One year ago today: March 10, 2014, Cunningham’s Law.
Five years ago today: March 10, 2010.
Ten years ago today: March 10, 2005, in school and unhappy.
MORNING
I spent twenty long minutes staring at this “tank tread”. How sad I am that I never had that twenty minutes when I was young. I wasted my youth thinking I could get ahead by hard, clever work. Well, it’s not like I was surrounded by good examples and ignored them. But I will admit a definite aversion to people who are all talk, no names. There was no time to just sit and ponder, much less to hold an actual model like this one. It is twenty-one times larger than I have in mind.
One nice thing about deep thought, even if you can only manage it as rarely as me, it clears out the mental baffles. Lean back from a session like this and you cannot empathize with the problems of the big talkers that surround us all these days. I was born and raised here, the only thing I ever lacked in my life was enough money. It probably seems odd that so many people in my same situation always lack so many other things. Well, put another way, if that doesn’t seem odd, then you’ve missed my point.
But nobody mistakes the new America By Rail ads. They center on the aspect of meeting people on the train. It is difficult to say whether they are being realistic on this point. Oh, you’ll meet people on the train, alright. The ads show mainly old people who have private rooms that cost a fortune. Many scenes show the dining car, also expensive, and emphasize pre-paid tours at the destinations. The implication is that this includes rental cars, hotels, and passes to major events. I may, as a project, price this out just to see how frightening the cost must be.
This is not to be confused with Amtrak. At the same time, however, I would not recommend rail travel unless you actually (as I do) already enjoy riding on the trains. You provide your own entertainment and I’ve often noticed others watching in envy as I pass the miles away with novels, charts, binoculars, writing, and generally knowing in advance what to expect. Furthermore, I have no difficulty sleeping pretty much anywhere, but those who do may not think much of spending the night in coach. No, you cannot use your earbuds. Dead silence is the word after dark.
NOON
“Always drink upstream from the herd.” (Farm wisdom)
Are you looking for the chipmunk video? It isn’t here. I had to remove it as the embedded code was somehow stripping away format commands for the follow-on material. I will delve into that later or possibly think about placing video only at the end of each post. Either way, it was really stupid of Blogger to make it so difficult to include video. Have you see the scatterbrained code that’s required? If not, you don’t want to see it.
See the photo of me holding the orange plastic adjustment knob? That’s why I’ve got time on my hands today. This is the blade tension control for the band saw and I loosened it too much. It came off and the spring is far too strong to allow it to be forced back on by hand. So I’ll need the one ordinary size nut I know I don’t have: a 5/16” fine thread.
Maybe tomorrow. I noted a flood of bass players on the market over the past months. Since I know fifteen bands didn’t suddenly break up, I took a closer peek. Sure enough, there are also more drummers. Most say they are experienced and looking for working situations (good luck). I quickly checked my two bellwether (Craigslist) locations, Nashville and New York. Same thing. Hmmmm.
Two things stood out. Many of these bassists claimed to be singers, an automatic tip-off that something is haywire. The other is I followed up on links where they were provided and all these bassists sound identical. Not similar, identical. Right down to the way they punctuate individual notes. I did see something similar in the mid-90s when the California public schools offered credit courses in music.
The state was awash in primitive limp-wrist style bassists for nearly two damn years. Until the majority of them decided to find day jobs. They all played the same six tunes to studio perfection. I think we are again dealing with this brand of market oversupply. I’m not worried about competition, I never worry that a clone will take my job. But it slows progress because Florida is chock full of bands who expect and accept that style of bassist.
I account for maybe five floating bassists in Broward, but not fifteen at once. It’s because Florida guitar bands can be exceedingly inflexible with their existing material, expecting each new bassist to learn their material and thereafter stand there and do what he’s told. Needless to say, they have trouble keeping bassists. I conclude something non-musical is behind the recent glut. I won't advise anyone to wait and see because that is already the only thing they can do.
AFTERNOON
Since I’m going to gripe about software and sick-headed software companies, I’ll first post a picture of these Russian cookies. Real ingredients. The translations on the back can get hilarious. There is one brand made “with the peanut and the raisin”. These are, I think, carob chip. No corn starch from Monsantoclaus.
But eventually Google took over. Remember, in the computer industry, it is rarely the best applications that get adopted. Rather it’s the ones that overwhelm the market. Like MicroSoft and Windows. Or Adobe and Photoshop. They clobber the opposition with sheer money and better products no longer stand a chance. It’s not just computers. Look at the VHS video standard. It was bad quality from the word go. But the owners had no problem with licensing it to porno producers and it eclipsed the much better standards. (That’s your trivia. Sony said no to porno and lost the race.)
