Month: November 2021

November 30, 2021 – Lessons From the Road, Part 2

November 30, 2021 /

Let me just say that, I am bushed.  The drive home wasn’t as smooth as originally anticipated.  Day 1 we drove from Houston to Blythe, California, that is 1200 miles.  The plan was to drive from Blythe to home at a little under 1000 miles.  After Day 1, it should have been easier – nope.

Sunday, we were only able to get 200 miles in 10 hours.  I kept watching the arrival time get later and later.  We got to the point that our arrival time exceeded my start time for the work day.  The freeway traffic was showing red from LA all the way to Sacramento and we were running on 5 hours of sleep.  We decided to bag it for the night.

It still took us nearly 14 hours to get home yesterday.  By that, I will be getting to my finer analysis of the trip below.

  • I was worried about the weather, I never considered the traffic in the drive.  I5 was a parking lot all day Sunday and I never had any idea this would be the case.  I think about traffic during the weekdays but not weekends.
  • The original plan for the trip did not included driving my mother in law back (with all of her stuff).  We barely had room to move and when we stopped, we had to move stuff to move people to move stuff to get in and out.
  • Our overall planning for the time in Texas was weak.  I expected to work two days,  which I did.  That being said, the rest of the family did nothing on Monday.  We spent all day Wednesday driving to San Antonio (200mi one way) and back even though we past it both ways on I10.  I think that we could have done a better job of planning the trip so that we could have done more sightseeing while we were there.
  • It was extremely difficult to keep 11 people on track with only stopping for fuel and minimizing the down time.  I selfishly wanted to get home as early as possible because I wanted as much time as possible before work the next day.  No one else had the same urgency that I did.
  • I think a daily cap of twelve hours is probably a good limit.  That is still a long time in the car but it leaves a little more room for not keeping a blistering schedule.  There wasn’t a ton of sites that I would have liked to taken a little more time but having some proper rest in between days would have been beneficial.
  • Overall, the kids did a good job for the most part, the adults not so much.  There were several incidents of inappropriate behavior for no good reason.  For that reason, I will never do a multiple family unit in one vehicle again.  Between the difference in urgency and the plain ridiculousness, I will not do it.  It is not to say that I wont travel together, just not in the same vehicle.  That way, I have the freedom to go ahead if I want to.

I will probably post one more time about the trip and a different subject matter this week.  I plan to talk about my assessment of the states we crossed and how they compared with Oregon.  There are definitely some differences.

End Your Programming Routine:  I am not trying to be negative,  I am saying that I would do things differently if I could. Overall, this was definitely an experience for the memories.  And, I am not saying all memories are good.  The focus was on providing an experience for the kids and providing one more family get together as its current dynamic.  I think that was accomplished.  I am pretty sure the kids felt like this was an adventure despite what my opinion was exactly and that is the best I could hope for.

November 29, 2021 – Lessons From the Road, Part 1

November 29, 2021 /

Never having done anything quite like this before, some things sound like a better idea then before you try it.  This was a two pronged approach to getting from our place to Texas.  The first one was that it would save us some money ultimately.  The second one was that it would be a family adventure.

There is no doubt that we have accomplished both but I also think that there are some lessons learned this trip, this time and this approach.  The original plan was to drive 36 hours straight from our house to Texas, hot swapping drivers along the way.

  • We didn’t actually rotate amongst all the drivers.  Adding additional drivers raised the overall price of the rental significantly to where we were starting to lose some of the cost advantage of driving over flying.  All of the driving was done by my wife and I, with me doing most of it.
  • Starting our trip on Friday evening was a good way to getting started from a time perspective but we were already starting to feel the fatigue Saturday morning from being up all night.  We haven’t solidified our trip home plans yet but it might be better to not start through the night and make the first day longer.
  • We only made 21 hours on the first day.  We had planned to go to El Paso but we only made it to Tucson.  That is where we stopped for dinner.  The thought of four more hours and arriving at a hotel at one in the morning to leave by seven was too much at that point.  
  • Thirty-six hours in a van is a long time.  I would give it a slight edge over an airplane from a leg and elbow room standpoint.  Of course the ability to stop and stretch was an advantage, but it was also a disadvantage that I will talk about next.
  • To think that nine other people were going to have the same dedication to the schedule and forethought about when and where to stop was a mistake.  We rarely went more than 100 miles without stopping.  And when we did, it was an event to get everyone back in the van quickly.  Out of our 19 hours traveling yesterday, over three of it was out of the car.
  • I never realized that my wrists and hands would be sore from driving.  There were very strong winds most of the day which required tight control of the steering wheel for a high-standing van blowing all over the road at any moment.   By late last night, my wrists were aching.  
  • Cell phone service coverage made the drive largely peaceful.  I am generally not a fan of the kids incessant use of the phone, however there was almost no fighting or complaining for the duration of the trip.  Between fatigue and phones the kids did a great job getting along.
  • Starting the trip with two cases of water and a tote worth of snacks was a good idea.  I think that it helped stave off some of the complaining along the way as well.  It also may have contributed to extra stoppage however.  

