Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Cal, if you're stretching your chain from mashing gears, then it's not properly lubed. You need a lube with a greater shear strength and higher pressure rating. Hypoid gear oil is awesome for this but it can collect dirt if you get in dusty conditions. Wax doesn't help if you're experiencing chain wear from mashing.
Phil
Phil
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
A funny though that is insane: imagine me as FED President; my credentials: BA Visual Arts; MA in TV Broadcast TV Journalism and Screenwriting; and a MFA in Creative Writing.
To my credit I escaped poverty.
Not so funny is that Jerome Powell has no Finance or Economic PhD and actually his profession is as a lawyer. Is that not insane?
To prepare for inflation many corporations borrowed money at record low interest rates to enjoy the period of “Free-Money.”
Many home owners either bought homes at record low interest rates or ReFi’ed at record low interest rates. Mucho clever and smart. Those low rates are unlikely to occur ever again.
Some smart college kids lucked out in 2006 and refinance their variable rate student loans at the record low of 2.125% fixed rate. I know because I was one of them.
So there is good debt that is mucho smart, but credit card rates are crazy interest rates.
A sampling: Capitol One 20.15% APR on purchases, and 30.15% APR on cash advances. Discover 18.24% APR on purchases; 29.24% APR on cash advances.
These are like loan shark rates, and I have a perfect credit score of 850. Mucho insane…
About 2/3rd’s of the American population are said not to have a retirement or are able to retire. Pretty much work to death. Debt is an analogy to slavery.
From this number I say about 2/3rd’s of Americans likely are treading water living paycheck-to-paycheck with debt mortgaging their future whether they are home owners or not.
Another disturbing headline is how some retired people are going back to work because their income has become eroded by inflation.
The debt levels by consumers, households, and governments are insane. I say living on debt is now somewhat the culture. Eventually a shoe has to drop.
Inflation debases a currency, and purchasing power gets diminished.
I am already seeing hard assets like vintage guitars, vintage amps, gold, and of course real estate go up in value as inflation takes hold. I forgot the 1966 C-10 is also a hard asset to store wealth, and in particular my OEM survivor with 61K miles.
Today I could not afford my custom Santa Cruz Model “F” because within a year I got priced out.
Cal
To my credit I escaped poverty.
Not so funny is that Jerome Powell has no Finance or Economic PhD and actually his profession is as a lawyer. Is that not insane?
To prepare for inflation many corporations borrowed money at record low interest rates to enjoy the period of “Free-Money.”
Many home owners either bought homes at record low interest rates or ReFi’ed at record low interest rates. Mucho clever and smart. Those low rates are unlikely to occur ever again.
Some smart college kids lucked out in 2006 and refinance their variable rate student loans at the record low of 2.125% fixed rate. I know because I was one of them.
So there is good debt that is mucho smart, but credit card rates are crazy interest rates.
A sampling: Capitol One 20.15% APR on purchases, and 30.15% APR on cash advances. Discover 18.24% APR on purchases; 29.24% APR on cash advances.
These are like loan shark rates, and I have a perfect credit score of 850. Mucho insane…
About 2/3rd’s of the American population are said not to have a retirement or are able to retire. Pretty much work to death. Debt is an analogy to slavery.
From this number I say about 2/3rd’s of Americans likely are treading water living paycheck-to-paycheck with debt mortgaging their future whether they are home owners or not.
Another disturbing headline is how some retired people are going back to work because their income has become eroded by inflation.
The debt levels by consumers, households, and governments are insane. I say living on debt is now somewhat the culture. Eventually a shoe has to drop.
Inflation debases a currency, and purchasing power gets diminished.
I am already seeing hard assets like vintage guitars, vintage amps, gold, and of course real estate go up in value as inflation takes hold. I forgot the 1966 C-10 is also a hard asset to store wealth, and in particular my OEM survivor with 61K miles.
Today I could not afford my custom Santa Cruz Model “F” because within a year I got priced out.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
I still use Tri-Flow on my chains and cables. I know this is old school.
Tri-Flow tends to be a dirt magnet, but I clean and oil my chains regularly.
I think I stretch chains because of me not being a spinner. At times I use the bike like a stair master to climb hills using steep gears and mucho leverage.
I know this is not efficient, but I do well using and including my upper body as well as my legs to spin the cranks.
On my Rolex my stainless steel band is stretched a lot, but that happened over many years. I bought the my “cheap” Rolex Submariner new in 2003 Zero APR for two years. I call my Rolex “Cheap” because it is a “No-Date” that lacks the “Cyclopes” on the crystal. I prefer the No-Date because of the simple face. The No-Date has a cult following.
Cal
I still use Tri-Flow on my chains and cables. I know this is old school.
Tri-Flow tends to be a dirt magnet, but I clean and oil my chains regularly.
I think I stretch chains because of me not being a spinner. At times I use the bike like a stair master to climb hills using steep gears and mucho leverage.
I know this is not efficient, but I do well using and including my upper body as well as my legs to spin the cranks.
On my Rolex my stainless steel band is stretched a lot, but that happened over many years. I bought the my “cheap” Rolex Submariner new in 2003 Zero APR for two years. I call my Rolex “Cheap” because it is a “No-Date” that lacks the “Cyclopes” on the crystal. I prefer the No-Date because of the simple face. The No-Date has a cult following.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Austin,
That report only blames Biden.
Don’t forget the Donald Trump tax cut that certainly was stimulas. Trump Tarriffs also are mucho inflationary. Tarriffs on Canadian lumber is 20% and Canada is where we get 25% of our lumber. I paid a 25% Tarriffs on the Cedar sheds kits I bought and the pergola because they were considered finished wood products.
Oh-yah. Biden did not rescind these Tarriffs. Mucho lame and added directly onto housing costs on new construction or remodeling.
