Category Archives: Flashlight

OLIGHT IMINI 2 Keychain Flashlight Review

Leave a reply

OLIGHT IMINI 2 Keychain Flashlight Review

Olight Imini 2

I have a whole bunch of OLight flashlights but some years ago some clown on their website made fun of something I said. That’s fine, but what wasn’t okay was that an employee of Olight jumped on me as well. I quit collecting flashlights at that point. Anyway, I guess I have gotten over that with the purchase of the OLIGHT IMINI 2. ($11.99 Black Friday Deal). I got two of them.

What really predicated this purchase was that my wife and I went to a bonfire cookout and it was pretty much in the woods in a dark but wonderful place. Navigating to the fire was a bit scary because of tree roots and slippery wet leaves.

Walking up to the truck to get a proper flashlight I kind of wondered if I could find an Every Day Carry (EDC) keychain flashlight for just such situations. Much as it made me make a cringy face because it was from Olight, it looked very cool.

Continue reading →

Adventure Lights – Tactical Lights

Leave a reply

Adventure Lights Guardian LED

Once upon a time I was introduced to Adventure Lights the hard way.  I had just come out of Iraq and I don’t think I even got home when they told me to fly to our HeadQuarters in Lakehurst New Jersey and pick up an assault pack of Adventure Lights that our Engineers were testing for use in Helicopter Landing Zones and VTOL Pads.  I was then to proceed to the Philippines with them. This was sometime in late 2006 or early 2007.

They weren’t authorized for fleet use at that time.  However, the 1st Marine Air Wing was tasked with a humanitarian mission in Bicol Province in the Philippines.  Three typhoons hit back to back to back which caused a mudslide which destroyed an entire village.  A field hospital was set up and a farmers field was utilized for helicopter landings.   Because it was supposed to be multinational the Marines requested the Adventure Lights (VIPIR model) to make a NATO “Y” marking for the landing zone.

Continue reading →

Being Prepared On A Small Scale – Altoids Survival Kit

Leave a reply

One of the Rites of Passage for being a geek or a nerd is doing things with Altoids Tins.  You can google for hours the things that people do with them.  Since we are in the midst of some kind of crisis (real or imagined) I thought I would slap together a little Altoids Survival Kit.  It’s easy to do, it’s fun, and it might just come in handy some day.  In addition to that there is ALWAYS space for an Altoids tin in the glovebox or purse and they’ll even fit in your jeans pocket.

And of course you can build them up with stuff YOU think is useful but the challenge is to find stuff that will fit and be usable.   Let me show what I came up with.
Continue reading →

Bye Bye Olight

2 Replies
One of my favorite companies was a Flashlight retailer called Olight. #olight #olightworld
 
As is everyone else they are doing a Black Friday sale. They suspended ordering for a few days in anticipation however allowed members of their loyalty program to purchase during this period.
 
So I’ve bought a metric ton of lights in the past few months and I figure I’m golden. I log in and I’m lowest tier with not many points. Then I learn it isn’t enough to order lights and get points from them you have to be logged in to do it.
 
The program was just started so its not like I was buying lights and not meeting the requirements of the program. They backdated all the points to April 2019. If I knew an account would get you points I’d have used it.

Continue reading →

Tactical John

1 Reply

Sorry about the misleading Subject Line.   I am NOT a man of tactics.   And while I work and deploy with the USMC as a DOD Civilian I haven’t learned a damn thing from them.  I’m not tactical.  I could not sneak up on you with a cup of coffee.

If you wake up in an awful place like Iraq or Afghanistan it is very comforting to know that most of the people inside your base are US Marines.   I’ve had no desire to be a wannabe tactical guy.  Always been happy to let the paid pros take care of the tactics.

But I do like to hike, and I do like to camp and living in an area known to catch a few hurricanes it is only smart to have a certain level of preparedness.   Much of being prepared involves having equipment that is tried and tested in the field by people WHO HAVE TRIED AND TESTED IT IN THE FIELD.

And I guess that’s how the term “tactical” gets tossed around.   No matter.  Contrary to the fact that I didn’t want to learn anything while buying all this cool gear I ended up learning LOTS of things.  One term that keeps creeping up is Every Day Carry (EDC).    EDC is also about being ready for things, or it is about having the tools at your disposal, on your person, that you would use in your day to day tasks.

Continue reading →

Flashlights And Stuff

3 Replies

About a year ago I became familiar with a term called “EDC”.  Every Day Carry.  What that is are the things that you carry with you on a regular basis to be ready for “Stuff”.  It’s a very different and individual thing.   Not only is it different individually but for the same person it can even be different situationally.  Your EDC may be different in the boat or camper compared to a night out at a fancy restaurant.

My EDC literally changes almost daily, but most days it is this:

 

From left to right,

  1. Fisher Space Pen
  2. OLight i3T Copper Flashlight
  3. Swiss Army Knife Cadet Alox

Most days this is all a fella needs.  This fella anyway.  The fancy pouch is from a company called Hitch and Timber. And keeps everything from getting banged up and slides easily into my pocket.

The funny thing is that EDC must evolve and get better with time.  And that’s kind of where this blog leads me.

Continue reading →

Olight Seeker 2 Pro Review

Leave a reply

I’ve never really done flashlights before.  About a year or so ago I realized I had one crap flashlight at home.  Bought some inexpensive but good flashlights on Amazon and kind of caught the flashlight fever.   Also I started going camping and without a doubt you need a good flashlight walking around in the woods or for when the campsite power goes off (It will).

I’m not a Prepper, but I’m not unprepared by a long shot either.  I like quality, and I like quantity.  When it gets dark is not the time to ask “where’s the last place I had the flashlight?”  A good quality flashlight should be within reach basically in just about every room of the house.  Seriously.  You may think that is a bit much but it’s really quite practical.

Also, as a typical person in America I have a job that requires me to be there early, and since my dog can’t walk himself and since dog walks typically occur in the dark in the morning I also carry a light with me to keep from getting hit.  I also jog early in the morning, in the dark and wear dark clothes.  A high quality flashlight is a must.  Those are other smaller flashlights that I carry (from the same company) but this blog is about the Olight Seeker 2 Pro.

Continue reading →