I Just Don't Understand. And Neither Do They, I Think.

"For someone who carries a gun, you sure are awful concerned about not breaking the law."

This (or something reasonably close to it) was said to me today by a co-worker. The only thing that I can think in regards to why he should say this is that he believes that if I were caught breaking a law, I could shoot my way out of the situation. This is not the first time that others have implied that they think I should have a more cavalier attitude toward certain things simply because I carry a pistol. I believe it's not likely it'll be the last time I hear that opinion, either.

What puzzles me is why someone would think that carrying a pistol entitles a person to behave more recklessly. At best, such behavior would be punished by a fine or imprisonment and the loss of the right to own a firearm. At worst, it would result in someone's needless death.

I can only assume that most people who offer these opinions are either joking or simply haven't thought things all the way through. Whichever the case, it's really rather unnerving to hear people talk like that.

* * *

Coworker: "You don't have a rebel bone in your body."

Me: "I've got a pretty good idea under what circumstances I would be willing to break a law."

Coworker: "I'd like to see that!"

Me: "No. You wouldn't."

This is another example of things I don't understand. As stated above, I have a respect for the law that some others find to be a little on the extreme side. As such, I would think it obvious that I am also fervently opposed to anyone attempting to circumvent or corrupt the law. I have absolutely no qualms about ignoring or breaking an illegal law. This does not mean that I will flagrantly flout the law. So long as I find such a law bearable, I will tolerate it. However, once it becomes unbearable, it becomes of no concern to me.

The reason that I told my coworker that he would not want to see me break a law is because I am usually an easy-going fellow. It takes quite a bit before I decide that something is unbearable. And, usually, once I get to that point, things have already gotten rough for everyone involved.

Frustration and Gratification

Well, it seems that I was a bit hasty about announcing my employment. My boss did indeed receive an email stating that I had passed my background check and that I was good to go. However, it seems that the background check that had come back was for another gentleman who had just been hired whose middle name is Barrett. My background check results did not come in until yesterday and therefore today was my first day on the payroll.

The only real problem that resulted from the miscommunication was that, since I thought I was off contract, I didn't send my time sheet in to my employment agency until this morning. Which means that it will be a week from Thursday before I get my next check. Things are going to be a bit tight what with the holiday travel I have planned and it being the end of the month but I'm pretty sure I will be able to squeeze by.

On another note, I made several purchases over the past month and a half that have all come in recently. The first is my Blade-Tech holster and magazine pouch for my Glock. I'm satisfied with the workmanship in their products, as always. My only gripe is that the mag pouch is set up so that the mag can only be inserted in one direction and it just happens to be opposite of the way I prefer to have the mag seated. But that's a rather minor annoyance.

I also received some XS big dot sights for the Glock. I've not had a chance to shoot with them yet. I'll post an update once I have.

Lastly, I've gotten an ACE lightweight stock for my AR. It's very close in length to the setting I had the CTR stock set for and doesn't yank whiskers out of my face every other time I shoulder it. Should have used a lube on the foam padding while installing it. I ended up taking out a couple of chunks. Figure I'll just get some electrical tape or black duct tape and patch it up. In order to match the stock, I also picked up a black Magpul pistol grip (the non-modular one) and put the old black handguards back on the upper. It's a true EBR again.

Wheee!

Well, it's finally official. I am now a direct, full-time employee at my workplace. After a year of contract work, I'm now getting salary and benefits. It'll be nice to finally have health insurance again.

My new debit card has arrived. My last one had to be canceled because of some dill-hole in Austin, TX (supposedly) fraudulently charging $0.15 to my account. That's right, fifteen cents. I figure they were waiting to see if I noticed and then charge more later. Oh well.

I up and joined a gym today. A couple of the fellas at work go there regularly and suggested I try it out. It was especially tempting because our company has a corporate account with them which means I get a discount. Paying less rocks. I'm currently planning on going three times a week. I'm hoping I can last this time 'round.

