Author: alohawild

I rose at 6:30AM and left the office at about 6:30PM. Tuesdays and Thursdays are our long days. I was only fifteen minutes late for an easy Mexican dinner with Dondrea and Z. We all chatted, relaxed, and let someone else make dinner. It was a pleasant break. After that, I took Air Volvo to the Volvo Cave without issue. I then found in the mail complaints from the City of Portland that my taxes were wrong. I will contact my CPA. I did have to create an account and view the documents. It appears to be trivial, and the city still owes me money. I will call my CPA and the city on Wednesday. Someday, Portland will pay me, I believe.

So, my evening of model building was derailed by taxes and paperwork. I did get my new book, Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812, published in 2014. This is a beautiful, textbook-sized book on the archeology of some 1812 wrecks in the freshwater lakes of Canada and the USA. This book has drawings of the wrecks and the best guesses of what the ships looked like. This is from the same group that did the final report on the ancient wreck book I have, which is about the same size. I love their work.

Also, my Nautical Research Guild full-color glossy magazine on the science of building ship models may not have a center fold, but there are lots of ship models being constructed one step at a time. Magnificent. Always happy to get the next issue. 2600, The Hacker Quarterly also arrived today.

No wonder the night is just disappearing! There is so much to do, read, and consider.

On the stupid side, I forgot to transfer cash to cover Susie’s Concert and my travel, but I managed to move log on to US Bank at work and move the money in time to cover all the checks! I could not believe I had transferred all the stock sales into savings and did not leave some in the checking account for these known expenses. I just wanted the interest, I guess. All is fixed without overdraft fees.

Work was the usual. As I said, I was up at 6:30, found my robe and slippers, and made coffee. I still have some Uganda coffee left (thanks, Kramers). I was rushed, so I had only a banana for breakfast and coffee. I then cleaned up and dressed. I boarded Air Volvo and soon was at the Nike WHQ Swift building. Status and change control Zoom meetings followed. Layoffs were mentioned again and seem to be surfacing in mid-April, likely on 24 April 2024.

We will see if I survive in a few weeks; I have 28 years with Nike.

I ate lunch at the Nike Cafe today, and I ate like a vegetarian. The all-vegetarian pop-up service included lentils that were seasoned and slightly mushy, surrounding a large steamed cauliflower huck that was covered in a tomato sauce that added an excellent flavor to what would usually be a near-tasteless cooked cauliflower. I commented to the cooks and manager that it was excellent and that it was some of the best food I have had there. Most excellent and unexpected. I love the unexpected (ask my roleplaying friends).

Here is lunch. The circle is thin and fried cheese–a great flavor with the other foods!

I read and did some research. It was a quiet day, and we had less than ninety days to go live at the start of July.

I will be on medical leave and miss the next install while I recover from the brain surgery on 20 May 2024.

I stayed at the office until the 5:45 stand-up meeting. It is set so late to overlap India’s morning. I then let Air Volvo take me across Beaverton in light rush-hour traffic to Si Senior’s to meet Dondrea and Z. I am so glad they joined me; sharing a meal with friends is always good.

The twice-a-week stand-up is at 5:45. Notice we have something to drink. Tea or water for everyone!

Thanks for reading!

 

When I wrote this, the sun was setting on Monday, Easter Monday, a holiday in many Western countries. For Orthodox Christians, Easter is yet to happen on May 5th. I just finished the Hillsboro Python Machine Learning Meetup, which starts at 6PM as a Zoom meeting on the first Monday of the month.

Before the meeting, I made a ham and cheese sandwich with potato salad and chips. I made hot tea as I was sleepy, and the wind, blowing from the desert, was cold.

Ernest, our leader, showed us a data set of compounds and how they impact the reproduction mechanics of a virus, hepatitis C, an exciting and public data set–for data geeks. Ernest showed us the library to turn the compounds into fingerprints using a library and then run a usual classifier using AI models. At first, the more exotic classifiers were shown to do better, but with some prodding from me, Ernest changed the parameters, and my usual choice, Random Forest of Trees, was able to reach 95% in some cases. Ernest will publish the code for us on GitHub, and I may find time to look into this. This gets my math and coding geekiness going.

