Of Any Given Age

As the old saw goes, if there is any constant, it is change. So it goes with another year gone by and it becomes self-evident that I have more years behind me than in front of me. So what has changed?

That realization reports a transition from the ignorance of youth, where like an heir to a seemingly endless fortune spends wildly, to the place of knowing, possibly wisdom, where the account is more singularly defined and whose limits are not only have become clearer, but known.

Reflecting on the age I have lived so far, and we all live in an age, a common age for people born at a particular time and those experiences mark a greater transition of society as well as with ourselves, I see that things have changed quite a bit. Not as much for me as for my paternal grandfather, who was born before the advent of the automobile yet lived to see men go to the moon, even if he didn't believe it. In my age, I was born before the age of the Internet, personal computer, cell phone, iPods, GPS, satellite radio/TV, cable TV and widespread use of the microwave oven.

In spite of all the advancements, it seems that while it has freed us to do more, we seem to think less. Some might posit that we are now free to think about more important things instead of using our mental capacities for controlling processes that are now self-evident. I have to wonder. A lot of the technology today has lead a lot of people to be believers in FM or F@#$ing Magic. It is the black box, the mystery that somehow performs a task and somehow we are better off not knowing how it happens. From my perspective, may be this dulls critical thought.

Take automobiles and motorcycles. They still use the internal combustion engine, but ask kid today how it works and you are as likely to get a blank stare as a plausible explanation. I bet though the kid will know how to buy a computer programmer to get more horsepower out of it even if he or she isn't sure exactly why or how it works. Astounding. Suck, squish, bang, blow, the 4 cycles of a 4 stroke motor. Fuel, compression and spark must exist for such a device to work. Today, add a fourth: The computer. In a new vehicle, it manages almost everything. Even in it's simplest form, the computer controls the amount of fuel that get burned by an engine. It does this by measuring multiple variables in the engine and combustion process such as oxygen content in exhaust gases, coolant temperatures, atmospheric pressure, internal vacuum pressures in the intake manifold, measuring the mass of air taken in by the engine by measuring the change in resistance in a wire by shunting current through the wire as air passes over it, RPM, and throttle position, to name a few. Given all these inputs, matrices in memory are consulted by a computer and for the given parameters, the fuel injectors are pulsed at a specific frequency as to create the proper fuel/air mixture. This is constantly being adjusted by the computer to match any operating conditions. In other words, it's FM to most people.

When I was a kid, I learned how a carburetor worked (Venturi Principle), spark (induction coil), and the effects of timing, both static and cam have on compression. These principles hold true today in a sense, but the black box makes in unimportant even to the Friday night drag race impresario. If there is a problem with the car, just use you cell phone to call the mechanic. Oops, I mean automotive technician. With the advent of electric power vehicles, it's only going to get worse, be less fun and less challenging.

On the other hand, they were the bad old days too. Cars did not stop well, steer well, got poor fuel mileage and if you wanted to have a lot of power, you needed to do a lot of modifications to the engine or use a bigger one. Cars also did not stay in proper state of tune for as long as they do now and engines certainly did not last as long on average either. You had to know how stuff worked, even to the uninitiated, as a matter of functionality and I am sure it was an improvement from the previous generation of automobiles.

In spite of the advances in engineering and FM, I have to say there are times I miss the bad old days at times when I am troubleshooting one of my cars or trying to modify something on them or my motorcycle. A lot of the technology today requires special equipment and doesn't tolerate tampering so much. Take my BMW motorcycle. You have to buy a special computer tool just to reset the service reminder that blinks on the computer display on the dash. Either that or take it to the dealer. Talk about discouraging the shade tree mechanic. I mean motorcycle technician. The entry fee for that is a cool $299 for your own computer scanner. It's really just a interface adapter that has the proprietary connector on one side and USB on the other. The software is what does the work. Forget about getting the tool BMW uses, it's not for sale. BMW stands for Bring Money Wilhelm. All I can say is the cheapest thing on a BMW motorcycle is the rider.

So where does this this bring us? Back to the beginning I guess. Change is constant and we are defined by not only our age, but the age in which we live. As this year draws to a close I realize how fast time has flown, how little I have accomplished and how little time I really have left. Steve Jobs said "I want to put a ding in the universe." I used to feel that way and sometimes I still do. Sometimes though, I would rather just kick back with a highball glass of 18 year old Macallan, an Arturo Fuente Churchill Natural and just be content that everything is going to be alright, no matter what. Is that silly?

Thank you for reading this blog.

This was also published at My Motorrad and What's Under the hood.

The Same Old Sunday Schweinerei

After a while, what else is there to talk about about? We all know what a fuck up Obama is, How screwed up the gulf oil spill is, how great Palin is, what a disappointment Palin is, how Tiger is going down the tubes, the continuing trend of losing privacy, the illegal immigration problems in this country, Islam, and it goes on and on, the same shit day after day.

You have to admit, my fellow bloggers, that we really just keep the shit merry go round turning. Nothing new here, just rehashing the same stories day after day with some interesting insight from time to time.

I know we mean well and and want things to change to fit our world view, but to be honest, where are we really going? Are we making a difference? We all can't be Sean Hannitys, Rush Limbaughs or Glenn Becks and it's not about talent either. The market is full of people like us, but I digress. I am sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, on father's day no less, with nary an idea of what to write about. It seems it has all been said dozens of times over to the point that everything starts to sound like talking points, whether or not it started out that way.

So here's my suggestion to all my peeps in the blogospheria: Talk a day or two off, have an adult beverage or two, talk to your wife and/or kids if so equipped, if not, call on a friend or family and if you are really hard up, call me. Whatever the case, take a break and lets see how long the shit merry go round lasts without us. My guess it's the journo-political version of the perpetual motion machine. It just keeps on keeping on, no matter what happens. If you are in my neck of the woods, you are welcome to stop by and I'll pour you a few fingers of some 18 year old scotch and we can bullshit about something more interesting like the meaning of life or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. At the very least we will get a lot more accomplished.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Happy Birthday

To me, of course. I want everyone to go out and have a Sam Adams Ale or better yet, a tumbler of at least 12 year old Macallan. There's nothing better than that. It's also Friday,  pay day, the weather is looking up, so what could be better?

What could be better is that Barack Hussein Obama resigned. Now that would really cap the day off, but such a fantasy of the fantastic fabian fraud probably is just that, a fantasy. Oh well, a boy can dream, can't he?

As a birthday wish, besides the adult beverages, is that in our own way, that we promote freedom and capitalism any way we can. We've seen what is coming with Obama, and we're pushing back. Don't stop now.

Thank you for reading this blog.