Blah-dow
Upstairs Kid and I went to the gun range on Saturday, this time to shoot pistols. It was a different range and we had to rent the guns so it was like going for my first time all over again. I shot a 22 mm revolver, a 9mm, and a 45mm. First things first, I'll just let you know right now that I'm a crap shot. I was originally shooting at a distance that was pretty ridiculous for a beginner and my aim improved when UK brought the target closer. The easiest to shoot, of course, was the revolver, since it felt very much like firing a cap gun. The 9mm was the hardest for me because I felt like I had very little control. Oddly, it was the 45 that was my favorite and, of course, the one I shot the least. As I said, we had to rent the guns from the location and they were old and not in very good shape. The 45 kept jamming and by then I had a headache and had been freezing the entire time we were there. But I had good control on it and I liked the power. And let's face it, it feels bad ass to casually comment on having shot a few pistols over the weekend and finding I have a preference for the 45 (the one I shot is a Colt 1910, I believe). We just won't talk about how weird forearm muscles hurt in my right arm because I'm such a pussy and a weakling.
More disturbing, in my opinion, is the criticism of the actress who played Katniss Everdeen*. Some commented that the character in the book is emaciated and starving and that Lawrence (I think that is the actress's last name) was too 'robust' to be believable. What the fuck? Do you really expect and actress to starve herself until she is emaciated so that you aren't disappointed and can lose yourself in the story? OK, so some actors like Matt Damon and Christian Bale have gone to ridiculous lengths with that shit and actresses have as well, but I'm sorry, women and young girls have enough societal pressure to be rail thin without people whining about a thin actress being too big to play a fictional character. You know they didn't really kill anyone in the film right? Does that take away from your ability to enjoy it?
Soap box dismounted.
*I'm not proud of it, but every time I read Katniss, I automatically think cat piss.
The other nerdy thing I got to do involved expense reporting. My company uses a certain program for travel and expense and it isn't always straightforward. Whilst I'm not a big fan of the travel part, I do love doing expense reports for my boss, especially when they are a bit involved or tricky. He doesn't travel much these days so I don't get to have much fun, but this morning a friend asked me a question about how to reflect a rate change during a multiple day stay at a hotel and so I got to delve into his report figuring it out. I'd done it before but it was quite some time ago so it took me a couple of minutes to figure it out. I think I enjoy that sort of thing because it makes me feel competent. Technically, I'm only really supposed to be an administrator for my boss in this program but I've been named as such by about five people. Being so sadly non-visual is part of that reason. You can ask me how to do something that I know how to do but unless I do it myself, I'm unable to explain it. This morning I figured out the puzzle and then called my friend to walk him through it. It's nice of me and all, to help people out with their expense reporting when it isn't my responsibility, but, as I say, I'm a huge dork and I get something from it.
I only wish I'd been like this when I was in school because it probably would have come in handy way before I needed to book travel and expense $2.34 receipts. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those grammar people who judge others for ending sentences in prepositions. And I certainly do not speak the King's English or anything like that. I just enjoy the challenge and am flattered when people entrust me with something like a resume. And whatever, some people like Nascar, others like Civil War reenactments, and I like expense reporting. We are all dorky in our own way.
Except for Sherlock Holmes. That mother fucker is just badass.
Upstairs Kid and I went to the gun range on Saturday, this time to shoot pistols. It was a different range and we had to rent the guns so it was like going for my first time all over again. I shot a 22 mm revolver, a 9mm, and a 45mm. First things first, I'll just let you know right now that I'm a crap shot. I was originally shooting at a distance that was pretty ridiculous for a beginner and my aim improved when UK brought the target closer. The easiest to shoot, of course, was the revolver, since it felt very much like firing a cap gun. The 9mm was the hardest for me because I felt like I had very little control. Oddly, it was the 45 that was my favorite and, of course, the one I shot the least. As I said, we had to rent the guns from the location and they were old and not in very good shape. The 45 kept jamming and by then I had a headache and had been freezing the entire time we were there. But I had good control on it and I liked the power. And let's face it, it feels bad ass to casually comment on having shot a few pistols over the weekend and finding I have a preference for the 45 (the one I shot is a Colt 1910, I believe). We just won't talk about how weird forearm muscles hurt in my right arm because I'm such a pussy and a weakling.
