Month: April 2022

April 13, 2022 – Lessons Under the Light

April 13, 2022 /

Every year I learn something. Given my state of having a place to plant my starts, I am more concerned about identifying the variables then the results thereof. Today, I am going to talk about how my starts are doing.

Before that, I thought that I would mention that it is currently snowing. We are 9 days away from the average annual last frost date. Granted, it is not actually freezing, it is 34 degrees but it is worth noting for those itching to get starts into the ground. By all accounts, I think this is going to be one of those later years because we have this forecast for the foreseeable future.

What did I do differently this year? Well, I changed from fluorescent to LED grow lights was the biggest thing. I don’t know if it was coincidence or not but I did have a pretty high germination rate. This year I also rotated the tray every couple of days. I was trying to get more equal light and heat distribution.

My observation is that different plats are growing at different rates. this makes it difficult to have the optimum conditions for all the items in the trays. For instance, initially, I had five of six habanero seeds germinate. Whereas last year, I think that I only had one pepper germinate. These were new seeds, so maybe it was a vitality problem but I don’t think so. Four of six jalapenos germinated and three of six bell peppers germinated and those were the same seeds from last year. So, something of those variables I changed last year worked.

Getting to my point now, even though the peppers germinated, I don think any of them are going to make it. It seems like the grow lights are too intense and are burning the dicots (the two initial leaves that come up with the start). Every day, I am watching them slowly wither from the intensity of the light.

The tomatoes on the other hand are doing better than I have ever seen. They are the reason I had to take the humidity dome of as they were touching the top within two weeks. They are clearly adapted and thriving in the environment. Ideally, with each of these plants I would have the capability to cover and move the light higher or lower to get the best results.

I have thought about the idea that maybe I should upsize the pots that they are in. This is the six week mark for the seedlings and they are probably going to stay potted for the foreseeable future. I feel like six inch is probably the optimum size, so maybe I will try to get this done this weekend. The last couple of years that I have been dragging my feet getting stuff potted, the roots were highly constrained in these little starter cells.

End Your Programming Routine: I am pretty sure that I can get the tomatoes to survive. The rest of them, I will cross my fingers. But, like I said in the beginning I had a pretty poor germination rate over the last couple of years so as much as I want to have a yield, I am focusing on getting stuff started first.

April 12, 2022 – Is a Moustache ‘Pervy’?

April 12, 2022 /

I had to laugh a little bit on Sunday. When church was over, the young lady that works with the youth asked me why I decided to grow a moustache as she thought it made me ‘look a little pervy’.

We have all heard the term pornstache, it wasn’t exactly the area I was going for. But, in a small way it was and let me explain. It think for men, facial hair goes through trends. I saw one article that said the optimum five o’clock shadow was 10 days. I feel like the trend is some form of beard. There is the hipster/lumberjack type and then there is the playboy type.

We have had the goatee trend 15 or twenty years ago. Of course, clean shaven is always classic. I often go clean shaven when I have to do work in food plants so I don’t have to wear a beard net or additional face covering. But, the mustache is passé. To me, it is a counter culture statement. It says I know what the trends are and I am going to go contrary to them.

For a long time, I resisted this particular facial hair for the simple reason that my dad has had a moustache for many years. Quite simply I didn’t want to follow in his likeness. However, I have started changing my opinion and it has to do with how I would like to be perceived. It really has to do with the circles that you run around in.

Probably, for a college age lady, moustaches on peers bring up the creep factor when the trend is clearly bears or clean shaven. I see a lot of Indians with only moustaches, that is a cultural appearance. My angle is more mature cowboy; think Sam Elliot or Shaun Johnston.

I suppose that my argument is that context is important. What if I said, “Your skin looks a little dark. Are you sure that you are not about to commit a crime?” Or, “Are you sure you work for a living?” I think we all know those statements are not socially acceptable. It is our experiences or nurturing that form our opinions regardless of right or wrong.

End Your Programming Routine: It is just hair. It can be removed or changed. I understand the sentiment, but you tell me? Is this more pornstache or distinguished western? I definitely won’t have it forever, I get tired of the look and the grooming. For now, it is a tiny bit fun to provoke reaction.

April 11, 2022 – Where Do I Go From Here?

