Enjoy your Labor Day. Have a nice barbeque. Enjoy the waning days of summer. Spend time with your friends and family. I am.
I will be back tomorrow with a new podcast.
Category: Information
July 5, 2023 – Is the Tank Empty?
Yes and No. I am clearly late today and that is because yesterday was a full-contact holiday and we had to run our former exchange student to the airport this morning. Also true is that I don’t have anything constructive to say at the moment. I saw the cliff coming last Friday and was hoping that I would come up with some magic over the weekend. Then on Monday, I knew I didn’t even have a topic identified but was hoping I could dredge something over the holiday. Hence, I am writing about having nothing to say.
By the end of this week we will have our German exchange student. Next week, I am off to business travel for another week. If I don’t have ideas (with pictures) in the queue, it makes it difficult for me to keep up with. That is where I am at.
Does this mean that I am quitting? Not exactly. But what it does mean is that I cannot sustain daily posting along with maintaining my familial obligations, work commitments and projects that need to get done in this short season. This is especially true when I have to travel.
I haven’t fully decided if I just need to scale back for a period of time or just try to do what I can. At the very least, I am going to finish out Lord of the Flies which will take that series into mid-August. I have finished the book and I have begun working on getting the remaining chapters published. I would like to continue doing podcasts as well. This is assuming that I have topics and show outlines developed.
I haven’t talked a lot about this but podcasts take probably four times as long to produce. I need to get better at speaking to a thinner outline, but usually this takes at least an hour. I always listen to the podcast after I record it. I write notes on Castbox and Altf4.co. Right now, an hour takes 4-6 hours for me whereas a typical blog post is 1-1.5 hours. That being said, I would like to keep doing the podcasts more than writing.
Something I have talked about before, sometimes quitting is necessary. We need to quit things that are not working so that we can retool into things that do. We all have a limited time and there is only so many things we can do in that time. Ideally this is what I would like to do with this site; make changes to this site so that it can become what I want it to be.
I love this endeavor. Why else would I do it daily for years on end for no compensation? I have proved the things that I initially set out to do. I have enough technical capability to do this and I have enough discipline to keep doing it. Those were my two objectives starting with Floricane and then moving to AltF4.co. I have failed at my marketing and monetizing portions of it which were supposed to be the next steps. So while I like doing the content and willing to do it for free, I cant afford to prioritize it over other things that need to get done at this time.
As of this moment, no promises. I can’t say what exactly what I will do other than reserve the right to do what I want and have to do. I think this is enough for today. I thank you for taking the time to read and hope this makes sense.
July 4, 2023 – Happy Fourth of July
I am taking the day off today. You should too.
I want to believe in the ideals of this country. I wish it were what it promised. Despite that, enjoy your family and friends and forget about it. There is nothing like living life that puts all of the politics and disappointment aside. That’s what I am going to do.
Happy Birthday America.
June 26, 2023 – Technical Issues Resolved, For Now
It is late, late, late. I actually had my podcast recorded, but I didn’t have time to do the editing and posting. So, podcast for tomorrow.
This is on the technical side, but supposedly my SSL auto renews every 60 days. I think what I have figured out is that it renews but it requires me to manually install it. I keep getting blindsided by my SSL certificate expiring and when I go in to check, there are multiple copies being held.
This is what you get with a ‘free’ SSL certificate. While it works, it does require monitoring and maintenance. I am going to try and monitor this period to see if my theory is correct and hopefully, I will proactively deal with this rather than it happen on my first day of a business trip.
June 21, 2023 – Technical Issues Ahead
If you are reading this, then you went ahead and proceeded after the Security Warning or I have already fixed the problem. Wouldn’t you know that my certificate expired right when I went on my trip.
I suppose that I could probably try to fix this remotely but it is a lot to do when I am at home. So, I will wait. I am going to do my best to proceed as if everything is working like it is supposed to.
This is one of those things that I do not understand. Every couple of months my security certificate expires and I have to generate a new one. It happens infrequently enough that I always have to fiddle around to make it work. I don’t understand why and it really seems like amateur hour to me. Surely not everyone goes through this process. Maybe it has to do with my ‘free’ certificate that comes from hosting?
I live with it because spending more on hosting for no real return doesn’t make a lot of sense. Someday when I make it big that will change. Thanks for hanging in there.
May 16, 2023 – Pretty Sure I am Out of Gas
I think that this is circumstantial more so than the new state of being but I may not get to post Wednesday or Thursday. When I talked about Hair on Fire in late April, I wasn’t kidding. We had so many things on the schedule last week that even eating fast food was at 8PM and I left work early Wednesday through Friday.
