....there was a guy (that would be me) that decided he would make a splash in the then still relatively nascent blogosphere. You know - write deep thoughts, be quoted, earn a living purely from the recommendations of recommendations from the vastness and depths of his thoughts.
Somewhat sadly, that guy's dreams expired rather quickly. However, the remaining results have been somewhat entertaining, if nothing else.
Yes, this is my 13th anniversary here at TheFortyFive, keeping the InterWeb safe for...well, I am not sure for whom, really. 2900 posts and change at this point (ironically, I only had three posts in 2005. Two on the same day).
Originally (all joking aside) my original hope was to have one "those" blogging careers (The Forty Five, for which this blog is named, refers to the gallant but doomed uprising in Scotland which ended at The Battle of Culloden). However, I quickly found that 1) writing is hard; and 2) I am not much for conflict, written or spoken.
What did come out of this - sometime in 2008 - was a sort of online blogging journal, the sort of thing I had been keeping since 1989. It first became a practice, then a habit - a habit which has reached the point that if I do not account for posting at least five days a week, I feel unfinished.
The audience, I believe, has changed over the years. Originally it was individuals that I knew locally (whom in some cases still lurk, but in many cases have moved on). What it came to be in many cases was a group of individuals, like-minded in some ways if not all and who (for the most part) blog themselves (and my father, who reliably reads every morning as soon as it is published). I am been fortunate to meet people from (literally) all over the world, doing in there own small way a version of what I am trying to do: personal independence of life and thought.
If you discount the occasional spikes of spammers (approximately once a month), I run 70-90 views a day. Which are more eyes at least looking (and hopefully spending a moment or two in thought) than I could have ever hoped for.
The rules, which have been the same since around 2006, remain the same: no profanity, no politics (but some political science - there is a difference), no religion (except my own struggles in my Christian walk), but hopefully something to think about and chew on (or occasionally laugh at).
I am not quite sure what all is in here at this point, but this blog has covered any number of lifetime sorts of events - my old job, losing my job, migrating to New Home, finding Throwing and Iai, with large splashes of depression and "I hate my job" thrown in, and then most recently my rather run of good luck. So in a sense, it has surpassed the idea of a blog and has almost reached the stage of a life chronicle (which like most chronicles, will fade into dust or be viewed 100 years hence with a quizzical eyebrow from the researchers).
So, as always, thanks for stopping by. We appreciate your patronage. Please be sure to help yourself to a complimentary shot of homemade mead and some cheese at the door and come on it. We still have a fair amount of ground to cover.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
A Visit to Home: Fort Ross
Fort Ross was (Крѣпость Россъ, tr. Krepostʹ Ross) was the southernmost settlement of the Russian Empire on North American Soil. It is located approximately 15 miles north of Bodega Bay in Northern California and was active from 1812-1841. Originally founded to support the Russian-American company in its fur trading activities, it transitioned to an agricultural support location for the colonies in Russian Alaska. It also served as a diplomatic point between the Spanish (and later Mexican) empires and the Russian empire.
Walking Up:
The main courtyard:
Rotchev House: House of the last commandant of the fort and the only original surviving structure:
Out the front gate to the Pacific Ocean. The path goes down to a bay:
Inside the courtyard:
Inside one of the two blockhouses:
Cannon:
Orthodox Church. It is still occasionally used;
Inside Kuskov House, the residence of all commandants prior to Rotchev:
Armory (For Reverend Paul and Glen):
These are a view of what the trading store would have looked like. Keep mind there was probably nothing like this for several hundred miles in any direction:
From the window of the other blockhouse:
Outside the Fort:
A reconstruction of one of the two windmills at the fort (these were the first windmills in California). This is a hand built reconstruction of Russian Pine by Russian craftsmen:
As you can guess from the amount of pictures, Fort Ross is just about my favorite state park in California. I have always felt that this period of time, the intersection of Native American, Russian, and Spanish/Mexican cultures was one of the greatly unknown and underinvestigated parts of California history
Monday, July 09, 2018
Back Home
So we are back from our trip to home. I have a couple of posts to make on where we went and some general thoughts that have come to mind, but those are for later. The bullet points of things that occurred:
- I forgot how much I miss dry heat (instead of the murky humid goo we call Summer where we now live).
- Agriculture is still alive and well and growing, which makes me happy (means that the land is more valuable for growing things than it is for building houses on).
- That said, they are still building a great deal of housing. Which strikes me as funny, because they are also complaining a great deal about water usage (Important safety tip: You cannot more people that use water and then complain about the use of water at the same time).
- I realized that my current life is completely and totally lacking in scenic beauty. You do not realize it until you make the same urban drive with no trees beyond 6' tall for two years.
- Likewise, silence - true silence with only birdsong and the occasional cowbell - is a wonderful thing. And I do not have enough of that either.
- My incentive to feel like I was plugged into work over time decreased. Really, it is not that important.
- On the whole, I miss home.
- I forgot how much I miss dry heat (instead of the murky humid goo we call Summer where we now live).
- Agriculture is still alive and well and growing, which makes me happy (means that the land is more valuable for growing things than it is for building houses on).
- That said, they are still building a great deal of housing. Which strikes me as funny, because they are also complaining a great deal about water usage (Important safety tip: You cannot more people that use water and then complain about the use of water at the same time).
- I realized that my current life is completely and totally lacking in scenic beauty. You do not realize it until you make the same urban drive with no trees beyond 6' tall for two years.
- Likewise, silence - true silence with only birdsong and the occasional cowbell - is a wonderful thing. And I do not have enough of that either.
- My incentive to feel like I was plugged into work over time decreased. Really, it is not that important.
- On the whole, I miss home.
Sunday, July 08, 2018
Rest
"Even as the sun was bestowed upon the world by God to give light
it still ought to turn aside fairly frequently,
to have a time for peace and quiet...
it ought to know how to set
and be at rest in the evening,
where it enters the embrace of leisure."
- John of Forde (1150-1214) (The Way of Simplicity, Esther De Waal)
it still ought to turn aside fairly frequently,
to have a time for peace and quiet...
it ought to know how to set
and be at rest in the evening,
where it enters the embrace of leisure."
