I'm Tyler Patten, our host of the Pyramid Air Insider. This is our first entry into the TNT video series. That's me, Tyler, and Travis Patton over at Airgun Depot, sitting down and talking about some hot topics in the Airgun industry, giving you guys some insight, background into what's going on behind the scenes. Had the opportunity in June of 2019 to head out to Utah and go hang out with the Airgun Depot guys, did all this filming, thought it'd be some great content for you guys out there. They're interested in learning a little bit more about the background and some of the hot topics going on in the industry. Today, since this is the first video, we're going to give you guys a little bit of insight into Travis and mine's background. And then we're also going to talk about multi-pump PCPs. Are they going to become a thing? Are they not? Who knows? Check it out. I like just being a part of the gun industry and like, not just the gun industry as a whole, but like, it's a culture thing, right? Like, I think American guns is like, nope. I don't know where I was going with that. So for me, it's about the guns. I mean, it's about being able to shoot and it's about being able to try out these different guns. You know, before I worked here, it was always, okay, I'm researching what's the next gun I'm going to buy. Okay, I've got to, you know, watch every review on it. Okay, what are the pros of the gun, you know, breaking it down like this, trying to get an idea before I bought it. How long have you been working in the Airgun world now? About a year and a half. So you're still like young, naive and disillusioned. I understand. Okay. No, I'm kidding. You know, for me, it was like, always thinking about what I'm going to buy. And when I get here, I start working here and then it's like, oh, I can actually pick up this gun, take it to the range and shoot it. I don't have to actually buy it. I can just shoot it. And when the next gun comes in, I can shoot that too.  I still don't, actually. Yeah. But I get to shoot a lot more now. And that's what I love about this. Maybe you've been here too long. Are you burned out, Tyler? So I just hit six years at Pyramid. And yeah, you know, I think I 100% agree with you on why I like it. I didn't even go so far to say why I love it. So I was like 100%. When I first got into Airguns, man, I was on YouTube. I was on the forums. I read everything. I looked at pictures. I was watching videos. For me, probably the thing I like most, I agree with your sentiments 100% on why you like working in the industry. Because being on the outside, and it's a little hard for me to remember back that far and what that felt like. Because I don't honestly get that feeling very often anymore. Like a new product comes out. I don't have that. There are very few products that give me that genuine excitement anymore. There are still products that do that, absolutely. But a lot of it's like Airguns are Airguns, and somebody has to come out with something truly innovative or something that's really a fresh take on something for me to get truly excited about it. But yeah, I mean, having access. Access is everything, right?  I still do, but I don't have to. I buy Airguns all the time. I've definitely owned more Airguns working in the industry than I had before. And before, it was like I'd owned like 100 plus Airguns when I started working in Pyramid. But now it's just like unfettered access. Hey, can we get a sample of this? Can we get a sample of that? Absolutely. Wow, it's really cool. Yeah, I think for me, it's the having the ability to really try anything you want. It's having the ability to say, oh, well, here's a defect of one of these. Like I've always wanted to re-barrel this gun, or I've always wanted to see what I can do to tune this gun and having the ability, having everything you need right in that spot, you know, because we have our own tech department. So we can just, you know, I can rip open a gun, put a new spring in it and make it work, and I get that sense of accomplishment like. And you've got a tech department so they can fix it for you after you've done all this. Well, after I break it, right? Yeah, exactly. If it's not a PCP, I can't fix it. That's for sure. But yeah, there's definitely that. It's access for me. I think that's what I love about it. And it's, you know, I'm an air gun fan to the core. So for me, it's just having the ability to get hands on and meet the people behind the ideas and all that sort of stuff. I think it's just fantastic. And really like a dream come true. Yeah. The multi-pump PCP is a bit of an oddity to me. I'm not sure that I think it's a concept that can be done in mass. I don't know. Well, no. It's interesting, right?  Well, yeah, but to be fair, and including the price tag, the first bunch of those had some pretty awful seal issues like and moisture issues was the big one. Now they've gotten that whole thing figured out. And from my understanding, the guns work flawlessly.  You know.  Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. But it's stinking accurate. Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, especially in 177. Yeah, you know, I've shot all three calipers now and I've been very surprised by the barrel quality in those guns and the trigger's not half bad either, which is the surprising thing to me. I mean, as far as the entry-level guns go in the three to $400 range, it's got one of the better triggers out there and it's adjustable as well. So, you know, to me, it's the ergonomics maybe aren't the best because the pump handle thing. But you know, it's not bad. You know, I like that pump handle. You do, it just hits right for you. Because now it, you know, for off-hand shooting, it just raises it up. It's like a hamster on the bottom there. I really like that. I think the gun's cool.  You can do a lot of stuff with it. And it gets pretty darn good power. Yeah, it does. I mean, surprisingly good power. Yeah, I think the big question in everybody's mind, right, is it gonna stand the test of time in terms of, you know- Holding up the seals and everything else.  Personally, on the guns that I've had and tested, I haven't seen it yet.  Yeah, it's such a different sort of thing. It's not like, oh, well, we'll add this to our lineup, modify one of our guns, you just have to start. Yeah, how do you put a three-stage pump into a gun that you're trying to keep under, you know, seven pounds? Right, it's really difficult to do. And there's a lot of things that have to be taken into account when you try to do that. So part of this probably just boils down to see how the Aspen holds up and how the market takes it. I mean, you could see something jump in right in the middle, you know, at a thousand bucks. Who knows, like I said, could be very interesting if the market kind of latches on to it and we get a couple other options out there. I think it would be great for air gunners in general to have some options in various price points. Yeah, I mean, this is one of the guns that I like the idea of it more than the practice. Right, sure.  It's self-contained, you don't have to buy anything. But then you're working it. Right. I mean, that's, you're putting your energy into it. Yeah, but you and I are spoiled by having access to compressors and tanks that we don't have to actually pay for and all that stuff, right? So we're a little spoiled. If you're not, you know, I was surprised the Aspen is easier to pump than a hand pump is. That is another thing to point out. I mean, even at 3,600 PSI, that thing just keeps on pumping.   Well, we got to that little kind of bench, right? And the little stool you could step on and get a little bit, put your weight in it. Didn't want you to bring that up. It was pink. I mean, but it folded and everything. I mean. I carried it around with me everywhere. I love that thing. Yeah. So I forgot that was supposed to be between us, you know, and really, if you're looking for an entry-level PCP, that's a really good option. Yeah. And it certainly takes out the financial pain of having to buy all the other stuff, right? Yeah. For sure. So we'll see what happens.  I think it'd be cool if some more manufacturers got into the fray on that one. Thanks for watching the first of our TNT video series with myself and Travis Patton of Aragon Depot. We appreciate you guys sticking around and hanging with us today. If you liked the video, throw us a like. Sound off in the comments below. If you guys have any further questions you want us to talk about, let us know. And as always, subscribe. We appreciate it. Keeps us going here. Thank you guys a ton. Now head on over to Aragon Depot's page and they're going to be uploading a video next week. So keep an eye on that. Hit that little notification bell on both channels so you don't miss any of this series. We'll see you guys next time.


In the wake of my interview with Daria Żukowska, the Polish clinical psychologist, people have written to me to ask, how does the narcissist decide what to include in the shirt fantasy? What would be the ingredients, components, figments and elements of the shirt fantasy? Is there any algorithm? Is there any rule? Can one predict the shape and form of the shirt fantasy? Its evolution? Its demise? Are there any adaptations that dictate the trajectory of the shirt fantasy? Well, having read the question, I realized that there's a lot of confusion about the shirt fantasy. And I would like to take this a few minutes of your time to elucidate some aspects. But first, who the heck am I? My name is Sam Wagni and I am the author of Malignan's Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited, the first book ever about narcissistic abuse. I am also a former visiting professor of psychology and currently on the faculty of CUPs. Now, one thing is very important to remember. The psychopath customizes the shirt fantasy to fit the partner. The narcissist coerces the partner to fit the fantasy. If you're asking yourself, if you're in a debate, if you have doubts about whether your intimate partner is a psychopath or a narcissist, ask yourself the following. Is the fantasy in which I find myself in yord, in which I find myself enmeshed and immersed? Is this fantasy a perfect answer to everything I've ever dreamed? The ultimate actualization and realization of all my wishes and all my hopes? If the answer is yes, your partner is a psychopath. If the answer is no, if you find the fantasy to be actually uncomfortable, intimidating, frightening sometimes. If you find the fantasy to be not always geared to cater to your needs and to your wishes. If you find yourself within the fantasy basically invisible and transparent, if you feel that you are being objectified and instrumentalized, used as a tool, then your intimate partner is a narcissist.  