My New Dibbs

Article = none , personal experience

Moved out of my brothers basement (his wife hates me ) , or was forced out , after the landlord started in on renovations and the place was literally unlivable. Hit Kijiji and after a week or so got lucky and found a place up on Hunt Club.

Place is a large closet.

Judging by the fresh drywall and tiny closet doors everywhere, the luxury three bed room house had been converted into an eight bedroom room rooming house. Eight tiny bedrooms. As in don't bother buying a box spring for your mattress you'll never get it down the stairs into the basement (where my room is)

The room is 7' x 9' and 7' tall.
There's no internet because the landlord has the internet by Bell and is using it to "monitor temperature alarms" or so she says. I wouldn't put it past her to have audio bugs in the house, but thats illegal she'll never admit to that. And besides, after looking over my neibours , I don't really trust them and I wouldn't blame her a bit.

I got a fold up lawn chair , I looked all over for a tag for a weight limit (I'm about 300lbs), couldn't find one. Openned it up and sat down on it at walmart before buying it. No problem holds my weight nicely.

Got it home , openned it up ... whats this tag ? 225lbs maximum weight.

Sheesh. I put a milk crate under it and a big cushion , so that would take the weight and not the chair.

Got a little fold out table for my lap top , but no internet. My phone has internet , but the lap top is Linux and won't recognize the phone. I'm going to have to turn it back into a windows machine eventually , it seems , for the duration. (It's ok to do that on a wind phone, but bell or rogers or telus will charge you extra for using your phone as a modem , a lot extra)

The duration ?

Application is in at Ontario Housing for a rent to income place (bachelar pad or one bedroom) and disability should give me an answer end of april whether I qualify or not (I hope so , I sent enough test results from the doctor in , and there was another guy in the waiting room who also had Chrones Disease and he was on disability )

Hopefully in a year or two I get the rent to income house and disability and it's early retirement time.

Some people say they'd go crazy if they didn't work. But truthfully , I don't think I've ever had a job that mattered much to anyone. Security guard. Telephone tech support for computers and later cell phones, computer programmer. I liked computer programmer , but they decided Quebec needed more jobs and move the whole (government) contract to Quebec , and the little firm I was working for suddenly didn't need me anymore.

How can anyone love a job where they treat you like dirt and toss you out the door at the first opportunity ?

I'm going to pick up my piano lessons and start a band. I'm not actually going to travel , not with my bad belly , I'm just going to upload stuff to youtube.  We'll see how that goes.

Why My Privacy Is Important To Me

Article = none , personal opinion.

There's been a lot of talk about online privacy , or the lack there of , the recent c-30 bill that was killed that would have given canadian police the right to basically spy on anyone any place , any time.

And there is that tired old argument that still gets traction in some corners, you know, "If you have nothing to hide , you have nothing to fear from the police watching you. "

I'd just like to say a few words about why I value my privacy.

I don't want to receive coupons on my phone about the great sale the pizza place I'm currently walking by is having.

I don't want to find out ten credit cards were openned, in my name  and now the companies aim to collect thousands of dollars from me , money I don't have, or they'll wreck my credit rating.

My boss doesn't need to know which political party I voted for, and doesn't need the ability to insure that I voted for his party or he'll demote / fire me.  Same deal with which religion I believe in.

I don't need a team of psychologists going over my "data profile" and deciding when would be the best time to hit me with a sales pitch , when would I be weakest , what would really cinch the deal to buy their piece of junk.

I certainly don't need such a "data profile" being even gathered in the first place.

I don't need some salesman to find out what my girlfriends phone number is , and then bollux my call display so it looks like she's calling when it's really a sales pitch.

I don't like talking to machines. I especially don't like talking to machines that phone a thousand people an hour and ask personal questions they have no business asking.

I don't need some computer to find out which ailments I have and send off ten thousand bogus homeopathic recipies that will "cure" what ails me please have your credit card ready.

Microsoft has no business knowing that my lap top is running Linux , even while my main machine continues to run Windows. I don't need bill gates to decide to "punish" me for my customer disloyalty.

I'm not intersted in that collect phone call from my brother Tom who's in the carribian and desperately needs a thousand dollars cash right now. Tom died about ten years ago , by the way , so I'm pretty sure it's a scam.

I don't think the grocery store has any business asking for my postal code and refusing to serve me if I don't give it. I don't need the flyers landing in my mailbox, I'm trying hard to get rid of the last batch.

I don't need Rogers to come knocking on my door , kick me out of bed because its VERY IMPORTANT , ask one question about how my internet is doing , and then launch into a sales pitch.

I don't need the rogers sales person freaking out when they come back three months later and I slam the door in their face because they already pulled that one on me once before.

I'm not intersted in receiving a letter from the local hospital stating that "Dear ...OTTAWABOY... we heard about your recent stay in our hospital for INSERTDISEASE-X , but you have to understand that in order for our facilities to stay open we are asking for donations ..."

I find it desgusting that every contract I am forced to sign against my will includes the clause "... we will not share your personal information with anyone except our business parters and associates and representatives , affiliates ... " because that basically means they will sell your information to any idiot on the street with two pennies to rub together.

