In the past few months, I’ve built quite a few different things with some tools, some lumber, and my own two hands. I guess I’m becoming something of a casual woodworker. One quick and easy project that I definitely see myself completing again is this neat little Leopold bench that’s super quick, super cheap, and super sturdy. The “Rogue Engineer” Jamison Rantz has some incredible woodworking plans with very detailed instructions and a cut list that you would have to actively try to mess up. You buy the lumber, mark it according to his diagrams, and cut it. It literally doesn’t get any easier. The one note that I would provide is that an 8’ board may not be EXACTLY the advertised length. Ours were something in the ballpark of 8’1” and I ended up shaving a little bit off the end of each to get exactly 48” for the seat and back. If you wanted to really maximize the size of the bench and minimize waste, you could measure the boards and cut them exactly in half (provided the two boards are identical in length). This would give you maybe up to an inch of additional length and save a cut or two. The one step that I did struggle slightly with was getting the ends lined up perfectly. There’s some fiddling required to get the angles and lengths right. In the end, one leg on one side was just a hair shorter and resulted in a slight wobble. I added a shim to the bottom of that short leg and it’s now solid. Maybe this isn’t the industry standard best way to fix such a problem, but I never claimed to be great at this. Perhaps the next bench will be better. I cannot recommend Rogue Engineer enough. His instructions and diagrams are amazing, his descriptions are very clear, and I really like what he stands for. There are a lot of projects that require some improvisation just because the instructions aren’t fully clear, but that is not the case with Rantz. Dude is fantastic. When I made this bench, materials were right in line with his listed average of $30-50. The lumber itself was $43.12 and the amount of screws and sealant used for the project was certainly less than $10, so $50 sounds about right. Obviously, it’s a bigger investment to buy larger quantities of screws and sealant, but I’m going to eventually use them anyway and it’s cheaper to buy more. 2-8-8 TC TREATED #2 PRIME $ 43.12 Item #: 278248 4 @ 10.78 DECK PLUS 2-1/2 IN EXT SC $ 49.98 Item #: 3485581 1 @ 49.98 128-FL OZ THOMPSONS S/T H $ 31.98 Item #: 773401 1 @ 31.98 I also decided to make a page with a quick summary and picture of all the woodworking projects I’ve completed. Rather than having to explicitly visit each of the posts for projects or search through my phone for the pictures, I figured a single page with a static URL would be convenient to have. If someone wanted to see what I was capable of when considering a commissioned project, that’s a lot easier and quicker. Individual posts are fine for extensive detail on a particular project, but I needed more of a portfolio summary.

Watch out, I get political. Rare, but it happens.   The Nexus 7 – Repurposed to be Useful Again I have one of the original 2012 edition Nexus 7 devices, and it has served many purposes.   When I first got a Nexus 7 (I’ve technically had 2. The first was tragically broken when I… Continue reading Words on Wednesday, November 26, 2014

During a recent vacation to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, I learned about the woeful unavailability of distilled spirits, and discovered a new brand of bourbon. favorite wing restaurant in the area if she knew of any good liquor stores around. She asked if I’d seen the cross up in the middle of town. I mean… yeah, sure, but what does that have to do with me looking for alcohol? She explained that Pigeon Forge is a dry city. There are no liquor stores within the city limits. Liquor & Wine of the Smokies and see what they had to offer. I decided before we arrived that I wanted a bottle of bourbon. Of all the types of distilled spirits, bourbon is pretty reliable in that even the cheap stuff will drink. I may prefer something a little more refined, but I haven’t yet encountered a bourbon that I wouldn’t drink. Unfortunately, the liquor store was extremely small, with very limited selection, and most of what they did have was much more expensive than what I wanted to pay. After a few moments, I noticed a fifth of T.W. Samuels with a $9 price tag. Bourbon that cheap would almost certainly be awful, but I figured I may as well try it. Not like I wanted to spend $30 or more on the other options they had in stock. When we returned to our cabin that evening, I poured a dram of my newly acquired bourbon to assess its quality. As I expected, it was undeniably harsh, with a stiff burn in the back of the throat. Given a better selection of reasonably priced bourbons, I can’t say that I would’ve chosen it again. Still, for $9 per fifth, it’ll drink. The bottle I picked up was 80 proof, standard for bourbon, but T.W. Samuels also offers a 100 proof “bottled in bond” variety that I’ll get to later. I wouldn’t recommend it straight, but it was more tolerable when mixed. For both dollar per alcohol content and dollar per quality in taste, the T.W. Samuels bourbon gives only mediocre value. It is definitely cheap, and that shows in the taste and harsh burn of the spirit. Given the option of paying slightly more for higher quality, I can definitely say I would pony up a little extra cash for something a little more smooth. Not to say that this bourbon is necessarily a bad deal. It seems right on the value line of getting what you pay for, but you aren’t getting something really good for a surprisingly cheap price. It’s just getting what you expect, or at least what I expected. While researching more about the T.W. Samuels bourbon, I did learn quite a bit. Per the online sources I’ve found, Heaven Hill is the distillery responsible for producing T.W. Samuels, and batches are seemingly quite rare. The original owner and namesake of the brand begot descendents who would eventually create the Maker’s Mark line, a bourbon known for its high quality and bottles hand dipped in wax. As an aside, I have still not yet tried Maker’s Mark, but I would be more than happy to sample it should any of my friends be willing to share. The original T.W. Samuels distillery closed down, but the buildings still stand in Nelson County, Kentucky. The area was apparently a mecca for bourbon distilleries in the mid- to late-1800s. This discovery also challenged my previous belief that true bourbon was exclusive to Bourbon County, Kentucky. It seems bourbon can come from a variety of places, and the connection to the county may only be coincidental. Equally likely, the bourbon name could come from an association with Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to the complex history of the T.W. Samuels family and brand, I also learned of the “Bottled in Bond” label that some bourbons hold. According to the federal government, “in the case of straight whisky bottled in conformity with the bottled in bond labeling requirements and of domestic or foreign whisky, whether or not mixed or blended, all of which is 4 years old or more, statements of age and percentage are optional” (CFR, 2018). Given this interesting distinction and the history behind it, I would love to pick up a “BIB” bourbon when I’m looking for something new to try. The bottom line is that you should always put alcohol on your vacation packing list. If you want something specific, pick it up in preparation of the trip and bring it with you. Don’t depend on the availability of liquor stores at your destination, or the selection that they may have. If you do want to try T.W. Samuels, don’t expect to get something better than what you’re paying for. The Bottled in Bond variant is apparently much better, according to some online forums, but I can attest that the 80 proof mixed bourbon is rough around the edges. It’ll do in a pinch, but I can’t see myself buying another bottle of it. References: Code of Federal Regulations. (2018, August 22). Title 27: Chapter I: Subchapter A: Part 5: Labeling and Advertising of Distilled Spirits. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=9b2a0a59ad7bdd15023465091823490c&n=27y1.0.1.1.3&r=PART&ty=HTML#27:1.0.1.1.3.3.25.1 Flaviar. (n.d.). T.W. Samuels Bourbon. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://flaviar.com/tw-samuels Fogfrog. (2008, December 14). T W Samuels. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://www.straightbourbon.com/community/topic/8525-t-w-samuels/ Lipman, J. F. (2003, September). American Spirits: A Visit to the Ruins of the T. W. Samuels Distillery. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from http://www.ellenjaye.com/ghosts-deatsville.htm Nix, R. (2017, March 14). Exploring Nelson County's abandoned T.W. Samuels Distillery. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://mintjuleptours.com/2017/03/14/exploring-nelson-countys-abandoned-t-w-samuels-distillery/ U/texacer. (2013, August 16). R/bourbon - T.W. Samuels Bottled in Bond: A review. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://www.reddit.com/r/bourbon/comments/1khv6y/tw_samuels_bottled_in_bond_a_review/ US Legal, Inc. (n.d.). Bottled in Bond Law and Legal Definition. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/bottled-in-bond/ Whiskeypedia. (n.d.). T. W. Samuels. Retrieved August 24, 2018, from http://whiskey.wikia.com/wiki/T._W._Samuels

