Welcome to Eric Piehl comments on a wide range of topics

About this site

It's a work in progress, but so's life.

    — #DoctorWho 13 premier.

Progress, not perfection.

    — shortened version of aphorism attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since 2015, major edits to this website contain:

• navigate to pages or documents in this website.
• navigate to pages or documents in other websites.
  also navigate to pages or documents in other websites, but are special in some way.
• navigate to pages or documents in a sister website.
• blue help buttons explain a concept or term, in a few sentences.
• Grayed-out buttons (if present) are placeholders for links that will appear in the near future.
  
  
• Buttons with navigate to pages or documents that are re­spon­sive/​mobile-first/​mobile-friendly.
  Pages that are also part of this or sister websites (the green or intermediate buttons with white text) are built using a homegrown static website generator, into a format that responds/​auto-adapts to different:
    ◦  platforms (📱︎ smart­phones/​mobiles/​cell­phones vs ▯ tablets vs 💻︎ computers vs 📺︎ large-screen TVs),
    ◦  orientations (▭ landscape vs ▯ portrait), and
    ◦  window resizing (pinch-zoom-out, spread-zoom-in, or drag border).
• Buttons with navigate to pages or documents that are not yet 📱︎ mobile-friendly.
  While probably awesome on 💻︎ large screens, these pages or documents may be difficult to use on ▯ small screens.
  Pages that are also part of this website (the green buttons with black text), I will convert as requested or found useful.
  
  
• To see the destination of a link, do a long-press or mouse-hover.

💡︎ LED lighting

LED lights are an amazing transformative technology:

• There is no reason to ever again buy a fluorescent, CFL, halogen or incandescent bulb.
• There is no reason to ever again buy a 💡︎ lightbulb (they had a good run for 120 years), unless your bulb is an LED replacement bulb for an existing fixture.
• There is no reason to ever again buy a lamp capable of 💡︎ holding a lightbulb (they had a good run for 120 years) — just buy a lamp with its LED light source built-in.
• There is no reason to ever again buy a recessed lamp fixture "can light" (they had a fair run for 30 years) — just buy the new drink-coaster / hockey-puck / "recessed"-smooth-trim LED lights, no thicker than your wallboard.  No "can" needed — doesn't even disturb the insulation above.

Just be very careful to buy the exact light source you want …

Q:  How many Lutherans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A:  25:
      One person to screw in the NEW lightbulb, and
      24 people to talk about how much they liked the OLD lightbulb.

    — A Prairie Home Companion, as heard by EP a while back.

For full effect, view the video ↗ above or to right by selecting the video image/link button, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

🏞 For use outdoors :

• make it a motion-light or turn off at night (saves energy, does not kill pollinators and baby-bird-food),
• make it LED (saves energy, extends lifetime), and
• make it a 💡︎ yellow bulb — particularly, I am told, the Sunco A15 or A19 LED bug bulb (article) (does not interfere with sleep, nor attract bugs, nor kill pollinators and baby-bird-food).

We recently installed a set of 24 patio lights, each 1W (quite dim) and 2200 K (quite yellow), that so far, attracts no bugs.  I have them plugged into a 💦︎ rain-resistant timer box, set to turn ON at dusk, OFF after 3 hours.  Seems to be a good compromise.

🏠︎🚶︎ For use indoors …

Or to list it another way, if you already have a lamp or bulb, and are wondering what to use it for:

Or see for yourself at a friend's house, or lighting or hardware store with excellent displays.  In my town, Lowe's and Menards have a better selection of lighting and PPE vs. Home Depot.

Get your light brighter — measured in lumens (lm) — than your existing fixtures.  You will like it.

Spend the extra US$2 or €2 each and get them dimmable.  If you later decide your lights are too bright, you can correct by installing a modern US$25 or €22 LED-compatible "C-L" dimmer switch.  (At Costco, saw a two-pack for US$8;  don't know if any good.)

Get a light that projects in a good angle:

• 100°–120° is great for filling walls and dark corners with light, in your hallways, kitchen and den.
•   20° is great for a spotlight, perhaps over a sink or a particular piece of art.

If getting a "recessed" "can light" "downlight" retrofit insert, consider whether you need a gimbal "rotatable" "eyeball" to illuminate your subjects.

An E26 adapter means your unit contains an electrical connector for your can's existing E26/E27 standard lightbulb base.

If your LED light comes with a Color Rendering Index CRI, get it High=90+, so it doesn't mess with your ability to see color.  Nice chart from OttLite.