Don’t forget Obama Care, a program mandated by government that made health care costs escalate.
Remember the George Bush tax cuts? What about the wars he started. Wars are inflationary. Also remember we had a balance budget before he came into office.
Then there are all the subsidies. Corn, Farm, EV, Ethanol… Subsidies and government regulations are all inflationary.
Globalization made disinflation. Disinflation (cheap imported goods) offset stagnant wages that occurred over a two decade period under Greenspan’s tenure. Making China a most favored trade partner was bad policy.
I can go back to Nixon and blame him for normalizing relations with China. He also ended the gold standard.
Biden is lame, but he is not the only person to blame.
Basically George Bush destroyed the balanced budget and started running up deficits. Tax cuts started over stimulating the economy. Then Greenspan used the “Greenspan-Put” to rescue Wall Street again and again. Basically the end of free-market capitalism.
Ben Ber-KNACK-EE rescued failed businesses, and bank and Wall Street loses were “Socialized” meaning added to the deficit.
There are many guilty parties and many bad policies with many unintended consequences that got us to this point.
Not many people went to jail for fraud in 2007-2008.
Market history has no meaning today. We are repeating mistakes…
Cal
That report only blames Biden.
Don’t forget the Donald Trump tax cut that certainly was stimulas. Trump Tarriffs also are mucho inflationary. Tarriffs on Canadian lumber is 20% and Canada is where we get 25% of our lumber. I paid a 25% Tarriffs on the Cedar sheds kits I bought and the pergola because they were considered finished wood products.
Oh-yah. Biden did not rescind these Tarriffs. Mucho lame and added directly onto housing costs on new construction or remodeling.
Don’t forget Obama Care, a program mandated by government that made health care costs escalate.
Remember the George Bush tax cuts? What about the wars he started. Wars are inflationary. Also remember we had a balance budget before he came into office.
Then there are all the subsidies. Corn, Farm, EV, Ethanol… Subsidies and government regulations are all inflationary.
Globalization made disinflation. Disinflation (cheap imported goods) offset stagnant wages that occurred over a two decade period under Greenspan’s tenure. Making China a most favored trade partner was bad policy.
I can go back to Nixon and blame him for normalizing relations with China. He also ended the gold standard.
Biden is lame, but he is not the only person to blame.
Basically George Bush destroyed the balanced budget and started running up deficits. Tax cuts started over stimulating the economy. Then Greenspan used the “Greenspan-Put” to rescue Wall Street again and again. Basically the end of free-market capitalism.
Ben Ber-KNACK-EE rescued failed businesses, and bank and Wall Street loses were “Socialized” meaning added to the deficit.
There are many guilty parties and many bad policies with many unintended consequences that got us to this point.
Not many people went to jail for fraud in 2007-2008.
Market history has no meaning today. We are repeating mistakes…
Cal
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Prest_400
Multiformat
I had a couple of your quotes in draft, basically had no time to keep up with the news. Black monday? Yeah had two Deep Purple concerts to attend in a row.
I have some nice deposit running its course soon. I think I will split and have more liquidity soon. "Timing the market" is no bueno, but I do want to get some long term cash into index funds when things go low.
About Credit that you mention, I just use credit cards for "free" to pay the next month and as a way to handle liquitidy in the short term. When I see the APRs it's a nope at all. Again as recession kid, I have a self learned sense of care and old school thought that if you can't afford it, don't. Of course mortgages and such purchases might/will come with debt, but day to day consumption is a nope.
I realise that living in a 15 minute town has its advantages, I loved cars as a kid but in some places of Europe it's just a cost and not that much use in town.
Exactly, that I have totally thought. It's all very high up for the realities not taking account the structural situation. I like how some Swedish economic newspaper interviewed a dude with "ah, it's not that bad, now in this slight downturn you can buy again" as if no more corrections would happen. That was yesterday, but the headlines today are darker.
I have some nice deposit running its course soon. I think I will split and have more liquidity soon. "Timing the market" is no bueno, but I do want to get some long term cash into index funds when things go low.
About Credit that you mention, I just use credit cards for "free" to pay the next month and as a way to handle liquitidy in the short term. When I see the APRs it's a nope at all. Again as recession kid, I have a self learned sense of care and old school thought that if you can't afford it, don't. Of course mortgages and such purchases might/will come with debt, but day to day consumption is a nope.
I realise that living in a 15 minute town has its advantages, I loved cars as a kid but in some places of Europe it's just a cost and not that much use in town.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
September 18th likely will be a 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 interest rate cut. Which will it be? Will it prevent a recession? Is the FED really behind the curve? Is it too little too late? How high will unemployment go? Will bonds tank?
Today the markets look to regain the rest of Monday’s losses in the futures markets. It is as if Monday did not happen.
Markets like certainty but mucho uncertainty lays ahead. The unwinding of the carry-trade is only 50%-60% done, and who will buy all those bonds at a lower rate?
I can see how inflation can easily become entrenched, but also slow growth lays ahead because of debt load. The on-shoring of labor and localized production facilities have costs that will be inflationary.
A certain Presidential candidate is promoting more tariffs. God help us if that happens. Again 1929 there was a crash, in 1932 protectionism and tariffs were put in place, and then in 1934 the Great Depression set in.
I wonder if the down turn that lays in the future could evolve/devolve similarly into “The Greater Depression.” Understand that in the 1920’s there was a vast abuse of credit. How much debt can we afford? “Payback is a bitch,” they say.
I think the “Socialization” of loses and debt should not have happened in 2007-2008. Bad businesses should have been left to fail. This is the most basic premise of Capitalism, but at this point do we have Capitalism anymore, Comrade? The collapse back then would have been less severe than the one coming.
Government spending is a huge part of our GNP here in the U.S. Take away all this spending and you have not so big an economy.
