Evangelist’s Confusing Itinerary

Here is something new and weird.

I like watching Perry Stone and reading his books. Sometimes, maybe, he looks at scriptures and events a little too hard, in his determination to find meaning. But overall, I like what he does.

He sells recordings of appearances he does while traveling. Sometimes these things are really good. Yesterday I looked at his website, and he was selling a new CD set…from the incredibly obscure town where I was born.

It’s hard to explain how unimportant this place is. As far as I know, nothing whatsoever happens there. I wouldn’t describe it as a farming town. On the other hand, with a population of under 17,000 people, it’s not large enough to be a big city where rural people go to shop or get medical treatment. Lexington, which is almost a real city, is just 18 miles away. My grandmother used to drive by without stopping, every week, to shop in Lexington.

It has no personality. It has zero importance to history. Daniel Boone lived there, but not while he was doing things historians care about. In all the time I’ve spent in Kentucky, I can’t recall having any reason to go to this town, except for a brief period during which I worked at a local roadhouse. If you ever visit, you’ll have the same thought I’ve had: “Why did they put a town here?” Yet somehow, Perry Stone (who lives in another state) thought it was a good place to have a series of meetings.

I can’t figure it out. Why didn’t he just go to Lexington?

Curiosity got to me. I ordered the CDs. I have to find out what he said there.

This is even weirder than having a President who was a member of my class at Columbia.

Stephanopoulos, I remember. He lived across the hall. Obama? A cipher.

I keep trying to figure out what God wants with me. There must be something. He is going to so much trouble to keep my attention. What a great thing that is. Talk about feeling special. And as far as I know, he is willing to treat every believer this way. Can we all be special? I guess so. Maybe this is the feeling we are trying to replace when we stupidly strive to get attention from other people. The life of an unbeliever is an endless, frustrating process of filling holes with the wrong things.

Church was a little boring last week, but I learned something good anyway. I already knew it, but I hadn’t been thinking about it enough. The guy who spoke talked about making offerings in response to blessings. For example, say your kid has a medical test, and it turns out negative. To acknowledge it, you do something for God. It’s impractical to sacrifice animals these days, so money is a good vehicle. Pick a cause you’re sure God likes and give a little something to show you know where the good news really came from.

I’m going to keep that in mind from now on. I think gratitude without works is like faith without works. Wasted and incomplete. Even God should get thank-you cards.

Slap the Man Behind the Curtain

A number of times, I’ve written about the weird “coincidences” that keep happening when I go to church. Here is tonight’s.

On Tuesday, I had to sit through a sales pitch. I wrote about this already.The salesperson was the daughter of someone my dad knows. I wouldn’t call this man a friend. He’s in real estate, and he tries to get my father to invest in things that I think are extremely ill-advised. I can’t warm up to people who hawk risky investments to senior citizens, especially when they go after my family.

The daughter contacted my dad last week, and she asked if she could do a sales presentation. He referred her to me. All she would tell me was that she sold something related to cooking. I told my dad how much I was not looking forward to the presentation, and derider of Christianity that he is, he said it was my Christian duty. I believe God speaks to people through their parents, so at that point, I let it go and decided to suffer through the pitch. It was very out of character for him to say that, so I figured there had to be a reason it had happened.

It turned out she was selling Cutco knives. I didn’t take any; they’re extremely expensive, and I don’t need them, and the quality doesn’t exactly give me goosebumps. On top of that, I felt that buying from her would be perpetuating a relationship in which her family had a pattern of taking advantage of mine. Breaking out of destructive patterns is a big part of Christianity. Maybe I was overly wary, but the whole thing put me on edge.

Let’s move to tonight. The pastor was talking about living life on the offensive. Somehow, he wandered off into a story about a young acquaintance of his who had a new job. And guess what that job was? Selling kitchen knives. No company was mentioned, but obviously, this kid is a Cutco rep. The big differences in our stories are that the kid in the pastor’s story cut himself badly while demonstrating the product, and that the pastor bought some stuff. Okay, maybe he’s a better Christian than I am. On the other hand, I doubt the kid’s father ever tried to get a high-interest loan from the pastor’s dad, to finance a buy at the top of a real estate bubble.

After church, my payoff was that I had a “coincidence” story for my dad. The more of my testimony he hears, the better off he’ll be. Sooner or later, he’ll crack.

The sermon was excellent. He was talking about the necessity of taking the initiative in life. If you’re on the offense, you design the game, and you force your enemy to react after you strike. I listened to this stuff, and I wondered why I needed to hear it. I wondered what I had been doing wrong THIS time. Generally, when I hear a sermon, I find that it addresses some issue I need to work on.

Here’s the great part. After a while, I came to the conclusion that I was doing okay! I think he was talking about an area of my life where I’m doing pretty well. That came as a relief. After hearing so many sermons in which faults of which I had been unaware had been made clear to me, it was wonderful to hear about things I was doing right. I’ve put in a lot of work. I’ve been on the offensive for years now. I started praying regularly in 2001, and I’ve been moving in God’s direction ever since. Maybe tonight it was time for a little harvesting. A break. A reward.

I think regular prayer is an extremely powerful, life-changing way of taking the initiative. Think about it. Isn’t most prayer reactive? You do it as a defensive measure. For example, you get a disease. Your child has an accident. Your husband gets fired. So you start to pray. “Please fix this problem.” Then the problem goes away, maybe, and so does the praying. Or the problem overcomes you, and you stop praying, because you figure there is no longer any point. When you live that way, who decides when you pray and when you go to church and when you behave? Satan. Am I wrong? You’re not making the rules or choosing the playing field. He is. But if you get up every morning, even when things are going great, and you pray, you’re eating into his profits. Hammering holes in his front lines. And he can’t predict it. He doesn’t know the future. He can’t see your punches coming. He has to react as best he can, and he loses over and over, because he is weaker than we are.

