Around in Circles

The US is in HUGE upheaval over the current elections. Why wouldn’t it be? we have Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both of whom are pretty terrible people.

Donald Trump is egotistical, bombastic, and Shoots from the hip, often saying things that should never be said.

Joe Biden… I don’t even know where to begin, he is suffering from some form of dementia, has a son that is using his father’s influence in other countries politics and filling their pockets off that.

Both are terrible options. but why do we have just two? Most countries have multiple political parties that voters can choose from to pick people they feel best fit their ideology. The answer comes down to money… In the US there are government grants given to those running for office. To get a grant you have to earn a certain percentage of the popular vote. To date, the ONLY parties to exceed that % have been the Democrats and the Republicans.

Because of this, they have had HUGE influence in our country, shutting out all competitors.

So often if you mention that you’re voting third party people tell you ” you’re throwing away your vote!” Which is exactly the opposite of what I am doing. I am showing the world, and myself that voting for somebody of principal and integrity is far more important than being popular. I value my choice. I also have hope that me, and 4.99999% of the rest of the population also vote for that third party, giving us a chance at clawing away some of the power the two current political factions have.

I would like to see a rise and fall of political parties. when something sits around for too long it starts to rot, and stink. and both the republican and democrat parties stink like last week’s fish.

I encourage all of voting age. DO NOT VOTE your emotions! actually look at the people you are looking to vote for, look at their track record, look at what they’ve done in the past, not just what the media tells you they’ve done, but what they’ve ACTUALLY done. Do you agree with that? do you think that is what is best for the country? Also, focus on LOCAL elections. they impact your life so much more than federal election. Take the time, do your research.

I just finished my ballot, I am mailing it in today. It took me 3 days to fill it out. Why? because I took the time to research and look at each person I was voting for, what their policies are, and what their track record is. Did I vote for mainly one party? yes, because for the most part, that party does align with what I stand for and believe in. Did I vote for all the same party? NOPE, there is a mix on there, since some of the people do not have a track record I appreciate. It makes me question what their priorities are.

Good luck to our country. We need it. Too much of our politics is based in hate. Hate of each other, hate of ideas, and hate of change. I hope that that changes.

-AIC

I have been a fan of the production company Rooster Teeth for more than 13 years. I started watching when you still had to download the videos via torrent sites, before youtube even existed. I have watched all of their episodes of RvB, but more importantly, when Achievement Hunter broke out, that really hit the entertainment spot for me. I consume easily 60% of their content. (as a grown man with a family, full time job, and being the youtube star that I am, that is a real accomplishment).

One of my favorite people on that team, for YEARS, has been Ryan Haywood. His dry dad humor, his lack of empathy, and the chaotic neutral energy he bought to the things he was in really made them complete for me. I have gone back and re watched a dozen times all the golf and GTA episodes he has been in over the years.

Today however, I saw the news that he was leaving Achievement Hunter under terrible circumstances. He has been accused of taking advantage of his position of fame to take advantage of others. The claims are very heavy, and I hope are false, but feel for the victims he has created, and the lives he has negatively impacted.

Tonight, I wanted to talk about something I don’t see anybody else talking about though. I’ve seen a lot of support of the victims, a lot of condemnation for the person who has allegedly committed these acts, but I wanted to talk about the roll that Rooster Teeth itself may play in this situation.

First and foremost: I am NOT going to try to justify any kind of behavior, nor am I going to victim blame. I am going to try to view this as impartially and analytically as possible. My purpose is to see what could be the cause of this and what could be done in the future to prevent it from happening to somebody else.

I apologize in advance if my thoughts are scattered. it is 11pm, I am running on 3 hours of sleep, and it has been a long day, just to come across this news. I spent over an hour reading responses and watching video accusations, and I am emotionally frustrated.

