A Somewhat Bass-Ackwards Introduction

     I suppose, in hindsight, I should’ve introduced myself prior to my first blog post– but it’s just my way.  I used to study math that way, too.  I’d go the the back of the text to see what the course was really all about, then work my way forward from there.  At any rate, not the first time I’ve done something oddly.

     Nancy graciously asked awhile back if I’d be interested in blogging here on G.V.B.  Having never officially blogged before, I took it as an enjoyable challenge and look forward to (hopefully) creating some good content for the site.

So here’s me:

     I’m not a “gun nut,” but I really like guns.  I appreciate them from an aesthetic and mechanical standpoint.  I love the challenge and discipline of being able to shoot well with anything from a new HK pistol to a sporting shotgun to a 100-year-old military-surplus rifle.  Good design and good art are closely related.  If something seems right, it probably is.  There is as much beauty and functional appeal in a hand-engraved bespoke shotgun like the Holland and Holland ”Sporting” over/under as there is in a purpose-built US Navy Mk. 12 SPR, or in the elegantly-simple Glock 19.  All good.

     I consider myself, as an old friend of mine used to say, “a well-armed pacifist.”  Reading my first blog, it’s fairly evident that I didn’t really get into shooting frequently or owning firearms until fairly recently.  Certainly I’m more left-leaning that many of my peers, which will probably come out in my posts and in my blogs, as they progress.  Realistically, I suppose my ideology is very much that of the conservative/liberal fence sitter.  The way I see it, the only way you can keep an eye on what the nutcases on both sides are doing is to take a high vantage point somewhere near the middle.  Yes, it’s true, kids, not all liberal-esque types want to take away the guns.

The stuff I do, have done, or have seriously considered doing sort of goes like this:  Defying the natural order my making large chunks of heavier-than-air contraption fly through the sky.  Searching out, disassembling, de-cosmolining (I really love the smell) in a dark-art sort of way, reassembling, and shooting all sorts of old military rifles- many of which group nicely at 100 yards or more.  Scraping my knuckles and cursing repeatedly while dismantling, re-mantling, then riding German and Italian motorcycles.  Strangely obsessing over British automobiles that simply Refuse To Comply.  Taking what seem like normal people to disturbing heights and allowing them to leap from, if not perfect, at least a reasonably good airplane.  Studying literature, culinary arts, religion, writing, marine biology, law, philosophy, aerodynamics, engineering, architecture, several languages, and more than a couple of oddly-entertaining scientific theories (and trying to unify all of it into one personal system).  ”Zen-ing up” my life and trying to live more simply and happily.

So, ’nuff to say that I appreciate the opportunity.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy.  Let me know if you do.  Let me know if you don’t.  Hope enjoy the G.V.B. site as much as I have so far.