Big Media gets it wrong again

As usual, the media gets it wrong. This USA Today article is mainly about interiors that wear out faster than the exterior, but it's not so much because the cars are lasting longer, it is simply that owners are keeping them longer and taking better care of them. 

The fact is the baby boomers are mostly all retired now and living more or less on a fixed income. The money just isn't there anymore to buy a new one so often so we make do with what we have. It's simply more cost effective to do regular maintenance and take care of the car you are driving than to buy a new one when needed.

There is also the fact that we don't drive as much as we use to. While that in itself doesn't make the car last longer (cars that just sit around generally do not last as long due to a lot of factors), only using the car every few days instead of everyday obviously results in less miles being put on the car.

And yes, they are made better than they used to be thanks in large part to Toyota. There is a very good reason why Toyota is now the largest car maker in the world, they simply make better cars and people know that. The result of this is all of the other manufacturers have had to step up their game a lot to keep up. 

The Asian manufacturers, in general, seem to produce the highest quality cars these days. Japanese and Korean auto workers seem to take much more pride in producing a quality product. Not far behind, China has made great strides in this area as well. The days of GM and Ford ruling the world are short lived if you ask me.

The good and bad of YouTube

YouTube is a wonderful outlet for anyone with a video camera and some basic editing skills. Having been a part of it for as many years as I have, I have seen some very good videos and some very bad ones as well. Separating the good from the bad channels can be a problem all it's own.

Part of the problem has to do with the balance of friendship and boredom. As an example, consider the days of old when you had friends who would make home movies or take vacations pictures and invite you over to view them. Very few of these were hardly worth watching, mostly because your friend's idea of things that are interesting would not match your own. But as a friend you felt obligated to sit through them no matter how boring they were.

Fast forward to the present where we have YouTube. Now we have the ability to pick and choose what we watch or don't watch. Whatever your interests are, there is more than likely a video or channel dedicated to that subject. Great! What could possibly go wrong with that? Let's take a look.

Over the years that YouTube has been around, a lot of folks have gotten the bug to make their own videos and post them on their channel. No problem there, watch or don't watch, the decision is yous. But here is where the problem begins.

Say you begin to have a following. Not much at first, but your subscriber base grows. Like it or not, you feel obligated to return the favor and subscribe to their channel. You figure if they like what you are posting, surely their tastes must be similar. As long as that is the case, there is not much of a problem, but here is the rub. Maybe they subscribed at the request of someone else and are just doing it out of loyalty to a friend. Oops! Now we have a problem.

And the problem gets worse the more subscribers you get. You don't want to be a snob so you hit the subscribe button on their channel and so it goes until you are subscribed to so many people who post videos you care nothing about that you simply can't keep up watching them all in a day and so you just don't watch any!

I think everyone needs to find their own solution, but what I did was to politely explain to some of the people I subbed to that I might not watch all of their videos because the content didn't interest me. I think most reasonable people understand that.

I also tend to skip through videos that I have little interest in. You can still comment just by looking at the comments made so far and from the parts you watch. It may not be totally fair, but when you get so far behind it's almost mandatory.

I've also found that people I once found very interesting are no long interesting or post videos that are boring. Those I may just click on and then go directly to the end so that YouTube will mark it watched. I hate seeing videos in my subscriptions that are not marked watched.

And finally I've gone through my subscriptions and unsubscribed to those I don't enjoy at all. Life is too short to waste watching videos I am not interested in at all. To be fair, if anyone doesn't want to stay subbed to me because of that I completely understand.

I would be most interested in your method to cope with this problem. :)

What's happening in July?

Guess I've been too busy lately to type anything here. Making videos, providing transportation to our newest job recipient (Lexi) and just all around living in general. Yes Lexi got a job at the local Arby's restaurant about the time school was out for the summer. She absolutely loves working there, at least for the time being. It seems the longer one works at almost any job, the less they are lovin' it. LOL

I've been busy in the shop as well, currently building a power supply for an AM transmitter kit that I recently put together. The power supply is a regulated 12 volt DC and should be finished sometime this weekend. I made it out of an old 12 volt lamp transformer and put it in an old computer power supply case. I do plan to paint it, but haven't decided on a color yet.

Also went to my rheumatologist yesterday in Greenwood, IN. Had a good time being with granddaughters Jordan and Kylie, as well as great granddaughter Lainee. After the doctor visit we ate at the Skyline Chili near there and had desert at Cold Stone Creamery. Man was that some good eats!

