Reason 348759247945729423 why I want to go home

 This is the menu of a lunch truck taken just a few hours ago in Ewa Beach: 

Credit: u/olagon on Reddit

Look at those prices! The cheapest food truck prices here on the mainland are 3X-4X these. "Pork hash" is basically Chinese shumai. 

Of course the Oreos and "Fruit By The Foot" and stuff will be closer to mainland prices, but the local-made stuff is at local prices. Many's the time as a very broke kid, I had a lovely Chinese flaky cake with candied squash inside or one of the oily, squatter ones with black bean filling because it was a far better deal than a candy bar - and a lot tastier too. 

OK so yesterday I got to the bank in plenty of time, my balance was within a few dollars of my calculations, and it was with relief that I settled down in Whole Foods for a slice of their pizza and a near-beer. 

Then I walked up to the book store as that trade credit I had wasn't going to spend itself. I found Empire Of The Sun by J. G. Ballard and one by a guy whose family has/had been in Japan for 3-4 generations. 

I then went over to the Amazon place for bubble mailers, picking up a good amount, and being questioned by the lady working there. She was worried that they had people's names on them, and I said Yes, but the rest of the label is just this address here, and besides I remove them. I then elaborated by sharing my tip of heating the label a bit with a hair dryer to make them peel off much more easily and that seemed to satisfy her. 

I went over to Japantown and got a bag of Kasugai peanuts and beans and a Coke Zero and relaxed over at the old hospital building and started reading The Empire Of The Sun. $7 for an almost 40 year old paperback seems a bit much but it's really good. 

When it was time I went over to the temple gym for the 4th and final Obon practice. It went well, with my learning a few more nuances here and there, and showing someone how I'd worked out one tricky bit that gave me trouble and gives other people some trouble too. At one point I confided to a lady near me, "Well, we're not the Rockettes" and that got a laugh. 

I got back here and checked the jury duty thing and it said I'm not needed and moreover, had "fulfilled" my jury duty obligation for the next 12 months so that was a big relief. 

I celebrated by staying up all night reading Empire Of The Sun. The movie is such a masterpiece, it was good to see that it was pretty true to the book. It's a case where for the full experience you really need to see the movie and read the book too. 

I woke up with enough time to pack all the things and get up to the post office and then to FedEx. One box had to be mailed "on their FedEx number" and the poor gal at FedEx had to use her own phone to Google the address to get the zip code. 

It's the cash flow

 Last night besides finishing the load of laundry with my new gadget and giving myself a haircut, I sorted out more things to list and put a box of stuff out for the scavengers. An hour or so later I looked and someone had snarfed up the whole box, box included so that was nice. 

I've realized, Ken's just looking at cash flow on a day to day basis. Kind of like a house buyer who doesn't care what the price is, really, or the interest rate, they just want to know how much they'll have to shell out each month. Car buyers do this too. 

But in reality our numbers are not good. If Ken's not going to worry, I sure am. 

I got out of here early enough to do my post office and FedEx run and get back here, check if I'm needed for jury duty tomorrow (I'm not) and  cleaned up a bit and got my Obon stuff together and headed for Japantown. I got an unagi bento and a Coke Zero and ate them over on the steps of the hospital building where I was out of the wind. Then walked around a bit and then it was time to start the practice. 

It went pretty much OK. There were a lot of people practicing and it was a fair amount of fun. 

I got back here and cleaned the place up, ate a bit, and pretty soon Ken came by. I got my check and we had the usual long talk session.

Why don't people

 I was up all night, listed 20 things on Ebay, small things that didn't take a lot of fussing over each one. 

I woke up around 3:30 or 3, packed some things and managed to slice my thumb, fortunately just a small cut where there's a sort of flap that needs to be kept bandaged. 

I rode over to the post office with the post office things, then went over to Dai Thanh for some shopping. They've really stepped up their already excellent game. They've got a lot of made in Japan bowls etc that are beautiful, they had my beloved Penang White Curry Mee and a bunch of other ramens that are really good. And all way less than they cost other places and that's if you can find them. I only spent about $25 for a lot of stuff including a taro "hopia" cake and a bottle of black coffee with a Korean K-pop star on the label. 

I rode back to H Mart and used their loo, then settled down out front to have my coffee and hopia, because I love to sit in front of H Mart and eat things that were bought elsewhere... Then back in for some shopping and spent $20-odd. I also called Ken because he often waits a day or three to check emails, and told him I'd checked in with the jury duty thing and they don't need me tomorrow so he can come by in the evening like he usually does - just as normal. 

I found some veggies out back both for me (a jalapeno pepper, a plaintain, an oyster mushroom) and for Tom (a few of those Korean melons he likes, a kiwi fruit, a small head of Romaine lettuce) and stopped by his place to say Hi and hand it off. He was all involved watching a cop show on TV and you can't pause TV shows so he invited me in, but I said I have things I have to get into the fridge. 

Tom's also leaving next week for a trip to Alaska for two *months* so I'll have to keep in mind to check on his place. He's got one or the other of his pet bums watching the place but it's always good to have a second pair of eyes. 

As always I'm doing lots of thinking, even if most of it if not all is useless. For instance, in the 2020 election, Bloomberg spent $500 million on his campaign. He utterly crashed and burned too. He could have written a check to every American of every age and saved money. Would it have wrecked the economy? I thought about it and it probably would have. He *could*, if he had that kind of money to throw around, give out "Bloomberg grants" for all kinds of things from a house to a college education to starting a small biz or whatever. He could enact Nixon's old plan of "leveling up" all workers where no matter what you did or didn't do, you'd have what would be about $30k a year these days, as income. 

Or would that just fuck things up? For instance when I was a kid and we were on welfare, rents were magically more expensive to the tune of what welfare would allow. Going to college was the same way; it only got really expensive when student loans and grants came in in a big way. 

Maybe there is no way to rain money down onto people without creating more problems than were solved, so what if our world is one where "the rich", "the oligarchs", whatever term is best, really want to help people but they know it could turn to utter shit really quickly so instead they have to be really stealthy about it? And for the most part, just sit back and not get too involved with the crabs in the bucket, so busy tearing each other down. 

Maybe in my retirement one thing I'll do is study the writings of Karl Marx. I believe a lot of his motive was his observation that people in small groups, in little tribes and villages seemed to live pretty well, where it really was from each according to their abilities and to each according to their needs. He wanted to figure out what went wrong, when people were no longer in dozens but in millions. 

Tons of people complain about fossil fuels, so why don't people, maybe not in the USA to start, but somewhere, stage something where they don't drive their cars for a week? Why do so few complain about cars but not *their* turbo-charged Volvo, no sirree, their own car is not polluting somehow. 

And lastly, why don't weaboos just move to Hawaii? It's part of the US so there are no visa problems, and you can "dial up or dial down" how much you want to life a Japanese lifestyle. A lot of Japanese companies are there, especially lately. If you speak the language competently you can always get a job at least in retail. It would be far easier to ease into perhaps eventually moving to Japan, to start there in the 50th state. But of course they never seem to think of this because in Hawaii, being white doesn't make you special, rather, very un-special. They think they'll be fawned upon in Japan. 

Due to finding a new Reddit mug for $2.69 at the Goodwill on San Carlos, I dipped into Reddit again last night. The week off had done me good in that the magic is gone. I did find two posts in r/homeless about people's experiences in taking homeless people in. One of them was meh, about 25 posts, but the other one was quite a bit longer and looked like it might grow into one of those epic discussions that happen once in a while. So I went back there today and the first, meh, post was still there but the one that really got into the nitty-gritty was gone. 

I found it interesting reading because I've had people let me live with them to save money, and it's worked out well with myself pulling my weight and more. But this seems to be rare. The guy at the Gilroy place invited me there and after a week or so left for one of his months-long vacations and by the time he was back I'd fixed a number of things and comported myself quite well. But this guy seems to like to leave himself open to being taken advantage of, then when it happens having something to complain about for ever afterward. It seems the norm in American culture is to be a thieving scumbag. 

Google will often lead me to Reddit discussion when I'm looking for something and that's OK with me, but the magic is really gone. It didn't help that on YouTube, I found another new post about the various nefarious doings of "spez", one of the small army of people who claim to have founded Reddit. 

Once I was back from shipping and shopping I put together a thing I'd been planning to for a while but since I found a kind of large plastic strainer bowl at Dai Thanh I saw how I could make it a different way that's a lot easier. Basically it's a bucket set up so I can put my wet laundry in there and let it sit, and the water will run out the strainer underneath the laundry, so rather than have to wring the laundry out, I can do my washing even if I've got a messed up hand and can't wring it. And it works pretty well too. I rate it at better than wringing, but not as good as the spin cycle of a washing machine. That's very good. 

I was able to hang everything up and there was no water left in the bucket I carried the wet laundry upstairs in. 

3rd Obon practice

 I stayed up all night again, as mentioned I did stuff, started some laundry, etc. I slept until 2:30 in the afternoon so at least I'm walking it back. 

I packed all the things that needed shipping and took them to the post office and FedEx, then stopped at the chicken place for 3 pieces instead of my usual two, and ate them back here. 

I left here at about 6:30, and got to Nijiya at 6:45. I got a coffee and some celery and hung around a bit until the practice began. I also bought a $5 ticket for this quilt raffle that benefits the Dharma Center that they're building and that I'll never see. The lady running it and I have a joke about how if I win the quilt, I'll donate it back so they can raffle it again and maybe it will start a tradition, of raffling the quilt each year. 

