Sometimes I get lazy and put up books that I have read because it is convenient not necessarily because I thought that it was interesting. This is not one of those times, I was fascinated with the concept from the title through the end.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage proposes a world view of history through six different drinks. I don’t think I am giving away too much by listing them as beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola. It isn’t a long or difficult read by any means. The book is 250 pages and takes the position of reader as a novice.
If you were looking for an anti-racist approach, you will be sorely disappointed. This really takes the approach of history through the drink. For instance, I think that tea gets a little short shrift. The book is the western perspective about the tea trade and proliferation of tea through the British Empire with only a handful of pages before that. So, it is not totally ignored but what a fascinating perspective that the British Empire was fueled on tea.
I think part of the fascination of this book for me is the transition of one drink to another. This is the explanation of how one drink overtook the other. A lot of it had to do with rise and fall of empires but what a unique take to frame them through drink. I thought that it was particularly interesting about how the political decisions drove economic activity and made or broke empires.
Another wildcard for me was how a brand came to represent an empire. I don’t know if I totally buy the premise however I certainly understand how the brand represented a philosophy and the philosophy symbolized a way of thinking and a way of doing. It was that thinking and doing that was novel and therefore the empire grew as a result of a better idea.
Since the book is short and the it is all about history which of course is already known, I don’t want to spoil the remaining secrets that are within. I definitely had no problems keeping up and reading the book. I didn’t find it dry in the least. For that, I would say that if you run across a copy, it is definitely worth reading.
End Your Programming Routine: It isn’t that often that someone gives you a book that they haven’t read that actually turns out to be good. From that standpoint, I wouldn’t have taken it if I didn’t think that it looked interesting from reading the jacket. For me, the programming is looking at things the same way, over and over. This is not that. This is looking at history by aggregating events through the perspective of a drink. What a novel concept.
Today I cheated a little bit and you will be able to tell. At one point, I had figured out how to strip audio from Youtube. This particular clip was on Rumble. My point is, I would like to take video from any source so that I could embed in a podcast format. That would require more than ten minutes of looking and research. For now, just playing over the speakers works but not the best audio quality.
I just happened to run across this video (link below). It immediately spurred me to talk about this because I have had a tickle that something wasn’t right. I was actually talking to a friend about this very subject but didn’t really look into it. Low and behold, one I had an idea about where to look, it didn’t take long to find something.
End Your Programming Routine: What do we do about this? To be sure, I don’t think that we are going to stop it. It is way too late for that. In my opinion, the best we can do is get away from the system. The best way to get away is to not participate, but getting away could also be leaving. So, be warned this is everywhere now it is our move.
This week, I am looking at the concepts of chapter 3, the last chapter in Fahrenheit 451. As the second time reading it, I can honestly say that I don’t remember a single thing about this book. I had a slight hope that maybe it would come back to me as I went along, but – nope. That is OK, because now I can come at it with a fresh and unbiased prospective.
If you read the book, then you know where the chapter starts. I’ll just say that there was a lot of burning of things. This translated into a failed manhunt and ending with nuclear war. And when once over, it was time to rebuild society. A little simplistic and abrupt if you ask me.
I have to be careful that I keep things in line as I write today. I am simultaneously thinking about this chapter and the overall wrap-up next week. While they are related, they are most definitely not the same. It has more to do with the origin story of the book rather than what is happening in this particular chapter.
Enough flowery non-sense and platitudes, let’s get into it. What I wanted to talk about today was a particular incident in the book. After Montag escaped from the scene of his troubles and his pursuers lost the trail something happened. What happened was that a fill-in for Montag was identified. The mechanical hound pursued, attacked and executed that person. All the while the event was filmed for TV and the action was conveniently abstract by camera angle, action and distance.
I definitely shouldn’t admit this but I will anyway. You see, I believe that people are stupid, until they are not. What I am saying is that people will believe almost anything reasonable until proven otherwise. Generally speaking this is related to issue that never effected me until they did and then they were real or wrong.
A political response to covid was believed and accepted by all sides because all sides were pretty much saying the same thing. Until your job was deemed ’essential’ or your job required a vaccine card or your dentist made you wear a mask in the lobby. It was then people said “wait a minute, this isn’t right. We are all in this together, or are we?”
