Life On A B-I7

How To Write A Novel?

If I were to ask Google that question, I’m afraid I would come up with an answer that is beyond my skill and ability. The reality is I need to be content with where I am at this very moment, but not loose the vision of where I would like to be. Isn’t that the key to life? Holding onto where we are and looking ahead to where we want to be? I may not possess the skill to be a novelist but that doesn’t mean that someday those skills might not magically appear? That’s a joke… That sort of thing Isn’t magic.

I spent the greater portion of my life as a software developer, not an unrewarding career in terms of personal satisfaction, but where would I be today if I had understood who I was in my twenties as well as I understand who I am today… I say that without regret, rather with amazement.

Love

The thing I love more in life than my partner is writing… and my cat… and my children… and my friend’s children… and my truck… and skiing…

You get the idea. That’s not an all inclusive list, but I’ve tried to prioritize prudently… I should mention along with all of those things… I love life.

Good Writing

Good writing and good speaking require three elements.

Ethos: Establish a foundation with your reader by showing them that you have good character. (Don’t be a selfish asshole.)

Logos: Use logic. Make arguments and back them up with facts. Don’t make outrageous statements and imply to your audience that they should accept what you say just because you are saying it. (Don’t be a selfish asshole.)

Pathos: Provide emotion when you argue you point. Don’t just say what you think. Describe how that makes you feel and why your reader or listener might want to feel that too. (Don’t be a selfish asshole.)

Next time you are listening to some person telling you what you should be thinking, ask yourself if they are using ethos, logos, and pathos. (If they aren’t following these rules they are probable a selfish asshole.)

News

I can’t watch the news any more. I can’t understand how we have strayed from our values as a nation. I’m not talking about DEI, I’m taking about the denial of basic human rights and caring for those that are the least among us.

Selfishly, I was hoping for a peaceful retirement, now I look out and feel stress every day. Our country is in such turmoil, I feel that I need to do something to put us back on a democratic course where everyone respects one-another and listens to each other’s views. I just don’t know how to do that.

I shouldn’t have majored in Political Science when our nation still had a solid grip on basic values.

Writing

One of the things I admire most in life is beautiful writing. To sit with a page of text in front of you and be inspired, to feel in touch with the person speaking to you through pulp and ink, that is a marvel and a revelation.

My Baby

My baby has been gone for a while. I miss her. I doubt there is any way she could know how much I love her. That is the mystery of love. Deep seated love is so very hard to express. There’s music, and of course there is poetry (neither of which I am able to create) nothing is really able to show someone the connection they have made to your soul beyond saying, “I love you” and holding them as close as you can in your arms. That’s all we can do so do it with all our heart.

Aging

The good thing about being in your 70’s and having a beautiful partner that fulfills your every romantic desire as well as fulfills your social needs…. Is that you don’t have to worry about meeting her parents…

Best Whiskeys For Your Dollar

1. Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7 Year
2. Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
3. Wild Turkey Rare Breed
4. Russel’s Reserve 10 Year
5. Old Grand-Dad 114

The first thing you have to know is that all of these lean in the toasted direction. If that’s your thing (it is for me) you can’t go wrong with any of them. Out of these five, The Russel’s Reserve 10 Year is my favorite… (Today.)

The DOJ

Thomas Paine once said America is different from England because “in America, the law is the king.”

If you consider the long history of legal actions since our founding and

asked, what made America different from England, that statment has always carried a ring of truth. America has not always upheld that ideal, but, taking the long view, it has made great progress toward that principle. In recent decades, the Department of Justice has become the institutional embodiment of this aspiration. We see today that institution being subverted for political convenience. The Supreme Court has laid the groundwork for an Authoritarian form of government in the United States. The Conservative Justices, John Roberts in particular because of his pivotal role, will go down in history as the architects of the decline of the rule of law in America. I hope to live long enough to see myself proven wrong.

Wake Up America

Wake up America, Donald Trump is trolling You. What he says he is doing for you is completely different than what he is doing for himself. He wants power and money and his desire to make America great again ends there.

Shakespeare and Eliot Cohen say it much better than I can:

“The underlying motives of Kings (and Presidents) are selfish and crass, the populous are routinely used in service of their leaders’ ambition and errors.”

Area 51

This from Wikipedia:

Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport or Groom Lake. Details of its operations are not made public, but the USAF says that it is an open training range, and it is commonly thought to support the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. The USAF and CIA acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object folklore. It has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.

Of course, boomers like me believe it’s where the U.S. stores and studies the ETs captured or crashed on earth…

I remember when I took my dad to Area 51. It was a father son bonding experience. We hiked about a mile to reach the perimeter fence. I remember how freaked out he was when I went up to the guard house and knocked on the window. The windows were one-way glass. Pretty sure no one was there but who really knows? The best part was the look on my dad’s face. My personal opinion is that surviving ET’s have been pressed into service as guards… since you can’t see inside the guard houses.

