End your programming, do things that matter.
This is a special episode that I only did because the subject was pilgrims. I got to thinking that they came here for a reason. This is the beginning of my succession to ‘Tacticool’ Thursday.
Now, of all of the colors and symbols on the ‘Pride‘ flag, I don’t see Pilgrims as one of them… people should be thankful that they broke the law between required church attendance and citizenship otherwise there would a lot more executions abound.
Surprise! It is a short week so I am doing Atlas Shrugged on Wednesday this week. I may or may not be working on the site during this period, but we both deserve a rest. I want to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to be thankful, not just making turkey.
I didn’t fully get what was going on at the end of the last chapter. I even re-read some of it to try and follow but I couldn’t. Apparently, Dabny was flying a plane and it turns out following another plane. I got the part where she was flying but I missed that she was following someone else. As it turns out, John Galt was flying with Quentin Daniels. In the course of flying, she ends up crashing the plane.
The reason that she crashed was that this particular valley is covered by some sort of mirage. This is the same mirage that protects Galt’s Gulch from being seen from the air. If you haven’t read the book, Galt’s Gulch is where all of the industrialists have gone to check out from society.
This was a mistake. While the industrialists are keeping an eye on her, their modus operandi is that this move is free will. It will happen when the person is ready and not without prompting. So, Dabny has not made the full commitment but gets a preview for what is possible.
When John Galt declares that he is going to stop the motor of the world, he does. He takes his revolutionary invention of a motor that derives electricity from static and declares that this world will never have it. He did however perfect his invention to power the community of Galt’s Gulch.
Every single industrialist that left the previous world has taken residence here and has assumed a menial role in society such as grocer, farmer, plumber, handyman, etc. This is really the means to an end because whatever their true passions are are pursued for the benefit of themselves only. They work a small amount or as much as necessary but the rest of the time is leisure time.
“I swear by my life that I will never live my life for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for me”. This is the one pledge to enter or join life in Galt’s Gulch. I find it ironic that I am reading this book at this time. Maybe if I would have read the book earlier, I would have seen the parallels earlier but for some reason the time is now.
The very concept of social justice is the manifestation of what this book is trying so hard to combat. From Wikipedia “Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society”. There is something in me that just rails against the premise. Didn’t we tell ourselves in grade school that this was the land of opportunity or anything is possible? Social justice exactly contradicts this idea.
You cannot attain your vision because so and so has more power or this or that and/or the color of you skin prevents success. We must take from others to equalize this injustice. An acceptance of the principal of social justice is a denial of self-sufficiency. And that is against my grain.
Before this is taken completely out of context, I am not for poverty, racism or even inequality. I do have compassion and understand that these subjects are complicated. I do feel that these issues are largely self-inflicted. But, I reject the argument that these problems are my fault or the fact that I am a member of a socioeconomic group by your labels or how or where I was born. I am just as resistant to my stereotyping as social justice warriors are purporting that my group is labelling theirs.
End Your Programming Routine: I am a strong proponent to the concept of giving a poor man one million dollars versus making a successful man penniless. Success is always about mindset and not the assets. Sure, it is easier to make money starting with some money, but still not impossible. The answer will never be taking things in the name of equality whether it is money or respect. If it is not earned, it wont be valued and if it is not valued, it wont be kept.
Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children. – Malcom X
I don’t always agree with Malcom, but this sure resonates with me. I will assume that you are dense and explain this a little further. We send our kids to school for seven hours a day and then we are surprised that they leave after thirteen years woke and entitled.
I wrote early on about being the ‘gray man’. This means don’t get noticed, blend in, be strategic about your permanent footprint. Every day, as I write and post I consider whether what I am producing will have negative consequences. I deliberately leave personal information obscured for those reasons.
While these two things don’t 100% correlate, I guess what I am trying to say is to not educate your enemy because they will use that against you. Don’t be surprised when I talk about a subject every week and all of the sudden I am an expert or at least a target. That is where I am at with Tacticool Thursday. With that, I am going to discontinue that segment immediately.
The truth is I am sad. I have lines of ideas that I want to write about. I have more things in the pipeline for that one weekly segment than any other. But, it is foolish to continue to broadcast even a small amount of attention for what I may or may not have.