 Also assembled another power supply kit recently that I bought at Banggood. Main reason I bought it was it's price. Hard to find electronics kits that cheap. Plus I will use it with the breadboard that I got off eBay sometime back. I have started a BB series on my channel for playing around build circuits that might possibly be useful on the bench. First one was on voltage doublers and that was done in preparation for another bench project coming up.

The other project I'm talking about is adding one more panel to my variac output besides the AC (0-150 Volts) and the low voltage DC (0-50 Volts) that I recently added. As you can see in the picture,

the outputs are clearly marked and the DC panel is on the left and AC on the right. A recent addition to the AC panel is the addition of binding posts for those times I need to use some low voltage AC for projects on the bench. The last addition of outputs from the variac will be a voltage doubler which will add higher voltage DC (0-400 Volts) for testing old radio circuits for leakage. When that is finished, that will complete my original plans for the variac output.

That's enough for now, maybe I'll be back again in another 6 months or so. :)

Waiting... is the hardest part

Good afternoon world, I'm sitting here in my living room, freezing my tuchas off (My body has not acclimated to cold weather yet), waiting for a package by way of the United Parcel Service. This particular package has taken what seems like forever to get here. I bought this item on eBay a full 7 days ago (November 16th), and it is just now scheduled for delivery today.

I realize this was sent economy shipping (UPS Ground), but it seems to me it was almost purposely delayed along it's journey. As you can see by the graphic insert, it took almost 5 full days to get from California to Illinois. I don't know what kind of mule train UPS uses, but that seems a bit slow. Then it sat in Illinois 26 1/2 hours waiting for it's trip across to Indianapolis. A 200 mile trip that took almost 4 1/2 hours. Google says the trip should take 3 hours and 12 minutes, but I will admit this was not a bad time considering the package had to be scanned, loaded, transported, unloaded and scanned again. Anyone familiar with expressway driving knows the UPS semi drivers don't waste much time. 😃

I suppose it all boils down to being impatient when you are waiting for something to arrive, in this case I think it was somewhat justified. But then I've had packages delayed by any and all of the package delivery services, including my beloved USPS. 

I think my foul mood stems from other sources as well, YouTube video watching has dropped off significantly, no doubt due to the holiday season. Speaking of that, I did produce one yesterday worth a chuckle or two of me singing. If you are brave enough you can check that out here: You asked for it

Well it's now 1:22 PM and it's still not here. Now it's a contest between UPS and the weather. Rain is moving into the area as we speak. Would be nice to have it here before the rain, but I suppose a few drops of moisture won't hurt it much. Sometimes the drivers don't like to leave a package when it is raining hard so then I would have to get up and go to the door when he comes and I don't want to do that either. Man I am in a foul mood. LOL

Well I was hoping to cap this off with a picture of the item when I opened it, but that's not gonna happen. Guess you will have to wait for the next time I decide to write more here or if you follow my YouTube channel you will surely see it before then. Have a great day you all and a very happy Thanksgiving holiday as well. 

What am I up to tonight?

Not much. Had a fairly busy weekend, with a trip to Vevay to see mom honored at her church along with 3 other 90 year old seniors. Then they had their once-a-month dinner afterwards which was also nice. I was kind of wore out after all that so I went to bed last night about 10 and didn't get up until 10 this morning! My sleep habits lately have been less than consistent, so I was due to catch up. LOL

Also got to see my sister and most of her children while at church yesterday. That was really nice as I had not seen her since she broke her leg and was in the nursing home. She was looking pretty good and the kids all seemed to be well.

To my surprise, my son and his family also showed up, so it was a really good family day. Everyone has such busy lives these days it is truly great when we all get together. It didn't seem as important when I was working, but now that I'm retired I can see much more clearly just how important it is.

The trip down and back home was made much more pleasant by the company of my two granddaughters, Lexi and Kylie. They don't get to come over as much these days so it always fun to see and talk with them. In less than two years, Lexi will be off to college and Kylie the year after that, so I won't have much chance to see them after that.

I did get a couple of packages in the mail today. One them actually arrived on Saturday, but I was unable to get it out of the mailbox parcel locker. The key would go in, but it would not turn. I called the post office this morning and they told me the carrier would get it out when she came. I was a little surprised when she knocked on my door a short time later with not one, but two packages! Always fun to get packages in the mail.

One package contained a small multi-meter which needed repair from a YouTube friend in Michigan. He also sent me some other switches and cables, etc. that will be useful in my shop. The other package was also from a YouTube friend in Ohio. He sent me a couple of nice microphones to use with the karaoke machine I had gotten for free some time ago. He said one works and the other doesn't, so that will be featured in a future repair video.

