Isn't there some point in the process when a transformation occurs and it is no longer Sushi?
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Do I Have This Right
It's been years. Many much years since I took chemistry and physics classes but I think I have this right.
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Manna Effect
I have this gas BBQ. The bottle has been empty for a number of months now.
As I lit the grill to make some meat (I probably do that 2 or 3 times a week) I had the same thought I always have.
"Those flames are tiny - that gas bottle is going to shut me down before the steaks are done and I'll have to finish on the George Foreman grill".
Then I turn on a 2nd burner, wait for 350 degrees, and cook my meat. When I get done I turn it all off and say to myself "I pulled it off one last time. I'll never get through it again, not with this bottle of gas I won't".
It occurred to me tonight that there is something magical about that "last dose". Have you ever had the Manna toothpaste tube? It's been empty for months and every day you squeeze out the absolute last little dab of paste ... then the next day it happens again?
Same thing with shampoo bottles. It's been empty for as long as you can remember. It's been upside down in the shower for months. Every time you pick it up you instantly know the bottle is empty because it weighs less than a bottle (probably filled with helium or something) - every time it squirts out a third of what you thought you needed, but that turns out to be just enough.
Corn starch box - same thing. Always empty. Always enough to make one more round of gravy.
So my question is this. Is this just a Christian thing? I'm a Christian and it works in my house. I get that when God introduced the concept of manna he did it for the Jewish folks when they were wondering around in the wilderness so I find myself wondering if they get a few extra months (or 40 years) of toothpaste from an empty tube. How about the Muslims? Prior to that whole Isaac Ishmael thing they had a connection - does that mean they get extra shampoo too?
Maybe it goes farther. God loves us all. Do we all get extra gas in our BBQ tanks?
Life seems to be a collection of so many things I just don't understand.
As I lit the grill to make some meat (I probably do that 2 or 3 times a week) I had the same thought I always have.
"Those flames are tiny - that gas bottle is going to shut me down before the steaks are done and I'll have to finish on the George Foreman grill".
Then I turn on a 2nd burner, wait for 350 degrees, and cook my meat. When I get done I turn it all off and say to myself "I pulled it off one last time. I'll never get through it again, not with this bottle of gas I won't".
It occurred to me tonight that there is something magical about that "last dose". Have you ever had the Manna toothpaste tube? It's been empty for months and every day you squeeze out the absolute last little dab of paste ... then the next day it happens again?
Same thing with shampoo bottles. It's been empty for as long as you can remember. It's been upside down in the shower for months. Every time you pick it up you instantly know the bottle is empty because it weighs less than a bottle (probably filled with helium or something) - every time it squirts out a third of what you thought you needed, but that turns out to be just enough.
Corn starch box - same thing. Always empty. Always enough to make one more round of gravy.
So my question is this. Is this just a Christian thing? I'm a Christian and it works in my house. I get that when God introduced the concept of manna he did it for the Jewish folks when they were wondering around in the wilderness so I find myself wondering if they get a few extra months (or 40 years) of toothpaste from an empty tube. How about the Muslims? Prior to that whole Isaac Ishmael thing they had a connection - does that mean they get extra shampoo too?
Maybe it goes farther. God loves us all. Do we all get extra gas in our BBQ tanks?
Life seems to be a collection of so many things I just don't understand.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
10 "Things" Michelle and I like
Mandy wrote a blog recently that discussed the things (that would be nouns that are not people or places) that she really liked in 2010. As I read her post I started thinking about my four and a half inch angle grinder and it was clear to me that it was a thing worthy of a blog post all by itself. Following my little daughter's lead I decided I would come up with a list of things I liked this year.
As I started to think of them it occurred to me that maybe I didn't have enough things to come up with a list all by myself ... so I asked my other half to help me by combining her list.
