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October 12, 2020 – Playing roulette today

October 12, 2020 /

I have been working on a video on the repair of an old leaf blower since the fifth of July. The reason I know that date is that I wanted to use the blower to help clean-up the mess that our fireworks made and I couldn’t get it started.

Now, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. My dad gave me the leaf blower in 2007 or so, someone had given it to him. When he did, the tank was half full of two stroke mix. I ran it a couple times but then it sat in the shed until about two or three years ago when I tried to sell it at a garage sale.

At that time, I again started it to verify that it would run but it didn’t sell. I thought that it was too valuable to just throw away, so I put it back into the shed. Finally, when I wanted to use it this summer I couldn’t get it started. I thought that this would make a good project to film in short, helpful video.

As many things, it turned out to be more challenging to fix then I anticipated. While, I solved the initial problem on the sixth of July, my lack of knowledge and my time restrictions put it aside until late August. When I tried again, I did actually get the leaf blower running, but still not reliably or well. So, I tried again in October now wanting to actually use it in the yard and I think that I got it working.

Why is the post about roulette? After editing my video clips together, I have been waiting several hours for it to convert (or export as it is termed). I was waiting to write until I could actually embed the video into the post, but I am running out of time.

In fact, I am not sure why this isn’t working. I have used this software for most of my video editing. I know that I have not done much of it, but each time I use it seems to get clunkier and less reliable. I don’t know what is going on. It is part of the Pictures app on the Microsoft 10 operating system. I probably need to investigate another editing software if I am going to do much more of this type of work because this one is really painful.

It’s funny because the first video I ever created has become wildly more popular than I ever expected. In fact, I never expected anyone to care I even misspoke about the tool’s model number. It was right in the tagging, but I never thought anyone would ever watch it so I really didn’t put much effort into it.

Looks like my number finally came up… It only required some .NET updates and an application reset and multiple restarts.

October 9, 2020 Bonus – Concerned about your digital footprint and future privacy, you should be.

October 9, 2020 /

This is a test post to validate some new features to me.

Episode-2747- Digital Security for the Modern Age

I have not personally vetted the information, nor am I an expert. That being said, this is an excellent interview about the the potential concerns and future implications of privacy. The bent of the conversation is about freedom as we think we understand and believe but likely not a reality.

Be safe, be smart.

October 9, 2020 – And I said I was done with my remodeling project…

October 9, 2020 /

Every project has some tailing loose ends. This one is no different. When I said that I was done, I meant that the tenants could move in, the tools got put away, the remaining supplies were stowed for future projects and the garbage was removed. Like almost every other building the project the landscaping was still on the list.

Part of what I was waiting for was I had a lot of dirt to move, I would estimate around four yards. A wheelbarrow would not cut it, fortunately, I have a friend with at tractor.

I needed to remove one raised bed and the dirt from two others and regrade everything away from the house. Another reason why I was waiting was that I was hoping my beds would produce before I tore them down. It turns out I got five green tomatoes, which we fried for dinner and ate with liver and onions and grits. A very southern meal.

Alas, I could give my pathetic garden no more time. I needed to get this job done before the weather changes. That is happening tomorrow as the fall weather patterns are starting. This was pretty good soil for the most part. I was adding several inches of compost every couple of years. So you can see in the third picture a pile all the way on the right. This will get repurposed into the new front yard garden next year, hopefully.

I did this work a little over a week ago. I put out a couple of pounds of grass seed and I noticed that it is starting to sprout up today. I would call it success as long as the squirrels and birds don’t decimate my seed. They have been all over it today.

To be honest, I have a couple more to-do’s. I need to put in some drainage for the downspouts and I want to add a drywell. It can get pretty wet back there and it also doesn’t get a lot of sun in the winter. Another reason to move the garden. For that, I am waiting for some rain to soften the ground because that will be dug by hand.

October 8, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 8, 2020 /

“Shoot or don’t shoot”. No, I am not talking tactics, I am talking the price and availability of ammunition at the moment.

These magazines have been loaded since March. It was my plan to do this next range trip before all the pandemic hullabaloo, before the six month remodeling project and before ammunition disappeared and the price skyrocketed. In fact, I bought the Sig Sauer ammunition pictured in March.