Let’s talk about what I am and am not saying. It doesn’t mean that I am going to stop with the activity. It means that I am going to stop writing about most aspects. It doesn’t mean that I am not going to occasionally write about related subjects or even certain gear. But, firearms specifically are no longer going onto the blog and similar topics are going to be greatly reduced.
If I end up moving to a place that respects freedom more, then Tacticool Thursday will likely come back. For now, it makes no sense to continue to paint a background scene to my self portrait even if I haven’t put my picture in it.
It is very likely that a challenge to Oregon 114 will be upheld. Already magazine capacity limits in states like California and New York have been nullified by the results of Bruen v. New York State Rifle and Pistol Club Supreme Court ruling last year. The current precedent of that ruling is that magazine capacity limits are unconstitutional. But, when it comes to the comparison of right and dead or wrong and alive, which one do you want to be?
Despite the fact that these laws are getting struck down, do you want to pay the lawyers’ bill? Do you have 10 years of your life to fight this fight? Do you want to go through the hassle of arrest and bail or ticket? This is what I am saying, stay the gray man.
End Your Programming Routine: I do not deny who I am or what I like. I do not deny what I have written. But, the past is the past. I think that I am going to start investigating freedom on Thursdays. I need to start spending some time researching a better alternative to where I am currently residing and the best way to do it in my mind is to write about it.
Through the years, I have grown less enamored with Christmas much preferring Thanksgiving. I am not going to give away my podcast secrets here, you will have to listen to find out what is driving this.
The name of this podcast is inspired by George Orwell’s concept of ‘Hate Week’. This is whipping everyone up into moving into the same direction. I am getting everyone ready for the holiday season with this podcast.
End Your Programming Routine: I guess my desire is to change the course of my history. I just realized that the days my family will all be home is limited. We can go back to old traditions or start new ones or let things be the way they are. But, let us feel free to make them what we want and not feel trapped by life just passing us by.
This is the last chapter in part 2. Things seem to be no where near resolved at this point, so we will have to stay tuned for the last 400+ pages of the book.
Dabny meets a transient. He used to work at Twentieth Century Motor Company. He describes the process where the owner died and the factory was taken over by the workers. Part of the process was need based voting on wages and other issues.
“Remember that none of us may now leave this place, for each of us belongs to all others by moral law which we all accept”. One man, stood up and as he left the meeting and disappeared forever said “I will stop the motor of the world”. That man was John Galt.
After that conversation, the train stopped, the crew abandoned the train, possibly in Oklahoma or Kansas. Dabny walks with Owen Kellogg a former employee to find a telephone which is every five miles down the track. During the walk, she discovers that he is in possession of cigarettes with the dollar sign on them. He refuses to talk about the origin, but says that they can only be obtained by gold.
I suppose that these are the main two themes in the chapter. However neither is really new. This chapter is forty pages of marking time. Sure we learned the back story of John Galt and the Dollar symbol (in the book). It kind of reminds me of a podcast I heard years ago about the origin of the dollar. Apparently, the origin of the US dollar was based on the Spanish dollar when it was adopted as currency in 1792.
Kellogg draws some comparisons of the symbol, much like history or politics. There are facts and then there is how those facts are interpreted. For instance, there are those that use the dollar symbol as a weapon to mark greed and selfishness. While there are others that see it as a symbol of creativity and output.
I suspect that people that use the 1% moniker would not refuse a $100 bill if I handed them one, no strings attached. I have never heard of anyone refusing a raise solely on principal. For that matter, those same people do not work for free. So, it is not the money itself that is evil but more likely jealousy. And even more likely hypocrisy meaning who wouldn’t trade financial situations with someone in the 1% assuming that we could handle the transition?
Is everyone that rich a nice, hardworking and deserving person? I doubt it, in fact I would be willing to bet that a lot of them worked in some sort of gray area to get there. So let us look at my version of the Facebook story.
Back when MySpace was the top social media site, the internet was much more undeveloped. Because MySpace was adopted by the newest tech generation (pre-teens and teens), it drove slightly older people to Facebook. These also happened to be the population segment that had money unlike teens. Facebook used mining technology to gather information on it’s users to sell. It was a twist of fate that Facebook conquered MySpace.
