Well here we are

 One day before the last major election I'll participate in, here on the mainland. 

I've gotten into watching "So you want to move to Hawaii" videos over the last day or so. I'll stop a video to check their numbers, for instance one cited "MIT's cost of living survey" and according to it, I need $38-odd to live OK here in Santa Clara County, and $30-odd in Honolulu County. 

I assume this means MIT considers the same cost of living in each place. And I also assume MIT meant their survey for Real Americans(tm) and Real Americans(tm)  need certain things or it's not considered "living". Such as a new or newish car, a temperature-controlled environment, and the standard American foods/holy sacraments such as breakfast cereals, a quart of milk a day, meat at every meal, etc. 

To follow the Standard American Diet For Real Americans(tm) one must eat foods that are imported to Hawaii. Even if you're eating fish, it must be imported fish, preferably in the form of fish sticks. If you're eating bananas, they must be bananas from South America, exported to the US mainland and then shipped to Hawaii. 

You must absolutely not eat local foods, partake of local cuisine, or differ in any way in your eating habits from a person living in the Midwest of the mainland US. The one, sole, exception is you may go to Germaine's Luau, "The Best Luau In America" where you'll get a tiny dish of poi, which you may take a tiny bit of, say "Yuck!!" have a little roasted pork which really doesn't taste like actual kalua pig, a little "lomi salmon" (salmon is not a Hawaiian/Polynesian fish, and it's basically ceviche, as found in Mexican restaurants in California) and so on. 

So, "Living in Hawaii is expensive!" and that is with these restrictions in place. And yet, even with those restrictions,  Hawaii ends up being about 20% cheaper than where I am now, according to MIT. 

What's really going to make it work is knowing how to live, and eat, like a local and being retired.  

1 hour earlier

 I went right back to the night-owl schedule last night, but I got a good practice session in before bed, and I was up an hour earlier than I'd been, at least, so that's good. 

Yesterday, while taking things apart and watching/listening to YouTube, I came across a video where a guy was explaining why Russians keep signing up to die in such large numbers in Ukraine. (The lecturer turned out to be based in Norway or some damn place, not Russia.) 

He first explained that the average income in Russia is the equivalent of $750. Well, that's not bad, I thought, I've lived on 1/2 of that, back in the early 80s, and $750 a month might be just fine considering one is living with Russian prices so rent, food, etc. will be much cheaper and no real need to own a car. Food, especially, is much cheaper outside the US and in Russia I'd be surprised if it even cost 1/4 as much. It costs less than 1/2 as much in the UK, for instance. 

OK so the military has to seem tempting to compete with this, and it is. Base military pay is 2X the average Russian pay, and there are all kinds of bonuses that are stacked on for special skills, for signing up in the first place especially signing up with special skills, etc. In the end, considering the average American pay might be twice the average Russian pay of $750 a month, so $1500 a month, if Americans were offered the Russian package at 2X the monetary amounts the Russians offer their recruits, I think American would sign up by the millions. Especially if the death rate were covered up, as it was for a long time in Vietnam. 

Our troops in Vietnam were making something like $100 a month if that. If they were as well-paid as Russians are now, we may never have had the protests, the social upheaval, etc. that we did. 

When I was in the military in the early 80s, my pay was around $500 a month, which with room and board taken care of, was a fortune. Looking it up, enlistees get about 5X that now. 

This may be a large part of why the jews' tool Dirty Diaper Don is trying to crash the US economy, to get plenty of we goyim signing up to go do "israel's" bidding in Iran. That'll be fun. As if the Muslim world isn't pretty united now, it'll be really united and maybe the Noticing will increase here in the US by leaps and bounds. 

 

I hope I caught up on sleep

 I went to bed at 1AM, which is OK and probably ideal. I woke up around 7:30AM probably due to the guys next door making their usual noise - they'd make a great alarm clock. Then went back to sleep until 3PM. Well, at least I got plenty of sleep. 

I made the mistake of turning on the radio and there's a big puff piece about a guy with a name like Hymie McJewenstein who owned the "Carlisle Group" and a shit-ton of other stuff like a baseball team, the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta, and I guess anything and everything his greasy, piggy little eyes settle on. 

It made me think, as I've thought a couple of times lately, about the book "Maus" by another Hymie. Before I really Noticed I was really kindly disposed toward that hymie, as he'd created the original Wacky Packages stickers which, like most kids, I found hilarious. Also we were going through a bad, hungry time and they were a rare ray of light and jollity when such things were rare. 

