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Tales From The Trailer Court™
Sunday, June 14, 2026
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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
Saturday, June 13, 2026
June 13, 2026
One year ago today: June 13, 2025, is Ireland overdue?
Five years ago today: June 13, 2021, guitarists, roofing, jail.
Nine years ago today: June 13, 2017, the rebel to Miami.
Random years ago today: June 13, xxxx, WIP
Good, another post-operation barrier passed. Is that French toast or freedom toast? That was breakfast—but then directly into the yard. No burnout, I filled the bird feeders (which involves lifting more than chest height, and hung the metal birdhouse for decoration. I’d love to make something fancy from it but there’s too much to do. I cut some box boards, they are now under the laser, and finished opening and mixing all the new cans from last Saturday. Here is a nice flat green exterior.
Oh look, there’s a pic of the gourmet weekend birdie nuts being chopped down to little beak size. I just know you spoil your birdies just a much as I do, but remember to fun these through the screen in case you miss any big pieces. It’s enough these little folk have to fly all the way over here for breakfast. I mean, have you ever tried flying? It’s uber-work.
Orania, the White colony in S. Africa has a training school. If I didn’t say, the town just turned 35 and I was surprised to find they experience a parallel to my own life. They allow their teens to go live in the city any time they want, then make a big deal when many of them come back. Sound familiar? Yep, make growing up so desperately empty they can’t wait to get the hell out. Only to find city kids had a complete support mechanism, including housing, cars, cash, and the know-how to work the system via parental guidance. That’s a two-hundred-thousand-dollar head start the farm kid will never know. No wonder so many are forced to come crawling back. Sorry, do not expect me to take the side of people who think pulling that kind of a stunt on a kid is “teaching them a lesson”. There, I feel better now,
What? There must have been one hell of a windstorm went by while I snoozed. But, I was sweet-dreaming away in the semi-soundproof back office-slash-bedroom. My back yard looks like an Iranian missile site, pieces of once-useful things everywhere. There is a reason for these new small boxes around here. Price. My box procedure uses a now hard-to-find 7/8ths inch brad nail, I’ve had to substitute the next size up, which is the 1-inch type shown here. It is not the price, but the principle. These have shot up from $4.79 to $9.98 per box, that’s your Biden 8%.
It was a plan to sort through the “Gold Coast” book and point out the massive inconsistencies in Hortt’s tale. But it is so bad, just step back and assume he is covering up outright fraud and lying about most of the rest. By 1925, Fort Laudedale was nothing but hype, yet its primary function as a place to overnight was good—trains and other then-slow modes of travel made it too long a stretch otherwise. And of the crooked businesses, real estate was about the crookedest. It was up to the buyer to discover if anything funny was going on.
For example, the seller could stick you with undisclosed debt unless you contacted the banks who were under no obligation to assist you. They did so only out of self-interest. Even with the Torrens system, it was possible to find yourself in debt to parties you had never contracted to. Say, below is a picture of that “tilt marble” from last day, the one with the moonscape surface. See how far I go out of my way for my readers? What other blog provides even a fraction of this diversity without in-your-face advertising? Riddle me that.
Egyptian strippers.
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Yep, I have video of prepping the boxes and birdie guitar, you only get half the show. Turns out the full video required some 600 photos and I’m too tired. It’s just me removing sawdust, but the photos show such gems as other guitars, wall maps, and the general condition of my work environment inside what was supposed to be my kitchen. I’m listening to Bartow radio and watching my dwindling coffee supply.
I had some energy reserve, but stayed home anyway. I’m an old Saturday man, if I out only once, it is that day. I didn’t want that to change, yet here I am. I chose the new used staple box to test the sander to the limit over an ice-cold Yuengling. What has happened to me? Drinking tea, staying home, can radio bingo be far behind? To perish that thought, I’m now going to shoot a star and plot its position. Its 550°08..4’W x 04°02.9’N. That’s -298.0129 x 04.6864, putting us between Somalia and the Maldives. The star is Menkar, because it is near the center of the page.
The Alamo is again pretending to be a battle monument. I’ve issued warnings since 2013, the place is a church, there is no fort left. It was torn down 140 years ago. Even the legend is hype—Santa Ana could have bypassed the place with nothing to worry about. What’s more, the Texas sharpshooters picked off all his best officers, ensuring he would lose at Jacinto.
Plus, the Mexicans only scaled the walls when the Texans ran out of ammunition. A chilling omen of future infantry attacks on prepared defenses when 189 men shot down 600. Some say only 250 Mexicans died, but in those days most of the wounded succumbed, and I’ll bet Davie Crockett nailed 20 by himself.
ADDENDUM
The AOLs at Google have screwed the system again. Over years (not weeks), I’ve published this blog by setting the posting date to match the calendar date. It’s the way logical, educated people do things. Millennials, not so much. And it is another of those “inherited” (and invisible) logic errors they love to deny is their fault. Normally that date is set once per post. Not no more. And my protocol for thousands of days has utilized that. If I post five pictures a day, I use that setting ten times a day. You learn not to think about it.
Until some Google cucktard comes along. He (it is always a he) changed some other module that cancels your setting every time the page loses focus. You go through a stage where you forgive this as youthful inexperience, but then you see Google staff photos showing these bastards are in their mid-30s. If you point out the problem they caused, you meet with blank stares. That is, they don’t even grasp the concepts of consequences and consideration. Why, it is you and the world causing all the trouble, not them. Oh, and if you think not, you are racist.
