Venezuela, Trump, and Sanders

In response to a long-time work friend on the Bookface:

Venezuela is an interesting Ghost of Christmas Future for societies which do not make banishment of force against any individual (tautologically, the smallest minority you can create) its highest priority.

When, instead of protecting rights, government acts as the violator in the name of "equitable distribution of revenues", the government violations of individual rights will not likely stop at force against the rich and wealthy.

You are correct about the current president. He is a danger to us all. However, this may also have proven true of a President Bernie Sanders as well. That is the important idea to consider.

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans are principled about using force to protect rights rather than to violate them. Nor do they have clear principles about what is or is not a right. The will of the majority does not create natural laws.

Going back to your original thought... I will try to appreciate this day. It is easy for me to get there mentally because my parents left behind everything they owned to escape the Viet Cong and come here. And today I celebrate the life of my paternal grandfather. Much love.

Don't Let Anyone Smuggle In The Bathwater With The Baby

You've done the hard work of making sure you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater: discarding sensible things associated with negative ones. Good!

Gotta also make sure you don't accept nonsense because it's hanging out with something sensible.

For example: kindness is a good state in which to be. But I've heard recently that political correctness is just another word for kindness/consideration from a person who was being rather unkind about it.

Well, with all due respect to reality, if it were merely kindness or consideration with no differentiating features, there wouldn't be a need for a separate term for it. You heard it here first, folks: Every new term entails some new differentiae from the genus. And if you don't think so, stop arguing for Gay Marriage and just accept "Civil Unions".

Different word? Different Concept.

Political correctness is an exploitation of an implicit moral gradient... one direction is uphill and the other benefits from gravity because we have, perhaps unknowingly, accepted some premise. It is usually meant to compel or prohibit certain behavior but the overarching goal is to make you doubt your own mind.

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Self-doubt? Fuck that noise. We ain't got time for that.

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I'm not saying we should go out of our way to be offensive. We're not Trampeteers or Alt-Right Supremacists. But we need to understand Political Correctness as what it is: Guerilla Warfare against the way your mind sees reality.

Well... Your mind is all that you have. And the extent to which you trust your mind is the extent to which you have self-esteem.

Don't smuggle in the bathwater with the baby. And don't let anyone else do that for you either.

Baby Goats In Pajamas

Still relevant 2 years later!

So maybe we spoil our goat kids a little in the 8 weeks before they go to their new homes as pets and future milking goats. But, who doesn't want to spend a cold rainy day inside in Pajamas?

How the World Becomes a Better Place According to the Bookface

Memes

• Step 1: person posts rage-driven engagement-inducing meme.
• Step 2: even more see that shit and feel either rage or self-righteousness
• Step 3: profit

Blog posts written by your own hand

• Step 1: Write something on your blog that can actually engage people in discussion without triggering them
• Step 2: Two people see it

Prince on Arsenio in 2014

Apparently Prince was the very first guest on Arsenio Hall when he came back to Late Night in 2014.

An amazing interview. People are rapt... listening so closely you could hear a pin drop in the gaps while Prince is speaking.

Prince sits down with Arsenio for a rare televised interview. The two discuss his favorite song, why Prince doesn't own a cell phone, the double edged sword of music on the internet, and much more.

He talks about technology being a double edged sword and that artists don't always get paid.  That is a malady of our age and people who love art and artists need to find it within themselves to make sure that they do not deprive artists of pay by their short sighted choices.

Justice, of the Social Sort

Social justice only happens when we treat people as individuals in accordance with their conduct.

However, most of what writers try to float as "social justice" is some variant of robbing people like Paul to pay people like Petra. The Pauls are given less than their conduct deserves out of some warped notion of tribal guilt.

That is not justice of any kind.

To Rent or To Own... To Be Employed or To Own

How many people have said to me that they think renting is throwing money away but owning goes toward somethiing. Many.

How many of these people consider whether working for someone else vs. starting and owning your own business is the same question. Very few.

Total Lifetime Interest and Mortgage

The 30-year fixed mortgage is a staple of how people think about home financing but it is really grim when you take the long view.

I pulled today's rates from a local credit union and plugged them into some loan calculators built into Google Sheets.  Did you know that the lifetime interest paid on a 30 year mortgage is more than 2.5 times what you would pay for a 15 year mortgage?