But Maus is a classic, perhaps *the* classic, example of, "The Jew will tell you what happened to him, but never why". 

It starts with the central character marrying into a wealthy family and being given a factory or two. Just given. There's nothing, nothing at all ever, about the running of the factories as I guess that was handled a couple layers down, by Jewish miniature despots and thugs hired to be so. Nothing, nothing at all about the workers at the factories, mere goyim. Nothing, nothing at all, about whatever grift and chicanery were used by the Jews to obtain the factories in the first place. 

The author's parents had died long before this book was written, so everything in it is "trust me bro". For all one knows, the author may have simply read up on "the literature" and used some imagination, and created it from the whole cloth. The book is a centerpiece of The Holocaust Industry(tm) and the author has such a lock on publishing of anything graphic that it's caused we goyim to come up with our own publishing, like Juxtapoz Magazine by the excellent cartoonist (who actually learned to draw) Robert Williams. 

Bloody fucking hell now this nasty Jew they're interviewing on the radio is talking about "when I worked on Capitol Hill in 1975 and 1976..." well first he put himself across as being born in 1963 and being 64 years old. That math doesn't math, but assuming he's 64 like I am, born in 1962, he was working on Capitol Hill around age 14?? Fucking Jews and their lies, man. 

 

Wearing myself out

 Last night was spent cutting tons of little gold plated connectors out of their various packages, and weighing them out into bags to list on Ebay. They'll be quick sellers. 

Practice before bed was excellent again. I'm looking at r/trumpet more on Reddit and trying to pay more attention. to YouTube things relating to trumpet playing. 

One thing that popped up was someone commenting that the Caruso Method was the backbone of their training when they were in high school. That's interesting, as I thought the Caruso Method was only taught to older, comeback players or pro players who'd gotten burned out. I had a copy of the Caruso book and am not sure if I still have it. 

The result of all this is, though, that I was up until something like 9 or 10AM, then had to get up by 3PM to leave here at 4PM to drop off packages at the downtown post office and then deposit my pay check at the bank (numbers all agree, yay). 

I rode from the bank, through San Pedro Square to see what was up. Ron was there, and he's got a Dahon folding bike these days. He told me, in detail, how he got fired from washing dishes at The Old Spaghetti Factory. He's still living at The Waffleman's place but now his income is strictly from panhandling. I told him about a funny sign I'd heard about on Reddit, "IF YOU LOVE JESUS DON'T BE A JEW TO ME". He won't get into politics though so he won't use it.  

After doing that I went over to Sakura Market to buy those coffee pour-overs I like so much, and when I was done there I noticed Leroy was just setting up so I went over to talk with him. He's planning to get his old sax overhauled, and I told him about Lee's Sax Worx up in San Francisco, and he wrote that down.  

I went to Nijiya and got some stuff, and then an additional bag of coffee pour-overs on sale (works out to like 30c each) to get cash back each time so I now have cash on hand and the weekly $20 bill to go into the cash-stash.  

I got back here and I'm just really tired. I don't think this night owl schedule is good at all and it will especially not be workable back home in Hawaii. 

 

As good as ever

 Practice last night was interesting. I was playing as well as ever. I'm still troubled by a rough tone on notes in the lower half of the staff, but it's getting better. I guess all the straining doing those exercises built up some strength, and now it's time to work on finesse. Although I played a lot of things that I think help strength too. 

Ken came by last night and I got my check, yay. And today I packed and shipped everything that had sold. Now I have to decide which two days out of the weekend to go out and busk. 

We might have rain on Saturday, so the Saturday-Sunday schedule I'd been following has even less to recommend it. Ideally I'd play Friday-Saturday. But if it's going to rain a lot, Friday and then Sunday might work. Although if it's just a little rain, that can be really good for tips. 

It's a great relief to be caught up on shipping and I also mailed my ballot (I should have done that a week ago). It was pretty easy to fill out, really. I just looked at the East Bay DSA voter guide, and by and large it was merely a matter of voting for all the Democrats and none of the Republicans. The DSA guide was good where there were two Democrats, typically one being a DINO (Democrat In Name Only). Ed Case back in Hawaii is a shining example of this. 

On all the district court judges, etc., I left those blank as I had no opinion and neither did the DSA. Best to leave those votes to people who know something about them. I remember long ago, voting for one judge in Orange County and I felt I knew her pretty well because I'd spent a day in her courtroom and saw the kind of nonsense she had to deal with. She dealt with it very well, and with humor as well as common sense. 