They're confusing the psychopath's fantasy with the narcissist's shared fantasy. I'm going to repeat this key sentence.  He customizes the fantasy like hand in glove. He wants you to feel totally enmeshed and infused and merged with the fantasy that he creates for you. The fantasy that the psychopath comes up with is dreamlike. It's a dreamscape. You feel as if you have transitioned to paradise. It's a heavenly concoction. The narcissist coerces the partner to fit the shared fantasy. The psychopath customizes the fantasy to fit the partner. The narcissist customizes the partner to fit the fantasy. The psychopath tailors the relationship fantasy to reflect the partner's wishes, dreams, needs, wants, and hopes.  The narcissist cajoles the partner, pushes the partner, coerces the partner, imposes on the partner the shared fantasy. And there's a difference here. The psychopath's fantasy is not shared. The psychopath is not included in the fantasy. The psychopath knows the difference between fantasy and reality. His reality testing is not impaired. The psychopath uses the fantasy as a manipulative tool. We'll come to it in a minute. So when you are with a psychopath, only you are inside the fantasy. Inside the fantasy, looking out. The psychopath is outside a kind of wizard of alls. He orchestrates the fantasy. He maintains it. He preserves it. He augments it. He enhances it. He amplifies and magnifies it. He introduces new elements into it. He manages it. And sometimes micromanages. The psychopath is in charge of fantasy production, productions Inc.  It's kind of a Truman Show. You are a character within the fantasy. You are like an actress in a theater play or theater production or in a movie. Where the psychopath is a director. When it comes to the narcissist, the fantasy is shared. Both you and the narcissist are within the fantasy. The narcissist fully believes in the fantasy and believes the fantasy. The narcissist is convinced that his promises are real and will be kept. So a narcissist don't future fake. Psychopaths do. The narcissist believes his own confabulations and concoctions and inventions and narratives. The psychopath doesn't. The narcissist is in it with you. Both of you share a fantastic space, a paracosm, a virtual or augmented reality.  So in order for you to fit into or conform to the narcissist wishes, dreams, wants and hopes. This is a very important distinction. The psychopath caters to your hopes, your wishes, your needs because he wants to manipulate you. The narcissist expects you to cater to his wishes, his needs, his wants and his hopes because the shared fantasy is all about him and because you don't exist as an external object, only as an internal one. The goals of the psychopath. When the psychopath comes up with a fantasy, the goals of the psychopath are varied. Could be money, could be power, could be sex, could be access, could be contacts. The goals of the narcissist are four and they are known as the four S's. Sex, supply, sadistic or narcissistic, safety and services. The narcissist wants you to be present within the fantasy in order to allow him to feel safe. While you are there, he expects you to service him one way or another, providing with sex and be at his disposal as a source of narcissistic supply or sadistic supply, the target of his sadism. So these are the motivations for the fantasy in the case of the narcissist, the four S's. When it comes to the psychopath, the motivation could be anything. The psychopath's fantasy is goal oriented. The narcissist and the psychopath construct the fantasy after having scanned you. They scan you, they use called empathy, the combination of cognitive and reflexive empathy.  They create a very detailed repository of you, a database, a map. But then the paths of the psychopath and the narcissist diverge. Equipped with this database about you, this repository of information and knowledge about who you are and what you want, what makes you tick, a theory of mind, the narcissist then proceeds to construct a fantasy. And in the narcissist's fantasy, you are supposed to cater to the narcissist's needs. You're supposed to fulfill the narcissist's dreams and wishes. You're supposed to actualize and realize the narcissist's hopes. And the narcissist uses the database that he had accumulated during the scanning, the called empathy scanning, uses this database to push your buttons in order to make you perform. It's all about performance. The narcissist perceives the shared fantasy as an exchange of love against performance that's his original experience with his mother. The psychopath, on the other hand, uses the database, the repository, to construct a fantasy that promises to fulfill all your dreams and wishes, compensate for everything that you have lacked as a child, all the hurts, take away all the pain, provide you with the ultimate love, etc., etc. It's a dream scheme. The narcissist uses the information that he has gleaned about you in the called empathy scanning phase to construct a fantasy that is essentially your fantasy.  