Life

Auto thieves in Austin targeting trucks

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

Last night the City of Austin tweeted the following alert about auto thieves in Austin. Here’s a snippet of the full report:

The Austin Police Department Auto Theft Interdiction Project is urging owners of large Chevy, Ford and Dodge pickup trucks to be aware that auto thieves are targeting these vehicles.  Between January 1, 2012 and February 7, 2012 the City of Austin has had 61 large trucks stolen compared to 25 the previous year during the same time period.

[…]

Thieves are targeting vehicles in mall, shopping center, movie theatre, restaurant, and other large parking lots throughout the City of Austin.

I’m not 100% sure what they mean by “large”, but my guess is full-sized and above (e.g. F-150 and above, not Ranger), not just say really large trucks like a F-350 Super Duty.

They’re not hitting homes, they’re hitting public places. In a public place, how can a bystander know if that truck really belongs to that person?

Stay alert. Don’t leave anything in your car you don’t mind being taken. Pretty much leave the truck containing only the truck and its relevant parts (e.g. spare tire, jack, etc.).

Dear lady driving the Kia Soul

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

To the lady driving the Kia Soul.

I know you didn’t see what I saw. Your car is small, my truck is large and blocked your view of what was ahead. You may have seen the large tractors mowing the expansive median area on the South Mo-Pac Expressway around the 290/360 interchange, but I know you didn’t see the one that I saw. That as I came around that corner at the bottom of the hill, that one of the mowers was in the left lane of traffic. That I had to hit my brakes to ensure I didn’t hit it. But you couldn’t have seen it because 1. my truck was in your face, 2. the mower was off the road within seconds of me seeing it.

Of course, the only reason my truck was in your face was because you were tailgating me.

Perhaps if you weren’t tailgating me, you might have seen the mower. Certainly if you weren’t tailgating me, you wouldn’t have almost ended up going up my tailpipe.

I look back at the situation and I guess all that reckless “revenge” driving was trying to make a point to me. You must have thought my sudden application of the brakes was to tell you to back off; no, it wasn’t but I can see how you would have taken it that way. All that honking. All the reckless zooming in and out of other cars in an effort to “teach me a lesson”. Then your final “fuck you asshole” move of aggressively cutting me off, of course flipping me the bird as you did so. It’s evident you weren’t thinking straight, because just before you cut me off it was evident you were going to do that, so I applied my brakes to slow down. Had I not, your rear bumper would have clipped my car — your judgment was off in many ways — and you would have been pushed sideways and likely you and the little doggie in your lap would have been t-boned and probably end up in the hospital, at best. That’s not a threat; that’s physics.

Yes my initial reaction was one of anger, because you put me and my son’s life in danger for no good reason. I let the anger go, because I realized there was no point in holding it. I did however get your license plate and reported you to 911 as a reckless driver. I don’t know if anything came of it, but it was the best I could do.

Actually I can do better. There are lessons to be learned from your mistakes.

Don’t be an asshole.

Don’t tailgate.

Don’t put yourself in dangerous situations. If you do, don’t blame someone else if things go pear shaped.

Before blaming someone else for all your problems, look first at yourself to see what you may have done wrong and could have done better.

Be slow to anger — not just on the road, but anywhere in life. The immediate situation may not be something you appreciate, but perhaps it was keeping you from a greater danger.

And I need to buy a hitch ball and mount. Bought one. 🙂

I’ve wasted how much of my life?!?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I just learned the Ian Knot.

How much of my life have I wasted tying shoes the “standard” way?

If you don’t know what the Ian Knot is, watch:

Youngest is still struggling with shoelace tying. Understandable because he rarely wears shoes with laces, so far too often when he wears those shoes we don’t have the time to teach him properly. Couple that with the fact that knots are useful, and I’ve been on a kick to get the kiddos to learn a bunch of basic knots (Oldest fights it and refuses to learn… then every time I see him struggling to tie something up, I remind him how much easier things would be if he’d listen to his old man once in a while and learn proper knots). All the basic ones they teach in Boy Scouts: square knot, two half-hitches, taught-line hitch, bowline, sheet bend, clove hitch, etc..

Might as well start with shoelaces.

And yes, while the rest of the household knows how to tie laces the old fashioned way, we’re all going to learn the Ian knot. Well, we’ve mostly got it… doesn’t take long. But mastering it so we can tie it super fast will just take practice.

So what are some other useful knots?

Figure 8 knot is simple, and good to know about as a stopper.

Lark’s Head is another simple one, useful too.

I read about the Trucker’s Knot and think that would be useful to learn. I don’t know it myself.

