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May 20, 2025 – King Makers

May 20, 2025 /

This is going to be a light week this week. Tune into next Monday’s podcast to find out more details on why, if you care. I ran across this video a couple of days ago and I don’t know exactly why I watched it, but I did. It was a real eye opener.

Back when I was young, say the 1980s, we could know nearly everything in culture there was to know. If you had cable, listened to the radio and had access to magazines then you were in the know. Being out in the country, nobody had cable until the mid 1980s. But as access was available, some people had cable. That meant MTV and Disney.

I have certainly been aware that Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez came out of Disney programming. The thing that really surprised me was that today’s artists are still coming from Disney. Those would be the very contemporary Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo.

I am fifty now and my kids are in their late teens. It has been ten years since tween oriented shows were playing in my home. As kids do, they would binge watch show after show of some of these titles. I rarely ever paid much attention other than sitting down for 10 minutes to kind of validate that the content was age appropriate. What I am saying is that I pay little attention to what is hot in the grade school demographic.

That being said, I pay little attention to all popular culture other than the headlines I see in the news and what music my kids are streaming on the TV. What got me wondering about all of this is that does Disney just select extraordinary personalities or do those come from spending your youth working on Disney shows? When I think about it, I have to believe it is the latter rather than the former.

I want to say that most people grow out of Disney stars influencing their lives on what is ‘cool’. I want to say that. But, then again I know some adults that are constantly watching Kardashian makeup tips or things of that ilk. What that says to me is that this behavior is programmed from an early age with mechanisms like Disney series.

When we hear the term Oligarchy, I think most of us think drug company execs going into the FDA or at least buying influence. But when I think about it, isn’t this another form of it? Companies taking over brain space to influence future consumer behavior. It is not a conscious behavior but a subconscious one. ‘Experts say do this…’.

Clearly, not every cast member became superstars. Some did but then others didn’t want to go further, some flamed out with personal problems and others just remained in a supporting role. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better start for an ambitious young person. A highly impressionable and rabid fan base with access to Hollywood’s movers and shakers. Think of the advantage Britney Spears had at the age of 18 compared to the run of the mill high school graduate.

It’s not that those people didn’t have talent. But talent alone doesn’t cut it it requires opportunity. It is the same reason people accel to the position beyond their capabilities. They had the opportunity to advance but not the talent/experience/education to thrive. Similarly, how many people could do the same or better job but are not known (and we never will).

End Your Programming Routine: I think that this kind of programming can be broken. It simply requires becoming conscious of the behavior and draw. I don’t hate Disney nor am I against teen programming. I am not surprised or amazed by their alumni, who else would take command of popular culture but people that have defined it their whole lives. Like all things moderation is the key.

May 19, 2025 – Tunnel Vision

May 19, 2025 /

When I look at the calendar, things are pretty booked through late July. This is only a season and I am hoping that with kids starting their own journeys that I can look forward to future years of a more controlled fashion. All this being said, too much focus on the present can loose track of steps to prepare to future projects that need to happen now. I share my tunnel vision and encourage you to take a step back so that you don’t miss the opportunity.

May 16, 2025 – In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection, Chapters 3-5

May 16, 2025 /

I know that I keep saying this but I feel like this group of chapters is another where time has probably changed prevailing attitudes. For one thing, the deregulation of concealed carry has created an industry of specialized civilian training. And with that, has come a plethora of resources that didn’t exist in 1980 like the internet and podcasts as two examples. I think that those resources have spread a broader net of better information.

I remember as a kid, we would say things like ‘shoot bad guys in the knee’. Of course, I grew up under the shadow of the early westerns and every TV show with a bad guy had a good guy. There was no such show concepts like Breaking Bad where the good guy was also a bad guy or you couldn’t quite draw clear lines. As such, we wanted to do the proverbial ‘shoot ’em in the shoulder’ because the thought of taking life would put us in the bad guy category.

With that strong desire to be a good guy, there was also the idea that we would put the bad guys away with a citizen’s arrest. This is probably the result of too much A-Team or MacGyver. Ayoob did a pretty good job of cautioning the bad guy could turn the tide from captive to captor. That is a pretty valid point because the best practices today would say you shouldn’t draw a gun unless you are justified to shoot in the first place. Holding a perpetrator at gunpoint changes the force equilibrium.

More so than the risks of a captive, if a third party calls in a 911 call, how do the police distinguish between a good and a bad guy? We assume that we are talking about the good guy holding the bad guy at gunpoint but it could be just as easily the other way (for lots of reasons). For reasons of both safety and liability, it is just best to not emulate TV shows with a Citizen’s Arrest.

Regardless of what the police would do, what are you going to do? There is probably a 95% chance that a man beating a woman in the parking lot is the aggressor. But what if you were wrong? What if it was two men fighting, now who is the aggressor? What if one is stabbing another, is that assault or self defense? We just don’t know. It is sad and selfish but it is best for self preservation to not try to pick.

