Category: Fun Stuff

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Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire. . .

Laid up with bum knee, but am making a bit of progress in a couple of areas anyway. One is more than just fun. Pistol work: dry fire exercises. Converted my aiming practice to “instinctive aiming” by working on my grip. With a better grip, I am now having success in simply pointing my practice handgun where I am looking. I started by doing that and then checking my sights and aim point with my dominant eye. Check. Then single-action (cock-aim-“fire”) checking my aim throughout (before and during trigger pull). Then, double-action.

Proper two-hand grip: quickest consistent successes. Dominant hand only: also came along quickly, just not as quickly as two hands. Off-hand: surprised me. Came along as quickly as my dominant hand.

Fun part: when I’m alone in the house I can imagine anything as “targets” and service them. Usually it’s sitting or standing still (because of knee), but even though I move with a cane in my strong hand, my off hand can still practice dry firing while moving. (Or, I can stop, use my dominant hand, then move again.)

Sure, it’s not as good as firing rounds at the range, but it’s drilling new muscle memory in so-called “instinctive shooting,” so I count it as good enough for my current circumstances. I’m eager to see how this affects live fire practice with this lil handgun.

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Interesting Training Aid

I like. Where this (and other sims) fall short is haptic feedback. Still probably useful, though, as a step up from dry fire exercises and, long term, perhaps less expensive than spending tons of ammunition for completely realistic (because, REAL *heh*) experience at the range or in the field. Out of my comfort zone for $$ expenditure, though. $$ better spent on more RW equipment in my case.

Gaim training Sim hardware/software

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Waste of Time

Memory spurred by random crap on the Interwebs: When Doc Yarborough told me he wanted me to apply for a MENSA membership (after some p-sych tests taken as part of a senior p-sych course), I knew it was not for me. I mean, why join yet another group I’d have to explain everything to?

Nah. I just gave him my (extracurricular) survey on the GSR research he was interested in and bugged out. (The info I handed him was based on my idiosyncratic results of running the unblinded tests on myself. Decidedly NOT valid for anything but an open comparison of results, and could have been influenced by my knowledge of the research, but still interesting to him. My results were decidedly. . . Odd, of course. *heh*)

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It’s a Real Head-Scratcher

I don’t understand why Peter Jackson did all the CGI stuff to make Andy Serkis into Gollum for LoTR, when James Carville could have played the role w/o even any makeup.

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It’s a Thing, Ya Know. . .

It’s been several years since I have been “trapped” by a listserv-posted novel. New chapters (or just pieces of new chapters, in some cases) posted at regular or irregular intervals, as the writer is able or as the writer simply feels like doing, just does not appeal to me, especially since everything is usually first draft, unedited.

But. . . yeh. in my sporadic armchair pseudo-anthropological dabbling in understanding the background of a subset of 20-something or 30-nothing grups, I usually read some litrpg/isekai/wuxia fiction each week, out of the usual 10+ books of various genres (including a few non-fiction from varied subject lines). So, I was snagged by a Royal Road thread featuring a variation of isekai-wuxia I had not run across before. Only 20 chapters on RR, so. . . Patreon. But no, not paying $8/month to have instant access to new material, etc. The book is better-written and more interesting than 90% of the its genre, but not THAT musch better-written or interesting.

Winds of Destiny: A Cultivator’s Odyssey. Fluff, but entertaining and not even nearly as badly-written as most normally published self-pubs available on Amazon.

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Not Optimal but OK

Reduced to dry fire exercises for a bit. Still useful. Fortunately, my new CC jacket makes this time even more useful. I don’t much care for the holster than came with the jacket, but I was able to stretch it over another holster, so the Velcro works well and everything fits and retains safely.

Unfortunately, with fewer pockets, I’m having to pare down my ADC contents for the jacket. Still have my “doody belt” *heh* ADC contents for pants pockets and belt carry, so that makes up for some. Have a slightly bigger FAK for my offside carry pocket. Both FAK and cell phone easily fit there. New slim wallet (TY, Son&Heir!) slims down jacket carry contents a bit, so there’s that, but since I need two slash pockets for Fall/Winter gloves (yeh, it’s already freezing temps here in America’s Third World County™), that further limits my ADC jacket carry contents.

Still, the warm flannel lining on this denim jacket and the corduroy facing on cuffs and collar hint at more possible durability than the worn out jacket this replaces (and it lasted me more than 20 years, given me second hand – I have nothing against wearing dead men’s clothes 😉 ) I do think I’ll Scotchguard® it – or some similar treatment – since I want it to shed water/stains well.

And practice draws and dry fire exercises with the jacket on are smoother than IWB practice sessions, at least so far.

Would be better with live fire, but not here in town. *heh*

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Secure Passwords?

I recently had someone leave a key under their front door mat for me because their keypad was malfing (was so could “sit on” grandson after school). They returned, we visited, left. Got a phone call: “Where’s the key?” Well, I had not left it EXACTLY where instructed, but since THEIR keychain was on the bookcase where I’d been told to leave the key, I simply put the key on it.

Hiding in plain sight can work, but there’s “hiding in plain sight” and its idiot cousin, “Take me; I’m yours.” Don’t be the idiot cousin.

Writing down passwords can have the benefit of having them available when needed (and forgotten, but unless that list is under physical lock-and-key security, it’s “Take me; I’m yours.” Better: a secure password service, perhaps.

Better still: use passwords you can remember. No, not your dog’s name or your wedding anniversary date. (Oh, wait. That’s not somethining you’ve forgotten before, is it? *heh*) or ANYTHING ELSE derived from personal information about you. No, while easily remembered (except for the anniversary thingy), those kinds of things are available to others and so make easily “crackable” passwords. No, select a pass phrase that is memorable – title of a fav book, an aphorism, a line from a poem or song, etc., and construct your pass word using that in a way that is sensible and memorable for you.

For example, I took the “punch line” as I “misremembered” it! – from a Smothers Brothers parody of a song that was popular back in their heyday and constructed a password from that. VERY memorable for me, but since it’s from a parody of a song that’s not in the “Top Five Million” nowadays, and the line I used is NOT as it was performed in the parody, the password I constructed (an easy one) only used the first letters of each word (as “misremembered”), a “Massive Cracking Array” could take a couple of days to crack it, so not seriously secure. But then, as I said, an easy password. . . on a “Junk Mail” account designated as a SPAM catcher.so. . . *heh*

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Neighborhood Watch

[N.B. Sorta-kinda-halfway tongue in cheek?]

Home Made Mortars?

No neighborhood watch should be without one. Or five.

(For when the Felonious Barony of Iniquity parks 1/4 mile away before launching yet ANOTHER illegitimate assault on a citizen’s inalienable rights? Maaaaaybe. . . 😉 )

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Get ‘er Done

Finally got around to cashing in a gift card (Thx, MF-n-Will!). A book (naturally), and pantry organization things – coupla my favorite things). My Wonder Woman had been carrying it around for more than half a year, but never could settle on something she wanted to spend it on for herself, so. . . Took me all of five minutes. Mr Efficiency.