The other day, I was in a gun store, waiting in line to see if they had any .380 ammo (they didn’t, they never do) when I saw a few 702s in the rack and thought to my self “Self, if they made a pistol version of that, it would be what you need.  But it’ll never happen.”

Never Say Never Again.  Pretty nice looking, actually… wish it had iron sights, though.  But at least I can stop hoping for a .22 conversion for my XD…

Books have two main attributes: depth and readability.  Some books have tremendous depth, but are homeopathic cures for insomnia (*cough* Atlas Shrugged *cough*).  Some are great reads, but have all the depth of a puddle (fiction by Tom Clancy, Joe Buff, or Dale Brown).  Rarely, you get a book with both good information and a page turning plot.  Monster Hunter International is one of those books.

Allow me to emphasize a point here– there are exactly two fiction books I’ve read cover-to-cover more than once in a row.  Those books are Starship Troopers by Bob Heinlein, and MHI.

The books is a romp, from the first kill to the last.  Although I must admit that having a big geek throw his boss out the window did make me smile.  (Hey, I had been funemployed less than two weeks, and I’m pretty sure my former employer is a vampire… )

Plus, the guns.  Oh great googly moogly… the guns.  From custom 1911s to mortars, everything’s here, and the details are right.  There’s even Glock and H&K hate (be still my beating heart)… but that’s not surprising, seeing as Larry wrote this little essay.

There’s a love interest, two messed up families, and enough psycho co-workers to make this book feel real.  (A stripper, an accountant, and a school teacher walk into a bar…)  The best part is the humor.  The government gets mocked less than 50 pages in, and Tolkien only survives 150 or so.  The locations rock– the book is set mostly in the Southeast– and I actually purchased the book in a town mentioned in the novel.

All in all, very worth it.  Two thumbs up.

FTC disclaimer:  I have received no payment or merchandise for this post.

In desperation, I hit wikipedia, looking for calendaring software that could handle my needs.  None of the newer packages suited my needs.  Then I saw a simple, unassuming package named Chandler on the list.  Looking into the program, I found out it’s a derivative of the old Lotus Agenda scheduler.  Seeing as the integrated engineering program I used in my old job used a form of Agenda for its scheduler, I knew I had a match.

The program is a small download, easy to use, has a great array of tools, and it is flexible.  Need to make yourself a note?  Just type one into the menu bar, it’ll be on the top of your to-do list.  Need to share a list of tasks with your team?  Simply make a calendar of all the tasks, assign it to its own group, export that group to the Chandler Hub, then email your team a link to subscribe to that group… all within Chandler itself.

Worried about losing your calendar?  Try this program.  I set up my hub account, and now, every few minutes (and at every shutdown), the program backs up everything except my trash.  Need to keep track of work, school, personal, and family calendars?  No sweat, you can share any, all, or no calendars with anybody.

The only downside is that the program takes forever to start, due to the fact that it syncs all calendars at startup, and the backup at shutdown can be a long wait… but that may be because I have 2500 notes and counting.  Also, this is an open source program, and the main programmer has left the project.  So, no support, few updates, and little documentation.  But it’s free, and useful.

Watch the Youtube video linked above, and the 4 part series that details use and features.  It takes about 2 minutes for the narrator to set up and distribute plans for a cookout, from “hey, honey, you wanna grill this weekend” to “hey, here’s how you get to my place.”  All in one program.

(FTC note: I was not paid to do this testimonial.  I just really like the program.  Plus, it’s a FOSS project, I doubt they pay their programmers.)

I agree with most of the points the author makes (reliable, cheap, rugged), but I do have to take issue with his “blahs.” The author makes three points as far as downsides to the XD– it’s ugly, has a bad trigger, and is Croatian.

I’d say that for the third design from a relatively new company (about a decade old when they designed the HS2000, which is what the XD was originally imported as), the XD is pretty good. The trigger isn’t perfect, but the majority of people who try it (including me) love it.

As far as being ugly… er, what? Are only pretty guns useful for self defense? Plus, beauty is in the eye of the gunner. Most people who try an XD fall in love with it– I did, and so did Eric. It shoots well, is easier to field strip, and is cheaper than most others. Good, Cheap, Pretty– choose any two.

* Yes, I’m a geek. Next up, I use a Firefly quote for a title.

I like this little gadget… the patterns in visits make for wonderful mental exercises.  For instance, a lot of my traffic is coming from anti-gun and left-leaning areas of the country (NY, NJ, CA, MI, WI).  Also, I have a regular reader from both France and Germany (not to mention the smattering of Canucks), and a visitor who– every week– visits every one of my Sunday morning videos via Google… from a different country.  Business traveler, maybe?

But the most surprising was the visit from the Netherlands… Amsterdam, no less.  Whoever they were, they were looking at the flamethrower post.  To that visitor… if you’re planning on using a flamethower to light your smoking apparatus– hippie, please.

The best part is that the model on the front isn’t some ditzy airhead; she’s a zoology major. She knows her stuff, and she actually hunts.

I’m glad that the Evil Black Rifle AR platform is so common now that it has its own magazine. Maybe commonality will remove some of the stigma surrounding it. Either that, or “shoulder thing that goes up” jokes will become more common.

(H/T Uncle)

The zombies are awesome: they are fast killing machines and scary as hell. The acting was good, and each character is unique, and each has a different style of taking out zombies. There are comedic points, too. In short– you will laugh, you will cry, you will drool over the guns.

Yes, you drool over the guns. Remember I said each character had a unique way of eliminating zombies? That has to do with the guns: Tactical pump shotguns, coach guns, a Mare’s Leg, and a few moments of full-auto goodness.

There will be moments when you want to yell at the screen (take the tank, the hatch is wide open!) and feel honestly bad for the characters (can’t a man just get a Twinkie?), and cheer for them, too (aww, ye-ah!).

Both thumbs up. Hey, what can I say, even the opening music rocks.

Best part is that it only cost me 117 dollars, and Academy has them for $108. You won’t even be tempted to customize it, either. Put a red dot sight on it, and go eliminate varmints. Wish they made a pistol version, though.