I will find a workaround. I’m not that smart, it is that they are that stupid. They have no clue what bastards they are, the conciliation is that it will always catch up with them. I’ve heard of coders who got lucky and became millionaires, but never the other way around.
Friday, June 12, 2026
June 12, 2026
One year ago today: June 12, 2025, silver at $37.
Five years ago today: June 12, 2021, utilizing any source.
Nine years ago today: June 12, , stiles = too much dust.
Random years ago today: June 12, 2004, $42 in tips.
My poor man’s hydrometer needs moving already. The spot I chose has a tree in the way, and the wood has returned almost flat. Hence, my big plans for a small Friday are upset already. The term hydrometer also applies to the device that measures wood moisture. Turns out for air moisture, there are extremely accurate digital sensors for sale less than ten bucks. It is currently 76°F at exactly 7:00 daylight time in central Florida. So let me shoot a star in the addendum. I have nothing planned for today—then remembered I have to go downtown and pay the phone bill. Is it true other people get to have quiet days?
The smaller boxes can be made better, but it requires such precision cutting and fitting that precludes larger production runs. One of the steps involves dry-fitting the pieces. That is a headache. Today I will think about some kind of brace to hold the pieces steady without having to build a jig or fuss with the chop saw. I am also looking for some process that “scratches” wood without really sanding it. Help me out here. The world is full of scratch removers, I want the opposite.
I looked at various method to distress wood, such as flailing with chains. But I want something that leaves a visible grain. Several places showed it done by hand with a wire brush, called “stunning” the wood. But labor is what I’m trying to avoid. There are wire-brushed flooring woods, however the word is they wear unevenly in no time. It’s no big deal, just a small-scale effect I’d like to follow up.
It still being too early to run power tools, I addressed my weak spot of drawing nagivational plotting sheets. These are just a blank worksheet you fill with your calculations, then transfer the finished position to a sailing map. To test myself, I drew the first sheet from memory, and boy did I mess up. Then I returned to plot an example in the text which contained a diagram. I discovered I need a ton of plotting practice and that the diagram was not to scale. What kind of AOL would put a bogus diagram forward as a learning example.
But, because all along I’ve insisted on understanding the process, I stopped to ponder that diagram. I figure the author had begun with the right drawing, but noticed there was a point where the LOP crossed his heading near his dead reckoning location. I can see why he would not want a student to think the lines crossed on purpose. So he straightened the line to emphasize the principle. Those who skipped learning the principle probably never noticed. Here’s a photo of how far I got, mainly so I could say once in my life I really tried this.
Another point I learned, for now, is to plot only the LOPs until I master that. Sailing directions and headings can wait. Then because it is such a slow morning and I went for the big breakfast, I took the metal marble from the tilt sensor y’day and, noticing it was rusted, threw it under magnification. Hmmm, if that was a black and white photo, I might hazard a guess where, if the Moon pictures are false, they got their props. Identical to a moonscape, it is.
Next, I roared with something between laughter and anguish reading an article about feminism that unthinkingly exposed my favorite method to meet women. I do not believe in the Alpha male theory for the simple reason the attributes attached to that stereotype are self-defeating. But that’s another story, the point is I do believe the Beta males exist, by the disgusting billions. They are the ones responsible for feminism, because they can’t get any. They resort to incredible (and expensive) methods just to get women in the sack.
But beta men are boring and it drives women away. This is what creates that huge workplace pool of “young starry-eyed women” with delayed marriage and childbirth plans, plus, it states, “loose morals”. So it is not good men that attract good women, but pressure from weak men. It makes sense, but I disagree that good men are just pawns in such a game. If that were true, guys like me would never have evolved. I am none of the things society would label an Alpha.
Here’s a likely good spot to remind all that, despite what you read here, my life is not (as they say) and open book. This is not the only thing I write, nor is my only style, and there are strict rules over here about what topics are allowed. My exploits, jam sessions, and travels are things you rarely know in advance, none of that is by accident. I’m just saying.
And the freak Bankman with the cryto fraud is again appealing his 25 year sentence. Where is he getting the money for these appeals? I thought he was supposed to return all the money he stole. Then, in the bigger picture, some crook is spending more money than I make in a lifetime to get out of prison. And I sit here hooking up small chains on my boxes so the lids don’t flop backwards and call myself free.
Orania turns 35 today.
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Finally, Earth has its first trillionaire. Musk and the stock pulled it off, SpaceX is now worth more than Canada. Once again, silver is being hyped, but it is still manipulated beyond belief. Facebook is reporting outages, leaving panicked users screaming they are all gonna die. I was downtown, walking in baby steps. It seems that inflation has finally caught up with central Florida. I picked up some hardware and gawked at the prices. They are double and a half, a large pizza is now $25 and most things real people buy have more than doubled. The worst part is the constant insisting by the government it [inflation] is 8%.
It was tough getting this shot of the lid of a box to show the reflections and polish on the lid. The finish I want will give a poly depth to the rough wood, but without a smooth finish. So far, it’s been failure. The trade off is that when the poly is applied by brush, it is impossible at my skill level to get it really smooth. Yet if I spray it, which gets expensive, it is too smooth. I’m using that sanding block which is too toilsome and creates a need for mineral oil wipedowns. So log my efforts for another failure to date but I’m not finished yet. I find 220 grit paper does erase any paintbrush ridges, but that has to be done in the shed. And there is no coffee in the shed.
