Month: March 2023

March 17, 2023 – Animal Farm, Chapter 2

March 17, 2023 /

And in this corner coming in at Week 2, we have the bantamweight champion of the dystopian fiction universe, Animal Farm. There is still a lot of fight left in it as we have only seen one chapter. Animal Farm came out swinging with the Animal’s grievances against the human population. They landed some solid hits with accusations of starvation and abuse. This chapter they are going to put their fight plan into action but I think the humans are going on the ropes before it is all over.

Kind of silly of me but, I heard it in my head when I sat down to write. I hope that I can always laugh at myself and take some chances. Life is too short to be stiff and serious all the time.

All chapters of this book are short, so I am not going to keep repeating that. But as a synopsis of the chapter we have the animals chase out the Jones. Manor Farm is renamed Animal farm. The new leaders of the movement are the pigs Snowball and Napoleon. They come up with seven rules to represent the new movement. They are as follows.

  1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy
  2. Whatever goes on four legs, or wings is a friend
  3. No animals will wear clothes
  4. No animal shall sleep in a bed
  5. No animal shall drink alcohol
  6. No animal shall kill another animal
  7. All animals are equal

While this is seven specific rules, another word for that is a core values. Each successful movement is guided by things such as core values. Values differ from beliefs as values drive internal behavior as well as being outwardly visible. They help devise a code of conduct for behavior as well as provide a framework for evaluation when specific rules do not exist.

While not surprising, you could probably describe these values as anti-human. This type of behavior is sometimes described by the boomerang effect. Briefly, that means that when people get tired of a long period of one set of ideas or operating parameters, they often double down on on going the opposite direction in policy and attitude. The periodic swings in the US House of Representatives is a good representation of this.

I thing that it also goes without saying that movements are judged by their core values or more specifically adherence to. I think most people consider the legitimacy or sincerity of all members particularly leaders when they meet and live their core values. How many times are Christians chastised for not living up to values? Ironically, most non-believers have no concept of sin and fallibility. Nevertheless, it is an example that most people can relate to.

It is a little early to say how this will go, the animals just got started running their own farm. Will they all get it? Will they all buy in? Will they truly be equal? I think that we have enough human data to answer the question, but will the animals be any different?

End Your Programing Routine: Buying into core values are the first step to programming. Once the premises have been accepted, many decisions are boiled down to litmus tests. “Is this situation good” is compare to established criteria within your values and there is really very little additional judgement is involved because the outcome has already be predetermined.

March 16, 2023 – Storing Fuel: Inventory Liquids

March 16, 2023 /

The more I think about this topic, the more I think it can go on for many weeks. It is not that it is complicated but that it is so deep. It is so deep that I am having a hard time getting started because as soon as I start thinking about a direction I almost immediately fork (in my mind). I will try to keep it on a high level and generalities, that way you can apply the concepts to your own situation.

As I said last week, the first step is to inventory what you have. Now, not everything you have you may necessarily need in an emergency situation. For instance, is the lawnmower a necessary piece of equipment? I don’t think so but you might want to note that you have it and it runs on gasoline (if you don’t have a battery or corded model, but that is a different discussion). Whatever happens, you may want to have two gas cans for your mower so that you don’t have to run to the gas station before you mow your grass.

See what I mean, I am already jumping around from inventory to necessity to power equipment. Staying in the power equipment arena, I have a string trimmer, chainsaw and leaf blower. These are all two cycle, gasoline tools, so they need gas and oil. I think the industry trend is now 50:1 blend but old tools were 40:1 and some were even 32:1.

Preferably, I would like all of my equipment to require the same blend ratio that way I only need to have one mix on hand. What is key in my situation is that I pay for yard maintenance. So, really I don’t have anything pre-mixed because I don’t want it sitting around and potentially going bad. When I do use them, I mix what I need at the ratios I want it. I do usually have a small amount of commercial premix available in case of emergency. What is nice about that is that is those containers are sealed and free of contaminants, like water. Read easy to store, quick to use but super expensive at $10 a quart.