- John of Forde (1150-1214) (The Way of Simplicity, Esther De Waal)
Saturday, July 07, 2018
A Few Words From...Ayn Rand
"Whatever claim you have on me," he (Hank Reardon) said, "no human being can hold on another a claim demanding that he wipe himself out of existence."- Atlas Shrugged
Friday, July 06, 2018
Thursday, July 05, 2018
Automation And Centralization
I sometimes wonder, in my never-ending mental quest to predict the end of all things, what the signal event would be.
It strikes me as odd that the same society that is constantly looking for tremors of environmental catastrophes in s the changing genetics frogs and the movement of ice sheets would not see the same sort of issues occurring in the international environment around them. Even now, we have smaller countries what have failed through dictatorships or broken economies or civil wars, the flow of peoples from one place to another. If animals fled a forest fire it would be declared a disaster; when individuals flee failed states it seems to be ignored amongst polite company.
It also strikes me as odd that the twin forces of centralization and automation remain largely ignored. For example, people largely laugh and mock at the ungainly and unlovely development of solar powered machines that scan fields and pick weeds or make and flip burgers - but what they mis is that at the beginnings of the automotive age the same thing was true of the early horseless carriages. The ridiculous eventually becomes the functional and the functional the necessary. And suddenly the labor we could never do without - the single greatest cost of any organization - is transformed into a single up front cost and many less people to support it.
And centralization - in an age of global competition and interconnectedness, the move to centralization - access to the markets, resources, and scales of economies of other companies - puts more and more companies into a life and death struggle. Any way to keep and retain profits is eventually investigated - be it swallowing up other companies or figuring out ways to automate what is done to reduce labor.
The ultimate impact to all of this is on jobs, of course. and the bifurcation of jobs. For some - the highly technical or highly mechanical - they will continue to do well. For those that perform manual labor, they will increasingly find themselves relegated to the same roles of craftsman in the Industrial Revolution, adrift where their labor is no longer desired or needed except occasionally in a general sense.
My simple question - the one that I wonder if we are actually addressing - is if we see these trends and are acting on them or are turning away in hopes of some utopia which will never actually come to pass?
It strikes me as odd that the same society that is constantly looking for tremors of environmental catastrophes in s the changing genetics frogs and the movement of ice sheets would not see the same sort of issues occurring in the international environment around them. Even now, we have smaller countries what have failed through dictatorships or broken economies or civil wars, the flow of peoples from one place to another. If animals fled a forest fire it would be declared a disaster; when individuals flee failed states it seems to be ignored amongst polite company.
It also strikes me as odd that the twin forces of centralization and automation remain largely ignored. For example, people largely laugh and mock at the ungainly and unlovely development of solar powered machines that scan fields and pick weeds or make and flip burgers - but what they mis is that at the beginnings of the automotive age the same thing was true of the early horseless carriages. The ridiculous eventually becomes the functional and the functional the necessary. And suddenly the labor we could never do without - the single greatest cost of any organization - is transformed into a single up front cost and many less people to support it.
And centralization - in an age of global competition and interconnectedness, the move to centralization - access to the markets, resources, and scales of economies of other companies - puts more and more companies into a life and death struggle. Any way to keep and retain profits is eventually investigated - be it swallowing up other companies or figuring out ways to automate what is done to reduce labor.
The ultimate impact to all of this is on jobs, of course. and the bifurcation of jobs. For some - the highly technical or highly mechanical - they will continue to do well. For those that perform manual labor, they will increasingly find themselves relegated to the same roles of craftsman in the Industrial Revolution, adrift where their labor is no longer desired or needed except occasionally in a general sense.
My simple question - the one that I wonder if we are actually addressing - is if we see these trends and are acting on them or are turning away in hopes of some utopia which will never actually come to pass?
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Happy Fourth of July 2018
I post this every year on this day. Every year, it seems more and more vivid and alive and current.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776
Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Trying A Different Style Of Writing
Over the last few weeks I have been experimenting with a different sort of writing process: instead of writing things every day, I have been writing them for a full week at one sitting.
The past few months have been rather busy, with work becoming more and more of a time consuming machine (followed by the catch up at home). What I found is that the quality of my output was not really rising to my satisfaction and I was stressing out about creating the next day's article. Writing had become not fun any more. And when something is not fun, it needs to be reviewed and either changed or discarded.
Now, I write on Sunday afternoons for the whole week. I have started to put things into buckets as well: A Few Words on Saturdays, God Thoughts on Sunday, etc. I found that this format relieves my stress of "what will I write about?" as well as giving me the ability to look out into the world and have a little fun.
Thanks for your patience. Hopefully this will result in me producing a better product and enjoying the process of creating as I used to.
The past few months have been rather busy, with work becoming more and more of a time consuming machine (followed by the catch up at home). What I found is that the quality of my output was not really rising to my satisfaction and I was stressing out about creating the next day's article. Writing had become not fun any more. And when something is not fun, it needs to be reviewed and either changed or discarded.
Now, I write on Sunday afternoons for the whole week. I have started to put things into buckets as well: A Few Words on Saturdays, God Thoughts on Sunday, etc. I found that this format relieves my stress of "what will I write about?" as well as giving me the ability to look out into the world and have a little fun.
Thanks for your patience. Hopefully this will result in me producing a better product and enjoying the process of creating as I used to.
Monday, July 02, 2018
An Unexpected Turn of Conversation
During a recent conversation about a current event, I was brought into close quarters with the threat of ending a relationship - something that has not happened to me in a very long time. It occurred at a discussion of general nature, but somehow turned to a specific event in the current media. The phrase "This answer is really important to our relationship" was used.
My mind froze. I had no answer ready at hand.
I have read of these circumstances occurring and more lately in certain circles, the ending of friendship and relationships over a particular political or religious belief. And I suppose that in all fairness these things have materialized in my own life as well, albeit as a simple drifting apart to maintain the peace. I can honestly say this was the first time in a very long time that it has occurred.
Ultimately, of course, this sort of conversation goes nowhere. Very few people are willing to immediately and right there end a relationship in the midst of a discussion, perhaps a heated one to boot. What will happen - at least what happened to me - was an instinctive and immediate curling of the soul into a ball that in some ways I do not know if I will ever come out of.