As a result, Zuckerburg grew wealthy by a gray area activity. Was it legal, yes. Was it ethical, yes as long as the user agreement disclosed it. Was it proper? I dont know, I don’t use Facebook partially for this reason. Do I like Zuckerburg? No, but not for this. I don’t like the fact that Meta is in the business of manipulating speech.
Enough of that, let me remind people how you get rich. You do this by paying people less than what you make. For instance, I am not rich but I don’t pay the person that mows my grass the same wage that I make. This allows me to focus on the things that I want to do. If the price of the job ever came to my current wage level, I will quit my job right now and start mowing grass. I certainly respect and appreciate the job. They can do in one hour what takes me all day to do. But, my time is worth more to me than the cost of mowing the grass.
Whether it is the Waltons, Musk, Buffet, Gates, etc they all payed people around them less than they made so that they could use their talents in other areas. And let us not forget that there are a lot dull people employed at XMart making $18/hour that would struggle to find a replacement job that is as good. Before we get too judgmental about who did what to get where, it would be good to refresh ourselves with the the tenth commandment: ‘thou shalt not covet’.
End Your Programming Routine: I will say that I struggled today. I kept writing until something quasi-impactful emerged. It all starts with the book and this thing is starting to get a little long in the tooth. I certainly don’t regret doing this and it has definitely been worth it so far. It’s just that some of these chapters don’t add any value to the overall work. I will save the rest for when I finish.
I am a long time listener of GunTalk. One of the things that Tom Gresham says is that the first thing he does is replace the trigger in a rifle. He says that a good trigger is necessary for good accuracy.
I personally have never had an issue with the trigger on my Remington rifle. It is a little stiff, but otherwise I have felt that it is consistent. However, there was a long standing recall for faulty triggers and that got me thinking. Now that Remington is defunct, the old recall is no longer active. Given the question, I decided to try and upgrade the trigger to a Timney Trigger.
The truth is, I did it because I wanted to try it. I wanted to see if it makes me more accurate. It doesn’t hurt that it is potentially safer as well. Now, I need to resist the urge to replace all of my triggers before I get any realistic data points. At $150, it is a luxury item. I only paid $350 for the entire rifle about ten years ago anyway.
The process is pretty simple. There are two pins right above the trigger in the action. Once out, the trigger unit slides right out. The unit installs in the reverse order. If you are careful about how you do this, then this is a five minute job. I took the entire pin out which also removed the bolt release mechanism. This caused me to have to fiddle with it for twenty minutes to get the springs in the right place and put back together.
I have not shot it, nor do I have plans anytime soon. Part of me thought that I should wait out until hunting season is over just in case I get a wild hair to buy an elk tag. The realistic part of me says that I didn’t do it when I wasn’t working, why would I do it now? I have a standing invitation from my neighbors to go out with them. The season is only a week and I would have to take time off to do it. I really want to, but this is not the year. So, I changed the trigger.
I guess hunting is one of my toolbox fallacies. I always seem to be finding excuses to not do it. We are too busy, the weather is too warm, I don’t have any vacation, etc. I suspect that next year we will get our deer tags drawn. It has been three years since we did. Unless I physically cannot go, I am going next year. It might be one of the last years my dad can go, he is getting into his mid-seventies now and if we have to wait three years, he will be almost eighty the next draw.
On my dry firing, The trigger breaks a lot lighter. According to the documentation, the Timney Hunter model is supposed to be set at three pounds. From what I have read, a trigger that is too light for hunting might be a problem when wearing gloves. A heavier trigger prevents premature discharge because you cant feel as well with gloves on. I guess I have never hunted with gloves on, so I don’t think this will be a problem.
This particular rifle, I have only fired around thirty rounds out of. I haven’t shot it enough to have enough brass to reload. So, now with the new trigger it gives me an excuse to really give this rifle some exercise. It seems like something I should do anyway. So, I look at spending some quality time with this rifle in preparation for possibly the last hunt with my dad.
End Your Programming Routine: I probably should be more glass half full about this. There is no reason I can’t go with him on over the counter tags in future years. But, I guess none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. I just look at him slowing down and hobbling around a lot more. My trigger isn’t the reason I didn’t go hunting this season but it motivates me to look forward and setting plans for next year.
