An exercise in tab clearing

Whenever I think I’m going to get a little breathing space, I’m proven wrong.  The Higher Education Institution IT Department will be running at half its normal staffing level as of this Friday as I lose another person to the greener grass of just about everywhere else.  When you’re paying 25-50% under market salary, this happens a lot, and given the inescapable fact that the job market for computer geeks has picked up quite nicely around here, they can’t count on being able to pick up hired help on the cheap any longer.

Except they seem dead set on continuing to do so.  Current incoming resumes notwithstanding, the prevalent attitude on high is that we’ll simply train them.  How we are supposed to run things during the period while these new people are being trained up into useful and knowledgeable employees is dismissed with much arm waving and comments of “You’ll figure it out.”

Yes, yes I will.  That’s why I have a resume too, although it will be more difficult for me to make a move.  But in the mean time, I’m going to be very busy, and all those browser tabs I’ve been holding open with the laughable concept of using them for blog posts, well, they need to get closed.  So here they are, with minimal comment, I’m afraid.

Crimson Trace has a series of 7 videos on the subject of  “Training With Laser Sights”.  If I hear one more Gun Store Genius say “Whatcha gunna do when th’ battries go dead?” I may just use them for a practice target.  Modern laser sights run just about forever on a good set of batteries, and you get some visual warning before they die.  Crimson Trace even give you free batteries for life if you’ll just sign up for the program.  Add to that the simple fact that the iron sights don’t fall off your gun when you put the laser on, and you have a damn fine system going.

I used to be concerned about whether the laser could take the beating of life on a gun, but if they can survive in today’s war zones, I think they’ll survive for most of us.  Throw in a nice dose of presbyopia (getting old is for the birds) and the laser has now become a must-have accessory on any gun I’m going to bet my life on.  Try one out, but be careful, because you’re going to get hooked.

“6 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Recoil Control With A Handgun”  One thing I’ve noticed when watching Mike Seeklander shoot is how little his pistol seems to come off the target in recoil.  Me?  You can measure my split times with a calendar some days.  This is how you get the splits down to where you need a shot timer to measure them.

Once you can aim and control your recoil, you can practice more effectively.  So you’ll want to start shooting some drills.  MountainGuerrilla has words on the drill that you probably aren’t shooting enough, or correctly–the snap shot.

Moving from guns to more prepping oriented skills, let’s hit vacucanning.  Vacucanning is a food preservation method that uses vacuum rather than heat to preserve food.  You still use mason jars and lids, however.  The gear isn’t cheap, but you will get savings from being able to reuse lids.  You can get a ready-made vacucanner at vacucanner.com, or, the Internet being what it is, there are plans for building your own here.

That’s it–tab clearing complete.  Hat tip to Crimson Trace for the email notice for the vids and to the Survival Podcast for the vacucanner information.  It’s been so long on the gun stuff I forget where I found it.

Stay safe.  Continue enjoying the Bernie and Donald Show–I know I am.  Pay attention to things economic.  There are currents way down deep that may cause trouble in the months to come.  Watch the increasing levels of violence, especially the attacks on police.  Yes, I have my issues with the cops, but I just want them to play by the same rules we have to play by.  Assassination is not something I would advocate.  This could lead to some serious blow back.  Always remember, as Michael Bane says, violence is a virus–and a highly contagious one at that.  Mind your 6.