I thought about this tonight during church. I’m always mad because I was born into a world where hostile spirits have been attacking my kind since we were first created. It’s like living in a tank full of invisible sharks. They have been harming me all my life. Spoiling my dreams. Ruining my relationships. Taking money from me. Injuring me. They do the same things to you. The Bible refers to these miserable beings as “destroyers” and “devourers.” If you’re a Christian, surely you’ve wished you could have five minutes alone with one, in a locked room, with a blow torch and a broken beer bottle. Well, you can. Sort of. If you take the initiative, you become THEIR destroyer and devourer. You spoil THEIR dreams. You make them suffer. You ruin their plans and humiliate them. You wreck and take away the things that give them satisfaction. And it’s not a symmetrical situation. They can never break even, because in the end, they’re going to be condemned and disassembled before the cheering people they used to torment.

That’s inspiring. I can get excited about that. Revenge is wrong, when it’s directed at human beings. When it’s directed at principalities and powers, it’s far from wrong. It’s our purpose. It’s our duty. We are supposed to do what is right, and doing right is what makes them suffer. We are not expected to forgive them. We are not expected to turn the other cheek. It’s open season. When you pray or you give money to charity or the church, or you do things to help other people, you are like a festering blight in Satan’s garden. I never realized this until today. We CAN have vengeance. We can be to Satan what he has always been to us.

That’s really wonderful. When I do good, I eventually run out of steam. I have a limited amount of love to drive me. But anger…that never runs out. I have seen and experienced too much suffering to ever get tired of punishing the most guilty parties. Looking at it this way, I find it much easier to forgive human beings. If I can get at a vicious and cowardly supernatural being by forgiving a person, I’m happy to make the exchange. For as long as I have been aware that these creatures existed, I have wanted a way to cause them despair and make their efforts come to nothing. I didn’t fully understand that I was already doing these things.

The knife thing really weirded me out. I hope things like that keep happening to me for the rest of my life.

No Fish

I have once again graced the sea with my presence.

Today my dad and I hosted his ex partner, the partner’s son, my friend Pat, and Pat’s cousin Lazaro. All the guests were late, including Val Prieto, who still has not arrived. When we tried to leave the dock, the starter on the port engine refused to work. Lazaro and Pat fooled around, trying an old trick I had not heard of. They hit it with a hammer. It didn’t work, but once they told me where the starter was, I realized I had no excuse for not looking at it. I climbed into the engine room and went around behind the engine, on the port side, and started looking. While I was down there, someone pressed the starter button, and one of the electrical connections got red hot for a second.

I realized what was going on. I got people to pass me tools while I fixed it. One of the power connections on the starter was rusty. It’s probably supposed to have brass hardware on it, but it had a steel washer, and there was rust. When big DC connections get corroded, they heat up. Must be the increased resistance. I took two thick cables off, cleaned everything with a wire brush and a sheet of sandpaper, and put it all back together. And the motor started, and off we went. Being a Christian, I could not help praying for help with it, and I got what I asked for. I think sometimes we overestimate the amount of faith we need to get prayers answered. I’ve gotten good results on occasions when I found my own faith levels disappointing.

I believe God answers prayers about trivial things. Here’s an example that’s so reliable, it’s almost annoying. “Please help me find my hey there it is.” Happens several times a week. Exactly like that.

The part I liked best was when I was still down there, with the engine and two air conditioning units going, and everyone in the salon was talking about how great it was that the motor was running. Like it wasn’t particularly important if I ever got out. I yelled until they started reaching for tools, and I climbed out over a by-now-hot AC condenser, and we went fishing.

All we caught was a big barracuda. There was very little weed, and the dolphin were nowhere in sight. Even the barracuda got off before we could boat it. Which is good, because all we wanted was to get the hook back. You have to be brave to eat a big barracuda from the Atlantic Ocean. Look up “ciguatera.”

I had fun using my GPS. The boat has a huge one, but it needs repair. I took my handheld out, and it helped us avoid wandering around the ocean and wasting time and fuel.

Two members of the crew got somewhat seasick, and the fish were uncooperative, so we eventually gave up. Still, it’s always a privilege to get out there.

I guess atheists will ask why I didn’t pray for fish. Okay, I did. Happy? I still have a good batting average. And I don’t annoy people by filing lawsuits to keep them from praying before high school football games.

I highly recommend Banana Boat sunblock for kids. It’s not the only sunblock I’ve seen that features a claim that it won’t sting your eyes, but it’s the only one I know of that makes good on the promise. With other sunblocks, after about three hours, I start to feel like I’ve been tear-gassed. The sweat makes the stinging stuff in the sunblock run into my eyes, and once it’s there, only a shower and the passage of an entire day puts an end to it.

The GPS predicted the outcome today. It has a feature called “Hunting/Fishing,” and when you push the button, it tells you how it expects you to do on a given day. Today it predicted “Poor Day.” I don’t know that I want this feature. It’s almost insulting. And how does it know? It’s just an overgrown calculator with a satellite receiver. And what if it says “Excellent Day” and you still catch nothing? What a loser you are on THAT day!

This is like knowing your baby’s sex before it’s born. Some things should remain a mystery.

Imagine the disciples with a GPS.

5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.

6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.

7 And Simon Peter rebuked him, saying, Not so Lord, for verily, the Garmin hath pronounced a curse.

I wonder what features GPS will have five years from now. “Husband Income Predictor.” “SAT Prognosticator.” “Press to See if Your Child Will Grow up to be a Failure.” “First Year Wife Weight Gain.”

