May 31, 2010

           Here’ something you won’t see me doing every day--putting an ATM in the exterior wall. This ATM is outside, it is placed into a recess in the building wall. At night, the owner presumably closes that glass door seen on the left. And empties all the cash out. Both are D for dumb. There is a reason ATMs are inside banks and why they are filled by guards in armored cars. I’ll keep an eye on this one, see how long before the whole machine disappears.
           The Florida heat gets top billing again. The events of y’day left me physically ill, causing me to stay indoors. Of course, I used the time to study. I can think in my sleep if I have to. I read 186 pages of Visual Basic. This is one of those bastard versions of things that MicroSoft keeps pumping out. I’m convinced they are still trying to find the second DOS, the lucky charm, the software that, despite its shortcomings, becomes the next standard that lets them bleed the world for another few trillion.

           The visual basic software design encourages junk mail, spyware and viruses. The Pope would get funny ideas by chapter two. Exactly what is some unemployed teenager going to do once he discovers MAPI? This feature lets you spam out all the e-mails you please. But I may also have discovered the key as to how viruses spread by e-mail. It has something to do with “Deployment Wizard”, the step used to install your code on other’s computers. One still has to trick them into clicking on the file.
           This may be laughably simple to some of you. But this is the leading edge of knowledge for those of us who didn’t grow up with a computer. The pendulum swings both ways. I’ve had whiz kids who did not know why their arrow keys started moving the whole spreadsheet around instead of just changing cells. Hint: turn off your scroll lock key. You know what I’m sayin’. Forty dollars, please.

           Nobody who reads VB could help not notice the similarity to Javascript. Well, nobody intelligent, of course I mean. In particular, server side scripting. So, I hauled out my Win 98 book on ASP for a brush-up. I never did care for fall-through programming, and server scripting is full of it. Fall-through is where the success of each step depends on the failure of an earlier step. If a student’s mark is not above 89, they get a B instead of an A.
           That is, they get a B if the A step fails, a C if the B step fails, and so on. For clarity, each successive check occurs only when the code advances, or “falls through” the code ahead of it. This example would not spot the error when the operator accidentally enters 105%. There are many other faults with fall-through programming, as anybody who has used a web search engine (Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista et al) can attest.

           One of the projects ever on my back burner is to develop a web search engine that allows searching on compound words. Such searches are already possible, providing you know Boolean algebra. But I’m talking about a user-friendly search that understands “dog house” and “post office” are single terms with a space between the words.
           Later, I had to rig up seven fans in my room to sleep last night. This arrangement costs less than a third the electricity of running an A/C at night, and anyway I prefer fans. (A/C on full can give you a sore throat in the morning.) That’s one ceiling fan, three floor fans on chairs to match the level of my mattress, and three spot fans on face, torso and legs. Why don’t you believe me when I tell you it is hot? Seven fans, and when one tilted over by itself in the middle of the night, the returning heat woke me up within minutes.

           [Author’s note: I’ve been asked what I meant by physically ill from the heat. Not pain, but I had something I do not have—dizzy spells. I felt in danger of blacking out, what with swirling tunnel vision. I believe my new prescriptions may contribute. I know there is a medical term for this, like heat prostration. The cure is drinking lots of ice cold water and lying down for a few hours till your internal thermostat takes back over. This makes it impossible to follow any routine, but the good news is it kills one’s appetite.]

           Recalling my resolutions for 2008, I never did recruit a chick singer. That’s because I began to suspect I could easier learn to sing myself, although I sure could use the chick. I’d also begun to look for part-time work, of which nothing came along until 2009 with the shoemaker. Last, I never pursued the degree in teaching English, thanks to the pending heart attack that April. Gosh, it is so easy to make excuses that I’m beginning to sound like a divorcee.
           Today, I accomplished singing fifteen songs. Half what I need for a show. Some are weak, and I’ve discovered a high and low range I’m comfortable with but have no idea if I could do that on stage. Some tunes demand open string bass work, so I hesitate to change key into my mid-range. What I need now is tons of practice.

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May 30, 2010

           Here’s a better shot of the old premises. This was the original Trailer, minus the Florida room. Why they are called mobile homes is still a mystery. Some say because they are transported to a site, but in a mildly larger sense, isn’t that how every house gets to where it’s going?
           It finally happened, I was turned back by the heat. The Aventura Mall is two miles from here, with just the usual Florida-style lack of shade or anywhere to sit and rest. Normally around a 15 minute bike ride (due to heavy traffic on Federal), this morning I had to stop twice at the roadside for a rest. There was a slight headwind that was like riding toward a blast furnace. I got to 203rd, then had to turn around. Beware of Florida after a cool winter.
           My predictions about the recession being serious when it affects doctors and lawyers may have been only too accurate. Another tower that has to collapse is the outrageous prices charged by post-secondary schools. These tuitions are being run like they were government bureaus, and in a sense they are due to student loans and those idiotic tax-free programs that really only the already rich can take advantage of. It is hard to believe the number of useless Arts grads out there already, yet they are marching out of colleges in serried ranks.
           In my day, as it were, college standards were senseless, but in a different fashion. Faculties that taught higher paying skills charged higher tuitions even though this was often not reflected in any greater operating costs for the school. For example, it cost four times as much to take an anatomy course that was all lecture as it did to take the same course as a physical education minor. Prices are always set to give advantage to the wealthy, one thing that will always be part of education as we know it. Daddy’s money explains people who can afford Arts degrees when there is 10% unemployment in the land.
           Forbes magazine agrees with me, although having an academic reader base seems to render it extremely difficult for them to simply say it. Standards are so low and tuition so high that that industry will soon have to make the same decisions as the tomato pickers. Further, some northeastern states are rolling back pensions. What did I warn you? They are not just changing the rules from the future, but taking back some of what is already there. Civil servants are prevented from having two pensions, and states are raising the retirement age from 55 to 67.
           Those around 45 years old today should be very worried. The pension money is not there. Many who think they got away with it because they are already retired will find some of their money cut off, like that retired bureaucrat who got his pensions doubled by taking a government job for three weeks. It will be interesting to hear these people squeal because every aspect of their life is now on file and decisions will be made without considering their personal consequences. You know, like they’ve been doing to others since 1970.
           The advantage will pass back to those who recognized that yes, everybody does have something to hide. Those who learned how to fly under the radar will prosper where the so-called middle class are about to find out they are sorely lacking anything marketable. Those who manage a government office today will find out they cannot manage a popsicle stand tomorrow, the main obstacles being their attitude.
           Don’t look to me for any help, as far as I’m concerned they should have learned to play music and polish shoes while the going was good. I mean, can you just see some ex-government employees trying to operate a hot dog cart? They’ll go broke doing the paperwork and trying to charge each other consulting fees. First, you have to show two pieces of picture ID, then wait for your HD (hotdog) number to be called. You cannot have a hotdog if you have ever been arrested. Payment is by check only, your must fill out the mustard form HD-1701 rev. 2 and your hotdog will be ready in four to six weeks. (Which means six weeks.) You must bring your last three months bank statements and proof of address.
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May 29, 2010

