One year ago today: September 5, 2013, some travel stats.
Five years ago today: Setpember 5, 2009, DAMn the DMA!
Ten years ago today: September 5, 2004, gas $2.10.
MORNING
The horse picture was intended to be just filler until I caught up with you, but audience response says it stays. Looks like I'm not the only one who has trouble with these Generation Zero salesmen. The ones who act like getting your name on their computer is a mere formality that nobody could reasonably object to. Yeah, right. So the following paragraph stays, verbatim.
And I'm serious about that. What kind of industry would conspire to not put the length of a belt or have any easy way of determining from the old belt or the catalog the information needed to replace itself? Azzholes, that's what kind. And the whole fan belt industry, top to bottom, just reeks. No, I don't want to hear any explanations. It's been three weeks looking for a small 26" fan belt. I don't even want to ever see another fan belt salesjerk as long as I live.
Next, here is something to ponder, if you can see it. Look for a moving graph. You see, Google has removed the feature to upload video to the blog, instead they make it so you must link to a video posted "elsewhere" by assuming you have or even want an elsewhere. Google has not clued in 63% of adults who see Facebook won't go near it. If you see some action here, study it closely. I'm attempting to link to one cell of a slideshow. But it is worth a good look if I can get the picture to stay put.
AFTERNOON
Time's up. Nobody figures out what the graph was all about, though one came close in realizing it was seeking the shortest distance between seven points. Here is a picture draw with that in mind. Most of you won't see the relationship, but you soon will. I've found the project I want to take to Nova U. later this month. Remember the robot with no microchip? I needed something fast that I already had parts for and here's what I've come up with. The picture is drawn by a robot, although I have not yet decided what kind of robot is needed. So leave the robot part alone and let's learn about the picture.
If you could open and look at a jpeg data file, it contains thousands of coordinates and properties of each point, one of which is the color intensity. Well, a couple of guys came up with a program called Stipple that can pick out those two pieces of data. The location and the density. Thus, any raster scan can be reduced to a series of dots. Ah, by now some of you have glanced back at the picture (the picture, not the graph) and noticed each jerky line segment is joining two dots.
And wait, isn't the picture all really just one line? Yes, the old travelling salesman problem. If you have a series of towns what is the shortest distance where the salesman can visit each town? Here's the trick, if the dots represent a picture, and you start from the very center, you get a representation like the picture above. It's not quite that simple, but you get the drift.
I saw this on the Radio Shack "Do It Together" page. You need downloaded software to convert your original file to dots and then the instructions to connect the dots. It's fascinating that the resulting file can be played on any music device. It sounds like a low G# on a badly tuned guitar. This audio file is used to draw the picture. But before anyboy decides they can do this, I have some warnings. First, this is not my idea, so I'm guessing at how the steps fit together.
Then the real problems start. Downloaded software can be a headache. You get hideously unfriendly sites like anything by that whacked out egg-brain Sean Ragan. If you can't figure out how to download the file he's bragging about, you are not the only one. Hint: your best bet is to hunt for a tiny button that says "releases" and try clicking on that. Aim carefully, for if you make a mistake, he disables the back arrow and you have to start over. The guy is an on-line sadist.
Expect "executable" programs that will not execute unless you also install pornoware on your computer. Porno software, like Java, leaves you vulnerable to virus attacks. Experience also tells you not to expect accurate instructions from Radio Shack, and sadly, Makezine is not much better. You may find you need a massive of background education and some crackerjack interpretation capabilities, included complete command of the English language, to make up for their lack of basic [teaching] skills.
EVENING
The gig was another success, but alas, the long-term deficiencies of the band are beginning to show. Most noticeable: guitar rot. It was present in more than a third of our tunes and in almost all the instrumental breaks. And it has been allowed, against my expressed wishes and hard work, to become a fairly serious detriment to our performance. However, the gig is not yet analyzed properly, so return later for that.
[Photo delayed]
The issue of New Year's came up. We have an offer, but it is a lowball. Something like $800. My experience, and by now it is a fool who ignores what I know, says the band should not commit to a gig until October 21 or we have a minimum of three competing offers. My personal feeling is $500 per band member. It is once a year, we are worth it, and we are now one of the only five piece orchestras left in the land. I'll settle for less, but the scary part is when I spoke my view, others balked saying we "don't do business like that". True. They don't conduct this band like a business at all. That's why we're all, musically speaking, broke.
Still, there are some apparent changes, and listen up, since I've been right 100% on this. The band has little choice but to turn the direction over to the vocalist. Alas, she did not join up to be a leader, but I finally got one of the original members to fess up that they had made a deliberate pact to not allow me to have any say in the band. Makes sense, unless you want me taking over, but it doesn't make sense if you want the band to go anywhere. Every band I've ever managed came to a standstill when I was no longer in charge.
Having spotted the trend with the new singer immediately on our first gig (the biker bar on SR84), she now knows that I'm the one she can count on. I know I say she's had a big influence on the band, but it is no exaggeration to say that her and I together have had an astounding impact on the group. Remember, she's the one that calls me a musical genius. Or wait, you can't remember that, because humble soul that I am, I never said anything about it before.
Make no mistake about it. Between her and I, we represent the entire progress of the band to date. The band has made so little progress that if she quit now, they would be back to February and if I quit they would be back to May 2013. Not one new song, nothing, in the entire time I've known them. This is not unusual for a band, but it is unusual for a band I play in.
Drop back another day soon, as there can be no doubt now that something has to give. It was only too clear who was doing their job right tonight. But I repeat, this band is top-notch, I've never said otherwise. But all bands who don't make money break up. Remember, I took this band on thinking I'd get us into fancy places where I would meet talent scouts who could hear me play. Instead, the band books us only in working class dives. I'm more concerned now that somebody will scoop the singer.
Later. By popular request, here is the original photo of the lady in the raster scan:
