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June 6, 2022 – Symphony for the Masses

June 6, 2022 /

My kids are into music. I understand, I was once a high schooler in band. I suppose that it did build some appreciation for classical music as well. I definitely enjoyed playing music rather than listening to it anyway. We had a family outing over Memorial Weekend and it was a night at the Oregon Symphony.

I’m sure when you think of symphony, you think of fancy, expensive, a little bougie. I do, so I wouldn’t blame you. This was something different as a more approachable and quite smart way to draw in a new audience. This was the Oregon Symphony playing the score of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This event drew in the Harry Potter fans, symphony goers, kids and the like. The audience was encouraged to interact with the movie by cheering or jeering however we saw fit. There were definitely people that had their Harry Potter garb on as well as people that appeared to be on dates. It was quite the mix.

The movie plays on the screen while the symphony plays the soundtrack to go along with it. At $50/ticket, it was the most expensive movie I have ever watched. I do have to say, since I have never seen the movie (I did read 75% of the book), I found myself focusing primarily on the screen and not the sound. I guess I would say, if you prefer the music then this experience may not be for you.

It seems like they have been doing this for some time, I just recently became aware of it. There will be another one in two months that is the music from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. We are already talking about whether we want to buy tickets or not.

Looking at other upcoming performances, it does seem like this is not the symphony of 30 years ago. In addition to what you might expect, the next performance is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony there is also a Beatle’s tribute as well as a Star Wars vs Star Trek concert. So, it does seem like they are trying to reach a broader audience.

End Your Programming Routine: We did get dressed up. We had to go to Portland and pay for parking. With that came a midnight stop at a 24 hour diner as well as a friend a piece for each of my boys. So, this was not an inexpensive outing. I couldn’t think of a more unique scenario to enjoy a holiday weekend.

June 3, 2022 – 500

June 3, 2022 /

This is the 500th post at Altf4. I have to say, I don’t think all of them were great and to some degree not all of them were (technically) real topics. There have been some occasions where I was having technical problems and just posted an update rather than a real topic. But, technically, this is the 500th blog entry.

My favorite things I have done so far are the series posts. I think number one was documenting the remodeling of my apartment in the spring and summer of 2020. I do look back at those posts sometimes when I want to check on some aspect or find a picture of the project. Number two was the analysis of 1984 followed by the analysis of the American Dream I completed earlier this year.

Individual posts that stand out to me as favorites are Lessons Delivering for Amazon, Memories of my Grandfather and teens and grief. There are lots of runner ups, particularly ones that I think have great pictures like my fishing, crabbing ones. I suppose the reason that all of those appeal to me is that they hold memories versus the opinion pieces. There is no real connection to the content.

What are the top questions I get asked? The truth is none. But, let’s pretend that I had fans I was being interviewed?

  1. How do you come up with topics every day? I think it is helpful to have a bit of a formula. For instance, a series is useful in filling at least a day a week. Tacticool Thursday is a set placeholder and so I only need three days worth of topics at this point. I use projects on the weekend to generate content for the remaining days. When I get ideas, I stub them out to be filled in later as well.
  2. What is your favorite part of writing AltF4? I like the creative outlet but it also helps me solidify my thoughts. When I was in a funk six weeks ago, writing about it helped me figure out what was going wrong. It also gives me pause
  3. What is your least favorite part? I think because I do this on my own time, the quality and scale of what I do is less than what I want it to be. When I am writing heavy opinion pieces, I will often let them set a day or so before re-reading and publishing. Usually I don’t change much but I often see places where I wander or could streamline the argument. Because of time, I usually let them go. I would like to do larger and more intricate projects but time is usually a constraint.
  4. Is there anything that you wish you hadn’t written about? No. But I do wonder sometimes if I come off too strong at times. I do give some thought to opinion pieces and wonder how this is going to come back to harm me in the future. I often take a second look at my initial stance before I write about it or at least publish it.
  5. If you could make one change, what would it be? I wish that AltF4 was my career. There are lots of things I would like to do that I don’t feel like I have the luxury of doing without sacrificing all of my free time. I would like to build some other avenues of interaction, maybe some e-commerce store with stickers, I would like to refresh some of the sticky pages and organize some additional resources and links.
  6. Any plans for the future? As of right now, nothing new is planned. This doesn’t mean that I won’t change my mind or find an easier way to make the changes I would like to see happen occur. As I have stated recently, doing things the way that I have been doing them has satisfied me to the point that it is comfortable.
  7. Is there anything that you have learned doing this? Actually, I have learned quite a bit. I think I have the discipline to write a book if I wanted to, and I actually enjoy it. I have learned a little about PHP, SSL and web technology as well. I learned that I like having an open forum to do whatever I want to do.
  8. Is there anything else that you want to add? I would like to thank my fans for submitting the questions and letting me answer them. Honestly, I know that this is a passé medium just like reading books or preparing family dinner every night. I guess that I am an old soul. Thanks for giving me your time not just today but every time you read.

