Every now and then I get something, even when it’s least expected. From time to time, whether it’s something small or a lot bigger…I always try to help out my fellow Brothers and Sisters in uniform. If you think that you’re covered for a deployment…well, maybe things have changed since I’ve been in. But even on a warship, where the urgency for combat is often significantly less, I have found that being ready for the worst wasn’t usually satisfied by relying on the command apparatus. Maybe one day I’ll actually sit down and try to figure out how much I had invested on myself…but I can tell you it isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

With that experience always vivid in my mind, anytime I see someone in a more important situation in need I try to see if I can use what I’ve developed to work for me to help them out. This was the case of an Army sniper in need some time ago. I had known him through a friend in NSW and was told of his situation, which to me looked fairly ugly. It looked as if he almost didn’t have much for essentials. I could be wrong, though my friend is too busy for me to make small talk of the situation. He had asked several of his friends if they could help with a list that the young sniper needed and he also added up from his experience. With that, I went down the list and tried to find some stuff that I knew was fairly essential. Suffice to say, I pitched in on a few things on the list.

Well, I ended up getting a thank you card from the father. I just put it on this blog, because it was worth mentioning…these small things. And to an extent it made me feel better about myself…

Especially after Monday night. Monday night Chip had come down and we had the TV flipped on. After Ben’s arm made a national appearance on Prison Break (he was lucky enough to be an extra while they filmed here in Dallas), I figured the next episode would continue the same scene and perhaps I’d get a glimpse of Ben’s shoe, lol. Unfortunately, I have not been following the Prison Break show and just wanted to watch it to see if I could see Ben. Eventually I’ll get the DVDs and start from the beginning.

Well, I see that Prison Break’s time slot is taken over by that Moment of Truth TV show. In a nutshell it’s that retarded lie detector show that I’ve seen trailers and commercials for and think it’s an ugly concept feeding off the sensationalist want of our current society. After flipping through some channels and being lazy, figured that since the TV was on we’d see what the ruckus was all about.

Apparently, what was in view was a special edition episode. I don’t know any different, this is my only (and last, I swear) view of the show. I had mainly a young married couple, somewhere around my age or younger. The person in the “hot seat” was the wife. Sitting nearby was her husband, her parents, her younger sister…and someone else who I don’t know about, he never really said anything and they never talked to him.

The questions that I first heard were fairly benign initially. Asking the lady if she thought her parents were proud of her or if she’d be her sister’s surrogate mother if the sister couldn’t have children. Then shortly thereafter, with the money reward higher, the questions suddenly started getting ugly.

As I understand, she has a chance between questions to throw in the towel in the game. Any money she had won at that time, she could walk away with. However, the moment she answered a question and lied…which I’m even wondering about the conditions of determining the truth…then the game ends and she loses any money that was awarded.

The questions were rough and as if it wasn’t horrid enough, she continued to choose to be asked the questions. They started off a little light, having to answer if she blamed her husband for the loss of her close friends (answer is true) and during girl’s night out with her friends if she’d remove her wedding ring to make her appear single (answer is true).

At this point, at least to me, the foundation of their marriage took a good rattling and she continued to insist on asking more questions. I also noted coming out of a commercial break, that the person asking the questions had a little PSA before the show continued and said that if he had a choice this episode wouldn’t air and to watch the episode with caution. Strange, as it turns out to be a special edition episode, tanking over Prison Break. However, watching him during the game he was either genuinely flustered by how the game was unfolding or he is one of the best actors I’ve ever seen.

The next set of questions before she could get to the next amount of money came as a surprise to her. Before that happened, another question was posed…was she in love with one of her ex-boyfriends on her wedding day (answer is true). At this time the doors opened and a guy walked through. The wife was speechless so the game host introduced him as one of her ex-boyfriends. To which the ex asked her the question that if he wanted to get back together with her if she would dump her husband. The sister hit a button that I guess allows the wife to avoid the question, but instead answer another question. That other question was also asked by the ex, which was something to the effect of if she believed that he was more ideal of being her husband vs her current husband (answer is true).

