These aren't secrets, or so I thought

When discussing things with my mother and her worries about molecular brain plasticity for the elderly, she put forward her worries about same and what to do and so forth and so on.

I am no fount of wisdom, I'll say that right up front.  If you want wisdom there are tons of peddlers for it.

Instead of wisdom I put forward to her the proposition that for one to have brain plasticity it is of little good unless one is doing something with the poor organ of thought in the first place.  A plastic lump achieves no good ends, especially if left to its own devices as gravity will work its ways with it.  Plasticity is something found at the limits of cognition for the individual, save in the cases of advanced decay or disease or disorder or such like.  If your brain is coming out of your ears it is way too plastic to do you any good, and if it is decayed by these other things then staving them off is your best next option.  So without those in play comes the next bit, the hard part of life: actually using one's grey matter for something so as to keep that baby plastic in the first place.  If you don't got that, then worrying about its future state isn't going to do you much good at all.

Thus I changed course and pointed out that she had been a pianist in her younger years and that activity, that reading of music and translating it through your visual cortex into finger movements which got one tones from an instrument, was a good route to go.  I pointed out to her that in my younger years I had been known as a voracious reader and that I apparently was out-reading everyone in my class, amongst my teachers, and possibly in the entire school.  Sure a lot of it was SF and fantasy, horror and other trivialities, but that most SF was modeled on historical events, social conditions and that actually reading up on the history, itself, became a mandatory object to understanding the future-set story.  Thus history, biography, science texts... all grist for the mill so to speak.  Reading, for me, was an enjoyable activity and I liked doing it.  In fact I started doing something early on to help get more read and I related this to her.

I taught myself to walk and read.  Which is to say be upright, walking, mobile and read at the same time.  Like walking and chewing gum, but with no mastication involved but with much attention diverted to subject matter of interest.  This is called in the modern parlance: multi-tasking.

Multi-tasking means you are doing two tasks simultaneously and neither of them well.

Thus reading and walking is an extremely hazardous proposition, but a bit less so than running with scissors.

You must train yourself to do this and the way I started... what at age 8 or 9?... somewhere around there... was simply at home.  Learn to avoid the sofa, tables, chairs, and start in with peripheral awareness to mobile obstacles like other people or the cat.  You do not walk quickly doing this, nor read quickly, and your full concentration is now not just on reading or walking but what is known in the military parlance as: situational awareness (SA).  At best your walking speed is not so hot an nowhere near enough to get a workout: as a workout it sucks.  Your reading and comprehension rate are about 1/10th what you normally expect: that sucks.  Your SA is much, much better than it ever has been before you did that: it has climbed by 20% given a rough stick waving towards that.  That is actually pretty good, come to think of it.  Your SA starts to steady out along the way but the peripheral perception improves by leaps and bounds, to the point where, years and years later when I learned to drive, I could notice that idiot skidding out of the side across multiple lanes of traffic and about ready to deliver his engine into the driver's side door of my car with me in the way.  That sudden, sharp shift of my vehicle over the curb (sorry, there went the strut) saved my life.  It was due to vastly improved SA.  Things like that have happened a few times in my life.  Improved SA is not to be ignored, really, but generally is.

Now, where was I?

Ah, walking and reading!  After a period of time, and that I expect would vary from person to person but all I have is personal experience to go on, your confidence increases, your walking rate... increases some you are in a home with set dimensions, after all... but your reading rate and comprehension rate also goes up.  That can take a few weeks.  You can also learn to do other things while standing around and reading, like stirring a pot of boiling pasta on a stove, that is perfect as it requires not much attention and you get physical feedback via your hand.  I don't recommend doing dishes and reading, however.  Nor utilizing stairs, those suckers are deadly and require full attention.

If you are worried about brain plasticity, reading and doing some other relatively safe routine while doing so, although neither of them well, is a way to keep the old grey matter in use.  Balance, locomotion, feedback, peripheral vision, SA and reading material all are a bonus in this.

Having grown up in an area where bad weather constitutes that season from anywhere from late OCT to early MAY means that there was limited opportunity to expand the capability, but expand it I did.  I walked to school and, during times of half-way decent weather, I could walk and read while spending time training myself to be aware of the great outdoors that I was not interacting with but wanted to make sure it didn't interact with me.  Sidewalks and, later, boulevards became walking venues and the sight of me reading in the early morning walk to school, about a mile, and stopping at the corner, looking up from the book and looking both ways to cross the street would have been something a bit out of the ordinary, I expect.  The sidewalks were mostly level, but not fully.  People parked their cars in their driveway where it intersected the sidewalk on an intermittent basis.  Trash cans were a twice weekly feature.  People.  Cats.  Dogs.  That green fuzzy creature from Alpha Centauri... you know, the usual stuff to avoid.  Again, slow and measured and I allowed extra time to get to school for the first few weeks until I found myself at school with time to do the homework from last night.  Which meant less to carry.  Which meant a faster walking rate.  Almost like it was a plan or something!  And when I found I could do most homework in a few minutes of dead time at the end of one class or before the beginning of another.... really, most of that stuff is easy to do.

Derived efficiency increased as I prioritized dull or pointless tasks from the 'I hate this and will procrastinate on it' category to the 'get it out of the way IMMEDIATELY to get time back in life' category.  Mind you I did learn to creatively procrastinate for mind-numbing tasks and some of the 'homework' I put into the category of 'abuse' and didn't do and yet did well in the tests and such. 

Don't try that sort of stuff unless you have a retentive memory and good compositional skills.

Don't kid yourself that you have them, either, unless you can demonstrate them.

It may seem like an amazing and simple idea to prioritize stuff you don't like to the top of the task heap but it leads to all sorts of long-term changes in how you approach those tasks.  I consider those to be 'mono-tasks': those that require one and only one mind numbingly dull thing to be done that must be done that you don't like.  What happens when the repetitive and dull mono-tasks go to the top of your heap?  You figure out how to do them quickly and efficiently: you prepare for them.  All of school I categorized like that, in case you hadn't guessed by now.  From Kindergarten to my last year in University, all save for a few classes and instructors that were great, the rest went into the 'mono-task' heap that ate up time.  Yes I would read through the course work in, say, English the first week.  Why not?  No, really, why not?  Do you think you will learn more going chapter-by-chapter than by going by the flow of the sometimes supposed story?  I can think of only a few cases where the reading was so dense, so compact, so hard to get through that I needed to slow down to about half my normal reading speed to get the last 20% of my comprehension in play... Moby Dick comes to mind.  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English is another.  Hmmm... can't include Dune...or unabridged Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... nor Way of the Pilgrim... those were 'pleasure reading'.  I probably would have gotten to Canterbury Tales at some point, but not in Middle English, that was one of the few real treats of University.  Even if you don't like to read what is the rule for those mono-tasks you don't like: prioritize them to the top and get them done and out of the way.

Self-inflicted efficiency is the best kind and makes for life altering habits.

Outside of work that sort of thing makes sure you get presents for other people the moment you see them.  That was before online shopping, of course, you would go broke doing that now.  Oil change?  Early morning, the first open time slot in the schedule.  Ditto car inspection.  Any bill that comes in that needs to be paid goes out the next day.  Pay off all bills in full and only go into hock for the big things in life: worrying about interest (or even worse not worrying about it) will destroy your life.

At work the dull tasks you get handed go to the top of the list... and finished as fast as humanly possible no matter when it is due.  I didn't hang around the water cooler or its equivalent.  I didn't go out for lunch but ate it at my desk.  Tasks got compressed.  I enjoyed technical reading (computers, lithography, color space, networks, all sorts of fun stuff) got put AFTER doing the mono-tasks.  Stuff due weeks down the road, unless they had some other time-dependent part to them, got done as fast as possible.  I had no inbox, nor outbox.

The secret was that I applied the exact, same efficiency principles I had taught myself at school to work.  To my entire life.  That does not mean that you can achieve equivalent results but the principle is an important one, I think, of first finding something pleasurable that you like to do and realizing that to get more worry-free time to do it, you must get rid of the worry creating things.  I didn't worry about things and still don't.  Those things that would create worry get done as fast as humanly possible: done and out of the way.  Without the things to create worry you then fill your time with other things that do not create worry.  That doesn't mean bad things won't happen to you.  What it does mean is that you won't worry yourself into them and you are better prepared to deal with them if and when they happen.

That list of stuff that happen to be problems in my physical and mental condition?

I deal with them.  I do all that is possible to make sure they are addressed, ameliorated, side-lined, treated, and otherwise put out of the worry-picture.  That means I increase my SA to address secondary issues with them as they are purely physical and mental things that have their own signs and signals to them.  I don't worry about them. 

Why bother?  Worry is a waste of energy and time in which I can be having a life, such as it is these days.