For my laundry/work/storage room project, I handled each of these issues by replacing humming florescent tube fixtures with new LED lamps, each with:

• its own with onboard motion sensor,
• changeable correlated color temperature (CCT) (I like step 2 from red to blue), and
• brightness (I like all the way up).

Best wishes for success with your 💡︎ lighting project!

📱︎💻︎  Computer use, < /> programming, project management

📱︎💻︎  Computer use
for ordinary and tech-savvy 👥︎ computer users

📱︎💻︎ < />  Computer programming
for ordinary 👥︎ computer programmers
📱︎💻︎ < />  Computer programming advanced topics:
⚠︎ safety-critical, ✈︎ aviation, 🏭︎ industrial-quality, 🕵 internals, development, 🚧 build, install

Project management topics seem to currently be decentralized — sprinkled around the two chapters with buttons immediately ↑ above, and personal topics.   Maybe we will centralize it a bit in the future.  🚧

📱︎💻︎ < />  Computer programming for ordinary 👥︎ computer programmers

< />  Any useful code must be modified.

    — Eric's first law, first described by me, as far as I know.

For full effect, view the video ↖ above or to left by selecting the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

🛠 Tools:  web, research, 🔊︎ 📹︎ audiovisual, 📱︎💻︎ computer, < /> programming, development, and more  

Leave something for Release 1.1.

    — Eric's second law, until I get better attribution.

CSharp C# programming, under 💻︎ Visual Studio .NET 
Java programming (including ▯ Android), under 💻︎ Eclipse or Android Studio 

⛬ Quality, time, cost — project managers don't get to specify all three.

    — saying at many places.


This is often called ⛬ The Triple Constraints or ⛛ The Project Management Golden Triangle:

• Quality is also listed as good.
  Scope (user features or functionality) is included here under quality by some authors, but other authors treat this component separately.
• Time is also listed as fast or 📅︎ schedule/calendar schedule.
• Cost is also listed as cheap or resources (budget, person-hours).

These components are all linked.  Pushing on any one of these three or four components must cause (an)other component(s) to react.  For example, increasing the project scope (user features or functionality) (known as project creep) must cause the project quality to go down, the time or cost to go up, or some combination of these.  You can probably guess how this usually plays out.

👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎👩︎  Nine women can't make 🚼︎ a baby in  📅︎ one month.

    — saying at S_____/G_.

Meaning that when a project is late, piling on more people usually doesn't help, and often just makes the project later.

📱︎💻︎  Any computer de­vel­op­ment project  📅︎ $ takes longer, and costs more.

The first 80% of  📈︎ the project uses up the first   80% of  📅︎ $ schedule and budget.
The last 20% of  📈︎ the project uses up the other 80% of  📅︎ $ schedule and budget.

    — sayings at S_____/G_.

Meaning that no project plan is made with perfect information and analysis.

Apache web server, MySQL database, and PHP http scripting language  
VBA Visual Basic for Applications programming, under 💻︎ Microsoft Excel 

Personal topics

A lot here — I need to organize into some sort of structure …

🌏︎👥︎  On spaceship earth, we are not passengers — we are crew.

    — Marshal McLuhan, slightly reworded by me.

🌏︎🏠︎  Earth is our home. … Earth is not just our home, it is also our house.  It's our residence, and we are the owners.  We are not renters passing through.  We are not tenants who can complain to the landlord and eventually move on to live somewhere else.  We live here — on this 7900-mile-wide (13000 km) ball of rock, water, and air — and we are responsible for its upkeep.

    — Bill Nye, Unstoppable:  Harnessing Science to Change the World.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

    — Abraham Lincoln.

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

    — George Harrison.

Service is the rent we pay for being.  It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

    — Marian Wright Edelman.

Do what you can,
  with what you have,
    where you are.

    — Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of the 🇺🇸 USA.

If I cannot do great things,
  I can do small things in a great way.

    — Martin Luther King Jr.

Stand tall and proud,
  Sink your roots deeply into the earth,
Think long term,
  Go out on a limb,
Be content with your natural beauty,
  Drink plenty of water,
Remember your roots,
  Enjoy the view!

    — abridged version of "Advice from a Tree," by Ilan Shamir.

 ☑ VOTE informed, in every election!
 

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

    — Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.

    — ballistics expert Alex Jason, later used by Adam Savage on TV show MythBusters episode "Bouncing Bullet" (2012). ^[3]

For full effect, view the video ↖ above or to left for teens (or older!) by selecting the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

 ▶︎  The best introduction to the scientific method I have ever seen.  Gets pretty deep!

Every day is a learning day.

