I saw this around Thanksgiving. Of course it hits home for us but if you have never had an exchange student this will give you a taste. Despite being a commercial, this is probably one of the best I have ever seen.
Merry Christmas.
Page 49 of 138
December 22, 2023 – Slaughterhouse – Five, Chapters 7-10
We have reached the end of another book. This was a different sort of book then the ones I have been reading in this series. I would say that it is the lightest of all of them but before I get carried away with the totality of the work, today I am going to focus on the last four chapters.
Here is a quick section summary of these chapters. There is a crash of the plane full of optometrists in Vermont. Billy was the only survivor. Then the bombing actually happens. Billy’s wife Valencia dies of carbon monoxide poisoning on her way to visit Billy in the hospital. The war ends for Billy as the Germans flee the Russians
I am struggling to perform a linear read a chapter, note the theme and then write about it. So much so that I went to read what other people was saying about the chapters. The story jumps around so much that it is hard to draw any sort of direct correlation to a strong point.
Some of the analysis I read talked about things like Tralfamadorian theory and drawing analogies to Einstein with four dimensions (X, Y, Z plus time). There was also the very strong antiwar theme, that one seems obvious and is the one that I would pick overall. There is also a bunch of symbolism that is pretty heavily abstracted.
For instance, on analysis I read said that the bird at the end represents the nonsensical-ness of war. I suppose that because the bird is the last thing written and not a character in the book, then maybe I could buy that it does mean something. But there were other speculations where Billy’s hatred of the barbershop quartet was related to the faces of the singers versus the faces of the Germans when they first saw the destruction of Dresden. Have you ever seen the ‘Gilmore Girls’? The show is annoying enough but then when you have the random barbershop quartet interlude into your conversation, it is downright obnoxious. In my experience, a barbershop quartet can be wonderful or downright inappropriate.
I missed this when I read the previous chapter block, the significance of the title. Before I read the book, I made an assumption was the title was going to be something like five individuals participated in some sort of urban firefight. As it turns out, the title is actually the POW’s address. This comes up several times in Billy’s delusional dreams as he goes back and forth between being in the war and other random events in his life.
End Your Programming Routine: I am struggling to find meaningful, consistent themes so I am going to cut it here. I definitely have more to say next week and I don’t think I will be so blasé. Distinguishing a very non-linear story with a specific portion of the book makes it hard to pick appropriate anecdotes. So it goes.
December 21, 2023 – Winter Break Ahead
I am going to do something that I haven’t done with AltF4.co, I am taking a break. Tomorrow will be the last four chapters of Slaughterhouse – Five. I will still have my conclusion to the book next week as well because I want to end the book with the year. I have yet to decide, I may do some sort of year in review next week. The truth is I would like to, but it is a matter if I can find the time.
Other than that, I am going to break until January 2, 2024. I am tired and I need a little distance to recharge my batteries. Christmas season is hard because just one more thing is pretty much how it goes with everything. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will see you next Year.
December 20, 2023 – First Action Movie
A friend recently gave me a sourdough starter. Actually, he gave it to my wife because she often makes comments to be polite. Well he did it and when I gave it to my wife, she said “He gave me a gift for you?” Anyway, this is one of those things that I find very heartfelt. Now, I have to really take care of it to do the gift justice.
I was listening to Keith Snow the other day (“Harvest Eating Podcast”) and he was talking about pandemic fads. Sourdough was one of them. I hear that this particular starter has been around for over thirty years. Don’t be fooled, it is not the starter that makes the bread good but the technique.
I am trying to scale back carbohydrates in our house. I want to get to the point that we can have bread but we need to make it. I know that will significantly limit our consumption. I also believe that the sourdough fermentation is a better starch conversion for those sensitive. I suspect that my family is.
End Your Programming Routine: The best part about sourdough is that when the world collapses, you can eliminate a need. As long as you have flour and water, then you will always have yeast. With a baker in the house, I am surprised at how fast a jar goes when used routinely. Oh, it tastes good too.
December 19, 2023 – A New Camera: Coleman Conquest 3
Not long after I started my new job in September, I got an email saying that it was employee appreciation month. As such, they were going to be drawings for prizes. I of course didn’t have anything better to do so I registered for the drawing. About a week later, I was sent an email saying that I had won a prize. Truth be told, I forgot about it because it didn’t arrive for several months.
What am I going to do with this? Well, I thought that I would try it out and make videos. One time, I used the kids’ GoPro to make a video and it was nice to have two hands free rather than trying to hold the phone in one hand and do the rest of the work in the other.
In the box that it came with were straps to mount it to my person. A waterproof case, a remote control, different mounting platforms to put the camera on handlebars and pretty much wherever you want to put it. I have a planned a video for tomorrow so that I can break it in.
I am under no illusion that this is equal to the GoPro in performance. It was stated that any gifts over $100, we (the employees) would be taxed on the value of that prize. I think the stated value was $99.99. It is still cool and it is still better than nothing. I would say that if this proves to be worth it, I will use it until I reach the limitations and then at that point consider upgrading to a more refined device.
