Divemedic

Inflating Rentals

I am sure that you think that this is going to be another post about my rental property, but you are wrong. This is about some storage space that I rent. I have been renting one of those “you keep the key” rental spaces for the past few years. It’s a 10×10 non-climate controlled space and was costing $82 a month. I installed some metal shelving in it, and it is fairly packed with all sorts of items. The place that I had been renting from was giving us one month free if we paid for six months in advance. That lowered the price to $68 per month. It was one of the few left in the area that were still locally owned, with most of them having been bought out by large companies within the last few years.

Then it was bought out by a large company. This company just bought four formerly locally owned facilities within the past year. They immediately doubled the rates at all of the properties and eliminated the free month for paying in advance. Instead they began charging a surcharge if you didn’t set up automatic credit card billing. My rate is now $164 a month- two and a half times as much as it was before. That works out to $1.64 a square foot per month for warehouse space.

Me charging $1.05 for my rental property tells you how far below market I am.

Anyway, the increase in price didn’t make service any better. They consolidated the staff in their now four warehouse properties, and the office that is actually staffed is ten miles away. There is now only a note on the office where my unit is, saying to call this number for service. The problem? No one answers it, and the management put a padlock on my unit, making my stuff inaccessible. I am trying to get ahold of them to unlock my stuff. If they don’t do so within the next few days, I will go over there with an angle grinder and get my stuff out of there.

In the meantime, if my shit gets auctioned off before I can get in there, I will be suing them for the contents of the locker.

By Divemedic, ago

Grandkids

I spent last night with my wife, daughter, her boyfriend, and my other three grandchildren. We went trick or treating. I want to include a picture of my daughter’s two children, so all of you know who I have been talking about. That’s Ryan on the left, my grand daughter is on the right. This picture was taken less than a month ago.

All of this got to me while I was setting up a future post about his condition, I had to stop typing because I was overcome with emotion. My wife somehow sensed what was going on, called me from work and asked me to take her to lunch. She just knows when I am not doing well. I made a good choice when I decided to marry her.

By Divemedic, ago

Don’t Be Silenced

I know that many of you have seen blogs being nuked. That is why I set up this website on its own server. The idea here is that I setup and maintain the server for my use. That server has a lot more capacity than my blog is using, but costs a good chunk more than I can justify spending on a blog. So I came up with the idea of sharing that server. I initially was sharing it for $25 a month.

This is what I did:

  • I set up a server in a country that won’t submit to US takedown requests. Being across the pond makes the websites run a tad slower, but they are more resistant to being shut down.
  • The server is backed up nightly.
  • There is a mirror server in a second country.
  • The entire thing is owned by a corporation.

The Pitch:

Recently, I moved to this new server and became my own IT guy. Because of this, I was able to realize significant cost savings that I am passing on. The new cost is $15 per month. Those who are already being hosted by me have gotten an email detailing the new rate. If you haven’t seen that email, contact me. For that rate, this is what you get:

  • You get your own blog, run on the widely available and customizable WordPress software.
  • You get one email address with up to 1gb of storage. More options and storage are available for a nominal fee. The email address is attached to your blog, for example: You@yourblog.com
  • I will migrate your blogger or WordPress blog to this server.
  • You can use your own wed address if you have one, or we can find one. There may or may not be an extra charge for that, depends on what you want to use. Some cost more than others.

What you don’t get:

I am not a web designer, graphic artist, computer expert, or any sort of artist. So I can’t offer custom websites, web design, or any of that. I recommend that you use any of the available WordPress custom themes that are widely available online, or that you go with one of the stock themes that comes with the software.

The only catch or rule here is that you can’t run a porn site. The risk for underage porn and the large amount of resources that they use just make that too much of a hassle. I just don’t want to be in the porn business. Other than that, I am hands off. Free speech and all of that.

How to sign up:

Email me to make the arrangements. Divemedic (at) areaocho (dot) com.