I didn't go to any kind of "election watch party" for the 2024 results, because I was spending most of my time in bed with an injured back. The plan had been to go to The Fountainhead, a bar downtown, where I'd watched the 2016 results. 

There's also a part of me that wants to go to Trials, a place just up the street from the courthouse and a Republican stronghold I'm afraid. But that supposedly does good British pub food and  I could go for a Guinness and a sausage roll. 

I'd just walk from here out to the light rail so I'd not have to worry about my bike, and bring a decent amount of money so I can not only enjoy myself but buy drinks for people.  It's a plan. 

 

 

3 heavy loads

 I managed to do 3 heavy loads today. 

Last night was spent packing 4 large boxes, basically box inside a box, with 28 things inside each that aren't that heavy on their own, but 28 of 'em in a box add up. Those were packed in a Yogurtland box, which then went into an Enkei wheel box. I was glad I'd just recently picked up the wheel boxes from a tire place nearby, and that I had a bunch of Yogurtland boxes. It was a good way to clear out a lot of junk in my pile of packing stuff, too. 

I could carry one of these boxes on the bike trailer, and I had other things to go FedEx so I packed those too, but didn't print the labels until today, then I did the labels and took things to FedEx. What's really nice is, for the first two loads, the FedEx guy with the truck was there, and had just finished with the hand truck both times, and both times helped me load up the boxes onto it and took them in. Older Asian guy, really nice guy! On the 3rd I was on my own but that was OK. 

It was taking 45 minutes for each load, round trip. So I didn't have time for the 4th. I moseyed a bit coming back from the 3rd trip, and found a little packing stuff and a useful big box. And a nice head of cabbage from the veggie place. 

I went out a 4th time anyway, though. I went to H Mart and got a package of salmon sushi which was half price and which I just about inhaled. I had my nice Zojirushi flask with coffee, and that thing keeps it icy cold.  The reason I was buying "Barista Rules" iced coffees from H Mart was, they're pretty cold and somehow that makes them extra good. Well, my own coffee I make here and put in the Zojirushi with some ice are even colder. And thus better. And cost less than a dollar. Plus I got a couple of freebee samples, which turned out to be some kind of strawberry cake dipped in chocolate. 

The main interesting thing, though, is that they had these "Dubai" chocolate bars for sale in a bin at the customer service counter for $2. I decided to get 20 of them. Well, it turns out they're at the very front with the sale stuff for $1 each, so they cost me $1 each because the checker can't tell - they're identical bars, UPC code the same, just with a $2 sign one place and a $1 sign at another. So they ring up as $1. 

I ate my sushi and stashed things away in the bike bags and walked over to Ross. I found a package of the underwear I like, and a sweatshirt it turns out I really like, that I'm wearing now. It says "Los Angeles" on the front and a bunch of stuff about L.A. but hey, I've lived there some years and it's why it was $10 instead of $20 I guess. So the trip to Ross was a win, even if it's a matter of shopping for 15 minutes and waiting in line to pay for 30. 

I walked back over to H Mart and got 30 more of the bars. So I have 'em to last for a while. I rode home and spent some time moving things around, moving pens (throwing most away) from this transparent "can" I had them in, cleaning up said "can" and re-labeling it "HOT COCOA" to put all the packets of hot cocoa mix Ken had brought over into it, to free up a drawer to fit all the candy bars into. 

Then I got to calculate and send out shipping refunds to buyers, which I'd not done because I needed every minute to get all those loads over to FedEx. The big buyer got $570 back. 

Practice last night went well. I can pretty much come up with interesting "doodles" that are practice going up and down, hitting high notes, etc. I still guess I might have to buy that cichowitz book though, as it's pretty much impossible to find someone simply playing the exercises on YouTube so I can get an idea of them.  

Better practice

 The new sleeping bag is great. I'd not want to be any taller than I am, though. It's *not* a bag for a 6-footer. I got great sleep. 

I practiced before bed, and it went better. I didn't grind away on the exercises in the book, but just played songs and it appears I have the strength to play high notes all right, but by just pushing to play the note, in the exercises, without worry about it being musical, I built strength without finesse. So last night was more about finesse. I also have a bit of a "double buzz" going on but it lessened last night due to actually trying to be musical. 

I keep debating with myself over ordering the "Cichowitz Flow Studies" book. If I'm moving in less than a year, do I want to load my luggage down with another book? But finding the actual exercises on YouTube is difficult.