My apologies for this late, late edition of
Saturday Night Gun Pron. September was National Preparedness Month, although FEMA talked about general preparations (hurricane, tornado, earthquake, sun going supernova, etc), except that I don't think the zombie alert was ever called off.
I realized that I had done as much, and as little, as any ordinary person was to prepare for the big emergencies went, so I worked on my zombie uprising preparations, which were woefully incomplete.
They're still incomplete, but not quite as woeful, now that I've completed my go-to vest.
Eight loaded magazines for any 5.56mm rifle that uses that type (just about everything except the FS2000), S&W .45 with four mags of ammo, and a sheath knife make for a basic set of tools. A fairly comprehensive tear-off first aid kit, vey basic survival supplies, and a 100 oz. Camelbak carrier complete most of the important items.
This is a setup designed to get someone through the first three hours of a zombie uprising, and the three (or four?) days before one can be certain that the government will save us, and eliminate all hazards, as promised. But those first few hours are "definitely on your own", something not emphasized in government literature. Sure, I have a three-day bail-out bag, but I have to survive the first few hours before I'll be needing what's in that bag.
So with six pounds of water, and all the other supplies already loaded, this is about 25 pounds of battle-rattle. The heavy duty blue hanger is rated for 40 pounds, but the closet rods in the house aren't, so this is hanging from an eye-bolt in the basement ceiling joist, next to a couple of near-ready EBRs.
Now that I'm getting used to putting together MOLLE-based kit, I'm starting on another vest to support the PS90 or AR57 (very different magazines to carry), and one more dedicated to an AR10. The Blackhawk SERPA quick-change system makes for an instantaneous swap of handgun and holster between anything that has the adapter plate on it.
It's really a slick system, and I'm making the conversion to all the Blackhawk holsters I have, even if it's just for convenience in open carry.
After I get more holster parts in, I'll do a future issue on it. Good holsters are never cheap, but the composite SERPA is strong, secure, fast, and with the QD system, you can hang the holstered handgun almost instantly anywhere using a variety of clever adapters or a bit of imagination.
Tonight's
Saturday Night Gun Pron starts out with a special movie review of a very special movie. I blew all of $8.50 to see "The Hobbit" in "real D", which is the combination of 70mm film shot at 48fps, plus 3D.
The theater was half-full for the 7PM showing, but no kids present, thankfully. The audience was about half newbies, and half veterans of the LOTR trilogy. Plus at least one geek, me.
I qualified for that (and saved $2 by not having to rent 3D goggles) by using my genuine dwarf-style glasses. One of 5000 worldwide with the custom packaging and carry pouch.
The gals at the ticket counter thought the generic glasses with the special Hobbit plastic bag were custom. Nobody in the ticket booth even heard of these, and were almost in a swoon. That's what you get when you hire today's inexperienced yutes. :)
I won't offer any criticism of the movie right now (most of it minor), but I should mention that the 48fps image speed was a real eye-opener, no pun intended. It was most noticeable in quiet, well-lit scenes, where there's not a lot of action to distract you. I was able to let my eyes scan things, and realized it looked like the razor-edged HD video of live TV, and not the slightly softer look that always used to say "movie". I didn't notice it as much during break-neck action sequences, but it was undoubtedly there, too.
I can see where this will take three movies to tell the story. In a scene where Tolkien explains a big chunk of story in two paragraphs, PJ interpolates the scene into 15 minutes of action. And yet he keeps the storyline plausible, and finishes up where Tolkien finished.
Not that there aren't MAJOR digressions from the book, but we'll have to see how PJ handles them. Obviously some of it will be saved for the super-extended editions.
Bottom line: this is probably the best use of "real D" technology so far, so you might as well spend a few more bucks and see how the master did it.
Real firearms-related material tomorrow, some good, some maybe not so good. I'll see how hard they flog their dead horse tomorrow on the Beltway lovefests.