    — #DoctorWho 13 premier.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

    — George S. Patton

If you are 🏫︎ a student, and want to impress your teacher with on a school paper, research any of these women:

1. 1815–1852 Ada Byron world's first computer programmer, who invented programming and debugging, before having working hardware!
2. 1892–1990 Elizabeth Smith Friedman  ▶︎  PBS American Experience S33 Ep1 "The Codebreaker," 2021-12-28 > ☸︎ PBS Passport.  For full effect, select the video link, then icons ⤢ full­screen, ㏄ Closed Captions=On,  and ▶︎ Play.
3. 1906–1992 Admiral Grace Hopper got computers really going, in a production system.  "Nobody stays until somebody pays."  She now has a warship named after her.
4. 1932–2023 Jane Howard Allen Piehl business analyst/​systems engineer/​computer programmer/​computer operations trainer — when they wrote programs using ║ wires!   (More.) (Photo of a simple program.)
   Turned mother, campaign manager, caregiver, bookkeeper/​business analyst/​one-woman nonprofit incubator, board member, agent of change, and more.
   If you are a friend or relative, ask me for source material!  (Jane Piehl's recipe for Laurentian/Algonquian 🍲︎ oatmeal/porridge.  )
   
   
5. 1706–1749 Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet physicist, mathematician, philosopher, translator, revolutionary.
6. 1845–1910 "Emma Cole, Grand Rapids Flora Pioneer" biologist and educator in western Michigan.   "Emma Jane Cole, West Michigan's Late-19th Century Botanist:  A Biographical Sketch". "Emma Cole's 1901 Grand Rapids Flora:  Nomenclaturally Updated and Revised".
7. 1879–1967 Marguerite Harrison socialite, journalist, spy.
8. 1909–1974 Virginia Apgar transformed childbirth, neonatology, anesthesiology, and handling of birth defects, all in an effort to combat infant mortality.
9. 1914–2000 Hedy Lamarr did so many things, you need great sources to understand she is a single person.
10. 1933–2022 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Notorious RBG.

    — my list.  With the exception of the last entry (the Notorious RBG), these women are well-known in only the most obscure geeky circles.  Do your report anytime — not just for Women's History Month.  These are great stories!

Well before doing an 🗣 oral report on a topic above (or any other), watch  ▶︎ 🗣 How To Speak, by Patrick Winston.   Will take an hour, but is well worth it.

Put your head down,
  do great work,
  be the most knowledgeable and helpful person in the room.
I think that will get you lots of places.

    — Gwynne Shotwell, CEO of SpaceX, 72 secs from beginning of video ↖ above or to left (link takes you to focus of talk at time 27:23).

For full effect, view the video ↖ above or to left by selecting the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

Career guide, job skills, and other resources, to help you find a career with impact recommended by Real Life Lore and Perun.

How to talk, and take interviews.

Lean into the pain.   And later,
Embrace the suck.

    — military saying popular since the mid-2000s.

When you are offered a test or intervention,
BRAN reminds you to ask about and consider the
  Benefits,
  Risks and
  Alternatives, and to also consider the effects of doing
  Nothing in this situation.

    — Sarah J Buckley, MD, Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering:  A Doctor's Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices

"The Feelings Circle:  A Genius Chart For Better Communications"

IF (1) your situation seems untenable to you, and
    (2) really is bad (not just you overreacting to it), and
    (3) you cannot effect change to that situation to make it tenable,
THEN you have no alternative — leave that situation.

    — paraphrase of speaker during a group discussion on 2022-01-24.

We need job time boundaries.  Even without pandemic emergencies.

1. I used to work very closely with a team in Sydney, Australia, 15 or 17 hours ahead of me, depending on Daylight-Savings/Summer Time.  After meeting in-person for a few days (including a team-building dinner, and a team-building trip to our local rollercoaster park, we worked very well via email or phone.  After a few missteps:
   
     •  I soon learned that my team in Oz would be happy if, when starting work MTWR, I checked for emails from them.  Then, before ending work MTWF, sending something back to them.  Could be a reference to the bug and fix, could be diagnostic questions for the customer, could be Got it, working on it, no questions yet.  Friday morning, I didn't need to check email so diligently, but still needed to send out any updates before ending work.
   
     •  They soon learned that, if they needed to talk to me, they could always call me during my working hours, although inconvenient for them.  Or they could call me at home during their working hours.  After a few Can I call you back in an hour?s, they learned that calling me at home during dinner, kid-bathtime, reading-time and bedtime was terrible, and once they learned when the kids were reliably asleep, they could call and have my full attention.  For an hour, anyway, perhaps a bit more.  We also soon learned to notify each other whenever it was time to Spring Forward or Fall Back.  Fun, felt connected to something larger than ourselves!
   
