Two movies, two disappointments-

The BSU and I have been to 2 movies over the past 2 weeks, 2 movies that are nominated for Academy Awards, including best picture and I can tell you I haven't been more disappointed by 2 movies in a long time. Last weekend we saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, this weekend it was Warhorse. Both of these movies are (obviously) intended to be tear jerkers yet I found both of them to be emotionally flat- ran-over, squashed armadillo flat! Really, I pretty much hated both of them!

EL&IC was full of logic holes and reality flaws and the main character, the little boy who is perhaps dealing with Asbergers Sydrome just doesn't make me believe him. I thought it was predictable and lame.

Warhorse this weekend was equally bad. Sure, it's supposed to be a tearjerker and a big tale of a boy and his horse, bonding as a colt and a child, being lost to each other due to a World War and finding each other in the darkness of of trench warfare and chemical gassing. There were some scenes of trench fighting and soldiers dieing but it just didn't have any emotion in it. At least for me it didn't. This story might have been a very good read in a book where one's mind could fill in the emotion and substance but as a movie I did not like it.

Next week I get to pick the movie!

I am a freakin genius!

This afternoon when I turned on the Toshiba it completely refused to reach out to the internet! And the problem seemed to be with the machine itiself- the wireless on/off switch on the face of the machine would not turn the connectivity on or off... This did not look good and I tried a few things to get it going to no avail. I even called the Toshiba tech support but because my machine is out of warranty, any work they attempted over the phone was going to cost me 50 bucks- not good!

So I left it and the BSU and I went to a movie. When I got home, I started Google searching for solutions and in a few minutes I found a forum that offered a couple solutions. The 2nd solution offered up actually worked! Sweet! I just saved myself 50 dollars! I have to admit I was pretty surprised to be able to resolve this by myself but I'm tickled by my results.

If only every problem in life could be solved with a Google search...

Maybe the luckiest guy ever!

Not only did CarteachO get to handle and shoot an ultra-rare Liberator FP-45 pistol, he was gifted a M1 Garand by one of his readers! Talk about firearm nirvana! The Liberator was a gun devised by the US to be dropped into occupied France during World War II to arm Resistance members. Many thousands of these guns were produced but most were never deployed and then destroyed. Most people interested in guns have read the stories about these rare pistols but Carteacho got to shoot one in his back yard!

Go read the stories!

If anybody wants to buy me a gift-

I'd love a copy of this book- Shooting Back, The right and Duty of Self Defense. It is written by a South African that defended himself and fellow parishoners when armed terrorists stormed into the church where he was worshiping.

Which reminds me, I need to get my concealed carry permit renewed this week!

Milestones- I've had a couple recently

So it's nearly the end of January already which means that this humble blog is more than 9 years old. That's ancient in blog years! I started this bit of electronic drivel on a whim and because I was submitting interesting, ( hey, I thought so) bits to the very world famous publisher of Possumblog. Terry recommended that I start my own blog to keep from cluttering up his and thanks to the (now) very reliable and (still) free Blogger, I did just that.

So Wasted Electrons keeps on going even if I don't publish things as often as I used to. I've shared my simple thoughts about love and life, guns, politics, wives, kids, cats, scooters, fish I've caught and the ones that got away. It's still fun and I still like sharing my thoughts with those (few) of you that continue to stop by to read my humble ramblings.

I do appreciate you sticking around and being regular readers- both of you!

Another interesting milestone went by this month- my F250 truck is 12 years old! It also just passed by the 200,000 mile mark in the past week or two. This truck is the very first brand new vehicle I've ever owned and it has served me very well. It still looks good- there's a bent corner on the bed that I'd love to get repaired but it doesn't show much and except for a few cracks in the driver's seat leather, the interior is like new. So even though it has lots of miles on it, it isn't going to be replaced any time soon. The truck has been a faithful companion and workhorse. It pulls our camper to Oregon and Fish Slayer to fishing spots and has space more more people than I have friends. Heck, it may turn out to be the only brand new vehicle I ever get!

So there's my milestones for January! And very soon I'll be celebrating another (hopefully) successful trip around the sun. But that's next month!

Who knew hummingbirds could do barrel rolls?