You see, for propaganda to be effective, it has to be seen as accurate or true. When the mechanical hound killed the stand in for Montag, it was for show. It was to prove that a renegade’s actions has consequences and justice was served. As long as the greater population believed that there was no escape or no hope of resistance, there actually wasn’t.
An artificial society where friends and relatives are TV images, reality is built on whatever is seen. We all know that TV is staged and scripted. So the saying that perception is reality clearly germane to the topic. All my friends are on Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok. You catch what I am saying? I a saying that we are halfway there to living in an artificial society.
How many times have you heard about people that beat a disease are the ones that fight it at every turn? When my wife was going through cancer treatment, I read case studies provided for support members that spoke to the very situation. Of course, this is not everyone’s destiny but certainly when the stars align and the person has the right attitude, sometimes the seemingly impossible can happen.
End Your Programming Routine: I am certainly not advocating for doing something crazy or life threatening by fighting a tyrannical entity with deadly consequences. The definition of changing your programming is challenging the status quo. You must observe and question what you see versus what you know. A worthy fight is one that is worth the risks.
Way back in college, I wanted to purchase a .357 magnum revolver. Things are a little bit different now then they were back then. With the proliferation of plastic frames and Metal Injected Molding (MIM) along with Computer Numeric Controlled machining, some firearms have have gotten a lot cheaper. The truth is, there are a lot of models that can be purchased for less than what I did in the middle 1990s.
I really wanted to purchase a Ruger GP-100 but I was $50 short, so I ended up buying a Rossi M971 for $450 instead of a Ruger at $499. I really have only had two complaints. One is that the same Rugers are selling for $800 now whereas my Rossi is selling for $300-400 used (read bad investment) and the second is that parts and accessories are far and few between.
Recently, I was at the range and the rear sight broke off. I have no idea how that happened. I don’t think it was dropped, I speculate that the plastic just became brittle over time. My replacement is metal, I am hoping that this is the last time it has to be replaced because it may not be replaceable in the future.
Don’t take this as gospel but Rossi is a Brazilian brand. It is now owned by a Brazilian conglomerate Taurus Armas which owns brands like Taurus, Rossi and Heritage. They got their start copying Smith and Wesson and Beretta handguns (originally under license). Once those patents expired and agreements ended, Brazilian copies started appearing in the US markets, hence there are a lot of similarities of a Rossi and a Smith and Wesson revolver.
The reason any of the above is relevant is because about a year after I owned the revolver, my roommate was handling it without my knowledge and dropped it an broke the front sight. At that time, Rossi was it’s own brand and the distributor handled all of the parts. They sent a replacement, free of charge. Since the acquisition, the distributor no longer exists and Taurus USA does not sell parts aftermarket. This would be for a product that they no longer make. In fact, Rossi has become a rifle/shotgun brand only. So, I doubt they have parts in the first place.
But, despite the similarities, there are some differences. I am not going to go into that right now, but what it really means is that aftermarket support is really scarce. For instance, I can find replacement sight blades for Smith and Wesson at $13. I found one local manufacturer base in South Dakota. He was selling a replacement sight at $38 plus shipping and I was happy to pay it.
The way it installs is different too. In the Smith and Wesson it is all largely done with a screwdriver. I needed to purchase a 1mm punch to drive a tiny pin out. This of course cost me $35 dollars. The first time I used it, I broke the drive pin because 1mm is tiny and that metal is hard and therefore brittle. So, I purchased replacement drive pins in a six pack at $15.
What I am getting at here is that I am now $100 and two months into this. I suppose I could have taken it to a gunsmith. I doubt that would have saved me any money, maybe some time. Here again, this is probably a quarter of what the firearm is worth. But without it, it is almost worthless so it has to be done.
If we were talking about a domestic brand like Ruger or Smith and Wesson, first of all this probably would have never happened. But, if it did there are parts available. Gunsmiths can do the work or even the factory. This is the argument for buying the F-150 or the Toyota Camry or the Whirlpool. When there are lots of them made then there is future support likely. Of course there was no way of knowing that the Rossi brand would get scarfed up and discontinued. But initial price and reputation have to play a factor in those types of decisions.
End Your Programming Routine: I am super grateful that Jack First Inc is in business to help keep me going. I am not saying that I was pennywise and pound foolish but had I waited and bought what I really wanted, I don’t know that I would be writing about this subject. I certainly would be happier with my investment value and never wondering what-if. I can’t say that the revolver has ever treated my bad, is inaccurate, not reliable or anything like that. It is just cost a lot of time and money to repair. Maybe this is my foreign sports car?