If you look back on my articles on history, sewing, woodworking, firearms, disaster prep... all of that stuff... realize that I am not operating at any high rate of capability, at least compared to where I was in my life up to 2004.  So?  I don't worry about it, I don't moan about my situation.  I am exploring my interests, my capabilities, recovering what I can and what I can't I don't worry about: there is far too much good in life to spend it in worry.  Having worries does not mean I have active worry: acknowledging that there are things that can go wrong does not mean I obsess about them.  Quiet the contrary they are dealt with and then I go on learning about what it is that I do have left.

How does one order their life like this?

Consciously.  It can't be done by osmosis.

I've never needed a 'self-help book' but I do have books that teach me how to help myself be it from casting aluminum or building a workbench or reading de Vattel to learn about what the structure of Nations actually is and how it comes about.  There is a gulf of difference between 'self-help' books and books that expect you to help yourself.  I make errors, I make mistakes, I don't always get it right... the FIRST TIME.  The second time I do a bit better.  The third time its almost as if I know what I'm doing.  I've been an expert in a large government agency... no, that isn't right because it was acknowledged I had multiple areas of expertise, but I am not an editor, I do not have a parasite living with me, I'm not royalty and I am certainly not divine so being 'experts' just doesn't do it.  What did that take?  Learning, teaching myself, using prior skills and bonusing off them, and prioritizing tasks... and I didn't give a damn if I was an expert or not, it was necessary to do the damn job.  I actively did not want the credit, either. 

I can't eat credit like that. 

It does my soul no good at all. 

Seeing other people learning from what I've done and being able to lead a better life because of it... that allows me to know I've had some value to others in this life and it is worth more than all the gold in the world. 

And I still can't eat it but it is a good feeling that lasts beyond all others.

These things are not secrets to leading a good life.

They just seemed blatantly obvious to me.

Riding out Sandy

Hurricane / Post-Tropical Storm Sandy started showing up on 27 OCT 2012 with clouds and some light winds and by 28 OCT the rain had started late in the day.  Where I'm at in NoVA was in the projected forecast of the storm up to late 28 OCT 2012, before Sandy sped up to make landfall south of Atlantic City, NJ on 29 OCT 2012, which puts it to the north of here.

The main effects in the section of NoVA that I'm in has been a steady wind from 28 OCT at around 30 MPH from the NNW which shifted just late yesterday to come from the NW.  Rain from 28 OCT to this morning has been in the o.5"/hr. range which means low-land flooding and a number of underpasses getting flooded out.  I know what that means heading towards the beltway having commuted that way for years, and it isn't pretty just for a normal storm or melt water flooding scenario.  As I'm up closer to a ridge top the only worry was winds, and those winds have to go over a lot of land to get here, which means friction and slowing of them.  There were some gusts last night as Sandy made landfall and just afterwards that got to about 45 MPH locally, but also brought a lessening of the constant rain.  As of this morning the post-Tropical Storm Sandy sits in West Central PA and is giving us very light winds (10-15 MPH) and mist, not real rain.

There has been only one interruption of power for less than a few minutes and that can be attributed to just about anything, and happened just after 10:30PM on 29 OCT.  The severe wind event this past summer may have helped to clear out trees and branches so that mild but sustained winds and rain had little effect on the local power grid.  Other areas are not as lucky, as swaths of NYC, NJ and other regions in New England and the Mid-West can attest to.

Household preparations for food were only for a few goods that we have duplicates of in storage in dehydrated or evaporated form.  Earlier this month two Sunfrost units came in: one full 19 cubic inch freezer and one 19 cubic inch refrigerator, both with drawer stands.  After getting them set-up and operational, a slow process of moving food to them began and is an ongoing process that would require a bit of speeding up if the power went out for days or a week or more.

To power those units two SUNRNR units were purchased (a 110v and 240v system) through one of their resellers (Alternative Energy).  Since there was a special on solar panels, I got 4 of the Kyocera 140 units and that all arrived on the same week as the Sunfrost units, which has meant a lot of work getting everything set up.  A frame mount for the Kyocera panels had to be found and put up, and they currently are bolted into 6x6 exterior lumber that a neighbor had taken out from their old deck during a replacement of it.  Large cinder blocks with unequal hole spacing allows the 6x6 lumber to fit through the cinder blocks, and they serve as an anti-tipping ballast at the end of the timber.  Three other pieces brace the forward (and lowest part of the panel mount) with two doing that and a third going across them with cinder blocks sitting on the intersection of the bracing pieces.

Together this array with the 2 SUNRNR units should power both the Sunfrost units just enough each day to let the Sunfrost units chill down to storage temps and then sit there utilizing their insulation to keep things cold.

The major drawbacks to this system are two-fold:

1)  First a pass-through for the Anderson cables from the solar panels needs to be installed in the house so that they don't have to go through a partially open screen door.

2)  Lack of much direct sunlight impedes the amount of power that can be collected greatly.  These panels sitting on my deck have much in the way of trees that block out collection space which means not much power is gathered at all during overcast and rainy conditions.  Which isn't to say that none is gathered, just an amount less than what is necessary to run the Sunfrost units.

Part of the reason to get the SUNRNR units was portability and the reseller I went through is getting portable frame mounts fabricated for sale in the near future.  Breaking up the array into two sub-arrays will allow for optimal placement of the panels to get at least 2 optimal panels of collection during daylight hours.  Mounting them on the roof (and having to go through building codes) means that they aren't portable, and that goes for a pole mount as well.  There isn't enough roof space to take the townhome I'm in off-grid in a built-up area and wind is erratic, which means that all alternative solutions for powering the place means either consumables or not running very much.  A whole house generator running off of natural gas (and supplemental LNG input if the natural gas pipeline system goes down) would be good if all building codes allow it.  I expect that my simple 4 panel mount will raise some local hackles, but that 2 mounts of 2 panels each will disappear from view and all questioning.

It seems that providence was on my side for ordering the systems, getting them in and up and running just before this encounter with Sandy.  We also had to get the be replaced, which is less fun than it sounds.  I'm exhausted.

Rain has just picked up a notch, but still not much more than light rain/drizzle.  Sandy isn't done, yet and for those in regions of the Mid-West, Northeast and New England who rarely get one of these storms, my thoughts are with you.  As I watched the tide gauges rise for NYC last night I knew that this was not going to be good...when the one at Providence, RI went off the top of its scale, the full size of Sandy got driven home to me as the gauges in NC were just starting to do down at that point.  This is no Cumbre Vieja event, to be sure, but Sandy is reminding us that the works of man, no matter how great they seem to us, aren't very much to Nature and that we must take heed of warning signs when they are clearly delivered to us.

Peripheral improvement

This is one of those rare personal pieces that I do to keep any readers updated with my multiple chronic illnesses.  Isn't that fun?  No icky stuff will be discussed... at least I don't think any will at this point... and if it isn't your cup of tea, well, that is why hyperlinks and the BACK button were invented.  Today's topic isn't statins (of which I am off due to the problems that came on with using them that got me started on writing so I could keep some mental processes going) nor about inhaled insulin (of which there are problems not related to the drug, per se, but lowered breathing function over time) nor to the ardafinil that I am on which is a wonder drug for those who find staying awake and aware to be a major problem (and it was a huge improvement over the previous wonder drug modafinil).  This time it is back to the first chronic condition I got diagnosed with, Type I diabetes (aka Juvenile Diabetes, although it can occur at any time in life), and its long term effects.  I've been through a number of rounds of laser surgery to clear up minor holes in the back of my eyes, and got my blood glucose straightened out via diet and carb counting, which has meant some years without recurrence of that condition.  That leaves the other fallout of being a long-term diabetic, which is diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

That neuropathy started to set in very slowly over 20 years ago, mostly with my toes.  I take good care of my feet (they are at such a long distance away, after all, and attach my body to the ground) trim my nails and all that fun stuff and have had zero problems with ulceration.   You take care of your feet and you can continue to use them!  That didn't stop the neuropathy, however, and it crept slowly in over the years, just starting to get up past the toes... for 20 years I don't know if that is good or bad, but it is what was happening.  The neuropathy didn't create loss of all sensation, way out there at the other end of my body, just a numbness in the effected areas and a tingling sensation like when you fall asleep on your arm for too long and it gets the 'pins and needles' sensation when blood flow comes back to it.  In fact that is very much what is going on with diabetics as peripheral blood vessels get choked off to some extent due to the diabetes save that getting blood flow restored to choked off blood vessels is a bit more difficult to accomplish.

