A Trip Down Memory Lane

I have been archiving big chunks of my life and every now and then I will post a part of it.  Today's post is about my old concert and festival tickets.   I love live music and to this day still go to concerts.  Back in the day I used to take my tent and camp out at festivals as well; not so much nowadays.

This dates back to the 17th August 1985 and Donington Park, UK for the Monsters of Rock Festival. As you can see from the poster, its an interesting line up.

Poster (Not Mine)

I have been a Magnum fan for many years so I could not pass up the chance to see them and Marillion.  Back then I really hadn't heard of Metallica or Ratt so that was just noise, and Bon Jovi I remember as uninspiring.  ZZTop were of course excellent and I went to see them again but thats another festival.

The Ticket (This is mine)

Sadly cell phones and digital cameras were not a thing back then so I don't have any photos of the festival but I am sure there are some online somewhere, bound to be.  I am going to go and look and wallow in nostalgia.

Bug Out Around Town (BOAT)

The BOAT is a Bug Out Around Town kit.

I have an interest in survival, but most survival articles are based around wilderness survival.

This idea is based on a survival tin, but is focused towards urban survival where items like trapping and fishing kits are not all that useful. I put this together as an experiment.  What would one need for urban survival. 

This is the second one i have created. The basis for the kit is a cotton buds plastic box: As you can see the box is pretty well packed and closed with a rubber band.  The other side of the box is taped and the tape holds a few coins.

The contents

The contents of the box are:

    Band AIDS         | First Aid 

    Drugs             |

    Small sewing kit  |

    Safety Pins       | Emergency repairs to clothes or gear

    Lighter           |

    SAK Classic SD    | Tools

    P38               |

    Compass           | Navigation

    Whistle           |

    LED light         | Attract Attention

    6 Quarters        | Vending Machines

    $20 in notes      | Emergency taxi ride / vending machines

The whole thing completed

The Coins

It’s a decent little kit and stuffed in a commuter backpack or man bag, could come in very handy for those in town emergencies.  I am writing this up in 2021, so a while after I first put this together. I think that knowing what I know now, I might add a laser pointer, and a mask. I might even drop the lighter.

Smoothies

As I am on this mixed drink kick right now I thought I would also have a go at making smoothies.  I like the occasional smoothie but I am not a huge fan of them being milk based.  I know some folks get around this by using almond milk and similar products but for me its all the same.

Last weekend I got a bag of frozen mixed fruit with our groceries.  One of the meals I cooked last week involved orange juice, so I had some of that around as well, but not much else.  So this morning I decided to try making a mixed fruit smoothie with the ingredients that I have.

This is the result:

A mixed Fruit Smoothie

It tasted pretty good, not bad at all for a first attempt, and given the ingredients that I have.  The biggest issue I had is that I made too much - Oh no!

The Recipe

It was pretty simple really.  Take two handfuls of mixed frozen fruit, one cup of orange juice, one cup of water, chuck it all in a food processor and blend with the sharp knife attachment.  If it seems a little stiff, add more OJ and water. That should make enough for two; I made enough for 4 because I wasn't sure how this was going to come out.

Lessons learned

The first thing I learned is that I over estimated the amount of ingredients resulting in way more smoothie than I needed.  Also I think I used too much OJ as it is overpowering the taste of the mixed fruit.  What I might need to do in order to loosen this up a little is use more water and maybe something like peeled cucumber.

Was this a successful test? Yes absolutely.  My wife seems to be enjoying her smoothie and while I am a little critical of the way it came out, it is a refreshing and delicious snack.

So what should I try to make next?

Burrito Tool Kit

Sometimes I do things for no apparent reason other than I have the things to play with.  That sort of makes sense but bear with me. 

I was being a couch potato today and scrolling Amazon as I do sometimes, looking at pocket tools (I have a fascination for them) and it occurred to me that I could use a small tool kit.  We have a move coming up in late September/early October and this means odd jobs about the house.  Now I have a small tool bag that I keep my regular tools in (one of these) and it works well, but I want something smaller I can throw into a messenger bag with other things on moving day. 

So I scoured my garage and collections and came up with this handy tool kit:

Click to embiggen 

• Leatherman Skeletool CX
• Leatherman additional tool bits 
• Leatherman drive extension
• Victorinox Classic SD
• Measuring tape
• Flashlight (Felix EO1)
• Prybar multi tool (Kershaw PT-1)
• TI toothpick
• Pocket razor blade
• 4 in 1 screwdriver
• 1/4" driver
• 1/4" Sockets and bits

This is actually a cable organizer

The only thing missing is a small hammer, level and pen for marking with. I have a small plastic level on its way from Amazon as we speak.  

