Author: bhayes952

August 23, 2023 – It Is That Time of Year Again

August 23, 2023 /

So much for summer. We are a little over a week from school starting again. My younger son is off to Taiwan in a couple days and my older son will be home the day after that. We just registered my older son yesterday for school and the end of summer is eminent.

We drew tags to a new deer unit this year. I have been over there twice doing some preliminary scouting this summer. In fact last weekend, we spent a day driving around trying to get the lay of the land. We need to figure out where to camp, how to hunt and how to access the area.

I have always heard that serious hunters spend time with maps and photos before putting boots on the ground. I remember reading an article one time in American Hunter but it has been long lost. So, I have been perusing the internet on how to scout with maps. Maybe this is something that could help my usually poor outcomes?

I found this one that is a little dry, but I thought it contained good fundamentals. The presenters shows features on the map and talks about definitions of words in relation to the map. This is a good start for people that have no basis in maps and the vocabulary.

As a former Boy Scout, at least I understand the vocabulary, maps and compasses. But what nobody really tells you is the application of such. How do you read a map and find a deer?

I guess that there is no substitute for just trying. Now that we kind of know where we are going, I can look at maps to see what might be around and and look at some spots where I might want to look for deer or setup and observe. Maybe I will do a video on what and why I chose what I did and what I learned (don’t count on it).

Currently, with my new job and all of that, I am thinking that I will probably at best get a long weekend to hunt. So, I really don’t want to waste it on tripping all over myself trying to get oriented with the territory. If things go as I expect, then I will also have to consider what the rest of the party has already done before I get there. But, maybe if I do some advanced work, I can influence what they will do with or without me by providing strategies based on my map work. At least this is what I am thinking.

Lest we forget that there are some easier things to do to get ready besides like physical fitness. Truth be told, this probably should have started months ago, but maybe if you are young enough there is still time. And, just because you are not fit enough doesn’t mean that a little bit doesn’t help. I doubt that I will be fit enough as I should be. But, this is a reminder

End Your Programming Routine: I am excited that hunting season is coming around. That being said, this is also approaching harvest season. It is a crazy, manic and wonderful time of year. I think that it just might be my favorite time of year. The hope of a new school year, the gentle warmth of the last of summer, the bounty of the harvest and all of those things that need to get done. I just hope to take some time to enjoy it as well as participate.

August 22, 2023 – Garbage Salad

August 22, 2023 /

I am being a lot sensational. It is not really garbage, but a bunch of things left over in the refrigerator. A couple of weekends ago, we had a family reunion and I needed to make something to take. I didn’t want to invest much in cooking and I really didn’t want to go to the store to buy ingredients. I also wanted to make something that would use things wife wouldn’t eat. Finally, I wanted it to be vegetarian so that if we had leftovers, my son would eat it.

We wax and wane some on gluten. I don’t really believe that anyone should eat it in significant quantities due to the inflammation response that it causes. But, some people tolerate it better than others. And, my wife has recently declared that she was no longer eating gluten so I thought that I would make pasta salad.

Salads are a good vehicle to use up all of those tidbits of things. I am sure that your refrigerator is similar to mine where the one time you made the anti-pasta platter, you have one third jar of olives left over. Well, I have three different jars one third full. I had a small bit of onion, feta cheese, yellow pepper and some dried cherry tomatoes I made a couple of years back.

A bit on onion. I used yellow onion because that is what I had on hand. I think a red onion would have been better but don’t get too hung up on the ‘right’ onion. As long as it is not a featured part of the dish, it is going to be OK. In fact if you want, don’t even put it in the salad if you are that worried about it. If you think it is going to go well, then go for it.

Sometimes I use yellow onion in substitute for green onion and sometimes the other way around. White is distinct and works best in Mexican but I will use that in place of yellow onions. So, use what you have and do what you feel. Best is always best but that doesn’t mean it will be almost as good. I certainly didn’t think my yellow onion impacted the salad.

