Category: Geekitude

Life At Ward Manor Update

November 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

— On Veterans Day, Mom and I went down to our local range and turned money into noise. She has one of those Taurus poly-revolvers, and I needed to test the Bren. I had field stripped it and cleaned it a couple of weeks ago, and I had this irrational fear that I’d done something wrong. The Bren ate the two mags of Speer 5.56mm without a hiccup. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten how to adjust the red dot to zero the stupid thing. I have a laser boresight on the way so that I can do the hard work in the comfort of my own home and not in the bay of a busy indoor range.

— I got the new mesh system up and running, which meant I could now get the outside cameras to work. This one went up much easier than the eeros I’d bought before we moved in. The eeros just didn’t want to play nice. I’ll give the new system a couple of months to before passing final judgement, but at least it’s a promising start. For the record, it is amazing how many individual devices are now connected to the network.

— I understand that restaurants have to be judicious in what they put on the menu. More to the point, I understand that they need to use just enough words to entice and explain, without making the menu unnecessarily long. However, if the restaurant is going to offer waffle fries, I think they should at least identify them as sweet potato waffle fries. That’s what we like to call “material information.”

Living With Future World Problems

November 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I love technology. I love living with smart home devices. I know that there are risks and downsides, but in general, I get more use and enjoyment than not. Then, there are times when it’s not working right.

I bought an eeros mesh system before we moved in to Ward Manor. I had first gen eeros at the old place and my Tampa house. They worked great. Don’t know why but the new eeros just barely worked at Ward Manor. Any fluctuations in power or just oddness, and the whole thing came crashing down. Finally got frustrated with it. So, we talked to the internet company. They upgraded us to essentially a low-tier small business plan. With The Wife and I both working from home, and the MIL moved in, we were pretty much running two small businesses and a house. The internet company’s router seems to be handling all the load, so I’m loathe to get the additional expense of a new mesh system. (Sorry eeros, but if we do, we’re not going with you again.)

Fuck, I have a lot of stuff connected. It’s been a lot of finding things that are connected to the internet and getting them moved over to the new network. (Yes, my security friends, I changed the default name/password on the company-provided router.)

This frustration was on top of the fact that I got a new phone. Which entailed a lot of frustration getting everything switched over and logged in to my applications. When you build up essentially three-years’ worth of workflows from your device, you find all sorts of little issues. Apple is pretty good about helping with that, but there’s still a great deal of frustration.

Welcome to my week.

Tri-Link Wednesday

October 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The Brother shared a NY Times article on glitter. Yeah, I was surprised about how cagey people were about how glitter was manufactured. I still maintain that glitter is the herpes of the craft world. And I detest how endemic it is on girls clothing.

Miguel (via Lawdog) brings us a helpful hint. BTW Miguel, great job on the weight loss!

And on a more serious note, Reason has an article on the Firearms Policy Coalition filing in opposition of Texas’s new abortion law. They assert that turning the citizens against each other to stop abortion can be done to stop the citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Quick Link Post

September 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I have three quick links for everyone.

First, to the surprise of no one in the RKBA world, Reason reports that the CDC is looking at researching “gun violence” as public health This kind of bullshit “research” is what got the CDC bitch-slapped by Congress. However, even with the USSC slapping them down over the eviction moratorium, the CDC is still feeling its Wheaties. The sad thing about all of this? The CDC could help with “gun deaths” if they’d quit politicizing and help with research in preventing suicide.

Second link today comes from The Firearms Blog. FN has decided to upgrade its civilian SCAR lineup with non-reciprocating handles. There were two reasons that I didn’t seriously consider the SCAR 16 for my “non-AR AR.” One of those was the reciprocating handle. The other was the hefty price tag. At least they fixed one of those.

Lastly comes news that Hasbro has licensed out GI Joe, Transformers, and Power Rangers to Renegade Game Studios for making new role play games. According to the Polygon article, these new games will use a new Essence20 system rather than the 5E from D&D (which Hasbro owns). I’m interested, and would be more interested if I had a gaming group where I live.