Of course there’s the basic overhand knot, but you tend to learn that one as you do other knots.

It’s good to learn about the granny knot… just so you can recognize it, since you’ll probably tie it a bunch while learning the square knot.

What are some other essential knots to know?

AAR – Lone Star Medics’ Dynamic First Aid

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

On Saturday January 28, 2012 I was at student in Lone Star Medics‘ Dynamic First Aid course, hosted by KR Training and taught by Caleb Causey.

I’ve wanted to brush up on my first aid skills ever since being involved in an incident a few years ago. I came upon a motorcycle accident before police, fire, or EMS arrived. I jumped out to help as I could, and was able to administer first aid to the downed bikers.

I was surprised at how much first aid I remembered, I was also dismayed by how much I had forgotten.

Since that day I’ve been trying to take some first aid courses. It’s been hard to find them or then to find one that worked into my schedule.

So when this guest spot came up, I was happy to finally be able to take a course.

Dynamic First Aid

The class was focused on more major first aid skills used to try to keep people alive until they can get under more “advanced” care be it from EMT’s or to a hospital. You are the first responder, so what can you do to keep them alive. Topics like cuts and bruises, bug bites, bee stings, etc. were not the focus of this course. The big things covered were bleeding from things like punctures or blunt force trauma, issues of dehydration and heat stroke.

But it went beyond just “here the guy is bleeding, here’s how to apply a tourniquet” or “here’s how to pack a wound”. One of the key issues Caleb stressed with us was “scene safety”. When you come upon a scene, you need to ensure it’s safe. You may not know what happened, but whatever happened could have caused or could cause again the scene to be unsafe. Downed power line? fire? debris? If you’re on the side of the road, could there be more cars rushing past you? if the person was mauled by a bear, could the bear still be in the area? someone was shot, is the bad guy still around? And then to ensure while you are working to NOT get task-fixated, because the scene could become dangerous. Make sure YOU can go home. This is the first time I’ve heard such a topic discussed in a first aid course, and it’s a welcome topic.

We learned a great deal about how to help manage bleeding. Why so much focus on this? Well, the interesting thing. As gun folk we’re always worried about gunshot wounds. Caleb made a good point: how many gunshot wounds have you encountered this week? this month? this year? OK, now how about car accidents? Bleeding, shock, far more common to deal with. Even more so? dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke.

The last points are one of Caleb’s big issues? Why? Because they can kill you, and they are so preventable. Living here in Texas, we all deal with heat issues on a regular basis. We all must know the signs, we all must know how to prevent, we all must know then how to help someone else if the signs manifest themselves. The biggest thing? Drink water. A lot. A lot more than you think. For someone my size, I should drink a gallon of water a day — and that’s just sitting at my desk doing nothing all day. Wife? drink about half a gallon. Don’t forget to consume electrolytes too; if you’re at the office all day, eating regular meals, you’re probably ok. Out working in the heat all day? For every 2 waters, drink 1 “sports drink” (Powerade, Gatorade, etc.). This is so preventable.

There’s much more to the class than these basic topics. Things you cannot learn from reading a book or a blog. You have to attend a course and have a knowledgeable teacher watching and helping you. Caleb constantly put our learning to the test by having us participate in scenarios — role playing, a sort of “medical force-on-force”. He’s set up a scene, then you come upon it with a medical bag (that we had to put together), and now you have to do everything. Like most role-playing-based training, the intent is to not only help you reinforce the skills you’re  learning, but give you a chance to make your mistakes HERE and not when it really matters. These scenarios are a crucial part of the class and learning.

My Take

I’m happy I took the course. It was one of the best Saturday’s I’ve had in a long time. Time very well spent.

Oh sure, I love all the gun stuff. But on a daily basis? I’m going to use medical knowledge more often. If we want to truly be prepared, having basic first aid knowledge is vital.

Caleb’s approach here works to give you a plan. A plan to be prepared (e.g. a proper first aid kit). A plan of what to do when you arrive at the scene (scene safety, how to approach the scene, how to approach the person, how to assess and deal with the situation). And then, the skills needed to do something about it.

I was surprised at some of the approaches Caleb spoke about. I know that medical knowledge changes and this is why what you learned 20 years ago may not apply any longer. The data on tourniquets has changed from when I was in Boy Scouts, and I was happy to see how the knowledge has worked to simplify and improve process. It minimizes the amount of decision making required under the stress of the situation, and allows you to just take care of business as quickly and effectively as possible. This updating of my knowledge was most useful.

