Blue Skies in Albany

I shot a match today.

No big deal, I do it every weekend when there's a Club Match. And there was nothing particularly amazing about this match, except for the second match in a row there was NO RAIN!

That may seem like a small thing to you, sitting in your big chair in front of the computer. But it was a very important part of our day, for Those Of Us Who Were There.

I wish I had taken more pictures today, but unfortunately SWMBO was not in attendance (having taken the day off to organize her new home), and I couldn't count on her to do part of the picture-taking chores. I missed her for other reasons, of course, but as it turned out I spent most of my photo-time taking videos . . . which I can't display on this website (nor link to, but that will change momentarily. Or so I am reliably informed by The Webserver Guy, Brian B.)

As a consequence, I can only offer photos of three of the six stages presented today. I'm delighted to be able to do this, because I've just established a credit account with my Image Server, IMAGESHACK, which allows me to gang-load photos. You'll have to bear with me while I abuse this new-bought privilege; it's nice to be able to upload a dozen photos at a time, as I have been doing all evening.

By now, you are aware that the main purpose of this article is to show some pictures of people shooting IPSC. It may not be a Noble Purpose, but I like to shoot and I like to see other people shoot. This venue allows me to relive the events that add such richness to my otherwise mundane life.



The match winner (to nobody's special surprise), Grand Master Rob S., is shown here shooting the "Podium" stage. I believe the actual name of the stage is "HOW FAR?" as is defined in the match results page conveniently provided on the Internet within hours of the end of the match. Just another service of ARPC, and Webmaster Brian B. (who PROMISES that I'll have web hosting for my videos "real soon now".) This was the last stage of the day. There's a podium in for the starting box. You start with the pistol on a shelf in the podium in front of you, and all reload magazines must be taken from the podium. Four IPSC targets. Shoot two rounds per target, reload, repeat, reload, repeat. Twenty four rounds, 120 points, real tough for revolver shooters (of which we had one at the match today.) RO is Norm the Ungrateful.



Here's Trevor O., a school teacher who is an A-Limited and A-L10 shooter in his premiere match as an Unclassified Open shooter. He's using a compensated Glock with a slide-mounted dot-sight in unclassified Open division. He kicked my B-Open butt, as did a number of other competitors today.



In another stage ("Da Ding") you get to shoot through three ports at eight-round arrays consisting of two IPSC targets and three Pepper Popper. Behind the middle Pepper Popper there's a forward-falling US Popper. Very challenging, especially if you don't realize (as Rob S. didn't) that it's not going to fall 'normally'. Here, Caryn S. prepares to beat the snot out of me with a sizzling 13.50 second time. Oh, yeah, I beat her TIME, but I had a couple of misses which pretty much proves ... something. (I think it proves that she's a better shot, and a better competitor, than I am. You think?)



Here's the view through the left port of "Da Ding".



On the third stage (stage 4, "Loud Star", which was the last stage our squad shot today) Caryn is in the starting box and preparing to beat my butt yet one more time. Well, actually this was one of the few stages where I managed to squeak ahead of her, but the final results put her well ahead of me. She's a fine competitor, and I enjoy squadding with her and Rob because they both teach me lessons in competitive shooting which I somehow never manage to learn.

In this stage, you engage four IPSC targets from the starting box, then there are four more downrange (along The Wall, which is the stacked concrete blocks) to engage as you move downrange. When you get to the end of the way, which with a series of vision barriers forms a narrow hall, you find a Texas Star with four plates on the five arms, plus another static plate.

Why is the stage called "Loud Star"? That's because the concrete wall bounces the noise of every shot back at you, only to be turned into a thrumming noise by the visquine barrier four feet away from it. Shooting in this corridor is an exercise in Noise Abatement Gone Wrong, courtesy of Mikey the Mad Stage Designer.

The worst thing about the day was that SWMBO couldn't be there to share the experience. The best thing? NO RAIN!

I almost wish it had rained, so SWMBO wouldn't feel that she had missed a good match.

Good match.

Sorry, SWMBO.

Dundee Mudders

Two weeks ago, I shot a match at the Dundee club. Fourth Saturday, be there rain or shine. You know the drill.

