Tag: Books

February 21, 2024 – Same Old, Same Old…

February 21, 2024 /

I have mentioned before that my wife likes to binge watch shows. What has been on for the last couple of months is ‘Deadliest Catch’. In fact, it is on right now as I am typing this out. I haven’t heard this much in the later seasons but they liked to use this term ‘grinding’.

Grinding means that to make their goal, they have to just keep working. They don’t look at the clock, they don’t take a break, they don’t worry about the conditions, they don’t really even try to take stock in what is currently the status of their catch is. They just keep grinding.

That is where I am at, grinding. I probably have too many things going on at one time. I got ahead with my culinary book club reading and so I started “The Boys In the Boat” that I got for Christmas and continuing to read “The Inferno”. I have been pecking at my duct project. The next run is going to be more complicated with wiring in the way. I am still running into Linux problems getting my software scanner done.

I tapped one of my kegs for super bowl to get promptly plugged. I got to thinking that my valve was bad and so I changed it. It promptly got plugged again. After doing this six more times, I gave up. It is hops plugging it up from my dry hopping. I am going to have to filter this keg before I use it. Another thing to do.

Lesson learned that all the loose hops did not settle to the bottom after lagering. I like the effect, finally a homebrew that has some teeth to it from the hops. So, I think I will keep experimenting with dry hopping. But, it also means that filtration is required before kegging. Since this is my last keg, I really should get to brewing my next one

I also upgraded a scope on one of my air rifles. The main reason I did that is my eyesight is starting to degrade. I noticed that the open sights on my son’s Crossman 760 were really limiting. So, I decided to move the chinsy 4×12, $10 scope off of one of my rifles to a whole honking $30 variety. Anything will be better than nothing on that old rifle. I have been plinking away at getting those things sighted in.

I have projects in the waiting, so I am not just letting off the gas, I am just not done with anything. I like my work on AltF4 to be reflective of completion, not just progress unless there is something to learn. That is what generated today’s title. I have been holding onto this one for almost a week now waiting for something to break and it just has not. Sometimes you have to grind.

I will remind you that the reason for the duct project was in preparation for a wine cellar build. I am actually beyond where I needed to be to work on that project but it has made so much difference that I might as well finish this off before starting something new. I am amassing parts for a CB radio installation in my pickup. I have wooden valence to build. I should be starting seeds right now. There is going to be another culinary book tomorrow and I still have all the current things going that I want to finish.

I sometimes have problems getting motivated in the winter. It is dark and cold and wet and I just don’t feel like I have the energy to do anything. Besides that, I have other reasons (not excuses) for me making slow progress that I am not ready to discuss. I will likely have more information soon but I want to be absolutely concrete about the details.

End Your Programming Routine: So, a cliffhanger for the ending. I don’t have a lot of insight on this post other than you don’t finish a big job without putting one foot in front of the other. In other words, you gotta grind. Some day I will look up and it will be done, until that keep working.

February 13, 2023 – Books and Reading

February 13, 2023 /

Yes, I am super late today. Let’s just say that I enjoyed my time watching the Super Bowl but not so much the day after. Anyway, I am finally feeling alive again. This isn’t my best work I have congestion and there is a bit of an echo in my recording. I need to try and record in a different location so that I don’t get so much echo. But it is good enough for now.

Today I am talking about books again. It is really me kind of working through my what my Friday book reviews look like long term. I think that they are going to stay pretty much the same this year but I don’t see them going on forever without some tweaks. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet so everything is subject to change of course.

End Your Programming Routine: I won’t steal my podcast thunder but like everything I do, I question the status quo today. I suppose that if I knew the answers to my philosophical questions then I probably wouldn’t have much of an argument. You listen and you tell me if I am off base with what I feel about classics.

November 18, 2020 – Updates to the Virtual Book Club today

November 18, 2020 /

Yesterday, the thinking about 1984 by George Orwell left me partially excited to go into that book again and partially disgusted to think about what has happened on my watch. I am going to save the stronger editorials to another time to get to a happier place today.

I spent this morning backdating the progress of the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club. With the impending second lockdown and the weather really getting wet, it is a good time to read and cook. I have created separate pages, by year on where we have been as a club in case someone was interested in where we have covered. Those links are on the left hand margin.

