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20 January 2026

It IS Kinda Creepy

Apparently ICE agents are running the plates of protestors who are following them around.

Then, at the end of the day, the agents drive to the address the car following them is registered at.

The protestors are kinda upset by that.

While it's a bit creepy, I'm not really seeing anything illegal about it.

The worst I can come up with is wasting resources.

I'm, again, caught between wanting the liberty where the cops can't tell where I live from reading my car's tax stamp and wanting people who are actively trying to intimidate and thwart the enforcement of a reasonable law to be punished for it.

Oh, I forgot, yeah that license plate is just supposed to be proof of tax paid and it was promised that it would never be used for other purposes.

When government lies like they do about that kind of stuff, it's no wonder so many people like me are conflicted between the wanting more liberty and the wanting the laws enforced. 

Corollary

I have long held that once someone has served their sentence they should be returned all of their rights without prejudice.

Successfully completing that sentence is predicated on them being SAFE to be among the rest of society.

Here's what happens when no real sentence is applied and the perpetrator is not safe to be among us.

Douglas Kraft, 68, and James Puchan, 68, of Columbus and Galena, respectively, were fatally shot Jan. 17 near Kissimmee, Florida, in what families said in a statement was a "random, tragic act." Kraft's brother – Douglas Kraft, 70, of Holland, Michigan – was also killed in the shooting.

Authorities arrested Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, 29, on three counts of murder, Dispatch news partner NBC4/WCMH-TV reported.

The three men were staying in an Airbnb to attend Kissimmee's Mecum Car Show, according to the families' statement. While they were waiting for help after "rental car trouble" and preparing to travel home, they were "being observed from a distance by an unknown individual who was well-known to local law enforcement."

"There were no known interactions between the men and this individual prior to the event; they were then approached and senselessly murdered," the families' statement reads. "This was a random, tragic act."

Deputies were called around noon on Jan. 17 to reports of shots fired in the Indian Point subdivision near Kissimmee, NBC4/WCMH-TV reported. Authorities found the three men dead from gunshot wounds in front of a residence in the 200 block of Indian Point Circle.

Not long after, law enforcement detained Bojeh, who lives nearby. Investigators said deputies reported seeing the suspect flee toward his home, later finding two firearms in Bojeh's residence after obtaining and serving a search warrant, according to NBC4/WCMH-TV.

In May 2021, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bojeh for shooting at random into cars at a Wawa gas station in Kissimmee

While Bojeh faced attempted murder and aggravated battery charges, court records show a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

The court ordered Bojeh to undergo mental health treatment, to live at his parents’ home on Indian Point Circle, and he “shall NOT own, possess or have access to firearms or any other illegal weapons."

 A judge found him...  Not a jury.

Well, the suspect was known to law enforcement, who did nothing to prevent it.

He was arrested and found to be too insane to understand his actions and was put back among us.

I think it might just be time to apply some damned liability to judges who let dangerous people loose in society when those dangerously insane people go on to hurt someone.

19 January 2026

Shocked! Shocked! I Say

An experimental all‑female nightclub concept made headlines this week after industry insiders revealed it shut its doors shortly after its first official night, with organizers blaming a complete lack of bottle purchases as the main reason for the abrupt closure. The venue, marketed as a space dedicated exclusively to women and designed to create a safer, inclusive nightlife environment, opened with much fanfare in a major city — but according to reports circulating on social platforms and nightlife forums, the night ended without a single champagne or bottle service sale, a revenue stream most clubs rely on to stay afloat.
 
Nightclubs often depend heavily on bottle service and high‑margin alcohol purchases to cover staffing, entertainment, rent, and overhead costs, so an evening with no bottle sales would put severe financial strain on any venue’s business model — especially one trying to establish itself in a competitive nightlife market where drink revenue typically accounts for a large share of profit. Industry observers have pointed out that even innovative or niche nightclub concepts can struggle to attract patrons willing to spend on premium services, particularly in an era when many young adults are cutting back on expensive nights out due to cost‑of‑living pressures and shifting entertainment preferences.
 
Despite this early setback, some nightlife analysts say the closure doesn’t reflect a lack of appetite for women‑centric spaces overall. Successful women‑only or women‑focused venues in other regions have shown that with the right location, pricing, and community support, specialized clubs can thrive and offer social alternatives free from typical nightclub pressures. The all‑female concept may still evolve — and perhaps resurface in new forms — as venues experiment with different ways to attract crowds and sustain business in a rapidly changing nightlife landscape.
- Lauren Chen

First, my shocked face is shocked.

Second, "safer, inclusive nightlife environment," my chaffed hairy ass.

If you're excluding someone you're not being inclusive.

It's like saying a Klan meeting is creating a safer and more inclusive cross burning environment.

I seem to recall lawsuits about all men's country clubs.

But it's hilarious that these women went to an all women's nightclub and seemed to still expect men to buy them expensive drinks.


Food Costs

This batch of chili was $42 for the ingredients.

It fills my stock pot.

The last time I made chili, it was $55 for the ingredients.

From my chili making perspective, the economy is doing fine.

Chili Day

Made a batch of my award winning chili today!

Nummy!

Really Sad

Got this message on Facebook:

This is a gun range.

No open carry.

Blink blink blink

Sooner or later, a gun range has to trust you with a loaded firearm that is not concealed.

But I am fed the fuck up with gun shops, shows and ranges who don't seem to trust anyone with a gun that's not sanctified with a badge while they simultaneously pander for your money to sell guns, ammunition and

HOLSTERS THAT ARE FOR OPEN CARRY! 

For fucks sake.

Tank Test Bed Autoloader

Living in the future rocks!



18 January 2026

The System Is Broken

Take the sights and charging handle off your M1919A4 and put a cable-pull charger on it and it becomes an M37.

