Echoing Jack’s offer, if there are young ACF people in the NW looking for opportunities… I may be able to help you out. I know a lot of people in electrical wholesaling industry and the electrical trade and have had a couple of successes getting friends and relatives into the business. My sphere of influence is far from Baruthian, but I’ve got a few connections.
Jack, thanks for the Excellent commentary on maintaining one’s sense of wonder. The older I get the more I appreciate it… I very much like how you put it into words.
I fly a guesstimated .7 times a year so I always leave the window shade up.
2002/3 was departing MCI, where it was 100% cloud cover. The top of the clouds were 5-7k ft (wild guesstimate) above which it was sunshine and fluffy cotton for as far as the eye could see. I kicked myself for putting my camera bag in the overhead bin instead of under the seat. The 'old' guy sitting next to me said, "I love days like this. Not much better then flying my Cessna in circles and watching planes break thru the clouds."
Excellent suggestion to raise the shade on the aircraft. It is so easy to miss the beauty that surrounds us all in life. It's out there...right in front of us, and there is absolutely no cost.
Coming back to Savannah airport on Tuesday, and it was a spectacular, sunny day. The pilot took a rather circuitous routealong the South Carolina coastline, and the view was nothing short of amazing. Worth every cent of my overpriced airline ticket. Had the shade been closed, I would have missed one of life's breathtaking moments. Life often gets in the way but don't ever let it rob you of these kind of priceless moments.
I'll save the podcast for the drive into work tomorrow. Tuning that Seiko reminded me of the scene in Listers where one of the brothers stands all night near a field, bug net on, tapping two stones together in the hopes of hearing the bird on their list.
Here's another take on the window shade situation. Since the smartphone is ubiquitous, could it be as simple as avoiding glare? Not trying to disprove the prior point, just adding to it.
As an aviation fan I not only have the shade up, but I'll have the aircraft live view cam on as much as possible.
The only flights I've ever taken have been the flights to and from Japan. The shades are always down on those because they dim the lights and a lot of people sleep. The flights are frickin' 12-14 hours long so I don't blame them, it's the logical thing to do. It is nice when the lights come back on in the "morning" and people start opening the shades so we can see outside again, though.
Haha I have a long torso and short legs (6’ tall, 28” inseam). So my legs fit the S2000 (unadjustable steering wheel usually an issue for tall people) and my head barely brushes the roof, but it’s the wide shoulders that really impacts things.
On long overseas flights, I can get the closed windows when people are trying to get adjusted for an upcoming time zone. My wife and I both fly small piston-powered planes, her for about forty years and me for about twenty-six. Many of the favorite memories saved in my mental hard drive are from staring out of airplane windows: popping up out of a solid cloud layer and seeing the sun for the first time in a week, or the sunsets...so I don't get the windows down. Would be an interesting social experiment to personality test the window up/window down folks... I get some nasty looks when I keep the windows up.
0. The most hilarious quote about rioting in France this week was something along the lines of: "Rioting is so ingrained in French culture that, to the extent that any of it is being done by immigrants, it just proved how much they have assimilated." Not really, but I thought it was hilarious nevertheless.
1. Have always been a windows-up guy, to the point where I try to pick my seat based on being on the opposite side of the sun so that I don't get an eyeful of that. Fuck your screen, I paid for this view and I'm going to stare at it constantly from about taxi time to cruising altitude, cruising altitude to terminal, and an occasional glance in between.
2. Competition--can confirm your impression; I applied to (IIRC) 6 medical schools (in 2004) and 16 residencies (in 2011). While I remember being maybe 2-3 below the average on both numbers, the average number now seems to be 17 and 46, respectively. (I would note that part of this is the rise of the Zoom interview; travel was previously a somewhat limiting factor in how many places you could apply.)
3. Opportunities--hell, most people don't even care about something as radical as walking into a magazine office and getting the job of their dreams; they'd be happy to get an entry-level job that just *paid the bills.* A few comments sections ago, I referenced my grandfather (at least I think it was here), who was able to raise 2 kids on jobs he got without a high school education; that doesn't take socialism but it probably does take stronger unions than we have in 2026. (I think I still have a grey-and-maroon union-branded cooler in my basement; a car cooler, because it was sized for a bench seat and had cupholders, back before every car had 3 per person.)
4. "If you go to church and try some combo of TRT/GLP-1/farmer’s-carries/CrossFit, you can probably improve your dating prospects. "
Certainly! Or just try not being an asshole, maybe even witty and interesting? That seems to be at least as important and often overlooked....
