Category Archives: Other Columns

Columns concerning any and everything. Enjoy!

Moving Forward

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by in News and Notes, Other Columns, The Perrin Lovett Show

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Summer can be a time for reflection. I, as author and editor of this site, have the luxury of taking stock of where the work is going. This is the fifth summer at perrinlovett.me though the third of real activity (2012 and 2014 were pretty lame, yes). Based on such a short history I can still see trends. For instance, I know summer, for whatever reason, is a slower time for readership. Kids out of school, vacation, too hot – whatever. It’s just slower than the rest of the year.

Yet and still growth is happening. The July ended this past Sunday was my busiest July by far. The attention comes in waves. Lately the peaks of those waves have been reaching higher and higher. By the way, thank you all.

It’s not just July that impresses me. Everything is trending upwards. This post, on August 2nd, will bring my total for 2016 some sixty articles higher than through all of 2015. Positive growth. You are responding too. Sometime this morning I achieved more total viewers for this year than through all of last year (and I thought last year was impressive – for me). All that compressed into seven months, one day, and a few short hours. I’ve also noticed a growing audience outside of North America – much of what I write is about Europe and the rest of the West. It’s entirely likely that by December I will have eclipsed all previous numbers, counted together. Thanks, again.

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WANTED for cigar arson and crimes against insanity.

Today, as a reward, I re-posted a popular piece from last fall – Piracy, Counterfeiting and Treason. Those are the three named crimes from the Constitution which the federal government may pursue. Of course, as I point out in the article, today the government commits them rather than prosecutes them. A few weeks ago a friend joked with me: “Perrin’s blog – government is bad.” That’s my theme (punctuated with guns, cigars and cultural befuddlement). Yes. That’s me and that’s not going to change.

What of the future? What will change, if anything?

Progress will continue to be slow and steady. I am akin to the tortoise of Aesop fame. More commentary, certainly. More books offerings. I am (veeeerrrry slooowly) working on an e-course which many of you will find of great utility. Rumor has it The Perrin Lovett Show may return.

There will, some day, be another page upgrade. There are three levels at WordPress. I’m in the middle level right now. Level one is free (for me) and basic. My level is paid and comes with many expanded features for you. The next level costs a little more but offers me near-total control while allowing you a more seamless experience. For one thing, it will eliminate the ads which WP sometimes runs here. I don’t control or benefit from them. I don’t really like them but I can’t, yet, do anything about them. The other day I wrote a short about how bad Hillary Clinton is. When I looked at it through a regular browser it was accompanied by a “I’m With Her” political ad. Ridiculous. That sort of thing will be going away.

I’ve never run ads per se here. Naturally, I promote the site and my published work. Once I had a few links to some businesses owned by friends. They may come back if I so decide. I may also run a few independent and narrowly targeted ads for things that fit with my overall theme. You’ll know them when you see them.

The next level will also feature embedded video. That will be handy should I decide to do a full-time, regular video series or a podcast or something. I also toy with the idea of a paid section – a newsletter or something similar. Nothing mandatory though.

I have been building an email list this summer. Experts say this is critical for promoting a presence and marketing things like e-books. Hint: if you’re reading this, you may very well be on the list. In short order I will do a test mailing. That will allow you the opportunity to stay on the list or to leave (why you would leave is beyond me…). It will also allow me to judge how bad my infrastructure is. Very bad I suspect. Moving forward I will upgrade to a professional mail service; right know it’s just a “group” in Gmail.

The experts also say a list needs 10,000 members to be truly effective but that the list essentially builds itself once it gets going. They say several hundred members is a good start. I’m starting somewhere between a good start and truly effective. I’m counting on you to get me to 10,0000 and beyond.

You can count on me to keep rambling and ranting away. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Thank you, yet again.

Perrin

The Devil’s In The Details: Pokemon Craze

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in News and Notes, Other Columns

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in for a little while and attend an e-conference on cyber-security and Pokemon. This was put on for the benefit of large businesses and organizations which have something to lose to the game – many things actually. I was astounded.

I see people playing the game everywhere. To think it just got started a week or so back. People are having fun but there is cause for concern. Many businesses are using their exposure to the game (unwittingly hosting Pokestops) as free advertising. Outwardly they welcome players and tout themselves as hip. Inwardly, many of these exact same companies are worried. They have good cause.

