I'm still here

It's been awhile,
I've been very busy at home since finishing up with my job, but its about time I decided to update everyone on whats going on. This was my third week of not having a real job, The first week I spent trying to get my house and garage back in order. Lots of dishes, laundry, house and garage repairs etc. Week two was spent trying to get information and paperwork done for zoning, licensing, and all the governmental red tape I have to deal with. This past week was spent focusing on finding financing and actual business planning. I have high hopes after my weeks of work, none of it has been easy, but I guess nothing worth doing comes easy. I will say that even in this short amount of time our family has grown closer together. I've got more support from friends and family than I ever thought I would have, and I appreciate all the kind words and encouragement.

(insert political rant)
 I really hate the fact that the government feels compelled to rob me of the right to buy and sell cars, and then offer to sell me back those rights that should have been mine in the first place in return for a little cash and a test that makes me "legal" to do this. Lets not forget all the other stupid factors that come into play, like in order for me to sell cars for profit I have to have a dealers license, but in order for me to have that I have to have a building with office space and a 12x20 display....... what does an office and a display have to do with selling a car? Its this type of government overreach that stifles business and hurts the little people trying to get by, while at the same time helping the big business get bigger by weeding out any competition. Competition is what drives costs down and keeps businesses "lean" when the government makes it harder for new businesses to start up and compete not only is it bad for the consumer, but in my opinion its bad for the economy on the whole. I'll give an example using somewhat recent events, and someone that I find to be interesting.
Article

I can be pretty well assured that most people at face value will disagree with me on this, but If you put in some time reading about the man and actually listening to him, he is far less the criminal than the people that want to paint him as an enemy. He has done a perfect job of highlighting how governmental controls on a free market leave opportunity for someone with greed and power to take advantage of consumers that can't control their situation.. The patent for this drug was up in the 1950s.... that means anyone should be able to compete against his company to drive price back down.... oh wait...... the FDA regulates pharmaceuticals. It can take up to 5 years and millions of dollars for a drug to get FDA approval, in the meantime the company that has approval can charge whatever they want because there is no competition. If you consider the initial cost to develop, plus the risk involved in trying to get approval, why would any other drug manufacturer even waste the money to try for approval when another company already owns the market? Does this help the consumer? Absolutely not, why do you think drug prices are so high in the first place? The only reason people have recently become so in tune to the happenings of the drug companies, is because the health insurance has gotten so much worse. If the insurance pays for your drugs why would you care what they cost? This is a prime example of why the health care system is broken. Everyone wants to blame someone else for the extra costs because nobody has taken responsibility to say "hey why does my bill charge me $50 for gauze and alcohol wipes?"  Well I guess I've gone off on a bit of a tangent there. I wish people would look deeper into all of this crap with obamacare (ryancare) and realize the system is broken and deciding who has to eat the cost isn't going to change the root cause of the problem.

On to my next wonderful tangent. I found an old oil stove in my shed that I plan to heat my garage with....... there is something about the way things used to be built that just makes me happy. The stove was probably built around the 1940s to 1950s I'm pretty sure it was intended to run fuel oil. The fact that I could drag it out of the shed, vacuum years of mouse poop and junk out of it, tear it all apart and make it work again just amazes me. I feel like it was intended to last forever, when they were building it there was no study of materials or how can we cut costs.... I just picture someone saying "this is going to outlast the house we put it in" The best part is its gravity fed, requires no electricity and chances are I can retrofit it to burn waste oil...... best garage heater EVER!

Taking Pride in what you do

Playing on Facebook today and one of my friends posted a set of pictures along with a story. My friend drives tow truck and often posts things related to his job. This story is one of those in particular. I'll give a quick run down of what happened, so I can reference the story later.

Spring appears to be coming early and the ice is already melting, about a week ago on a certain lake in Wisconsin 2 trucks fell through the ice on the same lake, on the same day. One was relatively close to shore and one was quite a bit further onto the lake. The story was written by the son of the owner of one of the trucks. Apparently the tow company that pulled his dads truck out was very careless and didn't care about trying to keep it in good condition because "Its already totalled".  The other tow company that retrieved the other truck was very professional and knew what they were doing and managed to retrieve the truck with almost zero damage.

This brings me to my topic today, Taking pride in what you do. It doesn't matter what you do for work there is one thing that everyone should be able to do and that is take pride in their work. It doesn't matter if you build rockets for a living or sweep floors you should be trying to be the best damn rocket builder or floor sweeper there is. This story involved 2 tow drivers, one that took pride in his work, and one that was there for a paycheck. The aftermath is pretty obvious. Lets face the facts, work isn't fun.... if it was fun it wouldn't be called work, but the attitude you bring with you will directly affect what you and others will get out of it. Don't be like the asshat that was there for a paycheck, take pride in what you do, and work to be the best you can be. That is my challenge to you, take pride in your work.

I hope its a sign...

So lately I've been feeling like my career is headed in the wrong direction. The happy at work Ozzie seems to have died and been replaced with the "I hate my fucking job" Ozzie. After years of working to try to get somewhere I feel like I've become stagnant. The challenge is gone and so is the spark that keeps me happy. I'm only 29 years old, and the thought of feeling this way for another 30 years terrifies me. 

