Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Classic Dogbert

I've always liked Dogbert. I don't quite understand the punchline though, to be honest.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Drs. Stapers and Fudge

Well, almost. Carnaby is finishing his dissertation in December. My advisor thinks I can be done in December, and I'm thinking only if I give up things like sleeping and eating and ever seeing my husband again (3 journal papers + dissertation + teaching). We compromised on February. Needless to say, posting is going to be even lighter than usual, especially as Carnaby is even worse off than I am (dissertation + 2 jobs + family).

Meanwhile, here's a cat on some laundry.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Blasting

A buddy of mine and I went to the woods for some good old fashioned blasting today. He's only ever used his nearly new Springfield M1A National Match at the local range, which only allows one round in the magazine at a time. This is the result when you finally get to load up the mag full for the first time

Fun! Those national match sights really came in handy there. To be sure, he really does enjoy the precision stuff, and we did plenty of that, but the "run through the mag as fast as you can" thing had to be done. Needless to say, we're shooting into the side of a small mountain, so we know our target and what is beyond it.

I don't think I look half bad there on the TRP with eight rounds of .45 goodness. Notice that I've got my hunting beard going for the fall. The vid is here if you can't see it in the post.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Salami

Thursday, September 13, 2007

E-Postal Results: Point Shooting

Well, for good or bad, here are the results for my August 2007 e-Postal:

Class 1 Results, Centerfire Pistol, Iron Sights

Carteach0, SW M&P 9mm: 129
Carteach0, Commander .45: 101
BillH, Glock .40: 81
Manfred, HK Mark23: 152*
Jean-Noel, CZ 9mm: 154*
Merle, CZ82 9mm Mak: 20
Merle, P38 9mm: 20
Merle, Colt CC .45: 68
Merle, P35 9mm: 102
Billll, Rossi .357 6": 130*
jimmyb, Norinco 1911 .45: 136
carnaby, Springfield TRP .45: 66*
carnaby, Springfield EMP 9mm: 72*
stickwick, Sp. Trophy Match .45: 34*

Class 2, Rimfire Pistol, Iron Sights

Mr. Completely, SW K-22: 154
Mr. Completely, High Standard ML 106: 172
Matt, Ruger MkI: 122*
jimmyb, High Standard: 142
jimmyb, Ruger MkII: 148

And there it is, if I understood folks scores correctly. The (*) indicate that the shooter didn't follow the rules as posted (notice I didn't either, duh) and only shot one target for each situation, and not two. In those cases, I posted 2x the score given and you all can figure out how that works.

The overall class 1 winner is then jimmyb, with an official score of 136, and the class 2 winner was none other than Mr. Completely with a fine score of 172. Stickwick and I rounded out the bottom, mostly, I think, because we shot too darn fast. That, and Stickwick shot her New In Box Trophy Match for the very first time. The adjustable sights on that sucker weren't even dialed in, and it was her first e-postal, so nerves were also an issue.

Good work folks, and let me know if I got your scores wrong, thanks!

Unbiased Media, Eh?

This morning was interesting. My wife, two kids (boy 6, girl 3), and myself were sitting around the breakfast table blabbing about nothing in particular, when my wife pipes up that my boy was watching the news this morning. This is funny, on account of six-year-olds don't watch the news. At least mine doesn't. He watches "Ben Ten" and "Scooby Doo" etc. So I asked him what he learned from the news this morning. The first part of his answer was funny, on account of his six-year-old delivery:

"Well, there was a big storm in Texas, almost like a hurricane."

The second part was interesting, very interesting (I'm trying to reproduce this from memory):

"... and then it was about the war, and how the President has made a lot of mistakes. And that the war is violence, so we should stop the war and take the soldiers away from there."

Needless to say, we had a little talk after that. My boy is smart, and he listens well, at times. But he has absolutely zero knowledge of politics. He knows that a war is going on. He knows that our soldiers are great and brave men and women. He knows that the President is to be respected. Besides that, he doesn't know anything about the politics, history, or anything else, about the Iraq War. Yet, from watching five minutes of ABC, CBS, or NBC (I'm not sure which) morning news, he gets the liberal view of the war in a nutshell. Well how about that?

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Mauritius

My husband and an Indian colleague are cooking up a business idea (which I am strictly forbidden to mention here as it's a really hot idea) that would require relocation to Mauritius for about half of every year. I was not too keen on the idea until I saw what kind of property you can get for under $200,000 USD.

Check this out. And this.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Jury Duty

Several weeks ago I received a summons for jury duty. I report for jury selection in the morning and am weighing the probability that I will be dismissed. When I was an undergraduate, one of my math professors told me that when he was summoned for jury duty he ended up being dismissed during selection because of his profession (professor of math and logic), i.e. lawyers want people who can be swayed by emotion, not reason and facts. An isolated case or the rule? Maybe we'll see tomorrow.

Update: After standing around for an hour, some kind of agreement was reached and all jurors were dismissed. I guess it happens a lot. Oh, well. Next time.

Save a Tree

Dear Environmentalists,

Do you really care about how many trees are slaughtered for our reckless consumption of paper products? If so, please feel free to pester credit card companies, catalog companies, and local businesses about the inordinate amount of junk my husband and I get in our mailbox every week. When my husband checks the mail (community mailbox is around the block -- whatever happened to having mail delivered to your house?) he throws all the junk in the back of his car.

This is one week's worth of crap



Now multiply that by 52 and by however many people in my community receive the same stuff. What a waste. We don't read it, we don't want it, it just accumulates, we have to dispose of it, and it's very annoying. This is after we put ourselves on that list that prevents you from getting a landslide of pre-approved credit card applications in the mail. Prior to that, the pile would have been twice as big.

Is it just me, or does this annoy lots of other people, too? Is there a sizable portion of the population who appreciates receiving this stuff, who reads the flyers, and I'm just in the annoyed minority? Somehow, I don't think so.

Apparently, there is something I can do about this. But how about all you tree-huggers out there pitching in and doing something for the trees that would result in consumers being happy for a change? It would be much appreciated. It might even make you look less loony and get you a few more supporters.

Sincerely,
S. Stapers

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Oh Edwards

Along with all the other Democratic seekers of the Presidency, Edwards is calling for "Universal Health Care."
Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush's tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year.
What I like especially is how the CNN article does nothing to critique the phony $120 Billion number that Edwards pulls out of his butt. How does he know it will cost $120B? If he says it will cost that much, then it's almost a sure bet that it will cost somewhere between 5 and 10 times more. And that might be an understatement. Just look at Canada, with a tenth our population. Their Universally Bad Healthcare system costs $130 Billion per year! So how is Edwards going to finance a system for ten times more people with even less money? How's he going to do it without waiting lists and atrocious care? Where are all the doctors that the system will require going to come from? Everything out of Edwards' mouth is starting to sound like "let them eat cake."

And just for fun, CNN lobs a softball and misses the real issue on another Edwards matter:
Edwards, who has been criticized by some for calling on Americans to be willing to give up their SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday that he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacificia, which he said he has had for years.

"I think all of us have to move, have to make progress," he said. "I'm not holyier-than-thou about this. ... I'm like a lot of Americans, I see how serious this issue is and I want to address it myself and I want to help lead the nation in the right direction."

He said he would not buy another SUV in the future.

The Ford Escape, the first hybrid SUV on the market, gets an estimated 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway.
And then they go on to do more to defend the bastard. How about his GIGANTIC MANSION? He wants us to SACRIFICE. How about he does that himself. I could not care less about his SUV's... the problem is that he's using about 20 times the amount of energy I use, but he wants ME to sacrifice. Call me back when you've sacrificed a few thousand square feet.