So Tired Of It...

Who really cares?  I mean, are there people out there who need to know this information and, if they don't, their lives are incomplete?

That's right, I'm about to rant.

Do I really need to know all about Brooke Shield's wrinkle erase cream?

Do I really need to discover Megyn Kelley's little off-show OR on-show secrets?

Do I even need to know what pill Mark Cuban is taking? Or why? OMG!

OR why one of the Kardashians is having a rough go of it? I know, life is so mean to millionaires.

Everyone is screaming their Internet is slow, it takes too long to load this video or that video. Really? You're going to watch a video about what pill Mark Cuban is taking so you can order it? If you want the pill, does it really matter if Mark Cuban is taking it? Does his decision decide yours?

If we could get rid of all the stupid SPAM - not the canned meat type - that is cluttering our networks, just think how much faster the Internet would be.

I'm a 70+ married white male with four children, ten grandchildren and currently, five great-grandchildren.

The last thing I need in my inbox is...

1. A secret date with some cougar. I'm not looking for a 80 to 90 year old woman.
2. A secret date with somebody's wife.  I have my wife, why do I want somebody else's?
3. A prestigious position within the Business Women's Society or some such crap. I'm a guy!
4. Seeing naked photos of supposed "nearby" women who need to be satisfied.
5. To save $1500 on a walk-in tub. If I'm saving $1500, the tub is too expensive.
6. Be involved with a Zuckerberg venture and/or Facebook.
7. Discover ways to enhance my manhood. At this point in my life... does it matter?
8. Anything about Gwen Stephani and/or Blake Shelton. What they do is their business.
9. Any of the new diet pills and/or weight-loss fads. I'm fat; I'm happy - so leave me alone.
10. I don't need medicinal anything - drugs or pills. I'm 70+, I've learned to cope so far without it.
11. A total stranger's hoo-ha. Imagine my shock with the email that read "You Want This?" and when the email came up, it was a close-up shot of some woman's vagina. One of my grandchildren could have went to my computer and seen that since I leave me computer on 24/7 and usually have my email up, running during that time.
12. An opportunity to send somebody $5k so I can get $150 million to assist in a transaction from Africa (or Europe, South America, Far East) of an extremely wealthy spouse of a slain official.
13. And the list goes on and on.

Just think, if just the above type emails didn't clog the Internet, we could all probably run on a 56K modem - no, not really. I'm kidding. BUT, we'd all see things happen a lot faster.

WHY?

ISP (that's your Internet Service Provider) wouldn't need to attempt to go through all the email coming to your email box and attempt to eliminate as much as possible before sending it on through to you.  I know, I have my own domain and establish SPAM rules to eliminate a lot of email for my domain(s) I handle. You won't believe all the stuff that still manages to get through.

Spammers are smart.  They use things like "Bootilicious," Booty Licious," "Bootie Licious," Booty-Licious," Bootie.Licious," and the list goes on and on with variations.  Oh, and they also attempt this method "BoOtY LiCiOuS."  And, yes, variations on it, too.

As it has been stated in the past, it is difficult to make something totally idiot proof because idiots are so ingenious.

I remember the good ol' days (he sighs) when I could be on the phone and send an email to the person on the other end and almost instantly they'd say "Got it!"  Now, with all the way-stations and spam filters in place, it can take upwards of twenty minutes to get that same email.  The sending ISP will check the mail for viruses and attempt to ascertain that it is not spam, and depending on the route taken, a couple of other places will also test the email for viruses and spam.

The sad part, if you put into your email, say to a client or customer, the following sentence:

Yes, I said it was FREE!

That sentence alone could flag it as spam. You capitalized the word "free" which for some spam filters, is a flag to be counted.  If your email letter gets too many flags, it is considered spam and goes into the spam box and the world may never see it.

The truly sad aspect of spam - real mail may get stopped and tossed away while the crappy spam email comes through, totally unscathed.

Some spam filters look at the content size and if the flags count up... but the text size is large, it is allowed through.  Hence the emails of spam now filled with useless garbled blurbage at the end. It gets the text count up to offset the flag count. As I said, idiots are so ingenious.

What can be done? Really - nothing.  Like my friend who despises the canned meat known as SPAM, even if you ignore it, it still remains on the store shelves, indicating that somebody somewhere is buying it.

