Page 93 of 138

March 23, 2022 – Total Domination

March 23, 2022 /

I remember this vividly. I was 17 and I was wrestling in high school. My brother (15) was also a wrestler and cousin(15) was a football starter. We challenged my dad and uncles to a 3 on 3 basketball game. I figured that they were all smokers and out of shape that this would be a cake walk.

I can still remember my grandfather cackling as they proceeded to beat our asses badly. I think that the final score was 40-2 or something like that. I don’t really remember the game itself other than they were way more physical that we were. Not in a fouling or nasty way but more like aggressiveness.

When getting the family settled into the beach house on Sunday, we play a couple of hours on the ping pong table. My sons recently started playing tennis. So, my younger son thought that he was going to school mom. No way Jose. Mom played several years when she worked at a youth residential treatment facility. It was closer than my loss in basketball, but my son was shocked. He proclaimed that he was going to beat her 10-0 in the next game.

I have noticed over the years that youth are not as strong as I think they should be. I don’t know if it is mind over matter or they are just not fully developed. I have had my nephew or kids help me move furniture around and they seem to not be able to move or lift things despite spending hours a week “working out”. Don’t get me wrong, I am out of shape and they can run circles around me. I am talking about practical fitness however.

I have spoken about wisdom in the past. Back to basketball, my guess is that we were in top physical shape, but they used wisdom to play to their strengths. Maybe if we were all basketball players instead of wrestlers the game would have ended more like the ping pong game. I just dont know but I have seen this enough times in various forms to know that it is more complicated that how much you can squat, bench press or deadlift.

Back when I was in high school, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons with my friends. Your character has both wisdom and intelligence. Intelligence is analogous to knowing pi is 3.14159 (plus a whole lot more) versus wisdom of using 3.14 when calculating the area of a circle. I can’t remember all the severely complicated math I learned to prove pi as a number but I certainly remember where to use it.

End Your Programming Routine: It very well may be that high schoolers competing against other high schoolers are at a roughly equal mental development. At that age, we don’t realize the influence that our mental ability has on the physical. We also don’t realize that we have not mentally peaked or that we don’t know what we don’t know. As I sat there watching that ping pong game, the great memory flashed back of my grandfather just howling as we got schooled.

March 22, 2022- Making Coffees

March 22, 2022 /

There are probably some people reading this that don’t remember this skit or were not even born when this aired (Jan 1991). I was only sixteen and I barely remember it myself. It was a big thing in school to emulate the name rhyming when you ran into a friend. But, this was just a cute intro to what I am talking about today.

It is probably no secret that I like making fine food. I enjoy the complexity of Pinot Noir with food and generally like quality of food and drink. My wife thought that my next step should be coffee (and tea). For Christmas, she gave me an expensive drip coffee maker along with an electric kettle.

My relationship with coffee is a little complicated. When I was working at my previous job, I was drinking tons of it. I think it was a way to get out of my chair and avoid working. On the weekends, I could easily drink a 12 cup pot. My wife asked me to switch to tea which I now drink during the week. I only make coffee on the weekend.

To unlock the world of home coffee making, you need to be able to grind your own beans. When we buy coffee at Costco, nine out of ten choices are whole bean. At the grocery store it is more like fifty-fifty. Whole bean is preferred because oxygen degrades the bean, so when it is ground, it occurs much quicker because there is so much more surface area.

Truthfully, I am not a snob. The first pot we made with the new coffee maker was Folgers and I have to say that I liked it. This maker has an insulated carafe rather than a glass one. So, it doesn’t continue to cook after it is poured through. I think that makes a huge difference in quality.

I didn’t have a grinder (officially). The last one that bought has become a spice grinder. It was a mini blender kind of device. It was small and messy. It was a hassle to use so I gave up on grinding 20 years ago. Doing some research lately, I found that there was a whole new world (and the internet) of videos and reviews and comparisons between different models. I made my choice, the Baratza Encore.

In the reviews that I watched, this model consistently produced the most consistent grind. I have come to understand that this will yield the best results when making coffee. I have also learned that different types of coffee making require different types of grinds. So, not only are whole beans fresher, but likely the grind can be controlled for better results.

