One year ago today: October 14, 2014, my spreadsheets, 1984.
Five years ago today: October 14, 2010, 49cc or more.
Six years ago today: October 14, 2009, Napster’s fatal flaw.
MORNING
That’s the end of Office Depot up on Hollywood Blvd. I can see it, since their 60% of closing prices are still higher than the identical product at Wal*mart. Yes, I’m aware that these chains contribute a lot to the disastrous trade deficit, but these chains are retail outfits. They are not the ones who lowered trade barriers and shipped American jobs and technology overseas. That was the politicians.
Back to politics. In fact, I get a laugh out of the sorts who say that Trump is not “qualified” to run the country, that all his super ratings are the result of his playing the field and hogging the media. To which I ask, exactly pray tell what have the last five generations of politicians been doing, just not as effectively? There you go. The Depot is closing up today, so I went in and bought a lifetime supply of stick pens for $1.90. The really good stuff was only 10% off.
House prices are rising faster than I can save. Thus, again I have to wait until somebody has to panic sell. Interest rates are also due to rise. But the stupid American public has not learned their lesson. They will borrow again and prices will rise again. They don’t give a shit if others can’t or won’t borrow the same amounts (yet they want “relief” when they can’t pay up). Still, keep an eye out, it could go either way.
Back to politics again. Ha, did you hear the good on that lame Democrat debate. Talk about posers, and third-rate ones at that. It’s pretty amazing to hear about their candidates “leaping” to 4% and “vaulting” to 3%. Yes, peeps, it is one sad state of affairs for the American public. After 40 years of having no real choice except the scumbag career politicians, they are not sure what to do if they don’t agree with Trump. But they know something has to be done. You can’t let a flood of unskilled anti-American illegals into the country for ever and not expect the place to go bankrupt and have a crime waves.
The worst thing you can do to somebody raised in a military dictatorship is let the bastard into a free country with no bars on the windows and a police force that has to obey at least some of the laws some of the time. Our freedom and access to lawyer laws were never meant to protect people with violent political agendas. Put another way, let them scream for their rights under these laws, but the fact is, most people in Amewere never intended to shield evil groups to the same extent, or for that matter, any extent. (I may return to this topic, maybe later this week.)
NOON
I can’t tell if the solar panel on the scooter is working. You see, if there is a slow leak in the battery, say overnight, the solar panel will not help out in that situation. This is a photo of the solar cells mounted on the cargo carrier (jockey box). It started like a charm all day today, but it was on the regular charger overnight. That’s not a fair test. Also, my right signal lamp isn’t flashing. I’m not up to making any major repairs today. Please let it be a front bulb that I can get at easily.
The attraction for me is the storyboard or storyline (they call it the story text). Since the graphics are chosen from a pool they think you should use, the storyline becomes the only really original part of the process. And whom do we know that has no trouble with different and original storylines? I would love to take apart that queer David Pakman and expose the media tricks and angles he cooks up to make Trump look evil. For example, Mr. Pakman, are you aware that around the world 350 million people have died since you began attacking Trump? Explain yourself.
Anyway, I’m looking at it because the videos that sell best are short series that focus on a different point of view over an otherwise well-known topic. I’m saying that producing video is very hard work, at least three hours for 20 minutes of useful footage and content. So, give me time to look into Wochit. I personally think that as my retirement progresses, I will have to begin working again at some point.
I attacked that right signal light problem by 4:00PM. The bulk of the electronics is behind the headlamp which has been removed so many times it is perpetually loose. This time, nothing there, so I had to trace out wiring. The front was a loose bulb, a twenty second repair—after the 40 minutes it took to get at the thing and isolate the bad segment. The rear, however, was a broken wire those I do not even begin unless I have several good hours of sunlight ahead of me. If need be, I just won’t make any right turns for now. I tend to over-repair broken wiring.
