The AnarchAngel

Gotta Keep The Devil Down in the Hole

2008-05-13T19:49:00.002-07:00

Yesterday HBO announced they were becoming an Apple iTunes partner. This morning, having heard good things, I downloaded season one of "The Wire".

It doth not suck.

A military fiction geek out

2008-05-12T01:24:00.015-07:00

Ok, this one is going to be for the hardcore military fiction and science fiction readers out there.

Hornblower, Aubrey, both, or neither
What was the "real" last book of the Aubrey Maturin series?

Blue at the Mizzen (the canonical last book)
The Commodore (Jack becomes an Admiral, and again the story wanders off after)
The Far Side of the World (Jack and Steven lose their way for some time after this)
The Fortune of War (the natural ending point of the first major story arc)

How about the "real" last Hornblower book

The Happy Return (technically the first book published)
Flying Colours (the second book published, but many consider it the natural end)
Lord Hornblower (the war ends with Napoleons defeat at Waterloo)
Hornblower in the West Indies (the canonical last novel; really a series of novelas)

The better Homage to either Hornblower or Aubrey (not necessarily the best books)

David Drakes RCN series
David Feintuchs Seafort Series
David Webers Honor Harrington series
LM Bujolds Miles Vorkosigan series (does it even really count?)
Other (there are dozens)

Ioan Griffud and Jamie Bamber, or Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany?
Screw that poncy navy crap: Sharpe or Flashman
The "real" last book in the Sharpes series

Sharpes Honour: The original end of the series, and Sharpes last true exploits as a fighting soldier in command of soldiers
Sharpes Honour, AND the tacked on prequels don't count
Sharpes revenge: Sharpe and Harper are out of the army, in the peace of 1814, and Sharps life is ruined... again
Sharpes Devil: Sharpe investigating Napoleons death on St. Helena (no seriously), and the canonical last book

What's with all this British Crap: Ken McCoy, Craig Lowell, John Clark, Bob Lee Swagger, Mitch Rapp, Mack Bolan ( I HAVE to include him) or Mike Harmon
Screw all that earthbound war crap... besides, they're called crunchies for a reason : Hammers Slammers or Bolo (pre-sentience)
They don't crunch when they've got powered combat armor, or the equivalent (genetically engineered supersoldier, or born again badass etc...) . "Shines the Name, Rodger Young": Juan Rico, Mike O'Neal, Karl Sten, or Jane Sagan

Note: I don't know of and haven't read, any good revolutionary war or civil war series (excepting various alternate history novels); so I didn't include any soldiery from those conflicts (unless you count Flashman - and I don't) . I'm sure there are some, but I haven't read any. Go ahead and suggest away if you do know of some. Also, I've read the "destroyer" series, but not many other series about WW2 naval combat; so again, suggest away.

Bonus points if you get all the references without looking them up.

I've only included one character in the list above that isn't a major character in a well known series of at least three books; and that's because the single book in question is so influential as to be a cornerstone of the entire mythos of military fiction and science fiction.

I specifically left out several really great characters (I'm lookin at you Mad Mike) because they are side characters, or are not characters in a series (at least not yet. Larry Correia's got one thats going to be a classic once he gets the next two novels published. If you can get your hands on a copy of Monster Hunter International, you should. If not, it's going to be reprinted by Baen in 2009).

Oh and remember, explain your choices.

Knowing my readers, this oughta be fun... Kinda like a knife fight in a phone booth...

... Especially considering at least five of the authors noted above read this page on occasion, as do a couple of other authors who have collaborated with folks on that list (and I'm not tellin. If they choose to make themselves known, s'be't) ...

Truth in Comedy

2008-05-11T09:15:00.003-07:00

Here's a direct link so you can share easier: A Message from Hilary Clinton

An Interesting Perspective from John Waters

2008-05-08T23:16:00.002-07:00

"We need to make books cool again. If you go home with someone, and they don't have any books... DON'T FUCK'EM"

Sounds like a good idea to me.

I should note, I LOVE John Waters. He has a hell of a sense of humor, he' amazingly intelligent... he's wrong about almost everything political, and a fair bit of moral; but he's right about a lot of everything else. He's always had a hell of an insight into human behavior.

My Day Approximated

2008-05-08T19:50:00.001-07:00

Scribus Interuptus

2008-05-08T16:25:00.003-07:00

So, I've written a TON of stuff lately... and finished almsot none of it.

For some reason I've got a BUNCH of ideas going through the brain, and either they aren't flowing out to the fingers; or they aren't coming out in a way I'm satisfied with.

In particular, there's one VERY BIG thing that I really want to write. The concept and points of it are kind of sitting there taking up all my mental room; and it won't come out until it's fully formed, but it's also crowding everything else out.

Sorry for the scarcity of content around here lately, I'm just in one of those occaisonal slumps.

Irritating.

One of the reasons I love Craig Ferguson

2008-05-07T23:12:00.002-07:00

It's long, but watch the whole thing:

A few random things about ME

2008-05-07T00:50:00.004-07:00

Even as fat as I have become, I can still touch my toes, then put my palms flat on the ground. When I didn't have the big'ol gut, I could do the backs of my wrists.

I collect guns, knives, swords, books, flashlights, tools, old computers, and watches. I used to collect coffee mugs, t-shirts, and walking sticks as well.

I have had arthritis in several joints since my early 20s, as the result of multiple severe injuries that have never healed properly.

