September 6, 2014

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 6, 2013, solar panels.
Five years ago today: September 6, 2009, I play Pink.
Ten years ago today: SEptember 6, 2004, I hate Miami.

           I found my self giving advice to my barber on dating younger women. Let me say that only a the naive would say I'm not aware of what's available out there. I know that one in three adults is single and that online dating has surpassed pornography as the top sex-related income generator on the Internet. Poor guy, he thought it was just him that was disillusioned with the caliber of older women. I could not to much more than assure him it was not his imagination. Here [below] are the highlights of that conversation, spelled out for criticism by my detractors:

           To set the record straight, I would give anything to find another gal like my ex. I don't buy that Dear Abby nonsense that you never compare to your former partner. My ex was lively, talented, slim, blonde, rich, self-sufficient (had her own money, car, career) and an interesting life. It was not a case of missing the water, I knew from day one she was a find. And if she did not have a supremely nice personality, she would not have lasted eleven years with me, so don't even go there. Compared to what I've met since she left, I would forgive her everything and welcome her back. Not because she's perfect, but because of the vacuum she left.
           Also be aware that in most of the world and most of history, men date women who are 15 years younger on average. This seems to be the norm except in capitalist countries where marriage is a legal and not a religious matter. I have no idea why western women are so adamant about dating men their own age, but they can be so fanatical about it, it must be religion-based. Here are my rules for dating younger women, which again, is what the majority of the men in the world do given the opportunity. I have some experience with these things.

                      A younger woman is any woman under 25 or more than 8 years your junior.
                      Contrary to popular belief, most gold-diggers are older women.
                      Younger women do, however, desire a good time and you must provide that image.
                      Never bring up the topic of age and don't make jokes about it.
                      Younger women are less pressured to get married right away, so have fun.
                      Play in a band. Only older disillusioned women object to that.
                      Never "do nothing", because because young men can't compete with that.
                      Never slum it with a younger woman, even if she says she doesn't mind.
                      When she speaks, watch her mouth and nothing else she points at it.

           Don't suppose I have not thought about the on-line dating game. There is no way I am the only man who finds the dating sights not picky enough. That is to say, none of them have any of the "standards" that nincompoops like to say are "too high". I've often wondered how a dating sight that booted out the riff-raff would fare. A dating site that used client feedback to expose deadbeat men and lying women--and kicked them off the air. Crazy as it sounds, it could be somebody's billion dollar baby.

           Before I headed over to the bakery I experienced one of those situations you love to hate MicroSoft over. Windows has become so gimpware polluted that even accidentally leaning a book on your keyboard is likely to issue some random command. Which is what happened this morning and you should see what happened. This was the sequence of keystrokes that got entered. I do not know if you will experience the same effect but it is complete. And demonstrates why Windows is on the way out. Copy and paste this -

v,m./;'>FSa ------31=-76]
\[,.?":>eq1456esdfp[]=pljkhbvgcxi0u9y8tre4r5gvfccfvg43q2w3732wswf0--0iuj i\
=]'tv gfrdexswx dfvr5tm,07 zv39876dqswfr3223456753423 then press Enter.

(There appears to be a tab between the 07 and the zv3987.... sequence, but no other non-printing characters.. The effect is harmless, but rather interesting if you can duplicate it.) Author's note 2015-06-15: Windows has fixed this glitch, whatever it was. And I forget what it did, but it was amusing.

NOON
           My year end is approaching and it is not too early to haul in some of the more obvious changes for the past year. Top of the list is that my food costs have doubled while my food budget only went up 35%. You might say I'm losing money by eating. If this was a business, I'd have to lay myself off. Kidding aside, you know the score. By the time I'm hurting, others must be getting crushed. I can easily conserve by simply not spending $10 per day at the bakery.

