Gaslight,,,
Apologies for no return post last night. I was in a seriously black hearted mood last night on return from the J.O.B.
Burnout came flying at me early this morning, damning my name for ‘ratting on him over a dawg,,,’
wait,,,, what?!?!
He’s now swearing that he was leaving his puppy alone at this crib, ‘not leaving a baby, I AIN’T that much of a retard,,,”
And I went over that conversation in my head three ways to Sunday, and there is NO WAY I confused “puppy” with ‘Baby’,,,, I asked him twice ‘You left that baby alone?!?!?!’ and the answer was yes,,, I asked “Wheres her mama? and when is she due to return?” and he said he didn’t know,,,(to both!!!)
There wasn’t any confustion,,,, He is trying to ‘cover his ass’ in front of his freinds (fellow burnouts)
AND
Bossman told me that there was a visitation by Family Services yesterday, and I have a big feeling that had something to do with it,,, (I didn’t rat him on that note,,, I forced him to go home and do the right thing,,,, BUT, I do have a good suspician of who DID call them. BUT, I ain’t talkin’,,,,)
NOW, I am in a black hearted mood because some young ass punk is gaslighting me, or at least making a lame attempt at it. Sorry Burnout, you’re talking to an editic memory,,, that AIN’T Burnt out,,,,
Seems to me that the charitable things I have been doing to give the boy a hand-up are coming to an end,,,, I won’t be used or manipulated, despise liars,,,,,
You can’t fix people, they have to want to fix themselves,,,, I was seeing a guy trying to make that effort, but when dumb choices crept in, I saw his old self return with whiplash speed,,,,
You can’t help that sort.
and I won’t waste my time,,, Life is too short to tolerate idiots, and time is too precious to throw away,
blank page, silent muse
that sorta mornin’
waiting
the world seems to be holding its breath on what comes next, and seems everyone KNOWS its gonna be that proverbial roller-coaster ride.
Self-fulfilling prophecy?
I think we are beyond that now and just waiting for the chain reactions to start.
And I am waiting for a drysuit. still hasn’t shipped yet, even though I had a text message saying ‘watch for it’,,, suddenly the site shows ‘delayed shipping- 30-45 days from invoice’
At this rate, winter will be nearly over by the time I get it.
c’est la vie I’ll have it for next year.
My brain is in full kayak mode right now, looking at Lizzy, a cockpit template I laid out, and that saw,,,, not gonna happen today; has the J.O.B. to contend with first. But I am stepping closer to that precipice of no turning back. Thinking about the repair I need to do on Brudder B’s Selkie-yak as well. Busted stringer on the upper deck, needs some different design floorboards installed as well to stop her from stealing shoes. (why the hang up with stealing shoes? Cuz that means you could get bound up in a wet exit and not be able to escape,,,)
Kayak mode,,, not really FULL on kayak mode, more designer/tech mode. Wanna go kayaking, but the cold dampens the drive quite a bit. Working on them fills the need to be in them. Not the same, no, but good enough. And gets the brainium thinking about when it CAN get out and do fun stuff.
hi-ho, hi-ho,,, its off to,,,,
Keep on livin’
times in darkness (cont.)
Short day, 2 1/2 hours,,Winds threatening to rip the roof off the shop,,, now back home and ready to pick up where I left off earlier,,,, now, where was I?
Modern ‘Foods’, Obesity, Education failures, Bad Governments, hmmmmm,,,,
I mentioned Kellogg and his ilk,,, Let me tell you a story about my time in the Marines,,, Float back to the States on the USS Tarawa, LHA-1, ‘the big one’, home at sea to the First MarDiv, my unit.
We were headed back, and it was about the same time that Bangladesh was Monsooned into trouble. Massive flooding, weak infrastructure and Gov Services failing, and a lot of people dyin’,,, Our ‘fleet’ was ordered there to help with disaster relief: food and medicines, and we picked up a load of Palletized Grains enroute, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
I was on one of the landing craft that was headed up river to some city (don’t recall which) loaded with some of those pallets, stacked two high and ONE forklift and a dozen other Marines as labor. It was hell on earth,,, We were rolling over corpses in that flat bottomed boat,,, the skipper of which told us all to ‘Just don’t look, you’ll never get this out of your head,” (he wasn’t wrong,,,)
And we get to our destination and when the locals saw WHAT was on those pallets, they told us to take it back: ‘we want food, not cattle feed!” Our pallets were loaded with Corn and corn meal.