I have been periodically checking local stores for inventory of ammunition. There are shotgun shells, most typical hunting calibers and 17HMR rimfire ammunition available. What is not available is any handgun ammunition except some really weird ones like 50AE and no rifle ammunition that fits semi-automatics and no 22 rimfire.

On a whim, I checked an online source for 5.56×45 and a case (of 1000) was available at $724. That is $0.72/round and that in a bulk price. For the individual packages, it is running from $0.80-1.00/ round. The last time I bought any I paid $0.33/round. So, I guess on the one hand it is available just maybe it is not at the price I want to pay.

My grand plan was to rely on reloading as my ammunition source. During the last run (2012-2015) primers were impossible to find. Good news for me is that I have plenty of primers but not bullets. I do have some powder but it definitely depends on what I am reloading. I think I could reload 30-06 for the rest of my life but I have almost no powder for .223 Remington.

What I really am weighing here is should I shoot some of the ammunition I have given it’s scarcity and my scarcity of money? Don’t get me wrong, I am not empty in either case but it is preparedness mindset. Well, I have decided that I am going to and here are my reasons.

One – I have owned this rifle since 2015 and only fired it once. This was kind of an impulse purchase. To tell you the truth, I was convinced that the Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidential election and that I would lose the opportunity to make this kind of purchase in the future. It turns out that I can get caught up in ‘tin foil hat-ness’ too.

Two – it has an optic on it that has never been sighted in. Having a tool that isn’t calibrated or has unknown accuracy is not reliable or useful for the intended purpose. I thought that it might be useful to start my son out hunting on because of the low recoil and adjustability. It turns out, he can shoot my old rifle that I started on just fine and it is sighted in well. Nevertheless, I want to have some confidence that I can hit where I am aiming.

Three – Despite the fact that I have only shot this rifle once, I have made some modifications and changes. At this point, I do not know if it is functional or reliable as a result. This is the biggest reason that I want to take it out now. Swapping out parts can have some pretty negative consequences. It is best to find out before you really want to use it.

I do feel like I have some compelling reasons to shoot up some of my hard to acquire at this time ammunition. Throughout all of the shortages, it seems like shotgun ammunition has always been consistently available. Probably a good time to focus on trap, skeet and sporting clays (as well as hunting).

October 6, 2020 – What does Calculus and mathematical equations have to do life?

October 6, 2020 /

Today is a deep cut. To keep you reading, this post is an analogy not actually about math.

I have been doing a lot of soul searching these last couple of weeks. I suppose that you could say that life hasn’t gone exactly to plan or maybe the way I had hoped. Math is used in science to describe or model life and the natural world. I have been thinking about what I want to change and I thought how eerie parallels some of issues in life line up with mathematical concepts.

The Equation of a Line

When you have a plot with one data point, what direction is the line going? For all you non-math types you can’t have a line with one point. A line can go in infinite directions and slopes when you only have one point.

The metaphor for life is without experiences there is not enough perspective to determine success or happiness. The only thing that you really know is where you are currently. You can have an idea and maybe even a plan to create the next experience, but that doesn’t mean that you will like it or it will be right for you. Not everyone has a supportive spouse to let you walk away without an income for over a year.

For me, I thought I knew where I was going with my life when I went to college. Once it didn’t materialize the way that I thought it was going to go, life happened more without direct deliberation than with it. I cruised along twenty some years until I figured out I wasn’t happy with my line. The problem is, I just realized that I haven’t done anything different to change the direction of my line in the last year and a half. I just hoped that it would change by itself.

Derivative Calculus

Now it is going to hard. What is a derivative? I think that the simplest definition is calculating a change. In application, you can either calculate a point on a line where a change has a particular value or you can calculate the value of a change at a particular point. I might have lost some people already here. I know that in my academic career, this is where I started to struggle with math. I took this class twice to get a better handle on the fundamentals of calculus.

Let’s put it into practice. Looking at your experiences (your line) at what point does a particular change occur. When does your life go sideways or when did the focus or desire change. The straighter the line, the easier it is to calculate or even see on a plot. Unfortunately, life has a way of having our experiences not line up neatly. This is why you need complicated math like calculus to figure it out.

I am pretty good at getting the equation setup, I might even muddle into the answer. That is all kind of useless without doing something with the data. I remember from my days studying Latin, the teacher saying there is no sentence without a verb. Action is required to communicate a thought just as action is required to make change.

