Mastermind? Really?

Roberto E. Rosales/The Albuquerque Journal/AP

It drives me crazy when I see a news story about the capture of some bumbling group of criminals and their leader is referred to as the Mastermind behind their scheme. If they were such a Mastermind, why were they caught? And it's not just their being caught - it always seems to me to a lame idea in the first place. The latest story is this one:

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/17/1149464953/new-mexico-shooting-politicians-solomon-pena

There were a number of shootings at government officials house in New Mexico. It turned out all of the victims were Democrats. As evidence was gathered and suspects rounded up, the one behind all the shootings was determined to be a Republican candidate who had lost the election and claimed it was stolen from him. Sound familiar?

Among the stupid things he did in organizing the scheme was his participation in at least one of the shootings and his sending out a picture of himself with one of the other suspects. One of the suspects was pulled over with his car loaded with guns because he already had an arrest warrant out for him. It always seems like criminals can't just lie low when they are already in trouble - they seem to be compelled to get into even more trouble.

How is this being a Mastermind? Why are these people given credit as if they are so smart? As if they make such detailed, infallible plans? I am hoping that, someday, the news organizations and the police and government officials will start calling these people the correct thing - stupid idiots.

The word Master Mind (two words at that time) is said to have been coined by a man named Napoleon Hill in his 1925 book “The Law of Success." One citation of this is found in this link. He listed the benefits of working cooperatively with a a group of business colleagues. But the idea of a master mind group goes back even further to Benjamin Franklin who organized a group of his friends to meet regularly to help each other improve themselves and to also cooperate on projects for the good of their community (the Junto Club he organized helped start the first lending library, the University of Pennsylvania and a hospital. More at this link. Now, that's what I call a Mastermind! If only our modern criminal masterminds had been members of a real Mastermind Group or even a church where sinful people can come together to help out both themselves and their neighbors.

I'm not the only one saying that the use of Mastermind in these cases is not only wrong but it also an insult to the really smart people in the world. A much better written blog than mine (the Oxford University Press blog) brought this up back in 2016. It pointed to another pretty smart guy who decried the use of this word to describe horrible people. This article points to a different origin to the word but, again, it started as a positive association. We need to keep it that way. This term should never be used for a violent, evil person again.

I'm up to my old tricks

It's been six days since I last posted and I'm starting to worry about myself. Am I just going to go back to my old ways? Am I going to miss the opportunity to write down my thoughts and what is happening in my life - again? Maybe. I don't have a good track record but today is another day and I'm going to try again.

As I look back on my previous post, I realize that I missed the point of the church sign I mentioned. Here it is again:

"Lots of people want to work for God but only as an adviser."

My post treated this quote like we just ignore what God wants us to do but now I see (I think) that what the sign means is many of us want to tell God what to do or, at least, offer suggestions on what He should be doing. We want to advise Him about what is right or what His priorities should be.

"God, that guy really needs to be punished." "God, I really could use a new car." Perhaps not quite so blatantly but we all say, "God, help me make it though this problem," often adding, "And I'll never get in this situation again." Or, trying to be thankful, praying, "God, I thank you that I am not as bad a person as that guy over there." Where have we heard that before? Hint: Luke 18:9-14

I'm not just pointing my finger here. I do this, too, and probably more often than you. But I am going to try, again, to change the way I work for God. Of course, a big part of that involves communication and that means I need to remind myself who I am praying to. God loves us. He is our Heavenly Father. "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." But I need to remind myself that I am praying to the God who created the Universe. He is not merely my buddy. I am praying to the great, good God who is worthy of my praise. I need to confess my sin and other failings to Him and to be ready to change. I need to thank Him for all the things he has already given me and for sending His son Jesus to save me and take away those sins. Finally, I need to ask him for wisdom and to know what He would ask me to do.I need to ask for His help in doing the things He wants me to do. I need to ask for courage when the things He asks of me are difficult.

And I need to rededicate myself to writing in this blog as often as I can to remind me of what has gone before and to refine my thoughts by putting them in print. Some people say your thoughts are not worth anything if you can't put them into words. That may be too harsh but I'm going to use it to motivate me.

 

Church sign from years ago

When I was still working, I rode my scooter on back roads to work because the main road was a four-lane highway and the speed limit of 55 MPH was just beyond the limit of my scooter. And no one really went 55 on that road. So, the few times I took that road, cars and trucks would be whizzing by me and sometimes I felt like I would be blown over.

