Cardano's Ars Magna

Still on leave, and actually accomplishing a great deal, especially on the small jobs that you always have good intentions on getting to----but never do. I refuse to speak of politics, a kingdom for dunces now in the United States. I plan on writing in Vermin Supreme for President...the only statement I can make that displays my true beliefs....the garden is in excellent condition and we are eating complete meals supplied by the garden. I am absorbing books at a high rate...and napping with the dogs...life is good on leave.

Today's endeavor is shelling pecans a full day's job while on vacation...I have a 3'x3' box full of pecans to shell, by hand. It is slow, but good work, and one gets to sit in the cool and think freely while harvesting an excellent food source that has many uses. These are still last years pecans...our tree is apparently taking one of it's rests this year. No problem since I have enough pecans stored from last year to keep me shelling for a long, long time. 

It is hot here--Summer has arrived with authority. Although parts of the United States are suffering under intense, abnormal heat waves we, in New Mexico, are at normal at 107 degrees...under a powerful Sun. We have begun to plot our activities around the rise of the temperatures...getting up earlier, resting during the middle of the day, to come out again when the Sun starts to go down. I feel for those in the eastern cities. Here there is only 2.4 people per square mile and most of those are in the northern part of the state...In the East, 300-400 people per square mile or more, over crowding self creates heat, tension and activates multiple human dysfunctions. 

With the collapse of the Autonomous Sentry Gun program for the Homestead..video surveillance has become a priority for me. I returned recently, once again, to attempt to cajole my Rovio, mobile video and audio surveillance unit, to work. This time matching it to my UM810 UMPC, running VISTA, that I carry with me daily in my EDC bag. It appears as if the Rovio has gone the way of many robotic products--availability just suddenly disappears.. but--software is available for free downloading and there is a chat board online for the remaining users. A combination of luck, free software, and the rare,rare,rare, treasure of having time available by being on leave to endlessly play around with it...My Rovio mobile surveillance platform is up and WORKING....The Homestead now has camera's covering the front and rear entrance areas, and we have the ability to not only send audio/video surveillance into any room but I can perform this function from any location where there is wireless access and I have my UM810 available.

This is the first opportunity I have had to actually experiment with this little rascal and it is very mobile. Our house is all one level with hardwood floors so the three large rubber wheels of the Rovio provide excellent traction for it. I have set up it's charging station (photo below) in a corner and by merely activating it's home button on the operation screen the Rovio knows where it's home is and heads off there from any location, backing into the station to recharge itself. One can also set up pre-programmed travel routes so that when away from home you merely activate patrol and the Rovio tours the residence allowing you to see and hear the status of the entire interior of the homestead. Of course one may manually override the patrol at any point....I have not set this up yet but i am, for sure, planning on it. 

This project has been a true case of:

 if at first you don't succeed---fucking keep at it!  

I have been involved for two years at this...having to replace parts which were at failure point when shipped, and having to work my way through software and router difficulties but now it works and I am tremendously happy with it's performance. Speak to my combat robot for real.....

this is how I roll

Still researching the Chinese Manufactured, Internet available, 50cc motor scooters. The research process is very Ying-Yang, as I suppose, one could foretell with this type of product...The available reviews remind me of the Japanese transistor radio's first appearance in the US....there seems to be only two opinions...the first opinion is that they are total junk...and the other is that they are an excellent buy for the money--no shades of grey, nothing between the poles of extremes.

Seemingly the roulette wheel spins and either an excellent or a shit scooter turns up in your driveway, with greetings from your friends in China. The You Tube videos on scooter set up display nothing exceptional required in the way of mechanics...to get your scooter from the crate to the road. I continue to examine and continue to remain fascinated.

Managed to do a bit of doodling while on leave---nothing great but decided to display it none the less. 

I evaluate my every day carry, survival equipment. I discuss how I am constantly reworking my personal equipment, attempting to find the perfect, balanced system to take with me everyday. The link below displays just a small reminder of the why behind this process--one must be able to provide for oneself when caught away from homestead protection for at least 48hours....In the case below the trapped passengers have had access to food and water, but that is an exception, not the rule. Be prepared to take care of yourself under any and all conditions and be able to go, Book of Eli, on demand. 

stuck on a train for 48hrs infrastructure failure

A difficult time for me lately with all forms of electronic media......There simply seems to be nothing of interest to me. I am considering Internet Radio as a standalone in the nerd cave. I have been listening to the BBC via my laptop for quite some time...but...well something was lacking-----late to the party as usual I discovered the Mutant, portable, wireless internet radio below on Amazon. No costs other than the purchase of the unit...which for me prevents having to deal with multiple options running on the laptop. Excellent reviews...you just turn on--set to your wireless network and suddenly I can receive the daily Hot Lava surfing reports from Japan. There are apparently, at the last reference i could find, 13000 Internet radio stations....There has to be intelligent life out there somewhere, something to provide viable input? I am going to investigate this concept further....

The latest to be read is THE ZONA by Nathan L. Yocum. Post-collapse novel involving Religious fanaticism in the South Western United States---too close to the truth to be comfortable reading...the novel centers on two "priests" enforcers actually, who stop being what they are...and are chased by what their church calls the "conquistadors", the avenging angels, across the environmentally destroyed landscape---they flee across the southwest seeking sanctuary..This story may upset Christians based upon the descriptions of these, varying, after the fall, religions and their brutality. Mr. Yocum creates societies and details perfectly. I liked it, but if your religion locks up your brain, you will not. 

Bankrupt Ex-Wall Street trader kills himself in court upon his conviction of arson to his Arizona mansion---I would really like to say things like "how terrible, he must have been at wits end, we are all human, how sad"--- Then I think of the elderly eating cat food because of robbed retirement funds--kid's forced to live in cheap motels after their parents lost their house and their job--all the people forced to keep working at 70--all done, accomplished by greedy assholes exactly, exactly like this one-----then all i can think to say is:

NEXT PLEASE!

can't say I am sorry

"We're not gonna get rid of anybody. We're gonna stick together,

just like it used to be. When you side with a man, you stay with him.

And if you can't do that, you're like some animal-you're finished!"

Pike Bishop from the movie The Wild Bunch