An active shooter is a different story. In that case, there is a clear aggressor. When I talk about concealed carry, I am also talking about a handgun. If you are unfortunate enough to be around an active shooter event the best you are going to do is have a loaded handgun. Handgun against handgun and you have a chance if they are an average marksman. Handgun against a rifle and you are going to need some luck.

Every person needs to make the calculus on what you would do. My values are to get myself and anyone with me away from the shooter. That means that I am not typically looking to engage. If you did, what if the shooter is dead but you also hit a bystander? Are you legally prepared for a lawsuit? It doesn’t matter if the victim should be thankful, he might be looking to cash in or maybe he can no longer work. These are all of the tough choices that need to be made.

Really the last chapter I want to talk about today does not fit into the first two nor next week’s so it ended up here. One of the largest growth factors in firearms has been women. I have to say that his suggestion of a snub nosed 38 special is superseded by many, many better choices today. As an owner of one, it is difficult to shoot well. It also recoils like a getting kicked in the hand. That was probably the best you could do in 1980.

You all know that I am not a woman (even in today’s culture) so it is hard for me to really identify with those particular struggles. That being said, the number of products for women’s concealed carry is a lifetime away from where it was when the book was written. I know for a fact that 5.11 makes yoga pants with integrated holster as an example.

End Your Programming Routine: The fundamentals are definitely 1980s sound. There isn’t much that has changed from the legal standpoint. We are really talking about legal standards that go all the way back to middle ages England, what is another forty-five years? It is the gear that have made exponential improvements. From bullets, holsters, laser aiming devices, flashlights, red dot sights, glow in the dark (tritium) sights, magazine capacities, new calibers, etc. The one right choice in 1980 has a bunch of potential better choices today.

May 15, 2025 – The Luck of the Draw

May 15, 2025 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 14, 2025 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 13, 2025 – Fix Your Refrigerator/Freezer Shelf

May 13, 2025 /

I have made these shelf fixes more often than I would care to count. Fortunately, the parts are often still available. Search the internet for your model of appliance and you will hopefully get a number of vendor options. You may find OEM options as well as secondary markets. While this fix is easy, it unfortunately is not cheap with OEM parts.

May 12, 2025 – Reflections on 20 Years of Parenthood

May 12, 2025 /

Parenting can feel like a bull ride sometimes. If you draw the easy one then you might hang on but miss the style points. If you get the hard one, it might kill you. Hang on and do the best you can. My family dynamic is about to to change with graduation coming up in less than a month. As such, I talk about things that occur on that journey and analyze options.

May 9, 2025 – In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection, Chapter 2

May 9, 2025 /

Chapter two is among the longest of the book which is why it gets it’s own week. Did you know that that there is a legal principal that force response has to be equal or lessor? Most of us would slap our foreheads when someone says you can’t just shoot somebody that simply insulted us. That seems like an obvious inappropriate response but there are more nuanced scenarios that you probably never considered or at least don’t know.

I am going to quickly cover some of the legal definitions in this chapter. To play in any world, you must learn the vocabulary. Otherwise, we cannot have any meaningful communication because it is likely two people would not understand what each is saying.

Lethal Force – This is a particular type of assault that has an expected outcome of death. This should not be confused with Deadly Force where the outcome is actually death. Depending on your skills and stature, simply punching someone may be deadly force but not lethal force. A man punching a baby is lethal force, an average man in a bar fight that ends in busted knuckles is neither.

Disparity of Force – This has multiple implications. Generally speaking in a one on one scenario, the person with the firearm has a disparity of force. But what if there are four people unarmed versus one armed? It is not favored in court to apply unequal force in the case of self-defense, particularly when it is deadly.

Equal Force – Unless you are in a Castle Doctrine state, it is generally considered imperative that self defense is only justified under equal force (or less). This is why we need to understand the concept of disparity of force first.

Reasonableness – The reasonableness standard is of course subjective and possibly changes with time. I think about the incidents where there is some kind of traffic issue and then the ‘victim’ chases the offender for redemption (or whatever). Would a reasonable person feel victimized in the situation and all of the above response reasonable? If the offense or response is not reasonable for the jury, then neither is self-defense.

Premises – The location of deadly force makes a huge difference to the standard by which you are judged. Incidents that happen at home have significantly different latitude that something that occurs at a public place.

Bare vs Reasonable Fear – Bare fear is fear that exists. It would be going to a certain part of town or someone wearing a motorcycle club vest. There must be more to the situation than bare fear like proximity and even more, belief of intent. You are on the same side of the street and they are aggressively moving toward you with agitation. Only reasonable fear is considerable for justifiable self-defense.

Innocence – The best legal defense is no protoorganism whatsoever. Remember that innocent is not the same as not guilty. If you knew there was going to be a gun-fight, it would be best to not go there in the first place.

Escalation – Escalation rarely is justified in self-defense. It get’s pretty muddy when you participate in some of the back and forth before deadly force. You possibly could have provoked the incident but met the other standards in the use of deadly force. For that reason leave the area/fight/confrontation before it starts.