I am actually upset that when I bought my first Dell Computer , Sympatico phoned me up knowing all the details and tried to sell me a dsl modem. I said no , no NO ! NOOO ! and one arrived in the mail a few days later anyways. It took two hours on the phone to cancel the account I never wanted , and another hour a few days later to pack up the modem in a box they mailed me and carry it across the street to mail it back. ... Three months later they sent me another one. I refused to touch it and told the post man holding it to return to sender I refuse delivery.

I am upset that the last time I applied for a job they demanded my facebook page and password so they could snoop around on it and see if I was the kind of person they wanted to hire.

I'm even more upset when I told them a) I don't have a face book account , b) I want my resume back because I don't want to work in such a place , and c) they kept my resume anyways so they could show their client what kind of people worked for them, even though I'd just told them I don't want to work for them. Their instinctive reaction of "What's on your facebook page that you're hiding " just ticked me off even more. Is everyone a criminal who doesn't want to recieve endless spam ? Apparently so.

(edit : Feb 18)  A british bank clerk noticed "The CEO makes 7000 pounds an hour , I make only 7. That's fair. " on face book. She got fired for it.

A Canadian Woman suing her employer for depression put up a picture where she had smiled for the camera. The Insurance company decided she didn't look depressed , and denied her claim.

  

Manufacturing jobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zls4tdDwFo

Remember long ago , we used to manufacture our own stuff ? Before all the jobs got shipped over seas to those dollar a day places like china  ?

Those jobs are coming back !

Oops, I mispoke myself. The jobs are not coming back. The manufacturing is coming back.

It's called 3D printing, and basically a box the size of an end table plugs into your computer and "prints" three diminsional objects. 

Think star trek replicator.

I am looking around the living room, and what do I see ? A plate, a fork (ok, I ate at the computer) a fold out table, cheap furnature (I'm on a budget , all right ? ) my girlfriend has a shelving unit full of knick knacks ...

Most of this stuff could be made by a 3D printer.

What do I really see that cannot be made by a 3D printer ? The guts of a cell phone. It can do the case, but  not the guts. The socket and switch part of a lamp , and the electrical cord. The bulk of the lamp it can do.

I look at a shelving unit and I remember it cost 50 bucks. Blowing thirty dollars on the colored "goo" a 3D printer will use to make a shelving unit seems ... a bargain. Especially since I don't have to pay for taxi fare to haul the thing home.

Picture frames , and pictures litter up this living room. A regular cheap under a hundred dollars printer for the pictures , and a 3D printer for the picture frames will cover that.

I'm not saying rush out and buy one today , they're still $1,300 .

But the last time I checked on them they were $20,000 . Hmm... thats quite the price drop.

Sewing machines snuck up on us you know. They're already here. Under $100 at walmart , cheap material everywhere. Heck I'm not even talking making your own cloths, just taking it in if it's a little loose, hemming your own pants, sewing on a patch over that rip , things like that.

Lap top computers are down to $235 according to my last trip to the electronics store . Thats a brand new lap top as well. Plug in some speakers ... forget about a stereo system. My friend bought a $1200 stereo system when we were young , I limped along with a $310 unit from the local discount store.

And internet is less than 50$ a month for unlimited here in Canada. Stay away from Rogers and Bell and Telus , look for those tiny DSL providers. Their service is terrible ,you'll wait a long time on hold , but the price is so cheap ($42 + tax = $47 for Primus here in ottawa) and once you get it set up I've never seen it go down for more than  a few hours a month.

Looking into my rather fuzzy , but still somewhat accurate crystal ball , I see that my home will eventually contain ...

...A cheap lap top playing music, and Television shows streaming from internet sites (such sites already exist , by the way)
... maybe you splurged and got the 80$ speaker set I got for my computer. Maybe you didn't and can live with the 20$ set most people get.
... A 2D printer for making pretty pictures
... A 3D printer for making trinkets, picture frames, cases, boxes, dishes, cutlery, cups, umpteen zillion other things.
... a small number of pre-built pieces of furnature that were cheaper to buy than 3D print.
... a cheap sewing machine in the corner on a table for those quick repairs. maybe you'll get into larger projects like making your own cloths, maybe just hemming your pants and patching the odd rip is all the work it will ever see. Whatever, it's dirt cheap for one and the dang things last for decades. Decades of heavy use. Occasional use you will more likely lose it in a fire or a divorce than have it actually break down.
... a "3d goo" recycling device , to shred your 3d printed objects and turn it back into goo , and make something else out of it. (and round and round it goes...)

The Evilness of Linux Repositories

Ah that first blog of the new year. What shall we blog about ? Winter ? Roads ? Bad weather ?

blah.

Lets blog about Linux.

Which by the way I am on (my old lap top) at the moment.

So , what is a Linux Repository and why is it so evil , you are asking ? You know how on windows you can download programs from any site you like ? Linux you can't do that.

Instead, you have a couple of "Repositories" that hold all the vetted (and free of charge) Linux programs you could hope for. All in one place. And there in lies the problem .

What if someone made a commercial version of Linux, say if ubuntu kicked Windows to the curb and took over ? And the owners , who ever they may be in the end after what I have no doubt will be numerous sell offs and branches of the operating system being made, decided to make a profit by selling access to their repository only , and you weren't allowed access to anyone elses repository.

With me so far ? What if Windows openned a "Windows Online Store" for software ,  on their new Windows 8 system, and you could only buy from that store , no where else ? They'd jack up the prices really high , wouldn't they  ?