Of all of those things, only the chainsaw to me is an emergency tool. Here I would star in my inventory, need gasoline. Moving on, I have a small generator, more gasoline. Did you know that you can use your car as a generator? More on that another week but more gasoline.

I mentioned that my house is all electric. My backup cooking plan is Coleman camping equipment. Mine are dual fuel which mean that they run on gasoline and Coleman fuel (white gas). I prefer gasoline as a common fuel and less to inventory and store, more on that in a minute. FYI- They made some older models that were Coleman fuel and kerosene with some part changes if you are looking for versatility. They were for European users since apparently kerosene is easier to get than Coleman fuel.

I have some Coleman fuel in storage for the same reason I have premixed two cycle gas. It is sealed and free of impurities. The truth is, I have had it for several years and this is before I really got my gasoline program in place. This provided a stop gap for having fresh gasoline available for all the things I wanted redundancy. And it is easy to take on a camping trip. At least easier than a five gallon gas jug.

I use a kerosene heater in my shop. Is is the best setup? Probably not, but I have it. In some areas of the country, you can buy kerosene at the pump. I was able to do that when I lived in South Carolina. But here, I have to buy it at the stores like box stores and home centers. The trick with this fuel is that it is seasonal. It is only stocked in the stores in the winter time frame and when it is out, it is out.

That is to say that when the bulk quantities are out you can often find one gallon jugs in the paint section but you are also paying double what the winter prices are. Now, it is running $10 a gallon at winter prices. So, I buy it when it is on sale and available to have 10 gallons available at all times. Remember that my house is all electric, so I want the ability to move heat where I want it if I need to.

I have gotten some use out of my heater and I know that 2.5 gallons lasts about 40 hours running. It is good to know how much fuel that you might want to have on hand if you need it. This means that my storage capacity is about 160 hours. I wouldn’t run it all the time but a couple hours in the evening would be nice.

I know that I am all over the place. I told you that I was having a hard time staying succinct. But, by my count I want gasoline and kerosene at least and I want some two cycle oil with the ability to measure and mix. The basic strategy is count up all the things you have or want and what fuels they use. Figure out what might be required inventory and rotate (more on that later too). The more commonality you have, the simpler things will be.

One final thing about fuels. Things like generators run on fuel but they don’t run forever without maintenance. If you have one and you think that you might have to run it, oil changes are required. On mine it is every one hundred running hours after break-in. If you think about it, that is about every four days of continuous running. I would suggest that you store corresponding maintenance fluids and even parts so that you don’t find yourself smiling until the generator seizes up.

End Your Programming Routine: Next week, I am going to talk about storing gases. Probably the following week all things electrical. Hopefully, I am not going to bore everyone by going down the preparedness rabbit hole but even if you choose not to do what I do, not having to go to the gas station before you mow the grass seems smart to me. Consolidating and having dual fuel or commonality also seems smart to me. I am going to keep going so hopefully you learn something as well.

March 15, 2023 – My Old Enemy… Time

March 15, 2023 /

I suppose this is somewhat of a project update and some sort of analysis. When starting this project, literally months ago I had scoped it to be done by the end of January. I knew that I was going to be travelling in February but now it is getting to the middle of March and I am not done yet.

Now, am I actively working on the project? Yes I am currently in the glue up portion where I am gluing the aprons and the legs together. This means that I am very close to final assembly and finish. This means that the project will be done. However, this is my last week this month so it is likely that this will now run into April.

When I estimated the project at the beginning of the year I guessed that it would take 100 hours for this project. I am not sure that I have spent much more time than that but I think where I went wrong was 100 hours over a month would be 25 hours a week. And that is not really realistic. I am probably logging 4-6 hours a week.

