SHOT Show is an Industry-Only trade show, not open to the general public. The only way to get access to the expo floors is with a SHOT Show badge. Companies like Geissele triggers give out free badge holders as swag. But at the Leapers/UTG I came across a super deluxe badge holder and opens into an Admin pouch with plentiful pockets for business cards, pens, and velcro flap for moral patches.
The smart SHOT attendee will head to the Caesar’s Forum Expo on the first day so that they can score a UTG badge holder before they all get snapped up.
Category Archives: Travel
Daiso Disposable Panties
I saw these while shopping at Daiso, a Japanese discount “dollar” store chain. But I have to wonder who are these for? I can kind of understand that if you are traveling on multiple long flights and can’t wash and dry your clothes. For hygene, you need to change your underwear and if you have an accident, you may want to dispose of soiled clothes.
I understand if you don’t want to feel bad about tossing expensive panties. But Daiso also sells low-quality cotton panties for $1.50 each. They’re thin and low quality, so they are essentially disposable because they probably won’t last more than a few months or weeks.
One would need to be an extreme penny pincher to prefer wearing an uncomfortable pair panties to save $1.20. Who do you think these disposable panties appeals to?
OP: Bad Blood 2023
I produced another successful Operation: Bad Blood airsoft event at EMR Event Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Over 600 players signed up for the event, fewer than last year due to inflation many opting out due to June thunderstorms. There was a down pour on Friday afternoon and rain through the night which made me fear a huge no-show for the following days game. As it turned out over 570 players showed up to play by the morning briefing; this despite a morning rain shower.
The rains were welcome as there were no serious heat related injuries this year. The game ran non-stop all day, with the players forming 4 different competing factions and non-aligned Tribal forces warring it over 200 acres of woods, multi-leveled forts, and simulated villages. The objective of the game for the factions was to collect up to eight different blood sample stamps hidden in the field and on the person of each faction commander.
A bonus mission this year was the capture and extraction of my niece who played a CDC Research Scientist who’s medical convoy was destroyed and needed to be evacuated to safety. A Marxist squad was the first to locate her in Fort Wor and ran off with her into the woods and back canyon. They weren’t seen again until nearly an hour later and were able to get her to her “chopper” and score a bonus which pushed their faction into a tie for second place by the end of the game.
The final score was Greens 1st (6 stamps); Deus-X and Marxists 2nd (5 stamps); Black Shirts 3rd (3 stamps)
After all the players exited the field and recovered, they gathered around the EMR stage for the legendary post-Bad Blood raffle. Each player received a complimentary raffle ticket and over the course of nearly an hour we raffled off over 20 AEGs, pistols, plate carriers, weapon lights, gift cards, and accessories supplied by Evike.com, Jackal Tactical, Amped Airsoft, O-Light, and EMR.
The next morning, I organized a bonus game of OP: Dead Blood, a zombie game. Over 200 die-hard players spread out around Tipmon Town and competed against each other to find bio-hazard declas. As players were killed they added to the ever-growing zombie hoard which swamped all the players after nearly an hour of intense play. The rest of the Sunday, EMR ran skirmish games for everyone.
Help find a cure for diabetes by supporting the JDRF: https://www2.jdrf.org/site/Donation
Norshire Digital Tire Pressure Gauge
I needed a new tire gauge when my car was ransacked and my emergency tool bag was stolen from my car in front of our home in San Francisco. While surfing through Amazon, the Norshire caught my eye. This digital tire gauge is as thin as a pen.
When I got it, the package was scarcely larger than the product itself. The instructions were printed in minuscule lettering outside of the box obscured by a stuck-on UPC inventory label. Fortunately it proved easy to figure out.
The Norshire looks a 2000’s minimalist modern, black-on-black, squared plastic tube, reminiscent of a fancy fountain-pen or draftsman ruling-pen. It has a circular black button next to a black LCD screen. Pressing the button activates the system and tapping cycles through metric, Bar, and PSI settings. The unit also displays ambient temperature and air pressure.
It has powered by a single AAA NiMH battery which can be recharged through a USB-C port. One end of the gauge has black raised nub to use as a tire deflater. The other end, with a red rubber washer, pushes into a tires Schrader valve to measure the pressure.
The Norshire proved to be accurate. Comparing it against my car’s onboard tire sensors and to the analogue gauge of my tire inflator, the Norshire returned consistent readings which aligned with my other sources. And unlike any other pressure gauge I’ve ever used, the Norshire had such a good seal that I scarcely heard the hiss of any leaking air while pressing onto the tire’s valve.
