Update on the Rifle kit

Well, I've gotten to work on my flintlock rifle kit. Since getting it on Friday this has involved five trips to three different hardware stores and I'm having a pretty good time.

Here's how it works....

All the part have to fit together nicely. But this being a kit, it takes a little chiseling here, a little filing there... and all the little pieces have to cooperate nicely to make the gun work. And with a little care the finished product even looks nice.

I'm making progress.

First I had to get the lock to fit. The "Lock," as in "Lock, Stock and Barrel," is the assembly of small screws, springs, flint and steel that creat the spark. It needs to fit snuggly, but also needs room to move. This meant a little chiseling, seen above, and filing down a long screw.

Then comes the screw that goes from the top of the gun to the bottom, holding on the barrel at one end and the trigger at the other. The hole the factory drilled for that screw was a little crooked, so I used a small round file to straighten it out.

Now I'm trying to get the two sections of the stock to fit together. I was playing around last night with the barrel attached and for the first time it looked, felt and worked like a rifle.

Screaming Hairy Armadillo

Well, I've not had the time to get serious about a Halloween costume this year, so I'll just dwell on my past....
You really wanna go to this link. Trust me.
http://www.unc.edu/~jderrick/artsy.html

The man in… brown?

I was at an event this past week where a highschooler asked why I always wear brown. I’d never really noticed I wear a lot of the same-colored clothing. But there is actually rhyme and reason behind what I wear.
I’m wearing a lot of khaki.
Johnny Cash wore a lot of black, and he had some good reasons. Black clothes were cheap and didn’t really show the dirt of long tours on the road.
Last time I wore a good set of pants to work they got ripped open at a construction site – so now I’m buying the cheap, expendable Wal-Mart brand.
But I’m not just crawling around in the mud taking pictures at job sites, at a moment’s notice I may need to be taking pictures at a church service, a formal dance, the scene of a shooting…. Versatility is good.
Khakis are a good way to look reasonably acceptable in most any situation. You’ll rarely be too over-dressed or too under-dressed. And when you’re trying to be a journalistic fly on the wall at a town meeting or sneaking up on animals on a hike in the woods you won’t be distractingly flashy.
Throw on a pretty good shirt and suddenly you’re dressed pretty well. Put on a relatively cheap, yet fine-looking khaki jacket over that and you’re ready for a roll in the mud again.
And khaki subdues mud stains pretty well.

John gets his flintlock rifle kit....

Yep, it came in the mail.... here's me getting it.... (dramatic reenactment)

And opening it.... (overly dramatic reenactment)

And here's what you get.... It all looks pretty well made -- needing only a little minor sanding, polishing up.... This seems at the easy end of the kit spectrum, the "Snap-Tite" idea as opposed to a hunk of iron ore and a log.

"Hufu -- The Healthy Human Flesh Alternative!"

Oh gosh. Oy. Wow. Umm. I saw this on The Daily Show, www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml.

I mean, really. I'm usually the crazy one in the room. But this makes even me feel distressingly normal.

Good Heavens. I'm really having trouble digesting this....

http://www.eathufu.com/

Bumble bee....

Here you go with some of Linda Putnam's pretty flowers in Kings Road in Shelby.

From my cold dead hands….

