I slept extra-well last night, knowing I have not failed as a parent.
It was a conversation with my son G2 Thursday that cinched it: As you may know he works as an infectious disease investigator in high risk communities (LBGT), is happily straight and dating as time permits, thinking for himself, and constantly challenging himself to be more and learn better.
He had called me to suggest I look at a Facebook post he put up. I was impressed:
“The only political post I am ever going to make:
Want a great country?
Step one: Be great to each other, no matter how different the other person is.
At the core we all want the same things:
-To have a sense of family.
-To accepted, understood and respected.
-To be treated fairly.
-To have the opportunity to be greater, the opportunity to progress and the opportunity to fulfill our dreams.
-The freedom to do whatever the hell you want (within reason of course).
BTW I am pro: Gay, gun, & I’d never tell a woman what she can or can’t do with her own body. Color or nationality: Don’t give a shit, if you’re cool than let’s be friends. And religion: Totally fine with me but: Keep religion the hell out of government. Separation of church and state: There’s a VERY good reason behind that methodology.
We are stronger united than apart. There are people who would love nothing more than to see us all separated and at each others throats.
We live in the greatest country on earth: Start treating each other accordingly.”
I was deeply appreciative of his comments and then he told me a story.
Last week, he helped a Hispanic fellow fix his iPhone. George had noticed the screen was broken and said “That sucks…but I can fix it for you if you want if you buy the parts…”
The young man got the parts needed and the phone owner (along with his partner) met G2 at a local Starbucks. G2 set up “shop” with his iPhone toolkit and went to work. An hour later, the man’s iPhone was fixed and all was well.
The phone owner’s partner had been worried that G2 might be hustling his partner. But no, that’s just who Ure’s are.
“Well, can we pay you, or something?” they wanted to know.
“Naw…just pay it forward…Next time you see someone you can help…pay it to them.”
A day later, a pretty good bottle of wine arrived.
Two things made me proud:
- Be the Change you say you want.
- Pay It Forward.
The only problem I see in the world – but it’s why RenaissanceCore.com will be along: Not enough people have the three attributes of G2:
1. Skills that can be shared.
2. The inclination to share.
3. The generosity to send Paying It Forward into the future.
Humbles me to think what kind of world we would have today if this kind of awareness had been taught for a few generations.
Maturity is when old people can learn from young, not just t’other way around. Well done, son.
The Airline Pilot Story
Buddy of G2’s in a pilot. Selling his home.
“I can’t believe how stupid these Millennial’s are. I put in French drains and did great landscaping to the house I’m selling and no one understands what I’m even talking about…
They don’t have any skills at all!”
Yep, seen it many times. Old people who use the M’s as their social tools don’t share skills or learning. Outfits like the nest of Soros outfits seem only interested in using ‘m and losing ‘em.
Which is why we have chapters of that Missing Manual for Millennials book on Thursdays around here.
The death of industrial arts in America is to blame.
SOHO Operations – Monitor Lighting
That’s small office/home office, for those not aware.
I have been trying out (and so far very happy) with the free software product called F.lux. It really slows ni8cely with all of our research into the Light Crown project and such.
Free download from www.justgetflux.com..
The product allows you to adjust the color temperature of your monitors. There is a day setting and a night setting.
To use it, set up your monitors (please, tell me you use at least 2?_) so they are as hot (white/blue) as you can set them – usually 6,500 degrees Kelvin or higher.
Then use F.lux to dial things back down to not so screaming white.
Here’s the thing: When you run “hot” monitors in the morning, you will experience optimal awake state, but by noon, or so, I’ve dialed things back to a kind of medium (4,500K) temperature or lower. And at night, especially three hours before bed, dial it on down from there.
As you consulting doc on the light crown dealy said “Blue light can really screw with your circadian rhythms so be careful with them…” And he’s right. A little bit of white/blue light goes a long ways.
But for those early morning online meetings/conferences where you want optimal sharpness, run the color temps us, but not after noon.
There was a Harvard Health letter about blue light, too, if you need a more authoritative reference than our morning coffee klatch. Read “Blue light has a dark side.”
Light Crown two is under construction – should be able to get that done today and in use tomorrow. Since it uses red, green and blue arrays, I try to use it before 10 AM. And as noted, seems to have a real effect after three days of use.
Don’t know if that’s from pumping with blue over the right trigeminal nerve stack, or if it’s the overall healing of the red light, but oh boy, anxious to get back on that project. Some master synchronizing effect of the circadians may be be the method of action…but whatever it is, our researches this spring should bring it into better focus.