5. The notion of having to adjust your watch's timekeeping is the final nail in the coffin of me ever having thought I would *like* to be a watch guy. I set my Waveceptor G-Shock to Eastern time in 2003 and haven't touched it since. I'll just admire pictures instead. Love the clean face your friend designed, BTW.
“2. Competition--can confirm your impression; I applied to (IIRC) 6 medical schools (in 2004) and 16 residencies (in 2011). While I remember being maybe 2-3 below the average on both numbers, the average number now seems to be 17 and 46, respectively. (I would note that part of this is the rise of the Zoom interview; travel was previously a somewhat limiting factor in how many places you could apply.)”
My wife took my daughter to a college night at the high school last night and she mentioned the same thing. Due to the rise of the “common application” for college, it’s easy (albeit costly) to click “apply” to 20 colleges when in the past each one was a discrete application. So you have a lot more applicants just due to convenience.
Here's my little bit of positive news regarding gen Z. My nephew is 19 and a sophomore in college. I just learned he's planning on interning with his aunt at JP Morgan to learn the finance biz. Super bright kid who has the same girlfriend he's had since junior year in HS (she's stunning). They are already planning on getting married once they graduate. They truly are about as wholesome as it gets.
My twins are gen alpha, through observing them and their friend group (13 year old middle schoolers), I see a thorough rejection of the gen Z bullshit, and a commitment to "real" experiences. There's a new obsession with the 90s and getting away from smartphones in general. I could be the exception to the rule but I have hope.
My kids and their friends all seem pretty based compared to what polls and popular culture is trying to tell us. Granted, we're peons living in a place that doesn't matter and gets routinely left off the map, so....
EDIT: said kids are all Gen Alpha, eldest born at the cusp (Zalpha?)
I just re-read your "Karen" piece and would like to note that it contains one of my favorite sentences ever: "Like spring-steel forms which can be bent and twisted with abandon but will still return to the basic shape in which they were heat-treated the moment you release them, Karen and I are merely inhabiting the spaces we were always meant to inhabit."
Any idea why the comments to that piece do not appear (at least for me)?
Pretty sure that article was originally hosted at the old blog site (Riverside Green or something?), not hosted at SubStack. It’s unfortunate the comments did not get to be moved over.
You're correct. I couldn't move the comments, it wasn't anything Substack would convert or even let me program. A lot of wisdom got put away for good... however, I still have the database backup.
Especially perceptive writing today. And I'm not much for podcasts but I took a quick look at the Motoman offering you mentioned. I have to do errands before allowing myself more than a few minutes, but I thought you came across as (suprisingly!) soft-spoken and perceptive. Is that why you are losing subscribers?
"The antidote to the perceived community of socialism is… a real community, and the actions we take to create one." Pretty much sums it up.
i think you're also touching on something else. There is an expectation today because peopel live online watch infeenvers or tik tok that is not realistic. That leads to dissatisfaction.
Jack just wrote the other day about a mustang bullet, awesome car. Yet somehow peopel feel dissatisfied unless they can reach to a 180k 911. Why is thta.
BTW you can afford a ferrai, a mondial coists less than any number of middling new cars, but the mondial wont be living the dream if your dream is to be seen and perceived, its might be living the gated manual quad cam italian dream though.
When I was a child a patek was the most desired watch because it was so thin and kept great time. Today i daily wear a citizen eco drive thta is at least as thin and keeps better time than the Patek.
From my own life experience one does not walk around happy and contented, those moments are the cherries occasionally on top, mostly life is and can be a struggle full or trauma , alleviated by a good book at night a nice meal a few hours with friends and family.
Life can be awesome like when your 3 years old ripping open your birthday presents, and you can get here with a miata on track every month.
Do the yuuth have it harder, thats certainly the perception they have. Harder than who? someone int he 30s surely not, harder than int he 50s and 60s, well we all had it harder than that. Harder than someone 1974 whose entire industry/plant/mill just imploded in a USA that woudl decline for another 6 years at least, maybe not. But yes the perception and fear is maybe worse.
Were suffering in a world of unreality and unreality of expectations. Remember the movie poltergeist or ET. I always wondered what single mom with a regular job lived so well like that, none, not then not now, but it portrayed an unreality. How about home alone, was that meant to be a billionaire kid?
