Kitchen: End of Week 2

Drywall! Electrical! Texture! Paint! NEW WINDOW! 

N E W  S C R E E N  D O O R ! 

it's freakin bright in here.

Kitchen Remodel: Week 1

Cody, Evan, Matt, and the boys tore it up.  Then they put it all back together again.  

Moving windows:

Tearing out walls:

Putting in lights:

Then there's drywall:

Kitchen Remodel: Liftoff

This is what the kitchen looked like at noon on January 6th, 2014.

The demo was surprisingly unsurprising.  We were expecting strange plumbing, rotted wood, bizare construction methods, shortcuts, and pitfalls, just like every other remodel we have done in this house.  Hell, just like every time I replace a DOORKNOB in this house I find weirdness.

This time all we found was a belt trapped behind the cabinets:

...and some super ugly linoleum:

...and some black widows that were living peacefully with us for years, apparently.

Kitchen Remodel: T minus 24 hrs

After a day of moving all our stuff., this is what the kitchen (and the rest of the house packed with all the crap from the kitchen) looked like on January 5th, 2014.

All the stuff from the kitchen and dining room packed into the living room and office:

The new, temporary, breakfast nook

We'll be camping in the living room, meanwhile, all the garbage we don't need for the next two months will be in the office in boxes:

Coming up next:  Demolition!

Kitchen Remodel: T minus 48 hrs

Lia has been waiting 8 years for this.  That's what happens when you keep houses you don't need.  The one you live in may take a while to get right.

But when you SELL houses you don't need, you get to tear stuff down and rebuild.

This is what the kitchen looked like on January 4th, 2013

Enjoy it while it lasts, dog.  It's about to get dusty.

Cominng up next: The Pre-destruction Evacuation...

Yes, that is a box for shipping mountain bikes.  Now it has all our pots and pans in it!

Wolfe's Theory of 4 Workers

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.  I've been observing people and what makes them good at what they do and what makes them bad.  I think this idea is applicable in all aspects of life.  Most obviously it applies to our careers that we have to earn a living, but it also applies to every human endeavor that you take on: from recreational sports to sweeping the kitchen floor.  I've come up with a theory.  It is that there are 4 types of workers: Good Workers, Bad Workers, Mediocre Workers, and Miracle Workers.

All of us are workers of some sort.  It takes effort to survive in life.  Whether you live on a desert island, in an advanced, free civilization, a slave labor camp, or in a small farming village.  The kind of work may vary, but we all need to work in order to survive.  What's the difference between all these? Let's work our way up from the bottom:

• Level 1: The Bad Worker doesn't do anything you tell him to.  He sucks at what he does and he refuses to try. You tell him to do something and it just flat out doesn't happen.
• Level 2: The Mediocre Worker does what you tell him in a very literal sense.  But that's it.  Nothing more. He does what you tell him, but he can't or won't interpret WHY something must be done, and understand its significance.  
• Level 3: The Good Worker does what you tell him and more: he can understand what he needs you to do before you tell him.  He knows what his job is, and when you do ask him for something, he understands its significance and even if your instructions were not to the letter what you needed or required some further interpretation, he gets it done without any fuss.  
• Level 4: The Miracle Worker is on another plane entirely.  Not only can he complete what you need him to do without you telling him, he completes things before you even knew they needed to be done.  He is the first person to recognize an opportunity and seizes it before anyone else knows there was a need.  These are the inventors and the innovators and only show up once in one million people.  

Now on the surface it looks like the presence of the Bad Worker disproves my idea that life requires effort, but this is not the case.  Life always requires effort, but you have to ask, "who is expending the effort?"  It might not be the same person who is breathing at that point.  If we have a mooch on our hands, and he is making a comfortable existence, he may not be working, but you can be sure that someone is, in order for him to survive.  If you are a mooch, you are either a 6 year old, or you're acting like one!

Also, I suppose that throughout life, depending on the task at hand, a person can pass through all four of these stages.  I'm probably very mediocre at things like teaching pre-schoolers how to dance.  In that endeavor, I'd require a significant amount of guidance to maintain Level 2 and without it, I would wallow in the depths of Level 1 Bad Workerdom.  I'd like to think that in my career, however, I'm a solid level 3.  I am as of yet unable to recognize opportunities that would push me to the top. For that I need to invent the next electronic device everyone wants.