Certianly the FED debt rollover will be easier with lower interest rates, but the deficit keeps on growing. The FED kinda was hamstrung with raising rates because higher rates meant higher interest payments. I hope someone will buy keep on buying our debt…
I figure not owning a car saved a lot of money and somewhat offset the cost of living in Madhattan, perhaps to give a number 8-10 thousand dollars a year. The money has to come from somewhere. Still we were able to save money and live below our means.
Speaking for myself, I did not waste money. No drinking, going to bars, no smoking, and where I could economize, I did.
I see the future as a time period of lengthy austerity, even if you have little debt.
Cal
Today the markets look to regain the rest of Monday’s losses in the futures markets. It is as if Monday did not happen.
Markets like certainty but mucho uncertainty lays ahead. The unwinding of the carry-trade is only 50%-60% done, and who will buy all those bonds at a lower rate?
I can see how inflation can easily become entrenched, but also slow growth lays ahead because of debt load. The on-shoring of labor and localized production facilities have costs that will be inflationary.
A certain Presidential candidate is promoting more tariffs. God help us if that happens. Again 1929 there was a crash, in 1932 protectionism and tariffs were put in place, and then in 1934 the Great Depression set in.
I wonder if the down turn that lays in the future could evolve/devolve similarly into “The Greater Depression.” Understand that in the 1920’s there was a vast abuse of credit. How much debt can we afford? “Payback is a bitch,” they say.
I think the “Socialization” of loses and debt should not have happened in 2007-2008. Bad businesses should have been left to fail. This is the most basic premise of Capitalism, but at this point do we have Capitalism anymore, Comrade? The collapse back then would have been less severe than the one coming.
Government spending is a huge part of our GNP here in the U.S. Take away all this spending and you have not so big an economy.
Certianly the FED debt rollover will be easier with lower interest rates, but the deficit keeps on growing. The FED kinda was hamstrung with raising rates because higher rates meant higher interest payments. I hope someone will buy keep on buying our debt…
I figure not owning a car saved a lot of money and somewhat offset the cost of living in Madhattan, perhaps to give a number 8-10 thousand dollars a year. The money has to come from somewhere. Still we were able to save money and live below our means.
Speaking for myself, I did not waste money. No drinking, going to bars, no smoking, and where I could economize, I did.
I see the future as a time period of lengthy austerity, even if you have little debt.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Not sure how I feel today. It is rainy and I guess I could do pull-ups and push-ups to find out.
Mornings are a bit hard and it seems like I have to rely on coffee to feel awake. I think physically and mentally I am a bit fatigued and worn down. Generally exercise helps me sleep better, but last night I ended up staying up later than normal. Pretty much a sign of overtraining, but pretty much I was so stimulated by 2 hours and 40 minutes of high blood flow.
Pretty sure I could not repeat today what I did yesterday. Best thing to do would be some other form of exercise.
I can see how I trimmed some fat and how the definition in my abs is returning. The skinny bitch returns, and it only gets better from here. I say I’m 155 pounds at 5’10”.
Oak Island where we had a surprise vacation is now under flood watch or is experiencing flooding. “Maggie’s” brothers and nephews are still high and dry, but fringe the border where the flooding is happening. Too close for comfort for me. Tornado watches. Remnants of Debbie. Dire warnings that warned of loss of life.
Rain expected every day till Saturday. Looking forward to the house party. Sandy was a serious Punk bass player. Has vinyl recordings. He also has a sound booth/room and does podcasts as his gig. Won a Peabody Award.
Cal
Mornings are a bit hard and it seems like I have to rely on coffee to feel awake. I think physically and mentally I am a bit fatigued and worn down. Generally exercise helps me sleep better, but last night I ended up staying up later than normal. Pretty much a sign of overtraining, but pretty much I was so stimulated by 2 hours and 40 minutes of high blood flow.
Pretty sure I could not repeat today what I did yesterday. Best thing to do would be some other form of exercise.
I can see how I trimmed some fat and how the definition in my abs is returning. The skinny bitch returns, and it only gets better from here. I say I’m 155 pounds at 5’10”.
Oak Island where we had a surprise vacation is now under flood watch or is experiencing flooding. “Maggie’s” brothers and nephews are still high and dry, but fringe the border where the flooding is happening. Too close for comfort for me. Tornado watches. Remnants of Debbie. Dire warnings that warned of loss of life.
Rain expected every day till Saturday. Looking forward to the house party. Sandy was a serious Punk bass player. Has vinyl recordings. He also has a sound booth/room and does podcasts as his gig. Won a Peabody Award.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
It took just a week to erase all the gains from the beginning of the year in Junk Bonds.
Hmmm…
Is a bond crisis going to happen? Will all bonds become junk? Is buying debt very risky?
Hmmm…
I don’t see a bounce in the Junk Bond market. We are definitely in a risk adversity time period.
BTW don’t think that China is immune to a currency crisis that involves the carry trade. The collapse began in Japan and spread throughout Asia before spreading to Europe and the U.S.
What a mess. At this point, anything can happen, and then some…
Pretty hard to put a positive spin on things, even if you have a manageable debt load or even good debt at record low rates. The future suggests prolonged inflation eroding buying power, further instability in the world that could lead to more wars, and stagnant economies. Expect future slow growth for an extended time…
I don’t see a way out.
Cal
Hmmm…
Is a bond crisis going to happen? Will all bonds become junk? Is buying debt very risky?
Hmmm…
I don’t see a bounce in the Junk Bond market. We are definitely in a risk adversity time period.
BTW don’t think that China is immune to a currency crisis that involves the carry trade. The collapse began in Japan and spread throughout Asia before spreading to Europe and the U.S.
