sober Sonday, a thinkers poast.
I’m gonna open this with someone else’s work. Some of y’uns may already follow her and if so, this is old hat ferya. DO watch the whole of it, even if ya find something you don’t agree with (A point I disagree with will be dealt with below)
Those that have been here awhile-ish know my ‘standard’ living arrangement: semi-offgrid☆, self sufficient, provide for your needs so you are able to provide for others. I lean towards service orientation in my skillsets. My mindset is ‘if you are dependent on everyone/thing else, you arent able to provide for others’ or ‘take care of number one so number one can take care of others’.
and y’all know I am a Seeker. Always looking for the ULTIMATE TRUTHS about Life, the universe and everything. (I believe they were once called philosophers,,,lmao)
PatriotNurse spells it out in the first minutr or so: The paradigm you know? Forget it, thats dying. Look backwards for the path forward.
Where she and I disagree is that the labor market is gonna get wiped out by AI. And there is a mushy grey area in that disagreement. The labor market “as we know it”,, yeah, thats gonna take a hit, especially when it comes to management and desk jobs. Hard, hands on, in the dirt stuff? Not so much. There is a large portion of our FUSA society that are gonna be left in the dust and confused while they watch guys like me flourish.
and they are gonna get MAD.
They are gonna get pissed when all the promises of Goverment dry up, and start looking for someone to blame (and they NEVER look at the real problem child! )
And we are already seeing Rule of Law getting sidelined,,,,
i don’t know what our future holds, as a people or as a nation; but history says this nation is, IS! on the ropes. Our currency situation and the growing diaspora from the petrodollar, despite our GOVs efforts to rein it in (which seems only to spur the diaspora more) with the conflict in the Persian Gulf and other actions.(and I believe that whole Persian Gulf fiasco is part and parcel of a dying currency/empire spurred by certain banking Cartels,,, but Hey, I’m the Conspiracy nut, right?)
And I haven’t even mentioned the ‘barbarians inside the walls’ thing. It all adds up if you take only a few minutes to connect the dots. Rural is gonna be fine, though it might be touch and go for awhile as the adjustment takes place (growing seasons don’t follow societal collapse scenarios) Urban life is gonna take on whole new meanings, and I don’t even want to think about the metropoli where people live in towers and packed in like rats. I do not see the ‘golden hordes’ of many popular stories, but I do see serious breakdown of social order and warlords become the ‘new mayor’ so to speak. Think Zimbabwe or similar, on a micro localized format.
globally cheap energy is going away, and not for the reasons once cited. They aren’t gone: but they are going to become scarce due to dueliing governments and the global trade routes becoming war zones. Just as the robber barons of yore collected wealth and power, the world powers are using energy. The carbon footprint and gorebalwarmening coolingclimatechange hulabaloo are tools they use to sway populi to their whims. And further thier taxation efforts
and the wheels come off at some point, and we never ever learn as a species.
PN mentions the coming times will look like preWW1, The Terminator, and Roman collapse, all rolled into a nasty shit pastry (elaborated by me) the Terminator part,,, I have reservations on that prognostication. Yes, AI and drones are reaching new highs in sophistry, but they have a serious achilles heel: power. And the infrastructure won’t support that level of sophistication without a really big jump in tech/power ratios. We are at the 7Nm wall of development in chip technology. And Quantum computing is, so far, still very much in the basement and not yet portable. Power storage needs to take another great leap forward as well. At least if that machine Master of the Terminator were to become more than ‘just’ prophecy. In other words, there is still and will be a HUMAN behind all of the horrors if it even looks remotely “Terminator”.
But use of drones in warfare has taken us well past the wars of yore. Things become much more surgical and that lends to more and worse effects. The travesties of WW2 will pale in light of what may come. And in many ways, already do. That ‘boots on ground’ troops are so easily defeated by a single group working remotely: the evolution of how we kill each other has reached new lows.
Ok, Ok Dio,,, you’re running the depression narrative again,,,
Well, sorta. I needed that opening to give you a good whomp on the rear to look at things, so you can see OTHER things in clear light.
