December 31, 2011

           Here is an Imgur (pronounced “Imager”, but who does?) shot of the “1940 Tour de France”. This blog could be shut down if the SOPA law is passed. See, I copied this photo. The old laws said I could not copy it for a profit, the new law says I cannot copy for any reason. Or link to it. The original intention of copyright was the owner of the photo gets all the money. The new intention is to make someone pay every time the photo is reproduced. I think both the photo and the new law are laughing matters.
           This blog is free. And even, if in the future, it draws say, advertising revenue, it clearly my glittering editorial responsible, not the pictures. My photos are stamped and it is enough, should they be reproduced, to be produce adequate returns by advertising my ownership. That would, of course, change, if one of my photos was used by itself to make a lot of cash. But I would not necessarily prevent a copy just because that might happen.
           Cancel the King Mango, the only time slot to hold a rehearsal was here an hour before the parade starts this afternoon. I know the chances of this new guitarist actually working out are tiny, but it is a too important to risk. Trust me, I’m probably the only musician in the country who has studied the potential returns of the trade before I started. I only need find one guitar player to do what he says and what he’s told to make 2012 a blockbuster.
           Ever heard of “Bass Players Buyers Guide”? (The spelling mistakes aren’t mine.) It’s a strange publication dedicated to the premise that anyone who wants a bass is a guitarist and an utter bumpkin besides. It suffers from every imaginable defect of “gitar-think”, right from hero worship across the spectrum to incessant bragging about your instrument. It’s about all the things real bass players never do. But I know, there’s thousands of them and one of me.
           They feature articles on comparisons between bass manufacturers, that is, the juvenile mine’s-bigger-than-your’s approach. The reality is 99% of modern basses are the same. Too heavy in the neck, too heavy overall, built like war clubs, with generally too many useless frets above the octave. Useless for grooving, I mean.
           Those frets are present for the Jaco Pastorius types who like to weird out in front of audiences too stoned to notice he is missing every third note. I’m the type who still likes bass music to have a beat and make an attempt to play the same as the rest of the band. I’ll grant that Jaco is the master of noodling upper-fret jazz lead patterns on the bass to his own loopings. But I’ve seen all the box patterns before. At least he proves you can be a bass player without slapping and tapping.
           The new guitarist arrived, I’ve had encouraging first practices before, this was not one. Musically, the guy needs six months of hard work to get up to speed. But I am the past master of making guitarists sound better than they are. This new guy responded very well to instruction. He is also a professional, so we share a background. Nobody is likely to waste time.
           This is an instance where the practices down the line will tell if this is working. We ran through six pieces. Once given direction and method, he played the pieces well enough to be encouraged. Remember, as long as someone is really trying and getting results, I’ll put in the time. If he does the same, we have a band, if he doesn’t, we don’t.

December 30, 2011

           This is a sculpture from a highly-rated Chinese artist. It’s on display at the Smithsonian. It was inspired, do ya think, when the guy was standing at a Beijing intersection during a noon-hour earthquake? You are supposed to ask yourself why I'd be reading about the Smithsonian. Our trivia is a steam engine kit. No, not the toy kit from Sears, but a real working kit available from Watt himself in 1776. Coal not included.
           I watched “Chicago”, a spoof about the law using props from the 1920s. It was amusing, I quit paying attention after ten minutes, I found the people so pretty. The old photos of that era show there were a lot of ugly people in those pre-Botox days. Furthermore, due to the structure of society, the crowd was clearly five years or more older than the late-teen in crowd of my generation. Zellweger again plays the only character she can. Did you know she annulled her marriage to the country singer, Chesney, claiming he was a “fraud”? Possibly his performance was as one-dimensional as hers?
           The new guitarist called. We have a rehearsal scheduled before the year is out. I listened to his postings, they are on the amateur side, but that’s what’s required for a local duo. Much will depend on how readily he adapts to duo work, it is not the same as a couple guys teaming up and playing whatever they want. Over the phone he sounds willing to put in the required time, so peek back here once in a while.
           It was Barnes and Noble time until past dark. I like that place, the one in Aventura, but not the trip there. It’s a scary stretch of road most of the time. A surprising number of gals in the coffee shop, but none of them smiled back. Well, that’s not strictly true. Some of them looked like they never smiled at all. So I read a lot. I learned that California is cracking down on farmer’s markets. They are requiring that the produce actually be grown and be sold by the farmers direct to the public. It’s un-American.
           When it comes to economy, it pays to keep a global perspective. The national on-line sport of flagging on Craigslist has been lately made easier by software that changes your proxy, makes their code think you are a different computer each time. The only other way is to keep changing your IP address, but then you have to reboot your modem and router every time. So, now you can hire 48 Hindu-types for $22 for 24 hours. They’ll flag away to your heart’s delight. They accept PayPal.
           I took a deeper look at Android programming. These are the phone apps that use Google software. If it seems confusing, it is. You need Java, Eclipse and Apache Ant to make it work. Alas, this is how programming has degenerated since C+ became a standard. Don’t ask me how a logical thinker is even supposed to know what these strangely-named items are or how they are related, and nobody on the Internet is likely to tell you. However, the system seems popular with those young enough never to have used a real programming language.
           The Android interface is Eclipse and Apache Ant is the compiler. Without ever having seen or used an Android app, I can see right now that they are mostly simple constructs that do one thing each and that they must all quickly become very repetitious. It may assist to understand the analogy that real programming is like a Meccano set while modular programming is like Lego. The bigger Lego pieces only fit together certain ways and the output becomes homogeneous and boring unless the projects keep getting bigger and more expensive.
           Last, I read that for a laugh, some people are using Kool-Aid to dye their hair. The food coloring is so strong, by making slurry of the powder and rubbing it in, it lasts through a couple of shampoos. So if you are the sort that needs grape or lemon colored hair to get noticed, there’s your cheap way out.

December 29, 2011

           Get a load of the new leader of North Korea. Real butterball, that boy. Do you get the impression this fatso has been raiding the pantry? To break the nuclear arms deadlock, offer this porker a chain of Burger Kings. There are some things money and power can’t buy, like good taste. I mean, it even hurts to look at that haircut. Since all Korean dictators have the same name, maybe the ear stubble is so we can tell them apart. Famine? What famine?
           Speaking of hypocrites, have you heard of Paul Bridges? He’s the mayor of Uvalda. He’s opposing E-Verify for farm workers, saying it destroys “the social network of Georgia”. They must be real high class round there. Illegal immigrants are costing the nation billions but the one thing on Paul’s mind is his onion crop. Paul Bridges is a Libtard traitor who doesn't give a damn about the "social network" of America.

           Let me say it again. Those who cannot produce at a profit in America must be allowed to go under. It is paramount that unprofitable businesses and individuals be allowed to fail. This is a capitalist system and anybody who wants job or business guarantees can go fly a kite. If you can’t pay an American enough to do the job, then get out of the business. If you go on Facebook, you can read how 100% of the respondents told Bridges to go to hell. Spares us the effort.
           If you like jokes, read Chase Bank’s newest privacy policy. It’s as funny as those ads on TV that suggest identity theft is your fault, not theirs. Um, isn’t the reason you put your money in the bank to protect it from theft of all kinds? Oh, I get it. They aren’t stealing your money. They are stealing your identity. It’s your fault the bank didn’t check them out like they are supposed to.
           Yep, I would still like to open a bank that really keeps people’s money in a vault. I’ll bet it would go over fantastically. Interest rates since 2003 have stunk to high heaven, so competition would not be a problem. Charge people $5 per month to keep their money. That’s nothing compared to one overdraft fee.