I am still playing around with it since I have only used it twice at this point. In the picture above, the grind is significantly more coarse than I have been using with pre-ground. This was supposedly the optimum setting for drip. I think it needs to be a little finer personally because the overall coffee was weak. But, I will keep working at it.

End Your Programming Routine: There are many ways to make coffee. It would seem as though the grinder is more important than the way of making it. I guess that is why the prices range from $20 – $10,000 for grinders. I will probably do a more formal review after I get some time with it in a few months.

March 21, 2022 -What is Seafoam Green?

March 21, 2022 /

When I was young enough to have a spring break, going to the beach meant Cancun, Daytona or Padre Island. At least that is what I saw on MTV, remember this is pre-internet. Of course, I was never going to spend that kind of money so we settled on the Oregon coast. Frequently, we spend a couple of days during spring break week.

As I wrote about last week, a storm was coming, but we were going to the beach anyway. The family was staying for several days but I was just spending the day and taking the dog for a long walk. The truth is, the weather wasn’t as bad as I was expecting (for a storm). The surf was rough and I ran across to big piles of foam.

I don’t think the picture did it true justice. When I saw this in person, I thought it looked yellowish rather than greenish. I would say the picture looks more brown than green or yellow. You get the point. When I hear the name, I think of a washed out green. Or maybe a better description is Kelly green with a lot of white added to it.

I once heard an interview with Sherwin Williams marketing and the person said that each color name is unique and never to be repeated or changed. That means when they come up with a new color, they have to validate that the name has not been used before. What I can’t remember was what person in my life questioned the origin of the name Seafoam Green. When I saw this pile of foam, that question popped in my mind and I took a picture and now I am writing this.

End Your Programming Routine: I am keeping it light today. I guess this is more of an anecdote rather than my typical writing, but that’s OK because I am on spring break too.

March 18, 2022 – American Dream: Where Do We Stand?

March 18, 2022 /

This was kind of an interesting exercise for me. When I wrote off the cuff about the qualities, I really was reacting to what I thought that I knew. After really digging into the definition of the terms and their applications, I came away with a different perspective.

As a refresher, here were the five properties of the American Dream: Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity and Equality. In my opinion, the most important one is also the most subjective. Rights are recognized and incorporated into the government, have known boundaries and an expectation of exercising.

When we look at what our founder’s described as rights, properties that we were born with before the existence of the government are not necessarily recognized in other cultures, some examples the right to keep and bear arms or women’s suffrage. The fact that we have an entire category of law and lawyers means that rights are constantly evaluated and not considered static or even inherited before the government.

If we believe in this concept, then we have to be OK that our neighbor is doing something that we don’t like. We have to accept that my dream is not my neighbors just as his is not likely mine. We have to agree that the risk of not living in a Home Owner’s Association is worth the reward of freedom. We have to agree that we have the right to succeed beyond our wildest dreams but that comes with a risk of losing it all. We have to agree that consenting adults can gather together to worship the devil or have sex parties or snort cocaine as long as no one is being forced to do so and no one else is harmed in the process. We also need to understand that there is recourse for damages in a free society rather than attempting to force them to do something by creating laws.

You see, there is nothing wrong with the American Dream concept except we no longer believe in it. At the risk of sounding harsh, the term mental masturbation applies here. We like the thought of the American Dream, but we don’t actually want it. Just as a person could be very happy and thrive in a socialist, homogenous society, it could be miserable if you believe differently. Back to my comment on freedom I said a few weeks ago, totalitarianism is some of the most prosperous and happy conditions when you are on the right side of the ruling class.

I spend a lot of time railing against the fascist left (that’s right you are just as fascist despite what the media says), my religious right friends need to look in the mirror as well. Jesus never required us to legislate morality. In fact for salvation purposes, morality is strictly the responsibility of the individual. When the veil was torn so were the ways of Judaism and the ceremonial laws of sacrifice and circumcision. While I can understand the distaste for sin, judgement and condemnation are also some of those sins. Creating laws of minimum square footage restriction may impact my dream as readily as I am not allowed to own livestock or buying alcohol on Sunday.

In case you feel like I am a bit all over it is because I am trying to get across is that both sides are pinching at the American Dream for their own reasons. Let’s be honest, both sides hope to use the power of the state to force everyone to adhere to our version of the better society. What is the impact? We lose the ability to pursue our dream our way.

