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THIS BLOG IS NOT FORMATTED FOR ANDROID.
DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
Tales From The Trailer Court™
Friday, December 12, 2025
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VIDEO HAS LOUD SOUND.
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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
December 12, 2025
I am posting videos from the year 2000. The material is in very poor condition, but the videos clearly show my taxis, the drivers and their families, and general clips of the houses and neighborhoods. Enjoy, but this is a very lengthy and difficult process.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
December 11, 2025
One year ago today: December 11, 2024, JeePee in paradise.
Five years ago today: December 11, 2020, she’s getting louder.
Nine years ago today: December 11, 2016, nine bags of leaves today.
Random years ago today: December 11, 2008, must be my turban.
Good thing you did not move to New Zealand, it will be less than 50% White 35 months from now. Unless there’s a right-wing coup, but that is the problem on the right. People don’t unite unless everybody is in 100% agreement, which never happens. My hobby interest in old trains got us this morning’s trivia. Around the world there are around 30 examples of steam locomotives in operating condition, some still actually in use. Trivia is that all of them exceed the most modern safety standards of today. From the era when craftsmanship meant perfection. Ooh, $62.92, looking good. $63.55. $64.24
Much more recovered by noon, I’m off to the city for some logistics. You’ll want an update on the French condo. First off, let me confirm I was against this investment. If you think Florida HOAs are a pain in the neck, try the Europeans. The authorities determined that the common area, a courtyard, had to be redone before any of the units could be re-sold. Ouch, this is the month it should have moved rather than being hit with a €22,000 Euro special assessment.
In US dollars, think of these places as around $6,000 per square foot. It’s unrelated to the sale but during this assessment process, it was found one of the occupants has been there for 20+ years as a squatter. Still, the unit is within walking distance of the Monaco Riviera, where 30% of the residents are millionaires. Housing is so expensive most properties are sold by Sotheby’s. The cheapest current offering is a former maid’s quarters just listed for €268,000.
Having said that, I think the best this project can now do is break even. But, it serves as a wake-up call that I have been right about a lot of things for a very, very long time. And that is how I know I had better have enough put aside because I know that others do not and in too many cases, cannot. I just paid $11 for a $4 tray of frozen chicken.
The good news is we still live in a society where one good idea is the difference between wealth and poverty. So, here’s a good idea. I will need some method to test my first “on-line” Arduino link and my idea is silver prices. The run will be over before I get anything going, but hear out the idea anyway. If you search silver prices, you’ll find almost anything except that. The top two pages of sites, especially the sponsored ads, are all so bastardized you’ll be clicking and scrolling a while to get your info.
With luck, you will hit a page full of charts, sales pitches, other metals, and general clutter that actually has your information. But what a millennialized hassle. There is no place you can go that displays just the single number that you want: the current asking price for an ounce. From experience, I know the banks will commence a deliberate price attack, it was just a week ago the pundits were saying silver might reach $60 by the end of 2026.
Live Moscow cam.
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So as to not have a cold winter day without learning something, I dug out that old gear making program. The one I painstakingly used to cut my original gears with the scroll saw. I see that it will export a number of formats, all of them unfamiliar, so I saved one of each and found one that would export and pick up with the laser. And it is some sort of vector file so it cut these cardboard gears in a minute each (pair). As with other equipment like this, I would have trouble cutting matching sizes in more that one session.
Getting back here took hours, Lakeland roadways are a horror story. This time, a lane closure on my way to the doggie place. I know the shortcut via private property but this lady on a golf cart started getting suspicious when I took another shortcut that’s supposed to be unknown. It’s through the huge Sanlan Golf resort, which takes up a huge chunk of SE Lakeland. It’s posh and has a RV court for winter residents. Pretty nice but not as high class as they like to pretend.
vBeing this far behind schedule, took the long road to the pound and inquired about the open house. It’s this weekend which would be highly therapeutic for me. As I was waiting for help to lug my 44-lb donation, I got a listen to their staff meeting. They have a list of bad actors and known animal cruelty types they will be on the lookout for.
I deposited $1,500 in the joint account knowing this is not a fraction enough and got myself stuck in rush hour. That insane no-need-for-it jam on Highway 98. Say goodbye to my laser cutter for a while. I got through another disk of “Paris Echo” to realize I’ve been suckered into another holocaust sob story. Now, I must listen to find out what convoluted route they must now take to tie Tariq, the Algerian, to 1940s France. The book has to be clever on this. But what tips me off is that this brand of spin rarely happens in isolation. And sure enough, they began with the other lines of comtemporary bullshit.
Examples. The myth that speaking French is exotic. That plain Jane women over 30 still got it. That Arabs have no choice but to hate Whites. The audiobook continues with that irritating European gaslighting every sentence. Plus the plot weakens as there are already several spots angling toward the black and white relationships being the inevitable outcome for all, but only if the women are White. There is no mention of the fate of the surplus African some. All this we recognize as merely setup, there is no such thing as half a liberal.
I pulled up that old Quinn movie, “Lost Command”, about a troop from Dien Bien Phu to went to Algeria. That’s where the claims began that after WWII, the Arabs spotted the weakness of the Europeans. However, the Arabs are disorganized tribes, so they began pushing the concept that they only flag they could unite under was Islam, thus uniting their politics and religion, which we see to this day. And I see MicroSoft, who just laid off thousands, is about to spend nearly $20 billion on a new operation in India. It makes sense in a way, the quality of MicroSoft products has sunk low enough to make such things possible.
