Election musings.

Election musings.  I was once a registered Democrat, tend to think like a Libertarian, but usually vote Republican. The Democratic Party left me behind years before I was called deplorable or a smelly Wal-Mart shopper. The issues are complex. I don’t hate either Trump or Biden, and along with many, it comes down to a choice between the lesser of two evils.  In my opinion, socialism is the greater evil.  I resist.

Socialism leads to tyranny and loss of individual freedom. It does not fulfill its promise of equality, only equality in poverty. While the elites retain and amass power and wealth, most live in declining standards.  Dissent is eliminated. In places where socialism appears successful, it is sustained by a wealth of natural resources and underlying capitalism. To use public roads, schools, libraries & such as examples of accepting socialism is incorrect and disingenuous. These are examples of local government services, not economic takeovers.  These services exist in the private sector as well as public. And just to be fair, I acknowledge that there are flaws in the capitalist system as well, but they pale in comparison to the flaws of socialism. I am not against more generous public programs for our own citizens.  I am not against the ACA, just fix its flaws and keep your hands off my private insurance.  

The second issue for me is the violence I watched come across my news feed almost daily for months. It was sickening and it must stop.  Law and order must be restored. I lived through the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore. No one felt safe until law & order was restored by the National Guard. If I lived or had a business in one of those cites/states that have not lifted a finger to restore law & order, I would relocate. Immediately. And take my business & my patronage elsewhere. I defend the right to peaceful protest.  Even the kneeling by NFL players. Taking a knee in sports has a specific meaning, which was not lost on me as it applied to the reason for the protest. “When one of us is down, we take a knee until they get up”. But nothing good comes from Antifa. Ever. Their aim is not the common good, but to destroy. This leads again to the issue of socialism. Freedom is not license.   

Surprisingly, coronavirus is third.  It is what it is – a novel virus with no prior data & inconsistent emerging data & lack of transparency coming from pundits instead of scientists. How is one supposed to “follow the science” when it changed so rapidly and sometimes dramatically in its recommendations.  A lot of good has been done to mitigate this disease, some opportunities have been missed, and some states/areas mismanaged. People just need to use common sense for the common good.  Masks are mandatory in Maryland.  Yet people wear them under their nose.  Everywhere. Even at medical facilities. The virus is still there, people are still contracting it, but far fewer are dying from it. Treatment is much improved. Full recovery rates are phenomenal. Even when a vaccine is available, there will be people who refuse it. I am high risk & will take the necessary precautions - wear a mask, wash/sanitize my hands, maintain social distance - so that I can live a full life. I also recognize that it is not all about me. The economic impact of the lockdowns cannot be ignored. I was not hurt economically, but many were. Recovery from this pandemic must carefully balance both public health and the economy.  Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin.

I would like to vote Libertarian; however, others have warned that this might swing the pendulum away from the direction I would like.  I have no animus toward Trump or Biden personally. There are things I like and things I dislike about each.  It is the socialist ideology of the far left that I object to as the antithesis of Libertarianism. Though Biden disavows this ideology, he is indebted to it, and does not have the physical, mental, or emotional acumen to go against their bidding. Ultra-right-wing ideology is also detrimental to a free society when it fails to recognize its own culpability and barriers to individual liberty.  

I do not believe that some hybrid form of socialism can be implemented without trampling on the great freedoms – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. I resist.

The Health insurance - health care dilemma

I don't post to this blog often, but decided to give my 2 cents about health care-health insurance.  As a state employee, I still have good insurance - an HMO (now known as EPO) through CareFirst BC/BS. My employer pays most of the premium, though I do contribute a portion of that premium.  I have no deductible and my copays are low.  If I complete wellness activities, some copays are waived.  A "Cadillac"plan - probably as good as it gets in today's market.  So far, I have only seen modest premium increases since the ACA has been in effect. Good insurance - good care.  I am fortunate & I am grateful.