Meantime, Back In Front of FTA TV
FTA=Free to Air television
I told you earlier this week we had been captivated by the excellent Chinese documentaries on CGTN (China Global Television Network) on Galaxy 15 at 95° W.
Eventually, though, we decided to go back and rescan Galaxy-19 at 97° W.
A blind-search of all the transponders later and we had nearly 400 FREE TO AIR television channels to pick from. Mostly our old favorites: RT/Russia Today and CNC-World, a Chinese news channel in English with a pretty good global perspective.
Elaine and I will spend a few minutes a day going through lots of the other channels (mostly HD).
Saudi Channel 2 still offers good English content now and then. CNC-World has some good content and RT’s upcoming doc on “The Sorcerers” about drug-abusing youth/wannabe shamans…well, that should be good too.
Jesse’s Back…
The real point of all this – other than FTA television is a fine news-junkie tool – is to mention former Governor Jesse Ventura is coming back on RT with a program simply called “Jesse.”
The promo piece has the former gov. on a Hibbly-Dibblitzen explaining how he wants to go across America trying to find people “expressing their freedom” (or some such). Since Ventura’s outlook is different that cookie-cutter LameStream Media BS, it may be worth firing up your satcomms and getting ready for his first adventures.
I’m not sure when, exactly as “coming soon” is pretty vague. I’ll try to remember to mention when it comes along.
One other open-content of note is Iran’s Press TV which is still blasting out English news out our way. You talk about “alternative facts?”
Most of the rest of the 200+ channels (lots of duplicates) plus 100 channels of radio is a religious wasteland of God-marketing and plenty of Imams, too. A few interesting channel names (the Parable Channel) sounded interesting but only for a few minutes as a time.
Fair bit of Laotian and Vietnamese programming on, too.
Weekend is Comms Time
Later today, we will change out battery bank #1 which has been in service since 2008. Using the same Interstate 225 Amp-hour batteries as before.
I looked at sweepers and folk lift packs, but in the end, a couple of golf-carts in series can still fire up a car, radio gear, and so forth. No need to vary from our original design. Flexible for the Future is my mantra.
Next project after that will be repair of the 746-foot super antenna. Got the fallen tree removed, but now it’s time to run up the ladder and such.
Look for AC7X on the bottom end of 40-meter CW Saturday around 3-PM, or so. Banging out Morse Code is still fun and more stimulating than texting. Faster, too. And the infrastructure can fit in a backpack.
Hat’s off to Robin Landry who is planning (time permitting) to sit for his Technician Class ham license this month.
Somewhere in here I should be able to get a used Icom R-100 set up on weather satellites. Not happy with the SDR approach.
Sunday looks to be Greenhouse Day. Should be getting some seeds in. Always something to do up there.
No More Winter?
Weather around the ranch has been on the warm side. Looking at AccuWeather, we don’t have any more freezing weather expected, so we could have a very long growing season this year… We will be able to set seedlings out just about any time they wake up and get ready at this rate. Fresh veggies in April? Yum!
And on the lighter side, we always keep a collection of 55-gallon steel drums around. They begin life usually as Corrosion-X barrels from the oil industry. Then we use them for a while as diesel tanks. After that they cycle into burn barrels…and then then are land fill of sheet steel when banged out for some delusional project or other.
Point is that one of the drums has just the right seal on it. Whenever the temp passes 53° F going up or down, there is a cloud “thump” as the tank expands.
When it’s cool in the morning, it’s like having an automatic temperature alarm. Working outside when it’s 41 isn’t much fun, but 53 to 80 is a great working temperature range.
Nice to have an automatic alarm drum telling me when to get to work.
Have a great weekend and ya’ll come on back Monday… Weekend is when you work for the only person than matters (your spouse, lol)…
In the meantime, write when you get rich,
George, see the BLS BS this morning?
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.htm
Employed line went down – and yet the news is saying 227,000 new jobs. Amazing. Seems like more fodder for your blow-off top forming.
George, your stories about G2 proves once again that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and you Sir, provided a very GOOD orchard!
KUDOS[!] to you AND your fine son!
Like G2’s Guidelines for Life. Here’s what I’ve come to after a few decades of life/experience:
1 – Do Good.
You get to choose what you consider `good`
2 – We treat each other the way we’d like to be treated.
This is pretty much universal, religion has nothing to do with it
3 – Leave things better than you found them.
At some point you’ll be the `next` person in the chain of activities or events
and that little something that someone did before you might make all the difference…
You nailed it, slayed it actually~!
Congratulations and Thank You…..
Sincere congratulations on G2
Sincere thank you on your post and Amazon link to the red grow light a few days ago.