It's a burrito!

This will be handy for odd jobs as we move and the occasional job about the office.  What else should go in there? Am I missing anything?

My COVID Rant

We are now 18+ months into a global pandemic.  We are seeing variants of the COVID strain that are much more virulent than the original COVID strain.  According to the WHO, there have been 201M cases and 4.2M deaths from COVID.  Of that 201M, there are untold cases of long term COVID effects that we have not even started to understand or tackle. And yet, there are Americans who are utterly convinced that all this is fake. It's a lie.  We are sheep being lied to by the main stream media and the government.  I have yet to get a coherent reason as for why this is the case, and how the media and government managed to get the rest of the world to play along.

People who believe COVID is fake, or overblown are morons.

And as the pandemic rolls on we have people who claim they can't breath with a mask on.  Millions wear masks every day, but these people can't for some reason, breath with a mask on.  The rest of us people wearing masks have been duped into it.  For what reason I have no idea other than some nebulous connection to freedom?  Yeah, I don't get that at all. 

Anti maskers are not just morons but complete fucking morons, and dangerous.

And of course we have the anti-vax crowd.  Now I will be the first to acknowledge that there have been vaccine failings in the past; most notably in my memory, thalidomide.  However there have also been some amazing successes like small pox, polio, rubella and so on.  Get the fucking vaccine and help the world out, won't you?  

No its not the mark of the beast; how the fuck do you figure that?  

No, Bill Gates did not put a chip in the vaccine.

No it does not cause autism you fucking potato.

The anti vaccine crowd are bunch of fucking clowns, but sadly the rest of us are not laughing.

And no, the vaccine is not some sort of impervious shield that prevents the virus from infecting you.  Nothing stops that, but what it does is allow the body to react faster and with more efficacy than if you had not had the vaccine.  This allows you to combat the virus much more effectively and can prevent it being passed on to others.. Without the vaccine it is quite possible that the virus can kill you. 

We have indeed seem numerous cases of COVID deniers, anti vaxxers etc [1] [2] [3] [4], pleading for vaccine once they realize they are sick and dying.  Too fucking late morons.  I have no sympathy.

Now I am sure some of these people 'don't trust the government'.  I don't either but this is not a US problems, this is a global issue.  This is not the US government telling you to mask up and get the vaccine, its the whole fucking world. This is greater than just the USA and the US government (unless of course you are a moron from the first paragraph).

I am sure there is an element of "fuck you, I won't do as you tell me" but in this case, enlightened self interest might indicate that while governments are asking us to wear masks, socially distance and get vaccinated, you might consider it advantageous to do this anyway, you know so that you don't die yourself, or kill someone immunocompromised. 

We all love a conspiracy theory from time to time, but to continue that in the face of overwhelming facts and truth makes you deliberately negligent, willfully ignorant and fucking stupid.  I don't care if you die and frankly you would be doing the gene pool some good if you did.  What makes me angry is that you may take innocent people who don't deserve to die through your stupidity with you.

People who spout COVID conspiracy theories should laughed at and viewed with derision and distain.

What we are really seeing here is evolution at work.  We are watching the vaccine mutate and we are watching idiots die from stupidity.  I will exit this rant with the following observation from Terry Pratchett:

“What shall we do?’ said Twoflower. ‘Panic?’ said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival; back in the olden days, his theory went, people faced with hungry sabre-toothed tigers could be divided very simply into those who panicked and those who stood there saying ‘What a magnificent brute!’ and ‘Here, pussy.”

― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

Uneducated Potatoes

... or we are all doomed.

I don't often rant but this is a bit of a rant.  So what am I ranting about?  The general state of education I think, and how easy it is to forget things, big things.  So here we go.

I like Rammstein and just recently saw their music video Deutschland.  What an absolutely amazing video.  The production, and cinematography, the concept is incredible.  I am not afraid to say that I teared up during parts of it; I mean how can you not?

I was watching the video on YouTube and fell into a 'reaction video' rabbit hole.  Oh My Gods.  Most of the reviewers have absolutely no fucking idea what this is about.  And I know, it's a hard video to follow. If you don't know the video covers about 2000 years of German history, mostly the bad bits. I understand if some of the scenes pass you by; its ok but there are some that everyone should know.  

