Deer will find acorns buried by squirrels.
Video has sound.
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THIS BLOG IS NOT FORMATTED FOR ANDROID.
DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
Tales From The Trailer Court™
Friday, January 17, 2025
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Deer will find acorns buried by squirrels.
Video has sound.
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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
January 17, 2025
Sneak preview:
ADDENDUM
Argh, why did I start reading that chapter on Assembler. I’ve never used that language. Part of the draw is that this book was published in 2008 and it ignores good advice I learned forty years earlier, such as always starting a variable name with a “v” and to hate the dreaded dot notation (when embedded). But worst is what I tagged years ago is “fall-through” code. This is code that presumes a certain condition will always occur by itself. Rather than meeting a specified criteria, the code will by itself "fall through" to the next command. One typical example is breaking out of loops by presuming the counter will always reach zero. It works great until years later some pencil-neck Google coder moves that routine or inserts a new command. I long ago learned to hard code every instance.
Now I’m itching to have a go at running a small assembler program just to say I’ve done it. One advantage I always had back at trade school was none of the other programmers, aides, tutors, or instructors during my eight or nine years back at school could type. I also learned not to key enter any code until the entire program worked “on paper”. I’ve been in many a classroom where everyone but myself immediately began clattering in code while I worked w pencil. I never missed a deadling and I handed in beautifully-documented code which often worked the first time. I wish I’d kept some for display.
Some of these classes between 1985 and 1988 are recorded in my journal, so we may see some of it yet. This was the era when courses were automatically reimbursed by the company, remember I’m the one who cooked up the phrase “to prepare for future performance standards”. Yep, that was me. I’ll overview it for you here, as we don’t know what will survive of the handwritten records.
During most of my stay at the company, they had a policy of rotating mid-level supervisors around. My department never had one for long and never one that gave a damn. They knew they would not be long, so often rubberstamped reimbursement requests as long as there were (I discovered) three plausible-sounding reasons for taking a course entered into the proper field of the paperwork. If I recall, I eventually got $48,000 in reimbursements, of which $16,000 was tuition.
Another juicy tidbit was that the school always sent some sort of notification who was top of the class, often just the receipt required to apply for the reimbursement. And I was top of the class in every course with a couple exceptions where I was second and once I was third. No supervisor was going to refuse his star performer. We are talking a lot of courses—and this is what led to my downfall in one sense. Somebody eventually noticed I had “more courses than the rest of the department put together” which I figured was a plus, but Lionel, the little round-headed man, had the opposite take.
I had never attempted to keep my performance a secret so I knew something would go wrong. Hell, whenever on some rare occasion I would recognize somebody else from the company in the classroom, I would always post the class lists in the lunch room for all to see. Invariable the other name was normally not even on the first page. But, by 1990, it was blatant I was training for another career if anything ever went wrong—and it did. Two things went wrong. One was deregulation, allowing other outfits like Sprint and Verizon to compete with the phone company monopoly, and two, the company began “hardening up” enforcing the Babbage system whereby no job in the company imparted any transferable skills. You will rarely find and ex-phone company employee working in a related type of job.
They put the department on shift work—which let to the actual reason I left the company. If you want people to work at midnight, you hire people to work at midnight. This is mentioned elsewhere, how they put only the department I was in on shift out of a company of 15,000 employees. It was to discipline others who were caught working two jobs, something the company validly prohibited as a condition of employment. While this was directed at somebody else, Lionel quickly noticed I objected and that was enough for him to commence his dirty work. (Yes, the same Lionel who, on the day I quit, walked past his office in front of the whole department and told him I honestly did not know that was his daughter.)
So, I was cut off course reimbursements, the reason given said “the company did not state there was a maximum, but if there had been one, I would certainly have exceeded it”. But by then, who cared? I had already earned two programming degrees and was completing my accounting certificate. While I never became an accountant, I became excellent office staff which paid even more. And all that is within the blog era so it’s in here somewhere.
ADDENDUM
Argh, why did I start reading that chapter on Assembler. I’ve never used that language. Part of the draw is that this book was published in 2008 and it ignores good advice I learned forty years earlier, such as always starting a variable name with a “v” and to hate the dreaded dot notation (when embedded). But worst is what I tagged years ago is “fall-through” code. This is code that presumes a certain condition will always occur by itself. Rather than meeting a specified criteria, the code will by itself "fall through" to the next command. One typical example is breaking out of loops by presuming the counter will always reach zero. It works great until years later some pencil-neck Google coder moves that routine or inserts a new command. I long ago learned to hard code every instance.
Now I’m itching to have a go at running a small assembler program just to say I’ve done it. One advantage I always had back at trade school was none of the other programmers, aides, tutors, or instructors during my eight or nine years back at school could type. I also learned not to key enter any code until the entire program worked “on paper”. I’ve been in many a classroom where everyone but myself immediately began clattering in code while I worked w pencil. I never missed a deadling and I handed in beautifully-documented code which often worked the first time. I wish I’d kept some for display.
Some of these classes between 1985 and 1988 are recorded in my journal, so we may see some of it yet. This was the era when courses were automatically reimbursed by the company, remember I’m the one who cooked up the phrase “to prepare for future performance standards”. Yep, that was me. I’ll overview it for you here, as we don’t know what will survive of the handwritten records.
During most of my stay at the company, they had a policy of rotating mid-level supervisors around. My department never had one for long and never one that gave a damn. They knew they would not be long, so often rubberstamped reimbursement requests as long as there were (I discovered) three plausible-sounding reasons for taking a course entered into the proper field of the paperwork. If I recall, I eventually got $48,000 in reimbursements, of which $16,000 was tuition.
Another juicy tidbit was that the school always sent some sort of notification who was top of the class, often just the receipt required to apply for the reimbursement. And I was top of the class in every course with a couple exceptions where I was second and once I was third. No supervisor was going to refuse his star performer. We are talking a lot of courses—and this is what led to my downfall in one sense. Somebody eventually noticed I had “more courses than the rest of the department put together” which I figured was a plus, but Lionel, the little round-headed man, had the opposite take.
