Mr Mars' Blog - 2024
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Medical & Dental Problems
Martian Cookery
A Scientist's Genesis
Mr Mars' Constellations
Bagpipes
More Songs & Poetry
Getting Arador & Debbie Ready For The Next Adventure

What I Did In 2024

4:00pm, Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024
Current mood: calm Wave

I apologise for not updating my blog this year until now. Emoticon My excuse is that I was either too busy, too lazy or simply couldn't cope with yet another thing to do. But this doesn't mean that I did not achieve much in 2024, quite the reverse in fact! 2024 was very productive. Let's have a look at what I did to justify my existence this year:

Medical & Dental Problems

The year began with steroidal injections into my left CMC joint guided by ultrasound to relieve the pain in my wrist and hand due to arthritis. Then I had the same thing done to my right wrist after an MRI revealed similar arthritic degeneration of the thumb joint in that hand.

These issues significantly affected my ability to play guitar and piano and although yearly steroidal injections may bring some relief there is no cure and I will never be able to play as well I could 10 years ago. So when you hear me playing on YouTube bear this in mind. Emoticon

Then in late February I hurt my back doing shoulder pulls and could not walk upright for 3 days and even after that my back still twinged every time I moved the wrong way for a month or so. It was diagnosed as a prolapsed L4/5 disc which is very common for people my age and nothing to worry about. That may be but it is a scary thing when it happens to you and you don't know how you will be able to make it to the toilet. The sharp pain is so strong that you are terrified of taking even one step. All of you who have "done" your back know what I'm talking about... Emoticon

Then in July my left shoulder became very sore in certain positions and I would often wake up with it sore after sleeping with my arm in the wrong position. The GP was of no use and the physiotherapist was not much better. It turned out to be bursitis which the specialist fixed with a steroidal injection. Emoticon

In February I had 2 crowns done on my left rear molars. Extraction was not an option as these were the last grinding surfaces left on that side of my mouth. NOT fun and not cheap!

Then in November my right front lower molar disintegrated, necessitating ANOTHER crown! Bozhe moi! Emoticon

Dental Crown
A graphic showing the structure of a dental crown

On top of these issues I contracted a cold the day before I was due to go on holiday, landing me in bed for 3 days, forcing me to cancel the trip and preventing me from singing for a month. Those of you for whom a cold is just a minor inconvenience have no idea how bad they are for me. A cold for me is almost as bad as proper influenza. People joke about the "man flu" but I assure you: a common cold will confine me to bed desperately seeking sleep to avoid the pain and leave my sheets soaked in sweat for 3 days. Even after getting over the worst part I will still for "sick" for 3 weeks before getting back to normal. Even after that my throat will not allow me to sing for 3-6 months afterward unless I go up to the dryness and heat of the desert. They really are no joke for me. I don't know why this is... Emoticon

So I had numerous health issues this year necessitating numerous visits to various health professionals. I know that this is to be expected at my age but it's still not fun. In fact, I've gotta say: "Getting old is NOT fun!" Young people who think it is are going to be in for a shock! Emoticon

Martian Cookery

After the mediocre success of my YouTube music channel I thought I would try a cooking channel and Martian Cookery was born. In less than a year I added 53 videos! Emoticon

Right from the beginning I resolved that my cooking vids would be different from the millions of competitors out there. Instead of being scripted, tightly edited, condensed and polished, mine were unscripted, unedited, rambling and discursive, often humorous and always shot in one take. If I made a mistake too bad! You can form your own opinion but I believe that mine are entertaining and refreshing as well as offering recipes and insights into cookery. Emoticon

Using alfoil hat to deflect mind control lasers...
Orbital mind control lasers are everywhere. Protect your sanity with a Faraday cage!

There were MANY highlights IMO:

And so many more including many wonderful recipes that I have invented over the years. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you want to know what I'm really like you just need to watch a few of these... Emoticon

A Scientist's Genesis

I began my fantasy mish-mash of hard science and the book of Genesis: A Scientist's Genesis back in 2012 while having fun imitating Stan Lee's writing style from early Dr Strange comics. I quickly wrote most of the first chapter and imagined someone turning it into a comic but I never got around to drawing it up and no one was about to help me do it so I just shelved it.

