Stross Equiod: A Rambling review.

Okay I'm amused when a writer who has a series that's basically   HP Lovecraft  Applied Mathematics;  Comp Sci division who devotes much of an entire short story to mocking Lovecraft.

(Not just his purple prose and the man's... issues).

But more taking the piss of the man's creative chops and bemoaning his literary influence (this particular series is first person so it's a bit difficult to separate author from character).

Then I realized that it was tongue-in-cheek.   And that the main character was being a wanker.  The real penny drop came when someone had to explain to him r/K selection theory.

Terminology that said character immediately started using like it was old hat.

Said character then started having his own "apocalyptic journal" get infested with purple prose and tacitly admit that Lovecraft's own narrative was actually correct.

So this is my roundabout way of saying that Stross' Equoid was rather amusing.

Though man...   Stross needs to take a holiday somewhere and get some trigger time to add a touch of verisimilitude to his work.  While it's great that his main character has become less of a "I don't like guns" weenie as he's matured (Yeah Bob, if you're a bloody necromancer working for nasty secret intelligence you don't get to whine about having to use a gun).

And that's not even getting into the...  CisBritish goodthinker politics that seems so quaint when put in well....    Applied Mathematics Lovecraftian Horror.

A range report.

So I recently got a CED 7000  shot-timer.

And yesterday, I just got back from the range with it.

And no complaints.   Menu easy enough to use,  sensor worked well.   It wasn't overly hot or overly bright today so I can't tell that.


One thing I did notice is:  Your mind LIES.

There were times where I thought my draw was slow and sucky,  but the timer said it was still on par.  There were a other times where I thought I was rushed and missed on the draw, but it turns out I wasn't any faster (I still missed).

But was important to realize that shaving some tenths of a second isn't good if I miss the steel.


So yes, I would recommend a shot clock.  Provided you've 1) got a range where you can have *some* privacy (the sensor would only pick up shooters within the same bay),  and 2) you're the type of shooter that has a logbook.  Since there's a lot of neat data you can get to compare your times versus groupings versus guns.

Oh, and if the range allows draw from holster that's gravy. As that's a neat time to checkout too.

But yeah, I really recommend a clock, especially if you want to work on some of the fundamentals.  And actually track how you're doing, because again,  your mind LIES.

Book Review over at Erin's

Erin's hosting a review I did of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.

Go and read.   And then go read her musings on the link between Christmas and zombie movies.

BlogMeet and Merch and Handgonne Vids

Had a fun blogmeet at Yats.  Topics went from what happens when a bunch of your neighbors are also into armature radio, to the importance of red beans, to where to buy blinking "science!" lights, and a bunch of various and sundry that slip my mind at the moment.

And as promised I wore my Russian Origami shirt:

If you want one it can be ordered at the above link.

I'll put up Roberta's account when it gets posted. Edit:  And here's her report.

But first, as promised,  footage of the Handgonne in action.



Here's one of it with a better fireball.   And here's a closer look while a friend shoots it.

There's just something about a gun with no moving parts.   Also it's quite fun firing shot as well.  Also at the blogmeet was discussion that while the handgonne could be used for squirrel hunting,  deer hunting, as one of the smith's friends is thinking, seems right out the window.


Update with GBC comments:

Weerd: You wearing a suit at the range, Jack?

This tickles me because in that vid (and right now) I'm wearing Woolrich conceal carry pants,  a Dickies work shirt, workboots and one of Linoge's Russian Orgiami shirts (I bought two, you should too!).  All of which is pretty far from a suit.

Both shirts have good material and long tails, which makes handy for carry options.  The pants are nice having reinforced pockets,  extra pockets (without making you look like you have cargo shorts), and seams that have extra material that make doing repairs and adjustments a snap.
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Weerd: Jack looks like you shop at the MIB store!

Hey! I  have some tan, dark blue, and brown clothes.  Even some dark green stuff!

Merch and Merch or Origami Hand Cannon

Well, I exaggerate slightly.

It's origami and a hand cannon

The T-shirt is Linoge's  Russian Origami  that just came in today.  Very sharp. Order yours today.  

Supplies are limited.  Seriously, they are.

The cannon on a stick is... well exactly that.  It's a 50 caliber handgonne courtesy of Speer.  It was a custom order but he's made them before.  As JayG will attest.   And it is a seriously awesome and very fun weapon.

I've already got a flintlock and a blackpowder mortar so I had all the kit in hand.

(Not pictured: fuse.  Which is a story for another day)

Very fun.  There's something about a gun that has no moving parts.  I have some video I shot at the range.  Not sure if I should go with the one where I have my back to the camera (obscuring the cannon)  or the one where you can see the handgonne but the fireball isn't as good.

Also as a bonus Speer packaged some thing extra in with my order.

It's the little tube on the bottom rail.

Yes, it's a 22 caliber  key-chain cannon.  I don't have the shot to fire it yet but hope too soon.

And how funny is it that my biggest and smallest guns are both single blocks of steel that you light by sticking in fuses?

 Here's another picture for scale against my mortar.  The above link has some close in shots of it.