Getting in at 1AM and starting work at 7AM is less than ideal after a twenty hour drive.  We did also lose two hours (time zone change) by heading east.  That time is important when schedule is driving behavior.  

End Your Programming Routine:  I will definitely have a final opinion and recommendations in part 2 tomorrow.  We are still on the road as I write this.  That will be part of the story.

November 26, 2021 – Mindless Help

November 26, 2021 /

Maybe I am just in a snarky mood lately. In August, we received a letter from the Oregon Department of Human Services. My son’s were getting $700 a piece in the form of food stamps from the state for lack of access to food during the pandemic.  The truth is, I threw away the initial letters not believing that we were getting food stamps.  Sure enough one card showed up in the mail about a week later.  What I can only attribute to sloppy execution,  only one card showed up with the full $1400 on it.

Mind you, this is the same collection of helpful individuals that gave out free breakfasts and lunches five days a week to anyone 0-18 starting when school shut down. Lunches were bused to distribution points for those not within walking distance of the schools. Now, school lunches are now free and breakfast has always been free to my knowledge.

A little OpSec here, but last year we were audited by the state of Oregon for 2019 and they determined that we owed an additional $6000. Mind you, we paid $12,000 to the US government in addition to what was previously withheld. I am painting the picture that bills are high because my income is high.

I fail to see the connection between five days of free breakfast/lunch and a good income to qualifying for food stamps. I am not saying that no one had a hard time but the truth is I don’t know anyone that did. Someone I knew as a bartender lost her job but was making more on unemployment than working. She drew that benefit down to the last day before working again.

I do see kids using the card. I see them at Dollar Tree and Seven Eleven buying candy and junk food. I guess they didn’t have access to crap when everything was shut down and now we need to make up for it? Even the school lunches were half junk. Yes there were some fruits and vegetables along with chips and chocolate milk and rice crispy treats. The portions were such that it was almost lunch and dinner sized combined. I know because I saw the bag of carrots everyday unopened in the fridge with two too many chicken strips.

Never having food stamps before, I really don’t know the rules. It seems like they are pretty loose at ‘no prepared foods’. For instance, I learned that you can buy a fountain drink but you cannot add a straw.  Once that happens, it is considered ‘prepared’.  That really means almost anything edible at any store, no restaurants or alcohol. Everything else seems to be fair game.

End Your Programming Routine: I am extremely conflicted. This was my money taken from me to be used without discretion and thought. On the other hand, I do not need or want food stamps. I don’t mean to insinuate that people aren’t struggling. They likely exist in the shadows and the margins where I am not at. What I do know is that this country is awash with fraud and pork that are not necessary in the least.  The decision is we will spend our money, but I wish it didn’t happen in the first place.

November 25, 2021 – Happy Thanksgiving

November 25, 2021 /

I don’t often wear my Christianity on my sleeve but today I want to put it out there. We can be thankful for all the things we have and have done but I believe in putting the praise to my creator and savior. 

This has been a year of transition. I have been employed all year, some of it with Amazon and the majority with Cognizant. While I am not completely happy with what I am doing, I am grateful that I have a degree of stability and a solid income.

I am happy that my family is thriving. My wife continues to move beyond her health problems of ten years ago. Each one of my kids are becoming their own individuals and in a few short years will become independent. This trip to Texas is part of getting in our last bits of childhood and family as we know it.

