My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 2, 2015

It was a busy weekend as our family was in town to celebrate my nephew David and Rachel’s wedding just south of Cincinnati in Lakeside Park, Kentucky. The beautiful ceremony was held under a tent in the backyard of their home with close friends and family. Everything was artistic and couldn’t have been nicer.

One of the pluses to the happy times like weddings, is that we’re able to see most of our busy family. Katelyn and Taylor were with us (unfortunately Drew was on call and working in Minneapolis) and most of the cousins on Brenda’s side were able to be there as well. They all really enjoy being together and remember fondly the many times together growing up in a close family. What a great weekend.

Rich, Brenda, Katelyn and Taylor (May 31, 2015)

Category: Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, family, katelyn, richc, skinner, taylor, wedding

Posted By RichC on June 1, 2015

With summertime around the corner, it is time to update on what has almost become an annual boat shoe post (Post 1, 2, 3).  Seasons aside, there really isn’t a time that isn’t right for Sperry Topsiders … in my opinion … but wearing a T-shirt, a pair of shorts and having warm weather makes wearing them an easy choice. They slip on fast, cover the toes, keep your heels in place and even keep your feet dry when walking in the morning dew … especially when they are waxed. Since most leather boat shoe wearers go sockless, a little attention to drying shoes, sweat and foot odor, insoles and leather care can help your shoe last longer and go the distance.

Five tips for your leather boat shoes

1. Clean your shoes with a soft brush to remove dirty and dust and keep them dry
2. Rub the leather with some “light” shoe polish or beeswax waterproofing
3. Consider resoling if the uppers are still in good shape … few shoes are as comfortable as the ones you’ve already broken in with your own foot.
4. Re-lace with new leather… easy to do. (I even wax or add a little polish before installing them –  polished the white ones above when they were dirty)
5. The best for last: Add new/better insoles – my preferred brand is Sof Sole 

Category: Advice, Photos, Sailing, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: boat, boatshoe, boatshoes, insert, shoes, sofsole, sperry, topsider, topsiders

Posted By RichC on May 31, 2015

If you’ve been watching the “easy money” policies from central banks around the world (following the U.S. Fed’s lead), you may being wondering just how much money can be infused by government without suffering an economic calamity?

So far, those investors “borrowing” at low interest rates in order to participate heavily in the stock market have looked pretty smart. Their decision to leverage assets after the recession have been paying off handsomely. For those with something to leverage (those in the upper income brackets), “happy days are here again.”  Who earning double-digit returns wants this party to end? Those doing well are hesitant to call a top for this bull market  … but it would be wise to pay attention to history … I’m just sayin’. A quick look at “normal” market runs might take note of what can’t happen after a long fast climb (late 1990s and past 6 years are the two charts above followed by the 1922 – 1932 “story chart” to the left).

After World War I the manufacturing industry in the United States was on a roll. The 1920s was “roaring.” Investors couldn’t lose as a speculation bubble grew and every invested dollar grew. Over 500 manufacturing and trading companies in 1926 saw their net profits increase over 35%. A the 9 years of prosperity unknowingly neared an end, the stock market had increased ten-fold and in its final summer (1929) the Dow Jones gained more than 20%. President Herbert Hoover declared that “we in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” His campaign slogan in 1928 famously boasted “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” People poured their savings into the market and even borrowed to invest. Before Black Tuesday, the Wall Street Crash of October of 1929, two out of every five dollars a bank loaned were used to purchase stocks ($8.5 Billion was on loan … more than the entire amount of U.S. currency in circulation at that time).

Why is this of concern? Well because 1929 wasn’t the only crash or “market correction.” Not ever downturn was uncontrolled and economists may have a few more tools in order to soften the blow (image right – a reminder that percentage wise 1929 was not a lone happening). Just when people start to think like Herbert Hoover (above) a surprise trigger starts the dominos toppling. It’s always painful for those who have their life saving and have leveraged assets to be heavily invested. Has the top been called? Only history will tell. One thing I do know is that America is living on borrowed money. We owe nearly $19 Trillion and have unfunded entitlement programs that will soon be needing even more money. Medicare, Social Security, Government Pensions and Obamacare are all being promised. Are any of them really solvent in an era of slow economic growth, underemployment and increased world economic competition?

As the Scout Motto states, “Be Prepared.”

