Appliance Woes

Both the reefer and the dishwasher are on the fritz.  So today I am going to try and see if I can get them running without messing them up more than they are now.

That is the key to the problem folks.  You have to make sure that you don't really screw it up in the process of attempting a repair.  You have to leave your macho crap behind and know when to put down the tools and call someone who knows what they are doing.

So the reefer just kept a running and a running....stopped getting cold too.  So, upon consulting the oracles of the internet, I came upon the first attempted fix to clean everything, let it sit for a day, and plug it in to see if it started working (this involves dirty heat diffusers, bubbles in the freon, and frozen up thingies in the fridge).  This is the kind of fix that is well within my abilities.  So that will be the first attempt. 

The dishwasher is a different pickle.  The oracles of the internet are pointing at replacing an inlet valve.  This will (gasp) require that I pick up a screwdriver (shudder).  I am a damn chemist and a petty bureaucrat, this is gonna leave some permanent psychological damage.

I had better fortify myself with a drink before I start.

I am skeptical

I guess that this makes me a heretic.

Hmm...It worked for the Catholics (I am still one, albeit just by the hair of my toenails).  It also worked for Freud, after all any one who opposed him was in need of therapy.  It works for the pentacostals and the Mormons, who toss you as quick as you can say, "hey, just a minute here".

Now I guess that I am a bad boy for starting to say "hey, just a minute here" on the climate warming/CO2 debate. 

There has been a whole bunch of good observational data obtained about the climate.  In a whole bunch of places, the temp has been going up.  Nuff said there.

But what I am starting to question is the forward extrapolation made by the climatologists based around data derived in the last fifty years.   I will allow that the data shows an increase in temperature and CO2.  But even that simple statement is fraught with enough caveats and ass-covering as to place it in the banal. 

You see, I feel strongly that any civilization that can create a usage curve for petroleum such as this

is likely to raise the temp a bit here and there.

But that is the point, look at the right side of that curve.  OOOPS.  Looks like we are going to be ratcheting back on the bad stuff tout suite. 

So, from my point of view, we are looking at a problem in the process of self-correcting.  We are also looking at a vigorous minority of the population who are pressing aggressively for societal change and looking at "global climate change" as their covering motive. 

The sad part about environmentalists is their utter lack of patience.  We are going to return to the radically simpler way of life they espouse, but it will be done in the ring village that will deconstruct the mega-cities.  We will drop our use of oil, but it will be through the population loss that comes with the final failure of the "green revolution". 

You see, environmentalists are the sort of folks who think that by holding hands and singing kumbaya, we can keep what we choose and advance to a better place.  Noble thoughts those.

I on the other hand, am an old cynic, content with the fact that the world rolls around the way that it is supposed to.  We will reduce oil use because it ran out.  We will reduce population the old fashioned way, with war and pestilence and famine riding around, partying like it was 1999.

We will end up back to where we ought to be.  A world population of around 1-2 billion.  A more local and constrained lifestyle. 

It's OK

Welcome to history.

Kitchen Sinkers

 

The Youngest's Wrestling team tends to drop by...Food needs to be around

Ingredients

•   1 cup butter
•   1 cup butter flavored crisco 
•   1 cup peanut butter
•   1 cup white sugar
•   6 eggs
•   1/2 cup water
•   1-1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
•   4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•   1-1/2cup packed brown sugar
•   2 teaspoon baking soda
•   2 cups rolled oats
•   2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter,crisco, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then water and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats, coconut,  and chocolate chips.Roll into 1 inch balls.
   
3. Mush the dough balls down with a fork 
   
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly toasted on the edges. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

Please Give Thanks

We have had a sweet ride for a long time. 

It may well be that things are going to get a little dicey.  That is all the more reason to thank the creator for those things he has given you.  All of the easy times, youth, and frivolity that each and every one of us has used was a gift.  Now, we don't get to keep it forever, but while it lasted, it was a sweet ride.

So review you life and take the time to be grateful for the thousands of blessings that have been bestowed upon you. 

I would recommend some serious prayer on the Sunday following on how to accept that the Lord both giveth and taketh away. 

Visualizing Empires Lifespans

Claudius sent me this one.

I like it.  It is too bad they were politically correct and forgot the American Empire.

I am certain the Filipinos haven't

days off

One of the true pleasures in life is taking the odd time off and knowing that others are going to work while you stay home. 

