November 11, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 11, 2014, metering the meters.
Five years ago today: November 11, 2010, I diss Taylor Swift.
Six years ago today: November 11, 2009, Flight 447.
Nine years ago today: November 11, 2006, no more “B” sides.

MORNING
           JZ reports a bunch of minimum wage employees went “on strike” y’day as he was grabbing a bite at McD’s in Miami. (Yes, my pal still eats the pseudo-food at those joints.) Real estate. Here’s more proof that Florida is a haven for sleazy real estate practices. One favorite is for the agent to list their home address instead of the property, knowing that Trulia, Zillow, and Craigslist will zero in on the wrong neighborhood. Well, this morning was a variation. The agent listed the address as 32722 6th Street instead of 3272 6th Street.

           This brand of “typo” happens a lot more when the house is in the less desirable parts of town. Like I said, "sleazy". Fortunately, JZ and I know the area and the satellite photos on the ad just did not jive. But I found it, smack in the middle of Botswana. These real estate agents need to be taken out and shot with a ball of their own shit. Seriously, when some people have not integrated in 150 years, it is time to quit bullshitting the public over it. But it did have a fireplace.
           The picture here is a different property. But one that I would buy if it was not nine miles from town. Due to my age, I need a place I can walk to town if I ever have to, so two miles is my limit, and I prefer just out of the city limits. I got the price on this place, seven acres, down to $24k, but in the end decided against it.

           But the sleazy ad, that was tricky to figure out. Further, I took out a ruler and measured the distance JZ and I walked between that Irish bar and downtown Deland not so long ago. That is, I measured it right on the monitor screen off "the new" Mapquest (now full of ads and popups that block their own maps). Sure enough, there is something funny going on. Typo, my eye. That "mistake" was a deliberate ploy.
           To distract myself, I went for an extra coffee and thoroughly examined a relay switch that would not work. I found out both the supply and output were 120 volts. What kind of doofus came up with that one? I wrote a little note to the lady guitar player who is somewhat stereotyped in her outlook toward bass. Half the battle is that most people have never heard a proper duo of acoustic and bass, and neither has she. Some of the things she writes are off kilter. Example, she mentions her session rate is $75 per hour. In that case, I should have instantly told her my rate was $165 per hour. After all, I’ve heard her play.
           The red scooter has developed a rattle on the front wheel. Inspection shows it to be a bushing on the brake mount, another $65. I think JZ and will have a go at this on our own. It is just the mounting, so it’s safe to drive. But that funny noise sounds like a loose bearing. I’ll never pick up the chicks until that is gone.

           Now, here’s a peeve, something that is beginning to annoy me. Again, the Trump feeds in the background, it’s these people that have a question. Why do they introduce themselves? Do they think anybody cares who they are or where they are from? Now they even got bratty little kids doing it. People, just ask your questions which generally make you look like small-town retards, and get off the stage. If I was Trump, I’d start answering those dodos with one or two words. I mean, what gives asking the president at a rally what he “thinks of NASA”. Only a klutz with too much time on his hands thinks the other guy has enough time to answer that kind of question over a microphone.

           You know what else grinds my gears? The South American (read Brazilian) politicians that argue they are not responsible for conservation measures because “the USA did the same things when they were developing their nation”. Yes, you stupid short-sighted birdbrains, that was 150 years ago when nobody consciously knew it was wrong. It was long before anybody figured out that resources were limited. What’s worse, Brazil is copying the worst ways that America did things, repeating known mistakes that will have consequences. And because by now people should know better, that is really, really stupid, Brazil.
           And what is with always quoting the USA’s mistakes? It makes you sound just jealous. In fact, the people that probably raped the countryside the worst were the Australians. Why aren’t you bitching about Australians? Because you are stupid and shameless, that's why. The world hates that creature from the Dark Ages, the Spanish politician. I think "politician" is the Spanish word for "greedy". But I will repeat this: there is less corruption in the USA than in Brazil for one simple reason. In the USA, corruption is not as illegal. Ergo, less of it. Got that?