ADDENDUM
Recording my symptoms, per my own rules. The roots of this blog remain a journal so I often track what I don’t like about getting older. My appetite is back with a vengeance. By 3:30AM I was raiding the fridge. Those meatloaf I froze last week lasted for barely four subs and now I’m out of buns. Four slices of French toast for breakfast. If I had a large everything pizza right now, I’d scarf it in ten minutes. Aha, I just found another meatloaf in the freezer. We’re set for the day. Where’s my horseradish sauce?
Later, I had turned in early on this chilly night, with the overhead heater and the electric blanket. I was thus very comfortable until midnight when a pain in my arm woke me. Remember I mentioned that first catheter? It has collapsed a vein and I now have a four-inch circle of a bruise on my inside right elbow. The sort of injury I would have laughed at just five years ago.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
December 10, 2025
One year ago today: December 10, 2024, similar nap schedules.
Five years ago today: December 10, 2020, rear tire splay.
Nine years ago today: December 10, 2016, pie for breakfast.
Random years ago today: December 10,2009, cyberSLAPP,
Today’s award for most numerous useless web sites already goes to Harbor Freight by 7:00AM. I want to price saw, instead I get pages of coupons, store locators, business hours, Yelp reviews, and maps, none of which have links to the store in Auburndale. Ah, here it is, top of the second page, 11th on the search list. No doubt whoever managed that will blame his grandparents because he’s getting paid what he is worth.
Going over the Nashville material again, I just know there is going to be a last minute upset. You see, the Reb is too diplomatic but also knows fewer things go wrong if I’m around. I also know the trick to getting ahead when you deal with others is to learn to think like they do without becoming one of them. Who is “they”, well go figure, your only hint is they hate it when you do this. I went around the house to cobble what cash was at hand. Look at this hundred dollar bill, that so is ancient even Wal*mart won’t take it. It’s a 2002 series, barely distinguishable from the 1996 but not a collector’s item.
I found a total of $1,659 here including my rolled coins. I’ll deposit that when I drive to the dog pound. Found myself feeling super thirsty, probably some dehydration. I was inside all day, which is not me. India has advised I use this Celtic salt that’s supposed to have more balanced trace elements. I can’t find it on-line. Food for me is on the bland side without salt so I’ll try anything. India has a “caregiver” personality, but it can be comical around me because I just do not require that much caregiving.
Riverboat cruise, Peru.
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Silver approaches $62 but at too slow a climb to be a real run. It’s that growing gap between the spot price of $58 paper to the ads for the real metal. Not a peep in the news. Food still has plastic taste for me from the IV, so I make up a big pot of grits and that’s what I will live on today. Arduino research is not that arbitrary for me, so those of you who guessed there is an idea behind it, you right. Would you pay to rent a speaker? I dove over to Bartow of AA batteries and stopped to check some details with Wilford. Rent a speaker you say?
Here’s the idea, you can decide if it has any merit. The important thing here is that I NEVER intend to do this, but if I did, I’d get a license. I understand that playing music in public d defines public as any gathering of unrelated people. Does that apply if I play a song on my phoned that is loud enough for others to hear? Legally, yes, but there are not enough police in America to begin to enforce that law. People would argue their Apple account was paid up and they happen to like loud music.
Looking at my old Tailgater amp, it has Bluetooth. It would not be a big leap to add WiFi. Arduino has a shield (baby board) for that. So I’m looking, only looking, at what it would take to have somebody play a tune off their phone on a speaker that just happened to be conveniently nearby.
I only stayed twenty minutes as a situation that’s tricky to deal with arose as I walked in. Let me say, I’m aware I look the grandfatherly type and some women like that. And this beefy old lady started doing her number on me. Wilford and I also looked at maps and suddenly she knows people there, that kind of nonsense. Fat, out of shape, pushy, I know the chances of women like that finding somebody are low. In my case, the odds are negative. She would not quit, so I finished up and left. That Jabba the Hutt shape does not do it for me.
Back home I ran though the paperwork and I found enough for a small contingency. Just you watch, something will come along that uncannily will require all of to the penny. I have most of a book written about how the world knows when to do this and by how much. By lights-out, I see that silver has passed $62. It’s a slow gain, but it is a record high and there will be an unknown point at which it explodes.
Here’s a quick test of your tax knowledge. Suppose you are in a 20% tax bracket and you make $100,000 selling gold. The tax is payable next Tuesday. Before then, you invest the full amount BitCoin and lose it all. Your net gain is zero—what happens with the tax that was owed? Do you still owe it? You gambled with money that was not yours. What if you had gained?
Hint, the rules are different for the rich and the poor.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
December 9, 2025
One year ago today: December 9, 2024, basically, eBay sucks.
Five years ago today: December 9, 2020,over-groomed adults.
Nine years ago today: December 9, 2016, teenage commanders.
Random years ago today: December 9, 2002, never in your favor.
I do believe that is the soundest have slept in years. Eleven hours, and I’m now grumpy for enduring a morning without coffee as a stress test is slated for 10:00AM. By now I know most of the staff and have mucho more strength yet only one meal in the past 14 hours. I say again, it is like a hotel with excellent room service, though I would not want to see the bill without my insurance. My estimate is around $12,000 so far and I have received no medicine. I reread several chapters on the Arduino knowing what I know now. Big difference.
