If some parts of this seem abit off, I have only had a couple hours of sleep, I saw Batman - The Dark Knight this morning for the first showing and it was fantastic, yet let me so sleepy.

Parody Motivator Generator - A great little site that allows you to upload photos, put in a caption, and make a motivational poster. Some of there examples include "Clown Funeral. It's tragically hilarious." I made a few of my own posters here and they are not bad.

---------------------------------

That was a couple months ago before I had a horrible laptop death. The power plug was slightly broken so it wouldn't charge correctly. I got abit frustrated with it and slammed it. Bam! No more power and no more working laptop. Ah well, I am currently saving up for a desktop computer and I will be doing more blog posts when I have one. Something that can do video editing, so I can actually do what I had been planning to do all along in the first place.

Wikipedia - The World's Greatest source of Mis-Information?

Alright, to kick this off I have to put in a small legal disclaimer.

You, yeah you... I've been watching you for some time now. You tend to comment on things that have no relevence in your life and you think that your opinion matters. Well it does matter when you have some fact to base it upon that actually pertains to something. Its time you gave up this charade as a bullshit artist, you can't bullshit. Hell you can't even halfshit. What? Oh Halfshit is when you tell half a lie and the rest is truth. So shut the fuck up, keep your comments to yourself, and stop treating everyone on the net as if they are inferior to your pimply prepubescent face. Ok, ready to learn something?

Its not much of a disclaimer. I'm don't really care if people get offended by the content of my blog, Its to be informative and give a new perspective. If you don't want to be offended go to some of the kiddy blogs where they talk about Teletubbies and Furbys and so on.

Now, Wikipedia as been blamed for several failing grades. Why? Because of two reasons.

1 - Parents are too stupid to teach their kids something valuable as in the payoff of honest research. How good it feels to discover something on your own and not rely on the internet to teach you.

2 - Kids are just plain lazy. Oh yeah I'm talking to you guys. I was a kid once, a fat kid. I did everything I could to get out of everything just so I could go play games. You don't achieve anything in life kids unless you bleed for it.

Here are some fun links. When you read these stories doesn't it just make your head hurt?

Wikio - Scotland - Our Kids are Failing and its all Wiki's fault

CrunchGear - Parents blame Wiki

Technorati: Reactions to CrunchGear story

Now people seem to think that anyone can go onto Wikipedia.org and change any listing of information to suit their purposes. What the hell? It dosen't work that way. Wiki even says it does not work that way. Granted Wikipedia is not 100% accurate, yet they are a hell of alot better then most of the sites out there for information. I have yet to find any false information about things I knew such as Rainbow Trout, Crossbows, Spears, WWII small arms, strangulation, Sex, Bukakke (if you don't know this one, don't find out.) Their information seems to be pretty good, I just think its a matter of "Our kids can't possibly not be learning anything, they can't really suck this bad so we need a scapegoat, oh I know! Wikipedia since Jimmy was on there the other day looking up the word penis." Yeah... I hate people some days.

Well, I'll keep an eye on this as the story develops. I can't wait to see the headline "Wikipedia calls societal downfall, U.S. Government takes military action against web based information source."

A Layman's guide to Crossbow Purchasing - Part 2

Now that you have seen some of what is available on the market for the lower prices, its time to move on to something better. There are three bow manufacturers that stand out above all the others when it comes to Crossbows. The first is Barnett (http://www.barnettcrossbows.com/), They offer both Recurve and Compound crossbows. Their sight is easy enough to navigate yet I found that it never quite gave me all the information I wanted when looking into it. Barnett has some great gear for sale. The second one is Horton (http://www.crossbow.com/) They are the leading manufacturer of compound crossbows in the world. Horton gear is tough, accurate, and some of their products just have that sexy look to them. I would buy a Horton for my next crossbow purchase. Lastly we have my favorite of the big three, Excalibur (http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/). Now I love the Excalibur Crossbows for three big reasons. The first being that they just have a fantastic look to them. Sleek, thin, strong, and lasting. The second being that they are Recurve bows instead of compound. And lastly, Excalibur makes the strongest crossbow on the market and its a Recurve. Their president killed an Elephant with it. Well lets move on to the video section.

