Finally Friday, this week felt longer than normal thanks to a fussy baby. She may have gone through a cold, had a stuffed nose, cutting new teeth, or all of the above. I had to go to the post office a couple time to chase down a package delivered to the wrong address and the baby was fantastic. Some adults can’t wait in line for a half hour without throwing a tantrum, though we did have plenty of pens to stay entertained. The post office is a strange beast, some how everything there seems incredibly slow and broken yet modern mail is a marvel. In letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson they were writing about their hopes for the post office in the future, people might receive mail 2-3 times a week. There is a cynical attitude in the modern age, my theory is because so much has been accomplished for humanity at this point that the difficulty in attempting something new scares people into not trying at all and sarcastically claiming it’s stupid. People from the past, who were also human, it’s easy to think of past figures from a different world, those people would be amazed at the wonder that is the modern west. And that everything is working all the time, the electricity almost never goes out, clean water flows from the tap, we even have internet in the woods. When I study America’s founding fathers, I feel Newton’s quote that we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Not only were their limitations greater, but they did more with what they had. Ben Franklin started the first library by collecting a list of books he and others owned, so they could borrow from each other and it was a subscription service. Some people tear down giants of the past because they’re an uncomfortable reminder of our short comings, my pursuit is to overstep them. First I learn from them.
16 November 2023
When it rains it pours is an expression I say a lot, often life will be quiet for a month or more with nothing going on and then suddenly multiple major events will happen together. Yesterday was one of those days, this week I mentioned to the neighbor that I need to change my lawn mower oil and he was willing to help, that was scheduled the day before. Hours after scheduling with the neighbor, I received a text by some company sourced by Home Depot to give a quote on the glass door. Initially the company wanted to come out the day after Thanksgiving, which is basically a holiday, so after waiting days for them to give me a reschedule time, they had yesterday available and I said yes. The guy for the door did not show up during his scheduled time and I started the oil change with my neighbor. Of course then I get a call the guy is a couple minutes away, but my wife was able to handle it. Nothing too crazy, but it’s always funny when my schedule is wide open and some how everything ends up at one time. The way I live my life plays a role, I’m more likely to have an active day and a lazy day than do a little bit everyday. A natural flow with the seasons has also taken place, having goals for each three month period has helped. Three months is a enough time to get something of significance accomplished, but not so long as to loose sight or get bored. The seasons provide a theme or background to what I’m doing, defining my location and uniform. I’ve had to lean to leave indoor activities for the Summer and Winter months while the most can be done outside during the Spring and Fall.
15 November 2023
Sticking with possible ice cream flavors, I was thinking about peanut butter ice cream. I’ve never seen peanut butter as the base flavor, it’s usually paired with chocolate, a good combination. Hazelnut and chocolate is another good combination. With Thanksgiving being around the corner it’s nice to talk about food. Getting into the holidays provides a pleasing rhythm throughout the years. Thanksgiving is about food, being thankful and giving, it’s also a time we remember a hand looks like a turkey. Looking back on my bountiful harvest this year I got to eat my first home grown peach and it was delicious. There were many berries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. All of those fruits are good candidates for ice cream. Fruit is sweet, but not compared to sugar. Being overshadowed by sugar, the fruit ends up playing the sour role and the whole dish is elevated. Savory foods are more interesting to imagine as ice cream. Philly cheesesteak ice cream doesn’t sound so bad when I imagine the pieces of meat, cheese and onion floating in an italian sourdough cream. All of this contorting of strange combinations is something I imagine is on an IQ test. Given an object, in this case ice cream flavors, how many different uses can be thought up? I’m good at finding patterns so my way to come up with more answers involves changing the given object each time I give an answer. The challenge then becomes staying within the rules because the whole exercise is getting turned on it’s head and who can judge what is done in good faith or to satisfy a prerequisite? I hate tests, but tests are necessary for classification. Classification streamlines efficiency, capitalism is built on letting the people who are good at a thing do the thing they’re good at. A person can’t be classified as good at thing without being tested on that thing. All assessments have flaws and criteria needs to be updated through time.
