Things that make you go hmmm

Politics time, so if you are sensitive...don't keep reading...you HAVE been warned!!

Recent news articles show GW has a 28% approval rating and if he keeps it up, he'll match Nixon who is on record as having the lowest. In contrast, Kevin Federline had a 43% approval rating. Now that is just sad.......


News article yesterday was stating how GW wants to fix the medicare and medicaid system. Essentially those who have saved more for retirement, and have more will pay more for the medical and prescription plan benefits. My attitude on that? Someways I do not care for that I do my part and save for retirement and I will be penalized for it. Otherways, I go....if i made big time bucks, then i would eventually hit a cap where i didn't have to pay more social security and medicare, so i have no room to complain. My full attitude on this, is that there should be no cap....you make millions, you pay a portion of that to Social Security, not get to say $150k and that's it, you are done paying. That will fix some of the issue and make it proportional.

Now back to where I was really heading. In the news article they quote GW as saying we must be fiscally responsible and watch where our money goes for these things. Now that is funny considering the money he is WASTING on a war no one wants or thinks should be continued.

Okay, now the other big story? How Anna Nicole died.......My response? Who the hell cares? She wasn't anyone, she was famous for being famous. Slept around LOTS, did drugs, married an old guy for his money (it was for no other reason...puleeze) and yet we hold her up as an "Oh my god! how can this have happened!!!"
Let's pay attention to real things shall we? What about the people who die everyday and leave families? What about the woman who is preparing her family for her dieing of Lou Gehrig's disease and knowing she will never see them grow up? Let's discuss morales and values shall we?

Where Does a Computer Geek Go? CES in Las Vegas

Well, last week was busy as I flew to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held annually in Las Vegas. Let me tell you about walking.....walking and more walking........

Lots to see, lots of cool toys to play with and drool over. Where's publisher clearing house when i need them? They had the world's largest LCD tv there at 108" for the mere price of $70,000....... I NEED ONE I tell you.....so what if my bay window would have to go in my family room. Everyone should have one!!!

And of course if you are going to have that, you need all the other phones, hd and blue ray disks and the R2D2 security and projection tv robot for your home (at least he was only $2500).

I learned a lot from the show, saw items that are actually ON the market.....including a quad core Intel CPU. When asking the Intel guy (who are you marking it to, as applications still don't use dual core's much yet? ) his response was "Gamers primarily" Enough said! Can I have a prototype???? Can I demo it???? what do you mean NO!!!!!

4 days of many many many people all in a few spaces and overall no one was overly rude or annoying (another miracle).

Another day I'll discuss vegas itself (at least i broke even on the slots! my system? significant other put $1 in and lost....i'd put $1 in behind him and win $2....figure it kept the money in the family )

Holidays and Children

Now that Christmas is over and gift cards have been spent, I can finally sit down and breathe and look back. Unfortunately, this was a bittersweet year, as my older child succumbed to tween age and left Santa behind this year. She tried to hold on, but more than enough comments were made by her on Christmas morning to have me sigh and know that she is leaving a phase of her childhood behind.

During this period, friends and I were discussing how our respective children were behaving and the Santa Claus toy lists. Somewhere our children have become too used to having what they want and when they want it. This has led to lists of toys and electronics that are EXPENSIVE and that they do not look forward to Santa and the required good behavoir that entails. Our discussion led to the following decisions:
1) We want our children to have it better than we did and thus we tend to buy them more.
2) As we all have to work 45 - 50 hours a week minimum to keep our frantic rat race employment, we tend to buy more to make up for not spending the time with them
3) Commercials have led to "no santa exists" with many inferences and inappropriate commercials....for example Santa being pulled over by a police officer and their saying "don't count on santa, go to radio shack instead" and our children are learning to be desensitized.
4) We are TEACHING our children it is all about getting and not giving and they EXPECT it of us. To this I saw a commercial for cell phones where dad goes "got this daughter this cool cell phone, got son this cool cell phone. what did dad get? kids "we got you cologne"....dad: "no, dad got hosed!".....and although I laughed, it was more the laugh of how true that is!!! and that is purely our fault.

So what do we do about it? Well, I know my kids aren't getting anything that they don't buy with their allowances or at birthday time. No more "just because i can do it for them". As for allowances? "Chore list will go up and for every item not checked off each day, that is a deduction from the allowance until there is no allowance that week. 2 weeks without allowance will mean additional penalties."

I am the parent, I can lament with other parents, but I'm the one that has to change it, not only for my children, but for my future grandchildren and all those my kids will interact with over the course of their lives.........guess I just made my holiday resolution!

RIAA gets their teeth filed down

Okay, so i'm behind in news items. Still think this is a great article that Sony has been found guilty and must refund consumers money for purchasing CD's that installed rootkit software on computers without user knowledge.

Here's the article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9000687&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

I'm glad to see the courts finally standing up to the big business's and telling them they can't do whatever they want to us consumers. At the same time, the only way to stop any of this is for the end buyer and user to stay aware of what is happening and to say "no, this is not acceptable" and doing something about it.

So to everyone that made their voices heard, joined the class action lawsuit or made sure CORRECT / VALID information was passed along to inform others, BRAVO! And to the big business that thinks they can do whatever they want with no repurcussions? Pay attention, we are not children to be patted on the head and say "it's for your own good".