I know that growth requires change. In my head at least, I thought I was practicing what I thought was a proper business practice. And that is, keep generating content while the conversion to the new thing is going on. I suppose the reality is that I don’t have the bandwidth to really do both. I get kind of irritated when somewhere closes down temporarily to make a change. My thinking was, I don’t see anything wrong with the way it is. This is the reality of a one man show.

As a result of trying to do something extra for post 500, I have spent some time over the last couple weeks to revamp the static pages. I have consolidated the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club to one page instead of a yearly page. I repurposed the other pages for umbrella subjects of media and influences. Hopefully, those pages will be a little more evergreen and useful and less temporal than they were in the past.

So, with that, I am not going to make any additional promises on the future at this point. I am going to keep writing until I decide to do something different. That something could be that I just don’t want to spend my time doing this anymore. But, I don’t really foresee that at this point.

End Your Programming Routine: It is no secret that I am a routine listener to The Survival Podcast. In one of Jack’s many business building routines, the advice is to do things routinely. Very few are going to show up to something that has five entries or episodes and post randomly. I took that advice to heart, so that part I have down. What I still need lots of help on is the marketing and monetization components.

June 2, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 2, 2022 /

This came up in Trap a few weeks ago, that is the color of shooting glass lenses and the environmental conditions. This is helpful for shooting but it is also helpful in fishing as well. Different color of lenses can give you a tiny advantage with different light conditions.

When I first got my range membership, I thought I would treat myself to some new shooting glasses. I bought a multi lens pack that contained a range of different colors. On the package, there is a guide that helps select the right conditions for the right lens.

I personally like clear for indoors, yellow for overcast or low light and grey/black for sunny days. I think that gives a lot of versatility. But there are many more variations. Not being a professional or a competitor, I could see how maybe any slight advantage might be helpful but I can get by with the three.

Since my son adopted my shooting glasses during trap season, I decided to see what was out there and upgrade. I recently bought a pair of WileyX WX Saints. You might say they are safety glasses or sunglasses but they have interchangeable lenses. The truth is, many sunglasses can also work as safety glasses. The important thing is that they are tested to ANSI Z87.1 standards. That is the impact test for worthwhile safety glasses.

For fishing, polarized glass is important. Not only do glasses protect your eyes for rays bouncing off the water but they also help you see fish. If you are a sight fisherman, then seeing fish is an advantage to catching them. And, the better you can match the color, the better you can see fish.

Another thing about sunglasses and safety, many sunglasses are more fashion accessories than safety gear. That is to say, the need to have full, wrap around capability to provide the best protection. Many of the blade styles (from Oakley) or the thick temple bands (like Costa and Oakley) provide full protection. I would definitely prefer plastic lenses for safety purposes as well.