Finding another person's boundaries at the wrong moment is always a terrifying thing. In one second the genteel facades we all maintain to stay in communication falls away and we are forced to recognize that there is a limit which we will never be able to go beyond - perhaps more importantly, will never be willing to even test again. The world of that relationship shrinks a bit and from then on, only the safe and non-controversial topics are discussed - until often they, too, fall by the wayside in the general loss of communication.
This has happened once before with someone else, from an angle and a place I did not expect. And sadly - tragically perhaps - nothing was ever the same. In the rush and passion to prove a point, the long term goal of relationship - authentic trust and sharing - is shattered, perhaps never to return fully.
My mind froze. I had no answer ready at hand.
I have read of these circumstances occurring and more lately in certain circles, the ending of friendship and relationships over a particular political or religious belief. And I suppose that in all fairness these things have materialized in my own life as well, albeit as a simple drifting apart to maintain the peace. I can honestly say this was the first time in a very long time that it has occurred.
Ultimately, of course, this sort of conversation goes nowhere. Very few people are willing to immediately and right there end a relationship in the midst of a discussion, perhaps a heated one to boot. What will happen - at least what happened to me - was an instinctive and immediate curling of the soul into a ball that in some ways I do not know if I will ever come out of.
Finding another person's boundaries at the wrong moment is always a terrifying thing. In one second the genteel facades we all maintain to stay in communication falls away and we are forced to recognize that there is a limit which we will never be able to go beyond - perhaps more importantly, will never be willing to even test again. The world of that relationship shrinks a bit and from then on, only the safe and non-controversial topics are discussed - until often they, too, fall by the wayside in the general loss of communication.
This has happened once before with someone else, from an angle and a place I did not expect. And sadly - tragically perhaps - nothing was ever the same. In the rush and passion to prove a point, the long term goal of relationship - authentic trust and sharing - is shattered, perhaps never to return fully.
Sunday, July 01, 2018
Turning From Sadness
"Therefore my advice to you, friends,
is to turn aside from troubled and anxious reflection
on your own progress,
and escape to the easier paths of remembering the
good things God has done.
In this way, instead of becoming upset by thinking
about yourself,
you will find relief by turning your attention to
God....
Sorrow for sin is indeed a necessary thing,
but it should not prevail all the time.
On the contrary, it is necessary that happier
reflections of God's generosity
should counterbalance it,
lest the heart should become hardened through too
much sadness and so perish through despair."
- Bernard of Clairvaux (The Way of Simplicity, Esther De Waal)
Saturday, June 30, 2018
A Few Words From...Robert E. Howard
"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind...Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."
- "Beyond the Black River""
- "Beyond the Black River""
Friday, June 29, 2018
Not All That Wander...
Today's post is brought to you by Glen Filthie. Thanks Glen. This perfectly describes me:
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Going Home
As you read this in the morning, I am on a flight headed to The Ranch.
It is just the youngest Nighean Dhonn and myself for a week visiting my parents and in-laws and some old friends. No particular need prompted this, other than the need to simply get back home.
In a way it is the worst time to go: we have so much going on at work and sometime in, say, September would be better. But I am old enough and wise enough to know that truly, the "right time" never really comes.
So we are off to go places and do things and see people, and hopefully to get me a little more grounded again.
It is just the youngest Nighean Dhonn and myself for a week visiting my parents and in-laws and some old friends. No particular need prompted this, other than the need to simply get back home.
In a way it is the worst time to go: we have so much going on at work and sometime in, say, September would be better. But I am old enough and wise enough to know that truly, the "right time" never really comes.
So we are off to go places and do things and see people, and hopefully to get me a little more grounded again.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
The Debris of Relationships
Sometimes looking at the debris of human relationships in my life, I wonder.
I have now lost contact with more people that I will ever meet in the rest of my life. Exclude the phenomena of social media and the odds get so much worse.
Though social media right now, I am in semi-regular contact with 3 people from my pre-high school days, 3 people from high school, 0 people from college and post graduate school, < 10 people for my entire career from 1996 to 2009. My single biggest contact groups remain my activities. Peel away social media, and that number drops significantly to those I see on a regular basis because of another activity.
I assume like everyone - but perhaps more than most - I have created this situation as well as been a victim of it. I have not been as thoughtful as I should be, often replacing it with a range of questionable personal traits. And in a world where the default mode is to be "in touch", the fact that so many have moved on suggests the very real situation that it was for a reason.
Relationships are very funny things. The combination of human beings into any sort of working relationship at all is kind of amazing, given how individualistic and different we are. The fact that any such relationships can move into a relationship where people are willing to subsume their idiosyncrasies for the sake of the relationship is even more amazing.
SO perhaps the fact that the dissolve rather frequently should not be a surprise.
To go through the debris from time to time is to stir up the dust of memory. In the hazy sunlight the friendship motes tinkle and sparkle: here a joke, there the time you needed a hug because the unthinkable happened, way up in the top left hand corner is the road trip where lightning lit up the entire sky at the dead of night.
And then the dust re-settles.
So much of my day now is consumed in working solitude, the associations of work that I have come to understand are often the tools of convenience by which we make a living - when I leave and go on, it will largely be as if the relationships never were. And it is in those moments that I find that the debris of human relationships becomes a poignant reminder of a life that never quite went the way that I had expected.
I have now lost contact with more people that I will ever meet in the rest of my life. Exclude the phenomena of social media and the odds get so much worse.
Though social media right now, I am in semi-regular contact with 3 people from my pre-high school days, 3 people from high school, 0 people from college and post graduate school, < 10 people for my entire career from 1996 to 2009. My single biggest contact groups remain my activities. Peel away social media, and that number drops significantly to those I see on a regular basis because of another activity.
I assume like everyone - but perhaps more than most - I have created this situation as well as been a victim of it. I have not been as thoughtful as I should be, often replacing it with a range of questionable personal traits. And in a world where the default mode is to be "in touch", the fact that so many have moved on suggests the very real situation that it was for a reason.