The whole point of this is that when I hear people complain about how they can't get ahead in life, no matter how hard they work, and that life is too hard, life takes too much work, life isn't fair, I find that the reason is because these people are only doing what they're told.  They only do the bare minimum in their jobs to get by, and can't possibly fathom any deeper understanding or chase any additional goals that weren't specifically set for them by someone else.  They're wallowing in Level 2 mediocrity.  

So which kind are you?  

What happened to Roark in Mexico?

       

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Well, first off, I went scuba diving with friends in Cozumel, relaxed at the beach with Lia and Reia, and ate some good Mexican food.  It turned out to be a fun trip.  

But it didn't start out that way.  The first two days were pretty terrible, as I spent most of it in the Cancun jail.  The only bag I did not pack especially for this trip was a bag of first aid items and basic tools for emergencies.  I usually keep it in my truck and I decided to throw it in my scuba diving bag so I would have it on the boat.  It turns out that also inside was some cheap, steel 9mm practice ammo that I had forgotten about.  

I was foolish, careless, and know better than to do this, but it is also something that could happen to almost anyone, and it turns out that the city of Cancun alone has 3 of these cases per week.  They might even fund their government on Americans running around with bullets in their luggage.

Had I sifted through the contents of that bag, I would have seen them and taken them out.  But I didn't. This is a huge problem for the Mexican customs inspection.  They told me three things: not only is having them in the country a bad thing, but importing them from outside is especially bad, and since this is a caliber reserved exclusively for the military, it makes it worse.  

I actually think this last one was bluster on their part since anyone whose been caught with ammo of any caliber goes through more or less the same thing I did.  

What did I go through?  The first several hours were waiting and answering questions.  Everyone was pretty respectful and I got no bad treatment and only one customs guy gave me dirty looks.  I never even saw a pair of handcuffs the whole time I was there.  But then it was 11pm, and time to go to my "special room." When they called it this, and by judging by the clean, well built nature of the government building I was eventually transferred to, I had probably fooled myself into thinking the place where I would sleep that night would be more like a cheap hotel than a jail cell.  But I was wrong.

The holding area had one row of six cells, each with bunk beds, a sink, and toilet.  There was no window; only an opening 15 feet up to vent the hot air, which there was a lot of.  The whole room smelled like what you would expect from a place where hundreds of men come every month to sit and sweat in the Cancun heat.  Thankfully it didn't smell like a toilet, but it did smell, and it was dirty. 

There was no mistreatment in the jail, no shivs, no shower scenes (there were no showers), so no, I didn't get raped (I was King of the Yard baby). Just a lot of waiting and sweating.  Luckily I never had a cell mate which was a plus. It was a test of mental toughness, but thanks to my skills of manipulation and a little pretending to be the naive Guero, I did a few things outside the normal procedure to make it easier, like using the nice administrative bathrooms when I could, taking hippie showers in there, and I managed to get my phone into the cell, if for nothing else than to keep track of the passing hours.

Eventually, thanks to the tireless effort of my fantastic wife, sister, brother, mother and aunts, and after two days and nights of working with the authorities, and after paying a few hundred dollars in bail and fines, and a few thousand for a lawyer (who almost certainly used that to buy the DA, a judge, the Customs guys, etc) I got out, gave Lia and Reia some big sweaty hugs and kisses, had a shower, shaved, and met everybody at our bungalow on the island.  I managed to get 5 dives in before we left and they were beautiful.  

Another thing worth mentioning is that in this whole debacle I kept Gore out of the picture as much as possible.  Some of our group I was traveling with contacted Associates in the Legal group and some of the technical leadership.  That is to be expected but I did try to keep Gore’s involvement to a minimum.  Whenever the authorities asked me who I work for, I didn’t answer, or just told them I am an engineer.  When they asked what “GMU” stood for on the backpack I was carrying, I declined to answer (It's a Gore acronym).  This was very much on purpose.  

I have a lot of thoughts on what transpired, what it all means, and what the implications are.  The biggest personal change I will make is certainly to be more careful when packing for a trip (duh).   Mostly this experience served to solidify much of what I already believe.  Any country whose justice system works on a principle of guilty until proven innocent needs, to say the very least, a little adjustment, but I would also consider gathering up all the people who work for their extremely corrupt government and launching them straight towards the Sun.  

Wealth inequality the new Harlem Shake?

This has been going around the internet for a while and there are three major flaws with this video.

The first is that it assumes that there is an "ideal" income distribution, and even more; we know what it is.  It repeatedly states that there is a certain amount of wealth that the various classes "should have." What gives anyone the right to make this claim?  It is immoral to claim that any individual is making the "wrong" amount of money and that it is someone else's job to rectify that situation.

