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January 17, 2024 – Like Father, Like Son

January 17, 2024 /

My dear, dear son. We are so much alike and yet it seems like there are chasms between us. Our interest and capabilities are similar, our experience and feelings are similar and yet for some reason one is haunted while the other is content in our beings. He made this cleaver below. I went to put the dishes away and it was in the knife drawer with the note Happy Birthday on it. He even presented in a way that I would. In secret, without any fanfare.

Last week was a difficult week for us. I was busy trying to keep the household together while he was doubting his place and role in it. My birthday was a week ago but it really came and went. I made a Korean inspired dinner so that I could taste my kim chi. I have to say that it wasn’t quite as soft as I wanted but in many ways it was better than I hoped. I definitely preferred this one to many that I have tasted before.

I was worried about the heating system and that everyone had their physical needs met before we were iced in for a couple of days while he was iced in already. Since we really didn’t do much on my birthday, my wife suggested that we have a small dinner on Friday, ahead of the weather. I was focused on the best choice and getting the word out while he was already planning how he could avoid it all together.

I am not there, but I think that I had a very similar high school experience. My best friends were older than I was. And so, my senior year was a solitary one. I ate lunch by myself. I was a little lonely, but only from the perspective that I didn’t understand why I jived with people that were no longer around more so than my peers. It is not so much of a mystery really but it is hard to convey in words. I think that my propensity to get along with older people has served me well. My first boss being a World War II vet liked me very much and invested in my first seven professional years.

I don’t know how better to describe high school but trite. My era had people wearing baseball caps twisted with the tags hanging down and overalls clipped on one side. Talk about stupid. They were emulating the videos they saw on M-TV. It is no wonder I started listening to country music at that point. But at a deeper level, I can certainly understand not identifying with those people.

When you are not quite your own person and not self sufficient it is hard to squeeze into the crack of figuring out who and how you want to be. Even out of college, I struggled to become my own person. My parents didn’t do it intentionally (I don’t think) but in my head I was under their thumb and so therefore my decisions were clouded with how they would judge my decisions.

Now, it seems silly, but at the time it was real. I can’t get a job in college because my parents are paying for it. I can’t let them know that I am going to a bar. I can’t take that class, it is not serious enough. I can’t skip this class to do something I need to do. And on it goes. I get my son and we discuss gaps such as that. I do my best to empower him, but I can only go so far, It is up to him to take what is given.

I used to seek permission on many things, even at work. One day, I realized that if it is not illegal, immoral, against policy or something like that it was time to stop. Nobody needs to enable me to go above and beyond or improve something. That was a liberating moment even to the point that I am challenging the status quo on the other things as well now. Why is this policy in place that doesn’t make sense or I don’t agree with that stance because of X, Y , Z data.

You have to be careful with that way of doing business but it is part of becoming your own person. I think once that happens, then you become confident in who you are. And when you become confident, you become happier. When you become happier, you realize the proper perspective of all those other things were not worth the worry. That is where we need to take this conversation.

End Your Programming Routine: Of course, none of us are perfect. I am not and neither is my son. He ground and honed that edge, which took a lot of time and looks pretty good. The handle is a little more crude and made with pine, probably the wrong material for longevity and durability. It is just like our lives. Some things are worked and refined while other parts are dubious or inappropriate. We just need to keep practicing those elements that need work. Find another material, method, use another design or shape until we find something that works for us. The only way to do that is to keep trying.

January 16, 2024 – Speak of the Devil…

January 16, 2024 /

The day after I put out my winter preparedness note, I heard the heater make a long buzzing sound. I said to myself, that doesn’t sound right. Then, about an hour later, my wife said “do you smell that?”. I said no but I went upstairs and then I could smell a waxy smell, electrical-ish. I did some testing and it seems like the heater wasn’t working.

You can see from the thermostat that I have the power turned off. But, of all the things to happen right before the temperature drops to below zero for several days, this is close to the worst. At least you can take solace in the electricity is still on, this allows for the use of space heaters.

