We are at an end, friends. EA said it is officially sunsetting the Simpsons: Tapped Out after twelve years. I can’t believe it’s been over a decade since I first cleaned up nuclear waste in Springfield. I spent a lot of time (and money) on this game. I haven’t played it consistently in years, but it was fun to revisit it periodically. It’s a bittersweet reminder that nothing lasts forever. Thanks for the memories!
We have a little apple tree in our backyard. Around this time of year (August) it is covered in Apples! We recently had a strong storm and the apple tree fell over. My son and I tried to get the tree back up but, even with stakes, it just kept falling over.
Eventually I realized that the tree was just too heavy. I told my son that we needed to remove the apples. After we did that the little tree was almost able to stand on it’s own! We got it secured back into place and I’m glad to report that it’s doing fine.
Are we sometimes like this tree? We carry so much weight, such a heavy burden, that when the storms come we fall and cannot get back up? What are we to do? We need the extra weight removed and sometimes we cannot do this on our own.
Oftentimes it is Christ who can unburden us. When life bring us to our knees we call out and he helps us back up. Sometimes there is a proxy, like my son and I . We should be on the lookout for those who have, for a moment, been burdened beyond their ability, and see if we can find a way to help. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)
This story seems to have infinite insights- at least it has for me. The fruit of this tree was good. We can be so preoccupied with producing good fruit that it overwhelms us. The expression “too much of a good thing” is applicable to us, just like it is to the tree.
We were not meant to carry more than we can bare. When we fall there is a way back. Sometimes we cannot do it without the help of Christ or of those who are acting on behalf of Christ.
The Honeysuckle
The honeysuckle plant by our basement stairs was overgrown, inflected with disease and was being choked by a neighboring trumpet vine. In short, the honeysuckle was in trouble.
My wife decided there wasn’t really a way to separate the vines, or to salvage the current growth. She cut the plant down to it’s roots. It’s important to remember that the root system was still strong, having grown over many years. Slowly but surely the honeysuckle began to grow again. My wife placed the new growth on and around the railings and it has blossomed.
Are we like the honeysuckle sometimes? Our life is so crowded that we are just aimlessly growing, consuming, crippled by our overabundant lifestyle (or that of our rambunctious friends, the trumpet vines)? Maybe we occasionally need to be cut back to our roots so that we can regrow healthier and stronger and free from clutter and maladies. Maybe “loss” isn’t really loss if we grow from it.
Like the honeysuckle our root system is constantly growing. It’s probably stronger and more developed than we think it is. The master gardener knows us, sees our struggles and can help prune us if we ask (and sometimes even when we don’t ask).
Every January 1st feels like a new beginning, to some degree. Take a moment, sit down and write out what you expect from yourself and from 2023. Make it a good year.
Here are a few suggestions (potential resolutions?) from a guy who has been around the block):
🔹If you are struggling with depression then reach out to family, a trusted friend, or make an appointment with a healthcare professional. No matter how hard it seems or how bad it feels, take that first step- you are worth saving. You can also call the suicidal and crisis lifeline at 988.
🔹Saying “no” can be a challenge for many. If you let people, some will take until you have nothing left- some by mistake, some intentionally and some maliciously. If you can’t do it (if you don’t *want* to do it) then say “no.”
🔹Learn to be happy with what you have (says the guy with cars… I get it). Comparison is a thief of happiness. What someone else has does not impact what you have, and should not affect your personal happiness. Take a moment and mindfully think of the good things you have… you might be surprised. (FYI, there is nothing wrong with “more” as long as the motivations are pure).
🔹Find opportunities to serve. If you have a problem I guarantee it will disappear as you help others. Opportunities to serve aren’t limited to people with a flat tire.
🔹Be kind when people seem unkind. Instead of assuming negative motivations ask yourself this: “Why would a good, reasonable person act this way?” Attributing good motivations to behavior you don’t understand will make it easier to achieve a good outcome.
Installing a Nest Thermostat to control our Warehouse’s gas heater was trickier than I had anticipated. But eventually (and with the help of the Internet) I figured it out.
Originally I thought I’d wired in the c-wire correctly, but I was advised via email that the thermostat had a problem at some point that night. The Nest runs on batteries so it will work even if you’re an installation ignoramus. But on batteries your time is limited. The Nest menu has a wire detection system / screen so you can see what is going on- all the wires need to be blue and my c-wire was not. I found a tutorial online (after an excruciatingly long search) and was able to hook everything up correctly as shown in the top right. All is well now and the Nest has been working great for a few weeks.
Here’s a quick video showing how to use a Nest thermostat with your heat-only system:
There’s something stupid inside of me that keeps wanting more. Is the 992 Turbo S fast? Hell yes. Can it be faster? Hell yes. Because I’m not what people would call “smart” I have been conned into pulling out my ECU, having it reflashed and adding in 100 cell catalytic converters. What do I hope to achieve? Power, friends. I’m looking for more power. One hundred horsepower more, to be precise.
