Moral-Flexibility.Net

It’s amazing where you find zombie stuff on a day to day basis. I was recently having a conversation with the attendant at the gas station where I regularly gas up my patrol car and, having previously discussed zombie movies, was asked if I had ever heard of The Walking Dead series of comics.

Now, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard these mentioned over at the Zombie Squad Forums before, but had honestly not given it much attention. After all, I’ve enough trouble tracking down the zombie movies I want to add to my collection without expanding the scope to include comics.

He went one step further however, and the next time I was through he loaned me the first two volumes in the series (“Days gone by” and “Miles behind us”). The very next night I got “grounded” (forced to park the car at a single location due to customer alarm problems) and ended up ripping through the comics in no time flat.

I enjoyed the two volumes quite a bit, comics providing the writer greater options without thought to budget when it comes to settings and events. A few of the scenes felt rather cliched (but then again, you’re bound to cover the same ground when there are hundreds of efforts detailing the zombocalypse) but overall I don’t remember slaping my head or groaning out load while I was reading them.

Overall I’d recommend this series based on the first two volumes, I’ll admit I am more than a little curious where the series goes (easy enough to find out, but I’m trying not to spoil it for myself).

I love a good zombie movie, I even enjoy a bad zombie movie. It’s really a win-win sorta situation when even the bad efforts usually entertain me. Why you ask? It’s fairly simple, I’ve always been a fan of B-Movies and of Doomsday Movies, the two overlap most often in zombie movies as I discovered early on when zombie movies seemed to be the most plentiful genre of films sitting on my shelves.

That’s the simple answer, the more involved one is that zombie movies represent (usually) an unambiguous good vs. evil conflict. The zombies are without question the bad guys, there is no gray area, no negotiation, no defection and no escape. They will kill you if you fail to defend yourself, period. Delving a little deeper we find a commentary on our society and it’s members both in the zombies as unthinking base-instinct driven creatures and in the composition of the survivors (who for obvious reasons are rarely like-minded people, and represent different segments of society).

Finally the zombie as antagonist is pretty uninspiring. They are slow, uncoordinated and stupid. It is through their exponential growth and sheer volume of numbers that they simply overwhelm anything but a massive effort to destroy them. Most often the survivors are doomed, death (as in real life) is inevitable, and it’s the journey that provides insight into the characters as they are consistently assaulted by evidence of their own mortality.

Ultimately the underlying theme of most zombie movies is self-reliance. No one is coming to help, set aside your differences, shelve your excuses and get busy or get dead.

They’re certainly not films for everyone, but the quantity of zombie movies being produced recently suggests that there is something there that people are enjoying beyond the gore, no?

April 5th, 2001. That was the day I officially became a firearms enthusiast, or “gun nut” if you prefer.

I’ve had an interest in firearms since I was a kid (that’s what switching from The Hardy Boys to Mack Bolan will do for ya), and had been exposed to them first by my father, then the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and even carried one on my hip for a while at work. I’d had my FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate the predecessor to the current “Possession and Acquisition Licence”) since ’92 and yet I had never even considered buying any firearms of my own. All that changed on April 5th, 2001.

I was visiting my brother in Austin, Texas where he and his wife had just recently moved. Piet and I had made an obligatory (and now traditional) trip to the range with his handgun (at the time a Ruger P89), and had decided we would rent the ranges AR15 for a little variety.

I cannot say why this range trip made such an impression on me. Maybe the time was just right, maybe it was because my brother and I (after years of lowgrade sibling strife) were getting along so well, maybe it was becuase this was the first trip to the range where I wasn’t qualifying with a firearm, and was just shooting.

Immediately on my return to Vancouver I went down to Reliable Gun and Tackle and purchased a used, abused and sporterized SMLE No.1 Mk.III for $50. I had decided that I needed to buy a gun (any gun) to start the ball rolling.

Guess I wasn’t far wrong there.

[While the original content of my website is long gone, the page documenting that trip down to Texas remains archived over at the waybackmachine.org.]

Well, it’s official, my Brother has built his own AR15, less of a mutt than mine it is certainly a lean-mean-attachment-free rifle.

Piet’s rifle features a DPMS lower and parts kit, Flat top Stag Arms upper, an M4 profile 16″ chromed 5.56mm barrel with a 1/9 twist and a 4 position collapsable stock. Much like me Piet went out and learned about the rifle, collected some opinions and then after considering his own preferences built a rifle to suit him.

