I always remember this day because it is my brother’s birthday today. He is not going to read this or listen so to stay on topic, I am testing my headphones I got with my phone four years ago (and never used) as my microphone. I think that it came out pretty well.
End Your Programming Routine: As always, you are going to have to tune in to hear what I am really saying. That being said, the direct connection is always the most robust and simplest way of doing things. This is what I am doing as well as always testing new things. Hopefully, I will spend some time working with Garage Band these next couple of weeks as well.
You don’t have to be an Eagles fan or a Chiefs fan or even a football fan to enjoy the Super Bowl. To have a really great experience, I think that you have involve a game time menu. This is really where the rubber meets the road in today’s podcast.
Aside from the main attraction, the sideshow act is all about what I am going to do for the next couple of weeks. Of course, we will all know more as we get there. So let’s see if I stick to my game plan or not.
End Your Programming Routine: If Thanksgiving is the Super Bowl of cooking, then Super Bowl is the Christmas of cooking. It is loud, informal and fun. Don’t be caught ordering crappy pizza or store bought vegetable platters with gelatinous dip. A little more prep and many of these things can be made with little effort and are certainly way more healthy and almost likely taste better. Have fun and enjoy the entire experience.
It doesn’t look too worse for wear. On the right is what the book looks like now. The original wrinkles in the cover were from when I packed it with me to Spain, in my luggage. I try really hard not to mash up paperbacks. I know… this is kind of their intended purpose but I like nice looking books. I am sure that is not why you tuned in though. So, let’s get into it.
What did we learn from all of this? Ayn Rand, who fled communist Russia in 1925 was an illegal alien. Meaning she got a visa to visit the United States and never left. But, that wasn’t in the book. The part of it that was important was that she had already observed the societal destructiveness of collectivism in just seven years. I think that is why the book was keenly insightful on the ilk living for others.
The one thing that I took away was an interest in Philosophy. I am not exactly sure of what I am going to do with it yet, but to look into it some more. It is not going to supersede my current reading plans, but once I get to a place where I am thinking about what is next.
So, what did I think? That is a complicated question. I was marveled by the parallels of what happened in the book. I was strongly concerned that we are following many aspects of the story page for page. I was annoyed at how long the book was; there was a lot of extraneous details that really didn’t lead to the core of the story. I enjoyed my time reading the book, in general.
I have been asked if this is a must read. I would say that if you like reading, you are into dystopian fiction or classical literature and you either like to validate your own values or you are open to changing your opinions then yes. I don’t give this a must read because I just feel that it is way too long. Something like 1984 that is a couple hundred pages has a lot more impact much quicker. Think of it this way, you could read 1984 easily three times in the same time as Atlas Shrugged.
Since this series has gone on so long, I feel like I have little to say about the overall work remaining. I felt like the ending was a little anticlimactic. The readers are left with little justice as most of the bad guys drive away or are abandoned at the end of the story. Two minor characters blew themselves up in a Mexican standoff and the Galt gang just flies off to Colorado ostensibly to live their best life while the rest of the country is left.
Maybe it is because I am a man, not a woman that I have a hard time identifying with Dabny, the primary character. She is in a three way love square (not triangle). She loves the one she cant have, she has the one she doesn’t fully love but respects and admires and she can’t move beyond the first love. She is portrayed as this very logical person yet cannot make binary commitments required for a proper relationship. If I am being honest, that indecisive love theme of the story irritated me.
One aspect that didn’t play as well was the labor situation. It seems like in the story, every time someone quit a job there was a replacement available. I think that if we have learned anything post-pandemic that is just not true. If people were really dropping out of society at such rates as written, those jobs would not immediately be filled in the real world. And even as low skilled as building or running a railroad might be, people are not going to immediately pick-up where someone left off.
Outside of the agonizingly long story arc, I do believe that Atlas Shrugged was well written. The book itself could almost be timeless because there is very little reference to technology. There is a record player mentioned a couple of times, cars trains and airplanes. What there is not is science fiction gizmos that never came to fruition nor is there science fiction/fantasy tendencies to come up with out of this world names or races or any other thing that is difficult to understand. I suppose what I am really trying to say is that it was written in plain language.
I have read that Atlas Shrugged was supposedly set in the 1990s. Outside of the technology changes that weren’t that different than the 1950s, the timeline is actually pretty spot on. The book supposedly took place over something like a ten year period.
I think that if we look at our history compared to Atlas Shrugged, our collectivism journey really got into gear in the early 2000s. I know we had the war on poverty of the 1960s which largely started the welfare state but it was the combination of the police state with the Patriot Act that has the two interests accelerating the transition.
