Category: Leisure

May 15, 2024 – The Monster Is Growing

May 15, 2024 /

This is kind of a fun one for me. I have had some time lately where my wife is getting long visits with friends. As a result, I hide out in the basement working on my experiment with Linux and radios. I do have my Software Defined Radio working, it is just not quite dialed in.

I am monitoring the stations that say are Police/Fire but I have yet to hear anything. It is kind of like fishing. You don’t catch anything if you don’t try but just because you are fishing doesn’t mean that you are going to catch anything. I don’t know if my antenna is not good enough or the frequencies are wrong or the software doesn’t work as advertised.

Regardless, the bottom monitor was one that I had in my office. It stopped working reliably in December of last year. It would plug in and work for a day until the computer went to sleep and then it would stop working until I unplugged it for a day or so. I replaced the monitor and put it in the recycle pile.

But, since the monitor was in my way, I decided to test it a little further and plug it into my Linux computer. I had a bit of a working theory that there was something to do with the graphics card since the monitor seemed to work on one machine but not when I switched over to another computer with a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch. Low and behold, it worked all week. Then I decided to hook two monitors up and it worked another two weeks.

Rather than throwing a 27″ monitor away. I decided to go for it and order a dual monitor stand. In the picture you can see that the tower on the left is the computer I have been talking about. The tower on the right is my XP machine running Linux Mint (32-bit). You read that correctly, Windows XP. This is the machine that my wife insists still has pictures and data that she still wants. These two also have a KVM switch attached to them.

Given that the Linux Mint computer is almost twenty years old and running out of date hardware, it actually runs pretty well. In fact, it runs significantly better than when I try to boot into XP. That is a good 10 minute wait before everything gets going. As an example, I swapped out the wireless card with one that I replaced in my main computer around Christmas time (to add Bluetooth). Mint recognized the card and added a driver and XP did not. I don’t really care because both of them are wired as well. I use it mostly as a troubleshooting tool.

I learned though that the same KVM problem came back when I tried to use the 27″ monitor as the primary monitor by both systems. This means that the upper monitor is the one that works with both computers but I don’t see myself using the old Linux Mint machine much given that it is somewhat limited. I wouldn’t have done this anyway if I didn’t have two monitors in the first place.

Given that I am getting things real cozy in that spot, I started thinking about it would make a good place to put some radios as well. Lately, I have been scrolling through a lot of vintage CB base stations and different GMRS radios. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that is in my future. I will have to modify shotgun hull storage area to do so. Given that reloads can’t be used in trap competition it is unlikely that I will be ever doing that.

End Your Programming Routine: My only real problem with this new setup is that it is cold. It is not a good place to sit for a long time even bundled up. That being said, it is kind of fun re-purposing old hardware and upgrading at the cost of pennies on the dollar compared to their technological heyday. If I have to keep something around, I might as well enjoy it.

May 9, 2024 – Don’t Blink, Summer is Coming

May 9, 2024 /

This is going to be an unprecedented summer for me. Of course, it is going to be centered around my wife’s treatment. We are going to have to temporarily move to Portland to be near hospital. It is looking that is going to be mid-July and run through mid-August to be optimistic. I knew this in general terms which is why I haven’t even tried to do any sort of gardening this year.

If I look at it objectively, it is no different than me travelling for work. I have been gone for nearly months at a time many times in the summer. Not only will I have to be working but I will also have to be a health-care support person as well. I am going to do my best to keep doing what I am doing now, We’ll see if AltF4 has to go on hiatus, kind of like last year.

One of the options to stay in Portland is to park an RV. We have battered the idea around a little bit. I grew up around RVs and I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I hate camping in an RV park. I don’t like the proximity to people. To me RVs shine when you want to do something else. When hunting or fishing, it is sure nice to pull in and not have to setup camp. Indoor lighting makes it much easier to get the most out of your day outside. It sure beats a tent when the weather turns sour as well.