These procedures meant a lot of waiting around lying motionless on a gurney. By now, I was deep-reading sections on byte arithmetic, something I grasp but was never that good at. While the room had Internet, it censored Gab and was difficult to use, always favoring sites I do not use, but I was able to get the silver ask at $59, meaning it will almost certainly pass $60 later today. Once outside the room, it was several long hours in cubicles along the hallways, a long wait eve though I knew I was already popular enough to get first in line for everything.
Worst trauma wasn’t the medical but that somewhere down that long hallway, somebody was brewing coffee. By 11:00AM you can imagine I was famished. Beyond famished. However, by now I could tell I was okay as there was no longer any sense of urgency about my condition. If I didn’t say, I had a hard time waking up this morning, quite unlike ever before in my life. I remained unsteady for around ten minutes, causing them to slap bracelets on me as a fall risk. Also, I experienced a severe leg cramp, nothing to do with this situation.
I was discharged a bit passed noon but didn’t get out for another hour. It is cardiologist time and I will change my primary care someplace local. This means largely the end to any connections to Miami other than visiting. I can foresee that trip becoming rare.
The Montgomery Riverfront Brawl.
(August 2023)
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Having been assured the tingling numbness in my lower left had is not threatening, I drove over to the music store to look at these recently advertised “desktop” amps. Well, maybe not new, they’ve been around a couple years “taking the world by storm”. Most in the $200 range, they are a guitar-only device and, I find, not a very good one. They have dozens of settings but not even the depth of tone found on old boom boxes. This generation of speakers have a definite “squawk” quality on the full bass settings.
I picked up this month’s doggie chow and suspecting I’ll have a run on coffee the next couple days, I shopped a bit. The last hour in the hospital centered on a lot of questions about my diet, mostly about processed food, which I avoid. But folks, when you get asked about it during a medical event, you just know it isn’t any good for you. The one product they didn’t like me to eat is cheddar cheese, maybe I’ll quit, but only if I find an acceptable alternative.
By now, I just wanted to get home but I spotted India as I passed the club, so I popped in to see her since she knows I want to ask about her selling system. I’m aware she has Etsy, but she has mentioned a site that amalgamates most sellers including Amazon and eBay. I’ll get her to show me, because something more important has come to light about her. I mentioned she’s in the midst of a brutal divorce, so I do not ask.
Instead, I make general inquiries and she gave me the head’s up today. She stands to gain a huge house in the southeast end and, get this, on the property she describes a large garage full of woodworking tools gathering dust. Where would I fit in this picture? That’s easy, I’ve told you she is a startlingly good looking 41 years old—and I would be the only guy in town who has not hit on her. Even the least clever gals know you don’t make business deals with men after your ass. And I got the impression today I was the only one left standing.
Then, I get home craving my home-made chili and, finishing that, find I’ve got a big round of mild insomnia happening. I switched to tea and found some on-line documentaries and just passed midnight watched silver break $60, an historic high. Got my fingers crossed on that one. Remember, my money tied up in Nashville is far from a sure thing and I could use a real boost. But, as I told, even at $100 per ounce, I would just be breaking even. Having said that, I also know that after you are 40, slow and steady if just as iffy, that it is equally risky to set yourself up so that should you get a windfall, you have a place to keep it.
One of the documentaries was on European inventors, the one that stood out was the airplane guy, Anthony Fokker. (Ja, undt dem Fokkers vas flying Messerschmitts.) In several videos totalling an hour, not one mentioned where on Earth he got the money to build and fly airplanes, one of the most advanced and expensive technologies of his day. I don’t have to look further, I know when it’s all daddy’s money. Nobody who had to be concerned with mundane matters like what things cost could pull off the stunts he did.
My research tonight was not on inventors, rather the development of the internally-braced airplane wing. I remembered seeing the spars in a museum back in my twenties. It was, to me, impressive woodwork. I also have some correspondence from the Reb piled up and I just know this is going to result in another cash requirement. I opted out of the recording realm because it is the very definition of corrupt. If you are not familiar with the workings, think of it this way. You enter into a deal where the other guy needs $10,000 up front to get things going. Then he squeezes you for another $5,000 so you don’t lose the $10,000.
That is exactly the “lawyer” type of deal that media, not the music, pulls on you. There is always another fee that crops up the closer the deal gets to completion. And I know it is coming with the scenario she has described. Why? Because it hit me that day last year we were driving east on I-40 and her some came on the radio. Amazingly unique as that would be in one’s lifetime, radio is the original payola-grift-shakedown industry of the 20th century. I think I’ll pre-empt this one and start putting together some cash because my spidey-sense says do not trust anyone in that cutthroat industry.
I'm here because I canceled a planned Nashville trip. But if I was smart, I' get in my van and drive there now and deal with the cash myself in advance. Check back tomorrow. By 3:00AM I’m tired and both my arms are swollen and tender where all four tubes were placed. And to fit in the gamma cam, I had to hold by arms above my head for 8 long minutes and my right shoulder is now deeply uncomfortable. What a day this has been.
ADDENDUM
What did I read in the hospital? Poetry? Escape literature? Now, it was the Arduino chapter on dot matrix displays, but with a difference. I have figured out the internal wiring must closely resemble the way I wired my old ROM board, which is still around here somewhere. Where I had diodes soldered in place for each figure, a programmable matrix would have used transistors, a concept that intrigues me, what can I say.