Extrapolate 100/5 would be 20 weeks. That is five months and by that math and hypothetically I am actually ahead of my estimate. However, I borrowed an old crutch of hope, that was wrong. I hoped that my work would accelerate as it often does when I get into things but hope is not a plan.

I am enjoying the work and I do believe that it will be worth the effort. So, I am not necessarily wishing it to be over but I am certainly looking forward to moving my stereo system into my office. To that end, I am also looking forward to getting my rain barrel setup as my next project.

While it is not my first, fine woodworking project I would consider myself a novice at it. My mortises and tenons were rough. with loose fit for some. My chisels sometimes were dull, causing some of that roughness. This was my first tapered legs that I have made. I learned some things from the experience for sure.

I guess that you could boil all this down to using realistic expectations. If I had just used my brain rather than hoping I could do this, I would have set clearer expectations and by proxy wouldn’t be disappointed by my results. I knew better.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s like I always say, fifteen minutes a day is still almost two hours a week. This is another trap that I sometimes fall into. Ultimately, I am committed so it will be what it will be. And, it truly wont be that long until I am done, I am just lamenting that we are coming into April and I wanted this done at the beginning of February.

March 14, 2023 – Bank Failures Abound

March 14, 2023 /

I assume that you are like me and don’t really understand what is happening. I see a lot of flash and almost zero in details. Friday, the news broke that Silicon Valley Bank was seized by the FDIC and that was really all of the news of substance. This combined with Signature Bank last Sunday are being billed as the 2nd and 3rd largest bank failures after Washington Mutual in 2008.

For those of us seasoned to remember 2008, Washington Mutual was the largest consumer facing bank to fail but there were some even larger institutions like Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns that were probably indicators of the the seriousness of the problem. I did some investigation to try and understand what was happening here.

What Happened: The Fed has been raising interest rates since last year to combat inflation. Remember, we have been consistently told that there is no inflation? These two banks have been highly leveraged in debt to asset ratio because their primary business has been loaning money. Credit has been much stingier in this increasing interest rate environment so patrons have been taking money from the bank rather than leaving it in the system and a bank collapse has ensued. From there, the institution no longer has enough cash to continue to operate and thus is seized by the FDIC.

What exactly does this mean? In practical terms, nothing. The FDIC is going to assume operations of the bank and transition operations to another suitor when found. In essence, your savings account is still there and your debts are still due. I do imagine that loans in progress are probably suspended if not terminated. Other than that I don’t see much in the way of changes.

I think that what this says about what is not on the surface is pretty compelling. The fact that more than one institution has failed within days is a sign of some pretty strong sickness within the landscape. The reason I say this is that one bank is based in California and the other in New York. We cannot say that this is a one off situation nor can we say that it is environmental because of geography.

I don’t claim to have any sort of insight or even knowledge of the business but I think that things must be much worse than we realize because of these events. Please, don’t be fooled by lies. We are smart enough to know that if something doesn’t smell right that it likely is not right. We don’t need to have specialized industry knowledge to know that that wrong is wrong and we shouldn’t be convinced otherwise.

Don’t forget that this is business and shouldn’t be construed as personal. The people running these institutions are doing exactly what they are permitted by law and expected by shareholders to do. That would be run up debt and leverage the institution to the brink of failure in an attempt to wring every last cent out of the company. Of course, you may not know what the line is without crossing it and that appears to be what has happened.

Where does this leave us? We already know that liars lie, we know that cheaters cheat and we know that players are going to play the game. My recently surfaced attitude of not being angry at bad guys leads me to be pretty ambivalent towards all of this. This being said, some day this is going to be real. Get your financial house in order by eliminating debt and build some level of savings. Freaking out gets us nowhere. Getting prepared for issues is something tangible we can do no matter what happens.

End Your Programming Routine: To be sure, this is another kick the can down the road moment. It just so happens that when the can was kicked, the kicker also slipped and fell down. We will have to wait and see if the fall broke our leg or not and let’s hope that while we are on the ground that we don’t get run over by a car ending it all. I am saying don’t panic, don’t make it more than it is but don’t stick your head in the sand either. Be situationally aware, remember one of the 100 skills a man should have.

