Category: Opinion

April 10, 2021 – Surprised…

Good Saturday Night. I don’t normally write during this time, it tends to be family or spouse time. But, my son told me that he was using a laser pointer with the dog (acting like a cat). Since I missed Thursday and Friday, I thought I could sneak a little time on Saturday Night

To share video, it is easier to post it to YouTube and share the link; it is faster and more succinct. My wife is out of the house and I thought that she would like to see this.

But, the video is not the point of this post. I haven’t done this a bunch and when I look back on things it has been more than half a year since I posted to YouTube. When I was trying to shake the cobwebs off to figure out how to post a video, I went to my channel. I was looking at the stats and I have a video that has almost 10,000 views. I was fumbling around and my ‘About’ page has over 15,000 views.

That is astounding. Considering that I figured out that posting to YouTube makes the import to this blog very fast is the reason I put anything on there in the first place. My very first serious post was repairing a pneumatic nail gun. I did it on a whim, trying to figure out the best way to get content on this site. The first month that YouTube sent me an e-mail that nearly 1000 people had watched my video, I was shocked.

Sometimes, I get notification that there are comments. I try to respond to those. It is said that audience engagement is the number one way to build a following, and therefore monetization. However, I have never claimed to wanting to build a YouTube channel. I do however want to build something here. I don’t live or die on what happens there. But, when I went there tonight, I was shocked that over 15,000 people have looked at my ‘About’ page.

Since there is a link to my site on the ‘About’ page, I tested it and it works. My most popular videos are my repair videos (not surprising since those are the real non-personal ones). Those are the videos that run-away with the views at 100:1. The whole point of this is that I am shocked so many people have watched what I have put out there because it doesn’t seem to have translated here.

Nevertheless, I want to build sustainable content and YouTube is not the place to do that. See https://odysee.com/ for that. I haven’t bothered to setup an account yet because I haven’t produced anything recently, but it is on my short term list to do so. In fact, uploading to YouTube will also import to Odysee at the same time if you are setup to do so.

I am humbled and shocked to see the numbers. Despite the fact that I have had little interaction with the viewers of my videos I hope that I have helped people with the small issues that I have posted. That was the point of me posting this tonight and I hope that you enjoy Raya.

April 7, 2021- 1984 1:7

I am running late today, so trying to get this in before the day ends. Last night I read chapter seven so hopefully it is fresh in my mind.

This chapter is a trip into Winston’s thoughts and he is having an awakening. Intertwined in his inner dialogue, it is implied that he is writing in his diary. It seems that the process of writing is having a stimulating effect on his self analysis.

This chapter is deep as there are more than one line, vocabulary concepts. There is a good quote and some hard philosophical analysis. So, let’s tackle the quote first.

And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus on petty grievances. The ‘they’ in this context is the ‘Proles’. Winston is talking about the differences between life in the Party versus being on the outside and how the party is outnumbered by a four to one ratio. If they really wanted to rise up, they could easily overtake the government. This sentence validates one of the things I have been saying about politics. People that are focused on the left/right dichotomy are too busy fighting for their side and against the other that the politicians are robbing them blind.

Seeing is believing- Winston starts to realize that no matter how much someone can say something that is not true if you are seeing yourself, you can figure out someone is lying. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall to the earth’s center. All of those things are verifiable without too much effort an no one can convince otherwise.

Need to corroborate- Toward the end of the chapter, Winston states that he is writing this for O’brien. Despite his inherent distrust of O’brien, for some reason Winston is being drawn towards him. I think that this validates the point that we need people to socialize and empathize our situation. We will see if this is happens later in the book

There were other things of interest going on like the portrayed image of capitalist, the fate of some of the revolutionary founders and a little bit more about the life of the proles. There is one more chapter left in this section and then the book is going to make a turn.

March 31, 2021 – The Move From Winter to Spring

Spring started 11 days ago. I can’t say with certainty that we are moving to a new season. The more I look, the more I am surprised that we seeing long term supply chain disruptions. I attribute it to both the ice storm and the pandemic reactions. The following are items that I have recently had trouble with.

