Month: August 2022

August 17, 2022 – Forget the Projects, There are Car Problems

August 17, 2022 /

Just because I haven’t posted about my project in the last two weeks, doesn’t mean I am not working on it. The siding is done, I am working on the rake board and that is about done so this is finally wrapped up. Check out YouTube for more on that.

My niece was having some issues with her car. She asked me to take a look at things. One was an obnoxious clicking noise (even when the car was off) and the other was a headlight that wasn’t working. She bought the actuator after watching some YouTube videos. I took a look at the headlight.

It turns out that there are two actuators in the glove box area. after swapping the closest one, it was still making the clicking noise. Fortunately, the second one was the exact same part, so I took the old one from the front and put it in the back. Problem solved. You can see from the picture that the culprit is broken teeth on the plastic gear inside the housing.

Supposedly, my nephew changed the headlight bulb a couple months ago. I suspected that the problem was bigger than the bulb. Well, it didn’t take long to identify the problem. One wire was broken and the connector was burned (and the bulb was ruined). The wiring harness was snaked through the headlight assembly. I was hoping that I could just purchase the piece that I needed without replacing the entire assembly.

After a trip to the parts store, they gave me the idea of simply splicing a new connector onto the existing wiring. The only problem was that the new connector was much bulkier than the original so I ended up cutting the plastic structure so I could fit the bulb and connector in the space properly.

The whole thing took about three hours. The first was messing with the actuators trying to determine the problem and how to get to it. Then it was two hours to get the things put back together and get replacement parts. Considering the scope of what needed to get done, I think the time was pretty reasonable and they are now fixed.

End Your Programming Routine: Admittedly, if I was a mechanic, I probably wouldn’t have approached the project in the same way. However, I didn’t do anything that I wouldn’t have done to my own car. Despite the fact that I had to do some modifications to make it work, I still believe that the work was quality and this should be a permanent fix.

August 16, 2022 – Backwoods Home Magazine

August 16, 2022 /

Among the podcasts I listen to, Backwoods Home Magazine (BHM) is an advertiser or vice versa. I have never really paid much attention to it. In fact, two or three years ago, the publisher actually retired and the magazine ceased to exist. One of the children started a sister publication called Self-Reliance magazine with the idea that some of the more ‘controversial’ content removed. That is any content on politics and firearms.

Then, another child of the publisher re-started Backwoods Home Magazine. As I understand, the magazine went from bi-monthly to quarterly. The only reason I paid any attention to it was that the magazine was based on the southern Oregon coast. Content comes from contributors across the country, but there is definitely some local effect to the entire magazine.

I started thinking to myself that I would be interested in checking it out so I picked up a copy. Tractor Supply carries a lot of different books and magazines in these types of topics. I had never even opened up a copy before and here is what I found.

At the risk of being boring, here is an abstract of the table of contents.

  1. Realistic goals for a first-year homesteader
  2. The return of victory gardens
  3. Balancing homeshooling and homesteading
  4. A method for washing hair off-grid
  5. 10 rabbit raising mistakes and how to avoid them
  6. Bake your own dog treats
  7. Grandma’s thrifty wartime recipes
  8. Blackberry bonanza
  9. Making and using an osier willow crayfish trap
  10. Homemade insulation cutter
  11. Crust crisis? (pies)
  12. Depression era pies
  13. The good, bad and the ugly of keeping a buck (goats)
  14. Cross stitch your own Backwoods Home sampler
  15. Homeschooling and the question of socialization
  16. Build a clever under-the-bed storage drawer
  17. Homesteading and the bird flue
  18. Medical preparedness for nuclear war

What I started to realize is that this is the magazine version of AltF4.co. Sure, maybe the topic mix are not quite what I want to talk about. I actually read the articles on how to wash hair and cross-stitching with interest. I didn’t list the columns but they are along the lines of political editorials, firearms (from Massad Ayoob of all people) and Americana like poems, anecdotes, jokes and user submitted photos. Heck, maybe I should advertise or become a contributing author?