March 13, 2023 – Art of Manliness, 100 Skills

March 13, 2023 /

I don’t think that it is too cheap to scan through another article for a podcast. I add content and commentary rather than just reading. Regardless, this is a thought experiment that makes a good point. In order to be well balanced, men should know a variety of skills.

Truth be told, I am looking to shake up my podcast line-up in order to do some work on my softer side. I think that I am going to try this one on because it has a mixture of things I need to work on as well as things I am interested in. I have a number of podcasts that I am kind of hearing without listening. My playlist keeps growing as a number of my routine podcasts keep adding episodes and it just turns into more noise that I am not taking in.

End Your Programming Routine: I certainly agree that men should be versed in traditionally male (or hard skills) and softer skills. Not only is the manly but it is also modern. I can’t really imagine what the world was like when men didn’t know how to cook or do laundry. I just call them life skills.

March 10, 2023 – Animal Farm, Chapter 1

March 10, 2023 /

We have a new book this week, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. I know that this is a short book and originally I was thinking that I was going to cover it in four sessions. Once I started reading, it became very apparent that each chapter is it’s own subject. Or said another way, I don’t think that chapter one has that much to do with chapter 3 in terms of concepts. They are interrelated but they are also very standalone.

Unlike 1984, we do know from Orwell (Blair) that this was deliberately written as a precautionary warning against Communism. It’s a cutesy little tale some might call a parable or a story with point. This isn’t my first time through the book, I read it in 2019. But, it definitely fits into my Friday genre.

It is no small consequence that Orwell picked the pig to be the instigator. They are among the smarter domesticated animals and they have a penchant for breaking the rules. In farm terms, that means destroy things, escape, etc. They can be brutal, killing other animals that they perceive to be weak. And finally, if they truly do escape they become feral within a generation.

Major, the pig had a dream. He dreamt that there was a place that the animals were in control of production and therefore their lives. The animals would band together and work in lock stock together to perform all the tasks that they have been forced to do throughout their lives.

Along with working toward the common goals, they would also reject all things that are seen as human. These would be things like wearing clothes, sleeping in beds living in houses, using money, drinking/smoking, use money or trade. Major died a few days after revealing his idea. I believe that Major was a caricature of Lenin.

It is perfectly natural for beings to want to own their own production. The opposite of that is actually defined as slavery. I think that is is also natural for an oppressed group to reject all trappings of their oppressors. It’s either that or the trappings become appropriated.

As with all ideas, they are just that. When attempted to be put into practice, it is often times more complicated that it would be seem. In addition to that, when things are large it can take more than a lifetime to come to fruition. When others assume the tasks, they may not take them in the same direction as the visionary intended.

I was reading about Lenin and while he was no Stalin, he certainly was not afraid to make some heads roll. It would seem like his galvanization into the ways of Marx was the execution of an older brother in 1887. But in reading about his first government apparently he was not the most radical. I had never realized that the Bolsheviks were not one and the same as Lenin. They wanted total conversion of all private assets to be redistributed while Lenin was a more reserved socialist.

My point with all of this is that a Visionary sets the path and the tone. But, no one lives forever and once that power has transitioned, the vision will be molded or adapted to the person succeeding. Therefore, the manifestation of the original vision may be far from what the founder intended.

End Your Programming Routine: I will take this week by week. As it stands, this will be a ten week series, one per chapter. But if it makes sense, I will combine chapters in the course of this study. This chapter was only an introduction. The lesson this week is a revolutionary has an idea of something different than what is. It’s not hard to persuade a population that understands and identifies with the benefits of the revolution.