Category: Financial, History | No Comments »
Tags: bear, bull, charts, crash, djia, graph, investing, markets

Posted By RichC on May 30, 2015

My good friend Mark replaced his old Racor 500FG fuel filter on his boat last year with one of the newer versions with a heat shield around the bowl (although Mark and Dar recently sold Zola).

 

From what I can tell the heat shield” was about the only change Parker Hannnifin has made to this 40 year “tried and true” diesel filter and water separator. There is a similar filter on Encore and I recently bought the $30 rebuilt o-ring and gasket kit during my long drawn out winter/spring engine work. Whew!

Mark wasn’t planning to keep his old filter so he gave it me to haul back home on the plane (the TSA loves luggage with these kinds of things in them – #sarcasm) As filters go, this one was pretty grungy. The “bowl” was blackened enough that it was difficult to see if there was fuel … and there was a significant amount of rust and corrosion to the housing and bracket.

I bought another gasket kit and started in on the clean up. Amazing difference. The old bowl cleaned up with a little soaking and I used the sanding disk on my air grinder to clean up the rust and corrosion. A little painters tape and a can of Rust-oleum paint and I’m thinking it might be too good to sit in my “spares” locker! Thanks Mark.

Category: Diesel, Friends, Misc, Sailing | 2 Comments »
Tags: encore, filter, fuel, parts, racor, repair, sailboat, spare

Posted By RichC on May 29, 2015

As some point in business, we need to know when it is time to throw in the towel. I’m not talking about going out of business, selling or retiring just yet, BUT “giving up” on competing when it comes to data storage. In my personal life, I’ve been using cloud based storage for years… be it Dropbox, Google Drive, Cubby, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud or others. Business wise, we’ve maintained our own servers and controlled storage and backup of data, be it customer archives, websites or our own business files. This past year we’ve slowly been archiving larger files over on our Amazon’s AWS S3 servers. I’m not sure why it has taken so long, but it sure beats duplicating backup hard drives and archiving DVDs or a “smallish” NAS drives. This year I think it is time to move more of our everyday storage off of our physical and webserver hard drives to AWS.

Amazon S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), provides developers and IT teams with secure, durable, highly-scalable object storage. Amazon S3 is easy to use, with a simple web services interface to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. With Amazon S3, you pay only for the storage you actually use. There is no minimum fee and no setup cost.

Amazon S3 can be used alone or together with other AWS services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), and Amazon Glacier, as well as third party storage repositories and gateways. Amazon S3 provides cost-effective object storage for a wide variety of use cases including cloud applications, content distribution, backup and archiving, disaster recovery, and big data analytics.

Category: Business, Cloud, Computer, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tags: amazon, Business, cloud, storage, tech friday, techfriday

Posted By RichC on May 28, 2015

It looks as if Twitter is getting a head start in taking social media into the publishing realm by going after Flipbook. Facebook is working deals with news organizations and consolidating into users streams, but $TWTR has decided to buy their way into the publishing business – undisclosed price but some speculate it is close to a billion dollar deal. As a shareholder I think acquiring the online publishers is a good thing … but it is a very steep price.

As a user of both of these social networks, I prefer Twitter for news a stream of feeds … with a few highlighted photos and video. The current trend of including canned graphics is getting pretty frustrating and I regularly “unfollow” after mentioning this is a private message (too much clutter). I like Facebook for personal groups, friends and family and really don’t want to see more news or advertising filling up a stream … and I’m probably not the only one?

Zacks Research had a quick write-up about Twitter buying Flipbook … here’s the gist:

Does It Make Sense for Twitter to Buy Flipboard?

The low operating cost and free content are attractive for investment. However, the business model of organizing floating content over web and packaging it into pages with advertising is not unique. Given the fact that Twitter is gearing up in digital advertising front against giants like Yahoo! YHOO and Google, which are heavily into news content, it remains imperative that the company invests in those startups that offer such opportunity. 

Further, with the prospective Flipboard acquisition, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is likely to have a competitive advantage over Facebook FB, which is also entering the online publishing business. Facebook recently launched Instant Articles to allow The New York Times Company and other media companies to publish their stories directly on its platform (read more: Facebook Partners Media Houses, Launches Instant Articles). In addition, it acquired Tugboat Yards, an online media startup that offers tools for small and medium-sized web publishers to accept payments from readers (read more: Facebook to Grow in Online Publishing with Tugboat Yard).

Going forward, in the media business, where content is king, it is unclear how online ventures like Flipboard that thrive solely on free content can succeed. However, given the current boom in the online social media and rapid emergence of companies that act as online interfaces, we believe Flipboard and other such enterprises are here to stay as long as a symbiotic relationship exists between content publishers, users and advertisers.

