365 Days Later, The End Of My Blog

It has been an interesting journey, I have written 1 blog a day for three hundred and sixty five days in a row without fail, which has been my goal from the beginning, even though I have wanted to quit many times.  The amount I have learned along the way has been a unique eye opening experience and I have new skills that I've earned on my journey.

I remember having all these ideas in my head at the beginning, with new ideas coming in every day, but after a month of writing everyday my infinite idea train came to a slow crawl, and I had to constantly think about five or six topics daily to try to stay ahead of the game, so I had something to write about in the future.

As I wrote each blog, my typing skills, spelling, and error checking got better and I have been practicing typing without looking down.  I have researched so much information on the net that I am beginning to feel like a professional investigator, weeding out the lies from the truth while searching for proof that backs up my articles.

At the beginning there were not that many people that read my blog, but before I knew it I had over a hundred views a day, until I came across an article on how to make money on your blog with advertising, which was a feature offered by "Blogger" the media app I decided to write blogs on.  As soon as I got the advertising up and running my blog went from 100 people a day to 10 people a day and has stayed there ever since. My advertising made me a whole whopping 2.06 that's two dollars and six cents over 5 months, not worth it. 

I would like to thank my sister Kim, and my wife Kimberly who have been my biggest fans and has supported me from the beginning, sharing my blogs daily even if she didn't read them or agree with the topic, my other sister Leigh did quite a lot as well, but not as much as her sister. I appreciate their opinions and efforts that they contributed.

And to my friends, Ben, Dean, Francis, Jason, and my cousin Dana who read my blogs on a daily basis as well, I don't have any info on what they shared but I did get feedback from them at times which was very much appreciated.

I started this because I thought I had something to contribute to the world, some really good ideas that I hope helped some people out or perhaps had an impact on how they looked at the world.   Some of my most popular posts were:

  

It was a good experience in my opinion, to set yourself a goal and follow through with it to the end, and make sure you give yourself and end date, how else will you know that you have completed your task?

Now after 365 days of brain straining to write something, I am going to take a much needed break for awhile, but don't worry, I will come back from time to time to voice my unusual opinion on the events that really hit close to home for me. It won't be every day but it will be on occasion.

Thank you again everyone who has supported me.

Scott Goerz

School Is No Substitute

School is no match for experience, and the smartest A plus honor student who has memorized every procedure can't hold a candle to someone who has been a hands on expert for most of their life.

Some things just can't be taught in a classroom, and while you might know protocols and procedures that have been indicated in your textbook, it might be a completely different scenario once you encounter problems with hands on experience.

Someone who has never been to school and has learned from their peers at a young age has an advantage over the college graduate. Hands on experience at the job, a social group that they can call upon for advice, different ways to combat varying degrees of temperature changes which affects their worksite, which is something you will never learn in school. 

I have never been impressed with a new worker at any job who constantly lets me know their grades and how smart they are, the proof is in the pudding, or put your money where your mouth is, and most importantly, don't tell me how much you know and how good you are, show me instead.

School is the basis for a job or career that you want to enter into, and it has it's merits but in my opinion, experience is the best teacher.  There is, however, one problem that a long term career oriented person tends to obtain, is the lack of being able to change their ways. Learning to do tasks only one way for 40 years tend to do that.

Figuring a way to do something that has never been explained in a book takes a certain type of brain, and someone who has been at the same job for 20 plus years obviously has that type. If you can learn something from someone else and make it even better with your own ideas then that is your own personal type of genius and something for which School is No Substitute.

Scott Goerz

A Smarter Future

There was a time when people used to think that flying in an airplane was impossible, the brilliant minds back in that era had dictated that man was not meant to fly and therefore a waste of time to study how to do it.  With some imagination and a lot of failed attempts the Wright brothers figured out how it could be done, despite all the negative and nonbelievers that told them it was impossible.

This type of reaction to any type of technology still goes on in this day and age, and I have to wonder why there are scientists and researchers out there that still claim all manner of things that could be possible, impossible.

The reason we study history (so I'm told) is to learn from our mistakes from the past and not to repeat them in the future, or the present.  If this is the case then why don't those intelligent people understand that we can figure out how something could be done even if we don't know how to make it right now.

I think one of the reasons is hubris, if you take a particularly proud person, who has had success in their life, but they can't figure out a problem, they simply claim it can't be done to save face, they can't admit that they aren't smart enough to figure it out, and lose the respect of their peers.

People said that we would never have an untethered phone line, that we would always have to be plugged in to a wall socket. Space flight would never happen, there would never be a computer small enough for a house (They used to fill warehouses). We could never cure aids, measles, or chicken pox.