April 11, 2022 /

I have to admit, April is a month that gets in my head. Going all the way back to high school, there were always some life altering event that happened in the month. Not so much lately, but the feeling is still there. I know it is not real, but I am ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ as they say.

I do feel raped with my five figure tax bill every year. But, that is not it. I was thinking about the fact that I haven’t even made a effort into investigating podcasting year to date. I don’t really think so. Maybe it is the weather? We are having a day or two of nice weather with a couple days of wet, cold and freezing.

I know when travel starts to ramp up, I feel it is all I can do to keep up. My projects go on hold because all of my free time is catching up for missing other things during the week. My garage is again becoming a garbage/donation pit. I have a growing dump load in addition to an overflow of items that are slated to be given away. My son’s Go-Cart project is literally strewn all across the remainder of any open space. His car cover is collapsing and my seedlings will be looking for a home in a few weeks.

I suppose this is what the problem is. I am overwhelmed by all the things I don’t really want to do. Because of that, I feel guilty doing the things I want to do, so I don’t do them. That makes me feel anxious and I get stuck in a circle of inactivity. To be honest, that doesn’t help things either when I look at all of the wasted time after the fact.

I don’t think any of that is strictly April (at this point). But logically, this is a point of transition. We are moving in-between Winter and Summer and we are not quite either. I am moving between strictly work from home and obligations that require travel. I am also in the middle of the seasonal change and other changes at home. I do hold the opinion that people that thrive during turmoil are the next generation of success.

If you think about it, turmoil is the time where there is no particular force or clear winner. Therefore, people that pick a direction and thrive become the status quo when the turmoil settles down. Using one example, we are in rampant inflation. People that are using crypto currency, specifically Bitcoin have seen astronomical deflation in the same period. This is a prediction, but when the dollar finally collapses, those that have picked the new best direction are going to be clear leaders in the financial space.

I have heard and I tend to agree that we are in the midst of a financial collapse. It is kind of like getting fat. You don’t really know it is happening until you wake up and look at where you were a year ago and realize that you are fat. It is the incremental changes that happen every day that matter but it is the trend over a period of time that aggregates the overall result.

What does getting fat, Bitcoin and anxiety have to do with each other? Nothing really. I suppose that I am telling myself that I know where I am at and I know that doing nothing is not really helpful so I need to pick a direction to go. Trust me, I know that it is difficult to get energized for the next thing when you know that every week is jam packed and travel is again looming.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t know that I was going to write this today. In fact, I haven’t planned anything for the entire week since I was gone last week and too busy with commitments over the weekend to gather content. Part of why I do this is I find it helpful for me to sort things out as well. I do want be real. Life isn’t always about winning or being the best or knowing everything but adjusting to the circumstances to thrive.

April 8, 2022 – My New Travel Backpack

April 8, 2022 /

February 2015, I purchased a new Swiss Gear Backpack to replace my company issue Dell laptop. While not at the end of it’s life the end was near. Most of all, I spent a lot of time in China and I felt very subconscious advertising Dell in a third world county. While nothing ever happened, I really felt like something less conspicuous would be a better choice.

I only used that backpack for a few months before the company gave me a new backpack with the company logo on it. At that time I felt compelled to wear the brand and switch. The Swiss Gear went into backup mode for a few months until my nephew needed a replacement and he used it to the point of destruction.

From the day I switched, I regretted it. I thought maybe it would grow on me but it didn’t. Every time I looked at it and more so used it I was reminded of my poor decision. Even the embroidered company brand promise was a lie ”Technology Made Easy and Effective”. A more fitting brand promise would have been ”Difficult to Work With and Needlessly Complicated”.

The bag itself was well made with quality materials but poorly designed. Access to the main compartment was choked by the opening only allowing 1/3 of the compartment. The internal volume barely allowed my computer, notepad, charger and a small accessory bag. Travel with anything more than a book to read basically filled the bag to capacity.

Fortunately, I didn’t do much business travel while it was in service. Lately, I have been doing quite a bit more, so I got a replacement. I wrote about my day bag I bought about a year ago. My requirements for that were maximum flexibility. I wanted it to hold whatever without much care for dedicated organization. Translation, I wanted one big pouch. I could add organizers if I wanted, but mostly to hold what I wanted.