I am strongly thinking in the future that I will repurpose the ‘Approachable Wine’ page and change that into a ‘Resources’ page for people interested in the things that I am such as freedom, gear, skills and books. That page was really intended for a different purpose. I was wanting to build an app and tie all of this together, but I didn’t get started and probably wont.

So, we have bunkered up into our ‘two week freeze’. Our Thanksgiving shopping is done and the menu is largely set. There definitely won’t be more than six people at our table. As Thanksgiving signals the end of the harvest season, it is time to appreciate the year behind and look forward to the year ahead. Do some reading in your free time.

October 1, 2020 – Review: My Life in France

October 1, 2020 /

“My Life in France” by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme was the August book club selection for the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Food and Wine Book Club. That’s right I said August and I just finished reading it last night. I think I have been upfront with how busy I have been so now I am at least one month behind.

This is a biography written in first person style (by Alex). He did all of the interviews and arranging of the narrative directly from and with the consent of Julia. The book chronicles her life through her formidable years as an writer and TV personality. It is weighted pretty heavily toward her pre-cookbook days and the amount of content and details thin out as book goes on.

As a relatively young member to this culinary club, this was another personality in the food world that I have little exposure to. Not being around when the ‘Frenchiphile’ food craze dominated that scene, it all seems so integrated and second hand to me. But, of course she was instrumental in painting the landscape of today’s food scene. I have enjoyed learning the history and perspective of these early media pioneers. There is also a movie, I haven’t seen it yet, but I am going to watch it with my wife this month.

The most interesting aspect of this book to me was just what a labor of love and effort ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ was. I took years to develop and was a huge tome, over seven hundred pages. This was all largely done manually and over international correspondence. I have observed that many times in life it is not the final outcome that designates success but the process in which that task is done. Julia discovered a fervent delight in testing and perfecting recipes and techniques that could be achieved in the United States using imperial measurements, different tools and a culture that was more aligned with TV dinners than centuries of tradition.

It wasn’t always an easy read for me, as evident on how long it took me. The story lines were filled with names of people that breezed in and out. As seems to be customary to that generation, many of them got nicknames which added more names and I got kind of lost at times. The other criticism I had was there were a lot of French phrases in the book which made me tune out at times because I didn’t understand what I was reading.

All that being said, it definitely made me appreciate what she had accomplished in her life. I can certainly understand the technical challenges and appreciate people’s passion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the August dinner, so I am not totally sure what the menu was. From skimming through the menu it was beef burgionon, garlic mashed potatoes, formage blanc (fresh cheese) and gougeres (pastry). There are some vague descriptions of preparations in the book, but definitely no recipes.

As for wine, there is mention of many French varietals, none that I really recognized other than Dom Perignon which champagne seemed to be very common. Pop a cork, I would recommend Pinot Noir unless you have access to a good French burgundy and build your culinary history foundation.

March 5, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 5, 2020 /

We have an exchange student for the year from Spain living with us. Unfortunately, part of his agreement to be here is that he cant participate in the things that are the most uniquely ‘American’. For instance, no shooting, no driving, no ‘high risk’ activities. We spend a fair amount of time enjoying those activities.

However, for Christmas, he purchased this book for me called ‘100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation’ by Clint Emerson. I have been slowly reading this over the last couple of weeks.

Now, I like to learn and I believe in the philosophy of preparation. Given the recent COVID-19 hysteria, I am noodling going quite a bit deeper into this next week. The title ‘Tacticool’ is denotes something that might look better on the surface than it really is as well as bring a little humor into my work.

Quite frankly, a lot of this book is mental masturbation such as how to ditch a plane, use a flight suit and swim into another country without detection. I learned a few things like cell phone cameras can pick up IR light or how to make a polymer from milk (casein). I think the value of this book is around the idea of situational awareness: where weak points in hotels could be or tactics around kidnapping and escape. Of course the likelihood of this ever happening is extremely small.

If you are a budding Mall Ninja or an untrained SEAL then this is a manual for you. Otherwise, it is primarily for fun. Remember that your brain is your biggest tool/weapon/asset and keep exercising it because you never know when you need recall the best technique to survive a grenade attack.