Category: Opinion

May 29, 2020 – The Vinyl Experiment

May 29, 2020 /

Fridays tend to be the days that I think about music. I think that it is because you are looking forward to the weekend and it is kind of a day to celebrate. Back when I was working, I would create a playlist that would capture my mood or summarize the week. And I would open it up for other team members to add their selections.

I mentioned it previously, but my nephew gave my wife a record player for Mother’s Day (a story for another day). I believe that I have a few records at my parents house, but they were out of town. So last weekend, we looked up a record store in a nearby town. We probably browsed for around an hour.

I have been interested in the vinyl re-revolution. I am old enough to remember and even have records. I started thinking about the format changes and theory of Occam’s razor. I will summarize in that changes tend to go to the extreme. So, vinyl begot 8-track (because it was more potable) back to vinyl to cassette to CD and then digital download. Each change vacillated between clearer audio or more control or more portable formats.

There are still a lot of records around. The problem is that like all album collections, there are two or three songs that I am interested in, the rest I can take or leave. I also dont have a lot of time to sit around and really listen to full albums. So, I think the perfect tests are new releases of ‘best of’ type collections (of old music). I also think that for records, I want music to belong to the era that they were originally produce.

We tried the new record player. It is one of those all in one, suitcase types. It was definitely an nostalgic experience. I had one as a kid that took a lot of abuse. We listened to most of all of our new purchases. We did have some difficulty with all of the used records, When I look at them by eye I dont see a problem, so I suspect that it is the quality of the player itself.

I hooked the player up to the receiver to try and get the full audio experience. Because this is one of the all in one units, the phono amplifier and the record player didn’t get along too well. I could hear the much richer undertones, but a lot of scratches and feedback and noise. I switched the input to the CD port and the sound was much clearer, but there was no low end to the music.

I did a comparison from vinyl to YouTube video and I have to say that I much preferred the sound quality to the digital version versus the record. That being said, I am going to blame all of the problems on the player and not the format or the records themselves. This has lead me into looking for a reasonably priced record player that I can hook up to the receiver for a better test.

I have been thinking about having Friday’s as my music day on this platform. So, today I am going to put together a playlist for my recent vinyl purchases.

May 22, 2020 – Heading toward a misunderstood holiday weekend

May 22, 2020 /

As an Eagle Scout, my patriotism runs deep. But as I often say, details matter and this is one of those things that is starting to annoy me more as I get older.

Memorial Day originally began as a symbol and remembrance of the horror of war. It was created as a holiday by President Ulysses Grant approximately at the end of the battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg is considered the turning point in the US Civil War. This is a day to remember those who died in battle, in service to their country, period.

Like many people, I don’t actually know anyone that has died in battle. I know people that were wounded and I know people that later succumbed to their demons. Most of them were kids who’s lives have not yet begun. So unless you are a parent, spouse, sibling or served in combat it is not likely you will have a strong connection to this holiday either.

In this age of ‘woke’ and relative morality, culturally we have lost touch with actual right and wrong. In lieu of potentially offending someone, we just accept wrongness and actively perpetuate it. Patriotic groups are actually the worst at propagating the improper image. I will explain.

My sons’ Boy Scout Troop places flags at one of the local graveyards during the week of Memorial Day. The selection criteria for a grave getting a flag is whether there is an indicator that the person served in the military on the headstone.

That level of discrimination has nothing to do with actual Memorial Day. For the most part, I can tell that most of them did not die in the line of duty by how long they lived. I have also seen flags placed on empty graves because I know one person who’s spouse died and has the headstone mostly complete, including USMC.

At my church last year, everyone that served in the military was recognized during Memorial Sunday. I heard a local country music station say thanks to all that served, including now first responders. We have gone off of the deep end on giving recognition that is way out of context to the meaning of the event.

Service for the most part is a choice, not an enlightenment. I am thankful that people make that choice. But I also believe in supply/demand economics. The kids that I know that have enlisted are doing so for education, VA home loans, paychecks, signing bonuses and twenty years retirement. That is a great reason to do so and I support that decision methodology.

But, lets no kid ourselves here. A signing bonus is a long way from the Marine landing at Omaha Beach or the Pacific islands. Watching actual footage of kids throwing up out of fear and cut to bodies bobbing in the surf has little to do with each other. War is a business where casualties are expected, it is a matter of which ones.