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blackappleintl.com.

Pokemon Go was designed to work very well on both Apple and Android devices. Part of its universal success is the way it utilizes most of a phone’s features. Depending on one’s device, the game and its makers may have root access to up to 60-70% of the device’s systems. Root access means the game can, theoretically, manipulate and control most of the phone. It probably has easy backdoor access to the rest.

The odds are those who made the game are not interested in maliciously accessing or misusing a player’s phone – that would be very bad for business. When it was pointed out to them that they had such unprecedented control, they admitted to overkill in their software design. They wanted the game to run smoothly and it does because it is so powerful as an app. Players give them the right to that access and potential control – it’s in the terms in the app agreement people click without reading. People willingly give Pokemon a level of access to their digital lives that the FBI has been unable to obtain with Court orders.

This presents several problems for businesses. First, people are using company phones and devices to play the game. That means they are signing over access to and control of cloud information which might otherwise be privileged. It also means they are probably playing on company time.

Remember, Pokemon itself is not likely to misuse the information it is privy to. However, this breach of security is a hacker’s dream. Experts suggest it would be very easy to hack the app and upload a variety of malware or ransom-ware or to simply clone the device or steal information.

Big business is now spending big money to combat this threat that didn’t even exist a month ago. They are also concerned that a host of similar knock-off apps are coming to ride the wave of Poke-success. A Harry Potter app is likely in the works right now. Success upon success.

Ordinary people would be wise to assess how all of them might affect them. A hacker could backdoor his way into one’s iPhone and essentially lock down the best features until the owner paid a fee for restoration.

There are other and more common problems with the game too. It has already been reported that people are trespassing while in search of the little … whatever they ares. People are winding up in places, some of them sensitive (power grid, etc.) where they probably don’t need to be. People are getting lost. They falling and injuring themselves. They are causing traffic accidents.

All of these things should be cause for second-guessing the utility of the game. I would suggest playing (if one must) on a throw-away device – a Trackfone or something similar – something disconnected entirely from one’s other accounts and business. Pokemon spotters might be a good idea to keep players from falling down old wells. People probably shouldn’t play on company time or while driving automobiles. As with most things, a little common sense goes a long way.

Pokemon 2.0: Let’s Step It Up A Notch

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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I see a lot of folks out there playing Pokemon Go. In their cars. At the gym. In the store. My fireman buddy reports they come to the station day and night looking for those elusive … whatever they ares. They’ve overrun the park where I jog and hike. Today when I ventured out it was about 100 Degrees so there weren’t that many to run around. Actually, at 100 my “run” was more of a stooping, sweating, grumbling, weary stumble (but I did it!). Anyway, it almost looks like they’re having fun with it all. Good for them. Did you know the Pokemon can hibernate? Or, was that incubate? Whatever.

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Constitutimon!? bc.ctvnews.ca.

I’ve come up with a short list of things that could be included, scavenger-style, in the next update for the game. Wouldn’t it be fun to go around beating the digital bushes to find:

An honest politician?

A useful government program?

Or a Constitutional government program?

A government program that wasn’t bankrupting us?

Local lone wolf terrorists? (Think of the fun they’d have collecting their gold coins or stars(??) and fighting of the Caliphate!)

A plausible explanation for how WTC 7 collapsed without the aid of explosives?

A way to quantitatively ease the Federal Reserve out of existence?

How about helping O.J. find the real killer(s)?

Jobs for all these protesters who spring up everywhere?

Obama’s birth certificate? (I know 4G ain’t the best in some parts of Kenya…)

Any “real” Georgia fans who followed Mark Richt down to Miami?

An end to the federal regulatory code?

Gun free zones which are also crime free?

The lost city of Detroit?

The computer that comes up with all these awful television and movie plots?

Zamfir? (Remember him? Master of the pan flu … no.)

Snipes! (Who didn’t love a snipe hunt?)

Paul Ryan’s spine?

The Smurf village.

A feasible way to excise D.C. from North America?

Men who have read 50 Shades of Grey? (A real challenge.)

Green space chickens?