I had never attempted to keep my performance a secret so I knew something would go wrong. Hell, whenever on some rare occasion I would recognize somebody else from the company in the classroom, I would always post the class lists in the lunch room for all to see. Invariable the other name was normally not even on the first page. But, by 1990, it was blatant I was training for another career if anything ever went wrong—and it did. Two things went wrong. One was deregulation, allowing other outfits like Sprint and Verizon to compete with the phone company monopoly, and two, the company began “hardening up” enforcing the Babbage system whereby no job in the company imparted any transferable skills. You will rarely find and ex-phone company employee working in a related type of job.
They put the department on shift work—which let to the actual reason I left the company. If you want people to work at midnight, you hire people to work at midnight. This is mentioned elsewhere, how they put only the department I was in on shift out of a company of 15,000 employees. It was to discipline others who were caught working two jobs, something the company validly prohibited as a condition of employment. While this was directed at somebody else, Lionel quickly noticed I objected and that was enough for him to commence his dirty work. (Yes, the same Lionel who, on the day I quit, walked past his office in front of the whole department and told him I honestly did not know that was his daughter.)
So, I was cut off course reimbursements, the reason given said “the company did not state there was a maximum, but if there had been one, I would certainly have exceeded it”. But by then, who cared? I had already earned two programming degrees and was completing my accounting certificate. While I never became an accountant, I became excellent office staff which paid even more. And all that is within the blog era so it’s in here somewhere.
Thursday, January 16, 2025
January 16, 2025
One year ago today: January 16, 2024, Trump dominates Iowa.
Five years ago today: January 16, 2020, Matilda.
Nine years ago today: January 16, 2016, Tascam shortcomings.
Random years ago today: January 16, 2004, database talk.
One of the stains I tried was called “Gunstock”, which led to me watch this video on making a musket. It is an excellent treatment of old world craftsmanship. You can watch the brass fittings being made from the mold to the final fitting. My first interest was the wood finish but the skill portrayed had me fascinated. If you have an hour and want to see a lost art, I recommend this video. Watch how he turns to wood finish dark by holding a red-hot iron next to it. This picture shows the finish of American musket stocks. Most intriguing was how all those fussy brass plates on these old weapons were quite functional. The plating on the sides was used to absord recoil shock on a part of the gun that had to be thin enough to be held comfortably.
Here’s how California works. The houses in LA had no insurance because the companies said the fire protection was not adequate. What was insured was $30 million in Hunter’s paintings, which were in a storage unit it, guess where, Pacific Palisades. And the world holds its breath for next Monday. Trump does not make the same mistakes twice and the opposition has is signaled they will try the same tactics that worked last time. Bog Trump down with fake lawsuits, foot-dragging, and outright disobedience of direct orders. But he has learned, it is now clear when he won in 2016, he was surprised and unprepared as most everyone else.
What he did learn is that his success was a groundswell of support from traditional America. He represented a stop to what was going on. I think this time he will swiftly move to eradicate the known bureaucrat enemies and roadblocks. He knows he was not elected to compromise and go soft on bad players. Meanwhile the WaPo (Washington Post) cartoonist who led the charge on Trump being a pervert was today arrested on various kiddie-porn charges.
I was again talking to the lady who knows how to “program” the 3D printer. I’m familiar with the biggest reason for delay—lack of space. Over here, we learned the hard way that no took does you any good if you don’t have a shop to use it. Preferably a shop full of supplies and room for everything from raw materials to finished product. The link is she knows a guy who is selling boxes similar to mine, saying he gets as much as $80. I’d have to see this, because similar can mean a lot of things. I’ll try to make a couple sample boxes to show her next week. She says he sells them himself one by one, which I would lack the time and patience for, but at half that price, I’m interested.
Y’day I was only driving for a half hour, so how is our audio-book “Guest Room” doing? Well, the 19 year-old Russian “sex slave” did wind up on his doorstep. Without her being surrounded by the Russian Mafia, she is a scared and desperate girl, so they have taken her inside the house for her own safely. Turns out she had been told the American police are just as bad and is afraid they would throw her in Rikers Island (the state women’s prison). Up to now, everyone has assumed one of the two “courtesans” shot the second Russian guard, but she is saying he shot himself. Now, finally, with twenty minutes left, the story gets interesting.
When in Tennessee, I rarely feed the pets canned or dry food. I cook to my own people standards, because I just make extra for the pets. Well, over time it’s now I can’t cook much here without thinking of the pets, including those not with us any longer. I was raised to talk to animals to calm them, however this isn’t a carryover from that. I mean I’ll be cooking, say, chicken, and ask Sparkie if he wants boiled or baked, out loud. Habit? Hmmmm, thinking there might be a medical term for this, I did a search. Wow, 20% of adults do the same, some of them hallucinating they see the pet. In that case, I’ll just consider talking to them while I cook as part of some quite normal grieving process.
By afternoon, still too cold, so you get more editorial. My feeds are an overlay of my own devising that take the search fields of the sites I visit most and concatenate lengthy Boolean expressions that filter out what I don’t want. The longest, which I’ll post here, is my Craigslist search for properties for sale. No search criteria is perfect and you lose a few, but that’s a major time savings over scrolling through bogus postings.
-HOA –amenities –mobile –manufacture* -clubhouse -55* -single* -double* -sunshine –golf –village –sunlake –active –CDD
This is just the filter used to get rid of mobile home ads listed falsely as real estate. The words sunshine and sunlake are names of trailer parks. I used to post the filters for others to use and Sunlake Terraces was furious. CDD is a new addition, Community Development District, another layer of bureaucracy that prohibits things like washing your car in your own driveway. The use of this filter often returns zero results. The only good thing these organizations could do but can’t is steer buyers clear of certain districts.