I also bought a copy of Self-Reliance magazine. That will be for another day. Like all periodicals, not everything was temporal or I see myself using the information. But, there was certainly enough variety and interest to make me want to see more. I suppose the focus on thrift, self reliance, tradition, cooking, using and preserving bounty, and variety is what appeals to me.

Before I purchased the magazines, I almost just subscribed. But then I thought maybe I only want one versus the other. How do I even know I want to when I have never even opened either? Reading the magazine, I learned that both publications moved from the coast to the town next door to the south. So, now they are less than twenty miles away.

End Your Programming Routine: In the last couple months, my wife and I have had serious conversations about moving, particularly more rurally. That is always where I wanted to be but the familial issues have been making us consider proximity to the situation as well. Our kids have three years max in the current school system so that is our stage gate from making a real move. We have a some friends that are leaving next spring for retirement and their property is in the school district. We took a detailed tour of the shop, garden and home, just saying. I am keeping a close eye on state politics. Even though I am Oregon born and bred, I don’t like the way things are going so commitment is still in doubt that I will want to stay. BHM is the type of stuff I want to be doing when the nest empties.

August 15, 2022 – Keep Your Enemies Close

August 15, 2022 /

I don’t have much to add that I haven’t already said in the podcast. Shoot the Breeze with Paul Evans was a campaign fundraiser that I participated in a little over a week ago. I will let you draw your own conclusions from the podcast.

End Your Programming Routine: Just like Jack Spirko says, just because you don’t agree with the systems doesn’t mean you don’t try to use it to your own benefit. So, I definitely don’t support Oregon Democrats, but my neighbor that is also a member in my fraternal order and willing to help with causes that I am involved is probably worth keeping a relationship with.

August 12, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 1:6

August 12, 2022 /

There was a lot going on in this chapter. As little as there was in the last, there was ten times as much in this one. It helps with the setting as the Reardon’s hold a cocktail party for their wedding anniversary. This was the perfect canvas for having all kinds of characters that may never be seen again in the book have impactful lines or reveal true colors.

I’m not going to try to keep things in chronological order today. I am going to use the different conversations to support what I see as the primary theme today. Before I get totally into it, there was one other thing that came up and that was an origin story of John Galt. Supposedly, he found Atlantis by sailing and he or his crew was never seen again.

Probably the most seminal moment in the chapter is the conversation between Henry Reardon and Frank D’aconia. The characters Frank, Dabny and Henry seems to be becoming a disrupters but more so Frank. He is stirring up the thought provoking insights like when he asked Henry “Why are you willing to carry them”? This is in context to the idea that there are the doers in life and then there are the non-doers (better phrasing than parasite?).

Among the conversations happing at the party, the political idea came up of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. This is the idea that a person can only own one business so as to not become to rich, powerful or influential. The idea that there is a fragile balance between still having some degree of autonomy or freedom and too much is supported by this quote as well. “Property rights are only superstition. One holds property only by the courtesy of those who do not seize it.”

It is not just the economy discussions that lean toward communism. “Culture should be taken out of the hands of the dollar chasers. We need a national subsidy for literature.” Has anyone ever heard this argument for NPR? I have. When I was younger and a much different world, I used to sympathize more in this direction. Now that I am more mature, I feel like if people don’t value something enough to support directly, then is it really valuable? There are new and different ways today such as crowd funding and I am much more willing to let survival of the fittest prevail.

Earlier, when I talked over the division of doer and non-doers, this chapter gets into it with the Frank/Hank conversation. Frank is pointing out that Hank is killing himself to make a go with Reardon Metal while everyone else is whining about people becoming too rich. And yet, they are doing little to improve their own situation other that supporting laws that limit other’s potential.

While this was written almost 70 years ago, I feel like I could hear these conversations today. My observation is that we are lucky that position hasn’t fully taken hold. However, I predict that it is a matter of time. As an example in my lifetime I will use health insurance.

