my life, my thoughts, my world.

First things first, when dealing with firearms of any kind, for any reason, safety should be your number one priority. It doesn’t matter if you’re plinking, hunting, or engaged in combat, safety is still number one. There are no valid exceptions, period. If you glance off to the side, you’ll see four very simple rules that you should never break, ever.

Allow me to elaborate, some seem to think rules exist to be broken, these rules exist to maintain safety, and to ultimately save lives. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I’ll go a bit further in depth. The rules, as I know them, if followed, will remove any and all possibility for any sort of negligent discharge. Note I said negligent, I can recognize a select, and very few cases in which a discharge can occur by genuine accident and these are all the result of the mechanical failure of a firearm. That said, poor quality, or freak manufacturing flaws aside, mechanical failure can also typically be traced back to – you guessed it: negligence.

I will state for fact, that if you treat your weapon as if it is loaded, at all times; keep your finger off the trigger and the safety engaged until you are ready to fire that weapon; never point your weapon at anything you do not wish to destroy; and continuously maintain awareness of your target, and the area around it; at no time will you ever accidentally shoot anything. I have followed these rules for some 16 years, and have yet to so much as “accidentally” have a hammer drop on an empty chamber.

Rather disappointingly, I have seen people who have been shooting longer than I have been alive fail to uphold, or even grasp those four simple fundamental rules of firearm safety. More alarmingly, I’ve seen younger people have no concept of safety at the range whatsoever. Thank God for Range Safety Officers, here in the Army they tell us that everyone is a safety on the range, and they’re right. If you see something unsafe, you need to either point it out to an RSO, or tactfully alert the offender.

The range is not the only place I’ve seen this happen. Even here in Iraq I’ve seen soldiers, people who have been professionally trained, and undoubtedly sat through countless safety briefings, walk around with a round in the pipe, and their safeties off – sometimes with a finger inside the trigger guard. I’ve seen soliders jokingly point their weapons at their battle buddies face – and pull the trigger. I’m sure you’ve all read the news stories that start that way. Now ask these two questions: Could any of that happen if the rules were followed? If death results, is the weapon at fault? Provided you maintain your sanity, and have a rationale grounded here on planet Earth, your answer to both will be NO!

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the problem lay not with firearms, but with a lack personal responsibility, and in the case of youth, a lack of education. The older offenders have less than no excuse, particularly the service member personnel, their negligence is either the result of a total lack of responsibility, or sheer ignorance, the latter being easily rectified by the motivated. I suggest the following, if you have young children, regardless of your position on firearm ownership, at a bare minimum teach them the four fundamental rules of firearm safety. Do not wait for them to “grow up”, I learned at 5 and the message took a good solid root.

On to the “tactical” rant, inspired by a few magazine articles, and internet forum threads I’ve read recently. There seems to be a ridiculously high population of Chairborne Rangers roaming about, packing the latest and greatest in “tactical” gear – from magazines, holsters, pistols, carbines, rifles, shotguns, and ammunition – training for their last stand when the proverbial fecal matter is shoveled into the fan. I am not saying that the multitude of pistol/shotgun/rifle classes available teaching civilians to shoot, move, and communicate are a bad thing. In fact, I support training, developing, and honing the skills required to effectively deploy your tools (firearms are in fact tools, do not let anyone tell you otherwise) in your defense, or the defense of others.

What I object to is the mentality that one man, no matter how heavily armed, is going to make the mythical stand against an army of home invaders, charging with violence of action into the living room, and single handedly clearing his home and emerging the victor of some glorious homestead battle. Can we be realistic please? If you have 5 elite super ninja deathmasters, all dressed in black, fast roping onto your roof from some silent helicopter in the dead of night you either need to wake up, turn off your Playstation, or seriously re-evaluate your business ventures.

Having a home defense plan is a good thing. Being willing to escalate to rapid violence of action to defend yourself and yours is likewise a good thing. However, one needs to be able to differentiate between times where a rapid and explosive offensive response would more likely than not end rapidly in your death or serious demise, and times where one should take up a solid defensive position, and call in the cavalry so to speak (911). Now, I know with all the multi-thousand dollar training you’ve invested in you’re elite, and ready to take on a small army. AHHHHH-NOLD did it in “Commando”, why can’t you!