The second is the repeated claim that the poor in America are "suffering." Even the, shall we say, least wealthy Americans still own gadgets like TV's, PC's cell phones, and game consoles.  But don't take my word for it, ask the Census Bureau.

The third one is that common mistake that so many people make in assuming that how much money you make should be directly related to how hard you work.  This is wrong.  How much money you make should be related to what you actually produce. Sure, there are some who make 380 times more than the average middle class employee, and no, they don't work 380 times harder.  But (most of the time) they simply produce more with the time that they do work, and it's probably 380 times more valuable than the guy who fills out the TPS reports.

This third one is why you hear every once in a while that a CEO makes so much money that if he walks down the street and sees a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk, it makes no sense for him to pick it up, because he earns more money per second that it takes him to do that.  This is absurd, but here's why: CEO's don't get money simply by existing.  They don't "earn money" every second they are alive, simply because they are the CEO.  They aren't hourly.  They get paid money to do certain, very specific, value added things.  Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't have a cash machine continually ticking up and up every second like the National Debt Clock does.  They earn money for inventing.  For ideas.  For achievement.  Breathing isn't an achievement that earns you wealth.  The production of valuable things and ideas does.

One other minor detail: the scare quotes around "Dreaded" when describing socialism.  Yes, it's dreaded, dude.  It has ruined millions of lives throughout history.  History:  It's a real thing.  You should learn it.

I have to give title credit to a Yahoo article which, other than that title, is actually kind of mediocre.

I Didn't Buy an Android To Look at Your Crappy Mobile Page

Yes, thank you XKCD.  I've been meaning to write this rant for some time now but you encapsulated my feelings in nerdy webcomic form perfectly, just as you always do.

And if you hover over the image on the XKCD page for a second, you get this:
""If I click 'no', I've probably given up on everything, so don't bother taking me to the page I was trying to go to. Just drop me on the homepage. Thanks."

Yeah.  Thanks indeed, webmaster-with-a-soul-filled-with-hate.  I appreciate that.

What the heck is up with this?  Why do web page designers insist on updating, managing, and maintaining not one, but two webpages, one of which is completely useless? Why do some even go to further depths of stupidity and not only maintain two websites, but a crappy mobile app that they offer for download every time you visit that is equally useless, if not more?   I'm looking at you, IMDB.com.  Get a clue.  Or should I say m.IMDB.com?  Bleh.

Another heinous offender is LinkedIn.  Not being able to settle some frivolous disagreement with your buddies about who starred in what movie using IMDB is one thing, but LinkedIn is actually something that has a practical purpose, yet I CANNOT GO THERE USING MY TABLET!  Why?  Because when I do, I get their crappy mobile site, and even when I click on "Use Desktop Site" and try to surf anywhere else other than the homepage, it takes me where?  Right back to the crappy mobile site.  It cannot be disabled.

I have a tablet with a huge screen.  I don't need your stupid, non-functional mobile site.

Please.  The humanity.  It's got to stop.

Dear Samuel L: Shut the "F" Up and Just Entertain Me

And that goes for the rest of you, Hollywood.

But Sammy, seriously.  We first started to like you in True Romance.  We remembered you from Jurassic Park.  Of course we all knew you by name after Pulp Fiction.  And you've been a stud ever since.  You screwed up with the Star Wars thing, but we forgive you.  That wasn't all your fault.  Whenever that debacle comes up, we just think about Jackie Brown so we can forget.  But please, your "Wake up" call makes you sound like this girl:



Stop it.  Just entertain me. You don't know how do do anything else.  You live in Hollywood.  And tell your friends.  

The Social Network

Re-posted from Facebook, August 3rd, 2012

I'm two years behind the curve, but I finally saw _The Social Network_. It's pretty much a hit job on Zuckerberg, and Aaron Sorkin himself admits that truth was not a priority for him when he was writing the movie. 

Still, the fact that Zuckerberg is a genius, and a genius with consequences at that, cann

ot be denied or even avoided. The lawsuits against him as portrayed in the film may or may have had any merit in real life, but it's hard to say as there is so much information kept undisclosed. Either way, I am nonetheless inspired by a punk kid in college in 2003 who not only came up with an idea for something, but had the means and ability to make it happen and make it real. That is very rare.

I am not a computer programmer, and my life is actually better the less time I spend on Facebook, because I prefer to live life, not spend it on the internet reading about everyone else's life. But I do hope that if and when I get my big idea, whatever that may be, I will have the skill and conviction to see it through and that it's even one percent as successful. $14B x .01 = $140M. Yeah. I'd take that.