He kind of materializes it like a medium materializes a spirit, ectoplasm. So the psychopath kind of dredges this fantasy, extracts the fantasy out of you.   It feels like home because it's you. The narcissist, on the other hand, uses the information to construct a fantasy where he feels at home, not you.  The psychopath distinguishes fantasy from reality. He has intact reality testing. He knows what he is doing. He is premeditated, it's intentional, it's deliberate. And in this sense, it's anti-social, sometimes criminal. The psychopath uses fantasy to manipulate you in order to obtain goals. This is known as Machiavellianism. The narcissists and the borderline, they use fantasy differently. They use fantasy in order to gratify themselves. The narcissist's fantasy is a mother figure who would provide him with unconditional love and the four S's. The borderline's fantasy is for an intimate partner who would regulate her, stabilize her, feel safe to her. Engender stability and predictability and determinacy and allow her to function. In other words, the borderline's main concern is to externalize regulation, to outsource her regulation, to project it onto the partner, to make it the partner's responsibility, to make her state of mind the partner's responsibility. The narcissist, on the other hand, is all about himself, self-gratification. Narcissistic supply, maintenance of grandiosity. The fantasy is a defense against reality so as to preserve the cognitive distortion of an inflated, fantastic self and so on and so forth. And you are just a helpmate.  And sometimes you're a playmate within the narcissist's fantasy, but it's 100% about him. Ironically, the psychopath's fantasy is 100% about you, but in a manipulative way, intended to compel you to collaborate with the psychopath on obtaining his goals. Now, all fantasies involve an external locus of control. The narcissist's shared fantasy revolves around an intimate partner who is converted into an internal figure and becomes a source, a source of supply, a source of sex, a source of services, and a source of safety in order to allay or ameliorate or mitigate the narcissist's abandonment anxiety, separation in security, and to re-establish object constancy. So that renders the narcissist dependent on the intimate partner within the shared fantasy, creates a feeling of an external locus of control. It's as if the narcissist is controlled from the outside by the fantasy, which involves his intimate partner. Gradually, of course, this creates paranoid ideation. If you are constantly controlled from the outside, you're beginning to feel helpless. You're beginning to be afraid, develop anxiety, stress. So this creates a persecutory mindset. Indeed, the narcissist's external locus of control is persecutory. The borderline's external locus of control within the fantasy is idealized. The borderline has a shared fantasy with the intimate partner. But whereas the narcissist's shared fantasy devolves into paranoia, devaluation, discard, the conversion of the partner into a persecutory object and an enemy, it ends badly. The narcissist's shared fantasy ends badly. The same way, the narcissist ended badly with his mother. So it's a reenactment of early childhood conflicts. The borderline's fantasy is ideal. It's Disneyland. It's pink. It's Barbie. It's wonderful. In the borderline's fantasy, the intimate partner is ideal. Because he is ideal, the borderline can safely idealize herself, the process of co-idealization. So the borderline's external locus of control is idealized. The secretary's external locus of control, where the belief is that only bad things can come from the outside. An idealized external locus of control, where the belief is that only good things can come from the outside. And this dictates the nature of the fantasy. The narcissist's fantasy is persecutory. It's paranoid. It's dangerous. It's dark. So the narcissist uses coercion to keep the intimate partner within the fantasy, to conform to the parameters of the fantasy, to continue to provide the four S's and continue to act as a maternal figure. All this is done via imposition. It's a power play. Coercion. Conflict. Because the external locus of control is persecutory. In the borderline's fantasy, the external locus of control is idealized. The fantasy is positive. The locus of control, albeit external, can be trusted. It's benign. It's loving. Caring. There's merger and fusion. It's a symbiotic state. So the borderline's fantasy, the borderline uses within her fantasy enmeshment and engulfment. Then she gets terrified. She has engulfment anxiety, but we'll not deal with it right now. So let's summarize. The psychopath's fantasy is manipulative. It's goal oriented. And the fantasy the psychopath constructs fits you like a hand in glove. It is your fantasy, not the psychopath's. The narcissist's fantasy is shared with you, but it is all about him. It reflects the narcissist's dreams and wishes and hopes and the narcissist's psychology. Not you. It's not your fantasy. It's the narcissist's fantasy. And he coerces you and cajoles you into his fantasy.  