The practice went pretty well, and there were more people dancing. San Jose Taiko were supposed to show up, but they ended up being late and just doing a few songs at the end. It was pretty cool. 

The weather was also cool, luckily I had a thin sweatshirt and jacket to put on before riding home. 

I'd checked the court site and they don't need me tomorrow.  If they don't need me this week, I think I might have to be on call for next week. 

At least I practiced last night. I'm starting to work not just on the tunes we're working on in the shakuhachi club but the standard beginner tunes for the shakuhachi in general. 

Sleepy Sunday

 I practiced "some" last night, not enough but I find I can get not only ro dai kan but tsu dai kan and that has to count for something. Also ro dai kan has some subtleties and with experience I'm getting it to sound smoother. 

I went to sleep but at something like 4-5 AM with the consequence that I woke up around 5 in the afternoon. That's my old schedule and just what I want to avoid. 

Ebay's putting us on a 48-hour hold where our things won't appear to customers, because we kept selling medical things we're not supposed to. So one thing I did today was to go through our stuff and take the things with the Rx symbol or that go into the body, off of Ebay. I went through them and kept what interesting packaging I can use for something else, and threw the rest away. 

The cleaners next door had left a lot of things out. A vacuum cleaner, a box stuffed with folded up boxes, a couple of mop buckets, and a really rather nice book case with no shelves. I remembered that I'd meant to get rid of that stuff, plus I was a little bit curious about what the zombies have been stashing behind the other trash enclosure. Once I'd cleaned up the junk behind "ours" it's stayed neat and clean, and when a zombie would put something back there, some scrap metal I'd put out, for instance, I'd put it right out front again for some other zombie to pick up. That stopped that. 

It took me three loads just to get rid of the cardboard stuff and some trash. Zombies are disgusting! I pulled a few bags of trash out of there and a milk crate full of rotting vegetables. I also found, in addition to pallet racking back there which I'll leave alone, some sort of office furniture/electric thing that was super heavy. The cardboard went over by the bridge because I think in that camp there they can use it, to burn, to make neat footpaths with, etc. 

The book case, vacuum cleaner, and office furniture/electrical transformer holder whatever it is, mop buckets and vacuum cleaner went out by the front of the complex so everyone driving by on Bayshore will see them. That ensures they'll "find homes" quickly and really, I'd rather that rather nice book case go to someone who will use it rather than it sit around here and some zombie take a piss in it etc. So now the complex is nice and neat. 

I visit the local mall

 It went just about as horribly as you'd think. I'd gone to bed early enough that I woke up at 5:30 and could not get back to sleep, so I got up and had coffee and watched YouTube and packed another package, so I had three to take the the FedEx by Whole Foods, when they opened at 10. 

I got going at about 9:30, stopped at a lunch truck to get a breakfast muffin thing for $3 and ate it there. As I ate, I wondered, do people who eat from lunch trucks just have Pepsi or Coke with their breakfast like people in the South do? There was a bottle of, I believe, instant creamer which would seem to argue toward there being coffee but I've never seen coffee sold from a lunch truck. 

Then I rode over to Nijiya because I thought I'd left the bottle of coffee I'd made at home but I actually had it with me. I got a salmon onigiri though and ate that. Those sell out by mid-day I think so I've only had one once before. 

I stopped at a garage sale and found an interesting backpack. It's not too large, and an interesting silvery blue color. The main thing is I think it's one you'd get if you worked for Costco, because it has Costco labels on it and even says Costco on the zipper pulls. Considering how popular Costco is in Hawaii, it was hard to resist for $1. I figure it's perfect for jury duty, to hold papers, a bottle of coffee, maybe a snack, maybe my Obon stuff if I'm going to go right from jury to Obon practice. 

I rode over to the FedEx and dropped the packages off, then walked across the street to the bus stop to get the #22 bus to downtown. Right after getting off the bus, there was a fat crazy guy who was shirtless and whose pants were halfway to his knees, so he was mooning the world. He was going around asking for money, and when we both got to the bus stop he asked me and I just shook my head and he want to bugging other people. The #323 bus came right away so I got on that one, and I got the impression Mr. Buttcheeks wanted to either get on too or make another round asking for money, and he missed out. I kind of went, "ha ha" as the bus left. 

The ride to Valley Fair, the local mall, was pretty quick. My plan was to buy a couple of Reyn Spooner aloha shirts so I'd really be set for jury duty. I walked the whole mall, checking both halves of Macy's and Nordstrom's and there were ... none. Online it looked like they have tons. These huge stores now seem to be showrooms for a few things, and mainly for things they're hoping to unload, with the real sales going on, online. Although apparently you can order things and there's a pickup desk inside Nordstrom's. 

In any case I wasn't going to get any shirts, and I got back out to Stevens Creek and eventually back on a #23 bus and then to downtown, and onto a #64B which dropped me off at Whole Foods again. 

I got some baked zucchini slices and some kind of fried "chicken leg" there. The "chicken leg" turned out to be, they took the white meat out of a chicken drumstick or thigh or something, breaded it and fried it. It's very bland. Not only would the average Whole Foods customer's head explode at the thought of using actual spices, but since the advent of covid, there are no longer any spices or seasonings out at all, not even salt or pepper. Because if you season your food you might have sinful thoughts, and catch covid. Also if you don't pay 2X for a lot of things you might get covid also... The gradual enshittening of things is all because of covid, everyone swears. 

As for the mall, it was depressing, kind of dirty, and you could feel the demoralization of the workers in the air. One of the escalators had a horrible rumble to it, while in Hawaii every one of those things I ever went on was smooth and utterly silent. And in Hawaii if you wanted a Reyn Spooner shirt you just went to the Reyn Spooner store and got one. Enough years ago, there would be a fair chance you'd be waited on by Reyn himself. 

I have some shirts and will just wear the ones I've got and not worry about any Hawaii type shirts any more until I'm back in Hawaii. 

After my bland, Midwestern-approved meal, I rode down to Walmart to pick up some things. I always come in on the street nearby and go around the back of the place, and there was some hilarity going on. There was a zombess with a cell phone just screaming as loud as she could, something about a moving that has to be made or who-knows-what. And as I took a wide berth around there, I spied a zombie lying down on one of the curbs in the loading ramp, trying to get some sleep. 

I locked the bike up and went into Big-5 to look around, and mentioned the crazy screaming woman. They said Oh yeah, we know about her. They'd heard her screaming about sending some money and it not going through or something. 

I went into Walmart and got the few things, and rode back here. 

I could not sit still without starting to doze off in my chair so I kept moving, putting things away and pulling out a couple that had sold. Now the key was to stay up late enough but not too late, and get an early start tomorrow. 

Now that's a fan

 I ended up last night, realizing that if I did an all-nighter it would solve a lot of problems. 

I packed packages, some for the post office and one for FedEx, and left here around 10:00 I think. I dropped off the post office ones downtown, then went to the bank and put my paycheck in. I'm going to need to start looking at my statements because I seemed to be about $60 short. Either I'm going out and spending money and not writing it down, or there's something making charges to my account and I need to find out what that is. 

I rode over to the FedEx that's down the street from Whole Foods and dropped off the FedEx package, and had a cheerful little talk about how two of the FedEx drop-off places by the university are closed now - more business for this one, though. 

I went to Whole Foods and it was that odd time when the breakfast stuff has been taken away but the lunch stuff isn't out yet. I picked out a butter croissant for $3 and since the cans and bottles of coffee have gotten so much more expensive, went to the little coffee bar and got a cup of coffee there, spending almost as much anyway, really. 

The coffee took so long to cool that I put the lid back on and went back in ... there were some lunch things out now and a guy was raving over how good the chicken nuggets are, how this is the best because they're fresh and so on. So I got some of those, which ended up costing me $5. The guy ended up ahead of me at the checkout too, and he'd worked there "I did the pokey" and injured one of his eyes somehow, and after months of not seeing out of one eye he can go back to work and will get a cornea transplant fairly soon. And he raved about the chicken nuggets again - his girlfriend loves them! 

The chicken nuggets were awful. 

Once I'd choked those down and finished my coffee I went back inside and got some fabric softener because I really do need that to do laundry and even if it's a couple dollars more, a bottle of their fancy-schmancy stuff will still last me months. 

I left there and rode by Philz coffee to see if Gabriel the violinist was around, as it was getting to be "his" time, the lunch hour. But he was not, and a lady selling jewelry from a little stand hadn't even heard of him. 

Next was bubble mailers from the Amazon place, and then waiting for the light at that corner, observing the "zombie show" at the 7-11 on the opposite corner and finding myself traveling the same way as a very obese fellow with a little pony tail. I say this only because later tonight, there'd be a bit on the TV news about open drug use on that very corner and there was a shot of the wide guy being hustled into a police car for an outstanding warrant. 

I found an interesting book at one of the little free libraries, "Friends And Lovers" I thought that ought to be interesting but in my state of fatigue had my Lawrences mixed up, as in fact this book is not by T.E. Lawrence but D.H. Lawrence. It still might be interesting. 

I went to the Nichi Bei store next to get a folding fan. The one I bought at the Obon practice isn't really sturdy enough for use in Obon dancing. I'd observed what people were using and knew what kind I wanted and they had them there. The one I got is made in Japan not China, and is sturdy as hell. It was also a bit over $20 so it had better be. 

I got some things at Nijiya and then came back here. I tried not to fall asleep and looked at the jury duty card  I was sent again, I have to check *after* 5 each day not before, so I waited until after 5, checked, and they don't need me yet. I have to keep checking in though. 