The Norshire hovers around $15-19 on Amazon and I plan to purchase a few more when the price dips, as a backup and they would make great holiday stocking stuffers.
This is available on Amazon through my Affiliate link https://amzn.to/3oKh2Yh
OP: Bad Blood Rules
Operation Bad Blood is a MilSim-Lite game with unique game rules designed to support an immersive experience. This video helps explain those rules to visual and auditory learners for whom a printed rule packet is TLDR. I strongly encourage all participants at this event to download the player packet from the Evike ticket page and follow along to this explainer video.
Key Rules Concepts
- Body, clothing, gear, and gun hits count.
- When hit, get out of the line of fire, then wave a red rag.
- After calling your hit, go to your Triage to respawn.
- The Triage/Respawn moves with your army so keep tabs its location.
- The goal of your team is to safely get your Ebola sample collectors to each sample stamp.
- The game is a 5-hour non-stop moving battle; prepare accordingly.
Join OP:Bad Blood 2023
Operation: Bad Blood is an annual JDRF charity airsoft event that I created to raise money to help find a cure for diabetes. The game is produced at EMR Event Park in Pennsylvania and is also the official East Coast Customer Appreciation Event for Evike.com. The event attracts 1000 players from all over the country.
My dedicated staff of volunteers help me plan and execute the event every year. We’ll be starting weekly Sunday Q&A Livestreams to help players get the most out of the event. I posted this video to answer some basic questions about our gun and gear requirements for the event. The biggest change for this years game will be a switch from FPS chrono measurements to Joule based limits.
Be sure to subscribe Moondog Go my new travel channel on YouTube to get notified of our upcoming videos. https://www.youtube.com@moondoggo
TICKETS
https://www.evike.com/products/108249/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/343065087856288
EMR Camping Reservations
Alcatraz Prison
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary is one of San Francisco’s most infamous and most visited tourist attractions. Yet, in all the years I’ve lived in San Francisco or visited San Francisco, I’d never gone to Alcatraz. Until now.
After it was closed in 1963 Alcatraz became a museum administered by the National Parks Service. The only way to visit island is via a commercial ferry service from Pier 33 near San Francisco’s Fishermans Wharf district. Entry to the Prison’s various museums and audio tour are included with the ferry ticket price.
The ferry has a snack bar and food for sale but no food or beverages are available on Alcatraz island. No food or drink is allowed to be consumed within the Prison museum but you can consume food and drinks onboard the ferry or at the dock waiting area on the island. In front of the Pier 33 entrance, there are numerous street food vendors vending sausages and hot dogs.
Arriving on the island, we disembarked on the dock which has restroom facilities, information displays, and a gift shop. There are Park Service Rangers who give talks at various times and locations on the island. Visitors can choose to follow these rangers or explore on their own. I and the majority of visitors chose the later.
Walking up the main road from the dock up to the prison, you pass through administration buildings, staff barracks, and facilities, some of which date from when Alcatraz was a coastal fort. Civil War era coastal battery canons are on display in various parts of the park. It is a reasonable walk uphill to the prison but those with disabilities can take a free tram up to the prison.
The prison’s former laundry building has been converted into a museum hall containing an exhibit on the 1969 occupation of the island by Nativist protestors. Their protest graffiti is still present (or reproduced) throughout the park on signage and on the island water tower.
In a morbid reminder, on the walk up to the former Maximum Security Federal Penitentiary, all visitors must pass the prison’s Morgue, a small building just outside of the main prison complex. Entering the prison, all visitors enter a large intake room where everyone is issued a complimentary headset and a digital audio player to listen to an Audio Tour.
The audio tour was well-produced and informative. It was narrated by guards and former prisoners of Alcatraz who gave personal insights as to life in the prison. Sound effects and ambient sounds created an immersive experience. The only issue was a poor user interface and faulty equipment maintenance that didn’t allow me to reliably pause, rewind and forward sections of the audio.
The prison interior was creepy and oppressive in a way that only old run-down brutalist 20th-century buildings. I knew prison cells were small but the 5ft x 5ft cells looked even smaller in real life. Most of the cells were closed to the public except for “The Hole”, the isolation cells in D-block where rule violators were sent as punishment.
The most unsettling part of the whole prison tour was at the end: the gift shop. The large gift shop was filled with Alcatraz logo wear, replica eating utensils, and table wear. Why anybody would want to make another human’s incarceration, even if that human was a criminal, something to “enjoy” in their home is disturbing.
