January 26, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 26, 2019, my carpentry history.
Five years ago today: January 26, 2015, this guy’s in charge?
Nine years ago today: January 26, 2011, my last ten bucks.
Random years ago today: January 26, 2010, found in garbage.

           I’m in the mood for politics and gossip. It’s not my fault it’s so hard to tell the difference. It is freezing this morning, so I was on the airwaves. Here’s items that caught my eye, mainly because I am critical of misplaced sympathies and I certainly don’t share or identify with any of the media-induced waves of collective guilt sweeping the country. First on the list is the Boeing 777X. Like Disney, when the old guard died off, the company proved unable to keep pace and began living off its reputation. While this is okay for musicians (right, Paul), innovation for these entities becomes more akin to disguising how closely they’ve copied their earlier successes.
When they try something new, it crashes. I can tell you exactly what went wrong with the 737 Max and the Mars probe. C+ code.

           These expensive disasters are what you get when you let the Calibri 11 bunch mess with your code. The 777X is a 747 with bigger engines and it looks it. The airplane is designed for sale to the Arabs, who since the first Bush administration can’t seem to spend enough of their time and money anyplace but Arabia. There is also the factor you have Chinese and north Seattle employees making parts for airplanes they could never afford to fly in Such people are really hard to convince their biggest concern isn’t food and rent, but the safety of foreign jetsetters. Why the comfort of those passengers crosses their minds at least twice a day, I’ll bet. And three times on payday.

           That’s similar to the reason I don’t watch America’s Got Talent. They give the prize to the fat kid, the ethnic, or the gimp instead of the best act. And I can only stomach so many singers. Unless they look like Taylor, that’s different. But the rest can be hard on the eyes. Or how about Google announcing the fees they will charge the cops for your files. Eerie, that Google has that much information on you without any oversight or controls, much less any say on your part. I’m on the other side. Google doesn’t even have my phone number. Pardon me, they think they have my phone number.
           The caronavirus, 56 dead. What to do? That’s the picture above, the latest strain from China, which is replacing Africa as the birthplace of modern plague. The right thing would be to announce the victim’s country of origin, how long they’ve been here, and whether or not they were vaccinated. The virus has no “shot” but vaccinated people over time build up resistance from having milder infections like the common cold or the so-called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. You know why there are 56 dead? Because in China, casualty announcements are state-controlled. In America, we have the same thing except we don’t call it corporate-controlled. See how tricky I worded that? Let’s see, what else can I gripe about?

Picture of the day.
Floodplain.
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           Here’s a picture of the first class cabin in the 777X, called the Emirates Suite. It looks not unlike the interior of the camper I did not buy. You will notice the influence of two thousand years of Arabic culture in the design of this cabin. For instance, there is the . . ., um, . . ., the little round windows. They invented those in Arabia, didn’t they? Come on, work with me here. Okay, there’s carpet on the floor. That I know they have that because otherwise all that sand would get in their toes and get tracked in and all. They do have shoes, don’t they? You know, with those curled up toes with the little bells.
           And who’s to say all the burled walnut wouldn’t grow in the Empty Quarter if somebody just gave it a chance. Along with a few billion gallons of water. This is luxury, you get three windows. So you can see the missile heading your way.

Last Laugh