The 21 year old car

 The Subic flood trip just keeps giving.

I drove thru a giant pothole hidden by water outside Friendship gate Clark.  

Damaged steering, wheel bearing, control arm, shock mount, and 2 tires scuffed hard.  One tire blistered 2 weeks ago, The other one is scuffed hard.  Not taking chances.  Bought 2 new tires for a hundred bucks.

Dont have the butchers bill for the other repairs yet.  

Car is repaired, every other little annoying thing also fixed.  Drives like new, except for muffler.

21 years old, no rust. Doesnt burn oil.

Now if it only had cruise control.

AAAND  Spoke too soon..

Battery got changed too.

Which is making me wonder what the hell Americans are doing to cars?  I see this youtube channel of a guy running a scrap yard in Illinois.  I thought Filipinos were bad at keeping their cars fixed, the stop and go traffic, etc.  But then I see that guys channel and  he has cars 10 years newer than mine being junked left and right.

My mechanic brought my bill for car repairs.

All in it was 735 dollars counting tires battery, the forklift repairs and other jobs back a few months.

Deoderant is a ripoff, 20 year supply for 14 bucks

 Underarm deoderant is a ripoff.  

Active ingredient is potash alum.  Also sold for food pickling. 

A pound on Amazon is US$14. 

One pound will make US$540 of deoderant at the 6 bucks for 3.5 ounce rollon price. (90 bottles Mitchum)

Mix at 5% alum to water.  

If you want thicker add in couple dropper of  glycerin and a dropper of alcohol to your refill.

Squirt in some of your favorite cologne if you want too.

Some generic roll on brands have a easily removable snap top so you can refill.  

You can also just put in a spray bottle.  

You basically got 20 years of deoderant.

30 days of GrokBot

**The inbox trained the bot. Then the bot explained the slump.**

The low tier GrokBot plan ran out of quota during training. I upgraded to the next tier at about $110. It now uses about 10 percent of the plan each day and resets once a week, which leaves a 30 percent reserve. That training run is the point of the story, not a setup detail. The bot trained itself quickly off my inbox. The inbox was not a clean sample set. It was the record of how demand was actually handled: what got a reply, what sat, and what never reached a close. It also learned my product in a hour, what I can and can not do. All the things that is so tiresome to train a new hire on. Once the bot was working that record, the personnel issue was visible. A lot of inquiries had been left hanging. I hired someone for the office. She was not keeping those threads alive. I am convinced now that the sales slump was not weak demand. It was unanswered demand. Sales are coming back as the follow-up layer is covered. I understood that diagnosis because I recognize the same split in myself. I am an introvert who has had to force the opposite, or I starve. Im my office the written work can look complete while the live close never happens. That is the pattern I was seeing in the office: presence without initiation. I still cannot leave the desk empty, and I cannot treat the person at that desk as interchangeable with a reply bot. In this market, the face of the office is part of the sale. That is hard-learned Filipino walk-in custom, not a theory from elsewhere. Customers come in. They expect someone who looks the part of the business and who will receive them. An attractive woman at the desk, even a moderately attractive one, gets that reception done more effectively than someone unattractive. Attractiveness works for both sexes. With men, it has a ceiling: presentable, not excessive, and not a look customers read as homosexual. Too much artificial sweetener kills any dish. That is how money goes from their pocket to yours. Presentation can open the visit and still leave the inquiry hanging. The hire I have covers the look of the office. She is not an outgoing personality in real life. What I still need in the room is someone who will actually talk to the people who walk in, push a close, and get the payment sent. The bot now owns the written half of that close. It cannot be the face of the shop. I do what I can until I can do better. The seat was hard to fill. I had one applicant. I do have someone available who could replace her. That woman is more outgoing, and she is even prettier than the girl in the seat now. She would cover both jobs the inbox exposed: face and close. I am friends with her, and I know her and Sexytary well enough to know why that still cannot happen. Two dominant hens in one henhouse. So I can see the shortcoming clearly. I cannot swap the desk to fix it. We play the cards we are dealt. I am running a large ad campaign, for my scale, and it is working. The bot is handling more than 500 new inquiries a month, plus follow-ups. Volume was not the missing piece. Closing the volume was. I have the bot using the SPIN sales method: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff. At first it was only answering. I wanted it better at discovery and closing, so I put that method in. It is more personable now. It does a better job matching the product to the client, because it asks what the client is dealing with before it pitches. This I added at week 2. Huge improvment. Meta Business has been fighting the bot. I have an old auto-reply setting turned off, and Meta keeps turning it back on. The Meta bot also jumps into conversations uninvited once in awhile, and then my bot has to step in and restart the thread. Overall, the first 30 days have paid for the subscription and beyond. The useful surprise was not only the extra capacity. It was that training on the real inbox showed me where the slump actually lived: the gap between a face that can start the visit and a closer who finishes it. That does not make the GrokBot the ship’s captain. It has no reliable way to invent a new course without hallucinating and running off on tangents. Putting it on the inbox helped me course-correct. Compare it to a run from Hawaii to Los Angeles. I set the heading for Los Angeles and went to sleep. I woke up with the bow pointed at San Diego, still about 500 miles off the coast. That is a larger correction than I would have needed 2,000 miles out. It is a much smaller problem than discovering the error 20 miles outside San Diego. The bot can show that the heading drifted. It cannot decide that Los Angeles is the destination and send me off on a mission to San Diego just because it feels like it. Ai is a tool, a very powerful tool, but it is missing a "un certain je-ne-sais-quoi" that I do not think can be re-created digitally, as much of the world population lacks that and the LLM was trained on everyone's thoughts, not solely on the successful.