On one of the back roads was the small Cataumet United Methodist Church with a sign that often had interesting sayings on it. I wrote about this before in a post titled, "A short post about an interesting sign". I haven't been past it for about two years so I don't know if they still have the sign out front. I hope they do. It was always something fun and it led to many conversations at work.

The sign I wanted to mention is from March, 2015. I wrote a draft of this past back then but didn't finish it until now.

"Lots of people want to work for God but only as an adviser."

As Christians, we say we want to do God's work. We say we are Jesus' followers. We say, as in the old hymn, "Where He leads me I will follow." But, as the sign says, we like to pick and choose what we do. We like to have veto power. Our pastor recently had a sermon about the need to listen and open our hearts to God's leading and how important it is to make a decision and that means being willing to do what it takes to do what God asks of us. I have done this a number of times and it turns out that this is not usually as hard as it seems. God is not out to punish us saying, "Oh, so you don't like to travel. You don't like to be in new situations. OK, then. I'm going to call you to be a missionary."

What I have found is that usually, it is something I have a gift for already. Or it is something he has shown me and has prepared me for. He gave me the opportunity to move from the place I grew up to Cape Cod. But before that, my parents had brought me to New England on vacation and I fell in love with it. I always felt that I was meant to live here.

He gave me the opportunity to become the choir director of a small church. It was a big commitment in time and energy but God gave me a musical gift and a love of singing and it was an easy change to make. This happens to most people. It can be easy to feel like you don't want to change but it is both an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to do God's work. I'm hoping that in future posts I can tell about some more of these kinds of things that God has asked of me. And maybe, if I'm courageous enough, I can also list some of the times I didn't.

Trying to save a squirrel didn't go so well

The squirrel we found

In August last year, when I had our dog, Asuna, out running around the yard, she found something interesting. Now, normally, she would chase a squirrel and when they would inevitably climb a tree to escape, she would leap as if she could just fly up and pluck it from the branch it was taunting her from. But in this case, she was hesitant. She sniffed it and looked a little worried. I don't know if it was because it was so still or if it smelled like it was in trouble. She let me check it out without worrying that I might take it away. But I thought I'd just leave it there because I'd heard that the mother would come back and get it. But then I noticed a bunch of ants around it and it was twitching and I thought maybe they were biting at it and it was reacting. I couldn't allow that. So, I picked it up and got all the ants off it. I put it up in the crook of the tree so its mother could find it but then had second thoughts.

I ended up putting it in a small box with some cloth and got some milk and dabbed it around it's mouth. It licked it and I could see it swallow so my wife found a dropper we would have used to give the kids some liquid medicine and fed it milk through that. I had to go very slowly until it realized that the milk was availabe and then I could see it licking and swallowing. I gave it milk until it stopped swallowing and put it back in the box. I did that every hour or so until bedtime. I didn't know where to put it to keep our pets from bothering it so I put it in our unheated garage. I made the decision to not get up in the middle of the night to feed it and just left it alone. I figured if it wasn't alive in the morning, that would tell me that it was beyond help.

Well, the next morning, it had burrowed under the cloth and was still moving when I touched it so I started giving it milk again. My wife had a doctor's appointment that day and I drove her there and then stayed out in the car feeding the squirrel while I waited. That's when she took the picture you see above. This continued through the day and then I thought it was better that I take to the Cape Wildlife Center so my son drove me there while I took care of our little friend. When we got there, it was raining like last time but no tornadoes this time. We had to wait in line behind a number of other rescues. When our turn came, we gave them the information and a donation and they gave us a card with a reference number and a phone number to check on the progress of the little squirrel.

When we got home, Asuna sniffed and sniffed me and seemed to wonder what I'd done with her new friend. I had been letting her see it when I fed it and she was very careful. I think see missed it already - just as I did. I kind of wished I had kept it here a little longer but I figured the Wildlife Center would have better facilities and the right food for it. I had a hard time waiting for a full day to call for a status check. When I did, I got bad news that the little squirrel didn't make it. That's all the information they had. Then the guilt hit me. "I could have done that well myself," I thought. "They were probably too busy to take proper care." "Why didn't they just refuse to take it if they were not going to save it?"

It's death hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. When something has depended on you and you take the time to help it, it does hurt if things don't work out. And that was just part of two days for me. I felt like I had let the little squirrel down. I'll tell you one thing - if Asuna ever finds another baby squirrel, I'm going to take care of it myself. I'm gathering up the information I need and looking for the supplies I need to keep in stock.

