Greetings, brethren.
The days are flying by and it’s August already. The Perfect Ashlar Society has a big project in front of us and brothers, I need your help.
We have purchased 252 bicycles that will be donated to Toys 4 Toys, and they’ll be given as Christmas gifts this year. The only catch is that the bicycles will need to be inspected and some minor repairs performed as required. A few of the bikes will also need to be assembled. If you are willing to join the team and have metric tools, we meet at the Toys 4 Tots warehouse on the weekends and spend a few hours working on the bikes. Please reach out to me for details and I look forward to seeing you there.
My contact information:
You can also reach me through the lodge or iMember.
Quote of the month:
Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. -M. Scott Peck
Upcoming events:
August 11th – Sunday, 12pm, Masonic Picnic at Rohnerville Park in Fortuna. This is a free event and the whole family is welcome. Come out and enjoy the day with the whole North Coast Masonic Family.
August 8th – Thursday, 6pm, Officer’s Rehearsal – advanced stations
August 15th – Thursday, 6pm, Officer’s Rehearsal – advanced stations
August 22nd – Thursday, 6:30pm, First Degree for Mr. Jace Baldosser.
August 29th – Thursday, 6:30pm, First Degree for Mr. Damon Ladousier.
We all know how important the First Degree is, so please join me as we welcome two new brothers to our fraternity.
And now, in his own words, I’d like to introduce you to Brother Joseph Freedman:
I was born in İstanbul Türkiye, came to America as a baby, and grew up in Humboldt County. I’m a dual citizen.
I have a big family in Türkiye on my mother’s side, and also family in Australia, Hawaii, and San Francisco on my father’s side. I am single and have no kids.
I am currently a student taking classes in math & computer science, and I make and sell pens. In the beginning of the year I had finished building a robot/CNC that fully automates the pen-turning process. Starting from rough pen blanks to finished pen barrels, from the press of a button on my phone.
I have also been building a quantitative hedge fund called Fintron. In a nutshell, it involves various technologies for identifying and exploiting market inefficiencies autonomously, similar to the concept of a self-driving car, though for finance. It involves a lot of programming, math, statistics, machine learning, and most of all, dealing with data!
Besides building machines for making pens and software applications, I like to throw knives in my spare time, and go out in nature. I used to play video games a lot and I still miss them. Skyrim, GTA 5, and World of Warcraft were my go-to. I and my family also like traveling.
One of the special interests I’ve had, particularly as a teenager in the Boy Scouts, is bushcraft & survival skills. Building shelters, fires, tools, etc. Right now my focus is on modern and future technology, but primitive technology is also really important to me and I will come back to it more in the future.
I smashed my PS4 in November of 2021, because I loved playing video games too much, 5+ hours a day. I realized I was wasting so much time, and I decided to start learning programming instead.
The main reason I joined Freemasonry is that I’ve always been curious about ancient wisdom and philosophy, and I wanted to learn more about it through Freemasonry. The brotherhood aspect is also great and I’ve met very interesting people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
My message to all of you is to embrace your uniqueness. We all have flaws that we’re working on, and I am no exception to that. But our weaknesses are often on the other side of our strengths, two sides of the same coin.
Some weaknesses are worth fixing, while others can be complemented by the strengths of our fellow team members. The wisdom is, knowing which ones to fix, and which ones to accept.
Work on your weaknesses, to navigate the world more effectively, while tripling down on your strengths. Your difference is what makes a difference in the world.
Respectfully,
Dan Sarver
Master
Humboldt Lodge No. 79