Did you not see the Hindenburg?  How do you not recognize the Hindenburg bursting into flames?   This has to be one of the most identifiable disasters of the early 20th Century.

Did you not recognize the nazis and the concentration camp.  Did you not recognize the V2 rockets?  Did you not understand why the prisoners on the gallows were to die?  There is absolutely no excuse for that.  One reviewer stated, on seeing this scene "what did they do?"  They lived and were the 'wrong' people!  That was their crime - living.  Jesus Christ people ... there are still people alive who remember this, people who were there and already we are forgetting. 

I'm not picking on that particular YouTuber, he is just a symptom of a larger problem. That problem is that we have a majority who are unable to recognize these historical disasters.  And make no mistake, Nazis were a disaster for many reasons.  They are also fascists and in the last US election, a lot of people voted for fascism.  Why? I suspect a lot of it was fear and ignorance; the same thing that got Hitler elected German Chancellor and thus the defacto dictator of Germany. 

The current slew of voter dis-enfranchisement legislation in the US, can only lead in one direction; our own version of the Kristallnacht, if we are not vigilant.  But it's really hard to be vigilant when you have no idea what you are looking for. 

So, I despair for the future and hope that enough people realize this shit is wrong even if they have not seen it before. My fear is America is going to be the next fascist state.  My fear is that people have a tendency to jump on bandwagons and go with flow even if that voice inside says this is wrong.   Once that happens, its too late, and for those who would say, that cannot happen here; it almost already has.  A few more years and it might well happen - sometimes people suck.

And even more social media

I have a YouTube channel and I really don't do much with it, but several things recently have prompted me to consider starting to make videos.

I use video all of the time.  I use it for research, for learning, study and for entertainment.

At work we use video for SOPs rather than PDFs as more people these days are used to watching video.

I have started watching and following a number of YouTube channels and have found myself really enjoying them.

It's not that I think running a YouTube channel would be easy or I would become a YouTube star; of course not. I highly doubt that there is much that I want to say that would be popular, but rather than write, blog, tweet and IG, perhaps video is a more flexible, creative outlet?

So what would I vlog about?

Well I am still figuring that out.  The subjects that immediately come to mind are those here in this blog:

• Collections
• Tech
• Language learning
• Organizing
• Prepping

But there are other things I would consider too, like:

• Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)
• Travel
• Cooking
• Health and fitness

Some of these are because I believe passionately about them, and some just to keep me honest.

Like much of my social media, it would be an experiment; something to try and see how it goes and if I like it.  If I do I could keep doing it, if I don't like it, perhaps I drop it.  After all, I have all the equipment I need right now; 

• A camera - iPhone SE (4K @ 60FPS)
• Video Editor - iPad pro

With just these two devices, I can do all that I need to in order to create a basic no frills video. If I like doing this and can gain a little traction, then I can add more equipment and software later.

What do you think?

Bubble and Squeak

This is a post outside of my normal posts but I am putting this out there for a couple of special friends.  As a lover of the potato, one of my favorite meals is bubble and squeak.  In my family, we used to have bubble and squeak (referred to from now on as B&S because I am too lazy too type it out) on boxing day.  It was usually made of the left overs from the Christmas dinner. 

I like to cook B&S occasionally as a treat.  Normally we eat fairly low carb, so we don't eat a lot of potato, but when the urge hits, this is what I cook.

Ingredients

The ingredients are mashed potato and vegetables, and is often served with a side of meat; ham is especially good with B&S, but also left over turkey works or even sausages.

In tonight's B&S we have:

• Mashed potato
• onion
• peas
• corn
• Brussel sprouts
• Zucchini

... however you can use almost any veggies you want.  I have also used carrots, summer squash, cabbage etc.

How to make B&S

First boil some potatoes until they are soft, drain and mash them.  Pre cook the other veggies so they are soft.  Mix it all in a large bowl;  I add salt, pepper, butter and a couple of eggs to bind and season it.  Once mixed, throw it all into a frying pan with a little olive oil.

Here it is in the frying pan.

I cook it for about 6 minutes per side so the potato and veggies start to crisp a little.

Serving the Bubble and Squeak

Tonight we had just the B&S, no meat.  This was because we are taking a trip shortly and this was a way to use up the vegetables in the fridge.  We also used some of the condiments up.  My wife likes to have her B&S with just butter (yes more butter!), but I like to have mine with Branson Pickle, or mustard. I also like to have ketchup too sometimes.

Condiments!

And this is the finished product:

So how about you have a go and make some B&S; its easy to make and delicious.  Let me know how it goes in the comments!

