Category: Opinion

May 15, 2025 – The Luck of the Draw

May 15, 2025 /

It definitely remains a fact that we had a great experience while hosting an exchange student in 2019-20. We have subsequently been to Spain as a family and in a few weeks we are hosting his family here. I don’t know how many times we will go back and forth here but I am sure that the invitation is open for years to come. In a chance of fate, our former student will meet our current student in June.

It is also no secret that my son was an exchange student last year. One thing the Rotary strongly encourages is a one for one exchange meaning that we are on the short list to host given that our child was in the program. Due to many extenuating circumstances, including cancer we did not host last year.

One of the things that we have been wary about is that not every exchange experience is a good one. I have stories, trust me. I won’t go into at this time. But, then sometimes you have to take a chance. We did and it has been another good one.

For the sake of privacy, I won’t use his name or show his face. I will call him David as an alias. The photo above is on the way to prom. His date is a class mate that they have several interactions a day with.

It is weird from the standpoint that I have a high school Senior that chose not to go to the prom and then I have an exchange student that really wanted to go. Here I am being a father to a kid that I really don’t know that well. He was dealing with emotions and things that I am not really the best with and nobody else to really get advice from. My wife was in Las Vegas for a girls week, I was all alone in this.

Apparently, there is a little bit of a spark between the two. The first time I heard her name was several weeks earlier from another teenager when they were talking amongst themselves. David decided to go for it. But, he was extremely nervous. He didn’t sleep at night. He called his parents for more advice and then the next day she wasn’t at school. All that played over again and she said yes the day after.

David was on cloud nine. That night he was running around the house yelling and throwing his shirt around. He even poured himself a glass of milk, set it down and jumped up and down promptly spilling his milk (Sshhh… mom doesn’t know, we cleaned it up).

Trying to communicate courting norms to a person that does not speak the language perfectly is challenging. For instance, it is customary to match your accessories to the dress. Not knowing the young lady, we had to rely on him to interpret our message and communicate with her to get this ironed out. It was also very late into the game so we had two days to get the flowers ordered. And because he was gone the rest of the week on a Rotary trip, I had to pick up the flowers and go get David early so that he could get back to prom on time.

There were a number of other things that we had to work our way through to make prom happen. That being said, we did it and he was happy, very happy. Truth be told, I am glad that everything went right and I feel more appreciated by someone that was grateful for the kind of help that we provided. Had it been my own kids, I would have definitely expected some kind of attitude to go along with the preparation. I have a feeling that they would have wanted me to pay for everything and stay out of the rest.

Prom aside, David has taken to doing something that I would consider odd. If I see him when he leaves to go somewhere, he walks out the door saying ‘Love You’. The first time I heard it, I was taken aback. Part of me wonders if he knows what he is saying or at least the context. My boys don’t do that so that makes me wonder if he really does know what he is saying.

It really did get me thinking about things. To host an exchange student really does require a love. It is of course not a romantic love and it is not really an unconditional love that children get. But it is a love a kid that is totally vulnerable and largely alone navigating a foreign land out of faith alone that some people are looking out for his best interest. I have to say that it is totally humbling.

End Your Programming Routine: There is no doubt that we are on the hosting hot sheet. I always imagined that that hosting was a family activity with kids in the home. But, the truth of the matter is that most Rotary hosts are empty nesters. It would seem a little strange to me given that all of my exchange experiences have been with minors in the home but maybe that is what keeps us young. I know that we will probably take a break but I wouldn’t be surprised that this isn’t the last.

May 14, 2025 – What the F*** is a Neo-Con?

May 14, 2025 /

One of the podcast in my feed is The Dangerous History Podcast. The host has an unholy obsession with certain figures like Woodrow Wilson but then he also stumbles into some real jewels as well. This episode is one of those. I never even knew that neo-conservative was a thing until I listened to this.

For sure, it is a thing. Wikipedia has an in-depth article that lays it all out. Neo means new and Con is short for conservative. As the story goes, neo-cons originated from the left side of the political spectrum that splintered off from the mainstream left over disapproval of counter-culture and a very hawkish stance on foreign policy in the 1960s. Think JFK/LBJ and the escalation of Vietnam.

