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June 6, 2024 – Coincidence, I Think So

June 6, 2024 /

If you must know, I am starting this post the Friday before Memorial weekend. I am done with work and hiding out in my office while my wife has a message appointment. This was as fast as I could get to this because it is difficult to move things around once I have committed to a schedule. I think the information is really timeless but the irony is timebound. Hence I wrote the previous sentences.

I have had on my watchlist on Pluto for several months some well known documentaries. Those would be “Supersize Me”, “Food Inc.” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. Believe is or not, I sometimes get tired of having Podcasts run in the background as I work. Sometimes, I want to actually listen attentively and so I stop podcasts until I can dedicate time to pay attention.

Well, two days ago I turned on “Supersize Me” for the first time. I have been in tune with diet for many years. The main character’s name was Morgan Spurlock. He had a film where he only ate from McDonalds for thirty days straight. There were a couple easy rules, he could only Supersize the meal if they asked and he had to try everything on the menu at least once.

All the while, Spurlock was testing his metabolic panel as well as other exterior metrics like blood pressure and weight. There were very few surprises in the film but I would say one was that he gained 25 pounds in a month. I had no idea we could put on weight that fast. The other was increase in blood markers like triglycerides was scary fast. The third was that it took 14 months to lose most of the weight. Some of it never came off.

The irony was that I was checking a headline this afternoon and I saw another one that Morgan Spurlock died today at the age of 53. I had just gotten to know about him only to find out that he had terminal cancer. One has to wonder if some of his extreme behaviors like the “Supersize Me” movie sewed the seeds of disaster.

Way back in 2012 after my wife’s first cancer, I read the “Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf. I have this theory that all of her illnesses are related to her auto-immune problems. I also belive that auto-immune problems are diet triggered. So, we did it. It was part of our kick-off to running a half marathon at the age of 40.

Her psoriasis disappeared for years. I lost twenty pounds in a month. I think that she lost a little less than that. There is something clearly related to intake and health. I hate to say that we have subsequently degraded from strict paleo to a much more normal diet. And viola, problems come back again.

If it were strictly up to me, I would get rid of all of the junk food in this house. My view is that it is a treat, not a pantry item and should be eaten in moderation. My observation is that junk food constantly is eaten first until there is nothing left but food that has to be cooked. This goes on the list to be restocked next month if we can make it that long.

I am not perfect, I like to drink the beer that I make. I eat what we eat in moderation. But even moderation is too much as well. I have packed on more weight that I would like since I started working again. I am really not going to give advice here other than do your own research. I believe that Paleo is proper and healthy and I know a lot of people have metabolic data to prove it.

Back in my early thirties, I found out that I had high triglycerides. At that time, I thought that I was doing OK other than gaining some weight. When I really looked at my diet it was sugary cereal in the morning, a soft drink at dinner among other habits like that. I thought that was moderation at the time. I have cut most of that out since the Paleo experiment. I really do not have time to properly discuss the science of all of this. Suffice to say that I am not in my early thirties anymore.

End Your Programming Routine: I have worked amongst the food industry for many years. I have seen with my own eyes what these documentaries talk about. If there is one thing more nefarious than the food industry, it is the pharmaceutical industry. It is time to seriously consider health. Thanks Morgan Spurlock for reminding me what absent minded eating will do.

June 5, 2024 – What I Know About Scanners and a Lot I Don’t

June 5, 2024 /

Sometimes it is easier to troubleshoot with more than one device. When you have a reference for comparison, it can make a big difference. I have almost given up on the Software Defined Radio as a scanner. While I can tune in on simple GMRS frequencies, I have heard nothing on the emergency frequencies.

I decided to purchase a proper scanner. With that, I would have a second device to compare what is happening on the SDR with a reference. I think it was a steal of a deal on eBay at $68. I will talk about some of the things that I have learned about scanners.

It is true that you can buy a new scanner for a little over $100. The problem is that these devices are for analog signal only. This would be a good device to take to a NASCAR race but there is a whole world of technology out there.

Then there are digital radios. Those scanners start over $200. The more sophisticated departments are using trunked radios which means that they operate on more than one frequency for privacy purposes. These are about $500. Now, you can see why my eBay deal was so good.