Really, the pace of Atlas Shrugged was much quicker that what we are seeing in real life. We are now twenty plus years from the Patriot Acts and fifty years of entitlements and we still have not seen the implosion as a result of bad policy. Although we are getting there. I wouldn’t be surprised if another Covid type event split the country.
There are now three books in my liberty series. I am going to rank them 1984 > Atlas Shrugged > A Brave New World. I have already started the next one and I bet that you can guess what it will be. So stay tuned to next week for a new review starting on Friday.
End Your Programming Routine: Despite my criticisms, I am glad that I read this book. It entertained and stimulated me for seven months. That being said, its not one that I will likely ever read again. If I play my cards right, I will have all of these posts to refer back to if the subject comes up again. The next two books are going to be re-reads for me. But, there is something kind of exciting about going on the journey into the unknown like Atlas Shrugged was. This will not be the last we hear from Ayn Rand either, just not in the near future. It’s time for something different.
I had a co-worker that loved this day for some unknown reason. He would play this movie on loop and bring in donuts. Maybe it is because some years, we were reliving the same day as the last day. One year specifically, I was in the middle of a huge snowstorm. I had been on-site the entire month of January and I was going to be there the whole month of February. Things were not going well and we did the only thing we could do, just keep going.
Believe it or not, I have never watched this movie. I have seen clips on YouTube and I have seen the loop but I have never sat down and watched it beginning to end. Supposedly, the protagonist lives his day over and over again until he gets everything right; I guess according to the universe. Maybe today is the day?
Of course, I am not a big believer of the whole Puxatawny Phil concept. It would be impossible to have the same weather in Pennsylvania as I have a whole country away. That being said, tradition is a good thing, nonsensical or not. The good news is that Spring is on the way weather we like it or not.
I look at February as a transitionary month. We sometimes get 60 degrees and sunny. We sometimes get snow storms. But what I really look at is the light level. By the end of the month, we will see it getting dark around 6pm or after the traditional end of the workday. To me, this ends the dark to work and dark when leaving days. I suppose that if I lived in Alaska, I would say the end of ‘Dark Winter’. There is a dramatic difference in the light levels from the beginning of the month to the end of the month.
Of course, I am going to spend half the month away from home. I will miss my son’s birthday and Valentines Day once again. Not only will there be hell to pay for that, this new debt that I owe but also this is the prime time to get some stuff done around the house. For instance, President’s Day is the target for getting roses pruned. And speaking of pruning, there are fruit trees, grapes, etc that need to get done before bud. This is another sign of transition.
In my climate I will likely see three more months at least of rainfall and mostly sub-sixty degree temperatures whether Phil saw his shadow or not. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be some good days too. The same as with the concept of the movie. It seems like I am living the same day over and over again, but then there are some days that are downright pleasant.
End Your Programming Routine: Like Yin and Yang, winter and summer are separate but interconnected. It is not a duality like described in Atlas Shrugged but a duality like light and dark or fire and water. Our downtime is quickly slipping away as the light is coming and then it is time to hit the ground running again.
I am slowly getting there. I suppose that I lost a little momentum over the holidays and it is taking a minute to get back there, but it is happening and I mean my sofa table project. Last weekend, I got to the point that I was ready to cut my legs. So that is what I am going to write about today.
First, I am going to start at the beginning. What am I doing? I am making what is called a Shaker styled leg. That means that it is tapered from the bottom to the top and those tapers will be on the inside edges. The outside two faces remain square.
The Shakers were a religious movement around the early 1800s as part of the great awakenings of that period. Shaker’s were know for their simplistic styles in efforts to maintain focus on worship. This has translated as furniture that lacks the adornment and decadence of the Victorian designs (they go by other names in the furniture/art/history circles).
So, I needed to taper some legs. I looked at buying some fixtures to do a generic version of this, but I soon settled on the fact that I would build my own purpose built ones. I had all of the materials, so let’s see how it went.
The first two things you need are a base and a fence. I chose a piece of plywood that will act as a sled against the saw fence as the base. The fixture fence was a piece 2×6 that I salvaged from my facia project this summer. That I send through the joiner to get a flat bottom and edge that I want to cut against.
Both the top and back of the fixture fence do not have to be perfect. The back for obvious reasons. On the top, I will mount some adjustable clamps. Because I can adjust for tightness, the top does not necessarily have to be square.
Measure and mark your taper on the base. When you figure that out, you can attach the fixture fence and base together. Counter sink the screws so that everything rides properly with the fixture.