Fortunately, I do have several space heaters electric, propane and kerosene. It probably makes sense to move to one fuel, I think that is propane. Electricity doesn’t work when the power is out and kerosene has too many fumes. The one down side of propane is that the tanks are bulky but at least it is relatively affordable.

When I first learned that things were not working like they should, I turned off the power. It wasn’t terribly cold outside but the temperature started to drop throughout the day. I was using appliances and doing laundry so that kept the temperature at 67 before turning in for the day. There was a visible temperature wall between the bedroom with the space heater running and the rest of the house.

By the time I woke up in the morning, the temperature had dropped to 57 degrees. Based on what I was expecting, the service technician was going to validate that they were going to have to order a new motor. The best case scenario was that they would get it on Monday, after we had a weekend never climbing above freezing. I wasn’t cold yet but I was getting prepared for it.

The diagnosis was true, it was the motor. Then the technician asked if I wanted to try a universal motor. It wasn’t the OEM motor but it was also in stock and half the price they quoted me for a factory replacement part. I said, “I don’t understand try. Does it not fit or something?” He said, it had more power inputs. I have to admit, I still don’t understand the downside, it is called universal for a reason. I said yes, and it worked.

Having a spare furnace or even replacement parts of that sort are not really practical. The truth is, when they did the winter service in December, they said that the motor was ‘tired’. But, who really knows what that means? I said that I wanted to see a quote before I committed to anything. I mean, who really wants to spend another unplanned grand in December.

My wife thinks that I should have done the maintenance when they quoted it. She even said to me why wait? I am not doubting the technicians experience nor opinion but really define ‘tired’ for me. Nobody, including him could predict that the motor would fail on this day. If so, I would have scheduled the replacement for the day of the failure.

Of course, having back-up heat in general is a really good idea. In this climate, I could get by all summer without cooling and a lot of the winter, it might be unpleasant but at least the plumbing wasn’t going to freeze. That was my biggest concern. All things considered, I think the lesson is don’t just consider one opinion when making decisions. But gather the data and cross check others to see if they make sense. If the part had cost $200, I probably would have scheduled the repair but the fact that we were getting near $1000 was a little more than I was willing to just jump.

End Your Programming Routine: Nobody wants to spend a quick $550. But, had I not insisted that they come out and look, I would have been waiting all weekend for the motor to come in and paid twice as much. So, despite the drawbacks, I am pleased that the issue is fixed. And with central heat in the house, I am reasonably comforted that there will be enough heat not to freeze the plumbing.

January 12, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto I-II

January 12, 2024 /

Now I have gone a done it. I picked something so ambitious that I don’t know where to start. In case you are not familiar, The Devine Comedy was written in the late 1200s, set in 1300. Of course, it was written in Italian which means it was translated into English for me. Because of it’s age, it has been looked at over and over again and so there is lots of opinions about what it says and what it means.

I have read part 1 (The Inferno) before. All three of these are poems which contain much symbology making it not only abstract but also highly subjective to the translators vision. I find myself reading and re-reading because I don’t know what is exactly happening. My version is huge, it seems like half of it are notes as to what this or that is referring to or why they chose this translation versus others.

My purpose for picking this book was to spend more time talking about eternity and Devine topics more critically. For instance, I don’t particularly believe Purgatory, it will be interesting to see what Dante has to say about it. So far, I can already tell that it is helpful to have a good command of Roman history, mythology and Christianity because there is a lot here that I am referring to the notes to keep up.

This book is going to take a while. I plan on breaking it up into one topic at a time. Canto I and II are considered introductions to the levels of hell. So, when I get to the first level, that will be a week unto its own. I don’t know the book well enough to say what each week will be yet, but maybe I can do it as I go along. That being said, feel free to read ahead.