Even back in the day, Corn was not a staple, it was an addition to a diet, and mostly as cattle/livestock feed. One line in a movie lately (The Free State of Jones), Matthew McConnaughey’s character is talking about Corn and “if you take our corn, we have nothing to feed the hogs, if we can’t feed the hogs, we have nothing to put in the smokehouse, and if nothings in the smokehouse, We starve,,,,”
Now, look around some shopping trip, read labels: Corn products rank quite high as ‘fillers, High Fructose CORN syrup is in almost EVERYTHING,,, Soybean products (another of those cattle feeds,,,) EVERYTHING. If its been through a process that required more than a butchers knife, it has some of those items added in,,,
And Chips, snacks,,, I don’t have a link to the article any longer, may be its memory holed anyways, but there was some ‘expose’ on the snack industry and how they add appetite enhancers to their flavorings,,, If you make it so people want to eat more, you sell more,,, simple logic,,, (which circles right back to that Obesity thing,,,,)
I’m not going to go all Anti-Capitalist on you, but I do recognize that there are some seriously anti-ethical things going on in Corporate America, that are ‘justified’ in the name of the Almighty Dollar, (some would say ‘America’s God’,,, But thats an argument for another post/debate) One of my readers here once said that :the problem with Communism is Sloth and the problem with Capitalism is Greed“. Such a simple statement is NOT wrong, but it leaves out so many other issues it begs to be beaten on,,, I don’t want to go there in this post, but I would like for others to pick it apart and see if you can see the many openings it presents.
The BIG problem as I see it is “top down Centralization”,,, Hierarchies that are top heavy with mal-educated morons. Corporations that have only the bottom line in sight with nary any accountability for their misdeeds, thanks to deep pockets and political moves by thier puppets. Regulations written to favor Top heavy Giants and discriminate against potential competition,,,, Competition that is the LIFE BLOOD of Free Enterprise/Capitalism. Something that hasn’t been truly seen in this world for decades,,, (for clarity, go back to the early 1900’s,,, count how many INDEPENDENT car makers were loose upon these shores,,,, Most have been abosorbed by one of the Big Three, or driven out of business for whatever reason, be it bad management, or over regulated industry,)
And who always pays? The guy at the bottom,,, He hasn’t a choice: its that or abandon all symbolance of society and retreat to the places that are farther and fewer between, or live in some Tent City on the edge of society with the rest of the dregs,,,
But somewhere in those Tent Cities, there is a seed being formed. One that isn’t new on this planet, one that may be welcomed back with open arms when things start to go really sideways.
THE VILLAGE. (Thanks Spud for the comment, take this part as my reply to such)
I recall Killary Klinton Kommunist Kitty herself saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. More rhetoric from a lawyer of course, but the premise has foundations in history: she was just using that premise as the icing for justifying further socialist intervention in famiily matters. Historically speaking, most villages were tightly family oriented: you were related to many in some fashion: be it blood relation or ‘legally’ by marriage. The village was there for when things went sideways at the personal level, but it was not the intent to replace the personal level.
I think we are going to see that make a HUGE come-back when the economy goes full potato and tanks. Giant Corporations are going to collapse and the individuals within are going to break out and repeat the efforts of that corp at local levels. (for some interesting reading on this subject, Check out Cory Doctrows works.) With the internet, which is going to take a hit at first, but is so ingrained in our world, it will be the most protected at all levels. Massive Decentralization is going to happen, is happening in lots of ways, and is in no small way, WHY we are seeing the failings of Government world wide. People can talk at all levels, and despite Media spin, truth is there for the asking. Truth IS, it requires no support, nor coddling to mainiain it. Its the plethora of lies that needs Spin Doctors,,,,
Like the lies of University,,,, Degrees are rapidly losing value,,, They are nearly as common (maybe more so in these strange times, where Freshman students in College are being required to take remedial classes for what SHOULD be basic skills passed on in lower schools.) than a High School Diploma. With the internet, I can watch, anytime I want and when I am able to focus, Lectures from Professors IN ANY SUBJECT MATTER. Even deceased professors with great reputations (so long as they were recorded and uploaded, of course.) I don’t need to spend years, busting my hump in some ‘ivory tower hall’, scheduling my time around the whims of some one else, maybe so much so, I can’t focus on the lecture, and do all of that for some exhorbitant sum of money that it will take half a lifetime to pay back.