You do not get a captain by averaging the passengers.

Oh this is rich.. the Discord Ban

 So the gov agency blocked the sites without a court order, and then backed off a few hours later.  

The gov members held a press conference and they could not even define who used Discord, Ironically many Philipipnes gov agencies use Discord as a group chat for corrdinating, including the very cybercrime department of the national police that they say is calling for the ban.

Then it gets even more rich.  The former head of the agency that ordered the block, is a lawyer and he is litigating AGAINST the very agency he recently left.  

So this brings the more important question, what tempest in a teapot will arise next week to distract the population when ths one is dropped due to embarrassment?

A summary of a familiar Philippine news pattern: a controversy arrives at high volume, occupies a day or two or ten, collapses under its own contradictions or embarrassment, and is replaced by the next short-lived storm.

In a alt timeline...

 

Philippines gov blocked Discord, Facebook is next

 From a FB page I saw.

The talk is FB, Instagram, Roblox and Reddit are next.  

Something is up.  All this started over a child taking his fathers police issued gun and doing a school shooting in a moslem city.  

A lot of politicans riding this issue hard, but something smells funny.    There has also been a lot of talk about the UK EU rules for the internet implimented here.  Grok was banned for awhile.  All very sus.

meanwhile,  real issues are ignored::

Americans who die in Philippines

 Americans,  especially the washed up ones who end up in places like Angeles or the far asshole of some squatter-ville often do not end up having a proper funeral.  This is especially true for those randos who come here for chasing the prostitutes, ladyboys and bad habits.  

The military veterans, if the spouse has a copy of the dd214 can get some reimbursement and a spot in the Clark cemetery.  But unless the spouse has some  money, or can raise some, the guy is generally fucked.  

I recently heard of a European guy who died here.  His family was in Europe, poor and no way to go to the Philipines to handle the remains.  There was a predatory funeral home and associates in the police who tried to scam the Euro family and it was not until a friend of the deceased got the department of health involved, did the funeral operator who turned out to be operating on a suspended license to hand over the remains.