What a mess. At this point, anything can happen, and then some…
Pretty hard to put a positive spin on things, even if you have a manageable debt load or even good debt at record low rates. The future suggests prolonged inflation eroding buying power, further instability in the world that could lead to more wars, and stagnant economies. Expect future slow growth for an extended time…
I don’t see a way out.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I was able to do 6 pull-ups and 60 pushups in single sets. This is a jump up from 5 and just 50 two days ago.
I expect a buildup back to 8-9 pull-ups and 70 pushups to quickly develope. Then will come three max-sets to really tear some muscle to get that ripped and toned look.
Then there is the high rep workouts with 30 pound dumbells and the 30 pound kettlebell.
I expect the muscle mass increase to be beneficial for storing glycogen for bursts of speed and for a reserve of sorts for intensity.
Not bad for an old man.
I made a Chinese breakfast of tomatoes, scallions and eggs flavored with browned garlic. “Maggie” liked the change up. Mostly protein, I used six eggs, but only one yoke. The acid from the tomatoes chemically polishes the copper frying pan and makes for an easy clean up.
Maggie caught up with me and set limits and limitations with our intrusive neighbors. This is turning into a bit of a shit-show. Pretty invasive and they are trying to dig in.
Cal
I expect a buildup back to 8-9 pull-ups and 70 pushups to quickly develope. Then will come three max-sets to really tear some muscle to get that ripped and toned look.
Then there is the high rep workouts with 30 pound dumbells and the 30 pound kettlebell.
I expect the muscle mass increase to be beneficial for storing glycogen for bursts of speed and for a reserve of sorts for intensity.
Not bad for an old man.
I made a Chinese breakfast of tomatoes, scallions and eggs flavored with browned garlic. “Maggie” liked the change up. Mostly protein, I used six eggs, but only one yoke. The acid from the tomatoes chemically polishes the copper frying pan and makes for an easy clean up.
Maggie caught up with me and set limits and limitations with our intrusive neighbors. This is turning into a bit of a shit-show. Pretty invasive and they are trying to dig in.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Raid has encouraged me to do another set of max-sets.
Many thanks.
Cal
Many thanks.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
The Bank Of Japan kinda placed a “Put” to offer further support for the carry-trade. Pretty much they reassured that no further rate increases will happen during this time of financial stress. The “Epic” carry trade persists…
Now if the FED lowers rates basically that could restart the unwinding of the carry trade, but then the hot potatoe would be in the FED’s hands. Will the FED lower rates knowing that this would likely cause an unwinding of the carry-trade? There could be consequences that come along with a FED rate cut.
Hmmmm…
Did another 5 pull-ups and 50 push-ups in my second max-set to tare some muscle. Thanks Raid for the support.
Looks like the kid’s house will close Friday, and we will have the grandkids.
Know that “Maggie’s” family in North Carolina is safe from harm.
Cal
Now if the FED lowers rates basically that could restart the unwinding of the carry trade, but then the hot potatoe would be in the FED’s hands. Will the FED lower rates knowing that this would likely cause an unwinding of the carry-trade? There could be consequences that come along with a FED rate cut.
Hmmmm…
Did another 5 pull-ups and 50 push-ups in my second max-set to tare some muscle. Thanks Raid for the support.
Looks like the kid’s house will close Friday, and we will have the grandkids.
Know that “Maggie’s” family in North Carolina is safe from harm.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
My body is taunt and I feel both a bit tired and yet energized. Been doing something every day to rebuild my body physically. The 2 hour 40 minute ride did good pumping lots of blood. The pull-ups and push-ups concentrate a strength buildup.
I met a remarkable man who is around my age and he does these things called Burpees: a combination of a squat thrust along with a push up. I imagine that this uses a lot of big muscles and gets the heart rate way up there. This man also did sets of max push-ups throughout the day. At one time before he caught Covid he did 1,000 pushups in a day.
“Brutal,” I say.
He worked for the MTA, and he mentioned carrying a hundred pound carpet by himself over his shoulder into the rail tunnel under the Hudson River to cover the third rail for a possible visit by Andrew Cuomo when he was Governor of New York. He carried it in over one shoulder and carried it out over the other shoulder back.
So here was a powerful, lean, fit, muscular man who had a bigger frame than me, but was all muscle and around my age. He told me that strength fades fast, and pretty much he exercised every day, and he was a total animal. Evidently he had the right genes to do what he does.
So pretty much I have skinny bitch genes for a high strength to weight ratio, and I’m built for speed and acceleration. My musculature favors fast twitch muscles. Over the past three days I see the results, and I wonder how far I can go. On the other hand I have the small frame for endurance and distance.
My friend Eric was like a stallion at the end of the summer. He built swimming pools for a living, and by the end of the summer he would be totally ripped from cracking heavy bags of cement over his knee and wheelbarrowing and shoveling cement. Eric was a very strong rider and very fast.
A huge part of this strength building is eating right. Without proper nutrition there won’t be gains. So I kinda want to see how far I can go using strength, and I want to see what my genes really are. Being Cantonese, I know feudalism lasted in Canton for almost a thousand years while the rest of China was unified. Pretty much I was inbreed for fighting, and aggression.
Also Canton was where a big portion of China’s greatest thinkers, artists, and writers came from. These qualities are in my genes. Part of me is thug by my father’s side. Some family history is my grandfather (father’s father) was executed in China for murdering a loan shark who burned down my grandfather’s store. In turn I am the grandson of a murderer. Also my dad spent some time in jail for shooting a man her in the U.S.
Know that merchants in Chinese society are considered lower class than peasants. My dad was 13 years old and was the oldest son, and he had to take care of his mother and 6 or 7 siblings. Pretty brutal, but he ended up jumping ship in New York and was an illegal immigrant during the time of The Chinese Exclusion Laws that were inacted in 1885.
