March 23, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 23, 2014, the economics of illness?
Five years ago today: March 23, 2010, Racehorse Jack.
Ten years ago today: March 23, 2005, typical post of the era.

MORNING
           The early summer heat kept me near my A/C and refining my wood battery holders. They look like Zippo lighters. In case you are wondering, yes, I am aware that what I’m learning is already obsolete. There is probably not a design, manufacture or distribution job that is not on the robot maker’s hit list. It’s just that we’ve all encountered hilarious flops designed by eggheads who can’t actually build anything themselves. I guess I just feel it is best for a designer to have some idea of how to build his ideas.

           Here is the process of filling the brake fluid on the monster bike this morning. A bicycle hand brake is used to pump the hydraulic fluid into the larger reservoir on the hub. It is more like an electric motorcycle than a bicycle and has nowhere to carry groceries. It keeps us busy in a town where there is little else to do but spend money.

           As predicted, real prices have gone up 30% and 35% in five years. The authorities admit to 25% but a bottle of Bud on the beach is four dollars so they ain’t foolin’ anyone. Like I care if they hate me for being right more often than they are? Since there is no chance of getting rich, I advise everyone to buy a piece of property you can afford to own in cash. Because there is no waiting the next one out if you are even a dollar in debt when it happens.
           I feel that way because of the way the authorities are behaving. It’s as if they know a financial revolt will be a serious as the armed kind. That is, if a Ron Paul arose in the working class and a following of 10% of the people refused to pay back their loans, the ship comes to a halt whether you support the mutiny or not. I have no doubt that the new currency has built in tracking capability and that the government could at any time announce all banking transactions will hence be kept in real time at a central location.

           It would amount to an electronic red money day that prohibits cash transactions above fifty dollars. I may live to see it. Some people will only discover how much “nothing” they had to hide when they get hauled on the carpet for spending a hundred more than they can account for. The laws are already in place, they are just not enforced. Yet.
           In good news, the price of solar energy is finally dropping. And have you seen that new solar roadway pavement? If all our roads were paved with it, America would not need any oil energy. The pavement itself lights up at night, flashes messages to individual drivers, issues speeding tickets, melts winter snow, tracks your every move, and the wind energy of passing cars generates enough turbine energy to turn on the street lamps.
           Those turbines are in themselves fascinating. They are mounted “sideways” so that even blowing on them is enough to get energy to light an LED. The design is such that the first thing they do is “lift” so that they become weightless and there is no friction on the supporting equipment.

NOON

           “Always remember that we pass this way but once. Unless your spouse is reading the road map.” –Robert Orben.

           Here’s a shot of the Hollywood Beach Resort, the hotel that is always full inside but the parking lot is always empty. It was the only deserted place I saw on my trip to the beach y’day. The electric scooter shop is in there, so I’ve visited many a time. And always it intrigues me how the hotel is vacant. Yet people who work there swear it is always filled to the brim. Watch for it in the news, this would not be the first time I’m mentioned something suspicious and heard about the place in the news months or nears later. Remember the “closing costs” scandal, and such. That was me lit the fuse.

           It might be time to work on my profile. I went into Office Bunker today for a new scribbler and got scoped out as a shoplifter. Big, fat, and obvious, the store detective, well, I must have set off her alarm signals. So I proceeded to “mistake” her for a clerk and had her chase around for twenty minutes for stuff I know they don’t have. They still got me, however, as the scribbler that was $1.09 last year is $2.49 this year.
           What’s a scribbler? Oh, I guess the Milleniums don’t use them any more, since they don’t know how to spell anyhow. It’s like a notebook, but the kind with paper, that you actually write in. Boy, am I old-fashioned. I fill around one of these up per year. Nothing important, just robot diagrams and calculations of the Sun’s geographic position. What do you need that for when you have simulators and GPS?

