rainnotes

HAM Radio

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Just got my Baofeng and my Tech license in hand. Got both without a clue in the world what I was doing. Still have no idea. I studied the questions and passed the test. I’m a little peeved I didn’t study for General and Extra but not a big deal to do that later.

I’m now at the point where I have enough to get started but don’t know how to get started. I’ve turned the radio on can’t find any signals worthwhile. I guess it’s all a sign that I need to step back and actually figure out what I’m doing. Just feel like there should be some better clearer actions on how to go about all this.

Flow State Music

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I write this as I am incredibly distracted by this music I’ve been running across. I’ve written about this in the past but, this is by no means a crazy revelation, house music has been incredible for helping me stay in a flow state. I can feel my self checking off tasks to the beat. Makes working just that much better

Going to drop some videos in here, as I find them, that just put me in that flow state.

Presidents Books list

Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I have a plan to read a book on each president. I found this list on reddit and it seemed like a good list. Going to make my way through it…probably not in this order.

George Washington, 1789-1797 - Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
John Adams, 1797-1801 - John Adams by David McCullough
Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809 - Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meachem
James Madison, 1809-1817 - James Madison: A Life Reconsidered by Lynne Cheney
James Monroe, 1817-1825 - The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger
John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829 - John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837 - The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert Remini
Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841 - Martin Van Buren and the American Political System by Donald Cole
William Henry Harrison, 1841 - Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer by Robert Owens
John Tyler, 1841-1845 - The American Presidents Series: John Tyler by Gary May
James Knox Polk, 1845-1849 - James K. Polk: A Country of Vast Designs by Robert Merry
Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850 - American Presidents Series: Zachary Taylor by Eisenhower
Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853 - Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert Rayback
Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857 - The American Presidents Series: Franklin Pierce by Michael Holt
James Buchanan, 1857-1861 - The American Presidents Series: James Buchanan by Jean Baker
Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 - Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869 - Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson by David O. Steward
Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877 - Grant by John Edward Smith
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-1881 - The American Presidents Series: Rutherford B Hayes by Hans Trefousse
James Abram Garfield, 1881 - Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-1885 - Gentleman Boss by Thomas Reeves
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889 - An Honest President by HP Jeffers
Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893 - The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison by Socolofsky
Grover Cleveland, 1893-1897 - Already noted above
William McKinley, 1897-1901 - The President and the Assassin by Miller
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 - The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex & Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
William Howard Taft, 1909-1913 - The Bully Pulpit by Goodwin
Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921 - Wilson by Berg
Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923 - American Presidents Series: Warren Harding by Dean
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 - Coolidge by Shales
Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-1933 - Herbert Hoover in the White House by Rappeleye
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945 - FDR by Smith
Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953 - Truman by McCullough
Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-1961 - Soldier and President by Ambrose
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963 - An Unfinished Life by Dallek
Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969 - Indomitable Will by Updegrove
Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974 - Being Nixon by Thomas
Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977 - APS by Brinkley
James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981 - Redeemer by Ballmer
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989 - Reagan: The Life by Brand
George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993 - Destiny and Power by Meacham
William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001 - The Survivor by Harris
George Walker Bush, 2001-2009 - Bush by Smith
Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-2017 - The Bridge by Remnick
Donald Trump, 2017- - Trump Revealed by Kranish & Fisher

here is where I found the list: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/86985a/reading_a_biography_on_each_us_president/

Recipe: Quick Sandwich Bread

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Simple soft white sandwich bread…not much else

Wet Ingredients

Water 1 Cup Warmed
Milk 1/4 Cup Warmed
Avocado Oil 1/4 Cup

Mix water and milk and heat to 110 degrees. Add Avocado oil after.

Dry Ingredients

Flour 3 + 1/3 cups
Sugar 2 tbs
Yeast 2 + 1/4 tsp
Salt 1+ 1/2 tsp

Add all dry ingredients to wet. Mix

Bread Dough

Combine Milk and Water, heat to 110 degrees

Water 1 Cup Warmed
Milk 1/4 Cup Warmed

About 1 minute in the microwave should do the trick

Stir in flour one cup at a time. Let the first cup combine fully for about 2 minutes

Flour 3 + 1/3 cups

Mix for 3 minutes on low.

use your best judgement, just get it nicely mixed in.

Take out of mixer. Let rise for an hour or so. Let it it double in size.

After the first rise. Lay out on counter, make a rectangle of dough the height of your load pan and the length about 3x that distance.

Roll the dough to make a log that will be placed into the load pan.

