tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post2994624681486406486..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: An Extended Retreat: A Midweek RuminationFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-3505138758505546192015-10-21T08:56:53.871-04:002015-10-21T08:56:53.871-04:00Alone time is wonderful although it could be awful...Alone time is wonderful although it could be awful if it is imposed rather than sought.<br />You are right about the waste of life to only discover solitude after retirement because it adds such depth to the appreciation of the obvious. I thank you for writing down "things" everyday to share with us as it complements my solace beautifully. Almost wish I were retired too.<br />Ron Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08254200694378708747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-27170274588877097772015-10-20T18:42:17.261-04:002015-10-20T18:42:17.261-04:00I've enjoyed your blog for many years now, I r...I've enjoyed your blog for many years now, I read every day. Your writing style and logic help me understand current events in a way that I've always wanted to but never could in my youth. I am 45 years old and just beginning to understand the world around me. You and a few others who put pen to paper on these interwebs have opened my eyes, and have me hanging on every word. I hope you always find time for blogging in your retirement.<br /><br />Enjoy your new found freedom.Staceyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09570071928815481162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-9456488208134644372015-10-20T12:12:42.776-04:002015-10-20T12:12:42.776-04:00Be careful. Contemplation in solace can be as much...Be careful. Contemplation in solace can be as much a frantic time as desperately attempting to meet a deadline imposed by your boss. You've simply become your own boss, and usually this kind of executive administration is the most harsh. Don't make this mistake! Concentrate on changing yourself from a Type A personality to a Type B. Let things go. Float lazily in the stream. Do what interests you at each moment, guided only by your principles and some goal worthy of being explained to a stranger without embarrassment or guilt.<br /><br />I picked a goal that can be described in two words, is instantly comprehensible, yet is so complex it involves nearly every technology and scientific pursuit known to man, that if achieved can be written about to help others do the same, and that if circumstances are dire may save the lives of my children and grandchildren. How's that for grandiose? Here are the two words: "Become self-sufficient". <br /><br />I have become fascinated with what might be done to bring all our knowledge to bear on the problem of ripping a modern living condition out of the most minimal of support resources. Do we ever intend to become a space-faring species? If so, these skills demand to be developed. A huge field of study lies open to be created.<br /><br />If it can't be done on my acre of ground in a friendly environment, it can't be done on an asteroid or an L5 colony vehicle. So, I while away my free time like a Jubal Harshaw in overalls. I fiddle with energy generation, management and storage, food production, repair and manufacturing methods, information storage and retrieval, extreme automation, learning new things like extracting metals from rock, additive manufacturing, blowing glass, and fuels chemistry. Oh, <i>and keeping an engineering notebook so the ideas don't blow away in the wind.</i><br /><br />Ok, I'll stop rambling on about a method of retirement that's damn near impossible in a big city. I'm a generalist living on land in remote country, so this approach is available to me, but I'll admit not everyone is so lucky. Given the way the entire world is coming apart at the seams, I feel sometimes like I'm trying to single-handedly build a little dynastic monastery within which to archive civilization while everything falls to rags around me. But they burned the Library of Alexandria to the ground, didn't they? What chance my efforts mean anything? This is all a useless waste of money I could be spending on video games. Wait! That way lay demons, take not that path, back to happy thoughts...!<br /><br />Thank you for using the term "multi-tasking" correctly. It's primary value is in managing multi-<i>processing</i>. The office metaphor is the difference between a roomful of people each struggling to do everything, and one good multi-tasker directing a room full of experts each concentrating on the one thing they do well. Another skill that will be lost once all of us old farts die off. It's antithetical to collectivists. After we're gone, the clueless, untrained remnants will be helpless to fend off the barbarians that will come marching through the gates, chanting and swinging their scimitars ... whoa! Demons again! *smacks self*<br /><br />I gotta go work on an airfoil design. Retirement is <i>wonderful.</i> Do what you can to enjoy the hell right out of it, Francis. Ignore the demons, and if they get close enough, gut them where they stand.<br />Malatropenoreply@blogger.com