Turned out to be a clear, dry day despite having occured after Labor Day. The rule of thumb in Oregon is that you can expect no weather more clement than 'rainy' after the first weekend in September, but we got lucky.

Except that the creek through the Jungle Run was running full, and the Dundee folks found fit to put a target right above the creekbed in that stage.

Most folks managed to be either faster or slower than the resulting mud spray, but a few of us timed our charge past the target just right so we got the splatter.

Jerry V. was the Best Of The Messed.



Brent R. caught a few drops.


And The Hobo Brasser even found himself wearing the Mud of Glory (click for hi-res . . . there's not enough mud to show up on a thumbnail. One Drop on his shirt, and he considers himself A Mudder. Sheesh!)


I had Jerry V. take my picture, but it disappeared somewhere between here and there. Nevermind, take it from me that I was THERE when the Hit hit the fan.


Those who weren't splattered were either moving too fast or too slow. They didn't get splattered, and I personaly believe that their glee at viewing our splattered shirts is nothing short of schedenfreud. Bad Karma, guys.


Norm The Ungrateful cleverly wore a shirt which didn't show mud . . .




And Rod C. is the Sultan of Smug.



But wait, there's more!

One of our juniors, Chris C., found himself in a very bad place during the Jungle Run. He had a double-charge, or something, which blew up his Glock. Can you say "Ka-BOOM!"? Sure you can.

Chris handled the results of Evil Ammo exceptionally well. Sure, he dropped the Glock into the mud and ate the trip to Dairy Queen (Match DQ), but it turned out okay otherwise. The KaBOOM! jammed the case in the gun, jammed the slide, broke the Mag Release mechanism. When we recovered the pistol from the mud, we couldn't rack the slide to clear the gun. So we bagged it, Chris and this father Jeff took it to the safety area, and with some help from GlockSmiths on the range managed to pull the slide off and extract the barrel. The revealed case wasn't obviously split, but it took some doing to remove it.


(Don't get too worked up about the round-in-the-barrel at the Safety Area. It was impossible to work on the gun anywhere else, and Chris had already been DQ'd. The gun was patently non-functional.)



In a later stage, Chris and his father Jeff are shown with Chad and KC McD. watching other shooters. Everybody seems to be having a good time; perhaps because they are watching someone shoot the Texas Star and they're just glad it's not their turn to deal with the challenge.



Walt and Stephan seem to share this attitude, perhaps because they've already shot the stage and have dealt with the worse the Star has to offer.



It was a good match, a challenging match, and while there were few memorable action photos, we saw a lot of people having fun no matter what difficulties they had to deal with.

That's what we came out for, after all.

Getting muddy was just an added bonus.

UPDATE: Comments-Spammer Alert!

Tyler the Rash Guards Guy ... this sight does not accept comments advertising commercial websites. Especially from YOUR lame website, which has been Geekatized and designated . . .

Croc Match Pix Offer

I've received several requests for copies of the photos which SWMBO took at the Croc Dundee "Banzaii Ballistic" match last month.


I've decided to make them available.


As it stands,

I have over 2GB of photos, mostly stills but also some videos, of the match. This includes the awards ceremony, the shooters' meeting, photos of the stages before the match, fathers & sons, etc. ad infinitum.

The bulk of the pictures are people actually shooting stages. SWMBO tried hard to get at least one photo of everyone, even if they were only in group shots and even if the people weren't actually competing. It's impossible if she managed to achieve her goal, but she took enough pictures that there's at least an even chance that if YOU were there, your picture can be found. Somewhere.



(There are a lot of videos of people either doing very well, or screwing up. Since the eight stages average over 50 rounds minimum, the most common error is forgetting to reload when planned, or for some other reason having to make a standing reload. There's also at least one Match DQ, and at least one "Broken Gun".)

We intend to use a few of these photos to illustrate an upcoming article which we will submit to the Front Sight Magazine. Only a few of the hundreds of pictures will be used, if the article is accepted. And of course, the magazine will not be able to publish videos.

I also intend to make some of the photos and videos available online, when I have worked out the details of establishing a host server (in process, I received confirmation that the storage WILL be available, up to 10GB . . . but that's in the future and I don't intend to include more than a select few of these pictures there.)