So what is really going on? Fact be, world powers, of the old skool nature, much like those that ran the whole Cold War era, are dying. And the crap we are seeing is very much reckless grabbing at what they think will keep them afloat. I firmly believe that Russia and China have seen the writing on the wall. Russia has made no overt moves to storm the European penninsula: their efforts in Ukraine are to mostly retain a warm water port for year round global shipping, and yes, for year round Militant Naval stuff. There was also mention by Putin that the Donbass is originally Russian Territory (see below concerning China) But they aren’t making noise about conquering the world. Can same be said for the FUSA? And I could list many things/actions that ARE saying such, even ifthe words don’t match.
And China? China is one of those empires that flares and dies with a regularity. Ancient back further then the Roman Empire; even Ancient Persia had records of trade routes to China and those empires of that time. The whole stink with China and Taiwan goes back to ancient maps, not political intrigue. Granted, the Taiwanese might say otherwise as they have a more western type government running things and don’t wanna give that up.
And Iran? Similar history as that of China. Conquered many times, but every time, the conquerer was eventually absorbed into Persian Culture and the whole she-bang began again. The culture remains, even under the mullahs.
The superpowers are pulling things in tight, with one exception. Nationalism in many places is taking off despite the Socialist/Communist speals against it. The WEF and SOROS crowds blew Their wad early (or, if you consider the information age, they missed the boat.)and things for them are falling apart.
Even the Oligarchs are in for a shock, and this I see on a daily basis here and there. People are sick of the Modern Day robber Barons, but this time around, we have all of this beautiful information at our fingertips, even despite the algorithm trying to suppress REAL information. (Click bait used to be sorta funnly, Like getting RickRolled. NOW, its become a business model. Patriot Nurse discussed this in the above video.)
People are sick of working the 9-5 for a gold watch and a pension that was designed before the Great Depression. People are more and more choosing to work on THEIR terms and screw the after effects. Some of those may be Unlicensed Pharmacists, some might be Mechanics that saw the direction the big Makers are taking and walked away with thier pride that they aren’t a part of that problem. I see in some Doctor types, opening private practice for a select group (Concierge Docs.) or opening a small area type clinic setup, removed from the SICK CARE SYSTEM. Or how about that guy, the Geeky one that likes playing with 3D printers and other stuff, the one that has FedEx and UPS showing up twice daily morning and eve? That guy is gettting his materials to work, then shipping them out later in the day and his entire business is spread GLOBALLY. Think he wants to go back to working for the Robber Barons? He’ll hire their services for his needs (delivery services) but tell them to Fuck Off! for anything else.
Everything is Changing, EVERYTHING.
Look to the Past for the map to the future, but keep the clues of current tech for your declination changes.
I’ll have more about silly stuff like RMH/BatchMass heaters, and more specifically, WHY you may see them become a feature, not something the oddball hermit does. (yes, I am going to do a hard sell on them,, )
☆ Semi-offgrid: I still use the grocery store for my food source. I have not YET started a garden/livestock scenario, though this year has me considering Chickens and a couple raised bed options.
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Micro-economies
Burnout learned about FAIR TRADE today. I contacted him last night to let him know Da wanted him to show up today (satyrday) for mowing services. This was an arrangement we set up when Da was starting PhysTherapy and I was hip deep in everything else with little time to for other stuff. Da was willing, Burnout needed some extra income, so I put the two together and it worked.
Today, Burnout shows up in my Driveway with his car and a box full of new parts with that pleading look,,,, Sure,,,, coils Plugs, vavle covers and gaskets, not hateful really, and while I had other plans, this would work for my benefit too.
(obviously NOT his car, but the pic fits with the last few weeks, even if that is a 318, not a 350.)(and I could be wrong, it may be a big block but I am not familiar with BB’s)
He mosey’s on down to Da’s, does his thing, I unlock Bloo’s boxes and get bizzy. Hour or so,, nothing rough.
And about the time I was sitting back for an adult beverage, Burnout comes out of the woods between Da and my places. The $50 Da gave him goes into my pocket. No extra money in his world, but his ‘hicle is running better and more reliable again and everyone is happy for the exchange.