Another instance I knew of was a American guy I grew up with.  He visited here with his Filipino/American wife.  Me and him was not close.  More like aquantances by the time he died.  I did not even know he died until I saw some post begging for money to send his body home.  He showed up here, caught flu and died in less than 10 days.  

Death abroad is fairly common.  I read that a Australian is shipped home dead from Bali once a week on average.  I can only imagine how much more it is here.  The American embassy for the most part will not assist with money. So zero time should be spent there except for some documents to ship a body, you on your own.  Americans are lucky to get a visit from the embassy if they are in jail here, much less a funeral assist.  The American embassy is only to serve the interests of Washington DC, not for citizen assistance.  

You have a stroke, heart attack, terminal cancer or car accident, you not gonna get help, other than a last resort loan and restricted passport until the gov gets their money back to return you back to the USA. 

Going abroad as a American one should face the fact that they truely are on their own.  With rare exceptions for politically connected, or Americans kidnapped by terrorists.

Side hustle recipes.... Chicken sandwiches... CHEAP

Food stall chicken patty

📋 The Master Formula (Per 1kg of Dry Powder)

Ingredient	Weight / Measure	Purpose / Function
Vital Wheat Gluten Powder	1,000 grams (1 kg)	Provides the high-protein, meat-like structure.
Ground Chicken Meat & Skin Blend (10%)	100 grams	Delivers authentic chicken fat, aroma, and flavor.
Warm Chicken Broth / Water	~1.1 to 1.2 Liters	Hydrates the gluten and forms the scoopable dough.
Baking Soda	5 grams (~1 level tsp)	Dissolved in the broth for rapid browning & softening.
Chicken Bouillon Powder	2 tablespoons	Dissolved in the broth for deep savory seasoning.

🍳 Kitchen Prep & Grilling Workflow

1. The Liquid Solution: Take your warm chicken broth/water. Whisk in your chicken bouillon powder and your 5 grams of baking soda until completely dissolved. Let it sit for a minute.
2. The Chicken Emulsion: Put your 100g of chicken meat and skin into your food processor and blend until it forms a smooth paste.
3. The Dough Mix: In a large basin, add your 1kg of vital wheat gluten. Pour in the chicken paste and your baking-soda-infused liquid. Mix and knead with your hands for about 5 minutes until it forms a uniform, highly elastic, scoopable dough.
4. The Rest: Let the dough sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill. This relaxes the gluten bonds so it scoops cleanly and cleanly holds its shape when pressed.
5. The Service Line: Scoop a cold ball directly from the container, plop it onto your hot grill, drizzle a splash of palm oil, and use a heavy burger press or metal spatula to press it flat. Watch it instantly puff up slightly and brown to a deep golden color!

More WW3 Philippines effects

 Victory bus lines has announced they will have to close if the fares are not allowed to increase because of fuel prices .  Bus fares are regulated in the Philippines.

note Ayuda means charity.

Quoted statement below:  

VICTORY LINER

THE PROVINCIAL AND CITY BUS INDUSTRIES ARE BLEEDING

We urgently call upon His Excellency the President of the Republic of the Philippines, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Finance, the Department of Energy and the LTFRB, for the immediate lifting of the directive suspending the fare adjustment order previously approved by the LTFRB last March 14, 2026.

WE ASK FOR A FARE THAT WILL KEEP PUBLIC TRANSPORT MOVING.

AN URGENT APPEAL FROM THE PROVINCIAL and CITY BUS INDUSTRY

WE DO NOT ASK FOR AYUDA.

Fuel prices have reached levels that our operations can no longer absorb. Fuel already accounts for approximately 45-60% of our operating costs, yet the fares we are authorized to collect have not kept pace with the actual cost of providing safe and reliable transportation.

Among the major modes of public transportation, land transport is placed at a distinct disadvantage. Airlines and sea transport operators may impose fuel surcharges in response to extraordinary fuel-price increases. Provincial and city buses cannot independently impose a similar surcharge. We must continue operating under regulated fares while absorbing every fuel-price increase.

