Console Update: Welcome Home

As of 1400 (that's 2:00 PM), July 31st, 2010.  YLOD Number Four is now in the past, and the countdown starts until Number Five.  I predict somewhere around October.

WTF News Article of the Week Award

...goes to: this one!

I mean, I've heard of gas guzzling, but what the hell, man?  OM NOM NOM NOM NOM CHEEZBURGER

Console Update: July 27th (Edited)

So here's the haps on my wayward console. I just got an email from GopherMods that Fedex dropped off the PS3 to them earlier today, where I am guessing they are wrenching on it right now since I haven't gotten a new email from them yet.

EDIT: Just received an email from Gophermods about ten minutes ago, that the work was completed and the PS3 has been shipped out. She will return to me within the next two weeks.  EDIT: ETA IS SATURDAY, JULY 31st.


While I wait, I watched three movies today: Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day with Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery and Billy Connolly, Death Wish with Charles Bronson, and Righteous Kill with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Both are great movies, and I urge you to watch them if you haven't seen them.

To the three of you reading this blog who are on my PSN friends list, I miss you all and can't wait to get back to continue our antics and gaming. To the rest of you, thanks for nothing.

P.S. Don't forget my fundraiser for a new console, which has been extended all the way to December 30th. I'm not expecting a big sack of coin, just give what you are comfortable with sending. Even a dime helps.

Not Another Gun Review (NAGR) - Mossberg 590A1

Today's first review will be looking at one of O.F. Mossberg & Sons' products in their Special Purpose series of firearms: the Mossberg 590A1 shotgun. (This post will be updated with pics soon.)

I bought this shotgun back in August of 2006, new in the box, for $500 and to this day, it was money well spent. After the mandatory 10-day wait the *wonderful* Republik of Kalifornistan makes me suffer through, I picked up the box of joy from the local gun shop, and trundled it home. Inside the box was the shotgun, cable lock, and owner's manual with the basics for keeping your gun a happy gun.

The basics. This shotgun comes with a 20-inch heavy profile barrel; eight-shell capacity magazine tube, plus one in the chamber; ghost ring rear sight with an orange front blade; Parkerized finish and synthetic furniture. The stock is a traditional polymer shotgun stock with a one-inch thick rubber recoil pad on the end, with a sling swivel screw on the bottom. Another screw is located on the accessory lug up front (more on that later), which lets you mount any quick-detach sling swivels you like. Every Mossberg shotgun bolt has two extractors on it, to ensure that your empties are drug out. This shotgun is no different, and they work great every time. The top of the receiver is drilled and tapped for a scope mount or Picatinny rail, although you need to remove the ghost ring sight to do so. The accessory lug located underneath one of the barrel's mag tube support rings allows for the front sling swivel screw to be mounted, but is also a bayonet lug for an M7 and/or M9 bayonet. For anyone using this shotgun as a home defense gun, a bayonet is one hell of an extra line of defense, and mean-looking, too.

Operation. All Mossberg safety switches are located on the tang of the receiver, between the top and the start of the buttstock. Press down for safe, press up for fire. This is different from Remington's crossbolt safety, which is located behind their trigger guards. A few shooters prefer Mossberg's safety over Remington's because it's easier to reach and manipulate. Mossberg's slide release is also mounted differently than Remington's, behind the trigger guard rather than in front of the trigger guard, respectively. The Mossberg's barrel is twenty inches long, and has a cylinder bore choke. What that means, is that the front of the barrel isn't choked, or constricted to get a tighter shot pattern. This has its pros and cons, but for me, it's a non-issue. The chamber is three inches long, thus allowing the gun to chamber either 2¾" or the larger 3" shells. With 3" shells, you lose one round capacity in the mag tube, so it becomes a 7+1 round capacity. Other than that, it's a standard pump-action shotgun: the shells load into the mag tube from the bottom of the receiver, the shooter racks the slide to load a shell, sight-acquire-fire, then rack the slide to cycle the action. Lather, rinse, repeat.