For me, I think the ideal setup would be a class B RV. This is essentially a converted van. I feel like this would allow me to reasonably get off the pavement. I could see weekend excursions to fish coastal steelhead or a week long deer hunt. Add a trailer hitch bike rack and figure out a place to stow the Kayaks and this is pre-canned adventure. This really is not the vehicle to park for a month and work and heal. It is too small to really live in, we would need to live out of.

I would like to hold off a little bit. I don’t think it is the right fit for spending a month. I also feel like we don’t need extra expenses nor do we have a place to park it. That being said, this is my third reminder that life is fleeting. Once we get through this business in Portland, it may be a good idea to make some changes regardless of prognosis.

The primary downside of class B RVs are they are expensive. The one I really want costs around $200,000. Even used ones are running $40K on up. The more ubiquitous class Cs can be found much cheaper used but that is not really the format I want for the type of recreation I want to do. These are the perfect pull into the RV park for a couple of days. They may be much more suitable for parking for a month as well.

The truth is, we probably need new cars much more. My pick-up is 21 years old and my SUV is 14 years old. So, it is hard to justify an occasional vehicle when we really depend on a reliable vehicle. But, this is the same story that has held me back for years on looking at boats too. Once again, I am going to defer this.

End Your Programming Routine: The reason I titled this the way that I did was that if you want to make reservations somewhere you are running out of time. Memorial Day is right around the corner. I was thinking about it in context to RVs so if that is your jam you better get on it. It is hard for a fiscally conservative with an uncertain economic future to pull the trigger. That being said, we only have one life to live and sometimes it changes without our input.

May 2, 2024 – What Is the Source Of My Recent Unholy Radio Obsession

May 2, 2024 /

In 2015, I got voluntold that I would be on a walking relay called Portland to Coast. The idea was that twelve of us would walk continuously from Portland to Seaside on the beach (128 miles). I was already training for the half marathon anyway so I did it. It was actually pretty fun.

Each leg was about 3-5 miles and there would be an exchange point. There would be bathrooms and refreshment at a minimum. Some of the major exchange points would also have food, showers a place to sleep and a radio operator. When you get into the mountains here there is no such thing as cellular service.

I thought that it was pretty cool that people would do all the work of setting up antennas and things and volunteer their time for something like this. What I didn’t really understand was that this was their time to compete as well. They were policing the course for the lost, stragglers and medical emergencies. The only way to get effective, real time communication was radio. I have now observed that many races have radio operators.

Going back a further, to about 2006 my current neighbors moved in. He is a former sheriff’s deputy and runs a police scanner. Since I live on Main St., I can hear all of the sirens when the when the vehicles turn west leaving the station (the siren sound is directional). Some times when there are a lot of vehicles I will go over and ask what is going on.

Next, came my techno-junk pursuit. I talk frequently about it, so I won’t go deeply into it. But, I was trying to figure out how to buy/build antennas for AM reception. I ran across an antenna advertised for short-wave usage. It was at that time that I realized that short-wave frequencies also included AM radio. So, I started to research this further.

I was actually reading the comments and reviews for the antenna that I purchased. One of the comments said something to the effect of ‘watch where you put that thing or you will end up with an Rocket Propelled Grenade in your window’. It was at that moment that I realized radio is a weapon. It is not the kind of weapon that hurts people, but it is communication that prevents friendly fire, a weapon of information.

Radio is a force multiplier, not a missile. Think of it like a shotgun choke. While one pellet might be effective, more would be better. So if the shot is concentrated on the target the more likely it will be lethal. On the other hand, sometimes having a more open choke is better, you have a better chance of hitting with a wider pattern. Radio frequencies are the same way. They have their advantages and disadvantages but make no mistake firing without a choke causes the shot to spray everywhere quickly.

