Found: One Troll

Apparently mine was yesterday. It’s been one year and 160 posts since I started this blog.

Continuing the meme started by Marko, here were the contents of my pockets and belt when I came home this evening:

From top to bottom and left to right:

• Smith and Wesson 1911PD, “Gunsite”, .45ACP
• Spare Wilson Combat 47D Magazine
• Key chain, with Utilikey, flints, and spare lighter fluid
• Casio digital/analog watch
• Leatherman Charge TTi
• Surefire E2L Outdoorsman
• Black Crackle Zippo lighter
• Lamy Safari Charcoal with fine nib
• Mantis Knives “Classier Act” pocketknife
• DIFRWear RFID-blocking wallet
• Work phone: Motorola Q
• Personal phone: Nokia E71x
• 64GB iPod Touch

You can see that I have added a bit since I did this last year. Two things from last year are missing; my Mantis Knives Necessikey was confiscated by TSA on my way to some convention last year and I upgraded my personal cell phone. I bought the Lamy pen partly on Marko’s recommendation with the hope that if I spent a few dollars on a pen and made it my dedicated “carry pen” that it might not go missing like all my cheap disposable pens. So far, so good, as I’ve been carrying it for about a month and it is still handy whenever I need a writing instrument. I bought the iPod mainly because it’s a better music player than my Kindle (for airplanes), and I find that I use it all the time so I consider it money well-spent. The Zippo I purchased mainly because I wanted one. No compelling reason, really.

I just got home from a rockin’ New Year’s Party. I hope everyone else had a good time last night and has a great 2010!

It’s the end of the year, which means last night was the year-end recap for Gun Nuts Radio. I actually called in last night to gripe about Crappy Nappy, Arizona’s former governor and everyone’s favorite Secretary of Homeland Security. I can’t wait to see (or hear) what those Gun Nuts are doing next year.

I will be spending the day cooking steak and then hiding from family. I hope yours goes well!

Kevin Baker wants to organize an Arizona blogshoot for next month in Casa Grande. It looks like Saturday the 12th may be the date. Whenever it is, I’ll be there. Spread the word, ‘Zonies.

Update: Blogshoot is on for the 12th.

I have returned from Detroit. NANOG was full of great networking stuff, I picked up a bunch of good security tricks. ARIN was boring as hell, it was all nerd politics. I had lunch with TD on Monday at Miller’s Bar, which serves very good burgers. I’d say the burger was right on par with the burgers over at the Heart Attack Grill, which serves the best burgers in Phoenix. In other news I just installed Windows 7, which upgraded my 64-bit Vista install with zero problems. I haven’t done any extensive testing, but so far, so good. Also, the topic of this week’s Vicious Circle is open carry. Hie the hence and listen.

I have arrived in Detroit for NANOG 47. This is the first event I’ve attended where there is an actual PGP key signing party. I think that makes this the nerdiest place I’ve been since college.

I created a new section of the blogroll for podcasts, mostly because of the news that Kim Du Toit has a new podcast which begins this Sunday. Kim’s blog was the first blog I ever followed. I found it while I was looking for information on becoming a first-time gun owner. I started reading Kim’s sites for the guns, but I stayed because his thoughts on culture, life, and politics were well worth reading, even if I didn’t always agree with him. It was through his blog that I found many of the other blogs I still follow today (SayUncle and Tam are the other two big enablers of my information addiction). Kim and his wife Connie both retired from blogging in November of last year, but their website is still there, so if you’re unfamiliar with their essays I recommend that you pop on over and have a read. So, welcome back to the internets, Kim and Connie. You’ve been missed.

Sorry about the no-bloggy. I took a two and a half week vacation from work, starting with PAX, and I really wasn’t feeling the muse. Some post-vacation updates:

• During my time off I helped my parents clean out some of their junk-filled rooms and we found a bunch of my late paternal grandfather’s stuff, including a pair of framed certificates declaring him an honorary Sergeant-at-Arms of the Tennessee State Senate and an honorary citizen of the State of Tennessee. We have no idea what the stories behind those items are. My Dadu^[1] never applied for American citizenship, choosing instead to retain his dual British and Indian citizenships even after he retired to the US to be with his son.  There were also a large number of my grandmother’s silk saris and other dresses packed away.
• We also found a large number of college textbooks dating to my father’s time at university (late 60s) and a bunch of electronics branded “Digital” from his time as an executive of the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corporation. My father is a serious pack rat.
• It’s late September, summer is technically over, and we might see days where the temperature stays under 100 degrees soon. The winter is much better for shooting around these parts.
• I decided that as a reward to myself for earning my CCIE I will skip the AR-15 and instead get a surround sound system. I want a new rifle but I am in greater need of a new sound system. I’ve had my HDTV for two years and it’s time to unshackle myself from the TV speakers. After much research, I decided on an Onkyo receiver and Aperion speakers. The receiver has arrived and the speakers should be here by the end of this week. I hope to have an initial review of it up next weekend, after a proper party to put it through its paces and help break in the speakers.
• This Wednesday, September 30th, the new gun laws that Governor Brewer signed will go into effect. I have yet to see any restaurants with “no guns” signs up, including, to my surprise, the Four Peaks Brewery where I ate last night. I had figured that most of the bars down in Tempe would have signs up. Out here in the West Valley neither Red Robin nor Buffalo Wild Wings have signs up (the only places I’ve eaten recently). The restaurants must have the sign posted near their liquor license, and one is legally permitted to enter a restaurant while armed to determine if firearms are permitted. If you want to know whether you can carry, just ask to see the restaurant’s liquor license. In order to carry in a restaurant that serves alcohol under the new law one must have a CCW permit and must be carrying concealed. AZCDL will be working to remove these restrictions in future legislative sessions.
• Speaking of AZCDL, the Arizona Citizens Defense League annual meeting is next weekend in Tucson. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend, but next year it’s in Phoenix, so I should be at that one.
• AZCDL has also setup the AZCDLPAC to help influence elections next year and in the future.
• I’ll be at the NANOG/ARIN conferences in Detroit late next month. I have no idea if there will be worthy blogfodder there.
• Here’s some season-appropriate music: Summer’s Over by Jonathan Coulton

1. Bengali for “paternal grandfather.” [↩]