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not a habit that you should indulge yourself in frequently, you should go and pull more than your share of work at the job, but, on occasion, a well-deserved reward of a day off is sweet.

This isn't a vacation.  No, vacation are parlous things, fraught with demands from family and a schedule that, if they tried that shit at work, would have you talking with the union steward.  Nope, this is just a day off.  Gonna do a little cooking, brine a couple of turkey breasts, and get ready for the wretched excess of the US thanksgiving.  Just so you know, I am not late, we are going on Saturday (family crap).

Envy me.

Apple Brine

This is good for one of those frozen turkey breasts.  (on sale at Safeways for $0.99/lb)

• 1 gallon apple juice 
• 3/4 cups kosher salt
  
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
  
• 2 Tbsp dried onion
  
• 2 Tbsp white pepper
  
• 2 Tbsp powdered ginger
  
• 1 Tbsp mustard powder
  
• 1 Tbsp nutmeg
  

Definitely Worth looking into

Stupid's Pledge


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Phillips

Think About This One

OK, no one said that I was consistent.  But when you read the news, some things just come out to bite you.  Again, I must thank Jim over at Some Assembly Required for giving me a heads up.  I highly recommend his site.

One of the reasons that you ought to have a bit of your savings in something non bankish is that all of the government debt has to come to roost somewhere.


This article seems to show that perhaps the Asian countries are getting wise to our banksters little tricks.  In my mind, most of the "rise" in stock markets are contrived things, more along the lines of a game of three card monte than legitimate ways to allocate capital. 

So now, Bloomberg news has its shorts in a knot because other countries are not willing to throw themselves on a grenade to save us.

I am quite fond of Malaysia.  I have far too many entry stamps in my passport from the station at Johor Bahru.  I am also quite impressed with how they stood up to the banking community during the 1997 crisis and fixed their own economy with the painful capital controls and hard work needed.  They told the IMF (the serial rapist that has historically been employed by our banksters) to take a flying fuck.  Good on them.

Well, I have a feeling that a lot of these countries will take a page from Malaysia's book.  The hot money (what a great term, as the function that it performs has very little to distinguish it from theft) will have to slow down.

Could get interesting

Please Go Look at This

Please read this first

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/#more-1853

Then go here.

http://motls.blogspot.com/2009/11/hacked-hadley-cru-foi2009-files.html#more
 
Please research yourself.  Don't stop at these two, try to come to grips with the complexity of the data.

Please don't try and cherry pick.  Don't just read a bunch of flap on websites that you already agree with. 

Please don't judge instantly according to your current prejudices, but rather, use the data here as a means of judging what is happening.  What is happening is not straightforward nor is it amenable to simple solutions.

Global Warming is not a hoax, it not the truth either.

Staying the same is not a hoax, it not the truth either.

Global cooling is not a hoax, it not the truth either.

The long term solar minimum currently is a data point, not a pointer to the future.

We really don't know what is going on, we only have the ability to look at all the facts available and draw the best possible theory, which has an unfortunate tendency of being proved wrong at the next data collection.

Think for yourself, forget the shrill raving of folks with axes to grind and firmly held convictions.  The subject being discussed is complex, the data given is difficult to encompass, and there is no way to make an easy judgement.  It is a difficult subject with hard to understand physics involved.

There has always been scandals in science.  There will also be times where scientists use language and methods not appropriate to the temple of science.  Even if there has been fudged data at one center, the other centers are still there for cross checking.

Be careful.

Minor League Cassandra

Truth be told, I am getting sick of waiting for the storm to hit.  I have been waiting around for a bit.  What I thought was coming has been takings its sweet time and ssssslllooooowwwwwlllllyyyy shown up piecemeal, and only around a quarter of the shit currently having arrived here at the bottom of the heap.

Cause the longer it holds off, the bigger it appears to be and the less there seems that I can do to give myself a legitimate edge.  Oh, don't get me wrong, a full pantry has nothing at all wrong with it.  Some savings in the bank, some savings not in the bank.  Nothing wrong with those either.  Not too much of anything around, because too much puts you in a dangerous spot.

Naw, mostly I think that pissing and moaning too much puts you in a bad place mentally and spiritually.   Yes the world is unfair and unjust, so what?  I don't see any appreciable change.  But the world rolls on.  Just remember to stop thinking of the world as a snapshot, a static point in time that defines your world as being right when it is "this way".

