Page 5 of 134

December 11, 2025 – Nobu: A Memoir

December 11, 2025 /

Do you know Nobu? I really didn’t until I read this book. Nobu: The Memoir is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club for November. Yes, I know that it is mid-December and that is how far behind I am. The good news is that this month we will be doing a comfort themed book with everybody using the Betty Crocker cookbook. I am not reading that one.

So, who is Nobu? He is the celebrity chef that is credited with popularizing Japanese food in America. According to his story, he opened his first and flagship restaurant in the LA area in the mid-1980s. My truth is that I have never heard of him until I read the book, but I am certainly aware of his protégé Morimoto from Iron Chef fame.

I think that his fame to me is a bit circuitous in my life. Living on the West coast, we have always been closer to Asia. When I was in early middle school (about that time frame), we hosted a Japanese Exchange student. My wife had a Japanese student as a roommate (mid-1990s) and they are still close today. This is a long way from eating and liking Japanese food but it was exposure.

This was also the time frame that Japanese cars became main stream acceptable. You have to understand that there was a lot of anti-Japanese bias prior to this point. There were too many long memories about war in the Pacific as a result of World War II. My own grandfather, refused to even be passed on the road by a Volkswagen. But, he did buy a brand new Honda Accord in 1982. As new generations succeed older generations, that icy acceptance starts thaw.

None of that has anything to do with the book but I was setting the table about how this was something new. I won’t give away all of the book but Nobu’s path was interesting. As a result of getting in trouble as a teenager, he was sentenced to supervised training as a sushi chef. That foster relationship turned out to be a globe trotting opportunity for Nobu.

Adherence to principals, proximity and providing something unique were also fortuitous to Nobu as well. This is where he met Robert DeNiro and where his celebrity status became solidified. With DeNiro financially backing exclusive expansion Nobu went from being a principled establishment to a luxury brand.

It is kind of surprising that I had never heard of him before. But then again, I don’t live my life by the Food Channel or food media; I participate in it I suppose. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to the point in the book where he had an establishment in Las Vegas until after we came home. Otherwise, I would have made a point to go there considering I was reading the book on the plane there and back.

I never want to attribute success to luck. I do think that there was a bit of luck involved but I do not want to discount that Nobu created a lot of that luck. He is a big believer in craft mastery and good ideals. This would be things like making sushi to the best of his ability as well as greeting all of the guests at some point in the meal. If he would have just stayed behind the prep station, he possibly would never had met DeNiro.

I think that Nobu’s personality really resonates with me. He has no faith in pedigree. A person may not have all of the ultimate abilities to become a head chef when they are a dishwasher. But, on the other hand they are almost always capable of more. Master one skill and take the opportunity to do the next thing. There is a lot of grounding in that methodology as well. It helps a person have compassion for others.

I have found this in my own career when I started working for these mega corporations. My experience got me hired but my degree status has kept me pretty static over the last five years. I don’t have an MBA and I am not really that interested in it. But because I don’t, I just keep doing what I am doing regardless of the fact that I am capable of so much more. Nobu definitely doesn’t run my company.

He also talks about the concept of fusion as well. Nobu says that fusion is not two dissimilar things put together but a respect for local ingredients adopted under the practices of a Japanese restaurant. He used an example of a popular slider that got nixed from the menu because the Japanese palate traditionally doesn’t use bread buns. They instead developed a rice cake version. I respect that.

End Your Programming Routine: I like this book because I found it inspirational. It is a true American success story. It doesn’t talk too much about the food, but it definitely has inspired me to respect the craft of sushi more than I have. With my experience being almost exclusively national chains and ‘Asian’ restaurants, I really would like to try something made with passion and an eye toward excellence.

December 10, 2025 – I Can Do Anything, I Am So Smart

December 10, 2025 /

Many people have doorbell cameras these days. My wife is obsessed with them; I am so, so. I like the idea of having a security system including cameras but I don’t like the fact that they are constantly dinging and going off. Our front doorbell camera was our first and it certainly fell into the nuisance category. Not to mention that at least half of the time it would miss the mail man delivering. What good is this thing anyway?

I decided that the solution was to upgrade from the base model to the professional model. I also did away with the battery because we were more frequently discharging the battery then I really thought was reasonable. The heat of the summer would somehow cause it to run on battery instead of the line power. Previously, I never had the doorbell not work because it was summer time.

