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March 7, 2024 – Say It To Make It Happen

March 7, 2024 /

I started off the week talking about how little I feel like I have accomplished this winter. The truth is, at that point I had a lot of irons in the fire and for quite some time. I didn’t have dedicated time scheduled to do any of the work and it seemed like each project was dragging on.

Wouldn’t you know that the log jam has broken. I finished my third duct. I have one more to go and it is a partial installation. It is still not done-done but the momentum is there as well as the desire. I was dreading the rewiring and the unknown. I also knew that once I started, I was committed and there were also limited stopping points. In addition to that, I brewed my next batch of beer. I went to the range for the first time in months. I did it all while weaving all my other obligations in at the same time.

I didn’t say those things to get me motivated. But, somehow by putting them front of mind, I found a way to push to the end. This is a technique that is very helpful when you want to get stuff done. It is one of the values of using a list. This puts tasks front and center of what needs to get done.

There is a psychological satisfaction of crossing things off the list for sure. But, the real value of the list comes down to the ability to triage and prioritize. Priority comes down the the time and resources we have, external deadlines and the desire to do it. The last one is subjective and can have a strong influence for me. My desire to do something my not outweigh the consequences of penalties on external deadlines.

That is all good and well but really I am talking about the power of committing to doing something. It is what makes ultra-marathoners complete the race, the person getting out of debt or the someone learn a new language. They put the goal first of mind and then develop habits around it.

If I were to say, ‘I’m going to get in shape’. Then I am going to evaluate my diet and my physical exertion. I am not going to get in shape if I do not make changes to support at least one of those two parameters. Each one of those things will have sub-steps and challenges unto their own.

Even if I change diet and add exercise, I still may not get into shape. I will be in a better position for sure, but to be in shape I need to do those steps with intent. Maybe to you in-shape means to finish a 5K or maybe it means finishing a 5K under 15 minutes. You need explicit benchmark goals to correctly evaluate whether you are on the right path.

Putting the goal of getting in shape front of mind means that I will have to research recipes or purchase food that in not described as cheese puffs. I means that I will have to dedicate some time a day or week to exercise. That has to become part of my calendar or schedule when planning other things. Or said another way, it has to become front of mind.

End Your Programming Routine: Mastering this is not easy. I haven’t done so. I also find that the older I get the more susceptible I am to desire. I desire not to do that so I pay someone to mow the grass. We all have these conflicts. The real secret is harnessing the time and resources we do have on the things that are important for us to do. Those are the things that we need to keep front of mind.

March 6, 2024 – Did I Invent Something?

March 6, 2024 /

A couple weeks ago, we had our culinary book club dinner. I didn’t plan this on purpose, but I decided that I would bring some of my kim chi to share. It was kind of an easy out for me since I had already made it, I didn’t have to rush to cook before the meal. Predictably, people took a courtesy serving leaving me with a lot of leftover kim chi. I don’t mind, I want to get this superfood lifestyle anyway. It is why I made it after all.

My wife has had some interesting food cravings lately. One of them is that she wants to eat a lot of hotdogs. We bought a pack at Costco at the beginning of the month. She was off with her friends one night and so I decided that rather than investing a lot of time cooking, I would just heat some hotdogs for myself and my son.

I am a fan of lacto-fermented foods. I love sauerkraut on my hotdog. And being a practical person, I was going to take a healthy serving of kim chi because I am going to be the one that eats it all anyway. All of the sudden I got the idea that I would have a bite of hotdog with kim chi. Wow.

It is almost better than sauerkraut. It is not just acidic but has crunch and the chili adds a zing to it. I had never heard of kim chi on a hotdog and my mind started going. It is nearly perfect, but I think adding some kind of sweet plum sauce as well would be the perfect combination of sweet and sour balance.

I did a quick internet search and certainly there is something for anybody out there by now. The truth is, there is very little on the subject. That means that very few people have ever put this combination together. This is a perfect fusion/food truck idea. I know that sauerkraut is not for everyone. But for those that like it, I think this is a twist worthy of consideration. It is also worthy of some experimentation for perfection.

Mind you, my kim chi is a modified version. I didn’t add fish sauce nor did I add extra rice starch liquid. My plan was to dress those things later at the time of serving. I actually think this version is a better compliment for a condiment than the traditional version. Nobody likes a soggy bun and the fish sauce umami is un-needed. But again, those could be added at serving.

End Your Programming Routine: I often find that my best results are the repurposing of ingredients. The more I experiment, the more free my mind wanders. This is a perfect fusion of east and west. It doesn’t look like I invented it, but it sure appears to be unknown. Give it a try.

