Author: Brandon

October 15, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 15, 2020 /

I thought that I would write about flashlights today. Now that the daylight situation is rapidly moving towards less than twelve hours a day in my area, it will soon be darker longer than light. Something I carry on my person is a flashlight.

Number one, a flashlight is probably the most used piece of gear that I routinely carry. It is useful when you drop something under the desk or taking a detailed look inside a furnace or diagnosing a basement light issue. I don’t think that it is too hard to try and find the virtues and uses of a flashlight.

A few examples of my flashlights

In today’s phone culture, most people think that the flash LED is an adequate light. While it is true that the one you have is the best one, I maintain that you are better off using this function as a back-up rather than your only flashlight.

A dedicated flashlight is a much better tool than the phone light. Flashlights are made to have the beam focused for longer distance. They can have a much longer run time and create a more intense cone of light. They also don’t take away power from the most important function of a flashlight, communication. Finally, it offers redundant capability.

Even though I have many different lights, consider the batteries. I have some that take AA, AAA, D, CR123 and rechargeable batteries (and even some others). All those different combinations are fine, but for everyday carry use flashlights that might share batteries for other devices like a GPS. That would mean you could carry one spare set of batteries and use them interchangeably if needed.

Flashlight technology has evolved rapidly in the last ten years. LED technology is part of that. The amount of power (usually measured in lumens) and run time has seen an amazing amount of improvement. Ten years ago when I bought the Surefire Executive (pictured in the middle) the high powered flashlights used CR123 batteries and put out 60 lumens of light for two hours. Now you can buy a 200 lumen light for $10 and it will run for 16 hours.

If you have cordless tools, often you can purchase a flashlight that will use the batteries for your tools. Not only is this helpful when you need to work on something in the dark, but they are sure handy around the house for a ready to go, bump in the night light by the door.

From a personal safety standpoint, another reason to have a light on you is self defense. A light can be used to identify a threat or blind an intruder. The shape of the tool also makes it useful as a kubaton. Of course, that kind of proficiency needed training and practice.

For full transparency, I am not always carrying a light. Obviously, it would be helpful to have everything you need when you want it. But in my case, the weight of all the gear pulling you pants down or your pockets jambed full all the time, I make a judgement call. When I am leaving the house I usually think to myself is it likely I will be somewhere in the dark. In the summertime the answer is usually no unless I am going somewhere after dark or going somewhere like a movie theater or mall. That calculus changes in the cooler months.

Besides having one on your person, one by the door and one in your go bag I would recommend you keep one in each vehicle as well. It is almost worth considering replacing old flashlights given how much improvement there has been. If you are looking for a starting point the Streamlight Stylus Pro for $25 is a good start.

October 14, 2020 – Fiberglass mesh or paper tape for drywall?

October 14, 2020 /

This is pretty esoteric, right? I mean it probably ranks right up there with plywood vs OSB or MDF vs solid wood trim in terms of excitement factor. Since I had some issues using both, I actually did some research about the subject myself.

This is the advantage of a scattered and lack of focus blog is that I can just write about whatever I am doing at the time and try to make it seem interesting and that I am an expert. Well folks, if you are reading this either I am an expert (to you) or you are desperate for this very important decision, so let’s get into it.

Drywall became a product in the 1950’s to replace plaster. It came into common use in the 1960’s and there is no looking back. It seems like some specific areas of the country still use plaster (over a backer board like drywall) but it is drywall for most of us.

The primary advantages of drywall are that it is inexpensive, quick to hang and is fireproof. The paper backing will burn but not gypsum (the white stuff). The disadvantages are that it is not waterproof at all and will support hazardous mold and mildew growth with continuous wetness. Also, doing a nice job of finishing requires some skill.

In my area of the country, drywall is finished with a texture to hide the lack plastering skills (or making smooth walls). Other areas of the country, it is more prevalent to see smooth finishing. What we are most concerned about in this post is the seems where two pieces of drywall meet. Tape is put over the seems to cover any gap if the drywall panels expand and contract with temperature and relative humidity.

Conventional wisdom says paper tape is the first, best solution. It is cheaper than the fiberglass tape and seams to be easier to work with. You start by putting a mud bed, the width of one putty knife, I like the four inch knife. It is said that as that panels move behind the tape and you get a more consistent smooth finish.