I have approximately 20/50 vision, and have since I was 13 (I plan on getting laser surgery eventually). I can watch TV, watch movies, and drive without my glasses; though I generally prefer not to because I squint a lot otherwise.

I hate hats; but I wear them because they are both necessary, and practical. I have a half dozen ball caps, and a stockmans hat; which is quite useful actually.

Although I have more (not much, but a bit), the only pieces of jewelry I generally wear, are my wedding ring, and a watch. I don't like extraneous objects on my hands or wrists.

I also don't like my shirt cuffs on my hands or wrists; and I prefer to have my sleeves pushed up or rolled up.

These are long enforced habit from working around things that can snatch up, or light on fire, loose fabric, or loose jewelry.

I TRULY HATE loose threads; and to this day carry a zippo lighter with me, half for just the usefulness of a flame, but half just to handle loose threads.

I was a boy scout. In fact I had completed all my prerequisites and service project for eagle scout; but I left scouting because I had a religious fanatic for a scoutmaster, who made my life hell, because at the time I refused to attend church. I still regret doing that.

I have never lived in one house or apartment for more than three years in a row; and only once for more than three years total (I lived there twice, for three years each time, and three years in between).

I once lived in the house that Matthew McConaughey lived in while he was filming "Rein of Fire" in Ireland (Bray, co. Wicklow). I was the next tenant after him.

The first place I ever lived in Ireland was a 600 year old farmstead turned pub and boarding house, that had once belonged to my family (400 years ago). This was entirely by coincidence, and I only found out about it after doing a great deal of research on the area.

I lived in a geodesic dome for a year.

I'm allergic to onions; but my favorite cuisines are Italian, Mexican, and Thai (all heavy on the onions if for some reason you are not familiar).

The first actual book (not a picture book or the like) I can clearly remember reading is "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court"; but it was a "childrens classics" version. After that I read some other classics in their full and unabridged versions; but the first contemporary "adult" novel I read was Steven Kings "The Stand", when I was seven.

I met my best friend in the line to get into school, on the first day of second grade. He has been my best friend ever since. Although I now live 2700 miles away from where we grew up, he lives about 15 minutes away from me.

Some Favorites:

My favorite food is definitely pizza; though there is about a 50 way tie for second place.

My favorite color is Red; though I actually prefer black (which is technically an absence of color).

My favorite song is "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King; and has been since I first heard it, in 1982.

My favorite poem is "Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost; and has been since I first heard it, also in 1982.

I lied; I actually have TWO favorite songs, and I honestly cannot pick between them. My OTHER favorite song is a neo-celtic folks song; "Wanderlust" by the band "Wyld Nept".

My favorite movie is, without question, "The Princess Bride". I saw it in theaters, and I've loved it ever since. NO other movie is even close; though again, there is about a 50 way tie for second place.

My favorite book... Gods man I don't think I can... There are so many, in so many different genres. I can tell you the book I've read the most is "Pawn of Prophecy" by David Eddings; which I read at least once a year, from when I first read it in 1986, until about 2000. I believe I've re-read the entire series once or twice since then.

I should note: I made a habit of re-reading every book in a series, whenever a new book would come out; so I've re-read every book in the Belgariad, the Mallorean, the Elenium, the Tamuli, The Wheel of Time, Mercedes Lackeys Urban Fantasy series (there are several connected ones), the Mitch Rapp series, the Jack Ryan series, The Corps, Badge of Honor, Brotherhood of Wars, and a bunch of other series; all at least ten times.

My favorite soft drink is actually iced tea with sugar and lemon; but I drink more water, and diet mountain dew; because I'm worried about diabetes (family history). Coffee is my favorite hot beverage, but tea, hot cider, and drinking chocolate, are not far behind.

My favorite coffee mug is 20oz, and made of alternating strips of curly maple, and padauk. Yes, the wood.

My favorite alcoholic beverage is a brown or red ale of some kind; with a strong but not too sweet malt, and medium bitterness.

My favorite hard alcohol is Irish whisky; but my favorite mixed drink is a simple double vodka tonic, tall, with double lime. I find it crisp and refreshing.

Don't ask me to name a bottle, or a vintage; but my favorite wine variety is probably a semillon or sauvignon blanc; or maybe a Pinot Grigio. I personally think that generally Washington and Oregon produce better examples than Bordeaux does (excepting the very best of them). I prefer my whites to be dry and crisp, but fruity; neither overly sweet, nor overly acidic.

I don't care for American chardonnays at all; given that they almost universally eschew any kind of delicacy in favor of massive tannin character (which for some reason vintners seem to believe makes them a "more sophisticated" wine). The French vintages are generally better in this regard; but you never know what way the australians, south africans, or chileans are going to swing. I find Australian and Chileans whites in general to be good, but not up to what I really want.

For reds, I like Pinot Noir (French, Italian, and Oregonian), and Syrah/Shiraz; but I'm not generally a big Cabernet Sauvignon fan, because I feel most vintners overoak their vintages. I generally prefer the shiraz of Australia (barossa valley wines like Penfolds and Wolf Blass especially), to most French Syrah vintages; but the French do better blends (usually with cab sauv - and I should say, I think the Australian blends are good too, just that the Burgundys are better).

My favorite ice cream is chocolate chip cookie dough; but it's not my favorite dessert.