DSLR Camera - Jim - I know I opened with the angle grinder but I decided the DSLR has to go on the top of my list because without a doubt the Nikon D-90 has been my favorite toy this year. I have 3 lenses that give me most any picture I want (and a 4th that I use from time to time). I suppose they are things too but I'm including them in this list. The lenses (in order of preference)
Nikor 18-200 - I like this lens because it a zoom lens that really should be two lens
Nikor 10-24 - Ultra wide angle. I'm consistently stunned by how much picture this grabs
Nikor f1.8 35 - This prime lens is fast. Really fast (i.e. lots of depth of field)
4.5 Inch Angle Grinder - Jim (duh). I started body work on my 54 Chevy this year and initially I was using sand paper, a wire brush, and a die grinder. As I sit here on January 2nd of 2011 I am a much wiser man with the knowledge that a 4.5 inch angle grinder is SO MUCH better than those other tools for removing rust or metal that you think shouldn't be there. I also learned it removes skin and meat so I gained some additional wisdom around that feature.
Droid Phone - Both - I actually had the phone on the list prior to inviting Michelle for her entries but if Michelle loves her phone, my phone affection is little more than a grade school crush. Truth be told, my perspective is that if she had to choose between me and that phone ... well, let's hope she doesn't have to make that choice (moving is stressful).
15,000 Pound Automotive Lift - Jim - When I built the toy box in the back yard I designed it so I could put an automotive lift in it. It's quite surprising how the folks in China have brought the cost of having such a thing from over $10,000 to under $1,500. I figured it would be handy to have the capacity to lift a car and walk under it, but I had no idea how a device like that coupled with some out of the box creativity could do so many things (that have nothing to do with lifting cars).
Kindle - Both - I sit in the lazy boy chair. Michelle lays on the couch. I read and the device shows me the pages of my book without the burden of book marks, losing my place, or turning pages. For Michelle in the same time window the Kindle displays a screen saver and, using the new technology in this new version, prevents her from snoring
Hobart 140 MIG Welder - I haven't welded for 25 or 30 years. I may have forgotten but it seemed to me that arch welders threw sparks everywhere and (among other things)set your cloths on fire. If the stick got to close, it stuck to the weld. If it got too far away the arc ceased to exist. Let me tell you, folks, the world has changed. Shielding gas does wonderful things to the sparks. Wire feed makes a stick more or less barbaric. Technology made welding much more fun.
"That Picture" - Michelle has been frustrated for years at her inability to get a picture of the whole family. She forces us all into a pose from time to time but it never seems to go the way she wants it and she always comes up short. This year the kids (and their spouses who, from my perspective, shouldn't be singled out separately because the spouses are part of "the kids") met in Vail Colorado for a vacation together. While there they created some excellent pictures and played a cruel trick on their mother. I'm a little slow (because I never figured out what the trick was) but it must have been mean because the picture made her cry.
Scroll Saw - Michelle - Michelle started a new wood working hobby this year. We already have many woodworking devices (table saw, compound mitre saw, table sander, drill press, router table, etc) but we didn't have a scroll saw and she wanted to cut out wooden turkeys (and you aren't doing the feet with any of those tools).
So there you have it. The things we liked in 2010.
As I started to think of them it occurred to me that maybe I didn't have enough things to come up with a list all by myself ... so I asked my other half to help me by combining her list.
DSLR Camera - Jim - I know I opened with the angle grinder but I decided the DSLR has to go on the top of my list because without a doubt the Nikon D-90 has been my favorite toy this year. I have 3 lenses that give me most any picture I want (and a 4th that I use from time to time). I suppose they are things too but I'm including them in this list. The lenses (in order of preference)
Nikor 18-200 - I like this lens because it a zoom lens that really should be two lens
Nikor 10-24 - Ultra wide angle. I'm consistently stunned by how much picture this grabs
Nikor f1.8 35 - This prime lens is fast. Really fast (i.e. lots of depth of field)
4.5 Inch Angle Grinder - Jim (duh). I started body work on my 54 Chevy this year and initially I was using sand paper, a wire brush, and a die grinder. As I sit here on January 2nd of 2011 I am a much wiser man with the knowledge that a 4.5 inch angle grinder is SO MUCH better than those other tools for removing rust or metal that you think shouldn't be there. I also learned it removes skin and meat so I gained some additional wisdom around that feature.