Linux isn't really that bad, it should be mentioned there are ways to add new repositories to the list , effectively allowing another store on your computer for you to buy from.  But it's annoying , and involves copying and pasting long command lines, and is really unfriendly.

A tool to make adding a new repository a snap would be pretty cool .

The problem with repositories, or online stores, is that hackers will seek to shut them down with the inevitable ddos (distributed denial of service attack) possibly even demanding money to let up. Which never works of course because if you actually pay such a ransom 10 other hacker groups will promptly shut you down again and demand their ransoms as well.

Repositories are a bad business model all around. Bad for the user because it essentially creates vender lock in , which will triple (or more) all prices, and because they're too hackable. If Linux ever goes mainstream , those repositories will become a huge target for hackers. Take down half the computers in the world by shutting down one site ? What hacker could resist that ?

Who the heck is Santa Clause ?

Ok. I understand this Saint Nicholes guy was a european nobleman who every christmas gave presents to the children of this town he owned and was lord of.

So how did we get from there  , to this coca cola swilling fat ugly beared old man selling everything from cars to sun tan lotion  , neither of which are likely to be of any use to someone puported to live at the north pole where there is little sun and no roads , and he already has a magical sleigh that can travel across the world in seconds.

When did this transformation happen , exactly ?

The answer is , slowly , and in gentle steps.

Jolly old Saint Nicholas lived in southwestern turkey in the 4th century. He was apparently a bishop of Myra and did a number of miracles involving sailers and children.


It should probably be noted that in the 4th century , a date had not yet been established for Christmas , or christ's birthday. Eventually it was decided to "celebrate it on dec 25" , a carefully phrased decision that hides the fact that they kept really terrible calenders at the time and no one knew when the heck the big JC had been born , that's just the day they're going to celebrate it on. However there were all these pagans they wanted to christianize  , and if they're at some big Christian festival on that date they can't be at their own pagen festival at the same time , can they ? So ..yeah , the decision of Dec 25 was made to help convert pagans , rather than out of any need for accuracy.

(actually, people picked up on the star that marked Christs birth  and , assuming it's true , there are at least three possible dates ranging from 4 years to 7 years BC . Which really shows how terrible they were at keeping time back then if they can't even get the year right. )

During a 16th century schism in the european church , the people of Holland started calling Saint Nicolos Sinter Klass, which of course , the americans corrupted into , you got it , Santa Claus.

in 1822 a biblical scholar called Clement Moore decided to write a poem , just for fun, for his children. He didn't really mean for it to get around , but it eventually was published anonymously . 

’T WAS the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

5

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

10

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

15

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

20

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

25

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

30

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,

35

And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

40

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

45

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

50

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

What a familiar looking story ?

Thomas Nast , a 19th century cartoonist , did a few cartoons of the fat guy , and added to the legend things like a workshop where toys were made and a book that seriously violated the privacy of the children of the world by detailing their names and whether they were naughty or nice.

in the 20th century the Coca Cola company is commonly cited as flooding America with ads of the fat man , usually drinking their product as he went about his business of inappropriately entering peoples houses and violating their privacy by keeping black lists that are quite frankly illegal in most countries.

After the Coca Cola company openned the flood gates, it just became good business to use this image painted in 1921 by Norman Rockwell to try and sell anything that wasn't nailed down.

To this day the Catholic church bemoans how the true message of christmas was lost in the noise of this Santa Claus figure , while conveniently forgetting that the very selection of dec 25 was used not to teach anyone accurate history , but to forward the cause of stamping out pagans. They generally ignore any suggestion that they are pimping out their faith for gain by pointing out that the local hardware store is pimping out a story they know to be false just to sell a few extra products. At least their version is based on truth , even if it got lost in the babble of 20 centuries of history.

So remember. Drink Coca Cola. It's Santa's favorite. Though I'm not sure what a 4th century Christian Saint from southern Turkey would have to say about that. 

And for all those nay sayers who still don't believe. I point to that unquestioned Bastion of Truth in Journalism, the new york times. 

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Report from the front : the shooting of 20 children

Maple Leaf Rag , our transplanted Canadian now living in texas , gives us his views on gun control and violence and the recent shooting of 20 children down there and what he thinks is causing it all. Since he actually lives down there every day , rather than just reading a few newspaper articals like the rest of us, I thought his opinion might be worth more than mine.

I remember you once asked me to give you some Canadian views of life in America.  Here's my view on America's reaction to the horrible massacre of little school kids in Connecticut by a mentally ill 20 year old who used powerful semiautomatic weapons.

First thing you need to understand is how incredibly polarized between Left & Right America is.  The Left and Right have moved to very far extremes and there is NO middle ground.  Each side dismisses out of hand everything the other says and insists that their way is the only way.  A President from one side gets in for a few years and undoes or tries to undo what the other party did.  Repeat every 4 to 8 years ad infinitum, and the two sides never work together. 

I don't know if it is that apparent from Canada's viewpoint, but I think if ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being total peace and harmony and 10 being outright Civil War, the USA would sit at around 6.5 to 7 now.