Tomorrow is the last work day for most civil servants and I predict lots of sabotage. The desperation on the left has gone off the scale. None of the planned distractions have worked and Trump is ready to axe the really bad operators before noon on Monday. Good or bad, this is going to upset decades if creeping liberalism, which is okay by me. I would support any party that dismantles the Deep State. The problem I foresee is if Trump doesn’t do what people want (and I don’t think he will), then they will elect a dictator in 2028. The American people don’t want firings and dismissals. They want revenge, especially people who have lost famiy to the COVID hoax. The consensus is that Trump is already weakening. I hope he does not forget they tried to kill him and attacked is family. But he does not want to go down in history as a killer.
After the disappointment of the code book, I thought I’d get more of a challenge reading my old text on Assembler language. I rejected this before as the version they use was too contorted, but this time I got into the chapters that deal with the way the memory is allocated—and it dovetails with what I’ve been studying about transistors as memory. Now, although it will contribute little to the programming I set out to re-learn, I can’t put this book down because memory circuitry strangely fascinates me. How do you figure that?
Northern Quebec, I think.
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I spent a couple hours on boxes later in the day when the sun had been shining on the shed a few hours. As you see, my stunt double had to wear a long-sleeve sweat shirt. All the sparks are removing an old suitcase handle. And let me tell you, some of them are really on there. Cant be hammered or punched off. I salvage the nicer leather ones. The handles easily last longer than the suitcases which tend to be cloth or plastic. This video also shows how the rabbet cuts often still need some attention to fit truly close. Part of the deal is he wooden pieces, once sawn, sometimes warp a bit as the strain is released.
. This blog is classified as “Lifestyle” despite my cautions of people not to try this at home. Lifestyle is the third lowest rank of blog, often compared to travel guides and composting. The only lower categories are parenting and camera user manuals. It’s a telling feature that all the top paying blogs are about how to market, monetize, affiliate, and market blogs. In other words, how to make money off the backs of other people whom you can convince to part with their dollar.
It seems now, at age 45, the Internet has matured into a full-blown pyramid/Ponzi/Amway marketing scheme based on tactics outlawed for other operations like Wall Street. Once again, the top 5% rest on the carcasses of the also-rans.
Los Angeles has been handing out $100 fines to firefighters parked next to empty fire hydrants. If you like French cheese, here’s an article about its decline. You see, the cheese bacteria is in danger of dying out. The market demand means the French often focus on and re-use a single species of the bacteria for decades, not allowing it to follow normal evolutionary paths. The brand examined is Camembert, all descending from a single white mutant strain selected in 1897 and now going extinct.
ADDENDUM
I’ve put in two hours reading on the outcome of many diaries written that have become popular for one reason or another. I’ve found no common feature, nothing to explain why some become widely read. I’ve found “diary” sites on-line, but they are more geared toward the daydreams of teenage girls. Naturally, my thinking is that the accuracy of my observations over a variety of topics, plus my liking for a broad knowledge of academic fields classifies my writings as a journal. I’ve sought other blogs of this type to see how they fared, but have not really seen anything comparable. And the few that are comparable are not daily. To me that is like cheating, as they are cherry picking what they report, while a real captain’s log would also report the disappointments and off days.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
January 15, 2025
One year ago today: January 15, 2024, a generic day.
Five years ago today: January 15, 2020, remember the chickens.
Nine years ago today: January 15, 2016, don’t buy large.
Random years ago today: January 15, 2004, teens should be happy years.
A couple times recently I’ve said the robin flocks are off schedule. I’m wrong, somehow I keep forgetting fall in Florida December. Keep a journal like this sure helps the old memory at times. An ominous silence has replaced the hoop-lah that usually surrounds January 20. Conspiracy theories abound, including the one about the Israeli PM not showing. History tells us some people just know when not to show up for work that day. It’s interesting to see articles about the perils of real estate appearing twenty years after I published the same. It is not an easy trip, only the top 5% make money and as usual it is those with a huge head start with Daddy’s Money. Everyone else is subject to market whims. I repeat my assertion that most people do not really get ahead using borrowed money.
While I’m in the kitchen, remind me to budget a new coffee maker. I still use the K-cup knock off from Wal*Mart and it is showing signs of daily use all these years. I won’t go back to other coffee methods, although I use the basket and not the K-cups. Reb does not like the plastic leftover cups and so I use those for convenience, like Festus Tuesday. I took the neighbor some samples I have of French roast and Columbian, since before I showed up he was like JZ thinking all coffee was about the same.
I entered two dates, February 5 and 6 of the year 1980. Maybe twenty sentences. This took an hour, probably slower than what I was attempting avoid, namely laborious key-entry. I sought to use voice software to speed up the process. Worst aspect is that the app I am using is designed for this computer, yet it still locks up regularly and gets 20% of the words wrong. I will get better but this shit appears to be the best these millennials have to offer. It’s amusing in another way, I now recognize on-line posted articles that were created with this junkware. Such rot has become mainstream and now they can’t change it later when they clue in. If you can’t proofread when you are twenty, Garrett, trust me, you can’t learn it when you’re forty.
The work is not that challenging, but the lack of goal-oriented software is. One should open a template, speak into the microphone, and post the article. Not so fast. What I’ve resorted to is speaking in a few days at a batch, then going back and correcting, which is what’s taking so much time. Also, I have the tracking spreadsheet done. Once a date is uploaded, it should be a simple matter of check-marking that date on the spreadsheet.
Not so fast, the spreadsheets are designed for Silly Sally and Goof Gavin who have zero comprehension of what they are entering. You have to click three times on a cell to activate it. Once to select the app, it can’t figure that out when you mouse-over the page. Then you must select the cell, then click again to activate it. Try doing that 7,300 times and you’ll get my point. This is why I know these people are not really getting anything much done—there would be an outcry if they knew any better. I finally printed up hardcopy of the dates I’m working on (which means I have to change my plan from efficient to step-by-step) and mark the dates on a clipboard. Way to go, Josh & Tyler.
