Wednesday night random thoughts.
--So apparently a pretty funny spare actor named Daniel von Bargen decided to check out, and shot himself in the temple with a .38 , only to find that it didn't work. Still alive and now blind, the guy called 911 and summoned help. This confounds me. First, because all the news reports reference his work in Seinfeld rather than in Malcolm In The Middle, but second, because the guy had to put down his gun, find his phone (he was blinded by the shot) and call 911, and then wanted them to come help him. Amazing. He had been unhappy about needing some toes amputated, before. I would not have guessed that he would find life more worth living after having caused brain damage through a failed suicide attempt. Huh. I'm not trying to make the case that he should have just shot himself again; I'm merely pointing out that the logic that had him shoot once would seem to me to induce a second shot. Perhaps he didn't have a second round chambered? Interesting.
--Well-cooked lentils are worth eating. Seriously.
--I have to evaluate what best plan to use to bolster my mom's fence against my brother's dog that he's leaving there. She's my next door neighbor. I don't want to have to chase the damned hound whenever it gets out. This means some work today. And money. I'm thinking about buying an Invisible Fence setup and running the wire along on the fence with staple gun.
--Why don't we standardize the buttons on the device that we swipe our credit cards or debit cards in? The questions are always different. The soft keys are in different places. One machine says: "Your total is $25.81*. Is this okay? Push 'YES' if you wish to proceed." The next machine says: "Your total is $25.81. Do you want cash back? Push 'YES' if so." And so on and so forth. Look. I just want to swipe the card, get my receipt, and go. Why am I having to look at each proprietary system? When I get into another manual transmission vehicle that I've not driven before, I don't need to study on the fact that the accelerator is on the right, the brake is in the middle, and the clutch is on the left. Can't we just standardize these things?
--It was 80 degrees today.
--My shift partner and best work friend is leaving to go to another agency soon. I have cracked the ice and permitted him to see this blog. It's kind of fun finally letting someone from work know about this thing. He's sworn to secrecy, and I know that he won't tell. He's a great guy.
--There is some evidence that I've been burning the candle from both ends. I don't buy it, though. I've been pretty lazy.
--What's your experience with the durability and corrosion resistance with the firearms finish known as "French Gray?"
--I'm going back to sleep. Need to bank it for the weekend. I should actually be working on my take-home test on Homeland Security.
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*Note: This is the root of all evil.
posted by Matt G @ 1:47 AM
12 Comments:
Yeah, those @#^&* machines are enough to piss one off... sigh
I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for Mr. Daniel Von Bargen. I had my whole leg amputated just below my left knee, and at NO time did I want to "end it all". I was in a wheelchair for a complete year before I got a prosthetic leg. I suffered. I had incredible pain after amputation.
I got through it.
Now, unless I tell you, or show you the leg, no one can tell. And he was afraid of losing some TOES?
Sorry. I'll stop ranting now.
Maybe he damaged the part of his brain that made the decision to shoot.
If I were to mentally project myself in the same position, I might find myself sufficiently panicked by being blind and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head to be shocked out of a resolve to kill myself and into "Oh my god I need help RIGHT NOW".
Alternatively, there's a dark but not entirely inaccurate observation my father (who was on trauma call as a surgeon for a long time) made: a nonfatal temple shot is, in a rough and crude sort of way, a frontal lobotomy. He claimed to have seen a handful of patients who shot themselves out of their suicidality... not that I have any backup for such a claim.
Of all the roles Von Bargen played, MSNBC chose a picture of him wearing a military uniform. Accident? I think not.
@WSF:
Uh, I think that they could be forgiven on it this time, as
@ WSF: I think that MSN can be forgiven that, as van Bargen's best role (and most memorable for me) was as Commandant Edwin Spangler on Malcolm In The Middle.
Anyone worth shooting is worth shooting twice.
Including yourself.
Perhaps. if I watched television or viewed movies, I wouldn't have made the observation. That said, I find MSNBC to be biased towards our military.
Re: French Grey, from what I have read there are a lot of different versions of French Grey. They range from an electroplated coating to media blasting and spraying with a clear topcoat. Corrosion resistance varies by process.
The only time I saw it was on a very, very expensive O/U shotgun.
Brownells sells a couple different color grey Cerokotes that may approximate it, with a known corrosion resistance.
So, the takeaway learning here is that even a shot to the temple with a .38 is not a sure one-shot stopper.
I was reading an interview once with a person who didn't die after they jumped off of the Golden Gate bridge. He said his first thought after jumping, as he was going down, was about how he didn't want to jump anymore. A case of whoops! too late.
Apparently for some attempts this is common. The act of was cathartic enough that once committed to the act the moment of angst dissipates and the person no longer wants to die.
Maybe this is what happened with Daniel Von Bargen....either way he demonstrated that you have to live with the decisions you make.
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