Wide awake after dark, I did more plotting practice. That’s a sheet with two points, the measure of the distance between them, followed by the heading to sail from one point to the other. Two sets, both were accurate but contained enough errors that can only be remedied by more work. The most difficult part is the bearings, as they do not match the compass rose printed on the blank form—I think. These were not Sun or star positions, just locations given by on-line examples. There are many unmentioned variables, like what sort of pencil not to use, that will take time to learn, my guess is several months on these plotting sheets. It is more fun than taking the sextant readings. What’s become of me in the past 135 days?
ADDENDUM
Now our star position from this morning. Here is our input data, it is 07:00 on June 12, 2014 and we have chosen the star Antares because we like the sound of that word. Aries, near the summer equinox, is at 05°32.0’W and our Sidereal Hour Angle is 112°25.0’ at a declination of S26°27.7’. For you budding navigators, this is an easy calculation. Since the stars don’t move in relation to each other, a point is chosen, called Aires. All the stars are measured from that point, so you add the two figures to get the longitude from Greenwich. Since it is always measured westward, it is called an hour angle.
This is not a fix. We have not taken a sextant measurement which would tell us how far away we are from that star’s position, but not it’s direction from that position. The fancy word for that direction is “azimuth”. For that information, you need a set of Sight Reduction Tables, which we are not using here. But if I was, I would look up what is called the Assumed Position (AP) which would be AP λ 81°57’ making it 96°W at a latitude of 26°S. I round down the latitude because it makes the next calculation addition rather than subtraction.
So, let’s do Google maps and find out where our star is. I’m probably making mistakes by now, but I show 799 miles almost due east of Adamstown in the Pitcairn Islands. Let’s look at Adamstown. The satellite shows a jungle with 50-some buildings. It’s the capital and only settlement on the islands, with a population listed as between 35 and 49. It is billed as a cruise port, but the only landing is Bounty Bay, the famous mutiny place. There are no hotels, you get a two hour stay and the only tourist item for sale is honey. The island is under two miles long.
For you gamers (a computer term that for once I find highly appropriate), there really is a Ginger Valley Stud. It’s a rock island off the west coast, where it is currently 23°C with light wind and zero chance of rain. Pitcairn does have a radio station which they [the British government] were going to convert to a wind farm, but the contractors (two Australians) ran off with the deposit. About £250,000 in case you are wondering. Yes, Ken Sanchuk, there is a pizza joint on the island.
Thursday, June 11, 2026
June 11, 2026
One year ago today: June 11, 2025, the peach tree is gone.
Five years ago today: June 11, 2021, I delete slow songs.
Nine years ago today: June 11, 2017, it costs too much.
Random years ago today: June 11, 2016, at the Palmdale Cracker.
This is a Japanese drone lifesaver. I can’t find any English but apparently it works on GPS and hovers overhead. The victim can grab a handle and pull the frame around himself as a flotation device. Sorry, that’s all I could find on it and I’m too whooped to make a video.
Since y’day it has become evident that is where this duo will wind up playing, that brings another issue into focus. Put simply, I do not want the headache of band management, yet guitar players are notoriously bad at it. Put a guitar player in charge and your band will still be playing the same skid row bars and song list 35 years later. Tell ‘em, Hippie. But that is what is shaping up here and for the sake of playing gigs, I will tolerate it.
The bright side is that area is also good for business. The highest paying gigs in the past five years were community centers around Ariana, a district on the old Tampa highway. Nobody in the room under 70 except the band. And you get the bar-band professionals, all still alive and kicking in that part of the world. Who remembers that super-guitarist with all the backing tracks, I think his name was also Rick. Rick Dyer? Anyway, too common a name to google.
Turns out he is playing the circuit around there. I saw him several times at the old club when it was a real club. Yes, it is a slick show, as one would expect from someone using the same backing tracks for years on end. Years and years. The practice y’day with Ricko brought out dozens of shortfallings. He does not know how to transfer computer files, or download and print lyrics. Turns out he has only used a pay site. Who pays for song lyrics? By the way, he forgot all the words to all the songs including what we played just last week, but could sing the choruses when prompted. He has no printer in any case. Where have we seen this before?
Music will dominate again. Will this new guitar player make it to stage? Don’t conclude y’days list of shortcomings was final. Example, in the 160-odd hours that has past, like 99.99% of guitar players, he assumed he was so good it would take time for the rest of the band to catch up. This gives him a breathing spell to patch any weak spots. So he did not bother to practice. But then, this bass player shows up that has plainly put in twenty or more hours since last week and knows all the new material to a tee. The knee-jerk reaction “bass is easy” just got put on hold. This new [bass] guy knows the intros and riffs and even which chords you play wrong.
He also has that amateur bad habit of playing E when it is an Em. He is also unlearned in music vocabulary. And yes, I know both the classic terms and the slang, so no squirming.
xow nice that not one MSM radio, newspaper, or web page reported on the attempting beheading by an African y’day in Belrast Not one. It seems three jeets died trying to sneak a tanker through the Golf if Hormuz. It could mean in Urdu there is no word for “blockade.”.And it seems a lot of people are upset they cannot murder White people without consequences. Careful, I say, some races are slow to anger because they know what will happen to evil people.