Last, but not least, li'l sis has (finally) been given a store in Jackson, TN. We're all ecstatic that she's been promoted but I'm a little disappointed that she didn't get one closer to me. I can live with it, though. Now she just needs to see about getting her concealed carry license since she's where she's gonna be for a while. Told you I'd pay for it, Binker, and I'm sticking to that. Give me a yell and we'll figure out when and where you can take the class.

Alabama Bound ... Or Not

My brother has been in the process of applying for jobs in the Birmingham, AL area recently. He and his wife will be moving there soon for her work and he's interviewed with a couple of companies. Today he accepted a position to a local power company. So now they just need a place to live.

They and my parents had already made plans to head down there to look at prospective houses over the Fourth of July weekend and I was planning to tag along. Well, apparently, he managed to get Thursday off as well as Friday and now they'll be heading out earlier than expected.

This now leaves me with most of the day Friday open. Anyone have suggestions as to what to do with my newly freed up time?

Electrical Engineers, Rejoice!

The long-sought-after fourth component has been found!

Seriously. No, I'm not joking.

It's called a memrister.

And it's going to render every electronics/circuits book in the world obsolete. Well, maybe not obsolete, but definitely in need of revision. I'm not going to bother discussing its merits/uses in this post. The articles do a darn good job of that.

But please feel free to start a discussion in the comments.

On the Job Front:

I found out that my contract does not expire when the 6 month mark rolls around. It seems that it will continue indefinitely so long as I or my employer wish to continue. I'm hoping that I will get a direct position before too long but at least I can be pretty sure I won't be out on my ear in 2 weeks.

Work and Friends (and Friends' Work)

R came down for a visit with D and me this past Sunday. Seems he's been getting fed up with his employers shenanigans and is looking for a change of venue. D has spoken with his boss who appears to be thrilled at the thought of another experienced engineer he can hire. D and I are both looking forward to having R around more often.

And speaking of work, my company has recently had a gentleman leave to pursue other opportunities. His position will likely be filled from in-house which will leave a(nother) vacancy within the company. I was told by my boss not to be surprised if I was offered a permanent position. The downside is that it'd be in manufacturing instead of R&D. Meaning I'd be back doing the same-old same-old I was attempting to get away from. And I would no longer be working under my current boss (a not good but not bad thing).

There are definitely some good possibilities floating around in the near future. I'm looking forward to it.

Bleh...

It seems that I've been ambushed by a round of sinus trouble that has left me with a runny/stuffy nose, a headache, and absolutely no energy.

I seriously doubt that I'll be heading in to work tomorrow.

On a more happy note, my Burris QD rings arrived today. Pretty good delivery time as I placed the order Sunday evening.

That is all.

What the...?

That was wierd. I started to create a new post and when I began typing into the title block, the autocomplete came up with "Re: Bleeding Heart Gayboys".

Just wierd.

Anyways, not a whole lot's been going on. I've managed to do some cleaning on my truck and organizing around the house. Only a few things that warrant a mention: I'm a good way through Animal Farm by George Orwell. I will give my thoughts on this book once I've finished it.

My copy of MHI has apparently been lost in the mail or stolen. Larry Correia was good enough to send out a replacement copy this past week. I'm just itching to get my mitts on it.

Lastly, the gent from my work who made the comment that Ron Paul had dropped out of the race has retired. He put in his resignation just the day after having lunch with us. I think he annoyed my supervisor more than a bit what with not telling anyone.

Hopefully, there will be more of note later.

Organic LEDs

One of the high points of the vendor visit that I mentioned in the previous post was a mention of a new technology that I hadn't heard of before. Organic LEDs. Sony has already presented prototype televisions using this technology. This was brought up in the context of using LED touchscreens in place of the old mechanical switches that are the staple of our industry.

One of the things that really excites me about this particular technology is the ability to deposit the organic compounds that the OLEDs consist of onto flexible substrates. I'm sure most of you have seen the sci-fi movies/tv shows where the characters pull out a long but thin device about the size of a large tv remote and pull on one side to unroll a flexible touchscreen. With the research into this technology, those special effects gurus could be modern-day prophets.

I want one.

Egads

We had a couple of vendors visit us today at work, trying to steal some of our business away from their competitors. As part of this, we were treated to lunch.

