One year ago today: August 23, 2018, a generic post.
Five years ago today: August 23, 2014, at the skating rink.
Nine years ago today: August 23, 2010, a Norse goddess.
Random years ago today: August 23, 2013, car batteries.
Turtle food. I thought I’d shop around before making another 50 mile round trip. It’s a different mix than reptile food, which is in plentiful supply. Ten or twenty years ago, a shortage of anything was nearly unthinkable in America, a media event. Now, minimum sizes get bigger every year it seems and stock-outs are a calculated way of doing business. Yes, you can tally up by how much you need to run out of things to maximize your profits. I was a breeze at this back in the 80s, but never thought American businesses would ever stoop that low. Planned stock-outs are a third world mentality and a sad day for America.
After the Second World War, a few large chain stores operated as loose corporations, mainly what were called five-and-dimes. They sold a little of everything cheap and that’s where most Americans ever first saw a “Made in Japan” label. I grew up in towns with populations as tiny as 400 that still had a chain grocery and hardware store. I bought my model airplanes at the hardware, and the glue at the drug store, as pharmacies were called back then. Businesses tended to overlap a little until public needs were met. It was the emergence of franchise corporations that impacted most when I reached the age to notice anything. The one that hit most people between the eyes was the disappearance of all the Esso stations. They were once everywhere. (They were bought out by an Australian company called 7/11.)
It was the emergence of the convenience stores associated with gas stations that began the slow decline of the five-and-dimes. At first there was the general feeling that people would not pay the higher prices at “gas stations” to buy milk and bread, but convenience took precedent. Soon, items like batteries and coffee appeared, and coffee shops and small department stores disappeared. That’s where we are today. The stores that remain are less concerned with fringe items like turtle food. This is only one small part of the story. I’ve mentioned others, how libraries and bookstores now have tiny reference sections but entire aisles of cookbooks. If you need the usual two bolts, you now have to buy a 25-pc “spar pack”. It’s related to a shift of how products are sold. Higher prices don’t deter credit card addicts.
Explaining the pictures, the first is the cherry tree up the block from this spring. Just a pretty picture that generated interest. And here is an old Red & White store. Don’t quote me but I think these became Kroger’s. They were not really run like corporations back then, but were independent stores that joined an organization that did collective buying. You might say they were run the way corporations were intended. Run for the shareholders and not the salaries of upper management. Didn’t I see a Red & White in Lebanon last trip? These companies don’t fail as often as they just fall behind.
That’s a state of affairs I have a strong opinion about. Falling behind. It’s like hearing the statistic that there will be many billions more poor people “unless we do something”. Then you see the people, they have no intention of improving their lot, they cling to ways of life that were outdated a hundred years ago. The poor are getting poorer—by comparison. They know exactly what they must do to get ahead, but prefer their culture. Saying others are to blame is bogus. That would be like saying I’m responsible for my siblings being unable to play any music. Every one of them tried to take music lessons. None lasted a month. They preferred to watch TV cartoons after school and their musical “poverty” is nothing more than the dividends.
Hidden airplane camera.
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How do you like this 2015 pic of a sidecar drivepast? It’s re-created from a old series of stills. The quality is crude, but as proof it can be done, this is fine. The scenery is a back road east of Savannah, Georgia during my week-long stay at that city. How I miss touring on my sidecar. I wonder about that sometimes. It’s possible I’ll do it again but don’t wait now that one day is finally blending into the next. Unless I stay in hotels, my cross-country trips will stay very rare for some time to come.
Once they think they’ve ID’d you, it is often possible to disconnect the wired part, but the wireless takes a little tweaking. I’m about to learn a new technology, not because I’m slow, guys, but because I intentionally avoided it for the reasons now being encountered. Like, what is a digital copy? I understand the concept, but never bothered with it before. Give me an hour and I’ll figure it out. What I can’t figure is those millennial locks on my car. I found out what the fifth lock press does. It locks the rear cargo door so that even the key cannot unlock it.
I tried to think of the situation where this feature was important. You are standing behind the car, with your key. You put it into the lock and it won’t turn. You have to go to the driver’s door and open that with the key, then press the unlock. But it doesn’t just unlock the rear door, but all the doors. So if there is a mugger thirty paces behind you, he can get in out of the rain just as fast as you can. A situation where the key won’t work, let me think. Nope. Even trying to think like a millennial hurts.
