Outrageous Malfunction

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Land is cheap and mostly flat. Must be what breeds places like Indiana’s steel target Disneyland with targets from 25 to 1000 yards. They have many of the improvements we’ve talked about for the Boomershoot; speaking of the Boomershoot, I had my first Boomershoot dream Saturday and my first nightmare Sunday. The dream was a replay of another dream on the same topic: what if we had a much steeper backstop? The nightmare was around a fire getting started and causing a lot of problems. The great thing was that the fire was started by a car wreck; it had nothing to do with the shoot in general.

I took Chang Hu, an intern at work, out to Wade’s of Bellevue. I caught some fairly impressive muzzle flash in some of the pictures; to give you an idea of scale, I took around 900 pictures and less than a half-dozen had any activity (brass in mid-air, recoil) at all.

via Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis. Check out pretty much everything else over there, too.

Like 3 Pigs, I had been told by co-workers that Milt’s BBQ in Bellevue was a worth-while place to eat. I disagree; when I went there (about a year ago), the food was slow in coming, expensive, and small. Milt’s floated the meat in sauce, trying to cover the low quality of the meat; it doesn’t work. I would go back so that I could write a better review, but I don’t want to waste my money. The Arby’s it shares a parking lot with is a better dining experience.

With great anticipation, I stopped by 3 Pigs BBQ in Bellevue this weekend. Walking in, you pass a large wall of ribbons and awards; what a let down the meal was. I ordered the sliced beef and chicken dinner with chili and corn on the cob with a drink; the total was $17.50 with tax. After a short wait, the meal arrived. The portions were dainty and floating in sauce; it’s said that poor BBQ is hidden with sauce, but the sauce couldn’t hide this over-cooked extravaganza. The beef was chewy; the chicken rubbery and flavorless; the corn on the cob was watery. I ordered the “hot” version of the dinner, expecting something, well, hot. Nothing in the meal was really warm; the sauce was overpowering and sweet, not tangy or hot in any way. The chili was the spiciest part of the meal, yet it was cooler than Tabasco; it was also grainy and flavorless. The seating is ample and the televisions are nice; the drinks were easy to get to and the refills (apparently) free. The toast that came with the meal was nicely done. Overall: over priced, over cooked, flavorless, small portions. Avoid.

INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENTFOR PUBLIC RELEASE
CASE REPORT: 07-0104431
INCIDENT: 584 PUBLIC INTOXICATION
INVOLVEMENT: SUBPOENA OFFICER #1
LOCATION: E 62ND ST/N COLLEGE AV
GEO ZONE: 259011
AREA: MND BEAT: ND52
OCCURRED: 07/08/2007 03:26 TO 07/08/2007 04:00
ARRESTS: 1
INJURED: 0
DEAD: 0
VEHICLE TOWED: 0
PERSON: 1
PERSON INVOLVEMENT: ARR ARRESTED
PERSON NAME: MCGRATH,JAMES A
RACE: W WHITE
SEX: M MALE
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/22/1982
AGE: 25
ADDRESS: 8318 BENT OAK DR
CITY, STATE, ZIP: INDIANAPOLIS IN 46236
HOME PHONE: (317)826-0710
DATE OF ARREST: 07/08/2007
ARREST LOCATION: E 62ND ST/N COLLEGE AV, INDIANAPOLIS
CHARGE: 07.1-0005-0001-0003 PUBLIC INTOXICATION/MB

NARRATIVE:
ON 07/08/07, AT APPROXIMATELY 0326 HOURS, I WAS TRAVELING NORTHBOUND IN THE 6100 BLOCK OF N. COLLEGE AVE. IN MY FULLY MARKED IMPD POLICE VEHICLE AND IN FULL UNIFORM. I HAD MY WINDOWS ROLLED DOWN. I HEARD A MALE VOICE CALLING FOR A PIG, HE WAS SAYING “SUEY, PIGGY, PIGGY” I LOOKED OVER AND OBSERVED THREE WHITE MALES AND A WHITE FEMALE WALKING SOUTHBOUND ON THE EAST SIDE OF N. COLLEGE AVE. ONE OF THE WHITE MALES WEARING BLUE JEANS AND A LIGHT COLORED BUTTONED UP SHIRT LOOKED DIRECTLY AT ME WITH RED GLASSY BLOODSHOT EYES AND SAID, “SUEY PIGGY, PIGGY.” I WAS CONCERNED THAT THE MAN HAD LOST HIS PIG AND THAT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ROAMING AROUND IN THE BROAD RIPPLE AREA SO I DECIDED TO STOP AND ASSIST HIM, BECAUSE I KNOW HOW DEVASTATING A LOST OF PET CAN BE. I IDENTIFIED THE WHITE MALE SUBJECT FROM AN INDIANA DRIVER’S LICENSE AS JAMES ADAM MCGRATH, DOB 1/22/82. WHILE I WAS SPEAKING WITH MR. MCGRATH ABOUT HIS POSSIBLE LOST PIG, I SMELLED A STRONG ODOR COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ON HIS BREATH AND PERSON. HIS SPEECH WAS ALSO SLIGHTLY SLURRED. I PLACED MR. MCGRATH UNDER ARREST FOR PUBLIC INTOXICATION AND HE WAS TRANSPORTED TO THE APC BY A MARION COUNTY JAIL WAGON. I SEARCHED THE ENTIRE BROAD RIPPLE AREA AND UNFORTUNATELY WAS NOT ABLE TO LOCATE ANY LOST PIGS. I HOPE I FIND IT BEFORE THE GUY AT DICK’S BODACIS BARBECUE DOES.