-Videos-
1 - Excalibur President kills Bull Elephant with Excalibur Crossbow

2 - Chinese Special Police Unit using Horton Crossbows as main weapon

3 - Sportman's Guide Ad - Horton Ambush Crossbow

4 - Sportman's Guide Ad - Barnett Quad 400

Video 1 was pretty cool, it was the one thing that convinced me I wanted a crossbow. The President of Excalibur goes Bull Elephant hunting and kills an Elephant with one shot from their high end Crossbow. Sure it takes a couple hours to die from the hit but it died none the less. People have offered alot of criticism saying idiotic comments like "Why did you only take a one shot weapon? If you would of hit it in a non vital area it would of hurt the poor animal instead of killed it." Well, If you watch the video, the only man armed with a Crossbow is the Guy holding one. The other guides and men all have rifles. There are also other comments such as hunting is evil (fuck off! No its not!) and the like.

Video 2 is fantastic. I really want a Horton Crossbow now because of it. For me its pretty much the best kind of advertising that makes me want a product. I have heard that Peruvian units are adopting the Crossbow as a kind of silent urban weapon. If you have a unit armed with Crossbows as primary and pistols as secondary, highly trained, then they are a nearly unstoppable force.

Video 3 & 4 are some ads to show you a crossbow in action and give you abit of information on them. As I mentioned in Part 1, I really love Sportman's Guide (Hint hint, I could do your advertising for you, all you need to pay me is gift certificates!) and their prices on the better stuff can't be beat.

Unfortunately when talking about price as a major factor in buying a higher end crossbow, I would have to suggest one go with Horton since their bows tend to be a hundred to a couple hundred less then Excalibur's. If I could afford it, I would buy one of each to test them out and really see what the better deal is. For now I am just content with my Guide Gear 150lb draw bow, launching bolts through my fence and into the trees (Sorry Neighbors if you ever find those tipless bolts that have buried themselves in your garden). That is not to say I am not careful when it comes to shooting. I have a proper backstop and I make sure that there is nothing and no one that can be damaged if I miss and hit it. That having been said let me relate to you the first time I used my Crossbow.

I had not been expecting too much. I knew there would be no recoil. After throwing the bow together I went downstairs to the lawn and strung it using two logs as a brace. Then I pulled back on the string. My first thought was "What the hell?" since it was such a hard thing to pull back on it. The bow really was a l50lb draw. I pulled three or four times never knowing when to stop because I did not know that it would click into place. Eventually it did click into place and I let go of the string. Sweating from the effort I looked at the bolt and placed it into the rail, red fletching down to align the half moon nock with the string. Pushing it all the way back I checked the sight to make sure it was on factory zero setting. Convinced that it was time to fire, I turned to the lawn, took it off safe, and pulled the trigger. The damned thing was faster then I expected. The bolt buried most of itself into the lawn with only the fletchings still above ground. I pulled it out, wiped it off and set about cocking the bow again.

This time my target was the base of the big Chinese Elm tree we have in my back yard. I wanted to shoot where the root structure was. I had accidentally moved the sight settings by bumping it. When I fired it went into the trunk halfway up. I thought I had lost the bolt since I saw something fly off to the right into the neighbor's yard. Walking over to the tree I found the bolt lodged in the trunk about two inches in. The object that had taken flight was bark from the tree. I tried twisting and pulling the bolt out yet it would not come. I had to snap it off and the field tip is still in the tree.

So what did I learn from my first Crossbow experience? These are definatley NOT and I stress NOT toys. I already knew that yet I had no idea about the killing capability of crossbows. After abit more research into it I found that my Model would have trouble doing this, but a Horton or an Excalibur Crossbow can Penetrate a Bullet Proof Vest. Makes me want to test that out. Secondly I found out that the bow is quicker then I anticipated. 210 f.p.s. (feet per second) doesn't seem like much when you are used to shooting rifles that travel at 2600 f.p.s. over ten times faster. Yet as soon as I squeeze the trigger the bolt is pretty much at the target. I have yet to do any shooting over 30 yards. Accuracy has not been an issue for me yet since everything I fire at is close. I really want to dial in my bow so I can do sniper style shots at distances of upto 100 yards.

Now lets look at some of the better bows on the market, and their deals. All of these can be researched or bought at Sportsman's Guide.


The Barnett Predator, Sexy, Beefy, and deadly. 175lb draw delivering 375 f.p.s., You may be asking "Ok Erik, that looks awesome but where is the stirrup?" you are looking at it. The front of the bow is the stirrup, it was specifically designed to be shot through. I would love to have this Crossbow yet my wallet says otherwise. The starting price is $559, Ouch.