One thing I find a pain is wearing glasses and muffs at the same time. After prolonged use, the muffs press the glasses into the head. The glasses also interfere with the muff seal and are less effective at stopping noise. I don’t think this conundrum can be avoided but it has got me thinking of investigating the earbud style hearing protection. Generally speaking, I don’t think they provide as good of protection as the muffs, but they would eliminate the headache of the glasses/muff squeeze. Maybe that is my next purchase.

End Your Programming Routine: As far as safety gear goes, to me glasses are the most important safety gear at the range. The reason being is that hearing protection is definitely a requirement at the line or inside but if you get 20 feet away (as long as you are behind the shooters) sound starts to dissipate. You never know when shrapnel can come back at you, even from other shooters on different bays. I have been shooting in one bay and heard stuff hit the roof from another shooter somewhere unknown. I don’t think it is worth the risk.

June 1, 2022 – Mark Twain

June 1, 2022 /

“We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. We inflame wild beasts with the smell of blood, and then innocently wonder at the wave of brutal appetite that sweeps the land as a consequence.” Mark Twain Speech, between October 5 and October 17, 1907

I probably should do more research on this character. He seems like someone that we share a lot of views in common. I have to say that I ran across this quote when I was scrolling through one of the groups I watch on MeWe. When I tried to find the source, I found a lot of quotes that were interesting.

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot”, “I was educated once – it took me years to get over it” and “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” These are a handful of quotes that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Mark Twain, was the pen name of Samuel Clemmons. Every time you read about him, he is described as a ‘humorist‘. As far as I am concerned, I see him as a man that was intelligent and had a platform to deliver his views in a way that was palatable to many, like Shakespeare or Benjamin Franklin. In some ways, I think this is what Rush Limbaugh did. You may not have liked his views or even thought he was funny, but there were many times he was attempting to use humor as a way to make a point.

Of course, I have read Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And, you should know by now, I am not convinced of the innuendo between Twain and his writings in terms of a social platform. I will not deny that his views outside of his writing were pretty clear and direct. All that being said, you cannot necessarily separate Twain’s opinion and the subject matter of his writings. At the very least, his writing built his speaking platform.

I ran across this over the weekend…

I think irony is an important aspect of humor. Isn’t it ironic that someone would want to organize some sort of anti-violence demonstration while simultaneously promoting violence at the same time.

I am going to speculate about what I think Bob is saying. No country should invade another country and kill it’s citizens and try to take it’s territory, therefore I side with Ukraine. After thinking about this, I have to say that even self defense is violence. I have to imagine that if Ukraine was not resisting, there would be significantly less death and destruction. That is not a conviction of right and wrong, but educated conjecture.

I skimmed through most of the replies and I am confused about the intent of this. This is organized as a response to the Uvalde shooting last week. I think orange was a bridge between hunter orange i.e. gun owners and people wanting to protest bun violence (?). I have no doubt that a large contingent of people do not fully understand the second amendment but there is no connection between that and hunting other that guns are mostly used to participate.

I think Twain would do his research on the subject before commenting. Which side is really the good/bad guys here? Is it the Ukrainians who denied regional succession to become Russians after an overwhelming vote to do so or is it Russians seizing foreign territory? And, how can you be against violence yet support it at the same time?

We have got some issues here. Unfortunately, people are not looking deep enough into something before adding a no thought given emoji to their signature. I am giving Bob the benefit of the doubt here, I am assuming he is ignorant and really means well. I sure hope that it is not the other way.

End Your Programming Routine: “Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right.” I don’t know the exact context of this quote, but Twain was an unapologetic abolitionist. Think about the context of the day versus today’s view of slavery. Now, use that same discipline for everything else in life.

May 31, 2022 – She’s All Mine

May 31, 2022 /

I got my bicycle back last week from the shop. This time, it wasn’t just a tune up but changes that I have been wanting to make for the last 30 years. I started researching bicycles in 1993. I wanted to get involved in a new-ish phenomenon called mountain biking. I was a high school athlete that fancied myself an outdoors enthusiast. This seemed like a perfect combination for me. I did quite a bit of research actually and talked to all of the local bike shops before I made my decision.

