Monthly Archives: December 2011

Muddy muddy muddy etcetera

Posted on December 13, 2011 by | 4 comments

You’ll be happy to know Old Sol’s finally getting things under control up there.

http://spaceweather.com/
 
That line of misbehaving sunspots that were marching across above the equator so long finally got its comeuppance.  Today there are only three honest-to-goodness ones and the litter of little peckerwoods just coming around the horizon. 
 
Astrophysicists aren’t in agreement about what was getting out of hand up there, but many now assert it might be mud and all this rain that finally got it under control.  There’s been so much rain lately every stick of firewood here’s been soaked, and even though cooling down Old Sol with wet firewood would be a big job of work, eventually it was bound to happen.  Probably the reason for this cold snap, too.
 
But the other line of thinking among Hopi Elders, surviving Mayan track-of-time keepers, and the folks at BUREAU INTERNATIONAL DES POIDS ET MESURES, ORGANISATION INTERGOUVERNEMENTALE DE LA CONVENTION DU METRE, believe there’s a more novel reason that line of sunspots dwindled.  They couldn’t stay in step. 
 
Time, they assert, is so screwed up it’s impossible to keep anything going with any regularity and the sunspots finally just got too frustrated to keep trying.
 
There might be a lot to that.  I get the email reports from the Hawaii Konate folk, and the circular always starts off with the caveat:
 
“Coordinated Universal Time UTC and its local realizations UTC(k). Computed values of [UTC-UTC(k)]   and uncertainties valid for the period of this Circular. From 2009 January 1, 0h UTC, TAI-UTC = 34 s.”
 
Those uncertainties cover a lot of ground all over the planet and the people making a living trying to keep track of what time it is send out the Circular to advise interested parties of what time it wasn’t, mostly, any given day in cities of clockwatchers.  But even telling what time it wasn’t has a considerable uncertainty factor, which they aren’t ashamed to admit.
 
I don’t know why they even keep those people on the payroll if they can’t tell us what time it wasn’t.
 
I’m going to kick this around with the cats and chickens.  See if we can’t figure out a way to get a piece of the action on this timekeeping racket.
 
Old Jules
 

4 Comments

Posted in 2011, Astronomy, Hawaii, Science

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WordPress Planetarium Software and 21 Grams

Posted on December 12, 2011 by | 13 comments

In case you hadn’t noticed it, WordPress has evidently installed a planetarium software over-ride here with the stars speeded up and going across the blog north-to-south instead of horizontally.  I’ve no idea why.

After they filmed the scene from the movie 21 grams at the motel next door to where I lived in Grants, New Mexico, I got the job of helping to clean up the site afterward.  While I watched them finish things up I saw wossname, Sean Penn smoking the cigar above and leave it in this ashtray.

Those folks left a hell of a mess.

But being the sort of guy I am, I emptied those butts into a baggie and stored them away for whatever future use I could put them to.  That’s bound to be an expensive cigar and I always figured on smoking it on down, but I could never build up the certainty I’d advanced to that level of risk level yet.  Whatever’s on that cigar always seemed to me potentially more lethal than whatever I’ve already got and don’t know about.

But I’ve digressed.  What I wanted to say is, “DAMN those movie people are a messy bunch.”

That, and, “Why don’t WordPress stars move horizontally across the screen like normal stars?”

Old Jules

13 Comments

Posted in 2011, Human Behavior, Movies

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What’s with the pointy nightcaps? Sensible Sleep Headgear

Posted on December 12, 2011 by | 25 comments

Every year I wonder about these pictures of Scrooge and others wearing pointee nightcaps.  It’s a subject dear to my heart because I became an aficionado of sleeping hats when I used to do my slumbering outdoors a lot.

The function of a nightcap is to keep a person from losing his body heat through his exposed scalp and hair.  Besides doing that it needs to stay on the head while you toss and turn.  Those pointed hats do none of that.