I also appreciated Caleb as an instructor. It’s evident he knows what he’s talking about. If you paid attention to how he spoke, you could discern he was well-versed and experienced in this realm, but he knew the focus and audience of his class and would work to present things in a manner relevant to the audience. As a former teacher of public speaking, I know the importance of knowing your audience and tailoring your message to them. It’s not that Caleb dumbed things down, it was a matter of crafting an appropriate message. I thought he did this quite well.

Another thing I appreciated about him was his willingness to be truly open. He wasn’t afraid to say when he didn’t know or if there just wasn’t yet an answer that medical science had come up with. You could tell he was willing to try and experience with gear or techniques until they found the right one that worked best. Best of all? At the end of class he went around the room asking for not just what we got out of the class, but what he could do better. He SOUGHT criticism. He doesn’t just want his horn tooted, he wants to become better. If there’s a problem, he wants to fix it. You have to respect that, not just in terms of running a business, but as a person. He also encouraged us to seek additional training — with other trainers.

I came out of the class with a laundry list of things to buy to beef up my first aid kits, and a desire to not just practice what I learned but to learn more. Need to make first aid training a regular part of my continuing education. And hearing what some of the other Lone Star Medic courses are? Oh, I’d love to take them.

Thank you, Caleb.

Updated: Dave Re attended the Sunday edition of the class. He just posted his AAR. He touched on a lot of points that I forgot to mention. Seems that we both got a lot of the same out of the class.

And yes… it’s time to go shopping.

2012-01-27 workout – didn’t

/ hsoi

Today would have been the last day of cycle 5 (squat, week 4, deload). However I didn’t make it into the gym.

I’ve been sleeping horribly lately, getting maybe 4 hours of sleep a night. I think last night my body finally chose to do something about it. I sat on the couch and promptly fell asleep. Wife roused me after a few hours to move me into the bedroom where I zonked right back out. Wife tells me I got almost 10 hours of sleep last night. I do feel better this morning.

Upon waking, I got deeply into a programming problem on a new project for my company and didn’t realize what time it was. Before I knew it, time to go to the gym had passed and time to start the day job workday had to start.

So, no squats for me today. 😦  Won’t be able to make it up. Will just deal with it and start cycle 6 on Monday.

A little grease under the fingernails

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’ve had the new (to me) truck a week and a half now, and the maintenance work has already begun.

The goal? To replace everything that I can replace. Fix all that I can fix. Update all I can update. Within reason.

It’s a used vehicle. I don’t know how well it was maintained, the condition of the fluids, and so on. I can tell some, but not all. I want to put as much as I can into a known good state. Besides, with 95K miles already on it, if these things haven’t been done they sure need to be done if I want to keep this truck going for another 100-200K miles.

Now first, I must give some credit where it’s due. I owe much to foo.c for getting me going. I didn’t grow up under the hood of a car. Sure, since I turned 16 and got my drivers license I tinkered on what little non-intimidating things I could, and I paid attention to regular maintenance, but I paid someone else to do the work. Anything that required working on the engine I did not do, save replacing an alternator on an old minivan many years ago. Then some many years ago, foo.c showed me how to change my own oil. My reaction — “that’s it?”  I was surprised at how easy it was, and a little ashamed I hadn’t tried it sooner. Since then I’ve only paid for an oil change once, because that one time I didn’t have the time, wasn’t going to have the time, and the change was overdue.

Then I got my motorcycle some years ago, and tinkered heavily on that doing all the regular maintenance plus various modifications including exhaust, intake/carb mods, and even changing the cams. I was well over being afraid or intimidated of such things; in fact, I really liked it.

I’ve done my best to tackle jobs on the family cars, but I just can’t do it all. On the minivan, there’s not much I can do due to how they designed and assembled everything. Something that should be simple, like changing the alternator, is nothing I can tackle on my own due to the horrible location of the thing and the level of pain and tools/equipment involved to get to it. *sigh*  But I’ll do what I can.

Then I got the truck. I admit tho that the notion of maintaining the truck did intimidate me a bit, and once again foo.c helped me get a handle on things. I realize tho that it’s like most source of intimidation, it came from being unaware and ignorant of what’s involved — I just didn’t have any info to go on, what’s involved, how to do the work, etc.. After reviewing things he told me, the Chilton manual, and YouTube videos (gee but the Internet is great), most everything seems like a piece of cake. I’m just going to slowly whittle away at the to-do list trying to tackle one job per day/weekend (whenever I have time).