Now some of you are thinking: "good!"  Mortgage interest is a darling tax dodge.  It's a preferred way of paying the bank because it happens to be deductible on your taxes if you itemize.

Those of us who live unconventional lives and actively select which incentive systems we are willing to participate in may or may not be swayed by this.  Yes, mortgage interest is preferred by the tax system, however, the math seems to indicate an increase so large that it completely outsizes your tax benefit in the long term.  

Also, you're paying a bank... for borrowing money.  

This is fine to do when you can rationally claim that it's in your own best self-interest.  But bear in mind that they pay lobbyists that a lot of that money to ensure the legislators keep the system just the way it is.  

Any incentive system can be thought of as a game.  We need to pick the games that we play with care.  They ways that they influence our decisions can become hidden from our sight, in the same way that we stop noticing the things that are familiar.

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Remember This Always: Debt Grows Faster Than Savings

(...this is still true when the interest is preferred by the tax code.)

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Photo Credit: Home Sweet Home Show | luciebluebird.com/2015/05/06/home-swe… | Lucie Bluebird-Lexington | Flickr

What Is the Name For The Bars that Divide a Pane of Glass in a Window

Answer: Muntin.

This answer comes by way of the Preservation Principles PDF from Newport, RI.  Wikipedia has the following:

A muntin in US usage is a strip of wood or metal separating and holding panes of glass in a window.[1]Muntins are also called "muntin bars", "glazing bars", or "sash bars". Muntins can be found in doors, windows and furniture, typically in western styles of architecture. Muntins divide a single window sash or casement into a grid system of small panes of glass, called "lights" or "lites".

I thought they were called "Mullions".  But I find that many of the things I can look up today, which were not as easy to look up in years past have turned out to be wrong.

Muntins are often confused with "mullions" (which separate complete window units)

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Photo Credit: Matěj Baťha - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

What Social Justice People Want From You

South Park: Randy Marsh apology for the "N" word to Jesse Jackson. "Kiss it".

People who make a lot of noise about social justice aren't very clear about what the end game is for all of their noisemaking.

They can't name it explicitly because, deep down, whether they know it or not, their end game is your guilt. And your guilt is their power.

They can win this only with your assent.

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DON'T GIVE THEM A FUCKING INCH

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Live your life the best you can playing the hand you were dealt. Live like your long-term happiness and well-being are your primary goal.

Sure... help others from time to time, but for your own reasons. Share your truth for your love of the truth. Share your knowledge for the love of knowledge. Share with people whom you enjoy because of their love of their own lives.

Never let sacrifice or guilt become your motive power. Never apologize for your priority of fact over feeling.

Wax On, Wax Off: The Arpeggio Meditation by Daniel Ward

Ukulele Magazine recently featured an article written by Daniel Ward on practicing arpeggios slowly and another article expanding on it.  I've incorporated meditative fingerpicking into my daily practice first thing to get focused on breathing and listening. 

I have also adapted the practice for the key of G Major:

ARPEGGIO MEDITATION IN G MAJOR

Fingerpicking practice, breathing, and listening. Arranged by Francis Luong (Franco)

G                                 Gmaj7
   4/4
    Gtr I
||--------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|
||o-----3-------3---|-----3-------3---|-----2-------2---|-----2-------2---|
||o---2-------2-----|---2-------2-----|---2-------2-----|---2-------2-----|
||--0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|


  Em7                                 Em6
|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|
|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|
|---2-------2-----|---2-------2-----|---1-------1-----|---1-------1-----|
|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|


  Cmaj7                               D7sus4            D7
|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------0-------0-|-------0-------0-|
|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|-----3-------3---|-----2-------2---|
|---0-------0-----|---0-------0-----|---0-------0-----|---0-------0-----|
|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-2-------2-------|-2-------2-------|


  G                                   Cm
|-------2-------2-|-------2-------2-|-------3-------3-|-------3-------3--||
|-----3-------3---|-----3-------3---|-----3-------3---|-----3-------3---o||
|---2-------2-----|---2-------2-----|---3-------3-----|---3-------3-----o||
|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0--------||

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The Good, the Bad, and PowerTab

I decided to try assembling a tab using powertab which is pretty old these days and hasn't been maintained.  I don't suspect I'll continue using it.  Print output has severe issues with title alignment on Windows 10.

