Just sort of cute
An ad from Computers and Animation in 1965. Not relevant, just cute.



It nicely combines my latest two graphics projects, Brahe's star castle and IBM in 1957. Note also the animistic tendencies.

The story is clever in deadpan British style. Unfortunately the company didn't last.

The guy talking to the secretary seems to be holding a medieval clipboard. Did such a device exist? Writers and artists have always needed a way to write or draw while standing or traveling. It couldn't include an inkwell, but it could include a patch of dry ink. ... Oh. Now I see. Yes, it existed. It's called a palette.

Labels: coot-proofing, Entertainment, TMI

  ¶ 3:18 PM

  Random note on checking accounts
Several years ago I read that banks and businesses no longer pay attention to signatures or words on a check, just the amount. I wasn't convinced.

Last month I accidentally proved it. I paid two bills at the same time: "health" insurance and city utility bill. I was more stressed than usual that day because Demon Inslee had just reinstated full ballgag torture after the usual psychopathic "reprieve". I accidentally switched the two checks.

Yesterday the "health" insurer sent back a notice that they couldn't cash the check, and the photocopy showed that it was the city utility check. I looked at the bank account online, and it was clear that the city had mindlessly deposited the insurance check, and the bank had taken the deposit into the city's account without noticing the wrong addressee.

So we have a constant and a variable. Constant: The bank doesn't notice at all. Variable: SOME businesses notice and some don't.

Labels: Constants and Variables, coot-proofing

  ¶ 8:30 AM

  Wood works
In previous item I mentioned that the BLESSED return to benign weather after 8 months of wind and storms and heat has loosened up my mind to think about solutions to daily problems. Here's what I meant.

A few years ago I bought an old Tinkertoy set from Ebay, and used it first to build a record player.



Then last year I dug into the set again and built an acoustical test rig:



Wood is JUST RIGHT for some purposes. I was reminded of this in June when I bought and built this wooden astrolabe kit:



Now that I've got a brief creative interval again, another use of wood suggested itself. There are several cleaning tasks in the kitchen that simply can't be done by brushes or sponges or fingernails. I've tried repeatedly, and nothing works.

1. The slots in a coffeemaker basket.

2. The narrow 'well' in the dish drainer that holds silverware.

3. The inside of a thermos.

It occurred to me that splitting off one side of a long slotted Tinkertoy rod might fit in those spaces. I reached into the bag and found one long rod with a handle already stuck on it. I used pliers to split off one side, and sure enough it's JUST RIGHT for all three tight spots.



Wood is an ideal scrubber. It's hard enough to break through biofilms, but not hard enough to scratch metal or plastic surfaces.

= = = = =

Random wood-related sidenote, observed on this morning's walk. The creeping thyme that lives in the pavement cracks is also appreciating the return to benign weather and last week's rain. After staying underground for 8 months, barely surviving, it's creating wildly this week, overflowing and spreading across the pavement. I've never seen it growing so enthusiastically before.

Labels: coot-proofing, defensible thymes, defensible times, Entertainment

  ¶ 5:20 AM

  Gentlygoers vs ragers
Yesterday I went in for the annual required renewal of prescription on blood pressure pills. The clinic had delayed it for about six months while they were "all virtual", but now they're just ALL DYSTOPIAN.

I had been wondering how those statistics about "tests" were acquired. Earlier in the holocaust there were some drive-up "testing" events, but those didn't last. The nearly universal "testing" was continuing, but I didn't see it.

NOW I SEE.

The clinic is doing a thriving business in automated "tests" for "the virus", required by employers. Muzzled Virobots walk in, go to the computer screen, touch the screen for a ticket, get their "test", walk out with a Fauci Jugend armband.

Real customers are unwanted. I walked up to the checkin desk, presented my membership card as usual, and the Dalek behind the desk emitted the following screech:

SORRY WE DO NOT TOUCH CARDS

I then announced my number and name in properly robotic form, and waited for the "doctor" to call me.

When grimly anticipating this event, I had fantasized how I would by God show them and tell them the truth, knowing full fucking well that I wouldn't really do it, and knowing that it would be wildly counterproductive.