Ryan, like all members of achievement hunter was a relative nobody before nearly overnight stardom. I have no frame of reference. I am not well known, I am not popular, nobody recognizes me on the street. But how can it be going from being a complete unknown to having millions of fans? How did his family take it, especially his wife?

My own wife tolerates my online stuff, between youtube, this blog, social media, etc. She barely sends text messages. Technology holds 0 interest to her. I work in I.T., it took her the first 10 years of our marriage to be able to describe what I do to other people (who then rarely understand). My family doesn’t really get it. My parents are too old, my siblings think I should do something better with my time (and they may not be too wrong).

But what little I know about them, I know his wife is a vet, I know she works long long hours. I know he works long long hours. How much of their conversations were about his work? Did she ever listen to him, or pretend to care? or vice versa, did he care much for her work? Did they have healthy forms of communication? I have no idea. I can however relate on some small level to this whole situation… Story time:

This all happened nearly 15 years ago. I was freshly married, my wife and I both worked. I in a call center, she at a bank. I worked nights/weekends, she banking hours. We tried to make as much time for each other as we possibly could, but with opposite schedules, we were often just like ships passing in the night. As I mentioned before, she has NEVER been one to send text, and she almost never reads them. If I were to look at her phone right now there would be literally 100’s of unread text messages from friends and family members. She spent 90% of her day today with no clue where her phone was and couldn’t have cared less. The problem is, with the work she did and the work I was doing, text messages were one of the ONLY ways I could communicate with her on a regular basis. My “lunch” hour was well after she would have gone to bed, and breaks were just long enough to find an available restroom. I would still be asleep when she was on her breaks. It was not easy, especially as newlyweds. At this time there was a girl on my team, We were nearly the same age. We both had worked for the company about the same time and moved through departments at the same time, and had nearly identical shifts. Basically, I saw and talked to her 10x more than I could my wife, we had known each other before I had married my wife, and had become casual friends, but around the time of this story, we had been sat next to each other at work, and we talked. A LOT. We both were going through some issues with relationships for a lot of the same reasons. Different schedules, significant others not understanding the work that we do, financial issues, etc. And all the things I should have been discussing with my wife I was discussing with my co worker. This lead down a bad path very quickly. certain lines were never crossed, but the path was there and open to us. We were able to step back and both requested a schedule and desk change at work. I left that company shortly thereafter for unrelated reasons, but I won’t deny it was a relief to not have to associate with her anymore.

How does any of that apply to What happened with Ryan? A lot. Think about it. I was just a guy at work, and she was just a coworker. We connected on similar issues in life. These people at achievement hunter have millions of fans, fame the likes of I’ll never understand. What preparation have they been given to handle that? People seeing them as idols, people to worship, look up to, to lust after, to idealize. Not only that, they were encouraged, even required to interact with their fanbase through social media. I know Ryan REFUSED to get a twitter account for the longest time. I wonder if he knew it would be a temptation he couldn’t resist?

So now you have adoring fans throwing themselves at you for your attention. How long do you resist for? I know we all would like to stand in our towers and cast judgement. That we would NEVER fall victim to that situation. But I sure did. I fell and I fell hard. I took me years to repair my relationship with my wife. I cannot cast a stone.

Most of the time, famous people surround themselves with others. These people can either help them stay grounded, stay focuses, help them reach goals, and not be influenced by those around them. Their contact with fans is also pretty limited. Usually they have a social media person controlling their online accounts, at least their public ones. Sometimes celebrities surround themselves with the wrong sort of people. A great example of this would be Justin Bieber. He went from being a cute new kid on the singing stage, to a complete out of control asshole. Spitting on fans, peeing in buckets, racing cars while intoxicated, and who knows what else. He had surrounded himself with the wrong sort of people. He fell from grace pretty hard. He then surrounded himself with, what seems to be, the right kind of people and has made a pretty significant comeback.