Just tell me where the next waypoint is. I can’t handle any more power than that.

Next time, there will be fish. But no loaves. And no, I will not hedge my bets by offering lambs to the GPS.

Get Out Your Credit Card

I did something really dumb the other day. I installed Windows Defender. Have you tried this program? Microsoft released it to try to keep malware at bay. I’m not sure, but I think it may be the same basic thing Vista has, which drives users out of their minds.

Or not. It doesn’t say “Cancel or Allow.” But it does slow down the computer. For days, I’ve been suffering with slow website loading. This morning I finally realized I still had Windows Defender running, after installing real security software. So I dumped Defender, and now all is well. More or less. Some sites still stink. Northern Tool installed something called “liveperson,” which takes about a week to load, every time you go from one page to another. They ought to call it “deadwebsite.”

I Googled to find that Mac ad. Mac people are really annoying; they’re the vegetarians of the computer world. Often literally. But the commercials are great, and Microsoft deserves them. I have lots of software, but when I have a problem, it’s almost always caused by Office or Windows. Funny, how tiny startup companies can make software that works, while big, bloated Microsoft can’t.

“Bloated Microsoft.” Hmm…

These guys need to do a buddy movie.

I’m probably wrong, but my advice is, get rid of Windows Defender, be a man, and spend $30 on actual software made by people who care whether it works.

“Gnocchi, Gnocchi, Gnocchi…”

WHOO HOO! I took the Guzzi out for a spin. Nothing seems to stop that bike. The Harley always requires a new slow jet after I let it sit without fuel stabilizer. The Guzzi will run on sludge. And it has a huge battery that holds a charge way longer than the Harley.

I love both of these bikes. The Harley–people won’t believe this–is refined, ergonomically perfect, and extremely comfortable. The Guzzi is coarse, snarls like a leopard when you hit the throttle, and responds like it’s made of air. When you throw it around, you don’t even feel the weight. And unlike the Harley, it has no footboards to dig into the pavement when you try to turn.

I need new side covers. The ones Guzzi makes are just no good. They press against the underside of the seat, and in time, the pressure tears the plastic, and they fall off. There’s a guy who makes sturdy fiberglass replacements. I need to email him and get it over with. Right now, I have only one cover. Tacky.

I’m still using my old helmet. The visor won’t open, but other than that, it’s as good as it ever was. I guess I can take my time waiting for a deal on a new one.

I have a cover and a disk alarm now, so theoretically, I could keep one bike outside, ready to go. It’s hard to choose. The Harley is a more expensive bike. But the Guzzi is a classic; all Guzzis are, as soon as they’re made.

It occurred to me that I might be able to machine parts for these things. Stuff like foot pegs. Something to think about. Stainless is not expensive, if you look in the right places.

Wish I had more time to ride. You can’t ride in the daytime here and enjoy it unless it’s cool, and in July, that isn’t going to happen. August is worse. I prefer to ride at night, but I get to bed very early these days.

I think I’m going to start riding to church. It’s an evening ride, most of it is highway mileage, and it sure beats quick trips to the grocery. I guess it’s okay. They seem pretty casual up there.

Time for dinner.

“I Meant to Do That”

First up, an important message from former KISPer TC. He sent out an email requesting prayer for a fallen soldier:

Mark’s a good friend. He’s in Landstuhl Army Hospital after being shot in the head in Afghanistan.

Two other Georgia Guardsmen were killed on Monday, bringing the total to 7 KIA so far.

This has been a very costly deployment for the 48th Brigade so far, and it’s only a couple months into their 1 year tour.

Now, to less serious things.

Tyler Youngblood, proprietor of Projectsinmetal.com, noticed my post about the hammer I failed to make using his online plans. He took a moment to write a helpful comment, which I will repost here:

Hi Steve,

I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the soft faced hammer plans, but if it makes you feel any better, I scrapped the project twice before I got it right.

If I may make a few suggestions, maybe I can help. First, 304 stainless is far less forgiving than aluminum, which is what I made my hammer out of. It’s not as durable as stainless, but the hammer could be made fully functional by putting a pin into the head (the threaded head of my aluminum hammer comes loose with vigorous use). Locktite might also be an option. But I’m happy with the aluminum version for “light” hammering, which is what a soft faced hammer is good for anyway.

I didn’t turn the project between centers, but I had the benefit of a taper attachment, so that’s how I got the taper to work. If your compound slide has enough travel, you can definitely use that to put in your taper. Or you can buy/make a lathe dog for use with a proper face plate and do it that way. The only issue there is you mess with the alignment of the tailstock, which I try to avoid.

I’d suggest trying to use your compound to cut the taper. If you only have 2? of travel, change the taper to 2?. It would look different, but that’s fine, its your hammer.

Also, if you try to cut a taper using your compound, make sure to take light cuts. It sounds like you started cutting at the wide end of the taper, and by the time you got to the narrow end of the taper (3? later, up by the threads) you were cutting too much material. Instead, do it the other way. Start 1/4 inch back from the end of the taper and cut 1/4 inch in the direction of the threads, toward the radius. Your cut should gradually get a bit deeper, but since you’re only going 1/4? (and not 3?), the increased depth of cut shouldn’t be an issue. Once you have made that first pass, the rest of the cuts will be parallel to that first pass (thus no gradual increase to your depth of cut). After you’ve made that first pass of 1/4? or so, back your compound away from the part, then back along the axis of the taper you just cut. Your next pass should be 3/8? or so, then 1/2, …. all the way until your last pass takes a finish cut along the entire 3? taper.

