February 12, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 12, 2017, California: China’s West Bank.
Five years ago today: February 12, 2013, no possible purpose
Nine years ago today: February 12, 2009, polar bear skins.
Random years ago today: February 12, 2016, zero administration costs.

           The more I bump into Windows 10, the less I like it. Not only does it force that one-file Word version down your throat, it won’t even open text or rich text files. Nor is there a converter, except this pop-up window to do the file conversion online. Upload your file, get it converted, then sent back to you. I thought, isn’t that like asking the Mafia to make a spare set of keys for your safe deposit box? And telling there where it is located? I looking at an alternative piece of software called Jarte.
           I was reading National Geographic back issues, admitting I haven’t bought the magazine since the mid-1980s when they changed their format to appease the feminists. The article today was on arenas and stadiums. I was unaware that Europe quit building them for 1400 years. The Church declared them pagan.

           NG has also developed a nasty anti-Trump stance that seems to appear too frequently. It shows up as examples here and there to prove a point, but it is a thin disguise. In a June 2017 article on lying, they gave the example that Trump said he would have won the popular vote if the illegal votes were not counted. NG maintained there was “no evidence of widespread voter fraud”. If I recall, until recently, there was no evidence smoking caused cancer. And notice how NG slips in the unquantifiable term “widespread”. The NG statement is so loaded and carefully misleading that who’s the liar now?
           The picture? It’s the only thing I could find on short notice. It’s the stopping distances of various vehicles. A locomotive needs a mile to stop. This is a leftover snap from my visit to the Parrish model train museum. When this blog is famous 200 years from now as the human interest saga of this era, I should explain that a snap is synonym for camera, or more accurately an onomatopoeic term for the shutter release mechanism.

           While the wall was down, I slightly enlarged the rough-in door dimensions. Yep, there is a handicap door going in there, but I prefer to call it a cargo door. That’s where the PA system is being set up. It turns out the guitar lady does have a PA, but “it’s in St. Louis”. This means we are more likely to play through the Fishman. I’ve long discovered the bass lines don’t clash with my vocals on the same channel, so with luck we can shoehorn our entire sound, including any break music, through my PA. I will have to use my mini-mixer, so remind me to design some kind of easy access stage box for that.
           I’ve also advised her not to get used to using any foot pedals etc. I’ve found you can get all the necessary sound out of both the acoustic and bass without relying on anything electronic, especially things battery-powered. She can do as she wants with her sound as long as it follows the rules, but no allowance is made on stage when batteries or gadgets go dead. The show must go on. For example, she has this setting that emulates a twelve-string. But none of the tunes on my list would benefit from such an effect. And I just know that sooner or later we will be playing an acoustic set when the commercial power gives out. As it is wont to do in central Florida.

           In a surprise development, when Agt. R was over here helping me with the sound wall, he fell into a terrible sneezing fit. What’s with that? I’ve worked for hours in that room without any symptoms. It was each time he walked near the new wall. All the exposed portions of wood are new lumber and it wasn’t the insulation since it is stored in the pantry, which he walks through without a hitch. Does my house have dust mites or something in that corner?
           Then I made tea and watched the DVD “Surviving Christmas” about a bachelor who rents a family for the holiday and winds up with their daughter. Yeah, well put me under the mistletoe with Christina Applegate. Um, not now, but back in 2004, I mean.

Picture of the day.
Chinese police drill.
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           Agt. R was here to help stand the [bedroom] wall up again. It took the afternoon to get it ready, including having to brace a few of the studs which had already warped. All the real quality has been engineered out of every American product unless the price becomes so high that you can’t afford it without getting the bank involved. This picture is another fish-eye showing the studs, now partially backed with tarpaper as part of the soundproofing.

           This is the sound wall, where most of the noise that enters the room will be from the exterior walls and windows. The finished room will have two windows, both at “sitting” height with views of the yard or the large church lawn next door. One might call this the smart room, as it will also be one of the most heavily wired. It will contain eight duplex outlets, including USB chargers on both sides, and two sets of sconces, also on opposite sides.

           The dimensions of the room will be slightly less than first planned. It will be nearly square, at 11 x 12 feet. You may recognize the back wall on the far left, that is the relocated bathroom wall, also insulated and soundproofed. For now the room is destined for just a twin bed, though it will take a queen size against one wall. This is my ‘insurance room’ in that it is highly rentable. There’s a lady who wants it, but I’ll hesitate because I meant rentable in a dire emergency if the economy collapses again. Yeah, Trump is rebuilding roads and bridges, but he’s doing it with borrowed money. That should absolutely not be necessary.
           There are few rental places in the area. The few apartment buildings want one year leases and there are no budget hotels anywhere near where regular folks live. The lady just mentioned is paying $1,100 per month for a 2-bedroom townhouse. She has a daughter still living at home, the millennial thing. Say, did you read how millennials are changing the buying habits. They are causing a drop in the sales of pre-packaged food, especially breakfast cereals. Good. Besides, I’ve long known that food you have to prepare, even just a bit, costs a lot less than ready-to-eat fare with more ingredients than rocket fuel.

ADDENDUM
           I’m still listening to “Snow Crash”, the audio tape. It takes longer to listen to a book than to read it. This story is a major work, some six hours long. It’s well-done but can get weary at points where it overdoes the teens as chronically misunderstood or wise beyond their years. Or wrings the PC points dry, such as the hero being “half-Asian half-Black” and the Siberian Eskimo poinking the 15-year-old white girl. But there is an intellectual theme that is fascinating concerning glossolalia, or the speaking in tongues. Once again centering on the Tower of Babel legend.
           It’s too much to tell here but it gives a logical argument how man did not become civilized until centuries after he learned to communicate by speech. And that the ancients had studied how each spoken sound was produced by consistent parts of the mouth, tongue, throat, etc. This implied a connection to certain parts of the brain. These nerve paths become subconscious to the speaker, the story goes, but anyone who masters the patterns can activate the same nerve paths into a listener. The listener then became like a cult follower, not realizing how his brain was being controlled by what sounds like gibberish. For examples, read today’s Tampa Bay Times or Edmonton Journal.


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