bryan wann :: binary fury

More Krav Maga tonight. This time warmups were back and forth sprints, then about 160-180 total squats with sets of dive bomber pushups. Those things were murder, my quads were crying for mercy. Today was mostly low and leg work. Low defensive punches, low punch defense, shuffle front-leg straight kicks, elbow punches, and combinations of all of them. The low punches and shuffle kick was awkward to get the hang of, I don’t think coach was ever satisified. If you’ve ever seen a boxer (or Rocky) squatting under to punch under a rope about chest high, that’s the gist of the low punches we were doing tonight.

Looking in the mirror now, it looks like I popped some capillaries under my eyes. I’ve got these patches of red freckle-ish spots. That’s a new one.

I fired a Glock 23 last night and a HK USP .40 today. I really liked the feel of the Glock, the levers and whatnot were accessible and didn’t require a lot of force. Glocks are also relatively cheap, a used 22 or 23 could be had for $450 or so. Unfortunately the lack of an external safety makes me a bit nervous on the Glock. I like how I can just pull it out and go to work, but I feel like I’m going to snag it on something and shoot myself in the leg. Maybe I’m just Glock ignorant.

Anyways, I wound up buying a HK USP .40 It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I’m very comfortable with its operation. Get a Cabella’s Visa this weekend, save $100 on it, bonus! I must not have been paying attention when it happened, but there’s no waiting period on handguns anymore. I cleared the federal background check and had my gun within a few minutes.

I love Wal-mart. I purchased 100 rounds of .40 S&W for $16. Most places sell 50 rounds for $13-$15. Then my luck ran out. After I got home, I was going to leave for the range and discovered my battery was nearly dead. I couldn’t get a jump from anyone so I took matters in my own hand. The multimeter said my battery was putting out 10.8 volts, but not quite enough to get the truck started. I turned off everything and pulled fuses of accessories to keep them from turning on with ignition and managed to get the truck started. Headed straight to the store to buy a battery charger. Had my battery tested, it has a dead cell. This incidentally explains some sagging voltage problems I was having. Put my tools to good use, replaced the battery and now I’m good to go.

Finally made it to the range. It was packed, interestingly there were a few cute tattooed up girls in ragged clohes. I guess the redneck thing to do on a Saturday night is to go shoot guns? Fired 100 rounds, it’s clear I’ve got some de-flinching to work on to tighten up my pattern at 15 yards. Of all the high three-digit dollar range things I’ve bought in my life, I have zero buyer’s remorse.

Yay, I survived Krav Maga tonight. After my last class I was dreading this like a dental appointment, but made it through participating the whole hour. I almost have jump rope mastered. I had a partner that was my height and I learned how to better pace my effort. I got winded and dizzy several times either through sheer exhaustion or getting it knocked out of me while holding pads but managed to hang in there. Right now my arms and legs are quivering jelly from throwing punches and kicks. My knuckles are cracked, raw, and bloody from breaking in new gloves.

I figured out I can deliver a much more powerful kick and jab than I thought I was capable of. Must develop chest muscles to better protect against punches, methinks. During jab and punch drills, the coaches would come around and whack us in the head with a foam stick if we weren’t protecting our head. Toward the end of class I started leaning in to the pad during defense on my left side after a while to prevent getting the wind knocked out. Of course the class ended with “Ok guys, sixty seconds to go, on your faces! pushups!” Still pretty beat, but a much more tolerable experience than the first time.

I popped out for a overnight trip to Virginia, back home again! The airline system was fraught with problems. The AUS->IAD was scheduled to leave at 3:30 PM, then 5:30, then 8:00, then 9:05, then 9:57. It kept getting pushed back because other planes were delayed due to the weather. I got to AUS around 8 and figured out the ticket counter was closed. Fortunately a security guard tracked down a United agent for me.

Some people had been at AUS all day long and were getting pissy. Whenever a gate attendant finally came over for our flight, she got flocked by people demanding information. Plane arrived from ORD, then it was shutdown for hydraulic problems. Pilot came up and chatted with us while we waited. I got upgraded to first class for free. Finally left after 10. Flying first class wasn’t that interesting, I slept the whole way anyways.

A few minutes out we were flying above a thunderstorm. It was plenty dark which made the lightning within the clouds very clear. I’ve never seen lightning from above, it was a very pretty sight.

Did the job, came back. The B terminal at IAD was awesome, there were actual stores and not just Hudson News. Never have seen a suit shop in an airport until now. Same thing at ATL, a small handful of new stores. I was dead asleep on the way back. I don’t know how I sleep through takeoffs.

Finally had people asking me if I was in military. I was carrying around my ACU print MOLLE backpack, which by the way, is handy as hell for this trip. Stuffing it full of clothes, strapping it on (it has a heavy waistband) and go; not wheeling around luggage or lugging shoulder-strapped bags is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Anyways, most people were satisified with a simple “no” answer, but I found people who had been in the military got a bit more clever and precise with their questioning to figure me out. “Are you in the Corps?” “No.” “Are you in the Army?” “No.” “Are you in the Air Force?” “No.” “Well, did you just get out then?”

Radio Shack is completely useless these days. That is all.

Where’s a guy got to go to buy twenty five feet of RG-58A/U cable without driving to north Austin?

Ok, that was /really/ obscure — only like five people got the funny (fortunately, the ones it was intended for), the rest were “uh, heh heh?” The Land Rover picture is a parody of the “No you can’t have a pony” image. Maybe ya’ll need to read fark more.

And ffs, it wasn’t yellow snow! shove off you hosers or my parasite army will attack!