  • Propane and propane accessories (couldn’t resist)
  • Firearms, ammunition and reloading components
  • Bicycles and bicycle parts
  • Electrical components like wire, breakers, gang boxes, wire clamps, etc
  • Recreational vehicles, including boats

The first four categories I have been looking for in the last couple of weeks. I have talked a lot about the first two, now I am surprised to learn of new categories.

With school going back into session, it was time to get the bike situation sorted out. If you own a cheap bicycle and you ride it a lot there is a common problem. The slot to hold the crank arm into the bearing cassette will deform with constant pedaling. The crank arms are made of a softer aluminum and this is probably the fourth time we have needed to make this repair. Left unrepaired, the crank will eventually become unusable and typically fall off.

In a similar vein, looking for a bicycle for my other son. It turns out that bikes and bike parts are unavailable. I went to three different local shops and they all said that they had 300-1000 bikes on back order with about a year’s worth of lead time. Parts had no ETA. The store owners said that with the shutdown of gyms, people bought bikes in record numbers. We were able to make the repair with a used part.

I don’t know what is going on with electrical items, but I went to three box stores and two hardware stores to get new work gang boxes. In addition I have been having problems finding all electrical items as I start work on my new office. I heard from one source that PVC was in short supply and that it was effecting not just work boxes but also paint. I heard from another source that some electrical components have been out of stock since last summer.

I was also shocked to see the price of sheet goods. Last year, a $14 sheet of 7/16 OSB is now $40. 3/4″ plywood is not $67 a sheet, I would say at least double from last year.

I went ahead and started my plants despite the fact that I haven’t built the beds like I stated earlier. I think that I have a place to put them in the front yard anyway, at least a small garden. There is some question as to whether that would be a good decision depending on whether we are staying at this current house. If I don’t start them, then I won’t have the plants come planting time, so I did it anyway. I can give them away if I want to.

The question remains, are we moving into a new season or is this the new normal? Has our economic climate shifted such that shortages are a fact of life? Has our economic climate shifted such that we are still in the winter of the pandemic? Winter is nature’s rest for new growth, at least in temperate climates. There is no doubt that future impacts will result from this experience, I am not totally sure what they will be at this point. I don’t think we are in spring yet.

March 30, 2021 1984 1:6

Good Tuesday. I am again running behind, this is the third time I have tried to finish this post. It was my intent to write this two Friday’s ago but time got away from me. I am now trying to read at the pace that I am writing because I forget things as time goes on. In this case, I read this chapter about a month ago. I wrote down some key concepts so that it would jog my memory when I came back but I essentially have to reread again.

This chapter has Winston writing in his diary. He clearly is torn between the right/wrong dichotomy. He is recollecting treasonous events and thoughts but is unable to rectify human emotion and permitted behavior.

The themes in this chapter center on what we learn is a former marriage. Winston at one time had a wife named Katherine. It appears that the focus of marriage was on creating children for the purposes continuing the empire of Big Brother. Because Winston wanted more out of the relationship than just procreation, he became dissatisfied in the union and Katherine disappeared, status unknown.

Love- Orwell is strongly suggesting that love is a necessary human emotion. Despite having a willing wife for the mechanical aspects of sex, it is not enough to fulfill the complete emotion. Winston was turned off to Katherine if you will because he had no connection. They didn’t share the same interests or even the same goals in life. I suppose that you would call it loneliness.

Prostitutes– Despite knowing the risks and the fact that it was wrong, Winston still had a rendezvous with a prostitute from the proletariat. This behavior is probably driven by loneliness and the fact that Winston spends a long time celibate. I think the point here is that despite all the potential downsides, strict adherence to the laws is impossible when you try to isolate human emotions.

Not having a lot of experience or research in this area, I would say that this chapter re-enforces the long held understanding that totalitarian societies often permit minor discretions despite the fact that activity may be illegal. Think free trade in China or the black market in the USSR. As long as the activity is not perceived as harming the establishment then there is only selective enforcement.