It was in 1943 that he was allowed to become a U.S. citizen because he served in the U.S. army. Only 1428 Chinese used this loophole to become Naturalized American Citizens.
This allowed my dad to seek out a bride from Hong Kong and marry up in class. My mother was a lot younger than my dad, and she was an educated woman. This is why I think I have Bankster genes in me. Out of my siblings: two older brothers; an older sister; and a younger brother; I clearly am the pick of the litter.
I am the most educated also. My second oldest brother became the wealthiest, and also has the creative gene, but out of all of us I’m the one that most resembles my mother. I am prettier than my sister who is attractive. So I am a very interesting hybrid and a mix of high and low. I know though I have good genes.
So this buildup later in life where I now have the time, money and opportunity to become the man I want to be or was meant to be. Of course eating and resting enough is part of this lifestyle. I have the healthy body of a 40 year old my PCP remarked, but I can likely make that reverse to a 30 year old body when I get my blood pressure down to 100/60 and a resting heart rate below 50 BPM.
This part I know is not so hard to do because I have huge veins and a great circulatory system. Also I notice how all this blood flow effects my mood and thinking in a very positive way.
Cal
I met a remarkable man who is around my age and he does these things called Burpees: a combination of a squat thrust along with a push up. I imagine that this uses a lot of big muscles and gets the heart rate way up there. This man also did sets of max push-ups throughout the day. At one time before he caught Covid he did 1,000 pushups in a day.
“Brutal,” I say.
He worked for the MTA, and he mentioned carrying a hundred pound carpet by himself over his shoulder into the rail tunnel under the Hudson River to cover the third rail for a possible visit by Andrew Cuomo when he was Governor of New York. He carried it in over one shoulder and carried it out over the other shoulder back.
So here was a powerful, lean, fit, muscular man who had a bigger frame than me, but was all muscle and around my age. He told me that strength fades fast, and pretty much he exercised every day, and he was a total animal. Evidently he had the right genes to do what he does.
So pretty much I have skinny bitch genes for a high strength to weight ratio, and I’m built for speed and acceleration. My musculature favors fast twitch muscles. Over the past three days I see the results, and I wonder how far I can go. On the other hand I have the small frame for endurance and distance.
My friend Eric was like a stallion at the end of the summer. He built swimming pools for a living, and by the end of the summer he would be totally ripped from cracking heavy bags of cement over his knee and wheelbarrowing and shoveling cement. Eric was a very strong rider and very fast.
A huge part of this strength building is eating right. Without proper nutrition there won’t be gains. So I kinda want to see how far I can go using strength, and I want to see what my genes really are. Being Cantonese, I know feudalism lasted in Canton for almost a thousand years while the rest of China was unified. Pretty much I was inbreed for fighting, and aggression.
Also Canton was where a big portion of China’s greatest thinkers, artists, and writers came from. These qualities are in my genes. Part of me is thug by my father’s side. Some family history is my grandfather (father’s father) was executed in China for murdering a loan shark who burned down my grandfather’s store. In turn I am the grandson of a murderer. Also my dad spent some time in jail for shooting a man her in the U.S.
Know that merchants in Chinese society are considered lower class than peasants. My dad was 13 years old and was the oldest son, and he had to take care of his mother and 6 or 7 siblings. Pretty brutal, but he ended up jumping ship in New York and was an illegal immigrant during the time of The Chinese Exclusion Laws that were inacted in 1885.
It was in 1943 that he was allowed to become a U.S. citizen because he served in the U.S. army. Only 1428 Chinese used this loophole to become Naturalized American Citizens.
This allowed my dad to seek out a bride from Hong Kong and marry up in class. My mother was a lot younger than my dad, and she was an educated woman. This is why I think I have Bankster genes in me. Out of my siblings: two older brothers; an older sister; and a younger brother; I clearly am the pick of the litter.
I am the most educated also. My second oldest brother became the wealthiest, and also has the creative gene, but out of all of us I’m the one that most resembles my mother. I am prettier than my sister who is attractive. So I am a very interesting hybrid and a mix of high and low. I know though I have good genes.
So this buildup later in life where I now have the time, money and opportunity to become the man I want to be or was meant to be. Of course eating and resting enough is part of this lifestyle. I have the healthy body of a 40 year old my PCP remarked, but I can likely make that reverse to a 30 year old body when I get my blood pressure down to 100/60 and a resting heart rate below 50 BPM.
This part I know is not so hard to do because I have huge veins and a great circulatory system. Also I notice how all this blood flow effects my mood and thinking in a very positive way.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I don’t know where photography fits into my life anymore. I have all this gear, and I have a complete darkroom in my basement along with my Epson 7800 known as the “Jersey Barrier.”
Meanwhile I have no studio space nor darkroom.
This part of my life is on hold. One day though I might convert the 20x20 two car garage into a studio, or I might build a ADU in the back-backyard on the second building lot as Devil Dan suggests. This ADU could be a pre-fab on a slab…
I have to deal with “woman factor.”
I’m cool with a delay, and certainly I don’t want to throw away part of my identity, but I also realize that for growth I need to up the game and somewhat have a serious studio. I’m sure I’ll find inspiration, and it seems like printing will be more of a focus over shooting.
Cal
Meanwhile I have no studio space nor darkroom.
This part of my life is on hold. One day though I might convert the 20x20 two car garage into a studio, or I might build a ADU in the back-backyard on the second building lot as Devil Dan suggests. This ADU could be a pre-fab on a slab…
I have to deal with “woman factor.”
I’m cool with a delay, and certainly I don’t want to throw away part of my identity, but I also realize that for growth I need to up the game and somewhat have a serious studio. I’m sure I’ll find inspiration, and it seems like printing will be more of a focus over shooting.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
The Yen carry-trade is said to be “overdone” by James Dimon, head of JP Morgan. I look into the possibilities that he is correct. Then there is the argument by quite a few that we are actually far from a recession.