           How’s the rest of the gang doing this final week of the year? Of the entire original cadre, only one guy ever got married and he has no kids. Other than RofR, my boyhood comrades, spread all over the place, have remained 100% bachelors. No so with the people I went to school with and worked with. Of my grade six classmates, every one was divorced by age 28. At work, I could not keep up with who was filing. So no, most of us never had the “joys” of marriage and children, but when I learn the ordeal of others, I question that joy. (Hershel did move in with a lady, but the kids were hers and he probably didn’t have any say in how things went.)
           I’ve been cooped up. It gave me time to triple check the numbers for 2012, and into the future until 2019. Never was a budget planned so well at the non-corporate level. I miss driving in a car but I’m not ready to risk my neck. Tell you what, how about a compromise? If, in another year, there are no related health issues, I’ll test drive something nice. Shelve it for now.

           Another dead-end was writing product reviews for money. It works out to less than minimum wage and you could find yourself in the poorhouse trying to keep up with new products. What you write today doesn’t make money next month like a real residual. That’s because the product gets old and nobody reads old reviews. Well, that’s not strictly true as some 11,000 people have read mine. But it was fun while it lasted. On occasion, I update my ePinion articles to keep an eye on things.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 28, 2011

           How expensive do you go with chopsticks? They are a piece of bamboo sharpened on the end. Normally, they’d come in pairs but shown here is a set of five. That’s because they are relabeled as knitting needles. And repriced to $1.80 each. Bamboo isn’t even wood, it is a species of wild grass in some places considered a weed. When it costs more than aluminum, it’s enough to make you gag on your egg roll.
           If you were to go to USGS you could take a peek at the locations of the 17 earthquakes that happened y’day. But move fast, the list scrolls. The deepest quake was 651 km below Fiji, the shallowest about 500 feet underground in central Alaska. I’m waiting for the tremor reported 500 feet above Congress.
           I’ve asked for a search filter that gets rid of replies that do such things as display ads, sell books, and demand memberships. I’d like to exterminate another Internet pest: searches that go to forums. Generally, the vast majority of forums are attended by mouth breathers whose typical response is a sentence fragment containing “u” or “kewl”. Ask.com is a congregation of brain-dead slugs posing such timeless gems as, “In what country do they speak Ukrainian?”
           Dan Lewis, the daily blogger, does occasionally come up with gems. He tends to borrow rather than create or conclude. Today’s item was the 110 people who won a lottery, which turned out due to “lucky numbers” inside fortune cookies. Interesting, but I would have also reported the harsh way the winners were subjected to unauthorized background checks, invasion of privacy, unconstitutional searches and how they were stigmatized as frauds until declared innocent. Most scary is what might have happened to these people if no cookies had been found. Sieg heil, y’all!
           It’s Montana weather time again. Days hot enough to need a room fan; nights chilly enough for a heater. And outside, like the Dakotas, is pleasantly warm only in the sunshine and only on the side facing the sun. Is this an inviting time for scooter trips. The Xmas boom is now the bust with empty streets for the fifth year in a row. I assert the American business model has become so credit-corrupt that it cannot return to sanity. Monex hints that the only AAA currency remaining by 2013 will be gold.
           Another DC brainfart headed for disaster is homeowner bailouts of another five billion dollars. The newest angle is the government subsidizing mortgage payments down to “affordable” levels. This stupid policy is institutionalizing the problem. And the problem is greed. There wasn’t one homeowner who did not originally gloat over their easy riches and who did not scoff down those who steered clear. It takes one business cycle (7 years) for bad policy to bite back, and year six begins Sunday.
           Both gold and silver dropped to the lowest in a year, carried on my books as a buying opportunity, and yes, there is money set aside for that. It’s an old 1970’s belief, how the very presence of reserves reduces the need for cash. Back then, there was no advantageous amount to be in debt. Colleges were just beginning to teach the ridiculous concept that, statistically, there was a “correct” ratio to be in debt.
           I was just finishing my accounting degree back then and I had a laugh over that one. My college professor was a serious guy and he actually believed you could make money by going into debt. He couldn’t fathom that the people who lent money, in the big picture, were never going to let that happen. I concluded back then that what was really happening was that the accounting formulas for profit maximization were becoming skewed by the inclusion of accounts receivable as a liquid asset.
           One thing any bookkeeper would notice instantly in my accounts for the past thirty years is that there is no category for liabilities. I have no unpaid bills. But the psychological edge I’m referring to is how people don’t think why one side of the accounting equation includes a separate heading for debt (liabilities), but not the other. The formula should be Assets + Accounts Receivable = Liabilities + Equity, so even the most casual reader would understand that Accounts Receivable is a different animal.
           Am I right? Well, the business day after Xmas, Kmart and Sears announced they were closing 125 stores. Their business model is all wrong; you’d think having to lop of an arm would teach them so. My solution is well-known: Prices must drop to where people can pay cash. Warrantees must attach to the product, not the purchaser. Credit reporting agencies must be abolished (not for keeping credit data, but for invasion of privacy). The Greenspans of the world lack the hard bark to just out with it like I do.

December 27, 2011

           It’s too cold for a motorcycle trip, or I’d be on the road again. Instead, I’m at home until January except for a jaunt to Coconut Grove for the King Mango Strut. Here is a sample of the content. The Strut was begun when a conch shell band from the area was denied a permit to march in the football parade. (Not apparent is that it is illegal to show boxer shorts in public and these men were risking arrest.)
           I was searching for cheap motels again, you know, maybe a little getaway. Forget Marco Island with rates beginning at $509 per night. Who would stay in such a place, by which I mean somebody with that much money should know better. To avoid a St. Augustine style wilderness, now I’m checking for Karaoke addresses before I go anywhere. Now that is not saying I’m heading to Ft. Meyers to knit socks or anything. I’m just looking into things, that’s all.
           What I did find for a laugh was a series of Karaoke clips in Naples. Or, should I say I found in laughable. I wonder what happened to their local bars that got named in that big Karaoke lawsuit a while back. Anyway, it is not unthinkable I could win a contest so I watch the competition very closely. Most of it is dry monotone, the “I Did It My Way” singers, nothing at all like the sparkling interactive show I put on. (So you know, my act is carefully designed to make me appear the reluctant amateur. The only giveaway is you never see me look at the screen for lyrics.)
           Then, exciting day that it is, I looked under Craigslist for musicians. I’m amused by how “Christian” bands have taken to advertising there. They don’t post in electronics or auto parts, so why music? Then again, if you discount the religion forum (a.k.a “verse vomit”), CL doesn’t really have a category for “Jesus Freaks”. I say if you are a Christian first and a musician next, you should post at the church. I once worked with a long-hair, Mr. Cool, musician with the Christian edge thing. I found him abrasive. It seems to me a real hippie rebelling against the establishment would find religion to be another trapping.
           As the year end looms, so my attention to retirement rules and such. I read an article on “retirement killers” and most of it was common sense. It makes me grin to know there are people out there 50+ who need to be told not to take out a 30 year mortgage. If the USA was a senior citizen, it would be in deep doo-doo. Methinks the largest winner of the government stimulus package was Winn/Dixie, with 3.3 million Floridians on food stamps.
           Again, let me express my extreme displeasure at Adobe. Their constant “updates” are as annoying as hell. It is well known they are an excuse to install spyware on your computer (see Cookienator). There is absolutely no difference in performance before or after the so-called updates. Worst is the need to stop what you are doing and close your browser. Up yours, Adobe, and basically the same to people who always post with a new format that requires an update—but they are likely so dumb they don’t know they are doing it. You are not progressive people. Find something that works and stick with it.
           Speaking of the unqualified, folks, uploading raw unedited amateur video to youTube isn’t funny any more. You waste everybody’s time. At least make some attempt to edit your crappy, shaky shots that do little more than let the world know you don’t have what it takes to be in the parade. And please, somebody write a search engine that skips over any posting with ads that cannot be deleted instantly.
           Until then, if anyone doubts America has gone downhill beyond redemption, go to the MSN (MicroSoft Net) home page and look at the spread of topics. Just when you think there is a limit to sleazy, meaningless drivel, they’ve got an article on Oprah or another diet fad. Sadly, MSN wouldn’t be shoveling out slop if the pigs weren’t eating it. Not since “Designing Women” has so much dumbing down been done to so many by so few.
           The cost of the robot club, active since May 9 this year, has totaled out at $480.73, of which half is represented by tools and materials still on hand. I may rant about individual prices, but this has been one bargain hobby. Actual expenses have been $86.15. The return in new knowledge is incalculable. Study time is probably 200 hours, mainly deep reading. Like the 741 now in focus. I’ve learned it amplifies a “milliwatt signal”, but not one of the Internet geniuses has the guts or brains to specify where one finds such signals. Is it another one of those things you’re supposed to know?
           The scooter is completely tuned up and purring. A half-hour in the shop revealed a leaking gasket, one of two factory-installed motor seals. The decision is to just keep topping up the oil and increase vigilance. The scooter shop is closing next month. The computer shop is still vacant, now having lost some $30,000 in rent from us. And Wally’s Folly is sitting there with the sign in the window, out his $18,000 and a free place to live forever. It truly makes you wonder.

