One year ago today: March 9, 2016, 3,000 unidentified animals.
Five years ago today: March 9, 2012, 99% artificial people.
Nine years ago today: March 9, 2008, bancaroto.
Random years ago today: March 9, 2011, on Digital Rights Management.
Cancel the trip to Auburndale. There was a near gale windstorm all morning, the accuweather saying gusts to 21 mph, but it was more like 31 mph. Not motorcycle weather.
This is the sort of wiring arrangement that would have scared me off not that many years ago. It is the refurbished original 1978 solenoid, now rewired into the motorcycle electronics. The yellow wires are robot-grade new work. Function is indicated by different colored connectors, not colored wires. You’re looking at test mode, and yes, it fired right up instantly, good to go. Moments later, this wiring will be neatly zap-strapped and tucked into a pocket next to the battery.
The watchdog Ukrainian guy was on this morning, but often his topics are only scarcely connected to Wall Street. Today was one, where he states with some justification that the people in California are collectively insane. And if you get a situation where solutions don’t work, you institute preventions. He was talking about the school system, which was okay before the government took over and started giving everybody a trophy. Or two. I’ve listened to the show before on this count, though until I moved to this more relaxed lifestyle, it was never top story, at least not by name.
I have an effective proposition to make, and it contains just as much sense as the rest. It works like this, you know when Trey Gowdy gets one of those squirming worms who will not answer the question. Well, you give the rest of the room a squelch button. As long as the speaker avoids the question, they get bleeped—and they are not allowed leave the room until they answer the question. Outrageous? Not at all, if it was me, it would be an electrical jolt that increases in intensity each time.
In another sad episode, my favorite and uncoincidentally most expensive Corningware baking dish is no more. Yes, that’s another top story today, how many times I gotta tell you I’m retired? Just not over 65 retired. Taking it out of the oven, I set it down on one of the burners which must have been still hot.
There, I said Corningware. What more proof do you need this blog began as a daily log? If you are retired, read this blog and weep, if you are not retired, this is what you have to look forward to—if you’re smart and lucky. This, and those Hine’s roasted peanuts in the shell that never have enough salt, you get to look forward to that, too. If you have bigger disappointments than that after you retire, you haven’t been paying attention. I should sell excerpts from this blog as practical advice you can’t buy from the fancy consultants. The ones who tell you to save up $2 million. The sad part is that for the run-of-the-mill dumb-bunny, they are mostly right.
The counter-argument goes along like not everybody can play the system off like I’m suggesting. That’s true, but not only have I never claimed such a thing was possible, you should factor in that this is exactly what the rich have always done—if you could only stand back far enough to see it. You work for money, they make money work for them. That you cannot win against the system is not an excuse to give up and not even try to find the imperfections that bank in your favor.
The loopholes are out there but designed so not everybody can find them. Nor would the system work if everybody could. To make matters worse, the same loopholes would not work for everybody. This is something so many people fail to understand, right Wallace? Tell them how cheating doesn’t work for you, mainly because you never learned to do it right. When you do it right, it is called “business acumen”. You don’t have any and you disrespect those of us who do.
Chinese missile and radar base.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Next, I’m taking a look at the drywall and its role in soundproofing. That’s where I learned of a product called green glue. It’s a foamy gel that fits between two sheets of drywall so they are not in direct contact. The theory goes that this glue never sets. When sound from one direction hits one side, the glue transforms that vibration into heat. It never reaches the other side of the wall. Makes sense to me. It is to be used in addition to R-13 insulation.
My interior renovations amount to two walls and the removal of a third wall. Since framing partitions is familiar territory to me, there is no reason I shouldn’t look into this product. Also, taking a sample of the old drywall in to the lumberyard reveals I have only 1/2” thick walls. I guess it just felt heavier when I removed it by hand. And while the room can be finished on three sides with only six sheets of 12’ drywall, I have no way of conveniently getting that length of board into the room. Using 8’ sheets would mean only six more seams to tape and mud.
I found my copy of “Freakonomics”. It’s a book I tend to read in chapters here and there, since it gives that rare background on why conditions exist. Most books on the matter simply explain to death how the system works and never touch on the detailed history. I read up on the Back Disciple Gang, the Chicago street drug bunch kind of semi-famous because the leader was a college grad who ran it as a business, even keeping a set of books. It’s just one chapter, but there is a fantastic story in the workings, since the drug crack cocaine had to alter the fundamental structure of society to make it such a financial success.
