One year ago today: December 22, 2024, the Found Money is gone.
Five years ago today: December 22, 2020, twisted, but accurate.
Nine years ago today: December 22, 2016, at the cycle shop.
Random years ago today: December 22, 2012, my 13 y.o. grinder.
A glance over foreclosures in Tennessee hints that the area northeast of Knoxville is in a bit of trouble. But, I would not want to live there, so just looking. As of last month, there were 43,493 residential homes for sale in the USA. In Tennessee, 22.5% have dropped in price in 2025. The cheapest place in Franklin is a half-million fixer-upper. And the head of America’s cybersecurity program (CISA) has just failed a lie-detector test. And Bill Gate’s lab-made butter announces a 2027 market date.
Aha, a tube sale first thing, and it’s a Matsushita. These rare and expensive tubes ($55 each) made me curious. A bit of digging suggests these are the tubes that gave Marshall amps that high-volume “growl”. Either way, I’ve got a tank of gas and spending money and I’m going downtown at 10:00 o’clock in the morning this perfect day. Maybe too perfect, I got back in an hour exhausted, just enough energy to laser some box labels. I listened to the brain surgeon audiobook and it is terrible. Disk two is all about his perfect son with the perfect voice who dropped out to play hundred-year-old blues music.
And about his self-doubts, of which he has plenty. Should he awaken his wife for sex. Are the hallways at work too narrow. The airplane fire he reported wasn’t in the news. Turns out it was a cargo plane. This is the worst audiobook yet but I get how some folks would consider this great stuff. It is great, if you don’t have a life of your own.
I have a conclusion about laser etchers. The skill in operating these stems from mastering the non-laser aspects. Computers were supposed to address that issue. The position and composition of the substrate. The focus and design and the file format. You will likely want a rotation table. Taken together, they are an aspect of operating a laser device that is purely external and mechanical. The laser itself has no smarts, it works the same as CNC tools which require skilled design and setup, the very two parts that I have no aptitude for. That is why the 3D printer is still sitting in the shed.
Wilford mentioned an adjustable laser table, but it turns out just a manually controlled platform making it easier to position repeat patterns. But nothing that could computer control the depth of repeated laser cuts or tilt the table for angle cuts. Some of the very expensive units seem to touch on these, but I have found no true multi-controllable laser cutter that moves the table as well as the laser in coordination.
Oklahoma.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
I treated myself to one quickpick for the upcoming $1.6 billion jackpot, but don’t fool yourself. That is 30 annual payments, so by 2055 you will actually get a billion. If, such as myself, you do not trust the government that much, and take a lump sum, you get around $460 million. My advice is take the money and run, but if you can’t run, take the money, Buy hard assets, but also invest enough to protect it no matter what does wrong, such as another government printing up another trillion paper dollars.
Unable to do nothing, I finally shuffled out to the shed and built a pilot model of a crate. In my parlance, a box has some finishing features, such as a fitted bottom and lid. A crate just has a slab bottom and the top is exterior strap hinges. The neighbor was over to check on me through the back yard window, and we are on for Festus tomorrow. He’s knowledgeable about heart attack side effects from his years of counseling. He knows how it weakens the entire muscle system. For me, my back pains are returning. However, my primary care doc says absolutely no steroid treatments ever again.
Expect more editorial until my situation changes. Silver is at $69.95 just before midnight. I’m still reading the book privacy, but by half-way, it is still case histories that do not really help any of us protect our privacy as the book title suggests. It’s mostly about abortions, adoptions, homos, and medical records. My attitude is simple. I have the right to know if somebody unavoidable near has an infectious incurable disease—but I don’t have the right to broadcast that to the nation. And I always take the position that people who have serious conditions do have an obligation to warn others IN ADVANCE. Knowingly spreading disease has always been illegal.
Who remembers Kim Kritz, a filing clerk at my old job? Single at 26 (due to a high body count), she joins a dating club and promptly catches something horrific. I refused to be assigned a work station near anything she might touch. The details are in my ancient hand-written notes, but the company backed down when I threatened to wear a surgical mask and rubber gloves if they insisted. What did I have against Kim Kritz? She was very critical about the Reb, of whom she knew nothing. However, l know the score. Then, as now, the Reb looks about half my age.