So far:

  • new wiper blades
  • new battery – existing battery was failing load test during the pre-purchase inspection, so this was bought shortly after I pulled off the dealer’s lot.
  • oil change – used Valvoline DuraBlend, and a Mobil 1 M-206 filter (foo.c tipped me off that while the M-107 is the proper filter, the M-206 fits and is just slightly longer to give more filter media).
  • new air filter — paper, I’ll change it every year.
  • new belts (serpentine and a/c)

From what I can tell so far, I do think the truck was maintained by the prior owners. One funny example? When I took off the front skid plate to replace the a/c belt, there was a crumpled up piece of paper in there. It was a receipt from an oil change at a shop. Not sure how it got there, but there it was… a little bit of confirmed history for the truck. 🙂

That said, it was interesting the serpentine belt looked fairly new, but the a/c belt was old and cracked. I’m not sure why they replaced the one belt and not the other since you have to remove the serpentine to get to the a/c belt anyways. The serpentine didn’t really need changing, but I figured there was no harm in changing it while I was at it.

Next up is stuff like changing the front and rear differential oil and the transfer case oil. Doesn’t look hard, just a matter of doing the work. I’ll be most curious to see the condition of those oils, to see if they were ever changed. Spark plugs will be done, but looking at the engine and placement of the plugs I don’t wanna… tho foo.c tells me only a couple are a bitch to deal with. I’ll probably get foo.c to help me with the brakes… they don’t need it, but I figure why not, replace that fluid and put new pads on everything.

I do think I will pay someone for a couple of things. Transmission fluid and filter I may get someone else to do, or foo.c to help me. I’ll also probably have the coolant drain/flush done by someone else because I just don’t have the ability to safely handle that much fluid.

The best part? Daughter is helping me with everything. For whatever reason she’s taken an interest in learning about it all, how everything works, how to do all of this work. Certainly some things I have to do because she’s just not strong enough, but I’m letting her do all that she can and teaching her what I can. We’re learning together on this and having a lot of fun. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ll take what I can. 🙂

 

Don’t “Spend Your Tax Refund With Us”

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I just got an email from CheaperThanDirt.com with the title “Spend Your Tax Refund With Us”.

While I understand their marketing sentiment, I’m going to request people to NOT spent their tax refund with them. Nothing personal against CTD, but I think that one’s personal finance should be more responsible.

Actually it’s interesting. Just yesterday I saw this article on Cracked.com about “The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor“.

#4. Extra Money Has to Be Spent Right Goddamn Now!

Every poor person I knew got a big check one time a year in the form of their tax return. They made just enough money to file taxes, and made little enough to claim “earned income credit,” which is a tax credit that can dramatically boost your return. For my ex-wife and I, it meant getting around $5,000 at the end of January. And just like many poor people, we’d be broke within days of cashing that check, our living room sporting a new TV. Or we’d replace our old computers and all of our furniture. There’s a reason many poor people blow through that money instead of saving it for future bills.

[…]

When a windfall check is dropped in your lap, you don’t know how to handle it. Instead of thinking, “This will cover our rent and bills for half a year,” you immediately jump to all the things you’ve been meaning to get, but couldn’t afford on your regular income. If you don’t buy it right now, you know that the money will slowly bleed away to everyday life over the course of the next few months, leaving you with nothing to show for it. Don’t misunderstand me here, it’s never a “greed” thing. It’s a panic thing. “We have to spend this before it disappears.”

I totally understand the mentality. Been there, done that.

The truth is, you will have something to show for it. It may not be some big screen TV or a car, but you can still show something for it.

For example, do you have debt? How about paying down that debt, especially if it’s high-interest debt such as credit cards. Of course, it then requires you to have enough discipline to not get back into debt thinking “gee, I have lots of unused credit on my credit card, shopping spree!”. Been there, done that. You just wasted all of your money and are going to be worse off.

If you don’t have debt, how about saving that money? Rainy days happen. Or perhaps better, see about investing that money, putting it to work for you and growing it. If you want to try that but aren’t sure where to start, consider index funds. No, overall not the best investment vehicle, but they can be a good way to start, take a lot of mystery out of things, simple enough, and get your ball rolling.

Or even better… try to see if you can adjust your tax situation and withholding and such so you strive to come out even on your income tax return. Don’t give the .gov a no-interest loan of your money. It is your money, you should hold onto it and make it work for you. If we go back to that investment consideration, perhaps the extra money you get in your paycheck after adjusting it, since you’ll be used to not seeing it anyways, just turn that money right around into investments. Investing that money every paycheck, over time, will add up into bigger and better things for you.

