First Days in the Park

After surviving two nights in Eugene, followed by two in San Francisco, I arrived last Thursday in Kings Canyon. I’m living in a two room cabin in Grant Grove. It seems that half my time will be spent in the Visitor Center and half doing wilderness trail patrol. Technically, I’m working under Law Enforcement (which means I’m the only who doesn’t CCW and I’ve been riding around in a car all day with a shotgun and loaded assault rifle of some sort sitting next to me).

Yesterday, I was offered a chance to go with my supervisor and supervisor’s supervisor to attend the last day of an EMT refresher course and help out as a victim. Of course, since EMT training usually starts around $600 and I was being offered a chance to be payed to attend, I went.

My acting skills were lacking, but I think they sufficed. It was a strange experience – I discovered that, as a WFR, my skills were on par with this room full of experienced EMTs. It would seem the most noticeable difference was their superior use of acronyms. I’m not sure whether this is praising WMI or criticizing NPS EMT training.

Today I was given the grand tour of the park. A lot of place names and people names that I’ll have trouble remembering, and discussion of which trails are where and are good for what. Toward the end of the day, the Ranger I was with was dispatched to chase down a speeding vehicle, so I was involved in what I’ll call a Kings-Canyon-high-speed-pursuit. (The guy hid from us and got away into Forest Service land before we could turn around.)

My battery is dying.

eyewear, review, bicycle, gear

Revision Sawfly

Being a member of the genetically defective, it’s hard to find eyewear that both offers protection and allows me to see. Products from ESS, Wiley-X, and other top brands don’t fit my prescription. Frames from Oakley would kill my budget before even ordering the prescription. Most everything else in the big-wide-world-of-eyewear is concerned only with looks, not with that inevitable situation of a projectile flying at 1300 feet per second straight at you with intent to gorge your cornea.

This dilemma led me, after some time, to choosing the Revision Sawfly Military Eyewear System.

Sawfly with Rx carrier

At first, I thought the glasses had a definite I’m-going-to-kill-your-family look to them, but now I’m telling my self it’s just cyberpunk. (No word yet if Revision is planning to make mirror-shades.)

On top of the usual ANSI Z87.1 certification, the Sawflys are able to withstand a shotgun blast from 16 feet. Sure, if someone is firing a shotgun at your face from 16 feet, you’ve got other problems to worry about, but that’s quality.

There are three lenses for the system: smoke, “high contrast” (yellow), and clear. (Polarized smoke lenses, pictured above, can also be purchased). High contrast lenses, while certainly frightening the masses and screaming “shoot me first!”, are an important form of protection from advertising, mind-control, and other-world-entities.

The prescription insert is available for just $20 more. After hearing about Revision’s great customer service, I decided to take a chance and have Revision also fill my prescription. It took about 4 weeks for them to get it to me, and I’m just as happy with them as I have been with any lenses purchased from a local optometrist.

It’s too early for a review, but my first impressions are positive. The “regular” size, with the adjustable arms, is a perfect fit for my face. The coverage is excellent – my eyes no longer tear from cold air when screaming down hill at warp speed on my bike. As of yet, my only complaint is the large, plastic nosepad. It takes a little getting used to and, when sweating, I’ve found the glasses slip ever so slightly down my nose. Snapping on the included retention lanyard would fix this, but I would like to see Revision take the same rubber padding from the inside of the arms and adding this to the nosepad. I think this would increase both comfort and traction.

review, books

The Devil Drives

Fawn Brodie’s The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton is an awe-inspiring look at the life of one of the most important figures of the 19th Century. In an age when relativism was unknown, conquest the norm, Burton was able to shed off Mother Culture and view the world with his own eyes, shocking British Society and displaying a prime example of what Hakim Bey would today call poetic terrorism. In describing himself, Burton once said “he speaks the things that others think and hide.”

Explorer, linguist, archaeologist, anthropologist, soldier, spy, rogue, pervert; all have been used in attempts to label and tame Burton’s legacy. He is a man whom I am proud to look up to, and I’m thankful for this glimpse into his life.

Calling Syria

On the off chance that anybody reading this is in Syria: have you seen Nicole Vienneau? She was disappeared March 31st from Cairo Hotel in Hama and is currently the subject of a search by her brother.

review, books, urban exploration

Access All Areas

I’ve always thought it strange that one would write a book about urban exploration. There doesn’t seem to be a need for it. What more is there to say than ‘don’t be stupid’ and ‘don’t get caught’? But Ninjalicious pulled it off with Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration. While the high points of the book are the author’s stories of explorations, he offers an amount of good advice and even managed to expand my definition of the Art. It’s also a superior piece on social engineering to Mitnick’s The Art of Deception.

It’s by no means a must-read, but if you are interested in UE, I think it’s worth a skim in the bookstore.

A Question

How can one sanely equate tracking with protection?

I’ll take invisibility for my protection any day.

review, books, rantmedia

The Scabbed Wings of Abaddon

The Scabbed Wings of Abaddon is Sean Kennedy’s second published book. Like The Bloodstained Rabbit the book is a work in occult-horror, but this one is much more mature, both in its concepts and execution.

The editing could still use work – misused punctuation and similar looking but incorrect words are all to be found, though, unlike Bloodstained, not often enough to detract from the overall work.

A recommended read for fans of Sean, the occult, and/or horror.

You Can't Get Run Over By An Abstraction

…and it’s a good thing, too.