Aside from being regulated by the FCC, no other outside infrastructure is necessary. Strictly speaking, it can be used without licensing either. In times of natural disaster, radio will be there regardless of internet, phone lines or cellular service. My wife even mentioned that we should get our own scanner. This is what spurned me to try out Software Defined Radio (SDR). As you know, I am still working on that but I can tune in a channel on the SDR and hear when I talk on GMRS channels. So, I am close, I just need to get the right configuration setup to listen to emergency broadcasts.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t know if I will ever be a guy that sits in front of a radio talking to strangers at night. One video I watched recently said that developing scanning channels requires time. That is one thing that I feel like I have little of. But, radio does appeal to my technical, scientific and preparedness side. I definitely want to work on going a little deeper just for the ability to say that I know how to do it and can do it competently.

April 24, 2023 – Getting Your GRMS License From the FCC

April 24, 2024 /

Yesterday I talked about the fact that I put myself on the radar by applying for the GMRS radio license from the FCC. Today I am going to show you how to do that. This is going to be a screenshot heavy post today because the pictures pretty much tell the story. Also note, you will have to provide your social security number and being a convicted felon will exclude you.

This is a multiple step process. You will have to login multiple times with two factor authentication in some cases. Using this link, you will need to create a new account with email and password. Use the Register segment.

Assuming that this is all new to you, then fill out the required information. It is really only an email, password, name and phone number.

Once you have completed the initial account creation, you will be kicked out and you will have to login with your username and password. There will be a two factor code sent to your e-mail that you will have to enter to proceed. Logging in with an account takes you to a different screen. You will want to ‘Register New FRN’ (Federal Registration Number). This number will be needed in the actual registration for a license.

Answer the questions as applicable.

And now you will get your FRN. It will be displayed on the screen. Save it in a safe place because you will need it for future login and management. You will now need to login using this link and using your FRN + password. After login, in the upper left corner you will want to ‘Apply for a license’. Fill out the forms.

You will get on-screen confirmation that everything is complete.

After you complete the form, you will need to go back to the second link provided and pay for the license.

Once you pay, there is nothing to do but wait. The FCC will email you with a link to a .pdf file that is your actual license. In my case, it was about a day and a half.

End Your Programming Routine: I followed some online instructions and while I got it done, I was a little confused during the process. 1) Create an Account 2) Apply for an FRN 3) Register for a license 4) Pay for the registration. Those are the base steps. Technology and steps may change, but I spent most of my time trying to navigate the process, not completing the steps. Good luck.

April 23, 2024 – On the Radar…

April 23, 2024 /

Last fall, I talked about the fact that I was planning on investigating the GMRS licensing process. I did it a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow, I am going to give a step by step on how to do it so I will save that information and opinions about that part of the process until then.

It is no secret that cell phones have largely surpassed amateur radio with ubiquity and variability. With Bluetooth pairing and voice, text and internet everybody can communicate with everybody caravanning or in loose group settings. Where radios really shine are when the pavement ends. They are also cheap, don’t need a service plan or service infrastructure.

The tin-foil hatters would say, it is nearly unenforceable and an unnecessary government intrusion to get a license. Once you do, you are on a list forever. And to them I would say that I agree. In fact, to be in radio is to be known. I actually went looking to see why I would want to bother getting a GMRS radio license. Here were some of my reasons.

  1. Don’t go looking for trouble. I would say that nearly all people into radio are law and order oriented people. The cost of $35 for ten years and covers your entire family is a pretty low bar in the first place.
  2. I very well might want to go deeper into radio. I don’t want to become an outlaw in the community that I am seeking more information about joining. See item 1.
  3. Even my self-imposed stay in the FRS band leads me to not use the radios very much. Having gear without experience is like having food and not knowing how to cook. I am looking to remove barriers for me to using them more and getting valuable experience.

Interestingly enough, the blister pack FRS/GMRS radios that can be purchased for less than $50 and box stores have some channels that are recognized in both radio spectrums. Apparently, the reason that you don’t need a license to operate those radios is the power output is tuned down. Like many paradoxes in law and government, it is required to have a license use the GMRS frequencies but the equipment is limited to the point that it falls into an exemption that no license is required.

All of this time, I have been under the assumption that I needed a license to operate in the GMRS frequencies with the handheld walkie-talkies not realizing that the equipment itself was exempt. What else I took out of this was that you probably still shouldn’t use them because people with more powerful radios in that spectrum are expecting legal radio decorum. For example, there is a duty to announce your radio call sign when speaking.

