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January 20, 2021- An In-depth Study of George Orwell’s 1984

January 20, 2021 /

Wow, I have to knock the cobwebs out. And let me say, since my last entry the truth about what our future will eventually look like has been exposed. The move to silence descent against the establishment outed itself in a big way post the ‘capitol riots’. In no way do I condone or side with with the actions to break into the capitol. But, what a perfect opportunity create a tinderbox, build the fuel and when a spark eventually happens, watch it burn.

I know I have been AWOL in the last couple of weeks. Maybe I will go back to this period sometime in the future. I started writing this post on January 6, stubbing out what I thought I was going to write about January 8 before life got in the way. But for now, I want to look at the future. One of the things that has been on my mind since November of last year was the book 1984. I read it in 2019 for the first time as part of the local library reading program. I didn’t realize how much of an impact that book make in my mind.

When my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas, I said the book. And, I got it. So I have been slowly reading it to really digest what is going on. I plan on writing about some of the real parallels in today’s culture and it’s futuristic relevance for something written seventy years ago.

If you want to read along with me, I would love it. I just want to warn you that this will be a series of articles that talk about the plot and the details within the book. So, consider the spoiler warning now and don’t be mad if we turn everything inside out when you haven’t had a chance to read the book.

This is a book that can be found in the library, audio book and purchased from $0.99 and up. It wouldn’t surprise me if every used book store has a copy. To me it appears that the average price is around $13.50 for paperback. So, if you are cheap like me you can look for a bargain or if you are just ready to get started it wont impact the budget too much. There is also a movie, of which I haven’t seen so I can’t vouch for it or the accuracy but I suppose that if you were just interested in the story and less so the implications you could check that out.

As a child, I spent a lot of time reading. My memory of summer was going to the library once a week and checking out several books. I would sometimes read two or three books a week. That has sort of diminished since college. It is not that I don’t enjoy it, I have lots of other pulls on my time as well. I am also part of the culinary book club so much of my reading time has been devoted to reading in that genre over the last couple of years. It wasn’t until I left my job that I started thinking about reading more.

Because of that, I have been tossing around the idea of an AltF4 reading list. I have been thinking about some of the books that have been really impactful in my life and building something that sort of encapsulates my brand of wackiness.

High school and college almost ruined literature for me. I can think of lists of ‘classic’ titles that I have read that I really would never care to open again. My anti-establishment streak made me suspicious of the designation ‘classic’ and the analysis to the nth degree made me question the author’s intent matched the analysis done in higher level English methodology.

I am open to being wrong here. For instance, my son’s favorite book is Oliver Twist which he has read many times. I have only read it once in AP English and that was enough for me. We both have different reactions to the title. He likes the story, enough said and I can respect that. In school there was a whole level of subtext applied that I never really bought into and wiped out of my mind.

If you really boil it down, not one title that I read in school was ever supported with evidence that a title was written with a deeper meaning in mind. I have a hard time justifying the existence of the analysis. I suppose that it is not to say that it can’t exist, but I haven’t seen evidence of such. This is not that. This isn’t a study into the subtext of 1984 but a comparison of the novel to current activity.

So, enough rambling. Now you know that I like reading and why; what presses my buttons on the subject and that I am starting a series on the analysis of 1984 by George Orwell. I hope that you will join me.

January 6, 2021- A Parable About the State of Freedom

January 6, 2021 /

Hello everybody. I am sorry about not getting a full week in to begin the year. What I am learning is that if I work a full day, I need to begin getting ready at 8:30AM and I get home around 10:00PM. That doesn’t leave a lot of extra time to get other things done.

Political muck is still heavily on our minds as the final election results are being sorted out (the Georgia Senate races). But, today I wanted to talk once again about mindset and freedom. You see something happened yesterday that completely illustrates our lack of the value of freedom and reinforces the fact that we don’t really value it as we say we do.

There is a fledgling business near my small town. I don’t really know much of the story other than to say my family has been doing business with it for about four months now. The owner has done a good job with guerilla style marketing, works like a dog, employs around ten people and has compassion in his business dealings. For instance, he doesn’t demand payment before goods rendered, he offers line of credit and he charitably donates probably more than he should. This business is ‘illegal’.

