An unusual bingo for first of the month and a rainy day at that. The weather report said 50% chance of rain. And yes, it really came down on my head the last half of the drive there. Not a wine drinker myself, the club has a new product from I think they said Budweiser. So I shared one with Jules and it really was so good it gets mention. It is served ice cold in a plastic glass that opens like a yogurt bottle. I’ll see if I can get the details. Meanwhile, it is a dry red, if not pinkish, wine.
Here is an unusual shot of the spotless bar at Jimbos. Everything gleams and you can see it in this picture taken without flash in the low-light setting of the new club camera. Barely visible in the upper right is the semi-famous “green and white” TV. So old it makes Bonanza reruns look half real. I didn’t stay afterward since I was out last night.Yes, on a Friday. I stopped in to see Karaoke and the place was empty so they let me sing about ten songs. Including something I’ve never done before. An a capella song, and yes, it got the audience going. Both of them. Six if you include the regulars. (“A capella” means in the manner of the chapel, that is, without instrumental accompaniment.) If I can do that, I can finally sing worth a damn.
Once more the local newspapers pay a writer to announce that real estate prices are rising. When they put out messages like that, it shows you their estimation of the IQ of their target audience. Then, the feds announced the same week that the baby boomers didn’t save up for their own retirements. Really? You mean they plowed all their life’s earnings into more and more expensive houses, expecting to dump them for a half million? The smart ones will walk away and move into a trailer.
There’s another statistic that’s always bothered me: the tiny percentage of retirees at my former occupation who make it past six or eight months. You’d expect 50% of them to reach at least life expectancy but we used to joke about how few lived even to a year on pensions. How do I know? Well, my old union, being publicly owned, has to publish its financials. I’ve long since cracked their employee numbering system.
Subtract any two months and you know how many checks were issued. Subtract that from the number of active employees and you’ll know how many are inactive. Bear in mind I am the youngest person ever to retire from that company, but it is unnerving to realize I’ve already beaten the odds. Am I already on borrowed time? (I will remain the youngest forever, as the union quickly changed the rules after I won my case. You now MUST be at least 55 years old to qualify. I was just shy of 41 at the time.)
And for trivia, did you know that WalMart accounts for 30% of the consumer spending in the USA? I recall being shocked by this but can’t remember where it came from. Here’s trivia that means something to me. While building more ROM, I continued research into PROM (programmable read only memory). You know how I use a diode or lack of a diode to generate a condition? PROM puts a tiny fuse at each intersection and then “blows the fuse” where they don’t want power. And in EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory), the little fuses can be reset by long exposure to ultraviolet light. I’m learning.
So, Google is ordered to turn over customer secrets to the FBI who no longer need a warrant as long as they claim it is a matter of national security. And by the same judge who just months ago ruled the opposite. They got to her. My stance is that Google has no business keeping the type of records that an operation like the FBI would be the least interested in. And I cannot abide by a hypocrite like Susan Illston (the judge who changed sides). My theory of how they got to her says as a political appointee, she was reminded how quickly she could be un-appointed.
Google has announced they will reject facial recognition software on Google Glass. Users will not be able to walk down the street and pull up a profile on every face that passes by. But once a privacy invader, always a privacy invader and I got $50 says Google will develop the software anyway. For their own sinister purposes.
And who doesn’t love those site-evaluation services? The ones that rate your page or your blog, but [they, the raters] never read it. Since this blog does not generate revenue and they somehow have the erroneous conclusion that only seven people per day read it, they estimate the value of this blog at $25.14. They report the most common keywords are “feather lite”, a term I doubt I’ve ever used. But at least I’m in the rankings.
ADDENDUM
Right off let’s us two get something straight between us, ladies. A drill press, well, you see, it is like a man thing. (No, no, Ms. Buckner, not that man thing.) Think of your makeup compact, your sewing machine, and a Danielle Steele novel all rolled into one. Then ask yourself why you are being so stereotypical about women. Anyway, there are things not done in Nature and one is to get between a good man and his drill press. Dang, I knew you wouldn’t understand. A good overnight soak in alternating baths of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda and I have some kind of drill press happening. The metal parts are sound and the rust mostly gone now. It came off with sandpaper and steel wool. It is not reassembled and tested, but if it can turn a drill bit, I can make holes with it. I do not care about fancy, in fact, it is coated with cooking spray and later I will varnish the plates.
Meanwhile I had to search for a fine enough lubricant to coat the working surfaces without getting greasy. In the end, olive oil won out. Part of the reason the drill press suddenly got essential again is shown in this photo. Perfboard is drilled ten holes to the inch. Or is it? Here’s a sheet bought on sale at the Shack. I’ve stressed before to beware of sale items in Florida. It is not regular stock reduced in price. There is something wrong with it and they are dumping it on you.
While this is not illegal, I don’t like it because somebody, somewhere, knows about the problem and they aren’t speaking up. That’s the factor that turns a sale into a ripoff. On the left you see one set of drill holes line up. On the right, I shift the top plate slightly and you see the checkerboard caused by misalignment. In Florida, this manner of small scale trickery is constant and always something you never discover until you get back home.
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