This is a scan of the chapter title page, showing that I’ve read it at least nine times in the past ten years, each with a different focus. This time I’m wondering if I could use the laser cutter to wire up something that could merge these two concepts. A transistor driven ROM that I could hard-wire but use external commands to change the patterns. Just an idea, but it is driving me closer to setting up that 3D printer even if I botch the design part. But yeah sure, if you want to ride along, just keep reading the blog until sooner or later.
Monday, December 8, 2025
December 8, 2025
One year ago today: December 8, 2024, glad to be back.
Five years ago today: December 8, 2020, jam sessions = boring.
Nine years ago today: December 8, 2016, portrayals of Thailand.
Random years ago today: December 8, 2010, an above average book.
It was with incredulilty I read some postings by welfare cases arguing about their right to live off other people’s taxes. I once met a guy with that attitude in real life, Mike. Born on welfare, lived his who life on welfare, drew no link between his free ride and other people’s taxes. This might be an entire day of commentary unless I check myself into the hospital over a variety of symptoms each minor on their own.
The [Friday] ER had questions about me living alone. I have no intention of letting someone into my place constantly underfoot in case I need a hand. Risky maybe, but fewer people who to you down. I get a laugh out of people who say they have lots of friends and it is easy. A closer look reveals they pour considerable resources into maintaining those relationships, they just don’t see it. But too often, they are resources that create a neglect in other parts of their lives so that they dubiously now have to depend on others. Nope, not for me.
Waiting to dry off after a shower, I watched a highly-touted video of twenty rich people telling how to get rich. It confirms what I already know. All the “secret” information they provide is already common knowledge. Provide value, invest early, get a skill, etc. What is missing it the key to get people off their asses and act. They all know what to do, but once that TV clicks on in the morning, they are basket cases the rest of the day.
The picture here is the screen in my private hospital room. I was checked in by 9:00AM and a battery of tests found nothing, but same as twenty years ago, something is wrong. They are keeping me for observation, that is, to give me the best treatment money can buy.
Ashcroft, Colorado.
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The change in hospital procedures is remarkably different. The “assembly line” aspect is gone I was x-rayed and scanned, then a battery of lesser tests. I saw an actual doctor for a couple minutes and was wheeled down the long hallways to a surprisingly comfortable, quiet, and well-appointed room. Think luxury, this place compares very well with many hotels I’ve stayed. The screen above was an interface, where I could access anything, so bored silly by now I watched a so-so Clint Eastwood movie, “Cry Macho”. This is a picture taken on Mars last week. That's all I have for you, but isn't that something?
Here is a sample of the menu, which I consider top-class and they do not skimp on portions, although they are understandably carefully measured. And there you go, here is a sample of the dinner offerings. Since it is all insurance, I ordered like and English King. Like a class Euro-beaneries, there are no prices listed. You don’t, after all, want anybody getting a heart attack.
This was a weirdly relaxing time, I had everything at the cabin prepared for a 3-day stay. The utilities were shut down, even the live animal traps were all snapped, I was not stressed. So how did I zonk out? I used to experience this traveling, a very deep and dream-filled sleep. I love traveling for this alone and here I was, 22 miles down the road and dreaming in technicolor. They had to awaken me each fhour hours for vitals and was so groggy I could not speak. And it took a full ten minutes to wake up in the morning.
The staff is also well-screened for patient-handiling. This meant when getting a zero-requirement yahoo like me, within minutes we were all visiting like old friends. They showed (and taught) me a truly inside look at the machines and procedures. Best to me was the brand new gamma cam, the old test where you drink the barium or some isotope and your insides glow. Most of the time was just lying around, waiting your turn.
I told how sleep the past ten days was not replenishing. I had slowed down and felt unstable. I was slow-moving and weak. Then that 11-hour sleep and I’m back. Yes, but will it last. I have no explanation and the only medicine they gave was regular 81mg aspirin, which is where I finally learned that is the quarter-dose of your standard 325mg pill.
Sunday, December 7, 2025
December 7, 2025
One year ago today: December 7, 2024, JeePee in paradise.
Five years ago today: December 7, 2020, the camo-coop.
Nine years ago today: December 7, 2016, which I don’t have,
Random years ago today: December 7, 2007, too much “nerve gas”.
Happy Birthday, Eatmore. I still think about you. Sigh, the first time I knew for sure I was in love. Strange, how you just know. Silver is asking over $63, I’m guessing even the wildest bank predictions were ready for that. The kerfuffle over at Gab.com has caught my eye. There are two camps, the old people who don’t like the changes, and the old people who pretend to like them because they think it makes them appear younger. Trust me, as an entertainer I know this effect is super-real. The joke is listening to the owner explain why he made the changes without realizing he’s the one who let the old code become such a mess.
This is a silver bar for sale today, but you can go on-line and see prices of $58 per ounce. Why the spread? I don’t know, but I suspect and hope it shows a growing unwillingness of those with real silver to sell for the prices the banks are pushing.
We are treated to the frightening prospect of England becoming the world’s first Islamic nuclear power. I doubt it, as mentioned year ago I believe the English have had enough and will back Nigel in the next elections. However, like Trump, I do not think he has the stomach for what needs doing. Out they must go, all of the, the good, the bad, the indifferent. They do not belong. For a quick lesson on nuclear bombs, see today’s addendum.
