well, we had another 'winter storm' last night. This one was mostly ice, making everything slick and slippery. (Yes, both.) It was a Friday night, no big sports events. If we have to have a winter storm, that's the time to have one.
With no sunshine this morning after, the aftermath hasn't looked too impressive. That makes it more dangerous in many instances.
But it could have been so much worse.
Chicago and points not-so-far north measured snow in feet. Winds and temperatures didn't melt anything, to say the least. Traffic pictures were horrible. Seemed to be miles of cars going nowhere on the freeways. I hope there were plenty of blankets, plenty of juice, lots of blankets. I hope there was enough to share for the few and the fools who set out unprepared.
There were accidents here, too, of course, but no national station is broadcasting our stopped traffic.
This winter has been cold, but not too wintry -- as yet. It always makes me uneasy when the forecasters call for big storms that turn out to be little ones. It's not unusual for winter to not 'hit' until after Groundhog's Day. The cold usually makes an earlier appearance.
I don't want to see winter storms, but I really hate it when they are predicted to the point of hysteria, and then the reality is fractional.
I should be as thankful for that as I think people should be that they aren't more northern. But, like them, I am only annoyed that we are all inconvenienced by whatever has come our way.
And I hope everyone on that horrible roadway is safely tucked in at home tonight.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
life love and other dissed illusions: Who gets the Credit for That?
life love and other dissed illusions: Who gets the Credit for That?: As part of stabilizing the economy, the money people sitting in their high-rise offices have made a bit of noise about 'fixing' credit-money...
Who gets the Credit for That?
As part of stabilizing the economy, the money people sitting in their high-rise offices have made a bit of noise about 'fixing' credit-money-grubbing mean old banks. They have busy-busy-busily passed laws that 'correct' the way these greedy places up interest rates and weasel out of paying skymiles and the other nonsense that add to the appeal of using certain credit cards as opposed to others. (What's in your wallet?)
Down here on the ground, we're glad to see these changes. Someday, they may change something for those of us who survive paycheck-to-paycheck and pay cash, check, or money order.
We'd like to see some real credit reform.
Something that matters.
Something that makes sense.
Credit reform could start with credit reports not being used for non-credit reasons. Such as getting a job. More and more often, even in retail work, hard-working candidates are being refused jobs because their credit is bad. (You know, possible employer, that just might be why they are looking for a job. Did that not occur to you?) Let's look at an employee's WORK RECORD to decide if he will WORK for us.
Then there's buying insurance. Why should anyone's auto insurance rate be based on their credit history? Shouldn't insurability and the cost thereof be based on the driving record? What do old doctor bills and unpaid utilities from childhood have to do with the need for auto insurance.
The next step is limiting credit reports to pertinent information for the situation. An example of this is apartment rental. Should an individual who has been renting for thirty years, never been evicted, never been sued for unpaid rent, never had to pay (extra) for damages -- should this person be turned away from an apartment because of unpaid doctor bills? What's right about that?
On that topic, some things just shouldn't be used at all. When the economy crashed, many people had to let their homes go into foreclosure. It was the only way the lenders would even look at refinancing. The people who did manage to refinance and are still managing to hold onto their homes are now being punished by following the protocols established by their lenders. They didn't want foreclosure, they wanted to pay a little less for a longer period of time.
Hooray for credit reform. Now that it's all been smugly settled in the bailed out offices, let's get it out on the streets, where real people can use it.
Down here on the ground, we're glad to see these changes. Someday, they may change something for those of us who survive paycheck-to-paycheck and pay cash, check, or money order.
We'd like to see some real credit reform.
Something that matters.
Something that makes sense.
Credit reform could start with credit reports not being used for non-credit reasons. Such as getting a job. More and more often, even in retail work, hard-working candidates are being refused jobs because their credit is bad. (You know, possible employer, that just might be why they are looking for a job. Did that not occur to you?) Let's look at an employee's WORK RECORD to decide if he will WORK for us.