   This global arrangement worked out very well, after we got some ground rules that worked.
   
   
2. Later, with a local team, on very-tight deadlines, we set up a culture where we would check our email when we started work, again maybe 45-minutes before leaving for the day, with an optional (if not deep in research or debugging) check at lunch.  If that wasn't timely enough, your remedy was to call, or walk over there!

Again, having your team create a culture of when to expect people to be working, when to be responding to email, made it much easier for everyone.  And more productive!

You can't do hard research, development or debugging when being interrupted.  I recall some hard projects where it took 3–3½ hours to get your head down deep enough into the code, where if you didn't have 5-hour stretches of uninterrupted work, you would never get anything done at all!

Five Principles for a Life of Breakthrough and Purpose:

1. Take big bets and make history.
   People can be naturally cautious.  They look at what's worked in the past and try to do more of it, but history-making transformation happens when people strive for revolutionary change.
2. Be bold, take risks.
   Have the courage to try new, unproven things and the rigor to continue experimenting.  Risk taking isn't a blind leap, but a process of trial and error.
3. Make failure matter.
   No one seeks out failure, but if you're trying new things, the outcome is uncertain.  Great innovators make setbacks matter, applying [Lessons Learned and Best Practices], and sharing them with others.
4. Reach beyond your bubble.
   Innovation happens at intersections.  Great and original solutions come from engaging with people with diverse experiences to forge unexpected partnerships.
5. Let urgency conquer fear.
   Don't overthink it.  It's natural to want to study all angles of a problem, but don't get caught up in the fear of what could go wrong — allow the need to act to outweigh doubts.

    — Jean Case Be Fearless

When you have a problem, solve it: Think through the problem …
  Identify your need,
  assess your resources,
  develop a plan,
  sequence your steps.

    — Angelline Boulley, in Firekeeper's Daughter.

If you are 📅︎ scheduled to do something hard, at showtime, you want to live in the moment.

If you don't yet feel ready:

• Prepare.  Hard.  Over-prepare.
• Exercise.  Hard.
• Center yourself.  Using whatever works for you:
    ◦  Yoga.
    ◦  Long walk.
    ◦  Play your 🎸︎ favorite instrument.
    ◦ Garden.
    ◦  🍳︎  Cook.
    ◦  💃 Dance.
    ◦  Whatever.
• If you are reasonably-young or -urban, 👂︎ listen to  ▶︎  Eminem's Lose Yourself a few times.
• 🍲︎ 😋︎ Eat a good healthy and yummy dinner.
• Get a great night's sleep.
• Eat a moderate healthy breakfast, caffeinating normally.
• Get your game face on.
• You are ready.  You own it!
• If it still doesn't feel right …
    Fake it until you make it!

    — various sources, some me, 2018-03-26.   ▶︎  Jackson Browne's The Pretender.

Resist imposter syndrome.    If you still feel like a fraud.

You can prove me wrong.  Because we are all capable of the most incredible change.  We can evolve, while still staying true to who we are.  We can honor who we've been, and choose who we want to be next.  How about it?

    — #DoctorWho 13 premier.

Getting free Credit Reports, Fraud Alerts, FICO scores, credit counseling, and handling identity theft and phishing attacks.

🕒︎ The time is always right to do what is right.

    — Martin Luther King Jr.

You will draw from your errors the very lessons which may enable you to avoid their repetition.

    — Sir William Osler, Aequanimatus

Progress, not perfection.

    — shortened version of aphorism attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous.

You don't have to behave perfect, just meet the reasonable-person test.

Don't do anything you don't want to explain to a judge.

    — Eric's fourth and fifth laws, first described by me, as far as I know.

When stopped by the 🛂︎ police:

