MacGyver

  My thought exactly.  Man, I can't imagine the damage done to it's ears.

Cool! You can bag an elk and grab a cup of coffee with Blake, too.

The internetz is a mean, mean place.     My experience certainly isn't universal, but I've beat the snot out of several sets of TFOs for years and never had an issue.  I wouldn't hesitate to put them on another weapon.

Great to hear!

Their 5150 model is a great looking blade.

Nothing beats running for pure calories expenditure...   I say that -  the Y where I work out has a sort of a ladder on a treadmill type machine.  You put a belt around your waist and start climbing.  The belt is hooked to the brake, so the higher you climb, the faster it goes.  The machine has a marketing label on it calling it the "most cardio efficient exercise machine."  Turns out that's a euphemism for, "this machine is going to do it's level best to kill you before you get off of it."

I'm going through this right now.   I'm moving from an Xterra to a Tacoma.  Frankly, I can put wetter, dirtier gear in the back of a truck.  Also for me, I recently started using a Hobie Pro Angler 14.  At 137lbs., there's no way to get this thing on top of an SUV safely by myself.  As such, for my use cases, the Tacoma makes a lot of sense.   One thing I've noticed when looking at trucks, is that the back seats are generally more spacious than their SUV peers.  This is a big feature for me with 3 kids. This sounds odd, but as close as I can tell, since they're not competing for space with a third row seat and somehow trying to maintain 20" of rear space vs. 18" they don't have to worry about it and can stretch out a little bit.  My wife is in a 2008 Pathfinder with a third row seat.  With the rear seat up, you don't really have any usable space in the rear.   This is all driving me to a pickup.  Mind you, the 4Runner is a great truck.  It's all about your use case.

I like the accessories where they are.  For the sake of keeping it close to the body and not hanging on stuff, I'd keep them where they are.   Likewise, if I were looking for a bushcraft sheath, I'd probably reach out and have it be a custom job - but I would probably give up versatility in the name of keeping it closer to my body.  That is, I'd choose either horizontal attachment or vertical attachment.  In my case, I generally prefer the vertical attachment.  I just get hung up when I try and carry a bigger knife horizontally.  I know it works for some people, so to each their own.   It's looking great!

Training scars being what they are, I'm going to rack the slide as opposed to using the release. It's simply one less thing for me to keep up with.

If you run into any engine blocks that need killing - you ought to be squared away!

  That exactly the reason they schedule all of those engineering classes at 0800.

They've only made the Civilian in a plain edge in very limited runs.  When they do become available on the secondary market, they usually demand a premium.   While I am generally a big fan of plain edge blades over their serrated counterparts, this is one case where serrations - and specifically Spyderco's serrations make a lot of sense.  For this knife's use case - self defense - the increase in cutting surface area provided by the serrations would be desirable.

  You raise another point that so many of our students today would be wise to consider - that is putting a few years of actual work in between high school and college.  The focus that provides - sometimes into what you would like to do, and more often what you positively DO NOT want to do is so valuable.

  At least at the university level, they've always been pretty "socially progressive" historically.  It's probably simply a product of people getting paid to sit around and think vs. actually needing to do something that actually provides tangible value right now.  

  Increasingly, more doctors and lawyers are starting to have these conversations.  Doctors are being hit from all sides.  As debt loads increase, salaries are less, insurance costs are up, and other factors come into play - a lot of students are looking at it and deciding it's not worth it.   Law is changing, too.  A lot of students are looking at the traditional model of working 80+ hours a week in a big firm for peanuts for years before maybe becoming a partner and are pushing back.  Couple that with the fact that there are some other routes available to law school.  Nashville School of Law is a great example.  Students take a class or two at a time, and it's pay as you go.  Almost all work and go to school at night - they graduate with little or no debt.  Some big school lawyers speak poorly of it, but those are generally ones who haven't been up against them in court.  I remember talking to a colleague who was Harvard Law educated talking about getting his tail end handed to him by a Nashville School of Law graduate in the court room.