When I was really young, no one had health insurance. My dad got it added as a benefit when I was about four. Growing up and getting my first job, health insurance was a competitive requirement to attract employees. Almost fifteen years ago, it became a punitive requirement, have it or be fined. Even unemployed people have insurance through socialized medical programs. When we lay it all out, what we have effectively added was an abstracted layer between the patient and doctor. I defy you to prove that this is more effective treatment, more efficient process or even a better quality of standard.

Have we really achieved the care that we want by adding ‘insurance’? I think not. This entire charade has inflated the cost of care such that paying out of pocket is nearly un-achievable for all but the simplest of procedures leaving the companies dictating the care by proxy of affordability. What happens when the doers stop supporting the non-doers? Well, the non-doers force them to support them anyway through laws like healthcare.

End Your Programming Routine: As I eluded last week, there are those that see what is happening and those that do not. It seems that Frank and Dabny do not yet, do you? I am constantly amazed by the number of schemes or smoke and mirrors. You cannot tell me that the economy is burning in the background that everything is fine. What is the first step in correcting a problem? Admitting you have one.

August 11, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

August 11, 2022 /

I promise that this topic line is not going to go on forever. Right now, I am am having too much fun and still have too many questions. This week, I am comparing results from Crossman Optimus and the Crossman 1000 using the 7.54grain Hunter pellet. To date, all of my work has been with the Optimus because it is just a better tool. The 10 pump BB/pellet rifle (1000) is a pain in the butt to shoot multiple times.

That being said, I am going to do a pump/velocity test in the future. I want to know if it is really worth pumping 10 times or not because it 5 pumps is almost the same, then I will be more willing to shoot it more consistently. I already know that the point of impact changes with less pumps. This implies a velocity change, but I want to know definitively.

For the record, the Optimus is on the left and the 1000 is on the right of this picture. I wanted to compare as closely as possible so I used the same pellet and the 1000 was pumped to the maximum 10 pumps. The data is below.

Muzzle – Optimus30′ – OptimusMuzzle – 100030′ – 1000
942849752726
946853740708
966866749719
959859748700
953855743699
952870743703
973852752729
947853755700
951868736724
966858737729
964.6 +/- 19.5857.3 +/- 30745.5 +/- 20713.7 +/- 35.6
all values in FPS

The Optimus data is the same data from a couple weeks ago. The 1000 data is all new. I suppose the thing that struck me was that there was not much velocity change over 30 feet. So, I did some comparative analysis below. I think that it all makes sense from what I expected.

% Difference
Optimus muzzle vs 30′10.8%
1000 muzzle vs 30′4.4%
Optimus vs 1000 Muzzle25.9%
Optimus vs 1000 30′18.3%

For fun, I checked a couple other things. What happens if it is over pumped? With 12 pumps at 30′ I got 727, 651 and 771 fps. It looks like the data is all over the place and I didn’t do enough for proper statistical analysis. Maybe there is an overpressure valve? I don’t know and I am not really going to pursue more, I was curious what happened.

Finally, I changed pellets from the Hunter to the Magnum Energy @ 30′ 712, 711, 726 fps. I think those results were the same that I observed in the Optimus. So, that data seems to make sense.

End Your Programming Routine: The truth be told was that I purchased the Optimus because the 1000 was such a pain to shoot repeatedly. All that being said, the Hunter pellet out of the 1000 is potent enough to dispatch cat sized vermin at eight pumps in one shot. My biggest fear was needing a follow-up shot to finish the job and spending 30 seconds reloading. Let us see where the data leads.

August 10, 2022 – Speaking of Throwbacks

August 10, 2022 /

How about some video from 2020? I filmed 90% of this video and I never finished it because I got busy and forgot when I was roofing. At the time, I thought it was worthless because I didn’t get everything I wanted and so the videos just sat. That being said, last week I was watching it to see if I could cut it into segments and I decided I just needed a little more that I could do after the fact. So I did.

Is it my best work? No, I could probably added five minutes more and made it more comprehensive. But, I don’t think it is that bad.

I spent a lot of time trying to edit this. Something seems to happen and I am not sure if it is the 10 minute mark or the 1GB size. I tried everything I could from saving in lower resolution to different programs. There are still some glitches in the video that I don’t see in the raw video. I suppose for what it is worth, I need to be mindful of keeping things shorter because this was too much work.