14 November 2023
I need to break up the monotony of my writing. My wife and I were talking about making ice cream for Thanksgiving, we have an ice cream machine and last year we attempted cranberry ice cream. The cranberry was a success but the main ingredient, cranberry, may have been too bitter to create a good ice cream. Oddly enough we both thought sweet corn would be a good flavor to try, my wife even had the idea to put corn flakes in the end product. We’ve probably had a store bought ice cream like that before and there are recipes for all the wildest flavors online. We’ve also got a nice collection of flavor extracts like bubble gum, peppermint, and cotton candy. We’ve tried the popular extracts before and the danger with an ice cream machine is when we make a successful flavor then we’re going to eat a lot of ice cream. After corn I was thinking what other Thanksgiving flavors could be turned into ice cream. Gravy flavored comes to mind, but I don’t even know how to make gravy. Flour and potatoes are interesting foods that I’m sure could be turned into ice cream because like corn they are high in carbohydrates. Similarly I’ve thought of these foods in the past when I’ve done some home brewing. A corn mash for whiskey is very popular, as are wheat beers, and I’m sure everyone has heard of potato vodka. The “mash” basically boils these high carbohydrate foods so yeast can easily digest more of the sugar. The waste product of the yeast feast is alcohol and CO2, this gives beer and champagne their bubbles. More care and speed go into packaging to preserve the bubbles. On a brewery tour once I remember learning that bottles are often green and brown colored to prevent light from reaching the sugary drink inside.
13 November 2023
Uncomfortable conversations save lives. Everyone wants to stay in their bubble and watch others save the world, that’s not how it works. Likely the only reason most people are getting out of bed is for money. Chores often go undone because there is no perceived value in doing them, that’s a short coming on our end. Chores, or regular maintenance, over time grows something else because the chores being done benefits the rest of the day. Having a dish free sink helps during a conference call. In my case having a glass door with a hole in it is a weight I have to carry around until it’s gone. Most likely the whole world will forget about my door even though it effects me, and the whole world will forget about dishes in the sink. Having those tasks done not only directly improves the environment, but improves the individual towards compound gains. We need to think about exponential growth as humans, everything we’ve seen for all of humanity is boring and played out. If we’re to succeed as a species we need to stretch towards the sky. Patience is key to exponential growth, for so long the line appears to barely be moving at all until one day everything has changed. The sudden change creates a stranger in a strange land. If I could use the level of aggression required to communicate with my Army friends in all social settings, I could be king overnight, but people are slow to give that sort of trust. Royalty needs to act refined, pretend as if they’ve never had to defend their boarders. This brings me back to people being in their bubbles, aristocracy is pretending to have security when they exude decadence. The reality is their security comes from paper script and the faith that can be exchanged to satisfy their needs. Who’s to say who’s right, I only wish to be right with my own.
10 November 2023
I’m going on a vacation, only for a night or two, enough to clear my head. Where I’m going is a mystery to me, my wife set it up and will give me an address later. What’s important to me is alone time to be lost in the woods. Usually what happens when I go on my little trips is I still can’t be alone. People will go to the ends of the Earth to find me and a couple minutes later they’re telling me their life story. One trip there was a guy that knocked on my door because his car had run out of gas, he and his lady friend were staying near by. I drove him to the gas station, and we put fuel in the car, only the battery was also dead. The couple eventually got free. We’ll see what happens over this trip. My wife was nice enough to send me off with some goodies, my big plan is to eat a lot of sugar. When I went to the grocery store to get food the two items I knew I was getting were doritos and pepsi. The last time I had a pepsi may have been years ago, but I still know what it tastes like, it’s has a deep connection. In video games there are often stats available like how much damage done or health recovered, it would be scary to see the number of doritos I’ve eaten in my life. It’s fun to have fun from time to time. I’ve got a lot to think about right now with a lot of different projects in the air. There are groups of people I trust forming, and they will need direction for that energy. To make good on my poor diet this weekend I’m going to have an exhausting workout, directing my energy to good use. Happy Veteran’s Day.
9 November 2023
The concept of meta is the human mind trying to understand the infinite, or God. Humans are not the center of the universe nor are we the smallest mot, but I do think we’re the center of the universe. Another cultural debate that has come home to roost is that humans are on an unimportant rock near a medium sized star in an uncaring universe. If that is true, then we named those things which is to say they’ve been conquered. I challenge the universe to change it’s name if the universe is so powerful. I’m always going back to John 1:1 in the beginning was the word(logos). Humanity’s ability to name things, use language, puts us as the most special thing that has ever happened. The singularity of humans makes it impossible to know what is natural for humans. For most of human history the environment looked similar, from 1900-1950 change slowly began. Then the generations started getting names because the cultures were so distinct as to define a shared experience. The rapidity of change seemed to pick up in the 2000’s and after the release of the iphone in 2007 the cultural windows would get smaller till the point that graduating in 2019 was a very different school experience from graduating in 2023. Society is such a complex machine that if we shut it off, we don’t know if it can be turned on again. It’s the singularity problem again in that no time in history has every been exactly like this, you can’t step in the same river twice. I suspect a lot of basic knowledge will be lost in the coming years. I preserve and learn as much as I can and advise others to share what they have to offer because lack experience is lack of knowledge.