Then there's buying insurance. Why should anyone's auto insurance rate be based on their credit history? Shouldn't insurability and the cost thereof be based on the driving record? What do old doctor bills and unpaid utilities from childhood have to do with the need for auto insurance.
The next step is limiting credit reports to pertinent information for the situation. An example of this is apartment rental. Should an individual who has been renting for thirty years, never been evicted, never been sued for unpaid rent, never had to pay (extra) for damages -- should this person be turned away from an apartment because of unpaid doctor bills? What's right about that?
On that topic, some things just shouldn't be used at all. When the economy crashed, many people had to let their homes go into foreclosure. It was the only way the lenders would even look at refinancing. The people who did manage to refinance and are still managing to hold onto their homes are now being punished by following the protocols established by their lenders. They didn't want foreclosure, they wanted to pay a little less for a longer period of time.
Hooray for credit reform. Now that it's all been smugly settled in the bailed out offices, let's get it out on the streets, where real people can use it.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Weighing in
There are weight loss doctors everywhere, or so you'd think. You can't turn on the tv, listen to the radio, surf the net without seeing or hearing them in every media. Obesity (which is a condition not a disease) has been declared an epidemic.
I recently went to a doctor, because I have gained weight all out of proportion to my lifestyle changes, my activity levels, and my food intake. Imagine being told that I need to lose weight, be more active, and eat less. DUH! I tried all that; it wasn't working. That's why I'm here, doc.
Disgusted, I came home and tried doing a little research. There are huge hospitals in Cincinnati. There are research places all over the map. There are clinics and other organizations.
The first thing any of them want to know is the name of your insurance carrier and how long you've had the policy.
The next thing they do is try to sell you on their one specialty. For weight loss, the specialty of choice seems to be some form of bariatric surgery. Don't want surgery? Sorry, they can't (won't) help you.
Or you could buy magic weight loss pills, powders, or products. Take eight or ten or twelve overpriced doses three or four times a day, and you're guaranteed to lose weight on their program.
Probably because you have no money left to buy groceries.
Weight loss programs like weight watchers or nutrisystems aren't much help either. If you can scrape together the membership fees, they rely heavily on their own foods, which, as members you can buy at special prices.
If you're not losing weight, it's your fault. Whether it's because of no surgery, no special powders, or no especially pre-packaged foods, it's your fault.
Even if you are doing everything right, but still are not losing weight, it's your fault.
You are a fat lazy cow who only sits and eats and you don't try to help yourself. You are fat, so it must be your fault.
Everyone in the medical profession knows it, and every one of them will tell you so, although not always in so many words.
They make sure you know it, though.
Maybe I should just see a vet.
I recently went to a doctor, because I have gained weight all out of proportion to my lifestyle changes, my activity levels, and my food intake. Imagine being told that I need to lose weight, be more active, and eat less. DUH! I tried all that; it wasn't working. That's why I'm here, doc.
Disgusted, I came home and tried doing a little research. There are huge hospitals in Cincinnati. There are research places all over the map. There are clinics and other organizations.
The first thing any of them want to know is the name of your insurance carrier and how long you've had the policy.
The next thing they do is try to sell you on their one specialty. For weight loss, the specialty of choice seems to be some form of bariatric surgery. Don't want surgery? Sorry, they can't (won't) help you.
Or you could buy magic weight loss pills, powders, or products. Take eight or ten or twelve overpriced doses three or four times a day, and you're guaranteed to lose weight on their program.
Probably because you have no money left to buy groceries.
Weight loss programs like weight watchers or nutrisystems aren't much help either. If you can scrape together the membership fees, they rely heavily on their own foods, which, as members you can buy at special prices.
If you're not losing weight, it's your fault. Whether it's because of no surgery, no special powders, or no especially pre-packaged foods, it's your fault.
Even if you are doing everything right, but still are not losing weight, it's your fault.
You are a fat lazy cow who only sits and eats and you don't try to help yourself. You are fat, so it must be your fault.