           Not even any boats in the water. That is how hot it is, and let that glassy surface tell you what are your hopes for a cool breeze. I had to walk six blocks and barely made it. And this is one of the busiest waterways in the country, Sunny Isles.
           Yep, Mike is gone from the shop and it is going to be tough till we get a replacement. I was in all day to complete some extra anti-virus work as the heat is keeping customers away. Even in the A/C, I have to stay in front of a large portable fan as my section of the shop faces south into the sunlight.
           Anti-virus work means a lot of sitting round and waiting. So I looked up one of those things that is very hard to look up because nobody knows what they are called. Have you ever seen those wire frames that the metal balls run down in different patterns? You know what I mean. A ball starts rolling down the track and the next ball follows a different route, all cascading down to the bottom.
           They are called “rolling ball sculptures”. Great to watch, but they are damn noisy. I found today’s trivia so it was worth the look. Okay, the trivia. What is the difference between brazing and soldering? The basic principles are the same. Brazing is stronger and looks better, but the difference is the temperature. Brazing is 854 F degrees and above, anything below is soldering.
           Bingo was another success, the system is now refined so that a smaller crowd of solid players still brings in the money. Two weeks ago, a stranger came in and won 60% of the money herself. Tonight, two husband-wife teams bingo’d on the same number thus splitting the pot with themselves. It has become routine for me, but it consistently pays more than playing music at that location on a Saturday. Of course, should another location come along . . . .
           One of my students called about an assignment from BCC (Broward Community College), and she brought back memories of my school days. Sure, when I was 17, the ways of the campus were unquestioned, but when I returned years later, the scams were evident. Scams at a college, you say? Try these. How about the professor that writes his own books, then changes the questions at the back of the chapter each semester so you cannot buy or sell a used text? (Each student had to buy a new $80 text from him every semester.)
           Or the professor that only accepts assignments on software that match the latest versions that she gets for free. Or the 101 instructor that assigns 60 hours of reading material the first week, as if his entry-level course is the most important thing in your life. Or the course that has 5 expensive textbooks of which you use only a couple of chapters from each. Let me tell you about corrupt colleges, my friends. And they all seem to be the same.
           As mild custom has become, I stopped to see Laura’s show at Buddy’s place. Dumb luck is fickle and for some reason, that joint gets packed on Saturdays. And there can be no doubt now, I plain like to sing. And I’m getting the required feedback from compliments, particularly the ladies. I must knuckle down and start experimenting with what I can sing, kind of find what music is best for me. Then learn to like that music. Please, don’t let it be jazz.
           Bumping into Eddie, he is going to buy some contraption that corrects singing to match guitar chords. Seems to me they had these things twenty years ago, though he assures me this is different. He is also buying some powered speakers, another item I have been looking at closely (see blogs on Bose and Fisher). He’s also offered to buy the drum box and I can pay him back over the next two months. This is against my better judgment but I may have no choice. I’m wasting prime unemployed time over that lousy $100. I could be programming eight hours on some days.
           Today I rate as nearly perfect from a viewpoint of say, myself living in Washington. I rode my bike ten miles, worked on a computer for a few hours, played music, sang some Karaoke, made a few bucks, and came home to macaroni salad I made y’day. I usually don’t say, but I met an excellent lady via the music show, and the evening weather made up for the day. It don’t get much better.
           I suspect tomorrow, I’ll hang around the bookstore. You know, grouse about how the women there are so standoffish. Drink the bad coffee, have the $2 cookie, hog a table and never buy anything else. Sounds like fun to me.
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May 28, 2010

           These are dog wigs. I was out in Bal Harbour to get some wholesale pricing done, catch up on some developments and clean up a few records. Whoever has been working on the pricing followed the model I set up in 2006, making the work very easy today. It is simple, one of the products has to be produced for $2.51 where before it was $11.30. Thus, quality is out the window, the target market is tourists in the Caribbean who are attention, as it were, hounds.
          This time, the pitch aims for snob appeal. It seems walking dogs adorned with these wigs gets the owner the attention they are craving. While some criticize the dog wigs in private, that does not become the case in public. Besides, anyone who knows the development of these wigs will know they are specifically designed never to bother the animal in any way. I may set up a system to keep track of things from here, as it was a grueling 3 hour round trip on the bus. Not the bus, the waits between transfers, I mean. In the sun.
          Overall, I found the trip and work too taxing. This is an exasperating disappointment for me, because it is the only work I can do that is not physically strenuous, and I can’t even do that any more. In case I did not make it clear, once you have a heart attack, you never gain back the same core energy level. If you force yourself, you are just bringing on another attack. You have no idea how much I am following developments in stem cell research.
          On the return leg, I stopped at Borders to read a bit. I thought the walk (3 miles) would do me some good. Not really, just tuckered me more. Today’s trivia is the common spring mousetrap. It snaps shut in 1/38,000th of a second, the intention is to break the mouse’s back The same book said there are over 1,200 patents for devices to support women’s breasts. I wonder how many were invented by men.
          China is cranking out computers with the Linux operating system. This means it will be foolish to ignore and I must start at least playing around with Linux. I used it for a few months, but found it an absolutely insane and complicated system made worse by the lack of organized standards. I mean, popsicles come in flavors, not computer software. Yet I must at least read one book on the matter in my life.
          I don’t usually digress, for a work of any size (such as this blog) risks repetition to do so, but today I saw a novelty coffee table that was a mini-foosball game. This reminded me of a property called “Seldom Inn”, a storey-and-a-half structure my partner and I bought when I was 21. We rented it out to four guys who worked at Halliburton. They used to play foosball in the local tavern.
          One night they were in the middle of a game when a bar fight broke out and the staff rushed to the other end to break it up. Now, think for a moment of the design of a foosball machine, and imagine four burly guys on the handles who are standing right next to an exit sign. Years later, when they moved out, I found that foosball machine in our living room. But you don’t want to hear of my younger life.
          The drum box is now a must. I can sing ten songs and now things are held up for that $100 device. Bryne will pay me for a day to patch plaster next week, with that and what I can scrape together, I cannot do without the box much longer. Whether I’m any good is for the audience to decide and I am completely aware doing a solo show is far more complicated than singing along to Karaoke. As ever, I will utilize Jimbos for practice because they love it. You know those wise guys who always walk up to the stage and say, “Do you do any Deep Purple?” Who remembers “Kentucky Woman”? I’m working on it; I believe it can be done.
          But that belief is not popular. The reason is that guitarists don’t like to play duo arrangements because it can be a large departure from the original or “studio” guitar. However, I watch for such guitarists, because playing studio smacks that they are not serious about duo work, rather reserving the option to solo or play in another group. I often insist they play guitar parts that specifically prevent that. As said, not popular, but I mean amongst conniving guitarists. Audiences love my duo work.
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May 27, 2010