• If driving:
    ◦  Put on a turn signal or otherwise acknowledge the Stop.
    ◦  Turn off the radio.
    ◦  Continue driving to a safe open location, pull over, Park, turn on the interior lights and outside flashers, lower the driverside window (or whichever window you expect the officer to approach), and turn off the engine.
    ◦  🗣  Tell any passengers to remain silent — you are the driver, and will do all the talking.
    ◦  🗣  Tell any passengers to not reach for anything.
       If you are racial minorities, 🗣 tell any passengers to put their hands on the dashboard or seatbacks.
    ◦  Passengers may record video of the encounter (just like any encounter in a public space), but don't be a nuisance, and get out smartphones and start recording way before the officer comes to the window.
    ◦  If your smartphone has a subcription to on-demand lawyer app TurnSignl, start a session on the app now.
    ◦  Put your hands on the steering wheel, and leave them there.
       Do not reach for 🪪📄︎📄︎ any paperwork (nor anything else) until:  🛂︎ (A) the officer requests them, (B) the officer and you verbally confirm their locations, and (C) the officer instructs you to proceed.
• At all times:
    ◦  Be polite.
    ◦  Be respectful.
    ◦  Keep your hands visible, and movements slow and calm.
    ◦  but …
• Do not disclose information to the police:
    ◦  Do not lie.
    ◦  But unless you called them, consider not disclosing the truth, either!  See video ↗ above or to right.  For full effect, select the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.
• X🛃︎X  Do not consent to a search.
    ◦  Not your 🚗︎ vehicle, 🏠︎ home, 📱︎ phone, 💻︎ computer, nor 🎒︎ backpack.
    ◦  If searched anyway, 🗣 speak loudly enough to be heard by witnesses, carcams and bodycams that you do not consent to this search.
• X🪪X  Do not hand over your ID.  Unless, of course:
    ◦  🛃︎  You are crossing an international border, in which case you are legally obligated to provide your 🪪 travel documents.
    ◦  🪪 Or you are the driver in a traffic stop, in which case you are legally obligated to provide your 🪪📄︎📄︎:  (1) driver's license, (2) registration, and (3) proof of insurance.
       But do not reach for them until:  🛂︎ (A) the officer requests them, (B) the officer and you verbally confirm their locations, and (C) the officer instructs you to proceed.
• X⚖︎🛂︎X  Do not take legal advice from a cop.
    ◦  🛂︎  Police are allowed to lie to you about almost everything — and do!
• Good answers for 🛂︎ police requests include:
    ◦  ⚖︎🗣  "Am I legally obligated to answer that question?"
    ◦  ⚖︎🪪 "Am I legally obligated to provide my ID?"
    ◦  ⚖︎     "I think I will consult my attorney on that."  And the ultimate, …
    ◦  🚶︎      "Am I free to leave?"
       If the answer is "Yes", calmly and silently walk or drive away.

More details at 🇺🇸 ACLU series Know Your Rights If You're Stopped by the 🛂︎ Police, Immigration Agents or the FBI 📄︎ printable card   📄︎ printable sheet. 

If you expect 🛂︎ police contact, what to do with your electronics.  (page 25)

When stopped by 🛂︎︎ the police, if you would feel more comfortable with a lawyer looking over your shoulder, get a subscription to on-demand lawyer app TurnSignl.

If you expect 🛂︎ ☑ trouble voting.

Between encounters with 🛂︎ police, 💳︎ 📝︎ pay your parking tickets and citations, and 🚶︎⚖︎ 📅︎ attend all court dates.  Attending to these things may be painful, but they will be far easier to unwind early on, before they get muddled up with other offenses, and eventually turn into an 🛂︎ arrest warrant.

Watch  ▶︎  🗣 How To Speak, by Patrick Winston.  Will take an hour, but is well worth it.

And while we are at it, you know how 🚼︎ children need a parent when they go to the ⚕︎ doctor — a guardian or patient advocate?  I think that we all — 🏛🚶︎ educated adults included — need a second with us — an advocate — for all important encounters with ⚕︎ doctors, the 🛂︎ police or ⚖︎ courts.  A family member or friend, who:

• is organized,
• can 📝︎ take notes,
• can notice points that you miss, and
• can continue thinking after your brain shuts down upon hearing keywords cancer or jail.

Maybe we can catch all this information the first time, without having to resurrect everything later.

If you want to know even more, attend the Citizens Police Academy CPA of your local 🛂︎ police or sheriff department > personalize myJurisdiction.  We did, and are very happy with the experience.  We learned a lot!  If you are 👪︎ family or a friend, ask us for details — we will talk your head off!

If you committed some youthful indiscretions, took care of them, some time has elapsed, and want to put those behind you, you can petition the court to expunge your record.

If the court agrees, you can then again ☒ truthfully mark No to questions about arrests, charges or convictions on job applications and rental forms.

If you have the resources, do it — it is your right.

If necessary, at least check to see if you are included in automatic remedies such as Michigan's automatic expungement of 2023.

If the facts are against you,
    argue the law.
 If the law is against you,
    argue the facts.
 If the law and the facts are against you,
    pound the table and yell like hell.

    — Carl Sandburg.

These questions must all be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?  [What is it?]
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?  [What is it?]
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?  [What is it?]
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American People?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?

