July 31, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 31, 2023, the spokesgenderthing.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2019, they never grew back.
Nine years ago today: July 31, 2015, have you tried peanuts?
Random years ago today: July 31, 2009, no foolproof buttons.

           Sometimes I need a reminder that this is paradise. It’s certainly better than living in a condo with the maintenance fee so high you can’t afford the movies. One day I should ask the neighbor to the south why every couple months or so, he gets up at 5:00AM and revs his truck motor every 30 seconds for about two hours. Get up and put the coffee on, he’s not going to quit until 9:00AM. It’s not like mornings are exciting time any more, but I did make myself a double order of porridge and revamped the budget to include the new truck. I must increase my buffer by 35%, keeping more than $10,000 in reserve. That was nothing before my heart attack bills came in, now it will take well into 2025.

           Unless eBay picks up, my band gets steady work, or at least one of my many investments finally takes off. That has not happened in 55 years. Since I was a paperboy, that is. I regret not buying that digital microscope back in 2018. What’s that all about? Easy, since I did not travel anywhere on weekends I now have some surplus to look at what’s available in the $180 range. I want digital that displays on my computer monitor, not the tiny 7” screens on models like Celeston. The microscope has to be compact and I’d rather spend money on that than other features. It must also record video, and if possible, time lapse.
           Getting further than I expected today, here is the view of the four shelves now stocked with tubes in nice even rows. The green is just for contrast, as the letters from surplus stock I knew I kept for some reason. For example, I know that KM is 6 volt RCA, yes, there is a method to the letters. One letter is not distinct enough and these combinations indicate a location in the database. Thus, they start with letters that don’t get confused with other boxes in the same list. Not shown are two shelves underneath for the less common and off brands, sharing the space with paint cans.

           It stayed cool (80°F) all morning, so we got some real work done. We added two shelves and moved boxes of tubes into handy single layers. For spare lumber, I began to dismantle the chicken coop, as the tree that fell against it is slowly bending it down. This produced a large container of salvaged screws for the “used-once” jar. Enough to begin my experiment at shingling the shed siding. Mapping out the electrical means I must make a trip downtown later, we do not skimp on electrical around here. It was a busy morning and I earned a siesta. Even got a load of laundry done.
           This allowed for me to traipse in and out of the house a dozen times, which allowed me to systematically look for my Windows installation disks. The electrical shop is now closed and donated to me a beauty of a 386 with 8Gigs of RAM and a math co-processor. I’m responsible for my own drives and I don’t think I have a spare SATA. We’ll soon have this super unit up and running and best of all, it will accept all my software. That means movies, music, fast Internet, and it is all software I know how to use. Try that with the newer shit that never quite works right. Have you seen that ridiculous search box in that retarded Win 8? Tells you file not found while you are looking at the file.

           There you have one of two power panels in the new tube area. Yes, that is a GFCI and the entire assembly is switched. When the lights are turned out, the power is cut to everything and the shed is also wired to a cutoff breaker inside the main house. Just thinking ahead. I will probably wind up putting a whole new roof on the sheds rather than try a repair.

Picture of the day.
Hallway to room 564.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Here’s where the lumber will come from to try my shingling idea. Entirely pieces from the old chicken coop, which produced, if I recall, just three eggs. It’s leaning because of the neighbor’s tree falling on it. There’s also plenty of shelving lumber, the coop was a damn good design off the top of my head for a first-timer. You can see the nesting boxes on the side and the growing pile of spare lumber. I intend to slice the best pieces into shakes and follow an amalgamation of how-to videos to use them as siding.

           I did not get to the new computer. Turns out I have only large hard drives left. I normally kept small ones to intentionally have limited file storage, and those files were named consistently to a pattern because that Windows file transfer app has never worked right. This way, all my files are in four categories on the hard drive, a very easy copy.

           The smallest hard drive I have anymore is 500 gigs. I had some Seagate 40 gig that were perfect for the job. But, they are all used up. The day is approaching when I will either pay premium price for good gear or start using the spyware tracking systems Redmond has foisted on us since the days of Vista.
Next, I sat down and did some serious deep thinking about navigation. I mentioned I’m getting close and for me, part of that is understanding why things are done. I spent years on how to calculate the GP (geographic position) of the Sun. Now it (ha-ha) dawns on me why. Because the sight reduction tables don’t contain every possible angle, you chose one based on the GP.because that is the data contained in the book. You never even plot the GP.

           It would be gargantuan if true. Rumble says they’ve developed a search algorithm that will blast Google and Youtube out of the water. Often I wonder why such breakthroughs are so rare, even allowing for the fact that the giants often gobble up any promising competition. The stakes are immense and the path to success is well-defined, so why is it years between successful entrants. My guess is because the process is controlled. What do the big players have mostly in common? Startup capital the rest of us could only dream of, that’s what.
           Face it (Facebook it), no matter how wonderful your new idea, it’s not going to fly unless it gets promoted. And that factor is still firmly in the grip of the traditionalists. If you do make it to first base, you either sell out to them or watch them launch a blatant copycat that will wipe you out in a wink. That’s part of why I admired GAB, before it went sour with the advertising and lost all their best memers. A small religious outfit that nobody gave a shit about but with one critical difference—they owned their own gear and could not be canceled, and now look. The owner gets threats from European governments.

ADDENDUM
           This time we got the king, Mr. Super Rat. He fell for a slice of French bread. He has a friend in the attic who will now meet the same end, a trip to the graveyard. Which is not a bad fate as far as these things go. Getting this guy was a challenge, as he avoided any of the places where the trap has worked before. I starved him out, it was my error buying grits in a cardboard container. All other food was kept in cans or locked up until he was living on the odd potato peel or muffin crumb, and he still resisted the usual baits of peanut butter, ground turkey, or raspberry jam. He is looking a little gaunt, but like I said, Florida is full of food. So keep out of my cabin.

           I propose a new definition of a liberal politician. That’s somebody who gets into power but instead of governing the country for good, connives to use tax dollars to stay in power. Example is campaign finance laws. I’ve mentioned how they are designed to let the liberals know where to inject dollars, while their own “contributions” are funneled through a vast network of politician-owned non-profits. Toward year’s end, these places must get rid of any surplus cash or lose their tax-free status.
           That’s where you get ridiculous last-minute events, the historic one was paying Bob Hope (a 1950s comedian) a record $8 million for a twenty minute show. The way it is done now is a group of charities will all donate their surplus to each other, siphoning off what their Democrat masters tell them. It’s quite simple, really, and they made the laws permitting this.

Last Laugh