Integral Calculus

I think that this one will be simpler; calculate the area under your line. What do you want the sum total of your life to be? Just like in math, positive experiences are additive and negative experiences are subtractive to get the total result. If you don’t like how it adds up, you have to go back to the other steps and make changes. Figure out where you went wrong step two and aim for different experience step one so that you can be more satisfied overall, step three.

So, the truth… I have unknowingly hidden in my Toolbox Fallacy. I like to analyze my situation and pretend that I am planning my next steps without any real results or changes. I have been fearful of moving onto my next professional career steps without acknowledging or even realizing that I was already in one. I have been doing small jobs and handyman work without embracing this might be who I really am.

I wanted to build a lifestyle business because I wanted a creative outlet with practical business deductions and control of my output and life. I already have a lot of that. My fear of failing (or running out of savings) has caused me to not put out effort in marketing and working on what is already paying working. I like the work, I like the freedom,

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to build a lifestyle business. Just maybe doing handyman type work isn’t what I am doing in the meantime but another point in my line.

October 5, 2020 – Have you heard of the ‘Hairy Armpit’ Theory

October 4, 2020 /

I guess that it is a theory. I will credit a former co-worker with the idea. The basic idea is that you leave something blatantly wrong so that people will focus on that problem and not dig in too deep to look for other problems. So, to bring the whole picture around, in North America you would not generally expect to see a woman have a hairy armpit. Therefore, you would not look for any additional flaws because this one is so evokes such a strong perception.

My ‘Hairy Armpit’ is the spelling of Ressurection versus the real spelling of Resurrection (largely because the proper spelling was already taken). Nobody has ever made any comment on it and I acknowledge in my About page the misspelling. Going back to my ‘Toolbox Fallacy’, it has been my intent to move this blog to a real domain and do proper marketing, etc but I haven’t because well, you know why (see above).

However, I found another situation that was not known to me, more akin to walking around with your zipper undone. I really liked the idea and concept around the word Floricane. I have never searched for my own blog to connect, only sent links out for people to connect. My son was trying to setup a subscription to follow and I noticed that Floricane in the header has been misspelled for nearly a year. I thought that I checked that multiple times, even doing web searches related to the other domains using the term.

How embarrassing. That is sophomoric level editing and presentation and here I thought that I was being sophisticated and clever. I guess that the only thing to do is correct the problem and move on to promote somebody else’s clever concept of the ‘Hairy Armpit’ theory.

I haven’t talked about faith in a while, but this week’s message has a poignant intersection. To go to a super high level, we need help as people where we can. To ascend to higher spiritual levels, we need to concern ourselves with the problems of others. I think that as a matter of principle, it is our responsibility to help people by pointing out their ‘Hairy Armpits’ (discreetly) because maybe they just don’t know about it or at least the cultural standards.

It may also be twisted logic but I think that to effectively help others, you have to keep working on yourself. Just like the foster parent commercial, you don’t have to be perfect to be a foster parent, simply willing to try. However, the moment you have it all figured out is the moment that you have failed. Keep working to move past your issues, do the best you can to correct your errors and help people to the best of your ability. Those are principles that regardless of your beliefs will make a better world.

October 2, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday (on Friday)

October 2, 2020 /

I think I am losing my mind. For a little while, I was thinking this was Wednesday and not Friday. When I do my planning, usually before I start writing, I was thinking about what I wanted to write in this segment (tomorrow) and I realized that I wrote my book review on Thursday. Whoops.

So, the big news of the week in industry is the Remington Outdoors bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation of assets, effective immediately. The details and some analysis of the liquidation are all over the internet. One could ask themselves in this time of record breaking firearms and related industry sales what could have possibly gone wrong? At this point, my attitude as a consumer is does it really matter? What is done is done and a two hundred year old company is now history.

Real (really) briefly, Remington Arms Co. was acquired by Cerberus Capitol Management in April of 2007. That was really the day the company ceased to exist alone. If you remember the post election buying of 2009-2010 and the post Sandy Hook buying of 2013-2016 and definitely the Covid buying this industry has money making potential. Cerberus was a company that already owned Mervyn’s and one month later bought Chrysler. Through hearsay, debt was moved from some of the other weaker ventures to Remington to the point where it became financially crushing. It was also rumored that Cerberus had been trying to sell Remington since the Sandy Hook incident because they didn’t want that image in their portfolio.