All the other Pokemon-ers who have fallen off cliffs or into wells or down holes.

With all those folks out there looking for something, I figure they might want to try finding something other than cartoon characters. Trivial enough? Probably not.

 

The World Is Changing. You In?

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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Earlier today I wrote an article about how sitting in a cubicle like a zombie will kill you. If you’re already undead, you might as well go all the way, right? In my story I mentioned that the job itself might be a problem.

Then I read a couple of pieces by James Altucher (one usually leads to another). You need to read them now. The first is 10 Reasons Your Boss Hates You. The Next is 10 Reasons You Have to Quit Your Job (in 2016). Go ahead, read them now – I’ll wait right here.

Okay, he’s right, right? The old economy is on life support. And the “old way” hasn’t really been around that long. At any rate it isn’t working anymore.

5) Income is Disappearing

In the past 25 years, real income has gone from $36,000 to $33,000 for people ages 18 to 35.

Why? Who knows. Because nobody cares.

Then the talking blobs on TV tell you you have to start saving during those years.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has gone up.

How do you save, when it costs more to LIVE, while the money coming in the bank is going down.

Society is being strangled. I don’t blame anyone. It’s not the government’s fault. It’s not Wall Street’s fault. Or Main Street’s fault.

Jobs were a myth from the beginning.

The Industrial Revolution standardized society so that factory workers would show up at the same time, have the same education, hit the same bolt on the same nut at the same time, and get paid every two weeks.

That’s the truth, good, bad or indifferent. I’m a fuddy-duddy. Yet, even I realize things are changing and must change. It’s not just incomes that are going down (away?). Home ownership is at the lowest level in over 50 years – only 62% of adults own a house. And, most of them don’t even own one – a bank owns it for them.

The whole economy is being shaken up. Facebook, today, passed Berkshire Hathaway in terms of market cap. Let that sink in for a second. Then again, many of you are reading this right now because you saw it on Facebook, not through one of Buffett’s companies.

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vimeo.com/HP.

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday and another, similar one today about how I publish words. To some, what I do seems like wizardry. Maybe it is in a sense. But, its academic and logistical, not magical. Me – computer – internet – Amazon – your computer, phone or bookshelf. Kind of like: cow – farmer – bottle – truck – grocery store – your fridge. Easy, huh?

The old economy is on life support and the funeral arrangements are now being made for the traditional publishing industry (and the bookstores). Meanwhile, Amazon keeps posting record profit after record profit. They capitalize on me and my computer and I on them. Heck, I’m preparing to give them two new amazing works to offer world-wide in a few days (weeks? – y’all know I’m slow). Then, I’m publishing more. And more after that.

If the world is changing, I’m going to make the most of it. I hope you do to.

Your Job is Killing You

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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You knew that but now there’s scientific evidence. The Telegraph has an excellent piece on the threat of the modern, sedentary lifestyle or work style.

Office workers must exercise for one hour a day to combat the deadly risk of modern working lifestyles, a major Lancet study has found.

Research on more than one million adults found that sitting for at least eight hours a day could increase the risk of premature death by up to 60 per cent.

Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity.

They urged anyone spending hours at their desk to change their daily routine to take a five minute break every hour, as well as exercise at lunchtimes and evenings.

It’s not enough that you have the work itself to kill you – the angry bosses, the irritating co-workers, the customers who want everything for free (with no respect to boot). It’s also the hours of dull, slumped sitting there, wallowing in it all.

The EPA and other monitoring groups have long said the air inside our offices and frequently our houses is more polluted than the worst air outside. What surprised me about this story is the nugget that the ills associated with the cubicle coffin are more dangerous than the threat of obesity. Of course, the two are closely linked. I’ve worked in some large offices and visited others; healthy workers are in short supply.

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weknowmemes.com

What didn’t surprise me here is the call by the study authors for more government programs. In an age when, for many the state has replaced both God and family, everything under the sun cries out for a program or two. Interestingly enough, they never seem to work or they make things worse.

Luckily, the story also provides a solution one can utilize now and without government lording or interference. Exercise is the solution. Through fitness one literally has the ability to forestall death (at least the accelerated death of slow office work). At some companies the workouts are being incorporated into the work – standing desks, treadmill desks, gyms, longer breaks, etc. These are the better companies, the ones one would want to work for anyway. Those that don’t get with the program are a problem. If you want to be healthy, you need to take stock of what you do for a living and how you do it.

