February 28, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 28, 2024, here’s a close-up.
Five years ago today: February 28, 2020, peace-keepers, not peace-makers.
Nine years ago today: February 28, 2016, something about Sunday.
Random years ago today: February 28, 2015, ancient recipe.

           I didn’t go out last evening, choosing some quiet reading, again on transistor biasing. It’s what I find challenging, along with Assembler. That code has been royally screwed up by Microsoft. More in the addendum. I watched a bit more of the Bourne original, but it has begun to lapse into a romance story too often. “Love me, Jason, just love me,” only goes so far in a spy story. I’m watching Caltier again, sometimes they are early and that $12 payout last month cancels the $350 from the last sale. It is still a good investment but trading is still paused.

           Sure enough, the Leftoid Media is making a big deal that Trump flew twice on Epstein’s private plane, downplaying that Trump was with his wife and flew Florida to New Jersey. The far left just does not get it, their slippery games do not work on Trump. The mysteries around Gene Hackman’s death continue to grow. Two people don’t usually die at the same time in opposite rooms of a house. My theory is, although it is hard to imagine, that it was a double suicide, with the younger wife changing her mind and running upstairs to find an antidote. Either way, a terrible loss, though at 95, Gene had nothing to really regret.

           I built a custom birdhouse hoping the woodpeckers would take, but birds are very fussy. I ran across this design of upside-down feeder. It states that clinging birds have the advantage over bully birds who have problems trying to feed this way. The dimensions are given on-line and building this type of feeder is hardly a challenge for me any more. And I’m having thoughts of setting out at least some food grandma raccoon. She is really old and cannot forage well, she will not last much longer.

           Anyway, the feisty squirrel has decided the roof of that birdhouse is an excellent platform to loll around and warm up in the rising sun. This was another discovery from the shadows on the bedroom window. It must be comfy as he tends to sit there and yawn. I found my old contraption of wooden gears from years back. I think I may recycle them as shed wall decorations.

           So, libtards, you say tariffs don’t work. The Mexican government just handed over 29 of the top cartel leaders five days before the tariffs were to begin.
           The Jerusalem Post (no link) is pushing the dark-skinned European based on a single DNA sample of “Cheddar Man”. This is the theory that modern Europeans were not light-skinned until less than 10,000 years ago. Here’s a great sequence of the woodpecker with the red headband. I presume that’s the male and they eat well. There is a female from the same clutch that is now the same size as the lone female and I can no longer tell them apart. Give me some time to review the deer camera since that device can easily take 1,000 videos when it is windy.
           Yes, we are watching Caltier. Sometimes they pay early when the last day is a Friday, but not this time.

Picture of the day.
Laser-leveled Indian (dot) farmland.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           It got up to 97°F and we got the hot water pipe fixed, at least as well as it was before. I found the shifting of the house (a permanent challenge) had put stress on the section leading to the leaking joint. Here is a photo of the repair for my own archives, though please feel free to admire how I can do such things without ever a shop course. You’ll have to wait for me to take a bow, my back hurts. You know all those OSHA posters that say life with your knees, not your spine. Yeah, well they presume your knees are not only as good as they used to be, but also remained obedient.

           What you see is two parallel sets of pipe. They are hot and cold, and, old and new. Also visible is some of the wiring which I’ve already begun to run in. This was the area under the building when the rest of the house was done, so some of the wiring is just coiled up and waiting. Here’s another view of the wiring hub, I don’t know if you can see the junction box from where all radiates, it is under the joist along the right, just below center.
                      The other clutter is a combination of the new wiring (yellow), some repairs by the previous owner (white) and the original cloth wrap (black). There is a grey wire and if not for the pipe, you would see the orange hot water tank line I’m finally getting to. That plank on the ground is an extra joist I will run down the middle of the floor, like should have been done when the fat lady fell through.