I needed to restock on bourbon recently and I found a surprisingly decent bottle for surprisingly cheap. Name: Kentucky Gentleman Source:         Barton Distilling Company Style: Bourbon ABV: 40% Price: $8.95 Volume:         750ml Price per oz: $0.35 There’s a time for good bourbon, and there’s a time for cheap bourbon. There is no time for bad bourbon. Friends don’t let friends drink bad bourbon. What I wanted was cheap bourbon. Specifically, I wanted a handle of Evan Williams black label from Costco, but I didn’t feel like driving that far and I wouldn’t be driving back into the office for probably a few more weeks at least. I needed something to tide me over until I could restock the bourbon I actually wanted. The liquor store in the town over with the nice old man who doesn’t drink would have to do. I didn’t want to spend good bourbon money, but I also didn’t want to risk buying a bottle of bad bourbon. I looked around the store for a little while, just seeing what my options were. They had Jack Daniel’s on sale, but it was still $20 for a fifth. Yes, I know Jack Daniel’s isn’t bourbon, but it scratches the same itch. I’d take Tennessee whiskey or bourbon. They’re effectively interchangeable for my purposes. Eventually, I noticed the Kentucky Gentlemen sitting down near the floor at $8.95 for a fifth. It was a gamble, but I figured you never know until you try it. Sure, it could bite me the way T.W. Samuels did, but I couldn’t pan a bottle from a brand I had never tried. At less than $10, I decided I wasn’t out much if it was garbage. It at least looked a little better than T.W. Samuels. I picked up a bottle and brought it home. I poured a shot and braced myself for something potentially awful. Pleasantly surprising, it wasn’t bad. It obviously wasn’t good bourbon, but it wasn’t bad bourbon either. It was comfortably in the range of cheap bourbon. It mixes well, and it drinks straight in a pinch. Doing some research into the creators of Kentucky Gentleman, Barton Distilling Company was listed as the bottler. I wondered if it was the same Barton that makes the Kirkland Signature stuff I got a few years ago. Sure enough, “Barton Brands” makes both Kentucky Gentleman and 1792 Bourbon, along with a whole host of other distilled spirits. I’m not sure if “bottled by” suggests a different source of the liquid itself, but it’s under the same ownership at least. Makes sense that they would even try to keep the cheap stuff decent. Depending on the situation, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way for Kentucky Gentleman again, but it certainly would be in the short list of cheap bourbon if options are limited. If I had to pick between the two, I would likely choose Bird Dog over Kentucky Gentleman, but I also got Bird Dog on sale and I’m not sure how it compares at standard price. If I’m looking for cheap bourbon and a Costco run isn’t in the cards, Kentucky Gentleman does fit the bill and I wouldn’t turn down a bottle.