My favorite dessert is creme brulee if it's absolutely perfect; but that's pretty hard to do, and bad creme brulee can be pretty bad. Otherwise I really love strawberry parfaits, apple crumbles and apple crisps, cheese cakes, anything to do with snickers bars or oreo cookies, blondies, brownies, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

I'm not really a big cake fan (except for tres leches cake, which I love), because I don't much like most frosting; or really anything that's mostly sugar. I don't like fudge at all for example; or cotton candy, or rock candy.

My favorite place in the entire world, is the Winaukee peninsula, Moultonborough, New Hampshire; on lake Winnepesaukee. I spent summers (and the occasional, very harsh, winter even) there growing up.

A few random things about my family

2008-05-06T22:15:00.006-07:00

I have a bunch of stuff that I both want to write, and don't want to write; because I'm EXTREMELY aggravated, irritated, perhaps even pissed off.

So, instead, I'm just going to do the blog equivalent of randomly blurting things out.

I look just like my dad, only taller. I'm 6'2", but my father is only 5'6", and my mother is only 5'3". My brother is 5'9", and looks just like my maternal grandfather.

I've got very thick, very wavy, dark reddish brown hair on my head and chest; but my beard, moustache (in fact everything below my sideburns and the back of my neck, including my body hair) grow in quite red. My father has nearly black, very thick and curly hair; my mother has very straight, fine, strawberry blonde hair; I seem to have split the difference.

Funnily enough, the men on my mother side tend to go thin but not bald; on my fathers they go grey or white, but don't lose their hair. My brother started thinning when he was about 17, but my hair is actually getting thicker as I get older.

I am related to Herman Melville, Robert Emmet, and Feach MacHugh O'Byrne (the Byrne clan is huge, so a lot of the folks who spell their names that way are at least distantly related. My family goes back directly lineally).

I'm officially Christopher Byrne the fourth. We were all raised in the catholic church, and as was historically the custom; we all took middle names at confirmation, rather than being given them at birth. The feast day for the saint whose name I took at confirmation is the day after my birthday in the eastern church. The feast day of the saint my father took as his name, is the day BEFORE his birthday.

My father is a convicted felon, and has spent approximately half my life in prison. Because he and I share the same name, and have at times shared the same city and county of residence, there has sometimes been ID confusion. Up until recently, most computer systems only entered suffixes up to the third, and often ignored suffixes completely. As a result, I have recieved bills that were his; had tax liens been placed on me that were his; and been arrested on his arrest warrants (among other difficulties).

My father is also a highly decorated viet nam vet; and a master stonemason, with a masters degree in construction management. Currently, he is the general manager of, and partner in, a highly successful architectural, landscape, interior, and artistic stonework company.

As far as I know, he is no longer a criminal; having finally realized that the is too old for that kind of crap anymore. Otherwise though, he hasn't changed his basic personality at all. He's mellowed some, but he's still the rough guy he's always been.

Neither my mother, nor my father, have ever, as an adult, had a "normal" office or corporate job. They have both always either worked for themselves, or been a part of an entrepreneurial enterprise... to varying degrees of success.

My paternal grandfather was a railway engineman for the Irish national railroad Iarnrod Eireann, and his wife worked the Irish postal service. When they moved to America in the mid 60s, they both worked for the post office.

My maternal grandfather was eventually a lawyer, and a politician; but he worked his way through high school, then college (Brandeis), graduate school (masters in education from Boston University), and finally law school (juris doctorate from Suffolk university).

First he worked in a drug store, and a hardware store; then he was in the Army and served in the Korean war (he received a purple heart and a bronze star, but would never under any circumstances talk about the war). When he got back, he was a night road crew supervisor on the first expressway through the center of Boston, then he became a parole enforcement officer (again, working nights, checking up on convicts parole and probation compliance), then once he got his masters he became a high school teacher.

All this was while he was going through school, and supporting a growing family (thankfully, he had the GI bill money to help with his education). By the time he passed the bar in 1963, he had 7 kids, and the 8th was on the way.

His older sister was similarly accomplished. She eventually earned a doctorate in history, and a doctorate in middle eastern languages. She worked for the CIA, where she met her husband (who also had multiple doctorates in history and political science); and then they both worked in the state department, unsurprisingly in the middle east in both cases. After they retired, they became college professors at U. Mass Amherst; her husband retiring as dean of his department.

My maternal grandfathers mother was born in either 1894 or 1896 (there are a couple documents which disagree) and had been married before WW1. All of the rest is assembled from only semi-reliable sources; because she would rarely talk about it, and there are few records.

We believe she had a family of four children in Ireland, that had all died in the great flu epidemic while her husband was fighting in the war. After her first husband died in the Irish war for independence, she moved to Boston in 1923 or 1924 where she met her second husband, and started another family; having two children (my grandfather, and his sister). She lived until 1998, two years after my grandfather died.

Oh and random odd fact: my grandfather knew Leonard Nimoy growing up (most people don't know he's from Boston); though my grandfather was from Charlestown, and Nimoy was I believe from Jamaica Plain.

My maternal grandmother was a novice in a catholic order (yes, she was becoming a nun) when she met my grandfather. She had one kid per year from the year after they were married, until my youngest uncle David (he was 13 when I was born. They had 9 kids, but one died at birth). After David went to grade school, my grandmother went to work as a secretary at John Hancock in Boston. She retired after 20 years in 1987, the senior secretary in the region, to the most senior VP in the region (that used to be kind of a big deal. Things don't exactly work that way any more).

