I was Thinking, or Not

I was reading about Elon Musk and his latest tweet about his plans to make a pick-up truck.  While I think this is a great thought, I do not know if it really is the best place to focus.  The PU truck owner is usually about HP and loudness.  While this would be a good platform, if it were built as a platform, it could be used for other vehicles as well.  It would need to be at least 1 ton, and would have to have all wheel drive (4 wheel drive is the past).  It would be difficult with dual rear wheels to have all wheel steering, but that leads me to another line of thought. All cars made today should be not only all wheel drive, but should also be all wheel steering.  Vehicles like Tesla make are especially well suited to such things as they are built on the platform style of building.  Such as the case, it should not be hard to develop an all wheel steering system that would work with all wheel drive.  The model S is a good example.  Usi...

All sorts of things have come to mind this week.  I do not even know where to begin.  First a debate on a video I watched.  It goes to a core problem I have with people using the argument of Mac vs PC.  I do not know why it bothers me so much but it does.  It is Mac vs Windows!  Both Macintosh and Windows OS are run on Personal Computers (PCs).  Apple has only attempted servers and other than personal computers a few times, all of which never went anywhere.  Even smart phones are PCs, usually running iOS or Android OS, but still they are PCs, albeit very small ones, they are still PCs and not phones.  Smart phones are small PCs, not phones, but they do have cellular phone capabilities, so in that respect they are like a phone.  Telephones are a specific device designed to conduct voice data over distances through analog connections.  They are based on the same technology that was used for telegraph systems, hence the name telephon...

All I have to say is that this latest update from Microsoft had better have some decent benefits, and not just be some type of graphic update, because it's now three hours in and it is still at about 15%, give or take a bit. I started at 8 am this morning, it is now almost 10:30 am as I write this, and it is still working on updates. Let us pray, as we always must with anything Microsoft releases that it is better for the anguish, aggravation, and just plain ridiculous time it takes, that it is at least worth it. Though I don't see how it could be.  Hope is, that three hours can be given back to me, while I look at the computer, and am not able to use it.  Sad that I have to have two computers and an Android tablet, because at least one of them will be incapacitated by the OS at some point. AI, please don't make me laugh, not if it is run on the current crop of crap that the tech companies are touting, it will be stuck in updates or some other such nonsense, because as ...

I am still working on a few things, one of which is a personal brand.  I already have a brand, Doud Dairy Farm, that is tied too closely to me to really easily leverage.  At some point I would like to purchase a dairy operation and attach the brand, but that is where I am with that right now. I've got a couple of private label ideas I am working through, just to start them, will obviously cost quite a bit, but they are still in the discovery stage. Then there is my personal brand.  Besides publishing a few books, I want to get back into photography (digital this time), with an angle towards stock and product photography.  I also would like to publish a few non-fiction books.  I am working on a cookbook, I guess as a way to also highlight my photography and my belief in simple foods.  I would like to publish a book of my cabin designs, I have four of them already, but I think I need at least ten to make the book worthwhile. The fiction books are much hard...

Good morning world, if it is morning where you are at.  I have fed the puppies, so I could go back to sleep, but I thought I would irritate you all for a bit. I want to talk about a little heater.  The Mr Heater Little Buddy propane radiant heater.  This is a great little propane heater, unless it gets real cold.  Even then it still tries, it just does not have the it umph to hear up the van when the temperature drop below freezing.  Especially if there is any wind.  That is more the vehicle than the heater.  I imagine in a good shanty the Mr Heater Little Buddy works great.  It certainly pots out enough heat, but our van is full of holes and has no insulation whatsoever. Now I I've had the Mr Heater Little Buddy for almost a year now.  A real good friends of ours helped us get one last year when we were in Tennessee and it was snowing.  I did not think it snowed in Tennessee, at least not that much.  Anyway we got this Mr Heater...

After looking at my blog, three things stand out to me.  One that I need to get an url, two that it needs a better template, and three, that I need to control the advertising links. If you want to support my work, and perhaps see more of it, you can donate to my cause by using my Amazon affiliate link, which I will begin publishing soon.  I will also include a PayPal link, so you can subscribe to the blog.  Other than that, click on the advertisements, comment, share, the usual stuff.  Contact me if you would like to have me link to your blog or vlog, and I will check it out. Peace JD

I danced on the pyers Of the love and desire Those that borne me Paid with their suffering Through anguish and pain Their sorrow and tears Echoes of their memories The fuel fed to my fire Will know me as I am After I have released And ceased to spin the illusion JD 11-27-17

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/451/some-thoughts-on-mercy I could not finish this essay.  Why?  It is about the perspective of a black man and his prescription of an interaction with a police officer.  While I am certain that it is as he says, it is not exclusive to color. He talks of the cop asking questions like does he have any drugs, guns, or anything illegal in the car.  I have been asked the same questions by police officers.  Perhaps my reaction is different, I do not look away, I do not back down in difference to the officer.  I do not take their bait when they threaten to bring dogs, or another cup shows up.  I have had enough experience to know that the cop sees my long hair, my style of clothing, and assumes I must have drugs, or at least an high.  I use that to my advantage, and use my knowledge of law against him.  Though I have often been told to get out of the car, I really do.  If I do so, I lock the car, and do ...