At least when  I got back I listed 15 things I had pretty much ready to photo and go. And some things I listed sold right away to the tune of a couple hundred dollars so that's good. 

Funniest thing in a long while

 I listed things, did about a half-hour practice, and got to bed. It had been a busy day yesterday and last night. I got things ready to list but saved them for tonight. 

I woke up and the news on the radio was that the mini-sub that some rich grifters had convinced some rich idiots to go on a tour of the Titanic wreck site in, had probably imploded so, 6 or so rich assholes gone and the planet a nicer place thereby. More rich people should go explore deep and dangerous places in jerry-rigged helicopters, really.

I had time to pack 10 things and got up to the post office and FedEx and dropped them off, then stopped by Tom's to talk for a bit (I'd dropped off some veggies on my way out) and we talked about things - mainly we got into zombie stories. He apparently lived at one time on 4th and St. John so he saw plenty of zombie goings-on. 

We also talked about drinking a bit, as he was, keeping the beers going. He said, "I know you don't drink, but would you like a beer?" and I said No, it just doesn't work for me. I'll always accept an alcohol-free beer but I'm completely done with alcohol. I finally said I had to go. 

I got back here and relaxed a bit, did small things, and pretty soon Ken came by and I got my check so that's good. 

2nd Obon practice

Yesterday was too boring to even make an entry here. I took things to the post office, stopped by Tom's to say Hi and he was hurrying off to the laundromat, got back here, listed 15 things, finished a load of laundry, ate dinner, practiced for an hour, and went to bed. I woke up at 3. 

I got cleaned up a bit and headed out at a quarter to 4. I got to the Nichi Bei store in time to get this piece of cloth that's used in one of the bon dances, and talked with the lady there about the various catastrophes that keep coming to make things worse for the local stores. She said actually Santo Market is doing super well by just running a take-out counter for food and with no one going inside the actual store, their shoplifting problems are over. We agreed times are getting tougher and people ruder, though.

Then I rode past "zombie park" to the post office then around the corner to where I thought a small FedEx office was, but it stopped appearing on Google Maps. I found a Mailboxes etc. place that took the FedEx package "In fact, the driver will come by to pick it up in an hour". 

Then I went to Lee's to get something to eat; the new Lee's on San Carlos. But anything beyond holding a package of Pocky in one hand and money in the other seems to be too much for them so I said "Oh wait - I have to go do something, be back later!" and left and went to the real Lee's on Santa Clara. I got some good old greasy food and went over to the college to eat it. 

It turns out there now not just a few but a lot of squirrels there and since I'd gotten so much food (a pate' chaud, 2 pork egg rolls, and a chicken skewer) we all ate well. 

I swung by the Amazon place for some bubble mailers and then realized I had quite a bit of time to kill before the Obon practice started. Wish I'd brought a book, I thought. I checked the little free libraries and found one about some well-to-do lady who moved to Bali in the early 2000s, and it's just a lot of little articles she wrote for the local expat newspaper, put into a book. Quite entertaining though. 

I got a coffee at Nijiya first to drink while reading and when I was done, got another. The long bench on the side of the temple had the right combination of being out of the wind and having some sun, for reading and keeping an eye on when people go streaming into the gym. 

The Obon practice went pretty well. I just found someone who seemed to know what they were doing, got behind them, and did my best to copy them. It seemed to go fast. They need volunteers this year too but I can't commit until I know how my jury duty is going to go. Or not. I suppose I can always dive in at the last minute. Help is help. 

It was nice to switch to a light sweatshirt and jacket and ride home. I went by the EMT place and got 8 packages of Datrex and then went by the medical dumpster and pulled out a lot of neat stuff I might be able to sell some of. Since I could carry one or the other but not both, I left the Datrex neatly stacked there. Of course a zombie came up and was surprised by my being there. "Sorry!" it said and rode off on its Zombike. 

Zombies, Oh, the zombies. They were just everywhere. Shambling, yelling, screaming, and one had both a good rant going and a tire iron it was hitting cars with. Lovely. When I'd gotten to Japantown there was even and old Black zombie banging away on a guitar which at least was not very loud. When I went back for my 2nd coffee I figured I'd tell it some good places downtown to busk, but it was gone. 

A few times through my travels today I'd had to bend traffic rules a bit to get around a zombie, and coming back from Japantown I'd taken 1st and there were lots of them around the 7-11 and Holiday Inn hotel there. That hotel was just "featured" on YouTube for having someone trying to break in with a tool to unlock the door. It sounds almost humorous except the people trying to break in would probably have killed the person in the room if they'd gotten in. 

I was back here and had the place all cleaned up, when Ken came by. He forgot his checkbook so I didn't get paid. He's supposed to come by tomorrow and give me my pay check. Such is life for those of us stupid enough to go into tech. 

What a miasma

 I listed 10 things last night, making it 50 things for the week. I'd been slacking off, listing maybe 30 a week and I hope this is the only reason our sales are horrible right now. 

I got all set to practice, and something wasn't right. Practice involves breathing deeply, and something stunk. I poked my nose out the door and whewf! It smelled like a million stinky craps out there. I'd been smelling something earlier, and in the last few days, but this was really bad. I was not going to breathe literal crap in deeply so I went right to bed. 

I was awakened at about 1PM by the FedEx guy delivering an order from Uline. I stashed the boxes out of the way and went back to sleep until almost 4. Then got up and put them away. Normally Ken only does an order when I tell him it's needed. We'd gotten a bill for $500 from Uline for some reason and I'd given that to him when he was over here last, and said something about their being a Trump-supporting, Fascist company and this was talked about extensively on Reddit so I tried going to one of the "good" companies and their site originally crashed so Uline it is. 

So did Ken do an order simply because he had Uline stuff to take care of? Or did Uline actually screw up and give him some credit? Or is it retaliation for my mentioning Uline's politics? I know he voted for Trump the first time around, I think like many, thinking the orange buffoon wouldn't really win, but it'd be a protest against Business As Usual. I believe he voted for some guy named Johnson the 2nd time around but voting for any Republican these days is very questionable at best. Ken's your typical delusional old guy. Somehow, in his world, one can vote for the white-supremacist party and magically nothing will happen to his brown wife and brown children. 

During the day the wind came up and originally I thought, "Oh good; someone's done something about the stink" but then realized it's just the wind keeping the air moving. 

I got cleaned up and since it's a federal holiday didn't take any packages anywhere. I left here at 6 and rode over to Japantown and got a nice eel bento and a package of smoked salmon and a bottle of coffee, which surprisingly only came to $17. I could have saved $3 by having coffee brewed and in the fridge ready to grab and go but I did pretty well. 

It was windy and the tables out in front of Nijiya are in the sun anyway, but I had a solution for that, worked out years ago. I went and sat on the steps of the old hospital building. There were people already there, theater people of some type but I just sat down and ate, and when I was done said I'd help them move stuff since I had some time before Obon practice anyway. 

I helped them move things from a lady's van into an office inside, so that was cool. I got to see the inside of the building, got to help some people, got warmed up for dancing, and got to use the loo in there. The theater company is the "Red Ladder" theater company. 

When I was done there I went over to the temple and people were gathered in the gym and milling around. The Scouts had a table set up with folding fans, kachi-kachi which are castanets by any other name, and snacks like chips and spam musubi. I bought a fan and a pair of kachi-kachi for $4. These are props you use in obon dancing and I'd left my flat fan at home, and I also need a strip of cloths that's used in one dance but it turned out we didn't do that one. I can get one of those before the next practice on Wednesday.

The dancing went pretty well, I think. There's a new Thanks You To San Jose Taiko dance we're learning and we did some old standbys. I'm glad there are four practice sessions and I hope to make them all because I can use all the practice I can get. 

When we were done it was after a quarter to 9 (we'd started at 7:30) and I rode back here. I got settled down and did over an hour of shakuhachi practice because I wanted to do it while the wind was still blowing a bit. Let the stink settle in when the air's still, by then I won't be practicing and breathing deeply, I thought. The practice went pretty well. 

Once practice was done and I was readying 10 things to list on Ebay and also there were snacks to be eaten, the air was probably still and I poked my nose out the door to asses the state of the stench. And the air was fine. So whatever it was, it's done with. 

I listed the things. Our sales are awful and Ken's operating as a loss right now. I listed some of the things Ken has great hopes for, but the things turn out to not be selling for as much as Ken seems to imagine. I priced them as I always did, not the lowest and not the highest. I'm just going to keep it up at 50 things a week no matter if they're large or small, and see how it goes. 

Because the medium is the message

 I got in a good amount of practice last night but felt like it was not enough. I need a suite of simple songs, simple things I can run through, the shakuhachi counterparts of "Merrily We Roll Along" and such catchy little tunes. I worked on "Hinomaru" with the "striking" accents and it goes OK but not as well as I'd like. I need to work more practice into my daily routine. I thought I'd have more time since quitting Reddit but I've just been spending more time on YouTube. 

I woke up at a quarter after 5. As I brewed up my chicory coffee I thought about how I can't even try to get back on friendly terms with my older sister because of being 2500 miles away and because the internet wants everyone to hate each other because that gets more attention and clicks. The medium is the message, I thought, bringing up an old idea that no one voices any more... 

Wait, The Medium Is The Message. That's Marshall McLuhan, a thinker who's not been disappeared, he can be found on Wikipedia, but in the present maelstrom of Twitter and Facebook and Reddit and even a movie, "The Social Network" or whatever the title is, where it's being slowly learned that the internet is a machine that doesn't care about human well being but only about clicks. Anything to get those clicks. 