Droid Phone - Both - I actually had the phone on the list prior to inviting Michelle for her entries but if Michelle loves her phone, my phone affection is little more than a grade school crush. Truth be told, my perspective is that if she had to choose between me and that phone ... well, let's hope she doesn't have to make that choice (moving is stressful).
15,000 Pound Automotive Lift - Jim - When I built the toy box in the back yard I designed it so I could put an automotive lift in it. It's quite surprising how the folks in China have brought the cost of having such a thing from over $10,000 to under $1,500. I figured it would be handy to have the capacity to lift a car and walk under it, but I had no idea how a device like that coupled with some out of the box creativity could do so many things (that have nothing to do with lifting cars).
Kindle - Both - I sit in the lazy boy chair. Michelle lays on the couch. I read and the device shows me the pages of my book without the burden of book marks, losing my place, or turning pages. For Michelle in the same time window the Kindle displays a screen saver and, using the new technology in this new version, prevents her from snoring
Hobart 140 MIG Welder - I haven't welded for 25 or 30 years. I may have forgotten but it seemed to me that arch welders threw sparks everywhere and (among other things)set your cloths on fire. If the stick got to close, it stuck to the weld. If it got too far away the arc ceased to exist. Let me tell you, folks, the world has changed. Shielding gas does wonderful things to the sparks. Wire feed makes a stick more or less barbaric. Technology made welding much more fun.
"That Picture" - Michelle has been frustrated for years at her inability to get a picture of the whole family. She forces us all into a pose from time to time but it never seems to go the way she wants it and she always comes up short. This year the kids (and their spouses who, from my perspective, shouldn't be singled out separately because the spouses are part of "the kids") met in Vail Colorado for a vacation together. While there they created some excellent pictures and played a cruel trick on their mother. I'm a little slow (because I never figured out what the trick was) but it must have been mean because the picture made her cry.
Scroll Saw - Michelle - Michelle started a new wood working hobby this year. We already have many woodworking devices (table saw, compound mitre saw, table sander, drill press, router table, etc) but we didn't have a scroll saw and she wanted to cut out wooden turkeys (and you aren't doing the feet with any of those tools).
So there you have it. The things we liked in 2010.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Education
Today's lesson, girls and boys, is about education. Not education in general, it's more like when your mom used to ask you what you learned when you came home from school each day. Today I learned 4 things.
Thing Number 1)
Previously, I learned that when you need to remove 56 years worth of rust from an old Chevy pickup frame, a tool like this makes the job go much faster. Today I learned that you REALLY want to keep your fingers out of this tool when it is running.
Thing Number 2)
A year and a half ago when I built the shop I purchased a first aid kit and hung it on the wall in there. It was somewhat ironical that Monday (that would be the day before yesterday) I was doing some cleaning, noticed the first aid kit hanging there and had a moment of reflection when I pondered what might be inside the kit and whether it would ever get used. Today I learned what the inside of the kit looked like (it looked like this and had everything I needed)
Thing Number 3)
This is actually a self portrait showing the front of my shirt. It is cropped so you can see the little spears of wire sticking out of me. I already knew the spinning wire wheel does that to you. Today I learned that so many are hitting you that you might not notice one that sticks in your head just below your hair line (but someone at McDonnalds will tell you about it when you stop in to get your lunch)
Thing Number 4)
My fourth and final thing I learned today is that this (another self portrait)...
...is not enough protection (although it seems like a lot - look, I even have ear plugs for the noise). I now wear leather gloves too!
