Ahh so far, so good the joys on contrarianism

In today's rush to be "different" it seems to me that people forget that there is a time fro change for that difference to be actual, and not merely complaining.

For example, the stock market has been said to be in crash mode for at least 2 yrs now, fine, it is over valued, well now it is readjusting it's values thanks to an inevitable bursting bubble.

For contrarian investors, this is not a time for "I told you so" it is a time to start stalking bargains, stocks that perform, pay dividends and show long term value.

For me, there is one more criteria, they must have DRIP DIP plans available, meaning that I can directly invest, and reinvest dividend income in the purchase of more shares automatically.

This also means decisions must be made about sellling Gold or Silver to buy those shares, both have had huge increases in valuation , and like the stock market, a correction is inevitable, those are the decisions that Contrarians make, and let others chase the money by going with the herd.

Opportunity?

With the survival of my favorite Christian Forum, the crisis has passed...sort of.

I have found that if something is marked for closing, then eventually it will be closed sooner or later, terrible, but that is the way it is.

So another forum has recently been put up for sale, and "IF" things can be worked out (Lord willing) then I will be able to purchase a piece of that forum and start a Christian sub forum on it.

I've made the offer, all that can be done is waiting for an answer.

Alas, the parting of old friends

One of my favorite places on the 'Net has closed down, IMO because of budget and bandwith concerns, to borrow from a book:

One door closes, another opens

That's life.

So if any of my fellow exiles from Knifeforums stops in, welcome aboard.

Today the similarity of Christ's wilderness time and the Zen concept of "no mind" is on my mind.

Jesus spent time in the wilderness after his cousin John the Baptist was beheaded, no one really knows what he did when he was on his solourn, but it would not be unreasonable to consider that he was emptying himself, to allow God to fill him with His will.

The Zen concept of Zazen, of clearing your mind of troubles or even thoughts would seem to me to fit nicely into what Christ taught by his actions.

So in that line of thought started waking at 5:45 am, to read the Scriptures and to perhaps excercise as well.

It's a nice time to catch up and prepare for the day, a page of Proverbs, meditated upon while lifting weights  or
practicing Fencing is rather nice actually.

Ahh, the joys of zip drives

So after my long absence, I've been playing aroudn with my Comapq Aero 4/25, I've finished with the Compaq and now I have been creating a book with it, a neat hobby to be sure.

The Compaq's tiny keyboard is a challenge to work with, I normally use a laptop with an external keyboard to type with, but the Aero's lack of a port for a keyboard means that I have to learn how to type all over again.

Cool!

The "problem" that I have run into is a catch 22 in that windows 95 makes using a zip drive a snap, the Aero's native Windows 3.1, doesn't support zip drives, you have to use DOS and I hate Dos, Dos is the geek's gate across the bridge of general computer usage.

So on it goes, type and save to a cough cough "floppy disk" then save that to a zip drive, then convert that to a Open Office doucment, then edit and then ......

The zen of old school Aero laptops

My addiction has flaired up again, this time it is directed at a ancient Compaq product.

The Compaq 4/25 Contura Aero, 4mb of titanic memory, 174mb Hard drive, no external mouse, only a track ball, pcmcia floppy, Bios that is flakier than a bowl of Tony the Tiger's product.

Ahh, web searches until all hours of the night, (the Aero Faq is a wonderful resource) finding the best price on a new battery (25 dollars on ebay) new memory runs in the 4mb 8mb and 16 mb flavors, with the 16mb requiring a Bios flash to get it to read all 16mb's of Ram.

A few lessons that I have learned

1. The Aero can handle a 8gb HD, with a Bios upgrade the Aero Faq mentions that the HD has to be less than 12.7mm, which in 1997 was a problem, now it is no big deal.
2. If your Aero has not been used for a long time, and you buy a new battery for it, start the computer first, then remove the hinged door plate and insert the battery to be charged, unlike a normal laptop that you put the battery in and start as normal, if you do not, you will be staring at a POST screen that will check your memory (4096) and you will go no further as the old cmos battery has just checked out on you (me)

3. The Cmos battery part number is 3v cr1220, it also is very cheap to purchase I paid .99 cents for mine.

4. HP/Compaq (God bless them) still maintains a download page of everything that you will need to get this twitchy but cool laptop up and running. From Rampaq's to flash the Bios to downloads to restore your hibernation partition.

