One year ago today: July 24, 2023, cholera in Pretoria.
Five years ago today: July 24, 2019, my new bathroom.
Nine years ago today: July 24, 2015, on fake licorice.
Random years ago today: July 24, 2024, police push-start.
I had breakfast downtown, an egg wrap and coffee. When I moved here, the tab was $2.89, I have a log of every outside meal. Today it was $6.01. Good thing I’m working on the eBay biz, but I hate the system. I mean, I’ll learn it, not like it. Some examples are a confusing set of displays. When I open messages, I expect to see them all in one place. Wrong. If eBay auto-accepts an offer, it sometimes goes directly into the awaiting shipment list with no other notice. I almost missed a good sale because of this nonsense. Again, it is not because I can’t learn eBay, it’s that I have more trouble than most following idiotic sequences.
This photo is not a repeat of y’day, these eyes are green and those were blue. These two items sold for enough to take the day off and do some needed shopping. Before the afternoon rains, that is. I’ve precalculated a lot of the parameters I need for this little business. They would not be practical as a livelihood, or as a part-time venture if you have a full-time day job. What’s making it even thinkable is that you can work at it around an hour or two per day, and pick those hours. I don’t care for the shipping deadlines giving top marks for fast delivery. That shipping is like an entire separate department with it’s own constraints.
I will require a dedicated computer. This one, and most of my others, is configured to specialize in math and word processing. It takes up to 20 seconds (an eternity) to upload every picture. We have three cardinals patrolling the back yard, they appear as our latest couple and one juvenile son. I know their chirping now. No taming allowed, but I have trained them to be alert to my whistle so they don’t startle on my approach, but they keep well away.
It’s double official, we are broke for a while. I do not list vehicles as assets, since they do not appreciate. Thus, the last month has really put a dent in my big picture. Maybe I can reveal some of the eBay logistics. My average daily sales are $22, but only on those days that sales occur. I have around 10% of the tubes categorized and boxed. I’ve found out the best storage system is very sturdy cardboard boxes around a foot square. The total value of tubes I’ve listed so far comes to $4,332, not enough to turn a profit on the time I’ve already put in. Do not dismay, mind you, for any sale is cash flow. If I make $5 extra per day, I’m doing better than most.
This just in, a Judge did not dismiss the Trump’s lawsuit against the newsman who called him a rapist. This is a landmark decision, as opens a few doors the fake news outlets can ill afford. It centers on them using false phrases, particularly over court decisions. In essence, here is what happened. During a broadcast, the newsman repeatedly stated Trump was a rapist over a recent trial found him liable (not guilty) of sexual assault. Big difference. But the fake news is used to using damaging terminology which they know their adherents will parrot. Countless liberal broadcasts have since labeled Trump a rapist and this could be a warning shot.
The big law firms are declaring that Trump will have a hard time winning because he is a public figure who stands to be called names. I say it is ABC in trouble, because they are more than responsible to not let the name-calling get this far out of hand. Personally, I am all for tort law changes that proscribe damages for many forms of libel and slander. Right now, if someone calls you a liar in public, you would have to prove they caused harm, which is very difficult for laymen. Under my system, unless they could name and prove their sources, they could be sued for their money and property. I”ll wager if you did this, you would quickly discover 90% of all maliciousness starts with the same 2% of the people.
Iowa in 1971.
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Ford is re-tooling back to gasoline engines. Another nail in the Green coffin. Folks here are so tired of having these electrics shoved on us, now there is a warning not to park them close to your house due to the threat of fire. I called Stew about that 386 computer, he’s gone until next week and the shop is now closed. The eBay system is so bad he laughed when I mentioned if the person who designed that system worked for me, I’d fire him, but I’m serious. Whoever “programmed” that was not a shipper.
Worst feature for now is the shipping label. It’s a great idea, you click on a button and print out all the addressing and a tracking barcode, the money is paid out of your account. How can they screw that up? First, make sure the label does not say which product it attaches to. Print ten labels and you have to go back and find ten sales (amidst hundreds of other items, remember the shop is still selling) to match up each label. Shucks, why not, you had nothing else planned for an hour. It gets worse.
Printing the label causes the system to flag the article as shipped, which it definitely is not. It may or may not then seem to disappear from your “all activity” list. This is apparently because several items can be combined, but what if, as has already happened a few times, the same customer orders more, say the next day before the item is physically shipped. Any time you saved elsewhere will be used up solving such problems.
I've nothing local for you this afternoon, so here is a video from Tennessee around the 5th of this month. I was in that area paying bills. The bills don't stop just because I'm out of town, y'know.
Enough. By 9:00PM, I called a halt and drove to the old club for a brew. Thinking it’s back to a nothing Wednesday since my duo quit showing up for the jam, I took my writing material. This consists of some college ruled sheets of any type and a ballpoint, or sometimes a gel. My writing likes variety. Come to think of it, the jam no longer shows up for the jam. The guy was unappreciative of our help and said so. And he lasted two weeks without us, That club also has trouble keeping staff, but they finally replaced the droll, humorless blonde I’ve mentioned.
No peace and quiet, though. There was a small but clamorous squad talking tractors and trucks, loud enough to be heard on the street. I have a corner where I write and tuned out into my own space. One of the letters was to Agent M concerning the broken CD player in the new old van. He says it is easy, but getting to Miami is not. I can’t do it until after August 1, which will put me out of town exactly when the enemy mailman is due to deliver my next important piece of mail. This model of van radio has no USB or AUX port.
Again, I was approached by a tall, willowy blonde lady, whom I would have adored thirty years ago. Same old story, has seen me writing over the tears and finally decided to check me out. Of course, she’s married and has her husband’s permission, etc, etc, all the things I like to avoid. Did you know, when I was younger, I never understood why rich or famous men complained about the lack of good, decent, single, available women. I dismissed it as their own fault, because like Ken Sanchuk, they shot themselves in the foot. I’ll explain.
Such men only think they know how women perceive them. Guys, when you go out and buy an expensive car, clothes, watches, and such—exactly what is it you are advertising for? So quite moaning when you attract only greedy, material women. On the other hand, I have more in common with the women. We quickly learn that, while we are there to meet nice people, that nice people don’t usually have such a direct approach. In the eight years I’ve semi-frequented that club, I’ve never seen a anyone in there write even a postcard. If I saw a woman in there writing or even working a crossword, I would introduce myself. It has yet to happen. There’s a lesson in this somewhere, since I swear most of the people react like they maybe thought writing was not allowed in public.
ADDENDUM
In strange news of the day, the communist North Korea has recognized the right of Irish to oppose non-white immigration. They should prove it by donating them a few Hwasong-18s. Apparently cats are able to recognize certain times on digital clocks. Alex Jones sometimes gets it right, and in a total reaction of disgust to Kamela, the Democrats appear to be bringing the Hildebeest directly into Biden’s slot without the need for silly things like a primary election. Says Jason Miller about this theory: "These opinion pieces don’t happen organically - Crooked is on the move!!!" This came about shortly after Kamela’s first political rally failed to fill half a high-school gymnasium.