My first bicycle I bought in April 1993. I had it until it was stolen in the first of May 1994 (it was fully locked in front of the dorm). I had done a little bit of mountain biking through the year, so I decided to upgrade to a better model. This is still the bike I have now.

At this time, there were very few bikes with suspension. Front suspension had just been invented and there were only a handful of full suspension bikes. The arms race was not all the things you could add to your bike but how well built it was. So, for instance, this is a steel bike that weighs in at 24lbs. There were a few Aluminum frame bikes and there were also a couple Titanium frame bikes as well. Believe or not, I saw a couple carbon fiber frames even.

I think now, most of the performance bikes are Aluminum, not steel. Thoughts on that type of metallurgy is that it is more prone to stress cracking because it is more rigid than steel. I would say that is much more likely when you are riding over bumps and causing additional unintended force. I think if you add suspension, then some of that potential damage is mitigated.

It was always my intent to buy the best bike I could, then upgrade it as time went on. Interest and use had waned over the years. There was a time when I got my bike ready to ride as my kids were of the age of but after using it a couple of times it sat for another season and stopped working again. Another way of saying it was I couldn’t use it when I wanted to without another trip to the bike shop.

One of the things that I wanted to change were the pedals. Mine originally came with what are called toe clips. They were supposed to partially lock your feet into the pedals and give the rider the ability to get power on the pull and the push stroke. The problem with the casual rider is that you needed to wear full shoes, so a casual ride with sandals wasn’t possible. You could flip the clips upside down, but then the clips were frequently dragging, It was annoying and therefore, I replaced them.

I would call my bike ‘higher end’ at the time. Being so, it was intended for more rugged use. This also meant that the rider geometry was aggressive. Conventional wisdom at the time was that a rider would get used to the position. I definitely never got used to it and it wasn’t comfortable to ride over longer distances, even when I was young. I changed the rider positioning with the neck and new handle bar so that I was sitting more upright. Lest be honest, I will be lucky to ride the bike, let alone race it.

I have always enjoyed riding my bike. It needs to work in order for me to do so. My kids are of the age that they will be driving soon so it was worth it to me to spend some money on it.

I am considering possibly making some additional changes (but not this year). I always wanted to upgrade the front forks to a suspension setup. I am also waffling on having a bike that I can use around town to pick-up a few items at the grocery store, rather than driving. That would mean the ability to carry things and probably have some rain protection and less aggressive tires.

To me, the question would be buying a separate bike to setup for town use or modify this one some more. I am leaning toward buying a cheaper second bike and setting it up for around town use. I like the idea of riding my bike to the store rather than driving. It is not about the effort, but the time even though the store is only a 1/4 mile away and a bike would go along way to eliminating the time factor. However, let’s not put the cart before the horse and see how this year goes.

End Your Programming Routine: There is no doubt that this was an expensive job. I spent $350 on the total project. My wife thought that I should have bought a new bike instead of spending the money on all this. In my mind, the changes were worth it considering the quality of the bike ($800 in 1994) to begin with and at least in my mind, a $400 bike is probably a two year bike. Most of the labor cost needed to be done anyway, I added $100 in parts. I hope to get some use out of it this year.

May 30, 2022 – Remember the Ultimate Sacrifice

May 30, 2022 /

Fortunately for me, I don’t know of anyone that has died in combat. I do know someone that took their own life as a result of PTSD which, while extremely sad is not quite the same (I will get to this later). If you remember my stance I took in 2020 this is not Veterans Day or First Responders appreciation. This is the day to remember those that gave all.

I will have the barbeque going and I will enjoy some family time as well as a day off. I will be thankful that I don’t know anyone that has died in combat. I will also be slightly pissed off that our soldiers died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, UAE, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Bosnia, Serbia and Kuwait to name the ones that we know about. I will be sad that kids were brainwashed into believing in the mission so strongly that they didn’t realize they were the pawns and casualties in a power struggle beyond their wildest imagination. I will be boggled and disgusted by a culture that can’t tell the difference between a veteran and a combat death.

