Carlos left y’day, although I did not specifically say he had to, I indicated to stay on would cost. The part that grabbed me was his explanation of why he had nothing so late in life—the answer is music. I recall how many times I knew I could blow my entire paycheck on bills or down payments because I knew I’d make “something” between now and next payday. It is a true disincentive to follow the rules somebody else cooked up.[Author's note 2014: the following paragraph originally was not clear, so I'll explain. What I mean is that I heard people on TV substituting the words "William Shatner" for a swear word. Now if you read the paragraph, it should make sense. If you still don't get it, I don't give a William Shatner.]
Tonight I heard a new swear word, or words. “William Shatner, she’s ugly” or “William Shatner, you’re full of it.” Moments later, I heard the same expression on the Cash Cab. Somehow, it makes sense. For the record, I aced Cash Cab again, getting all the questions that required knowledge. And flunking the ones that did not, for not all trivia is knowledge.
At the shoe shop, I had a rough day. My famous learning curve means when I learn something, I need a few dozen episodes of doing it right away. Immediate reinforcement. That’s opposed to remembering how it is done after a few weeks of learning something else. I admit, I have a problem with new heels that only experience will solve. I know flat when I see it, but a small gap is appearing long after I have applied glue, pressure, nails (clavos) and sanding. It is no big deal, but it is not professional. I showed it to Alfredo, who is also riddled. He’s seen me do it right many times by now.
Now, I have to tell you about the pets (Millie and Pudding-Tat.), always a sure-fire blog topic. They are still not friends but are able to spend all day in the same room. Natural enemies forced long after youth might have made them companions. Now you understand what government workers go through just before you step up to the wicket. Remember what I told you about “teamwork”, where everybody else has an idea of how you can do part of their job for them.
It is coincidence, but there is a car lot actually advertising over the situation I’ve recently mentioned. You know, where you had a deal and the salesman adds costs that were not discussed before that deal. I just thought I’d mention it, because it was a scam I fell for when I was just 21. I know, you had a car by the time you were 16, but that is not the point here. I’m just surprised a dealership would admit it at all.
ON INVISIBILITY
I got to thinking about invisibility again, you know, my proposed “blanket of microchips” that reflects light out of phase (see blog of 2009/07/07). It is entirely possible for microchips to be “aware” of the other chips around them. If so, the incoming light need not be reflected, but routed to other chips on the opposite side of the blanket, even as the blanket shifted or moved. The light from one side is merely retransmitted toward the viewer on the other side. Hence, complete invisibility from most angles. Even an airplane with such a coating would transmit toward the ground the image of the sky above itself.
To imagine the effect better, consider this analogy. A security guard is watching a wall of monitors. The cameras are not in the room. To the guard, the wall is invisible. Now reduce that camera and monitor in size so small that millions of them can be placed in a flexible layer, like a blanket. Whenever the blanket is moved, the chips automatically sense the change of shape. You could then “wrap” the blanket around anything you want to disappear.
Broke as I am, I jaunted up to Jimbos with a package for Eddie. This included a hard disk drive (his computer is acting up), a list of my material and an accompanying CD of every tune on said list. So anything holding us up now is not my doing. It also underlines the non-50/50 aspect of the situation. I am hardly concerned about the other guy’s song list. Unlike before, I don’t have to learn any guitarist’s material to put on a great show and, in fact, I may have created an original act in the process. How many “Mustang Sally” types can say that? Something tells me I just made a point that every second guitarist in the land would object to. Tough William Shatner.
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