June 26, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 26, 2022, “Windows decay.”
Five years ago today: June 26, 2018, I walked out.
Nine years ago today: June 26, 2014, the old new clubhouse.
Random years ago today: June 26, 2009, a half-billion in debt.

           Garth Brooks, the idiot who bad-mouthed the Bud Light boycotters, just got booed off the stage. That’s a musical death sentence. Biden is on the run, he’s hired a lawyer, a sure sign the walls are closing in. Trump has announced America’s largest mass deportation plans to cheering throngs, then filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit against the bug-eyed Schiff & his pals at the FBI. I don’t know if these crowds chanting “arrest Bill Gates” will get anywhere but it I was old Bill I’d be pacing the floor. While I consider what resistance there is to be mild, it would seem the system never thought it could even rise to that level. Another Democrat miscalculation.

           What else do we have this morning? How about the White woman charged with a hate crime for asking a pizza parlor to change the TV to an English channel. Disney is going all out to conceal losses from its woke agenda, some sources say $900 million. Idaho leads the country in efforts to abolish the FBI. And FBI agents pretending to be fascist to cause trouble at a Patriot rally got shoved and roughed up, causing the local police to have to jump in. New York is now going after wood-fired pizza joints, the carbon theme again. But it’s all about the power to tell people what to do, and electricity can be cut off instantly. Also in NY, somebody finally opened fire at a queer parade. California moves closer to taxing cars by the mile instead of at the pump, the true goal being to track everybody’s movements.

           This is the burn barrel with air nozzle. I’ll explain later, right now I wound up at the library. (That explains my bitching—my home system must be fried.) There is no infinite supply of money over here. Every big site allowed through the library filter is dominated by Trump news. Or by the lack of it. The trouble-making Fox News has refused to cover Trump’s campaign, so in return, Trump may shun their presidential debate, some say he may hold a rally the same day. Like most Americans, I would like to see Trump break the back of the fake news big media. I’ve never watched a debate, only highlights. But there is one event that would change that—a Trump and Biden debate. So far Biden has refused to debate Trump.

Picture of the day.
Chinese private hair dye laboratory.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           One of my habits on leaving the library is to stop for coffee downtown. So that’s the first time in something like two years. The COVID hoax has changed the character of things. The shop is now mostly drive-thru. I worked both the crosswords, lifted from last Sunday’s Ledger on the library shelf. I also noticed the absence of the once ubiquitous Harbor Freight coupons from all the magazines. Nor am I a sharp dresser, but by comparison at the local library I could model.

           The Reb had called earlier and an hour on the phone gave me lots to think about. We’re small fish in a big ocean and there is nothing to stop things from suddenly moving too fast for everybody. Until Trump came along we only marginally paid attention to government as like most Americans we did not believe they represented us. It was the reaction of the Establishment that got people paying attention. Why was this common-sense Trump guy being attacked from all sides?

           Only one thing to do, get the burn barrel fired up. The area now has air, water, and comfortable seating. Before, one had to string out the extension cord. Now, just push a button. This has reduced a five-beer fire down to a three-beer. However, I would like to inform the world that, as a traditionalist, I stayed in the game. Let other men disappoint and not measure up to standards, I’ll have you know I went the distance. For the team. It took until almost pitch dark but I was out there until the skeeters drove me back.
           My conclusion is that if things go wrong, there is little option but to move everything here to the cabin. It’s far safer than any city and I’ve considered what would happen if there was another real estate bust. Nobody is selling, the watchdogs say less than half the usual number of listings are in the market. I would say good, prices have been too high for decades. It is the availability of credit that caused the soaring prices and I would not bat an eye over millions of people losing that “value” in a wink. No more than I cried back in 2008 when things fell here. Yes, the scrunch was 2006, but it took that long to reach Florida.
           Nothing of note happened today except politics. And most of it does not impact much around here. Idaho wants to ban the FBI from the State, there is a move to stop that California weirdo from flying in private jets, and a motion to defund the ATF after their raids on gun stores where it turns out they had no warrants or something. Yet another former Obama/Clinton advisor has died in a “tragic car crash in Colorado”. He was the guy who handled the campaign money.
           The Democrats are pretty much refusing to let Biden debate anyone, much less Trump or a Kennedy. (Trump has suggested they try putting him up against a child.) They remember what a fool Biden made of himself in 2020. Trump is not allowed to publicly discuss the proceedings against him, but his prosecutors are allowed to make press releases. This baffles many Americans and it also turns them against the system because we know it can only get that way by deep state corruption. And yet another sports figure has dropped dead with the bad guys still denying it is the vaccine.

