Austrian firearms + Mexican restaurants = Today

Today in a nearby Mexican restaurant I saw a chap in civilian clothes carrying a very dandy Glock, probably a 17 or 22, on a belt holster, completely unconcealed. Evidently, as it turned out, he was a plainclothes cop, or some such like. I didn't quite work up the courage to ask him about or compliment him on it: I wasn't quite sure how he would take it, and whether he would want me to draw attention to his pistol in the middle of a public building. But it was slightly unsettling (never seen it before on someone not in police uniform) and also rather cool, in retrospect.

Pelenesque

No, this is not a video of me driving. :-P I would hazard a good guess that this is, in fact, illegal, because the car does not appear to be on any kind of designated raceway. I don't, of course, endorse flouting the law or taking the obvious risks of going this fast. With that caveat:



For those blankly confused by this, the Dodge Charger SRT8 is the car of choice of the centerpiece character of my novel Immortality, and as such of unusual interest to me in the automotive world.

Connor movet ultra ambulatione

EDIT II: Evidently the Wikipedia link I gave didn't work, so, the car I'm learning on is a Toyota Avalon. Never mind, it does show. Just don't include the period in the link when pasting it, like I did!

EDIT: I got up to 35 mph today and backed up into a parking space (though not at that same speed). I'm liking this driving thing! :D

Well, I moseyed over to the DMV today, passed my test, and got my learner's permit. I also got registered to vote. Woot! So when we go for our walk tonight Dad's going to let me take a (very slow) spin around the parking lot and get this here driving business started off on the right foot. Please pray that I don't shear off any side mirrors or scrape the bumper. :-P I look forward to seeing you on the road soon!

On a quest for new walking routes, my parents and I ran across this fantastic house in a quiet little neighborhood about ten minutes' drive or so from us. I figure that if I make a good living from writing (and housing prices dip considerably) it would be a nice place to raise a family and have a quiet nook to peck away at a story. I would guess that as it stands it would sell for more than a million dollars, though, so I'm not sure how likely that is. Isn't it pretty, though?

Guns, Catch, and Pizza

I had the chance to visit more friends this summer, this time going shooting with the Deckers. We had another gun in the mix this time, a Ruger revolver that can fire .357 Magnum, .38 Special, and 9mm. We only shot 9mm this time, but I hadn't fired any of the above rounds before, so it was new and fun. It was more powerful than I expected, too, though perhaps I only find it so because I'm the most used to .22. I also got to fire a 12-guage shotgun one-handed and use the same shotgun to rather spectacularly explode a water bottle.

I seem to remember a lot of movies where characters shoot guns while keeping the barrel on an entirely level plane. That has to mean they aren't really shooting anything. Revolvers and handguns buck when fired, however much you try to control it.

Anyway, after that we played frisbee and threw a baseball around for a while (it's amazing how consistently fun something as simple as catch can be). We ate pizza, Kristoff taught me some more martial arts moves, and then we watched the film Vantage Point, which had extremely simplistic character development--or, more accurately, no character development--but was a pretty fun action film. It was rather amusing to see Matthew Fox (Lost's Jack) playing a Secret Service agent. I had a good time. :-)

In other news, Monday will constitute what I hope to be a firm crackdown on my schedule so I can finish the Reformation Play and get plenty of piano practice done--and learn how to drive. Now that I'm 18 the restrictions go down somewhat, and I think it's about time I mastered the art. If anything especially interesting happens when I take the wheel, I'll let you know. ;-)

Cheerio!

The Dark Knight

Initial consensus: pretty disappointing. The movie must have had a huge budget, what with multiple explosions, car chases, about six fights, and of course its high-profile cast. It was well-made and all, as one would expect. The acting was good enough: Ledger definitely developed a pretty fearsome character in the Joker. But for all that, the movie was too long, somewhat disjointed, oppressively dark, anticlimactic, and actually rather short on the character who gave the film its name, the dark knight himself. Continuity with the last film is rather tenuous: while Batman Begins may have had its dark moments, this seemed more like a horror-thriller, focusing with wearisome intensity on the truly depraved character of The Joker. The film was like a morass of evil, and a lot of it was improbable: the Joker basically unravels the entire legal and law enforcement structure of a city at least the size of Chicago, and he manages to do so with almost perfect immunity because everything goes right for him.

