On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
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13 comments
I can see it now.. a new government agency: The Bureau of Extremely Annoying Old-Fogey Problems. With nonsensical and redundant questionnaires.. in triplicate. And phone numbers that are disconnected or end up with a receptionist who doesn’t speak English… and emails that bounce back.
Never mind. That’s already been done. I bet you would be able to write a book on governmental bureaucracy…
At the end of July the VA responded to a form my Mother submitted in early December with a form letter saying that they were looking into it.
Actually my old-fogey problem deals with trying to gain weight back and finding a diet that agrees with my GI track. I can’t find a balance between what I want to eat and what my body wants me to eat.
Happy Birthday Steve & NTodd. 😀 Hope you both are well and happy. 🙂
Was off-line the past 4 day’s. Router/modem wouldn’t connect to the ISP. And their support is woeful! Took 2 days for a new logon/password. They emailed it! Can you believe that! (of course you can! Was rhetorical!) LOL I explained that a) sending logon/pwd info via email was pretty stupid and extremely insecure, 2) how the hell are we supposed to read emails when we have no internet! So they SMS’d them. I got another router that worked fine. took another two days for them to agree to send a replacement! And this is on their top Business unlimited broadband account! Hate to see what the ordinary users get!
Yes, diet is a big problem for me also. I started a couple food/specialty recipe boards that have become popular. One is for people like me that need a low-carb diet. The other is just generally healthy (NOT vegan! Though I do love a good salad! I’m having BBQ spare ribs and a good Italian salad tonight.) 😉 I do have needs too! LOL I’ve collected over 200 followers now! And one is a Magazine from Florida (Called HGAB Magazine – never heard of it! But they have a really interesting board, so I decided to follow them back.) No idea why they decided to follow my mainly jaded stupidity/religion intolerant board! I have about a half dozen Floridians now. Even a few from Texas and several from red States! LOL Though it’s fun watching some follow and then suddenly change their minds when they actually read some of my rants. 😉 😀 I have a core, like yo do here, of several who agree with me and we are getting to know each other. 🙂 Weirdly… they are all women! Hmmmm. 😉 I’ve gone on a tear about the insane US gun laws that are killing innocent people such as Victoria Leigh “Vicki” Soto, a teacher who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School but saved her students. She got a posthumous medal! Big f*cking deal! And yet, more people like her die and will die. The NRA run the USA obviously.
Thank y’all! Not my best birthday ever (Chevy, meet garage door; garage door [crunch!], this is Chevy) …
A belated thank you. 🙂
You are very welcome, Steve & NTodd. I’m always a bit reticent to mention birthdays to some of my friends, as they want to forget about them. Of course, some of them have noticed that the price of a lifetime memberships in some organizations is now cheaper than the annual membership for their age bracket.
I’m writing a post on local support options with our local broadband duopoly. The cable company is broadcasting a really annoying ad about a lack of telephone support by the DSL provider.
I went through that no Internet conversation with a modem manufacturer support person who wanted to e-mail me a firmware update to ‘fix’ a dead modem.
Kryten, I live in Florida – ground zero for ‘Stand Your Ground’ and have to put up with the gun nuts. Everyone I know has a shotgun or rifle in their house, but they don’t talk about it, and you certainly don’t see them when you visit. After a hurricane you’ll see shotguns early on as people check for rattlesnakes and cotton-mouths pushed to higher ground by rising water, but they disappear quickly. They are a tool, like a chainsaw, and you don’t leave them laying around, and you don’t take either one to the grocery store.
NRA is a shill for gun manufacturers, not a representative of gun owners or hunters.
I know. *shrug*
I just received what is probably the most curious request I’ve had for some time. This group:
“Totally Positive Productions – TPP is a not-for-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois which provides an opportunity for talented, but economically disadvantaged youth to be recognized”
http://totallypositiveproductions.com/
has invited me to pin quotation and create motivational pins for their pinterest board! Apparently, they liked my comments on my pin boards and said I have motivated some of those they are trying to help who have become followers the past couple days (which explains why it went from 194 to 208 which had me curious)! But you know I do love a good quotation! 😉 😀
Americans are so strange! 😉 😀 But honestly… If I can help young people, especially those that are disadvantaged in some way, I have no problem with that. 🙂
But first… I’ll have to do some research! We’ll see.
