And other tech thingies I own. So anyway, there is a discussion on Lifehacker about leaving tabs open. I open things I find onto new tabs that open at the far end of the tab bar, then just read across when I’ve finished the one I’m on. I save them all in a new bookmark if I don’t have time to read them all. A comment in the discussion (not to me) was, “You are a digital hoarder.” LOL I think I am actually an information junkie. I love new things to read and learn about. At one point I had over 7,000 bookmarks, but I think I’ve cut that back some. Thank the goddesses that it is not all info on paper. I would have to rent an extra apartment just to store it.

I know I’ve posted this before, but I love this show. The IT Crowd. Also, I love my electronics. My windows to the world. My life would be so much poorer without them. I have a friend in Finland whom I would not have even known existed without my computer. How great is that? I read blogs written by people all over the world. I comment, they comment back. It’s interactions I would not have without my computer. I see pictures of places and things I was not aware were out there. I read articles about any subject imaginable. I learn new things all the time. If we ever get that EMP from the aliens, or the sun does it for them, IDEK how I will manage. Alone, alone, alone. That is my life, and my computer means it is not absolute. That’s it. Just another rambling-on post. It’s what I do. LOL

I am not doing as well as I was, thanks to my doctor messing with my meds.  I have been pretty depressed lately because of it, and yesterday I was feeling very stressed and on the verge of an anxiety attack. Haven’t had one in quite a long time.
So.today I am trying to rally and work at being “normal”.  Ha!  I dropped crumbled bacon bits on the floor right off (very bad if cat eats pork). Made a mess trying to cook a pancake, because I don’t do mornings, and there’s the reason for that.  I usually have coffee for breakfast, and even that rarely goes well.  Messes R Us.

Took a break decide to attempt crocheting something.  I used to make a lot of crocheted items.  Had to cut off my tangle of yarn twice, but opted not to try again after the second time.  Another break, decided to cook something that has been needing it for a bit.  Trying cheese danish with crescent rolls.  Didn’t do too bad, only small mess, but they are baking, so the verdict is not in yet.  Also steamed broccoli that was getting past its goodness date, forgot to lower heat, black pan and semi-blackened broccoli.  Haven’t started to grate the cheese yet.  Probably a bad idea anyway.  Feeling very useless, worthless and frustrated, and if I cried, I’d be doing it now.  Oh, well.  Back to the kitchen.  Don’t seem to have any kind of future, so no going back to it.

There is always something more to protest, stand up for, be appalled by, whatever. It does get wearing, but you must do what you can, even if it is only signing petitions and posting information to get the word out. Here’s today’s:

It’s a beautiful cold day in Massachusetts.

Here’s a little something I found on Tumblr:

“Look at the difference: In 1977 I bought a small house in Portland Oregon for $24,000. At the time I was earning $5 per hour working at a large auto parts store. I owned a 4 year old Chevy Nova that cost $1,500. Now, 36 years later that same job pays $8 an hour, that same house costs $185,000 and a 4 year old Chevy costs $10,000. Wages haven’t kept up with expenses at all. And, I should point out that that $5 an hour job in 1977 was union and included heath benefits.”

Going by this, minimum wage should be 35.00 an hour, with benefits. Ha!

This is from my local news station. Lovely story about kids standing up for one being bullied. Can’t seem to embed it so here’s the link:

Solidarity

Came across this quote here:

The New Civil Rights Movement

“If by a ‘Liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties–someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.'”

— John F. Kennedy

It’s because shit like this makes me furious at the injustice that goes on, and I feel helpless to do anything about it.  At least spreading the word about it makes me feel like I’m at least trying to make a difference.  Wouldn’t it be great if stores did their Thanksgiving opening crap and NO ONE came?True, the workers would still get screwed, but maybe next year stores would rethink this horrible idea.  What do you need so badly that you can’t get it any other day before Christmas?  Seriously?  Anyway, here’s another article about the high moral standards and integrity of Walmart.

Time and a Half? I Guess Not.

I sign because there isn’t a lot else I can do, but sometimes I think that signing petitions is useless.  Turns out I am mistaken.

Aside from it driving small businesses OUT of business, forcing quality to fall in order for manufacturers and other providers to lower their price to Walmart, forcing those second-party employers to cut workers. Full Disclosure: I now have a friend who does shop there, and I do now and then have her buy me a bottle of allergy pills because she’s going anyway and I am running out. My bad.  Anyway, here’s the video, which mentions the cost of low wages to taxpayers:

Little Edit Here:  Just found this on Tumblr:

I read that the idea here is that if work isn’t like this, why should school be. Unfortunately, schools are a lot more tolerant of this that work would ever be. Makes me sick to see this, though.

What?

from here: Tech Thoughts

Assuming that critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do, a critical thinker:

1. Is open-minded and mindful of alternatives

2. Tries to be well-informed

3. Judges well the credibility of sources

4. Identifies conclusions, reasons, and assumptions

5. Judges well the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons, assumptions, and evidence

6. Can well develop and defend a reasonable position

7. Asks appropriate clarifying questions

8. Formulates plausible hypotheses; plans experiments well

9. Defines terms in a way appropriate for the context

10. Draws conclusions when warranted, but with caution

11. Integrates all items in this list when deciding what to believe or do

Robert H. Ennis

Soooo, DD came down Saturday, asked her to see if she could figure out why I couldn’t connect to internet with pc. No luck after half an hour or so. Called her roommate, who is in IT (he’s in The IT Crowd, not the show, actual IT). After around 90 minutes, taking the tower apart and reading off a bunch of part numbers, he decided I probably need a new network card, so we went out to lunch, then off to Best Buy, who of course, did NOT have the 15.00 network card, but did have a 40.00 substitute. Came home, ordered part from Amazon. Put pc back together until card comes, turned it on because I could, my weather widget showed current temp. Connected. Cancelled Amazon order. Seriously. It needed to be taken apart and/or unplugged, and that fixed it. Tech guys who were here, comcast phone help, no-one said to try that. Which I should have known to do. It’s what I always tell everyone, if ‘turn it off and then back on again’ doesn’t work. Unplug for at least five minutes is always next. Well, stand me in the corner and call me stupid, cause it just didn’t occur to me. Anyway, all is now well with the pc. Yay. It was a long time from Tuesday afternoon til Saturday evening, without my desktop. I have a macbook, but I am Windows through and through, apparently.

