December 16

7:53 Living with the ninja, in ninjaland. As i said, they blew dust yesterday. Though i wiped clean the deck, the sill, area above door, dust was still present inside this morning. Unlike yesterday, not much smoke. At 1 AM i plugged with soil mixed with cement two more "mole holes" before i went to sleep. My esophagus was hurting so i took some tea, coconut oil. As i was nauseated (from using the car yesterday, still stinks a bit like rotting bone meal, dog pooh), went for a breath of fresh air, around 6:30.  Also to pick the clamps from the locker. Working again at a catch can, this time won't take that long because i accumulated some expertise. Many "people" (read ninja) around here freshly started their cars in the alley, so i took the upper alley, where a guy was working at a car and started his didgeridoo right after i passed, waking up everybody who was not. I crossed the street, climbed the stairs at the hospital. Many cars coming at that hour. I walked a bit and came back, took the clamps from the locker. Inside i realized the clamps are not good. I just reordered the old ones but i forgot they came then by mistake two sizes smaller, however it was that mistake that allowed those to work. So i looked to return those and get a different size, however delivery date was now changed from next day to one month from now. The guy upstairs started to squeak  on my brain waves so i washed the towel i used last night and put it back wet on top of the filter, while washer would cover the noise of my thoughts. Ate half of ripe avocado to lube my irritated esophagus, made some broccoli (steam boiled with a bit of water on bottom of the ceramic pot for 5 minutes), eat with a bit of chicken and garlic, while eating i opened the door and there was this guy with a green truck in front of building D hitting the truck with something, making a big noise. That noise and irritation at my esophagus from dust, nausea, triggered a dysphagia episode. Felt like i was so full i could never eat again, though still hungry. I siped some tea, painfully, the food went down after about 10 attempts. Had the courage to finish eating.

Any other type of clamps failed. But i remember now, even these wouldn't work (hose would start to leak) unless i added a bit of JB Weld steel reinforced adhesive on the screw to prevent it from unscrewing "by itself". Maybe i should go back to regular clamps and use adhesive from the start.

December 15

1:11 Every once in a while i see in Romanian media informations of things i never knew. Trying to harness the energetic potential of a mountainous area in Romania while keeping the environmental impact to a minimum, they dug, over a 10  years period, 50 km of tunnels. Other similar works are well known to the public, like the 38 km tunnel under English Channel.

Nowadays they are building new galleries for Bucharest metro using autonomous machines.

All in a country with not so much financial and economical power, like today's and yesterday's Romania.

One could question himself, what if they already have tunnels covering most countries, made of course in secret.

We know that Musk, others are trying for years to build demo versions of a project called "hyperloop". Vehicles that could travel in vacuum tunnels at speeds greater than sound. But that project is not going anywhere fast enough. What if is kept in that stage intentionally, just to delay public's perception about the possibilities of those.

To be continued.

12:47 I just want you for my own...

4:44 I got my first smartphone very late... Call it paranoia, whatever. I know what computers can do. Smartphone are basically computers with towers connections, wi-fi, bluetooth, name it. A touch display, a mic and a speaker. Multi-core, fast processors. Android, which is a breed of Linux as operating system.

Had no choice given by Frontier, the provider at the new address, who was delaying installing a landline by 2 weeks after i moved in 2015. So i rushed to Best Buy and bought a couple of cheap, 4 GB prepaid HTC phones, powered by then Virgin Mobile. For convenience, went with them ever since. 35 dollars a months, unlimited talk and text, up to 6 Gigs of 4G data. Barely any room for any app.

How Virgin Mobile turned in the end to Boost Mobile, and Australian firm, it's a different story you can read it here.

On 5th i forgot to... re-boost (that's how it's called prepaying for the next month). Next day i went to the computer and tried to pay, but the bill was now 38. It was then when i got mad and decided it's time to look for a new provider, with an unlocked phone, after i saw commercials with plans starting at 15 dollars (Mint), others. First, i tried to unlock the phone with Boost, but they wouldn't cause the phone though it had more than 12 continuous months of service, had the service interrupted a few months, the number changed and they kept me asking for the old PIN "to prove" and i could not remember.