There are a couple of other key identifiers of neo-cons. The movement was started by former World War II OSS operatives that have exclusive, educational pedigree. This would be people none other than the likes of George HW Bush. If you follow my work, then you will be familiar with my generational analysis and how the GI generation remained in power until the early 1990s. This means that the neo-neocons are the new neo-cons since there are not too many WWII generation people around, let alone in power.

Ep. 280: Don’t Be Neo-Neoconned! (Thoughts on the Dave Smith/Douglas Murray Debate)

I have to hand it to CJ. This is some of his best work (that I have heard at least). I do think that it is worth a listen, but I must warn that it is almost four hours long. It is also very detailed and so you might find yourself lost if you are not sharp on mid-century politics and history as well as political science definitions.

If you want to know about the term ‘deep state’, this is a good place to start. CJ does a good job linking the institutions to the administrations. In some cases they are one and the same (GHW Bush) while in others they are a series of stair steps of succession. But generally speaking, the deep state are shadow organizations that fluidly move and interact with the ruling political groups.

The neo-con heyday was post WWII through the Vietnam era. Pure public pressure unseated their influence temporarily (Ford/Carter) but to be restored via Reagan. Reagan was not specifically but his VP GHW Bush was. They retooled and continued their reign through Obama. While the name contains the term conservative, it is important to know that this is not a left/right descriptor.

Many socialist leaning thinkers have solidly adopted the idea of the neo-con. Think about it, if you have the balls to think that you know better than society of the social order and economics issues, why wouldn’t that be the same with foreign policy? Really Clinton, GW Bush and Obama were all neo-cons. All you have to do is look at the historical actions to know.

In my mind, neither Biden nor Trump were not a neo-cons. However, the president does not necessarily have to be if he turns over actions to others that are. So while I would say that Trump is not a neo-con, we will have to wait and see how all of this plays out because Ukraine, Gaza, Iran/Huthis are all sort of teetering on the brink of meddling foreign affairs. While the individual may not be neoconservatism, the legacy certainly might (Biden).

This is a deep and complicated topic. In my mind, this completely explains why GW Bush’s presidency was one of the worst in the two term era. That is not an endorsement of Clinton or Obama but to say the campaign promises and party platform seemed to have no influence whatsoever on the actions once in office. At least we knew that Obama was a race baiter when he was campaigning.

Why is this important? I will tell you why and it comes down to this. Candidates outwardly label themselves in one ideology or another. We think that allows us to process their beliefs and actions. Neoconservatism does not side with Republican or Democrat. It also doesn’t distinguish any sort of domestic economic policy other than to say that if America is top dog internationally, that will work itself out economically. Consequently, it really doesn’t matter which party is in power.

Trump is a disrupter and not a neo-con because he comes from the outside. As much noise that has been made about tariffs and DOGE, very little is different. Neo-cons do not want a Gaza paradise, they are more interested in continuous war. This benefits the military industrial complex and provides the smoke screen for test operations, weapons and political scape goats. This by no means means that we are safe. Rubio is a neo-con and so don’t be surprised if by the end of his term we collectively feel like another dose of the same.

I would say this, the people that have Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) would do well to cast this aside. If they want a real outsider to break the stranglehold of the deep state, this is the best chance there has been in my lifetime. An economic win in Ukraine to end the conflict certainly benefits both sides and is very anti neo-con. I cannot eloquate how ignorant fighting against him solidifies the status quo. That my friends is by design of the deep state, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the missing link for me. This is what I have not understood about US politics in my entire life. It is the reason that both parties are the same and it is a large reason why I have given up on election hope. Even if we elect a non neo-con, there is no guarantee that a neo-con won’t be installed in an influential position. In fact, it would be highly likely that we will get one especially because we cannot seem to see the forest from the trees.

May 8, 2025 – When Did Printers Start to Suck?

May 8, 2025 /

I am in a rare mood where I am pissed off. It starts with the high school moving graduation from the high school football field to the local college football field. Last fall, the school district tried to push a vague bond measure that would have included funding to replace the 13 year old turf. Of course, they wanted something like 50 million dollars to study replacing a grade school and some other things but more of it was just not specific. It went down in a ball of flames, as it should.

Miraculously, the district found the funding for the turf and it got installed at the beginning of the year. The district now claims that the surface is not ready to be used in time for graduation. Never mind the fact that they have been sticking javelins in it all track season. Fortunately, we have a NCAA Division II university in town and they graciously agreed to host graduation for a small fee of $5000.