Swing on by and take a peek, it’s a perty little rifle!

We’ve been pretty good about getting our portraits done, certainly easier now that everyone offers some sort of portrait package so we’re spending (typically) somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-50 each time. We’ve been getting a family portrait done every year just before Christmas, and Jilly gets her own pictures done around June or July. This most recent visit was a little more labour intensive than the last, with Jilly not being particularly cooperative but the results are still fair.

This isn’t my favorite pose, but I thought I’d save the best for those relatives that are receiving their own copies.

I don’t normally “plug” products here, but recently had an experience that warrants an exception.

Ever since I spent a few years working in healthcare security I’ve been a little fixated with hand washing, this fixation was reinforced when our daughter was born. I’m acutely aware that I spend my shifts rattling doors and dealing with some of the unusual members of our society, the potential for “picking something up” is significant.

Of course, as I drive a car around for twelve hours a night the opportunities to use soap and water are few and far between, and while I had been using generic hand sanitizer from the drugstore it always left my hands feeling dried out and gritty. A month or so ago a co-worker gave me a small (.25 fl oz) bottle of Terako PurMist. The small bottle fit nicely in my jacket pocket, and I happily used it up in the course of a week (it was half full when I got it however).

Pleased with the product (and my hands no longer feeling abused) I tracked down their website and placed an order for four of the little bottles. A week passed with nothing arriving in my mailbox. I received an email instead. It said;

Dear Mr Me,

I would like to personally thank you for your order and interest in this new innovative product.

Due to the overwhelming demand for this product we have been out of stock. We now have product stocked again and I would like to send your order to you free of charge.

Your credit card will not be charged and your patience is very well appreciated.

Thank you again for your interests and enjoy.

Robert A. Reeve
President
Terako Industries Inc.
866-878-5403 Office
866-878-5404 Fax

Now, I have more than my share of bad business experiences but to receive this note prior to any complaint or query on my part was a pleasant surprise. Sure enough, a week later the order landed in my mailbox. Will I be placing any more orders with these guys? You’re damn skippy.

[For my polyester wearing friends I'd highly recommend giving this product a try, your hands will thank me.]

Going back to work tonight, some errands and chores to do this morning however;

1. Mow lawn. – Done
2. Water backyard (Note to self, sequence is important here!) – Done
3. Review CCTV footage, clear archives. – Done (Must upgrade RAM on this machine in near future)
4. Detail strip and clean AR15, VZ58 and S&W 14. – Done
5. Collect most recent Jilly portraits from photo studio. – Done
6. Buy window AC unit for Livingroom – Nope, out of stock of their cheap AC units, stupid loss leaders!
7. Marinate steaks for Dinner – Done!
8. Polish booties for work – Done

All done, bed time for me.

[Updated to close out the list]

Our home has no doorbell. The easiest solution to this would be to simple stop by Rona or Home Despot and pick up a wireless doorbell system, tack on the button using double sided tape and be done with the project for about $30 and 10 minutes work. Those of you that know me are already spotting problems with this plan. Its way too simple.

I wanted a system that allowed communication with the front door and would allow me to hear it in the master bedroom should someone come to the door. I also wanted the capability to tell that person to go away without racing down the stairs and actually answering the door. An intercom seemed the obvious choice, and I found a 3 station intercom (one exterior and two interior sets) on Ebay for $80.

I’m not happy at leaving it at just that however. Seeing as we have all this CCTV coverage of the exterior of the house, I want the internal intercoms to display a picture of whoever it is that has pressed the button out front. Still fairly simple, sourcing small 2.5″ lcd monitors off ebay I can easily mount them above the interior intercom sets, and hey presto live camera feed.

Still not enough. I’d like to add a simple circuit that turns the small monitor on when the intercom is activated and keeps it on for 4-5 minutes before automatically shutting it off (of course there would be the ability to turn the monitor on and off manually). This gets a little trickier and I’ll admit that I’ve been down to the local library to do a bit of research to figure out how I go about building the little do-dad needed to trip the power for the monitor.

Of course, should it work it’d mean we got a video intercom system for several hundred dollars under the usual asking price, but it has to work first.

Suggestions welcomed, in the meantime I’ll keep on reading.

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