Bet You Thought I Forgot...

Nope. Ten years ago today I started this blog.

Ten. Damn. Years. That's like a zillion in internet time. In the ten years since I started, I've changed jobs, moved 500 miles south, and had my horizons greatly broadened. I've missed my family and friends in MA something awful, but I sure haven't missed living in the Volksrepublik. Watching what's been happening there - as more and more states embrace freedom - only makes me happier to have GTFO.

I know I haven't been blogging much, recently. This post makes three posts in a month, which, while rare, wouldn't have even made a day when I was blogging all the time. There's just not much fueling the fire any more, not when I routinely carry a full-capacity M&P and have a safe full of AR-15s... :)

Hey, actually, you can go to the work website and read how I screwed up my Bushmaster. It's pretty embarrassing, I kinda made a rookie mistake. But, hey, I'll own it and was able to fix it myself - and since I don't have any more pinned-muzzle-brake ARs, it's not going to happen again.

Anyways, I'll be trying to update more regularly, so that the next 10 years won't be as sparse...

That is all.

Oops!

I'm still here. Blog's still here. I just forgot to renew the domain (that's what happens when it's every other year - you keep thinking, it's next year, right; every other year you're wrong...)

Haven't blogged much in [looks at last post] holy shit, over three months. Ouch. Quite frankly, the current state of politics has me so disgusted I can't even see straight - between both sides switching their views overnight, the media just making shit up out of whole cloth, and general derpitude, I don't have the energy to comment on political stuff. Any gun content I put up is at the work site, and I no longer have Massachusetts idiocy to feed the fire for blogging.

Will try not to let so much time elapse between posts going forward, though.

Those that e-mailed or messaged to ask me what was going on, thanks. It's comforting to know folks are looking out for me, no matter how far away they might be. I've got a handful of milestones coming up (I've been blogging here for 10 years as of next month. Holy smokes! I've also been blood pressure medicine-free for 10 years in May). I'll try to resuscitate the blog more often, too.

Maybe I'll post traffic updates - I got a webcam for Christmas, so that should provide ample fodder...

That is all.

And The Curtain Falls...

#1 Blogson has called it quits.

I know, I know. Blogging is dead, blah blah blah. Heck, I know my owndamnself that it gets harder and harder to post when I just don't feel it -- and the output shows. I've got from five posts a day to three posts a week - and usually one of those posts is kinda forced. I've got the Friday car posts, which I love, and then there's usually *something* that grinds my gears, but other than that, well...

For me, well, it's that things have gotten better. A *LOT* better. While I do consider myself fortunate that, in my previous employment, I never *hated* my job, I also never loved it. Now, I'm not the type that thinks you *must* love your job -- but it's awfully tough if you honestly dread going in, and I never dreaded going in. Now, though, I love going in (traffic notwithstanding), because I honestly and truly love what I do.

Heck, I get paid to post pictures of guns on the internet. How much better could I have it?

And - AND - I GTFO of Massachusetts. Of course, as soon as I leave, a Republican wins the governorship and it looks like they're finally catching on to how big of a crook Cadillac Deval really was... But I'm in America now. I had two 20-round magazines shipped to me - AT WORK - and didn't break any laws, unlike how things would have gone just two years ago.

But I digress.

I understand. I really do. When you sit down at the keyboard and just stare, hoping against hope something will pop into your head, the thrill is gone. When you start running through CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPost, even USA Today looking for something, anything, well... You've BTDT on ALL THE ARGUMENTS. And they just seem to rehash, too. I can't believe we're at a point where Terminator and Jurassic Park are playing in the theaters, while Bush and Clinton are running for President. If I have to relive the damn 1990s, I have a LOT more 30-round magazines to buy...

Anyways, best of luck to you, Borepatch. It looks like ASM826 is going to keep the place open, so any time the muse strikes, well, you remember where the keyboard is. Also, we need to get together so I can check out your new Harley. I approve of that 110%.

Fair winds and smooth seas, blogson.

That is all.

Eight Years...

Eight years ago today, MArooned came into being. Eight years. 2,922 days. 9,082 posts. Over 58,000 comments. A move out of the Volksrepublik and into Free America. Several dozen PMags. It has been a long, strange, and wonderful ride these past eight years.

