Marion Morrison Monday

Burning Tree?

Or "corrected" sunset?

Taking A Break

Resting for the next lap of the proverbial rat race.

Fall cleaning 'phoning it in: There are items scheduled through the end of the month, mostly crap from the hard drive. See y'all in October, maybe ...— 30 —

Tired Of It All Tues.

73 wasted yrs. in this world of shit & pain surrounded by brain-dead doody-heads. And summer will be gone w/in an hr.Just purchased a stupid, indulgent belated birthday gift for myself. Don't feel any better, maybe when it arrives.

This not-eating thing has worked out well: Eight days to the end of the month & even after indulging myself I've over US$600.00 in the credit union & 18 bones in folding money. Not to mention many dollars in quarters saved for laundry but now made superfluous by WASHConnect, which infects one's 'phone.

Can't possibly spend more than 100 bucks on "necessities" between now & the end of the month, so I s'pose I can indulge myself in the 100+ simoleons of turnouts & other railroading junk I need/want. And of course, the more one buys at one time, the more one makes up for shipping costs. Wheeee!

Currently attempting to consolidate, organize & discard some things that have been piled up all over, many of which have ended up on the only flat surface available.

And elsewhere.

Impressionistic

The Sky Above, The Crud Below

I'm Sorta Back ...

Not that I was missed.

Ugly, ugly, ugly, except the clouds.

Finally realized my problem was from constipation, so cleansed the colon, then slept for about 10 hrs. Still yawning, however, because humanity & all its works are still unspeakably dull, inane, boring & mind-numbing (image above) except, of course, for the parts where you horrid pieces of murderous shit are trying to kill anyone in your way.

Monsoon Season

Or hurricane season, as this is from Hurricane Marie, now spinning off the coast. I knew those were rain clouds I saw last night. It's been raining steadily, occasionally heavily, for 13+ hrs. Mins. ago it picked up.

Must've been a last gasp, seems to be petering out.

Storm creates huge waves and dangerous currents at southern California beaches

Most Vaguely Exciting Or Interesting Events In The Outside World Since Mid-August

S'pose I could have shot the Korean women w/ sound system & microphones shouting about & bouncing up & down for that Jesus feller I saw again today, but I already have footage of them & barely had the energy to walk, let alone get the camera out & work.It is not encouraging to see the Beverly Hills Fire Dep't. Code 3 two heavy-duty ambulances to the same building where one is going for a medical appointment, let alone when eight firefighters/paramedics w/ a gurney enter the building.

No sign of them at the office I was visiting, not that I was there for anything that would have led to a 911 call. Thanks to the D Line, I got from Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/La Cienega, two blocks away, much faster than surface transport, & was finished before the appointment was actually scheduled.

The hell's "on duty" mean? It just sits there. I continue to be suspicious.

No damn wonder I'm exhausted; this world is dull as dishwater, & that has such people in it.

Big Brother Beverly Hills

Orwell didn't give much thought to exactly when the surveillance society could be practically implemented, but it's in full swing now. As good a reason as any to wear a mask out there.

Have some LAPD action as well.

Too Much Wiring

Previously on Web of Evil (& Ennui) we found something of possible railroading use.

Not, however, useful for small structures. Wires too damn long.

And not as bright as I thought when I first removed the Xmas bulbs.

Thinking it will work inside a larger two-story bldg., for example:

Yup. Took it apart, & as I suspected, the other end needn't be connected to the battery, or even to itself, which I s'pose means more LEDs could be added. Powered by two C1220 "3v LITHIUM CELL"s, which allegedly last from 3-10 yrs., 20 for US$7.99 at Mall★Wart. Note black splice: Cut it when removing the base, but was able to put it back together. Sad as it is, I'm quite proud of myself.

Uh oh. Hot spots. Good job w/ the thin plastic, Walthers®. No, the lights aren't bright enough, & should be '50s-style yellow, not fluorescent-appearing.

And of course I'm not the first to have the idea, but Evan Designs didn't show when I made an unspecific search.

Probably Not

Sudden thought while looking at the rolling stock on the flex-track: I could make a yard here.

The space might not work, however, & I'd only have to "invest" a couple of hundred dollars (minimum) in turn-outs,
so nagonna happen.

Not Feeling It

No inspiration, no desire to be inspired.

Truer words were never placed on a sticker.

Nonethelsss, forced myself to choose something.BACK TO MONO!

Thurs. Track Testing

Still not nearly as irritating, irksome, tedious, banal & annoying as the horrible outside world you damn cretins have made for everyone.

Homo sapiens In Three Words

The Dead Who Walk

When the hell was tagging supplemented by stickering, anyway? I s'pose it's because spray paint is age-restricted in Calif., but the yout' found a way around it.

Hot Rails To Hell ...

... Are Actually Hot!

Spent almost an hr. post-shooting fiddling w/ sectional & flex-track before suspending operations. But one line is almost going & I've proved w/ geometric logic it won't need added feeds.

Other modeling stuff:

Also, at some point you need to decide if you are content being a casual recreationalist or if you want to move to the next level. It’s your call. No judgement. That said, if you want to move forward, you need to get out of your comfort zone, buy that sixty-buck airbrush, and get comfortable with it.

Easy, Lance. Sounds a bit judgemental to me who, picky as I am, fully intend to remain in my "casual recreationalist comfort zone". No desire to obtain an air-brush, but I did click the "sixty-buck airbrush" link out of curiosity, to find it's a) Amazon; b) $199.99, not any "sixty bucks". Ha!

Don't have the space, don't need the noise.

I'll stick w/ washes & powders; my primary interest in weathering is eliminating gloss & shine on rolling stock, not creating1:87 works of art. Avoided a soldering iron so far too, but if the track continues its recalcitrance ...

Dry Heat

Temperature & humidity in the bunker earlier.

Currently 58% humidity, 86°F (30°C). Don't make me no never mind. Haven't broken a sweat or broken out the fan yet. If you can't take the heat ...

Angry? Absolutely Bitter? Better Believe It!

Gone like a puff of smoke.

Saturday Savings Spectacular!

Going to the corner for milk yesterday I spotted Xmas lights in a cardboard box & decided I could use the wire if nothing else. Well, they work & are battery-powered, so don't waste your money on Woodland Scenics JustPlug® or Dioramo® lighting systems.

My curiosity piqued, I checked battery-powered wired LEDs & found piles, some powered by AAs, some by D cells, & some by hearing aid batts. Turns out the above suckers are made by Greenbrier International, Inc., a subsidiary of Dollar Tree. (Or it's Dollar Tree's parent co. Fucking robots.) All plastic; the only metal is the wiring & whatever's in the battery pack. The biggest deal to me is the self-containment. Everything's in the structure, no connecting to an external power source, so no wall-warts, extension cords or added LED wiring are needed.

This looks as if six bldgs. could be illuminated for $40.00. W/ 30 lights per string, six huge industries could be lit, or a small structure could be overdone until it caught fire.

Hoo boy, now Woodland Scenics is offering this; the video came out two months ago, but the system can't be searched on their crummy site; you have to look in the "Coming Soon" area. No prices yet, but an arm & a leg should cover it fairly easily. Speakers, sound cards & readers &c. will be just a smidge more than a transformer, control box & LEDs. Might not be easily duplicated at a bargain store.P.S.: If you do want the tried & true, I compared the Just Plug® & Dioramo® MSRPs sometime last yr.; Dioramo was a bit less expensive & their system seems more open to using non-Dioramo LEDs & the like. Or, Dwarvin & their fiber-optic "no wires" system. Tain't cheap neither.

Confuzzled