Before this, I attended the 4PM Nike project status Zoom meeting at my home office. After 3 PM, I drove home in perfect weather. I had done my usual status meetings and decided it was too lovely to stay inside. I was out on the deck a few times and enjoyed opening all the doors in the house. I also washed all the plastic parts on the 1/700 scale (think small) SMS Derfflinger. You must wash all the plastic in soapy water to remove the manufacturing dust and oils. I will clean the brass parts in alcohol later. The plastic needs to air dry for a few hours.

Before this, I had some more change control meetings. Usually, these are boring Zoom meetings, but we had some challenges we needed to resolve today. Of course, the details cannot be found here. I also reviewed and approved some design changes.

Our proof-of-concept on one of my new items actually worked! Mike L is writing it all up. Exciting that we got this to work. Again, details cannot appear here in public. It was a good day.

Lunch was chicken curry, but it was too oily, which is never the case. I had curry in Beaverton and ate it outdoors. It was too nice to sit inside. While not great, the chicken was still good, and I ate it all.

Before lunch, I visited Tammy’s Hobbies and found new paints matching the model instructions. I have most of the paints already, but they are years old. I will be tossing them. I won’t ruin a model with bad paint. I found all I needed.

Starting in the morning, I woke at 5 and tried to sleep until 6:30, but I rolled over a few times, and the alarm went off. I found my slippers and robe and regretted not taking another day off. Who really wants to start on Monday after nine days away? I found the computers in my office connected to work and the internet. I read work emails, Slack updates, and the news. I padded to the kitchen and made coffee. Corwin had overfilled the French Press with Uganda-sourced coffee (thanks, Kramers), and I had trouble making coffee that you did not chew.

I was rushing after that and had just toast with reduced-sugar jam and a banana. Next, I cleaned up and dressed. I was soon in Air Volvo and dogging school buses on my way to Nike WHQ and the Swift building (named for the Shift Suit, not a famous singer, but we get called Swiftees).

I then had some status meetings and learned my official boss is now Rajani. All good.

Thanks for reading!

I write this around 7:30PM on Easter, as tomorrow is back to work. It is also April when I turn sixty, and I have no plans. My surgery is on May 20th, and Susie’s Concert in Michigan is on May 18th in Lansing, Michigan.

The sun is just coming down as we are now deeper into spring, and the days are noticeably longer. The pollen is also worse; my eyes burn, and I cough. My evening meds include Montelukast, which has significantly reduced my reactions to pollen this year and last. Excellent.

I hate to see the evening come as it is ringing out local spring break, and we return to work on Monday. This year, the break seemed long, and I feel better. I missed Susie a few times, and there are always tears. This afternoon, I napped and dreamed of talking to Susie. I woke up looking for her–she, of course, passed away on Friday, October 13th. Grief and memories unexpectedly slide in here and there.

Returning to the start of Easter Sunday, I rose at 7ish and started writing a blog–my usual Sunday. I am time-boxed to 9AM and lost my focus a few times. Not all the editing was checked before I published the blog. It is essential to get it out; typos can be forgiven or even corrected later.

I did make an NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) with cream cheese for breakfast. The Uganda coffee from the Kramers was summoned using a ritual involving a glass cylinder and press. I consumed this while writing and got sidetracked a few times.

I use Quicken to track my accounts. Every live account detail (two different checking, savings, PayPal, AMEX, and two trading accounts) is downloaded daily, so all details must be resolved in Quicken. I also ensure that all income and expense transactions are correctly assigned. All this and paper records are put in notebooks. My CPA and the IRS will want to see physical records, not Quicken. I do this for all the obvious reasons, and it allows me to ensure that no hacker has slipped and started drawing money.

Yesterday, I balanced the 401K and deferred compensation accounts–the download stopped working for them, so I revise their balances once a month. The house also lost 20K in value (its value is unstable in the current market and goes up and down).