           A mystery, I’m telling you. This is the original trailer court, and the entire area is flattened except my old place. The Florida room has been torn down for the scrap aluminum. You can see the door is missing. But I have no explanation why the systematic bulldozing of the entire area has left my unit until last. That was the best place I ever lived in Florida.
           That brute of a guitarist I met last Saturday got me riled enough to print a quick note of dissatisfaction on the Craigslist electronic washroom wall. That set off a chain reaction. It also proves that a significant number of other musicians feel the same way I do: converted guitar players make the world’s lousiest bass players. And I mean that in both talent and attitude. The fan mail received shows plenty of drummers and bassists agree. Oddly, no vocalists have spoken up, and the two guitarists who wrote begged to differ. They would, wouldn’t they?
           The strangest and most revealing thing about the comments that followed was the number of guitarists and bassists who have never heard of Carole Kaye. That right there tells you how shallow their understanding of their instruments must be. Undoubtedly a such a man (always a man) on bass must be one of the dreaded converts. I mean, how could anybody call themselves a bass player and not have heard of Carole Kaye? That’s like a guitarist who never heard of Jimi Hendrix.
           Now don’t get me wrong, I could not name three bassists out there, but that is not an important factor, since I know who Carole Kaye is. Next to her, all others shrink to insignificance. She is the First Lady of Bass and is far more responsible for the guitar sounds they worship than any of their very own guitar heroes. I’m just sayin’. I posted a few links to my FireHow articles and we’ll sit back and see what happens.
           I also took the opportunity to post my requirements for a guitarist. That amounts to somebody “who can play ten chords very well and sing a little country”. You’d think that would be easy, since I’ll make that person the next Johnny Cash. But the 13 applicants (15 if you count the Hippie and Cowboy Mike) have all let their egos get in the way. They immediately adopted the attitude that my job as a bassist was to set about following the songs they already knew how to play, since those must be no doubt be the best in the world.
           My question to any musician who wants to give me advice is, “Where have you been recording or performing for the past twenty years?” Either you are a recording musician or a performing musician, I don’t recognize the talking kind. Big talk, about their humbucking pickups and fancy strings and rare guitars and such shit you would not believe, as if it would impress the Queen. All talk and no action. You know who you are.
           Seeking a way to get to Bal Harbor, I discovered the local transit companies do actually review their routes every six months, cancelling the more unproductive runs. I have to take three different routes and two companies to get to the doggie wig place. But, I’ll give it a try even though I don’t know what it is they want. All the pricing is apparently right where I left it 18 months back.
           At the shop, Mike is no more. He defaulted on the rent and something like that was bound to happen. I thought I would be the first, although the books reveal I have indeed made a slight profit even in months I know other’s losses approached the thousands. The only time I outright took a loss was during the summer last year, and I had the shoe place to easily tide me over. I must keep my shop, for if I didn’t it would cost me even more in lost revenue to set the same service up from here. Somebody else will come along, for laptops are a lucrative business.
           More Amtrak news. Their site is strangely hard to navigate, being more of a ticket selling mechanism than an information booth. I’d like to know what cities the train stops in before I get bogged down with schedules and fares. I understand why they did it that way, but the ticket purchase meat grinder should be a little further into the overall process. From what I can find, the only stops are Memphis for 40 minutes at night, and Carbondale which I’ve never heard of. I also see the fares get higher the closer you book to departure date, the lowest fares are those paid two months in advance.
           For the first time in my life, I got a $12 refund check from the State of Washington. I estimate it cost me $80 to do so. Then, who needs me to tell you the rebate system doesn’t work in real life, much less at the government level. Bunch of thieves, and Washington isn’t even corrupt as far as these things go.
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May 26, 2010

           I call these the salt and pepper shakers. The larger sculpture is two feet high. This is one of the last unsold items in the last art store downtown. They are too big for paperweights but those university artsy types with the trained eye could probably find a good use for them. Our doors are all sliding models, so that is out.
           There can be no doubt that I do enjoy singing now. I could be better than I’d dreamed possible. I’ve added some “chick” songs to my repertoire, a move that shows an uncommon amount of guts in this town. My show is totally audience driven and if they want to hear “These Boots”, that is what I will deliver. So far the response has been enthusiastic.
           Beyond that, the heat makes mention again. I had to leave the building early and I biked over to Panera to grab a coffee in the A/C. I ran in to Pete the Rock, who says there has been some progress on his disability claim. Pete is a classic example of how important that trickle of government money becomes later in life. It is not just me saying so. For many seniors today, there will be no such thing as retirement.
           I finally braved the sun and rode over to the shop. The landlady was in again, crying the blues. Afterward, I reminded Fred any time he wants to move I can easily round up a twenty men and get us out of there in a half day. For the first time the landlady said she had another tenant interested. That is a total bluff, there are vacant properties all over the area with 1/3 of the rent.
           Accentuating the positive, I took a closer look at the trip on “The City of New Orleans”. For all its popularity, there is a real lack of first hand accounts from travelers. What’s available is overshadowed by Amtrak advertising which is blatantly MicroSoft-grade. (Where instead of fixing problems, they re-write the book and call them “features”.) I was finally able to get hold of a menu from the dining car. One has to know whether to pack a lunch these days. It seems reasonable at $6 to $9 for early meals and up to $19 for dinner.
           Coach travel is the most economical, at $110 for the round trip. (New Orleans-Chicago). In the lower level, the seats do not recline, a feature not mentioned. There is an interesting option called the “roomette”. Designed for two persons, it costs an extra $94. But it is private, meaning you sleep when you are tired. There is an upper bunk and a lower sofa bench. Now I need to find out if I can leave the bed open all day and use the sofa for the daylight portions of the journey. Either way, this mini-holiday is very affordable and, except for maybe an even larger room, the roomette would be like traveling first class. I like first class, it weeds out the “loosers”.
           It matters a lot about which stops I’ll make, if any. Amtrak hails Nawlins, Memphis and Chicago as music capitals. Since I’m unlikely to ever return to those places again, it might be worthwhile to spend a day or two in each town. What? Okay, I’ll explain. If I travel on the train at night, I get to see the cities during the day, but I’ll miss the full train experience. Keep focused on the primary objective here. I could have both by making only one-way non-stop and visiting on the other leg.
           The trip is a tad over 19 hours each way, meaning there is likely to be plenty of darkness, hence my questions about a roomette. Train trips are not glamorous so any bit of luxury will be welcome. I travel with one handbag and everything above coach requires a reservation, meaning I’d be assured of the roomette. Generally, this is shaping up to be a once-in-a-lifetime excursion. I estimate, including the cost of getting to and from Nawlins, the entire package could come in at just under $600. Hell, Wallace, it cost us $93 to go to Key West.
           What would separate this trip from any journey before is my bicycle, should I decide to take it along. It rides as baggage for an extra $5. It will save me that much every mile I pedal. I know precisely how to do whirlwind tours of a city, hitting all the highs at six times the speed of a pedestrian. I know better than to trust the bus schedules in strange locations and taxis are out of the question. This whole idea is magnetic to me, as I am the King of Traveling Light. Now, if only my lawyer would call with the news.
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May 25, 2010