Even in the worst of situations, life continues. Babies are born, commerce happens and jobs get done. The scale and focus may changed but not necessarily the drive for life. I would say that points to the fact that there are characteristics like emotions that make us human whether they are good ideas or not.

March 23, 2021- Rapers Gotta Rape

I heard this phrase a couple weeks ago, at least I think the link below was the right episode. I listen to this podcast mostly because it entertains me, but in a humorous way. Paul Wheaton is a big character in his words and heart so I believe that he is coming at his angle for the right reasons.

For those of you not familiar, “Permaculture” is the combination of two words, ‘Permanent’ and ‘Culture’. It is often misconstrued as ‘permanent agriculture’ which is about half of the equation. The premise as I understand it anyway is building a sustainable life which includes community and agriculture. Further, it seems like there are two camps in Permaculture. One side seems to focus on the community and the other agriculture bringing quite a dichotomy of interests together.

As I stated above, Paul has quite a way with words. He runs a forum and often uses the rant as a form of communicating his feelings. This particular rant is all about how people ‘let others do bad and get away with it’. Hence the slippery slope from ‘haters gonna hate’ to the extreme ‘rapers gonna rape’. You can read the post here.

After I got a chuckle out of the podcast, I went and read his post (several times) to see more context. I have to say that I struggled a bit following along. I have been listening for years so I am familiar with the trials and tribulations of what he is trying to accomplish. The post was pretty ‘rambly’ so it seems like he was triggered by two things. One was a video that people name the ‘Fouches’ put out and the other incident was a lackluster response to a presentation that he made at a conference called ‘Permaculture Voices’ a few years ago.

After reading the post, I watched the Fouch video (not linking to it, but is easily found on YouTube). I did find it a little petty, but for the most part it was a timid, critique of their experience. Paul has treated this as an all out assault and has pushed back with his media with extreme vile and anger. I guess you would say this is where the story ends about Paul and the real lessons begin.

If you know that you are doing something different (trying to change the world), know that there is going to be pushback. I know that when I got my first negative comment on YouTube, I was kind of PO’d about how rude it was. But, the advice is that if you do not have detractors, then you are not making a difference because you are not reaching enough people.

In my last job, I was literally running circles around the establishment to the point that they were sabotaging my customer relations and interfering with the business I was in charge of. I was making money out of written off customers, salvaging impossibly damaged projects and building a very successful team with cast-offs. I was so upset that my methods were clearly getting results and making a difference yet they would be allowed to behave unethically with no consequences, I quit. I did everything I could to get away from those people, moving divisions and going all the way to the president with my concerns. I now know that they were threatened and that by quitting I didn’t prove anything to the business. I suspect that there will come anther day in my career or whatever I do that I will be faced with this again, I have to refer to my first point above.

There are two kinds of criticisms, constructive and trolling. When I watched the Fouch video I did not see trolling. I suspect that if Paul would have followed his software engineering training rather than getting all emotional and had done a ‘root cause analysis’ he would have a better understanding of why they were not happy. I do not subscribe to the theory of pleasing everyone, but at least attempting to understand their discontent he would be in a better place.

When I looked at my YouTube comment, I understood that the guy was saying I didn’t show every nut and bolt part. I never intended to, I made the video for this blog and I was working out how to edit, embed and so forth. I get it that it wasn’t an exhaustive how to, nor did I promise that it was. Such is the way of the world so I didn’t respond back. Maybe I should have offered to help personally because he was so distraught about his situation, who knows.

I guess that where I differ from Paul is that fighting back is rarely productive. As much as I have written about government overreach and related items, has it changed one bit? Focus your energies on supporting the positive and causes/people that agree with your values for sure. But, spending time on your detractors wastes energy to that could be used to move forward.

March 22, 2021 – Stole this from MeWe

I know that I was behind last week. I got a sad chuckle out of this, so I thought that I would quickly share. Humor was definitely something that I wanted to keep in the forefront. I also realize that I have been 99% serious over the last year. Hopefully it will be a better week on the content front.