My inelegant workaround is ASCII output, which permits me to adjust the text.  I just don't think I have the patience to PDF, screenshot, and crop after using that dreadful interface.  

screenshot and crop from PDF

How to Enlarge a Guitar Strap Hole

Guitar straps ship with holes cut for a normal strap button. But if one of your strap buttons is also a 1/4" plug then you might want to enlarge the hole on that side of your strap.

You can buy a hollow leather punch set for very little money on Amazon. Based on some quick eye-balling I think about 3/8" is the right size.

Add a hammer and a plank of wood to put underneath the strap and you're ready for action.

I find that it works better to cut into the leather if I tilt the punch around rather than hammering it in squarely.

What To Do With Demands for Empathy

A person who claims victimhood often demands your empathy.

In the moment of demanding your empathy, they are extremely self-centered. Nothing matters more than their feelings.

Simultaneously, they demand of you that you put their feelings above your own reason and/or feelings.

It is a double-standard, and as such, means that the person's arguments whatever they are (and perhaps the person, entirely) deserve to be dismissed.

No one who betrays that they demand more of others than themselves deserves a hearing.

The Little War

I read last night a word origin that was so obviously there before my eyes that I was amazed I couldn't see it.

Guerra.

War.

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Guerilla.

Little War.

Thanks, Bernard Cornwell!

How to Be An Asshole and Feel Good About It

(Warning: Turn on the sarcasm filter.)

Unicorn-Flying-Rainbow-Bomb-Diversity | Eye Candy by ReferralCandy | Flickr

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The Formula

If I care about...

• (Group 1: the victim... please select one or more)
  • women
  • gays
  • transgendered
  • blacks

 ...then I have a license to belittle, harrass, and disrespect people who are...

• (Group 2: the privileged... please select one or more)
  • men
  • straights
  • cys-gendered
  • non-blacks

 ...and anyone who criticizes my arguments in favor of the same victims.

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The Mentality of the Enforcer

"The privileged" (Group 2) have no ground on which to demand common decency unless they first pound their chests about how privileged they are.

Unless they understand the depths of their guilt, we will treat them in accordance with that guilt.

By treating "the privileged" badly, I am being kind.  I am increasing net kindness in the world.  And I am only being mean to people who deserve it.  Their lack of inclusiveness as evident by their lack of making similar noises is all the evidence I need of their bigotry.

There is no live-and-let live with bigots.  You can't ignore them.  You have to shout them down and make civilized conversation impossible for them.

Only by making the right noises can they prove their innocence.  Maybe then they can they be permitted to be heard.

You can tell a person isn't a bigot because they also shout down bigots.  Support these people.

Anyone who disagrees is a bigot or is giving comfort to the status quo.  They stand in the way of social progress.  They need to be treated like bigots.

If I have identified a new type of victim that other people aren't including, I've changed the game and I'm a winner.  I get to mistreat any people who don't acknowledge this unsung victim until they start making the right noises.  I love this game!

In the end, the world is going to be such a kind and inclusive place!

I'm really making the world better!

Pooping rainbows and love out of my ass is amazing!

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Photo Credit: Unicorn-Flying-Rainbow-Bomb-Diversity | Eye Candy by ReferralCandy | Flickr

Franco Q2 2017: 90-day Lookback

Ukulele Practice Everyday

Pretty sure I played ukulele every day in the last quarter.  On the days I didn't feel well, I played for 30 minutes or so and then shut it down.  On the really crazy days, I put in about 4 hours.

I can spend 20 minutes a day practicing a song that is only 2 minutes long and still not have mastery over it after a month.  And so, I have a lot of respect for people who make it look easy.

I've been recording video of my practices.  I was doing this selectively at first but found that I was too nervous about "getting it right" for video and it didn't feel natural.  So I decided to purchase an external 4TB USB drive and now I am recording nearly every minute of my practice.  I burned ~3.2GB of storage just yesterday.  It's an extravagant use of storage, but totally worth it and storage is cheap.

I posted 3 videos to my Youtube channel and 9 videos to my Instagram profile.  I've been embracing a mode of "Document, Don't Create" and it's a lot easier for me to just post something that has rough edges with that mindset.

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The 50 songs project is going strong, albeit slowly.  I now have a combined 43 songs on my "accepted" and "active" lists.  The instrumental solo songs take a good bit longer to be able to play but are very rewarding.  I have found that most of my energy goes toward this and I am fine with slowing down the project for this purpose.  James Hill's site, The Ukulele Way has been the most important resource in my development during the last 90 days.