What does all this really mean for the shooter. Well, I don’t really know. I know that Vista Outdoors (Federal) bought the ammunition business. Presumably this will keep going and that is good news. I know that the intent from some of the other buyers is to keep manufacturing Remington and Marlin. It would seem that smaller buyers got DPMS, H&R, Bushmaster and given their positions in the market place I see them continuing and not just acquiring the names. I suppose that it is a time will tell situation.

I guess for me personally, it is a sad day. I own more than one Remington, in fact it is the predominant brand in my collection. My first rifle was a Remington 722, my first shotgun was an 870 and my first 22 was a Marlin. I had plans to get a 7600 and a Versamax some day. I also have some OEM accessories that I would like to add. I guess the good news is that there are so many made that likely everything is out there, it is more a matter of how much will I have to pay.

I suppose it is just like H&R and Marlin getting purchased and nearly mothballed. Or Winchester ceasing to be independent, times change. Gone is one of the oldest companies in the US.

October 1, 2020 – Review: My Life in France

October 1, 2020 /

“My Life in France” by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme was the August book club selection for the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Food and Wine Book Club. That’s right I said August and I just finished reading it last night. I think I have been upfront with how busy I have been so now I am at least one month behind.

This is a biography written in first person style (by Alex). He did all of the interviews and arranging of the narrative directly from and with the consent of Julia. The book chronicles her life through her formidable years as an writer and TV personality. It is weighted pretty heavily toward her pre-cookbook days and the amount of content and details thin out as book goes on.

As a relatively young member to this culinary club, this was another personality in the food world that I have little exposure to. Not being around when the ‘Frenchiphile’ food craze dominated that scene, it all seems so integrated and second hand to me. But, of course she was instrumental in painting the landscape of today’s food scene. I have enjoyed learning the history and perspective of these early media pioneers. There is also a movie, I haven’t seen it yet, but I am going to watch it with my wife this month.

The most interesting aspect of this book to me was just what a labor of love and effort ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ was. I took years to develop and was a huge tome, over seven hundred pages. This was all largely done manually and over international correspondence. I have observed that many times in life it is not the final outcome that designates success but the process in which that task is done. Julia discovered a fervent delight in testing and perfecting recipes and techniques that could be achieved in the United States using imperial measurements, different tools and a culture that was more aligned with TV dinners than centuries of tradition.

It wasn’t always an easy read for me, as evident on how long it took me. The story lines were filled with names of people that breezed in and out. As seems to be customary to that generation, many of them got nicknames which added more names and I got kind of lost at times. The other criticism I had was there were a lot of French phrases in the book which made me tune out at times because I didn’t understand what I was reading.

All that being said, it definitely made me appreciate what she had accomplished in her life. I can certainly understand the technical challenges and appreciate people’s passion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the August dinner, so I am not totally sure what the menu was. From skimming through the menu it was beef burgionon, garlic mashed potatoes, formage blanc (fresh cheese) and gougeres (pastry). There are some vague descriptions of preparations in the book, but definitely no recipes.

As for wine, there is mention of many French varietals, none that I really recognized other than Dom Perignon which champagne seemed to be very common. Pop a cork, I would recommend Pinot Noir unless you have access to a good French burgundy and build your culinary history foundation.

September 25, 2020 – Writing proper job bids and contractor communication for success

September 25, 2020 /

What I wanted to talk about today is the contractor communication process. In my experience, this is a weak link in this type of arrangement. I saw it over and over in software where it was impossible to get enough detail to accurately bid jobs. That lead to weak quotes and proposal without a lot of proper detail and gaps. That lead to both sides not being on the same page with expectations.

One trick with bids is to provide the right level of detail. It cannot be so vague as to not provide any specific details or scope of work. It should be clear why this is a problem. Under this circumstance, there are no deliverables, end points or success criteria.