December 26, 2011

           This is not the runner-up in a Barbara Striesand look-alike contest. It’s either a great shot of a middle-aged housewife or a terrible photo of a 30-something in denial that gravity is winning. Which of the two she turns out to be depends on information I don’t have and can’t find. Where I really like the picture, I’m not sure I like the image. Read on to learn what I mean.
           An hour after I got up, I heard a distant siren, like those in the movies about the Blitz. Other than a potential post-Xmas sale at Aventura Mall, I’ve no idea the significance of this alert. There was a noon siren when I was growing up, which nobody ever explained since there were no factories or jobs in town. This being Florida, it could be, like those who run the railway, just people making noise at 6:30 in the morning.
           Today I investigate op-amps, in particular, the 741. I want to know how works and how it is used. That’s it. I don’t want to know how it is built or the tons of junk information I will get on-line. You watch, I’ll get countless sites that tell me it “reacts” and “responds” and “inverts” and goes on about all the inputs and outputs, but every one will avoid telling me what it does or how to make it useful. Then, once I learn how the hard way, they’ll all line up and ask, “Oh, well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” See, I may not know electronics, but I know a pack of idiots when I meet them.
           Later, two hours into the search. The entire Internet findings carefully avoid any clear statement about how the thing works. What exactly is “a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input”? As usual, I will now search British club sites hoping to find my quarry as a byproduct of some other topic. All electronics authors to date have been half or complete losers.
           Some headway so far. I’ve learned the op-amp “amplifies a weak signal”, but no information on what that signal could be. Smoke? Traffic? Radio? It must be a huge secret, but I’ll guess voltage. Ah, by examining formulas from some guy V. Ryan, who cannot bring himself to just say it, the culprit must be voltage. Ryan explains this, but immediately gives an example of a “comparator” instead of an op-amp. Real brains, that cookie.
           Ah, found something by looking for “voltage” in Australia. Go to Talking Electronics. It’s a blog and hard to find things, but if you’re really interested you’ll follow up. I picked up two 741 chips from the Shack, they’re not expensive.
           I very rarely memorize the names of band members unless I have another reason than music. Hey, they’re supposed to be a band, not a collection of soloists. But take that Heidi Newfield, the singer from Trick Pony in today’s picture. I just don’t find her too attractive and for that matter, I don’t think she is all that talented or sexy. But there she is, broadcasting from the Islands wearing a bikini made for a woman half her age. Something does not add up.
           So I checked things out as can only be done in this wired up world. How is somebody like that selling millions? I still don’t know, since all her Internet postings have been whitewashed. For example, Wiki says, “By age 13, she had decided to pursue a career in country music.” Like it was some option she picked from the job board in the grade eight home room. There it was, right between orthodontist and liberal arts.
           So, I still don’t believe the hype. Call me suspicious, but consider how many other women I’ve met that had an unexplained ten-year gap in their lives. Unless things are different in California, people have to eat and pay the rent somehow. I’m not denying her success; I’m just not certain where to place the credit. I’m hoping it was rich parents.

December 25, 2011

           Call me cooped up with nothing to do. That translates into a good study session. Take a look at this object. It’s meaning to me is the first time I ever glanced at a circuit board and knew in a flash what it was for and how it was made. A year ago I would have just trusted whatever was on the package. Want to step through the thought process with me?
           Okay, there are six duplicate circuits on this board. Starting on the lower left, there are a series on input jacks next to six green LEDs, each with a transistor and a flyback diode in the next row. Down the middle of the board see twelve more resistors, six of which must each control a base of one of the six switching transistors. Behind those, see six more clear LEDs also with six current-limiting transistors, then to the right edge the little blue boxes which are six relays. At the back top center are six more diodes, possibly Zeners, and a smoothing capacitor.
           Why, this is a six-relay module sitting on top of an Arduino board. And the Arduino controls the activity of those relays in a programmed microcontroller sequence. The light green connectors are power inputs and outputs, as devices connected to this board require more power than the Arduino can provide. A very useful circuit for robots, and one I think I could build if I had to. Happy Xmas morning, indeed.

           [Author's note 2015-12-25: it is amusing to read back down my own learning curve. I now know these add-on boards are called "shields", where in more familiar computerese, I used to call them "daughterboards". It took nearly a year after my first Arduino to get to the stage of building anything like you see here. But I'll match that to the thousands of Arduino owners who gave up along the way. Robotics is not a canyon you can cross in two jumps.
           I read for a year before I could do anything useful, only to find out my definition of useful does not follow the regular pattern of getting the Arduino to duplicate some ordinary process. That describes about 99% of everything that is out there. Nothing original in electronics in 40 years. Hmmm, to think, that is about the amount of time ago I tried to learn this stuff and was told not to.
           What, the purple thing in the picture? I also knit. I can only knit straight things, like scarves. I don't do it very often, but at least I can knit if I have to. Can't everybody?]