Now, I know not everyone is going to do such,,, There are people that haven’t the drive nor willpower to sit through a 3 hour lecture, even if they can pause it, rewind it when ‘not sure’, or whatever. They haven’t that ‘curiosity’ and thats just the way it is. BUT, for those that do, this is an incredibly exciting time in the world, where the Libary of Alexandria, the Louvre, etc etc, are readily available to anyone with a computer or smartphone, and a few minutes of time.
“University” can become a website, (like Jordan Petersons online “Academy” WIth that sort of education available to anyone,,, Why would you want some micro city university that requires you to leave your Village, where your family is (unless you WANT to go elsewhere, which is not a bad thing in the bigger picture,,, But why do that and acquire a debt that takes a lifetime to pay off? Seems rather counter productive to me.)
Wow,,, I didn’t think I had much to say this mornin’,,, Cripes, I could keep on going, but I think I need to save some of this up, maybe expand on some of it in seperate posts,,, And stop chewing on your retinas with my horrid grammer and punctuation,,,,(apologies if your eyes are bleeding from my overuse of commas,,, )
Short form for the TL: DR crowd,,, our world is in a Revolution, and the deceased to be is BIG GOVERNMENT,,, They know it and they are scrambling to hold as much power as they can for as long as they can. Stick to your guns, (never give up your guns if you still have them) and we will see this through. Maybe not all of us, but enough with a few braincells that still function correctly, that maybe, just maybe, we can get this Human Race back on track away from the Devolutionary track it has been on.
Keep on livin’
times in darkness
Random thoughts mornin,,,
Started by going over to Francis’ blog; he’s feeling under the weather and lazy so posted a blast from the past that I found profound and intriguing.
When I started my wake up in 2008 during the TEOTAWAKI of my life, I knew there were things IN ME, that needed changed. One of those things was ‘Group think’, and I struggle with it even to this day. Fact is, I probably always will, and that linked article, which is a cut and paste from a prior site, states pretty much that exact point.
Education is the lynch-pin,,, And why I rail on about it at times. One of my turning points was as I found and dove into OLD TEACHING METHODS,,, The Three R’s Reading, Reason and Rhetoric.
What? Did I get that wrong? Sorry, no, you have fallen into the indoctrination system thinks,,, What I just wrote is what originally was taught before Government got its grubby tentacles involved. The ‘rithmatic thing came from ‘reason’ and was used to help reinforce ‘logic’. Writing was under the Reading sheild, but the real clincher was RHETORIC,,, Knowing how to ARGUE, (note, not FIGHT, argue,,,)
This is still taught in some schools, usually higher ed/indoctrination, and usually in schools of law: kind of critical for lawyers to know how to bend words and opinion if you think about it.
And we wonder why all of our Politico’s trend towards Lawyer,,,,
I have several books on Rhetoric, I like to think of it as my arsenal: you can’t have a battle of wits with an unarmed person kinda thing. I, personally don’t like going unarmed anywhere, but when I slime myself by watching politico’s in their self fulfilled environment, I want as many weapons as I can carry in this little cranium I have.
When I first heard the words “We are on the cusp of Fundementally transforming America”, I knew the words were icing on a cake for the masses, and that the underlying intent was far more insidious. And I knew that 95% of the population tasted the sweet, but couldn’t detect the poison in it.
It has been a long and VERY strange road these last sixteen years. The world I knew then was already dying. Not just my world, but the world around me. The cut across the arteries was done in 2002 with the Rhetorically named “Patriot Act”. And everything leading up to the ascension of the ‘light bringer’ was testing of systems. When fuels went over $3/gallon under the the shrub in 2005: test of a system. When they doubled down on war fronts in Iraq and Affy,,, test of a system, one intended to induce failure. The Financial collapse and propping up of the houseing/banking markets: tests of systems.
And 2016 rolled around and they got cocky, and ‘their’ system didn’t work as planned and they got TRUMPED.
That will never happen again, even if they have to fraud so openly only a deaf and blind dog wouldn’t see it.
But said dog is gonna smell that shit from 5 mountains away.
