Standard Mischief

I used to bring in my old belt-buckle to the Tandy leather store in Rockville, Maryland, where the clerk would gladly pick a dyed blank off the rack and customize it for me. He’d spend about two minutes and cut the blank to length, rivet on my old buckle, and punch any needed holes. For under twenty I’d walk out with a rugged plain black or brown belt that lasted about two or three times as long as any name brand belt from the department store.

“Rugged enough” means being able to rack the slide on my pistol one-handed by snagging the rear sight on the edge of the belt. [1]

Sadly, the Rockville store (which seemed always slow) closed. I’ve found a few okay belts local, but never as good as what I used to get there.

I’ve just looked, and Tandy is on-line. Even better is that their 80% finished (no FFL needed) leather belt blanks, (with a slot already cut and snaps installed and ready), are on sale now at 50% off. Even better than that is coupon code 9bret-cr-10 , which will give you $10 off (or almost free standard shipping). I’ve got a few on order as of today. Hopefully the quality will be up to their past high standards.

I hope everyone has something to cut the belt to length. If you don’t have the proper punch for the belt holes, in the past I’ve used a pin punch, using a 2×4 to back the belt up and punching from the finished side first, and then again from the back. Leather dye is also available at Tandy, but I’m going to try the shoe “touch-up” dye I have left over from another project. I got that at Wal*mart.

Normally I’[d wait for the belts to arrive to tell you for sure that they as good as I expect, but the 50% sale says it ends this Tuesday (30june2009).

[1] Only practice this drill with the pistol unloaded. Remember the four rules.

Uncle reminds me about my favorite cheap (but good) booze:

Pikesville Rye is a “Maryland” style rye that used to be made in Pikesville, Maryland. Now it’s made in Kentucky by Heaven Hill. It’s absolutely the very best deal in American Rye Whiskey, and I’m not the only one who feels that way, there are positive reviews all over theses tubes of interwebs.

Until today, I’ve only seen it in 750 ml glass bottles in the $11 to $21 dollar range. Let me assure you that the eleven buck stuff tastes the same as the 21 dollar style sold in the upscale shops.

Today I was out and about and found the 1750 ml size for $22. I almost bought out the stock, as I’m having to go in wider and wider circles to find the stuff, but there’s something about a plastic bottle that screams “rot gut”.

I’m sure that plastic packaging doesn’t affect the taste in any way, but I’m gonna decant mine. Spare me the “winebox is a superior package” comments, plastic is cheap (unless it’s “polymer”).

Pictured also is the coffee scoop to make sure that I only pour myself a single instead of a double by mistake, and a repurposed furikake drinking glass.

Liquor taxes vary considerably from state to state but around here, the cheapest stuff in the whiskey isle goes for $8 per 750 ml and $16 per 1750.

Violent Acres is out. While I throughly enjoyed stories like Drastic Measures to Reduce Debt, quality has slipped, and she has admitted to selling out (I hope she got a good price). While it may be true that she’s still writing at least some of the content, somehow the magic isn’t there.

Dave Rock is in. In between showing how to MIG weld and blowing up Ford air-bags, Dave finds time to videotape himself scrapping out air conditioners near the peak of the scrap metal market, and also engaging in the practice of “crushing household articals” (sic). I also enjoyed his cheapest man alive series, parts 1, 2, and 3.

Watch long enough and you will see a self-employed trash-picking millionaire with too many damn cats and a crazy ex-wife who shows off the dirty little feminist secret of “equal rights” in regards to child custody under Crown law. If you learn a thing or two about replacing wheel bearings, you will undoubtedly lose a few IQ points watching the Redneck Rollercoaster.

Lest you think I’ve started splogging, let me assure you that is not the case. This is a “cranky consumer” post.

I use copper scrubbers to clean gasket surfaces on engines and surface rust on steel because they’re softer than the surface I want to clean. Unless of course you buy copper plated steel scrubbies. Yes, I did look, and no, there is not any fine print anywhere on the package that states that these “copper scourers” will both rust and stick to your fridge magnets. Good thing I didn’t ruin anything expensive or irreplaceable.

I’d call that fraud. It also looks like I’ll have to go shopping with a magnet from now on.

Zero replies from an email sent ten days ago shows that http://quickie.com/ cares about how they are perceived in the marketplace.

… I mean, Hurricane Gustav just roared through, but when you google yourself up a New Orleans radio station’s website, and up in the “masthead” it’s got a logo that says “24/7 Internet Broadcast”, you would figure that when you click on that logo you somehow get a little closer to that stations streaming radio feed instead of getting referred back to that station’s home page.

Update:

http://www.fox8live.com/www/Video/wvuehigh.asx

local streaming TV – FOX 8 (opened okay for me in Kaffiene media player)