I am all for expressing gratitude, its is a trait that I am not very good at. I just want us to actually take to heart this weekend that ‘Some Gave All’, almost universally not by choice. Strategic and tactical decisions were made and the consequences were death. Let us not cheapen their sacrifice because we are ignorant or are worried that someone is going to be left out of recognition.

April 27, 2020 – The legacy and disappointment of ‘techno-junk’

April 27, 2020 /

One of the side effects of this quarantine period is a constant reorganization of furniture and settings in the house. The latest rendition of our TV area no longer has a place for the surround sound receiver and DVD player. The Xbox has replaced the Blue Ray player and the receiver doesn’t seem to be working.

Back when I first ‘made it’, we made an investment in a home entertainment center. This was the late nineties so the center piece was a nice Yamaha receiver and surround sound speakers. Later, a CD carousel was added and finally a cassette deck. I even spent numerous weekends building a custom entertainment cabinet

As technology advanced, there was a change in the configuration and usage of the equipment. The first real crack at obsolescence was when we replaced the tube TV with a plasma screen. The audio output on the new TV was digital fiber optic. I had to buy a special converter to change the optical signal to analog. That worked until it had to be reset every year or so.

To be honest, the idea of an nice audio system was stronger than the usage. Music has gone digital, despite having stacks of CD’s and cassettes. If I have a hankering for a particular song, I can look it up on YouTube. And my phone is much closer than the music in the living room. About a year and a half ago, I switched the CD player for the cassette deck for fun. We listened to some old mix tapes for nostalgia. That was the last time I heard it work.

I will admit that that I would get a little frustrated getting everything setup, then to move it and reconfigure it again. In our current house, I have wired the setup in four different places in two different rooms. For that reason, the system hasn’t been fully setup in the last year. We have pulled out the receiver for karaoke purposes from time to time.

$1000 of techno junk

There was no room for the audio system in the new TV setup. So I thought I would set it up in the basement. First I tried the tape deck – no sound. I checked the speaker wire, that seemed fine. I switched the audio cables, those seemed fine. Then I tried CD player, thinking the input might be bad and that was jammed. So I took it apart and found a CD lodged in the mechanism. But I managed to get the drawer stuck.

So, here is where I am at, I may be able to repair the CD player given enough time and effort. I am pretty sure that one of the electronic components is burned out in the receiver – but which one? The whole thing is frustrating and disappointing. Can I, will I and even if I do fix this will I even use it?

I hate to throw away something that was once so nice. I am not sure whether I will try to repair it. I am too deep in my remodeling project to spend any time on this at this time. So, for now it is going to get stacked with the other junk like college text books that haven’t been used in 25 years.

April 13, 2020 – Valuing the software to run the hardware

April 13, 2020 /

This comparison is probably a stretch, but I feel like it will work so I am going for it. I suppose that there are a couple of inputs that make this opinion come alive. In the old days, say pre-Windows XP, hardware was upgraded more often. When hardware was changed, there was a driver that also needed to be installed. That driver may or may not have actually worked. Sometimes it required re-installing service packs and rolling back to move forward. There also wasn’t a video for everything or a forum or ideas to help you get started.

Today, unless you are upgrading your video card or something for a specific reason, you don’t need to add another hard drive or faster DVD drive or more RAM. If you are one of those people, you probably know more about this than I do. However when it didn’t work, which was frequent, what would you have paid to make it work? My point being that without software to run that device, it was worthless. But it wasn’t like you had a choice for vendors, nor could you really pay to have a better or different experience.

I can remember whole Christmas presents not working; never could figure out how to make that game load or that modem work, etc. For those that cant relate to this experience, this is precisely where I am going. Our value of the software is free, because that is our perspective and experience. Yet without it, it doesn’t work at all.

Ker-chunk, Shifting gears. I recently picked up a set of Bora 1100 mobile work bases. Until my recent pantry project, some of the nicety features or accessorizing like dust collection and mobile bases were not in the plan. It was true that my machines could be moved without that mobile base. I really didn’t like to do it and hassle has been some of the issue with previous projects.

Quickly, the pluses on the product are 1) relatively inexpensive at $45 per pair 2) flexible and customizable size accommodating 400 lbs of weight. The minuses were 1) the assembly was time consuming 2) supplying your own frame.

So, unlike the driver situation my tools will work without mobile base. What I will say about it is that I am hoping that I will have much less hesitation to get started when they are easier to move. My shop is small, so having the ability to utilize the space effectively is important. Completing the task is more important than owning the hardware.