During my younger years, pre-diabetes, I ran cross-country and generally liked outdoor exercising.  College life and diabetes set back those activities some, early on, and more so when I grew older.  As I enjoyed hiking and camping, that meant good boots, as well, which meant a relatively snug fit that would take a few layers of socks.  Slowly losing feeling, way out there at the other end of the body, meant not really knowing how good that critical forward 1/3 of the foot was doing when trying on new footwear.  Most places don't do a 'try before you buy' deal, which would allow me to find out any areas of chafing or restricted blood flow that would happen after a couple of weeks of wearing.  Mostly I wore my older shoes, sneakers and boots... yes I have a pair of Nike Oceania II's that date back to the early 1980's and will still wear them from time to time.  When Nike brought back a limited run of their older Oceania I's, I got a couple of pairs as that was what I was wearing before the Oceania II's.  I have an older pair of those from the late '70s I used to use for swamp trekking.   I have bought one or two newer pairs of sneakers and work boots for the shop, and I wear them a little at a time every week until they got broken in with no ill effects. 

Imelda Marcos I'm not in the footwear category.  Or any other category, come to that.

As a side light I detest sandals with the strip between the big toe and first toe... that style chafes and causes actual blistering no matter what the material is.  Mostly, if I need any protection between the sole of my foot and the outside world, I want the rest of the foot protected as well.  That has saved me no end of injuries over the years.

Basically, the neuropathy put some minor restrictions on life and having to think ahead before doing anything.  As new footwear would take weeks, if not months, to break in slowly, protecting my footwear became nearly as important as protecting my feet.  Once I got fully employed, I really spent next to no time outdoors save for shoveling the walk, clearing up the yard and doing other fun things that required no long term stays outdoors.

During the last visit to my neurologist (for my catalepsy) I also brought up my neuropathy's status (basically the same over the past few years) and as he would also be the guy I saw for that, he brought up a new 'medicinal food' called Metanx.  If you use Wikipedia for the low down on it you find it is a vitamin mixture of B6, B9 and B12 (3mg/35mg/2mg) and it works to open up those blood vessels and get blood flowing out to the extremities once more.  You might see no results, you might take up to a year to get some results or you might start getting them immediately.

For me it was about 2 weeks before I noticed some of the numbness moving back from around the ball of my foot region in both feet and going back towards the toes.  This continues on and now I can feel individual toes undergoing a very constant form of the 'pins and needles' sensation plus some numbness still in the big toes.  The sensation is more dramatic than the creeping numbness affair of the neuropathy and there is still a general feeling of stiffness at the extreme portion of the foot as well as with the toes.  Also with that is just a bit of feeling of warmth out there which goes along with the general ability to actually get sensation back.  The question of how much actual nerve damage there is will remain as a concern.  There have been reports of Type I diabetics getting transplants also having their neuropathy reversed and near complete restoration of sensation at the extremities returning, so that is a hopeful sign.  When the body can identify the need to grow additional capillary vessels, it does so, which may be a part of what is going on, as well.  In theory this should also help the optical portion of neuropathy which happens for the same reasons as the peripheral neuropathy, just with much smaller blood vessels.

Time can only tell with these things.

If this can follow a Feiler Faster Thesis and Simple Time Substitution compression, then what took a couple of decades might only take a couple of years to be reversed.  Don't place bets on that sort of stuff... but medical knowledge is in the increasing capability in faster cycles phenomena which is just part of the much larger phenomena going on with humanity.  This isn't a 'singularity' coming up, but a rapidly compressing cycle of knowledge expansion and comprehension that will make the last 20 years seem like ancient history to us in 2 more years.  Medical knowledge and capability will go right along with that, if we don't try to continue being stupid about it.

I welcome this new and ever changing future just ahead of us.  It will scare the pants off of every petty tyrant, every control freak and every Nation that tries to 'socialize' anything.  And that... that I welcome most of all.  That will be FUN.  Why I might even get a NEW pair of sneakers!

The Way Forward - Blue State Reforms

The victory by Gov. Scott Walker (R - WI) last night points a way forward for other Blue State Governors to start reforming Public Employee Union problems with pensions and health care.  It is a multi-step process but the key points are now clearly visible.

First - Stop collecting Union dues for the Union at the State and local level.  The power of the PEUs comes from dues garnered from employees who may not want to be in the Union.  As States have sovereign power outside of those powers vested in the federal government, it can decide with input from its people on how best to ensure that public employees are to be treated.  When WI stopped the government role of dues collector and left it up to voluntary contributions, the number of dues paying teachers, as an example, dropped by 2/3 (Source: Fox News/WSJ 31 MAY 2012):

Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-the state's second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers-fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme's figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment.

This hits the ability of PEUs to flow cash into political campaigns and to seek to get PEU friendly representatives across the table to pass legislation friendly to the PEUs.  That is inherently corrupt as it puts PEUs in a position of running both sides of the table during negotiations, which short-changes the public at large.  For a Blue State Governor, putting the case forward that the public, alone, should be the ones to decide how many employees should be in the government, what they should get paid and what other perks should be paid by the public to give to the employees.

Of course this is the 'Third Rail' of PEU influence in politics at the State and local level.  Yet it is the easiest to sell to the public.  Why should PEUs get a say in the political process which, in essence, allows them to influence votes, influence the legislative process and to bias the legislation in their favor at public expense?  The major upside is that public employees will get an opportunity to get a virtual raise by not funding the PEUs.

Second - Pension and health care reform requiring PEU members to pay a larger percent (or ANY percent) of their pension and health care insurance.  Changing the pension system to get away from the pyramid scheme system where current PEU members pay for the pensions of current retirees, with the State or local government picking up any difference, is bankrupting the governments involved.  Shifting to a defined contribution set of plans under the control of the public employees individually, firstly empowers employees to determine their own course in life means that their independence is increased by having an individual retirement plan.

As most private employees pay a large percentage of their health care insurance (either through an employer or purchased individually) the idea that public employees should pay an equivalent amount, or at least something closer to what the federal employees pay (approx. 40%) attacks the idea of 'fairness'.  Putting public employees in the same position as their private counterparts is self-evident as a 'fairness' measure, and yet another easy sell to the public at large.  Anyone who spouts 'fairness' should support this as it is the basis of having a level employment system amongst public and private employees.

These can both be made more palatable to public employees by letting them decide if they want to pay dues to the PEUs (step 1), thus by doing the first step, the second becomes easier.  This can be made more palatable to public employees by allowing a voucher so that they can choose a private health plan or cash it out as additional income and fully take the risk for their own health care on their own.  Shifting cost need not be a fully negative affair and can be made into a liberating and empowering experience for the individuals involved.

Third - Remove the under-performers.  For the public to see an increase in performance and to see that tax dollars are being spent wisely and that public employees are dedicated to their job and not just to their perks, remove protection from being fired from the public employee workforce and shift pay to meet performance.  To do this set standards of performance and efficiency to be met by public employees and fire the bottom 10% each and every year, regardless of seniority, time in service, or level of service.  Performance can have input from peers within the workforce, input from upper and lower levels of the public employee structure and public input.

This moves a step beyond what has been done in WI, but follows the successful system utilized by the CIA.  There it is possible to shift up and down the pay structure very quickly which means that performance matters.  By linking pay with performance and getting under-performers out of the system means there is incentive to perform better and serve the public in a more open and friendly manner.  After the power of the PEUs is removed and public employees are given more independence, the move to a performance based system then becomes possible.  This utilizes the 'best of breed' systems utilized elsewhere and underscores that the job of a public employee is to serve the public, not just service the public.

By increasing visible efficiency and friendliness government functions are done better and with greater transparency.  Increased efficiency means having a workforce that can be downsized over time, perhaps by removing job billets with the annual 10% reduction, until optimal efficiency is reached by the remaining labor force.  Companies do this and the same methodology can be applied to government functions.  After step one and step two, this then puts the results of those two into play to the benefit of the public.  A way to show this is to remove fees and other payment overhead from State functions for the public as the public is already paying for the function and shouldn't have to pay twice for it: efficiency should have visible rewards beyond just better service.

Result - For a Blue State Governor this achieves reform without having to become a 'Right To Work' State, which means that Unions (not just PEUs) have no basis to lobby against the government on hostility to Unionization grounds.  Public employees are a different category from private employees as they serve the public, on the public's dime and that is garnered through involuntary taxation (not voluntary purchase).  That sovereign function of needing individuals to perform duties for the State is due to there being a public willing to support the system of government for the benefit of the public in an unbiased manner.  Public employees do not have to worry about evil capitalist bosses as the State is not in a position to make a profit as it is not a corporation, thus there is no 'exploitation' of workers: the public sets the rules through the legislative process, everyone knows what they are and what the standards are for employment on the public's dime.

Resolving the problems of insolvency of States and local government can be handled in such a way as to ensure that all services (not just 'vital' ones) are done in an efficient, timely and courteous manner by public employees.  By rewarding efficiency and courtesy, it is reinforced, meaning that public employees understand that they are volunteering to take a public job and that they are beholden to the public for their activities.  This is a benefit not just to the public, but to public employees who are given the ability to chart their own course for longer-term life necessities and make their own decisions about what they should be.  By not rewarding organizations that slack off, by not rewarding inefficiency through larger work force sizes, and by not taking on the future debt of public employees, government size and cost can be reduced.  Showing a balanced budget, a user-friendly government, transparency on cost, and by demonstrating that positive moral values are enforced by the government, a Blue State Governor can demonstrate that they can support public needs while not putting future generations at risk for insolvent decisions made for politically expedient reasons, now.