Anyways, socialism DSA, that's France today. Ironically many who voted for mandami were college educated professionals in NYC with combined incomes not less than 3000-500k. Lifes a struggle for them because taxes take at least 50% rent a chunk more etc, and the reason is the very policies they voted for. Yeah they have to pay for prvate schools cant affird to have more than one kid, and only go scuba diving 2x per year.
yes we should have wonderment, you know why peopel close the windows on planes, theyre busy looking at the unreality of expectation on their phones and the sunlight washes out the screen. One should always observe the takeoff, and look out the widow at there you left, same as the landing where you're going. its the miracle of flight, and 50 years ago it was still unusual to just hop on plae and go, so who has it worse. .
Oterr than this site and one or two others car ones Ive never been on or done social media, never done x tik toick facebook or any of the rest, and undoubtably happier for it.
Sometimes you just got to wakeup and smell the roses. Yeah and forget about internet dating, figure out how to actually meet, though friends parents relatives church work or at a bar club etc , seems to have worked for millennia. ill bety there are equaly nice members of the opposite sex hoping for the same.
My son made more per day in a summer AI gig than my daughter the organic farmer makes in a 6 day week and he thinks he and his cohorts are fucked. Thats what they've been taught from the screen.
BTW a median house today is 5x median household income, same as 1982 and in those days interest was 12%. Yes cites are more expensive than they used to be and you probably cant live in the burb you grew up in becase pop growth means its now more upscale , I know i couldn't, so what so many nice and nicer places to live as long as youre not buying brands labels or perception of others.
last night on the way to dinenr in the 19 guila cooking long I marveled at how my now 15k car would absolutely blow away a 930 turbo in any metric up to say 120ish.
"last night on the way to dinenr in the 19 guila cooking long I marveled at how my now 15k car would absolutely blow away a 930 turbo in any metric up to say 120ish."
Yeah and if you had to actually change lanes at 120 you'd thank God for the Alfa.
Echoing Jack’s offer, if there are young ACF people in the NW looking for opportunities… I may be able to help you out. I know a lot of people in electrical wholesaling industry and the electrical trade and have had a couple of successes getting friends and relatives into the business. My sphere of influence is far from Baruthian, but I’ve got a few connections.
Jack, thanks for the Excellent commentary on maintaining one’s sense of wonder. The older I get the more I appreciate it… I very much like how you put it into words.
I fly a guesstimated .7 times a year so I always leave the window shade up.
2002/3 was departing MCI, where it was 100% cloud cover. The top of the clouds were 5-7k ft (wild guesstimate) above which it was sunshine and fluffy cotton for as far as the eye could see. I kicked myself for putting my camera bag in the overhead bin instead of under the seat. The 'old' guy sitting next to me said, "I love days like this. Not much better then flying my Cessna in circles and watching planes break thru the clouds."
"That old man... was Jack's son."
I went to a random spot in that podcast and you were saying "When you purchase from your neighbors, it is the easiest act of charity you can do".
I see why you're getting so many unsubs. That's a truly repellent thing to say. AT LONG LAST GOOD SIR, THE MASK HAS DROPPED. Fie, I say, fie!
Real fascist shit right there, I'm basically calling for the ARYAN NEIGHBORS CO-OP
Excellent suggestion to raise the shade on the aircraft. It is so easy to miss the beauty that surrounds us all in life. It's out there...right in front of us, and there is absolutely no cost.
Coming back to Savannah airport on Tuesday, and it was a spectacular, sunny day. The pilot took a rather circuitous routealong the South Carolina coastline, and the view was nothing short of amazing. Worth every cent of my overpriced airline ticket. Had the shade been closed, I would have missed one of life's breathtaking moments. Life often gets in the way but don't ever let it rob you of these kind of priceless moments.
I'll save the podcast for the drive into work tomorrow. Tuning that Seiko reminded me of the scene in Listers where one of the brothers stands all night near a field, bug net on, tapping two stones together in the hopes of hearing the bird on their list.
It's a very well made, non stuffy, documentary about birding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-wAqplQAo
the scene is at 1:16:25
Here's another take on the window shade situation. Since the smartphone is ubiquitous, could it be as simple as avoiding glare? Not trying to disprove the prior point, just adding to it.
As an aviation fan I not only have the shade up, but I'll have the aircraft live view cam on as much as possible.
The only flights I've ever taken have been the flights to and from Japan. The shades are always down on those because they dim the lights and a lot of people sleep. The flights are frickin' 12-14 hours long so I don't blame them, it's the logical thing to do. It is nice when the lights come back on in the "morning" and people start opening the shades so we can see outside again, though.
Also overwater flights are boring. Nothing to see.
As a man shaped like a (fat) gorilla, I always go for an aisle seat so I never bother with the window anyways.
I always try to let my kids sit in the window seat. I haven't had the window seat in a long time.
The "(fat) gorilla" image is funny and doesn't match the image I have of a man who drives an S2000!