5. Before formating and installing your OS, be certain to have your hibernation partition installed, it MUST be installed on a wiped HD, not a formatted one.

6. The pcmcia floppy is somewhat rare, ebay had some for 40 dollars or less, new they can go for 200, unless you like laplink, or winlink, buy one of these beasties.

7. Amazon.com had the best price on memory upgrades, at 6.00 for 4mb, new that is a 130 dollar chip.

The zen part is the usefulness of such things as keyboard short cuts, remembering those forgotten Dos commands, and smiling as you type at the thought that new these little guys went for 2,000, and now they are mere pennies.

Life is a fleeting thing, sometimes what we value highly are the most uselessly hindering things of all.

Addicted to old Operating systems

My budget was going along fine, I was saving money, I was happy.

Then just then, I decided to buy a 40 gb HD, and install in a laptop with no cd drive.

Opps, have to buy a extrernal CD drive, and well, it could handle win2000, and shouldn't you upgrade the memory......

I am comfortable with my addiction, it is positive and constructive, realitively cheap..that is what I tell myself anyway.


Does anyone know where to find a M$ Plus! CD......

Secrets of happiness

My budget just got blown up this week, a fuel pump went bad on the Honda, for a domestic, it would be cheap enough to fix, 30 dollars and some bolts an voila! fixed.

Not so with Mr. honda, try 180 dollars and a gas tank removal and it still Isn't fixed.

I should be upset, but it is an opportunity, I've been meaning to start riding a bicycle into work. Loss some weight, and save some money, but it is just so darn easy to hop in the car and drive to where ever it is that I wanted to go.

Now, that no longer is an option, I am looking forward to this actually, I perform better and try harder when the back is against the wall, and in this case, I have only gain in front of me, not loss.

This is a secret in a way, problems can be opportunities for growth or effort or change, if I solve this problem, I will achieve some goals and pick up a fun hobby.

How great is that?

The 300

The film the 300 depicts the Spartans as some sort of pro freedom type band of merry maruaders.

Unfortuantely, that difers from Spartan reality.

In Sparta, children were conscripted into military training at the age of 6, that is if the passed the fitness test, if they flunked that, they were left to die. At the age of 6 they were inducted and the training began, they were now property of the State, they fought each other in training drills, and to graduate to manhood, they ahd to sneak out at night and find a peasant to strangel with their barehands, then they lived in barracks until the age of 40 or so, when if married they could spend part of their time with their wives, a Spartan didn't "retire" until 55 or so, and then they were free to live on their own plot of land with their wife.
.

I like the Spartans, there theory of "state as armed camp" makes a sort of sense, and we see that in practice in the world today, from North Korea to Cuba, however it should be pointed out that those aren't exactly the freest places in the world....

Unexpected luck

Took the bike to work the other day, my co worker had already bought a new bike, Siggh.

A different co woker decided to ride the bike just for kicks, and sure enough, he broke it doing wheelies. Then he offered to buy the bike off of me for more than I was going to sell it to my other friend for, how cool is that?

I see Libby got convicted, and of course his lawyer is out in front of the courthouse pledging to file appeals..I also notice that Libby will be going to prison, and the lawyer will be going home a millionaire from Libby's legal fees...

Another Monday

It's monday again, a bit under the weather as well, but my goodnes unless I feel like a truck ran me over I'm going into work.

For the money?

No, I promised a mexican co worker that I would bring him a bike and I forgot to bring it into work for him. He has to walk everywhere, so if we are enver to poor to help others, why not?


Progress is good as well on my goals, and I've discovered Ubuntu CD's, man, that is one heck of a deal it is more capable out of the box than any windows system that I have ever messed around with.

Don't look back Bill, I think Linux is gaining on you......

The promise of Spring

Well we have made it to March, spring is just around the corner, with
it's promise of new beginnings with every rising bud of a flower.

I like the springtime, before the summer heat wilts everything including the people who work under the unrelenting sun. In the Spring the woman seem more beautiful, the air seems cleaner, and the promise of life abounds.

Enjoy!

So far the plan is going wonderfully well (AMDG), I've lost a good ten pounds, saved a ton of money by laying off the booze, and actually *gasp* gotten a few long festering projects off the ground like installing Zip Drives (remember those anyone?) and programming other things and changing oil and and....

