Found: One Troll

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.

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.

Some things I learned from the NRA convention:

• Take more than one picture. Some of the photos I took didn’t come out the way I really wanted them to, but in order to avoid being an obstacle to other convention-goers I kind of snapped quick shots and moved on. I also didn’t get all the shots I wanted of some of the cooler displays. This is the wrong thing to do. Take the time and the shots necessary to get it right.
• Take the time to wait in line for events you want to see. You’ve got all weekend. I really regret not meeting R. Lee Ermey personally. I only saw him in passing and let the line deter me.
• If you blog anonymously, put your nom-de-blog on your press credentials. I prefer to be called by my real name face-to-face, but even fewer people knew who the hell I was because I made it more confusing than it had to be. Like LabRat said on day one: our blog identities are a significant part of who we are.
• Make business cards. Even if you’re just giving them to other bloggers who already know you by reputation, business cards help you make an impression. I actually already designed and ordered business cards for my blog from FedEx/Kinkos this evening. I will not be unprepared next time.
• Don’t be afraid to just hang out. Don’t feel like you need to be on the convention floor all day.
• Speak up. Introduce yourself to people. Given my extremely introverted nature, I feel like I didn’t do too poorly at this, but there is definitely significant room for improvement.

Sebastian (via Kevin): “I’ve never seen so many people open-carry, and nobody cares!”

This is why I can’t really grok the “scaring the white people” factor that some people see in open carry. In Arizona, no one cares if you’ve got a gun or five. Even having them on your person doesn’t make you special.

Spent the evening at Friday’s Front Row at Chase Field for the 2ABB meet-and-greet. Everyone there was really great and friendly. I spoke with the folks from Great Satan, Inc., ExurbanKevin, NUGUN, Eric Shelton from the Handgun Podcast, and others. I figured that I could work today and not miss anything and apparently I was wrong. NUGUN and Eric got to wander the exhibit hall during setup and check out all sorts of cool stuff. Even though I’ll be there in the same exhibit hall tomorrow, I am  a little jealous. Such is life. I’m looking forward to the grassroots workshop tomorrow morning. My EeePC arrived today. I want to stay up and install Fedora on it, but I should really get to bed if I want to wake up in time for breakfast at the convention. More bloggy tomorrow.

This with this. And the media wonders why we don’t trust them.

H/t, Kevin Baker and MVB, respectively.

The Big Brown Truck of Happiness just dropped this at my door:

I guess break time is over.

As of today I am a Cisco Certified Network Professional. This morning I passed the fourth and final certification exam. Now I can go back to playing video games for a couple weeks before I start studying for my CCIE.

Via Bore Patch, this app is fun. My father’s family is spread far and wide over the globe, and like many Indian families they are more than happy to host people who are otherwise complete strangers in their homes. In many of the countries I’ve visited, we spent our days touring the countryside and our evenings dining with near or distant relatives, sharing stories. I should see if I can find my travel diaries.

visited 20 states (8.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World or another interesting project

visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Also via Bore Patch, Engineering Johnson is now on the blogroll. I’m still working on that IPv6 series, but it has been delayed by real life obligations. I hope to have at least the first in the series up tomorrow. I should have much more time to write next week.

I had intended to go to the Phoenix Tea Party, but instead I’ll be working late. Damn.

Update: Dustin and VRWC did attend and have photos and video.