My business bag is different. I work out of it, I travel with it. I keep all of the things I need to do my job when I when I am not in the office. For those of you that dont work on the road, there are different sized bags for different laptops. I happen to have a 17” laptop which means I need a bag on the larger size (or at least to fit). I wanted it to be tough, professional and have diminutive branding.

Since I have new computer glasses, I wanted a place to keep those safe. I wanted some minimal organization for office supplies. And I wanted enough room to add a book and some travel extras like if I chose to stuff a jacket or lunch. There are some good places to look like REI or Sportsman’s Warehouse, online selection is nearly limitless. Trying to even see the features of a bag online are often impossible because they don’t show scale oftentimes only the front and back without the interior pockets.

I settled on an Ogio brand. Sometimes their logo use is garish, this one is OK. At least I don’t tend to recognize it as a logo when I see it. I have an Ogio duffle bag that is 20 years old and has worn like steel so I feel good about the durability. There is full access to my laptop and my iPad in a TSA full zip pocket and it is a little bigger than my old one.

All is not roses and my glasses case does not fit into the specified pocket. There are several other small organizers thar are advertised for a phone or other small item. Those pockets are too small and I don’t tend to leave my phone in my bag, so kind of useless. The dirty little secret is that the more of these do-dads that don’t work there are the less overall volume there is. In a way making the bag less functional.

End Your Programming Routine: This is my first trip with the bag. As much as I hated the old one, everything had a place. I am still getting used to what pocket is what and what zipper to use. It definitely has more space and a better potential for efficient organization. Maybe it is the thought of not looking at the old bag that is better but I am still happier with my choice.

April 7, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 7, 2022 /

A few years ago, I had a varmint problem. I will be vague because what I did was technically not legal. Nevertheless, a few years before that I had purchased an inexpensive Crossman bb/pellet rifle. That rifle did the job. The only complaint that I had was a followup shot took ten additional pumps to get the right pressure.

I have used that rifle for the same purpose several times since. However, I am always extremely leary of doing so because if the first shot doesn’t do the job, there is a wounded animal on the loose and I really don’t want that. I also bought some subsonic 22LR and those were very quiet. I have never used those because I haven’t had the opportunity since I purchased them

A word about urban shooting. This needs to be done with extreme caution. It is illegal to discharge an air rifle (and 22LR for that matter) in the city limits. A person needs to be extremely cautious about where that shot is going if you miss. I don’t worry much about BB’s, they can bounce off hard surfaces and tend to be very inaccurate. But, pellets can penetrate fencing, 3/4 plywood and even be fatal.

I have had my eye on a spring piston pellet gun. With one pump, there is more energy than that ten pump combo rifle. Of course it is also four times as expensive. I recently purchased a Crossman Optimus to do this job (on the left).

One thing to note is these rifles need some break in. You will see in my target the progression of the days. The center target was my first day, then I moved to upper right, lower right, upper left and then finally lower left. I only messed with the scope on the center target. Right now, I am shooting until the groups become consistent, which I think they are after 50 shots. Then I will sight the scope in.

I read that older rifles needed more in the range of hundreds to thousands of pellets to become consistent. I have also read that the break in time has gotten much shorter. I am still function firing right now. I have my pellet trap setup at 10 yards in the basement and I fire a few rounds during the day. It is a nice stress reliever.

This rifle is in 0.177” bore diameter There are 0.22” and 0.25” which are technically much better at pest removal. Remember that energy is mass * velocity * velocity. That means a bigger pellet is going to have more energy at the same velocity. The good news is that smaller pellets are easier to deliver faster. And you can see by the equation that velocity has a much bigger effect on energy than mass.

My decision to go to the 0.177 was to share pellets between the two rifles. I don’t like stocking multiple calibers if I don’t need to. The one downside to the rifle is that it is very loud when it fires. The spring mechanism is unexpectedly noisy. Since air rifles are not firearms, there are many models that have integrated suppressors, mine does not have that and the pellets are firing supersonic anyway which significantly reduces the efficacy of such a device.

End Your Programming Routine: If you read the journals of Lewis and Clark, you would know that they used a pre-charged pneumatic air rifle to kill all kinds of game including bear and elk. Those are making a comeback as well but they require a SCUBA tank to fill the reservoir. I wanted something simpler and less dependent on another input. I am rather enjoying my mid-day marksmanship sessions.