March 9, 2020- Personal Security in the Digital Age

I was first exposed to an open source password manager called KeePass a number of years ago. When I worked in support, I had to have many different accounts at the ready, often on a moments notice. One of the biggest disadvantages was that it was limited to a computer, at least I was smart enough to only put work relevant information on it.

A couple of years ago, I thought that I would want to start using an application like this again. I found one for the phone called MiniKeePass. Early in 2020, the app makers announced that it would no longer be supported by the end of the year. So, I have been ‘riding dirty’ every since.

The problems are, one that there is a lot of information currently saved in MiniKeePass. I also had an old system using Evernote. How to get it out before it is lost forever by an OS update or some other problem. You would be surprised the number of job board logins, etc I have accumulated over the years. According to Apple, it can be backed up, but how do you access the database?

As a result, I am in the search for a good password vault. I need to get these things moved before something happens. I don’t have a lot of requirements, just a few. I don’t want to pay for a service but I am willing to buy an app. I don’t want cloud back-up and potential security vulnerability of someone else storing. Lastly, I would like to be able to access it from multiple devices.

Searching around, I found this app Myki. It is free and it shares across devices. The biggest downside I have found so far is that you have to purchase additional categories. So, for instance I don’t really want to have 400 accounts in one view because I only use four of five routinely.

I am taking a sort of hybrid approach. You can create custom ‘Notes’. I create a note on the category that I want to keep track of. Then I add all the seldomly used accounts under the custom notes. The drawback of such an approach is that you will not get the auto-fill functionality on a webpage. Or said differently, Myki will not fill in account information automatically. I am OK with that, these are accounts that I may never use again.

On a slightly related note, I have been trying out the Brave browser and the Duck-Duck-Go search engine. Post the Capitol riots, I found out that Mozilla is not the patron saint of freedom like I previously thought. One interesting thing about the Brave browser is that you are awarded cryptocurrency for using it. This is one of those things that may never amount to much but there is no harm.

I have known about Duck-Duck-Go for years. This is a search engine that values privacy. So far, I have been happy but I have heard that it is not quite as diligent as Google. I guess we will see.

So, those are some new options for privacy and security. My preference would be to have the same ID and password everywhere, but that is far from secure and a best practice. I am trying to change habits now before something happens.

March 5, 2021 – We Must Be Dumb: How Entertainment and Opinion Has Become News

I almost wrote about this yesterday but I didn’t want to break tradition with ‘Tacticool’ Thursday. Usually, one of the first things I do is scan the headlines on the Bing homepage when I log on. I still like to be informed and well rounded. There were at least four articles concerning whatever hullabaloo is happening with the TV show ‘The Bachelor’.

Admittedly, I clicked on one of the articles to try and determine how serious whatever issue is happening could be with so many stories in the headlines. From what I could tell, it seems to be a whole lot of nothing. Not only did I not learn anything, I looked at a couple more articles to see if it was just poorly written – which I see a lot of these days and got about the same level of information.

I did some more research for the purposes of this article where it seems like one contestant did something in her past that is now considered racially insensitive and apparently the host put out a defense of the contestant and both of them, including the TV show is now on the ‘Woke Blacklist’. Wow, I invested my time for that?

For the record, I find these shows and their ilk to be trashy and vapid. I root for their demise. On the side of freedom, entertainment and choice I have no problem with their existence. That being said, the lines between news, entertainment and opinion almost don’t exist. If you actually look at my screenshot there are four articles on ‘The Bachelor’, four other entertainment articles, three ads and two on politics. That is my ‘front page’.

Granted, there is no specific guarantee what Bing is presenting, there is some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI) running to present customized view based on previous clicks. I suppose that the application of the definition of news is subjective as well. I looked up the definition of news for clarity.

Giving the smell test about ‘The Bachelor’ information

1a. The event is recent

1b. The information is previously unknown to me

1c. It does not have influence to me, but unfortunately it has the appearance to effect a lot of people.