Allow me to extinguish the potentially fatal flames of over zealous will to fight. Taking a defensive position and calling for backup (in the case of most civilians that would be the police) is not a shameful thing, it is not something “sissies” do, it is a good sound tactic. The men that wear body armor, carry 210 rounds of armor piercing ammunition, and wear BDUs because they have to use the very same tactic – and we clear buildings with platoons of men. If the odds go down the toilet, we defend our ground, and call in backup, artillery, CAS, and anything else we can get our hands on. In short, don’t feel like you absolutely must rush out into your living room to save your television from 3 armed robbers. Those are bad odds. Sure, you’ve aced stages of fire with 4 moving targets in 3 seconds. They weren’t firing back.

In short, unless I happen to be properly equipped, and manned, during a violent home invasion, or other urban (or rural for that matter) conflict. I will execute a plan of defense, using my knowledge of my own surroundings to afford proper cover and concealment while creating an appropriate sector of fire should anyone venture into my direct defended area, and call in the cavalry. In the end, the call is yours to make, and best of luck whatever your choice is, just don’t feel obligated by your tactical thigh holster to rush out into unknown odds and make the paper in the obituary section.

As a note, in extremely dire circumstances, it may well be time to go all or nothing – but that is something you need to decide as the situation dictates

Today, was probably the hottest day I’ve ever experienced. At least 3 different 120 degree thermometers were completely pegged, and I heard someone mutter something about 136. Walking from the TOC to my CHU put me into the wind, and I swear it felt like my face was on fire, and my eyeballs were boiling. I feel sorry for anyone that was on patrol, or guard today after lunch. The heat was just insane.

I’m sore as hell right now, I took a PT test yesterday and whoa. Army standards for PT are a complete joke, I easily passed everything (including maxing my run, unintentionally.) At any rate, I’m still all kinds of sore. My knees are pissed, and for some reason my back is killing me. Tiger Balm to the rescue!

Sleeptime nears, so I think I’ll do the only logical thing and play guitar.

It’s not mine anymore, in fact my brother now owns it. I had to have something in the Wheels section!

I first handled a Winchester 1894 a few years ago. It was sitting all alone in the back of my Granpa’s gunsafe and I asked about it. I’m not sure how old the rifle was, but it had definately seen its fair share of use.

When I finally picked it up, and held the stock up to my cheek, the rifle damn near aimed itself. Dispite being in less than 10% condition with regards to remaining finish, and stock wear, the action was smooth as glass, and the trigger pull was great as far as I’m concerned. I knew right then and there, without ever even firing one, that an 1894 would make its way into my collection.

Fast forward to mid-June 2003, and I’m in Collector’s Firearms of Houston, TX. Usually I only go to drool, and I wasn’t even planning on purchasing anything. I walked past the rack of lever guns, and this one rifle in particular practically yelled at me when I walked by. I picked it up, took a look down the bore with a light, worked the action some, and tested the trigger. About an hour later, I left the store having completely blown the paycheck I recieved only hours earlier, and with the Winchester 1894, in .30-30 Winchster that is pictured below.

A few days after I bought the rifle, I took it out to the range and ran 20 rounds of Remington Core-Lokt 170gr hollowpoints through it. The gun flat grouped. Not having windage adjustment doesn’t matter with this gun, it hits where you point it. I only shot at 50 yards my first time out with it, and was able to hold sub 1″ groups at varied elevations (I was messing with the elevation ladder) while shooting offhand. Color me impressed.

My first and only revolver. A snub-nosed .38 Special +p from Smith and Wesson. This is one light little pistol, but with +p ammo it recoils much more sharply than my .45 does with heavy +p loads. Those of you that can decipher S&W naming schemes will note the LS, and the fact that it stands for “Lady Smith”. Some might even point out that the Lady Smith pistols are for women! To those that my snicker at an Infantryman with a Lady Smith, I ask this – if a 125gr jacketed hollow point is traveling in your general direction at any thing over slingshot velocity, does it really matter if the words Lady Smith happen to be enscribed anywhere on the source? I didn’t think so.