It gets better. Graduation at the high school was open for all. I am hearing from teachers that it is going to be restricted to eight guests. I guess that they are going to spring this on us at the last minute. But there is a cherry on top. Those grad announcements that we paid a princely sum ($3 ea,) for in the fall are printed with all the details at the high school.

The announcements were black. My wife wanted to just cross out all of the details using a Sharpie. I tried one and it looked like crap. Since we were going to print inserts anyway for the graduation party details, I suggested that we print labels instead and cover the erroneous text. I took careful measurements to see what label available would be the perfect fit. I found one that was available at a local office supply store.

Time to print up some samples. I wanted the right font, the right words and it had to fit in the label space. I have done some label printing over the years. I used to run a lab where we would print shipping labels daily so I am aware of some of the finicky-ness of the process. I printed some samples on paper and life was fine.

Printing seems to be a constant problem in this house. Not with me but everyone else. Most of it has to do with being on the wrong network. You have to be on the same network as the printer to print. My wife who keeps her phone on the IOT network so that she can fiddle with the robot vacuum daily claims that she has lost the ability to print. No, you have to have your phone the right network. As a result, she e-mails me stuff to print all the time.

If it is not being on the wrong network, then the ink cartridges get crusted up. This means that the quality of print is poor. I have taken to buying generic cartridges mostly because they just do not remain viable and they cost so much relative to how much we actually print.

As soon as those elements are figured out, then somebody used all the paper. I have a smaller personal printer in the basement because my wife doesn’t want me or the kids randomly printing while she is working. But, it only holds twenty sheets of paper. Since we do so little printing, it is no big deal but the majority of the printing occurs on the smaller printer.

A new phenomenon has developed. For some reason, I have to reboot the computer each time I print because the spooler software gets stuck. I am more than sure it is a driver problem because this computer and printer have been paired for more than ten years and I never had this problem before. It has taken me several evenings to troubleshoot and figure this out.

I originally set this computer up as a user computer. So, my profile is not an administrator and I cannot reboot the print spooler. I have to log out and do those tasks as an administrator which is another pain in the butt. It makes me pan for the days that had the LPT1 connection.

Our first printer was a dot-matrix printer. We had to buy the paper from a computer store. A giant box pretty much lasted the life of the computer. Color is cool, print quality is much better, it is significantly faster than the old printer and we didn’t have phones that needed to print. But, I will tell you that it always printed.

End our Programming Routine: What has me stewing is that I am irritated at the school district and so anything that prolongs this process of getting these invitations completed just keeps rekindling my ire. When I get frustrated, sometimes I do a salty internet search to see what others are saying. I found lots of relatively recent forums commiserating my problems. It really does no good at all other than I feel better. I am going to give HP/Microsoft the benefit that they will get the driver situation figured out with time. Fortunately, we don’t print very much.

April 23, 2025 – The Anthem Of a Generation

April 23, 2025 /

Sometimes I get in a mood. It seems to be particularly on Fridays where I just want to listen to music and set the podcasts aside. I was thinking about the song Uninvited by Morrissette but I couldn’t remember the song name. So I started listening to the song catalog to figure out the right song. Of course I remember Hand In My Pocket but all of the sudden I wanted to hear it again.

Fresh off of the Fourth Turning and reading the lyrics of this song I realized why all of the sudden I liked it. It was the anthem of my generation. “One hand in my pocket, and the other one…” (doing something else). It was smack dab in the Generation X summer by a singer of the generation. In one way holding back and in another way moving on with what needs to be done.

I thought about picking and linking other songs for other generations. But, I am not sure that totally appropriate. I could certainly do that based on my opinion and impression of the generations. Then I thought about adding more songs that I think represent Generation X but then I thought why muddy the waters when I think this song just describes the generation.

Hand In My Pocket was never a song that when I heard it, I said “turn up the radio!” In fact if you would have asked me in 1995, I would have said that this is a ‘chick’ song. I would have been much more likely to crank up Tom Petty or Firehouse when it came on the radio. The music reminds me so much of the beat of Hootie and the Blowfish or Blues Traveler or even Beck in Loser. There were so many songs that had this pop-y, low key music.

I would call the 1980s more of Baby Boomer generation of music. There is a particular sound that when I hear it I say, that screams eighties. One song I like particularly is a-ha’s Take On Me. When I hear that song, my mind instantly goes back to what the eighties felt like. But, it doesn’t speak to my generation. There is no angst or uncertainty.