I hate new year's resolutions as a matter of principle, but I am overweight and unhealthy. That needs to change. If that coincides with the beginning of a new calendar year, so be it. I've expressed a lot of pessimism before about new year's resolutions. It seems pointless to wait for a new year to begin if you're making a resolution to do something good, especially when most people who make resolutions over-promise and under-deliver. I *know* how flaky we are as human beings, so I *know* there isn't much point in making a resolution at all. Validity of new year's resolutions aside, I need to lose weight. I've struggled to maintain a healthy weight for most of my life. I was big as a kid. When my blood pressure tested high at the beginning of 10th grade when I was 315 lbs, I spent basically a full year drinking tons of water, eating healthy, walking about 4 miles every day, and playing an absurd amount of Dance Dance Revolution. By my junior year, I was down to 225 lbs. In the years since, I climbed slowly back up. Around 240 lbs, my family said that I looked healthier than I did at 225. I knew it was a problem when I got around 275-280. At different points, I would try a little harder and either lose some weight or stay steady for a time, but those were all pretty short-lived. Eventually, I got to 290 and hovered in that range for a while. During my time at QS/1, I participated in yearly biggest loser competitions. In short, a group of people would each pay $20 for the goal of losing 10 lbs across a few months. Those who did not meet the goal forfeit their money; those who did lose at least 10 lbs split the remaining pot. It worked well for several years, since it started in January as we were coming off the holidays. I would typically start in the mid 290s and drop to the mid 270s, winning my share of the contest money. Since I left QS/1, I haven't had the opportunity to participate in any competitions like that. It's a shame, because I am extremely motivated by money, and that yearly cycle at least kept me from gaining weight perpetually. I always started the year by dropping 15 or 20 lbs that I would inevitably gain back through the year. There exist independent programs like that, I realize, but I'm less inclined to seek those out. Biggest loser was just... there. In the couple of years since then, that default weight has hovered closer and closer to 300 lbs. I will occasionally hit 300, panic, and aggressively diet and exercise back down to the low 290s. The problem is sustainability. I eventually get slack with the dieting, I start snacking more between meals, and I skip exercising more and more until I stop entirely. This past year, I started the wondr program, sponsored by my wife's medical insurance. It was available for free, and the cyclical weekly routine seemed like it could keep me engaged for a longer duration. In turn, that might help me build good habits, rather than the short term crash diets that I had tried occasionally for a few years. In the beginning, wondr was actually really helpful. The first few weeks expect less from you. They start with just monitoring: weighing yourself, paying attention to what you eat and when, just being more cognizant of your lifestyle. Then, you only change *when* you eat. Instead of aggressively changing your diet or starving yourself, they recommend that you only eat when you're at a "hunger level 3," or hungry enough to eat a full meal. I actually saw some decent progress during those weeks and got down to the high 280s for the first time in quite a while. However, this is when I started to hit a disconnect with the wondr program. They suggested that before you eat, you should engage with the food in other ways. Look at the food, smell the food, think about the way eating the food will make you feel. I understand that my relationship with food probably isn't exactly healthy, but that seemed like an even *less* healthy relationship if I'm sniffing my plate and fantasizing about my food every time I'm going to eat. The straw that broke the camel's back with wondr was when they started about disassociating food from celebration. You shouldn't celebrate with food, so don't reward yourself with things like sweet treats. As much as I philosophically understand that, it felt very sterile and unnatural. When they recommended that at parties or celebration events, you should just... *not* participate with the food? I checked out. I'm not going to refuse to have cake at a birthday party, sorry. Unfortunately, after I dipped out from the weekly wondr activities, I also started neglecting the valuable skills that I had picked up from the program. Instead of drinking water before every meal and waiting until a hunger level 3 to eat, I started snacking more, drinking less water, and overeating. That weight loss I had achieved quickly dissolved. After winter break, with my wife and kids back in school, I really wanted to tackle sustainable weight loss that could eventually transition into maintenance rather than a traditional diet just to hit a number. Beyond that, I wanted to add strength training for a more whole body wellness. I have some adjustable dumbbells that a friend gave me when he upgraded, plus a treadmill and bike that is hooked to a stationary base for cardio. My youngest wanted a punching bag for Christmas last year, so Santa brought him one of the inflatable ones that uses sand in the base for stability. That was a mess and frequently deflates, so this year we bought him a 100 lb bag and stand. With the proper tools, I just need to be more incentived to use them. I love data and tracking, and I've been using Google Forms to track my weight. For the next few weeks, I want to envision a good exercise schedule, as well as proper metrics to track. This should help me with accountability, as well as providing visibility on progress. I understand that wellness improvement is often difficult to see at the day-to-day scale, so I want to make sure I'm creating data points that will allow me to monitor over weeks and months. As for goal, I hate to put an explicit number on it, but I do want to use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or Attainable), Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals. I don't want something that I'll see as a finish line and then abandon the habits once I get there, but I also don't want something so aggressive that I couldn't possibly reach it. The biggest loser program typically used a 10 lbs in 10 weeks model, and that worked really well. It wasn't punishing, it allowed plenty of grace for bad weeks, and I was able to meet my goal every time I tried it. Expanding that pace to a full year is a little more optimistic, but I think it fits if we're going for a new year's resolution. One pound per week for 52 weeks. On Monday, January 5th, I weighed 302.5 lbs. If I stick with it for a full year, that should leave me at precisely 250 lbs by this time next year. I haven't been that weight in literal years, since probably 2010 or so. It sounds crazy, but one pound each week seems simple and achievable. I also don't want it to be a simple pass or fail. If I start January 2027 at 251 lbs, I would technically have failed my goal, but it would be better progress than I've seen since high school. I'm calling 250 the optimistic goal, if I lose an average of one pound per week for a full year. For a much more pessimistic goal, we'll cut that 52 lbs in half to 26; one pound every other week, or half a pound per week. That would leave me at 276 lbs, still lower than I've been since 2020 during that last biggest loser competition. The biggest problem I'm anticipating is summer vacation. It's much easier to stick with an established diet or exercise when I'm home alone during the day. With the rest of the family here, I find it so much harder to avoid snacks, and sitting on the couch just seems so much more fun. I haven't yet determined a solution there, but I'm thinking of some sort of time-based answer. During certain times, I can veg out with the family. However, if I have designated workout times, I have to make a conscious decision to neglect the exercise. It may or may not work, but I have plenty of time to come up with other theories. To make sure that I don't get to Thanksgiving and realize I didn't lose a single pound, I want to have periodic check-ins with my goal. March 16th is that 10-week point that would normally be the end of biggest loser, so I think that's the next logical check-in. Ideally, I've done remarkably well and I've already lost MORE than 10 lbs at that point. At worst, I haven't lost enough and I need to be more aggressive with the diet and exercise. I want to come up with a good incentive for myself. If I DO meet my goals, what's the reward? I haven't figured that out yet, and in the long term, I would like the health improvement to be its own reward. Until then, I know I need a carrot on a stick to motivate myself. Maybe it's some new piece of exercise equipment, possibly new cookware to make healthy meals, or it might just be a new video game to get more fun out of my leisure time. I'm certainly not naive enough to believe a blog post will make or break my fitness goals, but it's a mark in the sand. It's an explicit declaration of intent. I want to be at a healthier weight for myself, but I want total wellness to make sure I'm around for my family into the future. It's easy to lose sight of that on the shorter term, but I want to make myself take stock of that goal periodically to ensure I'm doing everything I can. Here's to a healthier 2026.

I started replaying The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim again recently and I forgot just how much I enjoyed the game. In the past few years, I’ve been fairly… disconnected with gaming. Sure, I was an avid gamer in my teens and early 20s. I had kids and that occupied a lot of my time. I switched jobs a couple times, started school again, gaming just fell to the wayside. Gaming is a passtime rather than a way of life for me, but I didn’t have much extraneous time to pass. Runescape and Rollercoaster Tycoon were about the only recurring games I played, and only because they could be played in short sessions on my phone, so the barrier for entry was pretty low. Having recently finished school, I’ve found substantially more free time. Not to say that I have as much free time as I did in high school, but I do have a few spare moments here and there to explore some old passions. I played through Super Mario Wonder with the kids and really enjoyed that. We try to get in a few sessions of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Smash Bros Ultimate a few evenings each week. It’s nice to get some time with a controller again. Still, something was missing. I wanted to play something different, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was skimming through the library’s collection of Switch games, and I noticed they had a few copies of Skyrim with all the DLC included. I hadn’t touched Skyrim since I got the platinum trophy for it on May 21, 2013. It seemed like a reasonable game to replay after a decade, since it was so critically acclaimed and I remember enjoying it during college. I put in a hold and picked it up. A week or two went by before I got the opportunity to play at all. Between household responsibilities and the kids hogging both Switches, I just didn’t get a chance. When I finally sat down to play it one evening, I didn’t really expect to get hooked. I would play through the intro segment, maybe run through a dungeon or two, and probably send it back to the library then. I had no anticipation that I would stick to it for any substantial duration. As the opening cinematic played, with a gradual fade from black with a point of view perspective from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, I got hit with a deluge of nostalgia. That first night playing after the midnight release on November 11, 2011 was like yesterday. All of the memes that ended with that familiar fade in were like a language that all gamers spoke. I had forgotten just what a cultural phenomenon this game was. All of my friends were playing it. The midnight release was without a doubt the largest and most popular that I had participated in. And the fact that I got the very first copy sold from the Dorman Center GameStop, it’s a weird little trivium about me that a generation of gamers can resonate with. Skyrim, man. I forgot how good it was. I had watched a few speed runs of it in recent years, but clipping through a wall with a bowl to escape the first encounter with a dragon and getting a horse pointed straight up to build up insane speed and run through the game in some weird glitch state just aren’t the same. Playing this game casually is an experience that doesn’t look anything like the speed tech that runners use, and I didn’t realize how bad I missed it. I played for maybe an hour in that first session, getting through the initial few objectives until the game sets you loose. I made a Khajiit build with a focus on stealth and archery. Unlike many people who have played through Skyrim with many different builds across dozens of attempts, I only ever played it a single time. When I got it on PS3, I made a Nord Spellsword and played through to completion. In the years since then, I have discovered that I like more of a stealth build and ranged weapons of a hunter are much more aligned with my play style. Magic? Who cares about spells? I’d rather just creep up from a distance and take you out with a single arrow. Stealth bow.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/0qta4ZkLak — Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 9, 2023 I started getting in a short session most evenings after the kids went to bed. Maybe 30 minutes, just enough to hit an objective or two, find another few markers on the map. The first few steps into the dungeon to find the Golden Claw really set the hook for me. I was sneaking in and heard bandits talking up ahead. As soon as they were in sight, I drew my bow and got a stealth kill on the first. Before the second could find me, I drew my bow again and dropped him. Just like that, I was in for the long haul. I knew I would at the bare minimum be playing through to the fight with Alduin. Skyrim hits all of the best dopamine receptors for me. That steady drip of map markers to find just keeps me coming back. The combat is fun and rewarding, but not specifically very difficult. The environments are lush and full. I love exploring, and Skyrim does that so well. I’m so glad I picked it back up. Replaying this old favorite has been such a rewarding experience. Dragon slayer.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/jkE1LBZDt6 — Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 11, 2023 Now that I do have the time to play a little more, I have to decide what I want to play when I’m finished with Skyrim. Fortunately, the library makes it easy to try new games for free, rather than sink money on something I hope I’ll like and be forced to play through it to get some kind of return on my investment. I don’t want to just replay all of the games that I enjoyed from a decade ago, I do need to try out some of the newer options. I own Resident Evil 6 that I purchased as a bundle a few years ago and played maybe an hour of. Plus, the Metroidvania genre seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, and that’s my favorite type of video game without a doubt. Hunter.#Skyrim #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/34OtSMaQWJ — Jake Hennett (@JakeHennett) December 9, 2023 We’ll see where life takes me. I do think I’ll keep some sort of more adult single player game on the back burner to play here and there when the kids aren’t watching. I can play through Zelda or Metroid games with an audience, but I don’t exactly want to instill the values of indiscriminately slaying every evil human I come across and scalping animals to make leather armor and independently destroy the economy of Whiterun. The kids can discover those joys on their own in a few years.