Both my parents are 1 of 8 siblings (and oddly, three of my four grandparents are or were 1 of 14); and I have over 50 first cousins, and over 100 second cousins.

Both sets of my grandparents were married 42 years, before both of my grandfathers died (both my grandmothers are still alive, at 73 and 78 respectively). My mother married twice, and divorced twice. My father married 4 times, and divorced three times. Every one of my aunts and uncles who has been married, has been divorced or separated at least once. Including my mother and father, seven of them have been divorced at least twice.

I have no recollection of ever meeting my paternal grandfather. My father, and his father, hated each other passionately. When my father was 14, his father kicked him out of the house, and he lived on the street for two years until he could lie his way into the army. He was not a U.S. citizen at the time, and earned his citizenship through his service; eventually serving a total of 9 years (through most of Viet Nam) before receiving a medical discharge. After returning from the war, he would not be in the same room with his father until I was born, and then rarely afterwards.

My parents split when I was 18 months old, and I didn't see anyone from that side of the family except my father from then, until I was 2o. In fact, I didn't see my father from my fifth birthday, until Christmas when I was 20. To be fair, more than half that time he was in prison; and while my maternal grandfather was alive he did his level best to make sure we didn't have contact. My father contacted me a few months after my grandfather passed on.

Next up, a few random things about me.

An Actual Conversation in My House

2008-05-06T16:58:00.002-07:00

Mel: Honey, is there a new NCIS on tonight?
Chris: I don't know
Mel: You don't?
Chris: Hon, I don't know when ANYTHING is on. We have a TiVo for that.

Gaaaack irritating day at work

2008-05-05T21:35:00.003-07:00

So, all day I've been dealing with an example of truly staggering incompetence, which is going to negatively effect every project I do for the rest of the year.

Separately, I've also been dealing with an extreme example of unprofessional and irritating behavior.

Late in the day I started in on the TVTropes.org website to drown my irritation in pop culture minutae. Warning, that site is about the biggest time suck on the 'net; and that's saying something.

No other writing today; my brain is sucked down the trope trivia whirlpool.

Il Notte Italiano

2008-05-04T23:02:00.004-07:00

So 'twas an overall Italian night at the house tonight.

Dinner was tortellini al formaggi con prosciutto; tossed in a salsa fresca of olive oil, balsamico di modena, garlic, cracked back pepper, basil and an aged parmagiano reggiano; served with Pellegrino, and a Peroni(a perfect complement to the sharp and salty aged cheese and meat) .

For entertainment we watched "The Italian Job" (the Michael Caine original of course); and I finished off the night with an espresso (Mel had fallen asleep on the couch, as she normally does).

Funnily enough, none of this Italian theme was intentional; it just sort of worked out that way.

Va Bene.

Critter Pics

2008-05-04T09:29:00.006-07:00

For your Sunday afternoon.

Kimber's attachment to the RockBand box.

Springer found the most dog-proof location in the house.

Evidently Kimber has no problem with Jayne's presence, as long as he's not chasing her.

And my personal favorite, the vicious beast being loved up by the girls. Oh, and he is that big.

Mel

Tony Stark... Yeah, He's Iron Man

2008-05-02T18:19:00.007-07:00

So I took a couple hours off work today to go see Iron Man, on the biggest digital screen in the state.

How best to sum it up...

At 2:06 it was too short. I can't wait to buy it on Blu-Ray. I can't wait to watch 2 and 3. It blows the Spiderman and X-Men series completely out of the water; then shoots them with repulsors while they're in the air, knocking them into low earth orbit.

Robert Downey Jr. is MADE to play Tony Stark. The performances from Downey, Paltrow, and Bridges (as Pepper Potts, and Obadiah Stane respectively) were all excellent; but this is probably Downeys the best since Chaplin.

I was slightly disappointed in Terrence Howards performance as Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes (Starks Air Force Lt. Col. best friend); but I don't think that was so much his fault, as it was the pace of the movie and the relative lack of material for him in it. Apparently his role was orignally much larger, but over 40 minutes was trimmed from the inital cut (and lord I hope we see an extended version on Blu-Ray).

My only criticism is that there is either too much, or not enough. By which I mean that there is SO much story to cover, and action surrounding it, that the character development is a bit light for everyone except Stark.

Now, if you're an initiate into the Marvel Universe, you already know the back (and side, and diagonal) stories; so that's not AS big a deal, but it definitely feels like there could have been another hour of story in there.

That said, you don't NEED to be a pre-fan for this; the material stands very well on its own. Mel had never even heard of Iron Man before; and has only the sketchiest knowledge of the marvel universe; but she still loved it.

Unsurprisingly, there is plenty of setup for sequels 2 and 3 (already under contract, but not yet in production). Unless I miss my guess, we're going to see War Machine (kind of a gimme given Rhodes presence) and Nick Fury in ep. 2 at the very least.

Oh and as with all Marvel movies, look for the secret cameos; including one from Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello (who provided music for the movie).

This marks Marvels first in house effort; ending their partnership with the more traditional studio development organizations to take creative control over their movies after the commercial success, but artistic failure of Spiderman 3; and the huge disappointment all around that was X3.

