One year ago today: March 18, 2015, cPod prediction . . .
Five years ago today: March 18, 2011, proof of funds.
Nine years ago today: March 18, 2007, early MP3 trials.
Random years ago today: March 18, 2013, Craigslist, transistors, & Pi.
MORNING
Here’s a rendering of the Hi-Speed Train terminal in Orlando. I’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s begin this great day with the bad news. Somebody else got the property [that I just made an offer on]. Once again, here’s vindication that my system has evolved to where I can find the best deals (in the entire state), but then it stalls. Who is winning against me? I don’t know but they have unlimited money, it would seem. According to the real estate office, the seller received a bid “considerably in excess” of mine. Whoever, it seems they have five times as much money as I do for EACH purchase, and they are buying as many as 37 houses per week.
It’s clear that I cannot beat the competition fair and square. Nor can I parallel or piggyback them. I have to find where they cannot move faster than myself. This is always the case when the opposition gets ponderously large. Furthermore, when they buy these houses, they stay bought. I’ve fished back to a year ago when I began to notice the pattern and none of the places have come back on the market. In other words, somebody is betting big.
What could it be except that high-speed train corridor, which will turn the entire Tampa-Orlando terrain into a bedroom community? Folks, they’ve been announcing this high-speed train since I was eight years old. There is an excellent highway system between those two towns and if the locations of your trains stations in the past is any indication, there will be no advantage in total travel time. I’ve also heard the ticket price might rival air fare.
You might find this study and interesting comparison to the California project. In Florida, there is already a corridor down the middle of the divided highway, above the median. However, there are three proposed station stops and it is unclear if the speed of the trains is an average or a maximum between stops. Like the express bus, it makes a huge difference. Airline checkouts, grocery cashiers, and ATM lineups in Florida regularly cost you more time than if you’d taken the long way around.
The potential good news is silver finally broke the $16 per ounce ceiling in quite a few years. It’s like a pressure cooker, the longer it overheats, the bigger the explosion. There is a psychological bent to the $16 mark. Back in the original big California gold rush, that was the price of gold. While Sutter, and the others who actually found the gold died broke, one entrepreneur galloped into San Francisco, bought every iron frying pan he could for 20 cents apiece, and sold them to the miners for one ounce of gold each, that is, for $16.
And silver is good because news of this property is a bleak disappointment. I’ve canceled the week’s meetings and see that a different buying strategy is needed. There simply has to be some way to approach this hurdle. I know some sellers don’t like institutional buyers. And I notice the properties come on the market and last a full day before they get picked off, a curious time lag. Also, the “pending” notices appear always during working hours. This adds up to the need to examine the competition as well as the houses.
The Smithsonian Building.
NOON
I put another $80 into the red scooter, a good chunk of what it is even worth. A new drive belt, when in fact the old one did not look that bad at all. There was no grease, oil, or dust on the belt, yet it was obviously slipping on the rear hub. I could detect the aroma of the burning rubber at stop lights and the axle was hot to the touch. Rather than wait for a breakdown, I replaced what appeared to be a perfectly good belt. But I kept the old one as a backup.
Now that I know it takes $45 to make the return trip to the interior with the cPod, that lowers the budget allocation to where I can make three times as many trips. But I’d rather find something sooner than that. This is the prime season for picking up bargains. Here is the place on Zillow, it’s a two bedroom. But it can’t really be for sale by owner if the owner died this morning. All I know is something almost instantly took this off all the sites that use agents, but not off the pure listing sights.
It was also neat to read the newspapers about how many European countries are beginning to realize this whole Liberal refugee program was a serious mistake. Shame on their politicians since it was obvious from the start. The leaders wanted to go down in history as humanitarians—in favor of the invaders but not their own.
NIGHT
Nearby is a photo of the drive belt. If you can see anything wrong with it, you know more than I do. I kept it so I could examine it closely. Again, the problem is that, even with the tension properly adjusted, it was slipping around the rear drive pulley, causing it to heat up and that’s the aroma I was detecting. The new belt made an instant improvement. What’s mysterious is this [used] belt.
For instance, the link provided shows he sees that there is a connection between the rise of feminism, the divorce rate going up 300% immediately following, and the fact that males in America pay 115% of the taxes. That’s correct, one hundred and fifteen percent. He doesn’t always reach the same balance or solutions that I do, but mostly speaking, I am in agreement with his presentation of the facts. That is almost impossible because of my lack of political training, yet it happens. You see, I’ve never taken any university courses on how to attribute political causes to problems that I see as human-caused.
When I see a welfare case in the saloon, or a single mother with tattoos, or an illegal on food stamps, I don’t instantly perceive this to be the fault of any given political party or system, although I totally recognize that political factions are squandering money with these handouts, these bread and circus spectacles.
