July 18, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 18, 2025, a day off.
Five years ago today: July 18, 2021, the Peltier effect.
Nine years ago today: July 18, 2017,a lengthy critique.
Random years ago today: July 18, 2022, early pallet apparatus.

           Okay, what’s the joke? I still got way too many blog hits on July 22, 2012. It must be some so-called metric I don’t get. Here are the drawer pull pics promised, these are the best for the spice boxes. It is the addition of the knob that changes it, the laser logo is optional. I guessed accurately, twelve are a matching set. Remember to salvage the screws, they are normally an expensive fine thread. You can see two of the knobs have been painted over, which often turn out to be real gems. There are also five well-worn brass pieces that usually respond to a good buffing.

           For anyone curious, this is around $120 in hardware. These are heavy solid made-in-America pieces. I stopped at the club last evening to give Wilford his souvenir fake silver ingot and ran into Olivia, who is again divorced, single, whatever. She also has a marketing account, great timing as India has [essentially] dropped out of the picture. Sooner or later I will connect with somebody who can do the job.

           Ah, the sun has appeared. Check back later to see if the world will leave me alone long enough to build some boxes today. Also, we need a trip to the dog pound, I have already put 75 miles on the van, almost half my budget, but there are reasons for all that. A leisurely breakfast of your done-right spam and onion omelet and the Tampa news, or actually the counter-news. Because they always spin it opposite.
           Once again, as elections approach, the attacks from the left are not on policy, but on Trump. I loathe the radical left, not Democrats, but sometimes it hard to tell the difference. I’m tending to agree with the theory that Trump is exposing the 2020 election fraud with an eye to bypassing the corrupt justice system. I’m not up to speed on how it works, but that can only be done by declaring martial law—exactly what the Democrats had planned for him. The trick is to do it without infuriating the public.

           If you listen closely, Trump is stressing the foreign interference. Under law, the President can declare any American citizen who collaborates with enemies to be a combatant. And that means military tribunals. Quick, fast trials with sentences carried out immediately same day. (It [dead convicts] cuts down on the endless appeals.) But he has to be certain the people know it is necessary. He still has to put a few more people out of business. Like revoking the press licenses of networks that did not cover his speech?
           Only the lamest on-liners think the low numbers to date are unknown to Trump. He is, methinks, focusing on bigger prey and satisficing the small stuff. Satisficing is a 1980s word meaning to not fix a problem, just make it go away and deal with it later. Things like appointing some guy's sister, thinks like that. Trump could be just refusing to get bogged down--he learned his lesson on that.

           To bring it up to opening time [in downtown Winter Haven], I watched a video on extracting gold from old computers. By half way I can see why it might be easier to dig the stuff out of the ground. I was past the tech shop returning from the doggie place and dropped in to check on old gear. Seems it’s been a while since they’ve even seen a 486. They’ll keep an eye out but it looks like I may have to build one myself.
           Near the doggie place is the used paint shop. This [see photo of can] is a product I have not used because I don’t trust paint, and by extension stain, as combined with any other step. This says stain and poly, we shall see. I know it is 13 miles to the pound, then the bank, the total mileage was 53. I’m closely monitoring the gasoline to adjust my budget. Like many, I wonder how the miles can stack up using half my allotment in a third of the time left.

Picture of the day.
Transfagarasan road.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           The old black cat is a goner. She can’t cross the yard any more so I’ve taken to feeding her extra milk and meat trimmings. At the recycle, I saw this for the first time. It’s a pallet made entirely of wood chippings and bond. The material is brittle, I saw a few cracks. It’s also light and seems durable. Does this mean the end of pallet-scrounging? Or just something I missed? Pallet wood is vital to the brotherhood of amateur woodworkers of America. If Benjamin Franklin didn’t say that, he should have.