NIGHT
JZ says that there are no vines like the kind I want to anchor my place and create a nicer entrance area. But I finally found that picture from Sebring last year. See that vine-covered something or other along the entire side of that house? That’s neat. I want one. It’s too narrow for a driveway, so I say it is a full-length trellis. I found the photo because I was not watching television, you might say. Anyway, I spent the evening at home, so here is my thoughts on that. Listen up, this is not advice, just a good point or two.
I spent time pondering some type of easy scheme to tell which of my AA and AAA batteries have been recharged at least once. It must be easy, handy, and not involve having to go find any special marker or tool. I thought of riveting a holder with dead leads, kind of a carry case where new batteries face one way.
During this process, I found my knapsack with the roller wheels was entirely riveted. And the wheels are ordinary skateboard types. I have a drawer full, for the bearings. But [the knapsack] is designed so the wheels cannot be replaced without snapping the rivets—and I don’t have any rivets that heavy duty. I only have small robot rivets. This leads back to spending time at home. Read on.
JZ was on the phone earlier, you know, like a lot of guys, he has a perfectly nice quiet place to live, but he doesn’t like staying home alone. I suppose nobody does, but if you are going to spend an evening indoors, there should be something productive to do. There are reasons people used to have fireplaces and porches. At my place, it is unavoidable, since everything in the building is productive in some way, even watching the documentaries will put you ahead.
Now, JZ is no exception on that. Most guys don’t stay home if they have money. I’m not the opposite, but I will not go out and spend money speculatively. I know before I leave whether I’ll buy drinks or anything for the woman I might meet. My point is, if you don’t have some incentive to stay home, at least once in a while, you will always be broke or running out of money. So, now I want to take a trip and I’ll wind up going solo. Nobody else has the lousy hundred bucks to tag along. It takes real screwing up to live that way, folks. I know what some are thinking, but you have twice as much money as I do. See addendum.
I’ve also seen other guy’s places. No guitar, no piano, no books, no recording gear, no cooking gear, no batteries, no stamps, no writing tablet, no envelopes, no tools, no work desk, no reading lamp, no calculator, no pencils, no WIP, no telescope, no teapot, no atlas, no sewing machine, no address book, no sandpaper, no wonder. Huh? Gotcha, that’s no wonder they get bored staying home.
I have a tiny place and yet there are four work desks, five radios, four computers, six cookbooks, and enough tools to build a robot. Three atlases, seven work fans, two microwaves, and around two hundred text, data, or information books. Maybe another sixty novels and magazines. Yet most places have nothing in one room but a television and 400 channels of more nothing. To me, a month of that is enough to drive those people mildly insane. And forty years of it makes them blithering idiots. Seriously. Give them a listen. They’re everywhere.
ADDENDUM
And I still write and mail approximately 80 letters per year. It’s sad that one of the major motives for that has become the Internet. Ah, I heard that, should not the Internet decrease the volume of snail mail? No, that’s 80 outgoing letters, and close to half are to parties that would very much like to have enough information on my bank account to do the automatic payment thing. Folks, you do not give people like Amazon or Google any such information, do not even let them know whether or not you have a bank account. I pay by money order, not by check, for that very reason.
Yet, I can tell you to the penny what I have. JZ is always utterly amazed to see my system in operation (and he is the only one east of the river who has actually seen it). What gets him is how easy it is to keep track once it becomes routine. The explanation is the fact that living well is a way of thinking and the world knows people who don’t budget are at the mercy of the system. As it has always been, the average person requires an income between 3.4 and 4.7 times higher than I do to have the same financial freedoms.
That’s why you’ll hear me say I live better than people with three times my income. I’ll often state it is really five times. I have real reasons for saying that. I never worry about car payments or rent or the electric bill, which I just pay it when it arrives. Yet my income is one third of the average workingman. And you should see me when I’m working, same thing. I lived better than all my “superiors” at the phone company except the highest levels of management. And when I went overseas five times a year, I never ran into any of them. And, hey, I get around. During the 1990s, I made 17 trips to Caracas alone. Hmmm, what do I mean by alone. Just Caracas? By myself? No other trips? Only Caracas? It remains a mystery.
Last Laugh
Return Home
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