The language study has been lagging,
So I cannot Vous et Vous Francaise as of yet, and my Espansih is still poco...but it's spring, and the sun will be out, and the birds will be birding, and well

Happy Monday!

Another Monday is upon us, another chance to start the work week for some, the begrudging start of another 5 days until the next weekend.

A slave with 2 days off is not free, rather they just have a good master........

Why have we become a nation of ninnies and snopes?

After hearing ad infinitium about Ana Nicole's untimely (yet not unsurprising) demise, an all of the gory details about who was the "baby Daddy" and who wasn't, it became apparent that th US has become a nation of ninnyhammers and window peepers and vicarious morons
.

Why in the world should anyone care about Mrs. Smith's private life and sexual piccadillios? I submit that the reason isn't some repressed sexual urge, rather many people like to examine other people's lives just for the heck of it, as if they could pull some meaning for their own life out of her train wreck of a life.

My goodness this whole episode gives me a view of America populated by flabby arms injecting insulin to control that dietary diabetes all the while clucking like old hens at Smith's life. Put down the remote, take a walk and do try and put the National Enquirer mindset to death if you please, you are ruining a fine country.

Take some time to relax...

Life today is hectic, even trying to live at a slow pace is a chore. We simply are covered with ways to get that "important message" or there always seems to be some brush fire burning somewhere at sometime in all of our lives.

Why not take the time to relax and just enjoy whatever it is that one likes to enjoy? Be that reading or sleeping or laughing or writing on a blog? Who will it hurt to take a day off? The world won't end (I promise), those pressing issues will still be there tomorrow like orphaned cats.

Think about this, by taking a day off, you have luxury that even the richest cannot afford, time to yourself. to do whatever. I spent my precious quiet time looking for obsolete computer programs, or course I found two alarm clocks that will work perfectly on an old laptop/alarm clock/fax machine/checkbook balancer/scheduler/ and word processor......

Next up:

The intricacies of Pacifism and Civil Disobedience..

Let's do things better

It has been my opinion that one thing that freedom loving people lack is positivity, there are no silver linings, and there never is any achievement. Perhaps this is foundational for freedom loving people, because we are externally driven, we are always reacting to external events, rather than influencing events, we become victims of circumstance.

This can lead to bitterness and extreme cynicism to the point that it paralyzes our ability to actually wake up in the morning and enjoy life.

That is a mistake As an old martial arts instructor once said:\

"If I go down 7 times, on the 8th I rise again,"


Here are some great general rules for living a more productive (or at least a happier life)

Achieving your dreams and goals depends on several factors:

1. You should have a specific goal.
2. You have to be sure that you really want to achieve your goal.
3. You need to have a clear mental image of your goal.
4. You need a strong desire.
5. You need to disregard and reject doubts and thoughts about failure.
6. Show confidence and faith and persevere until you gain success

Now one's goal could be almost anything, However for one's piece of mind, it would be better if the goal is internal and personal. Don't let the bastards drag you down by fighting their fight, fight your own battle.

Peace

The wonder shovel

I recently picked up a cold steel shovel for the whopping price of 19.00 (Before the current austerity program)

The shovel accompanied me on camping trip and I was surprised at how useful this thing really is.

I used it to chop fire wood, as spatula, as a throwing knife, to dig my fire pit, to throw sand on my fire pit and to clear brush away from my campsite.

It comes with a useful sheath that has both belt loops and a tab to run a rope through and to tie it off to your back pack. I woudl imagine that it would make a useful self defense tool as well.

For 19.00, it is well worth the money I highly recommend one for the trunk or the bug out bag.

Firearms getting to be harder to find? Or is that guts?

Read a couple of news blurbs that "Firearms dealers are having a hard time keeping inventories".at a few of my best sources.

To that I would say "Really?"

America is awash in firearms, the last estimates were that the there were 200 million firearms in America in private hands. That is an amazing number and also illustrative of one of the problems in America, we have plenty of tools, they jsut aren't being used. A sort of "If five are good, ten is better" way of thinking.

When was the last time one of even five were used at the range or just plinking with some friends? Or even carried?

No lack of firearms availabliity is not a problem, lack of a willingness to use the ones that are out in private hands is, that boils down to a lack of guts, or desire or maybe both, either way the effect is the same.