Repeated warnings about censorship coming in 2026. For most users, that would mean X, but didn’t X say they would not do that? Canada’s gun confiscation has bumped up against Alberta. Ottawa has stated that citizens acting in self-defense will be regarded as “not being in the public interest”. Sounds Canadian, alright.
YouTube is on another ad-blocker crusade. It removes the skip button. Intrusive advertising sucks. The trick is to manually bypass the youTube code until the hardworking crew at your favorite adblocker app comes up with the next solution. You can read about the blocker in my post of March 14, 2023. The workaround is to replace [watch?v=] with [v/].
Remember, in this blog you type exactly what is between the [ and ].
Inaccessible Island.
-37°18'5.40" S -12°40'16.79" W
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No changes or big events here, I was inside all day, reading. Here is an item that got my eye. Fox 49 has a new jumbo-size newscaster who they are passing off as “curvy”. She’s a good sixty pounds overweight and hardly in the right places. TV is inconsequential to me, but here are the used comments that gave me a laugh.
• "You look like you could survive a harsh winter."There’s a 90% chance I’ll be checking into the hospital in the next 24 hours. If the blog suddenly stops, well, it has been a ride, indeed. I’ve also been thinking of propelling this blog into the ray gun/cosmic era. The Reb has got me at least looking. I know that in the long,long run, it is likely those works produced in classic, conventional methods, that are most apt to survive. And as media, the written word has been pretty enduring.
• "I ain't never worked as hard as them ankles."
• "She's thicker than zoo glass."
• "Dayuum Gurl, I want you to put a hurting on me like you do those midnight snacks."
• "Brick wall, more like brick house, and I'm looking to move in."
• "She gots enough muffin tops to start two bakeries."
• "Fe fi foe yum."
• "Her parents gotta be beavers. Cause she's built like damnnnnnnnnnnnn."
Having viewed what’s out there, I reached two conclusions pretty fast. A.I. suffers from the same shortcomings as regular Internet fare, that is, lack of original content. A.I. is not inherently creative. By now I instinctively avoid video and photos that even smack of it. This blog, at the other extreme, is for all real purposes, 99.999% original. So, I’ll make a promise. If I survive, I will take a serious look at A.I. software as it might be applied to this blog.
I’ll avoid total fiction, because I see what sells is bubble gum generic, and that will be its own downfall. I will take a look, setting aside money for software in January. I already expect problems with on-line subscription nonsense and expect to pay extra for anything I can purchase outright. One quip I agree with is that A.I. will not replace workers, but that workers who use A.I. will replace those who don’t. Kind of parallels how I have not used a typewriter since 1981.
ADDENDUM
Most folks don’t really know or care about the difference between fusion and fission. Here’ the quick lesson, but don’t write this on the exam. This is as it relates to weapons, [which is] the primary use of nuclear tech since the beginning. There are a number of atomic forces, but the only two concerning us here are the splitting and joining of atoms. Splitting is “uranium” which releases the “binding” energy when the atom is split. Fusion is “plutonium”, the ingredient is hydrogen which converts 1% of its mass to energy when “joining” to form helium.
In plain talk, plutonium is 100 times more powerful than uranium. Now, uranium has to be mined and refined out of the ground and even then, only 0.7% is weapons-grade. The factories to do this are big fat targets. The U-235 isotope (I heard) costs nearly $200,000 per ounce, again, don’t quote me. In 1960, they figured there would be a shortage of uranium, so the military turned to plutonium, the “breeder reactors” concepts that produced more fuel than they used.
The danger with that is how plutonium does not need much work to turn in into a bomb. And this is the type of reactor that the US has been selling overseas, duh. Customers include India and North Korea, double duh.
Saturday, December 6, 2025
December 6, 2025
One year ago today: December 6, 2024, JeePee loves Florida..
Five years ago today: December 6, 2020, $140, but I still said no.
Nine years ago today: December 6, 2016 , it needed a 30-ton.
Random years ago today: December 6, 2002, the West is different.
Most everything is on hold, I’m sure you understand. This would not include activities like research and maybe slapping together the odd box. There is enough coffee to last until the 17th so let’s see what today brings us. My appetite is unaffected, so it was grilled chicken & cheese sandwiches and a moment ago, the workers up the lane started banging around. Are we about to fine out how terrifically little it takes to get into my blog at this age? Me, reduced from chasing women around the continents to scrounging pallets in Mulberry. It’s a good thing I enjoy it.
Not that things went better over here. This bad video clip’s the best I could manage. I’m punching the pallet nails and suddenly my compressor quits. Not good, the compressor is well-maintained and in its own cubicle. Nothing found, the breaker trips instantly. We do this the hard way. I pull the compressor from the wall and remove the cover. The result is this tangled mess. See all these bits of thread? They are tangle around the piston and shaft. Of all the crazy possibilities, this is a shop towel torn to shreds and jamming the rotation. And it was once a shop towel of the brand I use here.
The compressor has become a necessity. I pulled the shreds out singly, this was not easy, taking an hour. There was no way to cut pieces so that was a wasted morning that way. I can’t figure how the towel got in there, the moving parts are all protected by a tight-filling housing that could not have admitting anything as large as a shop towel. Wound on there so tight, I took to cutting the individual fibers, but I got it done. Now oiled up and the tank is now more apt to get that sound-dampening case.
