Quickly approaching $9, here’s a couple less popular items one normally wouldn’t consider worth a dollar each. A jar of cherry juice and one of bitters. They have something in common, they are both imported, respectively from Canada and Trinidad. Not a cause for concern unless your retirement fund maxes out at $1200 or less monthly. Then, yes, it was time to get really worried twenty years ago. Sadly, those who were busy getting rich by borrowing up on their houses weren’t looking that far ahead.
Arizona is again the target of Federal harassment and propaganda, labeling the states efforts to control illegal immigration as racist when it is nothing of the kind. The populace simply wants to get rid of the illegals who are costing billions of tax dollars. Only the blind don’t see the problem or the incredibly stupid such as Mike Lacey (Phoenix New Times) who think Mexicans are a race. Psst, Lacey, they are a nationality. My personal belief is that if a job can’t pay enough, it shouldn’t exist in America. And yes, I’d rather pay $10 a pound for tomatoes than see another octomom fiasco.
I drove to Guitar Center to check on things, no news yet, so I chatted with Lori the door babe who knows she’s a babe, which I like. I looked at an excellent 24 channel mixer that’s well within my October budget. It is hardly portable being almost two feet wide. A few locals were impressed I knew how to operate the thing. You know what I say to most women who tell me they’ve never met anyone like me? I ask them, “Are you sure because I meet people like you all the time.”
I’m reading Cussler’s “Treasure”. His protagonist, Dirk Pitt, thinks women are famine victims because he keeps offering them dinner where I can see the lot are overfed. The plot is imaginative and Cussler’s background in archeology shines again, even more as my hobbies include marine biology and pre-Columbian civilization. I find it uncanny how often he randomly picks a location with familiar geography. He indulges in a tad much spectacularism for me to read his books by other than chance.
Cussler is also aware of large-scale international issues that rarely make headlines. Prime example is how oil has been discovered in every middle eastern country except Israel or the occupied territories. Why, it’s almost like somebody is purposely not finding a single drop and nobody can imagine why.
Cussler’s characters tend toward the stereotypical, always boring but consistent with public misconceptions. Even at this late date, most people have never seen a computer “lab”. No, it is not full of Cussler’s pony-tailed hippies or horn-rimmed geeks. That’s the coding department. The real noodle farm isn’t full of anything. Rather you’ll find a few people who are older and, well frankly, they are like me. Idea people--but with a catch. Stay with me here.
Computer labs aren’t a free-for-all think thank. All ideas must be tempered with a larger concept of what is possible or things quickly degenerate into “Martian”. The difference between ideas and coding is night and day and I can affirm the so-called whiz kids never, ever, ever get it right. They are cantankerous cling-ons that bicker like schoolgirls. The scope of their personal failure and twisted prejudice always plays a huge and heavy role. If you think, hey, that’s not right because Zuckerberg worked alone, you are forgetting that he was a thief. He stole the idea part. Trust me; programmers are the followers, not the leaders, of the computer world.
I found time to ace the bass to Shannon’s “Runaway”. The recording process was done sloppily enough to make this a real challenge. Give it a closer listen, there are two different bass players on it, although they both play the same slightly off-tune instrument. At the other opposite, there’s the Stone’s “Dead Flowers” whose infantile root-fifth off-beats make the drunken “bass is easy” guitarist’s eyes water.
It’s another significant day for one of my significant people. Happy 38th, Eatmore. That’s a long time to stay married. Even if it wasn’t always to the same person. Myself, I never did find a gal that wasn’t out to bleed me dry, although I’ve had around six who put on one damn good show for the first while. But, they all changed the moment they thought they had me hooked. Oddly enough, some still try it to this day (even though I always tell them it is FWB at best).
M. Crane (Accountant)
Dr. Derwent (Dentist)
F. Baker (Businessman)
T. Daniel (Businessman)
[Author's note 2021: this cardiologist has become persona non-grata over a security breach of medical records. It took until 2020 before the seriousness of this was apparent to most people, while I recognized the danger long ago. I felt this doctor was working with me to find and seal the leak, when in fact his office was openly marketing my health information. When confronted with the evidence, he argued it was his office manager's right to sell these files.
No, I don't mean telemarketer callers, everybody gets those. I'm talking people from California asking for me by name over "surveys" about medical conditions that were supposed to be private. The calls would often start within 40 minutes after I left his office, asking about new prescriptsion I had not yet filled.]