There is another inequity: passenger fares are not subject to VAT, while the fuel we purchase carries VAT. Because our sales generate no output VAT against which the VAT on fuel may be credited, that tax becomes part of our cost—a burden the bus operator must absorb.

We were also required to modernize our fleets. In good faith, operators invested in new buses and took out substantial loans to comply. Today, we must carry the combined costs of fuel, modernization loans, spare parts, tires, maintenance, insurance, toll fees and regulatory compliance.

An impending wage increase will add further pressure. We recognize that our employees deserve fair compensation. But higher wages must be supported by revenues sufficient to sustain both employment and operations.

NO INDUSTRY CAN SURVIVE WHEN ITS REGULATED REVENUE IS LOWER THAN THE ACTUAL COST OF DELIVERING ITS SERVICE.

We are not asking the Government for ayuda.

We are not asking taxpayers to carry our businesses.

We are asking for a fair and sustainable fare that reflects the real cost of operating public transportation.

We cannot freely increase fares. We cannot impose a fuel surcharge. We cannot compromise safety or maintenance. We cannot simply stop operating without risking the abandonment or cancellation of our franchises.

THIS IS NOT A THREAT TO STOP OPERATIONS.

THIS IS A NOTICE THAT OPERATIONS MAY SOON BECOME IMPOSSIBLE.

If responsible operators are pushed into insolvency, commuters will ultimately suffer: fewer buses, fewer trips, longer waiting times and the loss of vital connections between cities and provinces. Thousands of drivers, conductors, mechanics and support personnel will also face the loss of their livelihoods.

We understand that fare adjustments affect commuters. But keeping fares artificially below the actual cost of service does not protect the public in the long term. It merely delays the crisis until operators can no longer deploy enough safe and roadworthy buses.

We modernized our bus units, and services because the Government required us to modernize.

We borrowed because compliance required capital.

We continue to operate because our franchises carry a public responsibility.

Now, Government must fulfill its corresponding responsibility: to ensure that the public transport system it regulates remains financially capable of serving the Filipino people.

WE DO NOT ASK FOR CHARITY.

WE ASK FOR URGENT ACTION.

WE ASK FOR A FAIR AND SUSTAINABLE FARE.

ACT NOW—BEFORE MORE BUSES CAN NO LONGER LEAVE THEIR TERMINALS.

The provincial and city bus industries remain ready to serve.
But public service must also be allowed to survive.

SIGNED IN SOLIDARITY:
PROVINCIAL BUS OPERATORS ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES / NAGKAKAISANG SAMAHAN NG NANGANGASIWA NG PANLALAWIGAN BUS SA PILIPINAS, INC. / SOLUBOA / MEGA MANILA CONSORTIUM

Logos / organizations shown at the bottom:

• nsnp bpi — Nagkakaisang Samahan ng Nangangasiwa ng Panlalawigang Bus sa Pilipinas, Inc.
• MMCC — Mega Manila Consortium Corporation
• SOLUBOA — Southern Luzon Bus Operator Association

The cargo container office 2 month report

 I screwed 2x2 inch square tubing lengthwise on the walls of the conatiner using tek screws thru the container walls.  

I then used the used foam packaging to fill in the space, and held it in place with packing tape until the half inch plastic sheets were screwed over top using tek screws.  

Two sides installed in a day.  It was a new task so the boys did nto get fast until day 2.

Day 2 we only did one side.  However it also included the wiring, AC, and lights.

Day 3 they built a bulkhead frame on the inside of the cargo door and built a wall using 16mm thick sheets and insulated.  We also unstalled a non opening glass window.  We made the door ourselves.  

The door has a auto closing spring so it stays closed.  

Flooring got a coat of cheap plastic varnish.  However it needs a recoat.  Looks good but it was scratched up from moving furniture around.  We take our shoes off at the door so as to save on tracking dirt around.  