Relationships are very funny things. The combination of human beings into any sort of working relationship at all is kind of amazing, given how individualistic and different we are. The fact that any such relationships can move into a relationship where people are willing to subsume their idiosyncrasies for the sake of the relationship is even more amazing.
SO perhaps the fact that the dissolve rather frequently should not be a surprise.
To go through the debris from time to time is to stir up the dust of memory. In the hazy sunlight the friendship motes tinkle and sparkle: here a joke, there the time you needed a hug because the unthinkable happened, way up in the top left hand corner is the road trip where lightning lit up the entire sky at the dead of night.
And then the dust re-settles.
So much of my day now is consumed in working solitude, the associations of work that I have come to understand are often the tools of convenience by which we make a living - when I leave and go on, it will largely be as if the relationships never were. And it is in those moments that I find that the debris of human relationships becomes a poignant reminder of a life that never quite went the way that I had expected.
Monday, June 25, 2018
A Changed Battery
Last Monday, the completely expected/unexpected event happened: my car battery died.
I did not suspect it at first - I thought I had somehow managed to kill the car remote again. It was only when I got in the car and tried to turn it over and was met with dead silence that I thought perhaps something else was up. No lights, no, "click click" of a dying battery, nothing.
Well, shoot.
I got out, popped open the hood, got into the battery case and then went for the jumper cables (Public Service Announcement: opening a trunk with a keyless entry when the battery is dead = circus act). I hooked the cables up to the van, turned the van on, and then tried again. Nothing. I readjusted the cables on my battery once, twice, thrice. Not a peep.
Great. I need a new battery.
Grabbed the socket set. Four nuts and some pushing around in the engine compartment (Mazda engine compartments are none too roomy to work in) I had the battery out. A trip to my local Big Box store and battery in hand, I returned and reassembled the battery and car. Total time. About an hour. I even had time on my way to work to reset all of my radio stations.
The point of this story is not particularly that I could do it - it is the moment that I realized I knew how to do it.
I am lucky. I great up in a time where such things were possible and expected and had a father and father-in-law skilled enough to teach me these things. I often take that for granted - except I fear that I currently know any number of people to whom this would seem a mystical act or all day event.
I could be acting overdramatically as I often do, but it occurs to me that we are losing certain kinds of knowledge at a quickly increasing rate - not the sort of knowledge of science and technology (which is always growing) but the knowledge of how to do basic mechanical and general living tasks like cooking, caring for, making by hand, or fixing.
We are currently exchanging our ability to function independently for a cornucopia of knowledge that comes attached to a dependence on technology that we can neither understand nor control nor (for most of us) recreate. It worries me a bit what happens if and when that technology fails.
I did not suspect it at first - I thought I had somehow managed to kill the car remote again. It was only when I got in the car and tried to turn it over and was met with dead silence that I thought perhaps something else was up. No lights, no, "click click" of a dying battery, nothing.
Well, shoot.
I got out, popped open the hood, got into the battery case and then went for the jumper cables (Public Service Announcement: opening a trunk with a keyless entry when the battery is dead = circus act). I hooked the cables up to the van, turned the van on, and then tried again. Nothing. I readjusted the cables on my battery once, twice, thrice. Not a peep.
Great. I need a new battery.
Grabbed the socket set. Four nuts and some pushing around in the engine compartment (Mazda engine compartments are none too roomy to work in) I had the battery out. A trip to my local Big Box store and battery in hand, I returned and reassembled the battery and car. Total time. About an hour. I even had time on my way to work to reset all of my radio stations.
The point of this story is not particularly that I could do it - it is the moment that I realized I knew how to do it.
I am lucky. I great up in a time where such things were possible and expected and had a father and father-in-law skilled enough to teach me these things. I often take that for granted - except I fear that I currently know any number of people to whom this would seem a mystical act or all day event.
I could be acting overdramatically as I often do, but it occurs to me that we are losing certain kinds of knowledge at a quickly increasing rate - not the sort of knowledge of science and technology (which is always growing) but the knowledge of how to do basic mechanical and general living tasks like cooking, caring for, making by hand, or fixing.
We are currently exchanging our ability to function independently for a cornucopia of knowledge that comes attached to a dependence on technology that we can neither understand nor control nor (for most of us) recreate. It worries me a bit what happens if and when that technology fails.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Get Moving!
"We all have those times when there are no flashes of light and no apparent thrill to life, where we experience nothing but the daily routine with its common everyday tasks. The routine of life is actually God's way of saving us between our times of great inspiration which comes from Him. Don't always expect God to give you His thrilling moments, but learn to live in those common times of the drudgery of life by the power of God.
It is difficult to do the "adding" that Peter mentioned here (in 2 Peter 1:5). We say we do not expect God to take us to heaven on flower beds of ease and yet we act as if we do! I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has ll of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for the duty's sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
It is difficult to do the "adding" that Peter mentioned here (in 2 Peter 1:5). We say we do not expect God to take us to heaven on flower beds of ease and yet we act as if we do! I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has ll of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for the duty's sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Things And Things Of Value
This past weekend, on a whim, I went through my Amazon list to see what was on it and total things up. The sum total of thing I have identified is somewhere around $550. Which sounds like a lot, of course - until I considered over time the change in my income. Which made me look at the larger list of things I want in general and figure out that for a not incredible sum of money, I could have all of them.
It is odd, really - I can remember a time where my material desires seemed to stretch as far as the horizon. I wanted this, I wanted that - to explore, to try, to test, to enjoy. But over time, the list becomes less and less, the things either less in amount but greater in value or simply not there at all.
The things I have come to value - solitude, freedom from having to do that which I do not enjoy, perhaps seeing places I have never been - are all thing which are really immaterial in manner and for which there is not really any "thing" to acquire. But in point of fact they are coming to mean more and more to me. And the money that was or could be spent on those things now represent the very sort of things that will allow me to acquire more of these new things of value.
A man can have enough books, enough swords, enough house, enough land. What a man cannot have enough of - time, freedom - are almost suddenly revealed to be the greatest things of value that I never really considered.
It is odd, really - I can remember a time where my material desires seemed to stretch as far as the horizon. I wanted this, I wanted that - to explore, to try, to test, to enjoy. But over time, the list becomes less and less, the things either less in amount but greater in value or simply not there at all.
