Other uses for a Manix2.

This was a more interesting night than anticipated. I ended up hanging out for a little while at Mozzi's with Annamarie, Rebecca, Chelsea, and Micah. After a while they decided to move on to the lodge and Annamarie peer pressured me into going along, but it was 11:55 and they were just closing. We went back down to Mustache Pete's to see if they stayed open any later but they were closed too. Finally it was decided that they would proceed to Rebecca's house, Annamarie declared that I was going too, and Rebecca vetoed any potential noes. So it was settled. We headed over to the artist studio/guest house for our little party, carrying snacks and the makings of some kind of very girly sounding drink they wanted. But, one of the ingredients was Martinelli's sparkling cider, which we too late realized doesn't have a twist off cap, and there was no bottle opener over there. Rebecca tried keys, Micah tried a can opener that looked like it might do it, but nothing budged it. Normally I probably would have had something with an opener on it, like a SAK or the Leatherman Squirt in my little supplies pack, but tonight I was trying to travel very light because I was using my new Nalgene flask for the first time and that allowed me to get away with not carrying any bag. I was a little reluctant to do anything too abusive if not necessary, but when all else failed I finally just hooked the Manix's blade spine under the cap and wrenched it off. It actually worked perfectly and the edge of the cap didn't even scratch the 154CM. Glad I decided to bring that one along since I would not have been so rough on the Khukuri. All in all, a fun and interesting night.

Cayucos show

Light: Ra Clicky 140Cgt

Went to the My Javelina/Jesse/Micah/Ryan/Steve show at the Cayucos church tonight. Shortly after I arrived, Kyle came to me for a light to light up dry erase board of lyrics (so Stuff Christian Culture Likes!), so I gave him the Clicky. He gave it a try but the writing was too light to be readable on the white surface so he gave up. Later, he and Micah borrowed it again to fiddle with some gear tucked into a dark corner. I also used its strobe to have a quick mini-rave with Adrian. Manix2 saw some quick use too, had to cut some electrical tape off my notebook to cover the obnoxious flashing red light on my filming camera.

Breaking the Dry Spell

Today I received my first new flashlight in about nine months. To my slight surprise, my NiteCore EZ123w arrived, after only two days. My impressions to Samy:

somewhat small and bright spill, tight spot. nice and warm, it makes GT look bluish. looks like spill is brighter than GT. as for the size compared to a Clicky... it's uhh.... ridiculous. it's smaller than my index finger. I just tested it against the 100w, much warmer!  as expected, since they're the same emitter, it's the same gorgeous warm tint as the M60WL. the low, which is suppsed to be like 20, is actually about 10 or a little less. the high, which is supposed to be 100, absolutely blows the warm Clicky away at 70 and looks brighter even when it's on burst.  spill is definitely brighter than burst, spot looks about the same if not also a little brighter. considering that my 100W appears to actually be 105-110, this thing is bright. so it's as warm as my warmest tint, has a better beam than the malkoff, and appears brighter than the clicky, all in a package smaller than the mckinley.  it's also way brighter and warmer than the T1. downside, it's very stiff to turn to full power. ok pretty happy with this little light.  the low is basically a perfect peering around inside level, like a nice little task light. the high is really surprising for its size. big difference in heat management; laid out various lights running at full power,
m60w, t1, twisty, clickies, all barely got warm. d10 got surprisingly warm considering it's got a Q5 running on a lithium aa, not pushed very hard. ez got fairly hot. but then it was the brightest of them all and by far the smallest.

Here's a bad photo for size reference:

From Flashlights

Santa Barbara Girl Adventure!

Light: Ra Clicky 140Cgt

A quick story from my day trip to Santa Barbara with Kaitlin and Cammi. After a long day of cruising around State St., buying adorable outfits, and discussing the merits of various kinds of underwear, we headed to the harbor for some sushi. As the chill grasp of winter gently entwines its frosty fingers about us, the days grow shorter with alarming rapidity, giving us a sunset time of just before 5pm. As we were leaving the sushi place at 6, we heard a frolickful kersplashing from the shallow water below. I took a look with my Clicky and revealed dozens of tiny little silver sardiney fish zipping about at the surface, as well as a sea star sitting on the bottom a few feet down.

Later, back at Linn's, it helped with the important task of showing off the day's finds to other girls.

Side note: The knife I carried for this was my little old Cricket, to comply with the more restrictive laws of Santa Barbara.