Month: April 2023

April 28, 2023 – Animal Farm, Chapter 9

April 28, 2023 /

We are getting close to the end of the book. There is one more chapter to go. I will tell you a secret, not only have I read this book before but I also finished this weeks ago. The book is so short that you can probably read it in a long evening. But that is OK, I am taking it slow to dissect and enjoy it. I have to clear the cobwebs a bit. Now that I have scanned through the chapter again, I am ready. So, let’s go.

Boxer worked himself to death. After the windmill was blown up and they had to start over, it was Boxer that did the heavy work. In the process he got old, injured and used up. Boxer’s last appearance in the book had him taken away to the glue factory while the pigs were saying he was going to the hospital.

I have been Boxer in my life. I have ignored problems thinking that I can solve them by working harder. This was a huge lesson in my life. In some ways, this is the inspiration for this AltF4.co endeavor. It came across in a different time and a different manor, but I now know what it means.

I was in my twenties and I was running the laboratory. Every plant task that failed to work properly, I would assume as my own. Pretty soon, I was running formulating, wastewater, quality, IT and automation. I had a mentor and he told me as I was leaving that the company would always let me take more work. It was up to me to stop it.

I think more than I was trying to do it all, I was not getting anywhere other than convincing myself that I could do it better. What I was ignoring was the system of accountability for the people not doing a proper job and the consequences for not doing so. I was so vested in the outcome that I couldn’t see my effort was self-harmful as as much as helpful. I didn’t leave as a result of that (story for another day), but I left wiser as a result.

I won’t say that I completely got this lesson, it probably took another 15 years but now I have it. If you work for someone else, you do not own the output. It doesn’t matter if there is profit sharing or employee ownership, you still do not own the output. I think of it this way, any form of revenue sharing is actually a trap to provide the illusion of effort equals results.

The ones that set the rules are limiting the distribution pool. Then there are others that do not deserve to be rewarded. Decisions are made with no input and rules are made to prevent risk or innovation. For all of these reasons, I have realized that for me to be happy with my career and output, I need to be in control of it. Ultimately, this is what drove me to leave my job and it is a strong driving factor in Altf4.co.

Those concepts are the reason that socialism will ultimately have it’s detractors. I didn’t work like a madman because I wanted to get rewarded. I did it because I believed it needed to be done. That being said, when it comes to compensation, I saw that I did all this and this is all there is. Oh and to top it off, things aren’t really better.

Getting back to the book, this chapter is the perfect illustration of the iron law of bureaucracy. There are those committed to the mission (Boxer) and those committed to the organization (pigs). I think that it goes without saying that whichever side you pick, you are all in. How would it look if your star performer actually worked himself to death. That was a situation that had to be dealt with for PR purposes.

It seems completely logical that the pigs would lie about Boxer’s disposition to make everything seem normal. After all, a revolution would be pretty dangerous to the organization. That is really the moral of the story. You can trust the when a choice between the organization and the constituents has to be made, those that are on the other side of the iron law are going to make the choice for the organization.

End Your Programming Routine: Of course, charity is a tenant of Christianity. That being said, charity is not collectivism. And speaking of morality, thou shall not steal. If you are not doing your fair share, then that is stealing which is a sin. Collectivism actually fosters inequality. Reading this is a warning, if you work yourself to death then you have to know that it is your choice, not because there is personal profit.

April 27, 2023 – Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

April 27, 2023 /

As a follow on to last week, I have been doing a reloading series using up all of my stored brass to make room for the actual components that I want to store and need to reload in the future like primers, bullets and powder. Also in this time of scarcity, then beggars cant be choosers so I have started to utilize websites to filter what might be in stock at certain stores.

What I have been doing is looking at a powder and filtering what is in stock. There were three Alliant rifle powders that said “On-Sale” for $19.99. I thought, what a deal, other brands were running $35-45 a pound. I thought to myself that I am going to get my limit of 1lb based on the price (this is partially why there is actually powder on the shelf).

When I arrived at the store, I went to the reloading section, found the powder shelf and it was there. But when I looked at the price, it was $50.99. There was no indicator of sale either. So, I grabbed it and went around looking for some help. The gun counter was swamped as usual and nobody was in sight. After about five minutes of standing around, I decided to just go to the register.

