One year ago today: September 19, 2014, this is Stipple.
Five years ago today: September 19, 2010, the last real car, 1980-something.
Six years ago today: September 19, 2009, progress, or code-breaking?
MORNING
Let me say that, if you read from the beginning, there are very few totally unfamiliar phrases in this blog. But okay, some people just got off the turnip truck this morning. Hence, here is a representation of the 7-segment LED (light emitting diode) displays which I am currently working with. These can count to 15 in Hex(idecimal) but I am interested only in the digits 0 to 9. The reason my display is unique (as far as I know) is that the digits are displayed without the use of registers or other integrated circuits. I can't get it to left-justify, so let me center it.
Think of it as teaching an old dog a new trick. Of course it is possible to accomplish the same effect much simpler, but challenge was to get this dumb display to actually count without resorting to chips, in the sense that my display is completely accomplished without special parts. My display is achieved completely by computer code. It takes a lot of smarts to make dumb objects behave well, as most junior high school teachers can tell you.
The things you find out reading in the morning. Did you know the original reason fast-food outlets began having so many 2-for-1 specials? Ah-ha, that’s what I thought, too. Instead, before the advent of the electronic cash register, the specials made it impossible for the tax department to ever know what their true costs and sales were.
And the original motels, that was in California, became popular because people could park their cars right in front of the room. What was I thinking? Anyway, it seems the Trump is being lambasted for doing something that the clone politicians don’t like—he allowed an audience member to ask a question without interruption. It may not have been a proper question (something about Muslims and training camps), but that is not at all the point. That point is, others would not have let him speak. Trump did. Bravo! After all, this is supposed to be America.
NOON
I listened to a documentary on Lawrence of Arabia. In high school, his book was assigned reading. “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” is a great title but not that great a work. Even by then, I was a discriminating reader and knew he was describing things he’d never seen. To that extent, I regarded it as a work of fiction based on facts, like Michener would write.
Further, there is no firm basis for the claim that the Arabs in any case were a united group fighting for a single Arab state. It walks and quacks more like a group of hot-heads with a common enemy, but each man in it for himself. Lawrence is lionized in the American press, but it is more likely he was regarded only as a useful agent to get British rifles and ammunition.
That is partially based on the newsreels. The Arabs fought only with personal weapons, they seems to shun artillery or squad machine guns. Anything that required the coordinated effort of a crew is disdained. I’ve often wondered where their supply trains are. (In Arabia, shown here is a camel pulling a wagon, but that is in India.) You never see a camel pulling a cart in the Middle East, but here is one doing the moonwalk.
You find something the other guy never had a use for on his best day and you make something valuable out of it. He instantly goes full retard like you stole it all from him. Why, he was just about to invent the same thing himself when you conned him out of it. It was less than garbage before you came along and now he expects a share of the profit. Is there a correct term for that mindset, but just you be careful. You’re talking about my brothers, you know.
AFTERNOON
There’s that gal again, advertising for a country band, but insisting ages 20 to 30 only. Is she going to be disappointed. I sent her some tunes saying learn these and get back to me. If you’d answered me the first time, we’d be out at least at the coffee houses by now. If I can excuse her wild and heroic naivety about live music, she can overlook the age difference.
But while you’re here, let me describe another factor that can become a real impediment to beginners. It is an old saying that can be applied to the music trade, “Winner’s write history.”
In this context, the magazines especially, tend to portray the top people as having talent and therefore were destined for glory. Why, they just stepped up to the plate and began hitting homers. Hence, I regularly meet people who don’t want to work at being in a band because, stay with me here, if you had real talent, you would not have to put in that grade of effort.
Why struggle to start a band when a truly talented person should be able to just walk in and front an existing show? You get a lot of this, believe me. People that don’t want to put in the hours. At the other extreme, you get people who just want to “strum along”, why, you just play it and they will follow you. Yup-yup.
Today in 1957, first underground nuclear test.
NIGHT
By not watching television, have I ever missed out on anything? Good qustion, so let me reflect on that. MacDonald’s. I missed on MacDonald’s. The advertising was all around me, but I did not recognize it as a “restaurant” or ever think that those “funny-looking” places sold food. I certainly did not associate the clown with having my lunch. I was well over 30 before I ever ate in one, and even then because I was visiting a MacDonald’s addict near Kalispell, Montana. And even then I more or less went along for the ride. I distinctly recall I did not know that one “went out” to MacDonald’s when he invited.
I never much patronized the place even after I found out what it was until I saw the sign for a breakfast special. I tried it, and liked it except for the horrid cup of coffee—and that is another story. To this day, I rarely go to McDonald’s except for that coffee when on the road and there is no BK. And yes, I picked up that the Happy Meals arrive in containers that look like Xmas presents.
Ah yes, I also missed rock videos, which were primarily TV fare, and I missed the made-for-TV music concerts like “Live Aid”. When I was in my early teens, I tried to watch the Olympics to find out what all the hoopla was about, but it was all a bunch of jocks running around in tights. It has also come to my understanding that I’ve missed a couple of wars. But you know, that is probably just as well.
The episode last day when the bar bunny told me to desist making notes and talk to her. As you know, I chose the option that resulted in the better exchange of information. Today I was informed that she was actually being polite because, now get this, she kept doing this during the commercials, not during the game show. Whhell, pardon me. Wwwwwhhhhell, with a whistling sound, like Quagmire hates.
During commercials? How nice of her. That got a blank start out of me, after which I was informed that “everybody knows the difference between the TV show and the commercials”.
Do they, now?
Last Laugh
Return Home
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