Outer Billiards

On leave for awhile about the homestead, working, reading, napping, writing, drawing....thinking, playing--attempting to be a natural man....
.....free, not owned. We filled a bowl with jobs written on slips of paper and I am drawing one or two winners each day...

Over it is..the Obamacare constitutionality fight...truly I am amazed that the proper decision carried the day. I considered all of the Justices bought and paid for. As I write this I am somewhat stunned. 
The Republicans have become so used to presenting propaganda as fact--from intelligent design, to trickle down economics, to birthers, to conception begins when you first think of fucking her, the 1% create jobs---they have become so used to the Nazi Big Lie succeeding--this must be earthquake like for them.....and their golfing pals from the health,drug,hospital and insurance companies...We are all going to die unattended on gurneys in a hospital hallway, but at least now they cannot bankrupt us at the same moment.

This morning I was out when the sun came up to Spray Booth, wash the VW camper..It was just me, the retired speed walking dudes, and the eh, street people out and about......

I was struck by how my weirdness fit right in downtown at this time of the morning..there was none of that, drifting on a strange tide feeling that i usually get around people. It was interesting. 

I have been searching for a tattoo to add to my right forearm. Nothing I have observed meant anything to me... the other day I had some time to just sit and think and the above illustration suddenly came to me and I jotted it down. Luckily being, well, being not right, means i constantly have a notebook and pen nearby. This of course is not to size--although the tat i am visualizing will be a smaller one...but I am thinking this just might be next?

my candidate Vermin Supreme

I have found a man i can support with my entire being in the upcoming election for President of the United States.. Vermin Supreme---a man of the people, a Democrat..(with excellent fashion sense by the way) who brings with him a well thought out legislative platform for change based on raising Zombie Apocalypse Awareness and the promise of a free pony from the Government of the United States to each and every citizen--Vermin Supreme is my choice to lead our country through the dangerous times ahead. 

Show your support Vermin Supreme bumper stickers

I bought some--I swear to God.

I hereby officially cancel the Autonomous Sentry Gun project for the homestead. The project as much as I desired it completed, appears to be beyond me and my capabilities. This project is terminated. I planned out the supply purchases for the Sentry Gun so that everything purchased has an addition valuable purpose at the homestead so there is no loss involved.
I can now turn my attention to several projects requiring attention..

I currently have two stand alone systems observing the front and rear entrances of the homestead. I would like to expand homestead surveillance into a single system which displays not only the front and rear of the house itself but the full sides of the residence and the garden areas. I have been somewhat proud of the limited surveillance capability I have constructed out of around the house materials and a very small expense but with the demise of the sentry gun full time, all area, visual surveillance becomes mandatory. It is however strange, that i despise public surveillance, but am fascinated by private surveillance and require it's presence.....there's probably a named phobia for that somewhere in some medical journal....

I am also on a rebuild of my geezer weather station...raising the wind sensor for a more accurate report of wind conditions---which in New Mexico requires a pole and structure which can stand up to the very wind you are trying to notate--not a small job--- rearming the system with fresh batteries, and so forth. Our geezer weather station is something neither JoJo nor I can live without---- checking first thing in the morning....weather surveillance but surveillance non the less and of massive importance to gardeners. I will provide photo's when the new systems are up and running.

Immune from the world of fashion by Geezer Tactical,military surplus clothing it shocks me how fascinated i am with this particular sneaker. The Reebok ZigMaze.  I have no concept of what these designer sneakers sell for nor do i wish to find out---I just think it could be the perfect shoe to finish off my geezer tactical styling...as a sort of Japanese, time travel, assault unit member from the future enjoying the early bird special at IHOP.

more

"I have been going over my notes of our exploits 

over the past seven months.

Would you like to hear my conclusions?

...I am psychologically disturbed. 

Watson to Holmes 2009 film.

The Butterfly Curve

I save chopsticks and napkins when eating out---they go into our supplies against the future...I also fill up the car with gas prior to a weekend..weekends are always the time we invade somebody or pull some economic repair blunder---I find myself wanting to save plastic containers--staring at them thinking that it will not be long before we no longer have something like this---that we now have no appreciation for. In the mornings i watch the water run in the sink--thinking, how am i going to haul that which we take for granted? 

