Archive for May, 2008

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The freelance gigs were running out so I had to take a ‘day job’

I titled this website “Just a Guy Who Reads the Papers” because I wanted to emphasize that I’m no one really talented or special, just a guy who reads the papers, watches the newscasts, and tries to figure life out as he goes along. Just like you good readers.

And just like most of you reading this, I’ve had to get a job. Yes, you can note the big event on your Patek annual calendar watch and mark the day — I was hired earlier this morning.

My new “day job” is one of those things that’s no big deal, not really a “career” thing, but mostly just a quick way to supplement the old monthly budget. It’s one of those jobs in this country that fall under the category of something like, “At least it’s honest work, even if it doesn’t pay much.” It’s a job I’ve done in the past, and except for the low pay it provides a real “stress-free” work environment that lets the old creative juices continue flowing to make the Internet affiliate marketing and writing career still a real long-term possibility.

But it will supplement our flagging monthly income and take relieve some financial pressures we’ve experience the last few months at the freelance gigs have hit a dry spell.

And, with the hours involved, once my old body becomes accustomed to them, I should be able to continue the Internet writing and Internet marketing pretty much as I have to this point.

So don’t run off. I’ll be around and I hope you will, too.

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Obama appears to be side-stepping Clinton, tackling McCain

Remember that often-quoted line from the baseball-diamond-in-a-corn-field-movie? “If you build it they will come,” or something like that I think.

That appears to be Barak Obama’s latest campaign tactic: If I ignore Hillary’s continuing campaign and take shots directly at John McCain, people will get over Hillary and support me. At least it looked that way today when he jumped on Sen. McCain for McCain’s failure to support a veteran’s educational benefits bill of some sort. (I think that was the gist of the bill?)

It could be an effective tactic. Sort of like that philosophy of life that makes the rounds periodically through every generation, “the Secret,” or whatever. You know the philosophy I’m talking about: If I visualize riches, if I think and convince myself I’m rich, riches will flow my way. Yeah, well, I think Obama’s chances are a little better than that. At any rate, by side-stepping any campaigning against Clinton to go directly after McCain, he’s focusing already on the general election. Surely he realizes the simple math is in his favor and Clinton’s virtually lost but hasn’t yet stopped campaigning.

Now, for taking on McCain, it probably isn’t the smartest move for Obama to go straight at McCain’s strength — his military career, former POW status, and his popularity among veterans. Might want to rethink that one. Time will tell.

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Speaking of old homes and repairs — don’t even get me started on ceiling fans and ants

Forgive me for doing so much personal moaning and groaning here. This has been the sort of week already that’s just about driven me up the wall — up the living room wall, across the ceiling, into the kitchen, and down the wall alongside the kitchen faucets, perhaps, landing somewhere near the old cat’s ant-infested food dish.

All right, perhaps things haven’t gone that badly.

We live in a part of the country which, especially since global warming has hit, is extremely humid with daily highs in the 80s and 90s from about May through October. This week we were given an advanced forecast of temps in the mid- to upper-80s. I immediately began fretting about getting our broken living room ceiling fan replaced. I bought a new one, and got a commitment from one of my neighbors who’s younger and more agile than I to come over and slap it up there on the ceiling. (Removing the old fan first, of course.)

His schedule changed radically, so I spent most of my work day Monday getting things ready then waiting for him to be able to get the job done. But, we “got ‘er done,” and all was well.

I was only kidding about the kitchen faucets, really, there are no leaks, drips, or runs there, presently. (A different neighbor replaced that plumbing nightmare for me a few years back and, so far, all is holding steady.)

But I wasn’t kidding about the old cat’s food bowl woes. If you’ve had ants invade the house, you understand how difficult and persistent they can be. If you haven’t, well, there’s no way to explain the frustration involved.

We have a patient old cat, though, and with “mommy” and “daddy” cleaning, scrubbing, spraying, and setting up ant-trap/ant-bait city in the kitchen — we won this year’s round with the little devils. They’ll be back. Sure, they’ll be back. That’s what ants do.

But maybe by next spring we’ll have won the lottery and be living where gentle breezes blow across our beach front property in paradise and … yeah, well, anyhow. Life in Missouri goes on, beach front or not!

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Little joy living in a 100-year-old house — especially when we’ve been here 28 of those years

Ah, the joys of having a small income and an old house. Well, not REALLY all that joyful. Our house was built in 1907. We bought it as a “fixer-upper” in 1980. Boy, that was not such a clever move for a guy (me) who has trouble just replacing washers in the bathroom faucets. (In fact, I’ve actually replaced one of those old faucets about six times over the years since we moved in here in 1980.)