This is why I can't even try, online, to reconcile with my older sister. The internet wants us to hate each other. It doesn't matter what's being said. It will act to get more clicks. The medium is the message. "Tear yourselves apart; tear each other apart, just click more". 

Human beings are not evolved for something like the internet. We do best gathering in small groups around a campfire or a luau spread, spending time making small talk and getting our breathing and even small body movements in unison before getting around to the serious talk. 

We do best going through adversity together, teaming up on things. Seeing what each other are made of. If I'd only known as a kid that when another kid pushes you down, they're doing so to see how you react, to see if you're material to be what the Australians call a mate. Who's going to be best to team up with. Adults do this too, minus the actual pushing-down generally, and this is why I have my Big Island and Oahu friends now. We'd gone up the Haiku Stairs and coming down it had gotten very dark and I'd guided them out, only because I'd grown up walking trails like that and didn't need to be able to see to tell where the most people had walked. The one friend had a car and had driven us there, and the other had gotten the first guy work and connections and we were all part of the loose network of electronics nerds on the island anyway. 

That's how friends are made. Going through things together. This is so obvious as to not need talking about except the internet likes people to be isolated because it gets more clicks. Capitalism likes people to be isolated because people living alone are more profitable than people living together, sharing things. But the internet adds another layer of alienation onto this, because it gets more clicks. 

In further the-internet-is-evil news, there's this story: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvvkd/they-bought-a-house-with-plans-to-airbnb-then-they-were-banned-for-knowing-the-wrong-people?utm_source=pocket-newtab a person who bought a house to live in part time and AirBNB part time, finds out that since the internet thinks she's associated with some other people, she can't do this. This is closely akin to the non-compete condition I'm in with Ken. 

Basically, if I were to start my own Ebay account, even if got a whole different laptop, never used it on this wifi network, used it out of a ranted office downtown, etc., there's a pretty good chance Ebay would not only shut me down but shut Ken down as well. This almost happened to me when I was in Sunnyvale and a friend in Santa Clara. Shut down by Ebay means you're off the platform for life. Ebay thought we were "shilling" for each other. The internet decided we were the same person. We were, in their eyes, in a small way endangering their profit and their clicks. 

This is why if I sell on Ebay again it can't be from less than say 1000 miles away. Better to do it from Hawaii, 2500 miles away. But it's also why my plan is to have enough saved to live on for a year at least before I even contemplate selling on Ebay again. 

If I work for a donut shop and then after a decade or so decide to quit and set up my own donut shop, there's not a lot that can be done against me. But now that the internet presides over everything, it's not that easy. 

ERIC we hardly knew ye....

 It took a while to sift/sort/clean/label 15 things to list so I ended up not listing them and just went to bed. 

I woke up, finally, at 5PM and turned on the radio. There's a system or agreement called ERIC that, among other things, prevents people from voting in two different states. It was agreed upon by about half of the states, and now the right-wing is getting it removed even in the state of Virginia which was one of the founders. 

This is how democracy dies, little by little. The rank and file Nazis all imagine this wonderful all-white future where they, personally, will end up in charge of quite a few other people. No one imagines they'll be the one mopping floors or something. 

I'd finally finished reading "Angry White Pyjamas" and took it with me, leaving just in time at 6:30, to Nijiya. Nicholas was working there and I handed it off to him. "Don't say I never gave you nothin'" I joked, and he said, "Thanks!".  I just bought a few packages of gum there because all I really wanted to do was drop off the book.

I went around to Cardenas and got a few things, and in counting up I'd only spent about $20 so I have $40 left until payday. I'm saving a bit over $100 in the bank, and there are cash savings too. 

I also picked up a few good books from the free libraries that I want to read. 

Outside here, the guys in the other half of the complex held a fireworks show that was pretty cool - lots of those ones that shoot up into the air and then burst. And the Mad Max bike trailer is still there but the wheels are both gone both the one on it and the one under the bushes, plus some of the other stuff so it got a good picking-over. In fact, I watched a zombess walk over from Crack Alley and look the stuff over, then walk back. Considering zombies have no problem riding around on bikes without tires at all, wheels with tires aren't going to sit around long. 

 

Saved me some trouble

 I was up all night taking things apart. A big stack of things got turned into parts to sell and a lot of metal scrap that I put out for the bums. 

I went right to sleep after that, woke up around 2, decided to sleep some more, and woke up at about 5. I had 12 or 13 packages packed and packed two more. I had a big CRT monitor to pack but the guy messaged me and wanted to come get it. I said I'll refund him the shipping if he does so, so he'll save some money too. 

I took off at the usual time and dropped the packages off at the post office. I stopped at H Mart on the way back and got a few things and a bottle of coffee and some "Boy Bawang" mixed nuts, actually fried peas and beans and garlic slices with some peanuts mixed in. I drank the coffee and ate those out front, then stopped at the computer place not finding much, just some bubble wrap, but I still neatened the enclosure up a bit. 

After that I looked at the time and since I wanted to get back to the shop right at 8, I needed to lollygag a bit. So I stopped in at the African store and looked through the whole place, but only wanted to buy a bag of plantain chips. No one was around. So I went out to the bike and got my change bag out, put $2.25 on the counter to cover the chips and any possible tax, and absent-mindedly put the rest of the change, 30c or so, in my right pocket. Of course, due to the hole in my pocket, this resulted in change falling out and jingling on the floor. 

I was back out at my bike when one of the guys running the store appeared in the doorway. He kind of wanted to know what was going on. I said I'd left $2.25 on the counter for a bag of plantain chips, "plus dropped some change on the floor because my pocket has a hole in it!" and we both laughed. 

I got back here and read stuff online (but not Reddit) and the guy showed up to pick up the monitor at about 8:30. I handed it off and had his shipping refunded and a positive feedback left before he was out on the main road, probably. 

There's evidence of a hilarious thing having happened in the parking lot. Namely, one of the zombies' Mad Max bike trailers that apparently got a flat, and was abandoned. The wheel with the flat is off it and under the bushes, the trailer and its contents just sort of scattered around. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow (Saturday) it will all be gone. 

Dinner was a dish I thought up. I had three tomatoes here I wanted to use up so I diced them and simmered them with onion and garlic, then added shrimp and a package of kung pao chicken seasoning paste and some French canned butter that's really salty and kind of gamey tasting, good for cooking. It came out great - a sort of thick, savory, shrimp-tomato soup. 

 

New member in the shakuhachi club

 After getting things stashed away in such a way that I won't have to move them again for a while, and sorting out and cleaning and listing 10 things, and all the fussing and worrying, I decided I'd get right to sleep and did so at 7AM. 

It took me forever to get to sleep and I think it's because it's warmer lately. As a rule, the office 12 or 15 degrees warmer than it is inside. It's probably time to set up a fan to blow on me while I sleep. 

I woke up a bit after 3 and had coffee and cleaned up and got going a bit after 4. I rode right to the bank and did my deposit, with the money coming out right down to the penny. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods and got a slice of pizza and a near-beer and ate and relaxed for a bit. When I was done there I was unlocking my bike and got talking with a gal with a young kid who had this huge electric bike with big racks on it and a trailer for towing kids. She saw the big chain I use and said, "That's the same one I use". I mentioned how bikes get stolen and described how mine almost was, and she said, regarding bike thieves, "that would be me, years ago" or something like that. 

I said the closest I ever got to stealing a bike was when we kids found a little blue bike someone had left by the beach and we kept it and rode it for some years. And I said I had go to, and went. I figure this lady is your standard scumbag-ess who either has really learned to work the welfare system ("farming" kids works pretty well until the kids grow up) or has married some poor sucker. In any case, hard times come again and she'll be back on the crack pipe and stealing bikes again. 

I went over to the Amazon place and got a single bubble mailer - it works out that way sometimes - and headed for Japantown. Sugar-free Lipovitan was on sale so I got a 6-pack of that and a little can of coffee and some gum and drank the coffee and had a Lipovitan out front, then chewed gum I'd brought from here to get my mouth all nice and clean for the shakuhachi practice. 

I got there 5 minutes early which was about right. Everyone else who'd show up was there. One of the older ladies didn't come, and Kevin didn't come. But we have a new member, a teenager, who came with his mom? Grandmom? Rinban handed him one of his PVC specials and a fingering chart, and while the rest of us played scales for warm-ups and some pieces, sounding awful of course, the kid sat there and just tried to get a sound. 

The guy from Palo Alto was there, and I'd stopped at TAP Plastics and gotten 6 of the same plastic caps I use myself, for anyone to have if they want. They're a touch big for the PVC shakuhachis but fit the guy from Palo Alto's bamboo one fine, and in the end he got two from me. 

It came out that the guy started playing shakuhachi at age 60 (my age now) and is now 67 so it's been 7 years. He gets a really good sound, and it's very inspiring. 

I'm going to give the new guy, named Ray, my Jon Kypros book after I copy some of the music out of it, and his mother(?) grandmother(?) said he'd been talking about learning the shakuhachi for months, so here's hoping we can get him past the early, really frustrating, stage. 

After the class I decided to treat myself and was going to go to this curry restaurant I've long wanted to try, but the truth is almost everything was closed. I went to Kaita's and tried the tempura, which is quite good. That treat was $20 with the tip, though. 

