Friday, August 26, 2011

Jack the Gunsmith

This last weekend, I was talking to my father in law and he said “Jack, come sit down. Talk to me”. This was rather profound being that Larry and I had never had a serious conversation such as this. I knew it would be important, so I sat and prepared to listen.

A little background on Larry: Working as a cop from 21 years old, Larry wanted to be a pilot and the police gig was his way to pay for his flying hobby. A man who he admired very much had offered to give him his start at this; he co-signed on an airplane for Larry at 21 years of age. He eventually paid the man back and was forever indebted for his kindness.

Over the years, after flying for the police department and also just as a hobby, he managed to make smart decision after decision and at the age of 60, he is set for life. His empire is an airline company and his family are taken care of.

Back to me: Larry told me that he did what he was passionate about and that I should too. He told me that I should take up gunsmithing because of my love of guns. It was always something on my mind, but not having the money to start or the skills to know where to begin always kept me in a sort of limbo. Now that I have been given advice from a self-made millionaire, I think I’ll take a grand slam swing and be great at this. I’ve ordered some books, already have some experience working on 1911 style pistols and contacted a man who has worked on my guns in the past for guidance.

Only time will tell whether or not this will be something that I can eventually make a living at or if it will be a ridiculous hobby like it is for many.

 

Video Swap FTW

The song is Louder Than Thunder by The Devil Wears Prada. The video is from a Nickelback song.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Good to Be Done With This Nonsense



It’s been six years since I’ve had to shoot another person and it feels great. I can’t understand how so many young men want to go out and take other peoples’ lives out of hate or some bullshit ideal of “patriotism”. Here is what they wrote about me back then. Link---à http://www.bobcat.ws/how5.pdf <---- Link

Heroes of the Week
A Company
HERO OF THE WEEK
SGT JACK A. BRIDENSTINE
On 24 August 2005, Alpha Company 1-5 INF Snipers made contact with an insurgent
vehicle carrying several A.I.F. personnel. The sniper O.P. observed the insurgents
throw an explosive device into an abandoned I.A. vehicle being used as part of a
baited ambush and proceeded to engage. The vehicle was disabled causing the
insurgents to get out of the car and break contact in multiple directions into the
industrial area located north of route Isuzu. 1ST Platoon heard warmongers transmissions stating that an element of 2nd platoon
was in pursuit of one of the insurgents who were on foot and heading south. A 1-3 and A 1-4 proceeded north as a split section element into the industrial area in an attempt to intercept the insurgent. As A 1-3 headed north, they observed the insurgent matching the description given by Warmonger, force his way into a car full of civilians. Warmonger fired onto the intersection directly in front of the vehicle as it attempted to speed away.
With Warmonger isolating the vehicle, A 1-3 cut the vehicle off and ordered the occupants out. SGT Jack A. Bridenstine dismounted from the vehicle with the remainder of his squad following closely behind. SGT Bridenstine ordered the civilian occupants to keep their hands up. The insurgent frantically paced back and forth
with his hands at near shoulder level. The insurgent then pulled a pistol that had been concealed in his waist, and attempted to fire. SGT Bridenstine quickly identified the threat and engaged the insurgent, hitting him center mass several times. In keeping with his reputation of total composure, SGT Bridenstine then quickly began to clear and search the enemy KIA and help bag the body. Bringing his confirmed kill count to two, thwarting another A.I.F. attack, and once again saving the lives of his buddies, SGT Jack A. Bridenstine has earned the title, HERO OF THE WEEK.

Honor System






I saw this sign on my way to work today and it made me think about how great this would be to do. The initial cost of the sign, cooler, chain, fake camera and all that would take a while to make up, but if I have more eggs than I can eat with only 6 laying hens, then these folks could easily get the moolah to have the birds pay for their own feed. At my place the girls eat through 50 lbs of feed in about a month and a half to two months (winter I feed them more) and at 15 bucks per 50 pounds, you can see the idea.
The cool part of this though, is not the eggs making chickens pay for themselves, but rather the idea that people are given the opportunity to get farm fresh eggs for 3 bucks a dozen and are not supervised either. It's all fun and games though, until the USDA sends their goons there to break down that coop door and seize the hens as evidence.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Them Toasters....


