The things I have come to value - solitude, freedom from having to do that which I do not enjoy, perhaps seeing places I have never been - are all thing which are really immaterial in manner and for which there is not really any "thing" to acquire. But in point of fact they are coming to mean more and more to me. And the money that was or could be spent on those things now represent the very sort of things that will allow me to acquire more of these new things of value.
A man can have enough books, enough swords, enough house, enough land. What a man cannot have enough of - time, freedom - are almost suddenly revealed to be the greatest things of value that I never really considered.
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
A New Windshield
For my birthday/anniversary/Father's Day, I got a new windshield.
My windshield has been cracked for going on 4 years now. Originally it started out as a rock chip, one of those bits and pieces flying off a truck proudly marked with "We take no responsibility for broken windshields from flying debris". Over time and temperature it expanded until I had a lightning strike stretching across the bulk of my windscreen.
I just lived with the issue - after all, it did not impact my ability to see through the windshield at all and to repair it would cost money. There was also that nagging voice that told me that if I got it repair, surely it would be immediately re-chipped and eventually re-broken. So I just continued to drive along.
Life with a broken windshield is not as bad as one might thing. Yes, it is a little bit embarrassing (if such things bother you) and it does make your car look like it should not be parked by (on the other hand, who wants to steal it). You reach the point that it simply becomes part of your daily existence.
And then, one day, it was suddenly gone.
Rather odd how everything looks without a crack running through it.
My windshield has been cracked for going on 4 years now. Originally it started out as a rock chip, one of those bits and pieces flying off a truck proudly marked with "We take no responsibility for broken windshields from flying debris". Over time and temperature it expanded until I had a lightning strike stretching across the bulk of my windscreen.
I just lived with the issue - after all, it did not impact my ability to see through the windshield at all and to repair it would cost money. There was also that nagging voice that told me that if I got it repair, surely it would be immediately re-chipped and eventually re-broken. So I just continued to drive along.
Life with a broken windshield is not as bad as one might thing. Yes, it is a little bit embarrassing (if such things bother you) and it does make your car look like it should not be parked by (on the other hand, who wants to steal it). You reach the point that it simply becomes part of your daily existence.
And then, one day, it was suddenly gone.
Rather odd how everything looks without a crack running through it.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Praying For Other Governments
On Sunday at church, as periodically seem to do during a spasm of national concern about this or that, we prayed for our Federal government to make wise, informed choices about the decision they make. Oddly enough this is not a usual practice (although we are urged by Paul to pray for the governments over us and to be good citizens) but seems to only come up in specific situations.
As we were praying, the though occurred to me "Why are we not praying for other governments as well?"
We spend a fair amount of time in the media and society being told that we are an interconnected society and a global world, and that "problems" that impact us should be dealt with globally. But ultimately global problems come down to individual governments of nation-states which make decisions.
For example, we can pray for "our" government to make the right and just decisions about any number of issues - but do we, or even are we, encouraged to pray for the other governments involved as well to make the right and just decisions also? It feels quite easy to feel that we can pray for our own government and hold it "accountable" (which is only usually used when the policy is disagreed with). But are we willing to go out on the limb and hold the other governments accountable as well?
I suppose in some ways this is rooted in my continuing complaint that large scale anythings, be they governments or movements or companies, never solve anything. It is only (ultimately) at the local level that such things get resolved. The question is, do we want to pray for true resolution of issues, or only for the resolutions that somehow stroke our own feelings being socially conscious and politically astutue?
Monday, June 18, 2018
Falling Into The Eddies of Social Media
Falling into the eddies of social media has been an interesting experience.
Initially it was unplanned. I just stopped checking my Major Social Media account as much as I used to - no particular reason, except that I was just finding different things to do with my time. But I found my check-ins falling away from multiple times a day to 2-3 times a day to once a day or not at all.
What surprised me is how quickly everyone and everything suddenly seemed strange to me.
The Major Social Media - especially if you do not follow it regularly - becomes a mass of short post-it notes of people's lives, information drops of single dollops that become very overwhelming if you are not involved on a regular basis (as a side note, you also realize that you are contributing to the dollop/overwhelming situation as well).
You come to suddenly realize that all of these lives, these dollops of information that continually come in, are rolling along completely without you. Perhaps it is the nature of the media, but no-one seems to have noticed your absence. No-one comments on how your posts seem to be coming in less and less than they used to - unless you visibly commit Social Media suicide and comment as such (making your picture go dark, leaving the goodbye monologue, etc.)
In a way, it points out to me how incredibly disconnected and socially inept we have become.
I am fortunate - I have a fairly settled and secure character and am not (on the whole) trapped in needing to be relevant in social media to be important, of having my self worth checked by being "liked" all the time. But that said, I remember a time where friendships were built on actual contact on a regular basis and how a period of silence or absence would be noticed by those around you.
But now technology, to a large part, determines our "friendships" once we grow up. And social media is no longer a method of catching up but the method of friendship. We become dependent on the technology not only to sustain the relationship, but to build it in the first place.
My intent is not to re-engage on the level I was. I am curious to see what, if anything happens over time. My heartfelt suspicions is for 90% of those involved, I will simply continue to drift into the outer waters of the river of social media and thus lose relevance. Only the 10% - those who probably really do matter and care - will come rowing down the inlet to check in.
Initially it was unplanned. I just stopped checking my Major Social Media account as much as I used to - no particular reason, except that I was just finding different things to do with my time. But I found my check-ins falling away from multiple times a day to 2-3 times a day to once a day or not at all.
What surprised me is how quickly everyone and everything suddenly seemed strange to me.
The Major Social Media - especially if you do not follow it regularly - becomes a mass of short post-it notes of people's lives, information drops of single dollops that become very overwhelming if you are not involved on a regular basis (as a side note, you also realize that you are contributing to the dollop/overwhelming situation as well).
You come to suddenly realize that all of these lives, these dollops of information that continually come in, are rolling along completely without you. Perhaps it is the nature of the media, but no-one seems to have noticed your absence. No-one comments on how your posts seem to be coming in less and less than they used to - unless you visibly commit Social Media suicide and comment as such (making your picture go dark, leaving the goodbye monologue, etc.)