Maybe it's a fair comparison to say that Batman Begins, though no lighthearted film, had a sense of balance. It was cool. It brought gravity to the character of Batman. The Dark Knight brought a kind of unpleasant gruesomness to the story and seemed more like a biopic on a psychopath than an action film. The moral message at the end was also unconvincing, probably rather unlikely, and failed to illuminate the almost unmitigated darkness of the film.

Maggie Gyllenhal seemed like even more of a throwaway character than in the first movie, a less convincing actress than Katie Holmes, who actually did an ok job with Rachel Dawes in Begins. Another character also makes a hugely implausible shift of demeanor, morality, and allegiance which was dealt with in an abrupt, almost off-hand way, made very little sense, and yet seemed to be taken with an enormous amount of seriousness by the filmmakers.

Was Ledger's performance Oscar-worthy? Maybe. But by and large I don't think I'd like to see a prestigious award given to this film which, when you really weigh it through all the explosions and dark camera shots, doesn't have much to offer other than the stark tale of a psychopath who raises the stakes so improbably high that it seems impossible anyone could make a third story in the same vein. I wish I could say it had some redeeming elements, but there aren't really very many. One or two scenes had some humor that rang true, but they are few and far between in this 2.5 hour endurance run which seemed to totter a little on the edge of its PG-13 rating.

Recommended? Nope, not really. I'll stick to Batman Begins and hope he ends here, or cleans up his act a little. If this is where Christopher Nolan wants to take the franchise, I'm not sure I want to follow along. In fact, let's just say it: the more I think about this movie, the less I like it. Can I have my seven bucks back now? Or 3 hours of my time, for that matter?

Summer Trip

Over the past three and a half days, give or take, I had the opportunity to visit the Doorninks, which is more or less a once-a-year event. I had a really good time, better even than I had anticipated, and I have many a good memory to preserve. We played piano, walked on the beach, played Twenty Questions, played freeze tag, swam in the bay, had crazy one-sided phone conversations mainly centering around a fictional MI-6 agent I invented named Charlie Chivers, fun late evening conversations about overpriced and useless Lord of the Rings merchandise and other things (such as a movie of Kiriana in 3-D IMAX), and watched I Am David. Elisabeth and I also managed to read aloud the entirety of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens over two days (this was not entirely of our free will, as we had to have it done for a class, and I must say it seemed like one of the Bard's poorer efforts--I hope the speculation that it was unfinished is correct!). We crammed a lot into those days--and there was more than what I described--all without much of a fixed plan as to what we were going to do. I'm really glad I made the trip, and I'm looking forward to the next time we can get together. :-D My thanks to the whole family for making room for me and letting me have so much fun!

For the interested, here are a few pictures (click to enlarge).

Andrew on the guitar, Elisabeth, and Matthew.



Elisabeth and Stephanie on the beach.



Walking on the beach.



4/5 of the gang. :-)



On the Poulsbo docks.



In the car on the way back.

Rifles and Reformers

As it is no longer Independence Day, I suppose I can post and note that I bought my own rifle ammunition, by myself, a few days ago. That was a purchase that made me happy. ;-)

I also intend to get going on this year's Reformation Play--time is running faster than it by rights ought--and I must decide whether Wycliffe or Huss or some other cove is to be the subject of the play. I shall try to update on its progress as it--well--progresses. :-)

Eleven Score and Twelve Years Ago...

May God bless our nation today and all days. May this great experiment show more and more virtue, freedom, and prosperity, correcting its ills and walking on, even if it must stagger at times, to a brighter future under God's guidance.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.