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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.

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.

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.

review, books

A Song Called Youth: Eclipse

Eclipse is Volume One of John Shirley’s oft-overlooked cyberpunk trilogy, A Song Called Youth.

In it, NATO and the Russians, fighting World War 3, have agreed to limit their warfare to only small-scale, tactical nukes – painfully drawing out the death of the planet (and FirStep, the space colony). Behind the scenes is the Second Alliance, a sort of combination of PNAC, Blackwater, and Jesus Camp. Worldtalk, a stand in for Newscorp, has developed a device allowing them to scan and selectively remove memory of their subjects. The New Resistance, a collection of fighters, refugees, philosophers (and a musician) headed by an ex-Mossad agent (with questionable funding and support), is the only hope against the neo-fascist-corpolitical takeover.

An excellent book, it is perhaps the most disturbing look at our corporate-dominated future. Shirley truly puts the punk in cyberpunk.

review, books, survival, bushcraft

Kamana One

Kamana is the Wilderness Awareness School‘s four-level independent study “naturalist training program”.

Kamana One introduces the student to the ideas and style of teachings that will form the base for the rest of the program. It’s divided into two sections. The first, the “Nature Awareness Trail” devotes itself to the psychological aspects of the modern primitive. It deals with awareness; directions, surroundings, details. I was surprised at the remarkable similarities between it and vipassana.

The second part, the “Resource Trail” deals with the other half of naturalist training. Mammal and plant identification, bird language, and field guides are just a few of the topics covered. This part is often referred to as “the field guide for field guides” because of it’s ability to decrypt the otherwise esoteric manuals.

In addition to the text book, Kamana One includes Jon Young’s Seeing Through Native Eyes audio set. This is definitely the best part of the course. It’s best described as all of Jon Young’s vast knowledge squeezed down and compressed into 8 CDs, covering both psychological and physical aspects.

In the end, I don’t feel that the program (with the exception of the audio portion) gave me much new. The ideas presented in the “Nature Awareness Trail” I had already developed through my own readings and practice. The ideas in “Resource Trail”, too, I had already discovered through my own study, including the Learning Herbs kit. The course is better suited for one who is new to all of this. Someone who perhaps has an interest in the outdoors, in survival, but is looking to take that interest a step forward.

(Urban Scout has some criticisms and other thoughts of the Kamana program.)

review, books

The Structure of Delight

Nelson Zink‘s The Structure of Delight is a book of stories within stories. A sort of manual for reprogramming you mind, it’s the book that Daniel Quinn would write if Quinn had been a student of Freud.

Through the interwoven stories, Zink challenges perception and meaning, expounding that all is rooted in the mind, shifting the reader’s experience of reality.

herb, review, survival, bushcraft

Edible and Medicinal Plants

I’ve signed up for Wilderness Awareness School‘s Edible and Medicinal Plants course. It’s taught by John Gallagher, of Learning Herbs.

Have you ever wanted to know the plants that grow all around you? Would you like to learn how wild plants, even in cities, can both feed you and take care of your health? This informative and hands on weekend experience introduces participants to the most common and useful plants of our area through direct experiences of touching, eating, cooking, and making meals and medicines. The nature of this weekend offers a new relationship with plants--whether found in urban yards or vast wilderness--that intimately connects us to their lives while enhancing the nourishment, nutrition, and health of our own. Skills include:
  • Plant identification to confidence and safety
  • Herbal oils and salves for most minor first aid situations
  • Tincture making with wild plants for cold & flus
  • Herbal teas and infusions
  • Herbal nourishment for better daily health
  • Mineral vinegars: the ULTIMATE "vitamin"
  • Making a wild foods meal that is nutritious AND delicious
  • Poisonous plant identification
  • Herbal first aid so you can treat yourself naturally
  • AND lots of other fun herbal surprises
We will weave all these skills into a way for you to bring wild herbs into your life to enhance your health. What is seen by many as an overwhelming subject will be presented in a simple way, so you can easily access herbal wisdom on your own. There will be a good balance between class time and herbal activities. Students will go home with herbal remedies for their home first aid kits. Students will also go home with a free copy of Wild Foods for Every Table, an amazing 100 page wild foods books with delicious recipes such as sorrel soup, creamy nettle soup and spiced wildberry jelly.

For signing up early, John sent me the Herbal Remedy and Vitamin/Mineral wall charts. I recommend the Herbal Remedy chart – it’s been useful to me already.