One year ago today: March 29, 2024, rat season.
Five years ago today: March 29, 2020, checking out Forex.
Nine years ago today: March 29, 2016, the beautiful cPod.
Random years ago today: March 29, xxxx, WIP
Here’s a file of my birdbath. See addendum for details, I did not get a lot done today. However, that’s by my standards. I hate a day to lapse without something getting done.
Decisions. And this morning I’ve concluded you’d rather talk music than floor wiring. We have an audition scheduled for Wednesday and I’ve selected three new tunes from the list sent by the new guy. I’ll learn new tunes but
New guitar people get immersed in a musical environment that they know they would have heard had they been really listening. How many times we’ve been through this, for if you want to avoid being just another hack band, you must move to the situation where the bassist is an equal contributing artist. The downside is some guitar players cannot abide by that. I suggest you weed that bunch out real quick or waste your time. Just be steady with your material and you’ll find if they survive a few initial practices, they become loyal adherents. Like the Prez did but that Bradford did not.
It’s 5:30AM and my amp is still in the van. It will be a pity to lose a fully-trained player like the Prez. I’ll see if he wants to attend the audition. If not, I’ll set up the amp and get to work, since the tunes I’ve chosen I’ve not played in 20 years in some cases. Once you’ve strummed guitar to my piano-like bass lines, it is bland to the point of boring to play without it. Ask Bradford.
Tell you what, would you like to listen to the notes I play to that Croce hit, “Operator”? Sweet Judy loved that song, for me it is a mite too jazz-like. The point is millions can listen to that song and not really hear the bass line, or mistake it for guitar runs. Here’s the link and here’s my how-to guide. You are listening for the notes, but the style is wrong. It suffers from being finger-plucked. Imagine the same notes played as smoothly merged into the guitar line, but never just playing along. It’s what is often called fusion, but without any edge. And that is how I roll, baby.
The town is still laughing at what a flop that Disney made of “Snow White”, the figure of $43 million for opening week makes that a loser. Let me check something, The Reb & I have been to 16 movies in Nashville or Mt. Juliet. Since movies are always on me, I know the price tag was $680.05. We’ll disregard that I don’t buy myself $8 bags of popcorn and I take the senior discount, so we can average the price out at $21.25 per person per movie. Rounding that down to $20, and we see that means just over 2 million people went to that movie.
A disturbing aspect of Disney is the number of accusations, arrests, and rumors of their child sex and exploitation reputations sharply limit their sales. Starting with Miley Cyrus, Disney moved away from their roots portraying American girls as wholesome. They began casting differently. More grooming of little sexpots, and how you get their latest cursing out people on social media.
Ah, the neighbors are awake and pounding nails. I see a new juvenile woodpecker at the feeder. They don’t last long, as the area is maxxed out with established pairs. Maybe we’ll get some pics, I set out the camera. Let’s see if today brings either adventure or accomplishments, I’ll take either. Honestly, I feel like just writing all day, if you want extra words today, I can do that. Over to the library, I picked up eight new audiobooks, including one I think I’ve heard of, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”. Its reputation is about growing up poor but I expect it will be about hope and humor.
Later, I drove downtown for an hour and listened to the opening chapters. So far, it’s what I thought, presenting the “pretty” side of growing up in poverty. The myth that it builds character. A rich folk’s notion of little brothers and sisters picking rags for pennies and a spoonful of milk in your coffee on Saturdays. Or the fantasy that poor kids stuck together. I don’t buy any of that nonsense “we’s-poor-but-we’s-folks”, but now I must hear the rest of this book. The book is really describing how the lazy poor act when they think they are being watched.
For example, there is no mention how you are pestered for money because of that one time they found out you had saved up a dollar when you were eight. Fifty or sixty times a day, year in and year out, and the only way to stop is it is to clear out. True poverty is a horror story, and there is no such thing [as poverty] in America any more. In fact, I support the Texas move to limit what can be purchased with food stamps. I say, bulk food only that has to be cooked before it can be eaten. Rice, potatoes, flour, nothing hot, nothing ready-to-eat. This law would be a good test of whether reality is gaining traction. Five years ago even proposing such a change would get you in trouble.
China-Laos train tunnel.
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Another change I’d like is to welfare itself. Workfare. They must put in a forty hour week at something gainful. Welfare is then just to bring them up to a minimum wage. This is not to be confused with people who cannot work, who are on disability, not welfare. We are talking able bodied people who should get nothing. Like I said years ago, they should have to show a paycheck to get any help. (They already do. They get tons of free stuff just living in America.)
The ratio of good to bad boxes remains at 1:5. This variation in quality makes it imperative to sort the boxes. Simply put, every sixth box has some defect or flaw. Shown here are the best units. Not bad for fence pickets, huh?
Question – when there is news of a strike against the Houthis (“hooties”) why does the US use so many expensive missiles? I’ve long lost track of all the brands and designations, but I notice when they are used in situations where bombs would work. I figure the deal is the missiles Houthis have are Russian models captured from the Yemen government. And right next door we got Iran, who have attended American universities and know how to modify them into anti-ship weapons.
The launchers are mobile and made to move fast after a launch, as most US missiles use GPS and counter-fire is rapid. Hmmm, what are they shooting at that justifies a million-dollar rocket attack? My guess is something the Houthis cannot easily replace. Their own missile radar operators. Russian missiles are semi-active. They need a radar beam bouncing off the target until the missile is close enough to engage on its own. Aha, there’s your answer. Click on your radar and you die, so they use a bunch of radars switching on and off rapidly. Some smart cookie in the US Navy spotted a pattern and went after the operators who were likely in nearby buildings. Clever.
My reasoning is the size of the missiles the US loosed. Small warheads can knock out the launcher, but the US missiles came from destroyers. That’s the big warheads with a huge blast radius. They were after the ground crew.
ADDENDUM
The birdbath. Lately, I’ve seen how Granny Raccoon is having a hard time finding fresh water. You’d think that would not be an issue in Florida. But I followed her tracks for a few days and see she sometimes hikes way over to the church trough, and that is not the nicest water. I found an old mixing bowl that I will see of she’ll take to it. Can’t leave her using the bird bath as she knocks it over when I’m away.
The staff says take it, I was up there this morning for new audiobooks, yes, I did mention that already, and got some yellow peas. I boil it for her, using any potato water and such because I also suspect there is not enough salt in her diet. For vitamins, she gets a sprinkle of turtle powder which lists all the vitamins and minerals. This photo shows some rice and ham, she’s gonna like that.
