November 12, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 12, 018, WIP
Five years ago today: November 12, 2014, on “detached” women.
Nine years ago today: November 12, 2010, ‘cause we don’t like it.
Random years ago today: November 12, 2012, past university age, alright.

           Yessir, this is the weather than reminds me why I don’t live in Montana any more. When I looked out the window, I said to myself, now there is something you don’t see every day. Snow on a bamboo pile and a turtle cage in the middle Tennessee. Then, considering what you know about this blog, we’re lucky there isn’t a lunar module out there. Oh, and the flashing picture is designed to be as annoying as possible. How am I doing? The cold has put the squeeze on the local infrastructure. The phone payment system is down so I have no minutes. You see, this is why I ask, how do they know this is exactly when I need to get calls in response to my ad. This is how America is going downhill fast.

           There I was in the phone store, where the stiffs only sell locked phones, bunch of jerkoffs. I’ve said it before, the third world influence has destroyed the American way. Before, stores had to be located where it was convenient for the customer. Now they are spaced at what is good for the corporation. The payments are electronic, which is heralded as a great advance. But is it now? The way bad concepts take root is when there is no direct cause-and-effect that can be seen by the less educated. That’s what you got here. The majority of customers think bill-paying is faster by swiping. It seems so, until something goes wrong.

           But look what happens when the system crashes in the cold. A store with four millennials and their well-trimmed beards and between them, they had no clue how to process a transaction manually. They kind of looked quizzical when I suggested it could be done. That’s what I mean by third world. The cost is passed on to the customer. Now, everybody who was there to pay by cash will have to make a return trip. Nobody in the line saw that having to do that, which requires a car, gasoline, insurance and such cancels out any benefit "gained" from electronic payment. No immediate cause-and-effect, see? Even then they will be taking a chance the system will be up tomorrow. Sheeple. (The counter-argument goes that everybody should modern up and go electronic. Ha, that's when the trouble really starts.)

           It looks like the Internet as we knew it is shutting down. Russia is clamping down, social media has created the new American nightmare, and who knows what the Chinese are up to? It took the mass stupidity of an entire generation to foil the purpose of the one of mankind’s greatest inventions. By now, the computer should be the slave, not the master. Social media is the downfall, even computer development has been stifled and set back twenty years--all by the need to create new toys for the boys.
           Along with the world, I once snickered that Bill Gates had said 640k should be enough for anyone. I realize now his mistake was that he lived in a world where people needed brains and an IQ to operate computers. Nowadays, all you need is opposable thumbs, since the operating system does all the rest. At least in theory it does. When it doesn’t, you do get the odd twelve-state blackout, a few mid-air collisions, and a smattering of fatalities that don’t make the front page. But hey, let’s not quibble.
           The world had one chance to break the MicroSoft monopoly, and it was Linux. But that disappeared into itself because it was just too damn idiotic to learn. It might have worked if the creators had the sense to call things what they were, but come on. Flavors, Ubantu, and kernels? Linux, blow it out your azz. Ten minutes after trying get something done with Linux, you will long for the idiots at Redmond. The ones who flash a message that your web site can't be found when, in fact, all that is wrong is you have no connection.

Picture of the day.
Vermont, about now.
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           It was first snow this year and the dogs loved it. They are wearing their sweaters because that is the house rules. The fact is they went romping and would have kept me out there an hour if that northeast wind wasn’t so biting. Then again, to me almost everything that comes out of the American northeast bites. I have my guitar player hopefuls down to three candidates.

           I sent a return e-mail to the slide player basically saying unless he agrees to learn music geared to the level of the audience, I can’t use him. The second guy is across the river in Nashville and I’m going over his song list. A ton of slow music, but his manner indicates he knows he has to change things. The third guy I’m still trying to contact but he only has a cell. Not the greatest medium for swapping song lists. And I still get visions of that dork from Lakeland who thought he could learn the music off the speakers on his laptop.

           That second guy is the most promising, but even reading his song list you can tell it is mostly sluggish material. When I see the word “dreaming” in three songs in the first twenty, that tells me what is wrong with the guy’s approach. Another clue is when I haven’t heard of most of them. I regularly comb through most of what is available for suitable tunes and the slow ones are automatically rejected. Here is the list he sent. Only two of the songs are up to speed. The Only Hell and Workin’ Man Blues.
           I curled up with the pets and started a new book, “Mars Crossing” by an author named Landis. It’s a creative bit of work, except for his tendency to flashback to the characters upbringings. I figure that’s filler material. Who really cares if the mission commander fell off his bicycle when he was eight? In this case, he shot somebody, but I’ve made my point. As long as I can stomach these constant background episodes, the plot moves along well and the physics are well-researched. There is plenty of optimism about places like Thailand and Brazil becoming economic powerhouses and paying for the mission—provided there is an astronaut of their own along for the ride.

           Kudos to the Judge who ruled your computer cannot be subjected to a warrantless search by border people. It seems a tiny victory, but the border people will just cook up new “reasonable suspicions”. However the Constitution is clear as is the Fourth Amendment. The progressives would love to argue that there are special cases and exceptions. There aren’t. But progressives love fishing expeditions.

Last Laugh