This actually got me wondering what the point was in the first place. It turns out that the full power radios can also be purchased just as cheaply and these are the radios where you should have a license. These radios can take advantage repeaters, they have way more range and they have the capability to swap antennas as a few examples. The more powerful radios can also talk to the cheaper FRS/GMRS as well, albeit you will be limited to the capability of the less powerful radio.

I am definitely thinking about buying an upgrade because they are so cheap and now I am legal and so is anybody I hand a radio to for the situation. That being said, I think that if you are going to stay on the fringe of amateur radio, you should probably stick to the blister pack radios. You don’t want to have to use your call sign to radio out to the yard or the shop as an example. But if you are getting more interested in the subject, this is a very easy entry point.

End Your Programming Routine: I was going to wait on this until after I got my Software Defined Radio setup to do this. But given my life’s current circumstances, I can’t really afford to spend hours squirreled away on a hobby. It is the same reason I haven’t been out in the shop for months or am doing much gardening this year. Not only that, getting my radio’s working helps in those areas I am not able to be active in this year because I can use that as a tool to take a couple steps away.

April 17, 2024 – The Purer Game

April 17, 2024 /

This is old news by now. But, given the success of the OSU Beavers women’s basketball team I have been watching more women’s college basketball. Honestly, I think that I like it more than men’s basketball.

Photo by USA Today.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging or looking the other way about bad behavior. I think that basketball players at all levels are the worst. It is no secret that the Trailblazers nickname a few years ago was the ‘Jailblazers’. There are plenty of thugs in football too but I guess what drives me crazy is the selective calling of fouls and violations in basketball. NCAA is much, much better than the NBA but I am finding that I like women’s basketball because it is purer.

I see more teamwork and fundamentals. Maybe it is the differences in the sexes, but I also see less athleticism or may it is ego. Few can dunk or make ridiculous power moves to the basket all the while travelling, fouling and getting fouled. This encourages passing and leverages matchups and strategy. Honestly, I have seen more blocked shots in women’s basketball too.

The Beaver’s well outperformed their expectations, I knew were going to meet their match at some point. They lost all three games to USC (including the Pac-12 tournament) and both games to Stanford. So, when they drew undefeated South Carolina I figured there run would come to an end. And it did. Make no mistake, all of the media hype has been on LSU (the defending champions) and the Iowa Hawkeyes with the record setting guard while USC (So. Car.) just kept winning.

Watching the finals, I knew that the game was over when South Carolina was leading by nine with about two minutes left. The ball was inbound to Caitlin Clark and she took the ball all the way down and attempted a failed shot without anyone else touching that ball. I know that this is counter to what I am generally saying but this is the type of play that is so pervasive in men’s basketball. There is no doubt that she is one of the best players in the game today and there is no doubt that she was a key factor on the team, but instead of playing a winning strategy one player tried to win the game despite the odds.

I also do not doubt that women’s basketball is really the haves and have nots. South Carolina was undefeated until they lost in the final four last year and they were undefeated this entire season. That is one loss in two whole seasons or over seventy games. I think back the the dominance of UConn in the 2010s or Tennessee in the 1990s.

End Your Programming Routine: I used to be a big basketball fan. Now, I can hardly stand it between the ego, sloppy play and unequal rule enforcement. Did you see the score of the last NBA all star game (211-186)? Watching women’s basketball has renewed my interest in the game. Now the season is over, I probably won’t watch much more than the tournament next year, but I enjoyed it.

March 28, 2024 – No Wonder People Hate Technology

March 28, 2024 /

I am a programmer for goodness sake, why is so much information bad? A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the hard drive on my primary desktop was almost filled. It wasn’t that long ago that I went on a cutting spree trying to free up space on that hard drive (a couple of months). I finally figured out that One drive was syncing everything wherever it was connected. I thought that I was putting stuff into One drive to keep my hard drive clean.