I guess the same is true for all the other spam - out there in the great web of cyberspace, somebody is clicking on the link to discover the "truth" about Brooke Shield's wrinkle cream... or wanting to enhance the size of his manhood.

We all have our dreams... I dream of an Internet without spam.

Until next I ramble on...

Raped At The Farm Market

We've all been to them - those quaint, little 'ma and pa' farm markets where you get all those great farm-fresh vegetables and fruits.

In our little community, they have one set up on a corner of a 'chain' drugstore parking lot.  Yes, they've got the big tent and tables with all the produce and some nice Mennonite young ladies to serve you.  I think that is part of the wholesomeness one expects.

My wife picked up 3 nice tomatoes since we both had a hankering for some and our tomatoes are still just a tad too green ... okay, they are just green rocks right now -- to eat.  And we got a baker's 1/2 dozen of what they call Indiana sweet corn.  Some of the best around.  For seven ears of this sweet ambrosia, the price was a mere $2.75.  Cough. Hack. Cough.  Our local WalMart is selling sweet corn for $.12 an ear.  Hm?  7 X $.12 = $.84.  Not even ONE dollar.  And, yes, the WalMart sweet corn is usually pretty good and fresh.

But, this was Indiana sweet corn and I'm willing to fork out a few more dollars for ambrosia.

The young lady smiled at me and said, "That will be $9.25."  Without thinking, I forked over a $10 bill and graciously accepted the 3 quarters of change.

As we drove away my mind started thinking and my wife also came to the same conclusion... uh, exactly how did 3 tomatoes and 7 ears of corn come up to over nine dollars?

Seems the tomatoes were selling for $2.65 a pound.

HUH?

I remember when I could buy three pounds of tomatoes for a single dollar.  Now it is almost three dollars for a single pound.

Suddenly, I knew what it felt like to be raped.  That young Mennonite girl smiled at me and took my money with not so much as a blink.

Now I like farm-fresh veggies and all.  I'm not a fanatic where it has to be all organic or anything like that, screaming for pesticide-free veggies.  I just wanted fresh - something that hadn't been packed 2 days ago in a state maybe 3 or 4 states away and then transported to my local store to make me think it was plucked from the vine/tree/ground/etc only moments before I got it.

I like to think I live in the real world.

Uh, is $2.65 per pound for tomatoes too much?  I mean, if that is a 'fair' price, I've got a literal gold mine growing in my garden.  Next year I'll plant even more tomatoes and should be able to make my first million by October 2017.  Whoo-hoo!  My tomatoes are grown from seed.  I have about 100 seeds left ... uh, that could easily be 100 plants and at almost a pound per tomato... you do the math.

As I have had a small amount of time to reflect on this incident, I think I've realized why the pricing is the way it is.  They allow senior citizens to use free tickets from the government to purchase fresh products to eat.  As I see it, once more, it is the case of the $200 Army hammer that anyone else can buy at the local hardware store for $5 to $8.  Government money abuse.

Think about it.  The senior citizens get the tickets for free.  It didn't cost them anything.  So the vendor, Mr. Happy Farmer, can charge whatever he wishes ... somebody else is picking up the price of the tickets.  I'd like to say the government, but in reality, it will be you and me via our taxes.

As many people don't realize.  The government is not a real business.  It hands out free money to people but that money is not profit from some business. Uh, for those who really don't understand, every government employee - including your Senator and House Rep, gets her/her salary from your taxes.  Yes. It is tax money collected.  It is ALL tax money from somewhere - either via a large/small business or each person.  The government does not earn profit  (money) but they give away money as if they were printing it.  Oh, wait, they do print it.  My bad.

But, I digress.

Enjoy the harvest of fresh veggies from the farm - just be sure to watch the prices.

Until next I ramble on...

Scammed and Resolutions

Let's start with the "up" side first.  My resolutions for the new year.  Last year I mentioned how I had to get my diabetes under control.  I told some drastic measures and in thirty (30) days I took my A1C from 10.4 to 7.2 and my average blood-sugar was down from 246 to 91.

My doctor was pleased with my results and wants me to continue whatever regime I am doing.  BUT he changed my prescription meds from Janumet to Januvia for my diabetes.