In a way, it points out to me how incredibly disconnected and socially inept we have become.
I am fortunate - I have a fairly settled and secure character and am not (on the whole) trapped in needing to be relevant in social media to be important, of having my self worth checked by being "liked" all the time. But that said, I remember a time where friendships were built on actual contact on a regular basis and how a period of silence or absence would be noticed by those around you.
But now technology, to a large part, determines our "friendships" once we grow up. And social media is no longer a method of catching up but the method of friendship. We become dependent on the technology not only to sustain the relationship, but to build it in the first place.
My intent is not to re-engage on the level I was. I am curious to see what, if anything happens over time. My heartfelt suspicions is for 90% of those involved, I will simply continue to drift into the outer waters of the river of social media and thus lose relevance. Only the 10% - those who probably really do matter and care - will come rowing down the inlet to check in.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Compassion For Oneself
"When your household sits down to a meal,
if you are wise,
you will first sit down yourself,
and then you will be able to serve them
easily and happily.
In your charity to your neighbour,
remember that your nearest neighbour is yourself"
- John of Forde, (1150-1214), Abbott of Bindon
(Esther de Waal, The Way of Simplicity: The Cistercian Tradition)
Saturday, June 16, 2018
A Few Words From...Jocko Willink
"I can handle it when others cannot. When bad things are happening - I will be the one good thing - standing tall - that can be relied upon. I will bolster those around me. I am the positive attitude will spread. And we will fight. And in fighting, we will win. If not the battle and if not the war - we will win:
And that is the ultimate victory: to hold your head high, and - even in the face of inescapable defeat -
Because our spirit will never surrender.
And that is the ultimate victory: to hold your head high, and - even in the face of inescapable defeat -
To Stand and Fight."
- Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual
Friday, June 15, 2018
2018 Garlic
So the 2018 Garlic Harvest is in:
Garlic remains one of only two things (Jalapenos being the other one). That I can grow. For some reason, the heads are always small. And there is never enough.
After cutting the stems:
There is a little more drying to do.
I never plant enough. But any effort to decrease dependence on the system is worthwhile.
Garlic remains one of only two things (Jalapenos being the other one). That I can grow. For some reason, the heads are always small. And there is never enough.
After cutting the stems:
There is a little more drying to do.
I never plant enough. But any effort to decrease dependence on the system is worthwhile.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Of Liberty And Freedom
We use the words Liberty and Freedom interchangeably. That is a bit of a shame, because in point of fact they colloquially imply different things.
Both of them (thanks, Merriam-Webster.com) imply the quality or state of being free. But one (liberty) implies the power to do something while the other (freedom) implies an absence of necessity or coercion.
An example: In the U.S. we refer to civil liberties (for example, the power to assemble, speak as we will, right to bear arms, due process, etc). These are items or powers which are not granted to us by any government or person but exist as rights derived from our Creator - from our simple existence. By contrast I have certain freedoms which exist as a result of a lack of government control - for example, the freedom to travel almost anywhere within the US or the freedom to buy most anything I want to.
Liberty and freedoms are both states, to be sure. I can be in a state of liberty and I can be in a state of freedom. But liberty implies (at least to me) the greater state in that I (should) not be infringed upon by my government in the exercise of this liberty. And within this liberty, I am free to do certain things.
Yes, I know. You may be thinking to yourself "TB Old Man, you are finally wandering in the woods". But this is why I think it is important.
A good many people these days argue for freedoms: "I should be free to do this or that." And perhaps they should. But in addressing the question this way, they are essentially begging permission of the powers that be - most often the governmental body of their choice - to allow them to do something. They are presuming that government has the right and ability to restrict them prima facia.
Liberty, on the other hand, is a very different assumption. It assumes that I have the ability to act without accessing the government for the permission to do or act. It also assumes that I have a greater ability to run my own affairs and make my own decision than the government (or any authoritarian body) has.
People should be arguing for more liberty, not necessarily for more freedom.
Both of them (thanks, Merriam-Webster.com) imply the quality or state of being free. But one (liberty) implies the power to do something while the other (freedom) implies an absence of necessity or coercion.
An example: In the U.S. we refer to civil liberties (for example, the power to assemble, speak as we will, right to bear arms, due process, etc). These are items or powers which are not granted to us by any government or person but exist as rights derived from our Creator - from our simple existence. By contrast I have certain freedoms which exist as a result of a lack of government control - for example, the freedom to travel almost anywhere within the US or the freedom to buy most anything I want to.
Liberty and freedoms are both states, to be sure. I can be in a state of liberty and I can be in a state of freedom. But liberty implies (at least to me) the greater state in that I (should) not be infringed upon by my government in the exercise of this liberty. And within this liberty, I am free to do certain things.
Yes, I know. You may be thinking to yourself "TB Old Man, you are finally wandering in the woods". But this is why I think it is important.
A good many people these days argue for freedoms: "I should be free to do this or that." And perhaps they should. But in addressing the question this way, they are essentially begging permission of the powers that be - most often the governmental body of their choice - to allow them to do something. They are presuming that government has the right and ability to restrict them prima facia.
Liberty, on the other hand, is a very different assumption. It assumes that I have the ability to act without accessing the government for the permission to do or act. It also assumes that I have a greater ability to run my own affairs and make my own decision than the government (or any authoritarian body) has.
People should be arguing for more liberty, not necessarily for more freedom.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
The Dopamine of Social Media (and how to avoid it)
Within the last two weeks I have been reading a number of articles that make the point that social media is a great deal like an addictive drug.
The core of this argument is that when we engage in social media - when we are "liked" by someone for something that we have said - our brains get a small shot of dopamine, that reward to a stimulus that makes us feel pleasure and good about something. We can get it from other items as well - exercise, for example, can result in this if engaged it - but social media is a whole lot easier for the population to engage in.
As I read these articles, an aspect of my behavior suddenly become apparent to me.
I am always a great deal more likely to check social media like FaceMagazine when I have posted something. And sure enough when I do, I find that I get that little jolt of happiness: "Look, X liked my comment - or look there, Y gave me a little heart on my comment." I keep going back and back until the stream has played out and the comments have disappeared. And then, if I am not careful, I am back to looking for something else to give the same reaction.