We really have crossed the bridge heading into Spring and Summer. I know, you don’t really believe it but in most parts of the the United States, time is ticking for the garden season. Let me give some examples. It is time to prune fruit trees, grapes, roses etc. It is time to plant bare root plants for optimum summer/fall establishment and survival. It is time to start annual seeds.
At my house, my kids are in high school. That means that winter sports are at the very end and spring sports are about to start. This also means that planning for the schedules of the remainder of the school year. I was looking at the Trap schedule and getting practices/scoring weeks on my calendar. The state event is June 24-25. That means that I am actively looking at my summer calendar right now.
All is not lost if you don’t start seeds, it is not the end of a chance to plant a garden. My point with this is when you start to get in the mind frame of maximum production, that involves planning and it sneaks up on you faster than you think. To be 100% honest, I am not ready. My hangover from this trip has me backed up on things that need to be done first, like taxes.
My biggest problem is that I am already running behind. The things that I wanted to have done, like my sofa table are still not completed. I have to make the decision to either stop where I am at or not. At this point, I know myself and I know that if I stop focusing on my project the next time I think about it will be years later. This is why it took me years to build my fly tying bench.
In years past, I stopped on my winter projects and ultimately failed at finishing my projects and growing a garden. This year, I am going to try and do both, but I am also going to focus on finishing what I started first. At least, if things go well growing, I will be pleasantly surprised and not disappointed on two fronts.
I sound a bit defeatist by expecting that I won’t have a nice garden. The truth is, I believe that I can do almost anything that I want. I guess for me, I have relegated it to a lower priority. Would I delay writing here daily to keep a garden? Probably not. Would I skip going to the range monthly to work in the garden? Again, probably not. And so, knowing myself and my interests, I am likely going to deprioritize it.
In 2019, when I had all the time possible, I spent a lot of time building irrigation systems and planning to bigger and better. As fortune would have it, 2020 saw my entire summer consumed with remodeling and my beds destroyed. I have been on a downward spiral every since. Questions of long term inhabitation, location and best place have left me paralyzed with analysis paralysis.
With all that said, I think that it makes sense to focus on the things that I am certain I can perform well, like building my table. Ultimately, I also shouldn’t run my life on what might be. There is no guarantee that we will move just as there is no guarantee that a front yard garden is a detriment. But as long as there are other things to focus on, I suppose all these things will remain in the background as convenient excuses.
End Your Programming Routine: I want to say that if you are hoping to do something in the garden, this is the time that things get rolling. That being said, we all have to make choices in life. Just make sure that you understand that we can’t always have our cake and eat it too. So, understand where your limitations and priorities are and march ahead.
It is kind of cheating, but things are not quite right. Due to an unfortunate issue, I missed my flight out of Indianapolis. Consequently, I ended up not getting home until early Sunday morning. That didn’t really help me get re-adjusted and instead of having the majority of Saturday, go to bed early and then Sunday, I was dragging all day Sunday only to get back to work on Monday. All that being said, my creative battery is really low.
A couple of things happened on my trip. The first was that SSL certificate expired last week. Technically, it didn’t expire until mid-April but this happens every couple of months. In fact, it is not suppose to expire but once a year. I don’t understand this at all. I know how to work around it, but that was not something I was really equipped to deal with on the road. It was just too many technical things to handle on an iPad. The second, I was checking on the health of other things due to my SSL problems today and it seems like I am running into some caching issues. What seems to be the problem is that the amount of data is building up and causing slowness of the server painting data, particularly pictures.
There is a actually a third problem as well. This problem is that it seems like MySQL version is out of date. The last two problems seem to be related to me sharing a server with other users. To solve that, it seems logical that the next obvious step is to pay for more space or my own server. That is easier said than done.
It’s not that I can’t get a dedicated server. The question is really should I? This whole thing was an experiment to see if I could build lifestyle/content business. Given that I have made $0 on this, it seems very impractical for me to pay more money just to serve up free content. I guess what I am saying is that as long as things continue at a moderate price, I am more than willing to keep going. There does become a point of diminishing returns.