Fortunately I restrained myself to my standard tacit grump attitude. "Just write the prescription and let me out of here!"

This attitude isn't new, and didn't start with the holocaust. It started a few years ago when the clinic was simply incompetent, losing records and forcing me to come in three times for one appointment.

= = = = =

Grandma was right. She HATED doctors and hospitals, and refused to use them unless CRITICALLY necessary. I've picked up her attitude, maybe by genes and maybe by imitation.

Grandma didn't go gently into the bad night of Public Health. She raged in her quiet cold stubborn way against forced "wellness". She trusted her body and trusted her connection with Nature.

These willing Virobots are going gently and cheerfully, helping the monsters gather up their fake "testing" stats to maintain the holocaust forever.

= = = = =

Calibrating: I will admit that occasional UNFORCED checkups are a good idea for codgers and biddies. As the body loses resilience, events can leave an unbounced imprint. January's windstorm and power outage started with serious danger and ended with a day of hypothermia. Since then I've been slower and more easily tired. Yesterday's pressure check and blood test showed that nothing has really changed, which makes me feel better. Just getting old.

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, coot-proofing, endless hell, NOW I SEE

  ¶ 1:37 AM

  Random thought about feedback loops
As I get older I can tell that my negative feedback systems are getting weaker. More sensitivity to temperature, more difficulty with balance, less regular sleep, etc. All of these functions were automatically held constant when I was young. Now I have to apply more conscious thought and caution.

Parallel: The same thing happens to countries and empires as they age. Before 1946 we had a somewhat functional feedback system. Bad decisions led to economic consequences that forced governments to revise the bad decisions. Error signals were carried by taxation.

Starting in '46 and accelerating after 1970, the economic loops were weakened and deleted. Now the feds don't need taxes at all. They function solely on counterfeit numbers. Without the dependence on tax, the feds don't need industry or production or work or people. They've already killed most of the industry. Since 2008 they've been openly killing the people.

Negative feedback is life. No feedback is tyranny. Positive feedback is instant death.

= = = = =

Later: The parallel fails because nobody is applying conscious thought and caution. Instead, the elderly country is chained and muzzled in the attic while competing fake "heirs" gamble and drink up the remnants of the estate and sue each other over the provisions of the will. Our politicians are Anna Nicole Smith vs Erin Fleming.

Labels: coot-proofing, Natural law = Soviet law, the broken circle

  ¶ 9:54 AM

  Trade-grade
Speaking of long-term skill memory, here's an item that popped out this morning after sitting dormant and unremembered for 60 years.

In elementary school the teachers saved their own labor and helped the students gain more skills by trading and grading. After a quantifiable quiz in spelling or arithmetic, we traded papers and checked answers while the teacher read them off. The trading method wasn't constant, presumably to avoid partner collusion. Sometimes each column was a recirculating shift register, sometimes each row recirculated, sometimes the columns moved boustrophedon-style, with the NE student carrying his paper over to the SW corner.

This was good empathy exercise, letting us see how other people got answers wrong or right, and giving us practice in clerical work.

Why didn't I use this trick when I was teaching in the '80s? Did I actively decide against it, or simply didn't think of it? I don't remember the reason for that decision.

Labels: coot-proofing, skill-estate, TMI

  ¶ 12:44 PM

  Unfashionable regrets
It's fashionable to say "I regret the things I didn't do, not the things I did."

I'm unfashionable. I mainly (but not entirely) regret stupid things I did. The potentially smart things I failed to do mostly turned out to be stupid in hindsight, or even in direct sight**.

Here's a nice pair of regretting action vs regretting inaction. The pairing is congruent in time and space, involving two 10th grade teachers whose rooms were adjacent.

= = = = =

Mr Dickerson taught history. He was a highly competent teacher. He wanted us to discuss rationally, and he actively and consistently encouraged discussion.

Since 1975, all requests for "discussion" mean I GIVE THE COMMANDS. YOU BEND OVER AND OPEN YOUR ASSHOLE AND TAKE MY COMMANDS.