A month or so ago I began looking into a career change, I have a lot of interests and I have a love for learning that makes it relatively easy for me to take on new things.  As I was looking at all the different things I could be doing I realized that the one thing I love to do is finally at my fingertips. I'm going to start my own business, I am absolutely terrified, but at the same rate I feel confident in my abilities to do this. I've been trying to just ease my way into it while working at my current job, but trying to go to banks, or meet with people, or do pretty much during the work day is hard when you actually have a job. I've come to the conclusion that this is a leap of faith type of thing.... there is no easing into it, I have to jump.

So after talking it over with Anne this week we decided that I should put in my notice at my work, tonight when I came home I sat down at my computer to write it. I typically use open office to write on my computer but I don't have a desktop Icon so I just typed open in my search bar. What popped up was a document that I saved years ago and titled "Open on bad days" so I clicked it just for the sake of curiosity. This was the message that I left for my future self:

*not my words, probably copied from somewhere*

“If only…” These two words paired together create one of the saddest phrases in the English language.

Here are ten choices that ultimately lead to this phrase of regret, and how to elude them:

1.  Wearing a mask to impress others. – If the face you always show the world is a mask, someday there will be nothing beneath it.  Because when you spend too much time concentrating on everyone else’s perception of you, or who everyone else wants you to be, you eventually forget who you really are.  So don’t fear the judgments of others; you know in your heart who you are and what’s true to you.  You don’t have to be perfect to impress and inspire people.  Let them be impressed and inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.

2. Letting someone else create your dreams for you. – The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are; the second greatest is being happy with what you find.  A big part of this is your decision to stay true to your own goals and dreams.  Do you have people who disagree with you?  Good.  It means you’re standing your ground and walking your own path.  Sometimes you’ll do things considered crazy by others, but when you catch yourself excitedly losing track of time, that’s when you’ll know you’re doing the right thing.

3. Keeping negative company. – Don’t let someone who has a bad attitude give it to you.  Don’t let them get to you.  They can’t pull the trigger if you don’t hand them the gun.  When you remember that keeping the company of negative people is a choice, instead of an obligation, you free yourself to keep the company of compassion instead of anger, generosity instead of greed, and patience instead of anxiety.

4. Being selfish and egotistical. – A life filled with loving deeds and good character is the best tombstone.  Those who you inspired and shared your love with will remember how you made them feel long after your time has expired.  So carve your name on hearts, not stone.  What you have done for yourself alone dies with you; what you have done for others and the world remains.

5. Avoiding change and growth. – If you want to know your past look into your present conditions.  If you want to know your future look into your present actions.  You must let go of the old to make way for the new; the old way is gone, never to come back.  If you acknowledge this right now and take steps to address it, you will position yourself for lasting success.

6. Giving up when the going gets tough. – There are no failures, just results.  Even if things don’t unfold the way you had expected, don’t be disheartened or give up.  Learn what you can and move on.  The one who continues to advance one step at a time will win in the end.  Because the battle is always won far away and long before the final victory.  It’s a process that occurs with small steps, decisions, and actions that gradually build upon each other and eventually lead to that glorious moment of triumph.

7. Trying to micromanage every little thing. – Life should be touched, not strangled.  Sometimes you’ve got to relax and let life happen without incessant worry and micromanagement.  Learn to let go a little before you squeeze too tight.  Take a deep breath.  When the dust settles and you can once again see the forest for the trees, take the next step forward.  You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going to be headed somewhere great.  Everything in life is in perfect order whether you understand it yet or not.  It just takes some time to connect all the dots.

8. Settling for less than you deserve. – Be strong enough to let go and wise enough to wait for what you deserve.  Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you have ever been to stand up taller than you ever were before.  Sometimes your eyes need to be washed by your tears so you can see the possibilities in front of you with a clearer vision again.  Don’t settle.

9. Endlessly waiting until tomorrow. – The trouble is, you always think you have more time than you do.  But one day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to work on the things you’ve always wanted to do.  And at that point you either will have achieved the goals you set for yourself, or you will have a list of excuses for why you haven’t. 

10. Being lazy and wishy-washy. – The world doesn’t owe you anything, you owe the world something.  So stop daydreaming and start DOING.  Develop a backbone, not a wishbone.  Take full responsibility for your life – take control.  You are important and you are needed.  It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.  Someday is now; the somebody the world needs is YOU.

 I'm still terrified, I have a wife and 2 kids that depend on me, but its time to take a leap. To any of my friends that read this, your support and encouragement would be appreciated. Wish me luck as I open the next chapter in my life. 

Don't forget where you came from

Its going to be another night of me ranting on my blog, but lately I've just been really frustrated by people that seem to have forgotten what it was like to be the little guy. Just because you've gone places in life doesn't mean you should change who you are or the way you treat people. I have no problem with a person being proud of their accomplishment, but don't forget where you started. I feel like lately I have been seeing people that have become successful start to act like somehow they are better than everyone else, or act like they got there without any help from anyone. I'm not discounting peoples hard work, but I don't know anyone that got there all by themselves. Everyone has had influence in their life, whether its from their parents or their heroes or someone else they looked up to. Everyone has had to learn from someone else to get to where they are. We all go through struggles, but the vast majority of the time there are people to help us along the way.

