Basics of Gun Safety

4 03 2012

You know what’s scary in the US?  Any idiot can walk into a store and buy a gun, with ZERO training.  I was in a gun store a couple months ago and was scared to see a guy thinking of purchasing a gun who knew absolutely nothing about guns.  Anyway, I figured I’d do a quick post on gun safety for fun.

Google “10 Commandments of Gun Safety” and you’ll get a huge variation on advice.  I’ve posted what I consider to be the best, easiest to remember, and most effective rules.

  1. Assume that all guns are always loaded and will go off at the slightest touch.
    I once shot my friend Brett in the ass with a BB gun.  I always kept it unloaded but as a joke my brother loaded it when I was away.  I pointed it at Brett’s ass, assuming the gun was unloaded, and then shot him with a 6 mm plastic pellet through a thin pair of basketball shorts, ouch, sorry man.
  2. Since all guns are always loaded and ready to go off, always point your gun in safe direction.
    My friend Rajiv once shot me with a paintball gun which had a hair trigger while handing it back to its owner.
  3. Similarly, don’t point your gun at something you don’t intend to shoot.
    This also means that other people will infer that you intend to shoot what you’re pointing your gun at.  If you point your gun at someone, they are within rights (morally speaking, not legally) to draw on you and fill you with holes.  You may know your gun is unloaded, safety is on, and action is open, but remember rule 1: they will assume your gun is loaded and ready to fire.
  4. Safety on and finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire.
    Don’t rely on the safety (which is why there are three rules more important than having the safety on), but have it on.  If the safety is on, the trigger shouldn’t be able to be pulled, but you should still keep your finger off the trigger.  Only a true moron carries his gun with his finger holding down the trigger, relying on the safety to stop it form firing.  Develop a “stiff finger”, which means that anytime you handle a firearm your finger should be straight along the side of the gun, not in the trigger guard.

    Gun, Enemy, Friend - can you see the problem?

  5. When preparing to shoot, know your target AND WHAT’S BEYOND.
    Why?  Check out the screencap on the right from Killer Elite.  Even if you hit your target, the bullet can penetrate and deal damage to something or someone behind it.
  6. As a courtesy, if you must swing your barrel around such that it points at someone, place your hand over the barrel to indicate to the person you’re pointing your gun at how confident you are that it will not fire.

There are a bunch of other smaller rules to know, but the above is what i feel everyone ought to know, and the smaller rules are generally common sense.  Here’s a quick list:

  • Keep firearms unloaded unless in use.  Personally for home defense, I keep ammunition nearby but not loaded.
  • Use the proper ammunition.  Not just caliber, but powder load etc.
  • If you pull the trigger and nothing happens, keep your gun pointed in a safe direction.  Wait a minute before ejecting the cartridge.
  • Wear ear and eye protection.  Unless you want gunpowder in your eyes and to lose partial hearing.
  • Make sure your barrel isn’t obstructed before firing (mud or whatnot).
  • Don’t alter your firearm (use a gunsmith), keep it maintained.
  • Know how to use your firearm.  How to load it and unload it safely, field strip it, clear jams, etc.
  • Don’t run, jump, or climb with your firearm.  In other words, don’t horse around.
  • Store your firearm(s) and ammunition safely and out of reach of children.  I would also recommend teaching your children about firearms and firearm safety to remove the mystique around them and so that if their friend shows them a gun they know what to do.




Simple Two Tier Password Setup

28 02 2012

First, why should you have two tiers of passwords?  Every once in a while a company will have a breach and all user names and passwords will be stolen.  What can happen is that the phisher can try all the stolen user name and passwords on other popular sites, and thus break into your life.