About this mass murder (and the many many similar massacres in recent years), the Left insists it is entirely due to readily available guns and wants strict controls on them.  Good idea in theory as far as I am concerned, but there are so many guns and real gun fanatics in the USA I don't know how they would ever implement it).  The Right insists it is entirely due to lax morals, poor parenting and lax mental health laws and the spread of uncensored violent entertainment, which are all also very real factors.  Anyone with common sense would recognize that all these factors work together to promote these mass killing sprees. 

The Left Wing's leftover Hippie sacred cows of relative morality, "revolutionary" Baby Boom era lax parenting styles, lenience to criminals, the "rights" of mental patients to refuse treatment, refusing to accept media censorship, all these create the spoiled, desensitized, deranged young killer, who, upon hitting the hard brick wall of adulthood where trophies and awards are no longer given out just for showing up, decides he hates his life where he is not the star of his own reality show, and wants to take his toys and go home in the most outrageously violent manner possible.  Then, the Right Wing's pigheaded obsessive insistence that every American has the God Given Right to own high capacity military style firearms with little or no obstacles to obtaining them, enables the killers.

So both sides contribute majorly to the problem and utterly refuse to accept that their side has any guilt whatsoever.  I made a couple of posts on Yahoo News about how ridiculous this situation was and people from both camps immediately leaped down my throat.  Lefties called me a fascist, Righties called me a commie.  I call me sensible.

America's extreme political polarity has basically crippled its power to make any positive changes in its very sick society.  America will shout and rant and rave about doing something about this horrifying problem of mass killings, but nothing effective will ever come of it.

The Credit Card Scam

Article = none , personal experience


Here's how the scam works.

You work hard, you get a job , you're financially responsible , you get a credit card.

You're girlfriend wants to go to the casino and demands money off you , or she'll withhold sex. She knows you have a credit card , she knows you have it.

Your brother , every now and then , very subtly , asks you "So how much you have on that credit card ?" He's already twice borrowed money and never paid it back.

Your employer at your two bit company that only has three people decides that you can wait for your paycheck , because you have a credit card and can get by, the other employe doesn't , and can't wait.

and on , and on , and on it goes.

Next thing you know , you're 10 grand in debt , and you literally have nothing to show for it. No new car, no fully paid off computer , nothing. Everyone and the dog owes you thousands of dollars that you know you'll never collect on , but the bank fully expects to collect from you. And now it's time for the whole bankruptcy / garnashee of salaries thing.

And now all your friends and relatives are ticked at you because you leant them money when you were in trouble before , why arn't you lending them anything now ?

And your bank sends you to a credit counciling session that basically tells you "Pay us every single dime you owe us, including the 150$ / month interest that you can't actually afford. Beg, borrow, steal if you have to , just not from our bank. And if you owe anyone else money , pay us first because we paid to hold this credit counciling session and you owe us. "

Don't get a credit card. Especially not "Just in case" .

Don't tell anyone how much you have in the bank. Put money in a savings account and if anyone asks, you live paycheck to paycheck , and always gripe how you never have any money just before the next pay check.

It's none of their business, and them knowing it just opens the door to endless requests for money , and fights.

And if you can't tell anyone that you have no money , then don't bother saving a dime , because you'll never get to spend any of it on yourself. 

And todays privacy violation is ... Stalker Apps

'Stalking apps' could be banned in US

 

 It would also outlaw apps from collecting or sharing location data without the consent of the owner.

.

.

.

"But right now, companies - some legitimate, some sleazy - are collecting your or your child's location and selling it to ad companies or who knows who else." 

 

The joy of it all. Your phone that you paid probably hundreds of dollars for (doesn't work on cheapie phones that can't run apps !) is probably spying on you. And your kid. Sometimes just for commercial gain (spamming you with ads) , and sometimes because your ex boyfriend / girlfriend is stalking you. 

Fun fun fun. 

 Don't you love modern technology ? It's no longer big brother you must panic over. It's now your ex's and your over bearing mother or father as well. 

 

  

Report from The Front : Texas Health Care

I asked Maple Leaf Rag how health care was in xx xxx ,  Texas, where he lived. And boy , did he have a few words to share.

I thought of some more aspects of the US medical system that you might find interesting, and that I have not heard discussed elsewhere.  These are my personal observations.

Whenever I got sick in Canada and decided I needed to see a doctor, I went in, the doc found out what was wrong, treated me, I got better and that was that.  OHIP paid my bill and I was happy.  On the other hand, when my cat, Wizard got diabetes when she was 15 years old, I took her in to the Vet, and as there is no OHIP plan for pets, and everything was coming out of my own pocket, the vet tried really hard to scare me and encouraged me to have them do some $2000 dollar procedure on Wizard or she would basically be dead within a week.  When I told them that I was completely unable to pay that kind of money and had tears in my eyes thinking that I would have to have her euthanized, the veterinary assistant took pity on me and mentioned as an afterthought that I could just start buying insulin and needles at the drugstore for 20 or 30 bucks a month and inject her 2 times a day.  I tried it and it worked.  She lived 5 more years.

