DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I agree with much of what Phil wrote - about our money going overseas by buying imports. It's not a wise way to go, but it seems to be the global way things are now done by business.
Here in Australia, it's now almost impossible to find goods made in the country. A few small industries make some clothes, mostly top quality and consequently mad-expensive. Even name brands are now made in the cheapest places - Vietnam-Bangladesh-Pakistan for clothes, India for shoes, just about everywhere else for food products. Today for Sunday lunch we had friends in. The menu was minestrone for an entree (beans and the tomato soup base from from Italy, tofu from Taiwan), smoked salmon (Norway), black bread from Germany, steamed corn from Thailand, and a luscious baked dessert made in France and bought frozen at our local posh deli. All washed down with a prosecco from Italy and a dry white wine from France. Fresh stuff for salad and fruit and cheese on a dessert platter were Aussie-made.
The air/sea mileage for all this imported food was surely high. All that fuel spent on food. Yet my favorite cheese is usually the same price or at times even cheaper in Surabaya than I can buy it in my home town. How stupid is this? And who is the stupid one - I sometimes think, it's me for buying it at inflated local prices.
The sad thing about all this is, while we try to source all our food locally, when we do buy, almost all the Australian goods cost at least 50% more than the imports. This too is crazy. But it's how it has been here since we went global in the 1980s. Many industries that existed then are no longer around. It seems we no longer make anything locally if Australian business can import it more cheaply, usually from third world countries where labor costs are ultra low. Our glorious leaders tell us this is the way to go and we only have a 4.1% unemployment level, but most of us believe this figure is kept artificially low, like our mythical cost of living data which Canberra insists is just over 2% a year, but those of us who shop know that food products alone hav gone up by up to 50% in the past 18 months. And the cost of living list fails to include mortgage payments and rent. So who is fooling who, or who is trying to fool who - and why are the latter who so stupid as to believe this nonsense?
When I'm in Asia, I find Aussie products sold there (not a great number of those, but a fair few) are often as cheap as or at times (during sales) cheaper than I can buy them here. My favorite brand of cheese is 50 cents to $1 lower in price there. Grapes from Victoria ditto. And I find US products like grapes and other fresh food like apples and pairs, all air-freighted to Indonesia but selling there for less than the same local products being sold to us in supermarkets in Australia. This makes no sense to me, but it's how business in Australia operates.We could be supplying many more Asian markets with fresh food products flown in literally overnight, but instead the Indonesians (also the Malaysians) buy mostly from the USA, much farther away so with higher transport costs. This is crazy-mad but it's how things are.
More and more Americans and Australians are leaving their home countries to live elsewhere. Even we are thinking of pulling up stumps and moving to Malaysia where my partner was born, in the next couple of years, before I'm too old to cope with the complexities and complications of selling, disposing of possessions, packing up what we want to keep, and moving on. Even then our main concern now is, would you believe it, what about our cats if we leave Australia. First world problems indeed...
Okay, back to my original topic. As you wrote, there is a difference between hoarding (= mindless buying and stacking up unused goods) and careful investing (= your guitars) and using what you acquire. About cameras, well, i don't know. I held for a long time to the notion that buying quality photo gear would mean good returns when I sold. Yet with only a few exceptions - as an example, I sold my Hasselblads a few years ago when prices for film gear were still good (they no longer are in AUS) and made a little money. Otherwise for the most part I've lost in resals, and happy were the few sales when I broke even or made a little profit.
I hope this isn't/won't be the case with your guitars, tho' from what you write, you seem to know your gear ultra well and you are a clever buyer.
Fortunately for us, for now, we here are not big on Walmart or even Amazon. O,ur import duties and sales tax structure, the high cost of shipping from overseas and the ridiculously low Aussie dollar (worth all of $0.61 US cents today) keep us from throwing away too much of our money into the Pacific.
Okay, that's my rant for today. There are no easy solutions to our problems which have been so long in the making. And I doubt I will have much more to say in future about inflation, globalised sales, hoarding et al. But as always I'll read your comments with interest.
Here in Australia, it's now almost impossible to find goods made in the country. A few small industries make some clothes, mostly top quality and consequently mad-expensive. Even name brands are now made in the cheapest places - Vietnam-Bangladesh-Pakistan for clothes, India for shoes, just about everywhere else for food products. Today for Sunday lunch we had friends in. The menu was minestrone for an entree (beans and the tomato soup base from from Italy, tofu from Taiwan), smoked salmon (Norway), black bread from Germany, steamed corn from Thailand, and a luscious baked dessert made in France and bought frozen at our local posh deli. All washed down with a prosecco from Italy and a dry white wine from France. Fresh stuff for salad and fruit and cheese on a dessert platter were Aussie-made.