… you’ll have to pry my, uh, nipple wrench.
Actually, my Kentucky rifle kit doesn’t have a percussion nipple, it uses a flintlock frizzen. Duh.
But you do get a really great reaction saying “nipple wrench” in an office.
Try it, please – “nipple wrench.”
Yep, I am now a gun owner. Said piece is, however, in a box somewhere between here and www.possibleshop.com, in a few dozen parts ranging from a 33 ½ inch barrel to a [deleted. I heard the name for that part of the gun meant something dirty up North].
I’ve always found the weapons of our Revolutionary War interesting and finally decided I’d make one of my very own. So I poked around online some, talked with some folks and ordered a kit on Monday.
It was actually rather difficult to do hands on research. There’s apparently not a big enough market for these kits to find them in small gun stores, small outdoors stores, big outdoors stores or even really big gun shops with more weapons than an entire continental army.
So I’m ordering something I’ve only seen small pictures of, but it seems simple enough. And comes with directions.
For $225 I get a kit for a .50 caliber rifle relatively similar to what patriots might have carried at the Battle of Kings Mountain. And then I get the fun and sandpaper and chisel work of putting it together.
I checked on whether I have to jump through any legal hoops with getting such a weapon. Apparently not for this type of relatively primitive gun. Maybe they figure it’s more of a danger to the shooter than any shootee?
Kinda like the loose aviation regulations surrounding ultralights – they figure the only person you’ll kill is your own fool self?
These things fire one shot, take a while to load, use flint and steel to ignite the powder charge, are more than four feet long… not very popular for muggings, drive-bys, knocking off financial institutions….
In the end, it should look something like the muzzle-loader Charlton Heston likes to wave around at NRA meetings. But I don’t even own a loin cloth.
Really, think of five well-known movies he’s been in that didn’t involve him with a gun or a loin cloth – “Ben-Hur,” “The Buccaneer,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Ten Commandments”… (I’m counting togas, too).
And then there’s the Quintessential Charlton Heston – in a loin cloth with a gun: “Planet of the Apes.”
But along with your stylish long gun you need to accessorize! That was another $50! I can’t have the British/Ape People catching me without my powder horn, my ball starter, my field powder measure!
Give me my nipple pick or give me death, you damn dirty ape!
Y’know, if you mixed Jar Jar Binks from “Star Wars: Episode I” with that prostiThat’s about where this week’s family-friendly column ends. Check out the blog at jderrickstar.blogspot.com for a guest appearance by everyone’s favorite lady from that romantic comedy, “Full Metal Jacket.”

I'm still waiting on approval to use a certain word in here. Check back later for what you get when you mix Jar Jar with that vietnamese hooker....

"...white folk’s money had retaken the continent..."

I’ve generally stuck to the opinion that casino gambling is not a very good investment – they are in the business of stacking the odds such that you won’t win, and all their gargantuan glitz is a pretty good testament that they’re doing pretty well.
It’s not so much a moral opposition as a mathematical realization mixed with my innate stinginess.
But I’m always interested in the cultures of our world and society, and I’d never been to a casino before, so I figured that when the friends I was camping with near Cherokee went over to Harrah’s I’d come along with $10 to do a little research.
A couple of the folks I was with had done this before and kinda showed me the ropes. I sat down at a nickel slot machine and put in my bill. The digital screen showed me I had a couple hundred credits and I started playing.
I’d press a button, the little wheels on the computer screen would spin, and I’d loose a nickel. I’d press a button, the little wheels on the computer screen would spin, and I’d loose a nickel. I’d press a button, the little wheels on the computer screen would spin, and I’d loose a nickel….
And then after about ten tries I’d win one.
And then I’d press a button, the little wheels on the computer screen would spin, and I’d loose a nickel….
After a few hundred tests of this experiment I figured I had a good enough sample size to conclude I wasn’t having all that great a time watching the screen count the disappearance of my money.
Not that I have any real authority to tell other people what to do with their finances, but I didn’t see the thrill. One person I was with said it was fun to get a nickel when you won, but at a 10:1 loss/win ration, I had a lot more money back at my apartment watching The Daily Show.
I emailed a buddy of mine from back in college who’s a member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees. He said that most of their folks thought it was a pretty good gig that paid for needed programs and whatnot and they themselves didn’t get too deep into it.
I wonder if all the Native American casinos started putting their profits towards buying land, how long would it be before white folk’s money had retaken the continent for them.
Hmmmm.
GAMBLING IS GREAT!!!! TAKE YOUR NICKELS ON UP TO HARRAH’S FOR A GOOD TIME: http://www.blogger.com/www.harrahs.com/our_casinos/che/
Yeeehaaa!