Not Mr Dickerson. He meant it. So I took him up on it, idiotically correcting his pronunciation of Nazi as Naxi. He took the criticism rationally, without flaring up. But I wasn't really arguing, and I didn't have anything MEANINGFUL to say at that point. I was just being an adolescent dickhead. Like most older men in 1965, Mr Dickerson had actually fought the Naxis, so he was entitled to call them whatever he wanted.

= = = = =

In the next room, Miss Marley "taught" "English". She ruthlessly and rigorously enforced all the false and malicious grammarhoid "rules". And not just in class. When she heard us using "bad grammar" in casual discussions before class, she stormed over and "corrected" us.

These "corrections" always ended with YOU MUST SPEAK EK RIT LY. She carefully enunciated the three distinct syllables of EKRITLY, providing an example of EKRIT SPEECH to enlighten the unwashed masses.

I regret that I didn't stand up to Miss Marley. At that time I knew FAR MORE about real grammar than she did. I had been reading serious linguistics books for many years, and I knew the real grammar of English. I could have assembled a rigorous response to each of the grammarrhoid "rules", using real authorities.

= = = = =

In the first instance I was imitating Miss Marley, "correcting" Mr Dickerson's insignificant pronunciation "error". I should have been resisting Miss Marley, not imitating her.

= = = = =

** Footnote: There isn't a proper word for this. We need a midpoint word between hindsight and foresight, meaning clearly true by the facts available at the time when the judgment was made. Maybe nowsight would do the job?

Labels: coot-proofing, TMI

  ¶ 11:11 PM

  Terribly unhealthy?
Vintage.es has a feature on smoking in movies, mainly among female stars in the '20s and '30s. Silents and flappers.

The text says:

While smoking is a terribly unhealthy habit, there’s something about it that automatically makes a person feel cool. Especially when a character is supposed to be rebellious, famous, or just super cool.

I'm old enough now that I can focus on text and numbers when something more interesting is present. This wasn't possible just a few years ago.

Looking at the numbers, it struck me that the lifespans weren't especially short. So I downloaded the page as html, sorted out the dates, and calculated.

The mean lifespan of these 28 "terribly unhealthy" beauties is 76. Median is 80. Their mean birth year was 1911, median 1913.

The official life expectancy for females born in 1911 was 54. As always, this mean was pulled WAY down by child deaths, but even so, 76 was not a "terribly unhealthy" lifespan for people born in those years.

Labels: coot-proofing, NOT blinded by stats

  ¶ 1:57 AM

  More rambling on GenRad
Since I'm on a GenRad kick today, I'm still puzzled by pricing for calibration equipment. There's a whole lot of GenRad on Ebay right now, and it divides sharply between regular 'vintage electronics' pricing and 'luxury goods' pricing. The 'vintage' pricing makes sense for hobbyists and collectors who prefer old equipment.

I noticed the difference several years ago when I bought my 1565B sound level meter from Ebay. The 1565B is the successor to the 1565A shown in previous item, and seems to have started around 1973. It's still being produced and sold now. Same functions in a smoother package, like the change from Ford Fairmont to Taurus. I bought mine for $50, and the new ones from IET are $3500. It was an excellent deal at $50. Still functions perfectly, still usable for real science.

The difference makes sense when you're buying from IET, which continues the GenRad services. You're basically paying a retainer for legal services to a company that will back up your claims of accuracy in a regulatory or legal conflict.

The difference doesn't make sense for the Ebay items seen now.

Example: Standard inductors, all fairly old-looking and all simple devices, range from $1000 down to $200. Both are supposedly tested. Some listed as 'parts only' are also around $200. None of them are from an official calibrating service like IET, so they don't include a 'lawyer retainer'. For comparison, plain non-standardized inductors from Jameco range from 50 cents up to $2.50 for a fancy one. Unlike sound level meters, there isn't any practical use for standardized inductors. You can't possibly use them in a real circuit. Even in the '30s when everything was bigger, these giant boxes couldn't have lived inside a radio. You'd only need them for QC testing if you were manufacturing fancy coils, and in that case you wouldn't be buying through Ebay.