           This is a CD probably unlike anything you’ve seen before. It is what I call totally erased. I’ll tell you how it is done, but I am not telling you to go and do it. You zap it on high in the microwave for 3 seconds. Not 3-1/2 seconds. You are not supposed to put metal in a microwave, but that is a precaution against people dumb enough to put thick metal. Thin metal is not that dangerous, and very little is thinner than the aluminum sheet in a CD. It makes for some interesting fireworks.
           My best customer this week left for Israel. He delivered a stack of tapes for me to work on, but that means no income from that source until July. By coincidence, however, doggie wigs may be back in the picture. I have it from a reliable source that not much has happened in that business since I left 18 months ago due to high blood pressure symptoms. They need some new cost figures for the larger dog wigs so the Indonesian factory can work back to a cost price. I’ll consider it if there is direct bus service.
           I then read the latest in natural food diets to find out sweet breads are now verboten. I rarely eat donuts and gooey bread, but they mean even ordinary sweet buns. Like I have with my coffee. They recommend more fish. I already eat fish three times a week. What do they want? No wonder I suspect dieticians are the real makers of baloney.
           Another colossal downpour trapped me in the library for two hours. Having recently read about metal crystals, I was attracted by a book on jet engines turbine blades. If the data is correct, the most powerful fighter jet engine today has 39,000 pounds of thrust. That is less than ten times the German Me262 (Jumo) that flew back in 1942 with 4,000 pounds of thrust. I find that revealing.
           Library also means you get some trivia. The average person who circumnavigates the world by sailboat averages 250 miles per day. The route takes them south of Australia and New Zealand. The sailing process is largely automated, allowing up to six hours sleep at a time. No wonder sailing is so popular with the DMV staff.
           Driving past on the freeways, I’ve often wondered why those white fiberglass radar domes were mostly the same size. Turns out they house Doppler radar and that is the 38 foot diameter best suited for the device. I don’t know the wavelength, but it is a microwave length and it bounces off raindrops. That’s how they know what direction the rain is moving. That’s rain, not snow.
           Another area of research was the copyright protection of wma files. These are the MicroSoft answer to MP3, except they can be rendered unplayable unless you have a purchased copy. They only require 64kb per second or recording time, or half what is required by an MP3 of the same length. So, this wma format is worth investigating although using it is another matter. FYI, wav files require 1,400 kb per second.
           Looking for a speaker crossover in one of Fred’s catalogs, I discover the laser I took apart last week is called a “laser pickup assembly”. And the better ones sell for $15. Not bad, considering the technology was unimaginable not that long ago.
           Some fan mail directed me to the Craigslist musician posts, where I see there are several bass players who share my sentiments about guitarists. In fact, one of them quoted my May 10 blog concerning “guitaritis”, including a link to that page. Somebody, probably a guitarist, posted some words about how hard it is to find a good bass player.
           His use of the word “good” was not wise. I am not surprised that most guitarists don’t have a clue what is good or why they keep meeting bad bass players. It works like this way. To a guitarist, a good bass player is the one who plays what the guitar player wants, which means that bassist was formerly a guitar player, who are known to make the absolute worst bass players. It’s a vicious circle of their own making.
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May 24, 2010

           It’s a picture of me taking a picture. That constitutes the excitement for today. It is too hot. If you look closely, you can see the half-shadow of my hat. This is the weightless straw hat I prefer for bike riding, you can notice how the sun shines through it, but still makes just enough shade.
           Wow, those VHS videos are challenging. In some cases, it is a multi-stage process just to compile the digital files. All are longer than a standard 4.7GB DVD disk and have to be compressed. I have to monitor the last part of each home movie, as my capture equipment (Dazzle) will cost you the blank disk and two hours work if it slips into rewind. That means I see a lot of footage of normal families, and causes me to lament.

           Not only was my family never on anything like a cruise ship, holiday, vacation, theme park or seashore, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to be caught dead there with that pack of hick town rubes anyway. But what I can’t avoid noticing is the way other kids were raised in an atmosphere where they knew they were protected, right or wrong, they were always protected. In my family, you never knew when they’d come in on the side against you. It meant every productive undertaking had to be done with the utmost secrecy, often adding prohibitively to the cost.
           Most shocking is the degree of respect other children get in these movies. If the kid doesn’t like a food, they are not forced to eat it. If the child does not want to share, it is considered a right, not something you beat out of the little bastard in public. The contrast is shocking. In my family, for private property, there was no law and order, for performance, there was too much. Nothing personal was protected, people could help themselves as soon as your back was turned, but every move you made was subject to the most intense scrutiny and criticism.

           Anyone can see the results in my personality today. You can do whatever you want, I couldn’t care less as long as you don’t get hinder me. But don’t you try to back out of a contract or get away with anything, don’t ask to borrow what you should have on your own, and don’t make any promises that include me. I’ll protect your property as long as you don’t try to tell me how to do so. Play your guitar any way you want, but you if you do, I’ll fire you. There are clear defining lines between yours, mine and ours. Drop off a cliff for all I care, just don’t land on my bicycle.

           The tapes are a rush job. The owner is leaving for Israel tomorrow at noon and I’ll have just the first two completed. Like myself, fifteen years ago he was still getting asked for ID. He is totally the family man type. One thing that put me off to marriage was my exposure to hundreds of married men at the phone company. They had one thing in common, a wife that stopped talking about anything meaningful the day after the wedding. No wonder so many men join clubs and societies. At least there is somebody to talk to.
           That is, I don’t mind the work, the pressure or the responsibility of marriage. It is that I doubt I could handle the boredom. That is where Robyn was great and Canan was superb. They knew enough about math, physics, history and the world in general that they could have a conversation, and could easily match me for solutions and new ideas. Try that with a woman in Florida, where the only thing on their minds is immediate self-comfort. You can’t even mention the kind of day you had at work, that’s not their problem, as long as you keep the money rolling in, they want to get back to their soap opera. Yep, I wouldn’t be able to handle the boredom.

May 23, 2010

           Another trailer park bites the dust. As mentioned, the last cheap land in Florida is the trailer parks and they are slowly being demolished. This spot is over near the now bankrupt Friendly Inn. Florida trailer parks are not the same as other areas of the country, in that there is rarely any element of “trailer trash”. Most are owners and not renters. But it is still very difficult to rent a trailer room in Florida since you have to charge a low price. That can attract the criminal elements, you have to be careful.
           This water tower is featured several times in this blog over the previous five years. It is near Aventura between Dixie and Federal. I suppose I consider it a landmark and a dramatic photo. It straddles the St. Joan and Penny trailer park, now flattened in the foreground.
           I bit off a big chunk of hard work. Last day I reported a customer with VHS tapes who wants DVDs burned. I believe I am one of the last in the area who does this type of video work. It just doesn’t pay enough. But, I need the cash, so I took the job only to find out this guy has an $8,000 studio grade camcorder with what looks like 6,000 lpi (lines per inch) definition. I had to practically rebuild and rewire a computer to produce the first disk in, let me count, 2 + 1:40 + 1:40 + 1:40 is what? Seven hours to burn a single two-hour movie.
           (Note: the 1:40 times are limitations of my computer system whereby such movies must be rendered in segments. That seven hours will drop to real time with subsequent disks, and I can do other things while the computer is working. This project may just buy me that drum box I’ve needed since November. I’m probably out a small fortune for not buying that instrument with my last dollar.)
           I had to install a 236 gigabyte hard drive exclusively create the disk images. But the result is really beautiful home movies. The quality shows that guy was a serious camcorder user who is going to be pretty damn happy with the results. The “depth” of the color and clarity are truly outstanding, easily the best I’ve ever worked with. But then, I can be a cheap bastard when it comes to cameras.
           Then, I ran out of disks. Four misfires trying to fit slightly over two hours data on a two hour disk caused bad burns. So I biked over to Best Buy to discover they now close early on Sundays. I rode the next half-mile over to Borders. The weather is beyond uncomfortable. Never visit Florida in the summertime, you will melt in the heat and it is useless to stand in the shade. Besides, it was 86 in the shade by 10:00 AM today. Trust me, due to the heat index, that is hot. Far too hot for any degree of comfort, it is not the same as a dry 86 day out on the prairies.
           So, Borders it was, they have great A/C. Question. Why do people who have colds insist on going out in public and sneezing? Another thing you don’t want is a hot weather cold around here, it will linger for months. A cookie and coffee are now $4.00, it is funny how Borders took down all the stools and replaced them with tables. Now, instead of 40 singles sipping coffee, you get twelve singles each occupying one chair at a four-chair table. Strange how management loses common sense, isn’t it?
           But Borders means trivia and new incoming ideas. According to PopSci, 50% of Americans born between 2000 and 2007 can expect to live to be 101 years old. I can’t imagine the next century, I probably won’t see 2020. PopSci is again glorifying jocks, something I am against. This time, it is men (always men) who jump out of space ships with no parachute. This does nothing for scientific advancement and sets a bad example for children. My heroes are not those who risk their lives for self-edification. People like Steve Fossett will not be missed.
           Fossett is the dumb prick who spent a fortune buying his way into the history books, pulling dangerous stunts which often resulted in his having to be rescued at public expense. The only records he broke were how to waste money on publicity stunts. I think he eventually killed himself at it. No loss to mankind.
           I still don’t have my Arduino. But now I can easily pick it out in photos of most robotic gadgets. Some guy took my idea of a sun-following tilt platform and mounted it on casters. It allows a solar cooker to follow the sun. He got some cooking oil up to 315 degrees. See, if I had the Arduino what I’d be doing soon? I just know there has to be a way to build an efficient water purifier using the sun because all the others aren’t thinking right and are trying to get “old” methods to work. They are stringing together standard ideas instead of thinking of new ones. Like trying to make robots that look like humans. Why bother?
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May 22, 2010