Do the same to an M2HB and it becomes an M48.

At one time small changes totally changed the designation system.

Take an M240, ditch the pull-cable, add sights, pistol grip, bipod and normal charging handle; it becomes an M240G.  Why not M240A1?  Why does changing the bipod and flash hider and changing the muzzle device make it an M240B and not M240A2?

WHY?

Dunno.

Used to be an M4 was a 14.5", flat-top with a 3-round burst.  The M4A1 was the same with full-auto.

There used to be a heavier barrel that SOCOM used in their M4A1's...  But that didn't change the designation at all.

Now that heavier barrel is standard and...  It's an M4A1.

Then there's M16A3.  It used to be an M16A2 that exchanged the 3-round burst for full auto.

The M16A4 was an M16A2 with a flat-top.

Now the M16A3 is an M16A4 with full auto.

So the M16A3 is both an A2 carry handle version AND a flat-top version with full-auto.

Shouldn't an M16A4 with full auto be an M16A5?

I've heard that it's because the parts are interchangeable and configuration can be changed readily.

Then explain why the parts swappable M17 and M18 pistols have different designations!

They're actively not using any system for designating the guns.  It will bite them someday.

Updates To The Updates (Updated)

The base Abrams in my T2K conversion is now the M1A2.

Yesterday it was the M1A1(HA).

History did not stand still while I polished other cannon balls.

Now I need to find out how much an M240 and M240D weigh, because it's different from the commonly found weights for the ground guns.

All without ammo or slings.

M240 - 22.2 lb.

M240C - 22.2 lb.

M240B - 27.1 lb.

M240D - 22.9 lb.

M240E1 - 25.7 lb.

M240G - 25.8 lb.

M240N - 24.1 lb.

From TM 9-1005-313-10 (Nov 2002).

Astonishingly hard to find this information considering where I found it.

Completist

I have GURPS stats for all of the M1 Abrams tank variants I can find.

I have not, yet, done the non-tank versions.

It was interesting to see just how similar the M60A3 and M1(IP) are in protection from KE rounds.

The Chobham armor is a huge upgrade against HEAT rounds though.

GURPS, where pi is three, doesn't distinguish between a lot of the real improvements in thermal imagers or computer systems.  I've given them bonuses to the computer and electronics operations rolls where the systems are intuitive.

17 January 2026

Classified

No shit, there I was...

We were finished with gunnery at Graf and were loading the tanks onto the tank transporters.

This is the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done with a tank because you cannot see where you're going.

The nose of the tank is WAY up in the air and all you can see of the ground-guide* is their hands as you creep past the center of gravity and the bow falls back down to normal.

I hear they replaced the trailers we used with better designs that take more weight and have a shallower angle so you can see what the ground-guide is telling you better.

So...

With the nose in the air, hands just barely peeking above the bow, sliding back in the seat...  There's a strong temptation to pull oneself up to see better.

The only thing to pull on is the steering bar.

Me?  I'd listened to the pre-load brief and adjusted my seat so I didn't slide back and could still see.

But someone from 1st platoon didn't.

They pulled themselves up on the steering bar and managed to gun it AND steer hard to the left!  Now there's an M1(IP) on its side next to the tank transporter trailer.

Worse, the impact tore open the front skirt section and the Chobham armor within was exposed for all to see.

I seen't it!

We all got rounded up, once a tarp was put over the exposed, and classified, armor, and got briefed on how we never saw that.

Everyone in the battalion knew 1st platoon had dumped a tank and exposed the armor.  So, of course, everyone asked, "what'd you see?"

We were sworn to secrecy and we kept the secret!  It did not stop us from making shit up. 

Our favorite story was how there was a pink, toothpaste-like material in there and that was the secret.  "I saw the pink goo oozing out!"

Or we mentioned that it was just sand in there.

One guy said it was Styrofoam with black flecks.

I sure hope we messed with the Soviet espionage efforts! 

* A ground-guide is a person on the ground giving the driver hand signals to maneuver the tank in tight spaces or with precision because the driver cannot see where they are going. 

How Thick

The protection of the Abrams has gone up more than once.

The M1 has the thinnest.

M1(IP) and M1A1 have the first upgrade.

M1A1(HA) gets 1st gen DU added.  Without adding mass, I note.

The heavy common gets 2nd gen DU.

M1A2 SEP v1 gets 3rd gen DU.

The line of sight thickness gets thicker from M1 to M1(IP) on the turret.  We noticed because it was harder to get out of the driver's hole.

The question is, how much protection does the line of sight protection provide?

Because this is for a game, I'm not actually looking for the real numbers.

There's a War Thunder page that seems to say that OG Chobham armor is 3x LOS thickness for KE rounds and about 5x for HEAT.

That same War Thunder page misses that the LOS thickness of the IP and A1 turret front changed.

Selecting from more than one online source...  The turret face has:

M1 should have 400mm RHAe from KE and 700mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,100L.

M1(IP) and M1A1 should have 450mm RHAe from KE and 900mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,240L.

M1A1 (HA) should have 610mm RHAe from KE and 1,050mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,680L.

M1A1 (HC) should have 940mm RHAe from HE and 1,320mm from RHAe from HEAT.  DR 2,590L.

M1A2 SEP v1 should have 960mm RHAe from KE and 1,620mm from HEAT.  DR 2,645L.

I might have to make some changes to my T2K conversion in light of this!

How Many Of These Myths Are There?

Widner's did an article about how shooting out the tires doesn't work like Hollywood, and thus not like how most people think it should.

Linky dinky.

Anyone who's watched a live cop show has seen how long it takes spike strips to flatten a tire and seen that it will still run on the rims for a bit.

But the rims don't give a lot of traction or control...