What you say? Don’t go all half-cocked before you hear the rest of the story. The facility and organization is not licensed to do business. Consequently, a ‘competitor’ found out about the operation and reported him to the state. Now, he is in limbo about the entire organization. From an inside source, there are plans to go legitimate in 2021. He has built a business plan that include five franchises beginning in the second quarter of this year.

So that is the quick story. Now, let’s take some time to analyze the situation.

  1. Tyranny is propagated by those that participate in the system. The people that are vested in the rules and regulations have the most to gain by implementing and maintaining systems that exclude competition.
  2. Licensure is a false prophet for the ideals of quality, safety and sanitation. Sure, periodic audits are helpful to implement better practices and establish a baseline of what should be done. They do very little to make sure that they are followed on a day to day basis.
  3. Everybody loves a rags to riches story… or do they? Would you buy an unpermitted house or go to a non-licensed restaurant or buy products weighed on an non-certified scale? We say that we like these things, but our actions prove otherwise.
  4. Sometimes the barrier for entry is too high, until you have means to get there. As someone that went through an IRS audit last year, every undocumented transaction is income unless it can be documented otherwise. Guilty until proven innocent.
  5. The foundation of this country, based on bootstrap will and tolerance for entrepreneurship is dead. Did George Washington get a permit from the ATF to make whiskey or was Benjamin Franklin licensed to provide insurance? I think that they would have thought this a violation of there fundamental rights as do I.

We claim to be a society that roots for the underdog and values the little guy. Yet the proverbial ‘we’ has little tolerance for rule breaking to claim our stake and make our fortunes as our predecessors did. When people are more concerned about what everyone else is doing, they have lost their ability to be creative and compete on merit. That is the essence of freedom. I figured that this day would come, I was rooting for the guy.

January 4, 2021- AltF4.co Looking Forward

January 4, 2021 /

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I know that I look forward to getting back to the business as usual and that starts today. For us anyway, school starts again tomorrow and my wife is back at work.

There is a lot said about New Years and resolutions. It seems like a thing that people kind of do half-heartedly. I remember reading a newspaper story one time that said something like 50 percent of smokers set quitting as a New Year’s resolution. Of those, ten percent succeed.

This is not a commentary on the validity of peoples desires but I go back to my short series in November with the comment “You have to Want It”. Setting meaningful goals requires effort. It also requires a methodology to succeed. We can call them resolutions if you like, but for the last five years I have set yearly goals in January.

Here is a tip, set goals that you think you can achieve. Also, look for activities that will make you feel good at the same time. For instance, I like to set (rifle) range goals and then I plan out each month. Last year was an abysmal on my success rate because I only got to the range three times instead of the twelve that I would have liked.

My strategy is to pick one personal item, one business item and one hobby item. If the particular item can be done in less than a year, I set more until the year is filled up. Here are some examples of goal that I set in in the past.

  • Learn to reload cartridges
    • Month 1, pick a recipe, watch YouTube videos, read the manual
    • Month 2a, shop and buy components
    • Month 2b, clean and prep brass
    • Month 3, make first cartridges
    • Month 4, test fire at the range

All of that could have probably been done in one week. But by spreading the work out it sort of extends the fun and makes it less likely that it will get dropped by interruption in the one week sprint to do something. For instance, when I started building the reloading bench, I spent a heavy week in the shop only to have the cat have kittens in the shop and it took two years for me to get restarted on that project. When I got back into the work, it probably took me another heavy week to complete. Meanwhile I was moving wood out of the way for years.

Since I was off all of last week, I really didn’t spend the time to formalize my goals yet this year. That is part of what I am doing now. I would have to say that this is a go-no go year for AltF4.co. As much as I enjoy doing this, it takes up to three hours a day to write. That is time that I may or may not have when I have inevitable re-employment. It is sad to say, that I wanted this to be my job but as of now, it makes no money. As much as I like writing, I also like working in the yard and the shop, my son has a car that he would like help with, I like to hunt and fish and all that takes time.

Here are my goals for 2021

  • Q1 – Solidify branding and develop a marketing plan for AltF4.co
  • Q2 – Develop and implement a membership program
  • Q3 – Replace at least one blog post with a podcast a week
  • Q4 – Generate positive revenue

My goals for 2020 were a little less structured.

  • Practice posting routinely, determine if I wanted or liked that sort of commitment.
  • Move from free WordPress to my own domain
  • Don’t get stuck in the Toolbox fallacy

Accountability is part of being successful at goal-setting as well. You guys will be able to see my progress as well as I can throughout this year and then you will be able to judge whether I am going to make it or not. In the end, I may just decide to throw it all out and keep doing things the way I do them because I like it. But then of course, I won’t make this my profession.