I do understand a desire to “spend your tax refund”, especially because it’s a big fat check and the windfall is nice. But it’s better to hold onto your money instead of forking it over to someone else, and work to develop the discipline and responsibility to save up that money over time yourself, invest it, and work to grow bigger things. You will have something better to show for it.

 

on Human Potential

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Dave Tate on human potential.

While Dave is talking at a CrossFit seminar and is talking about human potential in a sports realm, there’s a lot of stuff (mostly in the first half of the video) where Dave’s talk about human potential is applicable to life in general.

Either I’m a dork…

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

…or it’s just the frosting side of me talking.

I just want to go drive somewhere. It doesn’t matter. I just want to drive.

It’s like a kid a Christmas. You get new toys, you want to play with them. 🙂

Dangers of working from home – and how to fix it

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A short and sweet article about the “dangers” of working from home and how to fix them. (h/t to… I forget *blush*)

Speaking as someone that’s worked from home for 11+ years, I’ve gained some perspective into the matter. I’d like to add my own input to the author’s 5 points:

1. You don’t feel you are working

The author’s point here is how work life and personal life can blend. True that. To an extent, this is a good thing. You can have a greater flexibility in life, within the constraints the job allows you. For instance, I spent many years working with folks in California, 2 hours behind me. I’m a morning person. These two things together didn’t always allow our schedules to mesh because as I’m winding up my day they’d just be digging into theirs. But I didn’t let THEIR constraints control my life. Instead, I just had to make some accommodations, such as accepting that sometimes I’ll have a meeting that’s very late in the day for me. I also made a point to check my work email in the evenings.

But that said, you really do have to work at keeping work work and personal personal. You cannot let your life become one giant smear of workandpersonallifetogether. It takes discipline and learning to draw lines AND sticking to them. Plus, you have to ensure people at work come to respect those lines. As well, the folks at home also have to respect those lines.

Which brings us to…

2. Your family members won’t understand that you are working

This is simple (but not easy). Draw lines and enforce them. Make sure the lines and rules are clear to everyone, and stick to them. For example, if my door is shut, you don’t come in. If you need me, you knock. Do not expect an answer if I’m in a meeting or perhaps deeply ensconced in a debug session. You must respect it, unless it’s an emergency. Yes, kids will have to be punished if they violate the rules. Spouses too.

But that said, remember that part of the joy of working at home with the family around is that you can be around them. I’ve found that if I’m not truly deeply into something, just flow with the interruptions sometimes. Sometimes the kiddo just wants to show you what they did. It takes 30 seconds of my time (which I probably would have wasted on Facebook or something else), kiddo is happy, I am happy, it’s a win. Don’t shun your family. Just work to manage things. And yes, it will take time, failure, revision, and experimentation to find what works for you.

3. You are slacking off, because your boss is not watching

It’s very easy to slack because you’ll be surrounded by all your favorite things. You have to develop the self-discipline to keep working, because if you don’t, you’re out of a job. Bosses will eventually detect your level of productivity.

Take a little time to blow off steam, break up the day, all that stuff. But you still have to produce. In fact, it’s generally better to work to produce more, because really… you will have fewer distractions than being in the office. You can focus better. You won’t have everyone dropping by your cube. You don’t have a commute. You can be more productive.

And oh, get dressed every day. Just because no one has to look at your or smell you, you should still carry on as if people did. It will affect your psyche.

4. You alienate yourself from work community

This is true. You must work to overcome it. The author goes into the office now and again, but my office is thousands of miles away, so that’s not possible. You must make the extra effort to communicate with folks. IM is good, or maybe set up an IRC channel. Have ways to chat with people. Do pick up the phone now and again, because to hear voices is very warming and personalizing. If you can video chat, even better. Don’t be afraid to start the day with some quick pings to people to just say “hi”. You do have to have some sort of social setup with everyone, else well… you will be overlooked, you will be forgotten, and folks just won’t know much about you. Not always good for the long haul.

5. You work too much

Yup. This goes back to #1. You just have to draw lines and stick to them. Be flexible, but be firm. Don’t check work email in your non-work times. Don’t check messages. Work is work and should be put into that box and kept there. If you do not, everything will smear and work will take over your life. You can’t let it.

It isn’t easy to start working at home. It requires commitment and self-discipline. But I think the benefits are huge, both to myself and to whomever I’m working for. It’s a situation that’s worked well for over a decade for me, and I really can’t see any other way to work.

Working at home isn’t possible for every job. If your job can be done from home, consider it. But as well, know yourself. You just may need the constraints and environment “going to the office” puts on you. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better to know yourself, know your limits, and know your capabilities.