Stars

 Over the years, I've spent many nights sleeping outdoors, and many more nights outside with friends. One thing I've never gotten tired of is starting at a sky full of stars. 

Where I live, there's just a little too much light pollution to be able to look up at the sky and truly enjoy the view. Some of my favorite memories of the outdoors are of my time under the stars. Like the night, as a scout, I joined in with a dozen others and slept out on a tarp brought by a friend. Going to sleep under a blanket of stars is magical. Or the year I was Camp Health Officer - after our senior staff celebrated our final night with a BBQ and campfire, I wandered out into the deserted field in the middle of the camp and ended up laying back, contemplating the heavens.

Some other great times have been with friends at caving events in West Virginia. When you're 20 miles from the nearest strip mall, the view gets so much better.

Even now, in my temporary home 25 miles from the midnight sun of the Las Vegas Strip, I get to see the night sky. My little neighborhood only has moderate light pollution, so the view is pretty good. Of course, I'm living under a major approach route to McCarran International Airport, so my stargazing is punctuated by an ever-changing constellation of planes stacked up, traveling west across the lake into Vegas.

Anyway... The night sky never gets old. I love the mysticism behind the constellations, and technology now makes it easier than ever to identify stars and constellations. I use Sky Guide, but there are other apps out there too.

Big Change - For real this time

So, it's been over a month since I posted. Sorry... I've been a little busy.

I decided to take my blog title seriously, and I accepted a seasonal position as a Paramedic for the National Park Service at Lake Mead. That means that the last week of April, I moved cross-country for the summer.

-My new ambulance. Credit to my friend Matt Goldberg for this

It's been a very interesting transition. After a month, I'm getting used to the desert. It's been very ironic that the East Coast has been hit with some very nasty rainstorms and flooding, while out here, weq've had rain sprinkles one night, and the local weather folks got all excited over a few drops of rain.

I've also had to get used to the altitude, and that's been a gradual thing as well.

The land is beautiful, even if it is in a drought.

Anyway.... Sorry for the absence. It's been a busy couple of months with getting prepared, tentatively accepting the position, buying a new car, actually getting the official job offer, then packing up and moving, and then getting settled out here. I've got some posts pending about some of my adventures on my road trip, as well as my adventures on my days off. Oh, I'll talk a bit about some of the differences in my role out here, but the usual privacy stuff applies, so I've got to be careful.

NR-P

I got a nice letter in the mail today.

Effective last week, I'm now a Nationally Registered Paramedic. That means that I'm no longer "NREMT-P", instead I'm "NR-P".

And if I decide to pay money for a new patch, it will look like this (From NREMT website):

I'm glad that NREMT has gone back to the traditional old rocker patch for paramedics. It's a nice nod to tradition. As for NR-P? Doesn't matter much to me right now. I know my home state, Pennsylvania, will be transitioning to the new standards soon, and it's unclear what transition I'll need to do at the state level. With the NREMT, I challenged the exam for recert, so I automatically transitioned.

Felons and Guns?

One of the big gun blogs, TTAG, raises the question of felons owning firearms in a blog on Friday.

Live by the gun, die by the gun? Create a federal system for the restoration of felons’ gun rights? Or full rights restoration for felons upon release? Where do you stand on gun rights restoration?

So, the root question is: should felons be able to own guns? I've actually had this discussion with my brother and some other firearm enthusiasts over the last few years. The answer isn't simple, but I'll submit that at least in some cases, felons should have a system to regain their rights.

The goal of prison, as far as I understand it, is to both punish those who commit crimes, as well as rehabilitate the inmates so that they don't re-offend. Or, to think about it another way, people are in prison because they aren't safe to interact in regular society.

If they have served their time, and it's deemed safe for them to be released into regular society, they should have a way to regain their rights. If they are so dangerous that they shouldn't be able to regain their rights... then they should still be in custody. They shouldn't be out in public where there are ample unprotected targets.

If prisoners are so dangerous that they can't ever be trusted with firearms again, they belong in prison, sequestered from the rest of the population, where they can't hurt anyone. If they don't need that, then there should be a path for restoration of rights. Call it an extended probation, call it what you will. What if, 10 years after being released from prison, and being released from parole, they have a way to petition (easily) to get their rights restored?

Gear Review - Mophie Powerstation Duo

I've been using the Mophie Powerstation Duo since this summer. I actually bought it on the way to the 2013 Boy Scout Jamboree to replace the portable battery I'd forgotten to pack. Picked it up at a Best Buy for the MSRP of $100. It's a 6000mAh battery for USB-powered devices.

Link to product HERE

If you know me, you know I'm addicted to my iPhone. The problem is that I use my phone so much, it's not uncommon to need a second full charge during the day to make my phone last all day.

Since I use a LifeProof iPhone case, I can't use a case with built-in battery power. That means I'm stuck carrying a USB power supply with me almost all the time, because I hate having a dead phone.

I like the Mophie battery. I've used it regularly over the last 9 months, and it still appears to hold a charge without issue. On average, I get 2 full charges of my iPhone, or a full charge of my iPad off of a fully-charged battery. That's while I'm using it, so it's by no means "perfect" conditions. The battery takes ~4 hours or so to charge completely from empty.

The battery is small enough to fit in a coat pocket or my work trouser cargo pocket when I want to travel light, and it usually lives in my "satchel" that I carry to work with my iPad and various charging cables. It also appears well designed and durable. I've dropped the battery a couple of times and it's still working fine.

The 2nd USB port is very handy for charging my iPhone and iPad at the same time, or charging a friend or co-workers device. The battery charges off of any standard Micro USB cable, so recharging isn't difficult. Out of the whole product line, it's probably the best combination of capacity and compactness in their line

If you're on GovX, the device can be had for a decent discount, but I also don't think the device wasn't worth what I paid for it. If you're looking for a portable battery for your digital devices, I think this is a good product.