Doogee 65W Wall Charger
I was looking for a compact travel USB charger that could not just charge my phone but also charge my kid’s Nintendo Switch and if needed also charge my wife’s Macbook Pro. 65W is plenty for most devices including the every model of iPad and Macbook Air but the challenge is that a 15″ 2019 Macbook Pro uses a 85W charger.
Fortunately Doogee sent me a 65W compact charger to try out. This charger features folding outlet prongs, 2 USB-C ports, and a USB-A port. And it does this in a relatively thin 1.25″ wide footprint to the socket, so it can be placed next to another plug on a typical powerstrip without blocking the neighboring sockets by its girth.
Testing on my devices, the charger easily charged my Samsung S21+ phone and Nintendo Switch. Plugging it into a 15″ Macbook Pro, it drew an 40-47W easily below the 65W max of the charger. While below the recommended Macbook power adapter performance specs, this should do in a pinch if we should run low on battery but need to send out that one last email or upload a needed project file.
This charger is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Rstl4A
Sunwayfoto TT2340CE Tripod
When I was offered a travel tripod by SunwayFOTO, I wasn’t expecting more than another clone Chinesium tripod that would likely last long before some screw stripped itself. What I got was a feather light carbon fiber tripod that impressed me.
This tripod comes in a black velvet pouch containing the folded and collapsed tripod and a plastic pouch containing four Allen wrenches (to tighten screw joints which work their way loose over time) and a cleaning cloth. While the velvet was probably meant to make it feel high end and protect the parts, it does make for a dust magnet.
The tripod weighed in at 1.67 oz on my scale and that includes the metal ballhead! The overall length when collapsed was barely 14″. Technically I’ve used lighter tripods but these were mini-tripods or accessory tripods; not real photo tripods that you could mount a full sized DSLR and telephoto lens with any confidence or stability, and certainly not at eye level. Fully extended, the tripod stands at 52″ in height, perfectly standard.
The ball head has a slight divot cut in the ARCA QR mount to make room for the tripod foot to rest in it, making the tripod just few millimeters smaller. Levers were used instead of twist heads for added torque on locking joints. These little design details make the SunwayFOTO stand out as a cut above typical tripods. As does it’s price, which is a around $220 as of this writing, so not as expensive as some higher-end carbon fiber tripods; it’s certainly not cheap.
The leg segments lock and unlock with a 180º twist at the feet. They utilize an internalized locking mechanism without individual locking rings at the segments, so extra care needs to be made if you attempt to retract an individual leg or segment, as twisting the outermost segment can transfer torque and unlock the previous segment. This makes adjustments on uneven surfaces tedious but this also makes deployment on normal level surfaces extremely fast.
I was able to unfold and depoly the tripod in under 19 seconds pretty much the first time without rushing it. And the leg extension and locking can be done essentially one handed. This makes this tripod ideal for guerrilla-style shooting where you have to get into position fast, get your footage an go.
The light weight, fast deployment, and compact size make this an ideal travel tripod or live event vlogging tripod. This will surely be my go-to tripod for my range videos and I’ll be sure to give those leg locks a thorough durability test in the near future.
This is available on Sunwayfoto’s website. Use this link and get 5% off using code: MOONDOG
https://sunwayfoto-store.com/?ref=pwwCNnfb
Sanag Multi-Adapter Powerbank
Anybody who has been out on a trip or stuck on location knows the utility of a powerbank to keep your devices running when you can’t plug in to recharge. But if you’ve ever forgotten to bring the correct cable for your device, knows the frustration of that moment. Thankfully there are powerbanks that come with built in charging cables and this Sanag is one of the most versatile in that respect.
I was sent a Sanag 10,000mAh travel powerbank to test and evaluate. It comes with 4 built-in cables: USB-A, Apple Lightning (iOS), Micro USB, and USB-C. The unit can charge up to 4 devices simultaneously using its various cables and plugging an additional cable to its USB-A port.
The cables are designed to fold almost flush into the shell. The shell is of the unit is black plastic with a unique faux brushed metal texture. This is both aesthetically appealing as well as practical as it provides a high-friction surface for a firm hand hold.
To recharge the unit, there is a Micro USB port next to the unit’s power button or you can plug its built-in USB-A cable to a standard USB port on a wall charger, computer, or charger hub. I discharged the unit and recharged it overnight. I recorded a total charge of 8156mAh to reach 100%, while this is approximately 1844mAh short of its stated 10k capacity, I suspect this is a safety shut-off on the unit, to keep the device from completely discharging.
This is available on Amazon through my Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3dgDX7N