I don't need much data, just an occasional browsing for a site when i'm not home. So decided to start using (again) my Google Voice number at home on wi-fi and wait until i get something reasonable.

However, after a few searches, i found a plan again at... Boost, with 100 dollars a year (8.33 a months) and 1 gig of data. So i went back to my own vomit and ordered the plan. I said to myself. I won't have to deal with them for a year, if i succeed. But i didn't.

I don't deal with MEID or ICCID things very often so i'm not used to. Didn't realize they didn't check the MEID of my phone when i signed up, just paid and waited for the SIM card.

SIM card came yesterday with USPS (no tracking number though i asked for) and i put it in the new unlocked MOTO 7 i bought on Amazon for 150 bucks (a 2020 model) and tried to activate it on myAccount i created when i paid. However, after typing in lots of MEID and ICCID digits, a number of times, it would not activate. In the end it was Angela who realized there was a 5G mark on the SIM card. Then i remembered seeing something at Boost Mobile "the largest 5G network". (I hate 5G as i hate wi-fi, smartphones and the fact i have to use them). However, my phone was a 4G (within the last few month Boost kept warning about not supporting 3G anymore and customers should buy 5G instead. What happened to 4G? 4G LTE speeds satisfy my needs and both our phones where 4G capable).

So with money paid, i tried my options. There was nothing on MyAccount except my payment history.Live customer support was closed for the day. There was a chat option, not working on the computer (in the end, it worked on my phone today but it was just a bot). Left it for today. This morning i called their customer support number. First a female voice, trying to get my number. I don't have one. Forwarded to a male voice, which shut my conversation when i said i don't have one. Then i tried my old trick, pressing 0 until i hear a human voice. It worked, at first. A guy named Alex listened to my story, asked again for MEID and ICCID and said "Good news, your phone is compatible" and then, "Bad news, we don't have this SIM card in our system". The SIM card they shipped through USPS and came yesterday, without verifying phone's MEID and without a tracking number. In the end i forcibly gave Alex the order number (first screenshot), he asked for a valid calling number, he said he would "escalate" and that was the last i heard from him, just looked on Google Voice call history, there is no call back from him.

Then i tried to use menu options to try again and activate the phone first with the automated system, then with a person. After giving again the MEID number and ICCID number several times, one willing person told me that i should give up and try to dispute the amount with the bank, which seems to be the only valid option right now. They wouldn't spend as much as paying people to handle returns, let the banks do it. After waiting one week and wasting half day today. Crediting their business with 100 dollars for weeks which seems to be one of the purposes of the scam (fraud).

Today afternoon i went and tried to talk with a guy in a physical Boost store in Beaverton. The man who looked again like a Japanese chicano, "would not understand". First i asked for a SIM card compatible with my phone. 10 bucks. I said, ok, but will it work? Do you have a plan? he asked. I said yes, and he said, what's the number, and i said i don't  have one cause the phone is not activated (like i said when i asked for a SIM card), and we went like that for about half hour and i gave up and left. And at one moment, he grabbed my phone to look for the order number (first screenshot) and after handling my phone for while, he said We don't have anything to do with this.

5:19 It's not what they do, it's the synchronization. Today it was Wednesday and the blowers came and though it was raining for a century now, there are still dry areas under the stairs, and places like that and again they blew dust on the deck and sill of the door. So after i started to feel it in my eyes and throat, I went and wiped the dust, lots of red dust came in the water when i rinsed the rag, and exactly when i was done i heard the "man" upstairs climbing the stairs, coming back from his car, releasing more dust from the stairs. Like he did last time. Like he does when i go to cook something, he comes and squeaks the floor above, me, starts the washer, etc.. Wakes me up the second i fall asleep. Home for 5 days in a row as i can remember.

7:49 Numirea lui Florin Roman, o nouă stângăcie a unui președinte de dreapta. Să fie oare ultima?

Sugerat de cine. Oare în România toți miniștrii buni pleacă devreme iar numai cei care acceptă sugestiile rămân? De aia merg treburile așa?