           Band statistics, those are numbers I am going to delay to the last moment, which is October 31. Today, let's delve into a little gossip. When we played the house gig last weekend, it was in my kind of neighborhood. And it was the first decent crowd I could relate to--even if to some readers that relation may seem negative. In my circles it is accepted that you will spurn and be spurned. Popularity is something between you and the lower orders, never among friends and equals. Popularity is of primary concern only to the most weak-minded of society, such as beauty queens and third-rate politicians.
           And sure enough, there were some influential ears in the audience and in the neighborhood. One lady across the way was upper echelon at JD's Lounge. That's up in Coral Springs, a far cry from the places we've been playing. If they've expressed interest, my vote is we at least play there before taking an $800 offer right now for New Year's. JD is still a Florida bar, but I prefer lounges and their higher class of bum. If we break into the circuit, it is only putting me where I thought I'd be a year ago. And it vindicates what I've always said about being careful where you even get seen.
           More stats. My motorscooter mileage and consumption has remained constant, 66 miles per gallon on the road, 33 in the city. To anyone who claims their car does the same, prove it. My scooter is 150cc and is has never been driven hard. The scooter has 12,800 or so miles on it. My gas budget has gone down slightly as gas prices match the president's popularity. And on that note, if every country in the world is in debt, why not just cancel it all? If they don't owe the debt to each other, then it is owed to an entity with no military or police. Just walk away from it, I say. What are they going to do? Foreclose on the world? Even they ain't that rich and they'd have one hell of a fight on their hands.
           For you history buffs, one of the major incentives of becoming a soveriegn nation is to qualify for arms purchases. Armament dealers, in their infinite concern for the well-being of innocents, will not sell tanks and guns to individuals. Hence the hooplah when Israel declared statehood in 19-forty-something. We assume the said money is owed to the banking cartel, so they cannot buy war weapons. They just get the USA to do their invading for them. But you get my point. Just everybody decide not to pay. The banks will collapse. Banks do not have the brute strength or the money to collect all their debts.

EVENING
           It is better to find out now than later that our very finest cutting and drilling tools are not accurate enough for aluminum. Shown here is my first attempt to mount robot hardware, in this case two servo motors on a set of parallel aluminum rails. Since I knew in advance our existing gear was designed to work with wood, I attempted to make up for it by making extremely fine measurements. The pale blue rubber band is just to hold the work while I measure. The piece of wood in the background is a sacrificial block.

           I understand this leap to aluminum was sudden, but I could not find any books to study, so I jumped in. I even double-checked all drill holes with my celestial navigation tools. Even using a center punch and drilling a pilot hole, the slight wobble of the bits is enough to throw off the tolerance. There is a corresponding imprecision with cutting blades. Where rotation is involved the center holes must be dead on and I lack the technology at this time.
           Mind you, this project will still work and I have no idea how my work compares. For all I know, I might be over-board on most of the dimensions. But others are bad enough to see with the naked eye. I will hence relegate all drilling to be done on the drill press with up to two pilot holes in necessary. Another snag is the type of lock washers used for aluminum. This is another non-Nova knack being learned seat-of-the-pants method. In a moment, I'll tell you about my strategy for pilot holes.
           Here's another type of valuable information not available on the Internet, proof once again that a wise man can ask more questions than all the fools all the Internet can answer. Are you sure you read that right? Anyway, while there are plenty of sites that will display or calculate your pilot hole size for specific materials (such as wood or sheet metal), there is no site that gives a definite set of rules. You know, where one could be working along, need a pilot hole and figure out on the fly what diameter. I will look into pilot hole technology this weekend, focused on screws because to date all pilot holes drilled at this site were for this purpose exclusively. (This includes bolt holes, the procedure is identical.)
           I thought, what a neat site where you can order up custom maps. But then you quickly find out they steal any new ideas and will often not allow the subject material you want. Items not permitted that I know of: high crime black neighborhoods to avoid on a motorcycle, locations of businesses that will take cash under the table, density of personal injury lawyers per capita. The raw information is available, you just can't order up the map.

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