It also cannot be so detailed as to provide line item costs. This one is not quite as clear. Why would too much detail be a problem? Unfortunately, human nature causes people to want to cheapen the price. To do that, they want to eliminate steps that are likely integral to executing the project. Using software again, you can save a lot of money by skipping design or testing. But, if you think that is a good idea then I would argue you are probably not experienced enough to be looking at bids. Nevertheless, just don’t have the detailed conversation in the first place.

Here is the bid that I put together today. I deleted some of the details because this contract is now accepted. But it contains the price first, so the cost is out there. There is an expiration date, so if circumstances change it would need to be requoted. In this case, there is no lead time to order materials. There is an expectation of how long the work will take, where the work will be done and does the bid include materials.

I think that the description is adequate for the scope of what is being done. I didn’t give the exact door so my work of sourcing will be paid for. Or said another way, the client buys the door and pays someone $10/hour to install it. I mention which parts of the old door I will re-use. I will also remove the old door and material.

I took a picture of the door that is to be replaced because this house is empty and I wanted no confusion about which door I was bidding on. If this were a larger project, I would take daily pictures of the progress. I would text them to the client so that there is a chance to intervene before it is too late.

Now, I am not super busy at the moment. I can jump right on jobs immediately. I also know first hand that contractors are notorious for not stating when they will be on site, work consistently on site or the progress of the job. I always believe that honesty is the best policy. With my daily status checks, I also provide my next time on site and what I hope to be completing.

These are some tips that I use successfully, and maybe if you are not in this field you can use the information to get a better bid next time. Have a good weekend.

September 23, 2020 – Fall is here

September 23, 2020 /

It feels like there are a lot of half done or almost done things around here. I have got apples in buckets waiting to get canned, I am halfway through last month’s book, the dog’s invisible fence wire is laying on the ground, the trailer is almost filled with a load to go to Habitat for Humanity, my leaf blower is kind of working, my dirt pile is waiting to get moved away from the house, the shop is almost cleaned up from my last project and I am in the middle of troubleshooting a new/used CD carousel as examples.

I have said multiple times that this is the harvest time and it very well can be the most busy time of year. Obviously, some things have a greater sense of urgency than others. For instance, the apples need to get dealt with in the next day or two. Items outside would be better served doing now before the weather turns. We are expecting rain for the next four days but we should get some nice weather after that. Temporarily, it seems like the outside to-do’s need to wait.

Sometimes I suffer from too many interests and a focus on the wrong priorities. Take for instance the CD player, I bought that on a whim at Goodwill and I figured at eight dollars, it would be no sweat if it really didn’t work. Well, it almost works, I replaced the belt to open the drawer and with a little finger pressure it opens and closes but not by itself. This leads me into a spiral of research and more testing. I keep thinking one more quick test before I move onto other things and pretty soon, those quick things add up to real time and certainly focus on the wrong things.

I also tend to be very single minded. I focus on one project to the exclusion of most everything else. Take for instance my remodeling project. That was everyday, all day. I suppose some of my urgency was knowing that was the kind of effort necessary to get it done it a timely fashion. However, I really did prioritize it over many things, including eating at times. I definitely couldn’t relax knowing how much work was to be done.

One thing that has usually worked for me is keeping a list of things that need to get done. That list get’s prioritized and then steps are broken up into subtasks on a calendar. I have had projects get stalled for years sometimes like when I built my potting bench. After I finally got tired of the lumber being in my way, I broke down the remaining to dos and assigned tasks into daily achievable milestones on the calendar. I gave myself about a month to finish and I completed the project in two weeks.

The advantage to using a calendar format is that it also integrates planning into all the other life commitments as well making a more realistic plan for completion. I usually only do it intensively for a couple of weeks out or the duration of one project otherwise it is too cumbersome to shift around on an Excel document frequently. The disadvantage is that it is time intensive. One of the reasons that I don’t use this format as much as I would like is that it takes a lot of time to plan successfully. I could probably spend thirty minutes a day going over this file if I tried. So, I try to set a rough plan for the week and adjust it next week.

I have been using this file since 2003. My active use waxes and wanes depending on how much I have to do and how much planning time I spend. There are times when I open it every day and there are times when I open it once every month. I just depends. I guess that this is my version of a project management program.

I feel like this would be a good mobile app to build, I would certainly use it. I would also be interested in hearing about other productivity tools. Let me know if there is something better out there with goalsetting and project management. As you can see, I have a lot of work to do.