I mixed the pasta and the garnishes. Now, it was time to make the dressing. I wanted something Mediterranean so that is oil, vinegar and herbs. I also wanted to keep it on the surface of the pasta so I wanted to emulsify the oil and vinegar. I chose the remaining mayonnaise and added some leftover whole grain mustard.

I have a similar take on vinegar as onions. Red or white wine vinegar is best but I would have used cider vinegar or distilled as well. I probably wouldn’t use balsamic, but who knows, maybe that would work too. It would be an interesting experiment.

I used thyme, oregano and parley for herbs. I love oregano in a vinegrette. However, mine is really tough, so maybe I should have focused on mincing rather than a rough chop. I also would have added basil if I had it, The parsley was mostly for looks rather than taste as it gets washed out with the stronger herbs.

It certainly didn’t look or taste like garbage. I was really happy how it came out. I didn’t get the compliments that I did on the coleslaw last year but that is OK. My satisfaction is the most important.

End Your Programming Routine: At any given time, there is two to five different hot sauces in the fridge. All the jams, pickles, mustards drive me nuts. Any time I can repurpose all those things into a productive alternative, I am extremely satisfied. And that is what we have here. Truth be told, I would be just as happy if it tasted terrible, fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

August 18, 2023 – We, Introduction

August 18, 2023 /

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; I really don’t know anything about this book. It is said to be the grandfather of all dystopian fiction and direct inspiration to Aldus Huxley who by proxy influenced George Orwell, Ayn Rand and Kurt Vonnegut. Sounds good to me.

I have taken a look through the book and there are 40 chapters, called Records. Since I really have no idea about the flow or anything, I think that I will do five Records per week making this a total of ten weeks. That being said, the book is only a little over 100 pages. So, I might change my mind before next week as I get into the book.

This book was originally written in Russian (1921) and translated into English (1924). I can already tell from the language that I am going to struggle a bit comprehending its more archaic dialect. That is one reason why I am thinking of taking smaller bites into the book.

Reading the plot summary online I will give a brief recap of the highlights. It seems that the plot takes place in a homogenous and utopian society. People no longer have names but IDs and live in a highly regulated society. From what I read, it seems like the main character begins to question the perfection of utopianism.

Huxley claims that he was influenced by Orson Wells and that he never read We while 1984 seems like an alternate plot. Orwell claims that he read We a few months before writing 1984. I hope that I am not going to lose my luster Orwell who so far is at the top of my list.

I am going to keep it short today. Partly because I don’t know much about the book and partly because I don’t have much to say yet.

End Your Programming Routine: I will say this in parting. I don’t know exactly what the future holds with this segment. There is plenty of dystopian literature around that I want to read. I am weighing the impacts of other controversial works like Catcher in the Rye or classical titles as well such as Crime and Punishment. Good art should stimulate the brain, not just entertain so there may be something to learn by branching out. I am keeping it in this genre for now.

August 17, 2023 – Accessorizing Your Safe

August 17, 2023 /

One of the first lessons I learned when we moved into this house was that keeping firearms in the basement, left unattended started to rust. I looked into several options. The one I eventually chose was long term storage bags (kind of like giant ziplock bags). Each time I handled a firearm, it would get a heavy buff with a silicone product called Barricade. That seemed to protect them once I started doing it.

With this new safe, I didn’t want to use the storage bags. My safe has a a power strip inside of it and I wanted to take advantage of that. I do still plan on wiping them down after handling. I took a very poor picture to highlight some of the accessorizing that I chose.

You can see how bright it is. This is because I installed some LED strip lights. These are multi-purpose light kits that can be used under cabinets or even gun safes. I don’t think lights are really necessary unless there is a lot of stuff in there. Then it starts to get a little more helpful. But, I wanted to pimp out my safe.

The black caps on the floor are covering bolts that I drilled into the concrete. The safe manufacturer recommends at least two bolts. I did four. Now, I thought that I was already paying for this with delivery and installation. As I pointed out last week, nope.

