Zoom Got Lifted

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A much higher & heavier feel now. That lurching sensation & a raised center of gravity. He's different. Not at all sure he's better. Every modification I make to Zoom leaves me wondering if he was better off stock. The K&N cold air filter and cat-back exhaust system gave him more power, but lowered his overall fuel efficiency. The ARB bumper & winch gave him more capability and front end strength, but added weight & increased his wind resistance & lowered his mpg even more. I predict that now his fuel economy will dip again, and he will be more difficult to drive on the highway, even though he will perform better off road & over rough terrain. Still, no regrets. Zoom is a work-in-progress, an experiment, & in some strange way a piece of survivalist art. & he's not finished yet.

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Shtuff

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Am twizzled on tequila, beer, vodka, cigarettes, etc. BUT, here is today's copy nonetheless:

•Lightning Striking White House During Easter Means World Is Ending Seriously, let's not fuck around, OK? Fuck.

•OK, here are 70 cool post-apocalyptic novels. This list contains the whole shebang, including the best PA novels I've read, plus a slew of novels I have never even heard of but now want to read.

•Fucking incredible lyrics from a song by Richard Thompson. I am told the lyrics are straight from a letter that an American soldier wrote from Iraq:

(Richard Thompson)

Out in the desert there's a soldier lying dead
Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head
Another day that could have been me there instead
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad's Gonna Kill Me
Dad's Gonna Kill Me

You hit the booby trap and you're in pieces
With every bullet your risk increases
Old Ali Baba, he's a different species
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad's Gonna Kill Me
Dad's Gonna Kill Me

I'm dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time

Dad's Gonna Kill Me
Dad's Gonna Kill Me

I've got a wife, a kid, another on the way
I might get home if I can live through today
Before I came out here I never used to pray
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad's Gonna Kill Me

Dad's in a bad mood, Dad's got the blues
It's someone else's mess that I didn't choose
At least we're winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here

Dad's Gonna Kill Me
Dad's Gonna Kill Me

Dawn Patrol went out and didn't come back
Hug the wire and pray like I told you, Mac
Or they'll be shoveling bits of you into a sack

Dad's Gonna Kill Me.

And who's that stranger walking in my dreams
And whose that stranger cast a shadow 'cross my heart
And who's that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking

Dad's Gonna Kill Me

7 muzzle monkeys standing in a row
Standing waiting for The Sandbox to blow
Sitting targets in the wild west show

Nobody loves me here

Dad's Gonna Kill Me

Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody's dying if you speak double-speak

Dad's Gonna Kill Me

(Richard Thompson)

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Up-Armoring My GOOD Vehicle

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Since nobody has yet published a manual on how to up-armor civilian vehicles, I am on my own and in un-charted territory. Here are my efforts and notes to date, based on viable commercial options, common sense and imagination:

Checklist w/notes:

2003 Nissan Frontier 4x4

Engine:
•3.3 Liter Supercharged V6 w/manual 5-speed transmission (210 HP) (stock)
•K&N cold air filter (12 HP) (add-on, complete)
•cat-back exhaust system (8 HP) (add-on, complete)

Slowly but surely turning Zoom from a stock cat into a survival lion. Stock mileage is 15/18; his current gas mileage is about 16 mpg, with an around-town low of 14 and an Interstate high of 20 (cruise control set at 59 mph w/a tail wind). Nothing left to upgrade on the engine except battery, ignition wires & spark plugs.

Suspension:
•2.5-inch lift kit w/shocks, swing arms, springs, etc. (add-on, in-process)

Paid for, scheduled installation is this Friday. A quality lift-kit with serious off-road capability.

Armor:
•ARB front bumper w/winch (add-on, complete)
•steel rear bumper w/trailer hitch (stock)
•plate steel ram plate (add-on, concept)
•3 tires mounted to front bumper (add-on, concept)
•ballistic film for windshield & side windows (add-on, inquiry phase)
•sandbags in truck bed (add-on, bags & shovel in truck box)
•run-flat tires (add-on, inquiry phase)

The ARB bumper is a serious ass-kicker. Spot-welding additional plate steel to it is always a viable option. If TS ever HTF, I will fasten one big tire to its center and a smaller tire on each side, for added ballistic protection and cushioning :-).

Tail gates are hollow. Is it possible to drill a hole in one and fill it with gravel for bullet-dampening effect? Probably.

To bullet-proof a truck bed, fill it with tires and line it with sand bags.