De ce e bine ca în asemenea funcții să fie oameni impecabili, tocmai de asta, pentru a nu putea fi șantajați. O mică verificare, colegii de partid, înainte de numire?

10:57/8:57 Cineva pe fază? S-a oprit roata.

11:14 De fapt asta vroiam să spun mai devreme și n-am terminat. Mahabharata, poemul epic indian, descrie o serie de evenimente care sugerează un război global pe care mulți le consideră istorice (reale). Cu toate astea, încercările de demitizare și plasare în cronism istoric pe care le-am văzut până acum sunt de o naivitate dezarmantă. Există totuși niște elemente de la care se poate porni într-un studiu serios, făcute praf de niște neprofesioniști în diverse forumuri. Dintre, ele, aș vrea să amintesc.

Vimanele. Unele schițe rămase până la noi sugerează secțiuni prin rachete.  

Avioane de luptă hipersonice. Acest basorelief cu o vimana în mijloc arată un conflict între indo-europeni și o rasă cel mai probabil provenind din Australia, care a fost izolată de restul omenirii timp de zeci de mii de ani, numită în Mahabharata "șerpi".

Astika. Astika a fost un copil care a salvat rasa șerpilor de răzbunarea lui Janamejaya. Sunt opinii că ar fi la originea națiunii aztece din America de Sud.

Rețea globală de tuneluri. Rama a fost răpit și dus printr-un tunel în America de Sud.

Svarga loka. Loka în sanscrită înseamnă ceva similar cu loc în română sau location in engleză. Avalon (ava loka), un loc mitic, ava în sanscrită însemnând departe (away în engleză), un sufix găsit în multe toponime din România. Svarga loka în Mahabharata era un fel de rai, locul în care trăia zeul Indra, și se poate identifica cu Sverige (numele Suediei în suedeză).

Piramidele. Piramidele par a fi construite cam în perioada războiului de la Kurukshetra descris în Mahabharata, purtat cu tehnologii primitive. Piramidele par a fi ansambluri multifuncționale care pot fi și arme bazate pe manipularea ionosferei, a zonelor seismice, construite cu știință foarte avansată dar cu tehnologia epocii de piatră, ceea ce arată construcția lor în urma unui conflict devastator care a distrus tehnologia existentă.

Vârsta oamenilor. Și în Biblie, și în mitologia indiană se spune că oamenii, poate înaintea acelui conflict care a contaminat toată planeta, trăiau până la 1000 de ani.

Azi și de multe ori, m-am întrebat. Dacă a existat acea tehnologie avansată, unde sunt urmele? Cât timp durează până la dezintegrarea completă de exemplu a unui automobil? De ce multe din resursele minerale ale planetei sunt intacte? Poate că populația pământului în acea perioadă nu a fost așa de numeroasă ca acum. Poate că era o civilizație ecologică, bazată pe știință foarte avansată care nu folosea intensiv resursele și nu polua ca cea azi. Poate acea cutie neagră a fost plasată în piramidă după acel mare conflict de către șerpi care erau mai avansați și recuperată de Napoleon în timpul campaniei din Egipt, când piramidele erau în mare parte acoperite de nisip. Poate că rasa șerpilor era de fapt niște alieni (probabil condamnați trimiși în exil) care au venit să exploateze resursele pământului, trimițând de exemplu aurul înapoi pe planeta lor originară, folosind acceleratoare liniare de particule.

December 14

12:52


11:57 Today it was the peak of traffic incidents ever. An unusual number of people driving erratically in parking lots, backing up unexpectedly in my way, things like that. At home, i had 2 one gallon water bottles containing each ounces of oil and dirt mixed with CRC cleaner that i squeezed twice (with engine running) in a vacuum port and then in the throttle and then vacuumed from the bottom of the intake manifold of my "new" Elantra using a thin rubber hose attached to a pump and those are both gone and none of us remembers throwing them out. Had an appointment, went to DMV, finished the application for titling and registering the car, paid for custom plates because i don't wanna have problems like i had with the "sequence" plates with JKB. Got another temporary number, for 4 months, waiting for plates, but can't tape it on the rear windshield because of the radio antenna/heater printed on glass. Last time i put one of those there, when i peeled it out it came with pieces of the printed antenna. So i will put it as the current one on the left rear side windows, the next place recommended. I also ordered parts for a catch can, to prevent oil vapor from PCV getting in the intake.

