Future of TYV

Right out of the gate, let me tell you, if you subscribe to my facebook, read my blog, miss me on the forums, or are otherwise concerned with paying attention to what I say because you like my gear reviews, you may as well go ahead and un-like and un-friend me now.  As of this writing I have 865 fans on my TYV facebook page, so lets wait and see if that number goes down in the next few days.

The bottom line is I can’t compete with the other guys that are out there doing this stuff, and it seems silly to try.  I don’t have the time or the financial backing of Andrew over at vuurwap...whatever to do the kind of analytical analysis he does.  I wish I did, God bless the guy.  I have a couple of tests I probably ought to just send him.  But here’s the thing, and that is that based on the Curve of Inevitability, I realize that it doesn’t matter.  How many times can I go test some New Hotness, be unable to discern any real measurable improvement that the same investment of ammo wouldn’t have produced, and release my findings only to be met with the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the internets, and maybe one or two percent that get it?

I can’t take pictures, nor do I have the industry connections, like Stickman or Militarymoron.  I don’t have the personality of Milspec Monkey.  I am hopefully not quite as mentally challenged as nutnfancy or that weird Russian dude (if he even really is Russian).  I’m tired of dealing with deadlines, editors, and publishers all to make less money in writing commissions than I spent doing whatever it was I was writing about.

I’m tired of starting projects I don’t have time or resources to see through.  I’m tired of industry people sending me knicknacks and then getting all assed-up when I don’t produce a review, or a favorable review, in their timeline, which they don’t bother to tell me about right out of the gate but instead work themselves into a lather with zero communication, and when they do write to complain I offer to give it back only to have them reply with “no, no, just keep it”.  Do they really think this shit pays the bills?  Like I don’t have a job to get to in order to actually make my car payment, aside from all this silly “firearms lifestyle” stuff?  I tell them right out of the gate that this is a part-time side gig and things happen when they happen.  By the same token, I don’t blame them for being mad when they’re out product, which is money, so it’s probably better to just stop asking.

What I can do is what I’ve always naturally done, and that is question things.  Especially establishment things.  I’ve always been a “why?” guy, and if 20 people are saying the same thing, it just makes me ask “why?” even more.  As Patton said, “if everyone is thinking the same thing then someone isn’t thinking”.  In architecture school, why is everything.  I learned quickly that what you said was as important as what you did.  The Guggenheim makes a horrible house, and Falling Water makes a horrible museum.  Why, or a purpose, matters.  And just because you say, or think, you have a purpose doesn’t mean that’s the real purpose.  The guy that buys a Harley and tells his cowokers he wants to “ride and be free” may very well think he wants to do just that.  But if he’s logging 20 miles a month and they are all to the bar and back to go meet his new biker friends, I would argue that he’s neither riding, nor free.  Similarly if a guy is buying a gun because he says he needs to protect his family but then can’t go take a single Saturday away from them to learn how to use it, I’d say he must not really be feeling that threat all so much.  You may not see it the same way, and you don’t have to.  Start your own blog and support all that stuff.  Or stay subscribed here and tell me off.

I just simply don't know any other way to be, and at nearly 38 years old it's too late to change.  The good news is that I can keep saying what I want, how I want, whether I'm posting on a forum or banned, have 865 facebook fans or 8.  Frankly, at 8, I bet it'd be the 8 that were getting the most out of it.  But trying to be the evaluator guy with accelerometers and high-speed cameras, or the photographer guy with 10,000 facebook likes, a phone full of industry friends, and a calendar, or some youtube celebrity, just isn’t in my DNA.

So, going forward, what TYV will be is primarily the blog.  If you’ve read stuff there and found it informative, keep on subscribing.  If you like concept pieces, like arguments, like to occasionally read something you don’t agree with but that gets your brain spinning, keep on reading.  If you like hearing the counter-point to whatever new-hotness drops at SHOT, this is the place.  But if you’re waiting for charts, reviews of training classes, links to the latest magazine articles, etc. that shit is done and you’d probably be better served by un-liking the facebook page.  Your bloodpressure will thank you.  If you’ve been putting up with me because you’re waiting for some new review to come out that “makes his attitude worthwhile”, it’s not coming.  I don’t have the time, the results are no longer interesting to me, and I’m tired of casting pearls before swine.  Which isn’t to say that every single time my fingers strike a key a pearl is produced, but I’m no longer interested in hearing your snorts, or wasting my time and money only to be greeted by snorts.