This is the Realistic Pro-2052. It is actually made by Uniden and is a trunking scanner. It was clearly used. It is missing one of the feet to prop it up at an angle and didn’t come with an antenna. I bought one for $8 and plugged it in. Within 20 minutes, I heard my first ambulance call. I had the same frequency on the SDR for a week and didn’t hear a thing.

This scanner also has an RS-232 port on it. Auxiliary software can be purchased to do additional programming. For that reason, I added serial ports to my Linux computer. This is a whole realm of things that I have to figure out in my free time (I find it pretty easy to dream up things to do with all of my excessive free time).

I have had it running for a couple of days now. Nothing really exciting has happened. There have been a lot of calls for transport and lift assistance. That is pretty much what I expected for mid-week. It seems like the weekend get a little looser. I probably won’t be near the scanner much on the weekend unless I move it upstairs.

What I really need to do is read the manual. The scanner is programmed by whomever owned it last. I tend to push buttons until I get what I want. That is not really how it is intended to be used. You are supposed to bank up all these channels in groups and then let it run. Something else to do in my free time.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy to report that since I threatened the SDR with a real scanner, I started hearing the fire broadcasts. It seems to be that I wasn’t using the software properly. That is pretty neat because I now have two ways of listening. Don’t forget that one of the tenants of preparedness is ‘two is one’. This one being portable will be helpful to bring into the bunker during the apocalypse. 🙂

June 4, 2024 – Man, Americans Love Cheap TVs

June 4, 2024 /

I include myself in that statement as well. I have been looking for the final piece for my office and I found it at a second hand store a couple of weeks ago. It is a Panasonic 32″ LCD TV. The best part is that I paid $12.50 for it. I plan on using it for a second monitor as well as connecting techno junk to it. I have a VCR, Blu-ray player and an X-Box 360.

It is not something that I do a lot, but every so often I stop into second hand stores looking for techno junk. I had hoped that I would be farther along but I am looking for to build my younger son a hi-fi system. I want a receiver that has a phono input and a turntable first. The trick is, it has to be a reasonable price. I see them for $75-100 occasionally but that is too much in my mind when I can buy them on eBay for $50.

It seems like two or three years ago, I saw many to fit my criteria. But, it seems like the market caught onto the steal of a deal these $25 receivers were. Phono inputs disappeared from about 2000 to 2020. The point of those is that they are amplified inputs whereas plugging into one of the other choices are not. That means that you can put a DVD into a CD input and the only harm would be the label not matching. But, you cant plug a traditional record player into a CD input, it sounds bad.

The point of all of that is receivers became ubiquitous in the same time that phono inputs were phased out. Now, audio/visual systems are out of vogue to be replaced by sound bars. We did the same ourselves which is why I ended up with the system in my office. But, this also makes finding the right receiver significantly difficult to find.

I should be writing about TVs and not audio equipment. I have considered buying several different TVs. What made this one different was the price. The sticker said $25 and it was half off. It doesn’t hurt that it is a Panasonic.

We have three different brands in our house. We have two Samsungs that are LED TVs. We have a Magnavox that is an LCD TV and a Panasonic that is a Plasma TV. I say all of the time that I don’t watch much TV and I truly don’t. But, the one I watch the most is the smallest (32″ Magnavox). I turn on the news while I am cooking or a game while I am canning.

The TV that I like the most is the Plasma TV. It was our first flat screen. I appreciate the color of TV. I find it to be the brightest in all lighting conditions. It is big enough but it seems like it is not compensating for something else. I hate the washed out LED screens. I don’t like the bluish cast that they make either.

I have been a longtime fan of the brand Panasonic. It is sad that they lost out in the TV wars because I think that they made some of the best electronics around. Our last TV we replaced around Super Bowl I was about to throw a brick through it. It would turn off while watching, it would fail to turn on and the software was garbage. It was one of those Chinese brands not allowed in the government buildings out of spyware concerns.

One downside of buying used is often things are missing. In this case it is the remote control. That will likely cost more than the TV itself. But, the good news is that since I already have a Panasonic TV, VCR and DVD player plus a universal remote for my receiver, I will not rush out and buy one. I will look for one second hand and if I never find one, it wont be a big deal.

End Your Programming Routine: My techno junk pursuit is all about opportunity. I am only willing to buy it if it is cheap. Anybody can plunk down a chunk of change and setup a shiny system. I am all about keeping good old equipment running, even if it is out of vogue. It is doubly exciting when it is a bargain.