Castle Del Monte (Italy)
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It stayed cold. I bought a rack of ribs and stopped at the old club on the way back. They’ve roundabout drawn the conclusions listed here some time ago. That they’ve gone and changed the hometown character of the place and lost all their local regulars. Bear in mind the way I look at these things is solidly from the perspective of a musician, not a bar owner. But the causes and results don’t seem to be that much different. They are planning to engage in more local activities, something the previous owners never really paid much nevermind. They are like me in that respect. Before continuing, here is the pan of fried pork. I did not know this morning it would become the high point of the day. Back to the club.
My opinion counts for nothing but this town does not have the brand of customers needed to operate anything but the type of bar that place used to be. Homey, dull, small-town, and nice-band-on-Fridays. Did I mention they have lately switched to recorded music only. And remember how I said (long ago) instead of paying a disk jockey $100, just give the patrons $80 in quarters and let them choose what they want on the jukbox? That’s another idea they came up with on their own.
If I sound critical, it is not any dislike or disrespect for the people, rather the loss of atmosphere of a small club that I used to like. Only so much can be blamed on COVID as the other clubs in the area still have their clientele. I rarely go there any more but when I do, I have an observation. Usually I am the only customer in the place, but when the odd other person drops in, they are like me in what I think is an important distinction. They purchase their drinks one-by-one and pay cash only. It’s the kind of shift I would notice, for sure.
Nothing else of interest except the news on everyone’s mind, namely the Trump takeover. The bad guys are not going to get the leeway like before. The change will be swift. Trump continues with his highly popular tactic of attaching to causes that have wide support. An example is his list of people he will not hire, nor any of the staffers who worked for them. Hang on and I’ll get you a couple. Okay, “Birdbrain” Nikki Haley, “Dumb as a Rock” John Bolton, ex-General Milley, the Cheneys, Mike Pence, and Paul Ryan. Trump merely saying they are not welcome seals their political fates.
Speaking of former anti-Trumpers changing their stripes, what’s this news little Greta has begun making anti-Jew speeches in Italy. Trump has hired over 1,000 people so this time there will be zero foot-dragging by the opposition. There’s an interesting report that Trump’s envoy to Israel was told the Prime Minister could not attend a meeting because it was their holy day. The envoy’s response went unrecorded, but the PM showed. Don’t screw around with Trump, end of lesson.
If you’d like to read an article the type of which I find mildly annoying but don’t know why, here is a link to the history of the Lochaven Farm, now an historical site in Idaho. I suspect my dislike has to do with the tone of the article talking about the hardships endured by millionaires or something. Like the guy, to make his fortune in banking, poor guy had to move to Seattle. Read the whole thing and tell me what sets me off.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
January 14, 2025
One year ago today: January 14, 2024, Operation Flush.
Five years ago today: January 14, 2020, holograms or nothing.
Nine years ago today: January 14, 2016, a generic day.
Random years ago today: January 14, 2018, robin flock.
Where am I? Like I just came out of hibernation. Are you ready for another day of post-retirement Florida news and good times? Too bad, all I want to do is build a box. It’s 57°F out there and I’m on my third refill. Maybe I’ll walk over and see how the lawnmowers are doing. I told him to sell the Honda. I took the early morning off, with grilled cheese and hot coffee and read up on Operation Bolo. This was the time the US airforce wiped out most of the MiGs in the North Vietnamese air force. I knew it was a set-up, and now I know how they did it. See addendum. By mid-morning, it is still in less than 60°F, so I hauled out the bass.
Yep, I sure would like to play “Only Daddy”, but who can sing that? And I devised an excellent walking bass line to “Diggin’ Up Bones” that’s even busier than before, which really offsets the chorus from the rest of the tune, one of my specialties. (And the one missed most when guitarists try it without me.). But since you have to hear both versions to appreciate what I do, I’ll never be famous for it. So, as it got up to 60°F I went outside and turned over the John Deere. It cranks just fine, but it is not getting any fuel. I’ve done all I can, time to get rid of it for whatever. Without selling off surpluses around here, my investments have shrunk to nothing meaningful.
I spent some time inventorying the blog posts. There are a lot of discrepancies. The hardest to resolve are posts that are simply missing. June of 2022 shows 29 posts but on-line there are 30. It’s been a number of years since Google took away the unique feature of BlogSpot, a beautiful app that let you pull up a month of posts at a time. Now, the only lookup is a tedious one-by-one field search, where you must type in the field name and the title exactly. So far, I’ve managed to log just 550 of the 7,000+ posts. You long-term patrons out there probably know more about this blog than I do.
The next picture shown the hinge recess being chiseled out. This remains a tricky operation. I need the practice, so even the cheapest boxes I build tend to have hinges and latches these days, plus a layer of stain or poly. Stain tends to make them look more expensive than they really are. If you examine the marks on the wood here, you can see the outline is chiseled, then the smaller cuts, as the final chipping is done by hand. This box may turn out the right size for my navigation tools, so there are some extras included. For instance, the hinges are narrower than the wooden frame, so you can spot the cut does not go completely across the wood. There is a small lip left on the interior.
It says here a major Canadian chain of movie theaters is bringing back $5 Tuesdays, and that includes the popcorn. It might just save their necks. In France, a leftoid theater opened their doors to 250 African migrants for a free show. That was five weeks ago and they have not left yet. Speaking of the French, how about that 53 y.o. Frenchwoman who fell for an on-line Brad Pitt imitator and sent him €830,000 Euros? My only question is where does an interior designer get that much money in the first place?
Space station garbage compactor.
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This next box is super cheap, made out of leftover chip board. (The corners will be reinforced later with metal drywall bead.) It’s for my ramshackle collection of long screw and bolts that won’t fit in my rack. This hardware has always been the worst organized, so bad that I often bought new pieces rather than go hunting around. Thus, I now have a lot of mismatched pieces. This box should hold most of that I’ve accumulated. This is another box built without measuring tools and totally using power tools. I also found a decent blueprint for a simple spline jig uses four pieces of lumber and two wooden slides.