In one explaination they cite Hurricane Beryl that cause mucho flooding and electricity outages that basically shut down a good part of their economy as the reason. A kinda burp that was a one time event. Kinda plausible…
Pretty much the carry-trade they say is “contained.” I have heard that word used once before. It’s contained untill it surprisingly is not “contained.”
So I think of where the money/stimulas is coming from, and I do think it is through personal deficits in two different manners: one is through over use of credit cards. Delinquencies are up and the amount of credit extended at crazy interest rates is 1.14 trillion dollars.
The second source of borrowing/stimulus is via equity through inflated home prices that feed Home Equity Lines Of Credit.
So the culture now I repeat and believe is that people and households are living on debt, and that now is the culture. We follow the leader by doing what governments have been doing.
So I belive it is plausible that insanity could continue and that probably and most likely the shoe has not dropped yet.
Warren Buffett is sitting on mucho cash, banks are accumulating and hoarding gold, and the best place to live is below your means with very controlled levels of debt at low interest rates.
The world is certainly fraught and any surprise can an eventually happen.
Cal
In one explaination they cite Hurricane Beryl that cause mucho flooding and electricity outages that basically shut down a good part of their economy as the reason. A kinda burp that was a one time event. Kinda plausible…
Pretty much the carry-trade they say is “contained.” I have heard that word used once before. It’s contained untill it surprisingly is not “contained.”
So I think of where the money/stimulas is coming from, and I do think it is through personal deficits in two different manners: one is through over use of credit cards. Delinquencies are up and the amount of credit extended at crazy interest rates is 1.14 trillion dollars.
The second source of borrowing/stimulus is via equity through inflated home prices that feed Home Equity Lines Of Credit.
So the culture now I repeat and believe is that people and households are living on debt, and that now is the culture. We follow the leader by doing what governments have been doing.
So I belive it is plausible that insanity could continue and that probably and most likely the shoe has not dropped yet.
Warren Buffett is sitting on mucho cash, banks are accumulating and hoarding gold, and the best place to live is below your means with very controlled levels of debt at low interest rates.
The world is certainly fraught and any surprise can an eventually happen.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
My friend Craig, the tree surgeon, called. He is back from Vermont where he had to rebuild a 500 foot driveway that got washed out by flooding.
Remember how I reported the old infrastructure that is not hardened for global warming, and how the mountainous geography promotes flooding.
Anyways, I get my chance to accumulate old growth 12 inch wide planks of Douglas Fir to build out carriage doors for my two car garage. I wonder if we will settle on the original deal that Craig offered which was so generous. These planks are 8 1/2 feet long, and my Dewalt compound miter saw can cut this wide.
Awesome…
Cal
Remember how I reported the old infrastructure that is not hardened for global warming, and how the mountainous geography promotes flooding.
Anyways, I get my chance to accumulate old growth 12 inch wide planks of Douglas Fir to build out carriage doors for my two car garage. I wonder if we will settle on the original deal that Craig offered which was so generous. These planks are 8 1/2 feet long, and my Dewalt compound miter saw can cut this wide.
Awesome…
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I realize that the books Andrew lent me involve goal setting and dog mindedness through extreme sports. A point Andrew made is that ego can get in the way, and in the book it goes to, approaches injury or even death. Pretty much approaching of living near live and death or injury.
I see myself as having a type “A” personality. And there have been many times I could have been killed. Perhaps I should be dead, but I defied the odds. Pretty much high risk/high reward is where I lived, but also I am a thoughtful deep thinker. Something innate kept me alive.
I remember in college taking a senior seminar in my radical SUNY school, Old Westbury. Back then this school had a concentration of radical professors and radical ideas.
The senior seminar was for their Sociology majors, but really the major was interdisciplinary and was PES, short for Politics, Economics, and Society.
Robert Ross, or Haj, was a visiting professor who taught at MIT. Pretty much we covered Science, Philosophy, Religions, as being somewhat unified because they are all systems of belief. In science what got deconstructed were the idea and also the limitations of “Newtonian” thought, the reductionist thinking involved, and how that related to western society and its constructs.
On the other hand this was contrasted against eastern views of thinking, religion, science and eastern philosophies that are more of an interactive wholistic approach to thinking that pretty much is a separate reality.
There was actually taken away from quantum mechanics and the study of sub atomic particles where sometime believing lead to seeing. Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle got cited, and I was exposed to an entire different way of framing the world.
Did you know that juggling is big at MIT. That in itself is a philosophy. On that first day of class we all learned how to juggle. We were taught to do something almost everyone did not know how to do; we were taught that anyone could learn; and the most important lesson was to frame the learning process in a positive manner.
Pretty much everyone was shown that they could catch a ball, so you basically could at least juggle one. Could you practice and get better? Could you do two? If not just frame it that you are working on it. The deeper meaning is not to limit yourself, keep a positive mental outcome, and move forward by practice telling yourself “I’m working on it.”
So for many these ideas were all abstractions, but then again this led to deeper understandings and then profound meanings.
The minimal reductionist thinking that is present in western thinking leads to specialties, PhD’s, and a narrowing of thinking and possibilities. Isaac Newton believed the world was a machine that could be understood by dissembling its parts. The history of modern art kinda followed this same framework eventually leading to conceptual art, pop art, minimal art, and earthworks. All reductionist thinking.
In physics quantum mechanics involves a system of beliefs and a realm of possibilities. This is about thinking in a complex way, while a lot of western science still uses Newtonian thought.
Anyways I think you should know where my head is at, and why I think I am part of what Alvin Toffer the science fiction writer who also is a bit of a visionary as being part of “The Fourth Wave.” Over 3 decades ago he wrote a book called “The Fourth Wave” where it expands on my learning in the later 70’s.