What does the future hold? I have no idea. Some say blogging is dead, killed either by the short attention span of Facebook or the commercialization of blogs (as he looks at the banner ad just under the masthead...) I'm still here, albeit with less output. Funny, that - moving out of MA took away a great deal of the urge to blog. Amazing what freedom can do.

Thanks for sticking with me, and we'll see what the next 8 years hold.

That is all.

Freedom...

So, apparently something happened to Sitemeter. For years and years, I lived and died by the numbers that would pop up when I clicked the link at the bottom of the page, sometimes checking multiple times a day. Why, it's almost like my sense of self-worth came from a number loosely tied to the number of times someone clicked on a website vaguely affiliated with me...

And apparently, Sitemeter's been dead for at least a week, because I got my weekly e-mail with stats and it was all zeros. Literally, an entire week with no visits whatsoever. Now, obviously I'm getting something, because comments, so it's just not registering anything.

I know in the past year since I stopped gunblogging and the DGC that the urge to blog is less. There's a zillion reasons why, but I think one of the bigger ones is getting the hell out of MA. Sure, the traffic's worse now, but I'm living in a free state (had two Ruger BX-25s mailed to the house from MidwayUSA this week. HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, DEVAL?) and working in a job I really enjoy.

It was liberating seeing the Sitemeter record nothing but goose-eggs - and not realizing it for over a week.

That is all.

The Seven Year Itch...

Seven years ago today, MArooned was born.

I know the blog has seen some changes in the past six months, and while I don't regret the circumstances leading to those changes, I know a good number of folks miss the gun pr0n and gear talk. That will be coming back on my professional blog (yes, I know, it scares me too) that I'll get on a sidebar as soon as it's created.

For now, though, I'll focus on the motorhead side of things. I'm equally a car/truck/bike nut as I am a gun nut, so the car pr0n should continue to increase as time goes on. Politics, naturally, are fair game, as are bad drivers - which are pretty legendary around the DC area.

Thanks for putting up with me for 7 years now!

That is all.

What A Neat Idea!

ASM826 sent me a possible revised header in e-mail:

It's pretty neat, but he had a better idea:

I think you ought make it a contest, give people a week and then let your readers vote. Lots of people are happy you moved and I think you might get some interesting submissions.

Now, I've talked to Robb, and he's happy to revise the current header to change "trapped in" to "escaped from". He's also real busy - and looking for more freelance graphic artist work, so if you need something done, give him a holler - so I'll toss this out there.

Anyone interested in trying their hand at a new banner? Dunno what I can offer as a prize, but we can think of something. I have lots of packing boxes! I'd like to see the new header incorporate something from Virginia (like the motto, "Sic semper tyrannis") and maybe one last poke at Massachusetts (maybe "no longer discouraging self-help"?), but be creative.

I'll post any entries and let folks decide!

That is all.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Okay, so I'm waiting on final approval from HR (HR *always* has final approval), but talking to my boss it looks like the blog will be able to stay in at least some form. Gun content from this point on will be strictly limited to Shooting Illustrated - hey, they're paying me for it! - and I'd like to ask someone else to take over the Dead Goblin Count if they'd like; those are the major changes. Expect a LOT more traffic blogging/road rage stories, at least from what I've seen so far. The traffic really *is* that bad here.

I also want to more completely explore the transition from Massachusetts resident with all these restrictions on what I can own and such to a resident of a (mostly) free state. Assuming that McAuliffe doesn't complete Colorado the state of Virginia, I should be in pretty good shape even if he does win. There's the wide world of what new guns I can own; the variety of accessories that will no longer make me a felony; open carry; there's a lot more in VA than in MA, that's for certain.

So, the good news is that I won't have to shutter the blog, and I'll get to stay in touch. The "bad" news is that I really won't be able to call myself a gunblogger from here on in - of course, that's because the 9 - 5 gig that I'm getting paid for involves writing about guns. I'll still be able to rant and rave about stupid people - and believe me, I'll be keeping an eye on the idiocy out of my former state, no question about that. I'll also be keeping an eye on my new state so it doesn't slide into the same pit as CO and MD...

So, who wants the Dead Goblin Count?

That is all.

Tomorrow's The Big Day...

Sorry about the lack of posting, but I've been busy the past couple of days. Between getting the house ready to sell (and we have a buyer already!!!), getting ready for a new job in a new state, and everything else going on right now, I've been neglecting the free ice cream machine.