American doctors operate on a profit basis much like Canadian veterinarians.  The more you see them, the more you pay them, the richer they get and as there is no OHIP to deny unnecessary procedures, they encourage all kinds of ridiculous tests, scans, & endless return visits.  They scare you with all kinds of hypotheses and frightening possibilities and drop frightening little comments and concerned looks and basically try to hook you like a fish and milk you like a cash cow.  You see their waiting rooms full of the same frightened patients week after week, going in for probably unnecessary tests and coming out with huge bags of pill bottles.  I got sucked into this a few years ago when I got a case of bronchitis that would not go away for months.  At my doctor it was "come back next week, take more pills, get more chest x rays, it's PROBABLY not cancer, etc. etc."  Finally, I took some different antibiotics my mother in law had gotten over the counter in Mexico and the bronchitis went away in a week.  Drugstores here have huge LED signs outside advertising vaccines against all kinds of diseases, from meningitis, to flu, to shingles.  Scary medical billboards flank the highways.  The USA is host to a culture of fear.  Fear of sickness, fear of crime, fear of terrorists, fear of social ostracism, fear of damnation, you name it, and it is all calculated to make you spend your money, whether on doctors, guns, deodorant, church tithes or whatever.

One of my xxxx sons has to see a shrink ever month or so.  His former doctor was a shameless pill pusher.  His waiting room was full of  people who were essentially junkies, asking the receptionist every 5 minutes when he would see them so they could get their allotment of the happy pills he threw around like Willie Wonka at the chocolate factory.  He gave my son these pills that seemed to work at first.  But after a few weeks, however, the kid started losing weight and displaying psychotic symptoms like cutting off all his hair and attacking his brother in his sleep.  He started to look like a skeletal Auschwitz inmate.   I checked into the pills online and it turns out the doctor had prescribed him what was basically speed, which apparently works on hyperactive kids, but NOT on xxxxxxx.  We got him to another doctor who seems a LITTLE more ethical.

Also, as it is all profit based, their offices and waiting rooms have this cheap, unprofessional appearance in many cases, because they skimp on anything peripheral to the operation of scamming patients.  I've been in waiting rooms that felt more like someone's den.  Better than Mexico though...  I once had a root canal and a crown done by a lady dentist down in Juarez who had her 2 year old daughter on her lap screaming PEE-PEE!  PEE-PEE!  PEE-PEE! in my ear for the whole time and her office looked about as sanitary as a bachelor's kitchen.  But then again, that only cost me $70 dollars.

A lot of American institutions seem to be run by the seat of the pants.  I blame the capitalistic profit-based mindset for this.  Very inefficient, very wasteful, very foolish due to poor decisions and trying to stretch the buck.  The xxxxx xxxxx that employs me, for example.  Several years ago they bought half a million bucks worth of some kind of hand-held data organizer and matching software for use by the xxxxxxx simply because they were on sale.  When they distributed them, they found that these things were totally unsuitable for their needs.  Whoops!  No returns on sale items.  Into the  warehouse they went, where they sit like the Lost Ark of the Covenant on a dusty wooden skid, gathering dust and getting more and more obsolete every day.  Not to mention all the corruption, misappropriation of funds etc. in local government.  In xx xxx,  it is commonplace for the FBI and Texas Rangers to step in and raid municipal government offices and local police departments in order  to arrest politicians and cops for corruption.  Recently, a County Commissioner was arrested for smuggling  thousands of pounds of pot from Mexico to northern cities.  I don't know if all this corruption is a result of being tied so closely to the thoroughly corrupt culture of our Mexican neighbors or if it is endemic to the entire US, but it is pretty much a Mickey Mouse outfit around here as far as local Government goes. 

 Ok. so ... my dreams of imigrating to the states are shattered. How about yours ?

Doctors that push pills rather than cure diseases ? Months with Bronchitis until you looked it up and handled it yourself ?

I have a real sickness (Chrones Disease) which means if I was an American I would either be hooked on narcotics by now  , or simply dead from endless misdiagnosis designed to enrich the doctor rather than cure disease.

If you do a better job looking stuff up on the internet than seeing the doctor ... something is wrong with that system.

For Maple Leaf Rag ...

For Maple Leaf Rag. A reminder of all that you left when you decided to fly south to warmer climes ...

Guard Rails

See the above picture ? Just a road, with guard rails right ?

I walked by and there were construction workers puting up guide wires and doing measurements, and no guard rails.

An hour and a half later , I walk back , and they just finishing up. And there were guard rails. Sunk into the ground, ready and waiting to be crashed into , the works.

An hour and a half ? Dang that was fast. I figured such a thing took days, not 90 minutes.

Weird.

This Week's Privacy Violations

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20155192

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15004063

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20461752

So , what do we have today to complain about in the way of personal privacy.

I see a school down in texas has decided to put sticky chips on the skin of pupils and track their every move on school property. Probably so they can't just take it off and hand it to a friend to "check in" for them when they're not actually there.

Has anyone considered that such things can be hacked, and your child can be tracked everywhere , by , say , the school bully, and thence become a target of repeated bullying with no place to hide ? I can just see hackers selling you subscriptions to the local weaklings location any time you like on your cell phone for a few bucks a month , and the bullies can ambush him any time they like.

Another brain dead ad for the "Internet of Things" (IoT) , whereby they put a radio chip in your jeans and now you can be tracked anywhere. Does anyone really want to sign up for that ? No ? What if they put it in every piece of clothing and there is no clothing for sale with out it ?

What if your job only hires you if you have your "Things" registered so they can track your every move , everywhere ? Think I'm crazy ? How many of you get asked in your job interviews for your face book address (and possibly password ) ? That many eh ? And you obviously don't get the job if you decline , am I right ?

