Month: June 2020

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Sometimes the simplest things… You know what’s next.

The other half has an old Mac. The poor thing has been a trooper considering it’s age.

Looking at the newer machines, making a big purchase right now is out of the question.

So I started looking at upgrade options. Surprisingly I found that the hard disk could be replaced with an SSD and that the memory in the machine could be doubled for a couple hundred dollars. Between the drive and the memory, we should be able to get another few years out of this old workhorse.

With that in mind I placed the order and 2 days later the parts showed up.

This morning I pulled the old machine apart and had no trouble installing the new memory and new hard drive. As I was buttoning things up I thought, “That was easy!”

Uh huh, Jinxed myself!

After buttoning everything up I tried to access the nifty Mac network utility to reload the OS. I was able to get to the utility. After answering a couple of questions, the utility started, then told me that the OS wasn’t available. Gee THANKS APPLE!

Now I’ve got a computer that should be fast as hell and no OS. I booted the machine from a bootable memory stick that had the appropriate operating system on it. (Yeah, I tend to have some redundancy.) The system booted, I clicked on the installer, and it started just fine. Again I answered the questions and directed the installer to install the OS on the brand new 1TB internal hard disk.

The system takes off, executes a format of the internal HD then reboots as expected. Things went south from there. The reboot damaged the OS on the memory stick and in the process told me that the OS image (Downloaded from Apple about 2 years ago, and used several times to install the OS,) was invalid or possibly corrupt.

Great! I can’t even install from my rainy day backup.

Now what?

Uh, maybe I’ll just use the TimeCapsule backup.

Nope, Backups 1 – 5 are corrupt.

I do still have the original bootable disk in an external enclosure. The computer is still workable booting from that external disk. But a 1TB internal SSD isn’t being used.

I try booting to the recovery partition. It works, but I still can’t install the OS from Apple.

This leaves me two choices. Do a complete backup from the original disk to another USB disk, then restore from that backup. Or I can try to sequence through the other backups on the Timecapsule hoping to find one that works.

I choose the latter, and remarkably seem to have found a backup that is intact. So I start the restore process.

Currently the restore is reporting 32 hours remaining. Let’s hope it works Otherwise I’m down to only one option which will probably take just as much time. USB 2 is painfully slow, although even with the 1GB speeds of my internal network, apparently network restore is also painfully slow.

Sometimes, the most straightforward things with computers turn into the most complicated.

In this case I’d tell Apple that if you’re going to say in a dialog box that the computer will either install its original OS or the most current version of the OS that is available…

DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU’RE GOING TO DO!

Giving someone the illusion that you’re going to support a system, is worse than saying that you’re not going to support that system. In the first situation your user figures, “No Problem” in the other case the user can make alternate arrangements as long as you don’t as part of some bullshit “verification” process destroy the alternative.

I’m not amused that I’ve lost a whole day to a simple 15 minute job.

1 AM update. The restore from the Time Capsule backup failed about 8PM. Digging around on the internet gave me an interesting option. It seemed I could use Apple’s Disk Utility to clone the existing drive to the 1TB SSD.

Well, what the heck did I have to lose at this point?

Boot from the recovery partition on the 1 TB SSD. (Yeah, that got installed properly thank goodness) Pull up Disk Utility from the recovery partition. select the destination drive. Select “recover” from the edit menu, select the source and hit enter.

A few hours later… I’m awakened by a familiar ding. Click the “Done’ button, select the start disk and Eureka! There is now a bootable usable operating system on the new drive.

I’m going back to bed… this has been a royal pain in the ass. Next up, deleting the corrupted backup from the Time Capsule and replacing it with something usable.

But I’ll do that tomorrow, my brain won’t even allow more than the contemplation of such an exercise tonight.

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10 or 11 days and nothing much new in the world

Ugh! The country has lost it’s mind.

I have finally gotten my dirt. I humped 19 bags of it from the front of the house to the back. Then cut the bags of dirt open to create a “Redneck” liner for the raised gardening boxes. I wasn’t going to pay for some liner thing, all I need a liner to do is mostly contain the dirt and not let too much moisture seep into the ground.

So, I got creative and used the empty dirt bags to form a liner. I’m pleased with the outcome, call it on site recycling. The plastic of the bags is perforated so I don’t have to worry too much about pooling. I wanted drainage, but didn’t want it to be instant.

One box full. Got to use my nifty little shovel too.

The drip watering system is in place. I’m waiting for some valves and miscellaneous parts to complete that part of the project. Hopefully those will be showing up later today.

I purchased some bib lettuce and squash plants They’re already sprouted so later today when it cools off outside I’m going to be planting those. Next up will be some carrots and maybe tomatoes. I’m thinking some zucchini and perhaps some other veggies that I like to have fresh.

Empty, Slightly offset so I can work on
the Drip.

Now the problem will be to keep the critters out of my garden. I’d put a picture of Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits but I’m sure that I’d offend someone with that.

I’ve take some pictures and will be taking more as the garden progresses. These boxes aren’t going to generate a lot of food but they’re keeping me grounded and will spice up the regular meals.

Who knows? I might have to get more boxes and put them all over the yard if the unrest continues. I think that if I had the entire backyard full, I might even be able to grow enough to barely feed myself.

That’s not a theory I’d like to have to prove.

Boxes filled. Drip soaker lines ready to go

This is more of something to pass the time and keep me from losing my mind entirely. I like growing things and somehow, food I’ve grown tastes better. I suppose it’s a matter of literal fruits of my labor. This way I cut out the middleman.

In any case, I hope your day is as rewarding as mine has been.

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Okay, I’m officially bored

I know, how is that possible with all the turmoil, yet here I am.

