Me

Fanny Packs

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Call them what you want: fanny packs, man purses, I’ve heard almost every possible name for them. 

I think they’re great.

When I was a small child I watched my Dad’s daily ritual of going to his dresser in the morning, going to this special multi-compartment tray, and from each compartment loading up his clothing: money in this pocket, wallet in that pocket, checkbook here, put on the watch, keys, and whatever other things he kept in his pocket. Then in the evening he’d return home and empty everything back into the tray. Just one of those things a man did. So of course, as I was growing up and started carrying things in my pockets, I did a similar sort of ritual, but no cool tray. However as I got older, I also got lazier and would often just leave everything in the pockets of my jeans, so when I woke up the next morning I could just pull the jeans back on (provided they were still clean enough) and ta da… dressed and prepped all in one shot! Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

Still, I didn’t always care for this because often I’d want to carry more things and didn’t have a place for them. Or I might want to carry things that I didn’t want to crush (e.g., in my younger days I smoked cigarettes and wouldn’t want the pack to get crushed). Or just the simple fact that sometimes it’s annoying to carry heavy and/or sharp objects in your pockets (e.g.,keys). What to do? I think it was on a trip to New York City during my years in undergrad. I was seeing a bunch of bands and noticed all the crew guys and band members all wore these bags around their waists. One of the guys expounded upon how convenient it was to use them, so I tried it myself. Sure enough, it was a great thing. The main reason? Convenience. You can carry all of your stuff. All of your stuff is in one place, so when you’re in a hurry to get out the door, you just grab the bag and go.

For many years I wore a fanny pack. I could keep my keys, wallet, Leatherman, mobile phone, loose change, lip balm, and whatever else maybe needed carrying at the time. Just grab and go. My children even became conditioned to the sound of the “click” of the joining of the clasps of my bag to mean “Dad’s leaving”. The only problem with most fanny packs is they are cheap, so I wore out many of them, often having to replace them every year. This was always tough because I had a few rules about the bags:

  1. It must be leather. Nylon? Sorry, but no. I don’t care much about fashion, but nylon… no.
  2. It must be black.
  3. When wearing it, you do not wear it over your untucked shirt. 

And it’s difficult to find a well-made fanny pack that fits at least the first two criteria, and has enough space and utility to be of worth. Basically, it’s tough to be cool wearing one of these, but you can work to minimize how dorky you look. 😉

 

Then I entered into the world of guns, and you discover that fanny packs can be useful for carrying a concealed handgun. Unfortunately, most purpose-built holster-fanny-packs, IMHO, suck. First, most are nylon (violates rule 1), but at least most are black (hey… it’s not tacti-cool if it’s not black, right?). Second, most don’t look like fanny packs. Most look like some sort of odd-shaped compartment strapped to your waist. Third, they can be huge. They have to be large enough to hold a handgun, and so they often end up being larger than a lot of traditional packs. This is exacerbated if you wish to have your pack hold more than just the gun (e.g., hold keys, wallet, etc.)… now the pack will be even larger, even heavier. Furthermore, they may have to do odd things to be able to support the weight of a handgun (and perhaps anything extra you carry), such as reinforcement (most fanny packs are not stiff), or maybe a strap on the back of the pack that can loop around your belt, but how many “social” fanny packs do this? I have just not been impressed with the holster-packs on the market.

That said, I don’t think a fanny pack holster is without merit. It does allow you a way to carry, especially if there isn’t any other way. For example, to go jogging, to go to the gym (i.e., a place where you may be changing clothing). Riding a motorcycle, you can keep it in a handy location that isn’t obscured by a riding jacket and is still somewhat on your person. Women can have a difficult time finding a concealed carry solution because their bodies are just built differently than men (IWB carry usually just isn’t possible); a fanny pack can provide a solution. Another nice part about a fanny pack vs. other methods of off-body carry (e.g., daytimer, handbag, etc.) is the fanny pack is and should remain strapped to your body, thus you are less likely to forget it or leave it somewhere. Perhaps most importantly, a fanny pack can provide urban camouflage.

