February 13, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 13, 2019, a ramble-on post.
Five years ago today: February 13, 2015, whose allergy is it, anyway?
Nine years ago today: February 13, 2011, the black bean burger.
Random years ago today: February 13, 2008, help desk, my eye.

           I’ve stopped transplanting collard greens to the garden. This morning I found an entire patch of it growing wild along the front yard. The pattern is emerging, it grows two years after I’ve disturbed the soil. Recall that I had put in all the spear plants for decoration. I churned up the soil across yard around forty feet long. I puttered around all morning in the perfect weather and nine plants growing behind my orchard smoker. It may have grown there last year, but I didn’t know what it was, I mean it doesn’t really look like a garden plant. It’s great shredded with bleu cheese dressing.

           Here’s more good eating. Turkey corn pie entirely from scratch except the pie crusts. It’s similar to baked meat loaf, but with added evaporated milk, egg, and corn starch. And collard greens, don’t forget the collard greens. It’s as delicious as it looks and rich enough you don’t any sides. While this was baking, I got under the sink to find where the pipe has to be moved. Dang, I have to cut that expensive PVC to drain connector, but I’m glad I shelled out the extra for the quick-connect water lines. I have to move the entire counter out. That’s not as bad as it sounds, I designed it to slide into place. You see, I knew that I didn’t know what I was doing.

           It got too warm to work indoors and be damned if I’ll run my A/C in the middle of winter. So I was out in the shade painting. Wooden slats, garbage blind, swing planter, all are now the same brown color as the lawn swing in Tennessee. That’s the swing planter lying on its side. They’ve been chicken-inspected, as well as the alcove behind the shed fence. I really should do something original with that spot. I was on the phone with Tennessee and I fully agree I should devote a half-hour per day to write a book for publication. Yet, I know how difficult it could be to find a subject interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention for 500 pages. The blog doesn’t rate as practice because I don’t have to come up with a plot.

           Let me confide with you one of the ideas that I have kicked around. With my background in military history, I often get a laugh hearing so-called expert historians making dismal mistakes about World War II. That’s how I noticed that youTube posts about that war are still a hot commodity. Colorized newsreels coming in at 315,000 views in eight weeks. And I also notice that while the odd historian will explain a misconception, there is no definitive publication or post that goes after the historians when they are wrong. If I had enough material, sure, I could write that book. I don’t have the proper gear to produce quality video and am distrustful of on-line money sources.
           Some examples of what I’d go after are the people who cannot pronounce “Bagration”, the nonsense that the Bismarck was the biggest ship, or that Hitler invaded Austria. Mistakes are inevitable, but I’m after the bunch that should know better. One bunch I’d like to slight are the people who call a Panther or Tiger a “Nazi tank”, but would think it silly to call the B-17 a “Democrat bomber”. I could fill a small book on that, plus I don’t mind that it would insult these “new” documentaries who repeat propagandized material as absolute fact.

           Here’s something I definitely find interesting. I’ve been on the no-call list since day one and maintain that it doesn’t work worth jack shit. Especially when some “charity”, “religious”, and “political calls are exempted. Enter Robo-Revenge, a software service that makes it easy to sue Robocallers. This is the same company that issued pseudo-credit card numbers that prevented sleazy companies from continuing to charge you after the trial period finished. DoNotPay works like so. You have to sign up for the service. It generates a pseudo-credit card number that you give to the robo-call. This card creates a transaction record and logs the scammer’s contact info. It then creates demand letters and court papers to sue the caller.
           Downsides. Top of the list is this service is twenty years late. The real target is the companies that process the payments, that is, follow the money. The service arrives after the FCC has already stopped the majority of calls. And the calls that still get through are generally from overseas, and the service doesn’t stop those. I’ll check it out anyway. I have gotten three robocalls this year, down from three per day. The system he’s built would be great—if it works.
           The author of the code could be the first true programmer of his demographic. That’s influenced by the way he thinks like I do. If it is really a free trial, you’d be able to sign up anonymously. There is a lawyer already squawking on behalf lf the scammers saying saying since the credit card is fake, that is defrauding the free trial people. That lawyer deserves a free trial of his own.

Picture of the day.
Soyuz digital clock.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Skip this afternoon. All you get is this neat gif of the peach blossoms, which seem irresistable to the local wild honey bees. They are non-stinging but I don’t take chances. Here’s one where there are dozens. Not having the gumption to begin the whole plumbing job, I prepped the bathroom counter to be moved and called it a day. I read more on javascript but as usual, the book is not telling me what I need to know. Like how to I manipulate script that gets onto my computer via interaction with somebody else’s website? Can it be done? If it is on my computer, I consider it my property, but not necessarily my responsibility. Like most contemporary computer textbooks, it tells you how the code works and then leaves you hanging.

           I read the chapter on arrays. Talk about convoluted. And there’s a passage that talks about data types, that there are many times you need to use the number 4 as the letter 4. Strange how, in the dozen other languages I’ve studied, I have never in my life encountered that situation. But, javascript insists. I find the language backwards that way. You have to often figure out what something is not. For example, when you see some unfamiliar term buried in the code, you have to remember or go look up whether or not it is a command or reserved word. Users would insist you can gather the term’s property by its usage. And that’s my point. That is probably the worst possible way to get that information. But I’m halfway through the book now.

           How rich is that turkey pie? Four hours later, it is still not cool enough to set in the fridge. Since I can’t leave it out, I took the time to review Agt. R’s escrow details. I cannot find out how much he is paying for the required insurance, but I notice the rate goes up slightly every year. Thus I was able to deconstruct the data and he’s paying the standard $1,550 per year every February. In Florida when you have a mortgage, you are required to carry hazard insurance for the price of the mortgage, not the value of the house. I think. I doubt Agt. R has ever shopped around or is even aware of any details of this insurance.
           Maybe I’ll drop a note to Trent on the matter. The guy is a gift of information, but I hate to ask anything that bites into his time. I’ve gotten him to agree to put extra on his monthly payment to match the amount I contribute for yard care. He’s got to start making extra payments or that mortgage doesn’t mature until 2054, when he’s pushing 90. Mind you, by then a $400 monthly payment could be the hourly wage. I calculate he needs to put an extra $170 on the principle each month to get back into the realm of the possible.

           Then I watched documentaries on electric airplanes. They’ve been around some ten years but like Tesla, batteries have not kept pace. The engines are lighter but that’s offset by the weight and cost of the electricity storage. Nowadays that means lithium. Test flights are just passing the 15 minute mark, but ignoring aviation safety margins, claims of up to 100 miles are appearing. I further analyzed the footage of the Israeli Drome Dome, a laser anti-drone system. The drones shot down are all plastic material, that is, not hardened, and took only basic defensive maneuvers.
           Looking for an investment, check Magway. It’s a UK company that wants to use maglev tubes for delivery. Most FedEx type packages would shoot through small pipes at 30 mph, many times the actual average for truck deliveries. It’s friggen expensive to set up, but I’d consider any investment that brought down the FedEx and UPS systems. I just don’t like the way they do business.

Last Laugh