I used some short mending plates to act as a stop for the front edge of the fixture. That way, as I push against the piece, the pressure will keep my workpiece tight against the fixture. My only other piece of advice here is keep metal away from the blade and make sure that the stop is placed low enough to contact your final dimensions. The clamps I placed roughly in equal thirds for distributed downward clamping pressure.
Amateur Tip #1 – The fixture fence should be as tall or taller than the workpiece thickness. Mine was shorter which meant that the clamps didn’t fully lock in place when adjusted to the minimum height. This is part safety and part quality. Had I have known, I could cut a fatter piece from my 2×6 and mounted it on edge
Amateur Tip #2 – After cutting the first face, save the off cut. Reattach the off cut to the main part with tape to maintain a flat (ish) surface for the second cut. If you can get away with rotating the cut edge to the top, then this wont be necessary. I picked the two faces that I wanted to remove and sometimes the first cut face needed to be facing down against the sled to get my taper on the proper side.
All in all, I am very happy with my first attempt. Part of this process is actually getting the proportions correct. I drew them to scale and the looked alright there. I think that they looked pretty good in the real world too. My next step is cutting mortises and tenons for the base. And that is another day.
End Your Programming Routine: There were a few things that I would change. Like for instance, I didn’t verify that my base was square, which is wasn’t. Consequently, my taper was a little more aggressive than I planned. But, that is OK. Experts would say that someone without experience should run test pieces or mockups. That’s great advice for commissions or expensive woods. In this case, my whole project is training. Live an learn, but I am happy with my first shaker legs.
OK, so I underestimated the hassle factor on this. I thought I was going to get off cheap and easy with $30 in parts and an hour of time. First problem, I couldn’t find the breaker. After a bunch of running up and down the stairs, I found out that my breaker panel is actually mislabeled on which breaker actually runs to the water heater.
I figured it was probably a 30 amp breaker, because it was 10 gauge wire coming in to the water heater. The panel was labelled a 20 amp breaker. Now, some years ago, we had some arcing in the panel and we paid an electrician who removed the top level breakers and shoved everything down in the panel. At that time, almost nothing was labeled so I never bothered.
I only label breakers as I find them. Worse case scenario, I can turn everything off with the main on the panel. But, as much a I have dinked around the house, I have never had opportunity to look at every circuit.
After testing to verify the power was finally off, it was time to drain the tank. Hook the hose up and run it to the sump. Open the valve and nothing. Come to find out that the drain valve on the tank is plugged up with mineral build up. So, now I have new problems. How to get the water out of the tank without burning myself or dumping 50 gallons of water all over the floor.
By the time I figured out how to approach this problem, I ran out of time to do what I needed to do. Plus, I needed time to obtain the parts so I spent another $30 on brass tube fittings to build something that could blow air back into the system and clear the drain. That took a couple of hours, but it worked. Finally, after three different attempts, I was able to drain the water heater.
In 2020, when I spent my entire summer remodeling the apartment, I did some water heater work there. I have known since we moved into the house in 2005 that there were a few low risk items that needed to be addressed. One of which was no catchment pan under the water heater. So I bought one. How ever, I wasn’t able to drain the water then either. So, I left it for another time. This was going to be the time.
First, I wanted to get the elements out so I could see how bad the inside of the tank was. Feeling good that I conquered the draining, soon changed to I didn’t have a socket to remove the element. It required a 1 1/2″ socket. So, another trip to the store. I also needed PVC for the drain line, although that was really optional for the initial job. Another $30 for those parts.
I removed the top element an there wasn’t much to see. These tanks are glass lined, so they are pretty impervious on the inside. But when it came to the bottom element, it was heavily corroded and my new $6 element socket quickly met it’s match. It tried penetrating oil, heat and hammering none of them worked. I needed to find a real socket, not the stamped sheet metal one for the most leverage possible.
These are tractor sized dimensions, to the tractor store for tools. Now, add another $40. I also didn’t check my PVC glue before the last trip which was also dried out. I had to get that too. But, finally, I got the bottom element out. All in all, it looked better than I was expecting. That being said, there was definitely some buildup on the elements.
Once drained, I wanted to flush the tank. Ideally, to do that I would get the pan underneath the tank so I could flush without sending water all over the floor. Fortunately, my son is strong enough that he can bear hug the tank while I slid the pan underneath it. I was able to complete the PVC work but ran out of time to actually flush the tank.