I’m completely over the constant diet of fear, tragedy, destruction, and protests.

I killed the Twitter account, don’t have FaceBook, hell I’ don’t even use Google. I’m not paying for Apple News or Apple TV+. I avoid the CNN, CBS, MSNBC, and ABC free streaming services. Having long since cut the Cable. 

Scanning the various online newspapers around the country is monolithic, they all say the same thing. Riots, Burning, Looting, Police bad, police defunded, White people racist, Orange Man Bad, Corona gonna get ya, social Distancing, wear a mask as a symbol of solidarity, blah, blah, blah.

At this point it’s all so bad it’s depressing as shit.

For the first time in many years, I’m glad I don’t live closer to cities. I’m 2.5 hours away from San Diego, 90 minutes from Orange County, 90 minutes from LA and that’s just fine with me. The only thing cities give me is a place to work, drink or shop. Since all that is in the shitter… Burn it all down,  or don’t, I honestly don’t give a shit anymore. 

Our nation has become something that could have been in the pages of a prequel to Orwell’s 1984, or Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

I’ve had quite enough.

I feel bad for the Police, I feel bad for those few friends that may be in the middle of it all. But my empathy is running dry. 

It’s all become noise, I choose not to listen. Come up to my house wanting to cause trouble and we’ll see how that goes. If I win, you go home in an ambulance or a body bag, If I lose then I’m dead and none of this matters to me anymore either.

I’m tired of the battle.

Go do whatever you want to do just don’t drag me into your dramatic bullshit.

One thing that does astound me is that I’ve always attempted to be egalitarian. What’s good for me is generally good for you and vice versa.

Obviously I missed the memo telling me that it was okay to be a complete asshole. Gee, I could have had all kinds of fun, had it not been for my damn moral compass.

You know the compass that was set with basic principals? The one based in the biblical 10 commandments, the one that assumed the founding principals and subsequent amendments to the principals of this country were sound ideas. Things like inalienable rights and freedom to pursue happiness, little concepts like that.

Add into that basic mix the concept put fourth by the poem “The Hangman” by Maurice Ogden, and I’ve taken action throughout my life to step in, and step up, against wrongs when I encounter them. Mix in a little classical Greek literature and some SciFi wherein the writers imagined how wrong things could go as cautionary tales and you end up with someone like me.

Someone who believes in a basic premise of; do no harm, make few enemies, be loyal and true, be honorable, treat everyone equally but with a hint of suspicion (because not everyone is honorable,) live well by the sweat of your own labor, ask for little, be helpful, honest, and kind.

And yet, after living my life to those standards and being a law abiding (Okay, I speed), do right kind of guy, now suddenly I’m a bad guy for no other reason than I’ve worked my ass off to have nice things.

Obviously I’m a fucking moron!

Hindsight being 20/20 I should have literally, and figuratively FUCKED everyone I encountered, pressed every advantage and made no choices based on morality, kindness, or ethics.

God knows, had I done that, I’d be a lot better off financially than I am. My dick would have seen a lot more action to boot. I wouldn’t have much soul left, but I could be eating $40 bowls of ice cream not worrying about how I would pay my bills for the month.

When confronted with someone like me, the highly educated elite academics say that I still had white male privilege I’m therefore automatically guilty, even if I didn’t use that privilege.

Yeah, you get no credit for not using something, you’re damned because you had it from the get go.

I guess it’s like the concept of Original Sin. You just have to take it on faith because someone in authority says it’s so. Don’t forget, you’re not allowed to call into question the source of someone’s authority.

It’s against this backdrop that not only am I bored as shit of all this, I’m actively avoiding technology of almost any kind.

Voice messages, texts, emails, all accumulate on various devices and I’m simply not interested.

I find myself reading books if I’m not outside doing something, (or trying to do something,) constructive. 

The latest of these is The AR-15 Complete Assembly Guide by Walt Kuleck with Clint McKee. No, I’m not going all survivalist. I couldn’t buy ammo anyway, as I have zero patience to navigate asinine gun laws living as I do, in California. I’m surprised I could even buy the book here.

I figure if I need one, I’ll go buy one in South Central LA, or San Diego near the border from one of the cartels. I can probably pick up a couple thousand rounds of ammo too. Oh, don’t get your panties in a knot. I use that example, as a way to highlight just how stupid the California gun laws are. 

Think about it, in order to exercise my Constitutionally protected right to own a firearm, the easiest way to get one, is the same way criminals get one. Illegally! Cash & Carry, who knows, I might be able to buy one from the Fast and Furious exercise in stupidity.

Anyhoo, I just was curious about these “mysterious, scary” machines. How better to learn about them, than by reading about how they’re assembled? It’s better than the daily newsfeed and remarkably less violent or depressing. Another advantage is that it’s a physical book with pages and diagrams.

There are folks who’d say, “You’re just not reacting well to change,” They might be right, if this was change. Increasingly, this is feeling more like we’re all in a bad movie trailer. 

When the statistics for Covid from multiple sources don’t line up. When some college students demand easier grading for persons of color, (Which by the way is racist as hell,) and no-one calls them out on their hypocrisy, when the statistics about who the police are more likely to kill during apprehension don’t fit the narratives, when average police feel the need to lay down on the ground, or kneel, out of some sense… of what? Guilt?

Well then folks, I’m not interested in playing anymore.

I, like a lot of Americans am voting in November a straight Law & Order ballot. 

I’m sick of the bullshit! All these people think times were tough the past few years, wait till they get a load of what things look like when the pendulum swings conservative.

I’m gonna take a little break. If you don’t see anything here, or I don’t answer your email or text or call instantly, don’t worry I’m just fine. I’m on a break and the tech is turned off.