Inno-Yoddha Showcase 2024/25.
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Another nothing day. I had to disappoint a few people, including the Reb who simply has to be the most forgiving person alive. I fed the birds some extras, with a treat they love—dry ramen noodles. I throw out my old stock from the hurricane chest. Overall, I’m weary, especially my hip joints, a most unfamiliar source of any concern for me. I took to reading some more in one of the most boring books imaginable, my paperback on oil tanker design. I think my brain finds it challenging enough. I’m on a chapter about the correct size of bulkheads to keep oil from sloshing around in heavy seas. Now that is obscure knowledge.
The red is so I can see it out the birdie window. If it works, I’ll design a gauge and figure out some way to calibrate it. Then the neighbor came by and paid me twice as much as I asked for repairing that hand truck. It’s now in better than new shape, though he could have bought a new one for less. But he insisted so the cash is now slated for Tennessee. Taking it super easy, I got some pieces stained and decided I do not like the color “Maple”. It has a reddish tinge, reminiscent of Elvis wood, which I’m not partial to.
xWait for a dry day and I’ll see if I can get a photo of how much that wood will bend, It’s too slow for the time lapse, though over 24 hours it can really morph. I took one of the pickets that had an usual pattern and made up a Fake box for Tony out in Georgia. The wood that has been damaged by sun, weather, or even surface mold, comes out looking much nicer than the regular planks any time. But one cannot, obviously, duplicate a matching set.
My task is to make up a box jig, a more complex task than the other jigs I’ve made. The pieces are smaller, meaning they must be cut with the smaller lengths first unless I cut the pickets in half, a tiresome process. This means making a special saw sled, which I’ve done before but never with satisfactory results. I now have the cash for that dado set I’ve always wanted. According to the news, since I’m paying cash, I’m in better shape than New York City.
ADDENDUM
While I’ve got you reading technicals, I finally took apart one of those tilt mechanisms from a microwave. It’s nothing special, an ordinary microswitch (about 14¢) in a plastic housing with a weight as shown here. See the marble, remember that marble. It's the size and shape of a musket ball.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
June 10, 2026
One year ago today: June 10, 2025, why I hate MicroSoft.
Five years ago today: June 10, 2021, that unknown Private.
Nine years ago today: June 10, 2017, remember the lantern?
Random years ago today: June 10, 2007, love slim uppers.
More than a few people are holding their breath over Ireland. Is this the spark? It will be violent when it comes. Initially the immigrants win because they are a tribal mentality, where the Irish have that strong individualism—until they are given a spark. Where is the IRA, with all their experience. Grabbing another coffee, I carefully examined the wood which I applied poly to y’day. I find the claims it is “fast-drying” a bit phony. What I wanted was a clear finish that does not seem sprayed on. This may not be as easy as it sounds.
It was five years ago today little Sammie had surgery, I was never his favorite, but I miss the little man. There he is doing his cushion imitation. A big breakfast got me going enough to put another layer of poly on anything that looked unshiney enough. Some days we get that weak [radio] station from Bushnell that has the phone-in sales show. Where you can sell anything except what you can’t.
Today, it was hayseed time. While I’m probably just as guilty at times, there are few funnier things than oldsters who try to sound “hip with the lingo” and this morning was comedy hour. Parents with teenagers were the best laffs. That’s “on” the Internet, not “in” the Internet, and so forth. They also have call-in advice shows but honestly, some of those are not at all funny. That sick program where they contact the person who left the situationship, and ask for an explanation is called “Closure”. Oddly, enough people go for it to keep the program going. As I’ve said before, folks, there is a reason people have not spoken to you for fifty years. It doesn’t mean they owe you an explanation.
I never thought of it that way, but if the Earth was the center of the universe as some contend, the stars would have to be moving at faster than light speed.
A rehearsal is penciled in for late this afternoon, remember to record the mileage. I’ve got most of his material ready, and in some cases, better than ready. That means in tunes like “Questioningly”, I know he has never really listened to the bass line, so I have some leeway with fills and runs. It is only mid-morning, so I got in some reading on a weak point in my navigation. It is the charts. I can draw the basics, including dead reckoning (DR) and line of position (LOP), which show where you are. However, like most people in the middle of the ocean, I would also like to know where I’m heading and roughly how long this will take. Am I right?
This factors in things not easily measured, such a current, wind, drift, and magnet compass behavior. The job seems mostly done when you can provide a course twelve hour ahead, or probably 24 hours if you are really out there and have good people standing watch.
Here’s a good one, and another demo that Trump has learned the Democrat game. The left made a big kerfuffle about ICE agents being near the entrances of voting stations. Fine, ICE went around back and arrested them after they voted (illegally) and deported them. Classic. I’ll add again that I’m not really a Trump fan, but that I totally love it when he or anybody beats commie pinkos at their own game. Let me put this into perspective.
You see, the Leftoids just spent major money and effort on a campaign based on two premises. One, that ICE agents at the entrance would stop legitimate voters (duh), two, that there is no such thing as illegals voting in American elections. Thus, ICE, an agency the public associates with Trump, has not only bypassed their objections, it puts them in an even worse light if they react. Classic Trump.
Fossilized mammoth tooth guitar pins.