This is a super quick run through of the key vocabulary terms. Many definitions have a significant amount of additional information, particularly reasonableness. So again, if you conceal carry and have not educated yourself with the intent for mastery in these subjects, you need training.

I find it untenable that someone can physically assault you and it still may not provide justification for deadly force. It all depends on what your grand jury neighbor’s feel is reasonable. As I keep saying, your particular jurisdiction may have broader interpretations of what is permissible, but if you stick to these definitions, it is much more likely that you stay in the clear.

End Your Programming Routine: In chapter one, Ayoob mentions that carrying a firearm is a privilege. I agree and disagree with that statement. It was certainly true that 1980 NYC (and today) it was a privilege because it is a very strict ‘may issue’ jurisdiction. Given more recent Supreme Court interpretations of the second amendment I disagree. Those are functions of changing opinions over time. One opinion that does not change is Ayoob is amongst the foremost experts in this topic. It would be wise to get these definitions down pat.

Next week, chapters 3-5.

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

May 8, 2025 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 7, 2025 – Sometimes, You Just Have To Do the Work

May 7, 2025 /

It was Saturday morning and I was doing some extra clean-up from dinner the night before. Usually, we put foil down when melting cheese on nachos but forgot this time. As a result, my son did the after dinner dishes and filled this pan with water to ‘soak’.

When I cook, I hate to have a dirty and cluttered counter. So, I was going to make breakfast because I had a busy day planned but there were a few things on the counter from the night before. This pan being one of them.

We have a loose rule in the house that the cook doesn’t do the dishes. That typically means the kids are responsible for the dishes. Sometimes, the other non-cook spouse jumps in as well. When my boys do the dishes, one loads the dishwasher and the other does the hand wash dishes. They have a famous stalling tactic of letting stubborn, stuck on food residue soak overnight.

The most common cooking vessel that gets ‘the soak’ is the crock pot. In fact, there have been a number of times that the crock sits in the sink for several days because there is still stuff stuck on the surface. With the sun shining through the window I couldn’t shake the thought that soaking only takes you so far. Sometimes, the short cut has done all that it can do. You just have to put in the work to get that dish clean.

As I have recently mentioned, I discovered that Life Below Zero has all the seasons on Disney Plus. During my free time like while cooking, I have the show on in the background as I run through the recent seasons that I have not seen. A constant theme in the dialog is how much work needs to be done. Unlike clean dishes, their work is life dependent.

In today’s world of building science and modern building materials (as well as more moderate climate), people that heat with wood go through three to six cords of wood for a year. In some cases with crude cabins and primitive buildings, they are using a cord of wood a week. Let’s not forget that heating season is nine months a year and many are also cooking with a woodstove.

For those of you that don’t speak wood heating, a cord is 4′ x 4′ x 8′. A typical stove length log is sixteen inches. To paint a visual picture, a cord would be three rows that are eight feet long and four feet high. And, that is per week. With temperatures as low as fifty degrees below zero (F) you really cannot afford to not put in the work.

Even though I am writing this, I feel like I sometimes fall into this trap. That is avoiding the work because I don’t want to do it. I think about even things I love to do like deer hunting. One of the reasons that I go once per season and rarely get a deer is because I don’t put in the work. I have a freezer full of beef, a closet full of clothes and money to buy any tools that I might need (if I need any more tools).

I love it. I am excited at the thought of going deer hunting. But when it comes right down to busting brush, getting rained on, sweating profusely, etc. I really don’t want to do it. If I have that much trouble with activities that I purportedly love, think about the motivation to do something that I don’t.

We are all human and have our preferences and desires. I find that a lot of the time, if I decide that I am going to do something, then that is what happens. The psychological barrier of not wanting to do something is much, much stronger than the time it takes to do the task. While I don’t have concrete evidence, I suspect that those of us that are willing bust through those barriers rather than being stopped are more successful in life.

I have found that through the years some things are best tackled first or at least early. For instance, the cheese grater washes infinitely easier if it goes from use to the sink. Even if you do not scrub it but keep it wet, it makes a huge difference in effort as well. If it sits on the counter until after dinner, it is significantly more difficult and time consuming to wash.

If I get a chance, I will wash the grater while I am making dinner. This is not because I want credit for less mess but I consider it a service to whomever is washing the dishes. If I can do it in a third of the time because cheese is not stuck onto a difficult to clean surface, I should do that as a courteous person in the kitchen. It is a variation of the golden rule.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that it is A-OK to let the pan soak. But, the next morning it is time to put in the work and get it clean. We can’t be so work adverse that we don’t put our firewood up or that metal rusts into pieces sitting in the sink waiting to get loosened up. Hard things can be character building as well. At the very least it helps to gauge when we have gotten all that we can from the shortcut or helper technique. Hard work often gives us the motivation to try and invent a better or easier way for next time.