May 4, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 4, 2018, what are they doing?
Five years ago today: May 4, 2014, I had early experience.
Nine years ago today: May 4, 2010, 0.00321¢ per click.
Random years ago today: May 4, 2004, in Memory of 1970.

           Mostly work on the house today. What took the longest was a single piece of trim, in this case the molding around the ceiling. Part of the challenge is the new drywall is not only thicker, it is backed with tarpaper. Each joint has to be trimmed back. The room was leveled, if you recall those early days, and the result is not exactly square. Each piece of trim has to be custom fitted. The effect is quite nice and this picture doesn’t do it justice. That single twelve-foot section took three hours, and it isn’t done yet.

           In fact, you might not even see it in this photo. It’s that strip along the top of the wall against the ceiling. It is stained with dark Danish oil, and I’ve discovered the color does not have to be as close a match as I’d thought. In the room itself, it is quite attractive compared to what was there before. Since it is made from a sliced 2x4, I’m wondering if a more prominent cut might be even better.

           Gutters. What do you know about their installation? Myself, that’s easy, I know zilch. But I’ve got it figured out they sell the pieces by marketing formula. The long actual gutter pieces are cheap. Then they soak you on the end caps, spouts, joints, and hangers. An inside corner costs more than twenty feet of the gutter. The plastic hangers are $4.50 a pop, quadrupling the cost of installing the working parts. Today my project was the canopy over the front bedroom A/C. That found me dashing between rain squalls and getting about a quarter of the job done. For thrills, there should be a picture of the uprooted bathroom floor nearby.
           Trent called, he agrees it is time to get out of the Miami area at least for a weekend. There is no space left in that city that doesn’t cost you something. No place you can just sit down unless it is a place nobody else wants to sit. And he reports it is already viciously hot. We need to hang around here for a while, go chasing women at the club, and jam some music. The only possible time in May would be next weekend. And my bathroom floor is still in pieces. (Everything works, but the floor panels are temporary as I tackle the plumbing.) I saw the shower design I want. It has two spray nozzles, mounted above the wall panels, not through them. Pictures to follow. I have to calculate the pipe volumes on that arrangement, but from what I see, using both nozzles will halve the water pressure.

           Today’s siesta reading was an account of how General MacArthur of Philippine’s notoriety manipulated his press releases. Militarily, I’ve always considered him a stooge aiming for a political career which included becoming President. As part of his tactics, he blotted out mention of any junior commanders. By the time the news reached the US, his name replaced all others so it seemed as if he was personally winning all the battles. The state-side newspapers tended to play along so that it would appear the Army, Navy, and Air Force were working together, when in fact they were, as today, in competition for defense dollars.
           I’ve long felt that situation was due to mimicking the British system of using their media for propaganda. It’s a matter of degree, but in England, it goes back so far it’s almost a national insanity. It began in wartime and was never discontinued when peace broke out. A good example is the British “defense” of Egypt during WWII. The Egyptians hated the British, who controlled their canal and policed their entire political and financial affairs. The British army has long been infiltrated by mid-level officers of a religion that is extremely unpopular in Arabian countries. For that matter, many countries in the area still consider Hitler to be a hero. He led a government that, contrary to what you’ve been taught, was a champion of individual rights.

           [Author’s note: fascist is an Italian word, and was first used by the British press as a derogatory term for Benito Mussolini’s government. Other than the word being used to demonize dictators, I cannot find any real connection that would make Hitler’s government a fascist organization. The foremost distinction is that Hitler was not a dictator, rather he was legitimately elected.
           Some say elected or not, he was a dictator because he ruled by decree. But so did Barrack Obama.]

Picture of the day.
May the 4th be with you.
(Thanx, Reddit.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Work all day, between the rainshowers. So here is a log of what got done. The trim, as just mentioned, but also I measured, cut, and primed the exterior window trim used for the A/C cutout. The existed pieces got two coats of primer. Moved the table saw outdoors to cut the long pieces, and in the process covered my exterior sawhorses with a layer of undercoat. Here is a picture of the A/C cutout, a reminder that this blog is a daily journal originally based on “progress and the unusual”.