My kids have been reading the Wings of Fire series, so I decided to pick up the first book and see how it was. Dragons are cool and I like high fantasy, so it seemed like a decent option in the young adult fiction realm. The general premise as described by the prophecy itself is that five dragons of destiny will come forward to end the war. It's maybe a little cliché, but I think high fantasy gets a pass for that in a lot of cases. A group of unlikely heroes bands together to do something that seems impossible. It's a concept we've heard countless times before, and the quality of the work comes down to the execution. One curiosity with Sutherland's presentation is the anthropomorphism of dragons and the zoomorphism (I had to look that one up) of humans. The dragons talk in plain English, they have cultures in a complex and nuanced society, they ARE the main characters. Humans (or "scavengers" as they are called in this book) appear in some capacity, usually captives forced to fight dragons for sport, and they speak in squeaks and grunts. It's interesting to have the traditional pattern of high fantasy dragons turned on its head. Like with a lot of young adult fiction, the characters can seem juvenile at times. Yes, the core characters are youth and you would expect it with them, but even adult characters are somewhat over-simplified for the sake of the intended audience. Sutherland does touch on some difficult topics with grace, so I do have to applaud her ability to be accessible without losing depth. Still, don't read this series as an adult expecting an adult book. The first arc contains five books: one for the perspective of each destined dragonet. There are also subsequent arcs, for a total of 15 current books and a 16th book from a fourth arc to be released in March 2026. If you like The Dragonet Prophecy, there is fortunately a TON of material already available and Sutherland continues to write more. One thing I found really cool is that there are also graphic novel editions for at least some of the books. Audiobooks are standard fare and my preferred method of consumption, but I think graphic novels are super accessible and something that might get younger kids into reading. Start them on something really digestible and maybe they migrate to the novels when they want something more dense. I don't know if I personally will read the rest of the series (maybe The Dragonet Prophecy arc at least), but I love to see anything that gets kids into reading, and I'm so glad that Sutherland has met with some success and continues to write sequels. Whatever sparks that first literary love is always important, and I'm glad to see my kids have found a series that they really enjoy. Resources: Sutherland, T. T., & McManus, S. (2012). The dragonet prophecy: Wings of fire, book 1. Scholastic.

I was big on murder mystery novels a couple years back, and I have a hard time leaving a series unfinished unless I just truly hate one of the books. Hence, I decided to revisit the Hawthorne series for the third book that had since been released after I read the first two. The one thing I can tell you is that I would be an awful detective. Up until the very end, I don’t have a clue who committed the crime. Sure, I’ll throw out theories while I’m reading. Occasionally, one of those theories does coincide with the final resolution, but nothing makes it any more special than the dozen or so theories I floated around. When the big reveal comes, I am consistently surprised. Great for the satisfaction of reading, but don’t expect me to solve any crimes for you. Given that disclaimer, I can’t tell you how easily this mystery would have been solved by someone with a more keen eye for detail. The clues make sense when they’re finally laid out clearly and directly at the end, but I wouldn’t have made those conclusions on my own. My understanding is that a murder mystery that a moderately keen reader can solve near the beginning probably isn’t much of a mystery at all, and hence probably not a great read. If you tend to solve the mystery before it’s revealed more often than not, this book report probably isn’t applicable to you. As for the book, I’d call it good, but not great. The names aren’t particularly memorable to me, but the voices as portrayed by the narrator Rory Kinnear did give much more unique and nuanced representations of the characters. Something about the plot felt Agatha Christie-esque, in the way that several strangers come together in an unfamiliar locale where a murder occurs, a la “And Then There Were None,” albeit with not quite so much forethought. I didn’t mind it, but I wasn’t notably interested in it either. Hawthorne and Anthony as characters present more of the same banter and occasionally humorous exchanges. If you liked them in previous novels, you’ll still like them here. If nothing else, they carry the rest of the novel that I might otherwise have grown bored of. Besides, I needed to see the real verdict after the red herrings were cleared. The strength of this novel (at least in its audiobook format) is probably its brevity. The entire work is just shy of 9 hours, which I finished in 6 and a half hours with a slightly faster playback speed. All of the details are on the table at roughly the halfway mark, maybe 5 hours, and the remainder is a sequence of following up leads and eliminating would-be culprits. Anything substantially longer, and I think I would’ve become detrimentally apathetic. The characters aren’t really likable or dislikable besides notable exceptions, and that isn’t enough to keep me drawn into the book. If you’ve already read the first two books in the Hawthorne series, you definitely owe it to yourself to read the third as well. I can’t say whether this is the last book to be written about Hawthorne. The final chapter certainly sets up some tentative leads for another sequel to address, but they could just as easily be put to rest without a huge cliffhanger. If another Hawthorne book comes out, I’ll definitely give it a shot, but I also wouldn’t necessarily be hurt if that’s the end. All in all, the book was fine. “Mid” as the cool kids say. I’m not going out of my way to recommend the Hawthorne series to everybody, but it’s a decent series to pick up if you enjoy murder mysteries.