Links, Links, and More Links

July 14, 2021 / / 0 Comments

First, I heard about this on the Assorted Calibers podcast. Essentially, a gun Prohibitionist group tricked John Lott and another gun rights activist to speak to a field of three thousand empty chairs. Let’s see, you lied about (and made a fake website for) a commencement for a fake university. Yet, I’m supposed to believe that you’re telling the truth about your gun death statistics?

Next the President signed an executive order to “promote competition.” Reason has a response of yeah, not so much. Much like the original infrastructure bill, there’s a bunch of stuff in there that has no bearing and/or hurts our ability to compete.

Cuba is seeing mass protests. This could get interesting. Assuming that the Cuban government doesn’t go all Tiammenen Square on them.

And now for some lighter fare. Looks like someone is trying to reboot the Silverhawks. Considering the trend to take old cartoons and worsen the animation, I’m not hopeful. And yeah, I didn’t watch the show that much when I was a kid. That being said, I fucking loved the intro theme:

Macross? Actual Macross? Here?

April 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

A big item that came out last week (while I was busy hauling stuff about) was that Harmony Gold and Big West buried the hatchet. In return for letting the live-action Robotech movie (totally not Hollywood vaporware, we promise!) into Japan, we might start seeing official Macross releases.

From the Kotaku article:

… but the tl;dr version is that when the American company Harmony Gold licensed the original Macross back in the early 80s for a Western release (as part of the compendium series Robotech), they thought they were getting the international rights to every Macross series that would ever be released subsequently, which triggered various legal battles between them and Tatsunoko Productions, Studio Nue and the advertising company Big West, who argued they absolutely were not.

From the press release:

  • Tokyo based BIGWEST CO.,LTD. and Los Angeles based Harmony Gold U.S.A. announced an agreement regarding the worldwide rights for the legendary Macross and Robotech franchises. This expansive agreement signed by both companies on March 1, 2021, ends two decades of disagreements and will allow Bigwest and Harmony Gold to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential of both the Macross and Robotech franchises worldwide. The landmark agreement immediately permits worldwide distribution of most of the Macross films and television sequels worldwide, and also confirms that Bigwest will not oppose the Japanese release of an anticipated upcoming live-action Robotech film. The agreement also recognizes Harmony Gold’s longstanding exclusive license with Tatsunoko for the use of the 41 Macross characters and mecha in the Robotech television series and related merchandise throughout the world excluding Japan. Moving forward, both parties will cooperate on distribution regarding future Macross and Robotech projects for the benefit of both franchises.*

The emphasis was added by Kotaku, but it’s an important point. I’m hoping we start seeing these available soon.

Clearing the Browser Tabs

March 24, 2021 / / 0 Comments

This week’s kind of a big one at the Ward household as we’re closing on the new Ward Estate of Northern Rural Suburbia. Yeah, I’ll explain that later. Today, it’s links.

From Military.com comes an older article on Sig delivering its final prototypes for the new Army SAW. Including chambering in a new 6.8mm cartridge. The article expects new individual rifles in that chamber next year.

In the “Yes, Please” category, Variety reports that the Justified crew are looking to bring Raylan back in a new series. Still need to get The Wife through that series.

The title of this NY Post story kicked over my giggle box. Cancel culture is out of control – and Gen X is our only hope. Considering how overlooked the Gen Xers, I find this highly amusing.

I’ve got two articles from The Wirecutter. The first is how to clean your ear buds.. The second one is on why many of The Wirecutter’s picks are on the expensive side. These are good principles when looking at any purchase.

I’ve got an article from the Mises Institute on why everyone is so more freaked out about the riot at the Capitol. I refuse to call that an insurrection any more than I’d call a violent BLM an insurrection. It was a violent political protest, not an attempt to take over the government.

Finally, The Firearms Blog has a look at the 1986 Miami Shootout. This is one of those seminal gunfights that people who are serious about using guns in self-defense should study. How to stay in the fight when you’re hurt, nothing seems to be working, and everything around you is going to hell.