Because of the future insolvency problems due to the current system of PEU contracts, reforms will take place.  Taking some pain now can mean avoiding default and bankruptcy of governments, which is a much, much larger pain when that happens.  It doesn't matter how Blue the State is: this is coming.

The other results from last night were from the cities of San Diego and San Jose reforming pensions for their public employees.

CA is a very Blue State, yet even there reform is coming due to decades of spendthrift government and bloated government PEU structures.

If a Governor doesn't get ahead of the game, then it will be done for him or her starting from the ground-upwards.

When that happens the color of Blue just might disappear.

Even the most deeply committed ideologue in government does have a survival instinct.  From last night's results, that instinct is now being forced to the forefront.

Reform is coming to America.

You can do it fast and with some pain now, or with much greater pain in a couple of years and putting our children and grandchildren into a 3rd world failed Nation situation.

That choice is yours.

I suggest you make sure you are registered to vote.

Growing up Dragon

The Chinese Zodiac Calendar has animal representations for that year which repeats every 12 years.  In general, hand-waving theory, it means you get a suite of predispositions based on the year you were born.  If you extend the Dragon years back you get 1964.  My lady is from the previous Dragon cohort in 1952.  Just so you know what the dynamics are, up front, about what I'm going to talk about, it is important to know the cohort system.  When you are in a cohort, militarily, you are of a set group formed up at a certain time and that cohort remains as that group.  In extreme systems no one else gets to join that cohort and it shrinks as individuals die off.  This is applied to any year and the people in it can be treated as a closed cohort, which helps to examine such things as changes in environment, changes in demographics, and actuarial tables for how fast a cohort dies off.  If you start at the beginning of the Cretaceous and count all the species right at that time and track them, you can do a cohort analysis and see when the last species was to die off... the fact that cohort has a sudden drop mid-way through its expected life-span to zero, demonstrates that something truly large-scale happened at that point, otherwise we would still have dinosaur species from that cohort roaming around.  Birds hadn't evolved by then, although their predecessors were around, these species we see today weren't there.

I can't lend the idea any credence to the Chinese system, but will say that there are some birth year cohorts that seem to stand out.  In the era before 'everyone was special', which means no one is special, was the age cohort that I was in and we were getting remarks from our teachers as we went through school that there was something different about our cohort.  Teachers who had been on the job for decades, and who knew the school system I was in, had a good handle on their fellow instructors across the system: from grade school to high school, the teachers actually had a good working knowledge that was shared across schools and grade levels.  That may or may not be unique to the school system I was in at the time and YMMV.  How did I (and others in my age cohort growing up) find this out?

We stayed after class or came back after school to discuss topics with our teachers.  These may have started off as simple 'find out information' sorts of deals, but once picked up as a habit you got to know your teachers and they got to know you.  I had started picking up that habit around 7th grade and by 9th grade it was in full swing, and I often went back to my prior schools (they were on the way home, after all) and dropped by to talk with previous teachers.  That perspective gained, across multiple years of teachers in diverse topics meant you learned about the teachers interactions throughout the year.  One of the most interesting comments from a prior year teacher in English was that he had been told years before our cohort arrived that we were different, standing head and shoulders above the year before us and after us academically.

What are the phenomena that brought about the 1964 age cohort?

First it is not a true 'Baby Boomer' cohort.  One instructor in Social Studies/Civics said that he liked to think of us like that, but that we had a different set of characteristics than the Boomer kids.  Basically the Boomers formed such large classes that you had to change your lesson plans for them, you had to adjust to those class sizes and it was difficult to apply the rigor of pre-Boomer teaching methods to the Boomers.  No one was catering to the post-Boomer generation.  The general decline in class sizes (which is to say all the people in a cohort year, not the number of people in a class) meant that the number of pupils per instructor ratios were declining, as were some of the older teachers who were leaving the profession.  The first and second wave of Boomer children had finally ebbed off by 1960 and what you get post-1960 are a mixed group of families: Boomer families having a last child after two major sets of same, the beginning of the incline of divorced families and mixed-families still trying to adhere to nuclear family values, the very first children of the Boomers or just pre-Boomers having their first children in families, returnees from Korea now just out of college and settling down to a family, and a very few and sparse pre-Boomer couples having a mid-life to late-life child.

This period from approximately 1962 to 1966 is before Gen X and after the Boomers.  No one catered to it as the 'youth' culture was now college oriented, no longer family/home/child oriented.  We were the generation that went to the video arcade, not the pinball arcade: Boomers went for pinball, our generation went to Atari.  That '62-'66 generation got to see political ineptness at the highest levels: LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter.  There is no nostalgia for a 'better time' amongst this generation, no yearning to Like Ike or sighing about dreamy JFK, we don't remember those guys.  And for all the great press about JFK, he didn't seem like such a hot President, either, what with the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and continuing the misadventure in Viet Nam started by Truman and kept going on a low level by Eisenhower and upping the ante with political assassination overseas, to boot.

At the local level our cohort got to see the roll and burn of industrial America and the sudden coming of the Rust Belt.  Now that the rest of the Nation understands what 10% unemployment can do to you for a few years, lets just say that in the old areas where Bethlehem Steel, Worthington Compressor, and Westinghouse once ruled, we got to see 15% unemployment and then chronic 12% unemployment until the early 1990's when I left the region.  Political corruption, high taxation and power grabs at all levels meant that the underground economy flourished.  Not for 'black market' goods, but for regular jobs done with under the table payments and the 'you help me by doing this and I can help you by doing that' favor exchanging.  See what the current Administration is doing to the Nation?  Welcome to Rust Belt America.  Been There, Done That, Got The T-Shirt.

In the midst of that semi-generation, not Boomer and not Gen X, came the Dragon Cohort.  The 'Latch Key Kids'.  That was a worry amongst Americans to fret about for, oh, 20 milliseconds.  You know, mom got 'liberated' to do a second job so someone had to let the kid in the house after school... say the kid can use a key?  Who knew?  Starting out in my grade school years in the back of semi-rural areas and then going to suburbia was a shock, and grade 5 meant whole new environs, no fields, no forests, no tractors, and way too much pavement.  Thus my perspective within the Dragon Cohort is relatively unique, maybe only a few thousand have that experience born that year across the US.

Now academic achievement, while nice and all, wasn't a real focus of what I was about.  I loved to read and most of that was Science Fiction and Fantasy (SF&F), and as we couldn't be part of the First Fandom of Trek, we were part of the Second Fandom of Trek, growing up on re-runs... really, what else was there to watch?  OK, Monty Python, that served a major injection point for weirdness to the Dragon Cohort.  If you came to the High School I was at during the years the Dragon Cohort was going through it, up to two hours before school you could find that about four to six tables of the cafeteria had been taken over by us: all members of that same class, meeting up to do school work with each other and discuss issues of school and beyond.  Almost without exception we all watched Star Trek and Monty Python.  About 2/3 of us played D&D and maybe a half of that were general board war gamers as well.  We also tended to congregate at video arcades, not the mall, at least when they were separate establishments.  What this meant is that we had a high affinity for a set of activities that didn't necessarily extend above or below our cohort and, indeed, within the Dragon Cohort at our school those at those tables were the ones who were above average and not in a Lake Wobegone way, either.

What was telling was that neither the class ahead or behind us had that sort of sociology nor mindset, although we did gain a few from both classes, they were only a couple per grade and the rest of the years couldn't even fill a single table at the cafeteria before school on any given day.  Go after school and find discussions with teachers and you were more likely to find a Dragon Cohort member than anyone else: either there were members of the cohort or it was empty.  And even then it was only a few teachers where members congregated in the twos and threes.

After High School college tended to break up the cohort, but by then members were getting a good idea of what was working and what wasn't in the world.  Academically we were seeing a slow degradation of grading standards in not just the K-12 area but in college as well: the hyphenated studies and meaningless classes were starting to infest the college curricula and these sub-groups were trying to divvy up campus space for their classes.  Becoming a diabetic meant time off to deal with understanding that and shifting to a different cohort in classes: it was a necessary re-alignment of my mental life and attitude which put me in contact with some trailers of the Dragons and the first of Gen X.  Academically I wandered and had the problem of only one or two areas where I did poorly, and the rest I did quite well at across a diverse range of topics from science to economics to history to sociology to war studies.  I finally settled on Geology, which saddened one Comp Sci professor who wanted me to do an APL to LISP translator... I let him know that the CS department wanted math theoreticians, not CS coders who just used math as a nuts and bolts tool to do work.  In Geology you had to have more than just a thumbnail knowledge of topics ranging from petrology, sedimentation, plate tectonics, genetics, petro-chemistry, organic chemistry, gravity, the composition of extra-terrestrial bodies, glaciology... and even if you specialize, there is no such a thing as an isolated speciality within geology as it any set of geological forces must take into account all levels of interaction to explain phenomena.