One doesn’t have to lead a Dilbert-like existence nor load boxcars all day. Believe it or not, there is a happy, healthy medium out there. Go find it.

Top Ten Things To Do In The Summer Heat

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Summers in the South are always warm yet often unpredictable. Some are blazing, burning, horribly hot. Others are mild, they pass into Fall with little fanfare. This one is what I call a slow summer; it seemed to ramp itself up out of nowhere and now, barely halfway through, it’s just hot. Constantly hot. 99 degrees with high humidity hot. I am officially over this season and ready for Autumn.

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Pinterest.

Being as such, I give you a fun list of things to do in the sweltering heat of July and August:

  1. Sweat. A lot. Outside. Inside. Early in the morning. Late in the afternoon. Better drink plenty of water (before it evaporates).
  2. Stay inside all day pretending it’s snowing outside. Yankees have cabin fever. We develop something similar. It’s really not that bad out there but one gets so comfortable in the air-conditioning. Then, stepping outside, it feels so much worse than it really is. Or, maybe it is. ???
  3. Do the fun less than half an hour drive, midday, and get all wet down your back with a profuse sweat because the car AC can’t cope. It will be running ice-cold just in time for you to get out at your destination.
  4. Loss weight. This one is fun and positive. I always drop pounds in the Summer. You? I just don’t feel like eating anything – especially anything warmer than ice cream.
  5. Ponder how the pioneers and the old-timers did it without AC.
  6. Call the AC repairman and/or the electric company to find out why the unit crashed in the middle of the hottest day on record.
  7. Write a blog post complaining about how hot it is.
  8. Melt. Or catch on fire – your choice.
  9. Search weather.com for northern cities or mountain locations to see how much cooler they have it at the moment. They do it too; the jealousy usually turns around mid-January.
  10. Know it’s hot. Feel that it’s hot. Then, inexplicably, go out at 3 p.m. for a jog or a few fun hours with the lawn mower. This is a rite of passage, especially for men. A time to show “we still got it”. Whatever “it” is is a mystery. Amnesia, maybe?
  11. Have a mild heat stroke and forget to stop with ten things to do in the heat…

Fall, where are you?

Literary Pirates of the Internet

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Books For Sale, Other Columns

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This is not a story about a new ride at Disneyland – wouldn’t that one be boring. No, this is about me and my beloved books – I hope that’s not boring.

I’m working as steady as I can on two new volumes which should be released in tandem (or close to it) and released soon. One is another cigar book, a work of pure humor. The other is dead serious, a guide to fighting terrorism on the personal, day-to-day basis. Soon, folks, soon. Ready those debit cards now.

While I was taking a break I did a periodic check on The Happy Little Cigar Book. While it is not a bestseller, it has been more successful than I had originally hoped. Thank you all! I also discovered that it is available at Barnes and Noble. I had forgotten that CreateSpace has a B&N connection. Or, maybe I made that up in my head. Anyway, I’m now at the first and second largest bookstores in the world.

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I need 5-star reviews here to match Amazon. B&N.com.

The HLCB is also (allegedly) available from some not so reputable sites as I discovered on Friday. My Googling led me to several sites claiming to offer free downloads of my book. Free downloads of MY book!  That is piracy. It’s theft of my copyright protected material. Two of these are linked to Google somehow – probably via an aggregation service anyone can use. The others I looked at, like the one below, are probably just scams. I read up on this phenomenon. “Download” means get a free virus. I do not advise looking into this. That, and they likely operate outside of U.S. jurisdiction or through a laborynth of servers.

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I DID NOT and DO NOT authorize this theft of my property! I’m also not attributing this clipped picture (fair play).

This is a plain, simple DMCA violation. I have a warning right there inside my books, digital and paperback.  I have an action under 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 512, et seq., provided I could pinpoint exactly who the pirates are. It’s odd for me to ponder having to use one of the many laws I can’t stand. I’ll probably let it go; blades are more my style anyway.

