One year ago today: April 7, 2024, COVID-lite?
Five years ago today: April 7, 2020, against what?
Nine years ago today: April 7, 2016, eleven years practice.
Random years ago today: April 7, 2019, merely one symptom.
A tad of insomnia had me watching a strange movie, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. I think it is supposed to be serious humor, maybe a dig at how the rich segregate themselves by behaviors and beliefs they know have no other purpose. Almost as if they were designed to expose those who don’t have the mannerisms. I like it so far, I don’t identify with the rich, but I connect with this plot. It parallels the way I treat those who are not, shall we say, academically rich. But the type I don’t like have to intrude on my life, I don’t seek them out at luxury hotels.
Worldwide reports continue of plunging stock markets. It has zero effect at street level as most stocks are owned by the rich. Ain’t nobody feeling sorry for them. There is no collapse and the public perception is those being hurt are speculators who deserve it, and the stocks that are falling are merely reaching their true value.
This action photo shows the KIA headed for the repair shop. And the shop knows this herald the drop-off of current magazines for their waiting room, which I add, has excellent coffee. I gather I might be one of the more interesting people they get walking in there, and I know I’m the only one who pays big bills in cash. I’m not supposed to know the staff sometimes argue over first dibs on the magazines. They will undercharge me and check the whole van. The reason? Same as when I lived in Venezuela, they are surprised I speak a traditional form of Spanish with a textbook accent. It signifies I went the extra mile.
They will do the job in quiet periods to save money, so check back in middle of the week. I really hope I am making the right decision with this repair. All work on this unit has been by the dealership. They are not cheap but the lineup of cars waiting for their repair bays speaks wonders. It was past 1:00PM when I got back here and the predicted fatigue has me lounged in my comfy desk chair, feeling like I should not move a muscle the rest of today. Who out there agrees? Show of hands. Good, that’s what I thought.
The Winchester.
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Taking your advice, I zonked until nearly 6:00PM. Other than packaging up the vacuum tube and watching the rest of “Grapes of Wrath”, this will not be noted as one of the more exciting days of my life. The movie leaves you hanging, the type of ending I call when the studio runs out of money.
I’m truly enjoying “Budapest Hotel” so imagine my surprise when, in the scene of the executor crossing the lobby, the background music is a bass line I wrote in early 2016 called “Maybe Time”. It is a bad recording that I had written only as a distant backing track intended for accompaniment. Also, my version has a refrain, but a man knows his own bass lines and I never heard of this movie until a couple days ago.
My continuing research into some form of on-line investing that pays daily has gotten nowhere. They all want you to buy a job where I want something that pays because I put up the cash. I looked at Worthy.capital, Prosper, and the Lending Club. I’ll look closer but it is the people they lend to that put me off. Credit cards charge 29% interest for a missed payment for a reason. If I was to loan somebody that payment, I’d want 12%, still a bargain. Prosper pays 5.1%, barely more than riskless CDs.
ADDENDUM
The Joad guy got his head cracked and framed for murder. I think I may never understand how the twos complement works in a computer, so I may have to just memorize the rules and move on. I’m aware these extra long work hours are going to get me back next week. The story “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” has to pick up because boredom is a deal-breaker. Maybe the plot is just that, a recounting of how some family moves from one crisis to another. As for adventure on a budget, even I did better than this bunch.
We are in Nigeria, north-northwest of a town called Udakpa. Listed as a “populated place” it is 827 feet above sea level. The area is known for bad roads (flooding) and 1,152 females live there, most are children. There is a gold mine in the area, Imperindo Reef, that pays a starting salary of $14.99 USD per month.
Later in the day, that calculation was enough fun that I did another. At 21:07:51 GMT today the Sun was at W136°28’ and N07°03’. In proper terminology this is known as the Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA) and the Declination. It’s around 1,500 miles SE of Hawaii’s big island, which is uninteresting. Wait, there is a speck of land closer. It’s a island called Hatutaa or Hatutu. Two miles long in the northern Marquesas. Classified as a nature reserve for the red-footed boobie, in reality the place is overrun by the Polynesian rat, a rodent that originated in Bangladesh.
This picture shows the island, the smaller one just left of center. Satellites show that light colored patch in the upper right. No information is available. Zooming in shows it could be a submerged reef. I leave it to you budding geophysicist types to follow this up.