Despite the roof not insulated, the half hp window AC unit is capable of keeping it cool and comfortable.  The roof has a sun shade net and the walls outside have sun shade nets.  Which both shade the walls and function as camo from the road.  It does not look like much from the gate.

When the cargo doors are closed it just looks like a cargo container.  However one corner support has sunk a little twisting the box slightly making the cargo door hard to close.  When the rain stops I will have the boys jack up that corner to re-level the box.  

The AC runs whenever it is being used, however when it is cool, the fan only runs bringing in fresh air.  No weird smells and the panels no longer off gas with that new car smell.  

It is not soundproof, I can hear the miter saw running, faintly, but I no longer hear traffic noise unlike the old shop that drove me to madness.  

Overall I am very pleased with the results.  even during the most heavy wind and rain, I can barely hear any effect while inside.  I daresay if it was in a non flood prone area, and anchored down, I would not hesitate to ride out a cat 5 typhoon in it.

Philippines military used drone in combat first time

 

WW3 FEMA Emergency fuel

 

Archive

https://archive.org › download › femasimplifiedwoodgasgeneratormar1989withbiomassenergyfoundation2001 › FEMA_Simplified_Wood_Gas_Generator-Mar_1989_With_Biomass_Energy_Foundation_2001_text.pdf

 FEMA Simplified Wood Gas Generator Mar 1989 With Biomass Energy ...

gasifier unit (i.e., a "producer gas" generator, also called a "wood gas" generator) which is capable of providing emergency fuel for vehicles, such as tractors and trucks

In the San Francisco Bay Area, All Power Labs (Berkeley) began in 2008 with the open-source Gasifier Experimenter’s Kit (GEK): free CAD files, workshops, and a modular downdraft reactor intended for research and DIY. The project productized into the GEK Power Pallet—compact, sensor-controlled 10–20 kW (and later larger) integrated gasifier–engine–generator packages sold commercially. 

Around 2011–2012 the topic resurfaced among off-grid, preparedness, and YouTube communities. Engineer775 (Practical Preppers) published numerous farm-scale and generator demonstrations; a wood-gas system appeared on Doomsday Preppers Season 2 (Scott Hunt). Other builders and authors (including Wayne Keith’s high-mileage vehicle work and Ben Peterson’s Wood Gasifier Builder’s Bible) circulated plans and videos. “SouthernPrepper” and similar channels were part of that wave of small-scale fabrication and occasional sales.

Catalysts and chemistry is your friend in these projects.  Copper wool is a cheaper catalyst for this.  Limestone also.  Limestone in the filter will neutralize the wood vinegar coming across.  Zeolyte can also help.

This booklet and related topics was published years ago as a WW3 survival guide. Well it is now WW3.  

The GEK (Gasifier Experimenters Kit) is another open-source downdraft wood/biomass gasifier originally developed by All Power Labs. The primary collection of plans, CAD files, fabrication instructions, and assembly documentation is hosted on the GEK Wiki.

Main documentation hub
http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/page/6123754/How%20to%20Build%20and%20Run%20the%20GEK%20Gasifier

This page links to manuals, fabrication guides, assembly instructions, operating procedures, and CAD files across versions (primarily v3.x and v4.x).

CAD / blueprint files (sheet-metal parts)
The most commonly referenced drawings for the later kit versions are here:
http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/page/29160712/GEK%20v4_x%20CAD%20drawings%20for%20all%20sheet%20metal%20parts

Direct files from that page include:

• http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/file/45792068/GEKv4_2BuildParts.pdf
• http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/file/45792081/GEKv4_2BuildParts.dxf
• http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/file/45792300/GEKv4_2BuildParts.dwg

Note that some of the v4 files were posted as raw CAD (PDF/DXF/DWG) and may lack fully dimensioned drawings; they are most useful if you can open them in CAD software. Earlier, more fully annotated versions exist for v3 and v2 on the same wiki.