June 3, 2024 – And, Life Begins…

June 3, 2024 /

Warning, this podcast is much longer than normal. As my son prepares to graduate high school this week, I reflect on his journey through the education system. Let’s just say that it has not been great. He is a good kid with unique issues that doesn’t fit into the mold of normal kids. I take aim at the system and those that run it and participate in it. I didn’t realize the depth of problems until it was almost over. By that time, it was too late.

May 31, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Conclusion

May 31, 2024 /

Purgatory. We made it through.

I came into this saying to myself that I don’t believe in Purgatory and I don’t know anything about it. I even looked up biblical justification for purgatory. A lot came up about a little. There is one sentence in 2 Maccabees that says (loosely) ‘it is encouraged to pray for the souls of the dead’. There are several references in the New Testament about judgment and atonement for sin is required to enter Heaven ( 1 Peter 1:6-7 and 1 Corinthians 3:13-15) . Based on the fact that this is codified in the catechisms, I say hardly a smoking gun.

Don’t get me wrong, I highly respect the Catholic church. But I am already skeptical of the process of the assembly of the bible, a perfect translation and a couple of sentences as a full doctrine of the afterlife. I say that we are going to have to agree to disagree on this.

I guess you could say that I was prepared to not like Purgatory. The truth is, I actually liked it better than Hell. I understood the purpose was for souls to atone for earthly sin before proceeding. I have often wondered why exactly a murderer would get the same treatment as a person of lifelong faith. As crazy as it sounds, Purgatory made more sense to me than hell did.

I felt like what was going on in this book was more in line with biblical theology and less about Dante’s personal vendetta in the Inferno. There was significantly less obscure name dropping as we are so far removed so as not to understand the context and much more focus on the issues at hand. Outside of the weird parade at the end, I think that Purgatory is a stronger work than the Inferno.

I have already read the introduction to Paradise. I think it is about to get weirder. Next week read Cantos I – IV to stay on the magic bus.

End Your Programming Routine: It is nice to be surprised. It is also nice to know that I wasn’t on something when I read the Inferno the first time. Without the footnotes to the book and the internet, I would be right back at 1992 wondering why this is considered a great work of literature. I actually appreciate it a lot more being able to follow along with what is written.

May 30, 2024 – 1000

May 30, 2024 /

Believe it or not, this is post number 1000. Today is not going to be grandiose or spectacular. I am going to talk about what doing this project has meant to me.

I have been a chronic podcast listener since 2008. One of the first podcast I started listening to (and still do) is The Survival Podcast. One of the host’s schticks is starting your own lifestyle business, like he did. I loved that idea and it was my plan to work toward it until life got in the way. Then when I quit my job in 2019 I was going to officially start the process.

My wife finally kicked my butt in to gear in late 2019. I had Toolbox Fallacy about getting started. I needed the right domain name, a good business plan, a way to monetize it and start making a six figure income. I finally realized that the best way to do it was just to start. And I had investigated WordPress four or five years earlier where I opened an account titled Floricane.

You can go back through all the archives if you want to read the actually history of all of this. The point is that I started writing because I hadn’t figured out how to podcast yet. Then I found I liked writing and it was easier to not try to figure out new things. I put another roadblock in the way until I forced myself to learn how to podcast.

I feel like if I took my own advice, I would quit doing this. I am not making money and I probably never will. I know what my problem is, I hate social media. I will never market myself in the fashion that is needed to make it work. I will never build a following because this that is not how I want to spend my time. From the little bit I do, I don’t enjoy it in the least. I don’t even want to do the necessarily evil level of it.

Doing this is not without merit or benefit. This is what keeps me going. First thing’s first, I enjoy doing it. Secondly, I have learned a lot in the process. I think that it keeps me motivated to keeps me thinking and doing. Particularly with podcasts, I keep working on being able to speak with minimal preparation.

I doubt that my reading would be as focused. I don’t see myself reading Dante for fun. Many of the other books I have read recently, I have already read before. This effort has truly made me consider philosophy a fundamental discipline. I used to lump it in with pseudo psychology but now I wish that I had a stronger basis. Philosophy (the love of learning) is the practice of logic, something that is sorely missing these days.