           Later, around noon, I completed building a clock timer circuit. That’s the tiny circuit at extreme left of the photo with the black adjustment shaft. Then I connected it to my ring counters, as shown here. This was a fascinating experience, both the build and the sensitivity of the apparatus when complete. By holding my hand near the timer, I could set things into hysteresis (random flashing caused by static). What’s that, you say? Oh, the wool on the knitting needle? That’s nothing, I needed something to keep me occupied while I’m thinking. It is not a stocking.
           Even later, I caroused the Internet electronics shops and finally found Pololu. No, it’s not the Hawaiian state flower, but yet another parts outfit in Irvine, CA. They have a unique selection and I have one of their stepper motor drivers, a device that can turn robot steering adjustable to 800 steps per circle. Very fine control indeed. The challenge is the gears; nobody seems to have perfected an adjustable set of gears. That means when you buy the gears, you have to design around the mounting.
           A partial solution may be parts from Tamiya, a plastic model company. They have chassis and running gears that remind me of Meccano. Here’s another company I never heard of while searching specifically for robot parts. This shows how imperfectly the Internet searches perform for all but the most simple of cases. Months later I finally hear of them because I glanced at a wrapper from another shipment before I threw it away.
           So there you have it. Xmas 2011.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 24, 2011

           I’ll be. This is an extremely rare photo of my old home town. In color. Kudos to anyone who can identify it. Hint to long term blog readers, note the church window at extreme right, and the pine trees showing above the church roof. I can’t believe this photo, they’ve restored all the buildings on Main Street, which has obviously been paved. I would not have recognized the photo except for the dark brown building with white window frames set back in from the street left of that phone booth.
           That was the telephone office. It was also the bus stop where I picked up the newspapers for my paper route. See the old western town faux fronts on the stores? From the vehicles, this is a recent picture, looking like a Clint Eastwood movie set. I still like the place but I’m never going back. My family was the laughing stock of that town and many more.
           I woke up just not feeling right, a possible side effect of a new prescription, so I’m staying close to home for the day. Seeking a PA on sale, I looked through Craigslist and there have been some changes I see. So I looked in the personals, and my, have they ever cleaned up the ads. Did Craigslist get sued or injunctioned or something? Good old CL isn’t good old CL any more. They’ve even cleaned up the want ads.
           Cancel my plans, though, I’m not even stepping out the door. Why is it I take ill on the worst television programming evening of the year? Those movies about the Bible all have the same watery plot. Shirley Temple bites and that Flicka makes Gilligan reruns seem like action movies. At least none of the creation films ever cast Eve as a frumpy thirty-something housewife with her hair in curlers. And Eve doesn’t claim she had to eat the apple because she later remembered an old man saw her naked when she was a little girl.
           For the afternoon, I read a book about the early Zionists, the Jews who wanted to re-establish a homeland in Palestine. In the 1890s they report the area as uninhabited, but when the Turks pulled out after WWI, their records show a half-million Arabs in the general vicinity. Still, it is well established that the British made the Jews pay for all the land they occupied, and that the Arab landlords sold them the land. That’s a change of ownership, folks. The bottom line is the land never belonged to the Palestinians who are claiming it is their ancestral home.
           As for the territory gained by warfare, it is mainly mountains and desert, unsuitable for just about anything. They don’t call it the Golan Heights and the Negev Desert for nothing. I don’t side with either party, but I understand how after four wars the Israelis are not giving back a square inch without an agreement on secure borders.
           I had started reading about the Iraqi nuclear program in conjunction with the Zionist material. The two rogue states to watch are Iraq and North Korea. Atomic bombs are not that hard to build, but it requires money on a governmental scale. When you buy a German or French power plant, they are designed to make it very difficult to produce weapons-grade byproducts. To build bombs, you need a Canadian reactor. You might also want to keep an eye on Pakistan, where terrorist sympathizers could come to power overnight.
           If the entire US can’t stop Mexicans from walking over the border, what chance is there against a nuclear bomb? The only defense is not to be where it detonates. Now, where would somebody who hates the US do the deed? Washington, DC. Runner’s up would be New York, or San Diego. But the easiest target would be Miami. Estimated casualties? Five million dead and it will bankrupt the country.
           Don’t look at me. I said twenty years ago the result of any US troops in the Middle East would be an atomic attack on American soil. Oh, and before I forget, Merry Xmas.

December 23, 2011

           I’ll tell you what is really scary. Those WWII archives that were released after, what it is, 50 years? I’ve been watching the Italian and Soviet documentaries. The footage of the Me262 is horrific. The sanitized US newsreels show the jet cruising alongside while the European versions show them slicing right past the Mustang cordon into the B-17 formations and blasting bomber after bomber to flaming wreckage (as shown here).
           The US reels show a few P-51s pouncing on unsuspecting jets, but mostly you see swarms of Mustangs reduced to chasing a 262 in relays until it runs out of fuel. The American propellor planes are dead meat to the sleek German designs. Another stat to consider is the high survival rate of the jet pilots. These guys were jumping out due to mechanical damage; they were not being shot down in flames. Big difference there, you top gun types.
           The Yankee versions lucidly downplay the inferiority of Allied planes. But the scenes of the GIs wondering around captured jets say most of it. It’s like watching aborigines next to a refrigerator, or Canadians next to a contract. Nobody wants to admit that this amazing German technology was the last real breakthrough in combat aircraft. It is amazing how the early films depict every aspect of jet-powered flight known today.
           She’s a warm one, perfect for a scooter ride. Check back later to see if I do, it’s early yet. Here’s a question for you. What is the name of that condition where some people loathe any accomplishment if they personally know the achiever? Strangers they are okay with, but they seethe with jealousy if an acquaintance succeeds. What’s that called? This mental aberration is common in dysfunctional families. Why is there no popular term for this widespread neurosis?
           As an example, remember Wallace and Panera Pete? Pete with no car, no room, no money, no food, no job—but he once wrote a book, so they say. Pete is a hero, though he doesn’t even own a copy to show you. On the other hand, me, who has written more than most people can read, well that doesn’t count, see? According to Wallace, when I do it, it is “mind control”.
           Later, I went for a short scooter ride. I’ve over budget for the month already, which I managed without buying any Xmas presents. I did buy a couple rounds for the house but to celebrate a successful year, not due to the season. Success for me involves a large element of what most would call “getting ahead”. For that I don’t need riches, I merely require a stable home environment. No idiots or surprises when I get in the door.
           That’s an interesting way to look at it. I require a carefree home existence. The past year reflects most of my entire adult life. Every rent and bills paid on time, every time, without complaint. No need for credit cards. And except for my recent legal battle, there was always a slight operating surplus. (That’s correct, my being broke the previous few years was over a drawn out legal matter, not medical or social issues. I paid every one of my bills throughout the entire bad patch.)
           Whenever I shared a place, that formula goes wrong. Why do I get the feeling some people are nothing but destabilizing influences? Their home lives must be a fiasco of constant worry about meeting their own commitments and cussing down others. How do people live like that and never learn a blessed thing or who to blame? One telltale sign is they can’t shaft their enemies, only their friends. What a great lifestyle.

