How'd it go today?

Company computers analyze everything to track, trace, and box users. It's easy work for a computer. Your precise workflow would have to be analyzed to get a likely source. Google is an ad company. They don't release any software to be useful to the user. They release it to further their ad business. It's only useful because people seldom use useless software. I don't use anything from google aside from a gmail address I foolishly keep 'just in case'. I haven't actually used it in years. I need to rip the bandaid off and get rid of it. Some day...
 
Company computers analyze everything to track, trace, and box users. It's easy work for a computer. Your precise workflow would have to be analyzed to get a likely source. Google is an ad company. They don't release any software to be useful to the user. They release it to further their ad business. It's only useful because people seldom use useless software. I don't use anything from google aside from a gmail address I foolishly keep 'just in case'. I haven't actually used it in years. I need to rip the bandaid off and get rid of it. Some day...
What search engine do you use if not google?
 
I use DuckDuckGo. It's primarily Bing on the back end, but they have some useful tools. I especially like the !bang system. There's thousands of shortcuts that can be used. Here's a few as an example

!amazon searches amazon
!ebay searches ebay
!w searches wikipedia
!wt searches wiktionary

 
So, I'm terrible about taking pictures...

Dropped a dead narrowleaf Cottonwood, while hanging from the live one next to it, then I killed one before it could kill Danni's mudroom. Sarah dropped the kids off with me in Round Valley, Saturday morning. They got to go to Monster Jam on Friday, so the neighbors birthday party was a little pale by comparison, but they had a great time regardless. They played so hard this weekend, that both girls slept the entire two hour truck ride home.
 
I got my temporarily permanent solar shed set up. It's my old package barn from my house, that nobody would put packages in. Too dark to put it online. Polarity is backwards from what labels say. Haven't found much online about it. Going to wait until I've got full sun, then check again. I'm going to put a window in front of the router on hinges to protect the inside from rain.

20240603_202904.jpg
 
Polarity is probably correct. I think the labeling on the SAE connectors was a little ambiguous. Can't wait until tomorrow to see how well it works.
 
Why do any of you seem so shocked that big tech is keeping tabs on you? There's actually a setting for Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. that you need to de-select in order for them to desist from storing your voice recordings, specifically. Among various other forms of private communication. Yes, big tech is listening and the kicker is...that updated "terms of service" agreement they issued you last month...the one you have never read...told you all about it. So it's your fault. It's your fault that they're spying on you. You can opt out at any time. Your data is currency in 2024. Remember that.
 
My solar system is chooching away nicely. It was making 4.2 amps fairly early (low sun angle) this morning. I blew the pollen off, and it went up to 4.3. :lol: Next test is to see how the battery holds up over night.
 
Why do any of you seem so shocked that big tech is keeping tabs on you? There's actually a setting for Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. that you need to de-select in order for them to desist from storing your voice recordings, specifically. Among various other forms of private communication. Yes, big tech is listening and the kicker is...that updated "terms of service" agreement they issued you last month...the one you have never read...told you all about it. So it's your fault. It's your fault that they're spying on you. You can opt out at any time. Your data is currency in 2024. Remember that.
I already have web activity turned off. I'm not sure what to turn off without just deleting the whole account. I'm not sure what benefit my account is anyway.
 
Hit the community college trail after work and my 11 year old son, James, came with. He used the neighbor boys mountain bike and he likes it. He’s never used disc brakes or had multiple gears. We stayed on easier sections. He only hurt himself once which is good (inner thigh hit the frame from coming off the seat when braking). Took the T2511 and cleared 3 small to medium trees across the trail. Been meaning to do that. I’ll get the harder trails cleared next week. I let James make a cut with the 2511 while I had my hand on it. I forgot to tell James to not let mommy know about the saw.
 
What kinda tree? Pretty sure Euc. Never seen bark that smooth and white

View attachment 139184
Looks like a Lemon Scented Gum, Corymbia citriodora. They grow on the east coast, a lot in Sydney.


Coryimbia-citriodora-Lemon-Scented-Gum-2.jpg

Ghost Gums are a bit brighter and only grow in Central Australia.
Ghost gum, Corymbia aparrerinja.

Ghost-gum-Central-Australia.jpg


DSC01565.jpg


 
It's 3:56AM and I still haven't slept. It's the 12th consecutive night where I've either gone to bed sometime after the sun has risen, or simply haven't gone to bed until exhaustion sets in sometime during the late night hours of the following day...or the the day after that.

Despite the mounting sleep deprivation, I feel mostly pretty great...aside from the pain of overly strained muscle groups and the regret of knowing that I'm behaving abnormally, f*cking up my circadian rhythm, and engaging in real life side quests that I would normally lack the drive and motivation to perform. I have a serious manic episode pretty predictably once per month, but they don't usually persist as long as this one has. Typically a week tops.

"Oh, Knotorious, that must be so awful! Mental illness is terrible!"

Well, "no" and "yes." Mania is pretty f*cking awesome. It's like living your life in "God Mode," accomplishing a month's worth of tasks in one week, feeling overwhelmingly positive about your life, having unlimited amounts of energy and enthusiasm for both work and play, but at the same time, knowing that it's all completely fake. Sometimes I my overconfidence in my decision making leads to regret; sometimes my over-enthusiasm for something leads to overspending; and every single time I have a manic episode, it inevitably leads me balls deep into...

...a depressive episode. What goes up must come down, and as my prefrontal cortex spontaneously over-agonizes dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine receptors (among various other catecholamines and neurotransmitters), eventually, without any forewarning, the party that mania began will eventually drain one's brain of those organic chemicals, creating an enormous deficit which leads to a deep, dark, depressive state.

