Last week I had a squib load…and then another. 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 “Malfunctions: The Squib Load”
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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”
EDC Flashlight Review: NiteCore MT1A
This month’s flashlight is the NiteCore MT1A EDC flashlight. The MT1A is a single-AA light at a mid-range price point. Overall it seems like a well-built light, but one with a few design strikes against it. Let’s take a look at its features. Continue reading “EDC Flashlight Review: NiteCore MT1A”
Some Thoughts on Asolo Boots
A reader recently wrote in asking for a review of Asolo boots. I have a fairly rich history with Asolo boots and I would love to talk about them. A couple disclaimer notes before I begin… Continue reading “Some Thoughts on Asolo Boots”
Getting Friends and Family (Slightly) More Prepared
As I mentioned in my article on building rapport with your neighbors, I have recently become interested in making those around me – especially my friends and family – better prepared. After this article they’ll only be slightly better prepared, but that’s a heck of a lot better than nothing. And maybe it’s the start of something bigger…
Continue reading “Getting Friends and Family (Slightly) More Prepared”
Five Steps to Protecting Your Home Address
Achieving comprehensive personal privacy is a complicated goal involving a lot of complex, discrete steps. On this blog I spend a lot of time focusing on the highly specific, individual steps. Often we fail to provide a lot of context for why we’re doing them, or how they fit into the bigger picture. This was called to my attention recently when an old friend contacted me. He has a legitimate safety reason to wish to be more private, and asked me for advice. Unfortunately, I don’t have a single blog post I could offer him that effectively introduces the basic steps of protecting your home address. Continue reading “Five Steps to Protecting Your Home Address”
MXG Gear Knife Clips
This is just a quick, in-between-posts post about a gadget that I really dig. I recently changed my EDC knife to a Spyderco Para Military 2. As soon as I got it I immediately disliked the clip. It was shiny, and very high-riding. Fortunately, the PM2 is one of the most popular EDC knives on the market, so there were plenty of replacement options. This led me to MXG Gear. Continue reading “MXG Gear Knife Clips”
VMs Part III: Snapshot Management
In the last installment in the virtual machine series, I discussed the basic setup of Ubuntu. Today I am going to talk about snapshots, why they’re important, and how to manage them. This tutorial will walk through my workflow for working with snapshots. Continue reading “VMs Part III: Snapshot Management”
Self Defense Law Folk Lore
Greg Ellifritz recently wrote a post about the phrase, “I’m in fear for my life.” In it he concluded that saying (which is not the same thing as being) you are in fear for your life is, “not a shortcut to provide some sort of instant justification for shooting someone.” I recently got a comment on one of my other blogs (the “gun blog”) that I’m going to talk about today because it is another great example – though a less common one – of ‘self-defense law folk lore.’ Continue reading “Self Defense Law Folk Lore”