Because things are so cryptic, I am going to look at other sources while we go along. Normally, I don’t like doing that because I feel that it influences my opinion. But, in this case, it is necessary otherwise I won’t get anything out of this. If I don’t get anything, it will be pretty difficult to give anything worthwhile.

With that, Canto I and II are considered the introduction to the Inferno. Canto I has Dante entering the afterlife met by Virgil, the Roman poet. It has been speculated that Virgil is at the beginning of the journey because he lived pre-Christ. Therefore in the Catholic belief, he could not attain pure heaven nor hell. Virgil will be guiding Dante through Hell and some of Purgatory.

Canto II, Virgil explains that he was instructed by Beatrice to deliver three prayers to Dante because of concern for his love life. In case you don’t know who Beatrice is, she is the love of Dante’s life but married to another so he can’t have her. I had to look her up too, confused yet? Because of Dante, she was a semi-famous subject for nineteenth century art, but more of an inspiration to the story.

Virgil sort of lays out the land of how things are going to go including getting past the leopard of malice and fraud, the lion of violence and ambition and the she-wolf of incontinence. Now we have some foreshadowing for the hierarchical levels of hell too. If you thought like I did, hmm the worst sin is to poop all over the place. I had to think about that wording a little stronger. Actually the first definition in Webster is a the state of being incontinent. And the definition of incontinent contains 1) lacking self-restraint 2) not being under control.

We might imagine all types of sin that fall into that category. In broad strokes or my interpretation is non-violent crime, followed by violent crime and then sadistic, evil acts. All that is of course subject to the lens of the period. We will wait and see what this actually translates to in the book.

My book offers a summary before each Canto. In the summary, it claims that Dante and Virgil are symbols for human reason while Beatrice is the representing Devine love. It also talks about the levels being recognition of sin for hell, the reunification of sin for purgatory and then finally heaven. Even though I don’t hold those Catholic beliefs, I can sort of see the value of clearing them out of your existence before heaven. It is like the twelve step program, you have to attempt to make amends before you can be free yourself.

Let me cut to the chase here. If we believe everything about the symbols, then this is God telling Dante to figure it out. Use your human brain to understand eternity and I will use the most attractive bait I can find to persuade you. And so, we begin The Devine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

End Your Programming Routine: This was and will be hard. With the advent of modified beliefs and 750 years, we will see if we can learn the same lessons that Dante did. I do not believe that humanity or behavior has changed significantly since that time but our interpretation or judgement may have. Next week will be Canto III and IV,

January 11, 2024 – Snow Is a Comin’, Are You Ready?

January 11, 2024 /

Every part of the country has some weather. Even places where it snows, sometimes they get so much that it cant be handled. I worked with a guy from North Dakota who said that they kept an emergency kit at awork. If it was too windy, then they were not able to leave the plant due to visibility of the roads. Everyone would have to stay put until it was possible to get replacements.

That meant they kept some cold weather gear, a pantry and some bedding. We are expecting about eight inches of snow tomorrow with temperatures that will remain below freezing all day for several days. Thanks to the foresight of our ultra woke government pushing climate change agenda, they have not collected enough gas tax revenue to fund only the necessary road maintenance. This means plowing the highways that are east-west corridors.

What I am saying is expect an ice rink on the roads for a few days. That means the smart money is preparing now, while there is still time. It is not forever, just a couple of days. But, that is the point. If it is going to be a zombie apocalypse, then there is nothing to be done but accept the fate. But, as long as a couple of days we might as well limit the interruptions.

So, what does that look like? I think that you are smart enough to figure it out but nevertheless, I am going to put out some reminders.

  1. Have a menu planned for the duration of the event. Purchase things to fulfill that
  2. Pickup prescriptions early if you can or at least ensure that you have enough to span the event.
  3. Instead of snow it could be ice and with ice comes potentially larger problems like power outages. Sometimes for weeks. It is a great time for fuel for heaters and generators.
  4. If you have generators and fuel make sure your extension cords are in good repair, you have enough and can reach what you would like to power.