This is all to say that we need to be very careful in our moral superiority complex. We must not confuse advancing Liberty and Freedom with the actions of a bully. This is not a benevolent bully either. This is a bend to our submission so that we can remain at the top of the heap. Our dollar is worth more, our gas tanks are filled first, we eat first, we piss upstream of everyone else.

When I hear the phrase “fighting for your freedom” I want to throw up a little bit. In a small way, that is true. It is not freedom per se, but my ability to leverage my superior economic status over yours, or my manifest destiny, or protecting my business interests in a location that is not governed by my country. There have only been three occasions where this has truly been the case, the war of Independence, the war of 1812 and the Civil War.

I could be persuaded to give Korea and Vietnam a pass to a point. But one, we should now know that proxy wars are not protecting our freedom and two after we have seen those failures we keep doing the same thing (Afghanistan). Or, how about the ‘We fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here’ stance? Here’s an idea, if we stopped pushing people around all together maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense constantly.

Remember the accusations that Russia would dare to mettle in our elections? How many elections do you suppose we have manipulated? How about the invasion of Haiti to restore a dictator that was disposed by a military coup? The same guy that was assassinated last year, how did that work out for him or us for that matter? There is nothing like a constant power display to build contempt so that they get to the point that they would rather blow themselves up than keep on keeping on.

I would like to think that my people are the god fearing, flag waving, not apologizing for shit, Toby Keith types. I used be one of those for sure. But, part of being god fearing is looking at the situation from a different points of view. At this point, I can’t endorse any sort of non-defensive military aggression.

I do not blame the soldier. In theory, they were used to advance agenda of economic superiority using propaganda masked as patriotism. This is the real tragedy of Memorial Day. To put a final point to this, the ultimate sacrifice was not self sacrifice exclusively but a willing sacrifice for someone else’s prosperity without the full knowledge of the situation. It is no small coincidence that combat veterans suffer from a high degree of PTSD. No only did they do things they regret, they intimately understand the whole cabal after it is too late.

End Your Programming Routine: My heart goes to you if you had a loved one die in the line of duty. About ten years ago, we met a husband and wife that were up in the woods. We were looking for a specific grove of old growth timber called ‘Valley of the Giants’ but they were up there because their son was killed in Vietnam and buried in a town called Valsetz that no longer exists. They were near the old townsite to get a connection on Memorial Day. Fortunately, they were more than willing to lead us to our destination which we would not likely found simply wandering in the woods.

May 27, 2022 – I Want to Be Transparent…

May 27, 2022 /

As we head toward Memorial weekend, I was thinking about what I was going to try accomplish over the weekend. I also had a juxtaposing thought that I talk some about things that I am going to do but never any update on where I am at or what ever happened.

I talked about transparency with leadership so you know that I think it is important. Being transparent, most of those things never got started. Here is a list of things that I have introduced but have made no progress

  • Wine Cellar
  • Front Yard Garden
  • Sofa Table for my stereo system
  • Shop siding replacement
  • (Now) Adirondack chairs
  • Build a Kitchen Table
  • AltF4 business plan
  • podcasting testing

You know this subconsciously because if I had done what I said, I would be writing about it more than likely. I have a couple of other things that I have started, but never completed. And like all humans, I pick an choose things I would rather do or are motivated to do. Seems like lately, I just don’t have the energy or the drive to do things after work with so many family activities happening.

To be fair, the siding is going to be done this summer. I had to go to the dump last weekend to clear out my trailer so I had room to do the demo. So, that is progress; that I didn’t report on. In this current week, I have been making trips to Goodwill so I can clean out the garage to get my son’s car in so that we can have some paver work done. Not on my want list, but my need list.

All of that garbage and donation stuff has clogged my garage and shop all winter and spring. This is not an excuse, but a very real obstacle to me working on my projects. That logjam is unclogging finally.