It’s hard to explain. I really should make a video because it’s much easier if you see it done. As far as the radius goes, I used a tool with the proper radius to cut the taper, so when the taper was finished, the radius was already present. The radius on the end of the hammer was done with a file while the part was turning (make sure to hold the file backwards, with the tang facing away from you and cut from underneath the part, not on top – that way if the part rips the file out of your hand it will be pulled away from you). And of course, use a file with a handle whenever possible. No handle? Find an old golf ball, drill, and attach to the end of the tang. Tangs are sharp and dangerous.

You’ll need a mill to bore and tap the head of the hammer (where the handle attaches). You could do it on the lathe, but holding the part would require some significant workholding via the faceplate (I wouldn’t try it in a 4-jaw chuck, and a 3-jaw wouldn’t work at all). The threaded portions of the head where the faces attach are drilled on the lathe, but tapped after the larger hole is drilled, bored, and tapped on the mill.

For practice I single pointed the threads on the handle, but they can be cut with much less effort using a die. One of the scrapped handles was due to a mistake I made while cutting the threads.

Let me know if you’d be interested in me making a video of the process. I don’t really need another hammer, but I’d be happy to make a video if you think it would help (and if I can find the time).

Drop me a comment if you run into any other problems. I’d be happy to help in any way I can. I’m still learning too, so I remember how frustrating those first few projects were to master. But once you learn how to do all the steps in the hammer (turn down the dia, turn a taper, file a radius, knurl, single point (or tap/die) threads) you’ve got a very strong foundation and a good understanding of how the lathe works. That’s why the hammer, although difficult, is a great first project.

I’ve got another beginner project (a plumb bob) that uses hex stock, so if you’re interested in that (instead of the screw jack), let me know. Although the plumb bob is meant to be turned out of brass, not stainless. But stainless would work too.

Good luck!

Tyler Youngblood
ProjectsInMetal.com
Seattle, WA

That’s what I call service. I also got some good advice on the Chaski forum.

My biggest problem was trying to make the 3″ taper on the hammer handle. After I posted my whining, it occurred to me that I was probably cutting from the wrong end, and people have since confirmed this. When using a compound to cut a taper, start at the end where you have to remove the most metal. This way, the cuts are deepest as they begin, and they get shallower as you go. That will prevent problems with the cuts getting so deep the lathe throws up or whatever.

I learned a few other things. When trying to make a smooth transition from a straight piece into a taper which is thinner than the straight part, cut from the straight side. Say you have a taper that goes from half an inch to one inch, and you need a straight part one inch thick beyond the taper. You make the straight part too thick, and then you make the taper, and then you cut the straight part down, with cuts beginning at the end of the straight part which is farthest from the taper. The tool will cut off the excess metal from the straight part and then go into empty space as it hits the taper, leaving a smooth transition. At least, it worked that way for me.

I was told to use a file to make the small radii on the tool handle. That sure beats trying to grind a radius tool and then get it to make a perfect cut.

I blew the knurling. I am too lazy to get out my videos and see how it’s done, so I just winged it. No amount of skill can overcome true laziness. I know the knurls have to be perpendicular to the part, and the part has to be centered between the knurls. But I don’t know how to make them go into the same marks over and over as the part turns. I ended up with a surface that isn’t slippery, yet which would never be confused with real knurling.

I may dump this thing and use it for threading practice. It’s still a big piece of metal. There are lots of things I can make from it.

Here’s a photo of what I have. I put Dykem on it to help me line up the knurls.

It’s not good, but I learned a great deal while working on it. And I ran the tool post into the work, and I also ran the carriage into the chuck. No pain, no gain. I just wish I had realized the carriage was blocking the chuck before I took the housing off the lathe to find out what was wrong with it.

Here is the latest news about the milling machine:

Hi Steve,
Sorry, Mark said that he did answer me, I think maybe there was an email problem.
It did ship last week, the driver should be calling soon, he will get the information for me later today, he was not in the office right now.
Thanks again!

Mark is the importer. Man, this is exciting.

I emailed Og for advice about turning parts to specified dimensions. He sent photos of his latest project.

Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be doing this kind of stuff real soon. Notably, he used a crappy board for a base plate. I guess you never get too big for half-assed desperation jigs. I should start photographing the beauties I come up with.

Think I’ll take one of the bikes out and see if the wind blows the swarf out of my clothes. Sometimes I make splinters. Today I made several bona fide Slinkys.

Confounded Tapers

For the first time in like ten years, I have real, paid-for antivirus software. I ran Bitdefender the other day (free version), and I found out AVG Free had missed stuff. I looked around to see which program the nerds liked most (or hated most, in the case of evil nerds), and I installed it and ran it. It turned out I had PILES of viruses.

I didn’t realize it, but a big percentage of those 419 emails have viruses in them. And if you use Thunderbird and delete emails, the emails don’t really go away. You have to compact your folders to kill deleted emails. So I’ve done all that. I had a whole bunch of deleted 419 emails hiding somewhere. I believe they’re gone now.

I may have lost real emails, too. Sometimes people you know send viruses by accident. I don’t care. I don’t know why I keep emails to begin with. The commercial ones can be useful. You may want to know where you bought something a year ago. But the personal emails tend to be trivial and not worth keeping.

I see no point in saying which program I bought. If someone out there hates me, the name of my program could be helpful to them.

I am still considering going RAID1. And I may do it for my dad, too. He emits some kind of radiation that kills hard drives. Last time it happened, I took him to a retailer which runs a well-known computer repair service. Actually, it was probably a software issue, but they decided it was his hard drive, so they replaced it. And DIDN’T CLONE THE OLD ONE. Wow, that was really worth $300. If he had had RAID, he could have tested his drives himself, popped the bad one out, stuck in a fresh one, and continued with life.

I didn’t try to fix his problem myself because my attempts at cloning hard drives had always failed. But this week I managed to clone mine, and the software was free.

