Swift | Silent | Deadly


Month: April 2020


Six Live-Culture Fermentation Projects

If you are stuck at home during the current COVID-19 crisis you have an awesome opportunity to try some new things and learn some stuff. Today I’m going talk about some of my favorite culinary endeavors: fermenting things. Here are six live-culture fermentation projects that don’t require a lot of money or active time, but yield awesome rewards and improve your self-sufficiency and sustainability.

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Thoughts on Defensive Shotgun Setup

During the month of April I am doing two-a-days with dry practice. Aside from my normal practice routine with my EDC handgun, I am also spending ten minutes per day with my shotgun. This has me thinking a lot about the defensive shotgun setup. Additionally, with the surge of gun sales in recent weeks I’m sure at least a few people are the brand-new owner of a shotgun, so I will share a few of my ruminations.

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How to Be a Good Student

Today I’m going to turn the instructorship articles around and talk a bit about the other half of the student/instructor equation: the student. I honestly don’t know what I’ve done more of in my adult life: teaching or being a student. As an adult I have spent thousands of hours in the student seat, and my learning has never stopped. It has slowed down significantly, and the chances I get to be a student these days are precious. Below are some tips on how to be a good student. This might be a standalone, or it might be a Part I….we’ll see.

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Dry Practice Tools: A-Zoom Snap Caps

One of the best things about dry practice is the very minimal equipment demands and non-existent consumable demands. Dry practice doesn’t consume ammo, destroy targets, or require a lot of expensive tools. It is a very inexpensive training methodology – anyone can afford to dry practice. One thing you do need, however, is a good set of snap caps. Today I’m going to talk about A-Zoom snap caps

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The ‘Real World’ Bachelor’s of Tactical Science

Recently I wrote about my “perfect world” Bachelor’s of Tactical Science. When it came to obtaining my “bachelor’s” equivalent of tactical science, I did a lot of things right. I joined the military which gives some training away for free. I got myself into a special operations outfit, which gives a lot of training away for free. As a civilian I’ve been a little lazy at times, and a little time- or cash-strapped at others, but I have still managed to chip away at it over the years in a more “real world” fashion. Today I’m going to talk about what a more realistic version of the “Bachelor’s of Tactical Science” may look like.

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Know a Knot! Figure-8 Loop

Welcome to the first article in my “Know a Knot” series! There’s little that tells me more about a man that his ability to tie a knot, or not. Knowing how to tie a knot or two means you’ve taken the time to learn how to tie a knot, when it is useful, and when it isn’t. If you’re stuck at home, learn to tie a few knots over the next few weeks. This knowledge will serve you well (to steal Jack Spirko’s line) if times get tough, or even if they don’t. Today we’ll start with a very important knot: the Figure-8 loop.

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Why the 9mm 1911?

I recently received the following question from a reader: “How about a blog post on what led you to your current EDC handgun? A 9mm 1911 isn’t the most common choice, and I know you had been working with revolvers for a while there.” He’s absolutely right; a 9mm 1911 is a pretty unconventional choice for several reasons. Let’s take a look at them, and the gun itself.

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Digital Security Primer Part III: Cloud Stored Data

In my last post in this mini-series, I talked about Step 1 in my Security Framework: Malware Resilience. The steps there are all designed to minimize the chances of contracting malware. There are other steps, more advanced that can be taken, and maybe I’ll cover those in the future. They get much more technically demanding and time-consuming to implement.

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