Minus 10 Points for Gearhog

Shame for on Gearhog for promoting the mall ninja crowd with the Concealed Weapon Badge and Case deal. It is their business and they can run it how they want, but the people that want one of these aren't usually the best ambassadors for the 2A group.

Get the bacon. I'll cover you.

Yeah, it is a commercial for Spiceworks. But, I give them credit for:

• a good, free (ad supported) help desk
• decent production quality on the video
• zombies
• guns (NERF)
• I.T. guys
• bacon

Lessons Learned

jsnell Netflix announces that HP will keep its PC division after all, won't spin it off into "Compaqster."Thu, Oct 27 16:43:29 from Twitterrific for Mac retweeted by asymco

Wouxun and Baofeng Group Buy

Anyone interested in a group buy of the Wouxun or Baofeng should meander over to the World Wide DX forum.

Wouxun KG-UV6D: Expensive

Main Trading Company has the Wouxun KG-UV6D Dual Band radio, but it is $183. That still seems really high given the limited changes from the previous models. I will be curious to see what Ed's starting price is.

The Flu is for the Avians

The day before the flu hit me, I ran 11 miles at a sub 9 minute pace. More than two weeks later, I ran just 7 miles and I was almost 40 seconds per mile slower.

Ninjas in the House

They said it couldn't happen... Me and the misses were upstairs counting my blog money. (Sometimes I even like to roll around in it after a hard days work linking.) We were discussing our various options for redecorating - I especially wanted to get rid of that made-in-china-faux-American-traditional-knockoff-metal corner shelfy thing. My wife had bought that black metal shelf as a way to trick thieves into thinking there was nothing of value in the house. (As you will see that didn't work out too good.) We were also considering some dark green carpeting to go with the money theme I was developing, but I digress.

So to recap, quiet evening counting money... That's when I heard a noise. We don't have a lot of crime In My The City, TN, but I'm always prepared. I started to grab my shotgun or glorious soviet Mosin Nagant rifle with bayonet fixed, but I had picked up this new Crimson Trace Lightguard and wanted to try it out. (I briefly considered turning on all the lights in the house, but even I cannot afford crazy electrical bills!)

So, I grabbed my trusty Smith & Wesson M&P9 equipped with both a Crimson Trace Lasergrip and the new Lightguard. I proceeded in a high speed, low drag tactical sashay to the top of the stairs. Oh noes! Ninjas! Ninjas intent on executing an unscheduled estate appraisal!

Given there were five (count them - FIVE!) ninjas in my house, I was glad there were no switches to fumble with and no extra steps introduced when I wanted to be focused on firing my pistol. (I'm really glad that there weren't more than six ninjas - I don't have an aunt Gertrude!) Good news for me is that these Ninjas brought only their hands to a gun fight. I really wish I had put up some sort of mirror system, so I could have caught a glimpse of them around the corner. (I'll add that to the redecorating to do list.) I completed a combat roll to get into position and yelled, "Geronimo! Don't you know who I am? Also, I have a gun! And I've called 911!" I pulled a chaise lounge in front of the stairs in order to have some sort of barrier object to take cover behind. At this point, I realized that one of the ninjas was a little person and I really regretted installing the redundant/auxiliary hand rail along the stairs.

I won't bore you with the details (but if Larry wants to write some up, I'll insert them here - feel free to spice it up with grenades, claymores, and tactical bats), but suffice it to say that I dispatched the ninjas with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, the light fixture was a victim of friendly fire.

After dealing with the initial Ninja Five, I went room to room to make sure they were clear. (That takes a long time when you have 4 floors and 65 rooms.)

What would I do differently? Really, not much given the positive outcome. Maybe some day I might pick up a Ninja Glock just for this sort of occasion. A last note - no cats were harmed during the course of these events.

No offense was intended to persons real or from the internet. This thing basically wrote itself here, here, and here.

Grammar Humor

tim #occupylsx lols RT @torquespeak The protestors still haven't realised the irony of writing 'CAPITALISM IS CRISIS' in upper case I see...Fri, Oct 21 11:27:15 from web

MLS Goal of the Year

You can check them out and vote here.

Nest - Learning WiFi Thermostat

How about a smart WiFi enabled thermostat? The Nest Learning Thermostat is just that. What makes it smart? Data from several sensors - Temperature (as you would expect), Humidity, Proximity, Far-field activity, Near-field activity, and Ambient light. It knows when you are home using the activity sensors. It lights up when you get close. You supply it with your zip code, so it knows what the weather is outside. It builds a history and develops a schedule for you based on the changes you make over time. It calculates how long it will take to reach a certain temperature. (In the summer that may be calculated in hours instead of minutes when we hit 100 and I want to get in the low 70's.) It has WiFi and you can control it remotely. I like where all this is going. I manually changed my thermostats, so I'm not sure if this would ever pay for itself, but I like gadgets.

Via Uncrate