One year ago today: December 13, 2019, early chicken tales.
Five years ago today: December 13, 2015, no iron sights.
Nine years ago today: December 13, 2011, no mohawk for me.
Random years ago today: December 13, 2002, database table work.
Nobody likes those 8-hour days when nothing shows. But I’ve got the front office working again, at least that corner of the room. No, I did not install enough outlets in that spot. Just ten, already all used up. A power bar will be needed. I was still learning how to wire things up back then and in a Bill Gates moment, I thought, ten plugs ought to be enough for anyone. I had to move a ton of household furniture and around 200 books (my place is full of books), like I said, none of the work shows.
All is encrypted and the wireless shuts down after twenty minutes of inactivity, the wired portion has a physical cut-off switch. You can’t see it, but this is also the “clean” room, a Faraday cage except for the single cellular and WiFi spots. There’ll be computer news for a few days since the new units don’t have all the required installs, and it is at heart, a good old XP system. That was the last MicroSoft product where you had some idea of what you were getting.
Next on the phone, we have Tennessee news. The white doggie is okay, just stress from losing his playmate, I suppose. We also talked politics, since up there you meet so may with TDS. They simply hate Trump for a variety of reasons that amount to the fact he is not the sort of personality they have been trained constitutes a politician. Ask them if they want 36% taxes, permanent lockdowns, Chinese masters, and rampant inflation—they have no idea that is part of what they are supporting. They just hate Trump.
We further talk about plans and business, she is more inclined to passive income than I am. She advises to go ahead and purchase the Beat Buddy, the entire package as described on my wish list retails for $450. I hesitate, because even at that price it isn’t that much better for the job than a $100 used unit. And that does not include buying the drum programs, which have indeterminate price tabs themselves.
Here’s a poser. Is it or is it not business as usual in California. Oracle with around 10,000 employees, is packing up for Texas. Known in Bidenese as a “disinvestment event”, Oracle joins over a thousand other companies this year alone, clearing out because of the Democrat business environment. Big outfits, like Nestle, Toyota, Tesla, Chevron, and a host of insurance companies are moving their headquarters out, so I’m not clear on how that affects their product or service. They are basically telling California what they think of communism, liberalism, and taxation.
It a double whammy, since the exodus will discourage other business from moving there. These moves are costly which tells us California is in deep doo-doo. Serves them right, they have not yet begun to worry. This will be fun to watch, first the businesses, then the people. California is the New York of the west coast. Excessive regulation, stupid environmental costs, frivolous lawsuits, it adds up. Yeah, adds up to Texas 500, California 0. There’s your prime example of what happens when you go full Democrat.
Tell what else pisses me off. I listened to the radio today spew off symptoms of “bipolar” activity. To me the whole deal smacks of our entitled generations, where everything wrong is somebody else’s fault. They invent custom diseases where the real problem is a generation of wimps and irresponsible weaklings. Don’t like going to work because the people are mean, you’re bipolar. Want to stay in bed all day and feel sorry for yourself, you’re bipolar. Encounter any mildly traumatic adult situation that other people shrug off. Don’t hand me that crap about knowing somebody, the few that are actually mentally unstable have other, verifiable conditions.
And I’m glad Boss Hogg got rid of that jazz lady, she was ruining their station. Now they are back to insulting their listeners, telling lame jokes, and advertising metal roofs 50 times a day. It’s good to have the winning formula back. But you still have not convinced me bands with more than six members or horn sections are rock and roll. When I hear “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is”, I change the station. So there. I wonder if that kind of “muzak” contributes to bipolar shit, you know, not thinking anybody else knows the time of day. (Just kidding, Ken.)
The left-leaning Wiki is begging for money again. What’s sad, is they represent more of what the Internet was supposed to be than Facebook every will. Wiki contains facts and information, something nobody says about most other sites. And they would not have to ask for money if outfits like Amazon, AOL. Google, and eBay had not totally capitalized the model. And started making idiots famous.
Moscow metro, I think.
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I met up with Agt. R. The lack of customers, particularly tourists, puts a damper on most any idea at this time, including the flea market. That just spawned a new group of professional scrounges. If Agt. R had listened to me and learned to play guitar, he’s be making his mortgage payment in four days a month. Alas, he is so unorganized that even if I gave him free music lessons, he’d never make it on time. If anyone is wondering, this is the 37th time on record I’ve tried to work up a solo guitar set. Every time I get distracted by a new bass opportunity, it flops and I’m back to square one. Except this time I didn’t quit even with those chances still all around. Plus, this time I can see I will need the money. It was a quiet day, giving me time to reflect on how music has again changed sides on me.