Shooting out the tires could cause a car to do far more damage than the driver is trying to inflict.

16 January 2026

Artwork Differs

In the US Army Vehicle Guide the "M1A2 Abrams III 'Giraffe'" turret is clearly inspired by the Teledyne armored gun system.

This is not at all the direction the Tank Test Bed was heading, but it was probably still classified when GDW wrote the original game so they went with what the Army Green Book was speculating.

But the remote turret in the artwork of the NATO Vehicle Guide's "Leopard III" looks a lot more like what the TTB had, if a bit taller.

The M1 TTB:

Teledyne Armored Gun System:


Yes, that looks familiar, it's the same turret and gun as the Stryker MGS.

Abrams This Time

The mighty M1!

There's a lot of sub-variants.

1979: The OG M1 with the 105mm gun.  58 tons.

1983: M1 Tank Test Bed.  3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  45 tons.

1984: The M1(IP) "improved performance" which got thicker turret armor and a bustle rack.  60 tons.

1985: M1A1 with the 120mm gun.  This is often called the M1A1(RA) for regular armor.  63 tons.

1988: M1A1(HA) "heavy armor" with DU plates inside the not-actually-Chobham-anymore armor.  63 tons.

1990: M1A1(HC) "heavy common" 2nd gen DU plates.  69.5 tons.

1992: M1A2 an M1A1(HC) with commander's independent thermal sight (CITS), new commander's weapon station, many electronic upgrades.  69.5 tons.

1995: M1A3 fictional development of the TTB speculated for Twilight: 2000.  Called M1A2 Abrams III "Giraffe" in game.  60.6 tons.

***Twilight: 2000 Cutoff Date***

1999: M1A2 SEP Upgraded gunner's sight, 3rd gen DU.  69.5 tons.

1999: M1A1(D) "digital" M1A1(HC) with new electronics from the M1A2 SEP, only 2 battalions worth made.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (AIM v1) M1A1 refurbished and significantly upgraded.  Most sold to Australia and later given to Ukraine.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (SA) or (AIM v2) Morrocan export version, similar to the AIM v1.  Also M1A1 (SA-UKR) for Ukraine export.  67.6 tons.

2006: M1A1 (FEP) "firepower enhancement package" AIM v2 for USMC M1A1(HC).  69.5 tons.

M1A1 (M) Iraqi standard armor variant.

2008: M1A2 SEPv2 Commander's weapon station replaced with CROWS, electronic upgrades, air conditioning, upgraded thermal optics.  71.2 tons.

2017: M1A2 SEPv3 Massive electronics and comms upgrade.  Many changes to make maintenance easier.  Better armor.  APU.  Reactive armor capable.  Airburst ammo.  M1A2T, M1A2R and M1A2K regular armor versions for Taiwan, Romania and Kuwait.  73.6 tons.

2025: M1A2 SEPv4 Cancelled upgrade to Gen3 FLIR for CITS and gunner.  Better sensors for fire control.  Laser detector sensors.  New smoke grenade launchers.

2026: M1E3 3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  Remote weapons station on turret roof.  SEPv4 levels of electronics and defensive countermeasures.  Goal of 60 tons.

Done With Going Out Today

The Snowbirds are heeeeeerrrrrrrre!

But what's made me decide that today is a good day to stay in now that my errands are done was the Tesla minivan that cut across three lanes of traffic, plus a right hand turn lane, to get into a left hand turn lane without any regard to traffic and caused a three car pile up behind me.  I was lucky that I was in the middle lane and the person right behind me was paying attention when I had to stab the brakes.

The left lane, though, wasn't so lucky because the Tesla driver slammed her brakes HARD to get into the turn lane and the car she cut off got rear ended for their trouble.  And the car that rear-ended them got sandwiched.

Then there's the old people at the shopping center who appear to be trying to commit suicide by waiting until I'm almost there to jump in front of the car from the curb.  Suck it old people!  I'm on to you!

I managed to make it home despite it all, but man are the emergency vehicles out in force this afternoon.

PS:  Heard a rapid string of gunfire from somewhere south of the house...  No sirens yet.

Suffering Fan

It's gonna be very cold for Florida tonight.

The only TV that has an antenna that gets the station playing the hockey game is on the back porch.

We're gonna be sitting back there, bundled up, watching.

It'll be like going to a live game up north!

14 January 2026

There Are Two Times

If you're pissing off the US military there's two clear things to look for.

First, if you're in an active firefight and the US troops pull way back and start filming your position.

Second is when every single plane in the air shuts off their ADS-B transponder.

These are signs that things are about to go south for you.

If the phones still work, it's an EXCELLENT time to surrender. 

Marketing Fail?

I'm on Atlantic Firearms email list.

They frequently send me links to items I might like.

They are never in stock.

Not even if I click the link the moment the email arrives.

To say that this makes it hard to make a purchase is a gross understatement.

On the plus side, it's sure easy to fight temptation this way. 

I Had No Idea

A long, long, time ago: I borrowed a book from Gerb.  <-- He is missed every day.

I don't remember what about it made me ask to borrow it, but I did.

I remember enjoying it then returning it and, basically, forgetting all about it.

Only to be reminded of it in the comments at a political blog.

The book was "Tuf Voyaging" by George RR Martin.

Yes, THAT George RR Martin.

I can now say that I've read a GRRM book and enjoyed it.

This had been true for... uh... decades.  I think I borrowed it before I went into the Army.  I just didn't realize it because I never made note of whom wrote the book and I'd even forgot the title. 

Almost

I am nearly in this picture!  I took a picture of the picture in my copy of Tankograd American Special No. 3044 "REFORGER 88: Certain Challenge."

That's my tank on the right edge of this photo.  I was standing on the turret watching 1/4 Cav pass through during REFORGER '88.

