One year ago today: June 12, 2025, silver at $37.
Five years ago today: June 12, 2021, utilizing any source.
Nine years ago today: June 12, , stiles = too much dust.
Random years ago today: June 12, 2004, $42 in tips.
My poor man’s hydrometer needs moving already. The spot I chose has a tree in the way, and the wood has returned almost flat. Hence, my big plans for a small Friday are upset already. The term hydrometer also applies to the device that measures wood moisture. Turns out for air moisture, there are extremely accurate digital sensors for sale less than ten bucks. It is currently 76°F at exactly 7:00 daylight time in central Florida. So let me shoot a star in the addendum. I have nothing planned for today—then remembered I have to go downtown and pay the phone bill. Is it true other people get to have quiet days?
The smaller boxes can be made better, but it requires such precision cutting and fitting that precludes larger production runs. One of the steps involves dry-fitting the pieces. That is a headache. Today I will think about some kind of brace to hold the pieces steady without having to build a jig or fuss with the chop saw. I am also looking for some process that “scratches” wood without really sanding it. Help me out here. The world is full of scratch removers, I want the opposite.
I looked at various method to distress wood, such as flailing with chains. But I want something that leaves a visible grain. Several places showed it done by hand with a wire brush, called “stunning” the wood. But labor is what I’m trying to avoid. There are wire-brushed flooring woods, however the word is they wear unevenly in no time. It’s no big deal, just a small-scale effect I’d like to follow up.
It still being too early to run power tools, I addressed my weak spot of drawing nagivational plotting sheets. These are just a blank worksheet you fill with your calculations, then transfer the finished position to a sailing map. To test myself, I drew the first sheet from memory, and boy did I mess up. Then I returned to plot an example in the text which contained a diagram. I discovered I need a ton of plotting practice and that the diagram was not to scale. What kind of AOL would put a bogus diagram forward as a learning example.
But, because all along I’ve insisted on understanding the process, I stopped to ponder that diagram. I figure the author had begun with the right drawing, but noticed there was a point where the LOP crossed his heading near his dead reckoning location. I can see why he would not want a student to think the lines crossed on purpose. So he straightened the line to emphasize the principle. Those who skipped learning the principle probably never noticed. Here’s a photo of how far I got, mainly so I could say once in my life I really tried this.
Another point I learned, for now, is to plot only the LOPs until I master that. Sailing directions and headings can wait. Then because it is such a slow morning and I went for the big breakfast, I took the metal marble from the tilt sensor y’day and, noticing it was rusted, threw it under magnification. Hmmm, if that was a black and white photo, I might hazard a guess where, if the Moon pictures are false, they got their props. Identical to a moonscape, it is.
Next, I roared with something between laughter and anguish reading an article about feminism that unthinkingly exposed my favorite method to meet women. I do not believe in the Alpha male theory for the simple reason the attributes attached to that stereotype are self-defeating. But that’s another story, the point is I do believe the Beta males exist, by the disgusting billions. They are the ones responsible for feminism, because they can’t get any. They resort to incredible (and expensive) methods just to get women in the sack.
But beta men are boring and it drives women away. This is what creates that huge workplace pool of “young starry-eyed women” with delayed marriage and childbirth plans, plus, it states, “loose morals”. So it is not good men that attract good women, but pressure from weak men. It makes sense, but I disagree that good men are just pawns in such a game. If that were true, guys like me would never have evolved. I am none of the things society would label an Alpha.
Here’s a likely good spot to remind all that, despite what you read here, my life is not (as they say) and open book. This is not the only thing I write, nor is my only style, and there are strict rules over here about what topics are allowed. My exploits, jam sessions, and travels are things you rarely know in advance, none of that is by accident. I’m just saying.
And the freak Bankman with the cryto fraud is again appealing his 25 year sentence. Where is he getting the money for these appeals? I thought he was supposed to return all the money he stole. Then, in the bigger picture, some crook is spending more money than I make in a lifetime to get out of prison. And I sit here hooking up small chains on my boxes so the lids don’t flop backwards and call myself free.
Orania turns 35 today.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Finally, Earth has its first trillionaire. Musk and the stock pulled it off, SpaceX is now worth more than Canada. Once again, silver is being hyped, but it is still manipulated beyond belief. Facebook is reporting outages, leaving panicked users screaming they are all gonna die. I was downtown, walking in baby steps. It seems that inflation has finally caught up with central Florida. I picked up some hardware and gawked at the prices. They are double and a half, a large pizza is now $25 and most things real people buy have more than doubled. The worst part is the constant insisting by the government it [inflation] is 8%.
It was tough getting this shot of the lid of a box to show the reflections and polish on the lid. The finish I want will give a poly depth to the rough wood, but without a smooth finish. So far, it’s been failure. The trade off is that when the poly is applied by brush, it is impossible at my skill level to get it really smooth. Yet if I spray it, which gets expensive, it is too smooth. I’m using that sanding block which is too toilsome and creates a need for mineral oil wipedowns. So log my efforts for another failure to date but I’m not finished yet. I find 220 grit paper does erase any paintbrush ridges, but that has to be done in the shed. And there is no coffee in the shed.
Wide awake after dark, I did more plotting practice. That’s a sheet with two points, the measure of the distance between them, followed by the heading to sail from one point to the other. Two sets, both were accurate but contained enough errors that can only be remedied by more work. The most difficult part is the bearings, as they do not match the compass rose printed on the blank form—I think. These were not Sun or star positions, just locations given by on-line examples. There are many unmentioned variables, like what sort of pencil not to use, that will take time to learn, my guess is several months on these plotting sheets. It is more fun than taking the sextant readings. What’s become of me in the past 135 days?
ADDENDUM
Now our star position from this morning. Here is our input data, it is 07:00 on June 12, 2014 and we have chosen the star Antares because we like the sound of that word. Aries, near the summer equinox, is at 05°32.0’W and our Sidereal Hour Angle is 112°25.0’ at a declination of S26°27.7’. For you budding navigators, this is an easy calculation. Since the stars don’t move in relation to each other, a point is chosen, called Aires. All the stars are measured from that point, so you add the two figures to get the longitude from Greenwich. Since it is always measured westward, it is called an hour angle.
This is not a fix. We have not taken a sextant measurement which would tell us how far away we are from that star’s position, but not it’s direction from that position. The fancy word for that direction is “azimuth”. For that information, you need a set of Sight Reduction Tables, which we are not using here. But if I was, I would look up what is called the Assumed Position (AP) which would be AP λ 81°57’ making it 96°W at a latitude of 26°S. I round down the latitude because it makes the next calculation addition rather than subtraction.
So, let’s do Google maps and find out where our star is. I’m probably making mistakes by now, but I show 799 miles almost due east of Adamstown in the Pitcairn Islands. Let’s look at Adamstown. The satellite shows a jungle with 50-some buildings. It’s the capital and only settlement on the islands, with a population listed as between 35 and 49. It is billed as a cruise port, but the only landing is Bounty Bay, the famous mutiny place. There are no hotels, you get a two hour stay and the only tourist item for sale is honey. The island is under two miles long.
For you gamers (a computer term that for once I find highly appropriate), there really is a Ginger Valley Stud. It’s a rock island off the west coast, where it is currently 23°C with light wind and zero chance of rain. Pitcairn does have a radio station which they [the British government] were going to convert to a wind farm, but the contractors (two Australians) ran off with the deposit. About £250,000 in case you are wondering. Yes, Ken Sanchuk, there is a pizza joint on the island.