Alive

It’s a beautiful 70 degrees at 7pm here in Central Oregon. I took the RE out and I’m cruising. The city is alive tonight. I’m at WRB watching the Mariners and the Astros. The Mariners are playing well…

I miss you Baby. Don’t hold it against me… I can’t wait for you to get back here so I can hold you in my arms and tell you how much I love you.

The nice thing about having a website that no one reads is that you can say nice things and no one is the wiser.

For the next 365 days, I will be presenting here a Stoic Thought of the Day. All of the entries are inspired by the book “The Daily Stoic,” by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I can in no way take credit for these thoughts, for that you have to look to these two authors and the Stoics themselves. What I can take credit for (nominally) is the presentation. I have tried to shape each entry in my own words, and with an eye towards that portion of the author’s work the speakes to me most clearly.

Cat in the Wild

I was recently boon-docking 12 miles south of Fredonia. The cat was off-leash and doing fine. He was exploring his surroundings. He’s a good boy, he comes when I call him. (That’s good for a cat, but, I’m pretty sure he knows who feeds him.) I have to admit, sleeping with him in my OffGrid is about as good as it gets, unless my other best friend were here with us… Don’t worry baby, the cat can’t replace you…

Overlanding

People stop me in parking lots and complement me on my overland build. It feels good. I haven’t gotten a lot of recognition in my life. That’s okay. These encounters make it alright and worth every penny!

I’ve got everything I need to stay out indefinitely if I want to, there’s only one problem, I forgot the whiskey glasses. That means I’m forced to sip High West Double Rye from a measuring cup. I’ll never make that mistake again.

True Confession

“It might sound funny but it ain’t no joke, it takes a whole lot a money for me to stay broke.” Not my words, but no truer words spoken.

I’m a slave to my passions. Take my advice, the trick in life is to find a passion that doesn’t cost a lot of money.

Carts and Kickstands

If you shouldn’t put the cart before the horse, then you should put the kickstand up before putting the motorcycle into gear. Experience is a wonderful tutor.

What is a Fool?

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
—Shakespeare

Shakespeare actually stole that from Seneca. Seneca said: “I know I’m a fool. Show me a group of people that all think themselves wise and I’ll give you a group of fools.”

The real truth is Shakespeare said both. We don’t have a written record of Seneca having said that, but Shakespeare is sure he did.

Save Your Country

“When you trust your television, what you get is what you got. When they own the Information they can bend it all they want.”
—Taj Mahal

Save your country. Quit watching FOX News.

Invest Baby!

In these troubled economic times, thanks to an administration that doesn’t really understand what it’s doing, it turns out the best investment is buying a bottle of bourbon. Buy one, put it on a shelf, and keep it for 20 years. Better yet, leave as part of your estate. (It would be better than leaving my bicycles.) The value of a typical bottle of bourbon is appreciating at a rate of 8% annually. That means a $40 bottle of bourbon today, should net your beneficiaries about $186.46. Can you ask for a better investment than that?

AI Telemarketing

Thank goodness AI Telemarketing software can’t tell when I’m lying. I got a call today from an AI telemarketing device. I think I’ll refer to such calls as coming from an “AITD,” just for fun. (I always wanted to be an acronym developer.) The software wanted to sell me a Medicare health plan (probably an Advantage plan since those are struggling right now). The first question the software asked me was, “do you have Medicare Part A and B coverage,” to which I replied, “I don’t know.” The AITD then asked me if I could give my age, to which I said, “105.” It very politely then said I don’t think it could help me, and it hung up. (The statement was polite enough, the hang-up not so much.)

It’s clear that AI hasn’t reached the point yet where it can tell if I’m lying or not. I expect voice inflection, maybe even embedded neuro sensors, will probably be used very soon to tell if a person is lying. When that day comes, it won’t be fun to answer the phone anymore.

How to Have a Phone Conversation

The first thing to mention is, when someone calls you, you have an obligation to pick up the phone. I start with this rule since I have a habit of not always following my own advice. The corollary to this rule is when someone asks you to call them, it’s bad form to wait two or three days before you get back to them. If they call you before you have gotten back to them, you know they are a better friend to you than you are to them. Now that we have these ground rules out of the way, we can get down to some finer points.

The next first thing you should always do is say “Hello.” That part most of us can manage (yours truly included). After that, the outcome of the conversation, good or bad, is up to whomever dialed the numbers on the phone.