December 22, 2011

           Wait. Stop. This is not what it looks like. It’s just a swatch lying on a resistor-capacitor timing circuit diagram. Every progressive household has something like that lying around, I’m sure. It doesn’t mean anything. That’s all, this does not mean I am going to ever knit a pair of socks. I have enough on my diagram, er, I mean my plate.
           A scarf maybe, or some gloves, but never socks. So forget it. It will not happen. Note the nice even rows and the neat casting on and binding off. Easily identified as a stockingette stitch as shown, see the knit side, the purl side, and the tendency to curl. I said stockingette, not stockings. No way am I knitting any stockings.
           There is actually a bit of the old Xmas rush going on. The annual boomlet that exceeds the GNP of most nations on Earth. Despite being Karaoke night and receiving some personal invitations, I’m staying home. That’s what makes sense to me. That’s what I get for living in a working class town. These people are so working class they don’t know it.
           I had gone out this AM for non-essential supplies, but came back empty-handed. There were no bargains out there and that includes K-Mart. Have you seen their prices lately? I had coffee at BK beside the people that say grace over their Whoppers. And then I patronized the library for an hour. I’m probably antsy about spending Xmas without a date, this is what, eight years in a row. Yeah, that’s right, it has been that long since the first and only time I’d ever been in Florida hospital.
           That’s a reflection of many major changes since 2003. At home I don’t eat beef but I’ve become a tea-drinker. I never did learn to watch TV, but you can blame TV for that. I spend twice as much time playing music as the previous decade, that is, now around 500 hours per year. My newfound spare time has increased my reading by double that. Automobile mileage has dropped to zero.
           A good chunk of my reading time is intense study, rivaling my college days. Except back then, I would often take 20 consecutive hours and read an entire text book in one sitting. Can’t do that no more. Study is easier, but it is still an activity that many people find less than joyful. But that’s correct, studying is easier as in accomplished with less mental effort. No pain, no gain is the rule, it just gets better once you know you are over the peak of the learning curve.
           I’m totally liking the book on sock knitting. I found my old 6mm needles in the shed, in perfect condition. It’s been a wonderful distraction and I’ve learned a ton of new terms about socks. In that sense, it is similar to electronics. Half the battle isn’t the knowledge, it is figuring out what the instructions are trying to say. Have you ever heard of positive ease and negative ease? That is the way a garment hangs. If it gets wider at the bottom like a dress, that is positive ease. If it tapers like a cowboy shirt, you have negative ease. Note that most cowboys are tapered the other way.
           With my guitar act, I’ve hit a plateau. The hard part is to steer away from the awesome tendency to play everything with the same (or similar) strum. I’ve taken to practicing each song at half speed to concentrate on the strumming. This takes untold time and I keep telling myself it will pay off on stage. Like bass playing, those who say it is easy are doing it wrong.
           Another tactic is arranging the tunes for solo work. I’ve really not seen too many musicians in this town make the effort, or it may be they don’t know how. They settle on the first guitar chop they find that remotely sounds like the cover. Over time, this bores the audience and the staff. I now see more of the reasons guitar players want to do certain songs certain ways. And I don’t appreciate it at all.
           I tend to analyze the strum from a piano viewpoint then adapt back to the guitar. The guitar part in isolation tends to omit tiny musical nuances provided by other instruments. By paying attention to those details, you don’t fatigue the audience. Put another way, if I can use this method to play bass for two years at the same joint without boring the crowd, just you wait until I learn this here gee-tar.
           For trivia, dial this phone number, (877) 504-8423. It is the fictitious number used in movies to, according to Dan Lewis, “lend an air of realism”. Try it, you get a recording that tells you so.

December 21, 2011

           From Dan Lewis' "Now I Know", here is a snap of the first known coupon in America, and your trivia quota. Coke figures in today's blog. The winter solstice and I stayed inside with good books and good intentions. I’ve constructed a complex circuit that created more questions than answers. Ray-B called and we talked music theory for most of an hour. I’ll get to that. I’m in the home stretch with “Eclipse”, which coasts along in a unique mixture of warfare and courtroom drama, never preferring one over the other. That’s a gift.
           The book also takes digs at the big picture. The Chinese whose human rights abuses are their foreign policy, the total corruption of overseas American corporations, and the sad fact that God put all the really good oilfields in really bad countries. The author keeps the tale lively by throwing in these nuggets, and he is totally convinced of the superiority of American lawyers, forgetting that most of the world does not think so.

           Patterson, the writer, also has a tendency to cook up fantasies that non-American readers might not latch on to. He does go on about older men with younger women like it is not natural. Somebody could tell him that people elsewhere are not really that shocked to learn a 15 year old girl is sexually active. The way things are going, that might be her only chance for variety before she balloons out on Big Macs and joins a dating club.

           Ray-B reports Johnny D is doing an open mic on the beach. If it wasn’t already so late, I’d have headed over, not having seen Johnny for what, three years now? No doubt, he’s got the same tunes but I did not care to jam with him for one reason. His guitar technique uses a lot of bass string work. He does not compensate for this when a bass player arrives. The low guitar notes clash with the upper bass notes, making for a muddy sound that bespeaks amateurism. Then again, I do play a lot of upper bass notes and don't compensate for the lower guitar parts.
           But this time, I play guitar and don’t need accompaniment. Johnny was very influential in my strumming, since he was one of the few guitarists that would have made a great country duo. Alas, solo performers rarely sustain the ability to team up with others over time, though some of them talk the talk. I require a non-singing rhythm player and that takes some doing around here. I specify non-singing so I don't wind up teaching the other guy to solo.
           The topic quickly turned to rhythm styles, since Ray-B agrees with most of my analysis of what I need on stage. We put in an hour on musical theory. I will never consider jazz an “advanced” form of music, rather a cacophonic 1940’s flash in the pan whose primary role is to sell more guitar lessons. Ray-B learns by watching other players, myself I don’t yet know enough to know what to look for. We concur that most on-line lessons consist of some dull guy showing off.
           The correct blend seems to be lighter strumming with more bass runs. My wrist conditioning for bass makes this super hard work for me. Ray-B reports Sweeny is playing out in Sunrise, I may go out to see the show. I only know her from a couple tunes over the years when I was in the audience. The word is she still plays everything with the same strum, something I’m striving to avoid from the start. But I need to see how others are being hired to do this and how to maintain the competitive advantage.

           Author's note 2015-12-21: at this time I do not know if this "Sweeny" is or could be the same lady I finally met at the Broadwalk last month. I strongly suspect it is. ". . . plays everything the same way" is not something I would forget.]

           Guitarist number 18 is on hold for Xmas. This is the guy who answered my ad last August. If nothing else, he is consistent about answering my e-mails. That hasn’t happened before. His name is Trent, and he has passed other tests as well. For example, I’ll provide a song list that I know will choke a blues or rock guitarist who only claims to play country. Or I’ll mean-mouth a guitar hero to see how stuck on idol worship the new guy can be. So far, he’s passed.
           Anything else? Well, I was a good neighbor and lent out my garden rake. Then I looked up all my meds in “The Pill Book” seeing most are half the strength I had to take five years ago. Give me another Robynette (nice young wife) and I’ll make the Olympics yet. I love my new Ibanez stage guitar, and so do most people. One thing, when I bought it, the lady threw in an expensive tuner, saying her husband couldn’t get the built-in unit to work. Don’t ask me, it works perfectly.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 20, 2011

