Monthly Archives: October 2014

Happy Life and Balance

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I read this somewhere on the ‘net, and it makes a lot of sense:

You will not have ‘I wish I’d worked more’ on your headstone. By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

I found this quite true, and I am happy that I made conscious decisions ten years ago to change my work-a-day lifestyle that was killing me and killing my relationship.

Here is where I was and here is what I did.
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Youngster in the Suit on a Bike

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There is a young man who works where I work who rides a small motorcycle to work. I see him from time to time because we both park our motorcycles in the same place, though he arrives later than I do and leaves later than I leave. But over time, we have occasionally seen each other at our motorcycles when I leave late or he leaves early.

I see this young man around the building. He works in an entry-level position, and has been here for about two years. What I notice is that he always wears a suit. I asked him once about that, and his response was the typical brainwashed phrase from the Dress for Success bloggers — that is, “dress for the job you want, not the one you have.”

Okay, all well and good. We may differ on the suit stuff. He will realize as he matures that a suit isn’t the only thing on which a rising professional is judged.

But what has bothered me about the suit (and dress shoes), is that he wears it while…
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How I am Making Videos These Days

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A bazillion years ago when I started making videos on my “BHD YouTube” channel, I was using video recording capability in my first compact digital camera. I then used “Windows Movie Maker” to edit the video by cropping off the ends, merging segments together, and adding opening & closing titles.

Man, eight years ago is a long time, and it was so much easier back then.

Five years ago I acquired my first HD video camera. Production quality improved, but editing capability became much more difficult since WMM could not handle those types of files and I had to go through many shenanigans to convert raw video from MP4 to AVI in order to edit them.

Three years ago, the process of editing video became impossible since WMM wasn’t working any more and there was not a decent freeware replacement available. Also, Google bought YouTube and foisted its disastrous complexity and entangled “all of google” connections to its platform. I had enough. I gave up. (I distrust Google as much as I hate Microsoft.)

But now…
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Boot Leather: Comfort and Softness

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Lucphython01I have received some emails from various people asking general questions about boot comfort and the feel of the stiffness or softness of leather (or skins) used on shafts of boots. Following are random thoughts based on experience from wearing boots exclusively as my choice of footwear for more than 47 years.
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New Video

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Good news! I have a new “while riding” video! I know it has been a long, long time since you have seen videos from me.

I stopped taking and producing videos several years ago for three reasons: 1) YouTube had changed their site to make it much more difficult and consumer-unfriendly to use; 2) I could not get any decent video editing freeware software to work, so I couldn’t edit videos like I once was able to do; and 3) My spouse thinks boot-related videos are “stupid,” and in deference to the fact that he is home all the time (he never goes anywhere unless I drive him), then I had no location or time to make videos.

However, I am happy to report that a change has happened…
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He Hath Returned, Safely

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I have mentioned before that my twin brother lives with his wife in Italy. He retired from full-time employment three years ago.

Restless to return to doing good after retirement, he was accepted by a prestigious voluntary agency based in Europe to serve as a volunteer and to help people build communities with more substantial and sustainable infrastructure. He also teaches English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Greek, Polish, Amharic, Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, or whatever else works where he volunteers. He is an amazingly gifted man.

I cannot believe that the last time I saw him was in May when he came home to rescue me in the midst of a medical crisis with my spouse. Then almost as soon as he returned to Italy, he…
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Last Group Ride of the Season

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I finally had nice (enough) weather to lead a ride for my club on Sunday. I had planned to lead it Saturday before last, but got rained out. I rescheduled to the Monday holiday, but that ride also got rained out.

However, dry weather prevailed yesterday, albeit rather cool and windy. It didn’t get above 56F (13C), but that’s well within the range of a full-leather ride. So…
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Blasted, Deleted, and Unfriending

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On Friday evening before I left the house to drive to a sister’s for the regular Friday night family dinner, I posted an unusual-for-me mild rant on social media about how I would rather see photos of babies and puppies than read posts about a certain deadly viral disease (that will remain unnamed on this blog.)

Posts on social media about this disease range from educated and informed to fearful and panic-stricken — the latter mostly among the less educated and more politically conservative of my on-line social community. Some posts have been riddled with dead-wrong fear-mongered crap.

But what has been bothering me is the raging politically-motivated rants about it. Really, I just sick of it. I just want to hear about your kittens, family, and good things in your life. Not the flabbler-flub regurgitated from a certain cable news station that I refer to as “faux news.”

Anyway, while I was at my sister’s…
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