Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 27, 2024, morning in Miami.
Five years ago today: March 27, 2020, a generic day.
Nine years ago today: March 27, 2016, never back down.
Random years ago today: March 27, 2001, a calendar entry.
I may have freed up a circuit that I may turn into a diagnostic tool. Yes, there is an entire miswired link in the main box which I see was used to put in the hallway light. The hall is just 7-1/2 feet long and originally had no light source. I tapped into that circuit for my bathroom radio, overhead fan, and now here is my plan. There is to be a dedicated circuit for the new fridge, which will have 20 amp wiring, my minimum standard. When I leave more than a week, I turn off every circuit except the fridge, having learned my lesson long ago.

This time, I will tap into that circuit to power the overhead lights, including the hallway which is activated by a motion circuit. It has no light switch, you can figure why on your own, or you have an incredibly long pair of arms. Thus, if you want to be sure the fridge is getting power, just walk down the hall. Works for me. That leave open an extra three breaker slots once I reposition the double breaker for the new water heater, but no promises today, I have no spare energy.
This photo is your welcome break from floor pictures. These are a couple of the boxes I call DVD crates, each holding 30 disks in their regular size plastic cases. For storage, not for display, these are being tested, note the thumb hole to make moving what I call disk crates. They also work okay for storing CD and DVD data disks, but I find those are best stored in old audio-book cases where they can be easily labeled on the outside.
Ah, coffee number three. I’d like a break today to build a small circuit that says it prevents small batteries from overcharging. That’s something I would like to see. I’ve been tied up here with the floor work, so doing the books, I realize I have not really been out of the house since the 14th except for band practice. This instinctively causes me to check the entertainment budget, and we have money for a trip. I could not find anything interesting to do the weekend of the 15th, so how we have $104.40 to splurge.
Well, that’s not a fair word. I went without for years to avoid a dull nothing retirement. Yeah, only to find out I was quite along on that count. I’ll find something to do, but without Tennessee, you know I’ll be doing it alone. The van gas tank is full and if I get the major circuits finished today, I’ll be in a great mood for a well-deserved mini-vacation. Work with me here, you know the budget and what I like to do. Target the upcoming weekend. To make it easier, remember that building my boxes is entertaining, so tool-shopping is not ruled out. However, it is mainly a travel budget and I like the coast to the west.
The newest and best cable under the flooring is the fancy run to the new sub-panel in the hallway. If nothing else, today I will secure that up between the joists where possible. I bought it to specs from the electrician who wired the box, and I think it looks like those encyclopedia diagrams of undersea telecom cable. I’m also looking at the way the old plumbing runs diagonal to the bathroom. That is not the best arrangement though it was the cheapest way of doing it. Again, I will plan the new flooring as a pattern of 4x4 and 4x2 foot panels so any section can be reached without pulling up the entire kitchen like I’ve been for the past two weeks.
This morning I read up on the differing methods of sight reduction. With luck, it seems I picked the right one for me at the beginning, when I knew nothing. If you follow the rules for determining your AP, assumed position, you are rarely more than 45 nautical miles off. In the middle of the ocean, that is nothing. What the books don’t emphasize is the navigation is most useful in the ocean or air. The moment you see a landmark or lighthouse, a buoy or beacon, or a rock or reef, quit with the celestial. Get out your charts and use those.
Picture of the day.
Lampione Island
(with square lighthouse)
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By 3:00PM, here’s how it went. I got out to the shed and could not find the cable straps where I left them. Then I saw that box that just needed a little work, then that wire screen over the lean-to window. And since I had the air stapler out, I decided to finish another DVD box, and then sort our the carriage bolts long enough to reach through the new joists. And just like the, it was 3:00 o’clock. Here I am, inside with a double iced coffee and it’s siesta time. I got up early to set out the garbage and filled the birdfeeders and moved some small lumber. Lem from Tennessee sends compliments on the planter bench. I told you, the thing has visual appeal, that’s how it got me.

I read a rather novel idea to cap off welfare in America. Instead of cards and cash, we take a fraction of the total welfare budget and give everyone who wants it free beans, rice, and bologna. Up to a ten pound helping per person per month. Free, unless they get caught selling it. Sounds like a plan to me. If people are really as hungry as they pretend to be, they’ll eat it.
Here is a failed amplifier circuit. It may have been featured before, but it did not work. Maybe it was my first attempt. I did not know how to correctly bias the transistor input, so I followed the values on the schematics. I had not learned those were approximate values because of the variations present in most electronic components. I kept this circuit because the individual parts of it tested okay but they did not work together.
It’s circuit I’ve looked at probably six times, testing it in various configurations. Today it made mention because I got it to pass a signal. Just a clicking noise, but it was input to output and proof the problem is not the basic configuration. This circuit was also not adjustable, having no trim pots (potentiometers). Now I’ve learned to use full scale pots and safety resistors. But I have not yet produced a working amplifier circuit. I’d like to think I’m getting closer, instead I’ve made much larger models than this tiny board shown here.