An important one. A mother figure, but still. The borderline's fantasy is about an ideal, ideal engulfing, important intimate partner or friend who provides regulation, safety and stability. And so the external locus of control of the narcissist is persecutory and paranoid. He expects his fantasy to deteriorate and degenerate, to become corrupted and to lead to very bad outcomes. So he uses coercion. The external locus of control is persecutory. And the only rational strategic choice is coercion to avoid the bad outcomes or to somehow control them or to somehow mitigate them. The borderline is a positive fantasy, a pink fantasy, where the intimate partner is part and parcel of the borderline's mind. She is meshed and fused with the intimate partner. And so she uses enmeshment. She uses a kind of exaggerated codependency. The coercion of the narcissist doesn't have to be physical. He doesn't have to involve abuse, although it often does. The narcissist uses a process that I call coercive snapshotting or coercive interjection. He forces you to conform to the idealized internal object that represents you in his mind. So he pushes you to change.  Because this is an unrealistic demand, coercive snapshotting or coercive interjection always fails. And when you do fail, this is perceived by the narcissist as intentional. You're frustrating him intentionally.  He converts you into a persecutory object into an enemy. The internal object now is not idealized. It's devalued and it's hostile. And to cope with this, the narcissist discards you and terminates the shared fantasy. The narcissist knows that his shared fantasy will not last. The features of devaluation and discard are inexorably built into the narcissist's shared fantasy. He anticipates loss. He knows that loss is inevitable and he prepares himself by preemptively abandoning you or dumping you or devaluing you or discarding you or whatever. The borderline's fantasy is everlasting. As far as the borderline is concerned, the fantasy could be eternal beyond the grave, if you wish. And so she has no incentive to devalue her partner or discard the partner until engulfment anxiety sets in. But that's a different dynamic. The psychopath's fantasy is very short-lived or short-lived. It is dependent on the realization of the goal. The goal having been accomplished, the fantasy is over. So these are the three types. Not narcissists and psychopaths and borderlines and co-dependence. They're exploitative. They're deceptive. And some of them are criminalized, especially psychopaths and malignant narcissists. They're criminalized or antisocial at the least. And that's because they all seek unconditional love from the universe. Exploitation, shortcuts, faking, criminal activities. It's like getting something from nothing. You don't invest. You don't commit. You don't work hard. You don't study into the small hours of the night. And yet, you're rich. Get rich quick. Yet, you're famous. Celebrity, famous for being famous. So these shortcuts are perceived as expressions of love by the universe. And this love is unconditional. It's not conditioned on performance. When the psychopath deceives someone, when he pulls a successful con and ends up with bazillions of dollars, the psychopath feels gratified because this is proof positive that the world loves him unconditionally. It's a fact. He didn't have to perform in order to end with a bazillion dollars. He didn't have to work hard for decades. He didn't have to do anything. Almost anything. And yet, the reward is disproportionate to the effort, the investment and the commitment. And this is an expression of love. It's a parental kind of love. And similarly, a narcissist, when a narcissist exploits his intimate partner, obtains services, supply, sex, and so on and so forth. And all he offers is a fantasy which is essentially self-directed. It's a fantasy that is self-centered, not a fantasy which involves the other partner. It's a fantasy above the narcissist and for the narcissist. So when the partner allows the narcissist to exploit her, to take advantage of her, in any way, sexual, financial, otherwise, the narcissist feels gratified because this is proof of maternal, unconditional love. The narcissist does not perceive the fantasy as a performance. He believes in the fantasy. He is embedded in the fantasy. He is reified by the fantasy. He trusts the fantasy.  There are no distinctions. So as far as he is concerned, he's not doing anything. He's indolent and yet, he ends up with a girl and with everything the girl has to offer. That is a sign of divine blessing, the love of the universe. These people are in a process of seeking maternal, unconditional love that they have not received as children. And if they can't get it in a straight and narrow way, they're going to get it in any other way. And the less they invest, the less they commit, the less effort they put in, the less hard work, the less detailed and thorough study, the less demigratified they are when the outcomes are favorable. When they end up with money or with sex or with anything, or with narcissistic supply, because this asymmetrical exchange, this unequal, this inequality between investment and result are perceived as a signal from the world, a signal from the universe. You're loved unconditionally.  