December 13

5:25 Bugetul nu e gata. A început facerea bugetului, e timpul acela din an, emoții induse, dar pentru ce? Fa la la... Pensii, salarii bugetari? Acestea reprezintă mai puțin de jumătate din buget (anul trecut, bugetul a fost aproximativ 400 miliarde). O mică parte, câteva miliarde poate, sunt investiții vizibile pentru ochii lumii. Restul, de până la 400, dispare. Priviți în dreapta. 32 de miliarde la Ministerul Transporturilor, atâtea au fost disponibile anul acesta. Înaintea aprobării noului buget, cereți să se publice execuția bugetară la fiecare minister pe 2021. Puteți vedea pe pagina de fb a domnului Cîțu execuția bugetară la 6 luni, însă în procente. La Transporturi, 73% din 32 împărțit la 2, adică din 16 miliarde. A și o chestie. Dacă execuția se menține la 84% pe tot anul, atunci ar trebui să rămână surplus de 9%, adică diferența, 16 minus 7 (deficitul programat).

A nu, greșesc. O singură căutare după o idee norocoasă și iată am găsit și execuția bugetară! BVC, adică bugetul de venituri și cheltuieli. Ăsta e. Nu e tot bugetul (așa numit consolidat, de 400 miliarde). E doar bugetul de stat (ministerele), cam jumătate din 400, fără asigurări sociale (pensiile), chestiile locale, alte  bugeturi și bugețele. Venituri, 75 miliarde pe semestrul I, în Legea Bugetului, anexa 1 au fost programate 173 de miliarde pe tot anul. Cheltuieli, 59,3. Puțin mai mult decât salariile bugetarilor. Atunci de unde deficit? Și o întrebare și mai deșteaptă. Ce s-au făcut cu banii?

La 6 luni, venituri 75 miliarde, cheltuieli 59. Cât iese? 59,38/75,2, 79 la sută deci nu 84 ca mai jos. Deci de unde deficit de 7%?

Căutând bugetul general consolidat (stat + pensii + locale) am dat de ceva și mai interesant, încă neștiut de mine. Discret, dar nu secret! Priviți, admirați și găsiți sursa deficitului, că eu mă duc să-mi fac o omletă, la mine e 6 dimineața, după care mai dorm (dacă mă lasă greața, sâmbătă dimineața m-am apucat să re-fac frânele de la mașină, pe o ploaie din aia de decembrie, și după ce am desfăcut totul la o roată, cineva cred a venit în apropiere cu un câine bolnav, și-a făcut ăla treaba, acum știu și mă feresc, dar nu am avut ce face, trebuia să termin, am fost expus masiv, încă nu mi-a trecut deși mă tratez cu toate leacurile și tratamentele știute de mine).

A și o chestie. Citeam ieri în Cațavencii, PNRR-ul, un dezastru anunțat, a fost făcut de un singur om, tot așa, după multe chinuri și totuși aprobat așa dintr-o dată de UE?

11:49 The guy upstairs is driving me nuts. It's not that he walks and squeaks, but somehow he does it like following my brain wave, enough to drive you nuts in about 5 minutes. He never leaves during his days off (except maybe if i write here, then he will leave, briefly). Put some food in microwave, i was waiting nearby which i usually don't, saw a big spark in my food, don't know what it was, threw it away. Burning smell came inside the room, had to finally open the door. This morning i went for a short test drive with the car and Angela entered the shower without blocking the door.

1:54 Went for a walk. Same feeling, all people i meet on the streets are again, Hungarian actors. Came back, looked for mail. I was expecting the SIM card for the plan i bought for my new unlocked phone, got instead a package for the guy upstairs, put by mistake there by the mailwoman. Looks like a little book with soft covers. I left it there, i'm gonna add a sticky note on it. First thing, got to know his name which is not identical with the one on the papers from the office that keep falling from his door.