People say RAID isn’t a backup tool. Whatever. I don’t want to get into nerd semantics. If your data is in two places, I call it backup. The fact that the hardware is also backed up just makes it better. A virus can screw up two RAID drives at once, but isn’t that also true of software backup on a slave drive that isn’t on a RAID system? I fail to see how RAID is inferior. I’m sure it’s not as good as paranoid backup in a vault in your basement, with all sorts of hardware safeguards. But neither of us is willing to work really hard at saving data, so it’s either slave disk or RAID.

He’s definitely getting real antivirus software. I set him up with AVG, Spybot, and Ad-Aware, but I had those things, and look what happened to me. And AVG was like big government. It kept growing and causing problems. “Here, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi would like to help you search the web! Let’s go look at fictitious graphs about declining polar bear populations!”

If the shopping mall computer repair crew was right (dubious), my dad’s problems tend to be hardware issues, not viruses. Although he once got a virus that sent his business contacts porn ads. He informed them that it was a virus, and that he was not a porn magnate. All I said was that this was his story.

Yesterday I got back to work on the soft-faced hammer I was trying to make. I had to give up. I utterly butchered the 304 stainless I was trying to use.

Here’s a link to the plans, so you can see what I’m talking about.

Let’s see. First, I have no steady rest. So I assumed that meant turning between centers. But I have no lathe dogs; everyone says I should make them when I get a mill. Fine. I decided to grip one end in the chuck and put the other on a dead center. That worked.

First problem: how do you get the length right on the various features? For example, the flange below the hammer’s head is 0.20″ thick. Great, but my lathe has no graduations in the lengthwise direction, and it has no DRO. A dial indicator has a measuring limit of about an inch, and you can’t mount it on anything really stiff when you’re using the tailstock right up against the work. I tried moving the compound and tool post around (so I could use the compound graduations), and I eventually came sort of close, but if this part had to be within even ten thousandths, there is no way I could do it.

Second, how do you do the taper on the handle? I have no taper attachment. I tried setting the compound so it moved in as it approached the headstock, but the tool goes deeper and deeper as you go, and the pressure increases, and the work pops off the tailstock. Also, the taper is 3″ long. How do you arrange it so a tool coming in at an angle hits the work at a point precisely 3″ from some other point? It seems impossible. You can get within a sixteenth or so by guessing, but the point of all this is to learn how to be precise, so that’s worthless.

Third, how do you get the little radius on the head side of the flange? I ground a tool 0.20″ wide, with a radius on it, but it really didn’t work.

I don’t know what tools I need or what to do with them. The plans don’t say what to use, and the instructional materials I have really are not adequate. They show how to do operations, from a very basic standpoint, but there is nothing in them that would enable you to machine things to specified sizes, except for threads and plain old cylinders. So I think it’s time to hang it up and do something easier. The infamous jack screw project looks pretty dumb, but I have hex stock.

I’m not sure why people say you should learn to use a lathe before you get a mill. The mill seems much simpler. To get your measurements right, you have edgefinders and wigglers and indicators and a DRO, plus graduations along every axis. If I had use the lathe to make a simple round rod, say 2.250″ long, I’d be stumped.

Speaking of mills, I do not have one. Still. It’s probably enjoying a leisurely drive through Arkansas right now.

I have to learn how to do this stuff. You can’t buy nice tools and let them rot. Maybe things will be clearer when the bulk of my lathe DVDs gets here. Other people have learned turning and threading, so I’ll eventually get it, too.

I’m Back

Here’s a post that will help explain why it’s hard for computer nerds to get women. The boredom may actually stop your heart.

I got my new hard drive installed. I can’t believe it. I’ll put the information here in case some Googler needs it.

I tried to use Acronis Migrate Easy to move my old stuff to a new 500 GB drive (cheap!), but Acronis could not find the new drive when I tried to run it from Windows. With this program, you provide your instructions in Windows, and then it reboots your PC and moves the files, possibly in Linux or some other OS. Nerds can fill in the blanks here. When I rebooted, Acronis could not find the drive.

The remedy for this is to make a boot CD using Acronis, and do it from there. Sadly, Migrate Easy refused to cooperate, saying I had to get the pay version in order to do this.

The answer? Lifeguard Tools from Western Digital. It’s free, and you can find it online. I hooked the new drive up, told the program what to do, and in a few hours, I had a clone of my boot drive.

What happened when I tried to use the PC? You can guess. I took off the old drive, put the new one in its SATA hole, and hit the switch. “Error Loading OS.”

I figured I was toasted. But I was wrong. Here’s the answer. You boot from your XP installation DVD, go to the recovery console, locate your Windows installation, and fun FIXMBR. After that, the system worked.

Now I have to throw out the old drive. I’m not sure there’s a problem with it, but new drives are very inexpensive, so I don’t need to take a chance. I hate throwing out hard drives. You practically have to melt them in a kiln to be sure no one gets the information on them. Some idiot could raid my trash and take over my life. I’ll make sure nobody but Harry Potter could read this one. Have you ever tossed an old drive in the trash without messing it up first? I think you have to be nuts.

Whenever I travel, my hard drives come out, and I put them where no one will ever find them. The security is more than worth the aggravation.

I found some more good information. AVG is not the greatest free antivirus program. Something called Bitdefender is better. I installed it and ran it, and I found a Trojan. Irritating. The Bitdefender folks just changed their software to nail this one, and AVG can’t even find it. Same for Spybot and Ad-Aware. I also ran some cleaner programs and deleted a lot of trash, but only Bitdefender did the job.

I suspect that AVG was my problem. The PC doesn’t seem to be overheating badly enough to freeze it (it stays under the critical 60° C mark), and I haven’t read anything about this particular virus locking up computers. AVG, on the other hand, has been throwing off crash reports, and it has been taking over. They installed a ridiculous search bar and a bunch of other things I didn’t want.