I have mixed reactions to the results of Obamacare so far.  I have a unique perspective because I deal with people every day who have truly been helped by two specific features.  1. coverage for children up to age 26 on their parents' plan, and 2. Expanded Medicaid. For the unemployed & those with no income, Obamacare has been a blessing. They pay no premium, and have little or no out of pocket costs. I have helped many of these folks get Medicaid & stressed the importance of taking care of their health before catastrophic need.

It is the individual and family "exchange" coverage for the "working poor" that I question.  I have looked at the "metal" plans, premiums, deductibles & out of pocket costs.  This is lousy coverage with a high cost to the individual & family.  If they are eligible for a subsidy, this only goes toward the premium, not the out of pocket costs.  The deductibles & copays are not affordable - especially for the working poor.  So they have an insurance card, but in reality they still cannot afford health care.

Most people I know (self-employed or employer did not provide coverage) said they did not qualify for any kind of subsidy.  It is absolutely NOT affordable, & the costs keep rising. These are the folks who either pay the fine or claim hardship.  Either way, they have no insurance & don't get any until catastrophic need occurs.

Then there are the vast majority of people who have or had coverage through their employer.  They used to have decent insurance coverage, with reasonable premiums - many had HMOs.  The HMO, which was supposed to keep costs down is now the most costly type of insurance.  Most employers no longer offer the HMO as an option. One of the fallouts from Obamacare is that many of these folks now pay higher premiums for less coverage. The out of pocket costs are skyrocketing for this group.  They have insurance, but avoid going to the doctor when they get sick because they can't afford it.

So yes, the system is still broken and in need of an overhaul. I have not read the AHCA documents, but have listened to the rhetoric & hype from both sides.  Whatever they do, I believe that keeping coverage by parents until age 26 & some form of expanded Medicaid needs to continue.  I like the idea of tax credits as opposed to subsidies - put the $ back into the hands of the individual - taxpayer - instead of the insurance company.

Personal Finance & Budget Software

I have been testing various programs for personal finance. I started with Quicken in 1994 because it was in the software package included with my 1st PC. Then I switched to Microsoft Money 95. I preferred MS Money, but there really was not much difference. At that point, I only used the software to keep my checkbook register. Neither Money 95 not my bank offered online services at that time, so I entered everything manually. After online banking became available, my son bought me an updated version of Money & I connected my accounts. I still used Money basically as a checkbook register & added the savings & credit cards. It was nice to have the download & not have to enter everything manually. I upgraded to Money 2004, which came with a new computer purchase, and continued to use Money up until Microsoft decided to discontinue it in 2010.

I switched back to Quicken (2010 Starter Edition) and I had problems with it. The automatic downloads did not always work. The initial download from my bank set up my credit card, but then would not download transactions to in after the initial download. When I tried to manually download the transactions, Quicken tried to set up a new account - would not let me download it to the existing account.

I gave up & went back to MS Money. Now I can continue to use MS Money as long as I want without support & without online services. Microsoft offered all Money users a "sunset" version for free. I can download transactions manually, and even financial institutions that no longer provide downloads for MS Money (AKA Discover), provide download to a QIF file, which MS Money supports.

I have been looking for alternatives to Quicken, should there come a day when I can no longer use MS Money. Preferably free. If I am going to pay, I would buy Quicken Deluxe, and hopefully find resolutions to the problems I experienced with the Starter version.

Mint.com - comes from Intuit - makers of Quicken. It is free & it works very well. Works better than Quicken 2010 Starter did for me. Mint has become an essential part of my personal finance plan. Mint is an online service, and some people might not be comfortable with keeping their financial information in the cloud.

Ace Money Light - The light version is free, but it only allows you to add 2 accounts. It is a good program for a beginner to learn to work with personal finance software. The full version costs less than Quicken.

Grisbi - Free. I liked it at first, but then I could not enter a split transaction.

GnuCash - is more business oriented, but can be used for personal financed. It is free, but I found it complicated. Double entry is not for beginners.

KMyMoney - Free. Also uses double entry, but less complicated than GnuCash.

Replacing Hard Drive

The hard drive errors came back - CHKDSK ran without me asking it to, then boot failure. I removed the HD & connected it as a USB storage device on my laptop, but I cannot access the files. Says disk not formatted. I had moved everything but my pictures.

