Sunday, June 22, 2014

Virtual Heaven

I am changing the above box to display the top 2 posts in the past 30, as opposed to just the number one most visited; because of the following perplexity.

The above is displaying the most viewed post in "the past 30 days," and I was hoping that it would change every so often and lean towards highlighting the best post of the month, until another comes along and is more viewed. but it has become stuck upon the above displayed post.It keeps getting viewed; daily; to the my utter bewilderment. It isn't really such a "classic" of a post...
It is the one about Sherman, in Baton Rouge, on the night when he arrived at my busking spot on his bike with his flashing helmet and his camera on him somewhere; and kind of stood around back when I was still kind of an infant at telling people nicely: "Hey, I haven't made a cent while you've been standing here," and wound up telling him just that.
I thought that some one person might be using it as an entry point into the blog, but that didn't make sense because that person would then have to navigate to the most recent post from that page.
That post was viewed 5 times, just today.
I think I know what the problem is:
It is the reference to "Computer Heaven," the computer repair shop in Baton Rouge, where I took my laptop, and then blogged about the adventure (see "It really isn't such a "classic" of a post..." above).
The words "Computer Heaven" (and even a depiction of their logo, even) has had me unwittingly trolling for whomever Googles the above store name. So there are people on the worldwide web who are Googling the name of that particular store, which I will not repeat, at the risk of being more of a troll, and especially probably Googling images related to that particular thread. It sounds like it could be a porn clearing house, or, a place that fixes computers.
So, I am going to remove the logo, and maybe reduce the number of references to that store; and I will see if the traffic to the blog is more reflective of the quality of the posts, rather than through the follies of people who are trying to go to virtual heaven.

23 Dollar Friday
Saturday was kind of rough.
After making the above amount, in about 2 hours, I knocked off a little early at half past midnight, charged this laptop at a spot across the street from a hotel which has a security guard who can see me, then went to get on wi-fi and did yesterdays post, knocking off around 4 in the morning, so as to give myself a good chance to get under the dock. 
It was day 6 of the fast and cleanse and the abstinence from alcohol. I had started to put
honey and apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper in the distilled water that I had basically been living off that morning, and wanted to add the ingredients which were (hopefully still) under there. Those being molasses and sesame oil.

I managed to go under at around 4:30.
There was a pickup truck parked above (even at that hour) and a guy was pulling a bag of something out of the back of it. As soon as he disappeared into the interior of the boat, without having exchanged words with anyone along the way, as far as I could tell; I ducked under.
It was nice to be home, after 2 days away.
I flipped on my flashlight, as I neared my spot, to give it a once-over, to A: make sure that some skeezer wasn't sleeping in my bed. B: Make sure some skeezers weren't crouched behind my wall waiting to ambush me C: Make sure my sleeping spot hadn't been dismantled and all my stuff thrown away by the security people D: Give the rats a heads up to get off my quilt and go sleep somewhere else E: Make sure the black capped night heron didn't leave a dead rat which was too large for it to swallow, but not too large for it to kill; on my quilt; and F: Look for signs that the place had been visited i.e. anything missing or moved around. Those are the 6 basic reasons that I flip on my flashlight as I get to my spot.
I read Charles Dickens by candlelight, sipping the above concoction, for about an hour, then blew out the candles and continued to read by daylight until about 8:30.
I slept very well and was out by around 4 in the afternoon, and headed directly to the Lilly spot, after picking up a gallon of water and drinking a mango guarana juice drink which cost 4 dollars.
There was a limousine and a Rolls Royce parked in front of it and part of a wedding party was trickling out of the house to my immediate left.
I wasn't quite feeling in the mood to play anything that might get their attention and their tips; such as "We've Only Just Begun," by The Carpenters.
Then, some carpenters across the street started running a loud drill or a loud sander, and so I took a break, to go get a 5 dollar sack of weed.
So much for trying to play an 8 hour shift just to see what the take would be. I figured that I could forecast about 60 dollars, conservatively, if I played 8 hours at the Lilly spot. My best 5 hours there was $213, but I have never gone 8...and I wouldn't that night.
I would give the carpenters time to finish their work, and maybe the weed would put me in the mood for that Carpenters song.
There was some kind of gay event going on, and fag after fag was going to and fro from Lafitts. They were not tipping.
I had made 2 dollars, after playing what I thought was some pretty good stuff.
A Very Skinny Face
Daniel Prepares For Role As Mick Jagger By Fasting
I took another break, returned at about 11 and played for another hour and a half and got about 18 bucks to bring my total to 20 bucks for the night, after the gays were gradually supplanted by a different group of tourists. The gays seemed to be totally self conscious, and engrossed in their interactions with each other. I guess they don't think that it would turn another man on to see them tipping a street performer. Maybe some movie will come out featuring a really gorgeous hunk who, in one of the famous scenes, would tip a street performer; and that might change their perceptions. They might even quote the guys line in the movie as they throw the 5 between the sharks. This happened back when I was a pizza deliveryman, and the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie came out, and the characters ordered a pizza and tipped the guy in one scene (I guess; I never saw the flick). I was getting tips from kids at the door, who would say "Here you go, pizza dude!" in a turtle-like voice; mutated, but still turtle-ish.
I had one group of young guys around me, who seemed to be fascinated with the harmonica, and, like a showman, I played and sang and then took guitar solos and saved the harmonica for the final "buildup."
One of them started to say "You know, I wanted to give you something, but I don't have any small bills; so I'm just...." but then had a second thought (he was probably stoned) and thought better of throwing whatever it was going to be. So, maybe I almost had a 40 dollar night.

 About 20 Dollars Saturday
I did a very abbreviated session on this computer and was under the dock by about 4:30 this mornng.
I ate some bananas, a peach and a plum, introducing solid food, after 5 days off.
I looked pretty skinny in a picture that I took of myself to put on this blog. I wound up cropping it so that only my face is visible. It's a pretty skinny face, though. 
13 Dollar Sunday
Sunday, I was up and ready to come out at noon, but it rained for about the next 2 hours.
I got to the Lilly spot and must have played for about an hour and made 13 dollars, and then was off by 11, so that I could charge this laptop and make this post.
Now it is 2 o' clock, Monday morning and I will go by Rouses Market, since I'm starting to eat again; and see if I can find fruits and vegetables, and then will be under the dock at around 3 a.m. and will just go from there.
I am now going to load Audacity and see if it takes MPEG-4 files, because that is the format that the sound recorder on this thing puts music in. If it does, I will post a jam that I did with Rick Park, from Austin, Texas.
I listened to it; and it has its moments.... 

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