Later, this is the third box mentioned. Argh, it is just under and inch too small for the longest tool, my parallel rulers. You can see the markings between my thumb and pointer in the picture below. Pretty dang close, however, since this box was also built to no specs I’m lucky even this near. I’m tempted to router a notch to make it fit. The staples are not very cosmetic but they make a very strong connection. I’ve learned several techniques that aren’t covered in the how-to books I use for reference. Like how attaching a bottom plate across the whole bottom of the box is not as strong as a recessed panel that is attached to the sides.
It was Gunsmoke Tuesday and Festus was not in the cast. We have watched most of the shoot-em-up episodes. Now the fare is kind of sappy, this week was about the daughter of a drunk trying to get herself married. Instead she gets as close to molested as they could show in 1950. The portrayal of poverty was very accurate, that I can confirm. Not the shortages so much as the way having nothing affects thinking, especially in children. How poverty can force you into decisions you know are wrong that materially affect the rest of your life. The ones that need help the most are ashamed to ask for it.
Nor do I care much for the group of “scientist” who are claiming that trauma from the Holocaust is in DNA and now passed to a whole new generation of wanting reparations to continue. They even gave it a name, epigenetic inheritance.
Wanting a challenge, I took on a chapter about 64-bit addressing. Did you know a lot of 64-bit computers do not operate at that full capability? That’s another story, I was curious about the addressing. Every byte of memory that operates your computer has an address. My focus is on-board memory, not storage. This harks back to my early experience with assembler. I passed the course but never really used the language. These locations are where the computer, when it is running a program, executes instructions and crunches the numbers. The addresses where the actual work takes place are called registers. That’s as deep as I’ll report, but I am reading this addressing in much more detail.
There are two address schemes, absolute and offset. Both are simple. For those who have ever wondered why the complication of hexadecimal notation, this is where it is used. Hex is a shorthand for these addresses. I’ve seen many examples of hex math and notations but addressing is really the only place I have ever really bothered with it Enough, this is not for everybody, and you bet this will put you to sleep.
ADDENDUM
I’ve always maintained the poor American performance in Nam was due to bureaucratic interference. One such rule was that US aircraft could not fire on other planes without visual confirmation. This just meant the MiGs always got close enough to do some damage. At this time, the American strategy was to bomb the snot out of the enemy logistics system, which should have worked, but again, due to politics, it did not. The MiGs would hit the bombers and be gone by the time the US fighter jets could engage. So, as near as I can discover, here’s how they got the MiGs to fight.
The politicians also said US aircraft had to follow a specified corridor into the target area. The Vietnamese quickly learned to place all their missiles, radars, and AA cannons into that slot. Then they picked up the jamming signals from the bomber pods, they went on alert. The Americans mounted jammer pods onto some fighter jets, and flew then down the corridor in bomber formation. They somehow had got the entire rest of the US military to keep their airplanes on the ground that day, thus anything in the sky that wasn’t ours was the enemy, good enough for visual confirmation.
The MiGs attacked and were getting blasted away before they realized the sky was full of fighters. The few that got away found standing “rat patrols” of other US jets around their airfields when they returned. I stopped reading at this point as it answers how 12 of the Vietnamese force of 16 planes was wiped out. A couple unanswered questions would be how the got the rest of the US services to keep out of the sky, but it could have been a simple fake bad weather report. Nor is there any info readily available over whether the rat patrols got any kills. I like it as it is the type of operation I would have planned given the chance.
Monday, January 13, 2025
January 13, 2025
One year ago today: January 13, 2024, no guarantee.
Five years ago today: January 13, 2020, another average day.
Nine years ago today: January 13, 2016, weird coincidence, a torch.
Random years ago today: January 13, 2013, she’s good company.
I voice entered some material from back in the 80s, I caution the reader that that was a much different time and place and also much more a free society. People mostly did anything they wanted as long as it harmed nobody but themselves. I was dating a gal whose older sister was several years younger than me. And she made sure things did not work out or I’d like be married to a Swedish gal today. Things are not so great with this voice-to-text. Despite perfect English input, to day it was 40% errors. And equally worse, the microphone clogs up the system even when not in use. Just plugging it in causes jams, yet this is is by far the fastest computer of its class and maxxed out with RAM.
It never got warm enough this morning so I put in six hours on the books, which includes this journal. Now that there’s a wee bit of work happening on the oldest and hand-written journals, it becomes necessary to keep track of what is going on. While one is unlikely to sit down and write two pages of information, there is no such protection against the double posting of data files. And I’ve run into a problem with this blog that was never addressed. No index.
This led me to develop a spreadsheet that lists what dates have publications. Sure enough I’ve already uncovered several problems. Duplicate posts and some quirk in the Google system that lists posts in the wrong month. I found they can be copied and reposted correctly, but that process wipes out the statistics for than post. Another glitch is months that show 32 posts. I may get to those some day. Another little mouse has met his maker overnight. I can explain. In Florida if you have rats you probably have mice as well. But if you set regular spring traps for the rats, the mice can get in there and steal the bait without triggering the latch.
The solution is to file down the latch just enough to make it hair-trigger. And that mouse ignored the live trap and went for the peanut butter and his demise. Where was I? Ah, yes, doing the books. Sometime the trips to Tennessee get estimated in total, then filled out when I have time. Such as cold days like this. Bidenflation has make these visits three times as expensive. Because inflation hit those commodities the hardest. Gasoline, groceries and pet food. Let’s get some figures for you. Drop back this afternoon.
Here’s more numbers. The Washington Post circulation has dropped from 23 million in 2021 to less than 3 million today. The Texas Attorney General is suing Allstate for tracking cell phone data, saying it was done by secret code. Bull, the tracking code is there for anyone to see because that is how cell phones operate. And anyone who reads the fine print would know there is no such thing as cell phone privacy. Here’s a video clip that captures the American mood today.