I wore a sweater over a white dress shirt and blue cotton pants. I put on my white Air Force Ones. For Easter, I wore a pride tie. Air Volvo had me at church early, and I sat and stayed out of the way.

A local guy who processed by verbally responding joined us again. He was vocal for the sermon and some of the songs. I looked him over, and he was harmless. He annoyed some folks and used a few vulgar words. I thought it fitting that our perfect service was slightly marred by the public–I suspect Jesus had the same problem.

Another church joined us, and the service was in Spanish and English. The music was lovely and mixed well. I think we should do this more often.

Pastor Ken’s sermon wandered as he wanted to talk about truth on Easter. The truth he was trying to get across was that our understandings are based on our perspective. Ken asked how we could understand the 1800s before a Methodist Church or even Oregon existed. If that is hard, how can we align our perspective to 31 AD when the events of Easter happened? We must seek the truth and try to understand and align our perspectives to avoid distortions. Only then, Ken suggests, will there be some hope of understanding what is true and what is cultural distortion. Ken points out that the Christian symbol of the Cross was first used by Constantine as a military symbol and became the emblem of the Crusades and conquest. The call to the crusades was to “take up the Cross.” In 31AD, a cross was the thing you were nailed to and died; it was a type of Roman capital punishment. It was not a symbol of Jesus or the Christian Church until hundreds of years later. Ken, looking at the huge Cross in the sanctuary, said we need to seek the truth and understand the perspectives that bring and distort the truth. Truth matters, especially on Easter.

After church, I had coffee and some cookies left from Susie’s Concert. I was asked to help pay for remodeling the entranceway and talked to someone about that. Progress will be slow, and plans may be scaled back. I suggested giving multiple options, letting folks think about it, and creating a consensus. While there are always important things to do, the entranceway is our church’s face to the public. In my opinion (a truth?), it needs to be friendly and neat. There are roofs, heating, windows, and a long list of other items too. There is always a list at churches.

I returned home and started marinating the thick pork chops I purchased in Astoria last week. Industrial teriyaki sauce from a 1/2 gallon jug I keep in the frig (leftover, I suspect, from a church cooking event) supplies the marinade, and I left the chops in a glass dish to soak up the goodness. I bake the yams wrapped in tin foil in the oven for ninety minutes while the chops get yummy from the teriyaki.

I light and heat the grill, clean it burning hot, and then set it hot. This usually would be a disaster for thick pork chops (cremating or undercooking them), but I have a plan. I have an electronic food temperature probe. I grill the chops until they look great and are undercooked. I have an oiled pan and a hot oven. I put them in the oven for 8 minutes to finish them to 155F (just short of overcooked). Frozen green beans (I forgot to get some fresh ones yesterday) had to do, steamed on the stovetop. The yams are hot and ready for butter and brown sugar. The pork chops, slightly overdone, are still great (I am not doing undercooked!).

Food-coma comes, I rest and soon dream, as I said above, with tears; I rise, finish the laundry and dishes, and put away everything except for Corwin’s stuff. I need a break, so Corwin and I head to Salt and Straw, the local ice cream company. There is a long line, but it goes fast. I have a scoop of coffee and nuts ice cream, and Corwin has two scoops of exotic ice cream.

HIS is a Czech-based company that sells ship model supplies, including the parts needed to rig them. I ordered a model from them to celebrate their new and improved website, and the rigging blocks were offered today for about $30. I have used HIS them for years. They even sent a rigging plan with the offer. I accepted the offer and will get an invoice for the rigging blocks, which they will send together. I love these guys, but this is a highly specialized product.

We returned in the Air Volvo to the Volvo Cave, and I wrote this blog. I must admit I found the potato chips. Suspect the scale will not improve tonight!

The tulips that I planted after Glenda’s visit are flowering today. Another set of taller tulips is stressed, as is the nearby rose bush. They were wet all winter, and I have fertilized them today. I hope they will improve. A few tulip bulbs did not rise as they drowned in the fall.

Thanks for reading.