Everyone in the medical profession knows it, and every one of them will tell you so, although not always in so many words.
They make sure you know it, though.
Maybe I should just see a vet.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
New year, new day, new blah blah
The truth is, every day is a new year from 365 days ago (or 366, next year.) Every new day is an opportunity for a new life. And most days, this new start is wasted.
It's not really anyone's fault. Try as we might to start a new life, a new attitude, the old life hangs on. We are tangled up with our pasts, and they hold and are unwilling to let go.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are things in our pasts we'd like to hold onto. Maybe even go back to. So in a way, it's only fair that even though we can't hold therm, they can, and do, hold us.
I hope this year will be better, for all of us. Too many people I know have had bad times this last year.
Most of them have had good friends to help them get through.
If they had no past, they would not have had those friends.
So, as we vow our new beginnings, it's not enough to turn our backs to our past. We need to let our pasts 'have our back'.
Tomorrow started yesterday.
It's not really anyone's fault. Try as we might to start a new life, a new attitude, the old life hangs on. We are tangled up with our pasts, and they hold and are unwilling to let go.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are things in our pasts we'd like to hold onto. Maybe even go back to. So in a way, it's only fair that even though we can't hold therm, they can, and do, hold us.
I hope this year will be better, for all of us. Too many people I know have had bad times this last year.
Most of them have had good friends to help them get through.
If they had no past, they would not have had those friends.
So, as we vow our new beginnings, it's not enough to turn our backs to our past. We need to let our pasts 'have our back'.
Tomorrow started yesterday.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
In Media Res
This is advice often given to writers these days. It's the latest publishing gimmick, and now the darned habit is bleeding over into episode tv. The shows are starting with -- say someone getting fired. Then they go back to before they got into the trouble that got them fired.
I don't like this as a regular thing. Every now and then is okay, but not two or three shows in a row, and not as even a semi regular opening. (It's okay as a tag or ad, if it's a program that has used that format regularly.
There are a couple of shows that I now turn off if the new episode starts with the story's climax.
For what it's worth, I think it's also bad writing advice, unless well done. Beginner writers often ask "Where do I start?" For years the obvious answer was to start at the beginning. It often takes a lot of writing and reading to decide when the beginning of the story is, but it's a place to start.
Notsomuch in today's publishing market. Today we are advised to start the story near the end and tell it all as a flashback. (Another style of writing that has to be well written to be readable.)
Sorry, major media. A good read or a good program has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In that order.
I don't like this as a regular thing. Every now and then is okay, but not two or three shows in a row, and not as even a semi regular opening. (It's okay as a tag or ad, if it's a program that has used that format regularly.
There are a couple of shows that I now turn off if the new episode starts with the story's climax.
For what it's worth, I think it's also bad writing advice, unless well done. Beginner writers often ask "Where do I start?" For years the obvious answer was to start at the beginning. It often takes a lot of writing and reading to decide when the beginning of the story is, but it's a place to start.
Notsomuch in today's publishing market. Today we are advised to start the story near the end and tell it all as a flashback. (Another style of writing that has to be well written to be readable.)
Sorry, major media. A good read or a good program has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In that order.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
whose time is it anyway?
It's that time of year again. Time to change the clocks from standard time, to savings time. We know have eight months of savings time, and four of standard, so I'm wondering how the time setters define "standard".
It used to be that time changed the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October. Then they made it the last weekend in October. Now, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the dates selected, and that makes it more difficult than it needs to be.
I don't question that they can do this. Clocks are man made, and standard or savings time, the time zones and titles were man made, and even originally created by big business. So it's certainly within their province to manipulate the o'clocks to their benefit in any way they wish.
I do wish they'd do so within understanding of the common man, and that the language would reflect the changes they are making. (See above reference to standard.)
What they call any time really doesn't matter. The sun rises according to its schedule, whatever o'clock Big Chief CEO calls it. The birds migrate, the frogs croak, the cows need milked. According to time, not the clock.