In the picture above, the paper tape was incorrectly applied without the mud bed behind the paper tape. This has led to the tape pealing off over the years without adhering to the drywall. I have made the repair by adding new tape and top coat. I will use a wider knife (6″) for the next layer on top. The third pass if there is one will be an 8″ knife. You keep building successively wider knives and passes until the the tape disappears.

In this picture you see another manifestation to the same fault. A crack has developed where the paper tape edge transitions. Again, the mud bed was not set behind the tape creating a gap.

Fiberglass tape’s best use is covering gaps. This material is much more rigid and all the grooves allow you to press mud into the tape. I have found that it takes thicker passes to cover the fiberglass adequately, but it does do the job of covering smallish gaps, like less than 3/4 of an inch.

In my bathroom that I just completed, the contractor used fiberglass tape exclusively and it came out great. So, it is not that it can’t be done but I think it takes more experience to do a nice job.

The secrets that I have learned are as follows.

  1. Do not overwork knife when applying joint compound. Less is more because you can always add more later.
  2. When using wide knives, work the joint compound out of a tray rather than the container you purchased. You need to be able to continuously scrape your knife edge clean and get an even layer of compound on the knife. That can only be done when you container is big enough to hold the knife.
  3. Big, blobby mistakes can be sanded down but it is a dusty mess and surprisingly a lot of work. Use a sanding screen rather than sand paper to do this job. Screen is found around the sandpaper in stores and doesn’t clog nearly as quickly.
  4. For texturing, I layer a bed of joint compound and then dab at it with wadded up plastic bag. I then knock down all of the dimples with a clean trowel or knife to get the effect.
  5. Don’t feel bad if you are intimidated or don’t get it right. This takes practice to do a nice job. I have only recently gotten the confidence to do whatever, whenever. I used to do everything possible not to disturb the drywall for fear of finishing failure. Now, I find it easier to cut out a whole wall if it will make it quicker to do a job.

So, you see the answer depends on the situation. Both can work and both have advantages with different variables.

October 13, 2020 – What to do with liver?

October 13, 2020 /

I am definitely not pretending to know the answer. I don’t know how many people have ever seen a beef liver, but I would estimate the size to be around 10 pounds. That is a lot of meat that many people probably don’t think they like.

When I get one, I try to pre-process it a bit. I cut it into chunks, de-skin it and make it generally more easy to cook straight out of the freezer. The question still remains what to do with it. Maybe it will help if I talk about what I do and what I have tried.

There are at least a few tips that I use pretty routinely.

  1. Soak the liver in milk overnight. I suppose you can use milk, cream, half and half or buttermilk. I usually try to use was seems to be on the verge of expiring and cut with the balance of milk. This technique seems to remove some of the minerally taste that is usually part of the turn-off for liver.
  2. Cook liver rare (or medium). One of the things that turns it into shoe leather is over cooking. It also seems like overcooking also brings out the stronger flavors and the rarer it is, the more mild it is.
  3. Prepare only what you think you will eat for the meal. Reheating results in over-cooking.

Here are some things I have tried over the years with liver

  1. By far and away, it seems like the most successful preparation is liver and onions. I think one reason is that you can avoid over cooking.
  2. Boudin – a cajun sausage that is made with pork, rice, and spices. My result was OK, the problem was that it was too dry and needed more fat. I am going to try this again someday.
  3. Chili – I thought that maybe I could spice my way out of liver, but it still ended up being pretty livery, so not recommended.
  4. Fake foie gras or pate – I have tried grinding cooked liver with butter and spices but I didn’t find it terribly appetizing on a cracker.
  5. Hash – This one has some promise. Fry with potatoes, onion, pepper, bacon, and serve with eggs.

Traditionally, liver is a fresh meat. It has been one of the first cuts and eaten immediately after butchering. The lore is that organ meat provided a source of essential nutrient when choices are limited.

I think that it is also worth observing that organ meat is the first thing animals eat when eating other animals. So, there is something to this, I am still looking for the right combinations of recipe and technique. Until then, I would be interested in other people’s ideas because I still have a lot of liver in the freezer.

October 12, 2020 – Playing roulette today

October 12, 2020 /

I have been working on a video on the repair of an old leaf blower since the fifth of July. The reason I know that date is that I wanted to use the blower to help clean-up the mess that our fireworks made and I couldn’t get it started.

Now, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. My dad gave me the leaf blower in 2007 or so, someone had given it to him. When he did, the tank was half full of two stroke mix. I ran it a couple times but then it sat in the shed until about two or three years ago when I tried to sell it at a garage sale.

