One year ago today: January 18, 2021, go spend the money.
Five years ago today: January 18, 2017, that door never lasted.
Nine years ago today: January 18, 2013, combat conditions.
Random years ago today: January 18, 2016, I once hated yardwork.
My feeds were blank, so nothing blog-worthy happened in the world today. But the latest facts are in over Biden’s MLK address, only 628 clicks. Fewer than that sight that posts remedies for tomato blight, and although I can’t say, not even a good showing against this blog. And my blog, I admit, is in the middle of a slump. Wait, something’s flashing now. Ah, you know that black that murdered the grandmother at Cracker Barrel? Wanted felon, he was shot to death at roadside while making “gun-pointed gestures” at pursuing detectives, who immediately opened fire. I’m informed he was only a suspect. Now he’s a dead suspect.
For lack of social news, I have some comments on the Mars rover that has uncovered Carbon-12. True, it is associated with life but can be produced a number of other ways. The rover bakes rock samples to measure outgassing. Carbon-12 is the isotope that life as we know it uses, since the element bonds easily. But it is not as stable as Carbon-13 so its presence is an indicator that life may be present. It’s a far cry from finding life, but evidence is mounting.
And this morning was a jolt to anyone who does not keep paper receipts of which bank statements are one form. Alarms rang when a fifth payment appeared on the downloaded reports, by coincidence a month after a series of identical payments ended. I don’t believe in coincidences, so it opened a four-hour investigation. But, we found it. On January 2, we made a payment to the State, but they split it into two payments, one for $299 and another for $6. If not offered a paper receipt, ask for one, dammit. If the Reb can learn to keep paper receipts after years of trusting the banks, you can learn it, too.
And how about the latest ads from Britain. They ask for donations to heart foundations by implying it is not the vaccines, but that heart attacks in healthy children and athletes are perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.
Ugly line dancers.
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My lemon of a van gets another chance. It still misfires piston five, but not always. You can trick it by accelerating past 2600 rprm, and if you coax it slowly up to speed it will run fine until you brake. And if you let it get hot, it can cruise along for twenty minutes at a time. This is what’s telling me whatever is wrong just cannot be that bad. I booked a full check for next Monday, since so far no two mechanics have agreed what’s wrong. And I cannot get at the oxygen sensor without a [hydraulic] lift.
Gab has replaced Craigslist as the board to flame people. And with Gab, they cannot flag you, just block. But that also prevents them from back-posting, which must infuriate them to no end. On that basis alone, I’m taking a closer look. I used to pseudo-plagiarize some of my best material from Craigslist, but then again, I also contributed some of the best. My favorite effort was my systematic attack on their HTML code. That’s where I emulated their screens with a fake [version], altered HREFs to send my flagged posts to the best-of list, and convinced people one flag could take down a post.
Of course, this is no longer possible as they have migrated to a server-side system. I’ve told this tale from the trailer court before, but would you like a reminder? And this is only a sample of what went on; the really nasty stuff I reserve for a deserving few. Nearby is a pic of the current CL posting format, with only four buttons, including the infamous flag. Fifteen years ago, this was a much more “target rich environment”.
The fake screen was a post that looked exactly like their opening page. Except, being a fake, none of the icons would work. Momentarily a message flashed that I had seized control of their computer. They had to scroll down 15 or 20 blank pages to get the real close button. What a classic that was. Same with the screen that flashed “virus downloading”, which worked particular well on churches that posted in the “wrong” categories. Yeah, that was me. Another classic was I had figured out it took five flags to take down a post, but they had to come from different computers. I owned an Internet shop at the time, so I could flag from multiple sources. Then, instead of a fifth flag, I would stop at four. Then I would post a notice saying I had altered the Craigslist software to require only one flag.
This encouraged the dissatisfied to give it a try, and be-dammed, it usually worked! Or so they thought. It was then an easy matter to steer chronic flaggers to posts I found unamusing, such as retailers in the musician’s section. Toward the end, I could go right in and modify the text, which when cleverly done could often remain up for weeks before the pricks even noticed. There were several categories of flags and I loved to change the bad flags to good ones. The freaks in Fort Lauderdale were fuming livid. I even wound up enraging the Hippie, though I didn’t know it until later.
Toward the end, I was able to download lists of information that could pretty much ID the chronic flaggers. Back then it was not forbidden to post names and phone numbers, which provided a source of ceaseless delight to those of us who abhor ignorance. I do believe I am the anonymous party that forced CL to revamp their entire system, including re-write their Terms of Service. Why? Because they let people who contributed nothing flag others who had put effort into making good posts. Like I told CL, one post, one flag. But they let people flag wholesale, and I felt it my duty to sharpen them up a bit. Besides, what fun it was!
ADDENDUM
Music, the real barometer of public mood. I got a few surprises listening the top selling stats of last year. It was like a list of 70s and 80s artists. I’m not alone in paying more attention to the British reports. They are still a large faction that still buys vinyl recordings. Look at the top sellers. David Bowie, Motley Crew, remember, we are not talking CD albums. That market is dominated by Taylor Swift, who has lost her country but gained “a voice that wraps around the listener, giving them a warm hug.” Now if only she could discover fast music.
Motley Crew? Yep, they haven’t done a musical thing in years but they sold $95 million worth of it last year. I have a possible explanation. American music of today is millennial crap, whisper-singing tribal chants and single note thumping. I find I cannot listen to most of it without getting distracted. It’s true we prefer music from our teen days, but I at least try. And conclude it is no wonder that The Beatles and ABBA still outsell all but 1% of new America releases.
Stats. Vinyl recordings are a growing market, lead by the UK. World-wide, new vinyl album sales (a lot of it is legacy) now constitute over a quarter of all new purchases. The market has been growing steadily since 2008. That year was the low mark of music sales in the USA, which the industry blames on digital piracy. But the fact is, that year marked the bottom of a downhill slide since 2000 where in general American music turned into almost pure shit. The big stores were shoving rap and crap in a transparent ploy to tell us what we wanted.
My pick for worst music of 2005, for example:
U Already Know
I’m Sprung
Girlfight
Some Cut
You and Me
This stuff is really bad. Far from buying any of it, I would expect to be paid to listen to people like Mike Jones or groups like “The Black-eyed Peas”. The musical depth just is not there. To be fair, in 2005 I liked Maroon 5 and Rob Thomas, but only their top hit each. I’ll call Parson and urge him to schedule another rehearsal.