I do have to wonder how many folks even bought a hunting license or even tested the ones that already DO have in the last year?

Microsoft Vista for dummies

All of the hoopla over microsoft releasing it's new Vista operating system is somewhat surprising.


5 years in the making Vista is the "leading edge" of Microsoft efforts.

This is the same Microsoft that gave federal judge a Windows computer that would not boot up to a splash screen.

With this in mind perhaps a few primers are in order some "how to's" if you will..

1. Buy the Vista upgrade, it's cheaper and can scan you computer for compatibility
2. Poor stiff drink and wait the two hours while it "checks" your system.
3. When it then tells you that your system will not support Vista gulp drink down in one gulp and dial Microsoft Support, poor another stiff drink and wait.
4. After you hear the busy signal for 20 minutes, down second drink
5. Try to remove Vista from your XP machine pour another stiff drink
6. After you find your XP restore disks, take fourth and final stiff drink, call into work tomorrow and tell them that Microsoft has caused you to miss work with a hangover.

That is more than likely the only way that you will ever get any use out of Vista......:)


Seriously though, from what I have read about Vista, it a dud. It also contains the death knell for computing as we formerly knew it, the days of downloading and burning a CD or DVD has been effectively sounded
.

Which is a good thing really, Users now have a clear choice, you can go along with the idea that you merely rent the content of your computer, with M$ being the official hall monitor for the Hollywood types, and the recording studio types, or you can *gasp* learn to use Linux or Mac. Or you can go retrograde, win2000 still works just fine, as does WinME *gasp* ME? that is a the worst OS ever!!!!!

No, actually it runs just fine I've used it for years with -0- problems you can also use handy tools like Lite PC on it, and remove the bloat, my recording laptop boots up within 15 seconds using Lite PC.

Besides, removing Internet Explorer is pure liberty ladened joy.

A good website with tweaks for ME can be found here:

http://www.burzurq.com/forum/trevtweak.html

And you have "permission" to dump Microsofts Darth Vader lite bloatware and move to Linux, really, it's fine Bill already is quite rich (so wealthy in fact, he would lose money on a per minute basis if he bent over and picked up a 100 dollar bill)

Guerilla's Attack Boston

On the "news" today we are regailed with stories of the Guerrilla Attack on BOSTON!


The pre dawn raid started quitely enough, assailants unknown attached devices to the sub structures of the busiest bridges in Boston.

The fact that this could be done with security levels on "heightened" isn't surprising really, after all the Govt's heightened may not be your own personal "heightened".

The plot thickens, the devices had foreign emblems on the them vague shapes that appeared to be holding weapons of some sort, there were blinking lights that may have been timers for the devices.

Well, it would seem that officer friendly rolled the Bomb Squad, the SWAT boys and Lord only knows "who" else showed up at the party.

With hearts beating a staccato rhythm in their chests the bomb squad slowly approached one such device after 10 hours,they destroyed the device, and found the culprits, the masterminds, the evil masterminds turned out to be two young men in their mid twenties who were running a Guerilla Marketing Campaign for the Cartoon Network, the signs were simple light brite type flashing message boards that had a newly created cartoon character on them...


Now the sight of the Chief of Police trying to act like this was a major threat is as comical as it was pitiful to watch.and to listen too.Not to be outdone the Chief of Police in Boston held their own press conference about this.Replete with the stern looks and head shaking.

Both tried, to make the situation seem dire, as if the"big one" had happened.

I guess the saying is true, "No one takes Marketers seriously" Unless of course you are begging for homeland (in) security money to cover the overtime for this nonsense that is.....



I think I can hear OBL laughing from his palatial cave in Pakistan, yes I think I can hear it from here.....

Being low debt and high freedom in life.

Debt isn't neccesarily a bad thing, in fact debt like cash is a useful tool. Debt can allow one to leverage assets in order to buy an asset that will increase in value down the road. A house or land for example.

However bad debt will simply eat up your money like a crack addict, to buy a mere entertainment item by going thousands of dollars into debt is just plain foolish.

Yet flat screen TV's were all the rage this past Christmas.

so let me understand this, going into debt to buy an item that wastes your time and freedom is somehow what the majority of Americans wanted this past Christmas?

So when they are busting their collective humps this June to try and pay off that silly television and complaining all the while, I should somehow feel badly for them as I go on an extended vacation?

Fat Chance.