Well,

  I said I’d do it! Myself and the other groomsman signed these two Goodwill toasters. I got Justin a bottle of Grand Marnier which he drank a bit of the last night before the wedding. We stayed up till 4am or so making some of the food and it was worth it! Great food!

  Allie was less than pleased about her gift, but I think she got the joke. J

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Proud to Be Nerdy

Over the past week or so, I have delved deeply into The Ocarina of Time on the 3DS. Zelda is by far my favorite game series ever, followed closely by Starcraft, and I love them all. My 14 year old sister also has this game and when she gets stuck, she will text me or call and ask for help. In the spirit of the game, I want her to find all the stuff herself, but I do know how much easier it is now than it was when I was 14.

She sent me a message the other day asking “where do you find the boomerang?” I was thrilled to know exactly where it was, etc. This is not impressive and anyone who has played OoT once, knows where to get the coolest gadget for young Link.

My wife just shakes her head as I call my little sis and go on to tell her about how you go North-East of Hyrule Castle and then follow the river into Zora’s Domain. I reminded her of using the Cucco (the chicken thing) to help cross the sketchy crossings there. By this point, my wife is completely ignoring my nerd lingo. Talking about Lord Jabbu Jabbu’s belly and my battle against Volvagia the Lava Dragon is the last thing we are ever going to talk about.

I get so much joy out of this game and I am STOKED for the Skyward Sword to be released later this year. Anyone who loves a great video game franchise and still manages to maintain a normal life knows where I’m coming from.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Renton Motorcycle Company Lost a Customer in Me.

I’ve thought this over long and hard and the manager of Renton Motorcycles will be getting a letter from me very soon. Instead of me spending my next ten thousand dollars on a toy there, I’ll go elsewhere.
These guys are a huge store down in Renton and they look amazing! Their parts area is full of flashy shit and cool doo-dads and junk. They have sales staff that treat you well and this is where I bought my bike from last year. I have taken it there as part of the pre-paid service agreement which has saved me some cash overall.
The problem is this: Each time I have taken my bike there, I have made it clear that I live far as fuck away and that I expect the priority to be given to me as was promised in conjunction with buying the pre-paid service package.
Another problem is that they have pirate rates on service. To install two sprockets and a chain, they wanted $200 bucks for a job that takes 45 minutes TOPS. Fuck that. I took it to Bellevue Kawasaki and got it done for 86 bucks. Bam!
I dropped my bike off at 9:30 using the after-hours drop box and they managed to blow that shit off… my appointment was at 10:30 in the morning, but I was not about to wait around and talk to the passive-aggressive people at the counter for service.
Mr. Lamphere, if he is still alive, should go fire the service manager and let it be known that piss-poor customer service is not okay. I got my bike back at 5:45 pm and missed my plans that night because of the God-awful traffic that time of day; the job should have been done NO LATER THAN 2:00pm. The guy at the desk gave me some weak-shit apology and was like  “sometimes we forget to check the box”. I wasn’t going to yell at him like a dumbass because I knew he may or may not have had anything to do with this fiasco. On top of everything else, when I went to get the bike, I had to wait for some sloppy shit-sandwich kid to wheel my bike out to the wash area; it was dirty as fuck still. Only one of my five trips there resulted in a clean bike. He asked if I wanted to wait ten more minutes for a wash. I told him “fuck no”.
Anyway, I WAS happy with this place, but only because I had faith that next time would be better. Four “next times” later and they are still a soup sandwich.
If you want to buy a motorcycle, go elsewhere. These guys sell an image, not motorcycles.
Peace bitches.

P.S. : Mr. Lamphere, if you are reading this, I am grateful that you sell so many brands under one roof, but am saddened as to how badly your staff suck balls.

