The things in my head go 'round and 'round

Yeah you read it right.  There is a myth that has been perpetuated by The Princess that you can douse a laptop and it will still operate as it is supposed to.

Don’t believe it.  It doesn’t.

L8R

I have never been rich, and though I do like to dream about it I somewhat doubt that I ever will be.  Monetarily, that is.  ‘Cause if you measure wealth in the people you know and associate with, Bill Gates got nothing on me.

I am typing this on a lap top that was recommended to me by the friend of a friend.  I got it at a steal.  The friend and his friend are technological wizards.  Veritable genius’s of the highest sort when it comes to computers and such.  Both are highly trained and when I need something, if one can’t do it the other can.

I have a friend who is a genius when it comes to cars.  Anything that moves, to be honest.   The reason that I am able to drive a 15 year old vehicle is because he keeps it running for me.  And without screwing me over on the price.  He tells me what the truck needs, and then takes care of it.  Sometimes he has worked for a case of my homebrew.  This guy is the one I am going to set up in his own garage when I hit the lotto.  He will be my personal mechanic in his own business.

I have a friend who can work on stereo’s, and home entertainment systems.  He is also the one who has introduced me to the world of cigars.  Much to MLW’s displeasure.

I have a friend who works on my lawnmower when it needs TLC.  Or to be honest, when I muck it up so badly I need to have someone who knows what they are doing fix it.  He, again, tells me what it needs, fixes it and doesn’t charge me an arm and a leg.

I have a friend who brews beer like I do.  He and I share recipes, and talk about what went right and trouble shoot what went wrong.

I have a friend, who I met through MLW, who was a professional musician.  The Princess’ biological Father  used to beat up Brett Michaels when he was known as Bret Sychak.

I am rich beyond belief when it comes to the people I can call friend.  And I need to remind myself of this on those days when I am bitching and moaning about not having enough money.  Because money ain’t all it is cracked up to be.

L8R

It is always interesting to see how people end up on this page, and one of the main ones is a search from a song’s lyrics.

Flor-rida has a sampled tune out there that is called “You make my head spin”. I would post it, but youtube has taken it off. The song he sampled from was by a group called Dead or Alive. They recorded this song in the 80′s:

Life is weird sometimes, now isn’t it?

namaste.

As a loyal cable viewer, MLW and I have had Comcast since the day we moved into our abode. And we have had no real complaints. Just the usual grousing about the rate increases, the channels that we don’t get, the reception on some of the channels that we like, the slowness of the internet, blah, blah, blah.

We are spoiled. Admittedly so. And then Verizon FIOS came to town and we get interested. We read all of the BAZILLION pieces of information that inundated us daily in our mail. We talked to friends who had made the switch, and then we talked to a guy who was selling the package door-to-door.

Ok, I actually shut the door in his face when he came round to sell it. I am friendly that way. But I thought better of it, and when I saw him in the neighborhood later that afternoon, I went out and apologized for being an ass and invited him in.

Yes, I apologized. Make a note of this, because it doesn’t happen every day.

We jumped on the Verizon bandwagon. Ok. They bought me with $150 in cash, and a year of free stuff. Go figure, I am a “stuff” whore. Which brings us to today. I have a tech stringing line, and doing stuff to the back of my house, and to my “Box”.

I am not feeling it.

What I am feeling is that good feeling that you get knowing that every TV in my house is going to be able to watch whatever the heck you want to watch on them. Though I have my reservations about The Princess having access to Pay-Per-View available to her. As she hasn’t gotten the concept of who is ACTUALLY PAYING FOR HER PAY-PER-VIEW as of yet. But what ev’s, you know?

So we will see as the day progresses as to how good a feeling I have. Right now, I am without telephone. Big deal, I don’t answer it during the day anyway.

L8R

I have been looking around for more newspaper stories concerning Michigan Proposal 1 that concerns Medical Marijuana. Haven’t found any. I looked at the online issues of the Detroit Free Press, Mlive.com, The Grand Rapids Press, The Lansing Journal, and the Kalamazoo Gazette. Haven’t found anything new.

What is going on out there? I know that the the opposition group isn’t sitting still. Silence is concerning when you are looking at an issue such as this one.

Makes me nervous. Don’t lose your focus, group.

namaste.

Now there is a no-brainer, isn’t it?  According to the Associated Press, despite serious differences on gun show rules, and campaign finance, the NRA is supporting the Republican nominee.

Has the NRA NOT ever supported the Republican nominee?  Ever?

I don’t thinkso.

And it makes it even sweeter with Governor Palin being a card carrying member of the NRA.  Isn’t that special?

“She’s a hunter, she’s a Second Amendment supporter and she’s a tremendous asset to the ticket,” he said.