Aside from keeping valuables safe, you also want to protect them from the environment. You can barely see it at the lip of the door, but I added a heating element. This is supposed to drive air circulation within the safe. And with circulation, there is less chance of rust. I will be testing that out for sure.

The white item on the upper left is some rechargeable desiccant. The balls within absorb water vapor. They have some kind of magic that changes from purple to pink when they need to be recharged. To do that, there is a plug on the back of the case and you plug in the device until it is dried out.

The tiny sliver of black you see at the top/middle is a remote hygrometer/thermometer. You probably know that I am a data junky. I want to see what it happening with temperature and humidity more so to get a sense about how the heating bar and desiccant are working. I already had one in my shop so I swapped this new unit in for the old one and now I have a monitor in the basement.

It is already yielding interesting data. It is typically a degree warmer inside and a couple of percentage points higher in humidity. It could be that the sensor for the inside has a different calibration for the sensor on the outside. Or, I suspect that this moving air and desiccation is actually drawing moisture into the safe. I am going to keep an eye on that.

These were the accessories that I chose. There are other variations of lights and moisture measurements. I have even heard of motion detectors to alarm you if someone is trying to access the safe if you are not around. You can purchase various pistol racks and over the door hangers as well. Mine comes with a factory door hanger so I didn’t need that. But that is it.

End Your Programming Routine: If it is cars, boats, computers or safes accessorizing is the way to make things our own. Despite the fact that I am no where close to filling it up and probably never will, it gave me a lot more breathing room in my former cabinet. Since I have been reloading, I have run out of room to store all those plastic boxes and shotgun shells for trap season. Not just storing them but getting to specific loads is a chore having to pull everything out to find something. This day was a long time coming.

August 16, 2023 – They May Be the Devil But Boy, is Customer Service Good

August 16, 2023 /

We have had two pedestrians hit in the crosswalk in the last couple of months. Both of them were not caught on the doorbell camera. So, we have decided to expand our camera network. I want the doorbell camera to really be focus at someone at the door, not every motion on the street.

We are also trying two different technologies. One is solar and the other is has a hardwired kit. The trick will really be if our wi-fi will be able to reach the location that I want to put the cameras. The solar powered one I put up, the battery died after the first day. I think that it is the wi-fi and not the solar charger, but we will see. I just ordered a wifi extender today. I suppose that I should check the output of the panel as well.

Hanging the camera, I was trying to screw in the wire management clips and I knocked the camera off the mount. It fell about 12 feet into the plants and dirt. I climbed down the ladder picked it up and re-attached it to the hangar. I then went about trying to get the right angle on the camera.

Only, the app said that the camera was offline. I checked and it was connected to the Ring network. This is a wi-fi extender that we had to purchase so that our back door camera would work. If the signal is weak, the battery winds down constantly trying to connect (even when it is connected to power). But, the extender is father away than the wi-fi router so I wanted to change networks. In order to do that, I need to access the camera and hit a button.

No connection. I thought I would take the battery out (re-boot) and again, no connection. I gave up for the day and I did some research online. I couldn’t figure anything out but that they had a technical service number. I decided to give it a try, expecting the worst.

Someone answered on the third ring, not a phone tree or anything. I know a little about support and the first answer (tier 1) is usually all the triage level activities. I was asked if I had a second battery, which I have with the other camera that I have not installed yet. I tried that and no connection. The next thing she did was ask me where I purchased it and whether I wanted to return the camera or have Ring provide a replacement.

They emailed me a return label for the non-functioning camera and I had the replacement in a couple of days. Now, I did not try to hoodwink them or anything like that. I told them that I set it up and it was working until I knocked it off the mount. I wanted them to know that I caused the problem. I could have had a replacement the next day from Amazon. That being said, I did not want this camera ending up in someone else’s hands if there really was something wrong with it. I have little faith that it wouldn’t end up in the ‘warehouse’.

End Your Programming Routine: I suppose that it is a sad state of affairs when things go the way that they are supposed to go but yet pleasantly surprised. I neither like nor trust that all my data is going into Amazon’s cloud. That being said, they sure are making it easy to give it to them.