           Did you see the report from the NOLA airport? What is it with these lunatics and airports? Not that the TSA don’t deserve the way they get treated, but damn, why don’t the crazies target the welfare office or something that will benefit society? This one had a machete and a bag of Molotov cocktails. The police say there was “no clear motive” for the attack but the nut had refused medication for mental conditions on religious grounds. And you want WHO to feel sorry for him?
           I can’t wait for a bedframe to show up, I need the bicycle rack now. So you get short shrift on the blog until then. Well, okay, you been good so here is some trivia. The Roman Empire was 19th in size in recorded history. And those Jesuit monasteries that controlled so much for so long, how many were there? Fifty-four. Did you know that Dunkirk (the BEF evacuation port of fame) is Middle Dutch for “Dune Church”.
           And according to Feng Shui, electronic devices, like a computer, should be on left side of your desk in order to generate wealth. Anywhere else drains wealth away from your household. My milkshakes! You mean that’s been the problem around here all these years? Geez, now do I feel stoopeed or what?

NIGHT
           This is the box I built. Boy, is it crude. But let me tell you something about it. It represents the first effort to combine the drill press, scroll saw, and band saw, at least in my life. I may send it to a friend of mine as a small jewel box. Right now, it is fully occupied keeping my brain full of new ideas. There is nothing new in the concept, from what I see this is a project for beginners. That would be me, as I’m still finding the limitations of the different saw blades.

           Yet, it does resemble a jewelry box and is a quantum leap of my woodworking ability. The finish is rough, but the way I figure it, the world is chock full of the sort of men whose duty it is to make the work of others look nice. And the gal I have in mind for the gift, well, she’s dated a goodly number of them. There is more to this box than meets the eye. It was frustrating at times because I had no directions, just pictures of other finished boxes that were very fine indeed. (This box is around three inches long.)

           Talk about fun. It scrambled my non-artistic brain, but again, what fun! What I reveled most was the necessity to think about this box from the inside out. It is cut from one solid block of wood. I can’t give any intermediate photos, I was that absorbed. Observable is the characteristic finish of brown shoe polish. One thing I must learn is to disguise the smell of polish. I’ve got several options that are not in the book.
           They include the nutmeg from last day. Or orange-scented furniture polish. Maybe some of that Italian pure lemon in the fridge? Or how about ordinary incense or vanilla flavoring? Laugh if you want, but I would not hesitate to try soaking the surface in rum or gin, or maybe surplus “Old Spice”. If it comes to that, I’ve got lots of three-year-old cloves that have such an awfully enduring scent.


ADDENDUM
           There’s something else I wonder about. When these driverless cars come in (they are allowed in Florida, by the way, we are inured to brainless driving already), how will the system deal with driver’s licenses? The focus of the licenses has always been identification, not driving skills. So how will the police and DMV cook up an ID requirement to ride the automatic cars? And since there will be fewer crashes, how will the insurance companies keep their revenues up? I have no doubt these types will come up with something. I’m just wondering what form it will take, so here’s my guess.

           They will say a special license or ID is required to ride in a driverless car “for your protection”. And an insurance card that contains every detail of your personal life on file will be required just to be a passenger. (Like right now, if you don't tell the insurance company EVERYTHING they want to know--no matter how personal--they can and will refuse to insure you. You must even "tell" on your relatives or risk not being covered later.)

           The bottom line is the police and authorities cannot afford to lose the driver’s license ruse to get around individual Constitutional rights that prevent unreasonable search and seizure. It is imperative they create law that makes being a passenger “a privilege, not a right”. Ring a bell?
           Are there two types of epoxy? I don’t mean brands or strengths, but one that gets brittle and another that flexes? I spent a great evening pondering such vital questions where the Internet doesn’t help. I thought company was on the way, so being out of incense, I boiled a couple of cloves. And it has gotten into everything. My drapes, my towels, and now my favorite shirt. I forgot the staying power that spice has. And the cloves were years old. Two showers later, my hair still smells of clove.

           You know what I go to say about minimum wage? I say the bad news is you get paid what you are worth. I don’t have children because I can’t afford any. The rules are the same for everybody, if you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em. I grew up around people who got paid the same as me, but out they went, got married, had kids, and now stand there with their hand out crying the blues. I was the poorest of the poor, if there is such a thing as a right to make mistakes, it was mine.
           But now you got these families on minimum wage, food stamps, and still having more children. Ut-tut, don’t go on about the kids. This is America, the kids are fed, clothed, educated, inoculated, and protected and that’s all you get for free. This is about the parents who carry on like that after the system tells them they are losers and should quit while they are ahead. You get too many of these irresponsible types who think they can present the taxpayer with a fait accompli forever.


Last Laugh

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++