One year ago today: November 15, 2014, a “drawer-like box” . . .
Five years ago today: November 15, 2010, it’s called “duckwalk”.
Six years ago today: November 15, 2009, future mall cops.
Nine years ago today: November 15, 2006, book report, kinda.
MORNING, NOON, and NIGHT
It’s a nothing Sunday and that’s what I’m going to leave it. I’ll describe a nothing day, so you can compare it to your nothing days should you ever have any. Start off by identifying this object. We know it is a kitchen gadget. But the prongs are too close together for eggs, and plastic is no good for squeezing anything. Probably not for pasta, as there is a thumb lock to keep the jaws closed.
Sun up found me at the Senor Café, which was packed. Fifteen minute lineup outside. Good thing I took some reading material, having decided to take the day off. In turn, that means the whole weekend off, but hey. I’m retired, and when I reach age 65, I will have been retired fourteen years, and semi retired a good twenty-four years.
Retirement being largely defined by whether or not I have to get up in the morning to go to work. It has been my experience that most people who do that are up to their goddam necks in debt. I borrowed money when I was 21, took ten years to pay it back. But by 22, I had learned not to borrow. Pay only for what you can afford in cash. And you’ll never be “broke”.
Which is why this morning I “scootered” up to the Goodwill and got a book on American battlefields. I was impressed by the tour of Vicksburg last trip out west and only found the park by luck. It as one of the few times I took a freeway, which I had to because of a swamp. I decided this book will be a great reference, since it contains maps, directions, and nearby things to see.
While there, I got some used DVDs, National Lampoon material, and a small metal container I was going to use for buttons, but turned out to be solid brass. I can’t find my brass polish, but when I do, this is gift quality. I’ve decided to give Johnny D a call, as I remembered the last time I ran into him, I could not sing. So that was probably 2009. He’s still doing the single act, but I know those locations pay only $120. I’m never very far from wanting to put together a new lounge act, since that’s the only places I’ve ever made real money with music.
Next, I tried to get my Sony DVD players to work. I have two USB models. The computer keeps coming back saying there is no disk. Everything checks out, but now I remember why I hate Sony. They started going downhill in 1985, they lost their way with the institution of the sick-minded “service contract”. I remember when it didn’t work, Sony replaced it. It was a great system and they messed it up. I finally gave up, It says it is in “computer mode”, but just sits there. If you try to go on-line to find the newest drivers, all the scam site try to trick you into download their driver software scanners and who knows what else.
Hence, the only way I have to watch DVDs is the old GG player, the oldest functioning portable DVD player still in regular usage. The sound is too tiny, the monitor connection is spotty, the remote control works when it wants to, but other than that it is still in service. Shown here is me setting up to play my NatLamp DVD from the second hand store. Alas, they don’t make monitors any more with the type of plugs needed to connect this puppy to a better output setup.
By 6:30PM I’m on-line looking for some small project I can work with. True, I’ve got a dozen unfinished things on the list, but I feel like sawing something. Here’s something, it looks like Sears carries the correct size of saw blade for my Ryobi bandsaw. And at a good price, you don’t expect that from Sears. In the background I had on a documentary of the Anzio operation in WWII. This was one of those military amphibious landings that has dozens of contradictory explanations. Grandstanding generals, soft underbelly theories, and when the advance didn’t happen, it was redefined as a distraction operation.
What fascinated me was the footage. I can see it was pro-American and anti-German, but to convey the fiction that the Germans moved in powerful panzer units in overwhelming strength is just not plausible any more. Germany never had such means. Yet there are pictures of motorized troop columns and endless tanks on railcars flowing over the horizon. Strange that seventy years later, the propaganda machines still cut and paste this petty stock footage. Most of it from the Russian front.
The only thing you can pretty much tell for sure is that there is a reason I’m staying home a lot these days and playing a lot of bass, some study, the standard hunkering down that tips us off something big is in the works. But what could it be? This time, even I’m not sure. I certainly have a sixth sense that something is going to fall out of the sky.
Later, I spent a few hours with my “new” Android tablet. What an abortion that thing is. Nothing is intuitive except playing games. The first thing I want is to use the thing without establishing a Google account. I want nothing to do with Google if possible. Then, I want to download a word processor since I know there isn’t even a free version of notepad, then I want to be able to take pictures and store them in a directory that I can find and manipulate.