I had it in my head that I needed to pull the refrigerator out to get to the chime mechanism. Despite the fact I already an a resistor in line (for the base model), the professional model needed another do-dad. I was reading that it had a capacitor to regulate power to the camera. That seems reasonable.

I have not pulled the refrigerator out since we have owned it (three years). The refrigerator is deeper than the original and to actually remove it, the doors have to be taken off. That is both refrigerator and freezer. Needless to say, it is not trivial. You can see from the picture that I did it. I stuck my head behind the refrigerator and all I see is the transformer. What the heck?

Epiphany. The doorbell chime is actually covered by the sign above the refrigerator. This is the largest reason that sign is placed where it is. For many years, there was a clock wired to the chime mechanism. It was put in place in the 1970s when the kitchen was built and my wife thought that it had served its useful life when we bought the refrigerator. The fact that the sign was there meant that the doorbell was out of sight and out of mind.

Fortunately, taking the doors off was the perfect reason to clean things out. It is amazing the amount of crud that builds up inside the freezer. Not only was it far past time but it was also necessary to get ready to sell the house (I did this work in September just so it doesn’t seem like I replaced the doorbell before moving out). We also paid a cleaning crew of three, four hours of kitchen cleaning and I still see things that need to be done. It is kind of amazing and gross but the kitchen has been loved.

The point is that what I thought I knew I didn’t. I did a lot of extra work because I was confident I knew what I was doing. I delayed doing this job for weeks because I was going to have to pull the refrigerator out only to find out that I could have swapped the doorbells in an hour at the most. Talk about humble pie when I had that moment.

Aside from being humbled, what else can we learn from this situation? Well, other than pride no harm, no foul. But seriously, how many other things in our life are we certain about? Pseudo science and politics come to mind. I don’t really want to go there today and so I won’t but anytime the phrase ‘the science is settled’ should send warning bells off. Memories are clearly foulable, mine is no exception.

This wasn’t the first time I had egg on my face from not remembering correctly. My wife says that this is arrogance. I think that I am relatively humble and I would say confidence is the proper word. But, there can be a very fine line between the two. Since I brought it up, it is fair game about what people think of me. But, I would say the difference is confidence is the ability to go into the unknown without fear versus arrogance is forcing your narrative onto others. To bring it home, me stating my opinion is not forcing anyone to agree or even listen, it is putting something out there as a beach head to stand the test of debate.

End Your Programming Routine: I could see this developing into something like a sermon but you don’t want that and it wasn’t my intent. What I am doing is holding that inner mirror up to make sure that we periodically check ourselves so that we don’t get too certain about anything. Even established facts should be periodically challenged or evaluated to make sure that they still hold up. This isn’t about a doorbell installation but being an adjusted human being.

December 9, 2025 – Milwaukee 12V Max

December 9, 2025 /

I needed another cordless tool-set like I needed a hole in head. I have an old Craftsman 14.4V drill, Makita 14.4V drill and Makita 18V drill and impact driver already. But, I wanted a second impact driver for one in the house and one in the shop. I thought that a smaller form factor would be the right approach rather than adding another 18V tool.

This actually all started several months earlier. I don’t like to admit this on multiple fronts but I started thinking that I wanted a power screwdriver. My wrist occasionally bothers me when I put together all of the boxed furniture my wife purchases. This has become especially true since I have been battling this neck injury. I did some research and there were a few, good options out there but the battery platforms were all lower voltage than the tools I had.

The Milwaukee brand screwdriver had high ratings and they offered a lot of other tools in the same battery platform. Once purchased, I had the green light to buy tools from a different line. Another benefit was that local hardware stores carry their tools and batteries. Of course, a lot of the above jibber jabber was written in early October before we decided to move. So throw that logic out the window.

What I mean to say is that there is an argument for owning both the 12V and 18V platforms. The smaller form factor of 12V tools are more compact and cheaper than their 18V cousins. It really doesn’t matter that they have less run time (my experience) and homeowners need one hole or is installing one shelf and not pounding screws all day long every day.

When I compare my 18V Makita to this new 12V Milwaukee setup, I really do feel as though the Makita is superior. They batteries run longer and hold charge for literally months without me touching them. That said, the Milwaukee has plenty of power for the around the house use when charged and ready to go. I have noticed a significantly faster, dormant discharge rate of the 12V batteries. I am still looking to quantify how much better in my long term ownership of these new tools. But what I can say is that every battery was fully charged when I put it away and a month later the batteries are showing half charge.