So far, I've been on it a total of 5 days.  I do not like the results I am seeing.  My morning reading is normally in the 90s or very low 100s - like 91 or 102.  The best I've had with the new pills is 130.  My readings during the day aren't better, either.  I'm seeing numbers like 276, 218.  Sometimes I get a "low" reading like 165 and that is 3 hours after eating.  I will continue these pills but will be discussing this with the doctor.

The reason for the change in pills was due to my kidney readings.  My renal was like 1.92 and should be closer to 0 - that's a ZERO.  He wants to check things out so I'll be getting an ultrasound later this week and seeing a specialist the first of March.  More on that as it comes up.

So, for my New Year's Resolutions.  I'm sort of hanging onto what I had last year.  I'd love to publish at least two books this year.  I really want to get "The New York Voice" out to complete the 2nd book in my "The Amish Singer" series.  Plus there are a few other books I'd like to see out there.  And, of course, I'd like to lose another 20-25 pounds this year which would get me closer to my 200 lb goal.  My wife and I have already decided we'll do more traveling this year but I'll still have my garden.  I don't want to make the list too long so it basically is simple - Get my diabetes under control, get at least two books published and lose more weight.  Seems simple enough and over eleven months to get it all accomplished.  Yeah, right!

Now for the "down" part of this blog.

I got scammed.  On my credit card. We're not exactly sure how it was done but fortunately, my credit card company caught it early on, plus I just happen to be checking out my electronic bill.  When we attempted to purchase flowers for my MIL's funeral, the credit card was declined and we just used another card even though we knew there was no issue with the card.  After the funeral I finally remembered and decided to check out the bill and see what might have been the cause.

WOW!  I had a $200 charge made in another very large town approximately 4.5 hours away from me to the south.  I knew I hadn't spent that money and called the 24/7 hotline to see what was going on.  As we talked, I noticed the date - 12/14.  That's my wife's birthday.  In fact, we were almost an hour north of our home.  So where the purchase had been made was now over 6 hours away.  We even used that same credit card for the meal and just a few minutes between the purchases.

I was passed to Fraud Department.  As they checked out the transactions and attempted transactions on my card, it appeared that somebody was "swiping" my card at these businesses.  Yes, plural. The one transaction got through but the card was flagged when they attempted to use it at a business that reads the "chip" on the card.  The card was "tried" at no less than four other businesses but because of the chip on my credit card, when it got flagged, my card was disabled and marked.

As we talked I showed the Fraud Dept where I was and used my card that day and they realized that there was no way I could be at the two locations that fast... if even using a jet.  They cancelled my $200 purchase, removing it from my bill.  And we had new cards issued for my wife and I.

What I found interesting, these scammers were actually using a real card to "swipe" through the machines for the purchases.  I had to make sure both my wife and I had our cards.  Because of the chip in my card and the new scanners using them, they caught and disabled my card.  Sure, it was inconvenient when we attempted to purchase flowers for the funeral, but the other possibility, for us, could have been devastating.  Scammers can duplicate the card, they can't duplicate the chip.  WHY? Because, as I was told, the chip is updated each time the card is used, reading a number and changing it. Each time it is a unique number to your card.  If a scammer were to get that chip number and duplicate it, even if I used it just once before they got their new scam card made, the chip numbers wouldn't match and therefore, voila! Void.

So, here's the caveat.  If you have one of the new "chip" credit cards, don't think it can't be duplicated. The catch is - the store reader must be the new one to force the chip to be read.  Our local WalMart uses the chip with their new readers but many restaurants and stores haven't upgraded to the new machines and thereby just do the generic swipe.  In fact, a local grocery we shop at has the new machines but hasn't "bought and installed" the new software. Using the new card is a waste of time - there is no protection, customers have to swipe their cards.

My wife and I are keeping track of which stores read the chip and which stores don't.  If they don't, we are reluctant to go back to the store unless it is absolutely necessary.

Also, we don't let our card be taken away from us to be used, like at restaurants UNLESS we can see the transaction being done from our table.  Yes, we use cash in those instances.

We have our ideas of where the number got scammed and I notified the Fraud Dept people.  We were at a restaurant and the waitress took almost 20 mins to get our bill and card back to us.  If the place had been busy and I hadn't needed to be someplace at a certain time, I probably wouldn't have noticed the length of time.  We only had 2 incidents where our card has been away from our sight.  Fraud is aware of when and where.

Until next I ramble on...