So that's two merchants I've had more than satisfactory business with.

Update:  Thanks for the link Linoge!  And here's an updated post with the shirt at a blogmeet and some video of the handgonne in action.

Best handgun for Zombie?

Well, Erin Palette has a review on the PMR-30 and thinks it makes the grade.

Read for yourself.

Good points, especially on capacity. 30 rounds of 22 WMR is a lot more compact than 30 rounds of 45 acp.

Redshirts and SF Debris...

So I've been watching the scifi reviews on SF Debris

The guy has a good style and an interesting perspective onto the plot, behind the scenes, and symbolism of the various shows.

But I was struck by how got awful the various Star Trek series were. Especially Voyager.

This meshed quite well with Scalzi's latest book: Redshirts.

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Reading the book while watching these reviews, especially Voyager's Latent Image serve as great examples of the creative failures that are technobabble and killing of bit characters for increased drama.

The voyager episode I link is particularly blatant about it, but that vast majority of the episodes all work that way.

And while Scalzi's satire has elements from the whole of the Star Trek franchise (such as being the fleet flagship), scifi geeks should be able to readily recall the Voyager's ship class.

Crimson Trace Range Report.

Previously Erin Palette had her mother install a set of Crimson Trace Lasergrips.

It was a very interesting review of a non-gunnie's perspective on things.

And here's the range report of how the laser performed.

It looks like it did its job. Good show!

How easy are Crimson Trace Laser Grips to install and use?

So easy a septegenarian with no real firearms experience can do it.

Erin Palette has a nice review of the Crimson Trace LCR grips done by her mother. I like that the perspective points out problems I never would have considered. Like the definitions of various terms that would be unfamiliar to a non-gunnie and the need of related diagrams.

I'll agree that not including the right little tools can be a real pain.

The dry fire thing's also a real good point. And is handy for practice.


I also got a new trigger for my Smith 1911 and a few other odds and ends. Will comment on those later on after I'm done cooking and such today. Lesson Learned: Bacon grease is great for browning chili meat, and means you can skip washing the cast iron between.

Looking into Sea Org

Here's an interview of Kate Bornstein author of A Queer and Pleasant Danger. Her memoir of the time she spent in Scientology's floating fleet "Sea Org". Though at the time she was a he.

Yes Bornstein has lead a very intersting life. As a check of her others books will tell.

The interview gives a taste of the almost surreal strangeness of the world of Scientology. I've added to to my amazon queue and am curious as to the rest of the story.

What struck me was the "anthropology" of Scientology. As a group they have their own customs, social ques, linguistics, and ethical and moral framework. It's also interesting because it was created within living memory and has shifted noticeably over that period.

It really is a religion as thought up by a Science fiction author that ended up getting enough disciples that he was able to build a fleet populated solely by his own people.

There's also some of the frankly creepy aspects like Operation Snow White, billion year service contracts, and an organized method of shunning and breaking off all contact of any and all apostates.

Compared to stuff like that paying ten thousand dollars to get audited and cleared for super powers, and having a plan of global (multi global) domination seems almost quaint.

Though I would not take Scientology as a joke. Consider what happened to another woman that published a book critical of Scientology.

Via PJM

Southland Tales... wow... just wow.

I knew it was a bad movie, but I had no idea.

Such an amazingly bad and confusing mess. Loads of characters that have no purpose and plot points that are brought up then forgotten again.

Also gotta love the Cutting-Edge-Political-Commentary!


In sanner news, I'm figuring out what to do with a bunch of young apples that fell due to yesterday's storm. Maybe dehydrating them will work.

You know McAfee...

When there's pages dedicated to how to force the removal of your Virus Software, you might be doing it wrong.

Also having a bloated anti-virus scanner on a netbook is one thing, but having it constantly pester for registration and purchase while not responding to commands is another.

You see, when you push the sale too hard, people will take the effort just to spite you and go with a competitor Especially when the product is lousy too.

As a bonus, the little Lappy runs a loot smoother and has such a small footprint I can keep on my workbench without interfering with the press, vise, or any of my tools.

Day and Range

So after a leisurly breakfast of bacon and bagels. From what is arguably the best bagel place in the city. I did some organizing and had the carpets cleaned.

Very thorough, very detailed, very prompt, and efficient service. So if you live in the Indy area, I recommend Carpet Medix

After that I hit the range and tested my hand-cast lead bullets. Accuracy was very good. Had one failure to feed due to not enough crimp on the case mouth. The rest fed and fired fine.

I've still got half of my cast bullets to go and will try with a more aggressive crimp on my Lee Factory Crimp Die.

I also fired some jacketed brass and had no malfunctions. All the cartridges had a marked improvement in accuracy. Though that is partially due to the LaserLyte training target too.

But if I can get cast bullets to work reliably then that will save quite a bit per round.

Edit: Also after counting for the rounds I had shot off, I managed to increase my brass supply by 73 rounds of 45acp. So there's that too.

LaserLyte Training Target II

As mentioned earlier, I just got a Laserlyte training target, and while it was really fun it was acting a bit balky. Sometimes the reset sensor would not register, sometimes hits would not register, sometimes the display would not go. And when I took it apart I found that while the batteries did have a tendency to come loose that was not the problem.