Copenhagen pastry shop.
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Yep, that last stay cost me $1,723. Mind you, that includes gems like replacing the Garmin GPS for a hundred bucks and $180 in pet supplies. Cat food is $40 a bag. I did buy that CD player for the van and a new electric drill, but they were not that expensive. Gas was $360. There is also the changing entertainment budget, correlated with the lack of good movies suitable for a date. Thus, we go out for Thai food and sushi more often, which adds up pretty quickly. Compare with the original budget for these trips at $430. But back then, it was just the pets and I most of the time.
Silver is smoldering but going nowhere. There may be a bust, but I predict it won’t be the silver itself. The bubble will take the form of a scam on all those imbeciles who will be stuck holding worthless paper. The real silver, except for those who have a barn in Maine to hide it, will have it confiscated same as 1933.
Write off the remainder of today. ai make a great supper and crawled in the sack, where I did not awake until 7:10AM tomorrow. This time it was neither age or fatigue, but something I’ve done my whole life. Just take a day and sleep straight through. A deep and dreamless sleep and I awoke to a chilly morning. The interior gauge says it dropped to 62°F overnight inside the cabin. But I have an electric blanket. I finished reading that weird-ass book “Computronicon” or “Cryptomonicron” and that was not worth the effort. The book has so many long and repetitious chapters, as near as I figure they did find the hidden gold by dynamiting a mountain in the Philippines. I think. The plot also goes on an annoying degree about how faggots are normal and that means to them that Alan Turing was a genius. Not for his computer work, but because he was queer about it.
Because 4/5ths of the book is about hookers and heroine addiction or was it morphine? The sole motive of these people seems to be getting stoned and living permanently in a whorehouse. I think my finishing this book has to do with a similar theme I had about a submarine that smuggled German anti-gravity material into Venezuela. But there the similarity ends. My heroes are ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
ADDENDUM
Something to ponder. These droves of women who come forward later in life to claim they were raped and abused by the rich & famous. How is it these creeps always seem to have an unlimited supply of such women?
Sunday, January 12, 2025
January 12, 2025
One year ago today: January 12, 2024, ever more drones.
Five years ago today: January 12, 2020, $600 and poof!
Nine years ago today: January 12, 2016, if the engines stopped.
Random years ago today: January 12, 2007, checking out CSS.
We awake to the news that in California with the first large deportation operation, there has been a theft from the nearby army base. Three Humvees, a heavey machine gun on its mount, and ton of ammunition. The whole liberal woke world is crashing down with a week left to go. (I remind all that I do not regard liberalism as a political entity, but a mental condition). Nobody is allowed within nuking distance of Mar-a-logo and a slim, proportionate, unmarried White girl has won Miss America. The Democrats in California are using their political sites to steal fire relief donations.
I got the two non-working lawnmowers over to the repair shop. He’s a local handyman who can do the mechanical chores that stump me. We got to talking business and he’s at the same situation I was when we closed the computer shop. New units have become so cheap, people don’t want to repair the old one if it costs more than $50. He recently sold a top of the line Honda mower like the one I brought over for $45. They retail for $700. I scrounged my yard for any suitable lumber and cut some extra 45° bracing on the driveway fence. I’m tired of fixing it so now it will last longer than me.
Valentine, Nebraska.
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This only looks like a burning barrel whereas it has a scientific message. You wonder how California desert can burn. This is green cactus twigs from the agave I finally chopped down. Into the burn barrel and there is your proof green cactus will ignite just fine. Here it is about to burst into flames a fire that went out three days ago. The coals are enough. By 3:30PM it was still warm so I raked up another barrel and a half of yard debris. If you love the aroma I’m baking an apple pie. Not from scratch but I do check the ingredients.
Still unable to shake my grief at loosing JeePee, I finally moved his house and observatory out into the yard. So sad. The handyman is going to have a look at the John Deere. We made a deal if he gets it running and sells it, we split the cash 50/50. I’ve got it on the battery charger just in case. I forget the sequence to start the thing, meaning I may have to push it down the street. Man, that apple pie is good. I had two slices. I’ve not tried the fancy new coffee brand yet, I’ll keep you posted.
Let’s check the news feeds. The latest swarm of Russian drones in the Ukranian war are claimed to be unjammable. It’s a tactic pioneered by torpedoes and guided missiles from the last century. The drone spools out a thin cable that receives commands without radio signals. The strands can be as long as six miles. I’ve read some use fiber optics which would make it even harder to intercept. Then again, a cable is a cable and we know how reliable those are. There’s an article about the US building a military base in the Galapagos. What the hell? In spite of it all, there is an air of optimism. Trump is not just hitting a reset button, he is about to smash decades of creeping socialist policy. The ones I like best are re-opening Federal land for oil and minerals, dismantling the education empire, and of course, mass deportations.
But there are worrying signs already. Trump is taking about just deporting the criminals and maniacs. That wasn’t the deal. Rather than jailing bad teachers, he is talking about parental choice. It’s a touchy point as he was not elected to compromise on anything. Americans want public hangings.
Saturday, January 11, 2025
January 11, 2025
One year ago today: January 11, 2024, it was warm enough.
Five years ago today: January 11, 2020, eggplant is bland.
Nine years ago today: January 11, 2016, I didn’t bother.
Random years ago today: January 11, 2009, Stratford careers.
Another reason to use my budget only for guidance and not comparison is the way my spreadsheets are set up. It is very easy to enter new data and y’day in the silo I found a clip of receipts totaling $466 that were dated in March of 2019. My budget is no a restriction, but a guideline. However, if you were going to use them for comparison, here’s some figures for 2017 and 2024. Food went from $1,660 to $2,916. Gasoline from $1,390 to $2,440. And I don’t know if it is good news or I’m just that old, my entertainment budget dropped from $3,530 to $2,470. These numbers are post-retirement. Back in my heyday, I would easily spend $30,000 per year on overseas vacations. Since retirement my worst year ever was 2022. That year, just the basics cost me over $10,420.28 where my normal annual budget for this household it just over half that.