8 November 2023
Someone said I was living the dream, while I understand the sentiment, anyone can choose my path. My strategy has been to find something no one wants and refine that waste into a valuable resource. People suffer from one of two pains, either the pain of work or the pain of regret. When I was young the most insulting thing a person could call me was “dirt ball”. While the Army hurled constant expletives at me, nothing compared to being as low as dirt. Using Shakespeare’s “the lady doth protest too much” I can suppose dirt is how I saw myself, from employers to teachers, the authority figures corroborated the story. That’s how I get to conclusions like doing something yourself is the only way to do it right. People are always looking for ways to cheat on the responsibilities of their own life, helping someone else can make the responsibility easier to bare, but when money is involved only the hungry are motivated. Shakespeare’s Caesar said such men are dangerous that have a lean and hungry look. It’s hard to turn away food though, waste not want not, America is brimming with waste. Waste management would be my recommended career path to anyone, there’s always going to be waste and no one ever wants to manage it. Ego becomes the hurdle to overcome, an inflated notion of the self. Even a king has to be willing to drag his crown through mud. A difficult task I once did during infantry training was a 100 meter low crawl through sand. The low crawl is laying chest down crawling forward without any bodypart getting off the ground. Of course we’re carrying a weapon and can’t let the dust cover face towards the ground. The dust cover covers the ejection port where expanded brass is released, sand in the dust cover could cause a weapon malfunction. All that friction polished me into the gem I am today.
7 November 2023
Last Friday I succeeded in my 200 lbs bench press and it felt like I still had fuel in the tank. I’m technically the strongest I’ve ever been and getting stronger. There are two big reasons for my weight lifting gains. Specifically effecting the bench press was that I improved my technique. In preparation for the wedding I wanted to do 100 push ups in a day with the goal someday being 100 continuous. While researching push ups technique I discovered I’ve basically been doing chest exercises wrong my whole life, my hands needed to be lower than my shoulders and elbows closer to the body, that allowed me to perform bench press correctly for the first time. The other factor in my strength is that I’ve had the land for over three years now and have gained considerable farm strength. There’s also baby strength from carrying that weight around the house and up the hill. Caring for a baby has improved my endurance by requiring me to be attentive at all hours. The lack of sleep never bothered my wife and I much because we’ve both trained in it before. The infantry is an endurance type of training, everyone is in competition to be the last man standing. Genetically I think my family is gifted with endurance capabilities, while in the Army I felt I could literally run non-stop for any amount of time. There was an incident during my first 25 mile road march where I fell down and immediately popped up before I knew what happened, this was after I had been smashing my foot for hours hoping I’d get injured and could stop that stupid road march. 25 miles doesn’t seem like a crazy number, but that’s because civilians don’t know road marches. The first road march I did in basic training was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve felt, all we had to wear was our helmet and carry an M-16 for 3 miles. By the time I was doing 25 miles I had a 45 lbs rucksack, a kevlar vest with front and back ceramic plates, and I had traded the M-16 in for an M-249 of almost twice the weight. In all that gear we still had to be capable of carrying another man and his rucksack in case of injury, we trained for that.
6 November 2023
I heard somebody say about their life, “I’m just going to have fun, if it doesn’t hurt anybody…” This is an idea or two that has grown in my lifetime and I think the chickens have come home to roost on the issue. Life is tough, we are surviving on planet Earth. There’s always going to be work to do, it doesn’t matter if workers are old, disabled or slow, attempting to make 1% improvement is better than surrendering to the wolves. I’ve been learning to speed read for a couple months now with positive results. I only started reading seriously when I was 25 years old, all through school it was easy enough to get by without reading. I didn’t understand the nature of work when I was younger and now see it as a good thing. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t in control of myself or perhaps a child’s good and adult’s good are different. Values vary from vantage points, geographically the American South does align with my nature better than the North East. Philadelphians seem to be proud of their rudeness only to overshadow it with love, “I’m kiddin’, what can I do for ya?” Appropriately I’m from the city of brotherly love and that’s where my brothers live. For years I’ve worked on a book idea outlining and writing in notes that would sort of tell my life story, the trick is telling the parts that haven’t happened yet. My original idea was inspired by Slaughter House V, a great book, where each chapter would basically be it’s own story. Over the weekend I decided that would be lame, writing a book needs one point. Starting the podcast represents to me starting a new phase of my life, my king era. That means building my kingdom, as such if I’m going to do anything then I want to take it seriously. I’m going to be a king and start wearing a crown. You can be a king too, or queen, let’s just bear in mind the King of kings.
Chris' Morning Pages 