Too hot for Google

 I read "Everything Falls Apart" or whatever it was called, last night. Interesting book, reminds me of "The Dahomean" by Frank Yerby, a book I loved when I was a teen. Of the two, "Dahomean" is by far the better, I think. 

Since I'd been up and reading etc I woke up at 5. It was hot, the wind's howling, etc. I'd done octave exercises on the flute and messed around with the shinobue a bit. There's a little set of lessons by a guy named Kano on YouTube, and he can hit the lowest note - I can't seem to get that one on this shinobue, but it's reputed to be hard to play by comparison with a good bamboo one. Kano's a great teacher though, and he emphasis over and over again keeping the mouth chamber and throat open and keeping the jaw open. 

I'm going to try to send Ken some alternative to the right-wing tabloid sites (the Examiner and The Sun) he's getting his news from, for some stupid reason or another. He asked me if The Guardian might be a better source and I said it's probably the best source and I read their articles all the time. I have a feeling his wife gets tired of his political rants, which he can get into, and because of his sources, rather right-wing ones. I'm going to try steering him into a bit more sanity. 

I've also been doing things like, if a customer buys something we've got tons of, like fasteners or certain integrated circuits or such thing, I'm putting 6 in their package instead of the 5 they paid for, or 11 instead of the 10 etc. I believe that effectively those parts will "never" run out, because once I'm gone this business of Ken's is going to get a *lot* more chaotic, and between the coming political storm and the climate one, 99% of what Ken has stocked up in here will never be sold. 

I'm also keeping in mind that I really need to not only prepare to jump out of here in two years, but that something or other might happen that makes it necessary to leave sooner. And in that case I will want to leave quickly. I need to have ID papers and passport all in order, important documents scanned, etc.

I got onto Gmail and it took 15 minutes to "get in contact with Google" and in general, the hotter it gets, the more it slows down the internet. But not being able to get in contact with Google for a quarter-hour, here in Silicon Valley, a place many consider synonymous with the internet, is startling.