Cameras or Guns?

I enjoy learning. I like to share knowledge. I tend to make a record, whether on a yellow steno pad, in a journal, or on a weblog of the esoteric bits of information that pass between my ears so I can can purge my gray matter and attach a bit more information. I can't explain why, maybe it is just because my Momma taught me to share. The most valuable thing I will give away is what I know. I give it away freely.

The last time I checked, there was no cover charge on this blog. The last time I checked, there was a blogroll of links to gun sites and blogs, bicycle sites and blogs, nursing sites and blogs, and photography sites and blogs. Hell, I even threw in a few blogs that just make you think. I also have almost four years of archives now.

A few readers have written asking if I'm giving up the guns. No, I'm simply concentrating on photography, relearning it, at this time. Thus, a lot of my blog will be dedicated to camera shooting rather that Colt shooting. My guns are not for sale. Tomorrow, if my wife gives her blessing (yes, I still ask her, and I'm not ashamed of it) I will be heading to the range with Frieda again. If so, I plan to blog on it. Expect it to happen. I still ride the pawn shop circuit, but I often wonder if anyone wants to read a rehash of the same old stuff. I'm expecting my Clark Meltdown Commander back in June sometime.

I never was a one trick pony. My first degree was a BFA in fine art and art history. That's right. Oil painting, printmaking, and drawing. I chipped a bit of marble and struck a couple of arcs on steel sculpture as well. I can talk Modigliani or Da Vinci with a bespectacled art critic and never miss a beat. In fact, I do just that, at openings that I still attend for student and professional artists. I can hold my own talking the zen of motorscooters and VW busses and the life those who are attracted to them tend to live. I'm not a mechanic, but I can turn a wrench. I never was a Hell's Angel, but I did ride across the country on a stripped down Moto Guzzi Eldorado, and I lived a year and a half in a Volkswagen bus. I also rode a 100cc Honda with a milk crate bolted to the back in the Philippines. And speaking of that, whatever you do, don't get me talking about the Navy. I try not to blog about the military too much. The guys in the arena should be doing that, not me. They are current, I am recent history. A lot has changed since I was enlisted, but I'm sure a lot remains the same. Coups still stink, the chow still sucks, and the old salt's cruise will still be longer and tougher than the recruit will ever know.

I am now a landlocked sailor who likes to spin a yarn about the days he matured in Uncle Sugar's Yacht Club. I'm an Honorable Shellback who has stepped foot on four continents, a score of countries, dived the Great Barrier Reef, swam the Marianas Trench, ate lizards with aborigines, broke bread with American ambassadors, made contact with the resistance, and bled a bit for my country. The thing is, not many people give a damn, nor will they believe half of it.

I am an artist, a sailor, a shooter, and I've been called worse. I am a nurse now, and I work in a rather lively atmosphere of human suffering, accomplishment and failure. I occasionally write about a case or provide a thought or two concerning nursing, but I tend to avoid the subject on my blog. I figure there are plenty of nursing and medical blogs available, and the risk to the food on my table ain't worth it. Occasionally, after a tough case, a bit of nurse blogging slips out simply because I can't contain it. I keep saltwater fish and train dogs. I've blogged about both skills.

There's a lot I haven't done. There's a lot I would like to learn. I would love to possess the gift of music. If I could play piano or guitar, or even sing....... I appreciate music from gut bucket blues to opera. I can't stand rap. Unfortunately, my musical skills are limited to the radio and more recently, the iPod. I doubt I will ever play lead guitar in a rock and roll band. I would like to learn to fly. Getting my wings seems to be a lost goal now, but I hit the beach with some crazy Navy fliers, most who have matured into sensible retired Commanders. My wife prohibits me from building a house the way I would like. She says tires, Coke bottles and concrete are not suitable building supplies in America. If I ever end up with my 100 acres in the country, I will build a brick house for her.

Getting to the point, this blog was begun as a reaction to the gun confiscations in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. It morphed into a blog of general and then more specific knowledge concerning guns. Except for the confiscations, I have left most of the gun politics out of it. I'm not fluent in that, although I do have a basic understanding. For those readers who come for the guns, keep checking back, I will write about guns and shooting again. I doubt I will ever be as proficient as Caleb, as knowledgeable as Syd, as funny as Tam or as cute as Tracy, but I will do my best, and I will be me. I don't have the answers to the world's tribulations, or even the ammo shortage, but I knew exactly how we should handle the scum threatening our sailors off the coast of Somalia. I sincerely appreciate my readers. I was not expecting this blog to be little more than a lone howl in the wilderness of disbelief over the NOPD stealing the firearms of private citizens. I figured it would fizzle out after six months as my rage was spent. It didn't. I learned to write, was humbled into learning grammatically correct composition, developed a bit of a following and gained some new friends.

I do want to say one thing clearly and distinctly. To the singular key pecker who thought he could threaten me into writing about guns again......... I advise you to simply go to another blog to get your jollies. This is my blog, and I will write about what I damn well please, when I damn well please. Your attempt to intimidate me is ludicrous, and I find your punctuation amusing. I'm not going to get all nautical with you. You are beneath my contempt. If you want a piece of this old sailor, and I don't think you do, you can rest assured I will give away a bit of knowledge freely.