-Jack

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hanging Out With the Dead

It’s not always, or even that particularly often that it happens, but when it happens it is intense. I think everyone who has read prior posts on this site of shenanigans kinda gets where I come from, but for the others: Just read on.
Last night was another such instance where I was hanging out with old friends in my dream and we were having a great time. I recognized many people from different times of the past eight or so years and we were all having a great time. Now this is where it gets strange; usually I interact with the people in the dreams, but I couldn’t this time. One person who was silent and inactive was my friend Karl; he died from heart failure the morning my youngest son was born. It was sad moment in a joyous day.
Karl was sitting in a chair and he looked like a hologram of dark light and looked like he was wearing a mask of some sort. It looked like a version of a fighter pilot’s mask and he was also wearing his body armor from the Army for some reason. Before he died, he was out of the Army for a while, but in the Army is the last time I saw him. I have never met or spoken to his parents, but they were there.
Everyone else was having a blast drinking and smoking and whatever else. Music was playing and for some reason there was a truck in this place. Karl’s father, whom I have never seen even a picture of, was sitting in the bed towards the cab. I walked up to him and shook his hand and tried to tell him who I am and that I missed his son. I didn’t even get the words out before I began to sob and quiver. Even now it is strange to me that I am somehow sad about not seeing someone that I once knew, but may well have never seen again. Is him being gone such a travesty or just something I am stuck on for my own reasons? I have no idea.
This type of thing happens from time to time, but this time was unique because my lost friend was not talking to me or doing anything for that matter. He sat in a wooden chair, wearing body armor and a grim-looking mask that covered his whole face; I didn’t even SEE his face, but still knew is was him.
Then comes reality in the morning and it hurts less knowing what is and what isn’t. I forced myself to concentrate on the road and not the prior hours. Just another senseless posting here… hope it was worth the effort.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Mike's 30th Birthday Surprise Party

Mike's wife tried very hard to keep this as much of a surprise as possible and I think she achieved her goal. The guest of honor was supposed to be there at around 5:30pm or so we thought. While we waited for him to arrive, we built up the fire, cracked open several beers including 21st Amendment's "Brew Free or Die" IPA and Deschutes Brewery "Black Butte". Mike's father was also on site with some BADASS whisky that went down smooth and was in no need of a mixer.
For once, I was the guy without a gun on my hip or in my pocket; it was pretty cool to see dozens of people open-carrying and not giving a fuck... all responsible people too. All the kids were playing in the little sand box area and down by the river; the video shown here is what they found while picking up rocks to throw near the river.
When Mike finally arrived, I was good and lit and proceeded to stop drinking for the rest of the night. It was a great night and nobody got hurt or arrested. I did manage to cut the shit out of the tops of all my toes in the process of running around barefoot all night..... hmmmm..
Good times.
Also, here is Kham pulling part of our firewood!! http://twitvid.com/35RDY

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Epic Bump in the Night

A while ago, I was sound asleep when I was startled awake by a thunderous crash coming from downstairs. With my heart bumping like a redlining race engine, I rolled out of bed and snatched the tac-light and pistol from the nightstand. I was stark naked (don't dwell on this part too much........ okay.... that's enough) and walking through my house with a pistol and tactical, high-powered flashlight. The light was off to preserve my vision and I was ready to blast anything that moved.


Strange enough, my wife and son were sleeping and the dog was just kinda casually stretching like a lazy douchebag. I went down and cleared the whole downstairs... no doors were open, no windows smashed, etc. I thought I might just be nuts. I went back upstairs and laid in bed for 45 minutes playing Angry Birds until I fell asleep.


The result: The next day when I went into the garage, I noticed that my cabinet, which had hung undisturbed for no less than six months had fallen off the wall. There was close to fifty boxes of ammunition of all different calibers all over the floor. I spent the next hour sorting through them and placing them neatly on the ground until I fixed the cabinet.


Note to self: 2500+ rounds of ammunition is fucking heavy and no matter what it needs to be kept from crashing to Earth at 2 am!


Nuff said.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Trip TPS report

Origin: Sultan, WA
Destination: Winthrop, WA.
Travel time (approximate round trip): 8 hours
Cost: 100 dollars
Avg gas mileage: 44mpg
Pictures taken: many
Deer spotted: 5
Wasp colonies pissed off: 1
Beers ingested: 9
Bacon consumed: 0