It doesn’t mean that I am not doing stuff, I am here and there. I did manage to get a little reloading done mostly in 15 minute increments. I also swapped out a faulty sprinkler head that I put off last summer. If you remember my major project was re-siding the south side of the garage. I had the sprinkler off for a lot of that and then when I turned it on, I had a geyser.
I am still cleaning up after the Mother’s Day party on Saturday. You see, I don’t always start and complete one project in a single line. I had to organize the pantry in order to fit the leftovers back in. While the coolers are drying out, I am going to put those away and with that I am going to do some keg prep. I have 15 gallons of beer that are almost ready for serving.
If it is not clear, those things are all related. One trip to take stuff to the basement yields another trip out with stuff for the next phase. My wife thinks I never get anything done. But she doesn’t realize my effectiveness of movement. It appears like I am starting something new without finishing the last thing. To me, it is all a very calculated order of operations.
That being said, I have been super busy but yes I have been doing things. What I haven’t been doing is taking photos or thinking about what to write about. I haven’t been stubbing out articles and I need that planning so that I can write when I get a chance. It is what frees me up to work within my schedule.
End Your Programming Routine: Part of why I started with the warning is I don’t know what topics I might write about this week. I think that if I did, then I probably would get it done. As I eluded, I am continuing to do small things here and there, this is what leads me to the conclusion that I am out of gas. Don’t fear, I love doing this I just probably need a short break as things are starting to clear up on my schedule.
April 4, 2023 – More Stuff Coming, Just Not Today
I am back from my vacation. I did survive my business trip. I have more travel in the hopper, but I need some time to catch-up both here and elsewhere. I have half done podcast outlines, chapters read and articles stubbed out so it is not writer’s block or lack of desire but that I need time to catch up here and elsewhere in my life.
It is funny how life goes. Often taking a vacation causes more more work to catch up. I suppose it is the break that allows the energy (or perception) to double your time and output to catch back up? Definitely while on vacation I was switched off, barely a thought was given to work here or elsewhere.
I am going to talk more about the mindset in my next podcast, likely this week. But for now, take a vacation yourselves while I get myself re-organized and reengaged with this machine.
March 30, 2023 – I want this… but it is not there
As badly as I want this, it is not going to happen today. My original topic was going to be electricity preparedness. I ran out of time to get the necessary photos last week before I left. As a fallback, I thought I would find some internet images but I spent all my free time trying to get my podcast published.
As an alternative, read a book, listen to a podcast or do some other stimulation to change your programing. It is always good to get another perspective even if it is contrary to your own. If you don’t periodically challenge your beliefs then how do you know that they are still valid?
I remember that when I was a freshman in college, a friend asked me that if I was drafted, would I serve? At that point, I was fresh out of my programming in Boy Scouts so of course I said I would because it was the right thing to do. Today, I would almost assuredly have a different answer. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my country, but my perspective has changed. I love what it could be, not what it is.
That change in opinion came around because I kept challenging myself on what the implications were for believing or supporting one side or the other. As an example, the ‘Trump Tax Cuts’ has at least tripled my annual tax obligations. I have heard from others that it was a huge benefit. My financial position was based on the old rules and now with new ones I am at a severe disadvantage. From my perspective, this was a tax increase.
Fine, I know how to eventually move to take advantage of the new rules. But how can a party that supposedly has a platform of tax cuts create tax increases? Easy, it is because they don’t really stand for tax cuts. They stand for saying what they think will appeal to a wide group and create new rules by which they will benefit. Now I am teetering into being angry at bad guys so I will leave it at that.
March 7, 2023 – A Small Change in Direction
I have been thinking about this lately. I feel like my content has been more and more political and opinionated and I want to change that. I am keeping Friday’s book review as is and I want to reserve the right for Monday’s podcast to talk about whatever I want. Otherwise, I want Tuesday through Thursday to be politics free.
This may mean that I post nothing on one or all of the days in the middle of the week. But, that is OK because I never wanted this to become a political endeavor. I would much prefer you change your programming by building something or growing something or creating something rather than picking the proper side of the argument. Part of why I have been doing it is that it is easier to write opinion. It doesn’t require me to be in the shop or the kitchen or documenting whatever I am doing. All that has to be done ahead of time and sometimes life is not like that.