At that time, I again started it to verify that it would run but it didn’t sell. I thought that it was too valuable to just throw away, so I put it back into the shed. Finally, when I wanted to use it this summer I couldn’t get it started. I thought that this would make a good project to film in short, helpful video.

As many things, it turned out to be more challenging to fix then I anticipated. While, I solved the initial problem on the sixth of July, my lack of knowledge and my time restrictions put it aside until late August. When I tried again, I did actually get the leaf blower running, but still not reliably or well. So, I tried again in October now wanting to actually use it in the yard and I think that I got it working.

Why is the post about roulette? After editing my video clips together, I have been waiting several hours for it to convert (or export as it is termed). I was waiting to write until I could actually embed the video into the post, but I am running out of time.

In fact, I am not sure why this isn’t working. I have used this software for most of my video editing. I know that I have not done much of it, but each time I use it seems to get clunkier and less reliable. I don’t know what is going on. It is part of the Pictures app on the Microsoft 10 operating system. I probably need to investigate another editing software if I am going to do much more of this type of work because this one is really painful.

It’s funny because the first video I ever created has become wildly more popular than I ever expected. In fact, I never expected anyone to care I even misspoke about the tool’s model number. It was right in the tagging, but I never thought anyone would ever watch it so I really didn’t put much effort into it.

Looks like my number finally came up… It only required some .NET updates and an application reset and multiple restarts.

October 9, 2020 Bonus – Concerned about your digital footprint and future privacy, you should be.

October 9, 2020 /

This is a test post to validate some new features to me.

Episode-2747- Digital Security for the Modern Age

I have not personally vetted the information, nor am I an expert. That being said, this is an excellent interview about the the potential concerns and future implications of privacy. The bent of the conversation is about freedom as we think we understand and believe but likely not a reality.

Be safe, be smart.

October 9, 2020 – And I said I was done with my remodeling project…

October 9, 2020 /

Every project has some tailing loose ends. This one is no different. When I said that I was done, I meant that the tenants could move in, the tools got put away, the remaining supplies were stowed for future projects and the garbage was removed. Like almost every other building the project the landscaping was still on the list.

Part of what I was waiting for was I had a lot of dirt to move, I would estimate around four yards. A wheelbarrow would not cut it, fortunately, I have a friend with at tractor.

I needed to remove one raised bed and the dirt from two others and regrade everything away from the house. Another reason why I was waiting was that I was hoping my beds would produce before I tore them down. It turns out I got five green tomatoes, which we fried for dinner and ate with liver and onions and grits. A very southern meal.

Alas, I could give my pathetic garden no more time. I needed to get this job done before the weather changes. That is happening tomorrow as the fall weather patterns are starting. This was pretty good soil for the most part. I was adding several inches of compost every couple of years. So you can see in the third picture a pile all the way on the right. This will get repurposed into the new front yard garden next year, hopefully.

I did this work a little over a week ago. I put out a couple of pounds of grass seed and I noticed that it is starting to sprout up today. I would call it success as long as the squirrels and birds don’t decimate my seed. They have been all over it today.

To be honest, I have a couple more to-do’s. I need to put in some drainage for the downspouts and I want to add a drywell. It can get pretty wet back there and it also doesn’t get a lot of sun in the winter. Another reason to move the garden. For that, I am waiting for some rain to soften the ground because that will be dug by hand.

October 8, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 8, 2020 /

“Shoot or don’t shoot”. No, I am not talking tactics, I am talking the price and availability of ammunition at the moment.

These magazines have been loaded since March. It was my plan to do this next range trip before all the pandemic hullabaloo, before the six month remodeling project and before ammunition disappeared and the price skyrocketed. In fact, I bought the Sig Sauer ammunition pictured in March.

I have been periodically checking local stores for inventory of ammunition. There are shotgun shells, most typical hunting calibers and 17HMR rimfire ammunition available. What is not available is any handgun ammunition except some really weird ones like 50AE and no rifle ammunition that fits semi-automatics and no 22 rimfire.

On a whim, I checked an online source for 5.56×45 and a case (of 1000) was available at $724. That is $0.72/round and that in a bulk price. For the individual packages, it is running from $0.80-1.00/ round. The last time I bought any I paid $0.33/round. So, I guess on the one hand it is available just maybe it is not at the price I want to pay.

My grand plan was to rely on reloading as my ammunition source. During the last run (2012-2015) primers were impossible to find. Good news for me is that I have plenty of primers but not bullets. I do have some powder but it definitely depends on what I am reloading. I think I could reload 30-06 for the rest of my life but I have almost no powder for .223 Remington.