At this point, when the sister hit the button to get her sister out of it, I was disgusted to hear a large number of booing from the audience behind her. Likewise, the eruption of applause after watching a marriage practically shredded with just a few strands holding things together, the wife elects to continue.

So the next question is posed, if she has had sexual relationships with other men while married (answer is true). The next question was did she think she was a good person…and I almost fell out of my seat when she said in the end she believed she was a good person. Thankfully the Fembot Lie Detector agreed with me and registered her answer as false, causing the tormenting to cease and make her walk out of the building with no money and, even worse, an ugly future.

It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen on TV…for those that want to give it a try, I don’t know why I’m mentioning…but a lot of network websites are doing playbacks of their shows…I’m sure it’s there. But really, why bother? While being disgusted, I felt a tinge of pain that by just merely watching it I had helped in the very obvious unraveling of two lives, in front of ones family and all over the country.

My friends and coworkers who I’ve personally talked to of this understood where I was coming from. Only two people from the nethers of the online world asked me if it was better off that they live a “fake” married life than have it out in the open to “save” what’s left of their lives before it’s too late.

I’m sorry, those two are seriously missing the picture. This is disturbing to me in a few facets. First off, you don’t need a stupid lie detector reality show to fix up anything in your life. I know of many retarded and out of nowhere arranged marriages of the past and quasi semi arranged marriages now that are working out, difficulties and all. If you need your life to be salvaged by a show like this…what am I supposed to say? If you come on to a show like this that will leave you metaphorically shredded by the power of honesty, mainly in relationships…what does this say of you as a person? In the way you expect and value relationships? Take it even beyond just relationships even, like my first question…overall as a person?

The audiences almost foaming at the mouth had me incredibly disappointed as well. I don’t really think I need to amplify with what’s already been said. I myself had a slightly hard time sleeping after watching that. However, to amplify my first concern…the last question she flopped, she answered that after all of that she still thought she was a good person. Which is really sad, I come across so many people and there are many… I’m not saying I’m the golden knight, that could be further from the truth. How I have chosen to live my way of life has it where I have to walk and thrive in the Dark of the world. So here I return to say I see people, and most are smart enough to know they come off as idiots if they talk about being saints. However, they end up giving themselves far more credit than they are even close to deserving. This lady’s answer was borderline ignorant of almost the entire episode before her and what she had laid out. It’s a shame.

Anyhow, no more lie detector shows for me. Usually the value of something I witness is determined by what I learned out of it, out of myself and the lesson in life that can be imparted. Moment of Truth had nothing of value for me, I do not relish in the sensationalism or watching people rip each other apart in that way.

However, like I mentioned in the beginning…a simple card sent to a grateful father helped me bring my tired mind back into the more relevant focus on hand and I feel I can move past the gnawing I’ve had since Monday.

Further with that, during my back and forths inside the office (it was a very busy day today), I heard repeatedly a techno song of some sort while streaming the Glenn Beck Program. The song is catchy, but it is a bizarre song. It’s from Russia, a song amounting to pretty much a girl having a boyfriend like Vladimir Putin. The group that made the song were virtual unknowns and this song has skyrocketed to the number one song in Russia. Glenn seems to every now and then find and share strange songs that get stuck in my head. One that is noteable was the Crazy Frog song about three years ago. Well, the Putin song definitely got stuck in my head…it was strange, especially the music video. Glenn of course, has his thoughts on it…those curious about the song and happen to be a Friend of mine on MySpace, I’ve thrown it on my profile for your hearing pleasure.

Well, enough for now!

UPDATE 28 FEB 2008: This got posted on Thursday…yes. You read it and felt it was written on Wednesday…yes. I never stayed awake long enough to post it yesterday evening, lol.

So Tony, elated and ego boosted over being assigned to a tactical unit in the reserves, decided this past weekend that he was gonna show everyone just how awesome he was. He even mentioned that there were females in the unit, so the desire to show off was much more powerful.

Apparently, while doing a triple axle spinning jump while attempting to do a quick tactical reload with an M60, with an Aimpoint T-1 micro scope and six lasers in six different colors attached, the weight of the M60 pulled his upper torso passed his limits and he injured his back. That’s what happens when you show off, buddy.