I am happy to have this forum. While I haven’t done all the things I have hoped to have done, I find writing cathartic and a form of therapy. In some ways, I don’t know if I would enjoy podcasting as much. I do think that I will make an effort to try next year. While blogging may now be passé, I enjoy it. In some ways, I like the fact that there are few regular readers because it is like my own public journal. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty sure that I would like making this my full time endeavor, it is little steps at time.

There is a phrase that says stability breeds complacency.  I know that to be true.  I was happier when I was free (read: unemployed) but I was scared and still am to a degree about the future.  I guess when I get to the end, I will know for sure whether I made the right decision.  My retirement account was drained to get us through those two years.  Now, I need to not only build it up but also make up for lost time. 

Was it worth it to essentially end up at the same place?  My going in plan was to build a business that could earn an income such that I could compensate for my future plans, more like passive income.  Since I have not exactly done that, there is a degree of uncertainty that follows me around.  I think that leads directly my next item to be thankful for.

Hopefully, we all continue to grow and I think this year my spirituality has grown. I have had a more intimate relationship where I have ‘heard’ things that I never had.  I always thought that I was open, but this year I have made attempts to reconcile and seek answers with prayer.  It feels right.

End Your Programming Routine:  I don’t know if this is true or not.  It was said that the pilgrims took a break to celebrate and praise God before the long New England winter.  They didn’t know if they would make it to the next year or not but they did what they could and hoped for the best, knowing that this life is only a vessel to the next.  That is Thanksgiving.  

November 24, 2021 – Interesting Demographic Information

November 24, 2021 /

Last week, I wrote about ninth amendment permits us the right to create a toxic environment through local legislation. I just happened to run across this article titled ‘Where People In Portland Oregon Are Moving To the Most’. It is really misleading because it talks about the top 50 cities about where people are coming from or going.

I made that statement last Monday using hearsay and not documented facts. I guess that is why I am not exactly a journalist. However, when I analyze the data I think that it supports my case exactly. So if this was a court of law, I would parse this list into bits and justify my claims last week.

According to the data, the majority of the changes were incoming. The were large slices were from San Diego, LA and the Bay area. Like I said last week, “a better California”. There were also big numbers from Chicago, Boston, New York/Jersey, Atlanta, Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and other large metro areas. Again, who wouldn’t want to leave most of those places?

Many of the moves within the state are pretty understandable. When I graduated college, I too moved to the Portland metro area for opportunity. My professors only knew of one business that hired chemists in the area. At that time, I wasn’t ready to give up on Oregon with all of our family here, so Portland was the obvious choice.

It is the leaving that I found more interesting. There were three exceptions to places that were less conservative: Corvallis and Eugene which are both college towns that have 20,000 students and all of their support for that effort and Seattle. I don’t have a good grasp of that one.

I feel like Seattle and Portland have always been close. They share the same geographic positioning and climate. They are separated by about 3 hours of freeway and are similar in demographic makeup. My sister lives in that area, so I have been there some. From my long held opinion I have felt like Seattle was a more serious, mature and conservative Portland. That is how I am going to categorize that move. It does seem like the gap is narrowing between the two, so I would consider someone moving there a new start.

The balance of the other moves out are to places that I would consider ‘free-er’. They all would have lower tax rates for sure and definitely a more conservative mindset. Both high on the list Salem and Longview are commutable to Portland. Places such as Kennewick, Bend, Spokane, Salt Lake City and Boise fall into the American Redoubt portion of the country.

Others made the list as ‘I can see that’ such as Houston, Tucson, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Although I don’t know a lot about the politics, at least from a tax standpoint are more conservative.

From 2010-2019, Oregon was the number one destination for people moving into the state for several of those years. By far and away, those people moved into the Portland area. That also skews the analysis a bit. For sure a lot of people moved in, but when you look at the statistics, a lot moved out too as a result of ideological displacement. I have said it multiple times, that this is not the state that I grew up in. The left/right equilibrium no longer exists and this state has become politically unbearable for the moderates.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t cover everything here. There are some outliers still like more people moved to Philadelphia from Portland. I found the article in the link very interesting.  From a trend standpoint, I think it is pretty clear that that the data supports my accusation last week. 

