the iMentor

Hints & rants

This weB-LOG is about the musing of a technical consultant. It is the iMentor's thoughts on technology and the human condition.

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Category: Uncategorized

Roof

February 25, 2025 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #839 March 1, 2025 I bet you could shingle a roof if you set your mind to it. I am fairly certain that I will not.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puM1k-S86nE First of all, I have never been on the roof of most of my houses. I did walk out on the roof of the one in Trabuco Canyon. I tied a rope to my bed and around my waist, then climbed out the window onto a fairly flat part of my roof. There was a small patch of wall that I had to paint. When it was done, I carefully climbed...
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Converse

February 17, 2025 Uncategorized 6 Comments
Episode #838 February 22, 2025 The richness of conversation is dependent on every participant.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnzhPprVVU My greatest flaw when engaged in conversation is deference to my interlocutor. When interrupted I switch my focus from what I am saying to what is injected. This, combined with a fading short term memory often results in a lost of my train of thought. Sometimes the interrupter is finishing my sentence. This shocking moment is especially disruptive if the completion isn’t what I was going to say. Mostly, I let the conversation veer off in the direction of my conversational partner. And herein...
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Military

February 10, 2025 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #837 February 15, 2025 My father, Bob, volunteered with the Marine Corps. He was sent to Korea as a Sergeant.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmNXzMw69zI As a child, while retrieving something from my fathers dresser drawer, I chanced on a small box. I opened it to find my father’s uniform decorations, a Purple Heart and the Navy Marine Corps Star. My father was always quiet about his experience in Korea, but when I pressed him about the box of awards he told me this story: Bob’s platoon was a force of 40 marine infantrymen who advanced across the 38th parallel divider...
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Family Name

February 3, 2025 Uncategorized 6 Comments
Episode #836 February 8, 2025 My father was born Carroll Jewett. Perhaps the name came from an ancestor, George Carroll Jewett.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlqDf6jOwCk   Carroll did not like his name. It sounded like a girl’s name to him. One day, at age 10, he walked into the living room and told his parents, “I’m Bobby!” “OK Bobby,” said his mother and that was that. Some years later Bobby’s mother remarried to Hans Thues. Bobby took on the new last name and began to introduce himself as Robert Thues. Since he had no birth certificate or any other records bearing the...
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4am

January 28, 2025 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #835 February 1, 2025 4 a.m. often evokes introspection, solitude, and the liminal space between night and day.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUFxMSvCkAI "At 4 a.m. the city belongs to insomniacs. The sleepless, the restless, the people who pace, who dream while awake. It’s the hour when dreams mix with wakefulness and life seems to straddle two worlds.” — Insomnia by Marina Benjamin "I count seconds. Time is endless at four o’clock in the morning, as endless as the sky. What will we do now, where will we go?" — Room by Emma Donoghue "It was four in the morning, and...
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Journeyman Helper

January 21, 2025 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Episode #834 January 25, 2025 At the very least a journeyman’s helper must have an interest in the trade.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOuxVDgV6CY The helper’s job is not glamorous and can be downright boring. His/her focus is to observe. When given a request, the helper complies quickly and to the best of their ability. The more the helper learns the better they can anticipate the needs of the journeyman. The journeyman’s job is to teach, appreciate and love the helper. If the helper knew everything he would be the journeyman. Patience is a teacher’s primary tool. Articulating his/her needs is the...
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