By that point I had gotten to know that the schooling system was corrupt and could be gamed for grades.  To put it bluntly grade inflation decreases the value of grades and that includes ones already issued by any institution undergoing grade inflation.  Many instructors (particularly in the mis-named 'humanities') had started to do that, while the sciences, math and engineering departments kept to the basics of 'if you don't know it, you don't know it'.  By then being a mediocre student in the sciences was putting you mentally above anyone in a hyphenated studies area, and with a better mental toolset to deploy for working life.  Not a great toolset, mind you, but a better one.

One of the drivers towards the sciences was that I enjoyed them and the interactivity between them.  The natural sciences are one of the greatest joys and frustrations as you can be enlightened and you can spend hours of work and realize you screwed up the initial preparations and see that work go down the drain.  You have to really get it right the first time, no do-overs.  The second reason was the set of Congressional hearings on Social Security around 1985 (my memory is inexact) that it was going to go bust around 2050.  Due to demographics.  It was a screwed up system, in other words, and at the very BEST of outcomes it would disintegrate and take the economy with it circa 2050.  Anyone with an ounce of sense realized that if you were young and getting an education, that these older and wiser people had set up a system that was horrifically out of whack and that it wouldn't survive to 2050.  Why?  We looked at all the Boomers who were far OUTSIDE the demographic norms used for the prediction.  You do the math.  I certainly did.  I trust the math and the demographics: the political lies, not so much.

If you were in the regular Dragon Cohort this came during your last year of college.  Luckily I had wandered around, had to take serious re-orientation time off to get my mental and emotional life sorted out (all on my lonesome, I saw the caliber of the psychiatric profession and realized that they weren't qualified to mess around with my head), put back on track, got this wonderful economic shocker and went into the natural sciences.  Wouldn't you?  You can't use your ethno-hyphenated-'feel good about myself' studies to get a job: basic math, hard work, and being able to tell you that 'this lovely building is on a fault line and have you prepared for a disaster?' will do that for you.  And unemployment was still in the 9-12% range, so I knew I would have to de-camp to get a job.  Those years were a joy and a sheer terror, both, but I just applied to every single place I could find once they were over, and finally got a place in DoD on the civil side.  They beat the National Park Service by a couple of weeks.  I saw the future, I needed cash, and while I love the NPS, helping the military and getting decent pay decided it for me.

By 1991 I had paid off my minimal student loan.  Yes, that was only a fraction of a single paycheck, big whoop.  The house loan got cut in half time-wise by hitting at principle continuously and applying any 'extra cash' to the house instead of that fun shiny object du jour.

Starting after school years I applied the principles I had learned growing up: be in debt to no one, pay off principle on your house as fast as humanly possible, cash on the barrel means you are beholden to no one, hard work is its own reward, and, most importantly, Don't Panic.

In fact there is an even better last part: NEVER PANIC.

Panic is not your friend and will, more often than not, get you killed.

The person running in panic from a disaster will be beaten, hands-down, by the determined person who kept their head about them who is sprinting from it.  If you see a disaster you have to run from: sprint.  That poor panicked fellow, well, he should have known better.

So when our economic system has gone to hell, our housing system went through a lovely and politically backed bubble, and the rest of the Ponzi schemes start to implode, living debt free means I don't panic.  I have concerns, yes, but I don't worry, either: worry is a waste of time and energy better spent doing something else, even if it is playing Parcheesi (which I don't play, BTW).  You prepare for disasters years (decades if possible) before they arrive.  I'm not depending on SSA, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps nor any other crackpot, hare brainfart of the political elites meant to impoverish the Nation.  These 'programs' have impoverished the Nation and are going away soon. 

I'm prepared for that. 

Heck I'm prepared for the Cumbre Vieja mega-tsunami event which means I don't think the water will get further than the ridgeline that is before the one I'm on, but I also have a good view of that ridgeline so if it gets overtopped I have about 20 minutes to sprint off of this one towards the next one in any vehicle or in any way I can.  I could really use a hovercraft, you know?  Say, maybe I could make one... wouldn't that be fun?  A real learning experience!

Economic collapse of the Nation?  What?  You haven't prepared for that?  Can't you do the math?  You were told about what was coming with the ending of SSA in 2050... then 2030... then 2020... and it went into the red spending bonds last year so its still moving like a dinosaur but will soon fall over and become a mess on the landscape.  Hope you weren't planning for that any time soon.  I'm not.  And haven't even let that enter into any equation about my future as I know that the basis for all of those programs are unsound, to say the least.  They won't last forever.  I'm not expecting them to last out this decade, but we can cushion the fall for those who are stuck being a slave to the State, you know?

How about a CME, you know, Coronal Mass Ejection?  Fry out the power system and the major transformers for it?  Plus anything you got plugged into a wall socket.  You prepared for that baby?  Globally?  You know, 'no outside help, ever'?  No?  Scared?  Or just want to be put into a panic?  Heck we've never had a geo-magnetic field decaying to a flip-flop like we have now, so how far the ejected and diffuse mass goes into it is anybody's guess.  Remember, get enough of that going on at the right altitude and the stuff that isn't in a faraday cage is also in trouble.  You know, add in some EMP effects to season it?  Slightly different defenses for an EMP than a CME.  You can never be too sure what mother nature will throw at you next time.  Might be flowers, it might be running chainsaws.

I am difficult to panic, to say the least.

Like I said the Dragon Cohort pulls in a few people from non-Dragon years, but anyone can be prepared, which means you prepare ahead of time.  It isn't about intelligence, either, as I've met plenty of really smart, test well, types, who couldn't figure out how to change the oil in their car if their life depended on it.

I'm in that generation that isn't the grand and glorious and over-hyped Baby Boom, and while there are plenty of nice and level-headed folks who are Boomers, the culture tends to cater to them no end.  I'm in that not so special generation that isn't Boomer and isn't Gen X.  As one of my teachers said to me, I'm in the generation that gets the shovel to clean up the mess of the Boomers.  I like to think that we are the ones born with the Cluebats in hand, but that is an over-generalization.  Mine is the forgotten generation that you can't label, the one where everyone doesn't get a prize, the one that was told lies and realizes it as an intellectual and emotional matter that isn't warm and fuzzy and makes you feel ever-so-good about stealing from younger people via government.  Mine is the generation that has asked for no favors, and seeks to have you lead a good life for yourself and ask for help from your friends and family, your churches and social organizations, and to put government in its place as your servant, not your master.  If you expect money from government, it is your master.  And a damned inept and tyrannical one, at that.

I was born free.

I was born into the Year of the Dragon.

I ask for no favors, no handouts, and seek to be a burden to none.

My hand is open to you to help, not raised in a fist to strike for our burden is to do no harm and do good for our fellow man.

We are stuck with the shovel to clean up the mess and it ain't a socialist shovel, that's for damn sure.

The good news is that the future is bright past these times of insanity and lies.

The way of liberty to the stars is opening, soon it will be clear.

Our world is about to change for the better and yet we must also save some from the abyss.

A bit of digging is needed first to bury the blood red 20th century once and for good and all.

I am of the Dragon in the 21st Century and the direction is clear, the path a disaster.

You can do your bit to help, and that means letting go of the failed past and seeking a better future.

I know that is frightening, but the future always is, isn't it?

Are you a Trustafarian?

I am ran across the term Trustafarian while perusing an article by Zombie at PJM.  She was using it to describe the class of people at The Ongoing Occupation of America post on 29 SEP 2011.  I had never run across the term and decided it needed just a bit of personal definition which required a few days to mull it over.  By the time I finally started to get the term I then came up with a definition after Herman Cain criticized those at the OWS (Occupy Wall Street/ Out With Sanity/ Ongoing With Stupidity/ Outing Witless Students... take your pick) at Hot Air.  I will correct a few spelling errors and such just to make it clear who he was talking about and what a Trustafarian is by what they do.

= = =

You might be a Trustafarian if you are part of the OWS crowd and…

- Have any electronic device starting with an “i-”

- Have a pair of sneakers costing over $100

- Have a shirt, pair of pants or jacket with a logo emblazoned on it

- Have an ‘art’ shirt that cost more than $50

- Have a netbook/notebook/laptop/tablet computer

- Have more rings festooning your body than a packed bar has glasses on the bar

- Have a bandana/headband/keffiyah with a designer tag on it

- Have a pair of shoes that has individual toes as a feature

- Have any piece of clothing other than a belt made out of leather

- Have more pieces of artwork tattoo’d to your body than a SOHO art gallery has

- Have a pre-printed sign because you can’t figure out how to use a magic marker

- Have an item with the mass murderer Che on it

- Spout off about how a system you can’t even understand needing to go because your parents have paid your way through school

- Have a law degree

- Have any degree in any set of studies involving a hyphen or ethnic or gender in its title

- Have more gold jewelry on your body than a pawn shop has in its inventory

- Can say Media Matters with a straight face and think it means something

Yes these are leading indicators of being a Trustafarian.