If you must travel, make sure your vehicle is prepared. It is possible to drive in the snow and ice. I personally have snow chains just in case. People that often drive in this weather like snow tires because they are a large improvement over regular tires and not near the hassle of chains. That being said, the tire shop will be a mad house, budget hours more than normal. Speaking of vehicles, here are some more things to consider.

  1. A weak battery is a huge liability. If you have been struggling with one, expect the worst.
  2. I have an ice scraper in the car. I use it from time to time here. The best ones for snow combine scraper with a snow brush.
  3. I am assuming that I am talking with infrequent winter travelers. Other vehicle preparations are many but it having a tow strap, shovel, traction media, flares and the capability to leave the vehicle if the situation warrants. This goes without saying that other winter preparations like antifreeze, etc

The decision to leave or stay with the vehicle is complicated. Generally speaking it is better to stay with it unless you know where you are going and it can be safely and successfully navigated. Walking home because your car is in a ditch, walking home out of the woods for days is not a good plan.

Careful for slips and falls. I have a shovel to clear paths and a bucket of salt at the ready. Speaking of the outside, be mindful of pet’s water freezing or anything else for that matter. For goodness sake, disconnect your garden hoses from the source. I have frozen pipes twice because of that.

I also need to be mindful of my sump pump. The outlet will freeze causing the pump to deadhead. That needs to be unplugged until the temperatures go above freezing. Be ready for the thaw because all of that formerly frozen water is coming but if the pipe is not clear, here comes the flooding. This requires thinking on your feet when this happens. So, the freeze is one thing but preparing and handling the thaw is another.

End Your Programming Routine: Hopefully, this is just a sledding opportunity and a some cabin time. But if not, then it never hurts to have situational awareness and the ability to do something about it before that decision is made for us. And maybe if you are not already into preparedness, this is a small taste to a better life.

January 10, 2024 – Kim Chi Me

January 10, 2024 /

This is the inaugural fermentation. I picked Kim Chi because I have a large container of the Korean pepper gochutgaru lying around. My wife loves to buy me spicy things and yet many people do not have the same affinity to spicy things as I do, so I do have a backlog of spicy stuff hanging out.

Lactofermentation is very easy. Keep the stuff in an anaerobic environment and it takes care of itself. To do that, add salt and a weight. The salt brings out the liquid from the vegetables and the weight keeps them under the liquid level (created by adding salt). That is it.

If you want the probiotic lifestyle (that is to say benefits), then you need to keep the ferment raw. Canning or cooking will kill those beneficial microbes. The good news is that it can be served directly from the very container it is made in and as long as the end product stays under water, no harm will ever come. Discard anything that molds, that is not anaerobic anymore.

Sauerkraut by contrast is very simple, cabbage and salt. Kim chi has a few more ingredients but not terrible they are as follows.

  1. 4#, Napa cabbage
  2. 1#, Daikon radish
  3. 2, carrots
  4. 1 bunch, green onion
  5. 4 cloves, garlic
  6. 1 inch ginger
  7. 1/4 cup, korean pepper
  8. 4 tablespoons salt

I looked at a number of recipes and it does appear that official kim chi has some sugar and fish sauce as well as a rice flour type gravy. I figure I can add this after the ferment or adjust things later if I choose to so I didn’t add it.

The trick is to layer the cabbage and salt. I have a special tamper that is used to press the salt into the cabbage which helps get the water out quicker. I also used it to mix the different components around as I added them. It is kind of like a tenderizer for meat. It is really not necessary, I have made sauerkraut without it.

Once everything is in good contact, I put the weights in and the lid on. Keep the crock at room temperature while it is fermenting. All that is to do is to wait. You can see on the last picture that there is already a complete layer of liquid. This was only after an hour and a half.

How do you know when it is done? When it tastes to your liking. Expect three days to a week in general. To slow the process, chill.

