Busy Busy Busy

What a busy week it's been. School started, my schedule sucks, and work fills in the gap. Most days, my only free hours are the one-class gap between classes at school, otherwise, I'm working or driving to work. Filled up the gas tank 3 times this week, having run way past my budget for not only this month, but the next two as well. Will be re-planning my budget.

Pretty much finished with the reorganization of my closet today. Installed the Gun-Cuff and a rack of wooden wall pegs. Am very pleased with the result.

 

Gun-Cuff

Wallpegger

  

80% filled closet; Gun-Cuff around right corner

Might be looking for some better ammunition storage, and/or ceiling hooks and/or shelving for unused head space for hanging bulky-but-light packs.

Also, I had a visitor drop by today. She was naughty, so she got time out.

 

Notice my attempt to keep her amused. She tries to play Fishville with my wireless mouse, but fails miserably. Note-to-self: am extremely out of practice with rope tying, must correct at earliest opportunity.

In other news:

I haven't been running since Malaysia, and I feel ungainly and nowhere near as graceful, for the lack of a better word, as I was even three months ago. This needs immediate correction. Will be running tomorrow morning.

Currently Reading: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand at spare moments.

Cleaning Up My Closet

I've been noticing how hard it is to find stuff around my closet nowadays, and with my impulse buys of new guns and gear, a safer, more organized layout of my current closet storage system(toss everything in and lock the door) was needed. So I decided to pull everything but the shelves out of said closet and reorganize the place.

The first priority was to figure out a secure storage solution for my guns, and the guns of my friends who, for whatever reason, wish to store them here. Previously, I used the closet-with-a-deadbolt solution that most people rely on, and it would have been just fine if not for a friend of mine asking me to store her weapon. Unwilling to take responsibility for loss or damage of that firearm if something should happen while I'm away(my room is a high traffic area), I began to look for some kind of locking solution.

At first, I thought about getting a safe, but the cost was prohibitive, and the weight even more so. I sincerely doubted my weak closet floor could handle a thousand pound safe, not to mention I couldn't get it up the stairs to my room in the first place. The same went for the 500 lb models. There was a smaller 5-gun safe at Walmart that I almost got, but realized that, well...it's only a 5 gun safe, and I'll already have 3+ in my closet by the time it gets here. I'd probably outgrow it before the end of the year. The 10-gun Stack-On cabinet I would have gotten, but for two cravats, the lock was shitty(the metal too, for that matter) for the price, and it was goddamn hunter green.

Finally, I stumbled upon this website. The product is feasible and economically sound. It fits nine guns, and the only problem I could foresee is if I purchased a gun with a funny stock that wouldn't fit the rack. For $80USD, I'm willing to take that chance. If something like that does happen, I'll get a separate rack for that. Eventually, I'll have to get a safe for pistols and such, but I don't see myself buying a pistol in the near future, so that's a problem for another day.

Beyond all this gun-nut talk(I'm sure to many of my "guns-kill-people!" readers, I'm a gun-nut, aspiring), there's a s*** ton of backpacking/fishing/emergency-preparedness gear and tools that need to go into this closet, and I'm at a loss at how I'm going to fit it all in at least a semi-organized fashion.
I'll look into wall hooks for the packs and things in the morning after work, but I doubt many wall hooks could safely hold a 40lb pack.


In other news:

I'm really undecided about the recent Supreme Court ruling on corporate political spending.

Wait, no, that's a lie. I don't like it. Really, I don't.
It disturbs me on so many levels; I can't begin to imagine how vicious the mid-term elections are going to be. Union money spent viciously attacking the GOP, Corporate cash spent on ads denouncing Dems...

I don't think I can trust the TV anymore.

Shotguns and Jazz Clubs

Things have been pretty busy since my return, but I managed to eke out a spot of time for this blog.

I've been itching to get a 870 for quite some time now. Actually, that Mosin I got for Christmas would have been a 870, or even a Su-16CA if I could have afforded it. As it stand now, I can afford the 870, and I would buy the SU-16CA, if one was to be found...well...anywhere! That said, I've been cruising around to all the Turners and several Big-5s in my area(not a chore, as I pass several of these fine establishments during a normal work day), looking for the 870 that I liked most. Being that an 870 is an 870(one being about the same as another) The only requirement I had was that the 870 I purchase had to have ghost ring sights. I managed to find this one:

at the Norwalk Turners, and thought about buying it, then taking it to a smith for ghost rings, but then found out that Remington makes the same model, WITH GHOST RINGS.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any around, and am reluctant to order one without holding it first, but if it really comes down to it, I will.