I rode home, stopped at a dumpster that often has some veggies in it. There were none I wanted, but some folded up boxes had an address in Kahuku, Hawaii. I cut out one of the addresses and took it back here and looked it up. Walking distance from the high school I went to for a while. Not a big farm by any definition. They probably grow a certain variety of papaya that's worth a lot, because any kind of papaya will grow like a weed in Kahuku, so a small farm can do well growing "boutique" varieties. 

I make the day sound pretty businesslike but really, there was some fun. When I was buying the plastic caps in TAP Plastics, I got almost a dollar in coins in my change. I put 'em in my right pocket as usual, and all the coins went down my leg and onto the floor! It was kind of hilarious. I felt my pocket and there's a hole. Oops! So change goes in my left pocket with my keys until I get that fixed. At least it's too small to lose my wallet... 

And after going to TAP I walked back to Whole Foods and coming upon the cigar store, went in because it smells good in there. I made a slow circuit of the store, looking at all the different cigars. When I got around to the counter, the guy at the counter and another guy were talking about water-cooling something. The other guy left and I got into a conversation about early computers, early cell phones and the often-hilarious vagaries of communicating on them, and such things. The guy seemed like one of those guys who can be a real grump but he warmed to me. It was a bit of fun. Maybe if I'm in again I'll tell him about my visit to Cuba. 

Headache almost gone

 I woke up around 5.  I practiced last night, started some laundry, listed 15 things, and got some sleep. It was about the right time to wake up. 

I packed one large thing and loaded it on the trailer and took it up to FedEx, no problem. The EMT training place had tons of stuff thrown out, a few boxes of cold pills and such things, bunch of AED pads some of which I took the wires off of to sell because they use a type of connector that's used for other things, and got 16 packages of Datrex for Tom. 

I got to Tom's right after he'd come in and gave him the Datrex and we talked for a bit. He said this one pizza place not far from here is really good so now I want to check it out. I had to cut things short and get back here though. 

I got back here and did things, cleaned the place, the usual. Ken came by right on time and we unloaded a ton of stuff to list. I got my check too of course, and now I've got tons of stuff to list.  It took a couple of hours just to stash it away in various places until I get it all listed, taken apart, etc. 

Our sales are in the toilet right now and if Ken were normal, he'd be really worried but he's not. 

A temporarily embarrassed intellectual...

 I listed 20 things last night and none of 'em sold during the time I was asleep which is unusual. Our Ebay sales are in the toilet right now. Ken doesn't worry about things nearly as much as I do, and it probably doesn't register with him right now that selling on Ebay is costing him money. 

This all only had to hold together until mid-2024 though, and Ken's just clueless enough (and signed a 4-year lease) that things should be fairly stable around here. That's all I need. Just keep saving money, selling things off, getting my papers in order, etc. 

I'm glad I'd packed everything last night because I woke up at 5, and needed to be out of here at 6. I actually left at a quarter after. I raced up to the post office (dead as hell), dropped the packages off and went over to 99 Ranch for a pastry and a can of green tea, and a package of ramen of a type I've not tried yet. 

My headache was kicking my ass all yesterday and I dreaded going to sleep because I dreaded waking up because when I woke up, my headache was bad again. I'd started my day with water, coffee, and some taurine powder just because I have the stuff and I might as well use it. 

I rode over to H Mart to use their bathroom, and noticed as I was locking the bike something a bit unexpected. From out of the corner of my eye (because it's rude to stare) I saw what appeared to be a Korean gal sitting out front against one of the pillars, looking kind of homeless. First, I perceived a Korean gal because of the thinness, the bob hairstyle and "cute" clothes including short shorts and little booties, a look some young Asian gals adopt. There was a rolling suitcase there and some things, and this person was reading a large hardcover book. 

I thought, "Business first" and went in and used the loo, then came back out to sit at the base of a nearby pillar and enjoy my pastry and tea from 99 Ranch. I was able to observe this person without their even noticing how intently I was looking at them. 

I noticed with a bit of shock the Punch & Judy profile of the face, and realize this was a zombess I'd seen around the area. And the book, the large hardcover, seemed to be some sort of how-to book of the type popular in the 1950s and 60s, the kind that tells you how to do home improvements and things. I've sold many of them and it was easy to tell this. 

This was one of the local zombs, and a lot of street people have realized that if they're seen reading a book, their begging tips will be much larger. The problem is, she was reading a how-to book, kept flipping pages back and forth and talking to herself, and gave the impression more of toying with the book than actually reading it. 

The proper way to do it is to have some book of "literature" with ideally a few more by your side, so people can see the titles, seeing Boswell's Life Of Johnson or something. And to actually read the book in your hand and be seen to be absorbed in it. 

This zombess probably never concentrated on anything that wasn't a spoon of heroin in its life, and I could not imagine any sympathy from the crowd - Asians coming and going in their daily business - and after a few minutes' watching a scruffy zombie walked by going into the market, and he and the zombess gave each other a quick nod. Trying the waters, perhaps. Let's see how good the begging is at H Mart. 

I stopped by Tom's but he didn't answer the door. I checked the medical dumpster and didn't see anything I wanted except for a Cuisinart toaster oven - if it works I'll finally have a toaster oven which I've wanted for quite a while. 

I came back here to put things away and went back out with the trailer and step-stool and so on, and went back and got the toaster oven and a couple small computer things to put on Ebay, and presently a guy came out and said he'd "gotten a couple of emails" - no doubt from the guy in the sports car who'd driven by and seemed interested in what I was doing - I said "OK I'm off!" and left. 

Hoping the orange balloon explodes

 It's no reddit for the next couple of days because of the boycott over their trying to squeeze even more profit out of the site, and at the expense of users who are disabled and have to use software to make the site accessible to them. I believe what's going on is Reddit is asking the makers of the software to pay them insane amounts of money. 

Right now the big thing in the news is Low-Budget Orange sHitler may actually be in some trouble. Why he's not in cuffs and being frog-marched into a cell is beyond me. 

It would be absolutely lovely to see him end catastrophically, maybe a massive heart attack, cerebral aneurysm, something. We don't want to get to the stage where a good part of the country is genocided or killed in der Fuehrer's war, with der Fuehrer himself dying by his own hand deep in a bunker. Does no one read history any more? 

The action seems to all be happening at the other end of the country so there's not much I can do but comment from here. Of course I've been ready for years in case Nazis come marching up my street, but that doesn't seem to be something to worry about out here in California, after all, we invented roof Koreans. 

At least I got some practice in last night. That's all I can do, is practice practice practice at least an hour (I did a bit more than an hour) and build up strength. A good parallel is when I moved up here from Gilroy and was seriously getting around by bike, I'd have trouble carrying stuff hanging off of the handlebars, it would make me sway back and forth and felt quite difficult. Over the years whatever subtle muscles are involved have developed and it's super easy for me to even carry quite heavy things with no swinging at all. 

A very useful exercise is the play that 3rd Ro, the dai kan one, with all fingers down. That seems to strengthen everything else. It took me years to get places with the trumpet and I might as well accept that it will take me years to get places with this. 

Since I'd been up so late, well past dawn, and practiced a bit over an hour, I was not surprised to wake up at 5. I packed one large thing to take to FedEx and took off. 

The package drop-off went fine and I went into H Mart for some things. On the weekend they'd had these stainless steel charcoal stoves for sale for a whopping $20 and I really thought about getting one. Today I decided that if there were still any, I'd get one. Yeah I've only got this summer and most of next summer left here but I might as well live it up a little. But they were all gone. 

I rode back, stopping at Tom's because I had the tire valve core removal tool to give to him to give to James, and a bottle of tea drink to give to him. We ended up hanging out and talking quite a bit. He seemed surprised I'd "warmed up" to James so quickly but I explained that he'd introduced us months ago so I kind of already knew him. 

James wasn't there but his car was, the Cadillac that needs something in the engine "flashed". On Tom's driveway there, it's on private property and can't be towed away but one of the business owners there who likes to get "homeless" cars towed. 

Eventually I really had to go, and left, only getting as far as just around the corner from the tire place and noticed someone had tossed out boxes and boxes of books. Good stuff, too. So  I raced back and told Tom and rode back to the books with Tom right behind me in his truck. 

I said this is a case of just grab 'em all and sort them at your leisure. When Tom had just about all of them in, he said something like wasn't I going to go back to his place with him and help him sort the books? I said I *really* had to go, though. I think Tom was joking around with me. 

My treat for this whole thing was I found a book on how Faulkner became recognized as so great, and a book of "Complete" Faulkner "Stories" so I think it's all his short stories. 

 

Not-Bad Sunday

 I listed 20 things last night and went to bed hoping to wake up around 3, and in actuality woke up at almost 5. But it's the weekend... 

I fixed up my chicory coffee and tried one of the Amway energy drinks, not bad. I left here at a bit after 6, dropped off my pledge money at the temple, and got some Xylitol gum at Nijiya. The guy there was glad to see me "We haven't seen you for a while" and I said something like, "Yeah, I get busy and then realize I've not been to some place or seen some person for a week". 

I headed over to Cardenas market and picked out some things like cheese, a bag of pork rinds, a can of pickled carrots, and a big bottle of diet Sprite. It was busy and I got in line, and ahead of me were some guys buying a case of Dos Equis beer. One of the guys was counting change frantically and the others scratching through their pockets. I told them if they came up short, let me know. I think they got my meaning... 

