kaizen
what's
been floating my boat lately:
hiking
"How fortunate for
governments that the people they administer don't think."
-Hitler-
"Only two things are
infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the
former."
-Albert Einstein-
11/5/23 (15:41)
Haven't had a day off in the last couple weeks. Trying to get as much done
with the new house as possible, especially before Thanksgiving vacation
and the rains start.
The most difficult beams in the building have been replaced so it's relatively
easy carpentry from here on. Still a lot of work, but it's not as difficult.
Evidentally I didn't upload the page at all last month even though there
were a few updates.
10/31/23 (15:08)
CTC was pretty much what I expected. Very steep in portions. Relentless
and punishing, but doable. Took us 15 hours total including several stops
to check the route, eat, drink, rest, admire the view, etc. 21+ miles and
almost 11,000 feet in elevation gained. Backpacker Magazine has it as the
5th hardest day hike in the country so there's that. Knee was sore the
next day and my traps were sore from wearing a heavy backpack all day.
Other than that, no lasting damage. Actually had an easier time that night
and the next day than when we did Grand Canyon. Something about that one
was really tough for me. I think it was the stopping for an hour at the
bottom and having so much downhill to start. Happy to have done it. Happy
to be done with it.
If everyone buys index funds what are the downsides of that? I don't know
enough to say, but it seems like everyone knows by now that index funds
are the best strategy for long term growth (at least they have been looking
backwards). But what if everyone dumps their money into them? Does that
make them better, worse, or the same? Seems like dangerous groupthink,
but I have no evidence or theory about why this wouldn't be a good macro
level strategy in the long term. We'll see.
Been working at the new house a bit lately. Working on framing and structural
work. Engineer made assumptions about the shape of the existing foundation
that don't make any sense. Unfortunately it looks like we'll need to underpin
the existing foundation. This will require a lot of difficult work. Not
a simple fix and outside of what I'm comfortable doing so I'm currenly
looking for help on this.
Currently the entire structure is being help up by steel beams and temporary
shoring so we can do our structural work. Had a few union guys out over
the weekend and I worked with them on replacing the two main beams in the
front of the building. Hopefully we can finish that this weekend. Since
they are union guys who work during the week they will only help us out
on the weekend, but it's better than nothing and they are better carpenters
than me or any of my guys so it's good to have the skilled help. My guys
and I will do all the easier stuff.
Since 2020 social welfare spending is up, prison population is down, money
supply is up, inflation is up, crime is up, drug overdose deaths are up.
Liberals my entire life have complained about military spending and remarked
on the opportunity cost of spending all that on the military when we could
(supposedly) spend small % of it on some pet program that would lift millions
out of poverty. That's the narrative. Meanwhile we are now spending more
on debt payments than on the military. Media seems silent on this. Liberals
are silent on this. I think it's a moral wrong to put our kids and grandkids
into debt at this level for the long term just so we can have nice stuff
today. Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine. COVID payouts due to government
shut downs. Trump tax cuts. Not going after big corporations to pay their
taxes. Social security and other welfare spending which mostly goes to
old people who have had their entire lives to get their shit together.
It's morally reprehensible.
We whould invert our spending. Instead of giving 20%+ of our federal outlays
to old people, we should be giving it to babies and kids to make sure they
have a better start in life. SS payments to grandma would be better spent
on a newborn's family that needs childcare, early education, a birth savings
account, etc. I've heard Democrats ask for spending on some of this stuff,
but with them it's always "yes and..." And now that we have high interest
rates, our debt payments are ridiculous because no one is willing to balance
the budget.
10/18/23 (14:42)
I fucking hate my job sometimes. It seems cool to fix things and make cool
stuff, but half of it is setting up meetings with city inspectors, emailing
engineers and architects and homeowners about shit that doesn't matter
or is only required because of government bureaucrats. An endless loop
of questions and answers that yield more questions. Here's an idea - let's
just fucking build things and move on. Insurance and bonding and replacing
stolen tools and dealing with employees who can't get their pants on in
the morning. People and society have a way of sucking the pleasure out
of everything.
10 months into the year and the city still refuses to do anything of substance
with the homeless encampment in front of our warehouse. They are going
to have a meeting about it soon (supposedly). What a joke.
What it comes down to is that I like to get things done and other people
like to talk. Talking is nice because it makes people feel heard and validated
and they get things off their chest and all that touchy feely girl shit.
Not for me. Sorry.
This weekend we're going to Palm Springs for CTC. 21 miles, 10,800' gained.
Nervous about it. Going to be hot, but we'll be climbing fast so we should
get ahead of the heat. Not in the best shape right now and wish I had trained
more, but I hate training and really don't have a lot of spare time. Which
brings me to...
Work at the new house is underway. Contractors were there last week and
this week lifting the structure so we can do our work of replacing it piece
by piece (not quite, but kinda).
Why is every crappy software company constantly "upgrading" their software?
Seems like they are just justifying their jobs at this point. It's not
all bug fixes and security updates. It's minor graphics changes and crap.
Most of the time I get Android updated it actually introduces new bugs
into the phone. Often with Bluetooth. It's just amazing that all these
people do this shit and software still has problems constantly. I've said
it for 25+ years - just make the shit work and stop tinkering with it.
10/11/23 (13:51)
When the Golden Gate Bridge was built less than 100 years ago it cost about
$600 million (adjusted for inflation). Today it will cost about $400 million
to install nets to prevent people jumping to their death from the bridge.
This says a lot about modern society. The costs are out of control. But
also the fact that we're building nets under a bridge so people don't jump
off says a lot as well. Maybe it's good or maybe not. But that's our society
today vs. 1937.
Copyright
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016,
2017,
2018,
2019,
2020,
2021,
& 2022 by me.
everything
on here is my opinion, so don't sue me.