One year ago today: February 5, 2017, pie - a thing of the past.
Five years ago today: February 5, 2013, a positive net worth.
Nine years ago today: February 5, 2009, Rory & the musical bio-suit.
Random years ago today: February 5, 2016, busy, not lazy.
Laundry day, it’s a German thing, Monday. There’s a Dollar Tree next to the laundromat, to my overseas readers, that’s a store where everything is priced at one dollar. They buy odd lots and out of production stuff, but if you find what you want, you can really stock up. What I’m noticing is the brands from outside the continental US generally contain more natural ingredients. Take this decongestant rub. Active ingredients are camphor, eucalyptus, and menthol. If made in America, it would probably eliminate the camphor and use turpentine. And that turpentine is nasty stuff.
I was talking to Big Daddy Roberts and dang if we didn’t have the identical teething problems with getting the bands going. He’s one rare dude that I’ll talk politics with and the topic of band formation never arose until today. Both of us take dim views on guitar heroes types, new country over-orchestration, layered ‘indie’ music, and the ability to read a crowd. We came up with different solutions but the common purpose was there. For example, he cut down on audience chatter, noticing that it brought them down from a musical high. I dealt with the same situation by the expedient of getting rid of all slow music off my list.
It was an eye-opener to get this kind of confirmation that a non-bassist boxed with the same pickles, and I emphasize this is the first non-bassist I’ve ever met who had the same observations and gripes. He doesn’t like new country because all those instruments playing at one detract from the simple enjoyment of a tune. Particularly guitar noodlers while you are trying to sing. The indie music has the same negativities, it doesn’t back off when it gets to your turn. The people who produce indie recordings have been brainwashed that you start with the “lower” parts and add in the rest of the instruments in a fairly fixed order. No wonder it all sounds alike.
But where the guy got me is he says in my era there was an artist who produced album after album of hits that used my formula. Guitar, bass, drums. Well, pretty close to my formula. That made me stare because I thought I of all people would know who he meant. Nope, I drew a blank. Big Daddy says it was Glen Campbell. That might explain it. I only like a few of his tunes, most were a bit too sappy for my tender ears. I didn’t like any sentimental music until I was nearly twenty. By then, Glenn Campbell was nowhere near the charts. I will make it a point to give a listen.
On top of this, we had another profiling characteristic. We both listen to the radio with an ear to what other people are listening for. Here’s where a difference arises. I view AM/FM radio as an extension of what is popular with on-line radio. I’ll listen casually while I’m working or driving, only rarely hearing anything that personally interests me—and turning the radio back down when that’s over. For example, Tarzan. Big Daddy listens intently to everything. He knows the announcers by name and what time their show comes on in the morning.
What occupied the morning is the architectural drawings are done and the permit is acquired. Just as I thought, they include nothing that improved the quality of the porch whatsoever. As far as I am concerned, some damn bureaucrats just skinned me for a total of around $800. It’s unlikely they understood I consider that money to be tuition to find out how they work, to seek their weak spots, to undermine their little power grab, and to pass what I’ve learned on to other townspeople. They’ve made an implacable enemy over nothing. One who is just watching for them to make their next mistake.
The Great Wall
crosses a river.
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This is my document-signing pen, but the ink cartridge dried out. This pen has a spring-equipped mechanism that keeps the pen applying a constant pressure on the nib. Why is this important? It isn’t really yet, but it will be. As the system grows horns, you will find yourself increasingly faced with documents you may disagree with. Like signing for a permit for my porch, nobody told me I had to sign it or forfeit the permit until I drove across town and parked. So yeah, they got a signature, of sorts. Hint, when you sign, always turn so your body blocks them from witnessing your hand, do it quickly and naturally. Then turn back and hand them the signed document. That is, their shtick may be to witness you signing, not your signature, so don’t get snagged by those operators.
The ink refill is made by a company called Mitsubishi Pencil Company. I never heard of them until today. Now I’m afraid to ask what the refill costs.
I’ll tell you something else that bites. The way these tablets are designed to force you to do things their way. I never asked Google to alter my operating system, but they did. It won’t do them any good, but they did anyway. Well, now you cannot take a screen shot with Mozilla and keep it local. The buttons are not even included on some keyboards, but there I am, looking for my music notes and they are nowhere to be found. Until I find a button called “Spot” or something, informing me my picture is somewhere on the Firefox website and if I want it just click. Sure. I’ll be looking for a workaround on that one, Netscape.
It’s shit like this that causes breakaway movements. I accept the people changing the Internet are convinced they are helping it evolve, but it is really devolving. Eat time around it becomes less and less what you want to do an more what you are still allowed to do. It’s not getting better for the user, but growing toward what the dark side of the operation wants. Which has long been shown to be to identify you on what was supposed to be an anonymous system and track every list keystroke you make and store it for eternity. Never you mind why, because minding brands you a renegade, a conspiracy theorist, a racist, a homophobe, a terrorist, paranoid, and possible one or those unthinkable sorts with “something to hide”. Gasp!
My beef is if they want to do such things, they should go get their own Internet and leave the existing one alone. And see who signs up for it. I still can’t figure out why some sharp bastard hasn’t spotted the immense opportunity to design something that bypasses the snoopers by simply not using the same system. It would not have to be entirely new, just strip away the tracking abilities. I mean, cookies were never ever necessary, so if you want to be rich, find a way to make the system work without them.
ADDENDUM
Ha, you want another coincidence? I’m on the 2nd last audio book, a cassette tape, the story is “Snow Crash”. You’d have to read a lot of this blog to find it all, but over the years I’ve drawn parallels to such things as how if you speak only one language, you can only think in one language. And how Spanish lacks good adjectives, or how Chinese structure is designed for copycatting rather than original thinking. Well, you should get to this audio-tape. It goes much deeper than I could have, but it is the same vein. The interaction of language and thinking.
One theory is their language consisted of sounds that were analyzed and categorized by their ancient scholars as to what part of the tongue and mouth parts and such were used to create each sound. In other words, they recognized that each sound involved a neuron connection to a certain part of the brain. The implication is that anyone who understood this could speak to all other people by communicating directly via these sounds. At times I’ve wondered what it was that caused the rise of Sumerians and how they were able to even imagine such things.
“Snow Crash” goes beyond that, meaning I find these parts of the story actually fascinating. The suggestion is that the Sumerian language is a type of “mental computer machine code”. It is well known that the best programmers have a sixth sense of how the binary instructions are interpreting their higher level coding. The audio book proposes that the Sumerians found out how to operate at that level, and thus their weird philosophies and concepts were able to infect other human brains like a virus.
Next thing, the book is implying that the story of the Tower of Babel is the event that sparked languages to diverge. The other peoples of the world purposely scrambled their spoken languages to stop the Sumerian virus. If you want more, get the book yourself, since I would not begin to have the time to explain it in any depth. And it is deep, though like political speeches, you don’t need any real intelligence, education, practical knowledge, or background if your intention is just to listen.
Last Laugh
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