Pardon Me

I did not see you standing there.  I do apologize for that.  Yes, I know I said I would keep up with this, but like all new (old?) routines... sometimes they take some work getting into.  But as you can see, I am a little more vigilant than I have been over the past...well years. 

Yesterday I ordered some clips for paracord bracelets and I also did a quick little review of some cord for a site I recently purchased from.  Well that got me to thinking that I have not done a full on review of the two companies I have bought my recent cord and supplies from.  As I sit here not at home, I can not take pictures of the cord I have, but I can dig up some photos I shared on Facebook over the past month or so.  As well as take a photo or two of the bracelet I am wearing right now. 

So to get into this, I recently purchased paracord and clips from Bored?Paracord!  as well as just cord from Paracord Planet (from their eBay store.  I got some really good prices on auctions) .  We will start with Bored?Paracord! first as I got my supplies from them first. 

Until I got this cord in, I had some old O.D. cord left over from years ago working at the Army/Navy and I had picked up some at Dicks, as well as a pre-made bracelet so I could see how they were made.  So my initial comparison was, to old used cord and some cheap stuff.  So I first though this cord is great!  I later learned it is only so-so.  But that is not to say it is terrible.  After I got my cord in from Paracord Planet and saw and felt the difference did I realize, I will not be ordering from Board?Paracord! again.  B?P!'s cord is a lot thinner and softer than PP's cord is.

O.D. Cord from Quints days

I really like the feel of the heavy cord from PP.  Its makes me think it will be much more reliable if I ever need to use it in an actually survival situation.  BUT that being said the softer thinner cord from B?P! is much easier to work with when doing a project with more than three colors.  It is defiantly easier to weave and being softer, it is much easier on the hands when pulling your weaves tight.  I found my first finger on each hand got a bit of "rope burned" after doing a large project with PP's cord, and not nearly as sore after doing a similar project with B?P! cord. 

Also from B?P!, was the color I dig the most.  I got 100' of mint green cord.  I must say, this color is awesome.  It looks great pared with several colors, and seeing as I really dig green, I will be using this color a lot.  I plan on making a dog collar for Oliver with it this weekend (I've put it off for a while now because He is wearing his Halloween color now, but that is going to change after Friday).

Mint and Grey from B?P!

NOW for one of the most important part of making a bracelet, the clip!  Yes, you can make them without a plastic/nylon clip, but I prefer the clip to a loop and ball.  The ball seems to be to thick under my wrist while typing and digging into my pocket for keys, chap stick, etc.  So the only clips I have now are from B?P!  And I must say I am not to happy with them.  Remember me talking about how much I dig that mint green color?  Well the first bracelet I made was with that great color (see above).  The clip was so bad after I made it (and the bracelet came out great by the way) I thought I was going to have to take it apart because the clip "broke" after a day or so.

The male and female ends did not want to line up correctly (and that seems to be the case with most of the clips I have). 

But this one, would get stuck after it was closed.  It would not want to open back up.  So now, I had the bracelet stuck on my wrist.  I actually needed to grab a Leatherman to pry it apart.  So I kept on wearing it and opening it and closing it for a few days.  It finally "wore in" I suppose.  It is made of plastic or nylon (the site did not specify which) so it was only a matter of time before it broke completely or what ever it was getting hung up on wore out.  So I rolled the dice. 

Why not just take it apart and re-make it with a new clip you ask?  Because then it would be shorter and I didn't want to waist any of this great color.  You see you cut and melt the ends to keep it from coming apart after it is made.  Any way, the rest of the buckles I seem to work better than this one.  Lucky for me, I have more buckles on order from PP.  I'll see how they work out.

A little blurry, but the cut melted ends.

One other thing I am noticing as I am trying to take photos of the bracelet I am wearing right now is the bit of fraying.  Both colors on this bracelet are from B?P!  and it seems to not be wearing very well.  I'll do my best to get shot of the little fly away's, but this here iPhone doesn't want to focus in on them.  It is not terrible, but these bracelets are suppose to be practical and usable. and if they are fraying a bit after such little wear, what would this cord look like if it was actually being used in a survival situation?  Not to sure.  Guss I'll be packing PP cord in my hiking bag. 

Moving on.... The cord I purchased from Paracord Planet is great.  It feels much sturdier.  More like military spec cord.  I highly recommend the cord from these guys.  If you want a good deal, hope on over to the Bay and look up Outdoor Bunker.  That is PP's eBay store.  I got some really good deals on cord.  I did bid on it, so you might have to wait a few days for the auction to end.  But I got several 100' bundles of cord for like $3 each and I got a bunch more for no more than $6.

Two examples of two color bracelets made with PP cord.

Not an eBay user?  No worries they have great deals on their website all the time.  And they do giveaways on their Facebook page once a week or more.  I will be doing most of my business with PP from now on.  My only real qualm with them was stated above.  And that was the bit of rope burn pulling some of my weaves tight and the bulkiness when doing 3 or more colors.  Getting use to the burn is as easy as working with cord more.  It will more or less build up calluses on my hands (seeing as this was an activity my hands were not custom to doing).  And to get over the bulkiness, I mix in an accent color from BP to keep the bracelet from being to bulky on my wrist.  The longer sections of cord I try and keep PP in case I ever need to take a bracelet apart and use it in any situation. 

OK, I am sure you are tired of hearing about paracord, but I wanted to get that out of the way. 

That is all, carry on. 

And I Can Take a Breath

So after I talk about how I am going to be more diligent and keep up with this blog, I then failed you all.  In my defense I had almost zero time.  You see it is trade show season!  That probably means nothing to you, and you are lucky it does. So let me elaborate a tad on what that means to me.

Well it means HELL for about a month.  This year was a little easier on me, as I did so much work last year I was able to re-work some sections and use them again.  But normally I start creating graphics and layouts for several video sections from scratch.  Once they are created, I then make countless patches, changes and updates to the various sections.  This means a lot of late nights, stress and screaming vulgarities at my computer. 

BUT.. now I can breath for a few days because the trade show is happening now, and all my work is done.  This does not mean I won't get an irate phone call telling me I need to make something new right away and stay really late to overnight it in the AM for early morning delivery; but it also doesn't mean that that will happen either.  So I can take a slight breath for a few days.  All this before I have to gear up to re-shoot what I spent all summer working on.  But that is a tail for another day.

Now I get to talk about how I am wearing jeans to work for a week and I didn't even have to donate $10!  Yes the one benefit of the trade show is, we get to dress down for a week for "all our hard work."   So hear I sit wearing jeans and my standard western shirt typing away, watching the minutes creep by.

Man this day is dragging on.  It seems it will never end. Hell I don't even feel like it began yet.  I might need more sleep, more coffee or a goo long run to burn off what ever is making my tummy hurt.

I have something planed for tomorrows blog.  I hope I have time to take photos for it tonight.  I really don't have anything else to say today.  My brain is still fried from last week.

That is all, carry on.

YES!

I'll just leave this right here. 

That is all, carry on. 

Para What????

That is the question I have been asked a lot lately.  I thought people know what paracord was.  I guess all those years working at the Army/Navy store ingrained it into my head, but not everyone else I know.  So I shall let you know what it is before we move on any further. 

Paracord, or 550 cord, is short for Parachute Cord.  You know, those things people jump out of planes with attached to their backs.  It is part of the rigging, that consist of  7 inner strands with a tensile strength adding up to 550 lbs.  Hence the term 550 chord.  There is commercial grade paracord and military grade cord.  I will not go any further than that, as I am sure I am losing your interest.  If not, click on that link up there to read more about it.

OK.  I have always been kind of interested in paracord and it many, many, many uses.  Recently on a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods I saw 30 ft of cord for sale for $6.  Thinking that was an OK price I bought some for the first time in YEARS.  ($6 for 30 feet of commercial grade cord is a rip off). I had always had some laying around from The Store, and found is super useful in hiking, camping, making zipper pulls and what not.  But I was almost out!  Along side the bundle of cord were paracord survival bracelets.  You have probably seen them around.  They got big a year or two ago, but they were always expensive, so I never bought one.  I always wanted to make one, but never bothered to learn how.  That was about to change.