The photographer took pictures of me standing there, but I didn't make the book...

13 January 2026

Coincidence

Shooting News Weekly posted an article about shoulder holsters yesterday too.

I didn't find out until after I'd posted and saw a link to the article from Instapundit.

Great minds and all.

Lemme Say It Another Way

They recorded over $700 million in cash being taken from the US to Somalia.

And didn't even ask where the money came from.

But a guy who can prove that his business did just less than $10k a day got legally harassed for years for "structuring" withdrawals?

Anarcho-Tyranny.

It's Intergovernmental Not Interscientific

Lots of scientists saying that not only isn't the science settled, but the IPCC has been corrupt and lying for years about what the scientists involved have been saying about their studies.

Wish I'd said this to Anglave all those years ago when he was attacking me from the liberal bubble of Iowa State University. 

Oh, wait, I did.

Got me mad enough that I closed comms for a week.

When I opened them back up...

Let's just say he did not, and has not, reached out.

That was ten years ago.

RIP

Crazy man, commentator and cartoonist Scott Adams has succumbed to cancer.

I've been missing Dilbert since the scolds went after him.

Gun Bras

I've been toting in a shoulder holster since I was in the Army.

The M9 holster and the M1911A1 were my first jam.

I toted, illegally, a Glock in a Uncle Mike's nylon holster in Iowa for a while too.  No pics.  That holster was not very good and it has long since been discarded.

When I came back to gun bras, it was Galco Miami Classic II and a Springfield 1911.

This same holster carried a Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super too.

But then the siren call of 9mm hit me...  All the best Gunwriters insisted it was best.

A full size S&W M&P 9 went in a Galco Miami Classic here.

This same holster ran an M&P 45C

And currently totes my M&P 2.0 9 Compact:


But wait!  There's more!  How much would you pay?

I tracked down what might be a Galco Jackass or very early Miami Classic to see if I was disarmed carrying a mid-70's S&W Model 59.


I was not unarmed.

I find this manner of carry comfortable and easy to conceal if I can wear a Hawaiian shirt, or more over it.  Not always possible in Florida.

They're handy riding in the car because the gun is presented where it's readily accessible.

12 January 2026

Getting Familiar

Software Janitor is not familiar with S&W latest offerings.

This is an M&P 2.0 9 Compact.

It's about Glock 19 size and is distinct from the M&P 9C in capacity.  The 9C only holds 12 rounds, this one takes 15.

As far as I can tell from trying to find spare magazines anyways.

The grip shape fits my hand a bit better than a Glock 19 and I like having a manual safety even if I shouldn't need one.  Old.  Set in ways.

This is my Goldilocks gun.  It just fits my hand and I shoot it better than any other 9mm I've ever owned with the possible exception of the Browning HP.

It totes wonderfully in a gun-bra under a Hawaiian or flannel shirt when it's not unseasonably warm here in Florida in the late fall, winter and early spring.

I need to get a workable IWB holster to see if under an untucked t-shirt works.

Interesting Claim

This video:


He says the Super outsold the .45 from its inception to the early '70's.

That's interesting.

Judging by the used guns available, I don't think so.

Turret Swaps

At one time there was a plan to up-gun the M48 by putting a complete M60 turret on it.

It would have been the M48A4.

Only a couple were made when the M60A2 program collapsed and there wasn't surplus M60 turret production available for the M48 idea.

But in the lead up to T2K...

We have an M60 upgrade that gets an M1A1 turret, freeing up an M60A3(TTS) turret.

We have M48's and M60's getting the Teledyne remote gun system, freeing up both M48 and M60 turrets.

It stands to reason that the M48A4 idea gets resurrected because there's more M48 hulls than Teledyne turrets and it's faster and easier than the M48A5 conversion.

I really need to get this organized. 

Moar Pig

Something I just realized...

The M48A5 MBT.

The coax in the M48 series goes from a .30-06 M1919A4E1 M37 to a 7.62 NATO M73 to M219 to M240 as it progressed from A1 to A5.

What I just noticed is the A5 conversion deleted the Ma Deuce and the commander's cupola and replaced it with a complex articulated pintle and added a pintle to the loader's hatch...


 


 

For a couple of M60D machine guns.

One nice thing about the M1 was the loader's MG was the same gun as the coax and they could be swapped if something went wrong with one of them. 

Of Tanks And Floating Bridges

From the comments by Well Seasoned Fool at Chant du Départ

One shining, cloudy, cold, rainy day in West Germany, someone decided to make a pontoon bridge across a river.

Because they were a general, or something, their decision meant that engineers were ordered to gather the components and assemble a floating bridge across a river in West Germany.

"What good is a bridge if nobody uses it to cross the river," The General thought.

So this same, shiny, cloudy, cold, rainy day my tank battalion was ordered to drive down to this new bridge and cross it.

Then, having crossed it, go back the way we came and cross it again, then return home.

Me, having been "promoted" from loader to driver got to pilot my M1(IP) across the bridge.  Twice!

No shit, there I was! 

From my vantage, it was narrower than the tank (it wasn't) and it sank underwater under the weight (it didn't).

Once on the thing, it didn't seem so narrow.  But it still seemed like we were gonna sink to the bottom if we didn't haul ass.  Something the engineers begged us not to do.

The feeling is... odd.  The weight of the tank pushes the bridge sections down and where the pontoon/boat/floaty part is it sinks less than the joints between the road sections so there's this constant slow up down rocking motion as you cross.  It makes you feel like the tank is trying to turn when it's going straight and you really can't see where you are.  You just have to trust that you're sitting in the center and that by aiming at the middle you have the tank centered.

Wracks the nerves it does.  And I didn't even sign for anything! 