Well they can and if you sit back and watch this amazing video you'll see the acrobatics in beautiful, slow motion and high definition. It's a YouTube video but I can't seem to figure out how to embed it so you'll just have to click the link and enjoy the beauty and the fabulous camera work.

This makes me VERY happy!

Obama's Florida Freefall I hope I get to read many more reports like this between now and November!

Somehing is wrong wih my oshiba...

For some reason, ye undiscovered, I am having rouble making the T button work on my laptop today. here's probably a ca hair stuck under i or somehing. I hough it was jus my poor yping skills acing up bu i is more han ha...

I can actually make it work but the key needs a little more effort on the downstoke than all the other keys. So I suppose I need a can of compressed air to see it the offending obstruction can be removed.

Getting the New Year off on the right foot-

During my extended unemployment season of the past many many months, I had to clear some guns out of my locker to make ends meet. It was truly an ugly time saying goodbye to some of the guns I really treasured. Now that I'm back to work, I'm feeling just a mite more flush and so last week I decided to stop by a local pawn shop on my way home from work. And they had this little gem in the rough-





It's a Rossi Gallery Carbine in 22LR and a replica of a Winchester 62 which, (significantly) is also a John Moses Browning design. I didn't buy it right away but went home and spent he evening doing research and then went back and bought it for just 75% of the asking price the next day. It was grubby! The shiny little rifle looked as if it had never seen a Hoppes soaked swab! It had a nail in a place where a roll pin was supposed to be!

But I took it apart and gave it a very good scrubbing and it cleaned up nicely. I'm still going to re-blue some of the parts that aren't nickel plated and I have already installed the correct pin to hold the magazine tube in place. I might have to replace the magazine tube sometime down the road as it isn' perfect but for now I'm just anxiously awaiting an opportunity to take it out and see if it shoots.

It's also kind of neat that I already have a Taurus replica of the Winchester Model 63- the gun that followed this little pump from the Winchester lineup that is also a John Moses Browning design. Both of these guns designs originated here in my adoped home town!

I'm still alive-

and I haven't quit blogging. I've just been incredibly busy and haven't taken the time to share my thoughts with you here. The new job, the holiday season, a large dog living at my house= the reasons the dog is living here, spousal illness and injuries have all kept me away from writing.

And I see that I will be coming up on the 9th anniversary of this blog next week, which except for child rearing and marriage the longest effort I've ever undertaken. I've got some ideas about what how to direct Wasted Electrons over the coming months so I will be getting back into the writing and sharing in the very near future.

I promise.

Laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes!

Those of you that come around here know that from time to time I take offense to the raccoons that populate my neighborhood and do my part to de-populate the masked criminals. So when I found this tale of backyard warfare, I just cracked right up! read it yourself, it's hilarious and a tremendous read.

I'm going to have to check out Kent thomas regularly now!

Is Maj. Frank Burns now serving in the Pentagon?

Because anyone that would claim that the killing of 13 soldiers and the injuring of dozens other at Ft. Hood in 2009 was related to "workplace violence" is a lily-livered, weak chinned, spineless, chicken shit pissant missing the intestinal fortitude to call islamic extremist violence what it really is. Words just fail me describing the revulsion I feel towards whoever decided this bit of political correctness should be ascribed to paper and to the senior leadership manager who approved this document.

Really, when a madman with an anti-American agenda that has been acknowledged was openly known and ignored opens fire on soldiers after shouting his praise to allah, that's enemy action, not workplace violence.

The Department of Defense needs to move the cowardly individual who wrote this document and their supervisor and show them the door- immediately! They'd leave with a reducton in rank before their departure if I was the Secretary of Defense!

Well isn't that a hoot?

So sitting down this evening I started reading through my blogroll and noticed that Tam had linked to my thoughts about celebrating J. Stevens' invention of the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. First, it's a surprise that such a celebrated blogger as Tam stumbled over to this humble blog and second, that little mention on her blog busted my stats average in a huge way! I went and checked and I'm up to 174 visits today compared to the usual average of about 17.

It doesn't take too much to really make my day and seeing my visit count spike due to a link by somebody I really like reading everyday does make my day. Even better, Tam's readers and commenters seem to be in favor of my idea of celerating Mr. Stevens' birthday every September with the purchase of more of his celebrated invention.

