You may have noticed I use a lot of Amazon affiliate links in my text to try and monetize my sad little ramblings on this blog. Up until this point, I was using EasyAzon to manage them. This worked okay, but I didn’t like the complexity of the shortcode and link, or the dependence on Amazon Web Services. I modified the source to bypass these problems, but every time they updated the plugin, they came back. Continue reading
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Some time ago, I watched a YouTube video by TheProRancher in which he instructed the viewer on one way to do a cheap, effective camouflage job using Krylon spray paints. I followed his method, and though I don’t think I did as good of a job as he did, I’m happy with the way mine turned out. I took pictures of the rifle in front of several different backdrops in order to get a better idea of how it would perform. Continue reading
Given that target shooting is one of my interests, I decided that I didn’t particularly like the price of commercially available targets, and I thought I could do better. I made this target many years ago, but for some reason it only now occurred to me that I ought to post it here so that others could use it. This is a PDF that will give you four targets on one 8.5×11″ sheet, and it has a grid spaced at 1/2″ to aid in measurement and sight adjustment. The extra lines should help to align thick or awkward crosshairs onto the center. It has fields for weather, range, and reloading data. Continue reading
I have a pile of boots from my military service. Now that I’m out, they’re mine and I can care for them in the way that I choose, rather than how the uniform dictates. In order to preserve them, I’ve decided to try out two well-respected leather protector products, Sno-Seal and Obenauf’s Heavy Duty LP. I’ve also thrown in a can of locally-sourced Kiwi Conditioning Oil. The boots I’ll be testing with are three pairs of Air Force issue ABU boots: two pairs of regulars and one pair of tennis boots. Continue reading
Last May, I purchased a Dual XR4115 In-Dash Digital Media Receiver despite its terrible reviews, most which complained about the same issue: after some time, the digital display would go out. However, some people posted that they were able to fix the problem by replacing the backlight LED. With some limited experience replacing soldered components, I bought the stereo at a great price with the expectation that I could fix it if it went bad. After a few months, the light went bad, I fixed it, and I’m going to show you how. Continue reading
This is a simple PHP script to quickly generate a concise Amazon affiliate link. Just take any Amazon product page link or product ID, paste it in the big box, and hit submit. A working demo is shown below, and the source code is published further down the page. Continue reading
I recently purchased a 2014 model Thrunite T10 for my INCH bag, and naturally, the first thing I did was to test it. I found that the medium mode on the light lasted for much less time than expected – 15 hours as opposed to the manufacturer’s advertised 39. This is terrible; the primary selling point for me was the runtime. Granted, I was using a battery that, after years of storage, had just taken out of the package and charged, so I decided to conduct a more scientific test. Continue reading
Many people, including myself, like to imagine that some form of societal collapse may be coming, and to imagine what it might be like. While there is much talk of a zombie apocalypse, most people understand that this is only a euphemism for the event, an analogy, a fictional thought experiment. More scientifically valid possibilities include be an EMP attack, volcano, asteroid, war, disease, famine, economic collapse, supply chain disruption, or whathaveyou, but in any case the idea is that civilization as we know it will, on a large scale and in short order, cease to exist. Continue reading