I have to say, I'm favorably impressed. They seem to have spared no effort in getting it right. Great attention was paid to fitting into the Marvel universe; but the story wasn't put on rails either; the creative team were allowed the freedom to experiment. For example, Favreau (the director) moved Stark to the west coast (used to great effect here by the way), and Obadiah Stane was completely moved through the timeline. Also, Favreau and Downey together wrote or re-wrote most of Starks dialogue (also to great effect).

The next release is going to be a new Incredible Hulk (retconning, and having no relationship to the disastrous Ang Lee helmed Hulk movie); and from the trailers looks like it might actually be worth seeing (plus, it's got Edward Norton and Tim Roth, who are both generally very good).

If you look at their in development slate at IMDB... Well, let's just say I'm both excited and worried at the prospect.

So, if you like action, see Iron Man. If you like Comedy, see Iron Man. If you like comic book movies, See Iron Man. Iron Man is made of win.

Update

2008-05-01T18:58:00.003-07:00

So my mom's surgery went well, and she's recovering.

Unfortunately, the surgeon found more cause for alarm. Evidently my moms cancer has advanced from one breast, into her stomach. THey were able to surgically remove everything they could find, and are now testing further.

According to the surgeon the size of cancer found takes about 10 years to form, which means my mom has been sick without knowing she had any problems other than high blood pressure.

Now we wait a few days for the results on the new cancer samples to return, and for the oncologist to tell us what the next step is and what our options are.

My dad handled the news very well, much better than David and I expected. It seems he's gone through his coping period, and has bucked up in order to support my mom.

And I'm tired, so very very tired.

Mel

Sound advice from Dr. Spaceman

2008-05-01T12:54:00.001-07:00

Timing

2008-05-01T06:34:00.003-07:00

My mom's mastectomy is in one hour.

My brother David is flying in a half hour later.

It's a good thing we're headed in the other direction from rush hour. If we're lucky we'll be there before the surgery is over.

Mel

Never tell me the odds

2008-04-30T09:46:00.008-07:00

The odds that you'll die of a particular cause (as an American):

Motor vehicle (car, van, or truck): 1-in-84
Heart disease (before the age of 65): 1-in-438
Cancer (before the age of 74): 1-in-600
Stroke (before the age of 74): 1-in-734
Motorcyle: 1-in-938
Natural water: 1-in-2,828
Bicycle: 1-in-4,472
Air travel: 1-in-5,552
Swimming pool: 1-in-6,031
Bath tub: 1-in-9,377
Staph infection: 1-in-16,146
SEE BELOW
Food-borne illness: 1-in-33,333
Flood: 1-in-30,000
Tornado: 1-in-60,000
Lightning strike: 1-in-83,930
Bus: 1-in-94,242
Earthquake: 1-in-131,890
Train: 1-in-139,617
Asteroid impact: 1-in-500,000
Tsunami: 1-in-500,000
SEE BELOW
Measles: 1-in-300,000,000

Each year in the United States, there are 26-30,000 deaths by firearm. As of 2006, Roughly 55% of them are suicides (the number varies greatly year to year, between 40% and 60%).

Of the remaining 10,000 to 18,000, somewhere between 60% and 80% (depending on the year) are one felon killing another (according to the FBI).

The number of non-felons killed (other than suicides) using a gun in the US is anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 a year (again, highly variable year to year). About 20% of those are accidents, and 80% are murders. Of those murders approximately 80% were committed by people with felony records.

It is, and has been since 1934 federally (earlier in most states), unlawful for a felon to own or possess a firearm. Since 1994, a background check, conducted with the FBI and usually the state police of the state the gun is being sold in, has been required for all firearms purchases from a dealer to prevent felons from purchasing firearms legally.

Let me repeat: a felon cannot legally purchase, own, or possess a firearm in the united states.

Oh and only about 400 of those killed using a firearm TOTAL per year are under the age of 16 (obviously, still too many, but far lower than gun control groups would have you believe). About 40% of those are suicides (almost all between the age of 14 and 16), and most of the rest are accidental.

The number of murder victims killed using a firearm, below the age of 16, is something on the order of 100 per year. For those who did not have a serious juvenile criminal record, that number is nearly zero.

Over the course of a lifetime, the likelihood of ALL US citizens (including suicides and felons shooting each other) dieing of a gunshot wound is approximately 1-in-18,000.

Over the course of a lifetime, the likelihood of a non-felon being murdered with a gun, is about 1 in 500,000.

If you're over 34, not a felon, don't abuse drugs or alcohol; and live in an area within the bottom 80% of population density, and a median income of $40,000 or more (the major risk factors for murder); the chances you will be murdered using a firearm are statistically insignificant. Essentially zero.

Those numbers are from the CDC and FBI by the way. Not exactly pro gun propaganda.

UPDATE: Fixed raw shooting numbers to reflect current CDC data. I was working off the wrong numbers for the total shootings. The percentage of suicides is even higher than it used to be, at about 55%

Sigh

2008-04-30T05:13:00.003-07:00

Last week I wrote about my mom going into the hospital, and how my dad dived into his work in an attempt to deal.

Well, she's still in the hospital. I've been going to see her every day as the doctors have poked and prodded and scanned her trying to figure out what's wrong.

Every day she's gotten a bit more rest, felt a bit better, and taken less morphine, and as she's gotten better I've been able to scale back the visits and somewhat return to my normal routine. No matter the outcome I'm considerably less worried because I see her improving every day.