August 15, 2023 – How to Entertain an Exchange Student

August 15, 2023 /

I guess that we have become exchange student hosts. For me, it goes way back to my youth where we first hosted a Japanese exchange student for a couple of weeks. A few years later, we had a French exchange student. Later in my married life, we had another Japanese exchange student for a few weeks. Then we had our Spanish exchange student for a year 2019-2020. And finally, we sent off our German exchange student a couple weeks ago (with my son).

It is hard to build connection when they are only with you a couple of weeks. Generally speaking we have lost touch with all of our short term students. Granted those were all pre-social media experiences. I am relatively sure that we have a lifetime bond with our Spanish student. It is because we were able to spend enough time to really build a relationship. Since he left, we have visited Spain and he has visited us.

I am not sure how I feel like hosting without kids. Plenty of people do it; we are already on the Rotary hit list for the next long term exchange. This year didn’t work out because the targeted student has pet allergies and one of the program coordinators is a veterinarian. But kids are able to relate at their level. They often have the same schedule (like summer vacations) and are likely open to showing off to make a new buddy.

When we were kids, we didn’t have a lot of means but we had kid ingenuity. We built forts, picked blackberries, rode bicycles around, shot basketball and sword fought with sticks. Our French student was a Boy Scout so he joined us for a week at summer camp. Those weeks really flew by and it was over before we knew it.

Our second Japanese exchange student had daily classes. That meant that we had to take her to school during the week so that part kind of took care of itself. But, what would you do if you only had three weeks to provide a crash course in your culture? Easy, do what you do.

First of all, all those kitschy or things you have seen a million times are new to an exchange student. So, while on any given weekend you may not pick these places spend your time, they are easy targets. For instance, we usually plan a trip to the beach which is only an hour away. A whale watching trip is $25/person and two hours long. That makes it economically approachable and even the motion sensitive people can bear that duration. And even if people are from some tropical location, our beach is very different.

Speaking of different. you usually get some sort of profile before accepting the student. It is a good if you can match some of your entertaining with their interests. If they like hiking, you can walk the dog around the neighborhood if you are not a hiker, but it is pretty likely you can find some sort of short arboretum trail or city park. If you interest are congruent, you need to consider that these are kids. I wouldn’t recommend a two week backpacking trip because you don’t know if their idea of hiking matches your hard core pursuit.

McDonald’s is not the novelty it used to be. I remember that we got a tour at the local McDonald’s with our first exchange student but now it is really everywhere in the world. Culinary experiences are great gateways however. Have them help cook, pick berries or even just suggest recipes that you can try to make. I also suggest planning meals that bring out Americana like barbeque and fruit pies. Since I like to cook, I am up for anything but I also try to focus on things that I think are American (or Mexican because my wife is Latino).

I would highly recommend not always cooking at home nor eating out. You want a mix of what is a restaurant experience and what is a home experience. When our Spanish student came a month or so ago, he had a list of all the places that he wanted to eat. Sadly, nothing on his list was our food, but it sure made the busy time go easier.

If permitted, I like to play into the world stereotype. A lot of people have visions of America being cowboys, especially in the west. That is running around and shooting things. Most programs have restrictions against any kind of risk behavior (this is for insurance reasons). But the Rotary does not. So we went on a boys camping trip that featured some target shooting. This is one of the few things that is nearly uniquely American.

Go to the Friday night concert in the park or the county fair. It is not all about creating one of a kind, whiz-bang experiences but the ability to compare and contrast what they think of pizza versus what we think it is. Especially sensory experiences such as food leave lifetime impressions whereas the history of the Alamo gets forgotten within months. Don’t not do the Alamo if it is close and convenient but just know that they are not likely recall every detail.

End Your Programming Routine: The Rotary program says don’t go out of your way to pack every day with fun. Do what you do. That being said, I would say that you want to try and make things a little special. A couple road trips and some local events provide a well rounded peak in a short term exposure. Hosting an exchange student is a very enriching process and I highly encourage doing it.