           This famous picture is rendered in tile. Or more accurately, it looks like broken glass. The artist must have spent a fortune either finding or cracking glass to the right shapes. This is the last art gallery on Hollywood going out of business. Downtown is now dominated by foreign restaurants with outrageous prices. Would you pay $28 for a tuna melt?
           Urban legend is that such operations never pay taxes and minimum wage under Florida law is $2.13 per hour for food service workers. They are expected to make up the difference in tips, and their attitude shows they fully expect to. I’d save up to go to dinner, but not to support some drop-out’s drug habit.
           What should have been another nothing day turned out okay. I’ve got some VHS to DVD work lined up. It turns out I may be the only person in the area that still does this, and I’m kind of glad Sony makes such lousy equipment for the purpose. They put in to many anti-piracy steps that most people give up. Sony knows they are too embarrassed to ask for their money back.

           Then I got a callout for a printer network. For reasons unknown, hooking up wireless and network printers is not easy work. What should be the easiest step in getting computers to share a peripheral is beyond confusing, particularly through the new AT&T wireless routers. Worse, each setup or configuration is unique so learning the trade is mind-boggling to the newcomer. “I know I told you that, but this time it’s the exact opposite, son.”
           I’ve gotten some e-mail over that word “looser”. Ha, I went back to Craigslist and noticed a new crop of the low-grade specimens that took over that room are having a row over the spelling. Yes, I am the guy who, back in 2006, before most of you ever heard of Craigslist, was the arch-proponent of using that spelling. It goes to show you, some people don’t know their history. The world is full of people and brothers who show up years late and claim they discovered the place.

           On the way home last night, I passed Buddy’s place and heard Karaoke. What the heck, I went in. To a certain extent I must look or act like an entertainer and was quickly asked to sing. The problem was, the new Karaoke show didn’t have any of the tunes I knew until I found “Act Naturally” by Buck Owens. Here’s the good news: when the music came on, it was in a totally different key than the version I know, but I aced it. Believe it or not, I sang an unrehearsed song in an unknown key and it came out perfectly.
           You have no idea how much that means to me. In the past few months I have begun to notice that singing has become less of a “sweating bullets” episode for me, and it is started to actually become enjoyable. I’m still a long way from even doing a basic show. But man, that was something else when that music came on. It was like something clicked in my brain saying “I can do this.”

May 21, 2010

           The last Quebecers have left, this area is now in summer ghost town mode. This has a huge and barely calculable draining effect on the economy. The wrecking crew is back at the old trailer court, albeit at a snail’s pace. Those who know what to look for can see my old unit just below the famous tree in today’s photo. Hint, it is blue, white and green.
           The majority of homes still in this area are Canadian-owned, although Quebecer is a more accurate term. Says something called the Meech Lake Accord in 1987 (was it), the French are “considered a distinct society”. I only recall this news because it was the same year as the free trade agreement, which even fewer Canadians understand. The local news, CBC, said the Meech thing was supposed to take 13 years to “ratify”. (Like England, weird laws are often slipped in over long periods to ensure voters always have something more important to worry about at any given time.)
           Ha, did you hear that quip by Schwarzenegger? He said he was going to make a speech at an Arizona high school, but with his accent he was afraid they’d deport him. That’s from Time Magazine, who also quotes Willie Nelson making a classic, “I think America works best when there’s nobody in charge.” That’s close enough, I remind all that many quotes here are done from memory, so look them up yourselves if you want total accuracy.
           FireHow still gets top billing today. It has led my research far and wide. I see the Kindle e-book is down to $259. When it is $40, I’ll look, as that is all it is worth to me. It would have been a godsend back when I lugged 60 pounds of texts in my college knapsack. Another spin-off of my topic-hunting shows a need for mundane pieces like how to properly write a check. Seriously. Overall, I am 86% finished the FireHow project in 64% of the allotted time, mainly thanks to electric bass tabs.
           That doesn’t tell the whole story. Depending on the rarity of your search terms, my writing can handily dominate a first page search in Google. (I never thought that would happen to me.) For example, search “Korg”, an oddball name in musical equipment and add [veryatlantic] to the terms. Count my first page responses. Another point is that in itself [veryatlantic] has proven a unique word, something I’m getting a lot better at on the Internet.
           I am still unheard of in Yahoo and Alta Vista, thinking so what? Google is the big one. I’m certain some financial gain will eventually come of this. Although I can’t link from Epinion, I can link to it, and I’ve placed even more shadow ads in the musician’s columns. Be aware that each step adds complexity plus makes things progressively more difficult and time-devouring.
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May 20, 2010

