Huge primary colored blocks tiled all over the screen instead of nice wallpaper and the forward thinking (and highly functional) “Super-Taskbar” of Windows 7 seems like a very large and very silly step BACKWARDS to me. And yes I do realize that the desktop is still there and usable….but the silly pre-school looking Metro Start Screen being the first thing you have to look at after login is enough to make this pixel loving Windows guy fear for the future of the platform. As much as I hate to say it Metro is making MAC OSX look better and better.

.38 Special +P

I’ve been a wheel man for MANY many years. This was primarily for one reason and one reason only – my very small hands. As a short man ( 5ft 4) with short fingers I have always found most popular defensive auto-pistols uncomfortable and pretty much impossible for me to shoot and point properly due to the brick-like grip dimensions. The Glock was out as was all the other double column “wonder-nines” and their ilk. The 1911 fit fine and I could shoot the low-pressure 45ACP fairly well but I was never very comfortable carrying cocked and locked and I don’t feel like chamber empty is a smart way to carry either. So after a lot of experimenting I ended up in the revolver camp. And that’s where I stayed for a LONG time. The revolver allows for a virtually unlimited size range of grips. With the revolvers slim grip frame I could choose an open back-strap design like the Bantam:

This would allow for a VERY close trigger reach which works well for a person with small hands.

I started out with a .38 Special J-Frame Centennial. I read a lot of Masaad Ayoob so naturally I wanted to load up with the legendary FBI load (158 grain +P soft lead hollow-point). And I often did. The problem was the load is all but impossible to find. So my replacement was the 129 grain +P Federal Hydra-Shock. But the more I read (a lot of Marshall/Sanow – I even have the hardcovers) I found myself wanting MORE POWER. So I moved up to the .357 Magnum.

.357 Magnum

According to the experts and actual street shooting statistics there is no better hand-gun launched man-stopper than the 125 grain .357 Magnum semi-jacketed hollow-point moving at somewhere between 1300 and 1500 feet per second (depending on specific ammo brand and barrel length). BUT that kind of performance comes at a fairly high price and I don’t mean dollars. I’m talking PAIN – pain in the ears due to the insanely booming loudness and pain in the hands from the mighty recoil.

Even with a lot of practice I found this just too much of a beast for a carry load in a small frame 5-shot revolver. So I switched to the “second best” loading – the 110 grain .357 Magnum semi-jacketed hollow- point. I would alternate that loading with the Remington 125 grain MEDIUM velocity Golden Saber also in .357 Magnum. I was fairly content with this carry load…although not exactly “pleasant” to shoot it was OK and I could hit OK with it at close combat (25 feet) range. A frequent reader of the “gun rags” it was drilled into my head to “practice with what you carry” or at least something close to that. So I would train with Winchester white box 110 grain Magnums or equivalent handloads. Well the all steel Smith and Wesson Centennial didn’t care much for the Magnum practice and after 7 years and only about 700 rounds of Magnums (and 300 or so mild .38s) the little gun was “shooting loose”. I sent it into the Smith & Wesson service department and they informed that:

“J-Frames are for personal protection & are not intended to take to the range and shoot magnums a lot”

See here for all the details from when it happened in the summer of 2003:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=26219

I let them fix the gun and I sold it off having lost all faith in Smith and Wesson. I switched to the tank-like Ruger SP-101 and never looked back.

9mm

Fast-forward to the summer of 2011 and my buddy Elmo turns me onto his new auto-pistol – a Springfield Armory XDm in 9mm. I was skeptical at first “another 9 mm brick-grip?”. But he assured me I should try it. He explained that the guns come with a user replaceable back strap piece in 3 sizes and the smallest size should fit my trigger finger perfectly! So I took his gun to the range and I shot that gun better than ANYTHING I’ve ever shot and by this point I’ve shot an awful of different handguns! As far as I am concerned this is a revolution in handgun design. In one gun I can now have a modern easy shooting piece that can fit a variety of people’s hands. I’ve never been a GREAT shot but with an XDm I am a very GOOD shot.

I now own 3 XDms (2 compacts and one full size) all in 9mm and I love ‘em.

With the 9mm I am in a much better place in so far as ammunition selection. I like the Speer Gold-dot jacketed hollow point in 124 grain weight at +P velocity I also use the Federal HST in the same weight and also +P. These are rated at around 1,200-1,250 feet per second. Ballistically this puts them nipping at the heels of some of the best .357 Magnum self-defense loads and far above anything in .38 Special. Yet even with this “warm” load I find the guns no louder as far as blast/noise than the .38 Special and even EASIER to shoot. Other than their beautiful classic lines and pop-culture nostalgia the Revolver holds nothing for me anymore. I am no longer a wheel man.