Thanks Tam!

Weather? Yeah we get a little of that here-

So the weather guessers predicted yesterday that we were going to get some high winds last night and today. That's not really so unusual for this time of year but what was unusual was the level and extent of the high winds. It has been blowing since about 3 AM and the damage in our communities is greater than anyone can remember seeing before.

There have been trucks tipped over on highways, roofs blown off, trees broken off or tipped over all up and down the Wasatch Front today. You can see the story and a huge album of submitted photos on KSL. Click through the pictures in the gallery, (there's 202 pictures there right now) to see what has happened.

At our house I had to put a hay bale on Harry's new cat house to keep it from scooting around the carport. I'm also pretty certain we are never going to see his food dish again!

Joshua Stevens- why not as revered as John Browning?

Yesterday I went out to the desert with my buddies, Jim & Kenny for an afternoon of shooting fun. It was my first shooting trip in almost 2 years due to the scarcity of dollars to pay for ammo and fuel to get to our favorite shooting spot.

But go out shooting we did and we had a great time. The weather was beautiful and the ground was dry so it was a perfect day to be outside. Kenny had a new AK rifle to try out and Jim brought along his usual selection including his AR. I took my SKS as I hadn't shot it since replacing the hammer spring with the stock one some time ago. And we shot a bunch of centerfire flavors of rifle and handgun calibers but eventually the centerfire guns were put away and we broke out our favorite 22 rimfire caliber guns.

And we had a blast. We shot 22LR ammo until we were tired. I had my Beretta Neos pistol and my Taurus semi-auto rifle, (a JMB design, for the record) and there were several other guns in both guy's range bags that fed the diminutive and plentiful 22LR cartridges. When the shooting was all over and we were picking up the trash, I wondered why the guy, whoever he was, that designed the 22 Long Rifle cartridge wasn't as famous or as revered as John Moses Browning is for the plethora of gun designs still in active use 100+ years after he created them.

Turns out, it was Joshua Stevens, creator of Stevens Arms, who is credited with the creation of the 22 Long Rifle cartridge. Can you think of another inventor that has been more responsible for introducing people of all ages to the joys of shooting than J. Stevens? How many people around the world got their first opportunity to learn to shoot behind a rifle or pistol designed to shoot this cartridge? This familiar and beloved round was created in 1887, long before JMB created his iconic pistol. How many of us that own and enjoy centerfire guns of any caliber still love plinking with the humble 22? How many of us have a favorite 22 gun that love or money couldn't make us part with? I'm betting we all have one, (or more) favorite 22 gun that has a permanenent place in our safe and enough ammo to keep it fed for a long time tucked away on our ammo shelves.

So let's give credit where it is due, to Mr. J Stevens of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. I'm going to research his birthdate and make it a point to buy (another) brick of 22LR when it rolls around. Maybe we all could celebrate Josh's birthday with a new brick or two of his most famous creation. And when famous gun designers are being discussed around the interweb, maybe we can remember to give Josh his credit for a great invention- the 22 Long Rifle cartridge.

UPDATE: Mr. Stevens was born on September 10, 1814 so next September I'm stocking up!

Ooh, sharp AND shiny!

Anybody that's been around me for any length of time knows that I love knives. I have way too many already and a trip to the gun show- I'm missing one tomorrow, causes me to check out the knife peddler's wares with enthusiasm. My buddy Jim says I'm always checking out the sharp, shiny things.

It's true. Tonight I found a really interesting Gentlemen's Hidden Folder that is just slick as a whistle. I'd probably set aside my daily carry Kershaw folder to carry this one.

Isn't this slick?

That's my Chevy-

Well, yes, actually it is.

You really have to kick this video up to full screen and sit back and watch a very neat story of 2 brother's diligent search and successful purchase of Dad's 65 Chevy Impala SS. It's a great tale and video.

Hat tip to Jalopnik for bringing this to light.

This is cool and I can't wait to try it-

My new job requires me to use a keyboard and mouse 9 hours every day and the equipment I've been using are standard issue HP pieces of kit. But they are pretty horrible for all-day use.