End Your Programming Routine: It is nice to have hot water again. I guess the degradation is so slow that you don’t realize what it used to be like. Hot water is continuous throughout my shower and the dishes again. After doing this job, I am convinced that this is a one hour job with the right knowledge and tools. That being said, I overpaid with time and materials. I don’t regret doing it myself because now I know but it wasn’t as cheap or as easy as had planned.
As this ordeal is not over, this information may become dated. I suppose what prompted me to do this podcast was how impressed I was over the police work and investigation on this crime. I am still fascinated by the unknown motive and how this will all play out. As we know with OJ Simpson, a circumstantial case is not a slam dunk. But, I don’t think this suspect will have a cadre of celebrity lawyers either.
End Your Programming Routine: Every once an a while I want to do something different on something that really interests me that is not totally in-line with what I normally do. This is one of those things. At the very least, it should be an education into what tactics the police state potentially has at their disposal. Yeah, you know that cell phone that tracks your every movement and is accessible with a warrant. I doubt that this crime would have been solved 15 years ago. It was made possible by all of the privacy that we have voluntarily surrendered. But, at least in this case it was for a positive reason.
And here we are my friends, the end. It has been seven long months of mostly Fridays analyzing this very long book. I should say, I am going to have one more and that will be my total book summary next week. I will stop looking at each chapter and themes but consider the book as a whole.
I don’t want to completely ruin the ending so I am not going to talk about what exactly happened, even in summary. But, what I will say is that the ending didn’t fully fit into the flow of the rest of the book (to me). That is all I am going to say about that.
The thing that I am going to talk about today is the symbolism of the Taggert Transcontinental bridge across the Mississippi. This bridge has been mentioned in many chapters throughout the book. I want to talk about what it means and what it doesn’t.
As the story goes, the bridge was built in 1885. It was originally forbidden by the barge companies running up and down the Mississippi river. Nathaniel Taggert was even sued and lost in his ability to build it. It wasn’t until the Supreme Court ruled on the matter that he eventually won the ability to build the bridge. And so he did “with his bare hands’ as the story goes.
Apparently, there are very few crossings of the Mississippi river and this bridge is one of them. Throughout the book as things progressively got worse, there was always hope because the bridge still stood and was functional. Most of the track problems seemed to happen in the mountain west or southwest. The fact that the bridge was still available allowed the possibility of transcontinental service by rerouting around the problem areas.
It is said that Rand developed a psychological discipline called Objectivism. In a nutshell, it is the use of reason and logic as a basis for belief. I suppose that this is different than the Freudian school which are the three personalities or the Frankl school of experiential development. From a logical basis, I can understand that bridge functioning = potential hope. But I really see the error in that line of thinking is really too simple of an analysis.
Just think using a simple example. I am still alive so therefore I have a chance at becoming an millionaire. What I didn’t say is that I haver terminal cancer and that I am on life support. Yes, there is a chance that someone could hand me a lottery ticket and I could become an instant millionaire in the next drawing. It is possible. What isn’t said is the probability is almost zero. Even if that did happen, so what. I wouldn’t live long enough to cash it in. I wouldn’t live long enough to spend it or possibly write it into my will to give it away.
I don’t have a problem with Objectivism per se. It seems like a perfectly fine way to run as railroad as they say. But, it does seem to be a fatal character flaw with Dabny and it is certainly no proof that this is a valid discipline; the very idea that Ojectivism is based. Now, I don’t want to get all philosophical, this is an area that I have little education or training. But, I believe that logic only exists on facts and facts only exist on what is, not what could be.
So as in life, decisions have to be made. Facts forecast probable outcomes and those are the basis of decision, not facts themselves. Each decision is a gamble based on probability, risk and potential reward. Logic by it’s nature cannot be involved with uncertainty. That would mean that A may not result in A and because A might eventually equal B or A might equal C.
Just like I could win the lottery on my deathbed, so could a catastrophic event happen in business or government. Near certainty is not certain, it is almost likely. This is where the saying ‘barring uncertain circumstances’ comes from. On one hand, I admire the never give up mindset. But, I will say this is the attitude of running an empire, not creating one. Because I believe that you have to quit things that don’t work or won’t work.
End Your Programming Routine: As we wrap up our time here with this book, I have to say it has been an amazing journey for me. My eyes were already open, but it is so strange to read events of fiction written over seventy years ago coming alive in real or near real time. I think if you asked people fifty years ago, this was a playbook of what not to do. Now, it seems like a playbook of what is happening. That is sad. What you do about it is be informed on the issues, but live your life for yourself and not others, just like John Galt.