I had an exceptionally good day today, after being creaky and barely moving and breathing yesterday. Breathing issues are thank you to the renovations going on in the public areas of my building. Asthma does not love paint fumes, sawdust, etc. Anyway, I completely reconfigured my office area, and moved my electric fireplace and bookcases to a better part of the wall. Like four inches over. My homemaker helped with that, cause I couldn’t move it and keep the tv from falling off at the same time. So things look much better now. My desk area has organization, which it had before I got really ill, and which went by the wayside while I was living in misery. All better now. For the time being anyway. Organized. I like organized. I am not a neat freak, but I like to know where things are. It’s a good thing.

It’s getting a lot colder the past few days, but was able to have the windows open wide for a few hours today. Fresh air is good, especially when renovations are happening. When my homemaker went to leave this afternoon, we discovered that the workmen had taped my door shut while she was here. LOLOL

One last thing: What Does The Fox Say?

Finally had to close the windows.  Even though it’s been getting chillier outside, into the thirties at night, it’s been just coolish in here until just a bit ago.  Got quite chilly just all ofA sudden.  Closed windows, plugged in fireplace and put batteries in the remote. A remote-controlled fireplace.  Couldn’t do that with real fire.  Speaking of which, we had an alarm a couple of hours ago.  No fire, I think the workers set it off.  They are painting in the halls today.  Gertrude was sitting next to me when it went off, so I grabbed her and was able to get her into the carrier within getting g shredded.  Threw all my small electronics (cell phone, kindles) into my lovely purse and off we went. Forgot my cane, but no biggie.  Was only outside few minutes anyway.  The fire station is about half a block away, so they were already in the building before I made it down the stairs.  As for my lovely purse, I do not carry a purse, if it doesn’t fit in my pockets, it doesn’t go with me. But I keep everything in it when I’m home, so I never have to search for keys, wallet, etc. And so everything is handy in an emergency and my small electronics fit in just fine.  So.  LOL  Gertrude has been hiding under the bedspread since we got back in.  Probably won’t see her til later.

Where are the paragraphs, you may ask.  I switched back to ComcastTuesday, and neither the guys who did it or myself can get the pc to connect to the internet.  Typing on tablets is not so easy, and you can’t see much of what you’ve typed. So I just keep typing and typing and typing……   Proofreading isn’t easily doable, so just pretend everything is spelled correctly.  Thank you.

Had a nice reply to my slightly snarky email about returning books from the actual reader. Not helpful, but nice. I don’t borrow books a lot, so I was also taken by surprise when, after I had returned the book and gone back to the reader, I found I could not borrow another book. One book a month. ONE. BOOK. A. MONTH. These are not even real books. They do not exist in the actual world. They are cyber-books. Files. Binary? I can send one file to ten bazillion different people if I want to, and Amazon can’t lend more than one book at a time, or in a month?

I do not understand business models. Seriously. I do not. John has a house, falls on hard times, missing a few payments. Does the bank say, “Well, John. Let’s work something out so you can stay in your home and catch up when things get better. Smaller payments for awhile or something.” NOOOOOOO. Let’s throw John out and let the house he was keeping in good repair fall into decay, sit and rot away. How is this good business? I guess the bank finds a way to get their money regardless, and we all know that in the USA, the money is the only thing that counts. Maybe I DO understand business models.

I just cleaned out and rearranged the freezer. 9:30pm.  When I have energy and enthusiasm.  My whole life has been spent trying to fit into that ‘early to bed, early to rise’ nonsense, with only limited, and temporary success.  I have been reading more and more research showing some people are wired differently.  Today there was something about different gene activity.  So it seems to me that it is modern society that is in error, not those of us who can’t conform.  It’s like education.  School requires conformity.  Sit at a desk for x amount of time, even though your body is screaming at you to move.  Follow the schedule, learn by this method, not the one your brain requires.  See things differently than the ‘norm’. Do these things, fit in, or be labeled as slow, uncooperative, disruptive, whatever.  What a disservice the modern world does to a good portion of humanity, and what is lost to us because of it.

Wow. These are quite good. Nothing like the movie I saw. But Amazon. I borrowed the second book on my reader, finished it, had to then go to the computer to return it, back to the reader to borrow number three. Sent a teeny bit snarky email to Amazon about the inefficiency (I wanted to say stupidity of this system. What if you’re not near a computer?) of this method. We’ll see what they have to say about it. Sometimes I think they just don’t think things through.

rights-monitor-slams-gop-shutdown

and most particularly, this:

‘Nigel Rodley, a British human rights expert who chairs the committee, didn’t mince words about just who to blame for the delay. “The political party of Abraham Lincoln that, in fire and blood ended slavery and gave freedom to millions of people of African descent, seemed now to have party members who thought that wealth did not just rhyme with health, but should also determine access to it,” Rodley said, according to AFP reports.’

It matter who you vote for. Seriously. It matters.

I just read the first book.  My homemaker brought it over for me.  I liked it a lot.  Saw the movie a few years ago, was not impressed, so skipped the whole Potter Verse.  Now, I want to read the rest of the books.  Better late than never, yet again.