Just kidding. Well, actually what’s better…knowing you got injured doing something crazy, or that you got injured doing something more realistic, such as lifting a fairly heavy object? Well, that’s got him OOC for now. So some of my weekend was helping him try to find some things at the pharmacy…mainly an ice pack, but watching him squirm in pain getting out the car makes time tick a little longer. Oh well, I did let him finally try Tino’s…but he just watched me gulp flan while he had no dessert.

Though Sunday, Christine and I showed up to provide any assistance, though he became the flip-flopper and there wasn’t much to do…just watch The Game Plan that he just bought and some Papa Johns. It was all good though, as I wanted to see the movie but it slipped by and I haven’t had Papa Johns in a while. Anyways, hopefully things get better in a few more days for him.

While out and about between Dallas and Mesquite on Saturday, I couldn’t help but notice that the areas I was at had a very noticeable increase in police presence. In Dallas, I watched as three Dallas police cars passed by the parking lot I was occupying in a very short time. In Mesquite, almost the same effect. Which was pretty amusing…

Saturday I had agreed to come meet Kyle and he and I were going to show a few things to some female friends of ours as far as self defense goes. While I haven’t felt it, the noticing of police cars was either a result of a rising crime or a coincidence. Those that know me well know I don’t have much faith in the concept of coincidence. While I personally am not aware of any significant crime rise in Mesquite (which I could guess the MPD is being proactive before it becomes a problem that gets shown on the news), two things of noteworthiness in Dallas. There was the guy who scopes out apartments were women live alone, breaks in there when they’re not there and waits for them to return home and sexually assaults them. Not too long after that, a serial rapist in Dallas appears to have raised his head once again.

So here I am providing my simple two cents worth (though I didn’t charge for any of this) as far as how I felt these women could defend themselves. Roughly the same application as while in the Navy. Had to teach a few of my fellow female Cole members (three or four of them) how to overcome their size and still provide some use in security. Not saying that once they knew something that they would be front line on a tactical team or entry team (oh no, I said “entry team” GASSSSSP!)…but better than just standing there and already surrendering mentally to a situation that they can still fight in. The results of the lessons that morning were both reassuring and troublesome…I may amplify on a different post.

Also in the morning came a discussion with Heather on self-defense. Well, not really a full discussion…but enough for me to take note of something. While there were some things that popped to mind, it came to a point where she was demonstrating to me three techniques that she learned from someone on to me as far as self-defense. For one, it was almost the typical thing that I see so much in that I don’t think it really was worth teaching her. I do not know whether this was someone trying to be impressive or a free demo in a dojo or something. Also, giving the benefit of the doubt of the moves being taught with the best of intentions…they were not really applicable to her at all. Basically, in a sports arena, she and Christine would probably be grouped in the same size division for fighting…this is just a generality. What I’m trying to say is I wouldn’t have Christine trying to get in a punching match with someone my size, yet someone expected this of Heather.

Okay, I think I’m picking on her too much so I’ll stop. What all of this, the noticed police increase, the higher demand in helping women learn to defend themselves…at times, I notice that I take “scenic routes” just to maximize my time on the road and be an extra set of eyes and ears for the community, even if for just an extra fifteen minutes.

I don’t know yet if I’m going to do this…this past Saturday reminded me. In the wake of the two criminals mentioned above, the city newspaper published something on their website. It was supposed to be a video to help women, mainly, be better prepared and minimize their risks of being victims. I will amplify about this video later on…I’m still debating whether or not I’m going to “poll” about a dozen of my friends whom I think would probably be targeted for this article…we’ll see.

Funny, I’m wrapping this blog up at work. Today was actually a slow day and I got an extra hour to unwind. Oh let me tell you, unwinding is something I very happily take. Oh well…till next time!

Get better, Tony! Maybe we’ll actually finally go to a gun show someday…

Ha ha…I finally get around to writing this! Well, not exactly. I know I won’t have time to write up and post this in a sitting. It’ll take fragments of time here and there…let’s see when I get this all posted up, eh?