I’m not the only one who could not detect why the older but perfectly good-seeming drive belt needed replacing. It was not the tension, the wear, or the surface coating. Yet the replacement belt not only worked very well, by doing so it indicated the older belt was slipping. That would explain the apparently greater power and the fact the hub axle (which checked out fine) was getting so dang hot I could smell the burning rubber. At time of writing, the explanation is unknown.
So I went out to the nearest pub for a few, leaving when they had no entertainment. Music entertainment, I mean, as I kind of re-met that lady that told me she owned all this property around town. Who remembers that? Sorry, it is one thing to own property, but quite another in my book to be single and alone and fussy, all of which was not the case here. I’m not saying it is wrong, I’m saying I’ll pass.
I’m also saying if you disagree, I can point out why you disagree. The other guy behind her turns out to be one of those Everglades python hunters. Now that is something interesting. He’s getting an expedition together for the bounty and needs people along on the trek. Count me in, I’ve never gone snake hunting before, and he validates that what I’ll do is not the least a strain on my heart. Even so, I’m not one to pass up such an adventure.
ADDENDUM
Where do I stand on violence at the Trump rallies? That’s easy, since those who can be provoked by words alone should not be allowed in public, much less at political events. While freedom of speech is often abused, that is because society has allowed the press to redefine what is allowable to say. But I see no such changes on the history of violence. I find it is rarely an isolated event, that is, most violence is committed by people who have a previous history of committing most violence.
[Author’s note: I draw one exception, which is self-defense, but only on a case-by-case basis. Some people are experts at provoking attacks in order to “defend” themselves, but also of individuals who are systematically attacked by groups to make it look like they are asking for it. Ha, my own family is an example. They maintained I was not “sharing” what I had, while never explaining how I was supposed to share musical talent, top marks in the school district, and the ability to manage money.]
Blake, that rather soft-spoken Canadian commentator would agree with my stance. He’s the guy who pointed out the cost of violence, each murder is $8 million, each robbery carries a price tag of $40,000 and so on. Though I question his statement that sexual assaults cost $250,000. For if they do, it is somebody intentionally running up the bill. I’ve always had the solution for violence when the police get involved. Break it up, then send them the bill.
Now, if I were Trump, I would sidestep these violent criminals, other than to outright condemn them once each. He does not need their votes, they are not going to change, so let them make fools of themselves. However, I think Trump should also keep a private list of all those districts which did not support him, because such districts (like “Rubio territory”) tend to have certain, ahem, attitudes in common. Then, once elected, apply a rather uneven hand upon those people.
Not because they are wrong, but because democracy is majority rules and those pockets of detractors seem to have forgotten this. Their attitude sucks, if they they can't get special privileges for their little group, they will band together to stop others from exercising their majority rule rights. If you want to be a minority in a democracy, as far as that goes you can take your lumps. The only criticism against Libertarians I’ve ever seen is those who take the concept to extreme and ridiculous limits and invent wildly insane hypothetical scenarios. If you want to get down to it, every man is a minority of one, and democracy is not generally about promoting minority rights.
Myself, I disagree with many aspects of majority rule, because the majority is basically pretty goddammed stoopid. But I obey the rules and follow the guidelines for no other reason than that there are so many of them. That is how democracy works. If you want to retain some strange or offbeat cultural mores, fine, but expecting others to accommodate you is a little too Libtard for intelligent people.
What? You want to know some of the things I do not agree with that are democratically entrenched in the minds of the masses? That’s easy. I’m against prohibition—as I’ve said, it never works and it never will. I’m also against government record-keeping. No good has ever come of in throughout the entirety of human existence. And same with income taxation, prison rehabilitation programs, and credit. These things are inherently wrong.
At the other end of things, I believe defamation laws should be widened to make gossipers strictly liable for damages*, make churches liable for welfare or else pay taxes, and no cash handouts to recipients. Because the situation is out of control.
*[Author’s note: strict liability is meant in the legal sense. Not to be interpreted that thought police go around arresting gossips, but if gossip causes harm to another, the victim can press charges for prescribed damages—he does not have to prove what the harm cost him. Some such laws already exist (they are called “fines”), but they need to be widened. But at the same time, I would allow truth to be a defense. If what the gossip said is true, then it becomes a regular defamation case.
If you are unclear on this, don’t draw conclusions until you are. The truthfulness of a statement is not what is on trial, only whether or not the statement caused harm. My contention is that most gossip can be traced back to a clearly defined small group of chronic agitators. My treatment of these people would be to repeatedly chastise these few for the benefit of the larger number—democracy in action.
Remember the tale of the man with the wheelbarrow? Did I use that recently? I don’t recall, but that’s the one where the town widow, a gossip, accused a workman of taking to drink because his wheelbarrow was parked in front of a tavern. So he over the next night he parked it in front of her house.]
Last Laugh
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