January 24, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 24, 2015, Bill Gates advocates cashlessness.
Five years ago today: January 24, 2011, finally, I can solder.
Nine years ago today: January 24, 2007, Cort’s Coffee House.
Random years ago today: January 24, 2012, read these lists, bro.

MORNING
           Say, didn’t I just mention that strange event where Arcadia, FL, went from a relatively safe place to live to mostly orange and red on the crime map? Last evening my research reveals that 70% of adult males in Arcadia are convicted felons. Maybe now would be a good time to as for a show of hands over who is in favor of all the research I do? Plus, it looks like another recession unless some miracle crops up. I can’t point to anything specific yet, but you will recall I just lived through one of these not that long ago.

           Sunday is also another sweep the housing market day and I see another pattern has emerged. The early year mobile home ad in a trailer court masquerading as real estate. Folks, look up the definition, if it does not include the land, it is not “real” estate. Now I spot the timing, every January begins with a flood of ads carefully designed to not reveal it as rental property, or at least to bury that fact as deeply into the ad as possible. Possibly they think they will “sell” you on the place before you discover the scam.
           Here’s the place that wasted nine minutes of my time this morning. Finally, after scrolling to the bottom of the last comments page, there is a note saying that “Swiss Village has lots of activities like shuffleboard”. No direct mention of the $6,000 per year rental fee, which amounts to misrepresentation. Not stating such a material cost is a scam. Some might say it is only nine minutes, but it adds up when you are looking at ten properties a day.

           The good news is this tactic also seems to presage a late winter or early spring rush of true property listings. Still, it is a waste of time for the consumer that should be addressed. My solution is to ban non-real estate listings from the same location as those which involve land sales and let the industry itself come up with a solution.
Wiki picture of the day.
NOON

           “Most people with low self-esteem have earned it.” – George Carlin.

           What’s this? It’s the handywork of SuperRat. No, I still have not caught him. This is the new breed of super rodent Darwin would have pointed to. Survivors of the urban environment, they are wary of all traps and poisons. That includes the New Zealand trap even when descented and baited with specially bought rat lure compound. But traditionally, I simply make sure there isn’t enough food for a rat to survive in here.
Instead what happens is SuperRat just drops by every few days on a raid. I know how some species specialize in this behavior, having once lived in New Orleans.

           So look what he did to the lid of my emergency supply container, a Homer bucket. He never got in, but have a gander at the number he did on the lid. The black material is the rubberized seal that is supposed to be waterproof. And inside the bucket, the food is all sealed—except some packages of rice that were in plastic bags. That means Super Rat detected the rice through the plastic and through the sealed Homer bucket.
           Makes it kind of hard not to admire the little bastard. He’s got more survival instinct than the 1,316 guitar players in this town. He will gnaw into containers for hours that are setting right next to tempting easy bait. (You can see the edge of the baited trap at upper right. It’s now a pity we are going to get this guy. Like Liberals, he is a product of our society, with fifty year’s cumulative experience on what he can get away with before the world catches on. And like a Canadian bureaucrat, he exists in a system where his ancestors have ensured that to survive, he needs to know little else beyond where you keep your garbage at night.

NIGHT
           Trent was over and we got some recording done on the Tascam. This is not a situation where anyone should expect amateurs to produce surprising results. It don’t work that way. These tracks were for the same music I’ve stated were suitable only for backing tracks to home video. We have several versions of “Maybe Time” and some sparse but original rhythm to “Buckaroo”. It should be called maybe “Bassaroo”, but I don’t like the way that sounds.
           This technique of reversing the lead and bass has promise, but only for easy listening at best. Essentially, the bass plays a familiar or catchy melody and the guitar provides the rhythm chops. None of the arrangements are complicated, although that’s moot because of the brain-thrust needed to find and put each of the tunes together. Not everything out there is suitable for these arrangements.
           That’s it. We recording tracks. Nine of them, and drank tea. It’s too cold out there for anything else. While we were talking real estate, four prospective houses came on the market at once. Actually five, but I’m now rejecting Arcadia until I find out what is behind the wave of crime stats. I believe I’ve cited the large number of houses on the market at this time that are in or near high crime areas. It’s a sign of the times.
           It’s entirely possible that the Florida police system uses Arcadia as a training depot. I look not just at the number of crimes, but the nature of those crimes. Shall we say, I consider there to be a difference between “armed robbery in progress” and “livestock on roadway”. But that’s just me.

ADDENDUM
           For the month of February, I’m planning a feature for you. A small note each day concerning “Green” living. No, not becoming a vegetarian or planting a garden on your roof. Rather, a month’s collection of facts concerning the growing impetus for green living. It’s more than I thought, so it deserves mention. Here’s an example. Do you know how many trees, on average, were cut down to build your dwelling? Around a thousand. I would have thought two, maybe three hundred. That’s why I have to write about it.

           Here is another green roof. There are entire supply chains that specialize in plants designed or whatever to be suitable for rooftops. One assumes these plants have shallow roots and grow thickly matted enough to prevent other life forms from taking root. What happens when you get ants?

           As for the picture of the day (see above) from Wiki, that feature is also new and only partially follows what Wiki publishes. The reasoning works two ways. It is always interesting to see what Wiki considers important enough on a given day as compared to me. And two, there are certain photos that Wiki publishes that are just not appropriate for a semi-technical blog like this. Examples of would not be shown here include any Liberal viewpoint that denigrates white society, dangerous sport activities that children might emulate, or any topic that is overly one-sided (such as Holocaust photos).

           How’s this for a name: “Capability Brown”? That’s an English architect, and the one who designed the landscaping of y’days Wiki picture. Never heard of him? It was predicted in his time that would happen. That’s your trivia for today. You see, his work so closely mimics nature that most people do not know they are looking at such carefully landscaped terrain. He has gone so far as to dam rivers to flood the lower half of bridges so that the bridges look better.
           See Vanbrugh’s bridge.
A joke of that day was that people hoped they died before Capability, so they could get to see Heaven before he improved it.


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