November 23, 2021 – Repairing a Turntable

November 23, 2021 /

It has been a while since I produced a YouTube video. I find it strange that my channel has gained subscribers and views with so little activity. The YouTube channel was always to support this blog endeavor.  With that, I have been busy enough that I find it difficult to spend a lot of time building multi-media, see my problems with getting podcasting going.

It’s not that it is completely out of sight, out of mind.  Often, I think when I am almost done with something that I should have videoed it.  Sometimes when I wasn’t working, I would go back and redo things to get pictures or videos to post.  There is also some things that never made it onto a published video because I didn’t deem the quality good enough and I didn’t want to redo it.

As long as I am blathering about unrelated things to today’s topic, I found a workaround to my editing problem.  I downloaded a plugin to use an alternate editor than the default WordPress editor.  It works on all devices, but it has more limited functionality and is a little more difficult to use.  The default one has imbed capability for YouTube and gallery layout for photos, but at least this one works. 

I am posting using my iPad this week.  I purchased a Bluetooth keyboard to be able to type better and it is OK.  At least I don’t have to tote around multiple laptops.  For now, I am happier with how things are working.

This turntable was purchased second hand. It is possible that we overpaid at $30 but I don’t think so. It needed a new belt and a new stylus. Of course, I really didn’t know that but I speculated that it was just some maintenance to get things working.

Since getting it to spin, I have been pretty busy so I haven’t played around with it much.  I do see a huge difference between the chintzy, suit-case style that we tried out a year ago and this one.  The sound is much richer and base heavy, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Additionally, a couple of the records that we bought were used and the good songs really didn’t play well.  I suppose that was due to wear.  I am now happy to say that they play nicely on this turntable.  I do hear a slight sound level difference when the song changes to the worn spots in the record, but it still sounds good.

All in all, I would call this a success.  I still have some challenges with a CD carousel.  In fact, I bought a second one but it neither are working properly.  Maybe I will make another video about repairing that piece of equipment if I can figure out what is exactly wrong.   Right now, it would be a video about a failed attempt, not super helpful. 

End Your Programming Routine:  I am looking forward to getting my table built so I can move all of this audio gear into my office.   There is nothing like rocking out while you are working or changing the sound as your mood changes.  The computer speakers are a distant second to quality audio sound; they work but are un-inspiring.

November 22, 2021 – On the Road Again

November 22, 2021 /

This is new. It has been a long time since we have lived significantly apart from close relatives. We are on a big family road-trip from Oregon to Texas so that we can spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s mother. Our family has done some long trips, but we rented a van and we are also going with my sister-in-law’s family.

When you start to look at the economics of the situation, nine tickets costs roughly $3600. We plan on spending half by hot switching drivers and bee lining to Texas. Granted, we will lose time but this is an adventure. We may never do this again but it is something to try.

There are definitely risks. Weather and crossing the Rockies leave uncertainty in the trip. Looking at the weather mid-last week, it was looking clear for the shortest direction, due southeast. The actual decision for the travel route was decided right before we left.  We travelled the Southwest route which was nice because I had never been on that particular freeway.

Being new at my job, I barely have any time off. So, I plan to working a couple of days as well. It kind of sucks, but the real point of the trip is to provide the family with an adventure. I have stubbed out a couple articles for the week, so we will see if I can keep it up this week.

This is the culmination of a difficult fall. My in-laws originally went to Texas in the early summer to seek treatment for my mother-in-law. Between my father-in-law dying and my wife trying to maintain a job and manage treatment at the same time, hopefully this is a celebration of a new season. Because her prognosis is not positive, this may be our last Thanksgiving and so we are pulling out the stops to make it happen.

I am going to write more about this evolving situation, but not now. It is real, it is raw and it is personal. While everyone has the right to manage their own affairs and control information as they see fit, it doesn’t mean that those decisions don’t have a billiard ball effect. One person may be at peace with the situation while others may have different feelings. It may ultimately be your decision and your outcome but those decisions have consequences. We all have a responsibility to handle them in an appropriate fashion even if we perceive them as ‘not what we would do’ particularly when we are observers. That is so difficult.

Most of the post was written before the trip.  I am in Houston now and I will summarize some lessons learned next week.  I already have all of the posts for this week planned out since it was a holiday week and we were on the road I wanted to get a jumpstart on everything.

