Yesterday noon, Tam and I enjoyed a delightful lunch with Alan of Snarky Bytes (The father of the Annotated Future -- optics + GPS = informational popups!). He's a fascinating conversationalist with an interesting career and hobbies. I was sorry not to have more time to spend.
It's been a busy couple of days -- we'd met a reader of both our blogs at Broadripple Brewpub the evening before and he, too, was an intelligent gentleman with a unique perspective on world events.
Profiling?
I've noticed a number of shared interests and habits in many gunbloggers/readers. We tend to self-select, so it's not unexpected but it is interesting.
Partial list:
- Fond of spicy food
- coffee/caffiene
- chocolate
- Science Fiction
- Military History (and related historical fiction)
- Own an unsual amount of books in the previous two categories and many more; will pretty much read everything within reach.
- "They all carry knives" IMO, that's just practical good sense, though as a group, we seem to tend to unusual and/or high-quality steel.
- Eclectic taste in music
- motorcycling (et vehicular cetera)
- a tendency to "do the homework:" read manuals, get training, learn from others.
Could be my results are skewed by sample size.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
30 comments:
A knife is a man's jewelry. Plus, anyone who can't keep a knife moderately sharp, you have to question his/her ability to operate heavy equipment.
Add one more to your sample size. I hit on all of those except spicy food and that's only because of meidcal issues in the last ten years or so. I wouldn't mind an informal knife survey, in case i was missing out on one I should have.
I fit all but two. My book collection shrank back in '03 before I went to Alaska and I never built it back up. Chocolate isn't my thing, I prefer gummy or sour candy.
I can't decide which (gun or knife) I miss more when flying. At home I carry both, but actually USE my knife more often.
Sometimes, if I'm in a city for more than a day or two I buy a cheap throw away just to have SOMETHING.
(Cheap throw away knife, not gun, although now that I think about it...)
Was in a bad motorcycle accident as a teen; swore off.
Don't care much for spicy food, but am getting a taste for Italian sausage in my old age.
I claim a special exemption on the knife front. Oh, I carry one -- used to be called a pen knife, I believe. Would probably pass the TSA, if I flew.
But I use knives and other sharp implements in my work and always have them around me -- in situ, as it were, so don't feel a need to CARRY one specifically.
Otherwise: guilty as charged, with a special endorsement: I also WRITE speculative fiction. (Audience gasps and shrinks away.)
But only in private. (Oh, that's alright, then.)
M
I flunk on motorcycles. I get distracted wayyyyy too easily by optical properties of things (ie, "Oooh! Shiny!") so I've self-moderated on that one. With the number of books in this house, if it caught light it'd burn for a month...
Aside from that, one o'these days I'd be privileged to warm a chair in that company.
It hits pretty close for me. I haven't been without a pocket knife of some sort for more than a few days since I was first allowed to have (issued?) one at age ten. I feel sorta' naked without one. I'm not huge into military history, and the public library has always been my book collection, but other than that it's a decent picture of me.
Erm.... yes on all counts.
This is, um, totally off topic, but I'm tagging you.
I fit everything except the motorcycles; haven't been on one since my teens. My fondness is for Jeeps and trucks.
- I hate spicy food. That hate is directly proportional to how spicy it is.
- Mmm...coffee...
- Chocolate is my hot hot sex.
- Notsomuch on scifi. Meh.
- Meh on military history and historical fiction.
- I have lots of books. Fewer than I'd like, though.
- TD bought me my first carry knife.
- I listen to nearly anything, music-wise.
- I hate the wind in my face, thus, I hate cycling.
- I also over-research some things to the point of becoming bogged down by information.
So, mostly correct profiling.
Let's see, I pretty much miss the boat on this list:
Don't like spicy food, stomach can't stand garlic.
Coffee; two cups every morning then I abstain the rest of the day.
Love chocolate.
Absolutely no interest in Sci-Fi, had to be forced by the kids to go see Star Wars.
Military History; I am a fanatic. My wife doesn't worry about me going to bars, but strip searches me for cash and credit cards every time I go into a book store.
House is full of books; it's the Fibber McGee's closet of book storage.
Have the usual assortment of knives, both tactical and 'auto'.
Don't listen to ANY music of ANY kind. I actually LIKE silence.
Quit motorcycling when pre-teens start beating me in races four decades ago.
Do a lot of research because it comes with the terrotity. When you write you have to have the facts to back up what you write.
Other than research, books, military history and knives I doubt if you would find me interesting.
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Guilty on all counts, except for unusual knife.
Mine is a simple Case working mans folder. Good quality, no froo froo.
Thats not to say I don't OWN some high quality and unusual knives, I just don't carry them.
You forgot the most important common trait we all have:
- Incredibly, DISTRACTINGLY, attractive
But 'Teach, y' do carry a blade. It surprises me how few people do. I always thought well of Case.
Thunderbolt: aw, ya peeked. I must say, the gunblogger menfolk I have so far met have been in decent-to-exellent shape.
