One year ago today: September 18, 2022, the smart one.
Five years ago today: September 18, 2018, spotty appearances.
Nine years ago today: September 18, 2014, it’s the Egyptians.
Random years ago today: September 18, 2006, what they don’t teach.
Shopping these days is not for the timid. Forget the predictions of a recession, it is here. It’s being disguised by people living off their credit cards. I found out the reason that Nashville house got past my filter—it had dropped more than $25,000 in price within 30 days. It’s still a no-go here, as I estimate your average house in that area is worth between $85 to $90,000. All the rest is speculation and who cares if they land flat on their arses? There’s more to that, because so many speculators live on margins and they can’t even afford a slow-down. And you should hear the whining on-line. Not to mention the Air Force, who are missing an $85 million airplane. I’ll tell you what happened to it. The diversity hire pilot flew it to the Chinese air base in Cuba for the reward money.
I was off to Wal*Mart™ to for bandages so I can wear my shoes on top, and wondered what was going on. Then I remembered, at Wal*Mart™, every day is fat lady day. They turned this top stories on a quiet Monday in central Florida. Mind you, I dawdled around, for example, checking out the price of the lime tree JZ talks highly of. Not $30, old pal, more like $65, unless you want the one already five feet tall. That wee tree is $105. I’m still considering it, but thanks to forest fires out west, I have a deposit that is 38 days late. See addendum.
I found the second big screen TV and it has compatible inputs with the DVD player. If this works right, I’ll right the big TV up in the spare bedroom. Providing I can find wall space, that is. There is a window, door, or A/C cutout on every wall in this building.
Paradox: E. Indian cavalry
wearing COVID masks.
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The saw blade is the only working element here, so I took careful measurements. The blade, when at an angle, should be able to make a 45° cut through 3/4" lumber. This is the thickest I care to work with. I have used larger, but it is overkill and the weight becomes an issue. My intention is boxes that are strong, but the largest box for the gas chain saw proves this has a practical limit. I still intend to put dolly wheels on that puppy.
Before we carry on, I need to map out the theoretical part. That means the bevel cut depth is to be calculated. Quick, if you can’t tell me the root of 2 off the top of your head, I won’t ask you to do the math with fractions. In English, the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the root of the sums of the squares of the adjacent sides. We know those sides to be isosceles and 3/4” in length. Instead of messing with a calculator, let’s find some on-line site. This isn’t cheating because plainly we know the theory.
What you want is to convert decimal inches into fractional inches. What fraction is 1.0606”? I knew you’d come through. First, we estimate our accuracy and I say a 16th of an inch is close enough. What is the fractional distance 0.0606 in sixteenths of an inch? Turns out, it is already one-sixteenth of an inch. So let’s go back and see it the exposed segment of the saw blade at a 45° angle will produce such a cut. In theory that is, we are only seeking to know if it is even possible.
On paper, the answer is yes. Good work, that’s quite a feat of memory for most Americans. The other consideration at this point is does the saw blade actually tilt that far, or is it just a marking on the flange that most people would never use? This is the part that must really be accurate. If you’ve ever tried to match corners cut to 45° you know it takes good input. At this point we call the wagons to a halt for two reasons. First, we are reminded tomorrow is Gunsmoke Tuesday. Second, this step requires more coffee than I have on the desk in front of me. I’ll be back shortly.
I stumbled on an 8-string Norwegian fiddle for sale and thought I’d like to hear it played if available on-line. My first girlfriend ever was a Norwegian lass. Natural red hair, and let me tell you if you’ve never seen it before, it is beyond the most beautiful sight in the world. Sadly, her only ambition in life was to have children and I was a bit more open to other things. I found a site that said “20 Norwegian Folk Songs”. It is solidly based on early European classical arrangement, I prefer later classical sounds. But some of it was downright unpleasant to hear. The narrator described it as “controlled frenzy”, a most descriptive term. Eight strings is too many for a simple sound and the melody on a second orthodox violin sounded off–key.
Next, a video on Kambula, a battle fought between the British and Zulu armies unique in that many of the Zulus now had rifles taken in their earlier victories, including Isandlwana. The British still massed their soldiers together shoulder to shoulder in red tunics, so I wondered about tactics. My take is the British instantly adapted to their earlier defeats and adapted. The Zulus, on the other hand, did not seem to know the rifle had to be aimed at a target, not merely discharged toward the direction of the enemy.
The British sent out some horsemen to draw the early-arriving Zulus into a mass attack and mowed them down. Twenty thousand rounds fired, just ten per British soldier, and six thousand Zulus are down. The natives appear to have learned nothing. They had one tactic, the mass attack, and one strategy: to apply more of it. [Insert Democrat joke here.] It was around this time the British introduced the Gatling gun but it was not used here.
Tomorrow we find out how these “voltage doublers’ work. I’ve seen schematics but not the working theory. Pure curiosity, I know they are not a popular item. They seem mostly built o prove a point but hey have no real power. My foot is healing very slowly so maybe we can have a look in the morning. It’s one of those projects where you want to find out why it works, but the only available material is all about building one without any background learning.
ADDENDUM
While a late deposit is not going to wipe me out, the fact that it causes concern is two important revelations. It’s good that I know exactly what and when about these things, no leaving money to chance. But not so good in that it means my system lacks depth. Read enough of this blog and you’ll know I have the equivalent of a couple million bucks based on unearned income. What I don’t have is the actually millions. We know I’m investing again to address that absence of “deep money”. It’s a matter of time and what I sometimes call the ERR formula. There is no such thing as a carefree investment, even if you are not conscious of the effort. That’s the E, the two Rs are rate and return, but not the simple definitions.
Part of Effort is what you must do to make the investment in the first place and there is always a worry factor, unless you are blissfully naïve. That’s where rate comes in. Invest to safely and you are likely losing money, that’s why you find the threshold where you can just tolerate matters. Return is not the rate in this contest, since it does not allow for inflation and taxes, which requires accounting know-how above average. I’m using the same formula as I started when I was 26, and it is my highest risk investment. Today, that means Caltier.
Caltier returns roughly 1% per month. I leave compounding to keep pace with inflation, having long since spotted the correlation. Applying this info to my ERR formula, for every $1,000 I invest, the return is $10 per month. Absolutely not good enough, but that does not let you off the hook. If you don’t invest, the consequences become even worse. Let’s take a closer look at my situation at age 26. If I wanted an extra $1,000 per month income, I would need $100,000 invested. That would be impossible. My entire success at what I’m doing rests on less than ten years work in my life. I was at the company just over 14 years, but the first five years are written off just getting on your feet if, like myself, you were saddled with a student loan.
So my total productive career was around 100 months. Nobody, on a salary in those days, could possibly invest a thousand per month. I think by 1994 I might have been able to get close but at the expense of other items. Anybody born poor can tell you about that situation and why you are forced to make bad decisions. The vague motive with Caltier is that, if it transpires we buy a house, the fund will pay the taxes no matter what else happens to us in an increasingly insecure future.