The question might be asked, do I feel appreciated? The truth is that I suspect every person that entered got a prize. In the application process, I selected all of the things I didn’t want which were largely things that I already have or don’t really need or want. I will test my theory next year and potentially get something that I might give away. But, to answer the question, not particularly appreciated because they gave me a gift. That being said, I have never had anything like this happen before.
The truth is that my phone is starting to get tired. I have had this iPhone X for five years now. I find lately that the lens is smudgy and shows a glare on many of the pictures that I take. This causes me to retake them. Additionally, transferring the raw clips are very cumbersome. It takes a lot of bandwidth to move them from my phone to One Drive where I keep all of that stuff and start editing. I often have to do this in multiple iterations for all but the smallest of clips. I welcome the ability to take content directly from the device via a wire.
End Your Programming Routine: As of the time of writing I haven’t done anything but charge the battery and power the camera on. I have no concept about how well it will really do, but like I said I will use it until I see the limitations. But hey, it is better than a stick in the eye (or a pink slip). So, I can appreciate what new dimensions this will bring to AltF4.
December 15, 2023 – Slaughterhouse – Five, Chapters 4-6
Here we go trucking along, one more week before the end of the book. I am still enjoying this psychedelic trip into the mind of a WWII vet. Even after all this book is supposed to be about, the prisoners of war finally arrive at Dresden at the very end of chapter six. So lets do a quick plot summary.
We have a whole diatribe where Billy goes on a long distance trip with aliens. After being shown off in a zoo like an animal, he is flashed back to being in a mental institution to a honeymoon night to a prisoner of war. Finally, in chapter six is all about his war comrades and their personal delusions.
I am getting the sense from reading different analyses of this book that there is more inferred than is written. There are strong biblical references combined with alien references as well as the horrors of war. If all of this is to be believed, then this thing has more dimensions than the Twilight Zone. I am going to reserve stating my opinion for after the book but you literary types can interpret this as foreshadowing.
I am not feeling it today. I am not sure what I think yet, but one thing that does drive me crazy is trying to make something out of nothing. And I am saying that I have nothing so far. I remember from my school days how we would spend the entire hour trying to force all of this innuendo into books that we would read. I am going to resist the urge to do that at this moment.
End Your Programming Routine: For this reason, we will consider this week a check-in. This isn’t the first week I have felt this way, but it is the first week that I realized that I am approaching that point of trying to force something. With that, I hope that you are enjoying the book as I am.
December 14, 2023 – And Now, Performance
I was looking through my stuff and I realized that I had six different cans of white spray paint. I don’t exactly know why that is the case but I was going to paint a project that I was working on white and I wanted to see what I had. As it turns out, three of those cans started spraying and then plugged up. I tried to clean them and figure out their day had passed.
I was going to throw them away, but I didn’t want to do so pressurized. I also didn’t want to poke a hole in them pressurize because that is a good way to have white paint sprayed everywhere. So, decided to shoot them with my pellet rifles. I thought I would use the same pellet in three different rifles to see the performance difference at three different power levels.
What I learned was actually not as much as I thought I would. All three rifles shot through both sides of each can. I have the energy calculations for each combo but when that exceeds the standard, it doesn’t tell much about performance. For a while now, I have been thinking about how I would test performance of these difference rifle/pellet combinations.
I have the pictures in order of power where the first one to the left is the lowest. One other thing you might observe is not every shot is dead center. This is because I don’t have every rifle sighted in for this pellet weight. But, I will say that this is an honest to goodness, three shots. There were no misses.
The first shot (left) was the most fun. When it hit, it twisted out of the box and sprayed paint all over the place. This is why the term reactive target exists. The target is hit and reacts. I thought that all three might do that, but that wasn’t the case. Since I have shot spray paint with 22lr before, I was kind of expecting it. This is why I had them inside a box to contain the mess.
I have heard from others that cans of shaving cream will do this as well. The advantage of those is the foam dissipates with the addition of rain. In my case, the small amount of paint on the grass will eventually get mowed and collected. But, if you are going to do something like this, be sure you have a good radius between your target and anything you wouldn’t want sprayed with paint.
End Your Programming Routine: I will continue to collect energy information and that is a good baseline to know. But I will also continue to look for a way to quantify what energy means against some sort of target. It appears that spray paint cans are not the answer, but I kind of wish that I had some more.
December 13, 2023 – Design With the End In Mind
It has been a long time since I have talked about project methodology. In fact, some of my earliest writings were about subjects like this. The problem as I see it is that this skill is very difficult to do because it is hard to see the endpoint. Too many service providers don’t do enough guiding the process with inexperienced clients. This leads to the ‘what do you want’ and ‘what can I get’ conversation.
