September 2020

I made a stupid mistake yesterday and fell for a scam. I know better but it only shows me that I have reached a level of financial desperation that is starting to cloud my better judgment. I freely admit I have squandered life. I have wasted time that I could have used to create a better life for myself. I did not have the clarity of mind to realize it and now that time is gone. I never had the support and education that comes with having parents. Since I didn't have any, I was put into a situation where my main concerns on a daily basis was figuring out how to stay alive. You can not self actualize when you are stuck at stage one for a lifetime and that is where I have been.

I have a choice to make now. I can not change the choices I made or didn't make in the past. There is still time to put my mind at rest. I can survive the way things are today. I have to deal with this virus. We are all in that boat and the boat is sinking. I don't like it but I will not pretend otherwise. My greatest accomplishment will have to be leaving this world without hating myself and having regrets. My plate is full.

It will never be too late to write my stories. They won't be written to make money. If they do it is a bonus. I need to feel good about something. If I don't, I am going to die. The first step has been taken. I turned off the televison set. I pray I have enough time left to set things right.

The spam has hit the fan here in Dubuque. It looks like I have little choice but to head for the bunker and stay there till Spring. I was listening on CNN that the death toll nation wide hit 200,000 yesterday and that number could double in a matter of a few months. This Winter is going to turn the US into a slaughter house. Goodbye America. Goodbye American Dream. I will miss you.

I love this cartoon.

I have finally found documentation that actually teaches computer programming using what I call "first principals." The language is Ada. I am not kidding. It is not bright or shiny. The younger generation of computer geeks would laugh at anyone learning this programming language. They can laugh. In 200 years from now when the machines break down and the mouse doesn't work anymore, they won't be laughing. The only thing that will save mankind at this point is having Spock and Kirk beam down from the Enterprise (if they happen to be in the area), examine the situation, and have Scotty with his repair crew fix the hardware. At this point they should consider learning how to program a computer, but they probably won't. As long as the mouse is working ...

Where does abstraction end and ignorance begin?
This question should raise a few more, but it might not. It might not because the monkey sitting behind the keyboard thinks, "I am too smart to think." This is where 67 years of modern computer science has brought us.

Speaking of monkeys. I saw a tribe on television burning down an area of the city they were living in. When asked why they were doing this, one of the leaders of the troop replied, "we are exercising our Constitution Rights." I don't remember learning in school that people were granted by law the right to destroy personal and public property.
These people must have attended Pol Pot High.

*Note

I like to include information that backs up my ranting.
A Former Member of Trump's Coronavirus Task Force Says He Has 'a Flat-Out Disregard for Human Life'

As much as I dread the thought of a second Trump term in the White House, I will NOT support the Harris - Biden ticket.
These two people have no business running the country. I haven't heard squat from Biden on how he is going to tackle the national debt or stop the riots in our major cities. All I hear from him is dribble. Trump is a tyrant but I think he is the only one talking about stopping the senseless violence in our streets. It is a shame it has come to this but the use of force is all these punks can understand. When 17 year old self proclaimed "defenders of the Constituion" start shooting at anything that moves, the gloves come off. If Biden is elected President, China and Russia are going to shove a dildo up this country's ass.

Simeon Coxe, an inventor and electronic musician behind the experimental psychedelic rock group Silver Apples died on Tuesday, September 8, 2020. He was 82. In the late 1960s, Coxe was a member of the Overland Stage Electric Band when he decided to incorporate the sound of a vintage oscillator into the music.

The group's breakup was prompted by a lawsuit from Pan Am Airlines over their 1969 album Contact. The duo are seen in a Pan Am airplane cockpit on the front cover, and on the back cover, they’re photographed near a wrecked plane. The Pan Am lawsuit over the album resulted in the album getting pulled from stores, the label Kapp Records folding, and the breakup of Silver Apples.

Simeon Coxe was a man who saw the future. People don't want to know what the future holds because it forces them to examine the present. People don't want to do that. How people are reacting to the COVID-19 plague is proof of this. Listen to the words of the song, "You and I".