Next up we have the Excalibur Exocet 200. It was named after the Missile for good reason. This thing is powerful, fast, accurate, and above all else silent. It has a draw weight of 200lbs which means that since it is a recurve you may need a cocking aid such as a rope draw or a crank device. All this brings the bolt flying at 330 f.p.s. The price tag for such a great Crossbow? $519

Lastly we have the Horton Explorer HD 150. I would choose a scope instead of a red dot sight for this one. I happen to not really trust red dots. You have to have a power source for them and without that power source? It turns into a Useless hunk. So a Scope is the better way to go. As far as I can tell it has a 150lb draw but I don't know for sure. It does launch bolts at 270 f.p.s. And the price? Cheaper at only $399. I like this bow.

Two big things to remember about Crossbows. Recurves are more silent then compounds. The second is that a crossbow has a definate twang when fired yet unless you know what you are hearing, it would just sound like someone coughing from fifty yards off. A silencer on a gun has a specific fire pattern that is easily identified as a silencer.

I hope this guide helped, drop me an e-mail or some comments if you want to know anything more.

A Layman's guide to Crossbow Purchasing - Part 1

After much consideration I decided that I wanted a Crossbow. Not one of your crap Chinese bows that are made from inferior material, Granted they look good yet I just do not trust the quality of these bows. I was about to find out that my final purchase was similar to them. Are they made for hunting or just for target shooting? Granted some of them are pretty accurate but only when you take the time to dial them in and keep consistent shooting patterns. I moved on from these bows rather quickly. I should say that all my weapons training and use has been with Firearms. Mainly rifles and shotguns. I had no idea what I was getting into with Crossbows and none of the videos on Youtube.com helped influence my decision since they really were not all that help full anyways.

So here is my guide to buying a crossbow. There are some basic things you want to know before you do end up purchasing one.

1 - What are you going to do with it? (Target shooting, Minor Hunting, Assaulting an objective in stealth silence?)

2 - How strong do you want it to be (This ties in with #3, but do you want it to kill everything god ever created or do you want it to just be able to penetrate a target at 50 yards?)

3 - How portable do you want it to be? (This ties in with #2 since for strength you sacrifice portability. Do you want something compact or do you want something big?)

4 - What is your Budget? (I recommend at least $125 U.S.D. to start)

5 - What are your state laws if you are going to hunt with a crossbow? (Check out Hunter's Friend - State Crossbow Hunting Regulations for US & Canada to find out what your State considers legal. Utah sucks!)

Those are the five key points in making a crossbow purchase. Now I wish I had thought about it more. I love my crossbow but I can not hunt anything legaly in Utah with it. So now I am searching for a great deal on a compound bow. I love the whole archery deal more then my firearms at the moment and I really want to take some game with a bow for food and sport. Anyways... moving on lets look at some good crossbows.

Now this is what I call the Generic Crossbow Version 1. Version 2 is in the first photo in this posting. The only difference between the two versions is that 1 is wood stock and 2 is fiberglass stock with a lighter butt stock. A lot of different places list this under a different name so I just went with Generic. Its good looking and has power, but I don't know how accurate it is and personally I have rifles that look like this already I don't need a Crossbow this way. Ebay sells a lot of them ranging in price from 50$ to 100$. If you do buy anything crossbow wise from Ebay remember to look at the shipping! That can rape you.




Next up we have a lovely model that I wanted to buy for months. I almost did except when I had the money, no store had them in stock for a decent price. This little bundle of fun is made by Barnett Crossbows and is known as the Panzer V. Impressive look, specifications, and if you spend abit extra you get a good package with a Red dot sight and an under bow quiver. The thing is sexy and all black. Too bad I did not end up buying it, I bet it would of been great. What I did get however I love.

Now you might be asking yourself "Wait a minute, We've seen three bows now and there have been no Compound bows. What the hell? Compound bows are the wave of the future and the way to go!" If you aren't, well you were going to ask yourself that question eventually. Perhaps. Ok so probably not. I don't much like compound bows, or rather did not until I did some research on them and found that they have a couple more disadvantages over recurve crossbows, yet all in all they are the better deal. I did not list any compound bows in the first part of this guide because it is about the cheaper better bows on the market that you can buy. I stress do not purchase a crossbow for under 100$, they have 100lb draw compound NCSTAR bows on ebay with fishing gear setup. Those are pieces of shit. Worthless scrap metal hunks. Most of what NCSTAR makes is worthless, except my spotting scope, I do like that bit of kit. Anyways, moving on...