There’s still far more fixing up to do than we’ve ever gotten done. As for any real plan, I have none. My wife and I are now in our 60s, working at low-paying jobs or getting limited, irregular bursts of freelance writing/editing. So paying to have the ceilings repaired and the front and back porches replaced probably isn’t going to happen.

I’m thankful, though, that we’ve managed to keep the mortgage paid, despite multiple refinancing over the years, and we’ve not been among those who have faced the nasties of foreclosure. If you’re one of those good folks who have gone through a foreclosure — you have my deepest sympathy.

Heck, if you lived here and had the money to make us an offer, I’ve even got an old house I’d be willing to sell you! It was built in 1907, and boy, as a fixer-upper … well, you get the idea.

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Howie Mandel and Buy.com — here’s a YouTube video that will crack you up

If Howie Mandel and Buy.com can’t get you great deals on video games, great and fast delivery, AND patch up your faltering relationship with your girlfriend, then who can?? Take a look at this great YouTube video and enjoy yourself.

Can you imagine how much fun that would be? You get home from a shopping trip and find Howie Mandel standing in the street to greet you? I love the way they filmed this, and as a long-time Howie Mandel fan, I had to give it a five-star rating just for the fun involved. Go to YouTube.com and take a look at the video for yourself. Great fun!

And if you’ve never yet shopped at Buy.com, you need to give them a look, too. Lot’s of good stuff at great prices!

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Freemasonry — awesome demonstration of the power of myths

I’ll bet you’ve heard all the stories about Masons — Freemasonry, that is — and their supposed “secret government” behind the U.S. founding and early governing? The tales of Masonic symbols on our money and “New World Order” stuff in Latin on our dollar bills?

I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for the Discovery Channel’s special, “Secret History of the Freemasons.” It absolutely debunks every silly one of those myths and others. As an example: You’ve heard the myth that the pyramid and eye on the backs of U.S. dollar bills were put there by our Founding Fathers as a mystical symbol of Freemasonry, haven’t you? Never happened. According to the Discovery Channel (and a search at wikipedia.org), the pyramid with the “all seeing eye” was added to U.S. currency for the first time on the dollar bill by FDR in 1935.

So why do we continue to believe bunk couched in high-sounding, scholarly terms? Why do we continue to pay attention to nuts who make nice livings off rumors and tales that are obviously fiction?

One word, I think, explains why we all love a good conspiracy theory: boredom. Okay, we’ll add another word to that — fear.

Boredom or dissatisfaction with the hum-drum, routine nature of most of our lives leads us to jump at things that are out of the ordinary. And fear makes us want to find deep or hidden answers that explain those circumstances in life we are not able to control.

As long as life for most people is a string of boring routine punctuated by sudden, unexplained situations that bring fear — the world will believe in conspiracy theories. No matter that all those “alien life forms” out there responsible for UFO appearances and abductions never show themselves to anyone actively, scientifically seeking them, we’ll still believe. No matter that the physical realities of the universe make it almost impossible that living beings from anywhere in that universe would or could come near earth — we want to believe, so we by gosh WILL believe.

And that’s all right, isn’t it? Especially in America. Our country is built on the inalienable right we all have to make ourselves appear to be a**es at any time we wish to, as long as we don’t hurt others or interfere with their rights to do so.

God bless America! (And, please, please, PLEASE don’t tell the Freemasons on me.)

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Happy Birthday, Israel, and don’t wait for peace to happen soon

The nation of Israel marked its 60th birthday today. There was celebration throughout the land and a number of world leaders, including President Bush, gathered in Jerusalem to make speeches and exchange good wishes.

At the same time the celebration was going on, a Palestinian rocket launched in the Gaza Strip hit a marketplace in Israel, wounding more than 30 people, mostly women and children.

What a strange area of the world, the Middle East that is. What a bizarre nation, Israel that is. I don’t know, really, any of the politics involved in this volatile region. I’m sure there are suffering Palestinians as well as suffering Israelis — and how can you really work out a “homeland” there for both Israelis and Palestinians? I honestly don’t know.

With all the destruction and chaos going on worldwide this year, certainly we all ought to pray for peace in the Middle East. May God grant wisdom and understanding so that somehow all parties in the region can find fair treatment and peace!

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Odd twist and turn to the gas tax suspension proposals

I wrote last week about the ridiculous pandering going on by Sen. McCain and Sen. Clinton regarding a suspension of the federal gasoline tax during the summer travel season. I suggested then that it was idiotic for a variety of reasons.