Thank goodness Dagan seemed like he knew what he was doing.
The ECU is out and in California waiting for some special sauce. I wonder when I’ll get it back 🤔
I’ve got VBOX stats for this car in it’s stock configuration, so I’ll be very curious to see where we end up following these modifications. I would think we’d be low tens here in Utah. We’ll see shortly.
Okay, so here’s the build progress:
We got the DME back and some new catalytic converters. Time to pump this thing up to the next level.
Turns out that the cats from Europe have weird tubes coming off of them- those had to go! So we put our project on hold until we could sort that out. Luxe hooked me up with an incredible welder (video below) and then we were ready for the install.
These are the aftermarket parts we put in- new 100 cell catalytic converters and BME air filters. The flow difference on these to cats should be insane.
Dagan, Bryce and I (mostly Dagan) got the install done without incident and then we were ready to do some real world testing. The new cats give the exhaust a nice throaty sound and you can hear the turbo whistles a bit better- it’s perfect. However, it’s hard to feel a power difference in your butt dyno so before the weather got bad I snuck out my my favorite spot and did a few quarter mile runs with with my VBOX. Wow.
91 pump gas, damp roads, high flow cats and a tune got me down to 10.08 at almost 139 mph. That is nuts- it’s the fastest quarter mile I have personally run. If I launch harder (at 5K rpms instead of 4K) and hook I’m 100% sure I can break into the 9’s. A few years ago my 991 was fighting to get into the 10’s! I am so impressed with the 992 platform- a nearly stock nine second daily driver. Unreal. These mods aren’t cheap, but they’re fun! Hoping to get even quicker this spring as well 🤞🏼
This was super fun but be sure to check out the next round of mods to the car.
I have dedicated this post to movies that I have watched in 2020 (these have to be fairly current movies from this year or late last year to make the list). Newest movies are at the top. My goal this year is 50 movies, 1/2 in theaters! Let’s do it!
Movie Count: 29
This has been an interesting year. Most of the movies I’ve watched have been at home, for obvious reasons. I’ve probably forgotten to write down half of what I’ve watched in the last few months and a lot of the movies have been older releases or things I’ve rewatched. I feel like there’s a fundamental Hollywood shift that’s occurred and I’ll be curious to see what the future holds.
A few months ago I moved from my 2019 Razer Blade 15 to a 2020 Razer Blade 15. I had a couple of migratory issues that I’ve worked out and decided to do a post or two on the worst offenders.
Quick note: The changes on the new 2020 Blade are so minimal I didn’t even do a write up / post. It’s got a slightly faster processor, upgraded GPU and an SD card slot now. Wheee! The upgrade is so minimal that, in retrospect, I don’t think I would have made the switch.
For my laptop migration I used an evil hack (I needed to get back in action ASAP). I opened up the laptops and swapped the physical hard drives. This really only worked because the laptop hardware is so close and Windows 10 is a rock star. After being a little confused, needing some upgraded drivers and a slew of reactivations the Razer was in business (I’m still planning to do a fresh Windows installation at some point).
The swap left me with some hiccups. One of the most irritating was that the volume on the new Razer 15 was impossibly low. I work in pretty quiet room (aside from some fan noise) and I was having trouble hearing dialogue on YouTube videos and it was impossible work in Premier without headphones (for whatever reason I don’t like headphones for work).
Normally the solution would be to pull up the device manager and go the “properties” window and navigate to the “audio enhancements” tab (you can increase the volume with “loudness equalization”). But that tab was missing and it wasn’t coming back. I spent hours trying to resolve this. I Googled everything I could think of with no luck.
And then, buried online, in a thread not even really related to my issue I came across a post from someone who said that his computer had come with the Dolby driver and “he thought that made it louder.” What? More Googling with no results. What was this “Dolby driver” 🤔. On a whim I typed “Dobly” into the Windows search box. Interesting.
This is the app that pulled up for “Dolby Atmos.” It’s even “Razer” branded. It’s obviously part of the software that’s automatically installed now by the Razer updater (for more recent laptop models downloadable drivers have been replaced by an update program). This was an exciting find.
With the Dolby Atmos turned “on” and using any of the presets the volume just about doubles. What a huge relief! I suppose this app completely replaces the need for the enhancement tab and, to its credit, it’s much more powerful and accurate. I would surmise that the program comes turned on when you buy the laptop and use it as configured. You run into problems when you reinstall the software, like me. Do most people even know about the Dolby app? I sure didn’t.
The summary version: If your new computer’s volume is ridiculously low check to see if you have the Dolby Atmos app installed and make sure it’s turned on ✔.