One year ago today: June 2, 2013, my drill press comes home.
Five years ago today: June 2, 2009, the great shoe mystery.
It was one of those days. Not for me, but for the other guy. Here’s a picture I will explain to exhaustion, but stick around for the other hightlights. Sheridan Tech is back in the picture, along with a book on celestial navigation. Firstly, take a close look at this rather bland photo, because it tells a real tale from the trailer court. Except over here is Mission Control where we are high and dry and this is over at the club workshop. Or maybe ex-workshop already. Left to right, let’s see what we’ve got.
Look way back at the shed to figure it out. Note the door is off the shed and on it’s side. And the bottom of the walls are gone. We had a big bad flood inside the house from a broken water pipe. What a mess. The clothes and bags have to be thrown out, losing hundreds of dollars of materials. And the shed, which was to be converted to our workshop is likely beyond repair. The water flowed directly downhill into the shed. I’d blame global warning, but I know darn well who broke that pipe.
What about Sheridan Tech? That’s the place I had considered teaching but they wanted Florida accreditation. Which costs so much it isn’t worth it for the pittance they pay. It is strange, mind you, that those who work there have all the documents and I find that highly suspect. Anyway, I got along with the hiring lady so well, it was like a sure-thing first date until she told me at the last moment she was married.
Sigh, but there is a book club that meets there, you can see my comments in the addendum. The sharper readers have noted the addendums are sometimes written in advance, so the meeting is tomorrow. Um, the meeting organizers give the wrong street address so I’m guessing I’m likely to be the only potential author of non-fiction in attendance. If you follow my reasoning.
Next, vitamin B3. My GP called today and put me on 1,000 IUs per day. Also called Niacin, those who know the chemical might as what on Earth do I need this for? Am I not getting enough sunlshine? Nope, read the link to see that that dose is a cholesterol flush. My system is approaching the point of no return, every improvement in one area is offset by something. Main problem? B3 is not sold by the IU and nobody wants to tell you how many milligrams that is.
Trivia. These are some of the products that used to be sold as “patent medicines” you can still buy today: Vick’s VapoRub, Bromo-Seltzer, Aspirin, Milk of Magnesia, Geritol, and Absorbine Jr. What the heck, Coca Cola and root beer were once sold as medicine. I’ll stick with the vitamin B3.
My red scooter ate the brand new headlight bulb, so I went across town to get a replacement, whence I stopped at the thrift on the return. I picked up a book on celestial navigation after viewing a series of youTube footage that said it was easy. Phooey on that, I can barely wrap my head around the basics of using the sextant. Um, but I know a lot more about sextants than I did before and I learned that a cheap plastic “lifeboat” model, used correctly is as accurate as needed to pilot your yacht.
My exposure to navigation is watching old war movies, particularly those ones where the captain uses dividers and that hinged ruler thingee to find Caledonia, Malta, and no wonder the instruments were so valuable. I could not follow the procedure as described but it has to do with measuring angles and finding, then looking up tables, then plotting position on a chart. I may take a stab at this, considering how many times last November I was sent on a “GPS goose-chase”. If I grasp this, it may make an interesting addition to my travels—and the say things are going it may be handy to know somebody who can find his way around at night.
What about my robotics and electronics? Frankly, these get harder to talk about as one gets beyond the basics, but I’ll try. Remote control toys are a good foundation for study, but the similarity stops quickly once you realize a programmed microcontroller turning the wheels is a different ball of wax. It would be nice to have nice matching pairs of motors. Meanwhile, I’m thinking to rig up a small motor testing jig to spare the need to look up the spec sheets from each manufacturer. That goes double for factories that try to turn your inquiry into a big sales order. Such outfits can shove it. And shove it again.
My study of ROM did not stop after the successful completion of the digit display board. I attempted to figure out a way to make ROM act as a switch, but that went nowhere. But I’ve learned that ROM is custom-made and burned into a chip specifically to avoid that mass of wiring seen on the behind side of early computer racks. My ROM was diode-based and it just seems to me there must be some arrangement that they can be used as an off-on switch. I’ve researched switches to the nth degree without any mention of diode switches. But just you watch, now that I’ve identified the needs, I’ll find a ton of them and everybody will say, “Oh, that’s what you meant. Why didn’t you say so?”
Warning. Never trust anybody who claims to be my brother. If he isn’t my brother, then he’s lying. If he is my brother, then he’s lying. This should clear up any confusion .
ADDENDUM
This? This is just a picture of a chocolate bar to get your attention. Hand made locally, but based on an ancient Hungarian recipe. It can't be that ancient, since chocolate as we know it was invented in Holland not that long ago, in 1815. Sadly, for me chocolate is a distance memory, at least chocolate on this scale. So what I have next is a zero-calorie activity which I’m hoping will spark my interest.
I’m tempted for a number of reasons, the biggest being my growing distaste for writers who attended journalism school. Their formulaic material is rarely gutsy enough, though there are towering exceptions. But those appear to have had a flair for writing before they took lessons. One of the things I’ve learned to seek in a writer is that they used to be something else.
This meetup is nearby, admission is $1 (that is plenty to weed out the riff-raff around here), and each author brings 500 to 2,001 words to read [in front of] the class. Now this has my attention. Writing is not good enough, you need public speaking skills, confidence in front of a critical crowd, stage personality, good diction, and you know, I’ve never read any of my material under such circumstances. The downside is looking at the profiles of the attending members. There’s Goddess, the faith healer, whose other membership is the “Laughter Circle” and who shares her life lessons with her cats.
In counterbalance, there’s Ann, who works with dementia patients, lived in lots of places, was a singer, and wants to “boost her financial literacy”. I know what you’re thinking, but it depends on what she looks like. And nobody laughed at your comment about dementia, so there. Anyway, the attendance link shows that except for the moderator, the group is 100% female. And in their profiles, only one of them mentions her husband, which we know is obligatory for women over 24. That's mention within the first three sentences or thirty seconds, whichever comes first. I’ll make you a deal. It is pouring rain, but if it lets up by 5:30PM and looks decent, I’ll zip over there.
Now, just where am I gonna get 2,000 words?
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
