Today is another blogging moment when you have a blank sheet to draw from in the comments below. As always, I offer a few things to consider in a general way.
Don’t Get Out of the Boat
This is just a basic piece of Navy advice.
Countdown to 2024
And a glance backward h/t Jules
Bullet Points:
** The side that is tearing down the statues of the founding fathers is outraged that somebody would tear down a Satanic idol.
** Stop beating yourself up over stupid mistakes you made in 2023. Focus instead on newer and better mistakes in 2024!
** Autocorrect has become my worst enema.
Competence
The real goal of any decent personal security training program shouldn’t be to make you a ninja.
It should be to ensure that you can think and make decisions under pressure—that you can override your mind and body’s default to panic in high-stress moments so that you can keep your wits about you, even when everyone else is losing theirs.
To do that–or to master any new skill–you need to work your way through the four stages of competence, acquiring skills as you go.
Level 1 → Unconscious Incompetence
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Level 2 → Conscious Incompetence
You know you are lacking but don’t know where to begin.
Level 3 → Conscious Competence
You can execute but only when concentrating.
Level 4 → Unconscious Competence
Your skills & responses are automated.
Go deeper into the Hierarchy of Competence here: https://buff.ly/40b3C68
Yes, it’s a plug for my friend Sam’s book.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
Identify the Tank
4
5
WAY too easy
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Macchi C.205 Veltro
2. Republic XF-103
3. Republic XF-12 Rainbow
Identify the Tank:
4. BMD-4
5. Obiekt 775
That was quick.
Picture #2, I was not aware they had an ADA compliant Air Force jet! With my balance issues I now can be an Air Farce jet puke!
Ejecting downward meant your lungs and other entrails would come through your mouth. We don’t do that anymore. Jet puke–indeed.
It also made it interesting for low level ejections.
You meet your maker more quickly than in a Martin Baker.
My dad was a WW2 pilot, went Air Force. Flew B-24, B-25 and C-47, C-54. Retired bird Colonel after 28 years active and reserve. My brother and me went Army…
In the Navy, you get to chip paint – ok, not now because we just let them rust — but in the past.
Watch this and comment – mandatory and very much appreciated. The best blog forever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk3AVceraTI
Thanks LL. a belated Merry Christmas and here’s to a great 2024
We’re tying to figure how not to lose everting when they try kicking in the front door. We will not go quietly… Suggestions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk3AVceraTI
Tannerite and nails in a dressed up Mannequin right by the front door with an airsoft M4 gun is a good start to taking care of those kicking in the front door. Especially if you line the back with 1/4″ steel to direct the blast forward…
1957 Comments…Grew up in the Oil Refining patch. In 1957 and into the 60’s gas price wars would take place between the major gasoline brands. As a teenager, we’d drive, 30 miles one way, to a town where a price war was taking place that had driven gasoline (regular) down to $0.10/gallon. After an initial fill up we’d make the “drag” several times and hang out at a drive in. Always made sure to top off the gas guzzler tank (appx. 10 mpg) before heading home.
Thankfully, Dad watched the gas gauge more than the odometer to figure out what I was up to on the weekends. Gasoline in my home town was appx. $0.15/gallon. But in those days…a nickle was a nickle. 😀
I remember gasoline at $.15/gallon.
Driving from Arizona, where unleaded regular was $2.99 a gallon to California, just across that imaginary line, it was $4.79 a gallon. California residents are content to pay the additional surcharge for the sake of income redistribution. (Arizona has a .18 gas tax and seems to keep the roads intact)
They’re saving the environment from themselves…it is their self-flagellation penance.
Auto registration is also out of control in California—case in point. Son-in-law’s 2004 Dodge pickup with 300,000 miles on it costs $800/year to register for ONE year. The same truck’s registration in Arizona is $88 for FIVE YEARS.
I just registered it in Arizona so the costs are accurately reported.
The cost of living is between 20% and 25% higher in the Golden State.
Plus all the incalculable costs on your psyche.
IIRC, the Supra was pushing $200/yr when we fled. It’s about $100 for five years here….
Cheapest I ever remember seeing was 15 cents a gallon in late 60’s Georgia.
Georgia gas taxes used to be the lowest in the nation and truckers routinely rated our highways the best in the nation. By law, the money from the gas tax could only be spent on the roads. Then the influx of damn yankees (damn yankees are the one that stay, as opposed to the Yankee that is just passing through) wanting what they left behind, got the law changed so the gas tax could be spent on other things (mass transit…spit). They then set about raising the gas tax to pay for their new priorities, Now Georgia’s gas tax is in the middle nationally and our roads are rated near the bottom.