Squeaky, the wind-in-the-face thing is why my scooter has a windscreen and my helmet has a visor. Way better. :)
Frank: so, except for the interesting things about you and the fact that thoughtful, well-spoken folks are usually interesting, you'd be uninteresting? Umm, yes, and except for my height, I'm short. ;)
Spicy food? Check! Mexican, Cajun, oriental
Coffee? Check! Own a whiz-bang grind-filter-brew gadget
Chocolate? Check!
Sci-Fi? Check!
Military History? Check!
Compulsive reader? Check!
Carry knife? Nope.
Eclectic taste in music? From Dvorak to Devo.
Motorcycling? Gave it up 25 years ago.
Like to read manuals? Got some from Sony, Avid and GVG in PDF form on my reading list right now.
I thought it was just me.
Bikeless at present, though. If I had one I wouldn't get anything else done.
Oh, and that "Incredibly, DISTRACTINGLY, attractive" thing.
The point of the "profile" is not that we all fit every parameter, but that all of us fit many of them. I'd add another -- many of us have some sort of tech-geek hobby, like amateur radio, very hand-on computer hardware or software, cryptography, that sort of thing.
Similar minds...
You know, since I've been hanging out with this bloggy lot (though I don't qualify as a gunblogger) I've started carrying a knife always. I'm glad I finally figured out where all the cool kids were hanging out, because my shoes are way too interesting for that other boring lot.
Phlegmmie, a knife might be Og's jewelry -- and why not? -- but it's my fingernail saver! My carry knives are both one-hand-openable, in fact.
I hit on most of them as well.
Spicy food is great, a hunk of burning hellfire in the mouth is a bit too much.
Down about a pot or so of coffee each day at work.
I'm trying to cut back on the chocolate.
Sci-fi is good stuff.
More historical fiction than military history.
I'm ashamed of my book collection, but I'm more ashamed of some of the books I've grabbed from my wife's pile and read when I didn't have anything on hand.
You mean everyone dosn't carry a knife with them?
Music tastes are about twenty years older than I am.
I miss my Harley.
Manuals are more of a rough guide to things right?
I hit pretty much everything on your list to one degree or another, certain things, like obsessive reading of nonfiction/Technical writings, are obviouslys stronger than others.
I would add one more, though, We tend not to have "fuzzy headed" thinking - we can explain our positions on anything, and why they are our positions.
Plus, most of us like to argue :)
Amateur radio? Check! Since I was fifteen - currently Extra Class - First 'Phone, too, back in The Day.
Cryptography? Check! Until they got into permutations and group theory. Spent a small fortune on Aegean Park Press books. Got an autographed (personalized!) copy of David Kahn's "The Codebreakers", from a lecture he gave at the Smithsonian.
Computers? Check! Currently rehabilitating old laptops with Ubuntu Linux.
Anybody else have an unnatural craving for bread pudding?
Well, I hit most of them. Not into bikes, jeeps are more my thing. The ability to go anywhere, and get back again. Yes, I do rebuild jeeps, why do you ask?
Coffee, not so much though I am working on that caffeine addiction.
Carry a knife? Heck without a knife you might as well just give up your opposable thumb. Nope it's not one of those neato tacticool things. It's a basic pen knife made by buck that I got free when I worked a magna cigarette promotion.
Check on the rest, except for the techno geek hobby. Oh, I've been there done that, rebuilt 'puters, programmed, interested in basic crypto as a kid, professional sound tech once upon a time. However, these days I stick primarily to weapons, reading, cooking, brewing, and jeeps.
Motorcycling I backed off of with marriage, and a little wreck.
I'm also backing off the home library thing-- space concerns and cleaning make the public library more attractive, these days. That, and I'm a grad student and have access to a LOT of books. I've been paring down my 'brary to the most basic necessities.
The rest, I've got, in spades.
I think it's desire to have really lived.
Does night vision equipment qualify as techno-geek equipment because since the first of the year I've purchased two good pieces (yes, they were obscenely expensive) and I have to say this stuff is fun and way toooo coooo.
All The Best,
Frank W. James
That's scary. I hit literally every single item on your list...
And T-bolt's addition, too. ;)
Oh my-I'm a stereotype.The exception being SciFi,but I do like that Data guy from Star Track.
Yet another one that hits all of them. I haven't ridden a bike in 17 years and then it was a crotchrocket, however, I've just bought a friend's motocross bike and am taking that up this summer.
Brass
I am 10 days late and a few dollars short again.
1. Do Habaneros and over 20 bottles of hot sauce count? As well as my family currently working on a gallon of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce, as the small bottles run out too quickly.
2&3. Sure, nothing better than Some dark Chocolate and a good dark cup of Community Dark Roast.
4&5. I've always had a weakness for C. S. Forester's Hornblower saga. I also have a weakness for Heinlein and P.K. Dick.
6. My wife is a librarian and she thinks that I have too many books.
7. I always feel naked without a blade or two. A large utility blade in one pocket and a small non-scary knife in the other.
8. Mix a little J. S. Bach with Devo and Bob Wills and AC/DC.
9. Once did dirt bikes, switched to bicycles, but I have been looking for a BMW R75 or R80 of late.
10. Always read the manuals, I also loved the humor of the old HP calculator manuals of the mid to late 70's. MAKE magazine certainly gets my full attention now.
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