Sometimes I Get Lucky

My flight to San Francisco is usually pretty much a nightmare…. But, tonight I got set! Check out the view from my aisle seat:

EMT Completed

This past Wednesday, I sat for the National Registry exam.  It’s one of those “intelligent” exams that determines what sections you know and what you don’t, adjusting the questions accordingly.  The minimum number of questions that you can take is 70 with a maximum of 150.  From what I’d been told by most people, if you finish with 70 questions, you either demolished the exam or failed miserably.  I finished at 70 questions and figured that I had failed.  However, as it turns out, I passed the exam just fine, so it’s official…  I got my National EMT certification yesterday and then dropped off the paperwork this afternoon for my Colorado certification.

I learned a lot.  After all the time I spent in my classes and clinicals, I think I would feel relatively calm if I were to encounter a person in cardiac arrest or suffering a seriously traumatic injury.  I’ve seen death now and, while it’s sad, it’s also a part of medicine.

Anyway, the first week or so of January I’ll be up in Fort Collins camped out on my buddy Travis’ couch during my wilderness training.  NOLS offers a Wilderness First Responder course which will upgrade me to a WEMT  and also give me a chance to learn a lot of more advanced stuff.  Considering that I spent a lot of time backpacking, climbing, and riding, it should be a really useful and education experience.  I’m pretty stoked and really looking forward to it.

First Day at the Range

I spent yesterday in a pistol class held by the NRA.  I’d never fired or handled a firearm before, so it was my first exposure to shooting.  People tend to naturally inherit one of two positions regarding firearms, probably from Hollywood.  Either firearms are an evil force guaranteed to kill everyone within 100 miles or they’re some implement which can be handled casually and stuffed into a waistband or something like that.

After studying pistols and ammunition for the better part of the morning and learning the three basic rules for firearm safety, I didn’t really feel like I was playing with death when I picked up a pistol or went to the range.  At no point did I feel like anyone was in any danger or was risking injury when we were shooting.

The first pistol I fired was a .22 caliber Browning which was a lot of fun.  After my first few shots, my instructor asked me if I thought it was fun and all I could do was laugh and grin.  After I had fired a couple of individual rounds, he had me load up a few more cartridges and then empty the magazine.  At about 10 yards out, my grouping was relatively close, so he told me that I should graduate to a larger caliber.

I shot a .40 caliber Glock, a 9mm Walther (thanks Ben!), and another 9mm pistol  that some dude had brought with him.  All in all, I had a lot of fun and can’t wait to purchase a pistol and start shooting.  I’m thinking that I’ll probably get a .22 caliber pistol for target shooting and eventually select a 9mm pistol for concealed carry.  The NRA offers a marksmanship class which I’m probably going to register for so that I can get some more instruction on shooting fundamentals, after I’ve gotten a pistol and put a few hundred rounds through it.

First Trip to a Gun Store

Well, after months of procrastination I finally broke down and registered for a pistol shooting class through the NRA. Part of the class is done at a shooting range, so I had to go buy some 9mm pistol ammunition. When I entered the gun store, it began to dawn upon me how much Americans love our guns. I realized that many Americans look to their 2nd amendment rights as representative of the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.

At any rate, I’m pretty sure that I could really get into this whole shooting thing. After my pistol class, I’ve got my eyes on a Sig Sauer P229. I had a chance to handle one at the gun store and I really liked the heft and feel. It comes in 9mm varieties (my preference) as well as a special .357 Sig configuration. The .357 variant is actually a .40 S&W round which costs a fortune. It’s hot and looks like it’d be a boatload of fun to shoot.

Most Excellent Web Comic

Read…

Thoughts on the Gospel

It’s ironic I suppose. I have a life that most Christian men my age would kill for. But money and all the other things that have landed on my doorstep simply aren’t enough.

Have so many forgotten Jesus’ promise of eternal life? Is there no one else that really understands what happned that day on the cross? Be there none others of Gods family that understand and can enjoy this with us here?

What fools those are that make works their gospel? Why give up a saving message for one that tries to extract obedience in exchange for salvation?!?

Another Trip to California

I don’t really know why, but I decided to experiment with different baggage arrangement this time. This is a really short trip – I’ll be back Tuesday afternoon – so I figured I’d forego my usual rollaway and try something smaller. I’m not bringing a computer this trip either, just my iPhone. I figure that I ca stand to be away from company email until Wednesday.

Anyway, I chose to use my drybag instead because I’m tired of having to check it at the gate. Since airlines have started charging for checked bags, everyone just brings their enormous luggage aboard and it winds up squeezing out the last 1/4 of the passengers. I wind up having to check it and then wait for it to be unloaded. So far I’m not a fan of my new setup – carrying it is a pain and it’s really annoying.

For some reason, my shoulder is bothering me. I haven’t done anything to it that i can think of. The paranoid part of me is afraid that’s it’s something life-altering like cancer although it’s probably just sore from straining it sometime in the past few weeks.

The View Out My Window

I fly a lot and it’s not something that really bothers me. But flying on puddle jumpers always freaks me out a bit

SOP: “Look to see if liftoff put a hole in the vehicle”

Every shuttle mission now includes a full days worth of hull inspection, looking for holes that might have been made by foam during liftoff.  Seriously?  This is the “deep science” that NASA is involved in?  Am I the only one that’s a bit hesitant to continue giving NASA money to waste?

Murder, She Wrote?

Wild.  Someone was found murdered just down the street from my house.  Gnarly.