I spent several hundred dollars on some early LED health products two decades ago. I did not have much in the way of effects. Recently I have been researching them online again. I have little money to throw at these things now. The grow light is in my budget. I immediately ordered one.
Like you I rapidly noticed an uptick in energy level with only 10 minutes a day of usage in the morning. This is hugely important to me as I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
I am ordering R-Lipoic acid in order to help the mitochondria (which the red light is stimulating) cope with the increased output of free radicals – a constant by-product of ATP production. With CFS, and with age, the mitochondria become damaged and put out more free radicals. I had a bad reaction months ago when I took some supplements to increase ATP production, without taking sufficient antioxidants/R-Lipoic Acid to cope with the increase in free radicals.
Here are two YouTube videos by bio hacker extraordinaire Dave Asprey on the subject of light hacking for productivity:
The Do’s and Dont’s of Light Hacking
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2XLnYV4Fq4k
10 Tools to Massively Hack Your Brainpower
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc7NNr8KnYs
You are a great dad George, and it shows !!
He’s !!! learning. :)
I want to be silly and ask you how many times did you listen to that old song ” teach your children well and you will tell by_____”. Maybe you wrote the song George but your son is fully spot on.
George, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, on one thing, G2 is straight up delusional. Other than that one thing he has a pretty good grasp on things, Kudos on your guidance in his upbringing.
His rant about keeping religion out of government is diametrically opposed to what our founding fathers intended.
The wall of separation between church and state that is addressed in a letter to the Danbury Baptists from Thomas Jefferson explains this if you take it in its proper context.
https://wallbuilders.com/letters-danbury-baptists-thomas-jefferson/
The Danbury Baptists were concerned that the government would step in and declare a certain religion as being expressly supported by the federal government, Thomas Jefferson addressed this issue because when our founding fathers came to this country it was to have religious freedom where the government would not decide for you what religion you would practice and adhere to.
You see, the founding fathers of this great republic knew that you must keep government out of religion, but yet religion is what gives us our moral compass and also helps us to govern ourselves in a fair and just manner.
Remember the fact that Judeo-Christian religious values helped to guide us to be the great Republic that we are, they are the very cornerstone of the foundation of the Republic.
I am not saying that everyone must strictly follow the bible (we are still free to choose our own religious views), but just pointing out a few facts
The very liberal Associate justice of the Supreme Court Stephen Breyer wrote that the due process clauses in the fourth through eighth amendments to the constitution came directly from the Bible, a footnote in his writing refers to volume 30 of federal practices and procedures, specifically 60 pages that call this out as fact
and no, I have not gotten rich yet
Thanks for the edification, knowledge shared, growth is good.
Well heck George, couldn’t your son just say “Treat others the way you would like them to treat you”
Congratulations, George, on raising a great son. I have put a wonderful man on the planet as well. One of the things he is involved with is an organization called “The Makers.” It teaches people to do all sorts of skills and use sophisticated tools.
Since we are on the subject of parenting, I’d like to suggest watching the movie “Captain Fantastic.” It portrays a man (Viggo Mortensen) raising his six children to be philosopher kings off grid. Radical child-rearing. Very compelling social criticism. Well worth the watch.
George, thank you for sharing your son’s experience, it lifted my spirit!
Your comment about paying it forward actually came full circle on me over a 25 year period.
Longer version ( sorry ! ) , I was in the Navy on shore leave in Perth Australia in the early 80’s. I was very far away from the port , had no idea where I was and didnt have enough money to get back. Yes , I drank too much.
A very polite cabbie stopped and asked if I needed a ride. After responding that I didnt have enough money , he said not to worry. That us Yanks have done so much for them that he would be honored to do what he could for one of us.
After dropping me off , and after numerous thanks from me , he simply stated that I could pay him by doing something nice for a stranger one day and asking them to do the same for somebody else. Paying it forward.
Any time I had the chance to do something nice for somebody , without desires for any form of payment , I thought of him.
Twice within a one year period , many many years later , I actually heard somebody say that to another person , AND , a third time it was said to ME !!! ( could it be ? Hmmm ) Freaked me out !
Okay , making this longer.
My wife and I were on a crowded freeway in Miami. On the side was a car on fire. A woman was acting frantically. No services in sight , we stopped to help. Besides thanking me , she asked rather dryly ” so where exactly are you from ?” “San Francisco Bay Area Ma’am , why do you ask ?” “Because its obvious that youre not from Miami. People in Miami dont stop to help people in Miami” Then she said that she was a local news anchor and to watch the news that night as she was going to mention her situation.