ALL OF THE ABOVE OCCURRED IN MARION COUNTY, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

OFFICER: X0807 SICKELS,CHRISTOPHER L IMPD

OPERATOR: 07/08/2007 06:12 28010 BURNETT,SUELLEN IMPD

It appears real - if you go to the Indianapolis Community Crime tool and search using the report number, you’ll find a map of the incident.

Text of my intro mail at ZenZui:

Intros are hard to write; I’ll make it link-heavy and you can choose your own degree of reading. I’m a blogging firearms, photography, and explosives enthusiast from Indiana. My cat and I live in Kirkland (for now). I would be remiss if I failed to mention that I have a 50BMG rifle that you’re all welcome to try out sometime; I enjoy taking co-workers to the range. My three kids live in Moscow, Idaho with my ex-wife. Once a year I’m the assistant director for the Boomershoot (opening fireballs are popular). Recently, a picture and a pithy quote of mine were published recently; previously, a quote made it into a book you may have read. Feel free to stop by; I have a copy of Armed America on my desk if you’d like to thumb through it.

Excerpt from a follow-up email:

He’s sitting across from So and So over in the disarmed wing of the office, come by and introduce yourself!

From a follow-up to that:

I wasn’t aware this was the “disarmed wing”, the bag that carries my arsenal of kites says, “Weapons for the Uprising.”

For some reason I keep losing this, so here’s to not losing it again.

I’m in Dilbert Principle

Check it out. Page 284, upper half. Here’s the letter from Scott:

From rjones M10-on-23 19:21:46 1995

Subject: Re: FW: Question from Scott Adams

To: ScottAdams@aol.com

Date: Mon, 10-23-1995 19:21:46 -0700 (PDT)

In-Reply-To: <951023215438_52502431@emout05.mail.aol.com from “ScottAdams@aol.com”
10-at-23, 95 09:54:41 pm

1. Yes

Ry Jones

I’m writing a book tentatively titled THE DILBERT PRINCIPLE that will be published
next year by HarperCollins. It’s part cartoons, part witty text and part “best of”
stories and quotes from e-mail.

I’d like your permission to include your previous message to me, anonymously, edited
as shown at the bottom of this message. It would be WITHOUT attribution, indicating
only that it came to me by e-mail. I edited some peoples’ messages to conceal the
names of organizations and other contextual clues.

Your permission would include use in all media in addition to the book, including
publicity, advertising, body tattoos, graffiti, online media, Movie of the Week, CD
Rom, serialization, cereal, foreign languages, hieroglyphics, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Your permission would also indicate that you’re the author of the e-mail message and
it’s not copyrighted by somebody else.

I’m on deadline and handling bunches of these, so the only responses I can use are:
1. Yes 2. No 3. Yes, as revised by you

Please copy back this entire e-mail message in your response so I can keep it all
straight. And please include your name in your message.

Thank you very much for your time. I’ve gotten over 50,000 e-mail messages, so the
few I’ve selected as candidates for the book are true gems and very much appreciated.
With your permission, others will get to enjoy them too.

—— Text of your original [edited] message below ——-

At [company], a lot of business is done in the hallway. Getting dragged into these
ad hoc meetings can be a huge time-waster; however, it’s hard to avoid them because
the participants always seem to want everyone’s opinion.

I have taken to either excusing myself to the restroom to get out of them, or carrying
ice back to my office from the kitchen in by hand. That way, when I get caught in
a meeting, I can say “See, this ice is melting and my hand is cold. I must go now.”
They let me out, and nobody seems to question the utility or business case for my
ferrying ice around all day.

Scott Adams

One: the person that called the cops is a moron.
Two: the cops were morons for responding.
Three: the city manager is a moron that is blaming the victims. State agency to investigate shooting after death is called an accident; the short version is a cop took a couple shots at a snake in a bird feeder and killed someone 400 yards beyond. I read about events like this and despair. At the Boomershoot we sweat safety all year and still people argue with us. I might print up copies of this article to have handed out at the sign-in booth for 2008; I’d like to imagine it would end bickering over gun handling, but I’d like to fly when I flap my arms, too.