So it dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that I haven’t been able to find barbecued flavor Fritos anywhere in what must be 6 months or more. So I did a little Googling and one of the first hits was this Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-WANT-MY-BBQ-Fritos/164702786899903

It turns out that for some bizarre reason Frito Lay has this weird “distribution black-out” with that one specific flavor. Whole or partial states are completely left off the deliver list but ONLY for that flavor. It’s very strange. Like for example around here (47714 zip, Evansville, IN) ALL you will find in stores are: Original, Chili-Cheese and those silly Honey BBQ Twist things. Frankly I don’t even count the twists as “real Fritos”. And the Chili-Cheese are good for about 5 crunches and then they start to make kinda nauseous. For me it’s gotta be the BBQ! So clearly I HAD to find the BBQ. I wanted some before but now that I learn some “blackout” is keeping them from me….well it was time for a Quest! So naturally I first hit the web. I did find a few online vendors that would sell me a case at an “OK” price. But a case isn’t really what I wanted as I do eat healthy now on all but two days out of the week. Eventually I ended up here:

http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/where-to-buy.html

My first trip I tried the closest hits on the map and they had ZERO of the elusive BBQ variant despite Frito Lay corp saying they did. I was not happy! Yesterday I expanded the search to include Owensboro, KY. And I am happy to report success! I scored 6 full size bags at the following location:

“Hometown IGA store #21″ 201 Carter Rd, Owensboro, KY 42301

It did take a 40 minute drive but they were on sale 2 for $4.00.

I just wanted to share my find for any more BBQ Frito starved souls out there! They DO still make ‘em -you just may have to take a drive depending on where you live.

My big awesome HP LP2475w 1920×1200 24 inch LCD monitor started having a strange black streak faintly visible on the right side of the screen image but only against certain pastel colors. Well this is no cheap TN LCD panel so I figured it would have some warranty left. So I called HP.

Well after a LOT of back & forth over the phone with about 6 different HP (and HP subcontractor) reps they finally managed to get the replacement monitor too me. Although this was a Business Level Warranty deal three out of the six folks I talked to over the phone were quite obviously in some third world nation & I could barely understand ANYTHING they said. And don’t get me wrong I’m NOT one of those people that always say crap like that and revel in making fun of “foreigner speak”. I can normally understand VERY thick accents. After all I did grow up on Monty Python and Morecambe & Wise. Also my first boss at the TJX Distribution Center back in 1986 was Peruvian and virtually none of the local workers here in Evansville, Indiana could understand him. I was (not exaggerating here) his “translator” at the start of each shift. He would tell everyone what to do and then the group would look at me and Jacinto would say: “Larry – you tell them”. Seriously.

Anyway these guys I could NOT understand. Clearly HP is behind Dell in the area of “choosing good Bangalore phone clerks” department!

During the initial conversations with HP they actually insisted that I have an in-home Service Tech “install” my replacement monitor!

How does one “install” a monitor???

I thought that was pretty insane but he wouldn’t have it any other way. But over the course of the next few days I got calls from other HP reps and HP delivery reps and eventually I did get one to change the order to a delivery only & this person was also a little confused that the first HP rep wanted to have someone “install” a monitor! It took me a week to get the replacement even though HP sent it down Next Day air to the local HP reps. They could only give me a delivery window during hours that I work my day-shift job when no one is at home so they had to hold the thing until Friday (my day off). Why they couldn’t allow me to come pick the thing up I will never know since the place they shipped it to seemed to be right here in my town. CRAZY.

Equally crazy is the way I kept getting calls from other continents that kept getting my address wrong. They botched the zip code 3 times and wanted to send my replacement to “Sulfur, Indiana” instead of Evansville, Indiana. I corrected them 3 times and three time they continued to give the local delivery people the WRONG address! Why couldn’t the delivery people that are in the SAME CITY as I AM simply deal with me directly? Eventually they did and I did get my replacement screen.

And it’s a beauty! I ran a free app called “Dead Pixel Buddy” to help me look for flaws and I found NONE. My old unit had 7,999 hours on the backlight. The info screen reports 2 hours on this one as of right now -which is pretty odd since It’s been on since I got it unpacked at around 10:00 am this morning (it’s now 5:09 PM). Anyone know why that is? Part of the time it was asleep but still. Does the backlight counter only update after a power off/on cycle? I don’t know. I will have to Google that I suppose.