No Grumps Satyrday,,,
I still need to get under the house and work on reinforcing the joists so I can get started on that mass heater for the upcoming winter. Idid get some slate and sandstone (good flat stuff, easily worked.) this morning before the mek-a-nickin’ stuff arrived.
Life continues forward,,, fits and starts, but forward.
More tomorrow as I think of something to talk about.
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(, ‘)
let me explain the OOF
Here was my work week (weak)
4.5 hr Monday
5.5 hrs Tuesday
7 hr Wednesday
4 hr Thursday
4 hrs today (friday)
25 hours total. Thats not even part time work in todays day and age.
That OOF! was quite literally 1/4th of my paycheck this week.
Did it to meself. HAD to have a fullsized 1ton truck, with a monster fuel tank. And, that was a fill up, but was not on full empty yet. (learned long ago, running on fumes is bad ju-ju) Full tank is 32 gallons. At the prices today, thats $120 fill up from dead empty.
Here is what I DID do today. I passed on some business cards to Son of Bossman. I figure he may see places to pass them along to, AND, I had an alterior motive in mind: Let him know what I am doing on the side because what I do ‘full time’ (it ain’t) isn’t cutting it. Kind of a “the mule turns the whip around” move. It was also to show him that what I am doing will NOT be encroaching on his market in anyway.
kinda sorta,,, I’ve already been approached by a couple of his clients to ‘be on call’ becasue they don’t like the wait times for repairs. Not fencing: powered gate controllers. I really do not want to go that route: fact, I want to get away from that mess all together as it’s overly frustrating, and most of our current clients are nitpicky as hell about what they want a sub-par unit to do. The ones that pay for the top end stuff we have no issues with: its the low-ball clients that expect $10000 operation from a $1000 unit. And I have heard some stories about same clients and getting paid,,, Sorry, you call me and I come out, CASH UP FRONT before I touch a single tool.
Easier to let that mess slide on by, focus on the other aspects more, the ones that don’t cross territory with ‘my dayjob’. Welding fabrication included on my ‘ok’ list, as thats a pretty wide open description.
Bills are getting paid, that is what I CAN say. It may not be pretty but I am getting by. And once I knock down the lions share of debt I incurred getting BLoo roadworthy, things will get even easier. (I say that with fingers crossed and toes crossed that I am not jinxing myself.)
Open schedule this week. No clients lined up (as in, no one has called yet) but I have stuff to do around the homestead, that won’t take any money out of pocket to do. re-locate both engines (5.7 and 4.3) to a location out of weather until such time as I can do something with them. Go be rock hound to get material for the Rocket Mass heater system I want to build for the upcoming winter (months off, but best get started NOW) And I need to clear a spot for the outbuilding Da is buying to store stuff in. Gotta be here as his property is ‘sold’ (closing is upcoming, but the deal is essentially done.). He has a couple of months to get his dope on a rope yet (written into the closing contract) and that building will be getting filled quick like. Long weekends on my part: some of that stuff is HEAVY!
I have this snigglin’ suspicion, Dio is gonna be busier than a 2 peckered puppy this summer, and kayakin’ is gonna take hind teat to all of it.
We write our own stories, can’t point blame anywhere but inwards.
Love y’all
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T’ursdaze t’inks
Lets talk about money today. Not just those FRN’s, and for the uninitiated, that means “Federal Reserve Notes”, which are FIAT money, IE, Money based on nothing but faith.
Or as one of my past readers put it “Fucked In Ass Thoroughly” money.
Well, the FRN’s have been with us for over 100 years,,, I don’t recall, though it wouldn’t take much to check (lazy right now) when the notes went from stating ‘backed by gold’ to what they say now: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private” Tender or Tinder,,, doesn’t seem like much of a difference some days, does it? Almost as if the choice in term were intentional misdirection.
We went off the Gold Standard in the early 70’s, right towards the end of the Vietnam War. Prior to that we debased the currency from Constitutionally Prescibed formulations (a set ratio of silver and other metals and by weights.) in 1965.
61 years and our currency is essentially plug nickles and toilet paper, that people take on faith.