This year, after being made aware of what AIs could do vis-à-vis producing artwork I gave DALL.E 3 the job and was blown away with the results. Emoticon This galvanised me and I soon had the first chapter ready for the web. This however involved a lot of reading up on cosmology and the timeline of the big bang.

In July, I had the idea to explain the lack of anti-matter in the universe by saying that equal quantities of matter and anti-matter were created at t=0 but since the anti-matter went backwards in time it did not interact with the matter which went forward in time. Thus there are two universes that are the reverse of each other. Whether they are true mirror images depends on whether you believe in true randomness. Emoticon

God separates matter & anti-matter
God separates matter & anti-matter using his wizard's staff!

I wondered whether I was the first to think of this but it turns out that I was beaten by 6 years by Boyle, Finn & Turok. Not bad though. Only 6 years...

I was particularly troubled by the idea of "inflation" which is a cludge invented by physicists to attempt to explain how the universe became so big so fast. There's no proper theory there, it's just an hypothesis that cosmologists spout to avoid having to admit that they actually have no idea how it happened. I refused to accept such a dodgy hypothesis so I went with the equally dodgy explanation that God simply expanded space by breaking the rules. Makes a better story for sure... Emoticon

Actually, I DO have a theory about how space expanded. Pin back your ears people for here it comes: The VAST quantities of anti-matter going backwards in time in the very beginning caused an ENORMOUS wave of anti-gravity which simply blew everything apart in the positive universe and almost instantly expanded space to the observed size.

If you reverse time you have anti-gravity. Anti-matter is matter going backwards in time so you have anti-gravity. Gravity exerts a force in space but it also exerts a force in time so that even though the anti-matter is in negative-time it is so close to t=0 that the force bleeds over the boundary and blows apart the positive matter. The same thing happens in reverse for anti-matter which is likewise blown apart by positive matter going forward in time. Emoticon

Yes, I know that the positive gravity should balance out the negative gravity leaving zero g but this hypothesis is just in the early stages. I'm confident this will all be explained in due course...

Call me a crank if you wish but as far as I can ascertain I thought of it first and I think it might just explain inflation if someone wishes to do the math.

The second chapter is all about getting from the big bang to the first stars and it is far more complex and took far longer than you might think. I decided to go along with the notion of "dark matter" since the empirical evidence is overwhelming, even though there is no fully workable theory for it yet.

God the contrarian
God is a contrarian and fosters the anthropic principle.

The third chapter was the deepest in science and I dove head first into stellar nucleogenesis which I find to be the most fascinating subject in the universe. If you think that all stars go supernova and that's how all the elements are made you are in for a shock because that explanation is WOEFULLY inadequate! Emoticon

I actually dealt with all the major element synthesis paths and it really opened my eyes the more I dug into it. I even found time for some jokes. Oh yeah!

I haven't started on the 4th chapter which is about the formation of the planets. I'll get around to it some time... hopefully...

I am so proud of this work. I think it's great in a variety of ways and I hope that cosmologists all over the world adopt it, at least for fun. It's got God in it! I know it isn't real. But it also has REAL science. It's ironic and sits on the edge between truth and illusion, daring you to dispute it. Just how I like things! Emoticon

Mr Mars' Constellations

It took me 17 years but eventually I got around to putting the finishing touches on my "New constellations for a new millennium!" I tweaked the last few trouble makers, looked at some ways to deal with turning asterisms upside down for the other hemisphere and prepared the star maps properly using Illustrator.

Mars constellations
Some of the my new constellations...

I was very happy with the way it all turned out, my only doubt is the "grain stalk" which is the northern hemisphere view of the top half of Orion. It's much better seen upside down from the Southern Hemisphere as the "wheelbarrow" but what can I do? An upside down wheelbarrow just doesn't work... Emoticon

People think that anyone can "connect the dots" and dismiss my work as a bagatelle but believe me: It is not! It's like my colour wheel: "Anyone could do that" people think... That's what they think until they actually try it. Then they give up.

If you haven't seen my new constellations check them out. They are über-cool! Emoticon

Bagpipes

I do have some Scottish ancestry, albeit rather distant, but I have always felt a strong allegiance to the Scots and have always loved the sound and uniforms of a good pipe band. My first piece of arrangement was for my "Jacobite Quartet" and I was always keen to write tunes for the pipes. Emoticon

My setting of the songs from "The Lord Of The Rings" has 2 tunes that are suited to the pipes: "Salute to Eorl the Young" which is in the Ionian mode and "The Mounds of Mundburg" which is in the Mixolydian.

