One year ago today: August 4, 2016, justify having nothing.
Five years ago today: August 4, 2012, my credit score: 815.
Nine years ago today: August 4, 2008, a staff of 38,000.
Random years ago today: August 4, 2007, I attempt basic Mandarin, unsuccessfully.
Good God, I wish somebody would please go tell those damned liberal media people that we don’t want to hear any more about this Russian thing. Even if it is true and everybody is guilty as hell, we don’t want to hear about it. Obviously you’ve agreed between yourselves to blow this thing out of proportion and flog it to death. Well, you are the ones who should be flogged. Please just STFU, will you? Nobody is going to change their point of view just because you are being dicks about the whole thing.
Nor am I the only one not happy with that situation. True, you can avoid surveillance by not going on-line, but that is like saying if you don’t like the traffic laws, don’t drive. The system is designed so that you have to do these things or suffer massive inconvenience. Mozilla is hitting back with a reputedly incredible new browser designed to take on the evil Google chrome. According to JummyR, this version of Firefox is due out in early 2018 and I will be one of the first to check it out. Mozilla is the grand-daddy of Firefox but it was wiped out when MicroSoft began essentially giving away Internet Explorer for free.
When they were slapped with an anti-trust suit, Gates did the same thing that always worked before—he dragged it out in court until the competition went under. He claimed it was an integral part of Windows 95 and could not be separated from the operating system. This was, of course, pure bunk, but Mozilla went kaput and has been the free (advertisement supported) Firefox browser ever since. This time, part of their strategy was to wait for Google to get too enormous to cheaply fight back.
Bavarian farm.
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Summer heat or not, I roughed in the west and north walls of the living room. That’s four duplex receptacles in two hours, which gives the impression I’m getting faster at it. Nope, but I have learned to set the work area up in advance to make the electrical easier and these are not working circuits yet. However as soon as temp power is connected, they will be fully functional.
Agt. R drilled into his finger, so guitar practice is out for tonight. I poked by head into the attic and I have enough spare 14/2 wire to run some lighting up there, y’know. The only expensive part would be a pilot light switch so those lamps won’t get left on. This is in addition to an attic fan, or fans. There is up to a 16°F heat difference on the shady north side of the building, if I can tap into that for the cost of a couple of fans, I’ll do what it takes.
Finishing that room has become priority enough to cancel my trip to Tennessee to view the eclipse. I remember the one I saw as a child crystal clear, like it was y’day. It wasn’t quite a full eclipse, but I got the idea. This trip would also have cost a bit more than I was prepared to spend, since I would have had to stay in motels. The backup plan is still that fall trip, say October, to see the covered bridge, the mansions, and the leaves turning color. That would be a fully-funded trip to the point of luxury, since by then I’ll know where I stand with long-term financing.
“If you are going to be dumb,
you’ve got to be tough.”
~ William Wendt
NPR radio was in the background during my wiring session. I lament the lack of decent stations in the area, it’s mostly bad music, which is loosely defined as old rock, foreign, new country, or jazz. The few easy listening stations that are mostly repetitive commercials for outfits that are borderline scams. Like mortgage refinancing or that place that says they’ll pay you $100 for your broken windshield. Armed Forces radio and Bushnell Adultery radio don’t pick up in the summertime, so it’s NPR or nothing.
Today’s treat was women dissatisfied with on-line dating sites. The show was about honesty and naturally, these dating clubs came up. It was fun, but frustrating fun because I’d like to get on that show and cross-examine a lot of these “ladies” on their backgrounds. We had the same bunch in my day. They’d run off with the local wino, or spend their years in college screwing everybody on the sports team, then wind up at 25 wondering what happened to all the good men. Duh. Yes, I know it’s a double standard but that standard works both ways. Unlike young women, most men have to at least try when it comes to a variety of non-hired sex partners.
The joke is, women wanted equality and now they can’t deal with it. I nearly fell off the ladder laughing at this one who was 29 and bitching that she could not find a man with a “steady income”. The lady emcee asked her how many men she had already dated and the reply was “about ten a year”. The emcee, doing the math, asked her to categorize the occupations of the men she already dated. The answer was, “Well, one was a college professor.”
Ha, like when she was 19 I suppose. The others either didn’t have a job or she didn’t know what they did for a living. Hmmm, where have we seen this before? She squandered her charms sleeping around for fun and now nobody will touch her. I met so many like that during my years at the phone company, the ones too dense to know they can’t have it both ways. They shack up with losers and think none of it rubs off. Ladies, every guy you’ve ever done drips off you like a layer of cracking rust and good men can subconsciously detect this. By osmosis. From terrific distances.
The blogability of all this is that if she had been a man looking for a woman, I would have identified with her problems. The world is full of women like her, so she has to keep looking, possibly forever, like me with my quest—except that I stand a chance. My mistake was I thought as women grew older, they would grow smarter and begin looking for that man who was not the same screw-up as the others. Boy, was I wrong on that count. Women always fall for the guy who gives them the biggest plausible line of bullshit, no matter what. And that’s a skill I never honed.
Still, don’t write me off all at once. One of the things I like to do is tell the truth and let women conclude it is bullshit, clever gender that they are. T’ain’t braggin’ if you done it and I regularly break the ice with entire groups of women. You should just listen to some of the crap I come up with. Robots, bands, sidecars, satellites, blogs, computers, books, microscopes, toothpicks, travel, it just never ends.
ADDENDUM
The book, “Bones”, is so far timeless, it could have been written last week. I was wrong about it being a period piece as the author has intentionally gone out of his way to avoid most telltale hints of that. It’s not the first time I’ve browsed a book and read the best parts by pure chance. Even the early reference to “a desk full of computer equipment” doesn’t date itself by describing any of it. In 1984, despite working for a telecommunications company, I was the only employee of 15,000 who had a complete home computer setup, so I know that writer exercised restraint, the urge to brag about what is state-of-the-art.
This has implications. To this day, I know of nobody my own age who is of any help in using computers. Whenever something new comes to market, I still have to figure it out on my own. I first communicated by modem in 1981. Remember, we are talking my age group. While I know dozens of people who belatedly learned to use the computer for amusement, none of them troubleshoot, repair, install, or maintain their equipment. Except for the guy who ran the repair shop, my generation are so far nothing but followers. That’s polite for a pack of nobodies. Even the repair guy still calls me when he runs into files he can’t open.
I made two videos y’day. One of baking cookies, the other on the new laptop. I sent it to eight people, two of whom wrote back they were unable to open or play the files. Chances are they tried to use a phone or an iPad. And the majority I just know were only able to play them because things worked right after they pushed the customary button. The chap that sold me the laptop was more knowledgeable than usual, but I found I had to haul ass when I saw lightning flashes on the horizon and heard Jesus being worked into the conversation.
The fact is, I rarely discuss religion and even then it is in the context of theology. Kind of how each one is a flawed and contradictory philosophy. Around JZ, a devout Catholic, not once in 18 years have we discussed any merits or made any comparisons. I stand by my rule that the only way to spread religion is by quiet good example, and that is one thing I have never met any one who could do that. I would presume such a person would exude civility, patience, inner peace, and have such a non-presupposing demeanor that I would want to ask or want to be like them. On a scale of one to a hundred, especially in the wanting to be like them department, nobody has gotten past 5. And even chances are I just envied their unearned money or talent.
More as this book progresses, it is lively, well-written prose. Only eight characters so far, all integral to the plot.
Last Laugh
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