And even further, 90+% of transactions these days don’t even use that! 9 outta 10 are ‘put it on the card’ transactions. Paychecks are literal electronic transfers between banks nowdays with a stub being your receipt of that transfer. No actual exchange of anything but imaginary numbers, or Ones and Zeros between computers.
Try to exchange silver coins at market value. Best bet is to find a bullion dealer and hope they give you spot, or near spot. Take the same to a pawn shop or some place that ‘we buy gold and silver’ shop and you will get 50% of spot OR LESS. One place near me give 30% at best (least to say, I do NOT encourage anyone to use that place for anything… They sell at 20% over spot, and they are still doors open tells me there are some seriously math lacking peeps in the area.)
But think about this: The kids today, the ones that were born AFTER 9-11, They have zero clue what real money is. Even I, having been born after the debasing, was clueless to what ‘Real’ Money was until the early Aughts and only because I was having an awakening of the lies and obfuscations slowly dismantling the world as I knew it.
Do you think those kids would understand that the actual value of the silver dollar was MUCH MORE than its face value? (or even understand that the reason for that discrepency is called INFLATION: that the value of that coin is ACTUAL value and the paper simularcum is worth-less?)
How does a society revert to a real money after decades of Three Card Monte by unknown and un-elected bankers?
Obviously there has to be some education factor involved, and anyone that has attended any sort of schooling since 1975 can tell you that such is NOT in the curriculum. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if there weren’t any teachers capable of that line of study. Maybe some History teacher types, but they would be more interested in the parallels between now and what happened in 2nd Century Roman Empire.
It only got worse after Carter created the EA and essentially federalized all funding to public education.
(another forgotten promise from the current admin,,, Hear occasional blurbs about dismantling the EA, but have they? Not that I have heard.)
Nothing is as it appears, or being told. Maps say things the media is not. Actions speak much louder than words. And the words we are being told don’t add up well.
Are we going down as a country? Dunno. I do beleive our currency is in for serious turmoil and that means us, here on the streets are gonna feel it FIRST. Much like that inflation thing. The lenders always feel it last as they are the ones that drive it. I’m hearing rumors of defaulting on National Debt (as if there were any other option,,, We passed the point of no return many many years back, IMO) But look at that Map thingy above and ask yourself one quesiton: Who Benefits?
the world in flux, Super Powers on the ropes. New actors fixing themselves up in new ways. NOTHING will be the same in 10 years, and No one can predict what that will look like.
“prepare accordingly” comes to mind, but what the hell does that even mean anymore?
Well, in my little world, it means regression. Take things back to simpler means. Manual labor sort of stuff. I have not set up my garden this year and that might bite me in the ass later in the year, but I do have means that do not require AI or Internet to function. I have systems in place that, while not replacing the Grid at large, support my meager needs quite well. And I have knowledge: not just ‘book learning’ but real practical hands on stuff.
And the greatest weapon that the PTwB fear: An independent learned brain.
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Humpday nuthin’s
Seriously, got nuthin’ to add to the fray. Avoiding the Poly-tick-ian sphere with a 20′ pole because the mess I do catch is “one minute to midnite” crap, so far out of my control and comfort levels as to make me wanna crawl in a hole and pull the entrance in after me.
Not goin’ there.
Bloo is doing good. still a misfire, and still working on that diag, Very likely, its an injector issue. Ruled out plug wire last night, haven’t ruled out the plug, but these plugs are the new ones from BLoos’s last engine. Barely 100 miles on ’em. Haven’t ruled out valve adjustment either, but I did ‘listen in’ with the stethoscope and heard nothign but sliding noises of cam and roller lifters. (not ruling valves out as I should hear a ‘tink’ when the valve closes, but didn’t hear that. They may be hanging open a hair.)(in my defense, I’m about as close to deaf as you can get without tripping the Disablity Act: I may have missed that noise)
Part of me wants to complain, and the other part of me tries to beat the whiner down with a 2×4. Hell, Ia m in so much better of a position from where I was last week. Its partly my paranoia levels. (like listening to the block with the stethoscope, and hearing a minor tick at the front of the block. Yes, it may be that this crank is developing a ron knock. It DID have 189K on it when pulled. But that I can not hear it except when using listening aids and barely even then,,, Just keep the oil levels good and clean and shouldn’t be an issue for at least another year.)