When I got to the register, I said to the cashier “before I buy this, I just want to verify that the price.” I explained what I saw online and what was on the shelf. They looked it up and called a manager. The manager said that they were going to honor the web price but that their cost was $30/lb. So, I was buying it at less than they were paying for it. If it weren’t for the 1 lb. limit, I would have been tempted to buy some more.

Somebody messed something up. My guess is that this was one of these changes that were applied programmatically and somebody didn’t check the output. Like I said, this price was applies on all powders of a certain brand. They went and pulled all the powders off the shelf right after my transaction. This event probably caused a somebody a long day with tech support.

Components are still hard to find. I only bought this powder because of the price. It actually was not my first choice. But, my first choice is not on the shelves. This will work. Actually, I did more research after buying it and have discovered that published loads are for the longer/heavier target bullets. So, while I got a deal on the powder, I am going to end up paying double for the bullets to use with it.

That’s OK because I am still in the experimental phase. To date, I haven’t shot more than a single, popular bullet weight. I have no idea if my rifle will be accurate, so this will be another data point using these target bullets. The price we pay for science…

End Your Programming Routine: When I saw the price, I didn’t believe that it was true. In fact, it really wasn’t. But because I suspected something was wrong and questioned it, I came out on the right side of the deal. I was prepared to put the powder back on the shelf but I didn’t end up having to, because I asked. If in the situation, you should too.

April 26, 2023 – HP Pavillion Battery Replacement

April 26, 2023 /

Nothing fancy here. There are very few videos on how to do this, and none with my specific vintage of HP. So, while those other videos might be all you need, this may be exactly what you need. The hardest part in my opinion is prying off the back.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t remember what this repair costs, but I know it wasn’t expensive the last time I paid for it. There is a reason, because it is not difficult. It takes about 10 minutes to do the replacement if you are practiced.

April 25, 2023 – Where’s the Bunny?

April 25, 2023 /

This probably won’t play well. I say that because even though I took the picture, I have a hard time seeing the rabbit in the picture and I know it is there. Regardless, I have no problem making stuff up on the fly.

Back when life was good (just kidding), I drove my Mustang through a National Wildlife Refuge twice a day. Once on my way to work and once on my way home. This was a significant asset to me because it was nearly mid-way and it was really the only bathroom via outhouse after you leave the freeway and town. Driving that everyday, sometimes I would stop on the way home, because I could.

It was 2018 that the gates were closed and they remained closed until a few months ago. In the meantime, they tore down the outhouse and built an interpretive center. I don’t know what the hold-up on opening was, but I think Covid was part of it. I don’t commute every day but I still periodically drove by wondering what this fancy new structure looked like inside and what was actually there.

In the last year, we have become weekend babysitters. I wont get into the details now, but someone needs help and we can provide help. Sometimes, I end up having to be solo babysitter and I need things to do. I am not great at this and it does sometimes crimp my life on the things that I want to do.

I was babysitter this weekend and so I decided to take an excursion to the wildlife refuge. When I said wildlife refuge, I think the child thought that we were going to see animals everywhere. Of course, I knew better but how can you convince them when the mind is made up. There is a short little 1/2 mile path that we walked. It was pretty barren but I did see a rabbit in the bushes. So, we took a picture of it. Did you see it?

Listening to podcasts about children and the outdoors, you don’t want to push too hard. Fishing turns into a walk to the water and 15 minutes of pole time. Hunting turns into snacks and coloring. You have to think of this as an investment, it is going to take a while to yield some returns, especially with a five year old.

When we were around that age, we couldn’t wait to go out with dad. It was such an adventure. But, he could only handle one of us at once. When my brother got home he would regale me with tales of the woods and I would do the same on my weekends. It was a long day for a young child and I am sure that we didn’t add much to the experience for my day but it was those moments that made me who I am today.

My biggest fear is not seeing nothing but seeing nothing consistently. I want to gently lead a young child into this new world without making it a chore or a dread. Who knows… maybe this will lead to nothing, but maybe it will lead to a love of the outdoors. So, we will keep trying new a different things. I want to be entertained too.

