Memo to NASA

I've discovered a malleable material that's virtually impervious to heat -- instant mashed potatoes. I microwaved a frozen dinner for twice the recommended time with the result that the pork chops and corn are searingly hot, the brownie is approximately the temperature of liquid hot magma, but the mashed potatoes are still cool. Forget the foam that protects the space shuttle, NASA should be developing instant mashed potato technology.

Are we not men?

GenderAnalyzer sez there's an 83% chance that we here at Fudge are men. Since I'm a woman, and post with about the same frequency as Carnaby, maybe it should have been about 50%. Then again, I am a Nerd God(dess).

Here's the breakdown for my favorite blogs:

Michelle Malkin - woman, 73% (accurate)
Dirty Harry's Place - man, 89% (accurate)
Kim du Toit - man, 67% (accurate)
The Smallest Minority - man, 66% (accurate)
Rachel Lucas - man, 63% (inaccurate)

Here's the breakdown for some left-wing blogs, some of which feature a variety of diarists of both sexes:

Huffington Post - woman, 100% (variety, probably inaccurate)
The Daily Kos - man, 67% (variety, ?)
Think Progress - man, 65% (variety, ?)
Wonkette - man, 53% but "quite gender neutral" (inaccurate)
Deltoid - woman, 99% (inaccurate)

[h/t Robb Allen @ Sharp as a Marble, who was correctly identified as a man.]

Hunting Exotic Game in Finland

My husband hunted a lot in Lapland, but not quite like this. (Warning: not entirely safe for work.)



and Part 2, which explains the dangers of disrespecting the nature of your rare acquisition

Star Trek 90210

I want to punch the new Spock about a hundred times.

Nerd

That's Goddess



It surprises me that anyone with a low dork rating could qualify as a Nerd God, but I'll take it.

[h/t Kevin at TSM]

What if he had found God sooner?

Kevin at TSM echoes Roger Ebert's sentiments about Clint Eastwood's The Changeling in a recent post. In his full review, Ebert draws a comparison between the real-life killer in the movie, Gordon Northcott, and some of our most notorious killers of recent times

Northcott comes over in Harner's portrayal as a man like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer: irretrievably evil, inexplicable, unreachable from the sane world.

There is only one problem with this. Anyone who has ever watched interviews with Dahmer or his father knows that Ebert has mischaracterized him. Someone pointed me to this video a while ago, and it's haunted me ever since. Dahmer was not insane, not inexplicable, and nor, it seems, was he irretrievably evil

Continuing with the theme of petty things that irritate me, because I don't have anything substantial to write about

This morning on one of my favorite blogs, I read "I just threw up a little in my mouth" for the six-hundredth time. If you're a regular user of this phrase, I implore you to stop. It's not original. It's not funny. It's not a clever way to get your point across. It's a stupid way to announce to readers that you're in possession of a stale wit. Knock it off.

For other tired/cliched/overused and generally annoying words and phrases, see also: issues, awesome, amazing, breathless, impactful, pwned!, douche, douchey, douchebag, douchebaggery, asshattery, (blank)ery, mmkay, my bad, going green, down time, that's all kinds of (blank), I don't care who you are that's funny, stepping up to the plate, get your (blank) on, I could care less.

Update: Carnaby reminded me of a phrase that will never wear out its welcome: "Sit on it, Malph." Timeless. Incidentally, thanks to Uncle and Tam for the extra traffic.

Damn the lights!

What is with this fad with super-bright lights? First it was the pupil-searing headlights on new cars, and now these excruciatingly bright house lights are popping up everywhere. I'm ready to declare war on my neighbors for installing gazillion-watt lights on every conceivable part of their houses -- front stoops, back stoops, side walkways, garage doors, and wherever else they can flood the night with these supernovas-in-a-socket. Why is this necessary? Can no one can tolerate a little darkness anymore?

Carnaby's New Assault Weapon

As posted earlier, I sold my AR-15 in 6.8spc to fund the purchase of a new SAKO 85 Hunter in .300 WSM. To celebrate the election of our new president, I bought a new lower receiver as the basis for a new AR-15 build. It's a Mega Gator, which is the same lower I used in my last build:
Notice the sub 3/4" three-shot group I got on Saturday with my new SAKO. That's my best 100 yard group ever. Nice rifle.

I also have a new barrel from Cardinal Armory (formerly Ko-Tonics) which is unfortunately going out of business due to a snafu with barrel chroming. I got one of their last 18" barrels and I count myself lucky.

So just remember folks: If you want an EBR but can't afford the $400-$1200+ price tag, you can always just run out and plunk down $150 on a lower receiver. Then when they inevitably "grandfather" existing EBR's, you're good to go and will be able to build a "pre-ban" when you can afford the rest of the components.

Here's a question: Will 1994-2004 "post-ban" rifles become 2009-2019 "pre-ban" rifles*, or will the new law, if such should pass, stipulate that any rifle created under the old ban is subject to the rules of the new ban? If not, then you can take your 1994-2004 "post-ban" rifle and turn it into a "pre-ban" by adding all sorts of interesting, albeit not particularly lethal features, such as that bayonet lug you've always wanted. :P

*The truth is that when the "ban" expired all EBR's became "pre-ban" rifles. And I use "ban" in scare-quotes because we all know that it didn't ban anything that would change the lethality of the rifle, but only cosmetic features that make the rifles look evil. Case in point: no blood in the streets since the "ban" expired. And yet they want to re-up the old ban. Why?

Sako 85 Range Report!

Finally got to take the Sako 85 Hunter out for a quality range trip. The rifle lived up to expectations. Here's my targetI started out with the just over an inch group at the top left after two warm up low-power shots. I was trying out some new 180gn Nosler AccuBond loads and shot two light loads just to make sure everything was on the up and up. The scope was also just remounted, so I moved closer to zero with those first two shots.

My next group is that one at the far left. Three rounds inside of about 3/4". Not bad! Then I finished up with the top right group. Afterward, I hauled out my trusty old Savage in 300 win mag and put together those two groups in the black. I have it sighted approx 2" high at 100yds for hunting, so those results are quite good for me.

Last, my buddy at the range had his Springfield M1A National Match handy, so I put three rounds downrange and got that nice ~1" group at far right. All in all, a decent trip to the range!

Halloween

Ye gods, I hate Halloween during election season. Is it just me, or did every office party have someone dressed as Sarah Palin?

Halloween this year seemed subdued. I think it's the impending election, which is scary enough -- I get the sense people were filled with genuine dread this October, instead of the fun manufactured dread of the holiday. Normally my neighborhood is brimming over with kids in costumes, and at least half the houses on our block are decorated. This year, two houses put up decorations, and there were no kids on our block. Not a single trick-or-treater, according to my husband who stayed home that night.

I wasn't in the Halloween mood, so I went to the opera instead. It was my all-time favorite, Dido and Aeneas, but even that wasn't a respite from the election. This particular show was a reinterpretation of the ancient Carthaginian story in "Goth" style. Whatever, nobody goes to an opera for the story. After the first act I was all settled in and really enjoying myself. Then the second act starts, and we're all waiting for the arrival of the conniving sorceress who deceives Aeneas, but in this interpretation the sorceress is... dressed in a red skirt-suit, with glasses and "the hairdo." The thing is, I wouldn't have been any less disappointed if it had been Hillary. This kind of crap takes an audience out of the experience when it's unexpected. But most of all, I just hoped it wasn't foreshadowing some evil new form of live entertainment: the modern, political opera.

I hope y'all had a more enjoyable Halloween than I did. Can't wait to see what the Christmas season is going to bring.