Hard Seltzer is the hot thing lately, and Costco finally got in on the game. Say hello to Kirkland Signature Hard Seltzer Name: Hard Seltzer Source: Kirkland Signature (Costco) Style: Seltzer ABV: 5.0% Price: $19.99 per 24 pack Volume: 12 oz Price per oz: $0.83 per can Everybody has tried a hard seltzer at this point, and every company that makes alcohol is selling their own version. Truly was the first one that I can recall. Soon after, we started seeing hard seltzer from White Claw. Then, household names like Budweizer and Jose Cuervo started making hard seltzer. It’s everywhere. It only makes sense that Costco would eventually throw their lot in. At my local warehouse, you can get a 24 pack for $19.99 plus tax. The distribution is 6 cans of each flavor: Mango, Grapefruit, Black Cherry, and Lime. Let me just point out how much I love the even distribution. I hate it when companies do more of one flavor than others. Those flavors seem to be pretty standard for hard seltzers, especially with lime being available everywhere. How are they? Decent. They’re great for buzz maintenance and casual drinking alike. I don’t love any of them individually, but I’d take the lot without gripe or complaint. White Claw may be marginally better than Kirkland Signature, but KS is way better than Truly. Plus, I think Costco is the cheapest of the bunch (as it should be). If you like hard seltzer, Kirkland Signature is worth trying. If you don’t, this isn’t anything revolutionary. Don’t expect these to make a believer of you, they’re just a little easier on the wallet.

One of my favorite pastimes with my family is watching old VHS home videos. I want to generate that same experience for my kids, but today's media doesn't really seem to have the same sensation. These videos of my childhood all have a sort of specific feel to them. Long form movies, these typically took up the entirety of a VHS tape, about 80 minutes or so if I recall. Scenes might run for several minutes of us just doing household things. Maybe it was a birthday party, or it could be the one time my cousin tried to make a documentary about trees. In any case, it was a live action glimpse into that period of time. I still need to digitize those videos. We have tons of them somewhere or another, and I know that tape media will most definitely degrade over time. If I can convert those to mp4 now and properly store them, they’ll be preserved for years into the future. I might just burn them to DVD and watch that instead of the original VHS. Who has a VCR nowadays anyway? Fast forward to today, I probably have significantly more videos of my kids by time. The difference is that most of these are very short clips. If I’m recording from my phone especially, most individual videos are probably 30 seconds to a minute. And instead of sitting down as a family to watch them for an extended time, I’ll just show one or two clips to individuals here and there. It’s a very different scenario. The closest thing to those old VHS tapes is video that I take on my GoPro. I’ll sometimes do short clips, but other times I’ll hit record and sit the camera on a bookshelf or something. Especially around Christmas, this gives a longer individual shot, and it feels much more like those home videos of yesteryear. Sometimes I’ll capture a specific event, but other times I just want to document my life for that short time. These videos were especially touching when I recently watched through some footage from Christmas last year. My grandfather passed away several months ago, and seeing him alive and moving again was very special. Part of me wants to edit together some of those clips into a longer single movie, and show my family when we all gather this year. I want my kids to be able to sit down in 10 or 20 years and watch bits of their childhood, not in individual clips from some folder I happened across, but in an extended movie. I want to remember what life was like through video. There’s something of a ritual about dusting off an old tape and configuring the VCR to play it properly. What do we have like that today? What will we have in the next decades?

As of Saturday, August 27, I have been blogging for 2 years. It’s funny how the date sneaks up on me. I’ll check TimeHop one day and see where I published the first post on Google+ now 2 years ago. I find it kinda crazy how something I started on an absolute whim has lasted… Continue reading 2016-08-31 Two Years Blogging

I’m not typically a huge fan of cider, but I’ll try just about anything once, and I’m a sucker for limited availability stuff, and I do love supporting small, local businesses. Hence, I had to get some of the hard cider that Sky Top orchard produces. Let me just point out that Sky Top is awesome. It’s been a fall tradition in my family for the past few years. They have tons of varieties of apples available, and they have awesome apple cider and apple cider donuts. In case you missed it, here it is again: apple cider donuts. One more time. Apple. Cider. Donuts. Anyway, moving on. We noticed last year that they have a hard apple cider, in addition to their jugs of just normal cider. I’m weird in that I love a good quality non-alcoholic apple cider, but hard cider just isn’t my thing. I can’t place why. My wife, however, loves cider. Hence, we’ll get new ciders for her to try on occasion, and I’ll finish them off if she doesn’t like them. Otherwise, I steer clear. But again, Sky Top orchard has apple cider donuts. They put apple cider in the batter, and after they come out of the oil, they toss the donuts in cinnamon sugar. These things are heavenly. If you live within an hour or so, you owe it to yourself to come by and get some. These things are amazing. At least, they’re amazing within the first 30 minutes after they’re made. They get soggy real fast, so you have to eat them basically immediately. You can take some home, but you’ll just be disappointed if you eat them hours later or the next day. Fresh, though? Incredible. Alas, back to the alcohol. The hard cider at Sky Top is a little premium. You can get a gallon jug of the normal stuff for $9 (which is a great deal for that quality), or you can get a single bottle of hard cider for $6. I think the bottle is 500 ml, which is slightly larger than a standard beer or cider, but not much. You’re paying quite near bar premium prices for this cider. But it is local business, and it’s only available seasonally. I’ll give it a pass for that situation. Donuts. Apple Cider Donuts. You need these things in your life. During our annual trip to Sky Top this year, we decided to pick up a bottle of the hard cider, in addition to our standard haul of apples, normal cider, and donuts. DONUTS. For all we know, we could be missing out on some grade A, top notch cider. If it’s really, really good, I could see getting a bottle or two each year when they’re open. We get home, hard cider in tow, and donuts already long gone. Obviously, we toss the cider in the refrigerator to chill. The best beer is free beer, and the second best beer is cold beer. A few days later, we cracked open the bottle and split it into glasses. The hard cider is very clear, with an amber color typical of ciders. The smell is apple-y, as usual. It’s slightly more carbonated than I notice of most ciders. The flavor, though, is super dry. Like super, super dry. For someone who normally doesn’t care much for ciders anyway, and the ones I do like are ridiculously sweet, the flavor just as not appealing. If you like dry ciders, this might be your thing. Otherwise, it seems like it would be considered a good cider. I just couldn’t get over how dry it was. And I realize that’s a personal preference. I’d still highly recommend checking out Sky Top, because it’s an awesome place. If you’re a cider drinker, that could just be a worthy add-on. The donuts, though. Go, get some apple cider donuts, get them immediately. You can thank me later.

