Facebook no more!

 Life, Off Topic  12 Responses »
Apr 192012
 

I just don’t get it anymore. Not sure why I ever did, but I did, and now I’m done.

I’ve just grown tired of all the lame posts, all the posts informing me of where everyone is, and what they’re doing at every given moment of every day, the constant game requests, and especially the idiotic [and very annoying] repost requests.

Why do I need to subject myself to all that useless information. If you want me to meet you somewhere, to join in with whatever you’re doing, or you want to play a game, give me a call on the phone. I have one of those smart phones that I carry around with me constantly [for some other unknown reason].

So I’ve deactivated my Facebook account. I may come back. Who knows? I might find it important or even necessary, although I can’t imagine why, but I did say I was going to stop blogging, and you see how well that worked out.

I just wonder how many people will notice, or even care?

We can all do our part

 Golf, Off Topic, Politics  No Responses »
Oct 312011
 

I blogged on this topic about a year ago, but after watching the video below, and considering everything going on in the country now, I thought it was worth repeating. I even learned a few things I didn’t know before.

Admittedly it isn’t much, but it is something, and ‘you never know’. At the very least maybe it could help save the US Postal Service from additional cuts.

Just doing my part!

What to do about unwanted mail?

 Off Topic  6 Responses »
Jan 062011
 

Are you as perturbed about junk mail as me? It seems that’s all I get any more in the mail. I would even include it as another one of those pet peeves of mine.

I especially hate it when my credit card companies sends me checks to use instead of my credit card, which I have to waste time shredding. And what’s the point of that anyways? The reason I have a credit card is so I don’t have to use checks.

Well, if you are as aggravated as me about junk mail, then have I got a plan. It’s actually not my plan. I got it from a friend, but that doesn’t make it any less of a good idea.

Now, whenever I get an offer for something in the mail, instead of throwing it directly in the trash, I take any documents which don’t contain my name, and return them to that company in the prepaid envelope.

Obviously this won’t work if there’s not a prepaid envelope included. I’m not about to waste any money doing this, but it seems quite a bit of junk mail does include a prepaid envelope.

While this approach likely won’t end junk mail, hopefully it will create enough extra work for the companies, and make their dealing with it as annoying as it is for me having to deal with their unwanted junk.

Plus, if I can get a movement going here, maybe we can finally eliminate junk mail.

And when you really think about it, why do we even need mail delivery. If it meant eliminating all the unwanted mail, I’d be all for getting rid of daily mail delivery. I can’t think of anything that can’t be paid online, or received via email or by UPS, Fedex etc. And think how much money our cities, counties and states could saved if they stopped sending billing notifications through the mail, and used e-mail instead.

Is big brother watching?

 Off Topic  3 Responses »
Dec 262010
 

It’s a beautiful day outside. The sun is shining, and the temperature is right around 50°F. It’s a perfect day for a bike ride, if only the roads were somewhat dry. But just like last Thursday, the roads are soaking wet from last nights rain, and I refuse to subject myself to those conditions. So here I sit, bored to death (so wanting to be out on the bike) composing one of my meaningless posts, this time about Facebook.

I don’t get the fascination with Facebook. Sure it’s a great way to stay in contact with old friends from high school and elsewhere, who may be light years away, but what else is it good for? And what’s this new craze of friends pointing out where they are at every given moment in their life? Who cares when someone checks in at the grocery store?

Anyways, yesterday we went to my niece’s house in Granada Hills for Christmas dinner, and for whatever reason we were discussing the “places” app on Facebook, and I ended up “checking in at Kim’s house”. (Which I couldn’t delete.)

What was even more surprising, when I checked my Facebook page this morning, I discovered someone actually liked it. Now I could understand someone liking it, if I had checked in at some fabulous resort in Tahiti or other exotic location, but this was just my nieces house. Why did they like that? Or did they think I was doing something more sinister? :) But I digress.

More importantly though, I have another app on my Droid which I downloaded from the “Market”, also called “Places”, and was testing it out as well. And what surprised me here was, it knew exactly where I was. Not just a longitude and latitude, or a general vicinity, like Granada Hills, it knew the EXACT street address?

