MORNING
On the way to Boynton, a welding truck passed me. Doing about 80. I noticed the welder itself was on a tow trailer that looked very sturdy, and was only a yard wide. And towing straight and true. It had large tires and I got to thinking I should look at what that trailer costs. So far, it has been another Internet wild goose chase. Just you try to find specs or even the name of that rig. Of course, once you sift through the nonsense, it will seem so easy. So, sit back and let me do the work for you.
The one I saw was definitely a factory build. It had a matching paint scheme. The model shown could be home-made. I’m not ready for that. The difficulty finding such a wagon even on-line is a strong indicator of how disorganized the Internet has become. And advertisers love it. They can clutter up your results with their junk, trying to sell you what you don’t want.
And forget eBay. Those bozos take pride it leading you down the garden path. I searched on “portable tow behind welding trailer” and they send me ads for pictures of 1935 Australian farm tractors. What a swell bunch they are, cooking up idiocy like that. I boycott anything advertised in such a manner and am proud to say I have never bought a blessed thing from Amazon over it.
NOON
Have you seen the price of silver plunging? It was $15.80 this morning. I now regard metals as nothing more than the most manipulated commodity over which nobody has yet been arrested. Because they are bankers, that’s why So I bought some. They don’t manipulate down in isolation, you know. This is electioneering time, where bankers like to cash in on uncertainty. Sure, I’ll tell you how it works, but it is only my opinion.
Now that is mass ignorance, let’s scale down to individual ignorance. Today’s total asshole has a name, Kaci “Ebola” Hickox. Kaci, defying quarantine, was seen riding her bicycle in public with her “boyfriend”. Who by the way looks like he’s got AIDS. Hickox, otherwise a complete nobody,says it’s all about her and to hell with the millions she could infect.
She feels fine, oh Kaci, we are so happy for you. She’s not a doctor, but she says she is not “about to stand here” and have her civil rights violated. Her civil right to endanger others, I suppose she means. God, it is a good thing stupidity isn’t all that contagious. This broad is a nurse? She claims no symptoms same as Typhoid Mary. It’s all about Kaci’s individual rights, she says she feels fine and therefore doesn’t have to obey the law. Here’s a photo of Hickox. Somebody plug that ugly bitch.
I should be okay, since there is zero chance I would ever intentionally touch something like Kaci. I have a strong natural aversion to shacked up 33-year-old self-absorbed, irresponsible piggy-looking gynecocentric squaws. Oops, sorry Patsie, not squaws, but I meant tramps or something, not that either of you should be allowed to roam the streets. Hickox should be stripped of her nursing certificate. She has just demonstrated how much she really cares for the innocent.
AFTERNOON
Tinkering again with the Arduino, I have stumbled across many of its unusual properties, but one that is bad is there is no way whatsoever to tell what is in Arduino memory by looking at it. One could connect an LCD display which is expensive (although I have some). But without a computer and programming that serially outputs something you recognize, good luck. There is also a huge disjoint between electrical component compatibility and what the factories dump on the market.
For the inquiring, the Arduino is lower left, then a small capacitor smoothing circuit, then a two transistor amp and you can’t see it, but a small headphone speaker. The multimeter is helping me trace a problem with the amp, which is the tiny assembly where the pencil is pointing. There is a Darlington but the second transistor is getting saturated too quickly.
These circuits remain a hobby, so I rarely work more than an hour at a time on anything. Friday’s are my day off and my off day. I like to read, and this time, I looked at the Japanese Empire, such as it was. I wonder what they could have been thinking, but then again, I have been familiar since birth with people who think they are so perfect that merely copying others puts them in the lead.
But the white guys ain’t so smart either. I see these reprinted newspaper articles about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Did you know a few weeks later, the same outfit attacked the Australian fleet at Darwin. And shortly thereafter, they attacked the British fleet at Columbo (Ceylon). In all three cases, the attacking force was detected and the low-ranking soldiers who ran the equipment were told to shut up, under various cover stories, of course. Pardon my skepticism here, but does anyone else notice a pattern?
