Five years ago today: April 28, 2009.
Here’s an observation on an entirely different kind of inflation. It’s too early to tell, but it may be a new invention and it has to do with this photo of a defective bicycle tube. See how it burst along a seam upon being inflated the first time? What’s the connection? Well, step back and take in the bigger picture. There will come a time when most of us won’t be able to do what I did (fix a flat in seven minutes, um, er, flat). One cannot plan to be always young and healthy enough buy another tire and enact the repair. When that was done, I checked the brake cables and one was rusted through. The day is approaching when I can no longer afford to economize on repairs. Still with me?
Prof. Oz is back from his five-day $3,000 cruise. He reports the ships are very efficient, “maybe even over the top on that”. The woman playing piano at noon may be waiting on tables by night. The Internet costs 75 cents per minute. All drinking water is brought on board from Miami before the ship leaves, meaning they know something. His conclusion is that cruises are for those who like shopping and spending money. Harrumph, for that he could have driven over to Aventura Mall or Disneyworld fifteen times.
The neighbor came by to tell he’s been given notice by the police he cannot fly his quadcopter. Two items to note is that there is no specific law that says he can’t, but the police threatened to arrest him if he did it again. He is at City Hall this morning seeing what gives. It is clear that the police need some kind of curb on threatening people with arrest as there is little doubt they are using it as intimidation. The police appear to have figured out there are no consequences for a false arrest. There should be. Very serious consequences at that, as the record of arrest becomes a permanent blemish even if charges are dropped. For example, if you get arrested while working for the phone company, even if it is mistaken identity, your career is finished.
Luck or what, I’ve found a diagram of a memory circuit that is nothing like what I built. I chanced upon it at the café over morning coffee, where again doing anything constructive in Florida attracts undue attention. As the idea hit me, I’m quickly sketching, drawing, measuring, calculation. Well! The lady in the next booth is going to teach me a thing or two. She gets out her expensive laptop and starts updating her address book, making darn sure I noticed. Yep, she done showed me. I better race over to CompuWorld and buy myself into this century. Geez, thanks, lady.
Who likes Imgur? (Technically, it’s pronounced “image–ur”). There is a post about six-word stories, that is. stories told in exactly six words. And a web page. Here are my favorites:
“He hit send, then a tree.”
“It’s our fiftieth, table for one.”
“Strangers. Friends. Best friends. Lovers. Strangers.”
“We’re naming the disease after you.”
“Passengers, this isn’t your captain speaking.”
“Left-handed woman seeks Mr. Right”.
“You’re not a good artist, Adolf.”
I like documentaries, even if they are just playing in the next room so I can hear the audio. But the Internet has watered down the quality pretty badly. I’d like to give a little advice to the crop of commentators under forty. Try reading your scripts and looking up the words you don’t know. Even the slightest hesitation or mispronunciation writes you off. Faking it is cause for dismissal, if not by your producer, than by the public.
And the same goes for the writers who do asinine things like point out Werner von Braun was a Nazi. What the hell is that all about? And no, he was not haunted or plagued by his political past so give that angle a rest, will you? He was, like me, laughing at how stupid the average America has become. And please, no more on that loser, Tesla. God knows you’ve gone over that dreary account often enough times already.
And to the slopeheads who barely recently figured out how to edit video, knock it off. We have no doubt that morons like you just last week heard that the military tests secret airplanes once in a while. There are no underground moon bases nor any reason for there to be. You do not have proof Darwin was wrong and your car does not run on water. You don’t have any surefire pickup lines and you don’t have any money-making secret formulas you want to share. Spare us, and as far as I’m concerned, liars should be arrested.
On the other hand, my blog is the neatest thing ever. Ha, if you didn’t see that one coming. Disagree? Then it’s time to work on your immaturity. The saddest thing about over-mature people is that they never have any fun. Writing this blog is mucho fun. Ergo, I must not be mature. Better immature than uneducated, because the most mature people I know are also the least educated, Scott. (That’s the guy back home who finally graduated by earning enough Grade 9 & 10 credits and went on to become a town counselor.)
Trivia. There are no species of birds that migrate unless they can see the North Star from the area they begin. As such, there are no birds that migrate from the southern hemisphere to the northern. And while it is not really trivia, I find lots of people refer to “tenure” as if it is some kind of teaching job at the university. Tenure is essentially protection from being fired for not conforming. The idea is to allow academics free rein in research where otherwise they would feel pressure to conduct only those activities currently in favor or that attract the most funding. But yes, getting into a tenured position does involve a tremendous degree of kowtowing. Which is the feminine Chinese verb for, um, plywood or something.
ADDENDUM
I see my flashback links are popular. If you are like me, the main reason you look is because it is hard to fathom some of these events already happened so long ago. But general readership is on the rise despite the fact this blog is not hack-written for mass appeal. There is a minimum IQ requirement, you might say. I’ve been advised not to publish the stats, but I can tell you that it is in the six-figure range, and no, I do not believe 99% of other blogs that make that identical claim. I’ve read them and somebody is fudging. The quality is not there. Nobody returns to a blog with poor quality and the poorest quality a blog can have is too narrow a scope.
I can tell you that no day goes by when this blog is not read. That’s something in these times of Twitter and youTube. There is no such thing as a zero-hit day if that is what anybody is thinking. Put another way, there has never been a day, any day, when nobody reads these posts. So be nice to me even if you are one of those recalcitrant jerks who can’t get along with anybody, Hector.