           This is an imposing photo of what a drawbridge looks like to the approaching cyclist. These structures sway heavily as the traffic passes, even light cars cause a substantial movement. This can be felt up through the bicycle frame, so be ready for it next time you bike across Broward County.
           My shadow advertising produces results, so watch for more experimentation. This is where I advertise on say, the musician’s board, to create bass tabs. The pitch is they won’t have to completely retrain a new bassist when the time comes. Then I offer three “free samples” which are links to my FireHow. Boosted one of my tabs by 22 hits the first day. I’m going to take a close look at chordie.com, that outfit claims to be nothing but links. And their bass tabs are utterly terrible.
           Today I should pass the $6.00 mark. Yet it would be foolish to laugh because I’m slowly gaining a chunk of this market. My influence is already easily distinguishable on many other FireHow posts. I now have colossal knowledge of what not to try. And I know I’m producing quality, something the bulk of the others have mucho problems with. One dude published three paragraphs on how to make tight turns in an airplane. Now there’s a great concept: flying lessons on-line. Highly recommended for politicians.
           Big Al is back. I had to let my phone service lapse for a week, resulting in tons of calls worried that I, too, had lapsed. After two years of study, we have concluded even the legitimate on-line work-at-home schemes are bogus. The Internet was custom made for the “finders” business, where you match up buyers and sellers. But as far as a stream of income, I’m not sure. Anyway, we are closely examining a package from California from some operator called Dr. Vincent Conti. Why does that name ring a bell? An alarm bell.
           The biggest conclusion reached from looking over the offerings is the real money is to be made selling the packages. Forty dollars gets you 75 pages of instructions, which you have to print yourself. We found that print job taxes most home setups, and had to do it in five batches. Most of the literature is propaganda, overstating the obvious. And most of the work involves being in the right place at the right time. People need pure dumb luck, not instructions.
           Here’s an idea with a better chance of success. Okay, you know how Magic Jack only works when your computer is on? Why not take some old computer parts and build something with a screen that matches the size of the Magic Jack display? A dedicated mini-box for the phone. Then people can leave that on instead of the whole computer.
           Stay away from Peoplestring, some kind of hair-brained Internet junk sales outfit selling dreams. Their site alters your system registry and is full of those new blind-click hotspots, I’m not even sure of the new name for them. The Peoplestring “make this my default page” takes over a bunch of your Windows libraries and causes Windows to crash when you uninstall the product.
           Have you seen those riots in Greece? That goes a little beyond civil unrest, I was shocked to see massive crowds attacking police lines with clubs and Molotov cocktails. Not American style where the police provoke a fight and then charge, but human wave assaults without any pretense at negotiation. I knew they had trouble with their finances but I had no idea it was leading up to armed rioting in the streets.
           Pete the Rock was by and left a note. I’m biking over to see him in the morning. I walked home from the library late today. In the heat, it took me an hour and ten minutes to cover the two and a half miles. The heat is unbearable and getting more so each day. The library was packed. I swallowed a quart of iced lime-ade soon as I got into the house. Honestly, I don’t know which is worse, the hurricanes once in a while, or the summer heat.
           Later, FireHow is not up to $6.06 with 1,679 clicks. It is too early to tell but my rate per click is rising at the fourth decimal point. I’ve contacted chordie.com to ask if they’ll link to my site and discovered there are dozens of bassists that also noticed the lack of a btab site (bass tab). Epinion does not allow links in their reviews, and I see quite a number of sites are publishing my reviews without my knowledge. I’ll look into that.
           One of my peeves is sites where the search takes you to a home page rather than to the search phrase. On shopping.com, I scrolled down 20 pages without finding where they stashed my review. But since they sent me a check for $70, I’m not complaining. However, it weakens the confidence of people who expect top quality when they search for my publications. Tiger.com does this all the time, you search on a specific product and you get their whole damn catalog.
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May 19, 2010

           This is the Intercoastal Waterway, a stretch of water I have not been on in the eleven years I’ve been in Florida. Two blocks to the left is the Atlantic Ocean. Two blocks to the right are foreclosed properties. It is a calm and humid day, temperature over 80 by mid-morning.
           I got my first callout this month. Strange, isn’t it, that the callouts tapered off right after I was no longer working part time. How do they know? Anyway, I was doing some repairs at the kitchen table while watching a documentary on aliens fighting nuclear wars thousands of years ago in Egypt. You people who make such shows should be ashamed of yourselves.
           Logic tells us there is no ultimate weapon and there never will be. Crossbows were once considered the final word, and so on. Thus, if aliens ever got here, they must have discovered methods of power far beyond the atomic or hydrogen bomb. It is so representative of idiots that they cannot imagine anything but their own limited experiences. If a more destructive weapon is invented, I have no doubt these self-styled experts will find evidence it was also used by the ancients. But only after these experts hear about it first, of course.
           The same channel has another documentary on Tesla. They do go on about how he is the greatest, but carefully gloss over many difficult facts. Yes, Tesla had 200 patents. But only a few of them worked. Talking about sending electricity through the ground is far easier than actually doing it. While it is true Marconi used 17 of Tesla’s patents to build his radio, that does not make Tesla the co-inventor. Most inventions use components of existing technology put together in an original way.
           Most of the speculation about Tesla is based on his coil, a very simple step-up transformer that increases voltage by decreasing current. This voltage, like static electricity, causes lightning flashes in the nearby air. In reality, the whole area is electrified, not just the flashes. A receiver of the proper frequency can convert enough of this energy back into current to power itself, much like a crystal radio set.
           Tesla’s one big invention was AC current. The electricity is already in the wire, he just jiggled it back and forth 60 times per second. But to say Tesla was more than one of many turn-of-the-century inventors is pushing it. After the Civil War, becoming an inventor with patents was one of the few ways left to get rich quick and an awful lot of people were doing it.
           Domestically, things are quiet. Every penny I earn is going into keeping this place afloat. You might say everybody is in their own little world and I am in my own medium-sized one. It is now 30 months to the day that I will be able to tap into that juicy phone company pension. (That will make me the youngest person ever to do so by some 24 years! True, I’m not a billionaire. But neither are you.)
           I fully expect that pension will not be enough to live on as time goes by, but in combination with other known events that must occur in this decade, I will be one of the few ready for it. One known event is the collapse of North American old age pensions. All are based on taxation Ponzi schemes which are already past the point of no return. I am theoretically prepared for any direction things may take after 2012.
           There are 85 million boomers out there with the assumption they can always make an instant transition from hourly workers into small shop owners if need be. Oh, they’ll get something because there will always be an economy of sorts, but the Visa Card sleigh ride is over. They’ll find out how little $450 a month really is when you can’t use it to borrow into the future. Milk is already $4 a quart and climbing weekly.
           You would not believe the length the government goes through to disguise the true effects of inflation. Remember that “basket of goods”? Well, there’s a lot more junk food, air fresheners and useless computer crap in that basket these days, and the basket is plastic made in China. America is not the insular economy of the last Depression. Today one global disaster will topple the system. They say if there is a collapse, Texas is the only state that could feed itself. The fact is, the dollar is worth ten cents and about to take a major dive. What will you do to make ends meet?
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May 18, 2010

