June 4, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 4, 2014, a spirited entry.
Five years ago today: June 4, 2010, on the McDonald’s coffee incident.
Six years ago today: June 4, 2009, on speech software.

MORNING
           Ha! I got zapped by the thrift store again. Well, not the store, but the idiots that donate items with broken internal parts. There are a lot of those sick individuals in the world. Last day I mentioned my new keychain digital picture display? Brand new in the box. The lithium battery won’t charge. It’s one thing for the buyer to beware of bad product, another when you’ve got ignorant people. Bad products can sometimes be fixed.

           Here is me pointing to the defective part. A very close examination of the package shows the prick had carefully refolded the instruction sheet and resealed the plastic sleeve. I know it isn’t fair, but when I see this kind of burn, I imagine a Millennial with his $200 sneakers wasting time gluing that package back together.

           I mean, talk about malicious. Myself, I’ll just salvage the buttons and toss the unit. But the average person who shops in a thrift can’t usually afford to be throwing things out. Like that punk didn’t know it.
           And while I’m cantankerous, how about a word or two for the blond lady who tried to chat me up last night. I checked in on Agt. M, who has practically disappeared and he was out. So I stopped at the club for a late night brew. This lady starts taking an interest in all my calculations and such. So to her I say the following.
           Lady, I saw you walk in with a man. I don’t care if he is your cousin or brother or the nicest guy you ever met, a date is a date. I saw you talking with him for 45 minutes before you leaned over to talk to me. This is not how you go about approaching someone new, especially if they look like they just might have some brains. I was not misunderstanding the situation, I was ignoring you. I do not pick up women in bars and I don’t chat with women who have an escort. Nor was I that flattered by the attention. Time to work on your approach, lady.

NOON

           “Forget committees. World-changing ideas always come from one person working alone.” --Farm wisdom. (But I could still use a little help around here.)

           I’m reading Judge Judy’s book. I’ve only seen snippets of her TV show, but it was enough to tell me she got some kind of help authoring the book. Because it’s above her level, she ain't that smart. In it, she tones down her known bias from the bench and tries to connect with an America that is both bygone and was also particularly good to her. She utterly fails to understand that this country is full of people who obeyed the law and never got anywhere. But all around us are the crooks who got away with it.

           She gives glorious examples of getting tough on delinquent teens, but never about taking on powerful and rich defendants who can and will fight back. I understand she is a family court judge, but she plainly supports a system that is more concerned with making laws that are equal and politically correct than aimed directly at or singles out the real criminals of our society. Even her choice of words shows that she never really admits that the legal system itself could be debasing the law. Example: Rich men do not hang. Judges, not juries and lawyers, are 100% responsible for that.

           I don’t condone crime yet I recognize that teens are realizing at ever earlier stages in life how corrupt the system is and how hopeless their odds of a successful working career. It is no good for Judy to be pointing fingers at society when the legal system which she represents has never raised those same fingers at truly perverse goings on in the courtroom. How many times has she lambasted a young defendant for the wrong choice of words? He clearly didn’t mean to say the wrong thing and had no warning she would take it the wrong way.
           So far, I’m just a third of the way through the book and I’m not convinced Judy is doing much more than posturing for the public. She’ll wail on the New York system of taking violent teens on unsupervised outings, but has yet to issue a warrant for the arrest of those who do so. Don’t hand us the baloney that they aren’t breaking any law. It is called public endangerment. But why tackle the tough ones, huh Judy?

AFTERNOON
           It’s drizzling outside, so I did some comparable statistics between Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. While Orlando has been voted by those who vote on this as the least popular city in America (they’ve never heard of Hialeah, it would seem), the demographics are better. More college degrees, more singles living alone, and more recent arrivals—although how a real estate company learns all this is beyond me. Hey, burglars, single rich female, 65+, living alone at 1407 Maple Street since late last week.
           I’ve been where I am since November of 2004, making this the longest stretch I have ever lived in one place. That grabs me, because there are no decent bands to team up with, no jobs, no professionals, no single women of any quality, no clubs, no good schools or libraries, no affordable housing, and nobody with any real hobbies, interests, or worthwhile pursuits. The most intellectual spot in town is probably that third-rate Starbucks and there is no such thing as an “active” lifestyle in the vicinity.

           No, active does not mean driving the Buick down to Dunkin Donuts on Tuesdays. Nor is it whipping the golf cart up the designated pathway or sitting in at the bar in Oceans Eleven all afternoon. Careful you never do anything that isn’t in the tourist guidebook and always live in a half-million-dollar condo with your big screen TV but no piano.
           The city puts on time-worn events downtown where there is no parking and only on weekends when the majority of the population has no energy left after the work-week. It’s probably no better most places, but I find I live in a place nearly five years before I’ve done everything that’s interesting to me.

EVENING
           Today I got an e-mail from a lady friend that works for a credit union up in Canada, out west in Vancouver. They have a housing bubble going. Here is a place that just sold for $1.38 million. I saw this building around thirty years ago, it should have been condemned back then. Folks, the next big housing crash has to be Canada. The place is out of control.

           This picture is the back yard. It has new stucco and the window frames have been replaced. She says it was a shoddy reconstruction but that is permitted in the area as long as the owner lives in the residence for more than a year. Or some crazy rule like that. Anyway, I believe the selling price on this house in 1980 was $60,000. I know because I drove up there from Sedro Wooley to jam with a guitar player. Or was that 1981?

           I again warn young people about “starting a band”. If you can, try to join an existing group and get some experience first. Management of a group requires a different skill-set than playing an instrument in time with other people. I was reading the musicians lists for Orlando to find so many people clueless about what they are getting into. Bands demand a lot of skilled labor. Such people can be difficult to keep on an even keel.
           Ah, now what did I warn the world about the Red Cross back in 1991. They came to the workplace that year with a drive to get every employee to donate a year’s pay. I asked for a copy of their financial statements and could not decipher them. I recall asking at the time, “If everything is voluntary, why does it cost so much.”
           Today’s paper provided a clue. Half a billion dollars gone missing in Haiti. That place isn’t worth a half billion. I knew the Red Cross were crooks on day one. It speaks volumes for the ignorance of Americans that oufit is still in existence. Nothing but thieves and that follows closely on my expose of the crime syndicate called the United Way. That’s the bunch I caught giving money to a riding academy for “underprivileged Jewish children” in 1986 and ballet lessons to handicapped teens. Up yours, United Way. I mean, ballet lessons? Why not build an expensive church and pray for the hungry?

Last Laugh
It’s a repeat, but a good one. This is one of the first gifs I learned to post.