I do not like comedians generally speaking. Their schtick seems to center around vulgarity. The more vulgar they are, the funnier they are supposed to be. I think it started with Dice Clay. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a persona known as "The Diceman". I didn't think he was funny. I didn't like Eddie Murphy "Raw". I thought his whole act was stupid. I like Dave Chappelle. His comedy reminds me of Richard Prior. Prior made fun of white people. Chappelle makes fun of white people, but they don't know he is. I find that hilarious. Chappelle makes fun of black people too. This is the philosophy of Don Rickles, "we kid because we love." People are too busy hating each other. If we spent more time laughing at each other, the world would be a happier place.

Sarah Cooper is a genius. This is comedy.

I am sitting tight for the time being. I am not venturing too far outside my front door.
Iowa has been the Black Hole of Calcutta via infection spike rates of COVID-19 in the USA. That is nothing to be proud of. This is just another piece of data to toss on the "proof that the Mid-west is chock full of idiots" pile. People are not social distancing. They are not wearing masks. They are telling other people that this virus crap is just fake news. The spike here in Dubuque coincides with this biker rally last month in South Dakota. I believe there is a correlation.

I am using this time to hammer my data science project a.k.a. building a MLB Handicapping Machine.
I need to become familiar with Python ( web scapping, numpy, pandas) Statistics, Machine Learning, Data Munging and Regular Expressions. Add the UNIX toolbox to the fray and I have all my bases covered. If I am going to make this machine sing, I can not leave any stones unturned. I have till April 2021 to master these components. It is a big job. I am also looking at the programming language Julia. It has great potential in the number crunching aspect of data science and I think you will see it being used more by industry and individuals in the near future. I am making good on my promise to finally use my computer skills to build something. I have bitten off more than I can chew intellectually, but I can make this work.

*Note

This news broke late in the afternoon. Trump caught lying, again. This time it is on tape, his own words.

I believe this story is true.
Report: Trump Called U.S. WWI Veterans 'Suckers' and 'Losers'

I also believe that if Trump pushes his holier than thou, "I am above the law" nonsense too far, the military will do what they have taken an oath to do ... defend the United States Constitution. I pray it doesn't come to this, but the wind is blowing that way. I would like to see Trump and Barr walked out of the White House and tossed into a DC jail. They can be bunk mates. Trump has pissed on the men and women of the military forces and their commanders time and time again. It is a national disgrace.

ALGO is taking a fucking beating! There is no words to describe the horror but profanity and disgust. My nuts are on the chopping block. The only strategy is HODL. Things will get better. The circumstances are twisted. It isn't Algorand that is being devalued. It is all the snake oil and graft running amok at the moment. I've seen this before. ALGO is solid. It will weather this storm.

As the nation grapples with volatile protests, President Trump on Monday night claimed in a Fox News interview that "people that are in the dark shadows" are "controlling the streets" and manipulating his Democratic opponent Joe Biden to sow chaos.

When host Laura Ingraham suggested the claim "sounds like conspiracy theory," Trump doubled down, launching into a tale of a plane that allegedly flew from an unnamed city to Washington, D.C., this weekend. Trump said the plane was, "completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. Here were like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage."

Great lengths are being taken by CNN and MSBC to paint the President as a serial liar. The evidence is overwhelming that Trump is a liar, but after reading this latest yarn being spun by Donald Trump, there might be more to this. I am beginning to wonder if the President actually believes these stories he seems to be pulling out of thin air.

The only crazy thing the President has said lately that I agree with is that "Joe Biden doesn't even know he is alive." I hate to admit it, but Trump has gotten this one right. Biden's mind is slipping. I have talked about this before in earlier posts.

I blame the Democrats for letting the American people twist and dangle in the wind while Trump tramples the rule of law. The Democrats figure the worse things get in the streets, the better it is for them politically. If Americans suffer enough, they will vote Trump out and put Biden in, even if he is on the verge of becoming a mental vegetable.

So this is the situation. We have a President having delusions of ninjas attacking America. The man running against him in the November election has a radish for a brain. A deadly virus continues to spread like wild fire. 40 million people in this country are living in poverty, even when they were employed. Now they do not have jobs. Millions of families are in danger of becoming homeless. People are angry. They are burning cities to the ground. This is how people react to conditions they have no control over. They lash out. They become violent. The sad thing is, people realize elected officials don't give a damn about them, Democrat or Republican. They cling to hope. They settle for hope. Hope is all that is left of the American Dream. It is all about the dream, not the fulfillment.