 

I am writing this Easter morning. It is another pollen-filled, sunny, blue-skied morning. It is Sunday, my last day on the local spring break. I will have to write two blogs today and again at night. I return to work on Monday.

Saturday started with me sleeping in and missing the sunrise. I started writing the blog in the office. I also collected the fleet of 1/6000 WWI ship models and sprayed them with transparent dull coat spray to protect them and to balance the colors. The inks and tone paints are shiny, while the regular paints are mostly flat; this evens that out. Metalics lose much of their shine, and if heavy spraying of a dull coat is applied (I use just a misting), the target changes colors. Silver is white, yellows pale, and bright reds burning bright. I am careful with this stuff.

When doing the ships, I also sprayed some figures I painted a few months ago but waited until it was warmer (cold is not good for spray can products). All looked better without the uneven, shiny areas. Perfect.

The blog was done in the mid-morning, with the interruptions of spraying and making breakfast, which was coffee (thanks, Kramers, for the excellent coffee) made in the French Press, cottage cheese, and 1/2 can of peaches. I dressed and contacted Evan. We agreed to meet after 1PM at Rogue Ales in Portland, SE.

I nearly canceled as I was enjoying writing now. With the figures and the ships finished, I returned to a Dungeons and Dragons adventure I wrote years ago for 4E and was converting to 5E. Grammarly was again working inside Word and helping correct the mostly stream-of-consciousness writing. Finding a Broken Sword is my first published book, and some crazy people even bought a couple on Amazon! I found a used copy for sale at a high price at Powell’s! I plan to play it and even republish it someday.

I had lunch at the lunch carts in Aloha, where I picked my usual India-style veggie food: Bombay Chaat House. While I ate the delicious food and sat in the tent on a near-perfect day, I had my laptop open, and I was revising more of the adventure. This seemed better than driving to Portland and playing board games inside. I found the focus to close the laptop, get in Air Volvo, and travel to Portland and Rogue Ales.

I missed my turn while chatting with Dondrea on the phone while driving through Portland, so I am fifteen minutes late. Evan is waiting for me inside, and it is even colder inside. I am wearing my sweater instead of a coat. Rogue bartenders now carry a handheld and take your order instead of opening a tab at the bar. Soon, I have an ale (I am back to 154 again–beer seems to be good for two pounds), and Evan picked The Lost Ruins of Arnak to play today. He selects regular characters and an advanced add-on research board. The game recommends using the new characters with the new items. The track is difficult, and we do not complete it in the game.

I play by exploring and defeating five monsters (25 points) and buying cards. I eliminate all my fear cards (-1 point each). I do mostly the nearby (three compasses) sites and only one distance (six compasses) site. I am not sure the distant sites are worth twice as much as the nearer ones. Evan researches more than me, but I won by eleven points.

It was a quick game, and soon, we were playing chess—I kept a travel set in Air Volvo. I managed to make a mistake after mistake. I lost my knight at the start by getting ahead of myself. I play the development and mid-game at a disadvantage. Approaching the endgame, I chased Evan’s king all over the board and nearly won, but again, I got ahead of myself. I did not move a pawn to stop the king’s escape. Next, I forgot, now that Evan’s queen is not busy protecting his king, to protect my king even after I looked at the risk, and Evan got an easy checkmate from me. I did not move a piece to cover my king but instead exchanged rooks. I was playing three moves ahead, but you must do the moves!

We said our goodbyes after sharing a nacho plate. Evan had something gummy and was high and hungry (he also had a burger), so I headed to Guardian Games PDX. It was warm and sunny now. The Air Volvo was warm, and it was a trip. I did my usual tour of all the games, but I just bought some paintbrushes named Insane Detail and Psycho.

Air Volvo arrived at Richard’s without issue. We are playing Dune Imperum Uprising, which is new to me. This is the highly-rated rework of Dune Imperium to be themed, I think, closer to the material. The rework took a good game and made it excellent. This is a deck-building and resource management game with a track in the same family of games as Arnak. Cody joined Richard and me for the game; Cody is undefeated. I was proud that I had a couple chances to win, but there were some changes to this version I did not know, and I missed my chance. I tied Richard’s score when Cody remained undefeated. I would say this is an excellent game, and I look forward to playing it again. I might buy this one, but I can now always play Richard’s copy.

