Time to vote for Ron Paul. Here is a scan of a Wal*Mart MoneyCard. Visa claims this is a replacement for cash, except it isn’t very anonymous. “Federal law requires us to obtain, verify and record information that identifies you when you open up a [MoneyCard]. Required are your name, address, date of birth and Social Security Number. Can’t have unidentified people spending cash, you know.
Wait, there’s more. The reason given is not to track you (what, do you think we’re Communists?), but “to help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money-laundering activities”. Apparently having a department store keep records on innocent people is not terrorism? The government needs Wal*Mart’s help? It is also illegal to let anyone else use your card or to resell your card. You may not use it for Internet gambling and you must notify Wal*Mart (not the police) if anyone uses the card without your permission. It also authorizes Visa to do a credit check, duh.The Wal*Mart “privacy policy” states that they will give your name, address, telephone number and details of your transactions, purchases, reloads, and maintenance history to providers offering such products as insurance, mortgages or loans, and consumer products and services. Did they leave anybody out? Hooray for Wal*Mart and Visa, they’ve done it again.
Another flat tire in another 400 miles, which is right on schedule. Good, that kept me in the shop all day and it was productive. I had to bum a ride (from Silvana, the lady guitarist who took all those classical lessons but couldn’t perform) over to the bicycle shop (Lee’s on Federal). They don’t have any of those handy combination wrenches with 8 sockets, you know the ones, the ends are a cube with difference size hexagons. The staff has never heard of them. Analysis shows that all except one my flats has been due to a stem leak. (An unpatchable hole where the valve connects to the tube.) I am fashioning a heavy duty grommet in a preventative measure.
Rose, the gal who calls me “her band” is becoming pushy. We found her picture on craigslist. She’s living in a $70 per night hotel. Do the math. I told her the same as everybody else, come down on Friday and hear me play before you make any decisions. Anyone who fancies themselves the star of my show may be in for a revelation. Jimbo’s is my gig.
The great news is that I may have finally discovered a “book” program that does what I want, although I don’t know yet about pagination. Nitro PDF costs $100 but claims to be text editable and floats around any graphics. I was able to create a 52 page book on the first try, stressing that this is an ebook, not the true fold and bind product I really want. Still, for ease of use, Nitro is very intuitive. It is far more specialized than Adobe.
My eBay account (paypal) has been bled dry by service charges. It is still active and I put in a bid for some musical gear. I’ve got a few more surprises on the way. For a break song, I chose the whistling tune from Andy Griffith. Two hours later I was still picking out that base line. How many damn chords can one song have, anyway? It is a complicated jazz progression so I wound up memorizing every note. You want a fancy bass riff? Listen closely to “Son of a Preacher Man”. I am.
[Author's note 2016: music is amazing, considering I had trouble with the "jazz" music bass line in the Andy Griffith theme song nine years ago, now I play the melody line as a bass break. Musical evolution. Once something has been learned, it becomes simple and is only replayed on its own merits. For reasons unknown, a tune like Andy Griffith is still on my list all these years later.]
My grommet idea does not work, at least not without enlarging the stem-hole on the bicycle rim. However, internally I’ve put two extra layers of rubber around the base of the stem instead. Then I took the old tube, which was in nearly perfect condition, and slit it around the inner perimeter, then wrapped it around the new tube. I then put a double layer of rubber around the spoke-holes. This way, I figure the entire new tube is sitting inside a cocoon and should last a very long time. Now I need a Kevlar tire if such a beast exists.
I’d like to make a point about the Canadian dollar being “worth more” than the American dollar (Loonie vs Greenback). A $40,000 US Cadillac costs $80,000 in Canada. Although the cars are identical, Canadians cannot buy the car here and drive it back. Note a 35% markup on most US items sold in Canada. But yes, the dollar is worth $1.03. And NAFTA is gas you put in your camp stove.
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