I'm writing this as a reminder don't let success change the way you are. Don't forget all the people that helped you along the way. Stay humble, because you may not always be on top. Success can come and go, but your character is a legacy that will follow you even after you're dead.

Valentines Day..... worthless

Its that day again, February 14th...... Valentines day. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't do holidays, they just aren't my thing, but this one annoys me more than most. Anyone that knows me knows how I feel about my wife so you would think I would love a day dedicated to showing her how much she means to me and making her happy. Not to mention the fun stuff guys get on Valentines day. I planned on writing more about my anti-Valentines day stance, but I want to just try to explain my feelings from a different angle rather than a critical one.

I want to start by saying one day a year is not enough to let someone know you love them, I'm sorry, but if you think one day of flowers and candy is enough to make your significant other burn with passion you are mistaken. Its a good excuse to step up your game one day a year, but real love takes work, and that work needs to happen often. The other thing about real love is it doesn't cost anything, all the money in the world can't buy someones heart. Like most holidays this day and age it has become another excuse to run to the store and spend hard earned money on throw away stuff with the intent to impress someone...... This is purely opinion on my part, but why in the world would I want to spend time away from my family working to make money, that I'm going to throw away on meaningless trinkets in an attempt to make someone happy. Instead I could spend less time working and more time with the ones I love without the distraction of the useless trinkets. I win, my kids win, and my wife wins, and I have less stress and more time.

Call me old fashioned, but I don't need one day a year to remind the one I love how much she means to me. Anne Rose Carothers, you are the love of my life and my world, I'm going to spend the rest of my life showing you that every chance I get, and I don't need a stupid commercialized holiday to prove it. I encourage anyone reading this to take my advice, Its not about the stuff, the teddy bears, the chocolate, the roses, the one fancy date a year, its about how you interact with people that makes the difference. Show the one you love that you care every day, not by spending money, but by spending time, communicate, cuddle, kiss them good morning and kiss them goodnight. It means more than Valentines day ever could.

Participation Trophies

Lately my mom has been babysitting the kids on occasion so Anne and I can act like adults. She enjoys playing with the kids and they love going to see their grandma. The last time they went to visit she decided to break out the old game of checkers that we used to play when we were kids, and teach Griffon how to play. She was nice enough to send him home with it and he came home bragging about how good he was at checkers and begging me to play with him. I don't fault my mom for going easy on him...... that's what grandmas do. Unfortunately for my son I have a different outlook on life (or I'm just a colossal asshole) I don't believe in giving something that isn't earned. Our first game of checkers was an all out beatdown, our second game was a little better, but still really ugly. Here's the thing though, my son didn't give up, and in a very short amount of time he's gotten a heck of a lot better at playing checkers. He still hasn't got a win, but he has improved more than I would have expected in the short amount of time we've played. My son doesn't hate me, my son isn't crushed, I'm sure he isn't going to cry in his room and slit his wrists because I whipped his ass in checkers, but what he is doing is learning a valuable life lesson. He is learning that you have to earn a win, with practice, hard work, and persistence, and when he finally gets a win he is going to get all the pride that comes with knowing he's earned it.

Maybe I'm just a jerk, maybe I'm heartless and someday my son will grow up to hate me. That's the thing about being a parent, its pass or fail, and you only get one chance not to screw it up. I know that its my responsibility to my son, my daughter, and the rest of the world to raise my children to be good hard working adults, and that is what I intend to do. I'm not in the business of being my sons best friend, I'm in the business of being a father, and that is the main reason why this house doesn't believe in participation trophies.

It Runs!!!

Its been over a week not that my beloved Land Rover has been broken down in my garage. I've been messing with this and that and everything under the sun to figure out why it hasn't been running. A few weeks ago on my way to work it randomly died while going down the road and I had to tow it home. What I knew was that the fuel pump wouldn't run, if I manually powered up the fuel pump it would start and run. So after testing, testing, and testing some more I came to the conclusion that the ECU wasn't sending a signal to the fuel pump relay to turn it on. I assumed a bad ECU so I ordered a different one off car-part.com when it got here I swapped it out and guess what..... still wouldn't run. By this point I'm at my wits end with this thing, but after a bunch of reading on the internet I find out that the ECU has to also match the computer that controls the alarm. I finally broke down and asked for help on the Land Rover Trading Wall on facebook. Seeing the answers to my post was just about as frustrating as the fact that my truck was broke down. I asked the group if there was a do it yourself way to reprogram my computer so that I didn't have to pay a Land Rover dealership more than my truck was worth just to fix it. Most of the answers I got were "you bought a Land Rover, get ready to pay" or "I'll sell you both computers for $$$"

And then..... A Miracle!

I got a message today from a guy saying he could help me fix my Land Rover. He told me as long as I didn't mind losing my alarm he knew how to bypass the second computer that was keeping my truck from starting. HELL YES! He sent me his number and told me to call him when I get home and he would step me through it. So I call him and he tells me "Usually I don't offer to help people, but us Land Rover guys have to stick together, besides I didn't want to see you part one out just for something stupid like this"  Sure enough within 5 minutes he had me cut and splice 2 wires, turn the key with the new computer and....... still wont start. He said, why don't you try the old computer just in case, I plugged it in and sure enough it took right off. Apparently it was my alarm computer that went bad. He told me what it does is cut the fuel pump signal to the main ECU to disable the truck from running.  All I know is I'm happy as can be!