I recently started trying to find a good Army Navy surplus store around me, and I’ve learned that they have nearly gone extinct. cheap camping gear like paracord, the fact that I could use a new pair of BDUs, and the sheer joy of window shopping, I really just wanted to go to one and peruse their wares. I might pick up something if I found anything I could make use of at a good price. Military specification bags and knives are supposedly some of the best, and I’d like to try out a canvas belt like I’ve heard of some people finding at surplus stores. Plus, people seem to rave about the thermal poncho liner, or “woobie” as I hear it referred to among those who know of its excellence. I hadn’t gone to one in several years, so it seemed like the time to go see what any local stores had on hand. still be in business, but it was too far away for a lunch break trip. Ideally, I wanted somewhere close enough that I could swing by, look at what they had, and get back to work on time. online catalog with their warehouse listed on the map. There was no storefront, so no way for me to actually look over their physical goods as I wanted to do. One store in particular, I actually ended up purchasing some shoes from. These are all well and good (arguably superior, since you can see all of their products from the comfort of your home), but it’s just not the same as going to a physical store and looking around at what they have. It’s almost like going to pawn shops and looking for bypassed treasures. how surplus stores work. Apparently, surplus stores attend auctions for collections of military surplus goods. These stores buy up items in lots at the auctions, and sell them individually at their own location. bundles of 100’ for $10 or less. That nylon belt that I was curious about? Amazon has them for $8 or so, in a variety of colors and styles. You can even buy a box of MREs from Amazon, which I long thought nearly impossible to obtain.These options are even better than a catalog. I can see current inventory, order what I want, and have it delivered to my door in 2 days or pick it up on the same day in some cases. Why even bother going to a specific store that may or may not have what I want, when I can throw a bundle of paracord in the buggy with my weekly grocery run?

In the years since COVID-19 forced us all home for a while, remote work has been a hot topic. There are compelling arguments for and against remote work, and I think a nuanced approach is critical. However, many people fall to one extreme or the other, and I really think the industry needs an honest conversation about the merits and limitations of a hybrid or remote schedule. To confess any bias at the very beginning, I am heavily in favor of remote work. I said to a recruiter once that the only way I would take an in-office job again is if I were unemployed and needed the money. There are extremely few benefits that would be compelling enough to entice me into taking a hybrid or fully in-office job, and I would probably need double my current salary if it were a monetary decision. Furthermore, I planted roots when I built my house here. A relocation bonus is irrelevant, I’m not leaving upstate SC. BUT, that’s just my personal opinion on the matter. There are other points to consider. One style that I think goes under-appreciated is what my coworkers and I call “full option.” For many businesses, especially startups and small companies, there may not be a physical office available. If enough of the workforce can handle their responsibilities from home, the costs associated with a physical office space simply may not be worth it. For those who do like to occasionally go into the office, this could be a problem. You don’t have anywhere to go without renting a physical space somewhere. That’s one big benefit of Lima. We do have a physical office, and we all tend to go in roughly once a month to coordinate and get lunch together. The biggest argument I hear in favor of hybrid and in-office positions is the culture. Supporters claim that you need to physically gather with your coworkers to build an office culture, and they suggest that this office culture builds morale. I can certainly agree that I am not as close with fully remote coworkers as I am with those that occasionally come into the office, but personally, I can’t say I care about culture at a potential employer. I do frequently ask in interviews, “how’s the culture,” but this is more of a gauge of burnout, churn, and employee satisfaction. I don’t actually care about being personally acquainted with my work team. Another factor that in-office and hybrid models gain is the fabled “water cooler conversation.” The idea is that if you’re physically around your coworkers, there are going to be impromptu conversations just by virtue of being near each other. These conversations are going to occasionally cultivate business solutions that may not have originated otherwise. While those do happen, and I have personally been part of them, I don’t think it’s a substantial barrier against the genesis of new ideas. If you have a highly connected remote team that is frequently communicating through group chats anyway, those same ideas are eventually going to come up even digitally. On the flip side, I think the biggest benefit for remote work is a better work-life balance. As I write this, I am sitting home with a sick child. This would have required the use of a sick day if I were an in-office employee, or potentially with hybrid work depending on when it happened. I can throw in a load of dishes or clothes between meetings. Toward the end of the day, I can lay out ingredients for dinner so that I can be ready to cook as soon as I get off. And for someone that lives about an hour from the office, the difference between getting off while the sun is up and getting home pretty well after dark is substantial. As a remote employee, I see my family more, I get more done around the house, and none of it impacts my ability to do my job. Something that cannot be ignored is the environmental impact of commuting to the office. My round trip is roughly 80 miles, every time I go into the office. My truck gets conservatively about 20 miles per gallon of gas. I’m burning about 4 gallons of gas every time I go in. While my case is perhaps more extreme (I live further away than most of my team and my vehicle is less fuel-efficient), this quickly adds up when applied to every single team member. Those miles are arguably unnecessary, yet the contribute substantially to pollution. That’s saying nothing of the cost of fuel or the time investment for the drive. Pollution cleared out measurably in the early days of quarantine, and I think it could be consistently reduced if more employers offered remote work. One of the most contentious elements is employee productivity. I can’t count the number of studies that assert definitive proof that employees are more or less productive when remote versus in-office. Unfortunately, there is a lot of nuance in this that can’t easily be captured in most studies. The specific line of work seems to have an impact, where roles like software engineer tend to be more productive from home, while call center jobs appear more productive with employees physically in the office. Furthermore, the individual employee’s preferences play a part. Some people on my team claim to be more efficient in the office, while I have clearly seen that I get nothing done when I go in. There are so many conversations with other teams and employees when I go to the office, the only productive work I get done is when we go into meetings. A concession that I will give to in-office work is collaboration. There are tons of collaboration software options, and lots of “digital whiteboards” or ways to mutually work on the same document, but they just can’t beat an old fashioned whiteboard in a physical conference room when you’re trying to hash out some architecture or process discussion. That, to me, is the single largest benefit of a hybrid schedule or full option. When we have lots of meetings that just involve keeping teams in sync or “heads down” development work, we stay home and get the work done. But when we’re trying to plan out some complicated project and need that tangible back and forth, we plan to go in and discuss things together. We’ll share a meeting link with video for those very distant employees and get a lot of collaboration done. We just have to remember to record what we find before we all forget it. The industry is going to follow top talent, no matter what individual companies would have you believe. Elon Musk can demand employees come back or lose their jobs all he wants, but some other company offering remote work and a competitive salary is going to poach all of the best engineers. There will be substantial back and forth, and we’ve already seen quite a bit of that. Huge trends toward remote, followed by panic reversal, and then a whole bunch of layoffs. The software engineering industry is extremely volatile right now, but it’s going to settle down at some point in the next few years. After the dust settles, I think we will have a good mix of jobs that range from fully in-office to fully remote with no option to go in. Some companies are very proud of their hybrid or in-office culture, and some employees are actively searching for that kind of team. Other companies will excel in the remote space, and that’s the kind of place I want to be. Whether you like it or not, remote work is here to stay. I just don’t think it has to be all or nothing, and employees and companies in the industry need to come to a common understanding on that.