End Your Programming Routine: Filming something while you work is difficult (or at least takes some practice). I find that if I focus on my work, then I forget to film what I had intended. If I am focused on filming, I make mistakes with my work. Maybe this really requires an outline or script? I don’t know but I am sure practice helps too. That is what I am doing.

August 9, 2022 – Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession

August 9, 2022 /

This is the August selection for the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. This book is a cookbook for Salads by Jess Damuck. Who is Jess Damuck? From what I read, she is a food stylist that primarily worked with Martha Stewart.

Once again, this book is divided by seasons. The one thing that I thought was really brilliant was that there is a master list of ingredients broken into categories. Then, each salad draws on the ingredients in the category. So recipes are organized by ingredients in the category, with the assumption that (1. you are into salads) you have options if you are working from a standard pantry.

Because Jess is a food stylist, all of the photos are vibrant and look great. One of her technique suggestions was to use similar items in different shapes. Think carrots and parsnips. Think rounds and julienne. In my opinion, this is more of a presentation tip than a taste improvement.

This is about where the compliments end from me. I wasn’t present when the voting happened and I probably wouldn’t have protested anyway but I find it hard to get jazzed about salads. Jess uses a lot of jargon, techniques or ingredients that I have never heard of. When I last went to the store, I checked on a few of these things and nope, not there. So, unless you are growing yourself, good luck with duplicating.

Maybe it is because I already know this but she frequently uses a lot of combinations of textures such as leaves, nuts, cheese, proteins, etc. It therefore feels like most of the salads are a random catchment of ingredients than deliberate combinations. In the foreword, Martha Stewart says that her marker of a good cookbook makes her hungry. So far, I haven’t marked a single recipe yet.

Given that I think making a cookbook about salad new and fresh is going to be difficult, I think probably 10% of the recipes are a stretch. Here are two examples gazpacho and esquites (Mexican corn) that I wouldn’t call a salad at all. There are other things that are called salad but I would call sandwich spreads or toppings like arugula pizza or egg salad.

To be fair, I haven’t made anything out of it yet. If you remember last month, I have tried a couple more and was very pleased with Corned Beef Dinner for instance. So, maybe I will soften up. The truth is, I don’t see myself really making much. But, all it takes is a handful to be worth it. So, I owe it to the book club to try a few things.

End Your Programming Routine: What can I say? I am not looking forward to the next one either. It is about gluten free cooking. I am not really big on gluten anyway but I feel like trying to substitute never works well. I have to give Jess credit that she did something different. Just because I am not into it, doesn’t mean that this isn’t for someone.

August 8, 2022 – Self Analysis 2019

August 8, 2022 /

Originally, I wrote this show outline in May 2019. This was about a month after I had left my job and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since that time. When I first started, I was writing topics ahead in preparation to build a podcast. I didn’t really ever get around to it. As I have started podcasting weekly, I have those old outlines in the queue for weeks when I need a quick win.

At that point, I was thinking that this endeavor was going to be called ‘Polymath Daily’. My focus was going to be a classically oriented approach where I was going to integrate freedom, history, business and leadership, and other things like I am currently doing. I do talk about things like this occasionally but the original idea required too much daily research.

End Your Programming Routine: The reason I chose this one to do today is that I think it goes along with my current string of deeper and more personal podcasts. There is definitely some self analysis that needs to happen as a result of all my personal events recently. I will take my own advice and give it some time. Right now, it is too raw.

August 5, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 1:5

August 5, 2022 /

Here we are, Happy Friday. I had a pretty good week working on my projects, reading my books and doing what I do. I can see the end of my siding project coming so I can turn around and look at what is next. There are several more outside things that need to get done, but summer is winding down fast.

This chapter felt a lot like filler. I know that it was character development giving Dabny and Frank D’Aconia’s back story. I think that it was largely free and a bit indulgent. But then again, I haven’t read the whole book so maybe it will be more significant down the line. However, there was something that came up on the back end.