What I really am weighing here is should I shoot some of the ammunition I have given it’s scarcity and my scarcity of money? Don’t get me wrong, I am not empty in either case but it is preparedness mindset. Well, I have decided that I am going to and here are my reasons.

One – I have owned this rifle since 2015 and only fired it once. This was kind of an impulse purchase. To tell you the truth, I was convinced that the Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidential election and that I would lose the opportunity to make this kind of purchase in the future. It turns out that I can get caught up in ‘tin foil hat-ness’ too.

Two – it has an optic on it that has never been sighted in. Having a tool that isn’t calibrated or has unknown accuracy is not reliable or useful for the intended purpose. I thought that it might be useful to start my son out hunting on because of the low recoil and adjustability. It turns out, he can shoot my old rifle that I started on just fine and it is sighted in well. Nevertheless, I want to have some confidence that I can hit where I am aiming.

Three – Despite the fact that I have only shot this rifle once, I have made some modifications and changes. At this point, I do not know if it is functional or reliable as a result. This is the biggest reason that I want to take it out now. Swapping out parts can have some pretty negative consequences. It is best to find out before you really want to use it.

I do feel like I have some compelling reasons to shoot up some of my hard to acquire at this time ammunition. Throughout all of the shortages, it seems like shotgun ammunition has always been consistently available. Probably a good time to focus on trap, skeet and sporting clays (as well as hunting).

October 6, 2020 – What does Calculus and mathematical equations have to do life?

October 6, 2020 /

Today is a deep cut. To keep you reading, this post is an analogy not actually about math.

I have been doing a lot of soul searching these last couple of weeks. I suppose that you could say that life hasn’t gone exactly to plan or maybe the way I had hoped. Math is used in science to describe or model life and the natural world. I have been thinking about what I want to change and I thought how eerie parallels some of issues in life line up with mathematical concepts.

The Equation of a Line

When you have a plot with one data point, what direction is the line going? For all you non-math types you can’t have a line with one point. A line can go in infinite directions and slopes when you only have one point.

The metaphor for life is without experiences there is not enough perspective to determine success or happiness. The only thing that you really know is where you are currently. You can have an idea and maybe even a plan to create the next experience, but that doesn’t mean that you will like it or it will be right for you. Not everyone has a supportive spouse to let you walk away without an income for over a year.

For me, I thought I knew where I was going with my life when I went to college. Once it didn’t materialize the way that I thought it was going to go, life happened more without direct deliberation than with it. I cruised along twenty some years until I figured out I wasn’t happy with my line. The problem is, I just realized that I haven’t done anything different to change the direction of my line in the last year and a half. I just hoped that it would change by itself.

Derivative Calculus

Now it is going to hard. What is a derivative? I think that the simplest definition is calculating a change. In application, you can either calculate a point on a line where a change has a particular value or you can calculate the value of a change at a particular point. I might have lost some people already here. I know that in my academic career, this is where I started to struggle with math. I took this class twice to get a better handle on the fundamentals of calculus.

Let’s put it into practice. Looking at your experiences (your line) at what point does a particular change occur. When does your life go sideways or when did the focus or desire change. The straighter the line, the easier it is to calculate or even see on a plot. Unfortunately, life has a way of having our experiences not line up neatly. This is why you need complicated math like calculus to figure it out.

I am pretty good at getting the equation setup, I might even muddle into the answer. That is all kind of useless without doing something with the data. I remember from my days studying Latin, the teacher saying there is no sentence without a verb. Action is required to communicate a thought just as action is required to make change.

Integral Calculus

I think that this one will be simpler; calculate the area under your line. What do you want the sum total of your life to be? Just like in math, positive experiences are additive and negative experiences are subtractive to get the total result. If you don’t like how it adds up, you have to go back to the other steps and make changes. Figure out where you went wrong step two and aim for different experience step one so that you can be more satisfied overall, step three.

So, the truth… I have unknowingly hidden in my Toolbox Fallacy. I like to analyze my situation and pretend that I am planning my next steps without any real results or changes. I have been fearful of moving onto my next professional career steps without acknowledging or even realizing that I was already in one. I have been doing small jobs and handyman work without embracing this might be who I really am.

I wanted to build a lifestyle business because I wanted a creative outlet with practical business deductions and control of my output and life. I already have a lot of that. My fear of failing (or running out of savings) has caused me to not put out effort in marketing and working on what is already paying working. I like the work, I like the freedom,

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to build a lifestyle business. Just maybe doing handyman type work isn’t what I am doing in the meantime but another point in my line.

