Starfleet forbids it.....

It's snowing in the desert this week...

and really shit cold...

There's been a-lot of indoor time.

The best part of Retirement snow days is that I
can catch up on personal project that are,
time consuming without feeling guilty....

While snowed in....

I have managed to get done some initial work on my 
German paper model Zeppelin
the LZ-10...
(hope you remember my previous posting on ordering this model?)

Being a German kit there is a MASS of instructions..

so much in fact that it's confusing..

but...

I assembled the first two segments of the 
Gas Bag..

My initial work was a test of how to cut the individual parts

from the paper sheets, and to see how well the glue I

selected worked on the supplied material

since I have never done a paper model previously?

The Scotch glue stick appears to work well
for this project and although I need to see how
the sections will fit together I am fairly proud of
what I have managed so far....
The gas bag construction even includes interior bracing..?
I'm am letting the sections cure prior to attempt 
joining them together.

There's still a long, long way to go before the 
model is finished and hung in my Nerd Cave,
for it is fairly complex model for a Zeppelin,
with multiple gondolas, engine mounts and
a full keel beneath the gas bag.
Very cooly, steampunk tho and hopefully, eventually
worth the effort..?

get paid...
Congress and the Senate that is,

 while a huge number of hard-working, 
Federal Employee's are not paid 
during Trump's Government shut down...!

This explains why they aren't in any rush to solve anything..!
If any Federal Employee is working without a paycheck...
why-the-fuck-should-they..!

government-shutdown-contractors-janitors not paid but Senators are

I've said it many times previously but now,

people are finally wising up to the fact that the
Olympics---

are a scam that pulls tax dollars out of the host
society and provides the citizens with nothing in return.

nobody-wants-to-host-the-olympics-anymore

I love the fact that in Canada,
Calgary voted over-whelmingly
 to NOT host any of the upcoming Olympic games.
Smart.

 how once again somebody is talking about Murica'
getting high speed passenger rail..?

What a joke--We are a third world county now--
Every so many years somebody pumps out PR about
developing high speed rail in the U.S.
virgin-trains-usa

It will never happen,

high speed rail is first world country infra-structure.

High speed rail....

does not get built in a country that won't raise

the minimum wage to a living standard or 

provide universal health care....

Murica' is a country where 
dumb shit stuff happens on purpose.
Face it...
as evidence I present the following:
Southern truck owners intentionally blocking 
electric car charging stations?

tesla-supercharger-anti-tesla-pickup-truck-drivers

We are too fucking stupid for first world quality
infra-structure or a first world quality life.....

I love really love Barbour waxed jackets...

They are excellent against the winter wind  here in the desert--

unbelievably,

 since they were designed for the British always---wet weather... 

Barbour jackets do last for years and

 over the years I have acquired 3 of them...

The problem is Barbour Jackets are expensive as fuck..!!!

I've been wanting a Barbour sleeveless vest for years 

but could never find one on ebay or used..

Just this week I found a Vest by an Irish Company,

Walker and Hawks..

which is almost identical to what Barbour produces?

wax-bodywarmer-waistcoat

I ordered a blue one, 
off Amazon (of fucking course)
 for $35.00 us plus shipping.
Had to buy it, I was unable to resist....
and it is EXCELLENT!

My fascination with cheap watches never ends...

However I believe that I may found the end limit of wrist watch

cheap-dom...

A watch from a company, supposedly called,

Keller and Weber..?

(which means what in Chinese?)

$12.00 and free shipping---

It's not a mechanical movement

rather---

a battery powered movement---

and I cannot seem to adjust the date---

but the stop watch sub-dials work---!

All in all a win...

none the less---

The case and face design is very basic Bauhaus design---

beautiful in it's way...

Bauhaus

With a replacement band from my own stock,
this should be an interesting watch..?
and for all of $12.00....?
I don't think I can go cheaper than this for 
a new watch that actually works----?

Totally--completely--insane..

loved it...

Let's recap the action so far....Uh, nothing really.

Wait--wait---I've got a handle on this--

 keeping my pledge against 

commenting on our current political chaos.

I am doing my best to fulfill my concept of providing

the current regime in Washington with zero attention

as the worst hurt I can inflict

is ignoring them totally?

It was Keith Richards birthday Wednesday the 18th...
He turned 75...
happy-75th-birthday-keith-richards

The trailer for the upcoming new Hellboy movie
with David Harbor as Hellboy is out.

Fucking awesome.
hellboys-first-trailer

Still in a horrifying slump with my playing.

Dieter Rams should be known as the Patron Saint
designer for the OCD...

Rams was the design director at Braun industries
Braun
for over 30 years and was involved in the design of
over 500 different products....
There has been a documentary produced on him...

the-most-influential-designer-of-the-twentieth-century-is-finally-getting-his-due

Three of his designs I could not live without are the 

classic Braun-battery powered travel alarm,

which i am devoted to
sits on my nightstand. 

(even tho i never travel any longer...)

When I did travel extensively the Braun battery powered electric 

razor was always in my carry-on...

Most recently a real favorite of mine is

the Braun Chronograph wristwatch...

Although it eats through batteries at an amazing rate..

I love this watch.

The items produced under Dieter Ram at Bruan
are clean, simplistic but beautifully stylish..
devoid of excess, unnecessary shit...!
Amazingly beautiful and useful.

We are in the process of discovering that our solar system
is far larger..
farout-astronomers-identify-most-distant-known-object-in-solar-system

Massively stranger that we ever realized...

Meanwhile society is more focused on
some twitter idiot's diet plan---?

You may have wondered about last week's posting

regarding a Cjiaba watch I ordered..expecting the watch to be 

totally fucked on arrival--which it was...

These desperately bad Cjiaba watches are 

a sort of challenge to me---

How does one make something viable out of truly low cost shit....

Viable inexpensively---????

Below is the end result of a different

Cjiaba watch project of mine--

This project watch was the Cjiaba that 
I mentioned would not run do to the
enormous human eyebrow hair in the watch mechanism
as i described in my last post...
(awesome quality control eh??)
I tore this Cjiaba apart---got it running--and actually did
ten coats of flat black paint on the casing.

(it was originally a shitty chrome)
Followed by ten coats of clear cover spray 
and hand painted the orange accented bezel markings.
The final step was the addition of a military style web band.
Total re-hab cost was $15.00 us for the band...?
Not a bad result in totality?
It also keeps excellent, accurate time now, although it's
mechanism spring is only good for about 4 hours of power
storage without the self-winder topping it's power off---
There is nothing more satisfying to me that taking a item
that is, well, shit and making it viable.

Penny Marshall died..

She was 75.

penny-marshall-dead-dies-75

She became a great director and was 

one of the few female Hollywood moguls..

Like any good, young dude from Jersey tho,

I had a crush on

 her character, Laverne Defazio!!

Laverne and Shirley

This is excellent--on Bill Gates must read list..
My wife surprised me with it..

On Netflix streaming now....

 beautifully filmed...