Remember when sweet food meant sugar? Here’s a few of the selections now found at the local grocer. Agave? Coconut? Amber nectar? I’m looking because the dollar has become so worthless, these products are now priced competitively with local cane sugar. I’ll speak about the dollar momentarily. There is also a surge in the brands of artificial sweeteners. And a lot more $7 and $8 price tags on the shelves these days.
Silver, and maybe I did just say that to keep ratings up. Maybe some silver trivia? Did you know there are very few silver mines? Four-fifths of silver is a byproduct of other mining, like zinc and copper. The implication is that if there is ever a shortage of silver, not much could be done about it since nobody can increase production by enough. The other trivia is that there has never been a shortage of silver, or gold for that matter. All the price fluctuations in history have been in the value of paper money.It has come to my attention that most people are worried about inflation. That is only one possible outcome. The reason to learn about the others is that, to be prepared, you have to cover most of the bases. This is made somewhat easier by knowledge of the one thing that absolutely cannot happen—a return to the way things were. In case you didn’t know it, old people today are not the first generation that spent their grandkid’s money. But we are the first to have to start paying it back.
Here is what else could happen besides inflation: hyperinflation, recession, depression, and devaluation. No, they are not the same, although I think that is largely based on the fact that people react differently in each situation. For example, in a recession, silver bullion isn’t a good idea. I’ll let you figure out why. In the big picture, silver bullion is a safe bet. Some say silver coins are better. I doubt it, as they are stamped with a face value and there are a ton of idiots out there.
Question: will you get anywhere asking women to introduce you to other women, as in their single friends? Experience says no, it is a waste of time. I remind all that I first described the feminine “hold button” in 1980. Even if a woman wants nothing to do with you today, she will not introduce you to anyone that might take you off her list should she ever become “single again”. If I’m wrong, prove it, because I’ve got two dozen case examples in my lifetime to back up this theory.
Well, I have another related conclusion. Women are hung up on age, it’s the “mother hen” instinct and I’m just offering an alternative explanation. Age must sizzle away constantly in their minds after that day the first grey hair appears. I have ladyfriends that totally know my preferences, but who have never, ever introduced me to a woman more than five years my junior. This happens even when they have younger women, at times desperately, asking to meet men who pretty much match my description. The age card gets played and women who are supposedly my friends refuse to make the introduction. Presumably they are a better judge of what you want than you are.
But I laugh, because it is really the age thing working against them. These women don’t want to accomplish things, to remain desirable in their old age through constant self-improvement, to build an inventory of useful, sharable possessions. That’s too much like man-work. Nope, they just want to restrict the competition. Yes, some men are stuck on age, too. They are called beta males because they can’t compete, and therefore don’t like it when you do. So their vote doesn’t count. Don’t get me wrong, these men are needed by society to marry them older broads. It is hard-wired that our species must continue even if it means sacrificing quality.
There’s another dating fact I’ve learned. The few men I know who are happy found a woman who gives them what they want. It may be an illusion, but the women at least expend the relatively tiny effort required create that illution. The relationships that fail lack that effort, the woman expects miracles, romance, and dreams in exchange for services rendered. You know what I’m talking about. As for the dating game with the vast emotional drain and money spent on attracting mates: the majority of people I know who are loyal to one partner (at a time) met entirely by chance.
Naturally, all this has nothing to do with the two-bit skank who got on my case this afternoon at the Moose. Without the fine points, let me remind the world that the amount of crap I put up with from a woman is directly proportional to how sexy I find her. No, I don’t care how good-looking you used to be, if you don’t like my one-word answers, tough. As difficult as you may find it to believe, I did not come down here to meet you.
Bingo was fine but not great. The crowd did not pick up last night either (at the Karaoke) and I was keeping an eye on that. Later I went to the Upper Deck, where I sang the only fast song between 10:00 PM and closing. Empty there, too, except for the regulars and two 30-ish ladies hitting on a bartender of toothy grin. Where are the Canadian tourists this year?
Well, okay, to be fair, one of the two ladies was from Texas and we talked. It reminded me of the by-gone days in the department. She sees a man on the prowl like a teenager. Here is a lady being nice to an old man thinking, “He wishes.” I see a lady at 31 trying to look 21 (white shorty-shorts), meaning she’s missed the marriage-children boat. Here is a man being nice to a young lady thinking, “She wishes.” They might have had potential except, really ladies, the bartender? It is so sad when otherwise nice-looking women do that to themselves. They couldn’t sing worth a damn, either, and I kid you not, they dropped Laura’s microphone.
But, if the one I talked with had shown a glimmer of interest, she would be treated to a no-obligation dinner at Gamaroff’s tonight. Why her? Well, you see, she was about twenty times smarter than her girlfriend. I also liked the sparing makeup and her hair in a sensible bun. The other one was a complete airhead, with an exoskeleton of foundation garments. She looked easier than the Monday crossword.
ADDENDUM
You know what’s hard to build? I’ll tell you what’s hard to build: home made variable capacitors. It’s a simple device that does an easy job, so I must be doing it wrong. Logic says the world is lazy so there has to be a better way to make one. And I need printed circuit boards which also must have an easier solution. You can’t throw a rock without hitting some genius who knows the answer but hasn’t a brain cell alive that allows him to communicate how. You know who you are.
I’ve been trying to find out how to use clocking. Would anyone be shocked if I said there were no decent beginner’s lessons out there? The circuits I’ve built to date don’t require clocking, there is nothing to coordinate. But in digital circuits, there has to be a method to keep everything in synch. Gee, that should be easy to study, I thought. My project for this week is to build one of these circuits. I’d looked a year ago, but pardon me if I thought back then a clock was something different.
So, here’s a few sentences about what I expect to find. I also expect I’ll be largely wrong and this is thus a good record of my learning progress. I built that adder circuit and noticed these, when used in series, were called “ripple” counters because each gate had to pass the results to the next. Then I read that that was undesirable, that these gates suffered from propagation delay. I concluded these clocks must do more than keep the gates in beat. They must also stop or disable certain events, then release or enable them again. I think that since it is logically easier to stop something than to push it faster.
I’ve had circuits go into hysterics, so I know about bouncing and bad switching to appreciate that clock signals are “clean”. That means a sharp digital transition between high and low. This has led me to examine a component called a Schmitt trigger. Apparently it works better than a transistor in switch mode because this Schmitt device has two thresholds, an upper and a lower, which separate the voltages used to trigger between a high and low state. I really had to think about that.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
