So I asked JZ for directions to the nearest library. To kill three hours until he got off work. The sign on the door said, “Closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday”. I thought, did I just ask someone from Miami about a library? How would they know when it was open or closed? Then again, I once asked somebody from the phone company where the post office was. I did get back to town faster than Agt. M last Wednesday. He stopped the car and had a two hour nap. Outbound we were talking circuits and mechanics. After that, he says, the way back was deadsville and he couldn’t stay awake. We are trying to find a name for this condition. Where you get immersed in the intellectual but when the club meeting is over, you realize how hopeless most people are. And how boring non-club types can be.
This potential clash justifies the legal system. Without law these ignorant masses would crush all before them, while the few who can think would own everything in no time. The law prevents open warfare between these groups--but not perfectly. It is illegal for the smart to steal from the dumb, but not illegal for the rich to steal from the poor. Get it? If you were born rich, you can steal all you want and the law can't touch you. But outwit a few ignoramuses, and you're in the slammer.
During the trip meeting, an eccentric statistic got kicked around. The value ratio of brainwork. How about I give you some of the ratios and you make your own conclusions? I read around 12 minutes for each minute I write.* I practice nearly 45 minutes for each minute I spend on stage. I study nearly 120 minutes for each minute I spend building a circuit. And, these proportions have not changed in years. This is not to say there is no improvement.
Pineapple. It took a week to figure out what my low-fat diet was making me crave. Back in the 80s, I toured the Dole plant in Hawaii, the place with the pineapple juice fountain. Take the tour, it’s free and you can drink unlimited from that fountain. No sugar is added and they select only the best pineapples (not for sale). Wait, I’ve just been handed a memo. Recent reports say the fountain is no more. That would be a pity. The search engines find nothing, but I personally confirm a pineapple fountain did exist in 1984, at the end of the tour, and it was the highlight. It was indescribably good juice.
Then there is Scribd.com I hate sites like that. They appear on your search and display what you want. Then to use it, they want you to log on. Then once you’ve wasted time doing that, they want money. Up yours, Scribd.com. If you want money, quit pretending to be free for the first five minutes. That really sucks and shows what low-lifes you are.
ADDENDUM
Can one diet enough to keep weight off without exercise? Here’s some stats on my lo-fat diet. I ride the bike and walk when I can, but let’s examine the food. In the past 31 days, I’ve consumed 37,145 calories where the recommended allowance was 77,500. That’s a daily average of just over 1,200. In that month, bread accounted for 3,848 and the milk in my coffee (my primary remaining source of fat) just 1,340. Also counting around the 3,000 mark were soup and chicken. I’ve lost a disappointing five pounds, all of it in the first three weeks. In fact, I was down seven pounds and gained two of it back.
Here's the brownie JZ ate, well, not this exact brownie, but one exactly like it.Electronics continues as the top hobby (music isn’t a hobby). If you ever want a demo of the confusion that exists in the minds of the so-called genius set of the electronics world, watch an engineer try to describe flip-flops. It’s exasperating, they wind up losing themselves half the time. They won’t admit the concept isn’t clear and try to teach it anyway.
I’m studying flip-flops, the basic unit of computer memory at the electrical level. It’s the type of circuit that provides feedback because it can remember the state it was in before you changed it. This fascinates me. It is yet another of those areas where I could not get any help until I figured it out on my own, then once you know that part, there’s publications all over the place.
A flip-flop is like a light switch that only works once. It can turn the light on, but then you cam flip it all you want, it will not turn it off. You need a second switch to turn it off. What use is this? In a computer, it is extremely, extremely useful. It “remembers” which switch (not which light) was last operated. The existing lessons say the light is important, I say the switch—and that’s what I mean by going it alone.
Last, these switches, I’ve learned, can operate relays as well as lights. That gets me thinking about the role of transistors. And what would happen if I connect a memory circuit with an adder circuit. This is what I mean about no help. I can’t find a single guide to help, but you watch, when I do it myself, there will be all manner of experts all over the place.
What’s stopping me at this point is the price of relays. They are $4 each. I think I’ll use the simulator.
*[Author's note 2023: this ratio is dropping as I age. Today around 9:1 and falling.]
