One year ago today: September 9, 2013, my wireless notepad.
Five years ago today: September 9,2009, reads like a diary.
Ten years ago today: September 9, 2004, another hoax?
MORNING
I lost my big chance to curry favor with the bakery this day. The power went out, then flashed on six or seven times before restarting. Said bakery has one of those instant water heaters, which conked out. I examined it and spotted the reset pore. But by the time I got home and found the directions, they had called in an $125 plumber. Dang. Turns out my observation was right and I wasn't fast enough. I thought only women had that problem. That's a joke, son.
[Author's note 2015-09-09: the problem with my own hot water tank exactly one year apart is entirely coincidence.]
Let me tell you about something that really pisses certain people off. It is when you begin to perform celestial navigation calculations in their presence. When they ask what you are doing and you tell them the truth, that you must engage in at least this level of mental activity to keep from falling asleep while they are speaking, well, they get antsy. Some people just do not appreciate honesty. It is almost as if they actually think they are saying something you never heard before. Can't they see I'm busy? Some people are so intolerant, it is just ridiculous. I can't stand people who are intolerant. That's a joke, Ken.
And another thing, I continue to disapprove gas money for my club to attend the Nova meetups. I still have slim hopes that somewhere, somehow, Nova might actually build a robot. Has not happened in seven months, but I did say "slim hopes". I only control the gas money, others are free to attend on their own, but it would mean Nova getting swamped by our rather commanding leads in every area except the 3D printer. And even then, the owner keeps the contraption at home, where nobody else can use it.
Robotic navigation is intriguing, and today, I successfully calculated the GHA (Greenwich Hour Angle) of the Moon. The relevance is that I've never plotted or shot the moon. I utilized the general principles of navigation rather than memorized formulas. (Although I now regularly use formulas to check for reasonableness.) I'm saying that I used broad knowledge to determine the position, not just plugging in the formulas. And I came up with the correct answer, though I could barely hear it with all the whining going on. Am I calculating while they're talking, or the other way around?
NOON
Here is a photo of the fan belt. It doesn't look like a fan belt at all, rather some engineered to spec piece of rubberized plastic. Will it last two years? For the life of me, I cannot understand why nobody would sell me an ordinary small 26" fan belt. To a one, they even acted like they had no idea where such a thing was even available. Welcome to Florida. This fan belt is on my drill press not because it is a good fan belt, but because it is 26" in diameter.
Between their terrible system and disrespect for privacy, these represent the absolute worst business practices in America. Apparently those Grainger twerps have never heard of identity theft. If they had a real "privacy policy" they would not be recording call display numbers on their equipment. These businesses represent the declining position of America. Also, Grainger prices seem to be marked up at least 120%. I know a 5-gallon gas can does not cost $65.00.
Money-back guarantees are meaningless unless they send out a man to your business to replace the faulty gear they sold you. I have always said that anything under warranty is the total responsibility of the the seller, and they have a duty to proactively absorb all repair costs. But jerks like Grainger hide behind the "bring it back" clause, knowing full well it will likely cost you more than it is worth to make the return. And where I come from, that is called scumbag. As an accountant, I also know 91% of individuals do not have a filing system to keep receipts on products under warranty. That's another scam--demanding the receipt.
"Well, how can we possibly help you if you don't have the flimsy piece of paper it came with thirty days ago or less?"
EVENING
I attended the memoir meetup. I have not recited any of my work for months now, but I was amused to hear that there was another instance of someone reading non-fiction. I missed it, but it reflects the brazen hypocrisy that infests some people. The reason I don't read non-fiction is the whole room jumped on me and criticized me instead of the writing. Apparently the same happened to the reader last week, but it was a lady, so they all jumped to her support.
I reviewed my lunar navigation calculations and they are not that difficult provided you learned the basics right and didn't skid by memorizing the formulas. I've learned some of the values can be correctly guessed by reading the neighboring values to the one so obtained from the books. You can infer what direction things are moving. Since I know I'm not smart enough to be the first one to notice this, it is one of those things they must have forgot to mention.
There was also mention of a bubble sextant, which I will look up. I've also independently conceived a way to find the horizon with a carpenter's level. Again, I'm not that smart, so I'm not looking to invent a new method, but to see if that type of "horizon" gives reasonable results. A search on bubble sextant gives horseshit results such as the "student loan bubble on the horizon". There is a device with a bubble that fits in the telescope mount of a regular sextant, which I will investigate. Bubble sextants are reputedly expensive, with units as new as 1982 being sold as collector's items. Like restaurants, they have a five star rating system.
Next is a list of the top five stories of this evening,
A) Prologue to the sisters who married the men bound for America, dealing with the earlier life of the man whose father owns a shoe factory. He joined the army to get away from his tyrannical father and fought in S. Africa and the Boxer Rebellion. He's heard you could earn enough money to buy land in America.
B) The black child from the hippie commune, adopted by the mother's sister, is now nine years old and excelling in school. The specter arises that the child may already be fundamentally smarter than the parents. I like it already.
C) A writing exercise about describing a barn. The idea was to piece together the theme that the toys in the barn belonged to the farmer's son who was killed in the war--but without mentioning the father, the son, or the war. Well done!
D) Kid's arguing over what was the best 1950s or 1960s cowboy show, by an older sister who could take the clicker (channel changer) away from them. This is true, back then, the person who controlled the clicker was supreme in the household. Incidentally, I was raised around TV from the age of seven, so nobody go thinking I don't watch it because I couldn't.
E) Young Bradley runs away from home, gets a job in the shipyard, and gets in a fight with the boss's son over a 17-year-old girl. But one is distracted because these characters are far too mature as portrayed. Teens are not that discerning, the word I'm avoiding is "perspicacious", the passage was all too obviously written by an adult misremembering what late teen-aging is all about. A very common affliction.
How To Repair A Toaster
1. Unplug toaster and take in to shop.
2. Return next day and pay bill.
3. Plug toaster back in.
I can hardly wait for their instructions on how to fly to the moon. In three easy steps. Bunch of no-mind twerps.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