So far I have looked at several of the major websites for listing puppies, and they all use the same model.  They tell you,  you can list your puppies for free, but the buyers will have to pay for contact information.  Now who the hell is going to bother with your ad if they have to pay for it? That is just deceptive and petty business practice.  If you want to pay for insertion you can by becoming a subscribing member, either by the month or in blocks or by the year, whatever.  Unfortunately, they wait to tell you that after you have submitted a listing. Of course you want to pay for the listing, because the buyers should not and will not pay to view your ad.  If they were at all reputable they would state that it is a paid insertion site right from the beginning, and state their fees even before you sign up for anything. I have to sell my puppies, and I don't even mind paying for insertion, that is the cost of doing business.  Back in the days of ...

I am the greatest cook.  How do I know this, because I can even make oatmeal delicious.  I would tell you my secret, but you will have to buy the book to find out how to elevate oatmeal from boring to delicious. Coming soon a cookbook filled with such things, from us, with pictures.  I will post the link as soon as it goes live on Amazon. Peace JD

I just looked up the process of making a playlist, on any service provider, and while most of them have different processes, they all fail.  Why do they all fail?  Because they all claim some sort of benefit to their playlist, and since I have to do the work of selecting songs (YouTube, being the exception), to fill the playlist, they all fail.  Five years ago I would have been like okay, but I have spent the last five years listening to music almost exclusively online, and yet I still have to tell them how to make a playlist of my preferred music. These providers can deliver targeted advertising to me browser based on what I search for, videos I watch, music I listen to, etc., But they can not somehow manage to compile a playlist of twenty songs I frequently listen to.  That in my book is a complete fail.  If you can not use all that data you collect on my online presence for anything other than your own benefit, and claim it is for my benefit, yet it does not...

Amazon has won, in the battle for my home, between Google and Amazon, the release of the Amazon security camera that controls my lock wins.  Especially for such things as for services.  That I do not need to worry about my home and Amazon will take care of it, that is awesome.  By installing the Amazon security camera they take on the liability for anything that happens to my home.  Sweet, now I can trust Amazon to protect my home.  Even if they do not protect my home, they are liable for it once they take on that contract. A win for Amazon, now to see what the volley will be from Google.  This is turning into quite the fun competition.  Another year from now when I start the build of my home, maybe the winner will be declared. Peace JD

I'm reading, thinking, doing, watching, all this I stop, and I write, scratch symbols into life.  Not this, as digital simulation is not the same.  It is not real, just virtual, it holds no power. I write, on the page, with ink like blood it flows into indentations made by my chisel.  It is sacrifice, the giving of one's breath to the symbols, each one etched into linen or wood or stone.  To be transferred, read, by unseen energy into the universe, or sung by voices unheard. A line, a dot, a pictograph, a hieroglyph, a cuneiform, letters as we call them, words we give them names, but who are we to know the language of the universe, the sounds we hear but know not their meaning, as foreign to our deaf ears as the call of the lioness, or the sparrow, or the hiss of the snake. You cannot breathe these digital points of light.  You cannot drink its electric impulses, though you feel them in your empty brains.  Hear the echo of its signature as it dances acro...

I do not understand human behavior.  I probably have said this many times before, but it still boggles my mind. Texting behavior, or the use of a mobile phone at all is just strange to me.  How did the human race exist before mobile phones anyway?  Immediacy has increased, but intimacy has decreased, not sure if the trade-off was worth it.

There is a point at which one must take apart what one believes to be in order to fully embrace a new paradigm.  This destruction is the creation potential that comes from losing old stuff for new stuff.  Not that everything new is better, our that everything old is useless, but that stagnation is a slow but inevitable death, maybe. I say maybe because we do not know the value of such potential.  We are not aware of anything that would be remotely like stagnation.  Though it is true we have not progressed much socially, still squabbling over grains of sand, living in caves, that sort of thing, we have technically advanced, perhaps faster than we should have. We now call our technology smart, it is not!  It has a long way to go before it is smart.  Smart is something we continue to struggle with, how is it possible we could create technology that is smarter than ourselves.  Even the brightest of our people fall short of creating anything that could be...

I wonder what you are at, asking me if I'm thin.  Man you listen to this girl, and she has flowers to sell, keep them memories from regressing.  I can't hear your blues, your horns are mellow, and my eyes are green.  So I'm just a jack of no trades pushing my dreams into the wild blue, you can't find me no more.  So I get stuck, can't feel you no more, though you are right beside me. What happened to Peter, Paul and Mary, someone might ask some day, but for now they are just a joke told by conservatives in dark rooms listening secretly to Bob Dylan.  Arlo where did you go, we miss your insight, but that was oh so long ago, I don't remember any of those songs. Hey man, are you sure you want to keep at this, I just can't think, my head hurts and I have nothing to soothe these stones in my passway. Peace JD

Unfortunately I think we are back sliding politically.  As a society I think we are not unifying our world, but headed more towards a world of states.  There may be only one universal, the network, and that may be beyond our comprehension before to long.

