One year ago today: January 22, 2015, we love pancakes.
Five years ago today: January 22, 2011, millionaires planting carrots.
Nine years ago today: January 22, 2007, routine maintenance.
Random years ago today: January 22, 2009, analyzing MIDI tracks.
MORNING
Y’day we also looked at green roofs. It turns out to be a much larger topic than supposed. While I had in mind a cottage like in the Faroes, there are huge industries bucking to put entire mini-forests on the roofs of thousands of downtown city buildings. Trivia. The grass growing on the roof is a side-effect of the construction. I found out that traditional Swedish houses, where this practice began, were shingled with birch bark. The sod was placed on top to keep the birch bark in place. The buildings in this picture are in the Faroe Islands.
Wait, there’s more. In Germany, 10% of all buildings have a green roof. However, there is no agreement on whether rooftop “container gardens” are the same thing. The roofs also retain a lot of rainwater, so cities with antiquated sewer systems are encouraging the practice. But these roofs reputedly also keep in more pollutants, so it is up to you if you want to grow food instead of flowers.
As for cost, most sources say it is $20 per square foot, not including the extra waterproofing layer needed on the existing structure. It also looks heavy, but precious little data is available on that point. My conclusion? The concept smacks a little too much of being pushed as a New Age fad. I’d have to see one and talk to the inhabitants. And why are they mostly seen in cold climates?
”If Helen Keller had psychic ability, would you say she had a fourth sense?” – George Carlin
Whoever booked a vacation in Florida this winter has been burned. And that’s not sunburned, There were exactly four days of good weather since November 15. Every other day was either too cold or it was raining. Today it is both, and the forecast says even colder. That’s all this economy needs is another season of the tourists leaving early again. In another couple of weeks, it will be too late for anyone who has overextended themselves hoping 2016 would be a good year.
It could be flipped for a $100,000 profit. But I never much liked Tennessee. Too cold in the winters. Below is another picture of another house in the same area. This one is a mite more rustic. It has to be, it was the last home of Davey Crockett before he decided to go get immortalized at the Alamo. You want the real story of that brave last stand? The guys in the mission all thought they could lip off Santa Ana because they believed a huge relief column was on the way. So the Alamo was a timing error caused by lack of smart phones.
Blog rules say I have to tell you if anything strange or unusual or extreme happens, even if on a given day that amounts to something otherwise boring. I dropped in for coffee at the café after grocery shopping, it was fairly empty due to the rain and cold. There was one lady at the counter having the soup. It is quite a bowlfull they serve, though I’ve never had it. Well, this lady ate the soup funny.
She took her time, fishing out every carrot and celery piece and carefully arranging them in a pattern around the rim of the saucer. When she was done, all the carrot slices were to the right, the celery to the left, arranged in kind of floral pattern, very neatly done. Sorry, a picture would have been too obvious. But imagine an empty soup bowl with a “wreath” of carrot and celery wedges all around the perimeter.
And as far as the color schemes on Win 7 and above. They were designed by assholes. No, you can’t say they were just stupid. Ain’t nobody that stupid. They are assholes. The maps and file drawbars can’t be seen on an ordinary computer and there is no color scheme readily found that corrects that. Or how about that ridiculous Win 8 search. Even if it finds your file instantly, it won’t display it until it finishes searching the entire rest of the drive.
And you wonder why these people complain there are no good jobs. Well, dickheads, because if there were, you think they want peckerheads like common core losers in there doing them? At least the people overseas who can’t read or write English have an excuse.
NIGHT
Working the Tascam to record old filler music for my videos, I noticed that many of really “snappy” TV themes songs from early shows are 188 beats per minute. Remind me to remember that or something. Funny as it seems, it is my penchant for playing these riffs that can irk guitar players. It’s simple, when the guitar player does exactly the same thing, it isn’t special or novel.
I did this before, but let me calculate how many guitar players are in this area. Florida has 5.84% of the population. There are reportedly 23 million guitar players in the USA. Therefore 1,343,200 of them live in Florida, statistically. Broward has a population of 1,780,172. That means 9.8% of those guitarists, or 131,633 of them live within driving distance of my place.
Let’s suppose 1% of those players are good enough. I should have a selection from 1,316. Yet in 9 years it has proven impossible to find one who can learn new music, much less be willing to learn music he does not personally like. They’d rather sit at home with cable TV, it seems. And that does not surprise me. I doubt there are 131 working bands in this county, so that means ten unemployed guitarists for each group. Ha, and they all play Hotel California half to death.
Last Laugh
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