> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.willduder.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Flag Pants and F16s - URL: https://www.willduder.com/flag-pants-and-f16s/ - Published: 2026-07-31T15:50:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-31T20:44:25.000Z - Author: Will Duderstadt - Tags: Monthly Journal July is *Iulius*, named for Caesar. Before that, this month was called *Quintilis*. Latin for fifth month. Just a number, until someone decided a man deserved to be permanent. Seems we’re always doing that. Giving big names to ordinary things. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_0981.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3878.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3898.jpeg) More garden green beans than two people should reasonably eat. 61 treadmill miles. 269,000 pounds moved on [Hevy](https://www.hevyapp.com/?ref=willduder.com). 9 [Beli](https://beliapp.co/app/willduder?ref=willduder.com) stops, including my first cheese fire. [Opa](https://www.instagram.com/opagrillandtavern/?ref=willduder.com)! Baked my own hamburger buns for the Fourth because a proper medium rare deserves better than store bought. $12,400 riding on “What is Juneau?” A number and an answer for a TV game show I’m still training to play. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3637.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/Will-on-Jeopardy.JPG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/Zonda-Concept-Home-BTS---Will.PNG) Some of July was spent being watched. Stood in front of a camera to film a behind-the-scenes sizzle. Which is a funny phrase when you think about it. We stage the behind-the-scenes now. Lighting and scripting the candid. Even reality gets a shot list. Was I on [Jeopardy](https://www.jeopardy.com/be-on-j/anytime-test?ref=willduder.com)? A dream I’ve trained for but never lived, rendered in seconds by a machine that doesn’t dream. It looks real and sure looks like me. [Yet it’s neither](https://www.willduder.com/wait-am-i-ai/). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_5342.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3690.jpeg) The holiday called for my [Napoleon Dynamite pants](https://www.filmgarb.com/rex-kwon-do-pants/?ref=willduder.com). A grown man in flag-print costume, flipping burgers, and performing patriotism for an audience of squirrels. Caught a minor delay flying home. Reminded myself I was still partaking in the miracle of flight. Humans waited thousands of years to leave the ground. I was late by twenty minutes. Perspective is a powerful drug. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_2170.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3954-1.jpeg) Hosted a Show and Tell with coworkers like we were in grade school. Then made a bracelet inspired by [Ranger Bob](https://www.willduder.com/tag/virtues-of-ranger-bob/). Stamped “[strict with yourself](https://www.willduder.com/be-strict-with-yourself/)” into the metal, a thing he embodied, a thing I need to hear. Then I stamped a letter wrong. A permanent typo. I thought about starting it over. A factory of robots could make a hundred per minute, each one flawless, each one identical. Machines can do a lot of things, but they can’t be [peculiar on purpose](https://www.willduder.com/wait-am-i-ai/). Humans have that covered. Robots can’t mess up a word about discipline and decide the mistake was the whole point. Ranger Bob would have liked the goof better anyway. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3920.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3656.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3698.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3702.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3925.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/5a/e85ad43c-3108-442d-8e7d-76ae32477089/content/images/2026/07/IMG_3873.jpeg) Most days happened without an audience. Two F-16s tore over the pond, low and loud, gone before I got a better shot. Canadian wildfires made the sky look like that old Instagram filter I never used. I got bullied online for [using a DIY weed killer](https://www.threads.com/share/FSgODyc5W/?ref=willduder.com). Apparently men can be mansplained to. Always baking something. Black snakes in the garden, cat cuddles in the house, and a bouquet of flowers from a friend’s housewarming party. My July gave big names to ordinary things: verisimilitude, panification, simulacrum, punctiliousness, didacticism, and semiquincentennial. A month I'd rather live than spell.