June 23, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 23, 2022, um, pallet technology?
Five years ago today: June 23, 2018, haven’t sold it yet.
Nine years ago today: June 23, 2014, like broken glass.
Random years ago today: June 23, 2023, too much music.

           Have you read enough about electronics here? Maybe no, it is raining again. I may dismantle some electric motors but otherwise, I’m not heading out there. We made another batch of muffins. Rainy days tend to be predictable around here. Another Biden ploy has backfired, people are furious the media knew about the submarine implosion but dragged out the story since Sunday to lessen the impact of the Hunter Biden deal. It only worked on 10% of the people, but usually that is enough for nonsense to take root in America. What the heck, it’s Friday. Stick around and see what happens.

           For reasons unknown, my broswer (Firefox) quit. It won’t link to any but a few sites. No e-mail, no searches, and right when I need a new kitchen stove, no Craigslist. Whenever this happens the first suspect is MicroSoft updates. Unless I got hit by lightning, but that’s way down the list. I purposely puttered around for five hours, so here’s a light description and pictures of the day.

           Here’s the motor from the old shop vacuum and it revived just fine. It’s the wrong design to replace a fan, so it’s on the shelf for now. Not so lucky with the old A/C motor, it is fried. I’ll tear it apart to see. That unit had two radiators, no idea why, and it also had a heater coil. Now I follow my own advice, separate coolers and heaters. That was one expensive unit. I got the Bissell spruced up and it works fine, but for that drive belt. It is quite new but jammed with parts from broken kid’s toys. At a third the weight of the Reb’s, there’s a chance this one might get used. That’s providing I find the belt, this is a Wal*Mart™ grade assembly.

           The compressor is again proving its worth, if only to keep things clean to work on. The shop still has a dirt floor. And it is mine tailings so dust is a perpetual challenge. Overall, today was my call and I rejected starting any large projects. I’ll still tell you what I did as that may be the only bloggable list of this day. I replaced “old faithful”, the GE radio in the washroom. It switches on automatically with the fan when motion is detected. It just finally quit picking up all the strong stations which nowadays are never the best stations. Lem’s unit is set up and it has a remarkable sound for its size and looks. And for some reason, it picks up Boss Hogg where other radios fade at this distance.
           Another 3/4” of rain kept me lazy and indoors. No panic, we are out of most food so I’ll get into town. It’s a Friday and I should get out for a bit. So should you. I did the books and this is the slowest month in five years, even including the trip to the Cherokee Forest. National parks as exciting today as they were before they were parks.
           The Internet must be partially down in addition to that upgrade, which I fixed by restoring this computer to a week earlier. Usually upgrades can sneak in several ways. I’ve no energy to pursue it. Meanwhile, my Internet speed is so slow we may spend tomorrow at the library.

           Watching spots from political rallies around the country, there is a backlash on anyone who who mean-mouths Trump. The significance is this rarely happens. Anti-Trumpers are getting booed by their own people. The danger is that all the violent whacko types are in that camp. It used to be a mumble or murmur, now people are shouting. These leftoid politicians are just not getting it. Win on your own merits because calling down Trump is political idiocy. Right or wrong, he’s recognized as the one who revealed the swamp.
           Another smooth move is the Democrats referring to their opponents not as people who don’t like corruption, but as mis-guided persons who have “chosen to attack” Democrat integrity.

Picture of the day.
Poisson cru, Tahitian national dish.
(Raw fish in lime & coconut.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Let’s stay in. Fridays are special to me, I miss each one that I do not gig. Around 15 years ago I tried to train myself to stay home and enjoy quiet things. Reading and writing I already did more than most. Instead I found myself filling any spare time with new things. Now I have a series of hobbies that I rotate every few weeks or months, none of which is my favorite. Today I watch a repeat documentary on the 555 chip, it’s the one that predates microprocessors as a “programmable” chip with a variety of uses that remains popular today. I don’t care for them as the wiring is funny. I would not hesitate to use them.

           We have a new term entering the Hollywood circles. “Sexualized”. Increasing claims of being “sexualized” without really saying what it means. Nobody touched them or even spoke to them, so my guess is as child stars they saw a few things the rest of us did not. I learned about sex from the encyclopedia, which means I also learned to read between the lines, ha-ha. It’s been my experience the worst adjusted are not those who learned early, but who learned late.

           One of many small tasks today was cutting this piece of wood I’m holding off the wooden frame shown. I’ve always like this mini-vise but when bolted in place, that end piece of wood got in the way. Because it involved stringing out the saw, I put this off for several years. All my tools are now repaired so soon there will be no excuses not to go after that new water heater. I threw on a DVD, “Prisoner X”. A low-budget time travel tale of many clichés, the secret agent who keeps seeing her dead daughter in the hallways. Filmed in a bunker, it seems to be about terrorists who use a time machine to go into the future to plant bombs, which detonate when the past catches up. They could have done more with it, but chose lame acting scenes.
           Then I read about a nothing battle in ancient Greece. The significance is that it is the first battle where the exact numbers, tactics, and motives have been recorded. The place is called Delium and the reason much attention is given is because it marked a departure from the “old” way of fighting wars. Instead of skirmishing in the summer and going home to harvest the crops, the leaders on both sides tried to destroy the others capability for war. That is, now fighting for something that has not happened yet. The slaughter was immense and contrary to custom, the corpses were left out in the open. The connection is vague to me, but this battle was a big deal to the Greeks and now the historians.

           My Internet is down. The transfer rate is so slow most connections time out. Mobile did mention in a roundabout way they would be doing something to older devices on their newest grade of service (typical of millennial marketing) but is this it? Computers I know, Internet mumbo-jumbo I do my best to keep up with. I recall how the majority of users that welcomed it was not because it was progress, but that it turned progress into a free-for-all and this mess is the result. I watch this on a mini-scale at the phone company. Each department “went computer” without any overall guidelines. Within a few years they had fifteen large and incompatible data bases.
           Think of what incompatibility means. The best example I can think of was the addresses. Since street addresses evolved much the same way, there is no real pattern to it. It’s a nightmare to design a set of data fields that will cover each possible variation on addressing. It can be done, but the entry screen must display some 35 fields and the data people trained to use only the right ones. Give it a try sometimes. Then enter Miami’s Northeast West South River Drive. British addresses were intentionally bad so invaders could not use tourist maps, and our linemen who went north to help after Canadian blizzards had to use SILI codes (silly codes) where OHMH meant “One Hundred Mile House”.

ADDENDUM

           Brasso. This is the fun chemical we used to play with as kids. You could dip a penny in it and it came out shiny as new. The Genxyzers have gotten hold of it and watered it down. Now even scrubbing with a brush for several minutes barely gets the easy spots. What are them bozos doing? Drinking the stuff? Here’s a sample of what I mean. In the old days, a single drop of Brasso and the job was done. This shows the coin after three applications. Another insult is these America’s Got Talent bits. I watch only the “best of” and now they give the trophy to the gimp, whether or not there were better talented people around.
           My theory is that the Obamists figured they had America with the PC, the politically correct, trapdoor. Anything you said that they did not like was offensive. Then along came Trump and rubbed their noses in it. Nobody cares being called a Nazi any more, it is a washed out term. Most people who use it are visibly defective. PC is out and giving the prize to the tard who puts on the best pity show is in.

Last Laugh