Don’t get me wrong, I could rattle off a whole list of songs from the 1980s that I think are great. But, I think that because we grew up with that kind of feel good, everything is alright music, it was a natural transition for Generation X to assume the culture mantle with music that more represented who we were.

I do think that the eighties sound influenced that 1990s music in two ways. In one way there was a whole Morissette/Hootie/Cranberries vibe in popular music that sounded very similar in the way that the 1980s sounded similar. But when I look at the top 100 songs of 1995 I see a lot of songs that shared other things in common. Coolio, TLC, Boys II Men was the shift of hip-hop assuming popular music. So the conformity of the sound was familiar but the divergence of the happy-go-lucky lyrics swung the other direction.

I know that I shifted over to primarily listening to country music at that point. I think the reason being is that hip-hop did not speak to me or my experiences. For that reason, I guess that I have to be careful labelling one song as a total overlay of a generation. But every population is a bell curve. College bound/educated, middle class seems like the peak of the bell to me for the time.

That was all great and all but 1995 was thirty years ago now. Looking forward I think we can still call Hand In My Pocket a generational anthem. As I have talked about multiple times in the Fourth Turning series, Generation X may be the generation that got skipped with the oldest Millennials now in their mid forties. In theory, Generation X should be solidly in charge now. But are they?

I see Generation X having one hand in their pockets and the other doing what needs to be done (for themselves). This is the very behavior that is going to let the Millennials assume leadership and supersede Generation X. And you know what? That suits me just fine.

End Your Programming Routine: I spent the day listening to all kinds of music that I pretty much forgot about while I was writing this. It is funny how a song can transform you back to a time and place. This song puts me squarely in my dorm room as a sophomore wondering what 2025 would look like:

[Verse 1]
I’m broke, but I’m happy
I’m poor, but I’m kind
I’m short, but I’m healthy, yeah
I’m high, but I’m grounded
I’m sane, but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost, but I’m hopeful, baby

[Verse 2]
I feel drunk, but I’m sober
I’m young, and I’m underpaid
I’m tired, but I’m working, yeah
I care, but I’m restless
I’m here, but I’m really gone
I’m wrong, and I’m sorry, baby

[Verse 3]
I’m free, but I’m focused
I’m green, but I’m wise
I’m hard, but I’m friendly, baby
I’m sad, but I’m laughing
I’m brave, but I’m chicken shit
I’m sick, but I’m pretty, baby

April 15, 2025 – It Can’t Be True, But It Is

April 15, 2025 /

Oregon is awash with idiocy. I am sorry to say but it is true. Because measure 114 has been tied up in court since 2022 and both the senate and the house have a Democrat supermajority there are now eight different bills that are going through to supplant measure 114, just in case.

I have been receiving notifications from both the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and Oregon Firearms Federation (OFF) to go to the capitol and show my indifference to the bills sometimes more than once a day. As if going there and holding a sign is going to stop this. My own neighbor, that claims to be pro-second amendment is going to vote for these bills to pass.

One theory that I heard the other day is that because gun control has been beaten so badly in most of the United States they are focusing their efforts in states that are the most receptive like Oregon, Washington and Colorado. I do have to say that as much as I see much of my second amendment getting written away, so far Oregon has nothing on the other two. It won’t be long.

It sure seems like this is the case when I look at the pro-second amendment advancements throughout the country. What is the drive for all of this gun control in the first place? In my opinion, it is the fictitious phenomenon that gun violence is increasing and that mass shooter events were created at Columbine.

The other day, I was reading the local newspaper and I saw this article saying that there was sniper fifty years ago. You can read the entire article in the picture below. I looked up the census information and saw that the population was 6,361 in 1970 and 8,530 in 1980. Presumably, the population was 7,500ish in 1975.

The reason I looked up the population is that Dallas is a small town today, I figured it was smaller fifty years ago. More than that, it was an active shooter in a small, homogeneous town twenty years before Columbine. I had never heard of it, probably because the shooter was not successful.

“If we could save one life…” is a phrase commonly uttered in these kind of political situations. But really? I could think of a lot of things to ban. What about airplane travel of any kind? How about eliminating the 0.08 blood alcohol limit? For that matter a lot of people die in car crashes, I think driving can be dangerous. People die skiing, mountain climbing, hiking and swimming. People literally kill themselves with their diet.