April 1, 2020 – April Fools Day or Census Day?

April 1, 2020 /

I was going to write about something completely different today. I didn’t even realize that it was going to be April Fools Day or Census Day yesterday. After my son kept me up half the night with pranks, I figure it is best to take the one day in ten years to discuss it’s significance. So today I will compare and contrast the Census vs. April Fools Day.

The Census is one of the few activities that our federal government activates that is actually prescribed in the Constitution. I am not sure what exactly the data is used for with the exception of counting for distribution of Representatives in the US House. History of the Census execution can be read from this link.

From Wikipedia: April Fools’ Day or April Fool’s Day (sometimes called All Fools’ Day) is an annual custom on April 1 consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting “April fools” at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The day is not a public holiday in any country except Odessa in Ukraine, where the first of April is an official city holiday.[1] The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one’s neighbor has been relatively common in the world historically.[2]

And now, back to the Census. Several years ago there was some controversy. There was to be a question about whether you were a citizen or not. I just filled out the form today and I can say that particular question was not present. There were very few questions… who lived at my address, what was their names and birthdates and what was the ethnic background.

The first race question was whether you identified as ‘Latino’ or not. Which I do not, but my wife and kids yes. Then the follow-up question is what particular country/tribe/etc do you identify. I chose French because that is my largest contributor. But for my wife and kids, they also needed to answer that question before I move on. I really don’t understand… the previous question identified as a Latin American Latino (Not Puerto Rican, not Spanish, not South American).

Back to April Fools day. There is a lot of pranking going on at my house. Waking up to ‘Fart Bombs’, my wife is waiting to pull a bathroom prank on the kids right now. I like a good laugh, but I really am not into pranks of this nature. I think that it is just kind of wasteful energy.

Back to the Census. Speaking of wasteful energy, how many ways do we need to count people? Isn’t everyone supposed to fill out a tax return? Names and birthdays are included. I am relatively sure that the very few people that do not fill out a return or are claimed on a return are really on the margin, are these the people that are going to fill out a census form?

Back to April Fools Day. Still waiting for the prank to happen. I have been enlisted to act surprised.

Back to the Census. The way I read the instructions, I was to claim that my exchange student lived at this house, as of April 1. He is defined as non-related resident. Why is this counted?

The Census hired a bunch of people that can no longer do what they were supposed to do, because of quarantine. What were they supposed to do anyway? The form is online. I was mailed multiple notifications that it was required that I participate. The only option I saw was to login to a website. I get that not everyone has online access. But, now what?

Happy April Fools Day or is it Census Day?

March 18, 2020 – Life under quarantine: Day 3

March 18, 2020 /

Life for the last couple of days has been different. I would say that it has been difficult, but that is not true… it is time for a new normal. We are fortunate in that preparedness is our lifestyle so our pantry is full. I love to cook so I frequently go the grocery store to pick-up items for more exotic/lavish meals. That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use the basics or substitute or modify accordingly.

In our area, school has been closed until April 28. I am not the biggest fan of our education system, in fact I think that we can do a lot better. However, we have a big problem. We have hosted an exchange student from Spain since August. Now that the remainder of the school year is up in the air, his program has decided to end prematurely and they are recommending all students return home.

It is more like ‘Peace Out – good luck if you want to stay cause we are out of here’. There is a program release form that we must fill out today if our student is staying, otherwise he needs a flight back to Spain. Most exchange students are leaving and our coordinator is worried that re-entry may be months delayed if he doesn’t leave immediately. But the short of it is that they are dropping all liability after today.

The problem is that if this academic year is not considered complete by Spain, that he may have to re-take his Junior year. We don’t really want him to leave pre-maturely but I understand the geo-politics and if we are stuck at home for six weeks anyway it could be quite difficult. My initial reaction was wait and see but that is when school was only out until April 1.

We are fortunate again in that my wife already worked three days a week from home. Now that has shifted to full time at home until the end of April. But, with everyone at home unexpectedly it is a difficult environment to be focused, let alone productive. I have been intrigued by the concept of un-schooling, self directed learning and goal setting. I am looking at opportunities to incorporate this downtime into something positive for the kids and family as a whole.

Quarantine in our current practice means limiting non-essential interaction. So, no friends or social gatherings or extra cirricular activities like church, boy scouts or trap team. We also cannot take advantage of this time for travel or site-seeing. What we are doing is family games and movies after the work day. In our climate, spring can be pretty iffy. Right now it is beautiful and time to do garden prep and walks around town. I think that we will try to get out into local nature during the workday to give my wife some quiet time.