Pretty much traditional college learning was challenged, and Alvin Toffer promoted a new intelligence that dealt with complexity and processing and intergrating vast amounts of information. The term “Age of Information” was coined by then. He cited Operation Desert Storm as being the first war that was most fought and won by use of information.
Smart bombs and precision weapons led to very few American casualties. CCC (Central Command and Control) made it a swift war. Then he predicted the success of individuals without college educations being the game changers, like college drop outs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs cited as people who understood complexity.
I find myself in retirement living in a world of many possibilities, a lot of uncertainty, and a place where I still have a lot of ambition. Not for wealth or fame, but to now discover who I really am, and to perhaps find a deeper meaning.
Not only am I physically building myself, but my mind resides and now resides in a big realm of possibilities.
I see a lot of inspiration. Speaking of which I think a weight workout today since I have been writing here so much today.
Also look up this Flat Picking Champion named Carl Miner. I discovered him through watching U-Tube auditions of Santa Cruz guitars. His playing style I would like to emulate. He is very fluid and pretty much does not know what he is going to play. Basically everything is an improvisation. Just pure guitar, no vocals.
Cal
I see myself as having a type “A” personality. And there have been many times I could have been killed. Perhaps I should be dead, but I defied the odds. Pretty much high risk/high reward is where I lived, but also I am a thoughtful deep thinker. Something innate kept me alive.
I remember in college taking a senior seminar in my radical SUNY school, Old Westbury. Back then this school had a concentration of radical professors and radical ideas.
The senior seminar was for their Sociology majors, but really the major was interdisciplinary and was PES, short for Politics, Economics, and Society.
Robert Ross, or Haj, was a visiting professor who taught at MIT. Pretty much we covered Science, Philosophy, Religions, as being somewhat unified because they are all systems of belief. In science what got deconstructed were the idea and also the limitations of “Newtonian” thought, the reductionist thinking involved, and how that related to western society and its constructs.
On the other hand this was contrasted against eastern views of thinking, religion, science and eastern philosophies that are more of an interactive wholistic approach to thinking that pretty much is a separate reality.
There was actually taken away from quantum mechanics and the study of sub atomic particles where sometime believing lead to seeing. Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle got cited, and I was exposed to an entire different way of framing the world.
Did you know that juggling is big at MIT. That in itself is a philosophy. On that first day of class we all learned how to juggle. We were taught to do something almost everyone did not know how to do; we were taught that anyone could learn; and the most important lesson was to frame the learning process in a positive manner.
Pretty much everyone was shown that they could catch a ball, so you basically could at least juggle one. Could you practice and get better? Could you do two? If not just frame it that you are working on it. The deeper meaning is not to limit yourself, keep a positive mental outcome, and move forward by practice telling yourself “I’m working on it.”
So for many these ideas were all abstractions, but then again this led to deeper understandings and then profound meanings.
The minimal reductionist thinking that is present in western thinking leads to specialties, PhD’s, and a narrowing of thinking and possibilities. Isaac Newton believed the world was a machine that could be understood by dissembling its parts. The history of modern art kinda followed this same framework eventually leading to conceptual art, pop art, minimal art, and earthworks. All reductionist thinking.
In physics quantum mechanics involves a system of beliefs and a realm of possibilities. This is about thinking in a complex way, while a lot of western science still uses Newtonian thought.
Anyways I think you should know where my head is at, and why I think I am part of what Alvin Toffer the science fiction writer who also is a bit of a visionary as being part of “The Fourth Wave.” Over 3 decades ago he wrote a book called “The Fourth Wave” where it expands on my learning in the later 70’s.
Pretty much traditional college learning was challenged, and Alvin Toffer promoted a new intelligence that dealt with complexity and processing and intergrating vast amounts of information. The term “Age of Information” was coined by then. He cited Operation Desert Storm as being the first war that was most fought and won by use of information.
Smart bombs and precision weapons led to very few American casualties. CCC (Central Command and Control) made it a swift war. Then he predicted the success of individuals without college educations being the game changers, like college drop outs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs cited as people who understood complexity.
I find myself in retirement living in a world of many possibilities, a lot of uncertainty, and a place where I still have a lot of ambition. Not for wealth or fame, but to now discover who I really am, and to perhaps find a deeper meaning.
Not only am I physically building myself, but my mind resides and now resides in a big realm of possibilities.
I see a lot of inspiration. Speaking of which I think a weight workout today since I have been writing here so much today.
Also look up this Flat Picking Champion named Carl Miner. I discovered him through watching U-Tube auditions of Santa Cruz guitars. His playing style I would like to emulate. He is very fluid and pretty much does not know what he is going to play. Basically everything is an improvisation. Just pure guitar, no vocals.
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Desert Storm was NOT a swift war. The coalition blitz was swift, and the Iraqi retreat was as well, but what happened after was the daily bombing of sites in southern Iraq, for nearly a full decade. The media would like us all to think that was just "100 days", but the actual conflict which created Operation Southern Watch went on 30 fold longer. The VA classified me as well as all veterans who served until the present, as participating in the same war.
The American casualties came after the first field trip to Iraq, the one I was on the ground for was our nation's second attempt. Then we lost members in double digits per day. Since then, we die at increasing rates due to rare exposure-based illnesses and cancers, as well as "misadventure" due to untreated PTSD, and of course suicide.
Big picture, this war started in 1916, and has had decades-long battles. Interestingly, WWII saw a lull in this particular long-running conflict, as the protagonists were busy with other matters. No one but Medhi Hasan has actually brought any of this up or attempted to speak any truth to power in big media. Hasan got fired immediately after questioning an Israeli cabinet minister.