Any Trustafarian needs to run, not walk, saunter, or just, you know, go more or less in the direction of, the nearest mental health clinic and report yourself with permanent detachment from reality syndrome… they will spend a decade ‘treating’ you and making you poor so you will then have something to complain about.

And if you think you paid too much for your college education then ASK FOR YOUR MONEY BACK as it has done you NO GOOD AT ALL TO GO THERE.

= = =

You see?  A handy visual guide to the Trustafarians!  If you see someone with MORE than one of these attributes who is at the OWS gatherings (or 'supporting them') you have a Trustafarian: those living off of their parent's trust funds.

Easy to do, no?

Then I realized that they also fit under another term, which is a bit broader, in this headliner at Hot Air about how these OWS folks just might be, you know, POPULISTS!  Be still my beating stomach... I commented thusly...

= = =

Just a buncha Trustafarians.

Old hipsters and young dipsters.

The doucheoise.

= = =

Doucheoise was proposed as a new name for hipsters (I'm not going to bother looking up who proposed it) but as the class of people who are douche's, it also overlaps highly with the Trustafarians.  In fact all Trustafarians are part of the Doucheoise, but not all Doucheoise are Trustafarians and come by their status via other means.  The Trustafarians, in other words, are a sub-species.

Ahh... science!

I did a bit more after that on the Studentia branch of the Trustafarinensi.

= = =

And for the dipsticks complaining about their college loans and blaming the BANKS, just who is it that is ASKING for the money?

Oh, yeah, the COLLEGES.

How about BLAMING THEM for asking so much? And asking for your money back as you didn’t learn a damn thing there other than how to whine, moan and complain about how ‘hard you have it’. The banks are pushing you asshats to take out a loan the SCHOOLS ARE.

= = =

Yup!  It isn't the banks, folks, but the bubble of higher education that Insty has been talking about for a couple of years.  It is a much, much larger bubble than SSA, home loans, and medical cost inflation from 1970 to present.  It is the biggest bubble right next to all of them taken together next to our federal debt.  All these little bubbles gotta pop to get things set straight and the big one has to go down by removing the inflator we call 'government'.

Now since I'm the helpful sort with the guidebooks and such, though in no way the Shell Answer Man because I don't take questions, I decided to sum up not only what the problem is for the various sub-species of the Doucheoise, but what you need to do about it.  I really don't have time for real posts these days, what with finishing up my SKS stock and getting the thing re-assembled, plus having another 2-4 projects on my agenda, so these will have to do.

This is from another Hot Air thread at a Quotes of the Day posting. A spelling error and one typo corrected, mangled syntax and logic left as-is.

= = =

Remember in a deal in which the schools ask for more money and the banks lend it to students, who is to blame for the high cost of education?

A) The schools for CHARGING IT?

B) The students wanting the money to PAY FOR IT?

C) The banks for LENDING IT?

These OWS people blame C, put no responsibility on B and can’t think that those actually doing A who are the originators of the cost are to blame.

Now put in homes and who is to blame?

A) Those asking for more money than a home is worth?

B) Those wanting to pay those high amounts?

C) The banks for lending the money?

Again if you are an OWS’r you blame C, put no responsibility on B, and never, ever blame those asking for unrealistically high prices A.

In each case the root cause of the ‘problem’?

Government regulation that sets the playing field for giving loans. In the first part are federally backed loans that MUST be paid back to the federal government and that you can’t get around paying back.

In the second it is the government determining the risk, setting regulations as to who MUST be able to get loans for FAIRNESS which allows such things as NINJA loans to meet pre-set quotas by the regulators.

Now when you put the government as the D option in both, who is to blame?

A) Those asking for extraordinarily high amounts that they know YOU CAN GET via regulation?

B) Those seeking such high amounts and not questioning the ACTUAL VALUE of what they are getting and not blinking at the COST being asked?

C) Those providing the money as intermediaries for the government regulatory system because, to do business, they have NO OTHER OPTION in those realms?

D) The government for rigging the system to allow A to put B into debt via C the regulated intermediary?

The banks are not the villains, here, although they do share some blame in setting up D, it is the regulatory system, itself, that is swayed by such input. When A and C collude with D, it is B that is shafted.

The answer to what to do is to get D out of the equation so that they do NOT write exacting ‘fair’ regulations and only put out statutes against misrepresenting value and cost from both A and C so that B can make a decision based on actual facts, not promises of ‘fairness’ in a system being rigged against them.

These Trustafarians, the members of the Doucheoise, are HELPING those in the A category to vilify the C category so that they can get MORE REGULATIONS THAT DON’T WORK AND MAKE THINGS WORSE from the D category. They are not playing class warfare but committing economic suicide on a personal basis. If they meant what they said they would join the Tea Parties and work to get the government out of the system so that there is less to no government save for cases of fraud that need be ruled upon. As it is they are supporting the existing fraud-backed structure and want nothing to do with removing it.

Yes Rome wasn’t built in a day.

It was, however, sacked in 3.

You are seeing the sackers, not the builders, wanting their bite and not expecting the collapse to effect them one little, tiny, bit. If they get what they want they have a greatly limited life span because of what they get, that will shorten down decades to years, months, weeks or even days.

If you aren’t prepared for that disaster NOW then you will be joining them.

Your job is to survive, help and educate. And all three MUST be done AT THE SAME TIME. And to those who don’t listen, who scream and rage, you must turn away FROM to help those that WILL listen to reason. That is your duty as a citizen to your fellow citizens. Those that aren’t listening, who are screaming, who are marching… they are the walking dead if they get their way. You can save them but only if you do the right things as a citizen, now. It all depends on YOU being civilized each and every single day of your life no matter HOW BAD things get, all the way to your last breath on this earth. Only your fear will stop you…

= = =

All that stuff I've written about for survivalism, DIYism, plus looking at terrorism, organized crime, money laundering, politics... all that stuff... still comes down to you.

These people blockading their common sense for freebies don't understand how the world works and just want everything to be free.  Just like the USSR!  They can't live there any more since it collapsed under the weight of what happens when no one CAN achieve and everything is FREE and damned scarce, but that doesn't matter to the Trustafarians.

It does matter to the person wanting to be civilized and a citizen.

What you must do in such conditions is clear and I've spelled it out via hundreds of posts.

Your duty to your fellow citizens is to survive and be the one at the other end offering a hand up to a better life of personal liberty and freedom.

The verbiage that goes with being a free man, an individual, is well known and alien to the ears of those in the Trustafarian crowd, but should strike home to any who wish to lead a free life of equal justice, not 'fairness' as what is 'fair' is in the eye of the beholder:

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered.

My life is my own.

The OWSr's?  They DO want to be pushed (look at how they got there by having helpful 'organizers' push them), stamped (see the guidebook?), indexed (just HOW MANY loans do they have they can't pay up on?), briefed (again the organizers), de-briefed (they are going to lose everything including their briefs), numbered ('we are the 0.00001% who are the 99%'!).  Listen to any of the 'call outs' done by 'organizers' or 'radicals' or Frances Fox Piven or Cornel West and you begin to imagine Monty Python's Life of Brian in which the call out is 'You are all individuals' and the response 'YES WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS' save for that radical saying 'I'm not...'

There you go!

Now back to my normal business around here.

Gotta get that SKS up and running and then put the drum magazine through its paces now.

I will not be pushed.

And neither should you.

Just a few quick thoughts on the GOP 'debate' last night

First I didn't watch it all the way through.  I had some things needing to be done and got through some of the first half-hour and then the last half-hour and have done a bit of reviewing of the 'talking points' put up at other sites.

It wasn't pretty, that's for sure.

My basic complaint about the 'debates' is that they are not helping to educate voters but get out talking points by candidates.  Some of that does help to illuminate what a candidate believes, but there is often a stark contrast between their record, their prior works and what they are now running on so as to leave the viewer a bit at sea about exactly what a candidate stands for.  This TV format is dated, decrepit and essentially worthless in the modern age as no single question can illuminate a candidate while a single one can sink them.  That is not fair to the audience, the electorate and the body politic as a whole.  A single bad utterance, a single 'gotchya' and that could be the doom of a candidate who has worthy ideas in other realms but is out on a far limb on one or two topics.  Without a more in-depth discussions (not a debate, but a discussion) the electorate is ill-served and the media is well served to become power brokers.  That is how they see their function up until 2010: being that decisive 5 point swing for or against a candidate.

At the early stages a different form of discussion would provide a lot more interest, some illumination of individuals and offer a setting whereby the candidates are not about talking points but explaining their points of view.