Monday, December 20, 2010
A Laugh Out Loud Moment
So I'm cutting 2 inch angle iron for a project I'm working on. Sparks are flying everywhere as they always do but I've done this so many times in the past week that I really don't mind being bathed in the fire.
That was when I smelled the burning hair.
You would think this post would be about the burning hair, but it isn't. I clearly remember having a conscious thought. It was:
That was when I smelled the burning hair.
You would think this post would be about the burning hair, but it isn't. I clearly remember having a conscious thought. It was:
"I am in the middle of a shower of sparks and I smell burning hair ... that can't be good".
Obviously I stopped cutting and patted my head down to smother any fire that was going on up there but by the time I finished ensuring I wasn't on fire anymore I pondered the thought that triggered the fire prevention activity and started laughing so hard that I had to take pause before returning to my task.
Now if I can just work that into a conversation with another human being...
"I am in the middle of a shower of sparks and I smell burning hair ... that can't be good".
Who Gets to Decide?
Man's best friend.
Shortly after I woke this morning Michelle told me that the dog (or dogs - we are dog sitting for Mandy and Jack) had managed to pee in four separate places during the night. All four spots were in the room with the dog door (mere feet from the great outdoors). As she exited for work she asked me if I would rake the poop up in the yard today too.
So I'm on my hands and knees with a rag and Clorox water cleaning up last night's fun and games when I look up and I see this:
It was at that point I began to wonder who decided Newbie was my best friend.
You see, I went to Home Depot yesterday to get something they didn't have. As I was exiting the store empty handed I walked by a display of safety glasses and pondered the shower of sparks I seem to be taking daily now that I've taken up metal working as a new hobby. I decided to buy two pairs of new safety glasses so I would have an extra should someone want to watch me work at some future point.
When I got home I wanted to clean the house up some (Michelle was returning from a solo week of vacation) but knowing my feeble 50+ year old mind, I realized that failure to put the new glasses in the shop would result in them being hopelessly lost (without too much grief from me as I probably wouldn't even remember that I purchased them in the first place). To dodge that scenario I hung them on the knob of the back door where I was sure to see them the next time I was heading out to the shop.
You can probably guess the rest. At some point during the night my "best friend" decided to help me out by ripping through the bottom of the bag, taking both pairs of plastic safety glasses out into the yard, and, being unable to write a love note, put the only real signature he had on them.
Time passes.
I get the rake and start taking on the virtual sea of puppy droppings. It's been a week and these two dogs are a remarkable factory. If only they were dropping car parts in the yard. I'd have a hummer by now. I'm sure of it.
When Michelle left she tried to soften the request by saying she just wanted me to rake the bountiful harvest into a pile, I didn't need to pick it up. Considering this I appriciated the gesture but also knew there was no good reason to leave the job undone once I got a nice deep pile. As I grumbled about the fact that I didn't get to vote on Newbie being my best friend, I headed into the garage to get a shovel.
I found the shovel, walked back to the yard, opened the gate to see Jack's best friend rolling in the pile.
It was then that I knew I had to go public in the blogosphere and ask the question. Who gets to decide?
Shortly after I woke this morning Michelle told me that the dog (or dogs - we are dog sitting for Mandy and Jack) had managed to pee in four separate places during the night. All four spots were in the room with the dog door (mere feet from the great outdoors). As she exited for work she asked me if I would rake the poop up in the yard today too.
So I'm on my hands and knees with a rag and Clorox water cleaning up last night's fun and games when I look up and I see this:
It was at that point I began to wonder who decided Newbie was my best friend.
You see, I went to Home Depot yesterday to get something they didn't have. As I was exiting the store empty handed I walked by a display of safety glasses and pondered the shower of sparks I seem to be taking daily now that I've taken up metal working as a new hobby. I decided to buy two pairs of new safety glasses so I would have an extra should someone want to watch me work at some future point.