Unfortunately, Ryan’s situation is not unique with online creators. How many in the last couple of years have done FAR worse? In the last few weeks alone, there have been multiple people on TikTok called out for being pedophiles and accused of grooming. Who do these creators have to surround themselves with? To keep them grounded. To help them no go down paths that they shouldn’t even consider? Their behavior is of course deplorable, there is no questioning that.

I think of it this way. I don’t drink. I never have. I’ve never taken a sip of an alcoholic beverage. I just have never had any desire to. But what if one day, all of a sudden, there was a case of cold beers in my fridge? Not just there, but the pantry, the cupboards, when I open up the dish washer, Ice cold beer. Again I’ve never had a sip, but how long of it being in my face, being welcoming, and attractive before I break and take just a sip?

I can only imagine having the fame that these people do at these online production companies. The number of people who are constantly reaching out, Begging for your attention, praising you, sharing their every life’s detail, talking to you in a way that only two people who are truly close should be talking. Making it so easy for it to be the person you go to when you need to “just talk” or be the shoulder you lean on. How lonely is it for somebody who’s family doesn’t “get it?”

Who do the people at Rooster Teeth surround themselves with? I would say that their coworkers do not count. Anybody else who’s in the same situations as they are, creating content for vast hours of the day, they simply cannot be there to support each other in that way. Does Rooster Teeth have a team that checks up on their creators? Monitors their social media activity? Provide counselling? Helping them to stay grounded, to keep themselves free of the temptations that come along?

At this point, I’m just sad and disappointed in the situation. Ryan, despite being the person I enjoyed most, is just a person, who, whether by accident or design, became famous. I fear that fame was more than he could handle, and he didn’t have, or get the support he needed to make smart decisions. I will miss him, and the chaos he rained. I hope that there is healing for all involved.

-AIC

It is election season here in America right now, specifically presidential election. One of the things that comes along with the election are anonymous polls.

These polls come in many forms-
By mail
By online questionnaire
By phone.

This year I have not received a mail in poll, but I have done both online and over the phone. Normally the questions are very basic, very neutral, and very easy to understand.

But the ones I’ve done this year? OOOOH boy. NOPE, they couldn’t have been more twisted, sideways, and backwards, questions confusing and convoluted.
“On a scale of 1-10 How bad did Trump handle the pandemic”
“On a scale of 1-10 How much better would Biden handle the pandemic”
“Based off of tax code 134411231322 Trump was able to write off all of his income and only pay $1 in taxes. on a scale of 1-10, how bad does that make you feel?”

It’s I guess you can make the polls say anything you want if you ask the right questions.

If you want to know what I think, it’s this: both the democrats AND the republicans in the US have lost the ability to represent the people in the US, They are too long standing, too corrupt, and too powerful. They control the narrative, they control the story. They don’t care about the real truth, they only care about what you think the truth is, so you give them more power and more money (which are one in the same, in a lot of ways). More people need to seriously consider a 3rd party. For the first time in my voting life, a third party is on the ballot in all 50 US states. If everybody who is sick of left and right politics were to vote third party, that candidate would stand a STRONG chance of winning. and that is where my vote is going.

I have owned a number of .22 hand guns, I currently own 8, have owned 3 others I have since sold. I posted a similar review of these guns a few months ago, but I have since added to this collection so thought I would update.

New guns:

Taurus TX22-
I have about 400+ rounds through this gun currently. There is A LOT to like about this gun – 1) threaded barrel with included adapter, 2) 16 round capacity magazine, 3) price, 4) reliability. So far I have been very impressed with this gun. But it has not been flawless. The one issue I have that is gun related and not something I could contribute to the ammo I am using, is that the rounds sometimes will slam into the front of the mag vs being fed into the chamber. This causes the bullet to be deformed and unable to be chambered. Not sure what is causing this. But it has happened <10 times in the 400+ rounds I have through it. Usually it’s the first bullet, which I’ve solved by making sure that last bullet is seated all the way back, but it will sometimes happen part way through a mag as well. If anybody has any experience with this I would love some feedback. But the grip feels great, the gun feels great. I see myself owning a 2nd one if they come out with some good colors. If I could get one in bright green, pink, blue, or purple I would own a 2nd one for sure. Accuracy out of the box is OK, I need to spend some time and adjust the sights.