Last year, I replaced the derailleur on my son’s bike but I never did the final gear adjustment, I was getting five of the seven rear gears. He was complaining that the handle grips were sliding off. I bought some new ones and when I went to slide all the mechanicals down the handle bar, the cables came loose. I went to try and fix it by taking the bike to a park and using the stand, but then I found that the derailleur bracket was bent, I didn’t have the tools and I wasn’t sure of the right correction. In my heart, I could have fiddled with it more and gotten it licked. But, not having a stand at home just led me to finally take the bike in.

The truth is my own bike has been only partially functional for years. I have always hated the pedal clips, the rider geometry has me too bent over to be comfortable and the worst part is that the shifters have been partially seized. I decided to take both bikes in. Like I was saying a couple of weeks ago, it’s not that I couldn’t do these things but at this point, I would rather ride the bike than work on it. This is especially true because my precious time is going to be focused on my siding project over the summer. Having the ability to just jump on my bike and go makes me much more likely to do so than spend the same time fooling over new parts.

I have no good reason why I haven’t done my business plan or podcast testing. When I have talked about this before, I have talked about my intent by announcing something and accountability. Since no one is really communicating with me over this channel, there is no real accountability. What keeps me writing everyday is my drive to want to do it. Since no one is asking and I am happy with where I am at, I haven’t been motivated to do anything different.

Transparency to me is admitting that I am not perfect. Not everything I write about turns out to be a dream. I have a pile of video on things that I was planning to create video on, but didn’t work out. I am not sure if I should go ahead and edit and publish to be real or just delete them as stuff that didn’t work. For now, I am just holding on to it.

To be sure, I am going to keep being me. I am going to write about things that I intend to do when I write them because maybe they inspire someone to do something similar on their own. I am going to maintain a list of things that someday I want to get to. I am going to keep pushing myself to try things I have no experience doing to learn and try to teach or coach.

I am not going to apologize for follow through until I get some sort of dialog where I find out that I am disappointing people. As far as I know, nobody is routinely reading this anyway. If that day comes, then I will have true accountability and I promise that I will do a more careful job of follow through with my announcements and projects. There is no doubt in my mind that I will have the proper motivation when I know people are waiting for me.

Like everyone, I get tired. I want to check out sometimes. I find things I would rather do. I have obligations that I didn’t realize before I thought I was going to do something. It is cold in my shop without the heat on. I don’t want to start something to get interrupted by something else. I have a myriad of excuses and reasons I haven’t done the things that I probably should have. I also have on my list a bunch of things I don’t want to do but need to, so this problem is not exclusive to just my personal goals.

I feel like I am the true master of none. I am a very amateur woodworker, mechanic, shooter, woodsman, scientist, gardener, brewer, etc. I think I am a decent cook and carpenter but I don’t always have a project or feel like sharing dinner. My interests are in learning, teaching and following my desires are what drive me. I hope that my courage to try is inspiring to others.

End Your Programming Routine: My original title for this site was going to be Polymath Daily, not AltF4 because of the wide variety of topics. I am glad that I went with the latter rather than the former because it allows for more emphasis on opinion and less on hard skills. At this point in my life, I am going to prioritize family and relationship over hardcore projects and skills but that doesn’t mean I am going to quit trying. I hope you have something planned for this holiday weekend that fulfills you.

May 26, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 26, 2022 /

This is a rewrite. I already had this entire week written by Tuesday but unfortunately something came up and this was the best day to interrupt the flow. You all know what that something is… a school shooting in Texas where 19 children and two adults were killed. This is the biggest tragedy and eerily similar to Sandy Hook (2012).

I am going to spare the hard lines of party talking points today. I see all kinds of people talking out of their asses about the situation. I see a lot of people that have their own contingency of personal security using this event to push their personal agenda. I am talking about NBA coaches, TV hosts and US politicians.