Y’know, this topic, making an air compressor quiet seems to attract goofs on-line who don’t know what they are doing or talking about. I’ll let you verify that on your own, but of all the dodo sites I visited, I’ve concluded I might as well just build a big enough box, line it with old blankets, and see how it works. This is at least as scientific an approach as I’ve seen by youTubers. I think if I can cut down the echos, make the sound go around corners, and direct any necessary openings upward, I can get things below 50 decibels, though I have no instruments to measure this.
From the front bedroom wall, we know that $100 per bale soundproofing insulation hardly works worth a damn. The idea I’ve got is a base plate with sponge pads air intakes with a zig –zag pattern. I notice the compressor is designed so both the intake and exhaust flow flow over cooling fins inside the housing when it is in place. Okay, then I make the box big enough to surround the whole assembly. I have the spare wood to do this already.
The news of my heart episode went out soon as I got home. If this was a pretest of my arrangements for my own demise, I’d say it worked pretty well. Oh, and I received three offers of people saying I should stay at their place until it’s over. But, I prefer solitude. When the final act is over just you watch some bozo saying I lived like a hermit without ever knowing what it is that I wanted.
Wibeaux, Montana, pop. 452.
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This is my day’s output, two generic utility boxes. These are solely to keep stuff on my desks and counters organized. . There is nothing to these boxes. No lids, no hinges, butt joints held with glue and brad nails. If the design looks a little familiar, congrats, you’ve been paying attention. These are the same length and width as the Z-box, but only half as wide. I’m bad for having a cluttered work area and this keeps the clutter organized. Yep, that is the pallet lumber from y’day.
Actually, I meant angle cuts. Both my table saws will make a straight cut. It’s when I feed smaller or narrower pieces, the sides are not quite as right angle as I want. If you looked closely at the bottoms of these two boxes you’d see the imperfections I would not allow on fancier pieces.
Next, I read a theory that I had not considered with transistors. I saw a circuit that did something I had not even imagined. An NPN transistor allows current to flow when the base is saturated. These are DC only, a current flows from positive to negative when the transistor is on, so in that sense it also acts as a diode. Current cannot flow back the other direction. The circuit I watched played on that theory and did something I never could have guessed at.
Imagine this. Suppose instead of a current at the collector there is another ground. When the transistor is off, nothing happens. But when it is on, the two grounds are now connected. Think of it as instead of turning a current off and on, it is turning a ground on and off. I might build the circuit myself just to watch the operation. Remember that PNP circuit I built to show how a ground was needed to light the bulb? Wait I do have another picture for you.
And that was just from storage; they split or broke even faster with any regular use. Some boxes shown here are already several year old and show no signs of wear and tear. These boxes contain everything from LED diodes to “sharp pointy things”. Now ask yourself, when was the last time you saw such well-turned-out old guy flotsam?
Still no news from NASA, $80 million dollars later, on when the next helicopter will head for Mars. Ingenuity is a goner with that damaged prop blade, but it is apparently still working as a weather station. This new Marscopter, called “Chopper” is designed to map huge areas of the planet over 240 days. It has six rotors and does not require any help from the lander.
ADDENDUM
The Reb reports a dislike, but then again, she does not follow my rules for banking. This move was the first for her in many years and she was hit by changes. One was that unless she gave the new landlord direct access to her bank account for the rent, there was a $50 fee for paying any other way. Myself, I keep two accounts that I’ll admit, and one is specifically for this type of situation—where some asshole strangers demand something you would normally never tell them, like even whether you have a bank account or not. But, we have no time to go there. People brought this on themselves and it will get worse.
The bank account I ‘give out’ was opened twenty years ago and the account information has never been updated. Old address, old ID, old everything, because I never go near that branch. It is where I collect my social security and any “traceable” deposits like rebates, stimulus checks, or tax returns. All withdrawals are in even-dollar amounts using the ATM, nobody it the bank has ever seen me in person, no big deal, but still. No bills are paid, no transfers, nothing to link this account to any other account on the planet. The alligator will eat me last.
Which is why I maintain a second account far away. It is a bait account, that is, nobody would make any inquiries about that unless they were the alligator. And that’s the bank where I know everybody. The branch were I sometimes drop in just to visit, they love the tales from my travels, I imagine it would liven up their days. It is a corporate bank so it’s pretty laid back. The point is, if anybody ever started poking around, I would know about it within the hour.
Let’s be clear, I have nothing to fear, but I do not trust the system as much as you do. I am hiding nothing that anyone has a right to know (read the Fourth), rather merely playing the cards that I have in my own favor. I know the J6 people all had nothing to hide until their bank accounts were frozen. I remember what happened with the ATMs in Greece and what Ottawa did to the convoy protesters.
Those’r examples enough to take at least some precautions. If you don’t, your future complaints will fall on deaf ears. These people thought nothing of the kind could happen to them. If you want to be that kind of fool, nobody is stopping your Yes, my system is a bit slower, since I walk deposits over, but like whatever system you use, you get used to it. And the next time you look at your paycheck, remember that the official USA/IRS stance is that paying taxes is “voluntary”.
Friday, December 5, 2025
December 5, 2025
One year ago today: December 5, 2024, she got 7 months.
Five years ago today: December 5, 2020, cakes and pies.
Nine years ago today: December 5, 2016, life without Quizno’s.
Random years ago today: December 5, 2011, an early club meeting.
Good morning and I just got my arse chewed off. By the Reb, of course, few others have that authority. I did not rush into the ER because I know from experience what the triggers are. I’ve slated a visit a few hours from now at the best facility in the area. I admit I got some work done before we talked, you know, to set an example to the entitlement class. The lesson is even if you despair, get some work done anyway. (The pretty gals are my latest effort at making sure you're paying attention. I'll get over it.)
