Random Access Memories

Finally, the last of the gear is moved in and the storage is closed. (Public Storage had a “first month for 1 dollar” deal so it was only 23$ total for the storage unit)

Heard a hard “thump” in the truck on the way back to Olympia today. Didn’t see anything wrong when I pulled over, perhaps I lost a wheel weight or something because it still ran fine.

Decided i’m going to try and sell the yurt within the next few months. It’s just much more of a boat anchor for me then I need right now.

Other than that, not alot going on, time to pour my battered body into bed and get some rest.

Well, the yurt is finally up again, and i’m 3/4 moved in

Internet is up, and temporary power.

I need to go back to Bremerton for the last load today. Kinda trying to build up my resolve to go finish things off there, I feel like I fell off a cliff.

So, i’m packing away things in the storage unit to get ready to move the yurt.

And I think for a second that it’s probably a good idea to take off the celtic knotwork ring and put it in my pocket. And while i’m doing this I have a sudden flash that it might well be better on my finger, but dismissed it.

When i’m done and i’m walking back to the truck I pull out my cellphone. The ring (which was in the same pocket) falls out with it and rolls down the slope.

Where I unknowingly step right on top of it, and crush it nearly flat.

I hate cosmic irony.

Well, most of the stuff in the yurt has been packed up and placed in storage.

The black felt is ready to be hung on the walls when the yurt gets put up again, which should make the interior much nicer.

I got some PVC pipe and a new tarp to build a “roof” for the trailer, so the rain shouldn’t pool in the middle of the tarp anymore.

I’ll be thrilled when this is all over and done with.

Yet another ritual stolen from the Pagans by the Christians.

Go out and do your duty to spend money and give gifts to add to the projected 16.9 Billion dollar spending spree during the “holiday”.

Last night Obama pulled ahead in the delegate count against Clinton. With 1,223 delegates versus Clinton’s 1,198.

He has also won 8 states in a row. Polls show that he has good odds of winning 10 in a row.

Even better exit polls show he’s pulling voters away from Clinton. People are beginning to talk about how he is appearing more and more “electable”.

I’m quite happy about this. 🙂

My replacement versamount came in today.

The whole unit too, not just a few odd parts to fix the old one.

I’m quite happy. Definitely more than I expected to get when I broke the thing in the first place.

This morning I see in the news:

"The Pentagon has announced charges against six Guantanamo Bay prisoners over their alleged involvement in the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the six, who include alleged plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The charges, the first for Guantanamo inmates directly related to 9/11, are expected to be heard by a controversial military tribunal system."

This is being sent to “The Convening Authority” and will take a minimum of 120 days before they return a decision.

One must think about this situation tho, it’s been 6.5 years since 9/11. Most of these detainees have been held in Gitmo for over 5 years. There is no serious reason to think that they just now came up with enough evidence to begin a trial.

I feel it’s an obvious attempt to sway the electorate before the November Presidential elections.

Furthermore I think these tactics are only going to get worse as the election grows closer.

This morning I was listening to NPR, and one of it’s Valentines-themed stories. And it was talking to two female soldiers in Iraq and how they missed their babies.

And I began wondering, why is the attraction toward children so strong in the USA? For example, at one of my previous jobs I had mentioned I wanted no children and I was flatly told “Well, you’ll be a lonely old man”. Now beyond the fact that it was a statement amazingly devoid of tact it seemed to sum up the US feelings on kids quite well.

Other modern nations don’t have this tie as strongly as we do. The USA has a much higher birth rate than Europe, Canada, Australia and 90% of other “First World” nations as a whole.

Then I started looking very closely at the countries with the lowest birth rates. The list includes Germany, Austria, Italy, Monaco, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Greece and Switzerland. You might miss the pattern here, but I found it in a list of nations ranked by intelligence. In all versions of such a list that i’ve found online the USA is conspicuously absent.

Seems to make the future world portrayed in “Idiocracy” far more plausible doesn’t it?

So I went over to Seattle today to try and do some shopping.

I figured I would take the truck down within 3 blocks or so of the Bremerton ferry so if it was raining when I came back it wouldn’t be a 3-mile walk.

I parked in a little lot that was 4$ for 10 hours and stuck 4 1$ coins in the slots.

When I came back there was a wet envelope on the windshield. Inside was a slip demanding 25$ because I had “failed to pay”.

I get the distinct feeling the parking folks are too stupid to realize that coins come in dollars now.

I realized that I don’t care what a candidate does or says on the election trail.

I don’t care how many hands they shake, how many states they visit or how many babies they kiss.

I don’t care what promises they make, or who they say they will help.

I care about what they have done in the past, because history has proved that becoming president won’t change any candidate.

Take Bush Jr. for instance. His actions as Governor of Texas were a direct small scale demonstration of how he acted as president. If we look back his lies were obvious, and should have been obvious at the time because they conflicted with his previous actions.

The measure of a person is the deeds, not the words.

So I called Trek-Tech (The folks that made my tripod) and explained I had a broken Versamount.

They asked me “Where should we send a replacement?”. No confirmation of purchase, no having me send back the broken part.

I’m cautiously optimistic, I won’t be shocked if they send me some small parts to try and fix it (Which I can’t do since the screw is broken inside) but at least they were nice and I won’t mind calling them back again if they send the wrong thing.

I’ve been very happy with the trekpod in general, it’s been so much nicer than lugging around a full size tripod.

So I notced online today the following news.

"According to papers filed by the RIAA at the Copyright Royalty Board, the labels want the board to reduce the rate to 8% of wholesale revenue. The current rate is about 9 cents per song, but it often is lowered in negotiations with the record companies. That money usually is split 50-50 between the publisher and the songwriter. The RIAA contends in its documents that the rate is out of whack with the rest of the world and historical context"

Let’s think about this for a second, that means if I wrote a song and recorded it, and gave it to a record label to publish online, I would get 4.5 cents per download.

Now let’s compare this to when I saw “Altan” in concert. The second violin said “During the intermission feel free to throw money on stage”. At the time the “Gold Dollar” coin was brand new, so I tossed two up that he found later.

Now simple math shows that payment was equal to his profit from 44$ worth of downloaded songs.

I think i’m going to start sending 1$ to each musician I like, that should easily cover the profits lost by any of my “activities”.

As for the middle men, and how things aren’t following “historical context”, I think it’s time for a new set of rules.

Don’t you?

So, the mounting screw on the versamount for my trekpod snapped off. Just reached for it the other day and it was missing half the locking hardware.

I guess this means I need to use it more since it probably broke weeks ago and I never noticed it.

I’m still trying to get over the fact that I can take several hundred pictures with my digital camera and it’s not costing me a dime beyond the hardware price.

As well as the fact that I think I take awful photos.