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Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:02 am
by Skiprr
I mentioned in another Topic that I thought Houston was the greatest shooting city in the country and that, for a couple of years, I'd maintained an Excel spreadsheet of local opportunities for practical shooting competition and defensive-shooting training. And I said I should put it into something like Google Calendar...both so I could keep up with it better, and so that I could share it.

So here ya go: http://www.tacticsandtraining.com/calendar/

This is a Greater Houston thing...mostly. If you stick the pointy end of a protractor in downtown Houston, then put the pencil on Conroe, well, that's pretty much the circle.

The calendar itself is not public; it isn't in Google's search engine. But the events are public, so you can view them.

Please PM me with additions/corrections. I'm happy to make 'em.

"Training" in this context does not include standard CHL classes. So please don't ask me to include them. And don't ask me to include classes outside the Greater Houston area; if you see one in there it means I personally plan to attend. And this is about defensive/combat shooting; no slow-fire bullseye competitions, please.

This is just a personal calendar converted so that others might discover new shooting opportunities. I struggled as to whether I should put this post here or in "Competitive Shooting." Since the calendar includes training opportunities, I figured it would best be here.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:38 pm
by LarryH
This was all I got:

"Events from one or more calendars could not be shown here because you do not have the permission to view them."

Was there something I needed to do besides click on your link to see the events?

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:43 pm
by Skiprr
Well, fiddlesticks.

Proof positive that Murphy is alive and well. I logged out of Google and, despite having tested it just Saturday, I got the same thing you saw. I jumped onto Google Groups. And guess what? Dozens of people are reporting the same behavior with embedded Google Calendars that, previously, were functioning just fine.

I got a couple of ideas from the Google Groups posts that may work. I really don't want to make the calendar public, because doing so opens it up to Google indexing and searching. It may not be a huge downside because all the individuals I name are professionals in the biz that don't mind being associated with shooting and personal defense (e.g., Brian Hoffner, Gabe Suarez, John Farnam, etc.), but I'd still rather not have all the entries indexed.

I'll experiment and see if I can get this back online. Stay tuned. If you're looking for shooting and training opportunities in Houston, it should be worth it. ;-)

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:55 pm
by Skiprr
I think it's back in business. I can't be sure until I try it tomorrow from a PC on which I've never logged into Google, but I think it's worth another try: http://www.tacticsandtraining.com/calendar/

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:06 pm
by LarryH
Blank page except for the header.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:12 pm
by KC5AV
It loaded for me.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:51 pm
by LarryH
I'll try it again when I get home.

This particular work computer only has IE. I use FF at home and in the office.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:05 pm
by Lumberjack98
Thanks Skiprr!

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:27 pm
by boomerang
Are there really three different events at Impact Zone on the 23rd?

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:11 am
by Skiprr
boomerang wrote:Are there really three different events at Impact Zone on the 23rd?
When in doubt, call. :smile:

One drawback of Google Calendar is that there's no option--unlike MS Outlook, for example--to modify only one occurence in a series of appointments...but at least it allows us to specify a series like "2nd Saturday every month," "3rd Sunday every month," etc. One glaring conflict that comes to mind is the Texas CHL Forum Day at PSC on September 27. That's a normal 4th-Saturday PSC IDPA shoot, but of course all the pistol bays will be occupied by the Forum Day activities.

Phil Oxley's class on August 23 and 24 at Impact Zone is limited to 5 people, so it may take only one bay; but the dates are specific on the Impact Zone Website. Hoffner's American Defenders is a quarterly event, and the dates are shown on Hoffner's site and Impact Zone's. The XD Practical Shooting Assoc. is a 4th-Saturday monthly thing, and if something has to be bumped for the 23rd, I'd expect it would be that. We have a couple of folks on the Forum who shoot with them, and maybe they can comment.

Within the limitations of Google Calendar, I would like to try to keep this calendar as clean as possible. One thing I could do, I suppose, is note known conflicts (like the Forum Day at PSC) in text below the calendar. And as for the professional instruction, I know there are tons of options in Greater Houston and I have to figure out where to draw the line. Memorial Oaks is offering new instruction I'll probably include, and there is a firm in Conroe who seems to offer a pretty good tactical/security class schedule.

For now, if anyone has a course to add and there is a Website where I can verify the course information, I'll probably add it. And I know some well-know outfits like KR training aren't too far away, but I chose to limit the distance to a circle drawn from Conroe around Houston (again, since this is a transfer of a personal calendar to Google, some non-Houston courses that I plan to attend myself will end up on there). ;-) All-day range discounts like Top Gun has for women and seniors, providing the ammo is purchased at the range, are interesting but I can't see adding an event for that sort of thing.

Providing a community service to stimulate more shootin',
--Skiprr

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:17 pm
by LarryH
works fine now. thanks.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:38 pm
by koolaid
Does this "Indoor Defensive Pistol Shooting" at Top Gun on sundays actually exist? The only mention I could find of it is on some old Top Gun website from 2005.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 6:26 pm
by Skiprr
Probably not. I stopped trying to keep the calendar updated almost a year ago; it was getting very few hits, so didn't seem worth the time and effort. I'll pull it off the Web later tonight.

Re: Greater Houston Calendar

Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:04 pm
by koolaid
Skiprr wrote:Probably not. I stopped trying to keep the calendar updated almost a year ago; it was getting very few hits, so didn't seem worth the time and effort. I'll pull it off the Web later tonight.
Oh, I didn't realize that the first post here was from 2008. Whoops.