Now I heard just a snatch on a radio news broadcast yesterday about a suggestion from our Republican Congressman here in my part of Missouri, Rep. Roy Blunt, on how we (i.e., the federal government) could cover the highway maintenance revenues such a tax recess would bring about. He proposes we simply cut money out of the many federal “earmarks” in funding bills to cover the difference. Or something like that, I only heard the last couple of sentences on the idea. I found one obscure Internet report about it.

Such a suggestion makes as much sense as trying natural acne treatment lotions to treat skin cancer. By that I mean, both diseases are those of the skin, but one is totally unlike the other.

I don’t understand all the ins-and-outs of federal funding bills. I do know that shuffling money around within the federal budget is the norm, not the exception. For all the money taken from “earmarks” (whatever those are) to cover gas tax revenue, you can be assured Congressmen and Senators who are counting on those funding earmarks will find ways to replace them, whether we know about it or not.

Heck, here’s a solution that makes just about as much sense as shuffling money we don’t have from one federal pocket to another: The federal government has the power to print money, so why not just have them run off a couple of hundred thousand extra bucks for all of us and put the check in the mail??

Oh, wait, we already did the “free money” thing with the economic stimulus plan, didn’t we? Hope that one works out.

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Several states want laws to execute child molesters — what do you think?

Several states, including where I live, Missouri, are passing or considering laws that would make raping a child under the age of X a capital crime and call for the death penalty to those convicted of such child rapes.

How do you feel about this? We’ve had two extremely gruesome, awful such cases in our city and in a nearby town within the last year. My personal, heart-felt feeling is that anyone who would rape a young child shouldn’t be sharing the air I breathe.

My better senses about the whole issue say that these people should be put away for life, not executed.

Proponents of executing child rapists make the case for such violence and such barbarian behavior must be dealt with harshly, no excuses. I certainly understand and appreciate that. If I thought executing such people would 1) deter the rape of children, or, 2) somehow restore the innocent child to wholeness, I would be in favor of such measures.

In one of the cases I know of here in Missouri, a 9-year-old girl’s own stepfather, who swears to this day that he loved her like a daughter, and the stepfather’s friend, have been charged (and I believe made some confessions) with raping and murdering the girl, then hiding her body in a cave in the woods. Searchers from throughout the area looked for the body for several days before locating it.

If indeed that stepfather and his friend are convicted, it’s hard NOT to want them put to death rather than allowing them to continue living. Absolutely horrendous crime, no question.

BUT — there are so many problems with capital punishment for child rapists:

1. The whole death penalty system in America is so messed up that year after year people awaiting death are exonerated by such methods as DNA research. Do we really want to risk putting truly innocent people to death in error any more than we do currently?

2. Setting up a hard and fast capital punishment penalty for those who rape children put the children in a tough spot, with the necessity of repeated court appearances and trauma.

3. If child rapists know they’ll get the death penalty if convicted, it would seem they would be more likely to rape then kill a child, rather than risking having the child as a living witness to the crime.

I would rather have states get serious about “life sentences,” which in some states are set up “without the possibility of parole,” and in some states allow parole after X number of years even for a “life” sentence. Making a life sentence a true life sentence would get these people out of society without the problems associated with a required death penalty for child rape.

I don’t have the answers to such tough questions. How do you feel about the issue? What are your thoughts?

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Do you do digital photography? What software do you use to download, edit, and store your digital photos?

I’ve been very slow coming into the digital age. Mostly, since our kids have grown and left home, my wife and I don’t take anywhere near the number of photos we did when the two kids were tiny.

Way back then (1970s), a 35mm film camera with slide film in it was our weapon of choice. For awhile, I went through the Polaroid “instant picture” craze — but I soon discovered Polaroids faded and didn’t age all that well. The older the kids got, the less we traveled anywhere as a family and the less I could be persuaded to load film in the camera and take pictures.

Then a year or so ago, after some particularly disasterous family Christmas pictures, my wife and the kids finally persuaded me to buy a decent digital camera. Nothing fancy at all, and probably well behind the latest digital technology — but fun and useful nevertheless.

But the really fun thing was that I bought an SD card for the camera to store digital photos on, extending radically the number of photos we can get between downloads. For a guy who thought 36 slides per roll of 33mm film was spectacular — imagine how I feel when I think that the SD card in this digital camera will allow me to take MORE THAN 900 photos before I have to download them to my computer. Why, we made a trip across the country to visit a couple of brothers I don’t see but every few years. Brought all the photos back on the SD card without a single download, and never came close to capacity!

Okay, some of us are more easily entertained than others.

What do you use to download digital photos to your computer, to edit the photos, and perhaps to organize and store them on your hard drive? I hated the over-bloated freeware that came from the camera manufacturer. I’m generally confused trying to use “Picasa,” the highly touted free imaging software from Google. What do you use? Any recommendations?

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