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.

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.

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

 

 

 

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.

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