One year ago today: April 14, 2013, mine's bigger.
Five years ago today: April 14, 2009.
Everyone is asking, when am I going to start remodeling the camper pod and get some real adventure into this blog? You were asking that, weren’t you? The red scooter made the decision for me. It conked out at the Pembroke Pines mall as I was returning from the bookstore. That’s the nearest bookstore, the Barn out on 155th. Eleven miles from here. The area is so backward they don’t even have the “No glass” signs. What? Well, the cafes in California have the signs. They don’t allow anyone wearing Google glass. Considering the potential for vigilantism, that’s probably wise.
The lid and electronics, except for the operating lights, are removed from the pod, which should motivate me to extend and raise the camper shell area. But even aligning the batbike and hitch up was enough to cause me a longing to be on that road. So that you know, I could pack up and leave Florida in a day if I ever make that decision. I look around and there isn’t a thing here that I wouldn’t walk away from that would not fit in my sidecar. All it would take is a moment of weakness and it would be goodbye Florida.
Has anyone tried to use the file search feature on Win 7? What an abortion that is. Don’t use the search in the start button because it can take hours to search a large drive. The directory search is hidden way up in the right corner of the text box—and it does not work. Think of how many times in this blog I have mentioned the word “sidecar”. It says that no matches are found. Then Google took over blogspot and removed the internal blog search. I’ve got things I can’t find in my own work, for example the command that fixes the problem of the cd tray won’t eject. There is a small file you delete but I can’t find my own directions because I never thought they’d remove the blog search.
A lady friend of mine told me she had traveled to the Honduras with a friend from work and had all her credit and debit cards canceled. The bank later said it was because her spending habits changed. That is so wrong. Plainly, the banks are instituting a policy of profiling and tracking their customers that goes far beyond the any concern of the bank. What gets me is that they did not tell her about this policy nor is there any way to opt-out. That is so wrong. Banks, who are shifty operations to start with, now want you to phone them and tell them when you travel, where, and how long. And pretend it has to do with terrorists so you won’t argue back.
It would seem that traveler’s checks are the answer, but I just know they have that avenue sewed up. I’ll buy some shortly and see how they are tracking that. Again, I don’t buy the terrorist bull donkey. They are out to watch everything you do, a far more extensive and expensive operation than just watching a few suspects here and there. They are watching everybody, not just the bad guys. It is so obvious what they are doing, they don’t even try to call it customer service any more.
Another change due to the Internet is the disappearance of local advertisers. Not completely, but by and large. When you do a search these days, you are more likely to land on a selling service than the article you are looking for. Try it. Do the same search I’ve done for years for rent-to-own property in Boca Raton. Even a year ago, I got valid results. Now today, you will get zero real estate listings, but you will get barraged by businesses who want to sign you up. (That’s where last day’s anti-credit card post came from. I am not against credit cards; I am against the abuse of credit information.)
What I lament is there is no easy way to filter these parasitic businesses out. Parasitic? Yes, because they crowd out the ads of what you were seeking and invariably lead to a rise in prices for their un-asked-for service. I noticed Belize, as a country, has been taken over by these shifty characters. Instead of replies from Boca and Belize, you get web pages wanting your zip code and they’ll take of you. Whether you want taking care of or not. Thus, if nothing else, the Internet presages the day of mass predatory small operators seeking out every imaginable market niche. How long before you can’t buy a hot dog without some asshole doing a background check? Google could probably answer that.
For me, this development is nothing new. I read long ago how the Europeans, even Adolf Hitler himself, predicted such “business” undertakings were the ultimate degeneracy of the American capitalist system. Back in my day, real estate offices would often not tell you prices until you gave them proof of what you could afford, a disgusting process they called “pre-qualification”. Same as to day, they’ll tell you how much you want to spend. I never fell for it then. It is irksome how the further you get into their websites, the more information they pump you for. The social IQ of today’s programmers is a sad affair.
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Last for today, let me explain a scam that is perfectly legal. One of the reasons I want a place where I own the land is because of this scam. It has not happened here, but the very fact that the authorities allow it is too much for me. It works like this. You buy a manufactured home (trailer) for, say $25,000. The trailer park then raises the pad rental so high that the tenants cannot sell the trailer nor afford to live there. Eventually the owner will walk away from his 25 Gs. The trailer park repossesses the trailer for back rent and sells it all over to the next sucker. No law against that.