Also, I finished working my way through Harmony and Theory and I am now pursuing Ear Training during breakfast.

Physical Challenges

Q1 2017 presented a number of physical challenges for me.  A shoulder injury sustained while practicing Jiu Jitsu has made me reluctant to do pull-ups since January and those were a staple of my workouts.  So I've switched to resistance bands and I am doing my own rehab.  I can now do half height (to 90 degrees) pull-ups without too much distress.

And, just a month ago, I found out just how bad it is to add miles really quickly.  I ran so much I limped for a week.  So I put myself on the injured list and I will not be running either of the races I listed on Franco Now: 2017 1Q.  That being said, I did run with The Raven in Miami when I was there in January, so I had my fun.  I am still proud of most of my training but I am looking forward to taking a break from running to heal up.

Time Enough for Heinlein

I read a LOT of Heinlein.  Added many quotes to my Aphorisms page.  I think I've just about had enough of him.  So going to move on to other readings.  Dune perhaps.  And more Sanderson.

Strong Tech

My tech development went pretty well during Q1 2017.  I made a conscious effort to spend more time working on frontend Javascript/ReactJS/BootstrapCSS work and it has paid off nicely.

I have agreed to take on Scrum Master role for the team so I will have study up to understand how I can help the team to better organize and turn our hard lessons into new cultural practices.

And Other Things As Well

I hosted two WDS Local DC meetups.  I do a roll-call in the days before each to ensure a quorum before proceeding.  It works well enough.

I didn't do so well at contacting a friend each day but I feel like I did pretty well at keeping in touch with remote buddies.  I averaged a phone call with a long-distance friend about once every 2 weeks and even managed to get some people on/before their birthdays.

I started the process for becoming a volunteer with the County.  Going to try to focus on assisting Seniors with living during 2017.  And I am hoping that I can incorporate ukulele into this.

Healthcare, Government Mandates, and Individual Freedom

Language choice lesson:  When you believe in the right of government to dictate to insurance companies what they MUST cover, you might also refer to it as government TAKING AWAY coverage when that mandate is removed.  (maximum hyperbole achieved... break out the torches and pitchforks)

But when you actually ask WHY the government has any business making mandates to insurance companies and you don't take it as a given... removing a mandate might be perceived as a movement from coercion toward freedom.

As an aside, it's interesting for me to ponder people who run startups but react favorably to government control of health insurance and medicine.  I think it's contradictory to do so.  Startups do well because they enjoy a large degree of freedom on HOW and WHAT they do.   And often they see no problem with DISRUPTING things like regulatory taxi cab franchises imposed by the government.

But, somehow medicine doesn't get the same treatment.  I mean it's life or death!  So questions like these don't automatically fall on the side of freedom:

• Will government mandates will manage not to reduce innovation and investment? (blank out)
• Don't insurance companies have a right to try to structure different business models that might change the entire industry? (blank out)
• Wouldn't burdensome government regulation give advantages to larger businesses than smaller ones? (blank out)
• Who the hell would want to start an insurance company given a trend of increasing regulation and decreasing freedom?  (Maybe the world just needs another social media app)
• When costs get too high, how long will I have to wait for a procedure if I don't have political connections? (blank out)
• When waits get too long, will I have to call my senator to get things moving along?

In the end, we still need to answer for Liberty.  Does it matter?  Do we still believe in it?  And if so, by what right do mandates like the ACA force us to pay penalties for our only real right: to get to decide for ourselves what we will and will not do.

A lot of people think of a guarantee of health care or basic income as a matter of kindness.  They think of it in terms of what kind of guarantees a prosperous society can provide.  But will society remain prosperous if we go about destroying the foundation of prosperity? What about freedom? 

Folks, I don't see it as a country that believes in freedom if the government can tell a person they MUST buy insurance or pay a few hundred dollars to the government for no reason.  

What will they tell us we must tomorrow?  I mean... all a government seems to need is the right justification, the right notion of duty which will get them 51% of the vote to support it.  And that's assuming a weak one.  