Almost 10 PM here, so guess that is enough for tonight. Doubt I will go to bed right away, but I usually retire to my room about this time to win a game of Solitaire on the computer in my room before I go off to dreamland. Nite, nite.

Election Night - 2016

Ah yes, voting in the presidential election has come and gone. Who will lead this great land next? No idea. I really have had no interest this year at all. Seems everyone and their brother has had an opinion on YouTube and Facebook. I'm sure Twitter was the same, but I hardly check that these days.

Obviously I know who is running and who my preference is, but the truth is I don't really care what the outcome is, I just want it to be over! At the time I am writing this (9:47 PM), this is what's happening:

These early results probably don't mean anything, but it is difficult not to notice a trend which follows the last election with the red states in the heartland and blue ones mostly on the coasts and big cities.

I've always been a firm believer that who is president really doesn't matter all that much to the common man. He will get up and go to work just the same no matter who wins. It may matter to those who are in the upper classes a bit, but even those people will hardly be affected by the outcome.

Now congressional elections do matter and until those who are in power now are replaced, little will change. It's time we got back to the founder's intentions that our representatives be businessmen and not the professional politicians who now occupy the offices. I really think it's time for term limits in the house and senate.

Will it happen? No. And for good reasons. Who makes the laws? You got it, congress. Why should they vote to limit their power. Until a shakeup occurs in congress, we will see little changes in the way this country is run.

Just my thoughts on the subject for what it's worth, and it wasn't worth me taking the time to vote today so I guess it's not worth much at all...

Well now, can it be true? Am I really composing another post in the blog? Well, it looks like it. Since I've been so busy with YouTube, I have really neglected this blog totally. I can't promise I will post on a regular basis here, but today I was in the mood to do just that. So what all have I been up to for the one year plus that I have not posted here?

A good question. I think mostly it's been YouTube, but I have worked on several electronics projects in that time period as well. I've gotten several items from eBay as well as other places and of course visiting family and friends, all of which does take some time.

It's probably been as long since I've worked on my Buick as well. Poor thing has been sitting without being started for about a year now. I did try to start it this spring, but when it would not start in the normal amount of time if usually does, I just left it be and went on to something else. No doubt a gas problem, but it seems every time it sits for a few months it has a gas problem. Either the pump won't pump it up from the gas tank or it's not strong enough to get up to the carb. I have no doubt if I put gas in the carb it would probably start.

I also had ambitious plans to sand the top and start the painting process on that, but it was just so much easier to sit here and my chair and ignore it. I'm getting to the point now that I need to either do something to it, or consider selling it. No sense in letter it just rot away out there.

On the arthritis front a lot has happened. I did see a Rheumatologist as mentioned in my last post, and he did prescribe something to relieve the attacks I was having. He was unclear on the exact problem, but from what I gathered it was mostly gout attacks and for the time being that much has been resolved, I still struggle with my bad knees, but at least I can walk now which is a great improvement to be sure.

The problem is now that I was supposed to see him this spring but got a call that he had a family emergency and had to cancel my appointment. It was rescheduled to a later date and I got the confirmation call the day before, but when I drove all the way up there and showed up about 15 minutes early, the receptionist put a note on the locked door saying all appointments were cancelled for the day.

That was the last contact I have had with his office. No one ever called or contacted me in any way. So now I will ask my regular doctor to recommend another Rheumatologist to see. Hopefully one a little closer this time. Took over an hour to drive up to Indianapolis to the old doctor. I am only taking those pills one every three days as that seems to keep the attacks from happening and also serves to make them last a little longer, so I'm sure it will all work out


I've moved my electronics workbench to the kitchen since last we spoke, My granddaughter Jordan moved in with her baby (Lainee) and stayed for quite some time. Then she moved out and my grandson Billy moved in and he is still with me. So the extra bedroom has been occupied with no sign of that changing for awhile. No matter, I like it just as well where it's at now and I'm getting ready to add yet another set of shelves on this end to accommodate some of my new test equipment. Stay tuned for that!


I won't go into all the other things that are new, you can check my YouTube channel here to go there and see what all I've bought in the last year and a half. Suffice to say there have been a lot of new (to me) things show up here over that time period. I bought a bunch of new stuff for my repair bench as well as some fun things too!

I guess that's about all I have for this time around. Hopefully I will be more faithful in updating things in the future, but I won't promise anything. :)