           This is a dead motel picture. Either you like it or you don't. I don't, and wish I'd got there before they put up that construction fence. Such is the fate of all beachfront motels. Just think of all the years, all the people there. Eating, drinking, mating. As RofR would say, "Especially mating."
           Years ago it was not much talked about (except right here) but the impoverishment of the so-called middle class may be further underway than I thought. For the record, I regard only the self-employed as middle class. What the media call middle class, I would call working class with credit cards. It does not matter how much you make, if you work for somebody else, you are working class. Civil servants, who now average $119,000 per year, twice the average US wage, are still working class people.
           So what’s the point? Well, I once mentioned the depression would not get much attention until it started biting the doctors ad lawyers. Guess what? Y‘day I saw a doctor about some skin tags. These are tiny harmless growths,but you should still have them checked. They occur in “friction” areas, for example, if you get one your eyelid, it is called a sty. I’ve nicely developed one on my neck from wearing a tie in this climate. Hey, it’s my bingo tie so I had no choice.
           I got in to see a dermatologist, who determined it is benign. In modern medical terminology, that means “not covered by insurance”. But get this. In less than 60 seconds of negotianion, I got the price down from $800 to $40, and she even offered to do that on credit. My but times have changed.
           I made an appointment in June, because she was so drop down gorgeous, I want to see her again. Seriously. Within moments of meeting she stated outright that I was not the average patient they get around here. I reminded myself that my medical chart said I was single, and intend to let Nature take its course. One thing, she sure has perfect skin.
           It seems two fans got refused admission to a stadium in California for wearing t-shirts reading “Viva 1070”. This is the Arizona Bill 1070 that allows police to check for citizenship. The White House is calling the bill unconstitutional, but they would say that. The point here is freedom of speech, and as Craigslist says, it smells like “a fifty mile high law suit”. You see, the stadium is public property and public funded. You watch, the stadium will try to claim the shirts were a safety issue.
           Also making the rounds is a recording from a talk show where some lady called in to say the USA should let in all immigrants because we were “making too much money”. When asked what the population of the USA was, she guessed 600 million, and when asked how much money she made, she was on welfare. When asked were the welfare came from, she said all the illegal immigrants put their money into a fund and it was paid out of that. The DJ had to hang up on her, explaining that he’d once heard that the definition of Hell was a place where there was no reason.
           She actually believed her welfare checks were paid by illegal immigrants. Now that is not the most stupid thing I have ever heard. I once met a Canadian who had finagled his way to stay on welfare since the day he turned 18 by claiming work “made him go crazy”. He said taxpayers had no right to complain because he got his money from the government so it’s not like he was costing them anything. I asked him where the government got their money and he said they printed “lots of it” and they were very rich because “they bought things like the army”, and wondered why I was so dumb I didn’t know that.
           He guffawed when I told him welfare came out of taxation. You can’t fool him. But, that is one thing about people who get free money. They have no incentive to learn anything about the system. As far as they are concerned, the system works perfectly, at least for them, as one theory is just as valid as another. The welfare lady was from Boca Raton, Florida. On welfare in paradise. Only in America. Listen to it yourself.
           Something whacky is going on at FireHow. For long stretches of the day, their site just will not work, or it takes a minute to react to any commands. I used the delay to search for an easy way to delete items from the system tray. This is the ever-expanding group of little icons that appear at the lower right of your computer screen. Each represents a process running in the background on your computer, slowing things up.
           It turns out getting rid of anything once it gets in there is a monumental undertaking. Even PC World declared it could take a half day. Isn’t it just like MicroSoft to even allow such a thing to occur. I’ll look deeper, but it seems these programs burrow their way into your system registry.

May 17, 2010

           That’s Eddie looking across Dixie Hwy at one beautiful downpour. These summer storms are legendary, but not usually expected for another month. Visibility can be less than a half mile, with sunshine visible on the horizon. This is the view from the front door of Jimbos, where I barely got inside when it hit.
           Remind me not to read any more translated French detective novels. They’re all about chateaux, wine and some retired detective slash orchid gardener. He deduces the thief not the son of the art forger, nor the jealous baron but the unmarried daughter because she didn’t finish her vegetables Tuesday last. No wonder the Germans keep invading. If America produces another Dean Koontz, we’re next.
           During an extra hour of research, I studied the people who have been on FireHow nine months or more. They have the most-read articles and I like to take my opponent’s measure. Naturally I noticed the 37 women first. It was one thing to read their profiles, quite another to read their topics. Possibly FireHow only attracts bad apples, but it is certainly not a place to connect with babes. It is downright scary.
           One wrote [in her profile] her best qualities are honesty and decency, then turns around to give instructions on how to pray to avoid guilt feelings for cheating on her husband. These women match what you’d expect in a tabloid dating column. Totally concerned with ego-serving fantasies, like the triple divorcee who advertises herself as “single”. Keep in mind here, I have not read every article by every woman. Just the first batch, but I doubt there are exceptions.
           They all came across as self-centered, weak-minded, and uneducated. I can see they are writing about what they know best, but how far do you expect to go when your message for eternity is how to apply false fingernails? Ladies, the reason men don’t write about shaving in the morning is not because they are insensitive like you keep saying. It is because the directions are on the damn can. Hello? Every post by a female author was nothing but inward looking, not a thought for the world or for anything or anybody but themselves. We love them all already.
           Some men are no better. Along comes a new klutz with some name like Shivandband. Gems like “How to appease the 281,593 Goddesses of Keeping Life Simple.” He is posting 60 articles per day in a dozen categories, furiously cutting and pasting paragraphs. He’s only diluting his chances of being taken seriously. Shiv, don’t quit your day job at the deity mill.
           Then, looking at the more popular posts, I divided the number of hits by the number of months on the market. How do the best articles compare with mine? (The top article has 4,765 clicks but that is an outrider which concerns how to win at some bidding game I’ve never heard of.) Only 4.1% of items draw more than 20 hits per month. All my works, including the bass tabs, are already operating at over that rate. On that count at least, I can return to the waiting game. All this, and I don’t know one orchid from another.

May 16, 2010

           Enjoy another of my iconic photos of Florida. As you see, in millionaire’s row, they still plant the trees before they put in the sidewalks. Despite the advantages of stock portfolios, civil service jobs, and incredibly wealthy parents, these rich areas still don’t get things in the right order any more often than Larry, Moe and Curly Joe. As you see, this is fresh concrete, but they have not the brain thrust to figure out once the tree dies, it won’t straighten out on its own.
           Unable to sleep until past 3:00 AM last, I am not having a good day. So I read Ellery Queen and continued my reverse engineering project of a broken DVD player. The only fascinating part was the laser assembly and it was something incredible. I spent two hours examining it most closely, stripping away all the plastic parts.
           I still don’t know which of two tiny components is the laser, but I found some lenses including one with crystal properties. Curiosity got me going. I had thrown what I thought was the laser into a cigar box, and when I returned this morning found a magnetic rod stuck against the lens. Realizing that was an assumption, I experimented further to discover it was not the rod, that there were two tiny magnets holding a moveable lens casing.
           Sadly, I have no macro equipment capable to photograph such tiny objects, so here is what I saw along with my conclusions. When you open the lid to insert a disk, what looks like the laser “eye” is really this tiny floating lens. It must be what moves around to track the disk data. I don’t recommend doing so, but if you were to touch it, you’ll find it appears suspended in air.
           It is being held by four tiny but flexible wires, which allow two magnets to guide the lens around, probably to get focus on the spinning disk. This is only for spot adjustment for there is a guide rail that slides the entire component along the disk radius. The part is very fragile, although there are undoubtedly better, and more expensive, ways to accomplish the same thing.
           I had hoped to fire up the laser, but the design is clearly meant not to be tinkered with. Mind you, the same could be said of all the farmer’s daughters I’ve know in my short life. I have another unit nearing extinction and now I know what I’m looking for. In all, this is the most complicated electronic object I’ve ever examined, something to marvel at. Even the plastic housing, the most empirically designed part, must have required unbelievable design effort. I estimate it had 350 different facets, angles, drill holes and crevasses. Easy prey for a pair of side cutters.


           Now for some disturbing news. Every other month, I do a series of spot checks designed to “keep an eye on things back home”. Apparently in only slightly less than twenty years behind the rest of the world, my brother has discovered the Internet. He's opened a Facebook account filled with the glowing reports of his greatest accomplishments. Ah, but that is where the twenty years comes into play.

           Author's note: I digress for a little background on this personal issue, for better understanding. It helps if you bear in mind my brother's life mission was to prove he could do anything I could. These things happen and finally I had to remove myself as his motive for such bad behavior. So imagine my horror to see that Facebook entry to realize his development ceased when I severed his option to meddle in my affairs. The problem was, when he found out he could not compete, he began to destroy. It's a pity, but it does happen and it is a case for other's to study. I was always too busy to bog down in it.