Saving the bunnies

Not our bunnies but this was their size

This happened back in 2019 but I wanted to write it down before I forget it.

We have a lot of rabbits around our yard and where you have rabbits, you have rabbit nests and rabbit babies. The rabbits here are pretty dumb. Their nests are very shallow and not well hidden. Our dog finds them easily and we have to keep her away from them until they grow up enough to leave the nest. Then, according to our dog, comes the fun part where she chases them all around until they realize it's dangerous and they go other places that are safer. Too bad the mother rabbits forget this when it's time to have the babies.

But in July that year, one really dumb rabbit mother built her nest right behind our house. There was no way to keep our dog away from them in this case. Every bit of advice I got was to NOT move the babies but I couldn't just leave them there, either. So, I gathered the four of them up in a box and put them where our dog couldn't get to them until I could figure out what to do.

I found that there is a Cape Wildlife Center in the town of Barnstable not too far from us. Well, before I could call them, we got a tremendous rain storm while I was at work. I worried that the box I had them in would collect water and drown them. So, I took off work, rushed home, picked up the bunnies and started to drive them to the Wildlife Center. The rain was picking up and the rain was coming down harder than I'd seen in a long time. The roads were really treacherous and I had to make a few detours around flooded roads or slowly drive through high water. The winds were screaming and a lot of trees were down, too. I finally found the Wildlife Center and was happy to see cars in the parking area.

But when I got to the door, it was locked. I thought maybe I was at the wrong building so I dashed between a few buildings and tried a number of doors as I was drenched by the still increasing rain. Finally, I found a side door that was open and I went in. I looked around and saw signs that people had been there - half finished coffee, glasses left on desks, lights left on and other things. It was like a scene from The Twilight Zone. I put the box with the bunnies beside a desk with a coffee cup and glasses on it and left a $20 bill to help with their care. I wrote a quick note on a piece of (what I hoped was) scrap paper. I looked around a bit more for anyone but left when I found no one.

It was an even worse ride back to work but I made it OK. I wrote an email to the Wildlife Center and continued with work. Later I heard that there had been tornado warnings (on Cape Cod???) and that the folks at the Wildlife Center had been sheltering from the storm. I got this note back:

"I'm sorry we missed you! We were all here, but the police dept called and asked us to shelter in place because of the storm, so we were in the basement. We did receive the rabbits and they are in care now in our cottontail ward."

I wonder if they heard me tromping around above them? I guess not. Later, I found out that a tornado had touched down just to the south of the Wildlife Center and I realized how fortunate I was. The bunnies didn't realize that their lives were in the hands of a mad man.

The mistake-filled demonstration - that worked

When I first started working for the company that I retired from recently, we didn't have a sales department or a marketing department (this was back in the late 1980s). We did some advertising in magazines that were read by people who would probably buy our product but the biggest reason people bought our products was that other people told them about our products. I could spend a long time trying to explain what our product did but I will try to keep it simple.

Our product was a small (less than 3 inches by 5 inches and some even smaller) computer board that could run from batteries and could be used to collect sensor data (temperature, humidity, air pressure, movement, sound or any sensor or transducer that produces a voltage or digital pulses) or to control other electrical equipment (turn motors on and off, turn lights on and off, send commands or data to another computer or the Internet). They were used by many companies and universities but one of our biggest customers at that time was close by - the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) on Cape Cod. Many times, their experiments were run in remote locations on the ocean, under the ocean or in inhospitable places like a jungle, a desert or the arctic. WHOI's equipment would use our board to run the experiment. It would time the actions of the experiment and collect data from the experiment. Then, they would come back and pick up the equipment and read the data in their lab. Or the data may have been transmitted back to their lab by radio or satellite. Our boards were very flexible because you wrote a small program to organize what what happening when.

So, once in a while, all the engineers (all four of us) would take our latest products to demonstrate their capabilities to our old customers and some possible new customers. These folks were mostly scientists. They would later design elaborate controllers for their experiments but in the early stages of a project, they could buy our general purpose controllers to run their experiments until they nailed down what they really needed. They liked our boards because they were easy to use and very (very) low power so batteries would last a very long time. So, usually, our boss (the owner of the company and chief designer of the boards) would do a demonstration to show them how things worked. He was brilliant but didn't use the boards all the time. But he was a respected scientist himself and knew many of the WHOI scientists so it seemed logical that he would do the demo.