At the same time, I had enough of my laptop. The hard drive is constantly pegging at 100% use. It cripples the ability to do anything on the computer and has for many years. I had an idea, I am going to swap that hard drive for a solid state drive and take the old hard drive and put it into my desktop that is almost full.

I am no idiot. In the old days, you had a CD-ROM that you put into the drive and you rebuilt the operating system from disk. Well, I don’t even have an optical drive in my laptop. So, I looked up multiple instructions that concurred. Create a recovery drive on USB. Replace the hard drive and then boot from the recovery drive to rebuild the operating system. “NNNNNT, Wrong”.

First of all, a recovery drive is only for rebuilding working and existing hard drives. Trust me, I spent hours trying to make it work. I don’t care what expert said what, it does not work. It wasn’t even easy to build the recovery drive either. I spent probably six hours messing around with that.

The instructions say, you need a 32GB USB drive. OK, I went out and bought one. Then, it says use the recovery drive utility built into Windows. After two hours, the first one failed. Two more hours and the second one failed. I started checking the internet for why this was happening. As it turns out, the USB drive needed to be formatted in NTSC and not FAT32 format. Once I did that, add another two hours to create the recovery drive.

I swapped the hard drive and then booted from the recovery drive. At first, I tried the option that restored my settings. That got to 70% complete and then I was alerted that there was an error. I tried it again, same result. Then third attempt, I tried a new install, also failed. I went to bed for the night, pissed and bewildered.

The next morning, I started checking the internet and found out that this can only be done with a Windows image. The registration component is apparently on the motherboard. I didn’t want to ruin my recovery drive in case I still needed it, but I needed an 8GB drive for Windows 11 media. The only drive I had of that size was my bootable Ubuntu image. It turns out, when you build an Ubuntu drive, it write protects those files and so my 8GB drive had three partitions that I could not get rid of. I had to download Rufus again just to get rid of the partitions.

One of the permaculture principles is the problem is the solution. So, fortunately, all of my data was backed up to One Drive. But, I did have to re-connect mail, and download browsers and Microsoft 365 and all that stuff. This is the easy stuff since I have been religiously using Bit-Locker to store all of my account information. And now, I am just clicking through and adding stuff.

Did this make a performance difference? You bet it did. I no longer want to throw my laptop off of a building. Installing the old hard drive should be easy (compared to this). Once I have all of that working, I am going to start ripping DVDs of content that I am keeping on One Drive. I don’t want to get rid of my podcast raw data and things like that, but I certainly don’t need to keep easy access to it and I definitely don’t want it clogging up my hard drive. That is a whole different story. Even though I have a DVD burner, that is not working either.

End Your Programming Routine: We are in the habit of taking all information as good information, myself included. When multiple sources had the same instructions, I took for granted that it was correct. It may be that this was valid for Windows 10 and not 11, I don’t know what was wrong. This should have been done in a couple of hours and stretched into days based on bad information. I am glad that I had more than one computer and USB drive.

March 14, 2024 – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

March 14, 2024 /

Back in my day… The picture below is of a partial ammunition box that was purchased over 25 years ago. I was in college and I was working a part time job for beer and ammo money. I read the magazines and they said that you have to find what brand is the most accurate and reliable for your own equipment.

If you read my post yesterday, then you would know the weather has been pretty crappy lately. When I set my plans, I was going to go to the outdoor range to do other things. But, we also have an indoor range that almost nobody uses. The primary use is the target leagues which meet on weeknights. It has heat and light which sounds pretty good on a windy and snowy day.

I suspect that it would get more use if it wasn’t restricted to 22LR (or air rifle) and under 150 ft/lbs of energy. Apparently, the backstop has a limit of 150 ft/lbs. If you know what that means, then good on you. The only way I really know is to actually measure and calculate the energy.

I thought that I would measure some velocities out of a little pistol that I like to carry around. I also thought that I would like to compare the pistol to a rifle and check its capability to the cartridges potential and so that is what I did (for the most part). Along the way, I learned a bunch more things as well. The first thing I learned was that it had been almost five months since I had been to the range. When I was looking at the data, my last entry was in October. That is too long.

