Posts tagged with "private eye gear"
Sunday, 21. September 2008, 04:31:54
private eye gear
“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance,
I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country.
What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them
on and went out of the room.”
— Raymond Chandler — Farewell, My Lovely
I think I'm going to take a brief vacation.
I'll be back on September 28th.
Sunday, 8. June 2008, 18:59:57
private eye gear, The Four Seasons
As you might or might not know my dog Baron has been very sick lately.
It's just a general systemic thing and there is very little hope for a miracle.
But he certainly has (as always) been one tough dachsie through all of it.
Yesterday I got him a new squeaky fuzzy ball to replace the old one. He
really didn't need a new one, but I figured that getting a new toy would
pick his spirits up a bit. He can't walk currently, so chasing it is out of
the question; but I can throw it just in front of him as he lies on the
couch and he at least gets to take it in his mouth and make it squeak.
Dealing with Baron's illness has been difficult. I've been giving him
lots of attention, tons of extra kisses and pets, and I will be sure to
pat him on the head and tell him what a good dog he is.
I think that, at the end of our days, we just want to know that we are
loved and that we are valued. And we want others to know that we love
and value them. As far as that goes, dog or human -- no difference.
Monday, 12. May 2008, 01:42:43
private eye gear
"I like pie" Nick White Feather says in my recent story. "I like lemon
meringue best. But I like all sorts of pie, really."
I guess writing all of that got me to thinking about pie recently. And I
got into an exchange with Richard about the subject. I'm not much of a
guy for sweets, at least not since I was a kid. But when my local grocery
store put Cyrus O'Leary's Pies on sale last weekend, I decided to get one.
I got the lemon meringue. As far as the lemon goes, I've had sweeter in
homemade pies. But this was better than most bakery pies. The meringue
was incredible -- so thick and rich you could literally slice it with the side
of your fork.
Taking a picture of the pie was not nearly as pleasant of an experience
as eating it. My new Sony is good for most situations, but sometimes it
is just a bear to work with. The photo for this post is the best I could
manage. I'm not happy with it -- but I took something like 40 photos of
this piece of dang pie. I'm glad it wasn't some sort of "pie supermodel"
that I had to pay by the hour. Anyway, it looks as if I'm either going
to have to get my old Olympus digital out of mothball, which is a tank
to carry around, or buy a new Nikon D40.
Tuesday, 6. May 2008, 17:56:29
private eye gear, private detective
Me in my new fedora.
"But all I had was a coat,
a hat, and a gun."
-- R. Chandler,
Farewell, My Lovely.
Last month when my family was visiting here
from Tacoma my bro John said that he wanted
to buy me a hat. He had seen my bullshit
Christmas post last year in which I wished
for a new fedora (along with Fairuza Balk
and a pony) and he said he would like to
make that wish come true.
So the day before they left we got on the
internet at The Fedora Store. I had been
checking out the hats there in anticipation
of buying the hat myself somewhere up the
road, so I pretty much knew what I wanted.
John did the on-line paperwork and by the
next Friday the hat arrived via FedEx.
As you can see from the above photo, the
fedora is brown. I chose brown as it makes
the hat versatile for both Winter and Summer.
It has a 1-1/2 inch matching brown band and
a 2-1/2 inch brim. I wear the brim down in
back, 30s style. It is comfortable, and will
get even more so as the hat wears in a little.
The hat is actually an Official "Indiana Jones"
hat, just in time for the opening of the new IJ
movie May 23.
But of course to me the hat is really a Pat
Maginess hat. You'll be able to check it out
soon in George Lucas' upcoming new movie,
Pat Maginess and the Temple of Booze.
To my bro John, I would just like to say
-- "Thanks a million."
Some nice hats in The Untouchables.
(1930s)
Humphrey Bogart in a classic fedora
in The Big Sleep.
(1940s)
Frank Sinatra.
(1950s)
From Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.
(1960s)
Tuesday, 8. April 2008, 19:31:33
private eye gear
My new Logitech keyboard.
While my sister Tass was here, me and John and Keegan took a drive up to
Office Depot to buy a new computer keyboard. The shift keys were sticking
a bit on my old one, and worse yet the Enter/CR key would stick and add
about 200 lines to my text file before I could get out a paper clip and
pull it up. Not good, and a lot of extra work.
