kaizen
what's been floating my boat lately:
  • thinking about retirement

    • "How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think."
    -Hitler-
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
    -Albert Einstein-

    2/17/26 (15:13)

  • Rewatching West Wing on Netflix now. Pretty quaint TV show. It was always aspirational, but it's the equivalent of watching an Andy Hardy movie nowadays. If you don't know Andy Hardy, just picture a cheesy Father Knows Best/Leave It To Beaver type TV show as a movie.
  • Rewatched Interstellar the other day. Second time I've seen it. Cried more that night than I have in my entire life. Grandma dying, mixed with that movie, and I was done for.
  • Latest story of the week was the video that Trump shared online that has a bit of the Obamas as apes. Obviously everyone in the world lost it over this and it's obviously beyond the pale, but the interesting thing is how the story is covered. All the usual outlets I looked at covered it basically the same way and none of them linked the actual video. It's actually difficult to find the video using basic searches...all it leads to is people talking about the video or reporting on the video and nothing I've found has been the unedited video itself. Amazing that we have more information than ever and yet still not enough.
  • After a while trying to find it I finally found one place that showed the whole video while talking about it. Basically it's 60 seconds of conspiracy and 1 second at the end shows the Obama heads on apes and then there's some other random thing at the very end. From what I've seen, the speculation is that the last 2 seconds are from whoever clipped the original video and turned it into a shareable video. Trump may or may not have seen the end of the video where the Obamas are apes. The part where the Obamas are apes has nothing to do with the rest of the video.
  • So, once again, the story about Trump is very believable, but the reporting and details leave a lot to be desired. The idea that Trump would knowingly share a video of the Obamas as apes is very believable. He's an asshole and has racist tendencies (at the least). The problem is that the media has blown things out of proportion and straight up lied about him so many times that the end was a mistake that Trump didn't ever see (as he has stated). The fact that the entire video has nothing to do with the Obamas makes the inclusion of that one second all the more odd and out of place (aka an accident). I've said it before...Trump is going to be gone soon enough (well, not really, but you get the point). We will still have a broken media apparatus after he's gone. The media is more powerful and important than a single person or even a single office. And the way we converse is even more important than the media.


    • 2/10/26 (15:40)