Another improvement is using two transistors. The model shown here using one which has the immediate problem of making the all-important bias harder to control as the DC input current acts directly on the base of the output transistor. I know I’m getting close. I misread one of the resistors, a 2 mega-ohm which I do not know if I have or even if I can fake.
Silver was over $35 at closing, the highest in over ten years, go baby, go. It’s been over two weeks since any tube sales. I think I’ll cash in on that deal, it just is not producing. But we could not have known without trying. To put things into perspective, that is around the sixteenth time in my life I tried to get into something and it did not fly—which should give you a good idea that in America, the largest component of success is an uncle in the business and the second component is plenty of good luck. For every success there are probably 10,000 failures. And if you could those who don’t even try, a million failures.
Good electronics tutorials are so rare, I like to mention the good ones. This one moves a little fast for beginners, but the introduction is factual and hard to beat. It combines the functions of
transistors and logic gates, but trust me, it is most of what you need to know. This is the first step once you get past the simplistic circuits that clog up the Internet ground floor. I learned that MOSFETS, unlike transistors, do not consume any electricity when in the “off” mode and that they are far tinier. So your million-transistor computer probably MOSFETS—and that explains why they can be zapped so easy. The film inside the component is only a few nanometers thick.
I found the missing conduit straps at 5:30PM. I was looking for the package, which had broken open, and they were loose in the bottom of the tray. The question is, do I go to work on it this late in the day? A couple hours and a load of laundry later, the answer is no. But I got a lot of logistics underway. All the plastic pipe fittings of the new hot water tank, which we do not even know will work after all this time. It looks like I have possibly all the materials needed for the long cable run over to the new heater. Certainly I have most of the expensive pieces, as I had started this project in 2019. Amazingly, the old 1947 Maytag is still working fine, so there was no rush.
What’s in the news? If California doesn’t pull a fast one, it could turn Republican in 2026, with polls showing a 10% gain for Trump. NPR/PBS are on the chopping block. A special forces vet is running for London’s mayor. Ontario’s premier vows to inflict as much pain as possible on Americans. Gab is again consistently 2 to 3 hours ahead of other media on breaking news. Trump is saying an M-13 top leader has been arrested, but I doubt it. The dude is only 23 years old. He’s been set up.
ADDENDUM
It’s not breaking news these days, but the layoffs continue at the big employers. This is the backlash of years of mismanagement under Biden, it is a known tactic how they angle the effects to land on the incoming administration, who they either blame if they lose, or up taxes to fix if they win. But there are two new pressures that I can define. One is the easing of government involvement caused by DOGE and the other is the predicted A.I. displacement of drone workers.
Big business is simply able to get by with fewer people when there are fewer regulations. And there has been a constant removal of drudge jobs since the dawn of the industrial revolution, although some would say that is only due to the changing definition of drudge. Either way, I walked away from it in May 1996. Not a millionaire, but with enough to always get by, a safety net so many rich kids so take for granted they don’t know it is there. Ha, remember how JZ talks about this hard times, living in his dad’s cabin cruiser. That sort of thing.
So in a couple months, it will be 30 years since I had a day job. I could have worked them and become wealthy, I suppose, but at what cost? Working like that changes people and it is rarely for the good, even their own good. Or as I put it, work hard but don’t become one of “them”. Alas, there is no clear dividing line. I will feed the animals but not the homeless because the homeless get food stamps paid for by taxpayers and you know how I love enforced charity.
For reading this far, here is my conclusion for today. That entertainment budget is for me and my own, and there is something I’ve been thinking about. When you go down the coffee aisle nowadays, there are some new and unfamiliar brands with some heavyweight price tags. I’ve not tried them as I like Maxwell House. But what does coffee priced twice as much offer? My plan is to spend $30 of the travel dollars on small samples.
This is making a deal with myself, since I can effectively claim to be well past the age of trying out new things for their own sake. Everybody knows old people set in their ways don’t do this, so the deal is I will try the most expensive brands I can find in this price range and get back to you. It will be a good test, and easy, too, as the results are totally dependent on my 60+ years of coffee experience.
Maybe I’ll run a bit over budget and here’s the explanation. I have another hobby that is a sub-classification of entertainment. I read approximately 90 minutes per day. And, what is the activity most likely to accompany this activity? And I can tell you that has been such a successful formula that it is unlikely to ever change for the sake of change. Are you ready for the Great 2025 Coffee Challenge? There is only one rule. No franchise brands in the opening rounds.
And if you have time, here is a link to a
Rumble article that would likely never have aired a year ago. There is a classic example of a libtard caught lying and trying to squirm out of it. If you have not been thoroughly disgusted by any liberals lately, this is a video you just got to see.
Last Laugh