How it shoots. This shotgun is sweet, plain and simple. Once I put that stock to my shoulder, it was like a match made in heaven. This thing will eat anything, from the lightest birdshot to 3" Magnum 00 Buck, and rifled slugs. The ghost ring sights makes it easy to sight up your target, even at the far end of the buckshot's effective range of 25 yards. At 7 yards (the average range for a gunfight), this Mossberg will shoot minute of bad guy all day long.

Not Another Gun Review (NAGR) - New Feature

Okay, I have to apologize for the movie feature, since I've been doing a lot more playing games than watching movies, but I promise I will have more for you all later.

Now, on to the new stuff. I've decided to do some reviews of firearms that are near and dear to me. That is, to say, they're mine. I hope to do a running review of guns and ammo as I go on with this blog, but fr now I will start small and begin with my own measly collection.

Anyway: look for the first NAGR review coming soon: the Mossberg 590A1 shotgun.

Gotta love technology: YLOD #4

Yes, you heard me right, gentle reader.  My faithful PS3 has given up the ghost for the fourth time at 8:35 PM today, July 18th, 2010.

As it is well within the 60-day warranty that was free from the original repair company, which I recommend to everyone, I will be sending it back for the fourth time.  Hopefully, I can find a place around here that can do a full re-ball of the console, thus stopping this crap from happening altogether.

However, I really must ask again to anybody reading this, if you could reach in and dig deep to help me get a new console, please do so.  I would never ask this otherwise, but these are desperate times we are living in, and everyone needs a helping hand every once in a while. 

So bear with me, as I am yet again out of the Playstation Network for another two or three weeks as this crap gets addressed.

All the best,

G-Man

Red Dead Redemption

Greatest.  Game.  Ever.

Thank you, Rockstar.  Thank you.

George Carlin: The Miscellaneous Ailments Foundation

This post is dedicated to the memory of George Carlin, one of the greatest comedians who ever lived.  The following material is his, and can be found in his book Napalm and Silly Putty.  It is a favorite of mine, and I would like to share it with all of you.

Not every human ailment has a telethon to help raise money.  This space is donated to the Miscellaneous Ailments Foundation.  If you or a loved one suffer from any of the following conditions, open your heart, dig deep, and give what you can.  And please, no small donations.  Try to give more than you can afford.

ITCH • TWITCH • WELTS • WARTS • PIMPLES • NITS • SCABS • SCARS • SORES • BOILS • RASH • GASH • HIVES • CYSTS • CRAMPS • POLYPS • BLISTERS • BLOTCHES • BUNIONS • BEDSORES • ROPE BURNS • PAPER CUTS • COCKEYE • BLACKHEADS • WHITEHEADS • GAG EASILY • SWOLLEN GLANDS • EYESTRAIN • NAUSEA • PILES • GAS • CRABS • PEG LEG • ABSCESSED TOOTH • PENICILLIN REACTION • PALENESS • NICKS & CUTS • BRITTLE NAILS • WOOZINESS • HOMESICKNESS • FALL DOWN A LOT • SICK & TIRED • JUST DON'T FEEL GOOD • CHILLS & FEVER • FEVER & CHILLS • CHILLS WITHOUT FEVER • FEVER WITHOUT CHILLS • SMALL POX • MEDIUM POX • LARGE POX • X-LARGE POX • CHICKEN POX • TUNA POX • ROAST BEEF POX • WHOOPING COUGH • WHOOPING SNEEZE • WHOOPING GIGGLE • WHEEZING • SNEEZING • FREEZING • MUMPS • BUMPS • LUMPS • BAD EYES • BAD FEET • BAD BLOOD • BAD BREATH • BAD BACK • BAD ATTITUDE • POOR POSTURE • COWARDICE • TRENCH MOUTH • PUFFY SKIN • COMPLETE PARALYSIS • ENLARGED PORES • OUT OF BREATH • ARM HURTS • BAD JUDGMENT • DUMB LOOK • OUT OF SORTS • BRUISE EASILY • WIND KNOCKED OUT OF YOU • SEEIN' THINGS • THE BLAHS • THE HOTS • THE RUNS • THE CREEPS • THE WILLIES • THE SHITS • THE VAPORS • THE BENDS • THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES • SHOCK • TREMOR • RELAPSE