April 17, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 17, 2020, I dislike Zoom already.
Five years ago today: April 17, 2016, more NPR slavery guilt.
Nine years ago today: April 17, 2012, ladies vs. lady’s.
Random years ago today: April 17, 2011, early transistor learning.

           If you ever have time, read the Fleaglass Catalog. That’s where I priced out a rolling ball clock at $4,500. I skipped a jam session last evening. I stayed home and went over some budget items as I just know there is a trip to Tennessee on the way. One interesting item, the total amount of materials gone into this cabin since purchase nearly five years ago. It is nearly equal to the amount of rent I would have paid at the trailer court. I have sunk $14,367 in materials into my abode, of which the largest item is $3,900 in lumber. But this place is many times what I had before. Considering I’ve save over $35,000 in rent, not a bad deal. I spend around $300 per month average, but I’m still building and adding on, so it is all equity.

           No surprises on the lumber, since that works out to a little over $80 per month in lumber, nothing considering I now live in a nice comfy place. The largest single item was that electric sub panel, weighing in at around $1,125 but I’ve never skimped on electric. And for the most part, the sheds are either wired or about to be. For instance, here is a picture of the scooter canopy area lit up for work last evening. Right now, all you see is from an extension cord. I have all the materials needed to run underground power to this, which has proven to be the best for outdoor work when it isn’t broiling.
           And in a totally unpredictable surprise, after the “turmoil” of 2011 and the flagging COVID tourist trade, Egyptians have discovered a complete new 3,000 year old city near Luxor. Talk about luck! They vehemently deny the circulating rumors that the city was discovered before, so go with that. Besides, who would ever have guessed that smack dab between the massive works of Ramses and Amenhotep would lie the city of the people who built them?

           I think Tampa Radio and some web sites all dropped out of the same high school. You know the ones I mean, constantly posting it’s-not-my-fault articles. Today it was a study that showed eating chocolate helped mice get thinner. Dig in, fatties. Or how about those car insurance companies that base your rate on how much you drive? All you have to do is install a tracking device. (Hmmm, they should be paying you.) And how about those Mexican narco-tanks, modeled on the Iraqi home-made truck tanks, now with revolving turrets.

           Some 800-900 guns a day head south, this is the famous confiscated mini-gun that was headed for Mexico. This one interested me as it was built by a disabled vet with all the proper export licenses. He was only stopped by the mandate that to export military weapons, the recipient must be a nation recognized by the UN. This usually involves standing up and saying “We declare Statehood”, and having one of your cronies second the motion. Hey, it worked for Israel back in ’47. Remember the “lipstick tube-making machine”. 50-caliber lipstick. Mind, if you’ve seen many Israeli women besides the posers in coffeehouses and the military, you would know they require impervious makeup. Big time. Face it, if strap-on armor is good enough for their main battle tanks . . . .

           Today is a long post, I’m in that headspace. I see Project Veritas, notable here for never having received a single positive comment from the MSM, has again been deplatformed. This time they are proclaiming a triumphant return to power by Trump. July 4th has been chosen in order to maintain the element of surprise. And to give the Democrats more time to better plan their next installment on the insurrection hoax. There is nothing to the rumor this time they are going for 30 dead. Last time they were all Republicans, all unarmed, all with no criminal records. Gotta fix that. Nor am I saying Trudeau is Castro’s son. I’m just saying he looks more like Fidel than Pierre. And Maggie Trudeau, shall we say, likes heads of state.
           Speaking of loose women, I stopped at the old club later and stuck around because the place had a Florida rarity. A room full of blonde women. It was the housewife and young-marrieds crowd, but still slim and the oldest one complained she was turning 31. My kind crowd. You know what they say, blondes prefer gentlemen, though you might not gather that by their dates. I pay very close attention to, and make sure you get this right, to what such women play on the juke box. What tunes get them going. I found one mildly better than the rest, meaning a tune, not a woman. Tyler Childers’ “Feathered Indians”, referring to the impression his belt buckle makes on her inner thighs.
           Come to think of it, there was one woman there my radar picked up. It’s nonsense you can’t tell a woman’s disposition by her looks. By some mysterious process, she was also the slimmest, best-dressed, blondest, youngest, sexiest, and most sparkling of the lot. Would I date a gal who looks like my granddaughter? Compared to what is out there, damn rights. Besides, maybe I already do, so there.