The air/sea mileage for all this imported food was surely high. All that fuel spent on food. Yet my favorite cheese is usually the same price or at times even cheaper in Surabaya than I can buy it in my home town. How stupid is this? And who is the stupid one - I sometimes think, it's me for buying it at inflated local prices.
The sad thing about all this is, while we try to source all our food locally, when we do buy, almost all the Australian goods cost at least 50% more than the imports. This too is crazy. But it's how it has been here since we went global in the 1980s. Many industries that existed then are no longer around. It seems we no longer make anything locally if Australian business can import it more cheaply, usually from third world countries where labor costs are ultra low. Our glorious leaders tell us this is the way to go and we only have a 4.1% unemployment level, but most of us believe this figure is kept artificially low, like our mythical cost of living data which Canberra insists is just over 2% a year, but those of us who shop know that food products alone hav gone up by up to 50% in the past 18 months. And the cost of living list fails to include mortgage payments and rent. So who is fooling who, or who is trying to fool who - and why are the latter who so stupid as to believe this nonsense?
When I'm in Asia, I find Aussie products sold there (not a great number of those, but a fair few) are often as cheap as or at times (during sales) cheaper than I can buy them here. My favorite brand of cheese is 50 cents to $1 lower in price there. Grapes from Victoria ditto. And I find US products like grapes and other fresh food like apples and pairs, all air-freighted to Indonesia but selling there for less than the same local products being sold to us in supermarkets in Australia. This makes no sense to me, but it's how business in Australia operates.We could be supplying many more Asian markets with fresh food products flown in literally overnight, but instead the Indonesians (also the Malaysians) buy mostly from the USA, much farther away so with higher transport costs. This is crazy-mad but it's how things are.
More and more Americans and Australians are leaving their home countries to live elsewhere. Even we are thinking of pulling up stumps and moving to Malaysia where my partner was born, in the next couple of years, before I'm too old to cope with the complexities and complications of selling, disposing of possessions, packing up what we want to keep, and moving on. Even then our main concern now is, would you believe it, what about our cats if we leave Australia. First world problems indeed...
Okay, back to my original topic. As you wrote, there is a difference between hoarding (= mindless buying and stacking up unused goods) and careful investing (= your guitars) and using what you acquire. About cameras, well, i don't know. I held for a long time to the notion that buying quality photo gear would mean good returns when I sold. Yet with only a few exceptions - as an example, I sold my Hasselblads a few years ago when prices for film gear were still good (they no longer are in AUS) and made a little money. Otherwise for the most part I've lost in resals, and happy were the few sales when I broke even or made a little profit.
I hope this isn't/won't be the case with your guitars, tho' from what you write, you seem to know your gear ultra well and you are a clever buyer.
Fortunately for us, for now, we here are not big on Walmart or even Amazon. O,ur import duties and sales tax structure, the high cost of shipping from overseas and the ridiculously low Aussie dollar (worth all of $0.61 US cents today) keep us from throwing away too much of our money into the Pacific.
Okay, that's my rant for today. There are no easy solutions to our problems which have been so long in the making. And I doubt I will have much more to say in future about inflation, globalised sales, hoarding et al. But as always I'll read your comments with interest.
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Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
The fact that we live on one of the most heavily forested continents in the world, and pine is being shipped from the actual opposite side of the globe is infuriating.
Phil
Phil
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Consider buying it from your neighbor to the north, Canada. A producer of quality native wood. Which would be an excellent Good Neighbor Policy and to the benefit of the two economies. To me helping your neighboring nations to keep their economies stable should be an exception to the globalisation madness. It's mutual assistance. Canada and Mexico buy from the US. But from the other side of the globe, no way!!
To me, shipping stuff you could easily make locally or regionally from halfway around the world is economic and environmental madness. It contributes to the ongoing destruction of the planet, as is now happening in Indonesia which has projected growth to 2029 of EIGHT PERCENT and has deforested almost half of the island of Kalimantan of its rain forests for the ongoing production of palm oil. To make hand soap, sanitiser and dish detergent. Crazy!!
In Australia the most popular brand of dish detergent sold in all the supermarkets is made and bottled in indonesia, often discounted to giveaway prices of AUD $2 (= US $1.10-$1.20 depending on the usually ridiculously low exchange rate for the Aussie dollar) for 400 ml. For this greasy-oily muck forests of native trees are destroyed, native wildlife decimated, local residents moved out of their homes which are then bulldozed and the land plowed to plant - palm trees. For more oil.