With all things, what do you do with this? I want to say, I cant blame all people for being angry. Someone very close to me said yesterday that they wanted to get some training and start carrying. I think that is actually the proper response not because I want a militarization of our culture but because we are our own first responders.

I have said this before, if I knew that there was going to be a fight somewhere then I would not go to that place. It is just smart. That leaves us with being caught unaware anytime something like this happens. If you are unaware, then how prepared are you really going to be? And if you are not prepared, it is only luck that keeps you alive.

My kids had a band concert a couple nights ago. Oregon SB554 was passed in 2021 in direct response to 2011 appeals court dismissal of college’s ability to prohibit firearms. The reason for this is Oregon has a preemption clause in the constitution which means that only the legislature can make laws that contradict the Bill of Rights. Or in other words, administrative bodies cannot arbitrarily create rules that are in contradiction to the constitution. This is a long way of saying firearms are banned at all schools in our district.

Had that circumstance in Texas occurred in my town, the results would have likely been the same or worse. 1) This is not Texas with the same sense of individualism 2) we don’t have a bunch of border protection officers just hanging around town. The sheriff has two – six deputies on duty, municipal police have two on duty and the adjacent town has two on duty. State police are fifteen miles away at best.

If the ‘good guys’ are following the laws and the ‘bad guys’ are not, then what is the result? The result is a defenseless shooting gallery. Did you also know that Great Britain is implementing knife restrictions as a result of a huge rise in knife crime? On one hand, the firearm is a better tool for killing but you see from the data that the problem is not the tool. Nor is the problem a lack of laws. The problem is sick and deranged people.

The story is still being written on this. 2020 followed by 2021 were the biggest firearms sales years for a reason. The largest segment of that population were first time gun owners. People know when something is wrong, defund the police being one example. This country is literally disintegrating before our eyes and people don’t realize what is wrong, only that it doesn’t feel right.

Since this is a complicated problem and I don’t want to disrespect the situation with simple solutions, I can only offer my opinion. It is a shame that we should abdicate our children’s safety and quite frankly their minds to a system that is counter-intuitive and unnatural. Instead of learning critical thinking and problem solving, we are training safety by bureaucracy and administration.

The question is not “how is this prevented” but “how do I survive”. You see, that flips the script on me imposing my will on you to you taking responsibility for yourself. I don’t think it will ever be prevented, but I do believe that there are steps I can take to potentially mitigate the damage. In a hypothetical situation, whether I am killed because I am disarmed or I am killed because my opponent was a better/quicker shot the result is still the same. But which one provides better odds?

I am not going to say whether I obey the no guns in school policy. What I will say is that this is not my first day after a school shooting. And, I will also say that my human right to self preservation exceeds any kind of policy. That is the basis of civil disobedience. If I did have a weapon and I was in the situation, my first priority is to get out of harm, not stop the threat or even engage.

End Your Programming Routine: If Whoopi Goldberg wants to come here and try to punch me, then I would like to see her try. Quite frankly, assault is acceptable grounds for self defense. Mind you, I think it would be more lucrative to let her hit me and then I can take this to civil court for a nice, fat judgement. Despite all of that, I stand for her right to be an idiot and say whatever she wants on TV. That goes for everyone, I stand with your rights to think and speak. Don’t mess with mine.

May 25, 2022 – I Don’t Need Another Project

May 25, 2022 /

I am mulling around an idea (I will get to in a minute). I have talked about how we are paying to have our fence replaced. We have signed the contract and put down half of the money. I think it is going to be another month or so before it actually happens.

Switching gears for a minute, we were at our wine pick-up last weekend and sitting in some plastic Adirondack chairs enjoying the weather, music and some samples. We had one (or two chairs) of our own that lasted about a year. I think they came from Dollar General and the sun will destroy that cheap plastic. The chair broke and it went to the landfill.

