Guns: Low recoil buckshot patterning

I have a shotgun class coming up later this month, so I've been testing out some budget low recoil 00 buckshot options.

While all of the loads cycled fine in my tacticool Remington 870 Wingmaster, none of the patterns were tight enough to be safe past 10-15 yards. Here are some typical patterns from 10 yards for each load:

PMC "One-Shot" Low Velocity Buckshot:

Fiocchi Exacta low recoil buckshot:

Rio Royal Buck low velocity:

 

I hate to sound like a commercial, but if you own a shotgun and think you might use it for anything beyond across-the-room distances, you need to stoke it with something like Flite Control or Versatite.

Food: Dry January (and Beyond)

Rates of alcoholism for lawyers are much higher than for the general population, and while I'm nowhere near having any kind of problem, I did notice that I was drinking most days of the week without even realizing it.  That, coupled with the latest scientific evidence that no amount of alcohol is "safe," has made me consciously reduce my alcohol consumption over the last few months.

The effects have been noticeable and immediate: I've lost weight, ran my fastest 5k and half-marathon times in years, and have slept deeper and longer (I've also mostly quit caffeine, too).

Going from 1-2 drinks a day to 1-2 drinks a week can be an adjustment, but thankfully, there are lots of non-alcoholic options nowadays.  While NA wine is still pretty terrible, the NA beers are close enough to the real thing that most casual drinkers (like me) won't mind the difference, especially at a meal or a party. 

Common NA beers that I can recommend are Heineken 0.0 (which is what you'll find in most restaurants and bars), Guiness 0, Blue Moon NA, and most of the Athletic and Partake brews. I hate the "hop water" or "hoppy refresher"-type concoctions (too thin and watery), and for similar reasons, I didn't like the beers I've tried from Clausthaler, BrewDog, or CERIA.

If you're embarking on Dry January (or beyond), I wish you the best!

Miscellany: SureFire EDC1-DFT Turbo review - The [C]andela Effect

SureFire has been under assault from Chinese flashlight brands on the low end and boutique American shops on the high end for years now.  However, there are still a handful of products SureFire makes that I like better than the competition, like the subject of today's review, the EDC1-DFT Turbo:

The EDC1-DFT Turbo is a handheld everyday carry-sized flashlight that uses a single 18350 USB-rechargeable battery. Its main use is as a "thrower" or self-defense light - pressing the tailcap switch gives you a blistering 95,000 candela beam that can illuminate faraway objects and temporarily disorient people, even in the daytime. The tradeoff is that overall light output (lumens) and runtime are somewhat lower than its competitors.

In a pinch, the EDC1-DFT can use CR123A lithium batteries (that's what the "DF" stands for - "dual fuel"), which might be useful if you are headed "off the grid" or need to store the flashlight for extended periods of time without charging. The head is a bit bulbous, and the light is over twice as expensive as comparable foreign models, but if you need a durable spotlight in your pocket, this is one of the best options out there.

Tech: The Tesla Holiday Update

One of the best parts about owning a Tesla is that you receive free over-the-air software updates for the vehicle all the time. Most of these updates are minor (bug fixes, UI tweaks), but every so often major features get added, like rear cross-traffic alerts and adaptive headlights.  Tesla usually saves up the biggest changes for the annual holiday update:

This year, the headline feature for the holiday update is the integration of the car's navigation system with Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk's company xAI.  Practically speaking, that means you can give natural language directions to your car ("Navigate to the nearest Walmart, then go to the McDonald's on Belvedere Road") and the system will plot your course automatically.  If you add in Tesla's recently updated "Full Self Driving (Supervised)" system to the mix, you can theoretically drive all over the place, including backing in and out of parking spaces, without ever touching the steering wheel - theoretically.

In addition to the practical updates, there are always some gimmicks and fun stuff added, like new video games (this year, it's a SpaceX docking simulator straight out of Interstellar) and an updated "Santa Mode" which replaces the vehicle visualization in the display screen with a Tesla-ized sleigh. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's better support than you get from most other carmakers.

TV: A Charlie Brown Christmas (60th Anniversary)

A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered 60 years ago today on CBS. It was the first TV adaptation of Charles M. Schulz's beloved comic Peanuts, and its popularity spawned a litany of animated specials, merchandising, and an annual balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. 

The great irony is that A Charlie Brown Christmas was acutely critical of the commercialization of Christmas, and advocated a simpler take on the holiday. Even before cellphones, the Internet, and computers, consumerism at Christmas was already an issue:

For decades, the special was broadcast every year at Christmastime on CBS. In what is a sign of the times, it is now available only on Apple TV+.  The climactic scene is a small monologue from Linus, wherein he explains the true meaning of Christmas:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Music: Where Are You Christmas?