A real forward looking and self-aware person knows that failure is part of success. Failure allows us to reassess our skills and desires into the most productive and happy person that we can be. I have to admit, that I thought that I would get traction quicker than I have, that was more about naivete than anything. One of these days I am going to figure it out.

December 30, 2020 – AltF4.co’s 2020 in Review

December 30, 2020 /

Since I was a child, I always looked forward to that period between Christmas and New Years. The chaos died down tremendously and this was that brief period where rest seemed like the prescription before the new year cranked again.

When I was in my teens, it seemed popular to have the ‘best of’ countdowns on TV, radio, magazines and newspapers. It was the best 100 songs of the year or the top 10 news stories of the year. Since it was pre-internet, there wasn’t an instant access to video clips or music like there is today. There were those songs that you sort of forgot about as time moved on because they were on the charts eight months ago and no longer on the radio.

I was driving home from work last night and I was listening to the Sunday sermon on podcast. There was a statement that made a lot of sense and that was ‘You should live your life like you drive a car; mostly looking forward, but sometimes glancing back and side to side.’ And the point of that is that you can’t get to where you are going if you are only looking in the rearview mirror. But of course, this is the time to put an end to this year and everything that went along with it.

I have kind of batted around the idea what I wanted this to be. One thought I had was the top ten things of what happened in the world, but I think that would be too pedestrian. I thought about putting together some sort of song list or something that represented the year but that seemed boring. In the end, I settled on my year in review and the highlights of my year.

  • January- We rang in the New Year in Whittier, California. I picked five ripe oranges off a tree as we were heading back home January 4th. We had a tremendous week and a half family vacation which turned out to be tremendous luck that we took our trip when we did because travelling soon became impossible.
  • February- Right before our trip, we had a water leak that caused the ceiling to collapse in our pantry. Once the damage was repaired, I spent most of January and February building cabinets to replace the pantry and turn it into a more functional space. This was my most ambitious all wood woodworking project to date.
  • March- This was the month where our lives were impacted by the ‘Coronavirus’. School ended a full week before spring break, my wife’s office closed that same week. We cancelled our couple days of vacation that we were going to take and went into ‘lockdown’. Fortunately, we had some distinctly un-Oregon like spring weather and the weather turned mostly nice from here on out.
  • April- We said good-bye to our exchange student. Even though his Visa was good, he wanted to stay and both parents were OK with the decision the exchange program was not. After we signed a waiver for him to stay, they rescinded the support like insurance and such. All was quiet and melancholy at our house for a couple of weeks.
  • May- The weather changed for good toward summer this month. I went from working on the apartment four to five days a week to seven days a week. In the back of my mind, I already knew that I was behind and that there was so much to do that I really didn’t have time to waste, especially because we were still in quasi lockdown anyway.
  • June- This was the month that we started hosting small group at our house. It was really a rededication for me to get more serious about my commitment to God. I have gone through the waxing and waning of church attendance, devotional reading etc. Each time as I come back, it seems that my tuner gets a little clearer. It seems like I am hearing more.
  • July- This was all remodeling, all the time. I am trying to think of a highlight for this month but it is all kind of a blur. I guess if I were to pick one experience it would be roofing the new addition with my son. I don’t know if he learned anything but it was kind of fun teaching him. Side note: we got it right the first time, no leaks.
  • August- The apartment is complete. Tenants move in the first weekend. I wasn’t completely done until the second week. I still had, garbage to deal with, materials to donate, and a mess in the garage.
  • September- I don’t really remember this month. It was the month of wildfire, we had two weeks of smoke and maybe I was in a daze. I had to come to grips that I no longer employed a landscaper and started spending time in the yard mowing, pruning, etc. I now find myself watching the weather to find the dry days so I can attempt to keep up with all the things that need to get done.
  • October- This was a month of disappointment. I chose to do handyman work and job search over going hunting. I was really disappointed but my dad said that they saw zero deer during the whole week. You know, I always want a chance but the comradery is really fun too. I don’t know how many more chances I will have like that. I hope that wasn’t the last one.
  • November- I guess that this was a leap of faith. This was the month that I was looking to make a move for a more menial, labor type job since we were moving toward the holidays. The interview was easy, I think the test was just having the perseverance to try. I was hired without being asked a single question other than “can you do the job?”
  • December- I settled in for regularly driving for Amazon. I have really enjoyed my time. Part of it is that I know I am not going to do this forever. Truthfully, I haven’t worked as much as I hoped I would from a financial perspective. I have been averaging about thirty hour weeks and it takes the best part of the day: from about 9am to about 7pm on the days that I work. Now that peak season has ended, the number of drivers on the road has decreased by about a fifty percent and consequently it seems like that routes are getting longer. Yesterday I was ‘on-duty’ for nearly eleven hours, the max allowed for a day.

