This you see here is a beautiful example of a finely tuned and oiled machine. This is my Kenmore, and I just went through another learning experience. I had practiced only single straight stitches until y'day when the bobbin ran out. Having no fear, I followed the directions and rewound four bobbins. But that is mainly because the plastic bobbin cores make excellent antenna insulators, shhh, that's a secret or they'll double the price or change the design.
But the thing would not stitch right afterward. It began to behave worse than when I first tried to work it. The threads kept snagging up and generally making a mess that required cutting to clear. In case it was related to the machine being older, I completely went over the gear train and moving parts according to the manual and got it so ducky it can be turned with the touch of a finger. The improvement was instant. Now I have to relearn everything since it feeds nicer now.A day for research on many topics, not just robotics. I took time to relearn by spreadsheets on precious metal investment. One important ratio is the traditional silver to gold price, which is 1.8%. Thus, silver should today cost $29.70 per ounce, not $40.23. Gold did surge up until may to that price, but fell after the authorities slapped a rule saying that purchasers had to uses more cash than credit. That put the brakes on.
I still think silver is on my list because gold is moving. Something like $50 billion in gold moved last year (2010). That's almost as much as FaceBook is worth. I found this out when looking at the Euro as a stable currency, whence I learned that is not the way to go. The talk is that larger bills, like the Euro 200 and Euro 500 will have RFID chips sewn into the material. It is an anti-crime measure, but of course the police will rapidly start using it for illegal surveillance. The ultimate "Where's George?", or is that "Ou est Pierre?"
The deficit made the news again, America borrowed the entire August payroll and Social Security, and September is just 4 weeks away. One of these times the usual recoveries, like the stock market, is just not going to play along and down comes the house of cards. Gold is surging, and so is silver but remember due to bar charges, silver has to go up $5 per ounce to break even on a one-ounce bar.
I stopped at the new metal broker on Johnson and Federal. The owner is a young German guy who operates mostly in large quantities, more like an industrial supplier. We got to talking, he had a few silver coins which I don't fool with. Yet, he was most interested in how systematically I had set up my investment program and took my phone number. Yes, I have experience with investment clubs, including the setup, operation, and wind up.
More Arduino. It turns out I was darn lucky not to have evaporated several chips already. There was nothing in the instructions I read about conditions that could fry costly parts, nary a word. Thanks, all you Arduino instructors, who write only about what can be done without any warning about potential trouble. One of my experiments, I think it was Experiment 17, had me going on about poor results.
It turns out those results, a stalled motor and sputtering operation, were precisely what to expect if I'd known the Arduino could not directly supply enough juice to a motor. I was overstraining my equipment. On the plus side, I correctly observed the relevant fact and recorded the events accurately, and they were the events to be expected once the facts were known. Those facts are the Arduino supplies 50mA, I was using a motor requiring ten times that.
I see some Muslim lady in Toronto violently objected to her picture being taken. The photographer was a journalist claiming to be testing a camera for his son. Right, by aiming it at people. I don't take sides here because both sides are wrong, as well as stupid and inconsiderate. The lady for wearing a costume in an unfamiliar society, thus pushing her religion on strangers. The journalist for just plain being a prick. Public area or not, one should still ask permission when taking pictures close enough to offend someone, or let the operator suffer the consequences. I don't care what the law says, if somebody doesn't like their picture being taken, the law can’t make them like it.
I’m falling back, folks, regressing. This robotic study program is taking me back to my university days. I have to be in the right mood to study, but when a subject is fascinating that is no problem. What is a problem is that I am not the sort who can be in two moods at once. Yet, I seem to have no trouble finding women who exhibit multiple moods and emotions, although I once found one who didn’t and I lost her in 1996.
You see, electronics is a huge field and the time required for study is limitless. It is like studying medicine where you just know the courses are purposely designed to overload your brain, as if that were a criteria for good doctorin’. The true purpose is to weed out the lesser motivated but being doctors, they have not experimented with being honest about that in the first place. I’m returning to speed-learning mode and that brings all else to a standstill. I apologize to several ex-girlfriends over it.
Speaking of standstills, the “For Rent” sign is still in the window at the old place. So, Wallace and Patsie now have their $25,000 retirement ensuite, that being the least amount they’ve lost on that joint if you include air fares and lost time. Funny, though, I don’t see Patsie around as much now that there is no easy trouble to stir up. This is all her fault you know, including the bad decisions Wallace made due to her interference. What could have been paradise is now a lame duck. I suspect Patsie is holding up in a barn in Flin Flon until things cool down. She'll have to do some fancy lying to crawl out of this one. Bwaaaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
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