One year ago today: December 24, 2020, vans & pineapples.
Five years ago today: December 24, 2016, at the Olga Mall.
Nine years ago today: December 24, 2012, older & harsher.
Random years ago today: December 24, 1981,a reminder how quickly .
tolerance becomes intolerance.
Will that Webb telescope make it off the pad on Xmas? I’d plan some other activity than sitting around the fireplace waiting. If it does launch, I’ve promised myself I can have toast with peanut butter, kind of a token celebration. The toast, I mean, the peanut butter is because Twitter just banned that freak Dorsey who was one of the founders. Yep, mainstram media has been dipstick media since 2015, but it really does take the public school masses this long to realize it. Another cold morning, this will allow me to learn more about skip tracing. Maybe I’ll see if there is a worthwhile set of instructions concerning what’s changed on-line. Probably not, less than 1% of posts go beyond beginner’s material.
Now, to help out with the whole situation, let me haul out my base and play Johnny River’s version of “Memphis”, long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee . . . I went through some of the more obscure numbers on the list and man, did these guys go out their way to pick such crappy versions? It takes a certain something to think Skynyrd’s version of T for Texas is better than the original, something like maybe never having heard the originals?
During the recent trials of new apps, I kept running across software that contained all manner of default settings, most of which had to be changed to get what I needed to accomplish anything. The keyword is ‘accomplish’. It can be assumed those settings represent the most common usage of each app. Time and again, they were useless play-game settings that tediously had to be declined and unchecked. I’m not saying you people’s business software isn’t great, but if you want to be taken seriously, maybe synthesized disco music and trail memberships to gay midget dating sites isn’t your best marketing tactic ever. And for god’s sake, quit trying to shove Bing up our noses.
Before noon I’m out there, cold or not. That deck has to quit taking so long. Winter sweater? Check. Winter gloves? Check. Enough coffee? Check. Okay, let’s go. My case of bass players elbow is heading out there with me. The sun is shining and that will have to do. I measured out enough space for one more shelf on the north wall of the back bedroom as a reward if I get this deck in today.
Then I thought, how about a picture of the view from the north side of the building. Here it is. Shown are the brush pile, next to the incinerator. There’s the old laundry room on the left, butting up against the old red shed. Note the shady pistachio trees. You can see back through the fence to the paint shed. Almost all the formerly empty back yard now has some purpose.
Wind erosion, Algeria.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
The deck is not finished. I have to make a major repair. One of the pylons got moved, it was ¾” too high, enough to wreck the drainage. I figure the hillbilly, trying to be helpful, saw the block and figured he’d help by carting it over to the incinerator. He went to lift it and found it was buried on purpose. Then set it back down without allowing for the dirt that fell into the hole. I did not notice until last as it was the final board going in place that did not fit. Here is the deck for now.
It is easy to see the amount of design, or should I call it engineering” that goes into my work these days. The end plates are doubled up and there is a splice between two side plates with a joist hanger holding it solid. The deck boards, as shown, are not the final stage. The corner that is off level is in the lower right corner. The boards are just there to get my tools up off the ground meanwhile. I need thirteen more boards for the deck, that oddball 5/4” size.
SpaceX makes more headlines while Boeing, the competition, continues the slide it began in 1980. The Falcon has made a record 100 landing. Boeing sometimes falls two years behind schedule over a faulty fuel valve. This makes sense to me, I toured the Boeing plant in the early 80s, it was obvious that “Japanese planning” was taking over. Every job reduced to simple repetitive motions with a supervisor who could not do the job himself overseeing the work. It’s another case of the millennials, every department did their job, but the system crashes.
Tesla reverses its decision to block drivers from playing video games while operating the cars. Typical millennials, needing to be entertained 24/7. Before I let you go, in the last frame of the panel picture above, see where the deck meets the wall? It is newly covered with black tarpaper. Don’t look behind that, the wood is totally rotted out and I will eventually have to do something about that. It may wind up the deck supporting the house.
It was another rigorous day, six hours hauling and hammering. I’m fine, in fact, finding myself still energetic, I hit the books. Here’s your update on the new business venture. We were 100% correct that the people teaching the course have support staff. I’ve bragged about my ability to run a whole office myself, so this may be my last chance to do it. This time I promise no heart attacks. At the slightest twinge, I can take off as much time as I please, so let’s continue. Another suspicion being confirmed is that they don’t expect many beginners to get very far. They have testimonials, but I now view those as the lucky few.
Lucky, because my short list from Georgia reveals that exactly 70% of the potential clients have no direct claim on anything. Before I get paid, that claim has to be established and I took one look at the paperwork and stood back. No way those success stories would have such big grins on their faces if they had to do all that. Nosiree, they got lucky and found one of the remaining 30% was a sitting duck. The good news is in the mid-1990s I took an evening course in business law and it is all coming back to me.
Another factor shaping my thoughts is that much of the necessary paperwork is not mentioned in the training modules. That tells me extra that not many people are getting that far. I know a lot about filling out blank forms, so tomorrow I will scout for those and make myself indispensable. Shhh, tell nobody my secret, but the way I do it is go over the forms and memorize them past the point I know others would bog down. Second trick, wait a day, then go back and read the form word for word, even if you’ve seen it a hundred times. Then submit it.
The process is amusing to me because of the pitfalls that await anybody who thinks they can wing it. I’ve speculated law is often made just to confound those who try that. In light of developments, I’ve changed my first selection from an easy claim to a somewhat more difficult one that stays in Georgia, although there is no need to do so. But I’m too new at this to get into what’s needed for other states at this juncture.
ADDENDUM
List of skip-tracing sites investigated today, some more than once:
TLO
PeekYou
Accurint
Spokeo
LocatePlus
TruthFinder
Intelius
Delvepoint
FastPeopleSearch
ReverseGenie
InfoSpace
That’sThen
BeenVerified
WhitePages
Tracers
LocatePlus
SkipSmasher
The best one, or worst one depending on your viewpoint, is the top of the list, TLO. That’s your old TransUnion people. You must have a registered business, which is bullshit because that is one of the easiest things to fake, but carry on. The Texas Association of Private Investigators has an interesting take on all this. Plus, even if you have never borrowed or participated with skip-tracers, there is a (get this) 99% chance you have been researched. Your resumes, school transcripts, rental applications, driver’s licenses, property deeds, phone bills, inboxes, and birth certificates have all been scrutinized at some point.