During the Obama years and one of the recent and lengthy ammunition droughts, for some reason premium 22LR ammunition was still on the shelf. I suspect that being 10X the cost of bulk had something to do with it. But, that led me to do extensive reliability testing for my pistol with all different brands of ammunition. I settled on two that I liked CCI Stinger and Aguila Interceptor.

Despite firing and cycling reliably, I didn’t really have a standard for performance. I wanted to measure velocity and calculate energy. I thought that instead of freezing my butt off, I would do some scientific work. Unfortunately, the Stinger caused too much flame to reliably measure on my chronograph. But, through a 16″ rifle barrel, it generated 186 ft/lbs of energy. Too much for this range. I didn’t know that and I never would have if I didn’t calculate it.

I don’t think the Stinger would be a problem out of the 3″ barrel because in my next test I compared Remington Thunderbolt. In that case, I got 152 ft/lbs out of the rifle and 37 ft/lbs out of the pistol. I was hoping that maybe I could build an offset with several other brands and apply it to the Stinger. But I was running a little short on time.

The other test I did was with subsonic ammunition using the Aguila Colibri. What I found interesting with that is that my pellet rifle actually generates more energy. It is definitely quiet and I bought this ammunition before I owned my Crossman Optimus. My thought being that I could reload much quicker that pumping eight times for a follow-up shot with the Crossman Legacy. But, the Colibri didn’t cycle the action in a semi-automatic. It is weaker than an air rifle and I haven’t seen it on the shelf in years. The data says, use an air rifle but it was good to know.

The last thing I learned was revisiting my first test years ago. I want to say that in my head my pistol reliability was just as reliable as a rifle, meaning most of the variability was with the ammo itself. I have to say that pistol did not prove as reliable as I liked. Not only were there more failure to fire in the pistol. But I saw a trigger reset problem that occurred about 10% of the time.

I took everything apart and cleaned it when I got home. I saw no visible or obvious reason for the trigger problem. But, a cleaning more than once every couple of years can’t hurt. I do plan to do more of this so this is something to keep an eye on. Right now, I have to consider that pistol’s reliability suspect.

End Your Programming Routine: I found a new load that I want to test. It is the Federal Punch. This is a specifically designed self-defense, 22LR load. What I thought to be true, may not be exactly so. But, this is why I try to do the most scientific and realistic testing that I can. Truth can only be decided with real data, the rest is just anecdotal.

February 29, 2024 – It Has Been a Long Time Since I Have Been To the Range…

February 29, 2024 /

Happy leap day everyone. It may be that I am getting older and lazier but I haven’t been to the range since November. My renewal date is around the first of the year and I haven’t hardly even thought about going. It kind of makes me wonder if I should keep up my membership if I am not going to use it.

Another possible reason is that since I have setup my basement, pellet trap I use it multiple times a week. So, I feel less of the need to go to the range because I am always shooting without going anywhere. Recently I upgraded the scope on an air rifle so I am going to talk about the process today.

My son has a Crossman 760. It is a straight tube (non-rifled), multi-pump, bb/pellet combo. It is one of those classic bb guns. I can remember my cousin’s had the same one in the 1980s. My son’s looks exactly the same but today’s model has a sleeker, more updated design. It has a 3/8 rail for a scope addition.

When I purchased my first air-rifle, it also came with a very in-expensive 4×15 scope. It truly is better than nothing but for not much money you can do much better. But, the better part of my motivation was to put a scope on my son’s rifle. I figured I would upgrade the scope on my rifle and move the old scope to the 760.

Since the 760 is not rifled, it is not likely to be the most accurate of the bunch. By my reasoning, a significant scope upgrade would only marginally be of value on that rifle. The sights aren’t that great either and my groups are more like 2 inch groups with the 760. Additionally, I am noticing my eyesight is starting to degrade rapidly. Even this scope would help.

