This is a special Saturday edition. Where were you when the world stopped turning? This is twentieth anniversary of 9/11.
Did you know that Alan Jackson wrote this song on September 12? While this is probably not the best song he ever wrote, you can tell that it is really heartfelt and focused on the good in life. This is what Glenn Beck called the 9/12 people. We hurt, we cared, we did what we could where we could do it and it didn’t matter our politics or persuasion.
I will never forget the image of people jumping out of the tower rather than possibly being burned or crushed to death. I see the front page of the Charlotte Observer with that picture on it every time I think about 9/11.
As I am solidly in middle age now, more and more of the population demographic is shifting from 9/11 being a seminal moment to a historical event. What I lament the most is not the event but the consequences. What I mean is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the military conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Patriot Act, etc. People don’t even realize the damage to freedom that has been done in the name of security.
End Your Programming Routine: I don’t want to get overtly political today. I encourage you to remember when and be the person that you were September 12. The one that feels the loss, not vengeful and blinded by rage. Be the one that doesn’t need to solve the ‘problem’ but is in the moment for a little while.
I am going to talk about a subject that I don’t think I have ever talked about, fishing. When I was in my late teens, I thought that I wanted to try and go fishing once a month throughout the year. That ship has long sailed and this is the first time that I have actually gotten out in probably three years.
So, what is my favorite kind of fishing? The answer is the one that I can do. My first pole was one that my great grandfather gave to me. I still have it, but it has been retired since I have broken the tip multiple times. He died before I was born, my dad said that he was really excited about it and wanted me to have this fishing pole. I still have and use the Mitchell 300 that was put on it when I was about 6.
My first fish was pretty fuzzy but I was young somewhere around three. I remember running around that I got one on a family camping trip to Crescent Lake. As youth, we used to fish the summer salmon run at least once a year. There was also typically a Memorial day outing at Green Peter reservoir for kokanee. My dad usually caught more even though we were using the same rigging.
I have never drifted away from my love of fishing. I guess that you might say that I reprioritized other things above it. I always feel a little guilty about just leaving for a Saturday all day when there are always so many things to do. In my last job, I organized a ‘lunch time fishing’ outing to one of three close ponds (within 10 mins of the office). I would probably do it once a month when the weather was agreeable. I always said that anyone could do it, just say ‘I am doing this, this date, this time’ and go but no one ever did even though I usually got between 5-8 people every time I did it.
One of the activities that we did while my wife was in Texas was to go on a quick one hour (of) fishing trip. It was a pond that I used to go to when I was a kid from time to time. My brother and I could ride our bikes in about 15 minutes and get to it. The pond is stocked and heavily fished in the spring. I like to go when no one is there and I don’t care about keeping the fish, just the activity. It’s nice to catch a few sunfish just for fun.
We didn’t do it a lot, but every two or three years maybe my father-in-law and a few family or friends would take a rock fish/crab charter. Often, we would end the trip with a fish fry and crab boil with everyone from the family at the coast. Sometimes it was for Father’s Day or during birthday week. That night, it was a good get out and enjoy nature a little bit.
This was another activity that we did to bring a little more healing to us. Aside for the mosquito bites a few days later, it is definitely on the to-do again list.
End Your Programming Routine: There are a number of ponds and rivers within thirty minutes. There really isn’t a good excuse to not take an hour occasionally in the evenings. Like I said, I usually don’t plan to bring anything home. It is just some quiet time.
There is no uncertainty in my mind about what I am going to write about today. That is my father-in-law, Frank Ojeda Jr. He died last night as a result of pneumonia. No politics or strong opinions today, just a eulogy. Most people probably wouldn’t care to hear stories about someone that they don’t know but I think that there can be some lessons.
We have so many pictures, I am sure that we will be digging through them in the coming weeks, these were some of the first ones I found.
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How does one go about writing about someone when they pass on? I used to be the kind of person that wanted to grieve silently. Now I am the kind of person that likes to share how I felt. I guess that helps me justify my emotions in the first place. I guess I will begin at the end and then jump around from there.
For nearly as long as I have known Frank, health has been a background theme. I think that he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes about the time my wife and I graduated college twenty four years ago. Six years ago, Frank received a kidney from his sister Gloria. That all was going fine but in some ways, I feel like we have been on borrowed time with him.