My wife was talking about how she likes the wooden ones, but that they were expensive. That got my mind working. If I salvaged some of the fence boards, I would have a good start on material to build my own chairs. Ideally, I would be selective and take the best ones. But this all depends…

The whole deal includes tearing down the old fence. If this happens while we are home, then of course I don’t think they will mind me taking some of the waste (and picking my boards). If it happens while we are in Spain, I may miss the boat on this whole thing.

The truth is, I would like to do some test work and see if the boards can even be salvaged, but, I don’t want to tear the fence down to do so. I think I can run them through the planer and resize and they would be fine for making plenty of chairs. I do have some reservations however.

Looking at the fence, none of the boards are clear (knot free). Some of them are pretty rough. I suspect that there is going to be a high degree of waste due to wood failure or brittleness and deep weather wear. But, I won’t know that until I do some test work.

The other thing I am not sure of is they are cedar. Depending on the grain pattern, cedar can be rough. So, I am concerned about the possible splinter factor. Some species can have pretty tight grain patterns but I think this fence started out rough sawn which make me think that there is a smaller probability that these boards will make good chairs. Once again, I would like to investigate.

As woodworking projects go, this is a pretty simple one. I would guess that I can knock out a chair in a couple of hours. It means that whatever plans I have wouldn’t be derailed significantly to build a couple of chairs. I am thinking that I would use a semi-transparent stain as well. This project will require some new wood as the structural pieces and I would like to blend the overall look to something more uniform.

I suppose the other option is that I could laminate pieces to make thicker stock, but again this would be another experiment. I am not a huge fan of glues and outdoor exposure, but it would be an option and require less new material. Maybe I will selectively remove a couple of boards to check for viability before I commit to this.

End Your Programming Routine: I hate the idea that all of this wood will simply go to the landfill. I would rather see it turned into firewood rather than simply hauled off to the dump. The real problem is that time is money. Nobody from a job perspective has time to break all the panels down, pull the nails and stack it, cut it, store it and market it or even give it away. To top it off, cedar is not the best firewood by a long shot. That being said, if I can efficiently use it that would be my preference.

May 24, 2022 – The Tor Browser and Experiments With Privacy

May 24, 2022 /

Admittedly, I haven’t used the browser a lot. The reason being is that there are some hidden issues with trying to maintain privacy. Today, I will talk about some of my observations.

  1. Many websites are tracking your IP address. When you try to access ‘anonymously’, you are denied access at all. Tor claims that the resolution is re-establish a new VPN connection and try again but I have not ever been successful getting onto Craigslist with Tor. Other sites like newspapers give you three free tastes, but when you come in anonymously you are also denied.

2. Privacy works on every screen. So for example, I selected my store so that I could check inventory but after a page refresh so does your store selection. I haven’t played with it enough to sort of get the rhythm of things so it might work if you do things in the right order, but I could see that action getting old if you were looking for something in particular.

3. There is some behavior that I might describe as ‘buggy’. Honestly, I don’t know if it is a service denial or some sort of technical issue. Because of the number of hops, and obscurity, pages are often very slow to load as well. We are talking minutes sometimes for search results to paint images. This is in addition to all of the other gyrations to setup for clearing of cache.

I am not in love with the Tor push to use Duck Duck Go as a search engine either. While they claim to protect privacy, they also got caught manipulating results in favor of pro Ukraine/Anti Russia results. That is simply against my values. The options are pretty meager otherwise, Twitter, Youtube or Wikipedia? Those are not search engines for the entire web to my knowledge. I have switched to Yahoo for now.

I have spoke in the past about my desire for things to just work. I am not going to expend the patience to keep reconnecting or rerouting for a low probability of someone stitching together data on me. Always the surest way to go is to not participate. I know that isn’t always preferable, but lets be honest this world didn’t exist 30 years ago so some selective participation might be healthy.

End Your Programming Routine: I haven’t completely given up on Tor, but the chances are low that it will work out for me. Unfortunately, as the tracking gets tighter and better, I just don’t see this mechanism working well. It is probably time to keep working on finding a service rather than something free. I think it is a good idea that cant keep up against stronger technology.