Speaking of facebook , there's an article out there about how businesses should "carefully" go through applicants face book pages to determine if they are suitable employee's or not. Their only worry ? You might fake your public profile and make yourself look like a good candidate rather than tell the truth. Those who tell the truth about that night five years ago when you got really drunk and the police arrested you for piddling on the police cruiser while the cop was still inside ? Yeah , ever wonder why no one will hire you ?

I have a friend who thinks the whole world is spying on him. He is not far wrong. The whole world is spying on all of us. And it ticks me off that it's for the stupidest of reasons. It's because they think I might have a nickle in my pocket , and they want a slice of the action. They want to know my exact location not because of a vast government conspiracy , but because if I happen to be passing a pizza joint they want to send me a text message full of advertising for that place.

We are being robbed of our privacy. And it's for the dumbest of reasons you can imagine. And that is just so wrong.

Goodbye Wireless Toaster , Part Deux !

After spending the last month trying to convince me to move into the same building as himself, wireless toaster has now sent me a nasty email saying that he will call the police for stalking if I do so.

This is on top of endlessly talking about conspiracy theories about how the government is out to get him. And its the second time he pulled this stunt, the first time he accused me of working for the imaginary government conspiracy in his mind , but months later he came back and it was all a terrible misunderstanding.

I just looked up paranoid schizophrenia at the Mayoclinic.com . He's batting seven out of 9 symptoms.

Signs and symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia may include:
• * Auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices - pass
• * Delusions, such as believing a co-worker wants to poison you - yes ..government out to get him does count
• * Anxiety - always
• * Anger - wants to kill our friend maple leaf rag
• * Emotional distance - he always was
• * Violence - did I mention he wants to kill someone ?
• * Argumentativeness - oh he will argue for hours
• * Self-important or condescending manner - More so that most of us yes, he thinks he's important enough for the government to be after him because he knows stuff , he can get them into trouble (which ,he already tried, and it got no where)
• * Suicidal thoughts and behavior - never asked.

Yeah , "Life Long Condition" (ie: there is no cure) and sooner or later he's going to either get tired of waiting for the imaginary government conspiracy to pick him up and start going after people ,or he's going to off himself.

And everyone around him is a government agent. Aha.

Goodbye , Wireless. Your condition has no cure it seems. Plus from the way you go on and on and on about the government secretly testing LSD on people , you took some didn't you ? The damage LSD does to your brain is also permanent , for the rest of your life.

I am getting old , and I don't have the ability to deal with a potentially violent person who might decide to stab me and then stand over my corpse laughing manically and shouting "He thought he fooled me ! But I know the Truth !" .

OK , maybe a little too much movie drama in that image. But you get the idea. I can't deal with him and no one can cure him. It's time to say goodbye.

I hate Wind

So ,here I am at the library , no internet again.

I hate wind. (my phone and internet data stick provider )

I gave them $67.80 on the 30th (yes ,I just looked that up , I really don't have a photographic memory) . This covers 25$ for my phone , and 35$ for their unlimited plan. And 8.50$ I presume to be tax.

So why is it on the 15th I'm staring at a web page that says your account is suspended add more money ?

so I phone wind up , and I get this long sad story about how your data stick the end of the billing cycle is the 15th and they want money.

but I just gave you 35$ on the 30th , thats only 15 days ago. I wnat to speak to your supervisor.

No dice. The supervisor demands 25$ , something about a minimum balance yadda yadda yadda. I tell her that the fact that her accounting system is broken and is eating my money is not an acceptable excuse and hang up on her.

I mean sheesh, they took 35$ for 15 days service, now they want another 25$ ... thats 60$ a month ! I can't afford that.

And these monkeys can't keep their stories straight , the last one told me I was good to the 30th thanks for your 35$ and now this one is saying more money , and it's all your mistake for not reading our minds and following our rules which we don't tell anyone about and don't publish anywhere give us more money.

so ... here i am at the library with no internet access.

And the internet access i did have was all crappy and you couldn't play online games on it anyways , my primary use for it.

I aint paying 60$ / month for a service that cuts out every 5 minutes and doesn't let me play online games. I will soldier on without it and use the money for something else.

On another note...the first time I walked all the way to the library i was totally beat. This time it was just a pleasant walk. I think I might be getting used to this whole early retirement disability business.

Except for the part where i can't eat anythign until i get back home. Travelling the world on an empty stomache to avoid ... unmentionables isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Valve's Linux video games plan described as 'unethical'

Article

To sumerize : Everything on Linux should be free ,and you should provide source code as well for it all , selling commercial products on Linux is an evil thing , yadda yadda yadda... . .

I have no problem buying useful commerical products and paying for them.

My problem comes from "the upgrade treadmill" that microsoft wants everyone on. Just how useful is the latest microsoft office compared to the one issued 20 years ago ?

You know ,they had perfectly usable spread sheets even in the 90's , and 80's, and the fancy new ones really don't add much. So why are people trying to charge me a couple of hundred dollars for something someone else wrote twenty or thirty years ago ?

And why am I forced, kicking and screaming , against my will , to upgrade to a new operating system when the old one is doing it's job just fine ? Why am I forced to buy a new computer with all new software , and it doesn't do anything any better than the old stuff ever did ?

