Crap

Well, things have gone pear shaped at work. Add to this the drought making ranching more difficult and hazardous and you have too much stuff for me to do in too little time. As we can we will continue with the mindset series. misbeHaven is doing the next post and a couple others in the series and as soon as we have them ready, they will be up. Sorry, life gets in the way.

And oh yeah, to the asshole who called University Safety anonymously and LIED to them saying students were running high pressure air compressors over the weekend without supervision or authorization and that there is supposedly no one here qualified to run them anyway, like H&K, YOU SUCK AND I HATE YOU!

Range Report

Yesterday was Beyond the Basics Pistol and AT-4. LONG day out in the sun. Had great class with only one hiccup. Guy with a Les Baer 1911 that required you to manually push the slide stop down once it locked open. The slide stop had been filed such that pulling the slide all the way back did not contact the slide stop enough to push it back down out of the way.

Other than that we had a good time, safe shooters and it was refreshing to see Law Enforcement Officers out on the range for class. They shot very well and I hope they never have to use the skills they learn out on the street. However, if it should come that they need their skills, they certainly proved the have the skills.

At least the wind was not as bad a last week when we inhaled half a ton of dirt.

Mindset Part 1

As with anything, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

YES, it can happen to you!

This realization is really the first step on the road to self protection awareness. misbeHaven, during one of her Refuse to be a Victim seminars, actually had a person say to her, "I have good Karma, it would never happen to me." Wow, just wow. Once you have come to the conclusion that yes it does happen to good people and in "Nice" neighborhoods you can move on to the next question.

How far are you willing to go to protect yourself or a loved one?


Are YOU sure?


REALLY?

This is not a question to be taken lightly. You are talking about a whole range of possibilities up to the potential taking of another humans life if that is what is called for. How far would you go and for whom would you go there? What can you do to not be there in the first place? What happens when you think you have the answer but have not tested your hypothesis? Why do I care?

This has been a personal journey for me and I would like to take you along for a ride through the thought process that got me here. It explains part of why I teach and part of why I am who I am.

So, lets go on a journey through our mindset. Will you join me?

Mindset / Train Your Brain

How far are you willing to go to protect yourself or a loved one?


Are YOU sure?


REALLY?

How do you know?

Come back for more!

Part 1

Random Aircraft Sighting

This mornings visitor is brought to you by your tax dollars. This would be a F-5E Tiger II from the Marine VMFT-401 Squadron. They are an aggressor training squadron that provides "enemy" fighters for training pilots in air combat.

New Arrival

The fire station here at the airport just took delivery of a new ARFF truck. This Panther is quite a beast. Independent coil over suspension, 1500 gallons of water, 200 gallons of 6% AFFF , 150 Pounds of Purple-K powder and all kinds of gadgets to help put out aircraft fires and rescue people faster.

Range Report

Saturday was a long day. Basic Pistol in the morning and Defensive Pistol Skills 2 in the afternoon.

All in all we had two good classes. However, it was hot and windy. The winds that have been driving all the massive brush fires around Texas were blowing up dust and dirt on the range. I must have inhaled a couple pounds of dirt in the course of the day. HSOI has a post up with a pretty graphic indicator of the dirt. (WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO CONTENT)

It is always gratifying to see new shooters enjoy themselves and learn that they do in fact have the skill necessary to shoot well. We also had a good discussion about mindset to open up DPS2 class. I will have a separate post on that one coming soon to a computer near you.

Texas Campus Carry

The following is an alert sent out by Texas A&M University Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. Senator Steve Ogden is our local state senator and his remarks on the senate floor today do not represent the staff and students at A&M.

Dear TAMU SCCC Members:

Earlier today, Senator Steve Ogden (our State Senator for Bryan/College Station) said on the floor of the Texas Senate that he doesn’t believe Aggies want campus carry at Texas A&M.

We need you to tell him that he’s wrong.

We need you to tell him through every avenue available (phone, fax, email, and in person).

And we need you to tell him NOW!

First, here’s what he said:

1. He said that students, faculty, and staff at A&M don’t want campus carry.

2. He said there’s no evidence that allowing concealed carry on campus will lower the crime rates on college campuses (completely ignoring the fact that concealed carry is about personal security, not campus security).

3. He said that allowing concealed carry by individuals over the age of 21 would be unfair to younger students (suggesting that license holders on college campuses should be denied the same measure of personal protection they’re allowed virtually everywhere else, out of some bizarre sense of equality not enforced anywhere else).