I was not a good person to make statements when I was in Iraq, as I knew full well the history of our involvement, and the reasons I was there at the time. I was ordered by a Marine SSGT to give an "hoorah/go team" statement on September 11, 2004 and what it meant to be there 3 years after the attack in the US. On camera, I told the SSGT, "You're not going to like what I say, Staff Sergeant. Our being here today has absolutely nothing to do with September 11, 2001. Now, I'd like to get back to standing in line for the PX, I heard they just got some chocolate in, and I recently had to take photos of the greasy bits of my friend after a rocket attack in our CESE [equipment] yard."
It wasn't a popular thing to say but I didn't do any "defense of our country" aside from helping some big corporations, and their investors, make incredible amounts of money. Y'all (the greater public who benefitted) are welcome.
Phil
The American casualties came after the first field trip to Iraq, the one I was on the ground for was our nation's second attempt. Then we lost members in double digits per day. Since then, we die at increasing rates due to rare exposure-based illnesses and cancers, as well as "misadventure" due to untreated PTSD, and of course suicide.
Big picture, this war started in 1916, and has had decades-long battles. Interestingly, WWII saw a lull in this particular long-running conflict, as the protagonists were busy with other matters. No one but Medhi Hasan has actually brought any of this up or attempted to speak any truth to power in big media. Hasan got fired immediately after questioning an Israeli cabinet minister.
I was not a good person to make statements when I was in Iraq, as I knew full well the history of our involvement, and the reasons I was there at the time. I was ordered by a Marine SSGT to give an "hoorah/go team" statement on September 11, 2004 and what it meant to be there 3 years after the attack in the US. On camera, I told the SSGT, "You're not going to like what I say, Staff Sergeant. Our being here today has absolutely nothing to do with September 11, 2001. Now, I'd like to get back to standing in line for the PX, I heard they just got some chocolate in, and I recently had to take photos of the greasy bits of my friend after a rocket attack in our CESE [equipment] yard."
It wasn't a popular thing to say but I didn't do any "defense of our country" aside from helping some big corporations, and their investors, make incredible amounts of money. Y'all (the greater public who benefitted) are welcome.
Phil
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Do you own a Yeti cooler? We do, one that is appropriately sized for camping or fishing.
They are kinda costly and are not inexpensive, but it seems like they are selling. Pretty much a high end cooler that carries some status.
The markets did a big jump upward today, and recession fears disappeared.
My dead end is more fully loaded with construction gear and supplies. Pretty much natural gas line replacement construction should begin shortly on my street, then a total repavement of the roadway.
The City of Peekskill also vacuumed out the street drain/sewers on our streets.
So our next door neighbors stalk us. It is kinda crazy and creepy. No need for ADT security when you have next door neighbors like ours. This is pretty insane. Also it is at a point where it is getting a bit scary.
I think they are curious about us, and they are trying to dig in. They do it through kind ways, but then there is a passive aggressive manner about them, and I have some thoughts about them that are not nice.
Don’t want to call them racist, but then they made some comments that suggested that they are very uncomfortable living in a city like Peekskill where whites are not the majority. Dismissive comments about a Latino neighbor as “a little Mexican” when in fact I know the man to be Puerto Rican.
They are white people who feel uncomfortable being white.
Also they promote their politics, talk a lot using non-fact. Yes I am compelled after just listening to do my fact checking afterwards. And then I have determined that they are rather rigidly judgemental. I know better than to argue, and I don’t want to waste my time. Pretty much no sense in arguing or raising any conflict.
I drew my conclusions a while ago and started to withdraw, and then there was an event that happened the 4th of July that made me happy I kept to myself.
“Maggie” took a while but after an interaction Saturday with the wife she fully sees things my way. We have to protect ourselves, not engage, and somehow keep our distance.
So now we have determined that not only are we surveil by cameras and recorded, but we are being stalked.
Cal
They are kinda costly and are not inexpensive, but it seems like they are selling. Pretty much a high end cooler that carries some status.
The markets did a big jump upward today, and recession fears disappeared.
My dead end is more fully loaded with construction gear and supplies. Pretty much natural gas line replacement construction should begin shortly on my street, then a total repavement of the roadway.
The City of Peekskill also vacuumed out the street drain/sewers on our streets.
So our next door neighbors stalk us. It is kinda crazy and creepy. No need for ADT security when you have next door neighbors like ours. This is pretty insane. Also it is at a point where it is getting a bit scary.
I think they are curious about us, and they are trying to dig in. They do it through kind ways, but then there is a passive aggressive manner about them, and I have some thoughts about them that are not nice.
Don’t want to call them racist, but then they made some comments that suggested that they are very uncomfortable living in a city like Peekskill where whites are not the majority. Dismissive comments about a Latino neighbor as “a little Mexican” when in fact I know the man to be Puerto Rican.
They are white people who feel uncomfortable being white.
Also they promote their politics, talk a lot using non-fact. Yes I am compelled after just listening to do my fact checking afterwards. And then I have determined that they are rather rigidly judgemental. I know better than to argue, and I don’t want to waste my time. Pretty much no sense in arguing or raising any conflict.
I drew my conclusions a while ago and started to withdraw, and then there was an event that happened the 4th of July that made me happy I kept to myself.
“Maggie” took a while but after an interaction Saturday with the wife she fully sees things my way. We have to protect ourselves, not engage, and somehow keep our distance.
So now we have determined that not only are we surveil by cameras and recorded, but we are being stalked.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
I apologize for bring up any sadness, strong emotion, or trauma.
That was not my intent. Again my apologies.
Cal
I apologize for bring up any sadness, strong emotion, or trauma.
That was not my intent. Again my apologies.
Cal
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Cal, it's all good, and you were speaking a bit in metaphor, but I took the opportunity to mention the hypocrisy in media and the ignorance of our western culture. It's all propaganda, for one aim or another, and very seldom does any media propaganda serve or benefit its actual consumers.
Phil
Phil