Thursday, August 30, 2012

I don't get it...

Been wandering around on some gun fora today:
  • Every time I see a "Show off a picture of your Glock!" thread on a gun forum, I have to choke back the urge to post "See that picture above this post? Mine looks pretty much like that one."

  • Why do some posters list their whole gun collection in their signature lines? I completely do not get that. Also, if I owned that many products from Heritage Manufacturing, I sure wouldn't be telling the whole world about it.

  • I can take an hour or two of reading people who only make sporadic use of the shift key and insert an apostrophe before every incidence of the letter "s" before I have to go read something that has received the tender ministrations of a proofreader, lest I head up the nearest clock tower with a scoped rifle and a sack lunch.

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

All pet peeves I share. I no longer feel so alone.

erich martell
albuquerque

pdb said...

You should not show off your Glock unless it's worn by use and holster wear.

And say what you want about 1911s (and I've said most of it), nobody has spent hours looking through a Glock picture thread.

Drang said...

"Dear Aunt Stabby:
"Google ate my navigation bar! "Please advise.
"Sincerely, Frustrated Blogger"

karrde said...

I get the feeling, Tam, that if you put your entire gun collection into a sig-line, the signature would be larger than many of your posts.

Not that there's something wrong with that. (Nor could I say the same about my gun collection.)

Just that the thought is humorous.

Dave said...

I suspect the second one is largely due to people new to this and/or kids proud they're finally old enough to get a collection going that they just want to tell the world. Kinda silly, but I find their enthusiasm encouraging. Even if it's for a brand/caliber I don't use.

Anonymous said...

"lest I head up the nearest clock tower with a scoped rifle and a sack lunch."

And I have no doubt that if you did, you'd
A. Pick the correct venue
B. You'd bring enough ammo
C. The casualty list would run a long time.

Hey if you going to go out famous, ye might as well do it right.

As much as I think Lee Harvey Oslo, you know who I mean, was a nutter; I have to admit to certain degree of admiration for the "holy crap, _one_ guy did that?" side of it.

Joe Huffman said...

If you plan on spending some quality time at the top of a clock tower with your scoped rifle and only bring a sack lunch you are doing it wrong. My trainers tell me you should bring at least a half-dozen friends and a hijacked Safeway truck.

Let me know when and where you want the truck delivered.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Surprised you don't have the "Try taking a breath and using paragraph breaks once in a while" peeve, too :)

fast richard said...

Wandering the internet is a heck of a good way to recharge the old snark batteries. Your recent flashlight posts got me looking at upgrading to something more modern than a mini-maglight. What I found was a whole subculture devoted to hotrodding the latest LED flashlights, complete with it's own fan-boys and mall ninjas. It's amazing what one finds down some of those rabbit holes.

Anonymous said...

Something tells me if a random 1/2 dozen "friends of Tam" decided to go the full clock -tower, the government reaction/solution would (eventually) be "call off the swat team, if there are any still moving, & call in the artillery".

If y'all got cornered, that is.

pax said...

Don't count too much on the tender ministrations of a proofreader, I've recently been reading some (otherwise excellent) SF written by a man who is apparently utterly innocent of any notion of what a comma splice is and why it should be avoided, his editor doesn't seem to know either.

Sport Pilot said...

I'm with you Tam, why in the heck do you need to post a picture of a factory gun that's been made in the hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, aside from the ATF or a crook who really gives a rip about what gun's you own. Since when has quantity ever equated itself with know how or ability?

Anonymous said...

Did you mean "instance" ?

;)

Anonymous said...

way to give a good example of the third peeve Sport Pilot

Tam said...

"Did you mean "instance" ?"

Do I? I might.

I wrestled with Google for a while on that one.

English. How does it work?

Anonymous said...

My Blocks don't look like what most folk have, but then again they're self customized.

Stippled and grips length reduced.

I have a 26L (19 with a 26 length grip) and a 19L (17 with a 19 grip length).

I like them. Some have asked me, "why in God's name did you do that?" my response is, "it works for me, and may not for you."

Anonymous said...

Well Tam, sometimes I just "loose" my train of thought and can't remember where that apostrophe goes. "Your" surely able to understand that! lol......

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Just don't call her Shirley.

Woodman said...

I have one gun made by Heritage Manufacturing. I lurve it. 9 shots of .22 plinking.