It has not always been easy, particularly recently. It seems like I am always working or working on this. I am doing those things at the exclusion of other things that I want to do or enjoy doing. However, I believe that I am getting dividends as a labor of love. There may come a day that I decide that I would rather put my efforts elsewhere. That day has yet to come.

I am not sure I would have imagined making it to 1000 posts. I guess that I was proceeding without an imagination of what the future would look like in general. Here’s to another 1000.

May 29, 2024 – Rambo… Was It That Bad?

May 29, 2024 /

The year was 1985. We didn’t even have a VCR yet. We were still renting a suitcase to be hooked up to the TV on the couple times a year occasion that we would get to rent a movie. I was in the fourth grade so we certainly weren’t watching rated R movies. It was more like Herbie the Love Bug or at best Empire Strikes Back.

By the fifth grade, Rambo was all the rage and so was the survival knife. It was typically a chintzy, fixed blade knife that had some crappy survival gear in the handle and a compass on the butt end of the hilt. If you had one, then you were definitely a bad ass, like Rambo. I can’t say that I was the only one of my peers that hadn’t seen it, but I was amongst a small group.

I missed the Rambo craze. The first one was inaccessible, not old enough for the second one and ambivalent by the third (and fourth). With Pluto TV, I occasionally scroll through ‘Only This Month’ and the ‘Last Chance’ categories. I happened to see that Rambo I – III was available and so I thought that I would finally fill the gap and see what I was missing all those years ago.

What I expected was cheesy 80’s action with an A-Team plot. I have to say that it didn’t disappoint. The truth is, First Blood (the first one) was not half bad. If you haven’t seen it then let me quickly summarize. A Vietnam vet (Stallone) was looking to reunite with a former service brother. Walking into town as a loner or drifter draws the ire of local law enforcement who wrongly portray him as a bum. This ignites a war for Rambo to avoid being captured.

Being filmed in 1981, it was just six years from the evacuation of Saigon and twelve years from the Tet offensive and the escalation of conflict. There were plenty veterans that were under the age of 30 and permanently broken that felt like John Rambo. That would be lost, misunderstood and looking for normalcy in some way. It struck me as connecting to a generation in a much softer way than I expected.

Once the action started, the poignant part of the plot was mostly finished. It wasn’t terrible though. The action was overstated for sure but eventually his magazine was empty in the M16. Rambo II wasn’t nearly quite as good but it did start out with promise. Going after prisoners of war in a clandestine action is admirable and maybe almost believable. Exploding arrowheads and a grenade blowing up a waterfall is less so. The helicopter that blew-up from the two rockets shot from a Soviet gun ship was safe in the river.

Truthfully, I found the third one better than the second. The action was akin to something like John Wick or anything modern. The funny thing was that the movie was dedicated to the good people of Afghanistan. This was ostensibly a middle finger to the Soviet Union in 1988. Kind of ironic watching it in 2024. That being said, it wasn’t what I expected. Better in many ways.

I fell asleep in Rambo 4 when it was on Pluto a few months ago. This is what ignited this idea of watching the series. Unfortunately, it is no longer playing and I am too cheap to rent it. From the thirty minutes I saw, it is in line with contemporary action movies. I am looking forward to catching it when it is on again.

End Your Programming Routine: It is kind of fun going back and reliving movies that I never saw. Like all things, I probably would have been much more complimentary if I ‘remembered’ it to be better than it was. There have been many movies that I watched again later in life and wasn’t as fond of with perspective. Sometimes it is best to leave them where they were. But, it doesn’t hurt to see what all the commotion was way back when…

May 28, 2024 – Is Success Freedom?

May 28, 2024 /

It is funny how the mind works. I get a spark of an idea which then is crafted and twisted into some sort of pseudo philosophical persuasion. Things can’t really be as they seem, or can they? Today I am talking about getting your mind right about perspective of life and career.

May 24, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto XXVIII – XXXIII

May 24, 2024 /

Now that Dante has moved through the seven levels of purgatory, he has emerged in what has been called ‘Earthly Paradise’. This appears to be the entry into heaven. Dante and Statius must cross over the river Lethe to enter. This is the river that they have been following throughout the entire journey in various forms. It seems apparently like a symbolic baptism in the final crossing over.

I am not a fan of ‘mind f–k’ books or movies but that is what the section seems like seems like. These would be works like Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Rocky Horror Picture Show. I am not immune to the wonder of divine acts but I really like things that make sense. At least I can sort of put my mind into the tortures and creatures of hell. The ‘procession’ that appears as they enter is almost too much.