April 6, 2022 – Leak Testing

April 6, 2022 /

When I worked in environmental chemistry. We has an entire lab filled with instruments that used scientific grade gas 24/7 whether we were running tests or not. We had an entire bank of cylinders because we wanted redundancy and not to come in on the weekends.

A leak meant lost analysis time, wasted money and potentially even a compromised sample. They weren’t common but they did happen. When we changed cylinders we did them three at a time. Leaks are serious business in chemical manufacturing but they are something the regular person should know about as well.

What is driving this today? This is triggered by my keg testing. One of the simplest, cheapest and best ways is to do this is use a soap solution. Of course, the this is only works when the piping is under pressure. The good news is that vacuum lines are pretty rare.

When new plumbing is installed, the system is first sealed and pressurized. The system is left overnight and pressure loss is measured overnight. Any amount of loss is clearly a leak. What happens next? You have to find the leak.

The first place to check is all of the fittings or joints. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a leak is sourced from a poor connection. Glued in joints have to be cut and replaced. Screwed in fittings may have too much tape or not enough or are not supposed to have any thread sealant. Compression fittings may be tightened to much or not enough depending on whether they have rubber o-rings or not. Ferrule type fittings sometimes the ferrule is not seated properly. Those have to be replaced.

There are gas detectors for propane or natural gas. Liquids are often observable as drips. As I said above, my go to is a soap solution. The one in the picture below I purchased because I wanted some kind of applicator so I didn’t make a mess all over the place. You can look up recipes online but essentially is is a very dilute soap and water solution. Escaping gas forces bubbles to form at the location of the leak.

To use, open the bottle. It has an applicator brush like PVC cement. You simply wipe the solution around the fitting or suspected area of a leak and look for bubbles. I wanted to check all of the fittings around the regulator and gas lines because I was unsure as to the viability of all the gaskets and O-rings. Turns out that I didn’t find any leaks.

End Your Programming Routine: Leaks can be expensive. But more so than that they are inconvenient. Gas suppliers are open Monday through Friday, 8-5. Imagine that you are in the middle of your party and you lose your CO2. That would be a bummer. It would probably be a good idea to get a second tank for that reason. But again, this is still an experiment at this stage. If I decide to make a full commitment, then I will definitely get a second tank.

April 5, 2022 – Keg Testing

April 5, 2022 /

My beer is ready for kegging. It has been lagering for four weeks. However, I don’t even know if this system works or leaks for that matter. The last thing I want to do is transfer my time and money into something that is not going to work.

This last weekend, I got my CO2 cylinder filled and I also learned something. Cylinders are pressure tested every five years. A refill is $18 but a pressure test is another $20. My cylinder was last tested in 2017, so of course it was expired. It wasn’t quite the deal that I was hoping for, since the homebrewing store charges $36 for a cylinder but hopefully this will be the last time in the next five years that I have to recertify.

I disassembled everything and checked the cleanliness, at least that was good. I connected the regulator to the cylinder and that was leak free. The Cornelius keg held pressure. I filled it up with water and pushed it through the system. Everything checks out. I have some monkeying to do with the pressure coming out of the regulator but I don’t want to do that until I do it with the beer.

Before I connect the beer, I want to replace the tubing to the tap. There is some residue dried inside. I went to the store to buy replacement tubing, but I didn’t find an exact match. The current tubing is 3/16 inner diameter (ID) and 7/16 outer diameter (OD). This is pretty thick stuff. So, I thought I would order it.

Looking at the replacement connections, they are 1/4″ hose barbs. This means that the nipple sticking out is sized for 1/4″ ID tubing, not 3/16″. This is doable, generally you can force a smaller tube onto a larger connection, but why? So, I am going to purchase the proper sized tubing which will make maintenance much easier in the future.

Looks like the original tubing is rated at 75psi. I am going to go with the larger diameter tubing because the regulator is pushing out 12 psi in this case. Pressure is a measure of a given mass of material in a set volume. It is the regulators job to allow a certain amount of gas to pass until the set pressure is reached. If I were to have multiple kegs attached, it would take more mass (of gas) to pressure two kegs, but it would still regulate at 12psi. It just might take more time.

End Your Programming Routine: Looks like things are perking up for the Cinco de Mayo inauguration. Let’s hope that the beer stands up to the hype and effort. I tasted it this weekend and I was not as happy as the first tasting. I do feel like it was too cold because it tasted like flat beer. So, I will be messing with temperature and CO2 as well as getting the menu ready.