           I’m well into the book, “Eclipse”. It’s a good thing it is a fascinating tale, since I re-entered regular Florida society for most of the day by waiting in lines. An extra 100 pages of lines at the bank, the doctor, the library. This as a small turning point as the latest results of my medicals. It’s the same old good news, bad news situation. The good is I’m stable (physically, mentally, financially), the bad news smaller items which sum up to no permission or foreseeable permission to ever return to work. Me! In da prime ‘o me life.
           In response, I went for an extended coffee break, book in hand. I glanced at a new TV show with the host from “Cash Cab”. It’s called “Last Person Standing” or something like that. The defeated opponents drop through a trapdoor. These are specially designed trapdoors where the flimsy “easy-access” dress of the blonde babe does not fly up around her shoulders. Alas, 30% of the questions are still nonsense dressed up as trivia. How am I supposed to know the heroine of Nutcracker, an opera that puts me into deep, sleep?
           I’ve got the last two decade counters in Broward. Also known as a ring counter, this integrated circuit does little more than flash ten lights in sequence. I used to think youTube videos were advanced electronics, but now I see that all those operators did was wire up a kit. Take my word, these circuits can be created a lot more easily than you think. What’s more, it is possible to build such gadgets without knowledge of how the chips perform the duty. But that’s an error our club did not make, okay?
           The daily excitement was taking the scooter on a 30 mile trip in the cool winter weather. Really, I can’t make today any more lively than already. If I’d known about today in advance, I could have knitted a pair of socks. Now here’s a heads-up, I made a list of what I have to do before the end of the month. I have to get propane and repair music cables, for instance.
           One thing I’ve learned about so-called retirement is that anyone who thinks that means there is nothing to do hasn’t been there. Nothing to do and can’t do nothing aren’t the same, even if they initially seem that way to the gumptionless. This joint is as close to zero maintenance as possible and it still keeps me busy with chores.
           That’s it for today. I had to reserve most of it for waiting around. It was beyond my control. Lazy days make for lazy people. Doing nothing wears me out. I came home to promptly fall asleep in the easy chair until after midnight. I need another vacation.
           Later, since I don’t want today’s blog to be too short, there is a topic I’d like to clarify. When I say that I believe in and support the rule of law that does not mean I expect every person to immediately get out there and start obeying every law in existence. What I mean is that the law should be so clearly established that the average and prudent person knows the limits of the law, to the extent that person can make an informed and willful decision. I suggest and it is borne out in practice, that people will tend to obey good laws and disobey bad laws—but either way the “rules” of said laws must be clearly established.
           This seems contradictory to the untrained mind, but it is not muddled at all. Take the bad laws concerning prohibition. It was widely broken from the back alleys all the way up to the White House. Every person who took a drink knew the law and to what extent they could be punished, and millions drank anyway. Every person should have the right to calculate how to “get around” a law as long as they don’t become criminals by breaking it. Right, Coca-Cola? Okay with you, FedEx?
           No, it is not right or okay. Where the law can be manipulated depending on the Plaintiff’s tactics, it is not rule of law at all. If you or I try to market a cola or compete with the postal service, it could mean heavy fines. It cost Dr. Pepper a bundle to prove it was a cherry drink, not another cola. Coke was able to sue because the laws on the books were not clear, FedEx avoided being sued because the law was silent on a few critical points that didn’t get sorted out until the company was well-established.
           Without the rule of law, you get a situation like my family upbringing, in which you were compelled to play an endless and boring game where rules are suddenly altered should you ever figure out how to win consistently. This produced an entire generation that never learned the value of innovation, rather just how to stop others from doing so. A current example is the laws that criminalize those who cheat gambling casinos.
           Such “cheaters” should be rewarded, lionized in fact, as a form of external competition. The way it stands, the only opposition the casinos need fear is another casino, and it just ain’t right the law should provide for that. Be careful here, I confine this example to cheating the house, not the other gamblers. The house is not gambling, they are guaranteed a profit and it is only right that should be subject to intense competitive pressure.
           This is plainly a different stance than simply saying everyone should play by the rules. It is saying the rules themselves have to play by the rules. Something to think over, even if I can’t totally define it right here and now.

December 19, 2011

           Ever have one of those days? Where you built a circuit that works but haven’t a clue how? No? Funny, I’ve been having more of those lately. This one was a doozie. That’s what they used to say in 1930, a Dusenberg car or something to that sad effect. Here, take a look for yourself. This is not robotics, this is ordinary electronics. The pencil is pointing at the chip that is supposed to make the LED (just below the pencil tip) flash. Ignore the bank of meters, they are here to show that everything is documented and I’m not blindly following textbook directions.
           This stumped me until past noon, when I took a breather, drove over to the sewing place and negotiated a January special. Fourteen hours of class for $11 per hour. This is the same place I took the intro at more than twice that rate and was satisfied with the product. I want to learn to make something out of a pattern and maybe some useful things around here. Like the electronics, I could probably buy the finished articles for less, but thinking like that is a dead end.
           Off to the library where, as I sat down, I had to field a bunch of calls from guitarists who didn’t make it last Friday and wondering how it went. Most of us have a common understanding that the new guy gets support to the extent of showing up at his first few gigs and playing audience. Also, Ray called and it seems Bose has a smaller edition of the L1, that prohibitively expensive tower PA they’re hawking. Ray and Cowboy Mike report “The Big Picture” (a club on University Drive) have the smaller unit, but I can’t get there on Saturdays to hear it. That’s bingo night.
           Then I did something many won’t identify with. I drove all the way back to Barnes and bought that book on knitting socks. Only those who know how hard it is for me to find something I’ve never read before will see the logic. Come on, be a sport and ask me anything about socks. That part the covers your ankles? That’s called a gusset. Tube socks have no gusset. The directions use a grid layout, which made instant sense to me. The stitches are produced according to the layout, which any decent programmer will spot is an array of symbols.
           I’m not promising a thing, but you know, as I read those symbols I could see the sock taking form in my mind’s eye. I’ve got my Boy Scout merit badge for knitting, peeps. I made a scarf I wasn’t too proud off, but I got that badge. So it’s not like I don’t have a sense of what is involved. But knitting something round instead of flat? That’s another doozie. What say I give it a stab? Get it? Knitting needle. Stab. Are you with me?
           I’ve started another lawyer novel, “Eclipse”. The typecast guy is such a wonderful lawyer his wife is leaving him. The premise is he is defending a tribal leader in an African village that is being polluted and corrupted by American oil interests. It’s okay so far, let me make some hot chocolate. It is a chilly winter night, probably down in the 60's.
           You’ll want to know what’s going wrong with my circuit. Well, the way it is set up, there is a capacitor that discharges current, and this declining current is sent to an integrated circuit that flashes on and off. As the current drops, the flashing is supposed to become progressively slower and finally stop. If you play the slots, you’ll be familiar with this effect. Well, mine flashes but it never stops or slows down. I’ve built enough circuits to know the problem is in the part of the wiring that “has to be right”. Hence, all the meters shown here as I follow the voltage around the wiring paths.
           For my Xmas treat, I bought myself two new shirts and two new pair of slacks. So I’ll look spiffy if I meet Snow White over the holidays. No wait, I’m confusing elves and dwarfs again. Hey, it’s not like my brothers wore name tags. I’ll have to develop a mnemonic to get those classifications right. You know Skipper, the boat guy? He always knows. But that’s because he doesn’t call them elves. He calls them “those little Santa-f**ks”. With the hammers. From Homo Depot.
           At 9:46PM I got the circuit to work. Due to the ICs, it was not as difficult a build as the LED matrices I managed six months ago. However, the behavior was not program-controlled, and what made it complex was everything had to be done with “dumb” components. There’s a paradox if you ever had one. If the author had known me, he would have taken the opposite tack and described it as an apparatus that acted like a computer, and I would have grasped it all on the spot.
           What was the problem? The resistor color codes most familiar are in the 100Ω to 1000Ω range. I’m now into timing circuits that operate with 10MΩ parts. It’s like reading decimals without commas, here, you try it: 1000000 or 10000000. The three darkest colors are green, blue, and violet. I had one resistor with a green instead of a blue band. One resistor was one zero off. The circuit was flashing, but so fast I thought the lights were on steady.
           So pardon me if I spend the remainder of the evening with some nice simple sock schematics. Knit one, purl one, careful never to confuse such a level of mental activity with real thinking. But if you do, there is always a career in drywalling.

December 18, 2011

           I’ll always have trouble understanding who would buy a truck like this. The paint job alone tells you it will never be used off-road. This was parked for Sunday brunch at the Burger King, where I stopped after shopping for diodes. Zener diodes. During my year end wrap up a short while ago, I calculated that the scooter had paid for itself in saved gasoline. It made me wonder what kind of mileage this monstrosity gets.
           The scooter has 5,400 miles on it; this would have required 270 gallons of gas in the Taurus (all city miles). It becomes more expensive to keep an older car tuned up than to buy the extra gas, but still I didn’t spend $1,012.50 on gasoline. The scooter required 75 gallons for the same distance, so subtract $281.50. The saving is $731.00, meaning it paid for itself already, even allowing for repairs. Throw in the free trip to St. Augustine and it becomes one hell of a bargain.