The story here isn't all that interesting, but what I find interesting is meeting someone that feels the same way as I do about my Land Rover. We talked on the phone like we had known each other forever because we had this one thing in common. Its not so much a Land Rover thing, as it is a British car thing, Its something that most people will never understand because you really have to have a few screws loose to enjoy it. When you get in a British car, a piece of it gets into you. They may not be the best, the fastest, and sure as hell aren't the most reliable, but what each and every one of them has is its own personality, a character that forms a bond with its owner. That's why I couldn't let the Disco die, and that's exactly why he felt the moral obligation to help me to save it.

unreasonable expectations

I'm going on a rant tonight!

I'm pretty used to having to defend my strange life choices at work, anything from my religion to what I drive gets criticized because I have a tendency not to follow what happens to be classified as "normal". So as I'm defending my choice to like old Polaris ATV's in the lunch room today one of the guys tells me "they are a piece of shit!" to which I responded "That's funny I've ridden one for 15 years and its been basically trouble free". Then he tells me I don't use it hard enough to break it, to which I respond "I've pulled with it so hard in low range the front tires were off the ground, how much harder can I use it?" He told me if I had big tires on it and 5 or 6 people dragging deer out of the woods it would never survive........ hence the title of this blog.

If there were a present day incarnation of a neanderthal it would be my boss. He thinks unless it's got a Cummins it can't be considered a truck and anything he doesn't own is a piece of shit..... I wonder who was giving me grief about liking Polaris..... yea that's right, the knuckle dragger that owns a Honda.

Now this is just my opinion, but I believe in the right tool for the job. You can carry a Swiss Army knife that does lots of things half assed, or you can carry a bunch of individual tools that all do their job well. Two different options, but both can be right. If I judged my Porsche by how well it pulled a cattle trailer, I would swear I bought a piece of shit just like if my boss judged his diesel by how well it ran an autocross track. Does that make either of our respective vehicles a piece of junk? The answer is NO absolutely not, they are built for 2 very different tasks. When a company is designing something they have to define its purpose before they can start to build anything. Back to my example of the four wheeler, what size tires did it come with? how many seats does it have?...... If you have decided to IGNORE what the manufacturer built it to do, how can you be justified in calling it a pile of junk if it breaks? If the manufacturer wanted it to have big tires and carry six people they obviously would have built the components differently. So what you're really saying is, my four wheeler isn't OVERBUILT enough for your liking.

Some people would argue that there is nothing wrong with building an assembly stronger than it needs to be, but I would have to disagree. Although I'm not 100% against it, I can think of plenty of drawbacks to overbuilding an assembly. Cost would be the first drawback, extra material adds extra cost, if its not necessary for the purpose it is intended to serve, you have added unnecessary cost to an assembly. Weight, just like cost, extra material means extra weight, this can effect performance and overall efficiency. The other two potential drawbacks I can think of are spatial constraints and added complexity.

So back to the 4 wheelers as an example, My Polaris may not have been overbuilt, and I can't say for sure what would happen if I put big tires on it and 6 people. What I can say is that stock for stock it will whip a Foreman's ass in a drag race or a top speed run and it will be a lot more comfortable ride while doing so.

Moral of the story: My shit does what I want it to do, your shit does what you want it to do, that doesn't make either of them a piece of shit. If you want something overbuilt expect to pay a premium and have the drawbacks that come with it.

Its been awhile

I've been a bad blogger this week. My intent is to blog monday through friday with something mildly interesting every day and maybe one day of something hard hitting and in depth. This week I have been sick, I know thats a piss poor excuse but allow me to explain.....

It all started with some Salisbury steak. When I was a kid it was my favorite food in the world, mom would microwave a family pack of them and I would absolutely destroy them. So last week when we were grocery shopping I said "hey, I want Salisbury steak, that sounds soo good". Tuesday we were feeling lazy so I had Anne microwave them up for us, Griff wouldn't eat it, Addison was scared to look at it, and Anne said no way in hell will is that going in her mouth. So I ate it all (insert evil laughter) and later that night I wanted to die! I'm not sure how someone can get that sick from food, but I did..... and it lasted for three..... flipping..... days :( That is why I havn't really blogged this week. but I do have a lot to say still.

Update on my life.... kids are happy wife is happy, overall I would say life is good. I'm very seriously contemplating a career change, or at least a job change. I'm having issues with some new changes at work that aren't really in harmony with my beliefs. I feel like if I continue working there I am jeopardizing my principles in return for job security and I'm just not sure I can do that anymore. I can't stand for one set of beliefs while living another set at work. (feel free to comment on this one the advice is appreciated) The remodeling is finally done on the house, I most certainly will NEVER go down that path again, I feel like although my house is prettier (and now up to code) that it is far worse than it was to begin with and I have added nearly 50% to the overall cost of my house. Shame on me for ever thinking that was a decent idea.

Hopefully I'll be ready for some more good blogging on monday, have a nice weekend.