Related fabrication and assembly pages

• Fabrication instructions (v4.x): http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/page/52196806/GEK%20v4x%20Fabrication%20Instructions
• Assembly instructions (v4 kit): http://wiki.gekgasifier.com/w/page/27905807/Assembly%20Instructions%20for%20the%20GEK%20v4%20Kit

Visual step-by-step guides
Instructables hosts illustrated versions of the original build and assembly process:

• https://www.instructables.com/Building-the-GEK-Gasifier-in-seven-parts/
• https://www.instructables.com/Assembling-the-GEK-gasifier-and-preparing-for-fire/

Licensing and current status
The designs were released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license for personal and non-commercial use. Commercial manufacturing or resale required a separate licensing agreement with All Power Labs. FEMA style machine demo below:

amazing homemade gasifier uses wood pellets to run generator -- renewable alternative energy video JR M JR M 18.7K subscribers

Makin the lumber

 Sexytary spent all Saturday making lumber for herself.  She has ideas.

Short staffed now   Business manager went MIA.  Said hospitalized for bladder issue   He dissappeared leaving behind his glasses, and personal effects.  Messaged once bout being in hospital, but then nothing..  Phone out of service.

The crazy girl took a week off.  Stated reason: Trying to get preg before husband goes to Saudi.  Did i mention she kinda crazy?  

I am still suffering after effects from the ardourous flood trip.  

The car needs work.I definitely damaged something hitting potholes on the expressway and in Angeles.  

I can barely walk.  The extended 2 day sitting in traffic has progressed into tendonitis in tbe back of my knees. 

Back on.the diet again.  Gained weight back after project fitness.

Changed the strategy.  No more protein shakes compared to last time. No starches. Just  fish, chicken breast, egg,  and unli veggies.  

Cut all the bread, rice, fried, etc.

Turns out a pound of california mix and 200 grams of chicken breast, will make a full belly.  With herbs, onion garlic tomato celery, it dont taste diet.

Supper will be some sort of italian tomato sauce in veggie, with fish.   

i been on a sub 1200 calorie diet for a week.  Not hungry.  Sour, salty, savory flavors still abound. 

No keto flu this time around either. I did crash but it was dehydration related. 

Side Hustles

 As a child in the 80's especially early 80's (I was 5 in 1980) I remember a lot of people doing side hustle jobs.  The area I grew up in was killed economically in 1979 (fuck you UAW union) and never really recivered. Economically and culturally the area remained 1970's well after the coasts did the 80's thing 

I saw my father doing and I also did hay baling, cutting and selling fence posts, firewood, candle making, clock making, and various farmers market activities.

One thing that could earn in.say a midwest farmers market is fish.  Commercial licenses in many midwest states are really cheap, unlike the coast states, with Florida being a exception.  

Charcoal at the farmers market could be a good seller if you undercut the supermarket price.  

Wood/grass pellets for stoves is another one.  Couple thousand dollars and you turning what is essentially grass and weeds into fuel.  Just a guy mowing/bagging his lawn grass and pelletizing it could pretty much cover his entire winter heat bill.

Briquetting the grass  and weeds you are making fuel that works in any fireplace.  

Grass pellets and wood chipd make a great feedstock for mushroom growing also. 

Do not wait for permission from the gov that will never come to take care of you and yours.

Built a deck

 

Does not seem like much.. Except every single board I made from recycled plastic I shredded in a mahcine I designed and built and then that was made into boards using a machine I designed and built.

Unfortunately there is a problem here

 This only works if the population has basic home economics and food safety in school.  It is something Americans take for granted because it is taught in American schools.

Where this falls apart, is when Pajeet and Juan show up at the American farmers market with untreated parasite infecitons and related bad habits fresh off the jumbo jet or fresh outta the human smuggler truck.