Next we have a Folding Crossbow! Wait... what? A crossbow that folds? What is to prevent it from folding when you need it most? Probably some cheap plastic or pot metal clips. Granted the idea does sound cool when you first think about it. A crossbow that folds up to save space and you can impress your friends by making it unfold in a cool way. Yet practicality sets in and you start to realize that its a very unnecessary addition to a weapon that has been around since ancient China. Not to mention that the stock is rather odd looking and the grip can't feel that good in your hand. Another downside is that there is no listed Manufacturer so its technically Generic Crossbow #3, now with Kung-Fu Folding Action! HI YAW! Don't be fooled by this one either. On ebay there are variations with non folding limbs that claim to be 180lb draw. There is no crossbow that looks like this that has a 180lb draw. They are all 120lb crossbows. The only reason they claim to have a 180lb draw is because the model number on the box is 180. I hate false advertising and in this situation it pays to do your research, or at least it pays to have me do your research for you.


The last one was a big consideration of mine until the Barnett Panzer V won out with sheer awesomeness. (Ok so I lied, I do have one compound crossbow on this page but its a pretty low end one.) This one is by Horton, another established name in Crossbows. It is known as the Trac 150. They claim it has a Stealth Black color... well, kinda all black is stealthy. So I don't really know what is so special about their claim. It has compound gears which is still a downside to me. I prefer the classic look. The stock reminds me of a cheap Chinese knockoff of an AK-47 synthetic stock and the grip looks like it would work well but I imagine that my palm would get unusually sweaty after handling it half a day. It reminds me of the grip on a Hi-Point 9mm Carbine before I bought the ATI stock for it.

The last crossbow I will show you is the one I purchased. The plastic tips for the string broke after several uses but they were easy to find replacements for and I just love the look of it. This is the Guide Gear 150lb recurve crossbow from Sportsman's Guide.
I have been shopping with them for two years now and I have never had a problem with anything purchased. The two final factors in my decision to buy this crossbow over any of the others I had seen were this. 1 - Parts, I knew this was a generic crossbow that had been custom modified to fit what Sportsman's Guide wanted for their Guide Gear selection. If the limbs or string broke I could easily replace them. If anything happened to the mechanics of the crossbow I could easily find new fittings. 2 - Trusted retailer. I had made many purchases through Sportsman's guide and they seemed the logical choice to go through.

The Bow came with four bolts and I bought an additional four. The price tag was only around 120$ for everything. It came in a box and I took the pieces out. with minor assembly I had it ready to go. Now there is one big thing that I never knew about before and no one ever told me. Remember you need WAX for a bowstring. Important for one that is made in the Flemish style with synthetic fibers. I took about ten shots with the bow and did not wax it, no problems yet I found out about waxing the string and went to look for some. At Sportman's Warehouse I found some wax that works perfectly. Now you can get it at Sportman's Guide (the two businesses have no connection. Guide is strictly online) but I chose to opt for immediate purchase in person instead of waiting another week for it. Here is a link on the wax I use. Tex-Tite Bowstring Wax.
My Crossbow shoots great so far, I have yet to put it through any real accuracy test. It is a great starter bow and now I know what to do with them. Look for part 2 coming in a couple days, I will have linked video and more advanced information on Crossbow purchasing.

The first of many (perhaps)

Well, My name is Erik William Healy and this is my blog sponsored by my company North Rain Productions. We don't really produce anything at North Rain except the soothing sound of nature's fury as it kills thousands of Humans each year in the pursuit of taking back the planet. Sounds fun? Well we are all about fun. And information, Imagine that professor you had in history. You know the one. The guy that would make you fall asleep just by uttering a single syllable. We are not that man. We are the guy that comes in forty minutes late with a surfboard and a tan line. We smile to the class and use bad words such as Bra for Bro and Du for Dude. Then after ten minutes we tell you about this big octopus we saw that totally went after Dunston but he's ok bra like it totally shot its hentai tentacles out of the water after Dunston man but he like jumped away on his board and du you had to be there because D and the beast battled it out man. It was like 1988 and Kauai all over again bra!

Yeah, we are that guy... please just kill us.

Here is an interesting flag I found on deviantart.com that I rather liked.


Now I don't have any Fin blood in me but I do like the language and its similarities to tribal languages as well as their culture, their landscape, and most of all their flag. My father served an LDS mission in Norway from 1959 - 1962 and he fell in love with every thing in that part of the world. I always wanted to go to Finland yet I never had the money and I hear that they are quite hospitable. After I make it to Japan in 2009 perhaps I should jump over the pole to Finland for fun. Do they have nude beaches there? No idea really. I really like the coloring and the patterns on this flag. I want one of these hanging in my room. It seems random with the tribal style work, why is it not centered? Who knows but I love this flag none the less.

Thats it for now.