           Thanks to bingo, I could have gone anywhere and done anything. So I mostly stayed home. I’m thinking to continue my lessons with the sewing machine. I’ve already patched all my old work clothes (which took a real beating at the shoe shop) and I’m ready for something fancier. I think it would be easier to make things new than to keep repairing old clothes, which can be hard to feed through the machine.
           In related trivia, did you know that 49% of people who knit their own socks wear them to bed? I’ve never knitted socks, but I found this well-written book about how to knit them two at a time. I learned about the second sock hitch, where apparently many knitters finish the first sock, but have trouble finding time to do the second. I’m not saying anything except that I flipped through the book, which did not state what percentage of people still make their own socks.

           Zener diodes. There is so much lame junk on-line that I finally bought some and will check things out myself. On-line authors have real mental difficulty explaining things in plain language, which I instantly suspect means they don’t really know themselves. This is far more prevalent, including amongst university professors, than you think.
           And what about university? For some time now I have balked at the cost of returning simply because most degrees have become zero-sum. Tuition and expenses, plus the time off the job market, are so high that the breakeven point is impossibly far into the future. Remember my dentist, who told me it would take him until he was 48 to pay off his loans? I’ve read articles lately that say the whole college/university system is a bubble about to burst.

           I can see it, how the colleges will do anything to sucker people into student loans by strong-arming them into a program they didn’t originally want. Broward Community College tried that stunt on me, documented elsewhere. You can’t bankrupt your way out of student loans any more, something I would have done if it was possible back when. Nope, college has become too much hype and swindle for me. My original university certainly did not teach me what I needed to know. To this day, I cannot program in any Internet language except C, which I’m only now learning on the Arduino.
           Who recalls my prediction about an invisibility cloak, one that will bend light around the hidden object. Guess what? The very newest of research has done just that, and using the method I described. Light is just another wave, and waves can bend around objects. Since light is energy, the cloak can be self-powering. There is also talk of submarines being shielded from sonar and wake-detecting sensors by using similar technology.

           That tips us off I was up at the bookstore, with a keen eye out for single women. That doesn’t work in this town, yet it is a habit I cannot break. I’ll approach any babe, but I need that tiniest glimmer of reaction first. Anything over 21 in Florida develops a poker face and a crust this thick. Oh, and she should be pretty. I may not be as handsome as I once was, but nor is that my claim to fame. One gal did smile at me in the craft (knitting) section, then disappeared in a moment. Almost like she had an invisibility cloak. Knit me one of those.
           Yeah, I still miss having a gal to chum around with. Not necessarily a girlfriend, but company. Lordy knows I haven’t done too well in that department since 2009. I think the reason I’ve lost the ability to find decent women is due to having worked in offices my entire adult life. There was always a surplus of single women, not my type, but my age and race, employed, well-paid, and quite aware a man as a friend is better than no man at all.

           They did what they were supposed to do, and didn’t do what they weren’t supposed to. That includes things like not becoming a total bitch the minute they think the guy likes them. It involves having interests beyond their own immediate personal comfort.
           I have yet to meet a Florida woman with a productive hobby. I’ve had do-nothing women who put me down for having a variety of interests. It’s crazy. One thing I really miss is going dutch, which was a standard at the phone company. If both of us chipped in, we could go places far nicer and more often. The last woman I let into my house in Florida instantly quit her job and sat in front of the TV all day. Like my brothers, she wondered why I never got mail at the house. Ahem.
           Here’s a beautiful dawn from this morning. I call it “Cloud on Fire O’er the WiFi Mast”. This view is common in Florida when clouds are high enough and the sun is still below the eastern horizon. I took this as an omen, that I’m over the hard part now. Soon, I’ll have a budget to chase real women again. And the guitar to do it with. I’m just not interested in Suzy Homemaker and Sally Secretary. Stay tuned for the new year, it should be a great one.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 17, 2011

           There’s glorious Florida sunrise for you. I’m not sure, this was around 7:00AM but we are far enough from the equator that there is still a period of twilight to throw off the exact timing. Now Venezuela, that is strange. When the sun touches the horizon, in one minute it is pitch black, you can’t see anything. I once got lost two blocks from my own house and only found it by bumping along a horse fence till I saw a window light.
           Today is the birth date that I invented. If you see this particular date more often than others, it’s because I started the movement back in the ‘90s to fill out text boxes with this date in 1965 as your birthday. (Now changed to 1985.) In the early days of the Internet far too many people thought “required field” meant you had to give out personal information. On-line identity theft, the ultimate invasion of privacy, was not known back then, but I did predict the monumental rise in the abuse of this data by both criminals and the authorities.

           I have zero sympathy for those who did not listen. At that time, I had already outlined the pattern that the abuse would take, using the credit agencies as the bad example. Look what they have done to American society under the guise of catching a few bad apples. Credit reports have become a ritualized fear-factor with constant warnings in the media not to object, but to watch you’re a… er, I mean, score. And this exploitation of credit information (profiling) for other purposes is a given, thanks to public complacency.
           Our first guitar showcase was less than a total success. Three out of five showed up, so with myself, that makes four. Twice as many people as in the audience at first. While I knew the players, none of them knew each other, which wasn’t the best arrangement either. I intend to follow up in January. The full three hours went ahead, with Electric Eddie playing the last set. One musician stomped out in a huff when his backing tracks were referred to as “canned music”. I thought I did a lousy job of my material though several said they liked it.

           I stopped at Buddy’s for the Xmas party and spotted a gal too pretty to be by herself. I held back and watched. A wise move. Her ex was in the far corner stalking every move. Later, she removed a shawl and I saw the tattoos. I sang my tune and left. But I must say the lucky lady had a Robyn-like body, something increasingly rare in our over-fed society. Earlier at the mall I saw a school bus unload and was shocked to see how puffy fat the teen babes have become. And I see the classrooms are still shoveling out that “personality and good grooming” schlock.
           I finished the 680 pages of “Warlord”, a splendidly written work by an obsequious admirer of British royalty. The fast-moving tale builds on western misperceptions over the workings of the Moslem mind. One should grant that they follow the Koran about as closely as Americans really follow the Bible. More for effect of reputation than for guidance. Bell’s plot is brilliantly clever, though I guessed the culprit right away because I had the advantage of once having stood on the spot the author described to a tee in the first hundred pages. Read it.

           A scooter disappeared in front of the shop where I bought mine. They got overconfident about leaving things overnight without locking up, thinking the dog would keep the thieves away. Nope, and it is apparently the same gang who got my old unit. Same street, same method, same time of day. Now, for reading this far, I’ll get to the good news.
           Here is the entrance to my hospital. I’m still dancing on air from my physical last week. When I return next week for the remaining results, I’ll ask about an exercise program. Both my doctors have heard many stories, so they tend to treat my reports of riding my bicycle 7,000 miles in five years as something I intend to to rather than an accomplished fact. Who can blame them? I need to loose some serious weight. Find me the right gal, it will be gone in three months.

