February 27, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 27, 2020, yes, thanked me.
Five years ago today: February 27, 2016, a point in your life.
Nine years ago today: February 27, 2012, quickly get expensive
Random years ago today: February 27, 2005, I like Feb. 27ths.

           Not my day. That’s the nature of reading a journal like this, you get the bad days. But, for the first time this season, I had to crank on all the air conditioners. That’s good but yard work will no be limited to the times of day I’d rather be taking my time. Another guitar player has responded to an inquiry, he’s in this late 40s. That’s the traditional stretch guitar players either smarten up or fade away. His e-mail stresses people who “know how to play”, so he’s had exposure to the local market.
           His song list is that of a strong entertainer, which gains points with me over some guitar hot-shot out to build his little empire. It’s a list more for a crowd than a contest, but I’ll have to look up artists like John Cafferty? He doesn’t care for new country, which is good. As usual, I’ll seek to set up a quick get toether and see if the guy is for real. He really stresses good band sound, using the term super-group. You don’t often get that with country influenced material.

           By mid-morning, I must take the day off. It’s not the heat. I’ve been skipping siestas. This, after assuring everyone I’m absolutely fine. Give me a good book and check back this afternoon. Better yet, take the afternoon off yourself. Tell them I said it was okay. I received a second e-mail from the musician stating he plays a number of instruments, which I often find less than optimum for band work. That’s good, since up to that point I could not be sure it was not that same guy from New York who makes big promises but can’t do sweet.
           This a a different person and he’s not from around here. He specifies he wants people who can “really play”, so he’s done some interviewing and auditioning. Some of his list specified guitarists rather than individual tunes, so I hope he isn’t a B-sider. Of these, here is a list of the artists I’ve played but which songs is guesswork.

      Eagles
      Mellencamp
      Waylon
      Toby Keith
      Alan Jackson
      George Strait
      Conway Twitty
      Stevie Ray Vaughan
      Elvis
      Roy Orbison
      Kenny Rogers

           Later, I’ll get you the names of stuff I do not play. That’s not so say I don’t know the music, I just never played it.

Picture of the day.
Abandoned appliances, Florida.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Later, it was the onset of a mild migraine. I’ve had a couple before, none have lasted more than a day and some side effects. The point is, there were always side effects and this time it is just the headache, which has taken to wandering around the prefrontal lobes. Do I get to guess what’s in store? Using this down time, I looked a the F-35, the airplane I always figured should be a drone with the pilot in a bunker somewhere in Arizona. Then, I think most of Arizona should be in a bunker. These are already available, all they have to do is quit using them for storage of 2024 fake ballots.
T           he Android Universal Debloater has arrived. The need for this software was first issued by this blog in 1991, alas, on paper. More recently I’ve told how Windows slows with age and a big part of it is the funny stuff uploaded by manufacturers, ISPs, and carriers. It’s available on GitLab, one of those outfits that presumes you know how to unzip, install, and launch source code. It works only on Android phones, but the concept is gaining traction.

           It caught my eye because their term for the evil core is GFAM for Google/Facebook/Amazon/Microsoft, while mine I think is more appropriate. eFAG for eBay/Facebook/Amazon/Google. In my books, MicroSoft (my spelling with the capilized “S” deserves special and separate punishment. Why is eBay there? Because of what they did with PayPal. They wiped out dozens of on-line cash payment startups by claiming PayPal would be anonymous, same as cash. I still believe the market for such a service is enormous, it is not the same as crypto-currency.
           Have you heard of CLEAR, the database that tracks your utility bills? It typifies how private databases are used by law enforcement to invade privacy in ways they are not permitted by law to do on their own. What are they planning on criminalizing next? Trump supporters can’t get electricity? And, more importantly, what will be the breaking point?

           Artists on the latest guitar player’s list that I do not play.

      Foreigner
      Guns & Roses
      Journey
      Loverboy
      Alabama
      Poison
      Cafferty

           Characteristically, I know/recognize only their top hits. Like Foreigner, “Cold As Ice” and “I Wanna Know What Love Is”, both songs with messages I don’t connect with. I spent some time listening, but that’s my point. It is listening music, not get into it party matter. If you can’t tell the difference, you don’t play bass. Many are also big studio productions tricky to arrange for stage work. It remains a laugh to me the anti-copyright methods on-line and the 1970s marketing ploys. There are still people out there who are paying full retail price for recorded albums full of junk just to get that one good tune. Talk about your low-tech environment.
           More ominous is the sites that track your downloads. I use Cookienator always but the on-screen notices that appear show the label owners are still investing big bucks to monitor (and therefore catch) who is downloading what. It’s a technology I don’t follow, but I am beginning to perceive there may be some way they can tell nowadays whether you are just listening to the music or downloading it. And if so, why?

ADDENDUM
           Rested, but still tired, I read some documentaries on the origins of Democrat policy. It is evident to those who look they are enacting a pre-planned agenda. I have the sense that they’d planned on getting it to creep into the system much slower, the “thief in the night” approach. But Trump came along and they are doing something they’ve never been good at—rapid adaptation to changed circumstances. Most reading leads back to a specific era, that of the 1930s in Germany. It is largely glossed over that the rise of Hitler had huge underpinnings that the communist left was attempting to take over in the war chaos, as they had done in Russia.
           The left has a fairly complete and rehearsed point of view ready to combat most opposition and it was already apparent by 1938. For example, how most of the “civilized” nations declared war to be a criminal act, but Germany did not. That’s the commie logic. Take the other guy’s house, farm, car, and money, then make a pact that you don’t want no more war. I’ve predicted the rise of a super-learder if Trump does not run, or if Trump endorses one with strong America First principles. The far left is already calling the center out as right-wing fascists. There’s some common theme here, so I’ll keep reading.

           The patterns are there. We must stop Hitler. He stole the 1933 elections. We must have arms control. The Nazis are a cult. They are all criminals. Arrest them, try them, deprogram them. Yet you would be hard-pressed to find, in the western military dispatches for the entire period, any mention of the word “war”.

Last Laugh