He had a big heart. Being in a family of twelve kids, family was the primary activity in life. He was the first person people would call if they wanted or needed something, be it a favor or money. I am not kidding that this family is so large that we have a difficult time getting together because we need a venue for the size of a wedding. The in-laws side is nearly as large as well.
Then, he had his own kids and grandkids. Frank liked to do as most grandparents do and create chaos for their parents. One time he drove six hours with my son to buy a go cart. I didn’t even know that was happening until I got home from work. And, the go-cart is still sitting in my driveway. He was always there with a job for them to do or a fundraiser.
After the kids were out of the house, Frank got big into umpiring softball. Sometimes we would go to softball games and watch two teams that we had no affiliation with just to see him umpire a game. There were several father’s days where that was the case for sure. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue that passion as he lost some sight due to complications with diabetes. These were mostly high school girls teams, but he could command a presence dealing with unruly fans and coaches.
I’ll tell you that Frank could tell some stories. He was always able to come up with campfire/bedtime/ghost stories at the drop of a hat. A lot of the time he claimed that they were real. I am not saying they weren’t but I don’t think I have led a life that is half as exciting. Here a couple headlines Evading a Tornado, Softball Game Ends in Team Fistfight, Followed Home by a Cow at Night and Hitchhiking to California as a Teenager.
Frank shared something special with my son Elijah. They both had birthdays on July 26. For 15 years, he has been getting the short end of our birthday parties as they have tended to be focused on Elijah. We just came out of birthday week, but for the longest time it was July 24-28 for four generations of birthdays at one setting.
When my wife and I first met, she described him as the kind of guy that ex-boyfriends would come over to talk to. Trying to put myself in that position, I don’t know if I would quite go that far but kind and empathetic would be good descriptors.
He liked cars, food, 60s-80s music, naps, TV, sports and most of all being around family. I learned a lot from Frank not so much on the hard skills side, but the soft side. I won’t say that everything was good or worked but I could see some of the techniques he used and go from there.
End Your Programming Routine: My sadness today is really for my wife and kids. There is that don’t tell mom and dad bond I know I had with my grandparents. And for my wife, he was the peacemaker and patriarch of the larger family. I am going to miss a role model for giving and compassion which are areas that are difficult for me. We have a bit of a road ahead.
I don’t have a good grasp on where I am going this week for a lot of reasons that I am not going to get completely into here. A part of it was that was that I have been working late and getting up early (for my job). I also worked all day Saturday and a half day Sunday. And when I wasn’t working I was gone for various social commitments. That always sort of fogs up whatever I want to accomplish here.
A few weeks back, I mentioned that I was experimenting with Linux. I solved my problem with why Unbuntu wasn’t loading. That was because I downloaded a 64 bit version and I was trying to launch it on 32bit hardware. After very little research, I saw that Linux Mint was still a recommended 32bit version and so I downloaded that. Low and behold, it worked. I could launch Linux from a thumb drive on my old (2005) computer.
Part of the reason that I wanted to mess around with this machine and Linux was to see if keeping this currently working computer was worth the space it was taking. Twice, I have pulled this machine out of the Tecnho-Junk (recycling) pile. To carry this experiment a little further, I decided to do a small upgrade. I wanted to spend as little as possible but improve the 2GB of RAM and 7GB of remaining hard drive space to give it the best chance of evaluation. So, I spent $30 for 4GB of Ram and a 320 GB hard-drive. I figured the worst cast scenario is that I could use the hard drive in my other computer as a backup, so I only risked $10 for the RAM which I may not have needed anyway.
Through some research, I learned that the most RAM a 32bit system could utilize was 4GB. I also learned that the difference between XP Home and Professional was that Home was 32bit and Professional was 64bit. Therefore, the hardware that was put in the box when it was built was the limiting factor. Even though I had four slots for RAM, My machine was only utilizing 3GB. It seems like another limitation that I have is that I can’t utilize the max amount anyway.
Next I had to decide what to do with the new hard drive. I wanted the dual boot option to go into XP or Linux. Maybe it was the price or I was just ignorant it had been a long time since I ordered a hard drive. I ordered an IDE hard drive instead of an ATA hard drive. I had to scratch my head with Master/Slave jumpers and cable position conundrum (It has probably been 15 years since I dealt with that stuff).