A number of years ago, I cobbled a shelf together out of scrap material. The purpose was to organize all of the picnic materials (mostly used with the barbeque). Hence, I hung it above the barbeque in the garage. My first version worked, but it ended up sagging a lot. About three years ago I took it down and re-enforced the sagging shelf.
Something happened while we were in Barcelona. Because when I opened the garage when we got back, I saw the shelf was partially detached from the wall and over half of the items were on the floor. I hastily stacked everything on the floor and subsequently tripped over them and cursed their existence all summer long.
The failure of the old shelf appears that the back, which was nailed into the plywood shelves had separated. Hence, the shelf sort of fell apart. Now, I don’t think it just fell apart on it’s own. but regardless I would say that it wasn’t constructed properly. Any sort of shelf backing, the purpose is really to prevent racking, not necessarily hanging. I am a little surprised that it failed despite realizing the actual weaknesses.
Now that the fall is here and so is the rain, it is time to start shop projects and inside projects. It is also time to stop getting angry every time I try to maneuver in the garage (which is several times a day). I was going to build the shelf that never failed. About a day later, I decided that I was going to get this done as cheaply and quickly as possible.
I was at the local box store and I saw shelf brackets for $4 a piece. I bought four of them thinking I would hang one shelf and try them out. The worst case scenario is that I would save them for some other project later if I thought they were too wimpy. With the World Series on in the background, I set about disassembling the former shelf. I took measurements and pulled nails.
In about two hours, I had the first shelf up and loaded it up with paper plates, Solo cups, aluminum pans etc. I had determined that this was going to be far more cost and time effective to use these brackets rather than buy lumber and build my forever shelves. Over all, I bought 8 brackets (x $4) or $32 plus about four hours total of labor.
The point here is that it kind of offends my sensibilities to use the shelf brackets rather than build something. But, from a standpoint of time savings and even cost, this is no comparison to what I should do. The work is done and the stuff is off the floor after months.
End You Programming Routine: A friend of mine used this term ‘minimal viable product’. What it means is the minimal amount of effort exerted to do the job is the most efficient. This doesn’t necessarily mean do a temporary job, but it also means don’t overthink it. Variables always change in the future and the paradigms of today are not necessarily valid tomorrow. So, trying to futureproof something is often futile.
It is finally bottling day. The wine has been in the secondary over a year. I think that it has been ready to bottle for six months or so but I have been consumed with other activities.
My first challenge was bottles. I hate dealing with bottle preparation. To top it off, I really didn’t have enough wine bottles as five gallons need two cases of bottles. I had 2/3 of a case (or eight) bottles open. Instead of spending $50 on bottles, I decided to put them in 22oz beer bottles. So this meant cleaning them.
This is a task that I don’t mind doing as much in the summer time, but now the temperature is near freezing. Soaking these bottles in sanitizer and scrubbing them with a bottle brush is drag and it is pretty cold too. I found three bottles that needed some extra attention, so much so that I actually abandoned them and found other bottles to use. They took days of soaking, scrubbing, pouring boiling water and other cleaning chemicals to try and get these clean.
I have two bottle brushes. One does not fit into my bottles and the other does not fan out properly at the bottom. I need to be in the market for a third brush so that this task is not so difficult. The real, real lesson is to not leave bottles dirty. I could have avoided all of this by rinsing them properly before putting them away.
The bottling process is not too bad. It involves a spring-loaded plunger and a gravity syphon. Essentially, while there is pressure on the tip of the plunger, liquid will feed from above until you release the pressure. I try to fill the bottle as full as I can get it because once the bottle dispenser is removed, that volume is replace with air (or headspace). Beer will utilize that oxygen to do it’s bottle carbonation. Wine really doesn’t benefit from any extra oxygen and should be avoided.
Once all the bottles are filled, they can be corked or capped. I write the page number of my brew log on the cap for identification. You can see the color, kind of a reddish-orangish color. Very nice.
When I was originally brewing this, I was planning that this recipe would make three gallons. It turned out to make five. I suspect that because I froze the fruit, most of it remained in the brew, adding volume. Had this actually been three gallons, I think it would have been way out of proportion. I didn’t actually weigh the fruit, I estimated it. To do this again, I would make some modifications, likely less added sugar.