    — The Powell Doctrine.   [Emphasis mine.]  I found this to be a terrific help in understanding our government's actions.  A tragedy that it survived as policy for only a dozen years — 1990 to 2002.  If it had continued, our world would be very different today.

Eschew obfuscation.

    — my Dad, among other people.

Test like you fly;  fly like you test.
    — The way I learned it
writing ✈︎ aviation software.

Train like you fight;  fight like you train.
    — The way I heard some of our customers learned it.

Plan your work;  work the plan.
    — The way I learned it in chainsaw safety training.

But …

Fail early, and pivot.
    — The way I learned it in entrepreneur startup seminars.

No plan of battle survives first contact with the enemy.
    — Many versions, this is a variation of that said by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.

Meaning every plan must be adjusted as you experience new information.

Make sure you fail on the test stand, so you do not fail in flight.
    — Elon Musk, quoted in "Elon Musk explains that destroyed SpaceX capsule came from testing to the 'extreme'" by Michael Sheetz.  CNBC.  2019-10-10.

Failure is an option here.  If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
    — Elon Musk, quoted in "In 2 Sentences Elon Musk Explains Why the Key to Success Is Failure."  Inc.  2015-07-14.

⚠︎ But if you have an actual emergency …

Aviate.  Navigate.  Communicate.

    — In that order.  And don't move on to step 2 (or 3), unless you have step 1 (and 2) fully under control.
        6 pilot rules that everyone should live by.

If in danger,
  if in doubt,
run in circles,
  scream and shout.

    — OK, maybe this won't do any good;  ignore this advice.

Preparing and showing ▭🌄︎ presentations
during live 👥︎ in-person, or ▭ digital  ▶︎  video virtual web-based
meetings, conferences, gatherings or webinars
of distributed or self-isolating teams  
 
 

Don't let Perfect be the enemy of Good.

    — aphorism commonly attributed to Voltaire, slightly reworded by me.

Progress, not perfection.

    — shortened version of aphorism attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous.

If you have identified a near-optimum solution, it may be OK to implement this one, instead of continuing the search for the optimum solution.

    — Not sure I've ever heard it said this way;  said by me for years, recorded here 2018-06-30.  Understood instinctively by single parents.

    — Seems to map to the tension between current terms FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out/Fear of Missing Opportunities) versus FOBO (Fear Of Better Option) (which results in fear of commitment).  Both basically are fears of unknown risks.  Use this tension — don't run from it — or you will end up with FODA (Fear Of Doing Anything), which has its own known risks.  [2019-09-01.]

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

    — Nelson Mandela

For full effect, view the video ↗ above or to right by selecting the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

You are what you have patience to be.

    — MTA, personal communication, 2019-01-22

🏊︎ Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.  What do we do?  We swim, swim.

    — Dory.

It gets better!

    — I first heard this used by people trying to reduce 💥︎🔫︎ death by suicide in gay teens.  Later, I found it applicable for all young people, and anyone trying to find their way in this crazy world.

I think it usually gets better:

• Partly because you get more experience solving problems.
• Partly because you meet more people who can help you out — who know that nugget of information that you need right now, or whatever.
• Partly because you slowly acquire more assets to help you along the way.

It may not look that way now, but if you can avoid dying, I've found it generally does get better!


If you, or someone you know, is 💥︎🔫︎ considering harming themselves, please contact the:

• National Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Crisis Lifeline
   > survivors, youth, black, Native Americans, en Español, 💬︎ chat, more;  or
    ◦  📱︎☎ 988 or 📱︎☎ 1-800-273-TALK , or
    ◦  📱︎💬︎ SMS text to 988 , or
    ◦  see your local Community Mental Health CMH department.
  
  
• Veterans Crisis Line is at:
    ◦  same Lifeline site as ↑ above > link Veterans, or
    ◦  same Lifeline 📱︎☎ as ↑ above > press 1, or
    ◦  📱︎💬︎ SMS text to 838255 , or through
    ◦  💬︎ online chat.
  
  
• YouthLine is a free, confidential Teen-to-Teen crisis and help line.  From 4–10pm PT, it connects youth to youth counselors aged 11–20 (all other hours, adults are available by phone).  Available at:
    ◦  YouthLine , or
    ◦  📱︎☎ 1-877-968-8491 , or
    ◦  📱︎💬︎ SMS text "TEEN2TEEN" to 839863 , or through
    ◦  💬︎ online chat.