If we were serious about eliminating risk then there would be a whole lot of things no longer permitted. I think that it really comes down to all the things that I think are risky and don’t effect me should be eliminated. As an example, I believe that there certainly is a place for wolves in the landscape but when they are killing your livelihood then it is a different perspective. The best compromise I can think of would be that wolves should be allowed to exist and they should be allowed to be eliminated when causing damage.

It is an ecological fantasy to say that man does not effect the environment. It is also part of the same fantasy that man is not part of the environment. Self defense is a God given tenant that pre dates our country and goes back to the origin of our species. Firearms are the best tool for self-defense and codified in our American heritage; not a specific type or construction or even needs based. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it or whatever baggage you bring to the conversation.

I understand the pain of loss, especially when it is senseless or even innocent. My own 16 year old cousin committed suicide with his shotgun in 1994. It was hard on my young 19 year old psyche. We were relatively close and it changed our family forever. I have never blamed the firearm or the access to it. I blame the choice of the individual.

Would that have happened if the shotgun was locked up or not there at all? I don’t know. I don’t have an accounting of how the situation unfolded and the other circumstantial parameters. It doesn’t matter in the slightest because it doesn’t change the outcome. It also wouldn’t be addressed in this latest round of gun control bills. This was a common, pump action shotgun with bird shot setup and used for hunting. It was not a high capacity, rapid shooting, already possessed tool.

I am not for any further restrictions. If you told me that if enacting all of these bills I would be having a conversation with my cousin tomorrow I would still say no. Something tells me that a person in that kind of mindset would subject to other ills of life like drugs or even worse violence against others regardless of the means. There is something sick and psychotic about wanting to keep other’s tortured in their own life in the name of do-goodery. Besides, mental health is a conversation significantly deeper than a one day blog post.

End Your Programming Routine: When I declared that I was going to leave this state in November 2022, I did not fully consider the complications. I can see that this is not the state that I want it to be and I still do want to leave. It is just quite a bit more than just reacting to legislation. I am under no delusion that I can save this state and preserve my rights no matter what I do. Doing what I can means writing my thoughts down trying to persuade the world in my point of view. I doubt it will work but it is what I can do.

March 19, 2025 – Old Habits Die Hard

March 19, 2025 /

There have been a project going on right in front of my house. Because Main Street is also a state highway, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has been involved. We have been aware of the project for about 18 months when they sent out a nice mailer explaining what was going to happen.

This town is sidewalk poor. I don’t believe that sidewalks were required until relatively recently. As a result walking through neighborhoods are a patchwork of sidewalk and no sidewalk which makes me mostly walk on the road out of convenience. What sidewalks we do have are the primary paths to school. My house is on that path.

For the twenty years living here, we have had a crossing guard morning and afternoon when school is in session. ODOT decided that they were going to add a flashing light signal. Probably a good idea considering we have had multiple pedestrians hit over the years.

Unbeknownst to me, the state decided to add the new crosswalk signal on the other corner of the intersection, not in front of my house. It is fine by me. I think that they decided to do that because they put the bus stop on my side yard. This keeps the congestion a little more segregated. I was surprised because there was no sidewalk on that side of the road all the way down. They had to create a whole new sidewalk on the other side of the street.

The project is almost done. They still have not powered up the signal yet, I am not sure why. But a couple of weeks ago, I watched a machine scrape off the existing striping (our crossing). Then they painted new striping at the new crosswalk. Despite that the new crossing looks pretty much ready to go, the school crossing guard is still is using the old, unmarked crossing.

Part of me wonders if there will continue to be a crossing guard once the signal is active. There is no crossing guard when Main Street crosses US 99 at the traffic light. I feel like it is just habit that the crossing guard is using the old crosswalk. This is one of three crossings that are almost complete.

I went to look up the definition of habit. The very first result was something called Habit Burger. I have never heard of them, but apparently it is a national chain. The Webster definition is “an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary”. We usually talk about habits in terms of good and bad ones but there could some that are neither.

I think that you know the difference between good and bad habits so I don’t need to get too involved in all of that. I remember that from the time I was in high school until about ten years ago, I used to eat cereal each weekday morning. When we decided to go gluten free for a little while, I stopped eating cereal. Now, my kids eat it incessantly but I might have a bowl once every couple of months. Hooray for me.