Passion

I was at work today and doing a really long run on the lathe. I enjoy long runs because it gives me a chance to take a little brain vacation and drift off into my thoughts. Today I found myself thinking about the part in "Atlas Shrugged" when Dagney is remembering her coming out party and how terrible it felt. How all the people seemed fake, they were all smiling and going through the motions, but they were not celebrating out of joy, but rather because that's what they were taught to do. The book goes on to explain that most of the formal gatherings and balls held to celebrate accomplishments felt the same way to her. What all these people were missing from their lives was passion.

Passion can take on many different forms, but the biggest thing it does is gives your life value, without it we are just left to aimlessly wander trying to figure out what we are here for. Passion gives us a reason to act, it gives us a reason to feel, it gives us a reason for all the things we do and the best part is we aren't limited to just one singular passion in life. Think about yourself, what is it that you take pride in above all else? What is your passion? For me personally it would be my cars, they are something I can get completely lost in, they can turn a bad day into a good day for me. An hour playing in my garage with the music on is enough to melt all my stress away and make me feel like my life has purpose again. Recently I've found myself getting very passionate over the economy and politics, which has been the reason for me to start this blog in the first place.

So lets get back to my example of Dagney, she was the vice president of the largest railroad company in the U.S. and the person in charge of "getting shit done". She was a person of action that found her passion in her work. Unfortunately she was surrounded by people that got to where they were in life without working for it, these people didn't know passion because they have never had to actually do anything. They all came from money so they never had to find their passion in life. That is why they seemed robotic and fake when they should have been celebrating. Its hard to celebrate accomplishment when you have no idea what it feels like to accomplish something.

So my challenge to anyone reading this, get out there and find your passion, and nurture it into something great!

What happened?!

My son got in trouble at school today, that's not a terribly uncommon occurrence for him, but today it was different. He got in trouble while on recess for playing army man with his friend and using his fingers as a gun. He actually got set down and talked to about not being able to do that, and then got put on the bench and made to write "no guns in School" until the end of recess. Usually I'm not the kind of parent to get upset about my child being disciplined, but in this case I find it absolutely ludicrous. Since when is it not alright for a 6 year old to use his imagination on the playground pretending to be an army man? It probably comes from the fact that I've been playing Battlefield 1 on the Xbox recently and Griffon loves to watch it, but regardless of the reasoning behind his recent fascination with being an "army man" I still find this to be crazy.

I titled this post what happened because I want to know what happened to us as a society. When did we as Americans decide to become cry babies about everything. Why is it now more socially acceptable to be scared of everything than it is to pretend you are a tough guy on a playground. Part of this is me venting about the current state of events and part of it comes from the things I read on facebook and see online. I'm tired of being politically correct just for the sake of not upsetting some delicate snowflake. Its time that we stop coddling children and start raising young adults. Its time we stop coddling college age students and start to tell them the hard facts of life, you have to get a job and make something of yourself. We will not continue to grow as a society if we don't hold our younger generations to a higher standard. I'm not saying that we need to throw our children in labor camps or beat them into submission, but stifling their imagination because it doesn't agree with a particular social agenda isn't going to help them to grow, in fact it will do the exact opposite. Now my son will think twice before he pretends to do something on recess for fear of getting in trouble, and I find that troubling. We need to allow children to play, that is how they learn to manage themseves, I often times have to force myself not to say something to my son when I know he is going to do something stupid. Stopping him from making mistakes keeps him from learning the valuable lessons that come from it. Unless a child is actually in physical danger, or harming another child I really don't see why another adult should feel the need to step in and tell them how they have to behave while playing. They are learning social skills from each other, they are learning how to interact with one another. In a classroom setting I could see it as justified if a kid is being rambunctious to set them down and tell them that they need to behave, but telling a kid how to play or not to play on a playground when nobody is in danger is absurd. Let kids be kids, and keep your personal opinions out of doing your job as a teacher.

I would like to say this rant is over, but I'm sure I could go on and on. I'll leave it at this tonight because I'm frustrated and nothing I write beyond this will be without emotion.

Inaugaration Day

I hate the government, almost anyone that knows me will openly admit that (I'm sure the NSA could confirm). I'm also fairly open about not liking Donald Trump (although I dislike him less than I dislike Hillary Clinton). That doesn't mean for a second that I can or will support the idiocy that is going on in Washington and around the country today.

There is a difference between a protest and a riot. Protests are a meaningful and sometimes effective way to redress your government. Rosa Parks was protesting when she refused to move to the back of the bus, MLK led many peaceful protests that didn't involve destroying property, even Ghandi protested peacefully. Riots are not an act of protest, they are an act of violence and are a crime, setting cars on fire and breaking store windows are not a protest! Acts of vandalism undermine the message you are trying to deliver, if you want to be heard (which is usually the reason for a protest) you shouldn't be making enemies out of the people whose attention you want. The whole point of a protest is to bring your grievances to a wider audience to GAIN support for your message. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't see how setting a car on fire is a big winner of political support, especially from a set of people that are supposedly priding themselves in being "tolerant".  Is it just me or do SJW's only believe in tolerance to people that aren't straight white men? Trump hasn't even been president for 12 hours yet and for some reason they seem to think the antichrist has come to rule the world.

