A bad idea

 I got back in here last night, cleaned the place up, Ken came by at his usual time, I got that sweet 2-week paycheck, we talked about stuff, etc. 

We got talking about the advantage an attacking force has if they use cheap weapons, few hundred dollars for a Houthi weapon vs. say $20k for an American one to counter it. I mentioned the drones the Ukrainians are making out of foamcore and such things, showed him some videos of the cardboard drones, 3D printed drones, and the classic one of Flite Test and their "Guinea Pig" plane - that's the best intro to what Flite Test did at least 10 years ago, what fun they had and their general attitude. 

My problem right now is, I started yesterday with exercises, that day on legs. All well and fine, but I've learned that just because I go down into a deep squat at least 25X a day, does not mean that doing it for reps with added weight will not really aggravate my old lower back injury. Ow. 

I took the few things I had packed to go to the post office and got out of here at the usual time in the afternoon, dropped off trash, dropped the packages off at the downtown post office. Some big fat guy was in a big argument with the lady working there, about his "mail being thrown all over" who knows... 

When I'd locked my bike, the usual rack was completely taken up by a bike locked across it with a U-lock, unfortunately the thing with U-locks is you are required to lock your bike in this "fuck you" way. That's why I don't use one. So I had to park at the smaller, older rack but because my bike has wide handlebars, when I came out, a bum was locking *his* bike to the railing. I said I was sorry, that someone had taken up the whole rack, then I'd had to use this one and effectively take *it* up, and it's just "fuck you's all the way around". The root of it is not enough bike racks because if you don't drive a car, then fuck you. 

I went to the bank and deposited my check and my balance agreed with my calculation down to the penny so that's nice. Then I went to Whole Foods and got the last cherry turnover that was there, after getting a bag from the veggie department to put it in because there were no bags etc in the bakery. 

My back is really sore so I didn't feel like going anywhere else. There were the usual "Save the children" hucksters out front, and a guy with a van playing music loud. I asked him if he could look up anything and he said he could, so I said, "Look up 'Clarissa Jenkins The Edge'" and he could not find it. Oh well, I said, and started to ride off. Then circled around, and asked him if he could find "EBN Mac-10" but he could not even find that. I said that's the problem with smart phones. I have a real phone (pulling out my good old flip phone) and a real computer, the phone for phone stuff and the computer for computer stuff, with a real keyboard and a mouse. And rode off. 

I got a few bubble mailers and a lot of tough bubble wrap at the Amazon place, stopped at Nijiya for some things, and got back here. 

I turned on the radio and there was a big discussion of the new FAFSA form which is needed to get financial help for college. Since college is this paradoxical thing that makes you poorer the more of it you go to, they have to keep urging young people to go to it to keep the scam going. 

So they talked about all the difficulties and to me it sounds like the new FAFSA is working just fine. In tons of little ways it's effectively keeping those who actually need help from getting it. That's a win. In the US, college only makes sense if you're wealthy enough that college doesn't matter. In other words, it's a frill, it's a sort of rite of passage that is only useful to show you're a full-fledged member of, well, the cadre of people who've graduated college. 

You're really only supposed to get a college degree if you're in one of the right squares in the race/class matrix AND you have substantial wealth. If you're smart you'll have that wealth hidden away so you get all the scholarships and grants you can, but you never end up desperate or having to sluff off your studies to go work as a parking-lot attendant because you will somehow always have the money you need. 

In my own case, white or at least white enough, originally middle-class, OK all's well so far, but due to my parents crashing and burning, none of the five of us were going to go to college. I was stupid enough to go about halfway through, and lucky enough to get one of the last handful of electronics tech jobs in the country and hold it just long enough to pay off half the loans, and luckier still that I got a small inheritance that enabled me to pay off the 2nd half of the loans and buy my first car - at age 30. 

You can have the money, but you need to be on the first square on the race/class matrix too. Why else are there so few Black engineers? And Hispanic engineers are practically unicorns. You have to be some type of white or Asian. And in parts of the US now, the parts I've lived in, you have to be Asian or ... Asian. I can't even be mad about that any more, more like grudgingly respectful. Asians are doing it right - whole family working for the kid or maybe 2 kids to get their degree in engineering or dentistry or something, then the kids who were boosted up looking after their parents and siblings as they go through their lives.  

But going to college to earn a good living is ... delusional. 

And as the economy contracts, the trick for the ruling class is to make things look like they're helping the little guy get a leg up, really rooting for him, while doing everything possible to make sure he doesn't really rise in life. Hence the new FAFSA. 

Practice has been going well and I have pretty good hopes for the busking season when it starts again. There's a lot I've *not* been spending for instance, this will be the last winter my faux-Ugg boots can do but that's OK because it's my last winter here. My little heater just gave up the ghost but I think we're past the coldest weather.