Haha I have a long torso and short legs (6’ tall, 28” inseam). So my legs fit the S2000 (unadjustable steering wheel usually an issue for tall people) and my head barely brushes the roof, but it’s the wide shoulders that really impacts things.
I think the French you were seeking is "sang-froid"
tres, tres bien expresse
I'm sorry did you go on a podcast and now I must violate the rules?!
All I do is talk about "Super Intelligence" but I'm referring to my own
In that picture right at 00:00 in the video if your whiskers were slightly different you'd be the spitting image of Lemmy!
Have a good one!
On long overseas flights, I can get the closed windows when people are trying to get adjusted for an upcoming time zone. My wife and I both fly small piston-powered planes, her for about forty years and me for about twenty-six. Many of the favorite memories saved in my mental hard drive are from staring out of airplane windows: popping up out of a solid cloud layer and seeing the sun for the first time in a week, or the sunsets...so I don't get the windows down. Would be an interesting social experiment to personality test the window up/window down folks... I get some nasty looks when I keep the windows up.
0. The most hilarious quote about rioting in France this week was something along the lines of: "Rioting is so ingrained in French culture that, to the extent that any of it is being done by immigrants, it just proved how much they have assimilated." Not really, but I thought it was hilarious nevertheless.
1. Have always been a windows-up guy, to the point where I try to pick my seat based on being on the opposite side of the sun so that I don't get an eyeful of that. Fuck your screen, I paid for this view and I'm going to stare at it constantly from about taxi time to cruising altitude, cruising altitude to terminal, and an occasional glance in between.
2. Competition--can confirm your impression; I applied to (IIRC) 6 medical schools (in 2004) and 16 residencies (in 2011). While I remember being maybe 2-3 below the average on both numbers, the average number now seems to be 17 and 46, respectively. (I would note that part of this is the rise of the Zoom interview; travel was previously a somewhat limiting factor in how many places you could apply.)
3. Opportunities--hell, most people don't even care about something as radical as walking into a magazine office and getting the job of their dreams; they'd be happy to get an entry-level job that just *paid the bills.* A few comments sections ago, I referenced my grandfather (at least I think it was here), who was able to raise 2 kids on jobs he got without a high school education; that doesn't take socialism but it probably does take stronger unions than we have in 2026. (I think I still have a grey-and-maroon union-branded cooler in my basement; a car cooler, because it was sized for a bench seat and had cupholders, back before every car had 3 per person.)
4. "If you go to church and try some combo of TRT/GLP-1/farmer’s-carries/CrossFit, you can probably improve your dating prospects. "
Certainly! Or just try not being an asshole, maybe even witty and interesting? That seems to be at least as important and often overlooked....
5. The notion of having to adjust your watch's timekeeping is the final nail in the coffin of me ever having thought I would *like* to be a watch guy. I set my Waveceptor G-Shock to Eastern time in 2003 and haven't touched it since. I'll just admire pictures instead. Love the clean face your friend designed, BTW.
“2. Competition--can confirm your impression; I applied to (IIRC) 6 medical schools (in 2004) and 16 residencies (in 2011). While I remember being maybe 2-3 below the average on both numbers, the average number now seems to be 17 and 46, respectively. (I would note that part of this is the rise of the Zoom interview; travel was previously a somewhat limiting factor in how many places you could apply.)”
My wife took my daughter to a college night at the high school last night and she mentioned the same thing. Due to the rise of the “common application” for college, it’s easy (albeit costly) to click “apply” to 20 colleges when in the past each one was a discrete application. So you have a lot more applicants just due to convenience.
Here's my little bit of positive news regarding gen Z. My nephew is 19 and a sophomore in college. I just learned he's planning on interning with his aunt at JP Morgan to learn the finance biz. Super bright kid who has the same girlfriend he's had since junior year in HS (she's stunning). They are already planning on getting married once they graduate. They truly are about as wholesome as it gets.
My twins are gen alpha, through observing them and their friend group (13 year old middle schoolers), I see a thorough rejection of the gen Z bullshit, and a commitment to "real" experiences. There's a new obsession with the 90s and getting away from smartphones in general. I could be the exception to the rule but I have hope.
My kids and their friends all seem pretty based compared to what polls and popular culture is trying to tell us. Granted, we're peons living in a place that doesn't matter and gets routinely left off the map, so....
EDIT: said kids are all Gen Alpha, eldest born at the cusp (Zalpha?)