           I opted to read some evidence transcripts from the old Scott Peterson case. That’s the guy whose pregnant wife disappeared on Xmas Eve, 2002. I have no interest in that particular trial, but after reading the book, I automatically suspect any trial in which the prosecution pays for “expert witnesses” who have, all too often, simply been wrong or outright lied.
           Think about it, the "witness" knows without a conviction, he'll not see such easy money again any time soon. The accused does not have equal access to the money and labs being stacked against him. This means he cannot have the "best defense possible" which he is entitled to under law. Once the Innocence Project takes on a case, there is something afoul about the trial every time--you can bet your ass on that.
           So what is the issue? The big picture is that the court is allowed to declare exculpatory evidence “inadmissible”, which is unconscionable. The small picture is that the age of the fetus in her womb is different than the prosecution witness determined by ultrasound. More accurate DNA tests show the mother was alive at least five days after the date the court ruled she was murdered. I’m not even suggesting he is innocent, but I think he deserves a new trial. I do not trust any trial where the witnesses are paid by the prosecution or by the conviction, which is unequivocally the environment here. For clarity, the court people involved are NOT disputing the new evidence--they are fighting the Innocence Project like hell to stop a new trial.
           Think that one through. Most people are unaware that "expert witnesses" are under no obligation to reveal any exculpatory evidence they find. They are thus a hostile witness at the minimum.

           The rain kept it in the temperate zone, so I was out to the shed to do some cutting. In this case, four boxes. Shown here ready for lasering. The [for me] perfect workout therapy largely because all the tools are arranged so I must be standing up. Try that with stamp collecting. Don’t underestimate this until you’ve had your turn. I also had a drawer I could not get the handles off, so I brought it home. It seemed an easy and fast box to simply cut the joined pieces to spec. Nope, I was most careful on four tries and they all come out slightly off-square. They are still nice boxes if you want them.
           The price on these boxes is [you] listening to some advice. I’m remeasuring the construction process. I know the reason for no sales is lack of advertising. Boxes are a gigantic market and these are good boxes. I will stumble across something that works, or somebody who is not all talk. Again, the holdup is I cannot be at the computer all day waiting for orders or ship according to somebody else’s schedule because he’s broke. That is a modern-day work protocol designed by people who have never had a proper job, if you ask me.

           The primary goal today was to map out multi-tasking. I cut the boxes rapidly, and know I can glue and assemble four per hour. That is the number shown in the photo. The logo and drawer pull are huge selling points but also extra steps that take time. The small laser is slow, but I’ve arranged for that to happen while I’m editing blog material. Four boxes, one logo each, takes 40 minutes, the daily minimum time allocated for blogging. Minimum.

           I think I got this pretty fine-tuned by planning in advance. And I got lucky with a box, this is nifty. I had planned for the 4V screwdriver to stay in the car because, get this, it does not require a separate charger. Just plug it into any USB-C. But the box has to stay in the car to be useful. I’ve had to drive past good finds because I’d left the drill on the charger back in the shed. Anyway, share my delight at this perfect fit!
           I finished the laser step on time, discovering another trick of the trade. The American-made drawer pulls can be heavy. Some will over-balance too small a box, or a box not long enough to begin with. Watch that center of gravity, guys. I need to mull over this fundamental change in procedure, but one thing the Boomers did no lie to you about is to find some work you enjoy. Mind you, they are still mostly useless because they don’t tell you how to do that. Plus, too many people enjoy farting around. They don’t tell you because they don’t know and think you don’t know they don’t know. (GenX only think they have a monopoly on stupid.) Nor do they [Boomers] tell you it can take fifty years to find your boxes.

ADDENDUM
           A couple years ago a meteorite crashed through a ceiling in New Jersey at 32,000 mph. The quick-thinking owner, noticing it smelled of sulfur, capped it in a glass jar. It is now the purest such object ever found and is 4.5 billion years old. The two-pound rock reveals it was once soaked in salty water. That, and its chemical composition, show that it could, in those conditions, produce all the chemicals necessary to create life.
           There is more tech material available at Science Advances, but what got me is none of the sophisticated detection gear picked up the sonic boom after the strike. Instead, it was recorded by doorbell cameras.

           In other news, Amazon is returning to the original rule that no team should be larger than can be fed by two pizzas. Makes sense. Everybody on a team should know what all the others are doing. And Trump continues to hit the Democrats below the belt, that is, in the wallet. They have been illegally misdirecting Federal money for ages, including using it as election funding and handing welfare checks to illegals. Rumors are hard to confirm, but he may have just cut Illinois off some $8 billion. That’s the state run by that FF called Pritzker, a.k.a “Twinkie”.
           A CNN poll shows that 125% of Americans don’t believe Trump about election interference. Sick New Jersey has lost their crazy bid to ban rifle and gun publications.

Last Laugh