= = = = =

After detailing the meter face in my model to match the original more closely, I wondered why the meter says "DECIBELS. SOUND LEVEL METER." Seems like unnecessary clutter in a small space. When you're using the SLM, you know it's an SLM and you know you're measuring dB. The lawyer aspect illuminates the reason. Before computers and web-connected equipment, you'd create an evidentiary chain by photographing the meter along with the factory or highway you were measuring. The photograph is better evidence if the name of the tool and the meaning of the measurement are intrinsic. The upper dials are also designed for photographic clarity, so you can include the weighting and band setting in the closeup. (As shown nicely by the picture on the front of the GenRad booklet below.)

COBOL was designed with the same purpose in mind. "Overly verbose" code is self-documenting, making it easy for auditors to check what the program is trying to do.

Was this internal metadata technique widespread in instrumentation? I don't think so.

It's certainly common in other legalistic uses of photography. Mugshots always include a title card with the name and other data, often held in the suspect's hands for 'intrinsicness'. Cities used to document real estate for tax valuation with photos. Each house had an easel in front carrying the relevant info.

Skimming through GenRad catalogs, I don't see any other uses of the technique. The later 1565B, the 'Taurus', no longer has the label, and the weighting is done by pushbuttons that woudn't be easily visible in a photo. The classic Bruel & Kjaer 2203, from the same era, comes close to the same labeling and grouping for photo clarity:



Considering the added value of this design in the intended legalistic use of instruments, it's surprisingly rare.

= = = = =

Separate random note: The manuals for all of these old instruments are easily available online in PDF form. I can get all the info and pix I need to "build" the models, including details of meter faces. When I was working in academic labs, whether acoustics or speech and hearing, we RARELY had manuals for old equipment. Sometimes I was able to write to the manufacturer for schematics, sometimes not. Mostly I had to figure stuff out on my own. I don't know where the manuals went; maybe grad students took them, maybe profs kept them in their offices. In either case the manuals weren't kept with the equipment.

Later and even more rambly: The 1565A struck me as unusual because the meter face is white on black. Most meter faces are black on white. The other applications of intrinsic metadata are also white on black. Mugshots and property tax photos formerly used blackboards, white chalk on black slate. More recent mugshots use 'marquees' with magnetic letters, also typically white on black. Is there a photographic reason for this? Can't find it online. Discussions of UX seem to think that white on black is more readable to the eyes, but I can't find any comments related to film photography in old periodicals. White on black is NOT more readable to my eyes.

Labels: Bemusement, coot-proofing, Metrology

  ¶ 2:48 PM

  The value of keeping a daily worklog
I always keep a detailed worklog of real courseware projects and fun graphics projects. Good programming habit. A few years ago I started keeping a worklog for life in general, tracking sleep, dumps, moods, health stuff.

This morning I noticed a blister on the right heel that was starting to bleed. Seemed familiar, so I checked last year's life worklog. Yup, the same blister happened ON THE SAME DAY last year.

Last year I had been walking extra, avoiding one bus trip because I was having vestibular trouble that was sometimes tricky on buses.

This year I've been walking extra, avoiding one bus trip to minimize time under murder mask. I've also been adding a separate 2nd walk every day to burn off the annoyance, which I didn't do last year.

Patterns repeat, and there's a "reason" for the pattern each time. In reality the pattern matters more than the "reason".

Last year I reluctantly stopped the extra walking, took the bus both ways, and the blister healed in a few days.

Cold weather is also a factor in the exact date. Skin gets dry and stiff in cold, and shoes shrink a bit.

EXPERIENCE SURVIVES.... but only if you're able to learn from the experience. A worklog helps the learning.

Labels: constants and constants, coot-proofing, TMI

  ¶ 10:36 PM

  Raking record
Just for my own purposes, since I've been keeping the record here for many years.

10/24/2020 first roof raking of the winter. Unusual Oct storm, about 7 inches wet and HEAVY.

Last winter was easy, with only two rakings needed, both in January. Total snow for year was average, but it was distributed in smaller storms with space between, so didn't accumulate much and didn't need much raking.

