The Screaming Viking

I came with the wife down to Fargo for the weekend.  I didn’t realize how much of a pita it is to only have one vehicle until we’ve come down here a couple of times.  I have very little interest in running around with her to do all the crap she does…and I don’t like going somewhere and depending on someone else for a ride, even if it is my wife.  I ended up sitting at the house for most of Friday afternoon.  I knew this was coming so I grabbed some movies.  One of the movies I wanted to see was a story about a kid with cancer, 50/50.  I had read some about this before and figured it was going to be something I wanted to watch alone.  I am quite close to the source material so I wasn’t sure how the flick would affect me emotionally.

Most of the reviews I’d read about this movie said it wasn’t all that great…after watching it I would say that most of the reviewers really are not all that connected to the subject matter.  There is a very select audience that will feel an attachment to this movie and the story it tells…but being one of those few I will say that it was quite an emotional tug.  The story went quite quickly and it was interesting to see how they acted out the part of the kid that was dying.  I would have liked to see a little longer film, but I doubt most people would have cared for much more story.

There were emotional ups and downs through the flick, but one that I found particularly powerful was at the end when he was going in for surgery.  No one was sure if he would wake up or not..and build up to that point was everything you would expect.  Then they came to wheel him away and it was like everyone kicked it up a notch…suddenly instead of being a 27 year old guy that was uncertain and/or angry about possible death…he became a child reaching out for someone to tell him he would be O.K.

In any case, if you have gone through the cancer process this movie is probably worth a watch.  If you have never really been close to someone fighting that battle…I doubt it would mean a whole lot.

Dead at 56

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

This is a good series, but I’ve got to say I have no idea what the story is about.  That sounds like a weird thing to say…but as you read through the books (i just finished book 3) you start to see that it isn’t a story about specific characters…it’s a story about the power struggle in this realm.  That is quite a change from other fantasy books I’ve read recently.  Most spend pages, chapters, books even sucking you in to the main characters…you know that somehow in the end these main characters will be involved and must likely prevail.  In this series you start off thinking that way…then a main character is killed off.  That seems to build the story for other main characters, then they die…then others die…in the end you have to understand that so far it’s been a story of the evolution of power in the realm.

This style has been hard to adapt to.  I found myself at one point losing interest in the story because a character was killed out of the blue.  I expected a few characters to befall something bad, but I didn’t expect them to be written out if the story.  It took another chapter to get back in to it.  The story is evolving so that no one is truly good and few are pure evil…but that makes it really hard to root for anyone.  There is one guy that I think is pretty close to being a good guy…but who knows.  From what I’ve read online his back story is suppose to develop more in feast for crows.

Something else I’m digging on is the light fantasy aspect.  There seems to be “magic”of a sort, but it is introduced gradually and doesn’t overwhelm the story.  It doesn’t feel like the mortals are essentially powerless against the “magic”.

Overall this guy tells a really good story.  So many scifi/fantasy writers get caught up in the craptastic details that it leaves no room for you to set the scene in your head.  Martain described things in detail but there is still plenty for the reader to visualize for themselves.

There is a series on the Discovery Channel call Sons of Guns that is about the Red Jacket Firearms company/shop.  I’d heard about it when it was first piloted but it didn’t draw much of my interest.  I have noticed that they come with new episodes in the doldrums of summer when anyone outside of the premium channels are not running new episodes.  If nothing else it’s something to look at while I’m kicking back for a few min before bed.  After watching a few of the episodes, I do kind of enjoy it.  I assumed it was going to be along the line of American Chopper where they build some ungodly designed bike that you have to be independently wealthy to own.  The firearms they are putting together are a little spendy, but it’s something I could reasonably  afford to buy.  $1500-$2500 will set you up with a lot of the things they put out (barring legal issues).  They main customers are military and law enforcement, so I’d have to look at the law involved in owning some of what they put out.  Beyond that, unless you are intensely into some sort of home defense mentality or just like to burn up ammunition, they are not all that justifiable to me….but I like the idea that I could buy one.

I’m watching this show last night…every once in awhile some brings in a gun they own to have it checked out, cleaned up…whatever.  Some dude brought in a japanese millitary rifle that was used in WW2, an arisaka model 38.  I listed to them a little…then got to thinking, I’ve got one of those in one of the gun cabinets.  I look, sure enough…same gun.  I listen to them explaining some of the history and significance of it, detail some of the markings…it was pretty interesting.

My grandfather brought the gun back from the pacific after his time as a marine in WW2.  He brought at least 2 guns back, I’m not sure if there were more.  They were the 7.7 and 6.5mm rifles.  The guns were shot regularly for quite a few years by him and the kids until it was finally retired for no real reason other than they acquired other guns.  After he died the 7.7 was taken by my old man and the 6.5 by his brother, my uncle.  Looking at the 7.7 it still has the “emperor” mark, which according to the show and what I read online is a touch rare.  Apparently when the soldiers thought their guns might fall into enemy hands they tried to file off the mark as a respect type thing for their emperor.  I had read that Patton also had ordered these marks filed off of acquired rifles…but the validity of that is questionable.

Listening to them talk about this rifle and the history it made me think about the significance of what is now my rifle.  It was a mass produced piece of equipment, so the quality and accuracy is probably questionable…but there’s no reason to think it’s a pile of junk.  They used it hunting, it must be somewhat accurate.  Thinking that this rifle was used by someone from another nation, sent to kill Americans/allies and an American acquired it…possibly killing the guy that owned it…it’s just kind of a strange feeling holding it.  It can be argued that every gun I own was designed to “kill people” and they could all perform that function…but this one possibly did.  The other’s can kill people, but with the exception of the glock, none of them were really designed for that function.  Most are hunting rifles, built for accuracy or target guns…etc.  This one was built to use while foreign soldiers hunt down Americans/allies and kill them.  I don’t know the story behind the gun or how it was acquired, and that’s kind of a shame.  I’d like to know if Harold took it off the battle field or picked it up in some other way.  I’m not even sure what he did in the Marines.

It did pique my interest in shooting this gun though.  It’s not worth any more than any other rifle in the collection, in fact it’s worth a bit less than several of them.  Seeing this on T.V. though did give a little bit of significance to this, before last night, insignificant rifle.