In other words, I have become an addict.
If one is an addict, of course, one has only two options. The first is simply to do nothing and continue on - but that eventually leads to destruction as we are continue crave the jolt more and more and the old jolts just no longer do the job. We would have to stay on FaceMagazine longer and longer to get the same level of excitement (which, of course, is exactly what the founders of it were hoping for).
The second, of course, is to go cold turkey. To cut it off completely. To find the dopamine hits from legitimate pursuits instead of short cuts.
I will note in passing that blogs do not seem to have that same effect. I pondered this a bit and decided that perhaps it is due to the fact blog comments are discussion and thoughts, as well as "likes". I look forward to comments but do not react to them with the same sort of enzymatic glee.
Oddly enough, drug addiction due to craving of the dopamine receptors is seen as destructive and not productive. How is it that we have not come to view social media in the same way?
The core of this argument is that when we engage in social media - when we are "liked" by someone for something that we have said - our brains get a small shot of dopamine, that reward to a stimulus that makes us feel pleasure and good about something. We can get it from other items as well - exercise, for example, can result in this if engaged it - but social media is a whole lot easier for the population to engage in.
As I read these articles, an aspect of my behavior suddenly become apparent to me.
I am always a great deal more likely to check social media like FaceMagazine when I have posted something. And sure enough when I do, I find that I get that little jolt of happiness: "Look, X liked my comment - or look there, Y gave me a little heart on my comment." I keep going back and back until the stream has played out and the comments have disappeared. And then, if I am not careful, I am back to looking for something else to give the same reaction.
In other words, I have become an addict.
If one is an addict, of course, one has only two options. The first is simply to do nothing and continue on - but that eventually leads to destruction as we are continue crave the jolt more and more and the old jolts just no longer do the job. We would have to stay on FaceMagazine longer and longer to get the same level of excitement (which, of course, is exactly what the founders of it were hoping for).
The second, of course, is to go cold turkey. To cut it off completely. To find the dopamine hits from legitimate pursuits instead of short cuts.
I will note in passing that blogs do not seem to have that same effect. I pondered this a bit and decided that perhaps it is due to the fact blog comments are discussion and thoughts, as well as "likes". I look forward to comments but do not react to them with the same sort of enzymatic glee.
Oddly enough, drug addiction due to craving of the dopamine receptors is seen as destructive and not productive. How is it that we have not come to view social media in the same way?
Monday, June 11, 2018
Make (Fill In The Blank) Great (Again)
A thought that has occurred to me in this age of immigration and refugees fleeing from here to there is the nature of why they come.
Economic opportunity is a strong motivator. Fleeing from war and violence and war an even stronger one. For some perhaps it is just opportunity in general; for others a chance to live their lives as they see fit (instead of as their government or culture).
As I pondered the reason that migration happens even within nations that are neither at war or nor in significant disaster - such as our own migration from where we grew up to where we now live - I was struck by the fact that in some ways they are not different: economic opportunity or way of life or just general opportunity can move people from one location to another.
But in each and every one of these examples, the place to which you are going is the item of importance. The place that you came from does not have a great deal of relevance at all. In many cases, we tend to no longer think of it at all, or just nostalgically.
But that is part of the larger problem.
The current U.S. President's phrase of "Make America Great Again" has been either inspirational or a mockery, depending on which side of the political spectrum you fall. Setting aside politics for a moment, what is the conceptual problem with the concept of making something great - or great again?
Take Mexico, our immediate neighbor to the south, which is certain parts is horribly littered with crime and economic impoverishment and almost outright civil war. The things that motivate her citizens to come - Jobs, safety, security - are something that no-one can really argue against. But my question is simply this: what if we could make Mexico great?
Yes, I understand there are pretty significant obstacles (the drug trade that is largely supported by the U.S. comes to mind [which we have to address] as does an economy that could use significant assistance in developing). But would it not be worthwhile to spend the sort of time and effort and resources on this as to the other sorts of things we spend our money on?
Why not make Great Britain great again? Or Canada? Or Rwanda? Or Peru? Or anywhere, really?
Some might accuse of me of participating in nationalistic jingoism. That is not the point at all. I would argue that a country can be great - confident in culture, supportive of its citizens, with a thriving economy - and not go to war to do it. But it takes work - hard, long work, and a belief that such a thing is even possible. It also requires a believe in and commitment to the place you are it, a faith that it can be better - and the ability to communicate that belief and motivate with it.
So I suppose here is my challenge to all those argue that only through submission to the whole of World Government can we achieve greatness: if we have not been able to do it on a national level, whatever would convince us we could do it on an international level?
Instead, might we not consider just starting with making where we are great? And then branching out from there?
Economic opportunity is a strong motivator. Fleeing from war and violence and war an even stronger one. For some perhaps it is just opportunity in general; for others a chance to live their lives as they see fit (instead of as their government or culture).
As I pondered the reason that migration happens even within nations that are neither at war or nor in significant disaster - such as our own migration from where we grew up to where we now live - I was struck by the fact that in some ways they are not different: economic opportunity or way of life or just general opportunity can move people from one location to another.
But in each and every one of these examples, the place to which you are going is the item of importance. The place that you came from does not have a great deal of relevance at all. In many cases, we tend to no longer think of it at all, or just nostalgically.
But that is part of the larger problem.
The current U.S. President's phrase of "Make America Great Again" has been either inspirational or a mockery, depending on which side of the political spectrum you fall. Setting aside politics for a moment, what is the conceptual problem with the concept of making something great - or great again?
Take Mexico, our immediate neighbor to the south, which is certain parts is horribly littered with crime and economic impoverishment and almost outright civil war. The things that motivate her citizens to come - Jobs, safety, security - are something that no-one can really argue against. But my question is simply this: what if we could make Mexico great?
Yes, I understand there are pretty significant obstacles (the drug trade that is largely supported by the U.S. comes to mind [which we have to address] as does an economy that could use significant assistance in developing). But would it not be worthwhile to spend the sort of time and effort and resources on this as to the other sorts of things we spend our money on?