So here I am switching again. That is dumping the traditional 32 page stapled comic book in favor of hard cover and softcover collected editions. Of course I’m only doing this for NEW comics. I still prefer the original format for the old stuff. But honestly about 95% of everything written in comics today is really intended for the collected format. They read BEAUTIFULLY in nice collected arcs (typically 4-12 issues or 88 to 260 pages). I will continue to complete the great old stuff like Werewolf By Night, Tomb of Dracula, etc. in “real” “comic book” comic form. But as of now I’m out of the 32 pager for $2.99 -3.99 cover price business. It just had to be done. It should save me a bit of space in the ComicBook Room and maybe even a bit of money -but NOT MUCH. Lets take a look at a cost breakdown for the typical newish comicbook run:

Marvel’s Avengers Volume One (2009) this collects the 2009 series issues 1-6. Amazon has it right now for $16.49 (34% off of cover price) Cover price is $24.99. This is for the hardcover. The math on this comes out to about 12.5 cents a page (Amazon) or 18.9 cents a page at standard retail list.

IF you had bought the same story as they came out in 32 page (22 without ads) chunks it would have cost you about 13.5 cents a page (at $2.99 cover price) or 8.13 cents a page (@40% off by PRE-Ordering online).

Another option is the Trade Paperback (softcover) collected format. The math on this is 10.29 cents a page (Amazon) or 15.14 cents a page (retail list).

Just looking at the raw math the 32 pager pre-ordered online from an etailer like DCBS seems to be the clear winner. BUT there are hidden costs (at least for ME) in the form of Bags and Boards. Hardcover books if moderately cared for have a nice long life sitting on a normal shelf. Tradepaperbacks aint so bad either. But “real” comicbooks need a fair amount of “care and feeding”. They need a proper box/lid and they also need a board and a bag. If you use ANYTHING other than Mylar you are just making a bad situation worse and in time (5-20 years depending on various factors) that cheap plastic bag will degrade, yellow and eventually start to destroy your books. I put all my comics in Mylite2s from E.Gerber. I buy in lots of 500. Even at this quantity they ADD about 30 cents an issue or 1.36 cents a page (only counting story pages here).

So the single 32 pager pre-ordered online is STILL cheapest at 9.49 cents a page (this now includes a nice Mylar bag & board). But this does NOT put a dollar figure on the Pain in the Ass factor. I’m talking about the time and labor of messing around with bags and board, boxes and lids and all that jazz. Sure its “fun” for a while but in time it does get old. And let me tell you mylar bags are NOISY. When one is trying to read a comic or two at night when the wife’s asleep you DO NOT want to be rattling a crispy/crinkly mylite bag! Trades and hardcover are virtually silent in comparison!

Now all the calculations above were assuming we are dealing with the $2.99 cover price of the typical modern comicbook. Sadly many comics are now $3.99 and many more soon will be. The math on this is:

10.86 (naked without bag or board) pre-ordered online or 18.13 (naked -standard cover price)

WOW

Shipping -lets not forget the shipping cost. Amazon has free shipping for all orders over $24.99. This is easily met so effectively my hardcovers and trades will have NO SHIPPING charge. At DCBS I currently pay $6.25 per month for UPS ground – a good deal to be sure but this adds (averaging book numbers here) about 16 cents an issue or .75 a story page. Not a lot but a little.

And don’t even get me started on how much Pain in the Ass factor is added by having to order all your comics months in advance. Trust me it sucks.

Amazon.com here I come.

http://lrpctech.com/filez/list.html

Now keep in mind the above version is one I did some slight editing to in order to fit more in smaller spaces. I changed the font size and cleaned up a few extraneous formatting bits and that helped a lot. But the resulting file is still a real bitch to navigate on an iPod sized screen.

I’ve tried with various phones and iPods and they all SUCKED. I had the best luck with an Amazon Kindle (and that after running it through a Mobi Pocket creator converter app). But while the Kindle displayed it nicely the eReader’s d-pad control is pretty slow and “clunky”. Next I bought the new Nook Color 7 inch eReader/Android Tablet. This has a gorgeous IPS LCD screen running 1024×600:

I had really high hopes for this but even at 1024×600 the letter navigation bar at the top of my report was pretty unusable (couldn’t accurately click letters). And I made a somewhat disgusting discovery – Touchscreens are NASTY! I will NEVER get used to touchscreens! It’s so gross. My OCD kicks into overdrive with these! I spent more time trying to wipe skin oil and particles of dirt off the screen then I did reading it! I can’t stand someone touching my monitors and I enjoy smearing oils from my own skin on one of these just about as much! It’s just gross. Touchscreens are NOT for me.