Indonesia now has a policy of producing finished goods (like the aforesaid dish detergent) in-country. Unlike its neighbor Malaysia which just exports the stuff as quickly as it can be processed, this by harsh chemical processes. Palm oil is now regarded as bad for human health, but does big business care? You tell me!
Equally annoying to us down here is a recent decision by our Prime Minister to veto a major environmental plan to favor business interests. As can and does happen when politics is taken over by vested interests with deep pockets. I fear you Americans are about to experience four years of much the same, starting with high tariffs which will only push prices everywhere into the stratosphere. Again, insane.
A voter backlash on all this is long overdue. But so few seem to care. As long as the El Cheapo brands keep coming, as Aussies say, "she'll be right!!"
A small response would be to boycott faraway foreign goods and try to buy local or regional. But then again business has all this stitched up in its favor, and often as not no local products are available, and when they are the cost is usually high as 100% from the imports. Scheming, but there we are, well and truly stuck.
I did say no more rants. Sorry, Cal. Time I shut up now. Will do.
I also must go easy on the !!s, they do my blood pressure no good...
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Retro-Grouch
Veteran
Oh, if only it were just four years...
Aside from that, the environment always takes a back seat to greed. Everywhere in the US (and probably everywhere else), there is a revolving door between local government and local real estate interests. "Development" leads to higher property values, so the local government, coincidentally staffed by former or present real estate developers, pursues development at all costs. Local residents who stand to suffer through the degradation of their environment are bought off with the notions of "growth" and 'progress". Wow, a new Walmart!
Where I live, a developer is railroading through a 4,000 unit housing development with two (!) golf courses, all with the enthusiastic assistance of the local government. Accurate hydrological assessments have shown that this will be an unmitigated disaster for our already drought-stricken and rapidly depleting high desert aquifer. Despite being definitively shot down in the courts, the developer is now doing an end run around that decision with some cute word play. There is a token gesture of seeking "public input", which is almost universally hostile to the development, but the juggernaut rolls forward.
This is nothing new here in America. But I expect that, with the impending destruction or gutting of all protections, it will reach new levels of insanity. I pity the younger generations who will have to live with the consequences. But as you said, so few seem to care.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I am a hoarder. It is a mark of poverty having once been poor. Pretty much I keep stuff. The guitars and amps are really just possessions that I will never sell. I’m pretty good about buying and keeping stuff. This is kinda unusual for an American. Pretty much I’m not a consumer.
I buy and hold…
I admit, our world is sad. I still do things though even though its a loosing battle, but I still do what I can. Also I’m taking care of myself.
I set up one bird feeder yesterday, and another today. Saw some Black Capped Chickadees feasting on the first feeder. The food disappears fast. No sign of squirrel intrusions yet.
I know I can buy a stackable stainless steel bowl at Shop Rite, likely made in China, for little money to add a squirrel proof roof over the bird feeders.
Maggie thinks I should add a perch so birds can relax and eat the free food.
Anyways seeing the birds eating was pure joy and it made my day. Seems like I will have to start buying 50 pound bags of feed.
I went through all my Tele’s changing out a .047 uF cap to a .039 uF cap on all my tone circuits. The idea is to have more swing around the sweet spot on my tone control instead of the one position I tend to set it on about a quarter turn down.
I also am beginning to set the pickup height with the volume all the way up so it will be conducive to volume swells using the volume knob. I only got one Tele done and it is much smoother and warm.
At Trader Joe’s there were no eggs. Pretty much a shortage and a supply disruption. Bird Flue is partially to blame. I’m starting to do more plant protein, but I roasted a Turkey breast tonight for dinner. Mighty good.
I got some 93 octane gas at a Sunoco on the way to Trader Joe’s. $4.05 a gallon cash. Mighty cheap. Generally I buy Mobil high test for the additives and detergent action, but the price of Sunoco might win me over. I’ll check the Sunoco near my house for the pricing.
Cal
I buy and hold…
I admit, our world is sad. I still do things though even though its a loosing battle, but I still do what I can. Also I’m taking care of myself.
I set up one bird feeder yesterday, and another today. Saw some Black Capped Chickadees feasting on the first feeder. The food disappears fast. No sign of squirrel intrusions yet.
I know I can buy a stackable stainless steel bowl at Shop Rite, likely made in China, for little money to add a squirrel proof roof over the bird feeders.
Maggie thinks I should add a perch so birds can relax and eat the free food.
Anyways seeing the birds eating was pure joy and it made my day. Seems like I will have to start buying 50 pound bags of feed.
I went through all my Tele’s changing out a .047 uF cap to a .039 uF cap on all my tone circuits. The idea is to have more swing around the sweet spot on my tone control instead of the one position I tend to set it on about a quarter turn down.