Notice Cody (blue) two sandworms in the combat area and his score of 11 to our 8.

We called it an early night, and I returned to Beaverton in Air Volvo. I arrived at Safeway without any adventures and did the Easter shopping. The Easter Bunny got Corwin, a chocolate bunny. I was missing Susie as this is our first Easter apart. I managed $230 in items and got the stink-eye from old white guys as it was 10PM, and I monopolized the only checker. They refused to use the DIY checking for their three or so items. I ignored them.

I unloaded the goodies after Air Volvo got them to the house. The frogs sang, and a tree frog was on the wall by the door. Spring! I got the laptop and put on a Batman animated movie; it was the first computer graphics version and looked painted. I put away the groceries, microwaved a potato, and covered it with butter and sour cream for a late dinner and snack (I need to take my pills with food). I then got the last of my dirty clothing and washed them. I did the dishes and two more loads and left one set for the morning to finish.

Corwin returned from his food deliveries. He said he made more than $100 tonight, and there was a bonus for later deliveries, so soon, he was headed out again. I congratulate him.

I shower and head to bed after the last loads are set in the washer and dryer.

Thanks for reading!

I am writing this story on Saturday morning, a gloriously sunny and warm day–not our usual March. The tradition is that March comes in as a lion or a lamb and then leaves the opposite. Today is so glorious that if we leave March as a lamb, this is more like lamb chops grilled and served with great sides or a lamb in spiced curry with naan. I cannot imagine a better version of lamb.

Yesterday, the skies were grey and blue, and the temperatures were now entering the fifties (10C). I had suggested a picnic to Dondrea and Z to consume the various smoked fish I had acquired on the coast, all local. I picked Cathedral Park in the St. Johns part of Portland (named for the Art Deco-styled 1931 bridge with the same name). The cool day threatened the plans, but I held on to the idea.

I wrote the blog while I waited for Dondea and Z to decide if they wanted to risk the cold. It was long, as Thursday was a busy day for me. I like busy days. Next, I dressed. Rev. Steve supplied Harry’s best razor to me, and I agree that it is the best shave. It is recommended. Thanks, Rev. Steve!

Susie’s Concert in Michigan on 18 May 2024, at Grace UMC in Lansing at 2PM, is moving forward. Joyce will recall memories of Susie for us, and Susie’s family will make the grilled cheese sandwiches and cookies. John Nilsen will be joining us at the concert. It is coming together.

Here the fleet is drying overnight before the final dull coat (the reflections will be gone once that is lightly applied–just a dusting).

Still looking for white smoke, I loaded the car after rewashing my picnic basket with plates, silverware, and other valuable items, including a cheese knife and a bottle opener. I put the fine coastal products in the cooler, a styrofoam box, and an ice pack I keep in the freezer. Next, I returned to painting the fleet of WWI 1/6000 tabletop ship models for gaming. I think this is a cheaper and easier-to-use scale. The range of 15,000 yards is only a foot or so. Larger models, and I have paper versions, require whole tables or, for WW2, a large floor. The figures can also be used in hex-based wargames to replace paper counters–just to look good.

Note: This is just an example of a WW2 model. The ships built in the late WWI and WW2 were larger. This is KMS Bismarck versus Hood–A famous battle. In this visualization, the Prince of Wales is on fire. In the original battle, Bismarck’s superior targeting hits with an underwater shell under the Hood’s armor and explodes, fatally the magazines. This is repeated in The Price of Wales and hits less important areas. History would have been different had the shell hit been in a magazine. This conclusion is from a recent battle review, and it fits better with my thinking. A lucky British shell hit Bismarck’s fuel storage in the unarmored front of the ship, which meant Bismarck had to return to port (Oil mixed with seawater does not burn well), which set up the loss of the ship. The code breakers could track the ship, and soon it was sunk, a footnote in WW2 but a major event in WW2 naval history.