So I took back the Nook Color and for the SAME $250.00 I got a 10 inch Acer Aspire Netbook running the same 1024×600 resolution:

Even with the abbreviated screen size this tiny laptop has no problems displaying/navigating my list. I imagine that’s because unlike iPods, phones and tiny tablets it’s running a REAL Operating System (Windows) and therefore can use the proper programs to get the job done. Of course I wouldn’t wanna use something like this for “serious” work or even to replace my 15 inch laptop but for my specific purpose (and I suspect many many other things) it works great. I have Windows 7 Home Premium running on mine (it came with Win7 Starter but I formatted the thing as soon as I got it out of the box and did my own setup) & it even runs Windows Aero desktop beautifully with it’s rather modest specs:

1024×600 on a 10 inch screen
Intel Atom N450 1.66ghz
1 gig of DDR2 RAM
Intel 3150 graphics
160 gig hard drive

And best of all – no wiping grease all over the screen just to use it!

A month or so ago I started seeing those beautiful full page ads in all the comics for the Hero Initiative Limited edition Overstreet Priceguide hardcover. It features some nice cover art by John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson where the pay homage to Barry Smith’s Conan #1 cover from 1970. I’ve always been a HUGE Conan fan and a fairly serious reader/collector of Robert E. Howard comics. So I knew I had to get my hands on one of the 500 limited edition hardcovers. Even though as a Comicbase user I no longer need to purchase Overtsreet guides for me it was a win-win situation since the money goes for a GREAT cause. If you are a comics fan at all you should consider donating to the Hero Initiative as many of the legendary artists and writers we all grew up on are now elderly and in poor health with little or no insurance. So I figured this was $35.00 WELL SPENT.

I’ve owned reprints of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #1 in various forms for years but I always wanted a copy of the real deal. Last week I finally found a good deal on a copy in Very Good+ condition. I STOLE one off of eBay for $41.01. And would you believe it’s CGC slabbed? Or I should rephrase it WAS CGC slabbed as I just LIBERATED the comic mere moments ago. I HATE The whole concept of “slabbing” a comicbook. For me the whole point of collecting is for the FUN of it and reading and enjoying the art. Also they SMELL really NICE. Seriously I want the whole deal. So I broke that silly seal and cut that inner plastic. And YES it was worth it! I use Mylar Mylite2s for my books along with acid free boards. And I don’t use TAPE. I fold and tuck the bag closed. This preserves the comic but also allows the thing to be read and enjoyed. You simply cannot enjoy a book that is SEALED in a hard plastic shell. CGC is even more of a rip off when you consider the plastic shell is NOT made of Mylar and therefore NOT ARCHIVAL.

I didn’t use the thing much at all. The problem was even after having my FB using daughter Kristan “go over” my privacy settings I was still getting HAMMERED with “friend requests” (via email which of course I do use) from tons and tons of folks I don’t even know! And much of them didn’t look like “real people” anyway. The profile pics looked like lame soft porn pics or something (GirlsGoneWild?) Apparently since Facebook expanded beyond the College crowd it’s out of control and is now becoming the ugly mess that MySpace was. Looks to me like the managament isn’t even trying to repel spammers or maintain any sort of “good taste” control with these profiles I’m seeing.

As a social commentary aside I’d also like to mention that I actually had several “friend requests” from real people…..but from people that DON’T KNOW ME IN THE SLIGHTEST but have perhaps seen my face in the hallway at work but have NEVER spoken a WORD TO ME. Also (and I’m not trying to sound like a super-hero here) I have received more than a few friend requests from what can only be described as my “Arch Enemies”. People that I OPENLY DISLIKE and who PURPORT TO OPENLY HATE ME.

WHAT THE HELL??? Why are people so desperate to drive up their “Friend Count”???? Do you win prizes or Paypal cash if you reach a certain number???????????

A Softer World – cool and quirky web-comic told in a three-panel photo arrangement. Really good stuff. Some of it seems pointless, some of it is sad & some of it is funny. It will ALL make you think. Good stuff.

The Runaways – official web-site for the pioneering all-girl hard-rock group that featured a VERY young Joan Jett and Lita Ford. This site also links to the official site for the upcoming movie which is here:

The Runaways Official Movie Site

Rich Johnston has the new Red Band Trailer for Kick-Ass linked up here:

Bleeding Cool -Kick-Ass Trailer

Heidi MacDonald’s comicbook news Blog “The Beat” has moved from it’s former home at Publisher’s Weekly to it’s own domain:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/