Same. We live at the edge of the only county in Vermont that would count as "Civilization"
I just re-read your "Karen" piece and would like to note that it contains one of my favorite sentences ever: "Like spring-steel forms which can be bent and twisted with abandon but will still return to the basic shape in which they were heat-treated the moment you release them, Karen and I are merely inhabiting the spaces we were always meant to inhabit."
Any idea why the comments to that piece do not appear (at least for me)?
Pretty sure that article was originally hosted at the old blog site (Riverside Green or something?), not hosted at SubStack. It’s unfortunate the comments did not get to be moved over.
You're correct. I couldn't move the comments, it wasn't anything Substack would convert or even let me program. A lot of wisdom got put away for good... however, I still have the database backup.
Especially perceptive writing today. And I'm not much for podcasts but I took a quick look at the Motoman offering you mentioned. I have to do errands before allowing myself more than a few minutes, but I thought you came across as (suprisingly!) soft-spoken and perceptive. Is that why you are losing subscribers?
I honestly don't know what it was. I think maybe I babble on a bit too much about God.
Podcast Alert 🚨!
Pretty good episode.
I'll never be one of the Besties!
"The antidote to the perceived community of socialism is… a real community, and the actions we take to create one." Pretty much sums it up.
i think you're also touching on something else. There is an expectation today because peopel live online watch infeenvers or tik tok that is not realistic. That leads to dissatisfaction.
Jack just wrote the other day about a mustang bullet, awesome car. Yet somehow peopel feel dissatisfied unless they can reach to a 180k 911. Why is thta.
BTW you can afford a ferrai, a mondial coists less than any number of middling new cars, but the mondial wont be living the dream if your dream is to be seen and perceived, its might be living the gated manual quad cam italian dream though.
When I was a child a patek was the most desired watch because it was so thin and kept great time. Today i daily wear a citizen eco drive thta is at least as thin and keeps better time than the Patek.
From my own life experience one does not walk around happy and contented, those moments are the cherries occasionally on top, mostly life is and can be a struggle full or trauma , alleviated by a good book at night a nice meal a few hours with friends and family.
Life can be awesome like when your 3 years old ripping open your birthday presents, and you can get here with a miata on track every month.
Do the yuuth have it harder, thats certainly the perception they have. Harder than who? someone int he 30s surely not, harder than int he 50s and 60s, well we all had it harder than that. Harder than someone 1974 whose entire industry/plant/mill just imploded in a USA that woudl decline for another 6 years at least, maybe not. But yes the perception and fear is maybe worse.
Were suffering in a world of unreality and unreality of expectations. Remember the movie poltergeist or ET. I always wondered what single mom with a regular job lived so well like that, none, not then not now, but it portrayed an unreality. How about home alone, was that meant to be a billionaire kid?
Anyways, socialism DSA, that's France today. Ironically many who voted for mandami were college educated professionals in NYC with combined incomes not less than 3000-500k. Lifes a struggle for them because taxes take at least 50% rent a chunk more etc, and the reason is the very policies they voted for. Yeah they have to pay for prvate schools cant affird to have more than one kid, and only go scuba diving 2x per year.
yes we should have wonderment, you know why peopel close the windows on planes, theyre busy looking at the unreality of expectation on their phones and the sunlight washes out the screen. One should always observe the takeoff, and look out the widow at there you left, same as the landing where you're going. its the miracle of flight, and 50 years ago it was still unusual to just hop on plae and go, so who has it worse. .
Oterr than this site and one or two others car ones Ive never been on or done social media, never done x tik toick facebook or any of the rest, and undoubtably happier for it.
Sometimes you just got to wakeup and smell the roses. Yeah and forget about internet dating, figure out how to actually meet, though friends parents relatives church work or at a bar club etc , seems to have worked for millennia. ill bety there are equaly nice members of the opposite sex hoping for the same.
My son made more per day in a summer AI gig than my daughter the organic farmer makes in a 6 day week and he thinks he and his cohorts are fucked. Thats what they've been taught from the screen.
BTW a median house today is 5x median household income, same as 1982 and in those days interest was 12%. Yes cites are more expensive than they used to be and you probably cant live in the burb you grew up in becase pop growth means its now more upscale , I know i couldn't, so what so many nice and nicer places to live as long as youre not buying brands labels or perception of others.
last night on the way to dinenr in the 19 guila cooking long I marveled at how my now 15k car would absolutely blow away a 930 turbo in any metric up to say 120ish.
"last night on the way to dinenr in the 19 guila cooking long I marveled at how my now 15k car would absolutely blow away a 930 turbo in any metric up to say 120ish."
Yeah and if you had to actually change lanes at 120 you'd thank God for the Alfa.