I've always said that when Virgos die and go to Heaven, they go to Office
Depot. It's a great place to spend a lot of extra money that you didn't
intend to spend. I finally found the section where they had the keyboards.
I passed on all the expensive Wi-fi keyboards. I never understood why you
would want to spend all that money to get a keyboard that is going to rest
about one foot from your monitor. I found a nice cheap keyboard for $7.98
US, but it was USB and all my USB ports are used at this point.
I finally found a Logitech keyboard that was good, old-fashioned PS/2. It
cost $25 US, about twice what I was hoping to pay. But I really had no
choice -- it was either that or the even more expensive Wi-fi crap or buy
the cheap keyboard and a new USB card. The Logitech PS/2 was cheaper
than either of those alternatives.
I was happy that the new keyboard has a full-size backspace key, a luxury
I haven't had for a while.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Model: Logitech Elite Keyboard LS
Manufacture: China
Type: PS/2
Tactile feel: Very good
Keyboard layout: Good
Hot keys: More than I'll ever use
Price: Reasonable (Get 'em while you can, the PS/2s are disappearing)
Now all I have to do is try not to punch the Enter key like a Kung Fu
guy throwing a finger punch. Which is how I ruined the old one.
Sunday, 9. March 2008, 19:31:48
private eye gear
Barska mini-binoculars.
Yesterday my friends Scott and Nikki kidnapped me and forced me to go
with them out to the 5-Star Sporting Good Store out in the Spokane
valley. They were shopping for tennis shoes, and we spent a little time
doing that. Then we just kind of looked around the store some. As we were
on our way to the check-out I came across this pair of mini-binoculars
and started fooling around with them. "Those are nice" I said. "I'll
have to come back out here when I have more cash on me and get those."
At that Scott and Nikki insisted that I get them anyway, seeing as they
were cheap. They said I could just pay them back or, a little later,
said that they'd just give them to me as an early birthday present. I'll
pay them back, of course. Probably by taking a bottle of booze up to
their house sometime. After that we went to Sunset Junction and had a
few drinks and Scott and Nikki got to break in their new tennis shoes.
The Barska mini-binoculars are made in China. They are well-made and
are surprisingly sharp and bright for cheap binoculars. They are center
focus, and have a diopter ring if your vision isn't perfect. There are
soft rubber protectors on the inner edges of the binoculars to protect
your glasses, if you wear any, but are also a nice safety feature to
protect your occipital bones against bruising if you should be bumped
while using the binoculars. The pair I got was in a non-reflective
black color.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Model: Barska 8x21 Lucid View
Magnification: 8x
Field of View: 128m @ 1000m
Closest Focus: 5m
In actual fact, my own tests of these indicate a closest focus distance
of about 2m at the diopter setting that I use.
The binoculars come with a very convenient nylon belt holster. They also
come with a neck strap that is removable if you don't want the neck strap.
These little binoculars aren't really high power enough for auto racing
or for serious wildlife viewing, but they are very usable for just about
anything else. I plan to use mine (in the main) at this summer's music
festivals. Normally I'll have a camera with me at things like that, but
it's kind of a pain using the telephoto all the time as binocular
substitutes.
I got mine for only $9.99 US -- a helluva deal.
Wednesday, 26. September 2007, 21:17:09
private eye gear, private-eye
Smith & Wesson has been very busy lately developing a new group of
firearms to add to their already impressive lineup. This is the new M&P
style model 327 R8, a scandium alloy and stainless revolver that loads 8
(no, that's not a typo, it's 8) .357 rounds into the chambers.
Whoa! I'm sure Pat Maginess would have loved to have slid this baby out
of his shoulder holster -- but only if he absolutely had to, of course.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Model: M&P 327 R8
Caliber: .357MAG/.38+P
Capacity: 8 Rounds
Barrel Length: 5" 2-Piece
Front Sight: Interchangeable Patridge White Dot
Rear Sight: Adjustable V-Notch
Grip: Rubber
Frame: Large
Finish: Black Matte
Overall Length: 10.5"
Material: Scandium Alloy Frame/Stainless Steel Cylinder
Weight Empty: 36.3 oz.
Tuesday, 26. June 2007, 03:22:55
private eye gear
Squeaky Fuzzy Ball
My dog Baron's latest toy.
It replaces the former and pretty much
identical model, which after six months
of him playing with it had become known
as Stinky Squeaky Fuzzy Ball.
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