One year ago today: August 8, 2022, the picture I prefer.
Five years ago today: August 8, 2018, don’t skimp.
Nine years ago today: August 8, 2014, my kind of bicycle.
Random years ago today: August 8, 2012, sidecar classic.
That unusual light switch, product YQTS315 has some sort of specialized usage. Wait until I get the datasheet, as I’m too busy to follow it up. The hot water tank is wired funny, right when my Internet is acting up. My choices include going to the library every day or buying a whole new computer just to test the link. As ever, I do not know one person I could test this with and asking an XYZer puts them in panic mode—they really are like stuck pigs if anything goes wrong with their precious social media devices. Give them a product for a month and their biggest fear becomes the reset button. It’s 7:45AM and we are about to fry an egg.
After last day’s phone meeting with the Reb, I embarked on a series of calculations I thought were ancient history for my investing career. Yes folks, there is some serious crap going down and it’s a repeat for a guy my age, that is, I’ve seen it before. One calculation applies only to people with spare money, something I did not have when I applied the original equations. An example is opportunity costs. Since once naturally opts for the best return, opportunity costs are the return that would have been projected on the next-best alternative. For now, I can just say, despite a half-century of experience, I’m barely holding my own.
Mind you, if things continue to slide and I live another ten years, my critics can kiss my arse. Let’s get to the important matter of my avocado, or as the Reb says, “avo-KAW-doh”. Here is both the greenhouse born stem, and the greenhouse setup. Originalyl designed to ward off hungry varmints, the blub is a plastic Wal*Mart™ fishbowl, remind me to check the Thrift for more. Yes, the bulb is dirty with condensation. The stem is now out in the open, seeing if it deals with the weather. Normally, the incubation is six months, what you see here is one month. Have I stumbled upon something?
Get ready for the next papaya attack. The second crop is already showing signs of ripening. We will go for the smoothies this time. That’s after somebody goes up the ladder and singles out the ripe ones. They are not consistent that way. You get used to them dropping so many leaves, they are like four feet long and not pretty.
I’m nearing the end of “Falling Down” and finding I disagree with much of angle the story is plainly broadcasting. I see both sides of the marriage story but I wonder how many family units have been broken up by the portrayed situation. The man wants a simple life, to come home from work to supper and a happy family, maybe sit on the sofa he paid for and pat his dog—likely the very reasons he got married. However, should his wife for some reason or no reason decide he is not going to have those things, he’s screwed. The entire social, government, police, and financial systems are against him, does not matter if he is right or she is wrong. She gets the gold mine, he gets the shaft.
That’s why I bought a book on sale at the library. In case I couldn’t find a good movie. It’s a book about the world’s greatest conspiracies. I’m curious what rates.
Harper’s Ferry nowadays.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
At 2:00PM I finally meet Frets. Before leaving, I watered the shady mix, shown here with some kudzu in the background. Turns out, I know the guy from jams, but never met before. We know a ton of people in common. It was a nearly great rehearsal, he was wide-eyed over the sound. He instantly glommed onto the question-answer technique. What could go wrong? Well, nothing so far but he has three issues on which we have not yet squared. One is backing tracks, which I told him I will play to if it comes to that. Two is his guitar-playing friend, we don’t need him, and if the friend was serious, why was he not at this important first meet-up? Three, a lot of his music is boring and I dare not say anything. He also mentions he does not like to play in clubs, but without saying where else you gonna play? There are no other possible sources of steady or even sporadic work in the territory.
I’d rate the audition very successful musically. As usual, his wife came downstairs to say she could not believe how good it sounded. Listen to the wives, guys, the quality of these rehearsals is something they know a lot about—most have been through enough of them. We played around a dozen standards that could be ready in a week or two. We also talked a bit of finances and nothing was resolved but the parameters got spelled out. Bands that don’t make at least some money are doomed. And that is running 100% in my considerable experience to date. He’s got a ton of equipment, by the looks of it none chosen for convenient gig usage.
His song list is also woeful for audience appeal but say nothing. For guitar players, that is one uber-touchy subject. I am not against playing it—just hesitant to play it at gigs where there is more suitable material available. Example, that tune “Spooky”. Great jazz-blues fusion but no matter how you slice it, that tune does not fire up the crowd and no, it is not good enough that a couple people out there absolutely love that song. You should be playing what is best for the greatest number and Academy Award material rarely fits that bill on a Friday after payday.