All I wanted was a Blu-Ray player and I got some kind of Netflix-1080p-Xfinity tracking device. I picked a comedy disk to test things. It says there is sexual content so you have to be over 13. What planet do those people live on? Anyway, to anyone who snickers that I’m just now learning all these “technologies”, can you explain to me what these features do? Not how they work, any goof can press buttons until they work, but what exactly is the theory and intent behind all those symbols on across the bottom of my log-on screen? New technology, my eye. More like old technology being abused by the ranks of the newly incompetent. Come back in a week and we’ll see who knows more about what’s really going on. Deal?
Never one to miss an opportunity to point out differences between myself and men who follow the pack, I have a tale from the trailer court. Last evening, really late, I could not sleep, so I popped out for a last call. Here’s another test of your character. How you interpret the situation is the goal here. I sort of know the one lady, Shayne. She helped test the bottle caddy design. It’s now late and the place is populated by roaring drunks the sort of which I’ve never associated with. They are a necessary part of the food chain. And they are all hitting on the barmaids, who would like nothing better than to wrap it up and go home.
Shayne said cheer her up, so I told her a joke. She laughed but the other three barmaids stared blankly. Here’s the test. Why would the gal who knows me crack up, but the others don’t get it? Take as much time as you need. That’s enough. You see, the other three didn’t get it because there was no sexual innuendo. They had never in recent memory heard a man in a Tennessee bar tell a joke that wasn’t about getting them in the sack. Shayne explained the joke and they were amused, but still did not laugh that much. Instead, they asked Shayne where she knew me from. Now it makes sense to them when she has a break, she’s over talking to me. End of test. How did you do?
Here’s another one to watch. How will Monsanto and Cargill call the A.I. software that tests for food purity? The program rejects GMOs as dangerous to human health, fancy that. Will they stifle it, outlaw it, or slap on another “no significant difference” sticker? Or the round of accusations by the leftist media that it is not their biased reporting, but journalism itself that is “under attack”.
ADDENDUM
It is a superior DVD disk player, this Blu-Ray gizmo. I thought DVD format was a single quality, unless the TV screen I’m using has suddenly improved. I’ve connected it to the old flat-screen. Using the $15 converter device to RCA cables still produces a noticeably superior display. Who remembers the times I tried to get the staff at the stores to show me this difference? They lost a sale. I believe I’m finally in the market and I wonder if that TV screen I’ve got at home is compatible. It has all the ports I had to investigate to get this old unit working. For all I know, I have the latest gear and don’t know it. Maybe if the world produced something worth seeing, that would help.
I was piping in TechStuff Classic (no link), a station I listen to not for tech news, but to find out what the world of idiots is up to. This evening they talked about passwords, a conversation I had twenty years ago. 18% of idiots use still use “password” or “1234”, but the two aspects that transform them from garden-variety idiots into supreme idiots is using the same password for multiple accounts, and on-line password services. Can anyone possibly be that stupid? Yes, the average user has 25 accounts but only 6-1/2 passwords.
Think about it. On-line password storage. Stupid or what? I know people who click on “remember password” that don’t think it's on-line, duh. It must be something in the drinking water with people who cannot grasp the concept of password, or that think it too much of a bother to have separate passwords for each account. They deserve what they get, it’s like one key that fits all your doors, then publishing your address on-line. Wasn’t it Facebook and Google recently exposed for keeping users passwords in a plain-text database. And we just know those two companies are high-wage MicroSoft-grade leaders that hire only the most honest and ethical of employees.
For the record, I use a different password for every account and key it in full each log-on. What’s more, my passwords use non-English words and average 14 characters, so yes, I take them seriously. I have no accounts with any Internet entity that has any traceable information about my person or businesses, and have only one bank account in my own name which I never check on-line. I have my own real time accounting system. I have all personal information on a separate computer that is encrypted and cannot be connected to the Internet. My Internet usage is all encrypted via non-US services (such as Protonmail), and I never leave the wireless service connected when away from the keyboard more than a few minutes.
This is why I don’t feel sorry for people who get their stuff stolen on-line. They weren’t protecting it, or even worse, have some delirious notion that it is somebody’s job to protect it for them. If you get advice like making your password “difficult” by using upper- and lower-case letters and number mixes, that’s just plain dumb, as in 1995 dumb. It may make the word difficult to type, but shows a shallow grasp on how cracking software works. Does anyone think a computer finds a capital X and harder than a small x? Give me a break, that’s a pun, son.
