos designed to help you understand the technique of “shot-calling”.

If you are local, you want to check out the class schedule. Karl has added a LOT of classes to the schedule. I’m trying to figure out which I’m going to assist with and which I’m going to take. Just so many goodies!

Growing self-reliance

/ hsoi

My father taught me to be responsible for myself and those around me… not just my family, but also my friends, and in my community, and even the greater world around me. But in the end, being taught to take responsibility for myself, to work hard, to stand on my own two feet, and succeed. Since having my own children well over a decade ago, I’ve grown in this and work to instill it in my children. If I don’t work, there’s no food. If I don’t work, there’s no house or clothing. If I don’t work, no electricity to power the TV or the Wii. If I don’t work, how can I care for my family and provide them the things they want and need? I can’t expect anyone else to take care of them but myself. I can’t expect anyone else to take care of me but me.

Over the years, Wife and I have desired to become even more self-reliant. There’s a place in town called Pioneer Farms, and we’re looking into things with them to learn various skills. A bunch of the books I recently picked up work towards this end. It’s also one of the reasons I want to go hunting. So when I came across this article from (Uncle) Ted Nugent, a paragraph struck me:

I need my water, cars, trucks, chainsaws, knives, crowbars, blowtorches, scalding hot water, guitars and guns, thank you. Amazingly, I have mastered them all, and they are all wonderful ingredients for my American Dream of rugged individualism, declared independence, and self sufficiency. They all serve me well, and I am not giving any of them up. Ever.

His American Dream sounds pretty good to me. Individualism, independence, self-sufficiency. I think by and large this is the growing problem in America. People desire to be individuals, yet there’s so much pressure (and people give into it) to conform to the group. There’s lip-service to independence, yet when you rely upon taxes to fund, government programs, handouts, bailouts, socialized medicine, socialized anything, mantatory youth service,  you’re not free — you’re a slave. And are people self-sufficient? They want me to provide for them instead of going out and getting it themselves, so I think not.

What has come of America?

And what are you doing about it? Do you think Mr. Nugent’s dream is a good one? If so, what are you doing to make it reality. If you don’t think it’s a good dream, then tell me what your dream is and how that fits into what America is supposed to be about.

Boldly going where I’ve never gone before

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I knew once I started shooting and owning guns that it would only be a matter of time before I’d go hunting.

It’s going to happen soon.

Why hunt? For me, I think in large part it’s a matter of trying it. I never have, I’d like to try. Who knows… after I do it once maybe I’ll hate it. Then again, I may love it, and I hope I do. Hunting is around me. My in-laws all hunt, mostly deer but certainly other things too. I know my Dad’s been hunting but he’s not an avid hunter; his brother hunts ducks, pheasant, etc.. A number of my friends hunt. I’m kinda the odd man out, so it’s time (and my Wife’s family are all saying “about damn time!”) 🙂

Furthermore, I want to have the skills and knowledge to hunt because I think that’s useful. I also do enjoy eating game meat, so harvesting my own is a good thing. I really don’t see any downside. Heck, my 2 older kids have also expressed interest in hunting. For now, it will be just me. Once I’ve got my sea-legs I’ll bring them along. I know so many people that speak fondly of their memories of hunting with Dad. I don’t have those memories, so I guess I’ll have to make my own.

My buddy foo.c just booked a small hunt for him and myself. Texas hogs. Scheduled for a few weeks from now.

More to come….

My reading list

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I have a terrible habit. I like to buy/acquire books, and I tend to buy/acquire faster than I can read (there’s just too much good stuff out there!). As a result, my reading list grows and grows, and sometimes the only way it shrinks is to just abandon some book and hope I come back to it some day.

Another semi-bad thing is I often read multiple books at once. Maybe this book is light so it’s good for times I don’t want to get too deep into something. This book might be interesting but dense so when I’m in the can it may not make for the best reader. Maybe some concept came to me so I need to pull out this reference book and (re)examine some concepts (typically happens with martial arts stuff). Things like that. As a result, I tend to have books all around the house, bookmarked wherever I happen to be, and eventually I finish something. I am trying to change this. I am trying to keep my books isolated to as few areas in the house as possible (there’s a stack on my desk, which is my main queue; then I can have one other book floating about the house such as on my nightstand or wherever I was last reading). I am trying to stay dedicated to a single book and working my way through it, even if it’s only a few pages here and there as I have time.

My current reading? Howard Nemerov’s Four Hundred Years of Gun Control: Why Isn’t it Working? I picked up an autographed copy of the book during a class, and got to meet Howard. So far it’s a good read. The amount of research Howard put into the book is astounding. I’ll have a full review whenever I finish it (which may be a while).

I’ve currently got 8 other books in my queue, and last night Amazon delivered another 6 books (tho hopefully Wife will read at least 4 of them before I do). The reason I wrote this post? Because of Linoge’s post. I’ve wanted to read Atlas Shrugged for years, but was always put off because of the sheer size of the book vs. available time to read it. I think it’s about time, at least to buy a copy and officially add it to my queue.