I’ve tried a lot of different types of sleeping caps through the years and found it’s not easy to find one that satisfies all the minimum criteria:

This one’s sheepskin and I’ve used it for 30 years when the weather’s cold enough.  But it’s stiff and doesn’t stay on all that well because one of the straps for tying under the chin broke off sometime way back there and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it.  The temperature has to be not-too-warm or it becomes a cranial sweat lodge and not-too-cold because it doesn’t provide any protection to the exposed part of the neck.

A balaclava solves some of that, but it’s only one layer thick, somewhat expensive, and tends to wear out at the chin.  When the ambient temperature gets down around freezing it needs some help.

They make those fleece caps for women and I find them in thrift stores for a buck frequently.  When I find them, I buy them and wear them a lot, outdoors, indoors and as sleeping caps when the weather’s cold, but not cold enough for something more extreme.

During this last cold snap when the water froze inside the house I came up with this, and I like it a lot.  It’s a fleece blanket folded four times lengthwise, wrapped around the head and tucked into/zipped in to the fleece vest.  It stays in place and is warmer than anything I’ve ever found.  It’s tempting to drag out the scissors, needle and thread and cut it down to a four-layer balaclava, but I hate to mess up that fleece blanket.  The “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” school of winter headgear might apply here.

When the weather’s cool but not cold, the stocking cap is a seductive option, even though they don’t ride out the night well.  I keep a stack of a dozen of them on the bookshelf above the bed so I can reach up and find one for a quick reload without turning on the light.  Same concept as a fresh clip of ammo for a rifle near at hand.

Pointee hats are talk.  As Tuco observed in The Good, Bad and Ugly, “When you’re going to shoot, shoot.  Don’t talk.”

Old Jules

 

25 Comments

Posted in 2011, America, Country Life, Music, Outdoors, Senior Citizens, Survival, Thrift Stores

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Weird Thrift Store Haul

Posted on December 11, 2011 by | 18 comments

I don’t have a clue what this thing was originally intended to do.

Neither did the people running the Salvation Army Thrift Store.

I watched the value reflected in the price tag for about six weeks falling from the original $50 to $14.95. 

Every time I went in there I folded it, unfolded it, stood it up this way and that way, squinted at it trying to figure out what it was for, but seeing other possible uses the people who designed it never thought of.

This thing is a tough, expensive piece of work. 

It was evidently intended to lock something in, or out.

And clamp to something along one side.

Whatever it might have been, it’s about to become a part of something else.  I pointed out to the manager that it’s been there at least six weeks.

He picked it up and examined it every which way, same as I’d been doing.

“What do you suppose it is?”

“I figure it’s a way to block off the wind going through the chainlink door into my chicken house.  They just added a lot of extra parts.”

“Five bucks?”

“I’ll take it.”

“Bring me some eggs next time you come to town.”

Old Jules

18 Comments

Posted in 2011, Free-ranging-chickens, Redneck Repairs, RedneckRepairs, Thrift Stores, White Trash Repairs

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Brewster McCloud – A Strange and Memorable Movie

Posted on December 11, 2011 by | 10 comments

I watched this movie repeatedly in theaters when it came out in 1970, always remembered it, but never came across it again.  Four decades later I still have vivid recollections of certain scenes and a general impression it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

  

 

I’ve no idea whether I’d still like it today, no idea whether seeing it again would inspire me to think of all of it as still as somehow haunting and valid to the human experience as I once did.

 

Watching the trailer brought back some reminders of scenes, but it somehow failed to capture whatever it was that captured me.

In some subtle ways my mind connects Brewster McCloud with Balzac’s Droll Stories.  A multi-layered plotting capable of being enjoyed for the surface stream hilarity, but containing something fundamental, profound and pervasive about the human condition.

If you’ve watched this movie recently enough to recall it better than I do, or if you should see it after reading this, I’d be interested in learning how it sits with you.