How will it be stored? It can be served directly out of the crock or it can moved to another container.

How long will it keep? It can easily last over the until the next growing season. Use your eyes and nose as guides

End Your Programming Routine: My three gallon crock is significantly too large for this size batch. So, I plan on moving it into a 1 gallon (or 1/2 gallon or even quart) jar and put in the refrigerator when done. I plan on making a nice batch of pickles later in the spring when cucumbers actually start producing. And I am definitely going to load up with sauerkraut in the late summer. What I am saying is that this is a great size to make a lot of stuff but not as great to store and serve. More experimenting to come.

January 9, 2024 – Adding a USB, PCIe Expansion Card

January 9, 2024 /

All of my USB ports are full. It was possible to unplug things as I need them, but that was inconvenient. It is also possible to add a USB hub, however my computer is so old that it only has USB 2.0 ports. So, not only was this for convenience but also gives added performance.

One thing to know is that these cards are considered a USB hub. This means that you are not going to be able to charge 7 different devices each plugged into their own port. Cards or ports that perform the full USB capability are significantly more expensive and you may need an upgraded power supply to do so. Investigate specifications based on your own needs.

Here are a few more tidbits. The card that I chose has 5 USB, A-style ports and 2, C-style ports. Part of why I did this was to try and future proof this machine as long as possible. This desktop computer was purchased as a refurbished computer in 2012 so we are going into the 14th year of use. Pretty good as technology goes.

You can purchase cards that have less ports and by proxy they are also cheaper. But again, I was trying to future proof this as much as possible. So my particular card is the value compromise, the most ports for the cheapest cost. Here is how it was installed.

This video was also edited using a new software OpenShot. I am not sure why Microsoft keeps making video editing worse. The old Windows Media editor was the best, then I was using Pictures, and I have played around with ClipChamp. Each version was more difficult to work with then the last. So, I tried OpenShot.

It works fine, but it may not have the features that I actually want still. The transitions are a little clunky and there are no screen or text editors. So, maybe practice is what I need first before I move on to another program. Also, with two videos with my new action camera, the audio is definitely poor. I need to investigate a separate microphone or just relegate this to voiceover type videos.

End Your Programming Routine: I cant say again how much better plug and play life is. Plug the card in and start using it. This is miles from having to assign the drive in the BIOS and then re-install the service pack (for those of you that remember NT). This was after setting the jumpers on the card, etc.

January 5, 2024 – Lessons In Chemistry

January 5, 2024 /

For once, I am ahead of the game. It helped that I took some time off during Christmas to do things like read. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was the January Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection. I think that I would also be remised that if I didn’t say that this is not the normal Friday book review. I will talk later about what is happening next week.

This is not the typical type of book that we have been reading. For the last five years, it has been cookbooks and memoirs. We are not going to abandon those completely but lighten things up dispersing genre related fiction. This one you might say loosely relates to food as the main character Elizabeth Zott hosts a TV show about cooking.

This was one of the hottest books of 2023. It was the most checked out in the New York Public Library. It was the number one download in audiobooks and a New York Times bestseller. Of course I have never heard of it, but it was suggested by one of the book club members. It is safe to say that this is on the leading edge of trendy fiction last year.

There is a lot to say about this book. The plot has some things very familiar to me as well as things I know nothing about. It is set in the 1950s and 1960s about a woman who is in a man’s world in many ways. She is a chemist (something I know a little about) trying to be taken seriously in a science which I could imagine.

Elizabeth is a bit of a dichotomy. She wants to make waves in research but refuses to play the game in order for her to compete or gain respect for that matter. I am certainly not excusing wrong doing or even pretend that I totally understand the mindset of the 1950s because I wasn’t there. I was born post women’s revolution and a child of the 1980s, Women were always in the workforce, including a very few chemists.