Password limits are stupid, courtesy of XKCD and creative commons

There are a million different things that people say make a good password.  There is no such thing as a completely secure password (especially with keyloggers existing), but I have a few simple tips to help you develop a great two tier system that will protect from:

  • brute force
  • someone getting your password on one site, then using it on another
  • someone getting a low level password, like to log on to comment on a blog, and using it to access a high level password, like your banking
  • forgetting your password

If you’re paranoid, the best thing to do is use a password storage program, such as KeePass.  You can have it generate extremely complicated passwords and copy and paste them everytime you want to use them.  Personally I don’t like that system, so I use a simple two tier variable password setup.  Here are some of the basic rules:

  • Use lower case, upper case, numeric, and symbolic characters
  • Be able to substitute for symbolic characters when stupid websites won’t let you use symbols
  • NEVER use the same exact password twice (but they can be close)
  • Save your passwords in a secure storage program just in case.  I also keep a copy of the master password and how to access my passwords in my safety deposit box, in the event I die my family can access my digital life
  • Have at least two tiers of passwords to separate important things like banking from unimportant things like a forum logon

Creating Your Passwords

You need to create two separate passwords, the first being about 7 characters long and the second greater than 15 characters long.  I would prefer both to be 15+ characters, but most websites are retarded and have very short maximum password length requirements.Here’s the process, with an example.

  1. Choose a word, phrase, or character trait.  I will choose entelechy
  2. Sub in some numbers.  3 can be e, 1 can be L, or you can just randomly add some.  3nte1echy
  3. Sub in some symbols.  a can be @, 1 can be a semicolon ;, o can become parenthesis (), etc.  3nte1ec^  I choose the carrat key because it is phonetically the same, so I would think entelec key when typing.
  4. We haven’t used uppercase and we haven’t distinguished our password between websites yet.  We can solve both by adding 3 cap letters which are related to the specific website.  Make a rule, for example, the first letter, last letter, then second letter of the website.  So gmail would be 3nte1ec^GLM.  Or you can get more complicated, such as using the second consonant, last vowel, first letter.  3nte1ec^MIG.  Also, have an “escape” rule, in case you have some website like AAA, which has no consonants.  So, for example, if there is no consonant or vowel, sub in the last letter of the website.

Now repeat to create a stronger password, but with a phrase which is about 15 to 20 characters long.  A phrase will work better than a word for this one, for example: Iloveyourdeepblueeyes, yugiohrocksmyworld, idriveanacuraintegra, etc.

Save your password in your password manager plus your rules to complete it.  The last thing to do is type your password several (hundred) times to help get it imprinted in your motor memory (also a good way to remember phone numbers).  If I had to read off my actual password, it would take me several minutes to actually remember what it is, but I can type it in a second or two.

And that’s all there is to it.  Now you have two passwords with upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and symbols, which are relatively easy to remember and that are never the same on two different websites.





Self Experimentation/Demonstration: GOMAD, muscle gain, good health, etc

27 02 2012

Please read the whole article before commenting on how crazy I am.  But, feel free to post that.  It will just make it funnier in 2 months when I prove you wrong.

If you don’t know already, GOMAD = Gallon of milk a day.  Note: I’ve done GOMAD twice before so I pretty much know what to expect, which is why this is a experiment/demonstration.

Where I Am Now

Since new years I have been lifting lightly and slowly getting back into shape.  I’m finally at a reasonable point (Deadlift, 265, Squat 215, Bench 150, Row 150, Overhead Press 120) and am going to kick it into high gear.  I currently weigh 168 lbs, my goal is 175 lbs with a good body fat %.

My Plan

Exercise

Stay on my current linear progression lifting program (based on Stronglifts).  I will probably have to switch to an intermediate program soon enough.  See my current results as well as projected workouts here.

Diet

Eat my normal diet (low/slow carb mostly, but plenty of crap also), but add GOMAD.  Stay on this until I reach 180 lbs (should be 2 months), at which point drop GOMAD and cut down to 175 lbs while attemping to not lose any muscle mass.  I may do only half a gallon of milk on Sat and Sun since I don’t lift those 2 days in a row.

