So after receiving the proceeds of my interest free loan to .gov over the past year I decide to upgrade my TV. I'm giving the old one to Mr. Curmudgeon for the man cave to help insure domestic tranquility there for him and Mrs. Curmudgeon.
So I have to really see what the new one can do. I received this today.
After throwing away ST1 and ST5 I load of course the favorite of almost any fan, STII The Wrath of Khan.
I am greeted with this display on the A/V receiver:
Ok, I have been around the block with consumer electronics for some time. I sold Nakamichi cassette decks back in the day and they were equipped with Dolby "B" and "C" noise reduction. Then came the video stuff. Dolby 2.1, 5.1, 7.2, etc.
I have never observed this display on the receiver before. Protip, set your PS3 or anything else to "Bitstream" to send to the amp. Let it figure out what you are sending to it and decode.
Dolby TrueHD is described here.
The audio rocks. The picture is quite frankly impressive.
Although most of my age only remember Ricardo Montalbán as a dude selling some leather on a Chrysler or as the ice cream uniform from Fantasy Island, he had a storied career as an accomplished actor. He owned this movie. ILM did the effects and for the day they kept up with Mr. Montalban.
So Tam has a post up on the cost of .22 revolvers. I have to say her logic is impeccable. Since she mentions the Smith and Wesson 617, I thought I would oblige.
Yep! Just like the 686 .357 Magnum. Big honking K Frame. Noted as the K-22 Masterpiece Stainless FulI-lug. I agree with Tam. The cost to make this Handgun regardless of caliber would be the same to me.
Here is a shot of the 617 with its little sister, the Model 34-1 Kit gun. Chambered in the same caliber.
The cost is in the action, not so much the raw materials.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will be amazed!
Well, maybe not. An experiment. You have to understand that in my professional life things are pretty much a binary solution set. 01 plus 01 equals 10. Cooking is WAY more analog in my opinion.
Tonight I took this:
After searing some meat in the pan with garlic and then adding the broth and onions (I think its called deglazing or some such). I poured that over this in a crock pot for lunch and freezing later.
We shall see what happens.
I do try in the kitchen, I have some great cookbooks.
I have a problem though. It would be this:
Whomever designed this abomination to the culinary arts I hope dies in a crotch fire! Digital PID control for temp? Are you kidding? For those that don't know what that means is that you can set the temperature control on "medium" and the burner will go wide open 50% of the time and cut off for a period of time then go back to wide open. You go from everything burning to stone cold. Repeatedly.
Its tough enough for me to do this well with GOOD equipment. Less alone this. I welcome my new natural gas overlords!
This is in the State Capitol:
Less dramatically here is the driveway at stately manor. Yeah I could shovel it or wait for a capitalist with a tractor with a blade to clear it, but meh, just fire up the 1994 Mustang and have at!
As with so many other things in my life not esthetically appealing but effective. Traction control consisted of clutch and accelerator!
So we shall see how bad all of this freezes over tonight.
Sigh.... Yeah I know we don't get the snow that some do here, but it makes for fine drama llamas. Hey! Do you really need to put a run on the grocery store when the highs here will be in the mid forty's by Thursday? This will be gone by then. I promise.
The only thing that does suck is that I have a revolver and a new TV supposed to be delivered the end of the week.
Hey. If it gets that bad I have barter and food. Sorta.
I venture north this afternoon to visit Mr. and Mrs. Curmudgeon. A short trip but well worth the effort.
First, two working Revolvers. Back in the day, you had one of these or a variant on your hip.
Top, Colt Official Police in .38SPL. Bottom, Smith and Wesson Model 10-5 Military and Police in the same caliber. In case you have not noticed, Mrs. Curmudgeon likes grapes. This picture was taken on the kitchen table.
Wandering down to the bunker I took a bad pic of some of the knives on display. Mr. Curmudgeon is one of the first members of the Case knife collectors club and had a few on display.
I'll get back up there with a real camera instead of the iThingy soon.
Food was good, targets reviewed and sadly a return home too soon.
Good to see them.
And he wants his gun back.
My long time friend the Doctor Moreau of handguns showed me this over the weekend.
I think this is a Ruger MkII or MKIII. I can't be sure. Oh wait. There is a MKIII in there. 22/45 take off barrel. And other stuff. I am not conversant on "Pimp My Ruger" mods.
The plus for me is that he has abandoned the .45ACP platform for competition shooting. He wanted to know if I was interested in this:
Uh, yeah I'll take it =) !