“Now the planners are asking their people not to blame the government, but to blame the depravity of the rich”.

“The money will go into channels which will carry it, not to the most productive, but the most corrupt”.

What Frank is referring to in the two quotes above are the seizure of assets such as rails and mines in Mexico. When they seized the mines, they found out that they were not productive and they are trying to blame the industrialist (Frank). He further talks about the graft and shoddy practices that occurred in the startup of the mines. It is implied that this entire scenario is poetic justice for all of those that are motivated by greed and power.

What’s new here? Well nothing really but it is worth noting the story line and message are falling in line with what I was hoping the book would be. I also think that there is something else more subtle in these statements. There are always people that can see and know what is going on. It is a matter whether they actually have a platform or the resources to get the message out.

I was scanning through the AM dial last weekend. It’s been a long time since I had actually done that. One of the big stories over the weekend was that President Biden had Covid. Of course, that drudged up all kinds of opinions about the situation including the vaccine. One of the pieces was talking about the studies on the vaccine and the integrity of the data. Doctor after doctor on the show was talking about what a mess it was.

With that little detour, you can have the vision and the platform, but people still have to listen and believe. If red was black or two quarters of negative financial growth is not a recession and no longer believed to be true then the current definition of truth doesn’t even matter. Truth has to be a universally recognized.

End Your Programming Routine: It is a fine line between not revealing the plot and trying to explain the situation, especially when I haven’t read the book before so I am not sure where things are going. If you noticed that I started a little slow but I think that I have latched onto a formula. Assuming that there are concepts that worthy of me noting, I want to relate those concepts to current events or context. I think that is the way to make the abstract (or me reading a book) convey the things I have learned reading to writing. Hopefully, that translates.

August 4, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

August 4, 2022 /

One thing that can potentially effect accuracy is the variability of the projectile. I am told that serious hand loaders weigh and sort bullets. For the best accuracy, you want everything the same. This is the only way you can have consistency.

To date, I have taken for granted that all the pellets were the same. On the container, it says that they weigh 7.54 grains. That is a pretty precise measurement. For me to technically validate that, I would need an analytical balance that reads three places past the decimal point such as X.XXX . I am not going to spend $5000 because it is not that important but that is what I would need. I do however have a scale, so I thought that I would give it a shot in just checking what my readings are.

The last digit is considered the degree of certainty. In my scale pictured above, I can only expect numbers ahead of the last digit to be correct. Or said another way, 100.0X can be certain.

When I switch the units from grams to grains, I only get 7.X as precision. This means that the reality is I cannot validate that the pellets are 7.54 grains. The best I can do it get relative comparisons. For fun, I did a couple tests. The first one was to measure one pellet ten consecutive times on slightly different locations on the scale.

Pellet12345678910
17.87.67.77.87.77.87.77.77.77.8
27.67.67.67.67.67.67.67.67.67.6
37.77.77.77.67.77.67.67.77.77.7

What can we learn from this? Truthfully, not a lot if we know that we can only trust 7.X grains. There is no absolute way to determine the difference between the two pellets. I would say looking at the data, it would appear that consistency improved greatly between measurements for pellet one versus pellet two.

From a relative perspective, it would appear that there is some difference between the pellets. Even though I cannot accurately weigh them, I am getting some different results when I switch pellets and that is consistent. I did a second test to weigh 10 different pellets.

PelletWeight (grains)
17.9
27.6
37.7
47.9
57.9
67.6
77.9
87.9
97.7
107.8

So, it appears that the spread is between 7.6 – 7.9 with a weighting toward the higher end. My conclusion for all of this is I believe that there is some difference with the pellet weight. If I take my measured spread (0.3 grains) and divide by the nominal weight (7.54 grains), I calculate 4%. In reality, that is not a lot but it is something.

End Your Programming Routine: There is some statistical analysis that can be done to determine how accurate your measurements are. Given my equipment’s limitations, I don’t think that it is really worth doing the analysis. This wouldn’t be a question if what I was measuring was heavier. Regardless, I think that this technique has potential to provide context in changes of accuracy.