  • Had a problem with the truck going back to October. Check engine light came on so I scanned it with my scanner. Says bank 1 camshaft timing issue so I looked it up and the most likely fix was a sensor issue. Swapped that out and it still had the issue. Took it to a place around the block and they sorta looked at it for a week and then gave it back. Said they could look at it again later if I wanted. Brought it back for a couple more days and they supposedly looked at it, but didn't find anything. Took it to another place that I like more, but is in Oakland so it's not as convenient and they had it for two weeks. Luckily I still have my dump truck so I could bring things to and from job sites without too much issue. Not very convenient, but good enough. At any rate, this place swapped out both the sensors (bank 1 and 2), redid some of the wiring for the sensor, and replaced the VCT solenoids. Finally they took out the computer and sent it to the place that fixes those, they said the computer was fine and sent it back. After it being in that shop for two weeks they gave up and charged me just for the parts, no labor. I talked with him about it and he was flummoxed, but said he thought maybe it was the timing chain. He said that's like 12 hours, plus parts. Big job. When I drove it home it felt worse than before so that was great. Finally gave in and took it to the stealership. They charge an arm and a leg, but the good news is that they know their cars better than anyone so I knew I'd get an answer on what the issue was.They had it for two weeks and the only thing they came up with was that it needed a new battery. Meryl and I told them to kick rocks and not to charge me. We took it back home.
  • I looked it up and the timing chain is indeed a common issue with the F-150 3v. So, I figured I'm getting to the point where some of some issues crop up with the rockers and timing chain, so I may as well give it a shot. Bigger than any job I've done before, but Jesus could help and I figured we could get it done in two days. While we had it open it made sense to replace not just the timing chain, but the water pump, oil pump, and rocker arms (all 24 of them) as well. So, we did all that and it took two days. The timing chain guides are made of plastic and were indeed trashed so that made me feel good about doing all the work. It rained and it was dirty, but we got it done. Truck started up fine and seemed to run ok, but after a couple minutes it started making excess noise. Took it out for a test drive and when I pushed it a bit the noise went away. I figure it was because the oil pump needed to fully lubricate the drivetrain and needed more RPMs to do that. Drove it around to/from work for a while and the error code came back. So, we spent all that time and money and it was for a truck that was looking like a lost cause at this point. I went back to the drawing board and decided we should look at the wiring. After the sensor didn't work and the second mechanic (who I trust the most) had issues troubleshooting it my mind went to electrical issue. Chasing down all the wiring, etc. is a big task and it's easy for a wire somewhere to get loose or frayed. Jesus started inspecting the wiring on the bank 1 side of the sensor and found that they (2nd mechanic) redid some of it, but that there was a frayed wire. We took it apart and even though the wiring was showing, it looked like it was probably okay. Luckily, I was able to find the wiring diagram for the harness that hooks up to the computer. We tested the wire from the bank 1 sensor to the harness and found that the wires were actually reversed! We resoldered the wires in the correct orientation and put everything back together. Fired it up, cleared the codes, and everything worked out fine. It's been a month or so and no problems so far.
  • It does burn more oil than it should, but that was an issue before and hopefully I can fix that with thicker oil. Nowadays the manufacturers all recommend thinner oil. In part because the ring tolerances are tighter than the old days, but also because of planned obsolescence and MPG requirements. I think it's probably a decent rule of thumb to take the manufacturer recommendation and step up one level, at least after 100k miles. So, the Prius is supposed to run on 0w-20, but I use 5w-20. The truck is supposed to have 5w-20, but I go with 5w-30 now.
  • DJ Shadow - You Can't Go Home Again. That's the song that was playing when I found out my maternal grandmother died 10 minutes ago. The other day she fell and broke her hip. Doctors said that she would need surgery. They did the surgery two days ago. I called her yesterday. She was out of it, but also as sweet and loving as she'd ever been. The last year or two she was in a home. Tough for her to get around and the usual stuff. I don't think she liked it much. I tried engaging her, but I only got one line responses. Told her to write her autobiography, but that didn't take. Sad of course. Pretty upset that she gets surgery and then dies two days later. Just reinforces my feeling that you need to avoid going to the hospital as much as possible. Johns Hopkins did a study and they found that medical errors was the 3rd most common cause of death in the US. Other studies cast doubt on that, but I think it's directionally true. I just know of too many people who go to the hospital and die...and often not because they went to the hospital with a heart attack. It's more like they break their hip and then die from heart problems two days later. They get a common procedure and then die of infection. It's fucked up.
  • She was 89 so none of this is a surprise, but of course it always hurts and it always reminds you of your ultimate fate and what that will be like for whatever you leave behind.
  • She was a pretty good person. Everyone has their issues, but she was a good person on the whole and now she's gone forever.
  • It's raining now for the first time in a while.


    • 2/3/26 (10:58)

  • The reward for working hard is more work. The older I get the less sorry I feel for people who don't work because they're supposedly down on their luck. Pretty much without fail in my life experience, the harder you work the more work you get. The more you show your worth and value, the more you will get opportunities to be compensated for it. Sure, the people like Epstein and Trump who fell into money or lied their way to the very top are discouraging counter examples of economic justice. But the reality is that success isn't always the result of hard work, but hard work always results in success. By success I mean that you'll be able to take care of yourself without constant worry. In other words, hard work leads to a middle class lifestyle, even in 2026 America.
  • A caveat - this doesn't include the mentally retarded or infirmed, who may still succeed with hard work, but the relationship is not so direct as there are greater hurdles.
  • I like efficiency. One of the few joys in my life is when I order food from certain places and can get the order done in under 10 seconds. D'yar in Berkeley is probably the best for this. I call and say what I'd like and they say ok, it will be ready in 10 minutes, and I say thanks... 9 seconds and it's beautiful. The local sandwich shop knows me pretty well so about half the time when I call and I just say hi it's chris and I'd like a #36 and they say ok see you in 5 minutes. They already know I don't want pickles, etc. and it's all done in 10-12 seconds.
  • If the Democrats get behind Gavin Newsom and he's the nominee in 2028 then I think the party should fold up shop and go into selling bananas on the street corner. I agree with Newsom on more issues than I do with Trump. We probably have 80% alignment on the big issues that get all the play in the media. But the problem is that everyone knows who Newsom is except Newsom. He's the biggest phony there is. For that single reason, he doesn't stand a chance in a nation-wide general election.

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