End Your Programming Routine: Seems like we are ending about where I started, probably not for the the same reasons though. I assumed the American Dream was dead because the characteristics weren’t being upheld. It is even the case that some of those properties really are only ideals and not actually true, particularly Opportunity and Equality. I now think that the American Dream is dead because the definition of the characteristics change.

March 17, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 17, 2022 /

Trap season is about to start, at the end of next weekend. I will have two boys in the program this year. When my oldest son started two years ago, he made the decision to buy his own shotgun. The most important aspect of shooting well is having a shotgun that fits well. Consequently, I decided to cut some length off of his shotgun to get an appropriate length of pull for a 13 year old.

Last year, I had to add that length back as he had grown significantly. Now, I have another son starting trap. He has decided that he doesn’t want to buy his own shotgun for now. Now, I am in a bit of a conundrum. I don’t really want to cut my stock stock down and deal with the back and forth of growing. I decided to solve the problem definitively. I ordered an adjustable stock.

This can get a little technical, but length of pull is the measurement from the trigger to the end of the butt stock (including the pad). A stock that is too long makes the gun difficult to mount and shoot well. A stock that is too short risks significant recoil pain. I have had weeks of bruises from shooting slugs out of a youth sized stock.

The cheek mount is critical for sight alignment. My own shooting experience tells me that most factory stocks do not get the shooter in a good position and most people would benefit from some additional rise. I shoot better with the shotgun that has an aftermarket pad applied than one that does not. Youth with smaller faces need more rise than the available thickness pads. The thickest one I have found was 1/4″.

I wanted to write about it today, but I don’t have it yet. So, that will have to wait until next week. I can show a picture of what it looks like.

It is not cheap, but it is going to be a lot easier to adjust throughout his growth than other options. I am also excited to try it myself, but once setup for him, it wouldn’t be prudent to diddle around with it. So, I will have to give up my shotgun for the season. I have others so if I want to shoot, I may end up doing it with my 20 gauge since my other 12 gauge has a red-dot sight on it. I am completely fine with that other than the ammo crunch has forced the team to standardize on 12 gauge.

My other fear is that this looks bulky and probably heavier. That is something that I will have to wait and see. Ultimately, I might want to get a second 870 that is better suited to leave setup for games rather than field work. For now, this will get the job done for this season.

End Your Programming Routine: A dedicated tool is always the most efficient way to do a job. That also comes with it’s drawbacks, like it is less useful in other situations rather than the specific job. The jury is out on where I am at this point. It would be unfair to judge until I get it, install it and get it setup for my son.

March 16, 2022 – You Know Spring Break is Coming…

March 16, 2022 /

Spring Break starts this week for my kids. For me, this means that it is final’s week at the local university and things like traffic lighten up a little bit for the next couple of weeks. Since I live on Main Street, I see a direct correlation between school being in session and traffic.

However, I know that it is going to be spring break when I look at the weather forecast. Growing up, we often took extended camping trips during this week. I can think of multiple times it rained like cats and dogs the entire trip. In college, I remember distinctly having an inch of water in my tent with wet sleeping bags, pillows and clothes.

Lately, it has been more often a beach house rental. At least we are sheltered from elements but it tends to keep us in the house and less out and about. I don’t want to say that every trip was wet. I had a rafting trip on the John Day river that was dry. Ironically, 2020 at the pandemic’s very beginning it was a beautiful week as well. In fact the entire spring was dry as I spent 90% of the time working on the house. Remember that we had huge wildfires that fall as well.

I also don’t want to sound like I am complaining because I am not. I am simply saying that I cannot count on consistently nice weather during spring break. Any plans are subject to a deluge. Of course that is relative to where the plans are as well I am mostly talking about reasonably distanced local trips that are 4-5 days long.

End Your Programming Routine: With risk comes reward. Sometimes playing it safe, you miss the best opportunities. I am simply saying, make seasonally appropriate plans and prepare for the what-ifs. This year I am saving my vacation but the family is going to spend four days at the coast. I will be home to take care of the animals and work, but I will get some free time as well.