Article Below:

When Wyoming passed the historic Wyoming Food Freedom Act in 2015, government regulators and skeptics warned of an impending public health disaster, predicting that deregulation would trigger a wave of widespread foodborne illness. Instead, the catastrophic health emergency NEVER ARRIVED. Over a decade later, there has not been a single documented outbreak tied to the law, proving that neighbors can safely buy raw milk, farm-fresh eggs, and homemade meals directly from neighbors without bureaucratic overreach. The program has been a massive economic success, causing the number of local farmers’ markets to soar by nearly 70%, creating vital income for hundreds of rural families, and serving as a triumphant blueprint for “food freedom”. This undeniable success has sparked a nationwide movement, inspiring states like Montana, North Dakota, Utah, and Maine to pass their own versions of the law and empower home kitchens across America.

Check out the comments section for the full benefits of this programs and let us know your personal experience/preference—have you or would you buy homemade food?

DIY Charcoal machine Cheap

 

This video has been circulating on Faceborg content farms. The design works. A buddy has built several units.

Wood is loaded into a metal drum that is then sealed. The gap between the chimney and the drum can be packed with wet mud. A bolted flange and gasket is the better seal if the unit will be used more than a few times.

The fire is started in an internal rocket stove. Dry kindling or a small amount of cooking oil is the cleaner way to light it. Used motor oil will work, but it burns dirtier and leaves more residue.

The rocket stove heats the charge. As the wood carbonizes it gives off gas. Moisture plus those volatiles commonly account for 60 percent or more of the original weight, more if the wood is green.

A metal pipe returns the gases to the rocket firebox. Once that loop is established, the process is largely self-fueling until the volatiles are spent. What burns is a mix of tars, wood vinegar, carbon monoxide, and light hydrocarbons such as propane and butane. Combustion in a simple drum is not complete, but it is cleaner than venting the same gases to the air.

Clean, dry, untreated wood is the intended feedstock if the goal is charcoal or biochar. Other dry organics such as paper or chlorine-free plastics can be run in the same vessel; that is not the same as clean incineration. Do not use PVC, vinyl, or ABS. Food waste is high in moisture and is a poor charge for this design.

The same gas stream can supply heat to a boiler or a grain dryer. Tar and uneven gas quality remain practical problems for heat-exchange surfaces and for temperature control. If you was planning on making large quantities of charcoal, you can roll some steel plate (or staineless steel) for a more durable machine.

Keep the drum sealed until it has cooled. Opening it while hot admits air, can ignite the charcoal, and releases carbon monoxide. Thin drums fatigue after repeated high-temperature cycles. DIY High temp paint

This is a paintable sodium-silicate / red-iron-oxide coating. It is the closest homemade equivalent to a heat-stable red oxide film.

Dry mix (by volume)

• 2 parts red iron oxide powder (Fe₂O₃, rust pigment, or finely ground red oxide primer pigment if you can isolate it)
• 1 part fine silica flour, fireclay, or bentonite

Binder

• Liquid sodium silicate (water glass), about 37–42 °Bé, SiO₂:Na₂O ratio around 2.0–3.2

Mix

1. Blend the powders dry.
2. Add water glass until the mix is like thin cream. Typical starting point is about 1 part liquid silicate to 1–1.5 parts dry powder by volume.
3. Thin with a little water only if it will not brush. Do not make it watery; a thick film flakes.

Use the batch the same day. Silicate mixes skin over and gel in the pot.

Application

1. Wire-brush the drum. Remove loose scale, oil, and old flaking paint. A slightly rusted but sound surface is acceptable.
2. Degrease (hot water and detergent, then rinse and dry).
3. Brush or roll two to three thin coats. Let each coat dry to a hard film before the next. Total dry film should stay thin—roughly 0.1–0.3 mm. Thick coats crack and peel.
4. Air-dry at least 24 hours.
5. On the first firing, heat slowly. The silicate must lose water and begin to vitrify. A gentle first run is better than an immediate hard fire.

