My Give a %#$@*'s Busted

Just finished the fourth week of this final 10 week semester.  Six weeks to go.  And then comes the Oral's Board.  I'm so ready to be done with school.

Which leads to the title of this post.  It comes from a Jo Dee Messina song that keeps running through my head as I sit through class after boring class that has little or nothing to do with the real world and even less to do with eternity.

I read a good post on another blog that reminded me to count my blessings, so lets see if I can name 10:

1. I don't have to go to work and try and finish my degree in the evening at the same time

2. If I can make it through Orals I get to spend next year in Spokane working at what looks like an interesting company and spending time with family

3. The kids are healthy

4. Andrew loves Warhammer 40K.  Today he even called it 40K.  Funny kid!

5. I'm married to a wonderful, attractive woman who is an excellent wife and mother.

6. I live in the best country in the world, where we have the most freedoms and opportunities.

7. I've got hot water.  If you've ever had to live without it, you know what a blessing that is!

8.  There's food in the fridge.  Similar to what I said above.

9. I have no worries about losing my job; I'm so thankful to be in the military with the kind of job security that gives me!

10. All of my worries are small beans compared to those who are going through real trials.  We're healthy, safe and secure.

Well, that helped me feel better! =)

Sustainability

In my International Business class we had to find an article on sustainability, read it and write a review on it.  After I read the article I'd chosen I felt like gagging at all the left wing comments made by the author.  She had some good points, but her little comments didn't help me accept them.

Our professor likes it when we find additional literature to cite in order to support our arguments so I went onto wikipedia to find something.  We're not allowed to cite wikipedia (not scholarly enough...I mean, who checks it to see if any of the information on there is true anyways?) but people usually have citations so I was able to find an interview with the father of the ecological footprint.  He included some discussion on sustainability and I found it a very interesting and informative interview with some outstanding points.

So, if you're wondering what sustainability is, here's a link to the article.  Enjoy!

http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#compose

Indoctrination

I just introduced Andrew to Warhammer 40K by playing through an intro game with him.  He seemed to enjoy it.  Enough that he asked if we could play again.  When I said, "Not tonight," he asked if we can play again tomorrow night.  Too fun!

Long Time...

I really haven't had anything I wanted to blog about in, well, forever which is why this blog has been basically dead for almost a year.  I'm finally getting involved in some things outside the family enough that I thought it might be worth posting on my own blog instead of the family blog.

I've been ghosting on a local gaming store's (LGS) forum for about six months and noticed that they'd decided to hold a Warhammer 40K escalation league.  I began to look into it and decided to join in.  

I've been interested in Warhammer 40K since jr. high when Ted Johnson brought home an Epic Space Marine box and needed an opponent to learn the game with.  Kind of got out of it in High School with girls and sports and then couldn't afford it in college and, again, was more interested in girls and sports.

After I started earning money I thought maybe I'd get back into Warhammer and so I picked up a starter box which included a tactical squad of Space Marines and another faction.  I had fun messing around with them but never worked up the nerve to actually go to the LGS and meet anyone to play with.

After we moved to Vegas I got involved in a different miniatures game called Warmachine made by Privateer Press, but was still interested enough in Warhammer 40K (40K) to pick up the new starter box.  I assembled it and I think Jamie played with me once but it never went anywhere. 

Now we're in San Antonio and a new starter box has been released so I decided to try again.  I got it just a little before Christmas and have slowly been assembling.

Stardate 24032008

So...I've been thinking about buying a handgun. This isn't any kind of recent thing, I've been wanting one for several years. Now we're financially able to buy one and can even afford to shoot it once in a while. So the last few weeks I've had this burning desire to go out and buy one. Maybe it's because I packed one for 9 months (which actually was not near as cool as I'd thought it'd be; it was mostly a pain) and sometimes I still feel funny not having one on me. Maybe it's just one of my mini-addictions and it'll pass just as soon as I've bought one and shot it a couple of times. Then it'll sit in the closet (locked up so the kids can't get ahold of it, of course) with the other toys I've bought from my other mini-addictions.

Whatever it is, I've been researching handguns in a certain price range, mostly in 9mm. I've been looking at a Glock 19 (I think it's a 19, maybe it's a 17), a Springfield Armory XD, the Beretta Px4 Storm and the S&W M&P. I've also looked at the Taurus PT1911 which chambers .45 ACP. I've decided against the Beretta as is doesn't fit my small hands (and short thumbs) all that well with the safety on the slide, similar in location to where it's at on the M9. I have a tough time hitting it with my thumb which makes it difficult to get it off safety and into action. The gun looks nice enough and felt alright in my hand, it's just the dumb safety that drives me nuts.

Pictured here, left to right, Beretta Px4 Storm, Glock 17

I figured before I make any decisions I oughtta get some range time in with the different weapons so today I went to a local range with gun rentals and put some holes in some targets. I first put 20 rounds through an SA XD9 (very light trigger pull), 15 rounds through a Glock 17 and another 15 rounds through some kind of Sig (just for fun, it's a little out of my price range). I wanted to see what it felt like to shoot a 1911 with the bigger round so I rented a Kimber 1911 as well and put 50 holes in another target. The 9mms all shot right where I pointed them. The Glock had the nicest sights of the bunch, at least to my eye, though I didn't like the way it shot as my wrist was hurting a little bit after shooting it. The .45 kick wasn't too bad, not a lot more than the 9mm, at least it didn't seem like it to me, though the grip left an imprint in my hand after every eight rounds. Plus, it felt weird to only have eight rounds. The ten in the XD/Glock was bad enough after being used to 15 in the M9. But with the size of the .45 I guess it only takes a couple if you can put them in the right place.

Conclusion: I'm leaning towards the SA XD9 as a concealed carry type weapon (though how much I'd actually be carrying I don't know) and maybe pick up the Taurus PT1911 just for fun later on after I've saved up enough allowance. =)


Taurus PT1911