Of all the things I might discuss for the first Thirsty Thursday Eve post, Costco’s Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum seemed to be the most appropriate. I love everything from Costco anyway, and their drinks are no different. I recommend it to pretty much anyone who partakes in alcohol, and I always have a bottle up on the shelf. It may not be the single best distilled spirit I’ve ever had, but it’s really good, and really cheap. Price is the biggest selling point for this spiced rum. I can get a 1.75 L handle from my local Costco for $15. I don’t know of another liquor you can get for that cheap, let alone something worth drinking. Some quick math shows us that 1.75 L is approximately 60 oz. For a 1.5 oz shot, you can get right at 40 shots from a handle. This comes out to about 37.5 cent per shot. You get a shot of rum for less than 40 cent. This stuff is cheap. The bottom line here is value. There are better liquors. There are cheaper liquors. However, getting this quality at this price is something I haven’t seen in anything else. For only $15, you aren’t breaking the bank to have a good time, and you don’t have to save it for special occasions. At the same time, it’s good enough to share with friends and not feel like you’re giving them leftover swill. If nothing else, it’s worth picking up a bottle to try. If you hate it, you’re only out $15, and I’ll take the rest of it off your hands. Sources: Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum St. Croix Island. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/kirkland-signature-original-spiced-rum-st-croix-island.507933/ Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum, 1.75L. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.costco.co.uk/Food-Wine-Household/Spirits/Rum/Kirkland-Signature-Original-Spiced-Rum-175L/p/819195 Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum, Saint Croix, United States Virgin Islands: Prices. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/kirkland signature original spice rum st croix united virgin island caribbean Kirkland Spiced. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rumratings.com/brands/2076-kirkland-spiced LLC, P. (n.d.). Kirkland Signature Spiced Rum. Retrieved from https://www.proof66.com/rum/kirkland-signature-spiced-rum.html Rum questions/discussions. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ministryofrum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6280 The Best Top Shelf Rum Brands. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ranker.com/list/best-top-shelf-rum-brands/ranker-shopping

My kids have been reading the Wings of Fire series, so I decided to pick up the first book and see how it was. Dragons are cool and I like high fantasy, so it seemed like a decent option in the young adult fiction realm. The general premise as described by the prophecy itself is that five dragons of destiny will come forward to end the war. It's maybe a little cliché, but I think high fantasy gets a pass for that in a lot of cases. A group of unlikely heroes bands together to do something that seems impossible. It's a concept we've heard countless times before, and the quality of the work comes down to the execution. One curiosity with Sutherland's presentation is the anthropomorphism of dragons and the zoomorphism (I had to look that one up) of humans. The dragons talk in plain English, they have cultures in a complex and nuanced society, they ARE the main characters. Humans (or "scavengers" as they are called in this book) appear in some capacity, usually captives forced to fight dragons for sport, and they speak in squeaks and grunts. It's interesting to have the traditional pattern of high fantasy dragons turned on its head. Like with a lot of young adult fiction, the characters can seem juvenile at times. Yes, the core characters are youth and you would expect it with them, but even adult characters are somewhat over-simplified for the sake of the intended audience. Sutherland does touch on some difficult topics with grace, so I do have to applaud her ability to be accessible without losing depth. Still, don't read this series as an adult expecting an adult book. The first arc contains five books: one for the perspective of each destined dragonet. There are also subsequent arcs, for a total of 15 current books and a 16th book from a fourth arc to be released in March 2026. If you like The Dragonet Prophecy, there is fortunately a TON of material already available and Sutherland continues to write more. One thing I found really cool is that there are also graphic novel editions for at least some of the books. Audiobooks are standard fare and my preferred method of consumption, but I think graphic novels are super accessible and something that might get younger kids into reading. Start them on something really digestible and maybe they migrate to the novels when they want something more dense. I don't know if I personally will read the rest of the series (maybe The Dragonet Prophecy arc at least), but I love to see anything that gets kids into reading, and I'm so glad that Sutherland has met with some success and continues to write sequels. Whatever sparks that first literary love is always important, and I'm glad to see my kids have found a series that they really enjoy. Resources: Sutherland, T. T., & McManus, S. (2012). The dragonet prophecy: Wings of fire, book 1. Scholastic.

Because of some work initiatives, I’ve started digging into books on leadership. My manager recommended a few, and “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (or just “7 Habits”) was the first available from the library. With little else to go on, I decided it was a reasonable place to start. My expectations were admittedly set very low. At a glance, “7 Habits” looks like just another book about self-improvement, with a bunch of buzzwords and very little actionable material. However, I wanted to give it a solid attempt before I panned the book as complete trash. The funny thing about the habits themselves is they aren’t exactly hidden; Covey has them listed and described in plain view on his site. I’ll even drop them right here, it isn’t a secret. These are not some ancient gnostic wisdom that get you into an occult club. It’s just a way of thinking about things. Habit 1: Be Proactive® Focus and act on what you can control and influence instead of what you can’t. Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind® Define clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them. Habit 3: Put First Things First® Prioritize and achieve your most important goals instead of constantly reacting to urgencies. Habit 4: Think Win-Win® Collaborate more effectively by building high-trust relationships. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood® Influence others by developing a deep understanding of their needs and perspectives. Habit 6: Synergize® Develop innovative solutions that leverage differences and satisfy all key stakeholders. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw® Increase motivation, energy, and work/life balance by making time for renewing activities. (https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/) It would be really easy to glaze over those and describe them as common sense. And honestly, they really are common sense. What the book accomplishes is connecting real world application with the habits, and explaining how they work together to greater effect. Working on how well you follow one habit equips you to better follow the other habits. I would be remiss to ignore the fact that there are a few cliché mnemonics in the book. Responsible - response able - you can control your response. Rationalize - rational lies - you’re telling yourself rational lies to justify. There are a couple more, but they all feel a little cringe. I understand what Covey is getting at, but I can’t help rolling my eyes when he gives little quips like that. If you can give them a pass, they really aren’t too pervasive. All in all, “7 Habits” is about new ways to look at yourself, your problems, and the world around you. Perspective, rather than action, is the first step toward becoming more effective and efficient in anything you do. If you can recognize shortcomings and bad habits, you can begin to redress them. To pull an analogy straight from the book, it is better to remove your foot from the brake than to push the gas harder to overcome the brake. If you want a quick and easy way to turn your life around with one small action, this ain’t it. Covey admits that himself. The difference, to again quote the book, is that quick fixes treat the symptom without ever treating the cause. Eventually, the root cause will bring back the symptoms. Instead, look at “7 Habits” as a sort of analysis on motives and decision making. Covey does give some anecdotal examples, but they’re just that: examples. He isn’t saying that you have to do things his way. He just illustrates how these habits play out in real life, and demonstrates one or two particular ways that the reader could use for inspiration. Personally, the 7th habit of sharpening the saw really resonates with me. Covey explains how the 7 day week is really ideal for a sort of cyclical pattern of action and review. Day to day cycles are often too short to get a good look at how you tend to spend your time. Monthly or longer is often too long to really sum everything up. Weekly is short enough to get a tight feedback loop, but long enough to allow some play in time frames. For me, and especially in my professional life, it looks a lot like the sprint cycles of Agile software development. You start at the beginning by planning what you want to achieve and how you want to do it. You spend the sprint duration working toward the goals. At the end of the sprint, you review what you did and how it went. If changes need to be made, you detail those and apply them to the next sprint. Rinse and repeat. “7 Habits” may not resonate with everyone in total, but I think anyone could get something from it. Don’t approach it as a quick fix to change things for you, look at it more like a tool to help you change yourself. Read it with an open mind, and you might just gain valuable perspective on some issue.