And like my favo-Rite brudda by anudda mudda B says, “you’re over-thinking again! STOP THAT!”
She runs. She is actually getting halfway decent fuel milage from what I can see (will know for certain come payday when I fill her to the brim) I am babying her, warm ups in the morning, not pushing hard while she learns how to be a gear box engine, not a slushbox engine. (big differences there, think about it.) and more than a little paranoid of failures with the last six months of “now whats?”
Having finally welded the exhaust completely, she isn’t near as loud as she was just a bare week ago. She is actually more a joy to drive than prior, and I weren’t complain nune then.
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Good day today. Had to put on the McGuyver Hat for several hours, fixin’ a trio of swinging gates another company installed at a house we are putting new fencing up at. Lost keys, but we had a set from a similar latchsystem. Those worked perfect, and then adjust and re-align things so gates close smooth and actually LATCH without needing manipulations. It sounds droll, but little things like that, where I MUST think, and distract me from the muhndanity of the real world about me,,, BLISS!!!! Five hours will slide by like flowing water and I won’t notice. Managed to squeeze in seven hours with follow up with the actual fencing crew. It all adds up to a better paycheck.
and I passed out some of my business cards today as well. Of course I haven’t heard a damend thing yet, time will tell how this plays out.
Love y’all. I hope your world is improving as I feel like mine is. It may not be grand and clorious, but its not a complete hell ether.
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First day on the job
As in Bloo’s first REAL day on the job. (not my J.O.B., HER job.)
Things seem ok. No drippy oil spots (watching that front pan closely for the now.) Nothing smokin’ out the pipes or anything (I occasionally catch whiff of oil burning, but there is so much spread around underneath, from prior blowing leaks and dripping from joints in the exhaust pipe,, Not overly concerned with an occasional whiff. I do look though! Still just paranoid enough.
Codes today 1345, and two for Oxy sensors. BOTH O2 codes are sorta fixed now. Both codes for secondaries, one of which is MIA since it was cut off with the catalytic converters. (need to buy a bung and weld it in, then get BOTH sensors new. Not a rush order here. I can deal,,,) Good news is that the primaries are doing their thing just fine now. Nice and spikey on the graph as they walk around A/F ratio of 14.7:1
And that 1345 code. Thats the one saying the Crank sensor is not synched to the Cam sensor. Got under hood and found the distro hold down bolt just loose enough to let the distro be sloppy. I tightened that up but haven’t gone for a cruise yet. Figure it can wait. Cleared all the codes out and did some digging around in the computer. Found one misfire for #3, and a growing number for #4. Plug wire wasn’t seated well, probaby all it was. Pulled the plug anyway. It looked fouled so I hit with a torch to clean off the gunk. Seems a little better, probably some junk in the cylinder that needs burned out. Again, Will see tomorrow when I do all of this again.
All in all, MUCH HAPPIER ABOUT BLOO. Poor Buffalo looks so lonely in her stall though. At least she won’t be neglected. Just gonna be some time before i can really dig in. Mostly steering geometry needing replaced. upper A-arms definitely, but tie rod ends (both sorts) idler arm and the Pitman arm that I keep neglecting as its a REAL PITA on the S-10s. If figure if I do that engine swap on her as I have planned, I can do all of the front end at the same time, as then, access is EASY.
But thats not “NOW”,,, future and we never know what the future may hold. They may blow the world to smittereens by the end of the week.
And I really don’t give a rats ass anymore. (Lie,, I actually care a great deal, just can’t let them get under my skin anymore, so I ignore the crap. I have Zero Control over those fucknutz and they aren’t sane. ,,,,
rant over.)
tomorrow is hump day, I have no clue whats on Dio’s agenda at the J.O.B.,,, Actually, little clue on any of my agenda right now. I’m just taking it as it comes,,,,Trying to keep the FRN’s flowing in (as I watch them flow out at nearly the same pace,,,,sigh.) and get one more year under my belt while attempting to kill this debt I picked up. So far so good, tight, but expected.
and I find I’ve nothing to say,,,,
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Dio's Workshop 