One of the things I miss most about my brief time in the military is wearing a uniform. I don’t mean getting all spiffed up in dress blues or anything like that, and I certainly don’t mean being recognized as a military member. Much more simply, I just miss never having to think about what to wear to work. Today I’m going to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart: clothing as EDC, and creating your own individual “uniform.” Continue reading “EDC Part 0: The Individual “Uniform””
2020 Dry Practice Report 1: January 1 – 15
My first post of this year briefly discussed my goal of doing 3,660 minutes of dry practice in 2019. These posts are mostly for my own accountability. Here are my results to this point in the year. Continue reading “2020 Dry Practice Report 1: January 1 – 15”
Wives’ Tales, Sea Stories, and Gun Shop Lore
I recently had to attend my state’s concealed carry permit class. While I offered a detailed review of the class (you should really go read that for a more full explanation of this post), these are some of the wives’ tales that were passed off as gospel. I’m not going to fully explain all the ways that all of these are wrong; we’d be here all day. There’s going to be no consistent theme here – just a list of some of the dumb stuff I heard in class. Continue reading “Wives’ Tales, Sea Stories, and Gun Shop Lore”
State Concealed Carry Class Review
I recently had to attend my state’s concealed carry class. Most concealed carriers don’t get to attend these classes too often. I haven’t attended one in years, but through a bit of a fluke I had to attend one to one to get my current state’s resident permit. I love training, but was I ever disappointed in the class. Today is going to offer an after-action review of my state concealed carry class. Continue reading “State Concealed Carry Class Review”
Concealed Carry Class by Tom Givens
I just finished reading Tom Givens’ Concealed Carry Class: The ABCs of Self-Defense Tools and Tactics. This was the first book I read this year, and one that is worth sharing with the audience here. Bottom line up front: I will probably be purchasing a few copies of Concealed Carry Class for a few of my friends and family members…but this review isn’t all praise. Continue reading “Concealed Carry Class by Tom Givens”
2020 Goals: 3,660 Minutes of Dry Practice
Last year, on one of my other blogs, I documented my (successful) attempt to do 3,650 minutes of dry practice in 2019. I learned a tremendous amount during that exercise, and one of those lessons was that putting some social pressure on myself through the blog helped me tremendously. This year I’m going to do a similar thing here. Continue reading “2020 Goals: 3,660 Minutes of Dry Practice”
Book Excerpt: “Digital Self-Defense”
Most of you probably don’t know that my day job is an instructor of digital security tools, techniques, and procedures. The company I work for provides training to a variety of military and intelligence activities. I am extremely lucky to have my job because I absolutely love what I do. I love teaching, and I love the topics that I teach. Continue reading “Book Excerpt: “Digital Self-Defense””
The Squib Load
Last week I had two squib loads. Both were from the same box of factory ammo. If you shoot enough, eventually you’re probably going to run into this ammunition-related malfunction. It’s important to know to recognize this one. Failure to recognize it could result in serious damage to your gun and serious injury to you. Continue reading “The Squib Load”
Micro-Preparedness: Store Your Gear in Ready Condition
I have gotten a ton of good feedback on my last Micro-Preparedness post about staging your clothing. Today’s post is along the same lines, and comes to you courtesy of cutting some firewood. Continue reading “Micro-Preparedness: Store Your Gear in Ready Condition”
The Spyderco Sharpmaker
Welcome back to another short little post between regular posts. This time I’m talking about the Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker sharpening system. This gadget has literally changed my life as far as knives are concerned. Continue reading “The Spyderco Sharpmaker”