First off, thank you to all who took the time to wish me a happy birthday!

Now, just for grins I thought I would collect the data for who wished me a happy birthday and do some analysis.  Why? Because I’m an engineer, and that’s what I do. To make things fun, and maybe spark a few different responses next year, I have a “prize” thrown in the mix. I’ll say what it was at the end of the post. So here are the fun statistics for the day:

Total numbers:

I received a total of 79 happy birthday wishes today.
71 unique people wished me Happy birthday.
16 of those people wished me happy birthday even though we haven’t had a legitimate conversation in more than a year, or really, ever.

Timing:

8 people jumped the gun, and wished me a happy birthday before my birthday.
I received 11 wishes before 8am, 18 between 8am and noon, 13 between noon and 5pm, and 29 after 5pm.

Methods:

I got 9 wishes in person.
10 People talked to me on the phone.
13 People texted me
1 person emailed me
45 people used facebook
1 person twittered
8 people wished me happy birthday using more than one method of communication. 1 of those people used three methods (the rest used 2).

Shenanigans:

I got 1 cake (homemade, and awesome)
12 people sang to me, 7 of them on the phone.
one person took a shot with me.

Prizes:

Take note, because you get bragging rights for the “grand prize”.
Grand prize, First person to wish me a happy birthday in a personal manner, on my actual birthday (methods that count are in person, phone call, or text to my phone): Brian McWhirter (which is awesome because we’ve been best friends for 12 or so years now, and he still got it).

Runner up, first birthday wish, jumping the gun a whole two days early is Matthew Klobucher.

Most birthday wishes goes to Matthew Wright, who texted, twittered, and wished me a happy birthday in person.

So, from these numbers, what can I gather? Well, I have many caring friends, and I am grateful for you all (even if Facebook had to remind you that it was my birthday). Now I’m going to switch my Facebook birthday to Friday and see how many people get tripped up. This should be fun.

I leave you with this, the ending to the game Portal (so if you have not played the game, and might, don’t click play…) which happens to be catchy, entertaining, involves science and guns, and of course, cake.

Of course we got there and everyone told us to break out the gear and shoot! So we took part in our first competition. I don’t think we did that bad either for our first try. Overall we placed 11th and 12th out of about 30 people. There are different divisions based on what pistol you carry. I am in the CDP (custom defense pistol) category with my .45 cal 7+1 Ithica Colt 1911. There were only 7 people in that category, but I placed 2nd! Jim ended up in the SSP (standard service pistol) category along with about 20 other people, so with nearly the same score, he placed 8th in his division.

We are both also classified as UN … unclassified (imagine that), but in February there will be 2 classification matches. I will be practicing quite a bit more at home between now and then since my downfall was my slow magazine changes.

The highlight of the trip had to be the 7 year old kid. He was very meticulous, but an impressive shot for his age. Give him 10 years and he’ll be unbeatable. He’ll also finally be able to drive!

Here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2NXKacDneM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXciB4TEAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM0mUTKfTh4

Check out all my videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/smerfj

Yesterday I closed on my house. I am now the proud owner of this house in Destin! I will be hosting a new house party sometime this month, stay tuned for details!

This past weekend I attended training in Tallahassee to get my NRA Instructor Training. It was 17 hours over two days, and covered BIT (Basic Instructor Training) and Basic Pistol Instructor training. I am now a NRA Certified Instructor and I can teach 2 pistol courses: NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course and NRA FIRST Steps Pistol Orientation. I can also teach concealed carry courses!

I attended the training with a friend of mine, Jim, and in the fall we will be teaching the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course as a life group for Shoreline Church. Check out our life group’s site: Shoreline Sharpshooters for more information as we approach the fall life group semester.

If you are interested in getting your CCW, let me know. I will be available starting August to give both private and group lessons for CCW permitting.