Picture of the day.
Winter in Winnipeg.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           How about that Marscopter, still not off the ground? Head’s up, future historians, this blog correctly diagnosed the problem as long as twenty years ago. I’m laying off listening to their disgraceful excuses. The answer is so simple it will take many more years for the current mind-set to admit it. Quit programming in C+, it does not work and cannot be made to work. But what’s truly contemptible is the style of the NASA releases. They use that laborious slow-talk learned in millennial-school, supposed to gear things down for the entire audience in case there’s one “slow-listener” present. If I want to move at the same pace as the social straggler set, I’ll go hang out at Starbucks.
           The contact with Jag propels the Arduino back into center stage. Not because it is the best for the job, but because it is available. And prices have dropped to the point I can buy ten at a time. You may not recall, but the latest studies I did right up to the time this cabin took over all my spare time was to modularize the somewhat limited Arduinos into tasks controlled by one central unit. I believe this will be the model of any code we generate. What’s more the Arduino “baby chips” have come back on the market. Allow me to explain.

           SMT is surface mount technology, meaning the chips are soldered directly to the board. The other format has a chip socket so that chips can be removed. This is important since once a bit of code is debugged, you rarely need a fully capable chip tied up for your project. You can remove the chip onto a board just capable of running the code, much cheaper. There were also a few “tiny” chips becoming available which I know must now be out there. These remove the need to tie up a full size Atmega, which is how it was originally done.
           The included picture illustrates the difference between SMT and DIP (dual inline package). On the left is the SMT chip, the tiny four-sided square near the UNO logo. On the right, the CPU is the much larger circuit chip inserted into a chip socket. I have a trunk full of these full-fledged type, which may soon be programmed to their limit. There are two options. One is to remove that big chip and place it on a simpler board. The next illustration shows the chip removed, and then inserted into a standalone board which does nothing but “play back” the code. Those who followed my early progress will nothing the small board has only a timing crystal and a reset button. The cost is a tenth of the full size units shown above.

           None of this will be on the exam, this is the usual overview for understanding that may lack technical accuracy. The point is, this time we have the gear, the money, and soon we may have the people. This project would be a culminating mark in my career, something I’ve wanted since 1984 but could not find who or where to begin. I would consider it a worthy contribution to the live music field. Imagine, a drum machine that was both easy to use and played the actual drum track of the song you want. It would eclipse every last piece of junk that has been on the market the last 30 years. I found the Beat Buddy to be nearly unusable, but it may now serve as a $400 bad example.
           I suspect this device will take up all my remaining energy and I will likely be dead before it makes any impact. But let’s not quibble. The world needs this and in the process, I will keep an eye on developing a real guitar accompaniment apparatus.

           This picture shows a window screen I built this afternoon. It isn’t painted yet, but rather than repair the flimsy take-down screesn that came with the house, this one is permanent. It’s on the kitchen window above the sink. It works, so a matching unit goes on the other kitchen window to create a cross-current. The second window is above the stove, something I could never figure out. You can’t reach it easily and the time you want it open is usuallyl when cooking. It’s unsafe to reach over boiling pots.
           What’s not shown is that this project went along superbly. The millwork isn’t that great, but for the first time, I set up a new bit on the router and it worked without fussing. Same thing with the pocket drill. This frame is made from 2x3”, no more messing with the recommended 1x4”. Only the bottom part of the window opens so the screen looks much like a matching bottom window piece. For safety, windows on rooms with only interior doors will be on hinges.

Last Laugh