If you carry concealed, you want to do your best to blend in. I live in Austin, Texas, and due to the hippie scene, fanny packs are fairly common. In fact, this is perhaps an argument to violate the “leather/nylon” rule because you can go to REI and pick up some fanny packs for other purposes and may be able to carry a small gun with you on a back-country hike, where carrying in a IWB holster may be possible but may be uncomfortable. I still think a purpose-built holster fanny pack has advantages (e.g., many have a means to hold the gun secure, they provide fast and “correct” draw access), but your situation may dictate differently. You have to choose what is right to serve your needs.

Some argue that wearing a fanny pack screams that you have a gun. Well, maybe to other gun folk, but apparently not to the majority of the public. Again, in a place like Austin, no one blinks at a fanny pack. Or if you’re in a location heavy with tourists, maybe that rainbow nylon pack is just right. Key thing is, blend in with your surroundings.

In the end, a fanny pack is not a bad thing. Yes, some people hate them with a vengeance, but I’m a practical person and fanny packs provide a practical solution. They carry whatever gear you deem important to carry and keep it handy.

Windy day

/ hsoi

I wanted to go for a nice long motorcycle ride this morning. But again, we’re having heavy sustained winds and some wicked gusts. Just doesn’t make for the most enjoyable riding, so I’m opting to skip it.

In the spirit of making lemonade, I’ll see about going and flying a kite with the kids. I’m curious how the kite we bought at the Kite Festival can fly at higher altitudes… just couldn’t fly too much at the festival since it was so crowded.

In related windy day news, that momma duck and her ducklings are still coming around, however the day after my blog entry there were only 4 ducklings. 😦  Who knows. Hit by a car, taken by one of the many neighborhood cats, I’ve seen turtles in the pond take a duckling under. Such is life.

Motorcycle maintenance

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Just motorcycle maintenance… no Zen. 🙂  Still, there’s something peaceful and relaxing about wrenching on your bike.

I gave my motorcycle its annual maintenance: oil change, oil filter change, gear oil change, lube cables, lube other moving parts, check and adjust valve clearance, clean and reoil the air filters, sync the carbs, adjust the idle, etc. etc. etc..

It’s a wonderful thing about living in Texas… there is no off-season for riding, but still, gotta take care of her. Didn’t get to ride as much the past year as I wanted to, but I’ll do my best to make up for it in the coming months.

Still got a few details to tend to, like figuring out what’s up with the passing lamps, and I’ll probably have them take care of repacking the steering bearings since I just don’t feel like dealing with it.

Hopefully I can go for a nice long ride on Sunday morning.

Monsters vs. Aliens

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens.

It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t incredible, but it was enjoyable… I didn’t feel like I wasted my money when I walked out, but I didn’t feel like the Earth was moved. It was fun. A cookie-cutter predictable plot, only so much character development and thus attachment (at least Susan developed and you had some sort of bonding to her). The animation was good, the 3-D was pretty well done. I did find myself laughing out loud at some things, and was into the suspense when called for. Some memorable lines that the kids and I quoted on the drive home.

So, not bad. A fun flick, and good time with the kiddos. 

Of course, seeing it at The Alamo Drafthouse makes anything better. 🙂

What I really liked was some previews. I’m looking forward to the next Pixar movie, Up, and seeing the preview for 9… oh yes, I want to see that movie. I’m a sucker for Tim Burton.

 

Updated: I forgot to say. There were some uh… “negligent discharges” in the movie. Violation of rule number 3 (booger hook on the bang switch), violation of rule number 2 but in a way #2 was OK since it was technically pointed at something worth destroying.  What does it say about me when while watching those parts of the movie the rule violations were the first things that went through my head? Then I used it as a “teachable moment” with the kids on the drive home? 🙂

Socialization

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So I’m reading JR’s blog and he refers to this article from DirtCrashr. The article talks about the so-called “GIVE Act”. What actually hit me about the blog post wasn’t so much the content of the posting, but that along with the visual that hit me when I was reading it. Here’s a screenshot (you can click on it to see it larger):

Just look at that. Yes, read the words… then look at the pictures, especially the one on the top-left and the one on the right. Just take in the whole visual state of the blog posting.

