October 26, 2017

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 26, 2016, the mitchfruit tree.
Five years ago today: October 26, 2012, the sports questions were added.
Nine years ago today: October 26, 2008, costs 6,000 times more than gas.
Random years ago today: October 26, 2011, fakes, motorcycles, and greener pastures.

           Stand by for the details. I’m downtown in Miami after a six hour drive. Funny how the motorcycle takes an hour less. JZ and I went chasing women across from Dadeland, except there was some sports game happening, so all the chairs were filled with howling drunk men. The Miami prices didn’t thrill me either. But listen, I can’t stay long because the interior lights in the car won’t go out. The on-line solution is to spray WD-40 into the door latches. What kind of millennial brainstorm is that? There was nothing wrong with the old plunger system and come think of it, I’ve seen one those ever go bad.

           This photo is from the Orlando Maker Faire last weekend. Thanks again to Vivitar for the crappy photo. This table was set up to train children how to pick locks. If you are like me, you’re thinking, “Now that’s a great skill to be teaching schoolchildren.”

           Sure, I know you can learn the same thing on-line, but there’s nothing like a little hands-on and some personal coaching to turn little Wyatt and little Sebastian into thieves before they get out of junior high. As if having millennial names like that are not going to be handicap enough out in the real world.

Picture of the day.
Middle of the Sahara.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           This is a product review. Florida radio stations either suck, fade out, or get clobbered by foreign speaking stations who are licensed more powerful transmitters. You will be assimilated. During this trip, I tested the Belkin FM transmitter. The concept is that you play your choice of tunes into the device, which you then set to a blank station on your car radio. By tuning to that station, you get hours of your favorites. How does it work

           Lousy. First of all, the FCC sets the transmit power so low on the Belkin that unless you place it way over on the passenger side nearest the antenna, it barely picks up the broadcast. I’m, er, looking into what can be done about that as my antenna is located over the back fender on the driver’s side. Next, the Belkin eats batteries. I get around two hours on a set of AAA’s.

           The other place this fails is finding a blank station. There are so many licensed non-English broadcasters that I’ve made a video of stepping through the entire FM spectrum unable to find a vacant frequency. Again, the slightest commercial broadcasting will interfere with the Belkin. There are no empty channels. the plan is to use a power adapter instead of batteries and ramp up the transmission power. Just a little.

Quote of the Day:
“That’s just the tip of the ice cube.”
~heard on BBC.
           Good news. Most of the plans I put into place for my own future, some dating back 37 years, are falling into place. While I cannot give details, I can tell you that if you do nothing but follow the rules, you will get royally shafted by your own government in the end. They will change the laws just as you begin to qualify. The greatest example was that my own paychecks. You may know the official version but here is the tale from the trailer court.

           I was taxed at age 18 for social security. Call it what you want, if I had no say, then it is tax. While nobody said so, we were led to believe the money went into a big pool that was segregated from other government expenditures. If it wasn’t kept separate, then it is tax. You see where I’m going with this. Most young workers who thought about it, like myself, believed the government lent the money out via interest bearing bonds, so that at age 65, there would be our money plus a profit to pay our pensions. Whoa, were we scammed or what.

           To me, the promise of a pension at 65 was a contract. Nobody stated the government had the option to slip in an extra two years moving my retirement to age 67. That is about as criminal as it gets, since this was no ordinary arrangement entered into by two equal parties. Most people have only social security at retirement age and such people cannot live an extra two years with zero income. In other words, if I had trusted the government to keep its word, I would have starved.
           But there you have it. There was no separate pool. The government spent the money as fast as they could get their fists on it. Now, to pay it back they have to tax the next generation, whose earning ability, if based on the quality of their education, is a fearsome risk, or to just print up the money, causing runaway inflation. My planning so far has been oh, I’d say, 80% correct. I have essentially a free place to live and if need be, I know how to grow potatoes. Lots of potatoes.

ADDENDUM

           I took the old motorcycle route with the traditional stop at the Olga Mall. Sad news, somebody stole their classic sign. You may have to wait a day or two for me to find the link. Rumor has it on some really cold night, a few of the local hoodlums stole it and lit a bonfire. I could only stick around for muffin and coffee, but the special was Shepherd's pie. Ah, the aroma, but I was running late and would already been driving the last hour in the dark. I don't like driving the highways at night for all the obvious reasons, but you can add those numbskulls who have their dims set up too high.
           So sad, but this Vivitar is the best photo I have of the Olga Mall until we budget in a new camera.


Last Laugh

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++