I got a new 1 TB hard drive at Best Buy & restored the Dell computer from the back-up. The restore was successful, but I ran into a problem with HDD size. The old hard drive was 150 GB & the new HD was 1 TB - only the 150 GB was accessible. I followed the directions but was unable to increase the size of the partition. Problem solved - there was an extra unused partition that I had to delete. Dell E-510 restored with 1 TB hard drive. I can try to reformat the old HDD, but I think it is toast.

Hard drive failure is not fun, but it was a challenge solving this problem.

My Dell E-510 PC that I bought in 2006 had a major crash this morning.  I had run Windows 7 back up to external hard drive yesterday. This morning, it froze and would not reboot.  First, Windows prompted me to do system repair, then system restore.  Then I tried to restart normally - would not start. I reconnected the external drive, and got out the Windows Restore CD - not sure if it rebooted from the CD or from the hard drive, but it finally did complete the start up.  Running very slow.  I don't plan to replace it, but I think I need to get the files moved to the laptop.  I have the back up files, but not sure how I would access them if the PC completely fails.

Replacing HVAC system

I have learned more about HVAC in the past 2 weeks than I ever wanted to know!  The unit we have now is the York High efficiency model (E1HB030S06A) that we had installed around 1990.  We had to call BGE for service in June, and it was low on R-22, so they charged it up - ran fine all summer.  About 2 weeks ago when we had a couple of hot days, it quit on us, so we called BGE & it was low on R-22 again.  The advice from BGE (& everyone else) is that it would be very difficult to find the leak & that it is really too old to patch up.  We have been told that this old York unit was top of its line when we got it, most likely an 8 SEER.  It has given us good service for 23 years, but it is time to replace it.

We have had several estimates.  (Sears, BGE & a couple of independent contractors).  Prices vary wildly, as do opinions of what is the best value in cost, efficiency, reliability, etc.  Each contractor tends to have their favorite brand & tends to disparage the competition.  Customer satisfaction ratings also very wildly.  Thankfully, it is the end of September & not the middle of summer or winter, so I can really do my homework & decide.  This is a major expense. 

Carrier - 2 estimates between 6-7K for 13 SEER base unit, financing available
Rheem estimate around 5.5K for 13 SEER base unit, with extended warantee
Trane estimate around 4.5 K for 13 SEER base unit, offered air scrubber & extended warantee at 5.5K
Frigidaire estimate around 5K for 16 SEER unit

Consumer Reports rates for least repairs as follows:
1. American Standard
2. Bryant
3. Trane
4. Carrier
5. Rheem
6. Lennox
7. Goodman 

Frigidaire did not make the list, but it is a more efficient unit at a decent price, with a contractor we know who is on Angie's List.  

Most of the complaints about Frigidaire on other sites had to do with their warantee, which only covered parts on most models.  Industry standard is to cover parts for 10 years & labor for 1 or 2 years.  

Leadership: Working on a Long-Term Project

For the past year, I have been working on a project to bring Vacation Bible Camp back to my parish.  A lot of churches offer VBS & we had various summer programs for the kids on & off.  I believe that a summer program is an important & valuable supplement to the regular Religious Ed program. I have been part of big projects before, but this is my first time as Director.

I got involved in 2007 when I registered 2 grandsons (both were 5 at the time) & I took a week off to volunteer & give them the opportunity to attend. The kids seemed to enjoy doing this activity & spending the week with Grandma.  We did it again in 2008 & 2009. After a turnover of Religious Ed directors in 2010, we stopped having it at my parish.  So I registered the grand kids (now 4 were old enough) at a neighboring parish & I volunteered there as well.  In 2011, we could not find a program at any parish that worked with their busy little lives, so I did a home school version.  I knew the basic format & I found lots of information online. The Theme was St. Francis of Assisi. We did Bible Stories, crafts, games, snack & music.  We did a service project making a casserole for Our Daily Bread.  This is when I decided that I could get VBS started again at my parish by volunteering to head it up.  I also decided to be an assistant catechist for Religious Ed on Sundays.