That is what I have a serious gripe over.

I am happy to kick out 50$ for a new game.

I'm not too happy to have to kick out 2000$ every 3 years for a new computer and software that doesn't do anything the old one didn't do just as well.

Library internet

So here I sit in the Library , literally a one hour walk from home. And it's a hot spot.

Yep. Brought my lap top along and everything, and all you do is provide your library card number and your pin number for it and off you go.

No place to plug the thing in though , so I guess I have a two hour limit. And after a one hour walk to get here, I'm in no hurry to head off home right away. Think I'll stay a while and look around.

The cheap 15$ internet plan I was on was only good for one gigabyte. I watched an episode of a TV show on the internet , using that up. Thought they'd just slow me down , like they do for other plans but nope. The 15$ plan they cut you off until you give them more money. Well...end of the month.

McDonalds has a hot spot too, no password or anything required. I can just see me sneaking around back late at night , illicit lap top in my back pack , pulling it out at the back of the building when no one is looking and getting a little free surfing done , checking my email , before I skulk off into the darkness like some criminal. Hilarious.

Action Housing got wireless toaster a house within four years , which sound really terrible. But the last three months he was living in a mens shelter, so i think the mens shelter thing sped that up a lot. I'm going to apply in a day or two , maybe my application for disability will speed things up as well. Maybe even just being on Ontario Works will speed things up and I'll get something even if disability turns me down.

Wireless toaster lives in such a building and it's full of people on disability. He says it's really easy to get on , some people just get on because they drink too much. Not sure if I should believe him though.

Right now he's on a high because he's been writing a lot of stuff in his blog about how evil the chinese are and how they're spying on us and stuff, and the FBI down in the states just confirmed it all. Said Huawei , a company that is based out of china , has been caught spying and putting in back doors in communications equipment they've been selling , and trying to bid on contracts to build secure networks for the united states when those secure networks are supposed to be fighting off the chinese ... ha ha ha thats pretty funny.

Wireless Toaster is a wierd one all right. Most of his rants sound pretty paranoid, and then stuff like this happens and it looks like he was right on the money. Odd how things work out.

Ontario works Oct 3 - Cooking and Settling in for the long run

It's October 3rd. Dell will be looking in my old bank account for the payment for their computer. It isn't there. In a day or two they'll be phoning my old place, where my woman (ex-woman) will tell them I don't live there anymore she doesn't know where I live now.

They'll probably send it off to collections immediately. And put me on a black list to never buy their equipment again.

I walked to the mall again. Needed some shampoo. I couldn't beleive I was gone two hours. I just walked there and hung around a bit seeing what was on sale , and walked back.

It's wierd looking at your life and thinking you'll never work again. I joke to my friends that my schedule is pretty clear for the next thirty years or so.

I moved 50$ to my savings account. I figure over four years that will get me 2400$. Thats enough for a brand new computer every four years, plus if anything big breaks (microwave, rice cooker, electic razer , etc) I can just go out and get another immediately.

I am settling in for the long run here. I walked to the mall twice today. Probably took two hours the first time as well. I wonder how long I'm going to stay an overweight type two diabetic at this rate.

Cooking

--- ---

There's an "XSCargo" store in the neibourhood. I bought a rice cooker there, since my woman is a philipino and taught me how to use them. It's pretty simple really. One cup of rice. Two cups of water. Press the button , come back in 20 min. When the light says "Cook" , it's still cooking. When the light says "Warm" , it's keeping it warm. There arn't any other lights.

Rice is a "base" , in Philipino cooking. That is to say , you don't just cook a side order of rice like you do in the west. You cook up a larger amount of rice as the main dish , and you throw ...whatever's in the fridge , into the mix.

I fried up two eggs and a small "steakette" (looked like a hamberger to me !) chopped it up , threw it on the rice.

Two of those little cointainers that come with the rice cooker was too much. I left half in the pot, and even what I did eat , I'm still not hungry eight ours later.

EDIT: forgot to mention. Why the big deal about rice ? An 8kg bag of rice costs 12$ or so and will feed me AND my woman for 2 weeks. And there was some left over in the bottom. And we're both heavy rice eaters. Eating rice is cheap cheap CHEAP ! And you're never hungry.

Haircut

--- ---

In my time as an online gamer , I have made many many charactars , and I have tried the widest variety of hair styles you can imagine. And I have decided that , in real life, I will do the "goatee and pony tail" thing. I mean if Sean connery can do it , so can I. Besides, you save a ton on hair cuts. I mean you just look in the mirror , hey , the pony tail is longer than six inches , snip snip , no skill required, no paying a barber 20 bucks a month. An electric razer and a pair of scissors and you're good to go.

I'm poor, I have better things to spend 20$ a month on.

And I don't have to work. No one holds me to any uniform code. So why not ?

Internet

--- ----

My data stick (basically it hooks into the cell phone network and gives you internet that way) sucks. I'll never be able to play online games with it. I finally got a 10$ extension usb cable (at XSCargo..probably triple that anywhere else) and stuck the data stick way way up near the ceiling with a little duck tape, and I got 4 bars reception. And it cuts out on me every few minutes.