April 4, 2022 – Smart TVs Suck

April 4, 2022 /

In my long term plan, I am going to hang a TV on the wall of my office. I have an eye out for a deal and I am not in a hurry. It is mostly to keep my techno-junk working and other experiments in audio and video. I plan on connecting it to my desktop in my office as a second monitor.

Because my space is small, I am am looking at 32-40″ range TV. It seems like 40″ is no longer a thing and they are either 32 or 43 inches (new) now. My preference would be 43″ of the two but I think either would be fine. I don’t want it bad enough to spend $150-200 at this point. This keeps me looking on the second hand market.

We got our first smart TV in 2009. It was a Panasonic plasma. I think is measured 55″. We still have it and it still works great for the most part. When we first bought it, I think it was rare and a more expensive option to have a smart TV. The applications worked for a number of years with a low number of issues. About 2018, the support started ending for some of the applications and now, none of them work.

Our second smart TV was an inexpensive 32″ Magnavox TV. I think this was purchased around 2012. Originally, we thought it was ideal that we could have the smart capability without a second device at an inexpensive price. Applications for this TV were less stable than the Panasonic and they started not working around the same time.

Today, it is pretty rare to see a TV that is not a Smart TV and that is not a good thing in my opinion. Our last TV was a black Friday special. In my opinion, it is a POS. When I was trying to get the Super Bowl going, I couldn’t get it switched from the apps to TV. It is not infrequent that you have to pull the power from the cord because neither the remote or the power button will shut off the TV.

From this point forward, I am solidly in the camp that I don’t want a smart TV again. My searching in the new category, I find it difficult to see anything that is not smart. Just on a whim, I searched ‘why do smart TVs suck?’ It would seem like I am not alone in my opinion. It is one thing that the apps become unusable, but it is completely another when the device does not even function properly.

I actually found this article posted by a local electronics store.

After reading this article, now I don’t even know that I am interested in an inexpensive TV (new at least). It is not like I have state secrets or anything, but I certainly bristle at the idea of Google collecting data and potentially allowing the Chinese log into my devices.

Yesterday, I was listening to the Fine Homebuilding Podcast and they were talking about some smart appliance whereby an incorrect software update was sent. Now that particular appliance is essentially broken requiring a service call to fix it because it can no longer connect to the internet or even run the appropriate software.

End Your Programming Routine: As a person employed in the software industry and having some direct exposure to the Internet of Things (IOT), I have personally watched things not go smoothly in this area for years. The reality is the industry is hell bent on pushing this just like cars will electric. This supports the planned obsolescence model and will simply keep accelerating. I side with Benjamin Franklin “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

April 1, 2022 – Marking Another April Fool’s Day

April 1, 2022 /

Along with Festivus, this might be in the AltF4 collection of recognized holidays. In tradition, I am supposed to play a prank on you guys. However, I have never been into playing practical jokes. I suppose it is my one areas of empathy.

I like jokes but not so much pranks. I think the difference is the physicality. When I was in college, some of the guys thought it was funny to pretend to trip and dump an entire 32oz drink all over you. It only happened to me a time or two, so no big deal but it wasn’t so fun for the person getting drenched with soda. About ten years ago, one of my coworkers bought donuts and injected them with horseradish (or something). I was out of town that day so I missed that one.

A few years ago, my wife played several tricks on my sons. She froze the milk in the cereal bowl (and a couple of things I cant remember). That triggered one of my sons to go whole hog on April Fools. Two years ago, he setoff some kind of stink bomb in our room in the middle of the night and then tried to saran wrap the door. It didn’t fully work but the prank was definitely not appreciated.

I could probably go for some kind of hidden camera ‘What Would You Do?’ type prank. Not a prank, but some kind of skit, sketch or otherwise unusual public behavior would be funny by me. Alternatively the video below has very harmless pranks. We have tons of videos of pranks and examples. It was one of the premises of America’s Funniest Videos.

End Your Programming Routine: The thing for me is that both parties should be able to laugh. Waking up to a house of burning sulfur for hours is not my idea of a good prank. In the end, you know your friends and family and yourself. So, maybe they like getting a 32oz soda dumped on them but I doubt it. Have fun and let me know what you come up with.