Cook for 34 minutes at 350 degrees

cover with foil at the 20ish mark to prevent it from burning

Invictus

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Out of the night that covers me,

black as the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul

in the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced not cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

my head is bloody, but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade

and yet the menace of the years

finds and shall fine me - unafraid

It matters not how straight that gate

how charged with punishment the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul.

The boys are getting big

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Man does time fly. My oldest is about to be 4, while he acts like a 40 year old its still hard for me to believe how fast time flies with them. The past 4 years has without a doubt been the longest and shortest 4 ever. I remember looking at 4 years and thinking it was an eternity, now my kids have shown me that 4 years is nothing. 4 years is but a mere drop in the bucket in this life. It feels more important than ever to enjoy the time we have and maximize how good of a parent I can be.

I love them both so much that its hard to imagine a time without them. A cliché yes, but its so true. I just hope I am doing a good enough job being a good Dad. Its not easy, making them happy while keeping my own sanity is crazy hard.

Happy birthday bud. I can wait for H to get this big. I love you both

High Flight

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

by: John Gillespie Magee Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of—- wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up, up the long, delirious burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew—- And while with silent lifting mind, I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

tools to write blog posts...a windows struggle

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to figure out the reasons I can’t get myself to write more. One of the big ones is finding a blogging platform with a good windows application that can work with my github pages… it doesn’t exist.

I have searched low and high, looked for half baked solutions on github but nothing seems to do what I want.

Here are my requirements

Windows desktop app
Write posts in Markdown
Easy insertion of photos
A few clicks from launch to post

I ended up coming up with my own solution. Its essentially just a batch file paired with Typora. This could really be reworked to fit any workflow or chosen markdown editor. I just like typora and typora makes it easy to insert and upload images through the use of upgit.

The flow is:

Start batch file
prompts for a blog post title
Creates a file with the current date and name
Opens typora with blog post header and title
Do some typing and blathering
Insert images (drag and drop)…upgit/typora uploads to github and replaces URL with the image URL on github
go back to open terminal window hit enter
Enter commits changes to git and pushes up to github

A nice blog post

Here is the batch file I created.

@echo off
   
REM Get and set the root post directory
set root= PATH_TO_YOUR_POST_DIRECTORY
cd %root%
   
REM get the current OS date and time
for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%a in ('wmic OS Get localdatetime /value') do set "dt=%%a"
set "YY=%dt:~2,2%" & set "YYYY=%dt:~0,4%" & set "MM=%dt:~4,2%" & set "DD=%dt:~6,2%"
set "HH=%dt:~8,2%" & set "Min=%dt:~10,2%" & set "Sec=%dt:~12,2%"
   
REM get the title of the post and strip out spaces
set /p UserInputTitle=Post title: 
set UserInputTitleNoSpaces=%UserInputTitle: =_%
   
REM set the date as a formatted string
set "datestamp=%YYYY%%MM%%DD%" & set "timestamp=%HH%%Min%%Sec%"
set "fullstamp=%YYYY%-%MM%-%DD%-"
   
REM combine the date and post name and ad markdown extension
set filestamp=%fullstamp%%UserInputTitleNoSpaces%
set SAVESTAMP=%filestamp%.md
   
echo --->> %SAVESTAMP%
echo layout: post>> %SAVESTAMP%
echo title: "%UserInputTitle%">> %SAVESTAMP%
echo comments: true>> %SAVESTAMP%
echo description: "">> %SAVESTAMP%
echo keywords: "">> %SAVESTAMP%
echo --->> %SAVESTAMP%
   
REM start typora with the stamp
start typora.exe %SAVESTAMP%
   
   
   
echo hit enter to commit new post
pause
   
cd PATH_TO_ROOT_GIT_DIRECTORY_OF_PROJECT
git pull
git add .
git commit -m "new post"
git push

Tiny Desk: Andrew Bird

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I LOVE Tiny Desk concerts. I spend most of my music listening on youtube with tiny desk. NPR Does an amazing job and I think its the best form of most artists. Here is one of my favorite as of late. Andrew Bird is amazing, and I think this is his best performance.

Farewell to the Springs

Mon, 07 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My wife and I took a final trip down to Colorado Springs this weekend. We are about three weeks from leaving Colorado in pursuit of our next adventure. It was bitter-sweet but mostly a helping of the sweet. So many good memories and plenty of not so great ones. It is where we both went to school and where we met on another. It is where we dedicated large portions of our life in pursuit of where they are today. It feels nice. It once felt like the place that contained everything that we were: school, friends and home. Today, none of those things are present and we now feel like outsiders. I give much thanks to this place and to the people I met while living there. I’m looking forward to what’s next but I am also exited to come back in a couple of years and see how much has changed, yet again, and how much further we will feel removed from it.