May 14, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 14, 2025, a long day, I’d say.
Five years ago today: May 14, 2021, yep, $5 million.
Nine years ago today: May 14, 2017, the cost of nothing.
Random years ago today: May 14, 2008, why they howl twice.

           It took 15 hours, but I’m rested. What news this morning? For nearly $700,000 you can have a handbag make of T-Rex leather. It’s reconstructed from proteins found in bone fragments. How about a volcano with blue lava? This photo is real, from Indonesia. That’s all the non-politics worth looking at, so let’s see what we can get accomplished on this otherwise sedate little Florida Thursday.

           You know, I should introduce some women I know to JZ. I’m no matchmaker except for myself, but they say opposites attract. India is on the plane to Ohio until next week, so I’ll see about some extra boxes meanwhile. The smaller “spice” boxes with drawer pulls seem popular. As gifts, I mean. Nothing has sold yet.

           I made it up to BestBuy to look at those small Marshall amps. They have great bass sound sitting on the shelf, but can they “throw” that sound? None of these places really have a spot to check this. There is a price gap between around $80 and $300. The blurbs on many ads do not show if the units have a phono (guitar cable) jack.
           The latest tune on my list is the old Seger hit, “Night Moves”, a song I’m indifferent over. But the bass line is a masterpiece. I detect three different bassists used in the original recording, or possible the same moody bassist on different days. The songster version is accurate but no tab can teach the technique. The faithful version used some open string double-stops that Guitar Center and 99.99% of guitar players hate on the bass. And I can chord on that instrument.

           I like innovation and I’ve heard of some local guy that does Karaoke with a harmonica. And another person who is using a tambourine. Here’s an instance I might do some copycatting. Think first, however, anybody who has carted around a tambourine knows they are crappy to transport. Here’s a glance at two triangles. The orange piece has an obvious use and both can be employed by anybody with minimal fuss or brainpower. Why plastic? It does not get hot in the sun.
           The other triangle costs about four times as much ($26) and was my present for getting the stitches out. It has a precipitous learning curve and trying to use it from memory this morning was my grim reminder that there is no substitute for hands-on experience. And I am totally out of practice. The new tool is called a navigational triangle, reviewed here long ago. There are excellent on-line tutorials, though those might not make plenty of sense to the uninitiated.

Picture of the day.
Oklahoma, 1951.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           That 3D printer needs to be put to work. A call to the young fellow, Mason is his name in this blog, and we met up at the old club for a chat. I needed to explain the printer is not set up and would require a space big enough for two people, plus storage of both input and output suppies. I estimate 80 square feet and have only one place I could adapt for that. You may recall Mason has a supply of treated lumber, though I would buy it rather than incur any claims in the future. And, I would need substantial help to ready the shed. This photo is tracking how fast mouse batteries go dead these days and it is pretty fast.

           He showed up on time, a good sign, and reminded me he recently attended trade school and knows a group of interested students. I can’t have them wandering about my yard so be sure to think this one through. If you get more than three men in a group, one of them is a crook. Turns out Mason has connections at the lumber place and knows in advance when deals are available. Maybe I will measure out that shed tomorrow. We met at the old club, so I have a few items of gossip by way of recent news around the club.

           First thing to notice is the lack of entertainment. Before, there was sometimes weekend DJs or Karaoke, but no more. It is gone and you know my theories on that are backed up by statistics and experience. The club is flat dead and it can take years to recover from such bad decisions. Everything is gone, soon as you walk in, you notice the silence where the staff used to have free juke box music (to an extent). According to Josh, the owners have become stingy as hell about even that. The answer is to once again hire (and advertise) country bands. Except there are not really any left in the area except guitar duos from towns like Auburndale.

           Rumor is the place even considered serving those Willie Nelson drinks. These are laced with THC or as the millies say “nano-emulsification technology”, but they would say that, wouldn’t they? It’s a pot drink being positioned as a “premium alcohol alternative” released about six weeks ago. I didn’t know about it until now, but then again, why would I?
           There are several other brands that self-identify as “social tonics” and “plant-powered living”. Willie’s Remedy, that’s what it is called. Look it up yourself, I advise you use VPN.

           Lastly for now, I made no secret of documenting the downfall of the old club due to outsiders. This city is not big enough or positioned correctly for a Las Vegas style night spot and trying to do that chased away the regulars who kept the doors open. The cover story was that Cathy left a while ago to have a baby and work in a real estate office. I probably mentioned that although I never believed it.
           Sure enough, the rumor mill is grinding slowly. There was apparently some hard feelings over the way the termination went. When Cathy left, so did all her friends who worked there and I recorded the four-month dead spell of zero customers. Frankly, I’m surprised they survived. Gee, if only somebody had warned them and warned them. Now, it seems Cathy is up the avenue bartending for the competition. I’ve played that bar and know the owner, she will have no say in the operations. The safe bet, if you ask me. Don't read me wrong, I like Cathy.

ADDENDUM
           There is a lot of buzzing about the dude who recovered some bitcoins after 11 years of forgetting his password. The wording is slanted to convey that A.I. was used to crack his password. Fake. Deep in the article is mention that Claude (an A.I. chatbot) was used to sift through his old college computer for files that predated the bitcoin purchase. Hardly what it claims to be—and it is still only a claim. The report also claims the bitcoin was bought for $250 and is now listed at around $80,000.
           The details are on GitHub, which I dislike. The instructions are so bad I can’t use them or find anyone to give a quick tutorial, so you can find more info yourself. But there is a legal battle or two raging over 3D software. Two facets of it get my spotlight. First, but lesser for me, is the question, if I buy your 3D printer code, does it belong to me? I say yes, by default, unless there is a plain and understood agreement in advance of any money trading hands. This issue overlaps who owns my computer and does anyone have a right to disable something on it?

           Second is, if I 3D print something, who has any say about how I did it or my intentions? To me, the answer is an easy “nobody”. It sounds superfluous until you see what slicer producers are up to. A slicer is the major reason I do not use my 3D printer. It’s a reader that scans an object and generates a 3D printer file that creates a reproduction. True, that is why many buy a 3D printer, but the right-to-repair issue is far from settled. This makes me think, have 3D printers become that good since I last looked?
           Anyway, the legal battle seems to center on a slicer named (a href= https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Forcaslicer.vip%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F09%2FHow-to-Install-and-Download-Orca-Slicer.webp&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=0d81fa82a4ba8b8fa607472dd1df37e685f9dd03ce917d65ffd49d6f971847a8>OrcaSlicer that disabled your printer when you they felt you needed permission.
           I’ll leave you with that, but some guy wrote code that unlocked the lock and sent Bambu Labs into a fit. Because he did not copy their software as they claimed. He only enabled it. For the record, I have never dealt with Bambu, but I disliked them from the instant I first saw their website in 2023. This photo is a typical Bambu unit showing four color capability. Wow, that is bad English, but it is what I want to say. I casually once examined the improvements claimed by Bambu and found them to be hype-based. That is, a print chamber that stays the same temperature seems to me to be a requirement, not an expensive extra.

Last Laugh