March 9, 2023 – Life Without Fuel

March 9, 2023 /

I was born in the mid-1970s. I do remember the gasoline shortage of 1979 vaguely. I remember asking my mom if the water could run out. My dad purchased a bicycle and started riding it to work everyday. He rode a bike to work and back from 1980-1983 (until we moved too far away). My mom rode a bicycle to the grocery store and around town.

Whether people realize it or not, our lifestyle revolves around fuel. One type of fuel is electricity. In my house that is the stove, the refrigerator, the freezer and the furnace. I would say that it is pretty important. A small amount of electricity can be stored in batteries and another small portion of electricity can be made with a generator but that doesn’t run without fuel.

We have all seen the Walking Dead where gasoline all runs out and the entire planet switches to ethanol. It’s a fun fantasy for sure but not really realistic on a large scale. Some preparedness minded people have made a huge investment in solar but this also assumes the outage is not caused by something like an Electro Magnetic Pulse. This is essentially a high level nuclear detonation that fries anything electrical. If you think that it is not possible, think about military escalation with Russia and a Chinese balloon that flew undiscovered along with who knows how many others.

I really don’t think that it is possible or practical to prepare for catastrophic events. What is smart is to deal with the typical, short term problems we see in everyday life. An ice storm knocks out power for a week or the government shuts down society for a month. You can’t leave or you don’t want to leave how is this going to work?

Can you actually stay home for two weeks? I know that examining what happened during the pandemic we didn’t. Sure, we had lots of food and we were fairly well prepared for survival. On the same hand, none of us knew what was going to happen so we went out in search of more while we could.

I remember standing in an hours long line at Costco on one of the first Saturdays of the lockdown. We waited for an hour and eventually decided that it wasn’t worth it. We ended up going to a scratch and ding kind of place called Wheeler Dealer because there were no lines. We got everything we wanted at scratch and dent kind of prices without the wait. It was mostly snacks and comfort foods, not something we stock a lot of. The truth is, we didn’t need to go out. It was a shortage fear that triggered us to react.

Leaving woulda/coulda/shoulda of that era behind, fuel is not much different the food. We may need to leave to get it, the prices are generally going up, it has a shelf-life, we can never have a lifetime supply at any one time and we use it daily. I am going to take the next couple of Thursdays talking about fuel storage, redundancy and alternative solutions.

End Your Programming Routine: This was going to be a single post but I couldn’t get my head around exactly what I wanted to say. There was too much and the topic was too broad and I wandered too much. I think I changed the title ten times before I settled on this one. Fuel is always something on my pantry list. It’s not sexy or fun but boy are you glad you have it when you need it.

March 8, 2023 – Cooking For Crowds

March 8, 2023 /

Last weekend, we had a family weekend. There was fourteen of us and we took turns with different meals. My mom made the comment that I am using to cooking for crowds and that is true. What isn’t is that everyone has a lot of experience doing it. With the size and frequency of gathering with my wife’s family, I have cooked for thirty many times, often without much warning.

Probably everyone has thrown a party. In a limited extent, people have some knowledge about what it takes. But, throwing a graduation party is really a different than breakfast for fifteen. I thought that I would take some time to talk about some tips today.

The photo above is not last weekend but a typical night in Spain. The way that they do it, people in attendance all bring something to share. I would say it is kind of ‘pot lucky’ which is a little bit different than a weekend getaway. But, certainly another idea.

Here are some things that I think make a difference.

  • Don’t expect perfection. It’s not a wedding, just a meal. Relax and go with the flow.
  • Calculating proportions: take what you eat or your family eats and extrapolate the total count
  • Keep dishes simple like soup and rolls, chili dogs, scrambled eggs, spaghetti or lasagna.
  • The oven is your friend. If not cooking in it, it can be used to keep stuff warm so that everything can be served at the same time.
  • Don’t be afraid to have others contribute, it lightens the load
  • If you are limited by silverware or table space, people can eat in waves.
  • Prep as many things as possible before cooking. Have ingredients cut and ready to cook. It is way more important the larger the meal.