What could a guy who doesn't even give a shit about freedom like Vlad Putin require?  Because a guy like that can get elected.  (The people who use kindness as a motivation for instituting government control of medical care tend to assume benevolent government but that is neither a law of nature nor statistically probable)

Look... those of us who believe power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely, HAVE to ask this question: What happened to universal and inalienable rights?  Because everything I hear about these days sounds fucking alienable to me.

Government should begin with the premise of every person having fundamental rights to act according to their judgment in pursuit of their lives, barring violations of the same rights against others (force and fraud).  

In the age of pragmatism, these ideas are dated.  It's old-school to even believe in principles.  It's laughable to believe in absolutes.  Whatever... I am what I am and I have never been good at winning the popularity contest.  

My friends might be surprised to know that I'm with the Republicans that want to repeal the ACA entirely.  Frankly I don't even think that would go far enough.

My vision for better health care is a government retreat from regulation of it.  No mandates.  Less regulation and thus more new entrants and more stale model disruption.  New smaller organizations to organize and share the burden of medical risk (which is supposed to be the job of insurance companies).  No artificial state boundaries.  Delete tax deductions for health care insurance premiums for employers and make the playing field level for individual buyers.  Voluntary charities to help provide insurance to those in need.

Probably won't happen in my lifetime. 

How to Reduce Noise in Your Facebook Feed

Facebook makes it easy to reduce chatter from Facebook Pages that you have deemed to be consistently garbage. Click the down-arrow glyph icon on any post and choose the "Hide all from XXX" option.

This also seems to work for posts from a certain person as well in the case of share-alongs that you see from Friends-of-Friends.

I did this a few times this morning and I am already seeing more posts written by people I have actually friended.

How Anger Blinds You and Makes You Feel Virtuous While Lashing Out

This morning, while listening to Econtalk, I encountered interesting back-and-forth discussion on Anger as relates to Paul Bloom's controversial ideas on empathy.

• Some people argue anger is good, e.g. it indicates injustice
• but it makes you blind
• still it may indicate areas that require action
• as long as you don't act out of anger (directly)
• anger has the effect of justifying all sorts of regrettable action and even making you feel virtuous at the moment of lashing out
• you always have a choice of how you respond to anger
• how you choose to respond to anger is part of being an adult

The discussion gets personal and considered for both, host and guest, when they consider anger in regards to parenting.

• When you're disciplining your child... you shouldn't let your anger dictate how you would respond
• Both host and guest never struck their kids
• There are things you can do to your kids which isn't hitting them that is a lot worse: humiliating, belittling, etc.
• It's easy to fool yourself that what you do in anger is "in the kid's best interest"
• Anger and Empathy are poor emotions for a parent to use as a moral guide

Very fascinating discussion. Check it out. http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/02/paul_bloom_on_e.html

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Photo Credit: Anger | Patrik Nygren

Observations on Resentment

This morning after reading a vague emotional post by a woman who has decided to write off white women...

Two friends and I set up a rule — no more white women for 2017. We are not accepting friend requests online or in real life. We don’t have the energy required to vet people and then wait for the other shoe to drop.

Can't help but muse that people who truly develop self-esteem can't get this upset by not being seen by others. People who establish good boundaries are not subject to surprises by who she thought other people were.

You cannot base your self-esteem on accidents of your birth. Your race. Your height. How good looking you think you are.

Neither can you base your self-esteem on your relationships. The people who try this always end up resentful and bitter. (And, apparently, more than a bit racist.)

I suspect the most important thing to your self esteem that you can do is to look at the world and decide what you're going to try to be. Then do it. Then check in and ask yourself how it's going.

It is my prediction that people who are intentional and rational harbor fewer resentments toward others. There are probably fewer incidents of misplaced trust as well. When you begin with the idea that no one else owes you anything, every kindness is a gift rather than an expectation. The people in whom you take pleasure are enjoyable for their own sake for as long as those interactions last.

What is the relationship between expectation and resentment? What is the relationship between ideas about moral duty and expectation? How is it that people you barely know can "betray" you so badly you are "waiting for shoes to drop"? What would happen if you just accepted people the way that they were and interacted more with the ones you sincerely enjoy without trying to change the ones you enjoy less?

These are all questions of attitude. And they are worth muddling through for a person who seeks to understand themselves and spend more time acting out of self-worthiness than resentment of others.

That's a worthy goal isn't it? To spend more time acting out of your self-worthiness. Sounds good, anyway.