No when trying it out in my workshop I realized something... the light in my living, room for some reason, is '"icky" for the sensors. But in my workshop the thing works flawlessly.

I think the bugger's really sensitive to ambient light. The laser light from the chamber piece does have to go through a thick semi-transparent red sheet on the cover of the target to reach the sensor array.

I'm also kicking myself for not taking a picture of the thing disassembled. The way the grid of sensors is laid out for the target is really neat. There's over sixty in the target circle alone. Gives rather good resolution all in all.

So in short, if you get one of these things and it starts being balky... try a different room.

LaserLyte Training Target

Earlier I hinted about getting something involving lasers.

On a bit of an update I'd like to clarify that I got one of these, as well as one of these.

And yeah... especially with the latter, the pew pew pew of a laser gun is actually very accurate.

It's an insert for the chamber that activates a laser every time its hit by the firing pin. So yeah, it turns any gun of the right caliber into a... laser gun.

Combine it with the first link, which is a target that is sensitive to laser light you have a very neat dry fire device. It's really handy for doing draw drills and checking your press out, and your sights.

Very easy to install and setup. I'll see about getting some photos later on.

Edit: A couple more thoughts. There are a couple problems with the design. One is that to replace the batteries you have to unscrew the backplate of the target. And you'll want to make sure the batteries are firmly in place.

Also the sensor for the reset is very precise and you may get the most precision aiming by trying to hit it to get the thing to cycle to reset.

And finally, because you're just activating a laser there's no recoil. So there's that limitation. It's very good for draw and first shot, but does nothing for flinch or managing the recoil for followup shots. In fact it would do one to concentrate on making sure your grip is still good, as it's easy to start limp-wristing your grip.

Still, all in all, a very handy training device.

Been a bit busy.

Got an order in from Midway on Friday and have had some errands today.

Will give a review and some thoughts after some more time.

But so far: lasers!

Apples and Oranges.

After seeing this, the preview for this isn't quite as impressive.

Don't get me wrong, I want to see Avengers, and I think it could be a real fun, especially given the personalities of the ensemble cast.

But after seeing Act of Valor's uber practical effects (it's hard to beat real seals using real weapons, with real ammunition, being moved around by real vehicles (like a frickin Ohio). Even the blood and gore effects were practical.

It really shows the extreme verisimilitude practical effects and cast members that know what they're doing can bring over CGI and actors.

And here's a bit of behind the scenes for Valor.

A guide and Review.

Erin Palette at Lurking Rhythmically has a guide to buying guns if it's your first time.

And it's good stuff. In short: Dress for the range and for the store, keep in mind the culture and ask questions. And be confident but don't act like you know more than you do.

You are dealing with a fair chunk of chance so your interaction and what you learn is important.

Also this Pony Pistol(no not that kind of pony) is just plain adorable.

Also talk about a small world, given I found about Erin inspired this at Weerd's.


Oh and Act of Valor is a very fun action movie. Not much plot and meh-ish acting from the protagonists (who are Seals and not actors so okay), but very good action and a really good pace. As someone said in the GBC chat last night, it's gun porn. Watch if you like seeing Seals shoot guys.

Today's Project: Remora Small Magazine Holster

I mentioned modifying a Remora Magazine Holster yesterday.

Weer'd was not kidding when he warned that the holsters were designed for full size magazines.

They double version works great and will be handy for carrying two 1911 magazines whenever I use my IWB holster.

But I also got 2 single ones for my LCP and my PM45.

Well I did the mod for my LCP tonight and then tested it for a bit, and I think it'll work as an IWB or pocket magazine holder.

Left is my LCP in the Desantis Nemesis holster. Right is two magazines in the Remora holder (which is made of about the same material).

Below is what the holder originally looked like.

The Remora had good stitching and quality material. I'll know more about how it wears with some testing, but so far been rather happy, and it was easy to modify.

So if you have a pocket gun and you want to carry your ammunition better than just loosely in a pocket, this can work for you.

Though if you solely want IWB carry, It may be better to simply sew along the bottom of the holder to shorten the depth of the pocket.

PS: It's kind of funny that the first real thing I do with my work bench (other than polishing some wood grips) is swwing.

A good work bench

Last week Unc was talking about The gun industry, media, blogs and press and one thing he noted was how the gun bloggers accentuated the negative.

That's true enough, just look at my Kimber blogging.

But that got me thinking on things that are good.

Seeing that I did not have a work space and was using my computer desk or dining room table, my father decided to order a work bench as a Christmas present for me.

It was custom made by a small company in South Carolina and thus only arrived last week. However, there was a problem as the holes on the two front legs were ground too far and the Lag Bolts could not engage. I contacted the owner by email with the problem and within ten minutes he called back and discussed the issue.

The next morning he shipped out a full set of replacement legs by second day air. They arrived and I've assembled it and am quite satisfied with the product and the customer service.

The company is American Workbench and if you want a very sturdy, high quality, extremely customization work bench I'll recommend them. And they do make excellent and appreciated gifts.