One year ago today: September 29, 2023, minimum & maximum.
Five years ago today: September 29, 2019, Florida 50¢ fine.
Nine years ago today: September 29, 2015, price manipulation.
Random years ago today: September 29, 2014, fleeing the Cubans.
I told you I had a new toy. My infrared game camera. It was outside over night, let’s see if anything is romping around the birdie garden after hours. This is an outdated and basic unit, mostly manual operation. The memory is an SD card. Apparently it will take color footage during daylight. I’ve always wondered how much traffic there really was down this street. The sensitivity cannot be set but it requires a heat signature that differs from the surroundings. Will we get some scenes of that ancient raccoon? Or what is making all those prints in the shed, probably one of the feral cats.
Historic churches in France are burning to the ground at the rate of one every two weeks. While it is likely a cost-savings measure, nearby cities are replacing their street lights with these WiFi enabled LED bulbs. Talk about a harsh brightness that does not “throw” very far. We are assured the bulbs don’t do anything else but shine and report back if they don’t, though no explanation of why such an assurance was felt needed.
n examination of results says the new listing method has not produced any increased sales. I will begin another set of filters to estimate what sort of revenue is possible selling the tubes in bulk, this time separated very closely by wholesale price. At this time, only two categories exist, split at the $10 mark. I did isolate the $3 tubes for the test. The last round of statistics posted here are a result of sorting event.
It’s another relaxing day, I could learn to like this. For the blog, it could mean more number crunching, mind you very directed. For example, today I seek a different crossover point. This will be the price at which the higher priced tubes match the lower priced units in total contribution. We seek the price above which the revenue from the highest prices matches the revenue of the remainder. This will take me some thinking as it is not the sort of think I’ve calculated in decades not. So far, only 9.1% of the tubes wholesale for more that $7. In actual counts, take the RCA tubes. We have 772 of them, with 66 above $10.
We’ve learned there is no easy economical way to list even the best of the tubes on Ebay. The plan forming is still to separate the good from the bad and dump the bad. I would just like a better approach to that than guesswork or brute force.
There is now whining that the word “White” is not valid for use as a race category. However, I will use it any time I please to differentiate it from the color white. I would not bother with this except the Internet has made the distinction necessary. Here’s where you ask why an old game of Spyder solitare gets mention. Because it is the first time I’ve played the game in around twenty years. When I last edited tapes, the copy process was attended, so I would have one eye on the copy caterpillar, the other on a game such as Spyder. I liked it because it was not an easy game you could learn to win. The silo is now wired and I played a few rounds for old time’s sake. Is there such a thing as a game nowadays that requires thinking and doesn’t make grunting noises?
Alaska.
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Nothing, that’s what the game camera captured overnight. It got me walking back to the house and checking the bird feeder. So it works. Fifteen seconds seems to be a reasonable length but I may switch to thirty because the data usage for black & white is conservative. It switches to color in daylight which uses 50% more memory. Even so, an 8GB drive will capture 120 short videos. If I have that much movement in my back yard at night, time to move to a better neighborhood.
The war zone called Detroit has another thing to be famous for. Ugly, barren streets. How can that be when the city has a program whereby residents are given free saplings and instructions to plant trees in an effort to “reforest” the suburbs? In 1967 the city tried spraying insecticide from helicopters to stop Dutch elm disease. When that failed, they cut down all the trees. (At the time, the blacks claimed the trees were cut to facilitate helicopter surveillance of their looting riots, which they called a “race rebellion”.)
What reason are the blacks now giving to refuse tree planting? The predictable one is they would have to rake up the leaves and that is work. Of course, they have a cover story, this time they whine because the trees were being planted by teams of all-White volunteers. The most common objection was that blacks were not involved in the tree committees or the decision-making process. The city says they tried to include blacks, but most were third generation since 1967 and were not even aware the trees were absent.
The millennials got me again. I’d lost the file for the chain saw and had forgotten the size. There is, according to the Internet, such thing as a Craftsman chain saw blade sharpener or file. Yes, Tyler, I searched every possible combination of chain saw, blade, file, sharpener, and maintenance. Later, I was able to find a discontinued 14” model that was still advertised for sale at Lowe’s. They tried to sucker me in, but I found they had neglected to delete the Spanish version of the operator’s manual. Gotcha, you sumbitches! It’s a 5/32nds inch file. You tried your damndest, I’ll grant you that.
This earns the sharpened blade mention, how was I to know it would be the high point of the afternoon? Here it is in nearly perfect condition. You can’t see the shiny spots on the sharpened chain because the blade cover is in place. That chain lasted an amazing four hours run time though the last hour was slow cutting until I found time today to make it a proper job.
The tension is set and all moving parts oiled, other metal parts rubbed with a layer of light oil as a rust deterrent. I did not set the depth gauges and the top plates could probably use a cleaning.
We close down the day with the news of one campaign move by Trump that most definitely will not be copied by Harris. He donated $25 million to the flood victim fund. The liberals are losing so badly that they have begun mimicking the highly successful techniques of their rival. That could be a bad word choice. He’s won so bad it makes their heads spin.
ADDENDUM
I checked again for anything new in the drum machine cagetory. The answer is no, the latest versions still suffer the severe defects of the original 1980 floor pedals. Top of that list is 200 built in drum beats, of which 190 are some unusable studio-freak’s dementia. Just look at the brain-fart categories, like punk, latin, and metal. Do you know of any band that uses a selection of all three during a performance? Most performers play one type of music, drum machines make them pay for at least six. When is the last time you played “jazz ostinado” or “12/5 Motown groove”?
I rejected any large harmonizers, anything that changed the raw voice sound, and anything over $150 because that is all such a gadget is worth to me. The question is will a guitar harmonizer work with a bass. Um, if you ever want a complete waste of time, read on-line musician forms. “I never tried, so I don’t know” and “Just switch to guitar” are massively popular replies to easy on-line questions. Anyhoo, the answer is no, the harmonize does not know from just a bass note what key you are playing. A device that “reads” only the first note would work sometimes. Mostly not for me as most of my bass lines are at least two measures long.
I will own up that the success of the acoustic set—and lack of gigs overall—had me again considering a solo act. After all, I pretty much just did that. I am not multi-banding, I would inform the Prez of what is happening in advance. One pedal I looked at was called the Mooer Harmonier. I should get off my ass and sell that Beat Buddy and buy the other pedal to try out. Over the years, I’ve found I cannot adequately test these things at the music store. I need it at home for two weeks before making a decision. I am not averse to a drum box when playing solo guitar, I would just like to find one that is manufactured for stage work.
Another example of a scam is the Mooer demo. It does not make it clear a guitar must be used. Nor is there any explanation of why it has a preset knob with no “autodetect” setting. Next scam, the ad says you never have to worry about a battery running low. That means it has an external power supply that likely weighs more than the pedal, and no internal battery. So instead you can worry about not losing that while you hunt around for some place to plug it in where you won’t trip over the wire. I don’t say it’s wrong, I say I notice the demo carefully avoids mentioning it.