12/26/2020 after a long and welcome gap, 2nd raking. 4" powdery.

12/31/2020 3rd raking, 6" powdery.

2/16/2021 4th raking, 5" powdery.

3/12/2021: Weather Bureau is pretty sure the snow is done, so we'll close out this year's record at 4 rakes. The winter was a full LaNina in terms of precip, but a lot of the precip happened when the temp was warm enough for rain. If the temp had been cold in Dec, this would have been a giant like 2008, in the 90 inch range. Instead it was about average. I'M NOT COMPLAINING.

Thanks, weather gods! You're the only merciful and sane rulers in this horrible year. Some of the mercy was highly specific, and we thank you specifically.

Labels: coot-proofing, TMI

  ¶ 12:01 AM

  Speaking of atrophy....
Mentioned atrophied senses at the end of previous item.

I've always understood the use it or lose it principle in an intellectual way. I didn't understand it in a direct experimental way until two years ago.

I was having lots of trouble with vestibular crap. Frequent dizzy spells, occasional spins. Being naturally anxious and hypochondriacal, I sought advice and solace in a Facebook group. After a while I realized that these people were medicalized. They were spending their entire life in various clinics and therapy offices, constantly getting "treatments" that never really helped. I didn't want to end up that way.

I decided to try an experiment. Waiting for the bus was an especially difficult time. Walking was easy, but standing in one place without support wasn't easy on the bad days. I had been standing next to the bus bench and holding on tight.

I tried NOT holding. Every time the impulse to put out a hand occurred, I resisted. Quickly the unsteadiness receded. The internal senses, which had been conditioned to laze around, started working again, and they worked properly.

Use it or lose it. Don't let the senses and muscles get lazy, even if lazy seems better. It's not better.

Labels: coot-proofing, Experiential education, TMI

  ¶ 6:39 AM

  What's the diff?
After Mad Bomber Inslee, actively assisted by Demented Dominatrix Woodward, required murder masks in stores and buses on July 1, I've been doubling up my walking. Changed the grocery trip from three a week to two a week and changed the bus route. Reduced Time In Murder Mask from 90 min/wk to 24 min/wk. Also doubled up on regular neighborhood walks, adding a noon walk to the existing daily morning walk. Total is around 12 miles/wk now, up from previous 6.

More walking is the best way to build up the MENTAL immune system against monstrous demonic evil. It also improves general physical condition. I've had less trouble with vestibular crap since doubling the walks. (Sidenote: Maybe the 10,000 Step stuff, which translates to 10 miles per week, is a meaningful threshold, not just a meme.)

After adding the noon walk I started to notice a difference in the population. The other morning walkers have remained resolutely human, with absolutely zero Alien Mascoids. Many of the noon walkers are Alien Mascoids, walking out in the open fully bound and gagged.

What's the diff? I figured it out today.

Age.

Early morning walkers are old. Noon walkers are young.

Old coots and biddies lived through REAL EPIDEMICS in the '50s. We got ACTUALLY SICK, and received smallpox inoculations and the brand-new polio shots. Immunity was in the news and in the classroom, literally punctuated by the smallpox vax.

We know how viruses work and we know how immunity works, because we LEARNED BY DIRECT SENSORY EXPERIENCE. We trust our bodies to handle viruses.

Folks under 40 haven't been through a real epidemic, and haven't learned by experience how the body works. They obviously haven't learned anything in school either, but that's not the real variable. Nobody learns much from reading books.

Allegedly the old are more allegedly "vulnerable" to the alleged "virus" than the young. Everyone says we should be doing more to "protect" the elders from the alleged "virus". In fucking fact the oldsters are LESS vulnerable to all REAL viruses, and LESS vulnerable to the MENTAL virus spread by psychopaths, which is the only REAL epidemic.

Labels: coot-proofing, Experiential education, NOW I SEE

  ¶ 1:11 PM

  Probably true but wrong reason
A study in "social" "science" agrees with observed reality, which is highly unusual. But the authors don't understand WHY it happens.

