One year ago today: December 7, 2014, one man’s junkyard.
Five years ago today: December 7, 2010, classic 'nothing' day.
Nine years ago today: December 7, 2006, AOL, a legal virus.
Random years ago today: December 7, 2002, Project 21.
MORNING & NOON
On local business, and because I like my audience, I’m going to discuss making money. But in a roundabout way. The last thing I would ever do, I’m obligated to say, is to counsel anyone to commit a crime. No sir, that is entirely your own decision. Having said that, today’s philosophy will center on never breaking the law. Bending it maybe, but never breaking it. What brought this one was this book by Suze Orman and its ilk. These books only work under two conditions.
2) That you are willing to go through your entire youth and middle age with your nose to the grindstone, blindly trusting that there will be a payoff in the end. Trusting that the government won’t start raising the retirement age the day you turn 50, or that they won’t pump $4 trillion phony dollars into the system and send butter up to $6 per pound.
If you can honestly see those two circumstances, then these long-term investment books are what you need. However, if you are realistic, you will look around you and realize there is one massive overriding principle at work: You will NEVER get rich my obeying every law in the land. You can’t win by following a rulebook that is continually being re-written by the other team. But don’t dismay, there are options. The laws that stop you from making a fast buck are the laws that stop others as well.
Think of two more closely- related principles. First, it isn’t illegal when the President does it. Second, it’s a fool who thinks the law is evenly applied. It is this second principle I’d like to go into more detail, so go get a cup of tea or something. I’ll wait. Think of what “unevenly” means. If a man merely arranges to meet a female on the Internet who claims to be over 18, he can face decades in Federal prison. But if a lady schoolteacher has a full-fledged on-going sex affair with minor boys in her class, she gets a year’s probation.
Now, if we can agree the law is selective and unfair, it is only right that one should examine in greater part what that means, as far as getting rich. If the system can pick and choose who gets prosecuted, the trick is to not get caught. Ask 30 million illegal immigrants. As long as there is no violence and you don’t draw attention to yourself, there is an obvious good chance you will be overlooked. Most none violent criminals appear to be caught by secondary means, somebody goes over the records looking for a profile. Or they do something ostentatious, like a new Cadillac parked in the hood. If you are stupid, nobody can help.
Overall, when it comes to investing, it is wisest to deal in cash. Work alone. But it is also wise to make sure not to create a paper trail either. I’ve written profiling software and the tiniest details, if you hand me enough of them, will finger you every time. Clever people never use a debit card, they withdraw fixed amounts from their account at regular intervals. So anybody examining the statements gets nothing they can use—in the sense to snoop further, they would have to ask you or tail you, both of which blows their cover.
Next, the problem of that uneven law. Suppose you want to make an investment but find there is a law against it. As with the President, it is not a crime unless you get caught. However, the system is designed to catch lawbreakers, so let’s examine a curious aspect of uneven law. If you get caught, what is the penalty? Very often the penalty can be less than the payoff. I know that if I could scoop $20 million and do six months in minimum for a first offence, there would be very, very, very little stopping me. Calculating the penalty-to-payoff odds is a very important part of investment planning, if the truth were known.
So, should one ignore the working class investment advice of the Ormans of this nation? No, you should always have some standard investments, if only as a cover story. Always have a cover story. Ah, you want an example? Okay, Bob and Mary both invest in Caterpillar stocks. Trump embargoes Chinese machinery and Caterpillar soars. Both Bob and Mary make $100,000 each.
Ah, but you see, Bob had a little cash booth at the flea market on the side and Mary did not. If Bob and Mary both go out and buy $50,000 cars, who will have more money left at the end of the day? Bob, because he can easily explain away the expenditure, when in fact part of the price was proceeds from his little cash flow business on the side. I’m not saying it is right, I’m saying it happens all the time.
America has a mature investment climate. That means all of the standard or “easy” ways to wealth are long gone. You have to take advantage of some changing situation and that is more likely to be happenstance than any clever moves on your part. You can’t just be at the right place at the right time, you have to have some cash investment capital with you. You have to understand the odds against you, which can take years of dedicated study. You have to deal in cash, alone, and anonymously.
Of course, remember when the time comes, to correctly fill out your tax return. They got Al Capone on that one. When the money you make is in cash, then the tax form works the way it was first intended. That is, through self-assessment. It ain’t self-assessment when they have your 1099s.
I’ve watched people who are known as frugal. What I see is shrewd operators. They have income on the side, which they use to pay their living expenses and “bank their paychecks”. But only up to the limit of what others can see. It looks like their entire paycheck is being prudently spent on household costs. Hence, every penny can be justified. It’s a form of money laundering. Because you don’t see when they leave town, the $10,000 they spend on holidays, or the wad they put in the slot machines. If they hit the jackpot, they’ll claim beginner’s luck, if not, they look tired and shabby, as if they went fishing.
Again, there is nothing here to advocate any wrong-doing. It is to point out that the people who do make any real gains while still young enough to enjoy it do not go by the book.
AFTERNOON
What’s this, a poll in Iowa showing somebody ahead of Trump? All that does is bring the validity of the poll into question, after all, Monmouth University isn’t exactly known for keeping totally in touch with reality. The rest of the candidates can only gain ground by aping Trump. And to date, none of them has faced the reality of the threats to this country. Trump said it, you can’t win against something if you are even afraid to say it.