This brings me to the other point of this post and I want to stress this to people on both sides of the party lines. Something I want people to realize while their political party is in power. Government NEVER willfully returns power, it only grows bigger, and only when we the citizens ALLOW it, either by our choices or our ignorance. After 9-11 who was it begging for Bush to "do something".... it was the citizens, and what did we get? The patriot act, NSA, TSA, and tons of other freedom sucking agencies. We were duped into giving the government more power in return for "our safety" we are no safer today, but the government has grown exponentially. Allowing Obama to abuse executive orders and go above and beyond his constitutional power unchecked has also grown government power (its not just the R's in this case). The point I'm trying to make here is whatever power you grant "your president" will eventually make it to "not my president" so before you cheer and pony up as much power as you can to president "fill in the blank" remember that that EXACT SAME POWER will be turned on you in 4-8 years. The only reason people are as scared of Trump as they are, is because they have allowed the presidential power to grow unchecked for so long that he is now treated more as  dictator than as a part of the republic. We have watched presidents skip over congressional approval to push whatever agenda they want without any concern for the power granted to them.

I won't deny that Trump is an idiot, but that idiot wants to keep the peace in the rest of the world, he wants to have diplomacy with Russia, he wants to free up trade, and he wants to try to keep jobs in the US. How can we as a nation be against that? Rather than protest like a bunch of cry babies, maybe its time to put on the big boy pants and accept that he is the next president. Deal with him for the next 4 years because you are not changing it, and if you keep acting like a bunch of pissed off savages you'll end up with him for another 8 years.

Capitalism vs Crony Capitalism

So its feeling like a political rant kind of day. Capitalism! I love it, and you should too. But wait.... that's not what I hear on social media, capitalism is to blame for the 1% capitalism is to blame for income inequality, its what caused the housing bubble, those greedy capitalists getting rich on the backs of poor people! Lets examine this a little further and debunk some of these myths. I'll be posting a lot of links in this one, so please take some time to check them out.


I want to start by saying we don't have capitalism here in America. We have something that resembles it, but most certainly IS NOT CAPITALISM.


Definition of capitalism

1. :  an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

I will concede that here in America we do have private ownership as well as government ownership, but when it comes to prices, production, and distribution based on free market principles we go all wrong. Any time government is used to promote or hinder a business you are no longer allowing the free market to work and capitalism is not allowed to function properly. Any time the government subsidizes a business because it isn't able to succeed it is propping up a failure and not allowing the free market to maintain balance. The whole point of a free market system is to allow supply and demand to determine which businesses are successful and which fail.

So what do we have than? Crony Capitalism, a system that closely resembles capitalism, aside from the fact that it uses the government to manipulate the markets with its power. When you hear people talk about getting the money out of Washington this is what they are usually referring to. Lobbyists from big corporations meet with government officials and offer "compensation" in return for "favors" this is how we end up with laws that make no sense and feel like they aren't in our best interest. This is where money decides the winners and the losers with the help of government overreach. There are plenty of examples of this if you want to look for some, but one that comes to mind for me was a couple years ago when all the major car manufacturers were throwing a fit about Tesla selling direct to consumer. This eliminated a lot of cost for them and made them more competitive (a free market solution to a problem) Rather than the manufacturers finding a better way to compete they went to the government to promote laws against such a thing. (Crony Capitalist approach) This is an example of "protectionism" also check out Bastiat's "The Candlemakers Petition" for a satirical example of protectionism.

Rather than try to explain the housing bubble in my blog and why capitalism isn't to blame I'll just link you to someone with a lot more knowledge than I to tell you why that is a load of garbage.

http://tomwoods.com/ep-561-capitalism-not-guilty-of-creating-the-housing-bubble/


And with that I'll end this rant. The next time you hear someone blame capitalism for problems look deeper than the surface to see if capitalism is really the problem, I would put my hard earned dollar on something else as the root cause and capitalism getting the blame.

The blessings of driving junk

So, I broke down on the way to work this morning. Most people would have found this to be a terrible thing and let it ruin their day, but lucky for me I'm not most people. The topic of this blog isn't to complain about when things go wrong, or to say that they are a good thing, but more so to show that the attitude you take when bad things happen can dramatically change the way you look at misfortune. I also want to highlight the fact that you don't always have to be rich to get yourself out of a bad situation, but you have to be willing to take responsibility and overcome whatever obstacle is placed in front of you.

I'll be the first to admit I'm no good at being a motivational speaker, and I'll also admit that I don't know everything, What I can say with a certainty, is that I'm a professional at having shit go wrong and not letting it ruin my day. Chimney is on fire, car is in the ditch, outbuilding just collapsed..... just one more thing to add to my "to deal with" list. I have my dad to thank for a lot of my attitude in this regard, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but he is another one that just takes whatever life can dish out and deals with it (although he usually curses and yells more). If there is one thing he has taught me it is to learn to fix stuff yourself, don't rely on someone else to take care of your well being because at the end of the day its your job to look out for yourself.

Lets have an example: When my hot water heater stops working what do I do?
 A. Call someone and spend money I don't have to fix it
B. Google how the hell a hot water heater works and figure out whats wrong.

 Yea I'll choose B any day of the week. Thank goodness for the internet otherwise I would have to learn everything the hard way. The point is if you decided to call someone what do you gain? absolutely nothing, you spend money to get back to where you started..... having hot water. If you decided to fix it yourself what do you gain? You gain the knowledge of how something works and how to fix it, you may have to spend money on parts, but you end up much further ahead because you have grown your human capital.