Browning 1911-22 A1 Compact-
They say it’s 85% size, but it feels even smaller. It is reliable, but I don’t enjoy shooting it that much. It is SMALL. But otherwise it looks and feels like a pretty traditional 1911. I think if I had smaller hands, it would be a lot more fun to shoot. I need to get my wife out and get her take on it. It’s kinda expensive though… If I had gotten the full sized model, I might be able to justify it more, but this one is for the smaller handed people. I am not thrilled with the plastic guide rod, but the gun otherwise is all metal and it does look sharp. Mine only came with one mag. Normally I buy additional, but unless the wife or my kids fall in love, a one mag gun it will remain. Accuracy out of the box is very good.

The other guns I currently have:

Walther/Colt .22 Long rifle 1911. This is one of the ones in my top list for sure. It has proven to be very reliable, and being a 1911, it fits my hand exactly how I expect it too. It looks good, feels good, and shoots good, and can be fitted with a suppressor with a simple common adapter (the one for the P22). Downsides are mags are kinda pricey and hard to find, and when I’ve been shooting A LOT (like 500 plus rounds) between cleaning, it will start to go back into battery slowly. It was worse when it was new, and hasn’t been an issue in a while. maybe just the break in period fixed that. but I also don’t go that long between cleanings if I can avoid it, I also have a new recoil spring on order, and will follow up once I’ve had a chance to shoot a number of rounds with it. after market support is just OK, several parts from normal 1911s will fit, but not everything. I have several thousand rounds through it.
Update: New recoil spring didn’t seem to do much, I cleaned it really well, and I probably just needed to clean it better or something, it runs great again. It is a cheap gun, for sure. But with how much fun it is? I’d buy another one in a heartbeat. Still one of my favorites, and I’ve been doing reliability testing again, and it has been great.

I own two Mark IV 22/45 lights. The sliver in the picture is the older one, the purple one is newer. The silver one has been a bit problematic when it comes to being reliable. Not bad, just picky about ammo and required me to buy more expensive ammo. The purple one has been flawless, I have many thousands of rounds through both, I like them for their overall design, and feel. they are meant to fell more like a 1911 in the hand (hence the 45 in the name). and they do. This is the other contender for a top spot in my favorite’s list. Suppressor ready, looks interesting and fun, accurate, and HUGE aftermarket support. The downside really has been with reliability on the silver one, and I keep pinching my fingers on the god damn ears…
Update: not really much more to report. The mark IV 22/45 is kinda like the Miata of the car world. It’s kinda the answer to everything. It’s what I would recommend every single time to somebody looking for a .22 to buy. Reliable? Check. Customizable? Check. Availability? Check. After market support? Check. Great customer service? Check. I mean, just about anything and everything you could want to (legally) do to a gun you can with a Mark IV. And they are coming out with new colors and designs all the time on the lites, so you can really get something almost custom if you want.

Ruger Wrangler. – This is a nice, reliable, simple, and familiar gun. I like to take friends/family/strangers shooting. and this is the perfect gun for them. even without having shot a firearm before. people know revolvers, they are not scary. It is also what I like to shoot my crap ammo through. If i get a box that just won’t feed through my other auto loaders, It is fodder for the wrangler. I personally am not a huge revolver person, and even I like to shoot this guy. Down sides? I wish it had different barrel lengths and finishes. I probably would have bought a 6″ over a 4.2″ or whatever it is, and the sights are very basic. I wouldn’t do any competition shooting with it. I have a few thousand rounds through it.
Update: not much to update to be honest. Still a great gun, and a lot of fun to shoot. I have some Remington yellow jacket sitting on my shelf that my auto loaders HATE, that have the wrangler’s name written allllll over them.