But the older I get, the harder habits are to break. As an example, my podcasting habit. I have been listening to some podcasts since 2008. I almost feel guilty if I am not prioritizing keeping up and I will even do things so that I can do something while listening. I am not an idiot nor do I think that is particularly harmful but it does drive my behaviors daily.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t know that the city had an eight foot easement on our lot. I lost four rose bushes while they tore up and installed the utility vault and transformer for the new lights (also on our land). I am going to be glad when this project is over, it has been a bit of an inconvenience with parking and other things while they have had the street blocked. Hopefully, it will make things safer, if people can break the habit of the old crosswalk.

February 26, 2025 – The Leadership Fallacy

February 26, 2025 /

My first professional job was with a small company. We had less than fifty employees at the time that I was hired. It was a pretty good place to be, in fact my first boss told me that only one other person had left the company in thirty years of existence. Talk about loyalty. When I left, I struggled with whether this was the right thing to do considering nobody left. But, like the generational high to the awakening of the Fourth Turning theory, eventually everything must change.

After a couple of years at a large company, I was headed back to a small company where I was one of about twenty employees. I stayed as long as I could stand it and what I mean by that is that the company was bought and the dynamics were not the original deal that I signed up for. Clearly, I could name a list of flaws with every place I worked or I would still be employed there. But the places where I was most vested were the small companies.

Both of my small company experiences I rose consistently and relatively rapidly. I attributed this to my ‘leadership’ ability which originally came from my Boy Scout experience of my youth. I never seek to become a leader, it just seems to follow me as a result of disfunction and ineptitude. Eventually, I get to the point where I can see the obvious flaws and what I would do to fix the problems.

I had a epiphany a couple of weeks ago and this was that the term leadership is not what I have always believed it to be. My definition of leadership has always included ideas like competence, initiative and success. I know, I have been teasing this so here it is. Leaders are people that implement other’s ideas. Good leaders do it successfully.

Think about it, if it wasn’t someone else’s idea then you would be an entrepreneur and not a leader. For this reason, people that start their own business are rebelling against something. Maybe it is being managed, maybe it is to push your own idea versus someone else’s. But at the end of the day, starting your own business is a systematic rebellion.

In my professional world, the concept that everyone has to be a leader is pushed to the extreme. Now realizing my new definition, of course why wouldn’t they want that? Leadership is a homogenization concept. I would say that these companies benefit from beating the entrepreneurship out of their employees. An evangelical employee is the best circumstance possible.

Many, many years ago when I left my first job the sales manager said something to me that has always stuck. “The people that get you there are probably not the ones that take you to the next level”. I always took that to mean 1) it was OK to leave my job 2) my grievances against the company were not unheard but would not change and 3) just because I did good work turning things around doesn’t mean that I was destined to do my job forever. Since that job, I have learned that I am best at organizing mess rather than accelerating or optimizing it. I took solace in my decision to leave as well as I was doing the right thing.

It has taken me until today to accept that because I am a good leader that I probably won’t be a successful entrepreneur. This is because the mission is different. I don’t know why nor is it exactly what I wanted to be five years ago when I started AltF4 or had other dreams self-employment. But again, God has a plan for me. As much as I want to be the master of my destiny, I cannot say that the role I am destined to play is the one that I think I want.

End Your Programming Routine: With this inflection about the definition of leadership, I have come to understand is that leadership talent is not exclusive to one domain. What I mean by that is I don’t have to be a leader in just my job. I can be a leader in my church, community, the trap team, my son’s non-profit, my family, etc. There is not one place that I have exclusive control, nor should I when it comes to those entities. Let’s be honest, as much as I want to be an industrious and prosperous employee, in the game of life this only takes one so far. My life existed before my job and my job will exist after I have fulfilled the role. While I think I will always be a good leader, it is where those talents are employed that actually make a difference.

February 12, 2025 – And So Goes Change

February 12, 2025 /

You probably think that I am a sentimental sap. That may be true but I recently read that my old dorm complex is being torn down and I got a little sad. This is the place where I figuratively came of age. This is where I met my wife, this is where I made friends and where I learned that warm Old English 800 was terrible but it was fun anyway.