Not a good time at all for many. FEMA is refusing to renew the hotel vouchers for 3,500 families in the Carolinas, turning them out into 15°F weather. California, well, that’s similar, but the popular feeling is the rich sat back and did nothing as long as it was a poor White people’s problem.
Planning for tomorrow, a quick glance on-line at Polk County’s offering shows that I’ve pretty much seen and done it all. Other than the Lake Wales museum and a smaller museum in a jam & jelly store, that’s it, baby. Let me check Polk Theater. The one with no parking. They show vintage movies. I would like to go there just to see the place. The reputation is the place is incredible, designed for 2,000 people and mostly famous because Elvis once played there. It is licensed and admission is just $5.00.
Buying the coffee had me short-cutting through the crafts aisle where I saw this box for sale for $12 bucks. It is 15 pieces of unfinished lumber, stapled together with no lid. It has a number of other shortcomings, the most obvious being the corner posts, which get in the way. Labeled a crate rather than a box, it is not sturdy. You could break it over your knee and it could not survive a drop with anything much in the basket. To date, my most successful box design has been a unit that can fit a cordless electric drill. It stores the charger as well, with a simple tray for bits. The length is enough to store the drill with most of the smaller bits still in the chuck. The box can be dropped all you want, you can stand on it for that matter, plus it has brass hinged, a locking lid, and a carry handle. Tomorrow, I shall take a closer look at that box. Starting with how much it weighs.
Antarctica without ice.
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Here is the strangest thing this month. This afternoon another flock of robins came through. I fed them a ton of leftover rice. That is the third flock this season and it is now the middle of winter. Any ornithologists in the crowd? Because I know little about robin migration habits other than this is not climate change.
I opted out of Karaoke for a similar reason. The only hometown pub in the area has lost its atmosphere. It’s more a facsimile of a big city joint and all the local have moved on. The club does not care, as according to Agt. R, they are making money. I can see it—unless some sharp operator opens up a honkytonk. That would cost millions around here. Instead, I bought the best rated coffee I could find. It was twice the price and I’ll let you know.
I have a tale from the trailer court for you. In the summer before I turned five, there was a new priest at the English church. They called it a mission and mother was okay with us playing with town kids who went there. The priest was quite young and somebody had donated a rowboat. I found this fascinating as the priest had to refinish the boat. To peel the old paint, he had one of those old brass gasoline blowtorches that you had to pump up. It was so worn out, he spent more time getting it to work than working. The lake froze over long before he ever took a boat ride. Anyway, you know the tool I’m talking about. A while back I saw a video of a guy scorching wood with one and it brought out the grain quite nicely.
Further searching shows nobody sells these at all, but I won’t let that stop me as regular propane canisters have dropped in price to less than $6 each. And I double-checked, it's true, an Amish rhubarb pie on-line is $50 bucks.
Reading a quip that once again it has become cheaper to rent than own, I glanced through my usual array of home ownership and advisory sites. As pointed out long ago, prices are still rising despite lack of sales, a point on which the pundits have remained largely silent. If there is another bust on the way, it has been on the way for five years now. What is propping up this stagnant market? Well, you get anomalies like New York City where the denizens spend up to 70% of their income on rent. But that’s small beans when you look at Florida, where the market is dominated by foreign buyers. America, for all its faults, is still the best place to own property. So why the sudden on-line concern?
The incoming Trump administration, like in 2016, sparks a surge in confidence. And that draws in huge amounts of foreign money, often to the extent of depressing their own economies. But there is also a surge of resentment about allowing outsiders to own American real estate. Silver is doing nothing, but the pot is gurgling again. Industrial demand has outstripped mining supply, remember that most silver certificates sold still represent ore that has not been mined yet. My hope for 2025? A huge burst in the real estate bubble and a corresponding silver boom.
Let me put some numbers on that hope, reminding all that I have zero empathy for people who lose anything they bought with borrowed money. I would like to see real estate drop by 65% and silver blast up to $500+ per ounce. That would mean Tennessee’s $500,000 houses selling for $175,000, which is about right. And even then, since they’d all be underwater (owing more on the property than it is worth), I’d start waving half that amount in cash to see who bites. I predict, since the banks would be strapped, I could get a Tennessee mansion for $100,000. I want a barn with a loft and a nice shed for my sidecar.
ADDENDUM
Around 50 years ago one of the first businesses I owned in town was a Laundromat. This was well before the days of computerized blogs, so I remember something that I want recorded in case the original is lost. Of course, I did my own laundry there and one time I emptied a dryer where I had 11 pairs of socks. Just grab the load the throw them on the sorting table. They landed randomly all over the table, but all 22 socks landed together matched in 11 little piles. What are the odds?
Friday, January 10, 2025
January 10, 2025
One year ago today: January 10, 2024, an eye for pallets.
Five years ago today: January 10, 2020, east to Cookesville.
Nine years ago today: January 10, 2016, makes Trump great again.
Random years ago today: January 10, 2007, the original Trudeau.
Today’s plan was a drive to Lake Wales to visit the museum. It’s in an old train depot, but isn’t a train museum but I figured it worth the $5. It was to make up for a frozen day off. However, by mid morning it was balmy and I’ve decided on a day in the yard. Tidy things up a bit, do that extra laundry, and I’ve a couple boxes that only need some assembly work. And I need the practice on getting old. I keep forgetting. By late morning it is over 60°F, let’s get some work done.
Let me record what I did while I still remember. I ran off a box and chatted with the neighbor. He’s got a Masters in something but I can’t guess what. Likely some ology, which I don’t do or much recognize. But he’s got some incredible memories. When he was 29, he knew this Chinese cook who worked on the Canadian railroad. One of the big lines that ran coast to coast. So he had a chance to travel free any time including free food. But, he never took his friend up on the offer. Now, we old timers would like to travel by rail car, but they’ve turned that into an expensive proposition and warning stands that most if the good scenery is lost because that’s where the train travels at night.