The lady ahead of me was a Vietnamese lady with a cart full of eggs and veggies. She let the guys go ahead and they continued with their frantic counting of change. I took a dollar bill out of my wallet and handed it to them, saying something like, "Here! Guys have gotta have their beer, it's the weekend!" and since we didn't have much language in common, lots of laughs and smiles were exchanged. The change-counting stopped. 

The nice lady then let *me* go ahead because she had quite the cart of stuff, and then as I got to the checker she said something like it was very nice of me, and how she was at one time on food stamps (I said Yeah, I was on those as a kid, the paper ones) and one time her card didn't work and the person behind her paid and it was like $30. I told her how, when I was a kid in the 70s, if I was one penny short it was No Deal, I had to go home and find a penny. So I was familiar with the feeling those guys had, counting change, and even though I don't drink any more, I wanted them to be able to get their beer - it's Sunday! 

So it was a very nice time, there at the checkout. She told me the eggs were only about $3 a dozen which is good, and I said I'd just discovered that market, and it was all very friendly and chummy. Even the checker lady thought it was all cool. And, my purchases came to exactly the bills I had on me plus 65c in change which I had. So it worked out just right, I enthused. 

I rode back here, put things away, and hitched up the bike trailer to do some "civic duty" around here. I loaded up the stuff I'd left out for the bums that the bums didn't want, plus some other boxes that someone else had left out, and took this, in two loads, over to the place by the bridge. Then got back in here. Now the parking lot is nice and neat. 

I thought about my Cardenas market visit. When I moved here, I went to the now-closed Safeway downtown, also the CVS (also now closed) and pretty much "white" places to shop. I discovered Nijiya and started going there for the bentos and some things, then discovered Dai Thanh and the SF Market where H Mart is now. I was a huge devotee of the Whole Foods on the Alameda when it opened up, but once I discovered the Walmart on Monterey Highway which has most of the same stuff, I'm probably spending more there each week - and it's a very working-class, non-white place. 

In short, I've gradually migrated over to Asian markets and non-white markets in general because I like them more and I've also gotten used to there being very friendly interactions with the people working in the markets and fellow customers alike. And this is not the norm in "white" markets. In those, everyone's in a hurry, befriending anyone there is sort of "against the rules", everyone's a stranger and prefers it that way. 

"All business" as the expression goes, and often these places would even be unpleasant. I'm glad I'd already migrated away from them when covid hit, because those places apparently got a lot less friendly and especially to non-white people. When I read online about this or that nasty thing happening at a Safeway, I thought, "Am I glad I don't go there any more". 

My parents were not chummy with anyone in a supermarket, I think the idea was that they're "service workers" and not to be regarded as equals. That was whiteness as practiced in Southern California while I'm not going to assume that's the case in some small town in Wisconsin where everyone knows each other and have for generations. But my parents a modeled a behavior where you. did. not. befriend. the. servant. class. 

They both could have done much better in life if they'd been friendly instead of "all business" to service workers in Hawaii. I've mentioned before that my father would have done far better to quit the computer nonsense and join the carpenter's union and thereby have steady work at good pay. My mom could have networked and used her sewing skills to get a lot of sewing work, maybe even set up on her own as a seamstress. 

Hawaii is at least a bit less class-bound than the US in general just because everyone knows full well that they came there as plantation workers, just a half step better off than chattel slaves, and worked up from there. As for the actual Hawaiians, what few are left, with few exceptions they *were* slaves to their royals, and they left Hawaii in droves as soon as they were able to. So almost everyone there started from the bottom or their parents did, and fairly recently. 

I sifted and sorted 20 more things but they took more time than I thought they would so I didn't list them. But if I'm listing 20 things every other day that's pretty good. Dinner was shrimp and veggies boiled in "Louisiana crab and crawfish boil" then some butter put on. One bag of that "boil" is lasting me a long time, and it's really nice because you just cut up some veggies and some kind of meat, boil with the stuff, dump in a bowl and there's an easy dinner. 

Uncle Ted checks out

 I'd gone to bed "early" enough that I expected to wake up at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but instead slept until 5. I guess I'd needed the sleep. 

I wanted to go to Dai Thanh though, and they close at 7. I had coffee and some cookies and got going a bit after 6. I got to Dai Thanh at a quarter to 7 and got a bag of shrimp and a couple of other things including a box of peanut butter mochi that was on sale for $2. 

The last time I was there, I'd gotten talking with an old Viet guy who was there on a bike, we were locking up our bikes. Nice old guy. This time, there was his bike still, and missing its wheels. So ... something had to have happened to the guy. Maybe he was in the liquor store and fell down or had a heart attack or something? 

I rode back to H Mart and got some things there, including a couple of cans of coffee. After there I stopped by the computer place and cleaned their trash enclosure up a bit and looked in the dumpster. I found a few things to sell and some bags and packing material so it was worth it. 

I stopped at Tom's and his wife was over for a visit, and had to wake Tom up. Tom showed up after several minutes and I gave him a can of coffee and got the mochi out and we had coffee and peanut butter mochi and got caught up on the latest gossip. 

Pretty soon James ("the lion) came by. Tom and I call him this behind his back because he customarily lets his hair and beard grow out and it looks like the mane of a lion, circling his face. When his truck pulled up Tom said that can't be him because "he doesn't play that crappy music" so when James got out I gave him shit for playing "that crappy music". James said it's techno and he doesn't usually play it but "the dog likes it". "Techno-dog!" I said with a laugh. 

More gossip was caught up on. How the sketchy scrap metal place up the street isn't really as crooked as the local press makes it out to be, and how this one business owner is calling the cops on all the out-of-registration cars he sees, and so on. I told James I have a valve core removing tool with a long red handle that I'll leave with Tom for him, and we discussed possibilities for getting some work done on a car James has parked in front of Tom's that needs some engine part "flashed" which has to be done with it in the car. 

James has plans for revenge on that one business owner's vehicles, but if it can kept to merely absconding with some valve cores, that's at least easily fixed. 

I got back in here at 8:30, the equivalent of 11:30 in the before times. 

Ted Kaczynski has left the room, or really, the planet. Found dead, they're saying on the radio. If he'd just worked on writing instead of bombing people, he'd have gotten a lot more done for his cause. For example, the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is considered to have ended slavery in the US, while the radical anti-slavery terrorist John Brown, while a great and noble guy, is almost forgotten. People read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" even now, voluntarily. People need to be reminded of the very existence of John Brown. 

What a disappointment

 Tonight was the night I was to go to a meeting for a hobby group. I'd gone to a meeting of this same group last month and it had been kind of fun. They'd wanted me to join that night, and I said I wasn't sure about it but I'd take the form with me... 

I eventually filled it out and sent in my dues. And at least this time around Stevens Creek would be all finished being re-paved and this time around I know not to take detours which only make the ride longer. 

I did some looking around last night and went through some boxes of stuff and rounded up not just one but two batches of 20 things to list on Ebay which is good. I also did a load of laundry and hung that up, set up a fan to blow gently on it, up in the loft. 

I'd also put a ton of stuff out for the bums, a lot of it heavy so I really did do a fair amount of work in the middle of the night/early morning. Then I didn't even practice but just went to bed. 

So today was the day. I woke up with about half an hour to get ready, clean up a bit, put on clean just-washed clothes, etc. I took off a bit late, got over to the downtown post office to put a few small packages in, then went to the bank - money's correct right down to the penny this week - and went over to Whole Foods for a small snack and coffee and to take some money out as I do each week. 

I left there at 5. I took my old route which was open now, down to Moorpark and on that straight to Mitsuwa Marketplace. I should have gotten a sushi bento as I normally did but decided I was going to be more "keto" and got a package of chashu and a gobo salad. Heavy, but it didn't take long to eat and I'd not want to eat again for several hours. I left there at 6:30. 

The ride to the place, from Mitsuwa Marketplace, was actually pretty far so by the time I got to the place it was 7. This is great, I thought, because the actual meeting is 7:30 and the "swap meet" part of it is before that. But, where is everyone? 

I sat around waiting, reading this AARP Bulletin magazine I'd found at the post office, until it was about 7:30. I was thinking I was there on the wrong day. A lady had pulled up in her car about the same time I'd showed up, and I went over and talked to her - she was there for the meeting too, and she'd tried calling people, etc., and there was nothing about a different day or location. 

It finally turned out that the meeting was well underway, in a different building. No one had put a note on the other building, or even gone around to see if anyone was waiting around. So the lady and I went on in, as by now it was close to 8 and the meeting was well underway. 

Now, the last meeting had been kind of fun. For some reason the whole atmosphere of this one was different. There was an auction of things but it was really "blah". Half the people with stuff to sell didn't show up, including the guy I wanted to buy something from. Everyone who shows up gets a raffle ticket and the lady I'd been waiting with won something so that was cool (I'd actually won something the last meeting) and some of the short little presentations were kind of neat. But overall it was very blah. 

Even that wasn't a deal breaker but jeez, that ride home. Firstly, I had indigestion from that heavy meal I'd eaten. Should have just gotten my usual sushi or a bowl of ramen. Second, the ride home seemed very long, partially because part of Stevens Creek wasn't finished being re-paved yet and I stuck to the sidewalk which made for slow going. 

I stopped at a Safeway (they're open until crazy late hours) but nothing made sense to buy there without a Safeway card and I don't have mine any more. So I went back out without buying anything and sure enough, there was someone yelling in the parking lot so I got outta there. 