I spent quite a bit of time at Wilbur Wright a couple weeks ago turning targets into Swiss Cheese at 25yrds.

Does owning a Nagant make it better or worse?

Gerry N. said...

My sainted Momma beat into my head that apostrophes were NOT meant to indicate the impending appearance of the letter "s". Unfortunately Momma never got around to beating on the head of the moronish PhD who was my kids' English Teacher. She and I had many arguments, usually ending when I referred her to the wit and wisdom of Bugs Bunny: "Wadda Maroon."

A PhD incapable of writing coherent English. Who'da thunk it?

Gerry N.

Jeff the Baptist said...

The heritage big bores are supposed to be pretty nice. They're also largely made in Italy by Pietta. But I have a .22 rough rider and it is a horrible cheap gun. Worse yet I can't give it away.

Jay G said...

I'm still trying to figure out how many pages long my signature would be...

Roy in Nipomo said...

I'm partial to the Navy's old NCND ("neither confirm nor deny") policy on the presence of firearms around me.

If you are a "revenooer": nope (other than what might show on my C&R); if you are a burglar: do you like to gamble?

Bubblehead Les. said...

I don't believe you'd head up to the Clock Tower.

Now a High Speed Chase in the Zed Drei, with the passenger seat full of Loaded Smiths, and the Radio cranked up to 11, said Smiths being randomly emptied at whatever you seem fit, THAT I'd believe.

Blackwing1 said...

If we tried to console you by saying, "Their, there, they're" I could see you loosing it.

Just don't ask why you shave a drunken dead grizzly before burial:

So you can see a bare beer bear's bier.

LCB said...

Maybe it's my age or upbringing...but I'm not comfortable telling stangers and some people I know about anything I own. If they don't know yah gots it they're not tempted to try the 'ole 5 finger discount thingy. That goes for guns, tools, money, electronics, etc.

Darrell said...

Six months ago I couldn't spell arfcom, now I are one!

cj said...

Some twisted part of me wants to post something about "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" along with pictures of my various unmodified M&Ps.

Alien said...

RE: Wildly incompetent grammarians and refugees from punctuation sanity - if you can assure me your clock tower adventure will start with them I'll pay to cater the event.

Anonymous said...

I saw a thread with five pages of respondents titled 'What gun is closest to your heart?'

It made me throw up in mouth a little.

Matt
St Paul

Sigivald said...

Pax said: Don't count too much on the tender ministrations of a proofreader, I've recently been reading some (otherwise excellent) SF written by a man who is apparently utterly innocent of any notion of what a comma splice is and why it should be avoided, his editor doesn't seem to know either.

Well played, sir.

(Also, contra Strunk, the comma splice is by no means always an error...)

Angus McThag said...

Icant help butthinkthat'she's ta lking aboutmeinthatpo'st.

There's 'something in her tone that 'say's 'something...

Tirno said...

I don't have that many guns, but the ones I'd be likely to put in my signature block would likely go past the traditional 80 character mark:

- AR-15 made from DMPS lower with Gold Trigger and Magpul MOE 6 position milspec stock and rear plate sling swivel mated with CMMG 16" flat top piston upper with rail farm fore-end and *GASPING DEEP BREATH* Trijicon 6x ACOG and Magpul AFG (version 1) and Streamlight weapon light but I'm going to replace that and a mount for my Contour camera and Mark 1 Mod 0 Partridge in a Picatinny Tree

*GASP GASP GASP DEEP BREATH*

- Mostly GI-spec M-14 with LRB Arms receiver and 22" chrome lined barrel and Sage Chassis and Leupold VX-3L on ARMS 40mm rings and QD mount ofr Gemtech Quicksand and Sadlak reduced pressure NM piston and the mount for my Contour Camera because why-the-hell-not

*GASP GASP GASP DEEP BREATH*

- The rest of it is pretty vanilla so I'll not bore you but let me tell you about my daughter's pink AR-15 that I built for her, hey, wait, who are you guys in white coats with the jacket with too-long arms that I'm certain is not my size, help, help, they're trying to asaslb klar sdfjuh I've knocked one out, send afjnet fsnjklfs Ow TASERS hurt fsdnjnjsdf NO CARRIER

Drang said...

