One year ago today: August 22, 2015, that triangle-headed newsboy.
Five years ago today: August 22, 2011, gone missing.
Nine years ago today: August 22, 2007, redneck garden.
Random years ago today: August 22, 2012, United States Printing Press.
MORNING
Told ya. The babe blonde and the Russian market got her boyfriend and it was all downhill after that. I saw her this morning when I went in for kvas and hardly recognized the shape. Gone babushka, including the now-perpetual scowl. And you wonder why I never just married the first one. Guys, long engagement is the way to go. So that her every tomorrow depends on today. Here’s a picture of the kvas. Yes, I’m aware some think that arrangement is unfair to the woman, but any other arrangement is unfair to the man. You know who said that famous statement? Me, when I was 16.
My advertising is set out, I have news that JZ has purchased the van. And further news that it may not be ready for any runs up to Lakeland. I’ve got to get this place sold because all my own research projects are stalled. My gear and textbooks are all up at the cabin. If I didn’t say, this last trip saw no work done on the place, it was mainly unpacking the things needed to pretend life is normal. It isn’t and won’t be until this place is gone.
This is a repeated conversation, since this is the third time I’ve moved from a larger city to a smaller place. This is against the trend in America and in some places is considered retreating. Allow me to point out both previous times I “moved down” in the world had positive outcomes. The first instance, I left university to go to college, which resulted in my figuring out how to end my own poverty cycle.
The second time, I landed my career at the phone company. So it isn’t as if by moving to a smaller town, I’m giving up. The population density where I moved is comparable to the cities where I lived, so any day-to-day differences are hardly a factor. How often do I travel ten miles from home on a daily basis? The bigger the city, the bigger the rat race because there are more rats. Let me tell you about big-city rules for that game.
The concept of competition is not so based on Cheery, good-natured business rivalry as the Liberal class would have you believe. My completion does not consist of a small cadre of highly efficient robot and computer minded opponents whom I must best to succeed. Hell no, my competition is tens of millions of ignorant illegals, drop-outs, dunces, and freeloaders who tax me to death and gobble up resources. The minute you try to build a better boat, they’ll all jump on board and sink you. This is hardly the friendly picture painted by economists when they tell you of the efficiencies of capitalism
For those following my fictitious analysis of the silver market, the past couple days have been a revelation. The banks have banded together to drop the price fifty cents at a time, one exchange at a time, once a day. Today the Globex fell from $19.35 to $18.80 on opening. These sharp drops in that pattern are a dead giveaway of market manipulation of the brand the SEC is paid to ignore when they aren’t supporting Hillary. Or as the SEC puts things, “It ain’t illegal when the banks do it.”
The method is simple—the banks are the biggest silver buyers and they simply let the exchange know when to expect a large order at a low price. The brokers quickly get the message and advise all other trading to stop—but they can’t hold back the tide forever. The total price drop has been nearly two dollars per ounce since last week. Keep your eyes peeled.
I-80, Berkeley.
NOON
Here’s a peek at the new Arts Center finally showing some headway up the road. I should explain that the concept of “art” is misleading over this property. It isn’t like a museum or place that will exhibit art, that was a complete fake out. The idea was to get the city to approve the rezoning of the land to multiple something or other. Nobody is sure what happened on that one except the group that lined their pockets.
It is condos, pure and simple. I have not read the paperwork, my knowledge of the situation is based on what people perceived from the notices that went up for the re-zoning hearing. Even the artist’s renderings made it look much like a type of exhibition hall.
Let’s tale kitchens. I don’t know about kitchens, but I’m reading a book on the topic. I’m drawing my attention to ratios, like how much prep counter to cupboard space and how much room for gadgets, storage, and even how many drawers are appropriate for differing family sizes. There isn’t much out there that addresses this concern, it is mainly about how much cabinetry can be fit into existing dimensions. Still, I’ll read it in case it becomes important later.
The way I have the new layout in my mind, whether anyone entered from the front or side doors, they would be walking directly into the combined kitchen-dining area. I’ll do some thinking about this, as I might not appreciate random blasts of wind with the types of work I do on a table. Does the front door necessarily have to open as wide as it does now, or just into a small hallway? As usual, wait for the model.
The electrical wiring is something else. I now have all the boxes, switches, and receptacles from my vast robotics inventory, so that leaves the wiring. If I do nothing until mid-September, bearing in mind the existing electric works just fine, I may be able to afford a large bulk purchase of what is projected. That’s enough wire for the house, the porch, the new sun room, and the work shed. I’m sitting here all day waiting for a buyer, but I’m also getting some thinking done.
Twenty percent of the viewings have been from Latinos. I can’t help wondering what effect this is having on the office, who for 30 years have kept this place whiter than white. While touching on uncommon statistics, mailing letters outside of America as become so expensive I have established an account number on the books. You know the score—Mexico & Canada, and soon Hawaii & Alaska, are no longer in North America.
NIGHT
I’m exhausted. That means don’t talk to me, don’t bump into me. The good news is this is not jet lag again, not this lucky time around. Actually, luckier for me than the trailer court. The Internet went down roughly 8:00PM and the lot of them panicked. Once that office closes at noon, it is three words I ain’t gonna say. I sat down and wrote a letter to an old friend. Whaddaya mean everybody else didn’t do the same?
Then I went back to my study on kitchen cabinets. Yeah, I suppose that is a skill in itself. I once knew a guy who did that but nobody would pay him what he was worth. So cabinetry is a lot like programming in that sense. Did you get that laugh that DC says all schoolchildren should learn to code? It makes sense, since they don’t know how to spell or grasp basic grammar, as in punctuation marks. No idiot left behind.
ADDENDUM
Book Ten is where things get interesting again. The author (Stone) has been spoon-feeding us along, but the descriptions of events in old England again are more interesting than Darwin’s family. The Glass Palace, the newspaper tax affair, times they are a-changing. Worse, the foundations of English class distinctions are eroding. You see, the English held that it was sin that made people poor. If those people would quit with the immoral behavior, they would naturally become prosperous.
Ah, but this is also the era when upper class members are being caught robbing trains, embezzling, and abusing public office. Just maybe bad behavior is not confined to the lower orders, and all that entails. What’s becoming clearer is that other writers are also reacting to the hordes of new plant and animal specimens pouring into England as she attempts to take over the world by naval power.
I’ll take you off on a tangent here and explain what the core issue is. I am not attempting to convert anyone; I’m only putting Darwin’s evolution theory into perspective for those without the time to chase it down themselves. There were many theories at Darwin’s time [and now] as to how different species arose, but dogma was that the hand of God was behind them all. There were as many wimps around in 1850 as today and nobody wanted to stick their neck out by suggesting any other cause but the Divine. Many people knew that evolution was taking place—but they did not know what was causing it. For the Bible said God was behind it all.
What Darwin and everybody knew was that if every plant or animal that was born or sprouted lived, the entire Earth would be choked in a few dozen generations. Darwin noticed that instead, only a very small number of each species lived to maturity. The odds of survival were very small indeed, everything in Nature held everything else in check. So, what was determining who survived and who did not?
Darwin proposed that in every species, there must be a continual but small number of individuals who have slight variances that increase their chances of reaching maturity, and thus of passing those slight variances on to their offspring—to the detriment of others of their own species. Thus, it was this struggle for survival against uncountable odds (natural selection) that causes each species to vary and change—and this process does not require a God.
It also explained why so many existing species had fossil records, and why animal populations on small islands eventually differed from their mainland “cousins”. They have a common ancestor, but have evolved into different species. There, have you ever had it explained so simple?
Last Laugh
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