You see, Wife and I homeschool our children. What’s the #1 thing that people say to us regarding homeschooling? Why, the “S” word of course: socialization.

Kinda takes on a whole new meaning now doesn’t it?

An old man and his LEGO

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

TXGunGeek isn’t an old man (well, he’s older than me and I’m just ribbing him), but he does lament where his old LEGO has gone.

I deal with this on a daily basis at my house. I grew up on LEGO as one of the coolest toys ever, and I still think they are. So of course as soon as my kids were old enough to not view them as little cubic candy pieces, there was LEGO in the house. Heck, Oldest just used the money he’s saved up to buy himself a Brickmaster subscription.

I do understand where TXGunGeek is coming from. My first LEGO kit was just a giant box. You opened the lid and there were lots of little compartments that just held bricks. Nothing fancy, but just oodles of bricks and endless imagination. No mini-figs in sight. But man, once Town and Castle especially Space came around, dude, that was so cool! Now it just wasn’t basic bricks, but you had other pieces in shapes like cones or wings, so now you could build airplanes or rockets. The mini-figs were cool too because now you had “to scale” people that you could put in your creations. 

When I got a new LEGO kit, sure I built the model that the kit was designed around. But then I built more. Many times the box had pictures of other things you could build with the set, and it was always a challenge to build those things because you maybe got only one shot of the thing and so you had to figure out for yourself what bricks you needed and what you had to do to fill out the rest of the model. Then of course there was just happy free-form creation. One of my cousins was a bigger LEGO nut than me (I swear he lived for LEGO; I recall him writing a paper for school on LEGO), and his free-form creations were awesome. I remember visiting him one time and he had just made this double-decker 6 foot long space ship. It was incredible. Then, one of our younger cousins proceeded to throw it down the stairs… yes, we were livid.

So recalling my memories, I look at how LEGO is now and I have to wonder a bit. I often think there is too much emphasis put on the models, on merchandising. I mean, there’s Star Wars, Spongebob Squarepants, Indiana Jones, they did a thing with the NBA, there was that stupid Galidor thing that wasn’t even LEGO, Harry Potter, Batman, Thomas The Tank Train, Bob the Builder…. and there’s been many more things they’ve done. But is that so bad? If this allows LEGO to stay in business, if this helps to get some kids interested in LEGO that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise be, is that so bad? Plus I’ve seen a lot of the pieces that come in these model sets, and there’s some really cool pieces. Not to mention one of the larger consumers of LEGO, especially Star Wars, are adults.

Let’s not forget LEGO’s own creations. They still have City, there’s always something Space (now it’s Mars Mission), they’ve got Pirates, Vikings, Castle, and we can’t forget Bionicle. Bionicle is a huge hit at my house. I’m not so hip to the latest Bionicle because it’s certainly more about milking a franchise now, whereas the original Bionicle was truly an extension of the Technic series (gears and levers and “doing stuff”). Then there’s Mindstorms. What a great thing that is.

The thing is, certainly some LEGO kits remain as-is. Some people like the model aspect of it all, and really this is no different from any other model making, be it Revell models or basla wood planes or whatever your choice of medium. But without question, the kids still take things apart. They still use their imagination to create their own things. They still play. They still have to be challenged to think, or even just learning how to follow the directions and pay attention to detail… these are all good and positive things for kids.

Yes LEGO isn’t the same as it was when we were kids, but in all the ways that matters it still is.

Mindset is everything

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

After assisting with classes one day, I was reviewing how the classes went and I recalled one moment I had with a student that I thought was worth sharing.

This student had a particular way of doing something, and the class taught him a better way to do that thing. The student was getting frustrated with himself because he kept falling back into habit instead of utilizing the new, better technique. I told him not to focus on the frustration, on the old technique, but instead to focus on the new technique. To me, it’s a matter of mindset and how that will affect your performance.