I also am beginning to set the pickup height with the volume all the way up so it will be conducive to volume swells using the volume knob. I only got one Tele done and it is much smoother and warm.
At Trader Joe’s there were no eggs. Pretty much a shortage and a supply disruption. Bird Flue is partially to blame. I’m starting to do more plant protein, but I roasted a Turkey breast tonight for dinner. Mighty good.
I got some 93 octane gas at a Sunoco on the way to Trader Joe’s. $4.05 a gallon cash. Mighty cheap. Generally I buy Mobil high test for the additives and detergent action, but the price of Sunoco might win me over. I’ll check the Sunoco near my house for the pricing.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
BTW If you don’t process anger it can lead to depression.
It is healthy to rant here. This is your safe place.
Cal
It is healthy to rant here. This is your safe place.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
You have to know that this thread kinda keeps me from leaning too far either way. Kinda keeps me from going crazy.
Did you know I tend to have seasonal buying binges. I kinda avoid the mass marketing and kinda think of something I really-really want that I don’t have. These items are usually not inexpensive. Call me the Grinch, but in a way I buy myself an expensive Christmas present every year. Bah-Humbug… LOL.
This Strat I’m building from select parts with a new gig bag adds up to be about $1.3K. Kinda cheap compared to the Santa Cruz Model “F” I custom ordered around this time three years ago. That purchase was kinda crazy… Well insane, but I’m mighty glad I went all the way. It surely is a trophy…
I’m cool with having open projects. The 1966 C-10 is basically being stored in my garage. That task of replacing the entire drivetrain with something mucho crazy is way in the future.
Anyways clearly this is my conspicuous consumption. My stuff is really personal, and does not really have investment potential, they are for my happiness, enjoyment, entertainment and fun. Pretty much not of any value to others, pretty much this is the treasure that enriches my life.
I have about 20 packs of now dated Fuji FP-100. I think I have to come up with some project to utilize this resource. Devil Christian gifted me a Polaroid back that he 3-D printed a Baby-Linhof back.
So I have about 200 shots. Right now I’m thinking of shooting my Baby-Victorian and then making a one-off house book.
Another idea is using all my cameras to do still life’s and compositions into a book. “Camera Compositions” would be a possible title.
Anyways I want something that is historical I guess. Remember I’m a big retro slob.
Last night I kinda broke through and came up with a way to get thump into bringing able to blues shuffles finger style. This has eluded me for a vast amount of time, so now an entire different style of playing is happening. I can feel a corn developing on my thumb. Also kinda came up with some unconventional modes of playing that carry over from the bass.
So pretty much I’m getting that piano sound, but I’m playing a guitar. Seems like an electric finger style is happening. Opens up an entire new realm of sound and possibilities.
Today will get broken up with an eye doctor visit for “Maggie.” A lot of health maintenance happens when you get old. She is getting a procedure done with a laser. Lots of follow ups and follow through after cataract surgery.
Cal
Did you know I tend to have seasonal buying binges. I kinda avoid the mass marketing and kinda think of something I really-really want that I don’t have. These items are usually not inexpensive. Call me the Grinch, but in a way I buy myself an expensive Christmas present every year. Bah-Humbug… LOL.
This Strat I’m building from select parts with a new gig bag adds up to be about $1.3K. Kinda cheap compared to the Santa Cruz Model “F” I custom ordered around this time three years ago. That purchase was kinda crazy… Well insane, but I’m mighty glad I went all the way. It surely is a trophy…
I’m cool with having open projects. The 1966 C-10 is basically being stored in my garage. That task of replacing the entire drivetrain with something mucho crazy is way in the future.
Anyways clearly this is my conspicuous consumption. My stuff is really personal, and does not really have investment potential, they are for my happiness, enjoyment, entertainment and fun. Pretty much not of any value to others, pretty much this is the treasure that enriches my life.
I have about 20 packs of now dated Fuji FP-100. I think I have to come up with some project to utilize this resource. Devil Christian gifted me a Polaroid back that he 3-D printed a Baby-Linhof back.
So I have about 200 shots. Right now I’m thinking of shooting my Baby-Victorian and then making a one-off house book.
Another idea is using all my cameras to do still life’s and compositions into a book. “Camera Compositions” would be a possible title.
Anyways I want something that is historical I guess. Remember I’m a big retro slob.
Last night I kinda broke through and came up with a way to get thump into bringing able to blues shuffles finger style. This has eluded me for a vast amount of time, so now an entire different style of playing is happening. I can feel a corn developing on my thumb. Also kinda came up with some unconventional modes of playing that carry over from the bass.