The first thing Google did was remove the [Blogger] capability of posting videos. Blogger had it’s own feature and it was quite simple to use. You uploaded the video and checked a few boxes on how you wanted it to display. Now, you have to link to a video posted elsewhere, usually youTube. That is not the same thing at all. Plus, youTube has taken to over-policing and blocking content. And I don’t like vigilantism. It’s too Canadian for my liking. If I’m doing something wrong, I want a jury to decide that, not Google or youTube or some hoser named MacKenzie.
The problem with linking is that the visitor must possess the correct software to play a video. You’ve seen those sucker ads, that you can play the slideshow, but only after you install the “latest version of Silverlight”. Then it installs all kinds of other crap on your system and begins building a profile on you. They don’t undertake this expensive process for harmless reasons. And that nonsense that they don’t know or share your identity, well, nobody could possibly be stupid enough to believe that.
Actually, let me define that level of stupidity. One of the first things you notice about advice is that most people give you wrong advice if they think doing so makes them look good. My parents were champions of this. They advised me that it was a waste of time to learn music, for instance, when I could be learning to chop wood like a good son. Anyway, by convincing the weak-minded that any desire for privacy is synonymous with hiding illegalities or secrets, and the bastards will tell you anything and they’ll tell you anything on their neighbors as well.
So, I shall not post any videos unless I can locate a simple script that does the hard work for me. This could take time, since it must be free, stable, and easy to use. I’m not going to just pick one, and in fact, I may not pick any of them.
NIGHT
That was JZ on the blower. In the end, he waited until past the point of no return with that red Mazda. Now he is stuck, no wheels to buy new wheels. Sound familiar? Yeah, but when I was 18.
He will not ride the sidecar (danger or fear factor) but said he would if need be to get another truck. We’ve had this conversation a dozen times, get that truck, it’s free and he seen this major breakdown on the Mazda coming. You know, that’s the same truck with the blow-out eastbound from Marco Island, what, five, six years ago. It was junky back then.
I told him to go rent a car, I’d pay for it. I’m disappointed I could not jump to the pump but he did leave it too long, you know. I don’t want him asking for help and I certainly don’t want family thinking the two of us can’t handle a car problem. I may decide to drive there to assist. Because the last time we went looking, I was not at all impressed by the car lot that sold him the Mazda. My personal opinion is that that last time they dealt with Dad and this time they think they don’t have to be as generous. Again, just my opinion.
Ah, but that Mazda. That’s how we used to go to the county fair when it was nice. The city is huge but I always could spot JZ driving down a road from a mile away. We used to make shopping runs to the dollar store at Marco Island. That’s what we drove to the Lanai Kai. And that’s the truck that has 260,000 miles on it and now the transmission is falling off. Check later.
Right now, it is 10:00 PM and I’m going out for a cold one. See if milady ate her pickle.
ADDENDUM
Here’s a question of certain relevance to anyone quick to judge. When is it acceptable to commit a crime? Some say never, but one consistent fact is that many illegal activities are committed by ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. Hence, I tend to hesitate when I find innocent people taken by surprise, or acting on impulse—unless they have a history of it. But that’s not what I’m asking. The real question is whether there a situation where I would excuse crime?
Yes: self-defense.
What's more, I do not confine self-defense to situations of intense or immediate danger.
Hence, I recognize an entire new field of “crime” as a legitimate activity. The non-disclosure of personal information to the government. Now I don’t mean fraud in any form. I mean simple non-disclosure as a form of self-defense. My first brush with this situation was in 1991 when my old college instituted a non-resident fee hike. They wanted to revoke my degree unless I proved I was a resident. (It turned out they wanted me to pay more money, read on.)
I waited them out. I never denied that I was not a resident and never did I actively tell anyone a word on the topic. The overriding principle is that they never asked me if I was a resident when I signed up. For clarity, if I had known about the fee, I may have chosen differently. Therefore I should not take a fall. Let the new incoming people pay it, but no retroactive cost hikes. It is sad the world has become a place where obeying all the rules has become an expensive burden on the individual. Thus, I do not distinguish between a person acting in self-defense all at once or a little at a time.
I’ll tell you one example that involves the Amtrak system mentioned earlier, and you decide. This may be a repeat, but when I buy my ticket, I ask if there is a senior discount. I do not lie about a thing, I do not state I am a senior, I do not ask to be given the discount. If they take it upon themselves give me the lower rate, that is what I’m talking about. Non-disclosure. Now, if they were to ask me if I’m a senior, that’s different.
Last Laugh
Ask yourself. Do I sound crazy?