I was going for alliteration in the title, but it was not to be. Another eclectic dive into my mind, covering fitness tools, an update on my opinion of the Moto G, and my take on blogging. Name Change Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice is that the title of this post no longer follows… Continue reading Fitness, Phones, and fffffff…Name Change

Vanilla Porter Guinness Extra Stout milkshake recipe. The milkshake was awful, but I’m pretty sure it would have been just as bad with any other beer. Note to self: combining ice cream, beer, and liquor is not a good idea. Milk Stout Not Your Father’s Mountain Ale

Every now and then, I try to sprinkle in some self-help and business savvy reading. My new Director of Software Engineering recommended “The Advantage” by Patrick Lencioni, but the local library didn’t have that in audiobook format. Instead, I decided to listen to another work by the same author. I checked out “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” The premise of the book is a sort of two-phase approach to explaining team dysfunctions: Lencioni gives a short fictional story with plenty of staged dialog and then finishes with a more concrete explanation about these dysfunctions and what we can do about them. The entire book is only about four hours in length, so it’s a super short time investment. More importantly, the content is valuable food for thought, even if the fable itself is a bit predictable. Characters in the fable are clearly manufactured for the sake of example, but man if they don’t fit descriptions of people I know in real life. It just goes to show that things tend to be the same in the business world, no matter where you go. I’m sure Lencioni has worked with his fair share of analogues to the characters in his book, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were lifted directly from interactions he actually had. Sure, the exact wording and pace is set up to reach that “moral of the story” ending, but I’ve definitely had my fair share of similar conversations. Similar to other business books, Lencioni makes no effort to hide or conceal the exact dysfunctions from the reader. Heck, they’re plastered right there on his site. But he makes the excellent point that you aren’t as likely to get as much insight from the dysfunctions unless you see them in practice. That’s the purpose of the fable. Source: https://www.tablegroup.com/product/dysfunctions/ Once you hear Lencioni’s (mostly) fictional tale and see how the exact dysfunctions and their resolutions are applied in that scenario, it’s very easy to apply a similar line of thinking to nearly any situation involving a team: work, church, kids’ sports, you name it. These same principles are visible almost EVERYWHERE when you know what to look for. Fixing the dysfunctions? Well, that’s a little harder. Obviously, you can do your own part to address your own dysfunctions, or how you contribute to the dysfunctions of the team, but you can’t fix the whole team yourself. By that token, I think it’s probably a good idea to recommend this book to members of a team that you want to improve, as it should get everyone at least thinking on the same page. You can use common terminology and ideas to discuss the shortcomings of the team and work on ways to optimize and improve. Working as a team is (duh) a team effort. And Lencioni’s fable does contain both dismissals and intentional departures. Those situations are often painful but necessary. I’m not saying that every single team has its share of dead weight or dissenters that must be removed, but it is a real possibility that the team needs to consider. I’m never in favor of someone losing their job, but a functional and efficient team is more important than the individual livelihood and pride of particular individuals on the team. With such a short runtime, it’s hard to not recommend “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” At worst, you wasted four hours that you could’ve been listening to a podcast, or another book, or just silence. If you want something to mull over and maybe improve yourself and any teams you are involved with (and don’t tell me you aren’t involved with ANY teams), it’s at least worth a listen. Besides, some of the dialog is hilarious with both how stilted it sounds, but how close it comes to actual conversations I’ve had. Resources: Lencioni, Patrick. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Narrated by Charles Stransky, Random House Audio, 2002. Audiobook.

While it’s still cold, I wanted to take the opportunity to rave about spiced buttered rum for a moment and how it is the ideal way to stay warm. For the longest time, I heard about spiced buttered rum at Christmas parties and other such gatherings. Growing up, my family were teetotalers, so there wasn’t any alcohol anywhere. When we were old enough to buy our own alcohol, my cousins and I would just bring our own alcohol to Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc, and sneak it into red solo cups outside. Having a pitcher of alcohol actually featured in the party was unspeakable. Eventually, I just decided to make some for myself. It was cold and I wanted to try it, so I looked up a recipe and made some of the butter mix. Fortunately, the process is that you make a batch of the butter and just cut off a pat, add rum, and top it with hot water to melt the butter down. This would be a huge pain if you made the mix per drink, but you can make enough per batch to get probably 20 or more servings. The exact recipe for the butter mix is fairly flexible. The recipe I followed called for 1 stick of unsalted butter, half a cup of light brown sugar, 1 teaspoon each of vanilla, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and allspice. I bought a 2-pack of Kerrygold, so I doubled the butter and brown sugar. The spices I tripled because I would rather measure out a tablespoon rather than multiple teaspoons, and I wanted to get a more spice-first flavor profile. Plus, I didn’t have a few of the spices on hand individually, so I used some “pumpkin pie spice” I had that contained cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. All in all, it turned out well. Toss it in the ninja blender, scrape down the sides a few times, and roll it out in parchment paper or wax paper to form a roll. I cut it into thirds, and froze two of them in fresh sheets of parchment paper. That will EASILY last me all winter. The idea of drinking butter is off putting for a lot of people. I get it. Butter is considered this tremendously unhealthy substance that you really want to be careful with anyway, with its artery clogging reputation. What I think people miss is just how versatile and awesome butter is. Any food you put it in becomes almost automatically better. You can infuse it with different flavors, it’s just fantastic. Yes, “drinking butter” sounds terrible, but butter is just one of the many ingredients in this beverage. So you make the butter mix, you add the rum, you top it off with hot water and give it a good stir. Some of the spice solids float to the top and give almost a latte-esque film on top. Start drinking it hot, and you just get filled with the most encompassing sensation of warmth. It’s like a heated blanket, but on the inside. Couple that with the sensation of being warm that alcohol brings anyway, and it staves off the chill from the most bitter winter nights. Pass around some mugs while sitting by a fire and everybody is suddenly right as rain. This is not a drink to make when you’re wanting to have a lively party. It’s almost like a sedative. When you’re ready to end the night with a nice, soothing vibe, that’s where this excels. I can’t imagine it drinking in hot weather, either. If it’s not sub 40 outside, you will be sweating when you finish one of these. But in the right circumstance, it’s divine.