Palin, an NRA member, received an A-plus rating from the group when she ran for governor in 2006. That compares to an NRA grade in the average range for McCain in his last Senate race. McCain isn’t an NRA member.

Palin has been an NRA booster, particularly for its education and safety programs, during her career in government. As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she used $750 from her city campaign fund to upgrade her NRA membership.”

Isn’t that nice?

And have you see this?

McCain Rage.

Makes things a little bit more interesting, now doesn’t it?

Namaste.

And I don’t even speak french. And neither did the Maytag repairman.

Who didn’t even turn out to BE a Maytag repairman. Turns out he is a any make, or model repairman. Even the Whirlpool dishwasher that we own. I grew up near Benton Harbor, Michigan where the Whirlpool factory was a HUGE employer. Up until they closed it down and moved the plant to Mexico.

Now the dishwasher that I own. That isn’t a Maytag, but rather a Whirlpool is no longer made in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Which is a very nice place to be to watch the Blossom Time parade if you happen to be in Michigan in the month of May. The route in South Haven is pretty crowded.

Moving on.

Where was I?

Crap.

Namaste.

I finally did it. I think that I was the last hold out not to be an Ipod. I purchased an Ipod shuffle today for use in my truck going back and forth to where the heck ever it is that I am going.

Earlier this year I had purchased a really nice cd player for The Red Beast so that I would have music other than the crap played on local radio stations. The idea was to burn a billion cd’s and live happily ever after.

That idea crapped out when our computer absolutely refused to burn cd’s. Even though it is supposed to be able to do that. I could have reached out to my friends and begged, and bribed them with Dodd Family Legacy Beers, but that didn’t work out either. So today The Princess and I, yeah she is home from school again after going to the Dr. this morning, went out and did the good consumer thing and spent some cash. Cash that I got from dividends on an insurance policy that I have on myself, and the girls. Sounds like a Monopoly game, doesn’t it?

Moving on.

Now I have this piece of plastic that holds 1 gig of music. I have 145 songs on it now. That is the equivilent of 14 cd’s. Awesome! Of course this means that I am going to be spending time setting up folders with fav songs in them so that I can download them whenever I want to.

Great. Something else to waste time on.

Namaste.

Do you facebook?

Do your kids shake their heads when you tell them that you do? Are they embarrassed?

Good for you.

I started facebook awhile back. A long while back. I now have 10 friends. After diligent, and arduous ignoring of said Facebook. I am not that good with Facebook.

The youngest son is BIG TIME into his Facebook. I think that he invited everyone he runs into to be a friend. He has over 150 friends. I can’t remember the names of most of my employees, much less 150+ people that I just met.

How the heck do kids do this stuff?

Facebook. Hmpf.

namaste.

Verizon has a catchy little commercial wrapped around that little phrase. Started out with the one geekly looking guy walking around with his telephone out asking

“Can you hear me now?”

And a lot of us bought it. Hook, line, and sinker. Me, and MLW included. See, a year ago we were with another cell phone carrier. And not happy. Seemed like we were being nickel and dimed to death. Rate increases, and we weren’t getting that great of reception. And then a few of MLW’s friends started talking to her about Verizon.

You see, MLW goes camping in the Fall with some of her High School classmates. In the mountains of Pennsylvania. All of her buddies were able to contact their significants without any problem. MLW had to borrow one of their phones to call The Princess and I.
That did not go over well. It was an inconvenience that did not need to be. So we started talking about changing carriers, and because I got a corporate rate from Verizon, we went with them.

Then we had to pick out phones. Me, I am not cool so I went with a Nokia flip phone. I works. It rings, life is good. But The Princess had to have a Strawberry Chocolate, and MLW had seen The Razr. That was that for them.

Until MLW found that her nifty, cute little phone got worse reception than what she had with the old company. So I called Verizon and told them our concerns. The nice lady on who answered the phone suggested that I take it to a Verizon store, or kiosk at the mall and have them do a “download”. And I did. Unfortunately, the nice young man at the kiosk told me that there wasn’t a whole bunch that could be done. That the Razr was a quick produced phone to match a competitor and would never equal the reception I get with my Nokia.

And I had to go back home and tell that to MLW. Not good. What was even more frustrating to her is that on our vacation last week, both The Princess and I had wonderful reception on our phones. While MLW had zip. So, she would have to use one of our phones to make any calls that she wanted to make.

Verizon, I am asking nicely. Please get me a phone that gets the reception that you advertise, is stylish, and I can afford for MLW. She is a hard working woman who has to put up with me on a daily basis. Let’s help the woman out, ok?

Thanks.

Namaste.