Agrees with reality:

The UArizona researchers wanted to know how often older adults spontaneously bring up memories in the course of their daily conversations - outside of a controlled laboratory setting. Over the course of four days, the daily conversations of 102 cognitively healthy older adults, ages 65 to 90, were monitored with the EAR, or electronically activated recorder - a smartphone app that lets researchers record random samples of study participants' conversations. "We found that the older individuals in our study shared fewer memories. Additionally, we found that the level of detail also decreased with older age as people were describing these memories."

Yup. Most oldsters don't waste time telling about the old days. Supposed reason:

The reason memory sharing declines with age is not entirely clear, but it may be linked to age-related changes in the brain,

Nope.

Reversed motivation:

It's important for people to recall and share memories, Grilli said. Doing so can help them connect with others. It can also guide planning and decision-making and help people find meaning in other life events and circumstances.

The researchers think it's important. In a sane society it might be. In modern US society it's futile. Nobody learns from their OWN fucking experiences, let alone from stories by grandparents.

Old folks realize this, and that's why they don't bother.

Labels: coot-proofing

  ¶ 2:24 PM

  Third Shift Workers Day
The Weather Bureau salutes Third Shift Workers Day, for the folks who work graveyard shift. Hadn't heard of this Day before.

From the linked items I couldn't tell for sure which day is the Official Day. They range from May 7 to May 13. This is fitting, since graveyard shift blurs the boundaries of dates.

I've always been happiest and steadiest on graveyard shift. I worked graveyard at motels in the '70s, then made my own graveyard shift at KU in the '80s, and again when working from home in the last 20 years. On graveyard I'm a willing worker, ready to do what's needed and more. On 8-5 I'm reluctant and unreliable, to put it mildly. Useless and absent to put it precisely.

= = = = =

Speaking of the Weather Bureau, here's a fine piece of prose in today's Forecast Discussion.

The death throes of this formerly stately and persistent upper low...by now smack dab over the forecast area for Thursday night and through Friday...will probably promote an extended period of gradually decreasing showers.

This is art. To an unfocused observer, the persistent showery pattern is just annoying. I would never have called it stately. The word gives me a new perspective on the radar picture.

= = = = =

Here's my belated graphic salute to the graveyard shift.

Labels: coot-proofing, TMI

  ¶ 11:47 PM

  Speaking of MAKEFORCE....
Via Eurekalert, a sharp observation about otters. The proposed theory is probably wrong, like all theories, but the correlation speaks for itself.

Zoo visitors are often enthralled by the otters' playfulness. Surprisingly, very few studies have investigated why otters are so keen to juggle stones. Our study provides a glimpse into this fascinating behaviour. While hunger is likely to drive rock juggling in the moment, the ultimate function of the behaviour is still a mystery."

The team found that both juvenile and senior otters juggled more than adults. The authors suggested that the function of the behaviour may change over an otter's lifetime - aiding development in juveniles while potentially keeping the brain active in seniors. Otter parents may have been juggling less as they did not have the time while looking after their pups. However, rock-juggling frequency did not differ between species or sexes.

Crucially, otters juggled more when hungry, indicating that juggling may be a misdirected behaviour in anticipation of feeding time.

Every intelligent creature finds ways to exercise its mind. Youngsters do it for development, oldsters do it for survival. In the middle, there's no need to spawn new neurons. Foraging and reproducing and caring for kids are all the exercise you need.

In the zoo situation, hunger is the only source of anxiety. The play serves to use up anxiety so it won't consume you. It's not about hunger, it's about anxiety.

= = = = =

Incidentally, here's a new and excellent article on the whole subject of brain plasticity and fresh neurons.

Labels: coot-proofing, Make or break

  ¶ 1:14 PM

  Corollaries of simplicity
I wanted to leave previous item SIMPLE and harsh.

Here are a couple of corollaries.

1. The simple choice isn't even an XOR, an exclusive either-or. It's not a choice between saving the expected-to-die crowd VERSUS saving everyone else. The lockdowns have eliminated normal medical care, so many of the expected-to-die crowd will die of their existing problems whether they get the Branded Flu or not. Some hospitals and medical practices are closing permanently, so the expecteds are going to die faster from now on.