The savings program is going ahead of schedule, I did splurge a bit and bought Chinese for lunch today.

A whopping 4 dollars....

So far I am 4,500 dollars away from my goal of 5,000.

So far, so good...

Well now, a few days in and things are going, well.

Finished a few projects that (added a HP deskjet 792 for a whopping 5 dollars) this along with an old laptop could be resold for 50 bucks or so this spring at the local swap meet.

Which brings up a point for me at least.

Wasting time.

How does someone waste time? Is it a waste of time to read a book? Stargaze ( I recently had my outdoor telescope stolen from my backyard, I don't mind too very much as long as they actually use it..:) )

Making ones hobbies productive is a great use of time, productive could mean almost anything, just shut off the TVee and do something, Lookup www.fija.org learn a language, heck learn how to sew a button back on a shirt...don't start planning the super bowl party for a week only to watch a boring game that involves large men playing a child's game....

Paredo's Rule

The old 80/20 rule, you can have 80% of the fun for 20% of the cost, it's the remianing 20% of the fun that costs so much. Most Americans have no idea what that means or would even care if they did. It seems to me that maority simply worry about "afford/cannot afford".

and if the average consumer cannot afford it, they buy it on credit.

Which is great for people with a hint of Do It yourself in them. The "old" quickly becomes the "discarded"
from leather coats to old kitchen appliances, most of these sorts of things are either give aways, or low priced at the local thrift store or charity.

Dual coffee and expresso machines are commonly sold for 8 dollars or so, and these are Krups machines, not exactly the bottom of the barrel.

I wil admit that the Siren Song of "buy buy buy" has hit even me, even though I limit my debt to one weeks pay, the bills sit there accusing me, making me wonder when they need to be paid (in full BTW) so starting tomorrow, I will live on the "new" minimum wage no matter what I bring home.

This will accomplish more than a few things

1. It will allow me to see where I spend money on junk.
2. I will lose weight, some 30 pds or so. 30 dollars a week for an adult will be "fun".
3. It will force me to actually get all of the stuff I have accumulated into working and usable order.
4. For entertainment I will have to dust off the old weight set, we all have one of those, be it the "nordic skier" or the "bowflex" that is buried underneath whatever (I would bet jackets..Am I correct?)

So follow along (or not) as I meet my goals whcih are:

1. Save 5,000 or so.
2. Learn at a small level Spanish, French, some Latin,
3. Get all of my "paredo's rule" stuff in working order.
4. Lose 30 pds, and get back down to my College weight.

We shall see....

Passport? We don't need no stinkin' passport

So the US's march to Authoritarianism continues with the recent implementation of "No passport, no Canada or Mexico".

This borders on the foolish, but that hasn't stopped the imperial conversion...err...."Homeland Security" from marching forward like mind numbed robots. The ironic thing is there is a built in 12 million person resistance already to this idiocy.

"illegal" aliens are not likely to be applying for passports anytime soon, why should they?

Sadly, the US powers that be are determined to make the US "commbloc lite" and the majority of people inside the US are more than happy to follow along with the plan. Well, it isn't politics. it is personal, we are sovereigns or we are not.

Windows 95...man I'm cheap

After months of struggle, I finally got an ancient HP omnibook laptop up and running.. It has a win95 (a) OS, no usb ports, and a ebay acquired 2gb HD. The great thing about using this Model T of a computer is the software is free!

If it is free, it is for me.

The next step is finding a suitable parallel port printer, these are no longer made new, but the local Goodwill has everything from a Canon Bubble Jet, to the occasional Apple Laser writer. If one is lucky, not only is the power supply included, but the cartridges are still good.

Or my personal favorite printer, the Okidata Microline 320, these old Dot Matrix printers have a character life of 200 million characters for the print head, and the ink cartridges are a whopping 5 dollars a piece.

Mobile printing perhaps? I like the Canon BJ 10 x series, battery powered, what a great deal for 20 dollars or so, there are even wireless cards available for the old 16 bit Win95, granted, they are slow, but they are faster than dial up.

Ciao

Hello

Ahh the blogosphere, what more needs to be said, where the unknown share there thoughts and their lives with whosever will.

I plan on writing about what interests me, old tech, privacy, sharp things, bad poetry, or good poetry
perhaps the beauty of being.the gross indifference of cats, trying to learn foreign languages.