There are some things that we have overcome and thrived and there are some things that we haven't overcome...Yet.  I believe that all things will be possible with dedication, trial and error and the biggest thing, time. 

Cancer will be cured, as well as all diseases related to old age, surgeries will no longer leave scarring, the common cold will be gone, children will be born without abnormalities and be perfectly healthy. Spaceflight will take a huge leap with some sort of warp drive or wormhole generator. 3D printing with be able to make a perfect replica of any body part, Ageing where you look like a wrinkled prune and have the mind of an infant will be eradicated and no longer an issue. 

I believe these things will happen at an even faster rate if we stop saying something can't be done and to keep trying without giving up.  I'm looking forward to A Smarter Future.

Scott Goerz

Nobody Is Innocent

Innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, right?  This is how law works in this country, everyone is deemed innocent first.  What a stupid concept.  Everything is reported these days, from people who are not fact checkers, but are instead, chronic gossipers, people spreading rumors like sprinkled sugar and we eat it up.

The people of this country will decide who is innocent or guilty, and the court of law can do nothing about it.  If someone in your community is suspected of being involved in a rape investigation, even if they are completely innocent, they will be judged guilty if a finger is pointed in their direction as a possible subject.


Everyone jumps to conclusions, and if you don't particularly like someone to begin with it will be much easier to judge them as guilty before you even hear any evidence. Who out there has been the perfect person and never made a mistake or been bad?  Anyone, ever?  No, yet we are so eager to point the finger and accuse others when we ourselves do not have the right to do so.

By the same token, a man is caught on camera robbing a bank, the people in the bank recognize him as the robber, the police catch him in the bank red handed and in the act of a criminal activity, they get him out of the bank and into the police car and they call him a suspect. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. No court, no jury, do not pass go and go directly to jail, that is what should happen in that case. There is no doubt in anyone's mind, that this guy is guilty.
When proof is needed however, we have to very careful who we single out as a suspect while pointing possible fingers. Simply being suspected of a crime will force you to move to a different country after your peers have judged you.  Being accused of being a pedophile I think is probably the worst thing that could happen to you, even if you are innocent.  Nobody will talk to a suspected baby raper, you will lose your job, friends, and possibly the community will band together to bring you and your family harm.  Even if you have done nothing to deserve it.

That is what this world has come to, the over inflated false claims of media and untrue tales from gossipers who want attention. Be careful who you point a finger at, because one day it could be you who is accused, and to the whole world around you, Nobody Is Innocent.

Scott Goerz

Public Space Flights

Spacex is a new company trying to privatize spaceflight, they build their own rockets and ships, free from government interference and NASA.  This company wants to take the average person into space if that individual can afford it.  If you or I had the money, would we go and experience it?

I have always wanted to experience the weightless that being in space provides, that and to see our beautiful blue planet from outer space.  Before I did that I would want certain aspects of the experience to be fine tuned first.  There is a certain amount of thrust you need to break out of the earth's gravity and into orbit, the G force apparently is incredible and a normal person would black out when he or she was subjected to it without proper training.

Then we have the problem of being in space if we have made it successfully into orbit, the space station. Despite what you may think, the station itself is pretty small, you are basically in a long tube surrounded by delicate electrical panels, wires, and hoses. There are no extra sleeping quarters or private washrooms.  There is a fine dust that is always floating around with you, and it will be inhaled with every breath, that dust is actually dead skin cells, or maybe beads of sweat from other people. They have to constantly clean the space station manually every day for their own health. Imagine 5 new lazy ass tourists coming to stay for few days.

Maybe Spacex needs to start building a hotel first, before deciding to take non astronaut participants with a lot of money, up to the station for a visit. This trip sounds like a nightmare at the moment and not a very fun experience and the worst is yet to come.

When you leave the station and have to come home, you get to do it in the same way as every other astronaut, free fall through the atmosphere in a burning fireball before you land in the ocean, hopefully with everything in working order, especially your GPS for the company to be able to find you.

There is a lot of work to be done if they are planning it to eventually be public. For it to viable they are going to need to have the trip be a smooth ride there and back, a place to stay where I'm not huddled together with 7 other people in a tube, and an almost 100 percent safety guarantee or some incredible safety specs.  If you lose power on a ship on the water, someone can come help you, if it happens in space, you are on your own.

I think they are ahead of themselves, and Spacex needs to do a lot more before anyone will be going on a Public Space Flight.

Scott Goerz

Instruction Manuals

If you have ever bought anything and had to put it together yourself, but have never done so before, you can thank your lucky stars that almost anything you buy that you have to fabricate, will come with an instruction manual. 

Some of these manuals are easy to understand with pictures and explanations, but for the most part they are vague at best but will get the job finished with some frustration.  Thankfully for some people, if they have built something before, they don't need the manual unless its for a quick reference.