This line of thinking all started when I was discussing with my wife our relationship. See “Formaldehyde Christianity” for more context. She said that I have changed and that I have become more hostile and angry. Now, I don’t really think so but there is no doubt that I have spent time researching topics and preparing rebuttals on topics that I don’t agree with. And once my mind is convinced on an argument, I very rarely change my opinion about it.
I have always believed in the concept “perception is reality”. If that is her perception then it is also reality. So, I started looking about things that I am doing and what could either be influences or things that I could eliminate. I think that it is hypocritical to say that I am apolitical and then write about it three times a week. So, it is time for a change of directions.
I suppose that I believe that I am apolitical because I don’t trust political parties, neither Republican nor Democrat. But, that doesn’t mean that I am not largely diehard conservative and strongly freedom oriented. I do stand for traditional values and a women’s right to choose. I stand with God and your right to marry who you choose. I don’t condone or endorse those contradictory behaviors, God will solve that in the end. In my belief system, you only get to Heaven by free will and it is not my place to judge.
Believe it or not, I stand with your desire to call yourself whatever gender you choose. What I do not stand for is using the school system to promote that there are actually more than biological science has identified. I don’t stand for you forcing me to do things that I don’t agree with but I am all for you living in delusion. Remember “perception is reality”. There is another the old adage “your right to free speech ends before your fist touches my nose”. Be as ridiculous as you like but leave me alone and I will extend the same courtesy.
Before I get carried away with more politics, I am just trying to explain why I am the way I am. So let’s just get back to what I am trying to do. I want to keep the mainline of my work on ideas and solutions, not being mad a bad guys. Hopefully this change will be subtle enough and good for me at the same time.
February 21, 2023 – A Stranger in a Strange Land
It is kind of cheating, but things are not quite right. Due to an unfortunate issue, I missed my flight out of Indianapolis. Consequently, I ended up not getting home until early Sunday morning. That didn’t really help me get re-adjusted and instead of having the majority of Saturday, go to bed early and then Sunday, I was dragging all day Sunday only to get back to work on Monday. All that being said, my creative battery is really low.
A couple of things happened on my trip. The first was that SSL certificate expired last week. Technically, it didn’t expire until mid-April but this happens every couple of months. In fact, it is not suppose to expire but once a year. I don’t understand this at all. I know how to work around it, but that was not something I was really equipped to deal with on the road. It was just too many technical things to handle on an iPad. The second, I was checking on the health of other things due to my SSL problems today and it seems like I am running into some caching issues. What seems to be the problem is that the amount of data is building up and causing slowness of the server painting data, particularly pictures.
There is a actually a third problem as well. This problem is that it seems like MySQL version is out of date. The last two problems seem to be related to me sharing a server with other users. To solve that, it seems logical that the next obvious step is to pay for more space or my own server. That is easier said than done.
It’s not that I can’t get a dedicated server. The question is really should I? This whole thing was an experiment to see if I could build lifestyle/content business. Given that I have made $0 on this, it seems very impractical for me to pay more money just to serve up free content. I guess what I am saying is that as long as things continue at a moderate price, I am more than willing to keep going. There does become a point of diminishing returns.
The first year is always cheap, this is how they get you. The next year the cost is three times as much and then it seems to go up 20% a year from there. I guess that I am seeing that I am not really seeing the return on my investment. Now, I have to own the business plan. That being said, my idea was always to grow a reader base before actually trying to figure out a revenue model. I am not really seeing much growth in my site downloads in three years.
Ultimately, I am saying that I don’t think that there is a lot of desire for my work. And therefore I am in the dichotomy of upgrade to survive or die a slow death. To be clear, I am not saying that I am quitting, but what I am saying that I need to evaluate the future. When I talked about the ‘white hatters’ two weeks ago, I need to put some effort to really measure engagement and how much more effort that I should put into this endeavor.
Last week, I was listening to a podcast overnight and it was about two brothers who literally have built a side business on a Youtube channel about cutting firewood. It was their opinion (as well as many others) that content generation should be confined to a niche subject. The more niche the better. I just don’t want to do that, and I suppose this is my downfall. I guess we will see, I was hoping three years ago that there would be more people like me, interested in lots of different things.
End Your Programming Routine: I don’t think that there is any programming here today. I guess what I am saying is that I am probably not going to do this forever without some sort of return. I’m not even saying that it has to be financial. I cant really complain about not making any money when I haven’t provided any vehicle to do so. I don’t really want to beg. I don’t really want to get hooked into some third party program like Patreon. My first measure was really engagement, which I don’t see much of.
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