Old Jules

10 Comments

Posted in 1970's, 2011, Adventure, Movies

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No Blog Awards Appeal and the So Far From Heaven Blog

Posted on December 10, 2011 by | 22 comments

Jeanne's work

Please help me control the egos of the hats, cats, chickens, deer, wild hogs, dead trees and the Communist Toyota 4-Runner.

I appreciate all you visitors who come here and the kind words many of you say about So Far From Heaven.  But I’m asking a favor of all of you.  Accept our gratitude, but don’t offer awards.

There are thousands of fantastic blogs on the web.  Many of those great blogs are getting blog awards.  I believe all of those receiving those awards deserve them, aside from the awards offered to this blog.  This blog is not yet worthy of any blog award.

Jeanne and I work hard on So Far From Heaven and we’re both determined to make it better, possibly good enough to receive an award someday.  But we both know we aren’t there yet.  So Far From Heaven has a long way to go..

Giving blog awards to So Far From Heaven detracts from the value of the awards.

But the blog awards offered to this blog have also bloated the community ego.  The cats, chickens, deer, dead trees and even the Communist Toyota have all become insufferable.

So until some time in the future when we consider the blog to have reached a better standard, please accept our thanks for the thought, but don’t nominate So Far From Heaven for blog awards.

Gracias,

Old Jules

22 Comments

Posted in 2011, Admin., Communication, Current Issues, Internet

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New Careers for Retirees and the Unemployed

Posted on December 10, 2011 by | 18 comments

I know some of you readers are out of work and having difficulties finding jobs.  With this post I’d like to twist your mind around in a way that might give you a different way of approaching the affair of starting to make money to live on.

I don’t know whether there’s any hope or not, but I can tell you it ain’t easy. From the time I gave myself a Y2K until I moved back to Texas I tried a number of desperate ideas that might have worked if I’d been smarter.

But I think there still might be something here in the way of thinking about it to give you a fresh perspective.  Trying to find jobs flipping hamburgers at minimum wage or clerking in a motel graveyard shift, or stocking shelves and unloading trucks for a Dollar General didn’t prove out for me.  I suspect it won’t for you.  A lot of the reason is that young people don’t like working around older people.  At least, they din’t in my case.

But the world’s still got niches a person might fill, things that people need doing and might pay to get done that the Chinese can’t get over here to do yet.

Polishing long-haul truck rims, bumpers, gas tanks:

I don’t know whether they’re still doing it, but truckers within the past few years [some of them] had an overweening pride in their wheels, bumpers and grilles.

Frequently they’ll pay up to $100 for the tractor wheels, gas tank, bumper and grille while they catch a snooze at a roadside park or overnight truck stop. An angle grinder/polisher, portable generator and a CB radio are the main costs of going into business.

Didn’t work out for me because my angle polishing head flew off, the knurled stem that held the head walked across the gas tank, cut through a fuel line [the truck was idling] and started squirting diesel all over the place before it caught fire [after he’d shut the rig down].

Might work out better for you. A person could make $500 – $1000 per day if he was fast and good.

Bodyguard:

Bodyguard didn’t work out well for me, either, though it paid well. Anyone who needs a bodyguard usually has a reason for needing one.

Respectable people doing legal things hire bodyguards from companies who do that for a living.  But there’s a type of activity going on out there in the world that needs a different kind of bodyguard.  If you’re a person who’s generally law-abiding, but desperate or open-minded enough to look into it, you might find a place there. 

You’ve got to be a non-drug user, absolutely and unwaveringly, uncompromisingly honest, and you’ve got to be willing to be around some of the sleaziest human beings on the face of the earth all your waking hours.  And you’ve got to be convincing that you’re uglier, colder and crazier than all those lowlifes around you.

Then there’s the danger of going to prison, which isn’t likely, but could happen.  The things that go sour  in that line of work tend to be of a different variety.