           He honestly felt the only reason I did things like read or play music was to "prove" I was better than him, which I consistently denied. Never once did I ever ponder such a thought before undertaking a thing. Later in life, I was to learn that bothered him even more. He feels he never got the attention and rewards he deserved because everything I did made him look bad. Why he's relaxing and I come along and make him look lazy. You get my meaning.
           When I last associated with the man, and yes, he was a fully-grown adult at the time, he stated that of all the billion paths in this life, I had somehow intentionally come along and "stolen" all the good ones. Leaving him no choice but to steal my motorycle, hit on my girlfriends, break up my band, etc.
           So imagine my horror to discover nothing has changed.
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May 15, 2010

           Here is a view of the trailer court from which these tales are sprung. It only looks abandoned, the birds have flown north to their summer feeding grounds in eastern Canada to raise their young where welfare cheques are far more plentiful. Except for some modern inland courts, this is one of the best in the state, as long as you get it that the lack of lawns is really because there is nobody around to water those lawns.
          During my spell with FireHow, I’ve begun watching other sites, particularly Studio 101. I’d rejected them almost instantly when I smelled something funny in the same time period. Turns out I wasn’t alone. It seems they tried to gag authors from publishing their rates of pay and comparing it with other rates. This being America you can’t keep anybody’s mouth shut, so now we’re finding out their top author once made $5,000 in a month. I must look into that. Five grand waters my corn. And eyes.
          My hits are slowly climbing, but only in proportion to the number of articles. This means none of my extra effort has made any difference. There is also a daily lag period between the hits and pay increments, smacking of human intervention. I’m going to try some shadow advertising, say on Craigslist, to beef up my ratings. Other bass teachers are placing ads, maybe I’ll give some free samples.
          I have a few guitarists objecting to my totally accurate observations on their collective behavior. The way they bleat, you’d gather there was something unusual about the way a good bass player considers them little better than a bunch of semi-retarded stage hands. Talk about your bunch of sore-heads.
          A customer came in with some statistics, him being a gold investor. He knows his spreadsheets, let me tell you. He related some assumptions [the public makes] concerning the traditional 16:1 ratio of gold to silver prices. Having studied this, I was fascinated. If the US government printed enough money to pay off its debts right now, a loaf of bread would cost $125 of the new bills. I was predicting $10 by late this year, boy am I dumb.
          Going deeper, we watched a video called “Melt-Up”, kind of heavy on the statistics. One thing is sure, if there really is the amount of gold in Ft. Knox that the government claims, using it to back the dollar means its true value is $1 million per ounce. The video provided today’s trivia that the peak spending of Americans is age of 46. I would have thought something like 35. Anyway, the last of the boomers turn 46 next year.
          My plan to practice for retirement should start making a lot more sense now. For a most people, there will be no end to work except death. The video also showed that to live off interest (which many planned on), one needs to have $100 million in the bank. I wonder what kind of job an ex-government employee thinks they’ll pick up in this merciless marketplace. They’d be nuts to compete in the bingo trade.
          The video also touched on the Laffer Curve, which shows any increase in tax rates now would result in less revenue. People would quit work or cheat. Other disturbing points were that there are 40 million Americans on food stamps and that the only success story in town is Apple Computers. There were plenty of clips showing Ron Paul talking sense that nobody wants to hear.
          My solution to this mess is, I think, what has to eventually happen anyway. Fire all government employees, abolish all government departments, cancel the military for twenty years but step up border patrols, stop immigration, deport all illegals, pay $10 a barrel for oil, tax inheritances over $1 million, abolish minimum wage and privatize education. What kind of hard-working, intelligent person could disagree with that? Ut-tut, I said hard-working and intelligent.
          Speaking of the bingo trade, it is now a contender. It has become a part time job, and like a job, I’m finding what I don’t like about it. One is that it is on a weekend, prime time that is. And it is unreliable, for I am chalking up the total income to arrive at my conclusions, not the weekly take. It now represents one more skill-set for the times that are looming ahead. If today’s documentary is correct and oil hits $500 per barrel, bingo will still be $1 per card.

May 14, 2010

           Here’s the lineup at the local pharmacy. This photo is temporary. I’ve included it to show you what happens when you have socialized medicine. People who don’t have to pay for things themselves waste time. It took these few people ahead of me 45 minutes to get the hell out of the way. On second thought, this photo is permanent.
           They have this system in Canada, in which welfare cases just love to get to the front of the line and wile away the hours. The longer the lineup behind them, the more important they become. See the lady on the left with the turban? It took 15 minutes for the pharmacist to get it through her thick skull that her prescription was expired while she tried the monkey-talk thing on him. Loser.
           This is a checkpoint for my FireHow progress. I began publishing March 24, so this is day 52. The benchmark was one article per day; I’m ahead of schedule. I have read some 5% of other articles, mind you that includes a peek in most categories and study of the other major writers. Some authors have learned to include pictures and have a decent flow to their work though the originality of those photos is suspect. I appear to be the only one to figure out the indent, to follow a fixed format and to use proper numbering sequences for embedded lists.
           My total hits are 1,559 for earnings of $5.21. I have no idea if this is good or bad by Internet standards, though the totals are pitiful by mine. But I’ve learned. I’ve decided to avoid the more obvious dirty tricks and to continue to produce high quality articles. A few others are truly savvy in their narrow fields but most of the posts read like somebody sat down and strained their public-school brain for anything they could crank out three paragraphs concerning. There is an ominous growth in System 7 pieces, a topic on which I know nothing. Yet.
           Top category for me is, by a healthy margin, the electric bass tabs. These are easily the most advanced and highly formatted posts in FireHow to date. They further employ every sophisticated style and html tags that are possible on the FireHow system. This was not by choice, I often had to manipulate what was there to get the right effect. Many of the options offered simply don’t behave. There can be little doubt the FireHow brass is well aware of what I’ve accomplished. What’s the bets they eventually say something?
           Nobody has dared to copy my style, and if they do, they are in for a surprise. The formatting disappears whenever they cut and paste. The tabs become unreadable in proportionate fonts. Equally confusing to copycats is that even if they reapply the style, these changes never survive an update. There is no efficient way to bass tab without doing all the hard work right the first time. Such writers are a scant minority everywhere.
           You know how sometimes you take pity on a scam artist, being reduced to what he/she is, and all? There’s this local who somehow gets meat packages, still cold and fresh, but he also takes the $20 wrappers off more expensive cuts and wraps them around what he’s got. It probably fools many, but tonight he had top quality and I feasted on steaks for twenty cents a pound. Me and Pudding-Tat both.
           On the way home evening last, I met a new Karaoke entertainer with a most elaborate system. His monitor lets the singer face the audience instead of the stage, a superb concept that has not yet reached Florida in general. He had a variety of equipment to equalize and compress music from non-matching sources.
           Myself, I tend to re-record all my music first, so it does not require any treatment on stage. This also makes my music unique and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He asked questions of concern to the less technically inclined. I responded, “Oh, if I see anything like that, I just delete it and carry on.” He appeared awestruck, that same stunned ape look familiar in my brothers whenever they realized that a little brainwork would have saved them a world of hurt. Evidenced by family portraits show by my age ten, this expression became permanent.