If you will recall, at one point I was considering becoming a contractor or something in the construction field. One reason I have multiple tools is to have them in different places at the same time. I could leave tools at the job site (securely of course) and still have enough resources at home to do the things that I need. It goes with a similar philosophy of having tools in the shop as well as in the home. Let us be honest, no homeowner really needs more than one battery operated drill unless it is special circumstances like building a deck with multiple helpers. The prudent thing would be to see if a tool could be borrowed. But, I am also kind of lazy and don’t like to run to the shop 100 times for everything that I need to do a job. Adding a second pair just shortens my trips to the basement instead.

One tool that I find I use a surprising amount is my corded multi-tool. This thing is amazing, especially for fine, finish type work like scribing or precision demolition. When trying to precision cut an 8′, T-111 panel it is a pain to try to manipulate a cord and be on the ladder at the same time. I would desperately like to get a cordless version but as handy as it is, I need a justification to spend $250. But, if I look at the Milwaukee 12V version, it is only $100. I think that I could probably justify that for almost any project. Yeah, it is not going to run all day but I already have a corded version that can do that. This would be to trim up one molding spot to slide a floor tile for a finish cut without moving furniture to get to the outlet.

I would argue that for most homeowners, the 12V is more than adequate. I wouldn’t even recommend going to 18V just to get the extra benefits given the cost. I have been extremely impressed at these tools considering my last 12V experience was in the Ni-Cad battery days. This was when you needed the higher voltage tools just to have adequate power.

End Your Programming Routine: My son asked, why Milwaukee and not Makita? They also have an extensive 12V line. The real answer is that they had the screwdriver I wanted but he also doesn’t know that I have been a Milwaukee fan since before I owned the Makita cordless tools. I have a number of corded tools from them and I think they are equally good in their own right. It is hard to justify another battery platform unless there is a distinct advantage like dipping into another tool line that meets your needs.

December 8, 2025 – Tis the Season 2025

December 8, 2025 /

It’s that time of year again. It is time for my gift buying episode. The thing that is different about this year is that I also talk about strategies that I typically use for my spouse. I probably won’t get a lump of coal this year but these are the kinds of things I would suggest for guys like me. Feel free to send me something on my list and good luck in your season’s shopping.

December 5, 2025 – Mere Christianity, Book Three: Chapters 1-6

December 5, 2025 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

Hopefully you have all finished the book by now. I have not but maybe you listened to my podcast of excuses yesterday. I really did not plan to just go silent for weeks but my life runs me at this point. Those are the the things that I can do along with the things that I have to do and limited by the things that I am able to do. Enough of that.

Below are the bullet point summary. One for each chapter.

  • Morality is a set of rules that attempt to regulate individuals internally as well as between each other. All rules are equally important and not to be picked and chosen.
  • Prudence, temperance and justice are three virtues essential to Christianity. These are not binary, all or nothing ideals but have degrees of gray that have to be weighed.
  • Biblical views should support political opinions and not run them.
  • Psychoanalysis, very popular and up and coming academic idea is separating the unconscious from free will. This is controversial idea when equating self worth and sin. Those were Lewis’ thoughts.
  • Sexual morality; repress it and get more of it. Yet, Lewis subscribes to the traditional idea of celibacy outside of marriage. It does seem a little counter intuitive.
  • Being in love and relationship love are two different things. This is the concept that relationships change or progress over time. Interestingly, the begins the chapter with divorce and that is why it is important to recognize the progression of love.

It is good that I did this chapter summary weeks ago because I have a hard time remembering what I read two months ago. This is really half of what Lewis was trying to get across but it makes it more convenient for me to split this section in two. What is he saying anyway? I say that the message is that morality is necessary to the human race.

You might say what does morality have to do with proving that there is a God? I would probably be in your camp as well. Lewis tries to make the connection between God and morality. After all, the Old Testament is generally many, many pages of Jewish laws largely about morality. The new covenant sends Jesus to edit many of those laws.

I think that it is an interesting idea that Lewis comes up with that morality is not to control people or sort them out per se. Rather, he has this idea that morality is a training ground for Heaven. Meaning, these are the skills necessary to be successful in Heaven. I suppose that you could say people self select entrance to Heaven by being moral or not. I really do not know how this could be proven.