During the course of our conversation, the topic turned, as they often do, to politics. And then something unnerving happened. The vendor stated that he couldn't think of a single candidate for president from the Republican party who is still truly conservative except for Fred Thompson. I quickly put in Ron Paul's name into the mix, to which the vendor replied that he had not heard anything about Dr. Paul. I was interrupted by one of the senior engineers. "It's really too bad he dropped out of the race."

I was dumbfounded. I hadn't checked Dr. Paul's site in a few days and I flatly refuse to watch any of the news networks that are available on cable and so I couldn't reply with anything beyond, "Oh. I hadn't heard that." But frankly, it seems incredibly unlikely to me. But I'm the newbie.

And of course, now I'm home where I have unlimited access to the internet (freaking sonicwall), and I see that Dr. Paul is still going strong. And I'm still dumbfounded! How is it that someone could even mistakenly get that impression? I can't think of anyone from the Republican top candidates who dropped out of the race recently, so that can't be it. Could it just be an assumption due to the lack of publicity for Dr. Paul?

This is really rather disheartening.

Well, That Sucks

It seems that my employer has decided to lay off approximately 300 employees out of the 1200-1300 currently on the payroll. This is in addition to a week-long plant shutdown at the end of January and the reduced production rates (15 units/day instead of the normal 31!) afterward. This is due to an overage of around 1400 units (!) on the standard model. Thankfully (I think) the powers that be have declared that engineering will not be affected except for a hiring freeze currently in place. There are no guarantees, however.

The real kicker is that the sister plant in OK will not be laying people off, will be taking some of our orders, and is actually increasing their production rate. It actually makes sense from a productivity standpoint as the orders that they are taking from us are for models that they build exclusively, so their productivity on these units is substantially better than ours. The bad news is that without more orders coming in, sooner or later, my plant may send everything their way.

But business savvy or no, there are a lot of POed people around here right now.

The Shame

I have a confession to make...

First of all, it's not like I actually bought it. It came with the gun. And I didn't have a holster that would fit...

*deep breath*

I own an ankle holster. And even worse I've used it. And worst yet, I think I like it.

Please, stop throwing things for a second and listen, will you? Just hear me out.

My standard mode of carry until now has been a full-sized sidearm in a hip holster either outside or inside the waistband. I then usually wear a baggy T-shirt or a loose button-down shirt, untucked, as a cover garment. This is great for normal about-town jaunts but in situations where sitting for a long period it gets quite uncomfortable. Inside a vehicle is even worse as the armrests and seatbelts can encumber the drawstroke.

Another strike against it is when in situations where there's a good chance of physical contact between yourself and another person. I've posted before on THR that my brother has made me a couple of times while I was carrying. Each time, he made an unexpected move such as poking me in the ribs at something he found funny or trying to playfully punch me in the side. And even though he's gotten a little more mellow about it, the first time ended with him making a scene in a restaurant and possibly outing me to other patrons.

Pocket carry would go quite a ways toward mitigating the risk of the latter problem but does nothing to help the former. However an ankle holster can work to solve both problems. It is an unobtrusive mode of carry and quite discreet so long as you don't go around lifting your pant legs in public or trying to kick people (or getting frisked by fellows in blue uniforms with guns and badges. Hey, whatever you're into...it's just not my bag). While wearing loose pants (think carpenter jeans) the pistol is not any more likely to get hung up on the draw than with a loose cover garment and the risk of printing with a small pistol like the PF-9 is minimized. And while sitting, the pistol is much more accessible than in normal carry methods.

With all this in mind, it's looking like I'll be able to arm myself in situations where it might be detrimental to certain aspects of my life (think sitting at a desk for hours on end). But at least I'd still be alive to look for other prospects.

So yes, I own an ankle holster. And I'm proud of it!

And maybe one of these days I'll be able to admit that to someone's face...

Christmas party

We had both our office and plant-wide Christmas parties today. I managed to eat too much, listened to some rather talented singers/musicians, and got a fleece pullover and a waterproof throw embroidered with the company's logo.

And now I am going to curl up with a book until Supernatural is on and wait for my pizza to get here.

Life is good.