March 5, 2024 – Review: The Boys In The Boat

March 5, 2024 /

“The boys in the hood are always hard. Come talking that trash they pull your card…” Remember that song? Well, the boys in the boat are also pretty hard. Coming of age in the Great Depression and participating in grueling work-outs in terrible weather kind of makes my bones chill. You might have seen the movie, I haven’t yet but it is on my shortlist just to complete this story.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a non-fiction story about the University of Washington crew team striving for 1936 Olympic gold. It is more or less focused on a couple of people. Al Ulbrickson is the Washington coach, George Pocock is a boat builder and unofficial consultant and rower Joe Rantz from birth to winning the gold medal in 1936.

Joe is the book’s major character. He had an amazing and heartbreaking, hardscrabble upbringing. The death of his mother and the cold shoulder of his step mother left him alone in his high school years. It is impressive that despite the cruelty of the period, Joe was able to hustle to the point that he could get into the university and stay there.

The first third of the book was the history of the three primary characters. The second half of the book was the ebb and flow of the crew team. Finally, the last fifteen percent or so was the Olympic tribulations. An interesting aspect of the book was the parallel Nazi story where the Olympics were used to deceive the rest of the world of the building evil. Short anecdotes were added about the propaganda setup that was part of the effort.

This was a book that I got for Christmas. It came as a a recommendation from a friend of my mom. I had no idea that there was a coming movie or that this story was becoming a phenomenon. Since I read almost everything put in front of me, I went ahead and dove into the book. That being said, I will offer my analysis now.

Since I haven’t seen the movie, I am going to have to speculate here. Usually I am a book over movie person. That may be because I usually read the book long before seeing the movie. I have to wonder in this case if this is a movie before the book. The reason I say this is because the book is wildly detailed. This is a long, almost 400 page story for the quest. I suspect that the same effect could have been achieved at half the volume of words.

I really enjoyed the backstory of Joe Rantz. The following chapters of the ups and downs of the crew seasons and constitution of the team got quite nuanced and drawn out. While the title is Boys in the Boat, there really was not much back story or focus on any of the other boys other than Joe. I think if I was the editor, I would have refocused the entire story, including the title on Joe.

While I found the Nazi component intriguing, this comes off as a thinly cloaked, pro-USA propaganda story of its own. We have the Germans giving their own team the best lane while the pure grit Americans win despite being put at a disadvantage proving that we were the divinely favored ones.

Was the story worth the effort? I would have to say that if you are a UW fan, a rower or a non-specific history buff then yes, but otherwise no. The human interest is really in the character Joe Rantz and the amazing feats that he did to survive and thrive. It is hard to understand the perspective of the privileged Yale, Harvard or Cornell versus hoping to eat daily Washington team. So, it is a common man triumph that could get the same effect in a novelette or magazine article.

About five years ago, my sister got her PhD from University of Washington. On that day, we walked down to Lake Washington and walked right next to the very boathouse that still remains. My brother-in-law pointed out the cut and the basic layout of the area. I had no idea that there was a story there or that one day I would see a picture in a book of that very building.

End Your Programming Routine: I was instantly drawn in to the first picture of the boathouse. I stayed interested in the early life of Joe. Once the book got into the grind of the journey, I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the rest of the story. It has an exciting ending with a photo finish but you could look that up. This is a story that doesn’t have enough meat to read the whole book. No disrespect to Mr Brown, I think it was meticulously researched by evidence of its length. My suggestion is to reformat the story to the title ‘A Boy in the Boat’.

March 4, 2024 – Keeping It Light

March 4, 2024 /

This week I wanted to come up from the heaviness since the beginning of the year and that to come. I do some self analysis and draw some conclusions. Even though I am talking about me, I am pretty sure that what I am saying applies to everyone.

March 1, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XII – XVII

March 1, 2024 /

On to level seven. It took me around two hours to read this section despite the fact that it was around twenty pages. I read, then I read the footnotes, then I read again and wonder if I am getting anything out of this. This finally seems like we are going the right direction. But still when I look ahead, I wonder if this is actually put in the right order. Let’s talk about what is here.

The seventh level contains three different types of ‘violence’. In my translation it is said the first one is violence against neighbors. That is violence as we would expect; people killing people. These were souls stuck in a river of boiling blood presumably at the depth to the level of their quantity of violence. Here we see Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun as examples.

The second area was violence against self. These were people that committed suicide. Their spirits were implanted into thorny trees that ravaged daily by furies who rip off branches causing more pain. In essence, they never escape the self torture in death that was suffered in life.

