An advertisement-free blog about motorcycling, Northern life, home improvement, power plants, submarines, nuclear stuff, and a few other off-beat subjects. Comments are welcome. (Image is the Selway Crags in Northern Idaho)
"Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you." - Epictetus
I had a few good songs pop up on the way in to work today. Jerry Cantrell, the guitarist for Alice in Chains came up, with "My Song", as well as an old Genesis song "The Lady Lies" a pretty good song with a cool story, from the album 'And Then There Were Three'.
"Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again." - Marcus Aurelius
Woke up much too early today - noon - and was unable to get back to sleep. Decided to get up and try to get something done.
"No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
A buddy of mine recently sent a photo of myself that I'd never seen before.
I'd guess this was taken in 1987-1988. Looks like we were loading or unloading bikes for some cycling event or group ride. Judging by how pale my hands are where the gloves fit on, I'd been riding a lot. Trusty can of Copenhagen in the rear shirt pocket, too!
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius
Driving home from work Sunday evening, I noticed a nasty shudder in the old Subie when I'd accelerate. The entire driver's side dash would rattle around. The Subie has always been remarkably vibration-free, so something was amiss. Without giving it much more thought, I assumed a CV joint was failing and that it was time to replace the left front axle.
"Even the least of our activities ought to have some end in view" - Marcus Aurelius
I recently traded a few mp3 songs with a friend, and loaded them onto the USB memory stick in the car. Driving to work this morning, I heard a version of the song that is the title of this post that I hadn't heard in a long time. All I remembered of this song from my youth was the intro. The song was halfway finished before I recognized the melody!
"Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire" -EpictetusI've become a believer in heart rate monitors only very recently - just about two years ago.
"It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous - even death is terrible only if we fear it." - Epictetus
I mentioned that I'd placed an order for LED tubes to replace the overhead lights in the shop, about 2/3 of the way down this long post. At the bottom of this post, they had arrived, but I still hadn't found time to install them.
One of the fluorescent fixtures had dead bulbs that were failing to ignite, and I finally had a half-day when I found time to make the wiring changes and replace the bulbs on that fixture. Below, the far right bulbs are glowing, but only very dimly.
"Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish for them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you." - Epictetus
Recently I was forced to replace the old Android phone, and I have been going through the new one, force-stopping the pre-loaded bloatware. I'm pretty sure it's now impossible to get root access to a modern phone and delete the bloatware from it. While I was deleting their apps and adding my preferred ones, I thought it would be a good idea to share ideas for cool apps. Please suggest good ones or favorites in the comments!
First of all, I'm still lamenting the loss of my beloved NEXT 3D Launcher. Below are screenshots taken from the previous phone, the Droid Turbo. Gorgeous interface. The most-often used apps are on these screen shots.
"Look at the past - empire succeeding empire - and from that, extrapolate the future: The same thing. No escape from the rhythm of events. Which is why observing life for forty years is as good as a thousand. Would you really see anything new?" - Marcus Aurelius
The original post explaining the reasons why I'm building Voigt Pipe speaker cabinets is here.
"But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future" - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
There has been ongoing discussion at work about the direction the electrical generating business is heading. The discussion is about where things are going for us power plant guys, career-wise. By sheer coincidence, the stoic quote for today is very appropriate. We will discuss past, present and future.
I am considering starting each blog post with a quote from a famous Stoic, thanks to the handy app I recently discovered. Starting right now.
"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts: Therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." - Marcus Aurelius.
In the previous looooong post, I mentioned at some point that I intended to install a digital timer on the fart fan in the shop bathroom. The digital timer arrived in the mail today, and I woke up quite a bit earlier than needed for night shift - so I got busy at my other job.
I had a busy set of days off. I somehow managed to get a lot done, considering that one day was lost to church, and another to overtime. The overtime is a good thing, because I had to spend a lot of money this past week.
I was forced to purchase a new phone last week. I'm *not* fond of replacing stuff - especially stuff that I've gotten used to, but there wasn't much choice in this case. The power button on the phone had mashed all the way in, and it wasn't waking up any more. I had to plug it in to wake it up and then enter the password to use it. Not good.
So I transferred all the files off the six year old Droid Turbo, and then it got wiped.