I will probably be putting some effort into project oriented learning for the kids, more on that in a later post. For now, remember that there will be life after this so take note on what works and what is lacking so that during the summertime you can make adjustments to prevent this from being a difficult time in the future.

March 13, 2020 – Follow up on politics

March 13, 2020 /

Remember back on February 26, I wrote about how things will happen whether we get wrapped up in them or not? Well guess what? Since the legislature was dismissed and the cap and trade bill could not be passed, the Governor has decided to accomplish it through administrative regulation.

For all those people who were worried about this bill being passed, fear not. This is the kind of state that we now live in. So, you can protest, write your representatives, post on social media and so on but you are much better off doing something better with your life than worrying about politics.

February 26, 2020 – The rise of political idiocy and why you shouldn’t care

February 26, 2020 /

I still pay for the newspaper, I have always read the newspaper. Even when I was in grade school, I would look forward to the afternoon delivery. In college, I subscribed to the daily newspaper. When I was living in South Carolina, I was getting two newspapers because the local one only came twice a week. I wanted to see what was happening, I like the feel, I like the coalition of advertisements and I particularly think it is the best aggregator of local news.

That being said, when I woke up on Tuesday, I saw two headlines. The first one was “GOP senators walk out again” and the second one was “Trump piñata draws ire of far-right”. I read the articles and I did a lot of thinking yesterday – which is partly why I didn’t get a post in. I was thinking that this might warrant a more proper essay than a blog post.

I took a lot of notes and did quite a bit of research yesterday, but I think that this post will be a bit more succinct. Let me try to explain the situation of the walk-out first. Oregon requires a quorum in the senate to be able to vote on bills. Our senate has one short of a super-majority of democrats which means that legislation tends to pass in block form by party line. Oregon is also a part-time legislature, which means that there is a year session and there is a one month session the second year.

What is happening is that there is a set of bills that the democrat party is trying to pass which is related to ‘Cap and Trade’. This means that each entity (business, person or otherwise) is allowed by law some sort of carbon emissions maximum. If that is exceeded then you are taxed in an excise fashion for the overage and there is an offset where you can pay to plant trees to mitigate your excessive carbon.

The republicans have literally left the state (enforceable jurisdiction) to prevent a quorum from occurring and thus passing the legislation. This tactic was also used at the end of the full year session in 2019. There was a lot of name calling, threats of arrest etc, to the point where one local senator was barred from entering the capitol and he subsequently apologized. He was dismissed from this particular vote by the senate president.

There has been a lot of sword rattling from the governor Kate Brown stating “The Senate Republicans who walked out of the house are not against climate policy, they are against the democratic process”. Which to some degree is true, I suspect that this tactic will be used again given now that this is the second time this has been done in the last year.

The Statesman Journal states Democrats “have been given a mandate by a majority of voters to pursue climate change”. Here is where I think things are going off the rails and where history, demographics, geography all intersect.

The second headline was about a local bar setting up a piñata of Trump on Presidents day and running a theme entitled ‘Not My President’s Day’. Once local conservatives found out they started writing fake reviews in order to tank the overall rating of the bar and now both sides are mad about the situation.

The history lesson and deeper conclusions needs to wait for another post. For now, lets talk about a couple issues. One is that since the 1990’s Oregon is now a state where politics are completely controlled by the Democratic party. So, no matter how you vote, it doesn’t matter. The majority is becoming increasingly emboldened and radicalized. The riots over a Wallstreet, the dually elected president, the destiny comments, etc. are telltale signs of the future direction of the state.

There is a theory that getting caught up in the political dichotomy by picking one side or the other fuels the rise of extremism. By spending your time defending one sides actions over the other allows both sides to manipulate the population as a whole.

The use of the term Fascist gets thrown around all to often. The term has been propagandized and applied far beyond what is reasonable. We have the tools to change our government, but we don’t have the will or the desire because we live in the political dichotomy.

By far and large, we probably agree on more items than we disagree. Within my circle of associates, I am sure that we would disagree vehemently on political items. Heck, even my wife are opposites. But, there is very little I can do to change what is happening in Salem or Washington DC. And truthfully, there is very little the president or the governor have done to change my life.

One things for sure, this government does not reflect my values and we sure aren’t getting closer to more freedom. Those are the things that are important to me. So, I will move on to bigger and better things.