The best format for this sort of thing I have ever seen on media are the Fred W. Friendly seminars or programs, hosted by the late Mr. Friendly.  He was able to bring a diverse group of people in on a subject (be it on the economy, foreign affairs, or social programs) and lead an actual discussion amongst a group of individuals that ranged from politicians and policy wonks to industry analysts and corporate heads, plus a smattering of 'experts' to help keep things going.  The questioning by Mr. Friendly was challenging, at times, but served as a basis to help examine differences between perceived political policy and actual effects and outcome.  Even on those topics that were non-political, he always served as the intermediary for a discussion so that the audience was served by having a wide array of ideas and idea-makers present to create an understanding of what it was they were saying.

There are very few trusted figures with as good a staff and knowledge as Mr. Friendly today, and fewer still that are trusted as being open and transparent about what they believe and yet to challenge themselves and their own beliefs in front of the public.  No hollywood star or even most of the modern news presenters can do that, today.  Perhaps Chris Wallace, Britt Hume or Juan Williams (I've seen him put bias aside to be fair on programs, so think he could do this and well) from FNC, but he would need a lot of help getting trusted individuals into a Presidential mix to help move discussions along.  Most of the weekend shows and roundtables are too media oriented to do much of any good, and the idea is to find someone who is unbiased and doesn't care about THEIR media image but in leading a discussion.

A major point of such discussions, say in a 2 hour format, would be to have the candidates interact with policy and industry specialists on a topic or set of topics, and keep track of what the candidates can come to agreement upon.  The last half-hour would be to let the candidates work out a party platform plank that they can ALL agree to run on.  It would be made in PUBLIC, not behind closed doors, and while an audience may be present as observers, they are not participants unless the experts would like to bin some questions on topics so that a few might serve as discussion points.

What this would do is two-fold:

1) It would identify and illuminate commonalities of what needs to be done not just by the President of the US but by political parties.  Having a party committee or set of small voting blocks run the platform process is incestuous in nature and needs to be out in the open.  Also it would REMOVE those areas from any future 'debates' and winnow things down to the major DIFFERENCES between the candidates.  It creates 'common ground' based on the best ideas that every candidate can agree to.

Last night the only good thing to come out of the 'debates' was the essential feeling that there needs to be a major reduction in the size, scope and power of the federal government starting with the EPA, Dept. of Education, and then Dept. of Energy and those parts of Interior dealing with energy.  Can we get that as a common platform plank for all the candidates so that the only differences are those candidates who JUST want to do that and those who want to get rid of MORE government?

2) You may or may not like a candidate in all areas, and this would help to show why you agree/disagree with a candidate as they would have time on an essential topic to outline their ideas.  What it also does, however, is let those candidates with some very good ideas present them and talk about them which may preserve their good ideas even if they drop out as a candidate.  Frankly I like a few things Ron Paul says and agrees with, as I do Rick Santorum and even John Huntsman who I generally disagree with, has some valid ideas on taxation and the economy that need to be explored.  You can't do that in a 'debate' setting and, frankly, even the so-called 'top tier' candidates are not shining in areas  that are making them lose votes and possibly voters.

I disagree with Rick Perry's stance on illegals, and the general good feelings Mitt Romney has towards just tinkering with a fundamentally broken system of government (where is Chainsaw Al Dunlap when you need him?), as well as Herman Cain's idea of a 'National Sales Tax' which is something that if it could have been done it WOULD have been done by Progressives decades ago as they love new ways to tax people which means it is constitutionally suspect to PROGRESSIVES.  That says a lot, right there.  Those are just ready examples, mind you, but they are indicative of the entire field in which a candidate can bring some valid ideas to the table and then, as they are forced to get a whole array of answers down pat, are put on a spotlight and expected to answer any question on anything.  Yet where there is common ground, there should be no more questions: the answers are known and when they are common to ALL the candidates, then they become something KNOWN to the population as a whole.

 

As a citizen I am ill-served by the current 'debate' format and venue as it places too much emphasis on the media, gotchya questions, and some cat fighting verbal by-play that raises vitriol and distrust of any candidate taking part in such and the media asking such questions.  In these long months long before a Primary, the candidates could serve themselves, each other and the general public by driving out their major points and coming to agreement about major policy needs that they will all agree to go forward with no matter WHO wins the election.  Indeed they are expected to help, advise and move these points forward even if one or ALL of them lose.  That would help the Congressional delegates to also understand that if they don't run on THIS platform, then they really don't belong in the party and that when they take office they are not only expected to push the platform forward but they can ask for HELP in doing that. 

Yes some 'popular' politicians might be forced to leave by having their party credentials pulled, and flee to 'the other party': but do you really want a spineless blob Upon the Hill as YOUR Representative or Senator?  Because your vote for a candidate from a party should MEAN something beyond the individuals involved.  Even if you generally didn't LIKE a candidate but they AGREE to push these major items forward, you might just reconsider voting on one or two issues and see if the entire platform is a better fit for you even if it DOESN'T contain your one or two issues you care about.

The 'debate'?  Some up, some down, lots of smoke, little illumination and no real help for the Nation or its citizens to understand the future that we will build together as citizens.  And, strangely, if we can't find candidates individuals who can begin to understand their role as our representatives in government, now, then we will be ill-served in that future and even lose out on a major portion of it because political parties with campaigns and their drift towards being glib and not offering insights into our future well being are an awful way to run a Nation or express the will of the people.

This 20th century format and set of ideas must go in the 21st as the new century is presenting us with the tools to empower the individual to build a future unlike any dreamt of even 30 years ago.  It is not the government that is of the horse and buggy era, but our political parties and their foundations, and it is showing badly in this modern age.  And if they don't start to adapt NOW then in 50 years they will not be here as the people will find a better way to do things that makes the idea of 'gatekeepers', 'debates' and even 'campaigns' meaningless.  And as my predictions on the out years seem to come true much, much, much faster than I ever expect them to, I am having to prepare to see that future within my life time and not too far down the road.  That 50 years is a PESSEMISTIC OUTLOOK but the roads all lead away from our current media and party system and nothing they do will hold it together much longer.

We are entering a Dawn of a  New Era and it will whipsaw you if you don't prepare for it NOW because it is happening NOW.

The ersatz shop in the basement

Ah, time!

Yes, yet another in the series of things I do which eat up far too much time, effort and energy.  Or, alternatively, where my time goes to when I'm not paying attention.

If you have any attention on what I've been saying over the past few years it is that one does not do by writing, marching, or screaming through a megaphone, although that can express certain opinions, of course, but by doing.  Thus if you see hard economic times you can do a few things ahead of time to prepare for them.  The staples of food, guns and ammo work very well, and if you have decent amounts of ready cash to convert into something hard, like gold or silver, go for it!  What this leaves out, however, is that man is made by what he makes and that the ability to do for oneself without relying on others allows you leeway and freedom of action.  That is the heart of self-reliance: the DIY attitude.

Thus if you have some of the basics on hand but don't see gold as an option for various reasons, then is there an alternative?

I think so, and the lesson is from that of the Great Depression: be prepared to make some of the things that you can no longer get pre-made by applying your energy, liberty and freedom to such tasks.  To do that, however, requires that you actually have the tools necessary to do such work.  Thus there is another hard category that is little recognized in the preparation realm, but is as important as gold: tools.

Tools are a source of what makes us human, and even fire is a tool used to keep the night at bay, warm us by its heat and cook our food.  With fire we make more tools, like fire-hardened spear and arrow tips with which to hunt.  Something that allows you to make something else is a tool, thus fire is a tool.  Going beyond fire is hand tools, those that with a bit of sweat you can work with.  Hand tools need no electricity, no boiler and no other power source than your ready body and skilled hands, plus a sharp eye on what you are doing.  During the Great Depression the stories of those who worked on electronics, fixed things up and made such things as cabinets and shelves at home tell a story of an attitude of not allowing the ebb and flow of economics to dictate your options to you.  In the space around you that you can secure, tools then give you exercise of liberty that is beholden only to your own requirements and skill, or lack thereof.  To be free, independent and self-reliant you must be able to use tools.  Thusly tools are as precious as gold as they are the source of how we get gold, beyond picking it by hand out of stream beds.

Gold is a one-time trade good: you trade it for necessities and then it is gone.

Tools continue to give back by the force of your energy and your liberty put to good use.

Tools allow you to make things to trade with, be it gold or food or making your own guns and ammo.

To this end I've been busy and while my physical health is not what I would call close to 'good' I do have enough waking hours and energy to accomplish a little at a time.