Having 3 children and spending a lot of time around and working with kids, I’ve learned that if you want someone to do something in particular, the best way to get them to do it is to tell them exactly what you want them to do. I know that sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how much we don’t it. For instance, let’s say the child is running and instead you want them to walk. What I hear most people say to the child is “DON’T RUN!”. This doesn’t work. There’s an infinite number of things the child could do. By saying “don’t run” you’ve now narrowed down this infinite list by one thing. The child still needs something to do, they will now pick from this “infinity minus one” list of things to do, and statistics will favor the child still not doing what you want. So, if what you want the child to do is walk, then just say “WALK!”. The key is to convey to the person what you want them to do. This isn’t as simple as positive vs. negative phrasing; in fact, they’re orthogonal concepts. For example, “don’t touch the stove” (it’s hot), or “don’t go in there” (something dangerous is in there). Those are negatively phrased, but they are stating exactly what you want the person to do. Yes, you’ll mostly use positive phrasing in this conveyance, but the important thing is to convey what you want them to do.

Getting back to class then, that student was getting onto himself about not doing his old habit. All he kept focusing on was not doing his old habit. So what do you think he did? His old habit. Why? Because his mindset was focused on the old habit. Sure it was also “don’t do that”, but the thing was he wasn’t telling himself what he should do. So once I got him focused on “do the new technique” instead of “don’t do the old habit”, everything changed. His brain was focused on “new technique”, and sure enough, by the end of the day I was only seeing him using the new technique. Good deal!

Going with the gun thing, I hear the stories about people getting shot. I hear about people that got shot multiple times with big guns and managed to live to tell the tale. Then I hear the stories about people that got shot once with a pea shooter in some non-fatal way and fall over and die. Usually the moral of the story is the same: the people that died made up their minds to die… their mindset was “you get shot, you die” and so they gave up; the people that lived made up their minds to live… there was no other option, they were going to live all other things be damned. 

If you focus on failure, that’s that’s you’re going to do — fail. If you want success, focus on success. Focus on what to do that will lead to success. Your mindset is your first step in whatever direction you choose to go.

Updated: An article/study lending support.

Updated 2: Further support.

Another day, another class

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I was back out today at KR Training helping with classes. There were two classes today, first Defensive Pistol Skills then Handgunning: Beyond the Basics. Overall, it was a good day. I came home and didn’t have any holes in me, so I cannot complain. 8)  Wife is, understandably, happy about that too.

The classes actually went pretty smoothly, from where I sat. Sure things weren’t perfect, but all in all the students were good and things went alright. Up front however, I want to admit my goober moment. Before the first class we were out on the small range getting people properly geared up. One gentleman had brought a revolver to shoot, so I was asking John for his take on things (the gentleman also had a semi-auto and was trying to determine which he should shoot during the class). The gentleman was well behind the firing line and unholstered the revolver to hand to John. John immediately did the proper thing, directing the man to reholster… but I goobered. I said “it’s unloaded”. As soon as I said it, I realized I just had a goober moment. The reason I spoke up was because just a few minutes prior I had taken that gentleman up to the line and got things unloaded, so what I was trying to do was let John know I had cleared the gentleman. But it doesn’t matter. Rule 1? All guns are always loaded. Furthermore, proper range etiquette is that you don’t handle the gun where we were. So, I admit my goober moment in hopes someone else can learn from my mistake.

Again, I overall felt the classes ran OK. Many of the people that came for the first class stayed for the second. Because of the amount of overlap in the students between the two classes, it was cool to watch people progress all day long. So with that, I have a few comments towards the future:

Skills Build

The way classes are structured, what you are doing now is laying a foundation for what you will be doing later. This means you should pay attention to what you’re doing now. It can also perhaps provide a hint as to what’s coming later. But more importantly, as you move on to later things, don’t forget the things that you did prior. You might get taught A then B then C, but when you’re working on D, don’t forget to do A (and B and C). Everything builds, and you should keep that in mind. For those that have taken the class, I’ll just say one word: “SCAN!”. For those yet to take the class, there’s your hint for what you’ll be doing later. 🙂