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It’s been a long time since I last put a band together. I was lucky to meet the Prez, my bluegrass mandolin player, who went the distance. On guitar, and yes, that matters. Today was the notoriously bad “second practice” this blog has made infamous. (Yeah, then if so, and it was as intense, why have none of them written in down like I am about to?) This was the worse ‘second practice” in my experience. Yet I warn everyone this is NOT any indication good or bad as to the way anything turns out. Repeat that back to me. Dammit, I said repeat that.
Here is a rundown of what went wrong, which is most everything that could. And it is 90% logistics, 10% music. My intention is to get playing gigs in a working band, not create masterpieces. First, I recognized the relocation of this rehearsal to his digs is an assertion of “guitar player” authority. And that is what happened. From the wonderful acoustic session here last week to a pseudo-electric sequence like tonight. He plugged the acoustic into a tray of pedals that he tromped on 30 to 40 times, cursing that it would not obey. But, he’s got you on his turf, right Glen? So you wait. (He also has that annoying tendency to try to spice up tunes that are famous for their simplicity.)
You would have admired my patience. Back at 2:00PM we confirmed the appointment, but his guitar was not tuned when I arrived at 5:00PM, duh. At this point I remind you this is the guy who says he has 55 (count ‘em) years stage band experience. I asked him, before I left home, if he had some place I could plug in and he said yes. It was a 4” Karaoke box, which tells us the guy has never once plugged in a bass. He stated he had a computer and he does, it was in six pieces in a box with the Xmas ornaments. He does not even have a stereo to learn the music, and no, you cannot properly integrate with the bass line using headphones. I’ve been around computers my entire life so don’t tell me you can hear proper bass on a laptop.
So this will not be the band I hoped, but it will be a band because I met his woman and she insists. It was clear he had not touched his guitar since last week and has no transportation other than a motorcycle, which needs parts. He has played in a band, but must have had somebody else in charge. It’s a story we’ve heard before, he can play great guitar but that is it. He leaves off intros and endings and often tried so lead solo over just the bass line. He also tried to fake it by trying to follow my left hand, a sure sign he’s used to lousy one-note bass players.
The telltale sign is that he cannot chord. When asked to chord in E, he started to pick a lead break. No, no, Rick, strum in E. So he arpeggiates one chord and stops. He has no clue what I’m talking about. Nor can he recognize the pattern or the chop if I fake it on the bass, I actually have to grab another guitar and literally show him—hardly the mark of a 55 year music veteran. We then get a repeat of a curious behavior I will always associate with Florida. He says something can’t be done.
So you grab a guitar and show him, that’s correct, a non-guitar-player showing the grand master how to do things. I showed him how to strum “boom-chicka” on an E chord. And saw for the nth time that wide-eyed shock of amazement on the guitar player’s face. As if never in his born days or universe had he ever seen anybody do such a thing before. Pure infantile stunned astonishment. 55 years, right? Wait, there is more.
Even when shown what to do, he still could barely manage it. And half-way through a tune, he could not sustain the strum. And five minutes later, he needs to be shown all over again for the next song. Yet here is an individual that can ace lead breaks. Remind me to bring my own guitar to see if rehearsing that way brings any improvement. Of course, his solution will be to add more members or resort to backing tracks—which was his intention all along.
Later, yep, he’s already wanting a drum box to flesh out his solos, which have always been his plan. I did not object, having already surmised he cannot afford one, nor operate it, and I would pretend I can’t manage the thing so it is 100% up to him. The same with backing tracks. You can go ahead with that and I hope you have the $20,000 just to get started. Overall, I got the impression that like so many, this guy has played guitar, but he’s done it in some manner of self-imposed isolation whereby he only knows the guitar parts.
And I do have an alternate explanation why these guitarists are stunned when shown the most basic strum. They must necessarily have played it at some juncture, but (and I did this myself), rejected it as too simplistic for band work. These guys went on to spend years learning guitar licks and ignoring generic strums. So what is really the shocker is when they hear somebody do it right. (I have tight chops and exceptionally good timing, really.) They realize that they could, in a live band, be bested by somebody with a few hour’s experience. For clarity, it is not the first time they’ve heard it, only the first time they’ve heard it done right in a setting where they are forced to hear it as a direct challenge and comparison to the way they arrogantly presumed things would be. And they are suffering oxygen deprivation.
ADDENDUM
Google’s messing with the blog system again. Don’t worry, I have every digital post backed up. What I don’t have would be the time to re-post 8,000 of them when Google finally does a screw job. And they will. They are messing with the modules again, those millennia brain-farts that carry “inherited properties”. Usually, the screw-ups start small, in this case settings that used to persist now revert to other settings every time you open that window. That’s “object-oriented”, where you cannot change one setting without going through the entire code listing to find every instance of an object of a class blah-blah that calls it.
And that horror story is why you get so many websites that get completely re-written rather than maintained. Classic example is Gab. They kept getting sunk deeper and deeper into bad code that they had it re-written. But that was even worse, so they reverted to the earlier version. They could have avoided all this by taking my advice, you know. I even texted the owner, Torba, a list of his coders that were screwing him around, but that is not material for this blog.
Don’t read me wrong—the concept of object-oriented would work IF and ONLY IF you had people smart enough to use it. My deep and lengthy experience with programming tells me that is never going to happen.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
June 9, 2026
One year ago today: June 9, 2025, medieval speeds.
