One year ago today: March 2, 2023, busy all day.
Five years ago today: March 2, 2019, an early wooden box.
Nine years ago today: March 2, 2015, The Great 2015 Circumnavigation.
Random years ago today: March 2, 2005, typical calendar entry.
Yes folks, we live in strange times. Here is the result of a Google A.I. generated image. They call their version "Gemini", which is a better choice than “Fanatical White Envy”, I suppose. Google is the latest to go woketard and have changed the parameters of their software to recast historical figures as non-Whites. This week we saw a black Pope and blacks building the Stonehenge. But it is this insane picture that clued a lot of people in to what the crazies are trying to force on us. Like every other country, there is a sharp division between winners and losers, but America excels in sympathizing with losers. And this is the result.
We are ready for the gig this afternoon, the new guy has confirmed he’ll show up to play a few tunes. I cannot find my Shure microphone. That will develop later today. I have a contemporary horro story tha twill not be recognized fully even ten years from now. I have a theory that 1985 was the dividing line with computers. Before then, people were taught how computer’s worked. After that they were taught how computers work. What’s the difference? That’s easy, the amount of required brainpower. That’s the story, brainpower.
I stopped in at a computer store to mention that the LibreOffice install had so many quirks, I wanted my own install if they got in anything that was compatible. The office manager queried me, turns out he is the top-rated LibreOffice instruction in Winter Haven. He teaches hundreds, so was incredulous that I was the only one who ever said it did not work. No problem, he said, show me and I’ll teach you how to do it.
So I sat down and proceeded to show him a dozen features that gave troubles. The look on his face was incredulous, it was obvious he had never seen anyone use these basic operations--for something useful I mean. He know exactly how the functions work, that is his job, but not how to apply them. For example, he knew how to click on the SUM function to add a column, but not what to do if the autoselect stopped at the first blank space. When I clicked on the function to copy values only, he had never noticed it was copying the formulas and only displaying the values. (This also means he had never learned how triple data entry speeds by using said formulas.) Folks, this was the best of the millennial best, the people expected to maintain the most complex infrastructure in history once the Boomers are gone. Horrifying, if you think about it.
Work with me here, should I head up to Tennessee? The Reb has company and her circle includes a lot of liberals. For that matter, I’m one of the most right-leaning people she knows, and that’s because she knows how I got there. I don’t mingle well with people who think Biden is being prevented from doing a fantastic job by the evil taxpayers who want some say in what happens with their money. They don’t know what is good for them and desperately need Democrats to keep them advised of what is, often on an hourly basis.
I checked Gab and it is already a shadow of itself. Turns out the move to only allow paid members to post photos revealed how few and unimaginative they are. All the really good stuff is gone and free speech now starts at $9.99 per month. Even allowing for a period of adjustment, it was one of the worst ways Torbie could have dealt with the situation. They say the cause was memory storage. They could have limited files size, or as suggesting, dropped the photos after 30 days. By then the message is stale and if there is anything to it, the poster will have his own copy of the original.
Augusta City Hall
(Soviet-era architecture.)
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This afternoon totally concerns the gig. I left here at 3:00PM as there is a gigantic festival I have to drive around. The block all the streets now, including the shortcuts. I arrived to discover the staff was not expecting us until the next week. Since that is out of the blue, I wonder if he’s thinking of some other band, that is, competition. I can also confirm the pool tournament is not the same crowd as the old Thursday bunch. They are one or two generations younger. It happens, the Prez forgot the microphone and his wife had to drive it out, this is a forty mile round trip. Yes, it was my old Shure 585, I’m stunned I let that out of my sight.
The Prez chatted about how he got into the army. Same as me, he had no experience living in a city when he first got there, nor any idea of the ways of the world. He figured the Army would provide some direction, that he would return to college after four years. Take away the Army and that was my story. And the four years turned into thirty-two years.
How did Jay do? As expected, great with his own material, not so with ours. He’s never been shown the ways of putting on a show when you don’t know what is happening. That, I can show him. He has not played in a band much as he dropped too many chords and missed many cues, but to his credit he learned them on t he spot. It was me that flubbed up a bunch, too much pressure I suppose, which affects me much more than in my day. Age, I will admit time has caused me to miss notes (about one in 60) and forget lyrics, and it is slowly getting worse—but the overall presentation still carried the hallmarks of a fantastic presentation of duo arrangements.
The effect on the crowd was immediate. They were expecting a repeat of the shallow Wednesday jam session. Instead, they got the jaw-dropping full effect of our successful duo arrangements. By first break, I was asked if we were using tracks. To me, this is pure gravy. It’s sad that the Prez is not happy playing anywhere but that jam session. While the sound we have is remarkable, it is also fragile. For clarity, if for any reason the bass stops playing, the sound reverts to one-dimentionsal guitar. My phone was recording and it fell over, when I stopped playing just a moment to pick it up, well, lets just say that was a demo of the value of a good bass line.
Jay and company left for the last half-hour and that practically emptied the room. While I would consider the show a success, my standards envelope more than the music. The Prez & I played played the remaining time and I could tell while he likes the material, he still finds it easier to stand in with other bands. Of course, it’s called cherry-picking. They do all the work, all you do is show up and plug in. And with my group, his duties go beyond that to the point I detect he is discouraged. He knows our arrangements are a winner, but has also learned that comes at a price.
The decision is to take some time off. We had earlier agreed summers were not Florida’s best music season. But coupled with other developments, I must contemplate this could be the end of this band. As ever, I’ll plan ahead to maybe get Jay up to speed, but he’s half my age and has tons of other things going on. On the way home, I detoured to find out what gives with my 5:00 o’clock audience. The old club was not packed, the whole downtown was deserted. Wilford says there was no rush this time. The crowd just melted away after the car show, a first and not a good sign. Sooner or later I’m going to have to admit this is a trend.
ADDENDUM
Some trivia. What is now the most recognizable face in the media, topping all the survery charts. Not Taylor, not Trump. Guess who? Adolf Hitler. The guy who said in 1945, “A hundred years from now the world will know I was right.”
Google A.I. describes as a man “who hates a certain community of rich people” and one in five British schoolchildren think he is a soccer coach. Most of South American regards him as a popular military hero. You see, they’ve not been subjected to the Britannica brainwashing since birth.