The computer was on all night (virus scan), and it worked fine. Maybe I’m in the clear. Or maybe I have more viruses, which Kim Jong Il will one day use to launch DDOS attacks on the South Park guys.

I am considering taking out my motherboard and replacing the idiotic Intel plastic pins with real bolts. The CPU should have much better thermal contact with the cooling thing. Why they chose plastic, I will never understand. It was guaranteed to fail.

I managed to put off getting a Mac for maybe another year. When this thing finally croaks, I don’t know what I’ll do. I have a million programs. I can’t even remember all of them. PC Study Bible, Word, Wordperfect, image programs, Mathcad, Firefox, you name it. I’ll forget I own half of them.

I am wondering if I should set up a RAID system. I’m going to look into it. I can’t imagine a thing like that running without causing problems. Surely it has to be slower.

I was up until the ungodly hour of 12:15 last night. I got up at 9:30. I hate that. But you know how computer problems are.

Now I have to clone my storage drive. Surely Bill Gates will permit me to do that without blowing up the PC or setting the house on fire. He makes things difficult these days, but I think I won a victory last night.

New Drive the Answer?

My computer is annoying me with its incessant freezes. I don’t know if it’s a software issue or what.

I just checked, and huge hard drives (bigger than the one I have) are very cheap now. I may go buy one, clone my old drive, and see if things improve.

Of course, this may result in days of agony while my computer refuses to boot. We’ll see.

I tried to find a decent hard drive test utility, but it looks like they don’t exist.

I’ll see you if I see you.

China Wins Again

Today, as a favor to my dad, I sat through a Cutco presentation. Cutco is a knife company, and the knives are marketed by an outfit called Vector. Maybe it’s the same company. I don’t know. They hire college kids to go around selling knife sets to people they know. The daughter of one of my dad’s business contacts asked if she could show this stuff to me. Supposedly, she would get paid whether I bought anything or not.

I hate having things sold to me, unless it’s something I already know is worthwhile. I also hate wasting a salesperson’s time. And there was no way I was going to buy anything. I have so many knives. Two Japanese cleavers. A santoku. A Forschner chef’s knife. A $20 Chinese cleaver which is probably the best kitchen knife I own. A 14″ Forschner scimitar. Two bird’s beak paring knives. Two cheap Henckels chef’s knives I rarely use. A Japanese chicken knife. A Tojiro nakiri. Other knives I can’t remember.

I was asked to bring out a steak knife, my favorite serrated knife, and my favorite straight-edged knife. I brought out the Forschner chef’s knife, a cheap Henckels bread knife, and a Henckels steak knife. The rep brought out a piece of rope–same material as baling twine–and asked me to cut it with my chef’s knife, with only one stroke. The idea was for me to get halfway through and look like a boob, so I could then try the Cutco, which would go through effortlessly. Sadly, this is not what happened. I had given my knife a few licks with a diamond hone in the kitchen, so it slid through the rope like it was a Vienna sausage. The cleaver would have bitten into the cutting board as well.

My other knives didn’t do so well, but then, they’re crappy knives I never sharpen. If meat requiring a sharp steak knife ever makes it to my table, I’ve done something very wrong. I don’t use serrated knives for cooking. A really sharp knife will go right through bread without deforming it; serrations are for people who can’t sharpen anything.

The rep also cut a penny in half with a pair of Cutco kitchen shears. This is impressive, although the shears lacked the notch kitchen shears ordinarily have, which catches and holds chicken bones so the shears will cut them. I would not want to cut chicken without that notch.

A lot of people on the web say nice things about Cutco knives. Perhaps many of these things are true. However, it’s very obvious that a lot of these people are shills. Or at least they look that way. Check out this quotation I found:

Besides that though, Cutco knives are really better than ANYTHING else. My parents have owned their set for over 30 years and they are still sharp!

Yeah, I’m sure that’s an honest comment. This person also claims he used to be a rep, and that he sold 29 sets in 40 tries. No salesman is that good. If he had done that well, he’d still be doing it, wouldn’t he? Maybe not. If you have talent like that, you need to forget knives and move up to something like commercial real estate or private jets.

He’s probably telling the truth about his parents’ knives. They stay sharp, because his parents always use their other knives.

Here’s how sales works, in the real world. Make 50 calls, get 5 responses, make 1 sale. Maybe this guy is the Mozart of sales, so the rules don’t apply to him. But I am skeptical.

The Cutco pitch goes like this. Henckels knives retail for $1500 per set, and they sell for $1000 per set, and our way better knives sell for $749 per set, and we’ll sharpen them free, forever. A quick Google reveals that a 9-piece Henckels Five-Star 18-piece set can be had for $560. That’s not the cheap Henckel line, either. Wusthof Classics–better than Henckels–cost about the same amount.

Henckels and Wusthof have forged blades. Consumer Reports says Cutco blades are stamped. Hmm…

I should also point out that the Cutcos look cheap. The web says they’re 440A stainless, which is the cheap grade of 440. What you really want is 440C. And they’re thin. The handles look like plain old plastic to me.

As I have said before, I am no longer a sucker for expensive knives. I have two Shuns, and I would never buy one again. They chip if you look at them funny. The ergonomics are weak. You absolutely cannot put them in the dishwasher under any circumstances, regardless of what the ads say. And a good price for one Shun santoku is $80. These are not knives. These are toys for people who can’t cook. If you spend a lot of time serving bad pretty food prepared with expensive equipment, Shuns are for you. If you want something you can use, get Forschner.

Don’t let what happened to me happen to you. That’s what I’m saying. I was an idiot. Learn from my example.