Browning Buckmark – I want to love this gun. The trigger feels better out of the box than the Mark IV’s, I feel like it is more accurate. It is also a metal frame gun vs a polymer, so it has a good heft and feel to it. The action feels good. BUT it’s huge downside is the lack of cleaning ability. Seriously go watch some youtube videos on how to clean this gun vs a mark IV… or any other modern gun. It’s a joke. and .22’s are dirty. This gun is too hard to maintain. If you shoot a lot, I would not buy this gun. I really hope they come out with an update like Ruger did that changes nothing about the quality of the gun, just make maintenance easier. I have >500 rounds through it, and it probably won’t get a lot more than that, because I hate cleaning it. it’s really my wife’s gun, and she doesn’t shoot often, so it’s fine for her, I guess.
Update: People HATE me for this one. Some diehard Buckmark fans. I stand by my words, yes you can do some causal cleaning, but I don’t feel like it is adequate. I’ve had some reliability issues with this gun after a thousand + rounds through it. I’ve gotten to where I can clean it OK, but it soured me the first time I tried to take it apart, and I’ve not forgiven it yet. You can hate me all you want, I’m going to ignore your comments, because none of you have shown me how I’m wrong, you just get mad at me. If you have a solid cleaning process that doesn’t require specialty tools, make a video, upload it to youtube and share it with me. A lot of people compare it to earlier Ruger mark versions. Ruger realized the mistake that was and improved the design with the Mark IV, Browning should do the same. If they came out with and updated version that was the same gun, but a simpler takedown, I would absolutely buy it.

Walther P22q (in pink of course) – I got this really for my kids, to have a smaller auto loader for them to shoot with. But it is so much fun to shoot, I find myself taking it out to the range more often than I thought I would. It’s really only downside could be that it might be too small for some people? but it is suppressor capable with an adapter (same one as the colt above), and with its smaller frame size, and shorter barrel, it is less accurate than some of the larger guns (at least for me). I only have about 500 rounds through it right now, but I like it. I don’t love it, but I do like it.
Update: Feelings haven’t changed. Still a great gun. I’ve been taking it on my reliability tests, and I need to stop because it doesn’t care what I put in it, it will toss that led down range. When I tested yellow jackets, an ammo notorious for not working in auto loaders, it ran them without issue, the only gun of 4 I brought with me that day to do so.

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Guns I have gotten rid of:

Heritage rough rider – Cheap .22 revolver. Unless you ONLY have $100 to spend on a gun, I would buy the wrangler over this every day, ESPECIALLY if you plan on shooting it often. If you buy a RR because it has a fun pattern or a 16″ barrel, and you never actually plan on giving it serious range time, that’s what ever, but if you want to actually shoot the gun, the wrangler is the better gun. Sold it and never looked back.

Walther P22 CA – This CA compliant P22 was gifted to my wife on our wedding day by my FIL. I hope it was meant as a joke, or he was just oblivious… (my wife’s family still hates me after 12 years of marriage, so who knows). But I hated this gun. I cannot imagine a gun being more unreliable without bordering on unsafe. It couldn’t get through a mag of rounds without 3-4 failures of some kind… To be fair, I did clean it SUPER good the last time I took it to the range, and i was able to put a couple hundred trouble free rounds through it, but I just couldn’t trust it, so sold it.

Dan Wesson .22 Revolver – This was a beautiful double action Dan Wesson Semi Custom .22 revolver. The problem with it, was that it was just TOO big. It was a massive gun weighing over 3lbs, and as I said before, I am not a revolver guy. My wife loves revolvers but physically could not grip the gun, and so we sold it. With the proceeds we were able to fund the purchase of several other guns Including my wife’s S&W 10-5, my first 22/45, and a couple of other guns. (we got a lot of money for that gun).


-AIC