When I got home I wanted to clean the house up some (Michelle was returning from a solo week of vacation) but knowing my feeble 50+ year old mind, I realized that failure to put the new glasses in the shop would result in them being hopelessly lost (without too much grief from me as I probably wouldn't even remember that I purchased them in the first place). To dodge that scenario I hung them on the knob of the back door where I was sure to see them the next time I was heading out to the shop.
You can probably guess the rest. At some point during the night my "best friend" decided to help me out by ripping through the bottom of the bag, taking both pairs of plastic safety glasses out into the yard, and, being unable to write a love note, put the only real signature he had on them.
Time passes.
I get the rake and start taking on the virtual sea of puppy droppings. It's been a week and these two dogs are a remarkable factory. If only they were dropping car parts in the yard. I'd have a hummer by now. I'm sure of it.
When Michelle left she tried to soften the request by saying she just wanted me to rake the bountiful harvest into a pile, I didn't need to pick it up. Considering this I appriciated the gesture but also knew there was no good reason to leave the job undone once I got a nice deep pile. As I grumbled about the fact that I didn't get to vote on Newbie being my best friend, I headed into the garage to get a shovel.
I found the shovel, walked back to the yard, opened the gate to see Jack's best friend rolling in the pile.
It was then that I knew I had to go public in the blogosphere and ask the question. Who gets to decide?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Pointless and Amazing
I've done this thing from time to time when I find a very liberal political discussion, and I participate. I do it because I think I will be amused by the exchange of ideas and the debate will grow me. I think I'm done doing it.
Actually it surprises me how bitter, angry and condescending many folks on the left are. I go in and make bold statements about the issues and the responses typically include personal insults, shots at my family, sweeping derogatory generalizations about republicans and ALWAYS include attacks on my intelligence.
My approach was typically to enter the conversation with something provocative to get their attention, then after they react and respond engage in a friendly, polite, and hopefully intense dialog.
Let's say, for example, I found a thread that was addressing the roll-back of the Bush tax cuts. The liberal folks would be going on and on about how the rich are evil and must pay more while they themselves are having a hard time and should pay less and get more help from the government. In the thread there seem to be folks who believe if we all pay, say, 15% in taxes, it isn't right because the "rich" aren't paying pay more (and they should). They think they should be paying 5% and the rich should be paying 40%.
I must admit it isn't clear to me why the rich must pay more but let's set that aside for a moment. I would want to argue that 15% of $20,000 was $3,000 and 15% of a million was $150,000 so the gal making a million would pay 7.5 times the $20,000 yearly salary as an annual tax (and that is MORE). If we had an equal percentage the folks who make more still pay more.
So I would enter the thread and my provocative attention getter (to ensure folks would want to read my second post to the thread which makes the point above) would be something like "If you expect people who make over $250,000 to pay 40% of their income in taxes you should be willing to stand up and pay 40% yourself or you should sit down and shut up".
The response is actually fairly universal and predictable. They will start by calling me a jackass. (I believe the last thread it was "You are an evil greedy jackass") and then they would set into personal attacks like "You are a horrible, despicable human being" and "You are what is wrong with this country" or "you should be jailed (or killed or some other horrible fate)." They will ALWAYS tell me I'm uneducated and not as smart as them.
I will then put up my second post making my point about fiscal policy and adding that they really don't know me well enough to make judgments about my intelligence and greed. I rarely get through the second round without sweeping generalizations about the evils of "people like me" and additional personal attacks. I can more or less count on being called a bigot in round two and it is not uncommon for them to start taking shots at my family. The last round one of them got on my face book page, saw that I read Sarah Palin's commentaries and then attacked me because I would have to be ignorant and a bigot if I didn't hate her.
I am flawed if I am not smart enough to hate someone.
It is amazing.
Lest I distort the truth it is important that I say there are some folks who will stick with the issues. Some will tell me that they think the rich should pay more because a 50% tax won't have an effect on their standard of living where as someone who is making $30,000 a year could not survive on $15,000 (thus providing the dialog and debate I was originally seeking) but I've never engaged in one of these discussions where someone didn't put all their energy into hating me (sometimes in scary ways).