I know three Florida musicians who were in that comfort zone who are now having to take day jobs. Now it’s me available while they are plugging away, no, I did not say that to their faces. Two guitar players and a Karaoke guy. One is working at the shingle mill, another is looking to drive a delivery van. It brings a wry smile because it spells out that they managed their money the opposite way I did., you may have to think that one through. Can you imagine having to take your first real day job when you are over 40? Yikes. No, I don’t pity them, they had it easy while young enough to enjoy it.
That’s due to me being convinced my shape is because I had to work as a laborer so many years. No, it does not toughen you up or keep you in shape. The front office has a better view, so I managed to repair two sets of eyeglass arms, a battery holder, a night light, and look that studio light for the Reb. The damage done by corroding batteries is more often the terminal clips than the electronics. Small desk work, fixing the unrepairable. This includes one of those “EverBrite” lights that Alex Jones plugs on his web page. They are worth around $3.00 each because they contain a soldered internal rechargeable battery which is just about to go dead.
The replacement batteries at their cheapest are Harbor Freight, and you will need a vise or third hand to solder them in. It’s been a long quiet afternoon as I configure an XP computer as I would have in 2005. What a treat, a walk down memory lane. I have all the original software from printer drivers to DVD players, everything in pristine condition. I used to charge $100 for this work. One program I can’t find is PhotoScape, the one that produces all my gif files. I found a DVD full of photos marked 2006, I’m sifting through them now. Tons of Argus photos from the time of the original trailer, including the Everglades and the original Taurus.
ADDENDUM
A couple questions had me looking at the war in the Western Desert, the one that made Rommel famous. I do not believe Rommel did not figure out that the British had cracked his codes. My question was, since the British who were sinking his supply ships were based out of Malta, why did he not land there? I am aware of the slaughter of paratroopers in Crete put a damper on airborne landings, but he was losing more men and materials by not attacking. So I read the reasons for not attacking and it is not convincing.
The official version is the island was a fortress, the Italians would have to be relied on, the Royal Navy was too strong, etc All nonsense, at least in 1941. The Italians could probably have walked ashore. Look at a map and tell me the Germans could send ships full of tanks and troops to Tripoli right past Malta, which had an air force of three biplanes. If you ask me, the Germans could easily have landed at several places and had a beachhead they could have supplied by airdrops at night. A force of a few hundred commando-like volunteers would have smashed the local defense in a matter of days.
Take a look at Malta itself. It has five or six harbors other than Grand Harbor, plus five or six marinas big enough to take landing barges. So, how would I have invaded Malta in 1941? The island was starving, the British supply bases were at Gibraltar and Alexandria. They were unwilling to face the Italian fleet on the pretext a loss there would weaken their blockage of Germany (Britain was breaking international law, by the way). The best they could do was send a few submarines of supplies, or fly airplanes off carriers so far away most of them ditched.
I would have had the Italians, only fifty miles away, make faces like they were ready to sail or fly to Malta, causing the local defense to concentrate around Valetta, the only real prize on the island. Then land by rubber dinghy my 250 commandos with possibly some artillery, and ideally, say twenty tanks. Have them move inland because the Brits will try to shell them from the sea, but I would have a ring of u-boats waiting. To avoid interception, my troops would be equipped with flares and markers for night drops. This campaign would last maybe two weeks, it would have exhausted the few undertrained and underequipped enemy soldiers.
I am definitely not sold on the propaganda that a valiant few Brits held out against overwhelming odds for a year. The island is only maybe 10 miles by 20 miles and everybody lives near Grand Harbor. England considered the island indefensible. Instead we are fed this line that there was a siege. Fifty obsolete Italian bombers dropping 142 bombs on three small air bases doesn’t really meet the definition. True, the main harbor was heavily bombed, but my point is the rest of the island was not even defended. What are they not telling us?
Yet we are told when the British landed on the island in force by late 1941, they were able to completely dominate the theater, sinking 240 German ships and half the available enemy planes in a couple of months. We’ve heard about these miracles too often. But I’m not equipped to find the facts, if they even exist any more.