Tanks are not finesse machines, they're clumsy things and they casually and inadvertently break these bridges.  Pivot steering is hard on the planking and causes engineers to use rough language and pry bars to straighten it.

Pivot steering is often required because the nature of these bridges often means that the approach is just a little off the angle the tank can accomplish just driving up.

At the end of the day, I did not go swimming and I don't think we broke the bridge so bad it could not be used again.

I apologize for any damage my lack of driving skill might have done to the bridge and offer one beer on me to any combat engineer who had to deal with that damage.  Payable in person only! 

Reading Comprehension

When you tried to comment; it is clear that you didn't read something.

Seeing that you didn't read that, I'm just gonna assume that you didn't read or understand the post you're commenting on when I stab the delete button.

The instructions are not complicated.

Almost as simple as putting how to pour piss out of a boot on the bottom of the heel simple.

Yet we have at least one, and probably more, people walking around with a boot full of piss and a deleted comment.

I mentioned I'd be mocking y'all in the instructions. 

FB Quote Of The Day

"Mathematically speaking, if you send enough rounds in one direction, eventually one of them is going to hit something."

- S. G. O'Malley 

Can't Go Too Far Wrong

If you find yourself wondering how you should feel about any given issue, just find out what the dancing monkeys are saying about it.

Do the opposite of what they say to do and you're going to be OK almost all of the time.

How old IS the song that reminded us that we don't need Niel Young around?

53 years.

There you go. 

11 January 2026

Simpler Mechanism Than I Thought

In Engineering School they didn't bother with the why of gyroscopic precession.  They just covered the what, because that's all we needed to know.

Turns out it's simple!


 It's just applied vectors.

Just An Idea

I've read that that the Islamic Republic of Iran has banned the possession and use of a Starlink unit.

They have roving units that detect and triangulate the unit based on its RF emissions.

I have an idea for anyone in Iran looking for an idea.

Place the unit where it will be more likely to be detected by these roving detector units.

Then ambush them.

This eliminates the detection crew, and lets you remove their equipment from the game.

Hope this helps! 

10 January 2026

Annual Cleaning

Anyone on the Blog Roll who hasn't posted in a year or more gets moved down to Blogs that Used to Entertain.

It's a depressing chore, because I loved reading what they wrote well enough to make sure I never missed it because my sidebar updated.

Occasionally, they revive and I see them in the other roll and I can move them back.

Those are happy days! 

Da Pig

It needs to be remembered that in T2K the Reaganesque defense budgets kept going because the alternate history mandates that the Soviet economy was doing at least as well as the Soviets SAID it was doing...

In the real world they were lying and it all fell apart right after the Berlin Wall came down.

In T2K they get into a war with China and the Germanies decide to reunite, triggering a second front between NATO and The Warsaw Pact.

But the budgets and arms race kept going until 1997...

Since the military stays big, that means that new stuff is added and old stuff gets moved to lower readiness formations.

That means things like the M1911A1 are still issued.  Some units still have M16A1's.

The M60 machine gun is still in ample supply and is still in production.  The M60, M60C (aircraft mount) and M60D (door gun with spade grips) are still in service with the National Guard and Reserves.

The M60E3 (MG not tank) is in limited service here and there. 

CCW Real Gun

Two years running it hasn't really gotten cool enough to wear enough to carry a "real" gun here in Suncoast Florida.

I have not tested the idea of semi-concealed carry and have seen a lot of "no open carry" signs.

So the Shield Plus has been in my pocket and the M&P 9 Compact has stayed in the safe. 

Is The Dog OK?

In several videos of the Renee Good shooting you can see a dog sticking its head out the window of the Pilot.

Is the dog OK?

It was in the back seat, possibly in the path of any rounds that missed Ms Good.

Assuming it was missed by the gunfire, the next thing that happened was the unpiloted Pilot slamming into a parked car.

IS THE DOG OK?  

M240 T2K

Issue timeline:

1977 - M240 adopted with the M1 Abrams MBT coax and pintle mount.  No sights, no stock, clipped pistol grip, no bipod.  Replaces M73 and M219 coaxial machine guns in the M48A5, M60A3 and M551A1 series tanks.  22.2 lb.  28.8 loaded with 100 rounds.

1981 - M240C adopted with the M2 Bradley IFV coax.  Same as M240 except feeding from right side of gun.  Also used coaxially in LAV-25.  22.2 lb.  28.8 loaded with 100 rounds.

1987 - M240E1 adopted for the LAV-25 for pintle mount.  No stock, no bipod, spade grips.  25.7 lb.  32.3 loaded with 100 rounds.

1990 - M240G 'G' for ground.  Pretty much a standard FN MAG achieved in the most roundabout manner possible!  It came into being by the Marines ordering "dismount" kits for their M240E1's and conveniently never mounting the guns to the pintle on top of the LAV.  Eventually someone in Congress caught on that they were stealth-replacing their M60 machine guns and decided to just let them buy complete guns.  25.8 lb.  32.4 loaded with 100 rounds.

1991 - M240N and M240G with different sights and no bipod for mounted use from boats.  24.1 lb.  30.7 loaded with 100 rounds.

1995 - M240D improved version of M240E1 with accessory rail.  22.9 lb.  29.5 loaded with 100 rounds.

1995 - M240B a modified MAG with a handguard/heat shield and an accessory rail, official replacement for the M60.  Still lots and lots of M60's in service in Y2K though.  27.1 lb.  33.7 loaded with 100 rounds.

2010 - M240L an M240B with a titanium receiver.  Does not exist in Twilight: 2000.  22.3 lb.  28.9 loaded with 100 rounds.

2010 - M240P and M240L with a 4" shorter barrel and collapsible stock.  Does not exist in Twilight: 2000.  21.8 lb.  28.4 loaded with 100 rounds with the shorter barrel.