That means that most of these pictures won't be seen by anybody else, and it seems as if there is some demand for copies from people who competed at the 2005 Croc Match.



So if YOU have any interest in acquiring a set of these pictures (probably either 3 or 4 CDs, depending on how many are left after I edit out the few out-of-focus and redundant pictures), let me know by emailing me at
jerrythegeek@comcast.net

If there is enough interest, I will make copies and send them to you.



To pay for materials, postage, and our time in photographing and editing the photos and cutting the CDs, I will ask for a nominal contribution of . . . mmmmmm . . . ten dollars. Does that sound fair? That will cover the cost of materials, and postage, and won't begin to pay for my time in duplicating the CDs. I don't have a duplicating service available, these CDs will be duplicated one at a time using Roxio. This is a cottage industry, at best. We're all amateurs here.



No guaratees that you will even be in the photos, folks. And, since I don't have releases from anybody for display of their images, these are NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR DUPLICATION, AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS FOR PUBLIC DISPLAY! (All images copyright 2005 by Jerry the Geek.) The people in the photos will not be identified, nor will the stages.

To make it interesting, and to fill unused space on the 700MB CDs, I'll probably include the match results and (if I can find the) the stage descriptions. Perhaps some public-domain videos of firearms-related 'incidents' may be included also. These last will be 'stuff' I have downloaded from the web, because I found them interesting.

I also have two CDs of pictures taken by other people: Ron Downs and Norm Bright. If they give me their permission, I will include some or all of the images they have provided me, as well. This will add at least one more CD to that package.

If you are interested, and have emailed me asking for a copy, I'll send you my snail-mail address. You can send me a check for ten dollars ($10 US) and I'll send you the set of CDs.


Jerry the Geek

Airhead Oregon

Methamphetamine addiction is problem in Oregon.

According to the Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal in a September 16 article, 75% of inmates in the Marion county (Salem) jails and work-centers "reported problems with meth addiction".

Apparently the efforts of state and local police to shut down Meth Labs are insufficient to stem the flow of methamphatamines to your friendly neighborhood Crystal addict.

So what did Oregon do?

Having no better targets, the Oregon Legislature (which meets every two years, and need to do SOMETHING to justify their office) has decided to limit the supply of precursor chemicals upon which meth labs depend.

They passed a law which required retailers to take Sudafed and Drixoral, and any other decongestant which includes pseudophines and methamphetamines, off their shelves and only sell them directly over the counter. To buy these cold remedies, the consumer must ask for the OTC medicine by name and present ID. The purchase is entered into a log, along with the identifying number on your driver's license or other such appropriate photo ID.

That doesn't seem to be cutting down on the supply to the meth labs, so the Oregon legislature passed ANOTHER law, which will come into effect in 2006. This law "requires people to have prescriptions for cold and allergy medications that can be converted into methamphetamine."

In a recent interview with MS-NBC, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski had an interesting exchange with the hosts, Ron Reagan (may the REAL Ronald Reagan rest in peace) and Monica Crowley :

MONICA CROWLEY, HOST CONNECTED COAST TO COAST: Well governor, you’re come up with a creative way to combat this problem, you’ve signed into law legislation that would require people to have a prescription for what was formally an over-the-counter medication.

Tell us how this works, lets say someone has a cold and they need, say, Sudafed, are they going to have to go to their doctor and get a prescription?

KULONGOSKI: The answer to that is yes, let me just tell you that about 18 months ago, I created a meth task force in this state composed of the law enforcement community, prevention specialists, correction, and they came up with a report at that time and I went to the board of pharmacy over about a year ago, and I asked them to put all of these pseudoephedrine cold remedies behind the counter where the pharmacist would actually keep a list and require an I.D.

There wasn’t a prescription required at that time, but the legislature had just met, and one of the requests that we made to them was to make pseudoephedrine listed under our system as a class three drug, that would require a prescription.

Now one of the things I have to tell you already, there are over 40 new products without the pseudoephedrine chemical in it that are utilized for colds. So the pharmaceutical industry can actually address this issue quite easily, because they are already coming out with products that do not have pseudoephedrine in them.