So yesterday finally the oncologist figured out part of what is wrong; she has ductal cancer, i.e. cancer of the milk ducts. It's a well-known precursor to breast cancer but it's easily and effectively treated with localized surgery and chemotherapy.

Mom is at peace, happy to finally have some answers, and looking forward to her treatment. Everyone is relieved to have at least a partial diagnosis (there are other symptoms caused by something other than the cancer that are being investigated) and it seems almost everyone understands that Mom's life isn't really in danger at the moment. Plus "easily and effectively treated" seems to have sunk into everyone's minds. Everyone except Dad that is.

So my brother David (who lives in Dallas and is the most calm member of the family by far) is flying in on Saturday for a visit that was planned months ago.

My cell phone rang at 4:52 this morning. I didn't recognize the phone number but it had the 972 area code so I correctly assumed it was David.

He wanted to know what was wrong with Mom, that Dad had just called him and said he needed to be here.

As far as I knew, NOTHING was wrong.

So I promised him I'd call Dad and find out what was wrong so I could run to the hospital if need be.

I call Dad, and all he says is "Nothing's wrong, I just need David to be here."

There are tears in his voice. If it wasn't my father in particular, I would swear he was drunk. But no; he's officially entered mental and emotional breakdown land.

I called David back and told him nothing was wrong, other than Dad wanted him to be there because he'd stopped dealing. We determined Dad's guilt complex had caught up with him.

Why? Because Mom hasn't taken a break since David was born 38 years ago. Because she's been trying to get out from under her "temporary secretary" job at the family business for 20 years. It took cancer for her to finally get a real rest.

Oh, and as icing to the guilt cake, Dad and my other brother Tim encouraged her to ignore the symptoms that finally led to her going to the hospital because they thought with exercise her rapidly expanding abdomen would return to normal (turns out it was full of fluid, not fat).

Dad has a ton of actions and inactions he could turn into personal guilt, and Mom isn't there to stop him. So now he's unraveled.

As soon as it's a more reasonable hour I'm calling his pastor.

Sigh.

Mel

Hot time .. not supposed to be summer in the city yet

2008-04-29T22:21:00.002-07:00

April 29th, and it was 99 degrees today, at 3% relative humidity.

That's about 10 degrees hotter than our average for the day, and about 15% lower humidity.

Now, 99 is hot; but it's not TOO hard to deal with, thanks to air conditioning.

But the humidity, or rather the lack thereof, is actually a serious problem.

Most people have never been taught what happens to the human body at under 14% or so relative humidity.

See, when the moisture concentration of the surrounding air is so low; the giant sponge that is the human body gives up a lot of that moisture to said ultra dry air.

You can get dehydration and heat stroke sitting still in the shade; and it becomes essentially impossible to not be thirsty, even in the air conditioning, because the simple act of breathing (even through your nose), and opening your mouth, dries you right out.

Days like this I might drink two gallons of fluids (no coffee, and a mixture of fruit juice, diet soda, and water), and I still wont be fully hydrated; and again, that's in the air conditioning.

Your mucous membranes dry out, and your bronchial mucous thickens. You get coughs and sneezes just from the dryness. You also become much more susceptible to infections carried by dust and mold spores. Funny enough, because it’s so dry, (oh and did I mention kinda windy?) the dust and spores are much worse in the air.

Then theres the fact that you’re walking around in your own personal lightning storm from the static electricity; and your skin feels like old paper.

Oh how I so love living in Arizona (not that I'd rather be in this heat, plus humidity).

Birthday Range Day Reportage

2008-04-29T12:32:00.003-07:00

Sorry for not posting this yesterday, but I literally fell asleep at the keyboard (ahhh, the luxury of using the laptop in bed).

It was a pretty good birthday I must say. Started the day waking up next to my beautiful wife, and surrounded by our two kids, two dogs, and two cats.

Yes, quiet moments can be rare in our house.

Lounged around for about an hour, until I headed off to shoot with JohnOC, and his uncle visiting down from New Hampshire; who'd only done a little bit of shooting since he let the Navy in the early 70s.

...Oh, and to get my free birthday machine gun rental. I do love my gun club.

I brought out all my 1911s (4 of them, including my wifes little Aegis), my AR (first time shooting it since I changed the buffer type), my wifes Marlin Camp 9 carbine, my mech tech 10mm CCU, and the Valour-IT project SIG P6 (first time shooting all three).

First things first, I chose an HK UMP for my rental, because of the options (mini, micro, or regular UZI, MP5, MP5K, or UMP), it's the only one I haven't fired full auto at least a hundred times. Actually, I've only fired the UMP as a semi before.

If anything, the UMP is even softer shooting than the MP5 (hard as that may be to believe), but it has an odd sort of motion to it; kind of like holding on to the crank case of a single cylinder motorcycle engine while your shooting. I'd say it's because of the high mass bolt at a relatively high cyclic rate; and the low mass of the predominately polymer gun.

At any rate, it's completely controllable in both burst fire, and full auto; and the trigger is quite easy to control; snapping off 2, 3, and 5 round bursts with ease. At 10 yards (the don't let you shoot it out any further because they're worried about idiots unloading a full mag into their ceiling) I was easily making bursts with touching holes. Just like an MP5 in that regard. Really no muzzle climb to speak of, but it did have a kind of odd porpoising; again that same reciprocating mass feel.