Here’s a photo of the loose wire this morning. Hard to get at without removing the seat, so I spliced it though this gap, robot style. I learned this technique from studying robot battery placement. You need the power supply as near to the center of gravity as practical, but that can make replacing it tricky. It’s that yellow wire below my thumb that tends to work its way loose over time. Not no more.
Another lesson from experience is splicing wires. I used to use those round type, but they can corrode shut. Now, I use the more expensive spade type ends, you can see the female type on the end of the yellow wire. They hold just as well, but you don’t have to practically destroy them if you need to uncouple them in the future.
Now I’m really pissed. The replacement battery for the Ryobi is not $34, it has shot up to $50. My files were a little incomplete, but that old battery was not charged more than 30 times, nowhere near the 54 times I thought initially. (The confusion was there were two identical batteries.) I’m of a mind to ship them both to Ryobi and say, “Keep them.”
There is a potential source of error that would be my fault. If you examine the charger I’ve been using closely, it says “Charge+”, not “One+” as do the battery packs. However, my model P110 is rated for NiCad. If it is incompatible, that would be an easy error, so easy that I would still blame Ryobi. If plugging the packs into that charger could damage the battery or shorten its lifespan, then Ryobi had no business making them a similar size and shape where the different types of batteries would even fit.
Ryobi has never been all that high-quality a brand and once the “Made in China” tag started appearing, it got worse. The problem now is that the batteries have become so expensive, for a few dollars more, you can buy the whole new tool, new battery included.
I’ve invested in their smallest lithium rechargeable, which requires a special charger. This is basically to test it, but Ryobi has lost face for me. Aside to the lady in the Goodwill who was eyeing me. You’ll have to do better. She had evidently read all those how-to books on how to spot a single man in the electronics section. I was amused by her “chase me” antics. She does not appear aware that I, too, have read all those books. Then again, nor do I feel I do or have anything that a woman that old would find attractive.
If I did, I’d consider getting it amputated. It’s not that I love the old ones less, but that I love the young ones more. Millions of years of evolution versus the Judeo-Christian guilt trip. I’m afraid the “proper” age spread for marriage comes in a distant second around here. What’s next? Marry a fat girl for her personality? Sorry, I ain’t anywhere near that old yet.
EVENING
A dirth of real estate. The winter doldrums have arrived, there is nothing out there. Well, except for people trying unload dumps and ghetto rehabs. I’ve convinced JZ that we have to spend the November money and we should do it before Xmas. Because there is a budget for two to three days in a motel if we find a likely area. As said, the Tampa-Orlando corridor is coming into focus, a stretch affectionately known as “Mulberry”. Because everyone likes that name.
Half of the real Mulberry is for sale. Some subdivision called “Paradise Lakes” is clearing out, but it is all land lease, so good luck. I mean, what are people supposed think when suddenly 25 mobile homes some on the market in a week in one location. You’ll find the pad rental doubled or something to that effect. Deland is completely dried up, nothing even worth looking at these days. That scum who keeps advertising "near Stetson" is still at it. When you call, he pretends he made a mistake and says he meant "Stetson Arena". You don't wnat to live near there.
Happy b’day, Eatmore, my first true love.
ADDENDUM
Meanwhile, I’m setting about calculating the excavation volume of Lake Placid, FL. A phone convo with JZ indicates neither of us has heard of any theory that Lake Okeechobee originated from a meteor hit. (I use meteor because it is easier to type than meteorite, okay. We claim this theory as original because the existing sources, such as Wiki, would undoubtedly have said something if this was the case. Remember, we don’t have to be right. We only have to be first.
Progress. I have the geographical locations of the 200 highest hills in Florida on a spreadsheet, including the elevations. There appear to be two groups of hills, one in the middle of the state, the other in the north. I will treat then as separate formations unless something in my developing pin chart infers otherwise. Lake Okeechobee is 730 square miles averaging 9 feet deep. Lake Placid has a surface area of 3,320 acres and an average depth of 23 feet, but that may be due to a dam. The water volume is also suspect for the same reason, as is the height above sea level (92 feet).
What is difficult is finding ridges. The public seems more interesting in the height of hills than the length and position of ridges. Yet the more I think about it, I need to know where those ridges, if any, rest in relation to the lakes. A cursory glance at the terrible topographical maps available on-line show that Florida’s highest hills run in the wrong direction, that is north-south, and too far west from any meteor trajectory that would cause Lake Placid.
But, if the meteor broke up in the air and Lake Okeechobee was merely the largest piece, that would be more logical. A meteor approaching from the southeast might just cause the innumerable small lakes to the northwest of Okeechobee. Another possibility is that the meteor was of lighter material and not traveling all that fast when it hit. The spinning of the Earth west to east could account for some of the offset of the lakes and ridges, if the meteor was slow enough.
Still another thought is the meteor hit as such a shallow angle, it slowed and skipped like a stone over the water, breaking up as it went. As for why there is no reported trace of meteor debris in the area, it may be that nobody has ever looked. And there are no rules as to the composition of meteors. Take the crater in Arizona. No sizeable trace of that object has ever been found.
Last Laugh
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