           Bingo was a sellout success, or more accurately, the combined bingo and Xmas party. And thanks to Dec. 25th being a Sunday, I get next Saturday off. That’s probably the big party at JZ’s, unless it was this weekend and I missed it. I usually wait for the invite, it’s the custom not to just show up. Besides, even with my great medical this week, that doesn’t mean I have the surplus energy to be gallivanting around. Two hours of steady activity is still my upper daily limit. Still, what I can do in a couple of hours can put a few to shame.
           My predictions for 2012 include inflation at 12%, and closer to 20% for the items real people buy. Imported food will continue to rise. Do not make any decisions that lock in any fixed dollar amounts; you will regret it in both the medium and long run. (I declined the Option 8 mentioned recently for this reason.) Invest what you can in metals, stay away from stocks and bonds. Don’t even think about buying anything like a car or any other major credit purchase. The dollar won’t collapse but it will take a few naughty hits. Unemployment will remain high and the politicians will be looking to start another war.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

December 16, 2011

           I didn’t go out last night and wreck my health, but I did celebrate the right way. By driving myself half nuts with a circuit that would not work, I kept myself up till midnight listening to Xmas carols on FM. On a radio I repaired myself. I must have been the victim of some beginner’s luck, the way a similar circuit worked fine last week. I learned a lot about what doesn’t work. One thing that doesn’t work at all, if you ask me, is the jewelry commercials. Always the man buying diamonds for the woman. Trite.
           Now, an unexpected “must read”. The recent book by Ted Bell, “Warlord”. In the Michener-like mold of fictitious characters in real settings, this excellent book brings in everything from Florida prisons to the death of Diana. While I’m not a spelling Nazi, I find typos quite annoying, and by page 380, there was not a single error, not even grammar. What’s gripping is that the author is either a better fact hound than Clancey, or he’s been there.
           I can bear that out, since he describes localities I’ve been and you don’t get that depth of knowledge from the tour guides. No, I’ve never been to prison, but I’ve been at the intersection of Alton and the causeway. Bell has already supplied me some new vocabulary, such as “shrinkology” and “Sick-ago”. If you like detective novels and don’t read this one, you do yourself a bad turn. Favorite line so far, the two cops discussing if the john doesn’t pay the prosititute, “Is that rape or shoplifting”?
           The only flaws are the enormous number of characters and a style that will make this difficult reading in fifty years. At least Bell’s character names are believable, as long as you accept that the entire British aristocracy is taller, smarter and bluer-eyed than the remaining subjects. Plus they have the added advantage of all having been schoolboy chums. But by 2062, there will be no England or USA, so who cares.?
           Newest car scams, going beyond the zero payment plug, is the $1,000 low price guaranty. The payment only applies if the car is, among other things, the exact same color, both in and out, with identical options right down to the tires. When’s the last time you saw two such vehicles on nearby lots?
           I prefer old cars back when they made them right. Such as this Dodge, year unknown but long before I was born. The radio takes up a full third of the dash. This color is from outer space, but the interior is really nice. Totally restored. Despite the Kansas plates, the rear tags show this to be registered in Florida.
           Another enlightening viewpoint is the Social Security in Canada, called Canada Pension Plan. Touted as in much better shape than the American counterpart, if you look at the payouts, you’ll know why. Examine the average payment below. That maximum payment is a lousy $930, which only 1.5% of the seniors get. To qualify for the top dollar, you must work full time for 44 years after your 18th birthday.
           The average payment is $532, which you cannot possibly live on in Canada. (The desperately poor are “topped off” with a welfare payment called “Old Age Security”. However that carries a set of conditions, one of which is that you reside in Canada, not the Riviera.). I can verify the tax system in Canada is so confiscatory that few people ever really gain over their lifetimes and basically become state dependents after “retirement”. That’s a rather nice way of putting it. If you want to live there, they’ll make damn sure you don’t live anywhere else.
           Just when you’ve seen it all. “Pour Me” by Trick Pony had a bass riff during the verses I could not nail down no how. I tried the usual of tuning E down to D and bending to the note. I finally got it, and leave it to you to do the same, but what do you know, a new and refreshing bass run that doesn’t make sense. When you think you’ve got it, you don’t. Hint it is a jazz riff, not a country rock pattern. It’s piano lick for sure because you don’t even hear it the first twenty times you listen, but you know something isn’t quite right as you play along until you find it.

December 15, 2011

           See this color on this truck? Kind of a greenish-gold. It seems to be suddenly popular and I do not care for it. I’m not fussy about color, my ’81 Mustang was birdshit yellow. Why, if I didn’t have electronics to distract me, I’d run this paint down for ten minutes. I really don’t like it. Now the good news.
           My Xmas present got here early. My semi-annual physical was at dawn, and my condition has completely stabilized. Sorry if you are not interested, but blog rules this was the event of the day. Except for my old ticker, I’m in pretty good shape. I’ll have to celebrate soon. Heart patients are candidates for liver trouble and diabetes, neither of which appear to be any menace to me. Ride that bicycle and live!
           It’s rare, but my doc and I talked politics. I know she does not ask others such questions, but I detect I must be a much clearer thinking individual than she is used to. The bottom line is that I’m not getting any worse or developing any of the [other] symptoms associated with either a bad heart [which I have] or bad living habits [which I don't have], such as the onset of diabetes frequent with my situation. I’m operating at 45%, and here to tell the tale.
           I’d give anything to go back to work for three of years. Throw a couple hundred grand in the bank, that’s what I’d do. As it stands, I get a $13 raise in January, monthly for 2012. I stopped to buy three bananas and the lady ahead of me, in apparent perfect health, spent $463 in food stamps, in one shopping trip. This may be commonplace in Canada, but it irks me here. The system does not distinguish between those who cannot work and those who cannot find work. Those who fail to acquire and/or maintain adequate job skills should not get more money than those who cannot work.
           The problem with those American laws that protect the weak from the strong is that the same laws inadvertently protect the stupid from the smart. You can figure it out on your own, but I do not like that situation. I’m not saying the smart have a right to commit crimes. But I mean things like the plywood law. (You cannot stockpile plywood and price gouge the twits who wait until the hurricane is on the horizon.) The system encourages mass stupidity by not punishing it. Fortunately, stupidity is punishment enough on its own.
           I wrote to California for more electronic parts. I believe I have exhausted all the free or low cost tutorials on the ‘Net. Those who I considered experts just months ago now seem fallen behind because they learned electronics before the integrated circuits came along. So I asked the people out west, if I write a decent beginner’s manual, will they sell it?
           Next, on to a drum box. While I still know I’ll have to build my own, until that time I need something I can use. That means one of the sleazy products on the shelves, a Korg, an Akai, or a Roland. All junk, as I’ve pointed out. But I’m far closer to building something that works than ever. Maybe one day I’ll modify an existing unit. I can run the display part, you know.
           I’m reading “Warlord” and liking it. It came out a year back, a novel about the newest terrorist threat, American and British prisons. The Islamists, being Arabs, were being thwarted, so they’ve begun terrorist cells in the nations’ prisons. It is easy to brainwash the younger convicts that government is the great evil. It is fertile ground indeed, and proves the Bin Laden types are nothing like the camel-jockey imbeciles the CIA likes to portray. Yes, they are savages, but damn smart ones.
           Worse, western nations have no protection against this internal threat, and the US/Brit immigration policies have allowed the establishment of the largest Muslim communities outside of the Middle East. We can only hope they blow up politicians and not civilians.            Never forget, the terrorists are not out to win battles, rather to bankrupt us. And they are succeeding as only cowards can, by avoiding individual combat. That’s why the most hated American weapons are not the most feared ones. (The Arabs absolutely can’t stand the pilotless (robot, remote controlled) US drones. Terrorism doesn’t work on machines.)
           And filament lights don’t work on the scooter. I replaced the license plate lamp, a dirty job but painless in lieu of the $275 citation I've heard they hand out. The bulb was too small to replace with an LED, but I’m thinking on the problem. That, and I’m thinking about the fact that my vested and fully-funded pension fund just reported an actuarial value of slightly over $3.5 billion. That’s three thousand five hundred million dollars. I won’t define actuarial value, but for Social Security it is probably some negative number.