As I mentioned on Friday, I'll be the Associate Editor for the NRA's Shooting Illustrated come tomorrow morning. Professionally, this is a world apart from my previous position (I'll leave it as sales/sales support for a chemical company); realistically it's everything I've been doing on this blog combined with print media (which is at least analogous)

I'm not certain what will happen to the blog once I start at the NRA. It's possible that things may have to change - right now I don't know - but we'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Since I won't know what's allowed/verboten until after my orientation, tomorrow may be devoid of posting.

I'll know a lot more after tomorrow, and will post updates as available.

That is all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blogfodder Bleg...

So, come Friday afternoon I'll be hitching my wagon to a star the camper to the Earthf**ker and heading down to the Cape for a week of R&R (and don't get any funny ideas; there's a nosy retired cop who lives right next door who has called me to ask "who owns the red pickup in the driveway" when something's out of place...) I'll have the iPad with me and will be doing some vacation blogging (because, honestly, it is simply gorgeous on the Cape and that needs to be shared...)

Content will be light, though, and I'm taking requests for ideas that folks might like to see on the blog. Gear questions, opinions, etc. - drop a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do. I'll have some pre-loaded content for the week and will be adding a post or two here and there, but for the most part, I will be on vacation. Might do a good deal of photo-blogging (or at least gathering pictures to blog; I have an adapter to upload pictures from the camera SD card to the iPad but it seems to work only most of the time...)

So, send in ideas, questions, comments, etc. (or gun pr0n!) and I'll see what I can do!

That is all.

One Decade...

Ten years ago today, I posted my first blog post.

My blogfather has let Toys in the Attic go, so the original post is lost to the ages. But July 9th, 2003 was the first time I blogged. I would spend nearly four years as co-blogger of Toys in the Attic before striking out on my own, during which time I managed to annoy liberals, gather folks for a proto-blogger shoot, and buy my Harley.

I don't know if you should thank Ricky or curse him, but he's the reason I'm here doing what I do...

That is all.

If It Were Human, It'd Be In First Grade...

Six years ago, a silly little blog called MArooned was born. Six years ago, I left the comfortable surroundings of Toys in the Attic (doesn't look like Ricky's keeping the blog part up any more, a pity) to start my own blog and see if I could make a go of things solo. I'll always have a fond spot for my time as co-blogger at Toys, and consider Ricky a close friend (even if we haven't managed to meet up in meatspace. Yet.)

According to Blogger, I've had 47,614 comments published on 7,338 posts over the past six years. Not bad for a guy who still doesn't think of himself as a writer. I've published over a hundred product reviews, and had nearly two dozen articles published outside of MArooned - including a print article! According to Sitemeter I've had over 2.2 million unique visits over the past 6 years.

Thanks to everyone that sends me articles, from DGC stories to stupid things MA politicians to do the crazy and wild stuff. I can't thank you folks enough - nearly 400 Dead Goblins and growing every week; political stories to get my blood pressure up; the latest news on the Batmobile... I can count on a lot of folks to provide me with awesome blog fodder.

Six years down, Lord alone knows how many left - but they ain't gettin' rid of me yet!

That is all.

I Got Nothin'...

Free ice cream machine is taking a break for the day, sorry folks. TheBoy went on his first Klondike Derby with the Boy Scouts this weekend, camping outdoors in 10ºF weather, and he's due home in a couple hours (assuming he's not frozen solid). Still digging out from the ton of stuff from SHOT Show, need to follow up with some folks and get some things in motion.

Plus my muse seems to have taken a hike for warmer climes. Between the cold, raw weather and the dark and gloomy news, I've about had my fill of doom-and-gloom. Got a few things lined up for the week; trying to stay away from talk of bans and confiscation. Not that I don't think it couldn't happen; not that I think it's not worth preparing for; just that I need a break for a bit from the constant drumbeat of negativity.

No worries, this will most likely not even last the day...

That is all.

SHOT Overload...

Man... In three days I'm getting on a plane heading down to Las Vegas for SHOT Show. Every day I get a whole bunch of press releases from different companies that will be exhibiting at SHOT, with at least one or two dealing with something I'm interested in seeing. I'll have three whole days at the show - I'm leaving Friday morning - and right about now I'm looking at having to run most of the time just to fit everything in...

