Catching Bullets

Hmm,

Back in Canada. There's lots of trees. The Ottawa Valley isn't quite as nice as I remember it from my late teens. It's a nice place but I prefer Orkney.

Australia is looking good.

Bullet of the Post (seeing as I can't really call it Bullet of Day due to a dearth of posts.

Linky

Over a year!

No updates!!

How can this be!!!

Pretty easy, this blogging requires dedication, constant introspection (did I just make up a word), and witty commentary on daily events that will be of interest to all.

Seems like a lot of hard work.

No specific bullet for this post, just a really neat website in Spanish with good info and pictures of older cartridges.

Well, its been a while and I'm not sure how many people are reading this but here's a new entry.

A Skull for All Seasons

Downtown Banbury, Parson’s Street, a slightly overcast day. A couple are walking past an auction house when something in the window causes the man stops in his tracks. There in the window is a skull.

Not a carved wooden skull like he already has, not a ceramic skull, but a real skull. In fact a skull plus. Because this skull has beautiful stones set into metal banding around the skulls and two large orbs for eyes. And it looks like the top of the skull is actually removable. Comments are exchanged, a head is shook and the couple carry on.

Flash forward a couple of days. A furtive male figure moves down Parson’s Street. He pauses in front of the store window, a camera flash is seen, and he move on. Hurrying home, emails are sent to associates and events are set in motion. Some more research is done and it is found that it is a Tibetan tantric monk’s skull, donated to his monastery to show his disregard for the physical body. And indeed the top is removable for storing libations.

After showing the emails to his wife it is agreed that the man can bid on the skull. A price limit is set. All that remains is for a final hurdle to be overcome. The man cannot go to the auction, there are unavoidable demands at work. Chants are raised, rituals are executed and finally the wife is convinced to go to the auction and bid.

The day arrives, the man goes to work. He monitors his mobile for messages, nothing comes. He comes home for lunch, his wife is not there. He returns to work and keeps a watch on his phone. Nothing. Finally returning after work he is greeted with the bad news.

The skull sold for over twice the estimate, well above what was agreed on. All that remains is a memory. But perhaps that is appropriate as the skull was designed to show disregard for the corporeal. The memory of the skull fulfills that purpose. It has done its job.

More infor on skulls

A new projectile for the M777
(one of which I got to check out a while ago)

In breaking news today, Elmer Fudd was declared the Prime Minister of Italy.

Bullet of the day

My wife and I were visiting a National Trust site at Cannon’s Ashby when we walked across the road to see an old church. Crossing the road we walked past a pigeon pecking happily away on the ground, the unusual thing about this pigeon was it had a band around its leg. Whether this indicated a homing pigeon or an endangered pigeon I will never know.
When we came out of the church and cemetery we walked back round the site and to the car, taking a different route. Driving back home we passed the church and I saw the body of the pigeon by the side of the road. This struck me as quite odd. Not sad, not tragic, just strange. Here was this creature, largely regarded as vermin, and the fact that I saw it was dead struck some sort of cord within me and I didn’t know why.
Now that I have written this I think I understand. Pigeons, for the most part, are anonymous and one wouldn’t pay much attention to a dead one by the side of the road. But because of this band I was able to recognize this pigeon in death and it formed a link of some sort. Anonymity helps with distance and detachment.
Thinking back, this is dealt with in quite a bit of detail in David Grossman’s book, On Killing. Not a pleasant book, but very interesting and well written.

So the point of this is, if you see a pigeon with a band on its leg by the side of the road, shoo it away.

The bullet of the day:

.338 Lapua Magnum

So this is my first entry.
I've been thinking of doing this for a while but I am basically a private person who doesn't talk a lot about themselves. Maybe this will give me a way to express what I've been thinking about.
Who knows?

What was I thinking of today? Well I was at Starbucks picking up a coffee and was struck by how alien it is to normal coffee shops. The fellow in front of me was having a hard time ordering his drink. It was evident that he hadn't been there before and just wanted something with caramel in it. Unfortunately he got a trainee attendant (or whatever they call them) who was a bit dumbstruck with someone asking for help. Eventually, after ordering a cold drink and wanting a hot one, an experienced employee slid in to help. Very polite, providing a refund, and whipping up just what he wanted. Will the guy come back, probably. He was dumped into an unfamiliar environment and someone helped him out, provided some tasty refreshment and was pleasent.

This is how I think Starbucks has grown so large and encroached into the mainstream despite their high prices. They provide a taste of the alien, the exotic, while coddling you all the while in a comfort zone.

I go there because, in general, coffee in England sucks.

The bullet of the day:
5.56mm Improved Penetration