August 17, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 17, 2014, your are outnumbered. Heavily.
Five years ago today: August 17, 2010, speaking of cranks . . .
Six years ago today: August 17, 2009, tales of the bicycle.

MORNING
           I’m out of commission for the day. A repeat of the laser pinch operation, which stings but the tough part is drinking 32 ounces of water an hour in advance. I’m just not built to drink four glasses of liquid in a couple minutes. But it is done and I’m home with my Trump news feed. This is the first time I have ever listened to a presidential debate. I’ve heard snippets before, but the others are all alike, all dancing clowns in it for the money.

           How’s this for a pretty morning? This is a rare rainbow seen looking west. And it is only from the angle where I pulled out of my driveway where that single large storm cloud was over the Everglades. Most rainbows are seen in the east in the late afternoon.

           I took it easy, designing my new version of the voltage divider. It’s fun but you kind of have to know so much before you see the challenge enough to enjoy the thinking part. I don’t have unlimited spare parts, so I’m working with a few extra constraints. I designed the spreadsheet to work with a 5,000Ω slide resistor because that’s all I’ve got. I learned that I cannot directly get the device to output the correct range. But I love the challenge and I’m not done yet.
           If any sharp individuals out there notice my circuit boards contain “dummy parts”, yes you are right. I have a trunkful of salvage but dead, useless, or incompatible parts. I will often practice soldering by attaching strange non-functional parts onto blank areas of a circuit. If this led anybody astray, good. That’s what they are for. Do your own research.
           The operation takes an hour so the doc and I often chat. He thinks it’s a great idea what we did with the auctions. But frankly, it is not a good method for busy professionals. These auctions are time-consuming and there is the introduced elements of frustration and red tape to contend with. I may have made the auctions sound like fun because I like learning things, but from an entertainment standpoint, go to the movies and have some fun.

NOON
           I said I don’t watch TV and now I have another reason to dislike it. These people who ask questions at political rallies—you sound like a bunch of self-centered retards. Nobody cares if you work for NASA or if you mother has Alzheimer’s. Listen, the country is in deep doo-doo and there won’t be a figgen NASA for health funding if you don’t start getting concerned with the big issues. But no, they got to waste everybody’s time with their own personal issues. Asking the frontrunner if he gets elected how he is going to focus on your pet cause. How niggling can you get.

           Food. I made my own marinated chicken parts, no recipe. But the marinade was just as good as the chicken. Lo-cal, too, if I recall there was basil, vinegar, tomato paste or it might have been pasta sauce, garlic pepper and a dash of Worchestershire. The only “meat” sauce I even like is Worchestershire.

           Now I don’t count common spices as an ingredient, so I claim the best marinades have less than four ingredients. Too many flavors confuses the palate. I have a question about most marinade recipes. They always say to discard the marinade. But I’ve always saved a small amount to keep baked chicken moist. Does anyone know why they always say throw it away. I could see if you are not going to cook it, since it has been soaked overnight in raw meat. I just wonder if that is the reason.
           Later, I got to thinking about circuit boards again. The club never did get to etching these because of all the chemicals involved. We have no safe place to store or use chemicals, much less dispose of them afterward. Nor could we find any decent software to design the circuits. If the free versions are any indication of what’s available, I’m not wasting my good money on it. Every version, including the much-touting Fritzing, lacks symbols for very common components. Now, is that stupid or is that stupid?


AFTERNOON
           I’ve only been to Pollo Tropical a couple times in my life. That was after I returned from Venezuela and did not find the food authentic. But it is Cuban based and you gradually accept the flavors. The doc told me to elevate my leg when I got home, which I did and promptly fell asleep until Agt. M showed up for coffee. It was a nice day, so I suggested we go grab a bite and he chose Pollo Tropical. Kind of expensive for what I remember.