My two favorite knives are the Chinese cleaver and my Forschner chef’s knife. The cleaver takes an edge fast, so sharp you can hold a sheet of paper in front of you with one hand and swing the cleaver all the way through it. It minces garlic into tiny particles, with shocking speed. You can make sheets of ripe tomato with it. The back side tenderizes meat. The side knocks the peels off garlic cloves. The Forschner sharpens fast, cuts beautifully, and comes out of the dishwasher looking like new. The Shuns…I’m not sure where they are right now.

Total cost for a Forschner and a cleaver, including shipping? About $45.

I’d use the cleaver all the time, if it were stainless. I hate washing things by hand.

I wished I could have bought something the Cutco girl showed me, just as a kindness, but $749 to relearn a painful lesson…bad idea. These knives may be great for people who can’t use a stone or a hone. I can put a razor edge on a dull knife in under a minute. I don’t need something that has to go back to a factory to get an edge.

I admire anyone who has the guts and determination to go into sales, but this product is not for me.

Dow Creeps Toward 8000

I’m checking the stock market. Looks like it’s still headed down.

My gut tells me this is bad news. We took a big hit when the housing hysteria fizzled, and then Bush and Obama gave us a painkiller, in the form of bailouts and socialist “stimulus” spending. That calmed us down for a while. But there was no reason to expect it to work in the long term. We were spending money we didn’t have, and which we were obligated to repay to hostile nations, from future earnings, which we had no reason to expect. How can that be a good plan? If you lose your job, you can have a couple of great months anyway, just by maxing out your credit cards. But the third month…that’s when reality will set in. And you’ll be worse off than you would have been, had you done nothing. If you’re going to borrow, you should either have the money in hand before you take the loan (which is an odd thing to do), or you should be very sure you will earn enough in the future to cover it. We’re not sure at all. In fact, even Obama says the worst is still ahead.

I am reminded of a story about a Ferrari. Someone I knew bought a car when he was living on student loans. It
was not an expensive car. But his friends called it “the Ferrari.” Why did they call it that? Because of the interest. In the end, he was going to pay enough to buy a fancy luxury car. Maybe not a Ferrari, but certainly, something a lot nicer than what he got.

I won’t claim to be smarter than he was. I’ve bought stupid things, including nice stereo speakers, with loan money. But his story serves to illustrate the inadvisability of going into debt when it’s not necessary.

The stock market and the economy run largely on optimism. When the government started slapping Band-Aids on our problems, it made people feel good, and I’m sure that fueled the recent rally. But what’s going to happen when the placebo effect wears out? If Obama gives us a false sense of security by passing out money, and then we have another downturn, isn’t it safe to assume that passing out money will not have the same effect in the future?

If that’s true, where are the brakes now? The only answer is true productivity. Something Obama-style government smothers.

Unemployment is high. People claim this is a lagging indicator, meaning it tells you what has already happened, not what will happen in the future. But can that really be true? Wealth comes from work; there is no other source.

If there is less work, how can there be more wealth? I’m no economist, but it seems to me that unemployment figures have to be powerful omens, barring an unforeseen change that creates jobs.

I put my hope in God. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do. I still think our country’s current problems stem from rebellion, and I am going to be surprised if we ever resume our spot at the top.

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

I think that if you lead a godless life and you believe you succeed because of your own strength, you are buying a Ford at Ferrari prices. Like Esau, you’re selling your future to pay for the present. This has to be why the Bible calls that kind of life “vanity” and “leasing.” All these things are stripped away from you at death; none of it follows you. It’s like a rented apartment. You don’t own it, so you will eventually have to get out. But the good things you do follow you into the next life. The Bible says that; I can’t recall where. I read it yesterday. I do recall the phrase about storing up riches in heaven, which amounts to the same thing.

You have to find out what lasts and then invest in it. That’s how I see it these days. I hope I can find something useful to do, which will meet my needs and help me to meet the needs of others.

I’m Back

I am home from the sea.

We took Val Prieto and his uncle out again today. Sadly, the only fish we hooked while trolling got away. Val thinks it was a wahoo; I only got a glimpse of it. I love wahoo steaks.

We did a little bottom fishing and caught two groupers, but they were below the legal size limit, so we threw them back to die. I caught a few disgraceful fish not worth naming.

The boat has been vibrating lately. Val volunteered to go down and look at the shafts, which is great, because I hate driving with water in my underwear. Guess what he found wrapped around the left prop shaft? Some woman’s bathing suit. I realize Miami is full of perverts, so the skinny-dipping is not a surprise. But usually, you don’t expect them to remain naked all the way home. I’m glad she wasn’t fat. If her suit had been bigger, instead of making the boat shake, it might have stopped the engines entirely.

I don’t know what a woman’s bathing suit costs, but surely it’s worth retrieving with a boathook after you’ve had your fun.

It’s a tremendous privilege to get out on the water on your own huge private boat, regardless of whether you catch anything. Val’s uncle is fighting cancer, so it’s always good to learn that he’s in good shape and able to go. Val says it’s in remission. His uncle doesn’t speak English well, but as he left, he said that with luck, he expected to be with us again next year. I sure hope so.

Back to real life. My computer is acting up. I think it’s overheating. Intel supplies very cheesy plastic pins to connect this type of chip to the heatsink, and mine are so messed up, if you breathe on them hard, you have to take the computer apart and put everything back in thermal contact. I assume I knocked something loose when I installed the new burner. Let’s see what the CPU temperature is. It should be under 40° C.

Of course it’s 50. Time to yank a bunch of cables and clear space on the kitchen table. I swear, if I could get a C clamp onto the motherboard, I’d do it. Anything to hold that stupid heatsink on.

