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.

In a Flash

Episode #857 July 5, 2025   Hospice has been exhausting.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyTTi2BZxO0 I lie in my bed with the quiet clink of dinner dishes and whispered conversations floating upstairs. Out of the window, the neighborhood murmur is drowned by the rattle of my breathing. My breath comes broken. It is chains whipping in a metal pipe. Each draw of air scrapes the silence raw. Suddenly, my breathing stops. The loudest sound is the quiet between heartbeats. I look up through the skylight over my bed. I see my earliest memory, a newly leafed acacia tree in the purple bloom...

Science

Episode #856 June 28, 2025 Science is a process and a method.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3hrPrJfXz4   “Science is not the truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn't lie to you. It learned more.” — Brené Brown It is easy to question science when it seems to contradict itself. The truth is not absolute; it is revealed reiteratively. The basic steps of the Scientific Method are: Observation Question Hypothesis Experiment Analysis Conclusion Communicate Results Invite review (loops back to Observation) We are all pretty good at Observation. Scrutiny, Focus, Comprehension and Comparison are key to...

Business getting done

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...

Shoulder Pain

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...

The Comeback

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....

Determined

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...