           I had a go at fixing the connection but I think this computer is hooped. For the past 15 years I’ve had spare computers from the old shop to keep going, or one could always buy an old 386 often in prime condition. Both sources had dwindled away and taking inventory, I don’t think I can cobble together even one last working unit. Looking on-line shows the few remaining desktops are the dreaded HP junk. Bottom line? I may have no choice, it had to happen. Like my van, what I have now are the last of the fixable units before things got millennialized.
           Watching several smart phone videos of Israel testing some rockets shows they’ve made something newer and smaller. Launched six at a time, they are powered throughout flight.. It looks half the size of Iron Dome and appears able to bank tighter, which suggests they are developing some new guidance system. It does not take a large missile to knock down an airplane. They seem capable of spreading, then converging on an area of sky to explode in unison. Drone technology?

ADDENDUM
           I reviewed some chapters in my old book on integrated electricity. Nine or ten years on, much of it still does not make sense. I grasp the principles but I would delegate that work to those who enjoy it. I understand adder circuits and flip-flops at a beginner’s level only. Hey, most people never get that far. More interesting to me was the section on why so many integrated circuits (chips) have fourteen pins. Here goes.
           Most early designs used logic gates with two inputs and one output. The most they could put on one chip was four gates, hence the term “quad”. That means twelve pins are needed plus one for the voltage and one for ground. Total, fourteen pins.

           Now, allow me to record the comedy of the weekend. Some of this is repeats, but I want the whole story together. Late Saturday, when it was too near closing to get to the library, my Internet slowed down even more, so most sites I use would time out before connecting. Which includes my e-mail, Caltier, and most banking. This has happened with Boost before, I can’t get my e-mail. This blog was also affected, but normally that is a simple process of having someone log onto the generic account and reading me the confirmation code. I said normally. This was a weekend and I live smack dab in the middle of post-space-age Florida.
           In the end, I contacted nine people who I thought would help me in a pinch. Now I’m not angry, but the Reb says this is “passive aggressive”. I say it now gives me a much clearer idea of how long in a panic (not an emergency, a panic) that each person calls me, what they consider an adequate turnaround time.

           So let’s make a game of it. I’ll tell you the responses I got and you try to guess from this blog, who are the people I contacted. Again, expect repeats.

a) Next Tuesday after my mother leaves on the airplane.
b) I’m not waiting around, I’ll have to e-mail you the code.
c) Can this wait until the kids are grown and leave home?
d) What’s the worst that could happen by giving Google your unlisted phone number?
e) Just as soon as I finish planting the garden.
f) Right after you send written confirmation you are not stealing the nuclear launch codes.
g) This sort of thing NEVER happens to me.
h) I’m too old to learn how to use e-mail.
i) Start by explaining why it is important to you while I snipe every few seconds why it should not be important to you.

           Is next Tuesday good for you? In around half the cases, I had to explain there was a time limit between getting the code and entering it, or Google will shut your account down for 48 hours. My closest circle of acquaintances includes people who do not grasp this concept. “Time doesn’t exist, man. Clocks exist.” Then again, my inner circle friends are hardly chosen for their computer prowess. Or, in most cases, their musical ability, great accomplishments, business acumen, reliability, technological savvy, or neat handwriting.

Last Laugh