The toughest work was moving my disk storage cabinet into the silo. It was taking up too much room. And that sucker is damn heavy, kind of like a wooden vault, I recognized the need for hard drive security ages before the rest of the world and now have around 16 hard drives from over the years that I no long know what is on them. Or if the drives will still work. I also have trays of 5-1/4s and 3.5s that have never been inventoried. You think there is a lot in this blog? Ha, the blog is a hobby. I have computer files that were old before most of you were born. There was a time I had the computer in town, and even when the rest arrived they were primarily used for playing solitaire.
Knowing the cold will return, I put some fancier hangers for the blankets. Unlike back on the prairies, there is no reason to leave the blankets in place half the year so I tended to hang them on nails. This being the fifth year in a row with cold spells, I decided to install some proper hooks. When I’m home, I heat just the bedroom and bathroom heater is motion-activated. The kithen, leave it cold, it will get warm enough from making chow. Which I will bring into the bedroom because meal time is when I check the e-mail.
Which I did with delight finding $180 in sales today. I take it there is a preference for RCA vacuum tubes, which is nice because I have about a thousand of them. There was a time when I was curious what the more expensive tubes were used for these days. One tube alone counted for half of today’s total.
Top circulation newspapers.
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Appetite gone wild, we got up a double helping of pork fried rice, the real thing. I chopped the onions and pork myself, the rice is the recipe I learned in India, but not the jasmine rice. And yes, long grain rice tastes the best. Since the cold spell arrived, I’ve gone through 55 cups of coffee and I triple-deserved every one of them. I took a short break at 3:00PM and then worked straight through until almost 8:00PM, taking it easy. I sure could have put the hillbilly to work. I’ve gotten used to having to work every job by myself.
I repaired eight feet of fence and that, sport, is a two-man job. I got it done and this time I reinforced the rails with 2x3” cross-braces. Next hurricane those picket will sail away long before my posts and rails even get wiggled. I’ve switched to using landscape posts. You get three for the price of two 4x4s and they are just as easy to work with. Whew! Only thirty-two feet to go. For even more fun, I crawled into the brambles along the SE fence, which is overgrown with small vines (not kudzoo) and hauled most of the underbrush to the burn barrel. I’m taking down my target board and salvaging the fenceposts for a better canopy over the sidecar.
By 9:00PM I’ve finally settled in, with fudge brownies and peanut butter cookies in the oven. I’m finished “Computronicon” and they are still chasing around the countryside finding nothing and obsessed with hookers. Reminds me of old Wallace, who could spend all day talking about hookers if you’d let him. I figure two things. The guys that hire hookers are the ones who can’t get it any other way. And once they go that route, they lose the aptitude to ever form healthy relationships with any other kind of woman. More importantly, here is the best photo of the cookies. My crappy Panasonic camera again. Always lets you down unless you check and recheck every setting every time. This was supposed to video me putting on the crisscrosses with a fork.
I put new rubber washers on all the water hoses and dug up some old patio pavers I used for stepping stones. I’m building a better lumber rack. Right now my shop looks like most carpenter’s areas, with humdreds of bits of lumber I plan to use someday. It’s messy, so I’m going to stack in up against the leeward side of the silo. The news from California is bad and you can add in a ton of suspicion on how the State is handling this. Some smart ass suggested they ask the Amish to build them some cabins. My concern is that vie Caltier, I own property out there but have never looked to see where it is located.
Folks, I have had no use for California since the 1990s woketard infestation.. I feel sorry for the long-term residents who were there before, but they never turned out in force to vote down the takeover. Now my concern is are my properties safe, are they insured, and how will this affect the resale value and the rental demand. I care as much for Californians as they care when they support climate and queer laws that trample over the rest of us.
America loves the approach of January 20. All National Security Council (that’s the United Nations staff) appointed by Biden have been told to clear out by one minute after noon on that date. Sixty firetrucks sent from Oregon to help fight the fires are being help up in Sacramento for emissions testing. The arsonist, an illegal immigrant, who set the fire was let go with a warning. He was carrying five cell phones and a prepaid UN credit card.
ADDENDUM
For most of my video editing, I use the universal best known player, VideoLAN. Mind you, I still use one of the oldest versions. I’ve tried the newer releases and they don’t work as well, plus are filled with quirks. What I’ve wanted for some time is to add subtitles. Problem. All of the how to videos show how to add a file containing the subtitles. That’s now what I wanted. Something is haywire. If I have a video, why would I download somebody else’s subtitle files? Also, there are not instructions on how to create your own subtitles. Maybe it is another one of those millennial things you are “supposed to know”, like how to drive a standard or read cursive.
I may give this a try using their SRT format, which is typed with a text editor like Notepad. It looks laborious but then again, it will always be there. The library in Tennessee has the right app but it’s not freeware. VideoLan does not automate this step. You can’t preview along, pause, enter a subtitle, and then continue.. It should display a text box where you type in your message, and tell it how long you want it to appear. From what I gather, this does not burn the title into your video. Instead, you must upload the SRT code into the same directory as your files.
Later, I finally just did what I thought this SRT file had to do in order to work. And it did, mostly. It is a tedious process, the subtitles are unoutlined white which often clashes with the background. Ah, it responds to basic HTML tags, I got it to print in yellow. Yep, tedious, but also very portable and easy once you catch on. Alas, there is no real time line displayed in VideoLAN, close enough has to be good enough. There has to be a way to embed the titles, as sure enough having two files to do one task is a formula for screwups. Up to now, all the subtitles you’ve seen in this blog were by clever handling of batch gif files.
At this point, using Handbrake is not an option. The reason? Handbrake will not work unless you download and install two very suspicious MicroSoft products. Always hesitate and think twice about any after market software that requires non-standard MicroSoft downloads.
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