REAGAN: Now governor, as well meaning as these steps are, you know that you are going to have critics out there, saying aren’t you inconveniencing the wrong people here. You’re inconveniencing the pharmaceutical companies I suppose to some extent, and just cold and allergy sufferers. And the methamphetamine users and makers are going to break into drug stores and just steal the stuff if they can’t buy it. How do you respond to that?

KULONGOSKI: Well my answer is, if you’re asking me if this is an inconvenience to some of our citizens than yes, I’ve never denied that, but let me suggest to you is one of the ways that we can address this epidemic is asking for a shared sacrifice of all of out citizens. You know the difference between what the states do and what the federal government does is very critically important to each of the states and by that I mean when our children are impacted the most are by these home meth-manufacturing labs.

Where the children of these parents are subject to abuse and neglect, they’re crawling around, they’re living in this environment where this meth is cooked, these children’s lives are being destroyed, it’s a tremendous cost to all of us as citizens, the cost to us is about 15-20 thousand dollars to clean up one of these home grown meth labs. The fact is, they’re showing up in our corrections system, I just talked to the director of the department of corrections, and hi budget is being strained by what is referred to as meth mouth -- this stuff is battery acid, it eats you teeth out -- and these people are showing up in our corrections system, are we are having to pay the cost to have to put implants into their mouth.

So what I’m trying to suggest is in fact, the best thing for all of us is to share in the solution to this problem on the local level. The federal level, that’s what I’m waiting for, I want a much more aggressive posture by the federal government to tell both the pharmaceutical companies, and these other countries that produce these major

Essentially, what Ted The Med is saying is that:

1. This Meth thingie is costing Oregon Voters a lot of money, and
2. We don't know what to do about it, so
3. We've passed laws which inconvience the voters and
   
4. Cost them money when they have to use their insurance co-pay to get prescriptions
5. Just so it looks as if we're doing something to solve the problem, even though
6. We're not, actually.
7. PS: I hope to GOD the voters are dumb enough to buy this Big Lie.
8. Just to make sure, we're not going to let them actually VOTE on it.

So, the citizens of Oregon will not only have to produce identification in order to buy Sudafed and Drixoral, but now they will have to go to a doctor and get a prescription for a LIMITED amount of what was originally an Over The Counter medicine. When they go to the Doctor, they had BETTER have insurance (even though the Oregon Medical Insurance for People who Don't Have A Job, such as retireees, has been discontinued because it was 'too expensive'). And even if they have insurance, it's going to require that they "Co-Pay", which means a minimum amount of money for the doctor visit . . . probably about $10 to $15 . . . will come out of the pockets of the "patient" who has a cold or allergy problem. This is the kind of problem which previously has been resolved by the patient saying "Damn! I"ve got a cold, but I've got to go to work. I'll just pop down to the drug store and buy some Drixoral. My nose will quit running, and I can go to work without a hankie."

Now the same person has to get a doctor's appointment, to get a prescription, and the same OTC medicine which use to cost $5.99 for a week's supply costs two or three times as much because of the need to co-pay the visit.


But HEY! It's all in a good cause, right?

And it's just our personal contribution (according to Ted the Med) as Good Citizens in order to Stop The Meth Problem ... which the combined forces of Federal and State Law Enforcement Agencies haven't made a DENT on in the past five years!

So, even though the prescription requirement isn't active yet, how's it working so far? I mean, the new law prevents the Drug Dealer Army from buying Sudafed off the shelf, so this should cut down on the amount of Meth available to drug dealers, right?

That should cut down on the amount of Meth available to the Oregon Addicts, right?

Wrong!

Washington pair nabbed on I-5 with meth cache - September 30, 2005

A routine traffic stop on Interstate 5 led troopers to a six-pound stash of methamphetamine and cash Thursday morning.

At 7:46 a.m., Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Bill Matson stopped a 1995 Ford Explorer heading northbound on the freeway near milepost 39 just north of Medford. He had clocked the Explorer traveling 84 mph in a 65 mph zone, police said in a news release.

The driver, Victorino Santos-Andres, 18, of Lacey, Wash., could not produce identification, prompting Watson to take him into custody.

"Enough probable cause was then established to lead us to search the vehicle," Watson said.

An OSP drug dog named Cookie was dispatched to the scene. Cookie aided troopers in the discovery of six pounds of methamphetamine and around $6,000 in cash hidden in the vehicle’s rear storage compartments, officials said.