It’s great to see/hear/read of the things that people have achieved, big and small. I’ve gotten to see some here and there so far this year, but it would take forever to write it all up. Besides, I have another desire for the format of this thread.

That sentence, which is this post’s title, was posted some time ago by someone I respect greatly. He had his own story of his own and it fit perfectly. For the sake of this post, it virtually relates to my time teaching fellow Shipmates how to shoot while on the Cole. While I had helped a wide number of people while serving aboard, I also had a high number of “referrals” and/or “failures”…pretty much those that everyone else pretty much gave up on. As in, not a chance…fellow LCs and ROs know when you come across someone and it almost doesn’t matter what you do.

When it came to these people, I didn’t have the answer…at least not as an answer. I don’t think I was more qualified than most GMs on the ship, and Pascagoula was where I took a lot of time to figure out what was wrong with what I did in the first place (though the first time I shoot a gun on the Valley Forge, I get an Expert Medal…oh the irony). Surprisingly, all these individuals succeeded and got qualified. It was pretty evident that I was doing something different, and it didn’t take too long to figure out what that was…I wasn’t really teaching them how to shoot. All those line items in the qualifications, academic and important to know and be able to convey…but for the most part not of much use when showing someone who has a lot of difficulty with handling a weapon, or even wanting to hold a weapon in the first place.

A few weekends ago, Christine and I hit the range again. It would be the last time that she would fire my pistol to any great length. We were certain the next time we hit the range, it would be with her own (and sure enough, it was last week!). I broke out my arsenal…which isn’t really much anyways, but the way the outdoor ranges work with cease fire times and all, you can really burn up a lot of time on the range. Beforehand, I had shared the story of my friend and the lessons he was trying to impart to me and others. That right there was the key…I also reflect that for the most part, I did have something of length to verbalize to those that I helped shoot long ago.

We decided to do a final test of the pistol she wanted. I guess it really wasn’t much of a test. For the requirements we outlined and the various upon various different types that were evaluated and the best shot, it was almost fairly obvious. There will be a little bit of interesting trivia as far as this selection process goes, but oh well.

The shooting was pretty comical. Aside from one other lady, Christine was the only female there that wasn’t shooting a mouse-gun. I understand that women can be smaller than the men and all that blah, but I think we’re really overplaying a very poor misconception and really doing them a disservice and sending them off to the mean streets with a .22 derringer. I understand that it’s better than nothing, but if that’s the case then I’d just put a heavy emphasis on edged, close quarter weapons then.

Wow, I’m digressing. Anyhow, the shooting was comical as usual. The other lady that was firing a more or less “normal” pistol was having a hard time with her marksmanship. A gentleman in the lane next to her began giving her some advice…which about two-thirds of that advice was, “Do exactly what that little girl over there is doing!” He wasn’t the only one…just the most vocal. Two other groups that I was aware of (not really looking anyway) had used Christine as a reference. After a cease fire, the range would be hot and for about fifteen to twenty minutes, everyone would step up and fire away. Then as time came by, they’d put their guns down, step back and almost everyone would be staring at Christine eating up some paper (metaphorically speaking, of course).

I finally wanted to make sure my pistol was sighted in and had a nice target to do that with that I made…but at 25 yards, it was hard to properly aim, properly see my shots and I couldn’t just walk up to the target to check it out. A bright idea, I’d rent a spotting scope. That turned out to be useless (I knew I shouldn’t have, but oh well)…I may as well have been asleep two weeks in a row with my contacts on. I didn’t want to do it…but, I rummaged back behind my line and my fellow pistoleros got a little distracted shooting their pistols as a big sniper rifle appeared beside them. But at least now I could see my shots perfectly, lol.

