Shiny…

I’m a Browncoat. Big shock.

Like so many others out there, I came into my Firefly fandom a bit too late in the game. The show had long been canceled before I found a copy of it on DVD and gave it a go.

I was immediately smitten with the overall premise behind the show’s design – that being, humanity’s expansion into the vastness of space roughly mirrored the aesthetic of the 19th-century American frontier. It was a space western … the two great tastes that go great together.

Few props on the show captured that dichotomy so purely as the pistol of Captain Malcolm Reynolds. In a futuristic system filled with energy weapons and 21st-century assault rifles, Mal’s gun bears the comfortable silhouette of a classic Western six-shooter, refined for the times.

Quantum Mechanix released a hero replica of Mal’s weapon years ago, and it sold out fairly quickly. To satisfy the needs of a demanding public, however, they saw fit to provide fans with a stunt version – The Malcolm Reynolds Metal-Plated Pistol Replica. Noticeably more affordable than its predecessor, it still kept itself out of my personal collection for some time.

Until, that is, Black Friday arrived. The discount on the QMx gun was so big that I couldn’t help myself. It just arrived today.

I was a bit skeptical when I got it out of the box. The prop is exactly as advertised: A solid chunk of polyresin plated in metal, then painted to simulate weathering. It has a decent heft to it … lighter than any real pistol I’ve ever held, but heavy enough to let you know you’re packing.

Weathered in a way that leaves an impression of being well-used, even tired, the pistol rests proudly on its acrylic risers atop a black display base. Even sitting there, static, it has personality … like a rusty, retired veteran, old and worn, comfortable with simply staying put.

But if it’s ever given cause to come out of retirement … you’d best be fleet on your feet.

The Malcomb Reynolds Stunt Pistol Replica by Quantum Mechanix

Grab Your Coffee And Bring In The Cat

I make the world’s worst coffee.

It’s true.  I’m very consistently bad.  I can buy the world’s most expensive, most idiot-proof coffee beans.  It won’t matter.  When I’m through with them, the resulting beverage will bear an uncomfortable resemblance to roast beef.

But I keep trying.  Because I dig my joe, and money spent at Starbucks is better spent on toys.

So this morning, I decided to try the French Press again.  It consistently delivers the best results.  But it was only after I’d scooped the coffee into the carafe, then boiled and poured the water, that  I realized I had no idea where the filter was.  The plunger was there, right where it was supposed to be, attached to the lid.  Only the filter was simply … gone.

What to do?  I launched into a frantic search, turning the tiny kitchen upside-down in an attempt to locate this elusive, essential brewing tool.  Nothing.  Nada.  Nichts.  Bupkus.  

But what I did find, tucked into a quiet corner and surrounded by stainless steel travel mugs, were these custom Battlestar Galactica Personalized Artisan Dog Tags from Quantum Mechanix.  They’d been missing for months.  Oo-rah.  

I’ll be displaying them now, as you see in the photo, by hanging them from the Battlestar Galactica Top Gun Stein, also by Qmx.  

Incidentally, the serial number on the tags is my wedding date, in the everyone-does-it-this-way-but-Americans format.  And I made the coffee in the college way, straining it through a paper towel into the mug.  It’s bloody awful.