I brewed this on a whim. A mysterious box of plums showed up on my deck one day. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a starting sugar, so I don’t know what the actual alcohol content is. But it is kind of rocket fuel. It has a distinctly plum taste to it but it is not sweet like the Asian wines. I probably need to cold crash it so it stays a little sweet and is not quite so strong. Otherwise, this is an Altf4.co success; found fruit brewed into future enjoyment. This is exactly what I wanted to do with this site.
End Your Programming Routine: Now that this is done, it is time to start turning into brewing beer again. I have four kits and two empty kegs sitting and waiting. I also want to make a decision on apple cider. I am strongly thinking that I will brew that as well. I guess now that the weather has changed, it is a good time to be working in the kitchen.
After I did my last podcast, I did some more research on the local candidates and issues that were not documented in the voter’s guide. This week. I also do some analysis of election results.
Truthfully, I was hoping to see the political wave change. Not because it would make a difference in policy but delay the inevitable five to ten years. With all of the problems we have, I have no hope that we can actually change course, specifically in this state. I don’t have the energy or the resources to fight them all.
End Your Programming Routine: I voted like a good citizen. If you listen, you can hear the results of my effort. I think it is time to start exploring the concept of ‘Galt’s Gulch’ because the looters are fully in charge. They are just going to keep voting themselves more power, money and inventing new rights. Remember that we all belong to each other – I just don’t have anymore words.
I would say happy Veteran’s Day, but I don’t really think this is an appropriate statement. I have spoken about feelings on veterans on Memorial Day. And to get more technical, a veteran is a living person that served in combat, not just spent time in the military. Despite my feelings on whether our country should have been involved or not, I can appreciate the sacrifice of service.
Growing up, we had a parade in town that was billed as the largest Veteran’s Day parade west of the Mississippi. I was in band, so I was marching in the cold and the rain every year. Since leaving home, I have never had it as a holiday so I really haven’t seen it in a long time. But, I assume this is not the reason that you are here so let’s get into it.
I had in my notes “short chapter, kind of worthless”. What happens is Francisco goes to Dabny to see if she will change her mind about going back to working for the railroad. Of course she will not. This conversation is interrupted by Henry Reardon coming in and loosing his cool.
I won’t say that there is nothing of value in the chapter, the conversation and debate between Dabny and Francisco was pertinent. There are two camps: either don’t support the looters by continuing to work or don’t let the looters win by quitting. Which side is correct? I suppose that it has to do with where you stand on confidence with your abilities, pride in outcome and stubbornness to continue.
I know which side I fall on. Maybe you can guess what it is, but I can relate an anecdote to highlight my stance. I have spoke of this before, but I once ran a program. The people above me were extremely poor running their own programs, hence I would call them looters. In fact, the company was taking money out of my program to prop up these other failing programs. In the end, it was all from the same bucket but the point was taking from me to make them look better.
These people made my life miserable. Misery at work translated to misery at home. But, I was running a successful program. I was happy with my team’s results. We were named a ‘Center of Excellence’ for the company. Along with that success came more meddling to the point where the company took that program away from me in a way. They hired someone to run and expand the program I was running, in effect pushing me away.
That move was explained to me as ‘making my life better’ by reducing my interactions with the looters. What they didn’t realize was that my fundamental success running the program was the only thing keeping me satisfied with my job. In my mind, it simply gave me no possible way to happiness because instead of making my life better, I was more miserable. I had reason to keep fighting when I had something to prove. By being relegated to team lead instead of a program lead, I no longer had that motivation.
So, I quit. The program failed within six months. In fact within a year, the company imploded. I don’t claim that this was all me. Mismanagement left a structure riddled with holes like termites in wood. I was simply a part of the structure that was no longer sound and when I crumbled, so did the rest.
It is not in my nature to quit. For right or wrong, this is one of the few things I have ever quit. I was devastated to surrender my identity but I was also at a point where staying was self-destructive. I no longer wanted to prove something, I wanted to take the whole thing down. I had no other success criteria than a total re-write of the company in my own image. That wasn’t realistic, so I gave into the looters and natural consequences took their course.
End Your Programming Routine: I think that you can see that I side with Francisco. At the time, I didn’t do it with the same intent, it just happened to prove his theory. On my last day, I walked out the door with a small box of my personal belongings. I didn’t leave a single item that was mine, including the business in which I was engaged. I choose the path of force disrupter rather than head on battle for change.
Recent Comments