Let's all remember that time is not about clocks or calendars. Time is an entity in itself, and let us flow with it. Because we have no choice, yes, but also because it is and we are.
It used to be that time changed the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October. Then they made it the last weekend in October. Now, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the dates selected, and that makes it more difficult than it needs to be.
I don't question that they can do this. Clocks are man made, and standard or savings time, the time zones and titles were man made, and even originally created by big business. So it's certainly within their province to manipulate the o'clocks to their benefit in any way they wish.
I do wish they'd do so within understanding of the common man, and that the language would reflect the changes they are making. (See above reference to standard.)
What they call any time really doesn't matter. The sun rises according to its schedule, whatever o'clock Big Chief CEO calls it. The birds migrate, the frogs croak, the cows need milked. According to time, not the clock.
Let's all remember that time is not about clocks or calendars. Time is an entity in itself, and let us flow with it. Because we have no choice, yes, but also because it is and we are.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
computer troubles
I got my old desk out of storage. My desk is a lovely corner desk, with lots of nooks and slots and shelves and doors and I was sooo happy to finally have it back.
I shut down my computer -- it was working well -- and, once it had shut off, I unplugged it and then unplugged the stuff off of it. My monitor, mouse, printer/scanner, speakers. I very gently moved the thing into the other room so it would not be tipped, bumped, knocked or dropped in any way by the rearranging of the desks -- out with the little, in with the good big one.
Once the moving was done, I hooked everything back up and plugged everything in, turned on the computer, and it came on and informed me that Windows had shut down improperly and for me to select a choice: two safemode options, a return to last good date and start windows normally. No matter what I selected -- and I tried them all -- it keeps going back to this screen.
Someone came and looked at it for me. The drivers are missing. I dunno where they went or how. I do know there was no improper shut down. I do know it wasn't jolted in any way. No one seems to want to believe that, but it is so. I know. I treated that tower as if it were more fragile than a hewborn baby. (Not that they are fragile -- they aren't -- but we're programmed to treat them that way)I suppose it copuld have got a virus or a worm or something, but I don't know how it snuck in if so. I have -- had -- MacAfee, Norton, and AVG.
There is some communication glitch with my repair team, and I am seriously considering just trying to get a new (to me)one. However, with just this one exception, it will cost money that I do not have.
I had all my writing on that computer, very little of it backed up. The bifg things, yeah, but as you all know, most of my writing is small stuff. Forty plus years of creation blinked away. If any of you have copied anything, please let me know, and be patient if I can't respond right away. The local library has only one computer for the public, and I can't wait for hours at a time. Not with Rex as he is.
Bear with me, please. I don't know what to do or how to do it or why it happened (not that that matters, except I'd like to know so I won't do it again). All I know is I have been stranded in solitary solitary.
I shut down my computer -- it was working well -- and, once it had shut off, I unplugged it and then unplugged the stuff off of it. My monitor, mouse, printer/scanner, speakers. I very gently moved the thing into the other room so it would not be tipped, bumped, knocked or dropped in any way by the rearranging of the desks -- out with the little, in with the good big one.
Once the moving was done, I hooked everything back up and plugged everything in, turned on the computer, and it came on and informed me that Windows had shut down improperly and for me to select a choice: two safemode options, a return to last good date and start windows normally. No matter what I selected -- and I tried them all -- it keeps going back to this screen.
Someone came and looked at it for me. The drivers are missing. I dunno where they went or how. I do know there was no improper shut down. I do know it wasn't jolted in any way. No one seems to want to believe that, but it is so. I know. I treated that tower as if it were more fragile than a hewborn baby. (Not that they are fragile -- they aren't -- but we're programmed to treat them that way)I suppose it copuld have got a virus or a worm or something, but I don't know how it snuck in if so. I have -- had -- MacAfee, Norton, and AVG.
There is some communication glitch with my repair team, and I am seriously considering just trying to get a new (to me)one. However, with just this one exception, it will cost money that I do not have.