The third area had two different categories. One was violence against nature which translates more colloquially as homosexuality and bestiality. The second area was violence against art which I don’t totally get. It is said to be usury or predatory lending. The first part were souls stuck on a burning sand desert that also rained flaming ashes. The second was perched on a ledge on the way down to level eight.

There were several things that I found puzzling. The first is using a modern lens, the payday lender is bigger sinner than a mass murderer? I would imagine that we would see Adolf Hitler in the river with Atilla the Hun. Usury is a subjective evaluation in my opinion. What one person thinks is a rip-off may be fine for another. We of course have laws about the maximum amount of interest that is permissible but I find those rates to be usury myself. But, from the information I have seen, those are voluntary and satisfactory interactions.

We don’t really see usury in this society. I imagine that institutions like the mafia or gangs may fit the bill since they play in that arena. I really don’t know many details about what is common. But then again, there are probably other sins that they are also committing. Maybe you had to be there?

The second thing that I found challenging was that after level after level of surface level interactions Dante found a lot of comrades on the sand. In this epic about sin and Dante having his day, there is little evidence that these people were out in the open. Apparently Dante had several deep, admirable relationships with the specters he met here and it makes you wonder if this was really the condemnation that we are led to believe. In some interactions, there is clear animosity over perceived wrongs. So maybe Dante is a criminal against nature?

Finally, the notes in the book on individuals on suicide did not actually indicate suicide. Maybe more like reckless behavior. There were people that were killed in battle and there were mythology figures that were killed by poison as examples. But the text clearly references that it was suicidal thoughts and behaviors regardless of whether the history proves it correct.

I think that it is worth noting that we are talking about something that was written in the early 14th century. They didn’t have the internet to instantly fact check information and maybe they didn’t even have written records to reference. I think that it is somewhat forgivable to have some of the facts mixed up. But it is difficult to fully understand intent when the facts and the story don’t quite line up.

Reading this section is like reading the “Dungeon Master’s Guide”. If you ever saw the first printings of this, it was mostly an encyclopedia of monsters. I don’t have a copy anymore but I am pretty sure everything that we are running across in this story was catalogued in there.

To do another serious reading of this story, it would be worth boning up on Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology. The back story of the characters that Dante sees and interacts with plays a significant role in the innuendo of the story. I am getting some of it from the footnotes as I read along, but I am certainly struggling to swim in the name stew of mythological characters. I am a lot better with the monsters.

Be warned, next week is a long one. Cantos 18-31 comprise level eight. As I look at the story, this will be the longest stretch in the entire book analysis. To me, this indicates the significance to Dante. Of course, more on all of that next week.

End Your Programming Routine: Maybe it was finally getting to some identifiable sins or maybe it was getting into more than one or two Cantos that I liked this section. Despite the fact that I struggle with his categorization, the penalties and creatures were captivating. The notes indicate that Dante may have been in the Franciscan order at one point, but I am really impressed at how much he knows about mythology. Before the age of enlightenment, Dante is an impressive character.

February 29, 2024 – It Has Been a Long Time Since I Have Been To the Range…

February 29, 2024 /

Happy leap day everyone. It may be that I am getting older and lazier but I haven’t been to the range since November. My renewal date is around the first of the year and I haven’t hardly even thought about going. It kind of makes me wonder if I should keep up my membership if I am not going to use it.

Another possible reason is that since I have setup my basement, pellet trap I use it multiple times a week. So, I feel less of the need to go to the range because I am always shooting without going anywhere. Recently I upgraded the scope on an air rifle so I am going to talk about the process today.

My son has a Crossman 760. It is a straight tube (non-rifled), multi-pump, bb/pellet combo. It is one of those classic bb guns. I can remember my cousin’s had the same one in the 1980s. My son’s looks exactly the same but today’s model has a sleeker, more updated design. It has a 3/8 rail for a scope addition.

When I purchased my first air-rifle, it also came with a very in-expensive 4×15 scope. It truly is better than nothing but for not much money you can do much better. But, the better part of my motivation was to put a scope on my son’s rifle. I figured I would upgrade the scope on my rifle and move the old scope to the 760.

Since the 760 is not rifled, it is not likely to be the most accurate of the bunch. By my reasoning, a significant scope upgrade would only marginally be of value on that rifle. The sights aren’t that great either and my groups are more like 2 inch groups with the 760. Additionally, I am noticing my eyesight is starting to degrade rapidly. Even this scope would help.

I took the old scope off and sighted the new scope on my rifle. It is shooting pretty good and I think the $40 investment was worth the cost and effort. I put the old scope on the 760 and the picture above represents how things went. Despite the fact that things were pretty dialed in my first shot was six inches to the left. As I kept working at it, I kept walking right and up. The final three shots above the center is where I left it.