My wife surprised me with several EDC presents for my recent birthday--including the two items displayed below...first a Boblbee Amphib 30 backpack---which is hugely marvelous---and excellently weird..this pack is something that i have been desiring for a very long time...how she found one, I'll never know since they are tremendously hard to obtain...

amphib boblbee

And---A Braun BN0035 Flat black Chronograph. Classic--beautiful---Germanic..nothing here but time and the ability to track it as needed. 

braun classic-watches

BBC 4, via the computer, is all I listen to for radio now. I am attempting to get my wife hooked through the garden shows they routinely have....So much in my country has just turned to pure shit--radio being one of many elements which resembles what an untrained dog leaves on the pavement. Thank you computer, otherwise, i would be out in the yard with a cheap SW radio staggering about trying to find a spot with BBC reception...stumbling over shit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

Just ordered FREERUNNERS by Joesph Chandler Cain...

Zombies-------------------Check

Streampunk---------------Check

Parkour--------------------Check

Airships--------------------Check 

What could possibly go wrong with this selection then?

The link below references an article on people living in storage units. A quick search on the subject displays newspaper articles from across the United States with numerous examples. Not at all surprised am I. This form of living actually makes excellent sense if one is left with or can obtain, a very small monthly income. One could set up and operate a logical squatter system very well in such a place. Electric would be no problem. Evading the closed-circuit visual systems at these places might be difficult but then again this could be handled. If one had sufficient survival/camping equipment remaining in their possession after an eviction and layoff-- as well as,  chooses a facility with nearby public latrine capabilities, such as a 24 hr. fast food franchise...this is one of the best solutions when compared to street living. 

Staying completely below the radar of the employee's, coming and going only during "normal" hours...and one would be required to live inside totally stealth, as if one was a reconnaissance submariner on the ocean floor...

but all and all eminently doable. 

What stuns me is that in the 1992 Stephenson novel SNOW CRASH--the main character of this dystopian future lives in a storage unit in LA. Stephenson creates an entire cultural scenario from this circumstance in 1992 he was predicting our true future. There is not far remaining to fall, as a society, when life in a storage unit, is living large....

life in storage

I have been organizing, shelving, separating, cleaning, retrofitting, polishing, refuse-ing, establishing new notebooks, all over several days---to many this would be agony-- but to moi, it is a pleasure. I am rebuilding almost everything i deal with---attempting to attain a more perfect system of interacting with daily existence.. 

Viewed the latest--Sherlock Holmes and the game of shadows last night and it was excellent--good plot, great fights, very very steam punk, perfectly researched weapons from 1900--everything you could want in a film. 
It will take several viewings to catch everything presented---but we loved it. I recommend---especially since Holmes has taken to drinking embalming fluid, and is developing urban camouflage. Much Bartitsu as well..

A film I am awaiting on DVD release, with baited breath, is the new, 3rd Bourne film, THE BOURNE LEGACY...Jeremy Renner is the newest element in the series..There is an August 10th US Theater release date...hopefully it will not take forever to hit DVD?

I have a couple of years left working due to delayed retirement---because of this my thoughts again turn to purchasing a scooter....not one of the expensive Vespa's but one of the 49.5 cc, legally a moped, have it shipped to you via the Internet, scooter, as is the one displayed above.

There are multiple advantages and disadvantages to buying a scooter this way. Advantages include tremendously lower initial costs at approximately $700.00 which includes shipping to your house. Getting to know your scooter intimately by doing the out of the crate dealer prep yourself--the initial set up, tuning, changing fluids, etc. In New Mexico, Mopeds require no license, personal or vehicle...and the only restriction is you are held to roads with speed limits of 40mph or less. Since this would be only an around town vehicle for me there would be no problem there---plus these less than 50cc scooters get approximately 180 miles to the gallon....the disadvantages include everything mentioned above--zero dealer assistance with problems..getting the heavy crate from the curb to the area you are going to use to set it up. What if it won't start etc...I believe tho that if i were to fail in the set up I could have someone locally repair my damage...and the rest to me is the chance one takes with doing something---outside the norm.....and why not?

I am really going to look into this---an excellent project for my last few years of working although I am not going to wrap this in practicality since we already have bicycles for the coming breakdown...shall we just call it, a possible payoff for continued work eh? The Bakeesh? 

