Sergeant Orville Bierkle’s Revolver, packed for Boomershoot 2011.
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The week before Boomershoot. Full of wonder and happiness.
I have the next two weeks off from work (but not school, of course). This Monday through Wednesday is gathering and loading of the truck. Today starts with my attempt to find a couch for the RNS shooting positions (aka: The Boomeragio).
Also, because the on-site food service folks have retired, there won’t be anybody selling grub except on the day of the event. Accordingly, I have located a gas grill and hope to pick that up today as well.
Ahh, having a full size truck bed is a nice thing.
UPDATE: Both items found and collected.
One – Reclining loveseat
Price $0 (plus driving home from school to pick it up and load it in). It’s not the prettiest loveseat you’ve ever seen, though the side that has cat scratches on it will be facing away from the walking path behind the positions, so no one will be seeing that. And boy, is it comfy. I might have to find room in the shed to keep it for next year. I haven’t yet checked it for loose change, so there is still a possibility I”ll even offset fuel costs.
One – 24×16 Charbroil gas grill
Price $0 (plus driving from Auburn to Factoria to pick it up, plus cleaning the who-ha out of it after function testing). It also came with an entire bag of ceramic “briquettes”. I’ll get the spare gas cylinder filled tomorrow after school.
Thank you “Free” section of Craigslist.
Came across this Cole’s Acku-Rest leather bag while digging thru stuff for Boomershoot prep. IIRC the fellow who gave it to me used it as a rear bag for a Garand.
It is empty, AND THERE IS NO FILL HOLE I can see. Do I have to unstitch/restitch to add sand?
Over time, I’ve encountered scores of miscommunication problems in the business world that are due to the variance between standard English and what I’ll call “IT English,” that is, the variant of English spoken by and between IT personnel. It’s not that the words are different, it’s that the meanings assigned them, and particularly the unspoken contextual assumptions, seem to be.
An example: Today I started receiving calls on my office landline from consumers looking for our Customer Service or Payments departments. That is odd and should not be happening. So I talked to one of the callers and asked what number she had dialed to get to me. She said “800-xxx-xxxx.” I didn’t recognize that number.
Now, with the wide variety of companies I work for or have as clients, our IT Department has a stable of 800 numbers on call to be activated or deactivated as needed. So I presumed somebody in IT had accidentally switched one of those numbers to be forwarded to me instead of where it’s supposed to go. That seemed more likely than a number we didn’t control being forwarded to me out of the blue.
So I explain the problem to IT as follows: I’m getting calls on my line I shouldn’t. Those callers say they’re reaching me by calling 800-xxx-xxxx. What’s going on? Please fix.
My unspoken contextual assumption: I’m complaining to you because it’s possibly an 800 number that’s in your jurisdiction somehow.
IT’s response? “I went around asking if anyone had seen that number before, and the people I’ve asked don’t recognize that number. Will continue to investigate.”
FFFFUUUU…., says I. So I talk to the Ops Director, who sighs and calls up IT. As a former IT professional, he speaks IT English fluently and knows how to ask the question properly.
“Hello IT, is 800-xxx-xxxx on your list of phone numbers for which you are responsible?”
[Cluelessly] “Yes, it is.”
“Where does that number forward to?”
“Oh, it forwards to David.”
[rollseyes] “Thank you.”
The Ops Director smiles at me and says, “IT English.” Which leads indirectly to my promised rant, but I’ll finish writing that after Boomershoot.
Eric at Classical Values has a confession to make:
I’m feeling so burned out by politics that I am genuinely worried.
… I cannot remember a time in my life that I was so burned out and literally drained during what should normally be a political off time.
I have much the same feeling, and I think others do too. But where Eric lays blame on the constant unending political drumbeat, for me it’s more a growing alienation from the idea that politics can achieve positive results. Which is startling, for someone who’s been a political junkie since I started watching C-SPAN instead of MTV at the age of twelve. It’s also silly, given the Tea Party’s growth from nothing in a year’s time and the stunning results of the past elections. Those were positive results beyond anything I’ve seen in the 30 years I’ve been a political junkie. The RKBA victories of the past decade have been astounding. And yet, and yet….
I haven’t watched C-SPAN (or any political TV) in almost a year. For me, this is very odd behavior.
Politics feels… useless, somehow. I am distressed to find myself turning inward, focusing more than before on fortifying self, household, and family against… the unknown.
I am distressed, in part, because that’s how civilizations fall:
[T]he rise of [the Dark Ages] was precipitated by the very survivalism and protectionism that even now appeals to many.
Roman citizens, first on the frontiers, but soon within the interior of the empire (recall that Rome was sacked in 410) began to focus less on peaceful trade and more on security and self-sufficiency. Large landowners hired others to provide local goods, in turn offering security through standing armies. Localities began to be dominated by a hegemony of landowners, each of whom was suspicious of the next. The feudal system was born….
…The problems began to compound themselves as a poorly-run empire began a cycle of overreach. … the emperors did not have the funds to make their promised payments and began a cycle of seignorage, or currency devaluation by “clipping†coins. Quite simply, they reduced the amount of silver in each individual coin.
Finally, a lack of focus on true security and peaceful foreign relations led many Roman cities to fortify, which had been unnecessary for many years under the “Pax Romana.â€Â This further diverted productive resources to military uses. Construction and investment was put on hold while cities and towns enclosed themselves in fortified walls and spent on war materiel.
The ultimate upshot of this progression was what we now call the “Dark Ages….â€
–Socrates, “The Curious Ironies of Protectionism, and the Late Roman Empire,” at The Solution is the Problem blog
Maybe I’ll go read some Billy Beck to cheer me up.
Illustration: Christian Fugitives Run from the Huns, by Gustave Zerner
College Republicans at UC Merced having fun, pointing out discrepancies in leftist thought and making them explain why “redistributing” Grade Point Averages is unfair.
I had to go into San Francisco today and upon exiting BART at Embarcadero I spotted this collection of piggy banks in the SF Fed’s display window. (Sorry ’bout the reflections on the glass.)
Snarky commentary left as an exercise for the reader.
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Al Swearengen, Enterprise Software Architect, enjoys his new career in the programming industry.
Effin’ hilarious. h/t Ry.
I’m sure some RNS readers have seen Ed Wosika’s article taking Keith’s system to the next level, but yesterday was the first time I saw it. Setting it aside for some serious study later.