I'm going to try to respond to this thread in more detail when I've got some time.  Higher education is changing a lot, and in a lot of respects is a different animal today than it's ever been in the past.  A few thoughts:   Higher education - like most other areas of our economy is being raped by the finance industry.  They're taking all they can get, and there are a lot of participants.  They're not going to stop until they drive it (and the economy) off the cliff or some other force acts upon them. The universities have been participating in raising costs to where it's difficult to work your way through school at these elevated tuition levels.  Not saying it can't be done, but it's a lot more difficult than it was 20 years ago when I was in school. There is a fundamental failing at the family/high school/mentor level where college is sort of expected.  For a lot of big organizations today, the bachelors degree is sort of the new high school diploma.  Frankly, there are a lot of positions that simply aren't available to someone without a four year degree.  So, to some extent, companies are feeding this problem, but it's something that's going to have to be addressed.  And, to address it, we may have to start to go back to the old days where "college isn't for everyone." People in counseling roles need to have honest conversations with the students they are counseling about what the debt load is going to look like in  comparison to what you're going to make.  Mind you, a lot of these students aren't in a position to hear this when all they've heard is, "do what you love." But, we need to have that conversation.  Study something that will allow you to feed yourself - then do what you love. If a student is going to graduate from college with more total debt than the salary level they can expect to make in their first year out of school, someone needs to have a hard conversation with them.  They're going to be a slave to debt for a long time, and they need to know what that looks like. We need to encourage a return to the trades.  I teach at the university level, both undergraduate and graduate.  I tell my students all the time about paying welders more in 1995 than many of them will make upon graduation today.  For the health of the economy - we need healthy trades.   At the university level, I think we need to have an honest discussion about what the heck we're doing.  Frankly, a lot of college is glorified trade school these days as they just sort of regurgitate what companies tell them they're looking for.  We're not teaching.  We're making good little "information worker" drones.  Teaching people how to think and solve hard problems is important - and most of our universities have lost this ability.  I think in the future, universities may look more like the universities of old where there is a liberal arts grounding with room for experimentation and learning in the sciences. There are alternative paths emerging with a lot more sustainable cost structure - and this is really exciting.  Coursera, EdX, etc... are making some awesome content available.  If you want to learn - and the piece of paper at the end isn't that important, there is some great stuff out there.  I've taken several Stanford courses over the past couple of years for free, and the content was on par with any class I had in undergraduate school.   Learn to code.  In today's economy you'll be able to feed yourself and your family.  You'll be able to think about problems in different ways, and you'll likely never hurt for opportunity.

Student loan debt is one area of our economy that is positively unsustainable.  Something is going to change because there's not another option.  It has to.

  One of the great secrets to getting big things done is simply not being particularly afraid to screw it up.     Good luck!

Y'all are going to hurt my feelings if you don't call me to help. Did you get them cut okay?

I've got a printed copy of our amortization schedule in my top drawer.  Every month when I pay the mortgage, I make the mortgage payment, and then find the next month's portion to principal, and pay that amount as well.  I then cross both payments off the list.  It's one of the most satisfying things I do every month.   To each their own, but I'd much rather be totally out of debt and make the decisions about where my money goes than to just simply be content with, "mortgage interest is deductible."   At the very least, print an amortization schedule on your mortgage and play around with it some.  You'll be offended when you see the interest numbers - especially in the first half of the repayment period.   I'd agree with others - pay off the cars first and get some rainy day savings squared away.  But following that, feel good about putting the money towards your mortgage.

He's from Kentucky. They won't let you leave without that knowledge.

Martin's, Peg Leg Porker and a newcomer Smokin' Thighs. They only do dark meat chicken, and it's great. Their "Hawaiian burger" is awesome.

I've been through a dozen Leathermans over the years - from the big ones down to the smallest.  I've never had one that didn't develop an issue or three.  I've all but sworn them off.   I've always wanted to like Gerber's stuff, but their quality control is awful.  And, their commitment to turning out a dozen new designs each year doesn't help.  I've yet to break one, but I've got some that really beat up.   The SOGs I have used have always been pretty tough - but bulkier and heavy   I've had good luck with Victorinox's tools, but I've not used one in a decade.   Truthfully, I don't know what tool I'd pick right now if I had to choose.

I have yet to meet a pig that's gotten along well with those 110gr Barnes TAC-TX bullets.

My MRO has been great so far. Use Loctite.