End Your Programming Routine: Because it is spring, my mind really starts shifting to getting on the water and getting a few fishing outings in. I also end up being a sort of father figure to this child. So, it is the perfect opportunity to do both. I have to be prepared to fish for thirty minutes but it beats watching TV all day. That I cant do.

April 24, 2023 – Hair On Fire

April 24, 2023 /

My hair is on fire, I don’t have topics stubbed out for the week. I didn’t even finish my outline before recording this podcast. It was all I could do to edit a short five minute video over the weekend. To top it off, it seems like the world is closing in on us and I see some dark times ahead.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t want to be all about problems, we have plenty of those. What spurred me to talk about this today was how I felt after doing what I did in the podcast. It is simple, why don’t I do it more? I am somewhere between glass half full and glass half empty. I hope that my little adventure spurs people to find the small joy in life despite the world burning around us.

April 21, 2023 – Animal Farm, Chapter 7 and 8

April 21, 2023 /

This week I am combining chapters seven and eight. The reason is that I feel like they are continuations of the same themes. I had to sort of scratch to see if there was actually something new in these chapters. The truth is, I don’t feel like there actually was, but I looked a little deeper to see if there was anything else.

Starting out, the move to the boogeyman has become absurd. Chapter seven is where I think Orwell jumps from generally foretelling to the protest against totalitarianism. For some unexplainable reason many animals admit to conspiring with Snowball and against the Animal Farm. This of course has fatal consequences.

Knowing that they will be killed, the animals knowingly fabricate false and ongoing relationships with Snowball. Ultimately, they are punished for their crimes. I don’t know if this is because things are so bad that death is better than innocence? Or maybe it is this impending sense of fatality that whatever is going to happen regardless of what they say?

I was doing some reading, and this book was published in 1945. There is a thought that this is a direct corollary of the relationship between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. It very well could be that Farmer Fredrickson is Hitler personified and that Hitler betrayed Stalin with attacks on the Eastern Front.

In the book, Fredrickson buys the stack of lumber from Animal Farm. It turns out that the cash that was used was counterfeit. To make matters worse, this was immediately followed by the farmer’s attack and the sabotage of the windmill project. The animals fought back at a very high cost, just like Stalin.

I suppose what I am struggling with a little bit is that if Orwell is protesting totalitarianism in his writings, why then would he personify Stalin/Napoleon as a hero? It very well could be that Orwell is justifying Napoleon’s behavior by the sequencing of events. Or even possibly, this is just an interpretation of the facts and how they translated into history. I guess that we will have to wait until the book is finished to see.

I suppose that it is also possible that when the book was written, the opinion of Orwell of Stalin is not colored by the full force of his actions. Said another way, Stalin’s career was far from over in the mid 1940s. So, what may have looked like a hero in 1944 may not be so shiny in 2023. Again, I will form an overall opinion at the end of the book.

Finally, the cabal between the opinion of friend and foe and it’s daily change be it Snowball, Fredrickson and Pilkington is representative of politics. Hussein was a friend in the Iran/Iraq war and bin Laden was a friend against the Soviets but a foe in the war in terror. The time frame was different in real life but the concept is the same. It doesn’t matter what is said or who is the target, it only matters that everyone is focused how bad everything is at the moment.

End Your Programming Routine: Propaganda is programming. I think like I said last week that the Iron Law of Bureaucracy applies and that the minute a person starts blindly following a person versus an idea, they are fraught with the potential to be mislead. This is particularly true when that person is more into advancing the organization than the objective because it could be that the person is more misinterpreting the idea or that they know that they don’t have to justify their actions.

April 20, 2023 – Reviewing Decisions

April 20, 2023 /

This is a tribute to the old ‘Tacticool’ Thursday with a new way of looking at things. I was thinking about some decisions I made years ago and how that actually faired through my testing of it. I don’t want to be too obtuse, so let’s just get into it.

When I got into reloading was about the time I started thinking heavily about preparedness. It also happened to coincide with the last big run up on firearms and ammunition. The decisions that I made during that period probably didn’t fair as well through this period and I am going to talk about what and why I have changed my thinking.

It occurred to me as I started writing that I probably need to stop trying to name generic periods of ammunition surplus versus shortage. It feels like it is more el nino versus la nina. It seems to be a cycle where we are more in drought than we are in normal years. For context and clarity, I will use specific years in my following assessment.