I have bought more than one barbecue over the years, and every single time you do buy one, you have to assemble them yourself, but because I have assembled one before I usually don't use the manual, I'm handy and I can see what needs to go where. (minus a few screws) I have also been thoroughly frustrated with the lack of, or unclear directions and have had to muddle through it myself figuring it out along the way.

The problem with most manuals is that you have no idea of what you are going to get until you open the box.  Everyone is so dazzled by the end product or the idea of what they're buying that they don't take a moment to wonder about the difficulty of putting it together in the first place. You never know when you are going to get good instructions or bad ones. 

Why is it, that as a consumer, there is a quality control and regulation in place for a product, but not for the way it's put together? There should be a standard of excellence when selling something that need an instruction manual, and it should one of the most important pieces in the box.

Having an in depth description and a 20 page booklet is not what I'm going for here. That is too much information and easy to be overwhelmed before you even open it, but a folded single piece of paper isn't going to cut it either, as it won't explain enough. I think there should be a 3 to five page minimum on all products, with some exceptions of course, but you should never get less than three pages.

Of course this is all just my opinion as usual, and you can decide if you even want to use the manual in the first place like I do. 

Scott Goerz

Expensive Furniture, Crappy Tools

My wife and I were looking at patio sets for our deck and after searching for one we liked we decided to purchase it. A four piece set came in one small box and I knew that I was going to have some work to do, putting it together. As you would expect with most four piece sets of anything furniture related you are looking at a price tag upwards of a thousand dollars for some nice pieces, and it's my opinion that the tools should match the product.

As with most things that you buy and have to put together yourself, the package of course came with an instruction manual and it's own tools, in this case, a bunch of hexagonal allen key nuts and one allen key. 

The instruction manual had terrible pictures, and was very brief, I actually couldn't tell what one picture was depicting as it was all in one color (if black and white is a color) and looked like an origami design. I muddled through and figured out what to do, as I am pretty handy and can figure out most things.

Now to the hardware and the tools, The allen key bolts are made from a terrible type of metal, one that deforms and stretches if too much force is applied. The key itself was stronger but small, and I have to wonder what the hell the manufacturer is thinking when they decide that this was a good design choice.

If you have ever tried to use an L shaped allen key that can't make a full rotation on fine threaded bolts in a small area, you will know true frustration, the key has to fit perfectly in the head, and be straight up and down for it to work properly, if it doesn't the cheap as f**k bolts will strip and you won't be able to tighten them or remove them from their tiny area.  If you do get a perfect fit, you might get a quarter turn before you have to remove the cheap ass tool and do it all over again, get a perfect fit one hundred times without fail on one bolt, and the good news is that you have thirty bolts to line up and tighten. A good thing to do before you start would be to have a few stiff drinks, to calm the nerves.

This system of crappy tools being shipped with expensive furniture or appliances needs to change, it happens if you buy a barbecue, desk, bed frame, patio furniture and whatever else that you have to put together. It is the exact reason I will not go to IKEA for anything, ever.

Scott Goerz

Slow Integration

Self driving cars are not right around the corner, the problem and lack of internet services in remote locations as well as unforeseen glitches plague the technology. One of the main hurdles for a self driving car is that not everyone can afford one. There is not an artificial intelligence algorithm out there that can compensate for human error, and the people who don't have a self driving car would be the main hazards of those that do. 

What I'm noticing now is that some of the features of self driving vehicles is starting to be integrated into newer vehicles, there is a lane crossing warning that beeps to warn you that you have gone over the line in an intersection if you haven't signaled, there is an automatic slow down when travelling in cruise control and you come up to another vehicle and your vehicle automatically slows you down and keeps pace with the traffic.

There is automatic parking assist, back up cameras, collision sensors, airbag sensors, GPS monitoring, and automatic in distress notifications. Some vehicles have one or all of these features integrated into their systems depending on the make or model of the car.

There are a few exceptions that I have seen where a fully autonomous self driving truck delivers beer but these are just tests along long stretches of non busy highways, they are not in full production yet, but they are slowly getting more and more integrated technologies installed into them along with constant upgrades.

What truly troubles me about an update to your vehicles system, is when someone screws up. How many times has your phone been updated with a new system that is supposed to improve upon an existing foundation, only to find that your phone has completely changed and you don't know how to find anything?  There is no manual and you have to fiddle with by trial and error.

Now imagine this happens to your car the night before you have to go to work the next day, you hop in your car and your settings are all different and there are new things that you have no idea how to use.  If it were a self driving car this would not be a problem and your vehicle would simply take you to work, drop you off at the front door and then go park itself.

We are getting closer to the self driving car, but it's going to be a Slow Integration.

Scott Goerz