I had heard that the Japanese Emperor’s speech never once mentioned the word “surrender”, so I read a transcript of how this was accomplished. Are you ready? The Emperor explains that the horrible Americans, unless stopped now, will kill all of mankind with their terrible bombs. Therefore it is up to the Japanese to “accept the unacceptable” and for the sake of the world, perform the ultimate sacrifice as a nation by forcing the Americans to make peace. Thus, they don’t feel they surrendered, rather they stopped fighting to save all mankind.
EVENING
Karaoke was a fiasco, I left early. The crowd that appeared was for the [reputed] finale of the club, nobody was in costume except the barmaid. And me, my outfit was, imagine this: a tinfoil hat, a pair of welding goggles, and a very large hand-shaped backscratcher. The show, which once again relied heavily on me stepping in and lending them gear and know-how, was terrible. The sound was too trebley, which creates sibilance, which after an hour gives everyone a headache. I'm done helping those people out if they won't learn anything on their own time.
ADDENDUM
Note: the following passage is out of sequence, but it discusses the financial aspects of a Karaoke show, so it is included here as a matter of interest for those interested in such matters.
Argh, MicroSoft, take your Calibri and your png and stick it where the sun don’t shine. Anyhow, as I slowly get back to a day/night rhythm, I’ve been watching more documentaries. Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to become Internet historians. Either that, or contemporary universities specialize in ambiguity. Our side is “determined”, the enemy is “relentless”. It appears there is even an evil streak to the way he uses smoke screens that is different than our smoke screens. Hey, that makes sense—we use them for politics.
Y’day I get asked to do the last Karaoke show. Then I hear the other guy is doing the show. Then again, being disorganized as hell is a large part of what makes Florida such a legendary paradise. “The Last Karaoke Show”. Face it, for the last six months, the owners have been running a make-work project for the staff. They are using cash from their own Social Security checks to keep the doors open. If I didn’t mention, I know the lease is paid up to the 10th of the month.
Let’s take a harder look at reality. The business does not seem to benefit from advertising, so its main draw is late hours and the lowest price in town. It’s only 25¢ less, but enough to have a small after work crowd. Otherwise, the staff do their best to bring in a crowd, as they work mainly for tips. For those who notice I don’t say much about tips except how they buy me Sunday breakfast, well, that’s because I am enough used to tips to not rely on them. That twisty sentence says a lot.
Why do I think this is the last month [for the club]? Well, for those of you who want the nitty-gritty, reach for your calculator. Without revealing a thing about my income except that it is not the lowest over there, here are some statistics. My show rings in an average of $187 for the house, the next highest is barely half that at $74. Ergo, I should be paid the most, but I’m not. Come to think of it, I’m the most reliable, having never missed a show or a shift. Ever.
I estimate, in the 8 years I’ve been entertaining at the club, they brought in $292,000 of which my show accounted for $64,994 [more than if I had not been there]. Since the operating costs during the same period came to $288,000, well you figure it out. I can’t be as accurate with their numbers as my own and I can only speculate, but the shop would likely have closed in 2010 without my contribution.
Now that’s a little harsh saying that. I’m making estimates in a complicated environment. Yet you can decide if what I say is arrogance or fact; that more depends on your character than mine. I bring in the house $6.12 in revenue for $1.00 I cost them, the best return on investment in the place.
This says nothing about my tips. But only the blind and deaf don’t know that I’ll play for tips. Tips are the best thing in the music industry to tell you what you are worth.
In all, I’ll be sad to see the club shut down—because tips are a two-way street. How can I say that? Listen, and I’ll tell you why. I could bust my ass and make more tips, but that becomes like work. Instead, I find the venues where I make the most tips for the least effort. If that means I make less total, but keep happy, that would be a wise thing for me to do. It is also considered damn good advice, but only if you are already comfy.
Sigh, it will not be at all easy to find another Jimbos.
