One year ago today: September 7, 2013, unwrapping solar panels.
Five years ago today: September 7, 2009, warts and all.
Ten years ago today: September 7, 2004, Playboy model.
MORNING
In another mini-meeting, I came within an ace of using my veto power to kill the first aluminum project at the 20% complete mark. Although it passed intermin testing, the overall workmanship is not up to club standards. We will continue because the drill press is still on the blink but I will not approve this prototype for public display. That means at most the schmeebs at Nova U. might see it and even then only as a demonstration of techonological superiority. I'm done asking those people for support.
Two other changes, we now use drilled pennies instead of spacers and washers, it had to happen sometime. And we've begun to use the term "consist" as a noun, usually referring to a robotic apparatus that can reach out and touch something. No, we have not built such a thing yet, but we have a consist on the drawing board.
Another sellout bingo. One can't help wonder what it would be like in a bigger place, say a place with a $500 jackpot. I thought by now, somebody would have made me an offer. The majority of shows right here have been full-house for years now. I'm okay with a small place since it is easy to figure out who the crowd is there to see. Consider this: for a packed room, I make 73% as much as playing with the band, with a lot less effort, and the show is over in 2-1/2 hours. I also get three free beers. Note that I regard less than 10% empty chairs to be a packed room. And yes, I heard what the show is like on the weeks I can't make it. If I didn't know the owner, I'd demand a huge raise.
Next, I've told you about my barber and how he imagines my life to be dynamic, is the word he uses. Anyway, he's the real estate tycoon turned barber, owns property in California. And I thought JZ was shy and non-assertive. The barber, Abe, is almost the ultimate introvert. And like most such folks, they tend to blame themselves when things go wrong. I've known Abe a few years now and you know how chicks take to shy guys. I said next time I head out for an adventure, he can tag along, see how that works.
NOON
Okay, I called Abe and said feet on the platform by 11:30 AM and he can tag along for the day. Wallace and I used to go on day excursions of similar distances, mostly chasing women and walking the dog. I could only pay my half of the gas in those days (2009-2010), so Wallace sprung for extras, like an airboat ride and the Edison museum (around $45 all added up, which he would have gotten back ten times over by now).
Abe has zero experience on day excursions. I told him to take notes, he is travelling with the all-time pro of there and back on a budget. And no, I don't mean sit in the park for free. As long as he does what I do, we'll see all the highlights, meet women, have a fancy sit-down coffee, and see the countryside. I just have not yet decided where we should go, but it will be northward.
Ah, there he is, just right and above dead center, behind that green planter thing on the pier. He's waving, but otherwise pretty much camoflaged by more planters behind him. But greenery out on the pier, that's a nice touch, West Palm.
We arrived early afternoon and rode the free trolley downtown, as you see I know the ropes. By then we were famished. It was too warm out, so we ducked into a Mexican eatery. Abe had a snack, I hauled out the bingo bucks and had the eggs Benedict Azteca. What you'd expect, but with red peppers and spinach. Small portions but it filled me up. Against all odds, the waitress server was my type, but far too young. I dropped fifty hints, she didn't pick any up. So, "Hi" if you see this. But folks, I never play all my cards and now she'll never know whether or not I'm really a plainclothes billionaire.
It was muggy hot, so Abe and I walked down to the waterfront hoping to find shade and a cool breeze, both of which are in marvelous short supply in Florida. No luck, we walked out on the pier and there was not even a gust or two over the water. But we did see two idiots testing out a water jet device. I've seen the ones that look like James Bond gear, but these were jets that seemed lift him by the feet. Must be the next jock thing. You know, I just laugh when I hear of jocks who get killed showing off. I always ask, "Does this mean there is a job opening at the Highways Dept.?"
We grabbed another coffee, except it was an espresso. I have some advice for the incredibly stupid shops in West Palm. When an America asks if you have coffee, you know damn well what he wants. So don't say yes if you only have your half-cups of brackish Latino swill and no cream. No, not milk, what are you, retarded? Milk destroys the taste of coffee. You want a coffee milkshake, fine, but don't bring me an espresso for three bucks and then tell me you don't have any cream. We gulped it down and left. They just lost two customers. Some pizza place beside Sloan's(?) ice cream parlor. No, they do NOT have coffee. Don't blame the staff, they are plainly being told to lie to sucker people in the door.
However, Abe is not in the same league, I'm sad to say. Getting around takes time, energy, money, and an outgoing personality. I know not everyone can work a room like I do, but you have to take some situations at least mildly assertively, or you get left in the dust. I talked to, let me count, eight women, Abe just the one I introduced him to. Maybe ten words. I'm not saying this is wrong, and in fact reticence can be great when applied properly. Shyness is okay but if you are not over the teenage fear of rejection by the time you are thirty (much less fifty), the world will trample you and just keep on going.
Back to Hollywood by six, I headed over to the clubhouse to report my findings on working with aluminum. It is a documented failure. Expensive, too. The geographic position of the sun when we left Hollywood Station at noon was 61°1.1' 5.5° N Dec Same. Almost directly over Angel Falls, where I have not been in 20 years. See map/representation at end of blog.
EVENING
While anybody can probably cut and bend metal, getting things to exact and specific dimensions is considerably tougher. I'm developing a tendency to disbelieve most how-to videos on aluminum. To make themselves look good, they leave out too many procedures. I mean, what kind of bozo leaves out something such as, Step 1: enroll in two semesters of metal shop? No, instead he'll record himself bending it first try and consider himself a swell fellow. We have two grades of aluminum at the shop, springy and brittle. And we tried cutting lengths using exactly the methods shown on the instructional videos. No way.
The faster the cut, the more metal burrs are produced. Our finest cutting blades failed cut after cut. You either use a hacksaw or spend equal time and effort filing off the burrs. Another emerging reality is that with robots, you cannot always lay out a pretty set of blueprints. If you consider, as we do, that robotics is an amalgamation of dozens of skills, there are times the aluminum cannot be measured and cut right until after some other component has been connected or installed. Items like a turning radius may be unknown until a servo has been bolted down.
There was only one thing to do. Head over the the Europa deli for soup and kvass. And watch the utterly gorgeous Russian women with their Mafia boyfriends. Amazingly, we managed to reach a few conclusions. Tomorrow, we go to the aluminum recycling depot and keep cutting until we are experts. Hey, we learned to solder, didn't we? Oh, that reminds me, if I didn't say, the flux material works wonders for us. Nobody told us there was such a thing as aluminum flux.
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