Off to the range! I learned quickly that they, disappointingly, did not have a 200 yard lane. This I did not like…I hoped for this to be my replacement range vs Mesquite. Anyways, it was time to break out the sniper rifle at the 100 yard lane. I had a new type of ammo that I’d have to zero for and I did do a rudimentary zero, which kind of screwed up my group naturally. Of course, firing that garnered a lot of attention from shooters to either side. Notably a Tex-apan…or Japa-Tex, whatever. A person I thought was Filipino and turned out to be Japanese, with a very heavy Southern accent that really amused me. He was sitting behind a prominent AR manufacturer’s interpretation of a Mk 11. I had no sooner started to chat with him when I was noticed by a fellow Army Soldier who just came back from deployment and was enjoying some time shooting. Even more amusing, Japa-Tex was former Navy, SBUs. Why do I know too many people in this silent NSW group?

Christine was up on the sniper rifle with a tighter group, naturally…both in skill and the fact she didn’t have to worry about zeroing the gun.

(if you see the targets…see the one with two tiny “dots” side by side?…that’s ours)

Next was something she never had to do before, and that was shooting like a rifleman. All the hours we spent previously I hoped would work well on her here. Our targets were still at 100 yards, index cards…a target much smaller than a human torso…a target much smaller than the front sight blade of my carbine. If we had to, we’d also use my optic…which was unmagnified so I think rifleman training still applies. To help on costs, we were using cheap Russian junk ammo as well!

I’m pretty good with the carbine at intermediate distances so I got lazy and just laid out prone and half heartedly fired some rounds that I’m sure hit close to my card, but that’s what it was…close. Christine settled to the ground with the carbine and began firing. Spotting for her, I was satisfied that a few holes were showing up on the card. However, the cards were smaller than even I thought and decided I’d mount my optic for the next string of fire.

That’s a bit of a mistake that I was aware of, it wasn’t even zeroed for 100 yards! It wasn’t an issue getting that target lined up…but that wasn’t really my goal, now was it? With that, I guesstimated the proper holdover (who really knows what it was with this junk ammo…), and focused on the whole wide body of the optics reticle vs the finer aiming point. That done, I was glad to see that I added some holes to my target but not as much as if I tried. I emphasized how easy it was to get the shots at the prone position and with that, Christine took her mag and loaded up.

She settled to the ground and happily accepted her much easier sight picture. I gave her my tips for holder and fired a short string of rounds into the target. I watch some holes appear on target and was pretty much satisfied. Then, from the story I had her aware of the day before to the hours on the range, she did what I hoped she did. Cocky? Yeah, sort of…oh you mean her? Hey…

She got into a kneeling position and steadied the rifle and fired yet another string of shots. A look through the scope was satisfying. Most I could see were hitting the board next to the cards, but if we put your standard silhouette it’d be a different story…but remember, I had a purpose here.

Then she took it further as she now stood, gazing at the dots 300 feet away from her, smaller than a start in the sky…and shouldered the rifle. She fired again, and again, and again. Sometimes it would be just a little backboard material, twice the bullet caught the glint of the sun and hit within two inches of the card. One actually pierced a hole in the card. Easier said than done.

It was more than I could have asked, I guess…but at the same time I wasn’t surprised. The five minutes of her time the day before and the hours on the range that day all culminated to a very important lesson for her, one that was a product of years of trial and error on my part, months of teaching people to shoot and watching every single person I help get qualified. Watching those bullets hit from afar, and hearing the results of the shoot…she had a look on her face, I’m sure I emulated that same face the following day after the pistol shoot on the Valley Forge where I was awarded my medal (at least I think, I don’t carry a mirror to check my face often, you know).

I’d say 5%-10% of what I say when it comes to shooting better pertains to marksmanship as a whole. You can ask her, I don’t bore her with all that blah that others like to puff up and recite and think they have some sort of revolution on. If that was the case, then I’d have less people to tend to on the ship, right? I also give this lesson because I know that she’ll probably be showing others how to shoot. It’s not about grips, stances and all those mechanics. I’ll teach them if someone asks and/or someone comes up with a very odd way to handle a weapon. However, like my first day on the range…I did so well, until I started listening to various people, reading magazines and seeing what the latest tacti-cool articles on the Internet surface (for the most part, I’ve tempered this down heavily…all throughout my younger years I was more impressed with the way I had obtained my skills and put more trust in what I thought was right, some advice for some of you).