I have never experienced this myself, but I hear that when people build a house and they start to see how the rooms are laid out, that is where the changes start. They start to see what could not be visualized in the design phase (the phase where changes are virtually free). I do have lots of experience in project execution when people see software and then the changes start happening. This is a different medium but the same psychology.
Breaking out the old DVD player to play Christmas movies that we own got me thinking that we actually own another DVD player and a VCR to boot. They are relegated to taking up space in a cabinet that I could use the space for other things and they definitely fit the definition of techno junk. I might as well plumb them in my office where all old technology goes to die. Where else am I going to watch nine seasons of Dukes of Hazzard?
I took the Keyboard Video Monitor (KVM) switch out that I had the X-box hooked up to thinking that I would plug it directly into a TV when I get one. But now that I finally have my table built and all of my stereo equipment installed, the video games and video equipment can all fit in that space which means I need to make some network cables. That was the point of the previous two paragraphs.
I have a switch in my office. It is just a cheap, ten port, unmanaged switch. So, no big deal to plug some extra cables in. But, had I really had my design figured out from the get go, I would have run network drops to the back wall when I built my office. From there I could have run everything to my main switch and had a cleaner and simpler installation. Simpler is always more robust and better design anyway.
Design is only one component in the project lifecycle. Many people do not understand what it actually means. They confuse design or how things are going to be done with requirements or what needs to be done. I am not going to spend much time in requirements except to use a simple example.
Requirement – my office must have wired internet. Design could be one drop and a switch or a drop for every device that is going to be plugged in and what wall with how many ports per location. For good design to be possible, how the space is to be used plus what is going in the space and how it will be laid out is critical. This is hard work to figure out all of these variables.
Going back to houses again, they suffer from poor design. One of the reasons we have square footage bloat is because houses suffer from poor design. I am not sure when this changed but look at houses from the 1920s with built in book shelves and china cabinets and linen drawers. These things make a huge difference in making small homes more livable. Homes without these amenities use free standing furniture to accomplish these goals and subsequently cut into the livable floorspace. It is my contention that if I could custom build a house, I could easily live with a much smaller space, if well designed.
One last anecdote. I have often said that software should be created by what data the reports need to display. Too often, when you start from requirements by the time you get to the end we are left with how to collect data points needed to generate report data. If we started with the data we needed, the requirements would handle themselves and the design would be bridging the gaps.
End Your Programming Routine: Even though I didn’t get thoroughly into it, learn the difference between requirements and design. Also, learn the different job aspects between who does what. If you knew those things, then you would know who is supposed to be doing what as well as hopefully making changes at the time when they are cheap. I am not going to go run new data lines into my office because it is too time consuming. But, had I known what I wanted when I did it, I sure would have done it.
December 12, 2023 – Using Our Gifts
If you listened to my podcast on Wednesday last week then you would know that there has been tragedy in the extended family. I still don’t know many details and if or when I do, I am not sure that I am going to reveal them here. Today is not about that but because of that.
Now, a quick timeline of events for context. November 28th (Monday) I finished work and had a doctor’s appointment. I went up to remind my wife and she asked me to pick up our niece from elementary school. Her daycare was closing early because of an accident to her child. The next day, I only worked a few hours because it was my grandmother’s funeral. My wife stayed back with her family. I called in late afternoon to check-in, I was going to go out to eat with my family after all of the services. My wife said ‘It is bad… really bad. He didn’t make it, in fact it wasn’t an accident but he was shot to death.’
By the time I came home from dinner, my wife was drinking with her cousin. This one event spun her into an emotional free for all. I would say that she was paralyzed by sadness and empathy for the remainder of the week. I don’t know why God made her the way that he did. I also don’t know why God made me the way that I did. I felt dull and detached but I couldn’t empathize with paralyzing grief,
I am no good in these situations. I could be the one delivering the news in a non-emotional manner, not the one comforting people that are nearly out of their minds. I don’t know what to say. Is it appropriate to touch? Should I converse or stay aloof? What if I say the wrong thing? I have no problem with small talk, but I feel like this is not the place or situation for such things. I just don’t know, you might say that I am paralyzed by human interaction.
I do know that God gave me the gift of action though. I took action on building a roadside cross. It is now painted white and waiting until we are informed of the actual site (that information is being withheld as part of the investigation). I wanted a wood that would last as close as forever so I had a cedar railing post that I have held onto for 15 years.
I did all the joinery and built it with care. I don’t want anyone thinking that I didn’t put my full talent and energy into my form of contribution. I filled the gaps and sanded it smooth. I wanted the cross to be as perfect as I could make it. Finally, I spray painted and painted and painted some more until the surface was glossy smooth.
End Your Programming Routine: God made us different so that we could be the best at whatever gift he gave us. I am not the worlds best woodworker but I also could focus on building this piece of peace without the emotional torment that others had. And I suppose that if we were all the comforting type, who would be there to build the cross? So, I will end where I started. I don’t know why I am the way I am but I hope that the way I am can bring it’s own comfort.
Recent Comments