March 14, 2022 – I’ve Gotta Feeling…

March 14, 2022 /

Can you hear the song in your head yet? Last night was supposed to be a good, good night but it wasn’t quite so. I won’t go into the reasons but I was going to brew my second successive batch using reclaimed yeast. In preparation for brewing, I added some extract to my yeast to get my starter going.

The picture on the left was about 30 minutes after adding extract to my rescued yeast. I transferred what was left in the quart jar to a half gallon jar. I was clearly not expecting that quick and voluminous action. I added the bucket after about five minutes when it was clear that this was going to get messier than I had expected.

I talked about yeast some when I was talking about sanitizing. The main worry with yeast is getting wild strains. In theory, as long as the pressure is positive, meaning things are leaking out then nothing really should be getting in. There is no way for me to know what is actually in this mess without looking at it through a microscope. But, I have a good feeling that this is going to work.

So, the yeast goes back into to the refrigerator. This should be quick brew as I have shaken off the rust. It will likely be this next weekend until I try again but I will add to my starter again before we get going. I am expecting that this is going to go just fine.

End Your Programming Routine: The summary here is that plans change. I am in a difficult time in my life which is a subject for a different day. When it comes to picking brewing versus relationships then lessor things need to give. Like a farmer, when things are ready, they need attention now. It was much better to postpone this rather than push it.

March 11, 2022 – American Dream Series: Equality

March 11, 2022 /

Here we are on the last quality of the American Dream. I will save my overall analysis for next week and stay focused on this particular aspect. It is probably a good start to look at the definition of equality. The Webster definition is the quality or state of being equal. I suppose that makes sense, equality is an adverb (or describing) the word equal.

And so, the definition of equal means of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another. Of course, we need to look at absolute and relative application of equality in the same manner that we have been looking at throughout the series.

What is this quality really getting at? Is it possible to have opportunity without equality? Maybe… you were given a job because of your parents, or what school you went to or for that matter whether you have a degree in a particular field. I would have to say that there are lots of areas that hands people opportunity over others.

It is pretty likely that this is really referring to racial or gender or even whatever self identifying class that I want to use. The question remains, do we have equality? Let us see. Are all races equal – no. Let us take something like skin cancer. Below are some statistics.

The point I am making is that it is physically impossible for all races to be equal, remember I am taking the absolute stance here. Now, is it possible that men and women are equal? Lets just look at how the transgender swimmers are doing.

Really can we make that case that there is really an absolute equality? I think the answer will never be yes. For instance, what are the odds that I would get equal consideration to be president? Can I get on the ballot, probably in a few locations but could I get elected, I highly doubt it. I think for the most part we have the equality in attempting something. Where we don’t and never will is largely achieving something.

There was a local kid about eight or nine years ago that started playing football as a freshman, first time ever. He was starting on varsity in the first game. By the time he was a senior he was one of the top 50 overall high school recruits, let alone number one in his position. He got a scholarship to play for USC and now he is actually in the NFL.

I don’t know if that was really his dream or it just worked out that way. The fact is there have been countless Heismen Trophy (best college player of the year) winners that never made it past one season in the NFL. There has to be some degree of luck in attaining some limited dreams. Just because I want it and do all the right things still don’t guarantee that I can achieve things. I would even argue that the best player in college football is not equal to most of his peers that get drafted and supersede his longevity.

I freely admit that story was more of an edge case than the intended center of the argument for equality. I am going to use conjecture from here on out. What is with pay inequality for genders? I think when the most people see that women get paid 80% of men, they assume that they just get paid less. I really don’t think that is the case.

We are not really talking about a woman and a man getting paid the same for the same job, we are talking about what all men make versus what all women make. We are talking about genders making different career choices because values and opportunities pursued are different amongst the sexes. This is not the first time, but currently, my boss is a woman. She works around the clock and she is very good at it. I hope she gets paid more than me because I don’t really want to do that.

End Your Programming Routine: I didnt’t talk a lot about race today and I am going to leave things here. I guess to be blunt, I don’t see common equality as an issue. I am not saying there isn’t racism or discrimination but largely we do not have equality barriers. Further to this, everyone will never be equal. That is the beauty of humanity and I think we should always play to our strengths.