Part of me is angry but mostly I am flattered. At least I have enough notoriety to get into the scam sites. I was also a little mad that I did not find any pirated copies of Perrin On Politics – then again, that one is free to begin with.

I may take action but I probably will not. I could send a DMCA warning and notice (a cease a desist letter) along with a civil pre-litigation notice. I doubt much would come of it.

However, one site says the HLCB has a 4.5 star rating out of about 6,000 views. If that means they gave away 6,000 copies, then I am owed a tidy little sum. Those numbers are likely fluff and lies put up by some Chinese hacker, trying to get your bank information or something. Enough said.

For now I’ll just be flattered and a slight bit amused. You, all of you, please avoid the pirates out there. Fake or not, these postings are illegal reproductions – stolen goods. Get the real thing at Amazon or B&N. And, look out for my new material coming very soon (to real sites and stores and with real pricing).

Perrin

Sunday Funnies

24 Sunday Jul 2016

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Ah, Sunday morning! To hear Johnny Cash (or Ray Stevens) tell it, one should be feeling alone right now. I’m not, even as I am, so to speak.

Sunrise, coffee, a morning cigar, and a perusal of the (usually slow) news of the world. Sunday is generally the only day worth reading a hard-copy newspaper anymore and, then, only one section:

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I’ll add that, today, in these four strips, there’s a high degree of political incorrectness and a touch of rebelliousness. Almost as refreshing as coffee.

Happy Sunday morning, world.

P

Quesada Oktoberfest

21 Thursday Jul 2016

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Oktoberfest, in Munich, actually cranks up in September. The great German celebration has become synonymous with Bavarian culture and beer. Quesada mixes a mighty cigar into that already awesome equation. Thanks to Manuel and Company my Oktoberfest observation started in July.

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This all-Dominican beauty is a big (6 ½ x 56) cigar. It’s big, dark, oily and exceedingly well constructed. As large and firmly built as she is, the draw is exceedingly easy and smooth. The body is solidly medium. Perhaps something about the smooth, easy-going nature of the smoke made me want to say it was even on the lighter side of medium (for me, for me). Admittedly, that thought is surprising given the look of the stick. It looks as strong as it is attractive but ends up having very good table manners. Another thought is that many might consider what I find “solidly” medium to be a little fuller than most. I’ll leave it at medium. If one likes anything between purely mild and super heavy, this experience will not disappoint.

The burn was even and clean. A long, pale gray ash held on for up to two inches before the obligatory tapping. If you’re looking for an ash contest entry, this is one to consider.

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Not surprising for the size was the abundance of smoke, hearty in volume and in flavor. As I noted, it’s an all Dominican affair – wrapper (Cibao), binder, and filler (Criollo, Viso, and Ligero, all long).

The flavors were full and complex but were well synthesized rather than a hodge-podge. They were also remarkably consistent throughout the long smoking. Underlying everything were generous notes of light earth, gentle cedar, and a little mild leather – all to be expected from the D.R. resume. This is not a “spicy” cigar per se though spice notes did develop and hold on, mixed with splashes of coffee and cocoa. The menu was uniform from start to finish, ending dry, happy, and still very smooth.

Like the festival after which it is named this cigar might, just might, be best in a slightly cooler clime. Of course, air conditioning will suffice to bring in autumn all year round. I got lucky as a freak and breezy evening thunderstorm lowered the temperature to an almost unnatural fall-like level.

Regardless of the weather, this stick was expressly made to be paired with beer. I took mine with a good brown ale. I know from experience that it goes well with many of the traditional, explicitly named Oktoberfest brews as well as with many fall and holiday-season special brews. It even excels when complimenting something a little crazy like Samuel Adams’s Fat Jack pumpkin ale (all 8.5% ABV of it). If one is feeling particularly strong and adventurous, then a bout of Stone’s Imperial Russian or something similar might even be in order.

This is making me thirsty … now I almost long for cooler temps. Luckily, one doesn’t have to wait for crisp fall evenings. Quesada’s Oktoberfest is smooth enough for warmer times and I imagine it would nicely accompany most beers of lighter or milder quality.

All this German excitement doesn’t require a travel agent or any great effort to enjoy. Simply click over to the great folks at Cigars City and order up your Oktoberfest today.

**Note: Beers are not included.**