Five years ago today: June 9, 2021, a generic day.
Nine years ago today: June 9, 2017, splinters on my roof.
Random years ago today: June 9, 2018, they are bureaucrats.
The most nothing Tuesday on record. I awoke with a tugging sensation near my shoulders. So I made porridge and crawled back in the sack till 2:00 PM. After that, I managed to stain a couple boxes and made two saw cuts. I repaired some older boxes and barely had the zip left to stain a couple boxes. I wish I had more for you but nope, I’m that tired. Worse, it was what I recognize as “hospital tired” so don’t wait around for things to pic up.. Today is a goner.
I texted the Reb to get the car A/C fixed out of my account. Whereas I have no aversion to sweaty gals if they are slim and pretty, I can’t have that on my watch. Not with that recording contract in effect in the background. Car repairs have to be okayed by me, but I thought it over and it’s probably a small repair, probably a leak. We will not have time to visit this trip, so at least I can make things comfortable. With just the one doggie left, now a registered companion, he now travels with her. So I may not even see my own dog, well, actually, half-mine.
The good news is Ricko, the guitarist, and I have arrived at a song list, 28 songs. He is also a convert to the three set gig, important because many oldtimers still want four sets. Not for me, not in the past 20 years. We went over the list by phone, and the good news is that he confirms me sings every tune on his list. Good, around a third of them are “specials”, which is just another term for tunes that I have already arranged for duo work, which gives his presentation a big boost. To get things running, over half the tunes will be his but that includes the overlap of tunes I could sing if I had to.
We slated a rehearsal tomorrow, but no sure thing unless he can get the car. Or I could got there, he’s just north of Ariana where Randy the drummer used to live. Dang, why did I not jot down the name of the community center lady? I’ll drive past, but their hall is kind of big for a duo, we’ll see if something can be worked out.
That’s it. I’m too zonked. Nappies, but I woke up around 8:30PM and watched a documentary on tea, a kind of weird but captivating story with excellent animations. I’ll pass on the original brew made with onions and ginger, but I’ll put some on, maybe perk me up. Perk, ha-ha. This video marks the first time in Internet history I have heard anyone correctly pronounce the word “codify”.
Overall, the video was too much about Asian rituals and not enough tea story. I don’t buy the legend it was discovered when leave fell into a boiling pot. Knowing Chinese history enough, I would guess that there is nothing over there somebody at some point did not boil in a pot in a fit of starvation.
Inca terrace farm.
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It remained a perfect 78°F, so I worked in the kitchen giving every handy box a layer or two of poly finish. Here are the three largest, once again “junk” boxes, meaning they hold whatever fits because they were not built for any specific purpose.
We have a new mystery bird and the auto-focus on the Vivitar cannot be disabled. So no picture. It is a brownish-orange bird, around the size of a large robin. It does not use the feeder, but seems to spear the ground with its beak, then flip the dirt.
The track meet murderer gets 35 years. 2061 is a good year, the cost to the taxpayer is $2.2 million in that time. His family should be cut off welfare for causing public disturbances, since they knew damn well he was guilty. Some smart aleck maintained the real criminal was the accused’s hair stylist. And news from Ireland shows hints of the old spirit, with protestors dressed in identical clothing, wearing masks, and targeting specific properties. Is this just the beginning?
The FCC wants burner phones outlawed, that all new phones must require government ID and be linked to a verifiable residential address. Between January and April, European ground stations report 75 instances of the GPS signal interference (jamming) that coincided with Russian satellite “constellations".
Monday, June 8, 2026
June 8, 2026
One year ago today: June 8, 2025,in the upper left.
Five years ago today: June 8, 2021, Squat-a in Guat-a.
Nine years ago today: June 8, 2017, I was 21.
Random years ago today: June 8, 2008, that Seminole chief.
The guitarist canceled until Wednesday. His unreliable vehicle situation means I’ll likely make a decision to go over there. After all, his girlfriend has moved out. He’s mentioned he’s living in a single-wide. All I need for rehearsal is a small amp, which I have. Over time, he sends me more tunes, which means he lands on some I’ve played before. Like any prehistoric musician he knows I’ll favor the ones I recognize, know, or have played before. Today’s batch included “Next Broken Heart” and “If You Got The Money”. That means we have enough to play out, what we don’t have is enough mileage on playing this as a duo.
It was still a fun morning, as I wound up at the office of my real estate lady, who has more smarts than the rest of this city put together. We were chatting an hour, the main conclusion is that China is likely to implode. She sees it as a national wrong path they’ve taken, I see it as a major character defect. That is, when you copycat everything, you have missed making the mistakes the originator had to. And, of course she gets a beautiful set of matching spice boxes. She loves them and she has not even seen the Fake boxes yet.
Then the Reb called. I’ve got to get up there soon but there is no window before August that we will both be in town. Some good news is my doggie has passed his blood tests. A small tumor in his mouth has posed no danger for years. The doggie and I have a favorite pastime, kind of like sitting on the sofa and thinking. As much as possible. No TV, no radio, just sitting.
We had time to chat, things are slowly looking up. It has been roughly since August last year, and certainly since November, I’ve told how the brakes got put on all extra spending. Now as we emerge from that, it’s into a world of tripled prices. I still hold back on repairing the KIA transmission and she reports her A/C is acting up. Can’t have that in a Tennessee summertime. Do I wait until I see it, or step in now? You know the answer, and my KIA can wait.