Then, as I passed a BevMo, I decided I'd hop in and get some non-alcoholic Guinness. So I turned around at the light and was going in there when I discovered I'd found the only parking lot I've seen that has those lighter-colored cement "bumpers" at each parking space but then also has a continuous barrier running along there, redundantly. I went to ride between two of the "bumpers" and ended up hitting the continuous thing and ended up nearly flipping and "eating shit" on the parking lot there with the bike on top of me. At least someone asked if I was OK and I kept saying I was fine as I slowly extricated myself from the tangle that was me and my bike. 

At least I wasn't hurt that I could tell, and it was pretty easy to get the handlebars and front wheel aligned again and then with some fiddling and cussing get the chain back where it was supposed to be. Plus, BevMo had closed at 10 and it was after that time now, and the only customers there were people waiting around while the poor sales staff had to get the things they'd ordered online and pass them through the door. So now the workers there have to deal with that instead of being able to just close up.

I rode home, wondering at how many things were closed, it being Friday night and just a bit after 10. Real hoppin' town, yeah. I decided I'd check to see if this one nearly hidden convenience store on Taylor is open, and if so I'd buy some near-beer. Then as I got closer to the general area I decided to swing by TAK Market first and they were open so I got some O'Douls and got back here. 

All told, I'd ridden two hours each way for a two-hour meeting that wasn't very fun, and the ride back, due to it being dark and myself perhaps tired, probably isn't very safe. Like Craig's List, it's just another of a lengthening list of things that are not worth it.  I kind of thought the meetings might be justifiable in that they'd get me out along Stevens Creek which has a lot of neat stores along it that I feel like I don't visit enough, but in reality I'm dashing by, trying to make good time out to where I'm going. 

I came back here at something like 11:30, and due to the warmer weather there were zombies all over - another reason to not do things that have me out late at night. I guess the shakuhachi club - which meets next week - is the only hobby I need right now. 

The very caricature of evil

 I wake up in a world that's a little bit better place because Pat Robertson has died. Where he's going I hope he likes it hot! On the radio they're talking about him and he was the very caricature of evil - calling for the murders of Hugo Chavez and others, secretly owning a diamond mine (wanted Chavez offed because he'd not give Robertson a diamond-mining concession). Plus ranting against "Satanists" like ... the Presbyterians? The list goes on and on. 

And Trump has been indicted. Indited? However it's spelled, he has to show up at a certain time; expect lots of crying and diaper-wetting. 

I packed 4 or 5 FedEx things, got out of here at a quarter to 6 and found nothing at the veggie dumpster, nor, after dropping my packages off at FedEx did I find anything behind H Mart. I did, however, find 8 cans of Amway diet energy drink so I took those. 

I got back here and packed a few small things, started some laundry and put all the Hyundai manuals I haven't already listed, out for the bums. 

Watching the war go by

 I got things cleaned up and ready to list but didn't list them. I practiced a bit and this time didn't go into a coughing fit so that's good. 

The Russians have been busy doing what they do best: war crimes. The latest is blowing a dam that's created Katrina-type conditions over a large area. Now the world seems to be waking up to the fact that the Russians, Dark Ages people, are truly doing Dark Ages things. This is the kind of thing Hitler, under his own wistful-for-the-Dark-Ages regime, wanted to do. He wanted Paris to burn to the ground, and Germany also "Even the cows" der Fuehrer is reputed to have said. 

These regimes always look back fondly on a romanticized past, full of righteous massacres and wiping-out of everyone who's ever looked at you crossways. A scorn for modern science except for those parts that help you create more dead bodies. 

The Middle East, with no small help from the USA, has been prone to this type of thinking but history shows us that even nations like Germany, at one time the most cultured state in Europe, can fall to this kind of thinking, now it's Russia that's its main proponent, and in the US we have large numbers of people who are doing some kind of historical mash-up where they both pine for a native Hitlerism and also for a return to the 1600s. 

I packed things and headed out the usual time. Everything was post office stuff so I dropped off things there, then went over to 99 Ranch thinking I'd get a couple of tea eggs and a can of black coffee. The tea egg lady was gone for the day and I got a pastry and a can of what I thought was black coffee but ended up having milk and sugar in it. The purchase took up all the change I had, a bit more than $5, it came to $5 and I told the gal to keep the rest in case anyone else is a bit short. 

I stopped behind H Mart on my way back and got cooked ears of corn and some cooked sweet potatoes for Tom and about $20 worth of fried fish for myself.

At least it was kind of cool and rather nice riding weather. I stopped at the EMT training place and pulled out 7 packages  of Datrex also for Tom, then took my goodies over to Tom's and gave them to him. We hung out talking while I drank some of his coffee and he worked on the grout in the tiles he's tiling the front part of his warehouse area with. We talked about various plans and things, and he reiterated that I've always got a bunk at his place. 

I finally said I have to go, and came back here and unloaded. There was a van at the HVAC place noisily loading or unloading or ... I dunno what. So I had a look at my ongoing project to get rid of the big dump of wire insulation - from big wire like an inch or more in diameter - that I wanted to get rid off. I'd stopped last night when it got dark and a zombie started prowling around. 

I got the bike out again with the trailer and as soon as the van was gone I was over there, dumping insulation in the salt place's dumpster. I also checked out what the van had left and there was nothing I wanted. I got the 2nd load of insulation plus some other junk I had in the trash enclosure and fit that all into the dumpster and tossed the big box in there for later - it's a good box. Now there's no hint that the big mess was even there. 

I got back in here and did stuff, had the fried fish for dinner, cleaned the office and bathroom, and Ken was here on the dot. I got my check and we talked about stuff, and also he'd gotten one of his specials - 2 dinners from Wendy's for something like $3 apiece so he gave me some fries and a double burger. I ate the "salad" and patties out of the burger and about half of the fries, and when Ken had left tossed the buns and fries out with the fish scraps for the birds. 

One of the things Ken and I talked about was, I said the Russians probably have no idea how much they've alienated the rest of the world by blowing that dam. In world opinion I only see Bucha as being possibly this bad. So old Putti's going to get just what he doesn't want, as I put it before, more NATO. Putin's plans to take over other counties in the region are being treated more seriously now too. 

I told Ken this is like when Hitler got pushed out of France and planned to level Paris. The general he left in charge of doing so flat-out didn't do it, but it's the same sort of playbook. Whether he wins or loses, Putti's objective is to kill every Ukrainian and like Hitler before him, he feels that if he can get enough territory he can use the resources in it to support more conquest. 

Just watching the war go by, a thing probably as random as a tornado, and hoping it doesn't end up *here*. 

Rain in June

 Which is fairly common, but it is a summer type storm with hail forecast (although there hasn't been any yet) and warm temperatures. 

I'm glad I got my long ride in yesterday, which was the idea. I was in here all nice and dry and buttoned up while it got wet outside. I sorted out some things and got some big/expensive things selected to list, and put junk outside for the bums. A bum did come along, who had this crazy stack of things on whatever improvised collection of parts he was using for a bike trailer, somehow got the stuff I left out onto this conglomeration, then stashed it away in one hidey-hole by the side of the building and went to tend to *another* Max Max trailer loaded with stuff which I think he stashed behind one of the trash enclosures and then, I think, went to sleep behind there. 

Meanwhile I try to keep things neat out there because it makes it less hospitable to the bums. 

I decided to call it a night eventually, after putting a bunch of stuff away and doing a lot of things, and almost went to bed without practicing but then told myself I'll never get good that way, and practiced. That highest Ro went really well. And my long tones are getting longer, I can tell even without timing them. Then I got something in my throat that made me cough and have to gargle with Listerine and I really did call it a night. 

It was windy and this is the half of the year when all kinds of fibers and crap are coming off of the trees. I'll have to be very serious about wearing a mask outside, not because of covid but because of all the crap in the air. This is something I never had to deal with in Hawaii. Sure, the trees are constantly flowering there, but none of the tree stuff in Hawaii is irritating to me. 

In Hawaii trees tend to put out pods, not airborne seeds. And the air is quite a bit more damp, which probably makes a big difference. 

Goodbye Reddit

 I listed 10 things last night because I've got to get the numbers up. Ken's business, Ebay in general, is not doing well. 

I packed the 10 things that had sold since my last post office visit, plus one more that just sold, making 11. I'd been in the last couple of days so I wanted to get a good ride in. It's windy and blustery out there, and sure enough, with all the crap the trees are shedding, I ended up coughing. 

After dropping the things off at the post office, I went over to 99 Ranch for a pastry, a can of coffee, and a mask. They sell some rather nice Korean cloth masks that are just a bit big, but I "adjusted" the straps using a couple of zip ties and now it fits great. I kept it on all through the rest of my ride, after eating the pastry and drinking the coffee, of course. 

I got onto the road that 99 Ranch is on, and rode South thinking that sooner or later I've got to cross Santa Clara street and indeed, eventually, I do. At 34th street. So then it was the long ride back to downtown. I stopped in at the Amazon place and picked up a bunch of bubble mailers, picked up a couple of interesting books at the free libraries, and stopped in at Cardenas Market for cheese and a couple of things. They sell "Joseph Farms" string cheese which at least approaches the quality of the "Precious" brand I used to get decades ago that's a true string cheese, very dry and fairly salty. I looked up "Joseph Farms" and it's Joseph Gallo of course - the good old Gallo family keeping us in wine, brandy, and I guess, cheese. 

I took off for here and got in at about 8:30, really late in these times. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and it was cloudy and looking like it's winding up to do it today. I'll not be surprised if it rains overnight. 

I used to check Craig's List for the weather report but Craig's List is dying and so, apparently, is Reddit. There's a boycott of Reddit scheduled for next week and a lot of people are talking about leaving and not coming back. 