An experiment/gamble

Well, I’ve never been a gambler. But I was an anthropology student and so I’m always looking to poke at new corners of humanity, the bipedal freak of nature.
So I figured I’d put in ten bucks at Harrah’s and see what happened.
I’ll tell you the rest when I get to the office. I still haven’t woken up/put clothes on….

Yeah, so I plagarized myself....

"I’m having far too good a time to bother with writing a column.”
I went on a camping trip a short while back up to Bryson City, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. We had a great time, and I took some notes along the way….
”Last night we sat around a campfire on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, eating smores and telling ghost stories about ex-significant others.”
I was sharing a small tent with a tall fellow named Joe, who I’ve known since high school. We were in drama together and in a garage band. I was his campaign manager for a while when he ran for the state house last year.
”And drinking cabernet sauvignon out of Styrofoam cups. While our beers cooled in my trout net drifting in the nearby stream. I don’t think there are any trout in there. I hope there’s no giardia, either. There’s some rum around here, somewhere.”
Come November, he did as well as anyone could in such a polarized district. According to the math they taught me at campaign manager training, for our side to have won we needed to bring out our “base” vote, all our “get out the vote” vote, something like 90% of the “swing” vote, killed a few hundred members of the opposing party….
We didn’t have the budget for that.
”You drink a room-temperature red wine with meat and a chilled white with fish or fowl.What do you drink with Chex Mix (with M&Ms mixed in – yum)?”
Joe was traveling with Emily, who I’ve know for a while (worked at a wine store, very helpful), Leanne and Stef, aka “The Rock”. That’s a pretty strong nickname, and having met her I’d not question it. She supported my moniker, “Squirrel”, and even gave me another – “Grizzly Little Bit….
”I must confess we did have a tent pole break last afternoon and I wound up with a shard of fiberglass through my finger. But I got it out. I’ve never hammered in tent stakes with an unopened beer bottle before. Better wait a while before I unlock that one….”
We had all sorts of fun – a little something for everyone. Usually when I travel I run myself into the ground, but we took it easy and I enjoyed it… cruising the kitsch shops of Cherokee, cooking over an open fire, hiking to the top of Clingman’s Dome….
”I think this afternoon we’re going over to Cherokee. Some of our folks wanna try their luck at gambling…"

Yep. In my anthropological quest to explore strange new cultures, to seek out new lifeways and new cheap thrills I donated 10 bucks to my friend Ben’s tribe.

Don’t thank me. Just doing my job.

For a photo of beer in a trout net, and more of John’s thoughts on gambling, the universe and everything, check out his blog: jderrickstar.blogspot.com.

Toad Orgy

Yeah, you read that right. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4355628.stm

"Wading into the cold, crystal-clear water, he held his camera as low as possible to the pond bottom to get a toad's-eye view of the squirming mass and used a wide-angle lens to show as much of the action as possible.

"What he had not reckoned on was becoming part of the orgy himself.

"Mistaking his fingers for females, the muscular male toads gripped onto them with grim passion - "they squeeze very tightly" - and finally put an end to the photo session."

A few days in the Smoky Mountains....

"I’m having far too good a time to bother with writing a column.

Last night we sat around a campfire on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, eating smores and telling ghost stories about ex-significant others.

And drinking cabernet sauvignon out of Styrofoam cups. While our beers cooled in my trout net drifting in the nearby stream. I don’t think there are any trout in there. I hope there’s no giardia, either. There’s some rum around here, somewhere.

You drink a room-temperature red wine with meat and a chilled white with fish or fowl.
What do you drink with Chex Mix (with M&Ms mixed in – yum)?

I must confess we did have a tent pole break last afternoon and I wound up with a shard of fiberglass through my finger. But I got it out. I’ve never hammered in tent stakes with an unopened beer bottle before. Better wait a while before I unlock that one….