2a. It was reported on a ‘news’ aggregator Bing.

2b. Honestly, I cannot defend this definition.

Here is where the rubber is going to meet the road, so to speak. In my opinion, applying the five sub-definitions of news ‘The Bachelor’ story fails to meet two of the five definitions. Additionally, I give a conditional pass to being displayed on Bing, however given the preponderance of all of the articles I would wager don’t fit the definition either and actually discredit Bing as a valid provider of news. Just because I don’t know something that just happened is a flimsy excuse to call anything news.

Another opinion, but the two most important definitions are worthiness (2b) and specified influence (1c). Admittedly, those two have some subjective aspect to them. One person’s worthiness is not necessarily another. But, let us take a look at that definition.

Now, applying ‘Worthy’ to the situation

1a. No

1b. No

2. No

When we play word games, if there is one definition that fits then we say it meets the definition ignoring the others. I think that is where we are getting to with news. It is actually a word game that meets one definition, it is a recent, unknown event.

I am going to credit Glenn Beck for bringing to my attention that we all have bias. I am surely not objective, I have already stated my opinion on the show and this article that I am writing is categorized as ‘opinion’ to begin with. That is fine, I can accept that. The problem is when bias is used to manipulate the facts to propagate an agenda, without transparency of doing so.

Let me circle back to the premise. I guess what disturbs me is not that there is a mixture of articles both what I think is important and not. For instance, I often look at sports articles which I would argue are not important as well. But, the weighted number of articles are skewing the entire page as irrelevant.

Within my circle of concern, I feel as though people are bombarded with information that is not worthy without the transparency of how their individual view is made. If they chose to have their ‘news’ be 90% entertainment but could resolve a different proportion if desired, then I would be more fine with it. Just like 1984, information either makes people believe anything they are told or nothing. I fear that it is more the former than the latter.

Without getting too conspiratorial, I feel we are being programmed. It is the very premise of this site “End Your Programming”. I won’t speculate why even though I have my own opinions. My hope is that we occasionally get critical about the world around us and how we interact so that we make choices rather than be led.

March 3, 2021 – 1984 1:4

Chapter four was an interesting chapter. It was really kind of a day in the life of Winston at work. We have seen a little bit about the people that he works with but not necessarily what he does or how he does it.

We learn that work is Winston’s greatest pleasure, how newspeak is decoded and how you would go about putting it into function. We also hear speculation that people may work on the same items and after submission, the best version might be chosen for use. There is no way to tell exactly.

I suppose that the greatest refining that is done in this chapter is the description of what the propaganda is that Big Brother generates and how it is put into play. Below are the concepts that I drew as the highlights in the chapter.

Double standards – As with many totalitarian societies, the propaganda arm engages in the very activities that it prohibits the members from owning or viewing. The Ministry of Truth is involved in making material for the proles that has severe punishment for party members.

I do not know exactly why that is done. But I could speculate that it possibly brings in cash to the government. Likely, also the higher ups probably have access to the prohibited material and probably enjoy it at their whim. The principle being that control is much more important than actual morality.

The unperson– Individuals that cross the party risk becoming an ‘unperson’. Speculation from Winston is that person is dead rather than becoming reprogrammed. But it also means that all references to that individual are expunged. They sort of disappear through the Newspeak process.

Hero building – Comrade Ogivly– In some cases, it is necessary to to build people up in Newspeak. Interestingly enough, Winston is given some discretion to to create a character with (potentially) false commendations and a romanticized background. He knows enough about the system to carefully craft the hero’s bio because getting too extravagant can cause a lot of extra work and potentially causing Winston problems in turn.

We are getting a good handle on the dreary landscape of Winston’s world. Hero’s are not real, what we see is a made up as an uber caricature of the values of society. Villain’s do not exist other than the fictionalized and amorphous, race representatives. The effects of propaganda are working as all the misinformation leaves people to believe nothing.

For all of you Newspeak fans out there, I leave this today.