Most of you are here to talk about optics, I think, but the way my particular OCD works, my mind strays into all sorts of directions. As far as this website goes, I am still sorta trying to find my way into what is the right mix of topics.
I am a rather extreme night owl, but with kids that need to be taken to school in the morning, I end up either severely sleep deprived (which has an avalanche like effect on my health) or without my most productive time of the day. Night is when I can really focus my attention on getting things done. I do my best "on topic" writing at night. It all comes crashing down when I am writing until 4AM and have to get up at 6:30AM. When I do not sleep for too long, it is not good for me, so I am looking for a way to be able to do something useful in the morning when my ability to focus is compromised. The silver lining is that all sort of off topic subjects that may still be worth exploring are floating in my head as I drink my eight cups of coffee.
Sidenote: please let me know if you would like me to proceed with these off topic excursions or if you would rather have me focus more on guns and optics.
A while back I started mapping out two possible books I wanted to write.
One was very much on topic and there are reverberations of it in my livecasts and many isolated writings: "Optics for Shooters". There is some literature out there on sporting optics of all sorts, but all I have seen to date has left me somewhat unimpressed. A lot of it is well written and contains good information. However, it is either incomplete or the author spends too much time on self-aggrandizing details or the book is simply too wordy or comes at it from a wrong angle. On top of it, most of it is so bloody long. It really does not have to be that long. I have not seen anything that I would call a "system-level" approach to the subject and in too many cases they lose the sight of the forest because they are looking at the trees so intently.
It has been slow going and for now exists as a collection of partially finished essays. COVID threw a wrench into my plans, but now that my life is somewhat stabilizing, I am looking to finish it.
The choice I need to make is whether I want to finish it and publish it as a book or release it here, for active supporters only, on a chapter-by-chapter basis. Or both, perhaps. I have not yet decided. Perhaps, I should release it here, bit by bit, add additional material based on your feedback, then publish it.
The “off topic” writings I have been struggling with were more on world-view, totalitarian politics and the fundamentals of Americanism. Non of that is particularly unique. There are plenty of books on this subject by very clear thinkers. However, I like to think that having grown up during the collapse of the Soviet Union, I can offer a unique angle on some of these things. To use an optics analogy: I may be looking at it through a somewhat different prism.
I started working on this one around three years ago. I mapped out a range of topics I was interested in and started working on them, again as a collection of essays. In the grand scheme of things, it is a good thing I did not finish it. I would have had to start over anyway given what we learned when COVID epidemic started.
When COVID hit us, we learned all sorts of uncomplimentary things about ourselves, other people and, most importantly, about the tyranny of our supposedly non-tyrannical governments. Yet, the scariest part of this whole experience is not what we learned from this. The scariest part is how many people learned absolutely nothing.
The “off topic” is what dominates my thinking during the non-productive mornings. Do let me know if you think I should develop it further or stick to the guns and optics.
Not bad, but a little more width would help. The tripod is Field Optics Research's Dome Top Hunter 32.
Rather amazingly, the balance on this thing is just right as is.