For depression and other mental health issues, please see:

• ▦☐ Depression screening questionnaire.
    ◦  For alcohol and drug use, anxiety, dementia, PTSD, and 📱︎ calculators, use this link > ▦ top-left or left navigation.
• ▦🛠 Several mental health screening tools.
• Grit Scale by Angela Duckworth, then Grit Scale results and discussion.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire described by NPR.
• (60 hours per week) National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 📧︎ email 📱︎☎ 24-hour helpline 1-800-950-NAMI or 📱︎💬︎ SMS text "HelpLine" to 62640.

Dementia Road Map:  A Guide for Family and Care Partners. 

Info on other health topics, including 💊︎ Rx, medical tests, medical terminology, recipes, supplements, and genetics.

For full effect, select the video image ↗ above or to right, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

We are all temporarily-abled.

    — Source unknown, I heard it a long time ago.  Although on 2018-10-02, I heard Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee say that ⚕︎ doctors understand very well that they will soon be on the other side of the exam table.

Lesson Learned:  Design everything for your future self:

• 🚧 Build your websites with text large-enough, contrast high-enough, and all that accessibility stuff.
• Design/​acquire/​modify your 🏠︎ home with your ♿ future abilities and limitations in mind.
• Test it!

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

    — George Harrison. ]


For some more actions along these lines.

Running a household, including maintaining, buying or selling a 🏠︎ house or condominium  

Preparing for and seeing a 🌑 total solar or lunar eclipse!
        (for 👥︎ people who do this sporadically)  
 
 

Eric Piehl resume    Eric Piehl resume    Eric Piehl LinkedIn (he/him/his)

Not knowing something is fine.
Not wanting to know,
  or refusing to know, is the problem.

    — Eric's third law, first described by me, as far as I know.

If you don't ask, the answer's No.

    — MM, about 1998.

Your decision isn't just about you.  It's for your children, grandchildren.

Think seven generations ahead when [you] make big decisions, because [your] future [descendants], those yet to arrive, who will one day become the elders, live with the choices you make today.

    — Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

    —  ▶︎  🔊︎ Song Freewill, by band Rush.
1980-01-14.   For full effect, select the video link button, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

For full effect, view the videos ↖ above or to left by selecting a video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.   More  ▶︎  videos like ↖ above or to left.   Even more  ▶︎  videos from them!

Or ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ go outdoors ( ▶︎  in ☀︎ natural sunlight, direct or indirect).

old 🏠︎ home page  (under 🚧 reconstruction)

I have other articles, not for public use.  Some articles are just for me.  If you are a on how to access them.

Hamilton: An American Musical is amazing, on lots of levels.

To convince you to get 🎫 tickets to the show next time it comes to your town, please study the quotes, videos and Dramatus Personæ ↓ below, synopsis and lyrics.

This first video image (↖ above or left) links to fragments of PBS TV show American Experience episode "Hamilton's America," which describes the story about the musical, and about half the musical itself.  Its second link used to show the full episode.  Later, it was available with ☸︎ PBS Passport.   Later, even that was taken away.  I hope PBS restores access to this episode — it is terrific.  Meanwhile, enjoy the fragments!  And these newer fragments!  For full effect, select the video image or link, then sublinks, then icons ⤢ full­screen, ㏄ Closed Captions=On,  and ▶︎ Play.

Talk less, smile more,
  don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.
…
You keep out of trouble,
  and you double your choices.
…
You want to get ahead?
  Fools who shoot their mouths off, wind up dead.    — Aaron Burr

I can wait for it.    — Aaron Burr

⚰
Death doesn't discriminate
  between the sinners and saints,
And we keep living anyway,
  we rise and we fall,
  and we break,
  and we make our mistakes.
And if there is reason, I'm still alive
  when so many have died,
Then I'm willing to wait for it,
  I'm willing to wait for it.
…
I'm the one thing in life I can control,
  I am inimitable, I am an original.
I'm not running behind or running late,
  I'm not standing still, I am lying in wait.
…
Hamilton doesn't hesitate,
  he exhibits no restraint,
  he takes and he takes and he takes,
And he keeps winning anyway,
  he changes the game,
  he plays
  and he raises the stakes.
And if there's a reason he seems to thrive
  when so few survive,
  then Goddamnit —
I'm willing to wait for it.    — Aaron Burr


This second video image (↖ above or left) links to the entire musical:  audio plus lyrics.  For full effect, select the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.