Apparently, as new souls come into Earthly Paradise this procession comes out to meet them. It starts with a Gryphon pulling a cart. That Gryphon is supposed to represent Christ. There is also a singing candelabra followed by 24 elders, 17 from the old testament and seven from the new testament. There are also animals, young women dancing and old men.

Even that I can sort of buy into, but then it get’s weirder. An eagle attacks spraying feathers all over followed by a dragon coming out of the ground destroying the wagon. The parts turn into a giant being ridden by a whore. She gets whipped every time she looks at Dante by the giant. What?! It is here that Dante finally sees Beatrice for the first time in ten years. We are going to have to keep reading because as fast as she appears, she also disappears.

Some analysts say that this is beyond comprehension because humanity can not fully grasp God. But, I say this is all fiction and it was written by a man. Much has been foreshadowed as Virgil is no longer present. At least this logic makes sense. Virgil’s soul is not permitted in heaven but since his character is human reason, it is absent.

Before all of that chaos happened, the Gryphon tied the cart to a dead tree. The tree supposedly is from the original tree of Adam and Eve fame. This tree all of the sudden came to life and both flowered and fruited. This is what leads to the the analogy between the Gryphon and Christ. It also doesn’t hurt that he is half lion and half eagle. That is neither of either but some of both, as is Christ. I feel like Dante is about to inherit the chocolate factory if he minds his P’s and Q’s.

I don’t blame Date for passing out before crossing the river. This really blew my mind too but imagine this in a world before internet and a worldly knowledge? Literally insane. We are at the point of what being pious gets to. Let’s check it out in Dante’s Paradiso.

End Your Programming Routine: You get a week off from reading next week as I will do a wrap up of Purgatory. I don’t honestly know how to reconcile all of this. Dante is supposed to note what is happening and take it back when he returns to the real world. I can only speculate for Dante to become the next profit. I am not sure I totally buy that he is the anointed one but I guess it could happen to anybody. At the very least, Dante is sparking theological and philosophical introspection.

May 23, 2024 – Fifty for 50

May 23, 2024 /

I might regret mentioning this today. I hope that it is part of my accountability mechanism. But, I have always wanted to do a multi-day hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. I hadn’t made rank to participate on the one hike that we did when I was in Boy Scouts. I always imagined that I would be this rampant outdoorsman when I grew up. That hasn’t quite proven to be true.

When I was 39, my wife cajoled me into running a half marathon. Her idea was that we should be more fit at 40 than we were at thirty. I procrastinated as much as I could but I ended up running a half marathon at 41. I was definitely in pretty good shape at that time.

Before all of this cancer business, my wife said that she would like to run another marathon at fifty. This time I said no. But it did get me thinking that I am really running out of time to do a serious hike. I am calling this fifty at fifty because I am planning on going at least fifty miles on the PCT next year.

I have no real idea at this point what the plan is going to be. I am thinking that I am going to do the southern oregon portion for several reasons. The first being that there are no permits required to hike it. The second is that Ashland is a logical terminus for the hike. My wife loves Ashland (were we met and went to college) so I already have a shuttle driver. Doing a week duration, hike I should be able to carry what I need without resupplying.

At this point, my biggest concern is being dramatically out of shape. I have unfortunately noticed my weight skyrocket since leaving my job as an Amazon delivery driver. At almost 50, I can’t just turn it on like I could at 20. It is going to take some time to get in shape which is why I am starting now.

I remember at 16, my shoulders aching from the pack. I am mentally preparing myself for the age appropriate penalty for carrying a pack. And for that reason, I will not only need to get in cardio-vascular shape but also weight bearing work. It means that I need to take some test hikes as well as exercise with my pack on.

I have all of the the 1980s – 1990s era gear that I need. I used to use my pack every month when I was that age. That being said, I may want to make some upgrades. But to start out, I think I want to “run what I brung”. This will also be part of the test regimen.

End Your Programming Routine: This is all subject to how things go with treatment. If it turns out that I can really make a go of getting fit, then I will likely make it happen. Otherwise it will probably be an abort but not forever. I am realistically running out of daylight with my physical ability, meaning I cant wait for retirement to do this. Expect periodic updates here on how it is going. I am pursuing a dream.