By Divemedic, ago

Gas tax

During October, gas prices in Florida were 25 cents lower, thanks to a “tax holiday” signed by Governor DeSantis. That tax expires this morning. I’m sure the headlines from the MSM will be how it is DeSantis’ fault that Florida gas prices just went up by 25 cents a gallon.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is slamming oil companies for making “record profits” while “price gouging” the American public.

Exxon Chevron made a combined profit of $29 billion for the second quarter for all sales of everything they sell, worldwide. During that same quarter, Americans used about 35 billion gallons of gasoline, meaning that the Federal government collected $7 billion in profits from the sales of gasoline. Then there are the taxes on other Exxon products: oil, natural gas, diesel, propane, and more. Who is making the record profits here?

Ronald Reagan summed it up nicely: Tax and spend.

Meanwhile, the US has less than a three week supply of diesel fuel, which is less than half of the normal amount. That doesn’t mean we won’t have any diesel in three weeks. What it means is that supply is short. That means that the law of supply and demand dictates a rise in diesel prices. Farmers rely on tractors, and our supply lines rely on trains and trucking, all of which depend on diesel. This will mean that the prices on everything will soon begin to climb. Right now, diesel stands at $5.25 a gallon in my area. Let’s see how that goes.

By Divemedic, ago

Awww… Who’s a sad clown?

Robert Reich:

What ever happened to last year’s opinion?

LOL. You told people that if they didn’t like it, they should get their own Twitter, so they did. Schadenboner.

By Divemedic, ago

Thirty Days

The old server will be shut down within the next 30 days. Anyone who has not spoken with me about moving your files to the new server has until that time to backup their files and blogs. Once the old server has been shut down, all of your files will be lost forever unless you or I have moved them to the new server, or have otherwise saved them.

That applies to two people. Plan accordingly.

By Divemedic, ago

More Changes

Still making changes to the site. I managed to get the white background on the frontpage changed. You will note that the color scheme of the blog is coming together into some coherence, and even matches the old color scheme. I am now going to work on the individual post issues, look into “previous” and “next” buttons, changing the text color of embedded links, and some other changes.

By Divemedic, ago

Schadenboner

This week has seen the left going apoplectic over Elon Musk buying Twitter and saying he will reinstate many on the right who have been banned. The left is claiming that they will leave Twitter while loudly stamping their metaphorical feet on the way out.

They will do no such thing.

Just like their threats of leaving for Canada, and their claims of becoming so-called ‘Sanctuary Cities,’ they are 100% full of bovine excrement. When we on the right are denied a voice, the left takes away our hosting services, they take away our ability to have a domain name, they take away our access. Then they tell us, “If you don’t like it, just go create and build your own Twitter and Facebook.”

So we try to do just that, and they take away your domain name. Then they deny your would be users the ability to download your app from their app stores, then they deny you webhosting service.

Elon Musk has done none of that. All he has done is say that he believes in free speech. The left still has the ability to say what they wish. They can still avoid hearing what they wish at the touch of a “Block” button. As they told us, it’s a free country. There is nothing stopping you from starting your own Twitter. Except when there is.

The next argument that we had thrown in our faces was “Twitter, Facebook, and the like are private companies. They can ban whomever they choose.” Having the power to ban whomever you choose carries with it the ability to NOT ban whomever they choose.

The tolerant left hates when people have or express an opinion that is different from their own. They hate that to the point where even this blog in its little corner of the Internet causes people to enter spastic fits of comment posting rage that are so incessant that even when they are banned from posting, they continue to send threats and insults by email, and when those are ignored, they begin posting comments on other blogs, attempting to continue the argument.

The left doesn’t just want to have its own voice heard, it needs to silence the voices of everyone else. This is a sign of a weak philosophy or faulty idea. If your system of beliefs is so weak that it cannot stand against opposing ideas, then it mustn’t be a very robust system.

I have to say that the left losing its collective mind because they can’t just go out and start their own Twitter is giving me a schadenboner.

By Divemedic, ago