Our boards came with a built-in operating system and could be programmed in BASIC `(and later C and even later a Java-like language) so it was easy to pick up. "Doing the demo" consisted of typing a short program on a desk-top computer and sending it to our board which would then respond by sending information back to the desk-top computer with the information you requested.

He'd start out simply by having it display the current temperature. Then he'd use a little math to convert the default Celsius temperature into Fahrenheit. Then he put his finger on the temperature sensor and show that the temperature had, indeed, changed. Then he'd get fancier. He'd program a simple loop to read and display temperatures over and over as he held and released the temperature sensor showing the temperature change. Then he'd add a delay in the loop so the temperatures weren't displayed too quickly because, really, the temperature doesn't change that fast and if you are storing the data, you don't want to use up all of the memory so fast. With each step, he'd add functionality to make this simple board act more and more like a well designed experimental controller. But as the additional program code became more intricate, he'd start making mistakes. The first time I saw this, I gasped - thinking that he'd ruined the whole thing.

But he'd correct himself right away and quickly make the change he needed. Sometimes, the errors were more subtle and it would take a little longer to fix the problem and sometime the Woods Hole scientists themselves would offer suggestions. He'd always find the problem and, once it had been identified, fix it quickly. You could see the scientists leaning forward when a problem was found and then relaxing back in their chairs as it was fixed. By the end of the demo, they had seen a pretty complete data logging system designed right before their eyes and we usually had a lot of excited people gathered around to order some of our computer boards. They had seen how easy it was to come up with an idea, try and modify it simply and easily.

It was almost like listening to a sermon when the preacher lists a problem or asks a question that the congregation has been wondering about and then shows how the Bible has the answer or Jesus had a parable about just the problem they were wondering about. Some preachers raise their voice and sometimes they would lower their voice and the people would lean forward to hear the answer. But just listing a bunch of answers doesn't make the listener learn anything. Keeping the audience engaged helps them learn how to think about the problem instead of just hearing the answer.

By the way, our boards were available long before the current Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards were available but our boards were a lot more expensive than those new boards. We gave lifetime, free support for our boards and no one made (or makes) a lower power solution than we did. But the company's focus changed and our boards are no longer produced. But I'll never forget the exciting demos our boss did. He knew how to hook a crowd.

The first adult joke that I understood

Is this something we all go through when we are young? You hear a joke that an adult tells but you don't understand why it's funny. You know it's a joke because some of the people hearing it laughed but you don't understand why it is funny. I was always too embarrassed to ask why it was funny. Or else, if my mother was around, I knew not to ask about it because of the look on her face. Being quite introverted, I didn't even ask my friends. I figured if they didn't know why it was funny, then why ask? Or, if they did know why it was funny, they would just make fun of me for not knowing. When you're young and trying to establish your place in the world, you don't need any missteps or back steps.

Anyway, it was a Sunday because that was the only time we went to this particular restaurant. It was pretty fancy and was a long drive away from home. It was a big deal when we went to eat there. We often dressed up to go there. It wasn't the kind of place where you would hear adult jokes. It wasn't the kind of place where you would hear loud talking. It was always good food and it was almost always crowded.

As you can tell from the image, I went to the men's room. This was also a place I had never seen graffiti before, either. But this day, there was something written neatly, and in not too large a type, right above the urinal I was using:

The future of the world is in your hands.

It took me a few seconds to get it. At first I thought it was just some encouraging words - kind of like the modern, "You can be anything you want to be." But no - there was something else - and my young mind finally got it. I had had "the talk" with my father a few years before so I wasn't too young. I think it was the subtlety I most appreciated. I thought it was the funniest, most amazing joke I had ever heard. I couldn't wait to get back to the table to tell my parents. But wait. Was this something I could talk about to my parents? Could I talk about it in this restaurant? What if we all started laughing out loud? Would they throw us out? Would they just throw me out for being such a vulgar young man?

Well, I think I waited until we got out to the car. Whether it was that or I did get the courage to tell my parents at the table, I remember my parents smiling. Both because of the joke itself and because it signaled another stage in my life for them.

I also remember the first time I swore in front of my mother. I was driving her somewhere when I was home from college and needed to make a left turn in heavy traffic. As I waited, my mother asked when I was going to make the turn. I said, "I'll turn when this damned driver finally decides to get past us." I froze and missed making the turn a little longer. She just said, "So, that's what they're teaching you in college." Surprisingly, I heard my mother swear more often than my father. But I was always careful when I spoke around her after that.