           He’s got a limp and I could barely walk, so we must have looked like the short bus gimp league showing up for soup and crackers. But I was so glad to get out of the house. I should point out I do not have a current problem with my legs, this procedure is preventative. My religion rules out cosmetic surgery. I do not have varicose veins. You deal with the looks you were born with, type of thing. This would not, of course, apply to a disfiguring accident or anything of that nature.
           Having said that, this restaurant does not serve coffee. That’s something that needs a little Trump attention. But the food is colorful and while not authentic, well-suited to the marketplace. I had the only thing on my diet, the balsamic tomato dish. Quite healthful. Um, when I say I’ve only been there twice, it should be noted that it is entirely possible for me to eat at places where I neither know or care what the place is called. I could have been there and don’t know it.

EVENING

           I have just lost what little respect I have for the Millennials. Freeware is now advertising “100% free” software products that require an “activation certificate” that is purchased through PayPal. That’s another area that needs Trump attention. False advertising. America has a long tradition of fakes and patent medicine scams dating back to the snake oil salesmen and medicine shows of the 1800s. Even Coca-Cola was once a narcotic, which to me spells poison. It took a presidential mandate to clean up just the food part of what they used to sell as cures.

           And all it did was force the advertising “underground”. Words like “natural” and “organic” are regularly used to mislead. Sugarless does not mean low calories, but replacement by other sweeteners that are just as bad. This gets permitted by the ingrained American attitude that government must not interfere with businessmen. Even when they are liars and cheats.
           You can buy rattlesnake oil in Texas, rendered from the fat of the diamondback. It is for display only and has no purpose except to deprive you of $45. And the liniment is “good for everything a liniment ought to be good for.”

           That slogan has since been adopted by Liberal politicians.
           Or how do you like these news moderators that turn interviews into a forum for their personal beliefs. A debate on illegal immigration is not the time to put on your nurturing humanist act—there are other families suffering because the illegals are using up resources meant for our own poor. Or the argument that we can’t round up and deport 14 million illegals, so don’t even try. Hey, if we get even half of them, most of the country will be happy. These media people have a hard time dealing with majority rules.
           Or the even lamer argument that Mexico might say they don’t want them back. What the hell? We don’t want them here. So if it is a question of who doesn’t want them, let the other bunch deal with it. There are other losers who say it will cost too much to deport them, because it requires a court hearing. Then change the law so it doesn’t. It works like this:

                      Question 1: were your parents legal immigrants?
                      Question 2: where were they born?
                      Question 3: how soon can you start packing?

           Folks, creating a path to citizenship rewards illegal behavior. They say you can’t deport millions, I call the BS in that argument. We put a dozen on the moon and we can deport millions. And Trump won’t rely on the court system to drag it out. He’ll simply make it “economically feasible” for the illegals to leave.

ADDENDUM
           Whoa, I see my book concept for “Planet 107” was a popular read. What can I say, it never got beyond the idea stage. But if I had known somebody like Trump might be president in a few years, I would definitely have written the book. Imagine, a planet where all the illegals who, according to some, are such wonderful hard-workers, could prove it among their own kind. I’ll think about it a little more, but writing a book is not as easy as it sounds. Some think all you need is time on your hands to write the next Harry Potter.
           If I do write the book, I would update the plot with contemporary themes, such as the planetary transport society being based on the policies of President Coultrump in the year 2048. Instead of just being segregated by class, each “special interest group” is given a choice between their own type and their own class. And there would be no sense lying to get into a better group, as the Planet 107 “genetic force field” identifies all such attempts.
           The implication is that while conditions like poverty, stupidity, laziness, criminality, and such are not necessarily hereditary, they are detectable genetic predispositions. The idea is to prevent those with such tendencies from mingling with normal people whenever they get sick of their own kind. They would be required to stay around people like themselves until they correct their behavior by learning what not to do. Not cure their conditions, nobody cares about that, but they must behave.
           Examples would be those who advocate income tax or welfare. They would be forced to live among others who think the same way. If that doesn’t cure them, nothing will. Bastards like that can only thrive when allowed to victimize others. So we give them the ultimate in “separate but equal”. Their own planet. Har-dee-har-har.


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