Conclusions for all of this… I guess if you routinely document your life, it is easy to remember. But seriously, the big one is that we are not leaving the year in the same fashion as we did last year. The pandemic stopped monthly trap shoots, it cancelled my kid’s summer camp and other extra-curricular activities. My daily EDC now includes a mask and unfortunately I have to wear it all day when I work. I fear that we have severely damaged our economy as well as raised false flags of hope that we are all doing our part to ‘flatten the curve’.

One more quick tangent. I had a nice Christmas. It was the first one ever that we did not leave the house after we got home from Christmas Eve service, including when we lived in South Carolina. It is strange when fourty plus years of tradition suddenly don’t exist. But on the plus side, it allowed us to take some time in the day and just relax rather than just feel rushed. We did spend significant time cooking, so we go a little taste of the rush.

I hope that you enjoyed my year in review. This will be the last post for 2020. My next post will be talking about goalsetting and plans for 2021 so I will save all of that for probably next Tuesday. With that, Happy New Year.

December 23, 2020 – Happy Festivus, the Airing of Grievances

December 23, 2020 /

Before I get started and despite the negative tone of yesterday and today, I truly wish my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays of their faith and culture. This will be the last post before Christmas. I anticipate one more between Christmas and New Year’s day.

Today is the fictitious Festivus holiday of Seinfeld fame which has five distinctive components.

  1. Decorations – A bare aluminum pole as a Christmas tree substitute
  2. Dinner – Some sort of semi-formal, family style dinner with the invited Festivus guests
  3. Airing of Grievances – Bring up issues that have happened all year long with the guests present. This will occur before dinner.
  4. Feats of Strength – Two chosen participants will duke it out to determine the year’s winner
  5. Miracles – Anything that would lighten it up out of the ordinary. It is just fun to say.

Today, I am going to write about concerns that I have from the year and moving forward. This is not intended to be a downer list but rather a stimulating and thought provoking post. I don’t know if I have said in the past on this blog or not, but I truly believe the situation is what you make of it. Without discussion or awareness, things only maintain status quo at best.

  • Working for an hourly wage may sound good on paper, but it doesn’t pay what you would think. In my case, the expectation was that I was going to work four, ten hour days in a week. The reality has been that it has been 3-4, six to eight hour days. My time stubs are averaging 30 hours a week. I don’t think that it is enough to justify the time output.
  • Creativity is dead in entertainment. The brilliance of Seinfeld as an example. It was funny, witty and edgy without being over the top. I feel like the last sitcom to hold the ‘best’ title recently, Big Bang Theory was none of those things and I have a chemistry degree. I get nerd humor. Streaming is now the best way to get close but even so I can’t keep up with the volumes of choices and seasonal release schedules.
  • The difference between the ‘free’ states and the quasi-totalitarian states has been exploited this year. The west coast has gone full jack boot on some industries like fitness gyms, movie theaters and restaurants. Who the hell is going to eat outside in Oregon winter? My position remains that vulnerable people need to take appropriate precautions, everyone else should live as they see fit.
  • Logic and Reason is completely absent from the majority of the population. We have the group that still thinks Trump will keep the office of President. We have the group that thinks quarantine and masks will ‘slow the curve’. We have the group that thinks rioting helps the image of Black Lives Matter. We have ‘camping bans’ as a policy for reduced homelessness. It feels like it is a school district ‘snow day’ when it snowed for fifteen minutes at three AM.
  • Media of almost any form is in the tank for one side or the other. It doesn’t matter which side. And by the way, the major social media platforms are the worst at censorship. They are imploring politically correct only messages. The fact that they have successfully polarized the population means that they win. Control has been surrendered. If you are accepting any argument where ‘the science has been settled’ or you are opposed to any argument because that is the argument, then you are being controlled as well.
  • Convenience over privacy rules the day and people just don’t care. If you have ever uttered or agreed with the phrase, ‘it is a good first step’ then it works on you too. Bills such as the Patriot Act have fueled the collection of data on you. Granted, most people don’t have much to hide (yet). But, I am sure that most people have things, do things that they would rather not share, myself included. I fear that it is too late at this point. We do not have enough technology for complete monitoring but the path is set. Let me put it this way, our laws limit surveillance to telephone wire tapping only, not e-mail, not text messaging, not private forum posts.