The first year is always cheap, this is how they get you. The next year the cost is three times as much and then it seems to go up 20% a year from there. I guess that I am seeing that I am not really seeing the return on my investment. Now, I have to own the business plan. That being said, my idea was always to grow a reader base before actually trying to figure out a revenue model. I am not really seeing much growth in my site downloads in three years.
Ultimately, I am saying that I don’t think that there is a lot of desire for my work. And therefore I am in the dichotomy of upgrade to survive or die a slow death. To be clear, I am not saying that I am quitting, but what I am saying that I need to evaluate the future. When I talked about the ‘white hatters’ two weeks ago, I need to put some effort to really measure engagement and how much more effort that I should put into this endeavor.
Last week, I was listening to a podcast overnight and it was about two brothers who literally have built a side business on a Youtube channel about cutting firewood. It was their opinion (as well as many others) that content generation should be confined to a niche subject. The more niche the better. I just don’t want to do that, and I suppose this is my downfall. I guess we will see, I was hoping three years ago that there would be more people like me, interested in lots of different things.
End Your Programming Routine: I don’t think that there is any programming here today. I guess what I am saying is that I am probably not going to do this forever without some sort of return. I’m not even saying that it has to be financial. I cant really complain about not making any money when I haven’t provided any vehicle to do so. I don’t really want to beg. I don’t really want to get hooked into some third party program like Patreon. My first measure was really engagement, which I don’t see much of.
Whoops, I kind of flubbed this one. I miscounted how many podcasts I actually needed and how many I had. So, you get one more short. I promise that I really didn’t mean to do this. I guess that proves that my mental clarity is somewhat questionable. But, at least I am home now.
End Your Programming Routine: You don’t get better if you don’t push the limits of your capability. But, even then you don’t improve if you don’t analyze how it went and try to make improvements. I know that there are things that could be better, hopefully you will se that next time.
We are off to the races. It feels strange to say that with this chapter, we are over half way through the book. After months and months with Atlas Shrugged, we are going to finish this whole endeavor in one month. And that includes a summary of the entire book as well.
There is a lot going on in this chapter. It has to be the case because there is less than sixty pages remaining. So, the action has to go pretty quickly. I guess that this is the transition chapter or the beginning of the awakening within Montag.
The chapter began with Montag questioning his happiness. Using natural reckoning, he surmised that if he was unhappy in his position, then maybe doing the opposite would be the solution. The opposite would be instead of living in an artificial fantasyland like wall to wall TVs stroking your ego all day long, read, think and discuss with others to come to a higher understanding. This of course was highly illegal.
Along the progression of the story, Montag seeks self validation, a mentor and then finally proselytizing. I wouldn’t expect anything but trouble from this, but I won’t spoil the story completely. Instead, let’s turn focus on the concepts of the chapter. There are a lot of things I could say about different themes going on but, I think all roads lead to this quote from the character Faber.
“Number one, as I said, quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.” Depending on what side of the fence that you are on, this is Bradbury’s definition of the value of books (or the danger thereof).
I take it a step further for not just books but media content in general. I suppose at Bradbury’s time, the choices were quite a bit more limited and even dare I say definable. If Fahrenheit 451 were written today, it would have to include podcast, video streaming and movies and TV, etc. I am starting to develop some ideas of my own in my journey with philosophy. But, this is a topic for another day. Right now, I am focused with Bradbury on his stance that the ability to read/watch/listen to what you want is an important tenant of freedom. Since we are discussing Bradbury, I will use the word read to mean any form of media consumption for leisure in this post.
Media can be propaganda and propaganda can be media. So, while I am all for the freedom of choice to consume whatever materials people find interesting and satisfying. we have to be guarded that our choices aren’t ‘shining our own shackles’ if you will. The counter point to this is what people often label as ‘mental masturbation’. I will elaborate more on these two below.
As a recent phenomenon, some people binge watch a show like ‘The Bachelor’. This is an example of what I am referring to as ‘shining your shackles’. I say this because I have never found anything redeeming about the series and I question even the entertainment value of the concept. It remains extremely popular because of lack of depth and even re-enforces a fairy tale delusion. People watching it are proud that they have seen every episode and even pick sides like at WWE style event, meaning it has a scripted outcome and artificial action. There are even oddsmakers in Las Vegas on the whole process.