I had all my writing on that computer, very little of it backed up. The bifg things, yeah, but as you all know, most of my writing is small stuff. Forty plus years of creation blinked away. If any of you have copied anything, please let me know, and be patient if I can't respond right away. The local library has only one computer for the public, and I can't wait for hours at a time. Not with Rex as he is.
Bear with me, please. I don't know what to do or how to do it or why it happened (not that that matters, except I'd like to know so I won't do it again). All I know is I have been stranded in solitary solitary.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
fat getting fit
Why do the ads for exercise equipment keep using the already fit in their commercial? Only part of it can be that that's a subliminal message/goal to the prospective customers. Why not use people who really need their equipment? (It worked for Jared and Subway.) That's who they are selling for, isn't it?
Probably not. The people who are fighting fit usually have more disposable income. They spend money, not just on healthier foods, but on all the equipment and on the fashionably fit togs that are also a feature of the ads.
What they don't tell: Many times their equipment isn't made for the truly overweight. There are weight limits on the things, usually around 250 pounds. Now, 250 is overweight for most of us, but the people who will most benefit from the products very well may see 250 as a goal to get down to.
There's also the ease of use aspect. If you are lighter, you can make that equipment sing, hum, fly! You can get it going and it goes, goes, goes. If you are around the 250 limit, just getting it to move can be a problem.
If the ponytailed blonde can whiz by on a walker, and the muscle bound guy can pull those elastic handles with ease, it's because they don't need to. Also because they have already done most of the work needed to get the benefit of the products.
No matter how easy it looks for the young and fit, it's work getting there.
It's work getting it started.
It's not easy work, and it's not quick work. But, as the advertising models know, it's good work, and gets easier as you go along.
Make sure it fits, and know, before you start, that you are worth the effort.
Probably not. The people who are fighting fit usually have more disposable income. They spend money, not just on healthier foods, but on all the equipment and on the fashionably fit togs that are also a feature of the ads.
What they don't tell: Many times their equipment isn't made for the truly overweight. There are weight limits on the things, usually around 250 pounds. Now, 250 is overweight for most of us, but the people who will most benefit from the products very well may see 250 as a goal to get down to.
There's also the ease of use aspect. If you are lighter, you can make that equipment sing, hum, fly! You can get it going and it goes, goes, goes. If you are around the 250 limit, just getting it to move can be a problem.
If the ponytailed blonde can whiz by on a walker, and the muscle bound guy can pull those elastic handles with ease, it's because they don't need to. Also because they have already done most of the work needed to get the benefit of the products.
No matter how easy it looks for the young and fit, it's work getting there.
It's work getting it started.
It's not easy work, and it's not quick work. But, as the advertising models know, it's good work, and gets easier as you go along.
Make sure it fits, and know, before you start, that you are worth the effort.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
time to go outside
I think it's getting close to spring. Yesterday we were wakened by tornado sirens and high winds and lightning. Today was filled with sunshine. (Never mind that it is supposed to snow again Sunday.) I was out doing yard work.
It smells good outside. Smell is the most neglected of the senses sometimes, but can be the most poignant. An aroma cam bring back a memory faster than any other sensation. It used to be bread baking, but that's rare these days, even as a memory.
Everyone knows the scent of spring. It seems as if we can smell the energy in the air. The wet earth is light with the aroma of green and growing. The wet itself is good clean rain. Even the sunshine has a smell to add to the air.
Go outside, people. Take a few deep breaths. Life is growing, changing, greening.
And it smells darned good.
It smells good outside. Smell is the most neglected of the senses sometimes, but can be the most poignant. An aroma cam bring back a memory faster than any other sensation. It used to be bread baking, but that's rare these days, even as a memory.
Everyone knows the scent of spring. It seems as if we can smell the energy in the air. The wet earth is light with the aroma of green and growing. The wet itself is good clean rain. Even the sunshine has a smell to add to the air.
Go outside, people. Take a few deep breaths. Life is growing, changing, greening.
And it smells darned good.
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