Category: Information

March 30, 2023 – I want this… but it is not there

March 30, 2023 /

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

March 7, 2023 /

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

February 21, 2023 /

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.

January 2, 2023 – One More Day

January 2, 2023 /

I wanted to wish you Happy New Year. Hopefully 2023 is a year filled with prosperity.

I am taking one more day off from a difficult and busy holiday season. I have a real need to recharge my batteries and I am hoping that these spot days off help with that. I will be back tomorrow.

December 26-27, 2022 – Merry Christmas [Break]

December 26, 2022 /

I said it on my podcast on Thursday but I am announcing that I am taking the next two days off. Of course, this is hitting after the actual holiday, but I don’t want to commit myself to getting content up so close to the holiday. The rest of the week is already scheduled to be posted to last out the week beginning on Wednesday.

As I have said many times, I stub out and do a lot of prep before the day that the post actually publishes. I have lots of ideas in the queue but there is so much dependency on getting things in the right sequence that we just have to wait and let things unwind a little bit before I can start writing new stuff. I am not trying to be cryptic but I am talking about Atlas Shrugged. But I am also full up on Christmas activities at the moment and don’t really have the time to do the necessary pre-work. That being said, I will need to spend my uptime this week preparing for another holiday and that is New Years (next week).

I didn’t mention it but we did pass a milestone last week. This is something that I look forward to each year and that is Winter Solstice. This means that we are on the upside of daylight increasing each day. Of course, we wont notice it until February but it is something to be optimistic about because it just feels better to be on the upswing.

End Your Programming Routine: With that, it seems like a perfect time to just take a couple days off. You can spend your time playing with your new Christmas toys and enjoying time with your family, watching movies or sports or even drinking yourself senseless instead of checking in with me.

December 19, 2022 – Christmas Eve is Coming Soon…

December 19, 2022 /

I am changing a couple things up in the upcoming weeks. One is that I have Friday and next Monday as holidays. Since I have already queued the Atlas Shrugged review, that will end the week. My normal Monday podcast is moved to Thursday so that I can coincide with the actual date of Festivus.

I will be taking next Monday off as I deserve a little time off too. That makes the next podcast on Tuesday the 27th of December. However, I have decided to move the podcast to later in the week, the exact date is to be determined. Right now, I am up in the air about whether I will post on January 2nd or not. As of now, it would be slated as a podcast day. If I change my mind, the podcast will come out on Tuesday, January 3.

Things are a little crazy lately. My work is getting ready for a big software release so I am way busier than normal at this time. Last week for instance, I spent all week in Indianapolis. Family is still on normal, breakneck speed and I need to finish holiday tasks. Oh, did I mention that my wife is having surgery today and will be out of commission for the next week at least.

I will also likely be away from home the first two weeks in February. Right now, I am queuing evergreen type posts to handle my weeks where my schedule is beyond my control. But, I have only been gone one week at a time up until now. I may do a combination of queued posts and real-time or I may just be skinny for a couple of weeks. I just depends on how things go between now and then.

End Your Programming Routine: There is a colloquial saying that is equated to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “Nothing is constant but change”. In this case, I made changes so that some days line up with the activities that I want to present. I will go back to a more familiar schedule after the holidays are over. I do self identify as a Grinch but I am making an effort to try and be present with my family. Enjoy the run up and whatever traditions you put into effect this season.