Quote of the Week

"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils."
- Woodrow Wilson



Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Dogs and Little Kids Love Me; Cats and Women, Not So Much


That is something I often say about myself. People usually get a laugh from it, but it is really true. It’s just how I’m wired.

I’ve always been a dog lover and I think they know a human that likes them when they see one. I’ve seemed to always have a knack with kids. Especially kids under four, for one reason or another, I can almost always make them smile. Women on the other hand, I seem to have a way of driving them crazy. Cats, well, cats are cats. That’s pretty much way I’m the single guy with a dog.

This is my cousin's dog while I started writing this post. He was my guest the last few days.
The phrase came to me one time at some social function when I was being led by the hand of a two year old I hardly knew to go play. Someone said to me “you’re so good with kids, why don’t you have a family of your own?” The only thing I could think of to say was “dogs and little kids love me; cats and women, not so much.”

A while back I posted my little saying on Facebook, and many of my friends and family laughed, then agreed. My sister even half-jokingly pointed out that one of my ex-girlfriends may have been the real life Catwoman. 

Last weekend I was at a party for a friend of mine’s graduation. Those events are always kind of fun because there is a mix of people I know extremely well, people I know enough to say “hi” to, and complete strangers of all ages. While I was there, my personal saying was proved twice.

The first time I was sitting at a table in the garage, talking to family and friends. Out of the blue, the owners dog walk up to me, sat down and put its head on my lap. As I was scratching him behind his ears, the owner came up and said “that’s weird. He usually doesn’t come up to strangers like that.” It’s a gift I guess. A friend sitting next to me chuckled and said “if a dog is going to walk up to anyone, it’s going to be Shane.”

The second time happened while I was leaving. I was walking down the drive towards my truck and the same time another family was making its exit. They must have been heading home early to watching the Blackhawks vs. Bruins Stanley Cup Finals game too. 
I was walking past a little guy of around two holding a helium balloon. As I got alongside he looked at his balloon and looked up at me with the cutest grin. I stopped and said to the little bugger “you get to take home a balloon?” He stopped, smiled widely and enthusiastically shook his head yes. I smiled and said “lucky you! I didn’t get a balloon.”

The little guy frowned a little and looked down as if in deep thought. Then he looked up at me, smiled and handed me his balloon. My heart almost melted as I tried to convince the little guy to keep his balloon and I would be okay without it.

As I raced home to be in time for the opening faceoff, I was still smiling and thinking about the kindness the toddler showed to me. My theory on why little kids like me so much is because I make an effort to be kind and to interact with them. I think they respond to sincerity and respond to it positively because I seem to have a way to build trust with them quickly. Being young enough to not be lied to, cheated, or have their trust taken advantage of too much. Little kids seem more likely to return kindness with kindness.

I also strongly believe that same theory applied in reverse is why I have the opposite effect on women. They’ve been lied to, cheated, or have their trust taken advantage of so much; they see my sincerity as a threat. 

It’s either that, or I’m just simply childish.

It would be a much better world if we were all better judges of character. Be able to know right away who we can trust and who we couldn’t. Then we could act and treat each other more like toddlers, rather than like cats.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

NHL Hockey in June Just Ain’t Right


To say I’m a hockey fan would be stating the obvious. Grew up playing and watching every game I could. While I am no longer play, I still love to watch and follow my favorite players and teams. But, I am not and never have been a fan of NHL hockey in the middle of June.

Summer hockey should be for development and summer leagues for minor league pros and high schoolers who have a shot at college hockey. And of course high schoolers who’s over bearing, delusional, living-through-their-kids, parents think they have a shot for college hockey.

Side note: do you know who are some of the worse sports fans in the world? Parents of Class ‘C’ Bantam age hockey players. Because they are just realizing they have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours on their kid’s hockey career and they will never play for the Varsity High School team, let alone get a college scholarship out of the deal. Those are some angry ass people.

I wish they would go back to having the Stanley Cup Finals in April. You know, when there still is some snow and ice around. It’s the middle of June; I’m wearing shorts as I type this and last night the Blackhawks and Bruins kept me up with three overtimes. That’s fundamentally wrong.

At least the Blackhawks are in it. They have been one of my favorite teams since I was a little kid. And it is pretty cool they’re playing the Bruins, another Original Six team. What makes June NHL hockey worse is when a team like the L.A. Kings is playing. Nothing against the Kings, but nothing screams hockey like a team from southern California, playing in June.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

An open letter to the guy who flipped me off

An open letter to the guy who flipped me off a little while ago on the road,

 While you may feel I was tailgating, I was keeping a safe distance in relation to the speed we were traveling. You have every right to drive slow. In fact I would rather you drive way below the posted speed that over it. But to be honest, if you drive 23mph on a road that's posted 55mph and you intentionally block the line of cars behind you from safely passing, I don't care if your feelings have a boo boo now.

Not only were you being a self centered ass, but you were causing a potentially dangerous situation. A serious accident could have been caused if another self centered ass, much like yourself, was in that line of cars you forced to follow your redicoisly slow speed for the road conditions.

That self centered ass could have tries to pass five cars following your self centered ass, easliy causing an accident.

If you must travel these hilly back country roads at 23mph, ride a bike. 

No wait. Scratch that. Your probably one of those douchebags who scream "bicyclist have rights to the road" while you ride on the wrong side of the road, blow stop signs, and turn suddenly without signaling. 

Sincerely,
The guy who just smiled politely and waved when you flipped him off.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

.357sig Initial Review

My initial review of the .357sig caliber handgun cartridge.

Originally, I had no interest in getting a .357sig barrel because I had zero interest in the .357sig cartridge itself. I never paid it much attention to since there are already so many options for handgun calibers. At the time it came out, I was shooting 9mm, always liked .45ACP, was falling in love with 10mm and was just becoming acquainted with .40S&W.

My opinion back then was there were already more than enough options for calibers for semiautomatic handguns. Without know much about it, I just assumed it filled the gap between 9mm and .40S&W and that wasn’t really a gap that required filling. I was wrong in every way.

Recently a friend of mine suggested I get the .357sig barrel for my Glock 23. I told him my above opinions, but he was politely persistent at encouraging me to do some research on it. So of course I went to YouTube and checked out some video on the .357sig posted by two people who I subscribe to their channels. I was impressed enough to buy a barrel.

Two boxes of Winchester FMJ target loads and a .357sig Glock barrel. 
I have had the barrel for a few weeks, but no ammo. This last weekend the stars aligned and I received a new steel target on Thursday and two boxes of .357sig target loads on Friday. Guess what I did Saturday? You guessed it, I mowed the lawn. But after that I set up my new target and did some shooting.

I started off shooting a .40S&W, something I shoot regularly so I could make a good comparison. When I put the .357sig barrel into the Glock and prepared to fire the first round, I was slightly hesitant. I was expect the gun to kick me around, but I was pleasantly surprised.

But the recoil was noticeably different from that of .40S&W. While the report was quite loader and kick was little stronger, it was very controllable. The kick seemed to be more straight back with  had less muzzle flip, which allowed for a faster follow up shot. The rounds were hitting the steel target WAY HARD. Extremely impressed!

Advertised ballistics data from Winchester.
If you haven’t tried shooting .357sig yet, I highly recommend you do. It is a very fun caliber to shoot. I will be posting a more thorough review once I shoot it some more.