Here’s something I found remarkable, partly because the price tag was $125. It is a for real underwater camera and monitor. It’s the kind of apparatus that ten years ago required a research grant to afford. Black and white or not, this rig has many totally practical features, such as a sixty-foot operating depth. The club quickly noticed there is no way to steer the camera. I would just rig up a long pole and swivel it manually. The club is seeking an advanced project.
First things, I was out for a double coffee by early morning, again at the Kiss. A leisurely time to re-analyze what went wrong last gig. Many things, but the bottom line is we are not ready. The groundwork has not been done. We lack the bulk and rote memorization of each piece to the point where performance becomes instinctive, automatic. I can’t do a good job when distracted. Rehearsal is futile until each musician knows their part inside out. I may have to call a time out. We can’t be messing up two-chord specials at this point in the curve. Saturdays I often read the financials. Have you seen that joke of a prediction for the rest of 2012 from the Fed? The concept is that the 84 million uneducated jackasses out there need positive sounding data even if the real economy is plunging and true middle-class income has been flat for ten years. Plus that article that 10% of them are dumb enough to publish their names, birthdates, address and pet’s names on the Internet. Stupid is as stupid does. They probably hide the key under the mat.
What do you know, a callout tomorrow. These have become rare as the service contract contacts from the old shop wind down after what, three years this August. But they sure are nice when they come in. That’s a reminder how successful that shop was despite my very late start as a shopkeeper. That allows for my contention that a shop is not successful if you have to work at it fifteen hours a day. I used to go in maybe three days per week.
Telephone surveys. People who abuse the telephone are the cockroaches of America. This “occupation” should be outlawed. The University of Florida in Gainesville is using Medicaid data to make what are essentially telemarket calls. They claim innocence because they “aren’t selling anything”. Oh, well then, feel free to call me while I’m on stage Friday night. Total ass-hats, with names like “Tamea”. Coming next? A survey to see if you want to buy anything—these slimeballs ain’t human.
Bingo was a wild success, the Moose crowd has returned. Again, bingo propels itself into my highest entertainment earner. If it wasn’t for blog policy, I’d be mortified to admit that. I’m supposed to be a musician, see? On the other hand, bingo means I’m probably doing better than most local songsters. The callout just paid for my dance classes.
It may be time to reconsider laser eye surgery. The ghosting that appears in low light is the most common complaint. The cause is today’s trivia. The procedure zaps a layer of the cornea, but to do this, a flap of tissue is cut and folded back. When this tissue is returned, it heals like any other cut. Until completely healed in about six months, this tissue can be irregular, causing light rays to be slightly out of focus.
Here’s the logic part. In bright light, your pupil contracts, so the light rays enter the center of the cornea only. But in dim light when the pupil dilates, the rays pass through the ring where the flap was cut. One common solution is to simply make the flap larger than the diameter or the pupil in the first place. Did you know the original surgery was invented in Columbia in 1973 and did not use lasers?
So, Hitler is big in Bangkok. That’s nonsense, actually, just some tripe started by a bored news people stateside. I can’t see more than a few hundred people in Thailand acting like what they say. Unlike most reporters, I’ve actually been there. Militarily speaking, yes, Hitler was a genius. It is startling to see the degree to which half-truths and propaganda permeate the American education system. The weak-minded are being spoon-fed some mighty strange versions.
There is something uncomfortably common in the majority of posts concerning Hitler these days. Take a look for yourself. The other banter is that if you criticize a Jew, it is because you are anti-Semitic and certainly never because the Jew is wrong. Much is said that is not wrong for a Jew to cheat a non-Jew. So what? I’m saying there is nothing unusual about that attitude in most of the world. You don’t know what I saw in India. East Indian logic: if the victim was a bad Christian, he deserved to be robbed, and if he was a good Christian, he would have given you all his money in the first place.
If there is one reason the Euro-Americans owned the world for so long, it was their ability to avoid thinking in circles. The rest of the world carries merry-go-round reasoning to an astonishing degree. That’s why the oldest civilizations have still not conquered famine. Much less put a man on the moon. Sadly, America has lost this ability.
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