Tool handles:

It used to be a person could do well trading with the tribes if he was willing to go deep into the rez. Might still be so. They always have tools with broken handles, so buying a load of handles somewhere for all manner of tools, replacing the handles on the broken tools you’ve bought, then taking them by the truckload onto the rez, buying their heads with broken handles and selling them a used one you’ve repaired can be middling lucrative. But you’ve got to be relatively near a big rez or a lot of small ones.

Those mightn’t fit you and probably don’t, but they might give you an idea or two about some crack you can shine a flashlight into and find a way to make a living.  Even in this brave new 21st Century.

Old Jules

 

18 Comments

Posted in 2011, America, Senior Citizens, Survival, Trucks

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Two Big Events in One Day!

Posted on December 9, 2011 by | 8 comments

Wow.  I must be living right.

First, at the Hospice Thrift Store in Kerrville I found these gloves with no fingertips for $1.50.  When it’s cold in this cabin I go to 18 layers of longjohns and sweatsuits, Sorel snowboots and innovative headgear.  But my fingers stiffen until I can only use the computer with a lot of mistakes.

I’m thinking those gloves are going to fix that one.

But on arriving back home and tuning the computer to this frequency I found to my delight that Michael had explained the solution to another one I’ve been scratching my head over longer than I care to admit.

Thank you Michael.

Old Jules

8 Comments

Posted in 2011, Education, Kerrville, Thrift Stores

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Simultaneity of Events – Needing some ideas

Posted on December 9, 2011 by | 21 comments

Some of you readers are a lot smarter than I am, and I happen to be stuck.  I’d be obliged if any of you can wrap your minds around this problem and tell me how to do it. 

One of the projects I work on daily involves series regularly scheduled ‘events’ happening across the world.  Every day they’re conducted at the same locations and at repeated intervals, several hundred times each day for each location. 

I know the precise geographic coordinates for the locations and the local times of the events.  But one part of the experiment requires examination and comparisons of simultanious events, say, from a location in Australia, another in NY, another in Rhode Island, to keep it simple.

But two events happening, say, in Rhode Island and New York at the ‘same time’ by the clock are actually several minutes apart.  They occupy the same time zone, but events in Rhode Island at 3PM aren’t the same events as those happening in NY at 3PM. 

But even without taking DST into the equation, events in Australia might be 15 hours and 30 minutes later by the clock to be simultaneous with New York, or Rhode Island, and only one of the two.  The event in one would be simultaneous with Australia several minutes earlier, or later, than the other.

I can calculate minute-by-minute sidereal times for each of the locations, but establishing a baseline for the relationships in terms of simulataneity eludes me.  I do all this on a spreadsheet.  I know nothing about programming computers.

I’d welcome any suggestions.  Particularly if it involves something automatic and repeatable.  It’s probably something simple, even stupid, but I’d like to get past trying to figure out how to do it and get around to actually doing it.

Gracias, Old Jules

I’ve got to get going.  I’ll be back online sometime later today.

21 Comments

Posted in 2011, Astronomy, Education

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Time Lapse Video of Old Sol’s Moods, Etc.

Posted on December 9, 2011 by | 10 comments

Thanks for coming by for a read.

WordPress is behaving as though it gets paid by the hour this morning.  Everything’s taking forever to load.  Besides, the blog never gets much traffic Fridays anyway.  So I’m going to try the patience of those of you who do visit by indulging in a post I promised my friend Rich in North Carolina and a couple of others I’d put up.  

I’ve got a goodly bit on the plate elsewhere today and mightn’t be around the cabin much, but if WordPress goes on salary and I’m back I might put something else up later.

Some of you expressed an interest.

 

Then there’s this:

 

Sunsounds run through different frequencies and filters

 

Black hole – NASA – The comments are worth reading for a smile  – Guy wants to know why the camera doesn’t get sucked into the black hole.

 

Then there’s this:

 

The Spitzer telescope examination of the galactic center

Almost forgot this:

New all-sky map shows the magnetic fields of the Milky Way with the highest precision http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/news_archives/news1112_fara/news1112_fara-en.html

Old Jules

10 Comments

Posted in 2011, Astronomy

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