August 14, 2023 – What’s Lamer Than Lame

August 14, 2023 /

Airports can be full of sad people. Maybe not quite as sad as the run of the mill Walmart but sad for different reasons. Some are travelling against their will, some are going on vacation and some like to pretend that ‘I am the man’. Taking a riff on the grosser than gross jokes, this is lamer than lame only it is not a joke.

I am making a slight tweak here moving forward. If I didn’t make my case in the podcast then I sort of failed my mission. I am removing the End Your Programming segment of the podcast posts. It seems kind of redundant and counter intuitive to write about what I talked about. This will help me in keeping things streamlined and quicker to deploy.

August 11, 2023 – Lord of the Flies, Conclusion

August 11, 2023 /

Dare I say that I am ready to move on? I am glad that I read the book so I can no longer say that I haven’t read this classic. I will say that I did enjoy the book on a topical/story level. But, I think that my analysis period was a little long and drawn out. I have thought about it a number of times, I am not sure what makes sense other than a chapter by chapter breakdown unless I just did arbitrary chapter blocks.

I did something that I told myself I wouldn’t do. I read the afterward and analysis before completely forming my own opinion. I think that it colored my opinion a little bit. More on that in a minute.

I guess the first place to go is, does this is book fit into the AltF4.co genre and does it fit with ending your programming? I have to answer that the programming is really what everyone else is saying the book is supposed to mean and not making your own analysis. Ostensibly in traditional analysis, this story is a metaphor for how humans are savage by nature and that civilization is the only restraint containing our natural state.

As a Christian, I have to fundamentally reject that humans are born savage. If if I didn’t, it would not be congruent with my beliefs. I do believe that humans are born Anarchist and Lord Of the Flies heavily supports that concept. This is probably where the internal conflict begins. You see, Anarchy is a form of existence without rulers and not necessarily without rules.

We see this all the time in our world that people just want to be left alone to do what they want to do. That being said, we have other people that do not permit them to live as they wish in peace. So, we have one neighbor that thinks another neighbor aught not have cars in the driveway. So, they call the Home Owners Association to enforce a collective agreement to fine them (or whatever punishment is contractually allowed).

Someone actually called the police and complained that a bush of mine was too far into the sidewalk. The police came and said that I needed to handle it today (or what…?). I did, but again I am going to use the power of the state to get my will. We claim to want freedom, but generally we cannot handle the implications of it.

In the afterward, the author starts by talking about sympathy towards certain characters and disdain for others. She continues that reading the book multiple times over the years has dulled the emotions for the characters. She ends with one true villain, while not named is described as the Navy officer that recues the kids from the island.

Isn’t that interesting. The villain in the book is not Jack or the hunters but the state. Why do you suppose that is? Is it not the state that caused the war that put them in this position in the first place? Do they not create artificial boundaries and drum up animosity between different parts of it’s own citizenry? It’s no wonder when anarchy reins people act savagely.

Is this book as impactful as 1984 or Atlas Shrugged? I actually don’t think so. If we take the stance of government being the true enemy, the story is very obtuse. It takes a stretch to get there whereas the lessons in the other books are in your face. I also think the others are more creatively predictive when we are in the state that we are whereas Lord of the Flies speculates on the results of being a controlled population. Said another way, the former books are what happens and the latter is the results. That is a harder leap to make.

Truth be told, it is a short book. It is one that could easily be read multiple times in one’s lifetime without too much effort. I am not sure that I will, but I could. Of course, I didn’t think I was going to re-read Animal Farm or 1984 either. I like thought stimulation but not necessarily darkness. I found the book to be dark and that seems to be a dangerous place to stay. It is kind of like the advice, if you want to be successful try to hang out with successful people. I assume the same advice would apply to darkness.