How did it know that? And who has the ability to write the programs to accomplish this? Can you imagine how much time that must have taken? Think about it. That can’t have been easy. And should I delete it? Will it do any good?

And what is really the point? Is this just some government plot to track our every move and thought. Was George Orwell just ahead of his time?

This is scary!

I’ve been scammed

 Edie, Life, Off Topic  2 Responses »
Sep 102010
 

And I have no one to blame but myself. I failed to read a contract, or at least failed to properly understand it.

I thought by paying a yearly fee to Orkin for termite inspections of our home, and needed re-treatments, after the initial treatment [tenting] in 1990, we would be covered for any future structural damage [caused by termites] that might occur. Isn’t that what insurance is for?

Well as it turns out, the so called Orkin guarantee, does nothing more than guarantee they will retreat (at no charge) if termites are found. It doesn’t matter whether they were negligent in performing annual inspections, and missed termite infestations, or if their re-treatments had been inadequate, it isn’t their fault if termites return, and structural damage occurs 20 years later.

Sort of sounds like the health insurance industry. You pay your premiums, but there’s no guarantee the insurance company is going to cover your health care expenses.

So now after paying Orkin some $4000 in premiums over the past 20+ years, we’re faced with spending some unknown additional amount for structural repairs, which Orkin conveniently happens to be in the business of doing as well. They’re giving us a price this afternoon.

Now if that doesn’t sound like a scam to everyone out there, than nothing should.

On top of all that, and what might even be a bigger hassle is we have to bag up all our food [and wine], in preparation for tenting, and spend 3 days in a hotel (at our expense), which with two cats, is not what I would call a vacation.

And here I thought I was depressed a couple of days ago. :(

So my one suggestion to everyone, if you’re paying a fee to Orkin or some other exterminating company [actually any company], for what you may think is insurance, check your contract, and make sure you know what is covered. Don’t be surprised like I was!

But on a more upbeat note, it looks like Edie’s latest treatment protocol [Bendamustine + Dex] is showing good results. Her free light chains have shown improvement, so she is going for a third treatment on Tuesday, provided of course her other blood counts aren’t any worse than last Monday’s results.

Less stuff more living

 Life, Off Topic  1 Response »
Aug 232010
 

I’ve been reading this blog, Far Beyond the Stars, a blog about living minimally, and the quote “less stuff more living” came to mind.

That’s how a family in Denmark described their life, after an interviewer commented on how small their home was. A home half the size of the average home in the US, without a lot of stuff, but a home none the less, and one that seemed quite comfortable for a husband, wife and two kids.

That interview happened quite awhile ago, but that statement has stuck in my mind all this time. (It also came up while talking with the couple from Germany we met at the Aureole Wine Weekend.)

It just got me thinking about how materialistic we have become in the US. Even myself, although I don’t consider myself overly materialistic, or one who strives to impress anyone. Yeah, we have a lot of the usual stuff, including a 52″ wide screen LCD TV, with built in surround sound (we watch a lot of TV), but that’s pretty much the only over indulgence. Oh yeah, there are my two bicycles (which I do get significant use out of), but they’re very likely worth more than the 3 cars I own (at least two of them anyways).

And I almost forgot about our house, which, admittedly is bigger than we need. I would move, but it would likely cost more to do so, but more importantly it would be too upsetting for the cats, and I wouldn’t do that to them.

Beyond that, there isn’t much I would call anything extravagant, and there really isn’t much else I want or crave for, except for maybe a new bike, but I really consider that more a necessity than a luxury.

Okay, I think I’m starting to get a little long winded here, but I wanted to point out that guys blog. I really think it would do everyone a lot of good to follow at least some of his advice.

And on an unrelated [but related to this blog] note, it seems I’ve dodged a bullet for now. I’m happy to report my platelet count is back to within the normal range at 168 thou/cumm. WHEW! Finally after a week of being a nervous wreck, I can at last relax [at least a little].

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