7:39/5:39 Ceaușescu, Daniela Vlădescu.

Ceva adevăr există în toată faza. Un tip din Câmpulung (eu) a fost colegi de generală cu Mircea Baniciu, făcut un revelion cu Daniela Vlădescu, Mircea Baniciu și altul (cel precedent) cu Serghei Mizil, alții, altele, normal, toți cu alte nume. A și unul mai înainte cu Alexandra Ungureanu (Shania Twain). I always thought this song was sang by Gloria Estefan and she was saying "Let's hear it from the boy". Whatever.

9:28 Oh Macron!

10:29/8:29 What comes @ goes @!

December 12

9:47 I believe it was only after they watched OBDII data in real time (injectors opening time, ultimately real time fuel consumption) they realized one major way in which a car could save fuel.

Until recently, on an automatic transmission when you were releasing gas pedal, the torque converter was disengaging and the engine was going down to idle while the car was running on inertia. Then the torque converter would engage again when pressing gas pedal. Besides the small but present risque of loosing vacuum thus power brake in the unlikely but statistically real possibility of disconnected engine to shut down for diverse reasons, the engine had to use fuel to idle, and that is up to 20% of maximum use at full engine power (by my observations reading real time data on Torque app, name coincidence, unrelated to what i'm talking about torque converters, requires a bluetooth connector that costs a few dollars).

So what they did was reprogram the transmission to keep torque converter engaged while cutting injector time to 0. Car's inertia would also keep engine turning with nothing coming in or out of it, usually at 2000 rpm instead of 750 at idle.  Not a significant source of engine wear, especially because there's no air or fuel coming in and no power output. However, for those seconds the car won't use any fuel as opposed to idling like in the old setup. Very similar to a manual when you release gas. (Up until these days i thought the difference in mpg between manual and automatic was by use of hydraulic, lossy, torque converter. Not entirely true). Yes it feels differently when driving, but can get used to. No difference on cruise control.

Downturn. It adds to car's inertia when breaking, torque converter should be disengaging when pressing brake pedal.

Another thing, most surprising but not to my 14 years old mind when i saw the first time brake pads and calipers and discs. Then i could not understand what is moving brake pads away from the rotor when releasing brake pedal. The answer, back then and always, was nothing. There was nothing that would separate pads from rotor. Supposedly, by releasing pedal, pressure in the hydraulic circuit would go to 0 and, by not having any force on caliper's piston, there would be no breaking force which roughly, is true. So back then i educated my mind to believe so. Aha, how stupid me!

However. In the event of having an air bubble in the system, which would expand when releasing brake pedal, the pressure would not be totally 0. Also, by inertia, when steering, and due to vibration and other factors, pressure of the pad to the rotor would not be always 0. Tiny but big enough to make for a few percents in fuel economy, depending on driving situations. So they finally added springs like i saw on my 2018 Elantra (and forgot to put back a couple of times which led me to re-do the whole thing, like yesterday during the storm) that would keep pads apart (maybe not if you had air bubbles big enough to beat those springs when expanding). (Yes there is a tiny hesitation in braking when comparing to non-spring situation on the same car, but again i think you can get used to it). Not talking about the situation when you have dust (mostly coming from new ceramic pads) settling on the clips where the pads are sliding to back and forth and that dust prevents your pads from totally releasing pressure on the rotors.

These two "little" things, that could have been fixed no problem decades ago and cost nothing, added together, lead to an increase of mpg by maybe 5-10 miles per gallon. What else?

11:30 "I'll huff and i'll puff". I think there's a lesson to be learned from this video. BTW, where are the tornado safe concrete rooms Bill Clinton wanted to be made in every house in the tornado alley?

I believe a house "3D printed" out of concrete that could be "laid" in a few days, which BTW is one continuous piece of concrete, would withstand a tornado.

5:19 Looks like Captain Pandemics to me...