In Vietnam, some of the US helicopters had thin magnesium skin that did nothing to slow bullets. The workaround? The pilots sat in bullet-proof titanium seats, and the soldiers in the cargo bay sat on their helmets or on segments of armor plating. Am wondering if similar means could be applied to a vehicle cab. The driver and passengers could wear flak jackets or bullet proof vests. Or, segments of bulletproof plating such as the BALLISTIC CLIPBOARD could be attached to the seatbacks or to the inside of the doors/cab.

Ballistic film can be purchased via Amazon for $360. Am inquiring into professional installation. Ballistic film purportedly prevents smashing entry thru windows/windshields and reduces effect of bullets up to 44 Magnum. Will ballistic film strengthen metal if it is applied to the inside of the interior of the door as well?

Preliminary research into run-flat tires seems to indicate that they are problematic, expensive and may not be available for trucks. More research needed.

Gas prices keep climbing.

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This Is Urban Warfare

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The following images were culled from cyberspace. They were photographed during the heavy fighting that has raged between Loyalist and rebel forces in Misrata, Libya for the last 2 months. Note the extensive use of cars and piles of sand as roadblocks. As of Friday April 22nd, Loyalist forces were in retreat.

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New Guns Part 6

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That's right, motherfuckers: More cutting-edge pistols that you didn't know existed!

Above we have a Palm Pistol by Constitution Arms. It's a single-shot .38 Special, for use by people who can't hold a regular pistol. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what the advantages of this trippy little number are, but it's unique enough that I had to post a lil' sumfin'-sumfin' on it. The US government produced a version of this during WW II, called a Punch Pistol. The original pistol was riveted to a glove, so that it fired when you punched a person. Cruel & unusual, to be sure. But SNEAKY.

Now for the bad news: The Palm Pistol is due for production this year, but IT IS NOT YET AVAILABLE. I know that sucks, BUT YOU CAN PRE-ORDER ONE by going to the manufacturer's weblink above. Not that you will. Who would, unless they had enough money to have a frivolous gun collection? And we are not frivolous millionaires, WE ARE HIPPIE SURVIVALISTS.

One last thing: Constitution Arms is also selling the Tri-Plex cartridge, which is "a patent pending triple-projectile .38 special standard load cartridge containing three stacked conical projectiles". It's kind of cool, looks like it would debilitate at point-blank range.

Below we have a Wild West squeeze pistol. I suppose it was something you snuck into a poker game and then palmed beneath the table. Kinda cool, probably not too useful. AN OLDER VERSION OF THE PALM PISTOL, dig?

Polymer frame revolvers. They've been out for a few years now. Ruger makes them (BELOW). Smith & Wesson makes them (BELOW THAT). And, Taurus makes them (NOT SHOWN). I'm not going to bullshit you: I haven't done my homework on this subject. I don't know jack shit about these guns, except that they must be cool because they must be as light as feathers and rust-proof. And hi-tech shit is usually cool. So fuck it. If you think they are worth checking out, do some Google-ass online research and fact-find that shit! Hyaa!

That's it!

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Items of Minor Interest

Above we have a low-energy urban transportation solution that was parked down on the Avenue. Very European-looking. Not really my style, BUT worth its weight in gold for the next hundred years, I wager. In a collapsed economy, a man could eek out a living with this machine, carting other people's shit around for a fee.

And here we have something called a Burley Travoy Bike Cargo Trailer (more info HERE). The stand-up design allows this trailer to take up less space than other trailers, and also function as a hand cart. Oh, and this puppy is also collapse-able. This kind of gadget is very, very high on my GOOD list, because with a bicycle setup like this you can carry your own shit with you and get the fuck out of Dodge without needing gasoline. And you can also traverse terrain that is completely off-limits to a vehicle. I'm talking about sidewalks, pedestrian paths, gridlocked roads and rubble-strewn urban avenues. Let's face it, if shit goes south, we're going to run out of gas pretty fucking fast. What does that mean? It means: KEEP YOUR MOUNTAIN BIKE IN GOOD RUNNING SHAPE, YOU HIPPIE FUCK!

:-)

Another NDE vision

- "I asked how [America's purification] would come about, and they said it would be simple, that our society is very dependent on a lot of very fragile things -- energy grid, transportation. In each geographical area of the United States people used to be relatively self-sufficient as far as agricultural products. Now, how long would any state survive without the transport of food and energy?

"What would happen is these very complex and delicate grids of our economic system would begin to break down. We've created a society of such cruel and self-centered people that the very nature of civilization would begin to break down. The angels showed me that what would happen is that people would begin robbing the grocery stores, hording goods, and killing one another for gasoline and tires, and as a consequence everything would break down and would end up in chaos." -- The Reverend Howard Storm -