"Merciful Allah, I have squandered my days with plans of many things. This was not among them. But at this moment, I beg only to live the next few minutes well. For all we ought to have thought, and have not thought; all we ought to have said, and have not said; all we ought to have done, and have not done; I pray thee God for forgiveness."

Ahmed Ibn Fadhlan---The 13th Warrior

Sierpinski numbers

50.0 miles per gallon average in the Prius this week, even with Sirocco like winds and 111 degree temperatures. 


Environmentally here it was definitely Non-friendly, a tough working week.


The stock market tanks this week due to poor economic reports and higher joblessness. I don't think the truth should trouble this fixed casino? Cash and physically useful assets are the real future. 

Europe fumbles about constantly taking the economic world to the bring and then back again..till no one cares any longer. 

I heard about DryBath  nice to have you can bathe and disinfect yourself with almost zero water...I am going to have to look at a case for the Homestead to put back....

Working, reading, thinking this week as well as feeling a bit old. 

An excellent article by the Guardian Newspaper at the link on why we are becoming fatter and fatter. 

As in all things there are many reasons--but in reading the article I was overwhelmed by the evidence pointing to corporate food tampering with additives for both both profit and addiction--the evidence is startling just from the time lines...presented...worth a read.

corporate profit is making us fat

I enjoying getting older. Now at 60 I can wear what I want, practical hats, use a walking stick, and I am now considered funny by waitresses. In aging, many hand to hand techniques become, well impractical at best. No leaping, spinning, or super ninja strikes any longer, nor are my reflexes those of a leopard any longer, more like that of the sloth.
I have therefore begun to investigate Bartitsu. 

A British Victorian Martial Art system which included all forms of defense, Boxing, stick and cane fighting..and used by Doyle in the last Sherlock Holmes pieces. I have recently ordered and received the below book from England on the subject. Not only small and beautifully made but this book is a reprint of Bartitsu technique articles from 1900--Great chapter titles, as with this example, "How to remove an unruly gentleman from a room."

The best visual examples, of Bartitsu, to be had are displayed in the Robert Downey recent film versions of Sherlock Holmes. In fact I ordered and received a copy (used of course) of the 2009 movie. I understand the recently released 2nd Downey/Holmes movie is also excellent and displays even more Bartitsu techniques and I have also ordered that.

I have become fascinated with the concept of combining Victorian martial disciplines. I routinely carry old weapon systems--such as my pristine .38 S&W caliber, 4" Webley revolver. 

My Cold Steel sword cane....

Why not then utilize an old time gentlemanly, hand to hand, self defense system with the other tools? One's tools and techniques should match one's age I think--like one's hat, pistol and walking stick. 

yes it's real, go here for more information

Garden photo's...we are so pleased with the results of our Physical adaption to climate change in our garden rebuild done this fall-- utilizing shade cloth, and designed in drip irrigation. Below are previously promised photographs taken on 6-16.

The full yard length shade cloth bed--tomatoes, cukes and so forth here. Growth has been excellent and we are eating early small tomatoes and Japanese Cucumbers. 

Below lining the opposing side of the backyard the individual boxes each with their own PVC framing for shade cloth.

Our plum tree is now 3 years old and for the first time we obtained fruit.  This year's plums are displayed below. My JoJo will be making jam and we'll get a few jars when these are rendered but then again for personal use 5-8 jars per season will be plenty.

White and red Onions---these are just sample buckets, so far we have harvested two big wheel barrows of both varieties. Onions of course can make any meal and are excellent for trading if necessary...Onions are considered so valuable in India the pricing is set by the government. 

On 6/18 we picked our first CORN--Anasazi corn. The Anasazi were a high culture here in New Mexico around AD500. (see the link)..This particular variety of corn we planted again as a method of facing climate change with adaptation by planting what has worked in this climate...with the success of this corn variety, we are going to plant, Anasazi beans as well...we could never before get our corn to ear up and at the beginning of the season we have already picked the below size pile...just excellent. 

Ancient Pueblo Peoples

For any new readers, we are working on a 50x90' lot--in a house built in 1903- a 13 minute walking distance from our downtown. The intention is always to be as self-sufficient as possible, reduce our contribution to the 1%er's profit margin as far as possible, and to be able to survive the slide to third world status that is occurring. 

"So i was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since i started working, every single day of my life has been worse that the day before it.

So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the

worst day of my life."

Peter Gibbons-in the film OFFICE SPACE