The flailing of breaking systems is gonna get ugly. I personally feel we are already seeing such in systems like ‘work force’ numbers. We here on the ‘streets’ see unemployment and welfare at every corner, but the Administration is saying that things are improving. What I see is a faulty census accounting and manipulation of numbers on a scale greater than just one country (thanks to Sarah for pointing out the fallacies of government accounting,,,) Without proofs, I don’t want to extend that argument too far. I just feel that some of the numbers being bandied about are complete fabrications or exagerations to help the rhetoricians manipulate ‘public opinion’. Over-population. Border-line famines. etc etc etc. I would not be surprised if an honest accounting of world population came closer to 4 billion, not the over 7 billion we are told.
And that borderline famine thing,,,, look around you. How many FAT people do you see? I can’t use that argument world wide, but I can on the local level. For every Fit and Trim person I see, I see 10 or more that are some level of obese, with more than a handful that are GROSSLY OBESE. (that belly roll that hangs to the knees, in lycra pants because nothing else fits,,, Ewwwww!) The reasons for this can be argued on several levels, and a lot of it, in my opinion, goes back to Kellogg and his ilk, and a manipulation of ‘Health’ theories, especially in diet, but very closely tied to mass processes of ‘food’ (can be read as ‘profits’) and sedentary lifestyles brought on by Technology and entertainment on the cheap. Look back to pictures of people around the time of the Civil War; people were rail thin, wirey even, but not unhealthy, and likely Ox strong compared to many of the average person today.
And look to our allergy issues that seemingly abound across the spectrum of society. Seems to me that those least likely to have allergy problems are those that live closer to the earth. People that have fewer resources for keeping things hospital standard sanitary, but have much more resilient immune systems for it. People that harvest thier own food from their own yards, get thier paws dirty digging in the dirt, even hunt and harvest wild game on occasion. And while I can’t say they are the lean and wirey people of yore, they do seem to be more fit, even when obese.
(for the record, I am considered obese by medical standards. I am 15 pounds overweight by BMI, and while I would like to lose more of the belly about my middle, I am not FAT by anystandard. Even when I start losing the body fat, I don’t lose weight,,, I gain muscle mass that weighs more and they still say I am obese,,, Fuggem,,, )
anywhooozits
It’s goin’ on 7 aye-em here, that means I really need to start getting me arse ready for the J.O.B.. Gonna be interesting OR really short day today. High winds and lots of rain on the menu, rolling back out for return of winter standards overnight. Is what it is: weather, don’t like it, stick around; it’ll change,,,
Tryin’ ta stay positive,,,
Yah, today was a MuhnDay,,,those are always of the interestin’ sorts,,,
Woulda been a full house today at the J.O.B. cept there was a SNAFU with Burnout,,, Seems his GF had to make a hospital visit and he wasn’t sure when she would be back: He is desperate to get work in, and pulled one of the most BONEHEADED moves,,,, If he hadn’t said anything,,,,
Long story short, he bundled the newborn (born day before Christmas) up and swaddled her in her crib so she couldn’t wiggle loose,
and went to work,,,
No one there to watch the bahbie,,, Two weeks old, alone, in his hovel that needs a space heater to keep warm and that he turned off because he didn’t want her involved in a house fire if things went sideways,,,
Left turn signal, hard braking, turn the Buff back on her trail and take that BOY back home and hard admonishments,,,, Don’t care how desperate you are,,, you don’t leave a newborn ALONE, PERIOD!!!
and that was just the start of it,,, nothing personally hit me, but I felt like Mortars were landing all around me. Bossman tossed a problem my way too: all the panels that I have been making are WRONG wrong wrong,,,, They were supposed to be installed in a building but I made them for freestanding,,,
Some forty some odd panels, are all TOO BIG,,, Dunno what the resolution is going to be, but there is around Eight grand of product that the customer isn’t going to be able to use,,,,
all because one CRUCIAL peice of information was not passed along to the fabricator (IE, ME)
At least the weather is nice today,,,,
I do so hatez muhndaze,,,
And some of the things I want to use to increase the positive outlook,,,, I Don’t even want to mention because i don’t want to jinx things,,,, Maybe a little superstitious, but I am afraid to say ‘Buff is running good’ or sumsuch,,,, I would feel like I were painting a target for Murphy to drop mortars into,,,,
but I am home now, the house is warmin’ up, the lights falling, and I just wanna sit, relax, and not think for a few minutes,,,
more tomorrow,,,
keep on livin’
ROFLMAO
Do you need any more reason to think THEY are scared of a Ceausescu moment?
