The iMentor® Hints and Rants bLog (webLog) is a weekly journal. Rick Thues (the iMentor®) began writing the bLog in 2009. All of the past episodes are in the Archives. While this bLog began as hints and rants about Apple products and technology it has evolved into a technician's observations of the human condition.
Episode #855 June 21, 2025 Business getting done by Ricki T Thues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVkLbfhL9g The tradeshow exhibit office is alive with sound. The wide-format printer whirrs as the paper feed rustles and rolls. Salesmen pitch the newest booth design on their telephones in a persistent monologue, persuasive and impatient at once. Designers squeak markers on drawing boards. My assistant taps his pen on an estimate form. Blended with the rhythm of the business is the ring of telephones, the shuffle of feet and the booming interruption of a PA page. Behind it all is the low hum of...
Episode #854 June 14, 2025 Fortune smiled on Paula recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpGpu-pIVEk Paula’s shoulder has been sore and aching for about a year. The pain was constant and severe enough to wake her up in the middle of the night. She was unsure of the cause, but repeated extension of her rotator cuff is an unavoidable feature of skydiving. Our general doctor referred Paula to an orthopedic surgeon. He was competent to give her cortisone shots and physical therapy exercises. Nothing alleviated the pain for long. Eventually, the surgeon ordered an MRI, which revealed a torn...
Episode #853 June 7, 2025 This week I divert from my normal blog with a short story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipCCl3jvZC0 The comeback by Ricki T Thues Dick Desoto is walking through the woods behind his summer cabin in the mountains above Idyllwild. It is March, yet there is still an occasional crunch of icy snow under his military hiking boots. The trail is narrow, edged with boulders and Manzanita. Dick enters a clearing and shuffles through a bed of leaves. A twig cracks a few feet away. He comes to a sudden stop. Disturbing the silence is a rustling sound....
Episode #852 May 31, 2025 A one-word description of my personality is determined. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0 Every situation can be addressed and assembled like a puzzle. Group the shapes. Group the colors. Research every aspect to visualize the big picture. Define the edges of the project to understand its limits. Apply all the straight-edged pieces to the edge. Understand and build a solution from the outside in. Eventually, at the end of the process, the last piece of the puzzle will be obvious. Don’t stop. Keep going. Determine your fate. The hardest part of finishing a project is finishing the...
Episode #851 May 24, 2025 We have come to expect everything all the time for ourselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9QnZVpVd8 Our expectations of others are so low that even with good intentions fall below our own self-image. Politicians are all corrupt. Teachers are brainwashing our children. Scientists are driving up the costs of manufacturing and, therefore, products with their fabricated pollution warnings. Climatologists invent the threat of global warming to justify higher taxes and fund expansive social programs. Drivers own the road with their high beams and tailgating. Medication is a plot to make us sicker to sell more drugs. People...
Episode #850 May 17, 2025 "Nona stamina ducit, Decima metitur, Morta secat." “Nona draws the threads, Decima measures, Morta cuts.” — Ovid paraphrase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lweVp978_c The roles of the three Fates suggest the idea that aspects of our existence are beyond our control. But what of free will? Philosphers posit that conclusions like birth, major events or death might be fated, but fortune governs the path, opportunities, twists and turns along the way. Free will allows us to push the limits of what is achievable. “Fortune favors the bold” is a phrase used to encourage pushing the limits of what...