If there is no particular reason for your call other than to say hi and chit-chat for a bit, have at it. The chance of running afoul of your listener in that case is slim. If there is a specific reason for your call beware of two things:

1. Does your listener want to talk to you about your subject? It can be hard to know the answer to that in advance, yet, if you stop and think about whom you are talking to before you place the call, the answer to that might be clearer than you would guess.
2. Open the call by not going directly to your purpose, instead try and relax your listener and place them in a frame of mind that makes it easy for them to engage with you before you get around to your subject. Bonus: you may get a “volunteer” answer to your question without having to initiate the dialogue yourself.

If you have made it through the first two steps and your subject still has not come up, then it is probably time to launch into the reason for your call. This is where things can go sideways. You always have to make sure your subject is one your listener is willing to engage in. That requires listening and interpreting the verbal signals you are receiving. If you detect any hesitancy at all, it’s probably best to simply bail-out of the conversation by steering it back to chit-chat mode and leaving the matter you wanted to discuss to a future opportunity.

I am writing this piece of instruction for myself.

I often fail to be a good listener. I often hurry to get my two cents in and I don’t pay enough attention to the other person. You’re never too old to change, but it does require a bit of reflection and work. I shouldn’t just pick up the phone and dial, I should be thinking about my listener and putting myself in their shoes before I take the plunge.

DESI

The Dark Energy Spectrographic Instrument consortium, contrary to what “Dark Energy” might lead you to suspect, is not a consortium studying Donald Trump’s corruption and public utterances, they are a group of researchers studying Dark Energy (hence the name). Don’t be confused, Dark Energy and Dark Matter are very different things. (I’m not here to explain Dark Matter, that is up to the reader.) Dark Energy is suspected of being the driving force behind the expansion of the universe. There’s just one problem, the DESI consortium is postulating that the amount of Dark Energy driving the expansion of the universe is degrading. This will eventually lead to the contraction (i.e. degradation) of the universe.

There is an amazing correlation here between astrophysics and politics. Donald Trump’s “Dark Energy” will eventually lead to the degradation of America. It may take some time, but the smart money is on the contraction of America occurring before the contraction of the universe.

On a slightly different chord.

The ancient Athenian democracy is considered to have lasted just over 180 years. We have them beat, but that really doesn’t mean a lot. Clearly democracies are not a given. Preserving a democracy is a difficult task. The two most important factors for preservation of a democracy are a strong middle class and strong support for the rule of law. The Republican Party is destroying the former. Donald Trump has been destroying the latter since Jan 6, 2021.

It’s time to get our shit together.

Progressivism And Religion

When it comes to religions in America, I am probably an anomaly. I left the Methodist Church, the Mormon Church, and the Catholic Church because they were not progressive enough.

When it comes to who will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, given that inheritance is real and that inheritance is open to everyone, it will certainly not be one and only one particular faith, and it will likely not be the uncaring rich and those who espouse a nationalist philosophy to the exclusion of people that don’t look like they do; it will be the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the exploited, the displaced and the rejected.

It is a puzzle to me why it is so hard to remember those ideas.

Writing

I was sitting at the bar in my favorite tap room, writing in my journal. (I recently learned on Instagram that men do write in journals. I learned this from an ad selling question-and-answer journals for men.) The bartender looked at me and asked if I was a writer, obviously he hasn’t seen the same ad on Instagram that I’ve seen.

Let me clarify. My journal is comprised of blank pages, that’s why my writing wanders a lot, and doesn’t answer any questions, but the bartender’s question did make me ask myself, am I a writer?

Honestly, no. That said, I spend a lot of time in the pursuit of writing. Not just in the aforementioned journal, but also here. I have asked myself many times, would I like to be a writer (i.e., author). The answer is always yes. I want to play the guitar too but have had even less success at that. To be an author, I think you have to feel a book inside of you and be able to reach in and pull it out. I don’t seem to have that, no book, so no reaching-in and pulling-out. All of this is by way of confession I suppose, but there is one thing I can say for sure. I enjoy this, the task of writing and trying to communicate something of myself that others (lucky or unlucky) can get a glimpse of. Will all of this someday lead to something not resembling a 300 word monologue? I don’t know. If that day ever comes, you will see it here. Please don’t hold your breath.

Freedom Hourglass

Our freedoms are being systematically taken away from us. When I say “freedom,” I don’t mean the freedom to persecute people that don’t look like you (white, male, moneyed) or the freedom to do whatever you want regardless of the law. I’m talking about the freedom to enjoy due process under the law, the freedom to disagree with your elected officials should you choose to do that, the freedom to choose your elected officials without hindrance and to have your ballot counted at election time.

It appears that the freedom of due process and the right to free and fair elections are being undermined. I fear for what that holds in store for us as a nation.

The Freedom Hourglass