Cleaning out my in-laws property two years ago, they had a generator that they upgraded. Consequently, I ended up with it. Unlike in Atlas Shrugged you cant make electricity from the static electricity in the air, you need fuel. So like all good preppers, I started buying gas cans when they were on sale and I was waiting for the winter price drop to fill them.
Before I did, I wanted to make some modifications for better use. It is a sad testimonial when you have to spend another $5 on a $20 gas can just so that it will work properly. The cans sold since 2012 are all but unusable due to modifications made to prevent vapors from evaporating by lazy users. Now, instead of letting vapor escape, you just spill copious amounts of fuel all over the ground since the cans are so difficult to operate.
P.S. My personal favorite is the sticker that is put on the can that says “Children under three should not be permitted to use this product”. I mean, can you imagine a four year old and a gas can? What if it was a non-smoking three year old? I am not even sure what they were actually insinuating.
Of course the cheapest modification you could do is drill a hole in the back of the gas can and cover the hole with tape (or even a cork). I warn you that just drilling the hole and not replacing the spout with a simple tube type, in a full can the gas will spill out the hole while you are trying to force the valve open to pour.
The modifications are easy to do. Once you do one, the rest are much quicker. One thing that I learned after I filmed the video is that if you drop the catchment filter inside the can, it is very difficult to remove. One other tip, if your can previously held gas, give it some time to evaporate or you will be dribbling gas all over the place and potentially on you trying to do this process.
End Your Programming Routine: I get it. The regulation to require gas can changes was an attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions. No matter where you stand on the issue, it is always laudable to try and do better. I don’t like evaporating gas either. But, this has to be one of the most in-effective changes ever made. I cant express how ridiculous it is to dump gas all over the ground because we are going to prevent it evaporating in the can.
Maybe my time reading Self-Reliance magazine is starting to rub off on me as I have been thinking about getting a sewing machine. I was thinking that if I ran across one at Goodwill for $20 or so, I would get it. After sewing my kids Boy Scout patches on by hand for years, I am kind of tired of doing it.
My mom sews, so this is nothing new to me. Growing up, there was always a fully outfitted sewing room. Mostly, I asked mom to do this because she was much better than me, but I could do it in a pinch. In fact, as part of the sixth grade survey we had 18 weeks of Home Economics where we all sewed a basic drawstring bag. What I am trying to say is that it is not that far off that I could sew something.
Recently, we cleaned out my in-laws storage unit. It was either donate, trash or keep. I think that we ended up keeping too much and throwing out too much but it was what it was. I ran across this sewing machine and decided that this was going to be mine (if none of the heirs wanted it, which they didn’t). This means that I really need to my sofa table done so that I can put this sewing machine where my stereo is currently.
Now, I am not planning on doing anything really major but it sure is handy to have around when you have three or four patches to sew on. The truth is, my boys are of the age that I am ‘letting’ them do it. If they ask for help, then I will but I am no longer just taking initiative to sew on their patches. This is something that is really their responsibility with uniform compliance. I used to feel some degree of judgement but not anymore, they are plenty capable.
When I was in grade school, my mom would sew us one shirt. We got to pick the material and it was the shirt that we would wear for school pictures. Generally speaking, that shirt first went to the county fair before school started. So, we had to wait and visit it before we got to use it.
Going to the fabric store was really painful as a child. It seemed like we were there forever and there was definitely nothing a child was interested in, except maybe the scissors isle. There was one year, I picked a fabric for my shirt that had a silver thread running through it. I think my brother picked a fabric that had a gold thread running though it. We thought it was pretty cool.
I think that my last year, I was in fourth grade. My mom made a shirt where the Millennium Falcon was embroidered on the back. This would have been right before Return of the Jedi came out. It was the peak of Star Wars mania (for me at least). Unfortunately, it took too long to complete and so the shirt went to my brother because it didn’t fit me when it was completed. It did win a blue ribbon at the county fair.
There have been some times that I have been tempted to try and build a backpack or bag. For instance, I cant find an exact range bag with the features that I want. With both of my boys shooting trap, I just don’t have enough space for everything that we need on a weekly basis in my range bag. Wouldn’t be cool if I could just sew one up? This is probably way too ambitious but it is actually possible. This is how many technical gear companies have started, see a need and fill a need.
End Your Programming Routine: As a alluded to in the first sentence, Self-Reliance magazine has three or so projects that are pretty simple, like sewing a reusable bag out of feed sacks. You know, like the kind you can buy at the grocery store. This is not really about making dresses but a tool that can really be useful. Throughout my adult life there have been many times I threw something away because it was too difficult to mend or repair appropriately. This is a step at correcting that
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