In 2011-2012, I approached the new Religious Ed director about re-starting VBS, but it was put on the back burner for 2012. So I volunteered at another parish again, with the intention of learning as much as I could about presenting the program as a whole, not just volunteering for a small part.  Basically, I was a VBS Director in training.  I was also asked to make a proposal for the pastor & the parish council to have it in 2013.  I did a lot of research, building on what I had learned from doing the home school VBS program the year before.  I compared the various program kit packages available for cost & content, looked at volunteer needs, space needs, participant cost, etc.  The proposal was accepted providing I could get the volunteers needed. So I started promoting the idea with a volunteer table at the monthly fellowship in Sept. 2012 ( & almost every month thereafter).  In Nov, the Knights of Columbus approached me & offered to help by purchasing the program kit.  We had a spot in the bulletin almost weekly to generate interest & recruit volunteers.

In April, I held the first volunteer meeting & we set dates, the registration fee & deadline, and got a few of the volunteer assignments in place.  Registration forms went home with the Religious Ed kids & the parish school kids, and continued to have announcements in the bulletin.  I visited the Middle school youth group to ask for youth volunteers & made a few crafts from the program kit to display at fellowship.  At the last fellowship in May, we set up a "giving tree", with pictures of each craft & snack item & a list of supplies needed.  Then we moved the giving tree to the back of the church & the priest mentioned it in the announcements.  I also visited the high school youth group to ask for youth volunteers. 

Donations of craft supplies & snack items are coming in from the giving tree & I held the second volunteer meeting in June.  We closed registration with a total of 30 campers,  8 youth assistants & 20+ adult volunteers.  We were expecting more campers - had set the limit at 50.  Not sure why we did not get more except for the usual reasons: Catholics don't do VBS as well as Protestants, day program vs evening program (ours is day) & later in the summer vs early in the summer (ours is later), and/or we closed registration too soon (our deadline was 6 weeks before the event).  With 30 campers, we can focus on quality rather than quantity. I decided that if anyone called me, I would accept more registrations up until 30 days before the event, but no last minute registrations.

I have a great team, but I think I am not delegating enough.  I collected the donated items & inventoried them.  In the process I made a few sample crafts, but I am ready to hand the craft bin over to the craft leader.  I have been listening to the music CD on my way to & from work & I know all of the songs.  Because I am a music oriented person, I will be helping with that station, unless I can find someone else. I can read music & peck out a tune on the piano, but that is the extent of my abilities.  I would like to find someone who can play guitar.  I delegated the decorations.  I made some paper mache hats for the leaders & I have a few signs & posters made from the kit for decorations, but I told each station leader that the decorations could be as simple or creative as they wanted.  I know it is difficult for people with busy lives to attend a lot of volunteer meeting, so I communicate a lot by e-mail. 

Now this project is kicking into high gear. During the next 5 weeks we have a lot to do. Parent letters go out this week. T-shirt orders next week.  Youth training for volunteer assignments & skit practice the week after 4th of July.  Volunteer meeting & shopping 2 weeks before event, & decorating 1 week before event.  Overall, I have been amazed by how well the planning & now the preparation have unfolded.  It has been very helpful to follow the timeline suggested in the kit.  This leadership experience has been awesome.

Purses, handbags or pocketbooks!

 I probably bought my first purse when I was 11 or 12, and I have carried one ever since.  At one time, I enjoyed shopping for a new purse, then it became a bother. I do not care much about designer handbags, and would never pay the obscene prices for a real one.  I like a certain style; it needs to have sections or dividers inside, a couple of zippered pouches & wide enough to hold mail.  It needs to have some kind of closure, either snap, zipper or flap.and deep enough that things won't fall out if I forget to close it. I like black, brown or tan colors equally.  I like a leather look, but would not reject a fabric if it was treated with a water repellant & had the other features. And I want a bargain price; $25. or less.  I have found purses I liked at Wal-mart & other discount stores and have been disappointed in ones I paid more for at better department stores.  Another issue is that I hate having to get used to a new one.  I procrastinate & delay purchasing a new one until the old one is embarrassing.  I got rid of my old purse today.  My sister had given me one last year; it looked like it might be too small, but it was bigger inside than it looked.  I will have to get used to it.