October 5, 2020 – Have you heard of the ‘Hairy Armpit’ Theory

October 4, 2020 /

I guess that it is a theory. I will credit a former co-worker with the idea. The basic idea is that you leave something blatantly wrong so that people will focus on that problem and not dig in too deep to look for other problems. So, to bring the whole picture around, in North America you would not generally expect to see a woman have a hairy armpit. Therefore, you would not look for any additional flaws because this one is so evokes such a strong perception.

My ‘Hairy Armpit’ is the spelling of Ressurection versus the real spelling of Resurrection (largely because the proper spelling was already taken). Nobody has ever made any comment on it and I acknowledge in my About page the misspelling. Going back to my ‘Toolbox Fallacy’, it has been my intent to move this blog to a real domain and do proper marketing, etc but I haven’t because well, you know why (see above).

However, I found another situation that was not known to me, more akin to walking around with your zipper undone. I really liked the idea and concept around the word Floricane. I have never searched for my own blog to connect, only sent links out for people to connect. My son was trying to setup a subscription to follow and I noticed that Floricane in the header has been misspelled for nearly a year. I thought that I checked that multiple times, even doing web searches related to the other domains using the term.

How embarrassing. That is sophomoric level editing and presentation and here I thought that I was being sophisticated and clever. I guess that the only thing to do is correct the problem and move on to promote somebody else’s clever concept of the ‘Hairy Armpit’ theory.

I haven’t talked about faith in a while, but this week’s message has a poignant intersection. To go to a super high level, we need help as people where we can. To ascend to higher spiritual levels, we need to concern ourselves with the problems of others. I think that as a matter of principle, it is our responsibility to help people by pointing out their ‘Hairy Armpits’ (discreetly) because maybe they just don’t know about it or at least the cultural standards.

It may also be twisted logic but I think that to effectively help others, you have to keep working on yourself. Just like the foster parent commercial, you don’t have to be perfect to be a foster parent, simply willing to try. However, the moment you have it all figured out is the moment that you have failed. Keep working to move past your issues, do the best you can to correct your errors and help people to the best of your ability. Those are principles that regardless of your beliefs will make a better world.

October 2, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday (on Friday)

October 2, 2020 /

I think I am losing my mind. For a little while, I was thinking this was Wednesday and not Friday. When I do my planning, usually before I start writing, I was thinking about what I wanted to write in this segment (tomorrow) and I realized that I wrote my book review on Thursday. Whoops.

So, the big news of the week in industry is the Remington Outdoors bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation of assets, effective immediately. The details and some analysis of the liquidation are all over the internet. One could ask themselves in this time of record breaking firearms and related industry sales what could have possibly gone wrong? At this point, my attitude as a consumer is does it really matter? What is done is done and a two hundred year old company is now history.

Real (really) briefly, Remington Arms Co. was acquired by Cerberus Capitol Management in April of 2007. That was really the day the company ceased to exist alone. If you remember the post election buying of 2009-2010 and the post Sandy Hook buying of 2013-2016 and definitely the Covid buying this industry has money making potential. Cerberus was a company that already owned Mervyn’s and one month later bought Chrysler. Through hearsay, debt was moved from some of the other weaker ventures to Remington to the point where it became financially crushing. It was also rumored that Cerberus had been trying to sell Remington since the Sandy Hook incident because they didn’t want that image in their portfolio.

What does all this really mean for the shooter. Well, I don’t really know. I know that Vista Outdoors (Federal) bought the ammunition business. Presumably this will keep going and that is good news. I know that the intent from some of the other buyers is to keep manufacturing Remington and Marlin. It would seem that smaller buyers got DPMS, H&R, Bushmaster and given their positions in the market place I see them continuing and not just acquiring the names. I suppose that it is a time will tell situation.

I guess for me personally, it is a sad day. I own more than one Remington, in fact it is the predominant brand in my collection. My first rifle was a Remington 722, my first shotgun was an 870 and my first 22 was a Marlin. I had plans to get a 7600 and a Versamax some day. I also have some OEM accessories that I would like to add. I guess the good news is that there are so many made that likely everything is out there, it is more a matter of how much will I have to pay.

I suppose it is just like H&R and Marlin getting purchased and nearly mothballed. Or Winchester ceasing to be independent, times change. Gone is one of the oldest companies in the US.