The standout song of this holiday season has got to be The Pretty Reckless's cover of "Where Are You Christmas?":

Of course, The Pretty Reckless is fronted by Taylor Momsen, who famously played Cindy Lou Who 25 years ago opposite Jim Carrey in the live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The juxtaposition of the young Momsen's voice with her current grunge-y growl would be affecting all on its own simply as a reminder of the passage of time, but when combined with the song's wistful lyrics, it becomes even more poignant ("Where are you, Christmas? / Do you remember / The one you used to know? / I'm not the same one").

Now all we need is for Momsen to do a duet of "Where Are You Christmas?" with the song's co-writer, Mariah Carey, and the circle will be complete...

Movies: Rental Family

Brendan Fraser made a comeback for the ages with his Oscar win for The Whale, and he's followed that triumph up with another tender drama, Rental Family, directed by Hikari:

Fraser stars as Phillip, a struggling actor living alone in modern-day Japan. After Phillip gets a call about a mysterious "opportunity," he finds himself at the offices of Rental Family, a company that sends people to play various roles for paying clients.  Some jobs might be as simple as being a mourner at a funeral, but Phillip quickly gets roped into two long-term ones - pretending to be the father to a little girl, and playing a journalist interviewing a retired actor facing old age and dementia.

The movie is inspired by real-life for-hire surrogate companies, and there are some nods toward deeper societal issues (such as the stigmatization of mental health problems in Japan), but for the most part, Rental Family is content with being a lightweight feel-good movie.  Fraser is mostly the straight man, and you don't learn too much about him (one character even calls him the "token white guy"), while the Japanese supporting actors around him steal the show. Still, if you're in the mood for a sweet dramedy with some awesome shots of the Japanese countryside, you could do a lot worse.

Rating: 7/10

Books: Elon Musk

 

I've been pretty impressed by how far Tesla's Full Self-Driving system has come in the past year (even though it is still not really "self-driving"), so I thought it'd be fun to read Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk.

If you're familiar with Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, you'll know what to expect: a portrait of someone who is both a visionary and, at times, a monumental a--hole. The book starts with Musk's childhood in South Africa and runs all the way up to the first launch of SpaceX's Starship in April 2023, so it omits Musk's involvement in the 2024 election and his time at DOGE this past year.

That's probably a good thing, since even without those topics, there's a lot of stuff to cover - the founding of Tesla and its infamous Model 3 production hell, the underdog SpaceX becoming the largest launch provider in the world through sheer force of will (and a whole lot of venture capital), and the chaotic takeover of Twitter after Musk was "red-pilled" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Isaacson was allowed to shadow Musk for two years through all his various endeavors, and the book strains to capture all the drama the world's richest person experiences in that timeframe.

My favorite part of the book was the behind-the-scenes perspective on the engineering challenges faced by Musk's companies - how they settled on stainless steel to make Starship, or used a "Gigapress" to cast huge sections of the Model Y to simplify production. I was less interested in Musk's toxic relationships or his self-inflicted dramas on Twitter.  While Isaacson eventually concludes that it's impossible to separate the dark from the light, that doesn't mean the dark is all that enjoyable to read.

Tech: Hades II review

I mostly enjoyed the first Hades, a hack-and-slash roguelite from developer Supergiant Games, but I eventually tired of the grinding that was required to reach the final ending. That's why I held off on picking up Hades II until it cleared early access and celebrated its 1.0 release on the Nintendo Switch 2:

Hades II takes a brute force approach to solving my primary criticism of the first game.  Now there are two paths you can take: a descent into the underworld to confront Chronos, the Titan of Time, and a "surface route" up to Mount Olympus that unlocks after a few hours.  It's essentially two Hades games for the price of one, with twice the levels, enemies, bosses, and NPCs, all of which goes a long way in staving off the tedium of the grind.

As in the first game, you'll maneuver your character (this time, Melinoë, the Princess of the Underworld) through gauntlets of enemies using six unique weapons (including one that gives Melinoë a homing missile attack a la Panzer Dragoon).  Your character can be buffed by random gods and goddesses during a run, and enemies and levels will vary from run to run, but that still only goes so far - after you've unlocked all the weapons and beaten each path a few times, you've basically seen all the content in the game. 

Hades II may not be a huge leap from its predecessor, but I did like it for what it is.

Rating: 87/100

Mulliga's Myths and Folktales, Part 6 - A Nightcap from Dr. Juliette Wood

This Halloween, I'm featuring freaky folklore from around the world...everything from the Mothman, to Bloody Mary, to the alligators in New York sewers.

Halloween is almost over for this year, so I thought I'd give the last word to Cardiff University historian Dr. Juliette Wood, former director of the Folklore Society - good night and happy Halloween, everyone!