Don't be afraid to fail! life is full of failure, but every time you fail you are blessed with the knowledge of what not to do. You fail at 100% of the things you never try. I'm very proud of the successes I've had over the years in fixing things either in my house or on my cars, but I've had plenty of failures along the way.... If I had just given up when that happened where would I be today?

 I like to challenge people, so I want to take this opportunity to challenge you. Next time you feel like everything is going wrong, check your attitude and make the best out of the situation. Instead of getting a case of the poor me's realize that this is a chance for you to grow as a person. Make the best of everything you are given, even when what you're given seems like the short end of the stick. Now I have to go fix a Land Rover in the snow.

politics!

So today will be my first day ranting about politics on my blog, I hope I still have friends when this is all over. To start I would like to give a quick look into my political beliefs, what they are, where they came from, and where I plan to take them from here. As we already talked about earlier I started life as a pretty hard core Republican, but never really fit in because I lean too far left for most conservatives. It wasn't until Ron Paul ran in 2008 that I even knew what a Libertarian was, but I realized that I fit in very well with most of them, when it came to the economy they were quite conservative, but when it came to social matters they believed in freedom to make your own choices. I actually became interested in politics when I realized it wasn't just left vs right, or R vs D. The next big stepping stone for me was reading Atlas Shrugged, Never before had my feelings been summed up so well in words, I won't claim to agree with Ayn Rand on everything, but this book really woke me up to a lot of my feelings about the world. I realized that what I held for beliefs weren't deplorable like people made them out to be, but rather just in a world full of injustice. Reading Rand and investigating who she was as a person and where she came from really lit a fire in me for more knowledge, so I began soaking up anything I could find that had to do with libertarianism, or capitalism. It was around this time that Ron Paul was releasing his homeschool curriculum and I was very interested in homeschooling our children. One of his collaborators was a man named Tom Woods and he was supposed to be some sort of history teacher. I decided to look him up and see if he was worth listening to. Mind = Blown this guy is an intellectual heavyweight. I've been listening to his daily podcast ever since, which has turned me on to economics like I never would have imagined. After years of listening to The Tom Woods Show, I've been turned onto a couple other great podcasters with varying backgrounds Brion Mcclanahan and Jason Stapleton. Between the three of them they school me on eonomics, history, and current events on a daily/weekly basis, and also have given me the confidence and motivation to start my own blog (and hopefully podcast). I would say that is my quickie biography in how I got to where I am today.

Now that everyone knows where I'm coming from I wanted to make todays political rant about labels and how stupid they are. I'm so tired of people labeling EVERYTHING! Republican vs Democrat, Black vs White, Rich vs Poor are you that small minded that you would base someones merit on a label? What degree of ignorance does it take to judge someone you know nothing about based on a quality they may not even be able to control. The way I see it we should all be judged as an individual based on our WORKS not on our WORDS. Anyone can say nice things, or have good intentions, but if they never make a stride towards actually doing the right things they are no closer to being righteous than the person that has done nothing. Judging people based on their works gets rid of all the meaningless labels and compels us to work together rather than against each other. When people work towards something they feel is right they don't care who is helping them black, and white, rich and poor, and other labels melt away as people work towards a common good.  I want this attitude to transfer over to political things, stop clinging to whether or not someone shares your label and find out if they share your views. I would be happy to work with a freedom loving democrat as much as a freedom loving republican as long as the end goal was more freedom and less government. We don't have to agree on everything, but when we find something we do agree on, lets work as a team, throw away our pride, and work together to achieve a better world. This is a call to action, and that action needs to start with communication. Unless you are willing to have meaningful discussion with people of other views you will NEVER know what they agree with you on. If you dismiss someone in their entirety just because you disagree with them on one subject you have lost a potential ally on another subject. Don't be afraid to talk to people, get educated on the topics that mean the most to you and share your feelings or ideas, but be willing to listen "respectfully" to other peoples ideas. Don't be afraid to challenge your own ideas or let other people challenge them, if someone finds holes in your beliefs be willing to admit its flaws and try to fix them, or be willling to admit you may be wrong. There is nothing wrong with changing your beliefs when you realize you may be wrong, its much worse (in my opinion) to hang onto a bad idea just to protect your pride in admitting you are wrong.

Now that everyone knows where I stand. Feel free to let me know what you believe in, and lets work together to change hearts and minds for the better.

Horsepower wars

I got on facebook when I got home today and came across an interesting news story, The Dodge "Demon" Challenger. As of right now its just a teaser and doesn't have much for context, but one would assume that they have found a way to make even more power out of a Hellcat. Dodge isn't the only one stepping up their horsepower game, a ZL1 Camaro is making 650hp in stock form with just shy of 200mph top speed. Even the low horsepower Mustang GT350 is making over 500hp out of its new normally aspirated, flat plane crank V8.  With all this hype over horsepower you have to wonder when will it finally be enough? I feel like at this point the power figures are nothing more than a big dick contest for people with more money than brains. I feel like if I'm honest in my beliefs and tell people "hey 700+ hp in a daily driven street car is a little excessive" that they will want to strip me of my man card. What I want people to realize is that this car is street legal and can be bought by anyone with enough money to purchase it...... think about some of the bad drivers you know and picture them driving down a public road in a 700 hp rear wheel drive death machine. Picture your 60 year old dad buying one to re-live his glory years with his current hand-eye coordination and reflexes.