This is known as entitlement. Narcissists are addicted to the fantasy and to narcissistic supply. Psychopaths are addicted to power. Borderlines are addicted to external regulation, which makes them feel safe. It's a womb-like, a matrix, a motion, an oceanic feeling. These are all addictions. And many of them have external addictions to substances or to processes, behavioral addictions such as gambling or shopping or whatever. And these addictions are also forms of fantasy. They involve a fantasy. The narcissist or the borderline, they have a love affair with the substance or with their addictive behavior. It's a shared fantasy. But the aim of the fantasy is regressive. It's to take the psychopath and the narcissist and the borderline back to childhood, where they should have been loved unconditionally as children and were not. And now they're trying to force people around them to give them unconditional love, unconditional money, unconditional power, unconditional narcissistic supply, unconditional sex, unconditional is the keyword, not conditioned on performance, not conditioned on investment, not conditioned on commitment, not conditioned on hard work, not conditioned on study, not conditioned on anything. I deserve, they say, the psychopath, the narcissist, the borderline. I deserve this. I'm entitled to this. I should be able to experience unconditional acceptance belonging and love just because of who I am. And if I cannot accomplish this in reality, I might as well either construct a fantasy within which I can secure these outcomes or use a fantasy to manipulate other people to give this unconditional love to me. These people interpret the outcomes, money, power, narcissistic supply as forms of love. It's all about the pursuit of love. How sad is this? How heartbreaking?


One of the key goals coming out of the Community Energy Plan was to try to look at ways of getting deep energy retrofits in our housing stock here in Holland. And looking at that, we identified that one of the ways that we might be able to help enable that for our customers would be to try to find a loan program that would be one stop shopping essentially where they could do the energy retrofit and place the loan right on their electric bill so they could actually repay it over time. That's called on-bill financing. Now we have this on-bill financing possibility that you can have your home assessed, get personalized, individualized ideas on what to do in your situation in your home will give you what that would cost. You can take that then and put it on your bill and the amount of money that you will save we're guaranteed you're going to save money on your bill will go to pay it off and we can help you in that. That's what you see with the on-bill program that having the longer terms provides greater affordability for homeowners having the underwriting criteria just be the on-time bill payment history opens it up to a greater number of people. Those are those are distinct components of the on-bill program that you can't find in other forms of financing. An additional investment of $2,000 really only amounts to a couple dozens of dollars per month over a 10-year period and so it makes it easier for people to say yes to these big these big improvements that are going to pay off in the long run. These homes need a lot of work and it is balanced between all those things that I have mentioned before between the weatherization, windows, appliances, HVAC equipment and when you do all those things it just makes a tremendous difference on the quality of life people have. The on-bill program has been amazing because it also gives access to people that might not be able to traditionally get a loan by going to the credit union or taking a home equity loan. It gives them different options in being able to do a full project so instead of just doing the bare minimum to make their house just a little bit better they're able to do the full project do everything that needs to be done and then be able to see the benefits of it all while being really reasonable for the financing and being simple for them to do and simple for them to have access to. Certainly having it on my bill and not have to worry about it is is a positive but also the fact that when the house is sold if the house gets sold that payment goes with the house. I expect my electricity bill will probably go down even though I'm using it more with the heat pump and my summer cooling costs will go down a lot. And so I think it really opens the door to a lot of people that one wouldn't do it at all and two certainly wouldn't go as deep and do as many things to make their home efficient safer and more comfortable. What I get excited about is our studies indicate that we have the potential to improve the overall energy efficiency of our housing stock by 50%. If we are able to reach that goal we then have the opportunity to save close to $10 million a year in utility bills. I think this program is great it's a great opportunity for the homeowner it's a win-win for seriously everybody involved the city the contractor and the homeowner. EESI has helped the city of Holland and other communities around the country to set up on-bill financing programs to help families cut energy bills. Thanks to our generous donors we are able to provide assistance to co-ops public utilities and local stakeholders at no cost. Please get in touch.