I’m here with some friends from where I went to high school in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh. They were going to take a trip to New Orleans, but Katrina beat them to it. So here we are.

I think this afternoon we’re going over to Cherokee. Some of our folks wanna try their luck at gambling."

DOT, DMV... TLA (three-letter acronym)

So in reference to the below blog about traffic lights not working for bicycles, even though they are legally vehicles in NC... my next email in the series....

"Someone at the DOT said to contact the DMV about this.... Traffic light sensors don't always pick up bikes. A lot of states have laws such that if a light doesn't change for three minutes, it can be considered a stop sign. How about NC? Lets say I pull up to a light where I don't have the option of a right on red and no other traffic comes to trip the light. Do I just wait there forever or what?"

We'll see what they say.

Traffic Light Sensors...

Ok, so here's the response I got from the DOT about traffic light seneors not picking up bicycles, and whether NC is one of the states where you can consider the light a stopsign after three minutes....

"The loop detector has a current running through it that produces
a magnetic field around the loop wire. When a vehicle enters the
area the magnetic flux is changed resulting in a change of
inductance which the detector in the traffic signal cabinet picks
up as a call. Sometimes motor cycles have a problem depending
upon the sensitivity set on the detector. You will have to call
DMV about the red light. I have not heard that. I asked the State
Highway Patrol, and they said that you would get a ticket. I
beleive that I would get off the bike and become a pedestrian
pushing a bike on the side of the road."

I'll shoot an email to the DMV about the red light then.

"Teacher Mistakes Boy's Insulin Pump For Phone, Rips It Out"

http://www.wral.com/education/5060084/detail.html

Talking about guns and gonnes….

In relation to my column…. My Dad and I are both very good shots. He qualified as an expert marksman with an M-16 from an unstable standing position. As the photo at www.unc.edu/~jderrick/target.html shows, I’m wasn’t too shabby with an M-16 either. And then I got the boot for bad eyes. I dunno.
Talking to my Dad about weapons today, he had some comments that didn’t fit into the column….
“I think weaponry, whether it’s hand gonnes {maybe he meant “guns,” I think they’re pronounced the same]… rifles… military weapons… are some of the most intriguing technology.”
“They’re just plain beautiful. It’s clearly something other than just a means of killing people”
But his primary weapon in the military wasn’t a gun, it was the Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile, designed to carry warheads he still won't admit to knowing anything about.
He says the technology was really enthralling.

“Lawyers, Gonnes and Money”

I tend to devolve.
Having a few good tents, I had to try sleeping under a poncho.
Having driven to Chapel Hill from Wake Forest I had to try riding my bike. Then I had to try walking.
So a few weeks back our webmaster, Chad, and I went skeet shooting at his house. I hadn’t fired a 12-gauge since getting the shotgun shooting merit badge at Scout camp around 14 years ago, so I think I did pretty well.
For one thing, the guns fit better these days. When I was 10 they gave a five foot gun to a four foot kid and asked why I had trouble swinging an adult 12-gauge.
At the end of the week someone wisely handed me a smaller youth 20-gauge and I was lethal. I always have been – www.unc.edu/~jderrick/target.html.
So I was hitting a clay with each blast out of Chad’s 8-shell 12-gauge and thinking I was doing almost as well as he was, and he actually does this stuff.
But I devolve.
So now I’m registered on www.muzzleloadingforum.com, trying to figure out the historically accurate flintlock weapon of the patriots at the battle of Kings Mountain, and where I can get a kit.
For folks who don’t know way too much about armaments, muzzleloaders are weapons loaded with powder and bullet through the business end of the barrel. This is slower and more labor intensive than a more modern firearm, where the nice, clean, pre-packaged cartridge is loaded in the back end of the weapon, the breech.
But that gets dull.
I’ve gotten more than 50 views on the forum and two replies in just 16 hours. That’s a lot better than many spam comments on my blog or on the NC Press Photographer’s website. Mostly just hawking drugs.
Cruising over the forum, there are segments for contemporary muzzleloaders firing modern bullets used for hunting (they get a longer season), discussions of Civil War weapons that used small explosive caps to set of the weapon, advice on Revolutionary War flintlocks, reenacting and equipment….
And there’s a section for pre-flintlock weapons – matchlock, wheellock, arquebuse, snaphaunce, caliver, hand cannon… and “handgonne.”
This one’s so obscure it’s not even in the massive dictionary in The Star’s library.
And I devolve.
Wikipedia.org, a free, reader-edited online encyclopedia, says it’s the first form of handheld, portable firearm, developed before we even knew how to spell “gun,” around 1300 somewhere between Europe and China. Nobody can really decide where. Basically a small cannon, on a stick. Like a Popsicle.
Handgonnes.com says I can have one for $100. Shipping included.
“So, are you ordering one?” asked Jeff, chief photographer at The Star.
“Right now they’re out of stock,” said John.
“That popular, huh?”
I showed him the website.
“Uhh, that looks dangerous. Be sure to let your Mother read that.”
So I called my Dad to see what he thinks because I’ve mentioned gonnes and money so far, but that Warren Zevon song was “Lawyers, Guns and Money” so I need to fit an attorney in here somehow.
“I think that stuff’s fascinating,” he said.
For more about handgonnes, John and his Dad, check out John’s blog at jderrickstar.blogspot.com.