I took the old scope off and sighted the new scope on my rifle. It is shooting pretty good and I think the $40 investment was worth the cost and effort. I put the old scope on the 760 and the picture above represents how things went. Despite the fact that things were pretty dialed in my first shot was six inches to the left. As I kept working at it, I kept walking right and up. The final three shots above the center is where I left it.

Keep in mind that changing the number of pumps or the projectile will also change how things work. In my case eight (out of ten) pumps with a BB (5gr, one of the lightest projectiles) at ten yards will likely yield lower impact for heavier projectiles or less pumps. Given the same conditions, farther distance will likely have some drop as well. I think it is about perfect.

One other thing about inexpensive scopes is the adjustments are kind of poor. It is marked as on click per 1/4″ at 100 yards. So, at ten yards 1/4″ is supposed to be 10 clicks. But when it makes no clicks, you are not totally sure what the adjustment actually is. They also tend to act erratically sometimes by having different results the next day because something finally sprang into place. Some people actually tap on their scopes after adjustment to try and help them set in place.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy to report that things were still in place the next day and I think this is an improvement over open sights. I do have a picture here somewhere with some previous testing I did but I couldn’t find it. And there is a real improvement in my rifle with the new scope on it. Win-win, I say.

February 7, 2024 – My Good Pen

February 7, 2024 /

How many more items like this do I have? That’s a good question, I don’t really know. I really do take care of my things and they seem to hold a lot memory associations with them. This Cross pen below I received from my Aunt and Uncle for my high school graduation in 1993. I also got a check for $50 that went into my war chest, otherwise known as a savings account. Boy was life different then, we had a home computer but still the majority of all work was done by hand and I do mean handwriting.

I dubbed this pen ‘my good pen’ and so I didn’t use it much. In fact, it probably spent 15 years in my day planner. For those of you that don’t remember or know, a day planner was an oversized book size calendar. It was meant to carry with you and keep track of all things on a day by day basis. I really wanted to use a day planner, in fact I bought several. But I wasn’t disciplined enough to write everything all the time.

The day planner became an item of clutter shortly after getting it setup. And with it, my pen sat zipped up and protected. I carried that planner around for years in case I needed to take a note or something but I never really did. I finally threw the planner away several years ago.

Writing in this blog is not the only writing I do. I keep a journal that is mostly about planning and productivity. Now this pen is used to keep a weekly log of what I did for the week and what I am planning for the next. About two weeks ago, it stopped writing. Finally, after 29 years it ran out of ink.

The good news is that I can still order a refill, which I did. I like the idea that items have a story. So, while the refill cost $8 and I could buy four good writing pens for that, it was worth it. My good pen is going to live on.

I have to be honest, some of today’s disposable pens are more ergonomic and actually write better. This pen is thin and a little slick. While it works perfectly fine, it isn’t the easiest to hold for long writing sessions. It’s best function is signing things and writing checks.

One of the weaknesses of the pen and design is the clip. Mine is slightly bent because it is soft metal and it got squeezed in that day planner I spoke of earlier. I thought it was so neat to have an expensive pen, I bought my girlfriend (now wife) one for Christmas. Hers is sprung more than mine. I don’t know how, but I know that is a weakness.

Ten years ago, when I did a lot of looking a gear list for survival packs and such, there was a ubiquitous Fisher Space Pen on most of the lists. This was a pen that developed for the space program. The ink was pressurized so that it would write upside down or any position. This is probably the gold standard for pens.

That being said, I heard an anecdote that the Russians decided to use pencils. It is kind of like Indiana Jones facing the guy with the swords and then he just shoots him. Why re-invent the wheel? The reason this pen is special to me is because of the memory, not because it is high tech or even expensive. Heck, I am pretty sure I still have writing instruments that I found in the high school hallway too.

End Your Programming Routine: This actually wasn’t the only pen I received at that event. I got another pen with a $100 bill. It was a more inexpensive pen, but I probably have that as well. I know this is what drives me crazy when my kids ‘borrow’ something and lose it or break it. Here I have kept and used so many things for thirty years only to have no regard for an item.