Keep in mind that changing the number of pumps or the projectile will also change how things work. In my case eight (out of ten) pumps with a BB (5gr, one of the lightest projectiles) at ten yards will likely yield lower impact for heavier projectiles or less pumps. Given the same conditions, farther distance will likely have some drop as well. I think it is about perfect.

One other thing about inexpensive scopes is the adjustments are kind of poor. It is marked as on click per 1/4″ at 100 yards. So, at ten yards 1/4″ is supposed to be 10 clicks. But when it makes no clicks, you are not totally sure what the adjustment actually is. They also tend to act erratically sometimes by having different results the next day because something finally sprang into place. Some people actually tap on their scopes after adjustment to try and help them set in place.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy to report that things were still in place the next day and I think this is an improvement over open sights. I do have a picture here somewhere with some previous testing I did but I couldn’t find it. And there is a real improvement in my rifle with the new scope on it. Win-win, I say.

February 28, 2024 – Repurposing Super Bowl Leftovers

February 28, 2024 /

I hope that you don’t have leftovers from the Super Bowl still. It took me a while to get to this topic. But I wanted to put out mind opener. Let me cover what we had going here. I had a crab Rangoon dip with a bunch of raw crab, queso dip and spinach artichoke dip. So what can we do with this stuff other than eating a bunch of chips, crackers and dip for weeks?

First of all, I had wings on Monday and we did make nachos on the Tuesday after the super bowl. But we did have a lot of queso dip left after that. You have to use your brain here. What is in queso dip? The dip was evaporated milk, white American cheese and a can of green chiles. I found it to be really bland to begin with so why not repurpose this? After all, alfredo sauce is a cheese dispersed in milk.

To combat the slight, wrong cheese flavor, I heavily seasoned shrimp with Cajun seasoning with some to the sauce as well and thinned the whole thing down with cream. I served over fettuccini noodles. You would have never known that this started out as queso dip.

The crab Rangoon dip needed a little more delicate flair. This dip was made with crab, cream cheese, green onions, topped with some shredded cheddar cheese and sweet chili sauce. I love to use this kind of thing as omelet filler so that is what I did.

I purchase crab for the dip in a can. We only needed about half of it so we had probably a cup of crab. That got made into a seafood chowder. It wasn’t enough crab to call it a crab chowder so I supplemented by adding some canned clams. My point with this one is that you can still use up smaller quantities of leftovers by adding other items with them.

The spinach artichoke dip stayed just that. It is a whole lot easier to finish off one dip than three. I really didn’t apply much thought to repurposing this one but may some kind of soup? Maybe I could have even thrown it in with the chowder? Something to think about.

It didn’t hurt that I had nearly a half gallon of cream that was near the expiration point. I had to act quickly with all of these things or risk them going bad. I am pretty happy with my creations and those leftovers will become lunch portions that I will much more likely eat than a big container of dip.

End Your Programming Routine: Making all of these things was my wife’s brainchild. I would have probably made one thing and focused on the game. That being said, we both have our idiosyncrasies. So, it was my job to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Truth be told, I think the re-creations were better than the original. It comes with a second helping of satisfaction as well.

February 27, 2024 – My First Stiches

February 27, 2024 /

Back in my day… I started middle school in 1986. As a sixth grader, we were required to take a whole year of survey classes. We had art, choir, shop class and home economics. I didn’t think too much of it. While my family lived a home economics lifestyle, it wasn’t something that I had done much of it, but I had been around it my whole life. We baked cookies and learned how to sew.

Our project was to make a drawstring bag using a sewing machine. We had to supply our own fabric, but that was easy because my mom had a whole chest of it. I remember completing it in a couple of days. I don’t remember much about it but I am guessing that I probably didn’t do the best job. Sewing is a skill that requires practice.

Learning to use the sewing machine came in handy when I was at home and had access to one. Occasionally, I would need to put a patch on my Boy Scout uniform and my mom didn’t get around to it. There was the periodic mend that needed to be made as well.

As time would have have it, I have been away from sewing machines a long time. It had been on my mind to pickup an inexpensive second, hand machine when I had the opportunity. I guess you could say I inherited one as I claimed my mother-in-laws machine as we were cleaning out the storage unit last year. But, it didn’t help much because I couldn’t remember a thing.

I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to load the machine. The one that was actually the most helpful was an eight year old (guessing) loading a simple Singer. This one is old and pretty basic, but it is well made. So, after watching the video three times, I got the thread loaded. Fortunately, the basic operation hasn’t changed much over the years. I’d have to say that if it wasn’t for my past experience helping me with what I thought I knew, I don’t think I would have got enough information from the videos alone.