I’ve already learned not to ask anybody for help. These so-called power users are fooling themselves. They’ll say sure they know how to do something. When I hear “expert”, I expect somebody to sit down, click, click, click and it is done. Instead they start into that swiping and pinching and waving and on and on. Naturally, after the first two minutes, I’m convinced they don’t know anything more about it than I do. And to date, every one of these “experts” has behaved this way.
And you still get those blank stares, like, why would anyone want to put a word processor on their perfectly good Android? Um, maybe because I would like to do a little work on it instead of playing? But the real reason I quit asking is because every time so far, I had to ask the person to stop after around five minutes because I had to move along—and every time, they were offended. A couple times I asked how far they were into the task, you know, were they half-way, or 75%, and that offended them even more.
My perspective is nothing on a computer takes five minutes to set. Nothing. You can completely configure a computer in less than that if you know what you are doing. The first thing I do with a new computer is go in there and get rid of all the fat and tracking programs. Dump the gimp features, delete the installation files, and set up some required directories that are not automatic. Like “My Spreadsheets” and “My New Installs”. But one time I went for coffee and came back twenty minutes later to find the guy still poking and tapping the screen. Well what the hell am I supposed to think except the guy hasn’t a clue?
As far as using the tablet without a Google account, I know it must be possible, but even Agt. M, who uses his tablet six hours a day, could not just sit down and bypass the system. So I’m on my own. Even going online is useless, because they all think and act alike. You get the same third-grade mentality no matter which site you visit. A simple search like “How do I view Android files” reveals that you appear to be the first and only person who ever asked that question.
The only answer I got on that one was to download a file called “Astro”, but as soon as I saw it was a Google product, I declined. And just as I finished writing this, another magnificent dodo came over to say he knew an absolute computer genius. So he called him and asked how to use an Android without creating a Google account. “No problem,” said the genius, “first you create a Google account . . .”
I hung up on him.
(Actually, that is the first option I eliminated, which is to create an account and then delete it. All this does is alert Google that you did so, and they instantly begin using the dead account data to track you and your position, even when the device is turned off. The first time you check your email or any account, Google establishes a tracking link with your other data. And I feel that knowing how to combat that kind of intrusion is an important skill. But just the thought of a “genius” telling you to do the very thing you just said you didn’t want to do spells “bullshit artist” to me.)
Now remember, I am just learning Android. I never did like it and I’m also the guy who warned the world about Google back in 2002. The world didn’t listen. As far as I’m concerned Google “won out” over far better systems only because they had some kind of covert government support. I’ve always considered Google to be nothing but a police sting operation. If it quacks like a duck . . .
But it is clear to me that Google has a stranglehold on Android and they don’t want people to be able to go in there and muck around with the opsys. I found a couple of products that can replace Google but installing them is not for the faint-hearted. My backup plan is to, I guess, establish a john-smith account, download a word processor and file app, then never go on-line with that tablet again. Better yet, see if I can get Agent Ransack to go in there and outright delete the Google tracking software. That would be fun.
ADDENDUM
Rather than work in the high wind, I took the day off to review the cPod design. When I do that, I’m always amused by the definition of engineer. Did I or did I not “engineer” this design? Probably, because there are no professional standards as to who can call oneself an engineer or technologist. Certainly an engineering degree, while helpful in backing up such a claim, is not any indication of competence. As I said, amused.
It reminds of the the Leuchter Report (no link) because the major criticism of the man was that he is “not an engineer”. That led to the revealing conversation between a Canadian Judge and Leuchter. The Judge said an Arts degree does not entitle anyone say he is an engineer.
To which Leuchter agreed in the sense that neither does a Law degree entitle anyone else to say he is not. (The world got the message and the message is that Canadian Judges essentially do what they are told and the rest of the time do what they perceive makes them look good for the record.)
It’s a small 4” model which I use for various sizes of small rollers. I don’t find using a roller as relaxing as a paintbrush. Maybe because it took me years to learn to use a brush right. Sure, I told you, I prefer to cut in, you can to the rolling. Just you try to keep up with me. For years, I wanted to learn how to do ornamental paint jobs, but never ever got around to it.
And y’day I said the price of a bottle of Bud tells you a lot about a place. So what does a Bud cost at the swanky club? That's a bottle of the real thing, none of that community-glass draft/draught and utterly none of the dreadful "Bud Lite" horse-pee. The real Buds over at Margaritaville all work out to roughly $4.25, so it’s five bucks each, although I feel tipping is fundamentally wrong in the service industry. If you have a great experience and tip only the server, that is hardly fair. What about all the people behind the scenes who did the real work?
Last Laugh
(It got me, so I had to pass it on.)
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