White smoke! Yes, coats will likely be needed as it is cooler at the river. I leave with plenty of time. Dondrea and Z will hit a snag on their way in. St. John’s Bridge has only one entrance due to a road closure/repair. I took, using NAV, Cornelius Pass Road, and Air Volvo, and I saw the stopped pickup on time. The bright sunlight prevented me from seeing the somewhat faded brake lights and turning signal. I think the driver had it in neutral and no brake lights. We stopped in time, with tightening seat belts, alarms, and slamming breaks, and did not shake up too much of the stuff in the cargo area. Just a typical day driving in Oregon.

I arrived and found just the lid ajar on the food. I found a nice table in the park, read, and waited. The sun was warm, but the breeze from the river was icy. I had my usual sweater and was cold but too proud to put on a coat. I reveled in the sun, and soon, the day warmed. Or I was used to the cold. We planned 1:15, but it became 1:30 as Dondrea found an alternative way to Cathedral Park.

I brought the picnic basket from the cargo hold, a 1990 wedding gift, and supplied plates, glasses, silverware, and clothes. I had paper products, salmon, and sturgeon (smoked) in the cooler. Dondrea and Z brought fine crackers, cheese, and pickles. We dug in, and Dondrea and Z learned how good smoked sturgeon can be.

We chatted, ate our fill (making dinner unnecessary), walked around the park, and headed to the river. The Willamette River is a short, wide river that connects to the Columbia River on both sides. It passes through Portland and is dredged to allow the Port of Portland to function. There is a sandy beach below the bridge and docks to allow swimming and paddling using boats out of the main channel and current. I believe we will be back in the summer for another picnic.

It was a relaxing time. Next, Dondrea and Z had a mission: summer clothing for Z, who objected that jeans and shirts were good. Her objections fell on deaf ears—Z learned the definition of LBD.

We said our goodbyes, and Air Volvo, reloaded with leftovers and dirty dishes in the cooler, took me back to the Volvo Cave by retracing our early course. There were no sudden stops this time. I did not get a comment from Air Volvo on my attention; I was cautious this time—still remembering the sudden stop earlier.

There, I continued with painting and finishing the fleet. I got to the point where all the models needed time to completely dry, so I rested. I was not expecting to sleep and dream.

I dreamed I was on yet-another-international trip; his one was not a business trip, and I was traveling, as is my usual now, alone. I was in an Asian location trying to get from the hotel to the airport. It was an excellent hotel, arranged, like many airports, in a circle. I was not nervous or rushed (also how I travel now–never worried) and just walked through the locations. Dream logic was that everyone addressed me in slightly accented English. I was introduced to the hotel owner, who smiled condescendingly and walked off (yes, my new anti-corporate outlook surfaces even in my dreams). I tried to get lunch for the trip to the airport, but I was told they would need permission. Obviously, I was not the correct type of guest to get food. I was disappointed but not the least surprised. The dream fades as I leave the hotel and look for a taxi. I will eat at the airport.

When I wake up, I am tired. I nap again for ten minutes and manage to rise again. Back to the painting, I clear the buildup of dirty dishes in the kitchen. I need to wash the picnic basket set, so I put that in the dishwasher, too.

I play music on the Apple laptop and then move to the fireside room, where my painting and model-building stuff is set up. I worked on the fleet and even finished the Zeppelins. In WWI, the Zeppelins were used to naval reconnisences. However, there was little training or experience in 1916 in their use, and according to historians, it was of no value. Alternative histories are available, and gaming rules that make them more effective. Most crashed, and the crew losses were high.

Corwin appeared between driving; he is trying to raise funds by working as a food delivery driver. Today, it is working better for him, and he has a goal. I point him towards the salmon, and he consumes much of the leftovers in a sandwich and out of the bag. He has only a short break and heads out to deliver food until the late evening when the food runs slow (the restaurants close about 9-10 here).