The picture on the right was my first attempt. As you can see I kind of started out as a mess. But that is OK. I am simply mending the pocket of my sweat pants. For years now, the seam between the back panel and my pocket has been coming apart. It isn’t a huge deal but more often than not when I try to stick something in my pocket, it ends up going down my pant leg, which is annoying

I could have done it by hand. And I would have if I didn’t have a sewing machine. But, I have been sitting on this for over a year waiting to figure out how to use it. I took the opportunity to do it. I have a bigger project in mind. My son needs all of his merit badges sewn onto a sash. He is Eagle Scout bound and it would be good to finally get this completed.

Sewing patches by hand is not easy. Pushing through the thick material with a needle and fingers is slow going. To make matters worse, most of the ones I have sewn by hand have eventually fallen off. My knots break and then it all starts coming undone.

I got my pant’s mended. I am ready to take on the next challenge. I probably need to practice before I do some more public facing stitching. The good news is that I have learned how to use a seam ripper too. The cutting is permanent but the stitching can be redone.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that it is valuable to have a sewing machine and know how to use it. Mending used to be a valuable skill, now we just replace items. But, there may come a day when that is not possible. My wife has already given me a pillow case to fix now that I am an expert. We will see how long it takes me to get around to that.

February 23, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto IX – XI

February 23, 2024 /

This week we are at Circle six. In this level, which is the first of the three inner hell circles and we will see the heretics. I could certainly see why they made it to hell, I almost wonder why it is only level six rather than nine. Is there a bigger sin than actually denouncing god? I guess not, according to Dante.

In Canto IX, Dante and Virgil wait at the gates of Dis to go deeper into hell. The gates are guarded by furies who summon Medusa to attempt to turn them into stone. Virgil responds with a prayer whereby an angel comes and thwarts Medusa and the furies, letting them in.

Canto X takes place once inside the walls. This is a rolling landscape packed full of tombs. Some of them are ‘active’ or open. Out pops someone named Farinata who was a political enemy instrumental in kicking Dante out of Florence. There were several interactions in this Canto. The last Canto wraps up their walk through circle six and a peak into circle seven.

Despite the fact that this was three times the length as we have typically looked at so far, there is about the same amount of information coming out. One or two surface level conversations with an enemy of Dante or someone that he holds in low regard. A chance to put his digs in and make fun of these people.

Is there a difference between heretic and agnostic and atheist? I have to say that Dante thinks so and I agree as well. The term atheist was not around in the 1300s and so they didn’t make it but let’s take a look a the terms themselves. An atheist is someone that does not agree that there is a god. An agnostic differs slightly in that they are potentially open to god but have not seen proof. Whereas a heretic is someone that believes in god but against the doctrine of religion.

This all could be a little confusing but let us just say a heretic would attend church but also believe in ritual sacrifice of Judaism as an example. The new covenant, as the belief in Jesus and resurrection says that there is no longer an intermediary between the believer and god, it was the priest who was sustained by these sacrifices. The priest was the only person allowed behind the veil (or curtain). Going behind the veil was the only permitted way to communicate with god. So, in those days the proxy of god was the priest. This would be practicing contrary to accepted Christian beliefs.

Agnostic and atheist are more subtle in difference. The two terms are sometimes confused by people that don’t have command of the vocabulary. You have to wonder if level one (the pre-Christians) also contains the agnostics? And do the atheists live with the heretics in level 6 or are both in here? I suspect that in those days, it was not safe to proclaim that a person didn’t possess faith.

Again, this is a work of fiction and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since the 1300s. And so, my interpretation and standards I feel differ significantly from the days of Dante. I think about things like the witch trials, I suppose that was a crime of heresy. Interestingly enough that (at least so far) there has been zero interaction with unknown culture. Think about all of the Chinese people that have existed and none of them have been seen in hell to date. I am starting to develop an opinion on The Inferno, which I will share in the wrap-up in about a month.

One thing that kind of puzzles me still is why the tomb sharing? What is the relationship of the tomb to the spirits that reside in them? It was probably convenience of the story more than anything but it is still a mystery to me. I also wonder if Dante is just lucky or do these spirits seek him out? I seems pretty serendipitous that everywhere he goes, he runs into familiar specters.

End Your Programming Routine: I found it interesting that a pre-Christian condemned to hell could pray and summon an angel. That seems spiritually inconsistent. That is what this story is turning out to be. When I read this in high school, I got none of the subtle nuance nor the in depth background of the story. This is a whole new perspective on the Inferno for me. Next week, Canto XII – XVII.