One year ago today: May 8, 2016, last I heard . . .
Five years ago today: May 8, 2012, emphasis on “legitimate”.
Nine years ago today: May 8, 2008, the original namesake trailer court.
Random years ago today: May 8, 2007, piano lessons “in Portuguese”.
Here’s the glue, possibly the wrong type of glue, being spread on the back of the router table. It was flimsier, smaller, and more damaged that I would have ordinarily gone along with, but it had the engaging quality of being free. Most importantly, the table came with a complete set of normally expensive carbide tip blades. These showed signs of being burnt, but that usually an amateur trying to cut the wrong material. There was a nearly complete set of quarter round bits for any size lumber I’d work with. I braced up the table, painted it, then clamped this plate onto the sanded and prepared surface. I have no idea if it will stick. None of my box of glues specified wood to metal.
Moving lumber is one of my least favorite activities so don’t mind when I gloss it over. It is still tiring, grunt labor. Thus, I took an extra break and went up to the donut shop for coffee and the afternoon crossword. It didn’t help, I was still exhausted. So I worked on in exhaustion, I’ve done that before. This router table was rusted and the metal cheap enough to bend and warp. I sanded the working surface down to metal and repainted the entire piece. I also cut and tightly screwed in some wooden reinforcing spars that gave the arrangement a little lateral stability.
Stone wall.
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The lumber and drywall set me back a hundred bucks, but it will not be long before I move into that bedroom. That’s been long enough arriving, what, in December I was antsy about slow progress in that department. I simply had to move slowly along a broad front because without JZ, I was often unsure of what I was doing wrong. Not having any idea how to proceed with cutting the slots into the stiles to fit the glass, I rigged up a small rail on the new router and sliced a slot. The on-line videos show this being done with a saw. I gave that up after some three tries.
How about a siesta? I need to ease up on all this heavy duty labor. Costs for the bedroom this period are $160 for the drywall. That still has to be mudded and sanded. Even using the premix, that won’t be long or cost much. What makes a shrewd comparison is the shed, which has cost more than the bedroom, showing how important that outbuilding is to both my renovations and my stated goal so may years ago of having my own work shop. I’m not that handy, but I’ve always attempted my own repairs.
Thusforth, the shed has psychological importance. All the tools are out there and today I’m hooking up the compressor. Note that the shed is only 8 x 12, less on the interior. That is not enough to cut large planks or sheets, so expect some kind of overhead structure soon. Such major cutting has to be done outdoors so I may put small wheels on my ancient table saw. Which is long overdue for replacement.
“I returned my medical text because
someone had removed the appendix.”
This needs another picture to balance this post. Let me get out my random blog topic generator and see what I’ve got. Here we go, food. Hold on while I go take a picture of some food. Here’s a nice cherry pie about to hit the oven (the tinfoil is to prevent the crust from burning), and a pile of chicken cooling because I also make zee best chicken pie. Visible also are a pot of chicken broth (onions and celery only) and the red hot grill of water for my coffee. I still haven’t replaced my coffee maker.
Let’s talk about the world. I see Verizon is one again pushing for the end of net neutrality, this time at the presidential level. One of their lawyers, I don’t know the guy’s name, but he’s a master of double-talk, has been appointed head of the board that oversees communications. He’s saying he wants to put the Internet on a different legal platform or something to that effect. For those who don’t follow such things, they are pushing for the right to control the speed at which you receive your Internet transmissions. How does that work?
Initially it would mean they could slow down anything to your computer that they didn’t like or who didn’t bribe them enough. Thus, Google would be lightning fast, but if you are wise enough to be using Ixquick, which you should be using, it will slow to a crawl. And of course, once that capability is extended to the private companies, they will start coming up with ever more nefarious ways to put the screws to you. For those who don’t know, information has now passed petroleum as the most valuable commodity on the planet. I predicted this 46 years ago when I first read about databases.
More accurately, I had only read the theories as no real databases really existed at that time. Don’t misunderstand me, databases are a fascinating study. What worries thinking people is what happens when unthinking, uncaring people will do with the information. Can you think of any large and faceless such groups openly operating in this country? I mean, besides the DMV. If so, you’ve just been labeled a conspiracy theorist. What? Oh, it doesn’t matter if there really is a conspiracy, the goal is to insult you, make you cringe, and run away. That’s how the proles win battles, don’t you know.
And you know what constitutes that valuable information? Your personal cell phone, credit records, ATM activity, and computer search history. All of it is recorded and it is worth around $35,000 per person for it’s content, a lot more if you place value on the collection costs. Profiling is only illegal when the police or human resources do it, and even then, only for “official purposes”. Every one of us mentally profiles every person we meet. There is nothing to restrict private companies like Google, Nexus-Lexus, Wells Fargo, or Equifax from buying and selling your private personal information. And guess who has been supplying them with all that data? You got it, people with “nothing to hide”. What? Myself? I haven’t used Google regularly since 2006 when it became apparent what they were up to.
To be exact the most valuable repository of personal information is that kept by Google about the private activities of the American population. (Europe and China restrict Google’s operations.) Both the CIA and FBI have for decades longed to have that volume of information with which to enforce their views of “law enforcement”, where every citizen is marching to their drummer. But the authorities require pesky things like warrants. Plus, even when they get information, they still often have to resort to setting people up to commit crimes, outfight flaking them, or that enduring tradition of standing in front of a car when the driver has a right to leave, then charging him with attempted murder. It used to amaze me how not one Judge in the entire USA was on to that last one, but then I remembered they are on the same side.
It won’t be long before this wholesale information is plugged into police and government databases recording your daily moves anyway. The scary part of the erosion of net neutrality is that it is heading toward metered service. This is already here in a sense with the different grades of service measured in bytes per billing period. But actual metered service depends on a total Big Brother approach to collecting the fee. Since it could only be done electronically, your identity and every move you make on-line and what time of day would become a matter of record. But since anti-conspiracy people never run yellow lights even by accident, nor spit on the sidewalk, nor have an address coincidentally similar to a drug dealer, they have not a thing to worry about. And neither do their perfect and well-behaved children.
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