On an entirely unrelated note, I went to another jazz club the night before yesterday: Cicada Club in LA. It was much different that the first one I went to(see post: Steamers) in that it was more about the dancing than Steamers; Cicada had an actual dance floor, as opposed the the bar-with-live-music that Steamers is. Not to mention that cover charge was only $10USD and there was no drink requirement. The group I went with had around the same number of people, but most of them were new faces. Even better, most of the new faces were female.

Avid followers of my blog will recognize several faces from previous posts.

I had an overall good time, marred by the fact that I had not eaten beforehand and spent the entire night feeling my gastrointestinal system attempt to eat itself. Not pleasant, but not surprising, considering the amount of food I normally have to eat just to maintain my body weight. I'm one of those people that could lose weight by being a couch potato.

Anyways, the Cicada Club, for those of you interested, has a website at http://www.cicadaclub.com. Check it out.

In other news:

Holy crap! Brown won Massachusetts! Maybe there's still Hope(pun intended) against ObamaCare(see post: Facination) after all!

Singapore, Taiwan, and Avatar (among other things)

Made it home to the US of A last night. Had some slight jet lag, but hey, that's one of the things whiskey(see post: Whiskey) can fix! But now that I'm back to my own computers and their stable high speed connections, I can finally blog properly again.

Here's the last photo summary of the trip, with shots from Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

The southern tip of mainland Asia, I have reached it.

Nice shot of a lamppost silhouetted against evening sky

 

The Merlion (yes, Mermaid/Lion) of Singapore. That thing on the building in the back ground is a ship. Yes, they're building a ship on top of the building, probably as a 2012 Ark.

In Soviet Singapore, Chinatown is a complex.

No place like home

Sure, it might not look impressive, but this was delay/shot after a 5 minute 35 meter straight up rock climb with no safety gear whatsoever, nor rope, for that matter. Had to do it all and get down quick enough before my mother saw me.

on the back wall, it says "He who shits here is a pig!"

The best damn seafood I ever had. On the northeast coast of Taiwan, look it up if you're ever there.

While in Taiwan, I saw Avatar. Yes, James Cameron's Avatar. Yes, I saw it in 3D, IMAX.

If you have the chance, go watch it. While it might make you hate America, being the leftist propaganda that it is, it cannot be denied that it is the most visually appealing movie I've seen in-, well, ever! The outdoorsy me giggles in glee while the sarcastic right-winger in me grunts in annoyance.

I suppose we should thank whatever deities are out there that James Cameron never directed Howard Zinn's The People Speak.

In other news:

Haiti should be receiving a check from me for $250 soon. God help the Haitians, and lets hope the next one doesn't hit here.

Photo Summary Malaysia Pt2

Finally found a good enough connection for uploads.

Visited a Hindu Temple, it's aptly named Dark Windy Cave or something

Took a picture of the burning sky.

Due to it being so close to the equator, the sun never sets till about 1930 local time.

A cart ride with my new friend.

It looked kinda like an Chinese funeral procession, what with the way the bike was decorated.

 

Two guys playing guitars and singing in an old Portuguese church, great acoustics.

Reminded me of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

 

The ceiling of the lobby of the hotel I was staying at yesterday, the Avillion Melaka.

In other news:

There's been lots of cats everywhere I've been going these last few days. It reassures me somewhat.

Also, I have rediscovered how hard it is to eat crabs.

Photo Summary Malaysia Pt1

I'm in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia ATM. A quick photo summary for you folks that have been following this blog. I would write more, but 'net time is limited.

A mosque, lots of these around

 

Petronas Twin Towers

 

War Memorial monument thing, the backstory is hilarious

That's it for the mo'. More to come when possible.

In other news:

Reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand again. Pure brillance.

 This is literature.

Mr. Donut

I promised my friend I would eat Mr. Donut for him on this trip.

Here you go, Alun. These are the tiny ones.

Leaving for Asia

Just a quick note. I'm leaving for Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan in a few minutes. Hope the failed terrorist doesn't screw up TSA too bad. I'll try to post while overseas, but no promises.

In other news:

New Year's Eve was fun. Not many of us, but it was fun regardless. Champagne slushy, anyone?