Mostly you have to develop an attitude of getting through the gap in the world that is your life.  Be aware that you will be colder and warmer than you are now.  You will be richer and poorer than you are now.  You will get through them all.

Enough of this for right now, I have to order some parts for the 3D printer I am going to try and make. 

Tin foil hat land of the blogosphere is quiet

Too quiet

Man...this sucks..

I had a big piece worked up about global warming.  It had graphs and links to data sets and statistics and everything!

Google ate my homework.

Shit.

Anyway, the nut of the discussion is that;

1. we are running out of fossil fuels,
2. fossil fuels are causing the problem,
3. a bunch of folks gotta pass away
4. life goes on

Gotta go, sunday games are starting

The truth about blogging

As you can probably tell, I have no issue with blogging.  It is an easy way for me to spend some time writing in a diary. 

Lets not for a moment think that it has any more meaning than that.

What amuses me to no end in the folks at http.(fill in the blanks here).blogspot.com who set up paypal accounts and place big notices on their blog how "your contributions are what keeps (fill in the blanks here) running. 

Give me a break folks.  Google doesn't charge a dime for this crap.  What your really want is someone to pay you so that you don't have to get a real job.

Most bloggers who do this tend toward the shrill.  It is as though these folks claim to see deeper into the future and write about it to save us.  They should be well compensated for their erudite and dire warnings that have a pronounced tendency of not quite working out the way they said.

So, give to folks if you want.  But hell, I think the money would best be spent elsewhere.  If something out there in the blogosphere gives you a good feeling, go and buy a bum a drink.  Go and donate to a food bank.  Start a business and build it up enough to hire someone.  Loan some money to a needy friend and don't fret about getting it back.

But remember this.  Most of the folks who are claiming to need contributions are usually sitting in a warm house, writing on a laptop, using a high speed internet connection that comes with their cable TV, and usually have a pretty good shtick going.

Goin' slow vs Go-Go

The hardest thing that most folks will have to deal with when things start heading south is that their movement is going to be seriously constrained.

Americans "love of the road" is going away.  You are going to have to make the place that you live where you want to be, not some mythical elsewhere when you have enough coin scraped together.

We have somehow become a society of jet-planes, second homes, time share condos, and endless racing around.  Lets face it, as peak oil comes in to roost, you had better be comfortable where you are, because it is going to be hideously expensive to get somewhere else.

Movement equals energy use.  I have 500,000+ airline miles and by having such I acknowledge that I have been part of the problem.  I helped lower the needle on our the gas tank that powers civilization.

But it really isn't going to be all that bad.  Most of it is going to be a simple recognition that the party is over.   What will probably happen is that the cost of getting around will rise until folks realise that they pretty much have to stay put.

Maybe this will solve a lot of my big issues.  Maybe we can get shut of the shallow, self-absorbed masturbation that passes itself off as the "tourism industry".  By making travel expensive, when you go and visit other places maybe it will become the precious gift that it is.

Heroes and Baby-Killers

 We seem to whipsaw back and forth about our military.  When I got out, we were baby killers.  Now, anyone who wears a uniform is labelled a hero.

We have to get a grip here folks.  Like it or not, a military is composed of an overwhelming majority of just plain folk.  Just doing their job.

There are small minoritiy of personnel who fall under the hero classification.

There is also a small minority of folks who fall under the baby-killer classification.

In a real sense, the adoration of the military that is occurring now is actually more worrisome to me than the crap I went through when I got out.  Men on white horses come out of societies where the military is put on a pedestal. 

I wonder when the pendulum will reverse course.  If it doesn't we may find out how history usually stores peoples who place too much faith in the military.

LATE EDIT

I can wear one of these.  So don't give me any shit...I have earned my right to an opinion.

Prepper Recipe #1 TVP Sorta Enchilada/Burritos

I am going to start working on my recipes and how to cook with prep stuff.  Just to show that you can have a pretty sheen diet on stuff from the basement.

In the morning

• 1-1/2 cup of Beef Flavored TVP from Highland Health foods in Kennewick, Wa.  
• 1/2 cup of dried peppers from Healthy Harvest in Vancouver, Wa
  
• 1/2 cup of dried onions from Healthy Harvest in Vancouver, Wa
• 1/4 cup of McCormick Taco mix from Costco.
• Shot of Soy Sauce
• Teaspoon of Salt
• Shot of Worcestershire
• 2-1/4 cup of boiling water

Throw all this stuff together in the morning in the pan that you boil the water and when it cools enough, stuff it in the fridge for later.  Take it off the heat, you don't want to cook the stuff with the water, you just have to get it back to reconstituted.