Streaming Video

I have become a fan of streaming video. The TV networks show many full episodes of TV shows online the next day. Last Christmas, Robin & Kris gave me a 3-month trial subscription to Netflix.  I set it up in the living room through the Wii and also watched it on my laptop.  I liked it a lot, but Steve was never able to get used to using the Wii controller to find programs.  Robin & Kris have Apple TV, and I watched season 1 of Game of Thrones last spring at their house.  This year, Robin & Kris gave me a Roku box for my TV, which is a lot like Apple TV.  Amy & Joe got me a 3-month trial subscription to Hulu Plus.  I also discovered that I can view many Amazon Instant Videos for free with my Amazon Prime account. Another friend told me about Crackle, which is free, but I have not registered for Crackle yet.  I don't know yet if I can get the network TV streaming through the Roku box on Hulu Plus.  If I can do this, it almost completely eliminates the need for a DVR.

Fringe

I watched the finale of Fringe tonight.  I can't remember a show that captured my imagination like this one. I did not start watching until season 3.  Some of my co-workers were talking about it at work and I was intrigued.  Robin got me the DVD set of season 1; I found a used DVD set of season 2 online; I got caught up on season 3 with amazon instant video.  I watched season 4 & 5 on Fox. Weird science, futuristic, great characters and fascinating story line. It reminded me a little of the X-files.

Did your first paycheck of 2013 feel short?

Many people are in for an unpleasant surprise when they get their first paycheck in 2013: withholding taxes went up and net pay will be less. My first pay was actually more because there was no health insurance deduction; however, the numbers did not add up. I checked the pay stubs online and compared the tax deductions to the prior pay stub and sure enough, federal, state &FICA withholding went up significantly

More online calendars

I have online calendars on Yahoo, Windows Live, Google & Cozi. I had birthdays on Yahoo & events/reminders on Google & Cozi. After manually syncing Yahoo & Google calendars, I found the import feature to sync Windows Live. The import did not work with Cozi; none of the event names transferred.  I could probably eliminate the Yahoo & Windows Live calendars. I get Google reminders on my iPhone, so it is the most useful.  I like Cozi's weekly agenda reminder e-mail. 

Christmas cards: e-cards vs mailing

I love Christmas cards; both receiving and sending them. I especially love the photo cards a lot of people send.  I used to send close to 100 cards each year as a way of keeping in touch, especially with people I don't see often. I set up my address list to print out labels, and composed an update letter, recapping events of the past year.  I have struggled with sending Christmas cards for the past couple of years.  Mom & I used to do them together.  We would remind, prompt & encourage each other to get them finished on time.  Without that "kick in the butt", I procrastinate.  A few years back, I started using e-card & hand delivering cards to people & would see.  There have been many e-card vendors, though some have come and gone. Free e-cards are still available, but most of the major providers like Hallmark & American Greetings offer a few for free, while offering premium cards for subscription members.  Last year, I had a Hallmark.com subscription, and I sent many e-cards, using e-mail addresses when I had them and Facebook posts when I didn't.  Many of the e-cards went unopened; Hallmark sent a pick-up notice for the ones sent to an e-mail address.  It was difficult to tell if the Facebook posts were viewed or opened, because there was no pick-up notice for those e-cards.  Mailed cards also get returned because the person moved & I did not get an address update.

This year, my Hallmark.com subscription had expired.  I sent a few of the free e-cards from Hallmark, then I chose to subscribe to Jacquie Lawson cards.  These are premium interactive cards available only by subscription. Again, I sent to e-mail addresses if I had them, and to Facebook if I did not.  Again, many went unopened.  Jacquie Lawson cards send pick-up notices if the card was sent to an e-mail address and shows whether Facebook posts were viewed, but not who viewed them. Some people did respond on Facebook or by e-mail; but very few. It was disappointing.  I did send some cards by mail, but they did not get mailed until 12/21 and might be late. 