Part of that is, I think, due to the somewhat unique American business model. It is full of middle-men that you don’t find in most cultures. While you have your standard lower, middle, and upper classes of people in the organization, America tolerates a far larger group in the middle. This suits the way Americans think and operate. The college drug dealer was really middle management and did not actually sell anything himself. After that, well, as Freakonimics says, there are more blacks willing to sell cocaine in Chicago than there are street corners. The result is gang wars.
[Author's note: many of the concepts contained in Ann Coulters stance against single mothers were pioneered by one of the authors of Freakonomics. He proposed abortion amongst black single mothers as a method of crime control. You can imagine the furor, but to date, nobody has proven him wrong.]
I've decided to leave this graphic in place, as it seems to be the message that appears on sites blocked by the liberal-nazi media. You know, Nazi as in a state within a state that encourages violence and disrupts the political meetings of opponents.
“I bought a vacuum last year and
all it’s done since is gather dust.”
I dropped by the museum again. It is made up of small exhibits fit into the rooms of the old courthouse. Hence, it is my style because you can go there to examine a particular theme. This is not saying there is any logical order over there. Here’s a picture of a writing desk in a hotel room. While my ex would be surprised that some people would actually write letters in a hotel room, you can see the obvious lure of room service. The desk is authentic, so is the coffee pot, but explain that bell-shaped object with the spike on top. And I remember those matching pen sets, I had many of them as awards when I was young. I still had them when I got to university.
What was less popularly known is many of the hotels had mattresses set up around the steam piping in the basement where you could sleep overnight for $5 or $6, often with other men bunking nearby who snored like chain saws. I know of a few who permanently lived that way. The door locked at 11:00 PM and generally, the clientele was very well behaved, almost never asking questions. Nobody ever talked, no gambling or booze was allowed, I never actually met any of them. Try that today, even if the health department would let you sleep wherever you wanted.
Some of them had a rule you had to be out before 7:00AM in case the inspector arrived. I’d stayed as long as a week in some places, looking for work. It was bizarre to see some old guy who had been living in such a basement for twenty years clean-shaven in a suit and tie during the day, the epitome of the successful businessman. But I was always able to find work, as could anybody back before they opened the immigration floodgates. I never stayed very long, yet let me tell you how one appreciated those steam pipes when it was below zero outside by mid-September, when the semester started.
If it had not been for those basements, I would not have traveled before I was 21, after which time I slept in my car, only renting a room with a light during university semesters. This is where I found out, no matter how dedicated the student, your marks fall when you live in uncomfortable surroundings. The best place I had was a one-window attic with a view of the neighbor’s roof.
I kept it two years because at the time, I was dating a doctor’s daughter, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, a.k.a. “Eatmore”. Like everybody else, I had no way of knowing that would be the happiest time of my youth. Maybe I like museums the more when they trigger these memories. I did not keep a journal until after I was 25, meaning a great deal of the adventure has been forgotten.
[Author’s note: these basement rooms were not to be confused with the hobos of the 1930s. The men who stayed in these basements often called them “hostels” and would have barely been children in the 30s. Many were unemployed dropouts, or between shifts on the pipelines or oil rigs. I never heard of any violence or misconduct in this group and in fact, many of them were more cultured than the local citizenry, if I must say so myself.]
ADDENDUM
I had “Altar of Eden” on the living room speakers as I did the chores. That’s the audio book that’s chasing the saber-tooth around the bayou. I’m still on disk 4 of 9 as the plot has completely degenerated into a soap opera. Lorna has begun to notice when the forest ranger gives orders, there is now a tone of real concern in his voice. When she accidentally falls or trips into his arms every other chapter, she “does not resist”. Just where do you suppose Lorna is going with that?
As a reminder, I am listening to the audio book, not reading the text. While most of these audio books are exceedingly well done, they can also come across as quite corny when they try to portray subtleties normally found only in prose. The pace is also slower than reading so anybody with an active imagination will keep getting ahead of the plot. I think this is going to wind up in the old 1992 Universal Soldier theme, but with the experiments on animals.
The only clue so far is the mention that the mutated animals from the shipwreck all have an extra pair of genes, and these genes are the same in each animal. If you listen closely, the story does contain some leading edge scientific theory, like the emerging concept that it is the Earth's magnetism that first enabled cells to retain intelligence. Very obscure stuff.
Last Laugh
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