Every day that I come across some article about how technology is evolving, I feel an urge to throw all of the technology I have into a river. It seems like everything is overkill these days. Just a few days ago I was wondering aloud why I need to make a password that included 12 characters, one special character, one upper- and lower-case letter, and email verification just to order a hamburger online? Things are getting out of hand.
Not to mention that artificial intelligence is continuing to grow and do crazy things. It’s growing strong enough to cause two strikes in Hollywood. I think it should make everyone feel at least a little uncomfortable. So when I get tired of wearing my tinfoil hat, it’s good to unplug and get outside and away from technology. The way I have been making this happen is by combining several hobbies at once.
First of all, I have a strange urge every now and then to provide food for my family. When that urge gets too strong to ignore, I find some sort of animal and throw it on a smoker. Smoking foods has been something I enjoy doing because of the work involved. While many folks use a system specially designed for smoking foods, I find myself taking a more old-fashioned approach. This approach usually pairs well with an old fashioned, as well. I use a simple small pit, which is not extremely deep. There is no side compartment to put wood or charcoal in. There is no pellet system that is electronically metered. No Bluetooth. Not even a built-in thermometer (which admittedly is something I would actually use). Doing some research and some tinkering has helped me get a good system so far with just charcoal, wood chips, a pan of water, and a meat thermometer.
Smoking meats is a time-consuming process, which is where the second hobby comes in. Reading books keeps me sharp and helps me grow. I think that reading often has also kept my mental capacities strong. I do sometimes pride myself on my memory and ability to recall as well as the ability to learn new things. On the other side, I think my parents were correct every time they called TV “mind-rot”. Every now and then I’ll come across a modern TV show that is lazily written, or creates characters that are just horrible people with a couple of redeeming qualities. The books I choose to focus on are historical accounts of real people doing real things. Folks that never had to deal with cell phones and Facebook and ChatGPT and all kinds of other nonsense.
My next step is to take both of these hobbies further. Processing meats has been a fun time learning and creating. Writing this blog has been an enjoyable counterpart to reading. And for both of these I’m still not satisfied. Looking forward to my end goal of growing a small forest where the animals, wood chips, and paper for books can all be made and harvested at the same place.
Bayou Observant 