March 10, 2022 – Brewing a Second Batch

March 10, 2022 /

I know the dust hasn’t settled yet on my last one but I have enough bottles to do another batch. And, I wanted to do another lager while the temperature is cool to prove to myself this wasn’t a fluke. Third, I am going to re-pitch the yeast from my Mexican beer so it will save me $13 on this batch.

I ordered a Mai Bock kit. I know, another kit but I am not quite ready to go full fledged grain brewing yet. I need to prove to myself that I can do things consistently and to my expectations before I take the next step. I don’t think it will be too long at this point. I envision kits and extract brewing to be miles simpler and quicker as well. I certainly don’t need more complications to add to my life.

Mai translates to May in German. It is sometimes called helles as well and is know as a festival beer. Think the spring counterpart to Marzen (or Octoberfest). I feel like celebrating the change of seasons. Mostly, I wanted a different style that uses the same yeast as my Mexican lager and this was it.

This one is going to be even simpler than the last one. There is only one hop addition at the beginning of the boil. Maybe I should back up a quick minute on brewing in general. I know that I haven’t talked about it a whole bunch, only aspects of brewing.

You start with boiling some water. The books recommend half of the overall water. I generally do less because of pot size and I can add hotter wort to colder water and spend less time cooling. It does come with downsides because the more concentrated the wort, the less of the alpha enzyme (hops) transfer. I have tried to add additional hops in the past to the boil to try and compensate.

As I was saying, boil some water, add some malt extract, add some hops if using adjuncts (other grains and flavorings) and boil for the time the style dictates. Cool down to pitching temperature, top off with additional water for the total batch size and add yeast. That is it for brewing. Bottling or what to do with it when it is finished is a whole separate topic.

My Mexican lager is now ‘lagering’. Lagering is a rest and clarification period that occurs after brewing. I will hold it in the keezer around 35 degrees for a month and then it will be ready for kegging. If I do my math correctly, that means it should be ready somewhere in early April. This means that my fermenting carboy is open, I have bottles ready to go and I have one more secondary carboy for lagering. Sounds like an invitation to brew again.

End Your Programming Routine: This is how I get myself into trouble. I have a tendency of having too many experiments going without having results yet. Using reloading as an example, I have loaded all of my empty brass without really shooting any of it. Right now, I don’t know if I have to make any tweaks yet. This is one reason why I haven’t pushed it too hard because I need a chance to observe what I have done. But, if we are not challenging ourselves, then are we really continually learning?

March 8, 2022 – Dinner Finds From the Freezer

March 8, 2022 /

Not really. I knew it was there. I just didn’t have the proper motivation. After reading Far Eastern Cookery, I saw a recipe that intrigued me Filipino Menudo. My wife loves Mexican menudo. When we do it, it is an event and I have written about this before. There were several things that intrigued me about this. One was the name and the second was that it used beef liver.

I am always looking for ideas to do with liver. Traditionally, liver is one of the things that would be eaten soon after the kill, not years later. I tried my hand at boudin, that needs a little work. My plan with it was to make a second batch of boudin when I prepped it. So I found what I had written as 4# of liver on the bag when I was cleaning out the freezer.

I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. I probably should package it in smaller portions if I am going to keep this up in the future. Nevertheless, the proportions in this recipe was 5oz liver to 12oz of pork. Well, I estimate I had three pounds by the time I trimmed off freezer burn. Go big or go home.

Essentially, I quadrupled the recipe. I had an entire stockpot including 4 onions, a whole head of garlic, 8 small potatoes, 2 cans of garbanzo beans and two cans of diced tomatoes and seasonings. What was my final verdict? I was so-so. There was a heavy liver taste. I suspect that my proportions were still off since I was only guessing rather than weighing anything.

I think liver is best when it is undercooked, the distinctive liver taste is much lest pronounced if cooked medium. I think boiling it for 15 minutes is probably overcooking. Again, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. So, I won’t say that I wont try it again but this quantity is a lot if you are not a liver lover. I will be eating this the rest of the week for lunch.

End Your Programming Routine: As the adventurous cook in the house, I need to sometimes read between the lines. There are items in my house that people claim they like but really they like the idea of it or they like having it once a year with no leftovers. That’s OK because this is how we learn. I guess I would say, don’t be afraid to take risks, just be aware that they don’t always work.