What it did allow was for buses to start servicing the greater metro area surrounding Atlanta. Whereas before they were confined to Fulton and Dekalb counties. This was of course to alleviate traffic, even though 80% of the bus riders don’t own cars. Buses brought hundreds of apartment complexes which allowed the inner city to expand outward as they tore down the housing projects in the city. Now the Atlanta demographics control eight counties instead of two.
Got to hand it to them, they plan far ahead and are able to successfully parlay seemingly unrelated actions into their plans for power.
“they plan far ahead and are able to successfully parlay seemingly unrelated actions into their plans for power.”
Malice and resentment are one hell of a drug. Mix in some proportion of genuine (though deeply misguided) do-gooderism and you have the modern post-Christian West. For values of “West”.
What I don’t understand is whether there is a long-term strategy, as opposed to the tactics of vandalism and humiliation that we see on a daily basis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming
It is not a deliberate mass suicide, in which animals voluntarily choose to die, but rather a result of their migratory behavior.
I don’t see any reason why instinctual drives with similarly bogus outcomes couldn’t be operating in the human animal. I think the ancient Egyptians had the political game down: my family are semi-gods, all of you serve us, kill that guy with the steam power demonstration, the power balance doesn’t change for thousands of years. That’s Darwinian success. But technological innovation has upset that apple cart, in favor of the little guy. Some guy in Australia threatened homemade cruise missiles in the 90’s? Just wait until Copenhagen Suborbitals produces ICBMs with 30 workers.
‘It is not a deliberate mass suicide, in which animals voluntarily choose to die, but rather a result of their migratory behavior.’
And of course staged by Disney.
1957- The more we think things change…they stay the same, but with different numbers. People generally have the same proclivities only moreso. Then again, the number of reprobates in Government in nearing 95% like they all take some elixir that warps their brains, washing away morals and ethics once they take office (maybe it’s sublimal in the Oath…as good as any theory). Same with college professor demographics…the system feeds on itself, perpetuating mind warp-age, which used to be the complete opposite. And yet, what those in charge” are doing to supply chains and Cost of Living for taxpayers is beyond reprehensible. But it’s for a reason – which I yet to figure out other than a forced demand we return to King George era. Hell, for the most part We The People already work for them (remember, they fleece us for their largess).
Competence Pyramid: Reaching the rarefied-air of second nature competence is the sweet spot. I often say MrsPaulM has forgotten more about riding than I’ll ever know…meaning it is so second-nature she doesn’t think about what she is doing, whether Western or Upper Level Dressage. Same with my brother with his chef-grade cooking, unreal what he does. Despite being able to hang with his professional chef friends says he’s an amateur on purpose, helps keep the fun.
Stupid mistakes in 2023 with more foreshadowed in 2024? Nah, couldn’t be any…right? And I have an EV for ya that will go for 500 miles. Mistakes is the universe telling us we’re not all that…we’ll make ’em iffin’ we’re giving it a solid go. As dad would say: Just don’t repeat them. Still learning.
Navy Advice: Especially to the unsuspecting, only to realize something has swum up the privates. No thanks.
There’s a metaphor worth considering in that bit of advice. On the boat, there isn’t much that wants to eat, bite, or infect you. In the jungle (or the Swamp), almost everything does.
In Brazil – don’t pee into the river or the candiru might get you :)
At the very least, it will get your attention.
1957 was the Summer we moved into the house I grew up in. I started 1st grade that Fall, so I was a real Young ‘Un, and don’t recall things like prices. I remember my Dad had a ’58 Chevy, and then a ’59, but cost of gas? What’s that? I seem to remember it being less than .30/gal, and “Gas Wars” that would drop it to .25/gal. I think a pack of cigarettes was a buck from the machine at the bowling alley, as I put four quarters in them a few times when Dad was up in the 9th frame or something.
The cheapest I saw gas was in San Diego when I went to the USMCRD to see a buddy graduate boot camp…$0.18 per gallon.
Oh, and stay out of Tijuana not matter how bad someone wants to go there…but, if you do, the traffic officers say you can pay the $5 fine directly to them on the spot and avoid the hassle at the border when you leave. :-)
I can remember gas wars, and gas (real gas) at $0.26/gal in the early ’60s. The price had doubled before the ’70s embargo and tripled thereafter.
But enough of that.
I’d like to propose the reissue of an updated version of the S&W 3rd Gen semiautomatics.
This might be welcome in a market glutted with polymer frame striker-fired pistols.
Something on the order of the 3913, suitably modified to accommodate an increased capacity staggered magazine (narrower than the double stack models of similar vintage) for concealability.
Such a pistol with an aluminum frame and steel slide, bobbed hammer, decock safety and modern sights would suit me quite well.
And ditch the magazine “safety” while you’re at it.
P.S. Corn belongs on your plate or in your Bourbon. Not in your gas tank.
I like your competence hierarchy, it applies to Anglican bishops, curiously.