November 26, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 26, 2024, can’t recommend it.
Five years ago today: November 26, 2020, five times the turkey.
Nine years ago today: November 26, 2016, broke and happy.
Random years ago today: November 26, 2008, Look - poor people.

           What, if any, news interests me this morning? Well, the 2020 Census, claimed to be the most accurate in history, has been show to contain hundreds of errors. All of them in favor of the Democrat party. Which, as Trump finally said, is one fair election away from extinction. The Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria are the ones producing 4/5ths of the nation’s food supply. Another 250 ICE agents head for New Orleans. Campbell’s soup says their chicken meat is made on a 3D printer. Hawaii tries to pull a fast one by banning “No Guns Allowed” signs, instead requiring other stores to post “Guns Allowed”, which no store wants to do.

           Coffee is no longer my catalyst, I got into the office chair [at sun up] and haven’t moved since. So, let’s receive a message in semaphore, recall, I can only receive, not send. Enjoy, this is the only activity this morning. TROOP MEETING NEXT WEEK TELL ALL SCOUTS IN YOUR PATROL. That’s hardly worth the effort. I have some small pieces (shown here) called pronged T-nuts, which can be inserted into wood to create a screw assembly. Turns out these are popular hardware and have lots of on-line video. So that’s what I’ll do. These appear to be very well made. I’ve seen them before, just never installed any.

           First step is a correctly sized pilot hole. Do we know any pilot hole experts around here? I like these pieces already, just handling them. I would have tapped the nut into place, but with large pieces, I saw this guy insert the bolt around back and use a wrench to pull the prongs into the wood. It seemed to do a smoother job. I already have a plan for a cradle to hold that hand-held microscope that was too heavy for the gear it came with. When you turned the knob, it took so much force the whole table moved. Let’s see if I even get started.

           This dynamic photo is my drill set, with a missing bit, the one I need. Read on, the photo here shows another invisible. What do I do now when something like this goes missing? Aha, suspect it was last used in Tennessee. When one gets back here from there, the last thing you want to do is start putting tools away, and that applies to the next day as well. No time was wasted, soon as that blank spot had no drill bit, I walked over to the Hyundai, and there it was.

           We enter a sixth consecutive Thanksgiving without any massive die-off of the unvaxxed. For that matter, I don’t think I’ve heard of a single COVID casualty amongst the purebloods (such as myself) in years. It is Deadsville in central Florida again, looks like unless I create some animation, nothing is going to happen today. But gosh, it warmed up and I crawled back in the sack.

           Then I watched a documentary on abandoned roads in the Mojave desert. I’ve only crossed that desert directly, by which I mean east from Barstow, twice. Once by station wagon (2018) once by sidecar (2013), the adventure of a lifetime. Was that already so very long ago?
           Yes, and it seems even longer ago because of my lifestyle. Put another way, so much has happened since then (and certainly since 2018) that without this blog to the rescue, it would mostly seem a blank. Hey, the blog went on-line partially to prevent that. I knew from experience there was no safe or permanent way to keep such records with me. But on-line adds permanence, whether you want it or not.

Picture of the day.
Reed Pass/NoPass medical school.
(Portland, Oregon)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           A bit of progress. The pilot hole does not contribute to how the nut is fastened, that is, all the pressure is across the piece of wood. So make the pilot hole exact, right? Except, the “metric calipers” give that annoying digital readout. What is 25.8 millimeters? To the rescue is that odd metal gaggue that has weird sizes like 10.5/64ths. I never did find out what that was for, but shown here is the correct size of 19/64ths. And I have a complete set of drill bits in that range. I may get something done today yet.

           What do you know, my 19/64ths was the bit gone missing, how restored to its proper spot. And here is the gizmo I slapped together to test my skill and my patience. This is a rudimentary scope holder. It’s just a proof it can be done, a bite at so many on-line videos that of course tell you how easy it is. All this does is use that screw to adjust the microscope focus instead of that knob on the device which has never worked right. To move it, you have to pick it up and use both hands. At anything above 50x, just you try to put it down on the exact same spot.
           Did I learn anything? Yes, I have a greater appreciation of instrument makers. Try something like this and you will learn why there are so many pins, knobs, and guide rods on all but the simplest instruments. If you look, you can see some of the wooden blocks I used to keep the parts aligned and while they work, it is not good enough.

           Yes, I already took a photo with this apparatus and that is no thanks to Win 11. I despise MicroSoft with a passion. The way this contraption works is the microscope will be held in a round hole drilled in this board, you can see the dimple where I’ll start. It is a standard “birdhouse” size of 1-1/4”. I’ll cut a small retaining ring and I also saw videos of another part I’d like to try using a metal rod.

           It was just a small tube around an inch long. As I twirl the bolt shown here, the wood does not like to stay flat. So emulating my drill press, I will put one of these tubes through the wood with a rod. The piece of wood I’m holding can move up and down over a range just enough to focus the average view through the microscope lens, which must be attached to a computer—once you disable Edge. For now, the parts are mostly temporary to eyeball the various dimensions, like that focal length.

           Here is the first photo, a closeup of the letter N, from this morning’s semaphore message. You’ve seen photos with this scope before, but they were the best of large batches taken trying to get a good rendering. This photo was a vast improvement, taken one time, first time, with what I consider amazing clarity and ease. Less time fiddling with the gear means more time to examine the results. There is something I never saw before, and I am a firm believer that most discoveries take place this way—and it only takes one to change everything.
           What’s shown here is a pencil mark on an ordinary flash card I normally use for receiving code. I prefer pencil, that’s when I noticed something. The pencil is the one I first saw a laser inscribe “sweet tooth” on at the Maker Faire back on March 8 this year. But on blue paper, the effect was a brownish color rather than pencil-grey. That’s what prompted me throw it under the lens.
           If you can see them, there are lots of tiny gold-colored flecks in the mark. The lighting used doesn’t let you see them sparkle but it is very evident to the eye. I’ll try to zoom in but this is about the maximum possible unless I use the lab microscope, for which I have no way at this time of viewing opaque objects. I’ll also try to use the laser to etch a grid onto the viewing surface, as any greater magnification even on the hand-held I used for this photo quickly loses size perspective.

Last Laugh