Found: One Troll

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.” [↩]

I’ve noticed a few posts about evolution around the ‘sphere lately. The only reason I mention it is that they reminded me of this piece by the esteemed MC Frontalot:

The recent controversy over open carry reminds me of one of my favorite Barry Goldwater quotes.

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!

As I said over at Linoge’s, open carry will never be normal unless we actually practice it. We can’t normalize carry as long as we’re hiding our sidearms under our jackets. Sure, we’re winning the fight to get shall-issue or constitutional carry all over the US, but to the general public carrying guns will never be normal until they see regular people carrying guns. We can organize letter and phone campaigns to sway politicians, but we can’t do the same with our neighbors. The only way to change their minds and open up the debate is to wear our sidearms on our sleeves, so to speak. If you don’t want the crazy libertarian types to represent you, as a gun owner, get out there and represent yourself.

The Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association has a blog now and it’s right here. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s a good start. The ASRPA has been slowly expanding its web presence over the last couple of years. If you want to stay up-to-date on Arizona shooting, hunting, and related news, this is definitely a blog to follow.

I passed the CCIE Routing and Switching written exam today with flying colors. What a difference a good night’s sleep can make. The only thing now between me and a unique CCIE number is the lab exam, which is a little like saying the only thing between me and millions of dollars is a bank vault door. I’ve got another post on IPv6 in the works based on some of the stuff I learned at Cisco Networkers from folks who’ve actually deployed it on a large scale (mostly from Europe and Asia). Hopefully I’ll get that up by the end of the week.

Here’s some stuff I meant to post about but haven’t:

• I guess I’m losing weight, because my old belt doesn’t fit me anymore on the last hole. I headed over to Galco‘s website and ordered a new belt 4″ shorter than my old one, and all is well again. I can wear my gun and my leatherman without my pants falling off. I guess walking everywhere and not eating so damn much is working out well this year.
• HB2474 – the guns in parking lots bill – passed the Arizona House and both of my representatives voted for it. Hopefully it gets a fair shake in the Senate and passes this year. Gov. Brewer will certainly sign it. The way I (and the law)  see it, my car is an extension of my home. Making it illegal to ban guns in private cars doesn’t seem like an invasion of privacy to me.
• Hopefully this weekend I’ll get around to liveblogging a Fedora install on my EeePC. I’m going to try KDE because I’ve only ever used GNOME before.
• Rock Band is getting some Iron Maiden DLC next week! Finally, no more shitty covers of Maiden songs; we’ll be able to rock out to the real deal. Also, next week is the release of Iron Maiden’s new live DVD/documentary Flight 666.
• I think I’ve finally figured out why AT&T is the worst backbone service provider. Level 3 and Qwest have a lot of automated processes for managing BGP policies and such, but AT&T has an understaffed team of fools who do all that work manually. Example: I want to update some policies on 100 Level 3 circuits at once, it takes them less than 24 hours, and only that long because the automated process runs during a maintenance window. If I want to do the same thing for 100 AT&T circuits, it’ll take their team a month to manually make the changes. Then I have to go through and check their work because they inevitably miss something or otherwise cock it up. Even one circuit takes a week if you don’t call and harrass them. The difference: AT&T is a union shop. Unfortunately, I’m not 100% sure that Level 3 is non-union. It’s possible that AT&T just generally sucks.
• Here, more Maiden:

Chris and Melody are in a serious legal battle for the custody of their children. The situation is so desperate that Chris has sold all of his firearms except for his carry piece.

When I wanted to buy my first gun back in 2005, I started looking for information on the intarwebs for legal and technical advice. I was determined not to go into the decision uninformed about my rights and responsibilities. I got most of my initial gun information from four sources: Kim du Toit‘s Nation of Riflemen (now retired from blogging), Kevin Baker, Alan Korwin’s Gun Owners Guide, and Chris Byrne. From the three blogs in that list I found most of the others that I read today.

Some of their best blog posts are their Recipies for Real Men series. I’ve often thought that I would gladly pay for a cookbook of those recipes, and now I can! I encourage you to help them in their fight by doing the same.

Not here.

Here. JayG has a summary of most of the Blog Bash posts around the blagowebs so far. He’ll be at Charlotte next May and I hope to meet him and others there.

I was thinking about podcasts, speeches, bloggers, and other geekery today, and I eventually came around to one speech that is the epitomy of geekdom. Two years ago at PAX  2007 Wil Wheaton gave the keynote speech. The topic was video gaming as a social activity, and the entire speech is an excellent refutation of basically everything Jack Thompson has ever said. The highlight of the speech, though, is Wheaton’s exhoration for modern gamers, who largely spend life hidden behind an anonymous wall of bits: Don’t Be a Dick.