So I have decided my last such discussion was my last such discussion. I've decided the whole thing is fairly pointless. I'm not going to convince them of anything. They are elite and could never hear the words of an ignorant, greedy bigot such as me. For my part, I love the debate but I've decided it isn't worth all the negative energy. I typically spend 75% of my responses addressing attacks on me as a person rather than discussing the issues. If I can't discuss the issues the participation is pointless. The negative energy is pointless. Entering a dialog with people who are too elite to hear my side is pointless. Talking with people who hate me so much that they can't discuss the issues without insulting me and my family is ... well, pointless.
It's truly amazing.
Actually it surprises me how bitter, angry and condescending many folks on the left are. I go in and make bold statements about the issues and the responses typically include personal insults, shots at my family, sweeping derogatory generalizations about republicans and ALWAYS include attacks on my intelligence.
My approach was typically to enter the conversation with something provocative to get their attention, then after they react and respond engage in a friendly, polite, and hopefully intense dialog.
Let's say, for example, I found a thread that was addressing the roll-back of the Bush tax cuts. The liberal folks would be going on and on about how the rich are evil and must pay more while they themselves are having a hard time and should pay less and get more help from the government. In the thread there seem to be folks who believe if we all pay, say, 15% in taxes, it isn't right because the "rich" aren't paying pay more (and they should). They think they should be paying 5% and the rich should be paying 40%.
I must admit it isn't clear to me why the rich must pay more but let's set that aside for a moment. I would want to argue that 15% of $20,000 was $3,000 and 15% of a million was $150,000 so the gal making a million would pay 7.5 times the $20,000 yearly salary as an annual tax (and that is MORE). If we had an equal percentage the folks who make more still pay more.
So I would enter the thread and my provocative attention getter (to ensure folks would want to read my second post to the thread which makes the point above) would be something like "If you expect people who make over $250,000 to pay 40% of their income in taxes you should be willing to stand up and pay 40% yourself or you should sit down and shut up".
The response is actually fairly universal and predictable. They will start by calling me a jackass. (I believe the last thread it was "You are an evil greedy jackass") and then they would set into personal attacks like "You are a horrible, despicable human being" and "You are what is wrong with this country" or "you should be jailed (or killed or some other horrible fate)." They will ALWAYS tell me I'm uneducated and not as smart as them.
I will then put up my second post making my point about fiscal policy and adding that they really don't know me well enough to make judgments about my intelligence and greed. I rarely get through the second round without sweeping generalizations about the evils of "people like me" and additional personal attacks. I can more or less count on being called a bigot in round two and it is not uncommon for them to start taking shots at my family. The last round one of them got on my face book page, saw that I read Sarah Palin's commentaries and then attacked me because I would have to be ignorant and a bigot if I didn't hate her.
I am flawed if I am not smart enough to hate someone.
It is amazing.
Lest I distort the truth it is important that I say there are some folks who will stick with the issues. Some will tell me that they think the rich should pay more because a 50% tax won't have an effect on their standard of living where as someone who is making $30,000 a year could not survive on $15,000 (thus providing the dialog and debate I was originally seeking) but I've never engaged in one of these discussions where someone didn't put all their energy into hating me (sometimes in scary ways).
So I have decided my last such discussion was my last such discussion. I've decided the whole thing is fairly pointless. I'm not going to convince them of anything. They are elite and could never hear the words of an ignorant, greedy bigot such as me. For my part, I love the debate but I've decided it isn't worth all the negative energy. I typically spend 75% of my responses addressing attacks on me as a person rather than discussing the issues. If I can't discuss the issues the participation is pointless. The negative energy is pointless. Entering a dialog with people who are too elite to hear my side is pointless. Talking with people who hate me so much that they can't discuss the issues without insulting me and my family is ... well, pointless.
It's truly amazing.
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