To convey the right balance, we played a lot of his song list and he was outspokenly impressed. I know “Spooky” to a tee from playing it with my last big band and Frets was astounded by the paradox that I play a stunning rendition yet don’t want to play the song on stage, though I will if we must. If I can play it so well, then why not? Because that song simply does not deliver the wow. I’ll dust off my sheet music, however, because if we can get a set of music together, this guy is a definite go-ahead. It just took a year to get to first base.
These factors remain open topics, that is unresolved, but I’ve played in plenty of groups where that remained a constant. It isn’t necessary to agree on much to have a successful band, though it remains a social construct and it always better if you can find happy people. Now comes the “journal” aspect of this blog, designed to get the details in writing for a future, that, as it turns out, has never yet arrived in my life. We aced the standards, from “Folsom Prison” to “Six Days” and he loved the sound. He doesn’t necessarily know that is also my best material, as long as he enthusiastically embraces the concept. The flip side is “Spooky” because I have not played that tune in nine years and he thought that was an impressive rendition. Experience says play what he wants. And some of it is ancient, such as “Runaway” and “Silver Wings”.
He rapidly spotted that he could rely on my bass lines to keep up momentum. What he may not yet get is that comes with a price tag. If I’m required to fill in on rhythm, it means sharing the spotlight at what would traditionally be his spots to shine. Have you heard me play the keyboard break from “Runaway” on the bass? Nothing like it, even if Elliott would disagree. Hell, Elliott would swear everybody has already done that while unable to name any specific event.
If this duo is a go-ahead, I will need another 386 computer. Right now, I have the hard disk that contains every bit of sheet music I own—yet this goddam millennial Windows 10 search will tell you nothing is found with the file open right on screen. Eventually I found the bass tab to the incredible version I played with the big band nine years ago. Here’s your case study in reverse psychology. The guitarist does not realize the real reason he wants to play that song is because he thinks he’s fantastic at playing it (dare to convince me otherwise). Take a moment and listen to a good recording of that tune. You heard what he heard—and the last thing he’s expecting is a bass player to happen along who can play it better than he can. Or possibly can. I have long since got the measure of guitarists of that stripe. I’m still pondering if I should this time.
I got home in time for Gunsmoke Tuesday, but I was the only one who showed up. So I walked home, grabbed a coffee and fell asleep for twelve hours. My newsfeed shows now that Trump (some say taking my advice) began calling witnesses, the entire J6 mechanism has panicked and begun destroying records by the ton. They won’t get them all. And this bad behavior by the corrupt will continue until some drastic measure puts it on hold. Trump has learned not to tackle the Deep State head on, but to use their own tactics against them. His plan appears to be putting the worst of his enemies on the witness stand. America will get quite the show as Democrats are such horrifically bad liars to start with.
Police in Connecticut caught falsifying traffic tickets to make it look like Whites are worse drivers. The solution is to cut off their pensions for any infraction. Without that pension, they will have to focus on doing the job rather than obeying their Democrat paymasters. Tucker Carlson goes from strength to strength after being canned by Fox, who are bleeding out. Iran will not longer use the term “homo”, replacing it with the more descriptive “deviant”.
ADDENDUM
Do I get this arthritis prescription? It’s not an isolated decision, as American drugs do not cure. Mainly they are preventative because they are developed by private companies for their profitability. Hence, there is very little research into malaria, for example, since it isn’t a big disease around here. I see inherent harm in becoming reliant on drugs that prevent only. In this instance the product is Diclofenac and it no longer needs a prescription. That status is a long, complicated decision that usually has little to do with the drug’s efficacy.
Drugs are a cutthroat business, with Europe, Japan, and USA as 80% of the world market. Billions are spent on research which places a huge focus on a drug’s patentability. Um, and also on patenting alternative processes. Martin Shkreli was far from the first to price drugs on supply and demand. He just forgot to give the big companies their cut, resulting in seven years in prison and a life-long ban from the pharma industry over an unrelated fake charge. Drugs like Plavix (if I recall) sold for over $6,000 per annum is manufactured for around the price of aspirin.
How big is pharma sway in the US? Beyond huge. The US regularly bypasses foreign patents during “emergencies”, even imagined ones. Their favorite target is handily the Bayer corporation in Germany. Same with Canada, remember the big “anthrax” scare? Not one case was eve reported but the message is out. Patent laws mean nothing to the big pill companies.