I really do like the idea that virtues are not binary. When I learned the ten commandments as a child, I learned the words “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. But, I have heard the more modern “Do not Murder” which I think is actually more appropriate. If the commandment was more in my language, then so many biblical heroes would have violated that commandment and could have never been in favor of god. That is also presupposing that there are exceptions for things like war and self defense. My personal feeling is that it would be better to stick to “Thou Shalt Not Kill” but then there are always those gray areas like what if it was an accident? Therefore, I have to agree that morality is not binary.

The world is full of paradoxes. I mean what about surrogate parenting. I really don’t believe that it is infidelity but by the strict definition of fidelity we have somehow agreed that this is a place where a woman bears a child that does not belong to her is morally OK. To play devil’s advocate, what if God was saying that particular couple was not supposed to have kids for whatever reason? And what if that reason was that one of the parents poisoned their bodies with diet or drugs or whatever? Or what if the person just did not want to go through the pregnancy process (Paris Hilton anybody)? The permutations are endless.

End Your Programming Routine: Next week we will get the full effect of this Book and what Lewis was trying to do. It seems amongst the literary analysis there is some speculation that this is a weaker argument then the first two books. I tend to agree but that doesn’t mean that we cant refine a little value out of this. Let’s keep going into pride, hope and faith next week.

November 11, 2025 – A War To End All Wars

November 11, 2025 /

Today is finally the day that you can thank someone who served in the armed forces and not Memorial day, which bugs me a lot. On the 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour the war to end all wars (WWI) was over.

I was looking for something that wasn’t going to bore you to tears by being hours long. However, I found it interesting that there were some discrepancies in the facts from the same source. If you watched both then you probably heard it.

End Your Programming Routine: I recently finished watching the Ken Burn’s mini-series “The War” about WWII. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It really brushes the sugar coating off of the American and allied victory. While most of the WWII and Korea veterans are gone, time has a way of dulling and mis-rembering things. Let us not forget how horrible war still is.

November 10, 2025 – I Had a Dream

November 10, 2025 /

I had a dream that one day I would be independent pursuing the American Dream. This is my admission of surrender that AltF4.co is limping along as a labor of love rather than a career. Today I talked about the changes in my life, where I have been and my future.

November 7, 2025 – Mere Christianity, Book Two

November 7, 2025 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

I have to feel a little bit bad about going dark for over a month. It was never my intention to do absolutely nothing and in fact, I read Book Two in September. That was plenty of time to at least keep this series on schedule as this was supposed to be posted October 4. I kept reading still and there should be no reason to delay any longer.

I have plenty of reasons why I took a break, but a lot of it was that time just slipped away. I was getting ready for hunting and then I was gone for a week and then I had to clean-up as well as a host of other things that needed doing. So, I really had to shake the cobwebs out of my head to try and remember what this book was about as well as the poignant points that Lewis made.

I have to admit, I was born a Christian. I don’t know if my mom still has the audio tape but I was a toddler reciting The Lord’s Prayer as well as some of the Ten Commandments. For that reason, faith is ingrained in my being. There is no question about my beliefs but unlike many faithful and unfaithful alike, I am open to the idea that I am wrong. That is the scientist in me.

Since it has been so long, let me refresh a minute. Mere Christianity was a radio broadcast made for the British people during the WWII German bombing raid as a way to keep hope. Lewis claims that this text is a direct translation of his words without any editing. It would be interesting to see if there is an audio file out there somewhere. I bet so. The bullet points below are the highlights that I took out of each chapter.

  • God has many believers regardless of religious origins.
  • How can bad things happen in a world with a good god?
  • Acceptance of good automatically implies that there is evil. Good has to have evil but evil does not have to have good.
  • No free will, no choice. Without free will then there would be no choice because it would just be pre-programmed.
  • Jesus was manifested as man to better relate to people. God was already supernatural this was a different approach.
  • Without Christianity, it does not necessarily mean damnation. This is Lewis’ interpretation of theology.

There are probably a lot of different analogies I could use here. The one I am going to use is when you are sick. Now, I am fortunate that I have never had anything serious like my wife has gone through but at least it is something everyone should be able to relate to. The last time I was sick (early June) I felt cruddy but not so bad that I kept working and doing what was in my social calendar. You know that when you are living that way, you take for granted what not being sick feels like.

There have been times for me that I have been quite a bit sicker. I felt like all the energy I could muster was to go to bed. I might get up to have some soup or get some water or take more medicine so I could go back to bed. My whole point is that feeling well is very difficult to describe but when you are sick, you sure recognize that sick feels terrible compared to well.