I've scheduled meetings with a few companies so far (Davidson's, Leupold, TerraLUX to drop a few names) and have a long list of booths to visit on the floor. I've had a couple suggestions for things to BOLO for, and will make every effort to talk to the companies indicated. In the off-chance that I have any extra time, I'm still open to requests if folks are curious what's coming down the pike.

I'm going to try to have pretty significant coverage of SHOT next week; I'm going to try to post from the show as much as possible, but as often happens, things get hectic. Posting may be more sporadic than usual, especially as I adjust to the time change (hey, this is only the second time I've ever been in Pacific time!). I'll try to keep things to their normal schedule, but can't make any promises.

There will, however, be lots and lots of shiny gun pr0n, that much I can promise.

That is all.

Breaking Point...

I really hate that I have to even consider this, but I'm thinking that I need to do something to stop the recent spate of spam comments. Over the past couple of days it's been a growing flood of spam, with my inbox overflowing with links to Russian pr0n or discount fake handbags and whathaveyou. It's disappointing to see 20 new messages and find only one real comment, and 19 spam comments.

But worse is that more and more of these comments are making it through the spam filter and getting posted. I don't know what the deal is with Blogger, but comments with multiple links in the past have always been s**t-canned - and now they're making it onto the blog. I refuse to reward these @$$holes with the light of day - that can only encourage them, because I'm sure they're getting *some* clickthroughs.

I'm going to give it another couple of days, and if it doesn't improve, I'm going to have to do one of two things:

a) Turn off anonymous comments. I really don't want to do this, because I know there's a number of folks that comment that way. I certainly don't want to alienate anyone who wishes to comment anonymously; I suspect/fear that a good number simply won't comment rather than register;

or

b) Turn back on captcha. I also don't really want to do this, because I often find the phrase illegible and have to make multiple entries before I can get it right when I comment on blogs that have captcha enabled. This also can discourage folks from commenting, and I don't want that, either.

So, here I am, the blogging comment equivalent to Scylla and Charybdis. Either I leave comments unmoderated and deal with the torrent of spam, or I take steps to stem the flow and risk losing comments. I really appreciate and enjoy the comments left - when they are real comments, that is. If someone wants to use my blog to promote their website, I'm happy to discuss terms for adding them to the sidebar - but I'll be damned if some spambot's gonna do it for free.

Just curious how others have handled this or would like to see it resolved...

That is all.

One MEEEEELLION Hits!

Okay, so I'm a bad blogfather. Sometime in the past day or so, my #1 blogson saw his 1,000,000^th hit. I don't feel all that bad, because it happened sometime on Christmas, and I paid precisely zero attention to anything in the blogosphere yesterday, quite on purpose. Love y'all, but yesterday was for family and friends. Today, though, I wanted to make sure you knew about Borepatch's milestone so you could go give him proper huzzahs.

I've known Borepatch for the better part of five years now. He attended the very first Northeast Bloggershoot, and was a regular attendee until he moved to Free America. I consider him a close friend, and hated to see him move. I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm glad he was able to escape Massachusetts, but I wish he'd done it to someplace closer, like New Hamster. As it is, I only see him electronically now, and while the internet is great at keeping people connected, the face-to-face interactions are what it's all about.

Congratulations, blogson. You have made me very proud over the past four and a half years. Your writing is crisp, smart, witty; your posts are thoughtful, humorous, and insightful; I'm glad you're on our side, because you are, as we say, wicked smaht. Your global warming posts are among my favorite; while most of us are content to mock, you bring the smart and make mincemeat out of their hokey religion. The internet security posts are excellent as well, even if they do make me want to hide under the bed...

Go wish Borepatch a happy million!

That is all.

In Lighter News...

It appears that this is my 7,000^th post. 7K posts in a little under 6 years. Thousand posts a year, and given that I was nowhere near as prolific in my rookie year, that means a heck of a lot of posts. As I've joked, this blog is a form of therapy for me - rather than scream in impotent fury at the biased news displayed on TV, I can write in impotent fury here... Like Unc says, I do this for me, not you - and as the often-missed Acidman used to say, a ceaseless quest for adoration from people who don't know me...