Oh, but I will say, the sights aren't near as good as the MP5. Instead of the traditional HK barrel diopter, they've got a blade type rear, that can be flipped over to a LARGE ghost ring. I hated the blade, which was short, and wide, with a big notch; fast to acquire on windage, but elevation was imprecise and slow. The ghost ring was very fast, and I preferred it greatly; but it was so large, that again it was imprecise. With a standard MP5, the sights are just fine out to 50 yards; with these two options I think I would be struggling at 25.

I went through my 3 mags (one is included, and I sprung for two more for myself. John popped for four more split between himself and his uncle) and handed it off to the uncle, who had never fired anything smaller than an M2 full auto before.

Now I should mention, there's something slightly disconcerting about seeing a man who looks near enough like Kenny Rogers (before the freakish mannequin mask plastic surgery), shooting the center out of a mans silouhette with a big'ol shiteatin grin on his face.

After that I moved on to the MechTech CCU. I bought this a few months back as a companion to my 10mm 1911, but I haven't had a chance to shoot it until yesterday.

I love it.

Who would imagine shooting my full house 10mm (180gr at 1250fps) would feel roughly like a .22 magnum.

The only problems I had, were that the sights were way off, and I didnt have the mini allen wrenches necessary with me at the range (I acutally took them out of my bag and forgot ot put them back in); and that it makes a terriffic SPROINNNNNNNNG!!!!!! every time you fire it. If you think an AR has a funny spring noise, shoot a MechTech.

Otherwise though, it's brilliant. I love the thing.... I wonder if those promag drums are as unreliable feeing as they used to be, and if I can make them feed 10mm. I could just sit there feathering the trigger all day long and eating a circle out of the center of the targets (which was essentially what I did.

After burning through 100 rounds with the CCU (no jams, no FTF or FTE, one failure to return to battery on a reload that was remedied by slapping the bolt handle) I popped the upper off, and went back to pistol configuration.

50 rounds of blazer (a friend gave it to me) , and 150 rounds of my full house reloads later, and I love the pistol more than ever; but there was a slight irritation.

Actully two.

First, somehow my sights got bumped; because I was still grouping excellently (touching holes at 10 yards), but my groups were 4" left of my point of aim at 10 yards, and 12" left at 25 yards. I inspected the gun thoroughly, and it wasn't anything mechanical; and it was happening with John, and his uncle as well, so I know it wasn't me.

I'm not sure how that happened exactly, because these things are handfitted so tight it would take a bomb blast to move them; and they look to my eye like they're still properly aligned (as I said, hand fitted to be perfectly even etc... it should be easy to see misalignment). Thankfully the rear is adjustable, so I dont need to go to the mallet, but I'm still kind of irritated.

I swapped over to the 9mm side of things, and fire the wifes Kimber Aegis for the first time as well. What a lovely little gun.

Honestly, I think the Officers Model size 1911 is just about perfect for a carry 9mm (or a .45 for that matter, but some folks find it a bit small for the recoil); and this little gun shoots beautifully. Being so small I shot it at 7 and 10 yards; but it grouped very well (touching holes); and I was able to both doubletap, and rapidly empty the magazine, without any drama.

There are a few things I don't like about it; but they're really a matter of personal preference. They've bobbed the hammer and the safety lever, and it has ultraslim grip panels. All of these are done for a very good reason, to make it easier to carry; and I suppose they do that... I just don't like them. Although I acknowledge there IS less to poke and snag; I don't think the Aegis is significantly easier to carry than my Yost Defender, and the Defender can be hand cocked.

Other than that though, I'd highly recommend one if you're in the market for a small carry gun.

Next up was my wifes Marlin Camp 9 carbine... Man, that thing is a fun little shooter. My hot 9mm reloads felt like .22s out of the little carbine. At 15 yards, I rapid fired an entire 12 rd mag into one inch wide hole.

The only drawback is, the factory sights are just awful. Low profile, tiny, hard to pick up; and yet not precise at all. The 25 yard groups were around 4" off the bench; and I know the gun is capable of much better; it's just the sights were too poor for me to pull it off.

Finally (for the 9s) I went to the P6. I put the new walnut grips on the thing before the trip, and let me tell you they make a HUGE difference in the feel. Worth every penny of the $70 they cost.

What can I say... it's a SIG. It's accurate, comfortable to shoot, and utterly reliable. 10 and 15 yard groups were at or under 2". I didn't shoot it at 25 yards, because I didn't have enough 9 left with me to get used to the gun; and I was more concerned with function than accuracy at the moment. 4 mags through, and everything worked great. Don't worry, I'll do a much more extensive report on the gun later, when I'm done reworking it.

I switched back to my .45 1911s and shot about a hundred rounds off; and everything went as expected. I've been shooting my Yost Champion for near on five years now, and it's the same as it ever was. I've only had the defender for about a year, but at 10 yards it's near as good.

I wanted to finish up the day with a hundred rounds out of the newly repaired AR (more on that in a later post), but it is still misbehaving.

I fixed the problem I was having with the Olympic pneumatic buffer, by replacing it with a better (and much more expensive) one, designed for machine guns; and it works a treat. You get plenty of recoil absorbtion, and plenty of force for operation.

Unfortunately, there must still be some crud in the chamber, and likely in the barrel extension; because I was getting sticky extraction, and some failures to go completely into battery, even with the forward assist. Thats downfall of the AR as a whole really. I'mna have to get in there with solvent and a damn dental pick or something.