When did we start seeing people as liberal or conservative or black , white , yellow green or purple ? We have it in our control and ability to make a TRUE difference in peoples lives with the most simple of gestures. We truly can be the change that we need to be that supercedes all goverment and politics. And sometimes you may see it come back around full circle to absolutely stun you.
No negative or political comments please.
Some of us oldies, don’t see in color, we see in attitude, character and potential. Doing and giving to another is a GIFT to oneself. ALL the world religions have some form of advice in how to develop oneself into a person of morals, values, conscience, and love for the other. As religions continue to focus on the negative and countries becoming secular, less and less of the teachings are passed on, can you learn them other ways? Sure. Just like your lesson, touched your heart forever, that’s a great lesson. That is why Dannion Brinkley says, be the change you want to see in the world. YES, one person CAN make a difference. Thanks for reminding us of that. These beautiful things, for example, the fruits of the spirit, the greatest commandment, these things are ‘eternal truths’ and they build character. As another posted noted a few days ago, all you take with you is YOU, your actions, thoughts, words, deeds, LOVE for others, and memories!
Would Ham radio turn into C B wasteland if a test was not required?
Great JOB George!! your son has his eyes open and has the correct mental view, anyway we can project his thought process to about 50 million that don’t know how to think???
I’d never heard of “paying it forward” before I saw Kevin Spacey’s great movie; I see a message in his eventual portrayal of FU cufflinks Frank Underwood; that we are getting what we deserve because, as a society, we didn’t pay it forward.
I have mixed emotions about paying it forward. It is a nice idea. In G2’s case, he could actually help someone with a problem through skills he has developed and is willing to share.
In our town, many people will pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant or pay for their groceries. Again, nice idea, but if people are eating out(I was at a fast-food place with my granddaughter and overheard the guy ahead of us asking what he could get for a buck, I dropped a ten dollar bill on his table as we left) or buying groceries(unless they come up short) those people really don’t need help.
In my case, I ran to the store Sunday morning to pick up some pastry and such because I had company coming. As I attempted to pay for my purchases, I was told the guy ahead of me had paid for my food! I was a little shocked and uncomfortable with the idea. All I could think as I left the store was I really need to dress better to go to the grocery store!
One idea that went viral was paying for school lunches for kids who are behind on their a/c’s at school. I can’t think of anything more humiliating for a child than to be told they can’t have their lunch and having to go hungry the rest of the day. In most instances this has been greeted positively by the schools.
I’m sure there are lots of other ways to pay it forward in the local community other than picking up the tab for people who don’t need it. G2 has it right.
I’m old… it’s been a while since I had kids in school. What are a/c’s… and since when is a kid denied lunch at school. Here their fed lunch and breakfast… mostly free
They set up accounts for lunch rather than the kids bringing their money every day. Even kids on “reduced” lunch programs have to pay something. When their account is out of money, they are denied lunch or given a sandwich or something to tied them over.
A kid shouldn’t have to deal with that. They didn’t create the problem and can’t solve it. Many schools discourage sack lunches and push the kids into paying for lunch.
http://www.good4utah.com/contact/nadia-crow/students-lawmakers-outraged-after-kids-denied-full-lunch/204545732
http://nypost.com/2016/09/21/lunch-lady-quits-after-being-forced-to-deny-kid-food/
If anything you should be glad your son has a sense of damage control. If I was ever in the job market ,living in Seattle and my dad( with shared name) went off the rails with some unhinged rant of putting fellow Americans in “re-education” camps I would use every social media outlet I could to cover those tracks. I’ve always considered you a knowledable fellow, but you’re clearly losing it in on an emotional level with your divisive rants… and no I didn’t vote for Obama or Hillary..
Sonic! That’s the place. Many times I will pay the bill for the patron in line behind me. Never know who they are, never see the car again. Doesn’t matter.
Again, congrats on G2, and the rest of your family too! The story by your dear daughter years ago was both heartwarming and a good warning.
That said, I’ve gotten into trouble helping, in so far that some folks(locals) felt that they had to reciprocate, and insisted on trying to help me with a project I wanted no help on. Eventually I had to order them off the property, after gently suggesting that they leave. I felt sad about this and it’s damaged neighborhood relations to this day.
Currently, I’ll do my best to help most anyone with most anything, including using my tools and expertise. I just won’t randomly give money or sign petitions. However, I WON’T do anything for them unless they ask. Doing otherwise has lead to a feeling of obligation on their part that I can’t absolve unless I lose my autonomy to their unwanted “help”. If anyone has a good way to handle this, I’m open to listening.