Friday, January 15, 2021
At loose (video) ends...
As the ship continues to spring new leaks...
You know, if I'm counting on you to protect me from assassins, not only can you use my loo, you can come hang out with me while I'm on the throne, too.
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 15, 2021
Don't worry, there's a magazine rack if the conversation gets dull. https://t.co/nKbfscMWWH
New Year's Resolution
![]() |
Shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and an old EF 28-70mm f/2.8L lens |
Yesterday...
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Random Updates:
- Finished the last episode of The Queen's Gambit last night. This series was nearly perfectly-executed television in my book: very well-acted and shot, and the sets and soundtrack both helped set the mood and tell the story. It was also another excellent demonstration that the only real way to do justice to a novel-length presentation is in a miniseries.
- Took the Leicaflex SL for a walk yesterday afternoon. I was shooting from the hip, exposure-wise, but double-checking my guesses with the myLightMeter Pro app on my phone. Everything was going swimmingly until I took a shot at 1/125th at f/5.6 and the mirror hung in the up position. I'd shot about eight frames at that point, so I rewound the film and I'll take it to Roberts today. Went home and dry-fired the camera fifty or sixty times, both with the lens off and on, at 1/2000th to see if it loosens anything up. Lesson learned: Go back to using a 24 exposure roll of the absolute cheapest Fuji or Kodak from the drug store for test rolls, rather than a 36-exposure roll of Ilford.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
*hot take*
/rails at man for attacking our constitutional government
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 13, 2021
/rails at government for following constitution
Will you make up your mind, Jim? https://t.co/wMtwjDaXpw
*spit take*
"There is no room for violence of any kind in our nation. If any violence shows up, I'll kick it in the face so hard it will fly right out of our nation." https://t.co/wzYlTrHkxh
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 13, 2021
Standards
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Future Imperfect, Tense
This is gonna be the future with the three seashells, then? Not the one with the razor boomerang kid or the one with President Mountain Dew Camacho?
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 12, 2021
I'm asking so I can make better long term plans. https://t.co/esSVE83Y6X
Let's see if it works...
Monday, January 11, 2021
Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #195...
Here's a larger photo of the 509 LS Edge with my Trijicon RM08G mounted:
Because Racegun
"Developed with input from demanding shooters like Dave Sevigny and Tim Kennedy, the FN 509 LS Edge has a host of details to help it deliver the results. For instance, the suppressor-height irons, solid black in the rear and fiber optic with a bright green light pipe up front, line up for a lower-third co-witness on most miniature red-dot sights.
The magazine release, while still ambidextrous, has the right-hand button heavily beveled, almost flush with the frame. This keeps an aggressive high grip from inadvertently dislodging the mag.The lightening cuts in the slide of the FN 509 LS Edge aren’t just there to look oh-so-2020; they reduce the mass of the slide, helping to both keep the gun shooting flat and to remain compatible with the recoil spring assembly of its duty-size kin."
![]() |
Dave Sevigny with the LS Edge |
Let's get this done.
Saturday, January 09, 2021
That's a lotta guns...
Thank goodness I already have a gun, because that line is cray-cray. 😮 https://t.co/0okoW438qX
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 9, 2021
People don't generally line up like this to buy guns with the intention of turning around and immediately turning them in. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Friday, January 08, 2021
Not How This Works
"Are you in reasonable fear of immediate, otherwise unavoidable, death or grievous bodily harm to yourself or another innocent person?"If there's a dude within arm's length of me who's not dropping the knife, well...
Thursday, January 07, 2021
The good ol' days...
Remember when we were all relieved that 2020 was over?
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 6, 2021
Man, those were the good old days...
Man, we were so young and innocent and hopeful then, way back in the salad days of last Friday...
Wednesday, January 06, 2021
Don't look down, little goat!
That's certainly very carefully worded.
Tuesday, January 05, 2021
2020 Strikes From Beyond the Grave
Monday, January 04, 2021
Changing of the Guard
The Year of Carrying Double-Action didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Initially I was going to tote the Langdon Beretta for a month or two at the beginning of 2019 while I sorted out which plastic double action I'd finish out the year with. One thing led to another and I wound up toting the LTT for the whole year and doing all my schooling and gaming that year with the Spaghetta. I didn't settle into carrying the Grayguns Sig SP2022 until the start of 2020...and then 2020 happened.
What little gun school I managed to get in this year was incidental to various product launches and therefore used whatever guns were provided there. While I toted the Sig for the whole year, between ammo shortages and 'Rona, it just didn't see much work. After Thanksgiving I just put the SP2022 away and finished out the year carrying a 1911 in a Milt Sparks VM-2, waiting for the calendar page to flip...