Too bad I haven’t spoken to “Lady Minerva” for a couple years (and have no wish to). She’s in Chicago and could have done some groundwork for me. Oh well. *shrug*
You have the cachet of being an independent source not affiliated with any of the groups that many people have had to deal with and are anti-establishment in a way they can understand. Many of the quotations you dig up demonstrate that the ‘party line’ being spewed by the establishment is not an ancient tradition, but a recently created cartload of manure being used to justify what they are doing.
The Tea Party movement is a prime example as almost no one involved in it realizes that the Boston Tea Party was a protest against a special tax break given to the largest corporation then in existence – the East India Company. The modern equivalent would be to exempt WalMart from the sales tax or VAT.
Yeah, you are quite probably correct there Bryan. (Which is no surprise. You know the way things are there better than I do, and I’ve never considered you stupid in any way.) I just know what’s right, when I see it. And what’s wrong of course. 🙂
Well, I did some checking and it all seems quite legit. So I made up a half dozen motivational type posts. I have to be careful because of the broad age range. Preteens especially tend to still see things as black/white and some subtleties they would miss completely. Which isn’t going to help them at all. So far, so good though. 🙂 The people there seem to like them. Several have liked or re-pinned them already. 🙂
It’s nice to be doing something positive for a change, even if it isn’t much I guess. 🙂
Kryten, if it keeps even one kid from jail time, it is a big thing.
My guide was always if I felt the need to ask if something was ‘legal’ or ‘right’ I had all of the information I needed not to do it. If it felt wrong, it was probably wrong, even if it was ‘legal’. When a briefing starts with the legal case for doing it, you know it will be a bad mission. If it was a righteous job they wouldn’t have talked to the lawyers. Those jobs require signed, written orders.
Oh, I agree Bryan. That’s why I decided to help. On an individual level, it’s not much. But every bit helps in the end. 🙂
I was hesitant because thanks mainly to the political/corporate/religious crooks in the USA now, just because an organization has 501(c)(3) status means next to nothing. So, I have to check it out first. The crooks can fleece the US citizens that allow them to. I’m not going to give them the opportunity to fleece me!
Still, now that I’ve looked into this group, I like what I see. They have been around since 1993, and have had several successes. 🙂 They have a decent educational program, and even dental care (which seems to be woefully lacking in the Chicago area). Mainly, they want to keep the kids off the streets and engaged. Away from gangs, crime and drugs. And that’s something I can agree with and will put myself out to help with! 😀
I spent years with Amnesty International, and did a lot of good work, and saved the lives of many “young hopefuls that wanted to change the World!” I even donated thousands to Amnesty, because I knew exactly where the money was going. But they are one of the very few organizations I would do that for these days. I worked with a couple other “charitable* organizations, one bigger than Amnesty! And I found them to be mostly charlatans! Sure, they did some good. But they could have done a hell of a lot more! Most of the money they got went into their pockets (you know… ‘administrative overheads & operating costs’). Funny, but Amnesty was able to do without those exorbitant costs!
Yeah… I’m jaded. with very good reasons! I’ve seen the World. I have no illusions.
A sad day. Robin Williams has died @ 63. It’s being called a suicide tentatively. Maybe we’ll discover the truth for a change. Anything is possible, even in the USA. His death comes three Months after CBS refused to renew his TV series “The Crazy Ones” for a second season.
Robin Williams: ‘The Crazy Ones’ was his last hurrah
Robin Williams’ Death Sparks Web Tributes From Comedy’s Elite
My Mother received three or four requests for donations with every mail and I would check them out. More that 90% of them spent more money raising money than helping anyone. When she was feeling charitable I would locate small local charities that were serving a need and spent almost no money on administration.
The ones on my sidebar are groups that actually help in disasters, rather than use them to raise money.
I find that community-based groups are almost always a better investment than ‘the big guys’.
I loved almost everything that Robin Williams ever did, beginning with his whacky TV sitcom. Comedy is almost always based on tragedy, and he was fighting depression and substance abuse. Self medication is almost never a good idea, and alcohol is a terrible choice if you are depressed. He never really seemed to believe that he was successful, and the person that other people wanted to be. Most people will never understand why he didn’t believe that he had a good and satisfying life.