So why don't people open their e-cards?  Do they think e-cards are tacky? Are they reluctant to open the link to view the card?  Has their e-mail address changed?  If you received an e-card from me, please open it and respond.  It is the courteous thing to do.

Carnival Cruise 2012

Back from the cruise on the lovely Carnival Pride. While there were things I liked better on the Norwegian cruise in 2011, I think we got a lot for our money on Carnival. Leaving out of Baltimore was great; I didn't mind flying to FL, except for the layovers, but this was so much easier. We got a 7 day cruise for approximately the same amount we spent for a 4 day cruise with airfare. I would not book a cruise in Nov-Jan again. The weather was cold when we left Baltimore. It was pleasant in FL & the Bahamas, but it was not hot enough for swimming - on the ship or at the beaches.

We had a balcony stateroom. It was supposed to be "obstructed", which cost less than a regular balcony, but the 5th deck obstructed balcony was not really obstructed at all. I did not mind the inside cabin, but this was much nicer and DH could go out on the balcony to smoke. (Smoking areas were very limited). I did not purchase the wifi plan, so I had no internet access or phone for most of the trip except at Port Canaveral.  I put my iPhone on airplane mode, and kept a journal in the notes app.

The food and the shows are the best part. We went to the fancy steak house on the first night. While it was a great experience & worth the extra expense, I don't think I would do it again because the dining room food was nearly as good as the steak house. The buffet food had lots of selections and the room service was free unless you ordered alcohol, soda or fancy coffee. We went to a show almost every night, and 2 of the comedy shows. There were 4 comedians; the first show was "family friendly" , but not so good. The 2nd was "adults only", and quite funny. I would have liked to see all 4 comedians, but the comedy club filled up fast.

Alcohol is very expensive on the ship. I had some unrealistic expectations about how much DH would/would not spend on alcohol. We brought the allowed wine aboard and also some "hidden stash", which I expected to last more than just 2 days. I was happy to find the "Friends of Bill W." (AA meetings) on board, and I was welcome there as an Al-anon member. Casinos do not really interest me. There was one slot machine with a cat theme that I might have tried if we had the money, but we didn't. I think DH would have liked to play some of the casino games, but he was able to control that urge. You had to walk through the casino to get to other activities. I had fun playing some of the free games - bean bag toss aka corn hole and trivia. I wasn't very good at the trivia (or the bean bags) but it was fun. I also attended a couple of the informative presentations and the towel animal folding seminar.  There were also art auctions and sales but I skipped most of those.  We brought a "game kit" but did not play any of the games until debarkation day.  We kept the deck of cards in the carry on bag & played 500 rummy while waiting to debark.
 
The swimming pools were better on the Norwegian Sky. The Venus & Apollo pools on the Carnival Pride were more for jumping in and not really built for swimming. The "adults only" Serenity pool was the best one, but it was too windy & chilly outside for me to get in. One pool area had a retractable dome that was stuck open until Thursday. After they were able to get the dome over that area, it was warmer there, but the pool water was still cold. There was a water slide on the Carnival Pride but they did not have it opened until Friday and it was still too chilly for me. (There was no water slide on the Norwegian Sky) Because the weather was too chilly for swimming, we spent a lot of time in the hot tubs. DH was careful to limit his time in the hot tubs to the recommended 15 minutes, but I was not so careful. I wound up with a rash on my arms & legs & abdomen/belly that freaked me out. I did not know whether it was from the hot tub, or if I had developed an allergy to shellfish or if there were (heaven forbid) bedbugs. I treated it like poison ivy, washing with cold soapy water & I had some neosporin ointment. I went to the nurse and she said it did not look like bedbugs, but most likely an allergic reaction and that hydrocortisone cream might help. I looked it up online when I got home and it was most likely a hot tub rash. I went to the doctor today and he agreed that it was not bedbugs and most likely a hot tub rash, and gave me an Rx antibiotic. I will be more careful to observe hot tub rules & etiquette in the future - shower before/after, limit time in the hot tub to 15 minutes. 