New Audio

 I love audio equipment and now that the house move (did I tell you about that?) is complete, I figured I would get myself a new stereo.  I picked up a pair of Polk T50 floor standing speakers and an a small (its so small!) class D stereo amplifier.

That amplifier is tiny!

The amplifier is a Fosi Audio DA2120C, bluetooth amplifier. I wanted BT on board because I like to stream music from Spotify via my phone sometimes.  But one of the things I noticed when looking for an amplifier is the disparity in tech specs.  So many manufactures just use peak rather than RMS for the power out. The issue here is that using peak can make a 10W amplifier look like a 1KW beast, and it plainly isn't.

This amplifier has an external power brick rated at 32V/5A. So in theory the maximum I can get out of the power brick is 32x5 or 160W.  The amplifier is advertised as 120+120W into 4Ohms, so 240W - obviously that is impossible, unless they are counting output as a short transient and using stored energy in the capacitors. However even if they do that, it is not sustained output.  If I assume the amplifier is perfect (it isn't of course) the max I can get out of the beast is ~160W or 80+80W.

The speakers are Polk T50s that I also purchased from Amazon. The speakers are rated 6 Ohm, and this will make a difference to the power that the amplifier can deliver.

Fosi, the manufacturer of the amplifier rather foolishly provide us with a list of the chips used in this amplifier. The power stage is a Texas instruments TAS5352A.  If you check the data sheet for that chip, you find a whole different set of specs:

Total Power Output (Bridge-Tied Load) 
 – 2×125W at 10% THD+N Into 4Ω 

 – 2×100W at 10% THD+N Into 6Ω

So we can see that into 6Ω under ideal conditions, I am looking at 100W per channel assuming the power supply can support that.  Now if you dig a little deeper into the data sheet, you will find that the power output figure is "Maximum power Output" which I think we can equate to near peak output (~90%). So what is the RMS output?

It depends but most likely somewhere about half the max value, so 50W RMS or there abouts.  I figure its actually a little lower because that initial 100W into 6Ω is at 10% distortion. Comfortably I think this little amp can run about 45W RMS per channel at a reasonable level of distortion. 

So how does it sound?  Actually it sounds pretty good with T50s.  They take some driving and perhaps I would have been better off spending 4x the amount the amplifier cost on a NAD or Denon, but I really didn't want to do that.  I may have to turn it up a fair way to get decent volume, especially when using the TOSlink from the TV, but honestly it does everything I need it to do in one very tiny package.

Despite its shortcomings, I am actually impressed.

Designed for Audio System

Chips: Cirrus CS8422 + Qualcomm QCC3008 + TI TAS5352A + TI TAS5508 + Cmedia CM6642

• THD: ≤ 0.01%
• SNR: ≥ 105dB
• Power Supply: 32V 5A
• System Supported: XP/W7/W8/W10/MAC/Linux
• Size: L180*W130*H38mm (7*5*1.5in)
• Supplied Accessories: DA2120C, 32V Power supply, AC cord, Remote control, USB cable, Optical cable, Bluetooth antenna, User manual

What a time to be alive!

When I was a kid, the future was flying cars and the like. 

However here we are in 2021 debating with idiots weather the earth is flat or not.  The good part about the future though are the apps.  We have the Drizly app for delivery of alcohol, GoPuff, DoorDash, and others for food and essentials delivery and of course Instacart for grocery deliveries.

I never have to leave home, so I guess I don’t need that flying car after all. What a time to be alive.

Social media and my distaste for it

 I know, this is also essentially a social media platform but given that I have no followers, no ads and no ‘helpful suggestions’ from the platform provider, I can cope with this one. 

I ditched Facebook a while back and have not looked back but part of me still craves some sort of interaction.  A situation I am sure that is made worse by the pandemic, and the nine months that me and the wife have spent in quarantine.

So what have I tried, what am I on right now and what will I do next?

Twitter

I tried Twitter for a while but the short text microblogging just doesn’t suite me.  Sometimes I like to add pics and limiting my text is really not something I want to do. I guess sometimes I have a lot to say, other days not so much.

Facebook

So many ads, so fucking toxic. No thanks, not anymore. 

Instagram

While I can do pics and text, I am constantly annoyed by the ads and people suggestions. I have no idea who most of those fuckers are. Why on earth would I want to follow them. And the worse part is, there is no way to turn it off.