I was on Reddit back in 2008 or 2009 or so. I was away from it for some years and then came back in 2010 or 2012, and eventually just went to "read only" because it's a huge time sink. But I learned a lot, learned a lot of history and Socialist theory and politics. The boycott is because Reddit's not going to allow something called "Outside APIs" any more, and this seems to mean you have to use their reading app only, and this excludes a lot of people, for instance people who are disabled. All of the sub-Reddits are talking about shutting down for the boycott, and it seems to be very popular with the users. 

At one time I thought participating in Reddit might help me find a place to "land" in Hawaii but people on the internet are not real people. Not real in that they'll talk like crazy online but when it comes to doing something, they won't. Say you're stuck by the side of the road with a flat tire or something, and you post about it on Reddit. You'll get 1000 opinions on flat tires and the fixing or non-fixing thereof, but even if the "Redditors" are 1 mile away, you'll never see 'em. You need something that works in the real world, like triple-A. 

The "enshittification" of the internet is sad to see, but I guess to be expected. Craig's List is just about unusable. For some reason the Hawaii Craig's List still seems OK but it probably won't be in another year or so. Fortunately a lot of the things I planned to sell on Craig's List can be dribbled out, $100 or so at a time, to Ken who will buy them for himself or for his daughter. 

 

Sleepy Sunday

 I practiced some last night, worked on that dai-kan ro, it's getting easier. I liken it to high C on trumpet except typically I could hit high C early in the practice session and it got more and more difficult as I practiced and forget about it when out busking. 

All I can think of is that it's flute type breathing here, with actual air volume. It's a much more natural type of breathing than trumpet breathing. 

Warming up

 Last night I had 20 things all queued up to list but didn't list them as, by the time I'd done a lot of other things, it was close to 5AM. 

I've spent all I will let myself take out of the bank for the week (balance will be $99 up this week) and have $4.80 in change so unless I feel like dipping into my cash savings which I don't, particularly, the next 5 days will be an exercise in not spending anything. 

After "playing with my food" by which I mean taking the 1.4 lbs of beef ribs I'd bought at Dai Thanh and cutting them up, removing bones, separating out into 4, 4-oz. servings and putting in the freezer, I read a bit more of the "Angry White Pyjamas" book and went to sleep. I'd decided that the most enjoyable, decadent thing I could do this weekend would be to sleep all I want so I did, getting up, finally, around 7PM. 

I finally got up, did some exercises while I brewed a big strong mug of chicory coffee, and had coffee and angel wing cookies with butter on them for breakfast. I checked good old Reddit and found this: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/13zkaqr/your_life_will_not_be_more_enjoyable_after_or/ 

This encapsulates my thoughts and feelings on the subject better than anything I've seen on there. It's gonna get worse. In fact, my own little mantra: 

In 2000, I had a car, In 2010 I had a motorcycle, In 2020 I had a bicycle, and in 2030 I'll be lucky to have a decent pair of shoes.... 

Is holding up very well. In terms of one's means of transportation, it represents maybe a halving, or a third'ing? of one's wealth. In the Hawaii of 2024-on, I may be able to have a bicycle at least for a while but it may be a thing that's constantly in danger of being stolen. I could possibly avoid this by having what appears to be a real hunk of junk bike that's secretly well maintained. I did this as a young student, except for the part about it being well maintained. I eventually stopped even locking my old sky-blue Fuji at home. That bike was to accompany me to Schofield Barracks and then was given to my youngest sister who I'm pretty sure sold it right away - she said it was stolen. 

So things are going to get bad, and I suspect the trend of more people leaving Hawaii than moving there will continue, and accelerate. I'm gonna go out on a limb and forecast that whites will leave disproportionately, and good riddance. The hunker-down-and-stick-it-out types will tend to stay and that means Asians including Filipinos. Real "keep going when the going gets tough" types. 

But right now I'm concerned with the next two years. That's what I'm saving up for, that transitory period where I have to get back there, find a safe and stable place to live, get Social Security coming in, and get re-acclimated to the place. Where will I be, how will I be, in June of 2025? 

I'm gambling that things will still be pretty much OK at least on the surface, up to 2030 or so. But that "pretty much OK" means the world over, meanwhile the US may be going full Fascist and I may be contemplating another hop across the wide Pacific, to Okinawa or Thailand or anywhere I can sneak in. But I'm still gambling that in this eventuality, my US money will still be good. Good enough for long enough could be my motto. 

And, savings-wise, I'm meeting my goals which is kind of surprising given I haven't been out busking. I need to put bindings on my shinobue flutes and if I go busking with the shakuhachi I have some varnish-stain sort of stuff I got to treat it with to make it look more like bamboo. And I need at least a handful of basic tunes. I have to remember back to when I was a beginning busker on trumpet and was very limited in repertoire as well as technique. I remember now that I played a lot of "Carnival Of Venice". Grim times but I got through 'em. 

The "warming up" in the title refers to the fact that the *weather* is warming up and I remember that one good summer busking where I started right around the first day of July and busked until the first day or so of October. The very warmest three months of the year. So I guess to keep with that schedule, I have one more month to get ready to get out there. 

I have plenty to do, though. Not only getting my papers in order and getting a new passport because that might come in very handy, but selling things off and getting luggage, both a carry-on bag and one to check, and working out what I'm to put in each one. It sounds funny because I don't have a car, but I have a AAA office not too far from me, I can walk to it, and they offer things like discounts on hotels, a travel service, and travelers' checks. So I'm already pretty decided that I'll join them in '24 just for some of their services. 

I got the 20 things listed and dinner was mi goreng topped with pork and vegetables boiled in "Lousiana crawfish boil". It came out great.  

Last night I also went through our books that we've got listed on Ebay and pulled out all the ones that are non-technical, that I found and listed. I have two boxes of them pulled and now have more room, and once I've taken the books off of Ebay I'll run them through the used book store to get any money I can for them, then donate what the book store doesn't want. 

Another good practice

 I got in last night and packed things to take to the post office and fedex today, and since I'd had a pretty heavy meal at Whole Foods earlier, dinner was some fried fish from Nijiya and a raw green bean salad - the beans gathered from this one dumpster on 10th that sometimes gets good things. 

It took a while to sort and label the things from taking stuff apart last night, and before I knew it, it was 5AM so I called it a night. 

Time for practice. I felt pretty tired so I figured I'd mainly work on that ro dai kan, the highest ro, with all holes closed. It seems I have to warm up before I can do it, and was not sure I *could* do it, but sure enough, once good and warmed up I could do it pretty well so I did it a lot. 

This is very different from trumpet where I could play the high notes best right away, and it was only downhill from there. As I've noted, with trumpet it was a rare day I could go above the staff when out busking, and then only early in the session. 

And I'd think that, having put so much work into trying to develop my high notes on trumpet, it'd be easy on the shakuhachi. I've got to say that it's certainly given me an advantage, but the type of breathing is very different. In trumpet you really only need a trickle of air but with the shakuhachi being a flute, some volume of air is needed also. 

I went to bed after maybe 45 minutes' practice and dreamed I was back in Hawaii gathering shells. 

I took off at about 5:30, stopped by the veggie dumpster and picked up some broccoli and bell peppers which I dropped off at Tom's, along with a little book of saying I'd found. Tom gets depressed and maybe it will help him. 

I dropped off the FedEx packages first, then went up to the post office and dropped off those, then rode up to Dai Thanh. I have to keep reminding myself that they close at 7 so I have to get going by 5:30 anyway to go there. I got some beef and ginger and cookies. 

Then I bounced back by H Mart and got a few things. I had just enough cash one me (had spent the last amount I'll allow myself to on my card at Dai Thanh) but when I was looking around I'd seen some Indomie Mi Goreng noodles for sale and decided I really wanted to try them so I went back in with change and got them, 5 packs for $3.50. 

I didn't really want to stop at Tom's on the way back because I wanted to get things into the fridge so I just rode back here. Eventually I tried the Mi Goreng noodles, with some beef and onion and a pepper I'd gotten from the dumpster yesterday. In a way they're fun to make because there are two powder packets and three sauce/oil packets and you're supposed to boil the noodles, drain, and stir-fry with all that but I just mixed the drained noodles with the stuff and then put my pepper/onion/beef mixture, cooked after the noodles, on top. 

 

Managed to make it

 I was so tired last night I didn't practice, sadly. I slept off and on until about 3:30 then I had to prepare quickly and take off for downtown. 

No stop at the post office or anything, just straight to the bank to deposit my check and now my account is $75 higher than I thought it would be?? I wonder if that's some sort of correction from the about $80 short it was before. 

After the bank I went over to Whole Foods to have something to eat and to get cash back that will take care of me for the week, both spending and saving. I considered getting just a slice of pizza and a near-beer but ended up getting an assortment of stuff and a near-beer. 

I then headed for Walmart but I stopped at the Amazon place first for bubble mailers. Then went to Walmart for paper towels and a couple of other things, then the Amazon place again on the way back for more bubble mailers. 

I got back to Nijiya at about 10 minutes to closing, and got things there too. Then headed back here. I unloaded the bike and hitched up the bike trailer and loaded up the long pieces of wood from yesterday, a 4X4 post I'd put out for someone to take and which someone had put behind the trash enclosure, and a couple of other odds and ends and rode around to this cabinetry place that always has room in their dumpster and in it all went. At another place in that area I found a handy plastic tub so I took that. 

I got back here and that was my outside time for today.