And now it's 2021 and time for my next CCW gun project. Like I said, I didn't get to much gun school last year, but what little I did all involved shooting dot-sighted guns. Plus, early last year I wrapped up a 2,000 round test on the FN 509 Compact MRD with the Trijicon SRO. I was intrigued by the little gun, only slightly larger than a Glock 26, but with an optic, a usefully-sized accessory rail, and a 12+1 round capacity (15+1 with the 'stendo).
So the plan is for 2021's carry gun to be the little peanut butter colored FN with a mounted Trijicon SRO and a Streamlight TLR-7. I'm initially carrying it in a Spark holster generously provided by Henry Holsters. For now it's strong-side IWB until I shed the COVID nineteen (probably closer to COVID twenty-five, but the bathroom scale's on the fritz).
Whatever classes I manage to enroll in or matches I manage to shoot this year will be with the little FN. The idea of a subcompact pistol with a reasonable mag capacity and a usefully-bright WML is intriguing. I'm not a believer in the necessity of a WML on a carry gun, but I think they're very useful on a firearm used for home defense. Traditionally, this meant either carrying a bulky light you didn't need, or using separate pistols for carry & home, or mounting and removing a WML on your carry gun every morning and evening...none of which are what I'd call optimal solutions. So this is kind of a workaround for all that, a "have your cake and eat it, too" thing.
We'll see.
.
Sunday, January 03, 2021
"If Batman did meth..."
There was a story from Car and Driver back in the day...
Saturday, January 02, 2021
Misplaced Childhood
An odd request...
Hasn't been much in the way of snow so far this winter, and I'm pretty ambivalent on that. It's pretty, but it can be a pain to shovel and it pretty well grounds the Mustang and at least puts a damper on driving the Bimmer until they have the main roads cleared. I'll slither a couple blocks to College Ave, but driving for a few miles with a wary eye on the traction control is a pain and there's just not enough snow in an Indiana winter to make a dedicated set of winter tires/wheels a worthwhile proposition.
What I am kind of annoyed about is that we haven't gotten any really good sustained cold snaps. The kind where the daily high doesn't get above freezing for a week or so. I'm looking at the ten-day forecast right now and we're going to be a third of the way into January with the daily high temps getting into the mid/high-thirties if all goes as predicted.
The reason I want a good stretch of cold weather is that that's what makes March bearable around here. When you've had some brutal cold spells in January and February, a mid-March day where the temps get up to 34º or 35ºF feels like sunbathing weather by comparison. When it's a couple degrees above freezing you can walk to 20 Tap without feeling like you need an extra undershirt, and stroll to Fresh Market in sneakers rather than winter boots, at least if you've been dealing with really cold temps for the last couple months.
.
A recurring theme of late...
"As with far too many public policy disputes (over climate change, criminal justice, health care, etc.), it is not enough to merely observe that the opposing team has different ideas about how best to address a problem. No, the bad guys are either intentionally trying to make things worse or just too blinkered to admit there's a problem in the first place. The more partisan you are, the more likely you feel surrounded by murderers and denialists."It's a good piece and worth reading. Also, I swear I hadn't read it before tweeting this:
When I was a kid, we had Choose Your Own Adventure books, and now we have Choose Your Own Reality.Modern American is all about polarization. Half everyone is wearing masks while riding alone in their Teslas with the HVAC on Recirc while the other half is joining in mass “Lick a doorknob for Trump” rallies.
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 2, 2021
I can't believe this made it to production.
I get that this is some graphic designer trying to make their hastily-ginned-up social distancing floor marker both racially- and gender-inclusive but, uh, minus several thousand points for not thinking through to the optics of the finished work, dude.
Ah, the heady optimism of last spring...
"I'll take 'Memes That Aged Poorly' for 400 Alex...er, Ken."https://t.co/xMPMuZJn1j
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) January 2, 2021
Friday, January 01, 2021
Yum!
Bobbi cooked a corned beef brisket & cabbage, with some taters, onions, and carrots for New Year's Day feasting. We enjoyed the meal while watching the third episode of Season 5 of The Expanse.
Other than that, it was a slow day around Roseholme Cottage. It was icy out when I woke up and stayed overcast all day, although it warmed into the forties in the afternoon and melted off the dusting of snow from yesterday.
.
All's Unquiet On New Year's Day
Went out front to pop off some bottle rockets tonight because I wanted to see 2020 off proper-like...