Demolition underway at SOU’s Cascade Complex – SOU News

By Friday noon the planning was already underway for the Friday night party. Who’s room, who was buying and when? A typically afternoon of anticipation involved watching SportsCenter after the girls watched their soap operas or playing touch football or intramural softball with the guys. After that it was Nintendo, forties and pass the pipe (if you were into that, me only a couple of times). Saturday morning was non-existent but waking up in the early afternoon started the cycle over again. You have to do that stuff when you are young, right?

Of course that was not all of my weekends, but a lot of them. The others were with my girlfriend. It was going out to local restaurants for breakfast or going to the mall in the nearby town. When at the dorm and not partying it was study time. A lot of days and nights working on math problems or chemistry problems with her on the bed watching TV.

The cafeteria was central to all of the halls in this complex. It was brand new in 1992 the year before I attended the school. We all called it ‘Butt Food’ for a nice, adoring nickname. Even though I primarily hung out with people from my dorm, the cafeteria was a meeting place for all students that lived on campus. It was infrequent where we didn’t meet another friend that was there at the same time.

After doing some reading, it appears that the new dorm complex was occupied in 2014. Not totally forgotten, classes for certain departments were held in the abandoned dorm complex while their particular buildings were being renovated. Science, Theater and Athletics have used the space in the interim. This is where the problems with maintenance costs began to surface. ‘If we are going to keep using this in this way, we really should…’

Tearing down the dorms seems like a permanent loss. It has been over thirty years since I called it my home but the fact that they are gone makes the memories fade that much faster. Every time we were in town, we would drive by to rekindle the old, very good memories. The tossing of keys out of the window so people could get in after hours, the times we lounged on the grass in the early spring sun even the ten minute parking limit that we had to rush to beat the ticket writer.

I live in a town with a sister college to Southern Oregon University. Since I have lived here twenty years, I have seen an amazing amount of change. A new athletic complex, student medical center and education building that has been built. The old education building has become ‘Student Success Center’ last year. The Oregon Police Academy used to be here, and now the math department has moved in. The Oregon Military Academy used to be here as well. That is now the ‘Student Welcome Center’. Since the pandemic years, it seems like they have gone crazy building empty buildings with less and less on-campus students.

I can say without a doubt that there has been more change here than at SOU because I am connected to both. Both are regional schools but here, at least half of the students are commuters. The population centers are completely different with half a million locally close versus 100,000 in southern Oregon. That is to say there are many more students on campus and in town in SOU with similar enrollment sizes.

The title is an homage to Kurt Vonnegut. As soon as someone got killed for doing something stupid or something completely random kills a soldier “And So It Goes” was his response. This isn’t random nor is it stupid but it does kill my memory.

End Your Programming Routine: The advantage of getting old is wisdom. I am not opposed to them being torn down as they have been vacant for over ten years. I am sure that they did not survive the digital revolution as there was no wiring for modern data service. As a taxpayer, maintenance and upkeep for sentimental purposes is a fools errand. Ultimately, I am just sad to witness the end of my era.

January 15, 2025 – Wildfire, Go Now!

January 15, 2025 /

It is hard for me to say that fires are getting worse or there is just so many more people in proximity to the wild fire boundaries. Of course, the usual suspects wasted no time assigning this fire to climate change and it is our retribution for our fossil fuel reliance. I say it is waaay more complicated than that.

Early indicators say that this is another fire triggered by high winds causing sparking transmission lines in an unkempt power right away. Now we have Paradise, Maui and almost assuredly the LA fires with the same cause and deadly results. The latest conventional wisdom says to prevent these fires, turn off the power before the transmission lines spark.

Why that was not done, I don’t know. If I were to speculate I would say that it was probably too inconvenient for the residents and a lot of loud mouth, wimps that are prevalent in Southern California. That being said, let us put further blame and speculation behind us. Wild fire is no joke and survival is not a political topic.

We are very familiar with wildfire in the west. It just so happens the our fire season correlates with the dry season July – September. Being fire ready in January seems very out of mind to me. But, I suppose that is altered reality of California; nothing ever seems real.

The first step in this is to survive. Yes, there are anecdotal stories of people staying behind in Paradise and hosing down their homes with garden hoses and ultimately saving them and surviving. However, eighty-four people didn’t survive that fire. I would venture to say that more people died than survived staying home. The best tactic is to leave.