OSP drug enforcement officials estimate the value of the drugs to be between $30,000 and $40,000.

Santos-Andres was arrested on charges of manufacturing, possession and delivery of methamphetamine. He was also cited for failing to carry a driver’s license.

He was lodged in Jackson County Jail, where he remained late Thursday in lieu of $68,000 bail.

The passenger, Baltazar J. Vazquez, of Olympia, Wash., was arrested on charges of manufacturing, possession and delivery of methamphetamine. He was lodged in jail, where he remained late Thursday in lieu of $75,000 bail.

Officials from Immigration and Naturalization Services determined that both men are illegal aliens. They told troopers that they were returning to Washington from California, Watson said.

"It’s one of the larger seizures of the year so far," OSP Lt. Gregg Hastings said.
OSP troopers have lately seen an increase of drug trafficking on Interstate 5, particularly in Southern Oregon, Hastings said.

OSP is concerned with the number of daytime drug busts in the last few months. Until recently, most drug finds have been at night, Hastings said.
"This is just more evidence that drugs are being transported around the clock in this state," Hastings said.

Got that?

" . . . drugs are being transported around the clock in this state . . ."


Legal folks-with-a-cold are now being required to jump through hoops to buy cold and allergy remedies, and it's only going to cost them more in the future. In the meantime, because of the Open Borders policy of the U.S. Governement, Meth is being "transported around the clock in this state."

This sounds like something that the Feds should be addressing. So what's their contribution?

To Fight Oregon's Growing Meth Problem

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) today announced that the U.S. Senate has approved legislation they championed to stop the creation, distribution and use of methamphetamine. The Combat Meth Act, which Wyden and Smith cosponsored along with U.S. Senators Jim Talent (R-Mo.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), has been included as part of the Fiscal Year 2006 Commerce, Justice Science (CJS) Appropriations legislation. The CJS appropriations bill now moves to a conference committee to work out differences between it and the House version of the bill. The Combat Meth legislation will provide resources and tools to help law enforcement officials and prosecutors to pursue and punish producers and distributors of Meth, increase community awareness of the Meth problem, and establish new treatment options. The Oregon Department of Human Services has reported that Meth use is the biggest drug problem facing Oregon child welfare today. Meth is the second-most treated drug addiction among Oregon teens.

"The deadly problem of Meth is eating away at the social fabric of our state, and today's action by the Senate is a big step forward in rebuilding that fabric in a variety of ways," said Wyden. "Fighting Meth use and distribution requires a multi-pronged approach, and the Federal government needs to do its part to support the good work of communities throughout Oregon to make headway in fighting this pernicious epidemic."

Yeah, Ron Weyden (D-ORE) and Gordon Smith (R-ORE) are taking the fight to the hallowed halls of Congress.

I've got a lot of faith in those two yahoos.

PS: Did I mention that Oregon is a "Blue State"?

UPDATE: Comment-Spammer Alert!

In the final chapter of Les Audacious, Avaricious, Avalance of Advertising from Our Old Friend Femme, after today I will no longer merely disable these comments which have been submitted for no better purpose than to promote commercial websites. I'll just delete them ... immediately, and permanently. I've let a few of them hang around in limbo, but they DON'T DIE IMMEDIATELY and I'm getting tired of dealing with them.

Of course, I've been having some fun at their expense, but I don't think I want to let the embedded links stay in the comments any longer than necessary.

This is the last step before requiring the application of technical security issues.
I only pray it works.

Bob Hope Says It all

H/T to Extreme Wisdom (who strives to present "The Best" to bloggers everywhere, and whose espoused goal is to be linked to by Instapundit).

Too bad, you've been linked to by The Geek.

It's an 8mb film clip, and I refuse to provide the direct link to the film clip. It's such a good commentary on DemocRats, and the comments are so worth reading, I'll let you get it from the original source. He deserves the credit, you deserve access to the comments.

Note: Brian B. suggested today that he can provide video hosting on an Albany Rifle & Pistol Club (ARPC) URL. If this works out, I'll include this and other political/RKBA/IPSC videos for your future enjoyment.

I'll keep you informed.

Note #2: Turn the volume UP!