When Obama was elected in 2008 there was a run on firearms and ammunition. That lasted until late 2010 and then things were in surplus until Sandy Hook occurred in 2012. That period lasted until Trump was elected and then there was surplus from 2017 to the pandemic emergence in April 2020.

We are still in this cycle of disruption. For instance, certain calibers like 9mm are highly prevalent and affordable on the store shelves. But then there are other calibers such as .357 magnum that I have not seen in the store since 2020. It was for that reason that I wanted to start reloading. If I can’t buy it, I can make it.

My dad is a reloader so I have been saving cartridge cases my whole life. So, while I didn’t have the reloading equipment, I had all of my brass all the way from when I was a youth and knew that someday I would start doing it. I purchased my first set of equipment in 2012 so I started watching the component market. In every drought, primers are the first reloading component to disappear.

I decided to make sure that I had primers in surplus. In previous droughts, gun powder and bullets were available. As it turns out in this current shortage, primers are still absent on store shelves, some bullets are available and powder is very hit and miss. What this means is that while I can probably assemble some kind of formula that will go bang, it is highly likely that I cannot put together the exact components that I want.

In addition to this I also decided that I wanted to have some new brass in storage. This is the portion of the decision that I wonder the most about. Reloading is by it’s definition loading brass that has been fired. So, if I have fired it once, I should have most of it to reload. During my recent batch of range trips I made some brass (by shooting at targets) but didn’t have or couldn’t get powder and bullets.

What is the lesson here? I am not talking about specifically ammunition here. I am talking about holistic decisions. If I don’t have the components to load the entire cartridge then I really have nothing. In addition to that, I have stuff taking up space that I really don’t need and stuff I need that I don’t have.

Yesterday, I talked about having three drills. In fact, I have well more than three drills but I have three drills that are essentially the same. I don’t even really want three drills but I hope to save them and give them away to someone that might appreciate it. If we are hanging on to stuff for a potential purpose, I can understand. But, if we are hanging on to stuff because of a false premise, that is wrong.

Another false premise I had to change in the last five years were my college textbooks. I went to school in the emergence of the internet. Books were the only resource that we had and so I saved my subject specific textbooks in Chemistry. Five years ago, I realized that I haven’t been a chemist in 15 years but I still couldn’t part with them. My sunk cost fallacy was that was thousands of dollars worth of books that still had value. My problem was that there was no market value for them. Ultimately, I ended up dumping them in the recycling bin.

I can truthfully say that I hadn’t looked at the textbooks in 20 years and I haven’t even missed them in the five years since. Ten years ago, I went through purging of music, books and movies it was the same thing. I think sometimes we like the idea of having things more than actually using them. I have a whole box of miscellaneous cables that need to go, you get the point.

At least in America, I think that we are all used to having more than we need, including space. It is easier to give up space than to deal with our emotions and true need. I am sure that it is human nature to optimize the activities that are in our interest zone. I am simply encouraging you to evaluate stuff and the whole process for a happier and healthier future.

End Your Programming Routine: Just like Animal Farm, my story here is an allegory on an error made on a false premise. If I want to retire I need a plan, if I want to become a doctor I need a plan, if I want to shoot in an ammunition blackout, I need a plan. I am guilty of holding off on decisions many times, I live it. I also know that there is no one else to blame but myself for that habit. If and when you make a plan, you need to stop and evaluate whether you are on the right path or not.

April 19, 2023 – Makita 6303H Repair

April 19, 2023 /

Good tools are good tools. I have a certain affinity for the Makita brand that goes all the way back to the early 1990s. Both my uncle and my grandfather were users of the Makita brand dating back to the 1980s after the decline of the Craftsman brand as the tool standard of Americans. My uncle told me a story that when he started as a contractor in 1985, he went through two new Craftsman sanders in a week before switching to Makita and never looking back.

When going through my father-in-law’s shed, I donated a lot of items to Habitat for Humanity. I saved a couple of the Makita tools that I thought were not ‘use off the shelf’ ready, like this drill. Sure, ultimately I think it probably cost more to repair than to purchase used. I suspect that they were ‘gifts’ from a friend as he was a retired cabinet maker that had a habit of giving tools away that he no longer saw a use. And my father-in-law was always gracious.