That is probably enough. Remember, we are probably more alike than we are different. I believe that God created us in his image, and that cannot be a mistake.

December 22, 2020 – Is Christmas Really What You Think?

December 22, 2020 /

This is for sure a holiday that I struggle with. Call me selfish, call me a Grinch or a scrooge maybe. I wanted so much to assign a newer or different reality to the holiday but chock it up to a long line of non-conforming beliefs.

Growing up a Christian, it was ingrained that this was a celebration for the birth of Jesus. My world was rocked when I was a Junior in High School and we talked about the origin of Christmas in Latin class. I had never heard of such things, it was so foreign that it took me years to accept the truth.

Alright, rewind. It is well established that the winter solstice has been recognized by indigenous cultures throughout the world. Winter solstice has a place in agrarian life because it celebrated the transition between daylight getting shorter and daylight getting longer. One of those celebrations was the Roman version, called Saturnalia.

Saturnalia was a celebration named after the Roman god Saturn, who happened to be the god of agriculture. One description I read was that it was that it was akin to Mardi Gras; an over the top party. I suppose that you could see the appeal, I mean who doesn’t like to have fun. Gift giving was one of the traditions that went along with week long party.

As the church was growing in influence and Rome was diminishing, the popularity of Saturnalia was not. It is believed that Pope Julius I co-opted Saturnalia into December 25 as the ‘official’ birthday of Jesus. Even though it is believed that his actual birthday would have been in the early springtime.

Maybe I just haven’t accepted the reality that everything is what it is. I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised people believe in traditions that are not always what they seem or are even based on reality as we are told. There is a lot different brands around the type of holiday be it ‘Hallmark’ or religious or ‘the magic of the season’. For me, maybe I will lean toward Festivus, for the rest of us.

December 21, 2020 – The Shortest Day of the Year and the Possibly the Shortest Post of the Year

December 21, 2020 /

At least that is my intention. Everyone in my household is on their winter shutdown, except me. I am finishing my week after working six days in a row. I have been delivering packages in the rain and darkness out in the rural areas of my area and I am ready for a couple days off to finish my Christmas preparations. As a side note, this will be the first day I will be working Christmas Eve for probably my whole career.

This post has some significance, it is my 200th post. That counts the two or three I began with in 2016 and didn’t really get rolling until December 2019. As I have mentioned before, writing has turned out to be much more therapeutic than I had imagined. I prioritize my commitment to doing this because I think that it is good for me. It allows me to analyze my thoughts and assemble a picture from what appears to be a jigsaw of life.

Tomorrow, I am going to talk about the real Christmas story. It ties into the solstice and the origins of western culture. I will probably take a couple days off from writing as well because it feels right to take some downtime and prioritize family. But for now, take comfort in the days only getting longer from here until June.

December 18, 2020 – The Best Christmas Tradition That You Have Never Heard of

December 18, 2020 /

I have referenced our hosting a Spanish exchange student multiple times this year. He was with us last year and told us the most amazing, funny Christmas tradition that you would not believe. My mouth was wide open as he was describing all the steps in the tradition. It is called Caga Tio.

The basic way it works is that you ‘feed’ the log for several days before Christmas. Then, on Christmas, you put all of the presents down and cover them with a blanket. Then, you give a stick to the kids (or people) getting presents and you all sing a song while beating the Caga Tio with a stick until it poops out presents (That would be the end of the song). You lift the blanket to see what the the Caga Tio pooped out for you. A more thorough history can be read on Wikipedia.

Our exchange student was from the Barcelona area. The people there identify with a sub-region called Catalan. While Spanish, their independent identity remains strong. There is a subcurrent of Catalan first, Spanish second.

I suppose that they would consider this kind of a stocking type activity. I had totally forgotten about this tradition that he told us about until we receive a Christmas gift from Sergio about a week ago. Some day, I am angling to get this into our Christmas traditions, probably because it seems a little irreverent.