People newer to this arena have no idea how much easier it is than it used to be. After getting the drive physically configured to work, the drive needs to be formatted so that it can get software installed. In XP, that required putting the operating system CD in. In my case, my disk was SP2 and my computer was running SP3 so of course the CD would not read and home edition didn’t have a built in ‘repair’ option on boot up. Fortunately, my XP was working so I was able to format the drive from XP.
Once the hard-drive was formatted, then I could install Linux from the USB drive. My first problem was trying to figure out how to partition the hard drive in Linux. It supposedly works in NTSB format but it wanted to use EXT4 format. I muddled my way through that and then I was on to installing Mint which went pretty smoothly.
After I got everything installed. There were about 20 operating system updates that I could run, which I did.
So… It works and it is not too slow. So far, what I have noticed is that things are slightly different than Windows. Not a lot, but enough that I don’t know what I am doing. For instance, HP doesn’t directly make any printer drivers and my printer is supposedly compatible. But I can’t (yet) figure out how to find the printer on the network and get it to print even though I have the IP address. It seems like the hardliners are into command based help which is all foreign to me as well so I get lost in all of the vocabulary
End Your Programming Routine: I have also noticed that some of the software I run like Myki password manager is 64 bit only. There may come some limitations with the age of the hardware that it might not make sense to keep this thing around eventually. But I am going to keep messing around with it for the heck of it for now
It has been quite a while since I have had one. Of course a lot of it was the lack of having a weekend (or job). Then with all of the social restrictions over the last year we just didn’t get a chance to have one. We made up for it.
It was kind of a belated family gathering because we didn’t get together for Christmas. We all had different things going on and just couldn’t quite swing it to make it work. My sister was the one that suggested we get together for a trip and that is what we did.
We spent the weekend at the house my brother-in-law’s family has owned since the 1940s. It seems like this area is a well known secret as we only a mile or so from Bill Gates’ and the Nordstroms’ homes. This is the water of ultimately the Pacific Ocean, in Washington. My mind is blown. I could never imagine anything like this on the Oregon coastline.
We left Thursday as soon as the my kids got home from the last day of school, around 1:30p and got back Sunday night at 10:15p . I am in full on hangover as we still have to unpack from our trip and get ready for softball tonight.
End Your Programming Routine: Welcome to summer; this is how things have gone in recent years. There is a lot more coming. I am going to try and recover for a couple of hours.
This is one of those days that has changed in my lifetime. I suppose that with the rise of Latino culture in my area, there has become more awareness of the culture in general. I would equate it more to Saint Patrick’s Day where people are enjoying something that they have no idea what it is about.
Ask a typical American what is Cinco de Mayo and there is a good chance they are going to say Mexican Independence Day which is wrong. Mexican independence is September 16 Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of a victory against the French at Puebla in 1962. Huh, so what so important about that? Good question, not a lot. My wife who has lived in Mexico says that it really isn’t acknowledged as a holiday.
You can read all about it if you like, but now that you know the truth what are you going to do? I say enjoy it. I love Mexican food and the weather is (often) nice. Crack a cold one or two and start to get educated the real history.
Now that I have given permission to enjoy, let’s get serious. Mexican food is way (and I mean way) more diverse than tacos and Coronas. Just like the United States, Mexico is an infusion of culture primarily German, French, Spanish and native. For instance, my favorite Mexican beer is Dos Equis Amber which is an example of a Vienna style lager. In fact, all of the ‘brown’ beers like Negro Modelo are take-offs of the Vienna style lager. We all know about the Margarita (lime and tequila) but what about the Paloma which is grapefruit juice and tequila?
I am going to transition from drinks to food now but I was trying to give some recognizable difference to show what is under the surface but probably not known. So, food… who doesn’t love nachos? But what we think of as Mexican food is colored by a number of factors. First let’s start at a high level history of the food.
The basis of the food is the indigenous base. That means that it is different depending on the location. For instance, food is different in the southern region than it is in the northern and the inner regions differ from the coast. Because of the long history of different indigenous cultures, every state (in Mexco) often has variation of the same dish. It had to do with the spices and raw ingredients available. To the tortilla, wheat is from the north and corn is the most ubiquitous. It is also why I consider pairing wheat with beef but more often corn with everything else.