Not gonna say it’s gonna happen, not gonna say that Trumped is gonna grow a spine if he does manage to defeat the fraud, and I highly doubt deep State will allow him one day in office before an oopsies and some windup toy does a Dallas event,,,,
Gonna go ahead and say it; I find our current government at the federal level GUILTY of high treason and total breach on contract. The majority of the 535 are oathbreakers of the most heinous sort,,, the bureaucratic arm is more guilty and also more protected by anonymity,,,,
And nothing to be done but live with it until such time as a majority wake the F! Up and do more than throw a paper ballot or punch a button once every 2 years.
I said it in Nov of 2020, if we had encircled DC with 1000000 patriots, armed but with muzzles down, and silent as the grave, this shit would have STOPPED, or the resolution would have began, right then,,,, I made that statement hoping that all of the 10 mile long parades for Trump weren’t just bandwagonning,, Guess I was wrong,
Anywhoos, nothing coming out of ‘the district ‘ means jack shit; it’s all hot air with only the enforcement arm of criminal enterprises, , ,
Sorta like the Mafia, but without the integrity of,,,,
¡¡¡Fuggem!!
In hind sight,,,,
Took Buff out for her bath after getting my laundry done,,, Had to scrub a bit harder than usual at the grunk behind her rear DS wheel,,,, Not surprised since I used a paint scraper in her wheel well to get that crap off. That things been going for a while and the gunk was 1/4″ thick under there. Between road grime, mud n dust, and 85-90w gear oil, there was something very closely akin to La Brea Tar attached to her.
But, that hind sight thing,,,
The noises and issues had crept up me so slowly that I didn’t notice them.
Until they were gone.
It’s like driving a completely different truck now,,, Smooth, QUIET,,,,
Still impressed as all get out that the axle was still functioning as much as it was. That was nearly a catastrophic failure,,,
And amazingly I had two spare axles to replace the one that was galled,,,, (price on a new half shaft is $189 at a local parts dealer, saw that when pricing parts,,,) Those are from a blown diff from two trucks back. , , ,
Seems I have a hard time with differentials doesn’t it? Actually, that one wasn’t ‘blown’ so much as the rear brakes had disintegrated and were not rebuildable without major teardown. The wheel cylinder had broken loose (one of GM’s finer ideas: to hold a major brake component in place with a spring clip,,,) and tore all sorts of shit apart; shredded the backing plate, and busted a hole in the rim when it cracked the drum and sent shards outwards. I originally kept the half shafts for a project that never came to be,,, Should have kept the pumpkin too,,, Oh well, Hind sight is 20/20.
So if I have such a hard time with this model, WHY is this one my fourth one? Because they are ubiquitous in my neck of the woods, parts aren’t hatefully expensive (usually), and they can be worked on by purt much anyone. Granted the 4.3l is sorta underpowered and a fuel pig, but they are as common as the Chevy 350, share many parts the same, so common parts are readily available. Thats why I stick with them.
BUT, I am looking for a secondary ride, (a beater with a heater, as Brudda B called it) so that I am not in this boat of needing to borrow/rent wheels while one is down. I can handle the added expense in insurance rates, and if something needs repaired, I have ‘backup’ so no need to take time off work for major repairs,,,
But I doubt it will be a common model like Buffalo,,, Probably not even the same maker,,,, And I am not rushing into anything. Looking for cheap, decent, and not much more. ( 4×4 is sort of mandatory though,,, Y’ain’t seen my hill to get home,,, ) Hell, I don’t even care if the vents are rust holes in the floor boards, so long as my feet don’t go through them,,,, That sort of stuff is easy to bandaid over and won’t make a lick of difference in drivability.
And Brudda B sent me a link to a Jeep Cherokee that would fill the bill,,, BUT, not right now; sorta tapped on things for a spell,,, just gonna keep my eyes peeled as I build a fund up,,,
Anywhoos,,, Chinee dinner in belly, domestics done, Buffalo is clean again and running like a champ (until the next catastrophe) and Dio is in chill mode,,,
Dio's Workshop 