Thanks again to everyone that sends in material: Les, Gerry, Joseph, Brad_in_MA, Jackie in TX, Stretch, ChiefJayBob, and countless others who I am forgetting at the moment (and I humbly apologize!). Thanks to everyone that submits DGC additions - I think it's a very worthwhile count to keep in mind, and appreciate folks thinking of me and the count whenever they see a suitable story. Thanks to everyone that reads and comments (that's a hint); I've learned a ton over the past few years, and I hope I've managed to help others along the way.

It's been a long and sometimes strange trip, but here's hoping for another 7,000 posts!

That is all.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spammity Spam...

Got an interesting e-mail the other day:

Hi Jay,

I came across your website and wanted to notify you about a broken link on your page in case you weren't aware of it. The link on [link to my website's July 2007 archive] which links to [random link not on my blog] is no longer working. I've included a link to a useful page with a list of professional organizations that record U.S. and world statistics that you could replace the broken link with if you're interested in updating your site. Thanks for providing a great resource!

Link: [spammer link removed because DIE IN A FIRE SPAMMER]

Best,
[random first name kept similar to spammy spam spam gmail address]

I'll give partial credit for being more than a comment with a dozen FAKEUGGBOOTS link embedded, but really? They can't even be bothered to pick a post at random with a link in it and use that real link to try and replace with their link. I mean, I understand that spammers can't all be some bizarre form of zombie Shakespeare with product Tourettes, but at least make it interesting for us...

And while I'm on the topic of spam, WTF happened to Blogger? The spam filter *used* to be pretty good - all anonymous comments on posts published longer than 14 days prior automatically went into the "Spam" folder. This correctly identified ~ 99% of all spam comments as spam. Anonymous comments on current posts would be published if no links were contained, and would go into the "Moderation Required" folder if they had links. Again, this worked well.

This morning there were 39 comments in my "Needs Moderation" folder. All 39 of them were anonymous, contained links, and were made on posts up to and including 5 years ago. This is doing spam moderation wrong, Blogger. I am very reluctant to turn off anonymous commenting - I know there's a bunch of folks that comment anonymously, and that many would simply refrain rather than sign up. I grok that, and I'd rather you comment (I love comments. I really do. I stand in awe of folks like Larry Correia that can get 7 million comments on a single post).

In closing, I'd just like to say, DIE IN A FIRE SPAMMER.

That is all.

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends...

What he said.

I haven't know Tam as long as Matt G. (no relation); I've been reading her, well, forever, and got a chance to meet her earlier this year when she was house-sitting at Castle Frostbite. Tam even had some nice things to say about your humble host, despite me doing my usual impression of a hummingbird high on crack. I then had the further pleasure of her company in Colorado last month, where I even got to shoot along side her for a bit (and she had the utmost in grace to not laugh hysterically at my pitiful attempts...)

She's a good person, and she's going through a tough time. I'd consider it a personal favor if you could stop over and drop a little something in her tip jar - I know I've asked for a lot recently, and I really appreciate it. Tell you what - I'll even pull the kilt out of mothballs for specific requests if that'll get you to help my friend out. I'm happy to do what little I can, even if it means another round on the swingset... ;)

In any case, please keep Tam in your thoughts and prayers at this rough time. 

That is all.

UPDATE:

Rimfire Designs is raffling off grips to raise money to help Tam.

For $5 you get a chance to win a sweet pair of custom grips for a 1911 or a Hi-Power. I've got both (reviews forthcoming, honest!) and they are very nice indeed. This is a nice thing he's doing.

In fact, I may dig into my own pile 'o' gear for something similar...

What He Said...

Robb nails it out of the park.

Last month, folks that read MArooned raised over $6,500 for cancer research. All together, gun bloggers (and some EMS- and police- bloggers too) raised over $20K - all done on a shoestring budget (budget? We had a budget?) and without a lot of fanfare. The people that read our blogs thought our cause was worthwhile and donated, and gave quite generously. And that's no exception; rather, that's the rule.

I don't blog for awards or accolades either. I'll never get rich blogging, nor writing in my spare time. I do both because it interests me and I enjoy it - and the day it stops interesting me and/or I stop enjoying it, I'll stop. Until then, you're stuck with a foulmouthed shaved head biker dude who likes guns, cars, and making fun of brittle people.

Thanks for reading my scribblings.

That is all.