Health

For fun, after I reach my goal of 180 lbs I will get a cholesterol test to show you the reader what happens.  Either you’ll be surprised by awesome numbers or I’ll be surprised by crappy numbers.

Demonstration

I will try to photo every bit of food I eat until I reach my goal of 175 lbs and post the photos to my flickr account.  You can follow along with my workout progress here.   I took a video since photos are easily altered and posted it below, and I will repeat at 180 lbs and 175 lbs.  At the end of my GOMAD I will get a lipid panel (cholesterol test).

In the spirit of full disclosure I have a few extra things I do/don’t do:

  • Never work out within 30 minutes of waking up.
  • Never lift right after eating.
  • Sleep plenty.
  • Short warm up.

Things I’m Not Doing

People have a million and one (stupid) tips on how to lose or gain weight.  I’m not doing anything but what’s above.  Here’s a short list of things I’m not doing that you may have heard of:

  • Counting calories
  • Going out of my way to walk or jog or walk up stairs or anything like that
  • “Timing” my protein
  • Working out at a specific time (ie, workout before you eat breakfast or other such bs)
  • “Confusing my muscles” by switching exercises
  • Supplementing in any way (although I do take vitamin D3, vitamin B and fishoil for other reasons)
  • Substituting “healthy food” for other food.  For example, quinoa, low fat anything, etc.  I cook with real butter, bacon, etc.

Hypothesis

I have done this before, so I pretty much know what’s going to happen.  It should take a month or two to get up to 180 lbs.  From there it’ll take another month or two to drop back down to 175 lbs.  At 175 lbs  I will look noticeably more muscular than I do now, but still have a small belly.  Hypothesis for my cholesterol levels after reaching 180 lbs by drinking a gallon of milk a day: should be similar to my last test: total 185, triglyceride 84, hdl 68, ldl 100, (all mg/dL), December 2010.

Call for Comments

I really want to hear from you on what you think will happen.  I know this sounds crazy, so I’m hoping people post what they think will happen or not happen.





The Key Difference Between Science and Religion

25 02 2012

Both seek to explain the world.  Science primarily through observation and testing and religion primarily through thinking and story telling.  After thinking on it a bit, there is one simple way to distinguish the two: prediction.

XKCD T-shirt

One of the best examples in my mind of science making accurate predictions is the periodic table.  Prior to the periodic table, chemists had trouble organizing the atomic elements, but when they figured out a good way to organize it, not only did it describe known elements in a logical order, but was also able to predict the existence of elements not yet discovered (which were later discovered).  Religion can’t predict these kind of physical world things.  However, I must admit that it can make some “predictions”.  For example, following the 10 commandments would make society a better place, a pretty good and accurate prediction IMO.

Of course, if the world ends in 2012 I’m completely wrong.





Self Experimentation: Productivity

22 02 2012

Lately I’ve been super lazy.  Waiting for something to happen.  Unfortunately, this is not a good way to get things done.  The other day Lifehacker had an interesting post on Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity method called “Don’t Break The Chain”.  The basic idea is to have a calendar with a clear goal and a minimum that must be done daily to reach that goal.  Every day that you complete the minimum step towards the goal, you put a big x across that date on the calendar.  The goal is to not break the chain of X’s on your calendar.

My calendars

The article suggests having 3 goals to start, but since I’m unemployed and have some easy goals, I have 5 for now.  I have listed them below with their minimum daily steps:

  1. Study programming and Java: read for 30 minutes
  2. Apply to jobs: apply to 1 job
  3. Blog: write or revise 1 article, work on the layout, or create 1 photo for later use
  4. Stretch: do 3 stretches from Pavel’s relax into stretch
  5. Clear my desk: clear my desk once a day

The article recommends taking sick days and vacation days so I’ll have an allowance for those, roughly 21 days per year is what I’m thinking for now.  For the programming goal I will only work on it during the week, while the other goals will be 7 days a week.

Updates to come monthly.