           This is renovation work, so nothing goes smoothly or as planned. To run this wiring, I had to uproot the original agave cactus or work around the still-brittle spiked leaves. I took the electric chain saw to it, sizing it down to the stump. Here are some photos depicting the amount of work. Don’t laugh, this cactus was planted before Tennessee entered the picture, allowing it to grow into a twenty-foot monster. It was half again the size of the other cactii removed and make no mistake about it, this was easily as much work as taking down a small tree.
           Since I was near that corner of the building, I also trimmed back the Mexican heather tree and moved some chocks in place for an oil change on the Hyundai. Having the chain saw strung out, I got another two of the linden trees culled. They naturally grow in small thickets, but the competition for sunlight makes them look unattractive. That reminds me, the game camera was on so I may have footage of this exciting event.
           While under the floor, I took time to clean out the plumbing drains, another regular problem with this place. Over time, I’ve replaced the sections that clog with quick-connect pieces that make the job fast, but not any more pleasant. I was unable to completely remove the cactus even with its shallow root system. Instead I sawed it down to a stump to dry out. It died months ago and was till oozing water as I cut. See the pretty “pineapple” pattern on the side, quite typical of monocots, just don’t mistake this for an easy chore. You can't see it, I'll get you a better pictue tomorrow.

           Any news? Trump threw that creep Zelensky out on his arse. No, he was not properly elected any more than any other woketard. The word is he was talking like he was important, generally not the approach to use with Trump. Next, the President made English the official language, putting an end to that total waste. Nobody said you have to speak English, just no more of the Press 1 for English bullshit. You wa’t to speak something else, go ahead as long as you pay for it.
           That’s it for today, except for watching some newer Jason Bourne. Just the highlights where he kicks bureaucrat butt. Greatest scenes are when he takes out four or five of the bastards in a stairwell or locked room. The chill returned the instant the sun went down so I did not get out to the club tonight. You do recall it is Cathy’s husband there on Karaoke, and quite frankly, the show is nice but it is too big-city, too assembly line for those of us moved here to get away from that. It would be different if it was a younger crowd, but it is grandparents listening to rap music.
           I made up some rice and chicken, poured a coffee, sat down and did not get up until be time. It makes me wonder if I’d succeeded in slowing down ten years ago, would I have more energy—or would I not be here at all.

ADDENDUM
           I was twenty when I first advised there should be a law to ensure that software is always backward compatible. It was well known by then that operating systems would evolve as memory became cheaper. It’s past the point where all legacy systems could be enabled on a tiny fraction of a percent of newer chips—and your old 1985 DOS would, and should, still work. Even the bloated versions of DOS that came on 32 floppies still required only megabytes. And that jives with my studies of today that the underlying machine code is not that much changed.

           This implies that software should be essentially eternal—which seems far-fetched until you know that all computer workings boil down to seven fundamental instructions. For example, all math operations are really performed by the single addition command. I predicted MicroSoft would eventually begin purposely making older software non-functional. It now goes by the euphemism if “support ends” but it means soon you will have to buy new programs that have zero really new features.
           Does this really make a difference? You bet. Go on eBay, there is still a booming market for 3.5” floppies, which hold only 1.44MB, and are expensive as hell. It means the older and trusted systems are still in operation. Obsolete in the computer world does not mean the same as cars or appliances.

           The IDE for Assembler has all the standard MicroSoft annoyances. They never go back and fix anything, they just add more code to plaster over their mistakes. There are now something like 18 “move” commands. That’s a MicroSoft trademark. I got elbowed for not describing an IDE (integrated development environment). Many people know what it is, but not the why part. Normally, program code needs to be compiled or assembled, and then tested with a debugger. Each of these steps requires a different program. The IDE draws them all together so you can code, run, and review the workings with a single piece of software.
           The snag with that is somebody did not tell MicroSoft. So now parts of the code causes those truly idiotic modular windows to appear. And with MicroSoft, there is no assurance that these are actually functioning as intended by the machine language. If that is not clear, when you see a modular window and enter a number, there is no guarantee whether you are seeing the number or some artwork.
           It’s all fine and dandy as long as the MicroSoft code makes the necessary conversions, but all to often down the line, some Redmond flunky makes changes to his little subroutine without regard to consequences. Just doing his job, they always say.

Last Laugh