Advance The Third

One of the players we'd planned on having for G:T2K fell ill pretty much the same day that FuzzyGeff arrived.

He had his character all ready, but his sinuses decided to lock up solid and we decided to let him take his antibiotics and sleep.

One nice thing about the chaos of 5ID getting its poop pushed in is you can take a single character, run a quick railroading, and they can pop up where the party is.

This is my plan for poor JT.

If FuzzyGeff and Marv survive the night, they will return to the Humvee to see JT's character.

Whether it's the same character JT has already made depends on JT and the dice. 

GURPS Gun Stats

I was not getting the, normal, published, numbers for .30-06's range when plugging in the real-world numbers for bullet length.

M2 ball is an inch long.

It doesn't give the correct range until...

I stop rounding to the nearest 0.5 of the length to diameter ratio (LDR) like they say to do...

AND

Increase the bullet length to 1.33 inches.

That gives an LDR of 4.43 instead of the actual, historical, 3.33.

It's still not quite right, but it's WAY closer with 1,100/4,600 instead of 880/3,700.  The official .30-06 numbers are 1,100/4,500.

With this glitch in mind, should I make all other bullets 1/3 longer too? 

Cautious Optimism

Crispy IV is back up and running like nothing was ever wrong.

The new fan helped, but I was still getting crashes.

Moving the drives to Crispy II still gave failures.

I removed the Win7 drive from the caddy-bay after moving the movies I stored there to the main drive.

It locked up a couple times in its sleep, but would play movies all night.

Playing movies to make my brain shut down is its main job, after all.

Last night I noticed that it'd been up for a while without crashing.

So I typed "uptime" into the terminal and found that it'd been up for 22 some odd days without a crash.

So I decided to do normal stuff with her today and...

So far so good.

Almost an hour and not showing any of the symptoms of imminent failure.  One precursor was the text lagging behind the fingers while typing.

08 January 2026

Shouldn't Hafta

Just as with my AT-AT and AT-TE, I had to get extra troopers to populate the troop compartment of my Corusant Guard Gunship.

The set comes with an officer, Commander Fox, and two Corusant shock troopers.

That's it for crew.

With the two troopers in the pilot seats, that leaves Fox all by his lonesome in the back.

Five more minifigs fit easily.

A single shock trooper comes with another battle pack.  There's a mech that comes with a single trooper too.

I could get snow-troopers for my AT-AT three to a pack.

Changing the AT-TE from 212th to 501st Legion meant it was easy to get a full crew.

But I had to hit a reseller to get the gunship filled.


 

Except It Is

"A masterclass in propaganda. One photo, zero context. The caption says “terrorized innocent man.” The reality - he grabbed the officer’s weapon moments earlier, and that’s pepper spray, not a firearm. This is how outrage is manufactured."

Chef Andrew Gruel on X


Except that 37mm is most certainly a firearm.

There's vid of that officer with something sticking out of that barrel fountaining orange smoke that the scared guy REALLY reacts to.

Are there riot rounds that pop out the end of the barrel and spray CS smoke?  Dunno, but it seems possible. 

 

I Feel Dirty

Everyone links to X.

I loathe the default white text on black background because of my astigmatism.

If you make an account you can change that to white background and black text!

I now have an X account. 

Failing To Prep Is Prepping To Fail

Daosus' comment in this post reminded me that it's not just failing to read the rules that leads to a player having no fun.

AD&D's Oriental Adventures is an example of the players not bothering to do any of the prep needed to make characters that fit the setting.  Kara Tur isn't the same as Greyhawk and they just treated it like a normal D&D campaign and didn't do any of the social stuff that so enamored me with it.

I had medieval Japan on the brain and even with GURPS (which the players already were fine with) they didn't bother learning fuck-all about being a person living in the Sengoku period with magic.  One even took my copy of GURPS: Japan home for a week and didn't even take it out of his bag.

WW2 at least has movies they likely have seen for them to base their characters around.

Traveller is a world with near 50 years of material and a new player will have to take sips from the firehose or they will not even know what they don't know and there's just too much to do on the fly now for the GM.

Something that's important about this lack of preparation is the player's character is, nearly always, FROM the world setting!  They are members of their home culture which isn't a late 20th, early 21st century American.

The players who read the material get back more than they put in.

The players who didn't are always either bored or upset that they aren't getting what they wanted. 

07 January 2026

Just So You Know

If you hit play on Attack of the Clones as you begin construction of the Lego Acclamator set, you will be able to finish it before its first appearance in the film.

The same cannot be said for making the Lego Venator set.  But you will be done before Order 66.  


When Does The Campaign End?

I have successfully managed to play a campaign with fewer than two sessions a year.

That campaign is technically still out there, but I think I didn't start it properly and it is thus painted into a corner.  It's defacto dead even if it's not dejure dead.

Marv and FuzzyGeff are at a cliffhanger in Twilight: 2000 and that campaign will run until one of us gets sick of it.  I will badger them to keep playing until that someone is me.

But when is a campaign over?

I don't tend to make settings that have an end point.  You don't reach a conclusion to the story there.

There are campaigns that DO have an ending point.  If the players reach that point, the campaign is over and they win!  Or they fail and give up or die.

I've had several campaigns just peter out and stop.  Most times when I run out of ideas for the world that I'd created.

I've had a few where the players stopped showing up.  Hard to keep going when there's no way for a player's character to be absent from the world.

I've even had a couple where the players flat said they didn't want to continue that setting any more.  This happens most often in Traveller where the party is the crew of a merchant ship.  Economics & Accounting is not near as exciting as it sounds. 

Private Property Is Good

Reading quotes from Cea Weaver has convinced me, beyond mere greed, that eliminating property taxes is the way to go.

Florida seems poised to do so.

