An Amazingly Low-Key Weekend...

….comes to an equally low-key end. Snow...cold…wind…stay inside and read. Cook a bit. Watch some old movies. Clean a couple of guns. Pretty cool, all in all.

There's a couple of articles that are definitely worth reading. the first is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette via Guns Save Lives, titled "I'm That Guy You Never See Carrying a Gun Every Day:"

People from all walks of life legally carry guns. Some are men and some are women. Some are old and some are young. The ones I know train. The ones I know are aware: Aware of their surroundings. And aware of all of the armchair quarterbacking that will be done if they ever have to use that tool of last resort on their belt. So why do it anyway? Because they value their life and the lives of others. Simple.

It's a good piece, and right on target, so to speak. Graham Tradecraft's Matt wrote an equally compelling piece titled, "Knock Knock, Reaper's Here:"

There has been chatter recently about “ tactical minimalism”, and the idea that having less than a full load out makes a person inferior or less capable. When I talk about minimalism I am specifically referring to living as a minimalist within the context of personal protection and the use of available tools, i.e. firearms, knives, gear, etc. A better term comes from the military and is “line gear”, and is referenced as first line gear, second line gear, and third line gear. First line gear is described, simply, as gear you will never be without or gear that you have with you at all times. Quiz time: knock knock, Reaper’s here…what is your first line gear? Remember the rules: it must be gear that you have on you at all times. For me in my life I want to say that my first line gear is a gun, a light, a knife, and a tourniquet. But I’d be lying. So would most of you. Do you fly commercially as a civilian? Do you go into restricted areas, either government buildings or school zones? Do you swim in a pool or spend time at the beach? If you do, the chances are, like me, you aren’t carrying a gun. Maybe a knife. So that makes my first line gear – the gear that I have with me at all times – simply a light and a tourniquet. Seems fairly benign, yet it is realistic. When confronted by people who say they always carry and have tons of gear and equipment every time, all the time, my response is two-fold: they are either full of shit or they don’t get out very much.

Read the whole thing.

Strangely enough, we watched BIRDMAN today…meh…I'm always a little ambivalent about movies about acting in general, since I'm sort of not really an actor myself. Insufficient angst. One of the times I was out playing Hollywood a real actor asked me whether I'd always wanted to be an actor. I replied, reflexively, that I wasn't an actor. She laughed. "You've been on teevee for, what, a decade?" she said. "Trust me, you're an actor." Cue the theme music, I suppose. LOL!

Anyway, it was okay.