Hence, we believe Twitter’s current strategy to branch out and foray into the online media business is likely to have a head start with Flipboard and can offer long-term prospects given the rising demand for online publishing business.

Category: Business, Financial, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: $TWTR, acquisitions, facebook, fb, flipboard, investing, publishing, twitter

Posted By RichC on May 28, 2015

Shortly after Brenda and I were married, I commented that I was going to write an advice book for new couples that included the good and bad decisions we made when buying things for our home, yard, kids and our life. After all this time I’ve yet to write the advice book, but continue to accumulate mistakes and long overdue corrections.

For Christmas this year, my daughter and son-in-law gave us a set of Calphalon kitchen knifes. Oh … how nice. I can’t believe we’ve been using and sharpening the old “lessor” grade knives for 34 years … although still like a couple of those stainless steel knifes I keep on the boat. I think I’ll include “invest in high quality kitchen knives” in my yet to be released advice book.

Category: Advice, Tidbits, Tools | No Comments »
Tags: calphalon, cooking, house, kitchen, knife, knives, tools

Posted By RichC on May 27, 2015

Brenda and I finally watched the Clint Eastwood directed movie about Navy Seal Chris Kyle titled American Sniper this Memorial Day weekend. It was worth the price of a DVD purchase, although I’m not sure emotionally I’ll want to see it again. The movie left me with gut wrenching sorrow and little solace that the heroic efforts of our military is making any gains in defeating our enemies. I deeply want to believe that stability the middle east is salvageable and that the sacrifice of so much blood and treasure is worth it, but the victories seem so paltry compared to where we find our world after over a decade of war.

Still, I’m thankful there are those willing to dedicate their lives to defend our country and freedom. The decisions are difficult for all in command and in the field. It is politically easy to be critical in hindsight, but the war against Radical Islam and those committed to killing in the name of a religion is not going away.

The leftwing media criticism of this movie was way overdone. It does little to celebrate war or glorify the job of a sniper as he protects his men. It does a lot in showing the sacrifices our military men and women (and families at home) make in answering the call to country. We do not honor or thank them enough.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing..”

–Edmund Burke

THE MOST LETHAL SNIPER IN US HISTORY

From director Clint Eastwood comes “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, whose skills as a sniper made him a hero on the battlefield. But there was much more to him than his skill as a sharpshooter.

Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is sent to Iraq with only one mission: to protect his brothers-in-arms. His pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and, as stories of his courageous exploits spread, he earns the nickname “Legend.” However, his reputation is also growing behind enemy lines, putting a price on his head and making him a prime target of insurgents. He is also facing a different kind of battle on the home front: striving to be a good husband and father from halfway around the world.

Despite the danger, as well as the toll on his family at home, Chris serves through four harrowing tours of duty in Iraq, personifying the spirit of the SEAL creed to “leave no one behind.” But upon returning to his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), and kids, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind.

A two-time Oscar nominee for his work in “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle,” Cooper heads the cast, which also includes Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban and Keir O’Donnell.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) directed “American Sniper” from a screenplay written by Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The autobiography was a runaway bestseller, spending 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, 13 of those at number one.

The film is produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan. Tim Moore, Jason Hall, Sheroum Kim, Steven Mnuchin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.

Eastwood’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar-nominated director of photography Tom Stern (“Changeling”); Oscar-nominated production designer James J. Murakami (“Changeling”) and production designer Charisse Cardenas; Oscar-winning editor Joel Cox (“Unforgiven”) and editor Gary D. Roach; and costume designer Deborah Hopper.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in Association with Village Roadshow Pictures, A Mad Chance Production, A 22nd & Indiana Production, “American Sniper.” The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

Category: Entertainment, History, Millitary, Movies, Photography | 1 Comment »
Tags: American Sniper, chris kyle, military, movie, navy, seals, war

Posted By RichC on May 26, 2015

Category: Nature, Video | No Comments »
Tags: great white shark, ocean, video

Posted By RichC on May 25, 2015

It’s not Veterans Day. It’s not military appreciation day. Don’t thank me for my service. Please don’t thank me for my service.

Here’s how it was outlined in General Orders No. 11, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868:

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

A thought provoking read: I’m a veteran, and I hate ‘Happy Memorial Day.’ Here’s why.

Category: Holiday | No Comments »
Tags: graves, Memorial Day, veterans, war, washington post