The pipes of Rohan
The pipes of Rohan!

These two songs required a bit of rejigging to fit the compass of the pipes, especially the Salute, but the Mounds only required the readjusting of its top note and it could be played right off!

I made the adjustments, transposed them to Eb, wrote a 2nd pipe part and drum parts and put in the grace notes. I uploaded pdfs and an mp3 to the bagpipe music Facebook group and asked for their opinion... You'd think that the piping community would be grateful and enthusiastic but NO! Emoticon

It turns out that the piping world is run by The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association and they are VERY closed minded, dictatorial and unmusical! They dictate what grace notes can be played and if you don't do it their way, NOBODY will play your stuff!Emoticon

I was very disappointed to find that nearly ALL pipers are slaves to the RSPBA and even though my grace notes are perfectly playable they simply won't touch them because they are FORBIDDEN! Emoticon

Yes, I was disappointed! but I stuck to my guns and I refused to bow to the damn RSPBA. I left my pipe band arrangements the way I want them to be played and I uploaded them to my sheet music shop for people to download. I'm not happy with the result of this as I relied on an honesty system and demanded that people pay me a small fee per download. No one paid, so I will not be putting any more of my sheet music up until I can get the money first. This is what happens when you trust people. People are inherently cheap and untrustworthy. It saddens me to know this but it is true. People suck! Emoticon

I also took my mp3s and a bunch of appropriate Rohan artwork and uploaded videos of the two pipe band tunes to YouTube. They did quite well, (by my low standards...) Check them out:
Salute to Eorl the Young
The Mounds of Mundburg

One day these will be the most requested pieces in the pipe band canon, but not yet... Emoticon

More Songs & Poetry

No Martian year goes by without a bunch of songs and poems being written and this year was no exception. Yes, the songs were mostly rewriting the lyrics of existing songs but not entirely...

Voice & piano
Voice & piano! Two cameras, 3 mics, video mixing done with Shotcut.

Songs included:

Poems included:

It's true that I wrote much more original stuff in 2023 but I did manage a number of nice piano arrangement of things this year including "The Block Of Hash", "Carry Me Back To East Kentucky", "The Famous Warren Mars", "Fireman's Bend", "Orlando, Orlando", "Eegee Beegee", "The Usual Soup" & "Lament For The Dead".

I also managed to put videos up of a decent number of songs of various types in various locations. I plan to do a lot more when I get going on my next around Australia trip in 2025. Emoticon

Getting Arador & Debbie Ready For The Next Adventure

A good chunk of my consciousness this year was figuring out what to do about my car and caravan and how to prepare for my next round-Australian-adventure. I couldn't trust my 4wd ute: "Arador" after it let me down in the Pilbara as it had done 320,000 km and everything was worn out. My caravan: "Debbie" was also problematic as after having 4 inverters fail I did not know what to do next. Emoticon

I liked the way Arador worked and I wanted to get him reconditioned rather than buying some other vehicle, so I approached my local mechanic for a quote. I wanted the engine and gearbox reconditioned, turbo, water pump and fuel pump reconditioned or replaced, and the universals, shockers, hoses and wheel bearings replaced. I knew it would be expensive but I was prepared to pay. Emoticon

new universalsreco enginereco gearbox
Arador got new universals, new head and water pump, reco gearbox and much more...

Unfortunately the mechanic was snowed under with work and had 2 of his workers down for various reasons and consequently couldn't fit me in with such a big job. I waited for 6 months and still he could not fit me in so I tried another mechanic. His quote was absurdly high and his advice was to buy another vehicle. I looked at more recent utes and test drove one but I really didn't like them. Emoticon

I had various problems with modern utes and I think it illustrates how the capitalist model has changed and no longer serves the best interests of the community.