This film is a glassy silicate loaded with Fe₂O₃. It reduces scale growth. It is not a permanent enamel and will need touching up after hard thermal cycles. Red iron oxide powder is sold as cement coloring powder. (Also works in thermite)

You get what you pay for.

It is very hard to find the tiki style tropical vacation getaway in the Philippines anymore.  It is all the same sachet factory food, shoddy cement block construction and litter everywhere.  There are nice places, however you really have to work hard to find them and it will cost you.  Either in travel effort to get there or money in room rates. 

Ironically the so called 'new construction' that is the favorite style here.  IE a clone of a crappy Tondo slum  shanty, cost exponentially more to build than the tiki resort.  Tile imported from China, cement from Cebu, substandard rebar made in a Chinese owned foundry in Mindanao, and plumbing made with imagination rather than skill.  Whereas Bamboo, coco palm, and handcrafted furniture is cheaper to aquire but requires upkeep.  Something resort owners do not care to do.

 Upkeep or making things nice is not on the menu with a absentee owner who is just in it to make a fast buck and place to stay when they travel in from Manila or abroad.

Alona Beach looks fine in a photograph. Two blocks away a marching band played all night. The property was concrete-block buildings masquerading as old bamboo huts. The toilet tank was broken; the bowl flushed with a bucket. Breakfast was yesterday’s rice, a scoop of canned CDO corned beef, an overcooked fried egg, and instant coffee. All for a nightly price more than a decent hotel in Manila. After 12 hours I could not wait to leave.

A CHB box on a muddy road with the word resort in the name does not a resort make.

Meme of the week

 

In another round of funsies today, Shipped out a order from my online store.  Its not much, couple bucks only.  The person buying it, was so desperate to order it.  Then she did not accept the order delivery.  So it was sent back to me. 

Well then tracking said the delivery driver brought it back to me.  Dude sent in a gps coordinate from some random house across town, and a supposed picture of the package returned with ID of the reciever.  Clearly not my place cause the GPS coordinates are watermarked on the pic.  ID from some random guy and picture of some random packages, some were for tiktok store,  not the online store brand bag I use.  

My point is, it is all this random petty thievery that goes on here is a serious drain on the economy.  One which I have observed also being so much more common in the USA.  Imagine you meet a time traveller in 1995 and they tell you California will become a dump with Bangladesh style squatter shanties, and drug addicts everywhere?  Imagine you was told the prices of things, or how people behave?

So short staffed.

 

Sexytary is off on vacation. 

Social media girl has been MIA for days.  Supposedly on some college thing.  But I was not asked for this time off.  

Welder took a day off, just because he felt like it.

Business Manager called in sick.

I am suffering bouts of back spasm, so I am pretty much useless for manual labor.

I got anouther brood of chicks hatched.  The bantam hen and rooster I paid 20 bucks for, have now produced 2 adult hens and one rooster. 9 chicks hatched this time around. 

We shall see how many survivors I can get out of this one.  I will have my guy make a new coop from plastic lumber for the bantams.  The bantam hen bullies the big birds and the big birds bully the bantam chicks and Bantam rooster.  I think this is what they call pecking order.  

The monsoon rain has gone down to a daily afternoon thunderstorm and sunny mornings the last few days.  As such I got the workers clearing out the last out the plastic from the old shop to turn it over.  It was a huge mess.  I discovered previous worker stashed the materials I was processing out in the back and then saying he had nothing to process, so as to avoid work.  Story of my life.  Cheap labor is not always cheap.

Wife is doing her usual. This time demanding I 'reimburse' her for money she spent going to a brithday party with her friends at some restaurant.  I was not invited, not consulted, just given a demand for money like a corporate expense reimbursement.  I told her if I give in to her demand I can not pay the salary for my day labor today.  She snorted and said she didnt care.