Like a three ring circus, keeping people dim and entertained is a strategy for manipulation working in concert with advancing more sinister ideals. Sure, the media companies goal is to make money. All the while, attention to any sort of controversial or important subjects are out in the background. People in this circle tend to base decisions on how they feel about something rather than the facts of the situation.
Contrast this to the opposite side, maybe someone more like myself. I am reading all these books like 1984 and Atlas Shrugged for fun. I do end up trying to advance what I see are the values of the books by writing but there is a cliff there. What I am saying is that too much of this self-validation becomes mental masturbation. If all I ever do is read and write on all of the points that I already believe then I am just as guilty of being in la-la land as ‘The Bachelor’ crowd.
I of course believe that reading what you want is important. The zen master is able navigate both sides of the spectrum and really get to meaningful purpose. Some degree of absolute entertainment is fine. Some degree of value based entertainment is fine. Really to make it work effectively, those two groups and concepts have to meet in the middle.
I will go back to the structure of the quote now. For the most part, the leisure portion of the equation is not a question in the United States and in the book. As such, I will ignore that one. Quality information is hit and miss. This is what I was getting to with the propaganda sentence that started this post out. I do think that this is worthy of its own discussion. Suffice to say, we have both quality and non-quality work prevalent in society. And in theory, we have the right to discuss.
Now I know that this is going long but it is worth staying here for a bit. Let us assume that we had quality information about a vaccine discussion. Technically, we have the legal right to discuss pros and cons of such. However, the places of such debate were labelled as ‘Dangerous misinformation’ on social media. I ask you, what is more dangerous having the debate or silencing one side?
I will leave with this, 1938 Germany. Official government policy was to promote and cultivate a master race, read not-Jews, not-central Europeans, you know the list. Dangerous misinformation was to stand otherwise to that policy even though plenty of people secretly didn’t believe it. They had no real safe way to fight back except in the underground at the risk of death.
My grandparents were alive (and adults) at such time. My father was born the year after the war ended. We think that we are so far removed and much more sophisticated to ever go back to such a horrible place. It’s not that society has changed, the level and mechanisms of propaganda has changed. Even our recent ancestors had a better sense of values that we do now. As such, they didn’t tolerate a man calling himself a woman to win every swimming event. That’s OK, there is a new season of ‘The Bachelor’ out. We can deal with this problem another day.
End Your Programming Routine: How do we end our programming when we are strung out on anti-depression pills and zombies in front of the TV? My belief is that we have to do what matters. What that actually looks like and how it is done I suppose is the real solution. I try to bring a mixture of problems like these types of books and then solution like building or fixing or making something. I am not ignoring the problem it is just like the scale is so massive that I can’t do it alone. So I do what I can.
I can tell that I am starting to lose it because everything is starting to get screwed up. My SSL certificate expired and I really can’t deal with it on the road. I am getting things out of order for publishing and producing more podcasts than I actually need. You probably wont see all of this unless you are really paying attention.
My mind is tired. I explain more in today’s episode but right now I feel like my normal life is a lifetime away. Today is about my perspective on how I feel traveling. I know others that love life on the road, but I could just as soon never go on another business trip.
End Your Programming Routine: Just because there are some perks doesn’t mean it is fun (to me anyway). I have to say that I commend those people that work rotating shift work as a career. Maybe it would be different if I did it my whole life but my brain is starting to get foggy. Long days with little rest is starting to wear me down.
“I ain’t got time for this…” for some reason I am getting a security warning when I try to go to my site. I really don’t have the tools for this on the road. Likely, when this is seen I will have solved the problem but when I am writing, it is still real. To top it off, I am mentally beat. Truth be told is I finished the editing for my podcast yesterday but I ran out of time to publish. That means yesterday was empty. So this was yesterday’s podcast.
I really wanted to title this “Mental Masturbation” but I really didn’t want the title permanently on my feed. Not that I am ashamed of it, but I feel like there is a more dignified title out there. Like I said, I am just mentally beat and don’t have the energy for creativity. Heck, I can barely come up with some half-assed content.
End Your Programming Routine: We need to put rubber to the road. Mental masterbation is everything that I mean. On the right side, we like to talk about CNN drones. Well guess what? On the left side is Fox News drones. Both sides live by consuming content without thought. And the real tin hatters just keep coming back for more. Don’t do that, think about what you are reading and consuming. Neither side is right but there is truth in both.
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