I picked up one orange bracelet and 30 ft of neon green cord. It was on!  I got home and Googled How To videos and Instructabls, and found a world of awesome things to make!  One of which was a bottle holder.  There are 100 ways (or more) to make everything.  As I didn't have enough cord or the proper clasps yet to make the versions of things I relly wanted to try, I gave some simpler versions a shot first.

I had to start someplace anyway.  Why not dip my toes in the shallow end first.  I found some white and O.D, cord I had laying around and made a few things to start off with.  Once I got going it was pretty dang easy.  After some stumbles, I got the hang of it and hopped on the interwebs to order some more supplies.  The first round came in yesterday.

I am not super happy with the quality of the paracord I got from Bored? Paracord!  But the colors I got are nice.  And they yielded me this:

Mint and grey cord fused together.

I also purchased some Fids from Jig Pro Shop.  they worked great.  I could not have made my Leatherman case without them (forgot to take a picture of my case).  The quality on the Fids was great!

I have some more cord on order from Paracord Planet.  Lets see how that works out.  The cord from Bored? Paracord! frayed very baddy as soon as I gutted it.  It was hard to fuse two colors together, as all the cord wanted to do was fray.  Next time I will gut and knot the ends if possible.

OK, enough about paracord!  If you are interested in making your own, or want anything made let me know! 

That is all, carry on.

Adam the Who?

Soooo, for a few weeks now I have been checking out Adam the Woo's videos.  I find him to be very entertaining.  I now follow his instagram too! So who is Adam the Woo you ask?  Well that is a very good question. 

Adam the Woo is a man with the adventurous spirit.  He hails from Florida, but travels around the country in his van (and some times by plane).  He tours with the band Guttermouth from time to time and he is always filming!  He does both the Adam the Woo and The Daily Woo YouTube channels.

Adam the Woo is the longer of the two channels.  He explores old abandoned places, shows you  road side attractions and movie filming locations.  This being one my my favorite abandoned videos:


The Daily Woo is just as you would expect it to be. A daily Vlog post about, well anything Adam is near to tell is about.


He might not be for everyone, but I figured I would share for video Fridays.

That is all, carry on.

My Appologies

I do sinisterly apologize for my lack in blogging over the past... well the pas years.  I always mean to gt back at this, then I get lazy or get wrapped up in something else.  Today I moseyed on over to the Meepers DOT net and saw I have not typed words here sense January.  Well that was terrible.  So I am making a resolution to get back at this.

There was a time when I would religiously do a blog, now I have become the grumpy man sitting on his porch yelling at the neighborhood kids.  OK, OK, OK.  I don't even sit on my porch much these days for fear the neighborhood kids won't leave me alone! 

I try to play some guitar, read a book or just hang out with Oliver, and I am not left alone.  I go in the back yard and I am constantly asked "Do you need help with that?"  "Can I help you?"  No I do not need help sitting in the grass petting my dog.  No I do not need help putting The Meepers away.  And for the ONE MILLIONTH TIME!  I enjoy cutting my grass, I do not need you to do it for me.

Now that we have that out of the way, how are you all fine folks of the interetubes doing?  I always talk about myself, but I never ask how you are doing.  You are doing great!  Well that in turn is great!  I am glad to hear it.  You are preparing for winter... already?  It was a fine morning out there.  No need to talk about tiny temperatures and that evils of FOUR letter words "Snow."

I'll steer us clear of that type of talk and get us back to what really matters...ME!  And what I have planned for this blog.  I am going to try and get back to Video Fridays as well as do reviews when I get something new to review.  I will link up to my always loved (insert creepy voice here) Yelp Reviews when they have been done.  And I do have a back log of those to take care of.  Starting next week I want to try and knock one out a day or at least every other.  I might try out Vlogs.  I will post here and host on my YouTube channel.

And as always all the random things I see, think of, or get on my nerves!  Now to get this back to the glory it once was!

That is all, carry on.