The amazing thing is that I think you can purchase every single part for this drill still. This includes all the plastic cowlings. My original plan was to just replace the cord, but looking at it more closely, I figured I could get away with shortening the cord. That is what freed my mind to replace the missing auxiliary handle which was the most expensive part of the whole project.

End Your Programming Routine: I now have three, corded electric 1/2″ drills, only one that I actually purchased. My ultimate thought was to repair this drill and give it to someone that might feel more of an emotional connection to it, like my son rather than risking it getting thrown away. For that reason, I didn’t mind spending some money on it as long as it was a quality item. It probably won’t ever get a lot of use now that cordless tools are so convenient. But, what would you pay to do a project with Grandpa again?

April 18, 2023 – Milk Street: The World In a Skillet

April 18, 2023 /

The World In a Skillet by Christopher Kimball is the April 2023 is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection for April. We find ourselves back from fiction last month to a cookbook. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I find a it difficult to evaluate a book without using it. That certainly is the case here. That being said, there are some unique elements to this particular cookbook.

You may be familiar with Christopher Kimball as he was a host of America’s Test Kitchen for many years. I did notice that he was gone from the show about eight years ago. In fact, his fixture was so long and his transition abrupt that I thought that maybe there was a health problem or something. This is actually the first time I had seen anything publicly and learning that he changed directions.

My supposition about his whereabouts were not without merit. I ran across some allegations and apparently there was a lawsuit between America’s Test Kitchen and Kimball accusing theft of intellectual property and damages in his new endeavor Milk Street. If you ever watched any of his previous work then you will know it was highly technical. Fortunately, it appears this new direction is simpler and more approachable.

It is interesting to see different approaches, dare I say novel approaches to cookbook and I would say this is one of them. Let’s talk about the title first. Kimball’s premise is that there are a lot of specific apparatus involved in ethnic cooking. Or said another way, each culture uses a proprietary piece of cookware and he surmises that this could all be substituted with a skillet.

That was the approach, but it wasn’t the only innovation. The cookbook is organized by time to cook. So, the user can go to the section and look at the 20 recipes that require less than 45 minutes to make. I think that this is a brilliant because skillet meals are often one dish meals. One dish meals are often those made in time constrained periods (weeknights, after work).

I do have a varied palate and I like the idea of Asian one night, Mexican another, soul food on another and comfort food on Friday. I think that it is pretty interesting that the recipes go from Vietnamese, to Italian to African to Chinese on page by page basis. So, it does seem to me that this approach fits my cooking instincts and preferences.

But wait… there’s more. It is not just single dish recipes but also sides and deserts and all things skillet. Now, maybe that is a step too far from what we need in a cookbook. But, if it is anything it is all in on skillets. So, I will give props for wringing the most out of the one-trick pony.

Out of 300 or so pages, nearly half of them are pictures. It does make you stimulated to page through the book. So, barring the fact that I haven’t cooked anything yet, it is a beautiful book. However in my kitchen, books are starting to clog up spaces so I am moving to the point that they need to earn their place. I do plan on trying a few things in the next month to see if it is worthy.

End Your Programming Routine: The book club is emerging out of our Covid hangover. Starting in 2020, we cut our interactions from about 10 a year to 4 (including March that was already scheduled) with outside summer gatherings. We have more books and meetings in the pipeline again as the composition of the group has changed to the new reality. I love reading and cooking but I warm up to people over time. I also love that being part of this group is a leap of faith for the interests of others. More books to come.

April 17, 2023 – What Your Beer Says About You

April 17, 2023 /

My points here are that brands have some reflection of the consumers and that it is difficult to tell what brands are cloaked in conglomerates. This is some of the issues that I tackle today. Maybe I will talk about beer again, the research was kind of fun and informative.

End Your Programming Routine: Pepsi Clear didn’t kill Pepsi, New Coke didn’t kill Coca-Cola. OJ Simpson didn’t damage Hertz. But, all of these companies recognized the damage that was done to the brand and did something about it. Will InBev do the same or is this the signs of change? I guess time will tell but I think we have seen the end of Bud Light.