So I ordered this Logitech wireless, solar powered keyboard which arrived from Amazon today. This thing is slick! It's just 1/3" thin, never requires batteries and has slick, fast keys like a good laptop computer. I'll be putting it to work on Monday and I'm anxious to give it a shakedown.

I'm also going to be pairing it with a Logitech wireless mouse that I can program to do the actions I take all day with the programmable buttons but I will have to wait until payday to order to order that neat tool. But I expect that my work will improve with some new quality tools.

Thoughts on the Occupy movement...

Tonight at dinner, the BSU tried to take the side of all the hippie, whiner, crybabies that have made so many headlines lately. She was in support of them expressing their civil disobedience by putting up tent cities anywhere they wanted on public ground since they had as much right to be in the public space as anyone else. She suggested that large gatherings had the right to disregard the laws governing use of public spaces to make their points be heard and to get their wrongs righted.

So I asked her if it would be ok for the organizer of the the major gun shows that come to this area to take over a local park to hold a huge gun show instead of them having to pay rental space at the expo center. She of course thought this was a terrible idea and suggested that there were gun laws in effect that would prohibit doing something like that. But I asked if wouldn't it be ok if the organizer and the participants thought that those rules were wrong and needed to be changed? Maybe as a protest to the rules, gun sellers and buyers gathered in a public space to transact business and act peaceably and responsibly while intentionally breaking the law.

She assured me this was an "apples and oranges" comparison So I asked if the Farmer's Market gang, thse folks that sell produce and jewelry and other similar stuff could take over a park and keep it open to their shops and wares for indefinite periods of time instead of the few hours a week that they presently are allowed to use the parks. Did they have to comply with the rules issued by the affected city or could they just skip the rules and stay open as long and as often as they chose? Could one of the local taco vendor carts put up a tent and live and stay in the park because he disagreed with the local ordinances that govern his business?

The BSU got rather testy with me and told me I was just talking to hear myself talk and she wouldn't continue with the conversation. I thought I was just using her examples of the Occupy Movement and applying it to a couple other scenarios for her to consider but apparently breaking the rules only applies to some people, not everyone.

I kinda think open air gun shows in a public park seem like a good idea. Maybe not this time of year but during warm weather it might work. And I bet I can guarantee you that if something like that ever occurred, that there wouldn't be trash and garbage and violence against anyone like these smelly, hippy freaks of the current Occupy movement.

Yeah Dad!

In response to yesterday's post about a scaredy-cat columnist in Wisconsin being afraid to walk the streets due to the citizen's newly approved right to acquire concealed carry permits for their firearms, my dad went directly to the source and wrote an email to the columnist. I've copied it here for you to enjoy.

Congratulations to Wisconsin for allowing legal concealed carry. It is unfortunate that they are burdened with mis-guided critics such as yourself to spread fears about concealed carry.

I live in a county in south Florida that consistently, week in and week out, (or daily,) records shootings on the street, or homes. As unfortunate as it is,I have yet, in over 34 years in this area, to see or hear a news account in which the shooter is a legal gun carrier. Never is there a statement about the person
involved having the LEGAL right to carry, but does the fact that it is illegal stop them? NO More often is turns out that the person is a convicted felon, who never would be given a CWP.

To establish the right to carry, a thorough background check is required, a clean record, a willingness to have photos, fingerprints, and character examined before the permit is issued. By the way, I have held CWPs in several states over a period of 55 years, as well as having been raised with a Grandfather who was both a Deputy Sheriff and a gunsmith, and I have yet to be in a situation where I needed to display a weapon.

But I have had occasion to avoid a thorough beating,because of speaking out to stop a domestic-violence incident, which turned the boy-friend on me. He was large enough, and angry enough, to have done serious damage to me, but stopped in his tracks, as he came nose-to-nose, (literally,) with me---simply because he knew I possessed both the capability of carrying, and the attitude to do whatever was needed to stop any physical damage to myself. I was NOT carrying at that moment,just the possibility was enough to stop his attack. This is the very essence of the carry-law, the uncertainty of the perpetrator as to the possible self-defense of the victim, if needed.

Best you do more research before you spread more propaganda among the public via the print media.