I do have a bit of an Elizabeth streak in me too. Maybe it is a chemist thing, but sometimes you get a bit of right is right and it doesn’t matter what the consequences are. That attitude is not without its drawbacks however. I think that the trick is to deploy that tactic at the proper time. It is really hard to do and something that Elizabeth really doesn’t master either.

The major theme of the book to me is women’s rights. In my class of ten or so graduates, I think two of them were women. So, I have been watching the small tidal change of females in STEM for the last thirty years. What I am seeing is the shift of the sex demographic in higher education. The numbers are overwhelmingly female at all higher education institutions so it eventually has to trickle into the male dominated fields at some point.

I enjoyed the book. I suspect that if it had not been set in chemistry, maybe I wouldn’t have as much. It has that Mississippi Burning kind of appeal to it. The injustice is so strong that you root for the character to get vengeance. I suppose that I never gave it a thought about what life would be like for a woman in the 1950s trying to make a go of science in the academic world.

I have never read a work of fiction where chemistry played such a major role. I am also saying that I never really read Michael Creighton, so maybe that would qualify my statement a little. But, the Back to the Future/Weird Science/Honey I Shrunk the Kids type of portrayal is much more common way to put science out of reach for most people. The writers don’t understand it, so they are not going to make an attempt to make it approachable.

Heads up for next week I am starting Dante’s Devine Comedy. Dystopian fiction has kind of run it’s course for the time being. I thought that we might investigate the afterworld, not just our current one and so that is what I am picking for the next book. I have read the first third before. That is what we typically refer to as ‘Inferno’ and talks about the layers of hell and their corresponding sins. I am trying to figure out exactly how to break it down at the moment.

End Your Programming Routine: There is a good reason that this book was so popular last year. It is a fresh subject and a new approach to mystery. It reminds me a little of an alternate Julia Child plot. She shares many of the traits of Elizabeth with a little more worldly acumen. The story line kind of follows a similar arc but you can read that for yourself.

January 4, 2024 – Did You Get Anything Cool For Christmas, I Did

January 4, 2024 /

As you know, I am not a fan of Christmas. I am not a great gift giver and most of the things that I want are very expensive. Gifts are often a disappointment. It is not that I don’t appreciate a nice, new flannel. In fact I was thinking of buying one as I was wrapping up our Christmas shopping. I didn’t want to spend the extra money at the time, but it is just not fun.

I have wanted a fermenting crock for many years. The older I get, the more I appreciate sour and bitter flavors. In fact, I have made my own sauerkraut before. They are not terribly expensive, about fortyish dollars and I almost bought a handmade one at the state fair this year. I meant to, I just didn’t want to carry it all night and then I forgot by the time we left.

Honestly, this one is a little large. It is three gallons. That is a lot of fermented vegetables. They are meant to be out on the counter. If you think about it, how many pickles are you going to eat in one setting? You take one out each day and this is a way to get those beneficial probiotics. I think a more practical size is one gallon for that purpose. I would call this more of a production size.

Probably like all things, it is one of those things that one is not enough. In reality, you want one fermenting while eating out of one. So, maybe in the future, I will get a one gallon size for that reason. As I said, they are not that expensive. I also have been saying, start where you are. It doesn’t matter how many things you have if you don’t use them.

Sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles are definitely on the agenda. This time of year, there is not a lot of surplus, so I will start with store bought vegetables and small. As much as I like this stuff, it will be hard for me to get everyone onboard meal after meal. Start slowly and see how it goes.

What is nice about a store bought fermenting crock is the accessories. It has a properly sized weight for the vessel and an appropriately fitting lid. This can be done in a pot or a bucket, I have done both. This process is not about the tools, it is more about the acceptability of your spouse. Having a vessel that is approved to stay out on the counter makes it much more likely that it is going to bet used.

End Your Programming Routine: This quarter’s Backwoods Home magazine is all about fermenting. I am looking forward to reading that. It will be inspiration for my new element of fermenting. I would like my first project to be pickles, but I think it is probably going to be kimchi instead.