I spend a couple of hours trying in vain to play an online game, or even to watch a TV episode online. Kept cutting out , and the tv episode made you start all the way over at the beginning , and wouldn't let you skip the commericals, and by the time you got to part 5 of the episode (each part was 5-10 min long) , even skipping over the show to the next commerical , it cut out again.

I called up my provider and downgraded my internet to the lowest plan on that stick.

I tried talking to my brother about getting a real modem in at my expense. Plug it into the phone line ? you could see the panic in his eyes and in his wifes. Absolutely refused. But it will be in my name and ... no dice.

Makes me wonder who took them for a ride.

It was obviously a hot button issue for them , so I decided to let it slide. I would find other ways to pass the time . And my cheap , intermittant data stick would still be enough to check mail and look the occasional thing up.

The Long Run

--- ---- ---

I am debating how to spend my suddenly copius amounts of time. Learning french is a possibility , I've wanted to do that all my life. But I wanted to do it to help me get a job , and suddenly that is no longer a neccessity. Then again , even on disability , you're allowed to work a little bit, and being bilingual would certainly help me get a little extra cash here and there. Or maybe I'll get enough from disability that I won't care and won't even try to work ever again. I've heard estimates from 350$ / month + rent to 500$ / month + rent, the +rent part being where you move into social housing and Disability pays for it all. If I get five hundred, they can go whistle , I'll never even try and work again in my life.

Piano lessons are another possibility. I have an electric piano and the three main lesson books already , I just never had time to go through them. (Actually I went through all the way to the end once, when I was much younger many many years ago , and then forgot it all)

Or art lessons. I got a book on pencil drawing , and 500 sheets of el-cheapo no name brand blank printer paper is less than $6 at the local super market. (Weird place ...it sells food , clothing, electronics, even has a pharmacy at the back ... more of an everything store than a grocery store)

With the money I'm not spending on a high end internet connection (25$) I can probably buy a cheap second hand stand alone computer game every month.

I think I want a large bachelor pad at some social housing place. A one bedroom is simply too large, and larger places mean more mess you eventually have to clean up. Besides. I have two big shelving units that act as room dividers , so that bachelor pad is going to get chopped up into a (tiny) unofficial one bedroom anyways. And I saw a place that sells similar units relatively cheaply , in case I need more.

And if one of my relatives gets into trouble there will always be a couch to sleep on , or a spot on the floor at minimum. We're all getting older arn't we ? Sister's a type I diabetic and her feet are already numb soon she won't be able to walk , other sister in a car accident , brother's already had one heart attack. I forsee a string of people partaking of my couch in the next few years as they shift out of working for a living and onto disability or retirement.

Makes me wonder where I can get a cheap couch with a pull out bed in it.

So many decisions.

Well there's no hurry. I have time to think about these things.

Ontario Works oct 1

To all my friends and family , stop worrying.
I am now at my brothers place , and it's oct first so thats when Ontario Works figured they were going to start paying me for ,so I'm not breaking any rules.
Life is ok , free washer / dryer , I only had to abandon half my worldly possessions (it's amazing what you're willing to part with when you realize you are the one going to be lifting and moving it)

internet's a bit flakey , I have to take my lap top and come upstairs , but otherwise life is fine.

Post again shortly when I have somethign more to say than "I'm fine"

ontario works o

Morsi: Egypt will not be dictated by US rules

Article

US unpopular in region because of its 'very clear' biased position towards Israel, Egypt's president tells New York Times.

 

Morsi criticized U.S. dealings with the Arab world, saying it is not possible to judge Egyptian behaviour and decision-making by American cultural standards. He said Washington earned ill will in the region in the past by backing dictators and taking "a very clear" biased approach against the Palestinians and for Israel.
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.
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"Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region," he told the paper in the interview published late Saturday, drawing a clear distinction between the American government and the American people.


 Reading this article is fascinating. The realization that this person who is the president of a nation has very different thought processes than we do.  It is an unquestioning part of his belief system that Israel is evil, and by extension anyone who helps Israel is evil. It is an unquestioning part of his belief that if you're not a muslim , you are scum. And he is now tired of treating scum as if they were real people. He's sick of it ,and he's not going to do it any more.

Oddly enough , he's not sick and tired that his religion is broken into three major factions, and they're all at each others throats. He's not sick about his own people living in poverty under one corrupt regime after another, when the solution (democracy) is staring him right in the face.

And he's not sick and tired that this religion he is defending meets the definition of Evil. It murders innocent people (it's own worshipers, wrong faction ...no matter what faction you are, you're the wrong faction to someone and you're going to get murdered by someone). It lies to it's own people. It claims Mohammad the prophet can see into the future (Hadiths , or sayings of the Prophet , that quote things that could not possibly have been known during his life span) despite the fact that Mohammad states in his Koran he is just a man when he isn't possessed by the spirit of the angel Gabriel.  That he can't even read and write without Gabriel possessing him (thus all Hadiths , which were never written down by Mohammad , are highly suspect).

Even if you accept their viewpoint that they need not keep faith with the faithless, that only Islamics count, they've been murdering and going to war with each other for decades.

But he's not sick of that.

He's only sick of it , when someone thinks they shouldn't step on their turf, when someone thinks you can piddle in your own pond and do whatever you like over there , but don't bring that mess over here.

That would be the only time he's sick of it.

Of course, he cannot see his own hypocrisy. If Hypocrites could see , they wouldn't be Hypocrites after all.