2. And it's not just the closed hospitals. The stress and uncertainty are also killing more of the expecteds, along with everyone else. Confidence and normalcy and sleep and good diet are crucial for survival, especially for oldies. I'm 70 and mentally strong, with solid knowledge of REAL immunity and REAL public health, but avoiding the panic is GODDAMNED HARD WORK.

3. This ties into a broad question I've been asking ever since the 2008 TARP coup. What happened to insurers? Insurance companies are big and rich, with lots of lobbyists and influence in state and federal government. In previous decades insurers used their bully power to improve real public health and real safety, especially with consumer products and automobiles.

They should have lobbied hard against ZIRP in 2008, because it would clearly and obviously ruin them. (Along with a lot of oldies.) But they didn't.

Now the actuaries should have been lobbying hard against the lockdowns, because actuaries understand EXPECTED TO DIE better than anyone else. They also understand the perfectly predictable consequences of shutting down the whole fucking economy. But they didn't.

Labels: coot-proofing, Jackboot stomping forever

  ¶ 6:56 AM

  IRS getting sloppier
I normally enjoy paying income tax. Non-NYC humans prefer to pay for services, and the government does still provide a few services along with screeching chaos and massive genocide. Social Security and the Post Office are consistent and competent services. Medicare works better than private "insurance".

Filling out tax forms was always fun for an old bookkeeper. For many years the forms were well-organized and rational. Last year the setup departed from rationality, adding an unnecessary Schedule 1 that carried a couple of redundant numbers with no purpose. This year the C-EZ form was eliminated, which resulted in MORE complexity on both ends.

For an author-type independent contractor, C-EZ was just enough info. I don't have regular hours or regular expenses. Some years I work more than full-time, and some years I don't need to work at all. I could try to write down expenses for necessary software or new computers, but those expenses wouldn't decrease the tax enough to compensate for the risk of audits.

The full Form C has a mysterious question about 'participation':

Did you “materially participate” in the operation of this business during 2019?

The accompanying instructions give a long list of criteria but don't explain the PURPOSE of the question. Online info doesn't help either. I'm guessing it's meant to distinguish silent partners? Checking the box doesn't change anything, doesn't increase or decrease tax. It's just a box.

An author 'materially participates', but the royalties come in when the product is sold, not when I work. In the last three years I've been working more than full time with very little income; in some previous years I worked very little and got good money. It depends on the publisher's selling ability. The rules about 'participation' don't leave room for this style of work.

Cutting out C-EZ made the task harder and more mysterious for me, and didn't eliminate any effort on the other end. They have one less form to set up for OCR, but they have a lot more blanks to read and evaluate.

Labels: coot-proofing

  ¶ 11:34 PM

  Too soon old, too late smart
I've been shaving with Norelco from the start. Only three shavers... first one given by parents on 16th birthday, second inherited from Grandpa in 1974, third bought in 1992. Replaced the blades a few times along the way. Very little use of materials and electricity.

After 54 years of useless experience with one type of machine, I just now figured out the right way to do it. DON'T PUSH. A light touch works. The harder you push the less you shave.

Pushing seems logical, but in this case it's wrong.

Labels: coot-proofing, NOT skill-estate, TMI

  ¶ 6:03 AM

  Mobius day!
Like other out-of-shape codgers, I have trouble keeping pants up. On this morning's store trip the pants seemed unusually steady, staying in place without any adjustment at all.

As I waited for the return bus, I realized the accidental solution: The belt is mobiused. Somehow the clasp side got twisted 180 degrees, and the twist was nicely clamping inward just above the iliac crest, maintaining just enough pressure to halt the usual slide.

A moment later, a Tesla drove by! First Tesla 3 I've ever seen. Immediate stroboscopic impression: it looks old. The paint is chipped in a way that I normally see on 1970s cars.

Appropriate sighting for Mobius Day.

Labels: $TSLAQ, Alternate esrevinu, coot-proofing

  ¶ 8:31 AM