December 17, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

December 17, 2020 /

I am a tactile person. I am also a frugal person but also a value oriented person. I want to ‘buy once and cry once’. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any one holster shopping solution.

Inside the Waistband or commonly called IWB seem like the best compromise in concealability and function. However, they require coordination with your clothes. Pants need to be at least one inch or more bigger than you normally wear to accommodate the holster in your pants. But then, what do you do when you are not wearing a holster, your pants don’t fit well. Or what do you do when you gain weight or lose weight, again, your pants don’t fit.

It can be pretty uncomfortable to squeeze into pants and then have this extra bulge to contend with. Not to mention, keeping that kind of holster concealed can be a challenge. I have had it fall out. I have had my shirt come up and get hooked over the top if it is a little short.

As I was saying at the beginning, there really isn’t a way to to look at the different brands or try one without ordering from the internet. But, I tried something completely different, called a ‘belly band’ colloquially. It is a big strap that you put around your stomach, so it eliminates a lot of the problems with IWB and clothes.

I tested it while I installed the floor the other day. Everything stayed in place like it should and I was able to keep working fairly physically with it on. The velcro can be a little scratchy until it warms up to body temperature and seems to soften a little bit.

This is a good solution for several options. It offers the deepest of concealment so it will fit in with almost any attire that is not skin tight. It is also the best solution for active people who do things like running for activities.

It is also one of the cheaper options at $20. Since it is flexible material, it is also universal fit for firearm and body and you don’t need a bunch of holsters to change out firearms. I still believe that you probably need options. Not every platform is the best for concealed carry. My 5 1/2″ barreled Colt 45 is probably never going to get carried concealed, that will go out in the woods, outside the waistband, open carried.

I never considered this type of holster before but after using it a couple times, I really like it. If you are looking for a solution like this, I can recommend it.

December 16, 2020 – Light and Indoor Painting Tips

December 16, 2020 /

Recently, I was helping my wife paint her office. We were painting after dark with artificial light. It was also white over white. I was trying to use the ‘force’ to make sure that I did a good job. Everyone knows that it can take a long time to master the force.

You would think that when you are painting a very similar color over another, that you wouldn’t have to be that careful when painting. That is not exactly true because depending on the lighting situation, the spots telegraph through. When painting with artificial light, the glare masks the missed spots or really light spots.

I really prefer to paint in natural light to begin with, but that is not always a surefire solution. I noticed when painting the lighter over the darker, I needed the artificial light to see the spots I needed to touch up. The point that I am trying to make is that you will probably need to use different lighting conditions to validate your paint job is the best it can be.

When it comes to paint, I can provide some tips as well. I hold a pretty tight opinion of exterior paint but for indoor the brand is not as critical as long as you accept some things.

  • Indoor paint has must less performance requirements than outdoor paint. I would keep the price above $25/gallon and you will get a decent product.
  • Cheaper paint uses more cost effective materials. So, in that $25/gallon range you are likely going to get a PVA (or blend) versus and acrylic. Excellent scrubbing capability but will yellow when exposed to UV light.
  • There is a place for solvent based paint on the interior. That is woodwork and cabinets or things that are going to be touched frequently. Without an absolute cure time of several weeks for waterbased that paint tends to stay gummy.
  • The paint job doesn’t have to last a lifetime. You might want to change the color or sheen after ten years. Plus, who really scrubs walls anyway?
  • I like the look of flat paint the best, but plan to touch up spots periodically. The pigments used in flat paints don’t reflect light as well and also tend to absorb dirt on contact.
  • To mask or not mask opposing surfaces is a personal choice. I find it much faster to cut in with a brush carefully than to mask in most cases. I would mask when spraying, but those people are probably not reading this. Windows included. I can scrape off glass with a razor faster than masking for sure.
  • Buy quality tools and supplies to do the job. There is very little overall cost to the project in a $5 brush and a $20, but with proper care, the more expensive one will last nearly forever and do a better job.
  • Off-white masking tape versus blue or green. The off-white is less expensive and uses a solvent based adhesive. That adhesive can get oxidized and leave residue or not adhere properly. If used fresh and removed quickly it can save some money but not if you are going to leave it up for a month (potentially)

This is a good starter list of tips. I think most people know how to do this but maybe you learned something too.