After much swearing and cursing I finally have Jabber/XMPP up and running on the site. All you Google Talk people can now IM me at td [at] unforgivingminute.com.

Especially in the mornings. Trust me, they’re REALLY slow right now…

Whoever you may be, comment here and win a Major Award.

As you may have seen elsewhere, there’s a contest on to pick the 10 Blog Bash attendees who will win a weekend of training with Todd Jarrett at Blackwater USA’s facility in North Carolina, courtesy of Para USA.

I’d very much like to go, and I’ll be sincerely grateful for any votes I receive. At the same time, I hate competing against friends and I won’t try to argue that I’m any more deserving of this trip than any of my fellow Blog Bashers. So, if you’re interested in voting for me, follow this link. If you’re interested in voting for anyone else, click here.

Oh, you can also win a slot in the class for yourself, but only if you vote!

First, a big Happy Birthday! to Breda, who knows from funny…

… and second, a big Happy Millionth Hit! to my friend Tam, who damned sure knows from funny. At the Blog Bash, Tam, Roberta, Squeaky and I were all walking to Roberta’s car after the show when the following exchange took place:

TD (seeing Roberta’s ride for the first time): Oh, an Accent. My ex-girlfriend had one of those.

Squeaky: That’s funny, my ex-boyfriend had one of those.

Tam (totally deadpan and without missing a beat): That’s funny, my roommate has one of those.

There seems to be a tentative date of June 22 for the Indy BlogBash, said event being arranged by Miss Roberta X. I plan to attend, schedule and finances allowing…

I think the following is a reasonably-complete list of gunbloggers I met over the weekend. If I left you out: (A) it’s not a snub; I suck at remembering new people and (B) please comment or email to let me know.

• Bitter Bitch
• Call Me Ahab and his lovely wife
• ThirdPower of Days of our Trailers
• Joe Huffman
• Michael Bane
• across-the-state-neighbor Murdoc of Murdoc Online and GunPundit.com
• Sailor Curt
• SayUncle
• Robb Allen of Sharp as a Marble
• Kevin of The Smallest Minority
• Sebastian of Snowflakes in Hell
• Roberta X
• Yosemite Sam and Denise of The Ten Ring
• US Citizen of Traction Control
• XRLQ
• Mike of Another Gun Blog

Plus the folks I already knew:

• Squeaky Wheel
• Tam
• Rustmeister

It was truly an honor to meet you all. Gun people are good people!

Back from the Blog Bash. There’s a lot going on, a great deal on my mind, and personal business that must be attended to. Posting’s gonna be light for a few days, at least.

I’ll try to do a proper recap post once things have settled down, but for now I’ll just say that I had a great time, met a lot of terrific people, and can’t wait to do it again next year. I especially want to thank Bitter and Sebastian for all the hard work they put into the event; you guys did a fantastic job and it is sincerely appreciated.

Apologies for taking a break at an inopportune time, but that pesky “real life” stuff gets in the way sometimes.

So unlike all the other Blog Bash people I haven’t posted any entertaining or informative stuff because, well, my digestive system is doing the usual travel-related freakout. Any time I leave home for even a few days, my guts go into open revolt and I end up having to stay near the bathroom; it’s bizarre.

I was already feeling the early warning signs when I arrived, yet I inexplicably proceeded to eat fried alligator, barely-seared, mostly-raw tuna, and underdone fried shrimp for dinner last night. Smart. Then I drank half a bottle of tequila with the gunbloggers. Brilliant.

Despite all the booze and dubious seafood, I haven’t hurled or even felt the urge to, but I’m all cramped up and generally uncomfortable, which is why I’m currently sitting alone in the hotel room while everyone else is getting together for drinks at a nearby bar. Just not feelin’ it today.

Updates to follow…

Should’ve posted this sooner, but…

If either of my regular readers wants me to check out anything in particular at the NRA convention, leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to get you the scoop. I anticipate spending much of Saturday wandering around the convention hall, and I’ll have press credentials.

I like this guy’s style.