Ports of Call. At Port Canaveral, we took the shuttle to Cove market and Cocoa Beach. It was too chilly for swimming and I did not even get my feet wet. I played corn hole at Cove market, then we went back to the ship. At Nassau, we took the frugal tour - rode the city bus around the island for $1.25/each, then went back to the ship. At Freeport/Grand Bahama, DH stayed at the straw market in Freeport, while I took the taxi ride to Port Lucaya. I walked around the market and to the beach. It was too chilly for swimming, but I did get my feet wet.

I did not buy much on this cruise. On the first day I went to the $10 sale & bought a belt for DH. They had a "groove for St. Jude" charity event and we got a T-shirt & wristband for a $10. donation. I bought one souvenir - a Carnival Pride Christmas ornament. We got some nice pictures on the iPhone and bought 2 of the pictures taken by the ship photographers. We did not get many taken by the photographers and now I know why I do not like having bangs. On most of those pictures, my bangs looked oily and stuck to my forehead.

All in all, we had a very good time and I would cruise with Carnival again.  I think I would like to go in a group.

Personal Web Pages

These were quite popular about 10 years ago.  I learned just enough HTML to create a few simple pages in Notepad, then used an HTML editor (Front Page). I also had a I had WS-FTP lite to manage my site.  I built several PWP when I was on Prodigy Internet, then I moved it to my cable internet server.  The Prodigy pages were viewable up until about a year ago, and today, I can no longer access my page on the cable internet server.  There was no notice.

Hey gas station owner, if you charge extra for credit/debit, you have lost my business

Several local gas stations have started charging anywhere from 3 cents to 10 cents more per gallon if you use a credit or debit card.  I understand the benefit of cash only sales to the vendor, using credit or debit benefits both the purchaser & the vendor.  The purchaser gets the convenience and the vendor gets increased sales. The cost to the vendor comes at the point of sale and the cost to the purchaser comes when they pay interest. These stations have decided to push their costs on to the purchasers; however, this is a bad business decision.  If they were the only station in town, or if all the others were adding this cost, I suppose they would not lose any business.  But there are many stations I can patronize, without going our of my way, that do not add this charge.

Sword of Truth

One of the first books I purchased for my Kindle was Wizard's First Rule, Book 1 of the Sword of Truth series.  I have had this on my reading list for a long time.  I first discovered this series while reading the Wheel of Time. Many of the reading & literature bulletin boards indicated similarities between these two series, and  I hesitated to begin another epic fantasy series while the other one was unfinished.   I became more interested during the TV series Legend of the Seeker which ran 2 seasons from 2008-2010.  Legend of the Seeker was loosely based on the Sword of Truth.  I loved the show, but had not yet read any of the books other than a short prequel called Debt of Bones.  So this week, I got into Book 1 & could not put it down. 

Multiply is closing, no export feature

I started posting a blog on Yahoo 360 in 2006.  When that closed, I exported the posts to Multiply.com.  They are closing their social network feature including the blog, as of December 2012, and there is no export feature.  Blogger appears to be the most stable blog, so I will be using it for posting my future random thoughts. 

Amazon Prime

I got 1 year free Amazon Prime when I signed up for Amazon student. I really appreciated free 2-day shipping, especially at Christmas time  When it came time to renew Prime, I was offered 1/2 price.  This year, I kept getting a notice that I needed to update the card, but no mention of whether the renewal was still 1/2 price.  I did a little searching, and the Amazon student membership is good for 4 years, after which I will have to pay full price for Prime.  I have discovered many benefits to having a Prime membership. I use the Kindle lending library, and now I found free Instant video.  

Online calendars

I have a calendar in Outlook, one on Yahoo, one on Google & one on Windows Live.  They are not coordinated in any way; I have the birthday list on Yahoo, & a daily prayer set up on Google; not sure what I have on Windows Live, and nothing set up on Outlook.    I send reminders to myself, but I never set up sharing.  I recently started using the Cozi Home Calendar. I added some events today & downloaded the iPhone app. I like it, but I am only using it for a personal calendar.