Now, here’s what you need to do:

1. Call his office (512-463-0105). I don’t care if you’ve already called a hundred times this month, and I don’t care if you just called yesterday—this time you’re calling to COMPLAIN about what he said on the floor of the Senate. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M.

2. Send him a fax (512-463-5713). As always, FaxZero.com lets you send two free faxes per day from your web browser. If you’ve already sent the fax we asked you to send yesterday (explaining why you support campus carry), write a new one complaining about what he said on the floor of the Senate. If you haven’t sent the fax we asked you to send yesterday, write it and then add your complaints about what he said on the floor of the senate. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M, and be sure to include your phone number and LOCAL address.

3. Copy the message you sent as a fax, and send it to these four email addresses. Be sure to mention your affiliation with A&M, and be sure to include your phone number and LOCAL address:

steve.ogden@senate.state.tx.us
valerie.brak@senate.state.tx.us
betty.cotte@senate.state.tx.us
constance.allison@senate.state.tx.us

4. Forward this message to any and all Aggies who support this cause. You can post it on Facebook pages, message boards, whatever.

5. Join one of the groups going tomorrow to visit either Senator Ogden’s Capitol office in Austin or his district office here in Bryan/College Station (contact Chase Jennings or Madison Welch for details).

Let’s let Senator Ogden know how we really feel about this issue!

--TAMU SCCC

http://www.StudentsForCampusCarry.org/

See Previous Post

WHOOP!

That is all.

AGGIES CHAMPIONS!

Texas A&M Womens Basketball NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Nuff Said!

You ladies ROCK!

Echo Echo Echo and then some

Advertising is funny on occasion. Watching the NCAA Women's final and the Lady Aggies doing their thing and had to laugh at the ad for Echo chainsaws. Guy going through TSA hell and getting punched in the nuts while his running chainsaw goes through the x-ray. While TSA's behavior is despicable, the ad is funny. It is doubly so since if you have ever been through SJC you may have seen the glass display case that they have in the walkway between the parking garage and the counter waiting area. It is filled with stuff people have tried to carry on to an aircraft through security there. THERE IS A CHAINSAW IN THE CASE! The first time I saw it I had to back up and spend a few minutes reading the explanation of what the case was before I believed it.

Speaking of advertising, I don't know who Chrysler has hired to do their advertising now but they need a raise. The entire ad campaign for the charger has been superb. The George Washington commercial really struck a chord. The latest for the Charger with the classic and modern versions together racing through the brush is catchy. Add to these the whole campaign with Emmenem and the new Chrysler 200 and they have a winning streak. Now, I have never really likes Emmenem but this tune is catchy and the whole in your face, this is who we are image for Detroit is a graphic demonstration of the attitude that IS America.

OK, while I'm going on about stuff, at the beginning of the game, it was interesting to notice that during the singing of the National Anthem, while a large portion of the crowd that was shown was standing silently, pretty much everyone they showed with gray hair was singing along. Is it just me?

No Post for You

Come back soon.
We've had lots of long days lately and it finally caught up with me yesterday. Mustered the energy to do taxes this morning and am now going back to bed.

Helo Central

Now that the Marines and Army are gone, there is room for all kinds of neat stuff out there on the ramp. We had a BlackHawk and Longbow Apache here earlier and now there is an Agusta SPA, a Bell 206 and a EuroCopter EC135 medivac out on the ramp. The EC was just taking off. Impressive control the pilot showed. I have a video but Blogger is balking. The pilot definitely has a hover button. Despite the 8-15MPH gusty winds we are currently experiencing, they held spot on while waiting their turn to take off. Rock steady then pushed into the wind and away they went.

Adios Marines

Since the F-18 left, the maint crew that flew out to work on it has been waiting for their ride home. The C-130 to take them and their gear home showed up today and same as when unloading, they needed our extended forks to load back up. Great group of guys. We got word that the F-18 landed safely back home so now it is just up to these guys to get home safe. We wished them well and they thanked all of us for the help and were off. The crew chief even gave a wave as they buttoned up.
One interesting thing of note, if you are a math, science, physics or photography geek. There is a phenomenon commonly referred to Wagon Wheel Effect. it refers to the difference in angular rotation of a spoked wheel and the shutter speed and frame rate (more frame rate but shutter speed figures into it) of the camera making the wheel appear to be turning slowly or backwards based on what the eye and mind pick up as the smallest movement. As the engines spool up and the blades start to spin you can see this effect on the video.

Safe Trip "Monkey"

As previously chronicled, the F-18 that was here is finally on it's way home. They just took off out of here and with any luck will not be back anytime soon. As nice of a place as this is I am sure they would like to be home.