Anyhow, that’s been quite a lengthy post above. Don’t think I really got across what I was trying to convey, but I think it’s more of just a matter of when you, or anyone else, knows that you’ve come to that point and act similarly instead of me trying to tell you how it’s supposed to be.

Anyways, came across another Christine…also Filipina, has a lot of fun with the camera and I have to say that I am impressed with what she’s done so far. It’s a lot of fun, her doing her one-woman (most of the time) show taking a comedic stab at herself and her family. For the most part, Filipinos will definitely “get it”…though I’ve known enough people that certain other Asians, some Mexicans and couple of other Hispanics will get some of this too. Regardless, I know most of you will definitely enjoy this…her YouTube profile is here. From funny family conversations like in Mixed Nuts, singing like in French Fries and a Christmas Jingle, showing off piano skills in Peelings, odd quirks like Morning Meest and YouChoob and even near chaotic happenings in Tanks…there’s plenty to enjoy from these videos from her and the others I haven’t mentioned.

Finally, there’s Glenn. Because this post is out of hand in size, and I mention him plenty…there’s little else to say. Those of you that know him know his past and how he’s come from that to be who he is today. He had something to say earlier this past Monday that I enjoyed and hope to post it in my site in about a week or two, so standby for that. Okay! Done!

It’s all relative…don’t take it literally…

But yeah, I guess not really the stereotypical face of a Sheepdog either, eh? Lol…

Happy Birthday to Christine! Though she realizes she doesn’t enjoy being a communist, lol! However, things couldn’t work out between work and other things…

Then this Saturday, in comes the messy (can you believe this is what they put on the US meteorological surface map for almost all of Texas…) weather that swept through southern Cali and most of Arizona and New Mexico. Despite the cold, windy and rainy Saturday, it was nothing to stop Christine for a grand moment…

(btw…the following pics you can click to see a little bigger…)

The Sheepdog with newer, better, fangs. You can understand all this Sheepdog talk by clicking here to see a rather old, but pretty important and profound, article…or be a sheep and ignore. Baa!
So off to the range it was, after getting some ammo (ugh, and prices went up a few days ago…with $18.42 being the latest for 100 rounds of WWB in 9mm…for comparison, I paid under $6 for the same box in the Navy, and about $12 last year) we made our way for the range in hopes that the bad weather would keep the number of shooters to a quiet minimum. If the ground was soggy, who cares…we’ll function check.

Upon arrival, the soil held up very well and we calmly put our targets up. We had another shooter in the lane next to us as we set up at the seven yard range. I know, some of you hardcore shooters are wondering what is up with that. Well, that distance is good enough for us to view and get feedback on our shots, we can’t bring our targets back in. Once they are set up, that’s it while the range is hot. Ultimately also, it’s raining…the less I’m walking on wet ground, the better! The three of us set up our targets, though my target was the only one that was Certified by Christopher™ installed.

The range was called hot and we proceeded to begin loading. Because of the sudden increase in price, we didn’t buy as much ammo as we liked. Therefore, I was going to keep my shooting to a minimum while Christine would maximize as many rounds fired as possible to contribute to the function testing of her new weapon. I had just gotten a new set of magazines and wanted to put at least two full charges through and figured I’d do the first series through my pistol, then get the second run through Christine’s. As we loaded, I noted that Christine was having a jolly hard time trying to load the rounds in the mag. It would be easy at first until the capacity was near its limits. I know of several pistols where it would be near impossible for her to load to full capacity.

Well, I wasn’t going to wait…we had less than two hours to fire what we could before she had to go to work. Loaded up, I went ahead and commenced a rapid and almost continuous stream of fire. Not trying to be accurate or anything, just didn’t want my shots to go in the white…that’s all that mattered to me. Then a mag change and on to the next magazine. Same drill and in less than a minute, my slide locked back and I dropped my empty mag. All rounds fired, no issues, bore clear, no apparent casualties…no shots in the white, I don’t have to buy Christine any ice cream!