So radio is dead.  Bad enough what video did to music, but the internet has completely killed radio.  I mean sure it is still out there, programmed stations running the same crap so advertisers can attempt to influence the captive audience.  Don't get me wrong, even the internet has advertisers, but for the most part they are easier to tune out, most of the time. What I want is real radio on the web.  I want a computer DJ who plays a huge verity of music all day everyday, someone like Lazo.  I do not want it to sound like a computer, but I don't want a human DJ either. Computer vocalization is pretty horrible.  It is not too bad for things like mapping software, or search, but otherwise it pretty much sucks.  Computers do not get inflection apparently.  Hell I know a lot of people that do not grasp that concept, so not surprising when computers get it wrong.  They are after all our creations. Perhaps Alexa or Google Now will evilly get it....

I think the social networks are severely overrated.  They are not social at all.  I used to be all about first adoption, had to know what was on the horizon.  Now I just don't care, I'm so beyond all that.  Facebook, I don't know why I even still have an account there.  Of what use is all the static that flows from the stream of unconsciousness that is Twitter.  It is so much noise.  I just don't care enough about people or things anymore.  Even this blog has become narcissistic, perhaps it always was.  Personally I would not know, being wrapped up so much in my own self worth.

Sometimes even the best intentions of bleeding hearts, and the worst intentions of zealous conservative fanatics can have equal and and opposite reactions.  If computer programming ever taught me anything, it is there is no such thing as random generation, at some point a pattern always emerges.  The anomalies are the norm, and even if you test, there is something that you didn't see the first hundred times. Humans are fraught with intention.  They can not help themselves.  They are not only filled with the thought of intention, but they feel compelled to express that intention, even if they are incapable of completing it.  Those that do find invariably that all too often the side effect of their well planned intentions go sideways when they least expect it.  They do not always realize that their intentions might not be in their best interest.  Or in the best interest of some others.  If there were some force that could balance that nature of hum...

Most people drink almond milk for one of two reasons.  One being that it is healthier than cows milk, or the second because they are lactose intolerant.  Both of these reasons are as mythical as unicorns.  There is another reason, but this one is so irrational I won't even give it a mention.  Peta is full of well intended idiots. Lactose intolerance is a medical myth, even the medical professionals know this, though they would not admit it, as the money they earn from pharmaceutical companies would be vastly diminished if they actually practiced good doctoring rather than modern medicine.  Still many people believe this and so therefore many people are lactose intolerant.  Given half a chance and more people would be intolerant of real food and only able to eat synthetic food, and maybe we are going that way. Funny that such issues came about after they already had alternatives for them.  Like diseases they concoct after they have developed the treat...

Being a rather well informed bs artist myself, I think I know a bit about it.  Though to be truthful the politicians have it over me in tonnage.  It ain't just US politics either, the whole global Gambit is wriethe​ with political bullshit. As if religion were not enough bs, the dumb bastards had to concoct yet another layer of bs, and they call it government.  Just another way for elitist bastards to weild their supposed right to rule over the deserving peasantry. In some ways they have the right, because in general the peasants are just that, bumbling idiots willing to follow whatever authority seems to hold their limited interest.  Perhaps that is why they developed so many layers.  As they say you can't fool all of the people all of the time.  That it's unless you create so much distraction that they have no time to focus on one thing or the other.  Give the people their blood and circuses and they will remain mostly docile to your rule....

Right now I would take either of the two, either warm or dry, though both would be better. I've been sitting back, looking at things from my distance, not really saying much.  I will generally still take that approach, but a couple of things really bother me. Where the hell did DJ go to school?  I've heard children who have better command of the English language.  His tweets are atrocious.  If English is not his first language, what is, really.  I am curious, because back in the late eighties when I was briefly introduced to DJ by a friend of mine in NY, I thought he seemed a fairly articulate, if arrogant person. Still, piss poor ability to speak or write is not exactly a symptom for inability to lead.  I could name many leaders that had less education, and far less command of the English language.  What truly bothers me is his lack of ability has seem to come about as a result of his recent television career.  Not one of illustrious standing,...

I am starting a new blog, based on my newest piece of work.  I am working on a book, not just any book, but one designed to help people with life issues. The title of the book, and thereto the name of the blog is how to ruin your life.  It is something like a self help book, though I truly hope no one actually uses the advice given.  I already have the title to the follow up book, how to really ruin your life, and so on and so forth through various other similar themes. Of course I will be put posting to the social web, not that it will matter, they are all dead to me now. Peace JD