WhatsApp

I don’t know why this is considered social media. It’s IM software, but maybe it goes shit I don’t know about. At least it doesn’t (yet) show me ads or suggest other people I might be friends with.

Slack

I love Slack. It is invitation only, no ads and no helpful suggestions. It is configurable, controllable and useful. 

Wordpress

We (worlds best wife and I) host a Wordpress blog. It’s an occasional thing for us, that one of these days we will do more with but at the moment it is a sort of placeholder.  It covers our retirement plans, and how we are working towards retirement.

Reddit

I gave up on Reddit a while back. While it was fun, it was also a big time sink and I don’t need that.

Imgur

Same as reddit really.  I still have an imgur account but I am seriously considering getting rid of it. I spend too much time looking at memes.

So where does this leave me?  With Slack, Imgur and IG at the moment and I am considering dumping IG just because it is really annoying.  I guess it is also worth differentiating between social media and communications as the line seems to be blurred these days. For instance, WhatsApp seems to be classed as social media but to my mind it is just a communications application.

Communications Applications

In terms of communications applications, I do use several and have talked about them before:

• Phone / Text / FaceTime
• WhatsApp / Telegram / Signal
• Zoom 
• Slack

I am certain that there will be others as apps come and go, but what to do with social media still baffles me. I want to engage with people, but I fear most of my engagements will be contentious as I hold some extreme views - and by extreme, I mean I believe in equality and freedom; something most people say they believe in but actually don’t and get really pissed when you point that out to them.

Not sure where I am going with this but I do know that I am going to eliminate my IG and Imgur accounts.

Instagram Sucks

 I have a small presence on Instagram.  Best Wife Ever™ and I use it for my 'modelling career'.  We laugh about me being an Instagram influencer with my <30 followers!  But I have been enjoying it, and I found some of my friends on there and it is nice to follow them and see what they are up to.

Well, Instagram has decided, I guess because it is owned by Facebook, to add 'suggested Posts" to the feed now, and I hate it.  The feed used to be clean with just the people I was following and that was perfect. 

Now it is an absolute mess of crap that I can't seem to get rid of.  It also appears that I am not the only one who hates it judging by the comments on some of the news articles.  It also appears that there is no way to turn off this shower of shit.

So having recently left and deleted my Facebook account because I was really loathing Facebook, do I also leave Instagram as it seems to have 'jumped the shark'?  I might have to.

The Visitor

We had a visitor yesterday. Friendly little fellow although he wouldn't let me get close to him.

He was squawking away at me, he definitely has something to say. I'm just not sure what it was. He hung about for maybe 5 minutes and then flew off, but apparently he has been around the neighborhood for a few days now. I think someone captured him last night.

Religion

Gods and religion are a crutch for the emotionally weak, and a control mechanism for the powerful.
As human beings we diminish ourselves when we participate in these things. Quit believing in fairy tales and wishful thinking, and start believing in yourselves. Don't place your faith mythical creatures, place your faith in yourself and your fellow humans.

When you 'give it to god', you abdicate responsibility, When bad things happen and you say 'act of god' or 'god's will', you are not looking at the truth of what happened.

The problem, as I see it, is that many people can't cope with the simple truth of life and have to reach for mythical beings and invisible friends just to make it through the day. Look, the truth is this; we really are of no significance - the universe doesn't care about us, we are not special and the universe will kill us at will with no remorse. When that death happens, we are done, gone, game over.

Faced with that; most people seem to want to hide; they can't cope with the fear that there is nothing more and their life has no significance, but it really doesn't. Think about the universe - it is so vast that we do not really have the language to explain how huge it is. Our planet is a tiny, insignificant spec in this universe, and we are one of 6 billion others. What we do and when we die, is meaningless in the grand scheme. No, we are not special and (the) god(s) do not love us.

So next time a town is destroyed by bad weather, and people die, it is not an act of (a clearly deranged) god. It is the result of bad weather, poor planning and a cost/benefit analysis.

So what is the alternative? Does there have to be one? At this risk of sounding like a clip from Monty Python's life of Brian; you have to believe in yourself and each other, We become stronger when we understand our own limitations and our own capabilities. We become better people when we understand who we are and have faith in ourselves.

We don't need the threat of an angry god to act right. Most of us know how to treat each other and ourselves.  Live your life understanding that is no hereafter, we will not be reunited in heaven, or burn in hell. Instead, enjoy the life you have, make the best of it, enjoy the people around you now, Eternity isn't coming, but this life is here, and once you are done, you are done.

Enjoy it while it lasts.