End Your Programming Routine: The kids are out of school all week, it is a holiday week so why not? Even though we have done similar things, my sister-in-laws family has not.  

After arriving last night at 1 AM, there are definitely things I learned about our choices that I will share.    For now, going to enjoy a little warmer weather and hopefully get a chance to see some new sights and enjoy some family time this week.

November 19, 2021 – Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

November 19, 2021 /

I have been taking my time with this one. It was the September 2021 selection for the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. As part of our gettogether, we did olive oil tasting and made dishes where olive oil was the main or standout component. In contrast to the August selection, I was fascinated with this one. I had some high level knowledge of the problems with the industry but this book really gets into the ring with them.

The book starts out with the historical references to olive oil in lore such as in Homer’s Odyssey, to the growth of culture via the Mediterranean people, it’s historical uses and importance to society. Then it travels into the scandalous world and wanders around into the new world and the push for a cleaner industry.

I have to say, this is definitely a fascinating book. Apparently, the Romans developed a welfare system whereby olive oil was distributed to the population. As a result, one entire hill in Rome is the remnants of the clay vessels that were cast aside when empty. In another fact, oil was stored in basements under buildings and when the cities were invaded and burned, so did the oil. Apparently, that act is what preserved writing on clay tablets by making them hard.

I never realized that there was a distinction in culture between the olive eating culture and the animal fat culture. That line was precisely where olive trees stopped growing. This section gets into the politics of propaganda and the regional developed tastes by proximity to the raw ingredients.

The book talks about how olive oil is made, all grades. It talks about the economics of olive growing and the distribution industry. It talks about the chemistry of olive oil, why it is good and what is wrong with the industry. It is something that I never thought I was that interested in and makes me want to consider doing something in that field.

If you are to believe the book, and I do then I think it is a forgone conclusion that nearly all oil that the non-Mediterranean person can obtain is poor quality at least and likely adulterated with other oils. That in of itself is not the end of the world, but it does mean that there are less associated benefits to that type of oil. What makes it special are the anti-oxidants present in the oil which rapidly degrade and make it equivalent to all the other oils out there.

On that note, the more flavors present the more likely it is fresh. So, if you taste the oil and it has some life in it, then it is more likely it is a good one. According to the book, over fifty percent of the oil in this country is not pure extra virgin and that was ten years ago. In contrast, over 90% of the European oils are not pure. It was also noted that nearly every oil at the supermarket this was the case as well as being rancid.

I am not sure what to do at this point. For sure, I am not going to dump what I already have. According to figures in the book, it costs 9 euros per liter to produce. With mark-up (and conversion), I would expect $20/quart is a bare minimum number to be looking for the real stuff. I will be keeping an eye out for a better solution and product. Most likely, the best way to get fresh and quality is to buy direct from the source. Look for single source producers in the US or Australia. There are additional resources in the book.

End Your Programming Routine: Hopefully my exuberance came through, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The characters are complicated: rich one day and convicts the next. Government comes off as impartial yet graft runs amok. Everyone knows a little to a lot but no one is willing to speak on total authority as it is always the other guy. If you are interested in food, history, true crime or just something different, I would recommend this book.

November 18, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

November 18, 2021 /

I have had a red-dot sight ready to mount on a shotgun for almost a year now. Part of what was holding me back is that I already had an existing red dot sight mounted and sited in so I wasn’t going to replace it until I got to a point were sighting in was next on my agenda. Otherwise I would end up with a non-functional firearm.

Times and plans have changed. I started writing this over two weeks ago with plans to go to the range on the weekend. I got busy, plans changed and I went ahead and swapped the sight out with the intention to sight it in. This post is not about my failures, but more to learn something.

I actually learned something. When I bought the sight, it is setup (height wise) to be used on an AR. Something I don’t really understand is why those sights stand so high, 1 1/2″ above the barrel. The best bore line from a physics point of view is as close as you can get to the barrel. At an exorbitant cost of $90, I got what is called a low-mount base.

When I finally decided to mount the sight, the existing sight I had on was called a Weaver mount (left below). It is a series of slots on an aluminum plate that a screw sits in the slot and clamps two dovetail ends over the rail. It is a pretty simple and strong connection compared to other existing solutions.