Traffic light sensors ignoring bicycles....

About those traffic light sensors that don’t always pick up bicycles, meaning that even though you’re legally required to follow the traffic signal, the light is ignoring you… for hours…..

http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/actuator.htm

“Until about 1970, most traffic lights were actuated by timers, and a few by treadle devices in the road. These were visible and obvious, and they worked for bicycles. But more and more traffic lights are now actuated by loops of electrical wire buried in the pavement. The wire loops operate as metal detector antennas, sensing the presence of vehicles overhead. You must have seen the narrow lines in square patterns cut into the pavement ahead of intersections. That's where the wires are buried.

“Not only do these actuator loops work very unreliably for bicyclists, most bicyclists do not even know what they are. Often, the loops are buried under a new layer of pavement and invisible. If you don't understand the actuator loops, all you know is that you have been waiting for the traffic light since Tuesday and it hasn't turned green. If this happens at a substantial percentage of traffic lights, a reasonable human being will draw the logical conclusion: why bother to wait at all?
“The traffic law of all 50 states grants bicyclists the rights and duties of vehicle drivers. It follows directly that the traffic control system must make it possible for bicyclists to obey the law, or else a state is acting in contempt of its own legal authority.
“
…we can try to make the signals work. If the pavement cuts are visible, you can often trip the signal by riding along one side of the loop with your wheels directly over the wire (but if your bicycle has nonmetallic wheels and a nonmetallic frame, good luck, Charlie).”

According to the League of American Bicyclists…..

http://www.bikeleague.org/educenter/factsheets/trafficlights.htm
BETTER BICYCLING FACT SHEETS
Traffic Lights
Obey, obey, obey
Cyclists, just like motorists, must obey all traffic control devices
It takes longer to travel through an intersection on bike; plan to stop for yellow lights
Avoid cars that run red lights by waiting for the signal to turn green and scan to make sure it's clear
Detection
Bicycles must activate a vehicle detector just like a motor vehicle
Detectors are embedded in the roadway; look for squares cut into the roadway
Detectors use magnetic forces to pick up vehicles, not weight
Unresponsive signals
In most states, after three minutes, you can treat a red light as a stop sign
Pass through a red light only as a last resort
Yield to other vehicles while crossing the roadway
….

I’ve emailed the NC DOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation (really great site, free bike maps…. http://www.ncdot.org/transit/bicycle/) to learn if we’re one of the states with the 3-minute rule and what all they say about the sensors. I’ll let you know what they say….