Grandma Doesn't Know Everything

Grandfather sent me this joke in email and I had to laugh...thus if I laugh, it must be shared..........

Little Tony was staying with his grandmother for a few days.

He'd been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked her, "Grandma, what is that called when 2 people are sleeping in the same room and one is on top of the other?"

She was a little taken aback, but decided to tell him the truth. "It's called sexual intercourse, darling."

Little Tony just said, "Oh, OK" and went back outside to talk and play with the other kids.

A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, "Grandma, it is not called sexual intercourse! It's called Bunk Beds! .. and Jimmy's Mom wants to talk to you"!!

How TV and Movies get their sound effects

It is official! I now understand where some of the sci fi sound effects come from. The new version of Dr. Who on sci fi has dahlinks (phonetic spelling works wonders) in it and they all have mechanical voices. Okay, they sound interesting, nothing a synthesizer can't easily do. But what made someone think to use that?

Answer: Person had allergies and it plugged up their ear drums!

One ear is plugged at about 80% currently, other ear at about 40%. Everything I listen to sounds like the dahlinks and it DEFINITELY makes you pay attention to the TV show more as you go "what in blue blazes is THAT sound????"

The things you find out when allergy season arrives :)

Technology and the Average User

I found this article today: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/06/one_year_ago_ha.html#posts?GT1=8211

Everyone is up in arms because this gentleman had his hard drive sold that was supposed to be destroyed. Does the gentleman in question have a right to be upset? UNQUESTIONABLY! He even was technologically saavy enough to KNOW he had personal information on it and that it was a potential issue.

The bigger question is this: We are giving technology to everyone to use in all aspects of our lives now and we are not educating the people in how to keep themselves safe. Recommendations now when sending in computers for warranty work? take your hard drive out and make them use one of their own. Once the computer is out of your hands, you have no control over it. If it is the hard drive that is the issue? BACKUP your data and use one of the 400 million programs to clean that hard drive (and no, cleaning it once is not an option...it takes 7 - 10 times of 0's and 1's writing to clean the disk and THAT isn't even foolproof).

The issue here, is that as a consumer and a person that uses technology, you must understand how the technology works, how it can be used and essentially be paranoid. If that means you have to get nasty or you have to get things in writing to make a person legally responsible, then so be it. Understand what you are using and what the consequences are. Be polite, be firm and YOU are the one that must decide when the risk is acceptable or not.

Allergies and Jokes

Since allergies decided to kick in this year....made it through the last 3 years with it being mild, guess i'm due..........okay, so trying to make yourself feel better about it doesn't really work, i'll pass on the jokes instead.

EVERYTHING HAS A GENDER

You may not know this but many nonliving things have a gender.

1. Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2. Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3. A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4. A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5. Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6. A Web Page is Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7. A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8. An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9. A Hammer is Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10. A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it'd be male , didn't you? But consider this - it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

Here's Your Sign

I will admit, I do enjoy some of the redneck comedians out there. Bill Engvall does a skit called "Here's your sign" where the premise is essentially when people ask you stupid questions. For example..... "You see someone with a coat hanger in a car door and you ask them "lock your keys in your car?" Nope! Just thought i'd see if the coat hanger would fit! ....Here's your sign!"

The true Here's Your sign happened to me the other day............


Unfortunately, a cell phone was lost. Immediately called and had a hold put on the account, then talked with the cell phone company about a replacement. Talked to the customer service rep, they assured me they had the cell phone information and would be sending me a new one the next day. Great! I said....talk about making it easy for me, giving me no hassles....customer service is working here!!!!! Okay, before we disconnect, I just want to verify that the replacement phone matches the old one so that I don't need new accessories. This should be relatively easy right?

So I ask the woman...."Ma'm? is this the same model as what i had?" Her response "It should be......we can verify that though. Do you have your cell phone in front of you?" I of course started laughing and said "Ma'm....you are the lost phone claims department, and i'm reporting my phone as lost.....of course i don't have the phone in front of me." Her response was "oh my, you are right!" I couldn't resist.....i tried.....i just had to say it.......I responded back "HERE'S YOUR SIGN"

Gotta love when true life imitates the comedian's jokes!

Memorial Day and Thanks

It's Memorial Day here in the United States and most of us look at it as a "Thank God! a 3 day weekend".

Over the last couple years, I have seen a few parades and watched that there aren't many veterans left to walk in the parades. The last war we had was over 30 years ago and many of our veterans have passed on. This made me glad in some ways because I erroneously believed that we had started to learn as a country and a planet to get along and to not ever get to the point of "Let's kill and blow each other up".

Unfortunately, we have a new war making for new veterans to walk in these parades. To those who have lost someone in the Persian Gulf, given their life, given of themselves to protect others in the world and here at home, you have my sincere Thank you.

To the politicians in all the countries of the world who CAUSED these wars....try something different and work TOGETHER. We teach our children that fighting is not the answer to a problem and that it is a last resort. Funny how often it quickly becomes a last resort when someone else has what we want. To all of you...GROW UP and move us toward being a world that can SHARE it's intelligence, knowledge and differences rather than exploit and rub other people's noses in it.