A sample menu for our weekend was Friday night: pizza (we cheated), Saturday Morning: frozen cinnamon rolls, sausage links and scrambled eggs, Saturday Evening: build your own tacos and Sunday morning: pancakes and sausage with leftovers thrown in. Notice that we didn’t plan for lunch. There was plenty of leftover pizza and other snacks around to bridge the gap. Truthfully, I wasn’t hungry anyway given that we had a large and late breakfast.

End Your Programming Routine: You can do this. Unless you are running a restaurant or you simply want to spend your time cooking, the point is to get in and get out. That being said, cooking itself can be family time. So, relax and it will be what it is.

March 7, 2023 – A Small Change in Direction

March 7, 2023 /

I have been thinking about this lately. I feel like my content has been more and more political and opinionated and I want to change that. I am keeping Friday’s book review as is and I want to reserve the right for Monday’s podcast to talk about whatever I want. Otherwise, I want Tuesday through Thursday to be politics free.

This may mean that I post nothing on one or all of the days in the middle of the week. But, that is OK because I never wanted this to become a political endeavor. I would much prefer you change your programming by building something or growing something or creating something rather than picking the proper side of the argument. Part of why I have been doing it is that it is easier to write opinion. It doesn’t require me to be in the shop or the kitchen or documenting whatever I am doing. All that has to be done ahead of time and sometimes life is not like that.

This line of thinking all started when I was discussing with my wife our relationship. See “Formaldehyde Christianity” for more context. She said that I have changed and that I have become more hostile and angry. Now, I don’t really think so but there is no doubt that I have spent time researching topics and preparing rebuttals on topics that I don’t agree with. And once my mind is convinced on an argument, I very rarely change my opinion about it.

I have always believed in the concept “perception is reality”. If that is her perception then it is also reality. So, I started looking about things that I am doing and what could either be influences or things that I could eliminate. I think that it is hypocritical to say that I am apolitical and then write about it three times a week. So, it is time for a change of directions.

I suppose that I believe that I am apolitical because I don’t trust political parties, neither Republican nor Democrat. But, that doesn’t mean that I am not largely diehard conservative and strongly freedom oriented. I do stand for traditional values and a women’s right to choose. I stand with God and your right to marry who you choose. I don’t condone or endorse those contradictory behaviors, God will solve that in the end. In my belief system, you only get to Heaven by free will and it is not my place to judge.

Believe it or not, I stand with your desire to call yourself whatever gender you choose. What I do not stand for is using the school system to promote that there are actually more than biological science has identified. I don’t stand for you forcing me to do things that I don’t agree with but I am all for you living in delusion. Remember “perception is reality”. There is another the old adage “your right to free speech ends before your fist touches my nose”. Be as ridiculous as you like but leave me alone and I will extend the same courtesy.

Before I get carried away with more politics, I am just trying to explain why I am the way I am. So let’s just get back to what I am trying to do. I want to keep the mainline of my work on ideas and solutions, not being mad a bad guys. Hopefully this change will be subtle enough and good for me at the same time.

March 6, 2023 – What Your Ukraine Flag Is Really Saying

March 6, 2023 /

I did quite a bit of reading on this one. I knew in my head, from trusted sources that things weren’t exactly what they seemed. All that being said, everyone still needs to do their own research. Just because a source is trusted, doesn’t mean that it is always right.

I think that intuitively, we can all see the Ukrainian flag as a symbol of virtue signaling. It is a sign of the times. We have become a society of icons and false bravado when we perceive an injustice. Just like the ‘drop the mic’ podcast, unfortunately I think that society has turned. We have moved into a decadence phase like ancient Rome where we have more interest in other people’s problems than our own. But, that is a story for another day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity

End Your Programming Routine: Virtue signaling is certainly a form of programming. The concept implies a level of ignorance or blind faith. Now, is this something that is a major problem? Only when you are concerned with liberty and individual thought.