This is my attempt to relate what Lewis is saying without evil there is no good. Just like without sickness, there is no wellness. Without the dichotomy we would probably have no concept or any such vocabulary. Suppose that there were areas of the planet that had air that was not 77% Nitrogen and 16% Oxygen but some combination of poisonous gas. We would have to make a special term for good air versus rotten air. But, since we do not it is not even a concept.

Free will is a very similar argument as good as evil. This is why I focused primarily on that aspect Lewis’s commentary. I have often heard the argument that how can there be a good God when such evil exists in the world? You know, I can’t really answer that but to use Lewis’ philosophy. On my scale at least, I don’t know if there is an equal level of good to evil in this world. I will take solace in the best is yet to come.

End Your Programming Routine: What a bold thing to do. Try to come up with a philosophical argument for something that is nearly unprovable. I know that Catholics claim saints and divine miracles and the like but something extraordinary does not prove the existence of God. But the way that Lewis goes about the argument could only be done by a converted Athiest.

September 26, 2025 – Mere Christianity, Book One

September 26, 2025 /

http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

In case you didn’t buy, borrow or check out this book good news, it is in the public domain. I posted the link above for you to read along. I wish that I would have known it before I purchased it. Sure it was cheap, but free is always better.

I will be honest, I didn’t know a stitch about this book before I read it. It was recommended because of some of my other purchases on Amazon. It turns out that this is a compilation of radio broadcasts that CS Lewis did during World War II. It was meant as a morale piece for the British citizens and soldiers who had impending gloom and fear over possible Nazi invasion. I have to admit that I have been enjoying it tremendously because it is a very logical and composed argument for the existence of God.

It’s funny that I get to use my inner scientist and Christian now. They are two things that are not distinctly compatible. But, this Book (1) is all about merging the two. A huge theme is this idea of Natural law and a debatable concept of moral law. Natural law is scientifically provable such as gravity and believe me you can do a lot of math if you want to prove it.

If you need a less technical description, drop something on earth and it will always fall to the ground. There is no choice by the object be it rock or person. Notice I didn’t say if you were in the upper atmosphere or anywhere in the universe and drop something, That is also part of Newton’s Law of gravitation but it puts too many variables into a laymen’s argument. But that makes it absolute, observable proof of natural laws existing and there is no possible, logical argument otherwise.

If we as humans can agree that there are some absolutes, then we can agree on some other things such as morality. Democrats, Republicans, Independents and non-voters alike would agree that you should not walk-up and punch a baby. Before someone says that it happens, I would have to say that those people are not right as in normal. We can fins supporting evidence because the belief is held in China, India, Zimbabwe and everywhere as well.

Humans can agree that there is some universal morality such as don’t steal and don’t hurt other people. So, while I understand the pro abortion argument that a fetus is not a living being, I do believe that it is a warped justification for not taking personal responsibility for the consequences of sex. And this is the counter argument for natural moral law is that it can be argued or debatable.

Despite it’s flaws, the fact that we can acknowledge morality existing without being scientifically provable is a sign of an external force. Why do we agree that stealing is wrong? Animals do not hold such beliefs. This is because they do not hold humanity. Sure, they might be trained not to steal or they might be afraid of the pack leader or whatever analog I am talking about but animal behavior is about instinct. I want food, there is food there, I am going to take it when I get a chance even if it is possibly detrimental to me and my existence. My dog is trained not to eat of the counter and yet if I leave something overnight there is a good chance it is gone in the morning.

Life force is unique to our known world. It is going to be a pretty tough sell to me to say that all rocks will someday be some sort of living entity. I will admit that it’s very existence cannot be measured but on the other hand, we can see the results of when it is destroyed and therefore can empirically see that it exists. I am not completely turned off to evolution theory but I have not seen a link that life consistently strives to improve moving completely from a single celled organism to a human.

If that were true, I don’t believe (and neither does Lewis) that we would have moral law. In that case, people would steal because they can get away with it. Sure, plenty of people do but then what happens when they are stolen from? They don’t like it too much hence they also believe in moral law, just a perverted version of it.

End Your Programming Routine: Pretty cool huh. Next week I will discuss Book 2. It is no wonder this book was popular, it is a well laid out argument without resulting in name calling or condemnation. The book really doesn’t try to justify human existence using the big bang but to use human nature itself to support the existence of God. It is the best argument I have ever heard and the best defense against the lack of hard proof because it is right under our noses.