So I look over at Christine…she’s still trying to load her two mags! I just smile and lightly tease as I grab a fingerful of ammo and begin loading up the mags again. At the point near finishing loading the mags, she tells me she has one more round left, I tell her to hurry because I’m gonna beat her…with four rounds remaining in my hand. She goes off and at any point in time I expect her to relax from her tensed state and declare herself loaded up! Three rounds in my hand… two rounds… one round…

“HA!” I yell as I slam my final loaded mag on her table. I win! In the span it took her to load two mags, I had loaded my two mags, then fired both of them, and loaded them again, finally grabbing my camera to snap a picture!

Well, can’t say she was done since I took the last round and loaded it. Commence gloatfest!

She then got situated and commenced her string of fire of my two mags. It is apparent, these new pistols…especially when you didn’t really give them a cleaning beforehand. Shortly after walking off with her purchase we did a quick stripdown and put some lube in some key areas and now have it running…in the cold, wet and dusty range. The gritty trigger was pretty apparent and it showed in her marksmanship (my target’s on the left, hers is on the right).

While it needs more testing, my mags passed their initial tests and will be tested once more later before I have them deemed serviceable.

The rain was falling and the wind was blowing. Our fellow shooter’s targets was the first to go. Being soggy, wet and blown by wind, his target broke off from some of his pins. A few minutes later, the same happened for Christine and her target fell. She fired up the target as it was with her remaining mag and I offered her my target, still standing. Wet, soggy, yet undaunted thanks to Certified by Christopher™ target installation!

Yes, my rounds were still on my target, but I had none on the white. That’s all that mattered.

Christine fired her next magazine…

…oh boy, I’m getting lots of ice cream, lol!

(yes, she’s now using my target on the left, still standing!)

We had to call the range cold to allow two new shooters to set up their targets and Christine and I relaxed while the other fellow went up to put up a new target. He lined his new target with pins all over the place. Pssh, I didn’t need that, ha ha!

We did chat a little, however, while waiting for the range to get hot. He offered us some of his targets, but that’s okay I said. He said Christine had already shot off most of the target, and yes she did. With the exception of a few rounds, a large ragged hole about the size of my fist now appeared in the center of the target. At this point in time, even I was a little impressed my target was still standing. I didn’t mention it earlier, but we did our best to save time. I loaded up the rounds as Christine passed empty mags to me and I loaded them up, making note of the two mags and making sure equal rounds were fired…which only counted near the end, as the rest of the time they were completely loaded.

The range was called hot and Christine continued her firing test as I continued to load. Eventually, our shooting neighbor packed up and headed out with one last query as to whether we wanted his extra targets. To be honest, I wanted to be gone by the time the next cease fire came up…we had about an hour and fifteen minutes till Christine had to work.

About five minutes later, two other guys showed up and just kind of hung around while waiting for the cease fire. Naturally, between small talk, a couple of glances to look at Christine shoot. Then it was done, the boxes were empty. Christine has fire a little under 300 rounds through her new weapon. All rounds fired, one failure for slide lock on empty mag (never came back so we’ll surmise her thumb was on the slide lock), bore clear, no apparent casualties.

With that, we did a rudimentary wipedown and cleaned up on our lane, then took one last glance at the still standing target before we headed out.

The rest of the day, and weekend, was full of unexpected and crazy moments. Mainly on the road as people tried ramming Christine, or even running me off the highway. Got to see Melissa’s new place, pretty nice. Also had a pleasant surprise in Tony’s new change of work schedule and got to enjoy a silly bout at dinner, the three of us.

But now…time to work. It’s been pretty crazy last week…what will this week bring? I still need to catch up on some parts for blogs. The new features I want to implement on my site…I’ll probably hold off for a few weeks and do a basic update in the upcoming days for now. But hey, who’s really looking anyways, lol.

Borrowing from a phrase so well known in Texas and now putting the proper application… “Don’t Mess With Christina!”

Okay, it’s been a while and I don’t want to vent after coming up for so long…but I don’t want my vent to be the last note. I’m gonna try to post far better things in the next few days…so I’m just gonna vent…

I didn’t like or care to be hammered with politics almost two years ago, and I am very annoyed with it now. I hate politics but accept it as a necessary evil. It isn’t run the way it was intended for anymore, nor for the good intentions of the nation. It’s some stupid sly retarded game of putting retards in pretty white historic buildings where they can puff around like retards for a set number of years and hope you keep your pretty white iPod headphones stuck in your ears long enough that you forget how incompetent they are and that they can fool you (and seeing how this election status is looking so far, they don’t have to try hard it seems…) and hope you vote for them again. I really need to head back to Antarctica and finish up my hidden underwater fortress…okay, maybe just the swimming pool part, lol.