Why not make Great Britain great again? Or Canada? Or Rwanda? Or Peru? Or anywhere, really?
Some might accuse of me of participating in nationalistic jingoism. That is not the point at all. I would argue that a country can be great - confident in culture, supportive of its citizens, with a thriving economy - and not go to war to do it. But it takes work - hard, long work, and a belief that such a thing is even possible. It also requires a believe in and commitment to the place you are it, a faith that it can be better - and the ability to communicate that belief and motivate with it.
So I suppose here is my challenge to all those argue that only through submission to the whole of World Government can we achieve greatness: if we have not been able to do it on a national level, whatever would convince us we could do it on an international level?
Instead, might we not consider just starting with making where we are great? And then branching out from there?
Friday, June 08, 2018
Thursday, June 07, 2018
Summer Is Here
We are now into the full force of summer.
I do not know how summer is where you are. Here, it is hot. Hot and humid. Stupid hot and rather foolishly humid.
Our "typical" summer day seems to run somewhere between 95 and 102 F (32 to 38 C) and around 40-50% humidity (but as high as 60%). Unlike the places where I have grown up and lived, there are no pleasant breezes to move the hot air at night: it can be 90 F at 2100 and "cools" down to around 70 F/21 C at 0600 - but unfortunately, the humidity seems to actually go up so the cool part of the morning for aerobic sorts of things simply does not exist.
It certainly changes how you do things.
Essentially, I try to wrap up anything I want or need to do outdoors by 1000 or delay it until 1900. The direct sun is either not completely up or has sunk low enough in the sky to make the heat manageable for doing other activities. And drinking enough water simply does not seem possible.
Once - not too long after I moved and before the family joined me - I took a hike during the height of the day during the hottest summer on record. I managed to give myself a form of heat exhaustion; I never made that mistake again.
On the bright side, sun for the garden is not really a problem.
I do not know how summer is where you are. Here, it is hot. Hot and humid. Stupid hot and rather foolishly humid.
Our "typical" summer day seems to run somewhere between 95 and 102 F (32 to 38 C) and around 40-50% humidity (but as high as 60%). Unlike the places where I have grown up and lived, there are no pleasant breezes to move the hot air at night: it can be 90 F at 2100 and "cools" down to around 70 F/21 C at 0600 - but unfortunately, the humidity seems to actually go up so the cool part of the morning for aerobic sorts of things simply does not exist.
It certainly changes how you do things.
Essentially, I try to wrap up anything I want or need to do outdoors by 1000 or delay it until 1900. The direct sun is either not completely up or has sunk low enough in the sky to make the heat manageable for doing other activities. And drinking enough water simply does not seem possible.
Once - not too long after I moved and before the family joined me - I took a hike during the height of the day during the hottest summer on record. I managed to give myself a form of heat exhaustion; I never made that mistake again.
On the bright side, sun for the garden is not really a problem.
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Tuesday, June 05, 2018
A Small Power Outage
On
Sunday Night, our power went out. It went down sometime around 0030,
part of a hit of 1500 lightning strikes and an inch of rain. When we
got up in the morning, the power was still out – and was not
predicted to be on until Wednesday evening (update: Power came on at 2200).
Mind
you, we live in a growing metropolitan area of over a million people.
The thought to that recover in an urban area – did I mention how
high tech it is – would take three days boggles the mind somewhat.
Of
course, arrangements had to be made. The Ravishing Mrs. TB ended up
taking all the human folk with her work – and after a quick bit of
thinking, all of the refrigerated and frozen things to work with her
as well (yes, we had just gone to Costco only the night before). The
bunnies were trundled off to the rabbit shelter for the duration
(bunnies really do not do well over 80 F). The Mighty Poppy is here
for the duration, as is Kiki the bird.
One
thing I always forget in a power outage is how quiet the house is
without the power. All of the little subtle noises that form the
undertone of modern life – the refrigerator and the icemaker
dumping ice, the air conditioning flickering off and on, all are
gone, leaving a sort of pregnant silence in their wake. The cry of
doves and the other outside birds and the occasional motor car are
the only things that disturb the clickety clack of my keyboard.
This
always brings to mind all the classic great lessons of course: back
up power, or at least back up storage. Do not rely on technology.
Have something you can cook with gas/fire. Check your supplies so
that when you have to use them, you know they are there.
But
oddly enough, the best quote for the day was from The Ravishing Mrs.
TB, confronted with the possibility that power would not com on until
later tonight: “The pioneers did it. We can manage for one
night.”
Monday, June 04, 2018
A Surprising Bit Of Good News
So my father encouraged my to write this post.
On Friday I had my monthly check-in with my boss: how are things going, plans for the future, etc. All went well.
At the end of the meeting, he handed me an envelope. Salary adjustment based on the size of the company and change in the reporting structure. It was a 52% raise.
You read that right. 52%.
I am, to be sure, blown away. That is approximately 1/3 again the amount I was receiving prior to July 15th, my first day. In total, this represents a 82% salary increase since I started my new position in 2016.
To say this is a game changer is trite. This means a whole lot of things- debt reduction, college, even travel - have now changed in their ability to be accomplished.
I am often complaining - and curious - if this is where God really wants me. Turns out at this time, He keeps saying yes, this is the place for now.
52%. Never in my life could I have dreamed this would occur.
On Friday I had my monthly check-in with my boss: how are things going, plans for the future, etc. All went well.
At the end of the meeting, he handed me an envelope. Salary adjustment based on the size of the company and change in the reporting structure. It was a 52% raise.
You read that right. 52%.
I am, to be sure, blown away. That is approximately 1/3 again the amount I was receiving prior to July 15th, my first day. In total, this represents a 82% salary increase since I started my new position in 2016.
To say this is a game changer is trite. This means a whole lot of things- debt reduction, college, even travel - have now changed in their ability to be accomplished.
I am often complaining - and curious - if this is where God really wants me. Turns out at this time, He keeps saying yes, this is the place for now.
52%. Never in my life could I have dreamed this would occur.
Saturday, June 02, 2018
A Few Words From...Bruce Lee
“Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread to the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
- Bruce Lee
Friday, June 01, 2018
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