September 5, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 5, 2014, on raster scan photos.
Five years ago today: September 5, 2010, $56 in the tip jar!
Six years ago today: September 5, 2009, do away with DMA!

MORNING
           We get lots of rainstorms, but not many spectacular Texas-style thunderstorms. I’m talking hour after hour of rafter-shakers setting off the car alarms. Weather and food, the traditional blog safe bets, so I’m here baking chicken. Smoked, with pineapple and peach sauce. I’m planning the next project, because the 3-digit display has already worn thin. I was simple but careful wiring and a lot of deep programming. But I don’t need to learn more programming. That is already back-burner stuff for me.

           Instead, I waited for a gap in the rain and went up to the central library, the one full of books on baby names and black history. Where they let the winos and delinquents hang out. I found a book on how to make small shop jigs, some info on modeling clay, and a fascinating book on operating a home shop sort of like the one that’s materialized here in the past four years.
           Burning Man is in the news these days, what is it? It’s a festival for pyromaniacs dating back to 1986, and it was just as boring to the non-burning man then as now. It has experienced a recent popularity because of “wearable clothing”, a fad that makes the rounds every other generation. For men who don’t like to openly admit they like dolls and frilly clothes.
           Here is a characteristic photo of a New Age burning man. All lit up with strip lighting activated by conductive thread. You know, so grown men can sew their own alien space suits and cowboy outfits. Like how back in your day stitching leather was the excuse. As with most electronics, it comes in two forms. Obtainium and Unobtainium. Remember, fellas, to wax your threat first so it’s easier to pull through the little holes!
           When I first heard of the material, I thought, “What a boon to bendable robotic joints”, not, “Can I wear this?” According to certain sorts, that makes me what, xenophobic? Something-phobic.
           Shall we say I’m okay with the festival, but the part about lit-up costumes, I’ll pass. I understand it is a phase everyone undergoes, but that some men never quite make through it all the way to the other side.
           What got my attention is that the police have been exposed using the festival as a test bed for new covert crowd-surveillance devices. What’s doubly intriguing is this comes on the heels of several recent court decisions that are establishing that the police do, in fact, require a warrant to do such things as trace a cell phone. It’s evident the police have been expecting that ruling and have a well-established routine in place to circumvent the law. And it is already at the testing phase.
           But, but, shouldn’t the police be more concerned about the gangs in Detroit and prison violence? Heck no, and anyone who thinks that has not been paying attention. It is innocent people that need surveillance, because you see, they don’t have a police record that can be examined behind their backs. Jeese, do we have to teach you everything?

NOON
           What is this yellow object? It is an auction card. Like those little paddles you see in the movies, you hold this up to show you are bidding at an auction. This is from a real auction and that brings us back to the whole process of bidding on these properties. It has come to my attention that more than a few people consider our plans as an impossible move against a massively entrenched bureaucracy—the banks.

           Actually, we took that into consideration before we even decided to peek at the auction process. I worked at a bureaucracy as a career and I know where and how to look for flaws. Remember, I was the youngest ever to get a buyout package and after that, they had to change the rules. The bigger the operation, the less nimble they are and I’ll give you an example you are familiar with.
           The older houses that I keep tracking, ones that are already sold or disposed of through the auction system. Why bother with watching those? I’ll explain it, but here is one of those situations where if you don’t make a sincere effort to follow along, you’ll be missing one of the more valuable aspects of this blog. The shared learning experience. Okay, the follow-on tracking is due to one rule mentioned before.
           In the fine print, at any of these auctions, there is a provision that the sale is subject to “seller confirmation”. This is the pinnacle of auction corruption. Not only is the seller allowed to have a shill present, he can reject the winning bid. We could not penetrate the blockade of secrecy on that one, but it appears the seller does not even have to provide a bona fide reason to turn down the highest offer.
           Our game plan is to raise the minimum bid on a series of properties to the point where the bank realizes it is cheaper to let us buy one house and thereby use up all our cash. Once they realize that is what is going on, we must be ready to watch for a reaction. And the one I suspect is that they will "simply say no" to the highest bids and put the same houses back on the market, working the angle that we can’t watch all the auctions all the time. As I've implied before, even if the housing auction market isn't corrupt, it is totally ripe for it.
           But we are already seasoned at following specific houses through the path, which they are unlikely to suspect anyone would do. They can shuffle the auctions, but it is darn tricky to move those houses around. I know, I did it once when I was twenty. Ah, so you see, our strategy is much more elaborate than meets the eye. There are other considerations but I’ll drive off those bridges when I get to them.

NIGHT
           I didn’t know that birdbaths mainly attract insect-eating birds. I read that in the 2016 Almanac, so who knows. But the weather forecast of the weekend thunderstorms was right on. It’s still a mess out there and I need to do a shop. I plan which documentaries to download in advance, but had nothing ready for the weekend. So I’m home alone on a precious Saturday. That’s a fine howdie-doo.

           Ah, I’ve always wanted to know more about Typhoon Cobra, in 1944. Hmm, not much available, almost as if the navy wants that hushed up. I understand the invasion of Japan was held up by that storm. I found several newsreels that said Admiral Halsey “did see them coming”. Duh, the guy was a sailor, not a meteorologist. I see the media had their equally stupid reporters back then, too. Nothing as stupid as Megyn Kelly, but still, pretty bad.
           And it turns out there is a hearing whenever ships are lost, and there was talk of canning Halsey. They did not, but in that systematic removal of all war heroes except MacArthur (who had to wait until Korea to get canned), they shit-canned Halsey after a second typhoon in 1945. They say he didn’t “sail far enough away” from it.
           We all know what a leap year is, but why is it called “leap” year? The Almanac says it is because of birthdays. A year is exactly 52 weeks and 1 day, so in regular or “common” years, your birthday will fall on the next consecutive day of the week. But in a leap year, your birthday “leaps” over to the next day. If you can’t follow that, you are probably lost and don’t belong here.
           I further noticed that hurricane names don’t match the hurricane season. They match the calendar. So after January 2016, we’ll start with hurricane “Alex” but last week we did not see “Erika”.


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