I smell, I need water, and my computer is probably about to conk out again. So goodbye.

Over the Side is Best

I got up today and wrote a big long piece about how things are going between me and God, and my PC locked up and killed it. What a bummer.

After that, I left and fixed a toilet on my dad’s boat. Needless to say, I have showered twice today.

Now I’m just tired.

Harley in Fine Shape

I got the Harley out today and took a ride. Down to Cutler Ridge, up to South Beach, through South Miami, and home. South Beach is a real minefield for a Christian. Everywhere I looked, there were young black women wearing what appeared to be paint. I guess they wear actually wearing shorts, but the difference was negligible.

I have missed riding. And now that the bike is running flawlessly, it’s more of a pleasure than ever. It was like flying. Every time I get on that thing, I wonder how people can complain about Harley seats. My behind has never been so pampered. I always compare it to riding a motorized couch. It’s an ergonomic masterpiece.

Because I used to ride so little, I had minimal insurance on the bikes. I called up today to get a quote on an increase. A while back I bit the bullet and got a nice medical policy, and today I asked what it would save me to dump uninsured motorist coverage. The answer? Only about TWO THIRDS of the cost of my policy. I had no idea it was so much. Insurance is utterly mysterious to me; I just figure out what I need, get the best quote I can, and pay. I generally don’t know what each component costs. If I switch companies and lose the unneeded coverage, I can get much, much higher coverage for a third of what I used to pay.

I think I should get rid of it. It pays for things like pain and suffering, IF you can prove them, and IF you can show the other driver caused the accident. Guess who will spend tons of money and time trying to prove you have no pain and suffering, and that you caused the accident? Your insurance company. Do I know that for a fact? No, but I know this for a fact: I was not born yesterday.

It also pays for lost wages. I can imagine how much fun that would be to prove, as a writer. No, I don’t think uninsured motorist coverage is for me. My regular policy covers my car, the other guy’s car, and the other guy’s medical costs. My medical insurance covers my injuries. Uninsured motorist sounds like a black hole I will never get my money out of. It made a little sense when it was a cheap alternative to a medical policy, but now it’s not so good. Correct me if I’m wrong.

The “pain and suffering” and “mental anguish” angle is not appealing to me. Opportunistic tort litigation makes me vomit, even when I stand to benefit from it. And payment for whiny, nebulous reasons like suffering doesn’t really make sense to me. I don’t want to be part of our country’s disgusting litigation burden, just so I can get a few more pennies to rub together and fondle and worship. My self-respect is worth more than that.

When my mother died, we suspected her death was hastened by a nasty technician who intentionally burned her esophagus because she complained. After her treatment, she couldn’t eat, and she starved. Did I have any interest in suing? Uh…no. We weren’t sure this guy burned her on purpose or even negligently. And regardless, a lawsuit would have prolonged the pain of losing her. We would have relived it every day for years. And litigation is a shabby, sleazy business. Better to count on God to balance the books. Suing for wrongful death or torts resulting in death is morally questionable, anyway. You take a loved one’s death, which is supposedly a source of pain for you, and you try to turn it into a pinata party.

I also had an opportunity to cash in on the cigarette lawsuits. As the son of a woman killed by lung cancer, I was entitled to thousands. I did not want that money polluting my bank account and my soul. I would have felt like a vulture. And I don’t really blame the tobacco companies for my mother’s death. She made a bad choice when she was young, disobeying her parents and becoming addicted. The people who sold tobacco at that time did not fully understand its addictive and carcinogenic nature. My own family grew tons of it. We don’t have clean hands, and it won’t bring my mother back, and I’m not the one who died of cancer, and I don’t want to be part of the tort system. How can I criticize it if my greedy, unworthy snout is in the trough? And Christians are expected to be merciful and forgiving, if they want God to be merciful and forgiving to them.

Speaking of my snout and troughs, I have to get food before church. Adios.

96

Is there anything more wonderful than being up on a Saturday morning, chock full of McDonald’s food, with 96 brownies chilling in anticipation of later use? I think not.

I don’t know what McDonald’s puts in this stuff to elevate my mood like this, but I wish I could buy a pallet of it.

My diet is going well. I’m losing slowly but continuously, and it’s not a strain. I shouldn’t call it a diet. I’m planning to live like this forever. It’s the plan I was on before Mike and the cookbook ruined me, except that I upped the calories. I used to eat 1500 per day, with unlimited Saturdays. Now it’s 1800, which is more realistic over the long term.

Mike really destroyed my life. He showed me how to make pizza. I made it worse by making it fast and easy. Controlling myself was just not an option. I could still eat pizza for two meals every day and never get bored.

As noted yesterday, I decided to make brownies for church. They’re putting on a feed after the service tonight, and I figured this was a good way to be helpful. Maybe people will start to realize I’m there. I just sneak in and out.

It was tough making all those brownies on a diet day. I didn’t cheat, although I did have some batter and include it in my daily allotment. When I woke up this morning, I had brownies on the brain. I could almost hear them giggling at me.

I’m not really a brownie freak. Having made so many of them, I have managed to blunt my enthusiasm. Still, when you’re dieting and you have maybe twenty pounds of them on hand, it’s a little hard to stay on the path.

I decided to update my surprisingly old Garmin handheld GPS. I still think of it as new, and it looks new, but it’s three years old, so it’s an antique. I got my map software running on this computer (I used to have it only on the laptop, because the laptop can be taken on the boat), and I got the updates going, and it turns out you can now put your tracks on Google Earth.

Hmm…the tracks don’t show up, but the waypoints and so on do.

HA! Mike knew I was blogging about him. He interrupted my writing with a long phone call.

I better take a look at one of those brownies. QC is what I’m all about.