I’ve given it some thought, and the old reports from my Combat Commander should remain as they were. I’ll keep that bit of the old, old, old site alive. If you want to read the old reports, go here.

• It is ALWAYS loaded, always treat a firearm as such.
• NEVER point the muzzle of any firearm at anything you do not wish to destroy
• Be aware of your target, and everything beyond it.
• Keep your finger away from, and off the trigger until you are ready to fire.

Chances are if you’re here you’ve heard some of my music. Here I’ll break down how I actually record it. None of the equipment is horribly expensive, or ultra-high end, but it works well enough for me. That said, I’m no recording guru, just a guy that knows what he likes. If you just so happen to like the same thing, read on.

Using the Mic
On the last few things I’ve recorded there as been very little direct recording of the instruments. The BR-864 has great onboard COSM effects, for both instruments and vocals, but I personally like to mic my equipment whenever possible. There are at least a billion theories as to how one should mic any given piece of equipment, I myself just set a mic somewhere and move it untill I like the sound through the monitor (headphones in my case.)

First thing first, if you’re going to mic anything you need a microphone! Now of course that’s a hair past obvious, but there are a LOT of different kinds of microphones at about an equal variety of prices. The BR-864 has an onboard condenser mic that is quite sensitive, and not too horrible for recording in a room. For “studio” work however, it’s a bit too noisy for my liking, even with a compressor. Below are the two mics I have, neither are quite studio mics but they both work.

Now there is a lot of “technical” mojo that goes with mic placement, in fact there are enormously thick books on the subject. You can, and if you’re trying to be a sound engineer probably should, read thousands of technical pages dealing with everything down to the wavelengths and frequencies of your sound source, resonant frequencies of the materials in your sound stage, and the acoustic properties of…. well you get the picture. For the person just wanting a decent sound on a home/live recording, it’s all about trial and error. I’ve read some of the books, and understand a fair deal of the theory, but in the end I go with my ear. The pictures above are the result of my personal trial/error, and are meant to be a sort of starting point for anyone interested.

Recording Sequences
This part is highly subjective, as far as I can tell. You can record your tracks in any order you want, and there is no real set way to do it. However, one thing seems to remain consant in most suggestions I see: Record your drum tracks first. I personally have had limited success with that. I’m not a percussionist, and I loathe drum machines. I can hold a beat, but I do it much better with a guitar. Usually, I record my rhythm guitar track first, followed by the drum tracks, and then any vocal tracks, and finally any lead guitar tracks I may have.

A helpful tip I ran across for vocals, which for the record is my least favorite part of recording/performing. Record it in layers. If you’re not comfortable with your voice, or feel like you’re lacking tone or whatever, record a few tracks of your vocals. Doing so allows you to harmonize with yourself, and can help lose some tonal inbalances in the mix. If you have a multitrack station like the BR-864, you can cut pretty much as many virtual tracks of your vocals as you’d like, and mix and match the final tracks that will be active, moving pan in various directions, and adding loop effects (like chorus) as you please. I’ve only done this a few times, but it made a notable difference, and is a much cheaper solution than hiring a vocalist!

I may edit this to add more content, or make a whole new entry. This is it for now.

Technical stuff will go here. Before too long I’ll put together a page on using the Debian Installer to install Sarge on a Soekris net4801. Also expect a quick and dirty how-to for installing Ubuntu Hoary on the Intel Pentium-M based Fujitsu P-Series Lifebooks (the short version is: boot, and hit enter a few times.) More to follow.

After R&R I should have a new set of wheels – namely the Suzuki SV650. Hopefully there’s a Z71 in my future as well. I don’t have a car anymore, but there are plenty of stories revolving around a certain set of 3 third gen F-Bodies, and a pair of Corvettes – if I get bored enough they’ll probably surface here. A bike and a truck should provide plenty of room for fun on the weekends, and given the fact that I have a GPS, marathon laptop, digital still and video cameras – I’m sure I can come up with plenty of content on the travel front as well.