Now, my background is that I went through the normal shop classes in school, but also had a father who was the son of a master woodworker and an electrical and mechanical engineer in his own right.  I got to help around his workshop, learn my way around some basic car repair and maintenance, and do a few other odds and ends around the house to put in new phone jacks and such.  Thus I don't have deep skills in any single area, and my areas of ignorance are vast.  Yet the basics of a hand saw, drill, radial arm saw, rasps, files, nails, screws, sealer, primer, main coat, gloss coat, and how to make sure you stayed safe using all that stuff are things that stick with you throughout life.  To get some basic projects done I needed tools, and the tools that are available today in the realm of electrically powered tools are vast and far beyond what was available when I was growing up.  This means I must learn by doing.

Now for a few pictures of the shop I'm putting together, with some commentary.

As I walk into the shop area in the basement (we have no garage, so the basement must serve) this is what greets you: work in progress.  Most of my tools and workplace supplies comes from Harbor Freight which has been described as 'tools good enough for a work site, but not good enough to steal' by one building contractor I ran across as I was looking for places with cheap tools.  I have gotten tools from a number of distributors, some of the 'we just got it off the ship from China and we send it out to you' sort of deals.  For my needs cheap and/or sleazy is good enough to work with, and places like SLG Tools, Rafael's Wholesale, Wholesale Tool and  DP & Co. have served as places for me to get cut-rate prices on tools necessary to get things stood up.

The workbench, hidden from sight under all the detritus, is a nice one that allows for manual work to be done at a comfortable height.  It has drawers, an end vice, and some 5/8" holes for putting pegs to hold work.  I've done planing, sanding and a variety of other tasks on it, but those were for small projects.  I have a larger one going on and it is in the power tool phase, so the workbench collects the gloves, hat, respirator, hearing protection, clamps, files and all sorts of other things that are needed for addressing minor issues.  The circular saw at the end is a HF one, but its arbor bolt cannot come out for love nor money.  I contacted the company and they will be sending me a new saw, and this one I get to play with to see if I can free the arbor and save parts of the unit.

My father's workbench was knocked together out of 4x4's, 2x6's and some sort of really thick wooden top, and was square.  He had put in a front vice for woodwork and that is something I will look to do with this bench if I ever get some time for it.  The workbench is way too nice for my needs, but when I tried ordering normal 5/8" parts from the major manufacturer of bench dogs, I found that they are just a tad too big for the holes.  So a bit of filing them to get the sturdier dogs to fit is necessary, and the ones that came with the table are now loose fitting.  Such is life.

Notice wood storage along the back wall.  I have no other place to put it, so there it must go.

That is a router and table from Lowe's in the more or less center of the picture, on a HF stand with air ducting and adapters for hoods, vents and such mainly coming from Peach Tree and Penn State Industries.  Until a couple of months ago I had never thought of a router for something other than the type used for computers (which routes signals on a network).  If you have ever wondered how the wainscoting or baseboard gets a uniform profile, the answer is: it is routered in.  A router is much like a drill save that it can take lateral strain on its collet, and it utilizes pre-made bits with cutting edges that come in all sorts of lovely shapes and sizes.  If you have ever seen dovetailed woodwork or tongue-and-groove woodwork, you can use a router to make those profiles to join wood pieces together.  My father used a radial arm saw, drill, hand saws, planes and ingenuity to do the work of a router.  For any basic woodworking a hand held router (which is what is under the router table) will do this, and you can get set depth profiles or plunging ones depending on the router and your skill with it.  My skill is zero, but I've used it successfully for doing some edging work plus joinery necessary to make quick knock together frames.  If you need to make an even slot, even profile or any other continuous feature in wood (there are metal routers available, too) then you need a router.

This one from Lowe's is not high class, and pretty much at the low end of the mid range for 1/4" collet routers.  Slow and steady feeding of material is necessary and learning to use the fence, understand the depth of cut and such is somewhat a trial and error deal.  I've picked up router bits from all over, including Magnate, Tool King, and Oak Park Enterprises.  The cut-rate 'Get X bits in a pre-made package' has, generally, not been worth it, and it is better to get the bits you need rather than a low cost, sometimes low quality assortment from off-off-off brands you have never heard of before in your life.  One good glue joinery bit, to me, is worth its weight in gold as it allows for precise cuts that then fit snugly together to give glue lots of surface area to work with.  Slotting bits are like miniature circular saw blades, and I have ones that have 3 teeth, although 2 and 4 tooth ones are available for the router.  The first time I slotted a board... I had to re-adjust the collet and really snug the thing in there as it was climbing... then the second time I used it I got a lovely set width, set depth cut along 35" of board.  I've used some pieces that have other purposes (like make salad bowls) to serve as a miniature contoured plane for fitting pieces into screen window tracks.  I don't know how I would have done this stuff without a router.

As I can't keep everything set up at one time, I must cycle through tools from a storage table, and this is it.  At front is a drill press from HF, which is a 1/2" collet 12 speed affair just good enough to slowly drill metal with good drill bits.  No shop should be without one, although my father did all his drilling by hand and eye.  Behind that is a small, single room air handler with hose and hood tucked back there for days I'm using the 10" Compound Sliding Arm Miter Saw.  That was from HF and the only minor problem with it was that any other blade than the original would rub just a bit on the guard housing.  Switching the arbor plates fixed that and it is good to go.  Like the radial arm saw, the miter saw kicks up a ton of dust.  I'm pretty sure that the actual dust exhaust only gets about 10% of it.  A big plastic bag taped behind it and on the top of the slide mount catches a fair amount of it.  The rest I have to use the shop vacuum on it.

I've had to make way on the sewing front and the shelf directly behind the table used to be one for my sewing supplies.  Most of those are still there, but other stuff has infiltrated as hard goods now take priority over soft ones.

Not seen behind this stuff is a supply cabinet that holds a lot of the other hand tools like angle grinder, jigsaw, and hand power drill, plus rotary tool for dremel-like work.  Also some finishing supplies are there, along with my gun maintenance equipment, and a few hand saws.  A nice double-sided Japanese hand saw for straight, flat cuts is a miracle and should be a part of anyone's woodworking shop.  And its pretty near sharp enough to use as a Samurai weapon, but too flexible in that realm for practical use.

Hidden under the table are fittings for the air handler and shop vac, hose, and a power hand planer to help augment the manual one on top.  Also more fabric is under there.  Sitting on top of the drill press is a hand power sander, still in its box.

Notice the saw blades: they are for the circular saw.  I have a separate place for the 10" blades for the miter saw.

What happens to a wet bar in a shop?  It becomes the storage and wash up area for some supplies and equipment.  If it needs water then it probably takes a rest on the counter for awhile.  Also sitting there are some jars of shellac, hand cleaners and an ultrasonic cleaner.  If you need to clean metal or glass (or glasses) then there is nothing better than an ultrasonic cleaner.  Great for doing gun work, and if you keep a separate tray of lubricant amenable to ultrasonic work, you can not only clean all the junk off, but then get lubricant in all the crevices, too.  It does a fantastic job with just a mild soap solution and glasses, too.  Its hidden amongst the junk, but when I need to clean something to get off encrusted dirt, grime or carbon deposits, that is what I turn to.

The gate-leg table on the right has in-process supplies queued up for my project after Step 1 is complete.  That and a few other odds'n'ends that wandered over their on their own to get placed handily out of the way.  Below that is the sewing machine in its case.  Parts of Step 1 are seen in various stages of in-process work after the first couple of phases.

Going completely around the room gets back to the entrance and the storage shelving from Wallyworld that holds all the consumables for woodworking: solvents, glues, putty, mixing sticks and the such.  Also there are my solvents and lubricants for gun work, and anything else that can't easily be put somewhere else.  Amazing how fast that stuff piles up when you aren't looking.

I've picked up supplies from a large number of places, like Merit Industries and Woodworker's Supply, plus the local Home Depot, Lowe's, Target (pronounced Tarjay)... I don't have much of a running list beyond what I have on the sidebar.  I pick up stuff from all over as I can't get out much getting it delivered is often the only way I can get materials in.

Now for a look back across the pseudo-shop.

This gets a somewhat better idea of the space I have to work with and what gets stowed here.  That trash can under the rolls of foam is used to get cosmoline from old stocks or other equipment, and is used to warm up any parts that need warming.  It goes outside for that work, but it must be stowed someplace.

Do notice that my flooring is carpeted which required a couple of sheets of plywood to get me a firm floor.  Ok, semi-firm, but better than carpeting.  I don't have the time nor energy to re-do the basement and make a proper shop.  If the economy ever gets out of its tailspin, then that is a distinct possibility.  So is moving to a nice place with an unfinished basement or garage.

What takes up my time and, more importantly, my energy?

This stuff.

Learning what I need and then going step by painstaking  step to go through the process of using it.

This is why I'm not posting all that much and haven't for some months.

I am preparing.

To me this stuff is very important and I can only do survival.  You can't think about it, but must do it.  Learning is required, and that means precious time and even more precious energy.  I still have vast dead portions of my day where I can accomplish little, and so I prepare and spend much longer than I would if I were healthy.

I will survive.

The time for talking is coming to an end and the time of doing is arriving.