I was in favor of it just because it reduced my mortgage payment.

Now I am in favor of it because it's so much harder to add a tax than to increase it.

A tax on owning something means that you're really renting it from the government.

And that gives them the idea that they own it and once they think they own something they do seem to love giving it to someone else.

I do notice that New York Fucking City isn't proposing to even reduce property taxes as they eye stealing from property owners. 

06 January 2026

It's The GM's Job

The GM being the arbiter of when to make a roll or not is their job.

That can be zero rolls if they like what the players are doing and think they should succeed without involving chance.

That can be many rolls if they want chance to have a larger role in the game.

It can be anything in between.

If can be zero rolls if they dislike what the players are doing and they think they should fail without giving them a chance.

And, for the absolutely stupidest of my readers:*  This decision about how many rolls is independent of the game rules.

It's not a GURPS thing.  It's not a D&D thing.  It's not a Hero thing.  It's not a Traveller thing.

It's a GM thing.

The GM and the players should get on the same page about how often chance is involved.

I tend to roll a bit more often than some because I don't want to railroad the players into being defacto NPC's who only have a little agency.  Letting it to chance is more fair.

If I wanted to control all the characters fully, I'd write fiction...  And you can see from the infrequent snippets of Sabers and Sorcery how well I am doing.

*So stupid, in fact, that I've decided to reply to the comments I've shitcanned until they realize that they are not being allowed to talk.  Not because they're not raising good questions, but because they're being a dick about it and that's contraindicated by the commenting rules.

Kinda Sad

On one hand, it's sad that a series I am enjoying will never have another book written by a dead author.

On the other hand, at least you can know you have all the books they wrote.

It's especially nice if they completed the series before they died.

Tolkien got out the whole Lord of the Rings.

Saberhagen got out the entire Empire of the East/Swords series.

I don't think that Rosenberg had finished with the Guardians of the Flame series, but he had not come back to it in the four years between the last book and his death; but he had been writing other things.

I don't know if Herbert got to the end of Dune because I didn't manage to finish the books he wrote, let alone the ones that come later by someone else.

Somewhere around here I have the compiled CoDominium book, "The Prince" which is supposed to have all those stories save the Motie books. 

We're on the clock with the Jhereg novels.  Stephen Brust is not a spring chicken any more and he's got two books left to write. 

I have never read a word of A Song of Ice and Fire, despite enjoying the first few seasons of Game of Thrones.  I think George RR Martin is gonna run out the clock on that one and it will be an unfinished series with a dead author.

Make A Roll

FuzzyGeff is something of a math geek and his knowledge of statistics has colored how I do gaming once I learned a bit of statistics myself.

Because of things like the critical failure's default of 18 should result in a mean rounds between failures almost ten times worse than a rifle that is KNOWN to be unreliable.

That same critical failure would mean half the air wing of every aircraft carrier would be in the drink every cruise.

Many commercial aircraft would become lost and need constant guidance to find the airport and it would become insane to fly at night because of the darkness penalties.

There are a myriad of things that require a bit of knowledge, but no actual skill to perform and, if there's no stress, a person just does.

It's that stress part that can, often, be missed when a GM says, "make a roll."

Too many people look at the rules and see more places to make a roll than another rule-set and declare the new game bad because you CAN make more rolls...

But it is, and has always been, the decision of the DM or GM to call for a roll in any given situation.

If they suddenly start calling for more rolls when you change from D&D to GURPS it might mean they want you to work harder for it and D&D didn't have the mechanism to force you.

Twilight: 2000 has no mechanism for making the character respond to something creepy and frightful.  GURPS does.  So when in the catacombs under CzÄ™stochowa, I can call for a Fright Check and impose a reaction on the character.  T2K is a pure honor system to act afraid that I've seen fail over and over.

So GURPS has more rolls than T2K because of having rules to handle the frightened.

Which brings us to "GURPS sucks!"

Did the GM call for a roll under a rule that the game you prefer doesn't have that caused you to conform to the character you created?

The fright check from the T2K module "The Black Madonna" ticked off a couple of people who had played at my table under the OG T2K rules.  It thrilled others.

YMMV.

But, if we're going to overgeneralize, then I would say that the real reason that some people hate GURPS and cannot stand that other people enjoy it is because they are lazy.

They don't wanna work to make the character.  They don't want to put in the effort to learn how to assemble the character they want and, having failed to so, blame the game.

Then they don't want to be exposed to many die rolls, because a die roll is chance and chance is something they cannot control and without that control they may fail and without being able to declare, "I win!" they don't want to play. 

Contrast this to the person who did read the rules and learned to make the character they wanted.  They're never complaining about the rules.  They're an example of being satisfied by a successful application of labor.  Mike Rowe would understand the feeling.

The epiphany of realizing the complainers never learned to make the character they want to play comes from noticing that I have converted so many character from other games JUST to learn the rules.  I.  Have.  Never.  Failed.

GURPS has never failed to be able to accommodate a character from a different game.

Traveller, Twilight: 2000, AD&D 2e, Champions, Shadowrun, etc.

4th edition of GURPS is better at it than 3rd edition revised, but even 3eR never actually failed.

Not that the haters ever read this far. 

 

I Still Support Them

Years ago I commented that I support the end of the Islamic theocracy in Iran.

I still hope the people of Iran manage it.

They appear to be trying to do it again.

On the plus side the IRGC doesn't seem to doing its normal murder lots of people to suppress protests thing.

It probably helps that it's not Obama in office this time around.

Best of luck to the people of Iran!

That's Where We Lost You?

Harvey and I watched "Primitive War" tonight.

The Vietnam War with dinosaurs!

A couple of small things I noticed.

It's set in 1968 and the M203 wasn't fielded until 1969.

An XM177E2 shouldn't have a plastic stock.