I want to push rewind a little bit and direct your attention to a different "lesser known" period of horsepower wars, Group B Rally cars. Group B was a set of regulation used to classify rally cars in the early 1980's, it was very short lived (only 4 years) but in that span of time influenced the building of some of the most legendary rally cars the world has ever seen. It pushed man and machine to the very limit of human capability and was eventually ended for safety reasons. (seriously if you don't know about the killer B's you have to check them out)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B
https://youtu.be/tRtyT9WQzdY


 Don't mis-understand me though, I'm not against the idea of horsepower wars, I actually think its great. Its driving manufacturers to build more power and push technology to levels that we have never seen before. All the technology that is used in making these low production "niche" cars eventually trickles down into the average production car. Its a fine example of the free market showing the car makers what it wants and the car makers actually listening to consumers. Its a great time to be a car enthusiast, and I'm glad I get to witness it in all its glory. Its a whole lot better to get to live through it than to just hear our grandfathers talk about it.  Let the modern day horsepower wars begin!

Automotive technology, A blessing and a curse

Anyone that has ever picked up a car magazine has read about how awesome new cars are, but has anyone ever stopped to ask why? What do new cars have that old cars lack? Are they truly better, or is it just really good marketing? With anything in the free market, the answer to that depends on the mindset of the consumer, but lets explore this topic a little closer.

If we were to use technology as the basis for how good a car is, than today's modern cars are better than they have ever been. They have anti-lock brakes, stability control, ipod connectivity, on star, the list goes on and on. I'm not going to say that I don't love the heated steering wheel in my Range Rover, or the self leveling air suspension, or the heated and ventilated seats, but how many gadgets do we really need?

 I personally like my daily driver to be plush and comfortable, and with that I am willing to give up reliability and gas mileage (yes all these gadgets add weight and complexity) I enjoy the security of all wheel drive in the Wisconsin winters (more gas mileage lost, more expensive to maintain) What I'm trying to say here is technology is great but it comes at a price, quite literally. What if you just want basic transportation? Short answer, "too damn bad"  because your Uncle Sam cares about your well being so much, he has mandated that car manufacturers protect you with a lot of this technology. That tire pressure light that annoys the hell out of you every time it gets cold is just one example of the government mandating what has to be in a new car. (I'll save this rant for another post)

What has technology done for us? I'm 29 years old, and if it weren't for my love of classic cars there is a good chance that I would have never experienced the joy of starting a carburated car in a Wisconsin winter. Modern EFI has made starting and maintaining a car so much easier. They start as good on a 100 degree day as they do in -10 they even compensate for elevation changes so they run good all the time.  Anti-Lock brakes and stability control have made cars much safer for the ordinary driver. Most of this sounds all well and good, but there is another factor that the majority of the population doesn't understand, and this is the other side of the coin when it comes to technology. Sometimes you just want the mechanical, unfiltered feeling of man and machine. Its a feeling that can never be replaced by electronics, it can't be simulated and there is no way for technology to ever replace it. Its the feeling of the mechanical linkage in a manual transmission, the feeling when the 4 barrels open, the feeling of your foot actually being connected to the engine. With all the technology today trying to get rid of noise vibration and harshness, its nice once in awhile to remember what a car used to be.

You ever wonder why we're here?

Its one of life's great mysteries isn't it?

 If you caught that RvB reference then you've come to the right blog. If it went over your head..... well don't worry I'm full of randomness and something will come up that you understand.  I'm Ozzie and starting this year I'm going to be doing a little bit of self reflection and working on increasing my human capital, that's why I'm here. When choosing a name for this blog I tossed around ideas about liberty, cars, and my life, but didn't want to be stuck to one topic of another. I'm scatter brained and it won't take long for you to realize that keeping me stuck on one topic or another would be a waste of all that awesomeness that is rolling around in my head. I want to toss out a heads up in this first post and warn everyone that my opinions can be offensive, and I won't apologize for the way my opinions make you feel. I will be respectful of differing opinions, and I encourage friendly debate in the comments whether you agree with me or not. This blog is intended to be an outlet for me and my thoughts.

So what will I be talking about? Well I have a lot of interests that may come up at any given time. Primarily this will revolve around politics, the economy, and vehicles. From a political standpoint I was raised as a Republican, but most of my friends leaned left. Fresh out of high school I was your standard war hawkish neo-con that harbored no love for liberals, I was a flag worshiping statist, yes, it hurts to admit that. We will talk more about my conversion to a free thinker in another post. When it comes to cars I was raised around American muscle, normally aspirated v8 power spinning the rear wheels was the only thing that deserved to be called a car. I guess this was another mis-calculation on my part, because in my adult life I've come to realize the benefits and drawbacks of all different types of cars. I've also come to realize that when you learn to appreciate all the different types life gets a lot more fun. Economics is my newest fascination, I'm still very new to it, but I'm soaking it up like a sponge, and loving every minute of it.

I hope you enjoy what I have to say. I won't claim to be an English professor so spelling and grammatical errors may happen, but I'll do my best not to sound like the crazy backwoods redneck I am.