"Dear Aunt Stabby:
"Never mind, it was a rogue Firefox add-on.
"No longer (quite so) frustrated"

Anonymous said...

When your exasperated with the rest of the gun fora, baconsurvival.com can be the cure. This thread alone should sell it:
http://baconsurvival.com/forum/index.php?topic=3892.0

Anonymous said...

I do love firearms and all that they represent. And after 30+ years as an 02FFL I've "owned" thousands, from crap that I put to merciful death to amazing works of art.

But I'm an old guy now and don't shoot much anymore. So here's my signature list:

PB

My dead daddy's old shotgun
My first (age 9) .22
A G22 truck gun
A short Mossie house gun
A '54 (same year as me!) Colt Cobra
An NAA22LR

Not too impressive, right? But that ain't the point.

BGMiller said...

I forgive the folks that apply punctuation like sprinkles on a doughnut.

I just assume they're working from the Fred Colon Guide to Reports, Chitties, and Detectoring.


BGM

Old NFO said...

I think Tam's gun list would probably bring out the ATF and a few others since they'd classify it as an arsenal! And she DOES know how to use each and every one! Re the clock tower, save me a seat!

Ed Foster said...

Tirno: I recognize the humor, but also applaud you for mentioning Sadlak Industries.

Mike Sadlak is one of the masters, and has been doing prototype work for me for years. He is far from the cheapest, but always the very best. The serious spook and ninja outfits over in the sandbox won't use anything but his stuff, and he always gives them priority.

Goes to show what you get when you cross a toolmaker with a gun bug. Really amazing design and workmanship on everything he does.

Tam said...

Sigivald,

"innocent of any notion of what a comma splice is and why it should be avoided, his editor doesn't seem to know either.

Well played, sir."

...and that's why Kathy is one of my favoritest people in the world. That sentence right there was nearly enough to have me booking airfare just so I could give her a big hug for her sheer awesomeness. :)

Tam said...

McThag,

You owe me a keyboard, sir. :D

Anonymous said...

I'll spot for you if you go.

Spear

Cincinnatus said...

So I gotta remove the Romanian M1969 from my sig?

Shucks.

Murphy's Law said...

OK, that's just funny...but only because it's all true.

Alien said...

Apologies for commenting twice, but in the middle of this AM's blog crawl I started to think there may be a hidden-file app that automatically inserts apostrophes in front of every s.

Only explanation I can come up with. Now, if I could figure a way to collect royalties on apostrophes.....

Anonymous said...

Dear Aunt Stabbie

Don't forget you have many friends and admirers who are willing to help out carrying ammo and providing an antihelicopter umbrella so you are not interrupted by rude strangers before you finish your statement.

When the clock strikes bang I call dibs on the overwatch position for the last chokepoint on the most likely SRT route.


Boy did that come out a lot darker than the joke I intended.

Anonymous said...

When one of your children (friends, etc.) starts asking about grammar, go buy them one of the classic style guides as a gift and then shoot them now while they are still happy and blissfully ignorant about style and grammar.

Go to YouTube and search for "Grammar Nazis".

Tam said...

"Go to YouTube and search for "Grammar Nazis"."

YouTube will send me up a clock tower faster than any number of improperly used apostrophes.

NotClauswitz said...

The gun is not the picture, the picture is all about lighting, und ein Komma-splicce ist das nicht.

Matt G said...

I keep thinking "I need to get back on my post moderating," and then I have the same kicked-in-the-head feeling.

Since when did I get to feeling so superior?

Chris said...

At least it isn't a "show off your Hi Point!" thread.

Ryan said...

I get the "show me your carry piece" threads but the "show me your exact same model" ones kind of lose me.

mustanger said...

Unless it's some custom modification or some specific damage, I don't get posting pictures of it. There's plenty of stock photos already out there.

mikee said...

I used Roman Catholic nuns, just after Vatican II and before they reformed much at all, to learn me mah grammar and such what-all.

Now when I type a sentence like the one above, my immediate frisson of guilt makes it all the more enjoyable.

I do find that reading something I've written in Morgan Freeman's voice helps me find any errors.

Sigivald said...

Why do some posters list their whole gun collection in their signature lines?

Kinda like the way computer forums have people bragging on what monitor they own, or the brand of keyboard?

(As if anyone cares...)