Who said you can put lipstick on sows and bucks?

View from the office at about 7:00 AM (on the way to open the Duck Dormitory).

The big news today is that one of hour guests snapped a photo of a male, whitetail deer that was wearing lipstick. Golly, it didn't take those newly elected Progressives very long to start corrupt the local wildlife.

Can video-games be a positive influence?

Most often, our generation sees video-games as a way to disengage from social expectations and we blame games for the perception that many of the gamer-generation are risk-adverse in relationships. We also gripe that the gamer-generation expects endless do-overs and "new lives" and we blame gaming for their predisposition to be enthusiastically risk-seeking in other parts of their life.

The video shown above has a two-minute run-time.

In the video, he very succinctly pulls lessons out of "gaming" and presents them in ways that are likely to get traction with the gamer-generation.

In a nutshell, there is no single super-combination of buttons to push (hacks) that works universally on all characters. If you want to "win" in relationships, you have to study the characters who populate your life in meat-space and learn which buttons to push...and which ones to NOT PUSH. 

Hummingbirds and Innocent-by-virtue-of-Stupidity

The brain of a Ruby Throated Hummingbird weighs about half as much as a standard tablet of aspirin or about 170mg.

The weight of the average human brain is about 1,300,000mg or about 7500 times larger.

The hummingbird knows enough to not kill her chicks.

Progressive judges and prosecutors accept the claim that humans with brains that are 7500 times larger than a hummingbird's brain are not capable of that same feat.

So who are the stupid ones?

Farmer carry notes

My grip-strength is my limiting factor. My left hand is significantly weaker than my right hand. My grip is much better when my hands are dry than when they are sweaty. Friction is "a thing". I dry off the kettlebell handles and my hands every 10m.

It started as an accident. The gym only has one 88 pound kettlebell and the next heaviest ones are 70 pounds, so I ramped up to carrying one 70 pound kettlebell and one 88  pound kettlebell. I kind of like the eccentric loading. In anatomy-speak, "it loads my obliques" and I get double-duty exposure to grip-strength challenges.

The current plan is to add Farmer Carries every third day. Fifty-three pound kettlebells at 40m to warm-up. Eccentric 70/88lb  for 40m, alternating sides every 10m, three sets for the main loading. This level is to be continued until my grip-strength improves or I injure myself.

Tires

We put two new tires on Mrs ERJ's minivan. No, I didn't do it myself. We took it to the grain elevator in Charlotte.

We have been running Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrain tires on it rather than All Season tires. The trade-off is greatly improved performance on snow (but not ice) at the cost of more road-noise and slightly mushier handling on dry pavement. Pirelli was the only brand that made the tire size specified by Mrs ERJ's van.

Pirelli is an Italian tire company and, as the joke goes, 'dey go through snow, 'dey go through mud, 'dey go everywhere. 

Back to the make-up wearing deer

 

Very good shot placement. He waited until the deer was 10 yards away.

The deer ran 120 yards and got tangled up in a fence. 

Our guest offered me a cold beer to celebrate. I gladly accepted. It would have been churlish to do otherwise. It was our guest's first deer taken with a bow and his second buck, ever.

Any deer taken with a bow is a trophy.