So pretty much I’m getting that piano sound, but I’m playing a guitar. Seems like an electric finger style is happening. Opens up an entire new realm of sound and possibilities.
Today will get broken up with an eye doctor visit for “Maggie.” A lot of health maintenance happens when you get old. She is getting a procedure done with a laser. Lots of follow ups and follow through after cataract surgery.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I always have difficulties ordering from Stewart-McDonald, a guitar parts outlet. I needed a SwitchCraft toggle switch, but then got somehow locked out from processing my order.
In my scrounging and rounding up guitar parts I came upon a ganged 500K pot that has this cool feature of having detents that instead of having a toggle switch I could have a blend control on the 2-pickup Cabronita with TV Jones Classic pickups.
Mighty clever. This SwitchCraft toggle is U.S. made and is the top in quality, but it costs about $30.00 plus shipping. I don’t mind skipping the expense. Also my mixer is a pretty cool thing in itself that offers some complexity while being elegant and simple.
On the volume control I’ll add in something like a .0033 uf bleed cap to be the only tone control via a push-pull integrated switch. Very simple. The controls will be just a volume/push-pull and the detented mixer/blender.
Pretty smart. Screw Stew-Mac for their horrible web-site.
Thinking of Irving up this guitar up today. I still have my soldering station and tools set up from yesterday. BTW these technical advances are rapidly advancing my playing. I’m getting out the sound in my head, and I’m amping up to get that feel and the dynamics of playing the amp I speak of. The advances are impressive, but I know practice-practice, and more practice.
Basically I am pleased with the results.
Separately the bird feeder in the back-backyard almost needs to get refilled. I have a lot of hungry birds.
Cal
In my scrounging and rounding up guitar parts I came upon a ganged 500K pot that has this cool feature of having detents that instead of having a toggle switch I could have a blend control on the 2-pickup Cabronita with TV Jones Classic pickups.
Mighty clever. This SwitchCraft toggle is U.S. made and is the top in quality, but it costs about $30.00 plus shipping. I don’t mind skipping the expense. Also my mixer is a pretty cool thing in itself that offers some complexity while being elegant and simple.
On the volume control I’ll add in something like a .0033 uf bleed cap to be the only tone control via a push-pull integrated switch. Very simple. The controls will be just a volume/push-pull and the detented mixer/blender.
Pretty smart. Screw Stew-Mac for their horrible web-site.
Thinking of Irving up this guitar up today. I still have my soldering station and tools set up from yesterday. BTW these technical advances are rapidly advancing my playing. I’m getting out the sound in my head, and I’m amping up to get that feel and the dynamics of playing the amp I speak of. The advances are impressive, but I know practice-practice, and more practice.
Basically I am pleased with the results.
Separately the bird feeder in the back-backyard almost needs to get refilled. I have a lot of hungry birds.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Just got a probation rescheduling E-mail.
Since this was not an automated reminder, I decided to respond to let them know that there is a Calvin August in New York that is mistakenly getting these reminders. I mentioned that I have never-ever been in Colorado.
Oh-well.
For those who don’t know, evidently some Calvin August in Colorado had a bad day at work and beat up his boss. Then evidently the employer opened a workman’s comp case on behalf of Calvin in what I suspect is a defensive move suggested by their lawyers.
At the eye doctor “Maggie” got some residual cloudiness removed with a laser after yet another exam.
In the waiting room I stumbled upon an old National Geographic about long term effects of stress. Pretty much it can cause genetic aging, where the end caps on DNA get shortened prematurely. Also people who grew up as kids who knew trauma have stronger more powerful emotions and have a tendency to overreact. I certainly have this tendency.
So the long-term effects of prolonged stress does a lot of damage and is linked to many diseases.
Among the black community they call this aging and breakdown “weathering.”
So despite that longevity survey that expects me to live well past 100, there is this alternative risk factor that promotes disease and ill effects.
Oh-well…
So the eat like a bird has new meaning to me, as the bird feeder in the back-backyard is now practically empty.
Seems like the birds have not discovered the feeder yet in the front-backyard.
I think I will wait a little as an experiment to see if they discover the second feeder once the first is emptied. Pretty much hungry birds…
Cal
Since this was not an automated reminder, I decided to respond to let them know that there is a Calvin August in New York that is mistakenly getting these reminders. I mentioned that I have never-ever been in Colorado.
Oh-well.
For those who don’t know, evidently some Calvin August in Colorado had a bad day at work and beat up his boss. Then evidently the employer opened a workman’s comp case on behalf of Calvin in what I suspect is a defensive move suggested by their lawyers.