No one else was in the room where it happened
  No one really knows how the game is played
  The art of the trade
  How the sausage gets made
  We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in the room where it happens.    — Aaron Burr

I have never been satisfied.  I am never satisfied.  I will never be satisfied.    — Angelica Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton

Rise up.    — ensemble

I'd rather be divisive than indecisive.    — Alexander Hamilton

I am not throwing away my shot!    — Alexander Hamilton

We gotta go,
  gotta get the job done,
  gotta start a new nation,
  gotta meet my son!        — Alexander Hamilton, about to lead a charge in the Battle of Yorktown

Tomorrow there'll be more of us.    — John Laurent

I wanna be in the room where it happens.    — Aaron Burr

Dying is easy, young man,
  living is harder.
…
Winning was easy, young man,
  governing's harder.              — George Washington

You could let it go,
  stay alive for me.
Let it go,
  live to fight another day.    — Eliza Schuyler (Hamilton) and George Washington
Look at where you are,
  look at where you started.
The fact that you're alive is a miracle,
  just stay alive, that would be enough.  That would be enough.    — Eliza Schuyler (Hamilton)

Look around, look around,
  at how lucky we are to be alive right now.    — Alexander Hamilton

If you stand for nothing,
  what'll you fall for?
…
What're you waiting for,
  what do you stall for?
We won the war,
  what was it all for?    — Alexander Hamilton

Why do you always
  say what you believe?
Every proclamation guarantees
  free ammunition for your enemies!    — Aaron Burr

Why do you assume you're the smartest in the room?
  Soon that attitude may be your doom!
How do you write like it's going out of style?
  Write day and night like it's going out of style?    — Aaron Burr

How do you write like you're running out of time?
  Write day and night like you're running out of time?
How do you write like tomorrow won't arrive,
  How do you write like you need it to survive?
How do you write every second you're alive?
  Every second you're alive?  Every second you're alive?    — ensemble


I feel that for much of my past, I have been an amalgam of Burr and Hamilton.  But am increasingly Hamilton.   Obviously, Lin-Manuel Miranda watched some of the same movies as me.


See what Hamilfans think of ☑ voting.

Dramatis personæ
Character	How to recognize	Played by (Broadway original cast | Lansing)
Alexander Hamilton, protagonist, born Saint Croix, Nevis	Light vest and pants, coats=brown then blue then dark green.	Lin-Manuel Miranda | Edred Utomi
Eliza Schuyler (Hamilton), wife to Alexander, sister to Angelica and Peggy	Hair=tied back neat, dress=brown or white.	Phillipa Soo | Hannah Cruz
Aaron Burr, antagonist	Hair=near-shaved, burgundy or dark coat.	Leslie Odom, Jr. | Josh Tower
Angelica Schuyler, brightest character in play, sister to Eliza and Peggy	Hair=long, dress=bright.	Renée Elise Goldsberry | Stephanie Umoh
George Washington, general, President	Hair=shaved, white britches, navy coat with white trim, light blue sash, navy 3-cornered hat.	Christopher Jackson | Paul Oakley Stovall
Marquis de Lafayette, revolutionary in USA and France	Hair=wild, pulled back into ponytail.	Daveed Diggs | Bryson Bruce
Thomas Jefferson, Ambassador to France, Secretary of State, President	Hair=wild, bright purple coat.
Hercules Mulligan, tailor's apprentice, spy	Hair=gray winter knit cap, dark coat, light vest and pants.	"Oak" Okieriete Onaodowan | Chaundre Hall-Broomfield
James Madison, President
John Laurens, abolitionist	Hair=brown pulled back.	Anthony Ramos | Jon Viktor Corpuz
Philip Hamilton, son to Alexander
Peggy Schuyler, sister to Angelica and Eliza		Jasmine Cephas Jones | Olivia Puckett
Maria Reynolds, affair with Alexander Hamilton
King George III		Jonathan Grof | Peter Matthew Smith

Hamilton details found by YouTube content creator Flicks and the City

Caring for a loved-one whose mind and/or body is falling apart

Attention dysregulation, currently called ADD and ADHD

Prevention of 🤧︎ allergies and ⚠︎🫁 asthma

The purpose of life is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide.
    — Michael Russell, Astrobiologist at JPL.

… or on other worlds, perhaps hydrogenate acetylene or ethane.
    — Chris McKay, Astrobiologist at NASA Ames.

The purpose of life is to dissipate local energy and increase our universe's entropy, more efficiently than possible with non-biological processes.
    — Is the universe pro-life?
Quartz.  2019-02-15.

"On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems", October 16, 2023 DOI: 10.1073/​pnas.2310223120 accessed 2023-10-17.

We all have two lives.  The second one starts when we realize that we only have one.

    — Tom Hiddleston.

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

    —  ▶︎  🔊︎ Song Freewill, by band Rush.
1980-01-14.   For full effect, select the video link button, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ full­screen, and ▶︎ Play.