This is what happens to when you have a society of people who are more concerned with pretending to be nice than defending their freedoms. I say “pretending” in a serious tone, because I have learned there is a severe similarity to all humans and being nice is not the defining characteristic. It is weak people who are afraid to be called racist or intolerant who cause most of their own problems. Unfortunately they all come from the same generations and they are in the majority.
Then today comes to an abrupt end as I check myself into ER. It was not long before I spotted the same indicators I had in 2005, when I connected my condition with driving. You can look it up, the situation was I did not that driving was the source of my stress.
the tale is buried in this blog somewhere.
Entrance to Movile cave, Romania.
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Write the half-day off, I did not get back here until 8:30PM. Zero energy left, they ran all the tests same as before, including that horrible iodine scan. My system does not like that one. Again, no actual evidence of anything immediately wrong. This puts me on the spot and it’s a place I’ve been before. If I check into a hospital, it’s a long empty wait while they do the same tests all over again. This is a task for a cardiologist and you know how that went last time. Tomorrow is decision time, not now when I’m addled.
As I’ve mentioned, the big ratio of medical listings for the city is not due to great services, rather that so many insurance-fed hospitals have their admin and billing offices there. My immediate task is to find a cardiologist who actually has a real clinic and lives in the vicinity. The first bank of places I contacted either do not answer phones, are not taking new patients, or have no openings for nearly a month.
How soon I can find something is unknown, but I will not intentionally risk any DEI medical types. TMOR, this is a real and true concern in America these days. The flooding of the once trustworthy medical field with people who were educated overseas to different standards.
ADDENDUM
Silver inches toward $60 and I would like to mention my personal experience. As before, silver is one of the most manipulated of commodities. If I cashed in at $60, I will have made no more than the same as a savings bond over the past 13 years. I did not know this when I started, but you know doing things blindly is often the only practical way in this country. The lesson is that breaking even is not something that could have happened entirely by itself. The very reason to choose silver over a bond is the speculation and that has been removed.
This link to 2015 shows a rare actual picture of my silverlode, plus a mention of the Swiss investigation which seems to have gone nowhere. If silver busted wide open, I would be driving to Colorado within the hour.
It takes weeks of reading to get to the core, but basically banks keep a supply of silver on the books. I don’t know if this is required, but the important aspect is that it is in the books, not necessarily in the vault. Apparently this silver is shifted around and even rented out to other banks who need to show solvency. The catch is, that same silver eventually has to be bought back, and that makes it exceedingly sensitive to price swings. For clarity, I read the material, agreed with it, but it was complicated enough that right how I could not give any details.
The danger for the banks is the market realizing those countless silver certificates are just paper and a run begins on real silver. The consumer market in this stance acts like a huge bank that just might start demanding only the physical metal. The unavailability of that supply is what could cause a true panic. For example, I would not sell you even one ounce of my real silver for less than $100 right now, and only if I was desperate. I’m aware if silver is allowed to free market to its traditional ratio with gold, it is worth $263 per ounce—but if there is a run I would expect it to top $500 and race toward $1,000. At those prices, you can have all you want. Cash only, small US bills.
Thursday, December 4, 2025
December 4, 2025
One year ago today: December 4, 2024, parsley for JeePee.
Five years ago today: December 4, 2020, invaded by MicroSoft.
Nine years ago today: December 4, 2016, a successful failed audition.
Random years ago today: December 4, 2021, the Reb sat me down.
Dr. Phil has the cure for Type 2 diabetes, but it is a limited time offer. But I don’t like honey, so I’ll have to suffer. She’s a cool morning, perfect for French toast, and so should you. Arduino coding has followed my usual pattern of getting left behind once I know I can do it. This means my code is not all in one spot, meaning I can’t find it easily. I spent the early morning flitting about on-line to see what had changed with Arduino. The on-line tutorials, mainly, have become much better, likely due to competition. Years ago the instructions were so bad it took an hour to set up the IDE. But I did it, every painstaking step of the way. Could be maybe why that’s how I find the tutorials so easy.
Here’s a clip I made for you to demo the process. There are now cameras on the market that claim to be made for vlogging. I’m in the market, as the old Polaroid used here is on it’s last legs, the internal battery won’t hold a charge more than 30 seconds. The camera records video in .AVI format (audio-video interlaced) which is not compatible with Movie Maker and cannot be converted. I take the video, play it with VLC (which you should be using) and take snapshots to use with Photoscape to title and make into the many GIFs you see here. This process takes just a new minutes.
And that is an important trade-off. Fancier cameras, unless you have excellent enough talent, require more post-editing. So I could get such a camera (camcorder), but you would see fewer videos which are more out of date. You’ve seen this effect if you view other blogs. They have one good production every few days. There is also the challenge most bloggers cannot meet—original material interesting enough to keep readership. My source of material is me, which must meet that standard to get as many daily hits as I do.
There are other considerations that affect production. These new cameras lack a viewfinder. Many are too bulky to get into a shirt pocket. Avoid specialty cables or batteries. When you add up the flaws, you’ll see why I’ll opt for shorter, less clear videos, that can be rattled off in time for my second coffee of the morning. This home-made gadget is simply to scribe a line down the center of any wood that fits between the pegs, which is likely obvious if you’ve done any of this woodworking. The purpose is I’m experimenting making a wider model.