Obamacare is Immoral, And Now, So is the American Way of Life

Yes, it sounds melodramatic, but I honestly believe this will change the whole fabric of how our society works.

The problem with Obamacare is not that it's impractical, that it won't work, that it will have unintended consequences, drive up costs, and decrease the quality of life in America. All of these things are true, but they are not the fundamental problem. The essential and fundamental problem with Obamacare is that it is immoral.

It is immoral to force me to pay for a stranger's medical care at the point of a gun. Period.

I'm not under any illusion that I woke up the morning of the SCOTUS decision and white was turned to black, good was turned bad, and a perfect system was turned upside down and made evil. We had a system that already had lots of evils in it, because of the regulations and socialism that was already there. It was simply made worse by this bill and by the Supreme Court.

The recent Supreme Court Ruling has got me looking around more often when I'm out in public. It's got me looking around and studying all the bad decisions people are making that I will end up paying for.

It used to be a free country. I used to be able to look at pre-diabetic morbidly obese people in the grocery store buying 10 bags of Cheetos and 5 gallons of maple syrup to pour all over their breakfast sausage in the morning, and not have to care. I could look at them and say, "Hey, it's a free country." Don't get me wrong, I love Cheetos, maple syrup and breakfast sausage, but everything in moderation, people.

I used to look a the guy driving down the freeway on his Harley at 80 mph without a helmet and say, "Hey, it's a free country." Not anymore. Yeah, I see that patch on your ugly black leather jacket that says "Loud Pipes Save Lives." Well, so do helmets, asshole.

I am invested in those people's choices. I am part of the 50% that pays my taxes. So I will be paying for the health care of the other 50%, and for fixing all the problems they encounter due to their poor life decisions.

Again, some of this was already true as long ago as the 1960's when Medicare was created. But the reality of socialized medicine has been solidified. It's not a free country anymore.

The even worse thing is that many people will recognize this, and support well-intentioned but misguided and further draconian measures to protect us against these unintended consequences; things like stiffer penalties for breaking helmet laws, seatbelt laws, or sin taxes on junk food. They have the same problems as Obamacare: they are immoral.  They further control our lives and limit our choices.

At any rate, here are some good links.

• A pre-requisite for any health care discussion: Health Care is Not a Right
• Richard Salsman has a similarly titled piece on Forbes, and Forbes has a lot of good stuff on this topic.  
• Nine things you should know about Obamacare

...good luck to the IRS trying to collect this penalty/tax.  The penalty/tax has no criminal or civil penalties for failure to pay and interest doesn’t accrue.  Finally, the IRS is limited in its collection powers.  Basically, taking it out of your refund is the biggest bat the IRS has.   Look for this causing headaches for the IRS as some folks who traditionally got a refund now limit their withholding so that they owe the IRS money at the end of the year (and avoid the penalty/tax).

Look to this guy to be one of them when costs start getting higher.  I already owe every year on purpose.  This just gives me one more reason.

• Forbes: 7 tax hikes on under 250k earners
• Forbes: The individual mandate quacks like a tax
• A free market solution to address the problem most often used to argue for socialized medicine: WSJ: What to Do About Pre-existing Conditions
• Even more links at: WeStandFIRM.org

If I have to live under this system (and I will take every reasonable measure to avoid having to live under this system) I wish I could change the rules.  I wish I could somehow be paired up directly with one of the people in the OTHER 50%.  I wish I could know that person and have some kind of control over this situation.  If I am to be forced into paying for his health, at least give me the knowledge of how badly I'm screwed.  I'm not even wishing for influence over his or her choices, but that would be nice.  I just want to know how bad it is going in when I look into his vacant eyes and see his heroin addiction taking control or his bladder infection kicking in.  The other side benefit of this scenario is that it may force me to have some semblance of compassion for the person if I see him.  Because right now I have no compassion for the faceless, anonymous people who will benefit from all this.

That's socialism for you: a compassionate, brotherly, sympathetic civilization.

Almost Done...

Alyosha and I have put in 62 hours on our little project so far.  A whole garbage can of sawdust has already gone out.  In the end, the front steps will probably support an elephant securely.

I'm almost embarrassed to show the before pictures, but here are a few.  They may hold an elephant now, but I'm kinda surprised they held my 30 lb. daughter before.

Should be all done tomorrow.

Full album here if you want to see the whole process.  And Alyosha's awesome pantshorts.