Ugh, yellow home mold.
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As noted, Ricko and I have enough material to gig, what’s needed is management to trim it back to what we can present the soonest and most effectively. Make that 15 tunes each, so we don’t play repeats every time. I still don’t know where some of his choices come from, but always wait to see how he plays them. I was going to burn him a CD of the tunes we’ve played, that is, the ones we can each sing. Turns out my best app will not run on a 64-bit computer and the damn install is a millennial link to a sales site that won’t easily delete.
Another thorn for me is the utility bill. It’s the electric that has ballooned. It is a screwy system whereby the city and commercial power are two different entities that appear on one bill. However, as long as the bill matches weather patterns, I’ve learned not to try making sense of them. For example of my $480 electric bill this year to date, $295 of it was that cold snap of last winter, something like a 15 year record. In a sense, I was spared the worst because I was gone for all of February and half of March. But while I was here, I ran the overhead heater in the comfort range 24/7. Just to spite some people I grew up with, possibly.
I knew I’ve be away so I hit the breakers for everything except the fridge. That’s how I know it costs $1.82 per day to run that appliance. A bargain by any standard. That heater is a different matter, because I need to install a second heater of slightly more capacity in the kitchen. I shivered through this time, but that was a most unusual circumstance. That heater cost $4.12 per day. Which beats the hell out of chopping wood, mind you.
The next few months are going to be hell on a lot of folks. I stopped for some basics at the grocery story, cost me $57. From the China conversation this morning, I think my friend is right about a major recession. The Hormuz blockade affects most of the world other than America. If they can’t get oil, they can’t buy things. And America is a huge exporter. Her prediction is a mass worldwide recession. I’m not so sure, it’s not like Iran is the only place to buy oil.
The entire British attack submarine fleet is out of commission. This surprises few, since that outfit went woke there is nobody left who knows how to maintain the things. You can’t vote a nuclear reactor to do your bidding. Last I heard, the Prince of Wales, their only aircraft carrier, had the Russians dying of laughter when it had to ask Norway to repair the thing. The Ruskies know anybody with any brains cleared out of England many elections ago.
What other news interests me? Pennsylvania may require smart glasses to display a recording light. Mexico passes a law forbidding employers to contact employees at home. The WHO has spent $6.3 million dollars over each ebola death.
Sunday, June 7, 2026
June 7, 2026
One year ago today: June 7, 2025, hmmm, Mars navigation.
Five years ago today: June 7, 2021, some empire.
Nine years ago today: June 7, 2017, rare, I talk method.
Random years ago today: June 7, 2012, he keeps offering food.
A generic morning but I have some results of an experiment. Remember the Vivatar cam that takes the time-lapse photos, but is too crazy to use for much else? This is a series of 316 photos taken from its AVI format. It runs and then shuts down by itself. It still has battery power and plenty of memory. These are the parameters I set out to test. It maxes out at 49MB per file. That is twice the capacity I can attach to an e-mail, so I use that as an arbitrary limit.
As ever, I’m testing for facts not in the manual, so I’ll aim the camera at a clock to see how long things take. If it will not capture clouds, it will probably do fine for medium distance crowd or nature takes. This may be the best I can get you unless my own battery gets to charging up a lot faster. Hang on a second, I just ran the numbers. Those clouds must be low-res, yet I am certain I set the icon correctly. This time I substituted the smallest 8GB card and triple checked hi-res. It is set up in the kitchen and I’m going back to sleep. I never totally awoke today.
California is gone. The nation witnessed total Democrat corruption with 33,000 votes for their candidate appearing at the last moment. They rubbed America’s nose in it, for they know they have the opposition divided into factions, with each one thinking they are alone. However, it is also proof the Democrats have no other tricks and will try the same thing in other States where it is unlikely to work, at least not peacefully.
Why is Trump seeming to ignore all this ballot-cheating? My answer is that he is not. He is very aware of what is going on and is allowing it to go unhindered. Why? Because he know Americans are disgusted by such a crime—but feel powerless to confront it. I say Trump is purposely allowing the process to continue. It exposes the pattern, the Republican candidate wins on election day, letting the Democrats calculate how many votes will overturn that lead.
Then in come the mail-in ballots. And that is exactly the point. Using the mail for criminal activity is illegal and can get you twenty years. I think it is called wire fraud. When you think about it, the FBI have raided several offices and grabbed such records. But, it’s just my guess.
The book, “Gold Coast Pioneers” may get another read from me. Not the boring plot, but because toward the ending, there are some real estate descriptions that I did not piece together at first. The industry is a racket and I’d like to know more. In the early Ft. Lauderdale days it was cutthroat. Agents did not care about selling to families, they wanted to flip and Hortt (the author) often talks of traveling thousands of miles by train to hook up with wealthy families he met on cruises and conventions.
There are several spots where he uses obscure real estate laws to shaft others as all part of the game. Such as the time he had a sale annulled because the owner asked his neighbor to accept a deposit if it arrived while he was away. Hortt had the transaction canceled because the neighbor was not a registered real estate agent. I think I’ll enjoy re-reading this from a different perspective.
Santa Fe Swap Meet Drive-in.