You take the base (or real) Mexican food and you start mixing food from other countries like France and you end up with very intricate and refined food. Sauces such as mole are extremely complicated and rich in flavor. Don’t be fooled with the restaurant mole, this can be highly refined and delicious. I would submit that Mexican food can be fine dining and held up against anything else in the world or dressed down to street food.
As food and culture migrate, so does the interpretation. Frequently what we see as ‘Mexican’ food has been coopted into Tex-Mex and American tastes. It is kind of like when I had a hamburger or pizza in China, close but not right. Our typical rice, beans, entrée plate has become what is synonymous with Mexican food but it runs much deeper than that.
End Your Programming Routine: Enjoy Cinco de Mayo. I haven’t decided what is for dinner yet, but it is either going to be ceviche (not originally Mexican but already made) or some fresh made chorizo (Spanish origin) I bought yesterday. Take the time to be educated in history and culture so that you make your celebration about the right things like just having fun rather than thinking you are some culturally sensitive, woke dumbass.
I am not going to go on about the cost of materials. I will say that plywood has gone up 20% in the last month; other building materials as well. I found a good deal at the local ‘discount’ building materials location. This is 3/4″ MDO overlay plywood. It couldn’t be more perfect for my application since I am not planning on putting a finished floor, I am running out of headroom.
I have a few things I can do before buying materials again but my next major move is to buy framing lumber. I can start prepping my door for painting and cutting to size. I am also planning on removing the insulation around the duct work in favor of a more attractive solution like rigid foam. I can also start working on the rough wiring as well.
Today is going to be quick with some pictures of progress. I am moving slowly because I am trying to buy materials as I need them. I am also spending one to two hours a day working on the project, as soon as work ends usually.
Today we have some science you can get in to. My wife recently purchased the Brumate can cooler. The nice thing about this product is that it can hold either a 12oz or 16oz can. She already had the Yeti and we know that it works pretty well.
My problem is that I never have a drink that sits around long enough to get warm, but that is OK because we are doing this for science. How did they work? The initial check was straight out of the refrigerator.
Immediately, the uninsulated can was 45 degrees while the other two were 43 degrees F. After thirty minutes, the temperature was measured again.
This time, the uninsulated can was 49, the Yeti was still 43 and the Brumate was 46 degreed F. Clearly the Yeti was the winner of this quick test.
There are a few discussion points with my ‘science’. The first being why was the uninsulated can warmer than the other two? Could it be that it initially started out warmer and that not everything was in equilibrium in the refrigerator? That was a point that was not controlled or measured.
Second, what makes the Yeti better? I am not totally sure, but in order to allow the Brumate to hold both 12oz and 16oz cans there is a spacer that is inserted into the vessel. The spacer is filled with water and during this test the spacer was at room temperature. Therefore, there is a warmer mass inside the vessel potentially causing the can to warm faster. To be fair, I read on the website this morning that spacer can be frozen, which may make it perform the same or better over a longer duration.
The science is not settled, but the results were enjoyable. A Prost!
I have been on a slug of work days. It is really difficult to do anything other than work on those days. Today I got up a little early for some reason and so I have a few minutes to check in and see if everything is working.
A real quick topic I have been thinking about is enjoying the season. Truthfully, I have never put much stock into enjoying Winter. With our climate it is gray and damp. Well this year, I have been out in it. Here are some things I have noticed.
It is not actually as wet as I thought. Yes, it is not totally pleasant but in general, I would say that more than three quarters of my days have been dry. I know this well because I have to bag packages when it is raining and there is no cover. I just haven’t had to do that often.
I never noticed how late the sun rose in the Winter. I am acutely aware of sunset and the lack of daylight on the back end. In the shortest days of the year, we didn’t have a sunrise until almost eight o’clock. That is something I never noticed.
The difference in the relative humidity. We have wet and humid, that feels cold. We can have not wet and dry, that also feels cold. We also have some warm. One day it was 60 degrees in January (and of course raining like a monsoon).
Today I am expecting rain on my route. That will be the first time in probably three weeks that was the case. Not something I really expected.
Wednesday I am planning to start in on 1984. See you then.
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