A 1968 AKM shouldn't have a groove in the stock.

YOU NEED TO COCK A SINGLE ACTION PISTOL FOR IT TO WORK!

Interestingly, the people making the dinosaurs were using the latest scientific ideas for how they looked.  The CG wasn't awful, but they definitely needed more budget to realize the vision.

Nitpicks aside, the equipment was remarkably accurate for the period.

I wonder how many of the extras were recruited from Vietnam reinactors. 

Dumbass Shitheel Was Involved

I finally got to the bottom of why The Lovely Harvey refuses to make a character and play in our reindeer games GURPS.

I knew she'd had a bad experience with Dumbass Shitheel and a little throw-away fantasy world I'd made for them to play in and for her to learn how to game.

But I'd no idea how bad.

She'd known Dumbass years longer than I had and he'd not only left her hanging, he actively led to her character getting killed.

That was in game.

The way he treated her about it out of game made her say, "I'm never going to do this again!"

Worse, his treatment of her was reinforced by, some, of the people at my table when she hung around an kibitzed when we visited Iowa and from how some of her questions were answered at my 30th birthday party gaming session.

I think I know which people too.

I don't think they're still in FuzzyGeff's group any more.

Hazing and chauvinism are not good ways to get women involved in the hobby, gentlemen.

She got the impression that she was thought to be stupid because she didn't know everything we knew about gaming.

How could a beginner?

She's definitely not stupid.

She was just never given a fair chance at learning the game and then was treated poorly by some people AND overhear them being chauvinistic sexist pricks while I was doing GM stuff.

In a lot of ways I am happy that I lost contact with a few of them.  Might lead to me getting a sore throat from the screaming I wanna do at them. 

SecWar Sends

Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.
 
Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.
 
To ensure this action, the Secretary of War has also issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct. This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file.
 
Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response. The retirement grade determination process directed by Secretary Hegseth will be completed within forty five days.
 
Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action.
 
These actions are based on Captain Kelly's public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders. This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.

I wonder how big the reduction in rank will be.  I wonder how big it CAN be.

When I first heard this idea floated I was surprised that retirees are still held to the UCMJ.  I had no idea. 

The Elk Always Knew

GURPS: Gun Tech just landed.

It's the long awaited supplement that lets us gun nuts calculate gun stats from real world information.

Way back in 3e, we back of the napkin calculated that there was no game difference between .280 Remington, .270 Winchester and .30-06.

We did this because of my relaying the debate between my uncles Robert.

My mom's sister's husband insisted that .30-06 was ideal.

My step-mother's brother insisted that .280 Rem was superior.

Both agreed that .270 Win was clearly inferior.

I have official 4e stats for .30-06 and .270 Win that I have disputed because a smaller bullet going faster should carry more range.

.30-06 is 7d+1 pi, Acc 5 and Range 1,100/4,500.

.270 Win is 7d pi, Acc 5 and Range 900/3,600.

Gun Stats disagrees!

.270 Win with a 130gr bullet at 3,060 fps calculates to 7d+1 pi, Acc 5, and Range 1,140/4,800.

.280 Rem with a 120gr bullet at 3,150 fps calculates to 7d pi, Acc 5, and Range 880/5,500.

.30-06 with a 150gr bullet at 2,740 fps calculates to 7d pi, Acc 4 and Range 890/3,700.

.30-06 with a 150gr bullet at 2,920 fps calculates to 7d+1 pi, Acc 4 and Range 950/4,000. 

These are not what I was expecting at all!

This is just on an initial skim of the rules. 

05 January 2026

Everything Went Bad

FuzzyGeff and Marv's character, after escaping the Battle of Kalisz ended up near the town of Złoczew.

Realizing that their small still would take almost three weeks to brew up a tank-full of wood alcohol for their Humvee, they decided to scout the town.

It's being held by about 200 Soviet troops who are holding townsfolk hostage to make the farmers and workers comply.

One of those farmers contacted the player's characters and convinced them to help.

Their plan was to take the three NPC's attached to the party and an M240 and slaughter the filthy commies as they stood at attention for morning formation.

But they failed to account for the tenacity of the sentries placed to keep the locals in line.

Inattentive and armed with a spear, an AK-74 and just one magazine, they should have been easy to sneak up on.

FuzzyGeff's plan was to do so and slit some throats from behind.

This is when we found out that, despite, having a bayonet; Marv had not taken any skills to use it either as a knife OR a bayonet.

To make matters worse, he botched his stealth roll on approach and the guard with the spear who began screaming for help.

FuzzyGeff was able to dispatch his quarry with a slash to the throat and a stab to the vitals.

Marv was not so lucky.  The dice was agin' him. 

We ended with Marv unconscious, FuzzyGeff rallying the troops to do an ambush on the Russians as they pour out of the school they've commandeered as a barracks and the Soviet's getting ready to respond to the alarm raised by sentry number 2.

We sit here until, probably, next time Fuzzygeff can come down to visit. 

Is This Thing Still On?

Took some time off blogging to get ready for FuzzyGeff to come visit.

Not everything at home went right and I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked with him, but since he gets on with Marv well enough not all was lost for his trip.

Ran GURPS: Twilight 2000 for the first time in... um...

I don't think I have ever actually played my conversion for 4e.

My oldest archived copy of the 4e conversion pdf is from October 2016.  The oldest copy of the odt files are from Jun 2007 and they still have 3e stats for the vehicles.

I converted it to 3e more than once and the last version of that is from 2016!  The first was ad-hoc and while I was still in the Army in 1988.

For a while I maintained version of the conversion for both 3e and 4e. 

01 January 2026

Annual ATF

Dissapator Dottie.

Coors Banquet Beer.

HC Cigars Series White Shadegrown.