My first complaint is that most of the manufacturers no longer offer a "supercab" version. They are all dual cabs. That's fine for people that have children but if there is only 1 or 2 of you there is no point in a dual cab and what you want is a supercab, as it leaves significantly more room in the tray (or tub). In 2010 it was easy to buy a supercab, now it is almost impossible. Emoticon

My second complaint is that the body of utes has become too large. I guess they are all targeting the USA market where men like their utes BIG but it is STUPID! You do NOT generally need all that room and all it does it take up more room on the road, cost more in fuel and make it a pain to park. My PJ Ranger is the perfect size IMO and I don't want anything bigger. My custom canopy would just look stupid on the tray of such behemoths. Emoticon

My third complaint is about the modern engines. In 2010 all the manufacturers had roughly the same engine: a 3.0 litre common rail turbo diesel. If you look at the blocks of those engines they are almost identical. They all worked well too. You could get 110kW at the wheels no problem, which is enough for most purposes. Unfortunately "most purposes" does not include towing a 3.5 ton caravan or boat which is what a surprising number of people seem to have, so... engines had to get bigger... or did they...

Ford went to a 3.2L 5 cylinder with a stupid variable vane oil pump that would seize your engine if you took too long to change your oil. Other manufacturers went their own way but they also split the ute market into 2: low power units for the farmer and expensive, high-power units for people who need to tow something large. Toyota downgraded their Hilux engine to 2.8L forcing many of their customers onto their EXPENSIVE Land Cruiser V8. Ford offered a cheap 2.4L ute for farmers, (which can't tow much), or the pricey 3.2L 5 cylinder job. The lovely middle sized segment was removed by the arseholes that run the car industry in the mindless drive to higher profit. How dare they tell me what I want! I know what I want: What I had! Gimme back what I had! Emoticon

Eventually I went back to my mechanic with the proposal that he just do the job a bit at a time. This he agreed to and over the next month or so he did everything I wanted. I now have the car that totally suits me, that runs like new and that should see me out before breaking down again. (Fingers crossed...)

After running it in for 1,000 kms the engine is perfect and the drive train is smooth. The car sits beautifully on the road and it pulls like a train when towing my van. I barely notice the van when I'm towing it except for the sluggish acceleration. Debbie is light at 1.7 tons and has no effect on Arador's steering or handling. I have the rig I want and I'm happy to pay almost the cost of a moderately recent used car to have it reconditioned. Yay! Emoticon

Arador & Debbie
Arador & Debbie: The perfect pairing!

I took Debbie for a 3 week run up to the Murray to iron out any bugs. I don't know what might have caused 4 inverters to blow up but I implemented a regime of deplugging the power cable from the inverter unless I was actually using it and I had no further problems, at least not yet... I used a small 300W unit and then I installed a recent model 2,000 watt unit from Kings which worked well... so far...

I don't see why deplugging the power cable would make any difference since I have a DPDT switch to select inverter or mains so the two can never cross. The only thing that might make a difference there would be an earth mismatch so I ran a lead from the battery negative to the caravan chassis.

The inverter problem seems to have retreated for now but I did run into other caravan issues: Something collected my entrance steps and bent them severely. I decided to simply cut them off since this was the 3rd time it had happened. I simply bought a nice strong collapsible step and I just bring it out when I'm setting the van up on site. Simple and foolproof!

My Dometic CRX 140 fridge door broke when the hinge pin bushing pulled right through the foam insulation and plastic covering. I couldn't believe it! You MUST have a strong point on a frame to mount a hinge! A hinge takes significant load. You can't just leave it there supported by styrofoam and flimsy plastic! Those damn idiots at Dometic! They should be in jail! First they can't make a shelf and now they can't make a door hinge! Unbelievable! Emoticon

So I got a new door under warranty and immediately voided my warranty by modifying it. I added an aluminium strip along the bottom of the door, drilled to support the hinge bushing and preventing it from pulling on the door body. I superglued the strip to the door as well as screwing it into the foam. All went well except that the door seal bent out of shape every time I closed the door. It's just a door seal guys! You can't even do that right? I'll do some more work on it but really: DOMETIC ARE USELESS! If I had my time again I would just buy a cheap Chinese job from Kings for half the price and it would probably be better than the CRX disaster! Emoticon

Oh yeah, I had to buy another computer for the van. The ASUS mini PC unit had died after not much more than 1 year. I was not impressed and bought an MSI low power mini PC instead which was a better design. Apart from the motherboard dying, the Western Digital SSD drive died which surprised me. It all seemed bizarre and suspicious to me but what the hell: Just buy a new one and you're golden!

Currently reading: Release That Witch a manhwa by Dr Woodmanlt, Ye Qiang, Kalin & Xiao Hei.