I am checking out these "vlog" cameras this week, as the Polaroid is about done. It won’t focus right, but I will dismantle it to see if the battery can be replaced first. Will I get a special camera? Hmmm, not an easy question now that you know there is such a fine balance between the cameras that get used and those that gather dust. Here’s another factoid not found in the manual, if your substrate on the laser etcher is light enough, the heat from a nearby cut is enough to cause convection currents strong enough to move stuff around on you.
This is a quick look at the house with the crews working round the clock. I cannot imagine the amount of work they’ve put into that place.
Reykjavic Maritime Museum.
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I made another coffee run and scored two pallets, both junkers of the sort some city folks seem to like. Throw in some gasoline and I’m out $83 in one hour. These are saw-thru pallets, I call them, there is no attempt to maximize the pieces. Just cut them away with the saber saw. That will have to wait, I told you how resting up never quite works like it used to. December is also backup copy time, which takes a day. This year I’m sending the really important files, like this blog, away for safekeeping. It’s admitting that every year could be my last.
The only pics I have to show for this excursion are the pallets. I know, life has come to this, just you don’t go blaming it on me. If there was a lady fun to be with over a 50-mile radius of here, I can assure you we’d be having all the fun in the world. Instead, it looks more like pallets have taken over many of my afternoons. There is much to be said for pallets. They don’t sass, they don’t cost much, and they have (at least) a latent understanding of the role they are expected to fulfill. And don’t hand me that crap about not knowing where to look unless you can provide a list of places I have not looked, pal.
Looking for pallets is easier. You can skip over the bad ones without social repercussions; the newer ones have an average of eleven fresh, workable pieces, many of which have only been nailed once. There are two pallets today, one new, one middle-aged. I’m feeling a bit better, let’s see if these puppies can make something of themselves.
eBay is acting up, detect Firefox as a bot. And, being eBay, there are no instructions or chats to provide a fix. I learned from this that Javascript can be disabled selectively and I’m now attempting that—but good luck trying to get any straight answers on-line. I warned the world they were heading here thirty years ago. A system where a single glitch by some half-tard can crash a global operation. The funny part is these techs believe they are the cutting edge and if you spot it as the noise it is, why you are out-of-date. I first encountered this attitude with IBM people back in the early 1980s, when I used Apple gear exclusively.
Now all these years gone by and their crapulence has become the standard. IBM seemed to lack any standards or guidelines and not that lack has become the standard. They would defend themselves by saying others were the problem, that they had not learned “first principles”. Funny, to use Apple, none of those so-called principles were needed.
My conclusion is that eBay let another GenXer mess with their system. Let them fix it, since they are losing money, which should get their attention. While it could be a problem over at FireFox, my warning still stands. FireFox has no incentive to fix it, so it remains an eBay problem. Exactly the scenario that will bring so much grief to these people when there is nobody left who knows how to do the work manually.
ADDENDUM
Today I have a tale from the trailer court, this happened the summer before I turned 14, and it is time for the world to know. At this moment, I am having a heart problem, so why not tell? The story is known, that one summer in scout camp, Brock and I got caught in a tent with two older French girls. The Scout buddy system was in effect so we always worked in pairs, and the troop was sent to the beach for the afternoon. This meant crossing through the “tourist” part of the park, where I spotted the gals, who were 14 and 15. One was shy, the other a bit bolder, the important thing here was they were camping alone—this was quite possible in the old “nice” America.
A bit of perspective here. My assigned buddy was Brock. But unlike Brock, I had been playing in a band for two years and was far more opportunistic about females in my age group. I got us into the tent, but unbeknownst to us, an afternoon storm came up and the troop was recalled. Two buddies missing set off a massive search and before long a scoutmaster head came through the tent flap, ordering us back to camp. We were giving a choice of being expelled back home or running the gauntlet. (As this episode made us heroes, we chose the gauntlet.)
The question remains, what actually happened in that tent? The girls were Cajun and spoke no English but it was not necessary. Brock was no help, to this day he does not fully accept that women love sex—but only if it is on their terms. I, of course, took the prettier one, they were both wearing pajama tops and panties. Mine kept reaching to take hers down but the shy one was not quite ready and kept stopping her. Trust me, they had perfect bodies.
So I talked them into getting into their sleeping bags and taking off their panties underneath, which they clearly thought a delightful idea. Mine motioned me to crawl in beside her, lifting the corner so I could see everything but Brock stood transfixed. He was chickening out. I had my swim trunks off by now and got in beside her, examining everything with an attention only possible at that age. The French girl was by now just wild with excitement and had a grip on me, about to show me what to do. What could go wrong?
Brock panicked. He ran outside the tent and was instantly spotted. I barely had time to get my trunks back on before Sarge had me by the throat, hauling me outside. He saw both French girls mostly naked and never bought my story that we had ducked inside for shelter from the storm. I was a moment away from paradise, only to be confined to camp for the duration.
Years later, Brock explained. Back then it was well-known in small towns that if you were “caught” with a girl, you were forced to marry her. The one Brock had, who I mentioned was undefiled, was just not quite that pretty. He thought if I “did” mine, he would be tagged guilty anyway and it would be shotgun time. Trust me, there were a lot of people back then who believed that and probably still do. That also explains why he didn’t just wait a couple minutes (that’s all) until I was finished. Thanks to him, we both got nothing.
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