Like the Wolf
I also read The Hunger Games over the weekend because I give into peer pressure and cultural zeitgeist. I really enjoyed the book and look forward to seeing the movie one day but I'm more interested in two pieces of negative criticism the movie has received from certain fans. The first is the mild outrage amongst those who disagreed with casting the characters of Rue and Thresh with African Americans. Uhm, Rue is described as having dark skin and hair so what were you expecting? Also, I think you dropped your racism. One person evidently 'tweeted' that it kind of ruined the movie for him/her. Really? Rue is an endearing character and I don't want to make it seem like she wasn't important but she wasn't exactly the Luke Skywalker of the film if you know what I mean.More disturbing, in my opinion, is the criticism of the actress who played Katniss Everdeen*. Some commented that the character in the book is emaciated and starving and that Lawrence (I think that is the actress's last name) was too 'robust' to be believable. What the fuck? Do you really expect and actress to starve herself until she is emaciated so that you aren't disappointed and can lose yourself in the story? OK, so some actors like Matt Damon and Christian Bale have gone to ridiculous lengths with that shit and actresses have as well, but I'm sorry, women and young girls have enough societal pressure to be rail thin without people whining about a thin actress being too big to play a fictional character. You know they didn't really kill anyone in the film right? Does that take away from your ability to enjoy it?
Soap box dismounted.
*I'm not proud of it, but every time I read Katniss, I automatically think cat piss.
Be a bit less cool, will you?
I know I'm a it of a dork and I'm fine with it but every so often I get to do something that others might find banal and tedious and I absolutely revel in it. BFF understands this to a point, because she and I share a certain affinity for technical writing. One of those things I got to do recently was revise a CV. Actually, BFF sent me hers to proof read and I returned it with minimal changes because, like I said, she's into technical writing so she knows what she's doing. In fact, she's proofed my resume on a number of occasions and I was gratified the last time when she had very minute comments/changes to be made. More fun was revising Hunter's CV because he'd never had anyone really look at it for him and so there was a lot for me to do. How ridiculous is it to get excited and spend hours of your free time cleaning up tenses, rewording things, and then putting together a few notes on why the changes were necessary? I don't know if he predicted how seriously I would take the task when he originally sent me his document, but I spent a few hours on it, had two teleconferences with him about it, and have given him two assignments to complete before we can consider his CV done. He's been very receptive and has thanked me for putting in the effort though so I don't feel like I've overstepped any boundaries by chastising him for not having had input from someone sooner. The other nerdy thing I got to do involved expense reporting. My company uses a certain program for travel and expense and it isn't always straightforward. Whilst I'm not a big fan of the travel part, I do love doing expense reports for my boss, especially when they are a bit involved or tricky. He doesn't travel much these days so I don't get to have much fun, but this morning a friend asked me a question about how to reflect a rate change during a multiple day stay at a hotel and so I got to delve into his report figuring it out. I'd done it before but it was quite some time ago so it took me a couple of minutes to figure it out. I think I enjoy that sort of thing because it makes me feel competent. Technically, I'm only really supposed to be an administrator for my boss in this program but I've been named as such by about five people. Being so sadly non-visual is part of that reason. You can ask me how to do something that I know how to do but unless I do it myself, I'm unable to explain it. This morning I figured out the puzzle and then called my friend to walk him through it. It's nice of me and all, to help people out with their expense reporting when it isn't my responsibility, but, as I say, I'm a huge dork and I get something from it.
I only wish I'd been like this when I was in school because it probably would have come in handy way before I needed to book travel and expense $2.34 receipts. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those grammar people who judge others for ending sentences in prepositions. And I certainly do not speak the King's English or anything like that. I just enjoy the challenge and am flattered when people entrust me with something like a resume. And whatever, some people like Nascar, others like Civil War reenactments, and I like expense reporting. We are all dorky in our own way.
Except for Sherlock Holmes. That mother fucker is just badass.
Sorry ... u cant call urself a bad ass shooting a rented bad aim 45 - nope.
ReplyDeleteNow if you *slammed* a Colt 45 .... nope - shouldn't go there either.
Lazy reader, I didn't say it made me badass, I said it felt badass.
ReplyDeleteWho slams Colt 45 these days? This is how non-badass I am; when I first read that, I, for some reason, thought of the beer Coors and thought "Coors? What's the fucking point."