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I admit, my life has slowed down to the boredom point. Boxes and time-lapse, and I’m caught in this loop. I have two options, rest or mild activity and neither is producing results. Mind you, I’ve witnessed that in others neither of these are perilous to life, that is, for many that is their life. Was in Albert Schweitzer who said there are only three ways to assist others. Example, example, and example. I was in the shed again, then got some yard work done but not much. Raking and trimming, ho-hum.
The poly finish I picked up y’day is shown on these boxes. It sure spruces up what are ordinary wood. These units did not want or need any stain or poly, but my theory is all experience with this finish work is valuable down the line. These two boxes are for speaker cables and fresh batteries, that is, practically junk boxes. Pretty, huh? I slapped on a coat of the poly, which I sometimes call varnish just because.
Yet, we’ve been through periods of inactivity in this blog before, long medical recoveries and a few broke stretches. I wrote two letters and took a closer look at Jenga blocks. Jenga? Yes, it turns out to be the oldest items I have around here that were laser etched. The exact dimensions are 2.956” x 0.997” x 0.581” and the logo is burned 7/1000 of an inch deep. None of these observe the Golden Ratio. I have some similar size blocks from Dollar Tree, a quick drill hole and a Bible verse turned them into key fobs.
Here’s a glitch only money, imagination, or experience can solve. The key fobs shown were all cut on identical wood blocks on with the same settings. Never mind the slight misalignment, I’m concerned about the difference in color and clarity. While the top logo is black, which I wanted, the others are a faded brown. I will clean the lens and write some advice. The lens is quite easy to clean on the Wainux, just unscrew the cap and Q-tip the glass.
Advice. Once more, I step in with a warning that a millennial will NOT tell you what is wrong with a machine.or process. True, America has always been bad for that, but at least the seller could usually be compelled to honesty. GenXYZ has instead perfected the evasive answer. Some say go on-line and listen to the professionals. Ah, but that just leads you to liars of a different sort. My advice is go to a trade show like I did and see for yourself. Most people will finally just give up listening and buy a cheap laser like I did.
But I had an advantage—I knew in advance what material I wanted to burn, namely wood. I also knew I did not need the laser to make cuts, just burn a “brand”. At the show, I asked to watch the laser burn a pencil, so I knew how long for things like the setup, positioning, and time. These are elements you cannot trust most anyone these days to be forward about. One thing never mentioned was diode lasers (the one you can afford) will not etch clear or reflective materials. That’s my advice—have somebody show you if what you want is even capable.
Then, another look at COBOL. I aced that course though it was obsolete when I took it. Those were the days when you had to score above 110 to even get a job interview, a requirement few coders today could manage, even with their fake enhanced IQ marks. But the real killer was the psychological profile which I called the “astronaut test” because only one type of human being was ever able to pass it. What changed the criteria (for the worse) was object-oriented coding.
This was touted as “shared” computer coding, but it reality it meant the end product contained the accumulated logic errors of every idiot on the team. These came in two forms. The usual is the inherited property mistakes, and the equally invisible blunders I used to call “personality errors”. I meant it in the sense these were flaws that could not be fixed by smarter or more capable programmers later. One day, somebody will discover this and write a book.
The last factor is the complexity of banking itself. Each bank has its own internal system and the big banks have millions of hours of those quirks build into their code. The tendency of object-oriented code is, over time, toward the average, so there is no such thing as a contemporary language that could begin to address the understanding that programmers of the past required to generate the code.
There is no such thing as an object-oriented language that could begin to allow for those long-forgotten interrelationships in way COBOL was written. What's this picture about? Just now I’m looking at a catalog for college-wear, mostly t-shirts, cut-offs, and crewnecks. What you’d expect teens to wear. Except all the female catalog models are clearly in their late twenties and early thirties. They don’t know any COBOL either, I’ll bet.
ADDENDUM
A.I. has invaded some of my favorite puzzles, not to be confused with games. Some of my current likes are Puzzmo’s Circuit and (when I have time) Spelltower. These have been corrupted by bots, so I play them not be the champion, but to see how many other champions I’ve beat. You can never be the champ when solve times are less than four seconds, less time that in takes to move the mouse around. Or people who get 18-letter words for 7,100 points (gentlemanlinesses) or the opposite clearing the board in four minutes using nothing but 3-letter words. However, it is possible to beat them some of them, so I no longer go for top score, but rather the number of "champions" I beat. It has never been less than 3 and one time I hit 100. Average is 12.3, I'm consistenly better than twelve millennials using A.I. apparently. That's me, IRL.
Few things reveal the decline of the American medical profession than surveys of second opinions. Tampa radio reports that 80% of second opinions now differ materially from the first. Anything above 8% is considered a major alert. I never had time for a second opinion. But I’m here with a mug of coffee to tell the tale. I bought what I thought was a pack of K-cup hot chocolate. Instead it was chocolate flavored coffee. It is pretty bad, but makes tolerable iced coffee. So I can ponder medical opinions with an 80% error rate in comfort.
Tampa is also some prize-winner for off-beat call-in programs. Today, it was about childhood trauma. This one guy was at a sleepover, but in the morning, neither of his parents wanted to go pick him up. He wound up staying with the neighbors for thirteen days. Harsh.
Hmmm, I went to back up some backups and noticed my flash drives have files that will not copy. Normally, this is an annoyance, since they themselves are copies. But now I’m curious which files and why. It is some file or files buried in large folders, I would have to isolate them by trial and error.
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