           During the worst of the downpour, I tacked together more of the box I’m building to hold my battery drills. I just thought, you know, if you include presses, I now own seven drills. Mostly they are matching groups of two, one with a pilot drill bit, the other with a screwdriver bit. The odd one is almost burned out, with a bad motor that sparks. I use it for a paint mixer. And I’ve devised a way to hook up all the plumbing in the bathroom except the drains, which will require a plumber. I’m going to be busy.

           Let’s talk security. My system is evolved enough that you don’t hear me mention it much. Today a periodic check reveals a number of new issues. Do you use Ghostery? If not, why not? Anyway, the swell guys over at Google, that friendly bunch, have figured out how to turn get it to allow tracking by Google Adsense and other snoop-ware. Go in and manually turn them off, as I did, and I will be watching to see if they retaliate. Remember, in Google-think, any time you land on one of their products, even unintentionally, they regard that as consent to monitor you by any electronic means possible.
           Another quirk, but I do not know if it is intentional. Aviva has a free trial, although it isn’t free because they plague you with incessant pop-up ads. As it nears the end of your trial period, it changes your log-off button from shut-down to sleep mode. For a couple days I thought my relatively new battery was failing to take a charge until I noticed when I closed the “final notice” Aviva ad, my battery would continue to drain after shutdown. It happened twice, but could still be coincidence. Aviva doesn’t have a bad reputation. Yet.

           Remind me to shop for more DVDs. Gee, haven’t I heard of Netflix? Yes, and I’ve also heard about the government looking at Netflix files to see who is renting what. Since I’ve not seen most movies, I’d rather not be part of Netflix when I can pick up DVDs by the hundreds for a dollar each while at the thrifts. I’m there anyway as a big consumer of used books.
           Your trivia tidbit today is that the suffixes of many American newspapers, such as Telegraph, Bugle, Herald, Post, and Chronicle are the names of old British stagecoach routes. Before the printing press, that is generally how news was spread. People ask me where I get ideas on what to write. Well, going out drinking on weekends has an influence, as do target practice, pre-recorded radio interviews, and I haven’t really tried using the posthole digger yet.

           I’ve learned the really tall flowers do have to be staked. This old dog still learns and today I’m going to get some of those green-painted bamboo sticks from Wal*Mart. Provided, this being Florida, they are not sold out just because I want some. Okay, maybe tomorrow.

ADDENDUM
           Here’s picture of a US Navy 24-hour clock because I thought it looked okay here. Who doesn’t love a good laugh, but when’s the last time you really rolled on the floor? The afternoon thunderstorms blotted out Boss Hogg, causing me to listen to talk radio. I missed the company name, but it is some outfit that arranges group tours of foreign countries. TravelCatz.com? I dunno, because I’m already calling it Millennial Travel. I’ll tell you what is so funny. But first, remember, these people are holding themselves out to be professionals to whom you can trust your safety and your family’s safety. You’d hope such individuals would have meticulous attention to detail. Ha, instead you get the millennial hooked-on-phonics squad.

           You have got to hear these buffoons try to pronounce Hue (Hyoo), Kalahari (Kah-lee-harrah), and Prague (Pra-goo). It takes a few minutes to get over pitying such goofs. It’s when then they brag they have been on the air four years that the grotesque magnitude of their ignorance becomes comical. It further means in all that time, they and nearly their entire listening audience don’t suspect a thing. It’s good I wasn’t up the ladder when they said, or tried to say Djakarta or Zimbabwe and we haven’t even gotten to the part where they attempt to name Italian food. Or maybe they were reciting names of required antibiotics? My god, they alone make you realize why America stands 27th in world literacy.
           And speaking of that world, here’s a poser for you. What was the number one search subject in America on Google today? Was it the implications of finding water on Mars? The Constitutional legality of the American communist party (Democrats)? Or the latest in scientific discoveries? Nope. The number one search was: video doorbells.
Only 27th, they say?

Last Laugh