At the eye doctor “Maggie” got some residual cloudiness removed with a laser after yet another exam.
In the waiting room I stumbled upon an old National Geographic about long term effects of stress. Pretty much it can cause genetic aging, where the end caps on DNA get shortened prematurely. Also people who grew up as kids who knew trauma have stronger more powerful emotions and have a tendency to overreact. I certainly have this tendency.
So the long-term effects of prolonged stress does a lot of damage and is linked to many diseases.
Among the black community they call this aging and breakdown “weathering.”
So despite that longevity survey that expects me to live well past 100, there is this alternative risk factor that promotes disease and ill effects.
Oh-well…
So the eat like a bird has new meaning to me, as the bird feeder in the back-backyard is now practically empty.
Seems like the birds have not discovered the feeder yet in the front-backyard.
I think I will wait a little as an experiment to see if they discover the second feeder once the first is emptied. Pretty much hungry birds…
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Avoid NetSpend fraud.
I’m getting all kinds of phishing E-mails that either want me to activate an account, or inquire about my balance.
Know that I have no NetSpend account. This is a company that sets up a debit account that is basically a credit card company.
How do I know its a scam: the hard sell; the link to check my balance when I know I have no account.
Pretty much no credit card company will issue credit if the can’t see your credit reports. Mine have been frozen since 2007.
In some ads they have fine print that it is an advertisement. Other E-mails suggest clicking the supplied link to check my existing account. Some of these E-mails come direct into my E-mail, and others are trapped in a spam filter. Multiple-multiple solicitations…
Don’t fall for this…
Also freeze your credit reports to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud.
This is a public service message. Also assume and know that you data has been breached likely several times. Pretty much it is just a matter of time before something bad will happen if you don’t have your credit frozen.
Cal
I’m getting all kinds of phishing E-mails that either want me to activate an account, or inquire about my balance.
Know that I have no NetSpend account. This is a company that sets up a debit account that is basically a credit card company.
How do I know its a scam: the hard sell; the link to check my balance when I know I have no account.
Pretty much no credit card company will issue credit if the can’t see your credit reports. Mine have been frozen since 2007.
In some ads they have fine print that it is an advertisement. Other E-mails suggest clicking the supplied link to check my existing account. Some of these E-mails come direct into my E-mail, and others are trapped in a spam filter. Multiple-multiple solicitations…
Don’t fall for this…
Also freeze your credit reports to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud.
This is a public service message. Also assume and know that you data has been breached likely several times. Pretty much it is just a matter of time before something bad will happen if you don’t have your credit frozen.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
My local Sunoco station sells 93 octane for $3.96 a gallon.
Wow. Under $4.00 price for premium gas.
I have to check my Mobil station where I generally buy gas.
Know that I don’t buy cheap no-name gas, and because the Audi A4 has a turbo it requires high-test. I like Mobil gas because of the additives and the detergent action.
Cal
Wow. Under $4.00 price for premium gas.
I have to check my Mobil station where I generally buy gas.
Know that I don’t buy cheap no-name gas, and because the Audi A4 has a turbo it requires high-test. I like Mobil gas because of the additives and the detergent action.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
The probation officer in Colorado sends his apologies.
Mistaken identity…
Cal
Mistaken identity…
Cal
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
Europe doesn't have Walmart. Some old time known brands are made in Turkey.
Outsourcing is just one of the signs of the West dying.
Canada was taken over by the West via genocide committed on indigenous nations. So, in return, west is replaced by east by now. In Canada now old stock Canadians are getting fired and replaced by newcomers paid more than fired Canadian. Reversed outsourcing.
As for Audi, I could see old ones in Belgium and even more older in Georgia. Recent ones, not so much.
Audi engines before outsourcing to Hungary were reliable.
It was strike in India. Ford plant in Ontario has to stop because it was no components.
In Ukraine while ago it was possible to buy MiC BMW or else copy, walk across the street and get all of the BMW labels to put on the copy.
In Moscow they are selling copies of Landrover and so on now.
What is left? Dopehead's master of the Space, genuine Tesla? This is now purchased as status machine (not Mercedes anymore, except if you have third world heritage) , but uber drivers doesn't mind it as well. For the rest western electrification of cars is failure. Overpriced. Audi Brussels is closing e-car making plant. No demand for such price. Electrical Volvo are awful. e-Mercedes - garbage bin on wheels. But the cost...
Yet, electric cars are cheaper to make. In November the price of electrical Dacia (MiC) was 10K euro after rebates in Flanders.
Nokton48
Veteran
Devil Cal,
I get gas points from Kroger, last fill up was $2.00 a gallon. It was $2.80 ish around here for a while. Not anymore.