In the late afternoon reconstitute some dried hash browns (get these in the big milk carton kinda box at costco).   Just put them in a bowl, and cover them with cold water.   Or just grate up a couple of spuds...same same.

Go to your local Mexican food store.  Go to the aisle where they have the canned sauces and buy one for your taste range.  These are cheap and tasty as hell.  Buy two of the the big cans.  Might as well get your tortillas here while you are at it.

Mix up the TVP mix, the potatoes, and around 1/2 to 2/3 of one of the cans of sauce.  put a big glop on the tortilla and roll it up and put it in a big cooking dish.  When you have filled the dish up, dump the remainer of the sauce evenly over the  filled up pan  (you can put cheese over it if you wish, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't)

Stick it in a 325 oven for about an hour and fifteen minute.  (More or less depending on your oven and conditions)

The Old Saw about the camper and the bear and its relationship to blogger types.

There once was a pack of scouts camping in the wilderness overnight.  As they were cooking dinner, a ferocious grizzly bear came into the clearing and started towards the scouts.  


One of the scouts took off running, as he was running, the scoutmaster shouted at him, "don't be a fool, you can't outrun a grizzly bear!"


The scout yelled over his shoulder as he continued running.


"I don't have to outrun the grizzly, I just have to outrun you!"

In a way, a lot of the bloggers who are writing about the degringolade that we are facing are in the same position.  But think about the fable more deeply.  What would have been funny or useful about the parable if there had been no response from the smart camper.  None of the rest of the scouts would have heard the response.  None of the scouts who would have not already figured out running would have lit out. 

When you blog, try to keep the other campers in sight.  Try to yell encourgement and useful observations as you prep like hell.  Don't worry, the stupid ones (read here McMansion Owners) and the scoutmaster (TPTB) will get what they deserve.  Your job is to help those who just froze up for a second to get up and started.

Come on Mish, Give it a Rest

You know, I read Mish Shedlock over at

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Every day.  I really think that a lot of what he says it right on and he is a font of clearly presented and well researched data.  He is thoughtful and thought provoking, and a fairly good writer.

But, I think that he is coming a little unglued with the "free market" thing.  A proposed miniscule tax on a corrupt and self serving industry that is at the root of all the problems we are going through is going to be the end of the world as we know it and the swan song of the free market system.

Give me a break.

It is just a matter of time before the market crashes anyway.  The "recovery" in share prices is nothing more than trading bullshit with no relationship to reality.

So who cares if the market crashes because of the tax?  We might even get a few of our nickels back that they stole from us as we show them the door.

You see, the problem with folks like Mish is that the "market" is a sacred thing.

To me, it is nothing but a golden calf

I'm Still Here, Nothin' Worth Sayin'

'Nuff said.

Hard Shit

One of the most glaring issues facing us as a country and a civilization is our complete lack of desire to do difficult tasks.  It might well be our downfall.

Probably the most glaring example of this lack of work ethic is the battle cry at the beginning of the globalization movement;  "We think, they sweat".

I cannot imagine a future world where such arrogance and frippery will be allowed us.  I am afraid that we are going to have to roll our sleeves up and get to work.

Oh, baby boomers like me won't have to worry about it very much.  We are too old and set in our ways to change.  The ones of us (and truthfully, I question if I am in this group) who have worked for a living are too damn broke down to keep it up for long, and the ones of us (maybe me) who haven't are too damn old to bring on line now.  By the time that the changes will be in full swing, most of us boomers will be taking a dirt nap.

But the changes that must be made are changes made at a generational level.  The tripe being peddled by the kumbaya crowd that an individual can make a difference is going to soon be recognized as the self-serving pablum that it is.  What is going to seen is a re-instatement of work ethic as the manufacture and maintenance of concrete items on a human scale.  Individuals will have to work and make sacrifices as part of a group, not soloing as self-serving solipsists.

So I have been ragging my sons about their real education.  Math and science are now in the fore.  Nothing but A's and B's are allowed.  No exception.  I am also going to have to accellerate their learning with hands-on projects at home.  Mostly I tell them it is time to get used to doing real things.  Not pushing around digital crap and make work for a corporate master.