It looks like I got the blog programming back to around 90% normal. It is still a task to indent the paragraphs, and now I have to include line break commands or even that doesn’t work. If I got the photo code working, you should see a picture of part of the woman’s anti-wrinkle cream section of the local CVS. I can’t get rid of the extra border on the bottom edge of the photo. I assume all these creams are for their faces, but I could be wrong.
I’m reading the “Fifty” chapter on the 1950 to 1970 period when nobody really knew what the Soviets were doing. It’s more interesting than the Korean War and the facts match my attitude. I’m an isolationist, I believe we could have been be the greatest economy without a big military, but I’m a voice in the wilderness. The book calls superpower status “globaloney”. I agree. One area I’ll grant the experts leeway is the changing workplace. It was in the 1950s that more people in the USA began to provide services than were employed in manufacturing. This had never happened before, anywhere. Even today, nobody knows if that caused our slide. Certainly, we’ll never know what we could have been if those trillions of dollars had been properly invested. America in decline is still buying in the most expensive commodity known, the nuclear carrier strike group (I think we already have eleven). Against whom? Another Korean fireworks display? The book points out that in total, there is something we squander even more cash on, and that is motor vehicles. We want new SUV guzzlers to drive over our potholes and unsafe bridges.
And remember American stupid people are the worst kind of stupid people in the world because it is their own fault. After the atomic war, they will need food, clothing, shelter, and political representation. It truly scares me that the man next to me still believes he will need politics when his family is dead. The only government-built bunkers and survival caves are for themselves and “around 75,000 top civil servants”. We aren’t alone on that count, they say in Canada, the only thing that will survive an attack is their income tax records. My intention had been to hit the uptown Karaoke. Cancel that, instead I made an extra pot of java and skipped to the final chapter of “Fifth”. I could not wait to see how the author dissected the era since the Soviet empire collapsed into crime and corruption of a different sort. I had my morning coffee, the crossword, and settled into a comfy chair, there is a cold spell passing through. Down to 65, I don’t like it much.
There was also a basic transistor circuit giving me troubles. I’ve looked at it for a month, never finding the culprit. The transistor, when used as a switch, would never quite turn on the full rated power, leading to other problems like relays not operating. I believe I found it. With all test circuits, I connect a meter parallel to the current path to monitor when it is active. It seems the emitter-to-ground leg of NPN transistors is extremely sensitive to anything extra in the path. Strange that not one of the so-called experts seems to have bothered mentioning that. For all I know, I might have a faulty meter. The club was all on-line this week. M is out of town, E24 is still honey-mooning, and Singapore is busy.
Next on the agenda was some lead guitar exercise. The BB King box quickly became a favorite so much that the other boxes sound boring. I suspect BB’s version is popular because it is easy and gets away from the pentatonic scale pattern which even I found humdrum after an hour. One thing I really need to work on is the turnarounds. The box patterns don’t sound right on the V chord and there isn’t a lot of literature that addresses that fact. Guitar has always been an apprenticeship rather than an academic learning path. That means it is still largely learned by the most wasteful method ever devised. Other than oriental crafts, I can’t think of any other major subject in the world that still uses such an outdated practice. Choose the wrong master and you’ll learn all his bad habits. Which is why I spent an hour on my newest original, “Since You ‘Bin Gone”. I see a slot for an extra ½ measure, making it 12.5 bar blues. That’s intentional, because it messes up anyone who tries to use an off-the-shelf drum box beat. This is an example of applying Johnny Cash type changes to otherwise simple musical riffs. Next, I need define a pattern the extra half-measure long to prevent them from just skipping it. This is devious, but also fun.
Later, aha, go back and check if I got rid of the extra blank space under today's photo (compared to y'day's photo). If the blank is gone, chalk it up to programming skill.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