Know that grey squirrels can jump up to five feet vertically. The smaller red squirrels can jump up more than that, I've watched them do it. Birds need to fuel up, and -shiver-, which warms them up.
I get gas points from Kroger, last fill up was $2.00 a gallon. It was $2.80 ish around here for a while. Not anymore.
Know that grey squirrels can jump up to five feet vertically. The smaller red squirrels can jump up more than that, I've watched them do it. Birds need to fuel up, and -shiver-, which warms them up.
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DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
With all the scams, gimmickery and shonky-dealing now going on in business, we may soon be at the point that none of us will ever buy anything new again.
But then some of us have been doing this for years. As my partner calls it, it's known as "feasting on nature's bounty".
I learned long ago that buying say, a one- or two-year old car saved me almost 50% of the cost of a brand new one. Even back then the reputable (yes there were and still are some, not many but a few) car dealers were so desperate for sales, they would do good deals with excellent extras to get the customers in their showrooms.
It's how I bought my Audi in 1991. The car I still own and we drive, and hope to go on using until the end, whether of us or the car.
But unlike many country-town Aussies who think nothing of driging hundreds of kilometers to do a weekly food shop, we are not long-distance drivers.. I use public transport with my senior's discount, which can get me fat and comfortably to Melbourne and home again on a day ticket for < AUD $5 (+/- US$3) on a fast, modern diesel train. The distance one way is about 120 kms/70 miles, and if I plan carefully and use an express service I get to the with only a few station stops.
My partner enjoys stripping down and refinishing wood items, so we have a small house full of nice antique furniture. Decor is mostly Asian, as i spend a lot of time there and I bring back carefully selected items I buy, often at local prices with the assistance of family members or friends.
Being my frugal self - I dislike the term "grinch" but am entirely okay with "cheap" which is what I am at heart - I have a good eye for a bargain. Too many bargains. Which could well be my downfall. Look in our garage and decide for yourself...
I bought quality film cameras from deceased estates or when they were being dumped cheaply. Hasselblads, Rolleis, my beloved Contax Gs, my Nikkormats. All used in their time, now film is too expensive and those few cameras I've held on to are sadly languishing on display shelves but get regularly dusted off and put thru their paces to keep the gears moving and the oils flowing.
Ditto digital cameras. Nikons when they were too many on my dealer's shelves and I could wangle good prices. Mostly Nikons as I can easily swap the accessories between my F65s and D700s-D800s. Digitals are mostly consumerables - anyone for a "prosumer" whatever this means? - so none will be resold, prices are too low. More recently Fuji, which I got into during the Covid lockdowns when prices were at rock-bottom. Now madly expensive, but i have the Fujis I want. Also odd-bod camera kits given to me by friends, these mostly gifted on or sold at fair prices. My goal in selling is not to make big $$ but to get a fair return. Digital gear is nice and so convenient, but it doesn't hold its market value well. Excepting digital Leicas of course.
We splurge on books and CDs (me) or old movies on DVDs (partner). The first two I mostly keep, the latter mostly passed on to a local charity shop.
Clothes, well - no self-respecting country bumpkin would want to be seen in what is in my wardrobe, tho' I find quality brand names in op shops. My partner is Asian and gets around in new Uniqlo, which can be expensive, much less so if bought in Malaysia.
Our splurges are healthy food and good wine, in reasonable quantities. Neither of us are big drinkers, especially me as at my age Ii'm mostly off the sauce. The crazy-mad vodka parties went out the door long ago tho' the happy memories endure and suffice.
For me the slow life is the good life - "slow" means taking my time to do what I do in a day, and enjoying but not overdoing it. As Napoleon wisely said, nine-tenths of everything one has to do will eventually do itself if ignored long enough. Maybe he didn't say it quite like that, but I recall reading that he left his papers sit on his desk for at least a month. When eventually he came to it, all of it no longer needed to be done. A good way to live, but I doubt I would have enjoyed the climate on St Helena...
This is starting to sound like an online tutorial in how to live cheaply and well. Which maybe it. And why not?
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Ko.Fe. I'm impressed with what you have written. I believe it takes a brave man to post what you said.
I had written the first draft of a long reply. Which somehow got posted as a thread herem now deleted. My bad entirely. I did promise Cal I would temper my indignant postings, at least for a while, and what I tapped out on my keyboard as an initial effort came across to me as so inflammatory, I decided to zap it.