But the new sight has what is called a picatinny connection (right below). This is very similar to a Weaver only larger slots. It is used in mil-spec or tactical applications. That means, I needed to also replace the plate to mount the sight.

If you are like me and never paid much attention to the jargon, Weaver bases can be mounted on picatinny rails but not vice versa because of the size of the mounting screw and the slot. I suppose if you do a lot of swapping, then you probably know all of this. But hopefully is is helpful for people like me.

A couple of other notes here. First, sights are not allowed in clay sports such as trap and sporting clays. That is largely because they are not allowing in bird hunting, with the exception of turkeys. I think sights are encouraged in other shooting sports like three gun and it is a really good idea if you are hunting with slugs. Finally, sights are also encouraged in self defense setups. So, know what you are aiming for, it can help with the decision to use or not use sights. Remember too that you should check your sights each time you remove them as the point of impact may have shifted. So, don’t plan on willy-nilly changing with repeatable results. I haven’t had any problems but I also don’t do it a lot and I check them.

This is less about attachment types and more about sights themselves. Red dots tend to specify 2-5 Minutes of Accuracy (MOA). The more inexpensive, the greater the MOA rating. Taking a 5 MOA sight, that means that at 100 yards, you should expect a group of 5 inches. The closer you are, the smaller your expected groups, in general. For precision shooting, use a rifle (preferred) or traditional glass scope (better). But slugs should be limited in range because of low velocity and high mass causes large drop over long distances.

End Your Programming Routine: It seems like people generally fall into two camps. There are the hunter and the tactical leaning types. Weaver bases are more prevalent on the hunting side and picatinny more on the tactical side. I personally think Weaver sights are more petit and make a firearm look better, not that it really matters. But, picatinny are more universal and for that reason more practical.

November 17, 2021 – What Does Two is One Mean?

November 17, 2021 /

There is a saying in preparedness that is turned into of a nursery rhyme. It ultimately starts to get ridiculous but I think I can build a reasonable use case today. It goes like this “Two is one and one is none, three is for me…” Apparently, it is a saying from the Navy Seals.

As promptly as I noticed my desktop working last Saturday, it stopped working again. I was able to post on Monday and I was back to the laptop yesterday. There was an update Monday night that I purposefully ran and then things stopped working. That of course re-ignited my quest to resolve the problem for a number of reasons. The first was that carrying two laptops was heavy. The second is that we are off to to Texas on Friday and I am going to be working several days while there, so that means two laptops again.

The truth is, I could probably get by using my issued computer, but I don’t really want to do that. All of my linking to One Drive and other services I use to make this work would mess with my business configuration. I still suspect that this problem is something to do with WordPress for reasons I will outline below.

So what does two is one, one is none mean in this scenario?

DeviceOSBuild
DesktopWindows 10 Home21H1Not Working
LaptopWindows 10 Home20H2Working
iPhoneIOS14.8.1 Not Working
iPadIOS15.1 Not Working

The reason I am thinking the problem is with WordPress is the apparent ‘random’ behavior of it working. Doing nothing over the course of a week and it works, after not working for two weeks prior. Then running an update and it stops working.

The real reason however is that it works on one device and not three others. Device problems should manifest as working on three out of four devices or working on one operating system and not the other or working with one browser but not another. There are of course other variables that I have also tried

  • WAN connection type
  • Browser
  • Hardware configuration
  • Other installed applications

Looking at my list of variables, I do have some things that I haven’t tried. For instance, I have tried wired and wi-fi but I haven’t tried cellular. Although, for my one device that is working is on wireless. Low and behold, when I switched off of wi-fi to cellular only, I can login to the post editor on my phone.

That potentially rules out operating system. It also narrows down my focus to something to do with the internet. I have already rebooted my equipment, refreshed my DNS setting and cleared my browser cache, but I will keep looking in this area for the answer.

End Your Programming Routine: I am sure the Navy Seals meant that if you didn’t have an extra magazine and the one you have is broken, you are ‘f’-d. In this case, I am trying to convey that without extra devices and connections, I would never be able to troubleshoot, let alone continue to post. Maybe, I would put more urgency if I only had one device but I have tried pretty hard already. I do think I am getting close.