MORNING
Another chilly weekend, wind right down from Manitoba and bitter cold. That translates into a high-productivity day for me, so stick around and see what kind of trouble I can get into. It is down to 68° overnight, a bit cool for the motorcycle. Tell you what. Have you noticed this data on the weather sites: METAR KFLL 271353Z 00000KT 10SM BKN035 BKN250 22/22 A3022 RMK AO2 SLP232 T02220222? Maybe today I’ll learn how to decode it.
If you know what it is, no hints, please. Or I’ll accuse you of being a TV-watcher. Slash couch potato. (These are considered supreme insults in this household.) Who else would know what these things are but somebody who over-watches the weather report. Following my logic here, Ken?
While researching that, I found this satellite photo of a farm outside of Danville, IL. I see the house and the shed and the barn, but what is that circular spot in the yard? Is that an airplane shadow or a signal for the aliens? It’s not the kiddie pool or a zodiac sign. You can see the tracks left by the pagans as they dance around at midnight. Do you think it is the cross where they hold the midnight virgin sacrifices? I think whatever it is, that farmer knows darn well it is there. And even if he hides all his vehicles from sight, even the tractor, Agt. Muldar had best get right over there and get us some evasive answers from the guy's wife.
Then, I practiced my guitar, the 16 songs I can do for sure, and another 8 I’m working on. I think I’m right the last 8 are going to have to be whatever I can find to flesh out the list. Very little of this material is suitable for playing without a bass line, so I had to put the more complicated tunes on hold. Because Trent is still learning. I even have a bass version of Tennessee Flat Top that will have to wait.
I was listening in on some shortwave Morse code this morning. It does have a slight musical quality to it, but I admit I am old school on that. Partly, that means I do not understand the words or grammar as I listen, only type down what I hear. Then I have to go back after and read what it says. Told you, old school--and that should explain exactly why I don't listen in immediate mode. And I kept hearing a totally unknown pattern. Worse, that pattern was not contained in any of my outdated books. Di-dah-dah-di-dah-dit.
Part of old school is just listening, not comprehending and I should explain. Morse code was rarely used to send full sentences in plain text. Since the code requires trained operators at both ends, it was never destined to be a popular means of communication. But the military does not use plain text, everything is enciphered, even innocuous day to day traffic. That’s because if they only encoded it in wartime, the enemy would have some idea as to the nature of what came from a given site, say a radar station. And they could guess at the code.
For example, I know my receiver at 10:07AM picks up some place that sends something akin to “Nothing to report”, every day except Tuesday. The sender is using paddles, but still pauses every few minutes for no reason. Thus, if he was to ever start encoding, I know what he’s likely to be saying. Anyway, back to code, since the military is not sending plain text, accuracy is more important in receiving than trying to make sense of random sets of characters. Thus, older types like me don’t even try.
I should mention, however, that for strange and unexplainable reasons, I can tell if the sender is boring or not. When you have a sharp dude on the other key, you can tell right away it is something to listen to, even if it is cipher text. And just like the real world, only one person in a thousand is really worth listening to. By the way, I cannot send Morse code, only listen to it very slowly. That is why, if I hear something promising, I hit the record button and play it back slowly at a later time.
Turns out the mystery symbol was rarely used back in the day. It is the “@” sign.
EVENING
I stayed in watching movies most of the day. Well, I stayed in all day, it was cold, I mean, I didn’t watch movies the whole time. Not the crappy movies on the market these days. And you must not think because I don’t pay admission that I’m getting the movies for free. Heck no, it takes years of computer experience to pay for the good things in life. You don’t get anywhere paying full price for Tom Selleck movies. Although I did like “Saber River”, it had a plot I could relate to when I was six or so.
I discovered by chance that of the four navigation books I randomly purchased second hand, three are in the top five rated books of that discipline. I believe I impressed myself, because, like the booklet shown here, not one of the books I bought looked like it had ever been opened. That is, the last owner or owners gave up on it.
Later, not being tired, I re-read the advanced chapters on navigation, the finer points. Using the stars is one additional step—other than finding the right stars. But I memorized all the constellations as a lad and should, I suppose, learn the names of the individual stars. There are probably not more than ten useful for navigating anywhere I’m likely to travel. What is clear is that things like GPS and iPhones are greatly diminishing the pool of educated individuals in our society. The few that are left have every incentive to become overspecialized in one area. On that count, they will be sorry.
Last, I plunged into the real estate market again to find out what my prospects are. I cannot predict prices any better than the rest and they can’t do it either. However, the fed has stopped pumping money into the system, the banks are still hesitant to lend money, and prices are climbing slower than my ability to purchase. So there is little to lose by waiting. Sales have plummeted again while the pundits are still pushing the average sale price of $244k means the market is rising. (This is true, but only because the banks have collectively agreed not to lend on anything cheaper.)
ADDENDUM
Here is a typical youTube video posted by a typical Class of ’91 brainboy. I know that every generation thinks anything that pops into their head is an invention, but ithat makes them a special kind of stupid. I don’t think we need to worry too much about the individual specimen of this group ever taking over. Their idea of computers is grounded in this kind of nonsense--advertising on a pirated clip. Quick, everybody, send this poor man money. He is obviously desperate and you can see his own mother hates him. She's a youTube fan, see.
And as a treat for reading this far, I decoded the string from above (see first paragraph). METAR means something like meteorological airline report or similar, but that did not interest me as much as the following bits of data.
KFLL – K means America, like radio stations, FLL means Ft. Lauderdale
271353Z – that’s easy, its 1:53PM today in Greenwich, or Zulu time.
00000KT – the wind is blowing at 000° at 00 knots with no gusts
10SM – visibility is 10 statute miles
BKN250 – the sky has broken clouds at 25,000 feet
22/22 – temperature is 22° Celsius and so is the dew point
A3022 – Altitude, there is 30.22 inches barometric pressure
RMK – these are remarks, this took a little time to research
A02: the weather site is robotic and has a precipitation sensor
SLP232: sea level pressure, the numbers don’t make sense
T02220222: this I can’t find out, but I had to leave something for you.
Now come on, even my worst critics have to admit knowing a little about celestial navigation and robots helped a lot in understanding this. Then again, you are right if you know my worst critics would see that same information on the weather channel for decades and never give it a second thought. That’s why among my critics, there are no PhDs. From what I gather, pilots need the code or it is part of some test they have to pass. Put another way, if you get on an airplane, you better hope the pilot is at least as curious about such things as I am.
There is one sure-fire indication of an idiot and that’s to read past what you don’t know. Your turn Patsie. Step up to the podium and tell us what a dew point is.