I don’t know the details and therefore it would be presumptuous of me to say that I would have been ready to leave with everything that I needed. But house fire or wild fire have the same result, so a fire plan is in order for everyone. What is your prioritized list of things to grab if you have time? Do your vehicles have enough fuel (or range) to withstand hours worth of traffic? Is there even an exit route possible when vehicles clog the roads?

I highly doubt that that it is possible to develop a perfectly, flexible plan. But thought can be a head start to reduce panic and regret. Having an assembly point, a place to go, insurance and documentation can go a long way to evacuation peace of mind. Everyone talks about the regret of losing memories, but it is often times not practical to grab that stuff before you leave unless you keep them ready to go at all times. That also seems not very practical.

I like a prepared car and a go bag would be a pretty good idea as well. This way if it is flood or fire or a zombie hoard you have a few things to hold through. Some snacks, a change of clothes, some toiletries and a deck of cards and a refillable water bottle would make life a little more comfortable for a couple of hopeful days. Those things could be ready for any emergency and a moment’s notice.

End Your Programming Routine: We all say this ‘It’s just stuff’. I sure would hate to have to make that decision but I also understand that we are not taking it with us. From that standpoint, survival is paramount. I am a big proponent of leaving when the ‘Go Now’ is given. Fortunately, I live in a very low risk area for that sort of thing but that doesn’t mean that I cannot have a house fire. Mindset. That is the most important thing.

December 31, 2024 – Year In Review

December 31, 2024 /

It has been kind of a ho-hum year if I have to say so myself. I am going to look back at the AtF4 highlights or favorites today. One thing that kind of sticks out to me is that I think this has been the flattest year of AltF4 to date. It was a year of long book series, long running projects and fighting cancer. I went through the effort of looking back from my entire year to see what it is I did and what I liked.

  • January – I started out thinking I was going to build a wine cellar. First, I wanted to move the ducts.
  • March – It wasn’t sexy, but it was one of the best projects I should have done years ago. I finished raising the ducts into the stud bays.
  • April – Chemo started. I also started buying some radios. I got my GMRS license.
  • June – I started planning my PCT hike. I also started spotty walking in an effort to get into shape.
  • July – My wife had her stem cell transplant. I spent the entire month away from home.
  • August – I survived reading The Devine Comedy
  • October – Burn out is realized. I took a nice five day fishing vacation with my dad, uncle and brother.
  • November – Family trip to Montana for Thanksgiving. Who could forget the Election results as well.
  • December – The theme of this month was fatigue.

Of course, there is nothing more important than fighting for your life and the business that comes with it. As a result when I looked through the year, I felt like my writing was much more diverse and interesting in the first quarter of the year. It has gone steadily down hill since that time. I had a hard time even finding some highlights toward the end of the year.

Not every month got a mention in my summary because I didn’t see a post that I felt was remarkable or fully inspired for the month. I think that was a combination of my selection for what I was talking about and doing and my personal life. Long running works and little time made a diversity of topics scarce.

The trip to Montana was definitely one to remember. That being said, not everything is for sharing here. It also went by so fast and then we launched directly Christmas that it was hard to get any sort of rest as a result. I would say that I am starting the year at a deficit. I have a deficit of topics and plans going into 2025.

I can tell that because despite not posting for the entire last week, I am still struggling to get this out in time. I keep looking for that dose of Vitamin B and is going to turbo charge that feeling I was getting when I started this endeavor in 2019. Intuitively, I knew that the novelty of my series Pursuit of Happiness that I did in 2021 just has not materialized in the last year. I haven’t really even done any projects that I was proud of since I started the duct work.

I always like to look forward and not just back. Guess what? I think it is going to be another year of the same. Plans are moving forward for my hike which means that most of my spare time is going to be dedicated to training and practice. Things have basically slipped since Thanksgiving. I am hoping that the new year will finally clear up the social schedule (but probably not the weather).

We are also planning on hosting our (former) Spanish exchange student’s family for a week of Pacific Northwest touring June. So that will be a week of my vacation plus a week of hiking and I will be mostly tapped out for the year. We talked about travelling to Taiwan over Christmas but that has not been solidified.

End Your Programming Routine: Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself because despite how I feel about my creative output, it was a very successful year from a personal standpoint. My wife beat cancer, my oldest son beat the school system, my younger son beat his exchange and is on his way to his last year in school. That is something worthy of being happy about. So, let’s kick 2024 to the curb to hopefully find a better 2025.