NOON

           Here is what I hope will become a rare picture. This is JZ along the Tamiami Trail, one of the most engineered landscapes in America. He is facing the north side of the road, where the river has be recut to flow straight. This roadbed also sealed of the south side, which returned to a type of dry land scrub savannah. The new roadway was to be raised, but it runs a few thousand yards at most, and in the end of the swamp where there is the least water.
           But northern and central Florida is better forested, more like what I remember. If we get up that way, the summer weather is nicer, the area is dryer, and the women a prettier. Then, when we need to get out of town, it is not down one of the three roads so often traveled before. I-95, US 27, and Alligator Alley. (The other roads, like this picture, are so rarely traveled, you can take a break like JZ and watch the carp biting.)
           Factoid, for years, this highway had open ditches, no shoulders, and no guard rails. The next stop on this road is behind JZ, about forty miles away, a gambling casino. We’ been passed on this road by people doing 140 mph. The road toll was horrendous.

NIGHT
           I met a lady who is getting her own place and had the club advance her some cash to buy a microwave. It’s a loan, not a gift. Other than that, the big event of today was paying my license tags. That’s not simple when you don’t have a checking account or a credit card. Not one minute of work has been done on the cPod in two days, but tomorrow is slated for that project all day long. Other than that, I played bass and caught up on the books. And see this picture? That is what my soldering station has evolved into. Timers, soldering gun, spools, flux, cable cleatas, transformers, and a carry handle.

           Again, it has taken a full five years to get back in the saddle. But in 2016, I have no doubt I will purchase some property for cash. Let me recount how many times I’ve had to “start over” after age 25 when I figured out five years was the right spell to move ahead of the pack. Not get rich, if you are born poor that takes so much out of you that it is not worth it, you become another Scrooge.
           But to live better than your contemporaries without busting your balls. If you try it in less than five years, the system seems to know you are taking risks. Longer than five years and you’ll get the impression you waited for it. Let’s see, I started at 25 and by age 30 I was flying around the world. By 1996 I left the company, and finished school broke again. Another five years and I was living in Florida, driving a Cadillac, and looking to strike oil. But in 2005, disaster. I lost everything, and was well bound for recover until in 2010, some asinine people kicked me in the teeth while I was down.
           Now, we got 2015, and it has not been a bad year. No major holidays, but man, we got a lot done. Saw more of the state than JZ has in his whole life. I know towns 300 miles away better than I know Boca or Naples. And if not for looking to buy that house, I would have spent the last summer in Montana or Washington. Easily.
           For the record, I often refer to my budget as if it is a fixed entity. It isn’t, there are always different scenarios. When one of them pans out, that is arbitrarily called the plan. In fact if any of several routes are taken, they are still the budget because each route is planned before it is taken. Right? If I had not begun saving for a house in 2014, I would have spent the summer in school in Murfreesboro, TN.

ADDENDUM
           Aha, it’s all good. Don’t you love it when something you do as a hobby or bit of side work turns out to be exactly what you need to make a move elsewhere? Who remembers a while back when I poked around with qbasic (or quickbasic) code. I made all those color patterns and determined how many millions of random pixels it took to blank out a screen? The reason for the predominance of pixels is because, at that time, I had no computer output device except the monitor.

           Guess what? An obscure chapter in one of my robot books addresses that situation. Microcontrollers and computers lack the power to do much more than blink lights anyway. They must be connected to devices like power transistors, motors, and relays via an interface. And this book gave detailed charts and photos of how to build just such an item. I may do this just as a demonstration of technological superiority. Over Nova, I mean.
           Think of the possibilities. A full-fledged computer controlling a robot in BASIC (a language I am totally familiar with) instead of a limited microcontroller operating in C, the language of retards who can’t type. The interface works off the 25 pin “D” connector on the back panel of older computers. (Older computers are ideal for robots.) Most of the pins are not used, they are mainly grounded to the chassis.
           If I undertake this project, it is for scientific investigation only. I have no method to mount, power, or propel something as large as a computer. But not all robots nor robot functions are ambulatory, think of the operation of those car assembly line welding robots. The base is fixed, rather firmly I presume, to the factory floor.
           Here is the diagram, most of the parts are passive and I have them lying around. The bottom half is an ordinary breadboard, which I have by the dozens. While the operation of this would be entirely DOS commands, I, for one, would have little difficulty translating anything like that into C code. Child’s play for me, really.


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