End Your Programming Routine: From that analysis, Lord of the Flies is a perfect Altf4.co book. You have to keep sifting through the dirt, rocks and sand to find the gold. Every time someone says ‘There’s no gold in that river. Everybody knows that’. Meanwhile they keep mining for fools gold and discard everything else. That is the definition of programming.

August 10, 2023 – Finally

August 10, 2023 /

Happy Father’s Day to me. We purchased a safe for Father’s Day and it was pretty cheap by all standards. It was already on sale and then we were able to by gift cards at 10% off. We used those gift cards to purchase the safe. So all told we bought the safe for $800. Buying it is one thing, but actually getting it in place is completely another thing. Today, I am going to talk about what to know when hiring a safe mover.

First of all, I never wanted the safe in my shop. This was an alternate choice. I wanted it in the basement where I currently store all of my sporting goods. While negotiating the delivery, I was told by the safe mover that it was too big to negotiate down the stairs and make tight turns. He told me when he showed up for delivery that safes of this size were too big to move up or down stairs (in general). Quite honestly, I don’t believe that. But, you should know that size matters when dealing with some individuals.

I think that if I had known this, I possibly would have purchased a smaller safe. The reason I bought this one was three fold. Conventional wisdom is purchase the biggest safe you can afford. The second was that this size was only $100 more than the one that was 20% smaller. The third is that I had no idea that people would say no. I assumed that I would say I want it here and the price would reflect the effort or manpower.

I wont go through all the gyrations that we went through to negotiate delivery. Suffice to say, I would not recommend this company to do further work. I mean, six weeks for delivery, who runs a business like this? I will comment on some of the more egregious parts of the process.

When he showed up to the store to pickup the safe, he called said that it wasn’t there. Mind you, because this was for Father’s Day my wife started the negotiations. Then he calls back five minutes later and said that she told him the wrong store. I had taken a picture of the receipt and sent it to him. But, my wife had already done that over a month ago. Since I wasn’t involved in the discussion, I don’t know who said what but the fact of the matter was that he already had the correct information. That wasn’t the worst part of it, he charged me an additional mileage fee because he got the wrong information.

He did do his best to position the safe where I wanted. He spent time to level the safe, check the door operation and give me some quick instruction on how to deal with batteries and change the code on the lock. I had assumed that this was full installation so I didn’t ask questions, but when he was done he said that we did not discuss anchoring the safe. He charges $25 per hole (and there are four bolt holes in this safe). By that time, I was so fed up with him that I said no. This is a job that I can easily do.

Another irritating thing was that when he drove off, he left all of the packaging in the driveway. Fortunately, most of it is cardboard and I can recycle it for free. But, I have never had an installation where they left stuff for the customer to deal with. This is poor business practice I would say. Here are my suggestions on what to know:

  • If you are hiring a mover, you might want to check with them before purchasing a safe on what they will or wont do in terms of placement.
  • You might want to look at more than one option if you have any. This was the company that the store recommended. I am sure they have no idea what this experience is like.
  • Make sure you get an itemized list of what you are paying for. I really didn’t appreciated getting sprung with extra costs on the spot.
  • I bought the safe at a farm and ranch store. Maybe you get what you pay for. They are not safe experts, just cheap, safe sellers. Probably had I purchased from a safe specialist, I would not have had all of these experiences.

This was a purchase that was long time coming. While I really don’t own that many guns, the current cabinet was at its full capacity. It is full of ammunition, accessories an all things shooting related. I even modified it when the kids were young adding a gate clasp with padlock for ‘extra’ security. It offered no fire protection and is always a chore getting stuff out that is not in the front. So despite the fact it isn’t totally what I wanted, I am happy for the extra security, protection and room.

End Your Programming Routine: In retrospect, I should have paid the $75 delivery fee and looked for movers that would do what I wanted after it was delivered, especially when I didn’t get a good feeling early on. I my case, I paid a third of the overall cost to have the safe delivered and positioned. I did learn a few things watching and so I will definitely not pay for this service again, especially to not get what I wanted. I have a few more things to accessorize before I start seeing how everything looks. I am eager to get started.