Speed Is Relative

Fast is important, but I believe correct/accurate is more important. Yes it is important to go fast, but if you’re missing your target, you might be going too fast. I understand the pressures of class… the instructor wants you to go fast… there’s other people shooting faster than you… you want to go fast, you want to do well. Thus, we go fast. But here’s the thing. You can only go as fast as you can go. Yes, there will probably be someone faster than you. Yes, there will probably be someone slower than you. But who cares; this is a classroom, a place to learn, not a competition. You should go as fast as you can go that allows you to properly and correctly perform. Once you are comfortable and confident going that speed, then you should try going a bit faster.

For instance, there was one gentleman in class that was shooting all over the target… very little consistency. We watched him. He was going too fast: trying to shoot fast, pulling the trigger really fast and thus pulling the gun off target, and things just weren’t panning out for him. Eventually we got him to slow down, and slow everything down: slow down his time between shots, slow down his trigger press. Once he did this, his accuracy improved exponentially. Was he as fast as others in the class? No, but he was fast enough for himself. Now that he knows how to shoot correctly, he can work on having correct skills first then he can working speeding up those correct skills.

There’s a story of an Austin Police shooting from a few months back. Apparently that rookie police officer was shooting at the suspect, and was shooting fast. Things weren’t working. He remembered to slow down, use his sights, and he was able to take the bad guy down. 

Misses don’t count. Slow hit is better than fast miss. Work to be correct, work to be smooth, then gradually speed that up.

Mindset is Everything

This is something I actually want to devote to its own blog entry. So here it is.

 

So anyway, the day was good. The weather was gorgeous, a little windy, but wonderful. The drive was great too, as the wildflowers are coming up, bluebonnets are everywhere. Just a good day.

Yes, there is hope!

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Dinner is done.

The table needs cleaning off. The children are supposed to be cleaning, but are farting around and wrestling with each other. Wife is getting irritated. Yes the kids are all in a good mood, and we really don’t want to dampen it with Threat Of Dad® coming down upon them. So instead, I opt to bribe provide positive reinforcement to the children.

Ice cream.

Going out for it, no less. Wife requested a little peaceful time to herself, so I’ll happily take the kids away so she can have her Calgon moment.

I told the kids: clean the table and kitchen to Mom’s satisfaction, then tend to the litter box. You have 15 minutes. And I walked away.

These kids are moving. They set a timer. Oldest started delegating tasks. They are focused. They are cooperating. I just heard Oldest holler for Middle, “I need some help!” “OK, I’m coming.” Wow… no smart-assery, no belligerence, no nothing. Just the stuff that parental dreams are made of!! 🙂

I just heard “OK, we have 5 minutes left.”. I’m not sure, but it sounds like they are going above and beyond, cleaning even a bit more!! Are they wanting sprinkles on top of their ice cream? Oldest is barking orders. There’s no “You’re not the boss of me!” retort, just a simple “OK.” and obeying of the command. Wow….

Is it a bribe? Is it positive motivation? Call it whatever you want. I know the true power of this moment. You see, now I have tangible proof they are totally capable of working together, as a streamlined unit, cooperating, focused, efficient, on task, without back-talk, without fighting, without a need for Dad to intervene and put things back on course. Yes… yes I will hold this against them in the future. 🙂

And get this. 2 minutes left. They come in my office and give a successful report. So this is another thing… they can get things done early!  Man, they don’t realize how they’ve been set up… how high they just raised the bar for themselves. *insert diabolical fatherly laugh* 🙂

 

Updated: I should clarify, it’s not like my kids are normally misbehaved, disobedient, fight with each other, etc.. They’re actually quite well-behaved and do work well with each other. But, they are like any kid, they do have their sibling issues, they do have their moments of sheer jackassery. But still, tonight was sweet.

And sweet it was. I am still waiting for their Guinness ice cream to come back into rotation. A cup of that, some chocolate chunks crushed in. People I’m telling you there’s nothing finer. Had to settle (if you can call it that) for Mexican vanilla with fresh strawberries crushed in. Mmm.