December 18, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 18, 2022, a fr0zen start.
Five years ago today: December 18, 2018, far, far, far too late.
Nine years ago today: December 18, 2014, it got shelved.
Random years ago today: December 18, 2008, Trident missiles.

           Top story today, Amazon cancels their entire EV fleet and goes back to diesel. Or as I posted, they discovered that electricity costs $17.79 per gallon. Good morning, it’s freezing. Normally, I will knock of work for the day when I make a major error. It signifies I’m not paying total attention, but today is an exception. Here is the window frame going into the new lean-to. I don’t need a window, but I’d like to show I’ve learned a lot about the wooden pieces. This is tricky to see, but the glass is to fit into the thin light colored frame cutout. The snag came in cutting the glass.

           I followed the instructions exactly and cut very exactly with a new cutter. Then placed the glass on a small dowel along the score and tapped it just like the videos. The glass pane, measuring 64” x 22’ completely shattered into hundreds of small shards, just like auto glass. See nearby photo. What a mess, and much of the glass fell into or near the footpath. The neighbor mentioned he had experience cutting glass so I brought him over to look. He says that is not unusual, that it was just a first time for me. I’ll run the dirt through the sifter for the glass beads. We also walked over to the septic tank that’s connected to his shed. There’s something else new to me, a one-third size tank. It turns out they made these small tanks for farm sheds and such, they are not meant for full use. He thinks the pipe is clogged, but I think with the hillbilly living there, he needs to pump the thing out. That costs as much as a full size tank. But, he’s offered $100 to take a look, so next cool day.

           There is another pane of glass I’ll try to cut but this time, I will score the glass until I see a definite groove. The last piece, I figure, could only have broken that way because of too much pressure applied to snap the end off. Yes, I was wearing safety glasses. I had already move lumber into place and framed the side wall. It will be finished with that sheet of OSB chip board. OSB stands for oriented strand board. It’s useless for much else.

           Data poisoning. I first heard the term today, but it’s a concept I’m very familiar with. Artists whose work is easily copied by A.I. have resorted to a technique with alters the computer image but not what the human eye sees. It’s an ingenious way to fight plagiarism. I like it because I apply much the same concepts with, for example, statistics quoted on this blog. Plus every blog I post, since day one has a coded sentence. I can tell if the sentence gets moved. And I used to regularly find the pattern in certain magazines. That has disappeared, by the way. I think we’ll hear more about this data poisoning in the near future. I can see how it would protect the original, but not a copy.
           Here’s a video of the laborious process of making rolling pins. It’s a bit long but I watched it because I had assumed at least part of the process was automated. Nope, from logs to shrink-wrap, the process involves around 20 laborers, some of the children. This is not much done in America any more because the low paying jobs here don’t pay a living wage. And for unknown reasons, my posts of May 12, 2015, were taken down as “against community standards”, reviewed, then reinstated. It is nice to know The Blogger Team is silently at work, protecting the world from my blog should need be. I figure that post describes how JZ & I told off a snarky food waiter and that’s where the Blogger Team is coming from.

Picture of the day.
Mental hospitals in New Zealand.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           A light cloud cover found me moving the plywood up onto the rafters and screwing it solid until my batteries went dead. The neighbor really liked the way the window was framed in using his saw. Then he tells me the saw is 30 years old. I guess that would work if he retired at 65, he’s often mentioned he planned to putter the way I do. I dunno, his area is spotless. His belt sander is the real thing and he’s got an industrial strength bench grinder, brand new. The pther extreme is my workshop. Here’s a view of my most-used item, this sliding radial arm. It does not miter but I prefer it to make almost all other cuts.

           One thing this last lean-to has managed is to use up 90% of the lumber I had lying around. I’m going to double layer the roof with foil backing since I really have run out of tarpaper. That’s when I found out it has doubled in price. It should be the cheapest material at the lumber yard, but they want $52 for the smallest size. Phooey on that, I still have six or so rolls of the foil. Again, I worked until I’m weary, so maybe I’ll do some research and find out what tarpaper is all about. For me, it was a cheap product to stop drafts, chills, and small leaks. Is there more?
           Nope, that’s the story of tarpaper. It is mildly waterproof if not left in the open for more than a year. I have seen real tarpaper shacks in oil well towns, some with brand new Cadillacs parked out in front. In my college days, I worked on a forestry crew that housed us in bunkhouses with tarpaper lining. I never did quite get used to the eggy smell, which was often mingled with leaks from the coal oil heaters. The exterior used a thicker type of paper I’ve not seen since and it did survive blizzards over the winter.

           Apparently there is a problem in the northeast end with Mexican laborers. They work the fields around Plant City and every square inch of habitable structure there is rented out at double occupancy. Well, there may have been some houses in this area doing the same, except it is illegal here. You can’t rent a house to 16 people who sleep in shifts. Let’s check the feeds. What’s this, Depp swore he’d never play Jack Sparrow again, but a Disney offer of $300 million changed his mind? Let’s watch how that goes, as the meme says, Disney has produced more bombs than Lockheed-Martin.
           The hottest consumer item bought with crypto is fake vaccination cards. Amazing at this late date people who still have any need for such a document. Let’s peek at some stats for 2023. Because I also cook from scratch in Tennessee, my grocery budget has stayed same as last year despite price hikes. I spend just under $1 per day for reading material, including newspapers which I buy mostly for the puzzles. Gas holds steady at $155 per month, but while I’m here at the cabin, it is $70 per month, roughly. Not including food and utilities, I spend around $246 per month on the household, which includes $112 for telecommunications. This blog costs me $64 per month.

           I salvaged the power supply from an old DVD player, they are good 5V sources. But this was one of the most complicated and finest I’ve seen. It supplies 3.3V, 3.6V, 5.0V, -12V, +12V and -22V. It was designed for something quite different. I’ll test the pins to see what we’ve got. It is a 110V A/C transformer controlled by a switching transistor. It’s beyond what I need or comprehend. I’ll see if I can find a datasheet. I also found in my basket a PWM controller, a KA7552. Also a new one on me, I thought the PWM was itself a controller. I really missed out on all this and now things that would have fascinated me are nothing more than curiosities.

ADDENDUM
           I don’t care for the US Navy philosophy of big aircraft carriers. All are big floating targets for any advanced enemy. To me, a better plan would be a larger number of smaller carriers. Aircraft have become so capable that I don’t think we need so many in one spot at a time. I further question if the US economy can afford these ships, not even counting their operational costs. Look at that USS Ford carrier, starting at $2 billion and eventually launched ten years late at $20 billion. It must be deployed with an entire array of cruisers, destroyers, and unbelievably expensive missile boats. Just the carrier alone running costs are in the order of $350,000 per hour. Even if I was not an isolationist, I would not support offensive weapons.
           Are carriers offensive? Yes, again because of aircraft performance. Land-based planes should be able to counter most threats to the US because an attack must cross oceans or land masses that would give radar warning. Every weapon can be both defensive and offensive, what I’m against is the US “projecting” military strength overseas. Go looking for trouble and you’ll find it, plus other countries don’t like the interference. Most Americans do not care if India and Pakistan go at it and we have no business defending places like Japan or Germany.

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