Drivers…DRIVE! Enough said.

A buddy of mine had shown me a few places online and it really is sad. Apparently forums online of a tactical and/or firearms nature is growing like all the rage. Like I had shown to Tony a few months ago. Every single tactical black and high speed gun and gear is showing up in magazines. It seems like there’s an entire shelf devoted to “all things tactical” and it is very disappointing in the content overall. I’ve had these feelings for some time now, but don’t think I’ve mentioned it. I think there’s only one forum I really go to…and this is for the span of over a decade. One guy I knew in the Army told me, “The more someone reads, the less someone knows.” I kind of thought…duh, that’s pretty obvious. But he said it in a way that I had to think a little more carefully about his sentence…if you read it for its face value, you’ll respond how I initially did. I’ve seen how some people develop themselves tactically. Some…more like many. Of course, I am not in an environment where that is of a professional necessity…the Navy was the closest it came and while I was interested in that segment for about two months, I learned quickly that it was falling short.

I look at many of my friends nearby…side to side sometimes. I look at Pascagoula, where I think I learned a lot from myself. I sure didn’t spend any time buying the flavored book of the week, subscribing to every available mag, drooling at (what few back then) tactical catalogs and registering as “SuperDuperUberTactical67″ in every (what few back then) forums of tactics and firearms. I look at my end result and I found myself still very competent to do the tasks that I needed to back then without all the distractions that come up from many of the places trying to sell you something (yeah, that’s why they have your attention and you created your roads…they’re trying to sell it to you).

This isn’t meant to be the broad brush to paint over. But if you will notice, very few if any real deal people will come up for wannabe commando’s entertainment and self-gratification. But that’s not what I really care for. You wanna try to impress me with all the high speed books, mags and Internet talk, feel free to…just don’t expect my jaw to drop. You wanna buy up the most high speed tacti-cool weapon in the world, stay away from my wallet. You want to buy out all this gear that has a high CDI (Chicks Dig It) factor that the only time you’ll be wearing it is when you pose for your MySpace profile since you’re too inadequate to take a simple picture of yourself enjoying the day, that’s fine.

What is really upsetting, mainly from the Internet, is the absolute disrespect of those that wear the uniform of the military or public safety that have all the experience that if they wrote a book these trolls would buy it up and lap it up…and they get armchair QB’d and shot down from some retard that’s barely out of high school (or still in high school)…I’m generalizing too, there’s retards there at my age and older as well. There was one person that had the audacity to find a well known operator who wrote a book and this person was going off on this guy basically feeding the operator WHO WROTE THE BOOK his own version of how it went. No more shame, no more respect.

I’ve had the young guys telling me “Oh, but respect is earned…” yeah, and you haven’t done a single thing other than go to school and barely make C’s on your report card. I don’t owe you anything, these guys that are way over me don’t owe you anything. You want to feel like you’ve been owed the world? Go back to your parents and demand another iPhone…partially their fault for letting you grow up to be the idiot that you are that sadly has the same weight in a vote when it comes to building and moving this country, which as pointed from my first paragraph, I’m really disappointed. So as you can see, it all does come together…but you’re busy playing as little green monsters in some hype game that came back from the dead almost a decade ago or trying to play commando in some shooting game, because you have the gratification of taking out littler people than you or computer programs that don’t have a thinking human element. Oh, that’s not enough for you, you have to go after a decorated veteran that has seen and done things that would make you vomit your intestines out.

All of you wielding the power of the keyboard, here…you want me to earn your respect? Go out and meet these guys where you bash their LIFE behind your pseudonym screen name and tell them exactly what you said online too their face. If you can make it back to me in one piece…I dunno, I’ll buy you a gumball from the gumball machine.