My situation in the 1960s was at times unhappy. I was born in eastern Canada of a French Catholic mother and an agnostic Irish dad. She was mad-keen on religion and he was devoted to peat whisky. An unlikely pair, not always a good mix. Even as a child I was "different" which set me apart from the rest of the community. I got by, as a local outsider, a square peg in a round hole. I wasn't always my own best friend. In my teens at a local church fete I offended the mayor in our town of 6,666 - it's true, that was the population, it didn't vary for more than a decade - by joking that the reason for this was that whenever a baby was born a man always left town. This admittedly bad joke got me branded as an alien, fortunately for me several others were similarly social outcasts so I had a small network of like-minded friends, even if the mayor surely thought of us as being from Mars or Venus or more likely Uranus.
My first job was as a trainee reporter for a newspaper. Being a French speaker (and bilingual) I was 'branded' as a half-caste (French-Irish) and even the editors called me "Alphonse". For a 50 hour week I was paid CDN $35. The English reporters got $45 and one clueless yobbo with connections (as I recall his dad had been a senior journo and literally died at his desk) got $55. The prevailing social attitude at the time was United Empire Loyalist in the extreme. Many English acted and talked as the lords of the realm, ruling over a motley lot of Frenchies who were basically peasants. Canada became officially bilingual in 1967 and this English First attitude slowly changed for the better,, but sadly it seems to have been replaced by racism directed at new migrants, notably those from Asia and Africa.
To Ko.fe's post i will only say, if heleft Canada to live in Europe after being frozen out of good jobs and due to a lack of work opportunities, Canada has lost a good person. Ditto for Cal if/when he parted company with his less than fair employer, as I recall you wrote about this some time ago.
Enough from me,. It's maybe time to send my soap box out for recycling...
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DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Duplicate post. Now deleted, obviously. I really must pay more attention to what I write, and do fewer drafts. Apologies to all.
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JohnGellings
Well-known
It's funny to me, but the low end GAS in Chile is 93 Octane.
However... Wiki states: "Because of the 8 to 12 octane number difference between RON and MON noted above, the AKI shown in Canada and the United States is 4 to 6 octane numbers lower than elsewhere in the world for the same fuel."Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Altitude (thinner air) robs a lot of power. If I remember correctly, when I lived in New Mexico an altitude of 7,000 feet killed about 10% of your horsepower. To gain this power back I advanced the timing and used premium gas (93 OCTANE) to avoid detonation.
If you have fuel injection, the computer will advance the timing for you. My 1984 Jeep Scrambler had a two-barrel carborator.
Cal
Altitude (thinner air) robs a lot of power. If I remember correctly, when I lived in New Mexico an altitude of 7,000 feet killed about 10% of your horsepower. To gain this power back I advanced the timing and used premium gas (93 OCTANE) to avoid detonation.
If you have fuel injection, the computer will advance the timing for you. My 1984 Jeep Scrambler had a two-barrel carborator.
Cal
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I got a delivery today of parts from Callahan Guitars. I changed a control plane on my blonde Tele that has an additional 3/8 icnh spacing to provide more clearence between the volume knob and the pickup switch for better ergonomics. Control plate is made of polished stainless steel.
Then I changed the bridge on the DeMarino, upgraded the Bigsby, and then did the instalation and setup.
I got what I wanted: looser action; and a more open sound that is less stiff. Looks savage. I still have to dress the frets above the 15th fret, and the Bigsby I need to shim with a coin or two to raise the lever height. I also have to tighten the arm to remove some play.
This is now an interesting guitar and I hope to plug it in tomorrow. I was able to adjust the pickups on my remaining guitars for full volume. Also did some maintenance and humidified my acoustics to prevent them from drying out and cracking.
So I revitalized a guitar that was underwhelming. Now it is savage looking, and rather interesting. Very different than my other guitars.
Tomorrow I will reassemble “Woody” the guitar I borrowed the Callahan bridge from to test the bridge change on the DeMarino.
When I get a chance to dress the frets the DeMarino will play even better.
Cal
Then I changed the bridge on the DeMarino, upgraded the Bigsby, and then did the instalation and setup.
I got what I wanted: looser action; and a more open sound that is less stiff. Looks savage. I still have to dress the frets above the 15th fret, and the Bigsby I need to shim with a coin or two to raise the lever height. I also have to tighten the arm to remove some play.
This is now an interesting guitar and I hope to plug it in tomorrow. I was able to adjust the pickups on my remaining guitars for full volume. Also did some maintenance and humidified my acoustics to prevent them from drying out and cracking.
So I revitalized a guitar that was underwhelming. Now it is savage looking, and rather interesting. Very different than my other guitars.
Tomorrow I will reassemble “Woody” the guitar I borrowed the Callahan bridge from to test the bridge change on the DeMarino.
When I get a chance to dress the frets the DeMarino will play even better.
Cal