January 5, 2014

           Surprise me and tell me that I don't sound happy. Maybe I don't know it. Those who recall my disappointment at the performance of my 180cc motor last March were okay with trusting my judgment. Miguelito called me over this morning to view the disassembled motor. I was ripped off last March. Mario from the shop on Dixie polished up my old 150cc, got it running, and sold it back to me as a new 180cc. He was bankrupt shortly thereafter and I'm still here. But that doesn't make me feel any better. My cost? $255. Down the drain. I kept telling everyone

           The supposedly new parts are visibly worn. Laugh if you will but this is the same mechanic who did otherwise excellent work over a long time period. I admit to knowing very little about mechanics. Probably as little as most mechanics know about running a business, but let's not go there. The worn parts were not that expensive, so I opted to proceed with the repair.
           Is $255 a big deal? In a way. Years ago my decision to take the buyout when I could have plugged away another 25 years at the company was influenced by an obscure ratio. These plans always have a breakeven point that, if you know your stuff, can be calculated. Breakeven is the situation where you examine the amount of return each new dollar placed in the plan then will bring in later. My original calculations were based on a retirement age of 65. As you know, that did not happen. I opted for less money but having a more enjoyable life.
           The money I put into the plan in my twenties is what is paying off today. But at forty, each dollar contributed was resulting on only 5.2 cents per month increase in final payout. Without a lot of detail, staying and putting up with the company for another 25 years would not have increased my payout by enough to justify wasting that much of life. Better to buy something in a Florida trailer court than waste another day of one's life putting up with corporate policy. Financially, I had passed the point of no return well before I took the buyout. I may not be rich, but neither is anyone else from the old crew. The difference is I look back on long years of enjoyable life, not wondering where my time went.
           As I now know, most of my contemporaries from the company will be getting just $54 more per month. Mind you, few of them topped off their plans. Working is not the answer. They say if you don't pursue your dreams, you will wind up working for somebody else's. So I opted for less money and an enjoyable life. So yes, I miss that $255. For me, that was a nice little trip somewhere. And that's what it is all about.
           The mechanic lives in the north end, just a mile from band practice. That's the five-piece group of recording quality that will likely never work. The sound is totally old-school carried to an astounding degree. I'm reminded of the collapse of the Turkish Empire. Their military "forgot nothing and learned nothing" for centuries. We have a parallel. This band has perfected an outdated format. Plus, the guitarist has the final say over any music. We can carry off a completely unfamiliar tune, but so what? I suspect the real reason some music eventually dies is not because the music is bad as much as the crowd eventually just has their fill.
           [Author's note: This band is actually not bad as for politics, but I doubt the guitarist would condescend to learn a song he didn't like. Not so in my band, I strive to ensure every musician is playing an interesting riff. Which approach works better? Don't know. But I have a good idea which band will play more often.]
           When I call the band outdated, am I being mean-spirited? No, I'm observing. The traditional way bands start is each member responsible for learning his part. But that is for thirteen year olds. The only way for such bands to sound better is add more members. And that is where we stand. Such music demands a huge initial investment, where I say it is more important to have fun. To me that means playing on stage. If we were in demand, we'd have played by now.

           A bit later, here is a better shot of the work on the red scooter. Seen here is the shiny new metal of the piston casing, or whatever it is called. The old one was too scored to recover. I think I already told you I was going ahead with the repair. These scooters new have doubled in price since I bought this unit, so essentially I'm breaking even, but with the cost spread over years instead of a large initial outlay.
           You know I like a good detective novel, and I've been reading short stories by the English author, Reginald Hill. You talk about difficult to follow, every other sentence contains wierd Brit humor or references to Welsh folk lore that loses me. If any of the stories turns out better than the rest, I'll cite. But meanwhile, remember that the name Dalziel is pronounced "Dee Ell". Their universities seem concerned with maintaining a rigid class structure and this creeps into nearly every author's work from over there. They also swear funny, the f-word and c-word are just a couple more adjectives and I never did understand what is so bloody bad about the word "bloody".
           What don't I like about Win 7? All of it, beginning with that default Calibri 11 font. What dorkbrain came up with that? I mainly don't like all the funny things going on in the background when you open a browser. My anti-virus spotted two infections, and this is on a clean new install that had never been connected to the Internet. An IRC app that allowed remote access and something called zzbrenkzz that tries to read a disk when I boot. This benker virus does not show up in the control panel. To find it you must enable the run command, which is hidden in Win 7. (You can reactivate it in the properties>start menu>customize list.)
           It stands to reason that MicroSoft would still allow executable programs to operate in stealth mode. They do so much of it themselves, how could they stop others? My reasoning is that if it can run itself, it must be in the registry. So I searched and became shocked at how huge the registry has become in this version. Talk about something funny going on. Anyway, here are the files you have to delete or disable: