One year ago today: March 25, 2014, reads like a lecture.
Five years ago today: March 25, 2010, few knew in 2010.
Ten years ago today: WIP 2005, a dream diet (for me today).
MORNING
What did I choose to scent my jewelry box? Anise, or licorice. This tops the activities this morning because of the amazing number of scented articles I found around my house that could have been used. Pine, lavender, ginger, all kinds of hand lotions, aftershave, soaps, even some mint flavored mouthwash. Tour your own place and you’ll be as surprised as I was. I had 37 items that could have been used, including lemon oil and camphor. I chose anise because it is mild and has been sitting in my cupboard for years.
Not having any plans yet for April, I took a look at a map of Washington, DC. The map must have been designed by a Millenium, as it had no scale. What do you need a scale for when there’s an app for that? On the phone that’s smarter than the user? The map was based on an aerial photo, and I could discern the walk from the train station to the Capitol (whatever) is just a few blocks.
It’s one of several options, I still have not fixed the front brakes on the batbike. It’s like the tale of the leaky roof. Can’t fix it when it’s raining; don’t have to when it’s not. The red scooter, to which I am now totally adapted, is so convenient that I’ll probably not get to the brakes until I have another trip in mind. Anyway, to hell with the DC politics, another map shows the Smithsonian museum is in the same area. A museum would be worth it. Not many lobbyists and politicians in a museum, except maybe in the cafeteria when they have to buy their own lunch.
NOON
“Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication.” –Fran Lebowitz
I hit the bonanza. When I got over to Radio Shack, all the gear I asked for was set aside and I scooped around $2,800 worth of gear for $302. I’ve got all the comparators, fuses, buzzers, battery holders and adaptors for life now. I’ve even got those monitor splitters and those amplifiers that let you hear across a room (and they work quite well, Starbucks.). I finally stocked up with stuff I’d never buy otherwise, like fancy headphones, boom mics, 32gb flash drives, gear oil, even those LED strips to customize my new cPod.
Here’s something most of you have never seen before. They don’t sell this quality of product in America. It is European flavoring, in this case rum. But they are not allowed to market anything artificial, so it is an alcohol tincture of real rum flavor. It is used in the icing of chocolate mousse and other fillings at the bakery. They were unaware that it contained alcohol until I pointed it out. But still, at least it isn’t Monsanto chemicals.
Later, I’ve put away the Radio Shack inventory and see I made one miscalculation. The jacks for phone apps are those tiny 2.5mm size of which I do not have an adaptor. The thing is, I knew that, but didn’t write it down, so now I have various pieces that don’t fit. Why not just get another adaptor? Because the phone prongs are Millenium technology. The weight of the adaptor is enough to break the pissy 2.5mm shaft off inside the jack. I’ll figure something out, the main use of the equipment is to record my commentary when traveling.
Here’s a Cadillac. At least I think it is a Cadillac. Up on the hoist at the garage on Dixie. This is not a restoral and not for sale. It is in for an oil change. If it had not been so high up in the air, I’d have looked for the mileage. The mechanic says they’ve done the maintenance on it for over forty years. I got five bucks says ain’t no 2.5mm jacks on that puppy.
During the course of this morning’s research, I was astounded, which is rare, with the information concerning the railway depot. It is classified as a “leisure destination”, meaning it is a tour in itself. No, I did not know that. At one point, the station had a “President’s Room” to receive “distinquished guests”. Yeah, will that whole bunch should be riding the railroads.
However, I’ve never seen an impressive train station, certainly not one that is 100+ years old. But this is precisely the type of unusual destination that rates highly for me. You can look at other traditional stations, but from what I’ve seen, the ones out west don’t compete with the grandeur of the big eastern railways. Remind me again in the near future about Union Station, will you?
Author's note: sorry if any of the quotations are repeats. The source is random, so I can't track it for novelty. I've spotted a few repeats already, but no way to keep right on top of such events. I've got plenty to do getting prepared for the Big Penguin Attack that few people know is coming.
AFTERNOON
Almost, I almost didn’t have a router. It is twelve years old about now, but it has been stored indoors in the original protective case. But ordinary humidity got to the little spring that operated the locking mechanism designed to freeze the shaft when changing bits. And it is designed that it stays in the unlocked position by default. Guess which item rusted out?
What annoys me is that the manual, which I downloaded and read, made no mention of this potential jamming problem and the simple procedure to fix it. And thousands of owners must have experienced the same problem. Not one of them posted in in a form that could be searched. Hence I will tell you how it works.
There is a yellow plastic “locking” tab on the top of the router. Unless it is pushed in and snapped into position, the router trigger is disactivated. However, there is a situation where the yellow tab will not push in no matter how. The trick is to turn the router upside down and slowly revolve the shaft with the bit-changing wrench until the pieces line up. Then, the yellow tab will slide in and work--you just can't see it when the router is upside down, so it's not like the fix is intuitive. Thus, I cut open a perfectly good router because Ryobi can’t be bothered to write a single paragraph concerning this major design defect in the owner’s manual. Better yet, carve the instructions on the router. Up yours, Ryobi.
And another friend of mine just got shafted by a Canadian, and I had warned him. Canadians only keep deadlines if it is convenient. The difficulty of suing anyone in Canada makes lying a valid business procedure in that country--they just don't call it lying. Tell you what, I'll ask the question and you decide.
The question: if you promise to lend me your truck next week, are you free to sell the truck between now and then? Obviously not, you have made a commitment with the truck that represents a claim on its usage, which means the truck is not entirely yours until the obligation is fulfilled--or its equivalent at your own expense.
But a Canadian would argue the point. He only promised to help you and now he can't because he has no truck. (Actually this is a tort covered in Business Law 101, but the Canadian courts won't enforce it.) From the Canadian's standpoint, he never promised he would not sell the truck. He never even promised to tell you if he did. Nor did he promise to buy another truck to meet the commitment. Who are you to tell him he can't sell his own truck? Oddly, Canadian courts will allow this nonsense as a valid defense. To discourage civil law suits.
EVENING
Who is Becky Stern? That’s the once-dweeby looking lady from Adafruit (say AY-dah-froot) and all I’m saying is I don’t know what she’s done, but here is a before and after set from her ads. She is a fashion designer, the one who creates all the clothes that flash and change color. You can see her videos on line just about everywhere, but, ahem, the older shots are getting awfully rare these days.
Guys, it is not the LBD*. The difference between these two pictures is maybe five or six years. She’s currently around 30, in the lower photograph. That’s a pretty amazing transformation. She’s kept her personal details off the ‘net so she’s no dummy. She holds a directorship at Adafruit and is faculty with some New York art operations. Yep, pretty amazing.
Now the other extreme. Man, some people are naïve and trusting. Without any details except that it concerns the same guy above, listen to me. Everything you do on-line is recorded. Your e-mail contacts list is not on your computer, it is on the server and that server belongs to somebody else. Google retains ALL information that goes through their servers (you can purchase programs that avoid Google equipment) and that means Google has a list of every person you ever exchanged e-mail with. And they regularly give this database to the government.
Hence, the government has enough information to completely put you out of business. The reason they don’t is you and millions of others have not yet given them a reason to do so. Right now, they have just too many other priorities. But if you step out of line, they have it on file every last thing you’ve done or place you’ve been and what you said. They are ready to smack you silly if you make one move that attracts their attention. Like, frinstance, speak up that you may not feel this invasion of privacy is the intended role of government. Don’t go saying anything like that.
Just keep on the old blinders and maybe it will go away. What’s the loss of a little privacy here and there and here and there and here and there? If it makes your world “safer”.
*Little Black Dress.
Last Laugh