That finished up our range trip; so John, the uncle, and I went over to the restaurant across the parking lot. We had a couple of burgers (I actually had the pulled pork; which was pretty good) and a couple beers; and shot the shit for a while (more on that conversation in a later post as well).

I went home and finished decking the subfloor for my shed (yes, it was supposed to be done a few weeks ago. The last few weekends haven't been good), then relaxed and waited for the babysitter.

To finish off the night, Mel and I went to see "Leatherheads" (fun screwball comedy in the mold of Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder), and grabbed dinner at a new Japanese place near the theater.

All in all, a pretty good birthday.

My only comment on reverend Wright

2008-04-28T18:47:00.001-07:00

"Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake" - Napoleon Bonaparte

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-04-27T00:01:00.002-07:00

I'm doing science, and I'm still alive.

Fear the mad skills

2008-04-26T14:19:00.004-07:00

So I'm continuing the seemingly endless process of cleaning up, reorganizing, and categorizing my MP3 collection of about 10,000 or so songs ( but that covers maybe 2,000 dupes, live versions, and alternate versions. Anyone know any good software to find dupes and fix filenames and ID3 tags automagically?). I used to have a hell of a lot more, but a few years ago my brother accidentally deleted my entire collection while attempting (unsuccessfully) to import it into some media player format.

Anyway, in so doing, you have to be listening as well; and I've got a hell of a sound system on my media center PC. Probably better than a lot of folks home theaters in fact (a THX certified Logitech Z-5500 system).

Anyway, I'm cleaning up the rap and hiphop section right now, and I just have to say it. You might not like Rap, but you have got to respect the skills of Eric B & Rakim, KRS-One, Jurassic 5, and the Poor Righteous Teachers.

I'm just groovin it.

Next up, DragonForce.

UPDATE: Dear GOD DragonForce is absolutely staggering played through my home theater.

Broadcom has one of the Biggest Networking Bugs Ever

2008-04-24T17:18:00.003-07:00

This is a big one boys and girls; and I guarantee you it can effect your IT infrastructure if you use clustering, nic teaming, and a half a dozen other configurations, with Broadcom gigabit ethernet interfaces.

This is what I've been working on all day the last two days, and will be working on all day every day for the next few weeks, maybe months. If this hasn't hit your shop yet, it will, and you'll be working on it too.

Here's a sanitized version of my incident report on the issue:

Background:

Broadcom is a leading vendor of networking chipsets, in the server, appliance, embedded, and network device markets. They are the most common gigabit ethernet chipset used by all classes of device within the organization.

Problem:

Recently, a critical bug has been discovered in all known implementations of Broadcoms family of gigabit ethernet chipsets; which under certain circumstances causes interfaces which have been configured to proxy ARP (which is used with clustering, teaming and bonding, load balancing and other high availability configurations, and some security related configurations), to respond promiscuously to ARP requests.

This behavior causes network interfaces on other systems within the same broadcast domain (effectively all other devices on the same VLAN) to see degradations in quality of service, packet loss, and can cause complete loss of network communications (systems can get knocked off the network). This problem can also adversely effect the operation of the switches carrying this traffic.

Impact:

These problems are intermittent, but reproducible, and have been seen in multiple environments within the organization over the past several months.

Because of the nature of ARP, these problems are difficult if not impossible to detect, before services are significantly impacted; and without specific knowledge of this issue, are difficult to diagnose in a timely manner. This issue has appeared intermittently in several environments within the organization, and in each case took several weeks to detect, diagnose, and understand.

Scope of affected infrastructure:

This issue may appear in existing devices when their drivers, or patch level are updated; or in new devices which have not been patched to specifically address this problem.

All subnets which have Broadcom gigabit ethernet chipsets attached, in a proxy ARP configuration, may be effected by this bug (this would constitute the majority of the subnets within the organization). Most major server vendors have issued patches for older revisions of their operating environments which address this problem already, or these patches are in development; however until such time as patches exist and are applied for all systems, the subnets to which these systems are attached may be at risk.

Notably, the most recent patch update of Solaris 10 does not include a fix for this issue (a fix is in development), the most recent paches for Microsoft Windows server 2000, 2003, and 2008 do not include a fix; and IBM has decided that this issue does not present a problem for iSeries systems, even though they may use the effected chipsets in a proxy ARP for some adapaters (though they have, or will, for the X series and p series).

Mitigation and/or Resolution:

At this time no definitive resolution exists for this issue; however, the following means of mitigation are available to us:

Do not add any new systems or devices using Broadcom gigabit ethernet chipsets and configured for proxy ARP, until those systems have been properly patched
Do not update operating systems or patch levels on existing systems or devices using those chipsets and configured for proxy ARP, (even if the devices in question have not yet demonstrated the problem), until those systems have been properly patched for this specific issue.
Identify all systems and devices which have these chipsets, and target them for specific patching to resolve this issue before it can occur
Segregate critical infrastructure onto controlled broadcast domains by creating private VLANs (this presents extremely significant difficulties; to the point of effective impossibility for many environments); to prevent systems exhibiting the issue from impacting those environments
Remove or segregate from the public network segments, any systems or devices which have these chipsets, and are configured for proxy ARP; and which have not yet been patched, or for which a patch does not yet exist (even if the devices in question have not yet exhibited the issue
Other methods of mitigation may arise, or be developed; as this issue is worked further.