Everything I ever felt excitement for during my manic state quickly metamorphosizes into a new, less savory feeling of pure and unadulterated regret. The reality sets in that you just lived the last "X" number of days within a total illusion and that, in turn, leads to embarrassment, sadness, and shame. The depletion of neurotransmitters, itself, exacerbates these emotions and leads the sufferer to experience serious amounts of guilt, confusion, and both rational and irrational negative thinking.

The depressive state leads to over sleeping. You first do so in order to remedy your serious sleep deficit, and then you do it simply because you don't want to be conscious because of how confident you are that your life sucks; because you lack the desire to do anything that isn't necessary for your survival. You eat more in order to recoup the calories you lost during your mania, you accomplish a fraction of what you would normally, and your anxiety, rumination/obsessive thinking, and panic attacks terrorize you regularly. Enjoyment no longer exists; you start to wonder if you only enjoy life when you're mentally ill or using illicit drugs (back when I did hard drugs)...because that's pretty much quite accurate, unfortunately.

Manic-depression is like doing injecting cocaine intravenously for days at a time, while believing you have an unlimited supply of the drug, feeling on top of the world, and then suddenly, without warning, you check your coke stash and it's all gone and you start to panic, regret your decision to use IV cocaine, feel confusion of how your stash magically disappeared since you had just been on top of the world, confident your supply would last forever, and you now regret everything and you wish you understood what was happening...

But I can never recognize my manic states until they've crossed some kind of line that makes me seriously question my decision making. The depressive states, however, are MUCH easier to recognize, because they make you wish you could disappear...at least until they subside.

Mental illness is a blessing and curse. Just like everything in this life, almost everything is useful, helpful and endearing in moderation. A manic episode feels exciting and fun until it is no longer, and you realize that what you experienced was a lie, and that, even though you enjoyed the ride, if you could, you would rid your life of mania just so you could avoid the depressive states that come after them. Drug addicts mostly love using drugs; it's the absence of drugs -- the withdrawal -- and the desperation that leads them to lower their moral standards, and to waste money, on substances that usually deters users from continuing down that path.

I just want to be balanced. I've never been balanced. I never will be balanced. This is my life. At this point, the best way to overcome my affliction is to accept it and to cope with it as healthily as I possibly can.

I tend to be very open on here. It's the internet and I give zero fucks about what other people think about me. Writing this was not for you, it was for me, and it was a form of catharsis...so thank you for listening. It was helpful to get all of that out.

If you know, then you know. 4.4% of adults experience manic-depression (AKA bipolar disorder) at some point in their life. And this is just one of my myriad of mental illnesses. My mind is clusterfuck, my self-esteem is horrific, but I am also highly intelligent and extremely capable. It could always be worse. I could be living in a debris hut made from salvaged garbage in Myanmar, self-mutilating my own body so that people will pity me and provide charity so that I can simply eat scraps and drink untreated water in a state of perpetual squalor, with no services to help me advance my quality of life.

My life isn't perfect, but I am still DEFINITELY blessed and fortunate. Shit happens and then you die.

Happiness isn't equivalent to your net worth, income nor social status. Happiness, in large part, stems out from gratitude. And we all -- as Americans; even the poorest of Americans -- have a lot to be grateful for.

~The End (Fin) =-D
 
Nothing about my life is easy. That's partly my own fault (mostly squandered opportunities back when I was a vicious drug addict), but partly the direct result of chemical imbalances/mental illness...which, inconveniently, exacerbated my addiction, resulting in a self-perpetuating cycle of poor decisions and bad behaviors. At least, today, I can say that I'm clean and healthy...physically. Mentally? I'm batshit crazy and I think you all already know that. =-P
 
2 large pine trees down. One yesterday, larger today. 25 yards of chips. Probably 10 yards of rakings. They sploded.
Just logs to move now. Probably just coordinate that with the milling schedule. Gonna be a lotta beams and lumbers.
They have a old pine cabin up in the Sierras that you need GPS coordinates if you need help. Off grid pretty much.
So repairs must be made.
 
Hairy chested many chit...or, more hauling on a rope to drop a stick. View attachment 139207
Don't twisted ropes make your load spin a lot or is that a myth?

Nice 3:1. It's a Z-Rig. Is that another pulley where you've locked off the pull strand or is that a progress capture device? A prusik right there could be helpful for progress capture. Because the rope is being redirected twice, it would also allow for a controlled descent without much breaking effort.

Not telling you what to. Shit, I'm not even sure I know what you're using it for (beyond "dropping a stick"), so maybe progress capture would be a hindrance. Just talking shop.

I have a mechanical advantage and pulley fetish that I'm not shy about.
 
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A z rig implies multiple anchor points, that's just a 3:1. While I try to avoid twists, when working with three strand, twist happens. Progress capture is very useful for pre-tensioning, and would have probably helped there, but I had a lot of leverage and the 3:1, so I didn't bother with rigging the extra sling. Also, flat and tubular webbing is not ideal for hitches on three strand rope, in fact it's kind of a PITA, but I've always got the slings handy, no rummaging needed.

I'd like to aquire a set of fiddle blocks and set it up for fairly quick deployment, since I do this several times a week. I can pull a lot more with my rope jack, but it's kind of an ordeal to set it up if you're not working at the end of a 200ft rope. The blocks and slings only take a minute or two to get set up, and makes the pulling much easier on my hands.
 
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